Purpose of Traveling to Nihon;
At the end of the Winter Parliament, a couple of people from
Siam turned up and asked us for help, concerning some sort of
problem with a beacon and some demons. I won't pretend to understand
all the details, but the Unicorns agreed to help. Yototuma,
the leader of the Siam sent our his thanks and explained the
situation in more detail, and the plan was that all the Unicorns
attending the journey were to meet in Capital City on the fifthday,
before traveling to Siam together.
Day 1:
Que'tal Transport Circle, Que'tal, Mauritanja.
I was meant to be meeting Xoanon at the Que'tal transport
circle, but he never showed up, so I eventually got bored
of waiting and got Ivellios to drop me off in Capital City,
before being given some sort of bracelet and being taken to
Siam by on of Miss Rowan's friends
Siam Transport Circle, Nihon
Once I arrived, I ran from the transport circle towards
the direction of the lights of the Unicorn camp. I eventually
found Xoanon who had insisted that he had been at the circle
earlier and that it was all my fault for being late! Anyway,
they filled me in on what had been happening. Apparently,
some scouts had left before the rest of the Unicorns and had
run into some sort of trouble with some undead, but they were
all okay and alive. Then, when all the other Unicorns and
their guests got to the camp, a group of Samurai (a sort of
Nihonese warrior) had turned up, and been abusive to both
Unicorns and Yokotuma. I think Manthar also got into some
trouble with them, but I didn't learn much about that.
Throughout the night, there were many attacks
by groups of undead, but when we were not fighting, I spent
a good portion of time behind the bar, serving. How I ended
up with this job, I don't know, but it was quite fun. Got
talking to a couple of people from the Temple of Shadows,
which Xoanon then went on to recruit as bodyguards.
Xoanon and I then went on to speak to 'mpress
'kasha about my journey into Babylon that was to be taken
place the following week. Xoanon apparently had been having
trouble with several people in the Jackals, him being the
senator of one of Grecia's provinces and all, and as I was
going to Babylon anyway, he'd volunteered me to act in his
place. This apparently put me in some kind of danger. Xoanon
explained this to 'mpress 'kasha and miss 'meira, and I was
told that the Empress of the Jackals Faction would be contacted,
and that the situation would be resolved.
Feeling much happier with the result, I went
and found some food, and it wasn't long before an elf came
up, introduced herself and started asking about my clan colours.
I thought that she was only after my chips, but shortly after
she'd spoken to me, another guy beckoned me over to him and
introduced himself as Master Sly of the Scouts Guild. We had
a very... interesting conversation, and knowing absolutely
nothing about the Scouts Guild, he explained some of the basics
and asked me whether I would like to be trained. With that,
I left to find out more about the guild from Urlin, Xoanon,
'mpress 'kasha and Vrith. I spoke to Master Sly again before
I turned in for the night.
Day 2:
Got quite rudely awakened by the screaming of an
imp that I was carrying in my bag, which didn't make me too
popular with the others sleeping near me. I was buying drinks
for these people for the rest of the weekend to apologize
for this one. Anyway, I went down to the main camp, and walked
straight into an attack by the Samurais that had been around
last night. When one was dropped, I dragged it into the tent
and kept an eye on him. He was soon healed and taken away
for interrogation.
About twenty minutes later, we were all gathered and told
well done by Grimbold for the way we'd been fighting, then
screamed at by Vadek Cain, again, for the way we'd been fighting.
We tried some battle training, including forming shield walls,
attacking shield walls and other sorts of stuff. When this
had all finished, I went inside. Some other people soon arrived
and tried to sell a box with certain riddles on it to our
High Trader. Whether he bought it or not, I don't know, because
I went and sat outside in the sun to work on the documents
that I had been handed the night before, from a messenger
from Harry Mickelthwaite.
The Crimson Dawn, a group searching for something from the
Tengu attacked us, and we had a bit of a scrap, but eventually
beat them off again. A little while later, another group attacked.
Everyone ran outside expecting to be bashing Crimson Dawn
to find a large group of beastkin running towards them. The
attack was really strange because the beastkin came in and
out of the transport circle without needing to use any magic
words, and when people took them down, the person to land
a killing blow was somehow transformed into a beastkin. Apparently,
they got better, but it was something to do with the Wyld
Hunt, and as I was inside talking to someone at the time,
I didn't find out much of what was happening.
When the beastkin were dealt with, a large group of Unicorns
disappeared on a mission of some sort. I think it was to find
one of the crystals to trap the oni in, but by the time I'd
found out that they'd left, they were too far off to catch
up with. I think they were only taking heavily armed people
anyway.
A while later, after the group had returned, I went back
into the bar and found a couple of people standing around
a large box. When I asked what they were doing, they explained
that the box had been brought back by the people on the mission
earlier, and had had an oni crystal in it. The crystal had
been taken out, but something was still in the box. We spent
ages trying to work out how to get in to the box, and most
people just gave up in the end. It was eventually a Bear called
Bedo McYokel that opened the box. They found some money and
a potion of endurance. :-) I still like the idea of just getting
a big weapon and smashing it, but no-one else agreed.
At this point, another attack from the Beastkin occurred,
only this time, I managed to find out a little more about
them. They were sort of void entities, and the blow that turned
people into the beastkin was not the blow that knocked them
down, but the blow that killed them. Because of this, archers
were employed to shoot them before they got too close.
I then sat down behind the bar again and spent a while serving
while I got on with some work about the governing of Que'tal
with Paxo giving me some advice. A couple of ideas were put
across concerning the idea of a sort of super-group of traders,
based in Que'tal. The idea was only a suggestion, but it would
mean that a lot of work would need to be put into redeveloping
Que'tal, and as Miss 'meira was listed on Evandar's lists
as a shareholder in the region of Que'tal, we thought it best
to speak with her. We found her near the entrance to the tent,
with her husband, Master Sly. After speaking with Miss 'meira
and inviting her to Que'tal to assess the situation personally,
Master Sly asked me about Babylon and why I was so worried.
In the end, after explaining again, he gave me his knife and
told me that someone would ask to see it once I'd got to Babylon,
and that it would keep me alive.
Feeling much, much happier, I went back to serve behind
the bar again. Hai Low, - the Nihonese guy officially running
the bar - kept having a go at me for doing things wrong, but
I think by the end of the weekend, I got most of it worked
out. There was then a bit of a problem when someone tried
to dismiss Greystoke. Gurda had mentioned earlier that there
was a problem with him being possessed and that he was bleeding
fasted, but when they tried to dismiss him, he didn't want
to be zapped by the incantors, so he ran. With the
excitement over, I went back to the bar.
It started getting dark at around this time, and someone
came around with fortune cookies. Most people had one, and
then funny things started happening to them. Nothing serious
I think, just like being knocked off their feet and suchlike.
There was also something about a vampire, but I'm not so sure
what all that was about, except that it involved some rice,
and Grendal holding one of them under a sanctuary for quite
a while.
Another attack by the oni's minions came soon after. After
a couple of attempts at fighting, I went back inside. I only
seemed to be getting in the way out there, so I went back
to serving the thirsty as they came inside. Me and Pax had
another go at the developments with Que'tal, and got talking
to some guy called deWinter, who used to be our high admiral
or something. When the fighting outside died down, Greystoke
returned. I went and listened to the conversation, and apparently,
the incantors had managed to dismiss the Ancestral Possession
that had been inside him. The only problem was that it was
his ancestor inside, and he had performed a ritual
to get it put there. A lot of people were quite unhappy about
having the ancestor ripped out, especially Manthar, but as
Manthar was in the Wedge, I don't see why.
The Crimson Dawn attacked again, so I went back to serving
in the bar. I got shouted at a lot more, by Hai Low, and by
Yokotuma, who was Hai Low's boss apparently. After serving
for a while, Xoanon called me over and introduced me to two
new members of the Temple of Aegir. One was Qualt, and I didn't
catch the name of the other one. However, this went on for
a while, and then there was a bit of Meldir-baiting, where
Xoanon and the others scared me with Xoanon's squid on a stick.
It all got a bit out of hand, and Lady Rowan came over to
find out what was going on, with Xoanon getting shouted at
for attacking me. Still, no real harm done, and Xoanon went
to sit and bard at some people, and I went to do a little
more bar work before turning in for the night
Day 3:
The final morning of the journey to Nihon began slowly,
with only Grendal, Denny, Ker Dior and a couple of StormPack
being up and about. After a bit of messing around and a little
combat practice, a large group of undead appeared and attacked
us, but they were smashed up pretty quickly. By the time the
fight was over, most of the Unicorns and our guests had woken
up and joined the fighting.
A small muster was held, and we were told that we would need
to find the final beacon, which happened to be in the possession
of the samurai. Following this muster,I went to help Hai Lo
stock the bar. I completely missed the Samurai turning up
and being trounced by the Unicorns. They'd also brought the
beacon with them, so we now had all three beacons and Yokotuma
informed us that he had the people that would help him with
the ritual.
Shortly after Yokotuma led his group off, another group of
undead attacked us, though this time, there were many, many
more of them. It was quite a long fight, and it took as a
long time to get rid of them, mostly because our warriors
kept getting sectioned off and cut down, and required pulling
back to the command tent for healing.
Once the undead were defeated, Yokotuma and his group returned,
informing us they were ready to carry out the ritual. Another
mini-muster was held before we all went off to guard the circle
in case anyone tried to either mess with the ritual or in
case the ritual went wrong. I missed a lot of the ritual,
but from what I was told later, Yokotuma betrayed us. I'm
not sure of the ins and outs of it, but I think he attempted
to use the circle's power to either bind or release the oni
or the Father of All. The circle flared, and the contributors
became undead. Something was released, and it was big, scary
and kicking out one hell of a lot of mind magic. Something
hit me from behind, and the next thing I know, I'm being healed
again by Master Sly, and being told that the whatever-it-was
had been destroyed. Yokotuma had been taken captive, but someone
had seen him in the field hospital, and not realizing that
he'd try to betray us, had healed him up and let him escape.
Anyway, I final muster was held, and 'mpress 'kasha addressed
us all, giving the sort of 'Well Done' speeches that you get
after these things. The group from the Wolves faction attended
this muster, and left shortly after it had finished, leaving
the Unicorns to return home in peace. Before we left, as a
final point, Vadek Cain invited the Unicorns to the Island
of Far Reach, for a sort of party a few weeks later. It should
be quite fun from all accounts. Let's hope I get through Babylon
to see it. :-)
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