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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Black Omega" data-source="post: 28785" data-attributes="member: 79">The evening of the 7th Day of the RoosterThe Moto swiftly disappeared from view, the dust cloud kicked up by their horses passing quickly out of view as they raced on to catch Leila.  Toshiro and friends were left to plod along after them far more slowly.  What had in the morning been a ride of less than a day was now a two-day journey on a slow wagon to Mimura.  Approaching Mimura on the 9th Day of the Rooster, the group was treated to the sight of the monks they had fought when they first visited the village out working on the wooden stockade fences that surrounded the small town, the huge monk who had nearly twisted Toshiro's head off carrying logs all by himself as he chanted to Shinsei.True to the promise, the group was allowed through the checkpoint without their papers being checked, not even a comment on the group being accompanied by the girl a complaint had been filed against last time.  Stopping by the Blessings of the New Year Inn, the group was greeted with good news:  Verick had recovered from the sleep drug and was up and around again.A room was found to keep Malthorn securely locked away in, the merchant still manacled.  A gag had been added after the charm spell wore off the and the merchant had started letting his feelings for Volar be known, starting with course Rokugani, then moving on to common and finally barbaric Hordelands dialect where most curses involved unnatural things with horses.  Each member of the group took an watch over him.  Just to be annoying, Volar put a sleep spell on him to keep him out of trouble during his watch, while Mir Charmed him, just to add salt to the wounds.After spending the night at the Inn, the group was greeted in the morning by the politely smiling face of Ide Masaaki.  Nothing important, he was just stopping by to make sure there had been not troubles, everything was to their satisfaction, and by the way, he'd taken the liberty of making sure the wagon was ready to go, the group's horses prepared.  After all, he was sure their very important business would require them to be moving right on quickly.Annoyed, Verick just growled to the foppish diplomat "Our business is our own.  We might just stay a few days; it's not that urgent.  That's enough for now.  Go."Diplomatically, Ide Masaaki ignored the boy's words totally, instead looking to Hiruma Toshiro with a nod "Let me know if you need anything and arrangements will be made.  The guards at the gate have already been told to let you pass on through."  And with that, Masaaki departed.As the others in the group looked to him, Verick just shared back coldly "He's not a warrior, or even a diplomat, he's a weasel.'  At Verick's urging, the early morning departure time was delayed, a large breakfast followed by tea as the Hour of the Hare turned to the Hour of the Dragon.  [DM Note:  And some joking about them having Breakfaster, second breakfast and elevensies, as the Hobbits say.  We'd watched FotR not long before.<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=":)" />]As the group lingered, a young man who had been hanging around, drinking tea, approached Sho.  Quietly he enquired if the ronin was interested in the whereabouts of Madame Sadoka, the woman the group had nearly killed in their last visit.Sho handed the man off to Yukiyo and hard bargaining followed, ranging from 25 koku to 50 and working toward the middle, punctuated by Yukiyo walking away at one point.  And hour passed before the young man approached again and the deal was finally settled.  He revealed Sadoka had moved back to the Silver Okasan and had nearly fortified it, sealing off the back door, reinforcing the walls and windows and even putting a new lock on the front door.Even armed with this new information, Toshiro was more eager to get on with the trip than to settle old scores and finally they set out for Bugaisha.  The first day of travel passed slowly but uneventfully.  But on the morning of the 11th Day of the Rooster as the group prepared to get moving they were found by six riders.One of the riders was the Shugenja who had escaped when Malthorn was captured; the others were ronin in dark armor, armed with bow, lance and katana.  The riders pauses 200 feet from the group's camp and the Shugenja yelled out "Give us the merchant and you can keep the rest.  No one needs to get hurt!"Toshiro answered with an arrow, though it missed any of the riders.  As the group waited for the riders to charge the Shugenja yelled out "Ready!  Aim!  Fire!"  A volley of arrows from the riders fell among the group, Sho and Mir both being struck.  Volar conjured up a shield for protection as Yukiyo and Mir both used the wagon for cover.  After another volley of arrows it was becoming obvious the riders were going to cut them down from a distance and Volar started grabbing out scrolls from his Haversack, casting protection from arrows on Mir, Verick, Toshiro and Sho.  Meanwhile Mindra was turned invisible to act as medic again.  [DM Note:  The Protection from Arrows spells worked better than anyone would have guessed.  I started rolling very badly to hit the people protected with the spells, so it was around five rounds before the ronin realized their arrows had no effect when they hit.]Verick, Sho and Toshiro started to charge forward, protected from the arrows now and shadowed by the invisible monkey.  Mir cast an Entangle, but only managed to snare one of the riders.  As arrows started to bounce off Verick and Toshiro, the ronin knew something was up and at the Shugenja's command switched to their secondary plan.  A spell invoked the Grasp of the Kami, freezing Toshiro in place as the ronin flanked to either side of the charging fighters and rode straight toward the wagon where the merchant was kept.One rider was a little careless however, and Verick managed to get close enough to slash his horse's legs out from under it while an arrow from Yukiyo caught it in the neck.  Furious, the Ronin yanked out his katana and charged the boy.Switching to lances, the other Ronin charged in, scoring a bloody hit on Volar, the second time the Wizard had been skewered in combat with the ronin.  Yukiyo threatened the manacled Malthorn with an arrow and demanded the ronin surrender or she would kill the merchant.  Since Malthorn was already likely facing a death sentence for breaking an Imperial Edict, this wasn't persuasive and the Ronin Shugenja cast a sleep spell.  Yukiyo resisted but the merchant didn't and his last memory of the battle was staring into an arrow held to his eye.  Unable to move, Toshiro decided he could will his way past this, focusing all his willpower on breaking the spell.Steel flashed as the dismounted Ronin matched his powerful two handed slashes against the faster flurries from Verick's Double Sword, blood quickly covering both, neither willing to take a step back from a duel that would do Darth Maul and Qui-Gon Jinn proud.  Grasp of the Kami spells (Hold Person) froze Yukiyo in place but Sho did substantial damage slashing the horse out from under another Ronin before killing the rider.  Mir dueled with another rider from on top of the wagon, dodging back from the slashes of his katana while stinging him repeatedly with Magic Missiles from her wand.Toshiro felt the spell holding him weakening, redoubling his efforts, knowing he was winning!  [DM Note:  In other words, the duration was running out.<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=";)" />]The Ronin Shugenja invoked Shinsei's Protection (Sanctuary) upon himself, riding around the wagon to try and grab the merchant off it while Yukiyo was frozen and Sho and Volar were busy with the other Ronin.  Verick's duel with the Ronin was winding down, both panting for breath and bleeding from a dozen places.  The next hit would decide it..and as luck would have it at that point Toshiro's willpower overcame the spell holding him [DM Note:  Well, the duration ended at least] and he leapt into action, cutting down the Ronin and finishing the duel.Sho and Yukiyo finished off another of the Ronin with sword and bow and Volar slowed the Ronin Shugenja by blinding him and his horse both with a color spray.  However, no one could take advantage since his spell still protected him from attacks, only Volar able to bring himself to harm him.But his horse was not so lucky.  The merchant was drawn over the back of the horse and the Shugenja started to ride off Yukiyo, Toshiro and Verick launched arrows into it while Mir's Magic Missile's seared into the Shugenja himself.  Just before he would have gotten out of range the horse collapsed.  Left with no chance of rescuing the merchant and his his opponents getting on their own horses to run him down the Ronin Shugenja surrendered himself to Toshiro.</blockquote>

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