Session 18. (28/9/07)

Continuing along the passage that tunnels through the hillside, the Troubleshooters come to a narrow section and have to go in single file, led by Komako, who blindly trips a trap consisting of a heavy metal blade that swings, pendulum-fashion, across the passageway, appearing and disappearing through narrow cracks in the side wall. Komako deftly avoids the blade as it swings across for the first time, then deftly misses it as it swings back, which he wasn't expecting. It looks quite easy to nip between the blade's swings, but Komako makes up for his previous lack of awareness by having a brilliant insight. Unwinding his manriki-gusari chain again, he throws it past the blade then trails the grapple back towards him, trying to set off further traps. Sure enough, another blade swings out of the wall, just about a foot behind the first (or slightly less than a body's width). Now the task of getting through both blades is much more interesting. The party discuss what to do. They want to stop the blade, but it looks too heavy to stop with either a staff of a sword without causing it great damage. Sugiyama steps up and says he will walk through the blades. Using his taisabaki skill, he steps past the first blade and positions himself so that he is just between the arcs of the two blades. About to step through the second blade, he notices another slit in the wall beyond, and uses taisabaki again as he steps forward and squeezes himself between the second blade and newly-triggered third blade. After the third blade passes he calmly steps through. On the wall is written, "Lesson 4."

Now Komako throws his kusari chain to Sugiyama and they pull it taut in the blades' arc to stop them in their tracks. Kimori assists Komako; Sugiyama is on his own. However, Sugiyama is a rock and it's Kimori that has the chain yanked out of his hands as the first blade strikes the chain and tries to drag it into the wall. Komako manages to hang on and the blade is stopped. Then the second blade hits the chain, dragging it out of Sugiyama's hands and into the wall, leaving the blade still swinging. Komako pulls the chain back, loops it around the stopped first blade and throws it to Sugiyama again as Kimori gets a grip once more. The second blade strikes the chain and although it slips through Komako's fingers, the combined pulling power stops the second blade. Then the third blade clatters into the chain and also stops, though it damages the chain, snapping off the last quarter. The Troubleshooters file past the quivering blades while Sugiyama basks in his 6 budo and Komako and Kimori enjoy their 3 budo, 3 on.

The passage now starts to climb, and the floor becomes wet. After some distance the floor has become the bed of a fast-flowing stream, getting deeper until it is knee deep. Sugiyama leads the way and uses Emiko's staff to probe the floor for obstacles and traps. Finally the passage climbs more steeply and away from the stream. After climbing a short way the floor suddenly gives way as a trapdoor opens, dropping away from Sugiyama and Komako right behind him. Sugiyama manages to scramble quickly up the pivoting floor and get to the far side, but Komako drops like a stone and lands in some very cold water, which immediately whisks him away down a pitch-black tunnel with no air space. Komako half drowns (suffering 6 subdual damage) before emerging into the fast-flowing stream he was wading through only a few minutes earlier. He stands up, gets his breath back and heads back to catch up with the back of the party. Meanwhile, the others are trying to work out how to get past the trap. The floor falls away with only the lightest touch, and while it is an easy jump for some, for others it is a major hurdle. Komako rejoins the party and has another good idea involving his manriki-gusari. He passes it to Sugiyama and uses the grapple end to hook the trapdoor and hold it shut. The rest of the party crosses without incident while Kimori waits, retrieves the grapple and jumps across the trap. Sugiyama earns 2 budo, Kimori 2 budo 2 on and Komako 5 budo 5 on.

The passage levels out but starts to twist and turn, until the Troubleshooters have no idea which way they are going. Emiko decides to use her trance powers to see if there is anything hidden, but the others talk her out of it, reasoning that she may need all her powers to overcome further lessons. Emiko agrees, and breaks out of her trance, but in the quiet of mind before she does she hears what sounds like a snigger from somewhere in the walls. Sung goes to investigate while the others press on, reaching a large open area just ahead. Suddenly, a number of pots arc down from the high ceiling and smash on the floor, releasing a stun gas (a L4 Fast Narcotic poison) that attacks the characters' speed, though this is unnecessary in Emiko's case as she has been hit on the head by one of the stun pots and knocked unconscious. The others try to escape the gas before they have to take a breath, but only Koei manages it, flying high up to the ceiling. Komako, Sugiyama and Mariko fight off a level of poison, but Kimori takes the full hit and loses 4 speed. Sung arrives and helps Koei try to drag Emiko to safety. Mariko fights off another level of poison, but the others suffer the effects of their current poison levels. Sung drags Emiko but now has to take a breath and is hit by the stun gas. Now it is Komako's turn to fail to reduce the poison level, while the others all fight off one more level. Koei casts Pure Blood and restores Emiko to health, while all the others fight off a poison level by themselves. Soon Sung, Mariko and Sugiyama have thrown off the poison completely, followed shortly afterwards by Komako. Only Kimori has trouble, making a critical failure of his health throw and several other failures before finally ridding himself of the poison, just as his speed runs out and he keels over. Of the others, Komako has lost 12 speed, Sugiyama 9 speed, Mariko 8 speed and Sung 6 speed. Koei casts Pure Body on those affected, twice each, and most regain all of their speed.

Sung wanders up the passage looking for a sign saying, "Lesson 6," but there isn't one. There is no need. He finds himself at the entrance to a large arena, with a sandy floor and high walls with a balcony in a horseshoe shape, filled with men dressed apparently in black pyjamas. At the centre of the balcony, flanked by senior staff and pupils, is an old-ish man, dressed in black, exuding authority. He bids Sung enter the arena, and calls out a name. From an entrance on the far side of the arena walks another black-clad figure - a L4 ninja. The old man announces a duel between Sung and the ninja. Sung had wanted to go back and tell the others, but now honour is at stake (for him, at least). Sung draws his sword and the ninja pulls out a shuriken and makes ready to throw. Sung invokes a strength blessing and runs forward to attack. He lands a good hit as the shuriken bounces off his helmet, and then a second as the ninja draws his un-curved sword and strikes at air. Sung quickly swings his sword but also finds only air. The ninja tries to jump over and behind Sung, hoping to gain an advantageous position or find the shadows, but Sung watches him all the way and then sticks his sword in him. They spar some more, Sung landing two more hits while the ninja misses. The ninja sees things going badly and fells Sung with a leg sweep, but Sung gets up quickly and ends the fight with his sixth hit. The ninja never even landed a blow.

By now the rest of the Troubleshooters have arrived on the scene, all restored to full speed by Koei. The head pyjama calls for one of them to take on his next student and Sugiyama steps up. A black figure is outlined in the far entrance, and as Sugiyama waits for him to approach he looks around for any signs of who the ninja are, but sees only unintelligible clan symbols, a black shadow drops behind him and attempts a Silent Kill. Fortunately for Sugiyama the assassin fails and Sugiyama realises in a flash that he has been conned - the figure in the entranceway wasn't his opponent at all! Sugiyama turns and slices his real opponent, who misses in reply, then Sugiyama gets a critical hit for 20 damage. The dark figure manages an average hit on Sugiyama for modest damage, and after receiving an average hit from Suigyama doing much more damage, decides to make a heroic leap to get behind Sugiyama and try for another Silent Kill. However, Sugiyama gets a critical Wit success and knows exactly where his foe is, turns his sword and makes a Reverse Strike, downing his adversary and scoring bonus budo.

Komako is next up. His opponent leaps into combat, sword swinging, but misses Komako and lands right on his fist, taking 22 damage. Komako lands a kick, sending the ninja reeling, so he pulls out a shuriken and throws it, just missing Komako's head. Komako closes in for another telling punch and renders the ninja unconscious.

The head ninja, now sounding distinctly unpleased, calls for another challenger. Emiko steps forward, brimming with anger at having been hurt in most of the clan's "lessons". She invokes blessings on deftness and speed, and for once has first strike in combat. She swings her fire staff and hands out 9 damage. The ninja replies with a punch but it only does 1 damage. Emiko swings again and hits for 8 damage. The ninja switches to a tanto but misses. Emiko, red mist rising, scores for another 6 damage, dodges the ninja's tanto and thwacks him for 10 more damage, leaving him black and smouldering.

Mariko decides it is her turn. As her foe comes forward he flicks a shuriken at her and it scores, doing minimal damage but injecting a L3 fast disabling poison into her system. Mariko shakes off one level immediately, but the itchy, noisy, flashing sensations it evokes cause Mariko 2 levels of distraction. Nevertheless, she charges the ninja and strikes with her sword for 6 damage. The ninja misses, Mariko hits again then the ninja lands a critical hit to Mariko's left leg for 8 damage. Mariko continues to fight, hindered by a gammy leg and three distractions, now that she has thrown off another level of poison. She overcomes her hindrances to score another 8-point hit, receives a 5-point hit, dishes out a 7-point hit, ducks and finishes with another 7-point hit. She throws off the poison and goes to lie down while the four levels of distractions slowly ebb away.

Kimori has an idea. As his opponent walks into the arena, Kimori tries to focus his ki. Had it worked, Kimori would have drawn his bow in an instant and loosed an arrow at the unsuspecting ninja. But the force is not with him, so he goes back to plan A - "Hit 'em with big sword." The ninja tries to sneak into a silent kill position, but Kimori has seen Sugiyama perform this move from the corner of his eye too many times before - usually when it's his round at the bar. Thinking he is unseen, the ninja decides to leap into combat, but Kimori has positioned his body to hide the big chopper from the ninja's eyes. The ninja leaps. In a flash, Kimori spins around and sweeps the sword up with precision. The ninja is in mid-flight, and cannot correct his leap in time to save impaling himself in a vital area, scoring 23 damage from a critical hit! As the ninja's badly injured body drops the rest of the distance to the floor, Kimori hits again for another 26, and though not critical, was quite lethal. The ninja hits the floor stone dead before he could make another move. The others are not surprised, but it was all too fast for them to get any coins out to gamble on the result. Kimori walks back. "Yamabushi dead..."; "Koei's turn now..."; "Yup...". The others get out their cash. Koei and the ninja square off. The other Troubleshooters all take a few measured steps backwards. Knowing it'll be over in an instant, they hold their eyes open with their fingers, lest one of them blink and miss it.

With Koei on the dojo, the others bind their wounds and verbally wager on how quickly Koei will dispose of the ninja - they don't even consider that she might lose. Koei doesn't disappoint: as the ninja emerges from the doorway on the far side Koei looses four arrows of fire, three of which strike him doing 25 damage, and setting his clothes on fire with a L3 fire. The ninja rolls around and manages to partly put the fire out, but not before it has done another 11 points of damage and extinguished his life.

Seeing all his senior students defeated, the head ninja barks an order and all the junior pupils (23 of them) leap from the balcony into the arena. The fight is on!

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