Session 13. (26/6/09)

We rejoin our heroes fighting the invading Matsumae at the edge of Shikabe village. They are fighting well, but the number of samurai is overwhelming. Each of the former Wajin (and Kokuma) is fighting one-on-one, but soon more samurai join the fights, while yet more sweep into the village and take on the over-matched Ainu warriors that stayed behind to defend their village.

Miyoshi starts well with a good hit on his foe, then swings and misses but continues the swing and catches his opponent with the butt-end of his yari. Kachamaru and Yoshi are double-teaming a L3 samurai, though Yoshi seems to be just standing there, not doing much, so Kachamaru steps it up and gets two good hits, though the samurai manages to hit the listless Yoshi for 4 points of damage. Kokuma finishes his dying foe with a light tap from his tetsubo (for 12 damage), then goes after the raiding party's leader, a L4 bushi, landing the first hit. Mineo starts badly with a miss then a terrible miss in which he hits himself for 5 damage (no-one mentions this to him ever again, but he often wonders why he sometimes sees the others smirking to themselves). Haku spots a second magic-user in the samurai ranks and, mindful of his rapidly diminishing power reserves, fires a single Arrow of Wood. It finds its mark and within four action phases the enemy shugenja is unconscious.

A second wave of attackers arrives and some lay into our heroes. A L1 bushi attacks Haku but he is defended by his wolf. Seeing this, Haku summons two more wolves to really give the bushi something to worry about. Miyoshi dazes himself but neither his new foe nor his old foe seem able to hit him. Kachamaru lands two more hits on the L3 bushi and Yoshi rouses himself just in time to finish him off. Kokuma lands another 7-point blow on the leader but is tagged for 7 points himself. Mineo scores two hits and evades both of his enemies' strikes.

Miyoshi recovers from his daze and spears his opponent, only then to miss on his second attack, go to turn it into a butt stroke, miss horribly and break his yari in two. Kachamaru keeps up his good form and hits a his latest attacker in synchrony with Yoshi and fell him on the spot. Kachamaru goes to help Kokuma with his second opponent and scores a hit on him, leaving Kokuma to trade blows with the leader, Kokuma coming off slightly better with an 11-point hit, while Yoshi joins in on the leader and scores a good hit with each sword. Kokuma finishes the leader with a flourish, a 10-point critical hit knock down stun and kill. Mineo also finishes his first opponent then turns to his second, who caused a minor wound while attacking from Mineo's flank. This seems to put Mineo off and he misses his hit in both directions. Haku runs over to Kokuma and gives 5 points of healing while his wolves tear chunks out of Haku's unfortunate foe.

Miyoshi drops his broken spear and draws his sword. Despite it not being his preferred weapon, for the remainder of the fight (12 attacks) he doesn't miss once. Kachamaru casts Mask of Deception and makes himself look like the samurai leader, ordering the other samurai to stop fighting and retreat back to camp. Although this is too out of character for the late L4, several of the samurai pause and leave themselves open to attack. Kokuma is one to benefit and lands an 11-point hit, killing a bushi extra, and an 11-point critical hit, stunning a L1. Yoshi helps Miyoshi as he changes weapons and scores with both blades then misses with both. Mineo takes on a new foe, focuses his ki and fells him with two good hits. Mineo's first foe was one of those not taken in by Kachamaru's ruse, but he misses anyway.

Next Kachamaru uses Stage Flash to blind his opponent, then hits him with his sword. Kokuma lands a critical hit on his stunned opponent and dazes him further, but then can't hit him for toffee. Haku tries to heal Kokuma but is distracted as he is hit by the L1 while his wolves all miss. Mineo hits his opponent then criticals him and knocks him cold. Miyoshi and Yoshi finish off their respective foes, Yoshi taking a minor wound in the process, and as they look around for someone else to hit notice for the first time that there are several dead Ainu warriors lying in the village - and a few dead samurai - and some of the houses have been damaged and in a few cases set on fire. Miyoshi picks out a L2 bushi bent on destruction while Yoshi disappears into the village to help out the Ainu warriors.

Miyoshi scores two good hits on the L2, but the L2 is strong and gives back 7 damage. Kachamaru finishes his blinded opponent and charges to attack another L2 bushi, doing 10 damage - exactly a quarter of his hit points. Kokuma finishes his stunned opponent, but is tagged for 3 damage. He moves on to a new L1 enemy, misses and again is tagged for 3 more damage. Mineo lands one hit from three. Haku again tries to heal Kokuma but is distracted as one of his wolves is hit.

Miyoshi nickel-and-dimes his strong foe with two minimum hits. Kachamaru hits his foe for two more 10s, reducing him to half then a quarter of his hit points. Kokuma swings and misses - twice. Mineo swings and connects - twice, killing the L2 bushi. Haku finally manages to heal Kokuma but one of his wolves is killed defending him.

Miyoshi dimes-and-quarters his strong foe with two maximum hits, finishing him off. Kachamaru scores yet another 10-point hit, killing the L2 and earning him a 2-point consistency bonus (see rules of mah-jongg). He finds a new opponent, a weedy extra, and though he is disappointed to only do 9 damage, it is enough for the kill. Kokuma gets back to hitting with a big 13, then misses again. Mineo also gets one hit from two tries against a L2. Haku draws his tanto and prepares to defend himself and his two remaining wolves, but they don't need him and finish off their L1 bushi tormenter.

It is now hard to find new opponents - there aren't many left and the village is thick with smoke. Miyoshi finds a hapless extra and cuts him down with one stroke. Kachamaru joins him and they find the second-in-command L3, setting fire to a house. They set about him. Kokuma lands two hits for the first time in 5 rounds and floors his L1 foe. Mineo lands a stunning blow on his opponent and Haku heads into the village to see what he can do.

Miyoshi and Kachamaru tackle the L3 bushi. He would normally be quite a tough prospect, and indeed he hits Miyoshi for 8 damage, but when Kokuma turns up, followed by Haku's two wolves, the writing is on the floor - in blood. Sword, club, sword and two sets of teeth bring down the bushi in quick time. Mineo is the last one left fighting, landing two more hits, then two misses, and finally a critical hit to kill the last enemy outright.

The five former Wajin and their Ainu friend survey the damage. The village is a shambles. Most of the houses are burning fiercely, the rest are smashed, along with their contents. Eight of the ten Ainu warriors are dead. The crops are trampled, the defences are down - and there are still at least twice as many Matsumae troops in the fort at the top of the valley. The only option is to repair to their families in Sawara and take stock. But it is already crowded in Sawara. Nishtap-Tashum, Shikabe's headman and Kokuma's father, goes up to Mori to consult with Koshamain. While there he composes a song about Sawara.

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