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of the Dragon > Year of the Dragon notes
[posted 15 Nov 2002; updated 13 Dec 2002]
I've divided this up according to the sections in the stories. You can jump back and forth from the story, or you can just read it all at once, if you prefer.
I didn't put dates in the sections like Robin did in the Operation Killdeer story, because Zev hadn't decided yet if the timeline should continue from the end of Flashpoint (when Throne War was originally supposed to happen), or if the timeline should have advanced during the "interim" period between Daedalus and Z-Man. I refer to dates in these notes because it's easier :)
This scene opens about halfway through the Throne War story, where we learn that the Emperor has fallen ill, and Gao Zhang is trying to replace him without losing his power base. The Guiding Hand learn about Zhang's initial deception using a shape-shifting demon (the Demon Emperor), and mobilize their forces in the 69 A.D. juncture to try to put a Confucian on the throne. Fo Shen arrives to deliver news of a planned Jammer strike against the Hall of Brilliance, but never quite gets a chance to tell Zhang the whole story as laid out in the flashback parts of the Throne War story.
When Zhang says "Summon the Petals," he is referring to the senior members of the Lotus, such as Shi Zi Hui. The organization of the Lotus is laid out in the Feng Shui RPG supplement Thorns of the Lotus, starting on page 17.
The Lotus want to stir up as much trouble as possible to distract the Hand from their assault in 69 A.D. They plan to attack Nine Dragon Temple,a feng shui site controlled by the Hand, but they let all the other factions know about it in advance, guaranteeing a big dust-up. Whether their attack succeeds or not doesn't really matter to them.
Three Rats is the person they use to deliver the message, at the Genocide Lounge (a Jammer hangout in the Netherworld, described in the Feng Shui rulebook, and in the Elevator to the Netherworld supplement; now a card appearing in Netherworld 2).
Three Rats nearly stumbles into cyborgs loyal to Homo Omega who are eliminating the Buro and BuroMil spies, to ensure that only Omega gets the news about the pending attack, and more importantly about the expected presence of a giant demon. Omega needs to capture a large demon to further his personal agenda.
The Ascended don't really care about the assault on Nine Dragon Temple, but they are willing to increase the confusion level with minimal risk to themselves. They can't afford for the Hand to win in 69 A.D.; that would cause a critical shift and wipe out magic before the Ascended ever got rolling.
The Iron Monkey has been successful in his efforts against Ascended operations in the 1850s. The Unspoken Name instructs Draco to issue a challenge to the Monkey, so he'll be at the Temple when the Lotus attack, and perhaps be hurt or killed. Draco decides to follow up the challenge personally.
The Lodge suspect that Sam Mallory is having doubts about his loyalty, so Draco is given permission to terminate him if he feels that Sam is a risk.
The Architects in general aren't aware of the attack on the Temple, because Homo Omega's agents killed the other spies before they could report. Omega plans to send a team of his own cyborgs and Vivisectors to capture whatever giant demon the Lotus decide to summon.
During Flashpoint, Dunwa Saleem used Sam to fight and delay the Dragons who were coming to the rainforest to assault the new Arcanotower. After Melissa Aguelera convinced Sam that the true enemy was the Architects, he joined forces with the Dragons and helped to destroy the tower. Since his betrayal by a Lodge member, Sam's loyalty to the Lodge has been wavering, so he contacts Kang Pao, a transformed dragon from "the old days." This scene sets up Sam's eventual defection from the Lodge (a story element that was planned by Daedalus, but hasn't been followed yet in the Z-Man cards).
The Hand plan to move a large force through a Netherworld gate inside Nine Dragon Temple to reinforce their assault against the Lotus in 69 A.D. (led by Leung Mui; details in the Throne War story). They need to ensure that the gate remains intact despite the Lotus attack, so Quan Lo sends Wong Fei Hong to back up the defenders already at the temple.
Their "friend from Canton" is the Iron Monkey, who mainly operated in and around Canton in the 1850s.
"The Middle Country" is the literal translation of the Chinese word for China, and what I used to refer to the 1850s juncture. I figured that most people would understand which juncture I was talking about since Quan Lo appears here.
The Dragons get involved in the mess because, well, they are the Dragons, and don't need a good reason to get involved :) This scene has a small tie-in to the Throne War story.
Ting Ting is described in the Feng Shui supplement Golden Comeback. In 69 A.D., she leads a group called "the Brothers of the Green Wood," a Dragon-esque group which hasn't crossed into card form yet.
There are a few open ends of subplot buried in the action in the final section:
Little Jim was somehow involved in Homo Omega's personal plot, before he defected to the Dragons.
Sam Mallory is set up to defect to the Dragons, and Wong Fei Hong has been badly wounded. Those plotlines haven't been followed yet.
Homo Omega has captured the demon he needed for his scheme. That plotline resurfaces in Dark Future, where Thing with a 1000 Tongues reappears as an Abomination.
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