Hail, Noble Heroes of the Drakaran Empire!
After the great battle of the bakemono tunnels, the party carefully scoured the remaining tunnels and chambers of this burrow. It seems that while some bakemono -- the majority -- attempted to defeat you invaders, a few groups of bakemono, probably including at least one warlord, did flee the complex.
The central chamber with the massive roots of the old (not quite ancient!) spirit's tree was found to have the roots covered over with a mound of dung, rotting meat, fish and vegetable matter, and mud -- and tucked into the roots was the body of a Drakaran male which was immediately identified as the young samurai Moshi Genjo.
After assuring yourselves that no additional active foes remained below, and that the pony up above was secure, it was decided not to pursue the fleeing bakemono, even though evidence was found that one group at least had taken three small crude wooden chests with them -- at least that was the surmise by the rangers given the indentations in the dirt floor of one of the chamber. The primary mission had been to retrieve Moshi Genjo's body and rescue Moshi Yuki -- and that mission had essentially been accomplished, but might be jeopardized by following the remaining bakemono deeper into the forest -- indeed, given the exhausted state of many characters' resources, the remaining resources might be barely adequate to ensuring the return of the party safely to civilization!
The party returned to the central chamber, reverently removed Moshi Genjo's body from the roots of the central tree, wrapped it up, and then cleansed the roots of the trash and muck, using some water from a few broken kegs which had been found. With its source of nourishment cleansed, the shugenja, shaman and sorcerer all agreed that the nature spirit tied to the tree should regain its natural balance, with the evil side no longer dominant. More was discussed about the capabilities of nature spirits -- the players may read in OA the details of Nature Spirits if they wish. This was evidently 'just' a medium sized nature spirit, although the tree looks old enough that it may almost be at the ancient stage, where the spirit will have accumulated enough experience to become a large nature spirit, with much greater power. And evidently the Celestial Court did not want such an event to be prevented by the untimely death of this spirit -- and so felt it acceptable to intervene on Miya Hatori's behalf while at the same time taking a hand in preventing the spirit from getting up to additional mischief immediately. It did not hurt that the sorcerer was of the Miya family, of Imperial rank, long renowned for their diplomacy and wisdom and often acting as emissaries to the spirit world. The Celestial Court has its own plans and interests, which do not always correspond to those of the Empire -- but in this instance, an intervention was allowed. And given that the party, heeding the apparent wishes of the spirit world, cleansed the roots of the tree spirit rather than seeking vengeance for the acts of the spirit while it was dominated by its evil side, speaks well of the honor of the party and its leaders.
The group, while engaged in this discussion, proceeded to loot the burrows. Several items of gear obviously belonging to Moshi Genjo and his wife Yuki were recovered, including the samurai's dai-sho (long-and-short) and daikyu, six magical arrows, his armor (various pieces), and a masterwork tessen which was a gift to Yuki from her father on her 16th birthday. These were all returned to their rightful owner, of course -- but Yuki insisted that the party accept the six (+1) long arrows as their own. In addition, a variety of other items and small amounts of valuable rocks and currency were found. Some crude baskets of meat, fish and tubers were left in the burrows. (Zenako will enumerate the complete list of items taken as loot, plus rewards etc., and parcel them out as part of the sharing of the spoils of battle which is traditional in this party of adventurers.)
One odd item, a human skull coated with clay, had apparently been being used as a dipper/drinking cup -- Zenako retrieved that as well, determined to see that the skull got proper ritual treatment so that if any spirit was restlessly wandering the world due to an improper burial, it might finally be laid to rest as well. Zenako made sure that all poison was cleansed from spears and such, and Soshi Ashi verified that a pot bubbling on a bed of coals in a small chamber that probably belonged to the bakemono adept was indeed the same stuff, snake venom extract, at which point the pot was overturned and the stuff sizzled on the coals. However, in addition to three empty crude clay potion flasks (which had contained potions drunk by various warlords), the loot also included three unopened flasks, each with a different mark on it in charcoal. The potions turned out to be Cure Moderate Wounds, Delay Poison and Invisibility -- and as all seemed to have been produced here, this led the spellcasters to conclude that the female bakemono had indeed been an adept.
The party then, despite their weariness, marched hard to get back to the campsite they had used the previous night, and managed to do so without attracting any unfriendly notice. The night passed, and many individuals were happy to see dawn arrive with no untoward incidents! Healing was prepared and used, the party continued south, and the village was reached without further trouble. While on the return trip, the rangers did not spot any new trails of bakemono crossing their own, though they could still see signs of the passage of the group of about 30 they had seen before, i.e. that trail was still followable -- of course, the decision was once again to leave that batch alone, as returning with the samurai's body and bringing his pregnant wife safely back to civilization clearly remained the priority. However, some characters were heard to note that there were definitely too many bakemono in these woods!
Chief of Constables Regaro was still at the village, but a newly appointed jito had just arrived that day, so Regaro was preparing, fortuitously, to return to Marike the next morning. Moshi Yuki decided to return to Marike with her husband's body, as well as several personal belongings from the manor which were loaded onto the horses, meaning that the party would be walking in part, allowing some of the members to breathe a sigh of relief as they had not looked forward to another ride, even though only about 10 miles. Yuki however -- like most noble folk -- seemed quite comfortable in the saddle. (Player note -- after some observation, Yuki seems likely to be a 2nd level Aristocrat, with definite bonus stats in CHA, DEX and INT, no bonus in STR or CON, and not sure regarding WIS.) The ride to Marike was somewhat subdued, with the elation of a victorious rescue and recovery effort battling with the sadness of the death of a samurai whose heir would never know his or her father. Moshi Yuki however seemed to be bearing up well, determined to go on and make the best of the situation.
At the court of Lord Moshi Isaka, the lord was quite satisfied with the news brought by Tsuruchi Zenako and her companions, and welcomed Moshi Yuki into his own household as a guest. He ordered full payment immediately of the bounties earned from the slaughter of 3 ogres and 40 bakemono in total. As a reward for the successful rescue of Yuki and the recovery of Genjo's body and the recovery of his family birthrights as well, which would be kept in trust for his heir, Lord Isaka proclaimed that the party could select 8 Talismans, to be made by members of his own Family, in any combination from among three types -- Bone Shield, Frightened Crane, and Paper Umbrella. (See OA magic items for more info -- these are worth 50 gp each, are one use only, and can be activated to do Sanctuary, Expeditious Retreat, or Obscuring Mist (IIRC) respectively.)
In other news, the first batch of sohei passed through Marike on their way to Brightstone Keep during the characters' absence. No new raids of any significance have been reported, though a few peasants claim to have lost an animal here or there recently. Meanwhile, despite her expectations to the contrary, Soshi Ashi has apparently come down with a Fever of some kind, and by the time she reached Marike is not feeling that well. (Yep, Filth Fever! The roll Orion actually made was for something else which did NOT occur, I had already rolled for the Fever when she first slipped and fell in the stuff.) However, Mulan began attempting to treat the Fever as soon as Ashi began showing symptoms, and with her skill at Healing managed to help keep the disease at bay, until a shaman could be found who could pray for and then cast Cure Disease. Ashi feels better after a few days, apparently fully recovered.
Gorvak clearly has learned from his experiences, but as for others, it is not yet known (i.e. the GM hasn't done experience yet but Gorvak had been very close to 3rd level). Mike, you can figure out which class you will advance in. Hold your hit die roll until next time, but you can figure out everything else in the meantime. As a 3rd level character overall, you get a new Feat, which comes before you even need to select a class to advance in. (Thus it can be used as a prerequisite for a prestige class taken at the same level.) However, a feat is not REQUIRED to be taken when first allowed, so it CAN be selected later in the process, even after additional adventuring if desired, so if note sure what you want to take -- or if what you want to take has a requirement that you wouldn't satisfy until after adding in new class info, than that is okay too. Then select your new class, which I expect will be a 2nd level as a Barbarian, and update all the relevant info on your sheet, such as BAB, saves, special abilities, etc., all except for the d12 for hit points... If you have any questions, let me know. Meanwhile, speaking of Feats -- Orion, select the one you are gonna finally go with, and write it down, and stick with it! ;)
Note for all players, in general, I'd like to know what level a character is working towards, just to be aware of what kind of training etc. they are engaging in during their non-adventuring time, along with keeping their regular skills honed.
All for now...other than to say, thanks for hanging in there! The initial prep etc. took a little longer than I had anticipated, but the role-playing and general player and character interaction was quite enjoyable. I especially enjoyed the fact that everyone seemed to be having fun -- most of the time anyways -- as that is the point, after all!
However, I do need to ask that the general volume of conversation and quantity of chatter be kept at a bit lower level in future, to make things go just a bit smoother. When there are 8 or 9 people all at the table at the same time, and multiple people are talking at once, with not all the conversations being relevant to the activity (or even to the characters themselves), it can get a bit too chaotic, and a few times I had trouble being heard while trying to relay relevant information about the action in the game, and had to wait for side-conversations to die down, or repeat myself, and such things do slow down the resolution of the action... So there it is, a plea for at least a little less noise and chaos -- thanks! And I'll try myself not to let things get too out of hand, because I too am partially responsible.
-- Ernie III