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: 436645" data-attributes="member: 79">The trip to the location of the ambush took half a day over forested hills covered with snow.  By the time they arrived, the snow had ceased to fall, leaving eight inches of snow on the ground, but the bitter cold remained.  Only Mir with her Aasimar resistance to cold remained unaffected.Though the area of the ambush was covered by snow the group searched it carefully.  At strategic spots close to trees, pits were found where someone could hide.  Though the snow and elements had obscured most other evidence, the group also found an area where the icy ground had been suddenly melted to mud and had refrozen.  Footprints showed clearly, as did other marks, including where something had been dragged away.  Things weren’t looking good for their friend the Witchhunter.Nezu was very helpful using his tracking skills to look over the area, the thin, nervous fellow constantly glancing around as if an attack could come at any moment.  But it was Mindra who’s monkey ears picked up the sound of someone riding their way.  Fanning out, the group rode to meet this mysterious figure riding alone in the dead of winter.He turned out to be a man named Funaki, Toshiro and Kaz had both heard of him, a former Crab Clan samurai with a strong reputation as a fighter.  Though curiously, he carried no weapon.  And typically Crab in his speech as well.  A challenge from Kaz for his to produce his papers simply drew a snarling “Do you know who you are talking to, you little pissant?!  I was killing Oni on the Kaiu Wall when your parents were still deciding if they really wanted another crying brat!  And since when do Crab travel with…Elves.”, Funaki’s voice dripping with scorn.The sheer venom of the ronin’s tone took the group aback and Toshiro’s rather imprecise way of describing Volar as a special friend simply made Funaki more furious.  Volar contributed as well, adding in “Now, now…you need not fight over me…” using his best effeminate tone.This was the straw that broke the camel’s back and Funaki slide off his horse, carefully adjusting his helmet before he charged.  As he drew near to Kaz, Funaki reached over his back and then swung, shadows falling from a great, two handed battle axe that hacked into Kaz’s body.  As Mir moved to heal Kaz, Toshiro charged in to attack, a powerful overhand strike landing on Funaki’s shoulder.  The blade bit past the armor but then stopped, Funaki tensing his muscles, then flexing as he threw his arms wide and the blade was pushed back, no blood drawn.Eyes blazing, Funaki looked over Toshiro and hissed ‘I will show you exactly what I think of your fighting skills.”  Then he turned his back on Toshiro and attacked Kaz again, adding in a sidestep so he could also attack Mir when she went to heal Kaz.  After the initial furious charge, the group’s tactics got better, Volar summoning a celestrial badger and a thoqqua to help hem the ronin in as the others cycled in and out of the fight for healing.  In the end, the group was too much for Funaki and he was finally struck down by Yukiyo’s arrows and the samurai’s katanas.The fight over, the group healed their wounds while Volar checked out the body.  He discovered an unusually heavy pouch that registered as magical.  The ouch was discovered to be a bag of holding, and aside from the food and water carried inside, there were also six new chain mail shirts,  six purple kimono carrying the mon of Lord Shinjo Jyaku, and a substantial amount of material for writing scrolls.Also in the pouch was a note reading:  “Pick up shipment and return as soon as possible.  It seems the journal does exist.  If you can grab it or keep them from getting it, do so.  Otherwise it’s not that important.”While Volar was checking this out, Verick wandered over to look over the ronin’s battle axe.  He carelessly picked it up, then his body stiffened as he felt the sheer bloodlust of the weapon working into his mind.  Verick was barely able to fight off the weapons influence and drop it back into the snow.  “-That- we are destroying…”  he decided and the rest of the group agreed.Moving onward, the group decided to return to the cave they had seen on their first visit to this village, back months ago when Sho, Toshiro, Verick and Shiko had charged the zombies inside the cave.  This time there were no zombies but there were traps.  A devious fire trap clearly designed to fry the unwary.  Verick and Yukiyo were up to the task of spotting the disarming the trap, though.Inside the cave was found a set of black scrolls, non magical.  Also found was a curved, black dagger covered with long dried blood.  Mir took the scrolls into her possession for study later.  Outside the cave the ground found themselves face to face with a group of riders.  They had up to date travel papers and claimed they were out chasing the man the group had found and killed.  Though suspicious, Mir was able to confirm to the group that at least the men were truthful about chasing the ronin.However, Toshiro was apparently having trouble focusing on the conversation.  He looked around with a surprised look on his face, then shook his head before blurting out “Who are you?!  Why should I do this?”  Toshiro remained confused, looking to the riders then around again “I have nothing against attacking Kuzo, but how do I know this is not a trap?”  he asked into the air again.  In whispers Toshiro passed along to the others someone he could not see was talking to him, a voice no one else could hear.Then after a moment his face flushed and his eyes narrowed “It says the Witchhunter is dead, killed by Shahai.  And that my gir…er…Shinjo O-Hisa will be hurt if I don’t agree to this??”  this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Volar’s magic had revealed there was some form of illusionary magic on the leader of the riders.  Whispering to Kaz  “It must be him…stick close, we’ll work together and kill him.” The group prepared to attack.The mysterious riders were prepared for this eventuality, dismounted archers suddenly appearing from hiding, arrows at ready.  Even so, Toshiro and Kaz charged the lead, who slashed his own hand, a maho spell calling down Doom on Toshiro.  Toshiro and Kaz also had to charge past other warriors with readied weapons, taking damage for their trouble.  And then before they could even reach the maho-tsukai, the evil bloodmage, they were brought up short as Volar called down a Stinking Cloud over the area.Despite the initial confusion, the group really had little trouble with the battle.  Volar called down Scintillating Sphere after Scintillating Sphere, adding in Acid Arrows now and then.  Toshiro fell prey to another fear spell, this time dropping his sword before running away to cower behind Nezu, who himself looked more than ready to run, but somehow he managed enough courage to stand his ground between Toshiro and the maho-tsukai.Mir used her wand of magic missiles, Yukiyo launched arrow after arrow and Kaz and Verick got right into the thick of the battle and soon it was simply a matter of trying to capture someone before all their enemies ended up dead.  One of the archers was hit with a Hold Person by Mir and the rest were killed quickly.  Verick retrieved Toshiro’s ancestral sword and toyed with hiding it, but when Toshiro had recovered from the spell, Volar pointed him over to Verick to recover his sword.Aside from some gold, the group recovered a couple of interesting items from the saddlebacks of the maho-tsukai.  One was a magical lantern, dark green with golden dragons.  Also found to be magical was a group of seven coins, each carrying the emblem of one of the seven great Fortunes.  After some discussion the lantern was given to Mindra and the coins were split up.  The coin of Jurojin, the Fortune of Contentment, was given to Mir.  The coin of Hotei, Fortune of Happiness, was given to Yukiyo.  Given how often he’d been at death’s door, it wasn’t surprising Verick got the coin of <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=":)" /><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=":)" /><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=":)" />urokujin, Fortune of Longevity.  The coin of Ebusi, Fortune of Honest Hard Work, was given to Mindra.  The Fortune of Wealth, Daikoku’s coin as given to Volar.  Appropriately enough, Kaz got the coin of Bishamon, Fortune of Strength.  That left Hiruma Toshiro with the coin of Benten, the Fortune of Romantic Love.  A result others in the group had planned ahead of time.[DM Note:  Given how many people in my group read comic books, the green lantern jokes were inevitable.  Who knows, someday maybe they will find the ring that goes with that lantern.  The decision to split up the coins rather surprised me.  A detect magic had revealed divination magic on the items.  It did lead to some interesting situations, though.  And since Toshiro already had a girlfriend, he had no chance of escaping being given the coin of luv.<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=":)" />]The group camped out that night, preparing their set spells for interrogation.  This was a unique experience for Nezu, who for once got to watch an interrogation instead of being the center of attention.  When morning came the archer was stripped down to his loin cloth, left shivering in the freezing cold as Verick glared at him “Tell us what we want to know or I’ll kill you!”The young man’s eyes positively lit up “Really?!  Yes!  Free my soul from my body!  Iuchiban, I come to serve you at last!”  Not quite the reaction the group was going for.“We can also torture you…”  Kaz warned, giving his best intimidating look.“Yes, pain purifies the spirit!  Make sure to spill a lot of blood as well, blood is the life!”  the archer cried out happily.The Zone of Truth at least proved the young man was sincere in his fanaticism.  And a Charm Spell and carefully chosen questions from Mir revealed the man’s name was Hanzo, a former gambler recruited into the Bloodspeakers by his brother.  He was part of a Bloodspeaker faction that remained loyal to the memory of the first Bloodpeaker, Iuchiban.  Other’s had broken off from that faith and there was now conflict between the groups.   Though it was not his group who killed the Witchhunter, Hanzo knew he was dead.  Kuni Noriaki had been troubling both groups constantly until his sudden disappearance.  Then during a battle with the false Bloodspeakers Shahai had boasted about killing him.  As far as Hanzo was concerned, the Witchhunter was dead and the only thing left to do was find his journal.  The leader of the group had some ideas on how to decipher the encryptions used by the Witchhunters.The only other useful piece of information Hanzo had was that a spy had infiltrated his group.  He didn’t know what information she got, but the man in charge was –very- upset over it.  They had managed to cut her off from getting back to Bugaisha and she had reteated to the northern wastelands everyone knows to avoid.  Hanzo’s brother, Sanzo, and one other were sent after to make sure she never made it back to Bugaisha.A search of the maho-tsukai’s person revealed a roll of papers, notes taken on how to decipher certain codes.  Verick took charge of these and with a little work he managed to decipher parts of the Witchhunter’s journal:  From the jounal of Kuni Noriaki, Witchunter and Jade Magistrate.At last, the break I’ve been waiting on.  But when I tracked down the Maho-tsukai, it turned out his ‘base’ was simply creating opium.  How peculiar.  A preliminary test revealed the drugs were not even tainted.  How peculiar times two.  Just one of the workers in the base were captured.  He confirmed my darkest suspicion.  Shahai herself is in the area.  At last the killer of a hundred Witchhunters will meet her final fate!  Curiously, he knew nothing of the Bloodspeaker base further to the north.  He also said something about the Tetsu no Shukun…the Iron Lords.  Clearly warriors of some sort, though I can only speculate this might be a new type of undead since the pitiful fool died before I was done questioning him.  I definitely need more practice in this area.  He did reveal one other thing before his death.  The drugs were being sold for barely the price of making them.  How peculiar times three.  Clearly then it was not for the purpose of raising money.  This then begs the question, what is it for?  Under questioning, Nezu revealed they could be sent to Kuzo, evidently a hellhole of vice and crime.  But he could not even guess why. Kuzo apparently already has a source for drugs.  I’m now left with a puzzle.  Some of the Bloodspeakers working in this area are followed what Kuni Utagu has defined as their classic plan of operation.  Disease, creating undead, a very sinister and subtle corruption to gain power, while remaining well hidden.  Yet, other actions have been most atypical.  The assault that captured four samurai.  Encouraging rebellion in Reishiatsu.  Apparent involvement in vice.  (I shudder to think how much taint could be spread by a corrupt Geisha House).  I can only suspect some of these actions are taken by a splinter group, perhaps maho-tsukai unrelated to the Bloodspeaker organization.The meeting tonight should be interesting.  Nezu revealed a woman promised a dire fate for him if he did not lead me into a trap this night.  Wisely, he continues to me more afraid of me than any mere Bloodspeaker.  He is going to guide me to the spot early so I can spring a trap.  If I can capture this woman, then perhaps I can learn the answers I seek.  And if it is Shahai…I am prepared.  The witch has lived too long.Many other passages were too difficult to decode and others seemed to use terminology that could not be figured out.  Discussions of dissections of Oni leading to obscure references to things perhaps only Witchhunters know.  In any case, much to Nezu’s dread, the decision was made by Toshiro to head up north and try and find this spy before the two send by the Bloodspeakers found her.</blockquote>

Verification