(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

"Long live the Empress!" they cry in unison. "One thousand years! Long live
the Empress! One Thousand Years!"
Beyond the threshold, dozens of loyal warlords, kings in their own right,
drop to their knees, touching their heads to the floor in deference as you
pass them en route to the grand Imperial Throne.
As you turn and face your minions, seating yourself upon the Imperial
Throne, you allow a small, satisfied smile to creep across your carefully
painted lips. There is but one thought in the forefront of your mind:
...that the body of the young Empress, Wu Tsun Sha, lies broken at the
bottom of the Well of Solitude, and that you - Bai Hwa, a horse merchant's
daughter - are at last poised to shake the Empire and the corrupt Wu
Dynasty to its very foundations.
‘Shock and a Rise to Seething Vengefulness.’
You stand somewhere in the nether regions of the Planes, a sweltering place
where the ground is beaten copper, and the sky is of brass. Here, the bodies
of sinners - petitioners in this horrid place - are rolled amongst iron
brambles and bronze scorpions until their bones are fine, gray dust.
You squint at the horizon, the bone-dust rising with putrid-smelling gusts of
wind that carry with them the sound of agonized moaning. There is nothing
but flat, metallic landscape as far as the eye can see. The dust is everywhere,
in everything... it stings at your eyes, coats the insides of your mouth with a
pasty film. You spit, wiping at it with your finger, but it's of no use: the
stuff's taste has fouled your mouth completely.
You look down at the 'key' in your hand... a minute platinum orb... and
picture the man's face who solemnly swore to you the magical portal you
just passed through - now gone, of course - led to the green fields of
Bytopia. Someone, by all the Powers and their proxies, was going to pay for
this one.
‘Slowly Dawning Horror.’
“How good could it be?" you think, regarding the burgundy liquid carefully.
Across the table from you, the twisted old man smiles slyly.
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