Conflict with the Yakuza

Some notes from the campaign trail from Kaiser Lucanus of Diptera who is now known as DeLambre, companion of Prince William of Amber.

25th Hebi (Serpent in the Dworkin calendar), 3658 – late afternoon

We skittle around trying to find crew for the ship. Apparently we would normally go into a tavern and solicit there but that is where our foes will be listening. Darig and Hector plan and squabble and I check that my spells are all functioning fine. Darig asks me to be his wingman going down to the lobby with Tetsuro – I am a little confused but apparently he means bodyguard.

In the lobby, Tetsuro points out the local Yakuza – he wears a coat around his shoulders like a cloak, and he has a sword at his belt – mainly for show, I would guess. He is flanked by at least six guards, all ready to fight. There are hotel guards nearby, but only two. This is some kind of shakedown. They look at us as interlopers.

I move to split their attention and the leader gestures for two of his followers to focus on me, while the other four keep focus centrally. Saito starts to draw a small sword, and I ask Darig “Does his mother not allow him to bring out a full sized sword?” just to see how he reacts.

He pulls the blade halfway out and Darig finishes his assessment of the situation. Saito pushes the sword back into the scabbard – from his movements, he would be a worthy opponent to me, but I will leave him to Darig while I destroy his guards.

Darig tells Saito to leave, and he refuses. So I ask Darig, “Is this a culture where saving face is important?” He says yes, so I say, “Then tell him if he leaves now, he can keep his face”.

Things slow down. Saito draws his sword, looking at me and saying, “This is a matter of honour – I demand satisfaction.”

Darig says some word of power, and one of Saito’s guard’s guns explodes. I spit my own word of power and rock Saito’s head backwards. I then start shifting to a battle form and move towards the two thugs nearest to me, by Saito, expecting Darig to attack Saito. I take a brief moment to mourn that William is not here to enjoy the fight, he and I have practiced these sort of manoeuvres many times, but let us hope that Darig knows how to read a room.

Luckily, it appears that he does.

I am just out of reach of Saito who can only flail at me once before Darig engages so I quip “See – longer sword’ and attack his guard as Darig attacks him.

The goon I am facing points his weapon at me but I know they are likely to pull upwards as they fire, so I roll towards him and as I stand, rip his head off.

The fight is basically over. Darig has put Saito on the floor and the hotel guards have taken care of most of the other goons. Alitta and Surpanakha walk in through the front door.

There is the usual fuss in lawful worlds – the police question us but it is clear that we are in the right, and that they were in the wrong so they go away and we go eat raw fish.

Once we have eaten, we go to a rooftop over the harbour to look at boats. Darig plots and plans many different stratagems. I contemplate playing with the darkness, and we discuss who might be best placed to be far away from me when I do.

26th Hebi (Serpent in the Dworkin calendar), 3658

I spend the day weaving a couple of my spells into a crystal that Hector loans me and, as darkness falls, we head towards the docks. One party goes towards the docks and I fly onto the ship – in battle form, but with a Barimen hand so I can fire the gun to draw attention.

I start the incantations for Terror of the Night, and when it is almost done, I fire into the air three times.

The result is satisfying as the watching Barimen all fall to their knees, screaming. Then I drop into the bridge, and shoot the person standing there in the head. Shortly after that, Darig and Surpanakha join me. Darig and I work our way through the ship.

Darig is first down the steps and there is some kind of altercation. He backs off and a Barimen with some kind of glowing sword appears at the bottom. I spit out a power word but he shakes it off. I glare at his sword with my magical sight – it’s something akin to Pattern, but definitely inimical to Logrus. It is also flawed in some way.

We all pause, to take a breath, as the Barimen demands we leave his ship…