Session 6: The Princess is in a different castle... Report
General Summary
Our session began with the party gathering the magic items remaining in Ide Kayo's storefront after defeating the Oblex which was lurking beneath the shop and creating the simulacrum the party had been interacting with. Aien, however, set off immediately to try and find any tracks the princess may have left behind while Astrea used a sending spell to confirm that the princess was in fact, alive. "Eat shit and die" - Lady Sumehime's most elegant response. Following a set of small footprints to the main road where they became muddled amongst the tracks of horses, carts and all kinds of humanoids, Aien realised that the footprints were about the same size as Rei's. Naturally, he then tried to steal her shoe to measure them up. Slightly disturbed at this behaviour, Rei attempted to kick Aien in the head. Though she managed to get him off of her leg, he still managed to steal her shoe. Turns out they were an exact match for the tracks, which may have been helped by the fact that Rei had secretly stolen a pair of the princess' shoes a few days earlier. Meanwhile, a very confused little mouse-folk found himself staring at a blink dog he did not recognize, wondering where Rufus went. Poor Jerry had been memory drained by the Oblex and therefore could not remember the events of the past few days at all. This left him very confused, but thankfully he remembered meeting the others and so decided to stick with them and continue towards Nishisawa. Nearby, Astrea was rummaging through her bag of tricks, looking for something that might be able to pull the carriage. The first animal she summoned was an Ape which she named Ungubungu. The ape did not seem particularly smart, but made a decent travelling companion, helping her to trick Jerry into believing that he was the Monkey King of which they spoke. The next creature was far more fearsome. A giant hyena who would come to be known as... Ken. The hyena cackled as Astrea tied it to the carriage and instructed it to follow Seto's scent before she hopped in the back to take a nap and recover from her fight with the oblex. Jerry and Rei joined her, Rei taking the chance to get some reading done while Jerry fell fast asleep, also needing to recover. This left Aien and Seto deliberating which direction to search for the princess. Eventually, they decided to split up and meet back on the road later on. Aien took the road towards Nishisawa and Seto made his way into the Red Forest, followed by Ken, pulling the carriage. After making their way into the forest, finding little evidence of tracks thanks to the leaves covering the ground, Seto spotted a pond in the distance. Taking note of this, he turned back to try and catch up with Aien. As they made their way back, however, it seemed they may have attracted the attention of something hiding in the forest. Something which was now following them from above in the treetops, though it did not yet seem to pose any threat. Meanwhile, Aien had journeyed along the road and come across two figures wearing long grass cloaks, shambling towards Nishisawa, past the great bamboo fields lining this road. Aien crept closer to get a better look at them, and even when he did, judged them to be non-threatening. This led him to walk out into the road, attempting to make himself known without alarming these wayfarers. Instead, Aien looked upon the face of death itself. These were no travellers. These were a pair of Bodak, hunting for souls to consume in the dark of night. Now a soul had presented itself, and Aien immediately remembered an old Kigani adage passed down from zen masters throughout the centuries, "Never split the party." As he bolted into the forest and flung himself up a nearby tree, the creatures descended upon him, unable to climb the tree, but still able to drain his life essence. Trapped and without hope, Aien began making peace with his imminent death. Nearby, on the main road, Seto had finally managed to lead Ken the hyena back to the path before spotting two figures rushing into the forest, chasing after something. Realising who that something probably was, Seto leapt into action, using his tabaxi agility to charge into the treeline. When he arrived at the tree he saw the two figures scratching at its base, clearly trying to get at something up in the branches. Though unable to see much at this time of night, Seto was now well aware of Aien's combat preferences and tried to make his way into the tree as well. The Bodak were none too pleased about this and began their assault on the monk. As Seto finally made his way into the tree, he discovered Aien's unconscious body hanging over a large branch. Feeling the effects that these monsters were having on him, he knew that his friend was dying. Without hesitation he removed Aien's mask, revealing the face beneath for the first time as he poured a health potion into his mouth. "Whatever you do, don't look at their faces!" warned Seto as Aien coughed and spluttered his way back to life before retrieving his mask and drawing his bow, blindly loosing an arrow into one of the creatures below. Unfortunately, Seto's words were nearly his last as the Bodak soon caused him to fall as well. Luckily, Aien managed to catch him by the collar and heave him onto the branch while he desperately searched for an escape route. Meanwhile, back on the road, Ken the hyena had noticed something. Just as Seto rushed off into the forest, Ken and Ungubungu watched as a massive Oni leapt down from the trees, landing on top of the carriage without so much as a sound, gliding through the air with more grace than a creature of it's size had any right to do. This evil spirit struck fear into the heart of the hyena as it grabbed a hold of the ape and bit it's head clean off - tearing the corpse limb from limb as it crunched down on the poor creature's bones. This was the only sound heard by the party inside the carriage before Rei opened the back door to see what was going on. What she saw floating down towards her caused the world to turn black as her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed to the floor of the carriage, landing on top of Jerry and Astrea, waking them from their sleep. Astrea, seeing the severed arm of her new pet clutched in the creature's hand, leapt out of the carriage and took shelter on the underside, calling out to Ken to start running. Jerry, tried to fall back asleep but was rudely awoken by a massive red hand reaching in and trying to pull him out of the carriage. He drew his weapon and jumped into battle, slicing one of the creature's fingers clean off thanks to the distraction provided by Astrea's axe beak which had just unfurled on the road behind the monster. The Oni, now enraged, tried to use the axe beak as a weapon, instead ripping its head from it's shoulders before resorting to his actual weapon, a tetsubo. Astrea, seeing a body slump to the floor, ordered Ken to attack the creature, causing the hyena to spin the carriage around just as the Oni brought his tetsubo crashing through the roof, narrowly missing Jerry and the unconscious Rei. Ken did as he was commanded, grabbing a hold of the Oni's ankle while Astrea used misty step to appear above the creature and drive her sword down into it's back. Following her strike, Jerry leapt from the carriage, ran beneath it's wheels and sprung into the air before slicing through the Oni's leg, dropping it's severed foot to the floor to be enjoyed by Ken. As the creature screamed out in pain and fell from the sky, Astrea flipped herself onto the destroyed carriage as Jerry thrust his sword into the air, catching the giant by the throat on the end of his sword and driving it onto the ground with a flash of divine radiance. The Oni was dead, but something wasn't right. Where were Seto and Aien? Astrea quickly commanded Ken to seek Seto out once more and he soon led them to the tree which currently had two cloaked figures scratching at it's base. Jerry jumped out to investigate, struggling to see what the two figures were in the darkness as he approached. At this moment, pressed up against the tree about 50ft above the Bodak, Aien saw his opportunity. Making the most of Jerry's distraction, he grabbed Seto's lifeless body, heaved it over his shoulders and ran towards the end of the branch. With a leap of faith, the pair fell towards the open roof of the carriage before crashing down hard onto the wood below, knocking Aien unconscious as Seto's dead-weight came barrelling down on top of him, the duo landing right next to a rather surprised-looking Astrea. As Jerry heard the crash he also noticed the figures now turning their attention to him and prepared for a fight whilst Astrea gave Seto a healing potion and woke Aien with some inspiring threats of indulging her curiosities regarding his mask and that which lies beneath. One Bodak attacked Jerry whilst the other followed Aien along the branch and made it's way to the back of the carriage, taking a few blind hits from Jerry and Ken on the way. The battle ensued and before long, with the party reunited, they were able to overcome their opponents and send their screaming faces back to whatever hell they came from. Exhausted, the party made their way back to the pond Seto had discovered to finally get some rest somewhere in the early hours of the morning under the sight of several shooting stars. This rest was much needed and very well deserved.
The next morning, the party was awoken when Jerry decided to try planting one of his magic beans alongside the pond. Within a minute, a giant maple tree had sprouted from the ground, groaning and creaking as it twisted into shape. Slowly, as it grew, a face began to form in the trunk of the tree, pulling expressions of twisted agony as it formed into a treant. Thankfully, it was a peaceful treant and uprooted itself only to walk a few feet and plant itself back down in the middle of the pond. Stunned by the sight of a mouse planting a walking tree, the party decided to go with the flow and not question it too much. Things had been pretty weird the past few days, why not add one more thing to the list? Speaking of which, what ever happened to that fish-guy? I'm glad you asked, because that morning, Rei had awoken once more to find that her little fish buddy had not left her side. He seemed to trust her but was eager to return home. Rei assured him that they would fulfill their promise as soon as they could, and the party prepared for another day of searching. Astrea decided to pull a new beast from her bag, this time summoning a black bear who, with the help of Rufus (Now renamed Spike) the blink dog, lead the party onwards, seemingly tracking the scent of Lady Sumehime. This led them to a hill atop which stood another grand maple tree. This one, however, was not about to start walking around and instead had a blood hawk resting amongst it's branches and the dead body of a Yuan-ti woman lying at it's base with a note pinned to her chest using an arrow. Astrea cautiously removed the note from a distance using a mage hand cantrip and it read, "I've got you now, demon!". Confused, the party gathered to try and figure out what this was as Seto went to investigate the body. Instead, Seto triggered the trap and narrowly managed to avoid getting caught in a snare. Soon, a message spell was used to communicate with the party from somewhere nearby. "That trap wasn't meant for you! Get the hell out of here before sh- ... " the voice is cut off mid-sentence as the sound of steel clashing against steel echoes through the forest, then a moment of silence before a ronin wearing a red cloak and two katana blades strapped to his arms comes running out of the treeline towards them. Behind him, up in one of the trees emerged the red demon. As she saw the party she made several symbols with her hand before raising it to her mouth and breathing a torrent of fire ending in a massive fireball headed straight towards them! The ronin and our heroes managed to survive the blast with relatively minor singes, but when the smoke cleared, the Red Demon was gone. This angered the ronin as he passed the blame for losing his quarry on to the party. Apparently he had captured the Yuan-ti who he believed to be the Red Demon due to the mask and sword she was carrying, but it turned out she was merely delivering the items to their true owner who, thanks to the party setting off the trap, was now fully equipped and at large once more. Annoyed, the ronin called his blood hawks to track her down again before disappearing into the woods after them. At this point, the bear seemed to have lost the trail and given up it's search. The fish-man, however, was confident that they were close to the sea and so they followed the smell of salty air and the sound of crashing waves to find the beach looking out over Uchibito bay. The fish-man, ever so grateful, thanked the party by creating a small fortune's worth of gold nuggets out of thin air, pushing them through his palms as though it were nothing before turning and running into the sea. "My name is Gu by the way!" For a moment after scooping up all the gold along with half the sand around it into their bags of holding, the party looked out over the bay and enjoyed a moment of peace. This was short-lived, however, as Rei's fear began creeping in and the others' minds turned back to finding Lady Sumehime. They backtracked a little until the bear found the trail again, this time leading them all the way back to the main road, a little closer to Nishisawa than they had gotten the previous night.
Across the road was a small rest-stop occupied by a band of samurai busy packing up their camp from the night before. Sitting next to their campfire, poking at it with a stick, was Lady Sumehime. Finally. They had found her. Seto marched towards the camp but was stopped at the roadside by a blue Dragonborn samurai who seemed to be guarding his camp. He demanded that the princess be released to him as it was his charge to escort her to Taton. The samurai, seemingly amused, did not seem to believe him. As the others emerged from the woods, led by the bear, Rei moved to join Seto in his argument with the samurai. Seto in his urgency was failing to convince the samurai when she arrived and tried to corroborate his story. "So you're telling me that an Ashima Magistrate hired a bunch of gaijin and jizamurai to escort the Shogun's only daughter halfway across the country without ever meeting you, seeing your qualifications or giving his blessing, on the very morning of her departure?" Another guard, this one some kind of half-monkey samurai, arrived to see what the problem was as Seto and Rei began losing their patience. "You know, I met a young samurai who made this journey last year. Kid was pretty quick with a blade and he sure could handle his sake... Anyway, he was from Ashima. Told me that he'd spent a whole year preparing to escort the princess to Taton and then back to Nishisawa for the tournament. I remember because he was one of the kids completing his gempuku that year. Wouldn't shut up about his new rings..." "Yeah, that's right. The Lady's escorts are usually at the end of their training. I think it's like a right of passage in Ashima. This bunch look a little old for samurai-in-training. What are they? Ronin?" At this point, Jerry was getting into position to fight if needed as it was suggested that someone ask the princess herself. "Lady Kigako, do you know these gaijin?" "I've never seen them before in my life, good sir." she says, barely acknowledging the party's presence, although she did tilt her head and stare at Jerry for a few moments before the dragonborn speaks up again. "Thank you, my Lady, apologies for the intrusion... Well, you heard her. Now. She's been through a lot. I don't know what you're trying to pull, but if you're not walking away from here in the next ten seconds, I'll be forced to detain you... Run along now." This was a decisive moment for our heroes. Would they abandon their charge? Would they pick a fight with trained samurai? Ten seconds to decide, their honour in the balance. As Seto opened his mouth to speak, a familiar force of darkness emerged from the space beside him. As he turned his head to see why the Dragonborn was drawing his sword with a look of absolute terror on his face, he saw Rei. Standing in a cloud of pure fear with her boney, featherless wings stretching out behind her like an angel of death. The samurai were beyond convincing, the fight had begun. To detail the events of the battle that followed would require a keener mind than I currently possess. Though it should be said that the heroes fought with everything they had. People were knocked out, resurrected, knocked out, resurrected... They clung to life with everything they had, even managing to sever the dragonborn's sword hand in the battle. But alas, one by one, they fell. Knocked unconscious as the samurai proved their capabilities and attempted to take the heroes captive. The Dragonborn samurai, fighting with lightning breath, shock absorbant armour and the skill of a fully-fledged samurai, was finally dealt the killing blow as he clutched his bleeding stump of an arm and attempted to call for help, instead being silenced by an arrow through the mouth, once and for all. The arrow had come from somewhere in the forest, behind the treeline. Once all but one of our heroes was knocked out, the monkey samurai turned his attention there, searching for Aien after dealing the knockout blow to Astrea. This proved harder than he imagined though, as time after time, he was hit by arrows coming from every which way. Struggling to comprehend how this could be just one man and suddenly aware that he may be facing as many as 10 enemies concealed in the bushes, the samurai decided to change tactics. Making a show of his genuine frustration as he stormed back towards the bodies of Aien's comrades, he made a gamble. A test of his opponent's honour and adherence to Bushido code. As well as a test of his own. He plunged his sword into the back of Rei's unconscious body, a near-fatal blow. As she began bleeding out he called out his challenge, "Drop your weapons, come out here and surrender, or today your friends meet their end!" From Aien's perspective, it seemed like the samurai was now kicking Jerry's corpse around, stomping on it before booting it against a tree. In truth, the samurai kept missing his kick, but let's not talk about that. Aien saw that his friends were about to die and checked his quiver. One arrow left. Damn. With moments to spare, Aien emerged from the trees, hands in the air as he approached the camp, allowing the monkey samurai to take him into custody. The other two samurai who had been guarding Lady Sumehime ran to the bodies of our fallen heroes and attempted to stop the bleeding, both of them looking somewhat horrified at the tactic their fellow samurai had just used. And with that, the party was taken captive. Next session ought to be interesting...
Missions/Quests Completed
Completed Gu the Fish-man's quest
