Li Mao, a young
peasant villager, finds a dying man amongst a group of dead men. Ho Chen,
one of the Seven Masters, has been ambushed and cut with poisoned blades.
He charges Li Mao with delivering a warning to the other Masters on Wudang
Mountain. Ho Chen transfers his chi energy and martial arts skills to Li
Mao, and gives him his sword (the Lunar Sword), then expires.
Trying to decide
how to find Wudang Mountain, Li Mao blunders into the camp of the Poison
Clan assassins. He discovers that he knows how to use the sword and fights
well, but is cornered. Wu Bin happens by and helps him to finish off the
assassins, hears the story of Ho Chen's demise, and decides to help and
train Li Mao.
Seeking shelter
from the rain, Wu Bin and Li Mao go into a cave which turns out to be the
lair of Ting Ting and her bandit gang. Wu Bin challenges Ting Ting for Li
Mao, then talks Li Mao through the fight. The chi energy he received from
Ho Chen allows him to learn incredibly quickly, and Li Mao defeats Ting
Ting. After hearing their story, Ting Ting joins the quest.
The next day,
as they travel through a dark and twisted forest, Wu Bin departs, citing
only "urgent business to attend to," leaving Li Mao and Ting Ting
to make their way to Wudang Mountain. That night, they take shelter in an
abandoned temple. Li Mao is awakened by what he thinks is Ting Ting coming
to seduce him, but the real Ting Ting slays the ghost [presumably this is
Jiang Fei, but the ghost isn't named in the story]. They rush outside but
are attacked by a horde of gyonshi (vampires), and a demonic tree [this
is a reference to Chinese Ghost Story]. They are getting the worst of it
when Monsoon appears, a student of the Seven Masters. He takes care of the
vampires and the tree. They
tell Monsoon what happened to Ho Chen, and he agrees to guide them to Wudang
Mountain.
When they reach
the mountain, they discover a huge encampment of Poison Clan warriors hidden
nearby, blocking their path. They steal guard's clothing in the usual way
that guard's clothing is stolen, then sneak through the camp. On the way
through the camp, they overhear a conversation between Xiang Kai, leader
of the Poison Clan, and an unknown overlord. They learn that this person
has plotted to take down the Seven Masters by inflaming hatred between the
transformed animals and the Shao-Lin, and setting up the Masters to take
the fall. The three armies are set to clash in the morning, and the Poison
Clan army is to go in that night to clean up anyone left alive.
The three heroes
reach Wudang Mountain just as the armies start to fight. They try to find
the Seven Masters but are swept up into the melee. Suddenly, a beam of light
cuts a huge gouge in the field. It is Wu Bin, using the Celestial Eye to
get everyone's attention. Wu Bin convinces the leaders of the three armies
to meet and talk. They learn that Kong Jun She, one of the Seven Masters,
has betrayed them and is working with the attackers. After a bit of talking
the leaders are convinced and plan a ruse to deceive the Poison Clan. That
night, when the Poison Clan moves to mop up, they see a battlefield littered
with bodies as expected. But as they go partway across the field, the warriors
of all three armies leap up and fight, destroying their army. Li Mao meets
Xiang Kai in single combat, and defeats him.
After the battle,
we learn in brief about Wu Bin's many adventures since he left Li Mao and
Ting Ting, about how he discovered that the source of the plot against the
Seven Masters is the Emperor Xin Kai Sheng. Ghost Wind and Sky Dragon, two
more of the Seven Masters, arrive and add that they have discovered Kai
Sheng plotting to open a the Underworld Gateway, and release the demon lord
Desolation. The Gateway has been guarded by the Seven Masters for centuries,
hence the need to remove them first. Kai Sheng has been weakening the gateway
while the Masters were distracted by the conflight. The Masters are not
strong enough to defeat Desolation, but set Li Mao and Ting Ting the task
of retrieving two legendary swords, which, when combined, might be able
to do so. Monsoon and Wu Bin go with them.
Wu Bin leads
them to the edge of the world so they can travel quickly. Kai Sheng has
anticipated this, and sends four assassins to dispatch them. Li Mao kills
Long Axe and knocks Short Axe off a cliff. Monsoon kills Cenotaph. Wu Bin
destroys Miasma, but not before it seriously injures Monsoon. They are forced
to split up to reach the swords in time: Li Mao heads for Thousand Sword
Mountain, Ting Ting for the Jade Palace of the Dragon King, and Wu Bin takes
Monsoon to a sorceress for help.
Li Mao confronts
Shung Dai, the guardian of the swords, at Thousand Sword Mountain. Shung
Dai is impervious to metal or wooden weapons, so Li Mao tricks him into
revealing which of the swords is the Invincible Earth Sword. Li Mao steals
the weapon, but is forced to leave the Lunar Sword behind in the process.
Wu Bin convinces
the Moon Sorceress, Lin, to help Monsoon. Apparently there was a relationship
gone bad between Lin and Wu Bin, but she agrees to help anyway.
Ting Ting navigates
past a trap and confronts a demonic guardian [presumably Ang Dao the Corrupt,
but he is not named in the story]. She manages to turn the trap against
the demon, and retrieves the Boundless Heaved Sword.
Li Mao arrives
at the Underworld Gateway just as Xin Kai Sheng is about to release Desolation.
He is attacked by Kong Jun She, the renegade Master, but saved by the timely
arrival of Wu Bin. Li Mao uses the Invincible Earth Sword to annoy Desolation,
a demon as large as an island. Meanwhile
Wu Bin is severely beaten by Kong Jun She and Xin Kai Sheng, but saved by
the timely arrival of Monsoon and Lin. She traps Xin Kai Sheng temporarily,
long enough to heal Wu Bin.
Wu Bin and
Lin fight Xin Kai Sheng. The two of them together manage to defeat him;
he is last seen being consumed by a blue fireball from Wu Bin, presumed
dead.
Monsoon fights
his former master, Kong Jun She. He is beaten, but Jun She is distracted
by the blinding flash of light when Ting Ting and Li Mao unite the swords.
Monsoon kicks him, knocking him into the crater that contains the Underworld
Gateway.
Ting Ting arrives
with the Boundless Heaven Sword; she and Li Mao unite the two swords and
plunge into Desolation's mouth to reach his heart. Desolation is destroyed,
and the sword disappears.
In the aftermath,
Li Mao takes Ho Chen's place as the Seventh Master.
Seven
Masters (we'll call it that for short) is a booster-only expansion set released
by Z-Man Games in April 2004. It's a 128-card set that contains 114 new cards,
with rarities divided into Common, Uncommon, and Rare. Two cards are errata
of Daedalus cards (Fighting Spirit and Wing of the Crane); the other 12 cards
are reprints of Daedalus-edition cards. All cards are black-bordered with a
scroll 
in the upper right corner. (yes, there are four Chinese characters written on
the scroll. Thanks to Nick Rossum, who tells me that the top two say "Seven
Master(s)" and the bottom two say "Underworld"). The set symbols
are color-coded to indicate rarity: white for rare, grey for uncommon, and black
for common. Still not foil.
as a stand-alone faction (Ho Chen, the first of the Seven Masters appeared as
a promo printed with 
