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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Black Omega" data-source="post: 1220" data-attributes="member: 79">Dead of nightThe 24th Day of the Month of the MonkeyAs Mindra and Mir did their thing, healing those wounded, Volar searched the bodies.  The peasant bandit's revealed nothing of interest, but the ronin's body had a string of 100 gold coins around his neck, a katana that had been maintained flawlessly, and which after some examination was revealed to belong to someone in the Unicorn Clan.  Most curiously, writing on a sheet of rice paper was found.  Verick translated it as:A gold avalancheSo beautiful rushing downThen only darknessA little puzzled over that, the group next awakened the lone captured bandit.  He awakened with a frightened "Don't hurt me, I didn't mean it, IT'S NOT MY FAULT!"  The group managed to calm him enough to find out he was from a local village.  He finally admitted to being a former bandit serving a notorious bandit chief named Rodrigo, a hulking, massively ugly man.  But five years ago he'd given up banditry and tried to settle down.  Then recently this ronin had appeared, knowing about his past and blackmailing him into helping with the gold robberies.  Given the choice of either he and his family dying if his past came out, or joining in and hoping things worked out and he didn't get caught, he took the easy way out.  His many protests that he had no choice, he never wanted to do it and the most frequent "It's not my fault!" fell on deaf ears, particularly when he could not tell the group what became of the gold, only that the ronin paid the bandits in silver coin.  At this point the group just left the pathetic fellow tied up while debating if the haiku was perhaps a clue to where the gold was stashed.The 25th day of the Month of the MonkeyThat evening the group camped out, setting watches while their guide and a helper saw to the horses and mules.  The third watch early in the morning belonged to Verick and Volar.  Before the first glow of dawn appeared over the horizon another glow was seen, angry red and flickering.  Not long after Verick spotted a figure approaching the camp.  As Volar quietly woke the others, Verick got his sword ready, preparing for an attack.  Instead, into the camp leapt a peasant in armor!  Well, not very good armor.  And he was unarmed, a blood rag binding a nasty wound in his shoulder and a few streaks of soot still darkening his face.  Urgently he introduced himself as Nezu and asked the group for help.  Zombies were attacking a nearby village and the Unicorn patrol there.  Zombies! So he'd come to the only other samurai he knew was near by to find help.The group was suspicious of this, suspecting some sort of ruse to lure them away from the gold.  But they got everything together and started off toward the glow at the best pace the pack mule could set, not too fast.  By the time they crested the hill and looked down over the village any fighting was over.  In the flickering light of one burning building they could see zombies deeper in the village and a ring of zombies and skeletons around a figure in a dark robe kneeling over a bound girl.  All the zombies had white ceramic masks covering their faces.  The skeletons as well, their masks marked with a blood red symbol of the Void over the forehead, their eyes flickering with a cold fire.Hiruma Toshiro started the attack with an arrow that struck the kneeling figure in the robes.    He whirls and gestured, cutting his own hand and flicking blood toward the group, a dark red mist rising about them, making their eyes heavy...but all of them fought off the effects, Volar simply being amused someone tried a sleep spell on him.  Mindra and Mir both summoned up power from the spirits and Silvanus respectively, a wave of positive energy from the two turning all the zombies and one of the skeletons.[DM Note:  Bit of a surprise, this.  The only group we'd had in the past that fought many undead didn't have a cleric.  Hadn't really taken into account how effective turning would be when someone rolled high.]As the fighters charged him, Sho actually reaching him, the bloodspeaker cut his hand again, a wall of polluted water springing up around him, hurling the ronin back away where the skeleton chopped at him, then a screaming blob of energy shaped like a skull engulfed him, turning his bones to ice as it stole away his strength.  [DM Note:  Criticals on Ray of Enfeeblement are fun.  The spell did -8 strength in one shot.  Poor guy could barely stand in that heavy armor.]A wail was heard from inside the skeleton's mask, zombies from deeper in the village summoned.  Then it chopped at the ronin again, using its katana with some skill, Volar and Mir both agreeing this was a very unusual skeleton.  But then another blast of positive energy turned it and the remaining zombies as well, leaving the shugenja by himself to face the group.  As the last skeleton fled the robed figure cried out "Mistress, don't forsake me!  I can still win this!"  His eyes turning to the group, a sleep spell bubbling out to fell both Toshiro and Sho before he warned "That is but the slightest taste of my power...do not follow lest you suffer far worse."  Then he fled, the wall of water falling.   An obscuring mist slowed pursuit but Verick kept in close on him, nearly killing him with a savage slice of his double sword before a Fear spell sent him fleeing.  Mindra had awakened Toshiro and Sho, but it was no use.  As fast as they caught up to the robed figure, which had paused to heal himself, another sleep spell fell put them back out.  Luckily for the group, Volar was immune to the spell and as the robed figure fled an elven arrow found it's target, catching the man in a critical spot, leaving him unconscious and bleeding to death.  Some koku, a magic amulet, and a vial that showed as magic were quickly looted from his corpse by the moonelf.[DM Note:  The chase went on much longer than expected, at the rate it was going we were joking as they went they were passing slow moving zombies still fleeing from that turning.<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" />]Mindra and Mir had stayed behind to untie the girl; Mindra cleaning some marks off her face, some sort of nasty looking black salve mixed with blood and forming symbols.  A little to their surprise, the girl didn't scream or panic when she woke up, instead she was very focused.  She identified herself as Utako Shiko, asked what had happened, and let the two know she had been part of a patrol with four other samurai, all of whom were now missing.  The attack by the zombies and a mist rising around the samurai were her final memories of that battle.    Samurai evidently have problems with sleep spells.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  Recovering from the Fear effect, Verick found himself back where the party had started, the mules, guide and the dirty peasant in armor there, the bandit lying on the ground, his throat slit.  As the peasant explained, "He was trying to escape...besides, he was just a bandit."  Indeed, the rope binding the bandit's wrists had been coming undone, so perhaps it was true.  Verick was suspicious though, and did his best to make Toshiro suspicious as well, suggesting the samurai should just kill the peasant for taking away his prisoner like that.  The peasant protested that it was just killing a bandit but quickly moved on to groveling, apologizing to the Samurai for killing his prisoner, apologizing for not knowing the samurai wanted him alive, apologizing for simply being a pointless peasant while the Samurai was a lord of great skill and compassion.  Where explanations had failed, groveling worked fine and Toshiro just warned him to keep close with the group.With Nezu whipped into line and Mindra having restored Sho's strength, the group split up.  While Mindra, Mir and Volar stayed in the village helping out, Hiruma Toshiro, Utako Shiko, Sho and Verick went out trying to track down the missing samurai and find where all the zombies went.  It was slow with no real tracker in the group, but eventually they found their way to a cave.  Chatting as they traveled along, Verick revealed to Shiko he was really Akodo Verick, returning to claim a place in the family, but they didn't know it yet.  Shiko laughed and admitted she'd love to see how that worked out.  Verick was a little puzzled over that, but didn't have time to ask more since Toshiro had decided to check out the cave.  A simple trap at the entrance, a bamboo gate that apparently would swing down to trap people inside, was dealt with, then the four crept deeper into the cave.  The stonewalls widened as they went deeper...and suddenly the light of Verick's lantern revealed faces...white faces frozen in the ceramic masks...and then the zombies attacked. Showing great stubbornness but no tactics whatsoever, the four fighters met the charge head on, Toshiro taking the point as the wave of zombies hit.  As fast as one zombie was cut down, another took it's place as the four held their ground, hacking at anything that moved.  Slowly they started to wear down...a zombie ripping into Toshiro's armor before being cut in half.  Another of the evil creatures hammered Verick with a crude club.  Both Shiko and Sho bitten and bloodied.  And still more zombies came.  Finally, just as the wave of zombies seemed to break, no more seen deeper in the cave, Toshiro fell, a savage blow from a zombie drawing a shower of blood before he hit the ground with a thump.  Seconds later, Verick took a slash from a curved dagger, stumbling in the blood covering the floor of the cave before another blow laid him low as well.  Both Shiko and Sho had come through the battle wounded but not badly so and they managed to finish off the zombies before the undead could kill their fallen comrades.  Inspired, Sho managed to use his meager healing skills to stabilize Toshiro while Shiko did the same for Verick.  (Rolls were 20 and 18; they needed it).An inspection of the cave revealed a spot where rituals had been performed, the area stinking with old blood.  But no sign of the lost samurai, the skeletons or whoever set the trap.  Sho suggested one of them stay behind while the other rides for help from the group left behind in town, an idea Shiko refused emphatically.  Finally they started back, Verick and Toshiro carefully tied onto their horses.  Luckily, whoever had been there had fled and they made it back safely.  Though the four were so wounded the group had to spend an extra day in the village so they could heal fully.  Then they started back, Toshiro ordering Nezu to stay behind at the village and guard it, a task the peasant was more than happy to accept.The 28th day of the Month of the MonkeyThe trip back to town was uneventful, Verick presenting the heads of the bandits and ronin for Echigoya when they reached the Plum Blossom Merchant House.  The barbarians were paid quickly, the merchant in quite a hurry.  Caravans were setting out from Bugaisha for the east in quite a rush. Word had come from the land of the Dragons of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, driving large numbers of that clan from their ancestral mountains.</blockquote>

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