GM Batpony's Season of Ghosts

Game Master Batpony

Minor retro now that we know Senko was one of the chidren that helped Jubei with the 'bond familiar' ritual Jubei thought they were doing instead of it actually being an awaken ritual.

Zhēnzǐ looks up at Senko and smiles at her as she approaches. He raises his right hand up towards her, as a large ripe (placeholder for Senko's favorite fruit) (Fresh Produce) appears in his hand, "Welcome home, Senko! More help would be foolish to decline, and even more foolish to decline your skills. How did your training go? Glad we were able to help Nadoya."

Zhēnzǐ does not know the names of the victims that the long-necked man killed, but not wanting to suggest Yuli might be one of the victims, (Zhēnzǐ's Int flaw: during this moment in time he forgot the victims were already identified) he adds, "We will find Yuli so she can tell us what happened to her."

Zhēnzǐ notices Senko's polearm is...trembling? He wonders if Senko has a familiar on her that is climbing up the weapon that is causing it to move some. "Does your new friend prefer fruits or nuts?" he asks Senko, his eyes looking at the naginata expecting to see what or who is apparently making her polearm appear restless, and wondering if Senko has acquired another squirrel friend...

For quite a long while, Lady Lao was bargaining with Shinzo to get the best price possible on the collected loot and on a +1 Potency Rune. After much wheedling and cajoling, the former noble had finally acquired her prize and convinced Jubei to apply the rune for her at no cost, as well as transfer the +1 rune on the Spear to another weapon at a later date.

The commotion and cawing coming from her back startled Lady Lao. Looking back, the Noblewoman witnessed a scruffy looking female Tengu with a wicked looking Polearm approach...and start exchanging friendly words with Zhenzi.

Lady Lao lets out an exhale. At least this bird seemed friendly, even if her tact and diplomacy left something to be desired. The Thaumaturge consults the Willowshore Chronicles to figure out who this person is...

Esoteric Lore to RK on Senko for the fun of it, Tome: 1d20 + 8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 8 + 1 = 14

"Ah! You must be Seeker Shamira, the Shrine Maiden. Despite your lack of introduction, fortunately I happen to keep track of the people in town. I am Lady Lao." The older woman proffers a shallow bow to the flustered flock of feathers and waits for a sign of respect - as Lady Lao no doubt believes that she's owed from a junior.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Senko crouches to speak with her squirrel friend. "Zhēnzǐ! thank the thundering lord you're okay! Oh, and Yuli is okay, I have just come from Nadoya's. I'm just... angry, at the situation."

Senko pulls out a small pocket knife and begins carving segments from the peach given to her, placing the slices into her beak one by one. While an awkward way for tengu to eat the fleshy fruit, it was drilled into her not to 'peck' at her food, should humans might look down on her for bad table manners.

"And thank you for the peach. I, um, can't remember the last time I stopped to eat."

Senko continues excitedly telling Zhēnzǐ of Sensei Ren in the secluded mountains, where she can train and pray to Hei Feng relatively safely. Confused by Zhēnzǐ's comment at first, she explains the divine spark.

"Oh the naginata? Well, Sensei Ren was able to teach me how to manipulate my divine spark. He helped me make this, to channel the might given to me by Hei Feng."

So the Exemplar/ikon power is technically from the "war god"/it is your own divine linage. But I think Senko would believe it was from Hei Feng, regardless of how she got it.

She held out the naginata, and showed Zhēnzǐ the ribbons and bells attached to the haft. "I'm still new to it, but um well... the naginata itself seeks to consume violence. Its okay now, but it can get quite animated. Maybe it too seeks justice for Yuli."

To Lady Lao The feathers on her neck bristled at the wrong name. Still crouching, Senko turned her head and scowled. "Its Senko."

Remembering herself, Senko stood up, and apologised. "I am sorry, that was uncalled for. Yes, I am Seeker Senko." The corvid girl then bowed a little bit deeper than Lady Lao to show proper respect after her initial rudeness.

*Fanfare* Senko has joined your party

Wait wait! Yuli is not okay lol. She is missing, and the last people that saw her is the party. But that aside, the party seeing her last is the only lead you have for Yuli's disappearance. But now comes the fun part, it's fairly open world. There is obvious ones like the immediate request from the town council for the group to seek help from Karahai, there's also going back to visit any potential leads about Ugly-Cute, and general downtime activities.

I've also uploaded the map of the general area for your reference so you know where Karahai is, give or take, it's an hour of travel time per hex with typical exploration activity.

Wait wait! Yuli is not okay lol. She is missing, and the last people that saw her is the party.

Oops, I got confused! However, I mentioned it in both posts - so I'm going to make the most of my personal confusion. I mean Senko is a little bit distraught/visibly disorientated, so I'll retro my last post to make it make sense.

so this...

Breathing a sigh of relief, Senko crouches to speak with her squirrel friend. "Zhēnzǐ! thank the thundering lord you're okay! Oh, and Yuli is okay, I have just come from Nadoya's. I'm just... angry, at the situation."

now becomes this...

Breathing a sigh of relief, Senko crouches to speak with her squirrel friend. "Zhēnzǐ! thank the thundering lord you're okay! But um, find Yuli? I have just come from Nadoya's. I'm sure..."

Senko trails off. Maybe she didn't speak with Yuli. She could have sworn she at least saw Yuli, didn't she? But she is hesitant to let the others see fault in her.

"Yes, Nadoya told me she was missing. We must find her."

Since I've only just come in, I'll let others lead on where we go next.

"Ah, my apologies, Seeker Senko. In my advanced age I forget things sometimes."

Lady Lao pulls out a map, showing the local area and a path towards Karahai.

"While it's true that we saw Young Miss Yuli, we have no idea where she went after freeing her from the evil invaders in the village. Right now, we are spending the day preparing for an excursion towards Karahai, in the hopes of getting help. Maybe we will encounter Young Miss Yuli along the way..." She begins to explain to the newcomer.

Lady Lao extends a wrinkled finger and traces a path up north. "I reckon we travel north along the Duyue River and then cut across the forest through the closest dotted line. It would take 10 hours of travel to make it to Karahai this way, so pack your bags for an overnight stay when we get there."

Later, after the path has been determined for the next day.

Lady Lao stares at Seeker Senko's Naginata. "Hmm...It's clearly magical, but unenhanced. Seeker Senko, may I make a suggestion? Enhance it with a potency rune while the merchant Shinzo is still here. We have the gold to pay for it, so long as you can offer your services as a warrior."

I'm suggesting that we liquidate all the gold (except for the items we individually claim in the Google Sheet) so that we can purchase a +1 rune for Seeker Senko, then distribute the 10gp remaining among the 5 of us equally.

I'm ok with that. We want our melee very potent.

Being distracted by all the villagers excitement, Jing takes a while to notice the newcomer. He finally approaches and says "Oh, hi! I'm Jing. I like your feathers!" He is a bit worried that Lady Lao has invited this tengu to accompany them. He was already feeling at ease with the group to show his true kitsune form. Now he's going to pose as a human all the way again.

Zhēnzǐ hasn't posted the alternate path in the gameplay, but I am assuming its similar to the one GM Batpony posted. Having just trekked back to the village, Senko is keenly aware of the dangers outside. She would be voting for whichever route is safest.

So after all options are heard

"I have just travelled through the forest from the west. There is a lot of spiritual energy at the moment. I think it wise to keep to the safest routes, and preferably stay outside the forest as much as possible. Perhaps even, it may be worth renting horses to hasten the journey."

in response to the potency rune, I am very willing to take it so long as no one else wants it!

"Thank you for the offer. If everyone is agreeable, I would gladly take it."

Senko bows deeply to Lady Lao again. Having realised how fortunate she was after getting away with the first slip up, she wasn't keen on pushing her luck. Especially when she is offering a free rune.

To Jing

Senko tucks a feather behind her ear and giggles."Thankyou, it is nice to know Tengu feathers are appreciated sometimes."

When Senko took out a knife to cut the peach...

"You have to each that larger peach fast before.." Zhēnzǐ tells Senko as Senko swallows the fourth slice she cut from it, and the remaining peach in her hand quickly withers down to a smaller-sized peach.

re: Fresh Produce: With GM's approval, as long as you eat some of it on before Zhēnzǐ's next turn starts, you gain the healing and Void Damage Resistance benefits.

@GM: for the 'wither's away (using the losing importance/vitality part of the definition for wither) is it good to go with the fruit/nut/vegetable simply shrinks down in size to a typical normal-sized version of the food?

Zhēnzǐ looks up at Lady Lao's suggestion of a route that will added needless travel time to reach Karahai, "Lady Lao, why do you want us to take a longer and more dangerous route to get to Karahai?"

Zhēnzǐ then looks up at Jing when his words make it seem as if he has never met Senko before, "Jing, you know Senko. Like you, she was there the night the Great Willow woke me up from being a regular squirrel. Maybe you don't recognize her because she has been away from Willowshore for a long time."

In response to talk of some of the party coin going to make Senko's weapon even more potent, "Sounds good to me."

"Lady Lao, I am sure Jubei will transfer the rune from the spear to your warhammer. Senko, Jubei can etch the rune we purchase onto your naginata," he tells the front-liners of the group.

He then looks back at Senko, "Jubei give me some metal which Tian-Zhe is using to craft some metal hazelnuts I can practice juggling with." He then gets a mixture of sadness and guilt on his face, "Jubei told me she does not want me creating normal hazelnuts in her study anymore."

He conjures up three hazelnuts and starts juggling them, but fails in his attempt to juggling more than two of them, so he eats one of the two he was successfully juggling, then picks up the dropped one and resumes juggling with just two hazelnuts. Anyone looking at the gnawed nut shavings by his feet can easily grasp why Jubei told him to stop creating hazelnuts in her study.

As Zhēnzǐ tells Jing that he knows Senko, he raises one eyebrow. He smiles and says "Oh, sure, of course!" He thinks "One, I'm going to have to tell Zhēnzǐ that I was drunk that day, and may not remember all the details of his awakening... Not today, though..."

He adds to the discussion "I agree with Zhēnzǐ, let's take the shorter route!"

re: Fresh Produce: With GM's approval, as long as you eat some of it on before Zhēnzǐ's next turn starts, you gain the healing and Void Damage Resistance benefits.

@GM: for the 'wither's away (using the losing importance/vitality part of the definition for wither) is it good to go with the fruit/nut/vegetable simply shrinks down in size to a typical normal-sized version of the food?

As far as I'm aware RAW, as long as you eat it before it withers you gain it's benefits. My interpretation of wither is that it shrivels and is no longer consumable. I mean given it did not grow by normal means, it makes sense to me that the fruits doesn't sustain itself after one round.

Assuming everyone is Ok, we'll presume everyone does some downtime / shopping for day 3, and start early day 4 with the road towards Karahai, generally following the red path.