Day 16 — Not a haiku

PachinkoRyutoOona KatoaPunxsutawney

Chapter summary

Trade, politics, and the consequences of imperial entanglement give way to the villages’ sacred Culling.

Connections

Session notes

[meta] Options:

Go all in with Cathay and dominate the isles through imperialism
Ryuto crosses the empire and we go against the imperialism
We could try to continue being swords for hire
Agents of chaos, looting everything
Religious fanatics and champion Don Gregorio’s

Moa’tor is the collaborationist faction.

[Back to game] Lillypad is here. Killipella is here as well with us. Stoa is our chief diplomatic person. Stoa argues that the boggarts killed a Cathay diplomat and so this is an appropriate response. Ryuto says we should let them in. Punx pleads to the chieftess that helping others in need is a kindness. Stoa disagrees and says that we would be establishing a de facto alliance with the boggarts. Oona suggests hiding them in the old tower. Stoa asks about the tower. It is a good hiding place. Ryuto wants to make some tea for the boggarts. We can lead them to the tower. The dragons should have no reason to attack the village. Ryuto asks about what happened to the village. Pachinko wants to build a shanty town outside gloombark. Lillypad says that they killed many of their kind. Ryuto is going to make some tea.

Punx is going to treat wounds. Oona is going to try to convince the chieftess and Stoa to provide help. Ryuto is providing temporary hit points to 10 of the boggarts. Pachinko is trying to invent makeshift housing for the boggarts, he invents Sashimono woodworking.

Stoa says that she has to go back with Don Gregorio to turn him in and the contessa needs to stay to establish an embassy but because of her lacking diplomacy skills, someone has to stay with her so Stoa is trying to recruit us for that mission until something else can be arranged. Stoa has no choice but to trust us. Oona asks about what to do about the dragons. Stoa says that the numbers are not in the favor of the boggarts. Cathay is too powerful and it’s not wise to piss them off. Stoa thinks that Cathay might have just come to punish the boggarts but we should talk to them to figure out what they want, they might not know that Moa Tor is protecting the elephant isles. Meanwhile, Killipella is hesitant but agrees that a close enemy is better than the unknown foreigners.

Killipella wonders if they could joint the migrant fleet. Punx confirms that some of them should be able to work. Oona talks to Lillypad and tries to explain the situation and how we can’t directly help them. We can either try to show them to a safe place or they could go to the migrant fleet. We don’t know if they could survive with the migrant fleet.

Killipella is not thrilled about giving up their burial grounds to the boggarts but would be acceptable. It is a secluded area that could be used. Lillypad is thankful but not entirely happy but they will be moving along to the burial grounds.

Now we have to deal with Don Gregorio and figure out if it’s ok that he’s leaving. He is ready to leave with Stoa. They depart on the morrow and meet with Jackdoe to go back to the Capital. The round trip will be 3 weeks at best. We’re embassy staff.

The next step is to talk to the dragons. The villagers have tried contacting them but have failed so far. The contessa is bored and wants something fun to distract her. Pachinko proposes that they set up a puppet show for the villagers. The contessa busies herself with organizing the play with Pachinko and Punx. Oona and Ryuto go to talk to the dragons.

The dragons have not taken an ironclad to the elephant isles, it’s just a quick sail vessel. Still it’s still a pretty sizeable expedition of a 100. They have set up a half circular encampment around where they anchored and disembarked. In a cove, secluded from the weather. The camp has some defenses but nothing too defended. Nevertheless, it’s in a clearing and anyone that approaches is spotted easily. Ryuto is approaching with his crown. Ryuto and Oona identified themselves as representatives of contessa Palchia. They are delegates of Moa’tor, coming in peace to establish formal diplomatic communications. The dragons are perplexed as these strangers approach, including a dragon not from their delegation. They send word inside to get higher instructions. They don’t let them in yet, but Oona and Ryuto get a glimpse of what’s inside. There are some banners, one of them is the imperial banner. The other banners would indicate the office and name of the delegate in charge. It’s Yang, the guy who bought the trojan snake. Chamberlain Yang comes out after some time, with his robes catching on the sand because sand is rough and gets everywhere. Yang is surprised to see Ryuto. Ryuto is trying to explain what the delegation is supposed to be doing here. It’s a very important business. The contessa is not very useful though, says Ryuto. Ryuto alludes to the poison, Yang asks whether they haven’t rewarded him enough to be more open about it. Ryuto explains openly what happened with the killing, mentioning only that some passengers were killed but not whom. But then he says it was a flying, non-dragon guy. This other religious fanatic. He then explains how this started a diplomatic incident. Ryuto then asks if the expedition has been fruitful. Yang responds that they have been successful at acquiring medicine and the resource they were looking for, the other tree. They don’t have much of a use for but they would like to deny the west of this resource. It would make it to easy to build their fleet on site.

Ryuto mentions to Oona that they have gathered herbs and burned down the village as revenge. Oona tries to find out if he’s lying. Oona can tell that Ryuto is lying. Oona is pressing Ryuto about what else they talked about. Ryuto mentions that he told them about the medicine. Ryuto starts translating for Oona. Oona says they are representatives for the contessa and ambassadors. They want to talk further about life on the island and what everyone is up to. She asks if they want to stay longer here? Yang asks if Moa’toa is claiming domain over the island. Oona says there’s no claim but that there’s trade relations and a presence of Moa’toa on the islands. Yang says that then they don’t need to answer anything and the king can directly use his diplomatic channels with the celestial empire. Yang says their mission on the islands should not involve any of its citizens henceforth and that’s all that we should care about. Yang asks about the ancestry of Ryuto. Ryuto is a red dragon of fire. Yang reaches for his spear and gives it to Ryuto as a token of respect. Ryuto recognizes that it’s a cathayan fire stick. With a small flame as a trigger, Ryuto can invoke a fireball. Ryuto and Oona come back after having a successful diplomatic encounter.

Back in the village, it’s time for a play. The story of the three turtles and a whale. Kinnipella feels a bit bad that they turned away the boggarts after the moral of the story.

Week 1 is done.

Week 2 – Pachinko checks on the boggarts who are settled in the ruins of the towers. We take the puppet show on tour. We ask about other villages on the island. They know about other Celarian villages a bit farther away than the boggart village. There’s:

Hilltown
Bimbo

We use the theater tour to be able to go to the towns of Hilltown and Bimbo. Punx’ performance off-stage has led to warning signs being posted around the villages to not consort with the whale performer of the theater troupe. His blowing act has been deemed dangerous. We’ll have to wait until it all blows over.

Pachinko is trying to do some diplomatic approaches while bringing the theater around. We also bring craters of weapons, tools, and toys. We’re trying to sell the weapons. Not for coinage but they would offer us something else. There’s herbs, clothes, crafts.

Punx asks around for spices that are traditional and could be commerce. Punx discovers a potential ingredient, with a citrusy smell but with an earthy aftertaste, earthiness like truffles. It tastes like truffle and smells like lemon. It’s a lemon truffle. It’s a rare trade good.

Punx exchanges his two crates of clothes for lemon truffles. Oona exchanges one unit of weapons for lemon truffles. 1 common unit of weapons for local snakes and Oona also exchanges her other unit for local snakes.

We receive a communal request from the three villages. The times have been rough and the boggarts had disrupted trade. It’s time for the Celery to get together and do the Culling. The Culling is a sacred mission that the islanders do to prevent the blood boars from overbreeding and overrunning the isle. They want to send a hunt with the best warriors to cull them.

We’ll join their hunt.