The first Emperor of the Qin Dynasty in China, in search of the magical herbs of longevity, had ten great ships built, and the Court Magician Xu Fu with five hundred virgin boys and girls, carrying treasure, food supplies, and equipment, set out for the Eastern Land of Fusang.
1933. A body washes up in a salt marsh outside Los Angeles. Male, Chinese, maybe sixteen, no ID. Cause of death either the nine millimeter slug through the back or the blow to the head with a heavy object. His clothing is impregnated with a silvery substance.
- The only inhabited place for miles is the SERVICE STATION.
- A tide chart can triangulate the area where the body floated from: THE SHIP.
- The kid had a matchbook from the FOREST OF MEAT restaurant in LA.
Out of work stevedore ERWIN BULK found a SHIP in the marsh, exposed by shifting tides. As usual for archaeological finds in the Great Depression he looted it before the government could take it away. Lifting the ship out of the muck took men and machines, he paid THE GANG with money from pawning the treasure.
Bulk was fascinated with the strange writing cut into the hull of the ship. It looked like the menus at FOREST OF MEAT, his favorite Chinese restaurant. He brought teenaged busboy Peng to decipher it. When the kid couldn’t read the two thousand year old Qin script, Bulk murdered him in a fit of paranoia and dumped the body in the swamp. He will kill again on the orders of the thing in the jade coffin he pulled from the wreck, convinced it can make him immortal.
THE SERVICE STATION
The dinosaur sign above the Sinclair station is the only landmark on the unlit stretch of highway through the marsh. Harlan King the fanatically racist Spanish American War veteran runs the place with his Filipino wife Esmerelda. Last night a group of four guys came out in a truck and used his boat ramp. One of them might have been a kid. Harlan doesn’t have a nam or a license plate but they’ve been coming out a couple times a week for a while now. Normally it’s three guys with the boat. They always brought a couple shotguns, he assumed they were hunting something.
If investigators stake out the Service Station by night they can catch Bulk and his gang making another trip out to THE SHIP.
THE SHIP
The is half-raised out of the marsh on inflatable floats. The floats are painted to stop the orange rubber being spotted at a distance but the strange silver texture of the water flickers in the moonlight, making it easier to spot in the dark than by day.
The ship is a hundred feet long and twenty five wide. The hold is full of silt, partially excavated. Skeletal children sit on benches, old bones spilling out of rusty chains. Something heavy was dragged out. A sarcophagus? Gold, jade and more lay buried in muck. Students of ancient Chinese can read the pictograms cut into the hull. The ship was launched in the eleventh year of the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang to seek eternal life in the land of Fusang. The rest is illegible.
The ship is full of mercury, covering surfaces in silver sweat. The interior concentrates the vapors. Short term exposure causes fatigue, tremors and impaired thinking. Prolonged inhalation causes permanent personality changes and brain damage.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi
FOREST OF MEAT
A dim sum place in what’s left of Old Chinatown, slated for demolition to make way for Union Station. Staff and patrons are mistrustful of law enforcement. Lou the dishwasher served with the Shanghai Municipal Police and will talk to cops who seem competent. There was this White guy Bulk, a former regular, recently banned after altercations with staff. Lou caught him talking to Peng in the back alley and chased him off. He doesn’t have a first name or address, but remembers Bulk once spilled tickets from the PAWN SHOP while fumbling for change.
THE PAWN SHOP
Fast talking wannabe librarian Olivia Gacy runs Book and Pawn over on the West Side, where Bulk pawned the treasures he found to finance further excavation. She packs a .25 automatic and uses it when THE GANG shows up for a smash and grab, trying to reclaim the “magic items” Bulk sold. Vessels of gold, jade and crystal.
ERWIN BULK
His skin is red and peeling. He sees enemies everywhere and lashes out when his paranoia gets the better of him. He believes the body in the coffin is talking to him. It knows the secret to eternal life. He carries the Luger that killed Peng and will use it again. He was a crack shot with a Springfield but his hands shake now, and not from shell shock. His body betrays him but by the grace of the master he will live forever.
THE GANG
Erwin brought in fellow dockworkers Gresham Norwood and Huck Langford to loot the Ship. They suffer a lesser version of Bulk’s mania, alternatingly aggressive and timid, but are always afraid of him. He killed a kid and dumped him in the swamp. He talks about killing more people and taking their livers for the dead wizard in THE FLOP. Norwood carries a .45, Huck a .38, both wield shotguns in the swamp.
THE FLOP
A one story cottage in Highland Park. Flush with cash from fencing the treasure, Erwin bought it for cheap off a big time Hollywood ape. The place is overgrown but looks good covered in flowers. The truck stays in the garage but the little boat gets parked in the yard when he’s not using it. A search turns up a wilderness map with the location of THE SHIP and tickets from the PAWN SHOP.
The living room is decorated with gold and pearls from the ship. The centerpiece is a a jade burial suit, the type that later became ubiquitous in the Han Dynasty. The mummy inside is preserved by the poisonous mercury that once filled the watertight suit. The vapors fill the room, invisible and odorless.
A dim sum place in what’s left of Old Chinatown, slated for demolition to make way for Union Station. Staff and patrons are mistrustful of law enforcement. Lou the dishwasher served with the Shanghai Municipal Police and will talk to cops who seem competent. There was this White guy Bulk, a former regular, recently banned after altercations with staff. Lou caught him talking to Peng in the back alley and chased him off. He doesn’t have a first name or address, but remembers Bulk once spilled tickets from the PAWN SHOP while fumbling for change.
THE PAWN SHOP
Fast talking wannabe librarian Olivia Gacy runs Book and Pawn over on the West Side, where Bulk pawned the treasures he found to finance further excavation. She packs a .25 automatic and uses it when THE GANG shows up for a smash and grab, trying to reclaim the “magic items” Bulk sold. Vessels of gold, jade and crystal.
ERWIN BULK
His skin is red and peeling. He sees enemies everywhere and lashes out when his paranoia gets the better of him. He believes the body in the coffin is talking to him. It knows the secret to eternal life. He carries the Luger that killed Peng and will use it again. He was a crack shot with a Springfield but his hands shake now, and not from shell shock. His body betrays him but by the grace of the master he will live forever.
THE GANG
Erwin brought in fellow dockworkers Gresham Norwood and Huck Langford to loot the Ship. They suffer a lesser version of Bulk’s mania, alternatingly aggressive and timid, but are always afraid of him. He killed a kid and dumped him in the swamp. He talks about killing more people and taking their livers for the dead wizard in THE FLOP. Norwood carries a .45, Huck a .38, both wield shotguns in the swamp.
THE FLOP
A one story cottage in Highland Park. Flush with cash from fencing the treasure, Erwin bought it for cheap off a big time Hollywood ape. The place is overgrown but looks good covered in flowers. The truck stays in the garage but the little boat gets parked in the yard when he’s not using it. A search turns up a wilderness map with the location of THE SHIP and tickets from the PAWN SHOP.
The living room is decorated with gold and pearls from the ship. The centerpiece is a a jade burial suit, the type that later became ubiquitous in the Han Dynasty. The mummy inside is preserved by the poisonous mercury that once filled the watertight suit. The vapors fill the room, invisible and odorless.
THE MAKING OF
This is a bonus adventure for the 2026 Appendix N Jam.
I finished my main entry and wanted to create another, so I trawled the
discussion page for abandoned prompts. I really enjoyed the copy of The Big Sleep I found in a little free library, so I wrote a hard boiled crime adventure set in 1930s LA. You can find the formatted version of the adventure here. I'll post my for-real jam entry soon.
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