All Hail Empress Ameiko!

The battle in the throne room was still raging. Sawyer slashed at the Jade Regent with Suishen, pounding against his ornate armor, but the Jade Regent didn’t seem to even notice. He’d just spotted Ameiko. Or rather Nicki’s pet oni Roscoe, disguised as Ameiko. The Jade Regent let out a shout of triumph. “You think you can take this from me?” he shrieked at the befuddled Roscoe. “You dare to challenge me in my own palace? This throne is mine, and this empire is mine!” With that, he flourished his sword at the faux Ameiko. A scintillating plane of force flashed from the blade, hitting Roscoe square in the face. The former Typhoon Guard had survived a lot, but this was the last straw. With a gurgle, he collapsed, and as he died, his shapeshifting expired, and he resumed his native kuwa oni form. When the Jade Regent realized the deception, he let out a roar of fury. A wave of force blasted from his armor, knocking Sawyer back and bringing him that much closer to death.

The Final Confrontation

“So do you think they know we’re here?” Everyone turned to look at Zhustin. Their ears were still ringing from the concussion of repeated Fireballs, and the aroma of scorched oni wafted up the open stairwells. “No,” Sandoval replied sarcastically, “I’m sure we’ll catch them totally by surprise.”

Theater of Death

As Marie doled out healing, Ameiko hurried to reassure the frightened servants who had taken cover behind the ovens during the battle in the dining hall. “Is there a way up from here?” she asked in Minkaian, and one of the cooks nodded. He pointed to a door in the north. “That way, Princess,” he whispered. “The stairs to the throne room are through there. But the way is guarded.” Everyone exchanged looks – were they ever going to catch a break? Ameiko looked at the cowering servants. “Can you tell us what we’re up against?”

Food for Thought

Bella was still peppering Teikono with questions as the others dragged her out of the inner vault, hoping the Imperial Dragon guardian would give them some loophole they could exploit to get at the other Imperial Seals. “Wait a minute – I just thought of something else!” she exclaimed as they were climbing the stairs, but Sawyer blocked her path back down. Sighing, she resigned herself to moving on, still confident she could have found a way around the dragon’s vow if she had just had a little more time.

Down to the Vaults

Sandoval’s ears popped as the Silence spell that had been plaguing them suddenly expired. Barely pausing for a breath, he resumed singing, even as he charged forward to attack the last surviving Iron Tempest monk, and he was pleased to feel the vibrations of his echoblade’s sonic attack working once again. Zhustin hammered the monk with a volley of Magic Missiles, throwing him off balance so his attempts to hit the elusive Bella went wide. Nicki’s oni skeletons lumbered in behind the monk, and as he turned to defend himself from them, Bella slipped behind him. He never even felt the blade that pierced his heart.

Monk-y Business

“So far, so good,” Sandoval thought as he stepped over the body of the dead guard. They’d managed to infiltrate the Imperial Palace without having to fight their way in, and so far they’d silently dispatched all the guards they’d encountered without raising any alarms. Now they were crowded into the ground floor of one of the Palace’s towers. Bella had already opened both doors, revealing passages leading north and east, each ending in closed doors. Marie passed Bella the coin on which she’d cast Silence and the rogue scurried off to the east. Sandoval felt his ears pop as the oppressive silence suddenly went away. He heard Nicki mutter some words, and then he vanished from sight, leaving only his two new bodyguards, the animated skeletons of two of the Typhoon Guards they’d killed upstairs. Sandoval shuddered; Nicki was getting more and more unpredictable, and Sandoval was worried that his necromantic fetish was getting out of hand.

Assault on the Palace

Staring up at the massive Imperial Palace from their hiding spot in Isao’s wagon, Zhustin felt his mouth go dry. “So … what’s the plan?” he finally asked, his voice cracking. There was a long silence. Then the silence broke like a dam, and everyone started talking at once.