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[Devastator]

Gimmie the map! The Map! Awk!

You decide to get some maps, to assist things in the future.

Maps however, aren't that common, needing to be hand-copied, and requiring effort to maintain them up to date, so it's not trivial to find recent ones that are up to date.

..that said, you get a very good idea, and head to the government quarter, to one of the schools for mandarins.  In there, you track down the right professor, and give him a small bribe to have some of his students copy maps.  With that sorted, at the end of the week you walk away with a fine map of the empire, including the outlying islands, well marked as to the roads and including many of the towns, rivers, and caravan routes.

You also try to find maps of the countries across the sea, but these are much harder to find.  After a while, you ask Huan Zhang if he can help you, and he says that he can't loan out fine maps, but agrees to let you make sketches of some older, and much less detailed ones he has available.

(-2 silver, fine quality map of the empire, poor quality maps of the three countries across the sea.)

(Also gained Shopping skill.)

Spoiler: Status (click to show/hide)

Assets and Abilities:
Prestige = 1
13 silver.
Ancient bronze short jian.
fine map of the Empire
poor maps of the countries across the sea.

Skills:
Gather information, +1
Shopping, +1
Weapon handling I
Jian skill +1/+1

Allies:
Min Li, spirit reader, 2 prestige, 0 favors
Huan Zhang, diplomat, 2 prestige, 0 favors

Currently employed running messages.  pays 1 silver/week, consumes two actions.
Engaged in focussed jian training, costs two silver/week, consumes one action.

[syvarris]

Go contact that new harbormaster, offering our services as a free agent.

[Radio Controlled]

I think our actions for the week are up, meaning a new week starts up first? With update on our sleep/dreams and possibly new events? Also the weather!

[Devastator]

I think our actions for the week are up, meaning a new week starts up first? With update on our sleep/dreams and possibly new events? Also the weather!

Indeed.

Perhaps even more important than the weather, the dreams return.  This time you return to the cave, but at the surface, where you can see much trampled dirt, and a few old wooden buildings.  A mine, then.  The vision fades, and when it returns, you are inside a building.  In it is a robed man, with his face concealed, and behind him is a large, circle filled with complicated decorations.

The camera then turns, and you see several men and women seated facing the robed man.  They are dressed in simple light tunics that wouldn't be out of place in the southern parts of the Empire.  The soundless lecture then stops, and you can see a man, in his late thirties or forties, come forward, where the robed one presents him with a pair of metal rings.

With that, the vision ceases.

This week, the wather gets worse with more or less continual rain.  Not even any noisy thundershowers.  It's a wet week of sodden streets, heavy on the dirt and mud.

In more uplifting news, one of the great trade fleets has arrived, from the merchant lords of the seafaring Haigton Union, the farthest of the nations across the sea.  At least, those three nations who trade with the Empire.

You complete your duties well, despite the rain, and you manage to collect a silver from tips.  It seems there's some recompse for having to run around the city when all is miserable and anyone who doesn't have to stays off the streets.  (+1 extra silver.)

Your training proceeds, and this week you move on to more active training, with more strokes and sparring.  There is a fair amount done sparring against others with shields and practice spears, as those are the most common weapons of war.  At the end of the week, you feel like you've progressed fairly well.

there is time for two actions this week.

Spoiler: Status (click to show/hide)

Assets and Abilities:
Prestige = 1
13 silver.
Ancient bronze short jian.
fine map of the Empire
poor maps of the countries across the sea.

Skills:
Gather information, +1
Shopping, +1
Weapon handling I
Jian skill +1/+1

Allies:
Min Li, spirit reader, 2 prestige, 0 favors
Huan Zhang, diplomat, 2 prestige, 0 favors

Currently employed running messages.  pays 1 silver/week, consumes two actions.
Engaged in focussed jian training, costs two silver/week, consumes one action.

[Aigre Excalibur]

Sounds like she's cut out to become THE COURIER...

[AoshimaMichio]

Now I think it is time to do a round of rumor gathering and mark location on our map. Seems reasonable to focus on southern parts.

[Radio Controlled]

The camera then turns

((Ancient Chinese archeotech confirmed!))

Now I think it is time to do a round of rumor gathering and mark location on our map. Seems reasonable to focus on southern parts.

Good for me, but be sure to also look to the merchants for interesting news or rumors.

[crazyabe]

PTW

[Egan_BW]

Yes, gather information from merchants about events to the south, and mark the probable location of the vision on our map.
This should consume both of our actions this week.

[Devastator]

Yes, gather information from merchants about events to the south, and mark the probable location of the vision on our map.
This should consume both of our actions this week.

Map will assist the gather information check, so it comes down to one action.


You spend an interesting few days asking merchants about news from the southern provinces.

There are always bandits and happenings, but in particular you hear about three groups.  The first one you're inclined to dismiss, as the drunk farmer talked your ear out about how the leader of this band was a beauiful woman, with three live dragons at her command.

The other two are more intersting.  One is from a porcelain maker and it's about the "Tiger" province, with it's hills and wet forests.  In it there has supposedly been some sort of rebellion at a big clay mine, and that has lead to a lack of materials.  With some further pressing, you find out that he buys from a mine called 'high ridge', and it's a couple days outside of the city of Gao Ling.

The other is from "Snake" province, mostly swamplands and ricelands near the coast.  There, although there are always bandits in the swamps, apparently they have taken to raiding further afield and with more organization than usual.  You hear this from a low-ranking officer who is drinking his time away before getting sent south, as the rain, poison, animal attacks, and guerilla tactics are not fun.

These do seem like isolated incidents, as there is another entire province, "Badger" province between the hills and the swamps.  That province is mostly richer farmland with many rivers and streams.  Incidently, that is where the farmer talking about the dragons was from.

One action remains.

[Egan_BW]

I'm inclined to believe that our target is in Tiger province, given that our vision involved a cave.

[syvarris]

I still think we should get working on obtaining status.  I dunno how we should go about it, though.  Maybe check up on local politics, and look for politicians who might want to hire a spy?

[Egan_BW]

I'm still for zerg rushing the enemy as early as possible. All the time we spend preparing, it prepares as well.
So maybe wait for the next sword skill-up, then go and seek ADVENTURE.

[Devastator]

Prestige can be earned through doing just about anything notable.. you have a part of the next point coming in when the report about your spirits is finished.

As for the spy work, you could start involving yourself with the message duties more.  You could spend an action asking your handler for a mission, which would have much better odds of drumming one up then just letting them come randomly.  You might want to do other things, such as noting down who you are delivering them to, or trying to figure out where your handler fits in things politically.

Basically, if you want to do something, just write that you want to do something along those lines.  If I need clarification, I'll ask for more input.

[Egan_BW]

Politely abandon all obligations and head out for Tiger provence to stab some cultists or whatever!
But wait to do that until Min Li writes her report and we get another skill-up on swords I guess.