[PBP GAMEDAY XIV] Hmm's 6-05 Silver Bark, Golden Blades (Inactive)

Game Master Hmm

Having received a summons from Venture-Captain Amara Li, you have all spent the night in the Three Gates Lodge of Kayajima, Minkai. Kayajima is a tidal island*, connected to the mainland at low tide and separated by water at high tide. The Three Gates Lodge is elegant, with gardens that have winding paths, a burbling creek, a meditation area, a library, and rooms for training and meditation. The rice paper walls are thin, and can be opened to let in the breezes from outside.

In an hour or so, it will be time for your breakfast mission briefing with Venture-Captain Amara Li.** But for the moment, you have a little bit of time this morning to explore, meet each other and talk.

__________

* This is Hmm's head cannon to explain certain lore inconsistencies in the maps and prior descriptions of the 'island' of Kayajima.

** This is a PBP GAMEDAY XIV adventure, and so our official start will be September 3rd, 2025. I won't be running official box text for the scenario until that point. But you are all welcome to get in some pre-gameday roleplay until then.

A small kobold with brassy scales heads up to the Three Gates Lodge. Seeing that he's early, he heads to the marketplace to do some shopping (more like browsing). As he looks over the various wares, he contemplates how far he's come in the Pathfinder Society that his cousin Jinlong suggested he join. From the adventures his cousin told him about, Huang-Tong Dragonkin (aka HT to his smoothscale friends) dreams of making his mark on this world as well.

Sighing, he wonders where his best friend, Vermithor, is off to...

The calm of the Three Gates Lodge is broken as it has been for the past day by the grunting and yelling from the bronze-scaled kobold who arrived yesterday. He seemed overly excited from his ferry trip, shouting that he wanted to ride the boat again, before tromping off to the room he was shown.

Now the kobold was running up and down the winding path, leaping over small bushes, and making dragon roaring sounds. No matter how many times he was shown the training rooms, he made his way back outside to terrorize the garden paths. At least this was preferable to him slamming the rice paper walls back and forth, which occupied him for an hour last evening.

HT happily heads back to the Three Gates Lodge only to hear roaring sounds coming from the gardens. Thinking that the voice sounds familiar, HT heads to the back to investigate. He steps out onto a garden path and sees a blur of bronze heading straight for him. "Vermithor?! Is that you?!" he asks in wonder...

Actually it came out more like "Vermi- ooooof!" as the bronze blur that is Vermithor Dragonkin crashes into him and sends both kobolds crashing into the path in a tangle of arms, legs and tails...

Vermithor rises from the incredibly textbook form tackle and roars into the air, raising his arms above him in victory. He looks down suddenly realizing who it was. "Huang Tong! What are you doing here?!" He bearhugs his fellow dragon so tightly Huang Tong has trouble breathing.

"Did you take the boat here? Wasn't that fun?"

"Meeeek! cough-cough-cough-wheeze Let me breathe, Vermithor!" HT gasps as his friend squeezes him breathless.

HT takes a deep breath to clear his lungs. "Yes, I did take the boat. It was exciting! So when did you get here? I got in just a bit before sunrise." He takes in another breath of the clean air. "I wonder what our mission is today?"

A tengu with unusual white plumage, pale beak, and red eyes looks up from his needlework as the two kobolds crash into one another. He observes the pair from under his broad, straw hat. Then he makes a mental notation that two kobolds are quieter than one apparently bored kobold.

The embroidery needle twitches in his talons. Brown thread outlines the shape of a sailing vessel. More complete sections on his robe depict imagery of storms, a white tengu walking a mountain path, a jungle with an orange, prowling cat, and the same distinctive tengu being confronted by the cat.

He glances in the direction of the coast.

HT blinks as he notices the movement. He realizes that they were, in fact, not alone in the garden. "Hello? I did not see you there." HT heads over, brushing dust from his scales, restoring them to their normally brassy sheen. "Well met. I am Huang Tong Dragonkin! I am named after the famous Pathfinder Adventurer Jinlong Dragonkin, who happens to be my cousin! Who might you be? Have you been here long?"

”Well met, indeed,” the white tendu says, cocking his head to observe the kobold directly. ”I am Leiting Zhi Ge, but you may—and will find it easier—to call me Rations.” He chuckles to himself and gazes to the side thoughtfully. He sets down his needle and thread so as to not be rude and returns his attention to Huang Tong.”My companion and I arrived last night. He is off tormenting the sea birds while I await our assignment.”

A orange tabby catfolk stomped in. He wears a breast plate and legging but no helmet. He has a scar down his right eye and a tattoo of a fairly large bird on his left arm. "No luck Rations, the birds were to quick so you'll have to cook me lunch or else."

”Of course, Boris,” the tengu rises and bows to the amurrun. He collects his things and turns to go, then pauses. He turns back and says with a considering drawl, ”Though, on consideration, the Venture-Captain is likely to provide refreshment. That is likely to be tastier than my fare. If we were to wait, we could get to know our new friends.” He gestures with his embroidery hoop toward the two kobolds.

The bronze-scaled kobold comes up behind Huang Tong, clearly trying to stand at his full height -- about 3 feet, 1 inch -- among the taller companions. "And I am Vermithor Dragonkin! I, too, took my name from Jinlong Dragonkin, who taught me about the ferocity of the dragon!"

He glances over to Ration's embroidery and his eyes widen. "Are you making a boat? Do you like boats? I only recently sailed in one, but they are so fun!"

"Ah! There you are!" A tall, slender Tengu woman in plain black robes that match her feathers glances at all of you, slightly disapprovingly. "Are you going to keep Venture-Captain Amara waiting for her breakfast meeting? Off with you now! Shoo!" The tengu woman, whose name is Kukuha, escorts you briskly to a room with one open wall overlooking the gardens, where Amara Li awaits you.

"Ah, just the four Pathfinders that I was looking for. Come, sit." Amara Li gestures around her where a simple breakfast of hot dumplings and tea is waiting.

“I need you to investigate something for me,” Amara Li says as she pours golden buckwheat tea into simple yet elegant cups. “Despite the vast and somewhat dangerous wilderness that surrounds it, the Spirit Road is the lifeblood of trade between Hongal and Minkai, and now it has been inexplicably blocked.” She pauses. “The Forest of Spirits is home to departed souls and kami, the spiritual guardians of the forest. Travelers through this region rarely dare to stray from the road for fear of offending either.”

She passes the cups along the table, and then continues. “Some merchants that I hired to transport goods to Hongal reported that a thick and disorienting fog laid across their route. One woman told me that she heard howling ghosts when she tried to enter, and another was bitten by relentless tiny teeth. The merchants soon found themselves leaving the fog where they had entered. Shaken by this experience, they turned around and reported back here.” Amara Li sighs. “There is another group of merchants who left from Hongal, and have not been seen since, and other merchants coming from Minkai have reported being unable to pass through."

Earlier...

"Yes, we were also involved in this massive bar fight. Vermithor here was stupendous!" HT bows to Boris, "Well met, Boris. You like birds? Wait, to eat?!" His gaze apprehensively flits back and forth between Boris and Rations. He also wonders whether he and Vermithor are going to have to separate the pair should Boris try to eat the tengu...

Now...

HT bristles slightly at being told to 'shoo!' He IS a Dragon after all. However, he calms down and follows the tengu to the room where the Venture Captain is waiting. He does, however, make sure that Vermithor is following him...

Sitting and having some tea, he listens intently to the Venture-Captain's briefing.

“It is always hard to map a region as ever-changing as the Forest of Spirits,” Amara continues, “but consider this as close an approximation as we can get.” Amara unrolls a delicately painted map. “As you can see, the Spirit Road connects Minkai to Hongal along the peninsula's southwestern coastline. The largest settlement on the Spirit Road is the village of Ohira, right at the delta of the Bunkatsu river. But crossing the Bunkatsu at this time of year is dangerous, so most merchant caravans take their heavy wagons to the crossing slightly north of the Spirit Road at the bridge that leads to the tiny village of Silvertree.” Amara taps her finger on the dot representing the village.

“There seems something sinister to this strange and persistent fog. We think the source of the fog must be somewhere near one of these two villages and the Bunkatsu river. With so many of my experienced agents dealing with literal fallout of Godsrain, I'm hoping that you can investigate the phenomenon and tell us what we need to do to end it.”

Amaral Li turns to you, expectantly. "Do you have any questions for me?"

"Should be straightforward. Dragons are good at investigating things" HT says thoughtfully.

"Our investigation begins at Silverbark? What are the folk there like?" Rations asks.

"What are these Kami? Could they be responsible for the fog and the little tiny teeth? Perhaps they are restless or just having some fun."

Amara Li nods to the white-feathered Emergency Rations. "Your investigation will likely be somewhere near Ohira and Silvertree. From what I've heard from travelers, most of the villagers are halflings and tengu, and their primary businesses are fishing, tofu, and providing services for the merchant caravans that pass through."

"Kami are nature spirits and guardians and guides to the those who have passed from this life, providing them guidance and purpose," she responds to Vermithor. “The Forest of Spirits is the repository of most of the world's kami. Every village has its own guardian kami. Talk to them and see if they know anything of this phenomenon. I don't know if they could create the fog, or the teeth, but they might know what is happening in their forest.”

"*Squawk!*" Rations shakes his head and ruffles his white feathers. "Silvertree, yes. Silvertree."

Boris stuffs his faces with dumplings."mmmdismmismmgoo" He swallows."But seagull is better."he mumbles looking longingly.

HT can't help but look mischievously at Vermithor. "Are you saying that a brave Dragon such as yourself is afraid of little tiny teeth? I'd say you have bigger teeth than most tiny critters..."

HT also glances nervously at Boris, who appears to be busy stuffing his face, but is also glancing longingly at Rations.

Amara Li taps Huang Tong on the nose with her fan. "None of that, now."

“Travel time from one end of the Spirit Road to the other takes a few weeks, so we believe this problem started slightly over three weeks ago.” Amara Li raises an eyebrow. "So the sooner we get started finding the cause of this problem, the better."

HT looks embarrassed. "Apologies Venture-Captain," he says humbly, "I could not resist."

Amara Li nods to all of you. "I've provided you with a standard set of provisions for the long journey: a pair of horses, a wagon loaded with food, water, a repair kit, and a map of Minkai and the Forest of Spirits, including the only settlements along the Spirit Road."

Boris remembers hearing a few things about the Forest of Spirits. He knows that the most common threats found in the Forest of Spirits are bandits, oni, fey, and wild animals. If the balance of the forest has been upset, even kami and nature spirits can become aggressive and attack.

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★

The journey from the Three Gates Lodge in Kayajima through the Osogen Grasslands is chilly but scenic, with brisk winds blowing through the swaying plants of the prairie and mountains soaring to either side of the plain. Along the way, friendly nomads and hearty herdsmen wave from a distance.

One man approaches you on horseback. "Travelers! Have you heard the news? The spirit road is closed!"

"Ahhhh!" Vermithor shows what big teeth he has. "I did not say I wouldn't try to bite them back!"

He looks up at Amara Li. "We have to travel the whole road? That will take forever!"

Before

Amara Li nods sagely to Vermithor. "The whole road. But at least you will be outside and maybe even get a bandit or two to fight. I'm sure that you will find things to do."

Rations raises a taloned hand in greeting and nods his head to the rider. "We have. Would you have news of what caused the closure?"

"Some terrible fog!" The man sighs. "My wife and I own an inn nearby, and none of the merchant caravans are coming anymore."

"Worry not, good innkeeper! There are two Dragons in this party! We will figure out what is wrong. Don't you worry! The merchants will come again!" HT proclaims.

"Do you know anything about this fog? Has it hurt anyone?" Verminthor squints to look up ahead. "Where does it start?"

"Oh! You're looking into it?" The innkeeper is overcome, and asks you to wait a minute. He gallops away and then comes back a few minutes later with a picnic basket full of bottled beer and homemade dumplings, all still warm. "Have lunch on us, and if you manage to solve this... come back this way and we'll put you up for the night and give you a homemade dinner!"

The innkeeper is too far away from the Forest of Spirits to know much of the fog, other than knowing that none of the normal caravans have been able to penetrate it. He explains that you still have several days journey ahead of you.

Boris looks hungrily at the basket and snatched it. Before anyone can react, he stuffs dumplings in his mouth. With his mouth full, he looks at the man and says, "Doobyoohabammymow?"

Vermithor readily accepts the picnic lunch, eyeing the homemade dumplings. "Thank you! We will toast your hospitality and give you the blessings of the dragon! But one last thing, what can you tell us of the Kami? I am eager to meet one!"

"Manners, Boris. Manners and moderation," Rations says, shaking his head under his straw hat. "If you keep gorging on dumplings, you'll need to roll after the birds."

Boris gives Rations a flat stare, bares his teeth, and growls.

The albino tengu gives everyone else an apologetic bowing shrug.

The innkeeper's wife hurriedly runs up with yet more dumplings for Boris, while the innkeeper thinks a moment. "I only traveled once to the Forest of Spirits myself, but there were kami everywhere. It's truly a magical place."

Once you finish the delicious dumplings and wave farewell to the innkeeper's family, you have several days more on the road. Finally, the northern city of Hokkōshi comes into view. As the last stop for travelers venturing into the Forest of Spirits, Hokkōshi teems with Spirit Road guides and merchant caravans, all glumly stuck in town.

A group from one of the caravans is playing card games, and they look up at you. "The road's closed!" they call out.

"The road is closed, but we are here to, hopefully, open it," Rations says to the caravaners. "We will submit ourselves to the kami."

"We're going to investigate and see what's wrong. Is there anyone who's in charge here?"

"In charge? We're all from different caravans! No one's in charge. But if you're all going to investigate this, huzzah!" The caravaners gather around you, and some even offer to buy you sake.

The merchants clamor to talk to you, telling you stories of the mysterious fog that is blocking all travel across the Bunkatsu river. Most of the merchants and guides are veterans with many prior crossings of the road; none have seen a fog this impenetrable or permanent. They confirm that the fog has blocked all travel for the past month.

Simply out of curiosity, HT accepts a cup of sake from one of the caravaners. He immediately regrets it after almost tipping over once or twice, much to Vermithor's amusement.

"Mek! That stuff's potent! You gotta try some Vinny! That's like the stuff Stella Fane had us drink last month!"

HT and Vermithor did a pub crawl with GM Valen

Boris picks up a little cup and chugs it. An abrupt belch comes from deep within him.

"If there was only a drink to burn this tattoo away," he grunts. And plunges his fist onto the table.

Rations casts a surreptitious, pitying glance at Boris from under the brim of his hat. The tengu refrains from partaking in the sake but is more than happy to engage in storytelling.

Vermithor downs two cups of sale, trying not to cough. "Ah, excellent? This helps build the dragon breath!" He slaps Boris on the back.

Drinks done, the merchants and spirit guides escort you to the very edge of the Forest of Spirits with a hearty cheer, though none dare follow you. Once within the woods, almost all traffic on the Spirit Road dies away, though the sounds of birdsong and skittering wildlife fill the void. Old growth trees enclose the path on both sides, with the occasional a break in the trees revealing a view of the azure seawater of the Sapphire Sound. Down below, waves crash against a rocky shore and the air tastes not just of pine but also of finely misted salt spray.

One by one, snowy squirrel-like creatures with the twitching long ears of rabbits arrive on the path. The squirrel-rabbits watch you with intelligent eyes, always following at a watchful distance. As you travel onward, more and more squirrel-rabbits arrive, skittering overhead from branch to branch or hopping along the sides of the path.

HT gazes at the squirrel-rabbit creatures, amazed, and a little awed. He wonders what they are.

Nature(T): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

Huang Tong comes to the conclusion that the squirrel-rabbits are bouncy. Very bouncy.

Perform (U): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13

As the trees crowd around them, Rations whistles the tune to a folk song as best he can.

He lifts the brim of his hat to squint at the growing pack of snowy squirrels. He pauses the cart and gathers a jar and a dish. He moves to the side of the path and sets out a plate of traveling food.