4-2: The Shek Who Survive

While Jam's busy chatting up Ruka, Silvershade sneaks off to do a bit of exploring on their own. In a box in someone's house, they stumble upon a book that tells the story of the Stone Golem's rise to power.

This puts into context what that warrior in Squin said about the Stone Golem having a “more passive approach” to dealing with the Kingdom's enemies. Silvershade reckons if they were a shek, they'd be following the Stone Golem enthusiastically. This King Shager's big suicide attack sounds idiotic.

Admirable as this Stone Golem seems, Silvershade is a bit intimidated by the idea of just walking up and talking to the Shek queen who earned her position by killing her predecessor in mortal combat. Jam volunteers to do it instead. The Shek seat of government is right next to the bar anyway.

Well, it was worth a shot. Jam excuses themself and scurries up to the roof, where they heard a distant voice call out “Over here, outsider...” when they tried approaching the Stone Golem. It turns out to be Bayan, the warrior from the book!

You may find Jam's choice of conversation topics cringe but those were the only options that actually get Bayan to open up. The prospect of killing Holy Lord Phoenix is something the gang's been joking about amongst themselves ever since the human members' trip to the Holy Nation, but in the wake of Bayan's comments, Jam starts wondering: What if they actually did it? Someone ought to. A world with no Holy Lord Phoenix would be a safer world for non-humans and human women all across the northwest.

Then there's the matter of this mysterious “Bugmaster” Bayan mentioned. Jam doesn't have a single clue who that is. As they leave the government building, though, they come face to face with a lurking Burn, who has evidently been listening in.

Burn offers no further info on the Bugmaster, leaving Jam's imagination to conjure an array of lurid visions of what such a being might look like. They're thoroughly distracted by the time Burn gets to talking about Cat-Lon but I can tell you we'll be hearing that name again. Remember it.

The Stone Golem the gang obviously just met, Eyegore is a United Cities captain they overheard a couple bar patrons gossiping about back in Sho-Battai, and Arc is a human sabre-master who leads Mongrel. I did not bother to mention Arc at the time since he doesn't have anything to say and no one else in Mongrel bothers to bring him up. He's just kinda there.

The Bugmaster is somewhere out there but if Burn is implying he's about as strong as the Stone Golem, it'll be best for the gang to get considerably stronger before pursuing that lead. For now, Jam ponders what they've learned from Bayan and Ruka. It seems like a lot of situations in Kingdom society call for a shek's honourable death. It seems wasteful and cruel. At least the Shek Kingdom, unlike the other two major nations, has leaders who want to shift it away from its worst tendencies. Jam hopes they succeed.

Other than the government building, the only thing Admag has that Squin doesn't is a Shinobi Thieves tower. It makes for a pretty short visit, all told; just a round of minor sales and purchases and the gang is back on the road. They continue westward for now. Heading far enough west will take them to the other arm of Vain; despite their goal being to explore shek territory, they decide to briefly poke their heads in.

Vain encloses the Stenn Desert to the north and west. If you look at where Vain's forked river runs, that's pretty close to being the border between the two regions. As for the Stenn Desert's other borders, it extends east almost to Squin (but not quite, as Squin is part of the Border Zone) and south basically as far as the screenshot shows. It comprises the vast majority of Shek territory; while the Shek Kingdom is one of the world's big three nations, it is significantly smaller than the other two. Part of this is due to losses in their ongoing war against the Holy Nation but I don't get the impression they were ever particularly expansive. Just organized and tough.

The gang's foray into the southern arm of Vain isn't a long one, just a quick sweep of those ruins at the southern tip, which turn out to be an ancient library. Even just setting foot in the region, though, is enough to stir up some bad memories for Shryke.

Last time the gang was in Vain, a hive caravan merchant tried to sell Burn a “Lantern of Radiance” for 2500 Cats, claiming it had mystical powers. Keys later found one being sold in a hive village for 90 Cats. She tries to stifle a snicker, certain she knows exactly what makes those lanterns a sore spot.

By evening, they're back in the western reaches of the Stenn Desert, staring down an isolated fortress called New Kralia. It's controlled by a bunch of shek calling themselves Kral's Chosen, an outlaw band of former Shek Kingdom warriors rebelling against the Stone Golem. One spots the gang as they approach and swaggers toward them.

The guy attacks. His buddies back at the gate start running over to join in. They're not to be taken lightly; they're strong warriors, each a bit stronger than the strongest of the gang (Burn, for those keeping track), and they're swinging heavy weapons. Even a heavy weapon of middling quality can take someone's arm off if you're not careful.

While the gang prevails, the three Kral's Chosen put up a good enough fight to dissuade them from charging in and assaulting the fortress. There's about 20 more heavily-armed supremacist assholes in there—a bit much to handle at the moment. No matter. For now, at least, the Kral's Chosen seem more or less confined to this cruddy little fortress. They can be dealt with later. Horse does the defeated warriors the disrespect of taking their weapons and the gang gets on their way.