May 5th

The trip to Hebian-To takes only minutes, but from there the party faces the trip southeast towards their destination.  The trip itself goes uneventfully, and Thog is allowed more awake time than he's had in several weeks.  He takes to cooking quite rapidly, the first meal he makes being passable, but within a few more iterations he's already cooking at Rory's level with whatever he can find and a few pinches of spice.  Thog also finds Weaving oddly contradictory to what he thinks and feels about the way things work, and despite studying it does not seem to be even beginning to grasp it.  Finally, Thog will also assist Javan and Higaide in mapping the most efficient route to their destination, which they will arrive at in just another hour or so of travel.

Javan stops the party just about this time, "Alright. We are almost there, which means we have to choose exactly how to approach this. We have a total lack of information about all of this and there's also our previous plan which now that I think about it had too many moving parts to work without proper info."

"So my suggestion is going to be simple this time: Higs and Rory, by the way sorry Thog, can approach this from the 'hew-man' angle, maybe Higs is looking for someone that went with the ships while he was away, something along those lines should be fine, and Rory is helping him since he already had contact with the people in the ship. Me and the White Scarves will approach this from the mercenary angle, gathering information and bolstering our numbers while we get a feel for the land. If we are lucky, this will all be a false alarm. If not, we'll be ready. Does that work for you guys?"

OOC:

After it's apparent, strangely enough, that Thog cannot weave - perhaps no tusker can, which would explain the situation on Aphus Lassel - both he and Rory will give up on the otherwise ingenious idea.

During the nights, Thog will, with much explaining from Javan and Higaide, come to terms with the fact that he is sharing this body with another person. He sees the benefits in having a human side, especially when people are very likely to be terrified of him - after all, the party did at one point seem to be terrified. His memory of "Olan" provides enough of a clue, at least in Rory's mind, especially when it is explained to the humans by the rest of the party how dangerous tuskers are, described as feral creatures with an intelligence in the animal range.

Thog will bring up the subject of Rory's thoughts, specifically toward their task and their mission in the Sho Republic. Without elaborating - respectfully - he will let this summary suffice: Thog doesn't approve of these thoughts.

Back to present...
"Yeah, that works just fine. You got that, Higs?" Rory seems to be passing the info off on the monk. "Javan, you let me know as soon as you hear anything useful about anybody and everybody who was sailing on those ships*."

* - ships plural, right? Weren't there more than one, a fleet?

"I know Just the person i'm looking for." - referring to Jonathan - "Let's do this."

OOC:

Javan motions for the Scarves to stop and rest for half an hour, giving Rory and Higaide that much time to reach their destination first and possibly avoid people linking the two groups. After that, he leads the Scarves into the city, aiming to reach an inn and start his side of the plan.

As it happens, Javan and the Scarves find an unusual situation in the city of Fukaizu. First, plenty of people are actively hiring themselves out for mercenary work... primarily Moarsman and Sclavi of course. Second, they're only willing to work if the person hiring them is supporting one side or another in the current revolution.

Apparently there's something of a small scale, 'polite' civil war brewing in the Empire. Per usual Sho cultural customs, this has yet to involve actual fighting, but more of posturing and trying to present one side as the 'stronger' one which has the strongest force of arms or cultural significance or is a greater patron of the arts or a dozen other methods than the other. Thanks to the majority of the Sho career military being... gone, this has resulted in a rather sudden boon of mercenary trade, something almost unheard of in the Sho territories.

Higaide does hear a few rumors about how the Humans have conquered some town near the coast further north of here, having arrived via a fleet of ships and using their might to subjugate the locals.

Higaide then asks about Jonathan specifically, he hears some whispers that several Humans, including one going by that name, actually traveled through this city some days ago on their way south, apparently seeking work. This was memorable to the Burun Higaide is questioning because if Humans can pick up some of the work Moarsman are used to doing, more Moarsman can become mercenaries! A win win for everyone.

Rory's check fares a bit better, as he learns specifically that Jonathan actually did enter town with a small group of Humans several days prior, part of a massive, multi-thousands strong convoy of Humans who were migrating south towards the edge of the Thrush where they had apparently already been offered livelihood and residence. The man seemed quite happy about the circumstances.

Javan, you must support a side in the revolution. Learn more.

I'm going to ask additionally if there were any nonhumans in this group, any at all.

Higaide, who's Jonathan? Should I already know him?

Javan is going to, before anything else, first go shopping: he's after clothing that will show his status as a mercenary group leader on a first glance, Sho-style. Basically, the impression Javan is going for is "I'm not from around here, yet I respect this place and what it stands for".

Oh, and he'll engage in friendly conversation with the people he's buying from (he'll probably not buy everything from a single shop), specifically going to ask what are the faux pas to avoid at all costs, maybe listen to a few stories about how people saved face around here.

Finally, he'll buy a few culture magazines and books (in common), that he'll have himself and the Scarves study them later on their free time, hoping to get what makes the people around here tick.

Javan has to talk his way around a few of the locals, and since he's disinclined to lie no doubt he will have to come up with some other method to explain his unusual appearance. He can, of course, find clothes that help cover his abnormalities while at the same time accomplishing his stated goal, which will not cost over much.

The main thing Javan learns is the nature of reputation amongst the Sho culture. Whatever you are perceived as is what you must be, regardless of who or what you actually are, so balancing all things around one's perceived reputation consumes a vast amount of daily life. In line with this, Javan actually finds several merchants who are more helpful to him than he would have thought, since doing so makes them appear to be more helpful towards the 'poor foreigner' who is 'lost in this great land' than their fellows, thus elevating themselves in the eyes of their locals as well as enforcing the idea that the Sho are the greatest culture in the world.

Javan explains his unusual appearance to a freak accident during an expedition(which is mostly true). He will find clothes that will cover the protruding crystals in consideration of the way Sho culture works.

Once he is clothed for the part, he'll now approach one of the sides involved on the 'civilized' conflict, approaching it from peons and work his way up, making his stance of "I will join the side with higher honor" clear and using his dragoon and foreigner status as bait to make his interviewing smoother.

All while doing this, he'll also be asking about the local human situation, how it affects people, etc during his 'interviews', timing it to make it look like he's interested on the social aspect of it.

Javan suddenly realizes as he's approaching that he must decide which faction he wishes to approach to learn more information about.

Javan has yet another realization: He doesn't know anything about any of the factions, even their names or what they stand for, and as such has been calling both 'faction Arnold' and 'faction Bob' inside his own head. He then randomly picks Arnold as a start point, although he has some common sense left on him to at least get the name of the factions right before going forward with his plan.

The GM forgot that Javan probably hasn't been aware of the situation that's been brewing down here since the party first reached Holtburg.

Javan is, of course, fully aware in character that the 'polite' civil war is being fought between those who believe things shouldn't change within the Sho Empire, and those who believe there should be no dividing class lines between species. The ideal for the former being that the organization of it allows the Empire as a whole to flourish better, and the ideal of the latter being that a given Moarsman or Sclavi or Burun should not be locked into a job role just because of something outside of their control (their birth).

Javan goes talk with the oldschool guys first, see what they have to say for themselves, maybe they are not being oldschool just for the sake of it. He's specially interested on what role they expect the newly-arrived hew-mans to fit in their society.

There are several perspectives Javan gets from talking to merchants around town. Some believe that, since the Sho have functioned and worked as a stable society for over 300 years (being the oldest known organization in the world), there's no need for change. It's not as if they want to force people, so much as that they think that the system works, and point to the past to prove it.

Some people think that it is the proper way of things. The Burun did, after all, form the first civilized society in the world, were the only ones with the forethought and wisdom to accomplish this in the tribal days. The Moarsmen are naturally good at hardier, more physical tasks, and the Sclavi have great skill in all things. It seems logical for them to work in their given roles. Javan may or may not be surprised to learn a large number of Moarsmen and Sclavi are the ones in this line of thought, believing they should work the types of roles they do because they are good at them.

There are a couple of jackasses of course who think that the Burun are naturally superior and should be on top regardless of other circumstance.

When asked about the Humans, most of the people he talks to don't really know why they're relevant to the discussion. A few are aware of the recent mass migration or, more to the point, care enough to have remembered it and comment on how the Humans would, naturally, slot in as Moarsmen as far as roles in society. Working honest jobs and doing hard labor for the betterment of the Sho. Though one merchant mentions that based on what she heard, the Humans don't plan to stay amongst the Sho for long.

Javan will attempt to end most encounters peacefully, quite aware that if he throws his 2 copper into the conversation it wouldn't change anyone's line of thinking.

He will attempt to, if possible, make the couple of jackasses lose a minute amount of face, specially if he can do that undetected because screw them. If it becomes more complicated than 'a flying bucket of water out of nowhere' or 'a well-placed banana peel when nobody is looking', nevermind it.

It's also about time he talked with the people going against tradition, hopefully they have some good reasoning behind it as well.

Javan does manage to sabotage a couple of the people in question, arranging a splatter of mustard to go over one of the Moarsman's eyes, embarrassing him somewhat.

Those going against tradition seem to have multiple viewpoints as well. Several believe actual violence will solve the issue, though so Javan's Deception score tells him that they're lying. Some other people seem to think that, with the rest of the world moving on, it's only logical that the Sho do so as well... but not with any of this 'war' thing like everyone else seems to love so much, but with proper, Sho mannerisms. In addition, a lot of the anti-traditionalists seem to favor ideas of strengthening bonds with the Republic, since the Osteth and the Sho have been financial and cultural enemies for decades. Removing that barrier and focusing on their strengths just seems logical to them. Even the Humans seem to favor the Osteth, after all.

k:

I ask if Jonathan, or anyone among the groups who came through who would speak for them, bothered to mention where they were going. Or perhaps they can guess, if they've done some traveling themselves, if there's a town down on that edge of the Thrush where they might have been heading toward?

Rory learns that there's a city a few miles outside of the Thrush named Ishiban, several days' journey southwards, which the Humans were reported to be heading towards. The area is known to be rich in farmlands, being on the edge of the breadbasket of the Shoushi region.

Higaide doesn't have particular interest in Sho politics, and by now knows better than to get involved in that sort of thing. He's ready to move on as soon as everyone else is.

We will give Javan moral support while he figures out which side he wants to support and we'll be patient while he recruits. Rory will put in a good word for Javan's Scarves with people he meets when gathering info. When we're ready to depart, Rory will have the following to say, anticipating a possible exchange:

"It's my hope that Ishiban will be the closest city to where my people are(were) being intercepted. Javan, have your group up a base of sorts, in whatever city we end up in. Higaide, you {and [Cohort-Name] if Javan has managed to get a Deception/Gather Info competent cohort} should do the talking. Try to be discreet about who you are, where you're from, or what our business is. If you have to answer, lie."

OOC:

Javan makes sure they are nowhere to be seen when they talk, already wearing his new clothing, "Ishiban, got it. Although I think I'm going to avoid setting up a base until we are sure we want to stay on that place for a long time, but it seems like Ishiban might be where that happens if what you say about them hew-mans being there is true."

"Also, I'm going to join the more liberal side of this conflict. Freedom and avoiding stagnation is good and all, but I'm worried that a good number of them talked about violence as a possible way of solving this conflict without really meaning it, which means most probably someone does believe in it and it spread. By joining their cause and using my status as a Dragoon and Merc leader, I might be able keep people that actually agree with that mentality from messing it up for the rest of their allies."

"Oh by the way, Rory and Higs... maybe you can just say the truth while skipping the parts that you don't want to say. Flowering stuff up a bit to make something look slightly better should be fine, but a straight lie? Nope. As we are on the Land of Masks right now, if you can't lie well avoid doing it at all."

"Anyways, I'm going now, I need to show my support for the 'rebellion', get new recruits and maybe even find myself a sub-leader with a good head between their shoulders. May the wind always be at your back and all that stuff. Later!"

With that the dragoon prepared himself to screen possible recruits as well as finding himself a sub-leader on the 'rebel' side. As a whole, he wants to find troops that understand why and when violence should be used, and is looking for a cohort of good nature that can keep secrets, paying special attention to mage types or skilled warrior types with brains.