Fifth Day of the Boar Continued
As Naoya ran out with his cloth bundled held closely he yelled out "Be on alert! This might be a distraction! You and you!" his finger pointing to two guards "check on the prisoners! Everyone else be on guard!" As the guards snapped into action and servents poured from the house to start fighting the fire the Shugenja leaned in close to Naoya nervously, saying "It could be the pearl. I felt it..it's-angry-." Verick and Yukiyo both caught this, the two standing in close invisibly...waiting for the proper moment to strike. Neither with any idea where the other was.
Volar was still invisible as well, peeking in the room where the prisoners were held. As Mindra wiggled over to by the window he heard the commotion outside. And then he saw something even more troubling. Mir had been distracting the guard but as with the last time she was exposed to this poison..she had relapsed, slumping back into a deep sleep as the drugs side effects caught up with her. Nor did the guard mind this...a devious look in his eyes as he considered for a moment how best to take advantage of this. Before he could put his plan into action, Mindra struck, hands lifted as he chanted a fast spell and the guard felt his body shudder then freeze in place.
[DM Note: Mir's player was absent this week, so I had the character suffer a relapse from the sleep drug. ]
Freed earlier by Mindra, both Kaz and Toshiro jumped to their feet. Kaz went to guard the door while Toshiro rushed the guard, pulling out the man's katana and in one clean stroke lopping his head off. At that moment the first guard sent to check on the prisoners opened the door, taking a punch to the face from Kaz, then a swarming assault from spirits all around him as the Vanara shaman screeched out a spell. The guard cried out "The prisoners are escaping!" then whipped his sword out..but in his haste the blow went wide, totally missing the unarmored samurai.
Outside, Naoya yanked his sword out and with the Shugenja in tow, he and two more guards marched toward the house. The Shugenja chanted softly, then touched Naoya as he to cast a spell. As the spell finished the Shugenja cried out, an arrow appearing between his shoulder blades as Verick flickered into view, bow in hand. Yukiyo had taken cover by a tree as was ready to shoot when Volar's chanting was heard over the other noise, the elf appearing just as a thick spider's web fell over the area, fastening onto the trees. Capturiung Naoya, the Shugenja, the two guards...and Yukiyo!
Inside, Mindra the magic monkey had cast a Shield of Faith over Kaz and was busy cutting Shiko free with a captured wakizashi as Kaz and Toshiro surrounded the other guard, Toshiro's stolen katana and Kaz's fists making short work of the guard. Deciding to take the fast way out, Toshiro backed up and through his body forcefully at the wooden wall. With a crash he hit the wall and staggered back. No effect. The second time both Kaz and Toshiro joined forces, the crash of impact heard by everyone in the fight. But the sturdy wooden wall stubbornly held.
Outside Volar cast Shield on himself and yelled into the house "Go through the wall!" And Verick and the Shugenja began a curious sort of duel. Buried deep in the web, the Shugenja had line of sight and cast a hold person on Verick...then another, both the spells failing against the young Lion's will. But Verick's arrows could not find their way through the thick web to the Shugenja. Naoya sliced himself free of the web as Yukiyo wiggled free more dextrously, then starting shooting arrows into one of the captured guards.
Inside...Shiko and Mindra stood guard as three times the burly Crab Samurai threw themselves against the walls...the wood cracking...but not giving way. Until finally Shiko suggested they find another way out of the room, setting off, armed with a wakizashi. Toshiro, Kaz and Mindra all followed quickly.
Outside, Volar yelled "I'm going to kill you, Naoya!", in Common, then cast a silent image of himself and sent it running around the web to where Naoya was cutting himself free. Yukiyo loosed two arrows at Naoya, both missing badly, then the Shugenja called down a sleep spell, mists rising around both Verick and the image of Volar. As always, Verick resisted, then missed his arrow shot in return. But the image of Volar sagged down as if put to sleep.
Savagely, Naoya stepped over and hacked the image in two. Another two arrows from Yukiyo caught his attention, one finding a weak spot in his armor and drawing blood. With a thunderous yell he charged her, drawing a much larger gout of blood from the young archer. Volar summoned a celestrial hound to help in the attack on Naoya. Shiko was the first of the ground inside to make it out of the house, wakizashi at ready as she jumped out. And Yukiyo promptly ran behind her for protection and fired another arrow at Naoya.
Inside the web, the two guards were slowly freeing themselves when suddenly the Shugenja cast a spell, a thick mist rolling in,surrounding him and covering an area even larger than the web. Naoya emerged from the mist, ready to go after Shiko and Yukiyo...a battle just his style, a girl archer in leather already badly wounded and a female samurai in a kimono, armed simply with a wakizashi. But then Kaz and Toshiro emerged from the house and he thought better of that idea.
Luckilyfor him, Verick came out from the mists close by and before he saw Naoya, the Magistrate's katana had cut a nasty slice in his side. Verick jumped away, drawing out his double sword as he dropped the bow. And Kaz, Shiko and Toshiro all charged, only to watch in frustration as Naoya turned and ran into the mists. And inside the mists, the two guards were free and slowly cutting their way through the webs as the Shugenja also made a slow, painstaking path to try and get free.
Volar send his Celestrial Hound into the mists to track down Naoya. the transcripts runs as follows:
Dog *yip*yip*yip*yip* Grrrrrr?
Volar: Um..I think he lost him.
Dog: Grrrreof! *yip*yip*yip*yip*yip*YIPE!!*Silence*
Volar: Well..at least he found him...
Kas, Toshiro, Yukiyo and Shiko chased into the mists after Naoya, emerging on the other side without finding him, then setting up spaced out along the edge of the mists on that side to watch for him coming out. Meanwhile Mindra healed Verick and they waited on the other side of the mists in case he doubled back. That is...until they heard in the mist the sound of someone hacking through the wall of the house.
Akodo Verick ran back into the house, finding the source of the sound just the guard has a clear hole cut through into the room. Verick also noticed this guard was the one carrying valuables from inside the house. Leveling one point of his double sword at the eyes of the guard, Verick calmly informed him "Surrender now and you'll live. Otherwise I'll kill you, even if you try to surrender later." Faced with an unappealing choice, the guard waffled, then gave up, tossing his sword and the gold to Verick.
This left just Mindra guarding one side of the mist. That is..until he looked down toward where the house was on fire and saw a servent carrying out Toshiro's armor. In a flash the monkey dashed down to where the servants were removing valubles from the building. Leaping from box to box and tossing items around, the frustrated creature grabbed a nearby servent and screeched "Where's my armor!" Taken aback, the servent could only stammer "Wh..what armor??" Mindra pulled the man in close and bared his fangs "I have leather armor..scales..where is it! Go find it! Find it or I'll call down the curse of the spirits on you, on your family and your decendants!" then he pushed the man back toward the buring building. With fire on one side and a screeching monkey threatening curses on the other, the poor man dashed inside tom try and find the armor.
[DM Note: This was pretty amusing, as it suddenly dawned on certain players that the big magic items were all inside the burning building still. Mindra in particular gotpretty animated over this as I tried to decide 'Would leather armor burn if it's magic..."
]
Back at the mist it was dawning on them that one side was totally unguarded. Another of the trapped guards escaped the web and ran off as fast as he could while Kaz ran at a sprint through the mist to try and cut out any escape. He jumped from the mist as the guard was escaping but once he determined it wasn't Naoya he turned back to the mist...his eyes widening as a katana stabbed out through the mist and into his chest, the palm of Naoya's hand on the butt of the handle, pushing Kaz back from the mist and driving the blade in deeper before he dragged it outin a blood slash. Their swords clashed as strokes were traded back and forth, Naoya driving Kaz back step by step.
On the other side of the mist, Volar heard movement..and a little muttering. Thinking fast, he created an illusion and sounds of Toshiro, Kaz and Verick on the open side of the mist where the sounds were coming from. Spooked, the Shugenja came running out a different side of the mists, where Volar cast a Grease Spell that sent the Shugenja's feet flying out from under him. Yukiyo sent two arrows at the Shugenja, but only ont hit, thanks to him being a prone target. But before he could rise, Shiko was standing over him, a savage stab of her wakizashi pinning him to the ground.
The duel with Kaz and Naoya went back and forth, Kaz drawing blood with a drawing stroke to the arm. but for every hit he landed on Naoya, the crooked Magistrate returned two, blood covering both men. Then from out of the mists silently emerged Toshiro. With a sudden cry his sword was raised and fell, hacking into Naoya's shoulder. Surrounded, Naoya tried to back up against the building with a fighting retreat but Kaz and Toshiro worked together brilliently as a team, Toshiro in particular cutting with savage efficiency until in a moment of perfect syncronicity(sp) Toshiro cut off Naoya's head while Kaz buried his sword into Naoya's heart.
[DM Note: This was a -long- combat. It basically took the entire night. With the Web and the Obscuring Mist the two sides had trouble getting at each other and seeing each other. It was also the first time Toshiro really rememberd to work toward using his Great Teamwork Feat that gives him a +4 when flanking. Absolutely lethal. THis was actually an easier combat for the group than I planned, but they used good teamwork and improvisation to use their surprise to best advantage.]
Next...the aftermath. Burning buildings...golden treasure... and 20 ronin?!
