Session 13. (11/4/06)

The Troubleshooters are just about to relax and catch their breaths after saving the girl in the sea cave when she breaks off her thank-yous and begs them to kill the other demons - they turn round and see another four hags, 2 vipers, 6 kappa and 4 rosuifu kappa. A small viper strikes and bites Kimori, injecting a level 1 lightning paralytic poison, which he eventually shakes off after losing 13 strength, invokes both of Komako's blessings to boost his strength back up by 16, swings his Big Chopper and cuts the snake in half. Sugiyama faces a pair of kappa, slices one for 11 damage then uses tai-sabaki to evade their attacks and they miss him. Sung also faces a pair of kappa and hits one twice for 15 damage while taking only a minor wound. Komako is surrounded by four kappa, a hag and a viper. He punches one kappa almost to unconsciousness while evading their attacks - the kappa get in each others' way, the viper is behind the hag and the hag casts Concealing Cloak and disappears. Mariko has only a kappa as foe and while its two claw attacks do 5 subdual damage to her, she kills it with two well-aimed stabs. Emiko is faced by three hags and a kappa. She uses her fire staff to do 9 damage to one of the hags, while another casts Many Waves to get two attacks per round, and uses the second attack to cast Confusing Gaze, but it fails. The kappa hits Emiko for 4 subdual damage.

Kimori turns to help out Emiko and hits a hag for 12 points, then scores a ten point hit but the hag has cast Turn Steel and it does no damage. Then Kimori hits for another 12 damage and the hag, on her last legs, turns into a snake and tries to slither away but Kimori lands another hit and finishes it off. Sugiyama finishes off one of his kappa foe, receiving a minor wound, then turns to Emiko's kappa opponent and lands a critical hit, doing double damage - 18 points. The kappa is hurt but strikes back with a critical hit doing triple damage - fortunately only for 9 points. Sung is hit from all sides by his two kappa adversaries - a 9-point triple-damage critical hit, a 13 point hit and a 10-point double-damage critical hit. Sung finishes off the first kappa and gets a hit and a miss on the second. Komako downs his first kappa and turns to the viper, landing a telling blow. Mariko helps out Komako, setting about a kappa with two stabs. Emiko hits her second hag with the fire staff and does 5 damage, but when the hag casts Confusing Gaze, Emiko suffers a critical Wit failure and receives 4 distractions. Giving up on the fighting, Emiko invokes Komako's blessing and boosts her armour class to 6.

Kimori turns to one of Emiko's hag opponents, who has cast Smokes of Sleep and is just starting to give off a narcotic smoke, and runs her through with a critical hit for 33 damage, immediately quenching the smoke. Sugiyama continues against a kappa with two more blows to kill it, surviving a Watery Storm between the two blows. Sung slugs it out with a kappa, landing two blows while being missed twice - very fortunately as he is almost dead. Komako stamps on a viper then pounds it into the ground with a critical hit. Meanwhile, one of his kappa foes hits him with a Dart of Water while another gets a critical hit then sets of a Watery Storm, which he manages to weather. Mariko nickel-and-dimes it with a kappa, each getting a minor hit and a miss. Emiko does the decent thing and heals Sung.

Kimori turns to Emiko's first hag foe and attempts to pierce its Mists of Illusion, but fails his Wit. The hag tries to claw him and this helps him succeed with his Wit throw - the Big Chopper comes around for a 26-point critical hit, ending the hag. Sugiyama silently turns up behind another of Emiko's foes, a rosuifu kappa, and maims it with Silent Kill. Another blow weakens it further. Sung finishes a kappa with a critical hit then takes on one of Komako's kappa enemies. Komako in turn punches his other kappa opponent and fells it. Mariko nickel-and-dimes a kappa to death without further injury. Emiko manages to put aside her distractions and heal Komako for 14 points.

Kimori now has to look for opponents. He finds one in a kappa that had attacked Komako and was now facing Sung. Kimori gets a hit, Sung another and Kimori finishes off with yet another critical. Sugiyama gets another hit on the large kappa, then manages to fight off its casting of Binding of Limbs. Sugiyama, disgusted, dispatches the kappa with one more hit. Komako and Mariko turn on the last hag, who casts Smokes of Sleep and causes them both to lose some strength before they each land a 7-point hit, only to see Sugiyama wade in and get his own 7-point hit, kill the hag and take the glory. Emiko heals herself, then, turning to the girl, realises that all this time she has been casting spells to help the hags. The girl sees this and summons two vipers and lashes out at the nearest hero, who happens to be Sugiyama. Sugiyama is uninjured, but one of the vipers bits Emiko; however, she resists the poison. Kimori swings the Big Chopper and almost kills it. Sugiyama and Mariko take on the girl/hag and rain in the blows until it is dead. Sung and Komako pound the second viper before it can clean its fangs. Meanwhile, the Big Chopper swings back and finishes the last of the snakes.

The party finally can relax and catch their breaths - poisons and distractions are thrown off and Emiko heals Sugiyama. The Troubleshooters search the cave and only Sung comes back empty-handed - they find 30 silver pieces, 4 semi-precious artworks worth about 45 silver, 4 semi-precious gems worth 22 silver, 2 precious gems worth 32 gold, 10lb of high quality (Class A) goods and lots of assorted low-value rubbish. Emiko enters a trance and discovers a hidden passage that leads to the land surface. They scramble up the passage and find themselves on a small rocky island just off the shore. They swim to the shore, Sugiyama managing it with ease but the others have trouble with the still-choppy waters. Emiko gets into difficulties and starts to go under, but then fights back to the surface and wades ashore with Sugiyama's help. After a night's rest camping on the beach, the Troubleshooters make their way to Mihara and catch up with the other ferry and their horses.

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