South Marrow district, by Kai (200 xp)

The Free City, South Marrow District, Mbityi borough.  Bounded on the west by the inner harbor, on the south by industrial fields, on the east by Nanpu borough, and on the north by the Copper Quarter.  Brick paved streets and houses of beam and plaster, or stone, or thatch.  Relatively sparse for the free city; the buildings aren't so high, or so close together.  There are open spaces with abandoned buildings or abandoned construction projects.  You can see the sun most times of day.  Most of the people in this quarter are adventurers coming in for supplies or past adventurers who have abandoned the life and set up shop.  Mari decided to settle here because most of her favorite crew is here, and it's an established destination for those who need maps, instruments, travel spells, travel supplies, and the like.  She and Kaziim live in a boat on the harbor.  It's a smallish boat, by Mari's standards; it has a private cabin for Kaziim and two berths, one which serves as Mari's storeroom and bed chamber and the other as a mapmaker's studio.  The piers are made of stout logs tarred, lashed together, and floating on the water.  On hot days the piers stick to your shoes.  Kaziim helped her paint maps on the sails and hull, so the entire ship is a larger-than-average map.  It makes it easy to find.

There are no governmental heads of the borough.  All the residents meet monthly to talk about problems and vote how to solve them; anyone who doesn't attend is under no obligation to abide by the decisions of the group, but the group is also under no obligation to make sure their decisions benefit those members.  This is why there's that big unpaved patch in front of Zeb Gasket's hostelry.  Zeb started coming to meetings again right after the rest of the road was paved, but he never got around to paving his stretch.  That said, there are some members whose opinions carry a lot of weight in the neightborhood.  Among them are:
    * Gris Dentsdeschiens, an orc infantry captain who lead a regiment in the uprising,
    * Crackle Fitzpatrick, a gnome tinker who everyone goes to with anything that needs to be fixed, and
    * Lyialliou Iyitts, tall, beautiful, softly glowing, runs the healer's house.

The borough pays protection to the Rattling Bones.  Everyone scrapes together what they can spare; on a good month someone may put in more, on a bad month, less.  The Rattling Bones took the borough from the Daikyojin a couple years back, with the help of some of the neighbors.  The Rattling Bones started in Nanpu borough, so they're almost locals, and they like to get drunk and swap stories in the Fishwife's Grin.  The Daikyojin kept themselves seperate from the neighbors, and were strict about the monthly tithe and violent when it wasn't complete.  The Rattling Bones can usually be depended upon only to attack outsiders.  Kaziim has a low-level membership in their ranks.  They approached him about being a sort of pet encyclopedia/ spy/ getaway man when he started to apprentice with Gwyrridon, and the neighbors were enthusiastic about the idea, on the grounds that Kaziim would be a calming influence on them.  Kaziim gave up his active membership when he went to University, but he's still sworn to help a Bone in need, he keeps abreast of their activities, and he goes to meetings every month or so.

Mari's favorite places are:
    * the Fishwife's Grin, where she goes to drink with her crew.  This tavern is low and dark; it's made of tarred beams, and its foundations were cursed, so it's slowly sinking.  When the front doorstep sinks more than an easy jump below street level, they build another storey on and move the front door to it.
    * the back room of Enpu the trader's shop, where all the local merchants go to haggle over new maps and sextants and pieces of exotic esoterica.  Enpu's place is built of wooden beams with dyed canvas hung on them.  After hours he runs games of chance.  In certain back rooms, access to which are gained only through secrets and passwords and luck, he holds games of chance for those pieces of esoterica that are beyond price, or which, for whatever reason, may not be sold or traded.
    * behind La Moloque's nursery, at the edge of the industrial fields, where she can see the waving sea on one side and the tides of grasses on the other.
Kaziim's favorite places are:
    * the book store
    * Gwyrridon's house
    * Cousin Kutoh's dry goods store.  When Kaziim was a kid, Cousin Kutoh would tell him stories of eir childhood in Asko, teach him Atraask, and comp him treats in exchange for help around the store.  Cousin Kutoh's store has the biggest selection in the district.  From fireworks to fresh eggs, soap to nails, Kutoh has a little of everything.  Kaziim liked to look through the aisles and ask Cousin Kutoh about things.
    * The top of the Needle.  The Needle was built by a a small goblin horde a couple decades before Kaziim and Mari moved in.  By the time they got there, the horde had moved on, but they had left their dwelling.  It's about seven stories tall and made of what looks like a combination of tar and melted pewter.  After the horde moved out, other people moved in, and it's become a sort of combination indoor mall and apartment building.  Kaziim likes to climb the outside up to the top, where he can see almost the whole borough and all the people in it doing things that otherwise might be secret.  He has a knack for blending in and sitting lightly.

Conditions from the First Session

Arcane Link: Kaziim
The universe .now considers Tanuki's character and Kaziim's character to be almost one being.  This means that any magical (in the broad sense) effects that affect one also affect the other, at half-strength.  This includes any sort of spell, psionic manifestation, supernatural ability, the effects of Taint, et cetera.  If there is a numerical effect (damage, healing, bonuses to stats, et cetera), the other PC is effected by half the amount.  For example, if Kaziim is hit by a fireball for 36 damage, Tanuki's character would take 18 damage.  In these instances, the second character is not allowed a separate saving throw.  If there is no numerical effect, but there is a saving throw, then the second character gets a saving throw at the same DC minus 5.  Tanuki's character is considered to have a Taint score equal to half of Kaziim's.  Any other effects must be adjudicated on the fly.
Resolution: The link is somehow broken, magically.
Beat: You receive a negative effect through the link.
I See You
Tanuki's character understands Yohatanapela now.  He can shed this Condition to gain a one-time automatic critical success on the next roll to influence or otherwise take advantage of him.  Until he does so, any stunts making use of this Condition have their bonuses doubled.
Resolution: Tanuki's character uses his understanding to manipulate Yohatanapela; the Condition is resolved as above.
Beat: n/a.

Trained in Tainted Magic
Kaziim now has the Taint, starting at a Taint score of 3.  He also now knows the spells preserve organ (0-level), bestow wound, and seething eyebane. While he has this Condition, his caster level for the purposes of all Tainted spells is increased by 1.  He might also find opportunities in the campaign to learn other Tainted spells as well.
Resolution: Remove the Taint.  I'll give you one possibly useful, possibly useless, possibly obvious hint: the Haeno are the culture most accustomed to dealing with the Taint; the Aprashami are a distant second and no one else has any direct experience of it, as far as you know.
Beat: Kaziim's Taint modifier and/or Control Tier increases.  Also, whenever he goes through (pass or fail) one of the Punishments of the Taint.

Kaziim's Log of the First Session (400 xp)

8th Harpy, evening.

Dear Kree,

We've left port and civilization on a two-masted ship. The weather is fine and we're making good time, but it's still a long way to the colony. My comrades and I have passed the time getting acquainted.

Ashtolisstiklassendreshalia you remember; the young girl raised by Mboloke's child. It sits on her shoulder like a parrot and hisses at me. I may have prodded it once or twice with the wooden fountain pen you gave me, and I may now have a slightly scorched fountain pen. Actually not scorched, exactly. Glassy, and faintly imploded. I'll show you on my return. I'm sure you'll have some ideas about it. I wish you were here now to ask questions of the girl and her ward/warden; I'm sure you'd think of something I haven't, and when we get back it'll be too late. I wonder what the girl thinks about that.

Our wilderness survival guide is a tree druid called Rivers. She's brought the grigri bags for the matter from the 12 hills. She's from the northern sanctum that protects the Hyllywyo prophecy. You remember that, I think, and if you don't it's in 89.787 (Prophecies (geographic)). It was unusually detailed about what to do now that the situation it details has arisen. She has a reserved air about her; it remains to be seen whether there's much going on beneath that stillness. Still, she seems like an educated person. I look forward to longer conversations with her.

For muscle, we have the Red Sun's disgraced scion. I know rumor and scandal has never held much appeal for you, but in this instance it may prove pertinent. Balomere's father, the patriarch of the Red Sun, was put under some kind of love spell a decade or two back and sired a child upon an orc. He took the child in, although why is not obvious; he subsequently hid the child from sight and denied it access to his person as he sat at court. He sent young Balomere to be trained as a knight; the child acquitted himself well, and won several honors. We're fortunate to have such a capable defender. He certainly looks sturdy enough. And, moreover, he has a gentleness, a concern for others, that is unusual in children as ill-treated as he must have been. I can't help but hold some fellow-feeling for him, as I am myself the child of miscegenation. My mother loved me and spoke well of my father. But for a stroke of luck, I could have been in Balomere's shoes.

Balomere is accompanied everywhere by his war dog, Calix. That noble beast has not yet found much reason to love me, but I hope he won't let that influence his behavior on the battlefield.

Listen to me. Why do I assume there will be any battlefields? For all I know, we'll just walk up the 12 hills, deposit the godling on a Salyagam pillow and turn home. Perhaps I've been spending too much time in 203.43 (Fiction (ripping yarns)).

It's different out here than anywhere I've been. No windbreaks or causeways, only smooth ocean for miles. There is at once a dizzying sense of freedom and a mind-numbing boredom. I pass the time pestering the sailors and looking over the rail. I mean to ask the captain for the use of a stick and some net, that I might survey the denizens of the deep. You may be sure that I will relay what I find to you, old friend.

Kaz

17th Beholder

Kree,

When I left you I had no idea what I'd find. The wonder, and the terror, are almost too much- but let me start at the beginning.

The taint is worse than any of the books can say. The sea is blood and ink, true, and the air is colorless and leeches the light from the sun, yes, but more than that, the colors are wrong somehow. As if the landscape is painted in colors I can't see, and what I perceive is an unfaithful echo. As if bright lights are flashing under my skin. The wind speaks in the voice of a madman. I spend more energy than I can afford raising the wind, trying to blow the foulness away. There is nothing to replace it. The colors are wrong. The wood of my bunk is spongy and pus seeps from it. But I'm beginning to understand.

This afternoon, a sailor from the drowned Maiden's Hope gave us all fingers of jade from his own precious cargo. The Haino believe that jade is a pure element, formed from the breath of one of their gods, and as such it is proof against the taint. At least for a while. That he would part with it at all, let alone enough of it to supply our whole party, is a sign of the feeling the taint inspires. We cling to each other in the face of it.

I had a notion, based not a little on the 4th volume of Porphyry's journals in Pesh, to make the wind into a barricade around the ship. I think I must have attracted something, though, for no sooner had I done that than several dozen small hard-shelled, hymenopteric creatures popped into existence above decks and began attacking us. The sailor I mentioned and myself began to confine them in nets, but when we had finished, they lost their solid character and built themselves into something new.

It is hard to describe.

Their shells rolled from their backs like beads of mercury and extruded tendrils which hardened again. The muscles of their bodies broke free from their insertion points and found new homes. The bones, left visible, reached for each other, knitted together like too many roots in too little ground. They became, in short, something new. Every net that had held these creatures now contained a hulking humanoid creature, bristling with spikes, the largest no less than fourteen feet tall. They burst predictably through the nets and came for us.

If before I had entertained doubts about the ability of our company, I entertain none now. Balomere and the druid sprang instantly into action, Balomere with his mighty war club and the druid with her crossbow. I made a guess about the nature of our foe, and the taint, and called out to Balomere to knock his opponent into the water; this he did with alacrity, but the creature got hold of Balomere's foot somehow and it took the druid's intervention to free him. When the creature hit the water, a huge wave answered it, and bore it up some tens of feet into the air; it also dissolved the creature's fascia and swamped Balomere in a deluge of viscera. Mboloke's child chewed on one and Calix, his teeth coated with jade, bit it. A sailor, killed by the creatures and risen anew, was similarly dispatched by the druid with her jade. I set myself the task of distracting the last, so that the druid could have a clear shot. In so doing, however, I came face to face with the creature.

They are more intelligent than we give them credit for. I had taken it for a voracious beast, but it spoke. Clear reason burned in its sputum-colored eyes. It brought its face down close to me and offered to share with me the knowledge of that land.

Old friend, I have neither heard or read of anything like this. The taint is something entirely new. I will write in detail what I learned and send it to you separately.

Sadly, however, I was unable to finish my education. When I realized the creature had information to share, I interposed my body between it and the druid's crossbow, gambling that she wouldn't shoot me to get to it. I was right about that; she kicked me in the knee, and when I fell, she shot it in the head. I swear, it was right in the middle of a sentence. Closed-minded, ignorant, bloodthirsty zealot. You remember her kind, old friend. Book burners, witch burners. The reason the free city rose. I'll see the back of her. Unless I could, just, teach her why her way is wrong.

Enough. My lecturer flapped off, and the zealot went back to her silence. I summoned a shower for Balomere and peace returned. I've attached what I learned. The rest remains to you.

Kaz

Horoscopes

 Kaziim was born under a new moon in the astrological month of the Harpy. The invisible moon governs hidden things, invisibility, and the mysteries of birth and death, the nothingness from which we all spring. This is the light that, in his case, shines through the Harpy's lens of charm, social grace, and idealism. This horoscope (often referred to as “the urchin's light”) indicates that he would find himself disappearing, quite comfortably, in large crowds. Surround yourself with people and no one will see you as you piece together little details from a thousand conversations in which you spoke and a thousand conversations which merely happened near you. In the hum and thrum of conversation, you find out things about people they would never think of telling you one-on-one. By means of a dropped word here, an over-the-shoulder sentence there, the careful composition on-the-spot of subconversations, you can engineer a better world and a more fun (or more useful or more profitable or more whatever) time will be had by all, without anyone ever noticing your involvement! That same facility, of course, has a dark side: should someone cross you, you know how to ensure that no one ever notices who caused the social scene to turn against that person so completely and viciously. Skill Bonuses: +1 Bluff, +1 Perform (both sing and oratory), +1 Sleight of Hand, +1 Stealth. Other Benefits: 1/day – disguise self. Birthstone: +1 AC v. ranged attacks (turquoise).

Balomere was born under a crescent moon in the astrological month of the Basilisk. The seer moon governs prophecy, divination, mystery, the senses, and (depending on whether it's waxing or waning) either youth or extreme old age. This is the light that, in his case, shines through the Basilisk's lens of gloom, foresight, independence, and stubbornness. This horoscope (often referred to as “the guard's light”) indicates that he is gifted with an almost frightening capacity for knowing how a situation will develop, at least when it will turn out poorly. Every once in a while, someone born in the guard's light will be surprised at a happy turn of events, but in their mind it is quite rare. The constant preparation for the worst makes you one of the most resilient people you know. A squinty look to the eyes is common in people colored by the guard's light, as they try in vain to avoid the decay they see in everything around them; this look can easily make even compassionate expressions as frightening to others as their famously powerful glare. Skill Bonuses: +1 Intimidate, +1 Perception, +2 Sense Motive. Other Benefits: 1/day – detect thoughts. Birthstone: +1 Fort v. transmutation (ruby).

??? (Maia) was born under a setting sun in the astrological month of the Dragon. The setting sun gifts those born under it with wisdom and love of learning. This is the light that, in her case, shines through the Dragon's lens of magnificence, leadership, and aesthetics. This horoscope (often referred to as “the vizier's light”) indicates that she finds her natural home at the right hand of the throne. Not so much because she wants to avoid the consequences that ruling often brings but rather because it is not the making of the decisions that interests her; she is fascinated by the giving of good advice. Leaders and monarchs have to spend too much time leading to do the study necessary to do so effectively. That sort of intense study is both where ??? feels most comfortable and where she most excels. Nothing makes her happier than to know that the world is a better place because of the advice she has given someone in power. Of course, she always makes sure that her advice was vital to the betterment of the world. Skill Bonuses: +1 Appraise, +1 Knowledge (choose two), +1 Perception. Other Benefits: +1 on concentration checks. Birthstone: +1 AC for one round after aiding another (garnet).

Lyss was born under a setting sun in the astrological month of the Kraken. The setting sun gifts those born under it with wisdom and love of learning. This is the light that, in her case, shines through the Kraken's lens of tactics and plans. This horoscope (often referred to as “the general's light”) indicates that she is the type to brood over a chessboard for months before making a move. When she does so, it is always accompanied with not only a wide variety of follow-up plans and reactions to every possible countermove but also with a deep understanding of how that move and the various strategies that branch from it are placed within the larger context of chess as a whole. In social situations, everything she says is carefully crafted both to achieve her goals and also to reveal more of the personalities of the people around her. A master manipulator, she excels at crafting situations where every possibility benefits her, either materially or by forming a foundation wherein she has the knowledge to more easily accomplish her ends later. Skill Bonuses: +1 Knowledge (choose two), +1 Stealth, +1 Swim. Other Benefits: +1 on concentration checks. Birthstone: +1 AC v. touch (aquamarine).

??? (Tanuki) was born under the rising sun in the astrological month of the Beholder. The rising sun gifts those born under it with a hopeful spirit and a strong will. This is the light that, in his case, shines through the Beholder's lens of curiosity, spectacle, and puzzle-solving. This horoscope (often referred to as “the hero's light”) indicates that his guiding ethic is “never say die”. He acts with an almost instinctual confidence that, no matter the difficulty, no matter the effort expended, no matter the time necessary, he will succeed. This lack of an understanding that failure is possible is coupled with an unquenchable thirst for new challenges and new experiences, often leaving him with a seemingly endless repertoire of pulse-poundingly exciting stories. If you are interested in the same things he is, that is; one of the pitfalls of being colored with the hero's light is a bit of a tendency towards obsession and overfocus on a small list of things he finds exciting. Skill Bonuses: +1 Heal, +1 Linguistics, +1 Perception. Other Benefits: +1 Will (increasing to +2 v. fear). Birthstone: +1 save v. illusion (agate).

Chibi picture and description of Ashtolisstiklassendreshalia also known as Liss

As truly lovely as chibi-maker is, it lacks a "is there a family of ferrets living in your hair?" hair-do. She may have seen a brush once in her life. Maybe. She also tends to move the tangles to conceal her left eye (er, the red one). She always carries around her raggedy-old-cloak. Sass said she was wrapped in it when found. It's honestly way to big for her to wear properly, quite a bit of it will drag on the ground.

Visual Inspirations for Victinxin

Visual Inspirations for Yohatanapela