Series 4 Prelude. (5/5/04)

This prelude to series 4 continues where the Christmas special left off, with Troubleshooters, Komako (Jim Loder), Emiko (Denzil Brown), Mariko (Paul Burton) and Oguroyumi having just finished wiping out a gang of bandits that had been terrorising a poor village with new European guns. When the weather clears they hurry back to the bay where their ship was sheltering from a storm. On reaching the bay they find Kimori (Anthony Hummerston) half-drowned on the beach, but the ship, Sugiyama (Dave Weaver) and Kimori's swords, armour and wife have gone. Kimori explains that as the storm passed over, the winds drove the ship out to sea again, and was last seen running east towards Shikoku. Kimori was swept overboard as the storm turned and was lucky to reach shore. Desolated, the five walk back to the village.

After a night's contemplation of their predicament, the five set off down the coast road to Oita, Mariko having realised that Lord Chozo's army will be embarking on ships heading for Matsuyama for the next few weeks. They have little food, the village having none to spare, so Komako spends an hour each evening and morning fishing in nearby streams. He manages to catch a few fish, but never enough to feed everyone. But with the little food the party can pick up from the villages they pass through, they are only slightly thirsty when they arrive in the town of Nakatsu four days later.

In the town they settle in at the inn, then Kimori goes looking for a swordsmith. There isn't one in the town; however, a rather ragged looking out-of-work Ronin approaches him and introduces himself as Sakawa Kempei. He wears the Daisho. They agree to talk in the inn's teahouse.

Kempei says he has a gambling debt and hence has to sell his prized sword, a superior katana for 200 SP. Kimori realises this is a bargain price and agrees to look at the sword. Kempei gives him the address of his house.

Kimori relays the information to the others and has to shamefacedly ask Mariko to borrow some money, most of Kimori's being on a ship somewhere near Shikoku. Mariko accedes but insists on going with Kimori. Emiko and Komako also trail behind them inconspicuously.

Kempei's house is very run down and is in Nakatsu's only dark and ominous alley. Kimori and Mariko march straight in. Kempei greets them and fetches the sword. It has nice binding, the sheath has good lacquering, and the sword appears well used. Kimori's trained eye recognises that it is indeed a superior katana. With a tiny nod from Mariko, Kimori agrees to the asking price without even trying to haggle. As Kempei hands over the sword, Mariko offers for him to join the party on its journey to Oita. If Kempei want to join he should meet them at the inn at dawn. Then they leave.

Out in the alley, Emiko and Komako have seen nothing suspicious, so they are rather surprised when four yakuza leap out at Mariko and Kimori as they come up the alley. Mariko reacts quickly and stabs one of her attackers with her tanto. Kimori, struggling with his new sword, is slashed by two of the yakuza. He draws and strikes in one motion but fails to connect. However, it seems to unsettle his opponents. Mariko gets another hit on her assailant.

Komako and Emiko come rushing up to even the numbers (and make the contest even more one-sided) and all the troubleshooters score hits, and while Emiko's hit has all the stopping power of light rain, the yakuza fumbles his weapon and stuns himself. Kimori, Komako and Mariko all land second strikes; Komako is struck in return and Kimori's opponent breaks his sword. Before he can run very far Kimori cuts him down. Komako punches the last resistance from his opponent and Mariko completes her "death of six cuts" on hers. Then all three round on Emiko's opponent; Kimori gets the final blow. The following day, Kempei is waiting outside the inn at dawn for the party to leave. However, Mariko has a job to do first. Word seems to have got round and there is a fair crowd in the town square. Mariko brings out the surviving yakuza, the one Komako had beaten unconscious, and proclaims his crimes - and his punishment. Kimori takes his new sword and executes the criminal. Leaving the body for the Eta, the six travellers set off.

After a week's travelling without much fish to eat (Komako wasn't just bad at fishing, he managed to lose his fishhook), the six are skirting the lesser peaks of Mount Aso. Although Mariko and Kimori have seen something like it before, only Emiko notices that one of the mountains looks strange. Whereas most of them have trees on the lower slopes and snow or bare rock at the top, this one is bare below but has a ring of trees round the summit. Emiko asks a peasant working in a nearby field about it. He says it is Mount Sobo and it has only recently started to look like that. There is a shrine to the Fire God at the summit, and villages used to visit it occasionally, but now they get driven back by evil forces. The troubleshooters decide to investigate.

An hour's steady climbing sees them almost to the (inverted) tree line. But as they pass through a narrow gully a dust storm blows up. Everyone except Komako is blinded by the dust, but Komako doesn't like what he can see. A giant boulder is rolling down the gully and seems certain to flatten Emiko. Komako pushes Emiko out of the way but is struck by the boulder, which turns out to be a smooth wooden sphere, and is severely bruised. The dust storm continues, but the others except for Mariko manage to clear their vision. Another wooden sphere comes rolling down the gully towards Komako and the blinded Mariko, but Komako manages to pull them both to safety. Another swirl of dust blinds all but Komako again and this time a wooden sphere runs down Kimori and Mariko, damaging them both. Kimori decides to make a run for it, up the gully. Another sphere rolls down and he leaps over it to safety beyond the swirling dust. However, the ball goes on to hit Kempei, Mariko and Emiko, nearly crippling the latter. The storm whirls up into a dust devil and blinds everyone. Mariko runs back down the gully and just beats the next sphere of wood, while Kempei pulls Emiko from its path. Then the storm suddenly abates and the balls stop appearing (the magician's pinball table says "Game Over"?). All the players receive 5 budo; Komako gets 10 on for his bravery.

Mariko walks back up to the gully and then the five continue until they catch up with Kimori at the top of the gully. Here the way is blocked by a thorn hedge. Kimori pushed his way through it, followed by the others. Emiko and Kempei get entangled and badly scratched trying to free themselves. Komako goes back and easily frees Emiko. Kimori similarly helps Kempei.

The path now winds through the wood that circles the summit. A fallen tree blocks the way and the troubleshooters step or jump over it. However, Mariko stumbles and brushes against the fallen trunk, triggering some magical effect. Mariko's face turns to horror as her feet put forth roots and her arms, thrown out for balance, turn to wood and become covered in leaves. She has turned into a tree!

To be continued...

Next week: Will Mariko get better, or resign herself to a less active social life? Will the rest of the players' wooden acting skills come into their own? And what will happen to the family of woodpeckers that move into Mariko's mouth?

Series 4 Prelude session 2. (19/05/04)

We rejoin the Troubleshooters in trouble as Mariko is branching out in all directions (she is turning into a tree having touched a log trapped with the spell Wooden Doom). Her strength is failing and causing damage as the spell takes hold. Emiko tries to help by casting Dispell, but at first this fails. Finally, expending most of her remaining power she succeeds and restores Mariko to flesh. Then Emiko almost falls into the same trap as she nearly touches the log as she stands up, but manages to twist out of the way by inches. Up ahead, Kimori and Komako are scouting the way with Oguroyumi and Kempei following behind. Komako notices a suspicious-looking creeper and avoids it, shouting a warning to Kimori who dodges around it. Emiko and Mariko catch them up and Emiko decides to try and see all the remaining traps. She goes into a trance and gets a picture of three more traps. The party easily avoids them and reach the edge of the wood. However, here the trees and shrubs come to life. The shrubs whip at the group with thin, stinging tentacles, while the trees drop thin branches that twist around their necks and strangle them. After much hacking and slashing, and only minor damage, the party emerges from the wood and see the shrine on the snow-topped peak.

The first thing they notice is that the snow isn't really snow but piles of ice hemispheres, as if someone had frozen water in a bowl in a vain attempt to produce snow. The second thing they notice is Koei, their former comrade, emerging from the temple. Koei is apologetic; she explains that she is desperate to see the kami of the temple, the fire god Homusubi, in order to get her curse against using fire spells lifted. She hadn't been able to summon him, and was being distracted by local villagers visiting the shrine, so she laid traps on the way up to discourage them; Koei quickly restores Emiko's lost hit points in embarrassment. However, even with total solitude the fire god still hasn't appeared. The third thing the party notices is a priest who has followed them up the mountain (and thus avoided the traps). He is called Ishida and he is the head priest of the Tenzen Shrine in Naoiri. He has advice for Koei, "Homusubi will not appear unless the appellant is worthy and has just aims. Have you done any good deeds recently? That is the best way to show worth. Perhaps you intend to use his help for worthy purposes?" Koei is unable to answer these questions satisfactorily, so Ishida tells his story. "I am here seeking urgent help to cleanse our Shrine of Tenzen. The shrine is on the shore of Lake Naoiri, which you will know is famous for its still waters. From the shrine the view of Kuju-san and its perfect reflection appear to make a stairway to heaven. Every year we hold a festival to honour the mountain and lake, and this brings good fortune to our village.

"Last year, just before the festival, the lake became disturbed and the permanent ripples no longer reflect the stairway to heaven. It now looks like a stairway going down into the mouth of the volcano Hossho-zan. The lake has been like that ever since. The festival was a disaster, and bad luck has dogged the village all year. This year's festival must be held this week (it is already midweek). I have come to ask Homusubi for help, but fear I am not worthy of an appearance." Indeed, Homusubi does not make an appearance, even when Emiko makes an offering.

Koei immediately wants to go and try her luck at the lake. It is only a day's journey. Upon arriving there, and seeing the lake's rippled surface, Mariko tries to analyse the situation. She learns that the river's flow patterns have changed since an irrigation dam was built a year ago, and that wind flows in the valley could have changed when trees were felled to help build the irrigation dam. However, after sitting in the river for half an hour, Emiko realizes that the lake is unchanged whether the sluices are open or closed, and the ripples are present even when the air is completely still.

Ishida says, "The one time the view reappeared, and the bad luck went away, was in the depths of winter when the surface froze over for a few days." The group start to think there might be a malign spirit in the water, and Koei decides to freeze the lake to find out. Komako gets into the spirit of things by going shopping, buying a new fish hook and fishing in the lake. Emiko in the mean time has borrowed a boat and is out on the lake looking for a spirit while parts of the lake are freezing round her. Fortunately she manages to get back to shore, having ascertained that there is something magical in the water*. Eventually Koei has frozen the whole lake apart from one corner which refuses to freeze. The Troubleshooters converge on the corner of the lake and see a humanoid shape appear and slowly solidify from the water as a 6' tall, broad hairy figure with a deformed face. Emiko and Koei recognize it as an Oni, a creature that must be exorcised and physically killed at the same time. Emiko sits down and begins the exorcism, while the others lay into it with their weapons. Kimori gets in the first hit and stuns the Oni; Mariko and Komako miss it. Emiko's exorcism starts well and robs the creature of four of its Spirit Ranks. The others have another attack and all hit it doing considerable damage. In the next attack again only Kimori scores a hit, and Emiko fails to hurt it as well. On second strikes, all three physical attackers score. Now the Oni recovers from being stunned and smites the party with Awe, shocking Kimori and Komako. But they quickly recover and take the Oni's life force just as Emiko takes its last spiritual power and the creature dissolves back into the water, which immediately freezes.

With the reflection restored and the stairway to heaven visible again, the village immediately begins its festival. Ishida places a senja-fuda (religious name tape) bearing each of the party's names in the village's buddhist temple. This is to bring good luck. He also gives Emiko a sacred scroll allowing her to learn a fire quenching spell. Emiko for her part makes offerings at the shrine and writes a norito to help Koei. As the Troubleshooters walk down the road to Oita, they wave goodbye to Koei heading back up the mountain to try her luck once more at the Shrine of Homusubi.