[OA/FR] Rokugan - Updated 12/13/03

[Black Omega]

Just a fast update. I'm going to be skipping ahead pretty fast and leaving the next adventure as an unknown tale of Bansho Kishu, unless someone else in the group cares to fill in the blanks. There was no chance at all of catching up once I got six months behind, so....

The group is now mostly at 13th level now, so the game is about 2/3 of the way over. When the group is mostly 20th level I'll be wrapping it up and getting my next game ready. No idea what that might be at the moment, but I have plenty of time to plot.

 

[Despaxas]

tentative bump ... it's not dead is it?

 

[Black Omega]

Not dead, but going into a different mode of storytelling since my job has been gobbling up so much energy. Once I'm caught up I'll change back to normal again.

 

[Black Omega]

The battle against the Black Wave changed many things for Bansho Kishu, and their reputation in the city. When Verick got back he passed along his news about the source of the attacks. Then he used his Pegasus, provided by a Volar polymorph spell, the fly Mir around the city so she could use Circle Dance to n arrow down where Mindra was. All signs pointed to one building, what looked like an abandoned warehouse. But when the group arrived to investigate, they found the building obviously occupied, a sign consisting of dead rats hanging out in front. The Dead Rat turned out to be a dive where hardened criminals placed bets on rat fights.

Entering, the group had their first encounter with the Black Wave, a battle of confused melee against an opponent who made frequent use of invisibility. The battle was also marked by moments of comedy. Mindra’s talking panda getting stuck in a window when he tried to sneak through. Volar using an illusion to create a Thunderguard yelling the building was surrounded and they should give up. At which point, the other criminals not involved in the fight drew weapons and looked ready for a bloody last stand, though Mir was able to calm things down before this turned against Bansho Kishu.

The battle was sharp and short and never in doubt. Ikio’s snarled “I don’t know how you found me or rescued your friend, but it won’t be enough! This is not done!” left the group puzzled. They hadn’t rescued anyone yet. Back in the room the Black Wave had been using they found a few non-descript magic items from their friends, but no other sign of them.

Verick also had a warning for the criminals running the Dead Rat about cooperating with the enemies of Bansho Kishu. The tattooed toughs responded to the threats coolly, and the rest of the group was not ready to fight a new enemy before finishing the one they were fighting now.

It was only when they got home they found Mindra already there, explaining he had been rescued by a spirit. He didn’t mention any details of the spirit, or how the spirit was now following him around, offering sinister advice. He also neglected to mention the kanji for ‘thief’ was shaved into his chest. It would grow back soon enough.

Yukiyo was found as well, stripped bare and with the kanji for thief painted on her body. Alive of course, you can’t humiliate the dead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After finishing his time as King of Generosity, Toshiro rejoined the group. He’d been given a number of gifts, including a leather wrapped club from Shinjo Nihao and a quick lesson on how to use it to cause pain rather than injury.

Kaz’s Thunderguards reported they had found a man wearing what looked like Mindra’s armor. Dragging the man in, after he’d ‘fallen down’ a few times, led to the discovery the man was a merchant who had purchased the armor at a local orphanage. It was a Ryoko Owari tradition that gifts given to orphanages were sold afterwards to support the orphans.

Kaz went straight to the orphanage, only to run straight into an ambush. Several archers and a couple of monks attacked, killing all his guards and forcing Kaz to retreat publicly. The ambushers were gone by the time Kaz returned with reinforcements.

The idea that the magic items missing were now circulating around the city, sold to feed orphans, infuriated Bansho Kishu. There was no easy way to retrieve the items without looking bad. But they had one edge, someone in the Black Wave still had Mindra’s Coin of the Fortunes.

This led to the first battle at a warehouse, a trap set for Bansho Kishu. The battle was sharp and very bloody. An invisible spell caster kept dropping freezing spells on Bansho Kishu while Ikio added in illusions and healing for his comrades. The battle was very nearly a draw, but Bansho Kishu held the field at the end, even if they were too battered to do anything more. Half the group had come very close to death, and they had not gotten any of the leaders of the Black Wave.

Later, a flight around the city by Verick and Mindra, Locate Object spell in effect, led them to the Eta area outside the city walls, where they found the fears that a dispel magic could send the two falling out of the sky were unfounded. It was a Hold Monster that nearly did the Pegasus in and Verick wasted no time diving low and getting out of there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The final battle took place, appropriately enough, at the house of Itoshi the torturer. The group had spoken often about killing everyone associated with the Black Wave, as a way of inspiring fear. But it didn’t quite work that way. Volar used walls to cut off parts of the battlefield then a Stinking Cloud luckily took the ice spell caster out of the battle while the battle raged on below, the ninja, monks and ronin of the Black Wave against Bansho Kishu. A bloody minute later Bansho Kishu had emerged victorious. But not before Mir had to face her fears, almost stunned again by a monk, on the spot of her death months earlier. But this time Mir survived the fight on Verick was fought to a bloody draw by a ronin wielding two swords before Volar intervened with Magic Missiles to finish the battle.

And finally, out of spells, Ikio was corner and frozen in place by a Hold Person. Mindra took this as his chance for revenge and there was a series of sickening crunches as the monkey’s morning star bashed in the head of the helpless spellcaster.

Even so, the group didn’t live up to their plans. The ice spell caster was allowed to escape with no effort later to track her down. The ronin with the two swords was bandaged up by Verick, who didn’t feel his victory had been earned. The ronin promised to return later after he had practiced more, for a final duel with Verick.

Mir’s diplomatic skills were stretched to the limit but she did a magnificent job getting back Mindra and Yukiyo’s items without causing to much damage to the group image.

 

[Black Omega]

Darkness and Snow/By The Moon’s Light Danger Comes/I Am Here For You

Toshiro must have cringed when he he got home from his patrol and found this haiku slipped into his sash. Any doubts he might have had about who was responsible were ended when a report came from his area, a murder had happened. A local merchant beheaded with one perfect stroke of a very sharp sword.

Toshiro’s wedding was set to happen in just days and Toshiro had been dreading the Lying Darkness girl would turn up again.

But what was found in the merchant’s home was puzzling. Poison, a map of the castle with both Toshiro and O-Hisa’s rooms clearly marked. O-Hisa’s room was also circled. Toshiro didn’t like this one bit and quickly they headed to the castle to alert the guards there was some type of plot going on against O-Hisa.

Verick, meanwhile, was meeting with lovely Bayushi Sakura. Well, the perfect white mask mimicked the face of a beautiful lady, who knows about the face behind it. Verick passed along what had happened with Ikio and the Black Wave. Sakura let him know the kusari-gama he had returned was indeed the property of one of the dead Scorpion from that battle so long ago. To honor Verick’s honesty in dealing with this, as gift was offered, lenses that would enable him to see that which is invisible. There was pleasant conversation over duties in the Akodo estate, Kabuki theater and over how Mindra and Yukiyo could avoid any trouble with the Scorpion by a simple apology. They also decided on a date to attend Kabuki later.,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Arriving at the governor’s mansion, Toshiro found there had been an assassination attempt on O-Hisa just minutes before, but it had failed. The attackers were being carried out, heads and other body parts crushed. O-Hisa herself was positively cheerful over getting into combat again and unconcerned with the wounds she had taken, and certainly not going to let some common assassins get in the way of her wedding.

Toshiro did consider briefly fleeing Ryoko Owari and head up to the frozen north to visit his friend among the Yabanjin, but decided against it. He didn’t think O-Hisa would let him escape so easily. Toshiro also met old friend Hida Toshiaki, who was attending in the place of Toshiro’s father, since the savage attacks on the Crab lands made it too difficult to travel to the wedding.

Toshiaki also apologized to Toshiro for the Crane who would be unable to make the wedding. Well, he was fine now. But after Toshiaki got through with him, trying to go to a wedding would be the least of his worries. Toshiro foundered a little trying to explain why this was a bad idea, but Mir stepped in helpfully with a request to honor the wedding guests, at least until the wedding was done. Her charming logic was too much for Toshiaki, who finally agreed.

Meanwhile, Mindra had noticed something disturbing. The spirit that had saved him and was now following him around had started to look more and more like him. Not pleased with this, Mindra tried a Dismissal, which seemed to work, the spirit disappeared, hopefully never to be seen again. If only he had been so lucky.

Toshiro is worried about the Lying Darkness girl trying to kill O-Hisa herself, but Volar and Verick are not so sure that’s what is going on. It’s even considered she might be helping Toshiro.

The next stop is a silk merchant who sent word to Toshiro claiming to have news about the plot. Most of the group waited in the main room of the merchant house, browsing the silks while Toshiro went on to meet the merchant. And Verick followed along invisibly. Whatever ambush that was planned was ruined when Toshiro stepped in to meet the merchant and found the room was filled with dead men. A glance to the servant revealed he was just as surprised as Toshiro. But the servant wasted no time shouting a warning and attacking Toshiro. Verick’s invisible presense stopped the initial attack and once the group joined in, it was a massacre. Though the men fought to the last. All were found to have tattoos showing a moon, half hidden in a cloudy sky.

And this time Toshiro agreed “I think she is helping. But that worries me almost as much.”

Mindra communed with a spirit in the room where the murder had taken place. And despite fumbling some questions, it was found the last person the merchant had met with was the head of a local carpenter shop.

The fight at the carpenter shop was short and to the point. This cult wanted Toshiro and O-Hisa dead. The lone samurai among the cultists challenged Toshiro by name and the two fought fiercely, though the samurai was curiously unable to land a single stroke on Toshiro and despite the armor was too fast for Toshiro to land many telling blows.

Verick again snuck in from behind invisibly to attack the Maho-tsukai supporting the attack. While Volar used a knock spell to slip into a ‘forbidden’ room and found a shrine to the dead god of the Moon.

The battle goes poorly for the cultists and by the time they are nearly dead, the samurai keep Toshiro busy shifted to the shadowy form they knew to be the girl from the Lying Darkness. A gesture placed a wall to cut off the rest of the group with her and Toshiro as Toshiro appealed to the girl, telling her the name they had found for her and suggesting they could help. Whatever she planned by trapping Toshiro alone with her is hard to guess. Volar had acted quickly in grabbing Mir and Dimension Dooring beyond the wall, expecting Mir would do a better job convincing the Lying Darkness girl they could help. A bit to his surprise, Mir attacked, trying to grapple the Lying Darkness girl and failing. Just that fast, the shadowy girl disappeared and the fight was over.

The clean up revealed a cult that had been plotting against Toshiro and O-Hisa for some time. Their exact purpose was obscure beyond the obvious. They wanted the two dead.

With this done, Toshiro was called upon to help with the apologies to the Scorpion, who insisted it be done in person. Mir helped write the apologies then Mindra first, followed by Yukiyo did the apology.

A few days later the wedding finally took place. Toshiro’s kimono is black with family symbol in white at five spots. Bride wears white, symbol of rebirth, then changes to gold/silver/red kimono with auspicious symbols on it, then a purple kimono with a decorative pattern (suitable for young lady, last time she wears it). Begins with purification ceremony. Then with an invocation to the ancestors, letting them know the two are getting married. Moves on to solemn exchanges of vows. The two share a cup of sake. All those at the wedding do as well, as a symbol of unity. Finally, the offering of sakaki, small branches with ‘lightning’ tied to them, to the Kami.

Later while picking up his things before going to the honeymoon, Toshiro found another haiku.

A wedding present/Sometimes Love and Honor are one/Beware the many eyes

 

[Black Omega]

Time passes and news filters in from the rest of the empire. No one in the group mourns the death of Yoritomo Aramasu, the Mantis Clan Champion who had betrayed his alliance with the Crab Clan. His death in Otosan Uchi is a bit mysterious but it’s widely rumored the Scorpion Clan was involved.

Moto Gaheris, Lord and Champion of the Unicorn Clan, dies peacefully in his sleep after being wounded killing his final ogre. He was at least eighty years old. He is succeeded by his ambitious nephew, Moto Chagatai.

In the disputed Yasuki lands the situation has stabilized a little bit with the arrival of Akodo Kaneka and a Lion army, claiming the lands for himself. With Crane forces busy capturing Toshi Ronbo from the Lion, there is little there to oppose the bastard son of the Emperor and the Crane are forced to withdraw, though not before the daimyo of the Kakita falls in a duel with Kaneka.

The group is busy as well. At the Dead Rat Volar had seen some special rats that caught his attention, rats that seemed to have an elemental aspect to them. Tracking down the source of these rats, he started to order some for himself, mostly earth rats.

Kaz spent the next month working on his area and his Thunderguards, whipping them into shape and expelling all the one’s who were turning out not to be honest.

Mir engaged in courtly activities while Mindra continued to work as a carpenter. The spirit found him again a few days later but was bothering him less, mostly watching and occasionally offering advice.

Verick continued dating Baysuko Sakura, while exchanging letters with Isawa Oroko. And the young Lion received a note from the ronin he had spared in the final battle with the Black Wave.

I’m sorry our last duel was cut short. My thanks for sparing my life. I plan to leave the city for the next several months for training. When I return, I hope we can have a more formal duel and work out once and for all who is better. Kengo.

Toshiro? He was allowed to enjoy his honeymoon for the next month before duty called again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this case, duty was a pretty simple mission. Bandits had been attacking tax shipments being sent back to Unicorn lands. Bansho Kishu was to put an end to it. It was a very straight forward mission that led to a battle against Hordeland looking barbarians, a couple healers using the symbol of Cyric and a halforc looking wizard. The group won the fight and a Volar anti-magic field revealed the halforc to really be a hooded and cloaked figure, who escaped with a teleport.

A brief investigation revealed the Hordelanders were really former Moto, now turned ronin. Then the group moved on to the pass through the mountains where the second army of the Unicorn stood guard, the drop off point for the taxes.

A brief meeting with Lord Shinjo Shono left Toshiro with a special charm he could use to communicate to the Shinjo if he ever felt Lord Jyaku was being taken over by Scorpion influence or otherwise planning to betray the Unicorn clan.

On the ride back to Ryoko Owari, the group ran into Miya Shoin and another diverse group of samurai on a mission of their own, helping the less experienced heros against the thugs who attacked them.

Back in Ryoko Owari, Volar heard back from a offer he had made to the Scorpion. Baysuhi Ogura met with him to let him know the Scorpion clan would send a student to be trained at Volar’s school.

Kaz found someone was following him around. It turned out to be a young ronin who admired the tough Crab Samurai was trying to model himself after Kaz in every way. Kaz wasn’t exactly thrilled and he smacked the boy around more than once when he found the young ronin literally imitating his gestures. But he also agreed to train the boy and show him how to be a samurai.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The group was also called out to aid with training maneuvers being conducted by Lord Jyaku. That this took place about the time a Red Wizard and escorts was passing through was hardly a coincidence. This was the same Red Wizard the group had killed many months ago. This time his mission was a little difference. He, his yojimbo, a cleric of some obscure fire kami the Rokugani had never heard of, and other guards were on their way to the Crab lands to deal with what sounded like a vampire problem.

The Crab were used to dealing with the undead of the Shadowlands. A vampire, immune to jade and the other normal tactics used against undead, was presenting a much more difficult problem for them and in view of the friendship between the Unicorn and the Crab, the Red Wizards had volunteered to help. The group’s old acquaintance, Utaku Shiko, was send along to help guard the journey to Crab lands.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After hearing the news about the vampire, Mindra’s friendly spirit whispered to him “That sounds really exciting, skipper! Tell me more about vampires? What are they like? What can they do?”

Mindra only wanted the spirit to leave him alone, so when the spirit volunteered to go look into vampires itself, Mindra gave it permission to go away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mir was granted a vision from the Oak Father, a grove deep in Shinomen forest. Lost to time and all human memory. A holy place still used by the Naga and now defiled by the foul Tsuno. Mir knew exactly what direction the grove lay in. Not enough information to tell someone how to teleport there. But she knew the way.

Getting permission for the trip from Lord Jyaku was not difficult. He had agreed long ago to allow her certain latitude when it came to her god and his demands. The rest of the group took little convincing as well. Whether it was Volar and a chance for adventure or the samurai and the chance to kill Tsuno.

It was a two week trip down to Shinomen forest, passing mostly through Scorpion lands. At the last village before the forest, they were warned repeatedly about the wicked spirits and ghosts that haunted the forest and how dangerous it was in there. But Bansho Kishu not be dissuaded. After making arrangements for the villagers to look after Verick’s Pegasus, the group ventured into the darkness of the ancient Shinomen forest.

 

[Black Omega]

Bansho Kishu soon found out just how dangerous Shinomen forest was. Their first night they camped in a cave to try and minimize the chance of wild animal attacks. Which simply made the ghosts’ attack more difficult to handle, as the spectral creatures came through the walls to attack the sleeping group. Volar’s anti-magic field and Mindra’s talents against spirits drove them off, after Mir’s counter song had stopped the fear effect of their unearthly wails.

The next morning was cool, even brisk. And as the group traveled along they found an old ambush site. Dead Scorpion samurai and one shugenja. Only four bodies but there were ten katana left upon the field, and tiny bits of jagged metal all over the place. Honorably, Verick collected the katana and personal effects to be returned to their families.

As Bansho Kishu traveled along, they found the forest growing more diseased and twisted. Sickly looking animals that fled their approach and trees obviously suffering from some type of blight. Their next clash came against blighted treants, a savage battle that saw several trees brought to lift to attack the spell casters while the fighters in front tried to avoid being hammered by the huge creatures pummeling attacks so they could get close enough to do some damage. Volar was constantly restrained from using fire spells against the creatures, since the forest itself was so dry. But in the end a fireball, surrounded quickly by a stone wall helped the group to victory. Though hours were spent in the area afterward to make sure the fire was properly put out.

Let by Mir, the group traveled onward toward the distant grove, deeper into Shinomen forest. The land simply grew more twisted as they walked, more and more diseased animals and plants found. Mindra had been rejoined by his monkey spirit ‘guide’ by this point, and it was the two of them who found the spy on the group. A spirit spider who watches from a tree for a period of time before drifting away. For once Mindra’s spirit companion was nervous and silent, something the Vanara was very thankful for.

Pressing on, the landscape simply grew grimmer. The bodies of several dead Naga were found, skinned as part of some terrible torture. Then a few minutes beyond that the group ran into a Scorpion peasant, who came running out of some dense overgrowth with news of a bloody battle, his people needed help against some treants and he appealed to the group to assist. The group was suspicious, however, and paused. Volar’s magic revealed an area of magic in the overgrowth. Illusions. And the same around the panicked peasant.

It was obvious the ambush was not working properly, to the illusion was dropped revealing a lovingly constructed web of spidersilk all through the overgrowth. No spiders, though, simple Scorpion samurai charging in to attack. Mir tried to calm the situation down by appealing for a truce so they could talk. But Kaz simply charged forward and into the melee, attacking the Scorpion. It was quickly obvious these here no human samurai. From a tree one ‘shugenja’ cast spells that sent a blizzard of jagged metal bits over the group, wounding them, then a magnetic attack yanked Toshiro’s sword from his hands and drew it up to the red clad figure.

As Bansho Kishu spread out , the ‘scorpion’ circled around, a bite attack momentarily disputing the illusion of a samurai, revealing a spider, it’s poison paralyzing Mir before the illusion resumed and the ‘samurai’ tried to carry Mir off into the woods. Mindra was also surrounded, picked out for special attention but the lucky monkey was able to avoid being paralyzed. Mir, speaking through her thrush, was able to find out the spiders had some grudge against Mindra for past attacks. Attacks Mindra was unaware of.

Eventually a truce was agreed to. Not the least because by that point the others had rescued Mir’s paralyzed body and their chance to carry anyone away had seemed to pass. The spiders faded back into the forest with a final “If you truly mean us well, then leave the body of the spider who died where it lies.”

That night the group doubled their guard, camping not far from the ambush spot. This time they were not bothered. Even Mindra’s friendly monkey spirit had made itself scarce. In the morning all trace of the battle against the spiders was gone.

Pressing on, the others soon were staring at Mindra again as he spoke to thin air, something he had been doing a lot of lately.

“Isn’t it exciting, skipper?” the monkey spirit said cheerfully to Mindra “The forest has really been changing. Not long ago this was all lush green. A forest that has stood unchanged for thousands of years. Where’s the fun in that? It really was time for change, skipper.” The monkey argued, Mindra disagreeing. But when asked, Mindra always said “I’m just talking to a spirit.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The group found a path, ten feet broad, the plant life there not so much trampled down as withered away by some spell. The group decided to use the path for as long as possible, traveling much more quickly along it than they could have through the tangled overgrowth of Shinomen. Rounding a curve though, Mindra barely had time to yell out a warning before Tsuno came into view, a pack of the massive, horned creatures waiting to ambush.

 

[Despaxas]

wooohooo ... 3 updates

keep it coming, I'm sure I'm not the only one enjoying them

 

[Black Omega]

I'll be in fast forward mode for the next week or so until the Storyhour is caught up, then I can slow down and do more detail again. Plenty of violence still to come, and even a little death.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Notes from Mir

Must add future notes at this point in the story. Notes will be inserted later but please continue now.

Mir