Pathfinder 1E Kali's Journal — A Jade Regent Campaign [COMPLETED]

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Part Six​

Sarenith 16, 4713 (Seinaru Heikiko, Night)​

We’ve put our trip to Kasai off a day so that we could celebrate tonight with Jiro’s army. I was a little too anxious for a party, but we needed to be seen along with Ameiko so I stuck it out until people stopped caring about who was where and then called it a night. Of course, privacy is close to impossible here, especially with half the countryside still living in the backyard, but any change from throngs of people was a big improvement.

This whole celebration thing feels premature to me. Yes, we repelled a fairly significant attack, but all the Jade Regent has to do is send another oni or two up here after we’re gone, and Jiro will be doing more than repairing the gate. Of course, the theory everyone is working under is that the Jade Regent cares about the more immediate problem, which is us, not this place—the ramblings of the atamahuta oni implied as much (there are so many kinds of oni it’s like bird watching; someone should write a book)—and it’s not like he has an unlimited supply of heavyweights to throw at it, but I can’t help but worry. One skirmish is not the war. It’s not wise to celebrate too much until after it’s over and you know you’ve won. Gods know plenty of the villains in this saga have gloated to our faces only to learn that they were horribly, terribly, and fatally wrong.

This business in Kasai seems premature, too. Everything we’ve done up here in the north has been about building Ameiko’s support slowly and carefully, allowing the rebellion to grow organically. What’s the point of all that if we end up racing towards a confrontation with the Jade Regent now? Yes, I know the goal here is to get some blessing from the past emperors of Minkai—however that works—but Kasai is right there. Once we’re in the city, will it be so easy to leave if it is as bad off as we’ve been led to believe? And if my suspicions are correct and the Jade Regent has laid a trap for us on the island, what then? Our arrival is not going to be something we can hide.

I realize we don’t have unlimited time, but the Enganoka province is still in turmoil, and Sakakabe isn’t faring much better. Wouldn’t it make sense to wait for things to settle down?

 

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Sarenith 17 (Kurozawa, Night)​

We spent the day sailing on the wind over Minkai, the rippling hills, farms, and lush grasslands of the north giving way to the forest and marshes along the Tagiryu River. The Kyojin Mountains grew taller and more rugged with every mile. One could almost mistake this place for Elysium. All problems vanish given enough distance.

We haven’t traveled in this manner since Qatana left. I can’t help but wonder how she is doing and what journey she is on with her new companions. I also can’t help but wonder how they are coping, as she is so much worse now than she was when we began, and they don’t have the benefit of experience to help them out. Almost reflexively, I tried to imagine what it must be like for them to be contained to a ship with her at sea, and then I realized I more or less already knew: the caravan across the Crown was little different, just longer, colder, and almost certainly less comfortable.

She said she would check in from time to time, and that I was welcome to do the same. I eventually will, assuming we live long enough, but it’s too soon to do it now. For one, she needs time to adjust and settle (as do we), and for two, with our accelerated schedule, now is not really the time for personal matters. So that will have to wait. The stories will be more interesting later, anyway.

We’re not far from Akafuto, which is tomorrow’s port of call. We couldn’t travel that far in one day, so we needed a layover and chose the first substantial village we saw as we passed into the heart of the province.

Hatsue is traveling with us. She’s been to Kasai before and is pretty sure she can help us make contact with the resistance movement. And I can’t believe I actually wrote those words; it reads like something from bad community theater. But regardless of how it sounds, that is what it is, and we can use the help.

We’re taking a slower route from this point on—visiting Akafuto for sure, and possibly another village or two in order to get a feel for the people and the politics—so Hatsue and Ivan are headed directly to Kasai tomorrow morning. Why her and Ivan? She needs him for the spell we used to travel here today, and also because I think he has a crush on her.

And I can’t believe I actually wrote those words, either.

 

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Sarenith 18 (Kurozawa, Late Afternoon)​

Kurozawa is close enough to Akafuto to not be insular, but far enough away to have its own identity, and that made it nearly perfect for getting a little information on what people know of events both up north and down south. That being said, no one was particularly forthcoming when it came to the subject of Kasai, so it took a bit of gentle coaxing from Dasi. The most telling comment of the day was, “At least we are up north where we’re free.”

To warm the village up to us, Dasi and I put on a few performances, mostly music and dancing inspired by stories of the old emperors. It’s the sort of thing that people love; the old stories are always the best stories. It is also a subtle way of reminding people how the empire used to be, and how different it is now.

Rumors of an heir up north—the real north, not the relative-to-Kasai north—have made it this far, but in what was far from a surprise, no one really believes them. So Olmas chose to make a bit of a splash by calling attention to Suishen and its status as an Amatatsu ancestral weapon. (As a side point, we need to talk to him about the best way to start this sort of conversation. Talking to a young child, then asking them if they wanted to “see his sword” lacked prudence.) Suishen, for once, actually supported that by calling attention to himself, too. (As another side point, we need to talk to Suishen about that, too. Scaring the s**t out of a young child that isn’t expecting a talking sword is a problem I don’t even have a category for.)

I had to go pick up Ivan at, of all places, the fortress. The plan was for him to meet us in Akafuto, but that plan did not survive even five minutes in Kasai. He and Hatsue were both okay, but to quote Ivan, “Wind walking into Kasai is a bad idea.” After dropping Hatsue off so that she could enter the city on two feet like a normal person, he tried to keep an eye on her from above. He was spotted right away, and the very organized response included marking his position with magical lights so that the archers on the ground knew where to shoot.

We got hints of this sort of thing from the villagers here. Not Ivan specifically, but on the regimented, militaristic lifestyle that has enveloped Kasai. The other quote of the day was, “The emperor loves order.”

Sarenith 19 (Akafuto, Noon)​

Akafuto is the second-largest port city in Minkai, a major trade hub, and home to a number of shipyards. It reminds me a lot of Magnimar that way, though it is much larger and significantly less diverse.

So far, what we’ve heard from the people here doesn’t differ much from Kurozawa, though the conversations about Kasai were a bit more pointed. Today’s quote was, “Go there, keep to your business, and come back fast.” Something about large cities like this makes people more willing to speak their minds. I suppose that’s because a sense of anonymity comes from being a grain of sand in the desert.

Dasi and I repeated our performances last night at the inn where we are staying. That went well, but not exceptionally so. Connecting with people who aren’t looking for a connection is always a challenge.

We head to Kasai this afternoon. From both Hatsue and the few people here that we talked to at length, we’ve learned that soldiers there—almost certainly the Typhoon Guard—are searching everyone who enters and that they are paying particularly close attention to women. Which normally would just be creepy and uncomfortable, but now is those things plus unsettling. All that means we need to enter in disguise, and specifically in mundane disguise, since we don’t want to look like a bonfire under a cursory inspection with magic.

The problem with mundane disguises is that they are hard to pull off, so there is quite a bit of risk here. What if one of us gets caught? Or even just taken aside for questioning? What if that happens to more than one of us? It’s that last one that worries me the most, as I’m not confident I’d be able to get to everyone to pull them out. And it would be absolutely suicidal to try and fight a bunch of guards in their own city. So quite a lot is riding on what amounts to makeup and wigs.

 

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Sarenith 19 (Kasai, Evening)​

Obviously, we made it here, though it was not without incident. We were waiting in line to enter the city when two Typhoon guards descended on a woman and interrogated her right there in the middle of the street. Through magic, they either compelled or falsified her confession and took her away. This brought back fairly ugly memories of the market in Enganoka. I don’t know what’s worse: not being able to intervene in time, or knowing that you can’t intervene at all and are forced to watch it play out.

In Akafuto, they described Kasai as being under martial law. “There is heightened security there,” they said. “If you’re about peaceful, lawful business, you’re fine.” These accounts are either magical thinking or willful ignorance, as Kasai is nothing short of a military state. People are questioned indiscriminately for the crime of existing. The guards rule through fear and intimidation. Punishment seems to be summary and brutal. And I don’t doubt that many or most of the people here would sell one another out to avoid having the lens turned on them.

One glance up confirmed what I suspected ever since Ivan returned: there were Typhoon Guard patrolling the skies under cover of invisibility, and probably watching the watchers. There weren’t a lot of them, but enough to form a regular patrol. It is yet one more thing to have to keep track of. It helps quite a bit that I can see them, though, and we can use this to our advantage.

Our contact for the resistance movement is Asachi Isao. He is not just an old friend of the Amatatsu family: he actually knew Ameiko’s great-grandfather, and was entrusted with the bulk of the family’s wealth when they fled over the Crown of the World. Suishen actually recognized him and was practically giddy to the point where I thought maybe Olmas had brought in the wrong sword. But then Suishen made some backhanded compliment to which Isao replied, “I see you haven’t changed,” and I relaxed. (It’s also nice to know that it’s not just us.)

As the footcab-in-residence, it was my job to teleport to the fortress and bring Ameiko and company back with me. As soon as she was here, Isao got down to the business of explaining just how bad the situation in Kasai really was. Because what we needed was more gods-be-damned challenges.

He broke it down thusly:

• The city is experiencing food shortages, which means most of the common folk are starving. One of the primary sources of food is rice, but the Typhoon Guard has appropriated the main granary in the city and is keeping the bulk of it for themselves.
• People are questioned on the street and accused of being supportive of the rebellion. We, of course, witnessed this first-hand. The “guilty” are dragged away, interrogated, and the really unlucky ones are publicly executed.
• Daughters of several of the noble families, including Isao’s, have been taken prisoner, presumably to be used as hostages. The goal is obviously to keep the nobility in line.

So just those problems, then.

Ameiko is itching to take action. I was pretty dumbfounded by that, given how she reacted to my little stunt in Enganoka, but maybe something has changed in her. Either that, or there are just too many indignities here to ignore. Either way, this translates to yet another change in plans: instead of walking into the ambush at the shrine on the island, she wants to raid the granary and liberate the rice.

I’m all for it. I reached my breaking point long ago, so any opportunity to tear down pieces of the Jade Regent’s empire is more than welcome.

 

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Sarenith 20 (Kasai, Early Morning)​

Ivan, Radella, and Dasi scouted the granary last night so that we’d have a better idea about what we are getting into. So far, it doesn’t look like anything we can’t handle; it’s what comes after that will present the real challenge.

The granary itself is this enormous, marble building sitting along one of the canals on the north end of town. The front of it has massive double doors that face an open lot the size of several city blocks. Dasi says that four large statues depicting some sort of tiger stand next to them, two on either side, and they radiate magic. We put our heads together, having seen enough magical constructs in the past year, and in keeping with the local culture, we are pretty sure they are taotiehs: large stone golems that swallow victims whole and trap them in an extradimensional space. These were apparently recent additions to the neighborhood, appearing about the time the Jade Regent took a direct hand in the distribution of food inside the city. To the average person, this is a significant threat, though to us it’s just a matter of applying the right tool to the job.

Alas, we don’t have the right tools. Mighty though Suishen is, which is not nearly as mighty as he would lead you to believe, he is not quite up to this task, so we’ve sent Isao in search of adamantine weapons. We’re not being picky: we’ll accept an adamantine anything at this point, though blades would be preferred since that’s what Olmas and Radella are used to.

At first, Suishen objected to the idea that Olmas might need to use some “substandard thing” for pulling off this raid, but we have long since had enough of his hissy fits and just pointedly asked, “How do you feel about hacking into magical stone?” And that shut him up.

We’ve learned to enjoy these moments of relative peace when they come, as they are so few.

But the constructs aren’t really the problem. With the right weapons and the right spells (there aren’t many that will work on them, but I have a few tricks), we can reduce them to rubble. No, the problem will be what comes after: a warehouse full of rice is not something we can just walk away with. It will have to be loaded and distributed, and that is not a small task, nor is it one that can be effectively enhanced by magic. It will require manpower and time, two things we do not have a lot of.

Our best bet is to organize a wagon brigade. One that can send in a steady stream of wagons to be loaded with as much rice as rapidly as possible, with each wagon disappearing into the night as quickly as it comes. Each of them will have to escape detection both before and after the attack. It is not a trivial order, which means we’re turning to the Emerald Branch for help. After all, we’ve paid a heavy price to put them on retainer, and by the gods, we are going to make them earn every damned copper of it.

Our long-term plans are a bit murkier. There is still the Shrine, of course, but I am thinking even beyond that. What will we be facing when we stroll into the palace?

According to Isao, this whole mess started because the Jade Regent employs a Diviner, and she foresaw a daughter of the Amatatsu clan taking possession of her family’s Seal. The one Seal that he does not, in fact, already have. With all five Seals, they can force the Jade Throne to accept him as a ruler, presumably because that blocks any true heirs from claiming it themselves: no Seal, no claim.

So who is the Diviner? A woman by the name of Renshii Meida. Dasi used the samisen to find out a little about her, and she comes from a long line of troublemakers. The family goes back centuries, and at one point, they were loyal allies of a human warlord named…wait for it…Anamurumon. He attempted to take the throne in a failed coup a few hundred years ago, and when his forces were defeated and he was killed, the Renshii family scattered like roaches in the light. A few of the survivors went on to become geisha, some of them notable, and Meida is one of their descendants.

I checked the journals from the House of Withered Blossoms, and the dates line up. It’s not a perfect fit from the death of Anamurumon-the-Tian-warlord to the appearance of Anamurumon-the-oni in the House of Withered Blossoms, but it’s in sequence, and that’s good enough for me.

So. This is not Anamurumon’s first dance.

 

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Sarenith 20 (Kasai, Evening)​

But wait! There’s more! Meida is the Jade Regent’s lover! Seriously, you cannot make this stuff up. I can’t help but think back to the journals and notes we recovered from the House of Withered Blossoms. From the day the Five Storms were first conceived, it has been plagued by infighting and backstabbing, all the way until the day they escaped. Because of course it was, because they are oni. It’s in their nature to feud with one another and scheme and backstab. And, it took place on a grand scale, far beyond what you see even in the humanoid lands. It was pervasive enough, and overt enough, and violent enough that it kept coming up. And this is what we gleaned just from journals. What happened that was never recorded by their annalists?

Here’s the kicker, though: Anamurumon has always been their leader, which means he either doesn’t care what happens beneath him as long as it doesn’t affect him directly, chalks it up as a cost of doing business, or is simply unable to stop it.

I’d like to think that we can use this somehow; that we can take the pettiness and jealousy and self-centered nature of the Five Storms and get them to undermine each other. Though Meida is probably not an oni, she must know what she has gotten into, and that means she is playing the same game and is cut from the same cloth. And whether or not Takahiro is aware of his heritage, he is still descended from one.

We asked Isao who else sits in the Jade Regent’s inner circle, and were surprised to learn of a fourth: the royal assassin, known as The Raven Prince. From the name, one can infer that he is a Tengu, but could he be an oni, too? Like Kikonu was, only, you know, less of a lunatic. I added it to my list of questions for the Emerald Branch, along with whether he works for any of the clans.

When we met with them, I didn’t even have to wait to get an answer.

“Oni? Oni… In the various tales of the Raven Prince, I’ve never heard a hint of that. Tengu, yes, hence the name.”

“Is he affiliated with any of the clans? Does he have a code of honor?”

“He is known to all the clans, worked for most of them at one point or another, but never joined any. He’s been sought after for years by the highest and most powerful when debts or scores needed to be settled. I can’t speak for him directly, of course, or have personal knowledge of his state or honor, but I have no reason to doubt he holds to his sense of honor.”

“Can you get a message to him?”

“It would be easier if he were allied with us, but…there are still ways. What is your message? We will see to it and advise you of the answer. It just may take a little longer in his case.”

“I don’t have one yet,” I said. “I am just trying to understand what is possible.”

I have turned this information over in my head several times. Here’s what I’ve come to: of the four in this inner circle, he’s the odd one out. He must know who he’s dealing with, sure, but…what if this is just a job to him? What if he’s literally just hired help? That would mean he doesn’t have a personal commitment to the Five Storms.

The Emerald Branch says he has a code of honor. Maybe he’s not beyond influence. Especially if he knows the honorable ninja clans of Minkai—the Oni’s Mask does not count—have either stepped aside or are actively backing us.

Isn’t that worth pursuing?

Sarenith 21 (Kasai, Morning)​

We go tonight. Isao has arranged the wagon brigade; the Emerald Branch will help run interference, both before and after. We’ll signal both using fireworks. The same fireworks we picked up in the Brinestump Marsh almost exactly a year ago. Like, nearly to the day. It’s strange how we’ve come full circle. Fireworks from Minkai are how this all started. Now they are the beginning of the end.

 

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Sarenith 22 (Kasai, Small Hours)​

Not only did we strike at the heart of the Jade Regent’s empire of fear and control, Ivan and I also managed to spoil an abduction attempt by pulling off a daring rescue mission. I wrote the other day that this sort of thing sounds like bad community theater, but believe you me, I am beginning to understand the appeal.

It took some effort, but we crushed the constructs. The others reduced three to rubble; I turned the fourth to dust. Beyond that, there is no trace of its existence; it is simply gone.

We were also lucky enough to have a patrol of Typhoon Guard stumble on the scene because destroying constructs simply did not provide the same sense of satisfaction as killing oni. As soon as they stepped into the square, hilarity ensued: the commander actually asked us to halt because we were out past curfew. Where do they come up with this stuff?

The taotieh were gone, and the Typhoon Guard patrol was being hammered into paste when Ivan came towards me and called up, “Hatsue is injured!”

He’s been using a spell to track her location and physical state; the same one he and Dasi use to monitor all of us (I assume that’s with her permission, as that would be creepy otherwise; this was not the time to ask). “Tell me where!” I descended to the ground next to him and watched as he cast a spell to harden his skin.

He gave me a direction and a distance—about a half-mile and change to the northwest, I forget the exact bearing—and I said, “We’re going, now!” There was no time to scout the destination. Worse, my teleportation spell couldn’t send us in the blind, but there was no time for that, either. So by the gods, I reached deep down inside myself and f**king made it work anyway. I aimed 10 feet shy and prayed we wouldn’t appear on the wrong side of some gods-be-damned wall.

We popped into the middle of a street. In the midst of three Typhoon Guard. They were watching a fourth load Hatsue’s limp body into a prison wagon of sorts. A second woman lay motionless inside it. The three Typhoon Guard around us moved to engage, but Ivan got the first shot off, sinking an arrow into the driver. Two of the oni closed in to strike, but my spells protected me. Between their swings, I saw the driver pull on the reins, and the horse took off, pulling the cart behind it.

Hell, no. I maneuvered away from the Typhoon Guards and threw a wall of ice in front of the retreating cart; the horse quickly came to a halt. The two oni advanced on me again, their strikes finding my mirror images instead of me.

Then the driver turned and pointed a bow and arrow at Hatsue’s head. “Leave now, or they die!”

So I left…by popping behind him where he couldn’t see me. The driver paused just for a moment, thinking he had won the upper hand with this stunt. Ivan, though, had other plans: he sent five arrows into the driver’s chest before he could react. The oni collapsed over his seat, his nocked arrow releasing harmlessly into the ground.

“Reach in and grab one of their hands!” I called to Ivan as the remaining guards advanced on him. I popped into the cage with the prisoners; Ivan threw up a wall of stone to block the remaining guards off. Then I reached deep into myself—again!—and found the strength to cast a teleportation spell that I did not have prepared. We vanished and reappeared in the square in front of the granary, Hatsue and the other now-liberated prisoner in tow. Not even a minute had passed.

Dead oni littered the ground. Zosimus had already set off the fireworks, and the carts were on their way.

After everything that had happened, I wanted to send a message to the Typhoon Guard. I looked at the remains in the street and suggested writing a message of defiance with their entrails. It’s more practical than you think because you can say a lot in Tien with just a couple of characters.

Dasi, however, objected to the idea. Somewhat pointedly.

“No! We don’t want people thinking we are as bad as, or worse than, the oni.”

Worse than evil spirits manifested in human flesh? What, this is something we’re actually worried about?

“It’s not like they’re real people. Slaughtering oni is something the city will understand.”

The others were not convinced. So instead, we burned their bodies to ash and etched the Amatatsu family seal in the stone walls of the granary.

Sure, it’s still a statement, but it just doesn’t deliver the same punch.

 

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Sarenith 22 (Kasai, Morning)​

Communing with a deity is like being cured of cataracts. All the haze and uncertainty and guesswork is replaced with this abject clarity, a change that is so stark that it is practically painful.

“Is Renshii Meida pregnant?”

YES.

“Is it Takahiro’s child?”

YES.

“Is she keeping this a secret?”

YES.

Again and again the answers came, each one a lightning strike of divine truth.

“Is Takahiro’s mother still alive?”

NO.

“Did Anamurumon have her killed?”

YES.

Koya was straining against her contact with Desna, or whichever servitor had answered in her place.

“Is Takahiro’s father still alive?”

NO.

“Did Anamurumon have him killed?”

YES.

I was practically shaking, feeling the weight of what we were learning. Answers from a deity come with a permanency and surety that makes them more real, more absolute, than anything you know or have experienced. Like, you could come to question everything about your life, your place in the world, even who you are, but these truths would endure.

“Is Takahiro a descendant of Anamurumon?”

YES.

“Does Takahiro know this?”

NO.

After her spell ended, we sat in stunned silence.

When we first met with the Emerald Branch here in the city, we gave them a list of questions around Takahiro, Anamurumon, and Meida. Mostly, they were shots in the dark.

From the journals, we knew Anamurumon was obsessed with fathering an offspring that could pass as human. A half-fiend would likely be bound by the same divine laws as an oni, but a half-fiend that appeared human could mate with a human and produce a child of their own. That would result in a tiefling, and being of mostly human blood, the child could, in theory, fall outside the divine restrictions. If Anamurumon stayed close to this child, exerted influence over them, he could essentially take the throne by proxy.

Soto Takahiro refers to Anamurumon as his “grandfather”. In Minkai, this can be a term of affection just like “aunt” and “uncle” back in Varisia, but…could they actually be related? We didn’t know. But, according to the Emerald Branch, Takahiro didn’t know, either. “Takahiro has made inquiries in the past about his parentage, but we do not know what, if anything, he discovered. This at least suggests that his grandfather also did not know, or was not forthcoming to young Takahiro with that information.”

Another question for them was how faithful Takahiro and Meida were to one another. They told us Takahiro is something of a philanderer, which we were more or less expecting to hear. Meida is significantly more faithful, though there was still a big surprise to be had: “One of our contacts is a samurai whose daughter is employed as one of Meida’s handmaidens. She recently asked her father about the possibility of quietly securing the services of a midwife who could be trusted for her loyalty to Minkai and willingness to be discreet.” You don’t “quietly” hire a midwife who can be trusted to be “discreet” unless you are trying to hide a pregnancy.

Before this morning, all we had were these suspicions, but now? Now we have some idea of just how fragile the Jade Regent’s grip on power really is. How much does he really know about Anamurumon? Obviously, not very much, because his “grandfather” has been keeping a lot of secrets from him. Including the murder of his parents. To say that is huge would be a ridiculous understatement. This is the sort of thing that makes enemies out of friends, lovers, and family. And how much does he know about his lover? Again, the answer seems to be, “Not as much as he should”.

As for Meida, herself, we don’t know what game she’s playing. Obviously, you can’t hide a pregnancy forever, but trying to hide one at all suggests a lack of trust between her and, well, everyone. Whatever her angle is, it depends on that staying a secret for as long as possible.

We met with the Emerald Branch again this morning and asked them straight out if this was information they could work with. You might say that their response was an emphatic “Yes”.

Which is good, because we’re going to need their help again. We’re taking Ameiko to the Shrine today, and we don’t know how long we’ll be gone, mostly because we don’t know how big a trap we’ll be walking into. That means the Emerald Branch will have to keep the rebellion and the Amatatsu heir visible both in name and in spirit while we’re away.

It also means that the situation with the kidnapped daughters, also known as the hostages, is going to have to wait. Though we are pretty sure we know where they are being held, thanks to the posthumous interrogation of a Typhoon Guard commander, it’s deep in the palace, and that’s not a raid we can just pull off without significant planning. If we can pull it off at all. We may have to take the throne first, or at least commit ourselves to that path, which is something we can’t do until Ameiko receives her blessings from her ancestors. And we still don’t know how that works.

I am resigned to the notion that there will probably be casualties among the hostages. While there are no executions scheduled for today that we know of—the one that was seems to have been cancelled because the two prisoners escaped overnight—that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any last-minute changes. And if we aren’t back before tomorrow…

Well, I don’t really want to think about that.

 

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Letter To The Raven Prince​

(written in Tengu)

To: The Honorable Ninja Known as The Raven Prince​

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Honored Sir,​

​

I hope this letter finds you in good health.​

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I write to you today out of professional courtesy. I and my companions—I will not insult your intelligence by assuming you do not know who we are—understand that you have allied yourself with the interim caretaker of Minkai, Soto Takahiro, who calls himself the Jade Regent. We also understand that you have allied yourself with his advisor and ancestor, Anamurumon: the wind yai oni who was once a human warlord, and who was defeated on the battlefield centuries ago in his first failed attempt to take a throne that was never his.​

​

Our first professional courtesy is to inform you personally of Kaibuninsho’s death. You should know that we found him a worthy opponent, one who was as professional in his work as he was skilled at it. I was fortunate enough to be able to speak with him privately on several occasions, even as he was hunting us, and was most impressed by his discipline, commitment, and ingenuity. So great was his talent that one would never assume that the slim, unassuming Tien man with the short, fuzzy hair was the legendary ninja and assassin that all of Minkai came to fear. Assuming they ever got to see his true appearance, as I did.​

​

If you were the one who hired Kaibuninsho to assassinate us, then you deserve to hear this from us personally: his death, though regrettable, was necessary. Not because of who we are or what he had been tasked to do, but because he had allowed himself to come under the influence of an artifact he could not control. It turned him inward and away from the world, slowly isolating him, and leading him, on occasion, to eschew the code he was taught to uphold. It is a tragedy that this happened to one so talented, but there is good news: we are working to ensure this artifact, which was claiming him, can never again taint another soul.​

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If you were not the one who hired Kaibuninsho, then…you should be made aware that your employers went behind your back in doing so. I know that I would certainly wish to know if my trust were betrayed in such a manner, so I am extending that courtesy to you.​

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I can only assume that you know Anamurumon’s history. You are no doubt aware that his centuries of imprisonment in the House of Withered Blossoms refined his lust for a country that is not his to take. Since you are known to be a man of honor, I must assume you still have respect for your country and for the ninja clans in which you trained. That suggests that your relationship to Soto Takahiro and Anamurumon is purely professional, as neither has demonstrated much respect for Minkai or its traditions. In short, they are your employers, and beyond your assignments you have no special obligations to one another.​

​

We have, as you are no doubt aware, secured the support of one of the honorable ninja clans of Minkai, and secured the noninterference of the other two. These were offers that were never on the table for your patrons. And as I said at the beginning, I write to you out of professional courtesy.​

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I advise you to find yourself a new employer. We intend to obliterate each and every oni and oni loyalist in Minkai. We will reduce them all to something less than dust.​

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If you doubt that we have either the conviction or the ability to make good on that promise, then I point you to the last year of history, and the string of oni corpses we have left in our wake, from the ridiculous Kikonu who, as a yamabashi tengu, was an insult to your race (several pages of the play he was writing are enclosed; I apologize in advance for what you are about to read) to the three oni who recently met their end at Seinaru Heikiko, and whose names we did not even bother to learn because we no longer care to waste any time pretending they matter. Or if you prefer a more recent example, to the nameless, faceless Typhoon Guards that were found reduced to ash in this very city. Destroying them wasn’t even one of our objectives that night; they merely got in our way.​

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We have gotten so good at killing oni that it has become boring.​

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When Anamurumon and his tiefling offspring are dead, and their “organization” with the ridiculous name is gone, who is it that you will work for?​

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If I may be so bold, may I suggest the legitimate heir to the throne, Amatatsu Ameiko? She will be interested in your services once she has taken her place atop it. There will be numerous challenges for the new emperor to overcome.​

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Minkai is infested with oni today, and they hide in plain sight in the guise of ordinary people. When they go to ground, it will take tremendous skill to root them out and send them back to the spirit world. Some may even have inserted themselves into the highest levels of society, where exposing and killing them will require considerably more finesse. These seem like problems well suited to your particular skills. This would, of course, require you to re-examine your current arrangement. If I may be so bold.​

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But make no mistake: regardless of where you choose to stand, the oni in this city will burn. We will take the throne, and we’ll kill whoever stands in our way.​

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If you feel that there is something to discuss, I am confident your reply will be received.​

 

[skyschemer]

Sarenith 22 (Imperial Shrine, Afternoon)​

We did find a trap waiting for us here, but like all things Five Storms, it was so poorly organized and so obvious that they may as well have put up signs. I am not kidding: what gave it away was that we actually heard bickering. But I guess there’s not much else to do when you’re stuck on an island waiting to see if, and I quote, “one of the other families shows up. How likely is that?”

How likely, indeed?

From the sound of their adolescent squabbling, this was another one of Anamurumon’s famous “The Five Storms is known to keep their word” deals, where he promised to marry one of them or father their child or gods know what else, and like idiots they believed him. They were even fighting over him in advance. Where does he find people this gullible?

Not that they were “people”. They were, in fact, what Dasi called rokurokubi, which is apparently Tien for “woman with a 20-foot-long neck”. It was creepy and disgusting, watching them stretch out and snake their heads around the room, like naga with a human torso. Anamurumon sure can pick them.

The rest of the shrine has been…disturbing. I don’t think it’s Anamurumon’s doing—not directly, anyway—but something here is definitely amiss. We’ve been attacked by shadows and a giant construct made from gravestones. Somehow, I don’t think this is how visits to the Imperial Shrine are supposed to go. When the heir comes to receive blessings from their ancestors, I don’t think the island is supposed to try and kill them.

We were so desperate for information that we actually consulted Suishen. Yeah, I know. Don’t judge us. Not only did he not know anything about the Imperial Shrine, he had never even paid attention during the few times he was brought here. Why? Because there was “no fighting” and that made it “boring”. Ironically, this non-answer was an answer in itself, as it confirmed that none of this is supposed to be happening.

I hate shadows. We were walking through a cemetery for the advisors of past emperors and other notable figures when they emerged from the graves to attack. We were completely surrounded from the start, which gave us nowhere to go. When one of them descended on Koya, I knew I had to do something, but there was a shadow on top of me as well, which limited my options. So I chose a radical and dangerous tactic: I cast a spell that suppressed magic and supernatural phenomena. At which point I promptly fell 30′ to the ground. But it put me close enough to Koya to protect her from their touch, so mission accomplished.

It’s a good thing I’ve learned a thing or two about how to fall without dying.