2nd Scroll - The Holy Mountain

[ffilz]

(Temporary interruption, we may want to rewind).
Haruto has 2d3 turns of Blessings to use. He can use them to avoid some of the failed cold damage STs. Here's what would be needed:
Roll 2d3;
-Start the Blessings turns at the first cold ST turn;
-Apply the +6 to the ST rolls;
-Cancel any damage from failed rolls that are now successes; and
-Cancel any Power spent on unneeded Pure Flesh spells.

Then, on to your actions when the oni drops unconscious. Situation:
-No one was injured in the fight;
-The ronin and the male budoka Saburo have around 5-10 HP cold damage each;
-However Haruto ends up after the rewind, if he chooses to do one.

I didn't feel like the blessing could be used to avoid the cold damage. It's 2d3 detailed turns once activated.

Some of my healing obviously needs to be used for Haruto, but also the ronin and Saburo need some healing.

[jemmus]

I see that if the blessings were Karma Yoga, only BCS would get a bonus, not STs. Sorry, please disregard the rewind info.

[ffilz]

I see that if the blessings were Karma Yoga, only BCS would get a bonus, not STs. Sorry, please disregard the rewind info.

Oh, yes, BCS only, not saves, so not helpful independent of the detailed turns issue...

[Marullus]

Sounds great. Please expend the blessing and let me know what his power should be.

Also, rolling Theology. As a Buddhist, he would spare the oni, which was acting according to his dharma. As a Shinto and faithful adherent of Fuji-san on Fuji mountain, what would Fuji-san want him to do with the oni? The god of winds is mercurial.
[2d3]=5 blessing
Shinten (Theology) (BCS 10) [1d20]=20

[jemmus]

The ronin and bushi have Health that would be about average for a bushi. They've lost 5-10 HP each. They're in much better shape than Haruto with his max 4 HP.

[jemmus]

In the haze of the dark cold night, the ronin retrieves his katana from the ground. He mutters to himself, More blood. Even on a pilgrimage to holy Fuji. He brings the blade down on the oni's neck and separates the great horned head from the body. He picks it up by its long hair, swings it in an arc, and throws it far down the side of the mountain. He bends, reaches into the monster's sleeves, and pulls out three items: a woman's comb inlaid with mother of pearl in a wisteria vines design; a small pearl; and smooth piece of jade with a hole bored through it. He shows them to the group. We will sell them when we return to Kofu. the unsmiling ronin then turns to Saburo. Help me get this away from the pilgrims' trail. He takes the feet and the budoka takes the clawed hands. They throw it down the mountain also.

The group spends the remainder of the freezing night alternately sleeping and standing watch. Thin, frail Haruto is most affected by the cold. Every hour he must waken from his on and off light dozing and use magical healing to prevent his death. Saburo has had the sense to set Taisho the gakusho healer's watch closer toward the dawn. During the long hour, he lifts blankets and checks on the exhausted and freezing pilgrims' conditions. The strong and competent female budoka Rumi now just looks like a girl with knees tucked under arms, trying to stay warm on a freezing mountainside. Her ears and nose are bright red from the cold, but her lips are icy blue. It seems she's in a very deep, still sleep. And that her spirit has mostly departed the body and left it behind.

Actions, please. Haruto has expended Power to stay alive. I don't think he can do much else until sunrise.

[ffilz]

Taisho still has power if his healing would help.

[jemmus]

She's low on HP, so healing would help.

[ffilz]

She's low on HP, so healing would help.

Let me know if she needs more than this:

[jemmus]

She and the male budoka Saburo seem to be at about half of their full health strength (at around 10-15 HP each). Not in danger of dying, unless there's an encounter and they take damage.
We can do as you proposed about Blessings, i.e. consider them done in the morning, but not roll them until they're actually needed.

At last, the sky begins to turn from black, to gray, to pink. The Sun rises over the horizon and lights the face of sacred Fuji and a vista covering 150 ri. The pilgrims are silent, each in his her own contemplation of the magnificence and beauty of the world, here at its very heart and center. Haruto can see the town of Fujikawa-cho. And his brother's house, recognizable as the largest dwelling in the town. He remembers his rebuke of the greedy innkeepers the day before. The matter, and most human drama, seems petty and insignificant now.


After a while, far away, in section of a road below not screened by trees, the pilgrims can see bushi marching. They are as tiny as ants, and trail behind each other in a line similar to the way ants do. The waving banners and the colorful o-yoroi of the Minamoto, Takeda, and Matsumoto are seen, marching forward to engage and defeat the army of the Taira.

This is the morning after the "Battle of Fujikawa," where the Taira routed from the sound of water fowl.

Please let us know about Taisho's healing and blessings and we'll move on.

[ffilz]

She and the male budoka Saburo seem to be at about half of their full health strength (at around 10-15 HP each). Not in danger of dying, unless there's an encounter and they take damage.
We can do as you proposed about Blessings, i.e. consider them done in the morning, but not roll them until they're actually needed.

At last, the sky begins to turn from black, to gray, to pink. The Sun rises over the horizon and lights the face of sacred Fuji and a vista covering 150 ri. The pilgrims are silent, each in his her own contemplation of the magnificence and beauty of the world, here at its very heart and center. Haruto can see the town of Fujikawa-cho. And his brother's house, recognizable as the largest dwelling in the town. He remembers his rebuke of the greedy innkeepers the day before. The matter, and most human drama, seems petty and insignificant now.


After a while, far away, in section of a road below not screened by trees, the pilgrims can see bushi marching. They are as tiny as ants, and trail behind each other in a line similar to the way ants do. The waving banners and the colorful o-yoroi of the Minamoto, Takeda, and Matsumoto are seen, marching forward to engage and defeat the army of the Taira.

This is the morning after the "Battle of Fujikawa," where the Taira routed from the sound of water fowl.

Please let us know about Taisho's healing and blessings and we'll move on.

At dawn Taisho's power will replenish right? Shortly before dawn, he will do healing on anyone who still needs some:

Ignore this roll:

For Rumi: for 16 points healed before dawn if needed

For Saburo: He probably doesn't need all 25 points, if so Taisho doesn't use up quite all his power...

For Haruto: several healings through the night.

Does Taisho get bonus power in the morning or was that a one time thing?

Taisho will bless everyone (3 castings as before), I will roll the blessings when/if we have an encounter.

[jemmus]

Rumi and Saburo went to full HP, so I applied the extra rolls to the ronin. All are at full. Please track your shugendo for the healings. Noted about the blessings.

The Game Days Tracking shared sheet has records of what Taisho and Haruto cast yesterday. Please tally your shugendo and update your sheets. Sorry, keeping track of the Power involves and number of successes has been a little too complicated for my game time situation lately. It doesn't need to be down to the penny, just a general idea of progress toward the next level. We'll be going with achievement-based leveling for shugendo and budo. On-- I'm not sure yet.

Please note that Taisho gets a full 5 shugendo for exorcising the Spirit Rank 5 oni. Haruto's exorcism succeeded, but the oni was already completely exorcised the phase before. I would award 1/2 of the shugendo as our house rule says for awarding budo, but the spirit was already "dead" before Haruto's "attack" hit.

Haruto gets 4 Power from Fuji yang at dawn, Taisho gets 6. Wit STs for 1d2+2 more.

[jemmus]

Kind of leaving Haruto behind without his post, but I really didn't leave you guys a decision to make or much of an action to take. Let's move on to where you do have a decision to make.

The pilgrim's eat their rations, roll their futons, start their way back down the mountain. At the Hour of the Horse (around 11:00 AM) they have reached the edge of the Deep Ocean of Trees. A heimin man stands there, but his is not their accustomed guide, the bent filmy-eyed old man. It is a younger, middle-aged man. He bows, then looks the pilgrims over. It seems he is inspecting their conditions and looking for any signs of injury or illness. I ask for your favor. The old man, my father, is not well. I have come as his substitute. Please follow me closely, and do not look around. If you must stop for some reason, please tell me first. I ask for your favor. He bows again. The pilgrims follow him into the forest. He occasionally stops, looks around, ahead, left and right. Then adjusts course and moves on.

Before the trek through the forest took half a (Nippon) hour. But Taisho and Haruto guess they've already been walking a full hour, and the group is still in the middle of the shadowy forest. The ronin stoically follows the man, but the Rumi and Saburo have been exchanging uneasy glances for some time now. The man stops again, looks all around, even behind now. He thinks longer this time. The uncertainty on his face can be clearly read.

The group stands immobile, looking around the forest and uneasily appraising the situation. The pilgrims see no familiar landmarks, no twisted tree branch that they remember, no distinctly burled trunk, no memorable gnarled root. All is quiet under the sky-obscuring canopy of leaves. Leaves which fell to the forest floor months ago in the autumn. The pilgrims and guide, each and all, fear that they have gone mad. They are unable to collect their thoughts and hold onto one long enough to link it to another. It seems they are caught in a dream, a dark, muddled claustrophic one. The weathered and stoic ronin is seen to reach down and pick up a snow-powdered stone, gaze at it in his palm, then clasp it tightly in his fist. His lips move as if in silent and fervent prayer-- or as if speaking to himself, unaware that he's doing so.

To the gakusho Taisho and the novice follower of the wild wind god Fuujin, it seems that they are in the kakuriyo. While on the earthly face of Nippon. And surrounded the trapped spirits of hundreds of human ghosts. Like the one of the yurei they dispelled only one day ago. The kakuriyo held in this place by the power of so many dead spirits. And by the power of so many live and twisted trees. They wonder whether the dead brought the kakuriyo, or the kakuriyo lured the to-become dead.

It is so quiet in the dark forest that the pilgrims and their guide hear the sound padded paws. Off to the right, standing on the forest floor of lightly snow-covered leaves, a fox is seen. It gazes intently at the group from a distance, eyes keen and ears upraised. It seems to Haruto that the forest animal stares at and appraises him most specifically. And then at Taisho. It just stands there, stockstill, looking and appraising on the white-lined forest floor. Then it turns, runs and disappears.

Not so many heartbeats later, the fox re-appears. This time, from the other side, to the left. Again it gazes long at the group with intelligent eyes. It turns and runs a few steps, stops, and looks back over its shoulder. Then does the same again. Clearly waiting.

I rolled some covert STs for the characters to avoid any meta-ness.
Actions please.

[ffilz]

Kind of leaving Haruto behind without his post, but I really didn't leave you guys a decision to make or much of an action to take. Let's move on to where you do have a decision to make.

The pilgrim's eat their rations, roll their futons, start their way back down the mountain. At the Hour of the Horse (around 11:00 AM) they have reached the edge of the Deep Ocean of Trees. A heimin man stands there, but his is not their accustomed guide, the bent filmy-eyed old man. It is a younger, middle-aged man. He bows, then looks the pilgrims over. It seems he is inspecting their conditions and looking for any signs of injury or illness. I ask for your favor. The old man, my father, is not well. I have come as his substitute. Please follow me closely, and do not look around. If you must stop for some reason, please tell me first. I ask for your favor. He bows again. The pilgrims follow him into the forest. He occasionally stops, looks around, ahead, left and right. Then adjusts course and moves on.
Actions please.

Hmm can we back up to here? As soon as I got to here I thought about doing s perceive truth. I haven’t read the rest yet…

[jemmus]

Ok, sorry about that. Please go ahead.

[ffilz]

Ok, sorry about that. Please go ahead.

Well, may not make a difference...

Oh, and



So Taisho just gets the 6 bonus power, of which 2 is used for the Perceive Truth.

[jemmus]

I edited my long post a little. No real content changes, just some cosmetic stuff.

[ffilz]

Haruto, I think perhaps we should follow the fox.

[Marullus]

Kind of leaving Haruto behind without his post, but I really didn't leave you guys a decision to make or much of an action to take. Let's move on to where you do have a decision to make.

I rolled a Theology check to see how to make Fuji-san happy and botched it; I was waiting for the result of that, and to find out what his power was. Moot now, I suppose, because the Bushi killed the Oni and the sunrise replentished the Power points.


Depending on what Taisho perceives... Jemmus, roll forward as you see fit.

It seems to Haruto that the forest animal stares at and appraises him most specifically.

Does it resemble the kitsune encountered before the city?

Haruto confirms that everyone can, in fact, see the same fox. Such a creature in a place like this must be a spirit.

"Tell me, kitsune-sama," the devout young man says, "Or you the same whom I spared before?"

"It appears to wish us to follow... I can see no better direction." If the others agree, he follows.

Wit ST BCS 10 [1d20]=6 for [1d2+2]=1+2=3 power

[jemmus]

The two budoka, ronin, and guide glance at each other at the suggestion of following a fox deeper into the Deep Ocean of Trees. A place where sad yurei dwell, straight lines become spirals or not lines at all, and where the good Sun itself seems to be shaded by fallen leaves, even after the trees have shed them onto the floor and they are covered by the light snows of early winter. The fox stands stock-still, looking back over its left shoulder. It seems like an ordinary fox of the wild. Haruto and Taisho remember the fox who called herself Shino on the Koshuu-Kaido highway from Chiyoda village to Kofu city. This is not at all the same one. This one is a tom. Its head is wider and it's fur is rougher and less sleek. But its eyes show the same cunning awareness of all situations. It stands looking back, watching and waiting.

At last, the budoka speaks. We're lost in the deep forest, with a complete circle of directions to head around us. We don't know how to walk to Fujikawa-cho, or even how to walk back to Fuji-san. If we stay, we'll sit down and end up like the old woman, the merchant and his wife, and the samurai's wife... Just cold and hungry and waiting to die.

That fox is a kitsune, we all know it. It may lead us all to our deaths, or in human form beguile one of us into loving it. A handsome, samurai male kitsune. The heimin budoka gazes onto his friend Rumi's face, and she looks upward to his. She nods, and a tear runs down the taut tactician and warrioress's cheek. Yes, I will follow the shujenja and gakusho and follow the fox. Better to die fighting out of a trap than to gnaw one's own leg off to escape it.

The ronin only nods, as does the guide's son. The latter in shame for having failed in his duty and his job.

The pilgrims head toward the fox. It runs forward steps at a time, swishing its bushy white-tipped tail, and sometimes stopping to expectantly look back. Soon the group reaches the edge of the forest. They had been only a hundred or so paces from it. A mile ahead, the fringing trees and humble tiled roofs of Fujikawa-cho above them can be seen. The pilgrims look around and slump onto fallen tree trunks and sawed trunks of trees. They're bone-tired.
They've fought an oni who exists mostly in the wild kakuriyo. They's endured a long cold night on the mountain, and survived to see the dawn, And survived a trek through the circular, spiraling forest. A place where it seems one is more under waves and being washed around, towed under, with no way of fighting the immense waves of forces to reach the air.

The fox peers at Haruto and Taisho, the wizened ronin, and the rest of the crew. Only a mile ahead, the hearth and lamps of Yayoi's house are waiting for young Haruto and Taisho. The pilgrims look back, and the fox can be seen, watching the group, standing still-stock and watching. And the next time they glance back, it is gone.