The party decides to fall back to the entry tunnel and wait. Knowing this tactic will have them facing all the the bakemono-sho of the cavern at once, they hope they can funnel them to a smaller space to gain advantage. At the tunnel mouth, the three Bushi stand abreast, draw their bows, and prepare to shoot the oncoming foes.
As the bakemono-sho come into view, all three Bushi draw and fire their bows - only to result in disaster!
Toshizo and Ha find their bows snap their limbs and Souta breaks her bowstring all in one volley. A disembodied cackle, brittle with age and decrepitude, the very sound of childhood horror stories of old hags in the mountains, echoes in the darkness. A vanguard pair of bakemono-sho with masakari axes leads eight bakemono-sho with wakizashi, their dai-bakemono leader hanging back at the edge of the light. Seeing the broken weapons, they charge! The foes clash, the
two axe-wielding bakemono-sho cut down, Souta and Ha taking minor wounds. The Dai-Bakemono, however, unleashes a horrifying volley of magical fire upon the party. Though Eiji calls upon Buddha's favor to aid them it is not enough - all three Bushi are struck by the magical flames and all three of them find their
armor and clothing ignites as well. Trying to extinguish the flames, Toshizo drops and rolls and inadvertently makes himself a better target for the bakemono-sho and
Souta drops, pierced by blades as she backs against the cavern wall. Ha lunges forward to grapple the nearest warty bake to set it on fire, but misses,
getting struck by the bake's blades as well. Another volley of fire rains upon them, this time burning Eiji, but he brings his hands together and the flames on his body extinguish, winking out around him.
Souta groans on the floor, her hands pressing the haggard rags of her burnt kimono against the gushing sword lacerations in her flesh. Her eyes close, her face pale and still as porcelain.
Toshizo has ceased struggling, passing out from the pain of burning alive inside the heavy metal o-yoroi. His body lies motionless as the bakemono-sho continue to kick it a few more times for pleasure.
Ha roars and swings his katana in a mighty arc, burying it into the body of the bakemono-sho before him. His foe stumbles back, squealing in pain, as Ha's fingers go slack, losing their grip on the blade. Overcome by the flames as they burn through the last of his armor, Ha falls to his knees, then, at last, to the floor. The bakemono-sho takes Ha's own katana from its side and with a vicious, hateful rictus, drives it into the samurai's unconscious form on the cavern floor.
Jīva lunges at the oncoming rush of monsters, his teeth snapping on air as the they dodge aside. Sneering at the dog, the merciless bakemono-sho set upon it with fierce hatred. Stabbed by their blades, the dog's body waivers a moment, then collapses at Eiji's feet, fulfilling its dharma.
Eiji looks upon the bake with a deep sadness as his dog dies. His wounds are already severe, but he shows no fear or hesitance, holding his mudra against their hellish master. From the rear rank, one of the bakemono-sho lunges, its blade piercing the buddhist monk's chest, time seeming slow as he looks down at the last of his life draining from the wound.
Eiji collapses.
It all fades to black.
TPK. All characters reincarnated with +5 attributes for Karma.