MargardKazuki/SessionSeven
Ascending Fire; Day 7th Final Deliberative meeting for this school year.
Handful of administrative tasks, but not many compared to others of the past. The main topic, however, is the election of officers for the next year.
Judas self-nominates. Elin nominates Mizugami.
During the speeches, Judas admits he's just nominated himself just so he can write home about it. He's planning to vote for Mizugami.
Mizugami merely gives what he thinks is a good speech instead of wasting effort on a 'great' speech.
The vote, unsurprisingly, falls heavily in Mizugami's favor, though Jahanna and Tevaned votes for Judas, and Chead abstains.
In the vote for president, Mizugami nominates Elin, Jahanna nominates Reflections, Moro nominates Jahanna. Reflections turns down her nomination, Jahanna accepts.
Jahanna gives a speech extoling her leadership experience and vision. Elin gives a speech that boils down to the fact that she has been acting president for the last year and that she will guide Mizugami in his leadership role.
Elin takes the vote, but it is close at 9-to-7, with one abstention. The meeting comes to a close.
That mid-afternoon, Jahanna is approached by Auspicious Dusk. Chancellor Dark has come to pay Jahanna a visit. The Chancellor believes that Jahanna does not feel at home in the Colleges of the Fivefold Path. He represents a different educational venue, one that Jahanna might feel more at home in, known as "The Institute."
Jahanna declines, but Chancellor Dark leaves a metal origami crane with her, in case she changes her mind. Jahanna leaves the crane on the table after the Chancellor departs, and Jahanna asks Auspicious Dusk to fetch Crowe, so that Jahanna can learn more about the Institute.
Early Monday morning, Virtuous Cloud pays Ranka a visit. She is wearing a jade breastplate and carrying a Daiklaive, and has a jade box with her and informs Ranka that it is the Stone Crown. She warns Ranka that if the box is opened, the Stone Crown would attempt to take over. Incomparable Ebony Comet, Lasha, or Haining would be able to continue with her training, but Virtuous cloud will be away, probably until the end of the semester.
At breakfast, Danic comes to sit at the Freshman table and informs Kira that Crowe will be away, probably until the end of the semester, and that Danic will be taking over Kira's lesson plan. Since Kira was training in tactics, Danic takes Kira to the Legion Headquarters for training under Wing Lord Cathac Maladous, who is actually an Artificer.
Judas and Ranka eventually learn that Lucrecia is no longer on campus either.
Kira tells Maladous about the Snow Goon machine and learns that the machine is not broken.
In the week after the Deliberative meeting, Moro comes to Ranka and asks to do something special for Miyako, who will be leaving for the Realm next week. She won't even be around for graduation. Ranka asks Judas to prepare Miyako's favorite foods.
Moro also approaches Kazuki and tells him to bring the Idiots and Saiki along -- apparently, Miyako likes Kazuki's friends. Kazuki, perhaps reading too much into Moro's statement, convinces Okagura to "pay special attention" to Miyako at the party. While she doesn't outright shoot him down, she doesn't entirely accept him either, but she seems to be codial towards him.
The morning after the party, Incomparable Ebony Comet is not at his lesson on campus. Ranka checks with Danic, Norrin, Lasha, and Haining, and no one has seen him. Ranka has a sudden realization and goes to her room to check on the box.
She has a moment of panic because the hair that she set on the box is no longer there. She summons the rest of her classmates and tells them of the situation.
Through investigation, Kira learns from Ranka's servants that Ranka had come in late that morning for a couple of minutes -- Ranka had been in the library at that time.
Judas wants to open the box, no one else wants to.
Kira and Ranka go to the library to learn more about the Stone Crown. Judas and Kazuki has nothing to contribute and they go about their normal daily routine. Mizugami goes to check on Incomparable Ebony Comet's quarters. Jahanna goes to investigate the Palace to try to trace the faux-Ranka's movements.
Jahanna talks to Auspicious Dusk and learns that Ranka entered the main entrance twice, but only left once. She tracks back for people who have left the servant's entrance and learns that two servants left with parcels -- one was sent by Chef Huey to pick up supplies and one was sent to deliver a message. Chef Huey did send someone out, but that person had no reason to leave with a package.
Mizugami goes to Incomparable Ebony Comet's quarters and finds that it has been ransacked. He calls a couple of Black Helm over to post a guard at the door while he investigates further. Undefeated Raven comes by later and furthers the investigation -- they discover that Ebony Comet's drugs are all missing, but some of his talismen are still on site, and his valuables and money are still present.
At the library, Kira and Ranka are not having not much luck, but back at the Palace, Kazuki talks to Chisato about the crown and learns the titles of a few books that might contain important information. He rushes off to tell them about the books.
Kira learns from the books that the Crown is the last remaining remnant of the God of the Roads, who was killed by the Raksha some time ago. The book warns that wearers of this crown will soon come to believe that they are the God of the Roads -- The Chosen Walker.
Jahanna discovers that the servant who went on an errand for Chef Huey never picked up the supplies and is still missing as of late into the evening.
Ranka casts a detection spell and checks the rest of the Palace for the crown, just in case, but she does not find anything.
Ranka decides to look into the missing servant and, with Kira's help, discovers her body in the basement. Danic is notified and basically the entire Palace is awoken.
The Black Helms investigate while the freshman class gives Danic an abridged version of how and why they were looking into the murder to begin with. Danic calls in a favor and gets a Tracker from the Cheraki Guard to come in to help look for the stolen item.
Judas returns from his nightly jaunt to see the commotion at the undercity entrance. He looks at the body and is certain that the wound was caused by Red Fist Hayoo. He informs Ranka, then goes to guard Kazuki.
At around 7AM, the tracker arrives and he and Ranka go to look for the culprit.
At around 7:30, Tevaned returns to tell Judas that Red Fist Hayoo is back. He gives the location of the opium house that Red Fist is holed up in, but tells him the place is cursed and that Yorake has warned all his people away. Judas is pretty certain that Yorake has done this to keep his promise to Judas. He buys some "curse protection" talismen, then approaches his classmates with the idea to take Red Fist Hayoo down. Again.
Judas does not want to reveal too much information, so Mizugami doesn't want to participate. Kira is waiting on Ranka's return. Jahanna doesn't want to go along since she sees it as a futile action to kill someone with the ability to come back to life. Only Kazuki is willing to tag along -- Red Fist is a Bad Guy!
Kira and Jahanna go to look for Ranka to give her an update, Mizugami goes to class, while Judas and Kazuki go to prep.
The tracker and Ranka follows the trail to the Glittering Smoke district, where the tracker advises Ranka against going in. The tracker goes off alone while Ranka waits for word at a nearby cafe.
Judas gets Tiger of the Heavens to help out and they and Kazuki, with the help of boosts of Speed, hurry to the the House of the Silken Rose. En route, Ranka's infallable messenger intercepts them to let them know that Ranka is waiting at a cafe. The trio go to meet Ranka, Kira and Jahanna at the cafe where they convince Judas to wait for the scout to return.
The tracker returns and confirms the location. He returns to his precinct to gather troops. The group discusses courses of action and it is decided that they will wait for the cops to arrive and try to go in with them.
Judas decides to go hunt down Red Fist anyway, and Kazuki being Kazuki cannot let him go alone. They approach the opium house from the undercity. They bribe the door guard after learning that Red Fist is not himself after coming back, and go in to look for Red Fist.
Inside the opium house, they activate their anti-curse charms and go to the room that Red Fist is supposed to be in. As they approach, they notice that the haze of the opium smoke stops at the door, and there are rooms where the opium is spiked with supernatural enhancements.
There is a well-tanned man sitting in the room, with two women with weapons strapped to their backs, four normal guards, 5 servants in mostly a state of undress, and a human-shaped thing that looks like Red Fist Hayoo, though his skin is ashen and the wounds in his body have transformed into mouths and eyes.
The tanned man recognizes Judas and Kazuki right away, and introduces himself as Glorious Serpent. Red Fist did not have any luck in "The Pit" this time, which left him in this state.
Glorious Serpent reveals that it was not Red Fist that infiltrated the school, but one of the two women sitting there, Red Fist Tila. She has somehow has absorbed Hayoo's abilities and fights with the exact same style. The other woman has picked up Toradin Cran's abilities and is now the successor of the Green Fist.
Judas is reluctant to fight Hayoo in his current state, so challenges his successor, Tila, to a dual instead. Tila is quick, much more agile than Hayoo ever was, and also wields dual swords.
In the fight, Judas learns that Tila has not found the object hidden in Ranka's room.
The fight goes poorly for Judas, and when Kazuki tries shouting some words of encouragement (passing a Bennie to Judas), Glorious Serpent tells Kazuki that if he's so anxious to get into the fight, he should stab Judas with his Spear. Kazuki doesn't give in to that suggestion, but he recognizes that there was some supernatural power in action.
Judas tries to concede the fight, but Glorious Serpent mocks Judas, implying the fight is to the death. Judas tells Kazuki that it's time to get out, so Kazuki sets Judas up with a burst of speed while he activates his Aspect ability in case he is attacked.
After one final attack from Tila, JUdas picks Kazuki up and carries him out of the opium den. No one follows (that they can tell).
Judas tries to separate from Kazuki at this point, but Kazuki is not having any of that, and Judas is forced to reveal that he is heading to Cynis Yorake's place to trade information. Kazuki gets a rare moment of clarity and understands the situation and accompanies Judas to debrief Yorake on the situation.
Meanwhile at the inner city guard's barracks, the group there is watching the marvel of the bureaucratic process. Mizugami fights corruption in his own special way.
Finally, Judas and Kazuki go to the police HQ where they catch the rest of the group up on things. Judas even apologizes for his actions and has learned from this experience.
Judas goes out to see if he can plug any leaks that would give away the Guard's plans. Jahanna goes along with Judas this time, at Tiger's suggestion.
They catch some of the rumors going around and Judas plants some misinformation to help put some confusion into the word in the streets.
Everyone finally gathers and the magistrates go to shake down the opium den.
There has been a massive blood sacrifice in the opium den. There is a gathering of zombies at the bottom level, one of which is the former Incomparable Ebony Comet. However, the zombies are taken down relatively easily once the Guard learn of their secret.
Within the room, Glorious Serpent awaits with his two Pulse Fist style hotties and 8 warriors and the blob that was Hayoo. Glorious Serpent is casting spells twice as fast as either Ranka or the Guards' sorceror, and they are barely able to contain his power. The warriors fight much more able than mortal soldiers should have been able to, but they are destroyed by the Dragonblooded magistrate guards.
Judas delivers the blow that kills Glorious Serpent. The illusion drops, which reveals the visage of a deformed old man. That turns the fight in the favor of the guards. They manage to destroy Hayoo, and Jade and Tila are wrestled into submission, with Mizugami the victor over Tila.
At graduation, Virtuous Cloud and Crow have not returned. Miyako is not there. Unrepentant Jade becomes a Cheraki magistrate. Tiger of the Heavens becomes a captain of the guard. Lasha is named the new sorcery teacher of the College of the Fivefold Path. Quintero is appointed to the Ministry of the Interior. Elin becomes Trade Legate at Whitewall.
For graduation, the PCs all get goodies, except for Jahanna, who is courted by five families and Chancellor Dark, to join them.
Kazuki gets his scarf. Ranka gets a necklace that forms a cloak that protects like a magical reinforced buff jacket. Kira gets a magical power bow. Judas gets a hearthstone that boosts his ability to intimidate, persuade, or taunt. Mizugami gets a Daiklaive.
