Yamahasu Pagoda

The Yamahasu Pagoda

Description

Yamahasu stands in the north of Little Asia, overlooking the river on a hill. A single, scarcely used road leads from the main of the district to this secluded building. Dark woods with tall trees and heavy underbrush surround the pagoda to the west. For a hundred acres around, the hengeyokai prowl. Trespassers beware. Deep within their territory lies a quiet glen where their Assemblies are held. Few others have holdings in this region.

The pagoda itself is a beautiful but unusual structure. This four-story, windowless pagoda gleams as black as ebony and reflects light in blinding defiance of the dark city that surrounds. A tall, foreboding fence encircles the base of the hill. The gate always stands shut, separating the road and the driveway up the hill. Encircling the base of the pagoda itself stands a labyrinth of towering walls with usual Oriental trim. Those who attempt to sneak into the courtyard find themselves irretrievably lost in the obviously enchanted maze, and security deals with the lost intruders harshly. Refreshments are served while the shen discuss matters of harmony and events of Little Asia. Yamahasu is a place for chi'n ta, hengeyokai, hsien, and their allies to convene without worrying about the appetites of the Hungry Dead. Others should seek permission before visitation.

Past the Labyrinth, there is a small Courtyard encircling the whole base of the pagoda. From the walls of the building to the first interior wall of the maze, there is twenty feet of space. There is a small flower garden encircling the pagoda's base, mostly perennial flowers such as chrysanthemums. Also encircling the pagoda is a single trail of stepping stones set into the grassy earth. A fire-pit stands ready to be lit for whim or security (the bonfire will bring Hou Shen) to the right of pagoda's doors. A large, six-foot-deep pool of water rests to the left. No fish swim in this pond, but water lilies and other attractive flora adorn its premise. Circling further around towards the rear of the pagoda's Courtyard, one finds a section hedged off by two rows of cherry trees. During the summer, the grass is littered with the pink petals of the trees' blossoms. Among the cherry blossoms lie humble markers, each denoting one of the Court's fallen. Here they are honored and remembered. Further around the pagoda still, the white stones lead one to a round, slightly raised dais. This helicopter pad seems to blend right into the rest of the scenery, its round shape like an especially large stepping stone.

Back at the front of the pagoda rest gold-trimmed double-doors. Upon entering, one finds themselves in a small Antechamber. Only candles light this room, giving one the sense that they are entering a temple or holy place. Besides the shadows that the flames' flickering cast, the Antechamber does not possess many decorations save for a few mirrors or the like hanging on the walls - strangely some of them are covered by silk curtains while others are not. However, silk curtains remain pinioned above each; a draw on a hanging cord brings the curtain tumbling down over these mirrors. To what end, only a skilled fang shih would recognize.

The Antechamber leads directly through an open threshold into the well-lit Hall of Audience. This is the largest single room in the pagoda. It is a simple room, with few but traditional decorations. Simple mirrors, wall hangings depicting tigers and dragons or simple kanji, and wooden carvings make up the majority of the art. There are also certain mirrors or paintings or the like in this room that are strangely covered by silk curtains as in the Antechamber. There is no furniture in the Hall of Audience. Instead of chairs or benches circling out from the wall, there are rows of Japanese floor pillows. The pillows are arranged into six different groups. Two pillows sit ahead of four to six pillows, which in turn sit ahead of two dozen or so more. In all, there are nearly one hundred pillows arranged in the room. Empty corridors run between each group of pillows and one straight the Antechamber to the halls beyond the Hall of Audience. The back of the room, instead of a group of pillows, stands a slightly raised dais. Only two pillows occupy this dais. All the others are formed in a surrounding crescent. Behind the dais on the wall, there is a painted Yin-Yang symbol.

A door leads from the Hall of Audience down a corridor to the few other rooms on this first floor. On the left, there is a simple Kitchen, consisting of one refrigerator, one stove/oven (electric), a microwave, and several cupboards. A kitchen table with four chairs is the only available dining area besides the privacy of one's quarters. An attractive, small Oriental rug covers part of the floor. Through the next door on the left in this hallway leads into the Council Chamber. Within, a long oak table approximately six chair lengths extends through the majority of this small, comparatively cramped room. There is one chair at the head and foot of the table, too. There is only one mirror in this room, a large one that reflects one as soon as the door is opened. The only door on the right leads into a small Dojo. This training room has wall-to-wall mirrors save for one corner where there is a rack of various practice and real martial arts weapons. The padded floor grants a bit of safety in training. Two benches rest on both sides. A door leads through the dojo and into a storage closet with the usual maintenance tools. But there is yet another door through the closet that leads into an Arsenal. A full stock of weapons are available, many of them military-grade and black market-issue. This room is securely "wizard"-locked; a ward against lock picking - mundane and magical - is laid on the door. Lifting weapons is a bad idea anyway. An inventory is taken daily, so even if one can bypass the door, security will realize foul play. One requires permission from the owner of the building, Nekoko, to take any of these weapons. Directly next to pagoda's Dojo rests the door that leads into the Medical Bay. This room is sterile clean like a modern hospital: almost everything is plastic or stainless steel. Three padded operating tables lie in a row, plenty of workspace between each. Dozens of cabinets and shelves are full of standard medical supplies, including emergency surgery tools.

There are three more portals through this hall. One is the elevator door, another is the stairwell door, and at the end of the hall, a reinforced-steel door opens directly up to another staircase. The first two lead up to the higher three floors. The second staircase brings one down into "the cellar". The stairs lead into a large underground room hollowed out beneath the pagoda. Approximately a fifty yards long and twenty-five yards wide, targets have been set up at the far end. Colored lines on the floor mark range. Dirt walls and floors keep the room a bit darker than it could be with the overhead lights. The nearest wall has racks of ear-covers. This is obviously a Firing Range. There are no firearms kept here, though. Another doorway leads from the firing range down another tunnel. The door has been marked "Forbidden: Hengeyokai Territory Only". Proceeding further will bring the person around a slight bend and into a guarded room (one of the hengeyokai Guardians). The room is bereft of anything but strange, hengeyokai-ish glyphs on the walls and an elaborate stand in the middle of the room, shrouded in velvet.

The upper floors both are the pagoda's main personal quarters. There are approximately 120 rooms total, though only 100 of those are available as sleeping quarters. A single main artery corridor that circles around the entire level connects all rooms on the floor and the elevator/stairwell doors. Each suite is rather small: 10x10 square feet. Each suite comes furnished with the basics: a single bed, a night-table, a dresser/writing desk, and a small closet. Each suite does have its own bathroom, also containing the basics: sink, bathtub/shower, and toilet.

The second floor contains several special rooms: one is the Security Center (in which only pagoda's security personnel are permitted) and the pagoda's main Computer Lab. The Computer Lab is a single room with no decor and nothing but the pagoda's mainframe and a few comfortable chairs. A single file cabinet stands nearby filled mainly with extra paper for the printer; few hard files of any importance are kept here. The computer itself is a state-of-the-art piece of hardware and no doubt subjected to a variety of mundane and technomagickal upgrades and security measures. At the very least, the computer is dedicated "stand-alone" machine. A secondary computer stands-by with Internet access. Also, eighteen suites on this floor, all in a row, have been set aside as office rooms. Each Ministry has an office and each Clan has a home office. There is room for file space, a desk, a long table and chairs for meetings, and a suggestion box hanging on the wall -- there is not space for much more.

The fourth floor contains about twenty of these rooms. In addition, there is a General Laboratory room some will find too eery to linger in unless their business includes magical experimentation. The room is a fully-functional science and pseudo-science (like alchemy) laboratory with a small stock of herbs and chemicals for communal use. There is a ventilation shaft as well. This is the only one way to the pagoda's roof; it is far easier to climb out than climb in. The Laboratory is lit primarily by torches and candles but electrical lighting is available. A door leads from the Laboratory to the Library. The Court Library is a small room with several shelves of books arranged in a crescent along the walls. Three small tables for study rest in the center of the room.

The pagoda has working electricity, plumbing, and telephone lines. All lead underground back into the city. In the case of emergency, there is an auxiliary generator for electricity located underground.

Security

Exterior

The woods that surround the pagoda on two sides, and the river on the third side (the fourth side being the road that leads back into the main city of Little Asia) become ominously fearsome when approached by certain persons. The trees and the shadows lurking within seem to come alive and hiss and whisper promises of doom as these certain persons reach the foot of Camel Hill, where Yamahasu stands. This gives the affected the sense of being closed in with nowhere to run. On the other hand, those that come up along the river's shore feel as if the water current had sped up a thousand times and threatened to flood over and whisk the traveler into a watery demise. These fearful reactions are cunning and powerful illusions that are set to affect only the undead -- Kin-jin and Kuei-jin specifically.

A tall metal fence surrounds the base of the hill. A gate provides entrance to the dirt drive-way that leads up to a grassy area outside the front of the outer Labyrinth walls where vehicles may be parked. Right on the outside of the fence, there is a small ditch surrounding the entire fence save the gate -- just minor engineering. Raven-spirits are posted along the edge of the woods and they notify the other Yang-spirits at the top of the hill in the event that non-members trespass the fence.

There is only one gate, two large front doors that lead directly into the Labyrinth. Upon approaching, a visitor should ring a door-bell. Observing security takes note if the bell-ringer(s) are friendly/permitted to enter. If so, security guides the visitors through the maze. The Labyrinth walls are granite and quite resilient. The outer walls are thicker than the maze's inner walls, and can withstand most small arms fire. The inner walls are not so thick, but it would still require armor-piercing rounds to penetrate. The maze would normally take on average five to ten minutes to solve, but the area has been affected with a permanent confusion spell. There is more security beyond the Labyrinth's magick alone. The Labyrinth's inner walls are watched and patrolled by six to ten highly-trained and efficient guards. They have been conditioned against the confusion magick and suffer none of its distractions. They are the primary security force and are generally enough to deal with most casual threats and always communicate any problems to the control room and team leader, indoors.

Should they not suffice, if the intruder bypasses the maze, they reach the Courtyard itself. As soon as the Courtyard's space -- by land or air or even underground -- is violated by uninvited Kuei-jin or Kin-jin, deadly fire wards blast into action. The invader(s) immediately gets blasted by flames that "appear" from thin air and sear the luckless intruder. When this ward is activated, another immediately goes up around the pagoda itself: an electrostatic shield. Any vampire who attempt to climb the pagoda walls or step through one of the few doors/portals is shocked. These two wards affect only Kuei-jin and Cainites, since they are viewed as the most common and primary threat to the Court's security.

In addition to the wards, there are guardian spirits. The doors themselves are protected by two Guardians of the Gate in the Yang World. In the physical world, there is a single Fu Lion who roams the courtyard (and sometimes wanders into the pagoda) but always poses as a statue at the door when security alerts him to a visitor/intruder. Several Elemental spirits are usually on hand and will take action if necessary. Raven-spirits act as spies and scouts. They will also fly to the Umbral woods and summon several Bobcat and Cougar-spirits if they are needed in emergencies. In the Yin World, five to eight war-wraiths (Fist of Nippon team) lurk. All of these spirit allies are formidable enough to delay if not rout even major assaults.

The pagoda itself is of a highly resilient material, repelling any small arms fire and able to withstand many greater weapons. Only one front door leads in and out. There are no other obvious methods of entering or exiting the building.

Interior

If intruders make it inside the pagoda, presuming the external forces haven't been destroyed, they will pursue unless other threats remain outside. At least one member of the security team remains indoors at all times, the coordinator of the team. He operates from a control room on the second floor. This individual will hit an emergency response button. This button will activate all the following effects, activated electrically. The electronics and mechanics of this system have been "perfected" to resist magical tampering. The team leader may also if applicable utilize the control room's intercom system to activate a powerful counter-offensive against invading undead. A voice-activated spell, the code-word known only to the team leader, releases a pocket of magickally-altered poison gas that harms only the undead. This gas is essentially sarin that harms only the undead; it has absolutely no effect on the living. It also has a misty density, which obscures vision further.

The silk curtains covering various mirrors throughout the first floor are lifted while others are dropped. This shifts the feng shui alignments in the room.
All lights are cut and the elevator is shut off. Auxiliary lights illuminate the floors above the first.
There is a twenty second pause. All members are aware of this. They had better spend the time getting through the stairwell door because the timed door slams into place with a powerful electromagnetic lock.

The floor between the first and second is especially thick and resilient, to help contain any explosive blasts desperate intruders may use, and of course provide additional armor against small arms fire. There are murderholes on the corridor floor of the second level, allowing defenders to rain missile fire down on intruders stuck on the first floor. These are simply slots in the floor covered by rugs on the second floor, easily removed and opened. Furthermore, at the end of each level's main hall, where windows might normally be, instead lie more of these slots. These slots, known as murderholes, may be opened for defensive measures against a siege without. There is a single room set aside on the third floor as a secure haven for mortals. They simply need enter the room and have someone activate the True (white) Jade set into the threshold. The jade acts as a potent ward against the intrusion of all shen. Anyone in the building capable of doing so is instructed to channel chi into the True Jade panels adorning the elevator buttons. This sets up the potent ward white jade is to virtually completely seal off elevator access. Small bells are placed throughout the pagoda at key points such as the front doors, the arsenal door, the library door, and the laboratory door. These bells jingle whenever an invisible intruder is in the room. Furthermore, they are properly placed in relation to feng shui requirements, and detract from all sneaky actions.

There are two escape routes. Beneath a rug in the kitchen is a secret door. The door leads down a ladder to a secret underground tunnel that runs for miles. It leads into the heart of Little Asia and to the mausoleum of the first wealthy Oriental family in Little Asia, the Mao's. This is very much a secret. Not even the Kuei-jin, the oldest shen residents of Little Asia, know of it. Plans are also in the works to expand this tunnel deeper into the city, providing a transportation system to rival the local Ratkin and Black Spiral Dancers (and might just...). The other way is through the laboratory on the top floor. The fumes pipe's grating may be removed. Ladder rungs lead to the roof. The top grating must be removed by screwdriver. Also, wearing a dust mask is highly advised if the climber wishes to avoid toxicity. The grating is well-secure from outside intrusion. It must be cut or bashed through, both of which tend to be less-than-sneaky approaches (even a small laser-cutter will be heard by anyone in the laboratory or library, since the pipe resonates all sound).

Computer security is even tighter. Always fearful of Technocratic skullduggery, master hackers have turned their skills to defensive measures. The pagoda mainframe is a "stand-alone" with high anti-hack security. The secondary computer in the same room offers Internet access and a connection to the mainframe for downloads. This dual-computer system makes it harder for outsiders to hack into the mainframe -- without knowledge of the secondary connection, they will not even know that more treasured data is just beyond their fingertips. Even if the hacker is aware of this, he will find himself faced off with defensive programs that may trace him and wire him a virus while downloading his own computer files. Even a Virtual Adept Master would find the system a challenge.

Obviously, these measures are far from foolproof. Nor should they be foolproof. It is the idea that a variated group of shen should be able to hold up the pagoda with their pooled abilities. The systems and statistics for the security measures are kept in the Head Storyteller's hands until needed.

Wall Ratings

Courtyard: 6
Laboratory: 6
Tunnel(s): 6
Everywhere else: 7

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