[Closed] 3, On the Road: Arriving at Beiden Pass

[Starbeard]

Aiko, rising early, takes the morning to refresh and make herself presentable, given the circumstances. The practice does her good and she begins to feel comfortable with the shifted weight of fighting one-armed, though she is still in too much pain to really center herself in meditation.
(Meditation test (TN 20) with -3k0 penalty from wounds (3k2 down to 1k1): [1d10] = 7; failure, so Void points are not refreshed)

Sensing something off, Kenta innocently probes the village headman for information. The headman attempts to pass off his nervousness, but poorly enough for the monk to take note. "I am, well, that is to say—in a word or two—not as jocose as I perhaps should be, such as the stork after it has waited in the pond all night for the slippery fish to come passing by, in the Tale of Hamase. Sleep was not forthcoming around all of the children, and while occupying myself by going over the accounts, I found that our supply of enchanted wood is running… well, low. Not a concern of yours, of course, but we simple peasants must always overcome our small misfortunes if we are to serve the Emperor."

Osaru immediately thinks back to last night when he was patrolling the house, and is positive that he saw the headman's accounting ledgers all neatly lined up in his office, and that the headman did not bring anything with him when he left the house for the night.
(Easy Perception test (TN 10): [1d10] = 7, [1d10] = 4)

The headman makes a show of clapping his hands to get the attention of a nearby servant. "Ryosuke! I need you to deliver an urgent message to Lord Nasu's manor. Run as quickly as you can, and do not stop for a breath or may Osano-Wo blast your feet with open sores that never heal!" He turns back to you and explains that he is going to write an emergency request to send healers from the castle down to fetch you, so that your wounded can be cared for and delivered safely to better quarters. "Ryosuke is a fast runner. He should surmount Lord Nasu's manor long before the day is over, and I have no doubt that he will return with a healer tomorrow."

Meanwhile, the last of the woodpile that showed up mysteriously overnight is being brought into the work lodge, by peasants who give you furtive glances when you look their way.

Actions?


3rd of Long Month ("Evening Day," High Week), weather is mostly pleasant and clear

登場人物

• Kenta, monk: TN10, Init +2, naginata 7k4 (DR 6k3) | Hnr 2;7, Wnds (6) 0;0 | Void Pts 2/2
• Kitsune Shōe, Fox shugenja: TN10, Init +2, wakizashi 5k3 (DR 4k2) | Hnr 2;5, Wnds (4) -0;0 | Void Pts 2/2 | Spells: F2 - A2 - W2 - E2
• Matsumoto Senichi, Unicorn shugenja: TN10, Init +2, wakizashi 4k3 (DR 4k2) | Hnr 3;1, Wnds (4) -3;0 | Void Pts 2/2 | Spells: F3 - A2 - W3 - E2 (double heal rate)
  • Saburo: 3E/3W/1F/1A/1V | TN5, Init +1, DR 1k1 | Hn 2;7 - Gl 0;0 - Wnds (6) 0;0 | Void Pts 1/1
• Mirumoto Koga, Dragon bushi: no armor+daisho (TN15), Init +2, daisho 2k2/6k3 (DR 5k2) | Hnr 2;7, Wnds (4) 0;0 | Void Pts 2/2
• Mirumoto Aiko, Dragon bushi: no armor (TN20/5), Init +3, daisho 5k4/6k3 (DR 4k2) | Hnr 3;6, Wnds (4) -2;0 | Void Pts 1/2 (crippled left arm; double heal rate)
• Yoshida Osaru, ronin: no armor (TN15), Init +3, katana 6k3/6k3 (DR 5k2) | Hnr 2;7 Wnds (4) 0;0 | Void Pts 2/2

[Rex]

Kenta

"Thank you again for the hospitality, we will stay out of your way and may good fortune come to you."

Kenta will wander off and keep an eye out, he knows something is up and is just unsure if it is a threat or any of his concern at all.

[GreyWolfVT]

Osaru feels like something is amiss he informs the others when in a place others can't hear them "Something is off here, I think perhaps I'll try to see if i can get a look at those ledgers the headman had in his office and it was very odd he took nothing with him last night when he left."

[RotFuchs]

Shoe will start his day with meditation and then he will go to the fireplace and ready something a spartan breackfast.

[Starbeard]

Mid-morning (Hour of the Dragon)
"Evening Day" in High Week, 3rd of Long Month
Weather is mostly pleasant and clear

As the morning moves along, the tiny hamlet comes to life. A couple of children play by the well, an old woman sits on the porch and sews with shaky hands, and the other villagers slave away in and around the workshop while chatting and singing songs.

Osaru rolls:
Stealth roll to see if he gets "caught" (3k3): [1d10] = 1, [1d10] = 8, [1d10] = 8 (total 17)
Investigation roll (2k2): [1d10] = 10, [1d10] = 7, plus exploding [1d10] = 1 (total 18)

Osaru slips back into the building where Shōe is cooking a simple breakfast, and quietly makes his way upstairs to the headman's office after making sure that he won't be seen by any of the villagers. The ledgers are all lined up neatly in a row on the shelf. He picks up the latest one and begins to flip through it. Being a ronin his whole life, he is more comfortable with the crude written language of the common folk, and has no trouble interpreting the headman's writing.

Based on the numbers in the ledger, the hamlet should still have an abundant supply of enchanted wood. Moreover, it seems like they do not harvest the wood themselves at all: the ledger is full of weekly exchanges, where the hamlet receives a small pile of wood and pays a fee in money, grains, and occasionally live fowl. The latest exchange was due last night, but hasn't been put into the register yet—that must have been the stockpile that was sitting outside this morning.

He puts the book back and instinctively grabs the first ledger, flipping to the beginning to see if he can find out more information about these exchanges. Apparently the deliveries were set up a number of years ago by a man named "Yiki" in the eta village nearby. The sound of shuffling footsteps come up the stairs, and Osaru quickly replaces the book and slips out of the house before he is seen.



Kenta rolls:
Investigation (3k3): [1d10] = 1, [1d10] = 8, [1d10] = 8 (total 17)

Kenta wanders off for a while. He heads up to the road, and notices figures far away down the slope. It is a trio of commoners, all carrying something between them, but as he moves closer for a better look they spot him and flee into the trees. He did get the impression that they were carrying a body, and the occasional drop of thick blood on the ground. They were definitely heading away from the area where the group had battled the oni Gakido yesterday, and disppeared through the trees on the "village side" of the road.

Meanwhile, Shōe feeds rice and vegetables to everyone, and you are all set and ready to travel, rest or investigate as you desire.

Actions?



登場人物

• Kenta, monk: TN10, Init +2, naginata 7k4 (DR 6k3) | Hnr 2;7, Wnds (6) 0;0 | Void Pts 2/2
• Kitsune Shōe, Fox shugenja: TN10, Init +2, wakizashi 5k3 (DR 4k2) | Hnr 2;5, Wnds (4) -0;0 | Void Pts 2/2 | Spells: F2 - A2 - W2 - E2
• Matsumoto Senichi, Unicorn shugenja: TN10, Init +2, wakizashi 4k3 (DR 4k2) | Hnr 3;1, Wnds (4) -3;0 | Void Pts 2/2 | Spells: F3 - A2 - W3 - E2 (double heal rate)
  • Saburo: 3E/3W/1F/1A/1V | TN5, Init +1, DR 1k1 | Hn 2;7 - Gl 0;0 - Wnds (6) 0;0 | Void Pts 1/1
• Mirumoto Koga, Dragon bushi: no armor+daisho (TN15), Init +2, daisho 2k2/6k3 (DR 5k2) | Hnr 2;7, Wnds (4) 0;0 | Void Pts 2/2
• Mirumoto Aiko, Dragon bushi: no armor (TN20/5), Init +3, daisho 5k4/6k3 (DR 4k2) | Hnr 3;6, Wnds (4) -2;0 | Void Pts 1/2 (crippled left arm; double heal rate)
• Yoshida Osaru, ronin: no armor (TN15), Init +3, katana 6k3/6k3 (DR 5k2) | Hnr 2;7 Wnds (4) 0;0 | Void Pts 2/2

[GreyWolfVT]

Osaru heads back to the others and will quietly inform them of his findings in the ledgers, preferably from a location less likely to be eavesdropped on. for my sake I am not going to dialog what was already provided by the GM hope that is alright everyone.

[Rex]

Kenta

Kenta returns to everyone and fills them in as well."Something strange going on for sure."

[ffilz]

Senichi would like to seek out Lord Nasu to deliver the Tea Set.

He is also reminded of the box with the cricket that he has been using every night...

[Captain Kinkajou]

Aiko

Troubled, Aiko broods over her disability and scars. Preoccupied with the pain and awkwardness, she remains withdrawn and distant from the others. It is a marked contrast from her normal fun-loving self. She has no doubt that something mysterious is going on in the village but she cannot discern whether the headman's secrets are being hidden out of fear of something malevolent or simply because he does not want them revealed. Had she felt more herself, she might well have gently confronted him and asked directly if the village needed help but, in her current state, she felt impotent and unable to deal with anything outside herself.

[GreyWolfVT]

Osaru "Something strange is afoot for certain." I almost slipped there and quoted Bill & Ted.

[Starbeard]

Soft Wind Village, Beiden Pass [map]
Mid-morning (Hour of the Dragon)
"Evening Day" in High Week, 3rd of Long Month [calendar]
Weather is mostly pleasant and clear

The party confers about what to do. Senichi is going to push on with his mission and ride to Lord Nasu's estate. Is anyone going with him? Aiko won't get healing for today if she travels, but Senichi is only suffering non-crippling wounds and will be fine. In either case, the village has sent a runner ahead to fetch a healer; he should arrive at Lord Nasu's estate by night, and return on horseback tomorrow morning.

To sum up your experiences and collected information here in Soft Wind Village:

• Yesterday you encountered a crazy old eta, clearly a practitioner of forbidden blood sorcery. For one reason or another, the minor oni Gekido had broken free of his enslavement and slew him. You in turn slew Gekido.
• You stopped at Soft Wind Village, population in the 20s. They seem well off for such a tiny rural hamlet, which is attributed to the enchanted kites and dolls they make out of a special wood from the forest. The headman of the village vacated his lodge to let you sleep there for the night.
• At night the valley was accosted by a terrible wind that seemed to carry a blanket of supernatural dread. The villagers called it Sakemono, The Strange Howling, and said that it was "the cursed spirit of the chill wind that now blows through the pass almost nightly, cursing those caught in it with madness."
• Senichi and Kenta recall a conversation they had way back at the Village of the First Emperor outside of Otosan Uchi, when they spent the evening with the priest Tenkazu (link):
  The priest Tenkazu bows humbly and rejects the donation twice before finally accepting. After hosting you with a brief tea ceremony, he talks to you about Beiden Pass in hushed tones while you wait for dinner to arrive from the village headman's kitchen.
  
  "Beiden Pass has always been a supernatural place, full of death and mourning. More souls have died there than anywhere else in Rokugan. Everywhere tree and drop of water is haunted.
  
  "Sakemono, 'The Strange Howling', is one of the most awful of its haunts. The mountain winds always come howling through the Pass, and during the winter they chill you right to the bone. Sometimes the chill is so horrible that it drives men mad. When I was priest in one of the villages, we called this the Strange Howling. Every few years the Strange Howling would ride through on the winter winds, driving the minds of those it chilled to murderous insanity.
  
  "Many of the villagers give offerings and pray to Sakemono, believing it to be the angry spirit of the mountain winds, but that is just simple peasant superstition. I haven't been back in several winters, but I have heard from others that Sakemono rides the winds almost every winter now. It is unhappy, and craves blood. The spirit of the wind would not do that. Something sinister haunts the air in Beiden Pass, mark my words."

• The headman seems upset this morning, and when pressed, said that he just discovered that their wood supply is running low.
• Osaru discovered that the villagers actually get their wood by arrangement from a man in the local eta village, named Yiki. Deliveries are about once a week, the most recent being last night (which you saw laying by the village workshop this morning). They should also have an abundant supply right now.
• Kenta saw some people carrying a corpse away from the scene of combat yesterday, likely toward the eta village (the only other settlement in the immediate area).
• Koga also stumbled upon a cabal of forest creatures: foxwives, kappa, and ratlings. They seemed to sense the Strange Howling coming, and feared it greatly. Through them he also discovered a method for determining which trees in the forest were enchanted.

Is that everything?

Actions?



登場人物

• Kenta, monk: TN10, Init +2, naginata 7k4 (DR 6k3) | Hnr 2;7, Wnds (6) 0;0 | Void Pts 2/2
• Kitsune Shōe, Fox shugenja: TN10, Init +2, wakizashi 5k3 (DR 4k2) | Hnr 2;5, Wnds (4) -0;0 | Void Pts 2/2 | Spells: F2 - A2 - W2 - E2
• Matsumoto Senichi, Unicorn shugenja: TN10, Init +2, wakizashi 4k3 (DR 4k2) | Hnr 3;1, Wnds (4) -3;0 | Void Pts 2/2 | Spells: F3 - A2 - W3 - E2 (double heal rate)
  • Saburo: 3E/3W/1F/1A/1V | TN5, Init +1, DR 1k1 | Hn 2;7 - Gl 0;0 - Wnds (6) 0;0 | Void Pts 1/1
• Mirumoto Koga, Dragon bushi: no armor+daisho (TN15), Init +2, daisho 2k2/6k3 (DR 5k2) | Hnr 2;7, Wnds (4) 0;0 | Void Pts 2/2
• Mirumoto Aiko, Dragon bushi: no armor (TN20/5), Init +3, daisho 5k4/6k3 (DR 4k2) | Hnr 3;6, Wnds (4) -2;0 | Void Pts 1/2 (crippled left arm; double heal rate)
• Yoshida Osaru, ronin: no armor (TN15), Init +3, katana 6k3/6k3 (DR 5k2) | Hnr 2;7 Wnds (4) 0;0 | Void Pts 2/2

[RotFuchs]

Shoe will stay with Aiko and will try to comfort her and cheer her up.

[Rex]

Kenta

Kenta will rest up and ponder what is going on here.

[GreyWolfVT]

Osaru mulls over the information unsure of what to do about it all. "Anyone have any ideas what we should do with all of our findings? I'm at a loss."

[Captain Kinkajou]

Shoe will stay with Aiko and will try to comfort her and cheer her up.

Aiko

Aiko remains uncharacteristically quiet and withdrawn. Cheering her up is a challenge, maybe even impossible. The spark of joy she has always seen in the world is gone. Now, all seems bleak and hurtful. Her thoughts are consumed with the pain and awkwardness of her ruined arm. But she stops short of being rude to the priest, for that is not in her nature. She responds as politeness demands, offering Shoe some small hope he might make a difference, if he wishes to persevere.

"What brings you here?"" she asks. "Have you come for the festival?".

[RotFuchs]

No, I am just passing through. I am travelling and helping people in need. Many yokai roam the land lately... Mind if I ask how you got hurt?

[Captain Kinkajou]

Aiko

"Dark things do indeed plague this valley," Aiko replies ruefully to Shoe. She takes a ragged breath. To speak of it out loud brings her emotions to the fore and she quickly swallows the tears of frustration that threaten to burst forth. She puts on a brave face instead. "As we journeyed into the pass, we encountered a monstrous oni. We slew the vile creature, Gekido, but it was not so easy to kill."

I was not good enough, she thinks, and look at me now but she does not say it.

Changing the subject, she speaks up for the first time in a while.

"So, what do we all think about our situation? Are we in grave danger here or should we remain and investigate further? We might learn more from this village about the darkness hanging over these mountains but I would not have Senichi travel on to Lord Nasu's estate alone. If you must go and will not wait until tomorrow for the healer, I will come with you. We all should. For, I would face whatever evil is out there together. I can manage to travel if I must."

It's obvious Aiko is putting on a brave face. Though she endeavours to hide it, she is clearly still hurting and fragile and best served by rest and not having to travel again so soon.

[Rex]

Kenta

"I do not know Aiko. It seems to me that the villagers do not want our help and would prefer us gone quickly. But I can't decide if this is fear of whatever darkness resides here or fear that we may end something they see as favorable."

[Captain Kinkajou]

Aiko

Aiko still sits resting with her back up against one of the wooden supports, her features are drawn and her lips pursed against the pain in her arm.

"I think the same as you Kenta and am as unsure what course would be best for us to follow, but I wonder if we might simply be honest with them. If the villagers are afraid of the evil in the pass, we are allies, and if they are afraid of us uncovering something else, we are unconcerned with their secrets. Either way, they have no reason not to tell us what they know about the darkness."

[SanguineAngel]

Koga is late to rise after the events of last night (and a little chargrined after causing Kenta such trouble). He whiles away some time away from the group before plucking up the courage to face his folly and the judgement of the rest of the party.

He rejoins his sister where she rests and discusses plans with the rest of the group, "Please forgive me for interrupting, Aiko. Kenta, I must apologise to you for endangering you last night. And to you all, for causing undue concern. However, I agree with my sister in this - perhaps it is prudent, now, to be open with our hosts about our aim and ask outright about their plight. If these people are in trouble then perhaps we can, and should, help them. And it is now certain that they suffer frightfully at the whim of the Howling Strange."

"Here, let me show you this," Koga withdraws the toadstool from his tamoto and shows it to the group, turning it over to display the softly glowing underside. "I was gifted with a glimpse of the spiritual creatures that inhabit this place last night, and found this in their wake. With it, I was able to see the true nature of the enchanted trees upon which this town seems to depend. Perhaps we can use this to help."

"I should be forthright in my motivations with you. I would like to see us stay awhile for my sister's sake. She is recouperating better here than on the road, and I would prefer to await the healer before we rejoin the trail. Aiko, I know you would dismiss my concern but please, be sensible for once."

OOC: I'd like to briefly identify some points Koga would probably cover in discussion and see if any of you would agree?

• The headman is reluctant to talk to us but others here seem more willing; I think we might ask them about the shortage of wood when they should have plenty.
• We might also benefit from a trip to the eta village - we may be able to talk to this Yiki character.
• And perhaps we can find out just what they were doing with that body in the eta village (was it the mad priest? Driven mad by the howling strange?)
• Both settlements must now be plagued by the near ceaselss Sakemono and seeking a way to appease the mountain wind or ward it off. At the least we might gain more information on how to deal with the spirits.
• We might also be able to help in gathering enchanted wood if appropriate (or protect the trees if not).