I<\/span><\/p>\n brought the last of the rescued into town this morning and took them to where Dasi has been staying. He\u2019s worked diligently over the last couple of days to get them all settled here, setting them up with the money we provided and, in the case of those who need it, people to care for them while they recover. He\u2019s done well putting this all together. It helps that he\u2019s charming, more or less native to the area, and a good judge of character. Normally, I\u2019d worry about townspeople taking advantage of them after we left, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to be a problem here.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite its small size, Muliwan seems to be the right sort of place for them. As a trading town, it\u2019s got plenty of foreigners and none of the hostility towards them that seems pervasive on the plains of Hongal. It\u2019s also far enough from Ordu-Aganhei to not be under its influence, and I don\u2019t think I have to explain why that matters.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m spending the night here again because I feel like it. We\u2019ve got over a month of travel ahead of us, and I\u2019d like another night in a real bed before we go. That, and I want to be around people for a little while longer, the sort that are just going about life without some sort of mask on. You go outside here and talk to someone who says they are a baker and odds are pretty good that they\u2019re just a baker. They\u2019re not hiding a mysterious past or living some double life. You can almost feel like you\u2019re normal when you\u2019re surrounded by it.<\/span><\/p>\n Qatana asked if I could make a large tureen and some bowls in the usual Groetus motif. She\u2019s setting up an impromptu soup kitchen in a couple of nights to help the needy and homeless here\u2014humanoid settlements are pretty much the same no matter what part of the world they\u2019re in\u2014so I said yes. I have often wondered what Shelyn thinks of this sort of thing. It\u2019s not the first time, nor is it likely to be the last, that I\u2019ve whipped something up in this theme. She obviously doesn\u2019t <\/span>dis<\/span><\/i>approve as there\u2019d be no question about that if she did, but that does not necessarily imply approval. Or maybe I am overthinking this. Maybe art is still art, even when it\u2019s a bunch of creepy, grinning skulls.<\/span><\/p>\n And then there\u2019s Nihali. Heretical is probably a little strong, but entering a Shelynite temple with a black raven on my shoulder has to at least qualify as eccentric.<\/span><\/p>\n Z<\/span><\/p>\n osi looks nervous. We\u2019re leaving for Minkai\u2014again\u2014in the next hour or two and his anxiety suggests he is not eager to go. He doesn\u2019t talk a lot about himself or his life before joining up with us, so I don\u2019t have any idea what it could be, but clearly it\u2019s not his first choice. Which means he more or less signed on with the wrong crowd. If we are successful, we\u2019ll be there for a while. If not? We\u2019ll be there a lot longer.<\/span><\/p>\n W<\/span><\/p>\n e crossed a major river today. It was a lot easier than that time we forded the Taraska at the Crown, when we had to find shallow waters, wait for low tide, and float the wagons across the icy river. This time we had the benefit of spells and literally built a bridge. It won\u2019t win any awards for design, but it did the job.<\/span><\/p>\n So this is it. We\u2019ll be out of the Forest in just a couple of weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n We asked Miyaro for advice, as just rolling through Minkai in a caravan so obviously not from this side of the world seems unwise. She suggested seeking out a band of ronin in the Osogen grasslands. It appears that the nascent rebellion has begun in the north, which makes sense since that\u2019s about as far from Kasai as you can get.<\/span><\/p>\n Since Dasi is actually from here, and has lived under the Jade Regent, we asked him what he knew. He remembers Emperor Shigure coming to the throne, but being sent into hiding for his own safety when rumors of an assassination plot came to light. Most of the people in Minkai are waiting for him to return.<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, we know that\u2019s not going to happen. We told Dasi about the visions we had in Brinewall when we found the Seal. To say he seemed concerned would be an understatement. He was probably holding out hope, but I am convinced that, deep down, he knew. We just stripped away the veneer.<\/span><\/p>\n A<\/span><\/p>\n fter nearly ten months and some 9,000 miles of travel, we have finally arrived in Minkai. The caravan emerged from the thinning forest into rolling grasslands.<\/span><\/p>\n There was this moment when I had a flashback to the visions from Brinewall. I was standing here, or somewhere very much like here, as legions of oni descended into the country spread out before me, storms raging overhead. It was a metaphor, obviously, but the view was real. The place is real.<\/span><\/p>\n M<\/span><\/p>\n iyaro is guiding us to a series of farms and rice paddies near the Kosokunami River, just below the Kyojin mountains. The ronin Hirabashi Jiro is known to live here, and is potentially sympathetic to the idea of an uprising. Finding one person in thousands of square miles of countryside strains credulity, but Desna is no stranger to Minkai. I\u2019ll just have to trust that she\u2019s laid the path.<\/span><\/p>\n We passed a number of villages and farms, and with each mile they become more frequent and more populous. After so many months of isolation, it\u2019s a welcome change.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gozran 3 (Muliwan, Evening) I brought the last of the rescued into town this morning and took them to where Dasi has been staying. He\u2019s worked diligently over the last couple of days to get them all settled here, setting them up with the money we provided and, in the case of those who need […]<\/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-3761","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\/3761","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=3761"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5716,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3761\/revisions\/5716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Gozran 7 (The Forest of Spirits, Early Morning)<\/h3>\n
Gozran 27 (The Forest of Spirits, Evening)<\/h3>\n
Desnus 17 (Minkai, Afternoon)<\/h3>\n
Desnus 23 (Osogen Grasslands, Morning)<\/h3>\n