by Pat "Saka" Bobell
OOC: Before getting into the actual content of this quest, I want to say that this private non-legal event was donated to a charity auction last year. The money we players bid in the auction did not fund the garb, props, food, and other materials staff needed to run the quest, and I want to call out the effort and resources Zach Senchuk and Jason and Angela Gray put into this for charity and for their players. I also want to thank Tucker Noyes, Pi Fisher, John Rescigno, Kajsa Senchuk, and Kelly Bonci for NPCing and/or helping with various logistics/food things! Okay, now for the actual WYM…
This past Saturday, the 29th of June 1019, I joined my fellow members of Rua Thar Cinn, three of our petitioners, and some of our closest companions on a quest to aid a Teng Huanese town with literal (not littoral) troubled waters. Apparently, a nearby river wasn't allowing people in to fish or transport goods. Something was clearly disturbing the natural balance, so we set out to determine the cause and find an appropriate resolution for the affected commonfolk. I should note upfront that I was involved with a lot more of the "how" and "what" aspects of this endeavor than the "why" or "who"; readers looking for such details should probably get in touch with Rel, Iawen, or the relevant Teng Huanese officials.
We arrived midmorning and started preparations for the journey. The plan was to find a way to traverse the river and look for any particular areas of concern. A local person or spirit gave us a puzzle that when solved, instructed us to communicate our intent to the river in verse. (For those who are curious, the solved text is included after this account.) Iawen wrote an excellent haiku on the fly and after we all recited it together, the river consented to grant us passage. My alligator turtle from the Rhiassan tunnels, Kiku, has grown quite large over the years and was kind enough to carry me. I had also forged an axe that could serve as an oar to help us navigate the occasional rapids, and I certainly recommend something of the sort for anyone else going on such a quest. Our party had many other aquatic mounts, and several rafts. (Most notable, in my opinion, were Rel's dragon, Aymise's shark, Rosetta's giant octopus, and Iawen's giant jellyfish.)
Not long after we started downriver, we were beset by freshwater pirates. Apparently that's a thing. They were adept swimmers and rowers, and some even had enough arcane prowess to heal their compatriots or cast magic missiles our way! Over the course of several clashes, our party became quite strung out along the river, with some of our dead floating downstream out of reach. In the end things worked out since the local river spirits were answering calls for divine aid with the power to raise our friends by voice alone, and we regrouped on a gravel beach where it seemed the pirates had established a small base of operations.
While fighting the pirates on dry land, we noticed that the river was no longer welcoming to us if we tried to step back into the water and would push us back to dry land. Those who were less involved with the fighting found several piles of sunfruit laid out, and noticed that each piece of fruit had some sort of rune on it. There were only two different runes, and I'm told one looked like a series of lines and the other looked sort of like a grumpy face. I was mostly fighting, but the fruit was gathered and Rel apparently ate one, because why not? Doing this did not change the river's attitude toward him, but someone decided we should all try eating a sunfruit to see if anything would happen. So we did. I remain unconvinced that this actually did anything, but the fruit tasted good.
After another good bit of fighting I was called over to join everyone else in a small ritual to demonstrate our ability to cooperate. A water spirit (possibly a large sentient fish who didn't mind dry land) told us we all needed to be inside a large green magical rope circle, hold the rope off the ground, and then find a way for all twelve of us to be at least two feet off the ground at the same time. Because there's no way following random ritual instructions from a giant fish out of water could ever go wrong, we did what he said by climbing up on various rocks and logs of sufficient height. (We tried a simultaneous jump first, but the fish was unimpressed.) Indana was instrumental in coordinating the effort, and the big fish gave her a puzzle that he said would come in handy later. She held onto the large part and I put the small parts with letters on them in my waterproof rucksack.
Ah, right, I also brought a dry-bag with way more gear than was really necessary. I highly recommend a waterproof pack for trips like this, but less so the extra ten pounds of equipment. We don't need to talk about the steel grappling anchor I brought in case we needed to hold a position against the current.
Anyway. Having dealt with the pirate outpost and completed this strange test, the river seemed cooperative once more. I ate a few more sunfruit (wouldn't want them to go to waste, now would we?) and we resumed our journey, following the current and engaging in the occasional swashbuckle with the pirates who would sally forth to harass us. At one point, Kiku and I were sufficiently separated from the rest of our group for three of the pirates to converge on us. Their magic missiles overwhelmed my parrying ability before I could attack them with my axe-oar, but thankfully Kiku was able to carry me safely downriver. I believe I was dead for ten to twenty minutes before we caught up to Janus, Indana, and Tirvanel, and Tir was able to bring me back. Everyone else was pretty far behind us, so we found some shallows to wait in. After a short while our compatriots and assailants caught up with us and had apparently established a "parlay". This was a foreign concept for me but is apparently common in nautical conflicts. It seemed like something between a surrender and a truce, but I'm not quite sure who was surrendering to whom at that point. Aymise's shark and Iawen's jellyfish were a little worse for wear, so Rosetta's mount and Bright's raft were each doing double duty. The pirates went ashore and we followed...right into their stronghold! I think "parlay" might actually just mean "please stop attacking us until we think we have the upper hand".
Unfortunately for those scalawags, we are fairly competent and well-coordinated when we want to be. Janus isn't even blind anymore, and he was somehow channeling Indana's healing magic. I almost felt bad. At one point, the horse that had done a surprisingly good job of carrying Laika downriver was stolen by a pirate attempting to flee and we had to chase him down. That was a nice run.
One pirate band that advanced on us tried to "parlay" and started negotiating with Rel. I made a wide circle around the pirates and intended to take them out from behind while Rel kept stalling, but by the time I got to the pirates the negotiations were pretty entertaining. So I tapped one on the shoulder and asked if I could join them, and they gave me one of the bandanas they all wore as heraldry. The pirates offered Rel a truce and one of their own number in exchange for Rel's magic sword, and he convinced the pirates to flip him for it. They didn't flip a coin, as one might expect, but they flipped the two peace offerings. The sacrificial pirate was stabbed with the magic sword and Rel would throw him up in the air. One of the surviving pirates would call sword up or sword down before he landed. Naturally, as a loyal pirate myself, I volunteered to call the flip and the other pirates agreed. I somehow managed to call it incorrectly, to all of our complete and utter surprise. The pirates wanted to go double or nothing, so Rel stabbed a second pirate, flipped him, and I called it correctly that time to see what Rel would do. Rel gave me a look, I shrugged, and then we killed the remaining murderous thieves who had been corrupting the river.
Several pirate skirmishes later, the party had determined the nature of the word puzzle we'd acquired earlier and most of it was solved. There were four rotating dials that fit into a large rectangle with six empty squares. If the dials were turned such that they spelled a word with the letters closest to the squares, one of the squares would permanently change to show progress toward the complete solution. Each word was related to greed or banditry, so we assumed this would somehow relieve the river and local spirits of the pirates' corrupting influence. Eventually, we figured out the last of the six words and boy were we wrong.
Teng Hua has their own type of demon called an Oni. This was the first one I've encountered and while I appreciated his wit, I can't say it was an overall pleasant experience to make his acquaintance. He said his name was Hame, and he thanked us for summoning him. He had two green Teng Huanese runes on his forehead, and he informed us that we did as well. After briefly looking around, he turned out to be correct about that. He said they were a mark of greed, and waxed poetic about how lovely it was to have other greedy folks to steal from. His argument was that with other avaricious folks around, ownership of everything is more concentrated and thus easier to acquire for himself. I have to admit, there was some logic to what the oni said. We bantered a bit, and then he decided he wanted our weapons and things. So we fought.
This Hame creature had no weapons of his own, but could make ours appear in his hand simply by pointing at them. If he did this while his hands were already full, the extra weapons would hover in the air around him, defending him. It took us a bit to get a grip on this situation, as many of us were unable to injure him when we attacked. After some trial and error, we discovered he could be harmed only by those whose possessions he was carrying or controlling. Most of us would fight to keep him busy while those missing weapons would get replacements and try to deal some damage. It took a lot to bring him down, and we had to kill him three times before he finally stopped regenerating. During the fight we'd cached some magic weapons beyond the fray so they would be outside the oni's notice, and I ran to retrieve them after the fight was done. When I returned, others were hesitantly examining his body. He had a pendant of some sort around his neck, so I reached to pull it over his head. Rather than coming away in my hand, it appeared around my neck. Thus far I have been unable to remove it. We tried to identify it, but our magic yielded no information. So far I am not aware of any adverse effects, though I do have a second pair of the "greed mark" runes while everyone else only has one. I tried pointing at Rosetta's sword in case it gave me the oni's power to steal weaponry, but no such luck. Perhaps there's just more to it that I need to figure out.
In any case, with the oni dispatched, a local townsperson or government official or another spirit arrived and offered us a meal, some Teng Huanese coin, a scroll, and a small box with a lucky golden cricket in thanks. Tirvanel asked to keep the scroll, and we decided he could keep it on the condition that he would transcribe copies to be distributed. (He followed through, so the text of the scroll, which details methods of attracting the spirits called Yosei, is included with this account. Good job, petitioner!) Indana indicated a fondness for the golden cricket, and nobody other than Tirvanel expressed interest, so she said she'd rochambeau him for it. While they started doing this, I may or may not have stolen the cricket from the table next to them, circled around to Indana, and handed it to her. Regardless of how it came to pass, Indana ended up with the pet cricket.
For the next couple of hours, we dried out in the Teng Huanese sun, ate our fill, and discussed the day's events before heading home to Chimeron. I feel like it was strangely difficult to distinguish river spirits from the friendly local populace, but maybe there was something I was missing. We have yet to figure out how we all got the first "greed mark" runes, but our best guesses so far are that it was a consequence of taking the lives of the pirates, or eating a bunch of the sunfruit. Most significantly, we have no idea if the oni we fought is actually defeated, or simply weakened. We were told that the river seems better than we found it, but not entirely uncorrupted. I had intended to return the following day with Rhiassa and a couple of other adventurers, but the weather turned prohibitively cold overnight. Whether this sudden and unseasonable chill was coincidence or something more sinister, I cannot say. I would recommend another party attempt to investigate the area in the near future. And if you do, maybe don't go touching demons' jewelry.
Til likevekt og utvikling,
Sir Saka Keeneye
Addendum - River Entry Prompt
"River Flows Swiftly
It Has A Life Of Its Own
No One Commands It
Those Who Would Enter
Permission Must Be Granted
In Verse You Must Speak"
Addendum - On Yosei
"The following details how to entice various Yosei to come out from hiding. I hope this work will help future generations to be able to share in the joy that Yosei bring. I will briefly go over how to attract some of the more basic types of Yosei.
MetalLad - In order to attract a MetalLad, one should find a piece of metal that is tarnished or rusty, and polish it to a shine again. This will be pleasing to the MetalLad.
VoidLad - In order to attract a VoidLad, one should spend time doing one of the following: either draw a picture while blindfolded, or tell a story without using any words. Who knows what might happen if you manage to do both at the same time!
WoodLad - In order to attract a WoodLad, one must collect enough natural wood-like materials and arrange them in a decently large, pleasing shape.
FireLad - In order to attract a FireLad, one must create their own coal or ash, and use it to draw a sketch. The sketch should be pleasing to a potential fire yosei.
EarthLad - In order to attract an EarthLad, one should make a rock sculpture using at least ten distinctly different size stones. This sculpture should promote serenity. It is especially impactful if multiple sculptures exist near each other.
WaterLad - In order to attract a WaterLad, one should collect water from five distinctly different sources, mix it, then use that water to nourish something.
WindLad - In order to attract a WindLad, one should make a set of windchimes, any material is fine as long as they make sound, and then hang them out for all to enjoy, and to attract the WindLad.
Lastly, there is a type of Yosei that is more free spirited in its nature. This very adaptable Yosei is only attracted by a collection of all the other types of Yosei.
I hope this writing helps you find Yosei of your own. They are wonderful beings, and very resilient. Once you attract them they will most likely want to stay with you for the rest of your life, unless you choose to send them away, which they won't mind either.
Oku Kyoju"