Category Archives: Journal Entries

Journal entries for the Jade Regent campaign

February 2nd, 2019

Character: Olmas

Annals of the Order of the Dragon

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as told by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia himself.

Oathday, 5 Sarenith

Dasi told us there were five basic districts in the city, but he wanted to spend a day or so learning more about them by strolling through them.  He hoped he might get a better sense of the city, and maybe even news of the allegedly legendary assassin stalking us. Zos and Radella thought that sounded like a good way to spend the day so they went along.

They were learning little more than we already knew, when a curious thing happened.

Kali was scrying the scryer and she saw what could have been a monk, in a simple gray tunic, walking through streets that looked like Sakakabe.  He wandered down an alley and, looking around quickly, pulled out a cloth that was wrapped around a vial and some blowdarts. Kali hastily ended the scry and yelled for Ivan.

In town, a city guard leaned in to watch the three out-of-towners soliciting stories about an assassin. They entered a shop.

Ivan sent a message to the three …

The guard suddenly slumped over and fell to the ground.  Inside, the shopkeep was going on about these stories about assassins started by riffraff and how safe this city was when they were startled by a minor disturbance outside. Zos, Dasi and Radella exited the shop and gaped.  The crowd started murmuring, and one voice said, “What’s up with HIM?”

Ivan sent another message.

They rushed over to the guard and found, as expected, a blowdart in his neck.  Zos was able to quickly identify the substance on it as blue whinnis.  He also quickly scanned the crowd looking for lawful evil, but found none.

Other guards quickly arrived, and questions were asked.  Dasi is great at snatching weapons out of your hand, and he can sing like a bird, but when it comes to just talking he sometimes sounds like he’s trying to explain badly why it wasn’t him that broke the window.  The guards were shaking their heads a bit and eyeing him and especially the foreign looking Radella, but Zos stepped in and vouched for her and eventually they all were able to leave.

The duality of having been scrying and seeing an attack possibly intended for us from both sides was a bit eerie.  But it did underscore the threat was real …

Not too long after this, Kali detected another scrying.  In an effort to draw the assassin closer, she “accidentally” let slip we’d be at the geisha house that night, and the scrying immediately ended.  Kali was happy about this, but that didn’t generally extend to others.  In particular, O-kohaku was not happy about her business doubling as a killing field.  Kali angrily said something like you don’t overthrow the regent and expect it to be completely incident free.  She made Qatana look tactful.

Expecting trouble now, Zos gave Ameiko a delay poison to drink that would provide 12 hrs of protection.  We then created an illusion of Ameiko and surrounded her in relaxed and incidental poses while the image not-that-skillfully played the samisen in contrived disregard for the world around us.

Nothing happened.

Freday, 6 Sarenith

However, around 12:30 that evening, our vigilance was rewarded. The swing of a bladed instrument cut through the paper wall of the room we were in, narrowly missing Kali.  Ivan had his bow drawn in a flash as Kali created an interposing hand between herself and the threat.  I threw open the door and started searching for the intruder.  It was Kali’s imposing hand, though, that quickly revealed the threat was gone.  Careful searching did reveal some faint traces of a person and the path they took but that only confirmed what the slit in the tissue paper wall already told us.  We’d been attacked, and he’d missed.

Nothing else happened the rest of the night, but it was the next morning that Kali kind of lost it.  We detected a scrying again and so Kali hastily scrawled a sign that read, “C’mon, prick.  Is that the best you can do?”  She added another message questioning his courage, and possibly his heritage.

Receiving no reply, Kali returned the favor by scrying him, and found a dark cloaked figure leaving the entertainment district.  He turned into a shadowy figure, but the scry held as he apparently entered the shadow plane.  Emerging in a forest somewhere, he quickly changed his garb to that of a farmer.  He seemed to be slim, with short, fuzzy gray hair – rather ordinary looking overall, according to her.

When Kali sent a message to him, he responded with a soundless but universal gesture of digital disrespect.

It was about 9:30 when we left the teahouse and Kali decided to make leaflets with the assassin’s image on it – “Have you seen this ninja?” and spread this over the town.  That done, we all reconvened outside of town and flew or windwalked to Enganoka. We hired 3 adjacent rooms to spend the night in and started planning for the big meeting with the Three Monkeys. We decided to check out the venue as well as make our “reservations”, and discovered the proper protocol was to buy the table with the Three Monkeys a drink and wait for them to invite you over.  Oh, and each person seated for dinner that night would be required to provide a 100gp reservation fee. We reserved 4 seats.

We’d already decided we could not take the whole group there.  Not only might all personalities not be welcome, but now we found it out it would be a little expensive.  The 3 would be Dasi, Ameiko, and Radella.  I wanted to be there but had to admit that Suishen is not a subtle sword.  Radella promised to look out for Ameiko.  So we paid 300gp and decided to check out the market.

Frst, we had to pay the guards 10pp + 10gp to enter with our weapons.  That seemed a bit steep but nobody batted an eye.  We did not, after all, wish to draw attention to ourselves.

At least, that is, for the next ten minutes.  After that, apparently, we abandoned that premise.

We’d only been in the market a few minutes when the guards came in and surrounded some man and accused him of being a spy. He was certainly the most frightened looking spy ever born if he was one.  He shakily denied it, but the guards announced that because he was lying to them, the punishment would be death. Out of the corner of my eye I saw both Kali and Qatana step forward.

I was tempted to jump in but I hesitated, mindful of our need to keep a low profile. I turned to Ameiko and said, “You can’t be seen around this.  We should leave.”  She also seemed torn before nodding yes.  I did not want to leave my friends but it was not the first time that Qatana, and increasingly of late, Kali, had taken matters into their own hands without consulting the group first.  And now, in my role as protector of the Heir, I would need to do the same.  Ameiko and I (and several others in the group) moved away from the disturbance.  Glancing back I saw

  • an increasingly panicked crowd
  • a flash of what surely had to be chain lightning
  • at least one body already on the floor

Later I would learn that Kali, Qatana and Zos together defeated the 8 guards before disappearing (literally, apparently, via either teleport or invisibility) and taking the dead commoner with them.  Worse, they discovered during battle that the guards were all oni.  Nobody at the market seemed surprised by that; it is apparently an open secret that the guards are magical demons.

It’s different here, I guess.

Upon returning, Qatana and Kali kind of kept to themselves.  I assume they were talking about how to get the body to the appropriate party.  For my part, I talked with Ameiko and said this provided a good opportunity to set the tone.  Although she is not sitting on a throne yet, I told her, my job is to keep her alive so she can.  I will defer to her wishes if she expresses them, but my default actions will tend to be the ones that keep her out of harm’s way.  She agreed that our roles are changing, and she herself is having to consciously stop herself at times.  This was one of those times.

Qatana, this time, attempted a scry and succeeded, seeing a wealthy-ish woman entering the mall we’d left earlier.  She asked about the mess and disarray and was told that some evil wizards had attacked a man and killed all the guards.

Kali tried scrying the assassin and connected. He was simply walking through city streets somewhere.

Starday, 7 Sarenith

It wasn’t long after midnight that Qatana cast a special spell.  Because she’d been able to scry on the assassin, she was also able to send him nightmares that would leave him tired and exhausted the next morning.  Her plan was to do this every night now, leaving him at a disadvantage for any battle or even using his skills.

After rising that morning, Dasi and Radella returned to the market on the theory that they would neither be recognized nor even associated with the fracas the previous day.  After all, we still didn’t get to scout the area.  One vendor seemed friendly andd they chatted some time with her.  She read some tarot for Dasi, but the longer he was with her, the more his gut told him something was up.  When he declined some tea she’d brewed and he asked her some pointed questions, she simply vanished.

Looking around her area, Dasi found an unconscious woman on the ground.  Reviving her, they learned she’d been accosted while arriving at the market that day.  Dasi brought back some of the tea and napkin he’d been offered and Zos later identified it as being tainted with oil of taggit, a poison that would have caused him to fall unconscious.  That suggests the assassin might be looking for a hostage rather than a corpse. Hmmm.

Speaking of corpses, Zos had a crazy idea to steal a corpse and “sculpt” a replica of Ameiko that he could animate, on the theory that it could be an alternate target.  Sort of a living mirror image spell.  Ugh.

Meanwhile, Dasi tried a scry himself … but failed.  He did squeeze a divination from the samisen …

HOW CAN WE BEST BE PREPARED FOR THE NEXT ATTACK?
-= stay together =-

Well, ok.

Qatana did a scry, and caught him down at the docks, chatting wth someone who was moving cargo.  He spent a fair amount of time there before moving back into the city .. maybe a noodle shop.

And that evening, Qatana gifted him with nightmares again.

Sunday, 8 Sarenith

The big day.  We timed a tea ceremony with the magical tea set to maximize our chances with the Three Monkeys.

Zos rolled out an animated – oh my god, he DID make a copy of Ameiko.  So that means he DID steal a corpse and .. so he was serious?  Well too late now but this pushes the envelope a little.  I didn’t really envision us as grave robbers …

Dasi brought 3 of the really good sake bottles he took from the pearl merchant’s collection, to impress our hosts with.

When the time came, they were impressed.

i wish I could have gone along, but Dasi, Radella, and Ameiko summarized the meeting for us.

5,000gp to any clan we wished to remain neutral.
15,000gp to any clan we wished to actually engage.

So 15,000gp just to keep them all out of it.  Wow.

One hitch, of course.  They won’t make any deal with us at all so long as there is a contract out on us.  Professional courtesy, I guess.  Well, that’s fine … we’d rather planned on taking care of that problem anyway.

Character: Ivan

Ivan’s Journal

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I am really not sure how to respond to Hatsue.

I thought it was completely ridiculous when O-Sayumi was telling me stealing the bodies of the dead is wrong. Who would have guessed that this would actually be a thing?

Although I can’t fully understand how the people of this country think I accept the fact that the fear of undead is a cultural thing that is not accepted in any country. So I have given up on Undead.

It is confusing why Zosi’s new form of undead is ok with the party. These are sill unliving monsters created from once living creatures and controlled by a master. Isn’t that the same necromancer? It just seems that he has found a way to alter undead so that enough to fool even those searching for undead.

There is nothing to prove that this new type of necromancy does or does not bind the soul back to the creature but if I have learned anything about people, common people will view this as necromancy.

Deep down prefer to interact with living people more then I want to experiment with reanimated creatures. Living in the world requires us to adapt to the people around you.

We have been traveling around thinking that everyone what to fix the Oni problem. The people of the city know the guards are Oni. Their reaction to Kali and Qatana attacking the guards was a little surprising. I heard the crowd speak as if Kali and Qatana were interfering with the guards just doing their job.  As the two of them fled the people seemed to be grateful to the guards for saving them from being killed. I think the people fear that Kali and Qatana were going to turn on them next. Kali seems to care a lot about whether she is considered good or evil. Maybe I should start calling Kali the evil wizard of Enganoka.

Sparna did always talk about following the laws of the land. Now there are going to be stories about how the two evil wizards went through the market killing off people. I can just see the stories about how the brave guards killed their master but paid with their lives. As it would happen these two evil wizards brought their evil master back from the dead. Once again the three of them will rain terror over the land until some brave heroes can finally put an end to the evil wizards.

So we have two evil wizards and their evil master that they brought back to life. Oh we can’t forget about Zosi the necromancer. I guess I should be more correct and say one evil wizard and one evil cleric so as to not upset Qatana.

So in truth I have no idea if they are evil or not but it was funny thinking about Kali’s reaction to being called the evil wizard of Enganoka. Hatsue has not freaked out about the gorgon so Zosi might not be using necromancy. I trust that Hatsue would take action if there was obvious necromancy. I still think that most people will view his creations as unnatural and likely use the work necromancy and undead to describe the creatures.

It just seems like common since the people get upset about stealing bodies. How can we ever attempt to fix the grief we have caused the family.

Well I will just have to face it and ask Hatsue how stealing the body affects this family.

Character: Kali

Kali’s Journal – Sarenith 7-8, 4713

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Sarenith 7, 4713 (early morning, Enganoka)

Qatana’s spell kicked in about midnight last night. From what she explained, when you cast it you go into a sort of meditative state until the…well, let’s call them the “victim” since that is what they are…goes to sleep, at which point you awaken and their nightmares begin. The more you know about them the stronger your connection, and the stronger your connection the more difficult it is to resist. It helps that we have both a picture of him and one of his former possessions: the poison-laced dart. This spell isn’t huge, but it’s not exactly insignificant either and it’s something we can do at little risk to ourselves. It’s also better than nothing at all, which is what we had before. It does require us to more or less predict when he’s turning in for the evening, though, as we can’t afford to lose hours to the sit-and-wait every time.

We meet with the Three Monkeys tomorrow night. Unfortunately, Qatana can’t go along because her description is being circulated as a result of our assault on the guards—I was a bit surprised that my own wasn’t included, though she was a more visible presence throughout the fight—but no one is keen on leaving her alone so I’ll be staying with her. We can keep an eye on the others from here. We’ll know if they run into trouble. We know where they’ll be. And I can get us there in an instant if trouble happens.

Obviously, it would be better if we could all stay together, but we can’t change the situation so we just have to make the best of it. And it does give us an advantage: the one person we are really worried about is the one we can spy on more or less with impunity. So if he tries to intervene, we should know.

We’re a little concerned about having Ameiko so publicly exposed, so Dasi is out gathering some supplies for enchanting a pair of hats that can be used to alter your appearance. One will go to Ameiko, and the other is for whoever else we think may need it. Zos and I can turn them out in just a few hours.

I’ve also made arrangements to get the diamond we’ll need for bringing the Tian man back from the dead. Qatana used a spell to commune with…well, I am not sure who, exactly…and is confident that his spirit wants to return. She has also very generously offered to share the cost, but that offer did come with a rather large “but”.

“We can’t afford to raise everyone the oni kill in our presence.”

“I know, and I don’t intend to. This one is…special.”

Because I tried and failed, which more or less makes it my responsibility.

(late morning)

Maybe, just maybe, we have crossed a line here. I don’t know. Part of me thinks this idea was genius, while another part thinks we’re, perhaps, too eager to employ the sorts of tactics that a normal society would object to. Of course, this isn’t a normal society right now and desperate times call for desperate measures. I think. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

It all started with Zosimus. Maybe that should have been a hint.

He pointed out that leaders often employ body doubles when they have to appear in public as a form of misdirection. While having Ameiko travel in disguise is a sensible way to keep her hidden, it dies encourage the Five Storms, or whoever might be watching, to look more closely for her and there’s only so long we can win that game. Ameiko traveling in disguise alongside a body double, on the other hand, shows them exactly what they are expecting to see. The best way to fool someone is to get them to fool themselves. Zos suggested—and this is where things got weird—that he could, um, reshape a corpse to make it appear like Ameiko. And then animate it.

He was thinking of the body of the dead man we brought back with us, but that was out of the question because Qatana and I were going to raise him. So that left only one reasonable option. For varying definitions of “reasonable”.

“So. Where’s the city morgue?”

Everyone turned to look at me.

“Well, where else are we going to find a corpse?” Without making one ourselves, that is.

Ameiko objected rather strenuously at first, and she eventually only agreed to this—reluctantly, I might add—if said body would receive a proper burial afterwards. Qatana, in contrast, found the whole idea hilarious, and she was all too eager to make the supply run. In retrospect, this probably should have been a hint, too.

So now we have, not one, but two dead men. It has just been that kind of day.

Our assassin took a shot at one of us again, though this time with a lot less flash. Dasi was out shopping for enchanting supplies and our friend just happened to have tied up the owner of the shop he was visiting. Which is a pretty amazing coincidence, since it would mean that he either knew our plans in advance, or spotted Dasi, correctly guessed where he was headed, and then both formed and executed a plan on the spot before Dasi got there. I am personally Either one is a pretty impressive feat.

He tried to poison Dasi. Or, more accurately, he tried to get Dasi to poison himself. Dasi figured out that something was wrong and didn’t fall for it. I have to wonder, though: why so coy? Why not just be direct and get it over with? Maybe openly murdering someone in a crowded market attracts too much attention.

In what’s become a daily routine, I spied on him again after Dasi had returned and filled us in on the day’s events. This time our would-be assassin was meditating in a darkened room, so it seemed like a good time to interrupt.

“I have to admit I am curious. How big of a price is it?”

Without opening his eyes, he said, “You would be amazed.”

“Wow! I. Am. Flattered. It is hard to believe we are worth all this trouble.”

I tried to get him to talk a bit more about the contract, but he wasn’t having it. All I got was, “I know where you’re going to be.”

At the time, I thought he was referring to our meeting with the Three Monkeys, but now I am not so sure. Would he risk offending the other clans by coming after us there? He might. Or, maybe he knows about the Fort. Or, maybe, just maybe, he knows about the Nine Pawns and their plans at the resort. It’d be pretty smart of him to wait until after we had spent our resources fighting someone else. This is something to keep in mind.

(night)

On a hunch, Qatana tried her “nightmares” spell a little early tonight and got him right away. Hahahaha! There is no escape!

We got Dasi in on our act. Both he and Qatana tried to spy on him this afternoon. Qatana’s worked; Dasi’s didn’t. She saw him dressed as a longshoreman, working down at the docks. He was meeting with someone who has been feeding him information. All in all it’s not surprising that he has a network of contacts, but it is a good reminder that anyone we have to interact with may be supplying him information. Assuming he wasn’t exaggerating about how much money he stands to gain, he can afford to spend a small fortune to keep tabs on us.

Sarenith 8, 4713 (night, Enganoka)

Their meeting with the Three Monkeys went on without any interruptions. Our primary concern, of course, was that our assassin friend would invite himself to the proceedings, but he didn’t even leave his bed. I know that because part of our plan was for me to start scrying on him after they left so that I could provide adequate warning in case he turned up. Instead, I got a view of a dark room with him sound asleep. I immediately told Qatana about this, who sent another batch of nightmares his way. He went from a calm, peaceful slumber to tossing and turning as I watched. There’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of knowing you are making a difference in peoples’ lives.

According to the others, the three ninja clans are generally…apolitical, but are willing to make an exception for us because the Jade Regent has a scorched earth style of management. What’s bad for the country as a whole is also bad for them. But there’s a catch, because there’s always a catch. And that catch is: they can’t enter into a formal agreement or contract with us until this matter with the assassin is concluded. They will not interfere with another clan’s contract, even one from the Oni’s Mask. Assuming he’s not going to just give up, and we’re not just going to roll over and die, that pretty much means we have to either kill or permanently incapacitate him. Good times.

The cost of doing business with them is going to be steep. Five thousand gold to each clan just to for that clan to stay neutral, and four times that if we actively want their involvement. We have a lot of money, yes, but not enough to hire all three. So we’re going to have to choose who gets to play, and who has to sit on the sidelines. Personally, I’d prefer the Emerald Branch over the other two since they at least seem to be driven by a moral code, but I am only one voice in the chorus.

We raised the merchant from the market tonight. Qatana started things off by rudely announcing, “I would rather perform the ceremony in private, with only those who tried to help the deceased present.” I mean, I get it, but deliberately antagonizing everyone in this manner is not going to make things better. I held my tongue, again, and silently went to her room for the ceremony.

The pale blue diamond we acquired crumbled away to dust as the merchant awoke with a gasp.

“I have some good news and I have some bad news,” Qatana said. “Which would you like to hear first?”

His name is Kimoto Kiomasu, and he was from the village of Kokomugi which is apparently not to far from here (and, I might add, quite real). We’re going to check on it in the morning, but he’s pretty convinced that it’s been razed to the ground. For someone who just lost all of his friends, his family, and most recently his own life, he was taking it quite well. I am pretty sure that’s because he’s still in shock. I think it’s going to be a rough morning.

Character: Kali

Kali’s Journal – Sarenith 5-6, 4713

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Sarenith 5th, 4713 (Kiniro Kyomai Tea House, early evening)

So now we wait. I hate waiting, especially when it’s for someone that is coming to kill us. That I even have a category for this says a lot about the last year.

I am nervous and more than a little scared. We essentially know nothing about our would-be assassin except for his reputation, and that is basically nothing to go on. The problem with legendary figures is that the stories that surround them are equally legendary; truth wrapped in exaggeration and hyperbole, designed to both frighten and inspire awe. Dasi spent hours this morning trying to give us anything we could use, and the best we managed was that, if you were desperate enough to have someone killed, and rich enough to part with a modest fortune, our assassin would appear out of thin air, do the deed, and then vanish without a trace.

None of this is helpful, except to confirm that he exists. After all, to the common man, I can appear out of thin air and disappear into the same. In the right circumstances, half of us could kill someone without leaving so much as a mark. There are too many possibilities, which means we have no idea what we are defending against. The only advantage we have is determining where the confrontation will occur. Sparna would call this “defining the enemy’s choices”, though of course there is only the one.

Doing that, though, was easy enough. My spell alerted me to his scrying eye, and I casually let slip where we were. The scrying ended within seconds, which tells me he took the bait. Yay us?

O-Kohaku was less than thrilled when we warned her what was coming. “You brought this to my doorstep!?”

I was not in the mood and snapped back, “Did you think you could support a rebellion and there would be no consequences?”

“This is not what I signed up for. I agreed to help, not turn my business into a battlefield!”

She has a point. We have gotten too used to being on our own, and what we are doing here is putting others’ lives at risk. It’s even bordering on reckless. We are betting quite a lot on his reputation as a disciplined assassin, not some messy thug who leaves blood and bodies in his wake. Are we putting too much faith in that?

At least it’s only for tonight. We’re leaving Sakakabe tomorrow, so if this isn’t resolved by then? The Tea House will no longer be in the crossfire.

I got my first good look at him today. Dasi, Ameiko and O-Sayumi had given me enough details that I could spy on him the same way he has spied on us, and it worked. He was dressed as a monk in grey robes and a basket hat, walking along the streets of Sakakabe in one of the middle-class tiers—something we were able to establish from the clothing worn by passers-by. I followed him for a while. In a stunning coincidence that you might describe as “suspicious”, he shot a city guard with a blowdart laced with Blue Whinnis poison, just outside a shop that Dasi was visiting. You might say we found this alarming.

Why did he do it? We don’t know. Was he trying to flush us out? Test our reactions? We don’t know. Was it intended as a distraction? Did he know Dasi was there? Did he know Radella was? We. Don’t. Know.

Is he coming tonight? We’re more confident about that one. We’ve been moving too often and too quickly, and have been careful not to reveal our whereabouts, making this his first real shot at us. I doubt he’ll pass it up.

Sarenith 6th, 4713 (Kiniro Kyomai Tea House, small hours)

He didn’t pass it up. A wakizashi came within inches of my head. He literally took one stab at me through the shoji screen, and then vanished. Qatana found the slightest traces of his presence: footprints on the wall frames and ceiling, and an impression in the carpet, but no steps leading away. He came in, struck, and then vanished. It suggests a combination of both skills and magic…though, I think, mostly magic.

He obviously wasn’t after a fight, which is no surprise. He was trying to pick us off. Which is also no surprise, though it does at least confirm what we’ve suspected.

I was riled up. Once we determined he was gone I scried on him again, this time catching him somewhere in the city just before he conjured a portal to the shadow plane and stepped through (what is it with this region and the shadow plane?) My magical sight followed him, and he emerged into a forest where he changed disguises. Which means I got a good look at his true appearance: a slim, unassuming Tian man with short, fuzzy grey hair.

I couldn’t resist. I cast another spell, and whispered to his image in my silver mirror. “You missed.” You might say that got his attention. I baited him a few times and we traded some barbs before I pointed out that I knew what he looked like. “Enjoy this victory while it lasts,” he said. “You have a lot more to lose.”

“There are a lot more of us. You only have to lose once.”

Our conversation ended with him giving me a rude gesture. It seems those are somewhat universal.

After my spell ended, I spent some time reflecting on what we learned. He can travel through the shadow plane, teleport short distances, and scry on others. All are spells or abilities I possess, except…he’s not casting any spells. Curious, don’t you think?

(Enganoka, early afternoon)

We found an inn here that has solid walls. Ironically, that is not an upscale feature. If you have money, it’s assumed you value the exquisite dance between light and shadow over such intangible traits as privacy and safety.

I made a stack of “Have you seen this assassin?” posters this morning and we scattered them about Sakakabe before leaving. The primary feature is a drawing of the man who is stalking us—it is a rather good likeness if I don’t say so myself—and a list of his known disguises. I used a spell to speed the process. Though we did take the time to deliver some to the city guard, I am under no illusions that this will amount to anything more than a thumb in the assassin’s eye. But I wasn’t really aiming higher than that, either.

To get us here, I used the same spell he did; it was in Yugureda Shosaito’s spell book. Walking the edge of the shadow plan was every bit as disturbing as I expected it to be, but it got us here quickly enough.

(Enganoka, night)

For once, Qatana was not responsible for the absolute shitstorm that was this afternoon. This time, it was my doing. I was the one responsible. And you know what? I would do it again. I have no regrets. None.

It happened in the market. We were working our way through the throngs of people when a hole opened up in the crowd. A group of guards were confronting a man who was bartering at one of the stalls. As they surrounded him they asked what village he was from, and when he answered they accused him of lying because the “village doesn’t exist!” It sounded eerily similar to the story Itsuru told us about the Nine Pawns, and we all turned to look at Dasi since he’s from here. Quietly, he answered the unspoken question. “That’s a real place”.

I presumed wrong. They weren’t going to arrest the man: they intended to execute him. Right there. Using this insane accusation that he was lying about where he was from and therefore a spy. And…I just couldn’t let it go on. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Be a silent witness to a summary execution? So I intervened. Inconspicuously.

Or I tried to, anyway. There were just too many of them closing in too quickly, and the spells I had that might protect him weren’t practical in close quarters. I tried a deterrent, but the guards were not deterred and things got worse. Much worse. There was a brief moment where Qatana maybe created an opening for me, but before I could act one of the guards brought their sword around in a wide arc and took off the man’s head.

As I watched it tumble to the floor in slow motion, I remembered being in Ordu-Aganhei where the people lived in constant fear of their Prince and his whims. Where people were punished or even killed for the most trivial of transgressions. We turned a blind eye to this insanity it because it wasn’t our fight, but this here? This was our fight. No more turning away.

When his head hit the floor, I was hyper-aware of my friends behind me and what I was about to do. Ameiko had to get away from here, as quickly and discreetly as possible, and I could feel her moving; the others closing ranks around her as they melted into the crowd. I looked down and saw that my hands were already holding the bit of amber and ball of fur, the latter stuck with needles. An instant later, lightning erupted from my fingertips and arced from guard to guard in a brilliant, blinding flash. Then Qatana and Zosimus rained destruction down on them, and in seconds they were all dead.

And then their bodies transformed into oni. Because, as a random shopkeeper said to me, “that’s just the way things are now”.

The rest of the party was gone. Zosi turned invisible and eventually found his own way back. I grabbed Qatana and teleported us, and the body of the dead man, to the inn.

Qatana started raging almost the instant we appeared in the room. “They did nothing!” she said, pacing back and forth while gesturing angrily with her hands. “They were completely happy to just stand there and look the other way while an obviously innocent citizen was cut down. And Ameikio condoned and justified it!”

Said innocent citizen was still in a heap on the floor, head detached. She’d at least taken a few seconds to preserve the corpse with a spell before launching into this tirade.

“And what’s worse,” she continued, still pacing, stopping only long enough to look at me while she emphasized some point, “is that only you, me, and Zos took any action to stop it. And Ameiko ran away like a coward.”

She didn’t get it. She still doesn’t, thought I tried to help her understand.

“I’m upset about this, too, but I don’t think Ameiko had a choice here. She’s bound by the same code of honor as Itsuru. It’s the same reason why he can’t just kill his brother and take over as governor. The people here won’t accept a leader that tarnishes their honor to become a leader.”

It would be different when Sennaka is gone. She will have the legitimacy to prevent such egregious abuses of power. But until then? She can’t be a part of this.

That being said, I was still shaken. I hadn’t expected so many of our friends to vanish with her. I sat down next to Qatana.

“I just thought…we’d have more help. Even discreetly. Ameiko needs us. While her hands are tied, we can do the things she can’t. But I guess not everyone sees it that way.”

Qatana didn’t want to hear it. Everything is so black and white with her. Direct action is the only action that matters. That’s…just not how this works. And I don’t know what to do about it.

(Enganoka, late night)

Ameiko came to talk to me about it. I had been dreading this conversation all evening, but it ended up being okay.

“I’m not going to apologize for intervening,” I said when she walked in. “And if I had the chance to do it all over, I’d do it again.”

“I can’t fault you for wanting to help that man, but this wasn’t a case of stopping bandits from robbing someone on the highway. They were the legally appointed law enforcement acting on their real authority. He may actually have been guilty of a crime. Just attacking them for apprehending a criminal would make us criminals, too.”

Normally, she would be right, but the problem with her logic is that we witnessed the whole exchange. “We all heard what they said. This wasn’t about some random crime. It was a false accusation used as a justification for murder.”

“We can’t openly rebel against the local authorities without evidence of corruption that is obvious to everyone. Otherwise, we run the risk of driving the people to those same authorities for protection from us.”

“I can’t turn my back to it, Ameiko. I just can’t. Not anymore.”

“We have to win the whole war, not just every battle.”

I looked down at the floor. The wool rug in our room was old and fraying along one edge. Is that supposed to be prophetic?

“I know why you had to get away. I’m not angry about it.”

She sat down on the bed next to me and sighed, heavily. “I can’t say which of us did the right, or better, or best thing. I think the answer is that…we each did what we had to do.”

“Maybe we both did the right thing.”

We sat in silence for a bit. Finally, she stood up and said, “For what it’s worth, I do want to do a little investigating to find out what that merchant’s story really was. For my own peace of mind at least.”

“Well, you may get to hear his story first hand. I’m going to try and have him raised, even if I have to pay for it myself. It was my spells that failed him; it’s my responsibility to fix it.”

She looked at me for a while before leaving. I suppose it could have gone worse.

Earlier, Qatana and I took turns spying on our assassin. Both of us saw him as a wealthy, well-dressed woman. I caught him just after he had left the market.

“You missed all the excitement.”

He stopped to look around for the source of the voice. Seriously?

“Please. Do you really think so little of me?”

“Was that your handiwork?”

“I wouldn’t dream of taking credit for such a heinous act.“

“You do realize there’s a price on your heads?”

“Of course. And we’re honored to be worthy of so much attention. Someone is obviously afraid of us. I hope you have a good night’s sleep.”

I couldn’t resist. Qatana has a spell that sends terrible nightmares, and she’ll be using it on him tonight. I am looking forward to it.

Character: Qatana

Qatana’s Journal for Sarenith 5 – Sarenith 8, 4713

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Wealday, Sarenith 5, 4713 evening
Sakakabe

Dasi spent much of the morning wandering the streets of the city (with Zos and Radella remaining at a discrete distance and out of sight, but ready to come if needed), popping in and out of markets, pubs (sorry, I meant teahouses), and shops trying to find information about any known ninja assassins operating in the city.

He heard a variety of anecdotes about a mysterious figure that sounded more the stuff of legend than reality, but he deduced there was probably a kernel of truth to them. As is often the case, preexisting stories had probably been attached to a real present day person who vaguely fit the mold.

But to what use can we put this information?

While this was going on Kali used Scry to snoop on the ninja and found him walking the streets of Sakakabe. He was near, but we already expected that. Presently he ducked into a narrow alley and pulled out a poison dart and blow gun.

Dasi and company soon found his victim: one of the city guards. Locals gathered around his body and saying things like, “He just slapped at a fly that bit him and down he went, like a jumble of bricks.” He was still alive, but what purpose knocking him out served remained a mystery.

Other guards arrived and sniffed around for clues, but when Zos pointed out that the victim had been darted they immediately became suspicious. As usual with town guards around the world their suspicion zoomed in with razor sharp focus on the bearers of the bad news.

This made sense when using what must pass for guard logic: there was a crime here, these people are here, these people know more than me, these people’s presence threaten my self worth, it would be really appealing to lock these people up and then go find the nearest waffle house.

Meanwhile back in the teahouse Kali detected another scrying on Ameiko. She decided to push the assassin into action and let drop where we were staying. We then set up a watch and waited. And waited.

It may be that the ninja saw through our ruse (and our little illusion of Ameiko performing on the street in front of the tea house), or it may be he was busy somewhere else, taking advantage of the town guards’ preoccupation with their downed comrade.

However we are fairly sure he will try something tonight, and so we’ve set up the watches with extra care and have moved into a large tea room (rather than the sleeping chambers, where we can all be together.

O-Kahaku was none to happy after we had told her what we were trying to do, and so we have planned to leave her house (and Sakakabe) in the morning. It was nice to see someone commit to a cause and stick to it right up until it caused them inconvenience.

“Ooh, sarcasm,” quipped Badger.

Oathday, Sarenith 6, 4713 morning
Sakakabe

He came at night, attacking once before quickly scampering away. We’d only known he had been there from the hole he made by plunging his sword through the wall next to Kali.

We reacted quickly. Ivan fired a set of arrows that ripped through the paper walls of not only our room, but all the other rooms between us and the outer wall — fortunately everyone else on our floor was laying down alseep. I flew through the door, smashing the flimsy wood and paper in the process. But he was long gone.

I had my companions wait within while I flitted about the halls and found only the barest of tracks leading down from the ceiling and back up again. They simply appeared and then vanished, and so clearly he had access to some amount of teleportation magic.

At that moment Kali detected more scrying and she performed her own Scry on the ninja and watched as he entered the shadow plane before stepping out into a field, where he changed clothes to look like a farmer.

Despite the nuisance of having our very own professional stalker we needed to travel today. The leaders of the ninja clans held a semi-public meeting each month on the night of the new moon in the city of Enganoka. Our plan was to walk out of Sakakabe and some distance away use one of Kali’s spells to skirt along the fringes of the shadow plane, which would provide fast transport for us all.

Huffy quickly added, “But first, breakfast!”

Oathday, Sarenith 6, 4713 mid day
Enganoka

The only drawback to Kali’s shadow plane transport spell is that the accuracy of where you enter the material plane is not that great. But a walk of a few hundred yards is a small price to pay for the convenience of covering so much ground so quickly.

We popped out in a field about a quarter mile from the gates of Enganoka. This city was larger than Sakakabe and it sprawled across a wide area uneven land overlooking the Xidao Gulf. Unlike Sakakabe, where the social status of each neighborhood was directly related to its height upon the city hill, in Enganoka there was a jumble of city districts next to one another. In some ways it reminded me of Magnimar.

We found rooms at a nondescript inn in one of the merchant class neighborhoods. The rooms had comfortably solid wooden walls. Apparently the more exclusive and expensive the accommodation in Minkai the less privacy and security it offered.

Oathday, Sarenith 6, 4713 midnight
Enganoka

After getting our bearings in the new city we made our way to the Kuroi Yane market where the Ninja clans were said to hold their monthly audience. We arrived, paid the entry fee (in less honorable lands we would call it “bribing the guards”) and made our way over to the restaurant. There we paid the 100 gold pieces per person fee (we only paid for four, because clearly not all of us would actually need to speak with the ninja clan leaders) and received instructions on how to arrange a meeting with the clan leaders when we returned in two nights.

We then went out into the market place proper to see what sort of items were available.

We had not gone far when a commotion from a stall caught our attention. A merchant was haggling loudly with a stall owner when a troop of guards marched up and surrounded him. The leader asked the merchant if he was from Kokomugi, and when he answered “yes” the guard cried out, “Liar! There is no such town. You are a spy!”

I heard Dasi say quietly, “But Kokomugi is a town in Minkai,” and knew that something was wrong and the guards were simply out to murder the merchant.

Before I could take action Kali put into place a whirling wall of wind around the merchant, buying us precious seconds.

And then things took an unexpected and seriously disappointing turn.

Rather than helping or encouraging us to defend an innocent citizen — one of her potential subjects — all Ameiko could say was “This is wrong, this is wrong. We cannot get involved.”

“Bullshit!” roared almost all of my mouse friends, and I concurred. I flew over and above the circle of guards and shared my knowledge of the future Groetus held for all.

As usual, most people were unprepared to face the brutal honest truth, and they became confused, mostly standing around idle, attacking one another, or injuring themselves.

One of the guards shoved the merchant out from the circle of winds and another screamed out “Spy!” and beheaded him with a single stroke of her sword.

At that moment Kali blasted the guards with a powerful bolt of forked lightening.

And still Ameiko could only say, “We should not be doing this,” as many of my other companions circled around her and led her away from a horrific injustice in her own land.

I looked down upon the corpse of a guard (whom had just been cut down by one of his own) and realized they were not human! I called out, “These aren’t guards, they’re oni!”

Zos joined in the battle, shooting the oni in range. I created a spiritual ally and soon all the guards lay dead. But Ameiko had fled along with everyone but Kali and Zos.

I swooped over to a stall owner who recoiled in horror, and I told him, “Don’t worry, these are not real guards: they are oni. Once the real guard shows up they will see that we stopped enemy forces who had infiltrated the city.”

But he shook his head and said, “That’s just the way things are now. Many of the guards are oni.”

Star took that moment to express what we were all feeling, “Well shit!”

I grabbed the dead merchant’s body and head and Kali used Teleport to quickly take the three of us back top our room, leaving Zos to snoop around and discretely see what he could find.

I was furious.

“They did nothing! They were completely happy to just stand there and look the other way while an obviously innocent citizen was hacked down. And Ameiko condoned and then justified the action! But more disturbing is that only you and I, and then and after the guards were shown to be oni, Zos took any action against this injustice and cruelty. And Ameiko ran away like a coward, interested in protecting her own skin, and acting offended because some innocent bystander had the audacity to be murdered in front of her! The Amatatsu family is without honor.”

Star then reminded me how both Ameiko’s father and brother had behaved in Sandpoint some years earlier. “Yes Star, her family caused no end of sorrow in Sandpoint for much the same reasons: personal wealth and safety above all others at any cost.”

Huffy tried to make sense of it all by wondering if that’s just how people in leadership roles behaved. “No, Huffy, that’s not how a real leader would behave. At least not one we’d support, much less follow.”

As usual Pookie got right to the heart of the matter and asked what we should do now. “Pookie, we should still get rid of the Jade Regent and the Five Storms, but yes, putting Ameiko on the throne is no longer our concern, although using her as an ends to the means is a good idea. And I wanted to keep an eye on Shalelu. She is loyal to a fault and will let Ameiko lead her into danger with no regard for her safety.”

Kali was more calm than I and said, “I’m upset about this, too, but I don’t think Ameiko had a choice here. She’s bound by the same code of honor as Itsuru. It’s the same reason why he can’t just kill his brother and take over as governor. The people here won’t accept a leader that tarnishes their honor to become a leader.

She continued, “Once Sennaka is gone, and Itsuru is in charge, that can change. They’ll have authority. They’ll have legitimacy. It is completely fucked up and wrong; I know. But it’s the way it works here. She had to get away before she was caught up in it. And she couldn’t just leave without someone protecting her…”

Kali shook her head sadly. “I just thought…I thought…we’d have more help. Even discreetly. Ameiko needs us. While her hands are tied, we can do the things she can’t. But I guess not everyone sees that.”

I looked at Kali for a long moment before replying, “So in Minkai ‘honor’ is nothing but a hollow shell that provides a convenient excuse for the nobility to let others do the unpleasant work of defending the weak and innocent while they stand idly by and simper about how ‘this is not right’ when someone actually tries to do what is right.”

“Hiding behind tyrannical laws has always been the way of the despot and the coward.”

“But like you, I am both saddened and disappointed that of our other companions, only Zos — the one with no real reason to have intervened — was the only one to come to our aid. The others have put the will of Ameiko above everything else, even when the will of Ameiko tells them to cravenly run away from a cause they would have rushed to support in the past.”

There really was nothing more to say. Ameiko was no more fit to rule Minkai than the drunken lout who picks fights in the bar and runs away when the brawl breaks out. But she was the heir to Minkai, and that in and of itself was an ends to a means: we could use her to gain support for kicking out the Five Storms. What came after was of no concern of mine.

The others returned a short while later, but I had little to say.

One cause of continued concern was the assassin/ninja/stalker who we learned, courtesy another Scry from Kali, had followed us to Enganoka. Personally I could give two shits (“Or even one shit!” Beorn gleefully exclaimed) if he killed Ameiko. But I was tired of him, he was a threat to people I did care about, and I had already resigned myself to the fact that we still needed “Our Little Coward” (Star’s new pet name for Ameiko).

It was time to take direct action against him, and so I used Nightmare against him. It took a while to catch him sleeping, but it was with some satisfaction that I felt the spell reach its target.

Fireday, Sarenith 7, 4713 evening
Enganoka

We kept a low profile throughout the day, although it was not without its excitement.

Overnight posters had been put up around town with a description of an attacker who had killed the guards in the market the day before.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Badger said, “that’s you!”

“Does the drawing make your butt look big?” Timber asked.

The drawing was just a crude sketch of a dark haired woman who could have been anybody. The description provided more details about my clothing, but really, “dark robes and dark pants” wasn’t going to single me out.

It did show, however, that nobody had noticed Kali or Zos participating in the fight, which was a plus, because only I needed to be careful about being seen about town. With that in mind I added Wind Walk to my usual all day casting of Overland Flight, and included Kali just in case.

Dasi and Radella returned to the market to purchase supplies for enchanting items, and at the first stall they were greeted by a friendly shop keeper who offered to tell Dasi’s fortune. Something about her seemed off, but Dasi went along.

She was clearly fishing for information about us, and Dasi soon realized she was the assassin, but when he called the old crone out she simply vanished.

The real stall owner was tied up in back, and was so happy with Dasi and Radella for setting him free that he gave a good price break on what they bought.

Both Kali and I used Scry on the assassin, and found he had a network of spies all around the city, including at the docks where I watched him thank an informant for some bit of information he had provided, and say he’d be back later for more. He then went to a noodle shop for lunch. Even the bad guys needed to eat.

The group spent a lot of time discussing how to keep the OLC safe during her meeting with the ninja clan leaders the next night. I paid little attention until Zos suggested creating a body double, and suddenly I was interested.

“All I need is a body and I can sculpt it into something that looks just like Ameiko and wanders around on my command.”

Most of the others were reluctant, but I thought it was a great idea to have a spare in case something happened to the real Ameiko.

I wisped away in cloud form to the city morgue and fetched back a fresh corpse. Someone screamed when they saw that the body was missing, but I promised myself that this fellow would get a much better burial than what had been awaiting him… once he had served his purpose. The others thought he would be proud if only he knew he was serving his future empress.

Takoda scoffed “Stuff and none sense!” and I agreed.

Zos got to work and presently we had a second Ameiko.

Later I sent another Nightmare to our assassin.

Starday, Sarenith 8, 4713 night
Enganoka

Today was the “big day” but mostly we kept to our rooms at the inn until nightfall.

Kali and I were prepped as usual and used Scry on the assassin. At one point he was sleeping, and so I sent him another Nightmare, after which Kali watched him toss and turn un-restfully.

Ameiko, Radella and Dasi were the ones to speak with the leaders of the ninja clan, and so they were led to the special table for which we had paid the fee. The others would sit nearby at regular tables with Ameiko’s doppelganger cloaked and ready to stand in for the real thing as needed.

Kali and I remained back at the inn waiting in case we were needed with Overland Flight and Wind Walk active.

The meeting went smoothly and we discovered that our assassin was a member of another clan and had been hired by the Jade Regent himself to find and stop us. The other clans could do nothing for us while a rival clan held a contract against us (because of another one of those “dishonorably honor” things that permeate Minkai). However if we ended the assassin’s contract (a euphemism for killing the assassin) then we could hire the ninja clans to either not take any contracts against us (for a mere 15,000 gold pieces) or they themselves could act on our behalf (for a hell of a lot more).

I thought the first option made the most economical sense, but we needed to get rid of the assassin ninja first.

The others returned safely to the inn, which freed Kali and I up for one last form of business for the day. Yesterday I had used Divination to determine that the merchant who had been slain in the market wanted to come back.

“I would rather perform the ceremony in private, with only those who tried to help the deceased present.” I said, and looked meaningfully at Kali and Zos.

We moved to the next room and the body was laid out on the floor of a room, with its head placed and stitched upon the shoulders in the same position as if it had not been severed. I then brought forth a finely knit length of green fabric with an arrow embroidered in silver thread, and laid the cloth over the corpse with the arrow pointing toward the head. Kali handed me the diamond. It was unlike the gem I had used to raise Bevelek, which had been a very large white stone with a visible occlusion: this diamond was small and pale blue, but perfectly clear.

I began to chant and sway as I kneeled over the body, speaking the name Groetus many times as I called upon the power to restore life into the lifeless form before me.

The gem stone darkened to a deep cobalt blue and then vanished in a flash of azure light. A layer of mist formed above the body and wispy tendrils descended, wrapping the corpse in a web of fog that quickly tightened and stretched over its features, revealing a grinning skull at the head. The mist cleared and the merchant lay upon the floor, breathing deeply with his head firmly attached, although a scar stretched around his neck.

His eyes opened suddenly and he sat up with a gasp.

“I have some good news and I have some bad news,” I said, “Which would you like to hear first?”

He stared wild-eyed at me, like his brain was struggling to make sense of too many things at the same time. “Oh, by the gods… I… was… Did I dream it? I have a fading memory of… no… no, it’s gone. What is that you say? If there is news, I better hear it, does it matter which comes first? But right now I think, on second thought… I… oh, I don’t remember feeling half of these aches and pains before… what were you saying again?”

I gave as warm and friendly of a smile as I knew how and began…

“Well, the good news is that you have a really good excuse to go back home and visit your family. Now. Right now.”

“Some other good news is that you are alive.”

“That brings us ’round to the bad news. There was about fourty eight hours there where you weren’t. You know, alive.”

“What was your name, again?”

“… I am Kimoto Kiyomasu. I…” He swallowed hard and looked straight at me. “Was it true, my memory of the Daikan Tetsuku confronting me in the market? Oh… you said I was dead. So…”

His eyes defocused as he looks into the vague distance past me, tears welling. “I left Kokomugi a month ago on a trading journey. My family, friends, home… When the soldiers said it didn’t exist, that can mean only one thing. They were, I’m certain, telling the truth. Kokomugi does not exist… any more. I wonder what my village did to displease the governor?”

Kali replied, “We have heard shocking stories about your governor, including that he has ordered villages burned for not meeting their tax burdens. It is even more shocking that he would extend this punishment to its residents, and go as far as to hunt them down.”

“That being said, we should check on your village to be sure. If it has been razed…” Her voice trailed off for a moment. She sighed sadly and then added, “We can send you somewhere safe, here in the north, but out of reach of your daimyo. And we are sorry about your family. And your friends.”

Kali was thinking Jiro’s fort as being safe, which probably made sense even though it was under imminent threat of attack. If we went tomorrow I could put into place some of the defensive wards I had been planning to use.