So Az took his leave to the cold north to seek a monastery or something. The rest of us headed to Lookshy to secure an alliance.

We docked outside their gates with a small honor guard, and waited. Unfortunately, we did not get the reception we were hoping for. Instead, we were ambushed by essence cannons and war striders. Moon's First Shadow rushed off to take care of the defenses firing at us, while we handled the war striders. They had attacked while some of our men were still on the ships, so we hoped to get the full attention of the war striders while those who got upended into the water by the striders toppling the ships could get to safety.

Lucky for us, their striders were piloted by mere mortals, and as such could not access the full capabilities of a war strider, or else we'd really be in trouble. I mean, they were still giant robots swinging around giant weapons, but at least they couldn't bring charms to bear. I think their hope was to rely on the offensive and defensive capabilities of the strider to provide more than a match for our powers and skills. They did not, we scrapped their striders, and after the guns on the walls stopped firing, we marched into the city.

Needless to say, Isha was pissed. Their ambush having failed, the Lookshans were already fearful, which Isha only exacerbated by bringing the fury of crown to bear. This display of confidence was enough to call forth the elemental dragon of earth. At that point the Lookshans were cowed, and we marched into their council chambers with impunity, securing their help for our alliance against the Scarlet Empress and her Yozi allies.