Session 17. (31/10/01)

This sideline episode continues straight on from the previous one. The troubleshooters are preparing to leave for Nakamura with their prisoner, Wakiya the innkeeper. But on the night before they leave, a young girl approaches them. She says, "My name is Rin. My father is a miner working alone in a high valley a day's ride from here. He needs food supplies for the winter before the snows cut off the road. I had hired some porters to take the food to him, but they have not turned up. I think they may have been scared off by the recent reports of o-bakemono activity. The snows are only days away - can you help me? Please? I have money to pay you." She takes out a dark leather bag with a kanji symbol bleached into one side, reaches in and extracts one gold piece for each member of the party. There are obviously many more in the bag. Mariko and Emiko refuse the offer, saying that they regard it as their duty to help without payment (extra ON). Kimori accepts, but donates his fee to Emiko (extra ON)^*. Komako agrees to help, leaving Sugiyama to take the prisoner to Nakamura on his own. The four gallant souls start collecting food, clothing and equipment they will need for the high mountains. While in a bar they hear one man who is voluble and drunk. He says, "I don't believe in o-bakemono. They don't exist. I don't know why people go up into the mountains for gold, you can find it here in the valley. Here, drinks are on me tonight. Everyone's included, even Gidayo over there who I don't like 'cos he's so ugly." There is a brief scuffle, broken up by friends of both parties. The man rants on interminably.

The following day is crisp and bright, and Rin meets the party with two laden pack horses. She gives details of how to reach her father, Kuronushi. The journey takes all day, following a narrowing valley and winding tracks higher and higher into the mountains. Nothing is seen except for one enormous enigmatic footprint in the shadow of a rock where the surface of the snow has not melted. By the time they reach the vicinity of the mine it is nearly dusk and it is snowing. In the deepening gloom it is hard to find the miner's hut, but the tracks of a very large man are seen. The party members call out to the miner but hear nothing. Emiko starts to enter a trance in order to bless the party members, but is interrupted when an enormous ogre jumps among them and smashes Mariko with a giant tetsubo. Kimori tries the Beast Killer skill on it but misses. The creature punches Komako, then Emiko hits it with her bo and Kimori and Mariko get critical hits, the first stunning it and the second knocking it down. It is just recovering to its feet when another person appears and throws a pepper bomb into its face. The o-bakemono screams and races away. The new arrival is Kuronushi, the miner and father of Rin. He asks what they are doing here and the four reply, "Supplies!" He is very grateful and takes them to his hut to spend the night.

The following day the snow has got worse, and travel is impossible. This goes on for a second day. The troubleshooters are worried that they might be stuck all winter. Emiko attempts to placate the kami of the mountain and the kami of water/snow, but both apparently fail. However, the snow stops later in the day, and on the third day the four feel willing to risk the journey back. Before they leave, Kuronushi hands Mariko a dark leather bag with a kanji symbol bleached into one side. It contains gold dust and is very heavy. He asks Mariko to give it to his daughter.

The ride is not easy, and Emiko and Komako in particular have difficulty. Komako's horse hurts a foot, and needs to see a farrier when they reach the town. By dusk they ride into Yusuhara and go straight to Rin's house. At the door they are met by a doshin. They ask to see Rin, but he says, "Well, Rin was murdered three days ago, and you are all suspects. You don't mind if we search your belongings, do you?" When the doshin finds the bag he says, "So it was you who murdered Rin and stole her gold! You were fools to come back this way." Protesting their innocence, the four are led off to jail.

Session 18. (7/11/01)

This episode saw the return of Dave Weaver as Sugiyama. Having taken the surviving bandits and the innkeeper to Nakamura for trial, Sugiyama returns to Yusuhara to find the other troubleshooters absent. Asking around, the new innkeeper tells him they have gone on a humanitarian mission for a girl called Rin, who lives next door to the blacksmith. Sugiyama goes to see her the next day and she tells him about her father the miner and how the troubleshooters agreed to take food to him before the winter closed in and even refused most of the money she wanted to pay them. She expects them back any time now. Sugiyama spends the day "proceeding" round town and later visits the shrine on Tengumoriyama, but finds nothing. In the evening he goes to a bar to drink some saki and there encounters a local loudmouth telling everyone his opinions about the non-existence of bakemono, the futility of going into the mountains to mine gold and the abundance of gold here in the valley. To underline his remarks he buys everyone a drink. Soon after he leaves, drunk.

Later in the evening, while Sugiyama is prowling round the town, he sees the loudmouth again, only this time he is looking furtive and nervous. Sugiyama starts to follow him but soon loses him in the unfamiliar streets. Later still, after Sugiyama has returned to the inn, he sees him for a third time, this time on a horse heading east past the inn on the main road to Susaki.

The following day Sugiyama goes to see Rin but finds she is not at home. Encountering a local doshin, he learns that she is probably out shopping; she likes to go shopping often. So Sugiyama decides to ride up to the mine. However, as we already know, the route is virtually impassable after the first snows of winter, and Sugiyama falls off his horse, suffering 2 damage^*. He is more careful after that, but soon the track becomes really difficult, and after his horse hurts its leg he turns back and walks his horse back to Yusuhara. Arriving near dusk, he goes to the blacksmith's to have his horse seen to. While waiting he hears voices drifting over the wall from Rin's house. They are indistinct, but he hears someone accusing someone else of the murder of Rin. Sugiyama is even more shocked when he works out that it is the doshin he met this morning accusing Mariko, Kimori, Komako and Emiko of the murder. Unable to get to them, he hears them led away to see the local Justice.

The four accused are taken to a community centre to meet the Justice. Here he reads out the charges of murder and theft. The four vehemently deny the charges, and point out inconsistencies such as the fact that the gold was dust rather than coin. Mariko and Emiko are quite eloquent and the Justice is clearly moved. However, the townspeople watching the proceedings are not so amenable to rhetoric, and hurl insults at the four. Sugiyama at last appears on the scene and tries to find out what is happening, but the crowd turns on him as well. Before things get out of hand, the Justice orders the prisoners to be returned to confinement in the inn. Sugiyama gets permission to investigate the case.

At the inn, Sugiyama learns from the innkeeper that the loudmouth is Matsunage and is often seen around the town although he lives in a cabin an hour's ride to the east. Sugiyama tries to trace the gold pieces Matsunage paid for the drinks with and distinguish them from the coins the four accused paid with, but they are all of general Shikoku origin. At the innkeepers prompting, Sugiyama finally decides to ask Matsunage in person and sets off to find his cabin.

Sugiyama has little difficulty following the innkeepers directions and arrives at Matsunage's cabin an hour or so later. He knocks at the door but no-one answers. He scouts round but sees nothing unusual. He calls out but there is no reply (in fact Matsunage heard the shout but realised it would be unwise to answer - instead he sneaked back to his cabin). Finally Sugiyama opens the door and goes in. The cabin is sparsely furnished and quite untidy. Sugiyama feels it has been occupied that day, but not for a few hours. He looks for a recently chopped wood pile and finds one. What's more, he also finds under the pile a blood-stained shawl and a leather bag containing gold coins...

This was the end of the excitement. The Justice confirms Sugiyama's story and releases Mariko, Kimori, Komako and Emiko, then orders Matsunage executed. Emiko spends a few days setting up a shrine on the stone that was the kami, helped by funding from Kimori. Mariko met up with her husband and they returned to Awaji to await the birth of their son, Ichimaru. The other troubleshooters return to Matsuyama for training and a well-earned rest.