Visions of Jade

The party had descended the final staircase into the depths of Brinewall Castle. The stair spiraled deep down into the rock below the castle, ending in an portcullis, its bars sunk deep into the floor and ceiling, with no apparent opening mechanism. Beyond it they could see a small room, its smooth stone walls spattered with ancient bloodstains and deep, violent gouges. Deep drifts of dust lay on the floor, while immense stone doors hung open to the southwest, revealing empty vaults beyond.

Marie immediately began looking for somewhere to use the two darkwood discs they had discovered on Kikonu and Nindinzengo. She was quickly rewarded: to the left of the portcullis was a circular depression faintly inscribed with an image of the sun, while to the right was a similar depression bearing the image of the moon. Bella handed the discs forward, and she placed each in its corresponding slot. With a grinding sound, the bars slowly sank into the floor.

As it descended, the dust on the floor swirled into the air, coalescing into an ominous shadowy form that took on the ghostly image of an old but handsome Tian man. The spirit adopted a  defensive pose, his katana held before him menacingly. Shinjiro tried reassuring him in Tian: “We are explorers who mean you no harm.” The figure sneered, and feinted with its sword. Zhustin thought he could see some family resemblance to Ameiko. “I think it’s Ameiko’s grandfather,” he whispered. “Tell him we’re her friends.” Shinjiro spoke again in Tian. “We are working for your granddaughter, Ameiko Kaijitsu.”

At the sound of the name “Kaijitsu”, the wraith’s eyes bulged and he froze motionless. He lowered his sword, then said in a mournful voice: “I... know... this... naaaaaammmmmeeeeee...” A moment later, he raised his arms and cried out in anguish, then turned to face the party, tears of dust running down his incorporeal cheeks. He peered at Shinjiro. “Ashumoto – is that you, old friend? Did you protect my family as I commanded, bodyguard?” Shinjiro, recognizing his grandfather’s name, tried to reassure the spirit. “Yes master, your family is safe.”

The wraith nodded, then hung his head in shame. “Take the Seal away from here — take it to my child — it is no longer safe — and I am no longer worthy of guarding it...” He pointed to his right as he did this, then with another agonized cry, flew apart into dust and was destroyed.

The party moved cautiously into the small chamber. The two obvious vaults were empty, pillaged long ago. But examining the wall that the spirit had pointed to, they soon discovered a well-hidden secret door. The room beyond appeared to be only half-excavated — the eastern portion of the room remained a rough cavern wall. Three identical darkwood chests bound with bronze sat against the base of this rough wall, each emblazoned with the twin-crane emblem they’d seen on Ameiko’s medallion. Two of the chests were locked, and Bella set to work picking the locks, succeeding with Sandoval’s musical assistance. Each was filled with magical items: belts, scrolls, rings, wands, swords. The third chest contained a small, finely crafted wooden box, red lacquered with the image of a dragon wrapping around it. It was not magical, and appeared that it would open into three separate compartments.

The party knew that these chests were Ameiko’s birthright, and decided to carry them back to the caravan. They hoped that with her grandfather’s spirit dispelled, she would have awakened from her coma. But when they reached the caravan, they found Sandru and Koya in Koya’s wagon, still waiting anxiously by Ameiko’s side, as she continued to be unresponsive. The told the pair about what they’d found below Brinewall. They were reluctant to paw through Ameiko’s family’s belongings, but Koya honed in on something that Rokuru Kaijitsu’s wraith had said to them. “What is this ‘Seal’ he wanted you to protect? I don’t see anything in these chests that looks like it would be so important.”

They’d resisted the impulse to open the ornate box up to now, but with no clear cure for Ameiko in sight, they decided it might be necessary. Marie examined the box, and found that although it was very cleverly designed, it was relatively easy to open. The box actually contained three individual compartments. The first two were empty. but the third contained a jade statuette of a dragon. As soon as the statuette was revealed, the characters were stunned by its presence. The world around them went black as their minds were filled with a rush of visions and knowledge.

In your first vision, you see an army of terrible fiends — with burning skin, glaring eyes, and sharp tusks, wearing strange armor and wielding exotic weapons — emerge in a storm from a vast forest, then descend upon a nation populated by Tian people. You know that know that the fiends you saw were oni, part of a powerful cabal of evil spirits known as the Five Storms, intent on seizing control of a land they felt destined to rule - Minkai.

This vision is swiftly followed by another: a young man dressed in royal robes stands over a simple well, a friend at his side. Suddenly, the friend grows nearly three times in size and is sheathed in a frightening suit of jade armor. The jade warrior draws a sword and strikes down his royal friend, then holds the bloody sword aloft in triumph. The murdered man, you somehow know, was Emperor Shigure of Minkai, the last emperor to sit upon the Jade Throne.

A third vision follows, this time of a familiar-looking young Tian man handing a beautiful sword to a richly dressed young Ulfen man in exchange for several chests of gold. You recognize the young Tian man with the sword as Ameiko’s grandfather, Rokuro Kaijitsu, but you now know that his true name was Amatatsu Tsutoku. You know that Ameiko Kaijitsu’s true family name is Amatatsu, one of the five royal families of Minkai — indeed, the last surviving royal family, and that her grandfather changed the family’s name and led them into exile to protect them from genocide at the hands of the Five Storms. In the vision, he was selling the family’s legendary sword Suishen to an Ulfen merchant in the city of Kalsgard to finance his family’s flight and exile.

Finally, this vision fades, and you see your friend Ameiko waking from her coma, but she is dressed in the finery of an empress. She rises from sleep not in a humble Varisian caravan, but from a resting spot within the arms of a jade throne. You realize that Ameiko herself is the heir of her line. She is, in fact, the last surviving member of the five royal families of Minkai, and the heir to the Jade Throne itself!

These visions pass in the span of a few heartbeats, and after they do, they impart knowledge to your mind. This stone statuette of a dragon, you somehow now know, is the Amatatsu Seal, a potent artifact, one capable of altering destiny and changing the course of nations. It is one of five royal seals of Minkai, and represents the Amatatsu family’s divine right to rule the empire of Minkai. You know all of the powers and abilities of both the Amatatsu Seal and its Warding Box

The Amatatsu Seal itself radiates strong magic, and those with the proper resources can sense this magic across oceans and continents, allowing it to be tracked across any distance. Originally meant to allow its rightful owners the ability to track it if stolen, this feature makes it dangerous to remove the seal from its Warding Box, for as long as the Warding Box is open, the oni of the Five Storms can track it.

One final ward exists on the Amatatsu Seal, confounding attempts to whisk it quickly away from its homeland but also making returning a stolen seal home an arduous task. The Amatatsu Seal can never be transported by teleportation magic or dimensional travel. It cannot be taken from the Material Plane save via special portals blessed by the gods, and characters who carry the seal cannot cast or otherwise use teleportation effects.

You also know that when you first opened the Warding Box, the Amatatsu Seal immediately marked you as an agent of the family, turning you into Amatatsu scions. In addition to its other magic, the Amatatsu Seal has a daily allotment of 5 charges that it can use to cast the following spells on an Amatatsu scion: Cure Serious Wounds, Remove Curse, Remove Disease, or Restoration. Each casting uses up 1 daily charge. Alternatively, the seal can cast Heal on an Amatatsu scion, but doing so expends all 5 charges. Finally, and only at the Seal’s discretion, it can cast Resurrection on an Amatatsu scion, but doing so renders its spellcasting powers useless for a month. Using any of these powers would require removing the Seal from its Warding Box however, exposing its presence and location to the Five Storms.

As they recovered their senses after the visions, they saw a flash of blue light as something flew out of Koya’s vardo, where Ameiko lay, and disappeared into the Amatatsu Seal. They somehow recognized that this was a kami, a guardian spirit that had somehow become separated from the Seal. A moment later, the door of the wagon opened, and Ameiko stumbled out, rubbing her eyes in the sunlight.

After quick questioning, they learned that Ameiko had shared their visions upon revealing the Amatatsu Seal (although Sandru and Koya had not, nor had Spivey or Kelda, who had accompanied them back to the caravan). Ameiko was naturally somewhat overwhelmed by the newfound knowledge of her family’s past and heritage, but she was determined to travel to Kalsgard to try to recover her family’s ancestral sword, Suishen, and to see about traveling over the Crown of the World to Minkai learn more of her birthright and her place in the empire. She invited the party to accompany her – she believed their help will be invaluable. Some of the party members grumbled that they hadn’t come all this way to become servants to some lord. Ameiko made it clear they owed her no debt or allegiance; indeed she was the one who was indebted to them for helping her discover her heritage. The Seal’s act of marking them as Amatatsu Scions was a badge of honor, indicating they were worthy of the Seal’s protection, but it did not obligate them to aid her any further. However, regardless of the party’s decision, she was determined to travel on with or without them, and Sandru and Koya had already decided to take her as far as she wished to go.

Zhustin was the first to speak up. “I’m in!” he declared eagerly (whether out of a taste for adventure or the opportunity to remain close to Ameiko, who could say). Shinjiro bowed deeply to Ameiko. “It is my honor to continue my family’s duty and destiny to protect you, your highness.” The rest of the party quickly enlisted as well, and Sandru began making preparations to leave first thing in the morning. It seemed they had an empress to escort.

This concludes book one of the Jade Regent, “The Brinewall Legacy”.