Mizugami/SessionTwenty

9th Day of Ascending Water, RY 770

Spectacular. Judas demands he be the one to hand of the blasted gavel. Each of the Triads maintains its own wing in their collective temple, so we'll have to split up to speak with all of them. I hope he can keep his mouth shut except for handing the damned thing over, but I doubt it.

The group has decided we should ride the chariot to visit the Enneiad. Then the grand plan is to find horses somewhere and ride back to Cherak. So much for planning.

10th Day of Ascending Water, RY 770

At least we'll have a relatively quick trip home. The Triad of Dreams promised major miracles for Cherak and even some minor miracles throughout the North. The Triad of Fate, whom Reflections, J'Hana, and Ranka spoke with, promised miracles, while the Triad of Ice promised miracles and major miracles. Master Winter was perturbed that the entire Enneid was required to be in attendance to meet with us. My positive take on that is that there are beings in Heaven who oppose the Bull. My negative take is that there are beings in Heaven who favor US.

Were it not for the pervasive smell of death, the court of the Triad of Dreams would be beautiful. It was an ancient courtroom, overrun by nature. The whole temple was beautiful and quite inspiring; I hope it doesn't become necessary for the Immaculate Order to destroy it.

Perhaps the greatest surprise was waiting for us when we finished. Ranka's father bought a 50 year lease on a first class Haslanti air ship and somehow, its captain, Ranya Petris, knew where we'd be and when we'd be there. It's a beautiful vessel; Petris is a good captain, too. I can't help being jealous, though. Even if I could afford it, as a member of the Realm, the Haslanti would never let me have such a lease. Well, I'm young and things change and never is awfully final. Maybe not never...

16th Day of Ascending Water, RY 770

The Bull of the North's sorceress knows me by name and perhaps thinks I was responsible for dealing with her curse. She sent an infallible messenger to me that arrived not long ago, congratulating me for my cleverness.

I'm glad we reach Cherak tomorrow. I hope Virtuous Cloud is around; I need to find out how an Anathema sorceress deals with an individual.

I really need to sleep tonight, but walking the deck holds significantly more appeal.

17th Day of Ascending Water, RY 770

Reports from the last week are good. There have been isolated outbreaks of disease, but nothing widespread and no plague. Virtuous Cloud recovered the satchel and at the suggestion of Ragara Bagwhei, the 3rd person she was so secretive about, fed it to Ice-ak to spread its powers out to the entire city.

Regarding my Anathema sorceress concerns, she says that 2nd Circle demon assassins are most likely, as their spells are more suited to wholesale destruction on the order of cursing an entire city. I suppose it's reassuring, since there's a chance to see a demon coming.

18th Day of Ascending Water, RY 770

The Bull's sorceress isn't one to take defeat lying down. Cathak Meladus came to see me at breakfast. Entirely out of season, a hurricane is bearing down on Cherak. At this time of year, it could be a true apocalypse for the city.

We checked in with Storm Who Walks and he says that Blue Skulking Bear, Master of the North Wind, has caused the storm and that spells that affect elementals do not affect elemental dragons. An infallible messenger to Blue Skulking Bear never returned.

I think our best bet is to try and speak with White Venerable Bear, host of the Windmasters' Meeting atop the Imperial Mountain. The logistics could be impossible given our timeline, however. We've got less than 48 hours now.

Ok, we have a plan. Rector Danic has a Peleps sorcerer in the capital who can summon Storm Who Walks, who has agreed to speak with White Venerable Bear on our behalf. He doesn't believe it will help, but he's willing to do it. The summoning will happen soon.

Less than 36 hours now. Storm Who Walks just sent a storm serpent to tell us that White Venerable Bear is going to speak with Blue Skulking Bear. We've decided to take Ranka's air ship out to the edge of the storm in case that doesn't work. I don't know what we'll do, but at least we'll be on scene if we think of something.

19th Day of Ascending Water, RY 770

We've reached the forward edge of the hurricane and it's every bit as ugly as expected. Thank Heaven we can get above it. No sign yet that it's weakening, we're going to wait and give it time.

No choice now. Maybe 11 hours from Cherak and we're heading in towards the eye. The storm hasn't weakened a bit.

We've reached the eye. White Venerable Bear and Blue Skulking Bear are circling the eye wall in what looks like furious conversation. I just hope the Bull's sorceress can't also influence White Venerable Bear or we're completely out of luck. Still no idea what we're going to do if Blue Skulking Bear can't be talked down.

Judas seems to want me to just interpose myself into their argument, which I won't do for reasons that seem obvious to me. If White Venerable Bear left, then I'd chance it, but I am not interposing myself into an argument between two elemental dragons.

Maybe five hours left now and they're still going at it. I just don't know what else we can do. Attacking Blue Skulking Bear would be entirely futile. I can't involve myself in the argument. Nobody else has an idea, either.

20th Day of Ascending Water, RY 770

Unbelievable. With only about an hour to go before the outer edge of the storm reached Cherak, White Venerable Bear got through. Just like that, both dragons departed and the storm's intensity immediately weakened. It's still a vicious storm, but now it's nothing that the city hasn't seen before.

21st Day of Ascending Water, RY 770

It's all over now but the cleanup. Geese Flying South Administration will help nicely. I just hope we've bought ourselves some time from the Bull. If his sorceress can throw things like this at the city without pause, we are in serious trouble.

28th Day of Ascending Water, RY 770

Lest we forget that the Bull isn't the only threat facing Cherak, J'Hana (of all people) has discovered that mortals and Dragon Blooded alike are disappearing into the Underworld through the Ragara Chantry. Charms revealed that at least a hundred people have entered the Underworld there recently and not come out again.

A scale of Vermillion Legionnaires and their Terrestrial commander are setting up a guard around it today. I hope they're still there tomorrow.

1st Day of Resplendent Water, RY 770

Damn it. They're gone. All of them. We've been ordered to stay away from the Chantry by the Roseblack. She's leading 5 warstriders into the Underworld to deal with the situation. We passed along what we knew of the area as well as a First Age map of Cherak.