Ruka pauses to see what the corbie is going to do, delaying. The creature turns to you and casts a spell, a loud, deafening sound exploding all around you.
Kajiwara shakes off the ringing in his ears and moves into the room, getting right up in the robed corbie's face, focusing on the creature, and firing an arrow point blank.
He then makes sure to leave his hand free in case the creature tried casting another spell.
Signe, used to loud sounds, winces as the boom but lifts her fiddle to her chin before striking up a tune.
Huh. Hold on, are these depictions of Pazuzu again...? OW, JEEZ, MY EARS!
These were the young wizard's (rudely interrupted) thoughts in entering the chamber and seeing the ominous winged figure painted throughout. The dire corby's tremendous screech of a spell singed out any other intelligible thought from the otherwise so adroit head, leaving him clutching his ears. Sam's last inkling was wondering whether these corbies realized that the great wind demon they apparently worshiped probably didn't care for their kind, flightless as they were.
Asuka's tenacity allows her to push through the horrible stinging sound in her ears, and she dashes into the room attack the villainous corby giving avian humanoids a bad rap.
But as soon as she starts moving, she remembers that damned cursed statue. It takes all of her effort to just get to the villain, much less strike her.
Lor-Sinn is almost too distracted by the sight of the Pazuzian iconography to notice the loud blast, although a little blood is trickling from the paladin's nose from the force of it. Still thinking about the curse placed on Asuka, Lor-Sinn attempts to return the favour. Plucking a few strands of black fur from one of her pouches, she blows it towards the dire corbie, uttering a prayer to Erastil.
Kajiwara lands his shot and the cleric seems to take Lor-Sinn's spell with a scowl.
Ruka take the damage, but fights off the stun as she advanced towards the cleric and buries Murasamemaru in her chest. .
The corbie screams in pain, clutching its chest where a large bloody gash has now appeared. She throws her hands wide, crying out something that causes a burst of negative energy to flow from her body to fill the room.
Asuka was not expecting the blast of negative energy and she recoils in pain. She tries to push through and slash at the corby, but the combination of the pain and her slowed movements make it difficult for her to find her rhythm.
Kajiwara again shrugs off the corbie's power, this time attempting to give it several new feathers - in the form of arrows.
Sam rubbed at one ear in a fruitless attempt at making the ringing noise screeching in his head go away. Tinnitus? Really? He forewent evocation specifically to avoid tinnitus! Mr Gandethus had always told him that all evokers were half-deaf before they hit thirty, what with all those explosions they liked...
Oh well. If you can't beat 'em, the young man reasoned in retrieving the newly acquired wand from a secure pocket. With the others seemingly having this fight well in hand, he might as well go for some combustible evocations of his own. Now if only he could aim right. Holding the implement as tightly as he could and bracing himself, Samton spoke its command word. Two great gouts of fire sprayed forth, dancing through the air and rising up to make a luminous arch near the ceiling before diving straight down for the corby.
Signe mometarily stops her playing of the fiddle, casting upon herself to help heal the painful ache in her muscles.
Sam's spells burn the corbie badly and Kaji's arrow strikes true. The cleric staggers, barely keeping her feet and balances herself against the doorway behind her. She looks briefly into her pack as if she considers pulling something out, but she ultimately decides against it. She instead repeats the same action as moments before, intending to flood the room with negative energy. She looks to the ceiling and cries out for assistance from Pazuzu just as Ruka's blade cleaves her head from her body, dropping her to the ground and ending the battle before she can channel.
Among her possessions you find Gear scrolls of cure moderate wounds (2), scroll of dispel magic, a wand of inflict moderate wounds (12 charges), studded leather armor, a masterwork longsword, and a silver unholy symbol of Pazuzu worth (100 gp).
While the others are searching through her belongings, Signe stumbles onto a hidden locker and finds four +2 evil outsider bane arrows, a scroll of cure moderate wounds, a scroll of remove disease, a scroll of restoration, and a phylactery of faithfulness.
As most of them are gathered around the fallen dire corbie, Lor-Sinn also channels, healing some of their injuries.
"Was everyone here worshipping Pazuzu? I don't remember if we've seen his symbols in other parts of the castle... did we?"
Kajiwara stretches as the healing energy washes over him, clearing him of his wounds. "I don't believe so. If Rokuro Kaijitsu was involved, however, I suspect the worship of Pazuzu was not originally the deity worshiped the inhabitants."
Kajiwara looks over this room, trying to see if it had been a shrine originally, and if so, to which god or goddess.
With a little investigation, Kajiwara's theory proves true. The statue here clearly was once Desna, but has since been particularly despoiled—her wings hacked down the middle to give the impression of having four wings instead of two, her head removed and replaced with a crude carving of a leering bird’s head, and a long, barbed tail made of
braided dried nettles hanging from her posterior.
"Nah, wouldn't think so," the young wizard voiced haltingly in agreement with Kajiwara. "Although if, uh, this one," (he nodded to the now headless avian on the floor) "was some sort of priest, maybe the corbies here all worship Pazuzu. Perhaps Kikonu did so too, given his winged form. Actually... come to think of it, I might have read of harpy cults also dedicated to that demon. Huh. M-maybe Ms Zaiobe was in on it all too. Sort of all fits. Maybe."
'Patron to everything evil that flies.' Sam thought he'd heard the so-called King of the Wind Demons described in such terms. Considering every major inhabitant of the castle they'd met, 'evil and flying' were terms quite applicable to them. Well, except for the corbies. Those were just bird-like. But still. Heavens only knew how they all connected to the Pazuzu worshiping decapus downstairs, but there was no way that was a coincidence.
Oh well. All dead now. Inquisitive as he was, however, he couldn't help but be curious. The old adage of an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure held true even in quelling evil, and Samton wondered whether evil could ever be stopped at the source unless it was understood.
"T-thanks, Ms Imass," he said at the blast of curative magic from the paladin, its soothing essence banishing these somber ruminations from his mind, momentarily. Best to just give the room a proper a look-over before moving on. As it happened, there was a fair bit to see. "Oh hey." The cartographer lifted a little trinket. "Isn't this that thing Ms Spivey asked us to find for her?"
Kajiwara begins to turn to go, stops, and looks at the statue before going over to it and ripping the tail of dried nettles off. "Let's clean this place up and remove the traces of Pazuzu worship. Once we finish here and return to Spivey, perhaps she can take the steps necessary to re-consecrate it."
"I see your point, and if its important to you then I understand, but who exactly is going to be using this shrine anyway?" Signe asks, honestly curious as to why someone would put time into something that seemingly benefits no mortal.
Lor-Sinn immediately gets to work sweeping, scrubbing and removing all traces of the desecration in the room. This wasn't so dissimilar to cleaning up graffiti off the buildings in Sandpoint, or washing the floor in the barracks.
Turning to Signe with a puzzled expression, the tiefling replies. "Someone did, maybe someone will use it again. And it's the right thing to do."
The party sets about cleaning the shrine, removing traces of Pazuzu and doing their best to restoring what they can. After about an hour or so of hard work, it becomes the cleanest room in the entire castle and you feel satisfied that you've accomplished something here.
While you stand about admiring your handiwork, a swarm of purple butterflies flies in from the south, fluttering about the room in admiration. As they depart, you have the sense that your work here has not gone unnoticed and this was a sign of thanks.
---
The group moves to the study and descends down the spiral steps. After descending for nearly a minute, you find yourself at a dead end. An iron portcullis barrs passage into the room beyond. The bars themselves are sunken deep into the floor and ceiling, with no obvious method of passing into the chamber beyond.
This time however, you know there is more to this puzzle and study the area until you find two 5-inch-diameter circular depressions in the walls to the left and right of the portcullis, each faintly inscribed with an image of the sun (to the left) and the moon (to the right) that match the crests in your possession. It's a simple task of inserting the two "keys", causing the portcullis to sink into the floor, clearing the way.
Beyond the portcullis are smooth walls of stone, spattered with ancient bloodstains and deep, violent gouges. Deep drifts of dust lie on the floor, while immense stone doors hang open to the southwest, revealing two vaults with open doors beyond.
Finally arriving at their destination, the group pushes forward only to have their hearts sink in their chests, both vaults are vaults completely empty. It appears that these rooms have been looted long ago and nothing now remains in these once valuable locations.
Kajiwara frowns. "When Ameiko fell ill, she said, 'One treasure beyond two seals in the third vault.' Rokuro Kaijitsu mentioned the family's greatest treasure lies in the third vault. Signe, you said Kikonu raged that he never found the true vault. I do not think either of these vaults held what we seek. Let's look for another."
"Hm, perhaps there are clues in the discs. We have moon and sun... and an altar of Desna - stars! Maybe?"
Lor-Sinn looks around the area where the vaults are.
Ah, good old Prestidigitation. A hundred uses in one spell, one of which was as a cleaning cantrip, something young Sam found himself quite thankful for in travelling the road; a quick incantation beat washing one's clothes constantly. And it made scrubbing the maltreated shrine a cinch too!
Now if only it could wash away disappointment as well. The wizard looked very dejected indeed standing before the empty treasuries of the castle. Really? Nothing? He supposed this shouldn't be too surprising. Kikonu and his little gang had resided here for some time, after all. This didn't make coming up empty after all this time any less disheartening, however. Kajiwara's suggestion offered only a little hope. Yeah, maybe there was something here the oni had missed.
But if there was, Samton wouldn't be the one finding it. Hm. He looked the portcullis mechanism over, wondering if puzzling out the construction of this vault would help.
With Kajiwara's reminder of the clue they received earlier, it's only a matter of time searching the room before they find what they are looking for. The secret tile is so well hidden that it takes considerable time, but eventually they spot it and pushes it in.
As the tile sinks in a grinding sounds reverberates beneath your feet as something moves underground. Outside of the vaults, a passageway opens to the east. You start moving in that direction, but Kajiwara calls a halt when something ominous happens.
The dust on the floor swirls into the air, coalescing into an ominous shadowy form that takes on the ghostly image of an old but handsome Tian man. Hard-eyed, but handsome, the Tian man limps out of the wall, his once immaculately-polished four-mirror armour now bloodstained and irreparably tarnished. The kabuto on his head is severely dented and caked in old blood. The man's red eyes burn with an intense, seething hatred, and he draws an ethereal katana from his side and twirls it once. He holds it aloft before settling into a combat stance, but he makes no move to engage the party. He is blocking your passage into the third vault.
Mentally, Kajiwara cursed. He had purchased an alchemical with which to coat his arrows specifically in case they fought ghosts, and he hadn't taken the time to coat his arrows with them. He hoped the magic bow he wielded would at least prove useful in this fight.
Asuka's typical obliviousness to the details of the world around her does her no favors.
Still, the apparition has not attacked yet, so might as well try talking to it first. She speaks back in Tien.
"Greetings, honored spirit. My name is Asuka Narukami and we are here to liberate this place from the monsters that have infested it and to heal our friend. We do not seek out this place for personal gain or glory."
Signe, not knowing enough about this yet, sticks back and watches carefully and tries to cover a grimace as Asuka denies they are here for personal gain.
Well, it was why I was here in the first place. Why have I stuck around. That's the question.
"Woo boy.
Samton's muttered exclamation did not reach far, stagnating on the frozen air that followed the emergence of the unnatural apparition. Another castle guardian for whom death proved a mere hurdle to their duty? Yeah, the wizard had to assume as much. But, he noted with concern, the foe before them was a greater threat still than the wight they has fought upstairs. For one, he wasn't even sure the group could harm the flickering shadow that was its form.
Wracking his brain for how they were going to manage this, Sam hoped the undead would prove receptive to Asuka's appeal.
Lor-Sinn was really not a fan of fighting ghosts, so the tiefling does their best to appear non-threatening as they await the result of... whatever it was Asuka was discussing with it in that strange language.
Kajiwara glances at Asuka, then realizes what she is trying to do. Also in Tien, he says, "One of our companions, Ameiko Kaijitsu, fell under some strange spell as we approached this castle. We had hoped to find the cause of the spell here, and to lift it from her. I am her cousin, Kajiwara Shogahiro. We have defeated the oni who claimed this castle for his own. Will you treat with us, and give us the honor of your name?" He offers a formal bow of introduction to the spirit.
The creature stares at Asuka, her words falling on deaf ears at the undead creature raises his weapon to attack.
Ruka instantly recognizes the man from an old portrait that Ameiko kept around that her father had commissioned. She stammers "Grandfather? Grandfather Rokuru?"
The creature's eyes bulge and he freezes motionless at Ruka and Kajiwara words. He lowers his sword, then says in a mournful voice in his native tongue "Rokuro ... I ... know ... This ... name."
A moment later, he raises his arms and cries out in anguish, then turns to face you, tears of dust running down his incorporeal cheeks. He says again in the foreign tongue "Take the Seal away from here—take it to my child—it is no longer safe—and I am no longer worthy of guarding it..."
As it does this, then with another agonized cry, flies apart into dust and is destroyed. A shockwave explodes from the dust and knocks all of you off your feet to the ground, but otherwise doesn't inflict any serious harm.
Inside the third vault are three beautiful darkwood chests, all three locked and after a brief check you verify you do not possess the keys.
Standing, Kajiwara dusts himself off. "Well, that was...an experience. Ruka, are you alright, having seen the ghost of your grandfather?"
Looking at the locks, he says, "We can try to break them, or if someone can pick the locks, that would help, too."
"Wow, what just happened? Who was that? What did he say? What did you say to him? Where did he go?" Lor-Sinn is briefly relieved that they won't have to fight the spooky ghost, but then immediately overwhelmed with curiosity about the whole incident as they pick themselves off the ground and dust themselves off.
Looking at the chests, the paladin cocks their head to one side. "Break them? That would be a shame, they're pretty."
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Ruka goes to work on the locks on the chests.
The first darkwood chest contains two items, a polished, masterfully-carved longbow sits in the chest, its shaft carved from the wood of a peach tree. Sitting beneath the bow is a beautifully crafted darkly colored longsword of cold iron. +1 composite longbow (2 str) and a +1 cold iron longsword.
The second chest contains a quiver with an image of a fox's head carries a complement of 50 yellow-tipped arrows, and next to it sits a 12-inch iron bar lined with small plates and spikes. Separate from the arrows and bar sits a pile of several scrolls, bundled up in a fine red cloak lined with mink fur. A quiver of 50 +1 arrows, a traveler's any-tool, a +1 cloak of resistance, scroll of fireball, scroll of glitterdust, scroll of haste, scroll of see invisibility, scroll of hypnotic pattern.
The third one contains a stone statuette of a dragon. This is, however, the last thing everyone sees before a bright green light pulses and explodes from the box with tremendous force, flying into the air and around the room. It begins to pulse as green magic flares throughout the room, and washes over the party. The force of magic crashing into your bodies is enough to lift you off your feet, and send you into unconsciousness...
---------------------
Visions flood into you where your consciousness once was. Visions of far-off lands where spirits walk with men and honor is stronger than steel. It is pristine, beautiful... and being overrun by abominations in human and more eldritch forms. A storm of blood rages in the skies, and demons stampede from the forests, trampling countless innocents underneath their heels. Their weapons and armor are strange, exotic, and wielded with deadly efficiency.
The vision blurs together before coalescing into a new one... a young man dressed in royal robes stands over a simple well, his yojimbo vigilantly watching. A psychotic grin breaks out on the yojimbo's face, and he grows three times in size. His armor stretches and shifts before your eyes, transforming into an o-yoroi crafted of the finest jade. It menaces with spikes of steel and rage. The demon draws a mighty katana and drives it through the young man's back. Betrayal.
The vision ends as a new one begins, this one of a young Tian man holding a sheathed katana out before him. A proud ancestral weapon, being sold to a richly dressed Ulfen for a bag of gold. A pittance, some would say. But it's enough to buy their escape.
The vision shifts into a new one... this one of Ameiko. No longer asleep, possessed and shivering in a humble Varisian caravan, but hale and hearty. She rises from her sleep... dressed in finery worthy of an empress, and sitting upon a most magnificent jade throne.
As the visions fade, your minds are imparted with new knowledge. You all recognized the land invaded by fiends as Minkai and you know that the man murdered by the jade warrior was Emperor Shigure of Minkai. You know that Ameiko Kaijitsu's true family name is Amatatsu, one of the five royal families of Minkai-indeed, the last surviving royal family. You recognize the young Tian man with the sword as Ameiko's grandfather, Rokuro Kaijitsu, formerly Amatatsu Tsutoku, selling the family's legendary sword Suishen to the Ulfen merchant Fynn Snaevald in the city of Kalsgard to finance his family's flight and exile. You know that Suisen is intelligent and can impart much more knowledge of the Amatatsu family's legacy if recovered. Further, you know that Ameiko herself is the heir of her line. Finally, you come to realize all of the powers of the Amatatsu Seal (dragon statuette) and its warding box-including the danger of leaving the warding box open, which would allow the enemies of the Amatatsu family to once more track the Amatatsu Seal.
Aura strong (all schools); CL 20th
Slot none; Weight -
This stone statuette of a dragon is one of five royal seals of Minkai, and represents the Amatatsu family's divine right to rule the empire of Minkai. Should no Amatatsus of pure blood be able to take up that charge, however, the Amatatsu Seal can invest the right to rule as an Amatatsu in any number of living humanoid hosts. These Amatatsu scions often experience a series of visions of the past, present, and possible future.
The Amatatsu Seal has a daily allotment of 5 charges that it can use to cast the following spells on an Amatatsu scion: cure serious wounds, remove curse, remove disease, or restoration. Each casting uses up 1 daily charge. Alternatively, the seal can cast heal on an Amatatsu scion, but doing so expends all 5 charges. Finally, and only at the seal's discretion, it can cast resurrection on an Amatatsu scion, but doing so renders its spellcasting powers useless for a month.
The Amatatsu Seal itself radiates strong magic, and those with the proper resources can sense this magic across oceans and continents, allowing it to be tracked across any distance. Originally meant to allow its rightful owners the ability to track it if stolen, this feature makes it dangerous to remove the seal from its warding box, for as long as the warding box is open, the oni of the Five Storms can track it.
One final ward exists on the Amatatsu Seal, confounding attempts to whisk it quickly away from its homeland but also making returning a stolen seal home an arduous task. The Amatatsu Seal can never be transported by teleportation magic or dimensional travel. It cannot be taken from the Material Plane save via special portals blessed by the gods, and character who carry the seal cannot cast or otherwise use teleportation effects.
Aura strong abjuration; CL 20th
Slot none; Weight 5 lbs.
A warding box is a powerful magical container built to obscure and confound any attempt to locate objects kept inside. The box can hold one object no large than 8 inches x 8 inches x 3 inches (or up to 25 pounds) in each of its three compartments at any one time. The box's lid and additional compartments are sealed, but the box can be opened or closed as a full-round action. While the lid is closed, the warding box and all objects inside it are protected from all divination spells. In this state, no divination spell save for those employed by the gods can detect the warding box or its contents.
The visions fading, Kajiwara blinks twice, then steps forward and closes the lid of the Warding Box. "Best we not leave this open for too long. However, this may be what we need to cure Ameiko. We should return to the caravan as quickly as possible."
Stunned and overwhelmed by all these revelations, Lor-Sinn sits up, gaze unfocused and blinking slowly. At last, the paladin finds some words.
"Ruka, your family... Shall we call you Ruka Amatatsu now? Your Highness? If Ameiko is an empress, that makes you a princess!" The tiefling scrambles to their feet in sudden urgency. "Ameiko! We need to go heal her right away, and tell her the news!
Asuka is absolutely stunned by the visions as she tries to remember every single detail of the scenes as best she can. The second she has her wits again, she begins writing furiously, noting down everying in as complete a form as she can.
"That was SO COOL. Secret royalty??? That's such a great plotline! I couldn't have come up with something better myself." She pats Ruka on the shoulder. "Ruka-hime, I knew you were the coolest!"
Knocked back and now coughing on the floor, it was honestly less so the bodily impact than the mental blow that had young Sam reeling. Minkai? The land overrun with fiends? The ghost was Ruka's grandpa Rokuro Kaijitsu - no, Amatatsu? Which was also imperial family line? Which in turn meant that Ruka and Ameiko were royalty? A talking sword? What? Terribly clever as he supposedly was, the wizard still had trouble parsing all this information. Especially so in understanding where said information had even come from.
And yet one bit stood out to him, really the only one that mattered at the moment: this strange dragon seal held fantastically potent curative powers. And that was what Ameiko needed right now. Willfully grabbing hold of his inquisitive nature - currently scrambling to piece all this disparate data together - and wrangling it down for now, Samton told himself that this was enough for now.
"*Cough!* R-right!" he nodded to Lor-Sinn suggestion for the same and climbed to his feet. "We should get this thing to Ms Kaijitsu quick as we can." He moved forward to grab pick up the statuette and its box, some reverence for the artifact nevertheless slipping into his tense bearing.
Signe is blown away with all the information that she seems to, somehow, understand some of.
"So this is your Ameiko, you never said she was an Empress before?" Signe says with amusement. "Thats not something you just don't mention, so either she hid it from you for some reason, or doesn't know herself?" She asks, slightly undiplomatically.
This artefact does seem like an interesting object however. She looks at Asuka as she exclaims her excitement. "Theres even an ulfen in that story of yours - couldn't be an better!" She adds with a laugh. "Perhaps I should write up a song about this if it is as epic as it sounds. I'd be interested in joining you all if you'd have me?"
Signe doesn't mention that she doesn't have many other options, but cannot help but hope the group will have her.
Ruka is speechless as well, trying to process the amount of unbelievable information that was just relayed to her. She agrees "We need to get this to Ameiko right away."
To Signe, she nods "Of course we'll have you. Now grab a hold of the other side of this chest and let's go!"
Scrambling out of Brinewall, you make your retreat to the caravan to share the news. When you arrive however, everyone is abuzz. It seems Ameiko has woken up and is very excitable. Everyone has struggled to keep her in bed, worried that she might hurt herself with too much activity so quickly after waking from her stupor. You can hear the energetic murmurs of conversation. Ameiko is sitting on the steps of Koya's wagon, her face pale and her expression one of shock and bewilderment. The entire caravan appears to be gathered around her, Sandru sitting next to her and Koya looks on from her wagon's door.
The young bardess looks up as the party approaches, and for a moment she's speechless. "...there you guys are. I just woke up from the craziest dream. I-"
She pauses looking at Signe, "Uhm. Hello? Who's this?"
"Ameiko! You're awake! We had the wildest adventure! This is Signe, she's coming with us to get your sword. She also sings, perhaps the two of you can trade tips! Anyway, there was this faerie who had lost their master, then we went into a big castle full of bird people, we met this harpy that later betrayed us, but then we killed her, and we chased her ex all over the place until we killed him too, then there was this thing with lots of tentacles that shot fire, but we killed that one as well, oh! and the two big brothers that are fighting each other forever, we left them alone so I think they're still fighting, but we fought another big one and freed Signe, that was before the tentacle thing, by the way..." She takes a breath and continues. "And then we got into the secret vault and we all had a vision! Ameiko, you are the empress! Did you know that? And there's some demons that are attacking your land, we have to go and fight them, they're hurting people!"
Kajiwara was impressed with Lor-Sinn's summary of events - although some details needed to be clarified. He said, "For further information, it appears that the Oni of the Five Storms were responsible for the slaughter here, and they left behind one of their number in charge of the castle - the harpy's 'ex' as Lor-Sinn described him. He also had command of an army of creatures called Corbies, who appeared to worship the demon lord Pazuzu. The oni was difficult to hunt down, as he frequently fled, but we eventually did so and slew him. The tentacle creature was a decapus that appeared to have some fiendish ancestry, proving to be quite a challenging foe. We also managed to put the spirit of your grandfather, Rokuro, to rest. Sam has something for you."
Kajiwara motions to Sam to give Ameiko the box.
Signe grins and offers a hand to shake to the woman she recognises from the vision.
"A fellow musician, Im charmed to meet you!" She says simply, leaving the others to reconcile with who is clearly a close friend. She quickly makes herself comfortable on a step and watches on as Sam hands over the box.
"Sam has something for you." Kajiwara motions to Sam to give Ameiko the box.
"Huh?"
Even putting aside Lor-Sinn's shambolic snafu of a summary, the young wizard was just a bit flummoxed at seeing the object of all their worries up and running. Wait, Ameiko was fine? When had that happened? He couldn't help but feel both foolish and ashamed; not only had their desperate quest to save the woman apparently been for naught, not only had it been completely unnecessary, but he had even been readying himself for her demise in their failure. It was something of a whiplash to see her hale and hearty, to say the least.
Though a very welcome one, of course, relief and happiness burying these sensations within Samton's mind. "Uh, right! W-well, we'd hoped that it could be used to cure you, but..." He held out the box housing its much desired treasure. "T-this belongs to you, I guess. Being the proof of rule for the Amatatsu line. Being the last royal family of Minkai. Being you."
Boy, this was weird. He'd always held a great deal of respect for the woman in growing up, but Sam had never had the inclination to bow before her until now. "A-although you may just want to take our word for it!" he added, suddenly remember. "We have an inkling that opening the box may, uh, attract the aforementioned fiends. Something about them sensing the seal. Not sure how that works yet."
From being deathly ill to hunted by a cabal of fiends? The situation wasn't actually much improved, the young man's rational head reasoned. But he didn't pay it too much heed. Not now. For now he was just glad that Ameiko was alive. "V-very nice to have you back by the way, Ms Kaijitsu," he smiled.
Asuka rushes up to Ameiko and gives her a powerful hug. "Kaijitsu-sensei! I am so beyond glad that you are okay. We went on an adventure! And it looks like we are all going on another." She pulls Ameiko even tighter before finally letting go. "Oh, it's all so exciting, isn't it? So cool! I knew you were a hero, Ameiko. This is just like all the stories! You're a secret princess!"
Much discussion ensues.
Ameiko greets the newcomers, both Signe and the 3 foot tall winged female Azata named Spivey who is delighted that you have finally cleansed the castle of those nasty birds. She asks to join your group, if you'll have her.
As the caravan begins to discuss the new information that your party has uncovered, it becomes clear to you what your next task is - Kalsgard. Sandru sets his sights on the road ahead and immediately goes to work planning a route for the caravan.
Now that Ameiko's significance has been made clear to her, she announces that she will no longer be accompanying the group on excursions away from Ameiko. She must ensure her sister's safety and dedicates herself as her personal protector, much to Ameiko's dismay.
Ameiko is overwhelmed with all of this new information and deals with this stress in the only way she knows how, by cooking up dinner for everyone and then putting on a performance while they eat. She asks Signe to join her, letting her showcase some of her talents.
After the meal, Sandru unfolds his map where he's already highlighted his route. He walks you all through his projected travel plans ""We're leaving Brinewall here and heading towards Kalsgard here. That puts us passing through the Nolands and entering the Lands of the Linnorm Kings. There should be a trade route somewhere near here, a dwarven mine called Kopparberget at the city of Jol. We'll continue north into the Grungir Forest before crossing the eastern neck of the Grungir until we reach the bridge to Losthome, here. At this point our route follows this western bank of the Thundering River as it meanders north, connecting the many small settlements and steadings in here that stand upon the river’s banks. At the confluence of the Thundering and Rimeflow rivers here, the trade route branches again, see. One trail crossing the Skalsbridge and heading northeast toward Trollheim while the other continues along the Rimeflow to Kalsgard. We'll move off towards Kalsgard and hopefully find what we're looking for."
Looking at the map he scratches his head "The total distance from Brinewall to Kalsgard is about 450 miles and take us another two to three weeks, depending on the weather. We'll pack up and leave at first light."
Kajiwara nods. "Very well. We should keep watch tonight, in case something evil is attracted to our opening of the warding box. I'll go first."
Sitting on a fallen tree, chin in their hands and elbows resting on their knees, Lor-Sinn's eyes are practically shining as Sandru describes their itinerary.
"So many names! It sounds like a story!" Words start rolling off, the tiefling drawing out the syllables as if savouring them. "Grun-girrr Forrest. Thunnn-derrring Rrriverrr. Jowl. Skalsssbrrridge. Trrrrollllheimmm."
They turn their bright gaze to Sandru. "Have you ever been to these places? What are they like? Are there really trolls in Trollheim? Will it be cold?"
At Kajiwara's mention of standing guard, the paladin is shaken out of their reverie. "Right, keep watch. I can go after you."