[003] Into the War Camp

[Marullus]

Eiji bows respectfully at the rear of the group as he is mentioned. Jiva the street dog sits beside him, thumping his tail on the floor.

"Meow," comes a feline voice from the hallway.

"Grrrr.....rowrruffruffruff!" explodes Jiva, suddenly turning and chasing the cat back the hallway, around the corner, and into the room full of corpses...

[Samwell Turleton]

I carry these blades and will strike when it is right to strike. Now is not that time. I will respect your wishes to show this man mercy. Souta says while regarding the young man's face.

"Meow," comes a feline voice from the hallway.

The cat...can we catch the cat? They believe it is connected to the Hag that directs them.

[Marullus]

Tally for these fights:

Budo:

• Toshizo defeats a guard in the tower, a guard on the path, and then gets half-credit for fighting the officer in the hallway (3 Budo).
• Ha gets half-credit for shooting at the first guard in the tower, defeats the second guard in the tower, defeats three guards in the big room, and gets half-credit for facing down the officer and two guards in pitched combat (6.5 Budo).
• Taka casts a mirror image spell at the tower (.3 Shugendo). She defeats the officer in the hallway with a knife which offers no benefit to her as a Shugenja. If she had defeated him with a spell, she would have gotten an additional 2 Shugendo. (Added to the 3 Shugendo for the boar scene, she now has a total of 3.3 Shugendo.)
• Eiji was a successful Buddhist, casting blessings and heals. (3 Shugendo)

Show the math:

Two guards in tower (1 budo each = 2)
Two guards on path (1 budo each = 2)
Three officers in the house (2 Budo each = 6)
Eleven guards in the house (1 budo each = 11)
* Potential Budo available is 21 (plus house rules for half credit).

Tower:
Toshizo slays first guard (1)
* House Rule - Ha get additional .5 Budo for shot at first guard.
Ha slays the second guard (1)
Taka casts Mirrors of Deception (.3)
Eiji blesses Toshizo (.2)

On the Path:
Eiji blesses Ha and Eiji (.4)
Kobi slays one guard (1)
Toshizo slays one guard (1)
(Ha doesn't have enough movement)
Taka's casting fails.

In the Hallway:
Taka takes down the Officer with a tanto (no Budo for Shugenja without a spell)
Eiji blesses Toshizo (.2)
* House rule - Toshizo gets 1 Budo for fight.

In the Big Room:
Ha executes a guard on the floor (1)
Ha slays a guard who stood (1)
Ha slays a guard when facing a group (1)
Kobi slays one officer (2) and seven guards (7)
* House rule - Ha gets 2 budo for those he fought.

One officer and one guard live and flee.
Eiji casts Healing successfully 11 times. (.2 x 11 = 2.2)

Totals:
Toshizo 3
Ha 6.5
Taka .3 this scene, 3 before = 3.3
Eiji 3

On

Nobody engaged in 1064.1d FLASHING SWORDPLAY, so there's no On for that. This is not a Battle and there hasn't been a Contest or a Duel, so those don't apply. There will be an award for 1064.1e Overcoming Notorious Threat in eliminating the bandits, but I will calculate it later, after you address the rest of the Valley.

As a reminder, you're before noon. At dawn of the next day, Eiji will refresh Power can can do more healing. Currently...
Ha 22 / 32
Toshizo 21 / 24
Taka 9 / 9
Eiji 11 / 11
Jīva 10 / 10

[jemmus]

Toshizo eyes the cat suspiciously. It looks like an ordinary cat, but it's connected with a magic hag. Is it a real cat or a changeling? He moves to close the external door to prevent the cat from escaping. He also closes the doors to the entry hall and kitchen. He whispers to Souta, Perhaps we can lure it with some food from the kitchen and drop a box over it.

A typical Japanese cat. The stray ones pretty much all have short tails, and most are calicos. They have a way of "singing" that's kind of creepy. But they're considered good luck.

[Samwell Turleton]

The cat has run after being chased by Jiva down the hallway. Who does Jiva answer to?

[Marullus]

Jiva is a stray dog who tags along with Eiji, the wondering Buddhist. Eiji, of course, makes no claims of ownership over the independent life choices of the dog as it seeks its own path to Nirvana.

Eiji whistles and Jīva trots from the large room full of corpses back into the hallway, then down the hallway to you in the kitchen. His tongue lolls sideways and he pants with what looks like a satisfied smile. With no fur or blood, it doesn't appear he caught the cat, but he at least pursued his dharma.

The cat, having been chased into (or beyond) the great room around the corner where the battle took place, is out of sight. Toshizo closes the windows and doors of the kitchen, but there's no door to close where the kitchen connects to the hallway. Toshizo and Souta conspire about the idea of luring the cat back to trap it. Ha expresses a desire for more rest, having only napped one hour after 30 hours awake. Souta is fully rested. Toshizo, Eiji, and Taka had a half-night's rest. Ha only got one hour. Eiji reminds you all that it will still take many hours to offer proper burials for all who are slain.

Ffilz?

[ffilz]

If the excitement has died down, Taka would like to get some more rest.

[jmacatty]

Ha looks around at all the chasing of the cat and the thrashing of the woman and says, I can sleep in the noise, but it would be more restful if it were quiet. While I am sleeping someone should take the heads and look for any loot that might be around. At that, he lays down in a room with no bodies and tries to get some sleep.

[Marullus]

Toshizo and Amano Souta?

[jemmus]

If the cat is somehow connected to an evil hag, do we have to catch it? Toshizo whispers to Souta. Can we just shoot it instead?

[Samwell Turleton]

Maybe it is good enough to leave the cat alone and continue on our way, not waste time on chasing it around the building. The dog has shown a good spirit to keep it from spying on us. Amano Souta says as she steps around the two resting people. She returns to the main room of the house and sees the aftermath of the fight she heard earlier from her bound position.

Are the exterior walls of the main room shoji screens and what is their condition?

[jemmus]

Toshizo drags the bound bandit back into the bodies room. He's got a grisly task ahead of him. He has of course heard of it, but he's never seen it done. He draws his wakizashi, grits his teeth, and begins removing the bandits' heads. He checks on the bound bandit periodically. When he's done, he gets water from the kitchen and splashes it on every head. Then he gets salt from the kitchen and applies it to each trophy. At this point he almost retches, but avoids it by imagining that he is salting pork belly, as he has seen servants do when his family were samurai. He cannot let his fellow bushi Amano-san see any sign of squeamishness.

Historically I think this was done with an aiguchi rather than a wakizashi, but oh well.

[Marullus]

Having closed all the windows and secured the doors in the kitchen (5), everyone moves back to the east end of the house. Ha, Taka, and Eiji go back to the entry room (1) and lie down to continue their rest upon the straw mats there.

"Maybe it is good enough to leave the cat alone and continue on our way, not waste time on chasing it around the building. The dog has shown a good spirit to keep it from spying on us," Amano Souta says as she steps around the two resting people. She returns to the main room of the house and sees the aftermath of the fight she heard earlier from her bound position.

Toshizo drags the bound bandit back into the bodies room (6) and then sets to the gristly task of beheading each of the corpses, sprinkling them with salt from the kitchen, and then rolling them in straw mats for transport. In total, he has the heads of two officers and ten bandits, each worth two silver pieces from Makoto's bounty. The head of their leader, now known to be a magical hag, is worth a bounty of two gold and correspondingly a greater challenge to obtain. He takes a moment to ponder how much Makoto knew, in setting that bounty.

Toshizo Will Save [1d20]=1
Though Toshizo fears his stomach may be squeamish, he executes his duty with the stoic fortitude of a long-experienced warrior. Indeed, it is quite impressive to fellow bushi Amano-san as she watches.

Souta inspects the walls, finding them to be sturdy and suitable against the mountain weather, but with marks of wear and neglect. Though the weather warms now with the first days of spring, you suspect that it was last summer when last this house saw care and repairs by dutiful hands. She also slides open the panels on the west wall, revealing a closet (7) filled with armor of the bandits - a disorganized pile of a dozen suits of various Ashigaru styles.

It is mid-afternoon when your task is done. Those who rested awaken refreshed and hungry, ready for someone to make the rice. Despite his hard labors, Toshizo feels reinvigorated as well, perhaps moreso by the fact that his fears were for naught and an afternoon spent in satisfying triumph. The heads are now bundled three to a mat, rolled and tied that each of you could carry one of them, being four bundles in total. Eiji drags the corpses out through the open southern door, laying each out next to each other in the grasses outside and then praying over them. Only Kobi's body lies in repose, his head still intact.

Jiva sets off barking at a run, having spied the black cat at the corner of the house again. The cat runs off to the northeast end of the valley, across the path that leads up to the watchtower, and Jiva again returns satisfied.

Brigand Building - Full Valley.png (196.6 KiB) Viewed 475 times

[Samwell Turleton]

Amano Souta slides open the edge of the screen that separates the main room from the landscape outside and looks out in the direction of the dog's barking. She positions herself in a kneeling position and watches the path to the watchtower as the dog returns.

[Marullus]

Souta examines the trail leading up out of this bowl valley, the singular traversable trail and the watchtower at its top. There are no more guards atop the watchtower - it stands alone against the late afternoon sun. There are two bodies dressed in ashigaru armor lying upon the trail about 40 yards from the house. Their weapons lie beside them, their heads still intact.

Jiva comes back across the trail, not from up it, looking pleased at having run the cat off. "Ahhh," says Eiji, nodding solemnly as he steps out beside her, "Yes, that is where feet in the night moved, disturbing the morning dew. The bandits who fled said there is a cave entrance there where we should find the hag and the bakemono-sho who serve her."

The buddhist then steps outside with his shovel and begins digging a sizeable grave with his traveling spade as the sun begins dropping behind the peaks that loom above you to begin the long, slow twilight.

[jmacatty]

Ha will step out, and seeing the bodies, realizes that there is still work to be done. He will take the heads of the two lying in the yard, examine their weapons and armor and then move to see if there are more heads to be taken in the watch tower. While in the tower, Ha will look out to see if there are clues as to the whereabouts of the hags cave.

[jemmus]

Toshizo gives the wounded bandit officer some water from the kitchen. He then drags him to where Souta and Eiji are. This robber knows where the cave is, I think, he says. He can lead us to it when we're ready. He takes out three bundles of traveler's food and offers one each to first Taka, then to Eiji. He debates giving the bandit one as well. But that would mean having to either untie his hands or put the food in his mouth for him. Neither of which Toshizo wants to do.

[Samwell Turleton]

Amano Souta leaves the step of the porch and jogs to the location that she saw Jiva react to the cat. She keeps a readied hand on the tsuka of her katana and a wary eye. She sees Ha in the grisly task of collecting the remaining heads and notes where he is headed as she keeps watch from the position along the path to the watchtower.

[Marullus]

With Toshizo having collected the heads inside the house and then settled down to some dinner with Taka, Ha heads outside. He collects two more heads from those on the trail along with their weapons, remembering that Kobi already collected the weapons and heads at the watchtower.

Ha inspects the weapons and armor of their slain foes. The four dead bandits outside all had ashigaru armor, as did the twelve suits in the closet in the house, none of which the group has shown interest in. The officers had proper samurai armor as ronin, though they never had time to don it. A pair of partial heavy samurai armor (AC 5, 25lbs) and a set of light samurai armor (AC 4, 20 lbs) are stacked neatly along the wall by the table in the main room where the officers were sitting. Gathering all the weapons, Ha finds one good quality katana (taken from the hallway and the still living bandit), two fine quality yari, one average katana, and four average daikyu with 40 arrows. With Kobi's body are his average dai-sho and his good quality yari. The rest of the weapons were inferior and damaged.

Eiji prepares the headless bodies for burial and presents the others with 21 silver pieces collected from the bandits. He also points out that the large folding screen in the main room and the statue in the cupboard shrine in the entry way both are likely valuable to those who value artistic objects.

Ronin armors [2d3+1]=4+1=5[2d3+1]=4+1=5[2d3+1]=3+1=4
Quality checks [1d100]=83[1d100]=98[1d100]=73[1d100]=76[1d100]=80[1d100]=85
Quality checks [1d100]=39[1d100]=45[1d100]=21[1d100]=65[1d100]=92[1d100]=10
Type checks [1d100]=37[1d100]=57[1d100]=79[1d100]=43
Value [1d100]=30[1d100]=72 Weight [1d100]=62[1d100]=24

21 silver pieces
One good quality katana
One fine quality yari
One fine quality yari
One average quality katana
Four average daikyu and 40 arrows (10 humming bulb, 30 bowl raker)

A large, folding screen (62lbs) handpainted with scenes of study in a serene landscape (30 sp value)


A laquered gilt wood statue about two feet high (24lbs) of the Kwannon Bosatsu (72 sp value)

Souta crosses across the small bowl valley, Jiva sniffing along at her side, his tail wagging. She keeps a wary eye, hand on her katana, as she crosses the dirt footpath that leads up to the ridgeline above. At the curve of the valley floor, where it touches the steep, craggy sides of the mountain above you, there is a cleft partially concealed behind a fold in the stone. The entrance is dark, standing about seven feet tall and nine feet wide, leading into the mountain stone. Jiva stands and growls low in his throat, his tail now still as he stares into the dark.

The sunlight has already crept up the mountainside, only the tip of the peak far above still illuminated as dusk fades away. Eiji finishes his hard labor, burying kobi in one grave and the headless corpses together in a second, patting the earth with his shovel and settling in to pray over them as the light leaves the world.

[Samwell Turleton]

Souta extends her thumb, freeing her katana so it moves cleanly in her saya.

Good dog, she says as she backs away quickly keeping her facing towards the cleft as she retreats.

If nothing interferes

We must ready a fire and be watchful tonight. Souta says as she returns to the hideout to gather fuel to keep a fire burning through the night.