MargardKazuki/SessionFour

The Next Meeting of the Higher Student Deliberative

As the scene opens, it has been roughly a month since Kazuki was inducted into the Margard family roster. The High Student Deliberative is once again meeting to deal with its usual assortment of responsibilities: general administrative duties and important decisions regarding faculty and facilities. However, the Lower Student Deliberative has delivered one important matter to the Higher Deliberative: the finalized proposal for the upcoming student festival, though the proposal passes without much discussion and only one dissenting vote.

Kazuki is not paying attention and misses that it’s his sister who authored the proposal.

Cynis Elin also brings up the matter of Higher Deliberative participation in the Host / Hostess Club events. She believes that it would be especially beneficial to the event if a Dragonblooded representative was one of the available hosts for each of the days of the festival. Cynis Elin, Faram Lasha, Tepet Mizugami and Margard Kazuki all volunteer at once (though Kazuki’s reasons are perhaps different from everyone else’s). Judas volunteers at the last minute, right before the matter is closed. Kazuki also convinces Quintero to participate.

The Training Montage

In the month that follows, a short series of events takes place:

On the Monday following the meeting: Kira notices a different focus on training from Crow. She's still learning ways to make her body more resistant to magic and more about the occult, but she is also spending more time discussing the theory of small-unit tactics.

Kira also gets cornered by Pimp Rector Cynis regarding archery training. Cynis reminds Kira that there was a promise to bring other members of the freshman class into training. Kira suggests bringing Judas and Kazuki along. She finds Kazuki sitting in the servants' dining hall with the Idiots, and asks him to participate -- he's more than willing. Kira also asks the rest of the class about joining Norrin for archery lessons: Ranka, Judas, and Jahanna take part, but Mizugami stays with Danic's training, where he specifically trains to develop his strength. Jahanna and Kazuki both try to foil Norrin's "hands-on" training, but their ploys work against them. Judas activates his armor ability each time Norrin gets close, and is the only one to successfully reduce the amount of touchie-feelie.

During Judas’ own training sessions with Chead it becomes immediately obvious that Judas' training has paid off. His body is starting to better withstand the harsh regimen of exercise and sparring. They discuss the future direction of their training in order to get Judas to learn the Jade Mountain Form. Judas admits weakness in his martial combat abilities, and Chead suggests introducing him to the Abbott to learn martial arts. They visit the First Immaculate Temple of Cherak and Abbott Cynis Takgana, where Judas will eventually begin his next stage of training.

Ranka's training with Virtuous Cloud leads to a discussion of what Ranka believes the greatest threat to creation is. Ranka believes that the Wyld are the greatest threat, Virtuous Cloud agrees. They discuss the threat of the Deathlords and their influence on the world, and more notably, to Cherak. She is academically curious about learning more about the relationship of the poles and creation and the Wyld. This gradually leads to Ranka's magic lesson to learn how to summon -- her first summoning ability -- the Messenger spirit.

Kazuki finally moves into the Palace of Len Occam, and successfully manages to move the Idiots in with him. The roof of the mortal dorms mourns the passing of its 15 minutes of fame. On the other hand, the halls of Len Occam will never be the same.

Dinosaur Island

More time passes. The group continues their education while spending the occasional evening fighting random monsters. One night, Saiki shows up in Kazuki's room and declares that something big has happened. The rest of the Monster Hunting squad is collected.

A group of sea creatures have sunk a ship – the Amethyst Serpent, a Cynis ship – and there is a threat of them sinking more. Kazuki is concerned about having to swim to deal with these creatures. Judas identifies them with merfolk, and he briefs the group on their basic tactics.

Saiki has secured a ship captained by Captain Peleps Jafin – Judas silently determines this is likely a Cheraki Naval vessel with its flags removed and its crew out of uniform to circumvent potential political ramifications – to take the group to the atolls. The party sets down on a landing craft – Ranka also brings along 4 of her servants: 3 guards and her major domo.

While searching for clues as to the merfolks’ whereabouts, Judas finds a giant footprint on the beach and the group decides that it would not be safe to set up camp there. The party goes upstream to see if they can find a cave. Saiki and Kira scout ahead, and spot a cave with dog-sized lizards. They slay three of them before the rest of them scatter. The party camp out in the cave and cook some lizard for lunch.

The party discusses how best to find the merfolk, and it is decided that Saiki and Miyako will go scout the island to find the Mermen village. In the meantime, Kira, Jahanna and Moro go further into the cave to explore while Kazuki, Mizugami, Ranka, and Reflections wait out at the cave mouth, and Judas, Unrepentant Jade, and Ranka's guards stay in the main camp area to act as backup.

Kazuki starts sharpening stakes for the heck of it.

T-Rex comes charging in, attracted by the smell of the cooking meat. The group hears it coming and has plenty of time to prep for its arrival. Ranka greets it with a flame burst to its face, which startles it. Kazuki runs up the dinosaur's back and stabs it in the head, but doesn’t hit anything vital. After shouting down the cave at the spelunking group, Judas runs and shoulderblocks it in the knee, and manages to knock it down; Kazuki runs down its side as it topples, so as to not fall to the ground. Unrepentant Jade guts the creature and deals it a severe wound.

Reflections and Mizugami try attacking it but can’t quite deal it the finishing blow and the dinosaur's pained thrashing manages to hurt Reflections. Ranka casts a second burst of flame into the dinosaur's throat and finally kills it.

Back at the spelunking expedition, Kira has separated from the group to see if she can contribute to the fight, while Moro trots after her at a slower pace. Jahanna takes her time to head back, but en route she hears the sound of movement coming up the path behind her and she picks up her pace to inform the rest of the group.

The group suspects the mermen are approaching, and put out the campfire to await their arrival. Ranka hears a single figure approach, stop, and reverse direction. The group decides that it was a scout that has gone back to inform its warriors, and dig in to defend the cave, placing stakes with a chokepoint at the inner cave. Saiki and Miyako arrive about an hour later and declare that they have found the village.

The group decides that if the mermen assault squad is coming for them from the cave network, they can circle around to attack the village. Kazuki suggests luring the scavengers at the dinosaur corpse into the cave to create a commotion to distract the mermen assault squad.

The bait is set, and the group goes to find the village. As water aspects, Mizugami, Unrepentant Jade, and Saiki help the others through a 50-yard long underwater tunnel. Those that are first brought along await just at the water line, holding their position and waiting for the others to arrive.

By the time the third wave is through, there are no longer obstacles to hide behind and the group proceeds to attack the village while Mizugami and Unrepentant Jade go back to fetch Ranka's remaining two bodyguards.

Kira and Miyako open up with a salvo of arrows that kills and wounds one Merman each; Kazuki follows up by killing Miyako's wounded target. The rest of the group spreads out and picks off combatants and other targets of convenience, while some of the group fires off Fighting-enhancement Boosts.

The first merfolk response wave is feeble.

Kazuki activates his powers and runs into the house suspected to be the Shaman’s; he follows through with a single swift attack and beheads the Shaman, launching his head out the window. Judas leaps up, catches the head, and uses it to intimidate his assailant while simultaneously armoring up. Judas succeeds and the merman runs off screaming. Judas discovers that the Shaman was an undead shaman. The head sighs at the mistreatment.

The Shaman's four apprentices attack Kazuki and Saiki with their magic, but there is no obvious effect.

Another wave of mermen come charging into the fray and each of the other combatants gets 4 targets.

Jahanna is swarmed and a blow breaks through her defenses, but Jahanna manages to shake off its effects.

Ranka and her bodyguard are surrounded and the bodyguard is hit, but as a result Ranka manages to engulf her nine attackers in a ball of fire that destroys them all.

Judas is surrounded by 7 mermen. He is hit, but shrugs off all damage.

Jahanna leaps up onto Judas' shoulders and flares her anima, which manages to fend off the mermen surrounding them, but doesn’t do any real damage.

Judas attacks a merman with the shaman's head and kills it. The head groans.

Kazuki and Saiki both go into a flurry of attacks; Kazuki kills one apprentice with his dire lance and kicks the second out the door, using his momentum to carry himself outside as well. Saiki fells both her attackers with a swing of her Daiklaive on one and with a bolt of energy against the other. The last apprentice can no longer perform any offensive magics, and switches to support spells while Kazuki and Saiki just stare at it.

Ranka blasts another 5 mermen charging at her, but a sixth gets through and hits her bodyguard once more -- but he survives again.

Finally, the Merfolk Chief comes charging out and beelines for Saiki and Kazuki along with four cohorts.

Saiki attacks the chief and shaman apprentice with 3 bolt attacks -- the apprentice eats two and falls, but the chief shrugs off the third. Kazuki follows up with a swing, but the chief catches the weapon with his bare hand. Kazuki is disappointed.

Once last wave charges Ranka -- she destroys 6 with intense fire, and her group is surrounded by the remaining 4. Kira dodges thrown weapons while she tries to pick off targets from her spot up on a wall. Miyako dodges her attackers while she kills one with a point-blank shot.

Moro is seriously wounded by an attack and is bleeding heavily; Mizugami and Reflections move to protect her. The last two bodyguards come out of the water and move to guard Ranka.

Jade enters the fray and rushes the chief, but his attack is blocked.

The Chief hits Kazuki with a massive blow that stuns him; his cohorts manage to hit both Jade and Saiki and knock both of them senseless as well. With a few encouraging cheers from Kira, everyone is able to shake out of their stupor. Kazuki attempts another swing and seems to connect, but his blade doesn’t even break skin. Saiki spends the remainder of her essence to conjure up three large globes of water that she throws at the chief. Though he is hit solidly by one of them, he again escapes unscathed.

Jahanna runs to the Chief's hut and sets it ablaze. Judas clotheslines a pair of mermen into Jahanna's wake and destroys them.

Ranka and her entourage now go house to house hunting down remaining groups of mermen still about.

With one last desperate thrust of his Dire Lance, Kazuki finally manages to kill the chief. Saiki and Jade each follow through to kill one of his guards. Jahanna catches one last grouping in her anima flare. The rest of the merfolk flee and but it is only a matter of time before the group chases down and eliminates every last one.

Judas searches through the crates with magical sigils – he finds a menagerie of various magical creatures in suspended animation; but in the 12th case, he finds a young girl.

The group takes its time allow flaring animas to die down, and to haul the crates back to the ship.

The Girl in the Casket

Back in Cherak, Mizugami manages to convince the captain to keep the crates on his ship, while he goes to negotiate with House Cynis to see if they can identify crates from their ship that was lost. If they can ID it, they can claim the crates. If not, the students will take them back to the campus.

The NPCs split off to pay Incomparable Ebony Comet a visit. Mizugami goes to pay House Cynis a visit. Kira and Ranka stay on the ship to watch the crates. Jahanna and Kazuki go wait at the docks. Judas leaves.

Ranka notices that one of the crates is missing, but it is the one with the six-legged lizard that is gone.

At the Cynis Estate, Mizugami mentions the Amethyst Serpent and is sent immediately to see Dragonlord Cynis Denovah Avaku. He learns that Cynis Yorake is the owner of the ship and is the one most likely to be able to identify the contents of the shipment.

Mizugami goes off to find Yorake and finds him at his favorite restaurant on the docks. Yorake makes mention of 11 curios that contain fantastical creatures, but makes no mention of the girl. Mizugami returns, learns the lizard is gone, and returns the 10 others still present with apologies to Yorake's men.

The group brings the girl back to the Palace of Len Occam. Mizugami confronts Judas about the missing crate, lets him know it belonged to Yorake. Judas retorts that he has already spoken to Yorake and purchased the animal from him – it has already been shipped to his sister.

Crow is brought to the scene, and the group describes the crate and the circumstances surrounding its recovery. Crow sends for Sagacious Garnet and Virtuous Cloud.

Sagacious Garnet identifies the girl as a ghost-blooded; Virtuous Cloud can identify the sigils and knows how to open it. The group agrees to research the box and the girl for a week to learn as much as possible before opening it. Judas feels the situation inhumane and wishes to open the box right away. In the end, the side arguing for more research wins out.

The group spends a week studying the crate, and they are able to determine that she is probably decades old and could very well have Shadowlands influence.

After the week is over, Virtuous Cloud wants another week to study, but Judas tries to convince the group to open it now – another week could stretch into more weeks, etc. Another heated debate ensues. In a worst-case scenario: The girl is a vessel for a Deathlord and opening the box brings the wrath of the Deathlord or abyssal into the city and Cherak is completely lost.

Finally, Judas succeeds in arguing his point. The box is brought to the field outside the Palace of Len Occam. Some of the students watch from the windows, among which are Kazuki and his occult-nut friend, Chisato, who is somehow able to identify everything that is occurring as they are happening.

The girl awakens, and Judas on a whim greets her in Lookshy. As it turns out, she is able to speak Lookshy, Nexi, and Eastern. She identifies herself as Lucretia of Pyron, a famous prophetess to the dead. She travelled to "Creation" in order to pass through Mask of Winters' domain, because otherwise he would have killed her.

What Chisato does not know, that the group on the ground discovers, is her reason for travelling – she had a vision of the release of a creature that would destroy the East, above and below. She is travelling to stop its release.