So here's what happened last night: Mirumoto Shogo, Matsu Tengu, Kakita Iori, and Shinjiro (this is theacupuncturist, raveboy, theGM, and NTTSbrain aka theArtist aka stephen, respectively) left supergoob's character in the safety of Aruhito's barrow to recover from the unfortunate poisoning incident caused by his overzealous meditiation to purse the bell clapper and the post from which to hang the Bell of Denshiro, in an attempt to lift the curse on the valley. Following the advice of Matsu Tengu, they traveled down a oreviously unexplored path and found the decaying remains of a village, which Tengu recognized as the village represented in Aruhito's barrow. In the clearing, virtually nothing was left of the forest, but at the treeline there were three decrepit huts with a fourth hut in remarkably well preserved condition standing behind them on stilts. Shogo and Iori pressed forward, with Shogo taking the lead, and as he was passing the three decrepit huts, Iori noticed that the huts were inhabited - and the battle ensued.
They were then attacked by three mujina (a misnomer for the actual Japanese ghost/monster the Noppera-Bō), a faceless demon who terrifies all those who meet its "gaze". In actuality, it only terrorized Shinjiro, and with significant effort, the three were dispatched, but not before the PCs discovered their unusually frightening ability to mimic Rank Techniques of the people that it fights. That caused a tad of consternation, I can tell you. Anyway, here is an old-timey drawing of a Noppera-Bō:
A Noppera-bō, by Asai Ryōi in his Otogi Boko (image from wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noppera-b%C5%8D)
Anyway, they found an excellent Go set in the possession of the Noppera-Bō, and in the peaceful hut discovered the bell clapper as well.
From there they attempted to ring the bell again (on the island) and in trying to get to the island, were separated - Iori was dropped on the Island with the clapper, Shogo was heading back on the boat, and Tengu and Shinjiro awaited on the shore. A wall of water erupted around Shogo, where he was attacked by a Kansen; simultaneously, Iori was attacked by several Kumo on the island, and Tengu and Shinjiro were attacked by zombies who lumbered up out of the water and tried to get them. (Nushi the Bog Hag was quite busy setting that one up, I can tell you, but she had observed how you got to and from the island before, and set things up to try and prevent the ringing of the bell)
Iori successfully slew the kumo, Shogo fended of the kansen (or at least was not hit by it), and Shinjiro again failed his fear test and panicked at the sight of the 10 zombies. Tengu wrested him to the ground to attempt to reinstill some semblance of dignity in the ronin, and despite the best efforts of the GM with allowing rerolls, and trying to keep Shinjiro in the fight, he kept failing the rolls (I figured out that he actually had only about a 5.5% chance of failing all three rolls that I allowed - way to buck those odds, NTTsbrain, you should try Vegas; all in all it was a dismal night of rolling for him - sucks when you do everything right, and the dice just stab you in the back). Anyway, by the time Tengu actually knocks some sense into him, they are surrounded by zombies, Shinjiro finally manages to cast a Castle of Water, isolating 4 zombies in it with them, and they eventually polish of all of them (not before Tengu does a couple of full attacks, gets the crap smacked out of him because his TN is so low - 32 wounds from a hit with a 5k2 damage, plus acquiring 9 boxes of Taint - ouch - I actually rolled 3 tens on the 5k2, but only got to keep the two :( )
Finally, they are all at the island, and the bell still doesn't ring, so they go down the last path, find a bridge with several statues of shi-shi on it, solve the riddle, get the bell post, and are jumped by goblins on the way back to the island - Shinjiro gets his first taste of being hit by a maho spell (not too bad, but startling to start bleeding for no reason). Shogo wades through the goblins, with good support from the others, and they get to the island, ring the clear resounding note of the Bell of Denshiro, now in its complete state, and the web overshadowing the valley dissipates. They then rest in Aruhito's hut for the coming onslaught against Orite the kumo-kunshu.
Back in the clearing with the entrance to the hut, they figure out the tori arch problem, and descend into the lair of Orite - in the darkness of the first room, they encounter a few vipers, which Shogo dispatches with ease, then they peer through the darkness, looking for Orite.
And there they find her. A battle ensues where Orite is slain, there is much honor and glory for the four participants, as well as much experience, and the discovery of a bunch of spell scrolls for Shinjiro, a pile of semi-precious stones, and several fine weapons and armor suits of significant historical interest...
Ah, I can hear supergoober's wail of despair right now, so I will reveal that the last paragraph didn't happen. They stopped in the antechamber after Shogo slew the snakes because I was tired, and because I wanted to save the final battles for when a couple more people were there and I was a bit better prepped.
Anyway, I'm tired of writing, and I just heard Obama say something incredibly funny/stupid about the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac thing, and then heard an almost equally inane remark by McCain, and I am reassured in my belief that they are virtually the same candidate... but more on that later. It is a beautiful foggy day outside, much cooler than it has been, and I am going to go take a shower and then play some Tenchu: Fatal Shadows, just cause I feel like assassinating stuff (don't worry, this has nothing to do with the presidential candidates, I started yesterday because I was trying to get into the Japanese fantasy game mood, and I had forgotten how fun that game actually was)
And I guess I never got to whatever the something fun was, I don't even remember why I came up with that title, but WTF, I'll think of something funny to write later.
2 comments:
Damn, I missed a good night of gaming! How did you get that symbol over the "O" in Noppera-Bo?
cut and paste, I don't know how, but I copied it from a wikipedia article that had it. There are a bunch of keyboard "shortcuts" for stuff like that... do "control-shift-@" then hit the space bar, and you will get a degree sign; it works in word, but doesn't seem to work here.
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