Wealday, Desnus 29, 4713 evening
Jikko River

It turned out that Dasi knew how to helm the barge. Seriously, what doesn’t he know? Six of us would need to man the oars, three on a side, for the short trip from the island to the dock on the main land.

The day was quite pleasant, especially now that the shadows and mists surrounding the island had evaporated, and we were making good progress on the flood tide when Zos called out, “Something large is heading toward the barge on the starboard side!”

That “something large” turned out to be a dragon turtle. It rammed the barge hard, causing it to list heavily to port, the side on which I had been sitting. The impact was so violent that it launched me into the air, but fortunately Overland Flight kept me from harm, and I soared up to assess where I could be the most help.

I quickly cast Blessing of Fervor on most of my companions and Ivan used Air Bubble on the crew still at the gunwales while Dasi began to sing a song of courage.

The dragon turtle was taking some abuse, but was dishing out at least as good as it got. It breathed out a massive cone of steam, causing much mayhem and shouts of pain. It made me reconsider serving steamed clams for dinner as I had originally planned.

Just as those of us from the port side of the barge had worked out how best to assist those on the other side, another DT plowed into us from the port.

“Oh, this is just going great!” Timber snorted.

Dasi called out and pointed astern, and from my vantage point in the air I could see a third DT heading our way.

Star growled, “Don’t just stand… er, hover there, do something!” She was right, and so I flew over and blocked the latest arrival, slamming it mightily with my flail. It reacted by breathing more steam up at me.

Before too much time the first DT was dead and floating inertly beside the barge, and the second was soon doing the same. Radella flew over and clobbered the DT beneath me, sending it beneath the waves.

We spent a lot of time healing our wounds (lots of those) and resumed rowing until finally we reached the mainland dock a short time later. We then walked the mile or so from there to the Jikko River, where the old kappa dwelt.

The original plan was to return to Sakakabe with O-Sayumi tomorrow, but like regular dragons, apparently dragon turtles were known to hoard riches, and so we planned to search for their lair in the morning.

The kappa was delighted to see O-Sayumi again, and we were more than welcome to stay with him, or nearby on the river bank.

For the rest of the day Ivan and I put together a large smoker using willow and fern fronds as the frame and covering it with a bit of unused (by us) sailcloth from the barge. Luckily we were at the mouth of the Jikko and we found alder and maple trees growing nearby, and using dead fall from these trees we began to smoke some of the dragon turtle meat.

Yes, Ivan saved flesh from these creatures to cook later. His original desire was to make bacon, but I pointed out that sea food bacon sounded awful, and that we should smoke it instead.

Technically speaking to have real bacon you needed the proper ratio of fat and muscle only found (naturally) in the belly of a pig. From what I could tell bacon was not a thing in Minkai, or Tien. Sure, they had smoked meats, and even smoked pig, but nothing that we would have called bacon back home.

Thus Ivan’s and my obsessions over turning any sort of animal flesh into that wonderful delicacy.

Zos had used his treasure map skill from the dragon turtle hide and confirmed what we had suspected: there was a nearby hoard to find on the small island we had flown over on the way to the big one.

Oathday, Desnus 30, 4713 evening
Jikko River

We waited just for the sun to rise high enough to fully shine down upon the waters of the lagoon, and with Life Bubble, courtesy of Ivan, we simply walked into the water and along the bay floor toward the right direction.

We were basically “loaded for bear” (or dragon turtle, or anything in between) with powerful offensive and defensive spells prepared, but we encountered nothing other than the occasional curious fish and oyster bed.

Once at the island it did not take long to find the underwater entrance to a cave, and two piles of treasure awaited us within (one larger than the other, indicating two of the DTs we had killed had been a mated pair).

Takoda said, “I just don’t get the whole hoard thing.”

He had a point. What good was all this wealth doing the DTs? They weren’t buying anything useful or desirable with it. They weren’t taking trips to exotic locations with it (“I hear Korvoso is lovely this time of year”). About the only purpose it could serve would be to lure potential meals out to the DTs when legend of their hoard reached the general population. But how was that supposed to work with the treasure hidden underwater and all the local population chased away by a wicked sorcerer, his undead or oni servants and hostile dragon turtles?

Anyway we hauled the lot of it back to the shore and estimated the total value of our find at over eighteen thousand gold coins.

“And let that be a lesson to them,” Badger said to no one in particular.

Later on that day Ivan and I stumbled across an ancient apple orchard from an abandoned farmstead. The early apples, small and both sweet and tart, would make a welcome addition to our meals, and we smoked some more of the DT meat using apple wood.

Now that the lagoon area was safe again I hoped that people return here to live. Perhaps a series of none too quiet conversations in the tea houses of Sakakabe could encourage it.

Fireday, Desnus 31, 4713 evening
Sakakabe

We arrived back at O-Kahaku’s tea house around mid morning via Wind Walk. Ivan had used Sending the previous evening to let her know the time and manner of arrival, and so there was no alarm when we materialized in the middle of the court yard.

There were emotional reunions, especially with the younger geisha to whom O-Sayumi was effectively a big sister, but after an hour or two everyone’s public displays of affection settled down and we were able to discuss other matters.

But first O-Kahaku gave us a very ancient and magic tea set in thanks for returning O-Sayumi safely to her. The tea set was really quite lovely and granted various benefits if used for a formal tea service.

But I think it is of little use for us, other than as a source of income. We can’t use the set to influence others without risking them being offended if they discovered the tea set was magical.

In fact we had this very discussion later on in the day, when we decided we would have O-Sayumi perform tea services for our upcoming meetings (more on those later) using a regular tea set.

This leaves us with a very expensive set of paper weights. A better use for the tea set would be to sell it and use the proceeds for financing our primary goal or putting Ameiko on the throne of Minkai.

“Yeah,” interrupted Pookie, “and that staff of Wind Walk isn’t going to pay for itself!”

Yes, well that was true too.

O-Sayumi then gave us her musical instrument, which was also highly enchanted. Ah, but here was a gift we could make direct use of, or at least Dasi can.

Anyway, not too long after all of the pleasantries of O-Sayumi’s return were done, O-Kahaku got down to the business at hand concerning Ameiko.

She knew most of the big movers and shakers in the social and financial circles of Sakakabe, and she would arrange for meetings between them and Ameiko so she could make the case for becoming empress. Apparently business had been bad since the Jade Regent took control of Minkai, and things were only getting worse, and so this was an opportunity to gain powerful (and wealthy) allies.

O-Kahaku was friends with Itsuru Sennaka, the younger brother of the regional governor, Sikutsu. According to her Itsuru was nothing like his despotic sibling, and would be a much better leader. But the local culture prohibited Itsuru from taking any direct actions against his brother… however if outside events (“Meaning us!” exclaimed Beorn) removed Sikutsu from power (“Meaning killed!” exclaimed Beorn) then Itsuru would be more than happy to step in.

Progress! I felt fairly good about our chances, and quite content that we did not need to do something else to prove our worth or the authenticity of Ameiko’s claim.

And then something very odd happened.

We were all lingering over dinner at O-Kahaku’s place — which we had rented for both lodging and for the upcoming meetings — when Kali and Dasi wandered over to where I was sitting and humming softly to myself.

“Qatana, it is really important the Ameiko present her case for both our planned actions in the north as well as for her taking the throne of Minkai.” Kali started. “It is very important that she speak well and show herself to be a strong and insightful leader.”

She and Dasi looked at me meaningfully for a few more moments before wandering off.

“Uh, what the hell was that?” Star asked.

I honestly had no idea, but there must have been something very important they wanted me to do to assist Ameiko in the upcoming meetings.

“Yeah,” Pookie said, “but it’s clear they want any advice we have to offer to be given very discreetly.”

All of a sudden Huffy opened his eyes wide and said, “Oh my gosh! You know what they want? They want you to lend us to Ameiko for her meetings so we can offer advice directly to her.”

It was a good thing I was sitting down, because this revelation was staggering. And yet it made perfect sense. My companions knew how valuable the advice from my mice friends were, and they wanted to ensure Ameiko’s success by making sure she had the very best advice possible.

Only they were too afraid or shy to ask directly, and thus the subtle hints.

I looked around the room and found Ameiko and Shalelu sitting at the head of the table looking over at me. Ivan was just walking away.

Huffy gasped and exclaimed, “See, even Ivan knows about it and he must have just told Ameiko what you are going to offer.”

It seemed obvious, and so quite reluctantly I stood and walked over to Ameiko. I slowly pulled off the necklace upon which my friends’ skulls hung and held it out to her.

“Ameiko, the others have been talking about your upcoming meetings with the merchants and local lords, and they seemed quite concerned about your ability to handle these discussions successfully. I don’t understand what they are worried about, but Kali came to me and specifically asked for me to provide you with discreet counseling if needed. I later realized that what she was really asking was for me to lend you my little friends during these negotiations.”

There was a moment of silence before Ameiko replied.

“Oh! Oh, Qatana, that’s… really such an honor. That would be such a tremendous boon to have on my side. I think, however, it’s best that your… friends… stay with you. I think they are more comfortable where they are for now. I’m sure the others will understand.”

“Pfft, I thought so,” smirked Pookie, “if she wasn’t able to handle these negotiations she would hardly be fit to be empress, now would she?”

I had thought the same thing, and with great relief I placed my friends back around my neck and said, “I could arrange for some other form of unobtrusive communication between you and I, if you wanted to have my advice available during your meetings. But again, I personally have every confidence that you could manage without anyone else butting in unasked.”

Ameiko answered, “Thank you for your confidence. I hope I can show that confidence to the merchants and nobles. Maybe we could agree on some kind of signal I can give you to let you know if I need advice on something? Probably just an extra precaution, though, because I think I’ll be fine, and have the ability to pause talks on some pretense or other if I need to regroup or consult with you and the others.”

I quickly replied, “Perhaps you could just ask, ‘What does Pookie think?’ and then we’d all know you would like a private consultation with us.”

Ameiko nodded, and Pookie crowed, “I am the official advisor to the future Empress of Minkai!”

Yes, well if it actually came to that, then I suppose that would be so.

I returned to my chair in the corner and flashed a grin with a big thumbs up toward Dasi and Kali to let them know I had understood their message, and that everything was taken care of.

Toilday, Sarenith 4, 4713 evening
Sakakabe

There has been meeting after meeting over the past few days, and through it all Ameiko handled herself as a true heir to the throne.

We decided that it would be a good idea for Jiro to be present for these meetings, especially given that he was a ronan of the north, where we planned to take action, and because he could speak to Ameiko’s claim to the throne. Thanks to a couple of teleports he was once again with us in person.

He brought some troubling news. His patrols captured messages between the local brigands and the governor indicating that the Sikutsu was planning a major move against Jiro’s family fortress in order to cast him out and restore the status quo (ie. raping and pillaging).

It seems we needed to give some thought to the fortifications of Jiro’s ancestral home. I had some ideas concerning glyphs of warding and a symbol of sleep, but we have not yet agreed upon a final plan.

While the merchants and nobles vowed financial support, it was Itsuru Sennaka who provided us with a clear course of action.

Through his usual cruelty and uncivil behavior his brother had managed to alienate (and exile) a number of ronan, who now called themselves simply “The Nine Ronan,” with whom Itsuru was in contact. The Nine were dedicated to the removal of Sikutsu from office. Itsuru said that he would notify them on our behalf and see if we could coordinate our efforts.

A day later Itsuru returned to us with news.

These ronan had learned the governor’s habits well, and knew he would soon journey to a luxurious resort — one whom he had recently took over as his own pleasure palace, throwing everyone else out. While at the resort Sikutsu had the bulk of his guards stay at a set of out buildings some distance up the road from the resort itself. Can’t have his imperial pasty white ass seen by those forced to protect it. Besides, they might actually enjoy themselves somewhat in the clean mountain air. Can’t have that, for sure.

Tactically this made sense, because the resort itself was in a steep mountain valley, and the only way to approach it in force was up the road, and his guards would be between any approaching force and the governor.

But the Nine had infiltrated the staff at the resort, and were planning to assassinate Sikutsu. This was a high risk plan with no small risk of failure. But if we were to attack Sikutsu’s small entourage as it made its way along the narrow path between the garrison and the resort, they could see to it that no aid would come from the resort.

Sikutsu had already set out for the resort, and was expected to arrive within the next ten days or so. The Nine recommended that we arrive early and scout out the location for the ambush and then wait.

And so we’re working out the details for that trip plus what to do about Jiro’s fort. But once again Wind Walk will give us a quick mode of nearly invisible and relatively safe travel.

“And just when are you going to make that staff of Wind Walk?” Timber asked politely.

Just as soon as I have the skill and money, obviously.