An Old Flame

A misplaced weapon, a memento of times best forgotten, a girl long thought dead. It's never simple, is it?

## The Forgotten Blade

* Inspector Exodin received an odd request from one Kinu Fumetsu. An individual who, by all rights, should not be alive. The task was to discover an ancient ancestral blade and deliver it to the Immortal Mercenary Kaldalis.
* The Inspector, his assistant Kigoh’a, and their ally K’alayah begin their investigation at Vesper Bay, electing to question the Harbourmaster for information regarding the weapon and it’s theft.
* Thanks to the harbourmaster the group had their first major lead, the porter who was to take the sword to Ul’dah, the only problem was that the Brass Blades had gotten to the poor man first and caged him.
* After a rough start attempting to bribe a Blade the group eventually managed to talk their way into the holding cells, finding the porter Emund Doome (ignore the surname, a more jovial man you’ll never meet…. normally).
* Mr. Doome told our group all he could, of the guards that pestered him in Horizon, the strange Duskwight that was hanging around the Sunset Gate, and that another inspector had been hired to locate the sword.
* Choosing to first attempt to locate the porter’s cart and question the original buyer of the blade our group roamed Ul’dah. Finding the cart proved simple, it’s location being outside the blade buyer’s mansion, taking this opportunity to try and question the buyer proved pointless as his guards ushered them away quickly.
* Their next port of call was Horizon, to find the rival inspector, to question the heckler guards, and to find the Duskwight. The first was easy, almost immediately spotting one Inspector Briardien de Manseauguel questioning the locals. The second less so, whilst they were easy to spot our party forgot to question the guards. The last proved difficult as no Duskwight was in view.
* After attempting to match wits with the rival inspector, Kieo and Kigoh’a were informed by him that the top suspect they had was the Duskwight they couldn’t find. K’alayah on the other hand went her own way for a short while, first questioning the local thugs and then leaving to follow tracks found.
* Splitting onto her own proved a good decision as K’alayah swiftly and effortlessly found the missing Duskwight hidden beneath a raised building in Crescent Cove, with Kieo and Kigoh’a following soon after.
* The Duskwight, a Limsan Rogue named Graunnort, proved more than cooperative. He friendly informed our party that he had been hired by a Raen Samurai to ‘return the sword to him’. He also helpfully informed the group that his destination was La Noscea, likely Bloodshore.
* Arriving on Bloodshore proved very simple, hiring a boat from Crescent Cove and using aetherical manipulation to zoom across the waves. Kieo spotting the boat the Samurai used shortened their search time significantly to add to their good fortune.
* Stealthily swimming to the Samurai’s location had the group ‘take him by surprise’, though they did not use it to their advantage, instead choosing to converse with the Samurai instead.
* Through their conversation they find the Samurai is a man out of time, at first glance an eternal guardian for the sword, in a second an unfortunate soul with nothing to claim as his own beyond his duty, whether he knew it or not.
* Upon realising his situation the man preferred death other living, committing suicide with the prized weapon, his body disintegrating in the process. Kinu arrives just after to collect the man’s ashes, informing the group that more tasks will come after the sword has been given to Kaldalis.
* Kaldalis’ thoughts in regards to the sword remained unknown as he added it to his arsenal. His acknowledgement of the weapon’s purpose clear as his stoic nature collapsed, if but a moment, in remembrance.

## Accepting Loss

* Kinu returned to give a second task to Inspector Exodin. This time a far harder task, have Kaldalis talk and listen about his past. To aid this Kinu explained the scenario surrounding Kaldalis’ immortality, alongside the threat that faces those around him if Kinu’s, still unrevealed, plan is not completed.
* As expected, Kaldalis was not easy to open, even after Fumetsu forced an Echo Vision in the end one of the few positive outcomes comes in the form of a new potential friendship. Beyond that, new information was gained and nothing else of note occurred.

## Bonds Long Broken

* Yet again, Kinu returned. Yet again, Kinu had work that was required. What was required of Inspector Exodin this time was to find a single woman within the entirety of Yanxia, a hard task. All that the Great Inspector knew was that she was an Au Ra who had orange hair and green eyes.
* The groups journeyed to Yanxia, beginning their search in the small village of Namai. There they learnt that the woman’s name was Kiyoko and that she would regularly appear in town to aid those hurt or injured.
* Following advice given, the party headed east towards Isari only to be intercepted on the way by a band of shinobi. It was with quick thinking that Kieo thought of the means to see them off, even managing to get Kiyoko’s location from them as he did.
* After finding the mountain-top spring that they were told Kiyoko was located in they quickly found both Kiyoko and Kinu. Kiyoko thanked the party for what they were doing and handed them a Senninbari, a cloth with one thousand stitches, that she asked to have delivered to Kaldalis.
* Kieo, Kigoh’a, Charbonnier, and K’alayah returned to the first steps whilst Morgana and Mis’to journeyed further for sushi. At the First Steps they found Kal watching over Mis’to’s children.
* Handing the Senninbari to Kaldalis was simple enough, yet another contract complete with the aim of helping Kaldalis.

## Consumed by Grief

* Upon both sending requests and ruining a perfectly good family moment, Kinu returns to the First Steps, quickly enlisting everyone to follow
* The group’s first destination was Kaldalis’ Vault where Kinu had to collect a few items before progressing, it was here that inhabitants of the Vault were first met and conversed with, until the group had to leave.
* When the group arrived at their destination they found it to be the same location they had found Kiyoko within, the mountain-top spring. Within it this time they found Kaldalis, angry and on fire, with the springs themselves surrounded by numerous spirits.
* The group was forced to fight Kaldalis, who’s refusal to die turned out to be an irritation more than a threat, as he returned multiple times including once as a Firebird itself.
* Upon defeating Kaldalis multiple times, he turned to ash as required. The ash was collected as a new threat makes itself known.
* Darkness descended upon the springs, sight became a near impossibility. The party was hunted.
* Mis’to received a shot to the chest by an unknown assailant and Charbonnier received a similar shot to the leg, everyone else was targeted more psychologically than physically.
* After minutes passed of the torment and the figure doing something to Kaldalis’ yet to resurrect remains, he left as soon as he arrived, leaving the party with the trouble of stopping the dangers of their own members from killing them.
* Eventually the party was able to leave and arrive at Her Embrace, where healing was supplied and the opportunity to rest given.
* Soon after Kaldalis returned, the few notable differences in him physically revealing the complete bond between himself and Fumetsu. It was then that he informed the group of their aggressor, a man named Tadashi and his bonded spirit Mienai, a man from Kaldalis’ past that should be dead.
* The group recovered and thought upon what next they could do about the new threat, the conclusion reached is that for now nothing could be done.