Session 30. (20/2/02)

The episode begins at the moment the last one ended with a voice calling out, "Are you the Rescue Squad? I've just escaped from the castle!" As the Troubleshooters recover from the shock and Emiko heals the new arrival and gives him food, they learn that he is Kuwayama Yoshiie and has escaped from Ishiyama prison at the suggestion of Komako. The others are glad to hear Komako is OK. Meanwhile, inside the prison, Komako and a number of other prisoners (all from, Komako notes, cells he has been in or near) are taken outside into the courtyard, lined up and shouted at and lightly abused by the prison commander trying to find out if anyone knows anything about an escaped prisoner. No-one admits to anything and eventually they are led back to the cells. Komako is not returned to solitary confinement but is put in a cell with Yamagata Rokuemon. Komako notices that earlier Rokuemon had a different cellmate, and asks where he is. Rokuemon is similarly puzzled. "He was with us in the courtyard, but he seems to have disappeared," he says. Later in the day, Kimori, Mariko and Emiko take turns on watch at the Dragon cave. It is on Mariko's midnight shift that a voice calls out and Kuwayama Yoshiie turns up saying that while he was in the next cell (with Rokuemon) he overheard Komako's description of the escape route, got a chance to slip away and did so. Food is provided; healing was delayed until Emiko's dawn watch.

The following day, Kimori sets off back with the escapees to show them the way back to Hinokage and the location of the food dumps. The journey to the first stop is uneventful. Down at the castle, there is a lot of activity among the guards, and eventually a prisoner is dragged kicking and screaming into solitary confinement after he had attempted to escape. He has clearly been beaten up. At the cave it is all quiet; no escaped prisoners turn up tonight.

The next day, the first day of week 11, Kimori and the two escapees meet a peasant on the track. The peasant bows and scrapes but Kimori marches past without looking. One of the prisoners stops for a few words and learns the peasant is from the nearby village of Kuraoku, but has to move on quickly to catch up with Kimori. Down at the castle, Komako and six other prisoners are taken outside to wash and exercise while their cells are swilled out. Three of them are from the same cell as the prisoner that was captured trying to escape the day before. Komako tells them of the escape route and they are excited. They surmise that their cellmate might have got away if he had known about the route.

By lunchtime of the following day, Kimori and the two escapees have nearly reached Hinokage when they meet Sugiyama heading south wearing a grey woolly tunic and long grey scarf (presumably to disguise the fact that the actor who normally plays Sugiyama is currently in a stage play and was replaced this week by his stunt double, Mo). Sugiyama continues on his way in case the others are in desperate need of his new lock picking skills. Kimori goes on to Hinokage and delivers the prisoners, then decides to shorten future journey times by getting a few soldiers stationed near the first food dump. Back at the Dragon Cave, Emiko builds a shrine, though it is a bit wonky because she isn't too good at construction. During the night, while Emiko takes over watch from a sleepy Mariko, a dark shadow sneaks into the cave. Once Mariko has settled down, the shape moves closer to Emiko, who is only looking outside the cave. A hand is clamped over Emiko's mouth and a voice hisses, "Who are you?" Emiko replies that she is a priestess, building a shrine. "A shrine to escaped prisoners, perhaps?" rasps the voice. Emiko uses a blessing to boost her strength and just manages to force herself into a standing position. She sees his shabby clothes and makes up her mind. "I am Emiko, here at Lord Chozo's bidding." The man relaxes, releases Emiko and tells her he is Kimura Kamako, an escaped prisoner who overheard Komako's story. Food, healing and sleep do much to restore his health.

The following day is quiet at the cave. But in the evening, another prisoner arrives running up the track from the valley, pursued by two guards. Mariko, Emiko and Kamako hide until the guards arrive then leap out and attack them. In the first exchange Mariko hits one of the guards and Emiko and Kamako both hit the other, who gives Emiko a nasty wound. Mariko gets another hit while the guards hit only armour. Then Mariko finishes her foe while Emiko scores a magnificent double strike and lays her opponent out cold. Kamako finishes him off and helps hide the bodies. The new arrival says he is Takiwaki Naoshige and (like Kamako) he escaped by bribing a guard with smuggled gems. There were three in the break out, including Hideyoshi, the commander of the army. However, once they got to the castle courtyard they found that guards were waiting for them - either the bribed guard reneged or there is a stool pigeon in the prison. The three made a dash for freedom, running in different directions. In the confusion Naoshige got away, but he doesn't know what happened to the others. Earlier in the day we see Kimori setting out on the trail to the Dragon Cave once more, with more provisions and two soldiers to camp by the first food dump. He doesn't meet anyone, but although we don't see it, it later becomes clear that Sugiyama has encountered the peasant from Kuraoku.

On the next day Komako is taken to the torture boom, beaten and interrogated. Under great pressure he lets slip that he is one of Lord Chozo's troubleshooters. Before he can spill any more, two escaped prisoners are dragged in. One of them is the commander of the army, Hideyoshi. Komako is returned to the torture holding cells while they are worked over. Up at the Dragon Cave, Sugiyama turns up and tells Emiko and Mariko how he met a peasant who knew a man called Natsumi from Kuraoku village who had been to the mysterious White Cave. Natsumi had reckoned that the cave was inhabited by the ghosts of dead animals. Back at Ishiyama Castle, Komako is back in interrogation and giving details of the location of the Dragon Cave. Later on he is put back in the cellar in a cell with two prisoners he hasn't previously met. He tells them about the escape route but admits he might have said too much during his interrogation. Later that night, Sugiyama scouts round the slopes below the castle but gfinds no evidence of the escapees whom we already know had been recaptures.

The following day Mariko and Emiko decide to investigate the White Cave, leaving Sugiyama on watch at the Dragon cave. They set off for Kuraoku village. On the way they meet Kimori returning to the Dragon cave, and he decides to join them because he hasn't had much treasure so far on this campaign. Having prayed at the shrine in the village and asked directions, Emiko and the others find the house of Natsumi. He tells them that he stumbled across the cave while exploring the mountains for animals, vegetables and minerals. He said that the cave was a pure, brilliant white, and inside were the ghosts of animals and, if you can believe it, plants! He turned white as a sheet and ran out. Persuaded by 9 copper pieces, he agrees to show the adventurers to the cave, but says he won't go in - he is too scared. They set off immediately (after Emiko has blessed his house) and trail for about three hours through mountains, forests, scrub, and a moss forest until Natsumi stops and points out a cliff face about half a mile away. "There is the cave, at the foot of that cliff. I will wait here for you for two hours." Mariko, Kimori and Emiko set off and a few minutes later approach the cave. It is a sickly grey at the mouth, but as they look inside they see it get whiter and whiter until it almost glows. Intrigued they go in. Almost immediately Mariko and Kimori walk into a bush. It is white, a brilliant white, just like the cave roof, walls and floor. It's leaves are white. The branches and stems are white. Mariko picks off a leaf and takes it outside for a better look. Emiko is about to sit down to meditate when Kimori steps on the tail of a snake that Emiko was about to sit on. It is white, brilliant white. It hisses then slithers away, rather sluggishly. Outside, Mariko finds that she can rub the leaf so that the whiteness starts to come off. She goes back in to tell the others and is struck in the face by a bat which she didn't notice because it was white, brilliant white. Emiko, sitting on the floor, spots a worm crawling across the cave. It is white, brilliant white. She resumes her meditation and detects that the cave is suffused with a not-quite-magical, not-quite-natural glow. It feels quite warm in here too. By now Mariko is suffering from burning hands where the deposit from the leaf had touched it. She washes it off with water and this helps. Emiko gets up and examines the wall. A large boulder of the wall material is almost falling out and Kimori manages to dislodge it. In the hole it leaves the adventurers see that the previously unexposed face has a rich golden-red shiny metallic surface that seems to glow with an inner fire. Mariko and Emiko both realise from their knowledge of classics that it resembles a fabled metal that is reputed to have marvellous properties - combining great lightness with strength and also magical damage when made into weapons. They wrap the boulder in cloth and put it in a knapsack and leave the cave. Then they notice that the cloth is staring to char, so they dampen it with water. With another shock they notice that smoke is billowing from the mouth of the cave, and as they watch fire emerges and sets light to the dry vegetation around them. They make a dash for the moss forest, but Emiko is rather slow. Kimori goes back to help her and she speeds up, but the fire is still moving faster. With the fire snapping at her heels, Emiko finally gets into top gear and the three make it to the moss forest. Natsumi is not there, evidently having been spooked by the sight of the smoke. The fire, although slowed by the moss, is still advancing so the troubleshooters can't rest. Eventually they outpace the fire and, without stopping at the village, carry their treasure back towards the Dragon Cave.

Next week: What will they find at the Dragon Cave?

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