W<\/span><\/p>\n e are back in the cemetery, recovering from what has been a long and difficult day both physically and emotionally.<\/span><\/p>\n I finally recognized the thing in the caverns as a decapus, though I didn\u2019t know that they could get this large, nor did I know that they could fly (perhaps this one was special?). In what I assume was its lair we found a leathery egg that was split open, still pulsing, that was just the right size. So it seems we have been given a lesson in its biology as well.<\/span><\/p>\n Surrounding a large, flat rock that looked like a makeshift altar was a pile of treasure, arranged almost as if in tribute. Among this collection were two items of particular interest: a darkwood and silver disk engraved with an image of Brinewall under the moon, and a stone statue of Pazuzu.<\/span><\/p>\n Gods, there has been too much Pazuzu here.<\/span><\/p>\n We have another one of these discs, only it shows the sun in the sky instead of the moon. Our suspicion is that these are keys to the vault.<\/span><\/p>\n The key you seek lies in the grip of the ten-handed one\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n One treasure beyond two seals in the third vault.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Qatana tried to destroy the statue but made the mistake of handling it first (though to be fair, we didn\u2019t realize that this was a problem until after she had done it). Now, the cursed thing will not stay away from her. It appears in her pack if she tries to walk away from it, or in her hands if she leaves her pack behind. She says it is as heavy as lead and it slows her down as she struggles with its weight. I have heard of cursed items like these, made more as cruel jokes and annoyances than anything else, but I imagine <\/span>this<\/span><\/i> one is a spiritual <\/span>fuck you<\/span><\/i> for not being one of his worshipers.<\/span><\/p>\n Olmas and Sparna seem to find this quite amusing. For the first time since we came together as a group, Qatana is physically unable to get out of their sight.<\/span><\/p>\n The third set of stairs led down to the vaults, access to them blocked by a portcullis. The discs, which radiated a faint aura of transmutation, acted as keys to raise and lower the bars. As soon as we stepped in, the dust in the room swirled around and took a human form. Even with the light we brought with us, it was dark and hard to see but the features of a Tian man were unmistakeable.<\/span><\/p>\n Grandfather waits in the dark, but he knows not who he was.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n It had been many years since I had been in the Kaijitsu manor, but I had seen the family portraits. It was not obvious, and without the riddle I doubt I would have made the connection, but knowing what I knew it was clear I was facing the image of Ameiko\u2019s grandfather.<\/span><\/p>\n Tentatively, I asked, \u201cRokuro?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The wraith was raising a ghostly sword above its head readying to strike, but upon hearing this it stopped and the fury in its eyes melted away.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2026know\u2026that\u2026name\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And then he cried out in anguish, pointing his sword at the wall.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTake the seal from here! I can no longer guard it. Take it to my child! I can no longer defend it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And then he vanished, leaving nothing but dust behind.<\/span><\/p>\n Radella searched the wall and discovered a hidden door, one so well constructed that we might not have found it on our own. It led to a third vault, as predicted, and unlike the other two this one had not been looted: three chests sat within, each radiating magic.<\/span><\/p>\n It was the center chest that mattered. It was locked. Radella <\/span>swears<\/span><\/i> it was locked, and I believe her. But the very second she started on the mechanism, the chest just\u2026opened. As if it had been waiting for her all along.<\/span><\/p>\n Inside was a finely-lacquered, Tian-style puzzle box. It was radiating a strong magic, but none of us could identify the aura, nor a means of opening it. But, this had to be it. Whatever was happening to Ameiko had led us here.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s too late to do this tonight. I have spent all of my spells, and the others are exhausted. We will head back to the caravan at first light.<\/span><\/p>\n This is almost over.<\/span><\/p>\n I<\/span><\/p>\n am writing this down now before I lose it, while it is still fresh in my head.<\/span><\/p>\n As soon the box was opened\u2014I don\u2019t even remember who did it now\u2014I caught sight of the small, stone dragon statuette and then the world faded away.<\/span><\/p>\n I was no longer in Brinewall. I was standing on the edge of a vast Forest overlooking the kingdom of Minkai while a ferocious storm raged above. As I stood in the rain, a terrifying army of fiends\u2014their skin ablaze beneath their armor\u2014emerged from the trees. This advancing wall of tusks, fire, and steel marched around me, eyes glaring, and descended into the country at my back.<\/span><\/p>\n As the invasion began, the vision shifted to a simple well where the Emperor Shigure of Minkai stood alongside a friend. Again, I watched. His friend transformed, growing several times in size to stand sheathed in twisted, jade armor. He drew a sword and struck Shigure down, then held the blade over his head in triumph, blood dripping from its edge.<\/span><\/p>\n The vision shifted a third time, and I was in the city of Kalsgard. Rokuro Kaijitsu, whose true name is Amatatsu Tsutoku, was selling a beautiful sword to an Ulfen merchant to finance his trip across the world. I could feel that sword, an intelligent weapon named <\/span>Suishen<\/span><\/i>, and the knowledge it possessed: the Amatatsu family history.<\/span><\/p>\n Again, the vision changed. Now it was my childhood friend, Ameiko, waking up from her sleep. Not from our campsite in Brinewall, but in the arms of an ornate, jade throne. She was dressed as an empress, no longer the tavern owner and bard I have known most of my life.<\/span><\/p>\n And then I <\/span>knew<\/span><\/i>. Ameiko was the last surviving heir of her line, of the last surviving royal family of Minkai. The Seal, or the spirit that resided in it, knew this as well and had marked us all as scions of the Amatatsu family. An insurance policy, of sorts, to ensure the royal family\u2019s survival. Heirs designate.<\/span><\/p>\n Brinewall returned, then, and Ameiko awoke with a gasp.<\/span><\/p>\n The Amatatsu Seal<\/span><\/i>. It sat there in the box, and I knew it to be a powerful artifact. So powerful it could be tracked across any distance, and its presence hidden only by the warding box in which it had been contained. I remembered Tsutoku\u2019s letter to his son\u2014to Ameiko\u2019s father. And just as the realization dawned on me, Ameiko yelled out, \u201c<\/span>Put that thing back in the box!\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n After using it to rid Qatana of that foul idol\u2014it had also revealed some of its powers to us, including the ability to remove curses\u2014we placed it back in the warding box and closed the compartments. Someone, I think it may have been Qatana, said \u201cWe have to leave. We have to get out of here <\/span>now<\/span><\/i>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Indeed. We had just lit a signal fire, one so big it could be seen across the world. Again, the words of Tsutoku\u2019s letter came to me.<\/span><\/p>\n If our enemies find what I have hidden, there will be nothing here for you. If they do not, they will lie in wait forever for your return.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n I looked around at my friends. You could tell from their faces that each of us that had been in that crypt had experienced these visions (even poor Kelda, who had stubbornly refused to admit that she had been in over her head <\/span>before<\/span><\/i>). All the plans we had made for that day\u2014cleansing the temple to Desna, repairing Kelda\u2019s boat, tying up loose ends in the ruins of the keep\u2014were abandoned.<\/span><\/p>\n While the caravan was hastily prepped for the return to the road, I had a growing sense of unease. I tried to keep busy, but my thoughts kept returning to what we had seen. An emperor murdered. An army invading Minkai. Ameiko on that throne. Enemies who had waited <\/span>decades <\/span><\/i>for her family to return, and who might now know exactly where we were.<\/span><\/p>\n And us. <\/span>Heirs designate.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Gods.<\/span><\/p>\n I felt myself getting weaker and light-headed. My hands were trembling, and I couldn’t seem to make them stop. I sat down in the grass behind the covered wagon, out of sight of the others, and tried to collect myself, but that only made it worse. My heart was racing. I couldn’t catch my breath.<\/span><\/p>\n All of this\u2026it was too much.<\/span><\/p>\n Nihali landed on my shoulder, and I found her presence soothing. She brought me down. A minute or so later I got up, wiped away the tears, and rejoined the others. I don\u2019t think anyone saw. If they did, they\u2019ve been kind enough not to say.<\/span><\/p>\n We reach Riddleport in four days, where we\u2019ll resupply. The plan after that is to take Ameiko and ourselves across the Crown of the World to the kingdom of Minkai in Tian Xia.<\/span><\/p>\n Writing it down like this just sounds so absurd. A little over two weeks ago, we left Sandpoint to help Ameiko find answers about her family. Now we intend to cross the world and place that family back on a throne that was stolen from them.<\/span><\/p>\n I don’t think any of us really knows what we’re agreeing to. I certainly don\u2019t. We don\u2019t even know who rules there now, or what will be waiting for Ameiko once we arrive. The only thing that\u2019s clear is the road will not be easy.<\/span><\/p>\n But I know why I\u2019m going. Whatever this is, I am not going to walk away from her now.<\/span><\/p>\n Both Spivey and Kelda have chosen to join us. Spivey will be with us indefinitely, and Kelda at least as far as Kalsgard. I don\u2019t know what Kelda will do after that, but I hope she stays on. She is gruff and occasionally crude, but I have to admit that I like her because she\u2019s so open and direct. As for Spivey, I simply find her presence reassuring. I don\u2019t know how to explain it beyond that.<\/span><\/p>\n Our first stop on our journey will be Kalsgard, where we hope to recover Suishen. We may need the knowledge it possesses, and Ameiko deserves the opportunity to reclaim a piece of her heritage. I don\u2019t know how\u2014it must have been imparted to us by the Seal\u2014but we know it was sold to a man there named Fynn Snaevald. And I don\u2019t know how we\u2019ll get it back from him.<\/span><\/p>\n One problem at a time, I suppose.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Erastus 19 (Brinewall Cemetery, Night) W e are back in the cemetery, recovering from what has been a long and difficult day both physically and emotionally. I finally recognized the thing in the caverns as a decapus, though I didn\u2019t know that they could get this large, nor did I know that they could fly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-1771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","tag-kali"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1771"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5677,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771\/revisions\/5677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Erastus 20 (The Nolands, Early Morning)<\/h3>\n