Pharast 28 (The Penance, Evening)

There is nothing to do here but sit and wait. And, I suppose, prepare for the next day, but that is just one of many hours that we have to pass. So most of us are making ourselves busy. We’ve gotten good at making ourselves busy. We had months of practice.
Ivan set up some traps around the collapsed bridge while I and a couple of others searched the artwork for…anything, really. Clues or hints or some sort of story that might tell us what we are facing. My hope was that this would be a pictorial history of the Five Storms, but there is no story here. The vast majority of it is simply fantasies put to stone and ink: depictions of hobgoblins torturing humans, conquering humans, performing unspeakable acts against humans, all intermingled with images of oni doing much the same, with an obvious obsession for Minkai. They don’t just desire it, they lust after it, and that lust is on display in every square inch of these walls. I’ve seen such an excess of depravity in so little time that I have become numb to it.
One pillar in the hall did stand out, though. Instead of the usual violent and obscene portents, it depicted five oni. The one at the top was the largest and most distinct, very clearly a wind yai looming over the others. Below that were three more oni, more heavily stylized but almost certainly yai of some sort. And at the bottom sat the unmistakable, but heavily stylized, image of Munasukaru.
What does this tell us? For one, it’s pretty obvious where Munasukaru stands, and that’s “at the bottom”. As we’ve long suspected, we will be facing the runt of the litter here shortly. It also suggests that the leadership of the Five Storms might, literally, be five oni. Whether that’s just a coincidence or the name is intentionally descriptive is anyone’s guess, though common sense would suggest it’s the former (If it was the latter and you had to add a sixth oni to the leadership ranks how exactly would that work? Do you have to rename the organization? Print all new business cards? Change the company letterhead?) But then again, common sense has not exactly been a theme so far.
More troublingly, the figure at the top is clearly a wind yai, which means whoever is running the Five Storms is likely considerably more powerful than the oni we’ve faced so far.
For now, though, the focus is on tomorrow. None of us likes the idea of blindly dropping through the drain at the base of the steps. That means scouting ahead, and the safest way to do that is with the spell I used to explore the pagoda (gods, was that just two days ago?) That means an early start to the day, as Qatana will need to know what we are facing before she begins what passes as prayers to Groetus. And, no, you don’t want to know.
There was this moment when she and I were hovering over the drain, staring down into the darkness. The sound of rushing water echoed around us and it was almost hypnotic. I could feel myself being swallowed by the inky void, the din of the cascading water fading as I descended.
Qatana’s voice snapped me back to the present. “You haven’t had to pee in years.”
And it was such a random, bizarre statement—directed at no one because we were the only ones there, and she wasn’t talking to me—that I reflexively looked over at her. She was still hovering at my side; still staring down into the hole below. She must have noticed my surprise and confusion as she met my gaze and said, simply, “Beorn”.
“Ah.”
She kept mice more or less as pets when she was living in Magnimar. I say “more or less” because “pets” sounds more formal than it was. It’s more like, she was living somewhere and that somewhere had mice and so she had mice. She talked to them when they were alive, and she still talks to them now. Each of them has a distinct personality: Beorn is aggressive and unpredictable, Star is equally aggressive but rude, Badger is sneaky, Huffy is friendly, and so on. Sometimes she asks them for advice, sometimes they just offer it up. It…took some getting used to as she has these conversations out loud. At the start of this it was more than a little unsettling, but now it’s just Qatana.
Are her mice really talking to her, or are these voices just aspects of her personality asserting themselves? In other words, is she being driven mad, or is this her madness? I don’t know, and I am not even sure the two are mutually exclusive. Sometimes I wonder if people who seek out Groetus are already a little mad, or if drawing so close to him makes them that way. Maybe there’s no meaningful difference after a while. Cutting it away from Qatana would be excising a significant part of her identity and existence. We’ve certainly been witness to our share of the fantastic and paranormal on a scale where Qatana’s affliction is mere noise. So here we are.
What does it say about us that all this passes as normal?

Pharast 29 (The Penance, Early Morning)

W

e have a much clearer picture of where we are headed. With my spell, I was able to explore three chambers below us until the eye could go no further. I sketched a rough map for my friends based on what I saw, pointing out potential hazards and foes.

We were right to worry about water. The first cavern is merely flooded; more of Munasukaru’s spawn are there, torturing prisoners suspended in cages. In the next cavern the water is deep enough to be a problem, especially since two naga—almost certainly Munasukaru’s daughters—are swimming in it. Before we face them, that water will have to go. The last chamber holds kytons.

You can’t spend time in Shelyn’s church without learning about her brother and the thing he has become. While not all kytons are his servants, there are common themes of torture, mutilation, and an affinity for chains. That is enough of an overlap to get my attention. I don’t know what arrangement Munasukaru has with these things but I don’t really care: they have to go, too.

At the far end, I saw more prisoners hung in metal gibbets along the walls. I couldn’t tell if they are dead or alive. That is…not a good sign, and it has put me in a somber mood. Some of the others, too.

This will be over soon.

(later)

Ichirou’s sisters went down almost as quickly as the oni in the chamber before them. Qatana took control of their water and lowered it to just a couple of inches, revealing a cavern strewn with body parts. Just in case we needed more motivation, I guess. Without water to protect them, they were vulnerable to fire, bombs, and arrows, and so we added their own corpses to their collection.

Then I sent another cloud of poison gas down the final shaft, into the chamber with the kytons, and we busied ourselves with looting while it went to work (I wasn’t worried about the prisoners; the gibbets were up high, and the gas is heavier than air). Then we descended for the cleanup.

Munasukaru tried to buy us off. Or rather, a ja noi oni samurai that claimed to speak for Munasukaru tried to buy us off. That tells me two things. First, Munasukaru is clearly concerned because otherwise why even ask? Every single oni we’ve encountered so far, including to some extent Ichirou, has bordered on egomaniacal, and you don’t try to cut a deal when you’re convinced you’re winning. Not unless you’re an idiot, anyway. Second, she doesn’t understand us at all. Which, I suppose, is not too surprising.

Just in case we were morally bankrupt, we were offered riches and rewards once Minkai falls to the Five Storms. What riches and rewards? Her spokesperson didn’t provide details, but I imagine we can take hints from the decor.

It actually took some nerve to stage a formal ceremony in the middle of a gods-be-damned torture chamber in order to make the offer, especially mere seconds after the gas had rolled over them (I’ve been having fun). If I were in their position, I wouldn’t be in the mood for diplomacy after that, which suggests Munasukaru has a pretty strong grip on her faithful. I can almost hear her saying, “Suck it up.”

Dasi responded that we represent the Amatatsu family. That put an abrupt end to the negotiations. Then Ivan put four arrows in the oni, putting an equally abrupt end to Munasukaru’s State Department.

Four of the prisoners hanging from the gibbets were still alive. Like the others, we can heal their wounds but there’s nothing we can do for their memories.