Tall Tales 6

I contacted John, by the time we reach Wallhalla he should hopefully have passage secured down to Yankton ahead of our arrival and I imagine he’s on his way down the river by now to look around for us over there. Though hopefully his presence is well met in Yankton, harrowed like him are sometimes looked down on by fancier folk than us. Especially with how messed up his face is.

We went after the shiyo, who apparently has a name and is a archenemy of Colonel Bennet. We did not succeed, he ambushed Noel then Bennet made us leave so he could fight the shiyo mano a mano. Rangers are such bleeding hearts. Also with Noel taken out like that odds are we weren’t going to do so well unless we rolled out Amber’s trackless train thing to run it over.

Through the Andorah clan we’ve learned that it is apparently remaining in the area despite…tensions that have no doubt formed between us. His name is Sewati and he’s kind of like Shiyo’s very own me. Just trying to get a job done and having to sort through a bunch of bullshit to do so. That and he eats people. So…the forest is pretty dangerous for me right now since I think he hates me after all this. Good times.

Apparently someone from Andorah let slip that we may or may not have a critical piece of evidence to an interesting statement- Lara. We have a Lara and he doesn’t know about her, but he would like to. So we can barter that. Also an entire warband of Shiyo are coming to the territory now after all this to potentially destroy Rapidvale since we pissed them off but they’re willing to hold off to see if we can get information on the location of the bandits since they are also very curious to know that, as that is their primary mission despite how much they hate us right now.

Atop of all this, Bennet is injured but still kicking and having Amber do some repairs on him. Though now it looks like he’s sticking around for a bit oh and he summoned his own personal platoon from Fort James who are on their way. He deems Sewati to be that big of a threat, but Sewati isn’t leaving because he has business here. Basically Bennet is taking on the impossible mission of killing Sewati and Sewati is on the impossible mission of trying to do his original task while in hostile territory that is slowly turning into a battlefield as everyone races to gain a position of control over the area to deal with the other guy calling in reinforcements too.

Move to a small town they said, it’s quiet and uneventful they said.

Anyways, have fun in Yankton I’ll uh…juggle all this as best I can.

I’ve been asking around some local tribes about this shiyo they call Sewati. Apparently he’s the equivalent of Colonel Bennet but for the Shiyo. A respected and powerful commander that still has to run around and get things done for people slightly more powerful and respected. Wait a minute did I just describe myself…oh no you’re right I don’t command anyone anymore. Now I’m kind of sad.

Anyways, I’m alright after the failed hunt but Rohaka is ill again. We panicked and brought Alihana but then the whole showdown with the ranger colonel happened instead. Wasn’t really the wrong decision though, Sewati is very dangerous. Have fun in Yankton, I’ll be here keeping an eye out for shiyo scouts and maybe war parties.

White people are complicated.

So Sahkyo was released…and now the shiyo has Noel instead. Also there is the matter of Halona messing up the whole plan to save Sahkyo. See this is why dealing with the Shiyo is taboo. You do one little thing to save your own life and then it gets really complicated and dangerous after that. Now Sewati is setting up camp for a longer stay, bringing in a war party for protection, trying to barter with the people who just tried to kill him because he’s out of options, and we’re trying to not get eaten by him in the process. To borrow an expression from your people, fuckin wendigos man.

With Noel captured, someone from the Andorah clan of Rapidvale have negotiated for her release but Sewati wants information on the location of the bandits we’ve been after in exchange. Which we also want, so that’s making things kind of awkward and difficult.

There’s another problem with all this. Noel outranks me and no one other than us two know you exist. Her last standing order was that no one leaves until she says so, and if she can’t say so….well people are more scared of her than they are trusting of me since they don’t know the two of us just relay things from you. Now that would be fine if that was all there was to it, they would work with me in her absence were not for the fact that her orders were extremely clear on their motive. She doesn’t want the rangers to find out about you basically. Problem is they’re bringing in reinforcements now and Bennet is still at Rapidvale, so we’re still on high alert. So now they’re on even higher alert because your lunatic daughter will absolutely start doing public executions around here if they disobey her when she’s like this. From one father to another, I feel like you should hug her more often. Even if you’re a disgusting mass of mutated flesh.

Now if you don’t mind I will be rummaging the vault for relics, I may be a howler but I’m old and now I have to go out there myself since we’re missing Noel. Oh also figure out what you want to do with Halona, he never came back but I know where he is. The young think they’re so clever, forgot I’m the original howler that taught them everything they know.  Anyways I’m borrowing the lantern.

Yes I know how to use it. Noel teaches me stuff too you know. No daddy I won’t lose it, no one is using it anyways.

Well Grimold saved Bennet’s life and started bartering with the shiyo. Apparently we’re not supposed to do that but Grimold kind of just…does things sometimes. He doesn’t really care that much if they kill Noel but he said he figured we’d prefer to have options rather than just let her die. I suppose now he’s the liaison to the Shiyo tribe for Rapidvale since I doubt anyone else is surviving the attempt at playing messenger.

Yes it is a tribe now, this shiyo, named Sewati, summoned backup upon learning that we were planning to betray him. More are on the way and he is entrenching his position until we can all work everything out. Whether by killing each other or not, he’s stuck here for awhile anyways since one of the things he wants we don’t have yet and one of the other things he wants we…also don’t have yet. That Hunwe girl can only pop out of the other Hunwe girl once every so often. Grimold is a hell of a negotiator if he got a ravenous man eating monster to sit down and chill for a bit while we get our affairs in order.

Shen’s missing half of his torso but he’ll be okay. Didn’t lose his heart after all, just gotta…let all that mess heal. Which takes awhile at that level of damage. Actually all things considered we came out of this pretty well. The Reclaimers appear to have suffered the most actual losses but all we lost was a quarter of Shen. This might be the first time I’ve ever seen him not too keen on a rematch though, so maybe a piece of his confidence got lost too.

As for our trip to New Orleans, we might as well go to Yankton first if that’s the plan. It’s on the way and along the same river, so we’ll get a ferry down to Yankton then another one down to New Orleans. I’ve tasked Grimold with finding some voodoo herbs from the miasma, us being from the north helps as well. That and he’s weirdly good with plants, I swear he has tried to smoke everything in the forest at least once. So he knows a lot of plants. It should do as a gift, northern miasma herbs and all should be rare down there.

Amber: