Beatriss and Tetsukichi learn that different groups of indigenous peoples claim different cultural practices.

Beatriss and Tetsukichi had plans to return with Golfo and their companions to Xitaqa, the place where Golfo had been imprisoned, and loot the wizard’s treasure.  But on their way up the River Lam, a ragged man on the shore waved frantically for their help.  Their sense of duty and fatalism outweighed their paranoia and they approached him.  He explained that he was from one of the sister villages of Quitokai and that he and several and his neighbors had been captured by slavers.  He had escaped, and needed help to rescue the others.  Beatriss and Tetsukichi agreed to help him.

The villager led the party into the jungle for about an hour and then stopped to point ahead at a wisp of smoke.  There was a clearing there, he explained where the prisoners were held.

The party approached until they came upon a path, where they were spotted by one of the slavers’ sentries.  Before they could raise their bows to fire, the sentry ran away down the path, shouting the alarm.  The party pursued him to a clearing and there a battle ensued.  Beatriss and Tetskuich led the charge, but they were knocked to the ground, stunned, by a hidden spell-caster.  Afu and Ju-Mei called on the power of the Sun Goddess to apprehend the slavers’ archers.

The slavers, numbering about half-a-dozen, commanded another 10-15 men from the jungle.  Hunters rather than warriors, several of these men fell quickly under the blows of Golfo, Naron, and Al-Fitar, and the others fled.  Beatriss and Tetsukichi recovered from whatever spell had affected them.  The villager found his captive friends and began freeing them from their bonds.  Immediately, the freed villagers began attacking the other prisoners with sticks and stones.  Beatriss intervened.  “What are you doing and why are you doing this?”  The man they’d met at the river explained that, several of the captives were not village people, but jungle people.  “They are the ones who help the slavers to find us and catch us.  If you free them, they will kill us later.”  Beatriss ordered that the “jungle people” should not be killed and should not be freed either.   The party ordered the “village people” that they should follow them out of the clearing so they could be taken back to Quitokai.  Golfo stayed behind to free the remaining captives, leaving them to find their own safety. 

, a photo by Brayo on Flickr.

The company returned to Quitokai without further incident.

Putting pieces together in Menkan

The morning after their battle on the dirty side of Mekan, Tetsukichi, Beatriss, and Al-Fitar were nursing their wounds, and eating a late breakfast at The Nice Inn, when who should walk in the door but Golfo’s wife Phi Phong. She was very happy to see them and at the same time very distraught.

Golfo had been captured or killed or had been captured and was about to be killed. She explained what regular readers already know—not long after they left Quitokai in resumption of their mission to find Gwinch, Goyat, and Kawabi, she and Golfo, along with Tsao Ho and the other monks were ambushed by a large group of men, led by a flying sorcerer in yellow robes. Their brave guides had assisted Phi Phong in escaping their assailants, but when she rejoined Tsao Ho and his monks, Golfo was not among them. Two monks had fallen as well and Tsao Ho refused to risk their mission to go back and try to find them.

When it was time to make camp, Phi Phong convinced one of the guides to help her go back and look for Golfo. At the site of the ambush, they found the dead bodies of the monks, but no sign of Golfo. Phi Phong and the guide returned to Quitokai. Some people there knew of Golthar, the flying sorcerer in the yellow robes, that he was in league with the slavers, and that he may well captured Golfo alive, whether to interrogate him or send him to a mine, or for some other evil purpose. They knew that Golthat lived at an ancient citadel known as Xi Ta Qa, but they didn’t know where it was. Phi Phong decided to go to Menkan, both with the hopes of meeting Tetsukichi and enlisting his aid in rescuing his cousin and with the object of finding someone who knew something more about Xi Ta Qa.

Tetsukichi and Beatriss were interested in helping. And they recounted the story of their encounter with Golthat the previous night. They made a plan to return to the scene of last night’s battle, hoping Golfo might be found there.

But first, they were injured, and needed healing. They visited several temples on the north side of Menkan and received some small measure of expert care for their injuries. They also asked various priests if they had heard of Xi Ta Qa, and received a few blank looks and a few vague answers (“in the mountains.”) And when they returned to The Nice Inn, they found a self-styled holy man waiting for them: “I have heard that you are looking for Xi Ta Qa.”

Hermit :), a photo by aufidius on Flickr.

The holy man, who was named Xīngqíliù , said that he knew the exact location of Xi Ta Qa, and that he, with his six brothers, would take them there. “But I will want a favor from you in return. And horses.” Xīngqíliù also agreed, for the price of 30 taels, to accompany them in their return to Golthar’s hideout in Menkan.

When they returned to the dingy neighborhood in the vicinity of the south end of the wharf, they found a crowd of people milling in the alleyway in a state of restrained excitement. The people’s stares seemed less hostile and they gave the party space to pass. Beatriss knocked on the door of the gate, demanding Golfo. “Go away. He’s not here,” said the people inside. There was a woman’s voice among them, probably that of the woman in black robes. After some argument, the party barged in. Besides the woman in the black robes, there were three men, one of them armed with Beatriss’s bow, which she’d dropped the night before. The woman fled while the men held the party at the gate—briefly.

After dispatching with the men, the party pursued the woman through the house and into the street. Here the party hesitated, but then, noting that the crowd was perhaps very subtly hindering her flight, continued the chase. People in the alleyways, with nods and half-glances guided Beatriss into the alley where she at last captured and killed the woman. The party returned to the house, searched it, and found no sign of Golfo. They did however, recover a good bit of money. Now it was time to make plans for Xi Ta Qa. Learning from Xīngqíliù that Xitaqa was on a cliff overlooking the Lam river, they decided not to buy horses, but instead to pay for everyone to go by boat. And so the next morning they set sail.

Slum on Chao Phraya River Bangkok Thailand 1995, a photo by wordcat57 on Flickr.

Tough time in Menkan

Beatriss and Tetsukichi had promised Afu-- the Priest from the Temple of the Sun who had accompanied them from Khanbaliq-- that they would join him in making an expedition to the slaver's stockade in hopes of rescuing any captives still imprisoned there. After several months of delay, they decided that they would delay a little longer and instead make a trip to Menkan, to see if they could hear news of how their families were doing. In this they disappointed not only Afu, but also both Tsao Ho and Golfo, who argued that their commission from the Emperor had not been satisfied-- it was not enough to find that Gwinch was no longer languishing in Quitokai, they had to confirm that he was still pursuing the traitors, and be ready to assume this mission themselves. Without argument, Tetsukichi and Beatriss simply confirmed that they were going to visit Menkan and would return to their responsibilities in good time.

 Tsao Ho with his disciple monks and Golfo, accompanied by his wife Phi Phong, set out on the trail of Gwinch, Kawabi, and Goyat alone, guided by three villagers from Quitokai and the area. Afu declared that he would continue to investigate the slavers' dealings on his own, while waiting in Quitokai. Beatriss and Tetsukichi, accompanied only by Al-Fitar, made good time traveling to Menkan, and checked in at "The Nice Inn," their designated meeting place. And then they got ready to wait for one of Sansar Anca's ("Uncle") men to show up and take them to where the herds were grazing.

 While waiting, they got to know the town.

Temple amidst the river-side slums, Bangkok, Thailand, a photo by JGHurst on Flickr.

Beyond "The Nice Inn," and the avenue where it sits, the town of Menkan is not very nice. The main avenue-- running from the main gate past the governor's house and the favored temples, and a handful of inns and shops catering to Imperial visitors and other well-heeled foreigners, to an imperial warehouse at the riverside-- is the only street well patrolled by the watch.

The three visitors became the subject of much interest, both official and unofficial. They were questioned by the watch who, finding their papers counterfeit, ordered them not to leave the city until representatives from the Sansar family arrived to vouch for them. A fortune teller warned them that a man in yellow robes was looking for them. A dropped note let them know that they were being targeted as "Gwinch's friends" and that their "secret admirers" were meeting that night at a boarded-up tavern on the very south end of the riverfront. They found the moribund tavern, but rather than venture inside, lingered and watched.

dim lights, faint shadows, a photo by Brayo on Flickr.

They noticed someone watching them, a hooded figure who, being noticed, ran down an alley. The party pursued, the lightly-armored Beatriss running ahead, and staying close enough behind the watcher to see him enter a deserted house. They entered the deserted house, and in the upper story found the foot bridge connecting it to a fortified compound. And as they entered the compound, they were attacked by close to a dozen armed men. Beatriss, Tetsukichim and Al-Fitar are seasoned warriors; adopting a disciplined defensive position, they cut down their attackers. But then the spellcasters emerged-- a man in yellow robes and a woman in black robes. The sorcerer's magic seized Beatriss's muscles from within, incapacitating her. And he threw bolts of magic energey at Tetsukichi and Al-Fitar. The initial attackers were replaced by stranger foes, half-human beasts with the heads of rats, and with the rats uncanny habit of popping out of small holes and scurrying up walls.

Chinese Horoscope - Rat, a photo by Yoyo Miyoko on Flickr.

 Al-Fitar lifted Beatriss over his should like a sack of flour and made for the exit, Tetsukichi guarding his retreat and slaying several of the ratmen. But then the sorcerer threw a net of sticky black netting, like the web of spider, both blocking the exit and ensnaring Al-Fitar.

Tetsukichi, unencumbered by any immediate assailants, exchanged his katana for his bow and fired several arrows at the sorcerer who, responded by sailing into the air and out of sight. The black robed woman directed the remaining ratman and her personal guards to attack Tetsukichi, simultaneously offering him a chance to surrender. He hesitated, but then concluded his superior skills still outweighed his attackers' superior numbers (and if nothing else that he would have additional opportunities to surrender) made an all-out counter attack. He swiftly killed most of the his assailants and put the others to flight. For her part, the black-robed woman clumsily clubbed the helpless Beatriss and Al-Fitar and then ran for her life. Tetsukichi did not pursue her. Instead, he cut Al-Fitar's web and together they carried Beatriss across the bridge, and out to alleyway.  They stopped to look for anyone following them, and Tetsukichi spotted the yellow-robed sorcerer, silhouetted against the moon.  As he raised his bow, the sorcerer flew higher, but not fast enough.  The arrow found it mark and a body wrapped in yellow robes plummeted from the sky, crashing the slanted roof of one of the alleyway hovels on its way down.  Their were gaps and muffled cries of surprise all around, but the houses stayed dark and closed.

Treading their way through the slum, the three warriors returned to The Nice Inn.  With some hot water and time, Beatriss muscles loosened and she was back to normal, save for a couple bruises. Tetsukichi and Al-Fitar had suffered some more serious wounds and the three concluded that they should stay at the inn for a few days.

Play Report: Kāi'ěrwén to Quitokai

Following the merchant’s directions from Kāi'ěrwén, the party rode upstream along the northeastern branch of the Lam River, choosing the southern bank so they would not need to cross again at Mǐ shā’s Ferry.

Near midday, as the river curved sharply between walls of thick jungle, they unexpectedly rode into the middle of a brigand encampment. The outlaws had apparently been preparing an ambush for river traffic and were caught off guard by mounted travelers approaching from inland. Confusion lasted only seconds before arrows filled the air.

Beatriss and Tetsukichi immediately drove their horses into the startled archers, cutting through the camp before the brigands could properly form ranks. The mounted charge broke the ambush almost at once, but farther back on the trail Tsao Ho and his monks came under heavy attack from spearmen emerging from the brush. The monks fought bravely but lacked the experience of hardened frontier fighters.

By the time the fighting ended, the brigands had been scattered or killed, but one monk lay dead and several others were badly wounded. Afu and Ju-May tended to the injured while the survivors buried their companion beside the river beneath a cairn of wet stones.

Two more hours of riding brought the travelers to what they believed must be Mǐ shā’s Ferry. On the opposite shore stood a squat stone building in the same ancient style as the ruined outpost where they had sheltered in the mountains. A weathered ferryboat drifted loosely against its moorings. Most importantly, a rough road led southward from the riverbank exactly as the merchant had described.
By late afternoon they reached the final landmark mentioned in the directions: a narrow footpath disappearing eastward into dense jungle.

The trail quickly became oppressive beneath the heavy canopy. Heat and insects closed around them. After some time they began hearing faint human voices somewhere ahead and thought they glimpsed firelight through the trees. Encouraged, they pressed forward, catching the smell of cooking fires drifting through the humid air.

Then, abruptly, the sounds ceased.

The silence unsettled them. They dismounted and attempted to force their way directly toward the lights through the undergrowth, but after nearly a hundred yards of hacking through vines and tangled roots they found no clearing at all and began to fear losing the trail entirely. Reluctantly they returned to the path and continued east on horseback.

Roughly half an hour later the jungle finally opened before them. They saw lanternlight reflected on water, heard the sound of a river nearby, and glimpsed buildings raised above the mud on timber pilings.
A group of armed warriors waited for them at the bridge leading into Quitokai.

The guards did not attack, but their suspicion was unmistakable. When Beatriss explained that she and Tetsukichi knew Gwinch, the warriors conferred briefly and agreed that the two foreigners would be permitted to speak with the village elders.

The meeting was direct and without ceremony. Beatriss openly explained why they had come. Gwinch was their friend, she said, but troubling rumors had reached Khanbaliq. They wished to know whether he had truly allied himself with slavers operating along the frontier.
The elders answered just as plainly.

Gwinch, they said, had defended Quitokai against the slavers and had helped organize resistance among the jungle settlements. Not long before, he and his companions—including two powerful sorcerers—had led an assault on a nearby stockade, freeing many captives before continuing deeper into the jungle in pursuit of General Goyat and Governor Kawabi.

The elders welcomed the travelers to remain in Quitokai as guests.
Over the following days, the party debated what should come next.

For Beatriss, the answer seemed simple. She had confirmed that Gwinch was not openly serving the slavers, and that was enough. Her instinct was to return north to Kāi'ěrwén and Menkan and eventually reunite with her children and household in Anca Sansar’s grazing lands.
Others disagreed.

Tsao Ho believed their mission had never been merely to locate Gwinch, but to continue the hunt for Goyat and Kawabi themselves. Golfo, to Beatriss’s irritation, seemed inclined to agree. Tsao Ho in particular spoke openly of following Gwinch’s trail deeper into the jungle.
And there was still another possibility.

Among the captives freed from the stockade were survivors who described the raid in disturbing terms. According to them, Gwinch’s sorcerers had unleashed some terrible creature during the assault—something that tore through slavers and guards alike while Gwinch evacuated the prisoners.
But not everyone had escaped.

Beneath the stockade, the survivors said, there remained a dungeon where many more captives had been imprisoned. Most assumed the creature had slaughtered them together with their captors. Yet hope persisted that someone below might still be alive.

Play Report: Menkan to Kāi'ěrwén

Menkan itself was orderly to the point of oppression. Soldiers patrolled constantly, curfews were strictly enforced, and the governor’s authority reached into every corner of the town. Yet beyond its walls, travelers spoke of near-lawless conditions—banditry, abandoned villages, and isolated settlements surviving through uneasy alliances with whoever could protect them.

The party remained in Menkan for several weeks gathering information. Rumors concerning Gwinch were plentiful but contradictory. Some described him as a defender of frontier villages; others hinted that he had become entangled in darker affairs. Everyone agreed on only two points: he now lived in a jungle settlement called Quitokai, and reaching it would not be easy.

By the time they departed Menkan, Sansar’s escort had fallen away entirely, leaving a much smaller expedition. The company now consisted of Beatriss, Tetsukichi, Afu and his assistant Ju-Mei, Naron of the Steppes, Al-Fitar, the increasingly insufferable newlyweds Golfo and Phi Phong, and Tsao Ho of the Shining Mountain Path Monastery together with ten disciple monks.

They followed a broad dirt road that traced the course of the Lam River through largely empty country. Signs of former cultivation appeared everywhere—collapsed terraces, burned farmhouses, irrigation works overtaken by weeds. They also found evidence of why so much land had been abandoned. One morning they passed the body of a dead man lying beside the road, pierced with arrows and already half-picked apart by carrion birds.

Near midday the same day, they were ambushed.

Arrows erupted from the brush along the roadside, cutting down several of Tsao Ho’s monks in the opening volley. Rather than retreat, the party spurred their horses directly into the attack. The brigands broke quickly once engaged at close quarters. Most were killed; several fled into the trees. One prisoner was taken alive.

The captive proudly proclaimed himself a member of the Black Flowers, boasting that his brothers would avenge him. The party questioned him only briefly. When he later escaped into the undergrowth during the march, no one bothered to pursue him.

By evening they reached Bùqiāng bīng, a small riverside settlement dominated by an impressive stone temple. The inhabitants were polite but unmistakably wary of outsiders. At the inn, however, the travelers met several merchants who claimed familiarity with Quitokai and with Gwinch himself. They offered to guide the party there, but Beatriss declined. The men shrugged.

“Then simply follow the river,” they said. “You will arrive soon enough.”

The advice proved questionable.

For the next five days the party traveled downstream along the Lam, heading south and west through increasingly isolated country. Along the way they encountered first a lone wanderer who shared their fire for a night, then a group of weather-beaten soldiers who demanded five taels apiece for “travel papers.” Both insisted the party was moving in the wrong direction.

Eventually Beatriss and Tetsukichi concluded that either they had misunderstood the merchants at Bùqiāng bīng or that the directions had been intentionally vague. They turned back upstream toward the great fork where two tributaries joined the Lam from the north and east.

There they discovered the substantial settlement of Kāi'ěrwén, which they had previously bypassed.

In Kāi'ěrwén, the road to Quitokai was widely known, though difficult to describe to outsiders. A merchant preparing to travel there offered to guide the party in exchange for protection against bandits. Conditions around the jungle settlements, he explained, had deteriorated badly. Hunter tribes from the deep forests had begun raiding agricultural villages along the frontier.

When Beatriss mentioned that she knew Gwinch, the merchant reacted with visible relief. He spoke of the foreigner with admiration touched by uncertainty, praising him for helping organize Quitokai’s defenses against the raids. Yet even in praise there lingered hesitation, as though no one was entirely certain what Gwinch had become.

Before departure, the merchant suggested they visit a local temple and receive traveling blessings. Beatriss agreed, though she remained faintly suspicious of the proposal. The ritual itself proved entirely ordinary: a modest ceremony at a small temple devoted to the Path. Nothing seemed amiss.

Afterward, however, the merchant abruptly changed his mind. He apologized and announced that the omens were unfavorable for travel. He would remain behind after all.

Instead, he provided careful directions, explained the advantages and dangers of several possible routes, and ended with a final warning:

“The people of Quitokai do not trust strangers. And they are very good at protecting themselves.”

Play Report: Khanbaliq to Menkan

The caravan traveled south from Khanbaliq for several weeks without major incident. Everyone had reasons to welcome the city’s disappearance behind them. Some hoped for imperial commissions or titles. Others dreamed simply of cleaner air, better grazing lands, distance from court intrigue, or the chance to live beyond the reach of the Emperor’s politics. Golfo and Phi Phong were newlyweds.

Yet as they entered Chu Yuan Province, the journey became steadily more difficult. Years of neglect and misrule had hollowed out both the countryside and the spirit of its people. Villages stood half-abandoned. Irrigation ditches had collapsed into mud. Farmers watched the passing herds with resentment, and townspeople greeted travelers associated with the distant Emperor with suspicion or outright hostility.

The farther south they traveled, the sharper the tensions became. Though Anca Sansar’s warriors were strong enough to defend the caravan, the khan preferred not to spill blood merely to protect grazing animals from starving peasants. He therefore divided the company.

The larger body of the caravan—most of the civilians, the bulk of the herds, many of the warriors, and families including Beatriss’s children and servants as well as Tetsukichi’s wife and infant daughter—would turn northwest and take the longer route around the Lincang Mountains toward the grazing lands that were their ultimate destination.

Sansar himself retained only twenty or thirty riders and herders, and a small goat herd. With this reduced but still formidable company, he would escort Beatriss and Tetsukichi toward the southwestern frontier by a more dangerous but less populated mountain route.

The crossing proved arduous. Snow still lingered in the high passes, and several storms forced the travelers to shelter among bare stone ridges where the wind cut through wool and leather alike. On the second morning, herders discovered unfamiliar footprints crossing a nearby snowfield—too large for wolves, too deliberate for ordinary animals.

During the worst of the storms, the caravan found refuge in a ruined stone outpost left behind by some earlier empire. They remained there for several days while supplies dwindled and the passes cleared. A few goats were slaughtered for meat. No one complained, though the silence around the fires grew heavier with each day.

After nearly ten days in the mountains, the travelers descended at last into the southern valleys and reached Menkan, the final imperial town of Chu Yuan.

Sansar Anca parted from them there. He intended to rejoin his herds farther west, while Beatriss and Tetsukichi would continue toward the frontier settlements where rumors placed Gwinch. Their farewell was brief and practical; everyone understood that the roads ahead would likely separate them for a long time.