Session 40. (5/2/10)

We rejoin our heroes in a flashback to the autumn of the Year of the Rat (1468), at the point where Mineo returned to the village, in a scene last seen in a flash-forward four sessions back where Mineo was recalling his adventures of the spring of the Year of the Rat in flashbacks. Got that?

Mineo and his beautiful Wajin wife Tamamo have two children. One day, Mineo decides he would like to go outside the house to see what the town is like, having not been out yet in two years. "What time of year is it?" he asks Tamamo.

"Winter," she replies.

"Oh, well, maybe I'll go out in spring."

When spring comes around, Mineo decides he is not ready for the town yet, but goes out into the garden. It is a beautiful day. He decides to make two new gardens for his wife: a kitchen garden and a Zen garden. He asks which he should build first. "The kitchen garden," says Tamamo, ever practical. Mineo does so, and within a few weeks has the garden planted with healthy vegetables and interesting herbs. Then he starts on the Zen garden, carefully raking the gravel into an hourglass shape and adorning it with two large, round boulders. When it is finished he plays his hichiriki (Japanese oboe) and meditates. While meditating one day he is suddenly reminded of his life in the Ainu village. He remembers, vaguely, a wife and family, but he can't place it in time. He mentions it to Tamamo. She says that he has always been here with her. But Mineo can tell she isn't telling the truth. He remembers... vaguely having a family... not so vaguely being torn to shreds... running from a bear... and quite distinctly remembers meeting Tamamo for the first time in the woods, two years ago. He confronts her with the truth, but she starts crying and tells him she is pregnant again, and Mineo's resolve crumbles. He comforts her and forgets all about the Ainu village; however, the fact that something is amiss remains fixed in his mind.

Later in the year Tamamo has another baby girl, after a rather difficult birth. Mineo makes a concoction of herbs from the garden and greatly improves the health of his new daughter. Some time later, while meditating in his Zen garden, his memories flood back once again, this time in Technicolor. He remembers... being a young bushi... going off to Hakodate... going into the forests to kill natives... joining up with said natives... meeting an Ainu girl... having a family... moving villages several times... falling in a river... fighting a bear... and being rescued by Tamamo. On a hunch he goes to see Tamamo's father and asks him, "Is this heaven? Am I a spirit"

"Good heavens, no! This is Kumaishi. It's hard to get further from heaven in this life."

"But I've never been into town. I want to visit it."

"You don't want to go into town. There's nothing there for you."

Mineo decides not to press the matter further, but resolves to sneak into town that night. Once the household is quiet and Tamamo is sleeping, he gets up and starts to dress. However, the floor is squeaky and Tamamo wakes up. She asks what he is doing. Mineo blurts out the story of his past. Tamamo tries to persuade him it is all a dream, and adds, "And anyway, I found you, brought you in, married you, had three children by you." Mineo realises that even if his dream is the truth, he still has responsibilities here. He decides he has to stay. Tamamo is relieved.

A month later Tamamo informs Mineo that she is pregnant again. Mineo is happy, but months later, while meditating in his Zen garden he gets to thinking that she has been getting pregnant as regular as the seasons, as if she... comes regularly into season. With a snarl of comprehension, Mineo realises he has fallen into a Kitsune trap - yet again. His reluctance to abandon Tamamo disappears in a flash and he decides to escape. But this time he will plan it better. He bides his time, slowly gathering information and items to help his departure.

Fourteen months pass. Tamamo gives birth to a healthy baby boy, gets pregnant again and has another boy. This is the moment Mineo has been waiting for. As Tamamo is busy with the baby, and her sisters are looking after her other children, Mineo manages to escape unseen from the house. He finds himself on the edge of a Wajin town, presumably Kumaishi, but when he turns round to look at the house he finds only a grain storage building. There are signs that foxes might be living underneath it. The deception now clear, Mineo turns his back and walks out of the town, towards his Ainu village. Soon he finds the beach where he was attacked by the bear, and the tunnel leading through the rockfall. However, the river is too deep and swift to navigate. So Mineo turns back and heads for a valley he saw heading inland from Kumaishi, confident that it will eventually lead to the head of the valley of the "River Stairs" as he thinks of it, somewhere near where Miyoshi got lost.

And so it transpired. Two months later Mineo meets up with Kachamaru, Miyoshi and the others. He seems touched in the head, but after a few days of bed rest and some soothing herbs, he is restored to full health. Incapable of guile, Mineo tells everyone the whole story, including his wife, Manimahpo. At first she doesn't know what to think. Certainly she doesn't believe he has had five children - he has only been missing for seven months! This confuses Mineo too. He certainly feels five years older. Eventually Manimahpo forgives Mineo on the grounds that he did, after all, come back to his wife and family (the Ainu one, that is).

Jumping back to the present, the heroes have a crisis in Miyoshiville as Kokuma's bear cub has escaped and is on the rampage. Miyoshi has been injured by the bear and is ready to enter killing combat with it, despite the exhortations of the others, especially Kokuma. The bear has disappeared into the night and the whole village is looking for it. Haku can't see the bear but can see that Miyoshi is injured, and rushes over to heal him. Just as he finishes his spell, Miyoshi spots the bear. With a "There it is!" instead of a thank you, Miyoshi rushes off, spear at the ready. The bear hears him coming and tries to claw him. Miyoshi fends it off with his spear, doing 7 damage. The bear bites at the wound. Miyoshi pokes it again for 4 damage. Now Haku arrives and gives the bear both barrels of an Arrows of Soil attack. One lands for 9 damage. The bear runs off down the valley. Haku manages to keep up with the bear and calls to the others. They all arrive at the rock fall, but no-one can see the bear. Snow has been cleared from the cave entrance for the squid fishermen, but Haku is sure it didn't go in. Then he spots it climbing up the rock face. Kachamaru tries the Kabuki spell Lose the Plot but it fails. By this time the bear is about 80 feet up. Kokuma uses Control Bear and gets the cub to start climbing down. Kachamaru goes off to the village to get the bear nets to hold it when it gets down. Then Kokuma notices something amiss: the bear is having difficulty climbing down, and appears to be drunk. Haku casts Mud to break its fall, but the bear falls off virtually on top of Kokuma, who just manages to dive to the side. There is a terribly hard thud. Haku casts Pure Flesh and Kokuma tries to tend its wounds, but it is dead. Mineo uses his knowledge of herbalism to determine that the bear has been poisoned. Haku casts Pure Blood, but the bear is still dead. Kokuma demands to know if any of the Ainu archers were using poison. Two had hit the bear with arrows, but they deny poisoning it. Kokuma looks suspiciously at Mineo.

"I don't use poison!" protests Mineo. "It's a dirty, cowardly, underhand thing to do!"

"Where did you get that spear from?" asks Kokuma.

"We found it in the spiders' lair. It was really badly pitted, and all covered in gunk, ...and venom,... It's a curse, I tell you, it's that cat..." Miyoshi runs to a halt.

Mineo has been examining the spear point. He looks up. "Yes, this spear point is covered in poison, it's held in all these tiny pits. It's a fast paralytic poison, if you ask me." Kokuma looks ready to start some mayhem. Kachamaru runs up.

"Here are the nets. Did I miss anything?"

In the morning, the bear's carcase is brought to the village and prepared for a feast. Koshamain improvises a ceremony for the beast, and Kokuma prays to the spirits, thanking the bear's spirit for the time it spent with them. He remembers to fire an arrow into the east to carry its spirit back to heaven. Haku composes a poem and the whole village dances. However, a dark cloud seems to hang over them all day. Koshamain sums up the feeling in the village: "It's a bad omen."

Spring arrives and brings the Year of the Ox (1469) with it. Miyoshi decides he wants a new spear and gets Kachamaru to make a spear point while Mineo crafts a shaft. The two come together but the quality is quite ordinary. One day Koshamain calls the ex-bushi to see him. He says that some of the village's men have returned from hunting trips with very strange stories, frightened out of their wits, and with no game. He wants the heroes to go and investigate.

The heroes prepare by donning light armour and taking their best weapons (except Miyoshi, who takes his new spear). They go to the place the hunters reported the strange happenings and Kokuma looks for tracks. Pretty soon he finds some fox tracks and shortly after, the foxes themselves. Mineo learned much during his missing five years and easily identifies them as Kitsune. Miyoshi and Yoshi immediately demand that they be killed, but Mineo uses Persuasion, another Kitsune-learned skill, to talk them out of it. They let the Kitsune go.

The party thinks that the Kitsune are the explanation for the strange goings-on, but on the way back Kokuma finds some rabbit tracks and is surprised when he reaches their end to find two rabbits - with enormous antlers. "Jackalopes!" exclaims Haku. Instead of running away like rabbits, the jackalopes charge at the amazed hunters. Needing no second invitation, Kokuma and Mineo put arrows into the two creatures and kill them.

A little further along, Kokuma finds more tracks - this time beaver. But it is no ordinary beaver, it is a Berserk Beaver. It charges at the humans, foaming at the mouth. Kokuma hits it for 9 damage, but it attacks Haku, its great big teeth doing 11 damage. Miyoshi finishes off the beaver with his spear. Haku is worried about poison and casts Pure Blood, but there wasn't any poison.

Next week: the weird creature hunt continues.

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