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Messengers WITHIN DAYS, ASH andMeeshak are allowed to leave the estate, to learn the run of the city – or at least the roads to the various noble estates, which are mostly spread out along the north bank of the Shanyang river. The diminutive, self-effacing errand slave Chosdzed is their tutor...

Hiatus over Apologies to the five or six people who may have wondered why Talismans of Aerdrim went on hiatus for a year! When I started writing this, it was escapism from my work in Afghanistan. Then I got to the point in the story where the characters were facing the full violence...

A Slave Education OVER THE FOLLOWING days, Ontaya spends long hours educating Minister Tang and his functionaries in Northern politics and geography. She freely volunteers anything she believes the Xaimani could learn from other sources, to cover her careful omission of more militarily useful...

The Minister of State SLAVEMASTER DAORAN LEADS Ash, Carwyn, Kyla, Meeshak, and Ontaya back through the streets of Tziwan to the river Shanyang. Passing by the slave ferries, they approach an elegant barge whose upper decks are screened with fine jade and silver latticework. The shorn-headed...

Hiatus... First, thanks so much to Feir Fireb for writing up the escape from the imperial palace with such derring-do and detail! Both Mr. Fireb and myself are currently swamped -- in my part of the world, there are some elections about to take place that are making my job a little tougher...

Heh. I was fully prepared for the PCs to be bought en masse by either Archmaster Orozu or the Tang Estate, depending on whether the more charismatic characters succeeded in swaying the auction. Atrix's sudden decision that he only wanted to be bought by the Emperor was... well, typical. I was...

Imperial Tziwan

On the Block THE BUYERS SURGE in. Auctioneers for the legion step up to each slave block and begin unshackling the slaves one by one and dragging them forward for inspection and sale. The auctioneer on their block begins with Lucian, declaring him a Northern warrior who would make a fine...

The Heart of the World NO ONE IN the party will ever forget their first glimpse of the shining pinnacle of Imperial Tziwan: dozens of gilded towers reflecting the sun, suspended at an incredible height above the treeline of the forested plain. Even the normally impassive Xaimani legionnaires...

"So that's how it is in their family." Now I want to go read Alea Iacta again.

Meeshak's Dreams That night, Meeshak dreams:

The Slave Road THREE CARTS’ LOADS of slaves are sold in Tsanyang. The cages are dismantled; from here on, the Northern slaves are expected to walk in their shackles. For months they trudge through the intensifying summer swelter, dodging snakes and being devoured by insects. Ontaya does her...

Tsanyang THE PLAINS TURN to hills, the desert to grassland, the grassland to scattered pine forests. The spring grows hotter than a Northern summer, and much more humid. Unfamiliar broadleaf trees begin appearing along the roadside, as do stands of bamboo -- “cage-wood,” as the captives think...

A Welcome Visit THE SNOW DISAPPEARS as the army passes into the driest reaches of the Arawai plains, but spring comes slowly to the arid landscape. For more than two months, the captives spend their nights shivering in the dusty, bitter wind that croons ceaselessly around the cage. The Arawai...

Overlord Daiqao THE WEATHER GROWS colder, forcing the prisoners to cling to each other in the cage at night for warmth and taxing Ontaya’s ability to cure disease. The Xaimani guards finally toss furs into the cages; a week later, after the first snowstorm hits, they also take a day to bind...

No, I'm afraid I don't know what happened to Nina after his successful escape from the slave cages. It's possible that in a future game, we might see Nina's return, with an explanation of the intervening years. For now, I'll just have to use Michael Ende's classic copout: "That is another...

The First Dream [I started hand-writing Meeshak's dreams on scraps of paper which I would hand to his player, usually at the beginning of a session]

Across the Plains AROUND MIDNIGHT, THE silent cage suddenly erupts as Curago and eight or nine of the more predatory soldiers launch themselves at the sleeping Ontaya. They are clearly hoping to kill or incapacitate her. Ash has been discreetly keeping watch, and shouts the alarm just as the...

The Lords of the South SHORTLY BEFORE SUNRISE, the imprisoned friends wake at the sound of cage doors creaking, prisoners shuffling nervously, and orders being shouted in the strange tongue of the Arawai’s allies. The captives are being led out at lance-point, one cage at a time, and marched...

Out of the Ashes THAT NIGHT, THE camp is filled with the cries of the wounded, the sounds of men being beaten, coarse laughter, choked-off screams. Atrix stands at the bars, his face ashen, trying vainly to seek out through the smoky darkness the cage with Kay and Agerain. Eventually he sinks...