Session 160 - Return to Ninjaworld (18th October 2018)

- Grant and Olin have been doing jobs for Drake. This latest assignment finds them in a wartorn Beirut-like city where shells are falling nearby. Grant looks at Olin’s scared face and he decides that he has had enough. He needs a break. He wants out. He uses an Icon to contact Sophia.
- Lady Sophia accepts the contact. Grant and Olin find themselves on Marindan vessels travelling across the sea to the eastern nation of Arasawa. Using magic to clean them up, they continue on their way and are treated well on arrival. Grant relaxes and shows Olin around. After a few days of diplomacy, they leave Lady Sophia to continue with the negotiations and they return to Central via a Door. There, Olin is reunited with his friends (he has many girlfriends in Central) and Grant slips away.
- Grant returns to ‘Neo-Yokohama’, a world near Nexopolis that he visited when in the alternate timeline. This is a modern world where it is commonplace to have ninjas with magical powers.
- Grant learns about the Crescent Moon, the Blue Crane, the Blazing Fists and the mysterious Night Claws that have recently arrived on the scene. Each has their own unique ways of fighting. He sees Leroy on the street but Leroy doesn’t recognise him in this timeline. 
- Investigating the Night Claws, he finds that they have a history as the nation’s shadowmasters. They helped these people to win the last World War but then vanished into obscurity. 
- Grant senses another Warden nearby. As Grant wanders around, he watches a Blue Crane (who uses Lightning) face off against a Crescent Moon (who channels chi energy through a metal staff). The bout draws attention of locals and tourists.
- As he wanders further he receives an Icon contact from Abbie. Surprised, he accepts the call and she comes through to join him. At first she stands out from the locals but she uses sorcery to change her clothes and enable her to understand and speak the native tongue. 
- They sit down to eat at a small shop on the side of the road. Abbie asks Grant what is wrong with Ethan - he’s never around, he is always away and whenever she tries to talk to him, he becomes evasive. Grant tries to defend Ethan - he sees her point but doesn’t know what is his problem (or at least doesn’t think it is his place to say).
- Then Abbie shows Grant a small metal hedron and asks if Grant knows anything about it. She explains that Ethan won it in a poker game from Yaeger Zane. Neither of them knows where Yaeger got it from. She produces a second one - same dimensions but larger. 

* Image found on Google Images
- Sensing the presence of a nearby Warden, Grant becomes more guarded. He also notes that there are other ninjas (streetfighters) gathering nearby, eyeing them. Grant knows that he is cloaking his own strength so he guesses that they can sense Abbie’s magical potency.
- Then the Warden approaches them. It is a local youth who looks pretty tough. He flicks a cigarette aside as he approaches and says that his name is Jax of the Spire. He appears to be spoiling for a fight. Then three more of them come in, all Wardens. One is a beanpole, a second has broad shoulders and even thicker arms. A fourth hangs back, a little uncertain. The moment is a little tense. 
- Grant guesses that these four are Dwimmerlaik and they are uncertain about who he is. Using his knowledge of the Dwimmerlaik and their language, he starts a conversation with Jax and confuses them. They appear to be Dwimmerlaik ‘teenagers’ and they seem to think that Grant might be an adult Dwimmerlaik. It’s very clear that these are the four Night Claws that have been attacking the other groups.
- About this time, a senior student from the Blue Crane enters and invites Abbie ‘to tea’. Jax is insulted but is flattened by the grey-haired student. Excusing themselves, Abbie and Grant leave and Abbie goes to the home of the Blue Crane to ‘take tea’ while the Dwimmerlaik youths are clearly thinking about revenge.