Session 12. (19/6/09)

In the days following the betrayal by the kitsune, our heroes settle down to a routine of watches up the Shikabe watchtower. Haku takes the watch that covers dawn so that he can recharge his magic powers each day. Kachamaru takes the morning watch, Miyoshi the lunch/early afternoon watch (so Mineo has to bring him his lunch), then Mineo the evening, Kokuma the midnight watch and Yoshi gets the graveyard shift, as he wasn't present when the watches were being decided. On the first day (the seventh day after the Wajin attack), only Haku manages to see any movement in the valley, and they realise just how bad they are at keeping watch. They decide they need to do more, and discuss ideas. An idea to dig pits as traps is soon discarded because the path is too diffuse; the only places it is narrow is where the valley is hemmed by rocks and the ground cannot be dug. Miyoshi favours sending a watcher further up the valley, but soon realises it is impractical. Mineo suggests they send for Haku's wife to return to the village with her powers to improve their Wit attributes. Haku demurs. Meanwhile, in a flash of brilliance, Kokuma invents a tripwire-activated bow. He sees great potential in this, being able to fell hundreds of opponents at once - but unfortunately he can only find two of the weak Ainu bows to use in the traps, and these would be lucky to fell a rabbit. Then Kachamaru suggests that the bows be set with humming bulb arrows so that they can raise the alarm rather than annoy an attacking samurai. Together they go and set up a couple of traps at likely points.

The next day everyone is feeling a bit more alert and Haku, Miyoshi, Kokuma and Yoshi manage to spot game further up the valley. Haku flies up to Sawara to persuade his wife to help them keep watch. Mineo works on inventing a tea-based stimulant to boost their attentiveness. Up in Sawara, Turesh (Mrs Haku) is obstinate. "How can you ask me to leave our girls when they have only just returned from those evil foxes?" Haku doesn't even try to argue - he is in total agreement. He briefly considers asking the Sawara shaman (Wakarpa) for help, but he is only L1 and would offer little assistance. He flies back to Shikabe where he is able to help Mineo with the production technique for his stimulant. Mineo produces 14 charges of the stimulant and the watchers take a dose at the start of each hour of their watch.

An hour before dawn, Haku hears some sounds from up the valley, maybe three or more miles away. He changes into an owl and heads up the valley. Four miles away he finds a band of a few dozen samurai heading for the village. He returns and wakes the others. They get up, don their best armour and prepare for battle. While they ready their bows, arrows and swords behind their pre-prepared rush-woven archery screens at the edge of the village, Mineo heads up the valley with bundles of irritant herbs, which he sets light to about a mile up the valley so that the smoke will drift across the path. Dawn breaks, but Haku is so busy that he forgets to greet it and will have to manage on the power left over from the previous day. Kachamaru takes over watch duties but cannot see the approaching troops anywhere in the valley. At ground level, the ground troops are discussing tactics. "I'll cast Mud as they reach the outer field," says Haku.

Miyoshi says, "And then we'll hit them with arrows until they get closer than short range when we switch to swords."

"Or clubs," adds Kokuma enthusiastically. "Quiet! Did you hear something?" Everyone looks round but no-one has heard anything. "Can't have been anything," shrugs Kokuma. In fact, it was one of his humming bulb arrows, set off by the troops nearing the village fields. Thus they are surprised when, a few minutes later, Miyoshi and Haku see the samurai burst out of the woods and charge towards them. Quickly, the former bushi (and Kokuma) rush to the rush archery screens and loose arrows as the attackers reach the outer marker. Miyoshi, Yoshi, Kokuma and Mineo score hits, though the damage is minor at that range. Haku casts Mud and slows down many of the attackers.

Miyoshi and Kachamaru fire again, aiming at the stick-in-the-muds, but their arrows bounce off an invisible barrier. Someone has cast Bar Missiles. Yoshi, Kokuma and Mineo react to this and aim at some of the samurai that have escaped the mud and gone beyond the barrier. They all score hits, Kokuma's a critical. Suddenly a samurai shugenja flies up into the air on Wings of Heaven, and all the mud dries up, its magic countered. Haku immediately casts Wooden Doom on the shugenja, but although the spell works, threatening to turn him into a tree, his meagre strength nevertheless overpowers the incipient transfer to the plant kingdom.

The archers turn their attention to the nearest troops, but Miyoshi and Kokuma miss, Yoshi frays his bowstring, and Kachamaru tries and fails to cast Lose the Plot. Only Mineo hits his target, but even this does minimal damage. Haku fires an Arrow of Wood at the flying shugenja and hits; the shugenja crashes back to the ground and is unconscious within three action phases.

The leading samurai reach short bow range and Kachamaru, Mineo and Yoshi capitalise, killing their targets. Kachamaru and Mineo both get critical hits, and while Yoshi's fray-impaired strike is weak, his previous hits had weakened the bushi extra so much that a weak hit was enough. Miyoshi misses his rabble target, but Kokuma hit his L1. Haku summons a wolf to protect him and all the others swap to melee weapons.

A wave of about a dozen samurai reaches the edge of Shikabe. Our heroes take on one each, while the rest of the attackers spread out into the village where they are met by the ten Ainu who stayed behind to help defend. Miyoshi faces a L2 bushi and gets two hits without reply. Kachamaru casts Scenery to create a very convincing image of a burning wall, with heat, light and sound. The rabble bushi before it is so distracted that Kachamaru can follow up with a critical hit, killing him outright. Yoshi has much tougher opposition in a L3 bushi, but he saves the bushi the trouble by hitting himself, leaving Yoshi temporarily stunned. Kokuma smashes an already-injured L1 bushi, rendering him staggering on one hit point but still able to hit back for 6 damage. Mineo goes for a Lightning Strike but misses, then scores on his second hit to his L1 bushi opponent. Haku looks around for any more shugenja but sees none, so fires an Arrow of Wood at a random samurai target.

As another dozen samurai prepare to sweep into the village, the battle is sure to hot up!

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