The Evening of the Fourth Day of the Boar
The group settled into the guesthouse, picking a large common room as the area where everyone would sleep. Toshiro helped Kaz into the corner, dozing off instantly as the effects of the many bottles of sake caught up with him. Verick, Volar, Yukiyo and others started checking out the room for safety. Unusually, the walls were all sturdy wood, even the inner walls. The windows were closed and found to be nailed shut. The floor and ceiling were both also secure. The group seemed satisfied with this, though Verick did comment the room was more like a prison. Volar unveiled a new trick for security, a pebble he had carefully enchanted so if anyone came into the room who was not already in the room when he put it down, the small stone would start 'yelling out' "Alert! Alert!" in Common. Not satisfied to leave it at that, Yukiyo rigged up a cord to the sliding door that was hooked onto Toshiro's leg, so if anyone opened the door he would feel it.
Mir and Shiko were set for the first watch, the others peacefully dozing off. Guards patrolling around the house were regularly heard passing by the windows. That peace and security only lasted a couple of hours, however. Alertly, Mir heard the sort sound of movement in the hallway. There was a moment of doubt before she remembered the guesthouse did not have servants and she called Shiko's attention to the sound. The young samurai-ko quietly unsheathed her sword and both kept listening carefully. Then in s sudden motion the door was yanked open a few inches and two small grenades were tossed into the room. Before they could react, the door was closed again and the grenades burst, a sickly-sweet mist filling the room.
The mist swirled through the room and Kaz, Shiko and Mir all slumped down, unable to resist to same sleep poison the group had encountered in Mimura. Perhaps related, perhaps not, Toshiro slept on through the yank on his leg from the rope, though the loud yell of the spellstone calling out in Common "Alert! Alert!" did stir him to wakefulness. And his leg was yanked again as the door pulled open the thugs spilled into the room, rough looking men in ashigaru armor, carrying saps. Before the group could react, Toshiro was getting clubbed, as was Verick and Mindra. The thugs passing up the drunken crab as if they knew not to expect trouble from him.
Verick, Mindra and Yukiyo were on their feet in a flash, readying weapons as Volar cast a grease spell, sending one of the thugs falling to the floor. Toshiro didn't even bother to stand, drawing his katana and slashing the downed thug. The grease forced one thug forward from the monkey and Verick found himself surrounded on three sides, the saps clubbing he and Toshiro like baby seals while the other thug tried to stand in the grease. Mindra took a swing at him with his quarterstaff but it missed. Verick didn't, his double sword striking, drawing blood from one of his assailants and dropping him to the floor as they heard a voice from the hallway "Remember! A bonus if you get them alive!"
Still prone, Toshiro slashed and missed while Yukiyo pumped a couple of arrows into another of the thugs., Then Volar waved his hands, summoning up a web that spread throughout the entire room, though nearly everyone managed to avoid being caught in the sticky threads...save for Yukiyo.
With webs covering the entire room, the fight got confused with no one able to see anyone. The heavy saps rose and fell, Toshiro clubbed into unconsciousness. Then the three surrounding Verick caught him with expertly placed strikes, a sap to the temple lying out the young man as well. Mindra was left in single combat with a thug, striking him expertly with his staff. Still bound up in the web, Yukiyo took a couple of shots at one of the thugs on Verick, missing both. Volar threw out his hands, a gesture trying to Charm the thug closest to him, but the seedy looking thug fought it off.
Mindra exchanged blows with his thug, actually holding his own...but then two of the thugs left at loose ends by Verick going down made their way through the web, trapping the poor monkey into the corner. A flurry of arrows from Yukiyo dropped another of the thugs as they moved in around Volar, trying to trap the elf as well. A expertly placed strike from a sap caught Volar between the eyes, sending him wavering, then as he tried to recover by summoning help, his concentration failed and another bash brought the elf into unconsciousness. Another flurry of arrows left the thug over Volar dead but Yukiyo still stuck in the web as Mindra was surrounded, alternating healing himself and striking out at the thugs, holding his own before a flurry of clubbing blows brought down the monkey as well but not before he took one of the thugs with him with a well placed bash from his quarterstaff.
With the web cutting off all view of the still caught Yukiyo, the thugs yelled out to the hallway "We got them all. Careful of the web though!" Left to her own devices, Yukiyo light up a torch, suffering the burns from the web combusting and alerting the others someone was still up in the web. As Yukiyo burned her way toward Volar, rousing the wizard with a healing salve. "Hey, fire burns through the web!" One of the thugs yelled before closing in to finish the fight. Yukiyo used another healing salve on Verick, only to watch him get immediately clubbed back into unconsciousness as the thugs closed in on her. A few well-placed arrows dropped another of the thugs and Volar cast another Charm Person, this time bringing the thug under his thrall.
It took one more healing salve, their last, to revive Verick again then both Verick and Volar endured the fires to get freed of the web around them. In the hallway they saw the glow of fires and heard the sound of men in armor working their way closer. A voice they recognized as Ide Naoya yelled into the room "Surrender and none of you will be killed, I promise!"
An angry Volar yelled back "Hey, we're getting attacked by bandits, why didn't you stop them!"
Naoya's sneering voice yelled back "I say again, surrender! None of you will be harmed if you give up!"
"You promised before we were under your protection!" Volar called out "Have you lost all concept of honor?"
"Screw honor!" Ide Naoya shouted "I stand to make a lot of gold out of this. Surrender!"
With that the guards burned their way into view. It wasn't Toshiro's night, the web going up around him in a foosh of flame as that section of the web was cleared, then Volar summoned a roiling wave of color that blinded the samurai, as well as knocking out the thug he Charmed. A storm of hail battered the guards, as well as Toshiro, and a couple of arrows brought down one of the guards. But seeing little hope in the battle, Verick used his sword to cut and break a hole in the wooden wall.
With the Web still slowing pursuit Volar, Verick and Yukiyo were able to escape through the hole in the wall. Ide Naoya had been outside, but ran in the front door immediately when he saw them and the three resisted the temptation to take a last shot. Instead they rushed to the stables, no sign of guards around at all. Horses were hastily saddled and they fled into the night, riding hard to the north, guided by the elf's superior vision and the golden beacon of the Obi. Finding a spot away from the road they paused and plotted. Verick's first instinct was to ride onward, making sure the Obi was delivered and getting help for a revenge strike. But after some discussion, a decision was made to return. Grimly, revenge was vowed for the cowardly attack. Volar focused his spell studies on stealth spells, making sure he had three Invisibilities ready. A hiding place for the Obi was found and it was carefully buried, then the spot concealed as the group rested for the night, healing up the damage from the saps.
The Fifth Day of the Boar
[DM Note: Volar's player had joked all those Samurai were being a bad influence on Verick. He's turned lawful and this time his first idea was to finish the mission, rather than free his traveling companions. He'll make a Samurai yet.]
Mir, Shiko, Toshiro, Kaz and Mindra were awakened from their drugged slumber some unknown time later, finding themselves bound tightly hand and foot. The have been searched, anything that looked valuable or magical had been taken, Shiko's armor removed, all weapons taken. Toshiro still burned and battered from the fires in the web and the ice storm. The room they were kept in looked like another room of the guesthouse, sealed windows and sturdy wooden walls. Their throats dry, heads still pounding from the drug, the five were given no time to recover, Ide Naoya storming in with two guards and glaring over all of them "Where did your friends go?!"
All five were silent, Toshiro in particular glaring at Naoya as if he was a bug beneath notice. Naoya stomped from side to side, almost beside himself, "Where did they go?? It would have gone perfectly if those cowards had not snuck out the back!"
At this Toshiro could not contain himself, hissing, "I -will- kill you. That's a promise. You know nothing of honor!"
Naoya raised his hand; ready to strike Toshiro then drew in a calming breath...getting himself under control again, "I'd kill you if you weren't worth so much money to me. She's paying me well for you and the monkey. But I needed the other two! The Elf and the bitch with the bow! And who -is- this guy!?" he snarled, pointing to Kaz "At least I can make a little money back off the girls but him?! Maybe I can pass him off as Sho..." he mused.
Now it was Toshiro's turn to snarl, "You are not even fit to say his name, you dog! I'm going to kill you!"
And so it went, Ide Naoya asking questions, Toshiro returning threats. Others like Kaz simply remained stonily silent, and Mindra just kept claiming he was unconscious at the time, how would he know where anyone went. Finally Naoya gave up, deep in thought as he left, one guard remaining behind to keep an eye on the prisoners. Perhaps worn out by the tense exchange and still badly injured, Toshiro slumped off unconscious once more. But the others were not idle, Mir working to engage the guard in conversation. Though she was unable to charm the guard enough for him to untie her hands, at the very least she got his full interest. Using this distraction, Mindra and Kaz went to work on their bonds. Though the ropes were tied fairly well, Mindra's tail came in handy and after some wiggling he was finally able to loosen his bonds. Then his tail snaked over and worked to help Kaz, slowly getting the Crab samurai freed as Mir tried desperately to keep her conversation with the guard friendly while steering it away from things like "I wonder if I'll have enough gold to buy you when the auction comes up." And "If I just did a little peeking now, no one would know..."
[DM Note: There was a little silly fun here. Mindra was free and considering trying to cast a Hold Person while Mir had the guard distracted. The plan being that if the spell failed he and Kaz would jump on the guard and try and subdue him. It was at this point Kaz wondered how he could subdue someone while still tied up and Mindra suddenly realized he'd forgotten to untie him. At that point he started freeing Kaz.
]
Riding back carefully, Verick, Volar and Yukiyo returned that afternoon, finding a spot to hide the horses carefully before Volar cast Invisibility on each of them. A meeting place for later was set and the three slipped into the village, finding Ide Naoya's estate and starting to explore. Verick slipped inside the main house, moving silently through the halls until he found Naoya. The 'Magistrate' was in conversation with a local Shugenja, the party's stuff spread over the table they had dinner on the night before. The shugenja was pointing out various items that Verick knew were magical while chanting softly. Watching for a moment, a plan came to the invisible boy and he snuck away, looking for the kitchen.
Meanwhile Volar and Yukiyo were both drawn to the guesthouse. A guard at the front door and another in the hallway was a clear indication there was something in the house worth protecting...and worth finding. Going from window to window and peeking in, they found their lost friends. Apparently tied up still, with Mir being saved from the 'amorous' interest of the guard only by the guard shift changing. Undaunted, she started in on the next guard, trying to make friends. While she was getting the guards attention, Volar took the moment to bring out a arrow with an ever burning flame cast on it. Though the arrow was invisible, the light wasn't. He waved it in front of the window, the moving light catching Mindra's eyes. At first the monkey gave no sign he saw it, but after Volar tried again, Mindra gave a little shake of his head. Suddenly a note fluttered into view, landing softly on the floor near the monkey Mir caught sight of the note and found a whole new range of ways to keep the guard distracted while the monkey moved over to check out the note. Poorly written common that read, "Come to the window." A sneakily as possible, Mindra wiggled over closer to the window...
Meanwhile, inside the main house Verick's plan was taking shape. He had found the area where the cooking oil was stored and while no one was around he had tied string around the various ceramic pots. Then he backed out toward the cooking fire, first yanking the string to send the jars crashing to the wooden floor, breaking as oil went everywhere. Then he pushed a piece of wood from the fire off to the floor, sending the oil up in a blaze that spread like wildfire. Verick ran back to the room Naoya and the Shugenja were in, watching as the first warning of fire went up and Naoya gathered all the items into a cloth bundle, clutching the valuable magical items to his chest as he and the others ran out of the house.
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Edited to remove infernal boxes.
