Session 14. (6/4/12)

As the dust settles in the pirate hideout, the young adventurers take stock: of the 42 pirates, 33 are dead and 9 unconscious; 17 wives and six children are sat, subdued, huddled in one room of the house, carefully watched by Tomtare. The others discuss what they are going to do with the survivors.

"Bury them in unmarked graves out here in the wilds," suggests Emishi.

"No, the survivors, stupid," Sahpo responds, scathingly.

"Well, kill them first."

"What, even the women and children?" queries Onuma, shocked.

"They'll all be executed if we take them back. At least that's what I hear passes for justice in these parts."

"Of course we should take them back," says Onuma, "Though I don't like the thought of taking these children off to die. But it is the law."

"Maybe we should move in with them, start a commune or something," suggests Ishan Ashte. "It's what our parents did!"

"And look where it got them," retorts Sahpo.

"I think we should take the pirate men back, and leave the women and children here," offers Yoshi Yeesu. "They will be forced to live off the land and give up crime."

"But there's nothing to live off out here. They'll starve!"

"Then they'll go back to Oga Town."

"And steal for a living. That's not going to work."

"Maybe we can leave then a ship so they can go and start a new life somewhere else."

"What do we tell the justices?"

"We don't mention the women and children."

"Sounds like a plan!"

The reluctant law officers start gathering up the bodies and putting them on the pirate flagship. The injured pirates are securely bound and marched aboard. Onuma takes a moment to look at Hidasue's sword. It is a fine-looking weapon, lovingly crafted and inset with precious gems in the handle. She cleans the sword reverentially. Sahpo asks the injured pirate that was in the hideout before the fight how the pirate captain came to have the sword.

"Takahashi the scoundrel leader brought it, tried to sell it to Kuchiki. But he demanded too high a price. Kuchiki killed the scoundrel and took the sword. Now he's dead too."

"Does that make it a sword of ill-omen?" asks Sahpo. The old pirate shrugs. Sahpo gives up. "Let's get sailing!" he shouts.

Sahpo sails the sekibune, the big pirate flagship loaded with the prisoners and bodies. Emishi sails the customs skiff with Tomtare on board. The weak autumn sun has burned off the mist that rose over the lagoon, and with a light wind behind them, they sail south to the mouth of the lagoon and out into Oga Bay. Emishi turns east and drops Tomtare off on the beach so he can go to Hidasue's house and tell him of their victory. Emishi sails the skiff by himself - very slowly - to Akita, arriving in the docks shortly after Sahpo and the others in the sekibune. By the time they tie up, Hidasue and Tomtare have arrived on horseback. Hidasue greets his deputies excitedly.

"You've found my sword! Where is it?"

"It's here," says Sahpo, a little disappointed that Tomtare has spoiled the surprise. Onuma hands over the sparkling weapon with due ceremony.

"Oh, thank you. I'm sure it would have taken me much longer to recover it myself. You've done a marvellous job."

The young half-Ainu mentally preen themselves - except Emishi, who says, "Of course, that's what comes of being the son of a famous war hero and brilliant strategist."

"And not the son of a despicable land grabber and murderer of indigenous populations," adds Sahpo, but only to himself.

"You'd better get the prisoners up to the Shugo's residence for questioning." Hidasue turns to Tomtare. "Organise some peasants to take the bodies there as well. He'll decide what to do with them."

As they walk up to the Shugo's house, Sahpo tells Hidasue the whole story - or at least the parts they are willing to admit to.

"And these are all the survivors?"

"Yes." "Definitely."

No-one notices that the story has two pirate boats but only one has been returned (though Ishan Ashte and Onuma later remember that the pirate's dragon boat is unaccounted for. "Who cares?" is Emishi's only comment.)... Hidasue is momentarily puzzled by a nagging feeling of inconsistency, then: "...and what a magnificent ship you've brought back! The Shugo will be very pleased."

And indeed, the Shugo is pleased when Sahpo retells the Saga of Killing Pirates with Onuma acting out various scenes, kabuki style. The Shugo is so pleased that he congratulates Hidasue and awards him a bonus for capturing the ship. Hidasue duly passes this on to his deputies as two silver each for the ship and, as promised, one silver as danger money. He takes his young charges to an inn to celebrate their success and, more importantly, the return of his beloved sword.

Later that evening, back at Hidasue's house, they tell him about the suspected collusion or pact of silence between the pirates and the ferryman. Hidasue says it isn't urgent, and gives everyone the following day off to heal except Tomtare who has to sit in the dock manager's office in Akita and collect tolls. Onuma is particularly in need of rest and recuperation, which Sahpo helps along with a healing Saga and some spells. In the evening, relaxing in the communal bath, talk turns to future plans - should they modify the skiff, how will they deal with the ferryman, should they keep looking for the neem tree (though if their parents haven't returned it to their home, Koshamain is probably dead already), should they stay with Hidasue or move on?... all except for Emishi who is playing customs and pirates with a couple of origami boats. They decide to ask Hidasue.

Hidasue says he very much wants the castaways to stay with him. He feels he is moving up in the world, and he has them to thank for it. In fact, he has something he wants their help with, starting soon. He will tell them about it once the ferryman is apprehended. And would a raise to three silver per month make them happy?

The following day Hidasue asks his lawkeepers to go and arrest the ferryman, then go to Oga Town and find out why the fish delivery boy hasn't turned up for two days. Emishi spots the logical error. "But if we arrest the ferryman, how will we cross to Oga Town?" Hidasue agrees that they can do his tasks in the opposite order. However, when the party arrives at the ferry, there is no ferryman to be seen, though the ferry is on the near bank. They look along the banks of the river, and in the little shack he uses to shelter in, but he is not there. In fact, the shack is quite empty.

"Has he been tipped off by the pirates' wives?" ponders Sahpo.

"Maybe he saw our boat and the pirate boat going into the lagoon and worked out what might happen," offers Ishan Ashte.

"At least this explains why the fish delivery boy hasn't made it," concludes Emishi.

Tying their horses to the shack to save weight, Emishi boards the ferry and starts pulling at the rope. The others offer suggestions, rock the ferry and make catcalls in their helpful way. Though Emishi doesn't know the proper techniques for using the ferry, his brute strength and coordination suffice and soon the ferry has crossed the inlet. There are a few people on the other side waiting to cross. They say the ferry has been unmanned for a few days. Now could the nice young men help them take the ferry back? Emishi sets off quickly in the direction of Oga Town. The others shrug apologetically and set off after him.

Once in town, Sahpo goes straight to the fish seller where the delivery boy confirms that the ferry has been unmanned for at least two days. Onuma visits an inn, the Ferryman's Arms, and learns that the ferryman did not come in for his usual drink three nights earlier - the day the sloop was captured - and hasn't been in since. Onuma correctly deduces that the ferryman can't have been tipped off by the pirates' wives, and that he must be at large on the east side of the lagoon. Maybe he has run off to Akita? She resolves to tell the others and head to Akita as fast as possible.

The others concur and set off. But there is a problem: when they get to the inlet they find that the people waiting for the ferry have managed to get it back to the far side, stranding the law officers on the Oga side. Ishan Ashte resignedly removes the heavier parts of his armour and wades into the river. Fortunately the tide is slack and he manages the short swim quite easily. Then he has to haul the ferry back across. Again, brute strength and balance make up for lack of experience or intuition, and he gets the ferry back to the others quite quickly, shaving two seconds off Emishi's time. Remounting their horses, they speed off to Akita, pausing only to let Hidasue know their findings so far. Once in Akita, Yoshi Yeesu and Onuma head down to the docks to question the men who work the ferries across the Omono River, Ishan Ashte searches the taverns, Sahpo asks at the temples and shrines and Emishi wanders around the main market. Emishi and Sahpo have no luck, but Yoshi Yeesu gets an Omono ferryman to talk to him. He knows of the Hachiro Lagoon ferryman but has never met him - he's a loner and has probably never been to Akita in his life. He certainly hasn't been seen here lately. Yoshi Yeesu asks Onuma to do her truth-detection thing, but Onuma isn't happy with the results.

"I'm not sure," she whispers. Yoshi Yeesu has to go on gut instinct. He believes the Omono ferryman. They wait in a bar for the others to finish their quests. Soon enough Emishi and Sahpo roll in. Finally Ishan Ashte arrives from his trawl of the bars. He managed to find one man that had been to Oga Town and used the ferry. He said that he hadn't seen the ferryman all the way down here in Akita, or anywhere else in the last few days. Having drawn a blank, the party returns to Hiadsue's. The mood is gloomy.

"We've got to face it, we'll just have to search the marshes east of the lagoon," says Sahpo, breaking the long silence. And with that, the six adventurers retire for a night's rest and healing, looking forward to a day or several in the cool, damp marshes.

Yoshi Yeesu, Onuma, Sahpo, Ishan Ashte and Emishi set off on a dull but fair morning into the marshes around Lake Hachiro. Ishan Ashte finds occasional signs that someone has been in the marshes, but not enough to follow a track. There are no paths at all and it is quite hard going in some places. After some time their searching takes them to a desolate beach on the eastern shore of Lake Hachiro. Here they come across a tall man, nearly 7', slim but strong. He is damping the ashes of a small fire and is preparing to travel. To Onuma and Yoshi Yeesu he appears to be excited, anxious and sad. He greets the search party somewhat offhandedly. Emishi asks if he has seen the ferryman. The man ignores his question, but speaks wistfully.

"I am about to set off for Lake Tazawa to see my love. I always go there for the winter because this lake freezes over and makes my home very cold, and I can't stand the cold. Yet Tazawa never freezes, though it is high in the mountains in the cold interior." There is no sign of a house within miles.

Emishi presses him about the ferryman, but the man continues to ignore him. Eventually he says, "You have the look of fighting men. Maybe you could help me fight my rival who is trying to take my love from me?"

Onuma looks at the man's face very closely. Suddenly she gasps: she sees an animal look in his eyes - and now she thinks about it, his whole face has the appearance of... a dragon! Ishan Ashte looks up at Onuma's gasp and in doing so catches the man's reflection in a rock pool - it is a dragon. Meanwhile, the man is speaking.

"A long time ago a monk called Nansobo came to Lake Towada, where I first lived. A divine revelation of Buddha had told him that a strap of his iron geta would snap, and there he should stop and make it his permanent home. Just my luck that when he got to the edge of Lake Towada his strap snapped. 'This must be the place. I should stay. What beautiful scenery!' he said, and stepped into my lake. 'Who are you?' I shouted. 'I do not allow anyone to enter my territory.' Nansobo stood steady and said, 'This is my lake, for Buddha indicated it to me. You must leave here at once.' Nansobo chanted a sutra, and a bank of dark clouds came up and a heavy storm started to blow. Each word of his chanting changed into a sword and they stuck in my body. My blood was all over the rocks. We fought for seven days, but eventually I was defeated. I fled south and came to a wide, desolate land where the wind blows hard. I stopped the flow the Yoneshirogawa River and made a lake bigger than the Lake Towada. I opened a channel between the lake and the sea so many fish would come in, which I lived on. I named the lake after myself - Hachiro-Ko.

"Hachiro-Ko has been my home for many years, but it freezes over in winter and I can't stand the cold. So I went to Lake Tazawa and met my love, Tatsuko-Hime, Goddess of the lake. Once she also had been a human being, and she let me stay there together during the winter for her pleasure. Since then I have lived there with her every winter season and return here when spring comes.

"The monk, Nansobo, had also passed by Lake Tazawa. He saw Tatsuko and was instantly captured by her striking beauty. He tried to approach Tatsuko to have her on his own. But Tatsuko saw the destructive quality in him, and she rejected Nansobo and turned him away. In despair, Nansobo thrust his iron cane into the ground and it became a cedar tree, which the locals call Chitose-Sugi, the Cedar of a Thousand Years. When I was at Lake Tazawa, Nansobo returned and attacked me in his extremely violent manner. And every year he comes back to fight, and every time we beat each other to a pulp with neither winning.

"Maybe with your help I can break the stalemate and drive him away forever. If you do then perhaps I can help you with your own quest."

This said, he transforms into a 50' dragon and motions them to climb on his back. The nonplussed adventurers look at each other, shrug, and climb onto the dragon's back.

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