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<\/a><\/p>\nOK, fine. Dragon turtles can be a menace to anything both on or in the water. They are territorial and not above extorting \u201cofferings\u201d from sailors in exchange for safe passage. But encouraging them like this is reckless and dangerous, just like everything else in Shosaito\u2019s life. And it encouraged conflict and violence that led to <\/span>their<\/span><\/i> deaths, too. It\u2019s all such a waste.<\/span><\/p>\nFor what it\u2019s worth, we saved one of the bodies, and Ivan is harvesting it for meat while Zos prepares that creepy treasure map spell. May as well put it to use. It\u2019s certainly better than just letting them all rot.<\/span><\/p>\nDasi is an endless source of surprises. Piloting a barge is not a simple matter of picking up oars and rowing, and yet he made guiding it out of the docks look pretty easy. He even kept it afloat as the dragon turtles were ramming into it, intent on sending everyone into the water. I could hear dad\u2019s voice in my head, telling me how I\u2019d regret not learning to sail someday. How do my parents keep being right about these things?<\/span><\/p>\nI finally got a good look at our voyeur. They were spying on Ameiko again, and this time I was able to trace it back to what I assume was Sakakabe. I got a vision of someone dressed as a beggar, hunched over like they were sleeping on some street corner. I\u2019m going to suggest that there\u2019s more to this than appearances.<\/span><\/p>\nYou think?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\nWe\u2019ll be spending the night at Numataro-sama\u2019s home again, assuming of course he\u2019s up for extended company. We\u2019re all pretty spent, and if Zosi\u2019s map pans out we won\u2019t be in any shape to pursue it until the morning. That, and everyone is just <\/span>tired<\/span><\/i>. It\u2019s been a long day, and being scalded by steam several times over did little to help with that.<\/span><\/p>\nDesnus 30 (Namidakame Lagoon, Late Afternoon)<\/h3>\n
Z<\/span><\/p>\nosi\u2019s map led us to an enormous, underwater cave beneath the small island that neighbored Shosaito\u2019s home. Inside was an extraordinary hoard of pearls, seashells and gemstones that was hauntingly beautiful even in the silty water of the cave. I\u2019ve never seen anything like it.<\/span><\/p>\nMy first thought was that these pearls were his end of whatever bargain they had struck, but I quickly realized that dragon turtles could get pearls far more easily than he. Since they didn\u2019t need him for pearls, he must have been offering them something else. The range of possibilities here is limited, and most of them are awful. I am choosing not to dwell on it.<\/span><\/p>\nWe\u2019re spending another night with Numataro-sama. I am not complaining, as the change of pace is welcome, though the decision was made out of caution rather than a desire for extended sightseeing. Our preparations today were geared toward whatever we might face underwater, not safe transport back to Sakakabe. With someone out there watching for us, and potentially <\/span>waiting<\/span><\/i> for us at our destination, an abundance of caution seems like the right idea.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIvan sent ahead to O-Kohaku to let her know when\u2014and how\u2014to expect us. I am sure she\u2019s seen wind-walking before, but having a large group unexpectedly coalesce in the middle of her business would probably be equal parts alarming and rude. We are trying to make <\/span>friends<\/span><\/i> here, after all. That, and causing a small panic would seriously crimp our triumphant return.<\/span><\/p>\nDesnus 31 (Kiniro Kyomai Teahouse, Evening)<\/h3>\n
O<\/span><\/p>\n-Kohaku is arranging a series of meetings with notable figures in Sakakabe: from aristocrats to merchants to nobility to social and political mavens. Apparently, that list is quite long as there is no shortage of people who are fed up with Minkai\u2019s economic decline and the leadership responsible for it. What they\u2019ve been lacking to date was a credible alternative, and credible alternatives is basically our whole business.<\/span><\/p>\nHaving their support is, of course, both welcome and necessary. But, I pointed out that it fell short in one, key area. \u201cThis is all moot if we don\u2019t deal with the daimyo here in the north. He has to go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nO-Kohaku shook her head sadly. \u201cI can\u2019t do anything about that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThen O-Sayumi surprised us all. \u201cI can.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nO-Sayumi knows Sennaka\u2019s younger brother, Sikutsu Itsuru. She assured us that he\u2019s both an honorable man and a capable leader, and is itching to see Sennaka tossed aside. The problem is, the code of honor binds him to Sennaka\u2019s service. He couldn\u2019t take arms against his own family even if he had the military strength to do it, as that would be no better than Sennaka\u2019s own disregard for the same. However, if Sennaka were to be <\/span>removed<\/span><\/i> from power? Then Itsuru would eagerly fill that void.<\/span><\/p>\nMore importantly, Itsuru\u2019s code of honor does not compel him to <\/span>intervene<\/span><\/i> should someone make that move for him, and he would be more than willing to look the other way. We can work with that. O-Sayumi is, you guessed it, setting up a meeting.<\/span><\/p>\nIt occurs to me that I keep coming full circle. One of the reasons I left home, and wanted out of the family business, is that I didn\u2019t want to spend my time in meetings.<\/span><\/p>\nI have spent the last few evenings studying Shosaito\u2019s spell book. He specialized in illusion magic, but there is a load of necromancy in it as well. It makes me want to throw up. There are spells here to animate and create undead, and of course death magic because the first step when doing the former is the latter. That being said, <\/span>some<\/span><\/i> of what\u2019s in here is actually useful. I\u2019ll just have to hold my nose while I work.<\/span><\/p>\nSarenith 1 (Kiniro Kyomai Teahouse, Evening)<\/h3>\n
O<\/span><\/p>\nlmas took O-Sayumi out for dinner last night. I am not the best judge of these things, but I got the impression he was on a date, and she wasn\u2019t. Not that it went poorly, or anything. Though I get the impression she gets taken to dinner quite often and has considerable experience at gently disappointing suitors.<\/span><\/p>\nWe took Koya to one of the larger temples to Desna. For the immediate future, she will be staying there as a religious pilgrim from the west. Since that\u2019s primarily why she signed on, we didn\u2019t even have to lie to them, which is, of course, a plus.<\/span><\/p>\nThe way we figure it, there are few places safer than being surrounded by clergy in a huge temple to a major deity. And they were thrilled to have her, too. It\u2019s not exactly <\/span>unheard<\/span><\/i> of, but a visiting high priestess from Avistan is something of a rare event. It was clearly a red-letter day.<\/span><\/p>\nI got another look at our voyeur today. It\u2019s just dumb luck I happened to catch it, too, as the last thing we need is me being tied to Ameiko every minute of every day. We both need space and privacy, and to not feed each other\u2019s anxiety.<\/span><\/p>\nThis time, he\u2014or, I suppose, she\u2014was dressed in generic, brown clerical robes and wandering through the woods about 10 miles outside of the city. So they are close, but they obviously <\/span>left<\/span><\/i>, so whoever this is, they know who we are but don\u2019t have a good grasp on our schedule. Though that\u2019s not really surprising: <\/span>I<\/span><\/i> don\u2019t have a good grasp on our schedule, and I don\u2019t think anyone <\/span>else<\/span><\/i> does, either.<\/span><\/p>\nWe have a new sense of urgency about all of this. Dasi did this divination, just trying to get advice on our upcoming trip to see the Three Monkeys. The answer he got back? \u201cEnd the scrying.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nI am not wholly ignorant about these sorts of spells. A response this direct is almost unheard of.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Desnus 29 (Namidakame Lagoon, Late Afternoon) O K, now the island is unoccupied. We were attacked by, of all things, dragon turtles on the trip back. They were aggressive, belligerent, and unwilling to listen to reason, so we ended up killing them. This sucks. I don\u2019t want to be killing dragon turtles. Why are we […]<\/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-4034","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\/4034","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=4034"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5725,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4034\/revisions\/5725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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