WaiyaddoNoDan/HiddenReefReport

Listen here child; you must learn what it is like to be a secrets. You must learn the burden that is your destiny. We are alone; remember that, it will serve you well. We might travel in a circle, might have friends, lovers, or families, but in the end, we handle the burden alone. Our caste finds itself alone more often then the others, only Endings come close. Journeys do their work alone a lot as well, but even then they have the social interactions, we are the spies of the celestial beaurcracy.
The way you handle the load is your own business, while some of our caste use sorcerer to meet their ends, others use martial arts and powers from the maidens to do it.
Me, I am a master of the Ebon Shadow, which should say enough.
Now, let me continue. How you do your job matters not, only that you get the results. I have decided to give you some training on your own, as a secrets you will be expected to gather information before an assault or to investigate some matter.
No...the other castes do have the skills, some do anyway, and it’s more in the mindset. Where a Journey runs, we stand still. Where a Serenity talks, we listen. Where a Battle fights, we survive. Where an Endings slays, we stay our hand.
Now we can get to the mission at hand, the town of Hidden Reef is in uproar, my spies have told me that the local mayor was assassinated, but the next day he went to his daily meeting as usual. Violence has escalated on the streets since then and the loom in this area is starting to fray a little, remind me after the mission and I'll show the loom in this area to you. Now then what should our first objective be?
Right...but to find the connection between the mayor and the violence we need to investigate the violence itself. Let’s go, I know a bar at the waterfront.
No...I have never been here before, after a while, you get the feel for the right places to look, especially if the information is as dangerous as this. Watch out this bar can get rather rowdy; sailors are the same all over the realm. There's our informant, the fellow in the corner that seems to have an eye on everything. Let's go introduce ourselves.
Hello, mind if we sit down? Thanks, you seem to be the kind of guy who keeps in touch with the local scene.
O, two ales.
I've heard that town is a little dangerous lately, wondered if you could give us some helpful reminders, to keep safe.
Ah, thank you lass, here's the jade.
And as you seem to be a generous fellow, as I hope you think of me...
Thank you for your information, hope to see you again.
Good to be in the fresh air again, now what have you learned.

Lakshmi smiles, "Well there is a gang war in the city that is threatening to explode all over town. One side seems to be connected to the Mayor and the other is under the local crime boss.”
Hino nods, “Good, you have a quick mind, he didn’t even mention the mayor. Now let’s go to the heart of the matter, the war seems to be focused on the center of the city right now.”
The two secrets fade into the shadows, Hino becoming one with them and Lakshmi hiding with proficiency. The town becomes more and more dead as the duo get nearer to the center. The streets empty of people who have all their doors and shutters locked. Even the most common person knew it wasn’t safe at night anymore. Noticing a lot in the in the distance the two angle to meet it.

Dala woke up in a dead sweat, lights are on and the other bed is empty….where is Jemith? Jumping out of bed she heads into the common room and nearly screams, the front door is open. Running to the door she notices Jemith standing at the edge of the light on the street.
“Son…” she stops when she hears voices on the streets.
“This is our territory dog, get out of here.”
“You can’t tell the Claw Gang what to do, get out of my face before I claw it off.”
Dala panics, but keeps silent, the voices are getting closer, she motions to Jemith to get in, but he either doesn’t see her or doesn’t care.
“You son of a bitch, you’re a dead man.”
“Not if you’re my enemy, you Crescent Waves don’t know a thing about fighting.”
Dala stares in horror as the two figures become visible in the light of her opposite windows. Two men with fury in their faces, one wielding tiger claws and the other with a couple of daggers. They don’t even seem to notice the little boy standing between them, snarling like animals the two charges at each other.
The one with the daggers throw them, with frightening speed, but the path is not true, one veers off course-straight for the little boy. Dala screams in agony and runs for her little boy, she knows that she won’t make even before she moves. A clang echoes through the quiet street, mixing with the footsteps of the charging thugs, and the dagger falls straight to the ground from only a few inches in front of the little boy’s face.
The two men don’t notice, the claw member deflects the dagger with his claws and jumps in the air for an aerial assault. Gracefully flying in an arc, he suddenly seems to be jerked and flies straight backwards onto the rooftops. The other man looked surprised for a few seconds and then yelped as he felt a pinprick in his arm. Grunting in disgust the man pulled out the needle and looked around for the assailant.
Before he could take even a step though, he felt nausea and felt a retching in his throat. Falling to his knees he opens his mouth and lets his last day of food and drink come streaming out. Feeling even more rage, he attempts to stand up, but finds the street circling him and fatigue overtakes him and he falls to the ground unconscious.
Dala didn’t even notice, she just sat in the street cradling her crying little boy in her arms until he finally feel asleep.

Hino and Lakshmi huddle over the unconscious man on the rooftop, the chain still wrapped around him. Fishing through the man’s pockets he finds the man’s blacksmith’s guild card, as well as some loose change and a set of keys. Smiling, Hino steps back and weaves some essence, a few moments later, a little spider pops into existence and chitters at Hino.
“Look up the names, genders, and ages of Urish Tabith of Hidden Reef’s family.”
The spider chitters for a second and disappears. In only 15 seconds the spider returns and chitters at Hino again.
“Thank you,” with that the spider disappears again, “Lakshmi wake our guest up.”
Lakshmi shakes the man and pours a little water from her skin onto his lips, with a start he wakes up and looks confused at his new surroundings.
“Now you are going to tell me what I want to know.”
The man spits on the ground in agitation, “Screw you! I ain’t saying nothing!”
Smiling Hino, takes out a knife and bends down, taking the blade to the man’s throat, he lets the point pierce the skin just enough to allow a bead of blood to come out. “Now, surely you can be a little more reasonable?”
“I don’t care; I’m a dead man if I talk anyway.”
“Fair enough, maybe little Elle would be a little more willing to talk.”
The man’s eyes bulges and he tries to break out of the chains, “You keep your hands off my daughter, and she’s got nothing to do with this.”
“True, true…I guess I’ll just have to question your wife first and since you’re not going to talk,” with that Hino changes his grip on the knife and only a split second before he starts to slash, the man interrupts him, “Alright, alright, I’ll talk.”
“Then hurry up, I don’t have all night. Tell me the relationship of your gang and the mayor.”
“He’s our leader, we were the biggest gang in town, but our leader decided that he wanted more power. So we arranged for the mayor to have an ‘accident’ at sea, and with him gone, our leader took power and made himself mayor. Since he keeps control, the dragon blooded didn’t care, as long as he makes his tithes. We keep the populace under control.”
“So you’re his secret police…fine, does he stay in your base or in that large mansion in the middle of town?”
“Depends, tonight he’s in his mansion, having a party with the local big shots; since we’re going to crush the waves tomorrow.”
“Thank you for your cooperation,” with that he butts the man in the face, knocking him out again. Noticing that Lakshmi looked a little down, “Lakshmi, what’s wrong?”
“You weren’t really going to hurt the little girl, were you?”
Hino smiles, “No that was just an interrogation technique." Hino's face gets serious for a second, "But I would if I had too, and so will you. Fate is neither kind nor cruel, it just it and we have to enforce it for the good of all. Now let’s get going.” Unwrapping the man from his chain, the two Sidereals continue their trek along the rooftops, this time towards the mansion in the center of town. They only stop to drop Urish Tabith in an alley.

The mansion was indeed huge, and lavish beyond the wildest dreams of even the most prideful dragon blooded. The music could be heard easily from the outside, court music…the hubris of this man. Watching from an opposite rooftop, they case the mansion. “Listen close Lakshmi, I know that crime is not your strong point. The house has about 100 ft of dead zone around it, a moat against those on the rooftops like us. Guards are positioned at each corner and door, with a small squad circling at all times. The windows are all barred with no doubt significant bracing. A castle for a house, but if we can get on that roof, then we might be able to get in.”
With a small chuckle Lakshmi burst into a small flock of birds that fly up a little bit and then come down and land on his roof. Even though she stays in bird form, Hino can see the smug grin in their eyes. Children and without a noise he vanishes from the shadow they were hiding in and appears behind the birds. “Now then, let us search for a way in…but don’t change quite yet.”
Hino looks around the roof and finds three fireplaces, one with the music of the band almost blaring. Another one had smoke coming out of it, so it left only one. “I’ll go down first Lakshmi, and then you follow. Using essence to change the very nature of his body, he became a living shadow and slipped down the chute.
It emptied out into a lavish bedroom, full of silk and jade; he must be sucking these townspeople dry. Giving some room for Lakshmi to get in, he stalks through the room to make sure its empty, which it is. By the time he is done, Lakshmi is in the room and back in her form as a little girl. “Look for anything interesting, but don’t turn on the lights.” Easier said for Hino, as he could see like it is day right now, but they can’t afford to get attention.
Hino finds a letter sitting on the writing desk, from the local daimyo, knowing this to be important he takes a look; he finishes just when Lakshmi whispers that she found something. Hino puts the letter down and heads over, Lakshmi is pointing at an odd statue next to the bed on the nightstand. It’s a naked moaning women made from some kind of metal, feeling the statue Hino draws back, its freezing to the touch and something seems to flicker in his eyesight, blinking he leans forward and looks more closely at the statue, and reels back as a face seems to form on the metal for a second. “It’s the metal from the underworld, it would make sense. Alright, let’s go, Hino grabs the statue and heads toward the fireplace, I have a few places to stop by on the way back.

Afterword:

Lakshmi and I came to the town of Hidden Reef to investigate a fraying of the local loom and to give Lakshmi some on the job training as a chosen of secrets. The above attached was written partially by Lakshmi, which included the woman with the child, I had her come back and interview her later to fill in the blanks as a exercise. As you can see, she took some creative license with the report, but it is true. I only had to add a few details that she either didn’t know or failed to notice. As regards to the actions taken further, we left the scene and gave word to the other gang that the mayor was going to attack them and his reinforcements that he was counting on for the daimyo, would not arrive. I then sent in a request directly to the Bureau of Weather who made a storm that did in fact delay the daimyo forces.
My spies have reported that the fighting started the next day with a surprise attack at dawn from the Crescent Wave gang; the fighting was over in hours. The mayor was found dead in his room after the fighting, apparently he died in the night from some kind of fever, and local doctors report the death must have been very painful. A new mayor has been elected and the daimyo supports him, as a Dragon Blooded scout of the shogunate (one of my covers) sent in a report of the corruptness of the last government, but had been lost in the shuffle of paperwork and only found a few days after he had ordered his squad out.
I’m still testing this mysterious artifact, so far I’ve found that it gives life energy to someone, by converting something to essence and using that, it will take a little longer. Also, I found the symbol of the Lintha family on it, so they must be involved somehow. I will have a more complete report later.

...back to /YouZhao