Category Archives: Journal Entries

Journal entries for the Jade Regent campaign

September 21st, 2019

Character: Olmas

The Annals of the Order of the Dragon

as told by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia himself.

Sunday, 23 Sarenith

So the plan was to use control water to stop the flow into the well, but that was abandoned when Koya was confronted by the ghost of Onoka and chastised. Turns out that the holy water of the pond flowing into the well was the only thing stopping the whole well from instantly putrefying and going foul. So .. no, gotta deal with the noise and visual distraction of the waterfall.

However, knowing better now what were up against, we went prepared with a few different buffs. Haste and protection from acid were the two prime considerations. We got the haste, but didn’t have time for the acid protection. Kali conjured up a huge water elemental and with the extra speed, the extra attacker, and the fact that some had already been killed, it took surprisingly little time to finish off the rest of the omoxes. A new combatant appeared – a hezrou, which Kali said is another kind of demon or devil – but it was also dispatched, thanks to Ivan.

So the pool was cleared But there were shorelines on either sides of the pool, as well as a hole/cave up on the shelf. Zos and Dasi crept quietly into that hole and overheard a fragment of conversation:

“Thank you my friend. Keep me apprised of Meme’s actions.”

Sneaking a bit further in, they glimpsed an opulent throne room. Across from it was another room with swirling mists. They returned and reported this.

We concluded that we’d stumbled into a demonic turf war. The pool was likely something of a neutral zone.

Kali had the crazy idea that we walk into the throne room like we belonged there, and demand an alliance against the other. Then if/when we killed this rival, we’d have a “friend” down here.

Crazy .. but just crazy enough to work. Don’t ask me why, but it made sense at the time.

So Radella and I marched in there, and our audacity and brashness worked. He even gave us 3 hezrou to take with us. We had no doubts, of course, that if we succeeded in our mission we’d be killed, but forewarned is forearmed, right? We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

So it was that we and our three new “allies” headed over there. We’d been told that Meme had a wicked-good assassin as her BFF, and no visit like this would be complete without more demons/devils. We went invisible, at least to start, and with fly/air walk running if needed. As we silently scouted the room, one of the hezrou performed their first act of heroism by being the assassin’s first victim (having been sliced in two in one apparent blow.) Ah yes, assassin, that’s right.

The room had about 10 erines scattered about, and somewhere there was an apparently invisible assassin. I could probably make her appear, but not without dispelling the invisibilty that in our party were still using to good effect.

We were trying a new tactic with Suishen this time. Since he has inherent telepathy, he was going to act as a switchboard for our silent directions to each other. That’ wouldn’t work very well for an extended conversation, but for short, positioning statements (“Olmas will take the one on the left” we thought it might work.

Some of the erines had tangling ropes. The hezrou seemed amazingly ineffective against the erines, but we had some success at hitting and killing them. And when the assassin appeared again, this time to attack another hezrou, Kali was ready with a glitterdust. That made her no longer invisible, and not too long after that, not being invisible made her dead at the points of Ivan’s arrows.

in the end, all the hezrou died, but we ourselves weren’t too bad off. And around the corner lies the ruler of this northern beach …

Character: Kali

Kali’s Journal, Sarenith 23, 4713

Sarenith 23, 4713 (early morning, Imperial Shrine)

Amatatsu Onoko is here. Why she wasn’t here yesterday when we needed more timely information about what we are getting into is anyone’s guess. Maybe Shigure’s temper tantrum scared her away. I don’t know if she had children in life, but if I was a mother and was granted immortality as an archon, the last thing I’d want is a front seat to the Terrible Two’s for basically all of eternity. Your reward in heaven for a devoted, pious life is not supposed to double as punishment.

Ameiko spent some time communing with her in private and then opened up the conversation to the rest of us. I took the opportunity to ask her my new favorite question. “Why is there something called ‘The Well of Demons’ in the Imperial Shrine?”

Her answer was as unsatisfying as it was uninformative. “It doesn’t have a name. That’s just what Shigure calls it.” Which is not what I was asking. I don’t care about the name; I want to know why it’s here. But bickering with an archon didn’t seem like a healthy plan so I let it drop. And, to be fair, she did shed some light on what is down there, and what we have to do.

“The handmaiden devil Amatatsu Meimei and her handmaiden have infested this place. I can’t bestow my blessing until she is dealt with.” One guess as to what she means by “dealt with”. Also, apparently the Well of Demons contains devils. Note to self: Correct Shigure on his terminology.

Who was emperor Amatatsu Meimei? It’s a given that she was not a very good person if she was a petitioner to Hell, and if given form as a greater devil it’s a fair bet that she was especially vile. Suishen confirmed as much, giving us a fairly pointed review of her tenure as emperor. “She was unnecessarily cruel and selfish, seeking her own power over what was best for the empire and its people.” And she’s had plenty of time to refine her personality since then.

Who is Meimei’s handmaiden? No clue. Though I appreciate the recursion. Whoever she is, she has to go, too.

And, of course, we have to do this one thing in order for Ameiko to get Onoko’s blessing. On top of the other thing that we have to do for Shigure. Maybe its a blessing of it’s own that the spirits from the other families are blocked from communing in the Shrine until this business with the Well is resolved. I don’t think I can handle each of them asking us to do yet another “just this one thing”, too.

(still early morning, still the Imperial Shrine)

Our first descent into the Well of Demons went poorly. This is the problem of not knowing what you are getting into and not knowing what to expect when you arrive: you can’t plan for everything. You can only be so flexible, and if you get caught reacting instead of acting then odds are good you aren’t going to recover.

This is particularly dangerous when dealing with beings that can teleport at will. The force that contains the demons and devils within the Well almost certainly saved our lives as there is generally no such thing as running away from something that can instantaneously appear at your side across any distance at any time. When you start this kind of fight, it needs to be one that you are sure you can finish unless you have similar powers of your own.

It’s been less than 10 minutes and Amatatsu Onoko has already gotten on my list. We went to stop the water from dumping into the Well because it was so loud we could barely hear ourselves think much less communicate, and she appeared and blasted us with her trumpet. Just in case it wasn’t clear what kind of archon she was. Branding is important.

I had what many might consider to be a reasonable question: “What the shit, lady?!”

This was probably not the most respectful way of addressing a herald of Shizuru, but the whole thing caught us by surprise. Also, I was feeling kind of cranky.

“Why would you halt the flow of water into the well? The lake sends the cleansing water that contains the evil within!”

Uh…how about because, no one fucking told us? Like, when we were asking about it? What is it with celestial beings treating information like caviar? Is there some divine rule that crucial knowledge pertaining to saving the world can only be fed in small bites? If it’s not a game of twenty questions, it’s riddles and metaphor. No one can be direct about anything until it’s smiting time, and then it’s all, “How dare you disobey this rule I’m just now telling you about!” This is no way to run an organization.

“Because it’s so loud down there we can’t hear ourselves think. And because we just got our asses handed to us. And also because we didn’t know! How would we know?!”

Gods, I am just not in the mood.

But at least now we know what we’re up against, and what we can (and can’t) do about it.