The group sets out on the morning of 14 Quon 4769, heading down the famous Seven Bridges Road toward the great capital city of the Ty Kyen empire, Kyenyin (the road is so named because it crosses Anaruqin, the Great Mother River, seven times between the Kuhyen Pass and Kyenyin). The day is cold and overcast, but dry.
Rain hits the next day, and then dry but freezing temperatures; they manage to make good time, however, and arrive at appropriate inns or other accommodations each day. Everyone recognizes the Ponna Hanni, of course, but are exquisitely polite in pretending not to, and to address him by his traveling name. [not sure if Edain realizes this at first, or not]
Fourth and fifth days are cold but clear and dry, beautiful traveling weather. The sixth day warms up a bit, but brings clouds and rain, which tapers off the next day, although it remains overcast. On the eighth day, cool, cloudy and dry, they fail to reach any settlement before dusk and fear they’re going to have to camp out at last (they have gear for it, of course – two modest tents, one slightly larger than the other), and sleeping rolls, etc.). But they come upon a farmstead (have they passed others, abandoned? Maybe).
The elderly farm couple are suspicious at first, and clearly fearful, but as soon as they recognize the Ponna Hanni become welcoming and accommodating, while careful to keep up the pretense he’s just “Andahiru-ke” [Mr. Underhill]. The entourage learns of the depredations of organized outlaws in the area in the recent past, ever since the news of Lord Yagimashi and his heir’s deaths on the New Year. He’d been letting things go to shit for several years, focused on his political/military goals, and with his death it all burst loose! Now the bandits seemed organized, and were taking all they wanted from the peasantry, including their sons – they had impressed the couple’s own sole surviving son into their ranks just six days ago (which had spared them the worst of the looting, apparently).
After a night with the peasants, the entourage sets out again, more warily. They note that the countryside seems tense and wary, and opt to camp out, away from the Seven Bridges Road, that night. Both Viroj and Snow Crow have a sense of being watched, and during her watch Sujia thinks she sees movement in the darkness. She wakes Khatia, who stealthily ranges out, but finds nothing beyond a few broken branches – nothing to prove any human agency had been involved. Still, they remain cautious.
The next day the entourage approaches the next village along their route, and Viroj pauses to cast his Moonstones: ten white jade discs in a midnight-blue leather pouch. The five large discs are of blue-tinted white jade, representing Tasuki (the Greater Moon); the five smaller disc are of rose-tinted white jade, representing Dao’yu (the Lesser Moon). Each face of the discs has a rune carved into it, symbols representing different entities, powers, ideas, etc. Each Moonstone set is unique to the person who creates it, carving symbols with meaning to them onto their set.
His reading leads him to believe an ambush is awaiting the group in the village. They go in prepared, and Khatia fire-arrows the first bandit/mercenary who fires on them. Viroj engages their leader in a hard-fought battle, ultimately subduing him with ritual magic (?). Snow Crow blunders into two bandits while trying to be stealthy, but manages to avoid death by his fast reflexes and a quick tongue — eventually talking first one, then the other, into considering switching sides for a big payday.
Edain uses his Voice on the mercenary/bandit fighting him, causing him to listen to reason. Eventually the five surviving bandits (the one fire arrowed in the calf, dies from blood-loss and shock before he can be treated) are lulled into compliance and locked into a secure building while the entourage investigates. They find the villages denizens all brutally murdered and their bodies piled into one house. After careful and arcane questioning, they determine the men they fought committed this atrocity.
Edain, in his role as the Pona Hanni and the only legitimate authority available, acts as judge and jury. Realizing these criminals could never trusted out of their sight, whatever promises they might make under duress and/or magical compulsion, he offers them a choice between a quick and painless execution by beheading, or a more lingering death by burning alive at the hands of his fire-archer. Under their stoic leader, they chose execution, which Khatia carries out… but not until they’ve questioned the condemned.
The group learns that the nearest major town, Libeo Wan (Riverbend) is in the control of two bandit warlords, Meijin-Lai and their own captain, Hartuj Yan. The two joined forces last year, and now are seeking to raise an army to make their control of the province de facto, in hopes the Emperor will simply ratify them as the new legitimate government rather than send an Imperial army to pacific the region. The entourage are unwilling to see this blatant brutality be rewarded, and decide to approach the town, two and a half days walk away, cautiously to see what might be done.
They enter the town separately, giving various stories to the gate guards: Khatia is a mercenary looking for employment (they advise her to seek the warlords, who are looking for good warriors – a Fire Archer would be most welcome, if she speaks true); Snow Crow is a wandering troubadour, looking for food, a room, and some coin; Viroj is a simple monk, seeking to pray at the local temple, as is Sujia; and a now-disguised Edain is a journeyman blacksmith, looking for work (Snow Crow used his stage skills to hide the Pona Hanni’s more obvious foreign features – hair color, skin color, a little spirit gum to alter the shape of his eyes).
Most explore the town while Snow Crow heads to the local inn (the Blue Lotus) to ingratiate himself and get a gig. He manages to impress the wifely half of the couple running the place, and gets himself a room and food in exchange for entertaining the house that evening. Khatia hits the local geisha house, where she enjoys some time with a handsome boy-toy and learns what’s been going on in the past couple of tendays. Viroj scopes out the local temple, while Edain and Sujia make the general rounds.
The general impression is of a town living under fear, but trying to go on as normally as possible. The town was infiltrated just days after news of the disaster at Kuhyen Pass arrived, and the two warlords seized control, killing or imprisoning the few legitimate authorities remaining after Lord Yagimashi’s stripping of the forces for his army. They have since consolidated their grip on the town and surrounding hinterland, bringing in as many young men (and a few women) as possible to form the bulk of an army.
They learn the core bandit group consist of 40-50 men, twenty of which remain in the town to keep it under control and train/indoctrinate the new recruits; the rest are on expanding patrols to pull in as much in the way of supplies and warm bodies as they can from the hinterland. Training of the new recruits goes on daily, and no one not fully-trusted is allowed to leave the town’s wall once they enter – which means the group is trapped for the moment. There seems to be some friction between the two leaders, one of who is brutal and short sighted, wanting to simply take everything they can and kill anyone they want, while the other seems focused on longer-term goals, ultimately wanting to legitimately rule the region.
Sujia invokes a ritual that evening during Snow Crow’s performance, granting him the blessing of the Immortal of Creativity; he gives a show that will be remembered for years by those who experienced it. Beautiful, moving, and inspiring, it brings the house down! Kahatia pumps the two gate guards, with whom she’d made an informal “date”, for all she can get, then leaves them cold at the end of the evening, while agreeing to follow their advice in applying to “the bosses” the next day.
Plans are formed that night as to how they should proceed…