Session 16. (14/9/07)

Emiko lies unconscious, drained of all her strength and more. Kimori tries his hand as a physician and manages to cause her to stir before running out of clothing to loosen. Sung and Komako go exploring the caves. They turn out to be little more than cells in which the jikininki were living. Sung finds nothing, but Komako finds an amber necklace that Sugiyama reckons is worth about 8 silver pieces. Komako's find brings Kimori away from his ministering to his patient, eager for treasure. He is disappointed at first, as is Komako, but Sung unearths a jade figurine - worth 8 gold pieces according to Sugiyama. The others redouble their efforts, but it is Sung that strikes it rich again, finding two pearls worth 1 GP apiece, then and engraved aiguchi, worth 3 gold on the Sugiyama scale. Komako finds nothing more, but Kimori discovers a brooch encrusted with emeralds. "Aha," thinks Kimori, "This is just like the one worn by the apparition in the dream that everyone else had." At this point Emiko comes round and, when she feels strong enough to walk, the party heads back to the village.

At the village, the party seeks out the priest. The priest confirms that the emerald-encrusted brooch belonged to the dead man, Oribito. The rest, however, he doesn't recognise. He assumes the treasure was taken from travellers waylaid by the o-bakemono as they passed through. Komako offers the pieces to him, but he says the village has little use for such trinkets. The village headman agrees. Possession of such items would only cause trouble. However he implores the Troubleshooters to prevent bakemono from re-colonising the Red Cave, by blowing it up or filling it in with stones and dirt. Kimori unsheathes his Big Chopper and says, "There are two kinds of people in this world, my friend. Those with drawn swords, and those who dig. You dig." Emiko fills the embarrassed silence by giving the headman six silver pieces to pay for a cleansing ceremony at the cave and to dedicate a shrine to the dead. Not to be outdone, Komako gives 12 silver pieces to the priest. The priest thanks the party for their help and promises to give the brooch to Oribito's family (all gain 5 On).

After resting in the village for the remainder of the day and overnight the Troubleshooters are refreshed and ready for new adventure. Emiko heals any remaining injuries, while Komako performs a divination. Conscious of the rumours surrounding Koei, the ex-emperor (Koei's father) and his dreams, he asks, "Will Koei kill her father?" The i-ching is vague: "Not directly," it seems to say. The heroes mount up and head on down the road, reaching the garrison town of Himeji a couple of days later. There are plenty of troops around, and the party are saved from frequent questioning only by their high status (from Mariko's rank and Kimori's level) and by acting aloof. They decide to spend a day here and use their various skills to probe for news. Kimori finds a martial school in the town and spars with some of the teachers while using his rhetoric to come up with profound, moody, (Eastwood-esque) one-liners. They are so good that he has no difficulty finding out the news that a large Shogunate army has been massing in nearby Himeji castle for the last few weeks. It doesn't sound like good news - Kimori can only think it is preparing to take on Lord Chozo and the alliance of southern provinces - but will it head down the coast the way the Troubleshooters have come, or go to Kobe (for instance) and cross via Awaji Island? Komako is also chatting and sparring, in his case practising ju-jutsu with priests from the town's temple. Komako puts on a mediocre show, but the priests are even less impressive. They tell Kimori that the Shogunate troops are in charge in this area, and are also looking for the mysterious daughter of the former emperor; however, there are some who think this is all a ruse and the Shogun might be behind these rumours. Anyway, with the Shogun's troops patrolling the roads, travel will become mere difficult from here. Sung finds an inn and plays a few games of go with the locals. After winning a good game the locals open up and talk about the rumours concerning the former emperor. They say his paranoia is rampant, occupying all his waking hours, while his sleeping hours are few and troubled. Emiko, visiting the main shrine in Himeji, seeks recharge and purification. She also confirms the presence of Shogunate troops in the castle. She asks if the emperor's daughter is being sought "dead or alive". "Definitely dead," is the reply.

The party heads on east from Himeji towards Osaka, dodging patrols where possible and using Mariko's status (and their semi-valid travel documents) where not. One day, while passing through a tiny village, the villagers rush up and say, "Noble lady, sirs, please help us. Every day a dragon comes to ravage the village unless we take food and valuables as tribute to the cave by the beach. We have not enough to eat, but we fear for our lives." The Troubleshooters are a little suspicious, fearing a trap (or a plot device), but agree to help. "The dragons' cave is down the steep path over there," says a villager. As the horses cannot negotiate the path, Koei, Sugiyama and Mariko remain behind to make sure they aren't stolen, along with the priceless Buddha statues. Kimori, Sung, Komako and Emiko scramble down the path as it winds down a cliff face and end on a small beach next to the sea. In the cliff face is a cave. Given their recent experience with caves, no-one seems eager to take the first step. As they hesitate, Kimori and Emiko feel a shudder in the ground, like a distant earthquake. Unlike and earthquake it quickly gets closer, then suddenly a Sand Tatsu (a rare, wingless dragon that can travel underground as fast as a horse can travel above ground) bursts out of the ground and attacks. It snaps at Emiko but fortunately she heard it approach and ducks just in time. Kimori and Sung use iaijutsu to draw their swords and attack. Kimori hits it on the head, and only a very good shot manages to get through the heavy scale armour at all. Sung doesn't manage such a good hit, and his sword clangs off its body armour. Komako kicks it as is goes past but does no damage. The sand-dragon turns on Kimori but he fends it off with the Big Chopper. Sung chops at its body and does 5 damage, then Kimori uses his Beast Killer knowledge to get between the scales and inflict 19 damage. The dragon roars back and bites at Emiko, giving her no time to duck. In fact, it is such a good attack that Emiko is swallowed whole, fortunately missing all the cruel teeth. She ends up in the belly of the beast where the juices act as a narcotic and immediately drain her of strength (again). With her strength fading she strikes out with her bo and inflicts a critical wound (almost inevitably), doing 12 damage. As the dragon rounds again looking for another victim, Sung swings and misses but Komako lands a mortal blow with his fist, and the dragon collapses. Hearing Emiko's muffled cries, the others chop at the dead beast's stomach. Kimori is unable to penetrate the scales, being at the wrong angle, but Sung and Komako (using his ha-jo) manage to cut into the flesh - but also into Emiko, doing her 4 and 7 damage. Thinking her screams are because she is dying (and they aren't far wrong), Sung hacks harder and finally opens the dragons stomach, doing Emiko only 2 more damage. The others drag Emiko out before the narcotic poison can have any further effect. Emiko uses a trance to restore most of her health.

As Emiko recovers, Sung, Kimori and Komako celebrate completion of the quest. Sung says they should tell the villagers, "Now that's how you kill a dragon!" Komako says they should just walk past the villagers and say, "Well, that wasn't so hard." Kimori says they shouldn't even bother exploring the cave; however, Komako eventually gets enough enthusiasm to go in, thinking there may be some treasure. A low roar tells him he may be making a false assumption. A second dragon attacks Komako (an ordinary tatsu this time), clawing him for 9 damage. Komako shouts a warning to the others then punches the dragon on the nose for 11 damage. As Kimori and Sung run in to the cave, and Emiko staggers in, Komako lands another punch and dodges the dragon's claw and bite attacks. But he doesn't dodge the dragon's next attack, a magical attack with four Arrows of Fire. As Komako stands there smoking (and suffering 9 damage), Kimori charges up and uses Beast Killer to inflict 14 damage and down the dragon.

But just as the four breathe a sigh of relief at having coped with this unexpected extra fight, a third dragon flies out of the darkness and just misses Sung's head. Sung swings his sword but misses. Komako lashes out and hits the dragon for 10 damage. Kimori also strikes for 11 and Sung finds his mark with 7. Then Emiko, a red mist over her eyes, swings her fire staff with both of her might and downs the dragon with a hit for eight.

Now thoroughly chastened for wrongly assuming the fight was over twice, the four move cautiously further into the cave. At the back is a man who thanks them for saving him. Remembering the trap in the Psi Den Adventure, suspicious Komako and sceptic Kimori notice that the man isn't as scared as he is pretending to be, and Emiko uses Perceive Truth to see that he is in fact a dragon in human form. Sensing this, and seeing Kimori ready his sword, the man shouts something, transforms into a dragon and attacks Kimori, who fends him off. At the man's shout, another dragon appears, flanked by a dozen large lizards. The second dragon bites Komako for 9 damage, while the lizards attack en masse. Most of them fail to hit, but one bites Sung for 6 damage. Kimori swings at the first dragon and hits for 17 damage. Sung swings at the second dragon and misses. The first dragon aims a bite at Emiko but is off target. Komako chop the second dragon and scores a critical 20. The dragon in response critically fails. Sung now manages an 11 point hit on it and Komako finishes it with another judo chop. Emiko tries to heal Komako, who is now low on hit points, but although she manages to touch the bobbing target her healing spell fails. Sung, with no dragons in range, has a swipe at the lizard that bit him and kills it. The remaining dragon now gets a bite on Kimori, inflicting 14 damage, but this brings it into range of the Big Chopper and he dispatches the dragon on the spot. Now the lizards press forwards, forcing the party back, and a whole series of critical and near-critical attacks cause bite and other injuries to each of the Troubleshooters - Komako gets tail-whipped in the eye, Sung is knocked out - so they decide to cut their losses and our heroes run away.

Back in the village, the four heroes report to the villagers, without making eye-contact, "Dragons are dead..."; "You can go in the cave now..."; "Yup...".

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