Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Black Omega" data-source="post: 281831" data-attributes="member: 79">Meanwhile, at Yasuki Kome's home.  Hiruma Toshiro, Toritaka Kazuyuki, Volar and Mir were greeted with the traditional tea and conversation, though in proper Crab Clan fashion, sake was substituted for tea.  Shocked and stunned indeed was the devious Crab to hear about Madame Sadoka's reward for the group that led to the assault from Ide Naoya.  Certainly, if he had known of it, he assured, he would have sent word immediately.  Sadly, with Madame Sadoka trying to collection 'protection' from every business in town, he and other honest businessmen have had their hands full dealing with her thugs."I can't imagine where she got those brutes."  Kome sighed "Certainly from beyond the empire.  Their massive size.  The almost grayish skin tone.  The barbarian weapons.  Their Rokugani is terrible.  I've been hiring help but so far I've not found anyone who can deal with these masked animals.  It does my heart good to be joined here by two strong Crab Samurai.  Working together, we can rid Mimura of this hideous woman!"Kome mistook the group's grimness with assent on the seriousness of the situation.  And when Toshiro assured "We have every intention of cleaning Sadoka's filth from this town.  Starting with her bar and working our way back to her."  he was overjoyed, though stoically he didn't show it.  And if perhaps Toshiro's voice was a little too hard.  His gaze at the smuggler less than friendly, well, these were dangerous times.  They could be allies and clan mates without being friends.Kome assigned some men to accompany the group to the Silver Okasan, to assist in 'cleaning the place up'.  The men didn't carry much in the way of weapons, but did have some lumber, hammers and jars of oil.  No doubting there what the nature of their help would be.------------------------------------------------Over outside the Blessings of the New Year Inn a couple scruffy ronin waited, leaning casually on their spears as they waited in the midday sun.  Now and then one would mutter out of the corner of his mouth to his friend "Are you sure they'll be here?  It's too hot out here and I'd kill for a drink about now.""They always come into town and stop by this inn.  They'll be here.  They always stop by here to stable their horses and get rooms.  They'll never expect an ambush so soon after entering town."  His friend muttered back."Shut up!"  a guttural voice snarled from the covered wagon behind the men. "Focus on the job at hand."  And silently the two ronin waited.  Their prey would be here soon…------------------------------------------------A good ways down the street and one block over, the group had come back together.  Verick, Mindra and Kaz related the information they had gained checking out the bar.  Decisively, they decided to wait no time and strike now before the bar was reinforced.  All save Mir.  The young cleric/bard had been feeling there was something wrong…something she was missing for some time.  Finally, the feeling was driving her crazy.  "I need to go commune with the Oak Father."  She murmured "There's something wrong, but I can't put my finger on it…"   Kaz was assigned to guard her while she went off to her meditations.  She had been spending a lot of time in town lately…[DM Note:  This set the trend for the adventure from hell.<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=":)" />  Mir and Kas's players couldn't make it for this session.  Next time it would be Volar and Mindra missing.  And the adventure in Mimura stretched out as I made adjustments for all the people missing sessions.]Walking down the street openly, the group headed to the bar, pausing once it was in sight as they prepared.  "Remember, charge up to the door if you can.  If we can block them at the door they can't use their numbers against us."  The samurai drew their weapons as Volar readied his mage armor and Mindra began buffing Toshiro and Verick up with spells to enhance their strength. Then Verick noticed a look out suddenly run into the Silver Okasan, clearing having spotted the group's preparations.  The group waited until the spells were set, though, Volar adding a shield spell for additional protection before they started against toward the seedy bar.The delay had been enough, though, and ronin boiled out from the bar, the massive figure with the iron-studded club leading the way.  The samurai yelled their battle cries, matched by the barbarian roar of the masked figure and a resounding "Show us the money!" from the mercenary ronin as the groups came together.  And almost immediately the group missed Kaz's presence in the frontline.  Toshiro came face to face...well…face to chest with the barbaric masked warrior and almost instantly found himself in trouble as the barbarian batted his katana aside with that iron studded club before bringing it around to bash into his arm with bone breaking force.  Even worse, one of the ronin scored a critically placed hit to a weak point in Toshiro's armor, drawing a heavy flow of blood.  Verick found himself face to face with two ronin, and he twirled his double sword before leaping to the attack.A web from Volar failed to catch most of the ronin and one who was caught turned out to be a shugenja, his magic calling the Kami's blessings on his side as Mindra healed Toshiro and a magic missile from Volar thudded into the barbarian's chest.  "Get the elf!"  The masked figure roared, then traded heavy blows with Toshiro as the ronin charged on.  Another dangerous his found a chink in Verick's armor but he returned the strike with interest, gaining the upper hand.Mindra ducked back from a ronin's strike as Volar cast mirror image and suddenly there were five elves casting.  Oh wait, four now as a sword found one Volar and it turned out to be an illusion.  The bloody battle between Toshiro and the masked figure continued almost evenly, with Mindra healing the samurai as the Shugenja tried to keep the barbaric creature in the fight with his own spells.Verick's double sword slashed out with lightning speed, driving his opponent back as two ronin surrounded Mindra and for the first time the monkey was in for some serious hurt, blood and fur flying as both drew blood with sweeping, two handed strikes.  Another image flicked out as the ronin pressed his attack on the elf and the three remaining Volar's chanted in unison, a triple Scintillating Sphere called down, crackling brightly and striking down one ronin and hurting the masked figure badly.The masked monster began to tremble, muscles twitching then bulging as he went berserk, his club sweeping down powerfully toward Toshiro.  Only to be stopped cold as the Crab samurai parried, muscles straining, then Toshiro swept his katana back around and down, a ferocious critical strike that caught the barbarian on the forehead, splitting the top part of his mask and covering it with blood.  The masked figure staggered back, lifting a hand to his mask…then slowly fell onto his face, unmoving.Shocked for a moment, the Shugenja went to heal him, but was caught by a triplicate magic missile from the Volar's and though it only did the damage of one, which was enough to finish him for the fight.Verick finished his own man quickly, a sweeping strike from low to high nearly sending his opponent's weapon flying, then the other blade slashing back to catch him in the throat, leaving him in a bloody pool on the street.  The last ronin took a swing at the wildly dodging monkey, but then slowly became aware he was the last man standing from his side.  With a wild yell he took off running for his life.Quick healing was done as Volar checked on the masked figure.  He had been speculating earlier that these mysterious men could be Orcs.  Or perhaps hobgoblins.  He turned out to be a Half-Orc, with slightly Rokugani features but more heavily favoring the Orc side.  In other words, butt ugly.  Volar turned to looting the corpses as the others chased the lasts ronin dregs out of the bar, the smoke filled back room emptying into the street behind through the backdoor as Kome's men finally took action, piling oil soaked wood against the bar.The group had no part in this, ignoring the arson and just walking away after finishing clearing the area.  Toshiro was feeling good.  The first battle had gone as smoothly as he could have hoped.  He was confident.  He was assured.  He could deal with anything.  Except the four disheveled girls who got in his way.  Fresh from the Silver Okasan's back room and with nothing more to their names than the scanty kimono they wore, they pleaded with Toshiro to protect them from the wicked Madame Sadoka.  Sadoka owned their contracts and even after Toshiro explained they were free to go, they whimpered they were afraid Sadoka would find them again, and she had legal claim on them.  Confronted with four cute girls with big, tear-filled eyes and quivering lips, Toshiro never had a chance.  And maybe the old lady running his house could use a little help…--------------------------------------Back at the Blessings of the New Year Inn.  One scruffy ronin looked up into the afternoon sky in puzzlement, then elbowed the other "Hey, were we planning another strike today?  That's a pretty big smoke cloud…"  The two gazed up into the sky at the black cloud then jumped in surprise as the covering of the wagon was suddenly tossed aside, a massive figure with a toothy mask of black iron towering over them as he gazed upwards as well.  "Shimatta!  Back to the bar, now!"[DM note:  Whatever you might have heard, Merriam-Webster's Japanese-English dictionary reliably assures me 'Shimatta!' actually means 'Gosh!'<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />]</blockquote>

Verification