War Game: The “contest” between Lord Kyngamoto and Lord Ingyatomi
Demonic Kangaroo: Jurhaoni, an oni demon capable of possessing and animating an inanimate object, currently housed in a bronze statue of a kangaroo
Treasured Junk: General Hoshi's command boat, the apple of his eye
Repurposed Temple: The long abandoned Temple of Seven Gates; used as a staging ground for the contest between Lord Kyngamoto and Lord Ingyatomi's samurai
Boastful Promise: Lord Kyngamoto's boast that his samurais can defeat ten times their number in battle
Absent-minded Golem: Sutondor, an ancient stone golem tasked with caring for the Temple of Seven Gates, his programming was long ago corrupted with age
The Battle of the Temple of Seven Gates
A Pathfinder adventure for oriental characters of 7th level, featuring mass combat.
Adventure Background
The Temple of Seven Gates, built deep within the jungles of Harami province, upon the shores of the Tya river, has long been bereft of human life. The monks of the temple were a strange bunch, devoted to the worship of beasts, foreign and domestic, and strange demons. They filled their temple with hundreds of statues of animals from all over the world. Their veneration drew the attention of a clan of Choz-Oni, evil demons capable of possessing and animating statuary. The vile creatures tormented and eventually killed the monks and took control of the temple complex. The only remnant of the ancient order is an immense stone golem named Sutondor, which performs random acts of upkeep, his programming long ago corrupted so that he can no longer keep track of the order in which he does his tasks, nor even what his tasks are actually meant to be.
The Temple is about to become the scene of a major “war game” between a hundred samurai belonging to Lord Kyngamoto and a thousand samurai belonging to Lord Ingyatomi. The impetus for this battle was a boast made by Lord Kyngamoto, rather carelessly, that his samurai could easily defeat ten times their number in battle. The PCs, in the employ of Lord Kyngamoto have been tasked with delivering on their Lord's boastful promise.
Due to the fact that the Shogun has officially outlawed open warfare between samurai clans, Lord Kyngamoto and Lord Ingyatomi have chosen a rather remote region for their samurai to battle in, and they have officially commanded their forces not to fight to the death. Nevertheless, such war-games have the potential for becoming quite bloody.
Synopsis
The PCs, tasked with commanding the hundred samurai of Lord Kyngamoto, arrive at the ancient Temple of the Seven Gates upon the shores of the Tya River two days before the forces of Lord Ingyatomi are to arrive. As they and their troops prepare to engage their enemies, who are, it is rightly thought, going to attack via the river, they encounter the great stone golem, Sutondor, who, so long as he is not attacked, mostly ignores the presence of the troops as he goes about his bizarre tasks. At the same time, the clan of Choz-oni, led by Jurhaoni, begin tormenting the samurai, even going so far as to kill a few of the soldiers in the night, leaving their bodies in gruesome displays.
The samurai under the PCs soon begin to speak of the temple as haunted, and there are threats of desertion. Some few even attack Sutondor and get themselves killed. The PCs must balance the activities of the second day carefully, assuaging the fears of their men, investigating the deaths from the evening before, working around the activities of Sutondor, and continuing to prepare for the coming battle. That night, there are more deaths among the men, and some strange occurrences featuring the temple statuary.
On the dawn of the third day, the forces of Lord Ingyatomi attack, coming down the river in flat bottomed boats. They are led by one General Hoshi, who commands his many troops from a gold bedecked junk.The boat is the General's pride and joy. The general is quite willing to command his troops to not fight to the death, surrendering or playing dead upon the first strike upon their persons, so long as two conditions are met: one, that the samurai fighting under the PCs do the same, and two, that no damage comes to his boat. If his boat is ever damaged, he flies into a rage and commands his men to fight to the death.
As the battle rages, Sutondor takes it upon himself to begin tending to the grounds in the middle of the battle. At the same time, the activities of the Choz-oni, who delight in mayhem, are stepped up, as they attempt to act in such a way as to cause the battle to become ever bloodier and more confusing.
The PCs must use all of their skills and abilities to thwart the canny oni, keep their troops from being massacred and, if at all possible, for the honor of their Lord, win the day.
Character Hooks
The adventure, as conceived, is intended as a one-shot scenario, but it is quite possible to draw the PCs into the scenario in the context of a longer campaign. If the PCs are adventurer's in the employ of a Lord, the names can simply be changed to fit the actual circumstance of the PCs. If the PCs are unemployed adventurers then the easiest hook is for Lord Kyngamoto, realizing the foolishness of his boast, to hire the adventurers to lead his troops into battle, basing his decision on knowledge of their abilities and circumstances.
The Major NPCs
There are three major NPCs in the adventure, whose actions and decisions, apart from those of the PCs, will most shape the events of the Adventure. They are as follows.
Sutondor: This ancient stone golem is generally peaceful, but also resolute in carrying out the duties given to it by its makers. Unfortunately, the programming of the golem has become corrupt so that the golem is somewhat “absentminded,” having no real memory of anything it has done more than ten minutes previously nor even what its duties truly are. Thus its activities are almost completely random. The duties of the golem originaly included sweeping out the temple, raking the grounds, trimming the plants growing around the temple, wiping down the bricks of the walls, repairing the path leading from the temple to the river, putting anything out of place in the temple back to where it should go and feeding any animals on the grounds. Now it is as likely to be found feeding the bricks and sweeping the animals in a confused sort of way. Only if the golem is attacked does it attack back, and then only for a few rounds, before it forgets what it was doing and returns to its duties.
Jurhaoni: The leader of the Choz-oni, Jurhaoni inhabits a bronze statue of a kangaroo, a beast quite foreign to the area, but one whose shape amuses the oni. The pouch of the kangaroo statue operates as a handy haversack so long as the oni inhabits the statue. Jurhaoni, and all his clan, are quite wicked, delighting in tormenting mortals, inflicting fear and death. Throughout the days and hours leading up to the battle, the oni move surreptitiously through the temple, freezing in place whenever there are multiple soldiers around. They do what they can to break the equipment of the PC's samurai, confuse the work of the soldiers, and strike fear into the samurai by killing lone soldiers during the night. Encased in their statuary bodies, the oni feel quite safe, as they cannot actually be hurt until cast out of said bodies.
General Hoshi: Leader of the thousand samurai fighting against the PC's and their troops, General Hoshi is a proud, pompous man, possessed of an adequate military mind, but more interested in fishing than in battle. He sees the battle of the Temple of Seven Gates as a diversion, the end result of which is certain. His pride and joy is an imported gold-plated junk from which he directs his samurai during the battle. If the junk is ever damaged, General Hoshi becomes quite lividly furious, vowing to kill all of the PCs and the samurai under them.
Adventure Events
Day One
- The PCs arrive with their men at the Temple of Seven Gates.
- Sutondor makes his first appearance, meticulously raking the stone path leading to the river. So long as he is ignored, he ignores the soldiers, and is soon seen sweeping off the sides of the temple with an ancient broom.
- The PCs must begin arranging their defenses.
- A brick falls from the second floor of the temple, braining one of the samurai. There are whispers that the golem might have dropped it.
- The temple complex is invaded by a large herd of spotted deer. One of the deer is later found dead at the feet of a strange statue of a kangaroo, its heart missing.
- One of the soldiers, moving around inside the temple sets off an ancient summoning stone, conjuring forth an immense rampaging dire.
- During the night three samurai are killed. One is found torn apart amidst a group of gore encrusted tanuki statues. A second is found hanged inside the temple. A third has been drained of blood. When Sutondor is next seen, he is covered in said blood. All three bodies are missing their hearts.
Day Two
- The samurai are convinced the temple is haunted. There are whispers of desertion.
- Sutondor spends an hour undoing any defensive structures the PCs have arranged before turning its attention to caring for the temple garden.
- One of the samurai sees a statue of a five tailed fox moving inside the temple.
- The statue of the kangaroo is seen in multiple places by the PCs.
- At the same time as the day before, a herd of spotted deer invade the temple complex.
- A group of five samurai decide that Sutondor is to blame for the problems and suicidally attack the powerful golem.
- During the night the oni in the tanuki statues kidnap a sleeping samurai, take him into hidden chambers in the temple and torture him so that his screams echo throughout the complex.
- A samurai is killed in his sleep with a dagger, his heart removed; said blade is found hanging from the innermost gate, blood still dripping from its point.
- As dawn approaches, one of the Choz-oni, inhabiting the statue of a wolf, makes a mistake and is discovered while attacking one of the samurai. Assuming the PCs join the fight, the destruction of the statue reveals the oni, who seeks to inhabit another statue, or, failing this, fights to the death.
Day Three
- The thousand samurai of Lord Ingyatomi arrive and the battle of the temple commences.
- General Hoshi plans on attacking in three waves, with a fourth group in support. He has two hundred archers stationed on the far side of the river to provide cover. The first wave of two hundred samurai are to land their boats and charge the defenses of the defenders from the front. The second wave of two hundred samurai is to land to the north of the temple and attempt to flank the complex. The last wave of four hundred samurai are to land at the height of the fighting and help mop up the remaining defenders.
- During the fight, the tanuki statues go on a murderous rampage killing any samurai in their way indiscriminately. These twelve statues function as their own combat unit.
- Depending on the success of the oni in mucking up the defenses, a certain number of weapons, positions, and constructed fortifications begin falling apart.
- Sutondor moves into the middle of the battle and begins trying to sweep up samurai from the battle field with his broom.
- The herd of deer arrives early, but the battle confuses them and they begin running throughout the temple, getting in the way of the fighting.
Complications
- It is possible for the PCs to figure out ways to get Sutondor to work for them. The golem can be manipulated if the PCs are willing to spend the time to figure out how to do so. However, any success in this area is limited as the golem will forget what it was about after 1d6x10 minutes.
- If the oni think the PCs are on to them too early, they will misdirect by possessing statues, move them, and then vacate the same statues to inhabit others. The PCs can thus never be sure of which statues are truly possessed at any given time, excepting the statues of the tanuki and the statue of the kangaroo.
- The PCs might be able to convince General Hoshi to postpone the battle while they cleanse the temple of evil, but doing so will require great amounts of evidence and some powerful diplomacy.
- If Jurhaoni is cast from his kangaroo body, he flees into the massive chimeric statue located in the middle of the inner shrine, and, in the midst of the battle, animates the huge stone shape to wreak havoc amongst the samurai.
