Journey West 08: Bounty

   -Several Days have passed, the party has traveled north beyond the border of the Sae-Kingdom, and now begin according to their map to head west towards a long river that also will continue upstream north westward once they reach it. This night however they are sitting upon rocks around a fire, a foolish action in the middle of the night, if not for Hollia’s stealth wards being placed around them along with anti-monster wards.

    Rhulan chuckles under her breath a little as she strokes the fire, bits of meat hanging on sticks around from the reserves she keeps stashed away in her sub-space warehouse, “Sally, the ever persistent annoyance that gave Gyro-Lee cryptic advice along his journeys.”

    Everyone’s attention is drawn to her as she speaks and they eat, “It’s my understanding she may have also gone by the name The Great S, during an adventure your father and mother were on Hollia.”

    She looks at Gold Wolf, “I believe you too were there.”

    Hollia looks between them, Gold Wolf just nods.

    “And,” continues Rhulan, “This ghostly woman is also Satasar, some mysterious evil, that apparently doesn’t hesitate at sending monsters like the Dah-hoth after us, or manipulating family members of members of our party to come after us.”

    Hollia looks solemnly at her drink cup as Lin Lin licks her cheek.

    “On top of this,” adds Rhulan, “We have this other entity the Thing Named Jim who we are to understand sent that fire demon Impchin and that demon rat thing which became a skeletal demon and manipulated the life in the Great Swamp. He also sent that Penguin thing and that little reaper.”

   “The Adorable Death Bringer.” says Betty.

   “Yeah,” says Hollia, “but didn’t she help us the first time against that Vol-Pinyo guy…but then.”

    “Then,” says Rhulan, “it was fighting along side it against me and attacking Osopika.”

    She looks thoughtful for a moment, “there are elements at work here we don’t know about, which may or may not tie into that Death Hunter we encountered at the haunted mansion.”

    Cata sips from her cup, “and let’s not forget we have a new hassle.”

    “Corinth,” says Rhulan, “at first she seemed like she intended to help us, but then…”
    “Then,” says Hollia a bit sadly, “she hurt some innocent farmer’s live stock with her

monsters for no reason.”

    “She said,” says Gold Wolf, “she was testing us.”

      “Kind of a pathetic test,” says Cata, “You’d think she was Hyatha-Aria pulling a move like that.”

    This draws everyone’s attention to her, Cata realizing she may have said something she shouldn’t have, “Uhm,” says Cata remembering the priestess is Hollia’s great grandmother, “Well, when young Kuhrai in military rank assessment are tested usually a priestess will summon monsters to fight them, normally similar to what you call golems here, regardless of what past tests say, they always start weak and work their way up to get a full assessment of the adaptive skills of those being tested.”

    “In which case,” says Rhulan, “I have met a large number of such individuals, which means either she is a lone agent who feels compelled to do this, believes we are part of something she is part of, or is herself part of something we don’t know about yet. In any case this also places her on the list of potential threats…”

    She pauses and looks at Gold Wolf, “and a new threat in front of us is the Magnus Empire.”

   She spies a twinkle in Gold Wolf’s eye and points her finger at him, “One which we have no intention of taking down!”

    Gold Wolf almost spits in his drink.

    “I do hope we don’t have to include you on the list of dangers.” she says.

    Hollia looks back and forth between them quickly, “Uh…Miss Rhulan,” she says, “Uh…Uncle Gold Wolf.”

   Gold Wolf growls and glares, “and what do you mean by that?”

   “What I mean,” says Rhulan, “is this is far from my first rodeo, our mission is to hunt down and stop Satasar, above all else, any other dangers can be taken care of along the way, especially if they tie into Satasar or come after us. However we shouldn’t be getting involved in a war, and especially not one that involves taking down an entire country. For all we know this whole mess could end up being solved politically and we could end up just making things worse.”

    She smiles, “and of course the important part,” she smiles at Gold Wolf, “the revelation that the Sae-Kingdom has radios and similar technology, which I bet were also in Sae-Rin, the first city we went to and the one you were in for so long. There is little chance you didn’t know Sae-Fram was the way it was when you suggested going there, its not as if they were very secretive about it, they had that whole town locked down tight and made into a makeshift fort. No doubt they were taken down so easily despite their planning and that gem device was because they were known about, hell wouldn’t have doubted that the town’s people turned against them after we left, seeing as they apparently lost their best men against the Magnus Caravan.”

    She gulps her drink, “Besides, this whole going north and around plan is pretty pointless anyway, its not as if bounty hunters wouldn’t come looking out here and drag us back. Its bad enough there are wanted posters for me out here now, wanted posters for Rhulan.”

    *fake cough from Cata*

    “Actually the posters had no names on them, I’m thinking the ones who issued them never heard our names.” says Cata

    Gold Wolf crosses his arms, “Regardless of what you might think, I am not part of some secret plan to take down the whole of the Magnus Empire, but yes, I do have a side agreement with Stratalia to steer you all into the path of a town or two if I learn they are in trouble near the Archae Sea.”

    Gold Wolf looks at Hollia, “Sorry, part of my mission is of course to help protect you, and guide you all to Diego to get a boat to head across the Great Sea, but along the way is the Magnus Empire, so why not aim such a powerful group against your kingdom’s enemies along the way.”

    Hollia, Lin Lin, Betty, and Cata look at Rhulan in anticipation who just shrugs and say, “Elf logic, not far off from Aesperian logic, but if you do learn of anymore or have another such idea, you will make it a point to tell us before leading us blindly. After all, all the better to assess if it really requires our aid, or to actually plan ahead.”

    She smiles and stands one hand on her hip, the other in the air like a queen, “After all your secret juggernaut path plan resulted in us losing our horses last time. So I say this time we head to the nearest town along the river and get a good idea of how far out of the Sae-Kingdom this bounty none-sense really extends.”

    With a scary expression she looks at Gold Wolf, “I assume there are no objections.”

    His mind reels with the images he was shown of the ancient world a thousand years ago and imagines, and remembers that the woman before him is Rhulan, who is said to have the power to topple mountains, slay giant monsters with a single strike of her sword, and defeat entire invading alien armies. Or so the stories go. He shrugs playing it off cool, “yeah sure.”



    Hollia lets out a deep sigh, Betty and Cata exchange curious looks, especially with the thought as to why Rhulan waited several days and until they were actually out of the Sae-Kingdom to say all this.

    ******

    In the bright day Hollia floats high in the air and points some distance ahead and to the left of where they are, she has spotted a road.

    The dusty road was known to them for some time, what they were really looking for was a portion with a cross-road where they could find town names, and this is where often bounty posters are hung.

    The large sign post [East: Sae-Fram], [South: Zaba-Goody’s Brothel], [West: Sana]

     From above they could see this small town called “Sana” some distance away, just didn’t know its name till now, and knowing if the Sae-Kingdom’s wanted posters reached it would be nice to know also. They see a number of wanted posters, all clearly faxed and copied images, but only one of them is one of those that they saw being faxed back in Sae-Auto, the image of Rhulan.

   However they zero in on writings along its boarders, and the fact someone crossed out by the hand the reward value and put in another, a smaller amount, something a smaller bounty office could pay instead of a six cities kingdom. However the hand writing on the boarder is of greater interest, [Bring proof, head or whole body, of death, or bring in alive to Sana]
And at the very top above the picture a name in this black thick ink handwriting has been put in [Corinth].

    “huh,” says Rhulan, “Well that’s a nice bit of serendipity.”

    As they start to walk west on the road towards Sana Gold Wolf thinks, “So we really are just going to walk in there.”

   He remembers to earlier that day suggesting they wear concealing cloaks, to which Rhulan scoffed regarding it as a terrible cliché and nothing could be more suspicious to see wandering into a town then a bunch of people hiding their faces under heavy cloaks in the middle of the desert.

    ******

    As they head towards the town they notice a funeral with several coffins at once being held on a nearby hill. They locate the nearest bounty office and head inside. They look around seeing a number of posters, but none of the rest of the group, behind the counter is a woman, with a man doing some paper work behind her. The posters in question are there, and in the trash.

    Rhulan walks up to the counter, “So tell me, what do you know about this Corinth person?”

   She looks up and does a slight double take, “Sorry, my apologies thought you were her for a second.”

    “Yeah I’ve gotten that a few times now.” says Rhulan.

    “Well,” says the woman, “thanks to a few hunters over the last few days we’ve been able to expand on the vague wanted posters sent out by the Sae-Kingdom offices, very typical sloppy work of them, that she is a blond sorceress, wearing yellow robes. She is extremely dangerous; those unfortunate men being buried today are but a few of her victims.”

    After a brief moment of silence she continues, “She uses her dark magic to summon monsters, we heard that in Sae-Fram she summoned evil soldier monsters, and another in Sae-Auto claims some hunters said she was behind some giant blue blobs out there, our own men here said she summoned these shadow people who…”

    The man behind her looks at the group and at the trash can thinking the same thing the receptionist is thinking, “Uh, they look a lot like you folks, a lot like the others said to be with here in the wanted posters. We took them down because they turned out to be monsters she summoned and not actual people.”

   Cata half lies, “Yeah, we’ve run into her before, she created doubles of us in that fight. Guess she was so impressed that she kept on making these evil doubles.”

    “Of course,” he says, “the old evil twin bit, those evil magic users sure like to use those old cliché tricks don’t they.” *he laughs a little, somewhat nervously*

    He is thinking, “A talking cat-girl?”

    “Yes,” says Rhulan, “We saw these wanted posters, these terrible black and white with no names on them wanted posters, and decided to hide out in no man’s land to figure out what is going on. We figured she was playing some evil twin soil her pursuers’ reputations to get ahead of us ploy.”

    Gold Wolf thinks, “Well damn, she sure turned that situation to her own good quick didn’t she.”

    “Well,” says Rhulan, “We have our own reasons for hunting her, but if we get her near here, we’ll come back for that reward alright.”


    “Of course miss,” says the receptionist, “In the mean time we will fax the other offices that the evil sorceress’s creations she keeps using are based on real…people…(*she looks at Cata*)….and don’t worry we have already faxed a better description of her to other offices.”

    That night as they stay in a local inn as they are heading off to bed Rhulan passes Gold Wolf with no one else around and whispers, “It would seem fate is on my side against us having to act against these Magnus guys, but who knows, if you’re lucky it will force Corinth to act in my stead.”

   She smiles and goes to her room where Hollia and Lin Lin are waiting, leaving Gold Wolf to shake his head and head off to his own room.

   ******

   The next day they meet in Gold Wolf’s room as he tells them he has something important to say.

   As they are gathered around he says, “Okay, time I came clean, if only so the oh so power Rhulan, ex empress of the world, conqueror of alien hordes, and bites the heads off of dragons for fun will stop giving me the stink eye.”

   Rhulan thinks as he talks, “what the hell kind of stories have they made up about me over the ages?”

   “Now,” says Gold Wolf, “from our time together so far and from what I was already told by my sister, you two” *he points at Betty and Cata*, “are alien pirates, and you” *he points at Hollia* “have been in classes pretty much your whole life and know nothing about what is going on in this part of the world as no one out here sends students to Stratalia, and you” *he points at Rhulan* “have been a statue for the last thousand years and was haunting Stratalia and only Stratalia, and given how you talk seem to think the Magnus Empire really is an Empire.”

    Rhulan remembers a brief flash to over two thousand years ago of a powerful man named Magnus, but his group had vanished somewhere on the continent, members of that family were generals in her armies one thousand years ago, so she naturally assumed they had built an army and took over, just as she heard the Agrax group had taken over the continent of Ausilla and re-named it after themselves.

    “Well,” says Gold Wolf, “they aren’t, at least not yet anyway, up until a year ago they were just a bunch of desert bandits, not far outside of Calif’s boarders. The Calif kingdom’s technology and magic has been more than they could handle, we heard about a year ago they stumbled upon some Precursor tech base or something and have been using it to take over and add to their numbers all the small towns and villages about the mountains, deserts, and plains of Western and Southern Ravashira.

     The tech has given them an army of mechanical golems and powerful siege engines, not to mention all the fire-arms, magic dampeners, and all sorts of other goodies they have been using. You might have heard back east about the Magnus Militia, a bit of propaganda mixed with truth on the name, who would attack shipping lanes coming from up north down the Archae Sea. Well there is a Magnus Base up near the boarder, they have been making a play up there, but some powerful magic users have kept them in check, same too with down south. The play on the Sae-Kingdom was their biggest play yet, until then most of their real power came from taking over other bandit groups and pirate gangs about the deserts, mountains, and water ways who want a piece of the action thanks to all their new and improved tech. So between here and Calif is mostly empty space and the only towns are either small poor villages that pay tribute to these gangs who are united under the banner of the Magnus Empire, or are their outposts, which are pretty much mostly just these same gangs just with the Magnus flag on their walls now and shiny new toys like golems and cannons.”

    He takes a breath, “but like I said, they’ve been having trouble expanding north, south, west, and east, the Precursor tech helped them unify and take over smaller settlements, but against strong magic like they see in all the places I’ve mentioned, its been falling short. However recently something changed, either they have gotten better tech from digging into where ever they got the Precursor tech, or some outside force has been helping them.”

    “Hmm,” says Rhulan attracting everyone’s attention, “Those weapons they used at Osopika, that used Necro energy, were certainly not something the Precursor Civilization had, even though I wouldn’t put it past them to have had something like that in blue prints as a top secret design that never went into manufacture.”

    “It might be from the Croix Empire.” says Cata to Gold Wolf’s shock, more so that she would know that than anything else.

    “Right,” says Gold Wolf, “according to Stratalia’s people in Croix, they have been working on some pretty gnarly weapons out there, including Necro Tech.”

    Gold Wolf laughs, confusing them and shrugs, “Of course, I never actually intended for us to completely take down the Magnus Empire, really these guys are fighting a war on four fronts, most their men are either mindless robots or bandits, or even worse scared and looking for a time to flee enlisted towns men. I figured I’d get you all to see how bad it is, maybe give you an excuse to take down a few outposts along our way, and damage their moral some more, and maybe give the town people some incentive to fight back.”

   He looks Rhulan right in the eyes and smiles as he stands and crosses his arms, “In fact, yes I did know about Sae-Fram.”

   Hollia gasps as she thought maybe Rhulan was mistaken.


   He puts up his hand as it looks like Hollia is about to speak and says in his defense,
“However I didn’t think we’d get drawn into their conflict, I figured they’d either turn us away, or at the very most get in for one night and forced to leave. Just give you all a feel for what is happening out here.”

   He laughs and again looks Rhulan in the eyes, “It’s your fault to be perfectly honest that we got dragged into it. They spotted you messing with the Wedge remember? They figured they could use you right? I had no idea you could do that after all.”

    Rhulan’s face actually turns red realizing that their getting involved with Sae-Fram actually was her fault, and even though she wont say it, she didn’t have to help them, in hindsight she could have put a sleep spell over the entire barracks and whisked them all away after first destroying the device while the soldiers all slept. It was her own curiosity that made her even do as much as she did.

   Rhulan’s very noticeably red face goes back to pale, she shrugs, and only mutters a nonchalant, “oops”.

   Gold Wolf with a smug smile says, “Well that just all goes to show you then after all, just how unstable this whole region is.”

    “Still,” thinks Rhulan, “I do wander if we’d have to travel through the desert at all. I will let this play out a while longer elf; but I do have my patience with such distractions.”