Session 46. (19/3/10)

We catch up with Yoshi at the start of this session, showing him organising and helping the tribe move out of Miyoshiville and head north to Taisei on the squid boats and the new large general-purpose boat. Before he leaves Miyoshiville for the last time we see him go to the wooden sign on which was painted the name of the village, put at the entrance on Miyoshi's insistence, and scratch out the "Mi" symbol.

In Taisei, we follow him as he spends the winter producing new bows for himself, Mineo and Kokuma. The first bow is intended to be a 4-man daikyu, having decided that the accuracy penalty of pulling a bow too strong for him will be more than compensated by the increased damage. He spends double time on it to try to craft a truly superb o-daikyu that hits like a 5-man bow, but in fact with his craftsmanship and a fortunate combination of grain, wood types and atmosphere, he manages to produce a Legendary-quality bow that hits like a 5-man bow but pulls like a 3-man bow. Immediately everyone is clamouring for a bow like it, so he first takes Mineo's commission. He doesn't spend as much time on it, but again a fortunate combination of factors results in a 4-man o-daikyu for Mineo. Next he works on a bow for Kokuma, again a 4-man daikyu. This one turns out to be of merely ordinary quality ("Surprise, surprise," mutters Kokuma).

We also follow Miyoshi through the winter as he trains in woodworking under Mineo - or was it Kokuma's wife? Whichever, his mind is clearly elsewhere as his application rolls were 17, 20 and 19, and so he learned only six points of woodworking.

It is New Year - the start of the Year of the Tiger (1470). Most of our heroes turn 30 and start to feel their age (all lose 1 point from each physical stat and gain 1 point in each mental stat). Only Kokuma and Mineo are unaffected, Kokuma being a couple of years younger than the others and Mineo having passed the 30 mark during his 5 months/5 years with the Kitsune. Winter leaves and spring arrives. In the village, things have come to a head over the Headman's treatment of the villagers and especially the new arrivals. Miyoshi is torn between going and challenging the Headman and the worry (and Koshamain's orders) that if he does they might be exiled yet again. However, Kachamaru demands that he do something, so he temporises by deciding to have a "friendly word" with the most approachable of the Headman's family, his youngest son. He goes and knocks at the Headman's door. It is opened by a young woman, a villager who serves in the Headman's house.

"Where is Okikurmi?" asks Miyoshi, peremptorily.

"Why do you want to know?" she replies, equally brusque.

"I wish to discuss the running of the village." Miyoshi has a brief feeling that his tongue is going to get him in trouble.

"Wait here." The woman disappears inside. A few moments later an older woman comes to the door. Miyoshi recognises her as Ipokash, the Headman's wife.

"My son won't see you. Go away."

"Why not?"

"Go. Away."

Miyoshi's blood begins to boil. "Tell that lily-livered coward to come and face me." She pushes Miyoshi firmly off the threshold. Miyoshi steps back, caught by surprise, finds himself unable to strike back against a woman, and stalks off. This time he is certain that his tongue has got him into deep water. He returns to the others.

"You'd better grab your weapons - there's going to be trouble."

"What have you done?" inquires Kokuma.

"Asked the chief's son to face me."

"You didn't do it politely, did you?"

The heroes have got most of their armour on when there is a commotion in the village. Fearing the fight is coming to them, they grab their weapons and head out. A crowd has gathered, but at the edge of the village, not at the Headman's house. A hunter has returned from the hills and is talking animatedly to the villagers. He is explaining how he met a stranger up in the hills who told him about a lost village, cut off from the world, that has been rediscovered. Someone asks if the villagers are Ainu.

"Don't know. He didn't say they weren't."

Intrigued, Miyoshi asks the other heroes if they'd rather look for adventure. A Taisei villager, one of the older ones, overhears Miyoshi and has an idea of what is happening with the Headman's family.

"I think that would be a very good idea," he opines. So Miyoshi gets the location of the lost village from the hunter - go half-way up Lobster Valley, take a left along a creek then look for a narrow gully - while the others fetch the dogs, and they set off immediately. Haku stays behind to see what happens, but keeps a very low profile (Form of Japanese White Eye).

Lobster Valley is a good hunting area about two days' walk from Taisei. On the first day the adventurers hunt for fresh meat, but neither the dogs nor their owners are sufficiently well trained to catch anything. Miyoshi and Yoshi try hunting the conventional way, but they are completely unsuccessful. So their stomachs have to trust to Mineo and his attempts to fish in the river. Given his history of fishing, their stomachs prepare themselves for a night of rumbling and grumbling, but to the stomachs' collective surprise he is critically successful and lands more than enough fish for everyone to eat.

The next day the party reaches Lobster Valley, a place whose name no-one can understand as it is twenty miles from the sea. Kokuma and Kachamaru let the dogs go hunting again, and again they return empty-mouthed. Yoshi manages to catch a couple of otters and Mineo amazes the fishing gods with another fair catch. After a quick lunch, the adventurers press on and reach the creek running into the valley at its halfway point. Miyoshi, obsessed with naming places, calls it Crayfish Creek. Further up it forks, Miyoshi furnishing it with the name Fish Fissure. The sides grow steeper and higher, and the vegetation starts to cut off sight of the sky. Eventually it turns into a gully ("Guppy Gully") that ends at the foot of a waterfall. Miyoshi detects a faint path that seems to lead right into the waterfall. He can't quite believe it. Kokuma confirms there is a path, and follows it, sticking his head into the waterfall. He gets very wet and quite cold, but pushes on through and disappears. Miyoshi, afraid that Kokuma has been sucked into another dimension, sticks the shaft of his spear through the water, and is almost jerked off his feet as Kokuma pulls it, and him, through the waterfall. The others follow and find themselves in a tunnel behind the water curtain, leading under the mountain. Kachamaru casts Light and leads the way. After about ten minutes dominated by the smell of wet dogs, they emerge into a verdant valley with a large Ainu-style village. The valley seems to be surrounded by mountains - if there is another route out, it is not obvious. The inhabitants look pale and hairy like Ainu.

As they approach the first house a man greets the visitors and invites them in for tea. He speaks Ainu with an unfamiliar accent and dialect, but not incomprehensible. He introduces his wife and teenage daughter. Miyoshi notes that she hasn't been tattooed yet. Kokuma starts to introduce the party, but Miyoshi interrupts.

"I'm Miyoshi. You've probably heard of me."

The couple shake their heads in confusion, and ask if the visitors have come from Nippon.

"No, we're all from Ezo," replies Kachamaru.

"Oh, Ezo! We haven't seen anyone from that far away for ages."

Now it is the visitors' turn to be confused. "But... this is Ezo ...isn't it?"

The hosts are silent and return to their duties of entertaining the guests. In addition to some excellent tea, the couple provide a lavish banquet for the visitors, even plying them with extra food and beer. Then the father tells their sad tale.

The village is in thrall to two gods, a snake god and a monkey god. Every year they make a sacrifice of an animal to the snake god, but they must sacrifice a living person to the monkey god. Each year a household whose turn it is must provide a sacrifice. If no-one from the outside will take their place, the head of the house must sacrifice his own child. This year it is their turn, and they must sacrifice their only daughter. They very much don't want to give her up, but if they don't the other villagers will kill them all for fear of what the monkey god will do.

"You mean you've lured us here to become a sacrifice?" snaps Miyoshi.

"Oh no," exclaims the man, "I would no sooner sacrifice you than my own daughter. But if there is any way to save her I would be most thankful. Is there anything you can do to help?"

"I'll take her place." The words come from Mineo, sitting pensively in the corner of the room. "How is the sacrifice performed?"

The man explains that on the day of the sacrifice, ceremonial ropes are tied all round the house and the priests bring a newly made wooden box into which the sacrifice is placed, alive, and the box tied and bound with more rope. Then the priest's bearers carry it off to the altar in the shrine to the monkey god where the body is eaten by the monkey god and his followers. Meanwhile the villagers eat a festive meal.

"I'll do it," declares Mineo. "I can hide my small sword in the box and take my chances with the monkey."

"But if it really is a god then you'll be in trouble," remarks Yoshi. "We'd better hang around ready to rescue you. After all, if you die we'll be stuck with Yoshi Yeesu again!"

The others agree and decide to go and look at the monkey god's shrine. It is a short distance outside the village. On the way Mineo confides in the others, "Anyway, if I do get into trouble I can always change into my fox form and escape."

The others look at him, aghast. "You can turn into a fox?" Mineo, forgetting that he never told them, quickly demonstrates. Yoshi draws his sword.

"You're a Kitsune impersonating Mineo!"

"No, really, I learned that trick while I was living with them."

"Then prove you are Mineo."

"Okay, let me tell you about some embarrassing things Miyoshi did when he was a child."

"Ah, no, we don't need to hear any of that," interjects Miyoshi quickly.

"I know how to see if he is telling the truth," says Kachamaru and casts Pinocchio Effect. He faces Mineo. "Are you Mineo?"

"Yes." Nothing registers on Kachamaru's consciousness.

"Are you a Kitsune?"

"No." This time Kachamaru is sure Mineo is telling the truth. To be doubly sure, he continues.

"Was it nice living with Kitsune?"

"Well, it kept me there for five years!"

"Were any of your answers false?"

"No." However, Kachamaru gets no more feelings of certainty one way or the other. He is forced to accept the only answer he was sure of.

"He is no Kitsune."

They arrive at the shrine. It is surrounded by a high fence and accessed through a barred gate. They go in and find a long, high building. There are open doors on the front leading into a long, wide, high corridor with two rows of alcoves, or sanctuaries, on each side. At the end the passage leads left and right to doors to the outside. At the junction is a plain stone altar, big enough for a coffin to be placed on. Behind it is a large alcove decorated with images of monkeys. Above the alcove are several windows through which the surrounding forest can be seen. Kokuma looks for animal tracks but finds nothing obvious. However, he is convinced that this is where the monkey god will enter. They go outside again.

"I wonder if we could wait inside the shrine hidden behind an illusion," ponders Kachamaru.

"I dunno, do we ought to interfere at all?" queries Kokuma. Yoshi nods in agreement.

"Lets go and talk to the priest and then decide," concludes Miyoshi.

They discover there are eight priests in the village, serving both the snake god and the monkey god. They find a junior priest and Miyoshi asks him about the ritual. He explains about the sacrifice of a virginal girl.

"We've found a champion to take her place," exclaims Kachamaru.

"Oh, that's not allowed," says the priest.

"Then the villager lied to us!"

"Well, the head priest can sanction a replacement. He'd have to be fattened up for the god, though. If it isn't a virginal girl, it has to be a good meal." Everyone looks at Mineo, fat from days of overeating fish and otter meat.

"What does the god look like?" asks Miyoshi.

"A monkey, or so I believe. I've never been privileged to see it."

"Maybe we can solve this by removing the girl's... credentials?" supposes Yoshi.

"What would happen?" asks Miyoshi of the priest.

"The crops will fail, there will be storms, houses will be washed away," replies the priest, as if by rote. "It's happened before."

The heroes leave the priest and discuss their options.

"I could go in the box," says Kachamaru. "I bet we could persuade the head priest to let the parents bind the box if he thought it was their daughter inside. Then I could get almost anything in the box. My legendary sword for instance."

The dogs bark.

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