Royal Britannian Guard, Scout Report

[EM Elizabella]

Report from a scout:

I've done some preliminary investigations in Tokuno.

I went first to Makoto-jima. A woman in Zento said she had seen the Immortal Mt. Sho Boar run through her home. She'd felt very fortunate and had promptly hidden in a large vase until it went away. A man had then stomped in demanding paprika. She'd stayed hidden and heard him pillaging her liquor cabinet instead.

A fisher said he had been fishing in the Phoenix Mountains when he saw the lucky Mt. Sho Boar run past him, so he'd jumped in the water. A large man wearing skull kneepads dragged him out and demanded "dry thigh-me" for saving his life. At that point the fisher fainted. He was relieved to wake up and find that the man had apparently settled for stealing the sake from his lunch box.

A woman in the Northern Waste said she'd been hunting when she had the great honor to see the Mt. Sho Boar approaching. She had just killed a deathwatch beetle, so she crawled under its corpse. A man in a red kilt, she distinctly remembers that detail, lifted up the corpse and demanded she find him salt, pepper, onions, and garlic. She gave him the bottle of barbecue sauce she'd been planning to use on the beetle and told him he could find the rest of the ingredients on Homare-jima, as that was the farthest location she could think of at that moment.

Also, I found campsites which may have been Hercules's

Makoto-jima, 51° 10'N 55° 53'W

Homare-jima, 85° 32' N, 68° 20'W

 

[EM Elizabella]

report from a scout, morning:

In seeking information about the Mt. Sho Boar, I've learned of the Kentaurosu-Ronin.

These intelligent and physically-powerful creatures left Ilshenar many generations ago, drawn to Tokuno by its beautiful forests and fields. The Kentaurosu-Ronin are nomads who wander Tokuno with their drifts of pigs. They seek the finest grass for their carefully-bred swine, which are not only hand-fed, but also massaged daily.

They were last seen encamped near the Lotus Lakes.

 

[EM Elizabella]

report from a scout, afternoon:

I was walking through the woods north of the Lotus Lakes when a centaur galloped past me, muttering about missing pigs. He was quickly out of shouting range, so I hurried after him. Eventually, I came upon a herd of Kentaurosu-Ronin packing up their camp.

One of the elders, Daichi, had a moment to speak with me. He said, "Several days ago, Hercules came to us, seeking the secret of pig taming. Of course we did not tell him, at first. We invited him to join us for our evening meal. He was not an ideal dining companion. He mocked us for eating our meat raw. To be polite, we offered to start a fire and cook the meat for our guest. Instead, Hercules gave us a strange gift, bottles of amber liquid. We did not wish to refuse this nascent show of kindness, so, as he was drinking it in great quantities himself, we sampled this new beverage.

As the night wore on, we somehow came to think of our guest as a brother, and thus shared with him the secret of taming and herding even the most recalcitrant swine. Hercules told us he planned to capture the legendary Mt. Sho Boar. At the time, and in our condition, this seemed a fine idea. When we awoke the next morning, our pigs were gone! We assume Hercules herded them away as practice. We have only just recovered sufficiently to be able to strike camp and search for them."

I asked Daichi where I could find them again, but he shook his head and said, "we shall wander rootless until we locate our drift. We have spent many years with those pigs, and their parents, and their parents' parents. We shall seek them until we find them or their bones."