Session 47. (26/3/10)

Cutting a loooong story short, our heroes have finally settled on a simple plan - Mineo will lie in the sacrifice box, leap out and kill the monkey god, while the others hide nearby to help if (when) needed.

Flashing back a few days and about twenty miles, we catch up with Haku, who was lying low (well, perching low) in Taisei, watching what would happen after Miyoshi's taunts of the Headman's youngest son. Shortly after Miyoshi and the others left to investigate the lost village, the Headman's eldest son and several of the village's warriors went to Miyoshi's house. They went in, there was quite a bit of shouting and they left again. After dark, Haku visited Miyoshi's wife to ask her what happened. She said that the Ainu had come looking for Miyoshi to "explain how things were done around here", and she had a hard time persuading them that he wasn't here. They hadn't hurt her, however.

The following day the village returns to its normal quiet self, and the next day. Haku decides he needs to tell Miyoshi about the events, and seeing as his wife doesn't appear to be threatened, sets out to the lost village. He checks where it is with the hunter that brought the news to Taisei, and at dawn the next day transforms into a hawk and flies off to Lobster Valley. However, once there he can't find the creek (Crayfish Creek) that is halfway up the valley and leads to Guppy Gully. He flies low, beneath the trees trying to locate it, but is concentrating so much on searching the ground that he flies straight into a tree. Realising the futility of this method, he changes back to human form and searches on foot, soon locating the creek. He follows it, forks left into Fish Fissure and thence into the gully where he finds the waterfall. He pokes his head through the curtain of water, manfully resists screaming as the icy water runs down his neck, and pushes through into the cave behind. Casting Light, he makes his way through "Kokuma's Passage" to the "lost" village where he soon finds the others by dint of listening for the sound of arguing voices. He tells them the news from Taisei, and has to persuade Miyoshi that his wife is fine and he doesn't need to rush back.

The day of the sacrifice arrives. The junior priests bring a large wooden box, coffin-shaped, to the house of the former victim, where the Taisei visitors are staying and Mineo has been fattened up on raspberries and chamois milk. They also deliver great lengths of white rope, leaving instructions "Tie the victim into the box with the sacred ropes, then push the victim, in the box, out of the window onto the trestles where we will collect it." Mineo worries a little about being able to get out of the box, so he cuts some small slits in the wooden lid and secretes a sharp knife about his person. Meanwhile, the others are discussing their ambush. Haku recalls from the Japanese classics that dogs and monkeys are hereditary enemies, so Yoshi says they should include the dogs in their attack. Kachamaru adds that they should call on the canine gods to watch over them, and everyone takes a moment to pray. The overall effect is quite good, but Kokuma's prayers are particularly divine-ear-catching, and Miyoshi's even more so. As Miyoshi is praying to dog (and wolf) spirits, Kokuma and Yoshi notice an aura around Kokuma's dog, Tesuko. They realise that a god has come to inhabit the dog's body. Quickly, they feed it the best meat they can obtain, and explain the situation to the god/dog.

"This is what we're doing, Tesuko, oh dog spirit or whatever you are: we're fighting monkeys, you know, your hereditary enemies, and we have to stop a monkey god taking a human sacrifice…" and so on, says Yoshi, while Kokuma strokes it and says, "Who's a good god?"

The dog, of course, hears "Blah-blah-blah Tesuko blah-blah-blah-blah" and so on. Kokuma takes the god for a walk.

The others prepare Mineo for his big day. "What did the priests say we were to do?" asks Miyoshi.

"I haven't quite got the hang of their dialect yet," replies Haku, removing a coloured sash from round his neck, "but I think they said, 'Tie in box, push victim out of window.'"

At the second attempt they manage to get the now rather porky Mineo into the box and bind it with the white ropes. When Kokuma returns they lift the box out of the window and place it on the trestles. Then they hot-foot it to the monkey shrine before the priests arrive to carry the box there.

At the shrine the first obstacle is the fence and barred gate. Miyoshi unbars the gate, lets the others and the two dogs through, then locks it and climbs over, using his spear as a +4 climbing aid. As they approach the shrine building, they can hear much chattering from inside - the chattering of monkeys. They can just see through the open end doors that the alcoves on either side of the aisle are occupied by about 50 monkeys, screaming with excitement. The heroes wisely avoid the end doors and sneak round to one of the side doors at the far end. With Miyoshi desperately trying to keep Kachamaru's unholy dog Mori-san quiet, Kachamaru casts Scenery to create the sight, sound and smell of nothing entering the right-hand side door while the noisy, smelly group enters the right-hand side door. They can see a few of the alcoves, which are filling up as more monkeys pour in through the windows above the big alcove behind the altar, which is straight ahead of them. The monkeys' screams rise to a cacophony as the priests enter the end doors, carrying the box holding Mineo. The priests place it on the stone altar and quickly depart. Suddenly the din subsides, and a number of monkeys enter through the side door opposite the heroes. They are flanking a huge monkey, nine feet tall. Two of the monkeys are carrying objects which the heroes see are a ceremonial knife and a pair of large chopsticks. Kachamaru surreptitiously casts Escapology on the ropes binding Mineo's box and they fall away. The monkey with the ceremonial knife is confused at suddenly having nothing to cut, so it just pushes the lid aside. The heroes take this as their cue. Yoshi fires his Legendary bow and hits the monkey god for 23 damage. Kokuma fires his ordinary bow but misses, the arrow sailing out of the doorway opposite. He pretends it was a warning shot, and that he doesn't fire as many as he used to. The others charge in on the monkeys, swords and spear flashing. Miyoshi's spear scores a critical hit on the monkey god, but its ordinary-quality results in only 8 damage. Kachamaru's Legendary katana strikes the monkey god for 9 damage. Mineo sits up and tries to stab the monkey god with his knife but can't reach. The two dogs rush out and chase dozens of monkeys from the buildings and back into the forest.

The big monkey retreats into the large sanctuary, surrounded by his entourage. This prevents most of the heroes from getting an attack on the big monkey. Miyoshi bides his time, waiting for his aging body to catch its breath. Kachamaru hits one of the smaller monkeys for 10 damage, and Kokuma knocks another one into next week with a critical swing of his tetsubo doing 36 stun damage. Mineo slashes at the monkey holding the chopsticks, doing 7 damage. Haku prepares to use exorcism on the big monkey, but Yoshi, finding his way unobstructed by minions, steps into the sanctuary, hits the big guy with one of his swords and kills it. The rest of the monkeys flee, terrified by the sight of the dead giant and by the barking, biting dogs. Kachamaru tries to chase the monkey with the ceremonial knife, but Miyoshi insists that they all focus on following the main troupe of monkeys. The monkeys scatter and soon only Kokuma can follow them, using his tracking skill to find evidence of their passage through the branches of the trees. However, he can only do this by climbing up trees every few yards, and eventually he has to admit defeat too.

The heroes return to the shrine to find the priests there, examining the dead monkey. The priests look at each other, not sure what to think. The adventurers know what to think, though: they are sure that the monkey was no god, because it died much too easily, and the body has remained rather than dissipating. They make their way out of the shrine to the gates, where a large crowd of villagers has gathered. They pull back to make a path for the adventurers, looking nervous. As they pass through, the adventurers can hear whispering among the villagers. "These people are stronger than our gods!" Haku gives a short speech. A nervous cheer goes up, getting stronger as it passes around the crowd. Then Miyoshi holds his ordinary spear up and a great cheer is raised. From there the celebrations snow-ball, and the heroes are feted with wine, food and song. But Mineo doesn't join in - after two weeks of raspberries and chamois milk he is completely fed up and needs to diet.

After the feasting, the heroes prepare to leave the village, much to the sorrow of the villagers. The priests have burned down the monkey shrine and stomped the remains to dust, and Tesuko has returned to being a normal, badly-behaved dog. Miyoshi tries to show some of the villagers the way back to Taisei, but they are too afraid to enter Kokuma's Passage. Thus the six adventurers return to Taisei with nothing more than a fantastic tale and gifts from the thankful "lost" villagers.

When they arrive back in Taisei, the adventurers find the village much as they left it - fairly quiet apart from a group of villagers gathering round to listen to tales of a lost village. It appears that the tension between the Headman's family and Miyoshi has faded away, but this doesn't suit Miyoshi so he tries to be deliberately provocative in the telling of the story, hoping that it will bring matters to a head. To his disappointment, there is no reaction from the Headman's house, even though he is sure that the news must have reached it. However, Koshamain turns up and asks Miyoshi for a word. The other heroes join them, but Koshamain and Miyoshi do most of the talking.

"You left this village in quite a state of excitement."

"How do you mean?"

"You called the Headman's son a coward. I had to smooth things over a bit."

"But they are treating their people worse than the Ji-zamurai!"

"That is their way."

"But that isn't the Ainu way!"

"Not all Ainu are the same."

Kachamaru pipes up. "Why don't we just move further up the coast?"

"All this moving makes me very tired."

"But what about the tribe?"

"It makes them tired too."

There follows a general discussion that goes on for quite some time, and ends only when Kokuma suggests, "Why don't we hold a Council of Elders? We can get Koshamain, my father, us, and invite the Headman. We can use it to air our grievances and suggest a better way of running the village - for instance with one of us in charge."

Surprisingly, Koshamain agrees, though he thinks it somewhat presumptuous to invite their host, the Headman, to a meeting that they will be chairing. Even more surprisingly, Kuteashguru, the Headman actually turns up. Mineo and Yoshi efface themselves, not wishing to endure the arguing and vitriol. They stand outside the meeting house where they are joined by the Headman's youngest son, Okikurmi, who is there ostensibly as his father's bodyguard, though in fact he is unarmed.

Inside, Miyoshi speaks first, suggesting that Koshamain chairs the meeting. He gets a dark look from the Headman, who says nothing but looks as though he regards it as beneath him to talk to Miyoshi. Haku interrupts the dark looks by launching into what he hopes will be a stirring speech.

"We have concerns," he begins, "about the organisation of the village, distribution of trading spoils, and opportunities for villagers to better themselves." The Headman looks at him as though a worm has crawled out of the ground and started to tell him its ideas for building boats. Haku continues hesitantly, "Err, and that's why tensions have built up... you haven't learned the capabilities of the new arrivals..."

"Or your own people," interjects Miyoshi. The build-up of tension is palpable.

Outside, Yoshi and Mineo try to strike up a conversation with Okikurmi. "I've a feeling this is going to be a very short meeting," Mineo opens tentatively. Okikurmi grins sheepishly, then catches himself.

"You could be right," he remarks solemnly.

"My boss doesn't like people who are above themselves, just like your brother."

"What's wrong with my brother?" frowns Okikurmi.

"He reminds me of a captain I once knew, let me tell you..."

Okikurmi cuts in, "What's a captain?"

Mineo changes tack. "Your brother goes to trade with the Wajin?"

"No, my father does that."

"Well, he seems to have picked up their bad habits, as has your brother."

"Don't talk about my brother like that!" says Okikurmi, getting angry.

"But you're not like him - we can talk to you." The tension seems to be building to breaking-point.

Inside, Kachamaru has a suggestion for Kuteashguru: "Why don't you go fishing for a week, let us run the village to see what a good job we do?"

"You?" explodes Kuteashguru incredulously. "You're an impudent worm!"

Kachamaru stands up, hand near his Legendary sword.

"Sit down!" orders Koshamain.

Kachamaru refuses.

"Sit down!" repeats Koshamain.

Kachamaru thinks about his next words and his next action, opens his mouth and...

...To be continued.

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