Tales of Omashu

"Tales of Omashu" is the nineteenth episode of Book Three: Water for the second group, The Lotus Progeny.

Previous episode: "Pieces of the Nomads"

Next episode: "The Dream"

Summary
Tales of Omashu is a two part episode, with two stories running in parallel: "Street Kids" and "Memories of Taishan".

While the two tales are separate from one another, the scenes for both stories are the same, and occasionally the actions of one group of characters affects the others. Xian and Fuzen receive a mysterious note and map piece from King Bumi, and subsequently go on a treasure hunt to uncover something their mother left for them to find.

Phane and Dreg compete with other Street Kids for the position left by Phane's mentor Tulio.

Street Kids
Omashu’s underworld is small, but well put together. Much like the city it is part of, it is a complex network of relayed goods and information. There are people who talk to other people, the right shops and buildings, the correct delivery chute subtly earthbent in a particular direction.

What happens when one of the people in the network gets really good, substantially good, at what they do? Not much, really – but what if they then get more and more important, with more and more nodes of the network pointing towards them? Suddenly this individual is a node through which most of the business goes through, which is all well and good, until they are then captured by incorruptible guards and exiled from the city.

The network is in chaos, and it needs to be rebooted, somehow.

--

The various members of the underworld are scrambling to reform the operational network in the absence of Tulio. The street kids that he was training up are no exception, and they are all in a buzz about the fact that the local gang guy is going to replace Tulio with one or three of them.

Originally, Phane (as Piper) was one of the key members of the Street Kids gang, but with his absence for the last few weeks, things have changed. Where it might have been Phane replacing Tulio, now other members of the gang are more likely to do so.

The arrest and subsequent exile of Tulio, street urchin and sometime mentor for Phane, has left a substantial hole in the underworld organisation of Omashu, "The Network." Tulio's handler "Strings" organises the street kids that often ran with Tulio into a competition to determine who will replace the exile. Phane (under the street name Piper) and Dreg get roped along and end up competing with the kids Sticky, Dirt, Grit and Pebble.

''The challenge on the streets is to investigate the local goings on with the now disparate underworld gangs and organisations. '' Figure out which person is the contact. Convince them to give their information.

Memories of Taishan
Fuzen and Xian left Bumi with the instruction that when it seemed right; he was to give the kids some information. Bumi knows roughly what kind of information, and as a close friend of the Taishans, he will know what time is the right time – he is good with neutral jing.

Yasuo receives part of a letter addressed to him, written by Fuzen. Ayania receives a portion of a map, showing part of Omashu.

The letter is meant to work with the map. The letter, when held to the light, shows a list of numbers. This is the order in which the map pieces must be placed onto each other.

The map is missing walls from Omashu – key walls. It so happens the map is one of many layers. Layer them all together and the Taishan cache will be revealed.

This first map seems to indicate a shop of some kind....

At Yasuo's favourite tea shop, Jasmine the tea server is revealed to be an old trainee of Xian’s, who is good with herbs, tea and other conconctions, and with occasional chi bending. She appears to be able to alter another's chi with tea. The two are given another map piece, indicating the lower bending office.

The lower chute bending office: The map piece is inside the column. The two work together to dodge moving carts and get up the main elevator chute to a small side compartment. Phane, present as part of the Competition, agrees to create a distraction for Ayania and Yasuo, who find a small tapestry of the Omashu markets, a souvenir.

The market is a social place, a bustling hub, the twins are forced to think outside their usual physical and mental areas of expertise, and talk to people. Yasuo outdoes his usual performance. Ayania finds a group of beggars, and when sharing food with them, discovers the old beggar. He has kept a map in his begging cup for years, and gives it to her in exchange for the food she shares with him.

The map complete, the twins find the cache.

There is a letter to Yasuo, and a manuscript of a play written by Aoren Taishan. It is not good – but it has potential: “The Swordmaster”

There is a letter to Ayania and a journal of all of Xian’s hunts for the Hallow Circle and Bao Bao.