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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Black Omega" data-source="post: 673747" data-attributes="member: 79">The next day got off to a very slow start.  Verick’s tireless sensei had him up early for more practice for the tournament, but everyone else had the time to sleep in and recover.    It was noon before the group had visitors and then it was simply a servant dropping off a note for Mindra.  An invitation for him to meet the young lady who had caught his eye the night before.  The one that had that certain unique glow.  Akasha.An hour later the soft spoken monkey was shown in to meet Akasha.  She was waiting in a small, enclosed garden, dressed, dressed in a kimono a little too suggestive for polite Rokugani custom, though being Vanara Mindra barely noticed this part.Mindra wasted no time asking his questions:  who was she, why did she ‘glow’, and what did she had to do with the Naga.  Akasha might have looked perfectly Rokugani but she perfectly blunt with her answers.  She confirmed the story about the golden pearl, and admitted she was a part of the Naga’s group mind, a spirit link all Naga shared.  In fact, that was why she was interested in meeting him.The Naga were mostly in a deep hibernation, but a few scouts had been left out to watch the forests.  Three of those scouts had spotted a Scorpion in a crimson face mask traveling with a large black monkey of the form they associated with Vanara.  To confirm this, Akasha showed Mindra a image of the Vanara.Mindra didn’t recognize the Vanara traveling with the Scorpion but when asked if he considered the Vanara to be dangerous, he said ‘Yes.’ without even pausing to think on it.  He didn’t much thrust this Scorpion, so…Akasha nodded, looking distant for a moment before returning to chatting.  She revealed to Mindra that if he was so interested in the Naga he might consider a trip to the imperial capital of Otosan Uchi.  A Dragon Clan samurai had married one of the Naga and the couple had a child, a true half-human.  Mindra was just getting warmed up asking about that when Akasha looked distant for a few seconds then smiles “This other monkey recognized your name.  Interesting, can you summon massive apes to fight for you also?”Mindra was a little taken aback by this, enough so he simply admitted he could while Akasha grew more distracted.  “Fascinating, your kind really do climb as well as you look you would.  The scouts think your kind look tasty.  You aren’t related to the Nezumi, are you?  Hmm..they lost track of the Scorpion but they might have the Vanara cornered.”Akasha was still, seeming to watch this far off scene a few more seconds before she nodded “Well, that’s settled.  You are tasty.  The Vanara escaped but lost part of his tail while doing so.  We’ll keep looking for him, I’ll let you know if we locate him.  For now, you’d better go.  My teacher will be showing up soon and…well…you’ll look like a nice snack to her.”[DM Note:  I anticipated a few possibilities out of this, but not Mindra deciding the Vanara had to be a threat because he was with a Scorpion.  It made for an interesting twist.  It goes without saying, the Vanara will be looking for Mindra now.]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Mindra wasn’t the only one stirring up trouble as the day went on.  Volar had gotten an idea, one he knew he could easily get a little help in implementing.  Toshiro needed a little help in acting like a real Crab samurai.  Kaz and others could now and then drag him out to drink.  So Volar decided to help in other areas, going out and finding a ‘camp follower’ to hire for the trip to Shiro Matsu.  An affordable woman of not displeasing appearance.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Now was this the only plotting going on within the group.  Yukiyo had made her excuses and fallen by the wayside, sneaking on back to Bugaisha for a quick stop.  She had 300 gold burning a hole in it’s pouch and through some of her less savory contacts made arrangements for someone to attempt an assassination on Mir’s new follower, Cracked Nut.   Hold a grudge?  Yukiyo?  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~When the group left Shiro Moto the next day they made a good toward Lion lands.  Poor Toshiro was left between a rock and a hard place, though.  The first night he ended up offering the camp follower money not to do anything.  But he didn’t have the koku on him to keep that and for reasons known only to him, he didn’t feel like simply giving orders, since a commoner would certainly obey anything a samurai orders.  So instead on the nights of the trip he started to get a new form of education.The group traveled four days, getting into the lands of the Lion Clan.  The terrain had changed as they rode, from rolling, open plains to more densely settled farmlands.  What had also changed was their reception.  With obvious gaijin in the group, they were often directed to the less desirable inns. Not that the innkeepers of the nicer establishments would deny service to a samurai, but all their rooms were always taken, you see…~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Two days into Lion lands the group received and even more unexpected reception in a village they had decided to stop over in.  No one greeted them.  No one was seen in the streets.  They were surrounded by total silence.  It was a tiny village, only 15 houses or so.  Starting to search around, the group found clothing laying out in various places.  In alleys between houses, inside houses, sometimes even with weapons laying beside the empty clothing.  It was Toshiro’s keen vision that in most cases there was a small, coin sized hole at different spots in the clothing.  Something had apparently been stabbed through, though no blood was shed.The group did the traditional thing when confronted with an unknown threat that had evidently wiped out an entire village.  They decided to split up in order to cover more ground while searching.  No survivors were found, but Volar and Toshiro did find a half written note in the headman’s hovel.Magistrate Iome-sama,    Please send help!  People are disappearing quickly.  Our local magistrate was the first to go.  It all started after old man Katsuyori a new cave off to the north of town he had not seen before and some type of  discarded skin, like a human snake.  He took the magistrate up to look over the cave and they never…The note ended in a scrawl of ink and from the empty pile of clothing at the table, it was obvious what had happened before he could finish the request for help.Meanwhile, Kaz was having even more luck out on his own.  A search of a smaller hut had revealed a single pile of clothing but from a small room in the back came the quiet sound of sobbing.  Very quietly, Kaz slide open the door to the room, only to find a boy who looked perhaps six huddling in the corner.  The moment the door opened the boy cowered a moment then rushed over to latch on to Kaz’s leg, still sobbing.  Kaz was about to yell for his friends when he felt a sharp pain in his leg, something snaking through his armor and piercing through his skin. In seconds Kaz started to feel older and more feeble.Stoically determined, he remained silent while he tried to physically shove the boy away, but the tyke turned out to be far stronger than he appeared.  Finally after 15 seconds he drew his sword and tried to stab at the boy while starting to yell out loudly for help.When the others arrived, the ‘boy’ had already fled and Kaz was a ghastly sight, shriveled and wrinkled, a shadow of his former self.  So weak he could barely stand under the weight of his armor, Kaz described his encounter.  Then as the others went out to find this creature, Kaz shuffled out to his horse, joining up with ancient Akodo Setei.It took a couple of tries for Kaz to make it up onto the horse, that heavy O-Yoroi armor really weighing him down.  Hearing Kaz’s groans, Akodo-sensei nodded sagely “I know the feeling.  Your back must be aching now.  I have some liniment you can try later that helps a little.”Off a ways in the village was heard “There it is, that peasant!  Try to block him off!”  Then fire erupted from behind one of the houses as samurai battle cries were heard.The old sensei and the young samurai who looked just as old both turned to watch for a moment.“Is it always like this?”  Kaz asked in a dry, cracking voice.“Always.”  Setei-sensei replied “You talk and teach but then you just have to sit back and let them do things themselves and have faith that they’ve learned what they need to.”Suddenly a green, scaley humanoid creature flew up in the air, cackling “Fools!  I will drain you all dry and gain my ultimate power!  You can not stop me!  MWAHAHA!”  then the creature dived across the street lower again as Verick and Toshiro pursued, and a number of magical bolts zapped across the street to sizzle the creature’s hide.Calmly, Kaz and Setei watched still.  “It’s no so bad.”  Setei-sensei commented.  “There’s more free time.  You can still enjoy things like sake.”Kaz’s crinkled face formed a smile ‘One of my favorite things in life.  How about women?”“Ah, yes.  But over time one’s taste in women change.  In my younger days, a lovely golden haired Matsu samurai-ko suited me best.”  Setei smiled in fond memory.“What do you look for in a woman now?”  Kaz asked after a moment.“Patience.”  Was Setei’s only reply.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Verick’s jade katana made the difference in the battle, doing terribly damage to the mysterious creature, confirming it was Tainted.  Once the creature was dead, it’s body melted away without a trace.  Returning to the others, the group found Kaz was very anxious and concerned over if he could be returned to normal.  Mindra and Mir in their battle with the creature had worked out how the creature drained his victims.  It could be cured with a spell Mindra knew.  But he had never made a scroll for it and there wasn’t time to learn it from the spirits before the next day, when the crucial moment for Kaz would be. They could prepare Kaz in other ways, boosting his ability to recover, and when the sun arose the following day Kaz was already starting to look better.  By the time the group rode into Shiro Matsu Kaz was his old self.  If the nearly crippling experience had a sobering effect on the fun loving Crab, he luckily had enough sake along to return to his normal self.[DM Note:  Much of the Kaz-Setei conversation is a bit of whimsy from me.  Kaz was left with Setei during the chase of the demon and we did tease that a shriveled up Kaz would have a little in common with him but mostly I was moving the battle along.  But Kaz being attacked by the creature and waiting –far- to long to let the others know he was being attacked was all true.  Another round or so and it would have been the end of him.]</blockquote>

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