as told by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia himself.<\/p>\n
Musician he, collected blood,
\nAnd spent some time inspecting
\n“Inquisitor!” he shouted out
\nTruly, what we were expecting.<\/p>\n
The wizard, then invoked her spell
\nAnd made the dead one speak
\nAll raptly watched and listened close
\nto hear the oni freak.<\/p>\n
“Okay!” she said, rubbing her hands
\nThe sea of watchers parted.
\n“We only have the questions four
\nand ought not stop once started.”<\/p>\n
“The first,” she said and stared it down
\n“is where are nobles kept?”
\nThe dead one squirmed and wriggled
\nI swear, his eyes – they wept.<\/p>\n
“The place, you know, the quiet place
\nThe place of meditation.”
\nHis face contorted in a snarl
\nA common affectation.<\/p>\n
The second question, hard and fast
\nWith little pomp or show.
\n“That place of meditation …
\nAmong you – who would know?”<\/p>\n
The face again, that ugly face
\nSquinted, leered and cried.
\n“Commanders all would know that place
\nUntil such day they died.”<\/p>\n
With pity none, the wiz went on.
\n“When captured, prisoners new,
\nThey’re taken where?\u00a0 End up where?
\nThe place now! Tell me, true!”<\/p>\n
The oni would have struck the wiz
\nAnd tried to spit right at us.
\n“The new ones – AARGH – the place they go
\nDepends upon their status.”<\/p>\n
Both looked exhausted now but yet
\nOne question still remained.
\n“Hey Minion – now? You must reveal
\nYour true commander’s name!”<\/p>\n
If looks could kill then all would die
\nBut that’s not how this works.
\n“SOKA” it gasped, its face contorted –
\nThen silent.\u00a0 At last, a perk.<\/p>\n
Four questions asked and answered,
\nIn one exhausting session.
\nBeware the day she says to you
\n“Got time for a quick question?”<\/p>\n
I guess I’d never really watched a speak with dead that closely.\u00a0 Or maybe this oni was particularly reluctant.\u00a0 But I’d never noticed the (pointless, in the end) resistance that the subject still puts up.\u00a0 Even if it cannot win, the victim still clearly resists answering the questions.\u00a0 It kind of made me look at Kali in a new light … it seemed every bit as much a battle as any I’ve fought.<\/p>\n
Dasi’s blood bio didn’t surprise us, but we were<\/em> a little surprised by the answers from the dead oni.\u00a0 They were surprisingly helpful, despite its obvious reluctance.<\/p>\n We talked a bit away from Ameiko.\u00a0 Who should go to the island?\u00a0 Ameiko, obviously.\u00a0 And we theorized that if Ameiko went, Shalelu would too.\u00a0 But what about Koya?\u00a0 She might prove a valuable healer …\u00a0\u00a0 but she was also relatively frail and vulnerable.\u00a0 She could easily swing from healer to victim should anything attack us.<\/p>\n And let’s face it – if the visit to the island was required<\/em> to take the throne, then the Jade Regent would know that too.\u00a0 If would be foolish NOT to assume there would be obstacles awaiting us.<\/p>\n Koya offered to do a commune spell which would allow us to learn more about the Jade Regent’s world.\u00a0 Kali wanted to know more of the lineage of the Jade Regent and hoped these questions would provide her that – nut we were limited to yes\/no questions this time.<\/p>\n Is Meida pregnant?\u00a0 (Yes) So if I understand correctly, this has several implications.\u00a0 The JR does not know his heritage, and there are some who find that to their advantage.\u00a0 We know this because Meida is pregnant with the JR’s child, yet she is keeping this secret.\u00a0 Why would this not be a joyous moment for the proud parents?\u00a0 Because the physical appearance of the child may reveal more to the JR (or the court) of his true heritage.\u00a0 That is, the child likely will not be human.<\/p>\n Kali believes that this information will be invaluable in the hands of the Emerald Branch and will lay the groundwork for a more legitimate heir.\u00a0 Should one appear, for example.<\/p>\n She will see if she and the Branch can stir the pot.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, we also learned more about the island.\u00a0 It allegedly is surrounded by five gates, which must be traversed in a particular order – both Suishen and Dasi suggest clockwise – while presenting the orb.\u00a0 So much for secrecy – presenting the orb is the equivalent of blowing a horn for the Five Storms and painting a target on our back.\u00a0 But I guess we’re pretty much at that point, aren’t we?<\/p>\n There were discussions about who would be captain, and what kind or size of boat to get, and what prep (spells) we should have in effect as we approach the island.<\/p>\n And finally, around noon, we left.<\/p>\n We arrived and passed through the gates with little problem, circling the island and reappearing at the nondescript pier we first saw.\u00a0 However, now there appeared to be an outbuilding just beyond the dock, and a path from the dock.<\/p>\n We disembarked without incident, but upon entering the building discovered shrines to Pharasma and Takeo.\u00a0 Further within we discovered two sisters who has been sent to deter us.\u00a0 These lovely ladies, it turns out, had 20′ long necks and a poison bite … not exactly a perfect date.\u00a0 They apparently could produce an aura of silence and darkness easily, but Suishen cast Daylight, which at least negated the darkness.<\/p>\n From the conversation we overheard as we quietly approached, it seems they were here precisely to prevent the quest we are on.\u00a0 Unfortunately for them, they failed.<\/p>\n A blood bio on their bodies didn’t reveal anything we hadn’t already figured out in combat.<\/p>\n We did a pile of “treasure” but an inspection left us feeling this was either grave-robbing or altar-robbing, and we made a note to keep an eye open for plundered gravesites.\u00a0 Ameiko felt it might be okay for us to borrow items that were not consumable and did not leave the island. To that end …<\/p>\n [751] light steel shield +3 We passed through another gate (did not seem to require the seal) and entered a graveyard.\u00a0 There was a kiosk at the entrance with various incense.\u00a0 Dasi took some, suggesting as well that those carrying ancestral weapons may wish to also take some.\u00a0 Olmas and Kali did.<\/p>\n But we hadn’t gotten too far into the graveyard before we found ourselves surrounded by 9 shadows.\u00a0\u00a0 Literally surrounded – this did not seem to be a chance encounter.\u00a0 Kali came up with a brilliant idea to protect us all from deadly strength drains.\u00a0 She created an anti-magic field around her, which extended to protect our party.\u00a0 As an artifact, Suishen was unaffected by the anti-magic field, which meant he could attack any shadows within the field.\u00a0 Not being particularly smart, they did enter the field … and that meant that their draining effect had no effect.\u00a0 Although other magic such as belts and cloaks were also disabled, that proved to be little impediment.\u00a0 The shadows, eventually, were dispatched.<\/p>\n Shadows aren’t known for carrying a bunch of belongings around with them, so no treasure.\u00a0 Doubtful that they have many victims on this island, either.\u00a0 I suppose it is possible these are shades of the dead here, but it seems more likely to be another Jade Regent laid trap.<\/p>\n It occurred to me, as well, that perhaps without the seal being out we were really triggering defenses of the tomb.\u00a0 I thought if we ran into another obstacle, perhaps we should identify ourselves.<\/p>\n I had a chance to test that theory just scant seconds later.\u00a0 As we approached the end of the graveyard and a small bridge over a creek, some of the gravestones and debris around them all gathered together, taking a monstrous vaguely bipedal form which blocked our paths.\u00a0 I took a couple of respectful steps back and announced “Please make way for the rightful heir to throne, the Amatatsu heir.\u00a0 We come only to honor those rulers who came before us.”<\/p>\n And then it attacked. Sigh.<\/p>\n But before I could close with it again, Ivan shot it full of arrows, Kali zapped it with a disintegration ray and Zos had some sort of controlled panic reaction which looked like five or six bombs went off all at once.\u00a0 It died.<\/p>\n We healed the group, and looked ahead to the bridge.\u00a0 What else was awaiting us?\u00a0 It has been a busy day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" as told by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia himself. Starday, 22 Sarenith Musician he, collected blood, And spent some time inspecting “Inquisitor!” he shouted out Truly, what we were expecting. The wizard, then invoked her spell And made the dead one speak All raptly watched and listened close to hear the oni freak. “Okay!” she said, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-4269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","tag-olmas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4269","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4269"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4272,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4269\/revisions\/4272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIs it the JR’s child? (Yes)
\nIs she keeping this a secret (Yes)
\nIs the JR’s mother still alive (No)
\nDid Anamurumon have her killed? (Yes)
\nIs the JR’s father still alive? (No)
\nDid Anamurumon have him killed? (Yes)
\nIs the JR a descendant of Anamurumon? (Yes)
\nDoes JR know this (No)<\/p>\n
\n[752] magic feather (treefeather token)
\n[753] strand of prayer beads (lesser)<\/p>\n