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"you are here"

35 Ardan, 621 NA

Our Heroes were taken by a secret tunnel out of the city, and left to spend the night at a tiny, dirt-floored tool shed on the banks of a shallow, slow river. The near side of the river is agricultural land; the far side is a graceful, maze-like garden. There being nothing else nearby on the near bank, Our Heroes slept in the shed.

36 Ardan, 621 NA

A Mandalan gardener, apparently not privy to our presence, awoke Our Heroes just after dawn, with much shouting and anger (for a Mandalan, anyway). While he hustled off to inform on us, we decided to cross the knee-deep river and hide in the garden. A Kang warrior, with his tarkus, came running in response to the gardener's cries of outrage, but declined to wade the river.

The gardens are, in fact, the near edge of the vast Groves of Serenity. Neatly-raked gravel paths, tiny lawns, hedges, fish pools, fountains, carefully-trimmed trees, colorful flowering plants, etc. all form a daunting maze ... straight-line progress is impossible. There are a few fruits and berries growing in the Grove, and we sampled a few of those for lunch, along with some of the provisions we brought from the mansion. The colorful fish looked much more decorative than nutritious.

Within the Grove, we unexpectedly met a meditating Mandalan, who soon changed her appearance to that of a golden-haired Cymrillian -- (name TBD) an agent of House Mordigan. She suggested we meditate and take comfort from the Grove, and departed/disappeared.

Mid-day, Keja managed to attune the Crossbow. While she was attuning, a statue became briefly animated, and tossed a small stone chop-cylinder to Vidan ... the chop is an odd glyph, which to Keja looked somewhat like the glyphs she had seen on Witchgates. The cylinder contains ink for the glyph; when we tried it on a leaf, the leaf dried up and crumbled to dust. 

Aldak re-disguised himself as a Mandalan, and went into the city to snoop late in the day. He met with an Ispasian merchant, who gave him a down payment of gold to ensure the destruction of Magistrate Karrak and the spirit within him.

Not long after that, he met with Serene, who explained that she is our local "account manager". She explained the use of the Extractor (the stone chop-cylinder), which should be applied to the forehead of a possessed person to remove the intrusive spirit. In the night, Aldak returned to the Grove, and we discussed our course of action.

The two most likely plans for eliminating the Magistrate or the spirit within him were:  sniping him with the Crossbow while he reviews the troops, or getting Puliko or Keja very, very close to him during, or after, the feast on the 37th. We decided to go with the latter plan; Keja and Puliko practiced their sword-dancing.

37 Ardan, 621 NA

Puliko and Keja went into the town with much of our ready cash, to obtain flashy sword-dancer outfits, and apply to be entertainers at the feast. Aldak and Vidan entered separately, to look for escape routes, watch for trouble, and (during the Feast) to be ready with an escape or diversion.

Both Aldak and Vidan had unlucky encounters with Kang solders -- most of their trouble was in not possessing the correct Right of Passage papers. After escaping the Kang, Vidan met with Chi'chang, a young acolyte of the School of Willows. Chi'chang was able to obtain the Right of Passage papers, and we sent him to Puliko and Keja -- just in time!

After the impressive review of Kang troops and war-machinery, and some speeches in Quan (which only Keja could understand, using the magical Earrings of Translation), the celebration moved to the Governor's Palace. There, a hall of Kang potentates and officers ate their roasted meat and watched -- with clamorous thumping on tables, or deadly thumping on performers -- the entertainments. Many were quite skilled, but a few alas were either unskilled or poorly chosen to entertain the Kang.

Keja and Puliko performed the energetic, erotic and well-received sword dance, but the Magistrate didn't seem notably aroused. The audience liked it, however.

After the performances were over, an Espasian approached Keja backstage, and told her she was summoned to the Governor's chambers. She was escorted past a daunting number of Kang guards, up many stories within the pagoda-like palace, and searched carefully once she reached the chambers. All of her magic items (except the Extractor chop) were removed, and she was left to wait, under guard, for the Magistrate. After a long wait, the Magistrate arrived, took a look at her and her magic items, and dismissed the guard. He spoke only a bit of Low Talislantan, and was persuaded by Keja to allow her to resume wearing her Earrings of Translation. He asked her why she was here ...

Magistrate Karrak was clearly a sophisticated fellow, for a Kang, and (alas for Plan B) entirely celibate. Keja soon decided that honesty is the best policy, and explained that she was sent ... by various groups, some for financial reasons ... to destroy the spirit within the Magistrate. Karrak claimed Our Heroes had made a mistake -- his spirit is that of Lung Hundan, a warlord of the old Mandalan people; NOT Lung Hundan, a vile, vicious and evil Mazdak noble. He claimed to be working to uplift and save the Mandalan people.

Keja realized that (a) the plan to use the chop won't work, and (b) maybe Karrak is a nice guy. He let her depart with her magic items, and in fact told her to leave the Empire; she got a small victory/"cool points" by stepping out of a window and gliding off into the darkness. The other agents of Death were waiting in a nearby park, and were quite surprised when she explained how it all turned out! It's clear that the Ispasians wouldn't be happy, and that House Mordiggan wouldn't be happy, and was probably far to chummy with Lord Cabbadon (who would probably not be happy either). Any further attempts to kill Karrak seemed doomed; and waiting in the Kang Empire seemed foolish also -- the Ispasians would be hiring assassins, and Karrak would certainly know if Our Heroes didn't leave. Our Heroes decided to inform the Mandalan "undeground" of what Keja discovered, and depart through the Temple of Remembrance. Vidan was of the opinion that our employment with Lord Cabbadon was about to end, but that was probably better than continuing to perform his evil tasks.

An Ispasian riding in a palanquin passed by the park, and gestured in a significant, ominous, but not very informative way at Our Heroes. Not long after that, a Kang warrior came rushing at us, apparently intent on killing us -- he called for our death, despite our Right of Passage papers! Fortunately, we were able to disarm (rather than slay) him, and his cries of "Ouch!" gave us the impression that something wasn't quite right. An illusion dropped, revealing Chi'chang, who said he had stolen a paper from the Ispasians, and had no idea about this Kang illusion. The paper had a strange glyph on it, but wasn't very informative otherwise. Our Heroes realized that the Ispasians weren't waiting long to send assassins, and in fact had probably prepared to kill us whether or not the Magistrate survived!

Keja told Chi'chang the real name of the spirit possessing the Magistrate ("it's all in the accent and tone"), and instructed him to inform the School of Willows (and take the paper with the glyph). Our Heroes then rushed off to the Temple of Remembrance, found the monk/mystic/gardener there, informed him of the true nature of the Magistrate ("silly Mr. Miyagi"), and left through a death-portal to the Underworld.

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