Session 17: Hello and Goodbye Report

General Summary

Our session began with a young girl making her way into Toto, followed by a group of displaced peasants. Above the entrance to the city was an elf, strung up by his wrists and left to cook in the sun. The girl paid him no mind and led the peasants across the city to her school where she promptly asked the headmaster to help them.   Happy to see that his favourite student was still alive after the attacks and impressed by her story of triumph when protecting the villagers, the headmaster ordered her to meet with General Mak to be allocated to a new squad. One in dire need of her talents and manners.   That group was mostly still asleep, save for Astrea and Zhi who had spent a restless night in the officer's quarters. The pair were discussing various topics as they made their way to General Mak, wanting to check up on the old man and find out what they were to do next.   Upon arrival the pair saw the girl from before sitting outside Mak's office, waiting to be seen to. Astrea introduced herself and learned the girl's name: Sakura. As they spoke, Zhi was called inside. Astrea and Sakura followed close behind to see a distraught and tired looking General Mak, sitting at his desk with a blank stare etched into his face.   General Mak explained that they would be hosting a wake for Kit that night and a funeral the following day. It was expected that her team would attend, even if they had only been together for a short time. With that, he remembered the new girl, explaining that she would be taking Kit's spot on the squad. Zhi and Astrea were to introduce Sakura to the team and then return to their training before the wake.   Accepting their orders and keen to leave the bubble of grief that surrounded Mak, Astrea led Sakura back to the Hohei quarters to wake the others. Zhi stayed behind to talk to Mak and mentioned that she'd meet them all at the kitchens for breakfast.   When Astrea and the new recruit arrived they found their companions just starting to wake. "Wow, Astrea. That was fast. Replaced Kit already?" remarked Seto, prompting a small argument which Aien used as an opportunity to slip away. Eventually Astrea managed to introduce Sakura and wake Jerry, giving the group some time to get acquainted.   When Aien arrived back at their quarters he found Sakura sitting outside, clearly avoiding whatever arguments were unfolding inside. Tensions were still high after the past few days and it didn't seem like that would change anytime soon.   Once the party was ready they headed down to the kitchens in search of breakfast and to meet with Zhi. Once there, Sakura prepared tea which she served to a small mass of samurai who had grown wary of the kitchen's supplies. During breakfast, Aien pulled out a small gourd of his favourite sake. In an ultimately futile attempt to maintain sobriety in the group despite the suspicious scent wafting across the table from Zhi's pipe, Sakura used a spell to slip the bottle from the ninja's grasp.   Naturally, this nearly led to a fight between the two, Aien drawing his blade as Sakura pushed him back with telekinesis. Zhi, not wanting another dead child on her hands, pulled rank on her soldiers and ordered them to play nice. "Fighting amongst ourselves doesn't help anyone. We need to work together if we want to avoid more losses like we had yesterday, okay?"   As our heroes ate their breakfast and tried to take the edge off, some of them noticed a familiar face wandering the streets of Toto. The face belonged to their old friend, Mary. The pixie that had gotten them the escort job back in Ashima. Though it seemed she had been busy since then, now armed with a myriad of strange mechanical devices.   The party welcomed her with open arms, seemingly happy to have her back. They spent some time catching up and sharing stories before it came time to head to class. Zhi told the group about the wake, explained that they had the day to train and take some downtime, then ordered everyone to meet in the thronehall for a meeting with the Daimyo.   With that, our party dispersed. Seto and Aien headed to their respective schools to continue their training, Aien picking up a few classes dedicated to the use of poison and Seto learning a few new steps to his kata before retiring to a rooftop to read his book. Jerry finally made his way to the smithy, using his downtime to start honing his skills and completing a mask for his helm. He also uncovered a map detailing the locations of ancient master forges dotted across Kiga.   Meanwhile, Zhi, Astrea, Mary and Sakura headed for the tattoo parlour. Mary was interested in the rumours about these monks using blood magic in their tattoos. Rumours that immediately proved true once the monks began tattooing the others, imbuing them all with new abilities as they took more blood samples. Mary later took an opportunity to peek behind the curtain of the tattoo parlour, meeting the old blind monk and asking some questions about their practices. The tattoos took most of the day to complete and by the time they were finished our heroes had just enough time to complete some personal errands before meeting with Daichi.   The throneroom had been cleaned since their last time there and as the party lined up at attention before the daimyo they noticed Lady Sumehime dressed in fine funeral robes. She was sitting impatiently alongside Daichi, who seemed to have a lot of new information to share with the group.   Daichi claimed that the results of everyone's bloodwork had been analyzed and he sought to speak with Seto in particular about what they revealed. He commended Seto for his performance over the past few days, for not only defending the city and standing his ground against the horde, but for stepping up when his commanding officer was unable to complete her report. For this, he offered Seto a promotion as well as the title to the land surrounding the bath-house, including the bath-house itself.   Those who were new to the Dragon Clan and Daichi Tatsuo's antics may have mistaken this for generosity, when in fact, the truth was far more complicated. What the tattooed monk's blood tests had revealed, Daichi claimed, was that divine blood flowed through Seto's veins. The blood of the Kami Shiba. Champion of the Phoenix Clan.   Though Seto was suspicious, the Daimyo's behaviour suggested that he believed every word. The orders were to secure the portal, make sure nothing else used it to attack the city and to seal it if possible. Once their business was complete, the daimyo addressed each of the other members in turn. He granted Seto, Jerry and Aien all new tattoos for the successful defence of the city and questioned Astrea's story about her origins. Before they left, Aien had one last request from the daimyo.   He asked that his uncle, the elf strung up on the outside walls, be allowed a fair execution. Sakura agreed, insisting that the elf's treatment was barbaric whilst trying not to offend the daimyo. Aien also requested that he be the executioner, a gesture of trust that Daichi gladly accepted. All the while this was happening, Mary had been stowed away in Zhi's bag, managing to avoid notice.   It was then almost time for the wake to begin and the party left to make preparations. A few finely tailored outfits later and our heroes were starting to look like the samurai they were destined to become. Despite the air of grief surrounding Toto, the party had a lot to consider as they headed towards the old Dragon Temple nestled in the mountainside behind the city.   Once inside, the party took turns greeting their host, General Mak. Each of them offered a customary gift of condolences as they made their way into the food hall. One gift in particular seemed to lighten the General's heart for a moment. An origami swan enchanted by Sakura to fly and land on Mak's finger had already begun to make him smile when Mary added to it's enchantment, granting it the song of a nightingale. General Mak's favourite bird. Whether by dumb luck or divine intention, the gift was well received and everyone made their way into the somewhat empty dining room.   The long wooden tables were occupied by far fewer people than there were seats. The blacksmiths were there along with a number of the school masters who taught Kit. Many of the seats were filled by Shi's skeleton warriors for reasons that nobody could quite understand in it's entirety. Lady Sumehime and Daichi Tatsuo were present as well, taking the seats closest to General Mak to indicate rank and station, as is tradition.   Our heroes found seats across the room, Sakura managing to secure a prestigious position alongside General Mak and across from Zhi. She spent the evening trying to ensure that her new friends would mind their manners, which by this point she was beginning to understand may be an impossible task. Instead, she decided to add some respectful flair to the ceremony after the priest had finished singing his sutras.   Heading out into the store-room in search of tea-making equipment, Sakura found young Timo attempting to break into the liquor storage and promptly sent him home with a warning. It seemed it was not the first time she had caught him doing something he was not supposed to. With that, she found what she was looking for and headed back to perform a tea ceremony.   The ceremony was a great success for such a dour affair despite Sakura making plenty of mistakes due to nerves that only she really noticed. The others had already drunk themselves into a stupor and begun pottering off to bed. Seto headed back to his new bath-house and spent the rest of the night training himself to sleep.   Jerry had also slipped away during the party, making a short journey to plant a seed and say a prayer to his Kami for Kit. This act would grant him a vision into a world beyond his mortal mousey comprehension, which he would discover later that night as he drifted off to sleep. He had hoped to dream about the forge he had uncovered and the factory Mary talked about, but those things would soon bare more significance than he ever knew.   As the guests of the wake all slowly made their way home, Zhi, Astrea and Lady Sumehime stayed back to share another couple of drinks in honour of their lost friend. The following day would bring with it a final goodbye, and so they drank.