Zhiyu-Ji Djinn, Campaign Notes

Episode 3

“No member of the Ji caste may partake of alcoholic beverages, excepting on holy days when they may drink of the sacred mead.”
-- Excerpt from “The Code of the Zhiyu-Ji”

The city of Shaoraka, formerly home to twenty-thousand souls, now home to none. It reminded me uncomfortably of my home city; it was silent, and eerie.
We had made good time and were early. We waited near the fountain in the city’s centre. Our antagonist, the Deathlord Mask of Winters (MoW), arrived on time in a coach driven by Bittersweet Sound of the Neverending Destiny (BSND).
He offered us a vague alliance; an agreement to give us information on mutual enemies that we could perhaps take care of so he doesn’t have to, and told us of a hidden automata army, near Rathess, that some Infernal Exalted are searching for – partly to prove he has some spies among the Infernals, partly so that this might be our test-case. We can decide whether to accept his offer after we have examined this.
It was thought our Manse library might have more information on automata dating from the First War (the Primordial War), so we decided to return there.
The library did indeed refer to the “Invincible Army”, buried beneath Rathess – automata that should have been fuelled by Exalted Essences. Apparently only Solar Exalted can open the door – so as long as we don’t go there, we should be fine, since we are the only five Solars in the world, the great God of Gods told us this much Himself.
A point was raised in discussion – MoW claimed the Deathlords want to keep the world as it is while the dæmon-worshipping Infernals want to destroy it – at odds with what I was aware of regarding the motives of the Deathlords, at least, though I had to confess my utter ignorance regarding the Infernal Exalted, of whom I have no experience. Milord Kalis says the Infernals want to change the world so their masters, the Dæmon Princes, or Yozis, can be free and remake the world; the Deathlords want to kill the world – as I thought.
As the others worry that Infernal Exalted may ‘count as’ Solars for the purposes of releasing the automata, and I worry that MoW (or others) may be wishing to use us to open them up for them, I suggested we use other agents to investigate the status of the ‘hidden’ automata – have they been found, or released, or what? My humble suggestion was listened to and accepted by the others.
The plan is for us to travel near to Rathess and send agents in – one group will be milord Kalis, using his formidable shapeshifting powers, one will be an obviously-hired decoy group of mercenaries. For this we needed valuable products with which to hire such services. This took around two weeks to prepare weapons, armour and other items that we considered would be the best methods of payment.
We set out.
The cosmopolitan city of Larjyn seemed to be a common setting-forth place for expeditions to Rathess. We arrive there, and checked into a hotel.
At the Jewelled Oyster Inn, a noted Dragon-Blooded hangout (the thought was to employ some DBs if possible), milady Endless Brine spoke to the barman Joe Boister. I had accompanied her, falling into my old role of a Ji bodyguarding a Beä – though if I judge milady aright, she needs no protection one such as I could offer – as such she drank the alcoholic drinks served in such places, whereas I, of course, do not drink.
We talked to groups, probing as to their suitability, and affordability, for our task. One group of eight DBs with plenty of experience in Rathess seemed to best fit our requirements – the Fuma Oogamma. Yukoshima, their leader, took one-half payment in advance, and we gave him a communication tablet. Hired, they set out.
We spent about two days being nice and obvious in the city, attempting to draw out any who might be spying on us. When the others left, I remained behind and got wind of someone who had indeed been taking an interest in our doings. The next day I followed him out to a campsite where he met with some others and got drunk with them, but they seemed to me to be talking in some sort of code – though I do not believe they were aware of my observing them. I watched them all night, since their intentions were unclear to me. As they decided to go back to Larjyn in the morning, I deduced I had been chasing a red herring, perhaps becoming too paranoid with my suspicions of a trap laid for us? I gave up this waste of my time following them and caught up with the others. If they had been following us they were doing so no longer, and I judged it was more important that I look for any others prying into our affairs at our new location.

Four days passed before the Fuma Oogamma reported they thought they had achieved success – finding an unopenable door. The next morning they reported they had found a way in – a tunnel that passed beyond the doors, leading to a workshop of some kind. It was theorised that it may have been for constructing Warstriders, the legendary giant battle armours of ancient times. There was also another set of unopenable doors, and some books written in an unknown language. It was theorised that this may perhaps be the language of Rathess’ original lizardmen inhabitants.
The second set of doors seemed truly impassable, so the Fuma Oogamma left, taking the books. They caught up with us a day later, and gave over the books, and a crystal with essence but no obvious use. Milord Carlos was convinced it was some manner of key, but milord Theo demonstrated it was a device for reading books.
We decided, as milord Kalis did not in the end go into Rathess as per the original plan, instead staying with us to offer advice, that we should go into the city but keep well clear of the chamber in question. Upon doing so, I saw a man-sized blur that alarmed me, and so I alerted the others, “We are not alone.” A second one was noticed before long. We carried on regardless; our own decoy. These continued, and then, when we reached a crossroads, there were three of them.

Episode 4

“No member of the lower castes may give offerings or prayers to spirits. This right is reserved for the Beä only. All services of worship must be conducted by the Beä; all holy days and rites must be supervised by the Beä. The penalty for unauthorised prayer is death. If caught in the act of prayer, we do not recommend that you pray for mercy.”
-- Excerpt from “The Code of the Zhiyu-Ji”

We attempted a brief discussion with Etuin and his two minions, terrible creatures who appeared much as men do, but with their bones seemingly fractured in many places, enough that they should not be able to even move. These minions were not in the mood for speech; they initiated a combat with us. I tried to tell them “we come in friendship”, but this did not meet with success. After a brief display of our skill, Etuin ran away, cowardlily, without having been harmed at all. Milord Carlos ordered that he not be allowed to get away, but he moved far quicker than I could possibly run. So in desperation, I threw my sword at him, only missing by a fraction. I called it back with my power; it flew through the air to return to my hand.
Of his two minions, one was killed and one was captured. The captured one soon died – with my meagre medical knowledge I theorised that the broken bones were too much for him without the rush of combat.
We attempted to track where Etuin had fled. Milord Carlos took to the air in his glider, causing me terrible pangs of jealousy for his machine that allows him to fly, though I quickly put these aside. Etuin had run into a building and used some blood magic (or something, well, nothing that was familiar to us) to disappear. The trail ended there.
Carlos spotted some members of the lizard people, who are called the Dragon Kings (DKs). They live in great numbers in Rathess – it was their city once, long ago. They did not get sight of us. We camped for the night.
In the morning the debate was this: should we attempt to communicate with the DKs, via spirits? Milord Carlos attempted it.
A spirit called Gilgamesh was persuaded to approach a small group of DKs. After a moment’s difficulty, and a bribe of trade goods, Gilgamesh discovered they spoke Riverspeak. Thus direct dialogue was opened.
The DKs are also opponents of the Infernal ones. They believed there to be at most four squads of four Infernals in the city. Clearly, as residents here, they have better intelligence than us. The DKs were persuaded to take us to see one of their superiors in the – obviously quite substantial – organisation to which they belong. Before long we were taken underground, to a chamber decorated with stained glass windows (yes, underground windows!) depicting images of the Sun, to see a giant, eight-foot, regal DK called simply “The Elder”. We attempted to make friends and an alliance with him. This was helped by our (not entirely untrue) claim to be worshippers of the Sun God, as they are.
The Elder had much better intel on the Infernal presence in Rathess than us, but not knowledge of the locations of all their camps. Our next task was then to surveill them, possibly with DK help.
The DKs gave us hospitality while other DKs were told of the new friendship between them and us – so that they don’t attack us. The Elder went to speak with other elder DKs about us.
The next day, the Elder returned and gave us a map showing where the Infernals aren’t, so that we didn’t have to search there. Also marked on the map was an area of Wyld, around a manse, which we should best avoid, telling us of the Fair Folk presence there also.
Searching the rest of the city, we found the remains of an Infernal camp, but it had been deserted for some time. This took only a few days, thanks to the help we received from the DKs. We decided to leave the Chamber well enough alone – milord Kalis had investigated it thoroughly and pronounced the Chamber undisturbed – and after giving the Elder a “message board”, we left Rathess.
In Larjyn, no-one seemed to have been suspiciously asking about us, though the Fuma Oogamma had been inquiring, presumably wanting to know more about who their employers were. We were not concerned about this behaviour.
Back at our manse-city, Fivefold Anvil had been reading a book about the Realm and the Shogunate, apparently written during the First Age – so not only does the book date from after when we thought this manse had been abandoned, but also it tells of things which happened after the book was supposedly written. This was intriguing to us all – and there were a further three volumes! Furthermore, these books had only appeared in the library’s index recently; not there one day, there the next.

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