Baron Mandrake's ship the Mercator and, once suitably enhanced by a rather spooked East India Company alchemist, Proprietor Silva's Ivory Whale make excellent time to Cathay. You find the Ivory Whale extremely unsettling - it is crewed by the walking dead, and it quickly becomes apparent that few are in the bodies they died in. Despite the horror of the ship you can find no trace of a demonic presence. Curiously the most horrifying moment while you are on ship is when you look up to find a young woman staring at you. You believe that she is human, or perhaps on this ship that she once was, but the look is horribly familiar. You have seen it on the most brutal of Yaojing; she hungers for your flesh and your pain and death will just make it sweeter. You turn to cry out for help, but when you look back she is gone.1)

Unfortunately once you arrive in Cathay you find the entire empire plunged into anarchy. Lead by the rebellious peasant Li Zicheng a rebel army has swept across the country and now lays siege to the capital Beijing. According to the rumours that Tsung Chang-Mai translates for you, Li Zicheng was put on public display a decade earlier in an iron collar and shackles for his failure to repay loans to an usurious magistrate, Ai. Ai struck a guard who offered shade and water to Li, where upon a group of peasants tore apart Li's shackles, spirited him to a nearby hill, and proclaimed him their leader. Despite having only wooden sticks, Li and his band ambushed police sent against them and obtained their first real weapons. A terrible famine had beset Shaanxi in this time, and in three years, Li gathered more than 20,000 soldiers. It seems that the rebel forces have recently seized control of all of Shaanxi now and more that they control the secret source of the gunpowder. Keen to trade, and to acquire gold with which to pay their army, they have not sought to cut off the supply abroad and the traders of the Companies report no shortages at the moment.

You are unable to make it through the enemy lines to the capital, and in the confusion the self-proclaimed emperor Li Zicheng will not grant you an audience. Forces loyal both to the rebels, and to the Ming Emperor Chongzhen, make it very clear to you however that they are desperate for cannon and will richly reward anyone who can supply them with artillery.

Marcus Fervent suggests that with the chaos in China, and more particularly in Shaanxi, now is the perfect opportunity to discover how the gunpowder is produced. Though capable officers at sea Fervent and Silva have few skills for the long journey to Shaanxi province, and the party must rely on the adventuring abilities of the Baron Mandrake and his translator Tsung. Fervent suggests they disguise themselves as silk merchants, an idea that Tsung Chang-Mai seizes upon. As traders from the known but little visited Kazakh Khanate they will be able to disguise their European features. The guards that once made Shaanxi the forbidden province have been withdrawn, sent to defend or besiege Beijing, and the party is able to slip easily into the province. Tsung Chang-Mai uses her linguistic prowess, along with the diplomatic skills of Silva and Mandrake to determine the location of the gunpowder factory.

Unfortunately the factory is still heavily guarded and the patrols around it extremely heavy. Li Zicheng needs its production both for war and wealth and cannot afford to let it be taken or even damaged. The party is able to overlook the factory from a nearby hill. It is immense, a great black structure of jet metal and midnight stone. Steam and the sulphurous clouds billow from one head in regular explosions. Tsung Chang-Mai proclaims that there is a demonic air to the valley, thought even she gets no sense of evil.

Fervent has brought a cartographer with him and once the factory is sketched out on a map, and the perspective and scale corrected for, it is clear that it in the shape of a great dragon, at least 7 or 8 ship lengths long. Unfortunately before the party can discover more they are surprised by guards and only Marcus Fervent's sword cuts them to safety. What you have learnt does begin to explain the rumours that Tsung Chang-Mai has heard that gunpowder is a product of the Dragon of Di Yu.

The party returns to the coast and their ships, buying grade bales of silk and barrels of high-quality gunpowder; some to trade in the Spice Isles and some to sell in Oxford. The final news as they leave is that the great general Wu Sangui is leaving his post at the Great Wall, where he defends the Empire against the Mongols, and marching to the relief of the capital.

The Spice Isles trip is much more straightforwardly successful. Without any strange sicknesses afflicting either Tsung Chang-Mai or Baron Mandrake, and with the added diplomatic skills of their Spanish colleague it proves remarkably easy to set up a factory on Amboyna. The Sultan is surprised to see that his guests of a few months ago were still alive but takes this as a mark of God's favour upon you. He does warn you that the Portuguese are jealous of their influence on the islands and that accidents have befallen traders from other nations before.

You leave a rather worried factor behind to begin arranging shipments of cinnamon and nutmeg and other rare and precious spices that will be calling for them. You return to Oxford laden with precious supplies and interesting news, the former of which you immediately convert into considerable wealth.

The Cathayan Ambassador is impressed with your politeness, your noble bearing and your command of her language. She is also most gracious in refusing your kind offers but she has already accepted an offer to place her embassy at the East India Company headquarters. The ambassador is a good sort, willing to bow to just the right depth of respect for the fifth prince of a far away and exotic kingdom.

Written by Helen

“My dearest and most well-regarded brother, flower of my heart,

I am most delighted and enthused to hear of your exploits with Werewolves. I wonder if it might be possible to have one powdered and sent back home by dragon-courier? It would make a most excellent gift for Mother (she has been most upset and tearful recently, I fear it is the weather, or perhaps the failure of the cherry-blossom crop for the third spring in a row) and might go some way towards propitiating Father.

While entertaining the Zilmatillian ambassador last week to tea, I heard the most delightful moral fable, translated from the original heathen tongue by a speaking man made entirely of metal, which I shall now relate for you in its entirety…

[The story goes on for three pages. It is very boring and has a dubious moral.]

…You are ever in my thoughts, and I hope that your adventures in Albion continue to keep you occupied for many future years, before your auspicious and long-distant return,

Láng Sǐ-le
Third Prince of a Distant and Exotic Land”

It appears from reading between the lines that your brother has managed to persuade the King of Siam of his nobility, good-breeding and general excellence. And that he needs some impressive artefact to seal his good standing at the Siamese court, which he'd like you to provide. Something suitably exotic from Europe for example.

Under the excellent advisement of our translator Tsung Chang-Mai and after the recent unpleasantness at Pembroke College the Ambassador of Cathay has graciously accepted our offer of a suite of offices at the headquarters of the East India Company. John Company would like to thank all those how have accepted the move into smaller, less salubrious spaces, for the benefit of our guest. All members of the Companies are asked to treat the Ambassador with the utmost of respect.

The excellent work of Philip Silva, Baron Mandrake and Marcus Fervent - along with their translator Tsung Chang-Mai - have established a new trading post in the Spice Isles. This will provide the Companies with a reliable source of many spices, including the cinnamon apparently so precious to the Navigators. The route to the Spice Isles is however considerably longer than that to India. As such our available ships will be able to provide less frequent convoys. Given the highly profitable nature of their cargoes it would benefit the Companies if more ships could be added to those routes.

Reports from our agents, and the newly returned expedition from the East led by honorary Proprietor Silva and Director the Right Honourable Lord Mandrake, indicate that the Empire of Cathay is in chaos. It appears that a peasant revolt has captured the capital Beijing and the warlike Manchu and Mongols of the north are poised to invade.

This is not a profitable environment for traders wishing to establish long-term trade links; we cannot be sure that those we deal with today will still be in power tomorrow. The short-term profits could however be considerable, especially if it were possible to acquire the knowledge of how to produce gunpowder in the confusion.