Shinji had tried to persuade Tomoko to have her fortune told as well, but Tomoko was not interested and walked away. A tall, masked stranger stepped out from the crowd and approached her. “Ah, the lovely and elusive Miss Tomoko Isawa,” he said. “Or Isawa Tomoko, I should say, now that we’re in Minkai.”
The man’s voice did not sound familiar to Tomoko, but it was not entirely unfamiliar either.
“I only ever caught a glimpse of you from a distance,” the man continued. “But I’d like to offer you a flower that has no meaning at all in Minkai.” He bowed, and with a sleight-of-hand trick he produced a red rose seemingly from nowhere and offered it to Tomoko. He started speaking in Varisian. “I would be honoured to have a chance to renew our acquaintance.”
“A glimpse is not enough to count as an acquaintance,” said Tomoko.
“True. But I hope that we can get to know each other better, and perhaps we can also make some mutually beneficial business arrangements. Meanwhile, would you mind telling my friend Soto Sunshuke that I’d like to meet up with him for a chat about old times?”
- The broken statue of the former lord of Enganoka is currently hidden in the caravan.
- The PCs have made contact with ‘Ven’, the tea-shop owner who works as Hatsue’s agent in Kasai. Ven has demonstrated impressive stealth and will be attempting to break into police headquarters to find the files on the missing entertainer.
- Ven has given Olaf instructions for contacting the black market in magic items - this seems likely to be the safest way to acquire a scroll of stone to flesh.
- The regime in Minkai has developed and demonstrated prototype artillery weapons.
- A couple of fortune-tellers have predicted that some of the PCs (Shinji, Olaf and Lahja) will face a difficult decision in about a year’s time.
- One of the fortune-tellers has also lent Lahja a headband of vast intelligence.
- The masked man who gave the rose to Tomoko... was that Jubrayl Vhiski? How did he get here?
In which mirrors become of interest
Tomoko warned Shinji that the man with the rose might have been Jubrayl Vhiski. But as the man had given no information about how he could be contacted, there was nothing Shinji could do about the message except wait. Lahja said that she was going back to the caravan.
“You should go there too,” Tomoko said to Shinji. “Find Ameiko, and explain how you really feel about her.”
“I’ve told you before,” said Shinji. “She must never know.”
“She already knows. Toshi, do you have any potions of disinhibition?”
Toshi looked around at the many nearby stalls selling alcohol.
Tomoko went to the caravan to find Ameiko. By the time Tomoko and Ameiko arrived in the square, Shinji had already consumed a couple of drinks (at least).
“Ameiko,” said Tomoko, “Shinji has something to say to you.”
“When this is all over,” said Shinji, “I think we should get married. If my father was alive, I’d ask him to talk to your father. If he was alive. Is he alive? Everything is hard to remember...” He slumped sideways and lay unconscious on the paving stones.
“Well, that was romantic,” said Ameiko. She turned around and looked at Toshi. “Do you want to go dancing?”
Toshi carried Shinji to an out-of-the-way corner, then joined Ameiko and Tomoko among the crowd of dancers. Some time afterwards, Lahja and Sandru arrived in the square and also joined the dancing - their conversation was somewhat awkward and they had both acquired a tendency to blush at apparently random times, so perhaps Lahja’s talk with Sandru had gone rather better than Shinji’s declaration to Ameiko.
Toshi checked on Shinji every so often to make sure he was still sleeping peacefully, and he helped carry his cousin back to the caravan when the travellers finally decided to call it a night.
Lahja took the headband back to the fortune-teller at dawn and returned to the caravan as Toshi was serving a hearty breakfast and hangover cures. (Azu-Bemphi decided to contribute by breathing euphoria, which helped Shinji to feel happier about his aching head.) A message was delivered to the caravan - apparently the travellers’ tea order had arrived.
So the travellers went to Ven’s teashop. Ven told the travellers that she had successfully sneaked into police headquarters during the night of the festival and borrowed the case notes related to the disappearance of Soseki, the musician who used to be employed at the Imperial Palace. The police had searched Soseki’s house and put together a long list of possible suspects, including people who had visited the Palace shortly before Soseki’s disappearance, but the investigation seemed to have stalled because of a lack of promising leads. The police had found no sign of violence at Soseki’s house, and the only items of interest there had been a collection of weird (but non-magical) musical instruments and an obscure poem in Soseki’s handwriting. A copy of it was included in the case notes.
Via an exchange of magical bookplates, Ven had already discussed the case notes with Hatsue. “The police have a disadvantage,” Ven told the travellers. “Most people won’t share rumours with them.” She pointed out the name of one of the visitors to the Palace. “Yugureda Shosaito, from the city of Sakakabe. Ostensibly, he’s a pearl merchant. But he has a reputation for sinister magic that uses mirrors and shadows, and there are rumours that he’s been involved with other disappearances. Soseki’s poem mentions the word ‘reflection’, and it’s been said that he had a talent for glimpsing the future. It’s possible that he foresaw something of what was going to happen to him.”
Some of the travellers stealthily broke into Soseki’s house. Olaf looked for mirrors, but found only a plain metal hand-mirror that seemed entirely ordinary. Tomoko discovered a small hidden cupboard - inside was an unusual metal flute with hinged keys to stop the holes. The flute showed no signs of being magical. Tomoko visited various sellers of musical instruments, but her attempt to track down the maker of the flute was unsuccessful.
Later that day, Olaf followed Ven’s directions and went to a certain sake house carrying a particular satchel, which was unaccidentally taken away by another man who had brought a very similar satchel to the sake house. Olaf’s satchel had contained his order and part-payment for scrolls of stone to flesh and scrying. Meanwhile, Tomoko went shopping for an expensive silver mirror...
- Ven has obtained the police case notes on the disappearance of the musician Soseki. Ven and Hatsue think that the most likely culprit is a pearl merchant from Sakakabe - he has a reputation for practising sinister magic and being involved in disappearances.
- The poem found in Soseki’s house:
I must discover
what lies inside of myself
to enter your place
through dark and shadowed gates, but
the reflection is not me.
- Olaf has contacted the black market and ordered scrolls of scrying and stone to flesh.
In which the Regent grants an audience
While the travellers waited for Olaf’s order to be delivered, Tomoko visited the secret temple of Daikitsu in Kasai. The priestess there was pleased by Tomoko’s hope of gaining further insight into the ways of Daikitsu, and assigned Tomoko various tasks. Tomoko spent some time stealthily visiting farms near Kasai and hiding small crafted objects as a message that the farmers could still have trust in Daikitsu’s followers.
Meanwhile, Toshi visited a library to research his family history and discovered that the first Regent during Emperor Shigure’s reign had been Toshi and Shinji’s grandfather’s elder brother - or someone who had taken his name and form. The current Regent, also called Soto Takahiro, was said by many to resemble his father and grandfather very closely.
Olaf continued exploring the city and noticed boats bringing timber from the north. The shipyards were busy, building swift-looking war vessels at a remarkable pace.
Shinji requested training from Ven in some of the combat skills she had taught herself from her grandmother’s book. They spent hours together dodging around courtyards and falling off roofs.
Little did I know what I was getting myself into when I agreed to train with Shinji...
After three days, Olaf followed Ven’s directions to a different sake house and exchanged satchels with a stranger again. The stranger’s satchel contained the two scrolls Olaf had ordered from the black market. Using the mirror Tomoko had bought for him, Olaf tried to scry for the missing musician, but sensed that something was blocking his magic.
Selecting clothes and mannerisms to emphasise their foreignness, some of the travellers then visited officials in the buildings at the entrance of the Imperial Palace and made a request for an audience with the Regent.
Hidden in one of the wagons of the caravan, Olaf cast mending on the broken statue and then cast stone to flesh. After recovering from the shock, the former lord of Enganoka asked the travellers what had happened and expressed his gratitude at length. He then told the story of his failed rebellion - his soldiers had been defeated by fire giants and some other large humanoids who had flame-coloured skin. “I believe our enemies’ only disappointment was that I did not have more followers. The battle was over too quickly for their taste.” The last thing he remembered was being taken by his captors into a dark cellar and forced to kneel. There had been a pair of glowing red eyes, a smell of sulphur and the sound of someone casting a spell. “I didn’t know what was about to happen, but I expected it to be... permanent.”
Lord Ikutsu thanked the travellers once again. “I feel lost,” he said to Tomoko. “Perhaps, since he cast the spells that restored me, I should swear fealty to the one named... O-Laf?”
“Olaf would be a good choice,” Tomoko said. “He is in fact a man who is quite... physically helpless.”
Ikutsu went down on one knee in front of Olaf. “My lord, will you accept my service?”
“Say yes!” said Tomoko in Varisian.
Olaf said yes.
Ikutsu then requested a new name from the travellers, and Tomoko decided to call him ‘Matsu’. After Tomoko disguised him to look like an ordinary caravan guard, Matsu helped out enthusiastically with various tasks such as washing up, caring for the horses and pouring hot baths for Tomoko. After watching him for a while, Shinji began to suspect that Matsu was deliberately keeping himself busy to avoid thinking about the ending of the rebellion he had led.
An imperial messenger arrived at the caravan and announced that the Regent had granted their request and would be expecting Sandru and his companions at the Palace two hours after noon on the following day.
Sandru prepared his gift of coffee, and Tomoko, Olaf, Toshi and Shinji accompanied him to the Imperial Palace. While they were still out of sight of the Palace walls, Olaf cast detect magic and kept concentrating as he and his companions were escorted through the outer gates and into the exquisite, harmonious gardens in front of the Palace.
One of the gardeners - a young man in light brown robes - bowed deeply to the travellers as they passed. “Welcome to the Imperial Palace,” the gardener said. “I hope you will enjoy your visit. But please remember that in these parts, nothing is what it seems.”
The gardener picked up his rake and began smoothing away the travellers’ footsteps from the path of white pebbles.
When they arrived at the main Palace building, the travellers were promptly escorted through to the throne room, which was a very large space with eight alcoves set into the walls. The Regent stood on the floor just in front of the steps leading up to an empty throne carved from jade.
As before, the Regent was dressed in a black and green military uniform, but some of the travellers thought that he looked subtly different from the person who had appeared in public to open the military parade. The Regent greeted them with a precise slight bow, and in an utterly emotionless voice he welcomed them to the Empire of Minkai.
Playing up their foreignness once again, the travellers bowed much less precisely, and Sandru stepped forward to speak. He thanked the Regent and said that he wished to offer gifts of Varisian glassware as tokens of honour to the Empire, and he also hoped to present a delicacy from the lands of Avistan. He poured cups of coffee for himself and the Regent.
Tomoko noticed how confident the Regent must be: the travellers had not been searched for weapons, and the Regent had been waiting alone in the throne room, with no bodyguards. Toshi noticed the Regent’s eyes: his irises somehow seemed darker than pure black and gave a momentary impression of vast, hypnotic, magnetic nothingness. Shinji noticed how the Regent drank the coffee without a hint of a grimace.
Olaf mostly saw magical auras. To him, the entire floor shimmered with an impression of conjuration magic. The eight alcoves also had a strong aura of conjuration, but of a different sort from the floor’s. The throne had a combination of several very powerful magical auras, and Olaf tried not to look at it too much.
“An interesting flavour,” said the Regent, still with no trace of emotion in his voice. “Once again, welcome to Minkai.”
The travellers bowed and quickly backed out of the throne room.
Once they had returned to the caravan, Olaf reflected on what he had learned. He suspected that the floor of the throne room had been constructed completely by magic and could perhaps be dismissed in a moment. The aura of the alcoves reminded him of the magic used to create a bracelet of friends. Possibly, creatures could be teleported into the alcoves if a certain command was spoken or a particular event occurred.
After hearing Toshi’s description of the Regent’s eyes, Olaf started reading about void yai oni. The Regent appeared to be a human of normal size, and void yai oni were known for taking larger humanoid forms. And yet... The gardener’s strangely emphasised statement about ‘nothing’ kept coming back into Olaf’s mind.
The travellers decided that it was time to try to find the missing musician. Sandru would stay in Kasai with the caravan, but some of the other travellers would travel northwards to Sakakabe. Shalelu announced that she wanted to go eastwards instead, to the forest of Seseragi, where she would try to contact and befriend the kami who were said to live there.
After various farewells, some of the travellers hired berths on one of the coastal cargo ships. After an uneventful journey lasting about a month and a half, they arrived at the city of Sakakabe. Officials at the dock asked them what business they had in the city (the travellers said they had been sent by their employer, a caravan owner, to look for trade opportunities) and then warned the travellers not to travel at night through the countryside to the northwest of the city. “There have been some attacks in isolated areas along the coast. The authorities are investigating. Nothing to be concerned about, as long as you stay within the city at night. No, we don’t know who’s responsible. I’m sure the authorities will resolve everything soon enough.”
Tomoko visited some jewellery shops in the city and asked about the pearl merchant. She was told that he lived on an island just off the coast to the northwest of the city, but she was advised not to have anything to do with him (“There are plenty of fine pearls available here at wholesale prices, miss.”)
The travellers stayed at an Ulfen-themed tavern in the Ulfen quarter of Sakakabe. Olaf woke up early the next morning and decided to continue exploring the city. A butterfly fluttered close by him, and when he followed it, several other butterflies joined the first one. They led him out of the city and along a winding path halfway up a wooded hillside to a hidden shrine of Desna. A middle-aged local woman was there. She greeted Olaf and said that a dream had advised her to come to this place and tell a traveller that he should drop cucumbers into the mouth of the Jikko river.
The mouth of the Jikko river was to the northwest of the city.
The travellers purchased some greenhouse-grown cucumbers and set out along the coastal road leading northwest from the city. As night was falling, they encountered a patrol of Minkaian soldiers led by a masked commander. “Haven’t you heard the warnings?” the commander asked. “Why are you out here at night?”
Tomoko said that they were searching for rare orchids and politely declined the commander’s offer of an escort through the woods. “The orchids are very sensitive to vibrations,” Tomoko explained.
The commander hesitated, but finally allowed the travellers to continue on their way. After taking a complicated detour through the woods, the travellers set up camp near the Jikko river.
The next morning, the travellers dropped cucumbers into the river. Soon afterwards, a being resembling an ancient humanoid turtle emerged from the water, munching on a cucumber. Several of the travellers identified him as a kappa. They conversed politely for while about cucumbers, and then the travellers asked about the island out in the bay.
The kappa warned them to take care if they visited the island. The merchant Yugureda had allied with a pair of dragon turtles who guarded the surrounding waters for him, and he had undead servants and workers. Usually, there were no other humans on the island, but the kappa mentioned that Yugureda seemed to have a human guest - the kappa had seen two men walking around the island a couple of times recently.
The kappa then handed Tomoko a small bundle wrapped in waterproof cloth. “It was left behind on the shore of the island,” he said. “Perhaps accidentally, perhaps not.”
Inside the cloth was a small book - an introductory manual for the game of shogi - and inside the book was a folded piece of paper. Tomoko recognised it as hand-written Minkaian sheet music. The first title - ‘Self-Reflection’ - had been crossed out and replaced by ‘Meditation’. The music was a sometimes discordant short piece of polyphony that would sound the same played forwards or backwards. There were doodles amid the music. The first was a picture of a silkworm cocoon, the second was a scene of grass, leaves and frogs, and the third showed flowers and incense ringed by a loop of small circles. Tomoko wondered if this could be some sort of code...
- The former lord of Enganoka has been depetrified, disguised and nicknamed ‘Matsu’. Out of gratitude, he has sworn fealty to Olaf.
- The defences of the Palace throne room include a conjured floor that is liable to stop existing, and a set of eight alcoves that will perhaps teleport creatures into the room if triggered by a specific command or event (similar to a bracelet of friends on a much larger scale).
- While Sandru stayed in Kasai with the caravan, the PCs travelled north with Koya, Ameiko and Matsu to Sakakabe to try to find the missing musician. Shalelu has left the caravan to travel eastwards to the forest of Seseragi and try to befriend the kami there.
- A kappa has warned the PCs about some of the dangers on the island where the pearl merchant lives - there are dragon turtles in the water, and undead servants and workers on the island itself.
- The kappa found a piece of sheet music inside a shogi manual that had been left on the shore of the island. The page had been decorated with doodles: a silkworm cocoon; a scene of grass, leaves and frogs; and flowers and incense ringed by a loop of small circles.
In which the travellers play an unconventional game of shogi
After deciding to wait and watch for a while, the travellers hid inside a tiny hut created by Olaf. Several hours after sunset, they heard a strange tick-tick-tick noise and saw bat-winged shapes flying across from the island and then heading northwards. The flying creatures returned to the island about an hour before dawn the next morning.
The travellers thought it would be best to go to the island at a time when those flying creatures were absent, so they hid in a wooded area near the coast. Again, the bat-winged shapes flew out from the island after nightfall and circled above the coastline. Perhaps they caught a glimpse of Lahja’s armour, because they swooped downwards to attack. They seemed to be somewhat resistant to Shinji’s arrows, and one of them quickly reached ground level to grapple Matsu and start draining his blood.
Toshi’s bombs were quite effective against the creatures, and some grease cast by Azu-Bemphi meant that no one stayed grappled for long. Eventually, the three creatures were defeated. The travellers identified them as manananggals - they were fairly distinctive, given that they were undead beings consisting only of bat-like wings attached to humanoid upper torsos. Each of them had been carrying a set of three keys hung from chains around their necks.
“How are you?” Olaf asked Matsu
“I’m fine, my lord,” Matsu replied.
“Is that true? We can’t afford any false heroics.”
“Of course, sir. I’m sorry, sir. I am feeling a bit shaky.”
Lahja tended Matsu while the other travellers made their plans for travelling to the island.
Matsu, Skygni, Koya and Ameiko stayed on the mainland while the other travellers each drank one of Toshi’s excellent potions of fly. After receiving some guidance from Olaf, Lahja managed to balance herself in the air, and the travellers soon reached the island. At one end of the island was a small village of rickety wooden huts. The travellers could just see a thin, pale, humanoid figure diving into the water from a half-rotted jetty.
The travellers turned in the air and flew towards the other end of the island, where an elegant house stood amid overgrown gardens. The travellers landed, explored the grounds cautiously and discovered that the back door could be unlocked using one of the keys they had taken from the manananggals.
The interior of the house was neat and tidy but seemed deserted. The travellers looked into a kitchen, a bathroom and several guest bedrooms. Another key from the manananggals opened a room where the travellers found three housekeepers’ uniforms and three lower torsos hidden beneath blankets.
The library was more appealing. Olaf looked at a wide range of books, including texts on magic, history and extraplanar beings. Inside one large volume, Olaf found handwritten notes that looked like someone’s research into the magic jar spell. Hidden behind a nearby set of books was a pair of scrolls of greater teleport.
Eventually, the travellers persuaded Olaf to leave the library, and they reached the main reception room, which was tastefully and expensively decorated in classic Minkaian style, apart from one wall that had been painted black with swirling patterns of very dark grey. After a careful search, Tomoko found the outline of a door in the dark wall. There was no obvious way to open it.
A shogi board had been set up in the middle of the room, and a note had been left on one side of the low table.
Shinji read the note, which was written in beautiful traditional Minkaian calligraphy:
His Excellency the Regent declined to play against me when I visited the palace, so it is fitting that his willing slaves should compete on his behalf. Your turn.
Olaf could sense magical auras of illusion and necromancy around both the shogi board and the hidden door.
The travellers searched for patterns in the pieces on the board, but no incomplete arcane symbols were evident - the arrangement looked reasonable for the middle of an actual game. Shinji tried to work out the best move, and picked up one of the pieces from the side where the note had been left.
Instantly, the travellers were transported to separate small rooms with high grey walls. The ceilings, if they existed, were invisible in the shadows above.
They could hear each other’s voices, but any sounds seemed distant and muffled.
“The walls aren’t real!” Olaf called out.
Silver lines appeared on the floors of each of the small rooms, leading to some of the adjoining rooms.
“I think I’ve wandered off the board!” Tomoko shouted.
Olaf tried to follow her voice and hurried through several walls, ignoring the pattern of silver lines. He was confronted by a wispy, shadowy, human-like shape that stepped out from one of the walls and seemed to be about to claw at him. With some dimensional steps, Olaf hastily escaped from the shadow and joined Tomoko, who was standing on what seemed to be an endless grey plain near a long grey wall that disappeared upwards into darkness.
Olaf shouted to the travellers still within the walls to warn them about the shadows.
Toshi decided to follow one of the silver lines into an adjoining room. He too was confronted by a shadow. However, this shadow did not try to claw at him - instead, it was wielding a thin quarterstaff and danced around Toshi for a while before tapping him lightly on the head with the staff.
A moment later, Toshi was standing with Olaf and Tomoko on the grey plain. Toshi shouted out his guess - the person representing a capturing piece needed to strike to send an opponent off the board.
Shinji and Lahja followed the lines more or less randomly and gently struck at any shadows they encountered. Toshi was briefly summoned back to the board to fight on the opposing side but was soon recaptured by Lahja.
Without warning, all the travellers were transported at once to the reception room. Nothing had changed apart from the arrangement of the pieces on the board - the travellers’ side had been beaten comprehensively - and the hidden door, which had slid open slightly.
The travellers could slide the door completely open. They went down a short set of steps to a sake cellar. The door at the opposite end of the cellar led to a corridor that looked quite short for a second or two. Then the corridor seemed to stretch, and the door at the far end quickly receded into shadow. A sudden draft carried a page of handwritten sheet music towards the travellers. A moment later, the corridor began to twist and branch, and then the travellers found themselves facing a grey stone hallway that turned to the right after a few paces.
As soon as they stepped into the hallway, the light changed. Everything looked either black or grey, even the travellers and their possessions. Olaf guessed that they were now on the Shadow Plane.
Olaf cast dancing lights - these were also monochrome and seemed more dim than usual, but they still provided enough light for the travellers to see by.
After following the corridor around a few corners, the travellers had some choices to make - there were three corridors branching off along the left wall. The travellers decided to take the first turning on the left.
Part of the way along that corridor was a circular gateway with a frame of polished, slightly translucent material that looked like a variety of semiprecious stone - the exact type was not obvious in this place with no colour. The walls around the gateway had an aura of conjuration magic.
The travellers stepped through the gateway and followed the corridor to a room where four dog-like creatures were waiting, their black fur blending into the shadows. At the sight of the travellers, the creatures began to howl.
Olaf and Azu-Bemphi fled in terror from the sound, but the other travellers were not so affected. As Lahja caught hold of Olaf, her companions attacked the shadow mastiffs with bombs and arrows. Once Olaf had recovered, he contributed a pit to the battle, and the mastiffs were quickly defeated.
Shinji had noticed that the mastiffs vanished as soon as they were killed, and he worked out that they were summoned creatures - they had probably arrived when the travellers stepped through the circular gateway.
After coaxing Azu-Bemphi out of the high nook where he had taken refuge from the mastiffs, the travellers continued along the corridor. There were a few more corners, and then they found a curtain of wooden beads. Again, the surrounding walls had an aura of conjuration magic. Olaf used mage hand to hold the beads aside as the travellers went forwards.
A few corners later, the travellers reached another room. Three kytons draped in armour made of chains were waiting for them. One moved forwards and its face changed to resemble Shinji’s father. Another had the face of an Ulfen woman who seemed to have frozen to death, and the third had the head of a shadow mastiff. Although these images were somewhat disturbing, the travellers were largely unaffected and Lahja stepped forwards to defend her companions.
The travellers eventually defeated the kytons, who also disappeared as soon as they were killed. There were no doors or any other items of interest in the room, and the travellers seemed to have reached a dead end. They retraced their steps and explored the other corridors, stopping and turning back whenever they encountered a gate or curtain. They found another curtain of wooden beads, another circular gate with a frame of semiprecious stone, and a curtain of thin pale cloth. Each was surrounded by an aura of conjuration magic in the walls.
Tomoko searched the corridors for any sign that one path was used more often, but there was no dust on the stone floor, and no marks.
Toshi and Shinji were starting to run low on explosives and innate magical power. Toshi suggested that the travellers needed to decide whether to continue exploring or find a place to rest in the shadowy maze.
- The person who lives on the island is definitely not just an ordinary pearl merchant - after being transported into a life-sized game of shogi with shadows as the opposing pieces, the PCs are now somewhere in a maze on the Shadow Plane. Going through certain points in the maze summons hostile creatures - these points are marked by circular stone gateways or curtains made of beads or cloth.
In which there are many, many pearls
Nevertheless, the travellers decided to continue exploring the maze. Tomoko studied the pale curtain closely. She could not discern any writing, symbols or other markings on it, but when she touched the cloth she knew at once that it was made of fine silk. Toshi remembered the doodles on the page of music that the kappa had found on the island - the first one had been a sketch of a silkworm cocoon.
Tomoko stepped cautiously past the curtain and hid in the shadows on the other side. She noticed the glow of lights appearing beyond the next corner. When she looked around the corner, she saw three lantern archons floating in the corridor.
“Hello!” she said. “Are you going to attack us?”
“We... don’t think so,” replied an archon.
The travellers asked the lantern archons to explore the corridor in one direction. The archons floated away and did not return.
It seemed that the travellers had found one of the gateways on the correct path through the maze, but the rest of their journey did not go entirely smoothly. They encountered more howling summoned shadow mastiffs, and Tomoko was twice struck by greyish bolts of electricity that shot out of black octagonal mirrors (for some reason, the second bolt was much less convincing and much less painful than the first).
When Tomoko studied another circular gate closely, looking for inscriptions, she concluded that the apparently grey frame was probably made of green jade. Toshi pointed out that the second doodle depicted frogs, leaves and grass, which were all known for frequently being green.
The travellers stepped through that gate and greeted the lantern archons who appeared on the other side. “I like light!” Lahja announced, and the archons circled around her head for a while before disappearing.
The third doodle depicted flowers and incense. When the travellers found another curtain of wooden beads, Tomoko transformed into her fox shape and immediately noticed the scent of rosewood. The travellers went through that curtain and briefly made the acquaintance of more lantern archons. Finally, they reached a wooden door that was notable for looking brown rather than grey.
Tomoko checked and unlocked the door. It led to a comfortably furnished room with a set of shelves along one of the side walls and a mirror covering the entire opposite wall. The mirror reflected the room perfectly, but with a few additions - the image in the mirror included a plainly dressed young man with tangled hair and a shaggy beard, and there were pieces of papers and musical instruments scattered around him.
The young man in the mirror noticed the travellers and hurried towards them. He banged on the glass and seemed to be talking loudly to them, but no sound reached them.
Shinji tried communicating with the man in the mirror by writing carefully mirror-reversed messages and holding them up to the glass.
How do we rescue you? Shinji asked.
The man wrote a message in reply: I think you just have to break the mirror.
But Toshi remembered the final line of the poem that had been found in the missing musician’s house - the reflection is not me - and he warned Shinji not to touch the mirror.
Meanwhile, Tomoko had discovered that one of the shelves on the side wall could be pushed back and then slid sideways to reveal a hidden door.
The man in the mirror seemed agitated and hastily wrote another message: That way leads to great danger.
But Tomoko was keen to explore the corridor beyond the shelves, and the other travellers followed her. The man in the mirror was left behind, banging on the glass and shouting noiselessly at them.
At the end of one branch of the corridor, the travellers discovered an alchemical laboratory with a selection of skulls on a shelf. At the end of the other branch was a door, which Tomoko opened.
In the room beyond sat a middle-aged man in dark robes. He was pouring out cups of tea. “Ah, here you are at last. Would you care to join me?”
Tomoko knelt opposite him.
Lahja stared at one of the walls.
“Drink tea served by an alchemist?” Shinji said. “Not a good idea, I’ve found.”
“Excuse me,” Toshi said firmly. “You have never suffered any ill effects from drinking tea that I’ve made.”
The man seemed unperturbed. “The Regent has chosen some unusual servants to do his bidding. No doubt he has his reasons.”
“Suppose we’re not servants of the Regent...” Shinji said.
“Soseki!” the man called out. “Some people have come to find you. Isn’t that sweet of them?”
A young man entered the room from a doorway in the opposite wall. He was plainly dressed, with tangled hair and a shaggy beard. He looked like an exact reflection of the man who had appeared in the mirror earlier.
“Soseki,” said the older man sternly, “you told me that no one apart from the Regent’s servants would have any interest in finding you. Who are these people, and why have they gone to such trouble to track you down?”
Soseki shrugged, looking wary. “I don’t know.”
“Why are you keeping him here?” Lahja asked. “He can’t be happy. There’s no sun down here.”
“He is not being kept here,” the older man said. “Tell them, Soseki.”
Soseki stepped forwards and bowed to the travellers. “I am here of my own free will, as a guest of Master Yugureda.”
From his tone, several of the travellers guessed that he was lying, and that he wanted them to guess that he was lying.
“He is here to aid me on my quest to depose the usurping tyrant,” the older man said. “I am Yugureda Shosaito, descendent of the ruling Teikoku family, and I will avert the catastrophes that the Regent plans to bring down upon the Empire. Tell them what you have foreseen, Soseki.”
Soseki began to relate dreams of possible futures. Many of them had been filled with bloodshed as the Minkaian regime sent its invading armies into nearby lands - and sometimes far across the globe, to places Soseki had never heard of. A few of the dreams had been about strangers from the west who defeated the regime and tried to establish their own rule, with varying degrees of success. “And there was one dream in which Master Yugureda managed to overthrow the Regent and claim the Jade Throne.”
“And my destiny as rightful heir of the Teikoku,” Yugureda said.
“Do you have any proof of your claims?” Shinji asked.
“Not yet,” Yugureda replied.
“Then you are simply an undocumented pretender,” said Shinji.
“With no sun!” Lahja said. She caught hold of Soseki’s hand and started to pull him towards the door that led back towards the maze. A shadow demon appeared in the doorway, blocking their way.
Accounts of the ensuing battle remain somewhat confusing. It is known that Lahja and her blinding shield pursued the demon into deeper darkness, while an interposing hand failed to interpose particularly effectively between Yugureda and Shinji’s arrows. Yugureda disappeared via shadow steps and Tomoko found him in an adjoining corridor, where he tipped over a large vase of pearls, spreading them across the floor. Shortly afterwards, Toshi used these pearls to slide rapidly along the corridor and toss a bomb into Yugureda’s room. Toshi managed to catch hold of the door-frame and stop himself just before he reached the nauseating cloud of smoke. Lahja and Shinji met Yugureda again at the other side of the battle, in the room with the large mirror. Eventually, the wizard and the demon were defeated and the deeper darkness was dispelled.
“That was clever of you,” Tomoko said to Soseki, “leaving those doodles as clues for us.”
Soseki was busy being hugged by Lahja and did not manage to reply.
“Was that true?” Shinji asked as they were making their way back through the shadow maze. “About him being descended from the Teikoku?”
“Probably. Just as much as I am, and you are, and anyone from Minkai is. That doesn’t make us legitimate heirs.”
With the help of more of Toshi’s potions of fly, they returned to the mainland and met up with Ameiko, Koya, Skygni and Matsu.
As a sign of his gratitude, Soseki offered his samisen to the travellers, to keep or sell as they chose. The travellers decided they would take Soseki to Hatsue’s house in the mountains, where he should be safe. Along the way, Soseki began to tell the travellers what he knew about the Regent’s closest allies.
- Soseki, the missing musician, has been rescued. His dreams of possible futures (presumably caused by possessing the samisen of oracular vision) suggest that the current regime in Minkai is indeed intent on conquering other lands.
- Soseki has begun describing the people he’s seen in the Palace who appear to be close allies of the Regent.
- Kima: a beautiful Minkaian woman in her thirties who arrived at the Palace about five months ago. There are rumours that she is the Regent’s lover, but Soseki is doubtful - the only emotion he could sense between her and the Regent was a well-hidden and polite struggle over who had the greater authority.
- Colonel Arashin: the officer in charge of the prison camp at the edge of the Forest of Spirits. He visited the Palace occasionally and was not afraid to argue with the Regent. Soseki suspects he is not completely human - his dark blue-grey eyes seem slightly too large and a couple of his lower teeth are perhaps slightly too long. If Soseki had to choose one of the people on this list to try to reason with, the Colonel would be his choice.
- Renshii Meida: a noblewoman who is rumoured to have unusual magical powers. She has spent some time at the prison camp near the forest (the PCs saw her there briefly), and Soseki believes that there is ‘something’ between her and Colonel Arashin, although they have no openly acknowledged relationship.
- ‘The General’: a very tall and muscular man with bloodshot eyes. He is the leader of Minkai’s armed forces and appears to have a suitably warlike temperament. Soseki’s impression is that the Regent has been keeping the General in check.
- Soto Onoko: an apparently sweet and kindly old woman who nevertheless left a disturbing impression on Soseki during her two visits to the Palace. There are rumours that she is a relative of the Regent (the ‘first’ Jade Regent had a younger sister named Onoko).
- ‘The Raven Prince’: Soseki never saw this person at the Palace (as far as he knew), but there were rumours of a ruthless assassin who travels widely through Minkai on the Regent’s business.
- ‘The Battle Herald’: a cleric of Susumu who seems very dedicated to ideals of war and glory.
- Commander Zhai Tzahn: the chief of the Kasai police force. Soseki’s impression is that this man is a vain fool, and it’s unclear why he is so trusted by the Regent. From conversations Soseki has overheard, it seems that someone in the Commander’s office has access to magic that can track and communicate with the Regent’s allies when they’re away from Kasai.
In which new hairstyles (and an uninvited guest) appear at a wedding feast
Halfway through their journey, they reached a road heading northwards, and it was obvious that many people had travelled that way recently. Tomoko scouted ahead and discovered that the tracks had been left by a large group of prisoners and an escort of soldiers. “You should be able to talk to their captain,” Matsu said to the travellers. “Just offer him something to drink, something different to eat, and he’ll probably be glad to share any news.”
Somehow, this suggestion led to the captain being invited to a formal tea ceremony hosted by Tomoko inside a sudden pavilion, with accompanying calligraphy and the occasional sounding of a small gong courtesy of Shinji in his role as a noble tea merchant. The captain seemed somewhat overwhelmed and confused by this attention, but he was happy to explain that his soldiers were taking the prisoners from the province of Enganoka to the logging camp near the border. He also mentioned that Enganoka could be a good place for the ‘noble tea merchant’ to sell his wares - fine food and drink of all kinds were in high demand there, because of the preparations for the wedding of the Lord of Enganoka to Lady Renshii Meida.
When the travellers arrived at Hatsue’s house among the mountains, they told her what they had learned from Soseki and the captain. Hatsue encouraged the travellers to return to Enganoka - if Soseki’s guess of an attachment between Renshii Meida and Colonel Arashin was correct, then the arranged marriage between Lady Meida and the Lord of Enganoka could be an opportunity to turn some of the Regent’s followers against him. Also, Matsu was keen to find out how his province was faring in his absence.
Soseki decided to stay at Hatsue’s house. When the travellers were preparing to leave, he presented a gift to Tomoko: a cycle of love songs in praise of her elusive beauty.
When the travellers arrived back in the city of Enganoka, the wedding ceremony was still a week and a half away, but there were already festive banners in the streets, and news about banquets being held in the lord’s fortress. Tomoko visited some friends she had met earlier and persuaded them to give her references as a skilled lady’s-maid. Lahja returned to the temple of Shizuru and learned from her friends there that they were worried about the arrest of the city’s senior magistrate. Matsu later told the travellers that he knew the magistrate, who was a just and good man. Matsu started thinking aloud: “Maybe Tomoko could disguise me as my own ghost so I can haunt some sense into my fool of a brother.” (Shinji noted that this was an unusually creative idea for Matsu.)
Tomoko forged some new identity papers for her and Toshi, and they applied for work at the lord’s fortress. The staff there seemed eager for extra help, and Tomoko was quickly employed as a maid. As she created many subtle variations on a strikingly elegant new hairstyle, she collected gossip from the female noble guests. She soon learned enough to confirm that the marriage had indeed been ordered by the Regent. Colonel Arashin was believed to be still at the prison camp in the north.
Meanwhile, Toshi worked in the kitchens. He took the opportunity to deliver food to the dungeons beneath the fortress. Along the way, he saw a tall, fair-haired woman wearing armour and a symbol of Susumu. She was returning from the dungeons, accompanied by one of the masked Typhoon Commanders. The magistrate was sitting in a small prison cell, looking unharmed but exhausted.
Toshi was asked to stay later at the fortress so that he could help make a selection of desserts in the newly fashionable Hongali style. He was allowed to leave just as the banquet was about to start, and he was at the gate of the fortress when Colonel Arashin arrived with an escort of soldiers. Toshi decided to stay and find a place where he could observe the festivities...
- Soseki has stayed behind in Hatsue’s house, while the PCs have returned to the city of Enganoka ahead of the wedding of the Lord of Enganoka (Matsu’s younger brother) and Lady Renshii Meida. Because Soseki suspects that Colonel Arashin and Lady Meida are romantically involved, Hatsue sees the arranged marriage as an opportunity to turn some of the Regent’s allies against him.
- Tomoko and Toshi have been employed as servants in the fortress, where they hope to learn more about the situation.
- The local magistrate (well known as a just and good man) has been arrested and is being kept in the dungeons beneath the lord’s fortress.
- Colonel Arashin has just arrived unexpectedly at one of the celebratory banquets being held before the wedding.
In which one ceremony is cancelled and another goes ahead as planned
The lord’s servants deftly arranged the seating so it was not made too obvious that the colonel had not been invited. During the banquet, the lord and the colonel exchanged compliments and congratulations. Toshi guessed that the lord’s compliments on the colonel’s excellent management of the northern prison camp contained an unspoken suggestion that the task was rather lowly for someone of the colonel’s rank, while the colonel’s congratulations on the lord’s “great fortune” at being engaged to Lady Meida were meant to hint that the great fortune was not deserved. Lady Meida herself stayed quiet and mostly expressionless during the banquet, although Toshi suspected that she was worried about something.
The next morning, Toshi returned to the fortress kitchen to help make breakfast. He volunteered to deliver a meal to the colonel’s room (thereby establishing that the colonel was indeed staying in the fortress). Without saying anything to Toshi, the colonel took the food with him and left the fortress. Toshi followed far enough to see the colonel heading out alone on a walk across the coastal landscape near the city. Toshi informed the other travellers, and they arranged for Lahja and Skygni to pass the colonel on the road. He seemed to be so engrossed in his own thoughts that he did not even notice the foreign woman and her unusually large canine companion.
“He’s icky,” Lahja later announced sadly to the other travellers.
That afternoon, Toshi volunteered to take food down to the dungeon again. Along the way, he heard voices and stopped so that he could listen to the conversation ahead. It was the Battle Herald talking to the Lord of Enganoka. “We can find no evidence of any treasonous intent against the Emperor or the Empire. He has simply acted disobediently towards you, my Lord. You should demonstrate your control over this province by dealing with the problem yourself. I suggest you arrange a public ceremony where you will order him to take his own life. If he refuses, have him hanged.”
The Lord of Enganoka did not reply, but Toshi saw his face as he walked past - the lord seemed to be trying to hide anxiety and unhappiness.
When Toshi arrived at the dungeon, the magistrate looked even more exhausted than he had the previous day. Making sure that the guards were out of earshot, Toshi quietly warned the magistrate of the danger and said that he might be able to help.
Meanwhile, Shinji tracked down the two soldiers who had journeyed from the prison camp with the colonel - they had been granted leave to visit the city. Shinji bought drinks for them at a sake house and listened to some gossip. The soldiers both suspected that Colonel Arashin and Lady Meida were lovers. Shinji was also told wild tales of trees bleeding, strange lights dancing across the night sky, warnings appearing on flags, and near-naked blind soldiers stumbling out of the forest. Shinji expressed a polite degree of amazement at these not wholly inexplicable events.
After finishing his part of the preparations for a slightly smaller evening banquet, Toshi left the fortress and reported back to the other travellers. They spent several hours that evening discussing potential plans.
From what they had heard, the magistrate’s only act of ‘disobedience’ had been to try to protect the people of the city from the harshest of the lord’s new laws. Rescuing the magistrate was the travellers’ priority, but they also talked about the possibility of trying to make the colonel more popular, so that he might be seen as a replacement for the current Lord of Enganoka. However, they wondered if it would be easier just to create dissent among the Regent’s allies. In the end, they decided to make it appear as if the magistrate had been rescued by the colonel’s men.
The next morning, there was a public announcement that the magistrate had been charged with disobedience and disloyalty to his feudal lord and would face a ‘ceremony of justice’ in two days’ time. The travellers agreed to put their plan into action as quickly as possible.
Toshi carefully blew out the contents of an egg and filled the empty shell with a potion of gaseous form, which he delivered to the magistrate along with the standard prisoner's meal and some whispered instructions. Toshi then returned to his duties in the kitchen. Some time later, the magistrate drank the potion, escaped from the fortress and travelled to a cave where Shinji was waiting for him. They walked together to another prearranged meeting place, where Matsu had brought a pair of horses. Matsu and the magistrate set off for Hatsue’s house. Meanwhile, for the benefit of the sentries, Olaf created an illusion of the colonel’s soldiers leaving the vicinity of the fortress accompanied by a hooded man.
Toshi had a chance to observe that night’s banquet. Halfway through the meal, one of the fortress guards delivered a hasty whispered message to the lord, who looked alarmed and hurried away without giving his guests an explanation. The colonel and Lady Meida exchanged glances. A few minutes later, Lady Meida stood up and suggested that the banquet be brought to an early close. Toshi decided that it was best for him to leave the fortress for the night.
When Toshi returned to the fortress the next morning for the breakfast shift, the kitchen was full of rumours: apparently, the magistrate was missing, and the colonel’s two soldiers had been found just outside the walls of the fortress and had been arrested and interrogated. The ensuing search for the colonel had led to him and Lady Meida being discovered alone together. There were conflicting stories about what had happened next, but it seemed that there had been some sort of spontaneous duel between the colonel and the lord, and the lord had possibly been injured before the Battle Herald and the Typhoon Commander had managed to separate the two combatants. The colonel had then been arrested and interrogated during the night, and he was still imprisoned. (The travellers would start to wonder if their plan had interrupted someone else’s plan...)
Once again, Toshi volunteered to take a meal down to the dungeon, where he found the colonel pacing around rapidly, in obvious anger, inside one of the cells. Toshi quietly asked if there was any message that the colonel would like delivered to anyone. “Do you have a pen and paper?” the colonel asked. Once Toshi had handed a pen and some paper between the bars, the colonel sat down. After a couple of false starts, the colonel wrote a hurried message and then asked for a lit candle so that he could seal the letter with wax. “This is for Lady Meida," the colonel whispered. “Who are you, and why are you doing this for me?”
“You might not remember, but you once did a great service for my family,” Toshi explained.
The colonel’s eyes narrowed, but he still handed the letter across.
Toshi took the letter to Tomoko and asked her to open it (without breaking the seal, of course) and read the message before delivering the (apparently thoroughly sealed) letter to Lady Meida. The colonel’s message was an impassioned reaffirmation of his love for Meida and a desperate plea for her to leave with him rather than go ahead with the marriage to the Lord of Enganoka.
Lady Meida accepted the letter from Tomoko but sent her away before opening it, so the travellers did not have a chance to observe her reaction to the colonel’s message.
The next day, Colonel Arashin and his two soldiers were escorted away from the fortress by the Battle Herald and the Typhoon Commander. Olaf asked Azu-Bemphi to follow them invisibly. When they were several miles away from the fortress, the Battle Herald said that she had received a message from the Regent ordering the colonel to return at once to his duties at the prison camp. “Your disgraceful behaviour has displeased his Excellency,” the herald continued, “and you will do as you are instructed from now on or the consequences will be severe.” The colonel seemed to be on the brink of giving into fury and attacking the herald, but he managed to restrain himself. Without saying anything, he continued along the road to the north with his two soldiers.
The only official announcement about any of this was the cancellation (without explanation) of the planned ‘ceremony of justice’. A week later, in an elaborate extended festival presided over by the Battle Herald, the Lord of Enganoka was married to Lady Renshii Meida.
Toshi and Tomoko received payment from the fortress staff and were told that their services were no longer required. Many of the wedding guests left the city, and many of the visiting merchants soon followed. The city of Enganoka became quiet... and even more orderly and cautious than before.
- (Eight alcoves in the Palace throne room, eight allies of the Regent on Soseki’s list…)
- The magistrate has been rescued and is being escorted to Hatsue’s house by Matsu - they are taking care to stay away from landmarks and other distinctive places in case the authorities attempt to scry for the magistrate.
- Colonel Arashin has been sent back in disgrace to the prison camp by order of the Regent - it’s possible that the colonel has been removed from the list of the Regent’s most trusted allies.
- The wedding ceremony between Matsu’s younger brother and Lady Renshii Meida has gone ahead.
In which coffee is in short supply
The travellers journeyed along the road back to Kasai. When they arrived, they found that there were many new guards around their caravan, and Sandru was looking well-dressed and prosperous. To Shinji’s consternation, Sandru’s coffee had proved very popular with the citizens of Kasai. The few remaining samples were selling at high prices, and Sandru was making plans to borrow money to buy land on an island to the south of mainland Minkai, where the climate would be ideal for growing more.
Toshi noticed that a new ironworks had been built on the outskirts of the city, and he was intrigued by some of the acrid scents carried from it by the wind, but the sight of the armed guards posted around the buildings discouraged him from investigating more closely. Olaf noted that the harbour was still full of recently constructed warships.
Toshi and Olaf decided to visit one of the sake houses frequented by soldiers. Toshi bought some drinks and joined some conversations. Several of the soldiers revealed that they had been told they would soon be sent to one of the eastern provinces.
Olaf wondered if this could be a ruse - the only reason he could think of why the regime would want to send forces east was if there was an uprising there to put down. The travellers asked Ven to contact Hatsue and ask if she had heard any news of trouble in the eastern provinces.
Lahja paid a visit to the temple of Shizuru. Some of the clerics requested her guidance - the Minkaian army had ordered a large quantity of healing potions from them. Usually, the temple provided healing services to anyone, but the clerics feared that the potions could end up helping the military in an evil cause. “If bad people are doing bad things to other people,” Lahja said after some thought, “then I don’t think you should help the bad people.”
One afternoon, Shinji went to the caravan with a warning for Sandru. “Your brother Jubrayl is in disguise, here in the city. He tried to play his old game. Be careful if anyone offers to lend you money - he may be behind it. I started to tell him that he was like the call of the siren that... but the analogy didn’t seem to be working.”
Lahja looked pleased and proud.
Then one of the caravan guards arrived and told Sandru that a messenger had arrived, asking to speak with ‘the archer who has changed his name’.