as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Toilday, 12 Pharast

Giants, tigers and bears. Oh my!

Well, no bears as of yet.  But hobgoblins.  For a feared and uninviting forest, this area sure seems to have a lot of things that “do not belong.”

We were carefully and reverently going through the Spirit Forest when we heard a commotion up ahead.  Slowing, we approached cautiously.  Ivan, Qatana, and Kali went ahead to see what the ruckus was about.  Ahead, a band of hobgoblins appeared to have attacked a wagon.  It wasn’t immediately clear how many of each there was, but it was a pretty good bet that Ivan, Qatana, and Kali would help the non-hobgoblin side.

They called back to us as Ivan shot four arrows, Qatana caused some snakes to appear, and Kali cast Slow on as many of the hobgoblins as she could.  I told Suishen to flame up but was wary that this could be a distraction for an attack on our own caravan.  Haven’t we gotten paranoid lately!?  Radella had the same thought, and fired off a couple of arrows herself before quickly moving to the rear of the caravan to watch for an attack circling back around.

Meanwhile, the hobgoblins were now not only fighting what was left of those on the wagon, but us as well, and we weren’t doing too badly.  Ivan pulled a surprise move, using telekinesis to grab one hobgoblin and throw him back near us. I moved up and skewered him and Kasimir chewed on him.  A web appeared, courtesy of Kali. Ivan finally moved in closer, and, convinced nothing else was coming in, Radella moved closer to.  I stayed to guard Ameiko’s wagon, but it didn’t take too long for the others to finish off the hobgoblins.

Suishen was, of course, pleased with my staying close to Ameiko, but my duty lies also with the remainder of the party.  Nothing ill happened this time, but the whole series of events has caused me to think hard about my duty to Ameiko and my duty to the rest of the party.

And then they found a small, purple hairedo person who hesitantly identified himself as Zosimus.  He was an alchemist-for-hire that was now an alchemist-with-no-employer, thanks to the hobgoblins.  All he really wanted, at this point, was to survive getting out of the Spirit Forest.  His abilities in dealing with potions (and other things contained by flasks) seems uncanny.  It would seem he’ll be joining us for at least part of our journey.  He gave Qatana a flask of cure light wounds. and she seemed to take a shine to him.

I suppose that because he’s a purple haired gnome, he seems less threatening than the mysterious Dasi.  But while it’s taken some time for us to warm to Dasi, Zos (as he told us we could call him) seems to be more readily accepted. Maybe it’s his small stature – he’s what, maybe three feet high?? – but I mean, c’mon, the man needed a shielded and armored wagon to do his work safely.  How can that not seem threatening?

Oh, and since he IS coming along, his standard-issue-armored-wagon would slow us down if we brought it as-is.  So we’re going to take the rest of today, and a good chunk of tomorrow to improve his undercarriage and make the wagon itself faster (and smoother – judging from Zos’ description of how he works, I suspect this is not a wagon we want jostled around!).

Wealday, 20 Pharast

It had been an uneventful week or so when, around midnight or so, Dasi called out.  Another spirit had appeared and seemed to want to move with Dasi, who was showing off his dance moves in simply eluding the spirit.  His avoidance (and no doubt Ivan’s mass cure light wounds) made it angry, and it eventually turned its attention to Kali – not really a better choice if it was looking for acceptance and flowers.  (Maybe origami flowers …)  Qatana’s use of positive channelling and greyflame finally made it fade away.

Of course this happened during the one two hour period I’m scheduled to sleep each night, so I barely had a chance to wake up, stand up, and grab Suishen before it was all over.  But I don’t think swords are how you defeat these shades anyway.

Sunday, 25 Pharast

This morning started with an interesting question for Miyaro. “How do you move through the Spirit Woods without running into all these spirits?”

You might as well have asked one of us “Why do you have two arms but tend to favor one?”  It was apparent this was a question she’d neither been asked before, nor spent any time pondering on her own.  She finally responded, “I just don’t – they don’t – it hasn’t really been a problem.  I’m known here.”

I don’t know if that question guided her thinking today, but by about midday she had led us to a clearing … an unusually quiet clearing.  The treetops here blocked the sunlight, but a feeling of … restfulness seemed to emanate from it.  What appeared to be a gate marked the entrance to it, while dense underbrush seemed to provide an enclosure around it.  With the sunlight blocked, the clearing was never brighter than twilight during the day.  The gate seemed wide enough to admit the wagons.

It would be unusual for us to stop this early in the day, but the place seemed to be a safe haven in a land where we’d seen none yet.

Qatana, of course, was the first to run to the gate, and suddenly a warrior appeared.  “Hail, travellers” it intoned.

“Hail warrior” responded Qatana.

“Where goes you?”

“Thru the forest, on the way to Minkai” replied Kali.

The warrior seemed unimpressed.  “What is your business?”

“We are just passing through. We have no business in the forest. We seek safe passage.”

“The road to the south, along the river, would serve you better.”

“That road,” said Qatana, “we believe to be controlled by the Oni, and they attack us when they find us.”

The warrior seemed interested again. “Do you oppose the Oni?”

“We actively seek to displace them from Minkai.”

If he could smile, I sensed he would.  But instead he stood aside. “You may enter.”

Once we were in the clearing, I could confirm. It was peaceful.  It was quiet.  It was … hmmm.  Watchful.  Now I was a little nervous – again, I realized we were now trapped.  If we were attacked, how powerful was that warrior?

As if reading my mind, Miyaro offered, “This is a place sacred to the Kami.”  She had been here before and said she found it restful.  So I guessed we were indeed stopping for the day.

As time passed, and the light faded more, I could have sworn I heard faint whisperings or rustlings.  At first it was just me but it didn’t take long before several others noticed it too. Miyaro seemed unconcerned: “The Kami are curious.”  After a while you could actually see the woods move – bits of the surrounding forest were entering the clearing and we were reminded that almost everything in the forest had an associated kami.

And at last, one deigned to speak.

Our statement that we opposed the Oni had drawn a great deal more attention than we’d thought.  The Oni, after all, had been imprisoned here in the Forest before escaping and taking over Minkai.  They had escaped from their ‘prison’ over 150 years ago, but the Kami didn’t really understand how.  By their original arrangement, they were forbidden from entering the place where the Oni lived while they were there, even now that the Oni had broken out they were unable to enter. That meant at least one remained.

They would consider it a favor if we could investigate.  One Kami in particular asked if we might be able to retrieve a bonsai tree that was tied to him – it had been taken by hobgoblins and thought to be at the House of Withered Blossoms – where the Oni used to be.  It is about a day’s travel away.

We are told there are spiders, hobgoblins, and Oni.  What’s not to like?

Moonday, 26 Pharast

We decided to leave the wagons and the non-combatants in the clearing.  Non-combatants included Shalelu and Ameiko and while Shalelu offered no arguments, Ameiko looked like she had something to say.  In the end, though, Suishen had more to say than Ameiko.  He seemed concerned that I would be leaving the heir unprotected, but I pointed out she was NOT unprotected.  In this clearing, the whole of the Kami were prepared to defend, and while many of them may be physically small, collectively they represented quite a power.  Gripe gripe gripe – he kept bringing it up the rest of the day. Twice I almost walked into a tree while arguing with my sword. What has my life become?

We arrived late afternoon.  We were of one mind in that nobody wanted to enter the building in the dark.  We would do a little scouting, sleep inside a hidden rope trick, and approach first thing in the morning. Kali sent an arcane eye out, revealing that there was at least one human-appearing person, and there were spiders around him.  While the eye looked on, he picked one off and ate it.  Ugh.  We found a room full of screens, as well as stairways.  The Oni appeared to be one floor below the top; that is, if the Oni had a spider like form with a huge clump on its back.

The ground floor had front doors made of bronze, but the roof also had a hole.  We figured that entering by the front door would be expected; so we’d enter through the roof via fly and airwalk spells and gain the benefit of surprise.

I’ll tell you this – watches are a lot easier when everyone is inside an extradimensional space.  The plants surrounding and covering the House of Withered Blossom seem to flower, fruit, and reset each night.  The smell in the morning was both pleasant and unpleasant … definitely distinctive.