Kon Sunionnath
Kon Sunionnath
Sunionnath Kon. Childhood name Zha. 138 years of age. Born to the bloodline of the great Mêi Hóuwáng who ascended to godhood some 2000 years ago and left behind his treasured possesions to the monastery he had established shortly before his ascension. Kon never knew his true parentage, as he was dropped off at the monastery by a wood elf female who claimed one of their wandering monks was the baby's father. So he lived most of his life in the monastery, with only a few occasional visits down the mountain to the villages and towns around the Mountain of the Sacred Monkey and down the valley of Slow Dragon River.
That is, until his coming of age ritual. He was to wander around the continent of Ninchan in search of worthy tasks and holy pilgrimage. During this journey Kon, still Zha, met an elven woman called Yuna. She was a curious sight to say the least. A monk who was also on her coming of age ritual, but she was also half high-elf, half dark-elf, or drow as most call them. Zha and Yuna quickly got along and journeyd together for a few years until it was time for her to return. Zha still wandered for a few more years before returning home after a total of ten years and officially becoming an adult on top of the Mountain of the Sacred Monkey, their most sacred of places, and taking the name Sunionnath Kon at the age of 102.
Couple of decades later Kon happened upon a familiar face in one of the towns around the mountain. It was Yuna. Or Dai Ji now. After an emotianal reunion Kon invited her to stay in his monastery and he would show her around the place. He showed her the monastery grounds and some of the caves inside the mountain that are also part of it, but he never took her to the Vault that contained the most sacred of their treasures: The possesions left behind by Mêi Hóuwáng himself, The Four Treasures. That night however, would be fateful.
Kon woke to screams in the middle of the night and went outside to investigate. He saw many of his brothers and sisters were injured. He was told an outsider had attacked and was heading towards the Vault. Kon rushed to the Vault himself, only to see it open and two of his brothers who were guarding it dead. Inside the Vaut he saw something he wished he didn't see. Dai Ji with the Four Treasures in her hands. "WHY?!" was the only thing Kon could bring himself to say, but before he could react Ji had run up to him and knocked him unconscious. "Sorry" was the only thing Kon could hear before he passed out from the blow.
Kon was held responsible for the theft, as it was him who had brought the thief into the monastery. As punishment, he was to be exiled from the monastery until such a day as he returns with the Four Treasures and one additional powerful and dangerous relic for their order to safeguard from the world at large, lest it be used for evil. And so began Kon's second journey. Soon enough Dai Ji's trail led Kon to Craterium, where he landed in Dragon's Tail, followed the trail to Ying Wei and then to Fourways and finally met a rogue named Kaerwyd who took him to meet a friend of his who might know something in Merchant's Rest.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
A well toned body from a lifetime of martial arts training.
Identifying Characteristics
Golden eyes and golden hair against a copper skin is quite striking, but he also has a small tattoo of a monkey on top of a mountain on his left shoulder blade.
Mental characteristics
Education
As a monk Kon was taught to read and write, and he managed to learn the three most common languages of Ninchan: Common, Elvish and Draconic.
Employment
A monk of the monastery of Mêi Hóuwáng. Their spealization in martial arts and devotion to guarding their sacred treasures has also given them jobs as guards in cities, palaces and caravans. Sometimes even as bodyguards. But no matter what, their ultimate loyalty always lies with their order.
Taboos
Kon hates betrayal after his own personal experience of being betrayed by someone he loved. So if done by someone close it is even more of a taboo than just betraying someone you barely know. But Kon might still give a hard earned lecture in either case.
Social
Religious Views
Follows the teachings of his ancestor-turned-god, Mêi Hóuwáng / Sun Wukong.
A descendant of the great Mêi Hóuwáng / Sun Wukong who ascended to godhood some 2000 years ago. Not quick to trust strangers after the tresures of his ancestor were stolen from the monastery and now his punishment is to retrieve them.
View Character Profile
Alignment
Neutral Good
Birthplace
Ninchan
Children
Gender
Male
Eyes
Gold
Hair
Golden
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Copper
Height
171 cm
Weight
70 kg
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Sickly Travels. And Skis!
Well, since I have nothing better to do during this trip to Gammalkonge than to wait for my stomach to settle, I might as well write down some in my journal.
So, we managed to settle the issue with White Path. And the emissaries of Gammelkonge and Fourways weren't exactly the most helpful in that, seeing as how both of them would've loved to take control of White Path, directly or indirectly. But we managed to persuade them to let White Path be. And we managed to broker a truce of sorts between two leading figures of White Path. See, during the few days of power vacuum after the death of Hades and his followers, two figures rose to prominence: Arianna Hood and Thierry Odling. The two were in a bit of a power struggle as to who should lead White Path now. And we helped to come up with a solution.
Both of them. Sort of. The leadership of the city of White Path would go to Arianna as its mayor, and Thierry would take over the role of the Gravekeeper, but would only lead the church of White Walk, not the city of White Path itself, as Gravekeepers used to do. We figured for this to be the best solution in the long term, to separate the state and religion.
As to why we decided to head to Gammelkonge, well, we heard from the emissary that there is a civil war brewing in the city and with it being Halla's hometown, of course we wanted to help. And now I'm just waiting for my stomach to settle. Can't believe I got sick just as we were heading out to Gammelkonge. And I think I'm hearing shouting from above deck. Something about Joakim something? Don't know, don't care. I think I need to get a nap now.
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Well, can't remember much about the last couple of days other than I was sick and tht we settled in some tavern called 'Drunken Bear'. In which the rooms are underground. Dwarven city alright. And when we got up from our rooms we noticed that a barfight had just started between the blackshirts and yellowshirts. the blacks, calling themselves the Hammers, are apparently the rebellious group, following someone named Lederman. The yellowshirts, or the Lions, owe allegiance to the royals, the Lovesjels. And apparently we have been tasked with infiltrating the blackshirts to unconver and foil their plans. Which is what we eventually did, after we first participated in the barfight some and got our asses dragged to the castle.
We traveled to a blackshirt meeting place and got in and met with their leader who tasked us with traveling to the ruined city of Prinsehjem, or as it's nowadays known, Frozen Kingdom. Apparently there is supposed to some sort of records or family history or something in the archives of the castle in the old city that prove that Arthur Lovesjel, or Lovesjels in general, are not of royal blood. Personally, I couldn't care less about royal blood or not, many of the past imperial dynasties were founded by people of not royal blood who had proven themselves worthy of the Heavenly Mandate.
Anyway, we prepared for the long trip to Prinsehjem by getting some snowshoes and skis, which were surprisingly fun by the way. Have to bring some back home with me to use in the winter. We got to the camp outside the ruins and met with someone named Manheim, who is apparently leading an archeological expedition in the ruins. We have decided to leave for the ruins tonight, lest anyone else find what we are looking for first.
All The Madness Of The World In One Place
Where to even begin? Today I've seen more crazy and amazing things than I saw during my decade of travels across Ninchan. But, I guess could begin from where I ended the last time I wrote.
Once we entered the grand temple, there wasn't anyone there yet. But people soon began to gather and then we saw him. Wolfram Hades himself came to give a sermon, along with the woman we came to rescue, Elona, and some other masked fellow. Darvin pretty much immeadiately began having the chills from Hades and the whole place after that. Oh, and I almost forgot. Kaerwyd and I noticed that there was someone in the roof of the temple when we entered, making his way towards the altar where Hades was holding his sermon. And then the man dropped on him with his daggers drawn, yelling something along the lines of "Give me back my wife!"
Not the most subtle way of assassinatting someone, but effettive. Or should've been. For you see, Hades just stood up after this like nothing had happened. Just the fact that a grown-ass man fell from such a height right on top of him should've broken his neck, but no, there he was. Standing on his own feet. His guards didn't even have to help him stand up! We left soon afterwards and ran into the two guards escorting the man on the streets. Since there was no one around, we decided to help the poor guy. Eldove used her witchery to trick the guards and then we took them down. Or so we thought. As we were getting rid of the corpses, which we noticed were weird even earlier when we fought them when they were still walking and standing, one of them grabbed Eldove and almost dragged her along to the acidic river. Good grief, this place really is creepy.
We then returned to Baron's Mausoleum to talk to our new dark elf friend. He introduced himself as Gaares Grimtooth, and he was a bounty hunter. He was after someone named Christopher Flame, a deserter and a thief, as far as I understood. And apparently Darvin had fought in the same army but he didn't really know the man besides his name. Christhopher's trail had led him to White Path and his wife had also somehow, I don't remember how, ended up in White Path as a prisoner of Wolfram Hades. And so, being injured himself he gave his wedding ring to us to help identify his wife who held a similar ring, which actually glow brighter the closer they are to each other. We decided that the best course of action would be to infiltrate the temple early in the morning through the roof, just like Gaares had done.
Once we got in we searched every nook and cranny on the floor. We found some interesting notes, books and journals, (if I remember correctly some of these notes we found pretty much confirmed our suspicions about Wolfram Hades and Christopher Flame being the same person) but no way to travel to the basement where some sort of magical trail had went from Hades earlier that Darvin had seen. Until Halla found a switch on the statue that was standing on the middle of the floor. The statue moved and a staircase was revealed. So we went down and were faced with two paths. Right or left. Seeing as we heard some unusual, maybe even disturbing sounds coming from our left, we went to our right. There was some kind of trapfloor but one of the notes found gave a clue and we got over without a problem. Then we encoutered the scene of a massacre in a dining room of sorts. With literal skeletons in a closet. After that was a bigger hall where we encoutered and fought some cultists. And we fought some of them again because one of them somehow brought a few of his fallen comrades back up again. And whilst Halla was preparing a magic to identify any traces of magic on the strange, colored doors, one of the corpses suddenly shuffles towards me and grabs my leg. Yeah, I admit, I freaked out a little and cut off it's damn arm.
When Halla was done she found there was no magic on the doors, but when we tried to open them, we found them to be locked. With no keyholes. So there seemed to be some other kind of mechanism to open the doors. So we entered the only other door in the hall and found a room with a pillar at the center and a painting with an eye in it. The three other walls of the room also had drapes matching the colors of the doors in the hall and some paintings on them, can't remember what the paintings were about though but they also had colors connected to the doors'. Well, after some trial and error, Eldove tried moving the eye painting on another side of the pillar. It activated a mechanism, or magic, or something and opened the wall to a secret room with a lever at the far side of it. We did it again on another side and same thing. Buuut, with the third one there was a slight hiccup. It turned out that there was a mummy or something in the last room. Lovely. But we managed to take it down and pull the last lever too.
With the doors now unlocked we first went through the purple door. It lead to some sort of living quarters first and from there to what was labeled as 'storage room', where we suspected Hades' prisoners were being held. But what we saw was something we never expected to see, despite how weird and creepy White Path had already turned out to be. There were cells on the sides of the room where the prisoners were being held, sure. But there was four cultists just standing in the middle like statues and behind them was.... I don't really know what to call it. Some sort of horrifying flesh golem would propably be the best way to describe it. It was a hard battle but eventually all the enemies were down and just to be safe we decided to burn the corpses with the flames from the alchemists fire that Halla had launched and missed earlier.
Then we helped the prisoners. We found Gaares' wife from among them, though it seemed like she couldn't talk. Her tongue seemed to be fine but she had a cut on her throat, so my best guess was that there was something taken from her throat which led to her being unable to speak. There was also another person of interest among the prisoners, for the lack of a better term. Zacharias Zombell was his name I believe. Halla recognized the name as someone who writes books about his travels and his travels had led him to White Path where he had gotten himself imprisoned. Talk about bad luck. But once we were certain that no one was in any immediate danger of dying we continued to search the rest of the rooms.
From behind the yellow door we found a long, narrow hallway leading to another door and the masked guy who was with Hades waiting at said door. Medicine Man, he was called. Apparently some sort of mentor of Amariel. And also the old friend who had sent the letter to her. He was co-operative, but annoying as all hell to say the least. We cuffed him and put him in one of the secret rooms we had found and then went to the blue door which he suggested, or urged, we do to find a 'key' to stop this madness. But, once again, we found something we never would've expected, despite what we had just witnessed earlier in the storage room. There was another long hallway and a door. Behind that door was a round room with a pit in the middle, that was just oozing of 'bad feeling'. And then we saw it. A human skin hanging on the other side of the pit. And it was alive. He said he was the former Keeper of the Grave and how Hades had begun to go mad after his close brush with death and had desecrated this sacred pit or something. The pit was somehow filling the room with madness. But we had to get the book that was sitting on the pedestal in front of the pit. So, we tied a rope around me and blindfolded me and off I went. The journal was no problem. Helping the former Keeper was another thing. The first attempt failed because Darvin saw some kind of ethereal hand reaching out to me, so they pulled me back. On the second try they tried to have Eldove blast the hand with her magic now that they knew it was coming. And it did come. And she blasted it with her magic. The screams. Oh, by the ancestors, the screams! Like an entire city had gone up in flames and all the citizens screamed at once and you were standing in the mibble of the town square, unhurt by the flames, listening. It was... terrifying to say the least. But I got to the old Keeper, douzed him in holy water first and oil second. Then we threw the alchemists fire at him. He certainly seemed relieved to finally embrace death.
After that we finally went to the last door and we found Hades with some of his followers performing a ritual. They were trying to sacrifice Elona who, as we had learned from the old Keeper, was apparently the avatar of Sinnara! We wasted no time in attacking these cultists. I beat down one of them right away and then Amariel used her magic to really badly hurt the rest. I think a couple of the weaker ones actually went down from that. Kaerwyd and Halla really got on Hades' nerves by attacking and taunting him, and Darvin also by summoning his spiritual weapon right behind Hades, they got him to stop the ritual. Seeing how his master was in trouble the last of the cultists tried to go help him but was subsuquently thrown down the stairs leading to the altar. But then the trouble began. Hades transformed into... I don't even know what to call it other than an 'ogre sized undead'. And he just wouldn't go down! Eldove even managed to cut off his other arm in a single strike (amazing feat, by the way), but he just slowly grew it back like it was nothing.
But then Kaerwyd noticed something. Apparently Hades was really protective of his other arm. Quite likely because of the ring on it. So he told us about it and we began to try to cut the other arm off. We succeeded in it quite soon but we still needed to get the ring off the finger because losing his arm didn't seem to really have an effect. Easier said than done though. We tried to pull it and Kaerwyd eventually managed to get it off. At the same time, Halla had managed to remove the gag on Elona and she began to speak in a language that I don't think any of us understood. Then Darvin joined her with prayer it seems and lo and behold, Hades was weakened and then once the ring was removed he transformed back in to human form. Well, what was a human anyway. He was in a really rough state with bones sticking out of him and covered in blood. Like his transformation back was faulty or incomplete. For a moment I contemplated whether this excuse of a human at my feet would deserve the release of death. But I thought 'let the gods he so tried to defy judge him' and lifted my spear above my head and dropped it on his neck. The look of horror and realization on his face when he saw the blade come down was... I don't know. Pitiful? Sad? But I certainly didn't feel sorry for the man, he had brought so much pain unto others that he deserved what came to him. And it seems his cultists also finally, actually, died with him. They turned to ash and for a while that day it rained ash in White Path like it would've rained snow.
And then we get to what happened when we got outside the temple. Despite everything maddening and horrifying and crazy things we saw in the temple's basement, this was even more amazing and crazy. Right outside, 'Baron' was waiting for us. And with him an old man. They thanked us for saving Elona and that our reward was waiting for us in the Mausoleum. When we asked the old man who he was, since we knew Baron but not him, he said the words I'll never forget. He adressed Baron as Gambler and he in return adressed the old man as Cronos. Considering we had just saved an avatar of Sinnara (or maybe even Sinnara herself, who knows!?) I didn't really feel like doubting them. But I do regret that I didn't get to talk to them more. I was just so exhausted and so in shock from what I heard that I just couldn't say anything. I would've liked to ask them about my ancestor, whether they knew him, whether he truly had become one of them, a god. But alas, they disappeared in a swirl of wind and ash, leaving behind a black mask with the symbol of Sinnara on it, on top of a pile of ash.
And when we got back to Mausoleum and went to look for our reward we found a note on the door for us. It mentioned a certain bottle and in the bottle were keyes. With the keys we went to the owner's room and found a chestful of gold for us and couple of letters. One was a thank you note for all that we did for them, with a little PS to tell me to look under the bed (there was nothing under the bed, but instead under my bed, damn trickster!). The second letter turned out to be the deed for the tavern. So, that's how we ended up becoming entrepreneurs. And when I went to check under the bed under my room, it took me a second to realise what I had just gotten into my hands. It was the Golden Feather Chainmail Shirt of our great ancestor! And with it was a note that said that 'a previous visitor had left it behind'. A few questions came to mind that instant. First, how gods damned careless can she be to just leave behind such a treasure? Secondly, what in the world was she doing in White Path? And third, by how much had I missed her? Days, weeks?
I just hope that she isn't part of the conspiracy that we uncovered when we questioned Medicine Man under the Zone of Truth magic. But, I guess I should help in getting this place ready, the emissaries from Fourways and Gammelkonge should be arriving any day now to help deal with this mess of a power vaccuum that is the present White Path. And I think I heard someone knocking on the door despite the sign saying the place is closed. What could that be about?
White Path is a Creepy Place
First Torga of Chell
I've seen my share of haunted and cursed places, items and what have you, but none have given me the shivers like White Path. Something is very wrong here. The place just doesn't seem... natural.
We left from Dragon's Tail with a ship named Holy Ariah, the captain of whom was a very interestig woman. I heard about the ship from a blacksmith named Little John, a halfling, who said his brother, Big John, works as a sailor on the ship. Imagine my surprise when Big John turns out to be a Goliath. I was expecting a halfling roughly the size of a dwarf or maybe a human from the name Big John, but not a Goliath. The two are step-brothers, apparently. This did make me wonder what a halfling-goliath would look like though. Questions for later.
Anyway, the ship arrived in Bazar Aleajayib and we took the day touring the various stalls there. Amariel looked quite excited. Haven't seen her smile like that, well, ever. So that was surprising. I personally managed to spot an interesting looking sword from the Eastern Islands, that had somehow ended up here in Craterium. It did look magical, but the asking price was a bit too much for me. Besides, I would've propably just taken the blade and turned it into a spear. I'm not comfortable with swords. Keep enemies at a distance, and when they get too close, just punch and kick 'em. Speaking of punches, Little John made me a pair of bladed gloves from the land shark fangs I had. Haven't gotten to test them yet, but they seem great. Now where was I? Oh, right, the Bazar. The others also found someone willing to buy the cursed weapon we got from the vampire back in Fourways. According to them, he was a blind man, rumored to be crazy though at first glance he didn't seem like that to them.
After all our business was concluded we left the Bazar for White Path. We rented some camels for the travel which was luckily quite uneventful, aside from some hyenas roaming around our camp one night. We also passed a place called 'Path of Finality'. So called because it apparently is the burial ground of sorts of the dragons. The bones we saw. They were gigantic, reaching for the Heavens themselves. I couldn't help but imagine the artefacts that could be created from such magnificient dragon bone. But I guess there is something else in that place too, since the bones seemed to pristine. Like no one has even tried to take piece of them to make something out of them. And I'm certain I'm not the only one to have thought that something could be made from those bones!
And then we arrived in White Path. It would be an understatement that the place is giving me bad vibes. And I'm not the only one. Pretty much everyone else too is feeling that. Luckily there is part of town where these white clad creepy people don't come to and Kaerwyd managed to find us lodgings there. The owner of the tavern, called 'Baron' also had a request for us. To save his adopted daughter from the religious leader, Wolfram Hades, of White Path. And as it turns out this girl is the SAME one that both Eldove and Darvin have been seeing in their dreams, so I guess this is some kind of fate? Though I hate going according to fate's whims myself, this time it seems we have to.
We're going to go to the temple where we will see this Wolfram for ourselves. Let's just hope nothing happens that could be troublesome.
Travelling once again
Third Friga of Sunna
Well, we had one heck of a night after we returned from the Merchant Kings little feast. Eldove wasn't feeling too well, retching on her bed and shivering from fever. Amariel took a closer look at the bitemark and noticed there was something still in there so I helped hold Eldove still whilst she removed what turned out to be one of the fangs of the vampire that bit her. Afterwards she passed out and then for a while she.... died. We did our best but nothing really seemed to work. But after we had almost given up hope she suddenly wakes up but something was odd about her. Her right eye was black with a white omega symbol on it. And she had one of those on her tongue too. But we'll see if that will help her stay her sharp tongue in the least. But where was I? Oh yes, the mark. Well, there was something else too. She now had some strange magical powers too. And she spoke of something called "Omega, The Last". Like, she met it whilst she was dead or something. If Halla is to be believed, Eldove is now something akin to a witch.
I think I met a witch once during my travels, nut I'm not sure if she was. She did have weird powers, but she said she had learned them from a book, not given them by some divine or demonic patron like some say. Though some said the book was cursed and was in truth her patron. But I never got to know the truth for our paths didn't cross for long.
And this Omega. I think I've heard some legends about some kind of old and forgotten gods, or demons, or something. And she might've had a counterpart too. Possibly something like "The First" since she is "The Last", I don't know.
But I digress. Afterwards the others went shopping for some equipment we might need for our travels whilst I stayed behind finishing the potion I had started to make earlier that morning. I had this weird idea of trying to grind a tiny piece of the starstone I had with me into the potion. Just to see what kind of effect it might have. When I asked Halla about it she was a bit mad I'd say. But you never know when something like that might come in handy. She said it will most definitely have adverse effects on the drinker. Good for tricking bad people then.
But when we tried to find a boat to get to Dragon's Tail we heard that the river is blocked by the wreckage of a ship. Some sort of explosion they say. I have my suspicions about what caused the explosion though...
So we had no choice but to walk to Dragon's Tail, since renting or buying a horse would be much too expensive. It took us a few days, but we got there. On the first day we came upon a wedding celebration between a drow and an orc. A most unusual couple to say the least, but who am I to judge. I've kept stranger company during my travels. And besides, they offered for us to join in the revelries and we did.
The next day we ran into trouble though. On a crossroads we were suddenly attacked by a... bulette, boulete, something like that. Never seen something like that before. Halla recognized it immediately though. Apparently it's a big scourge in dwarwen lands. The strangest thing about it was that it could dig and move underground as smoothly as if it were a shark underwater. I guess that's why it's also called landshark by some, according to Halla. But we dispatched it soon enough and took from it whatever we might find useful. Mostly it's scales though. And a couple of it's teeth. But darn were they difficult to get.
On the third day we came across this flimsy makeshift tollbooth that was operated by a couple of peasants who thought they could just put up a tollbooth anywhere. They were soon convinced to abandon their endeavor and we continued on our journey.
Before we arrived in Dragon's Tail however, we noticed there was some sort of little fighting ring just off the road in the bushes. And one of the combatants seems to be familiar with our Eldove. After... he... noticed her 'he' quickly ended the match and marched right to her. Now I must say that after that one experience in that certain establisment I have not really liked people whose gender I have not been able discern just from their looks. And this person was exactly like that. Apparently 'he' is Sergio but until I see for myself I don't know what to make of 'him'. So I couldn't help myself but join cracking out a few insults together with Eldove. I must say, I've grown to like our sharp tongued bard witch. And everyone else in our little mottley crew. Didn't think I'd come to trust anyone after what happened with Dai Ji, but well, here we seem to be.
Afterwards we continued to the city and while Halla, Eldove and Amariel went to look for a library the rest of us went to look for a place to stay the night. And wouldn't you know it, our good Kaerwyd already has some fans and we were offered free rooms in a local establisment. And in one of the best in the city too. Later I tried to go look for a blacksmith to make something out of my landshark teeth but I got lost. Damn streets and alleys all look the same around here...
But that about sums up our first few days on the road towards White Path. I should try asking around the port if anyone has seen Dai Ji lately. If luck is on our side she too has headed to the same direction as us, but I doubt she has. I suspect she has either stayed in Fourways or left for one of the other city states of Craterium, other than White Path. I highly doubt she would go there. I'm not even sure why WE are going there, something about a vision both Eldove and Darvin had that seems to point to White Path. We'll see what fate brings. May the great ancestor watch over us...
The Plays of the West
You will not believe the day I just had master Shí Hóu. The morning began with a surprise visit, and lavish breakfast, with the Merchant King of Fourways, Mario Durante. Halla dolled up just a bit quickly before joinig us at the table (nobles, right?) and Eldove caused the Royal Guards to already grab their swords thanks to speaking without thinking, but luckily Durante was smart enough to understand that she just speaking hypothetically.
The breakfast was soon interrupted by a messenger bringing news about about Vincent, the crown prince. Apparently he had been attacked but had managed to make it back to the palace, bleeding badly. But I must say, that's what you get for moving around without bodyguards when you're someone as important as a crown prince.
Later we split into three groups. First was Eldove and Kaerwyn who were a part of the play so they left a bit earlier. The rest of us arrived to the opera house a little later and split into pairs. Halla and Amariel searched the inside for any traps or sabotage or whatnot. Me and Darvin searched the outside. On a sidenote, I donät understand why the folk here in the west have such bad reservations about Darvin, or any priests of Sinnara for that matter. Isn't death a part of life? Anyhow, where was I? Oh yes, the search. Well we found nothing outside, but oh boy did Halla and Amariel find something alright. Apparently the giant chandelier in the opera hall was rigged with over half a dozen fireball spells with a verbal trigger. Luckily we had a royal document allowing us to do anything we deemed necessary to protect the king from harm. So Halla had the chandelier thrown in the canals. That poor manager, he was losing his mind over it but I dare say he would've lost a lot more if that trap had gone off.
During the first act of the play (which wasn't all that remarkable to be honest, but I don't blame the actors, the director was a weird man apparently) Aegir, Halla's fluffy dog familiar, showed up and wanted us to follow him. Apparently there was some kind of commotion in one of the booths upstairs but it was just a tipsy touchy-feely noble and his reluctant wife having a shouting match. As me and Darvin were about to leave downstairs we heard fighting coming from the hallway where the door to the kings booth was, so we rushed there. Halla and Amariel were fighting these clown looking things and I managed to get good spearhit in too. Only for us to find out later that these.... things were some kind of golems made out some green goop. Yuck. Nasty. Who would do such thing? I mean, there are golems made from stone, iron, steel, anything better than some weird goop!
During the second act Kaerwyn noticed that one of his beartraps he had placed before the show had went off. I know, beartraps in an opera house, go figure. Anyway, he went to investigate and got himself stabbed, but not before alarming me and Darvin about the trap going off with his some sort of telepathic ability. Gotta ask him later about that, seems useful. Eldove had noticed it somehow too and ended the second act early, much to the confusion of everyone else present. We fought this female assassin above the stage and when she felt cornered she jumped to the scaffolding above the stage and audience hall. But not beofre I managed to follow her to the scaffolding with a jumping kick, dropping her. She did manage to hold on to the edge and jump to and grab the curtains. The others tried to drop her from there by throwing weapons while I jumped down, landing safely thanks to the Phoenix-Feather Cap. But then she did something unexpected. She jumped down and merged with the shadows, fleeing the scene. Eldove was furious for some reson when she heard the assassin had fled.
The third act went on as normal, but near the end Eldove smelled a rat when it came to one of the new actors. An elven male who seemed more nervous than usual. She confronted him and they began to fight. Kaerwyn joined in on the fun by stabbing the guy just below his ribs with shortsword. It should've been over then and there but no, this was no normal man, he was a freaking vampire! He lunged at Eldove, biting her in the neck and almost killing her. While the rest of us continued to fight this beast Amariel helped Eldove with a healing spell. After she gathered herself, Eldove grabbed her rapier, limped behind the vampire and thrust her rapier through his neck. Then she grabbed his head and turned her blade so that she basically decapitated him. Then his corpse turned to ash.
We were then taken to the palace for a feast with the king, where the mood turned a bit sour after a man named Ergon Wintertree ,if I recall correctly, current head of van Hallow estate, showed up. He and Eldove seem to have history and she seemed to have trouble keeping her butt on the chair and not lunge at the man with a tableknife. Afterwards Eldove and Darvin returned to our headquarters and the rest of us went to see our roguish friend, prince Vincent. He seemed to be doing quite alright. We even bumped to his wife at the door. Halla became quite flustered at the sight of her, even more so than she was with the king that morning. Kaerwyn seemed like he got a little excited from seeing all the valuables in the room so Amariel and I both told him to keep his cool, in our own ways.
But its a good thing Halla is in the group. She was prettu much the only one who remembered that we haven't gotten our full payment yet, so she talked about it with Vincent.
Oh, almost forgot. It would seem that the assassination attempts might have been ordered by someone from Stonesinger. Or it could be just a ruse to start a war between the two. Some even suspect that Wei is somehow involved, seeing as how the current dynasty wants to expand the empire and a war in Craterium would be a great opportunity for them to grow their influence here in the west. Could you kindly look into those rumors, Master Shí Hóu?
P.S. I've been thinking of sending future letters in bulk, since quite likely this one will reach you the same day the first will. No sense in writing and sending each one separetely.
I found the Phoenix Feather Cap!
Master Shí Hóu, I found one of the Four Treasures! It was indeed in the auction and I managed to get it back. It does not matter how I got it, but I do own a great debt to a few people I've been traveling with these past few days. Though our plan didn't go as intended, Kaerwyn still tried to help me the best he could and he got wounded whilsts doing so, so I feel I owe him for his troubles and pain. For Eldove I owe for getting the item out of there when things got difficult and Halla helped me out of a pickle, though she said we're even now for the staff she got earlier that day in exchange for the Starstone boulder.
I've had trust issues ever since the Four Treasures got stolen, but I feel like these are people I can trust.
And we were approached by the son and heir apparent of the Merchant King of Fourways, Vincent Durante. Apparently he is worried about his father's safety, since he has been receiving death threats that if he doesn't abdicate by his birthday, which is tomorrow as of writing this letter, terrible things will happen to him and his family. So Vincent wanted to hire us to protect his father, apparently by recommendations of Maester Auron.
So, we did a little digging and found out that the Troupe which is supposed to perform during the birthday celebrations has been having some trouble with its members; accidents, illness and whatnot. But Eldove and Kaerwyn managed to get in, in lead roles no less. So they will be our eyes and ears on the inside while the rest of us will be trying to keep the Merchant King safe during the play. We even decided that I will make an antitoxin for him just in case there might be an attempt at poisoning him, instead of a more cloak and DAGGER approach. But we'll see what tomorrow brings.
Kon.
Dear Master Shí Hóu
The Second Werga of Sunna 3146 EF
The last time I wrote to you was when I was leaving for Craterium in the west. Well, here I am now. The journey over the Western Sea went well enough. Nothing of note happened during the voyage. Once I made landfall in Dragon's Tail I soon heard rumors of a woman fitting Her description heading towards Ying Wei. So I headed there as well, but heard that she had already left for the city of Fourways. It is no Lotus Heart, but it is still big. After a few days of wandering I happened upon a gnome named Kaerwyd who took me to Merchant's Rest to meet a friend of his who might know something.
Once there we met his friend, Eldove, quite the striking half-elf woman. There was also this other woman, Halla, a dwarf, who seemed to know Eldove, though the latter has no idea where they might know each other from. With the dwarwen woman was a giant of a woman, a fellow wood elf named Amariel, towering above me by more than head and shoulders. I suspect she might be from the southern archipelago, but I haven't been able to confirm this as she talks so little. Also, I might have seen her before, shortly after I made landfall. Pretty sure it was her, but I haven't been able to confirm it yet. Like I said, she doesn't speak much. And then, somehow, Halla, the dwarf, even dragged in this poor human cleric who was just passing by to get supplies with us. Darvin I think he was called, though Amariel called her a "deathwalker". He just looked like he wanted to be left alone to do his job but was dragged with us to the tavern, Honeybadger, I believe it was called. There I heard that while Eldove hadn't seen or heard of Her directly, she has heard that there was going to be an auction of Ninchan treasures and items in Fourways soon. A faint trail, but better than nothing.
And then we were recruited to basically become guards for a diplomatic shiptrip to Fourways in order to gain passage, thanks to Eldove. But then again, she did manage to haggle our pay from 100 gold pieces split six ways to 100 gold pieces each! Sheesh, I don't think I ever want to get into an argument with that woman. And whilst on the voyage we discovered that some of the hired sailors were actually pirates. Under Captain Lena "Red" O´Hara. And just as our Captain was about to punish these infiltrators, the actual pirate ship showed up and we were boarded. We managed to beat quite a few of them quickly. Then their Captain decided to just sink the ship if she can't take it. And on her orders a cannon fired at our ship. Aaand as luck would have it, the shot was coming straight at me! Truth be told, I don't know how I did it. I just dropped my spear and braced for impact to stop the cannonball, which, mind you, was almost half my size but weighed at least four to five times my weight. The next thing I know, I had dropped the massive projectile through the deck in front of me and the pirates were so stunned at this sight they just dropped their weapons and surrendered. And I almost burned the skin off my hands doing that!
I guess our Great Ancestors blood truly flows strong within me.
But alas, nothing in life is ever so easy. Captain O'Hara herself somehow escaped thanks to some sort of magical artifact that can create doors where there is none. And also I managed to retrieve a magical ring from her. It appears as the most powerful magical item in your possession when it is worn. So it might be useful to hide the Treasures once I retrieve them.
Oh, and few other interesting things I forgot to mention. The diplomat we were guarding was none other than Grand Maester Auron of Xanatonia. And the cannonball I stopped was actually made out of pure Starstone. The magical stone that has caused many wars in Craterium. Eldove even managed to persuade those present on the ship to acknowledge me as the new owner of the Starstone piece. Seriously, I never, ever want to get into an argument with that woman.
And later O'Hara claimed it just fell on them from the sky one day and she decided to use it for something. But I have my doubts about her story.
But alas, we cannot travel with a piece of Starstone weighing almost as much as all of us combined so we exchanged the stone for some magical weapons with Maester Auron. And his personal bodyguard just lifted the stone on his? her? shoulders. It even left Amariel somewhat amazed, I noticed. But I did manage to grab a good sized chunk of the stone for myself thanks to my Elemental Attunement. Who knows, it could come in handy later. Even if just selling it for funds.
But we are heading for the auction later today. I guess by the time this letter reaches you the auction is already over and hopefully I have at least one of the Four Treasures in my possession.
Your humble pupil,
Kon
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