as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.
Wealday, 20 Calistril
One minute there were dragon dancers, and the next minute there were not.
There were ninjas, wearing the standard tight-fitting ninja uniform, armed with the standard poisoned throwing stars, and not, for once, attacking with the typical ninja stealth (we were, after all, looking right at them as they emerged from beneath the dragon.)
To be truthful, I saw eight emerge from the dragon, but they were joined by four more that had quietly infiltrated the crowd.
Ninjas, I have learned, are pretty much on suicide missions.from the time they leave Ninja HQ. They are most dangerous from a distance, when their poisoned shurikens can seriously weaken or even kill you before you ever can make contact. If they ever have to close with me, their tight-fitting ninja uniform is usually insufficient against my attacks with Suishen, and they seem unable to throw at such close quarters.
My main concern, of course, was that in a situation like this, Ameiko was not secure. If the ninjas knew her for who she was, she could be swarmed upon, and she did take on some poison from a shuriken. Ivan quickly cast delay poison upon her, however. Dasi also made good on his promise to protect her, and I’ll admit that although I was distracted at times, I could swear Dasi walked up to more than one ninja and simply take their weapon out of their hand in the same motion that a magician pulls a coin from behind your ear. He is neither a swordsman nor an archer, but … I’m not sure what the name is for what he does.
Qatana found herself somewhat in the middle of battle simply by fate of where she stood as the dragon passed, and took a bit of strength damage from the initial flurry of shurikens. (I also found myself faltering a bit from one until Ivan put delay poison on me.) Kali created a wall of ice to help provide a “rear” that we could not be attacked from, and later managed to haste us so we coiuld finish the battle more quickly.. Ivan calmly pulled out his bow and began shooting arrows faster, it would seem, than is humanly possible. It seemed at times he was nocking them two at a time.
Ameiko started swinging at a ninja that came near her, but Dasi and I quickly flanked her and after it was dead, took on additional foes as they approached. While she kept her sword drawn and ready, she allowed us to take the lead.
Partway through the battle, though, it appeared we had gained an ally. A non-descript woman from the crowd suddenly joined the fray and began attacking ninjas. The palace guards assigned to us fell quickly, but the woman seemed to be holding her own quite well. Radella seemed to be hitting the ninjas hard and then …
… it was over. We managed to catch one ninja alive, but his tongue was cut out already (note previous comment about ninja HQ). And the woman mysteriously said, “We should talk, but not here.” The crowd had scattered, or was still scattering, in some cases, but we could also hear an approaching force we presumed was the City Guard.
I moved towards the approaching guard to give Ivan a smidge more time to loot the bodies. While I occupied them by telling what had happened and how awful it was, he was able to retrieve
[453] 5 potions of CSW
[454] 7 empty (used) potions
[455] 8 doses of shadow essence (poison)
They were wearing chain mail shirts which couldn’t really be removed in the short time we had.
Dasi heard the guards looking around worriedly and mumbling, “This was not supposed to happen today.”
While the “cleaning crew” began their effort at making it appear this never happened, the woman, whose name was Miyaro reiterated “we need to talk.” We returned to our palace accommodations, noticing that this time, the people in the streets and in the palace did not smile as brilliantly or greet us as enthusiastically as in the past. What, it was our fault that their dragon-dancer HR filtering process was poor?
Miyaro, it turns out, knew of our mission. First Dasi, and now her? So much for arriving in secrecy. Although I suppose the oni have been after us for some time now, so it shouldn’t be TOO big of a surprise. She grew up in the Forest of Spirits – yes, that’s right – and the Forest apparently has taken a side in this issue. At least some residents there would like to see the rightful heir back on the throne.
Travelling through the Forest is an option now, although Miyaro warned us she would need to guide us.
While we were quietly discussing this, Chua came by and Kali told him abruptly we were leaving before slamming the door in his face. Radella threw her a look and opened the door to a chastened and confused Chua. Turns out that the Prince had the same idea. It was unfortunate, of course, but the safety of his city was at stake, yada yada. But by way of parting gift, he was happy to give us eight fine steeds to aid us in our departure. I was about to mention I had no need of a steed but was shushed by several others.
They will be worth money, somewhere, so why throw away money?
[456] 8 filigree saddles, ~200gp each
[457] 8 light war horses, ~300gp each
Qatana used our wand of lesser restoration and soon everybody had their strength back.
Late that afternoon, we took leave of Ordu-Aghanei, the once future home of Princess Kali!
Moonday, 25 Calistril
Travel has been relatively uneventful, and the safer we are the more nervous Kali gets. I think the whole experience in the city has upset her equilibrium. Yes we are targets, but we’re increasingly capable of handling ourselves, and her nervousness is contagious.
Today we saw some other riders at a distance, and she was careful to point them out and give them a wide berth. I’m not worried about the people who approach us openly. I’m more nervous about those that don’t announce themselves.
Toilday, 26 Calistril
Like today. More ninjas, and they again did not announce themselves. How rude.
Qatana was on guard duty and saw them coming a little before midnight Moonday. Apparently ninjas are ordered by the dozen, as it was again 12 that came for us. But Kali had a new trick up her sleeve. She created a hut which was transparent for those inside, and opaque to those outside. You could also pass through it at any point. That meant we could shoot arrows at will (go Ivan) and if any of them crept alongside the hut, somebody with a sword (ahem) could slash them with impunity.
Being on guard duty, Qatana was outside the range of this hut when it was formed, but she had her own trick up her sleeve. She projected some type of aura so that when enemies got within 20 or 30 feet of her, they would get confused and either wander off or attack each other. (Nice to know she can have that effect on somebody other than us!) Consequently, about a quarter of the ninjas entertained each other. The others were picked off one by one. Ivan provided a wall of fire to again restrict the direction we had to defend.
Dasi again smiled as he stole weapons right out of their hands. How DOES he do that?
Suishen and I managed to lay open a couple of ninjas quite satisfyingly. If it weren’t for their poison, they wouldn’t be a big deal, I think.
Ivan created a second wall of fire to protect one of the wagons, only to discover that Shalelu had snuck out the back of the wagon to help in the battle. Oops – well, he couldn’t see her and that wasn’t expected. Still, it was disheartening to see her scorched!
Then at the end, it got strange. Two of the ninjas ran off, and Kali and Qatana insisted on chasing them. They cast Fly and took off by themselves. Apparently Kali summoned a cheetah and had it hunt them down. Qatana used a spiritual ally. Seemed a bad idea to have two magic users and no fighters out in the dark, but it turned out okay. Ivan burned the bodies; in theory their employers will not know what happened but I get the sense we’re still being tracked so they’ll know.
We’re a little less than halfway to Muliwan and are discussing whether to swing wide of it entirely. Miyaro would have us do that, but it may be the last place for a while where we can resupply and buy a few things.