Boxer Magic!

Britain invaded China as a result of the First Opium War in 1842. The demand for tea in the UK and China’s unwillingness to have anything to do with the outside world, forced the hands of several unscrupulous operators who decided that in order to fulfil the domestic need for tiffin, they would create a need among the Celestials of China. The most addictive substance they could lay their hands on was the opium produced by the poppy fields in their Indian territories. Once established, Britain simply waited for China’s (inevitable) outrage, then forced the Chinese to accept their “foreign mud” at gunpoint.

This heaped ire on a simmering nationwide resentment concerning foreign occupancy of China, a country at that time ruled by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which the predominantly Han race of Chinese people also considered foreign invaders. In time, this seething outrage boiled over into the Taiping Rebellion and then into a series of further wars against the foreign powers and the “Unequal Treaties” they had foisted off onto to the weak Imperial rulers, allowing them ever greater powers on Chinese soil. At the turn of the Twentieth Century, the scene was set to unleash one final act of revolt against the “fan kuei” or foreign devils.

The Boxer Rebellion

By 1900, the foreign diplomats had become used to the manner in which the Chinese conducted their international affairs. From the Tsungli Yamen (‘foreign office’) in Peking, they prevaricated over the ratification of treaties, quibbled over the wording used, sent representatives with no plenipotentiary powers to conduct discussions (which could not proceed as a result) and finally denied having agreed to the treaty in the first place. Almost inevitably, the foreign powers would resort to force to secure the agreements they had made.

The Celestials had run out of tactics in their diplomatic armoury. Elements within the national government had begun to look to the West for ways of improving their systems of defense and management, while other backward-looking factions became resentful and sought for means of exacting revenge. The rise of yet another secret society, the I Ho Ch’uan (‘The Fists of Righteous Harmony’, or ‘Boxers’ as the foreign legations came to know them) began agitating for a wholesale expulsion of foreigners and their ways. Within the Manchu court, many powerful individuals, the Empress Dowager amongst them, tacitly supported their thinking.

In June of 1900, Boxer raiding parties entered the capital and attacked the Foreign Legations. Over the next 55 days, the eight countries of the foreign community defended themselves in a desperate attempt to hold the rebels at bay while reinforcements strove to approach from Tientsing, through countryside swarming with the fanatic legions of the Society, backed sporadically by Imperial troops. The Boxers professed to have magic powers, charms which repelled the bullets and artillery of the fan kuei; magical rituals which could revive their dead to fight again; and charmed weapons that could cut through the enemy’s defences. Many of the Chinese troops engaged by the foreigners were thrown into a panic by these rumours and the foreign leaders were hampered in their efforts by having to fight a psychological as well as a physical conflict.

The Manchu Court initially opted to show no overt support to the Boxers; however, over time, their directions to the Imperial Troops became less coy. A demonstration of their magic before the Dowager Empress – in which Boxer troops were fired on by (probably unloaded) cannon at point blank range and survived unharmed – impressed her mightily. From then on, the Boxers were to be lent every co-operation in their efforts. Still, elements within the military chose to diplomatically ignore such orders and, while most were punished by decapitation, enough remained covert enough so that the defenders in Peking survived and the Boxer threat was eliminated.

In the aftermath of the ‘Rebellion, further treaties were signed and quickly ratified in an accord known as the Chefoo Convention: this time, none of the standard Chinese tricks to avoid committing to the deal were allowed and the whole issue was cleared up in very short order. The Imperial family, which had evacuated the Forbidden City and fled to distant provinces, returned shamefaced and were allowed to resume their rule. However, the writing was on the wall: by 1911, Sun Yat-sen and his revolutionary forces had rallied and successfully toppled the Imperials. With the Chinese Revolution, Imperial China ceased to be, and a new, modern age had dawned...

Boxers

The I Ho Ch’uan were, like the Taipings before them, insistent on dispensing with any element that marked them as having dealings with the Invaders. To this end they eschewed guns of any kind and reverted to the weaponry and armaments of the Ming Dynasty era, a period which for them represented the last time China was ruled by the native Han Chinese. Boxers were however, in the later stages of the conflict, openly supported by the Imperial troops and this firepower and artillery support made them much more effective than they could ever have hoped to have been in the face of Western technological superiority.

Boxers were identified mainly by their adoption of red turbans and often some other red coloured piece of apparel. The mystic powers attributed to them, and often wholly subscribed to by individual troopers, gave them a swaggering arrogance and they often took ridiculous risks in the face of the enemy. The formal uniform of the Boxer was a hip-length tunic of white - sometimes bearing a Chinese character in red - white silk trousers and the red turban or head scarf. Individuals sometimes adapted this basic ensemble with sashes and red over-tunics to heighten their fearsome appearance.

Many Boxers were appointed as ten-nai or ‘tiger men’ and were despatched to cause fear among the opposition. These figures with their outlandish garb and daredevil behaviour are natural proponents of the t’ai p’ing t’ao of Boxer lore. These warriors were skilled in the use of the grappling hook, used to drag down horse troops and to unseat cannon from their rests. The presence of these wild men, traditionally a part of the Imperial forces, was a clue for the Foreigners as to the tacit support from the Imperials that the Boxers were receiving.

Like the Taipings, whom they strongly resembled, the Boxers used ‘charm banners’ and these are a good focus for the magical powers of these warriors, should the Keeper deem such things appropriate. Unlike the Taipings, they never resorted to the dreaded black banner charge – wherein the raising of a black flag indicated that the troops were determined to fight without quarter to the bitter end - as the Boxers were intended to inspire this kind of terror from their mere presence.

In terms of weaponry, the Boxers never used foreign weapons, but they did revive many ancient weapons of the previous dynasties. They preferred to use spears, swords and halberds but also used bows, including the crossbow, and various gun-powder devices such as hand grenades and primitive mortars and cannon. These were often made of bamboo and discharged metallic fragments or barrages of flaming arrows. A particular strategy for breaking barricades was to tie spears along the flanks of a bullock then tie a bale of flaming hay beneath its tail before releasing it in the direction of the defenders.

Boxer leaders were not above reviving other less-than-savoury Chinese warfare practises; one of these was ‘chopstick gagging’. This involved putting a chopstick lengthwise in the warrior’s mouth and tying it in place by means of a cord wound around the back of the head. This gag was meant to stop the soldiers talking and revealing sensitive mission details to spies or enemy troops.

The recklessness and wildness in battle often observed by the foreign troops had much to do with strong applications of opium and alcohol before entering a fight. Many Boxers thought they were being given potions that would render them invulnerable and this helped bolster their courage, along with deadening the effects of the wounds that they received. To the Western forces, the seeming imperviousness to harm or fear gave the Boxers a tangible psychological edge.

The T’ai P’ing T’ao

This is a handful of spells taught and demonstrated throughout China in the various secret societies that abound there, especially the triad societies. The manipulation of these groups by the Tcho-tcho has meant that actual Mythos magic has taken root and has a measurable effect (if only by swelling the belief in the power of the sect through rumour). This body of lore is called the t’ai p’ing t’ao or ‘heavenly knowledge’ and was recorded in use up until, and during, the Boxer Rebellion. Many of these spells have found their way into common folklore, added into various Chinese grimoires and Mythos texts from the region: Keepers may add some or all of them with impunity into any Mythos tomes that their Investigators unearth while in China.

However, the Tcho-tcho are known to jealously guard power in its various forms and do not give up secrets lightly. Each of these spells has a mundane version which amounts to a bunch of legerdemain, chemistry and psychology and which may have been passed on instead of the true spell; as often, the spell faithfully recorded into an older book of lore is completely fraudulent. Wherever one of these spells is discovered, have the reader roll percentile die: a roll under 21% means that the spell is a true mystical charm and will work as described.

Bless / Blight Crops

This spell is most often used as a propagandist tool to turn the hatred of the peasantry against a specific group (in China, usually foreigners). It costs 6 Magic Points to Blight one acre of vegetation, along with 1d6 SAN; the same amount of Magic Points is needed to Bless a crop but there is no commensurate SAN loss.

The caster burns joss paper (sometimes called ‘gold paper’ or ‘hell money’) whilst walking around the field to be affected in the darkness before moonrise. With the coming of dawn, the crop begins to be affected as per the desire of the caster; this usually takes a day to complete. If the caster loses any blood during the time in which the Blessing / Blight takes hold, the spell is nullified.

Non-magical version: Simply stated, the caster and his associates, under the cover of the moonless dark, traverse the field to be affected and do as much damage as they can, trying to make it look like the ‘will of Heaven’ - there is no reversed, or positive, version of this "spell". Rice fields can be drained, branches broken, tubers uprooted and spoiled: much can be accomplished in this time. Some variants have a recipe for a nasty herbicide which speeds things along excellently.

Create Zombie

This is like all other similarly named spells in that it creates an undead agent from a dead body that will perform various limited directions as outlined by the caster. It is dissimilar though, in the fact that it is cast upon the living who, when killed, will subsequently turn into the zombie warrior after death.

The caster burns ‘gold paper’ to invoke the will of the ancestors and to attract the attentions of Heaven. Then, upon strips of paper, written with a pen of pear wood, the caster inscribes a sutra to Yanluo Wang, the God of Hell, asking him to allow the warrior bearing the paper charm the ability to avenge his own death. Traditionally, this spell is cast upon those troops about to enter battle. With the expenditure of 5 Magic Points and 2 SAN points per individual affected, the charm will work as outlined.

At the next moonrise, the bearer of the charm will arise after being killed, reincarnated as a zombie, and will automatically resume the attack in which it was engaged at the moment of death. The risen warrior is single-minded in its purpose of re-newed battle and unresponsive to outside stimuli; it regains the same amount of Hit Points that it had prior to death and, when these are gone, it falls lifeless once more and may never thereafter be re-animated.

Non-magical version: Under cover of darkness, the caster and his associates enter the battlefield and remove the dead bodies of the troops that have fallen. They then strip them of their clothing and the bodies are burned, buried or sunk. The clothes are then distributed among the next wave of troops with the imparted information that the robes and armour are somehow ‘enchanted’. To the defenders the next day, it appears that the corpses slain yesterday – with the rents and bloodstains still upon them - have risen to do battle once more.

Enchant Lance

The creation of this weapon requires the appropriate Craft skills for its manufacture. Enchanting the lance costs 1 POW and 4 SAN points. When finished, the ‘Lance does 1d10 points of damage and can Impale even those creatures not susceptible to Impaling damage.

Non-magical version: Usually just an old spear and a bunch of rhetoric are needed to convince the troops that this spear is holy and super-effective. Obviously, if the spear - decorated as it is with ‘gold paper’, tassels, sutras and whatnot – proves less than miraculous, then the fault lies with the (former) user, not with the instrument itself.

Flesh Ward

The Flesh Ward bestows points of Armour against non-magical attacks upon the recipient of the spell. The caster prepares talismans of paper, written with pear-wood pens, with sutras inscribed upon them. The recipients of the spell begin a frenzied dance accompanied by chanting and are fed a potion by the caster which facilitates the magic. With the expenditure of 4 SAN points the caster bestows immunity to the tune of 1d6 points of Armour per 1 Magic Point expended.

Non-magical version: The potion in both versions is simply a distraction, often alcohol or a home-brewed narcotic to deaden pain (usually, opium). Once roused to an adrenalized fever-pitch by the dancing and chanting, the recipients of the spell often don’t even notice when they’ve been wounded anyway.

Implant Fear

This spell imbues an image with the ability to cause terror in all those who look upon it. In many battles with users of the t’ai p’ing t’ao, the main way that this spell is used is to cast it upon a ‘charm banner’, a large, brightly-coloured flag covered with mystical emblems and carried before an advancing force. All those who see the image must match their POW against the Magic Points (MPs) spent in the creation of the image. The spell requires a minimum of 5 MPs to be spent and costs 1d4 SAN points. The effect lasts until the next sunrise or sunset.

Non-magical version: in this iteration, the image is one that is as horrible as the creator can make it and its revelation is usually engineered in circumstances that allow the creator to heighten the drama of seeing it. Sometimes it is heralded by a collection of rumours promising evil to those who view the image; occasionally, the unveiling of the image is accompanied by shrill screams or weird music. Either way, this form of the spell works best against an opponent already willing to believe in its negative effects.

Summon Demon Fog

“Traffic had been brought a standstill some hours before; pedestrians there were none. King Fog held the city of London in bondage. The silence was appalling. P.C. Ireland felt as though he was enveloped in a wet blanket from head to feet...”

-Sax Rohmer, The Trail of Fu Manchu

This spell requires a circle of devotees who chant and burn ‘gold paper’ for the period of the exercise. Each participant spends a minimum 5 Magic Points and loses 1d4 SAN. The spell resembles Alter Weather but for the fact that it calls down only one specific meteorological effect – damp, oppressive fog. This fog lasts as many hours as Magic Points have been spent in its making and covers an area of about 1,000 feet radius per participant: visibility is reduced to practically naught. In the presence of those connected to the Summoning of the fog (cultists, creatures and so on), unearthly tendrils of the vapour visibly coil and probe, seeking to enter buildings, or thicken around light sources.

Non-magical version: Somewhat similar effects can be obtained with smudge pots, various chemical compounds and smoke. These are considerably more localised in effect and tend to be hot and dry, rather than cold and wet.