as written by the cavalier, Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Oathday, 19 Erastus

The unusual (and hard to kill) deck-a-pod lay in pieces before us. I quickly examined the alcoves and sarchophagi, and found this seemed to the remains of various commanders at Brinewall. Was this our “secret behind two seals”? Were the seals the hidden doors, or perhaps a sarcophagus?

In any case, there was more cavern to explore. The deck-a-pod seems to have been carrying/wearing

[242] wand of scorching ray [30]
[243] circlet of +2 charisma

The caverns were lightly aglow with what Etayne exclaimed were phosphorescent spores. He giddily collected some.

Kali commented that deck-a-pods were normally not this big.

To the south we followed the cavern to a room with a flat table upon which sat a number of items, the most disgusting of which was a still pulsating leathery pouch from which goo was leaking. Etayne looked at it thoughtfully, and poked, discovering there was enough liquid associated with it yet that it was able to make a loud plooook sound.

Surrounding it, though, we found

[244] +1 light steel shield w/image of Brinewall on it. Later analysis
revealed it was magical +1 75% of the time, and ordinary 25% of
the time.
[245] +1 returning star knife
[246] a magical pearl which would allow a wizard to recast a spell he’d
cast earlier even if he’d not had time to relearn it
[247] Ring of the Ram [10 charges] – With the group’s permission,
I took possession of this one.
[248] a compass of sorts, silver w/gold accents. On command, can shine
per light spell. +2 on survival checks to avoid getting lost. It
also has room for an ioun stone which would then function as
expected for that type of stone.

There was also a pile of gold (later found to be 2620 pieces) as well as a pile of gems (later assessed to be worth about 1750 gp).

While counting and assessing the gold and gems, Qatana also came across

[249] darkwood + silver disk under a moon (faint transmutation). A
similar disk (with a sun) had been taken earlier. The matched
set was likely to be important at some point.
[250] stone statue of Paizuzu which grants the bearer +4 CH

Qatana was less interested in a +4 bonus and more interested in destroying anything of Paizuzu, so she took up the statue and made to dash it to the ground. But in an awkward movement, she drove it all the way to the ground and broke off it’s wings; having done so, it reappeared, whole, in her hand. As she moved away from the spot, she felt a great heaviness. The statue had been cursed, and seemed to burden her as much as a large heavy rock would.

Thus burdened, Qatana asked the group if anyone had remove curse. None did. I caught Sparna’s eye and it was clear we were both thinking the same thing – this might be less of a curse than one might think.

We explored the remainder of the passages and discovered Qatana tended to stay to the rear of the group and was almost always the last to enter a room. I believe Sparna actually grinned at me. Well I don’t recall the actual physical expression but I could feel the grin from across the room.

Returning to the kitchen, we started working on a door that had resisted opening earlier. It seemed not to be locked, so much as just stuck. Radella and I threw our bodies into it, and it sprung open. Once opened we discovered the smell was awful. This may have once been a laundry room, but it was now full of fungus or mildew. Water seemed to be running down the walls, the was a green mound w/purple mushrooms in the center of the room. Etayne commented that the purple mushrooms looked like some that are known to throw spores that …. We quickly decided there was nothing to be gained in exploring this room, and closed the door.

It was probably my imagination, but it seemed that the green mound w/purple mushrooms had started to move closer as we were closing the door.

Consulting the blueprints she’d snagged, Qatana remarked there was only one staircase we’d not yet explored. We crossed the castle to reach that staircase, and descended. An iron lattice, fitting into the ceiling and floor, blocked our advance. We noticed a pair of slight depressions in the wall, and in a flash had pulled out the two disks we’d discovered. They fit perfectly, and the portcullis lowered into the floor.

The dust before us swirled in an unfelt wind and then formed the not-quite-solid figure of a samurai warrior in a defensive posture. Some in the group recognized it. Kali was the first to say, hesitantly, “Rokuro?”

The figure paused and its posture changed. The shoulder slumped and it suddenly looked tired. “I know that name,” it said, in a voice that was both a whisper and a question. The sword pointed at a place on the wall. “Take this to my child. I’m no longer worthy.” And in a swirl, but again without any obvious wind, the figure evaporated.

Radella searched the area that the figure had indicated and did indeed find a secret alcove. Inside lay three darkwood boxes. We found box #1 was unlocked by Radella and found to contain 4267 gold Tien coins and two rings:

[252] ring of chameleon power
[253] ring of improved climbing

Chest #2 had seemed locked but yet seemed to open to Radella’s touch. It contained only one thing: another box (which radiated magic) but defied Radella’s attempts to open it.

Chest #3 also needed to be unlocked but yielded a variety of magic items.

[254] bracers of defense +1
[255] necklace of fireballs (1 5d6, 2 3d6)
[251] bag of holding [type 1]

Since Radella took the ring of improved climbing, I took her ring of climbing [123].

A full day, indeed. We went back to the cemetery, and asked Spivey: no, it turns out she couldn’t remove the curse from Qatana. Kali sent Nehali back to the caravan, and Nehali returned with a note stating that Ameiko still slept uneasily.

We slept only slightly more easily. We felt we had recovered important artifacts but were unsure of how they should be used. Tomorrow we would go back to the caravan.

Fireday, 20 Erastus

Upon returning to the caravan, we found the first order of business was introducing Spivey and Kelda. Then we went to see Ameiko, who was still asleep/unconscious. We laid her hand upon each of the chests and the mysterious box, but her touch evoked no change in either her or the objects. Then Kali figured out it was a puzzle box, and if you pushed there and pulled here, it would –

I had time to see there was a small stone statuette resting in the compartment she opened before there was a flash and –

There was an army of monsters, with glaring eyes, and tusks, wearing strange armor and wielding exotic weapons, emerging during a storm from a vast forest, then attacking a country I somehow knew to be Tian, and –

My head hurt, and –

There was a young royal stood with a friend by his side. Suddenly, the friend grows nearly three times in size and is wearing a suit of jade armor. The jade warrior draws a sword and kills his friend, then holds the bloody sword aloft in triumph, and –

My heart hurt, and –

There was a young Tian man selling a beautiful sword to an Ulfen man in exchange for a bag of gold. And –

My soul hurt, and –

There was Ameiko! waking from her deep sleep, but she was dressed in royal garb. She was within the arms of a jade throne.

And my body hurt, and –

The fog cleared and I was staring at the astonished faces of my companions, but then I felt like someone had tried to put an entire bucket of water into a single cup, and I was that cup, and –

I knew. Somehow I knew, and I knew that they knew.

I knew that the land that had been invaded was Minkai,

and I knew that the man I’d seen murdered by the warrior was Emperor Shigure of Minkai,

and although I had barely known Ameiko before we started this journey, I knew Ameiko Kaijitsu’s true family name was Amatatsu, and that that was royal blood,

and although I had no reason to because I’d never met him, I recognized the young Tian man selling the sword as Ameiko’s grandfather, Rokuro Kaijitsu,

and I knew that he was formerly Amatatsu Tsutoku,

and I knew he had sold the family’s sword Suishen to the Ulfen merchant Fynn Snaevald in the city of Kalsgard to finance his family’s flight from Minkai,

and I knew that Suishen is intelligent, and could tell us much more about the Amatatsu family if we were to find it,

and I knew –

I knew – Ameiko is the heir of her line.

And I knew all this like you know in a dream things that you have no right to know, but you do, as casually as you might draw a breath.

And with a blend of horror, fascination, and disbelief, I understood that I and all my companions were also now heirs to the throne, should Ameiko fail to reach it.

And I understood all that the Seal was capable of, and that others still sought it even today, even after all these tens – hundreds? – of years.

And … and … Ameiko awoke.

She too had had the visions and as overwhelming as this experience was to me, it had to be even moreso to her. It was her family and her heritage, just when she thought she’d understood it.

We were all a bit stunned for a moment by the amazing amount of information we’d absorbed.

A quick but intense discussion was had. Ameiko recovered quickly and the adventurer in her was quick to assess the situation and decide the right thing, for her, was to go reclaim that throne. Not that she had ever dreamed of being a princess, queen, or empress – in fact she commented she’d kill the first person who addressed her as “your Highness”. But given what she knew now of her heritage, she was confident of her path.

The rest, less so; hence, the discussion. It was fair and right that everybody have a chance to reassess their goals and desires in light of the flash flood of information that had just been pushed into our brains.

In the end, it was decided a few (Ameiko among them) needed to tie up some loose ends and/or make some arrangements for a trip that might take weeks or months and from which we might not return. But each and every one of our original party did commit to following Ameiko. Kelda offered no opinion; she’s a quiet type and perhaps she’s still looking forward to going home to the north.

The Seal was able to issue remove curse to Qatana and we decided to move on to the next largish town, which is Riddleport. From there, people could get teleported back to Sandpoint or Magnimar or wherever they wished to take care of whatever they needed to take care of.

Watching my companions, I’ve decided that I need to upgrade my weapon. I’ve been watching Ana using a great sword and admiring how it seemed adept at dispatching opponents more quickly. I like my great axe, but I have to be able to pull my weight, as it were, in defeating foes, and I need to use every advantage I can.

Starday, 28 Erastus

So while we paused in Riddleport, I acquired a masterwork great sword [400 gp] (I’d like to get it enchanted some day), as well as cold weather gear for both myself [16 gp] and Kasimir [32 gp]. As much gold as we have acquired, I still feel poor whenever I go to a shop that sells anything other than stone knives or apples. How do people afford some of this stuff??

Today we left Riddleport. We will have days between cities, again. Jol, I think, is the next.

Fireday, 3 Arodus

We will arrive late in the day. Supposedly this city is known for its formidable odor.

===

Um, yeah. It has an odor.

Starday, 4 Arodus

Relatively boring trip, except there is an unusually large black bird .. a raven? … that seems to be following us.

Now that we have this artifact-that-evil-things-scry-for, every bush looks menacing, every animal is a familiar, and every person is a potential instrument of death. But still, that raven looks odd.

Sunday, 5 Arodus

Okay, this is a little freaky. We just entered and exited a dark woods (in a single day) and the raven was waiting on the other side. Immediately after we left the forest, it flew off. Someone noticed it had a red feather or two and sure enough it did. Same one. Ominous.

Moonday, 6 Arodus

We’ve arrived at a crossroads late in the day, and decided that this was a good place to stop. Kali went on and on about how this was too exposed, but we’ll set guards. It’s fairly flat here and you can’t move an attack force by river noiselessly.

I admit that the raven is unnerving, but you can’t be jumping at shadows.

===

Well, yeah. Who sends 40 soldiers to attack a caravan of maybe 15 people at most?

While Kali is trying to emphasize we didn’t heed her warning, she’s missing the point that I was right too. We had guards, so we received advance notice because the guards (kelda, I think) did indeed detect the force approaching camp. And you couldn’t actually move that force noiselessly – we heard their boats approach. And the rivers did technically limit the attack quadrants, since they couldn’t fight effectively standing in water.

In any case, Kali was instrumental in the defeat of the forces. We faced about half of them, while Sandru, Ameiko, and the rest of the caravan faced the other half. Kali cast a spell which made the ground rough and uneven and sharp; simply walking it on it caused them to injure their feet. Ivan field-tested that necklace of fireballs, to good effect. Qatana used her sonic burst. These area effect spells helped start the invaders bleeding before they ever got close to us, making them easier to kill once they did.

Unfortunately, one thing I had not considered is that everyone who was on guard was also not in armor – including myself. This made me a bit more vulnerable than I wished. There is something called “sleep armor” that I may have to look into.

But they are dead. No clue who sent them, other than they all wore golden armbands with an engraved lion head on them.

After a brief discussion we decided that although boats and oars probably had value, there was more value in having the source of the attack wonder what happened than in letting them know they failed by selling the boat and oars on the open market.

And back to sleep.