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

[skyschemer]

Sarenith 22 (Imperial Shrine, Evening)​

We met Emperor Shigure today. What remains of him, that is, which is mostly an angry, impotent spirit raging at the living world. Thrust into a role he never expected to take, manipulated by the woman he thought he loved, then betrayed and murdered by his childhood friend. His reign was short and tragic, exactly as engineered by Anamurumon, and this half-mad ghost was the result.

He was barely rational when he appeared before us, verbally abusing everyone and accusing us of various crimes. Conspiring with his killers. Usurping the throne. Taking what was rightfully his. And on and on. I tuned it out because I just couldn’t even. His portrait was painted in fury and self-pity. We let Dasi do most of the talking since he’s good at that sort of thing, and because we were dealing with a petulant child.

“I will not give my blessing while my body remains dishonored!” he bellowed, acknowledging Ameiko’s status as heir but denying her the means to act on it. He demanded that we descend into the Well of Demons and bring it back, cremate it, and lay it to rest. Are you for real? This is what’s important right now? Yes, his anger was justified. But he was willing to sink the entire empire out of spite. Such a small, petty man.

Still, we agreed because—wait for it—we have no choice. Because nothing is ever simple or easy.

It’s not really his fault at any rate. Takahiro’s crime corrupted this place completely: as Shigure’s body rots, so does the Shrine. This is almost certainly why the entire island is trying to kill us, but that is the smaller of our concerns. Until the Shrine is cleansed, the conduit between here and the spirits of the past is closed. No spirits; no blessing. Which means Ameiko’s path to the throne is blocked until we sort it out.

Why in the name of the gods is there something called The Well of Demons in the Imperial Shrine? I thought it was a pretty good question, so I asked Shigure during one of his moments of lucidity, but what I got was a nigh-incomprehensible tirade that boiled down to: “some name I made up”. Whatever purpose the well originally served is a mystery, but it clearly wasn’t intended to be a dumping ground for the decaying bodies of former emperors, murdered in cold blood. Hence, the current state of affairs.

Shigure says he can feel the influence of whatever is down there, and more importantly, he can feel it spreading. It’s only a matter of time before it reaches the material world and infests Minkai.

That fool Takahiro has no idea what he’s done.

 

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Sarenith 23 (Imperial Shrine, Small Hours)​

When I left Magnimar over a year ago, I never imagined I’d be spending my nights studying the finer points of childbirth and prenatal care. Then again, I couldn't have imagined most of what has happened since. Sometimes I feel like I don't know the person I've become. I want to know what she's like. Where she calls home.

Meida’s pregnancy is both an opportunity and a complication.

The complication, of course, is that she’s pregnant. Taking the Jade Throne from Takahiro and Anamurumon is almost certainly going to mean taking it by force, and using lethal force against a pregnant woman is just not a thing that’s going to happen. That is a hard stop. I will not take part in any such plan. And that immediately puts us at a disadvantage, because they certainly won’t be holding back.

Since we don’t have a good solution to that problem at the moment, I’m focusing on the opportunity instead. The Emerald Branch says she is secretly looking for a midwife, so why not give her one?

This is not as ridiculous as it sounds. When you study the arcane, you end up learning a little about everything, and humanoid physiology kind of comes with the territory. As you continue your studies, you end up gravitating to things that interest you. Apparently this was one of them. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised by how seeing Sefa again and holding her baby affected me. (You also can’t spend any amount of time around an acolyte of Pharasma without learning a thing or two about obstetrics. Even when that acolyte was Qatana.) To the others, this seemed like it came from out of the blue, but in reality? I just never talked about it. I mean, it’s not like the subject ever came up before now. When, exactly, would it have been relevant conversation?

I am being realistic about this gambit. I don’t even think I’ll get invited into the palace, much less hired by Meida, but I am pretty sure I can get an interview with the handmaiden that was tasked with the search, and that’s good enough. To date, we know almost nothing about Meida and even less about the inner workings of the palace. A conversation with her handmaiden may be the closest thing we’ll get to insider information, and it could prove fruitful. I just need to be credible enough not to raise any suspicions. And I’m also not above a little cheating if necessary.

All of that is moot, though, if we don’t succeed here at the Shrine first.

We descend into the Well tomorrow. We have no idea what we’ll find there, what we’re up against, how extensive this growing corruption is, or even what the nature of it is, and that makes it hard to prepare. Normally one would assume that something called a “Well of Demons” contains, well, demons, but given that this is just some name Shigure made up? Gods only know. I took some time yesterday to extend magical sight down to the bottom, but what I saw wasn’t particularly helpful: a dark hole in the ground, filled with water. Pretty much what you would expect from a well, only larger in scale.

Obviously there’s more to it than that, but there’s only so much divination magic can do in one sitting. If we did this again tomorrow I’d be cutting into spells we might actually need, and with no guarantee of getting better answers at that. And, really, at some point we’re just going to have to go in, anyway. So, as Ivan would say, save the spell.

Gods, it’s going to be a long day.

 

[skyschemer]

Sarenith 23 (Imperial Shrine, Early Morning)​

Amatatsu Onoko is here. Why she wasn’t here yesterday when we needed more timely information about what we are getting into is anyone’s guess. Maybe Shigure’s temper tantrum scared her away. I don’t know if she had children in life, but if I were a mother and was granted immortality as an archon, the last thing I’d want is a front row seat to the Terrible Twos for basically all of eternity. Your reward in heaven for a devoted, pious life is not supposed to double as punishment.

Ameiko spent some time communing with her in private and then opened up the conversation to the rest of us. I took the opportunity to ask her my new favorite question. “Why is there something called ‘The Well of Demons’ in the Imperial Shrine?”

Her answer was as unsatisfying as it was uninformative. “It doesn’t have a name. That’s just what Shigure calls it.” Which is not what I was asking. I don’t care about the name; I want to know why it’s here. But bickering with an archon didn’t seem like a healthy plan, so I let it drop. And, to be fair, she did shed some light on what is down there and what we have to do.

“The handmaiden devil Amatatsu Maemi and her handmaiden have infested this place. I can’t bestow my blessing until she is dealt with.” One guess as to what she means by “dealt with”. Also, apparently the Well of Demons contains devils. Note to self: Correct Shigure on his terminology.

Who was empress Amatatsu Maemi? It’s a given that she was not a very good person if she was a petitioner to Hell, and being given form as a greater devil suggests she was especially vile. Suishen confirmed as much, giving us a fairly pointed review of her tenure as emperor. “She was unnecessarily cruel and selfish, seeking her own power over what was best for the empire and its people.” And she’s had plenty of time to refine her personality since then.

Who is Maemi’s handmaiden? No clue. But if they come as a pair, I’m guessing she has to go, too.

And, of course, we have to do this one thing in order for Ameiko to get Onoko’s blessing. On top of the other thing that we have to do for Shigure. Maybe it's a blessing of its own that the spirits from the other families can't communicate through the Shrine until this business with the Well is resolved. I don’t think I can handle each of them asking us to do yet another “just this one thing”, too.

Sarenith 23 (Still The Imperial Shrine, Still Early Morning)​

Our first descent into the Well of Demons went poorly. This is the problem with not knowing what you are getting into: you can’t plan for everything. You can only be so flexible, and if you get caught reacting instead of acting, then odds are good you aren’t going to recover.

The force that contains the demons and devils within the Well almost certainly saved our lives, as there is no such thing as running away from something that can teleport at will. When you start this kind of fight, it needs to be one that you are sure you can finish unless you have similar powers of your own.

It’s been less than 10 minutes, and Amatatsu Onoko has already gotten on my list. We went to stop the water from dumping into the Well because it was so loud we could barely hear ourselves think, much less communicate, and she appeared and blasted us with her trumpet. Just in case it wasn’t clear what kind of archon she was. Branding is important.

I had what many might consider to be a reasonable question: “What the s**t, lady?!”

This was probably not the most respectful way of addressing a herald of Shizuru, but the whole thing caught us by surprise. Also, I was feeling kind of cranky.

“Why would you halt the flow of water into the well? The lake sends the cleansing water that contains the evil within!”

Uh…how about because no one f**king told us? Like, when we were f**king asking about it? What is it with celestial beings treating information like caviar? Is there some divine rule that crucial knowledge about saving the world can only be fed in small bites? If it’s not a game of twenty questions, it’s riddles and metaphor. No one can be direct about anything until it’s smiting time, and then it’s all, “How dare you disobey this rule I’m just now telling you about!”

This is no way to run an organization.

“Because it’s so loud down there we can’t hear ourselves think. And because we just got our asses handed to us! And also because we didn’t f**king know! How would we know?!”

Gods, I am just not in the f**king mood.

But at least now we know what we’re up against, and what we can (and can’t) do about it.

 

[skyschemer]

Sarenith 23 (Well of Demons, Morning)​

Our second run at the Well was considerably more successful than our first. This time we could prepare our defenses and devise a strategy before finding ourselves dodging blobs of acid, resisting telekinetic shoves, and worrying about who was suffocating. This is the sort of pertinent combat advice that I like to share here, as your time is valuable and you should get value for it in return.

This was about the perfect setup for omoxes: water everywhere, a one-hundred-and-fifty-foot drop to get to it, and a waterfall so loud you can’t think, with no way to turn it off. Whoever put them here knew what they were doing. We generally deal with oni, so that’s not something we see a lot of.

So far, the Well of Demons has not disappointed when it comes to names, but that is about all it has going for it. Unless your taste for interior decorating runs toward dark and dank. According to Onoko, this is where the less savory emperors of Minkai are allowed to manifest, just in case some future degenerate feels the need to commune with them. Though, personally, I think allowing that is an extraordinarily bad idea. It should really be the acid test for claiming the throne. Like, if you feel the need to come down here for advice, maybe you shouldn’t be on it. But no one asked me for input when they set this whole thing up.

Onoko wasn’t exaggerating when she said something is amiss down here; the omoxes were not mere manifestations, and neither were their hezrou buddies. The obvious question is, how did they get here? Followed closely by, who are “they”? Last time I checked, demons and devils don’t have a strong working relationship. If Maemi is in here, and she’s one of the latter, then who brought the former?

Sarenith 23 (Well of Demons, Slightly Later Morning)​

I have to write quickly as we are moving soon.

The answer to at least one of my questions is “Teikoku Sokai”. According to Dasi, he was one of the first and worst autocrats of Minkai, who preferred the title “shogun” over “emperor”. I am sure that says quite a lot about his management style. It’s certainly in line with his charming personality. He had enough ego for all of us.

We’ve allied with him temporarily because his narcissism is exceeded only by his hatred of Maemi. Why does he hate Maemi? Who knows? Who cares?

The situation is this: she holds the north end of the cavern, and he holds the south. Gods, it’s the damned House of Withered Blossoms all over again, only this time the warring sides are fire-retardant.

The idiot thinks we’re here because his family has finally risen to power, and we’re here to pay deference to him. Sometimes it’s like we don’t even have to try. When we told him we were here to kill Maemi, he naturally assumed that was the whole truth. We conveniently left out the part where he’s next on the list.

He’s lending us three hezrou for the assault. I am sure they’ll turn on us as soon as Maemi and her erinyes are evicted, so it’s in our best interest to ensure they die for the cause.

It’s time to go.

 

[skyschemer]

Sarenith 23 (Well of Demons, Even More Later Morning)​

Sokai had warned us that Maemi’s handmaiden—that would make her the handmaiden’s handmaiden, a level of recursion that I can appreciate—was a trained assassin when she was alive. Now that she’s dead and trapped in here along with Maemi and everyone else, she had little to do but hone her skills. Quoting Sokai again, “Death gives her time to practice.”

Most of that practice seems to be done on hezrous. I base that on how quickly the first two of them died. While this does make our job easier long-term, we were hoping they would contribute more directly to the proceedings.

Not that I should be complaining too much. The erinyes could see those of us who were hiding behind invisibility (which was inconvenient, to say the least), but the handmaiden could not. So, the hezrou were her only obvious targets when the assault began. Sometimes, things just go your way. After she killed the second one with a single blow, we figured out where she was hiding—which was, astonishingly, in plain sight—and I lit her up with some magical glitter. It was an appalling fashion statement, but sometimes you have to go with what works.

The key to defeating an opponent is to play your strengths against their weaknesses. In the assassin’s case, she bet it all on not being seen, and once we deprived her of that advantage, her options were limited to which one of us would kill her. She had a few tricks left, sure, but none of them played well against a barrage of arrows. By the time Ivan was done with her, she looked like a hawthorn tree.

The third of our hezrou “allies” had administered a severe beating to the remaining erinyes, so their defensive line, if you want to call it that, shattered as soon as we hit it. Maemi seemed to realize early on that she was in trouble, and she tried in vain to strike some bargain that would keep her alive. Sorry, lady. Not interested. Are there any scenarios where making a deal with a literal devil works out in your favor?

If I’m being honest here—and what’s the point of writing in this thing if I’m not being honest—I have to admit I don’t understand the whole tizzy around Maemi’s presence in the Well. Amatatsu Onoko played her up as this horrible figure, but really, what did she do? According to Dasi, she struck a bargain with Hell to extend her life. Big f**king deal. Yeah, okay, back when she was on the throne maybe those 200 years were a bummer, but even the worst Suishen had to say about her was that she put herself ahead of throne and empire. So what? That just makes her a s**tty leader.

Compare that to her next-door neighbor, Teikoku Sokai, who instituted a f**king eugenics program and forced the lesser nobles of Minkai into slavery. On that scale, Maemi doesn’t even f**king register.

 

[skyschemer]

Sarenith 23 (Well of Demons, Gods It’s Still Morning)​

There’s this spell that impairs your mind to the point where you’re not capable of rational thought or reasoning. That spell is basically my worst nightmare since rational thought and reasoning are pretty much all I do, and it’s why I’ve been wearing this ring for the past several months. It has that spell inside of it, and if that same spell is cast on me, then the one stored in the ring immediately counters it.

Today it finally happened, and I have never been so grateful to have planned ahead.

From that, you might gather that Sokai was less than thrilled with our betrayal. And you would be correct. My only regret is that he didn’t survive long enough to really bask in it.

We’ve searched everywhere, and there’s no sign of Shigure’s body, and that tells us that it probably washed downstream into the caverns below. What’s down there? No idea. We can see an underground lake and not much else. I’m taking bets, though. Our experience up here was almost literally going through Hell and the Abyss, so I am putting my money on Abaddon to round out the set. Though that does leave us one or two royal families short, assuming that the Well is a whole thing.

Sarenith 23 (Well of Demons, Late Morning Now)​

Instead of daemons we got undead, though there’s still more to do here so my theory may yet pan out. And undead does seem to fit the theme of “things that happen to vile people after they die.”

And speaking of vile, allow me to introduce Shojinawa Ito. According to Dasi, as emperor he bolstered Minkai’s army by creating undead from the soldiers who died in battle, and then disguised them behind illusions so that they looked like normal people. Eventually, his military commanders noticed that something was off, and he addressed their concerns by giving them the same treatment. The only thing he couldn’t hide was his unnaturally long life, courtesy of becoming a lich. His reign was finally ended by a sovereign dragon who had apparently had enough of his s**t.

If that charming personality wasn’t enough, he was also holding on to Shigure’s corpse because why not. I guess that obsession with death and bodies has really stuck.

We didn’t even bother talking to him. I mean, what would have been the point? It was already a long morning, and there was no reason to drag it out.

He also seemed unconcerned about his eventual destruction, going so far as to announce to us that he’d be back. That’s not how this works, ghost or not. On the other hand, he did seem pretty sure of himself, so I don’t think we can rule it out. Assuming the lich story is true, his phylactery must have been destroyed, or he wouldn’t be here at all, but maybe he has something else that ties his spirit to the Well, or to the shrine or island in general.

Of course, that is easy to say. The real trick would be finding it.

 

[skyschemer]

Sarenith 23​

I am lucky to be alive. Extraordinarily lucky.


There was this moment in Nobinuro’s cave where he did something, and I saw a flash of light through the cloud of fog around me. There was this sudden chill, and…I am not sure how to describe this, but it felt like a tug at my soul.

As if it were being ripped from my body.


I didn’t even have time to panic.


Out of sheer instinct, I held on to it with…I don’t even know what. My will? My sense of being? Whatever it is that anchors us to this existence, it held.

But only just.


Later, we deduced that Nobinoru was a thanadaemon. They trap the souls of others in gemstones, which they can crush to restore their life force. This is when I felt the bottom drop out, and a horrible wave of sickness washed over me. There are some deaths that cannot be undone.

In life, Nobinoru was the last emperor from the Sugimatu family. So great was his ego that he ordered the end of his family line so that his achievements would never be surpassed. His most loyal samurai set out on this task, exterminating every descendant and relative until almost none remained. Only the intervention of the other four families stopped this senseless slaughter, but so many had been killed that the family line never recovered. And, of course, the Five Storms later finished what he had started.

But it’s done. We have scoured the Well of every trace of demon, devil, daemon, and undead, and in the process have prevented the worst of the royal families from offering their counsel or blessing to future emperors. Something that the world simply does not need.

 

[skyschemer]

Sarenith 23 (Imperial Shrine, Late Afternoon)​

Paranoid? Me? Maybe just a little. Occupational hazard.

I was thinking about Ito as we climbed out of the well; if he did have a phylactery of some sort here on the island, where would he hide it? Somewhere out of sight. Somewhere difficult to reach. Somewhere most people wouldn’t think to look.

Somewhere that we were actively discouraged from going earlier by Amatatsu Onoko. If that’s who she really was…


OK. That’s who she really was. But at the time I wasn’t trusting anyone but us.

We weren’t out five minutes when Koya came up to Dasi. “Do you know, there is not one single urn with the remains of the Shojinawa clan anywhere to be found? Isn’t that peculiar, don’t you think?”

“Peculiar”? That’s not the word I would choose. I’d probably settle on “suspicious”.

Then she asked, “Do you know of anything in this country’s history to account for such a thing?”

Do we ever. And that’s when my thoughts turned to the lake, and Onoko’s insistence that we not mess with the water level. What was she hiding…?


OK. That was just a coincidence. But. We weren’t wrong about the lake. For generations, it seems the other royal families of Minkai expressed their opinions of Shojinawa Ito by tossing the remains of the entire Shojinawa family into the water. And one of the sealed urns we found down there was lined with lead, and just happened to contain Ito’s phylactery.

Olmas and Hatsue hacked at it until the wooden box was reduced to splinters, then Ivan burned it to ash. So, no more Ito.

Ameiko is interring Shigure’s remains as I write this. Hopefully he will be more agreeable—and considerably less choleric—after that’s done.

I am not holding my breath.

 

[skyschemer]

Sarenith 23 (Imperial Shrine, Later Afternoon)​

I had this crazy idea as Ameiko was wrapping up with her relatives.

“What if we were to kidnap Renshii Meida?”

Everyone looked at me like I was out of my mind.

“I’m serious. Hear me out. If…if I get that meeting with her handmaiden—the one that’s looking for a midwife—what if I do more than just try to get information from her? What if I can actually get a meeting with Meida?”

I am not above using magic to pull this off. As distasteful as it is, it’s less so than killing a pregnant woman. It’s what mom would call situational ethics. That, and Shelyn gave me this ability for a reason.

“All I need is a piece of extravagant jewelry. A brooch, a ring, a necklace…something I can keep hidden until I meet with Meida’s handmaiden.” Then I reveal it. Put it on, uncover it, whatever. At that point, she would find me fairly persuasive without questioning why. And it wouldn’t require me to do something as obvious as cast a spell in her presence.

“If I could get alone with Meida, and if Radella was close by, and Ivan was with her and keeping tabs on me with that spell of his…I could suppress her magic, and Radella could jump to us using the coin. We could capture her, and then use the coin again to get away.”

It is a lot of “ifs”. And the timing would have to be perfect. But we could do it. We could knock one of the pieces off the board (a metaphor Ivan and Hatsue would appreciate). Why bother trying to sow discord when we can just divide them up directly?

I’d need to go there in disguise. A mundane disguise, because I have to assume that Meida can see through magic, or at least detect it in her presence. I’d have to darken my skin, whiten my hair, basically look like someone who trained in Pharasma’s church and dresses accordingly. And I’d have to do it without any of my magical protections or enhancements. I’d need to look the part well enough that even Meida wouldn’t suspect.

The others think I’m crazy. They point out it’s dangerous not just for me, but for Radella, too. And that if it goes wrong, we weaken ourselves considerably. And it depends on several factors that are outside our control.

These are all excellent points.

But part of me really, really wants to try it. Sometimes you just have to aim big.

 

[skyschemer]

Sarenith 23 (Imperial Shrine, Evening)​

We met the Raven Prince tonight. He was waiting for us at the docks of the Imperial Shrine.

So I guess he read our letter.

He didn’t have a family Seal with him, so he was just a ghostly image at first. We had to circle around the island in the boat and dock again, something he seemed to expect, as he was not the least surprised. He came alone and was just sitting there, waiting patiently. So this was apparently a temporary truce.

Dasi and I approached.

“You’ve been causing quite a bit of trouble.”

I answered in Tengu. “We’re going to keep causing it. I didn’t expect to see you here, but I suppose I am not surprised.”

“I wanted to see for myself the ones responsible. She is the last of the Amatatsu heirs?”

“The Amatatsu family survived the journey across the Crown. It is possible there are others we aren’t aware of, but as far as we know? She is the last.”

That he was here talking to us at all, almost certainly without Anamurumon’s or Takahiro’s knowledge, implied there was some angle we could work with him. So I decided to show him some of our cards. “Soto Takahiro has the other families’ Seals in the vault below the palace. They can be used to start new family lines.”

“I see. Interesting.”

“How much do you know about Anamurumon’s history?”

“Enough.”

“Would you agree that information has value?”

“It does. But I will not betray my employers.” Another hypothesis confirmed: his relationship with Anamurumon is strictly business. And the Emerald Branch was right about him having his own code of honor.

“I assume you care about the future of Minkai. I don’t think the same can be said about your employers.”

“I do. Loyalties and allegiances can change, of course, but I will not violate my contract. And what do you know of this Amatatsu? Is she a good leader?”

And there’s the rub. We started all of this because we know Ameiko, trust her, and value her as a friend. Mom once called this a crusade, and I’ve come to the conclusion that she’s right. It may have started as something else, but the farther we’ve come, the more glimpses we’ve been given into Minkai’s future. This isn’t some hack’s play about a noble-born child, hidden away for their safety, growing up in a foreign land only to return to their ancestral home as an adult, and fight to restore their birthright. The people here have to live with what comes next.

We’ve rallied behind Ameiko because we know her and believe in her, but…can we prove that she’s a good leader on her own merits, and not just compared to the alternative?

“We are being honest with one another here, so…I don’t know. I can only tell you what I believe. I have seen true leadership from her. She has heart, strength, wisdom, and cunning.

“And she cares about her empire. I don’t think Soto Takahiro can say the same.”

Finally, he got to the heart of this conversation; perhaps the real reason he was here. “But would she be willing to…employ someone like myself?”

That’s when I knew our letter had gotten through to him.

“Only she can answer that. Would you like to meet her?”

They had a brief exchange, with Olmas nervously watching from a polite, but not foolish, distance. I wasn’t worried, though: if he intended to move against her, or us, he wouldn’t have announced his presence. Especially so brazenly.

He clearly liked what he heard from her. Both of them, in fact, seemed satisfied as she walked back to the boat. Maybe, just maybe, we had accomplished something here. Obviously, given what he said, we don’t expect him to turn on Anamurumon, and we will likely still be facing him in battle, but he can certainly choose the manner and means of his support without breaking the terms of his contract or tarnishing his honor. Note to self: if Ameiko does employ him after taking the throne, remind her to be very specific in her wording.

“One more thing,” he said, as we were preparing to leave. “I would like the rest of the play.”

This actually took me by surprise. “The whole thing? But…there are thousands of pages. There are stacks and stacks of revisions!”

“I would like to burn it.”

Well. That explained that.

It was hard to give it up, of course. But it helped to know that it was being donated to a worthy cause.