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--- obsidian:root:avatar_timeline [2023/12/09 11:00]
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 All things said and done, they rest as best they can on the ship and arrive at a rocky beach in the morning. They anchor a little off shore and head to shore, faced with a massive, dark forest filled with evergreen trees. The forest is eeirly quiet as they travel through it along the path to the village, until they hear a sudden snap from behind them, along with the pounding of paws.
+====== Episode 4 - An Egg’s Mother ======
+From behind them a deer dog appears, acting as if it was tracking prey. Next appears it’s master, a earth bender mercenary who informs the group he’s been tasked by Lord Farquad to retrieve the egg they stole. While it’s not personal for him, the pay is good so when they refuse he starts a fight. He wears out Tudi significantly, but is otherwise overwhelmed by the party and surrenders when his deer dog takes a few combustion blasts from Katsumi. He promises to tell Farquad he couldn’t find the group, and makes a retreat. The party gives his deer dog Bowbow a few buiscuits as a treat.
+The group arrives in Kibiki Village, a small former mining village that has turned to logging in attempt to save the village after the ore veins dried up. The village is known to have had a dragon guarding their village for over a century, hence the group’s visit. Makwa suggests they head for the chief’s place, but stops just short of it when he spots a member of Ozai’s Dragon Task Force standing at the entrance. He refuses to approach, not wanting to invite more trouble from the group than they already have, since both investigate the scenes of dragon deaths. Kollana is angered by this and along with Katsumi, Tudi, and Shaizu, approach. Kollana also tests Kianari’s balance, asserting that Kianari should be the one representing the Northern Water Tribe as it’s Icon.
+Shaizu convinces the guard that they have urgent information to relay, and he fetches his superior from inside. Captain Ojum is the leader of the Dragon Task Force and he ignores every trick or intimidate tactic they try. He eventually tells them to leave and resumes his meeting with the chief. Not to be stopped, Tudi and Katsumi sneak around the exterior of the building to listen at the windows. Tudi only manages to find the bathroom, but Katsumi listens to the tail end of Ojum’s meeting with Chief Unoko.
+Ojum tells Unoko that Dragon Force has investigated and the dragon that’s been missing for months has simply decided to leave. Unoko tries to challenge this, but he makes it clear his assessment is not to be questioned. He tells her to spread the word of his investigation and then leaves.
+After Dragon Task Force leaves, Katsumi, Makwa, Tudi, and Shaizu head to meet the chief in person. The chief tells them their dragon guardian, Vepiot, has been missing for months and it’s unlike her. She lets them know Dragon Force have been in town for a day and a half, they flew into a clearing on the village outskirts in a hot air balloon. She also shares that Dark Spirits have shown up recently, forcing the town’s folk to hide at night. The party offers to do their own investigation alongside Makwa and Chief Unoko gives them a wax seal that states they’re helping the chief.
+The party reconvenes outside and decide to talk to the townsfolk who’ve been out logging and might have last seen Vepiot. They meet a muscular woman carrying bundles of firewood in one hand with a jovial attitude first. Katsumi talks to her and she mentions that she saw Dragon Force marching north yesterday towards one of the original mines from the town’s founding, north of the village. The party takes this clue and runs with it, heading for the mine.
+Tudi and Kianari navigate them through the woods with Tudi’s wilderness background and they come upon the cave. A purple miasma permeates from the cave. Makwa identifies this as related to dark spirits but not directly harmful, and the group pushes into the cave. There, in a massive cavern, they find the corpse of Vepiot, battered with ballista bolts, firebending burns, and other deep wounds. Vepiot was clearly hunted. This horrifies the water tribe members as a Dragon is a powerful spirit and should be respected. The four immediately want to perform a ritual to separate the flesh from the spirit so Vepiot’s spirit can return to the spirit world without an earthly tether, but they are interrupted by a ghastly wail from deeper in the mine.
+Out from the dark tunnels comes a ghostly image of Vepiot, filled with a deep purple malice and made of condensed Miasma. This is Vepiot’s spirit, corrupted and turned dark. Kianari’s knowledge of spirits comes to her aid, knowing that a spirit pushed to become dark like this must have had a Principle that truely mattered to it on the mortal realm, and reminding the spirit of that principle can bring back it’s true self. Katsumi is first to approach the violent spirit, taking a wave of fire breath in which she was shown visions of the dragons cares. Katsumi, Jannu, then Kianari all call out that the village misses her, the hunters are not with them, and that it should not worry for them.
+Jaanu, in a fourth attempt to reason with the spirit as it wears down the party’s reserves, sees one final vision in the flames. The vision is of an egg, one very familiar egg sitting in a nest in this mine. Jaanu reveals the egg and reassures Vepiot her egg is safe, no longer in the hands of Farquad and his men. This is what finally brings Vepiot back into the light, she has a soft final moment with the egg before she fades away, headed for the spirit world. Even her body fades, truly being at piece.
+The exhausted party collapses on the spot, wondering what to do next when Makwa suggests they speak to the Sunbenders. Makwa only knows of them, but most of the group has also heard of the group that lives with Dragons and practices “traditional firebending”. It’s a start, though they’ll have to find them first.
+====== Episode 5 - Hatching a Plan For an Egg ======
+We skip ahead to the party returning to the outskirts of the Fire Nation Capital with the Spiritualists. The Spiritualists bid them farewell and good luck in their hunt for the sunbenders as they must return to the Southern Water Tribe to get help with spirits like Vepiot’s. The party debates getting back into the city, unsure of how much security is hanging around. They decide to hide Tudi in one of Vata’s water barrels and try to convince the guards Jaanu is a prospective Royal Fire Academy for Girls student. The harbor guards pay the group no mind, and their plan works with the Caldera City security as Kianari, Shaizu, and Katsumi all have papers to re-enter the city.
+In the city, the party decides to go to Katsumi’s family home to stash the egg and maybe get some information from the family archives about the sunbenders. The Yuda clan head butler greets them and tells Katsumi she’s requested by her grandfather, but Katsumi resists the callout and brings her friends to her room first. Katsumi then goes to meet her grandfather, aunts, uncle, and father who are all assembled. Her aunt Ilano is furious Katsumi was identified in the fight outside the Royal Fire Academy and wants Grandfather Yuda to punish her. Meanwhile her other aunt (Arumu) and uncle (Dorum) are proud of her as they aren’t fans of the fire lord. Her father Arusen is quiet.
+Katsumi is able to tell half truths to make it seem like unfortunate circumstances were to blame, but her Grandfather is still disappointed it happened at all. He tells her she’ll be under house arrest until she can be re-educated in her role at a Yuda clan member. She makes a deal to allow her friends to stay the night as well though.
+After Katsumi is put in her room and the others are taken to their own, they decide to do some snooping. They find Grandfather Yuda’s study via a map Katsumi drew earlier and search for signs of the Sunbenders. They find a document that hints that Arusen may know more about the sunbenders, but as they haven’t been introduced yet they return to their rooms. Later they use the excuse of walking Vata to go to the garden behind Katsumi’s room. They come to her window and covertly discuss the egg and their objective. Arusen had entered the room during the conversation at least caught on that they wanted something from him, which worked out: he wanted their help as well. He’s going to have them help with a Fire Nation Intelligence mission and offers the Sunbender’s location in return.
+====== Episode 6 - Investieggation Gone Rotten ======
+Arusen meets them after dinner in a parlor of the Yuda mansion. He explains that wants the party to investigate the Guiding Wind’s organization, as they’re vocally against the construction of the Fire and Air Learning Center and there has been an anonymous threat to the safety of the center. He suspects they’re involved but his own intelligence officers can’t seem to infiltrate the organization. He’s confident in a member of the clan investigating though, and thinks their mixed nationality group would blend better. He offers the location of the Sunbenders in return, so the party accepts. He tells them there are three places they can start: the center itself, the camp of the Guiding Wind in Caldera City, and the Air Nomad Embassy.
+The next day the party goes to the commune the Guiding Wind has setup in the City. They’re welcomed in and the community is anything but violent. They’re given a tour by a woman who also works for the Learning Center gathering historical artifacts, then introduced to the commune’s leader. While the rest of the commune is very barebones and minimalist to fit with the Wind’s philosophies, Reenzen’s office is opulent and full of things given up by nobles who joined the Wind.
+He is welcoming but in a car salesman kind of way, so the party leaves and then sneaks back into the house with Tudi’s earthbending. They find some letters talking about the threat to the Guiding Wind in vague terms, all signed either B or R. They assume R is Reenzen, so they think he’s at least in on the plan. As they leave they also meet a group of Wind members going to protest at the learning center. They share their reasons for protesting, but don’t give any violent tendency vibes.
+The party then goes to the Learning Center. They meet their old “friend” Ukari whose been assigned to guard the center. There’s been a lot of vandalism throughout the construction, hence the military being posted. They see the group from the Wind protesting peacefully, as well as a second group of Fire Nation Academy for Girls students protesting. The quickly lose steam and mingle among themselves. Shaizu speaks to a former classmate and finds out Principal Bashira is sending classes to protest the center. The party connects B and Bashira, so they then feel Bashira is in on it.
+At this point, the party returns to Arusen and shares their conclusion. Bashira and Reenzen are working together to sabotage the center using the Guiding Wind, though they don’t know how yet. Arusen acts on this information, raiding the Guiding Wind’s camp. They capture Reenzen, but at the same time a bomb goes off in the learning center, doing heavy damage. Through the fallout the party learns that Reenzen was involved in the plot, but the Wind wasn’t. Reenzen planned to take all the riches donated to the wind and flee, using the Wind as a scapegoat. He wasn’t successful in fleeing, but the Wind did suffer from the raid.
+Meanwhile Bashira, as an ultra nationalist, had a team of fellow ultra nationalists working on the bomb. He was going to have the Wind take the fall for the bomb and destroy the center for corrupting fire nation ideals. He fled in the chaos of the raid on the Wind, so he’s still at large.
+Arusen is less than impressed with the party’s work. He’s too busy to deal with them in the immediate fallout so the party is left with a tough choice. Katsumi decides to break into Arusen’s study and try to steal the location so they can get the egg to safety. She’s caught, and pushes her balance towards Freedom as she defies her father and family to run from the Yuda Estate with the party, location clutched in hand.