An Emperor Found

Sawyer cringed as he saw Ameiko fall. He’d urged her to cross the bridge of light; he’d been so sure she’d be safe on the other side. Instead, she had been struck down by some eldritch power as she’d stepped under the archway leading to the bridge. He started to rush to her side, but she stopped him with a weak wave. “I’m OK,” she gasped. She was far from OK, but she was alive. Gripping Suishen tightly, he turned to protect Ameiko from the enormous Gravebound Warden that had formed itself out of the headstones and crypts of the cemetery. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the cemetery’s caretaker, Kiyomi, cowering at the edge of the moat. An area of Darkness suddenly appeared, and she disappeared into it. Sawyer snorted at her cowardice.

The Warden had breathed out a cloud of ash and gravedust, blinding and sickening Sandru and Zhustin. Sandru stumbled forward, vomiting on himself as he bounced off unseen tombstones. Zhustin, unable to target the enormous creature, cast Greater Invisibility on himself and began crawling away. His summoned Earth Elemental had no problems seeing, however, and lumbered after the Warden, slamming it with its stony fists and sending shards of rock flying; whether they were shards of the Warden’s tombstones, or the Elemental's fists was hard to say.

Shinjiro was reluctant to close with the massive Warden, and danced around the cemetery paths, staying just outside its long reach. Nicki, flying invisibly overhead, increased his altitude just to be safe, then fired off another Lightning Bolt that sizzled against the construct. Marie rushed towards Ameiko, but stopped short of the threshold. She then cast Mass Bear’s Endurance. Ameiko sighed as the spell increased her reserves of health, and Sawyer and Bella also felt the spell’s power.

Sawyer decided the best defense was a good offense, and moved away from Ameiko, lunging at the Warden and stabbing Suishen deep between the moving stones. The Warden let out a grinding bellow, and drew back its massive fist. He delivered an Awesome Blow that sent Sawyer flying backwards – right across the threshold of the bridge! There was another flash of ancient power, and Sawyer felt his bones rattle from the spell’s impact. The good news was he was back at Ameiko’s side; the bad news was that he was badly hurt, and on the wrong side of the bridge’s warding magic.

Sandoval was singing his inspiring song, and he now calmly took out his net and began to dance. It was his haka, his intimidating display of menace and indomitability. To everyone’s surprise, the gargantuan Warden actually seemed to cringe, and its gravestones almost seemed to tremble. Bella took advantage of the creature’s distraction, and lashed out, hacking off great chunks of stone with her adamantine sword.

The area of darkness suddenly began to move, sliding south past the battling Warden. As it engulfed Bella and Marie, the world became a terrifying nightmare midnight, pitch black and deathly silent. Sandoval, just outside its reach, saw something come darting out of the darkness. It looked like Kiyomi; or more accurately, like her head, suspended on a tremendously long, serpent-like neck. She lashed out at the bard, sinking her fangs into him, then instantly withdrew back into the protective darkness. He felt his throat begin to ache, then his muscles seized up and he was completely paralyzed. In addition, he began to give off the stench of the grave, like a dozen rotting corpses. Sandru, blind and fumbling, now began to scuttle away from the source of that terrible odor. Darkness and silence didn’t stop the smell, and Marie began to retch. Nonetheless, she silently prayed for Desna’s power, and a wave of positive energy washed out, healing her nearby friends (and the Warden). Then she stumbled away from the stinking bard, and found herself back out in the dim midnight light of the cemetery.

On the bridge, Sawyer stood afraid to move. If he charged back into the fight, he’d have to re-cross the threshold, and possibly get zapped again. On the other hand, moving farther onto the bridge might also have that same affect. Ameiko was fumbling to get the Amatatsu Seal out of its Warding Box; perhaps having it prominently displayed was the key to crossing the bridge. Deciding it was better for him to risk his life with experiments than the princess, Sawyer began to advance across the bridge. When nothing happened, he breathed a sigh of relief and returned to Ameiko’s side. She had the Seal in one hand, and her Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds in the other, and she gave him some much appreciated healing

Nicki wasn’t sure what was up with that area of darkness, but he knew something had paralyzed Sandoval. But unable to see anything else to target, he kept his focus on the Gravebound Warden. Calling on all his knowledge, he cast a Maximized, Empowered Scorching Ray at the construct. The rays seared into it, sending blobs of molten rock splashing into the air, then it collapsed into a tumbling pile of disjointed chunks of stone. Bella, feeling the pieces of stone roll past her in the darkness, assumed the Warden was now throwing things at her. She groped forward, trying to escape the stifling darkness and silence. As she moved, she felt something lash out at her, but she narrowly avoided its bite. Suddenly emerging back into the cemetery, and seeing the Warden was now nothing but a pile of stone, still glowing in places from the heat, she drew her bow and backed away, watching for something to shoot at.

The darkness continued shifting southwards, moving to surround Zhustin, Sandoval, and Sandru. Zhustin and Sandru, their vision still blinded by the ash and dust, weren’t aware of the darkness, but the silence was unmistakable. On the bridge, Ameiko’s eyes suddenly glazed over, and she looked about with an air of total Confusion. Marie, taking a chance, dashed under the arch leading to the bridge, and she, too, felt its awful power. Once across, she again Channeled Desna’s power to heal Sawyer and Ameiko, although Ameiko seemed oblivious.

Sawyer had assumed the darkness was some trick of the Gravebound Warden’s, but seeing it continuing to move after the Warden’s death, he knew there must be something else behind it. Raising Shuishen before him, he activated the sword’s Daylight power. The area all around him was suddenly as bright as mid-day. When the sword’s daylight met the magical darkness, the pitch black was changed to dim twilight. Those inside the darkness were now visible – including Kiyomi. The old woman’s was flying a few feet off the ground. Her hood was thrown back, and her head lashed about on a neck that had to be a good twenty feet long!

Bella now had a target, and she wasted no time in firing off a volley of arrows. Kiyomi hissed in rage as some of the shafts found their mark. She cast a spell at Bella, and for an instant the rogue’s brain seemed incapable of thought. But that wasn’t all that different from normal, and she shook off the spell.

Sandru and Zhustin’s vision finally cleared. Sandru, seeing Kiyomi transformed into some monstrous beast, backed away, but Zhustin was uncowed. Unfortunately, he was still engulfed in Silence, and couldn’t cast any spells, so he charged Kiyomi with his staff. Even though he was invisible and she couldn’t see him coming, he still missed badly, accomplishing nothing except to alert Kiyomi to his presence. Her head whipped through the air, snapping at the spot where the attack seemed to have come from, but this time it was Zhustin who easily evaded her attack.

Marie called down a Flame Strike to smite Kiyomi, but the spell fizzled. However, Nicki’s Hellfire didn’t and Kiyomi felt the fires of Hell lashing at her. Sawyer and Bella continued to feather her with arrows. Shinjiro, who’d spent the entire battle so far skirting around the action, now charged in and landed one good kick. Now that Nicki could see what he was shooting at, he fired off another trio of Scorching Rays. Kiyomi let out one final screech, the collapsed in a burning heap.

Marie cast a Break Enchantment to cure Ameiko’s Confusion, and the group began milling around, debating what to do. Half of them were on one side of the bridge’s magical wards, and half on the other. Those still in the cemetery were in no hurry to risk what they’d seen the others experience in crossing onto the bridge. Zhustin stood looking at the stone arch over the entrance to the bridge. There had once been an inscription in Minkaian on the arch, but centuries of weathering had made it all but impossible to read. But maybe with closer inspection …

Zhustin had his Earth Elemental lift him up to the level of the top of the arch. After close study and some rubbing with pencil on paper, he was able to make out the words. They formed a haiku:

The Imperial

Spirits shun all mortals who

Will not embrace death

That started the usual debate. “’Embrace Death’”, Sandru asked. “What does that mean?”

“I think it means you just have to take your lumps and cross,” Zhustin offered, but Bella disagreed. “Maybe you have to embrace a skeleton. Or a dead body. We’ve got one over here – I’ll take an arm, someone else take a leg, …”

Detect Magic revealed that there was powerful Abjuration magic across the threshold to the bridge. In addition, there seemed to be some sort of protective dome over the entire inner island; Nicki had already encountered that as he’d flown over the cemetery, and collided with an invisible barrier that prevented crossing the moat surrounding the Shrine of the Heavenly Sovereigns. Several people thought that having the Imperial Seal out might allow you to pass safely across, but the Seal was now on the wrong side to help those who hadn’t yet crossed, and Ameiko wasn’t keen on re-crossing to test the theory.

Once again, Nicki quickly got bored with all the yapping. One minute he was going through Kiyomi’s pockets, in case she had any goodies (she didn’t). The next minute, he was standing beside Ameiko. “Teleportation works just fine,” he said calmly. Once he’d proven the technique, the others quickly followed suit, and they were all soon on the bridge with no additional injury.

The smaller island of the Shrine of the Heavenly Sovereigns was far less crowded than the Mikado Cemetery. Quiet groves and gardens filled much of the island, and they could see a decorative pond in the dim light ahead. There were a number of small, sealed crypts, as well as a handful of larger stone buildings. Directly ahead of them was a covered stage, surrounded by low-lying hedges and flowering shrubs. Several musical instruments lay on the stage, and those caught Sandoval’s eye. He mounted the stage, and picked up a shakahachi flute, and began to play a Minkaian tune he’d learned. The other instruments immediately rose up into the air and began to play along; indeed when he stopped playing the flute in surprise, it continued playing itself. With this musical accompaniment as a background, the group began to explore the shrine.

Sawyer had a sudden thought. “Suishen,” he said, speaking to the ancestral sword, “do you know anything about this place?” There was a period of silence before Suishen responded. “I haven’t been back here since I was interred, and I don’t remember much before that.” All heads turned to stare at the sword. Did this mean Suishen had once been an emperor of Minkai? But the sword would say no more of his history.

There was a large building to the north, and a pair of smaller buildings to the south. Zhustin went north, and examined the larger building; it had a pair of large double doors at one end, with a brick chimney rising from the roof; at the other end was a single door. He couldn’t see any markings, and heard no movement inside, so he kept moving. Beyond the building was a cluster of stone crypts. These had writing on them, and with some study, he could make out emblems of the Teikoku family.

To the south were a pair of smaller buildings. Bella and Marie moved to check them out. Marie recognized the sigils of the Sugimatu family on the first. Bella donned her Gloves of Reconnaisance and pressed her hands against the door. With the gloves’ magic, she could see inside; the room was lined with ornate urns, made of gold, silver, and jade, many encrusted with jewels. With Marie looking sternly over her shoulder, she left the door unopened, and they moved on to the next building.

This one had a medallion with a pair of cranes above the door, which Marie instantly recognized as the Amatatsu crest! She summoned Ameiko, and the group clustered expectantly around the door. Bella pulled the door open, and Ameiko stepped inside. Like the previous mausoleum, this one was lined with ornate urns. Another ornately carved bronze door led to a smaller room, holding a large sepulcher. Markings on the sepulcher identified it as the resting place of Empress Amatatsu Onoko.

Ameiko knew she needed to “seek the blessings” of the Imperial ancestors, but she wasn’t quite sure what that entailed. Raising the Amatatsu Seal above her head, she announced herself in a loud voice. “I am Amatatsu Ameiko, last of my line, heir to House Amatatsu and rightful empress of Minkai! I have come to this holy shrine to seek the blessings of my predecessors, so that I might ascend to the Jade Throne and depose the usurper who now rules our homeland!”

The only response was oppressive silence. Ameiko’s shoulders slumped. She felt so … inadequate. Everyone was expecting her to know what to do, but the truth was she didn’t have a clue. It had sounded so easy when Isao had sent them off to the island – ‘get your ancestors’ blessings’ he’d said. But now that she was here, the ancestors weren’t jumping up to bless her, and she didn’t know what to try next.

Nicki, bored again, had wandered farther onto the island. A lovely pond lay in the center of the island, crossed by a zig-zag bridge. Halfway across, Nicki noticed that the surface of the pond was dotted with dozens of orange and gold fish, floating lifeless among the lilies and cattails. “That can’t be good,” he muttered. Across the pond was another garden, built around a life-sized jade statue of a grieving maiden. Rising behind the garden was a massive stone building, flanked by twin golden statues of kirin. “Hey guys,” he called. “You might want to come check this out.”

The group followed Nicki, and were soon standing before the immense double doors of the mausoleum. After Bella had vetted them, Sawyer pulled them open. Inside were five chambers, four at each point of the compass and one smaller square chamber joining them in the center. Each chamber held a small shrine decorated with Minkai heraldry, bowls of incense, and dried flowers. Each was lined with carefully stacked urns of gold, silver, and jade.

Holding the Seal before her, Ameiko entered the Imperial Mausoleum. As she approached the central chamber, the air began to vibrate with angry energy, and the urns along the walls started to rattle ominously, threatening to topple off their shelves. A figure materialized before Ameiko. He was dressed in royal regalia, with rich silk and satin robes and an ornate hat of imperial office. He was clearly a spirit of some sort – both because he floated a few inches off the floor, and because his head floated a few inches above his neck.

“I am Emperor Higashiyama Shigure, true emperor of Minkai!” he bellowed. “Are you assassins, come to kill me? Well you’re too late! My best friend already saw to that!”

Ameiko knew she had to mollify the angry ghost. She knelt on the floor and bowed to the spirit. “Oh honored emperor, true ruler of our nation. I am Amatatsu Ameiko, humble daughter of the Amatatsu clan. We came here hoping to find you still alive, but living or dead, I prostrate myself before the rightful emperor of Minkai.”

Ameiko’s obsequiousness seemed to satisfy Shigure a bit, and the urns ceased rattling. He looked down on the kneeling Ameiko. “Why did you come seeking me, loyal subject?”

“I am the last surviving member of the five imperial families of Minkai,” Ameiko responded. She held out the Amatatsu Seal. “I come to beg your blessing, so that I might ascend the Jade Throne and depose the usurper who stole it from you.”

If she had thought the ‘enemy of my enemy’ ploy would resonate with Shigure, she was mistaken. He exploded with rage again, and the walls began to shake. “I’ll give my blessing to no one while my body lies with the disgraced and the dishonored! I have only curses now for those who survive me! I cannot rest! I cannot find peace! And I won’t give peace to anyone else while I’m denied it!”

Ameiko feared the roof could fall in at any moment. “Where is your body?” she asked desperately. “They cast it into the Well of Demons,” Shigure wailed, “a great chasm in the hills of this island. The holy waters of Shizuru pour down into the well to drown the sins of my wicked predecessors. But after the treachery and dishonor enacted here upon a living emperor of Minkai, not even the Empress of Heaven can contain their evil, which extends farther beyond the well with each passing day. Soon the spirits of the evil emperors will broaden their reach into Kasai and beyond into my stolen empire. And I may well join them if it means I can face my murderer again. But I fear that outcome, for I know I’ll lose myself to it, becoming as much a monster as the ones who took my life.”

“I promise we will recover your body and return it to you!” Ameiko cried. Nicki and Bella exchanged looks. “Sounds like we just got another ‘mission’,” Nicki whispered. But Shigure immediately calmed. “If you recover my remains from the Well of Demons, and properly inter them by cremating them and placing the ashes in one of the urns here, I’ll grant you the blessing of the Higashiyama family. But my blessing alone won’t be enough. You must obtain blessings from the ancestors of all five of the imperial families.”

Ameiko took a breath of relief. Not only was Shigure no longer on the verge of collapsing the building around their ears, but now maybe someone could explain what she was supposed to be doing. “What must I do to obtain their blessings?” she asked politely.

For once, Shigure didn’t fly into a rage. “Normally you could commune with the spirits here, in the Imperial Mausoleum, but Takahiro’s crime has severed the connection and driven most of the goodly spirits away. You’ll have the Higashiyama blessing if you recover my murdered remains. It’s been a long time since an Amatatsu held the throne, but the tomb of Empress Amatatsu Onoko lies just west of here in one of the standing tombs—perhaps you can commune with her or one of your other ancestors there to request their assent. But you must still gain the blessings of the Shojinawa, Sugimatu, and Teikoku families, and I fear your only choice is to seek their blessings inside the Well of Demons. Those within represent the most evil and depraved of Minkai’s emperors, but the Jade Throne will still honor their blessings, provided you can bargain for them. Otherwise, you must set things right by recovering my body and destroying those inside the Well. Once the sanctity of the Imperial Shrine is restored, you can properly commune with the ancestors to receive their blessings.”

Not wanting to risk setting off the volatile emperor again, Ameiko bowed herself out of the building, motioning the others out before her. Once outside, Nicki gave her a look. “So now we not only have to fetch his body out of this well, we also have to kill everything inside?”

“Or bargain with them,” Ameiko corrected. “He said we might be able to bargain with them.”

Marie snorted – she could just imagine the sort of “bargains” that might be involved. “We should go back to the Amatatsu mausoleum,” she suggested, changing the subject. We’ll have to go there again at some point – might as well try now.

The group trooped back to the tomb, and to their surprise found a figure awaiting them in its open doorway. She was a marble-skinned Tian woman with white-feathered wings, wearing a beautiful cloth-of-gold kimono and carrying a traditional Minkai conch-shell horn. “It’s a Trumpet Archon!” Helgarval whispered, a touch of awe in her voice.

She bowed to Ameiko as she approached. “Greetings, granddaughter. I am Empress Amatatsu Onoko. I heard your call earlier, but could not respond until you had spoken to Emperor Shigure. I am happy that you have survived the … challenges of the Imperial Shrine.”

“What’s happened to this place?” Ameiko asked. “Surely it wasn’t always like this, or no one would ever survive an emperor’s funeral!”

Onoko smiled sadly. “You jest, but you are correct. This was once a holy and serene spot, made for meditation and solemn dialog between current and former rulers. But then Shigure fled here, hoping to make it his refuge. But he brought his doom with him, and his bodyguard murdered him right here, in the Shrine of Heavenly Sovereigns. Such a heinous crime against the person of the emperor, committed here, in the very spot most sacred to the emperors, all but severed the connection between Shizuru and this island. Then, to make matters worse, the murderer cast Shigure’s body into the Well of Demons, tainting the holy waters that contain the malevolent influence of Minkai’s most evil emperors. The waters have grown less potent, and the evil ones seek to expand their influence beyond the Well – or escape it altogether!

“Most of the Imperial spirits have fled to the Great Beyond – I am one of the few that remains. The other remaining spirits have been driven mad by the dishonor. If the crime that caused this catastrophe were to be set right – by properly laying Shigure’s remains to rest – and the evil of the Well of Demons neutralized, then I believe the sanctity of this place would be restored, and your ancestors’ spirits would return.”

“Can you at least give me the Amatatsu family blessing?” Ameiko asked hopefully, but Onoko shook her head sadly. “I would if I could,” she said earnestly, “but one of those in the Well of Demons is my ancestor, Amatatsu Maemi, and she is far more powerful than I. If her power were still confined to the Well, it would not matter, but now …”

“So how can we ‘neutralize’ the things in the Well?” Ameiko asked. “Do you know what sort of creatures they’ve become, or how to kill them?” Onoko shook her head. “I know nothing of them, except that they are the spirits of the most vile and evil people ever to sit upon the Jade Throne, and that they have great power – I can sense it, even here. I’m not sure they can be killed. You may be forced to strike some sort of bargain with them. But beware – any bargain they offer will be only to their own advantage.

“In the meantime, I can offer you some little help. I am a proficient healer, and can offer Heal, Restoration, Raise Dead, and the like should any of you fall to the island’s dangers.”

“That’s not going to help much if we get killed just going back across that damn bridge,” Sawyer grumbled. Onoko smiled. “The glyph on the bridge will not harm you as you depart,” she explained, “and it will not kill you as you enter. It will come very close to killing you, but Shizuru wanted those who wished to commune with the dead to be very close to death themselves.”

The group prepared to rest awhile in the gardens of the Shrine of Heavenly Sovereigns before breaching the unknown dangers ahead. They’d come here expecting a sort of coronation for Ameiko, a simple ceremony before tackling the overthrow of the Jade Regent. Now, it sounded like they might never get that far.

The PCs received 21,943 XP for the night, putting them at 439,434 XP, with 445,000 required for level 14. You’ll certainly reach that level next week, so get those 14^th level characters ready. We’ll be at Leo’s next Sunday, but Dave will be missing.