Session 8. (5/1/00)

After disposing of the Death Squad, the rest of week 27 was quiet. Koei (Andy Allen) was studying the Soil magic school, while Kimori (Anthony Hummerston), Mariko (Paul Burton) and Sugiyama (Dave Weaver) returned to their teaching duties. At the School of the Blade, Kimori managed to find another building for rent to use as a teaching annex, and the number of pupils and teachers the school could accommodate was increased. With ten teachers and a Geisha on the payroll the school continued to make a small loss, but it would take quite a long time to go insolvent.

At the start of week 28 in the Year of the Ox, Lord Chozo called Mariko to see him. He told her to travel to the other fiefs in Iyo province to ensure support for the rebellion. The feudal system in Iyo province is organised around seven fiefs, or happan, that administer the different areas and pay taxes to the Daimyo. The fiefs to the south-west are Ozu-han, Yoshida-han and Uwajima-han. To the east lie Saijo-han and Komatsu-han. Of course, Matsuyama-han, run by Lord Chozo on behalf of the Daimyo, and Imabari-han, run by Lord Otani are already allied. Mariko's task was to visit the other Iyo-Happan and convince their lords to support the rebellion. Kimori, wanting a break from teaching, volunteered to go with Mariko. With cover arranged at the school and the training camp, the two set off on the two day ride to Ozu, the town where the Lord of Ozu-han lived.

After Mariko left, Lord Chozo took Sugiyama to one side and asked him to organise a raid on the Daimyo's ninja allies, a small, little-known clan based on Gogo Island, 1/4 ri from Matsuyama. Lord Chozo was not concerned with the details of the raid, except to say that killing them all and burning their houses to the ground should stop them interfering with the rebellion. Sugiyama's first move was to choose two Ninja from his clan to watch the island for a couple of days.

On arriving in Ozu, Mariko and Kimori presented a letter of introduction from Lord Chozo and opened a dialogue with the Lord of Ozu-han. Mariko did all the talking, while Kimori looked on. Mariko began cautiously, trying to see where the lord's sympathies lay. It wasn't difficult. He quickly offered support for Lord Chozo and the rebellion, and when Mariko offered partial autonomy, even though she bungled her rhetoric, the Lord of Ozu-han agreed an alliance with Lord Chozo. Their job complete, Mariko and Kimori set off for Yoshida with increase experience and honour.

Meanwhile, Sugiyama's scouts reported no unusual activity at the ninja village on Gogo. They presented him with a sketch map of the village, and noted that the fishing boats appeared to be built more for speed and stealth than for fishing. Sugiyama gathered the ninja and explained his plan. The whole clan would take part in the raid (he had earlier dismissed a plan to send only five), which would take place after sunset the following day. The clan would split into five groups. A group of good swimmers would swim up to the landing, drill holes in the bottoms of the boats, plug the holes with corks and tie the corks to the landing. Thus if any ninja tried to escape they would find their boat sinking and would have to swim back to shore, where they could be easily picked off. A single ninja, from Sugiyama's command group would sneak into the village and set fire to one of the central houses. Once the alarm was raised and most of the enemy ninja were gathered in the centre, the other 3 groups, stationed around the outside of the village would set fire to the outer houses and drive the ninja to the sabotaged boats, where they would fall into disarray and be wiped out with low risk. Sugiyama started the plan in action by sending ninja to collect equipment and buy some boats.

Mariko and Kimori arrived in Yoshida after a hard day's riding. Again Mariko did all the talking (a bad move in retrospect). The Lord of Yoshida-han was initially non-committal, but when Mariko made a mess of explaining the shortcomings of the Daimyo he became quite hostile, and when she totally describer the rebellion less as a struggle of the oppressed and more like ethnic cleansing, he ordered the guards to take them out and kill them! Mariko and Kimori immediately leapt to their feet and ran for the door, but the guards moved more quickly and their swords cut into the unarmed adventurers. They pushed past and ran for their horses. Kimori quickly got into the saddle, but Mariko tripped and ended up underneath the horse! The guards quickly surrounded her and she had to parry three swords with her dagger while dodging the horse's skittering feet. Kimori, all-action hero, rode back and brandished his sword in a particularly flashy way to try to drive the guards back, but his brandishing not so much scary as annoying. Eventually Mariko had to rescue herself, nipping out from under the horse, jumping into the saddle and riding away. A disastrous mission resulting in loss of face, especially for Kimori who also failed to rescue Mariko.

Meanwhile, not even Koei was having a quiet week, for as she walked past a temple, ringed by a clean area of raked gravel, she noticed that something was amiss… A quick look round the temple revealed evidence of spiritual disturbance - the raked gravel was scattered in some places, heaped in others, and the carefully positioned stones were out of harmonious alignment. Perhaps Koei would have shrugged and walked on but the sudden appearance of a miniature tornado could not be ignored. Koei managed to stay on her feet as the wind howled round the temple, and was amazed as it coalesced into an 8-foot giant wielding a staff. The giant swung his staff at Koei's legs, trying (but failing) to trip her up but still landing a stinging blow. Koei, realising it was a spirit, cast Exorcise and caused the giant to yelp in pain. Unfortunately the fight then went all the way of the giant - none of Koei's Exorcise spells succeeded, while he hit her several times with the staff, on the hands when she tried a spell, or in the midriff, or a light tap on the head, and he also grabbed her an thwew heh woughly to the gwound. Finally, Koei, battered and bruised, succeeded with an Exorcise spell, which greatly weakened the spirit, and then dispelled him for good. Koei was unable to deceipher most of what had happened as she never studied theology or literature. And so she went on her way, unaware of the favour she had done for the kami Hachiman by removing a playful but annoying Fujin (wind kami) from his temple.

Mariko's and Kimori's final stop on the south-west leg of their tour was in Uwajima. Mariko was even more cautious with her words this time and the Lord of Uwajima was friendly but unhelpful. But Mariko had obviously been thinking about her spiel, and gave an eloquent account of the grievances against the Daimyo and the advantages of closer co-operation with Lord Chozo, and the Lord of Uwajima was convinced. He offered his support to the rebellion, though Mariko could not persuade him to agree to an alliance with Lord Chozo. With this fairly good outcome, Mariko and Kimori set off for the last two happan.

Back on the coast near Matsuyama, Sugiyama and the ninja clan set sail for Gogo Island. Arriving near dusk in the north of the island, they made their way south to the Daimyo's ninja village. The swimming group went down to the water and swam along the coast to the boats and started to work on them, while the other teams crept into position around the village. Shibata from Sugiyama's group disappeared into the village to start a fire in the centre. One of the groups must have made some noise because the ninja sentry called out a warning and headed for the edge of the village. He ran straight into Sugiyama's group of three. He was quickly dispatched, but his warning alerted two other ninja who came out of their houses to help. They were also dealt with by Sugiyama's group, who took only slight damage. By this time Shibata's work was done, and a yellow glow could be seen in the middle of the village. As the alarm spread through the nearby houses, the other groups of attackers set fire to houses on the edge of the village to increase confusion. As the ninja and families emerged from their burning houses they were attacked by the waiting groups. The group to the south of the village killed two ninja, but two members of the group were killed and the remaining two were incapacitated. To the west a group of nine ninja slaughtered two "villagers" without getting a scratch, while the group of four to the north were similarly successful. How would Sugiyama's group fare?

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