MargardKazuki/SessionEighteen
Month of Descending Air.
Mizugami's assets are beginning to grow exponentially, so he goes in search of skilled mortals to be guards and soldiers for his estate. He knowingly allows a spy from House Tepet into his entourage, but rejects spies from several other houses.
Jahanna plans for the Tournament of the Scarlet Grace: Written exam, equestrian, archery, swimming, one-on-one combat, and then the team competition. In addition to waiting for information from the skies infiltrating the other schools, Jahanna begins collecting information about the class' strengths and weaknesses in order to devise strategies for the group.
Rokumasu decides that one of the best ways he can teach Kazuki anything will be to do it while he is under hypnosis. He devises of a method to hypnotize Kazuki so that he can better retain and regurgitate knowledge. It seems to work, but has the potential of having negative side-effects... He shares the keyphrases with Ranka, Kira, and Reflections of Chaos, just in case.
Kira uses her network of contacts to bring in a mage to perform some rituals within her dormitory. Kira begins her experiments on children... Judas is concerned, and tries to get Mizugami to intervene, but Kira prefers to keep this bit of information to herself -- just as she doesn't get in his business, she doesn't want him in hers. However, she believes that her research is progressing and it is just a matter of time before she finds the answer.
Judas consults with Crow about Kira's activities, and after a week of back and forth discussions, Crow finally assures him that what Kira is doing is not dangerous and to not worry about it.
Ranka, with her map of the Undercity in hand, decides go exploring to check on the veracity of its layout. With Judas, she finds what is probably the old library, which had been under the old city. There, Ranka notices an area where wards have recently been taken down by their creator. After moving through treacherous terrain, they come across a jokun, an earth elemental capable of spitting lava. It is a 'high class' elemental, and intelligent, and after some conversation, learns that it was summoned by the Steel Hand -- the metallic elemental that is named in the teleportation ritual used by previously encountered assassins.
They ask to meet with the Steel Hand, and the jokun summons a smaller spirit to request audience. Moments later, a second jokun materializes, and in its arms is a woman, who speaks as the Steel Hand. She speaks, knowing a lot about Judas, and how he used to work for Yorake. The Steel Hand doesn't trust Judas, so he is not allowed to speak with what he saw in his vision.
The Steel Hand admits to working with Tanika and Glory. Judas learns that Tanika is no longer the Master of the Golden Fist, and that Glory has taken over that role. Tanika is still the leader of their order, but Glory has plans to protect the city and eventually rule it.
Ranka tries to negotiate an opportunity to go into the library to study. Judas arranges for a one-on-one fight with the Steel Hand avatar.
Kazuki has been going stir crazy in the past few weeks and goes out into the city to look for something heroic to do, with Kira in tow. They come across a burning building with at least a dozen people in the upper floors crying for help. Kira notices two figures in the first floor at the heart of the fire. Kira and Kazuki decide to go after the pair on the first floor -- regardless of whether they are the cause or a victim of the fire, something had to be done. There, they discover a young girl cowering under a bed, crying, and standing before her is a flaming... duck.
Kira recognizes the duck as a fire elemental, and she communicates with it to try to figure out what is going on. She learns that somehow, the child has summoned it here, but it's not sure how. Kira asks the duck to change to its humanoid form, and they lead the pair out of the fire, and while Kira worked to calm the child down, Kazuki rescued all of the residents trapped on the upper floors. Once the people are moved to safety, Kazuki then joins the bucket brigade and helps put out the fire.
Kira learns that the child was drawing a picture of a dragon when there was a flash of light and everything was ablaze. She is able to figure out that the child is blessed, has a bond with an elemental dragon, and likely to become a talented thaumaturge. In drawing the picture, her bond manifested and the dragon sent the flame duck to the child, Akiko, to protect her for the rest of her life. She takes the child, with her mother and the elemental, to Crow and they get her a full scholarship to the school.
In the meantime, Kazuki allows the homeless residents to stay at his home until they are able to find a place to stay. He also asks Mahiro to negotiate with the building's owner to buy the burned out property, and he adds another residence to his growing collection of deeds for properties in the Glittering Smoke District.
Ranka is visited at the College by a bald, young woman, similar in appearance to Steel Hand's avatar. The visitor proffers a scroll, which contains a list of books that she can borrow from the undercity library. The deal is that Ranka may borrow a book from the list once a week, as long as she returns the previous. Also, the girl is there to fight with Judas and that he may pick a place for the confrontation. Judas decides that he would prefer to be surprised, since the girl is a trained assassin, let her choose the time and place without letting him know.
Judas is confronted by the girl the next time he goes to his 'secret' hideout, though she is not lying in hiding. With the way Judas' request was phrased, she did not plan to pop out of a bowl of rice, but instead sat in meditation waiting for his arrival. They spar, and Judas easily wins, and then asks to spar with Glory.
He spars with Glory, and Glory wins, but they are able to have a long talk, and he gains her trust enough to allow him and Ranka into the library.
Towards the end of the month, The Rose Black invites Mizugami to her headquarters for an urgent meeting at his earliest convenience. At the headquarters, other important Cheraki figures are there. The Rose Black doesn't beat around the bush -- the Bull of the North has made his first move against Cherak. Figures at the Blessed Isle have sent word that there is a curse coming that will not be able to be countermagicked -- a series of poxes will infest the city, amongst which is a disease that will afflict Dragonblooded. The answer, supposedly, exists within the city, but that's all she knows.
The Rose Black plans on moving her headquarters to Fort Altweld to move most of her command staff to an area presumed to be outside of the curse's area of affect. She is willing to leave her legions to the Satrap's care, so that they can be used to enforce martial law should it become necessary.
Mizugami recommends a division of labor so that time is not wasted. In addition, he is granted an official title so that he may demand action when necessary.
Crow and Mizugami bring this news back to the Palace. Kira puts together a list of First Age artifacts that she believes would be useful, as well as a list of diseases and plagues that she expects to beset Cherak. Everyone who is capable is given a task.
Two days after the meeting with The Rose Black, changes begin taking place around the streets of Cherak. Rumors abound, where there are many who already believe that the curse has arrived. All misfortune is attributed to the curse. Also, there are rumors that it is the Death Lords themselves who have sent the curse to the city. Mizugami does his best to dispel those rumors.
While Jahanna is out in the city, she notices that not only have prices on trade goods dropped precipitously, but prices on talismans and poultices have skyrocketed. She comes across a man, preaching from the back of a cart, that the Golden Sky over Gethamane will appear at Cheraki next. He is leading listeners in a prayer to the Unconquered Sun and... Jahanna does not hesitate to end the prayers prematurely by executing the man. At that moment, clouds roll in and block out the sun. The potential followers of the Illuminated heretic blame Jahanna for bringing the curse upon them -- she 'persuades' them from further action by flaring her anima. They disperse, and Jahanna takes the body to the Temple to be dealt with.
Kira and Kazuki have gone to investigate something that a thaumaturge discovered. En route, the two encounter a 'bad feeling'. Looking around, Kazuki notices the other people on the street have felt something similar. He kindly asks the people to leave the street. Kira goes to the rooftop and asks Kazuki to follow, and from there they see a figure, surrounded by a dark aura, riding upon an undead horse.
Not wasting any time, Kira shoots Kazuki into combat, and their combined attack completely obliterates the steed. Kazuki, from behind the fallen rider, points his lance at the figure begins to parlay. The rider asks for peace, and reveals herself as Glorious Serpent herself. She is asking for a truce, because she knows what the group is looking for, and can find its dark reflection within the Shadowlands that have opened up under Cherak. It is the Soulsteel Armor of Searing Inurement; it requires a mortal sacrifice, and then uses the wearer's essence to create a field that will destroy any small creature that passes through it.
Kira is unwilling to agree to the deal, and declares that not everyone will be walking away from this encounter. As Glorious Serpent reacts, Kira shoots. The arrow disintegrates before reaching its target and nothing happens. Kazuki realizes that battle has restarted and begins an attack, but immediately feels searing pain as his weapon closes in, and does not follow through with the thrust. He retracts his weapon and tells Kira that he thinks Glorious Serpent should be allowed to leave. Glorious Serpent cautiously circles around and jumps down through open manhole cover. After the unpleasant feeling disappears, Kira and Kazuki continue with their investigation and finds a false lead, realizing that it was probably information planted by Glorious Serpent to bring them out here. They return to tell Mizugami what occurred.
Judas and Ranka are able to reach the First Age library unmolested. There they find 20 Steel Hand warriors, Glory, Tanika, and a wrecked form of a metallic servitor, Steel Hand. They request to transport a handful of books to another location, that can be 'discovered' and brought back to the city.
Ranka brings the books back to Crow, along with information about the possible location of the Satchel of Resplendant Healing. They are preparing to collect the party to go out to seek out the Satchel when from around the corner, Virtuous Cloud appears. She asks, "So, do you want to go save Cherak?"
