A black dragon and its secret lair

In the ensuing weeks, Beatriss and her friends heard news that the attack on Happy Valley was likely part of a larger campaign of terror emanating from an emerging swampland in the region west of Menkan, and that was becoming a catastrophe for the Sansar clan whose grazing grounds bordered the swamp. When the Lizardmen attacked, they didn’t steal horses or goats—they carried off the people. Sansar Anca sent an emissary, Perin, to request the help of his adopted son and daughter.

Tetsukichi, Beatriss, and Bangqiu, together with their henchman, ventured to the southwest corner of the empire to aid the Sansar clan. Perin, who had been spying on their enemies for several months, had located the base for the dragon people, the lizard men, and their allies—a temple built eons ago by Sakatha, the lizardman king.

They passed through a swamp that became increasingly thick and mucky as they neared their goal. One night, the party camped on a narrow hammock, Beatriss was keeping watch. Weary from scanning her immediate surroundings, thick with small life forms—frogs, snakes, overgrown insects— that overwhelmed her heat vision, that Beatriss rocked back and looked up into the clear sky. She rubbed her eyes—sometimes heat vision plays tricks—and confirmed that that there really was something in the sky, circling—maybe an owl?

Beatriss woke up the others. The flying creature began descending rapidly, narrowing its path to center on the party. It was much too large to be an owl, it could only be a dragon. Mustapha summoned a cloud of fog to obscure their position. The thick mists also obscured their view of the dragon, but they heard it land a few hundred yards away. They separated into two groups, both making a dash away from their campsite. Beatriss, with her infravision saw a stream of swamp creatures fleeing. Bangqiu, under the cover of his invisibility cloak, stood in the path and prepared his most powerful spell. His friends moved to either side.

Besides the noise of fleeing animals, the sounds of tree trunks cracking told them the dragon was rapidly drawing near. Bangqiu saw its shadow and then moments later its enormous head and darkly glowing eyes. He blasted the beast in the face with a cloud of stream—and the dragon immediately answered with a thick spray of acid. Bangqiu, reeling with the burning pain threw himself into the mud as his companions closed around the dragon. Beatriss slashed it grievously with her sword. It flapped its wings and began to rise from the ground. Al-Fitar and Tetsukichi had their bows ready—arrows tore through one of the dragon’s wings before it could raise above the treetops. Plummeting back to the ground, it turned its claws out and landed on Naron, pinning him to the ground. With his one free arm, Naron found his dagger and plunged it into the dragon’s neck. Steaming black gore poured from the wound and the dragon collapsed. Ju-Mei tended the wounds of Bangqiu and Naron and settled them into a deep, restful sleep. The rest of the party kept a nervous, exhausted watch, too shaken by what they had experienced to sleep.

The next morning, Bangqiu awakened early, feeling much refreshed. Despite the shock of being blasted with acidic dragon spittle, and the gruesome look of the burns all over his body, he felt strong and hale, eager to press on. Naron on the other hand, had twisted his ankle. A day of rest for him seemed more advantageous than a day of extremely slow and painful travel, especially if they should find the temple so well-fortified as to force a retreat. Beatriss and Ju-Mei stayed with him while the others—Perin, their guide, plus Tetsukichi, Al-Fitar, and Mustapha, Bangqiu and Kafka would scout ahead. Before setting out, Kafka, remembering his master speak of such things, collected some of the dragon’s blood. Bangqiu, assisting him, discovered that the dragon carried a smooth disk of obsidian in its mouth. All considered this a fortuitous omen.

Indeed, after an hour of travel with Perin, the group spotted the temple, rising above the surrounding morass on a high mound of packed earth. They heard noises inside—loud and reptilian—and decided to press forward. The party charged up the steps with Banqiu, camouflaged by his magic cloak, leading the way. About a dozen half-human, half-dragon monsters were camped in a large, columned hall. When they brandished their weapons, Bangqiu released a cloud of steam. Then the young magician fell back while Tetsukichi and Al-Fitar charged forward to fight the few survivors.

Once the battle was over, the party explored. The back wall proved to be a curtain of shells. The party pushed through it and found themselves in another large room, dominated by three round pools of scummy water. Two of the walls were decorated with frescoes of humans and lizard folk engaged in battle. The back wall had been sculpted in bas-relief to depict a leering demon. As they took in these fearsome sights, the pools began bubbling.

Wanting the support of Beatriss and her associates, the expedition party retreated to the swamp. When the full party was re-united, they discussed their next plan of action. They decided that rather than camp another night in the swamp they should move to the temple. Once there, Mustapha and Ju-may became strangely animated; rather than simply casting spells when directed, they participated actively in the discussion as Beatriss, Tetsukichi, and Bangqiu discussed what to do next. Bangqiu suggested that the black gem from the dragon’s mouth might be a type of key and that they should insert it in the carved mouth of the demon’s mouth. Sure enough, a previously secret (and very large) door swung open, revealing what must have been the dragon’s lair—and its hoard. Besides the piles of coins (mainly silver), and jewelry, the party noted several weapons of fine workmanship and likely magical powers. Ju-May, looking behind him, noted that the bubbling water was forming into snake like creatures.

Bangiqu, calling on his elemental power over water, flung the water creature out of its pool. It splashed onto the floor as plain water. Bangqiu and Ju-May measured the depth of the pool with long sticks and finding it shallow enough to allow wading, entered. Continuing to prod the bottom, they found a number of heavy, but movable objects. These proved to be bars of silver stamped with the imperial seal. Lacking the magical energy to deal with the other water snakes, Bangqiu urged his companions to join him in seeking refuge in the dragon’s cave. After confirming that the door could be opened from the inside, the entire party pushed inside. They searched it carefully, found there were no other exits and decided to rest for the night and then decide how to proceed.

While his companions slept, Ju May meditated. After several hours, his meditation was disturbed by the sound of voice in the chamber outside the dragon’s lair. Ju May roused the others and they all listened breathlessly to the boisterous conversation of a dozen or more creatures, with loud reptilian voices. The party prepared to fight and Bangqiu, translated what the creatures were saying. They returning from a successful raid on the human lands, they had enjoyed several nights in the swamp, but now they were looking forward to relaxing by the river below. The party heard the sound of a stone door being opened, and of the gregarious creatures passing out of the room one-by- one. The party surmised that there was a hidden entrance, probably a trapdoor in the floor right outside their hiding place. The party heard the sounds of the bubbling pools and heard the reptilian creatures joking with each other and taunting the weird snakes that formed from the water of the pools. One of the last of the creatures idly stuck its green scaled finger into the dragon lair “keyhole” while idly wondering how to get at the treasure inside. Beatriss discouraged Bangqiu from cutting off the finger. The finger was retracted, the voice grew faint, there was the sound of stone grinding against stone, and then the only sound was the thrashing of the weird pools.

After waiting a few minutes, Bangqiu opened the door and blasted the two pools he hadn’t blasted the night before. Again, the water weirds were flung from each pool on a sizeable wave only to splash apart on the floor. More silver bars were retrieved. Meanwhile, Tetsukichi located the trap door.

Beatriss, who seemed to have contracted some type of fever during her trip through the swamp, wanted to rest in the dragon’s cave. Naron and Jumay insisted that they would stay with her.

But the others went down the ladder . . .

Beatriss settles into her new fortress

The time came for Beatriss to bid farewell to Khanbaliq, the Imperial Palace, and the Emperor. Their infant son remained behind to be raised within the palace alongside his many imperial half-siblings, while Beatriss departed for her newly completed fortress in the Happy Valley. There she had been granted a small but beautiful dominion within the Empire—peaceful, fertile, and distant from court politics, with the promise of governing its people largely according to her own judgment.

Her five older children traveled with her, and as news of her arrival spread, friends old and new gathered to help build this new beginning. Naron and Ju-Mei, followed by Bangqiu and the monk Kafka. Bahen—the unlikely ally whose courage had helped destroy Red Nar's band—arrived with twenty seasoned riders and immediately set about organizing the valley's defense.

The Emperor sent his congratulations by way of twenty sohei who would remain as Beatriss's personal bodyguard. Once ladies of the palace, they had been trained by Bayan in the swift and disciplined Blackbird Style, making them as capable in unarmed combat as in decoding etiquette. Tetsukichi settled into his own wing of the stronghold with his family and faithful henchman, while the foreign travelers Prince Slash and Sir Crowler accepted Beatriss's hospitality and soon became valued companions and defenders of the valley.

For a time, Happy Valley knew peace.

That peace ended when Prince Slash, leading a routine patrol beyond the western ridge, noticed a column of smoke rising above the forest canopy. Riding closer to investigate, he discovered a large war band of dragon-people advancing through the woods under the command of a towering reptilian warlord. Realizing the danger, Prince Slash spurred his horse back toward the fortress, the dragon-people crashing through the forest in determined pursuit.

The alarm barely reached the valley in time. Villagers hurried inside the fortress, but the enemy arrived so quickly that the gates could not be closed. Beatriss, Tetsukichi, Naron, and Bahen led a desperate counterattack that forced the dragon-people back through the entrance before pursuing them into the fields beyond the walls.

There the Lizard Lord revealed his true strength.

Leading his elite warriors, the monstrous chieftain smashed into Beatriss's cavalry with overwhelming force. Beatriss was hurled from her horse, her bodyguard scattered. Naron's hastily trained militia lost heart, casting aside their spears and fleeing toward the forests. Tetsukichi and Bahen fought stubbornly but were driven back. Seizing the moment, the Lizard Lord roared in triumph and stormed through the still-open gates, his warriors pouring into the fortress behind him.

Inside, however, the defenders had used those precious moments to prepare.

Bangqiu stepped forward and unleashed powerful magic that shattered the momentum of the dragon-people's assault, throwing their ranks into confusion. Al-Fitar immediately seized the opportunity, leading a disciplined countercharge that drove the invaders deeper into the fortress courtyard. Suddenly the attackers found themselves surrounded rather than victorious.

Kafka and Bayan calmly closed the trap, fighting with practiced precision while wearing down the exhausted dragon warriors. Inspired by their example, the soldiers of Happy Valley recovered their courage and returned to the fight. Together they overwhelmed the Lizard Lord, striking him down at last.

When their chieftain fell, the dragon-people broke. Those who survived fled back into the forests beyond the western ridge, abandoning the field to the defenders.

The victory came at a heavy cost, but it accomplished something greater than the defense of a single fortress. On that day, Happy Valley ceased to be merely Beatriss's refuge from the Imperial Court. It became a home that had survived its first trial by fire, and a realm whose people had learned they could stand together against even the greatest of foes.

After Garan Fest: Garan’s Tomb

Amidst the revelry at the conclusion of Garan Fest-- in between questions to Vlad from well-wishers and hangers-on about how it felt to be the new champion and what it was going to do next—Vlad gathered his companions around him to discuss: what are we going to do next?

Among various competing priorities (Circe and Mark had heard about a wizard who was looking for students, Sir Henry feared that something was amiss in the land of Whitkey, the druids had called Chrono to seek his help in finding that special-prophecy boy Valu) the scent of low-hanging gold pieces beckoned.  Garan’s tomb looked like it could be broken into and according to the tanner’s book, Garan had been buried with his treasure.

So as the party continued, the adventurers pushed aside their ale mugs to cleared their minds (or perhaps drowned any rational fears with a last drought of liquid courage) and set off into the night. 

They hiked back to the tomb under torchlight, singing and arguing to distract each other from the weird shadows in the canyon.  Mark the Magicuser read the magic runes above the tomb: “Mother Night Welcomes Garan Lord of Battle and Conquest.”  Again, not exactly “Good words, honorable deeds.”

Vlad expressed some misgivings about the mantle draped round his shoulders, and his new association with this ancient warrior of ambiguous character.  It felt good to feel like a conqueror, but it also felt a little strange.  Chrono, sensitive to Vlad’s ambivalence tried to assist Vlad in removing the mantle—and for his trouble received an unequivocal punch in the face.  Ok, that settled it.

Sir Henry, meanwhile discovered that the door to the tomb—to no one’s great surprise, open with only a slight push.  There was a spiral staircase carved in the rock, spiraling down (and deosil—“clockwise, for those familiar with newfangled timekeeping devices”.)

At the bottom of the stairs they passed through rooms painted with murals celebrating Garan’s many bloody conquests.  He wore the same mantle now worn by Vlad except for one detail.  While the mantle worn by Vlad bore the embroidered insignia of the “Golden Helm of Garan,” the mantle worn by Garan in the murals showed a black skull on a white shield.

The party passed into a circular room dominated by a stone statue of Garan in the center of the room and with six stone knights standing in alcoves spaced around the wall.  As the party entered the room, the eyes of Garan’s statue glowed red and statues came to life.  Vlad felt emboldened and in another way uncomfortable, it was something about his mantle or the insignia on his mantle, he picked at the gold thread.

And then the sis stone knights came to life and attacked.  Three of the statues charged at Vlad.  Vlad readied his shield and Sir Henry sprung into action, striking one of the statues with his sword, shattering its arm.  Chrono readied his quarter staff and engaged one of the other statues.  Another statue bore down on Thoric.  Circe retreated, hiding under a shroud of magical darkness.  Mark stayed behind the well-armored warriors and when the moment was right, cast a magic missile at one of the statues attacking Vlad, reducing it to a pile of rubble.

Thanks to his plate mail and the assistance of his companions, Vlad sustained a rain of blows from stone swords, with little injury.  Sir Henry noticed that the insignia of Vlad’s mantle was emitting smoke, seemingly more and more as the statues were destroyed.  When Thoric received a grievous blow from a stone sword, McDowell and Sir Henry crowded in front of the statue and covered his retreat.  Then there was a burst of flame in which Vlad’s face glowed red. The Golden Helm was gone—the black skull of Garan was revealed underneath. Vlad yelled a battle cry and the remaining statue kneeled before him.

Chrono tended to Thoric’s wounds while the rest of the party searched the room.  McDowell found a secret door and another spiral staircase leading down.  As the party regathered, so did the statues—the chunks of stone, quivered and rolled together, reassembling into six stone knights, all kneeling before their master, Vlad.

The party descended the staircase.  The statues did not follow Vlad, but once he was out of sight they rose their feet, drew their swords approached the other members of the party—not in a good way.  The rest of the party crowded down the stairs.   The statues did not pursue.

At the bottom of the stairs, they found Garan’s burial chamber.  There was a sarcophagus—open—and soon a horrific undead thing rose out of it—seemingly Garan himself by the black skull painted on his plate mail.  The wight’s scabbard was empty and it charged at Vlad—“Give it to me!”  Vlad pulled out his sword and landed a blow that would have decapitated a mortal creature—and remembered all of his grandfather’s lessons about how to fight the living dead.

Sir Henry knew, The Sword of Whitkey leapt into his hand and he charged forward to go toe-toe with dead Garan.  Chrono joining him, swinging his shillelagh.  This gave Vlad the opportunity to back away, cast his sword aside and ready a silver bolt in his crossbow.  Mark and Circe threw magic missiles at the evil spirit as it charged after Vlad.  A silvered bolt from Vlad’s crossbow hit it in the face. Howling in anger or pain it pressed forward.  The Sword of Whitkey, glowing in Sir Henry’s capable hands bit through the Garan’s armor.  Vlad stumbled backwards, still holding his crossbow.  As the monster pounced on him, Vlad put another crossbow bolt through Garan’s plate mail, granting he creature a second death.

Thoric and McDowell pried the silver, gold, and jewels out of Garan’s sarcophagus.  Sir Henry devised a way to distribute the treasure and after satisfying themselves that there was no other way out of the burial chamber, the party returned to the surface.  The stone knights kneeled before Vlad and allowed them to pass freely.  Back in Garanton, the party got a few strange looks from straggling revelrs, but no one quite found words to question them.

At dawn, the party left for Hommlet.  As they had heard, there was a wizard there, one Burne, who had learned of certain magical pools in the caverns under a ruined Moathouse outside the village.  He wanted to share the power of the pools with apprentices, but the guards he had stationed at the moathouse said that things were getting weird—purple-back spiders, eerie noise, green slime on the walls and ceiling that dissolved metal-- and they refused to patrol the lower levels.  Burne hoped some ambitious young magicians and their associated might see the advantage of helping him secure access to the pools.

Bangqiu and Bayan return to the Happy Valley

Bayan and Bangqiu enjoyed their downtime in Pasar but when Zhu-Shi finished his work for the Emperor, it was time to escort him back to Happy Valley so he could continue his work on Beatriss’s palace. The army that had accompanied the group on their travel from Happy Valley would stay in the area near Pasar, holding the line against the southern emperor. Only a half-dozen soldiers would join Bayan and Bangqiu for the return trip. With rumors of bandits and enemy soldiers on the roads. Bayan and Bangqiu elected to seek an alternate route, the “lost highway” that Beatriss had discovered and that connected Pasar to Zhou Dang.

After a few weeks of travel through hidden valleys connected by miles-long tunnels through the mountains, Bayan and Bangqiu came to an impasse—a cave-in that blocked the way of the underground highway. Smaller, natural tunnels branched off from the main highway. Bayan and Beatriss explored these, hoping to find a way back to the main route. They found many strange things—including a giant frog that breathed paralyzing gas—but they did not find the sought for connection. And they discovered that someone was tracking them. Frightened by this discovery and having lost one of the soldiers in a fall, the party decided to instead seek out a way—any way—into the open air.

In the muddy valley in which they emerged, they saw—and avoided more strange creatures, and met a group of gregarious men who peasants’ clothing and gaudy jewelry and were laden with sacks of food. These men invited the party to rest and feast with them. Bangqiu was glad to accept the invitation; Bayan was more wary, and when she learned the feast would take place in the caves, she flatly refused to return. And so the men went on their way and party continued on theirs, soon reaching a small settlement of about two dozen people. These people were much distraught—having just been roobed by the “cave bandits.” One of the victims, a powerful-looking, wild-eyed man wanted to track down the thieves and punish them, but the rest of his clan were afraid. Bayan showed some interest, but hoped she and her friends could first get some rest? The villagers reluctantly agreed.

The next morning, an alarm was raised. The thieves were coming back—and they weren’t alone this time. Bayan and Bangqiu realized that they had been followed from Pasar by a group of Black Flowers and seemingly under the leadership of the blue-robed Priest of the Shining Path who had escaped them during the climactic battle under monastery in Pasar. The Black Flowers gave some money to the cave bandits, who disappeared from the scene. They rode forward slowly, spreading out in a line. The priest and his two assistants rode in another line behind them.

This time, Bayan and Bangqiu didn’t have the help of Gwinch and his Sohei. But they devised a plan. Bangqiu put on his invisibility cloak and dashed out to flank the enemy. Bayan, leading the soldiers and a few volunteers from the village, advanced slowly to meet the men on horseback. The sides exchanged missile fire—arrows, javelins, and from of the priests assistant’s green glowing bolts of magical energy. Two of the soldiers fell. The priest began to chant—but then was cut off by the sudden scalding blast of steam. Bangqiu had appeared next to the priest and his assistants. The steam killed the priest’s horse and his assistants. The Black Flowers reeled to defend their leader. Bayan and the others charged with their swords. In the ensuing melee, all the Black Flowers were killed—but once again the Shining Path priest disappeared.

The party claimed the Black flowers’ horses and salvaged some equipment. After a few days rest, the party was ready to set out again. The locals refused to accompany the party in their journey unless they would first assist them in their feud with the cave bandits. Bayan was unwilling to do this. Instead, they used money and a horse to pay for a few guides to lead them across the swamp to dry land.

The Liberation of Pasar

While the imperial engineer Sheng Zhu-Shi began work on the southern fortifications, Bayan, Bangqiu, Sir Crowler, and Prince Slash took their rest in the nearby market town of Pasar.

The rest did not last long.

Bayan soon remembered that Pasar had once been a place known to Beatriss. She had traveled there with Gwinch, a mysterious foreigner and Master of the Path, whom she had known since her days in Zipang.  Bayan suggested they look for him.

Bangqiu was eager for the visit as well. Pasar lay near his childhood home, and he hoped to see how the town had changed since his youth.

They discovered very quickly that it had changed for the worse.

---

The Black Flowers

Pasar had once been famous for its peace.

Travelers entering the town were required to surrender their weapons at the gates — a custom dating back to when Pasar had been nothing more than a fishing village where merchants could rest safely between long journeys.

But prosperity had brought problems.

Merchants had arrived with guards. Rival guilds had fought one another in the streets. Eventually the Elders of Pasar allowed a single company of mercenaries to carry weapons in order to preserve the peace.

They were called the Black Flowers, former imperial soldiers, remnants of the armies of general Kawabi and Governor Goyat.

At first the Black Flowers had done their job.

But in the course of a few years they had become something else entirely.

The Black Flowers now patrolled the market districts wearing what was left of their old imperial armor. Each man bore a large circular badge shaped like a black flower.

They took food from merchants without paying. They bullied travelers. And everyone in Pasar seemed to fear them.

Sir Crowler and Prince Slash saw the injustice with their own eyes when a group of Black Flowers overturned a fruit seller’s cart simply because the old man asked for payment.

Unarmed and unwilling to start a riot in the street, the two young nobles decided to report the abuse to the Elders of Pasar, who still ruled the old village at the center of town.

---

A Familiar Name

Meanwhile Bayan and Bangqiu reached the monastery where they thought they might find Gwinch. They didn't find him, but they found Sid, a young monk who knew him, and was willing to talk about what was happening in Pasar.

The monastery itself had fallen under the control of the Black Flowers. Many of the monks were little more than servants now, forced to obey the mercenaries who had once been allowed to shelter within the monastery walls.

In time, Sid admitted that he knew where they could find Gwinch. He had been exiled from Pasar, by the Elders of Pasar. But now they had secretly invited Gwinch back. They hoped he could help restore the monastery and drive the Black Flowers out of the town.

Sid negotiated an introduction and the travelers, together with Gwinch and the Elders, forged a bold plan.

The Black Flowers were preparing for a secret meeting of their leaders beneath the town — a gathering that would include representatives of several powerful factions.

If those leaders could be captured, the Black Flowers’ power might collapse overnight.

Sid knew the entrance to the tunnels beneath Pasar.

Gwinch would lead the strike.

---

A Diversion

There was one problem.

The tunnels ran directly beneath the monastery, which was heavily guarded.

The strike team would need a diversion.

Sir Crowler and Prince Slash immediately volunteered.

Their plan was simple: cause as much chaos as possible in the monastery courtyard and draw the Black Flowers’ attention away from whatever might be happening underground.

No one doubted their enthusiasm.

---

Into the Tunnels

Before the expedition set out, Gwinch’s advisor Saisho cast a powerful spell that rendered the entire strike force invisible.

Twelve unseen figures slipped through the streets of Pasar, bumping occasionally into startled townsfolk but attracting little attention from the Black Flower patrols.

Sid guided them into an abandoned hotel once favored by the mercenaries. From an upper room they descended a ladder through a broken wall into the tunnels below.

The journey through the underground passages proved long and dangerous.

There were traps everywhere.

A strange metal guardian threatened to fill a chamber with poison gas. Hidden pits opened beneath careless footsteps. A flamethrower trap nearly killed Bayan and Sid before they managed to smother the nozzle with their cloaks.

The party faced demonic hounds, a maze of deadly bolts, and a monstrous bull-headed warrior that fell beneath the axe of the young fighter called Beast.

Bangqiu’s magic and Gwinch’s discipline carried them forward.

---

The Uprising

Above ground, Crowler and Slash had begun their diversion.

Standing before the monastery gates, Prince Slash loudly denounced the Black Flowers and mocked their cowardice. Crowler challenged the watching townspeople to ask themselves why such bullies ruled their town.

The crowd began to stir.

When the Black Flowers dragged Slash inside the courtyard to punish him, Crowler and their ally Jasmine slipped in after him.

Fighting broke out.

---

 

The Slavelords of Pasar

The underground strikeforce found the slavelords’ council chamber, was large and grand, lit by torches and lined with nine thrones.

Five of the thrones were occupied.

Neetla, captain of the Black Flowers, rose immediately to meet them.

Beside him sat his allies: a green-robed sorcerer, a priest of the Shining Path, a traitorous monk of the Two-Fold Path, and a cloaked assassin of the One Law Mosque.

The battle that followed was chaotic and deadly.

Gwinch and Beast charged Neetla while Bangqiu darted behind the mercenary captain and struck him with burning enchanted shuriken.

Saisho appeared suddenly behind the enemy lines and neutralized the sorcerer before he could unleash further devastation.

Bayan fought desperately when the cloaked assassin appeared behind her with a dagger. Though wounded, she drove him off and pursued him through the chamber even as he tried to vanish into invisibility.

The cost of the battle was heavy.

Sid and the jungle hunter Akinfenwa were both killed by a fireball.

But the slavelords were defeated.

Neetla was captured alive.

Word spread throughout the monastery and to the courtyard where Crowler and Slash were fighting.

“Neetla is captured!”

At that moment the gates burst open.

An elephant thundered into the courtyard, followed by a stampede of livestock as townspeople surged forward. The remaining Black Flowers fled in panic.

Pasar had risen against them.

---

The Maps

When the fighting ended, the captured conspirators were swiftly judged by the Elders.

Justice was harsh.

But it was the documents found in the throne chamber that troubled Bayan most.

The slavelords of Pasar were not an isolated gang of mercenaries.

They were part of a larger network.

Their letters and maps revealed strongholds scattered across the region — including one in the mountains near Quitokai.

And another.

A monastery.

In Khanbaliq.

Not so long ago, when Bayan was attached to the imperial harem, she had accompanied Beatriss on a reconnaissance mission, ordered by the Emperor, to an abandoned monastery on the edge of the imperial capital. The Emperor had sent them looking for a woman.

They had never finished that mission, barely started it.

Beatriss had been turned to stone.

Now it seemed that the place they had entered long ago might have been only one part of something larger — a hidden network of monasteries, mercenaries, and slavers operating across the Emperor’s domains.

Bayan said nothing of this to the others.

But the discovery left her uneasy.

Either her Emperor knew very little about what was happening in the shadows of his empire.

Or he knew far more than he had said.

Gwinch and Saisho, had their own history with the monastery in Khanbaliq. It could wait. There next target would be the slavers stockade in Quitokai.

From Happy Valley to Pasar

The Road to Pasar (1279)

Work on Beatriss’s fortress in the Happy Valley had barely begun when a message arrived from the Emperor.

The imperial engineer Sheng Zhu-Shi, who had supervised the laying of the foundations, was summoned away. Kubla Khan had ordered new fortifications in the south of his empire, near the independent trading city of Pasar. Two imperial agents—foreigners known as Sir Crowler and Prince Slash—had been sent to escort Zhu-Shi to his new assignment.

Beatriss’s castle would have to wait.

Bayan and the young wu jen Bangqiu knew there was no arguing with an imperial decree. Instead, they proposed a practical solution: they would accompany Crowler and Slash as additional guards for the journey south. When Zhu-Shi finished the Emperor’s work near Pasar, they hoped to bring him quickly back north to complete the fortress in the Happy Valley.

Bangqiu needed little convincing. His home village lay not far from Pasar, and he had not seen it for many years.

And so the four adventurers set out together.

The Southern Caravan

They joined a large caravan bound for the southern frontier. Imperial soldiers marched alongside merchants, pilgrims, and wandering traders. New travelers joined the company as it moved south, and the road became a small traveling city of tents and wagons.  Among the travelers was a lively young woman named Jasmine, who journeyed with her stern and suspicious older brother. Jasmine quickly developed a fascination with Prince Slash.

Whenever she saw him studying maps or speaking with the caravan’s guide, she would appear at his elbow.

“Whatcha doing?”

Slash, who took his responsibilities as imperial escort very seriously, tried to remain patient. But the more closely he studied the route, the more uneasy he became.

Although the caravan’s guide—an imperial scout named Zhinan—claimed to know the southern roads well, Slash had begun to suspect that they were drifting off course.

The Witch in the Caravan

Sir Crowler had noticed something strange as well.

Zhinan traveled with a sleek Siamese cat that seemed unusually intelligent. The animal followed Crowler everywhere and occasionally batted playfully at his boots. Yet the knight could not shake the feeling that the cat was watching him.

One evening Crowler finally decided to confront the guide. He and Prince Slash went to Zhinan’s tent together.

The cat followed them.

As Crowler angrily accused Zhinan of misleading the caravan, the cat circled his legs, swatting at his boots as though amused by the argument.

Crowler pointed at it suddenly.

“Who,” he demanded, “is that cat really?”

Zhinan hesitated.

Then he confessed the truth.

The cat was no ordinary animal.

It was a witch in disguise.

---

The Night Attack

Crowler and Slash immediately ran to warn their companions.

They arrived at Bayan and Bangqiu’s tent just in time to see the cat slipping inside.

The two men burst through the tent flap.

Inside they saw the cat transforming—stretching and reshaping itself into the figure of a woman. She stood over the sleeping Bangqiu, her hands already rising to weave a spell.

Crowler and Slash shouted for their friends to wake.

Only Bayan stirred.

Bangqiu remained trapped in an unnatural sleep.

The enchantress began chanting. Bayan lunged forward and tackled her, trying to prevent the spell—but she was a moment too late.

The witch vanished.

The tent seemed empty.

Then Sir Crowler noticed the edge of the canvas lifting slightly, as if someone invisible were trying to slip out beneath it.

Without hesitation he drew his sword and struck.

The blade met flesh.

The invisible woman collapsed and died before she could complete whatever magic she had intended for Bangqiu.

---

A Familiar Enemy

At dawn the spell of invisibility faded.

When Bayan and Bangqiu saw the woman’s face, they both recognized her.

She was an enchantress who had once served Red Nar, an enemy they had crossed before.

Zhinan confessed that the witch had deceived him into guiding the caravan along a route that would make her attack easier. Ashamed of his failure, he accepted dismissal as the caravan’s guide.

The journey south continued without him.

---

The Long Road

The road to Pasar proved long and dangerous.

Bandits shadowed the caravan through mountain passes. Riders from a rival khan attempted to harass the imperial soldiers. More than once Crowler and Slash had to draw their blades in defense of the travelers.

Bayan’s sword and Bangqiu’s magic helped drive away every threat.

At last the caravan reached the southern frontier.

There, at the place designated by the Emperor, Sheng Zhu-Shi began his work on the new fortifications.

With their duty fulfilled, the four companions finally allowed themselves a moment of rest.

Nearby stood the bustling market town of Pasar.

It seemed the perfect place to wait while the imperial engineer completed his task.

None of them yet knew that Pasar had troubles of its own—or that their arrival would soon draw them into a conflict far more dangerous than the road behind them.

Garan Fest 3: Evil defeated! A New Champion Exalted!

The third day of the competition was in horseback riding and jumping. Vlad, whose grew up tending apples (along with listening to his grandfather’s prophecies and learning to fashion silver crossbow bolts) had never sat on a horse before. He was eliminated in the first round. (Roquelle and Sir Henry, meanwhile were not inspired to compete at all.)

Rellum, a local tanner noted that Mark seemed to have little interest in either the martial competition or the accompanying revelry and suggested that maybe he was “Some kind of wizard? I’ve known people like you.” Mark tried to put a quick end to the conversation, but the Tanner persisted, advertising his services in “custom covers for valuable books.” Made from dragon hide according to the Tanner. Mark said that he’d think about it and told his friends about the strange man’s offer. Vlad was still nursing a sore shoulder and his injured pride, but Thoric agreed to help find the Tanner’s shop. Asking around they heard that the Tanner was new in town and had taken over the old Tanner’s shop next to the well. Mark and Thoric located the shop, but found it closed. By this time, Vlad was back on his feet and eager to restore his pride. He convinced his friend to visit the festival tents and they cheered him on in a test of strength with a visiting strongman. (Vlad lost.)

Wandering on the outskirts of the festival ground, the party met Oli the village drunk and Februm the village loanshark. Having just received a beating from Februm and his toughs, Oli was grateful for a sack of wine and he told them what he knew about Garanton and the festival. This was very little, but Mark and Vlad were perplexed about one fact he told him—every year, the winner of the competition receives the Mantle of Garan—a black velvet cloak that according to legend once belonged to Garan himself. The same black velvet cloak? How? Oli asked for more wine and passed out.

That evening, they met someone else who also found it strange the same gift should be given away every year. Mikail Vetter, hero of the day’s riding completion was being feted at the tavern—and acting completely miserable. The party followed him out of the tavern and learned the reason for his mood. Both his grandfather and his father had won the mantle—and then gone off to war, never to be seen again. None of the winners were still around today. Only the mantle.

That evening, the party went on patrol with their red moss torches. They talked to some patrolling friars and questioned them about the history of Garan and the festival. The friar extolled Garan’s martial virtues of good words and deeds. Especially deeds. Garan led the uprising against 3 evil brothers who had terrorized the land. As they explained it, the winner of the festival customarily accepted the mantle and then went forth to seek glory and do honorable words and deeds. “Why should a hero spend his days in a sleepy village like this one?” Such heroes would of course be welcomed, but they couldn’t name any who actually had returned during their years at the abbey. But the mantle itself, they agreed, always returned. Taking their leave from the friars, the party went to the top of the hill to check on the arch. The sky was overcast and the arch wasn’t glowing. Reasoning that the shadow demons wouldn’t be a threat, the party called it a night.

The farmers and artisans rise early in Garanton so when Vlad, Thoric, and Mark did awaken, the village was abuzz with disturbing news: a local man had been killed—apparently by a shadow demon—right in the middle of the village. His body was found near the well. But a festival to honor a legendary warrior must go on regardless of portents and tragedy. Vlad went to testing ground to prepare for the archery contest, one he hoped to win. Vlad and Mark decided to visit Rellum the Tanner. The shop was closed, but they knocked loudly, Mark calling out that he wanted to talk about covering his spellbook. Rellum opened the door and ushered them into his little shop to display samples of his work. His skill was impressive and his price reasonable, but his manner strange. Mark did not like the way the Tanner covetously fingered his spellbook. But the distraction gave Thoric a chance to look around the shop. There was one interior door—with a door placed in fronting of it, jamming it closed. When Thoric tried to wriggle the chair free—but ended up cracking it, Rellum the Tanner snapped angrily and jumped across the room to slam the door shut—but not before Thoric caught a glimpse of a small kitchen in which the rest of Rellum’s furniture was stacked on top of a trapdoor. Mark heard a crashing noise from the cellar. Rellum began to scream that he was being robbed. Thoric and Mark agreed they should leave and went to the archery grounds. They told Vlad that they thought that the missing sculptor was being held prisoner in Rellum’s basement. Vlad agreed that he would go with them to check it out after the archery contest was over. But—when the sculptor’s distraught assistant Deidra heard that someone knew where her master was, she begged them to tell her and, after they did tell, went directly to the Tanner’s house to confront him. Vlad and a few other contestants agreed that they would not start the archery contest until the matter was resolved and went with Thoric and Mark to assist Deidre.

Rellum the Tanner refused to allow anyone inside. A friar joined the negotiations and tried to convince the Tanner that the visitors were not brigands. After a brief argument, Rellum cast a spell on his accusers and most of them fell asleep. Those who remained conscious battered down his door. The shop area had been cleared of small, valuable items. Vlad, Thoric, and Mark moved through it into the kitchen, reaching it just in time to see the shutters fly open. Thoric suggested that the Tanner was a magician and had turned invisible—they braced for an attack. When none came, the party began disassembling the pile of furniture and other heavy objects that held the kitchen trapdoor closed. As they worked, a force began battering against the door from below. Each blow from belong knocked the door open a couple inches and shook the pile of furniture. Thoric out the sculptor’s name and were answered by snarls.

Reasoning that there was a shadow demon in the basement, Vlad lit one of his special red moss torches. The others continued to move furniture. The trapdoor was now bouncing open several inches. A black claw flashed out, grabbing for Vlad’s ankle. He knelt and thrust the torch into the shadow demon’s face. The trapdoor slammed down on Vlad’s arm. He let go of the torch and pulled his arm free.

The party heard frantic commotion in the cellar. The shadow demon was no longer battering the trap door, but instead flying around the cellar, screeching and destroying things. Vlad loaded a crossbow bolt. Mark prepared to cast a spell. Thoric and the friar moved the rest of the furnitutre off the trap door. On the count of three, they opened the trapdoor. Thick, pungent smoke came spilling out, followed by the howling shadow demon. Vlad and Mark both hit it with their respective missiles. As the monster emerged, it was struck by the sunlight from the open window and vaporized.

The friar went out to tell Deidre the good news—the sculptor had been found! And the bad news—Rellum the Tanner had turned him into a demon in order to kill local cows and villagers! And the really good news—the demon had been destroyed by the villagers and now the festival could continue!

Vlad and Thoric checked that the basement was empty of any other shadown demons. Then Vlad wen to compete in the archery contest while Thoric and Mark searched the Tanner’s house. In the attic sleep space, they found a book that purported to tell the True and Secret Story of Garan the Ravager. Nothing about good words and deeds. The arch, according to the book, was built by one of Garan’s two brothers in the course of a fierce three-way sibling rivalry that escalated into war. Garan was killed in the battle with his brothers and buried in a secret tomb. Interesting stuff.

Vlad had another bad day, and was eliminated early from a contest that he had expected to win. He rejoined Thoric and Mark and the three debated their next course of action. They discussed visiting Garan’s tomb. Vlad wanted to return to the ravine near Garan’s tomb to recover the weapons he’d left behind so that he could carry his cousin’s body. But Thoric convinced his fellows that they should investigate the arch. Hadn’t Mark and Vlad seen four shadow demons emerge from the arch on a moonlit night? Shouldn’t they investigate it during the daylight hours?

In the daylight, the arch was just an arch, and the three adventurers discussed destroying it, using a hammer to test whether it was vulnerable to normal methods of destruction. It was—but their work was interrupted by a voice warning them of their imminent destruction. 

In the ensuing conversation, the party resolved that the voice wasn’t coming from the arch or from inside the arch, but from behind a bush or in the ruins nearby. And the voice sounded very much like Rellum the Tanner. He told them that instead of destroying the arch, they should learn how to harness its power. While Vlad and Mark peppered him with questions about the nature of this power and exactly how it could be harnessed, Thoric set about looping a rope around the keystone of the arch. Vlad and Mark couldn’t find the Tanner, but they heard him—not only his voice, but the sound of footsteps as he moved from one hiding place to another. They continued to close in on the source of his voice until finally, with a last threat of doom, he seemed to run away. When the sound of his footsteps faded, the three adventurers agreed to destroy the arch. They seized the end of the rope, walked out as far from the arch as they could and pulled with all their might. At first nothing happened, but when they did manage to twist the keystone, the rest of the stones did the work, pushing the keystone out and then tumbling to the ground. There were some surprised shouts from down in the village and a cloud of dust. When the dust settled, the heroes walked back down to Garanton.

That night at the tavern, Mark, Thoric, and Vlad were the heroes, praised for their success in killing the demon and in driving the Tanner out of town. “I always said he wasn’t right.” 

The celebrations were stymied by some disturbing news. The friars had caught someone trying to steal the mantle of Garan. Most people—other than Thoric, Vlad, and Mark—were shocked to hear that the culprit was local favorite Mikail Vetter, descendant of two previous winners! The friars locked Vetter in the cellar of the abbey. Tavern talk turned to Vetter’s strange behavior. Locals and visiting spectators debated whether Vetter’s crime was motivated by his poor performance at the day’s archery contest or whether causation worked in reverse—“I could tell by the way he looked at that target—his mind was on something else. And now we all know what!” Everyone agreed that he was a disappointment to the memory of his father and grandfather.

The night passed without incident, confirming for most people the friar’s theory that the recent threat posed by Rellum the Tanner and his unwilling accomplice the sculptor had been effectively eliminated. But it was a somber morning. Mikail Vetter was tried and convicted of multiple crimes against the village, the abbey and Garan the Mighty. He was sentenced to a sound flogging and exile.

In the afternoon, the completion of the week’s competition culminated in a series of one-on-one combats. Despite his poor showing on recent days, Vlad was still considered a favorite, along with locals Muttal and Ouvrar. Berl an expert archer had earned the right to easy first round contests but wasn’t expect to succeed in hand-to-hand combat against a “real warrior” in the mold of Garan the mighty. The duels were fought with wooden swords and lasted until one of the duelist fell and could not immediately return to his feet. Vlad easily won his first two rounds. Berl the archer also advanced. The other two finalists included Sir Havad and Barre. Sir Havad was the captain of a mercenary company and thus regarded by many as not a proper contender in a completion intended for untested warriors. Barre, one of Februm’s goons was even more disliked. Barre stumbled and was defeated by Berl the archer to the surprise of all and to the dismay of the many punters who had bet against him. Vlad’s success in the earlier rounds was attributed to his quickness, but in his fight against Sir Havad he showed he was also willing and able to sustain some heavy blows and keep on fighting. The crowd cheered to see the heroic stranger defeat the mercenary. Vlad and Berl were permitted an hour’s rest before the final round. The friar’s tended to both men’s wounds and gave them fortified wine for their final battle. Once again Berl surprised many by his ability to defend himself in hand-to-hand combat. But Vlad had more stamina and after sustaining a few solid blows himself, at last forced the archer to yield.

The final duel was followed almost immediately by the victory procession to the Plaza of Garan. The friars led the way with their statue of Garan, draped in its mantle. The procession arrived at the plaza, in front of Garan’s tomb, and the mantle of Garan was presented to Vlad. He was wary at first, but as the joyous crowd draped it over him, he felt encouraged by its presence. It felt strangely familiar, as if it had always belonged to him and he pulled it around his shoulders.

Mark and Thoric, lurking on the outside of the crowd, took a closer look at the tomb. It looked like the plaster seal had been broken, though it was unclear whether the stone door had been opened.