Session 15. (13/4/12)

We rejoin our heroes as they ride on the back of a fifty-foot dragon into the mountains of Dewa province (and the sharp-eyed among you will notice that Tomtare is now sitting in the spot where Yoshi Yeesu was last week, though no explanation is offered). The inimitable Emishi (though Onuma makes a very passable imitation - "My father was a famous war hero," she says, thankful that she doesn't have to deepen her voice too far) sits nearest the dragon's head, revelling in the experience. Emishi and Onuma draw on their horse-riding experience to hold on to the dragon's scaly back and feel quite secure despite the jagged peaks speeding far below; the others feel distinctly uncomfortable and queasy.

"Can we see our island?" shouts Emishi above the noise of the wind roaring by.

"It must be 50 ri away, so no! Stupid!" shouts back Onuma. "I'm more worried to know if this dragon breathes fire."

"Dragons don't breathe fire. Dragons are the proud distant cousins of snakes, water snakes in fact - I mean, this one created a lake! You must be thinking of another kind of dragon. Stupid!"

"Then why do I have a spell called Breath of Dragon that makes me breathe fire?"

Ishan Ashte interrupts. "Can we see a neem tree?" he asks. Everyone looks down. The landscape is a mass of dragon's-tooth peaks, deep ravines, snow and pine forests.

"No," they reply in unison. "Stupid!"

Before anyone else can be called stupid, the dragon makes a quick circle round a large lake high in the mountains and lands on a beach on its southern shore. A man in priestly robes waits for him on the beach. In the distance, atop a high, sheer cliff, the figure of a woman can be seen (except by Sahpo, who hasn't dared open his eyes yet).

"Hachiro - good to see you again. It seems we must fight again." The man is clearly Hachiro's rival, Nansobo.

As the adventurers look on with rising horror, Nansobo swings his iron staff and hits Hachiro. Hachiro replies by firing a Watery Sphere at Nansobo, knocking him back a step. Nansobo swings his staff again. Hachiro turns into a school of 26 flying fish which flies at Nansobo, biting him in many places. Nansobo points his staff at the fish and it shoots a cloud of 26 iron needles into the fish. Hachiro reforms, bleeding from many tiny wounds.

The adventurers glance at each other and, as one, wade into the fight. Nansobo strikes Hachiro with his staff. Hachiro responds with eight Darts of Water. Nansobo shakes off the darts and hits Hachiro again. Emishi swings at Nansobo - and misses. Tomtare swings at Nansobo - and misses. Ishan Ashte swings with precision at Nansobo - and misses. Onuma casts Mask of Deception, hoping to confuse Nansobo by looking like Hachiro - but it fails. Then a great wave sweeps up the beach and engulfs Nansobo, but he rides it out. Onuma and Sahpo recognise the nature of the wave - Hachiro has used Control Phenomena. Nansobo hits him again with his iron staff. Emishi swings at Nansobo - and misses. Ishan Ashte swings at Nansobo - and misses. Tomtare gives up, realising that Nansobo has immense natural armour, and sets himself into a defensive stance. Onuma follows suit. Sahpo, standing a little way off, casts an Arrow of Wood at Nansobo. It penetrates his magical resistance and causes a minor strength loss before Nansobo shakes it off.

Now Nansobo concentrates and casts a major spell. This doesn't look good! Almost immediately, five oni appear, one attacking each of the adventurers. Emishi swings at one - and hits! This is more like it! However, the oni seems unruffled by a mere 10 points of damage. Tomtare goes one better, hitting an oni for 11. The oni is unbothered. Onuma one-ups Tomtare by hitting her oni for 12 damage. This time the oni staggers - is 12 the magic number, or is her oni somehow weaker? Ishan Ashte continues his consistent run by missing again, and misses again on his second strike. Hachiro and Nansobo are still slugging it out. Hachiro transforms into flying fish again and Nansobo smashes two of them to the ground. Hachiro reforms, looking slightly weaker. The oni swing their clubs at their human foes and Sahpo and Ishan Ashte are hit for two damage each. Emishi swings at his oni and strikes for 12 damage. The oni feels it, but still looks strong. Tomtare and Onuma miss on their second attempts. Sahpo rounds off the action by stabbing at his oni with a pathetically small tanto, but also misses.

Nansobo starts a new round of actions by throwing his staff at Tomtare. Tomtare ducks and it narrowly misses him. The staff whirls and returns to Nansobo's hand. Hachiro casts Watery Doom at Nansobo. A tidal wave sweeps up around Nansobo, but he stands firm and the waters quickly recede again. Nansobo hits Hachiro with his staff. Emishi hits his oni for 10 damage, taking it to one hit point, but fails to hit on his second attempt. Tomtare misses on both his attempts. Ishan Ashte changes to two-sword mode and swings both - the first for a critical miss, the second for a critical hit! Ishan Ashte hits himself for 2 damage and the oni for 13 damage. Both remain standing. Onuma swings one sword and gets a critical hit, killing her demon foe. Then she goes to help Sahpo, who is apparently trying to hold off a massive demon ogre with a toothpick. Onuma hits the oni for 10 damage. Sahpo reverts to casting Arrows of Wood and slightly weakens the oni as one of the two arrows finds its mark. The four remaining oni all score hits, on Emishi for 8 damage, Tomtare 7, Sahpo 6 and Ishan Ashte 5.

As Nansobo and Hachiro continue to battle it out, Nansobo with his staff and Hachiro with spells such as Watery Sphere, the adventurers continue to fight the oni Nansobo summoned. Emishi just can't finish his foe off, first suffering a critical failure that almost breaks his treasured katana and makes him drop it in agony, then dazing himself as he critically misses with his quickly-drawn wakizashi. The oni rewards him with a 5-point wound. Tomtare lands his second blow after three misses but then misses again; fortunately his opponent also misses. Ishan Ashte proves his form is no accident by critically missing with his katana again, but hits with his wakizashi and kills the oni. Onuma, helping Sahpo with a reluctant oni, kills it with a hit for 10 damage. She goes to look for another opponent but none are in range. Sahpo casts and Arrow of Wood at Nansobo but fails to penetrate his magical shield.

Nansobo throws his staff at Ishan Ashte, stunning him and doing 13 damage. Onuma helps the dazed Emishi by finishing off his oni. Emishi recovers his wits enough to change his weapons, taking the permanently-poisoned spear from his back and turning to face Nansobo. Tomtare downs the last oni and also turns to Nansobo, adopting a defensive stance. Nansobo pounds Hachiro again with his staff, forcing Hachiro to his knees. He looks up and sees the adventurers circled around him.

"So you survived my minions. Let's see if you can survive this!" Nansobo raises his staff and sprays the adventurers with iron needles. Emishi, Tomtare and Onuma, standing in front of Nansobo, are hit for 5 damage each, while Sahpo and Ishan Ashte, standing to the rear, are only hit for 1 damage - but it is one of Ishan Ashte's last two hit points! Fearing the worst if he remains in melee combat, Ishan Ashte retreats several yards and takes out his bow.

"Rule one: Never fire into melee. Oh well, rules are made to be broken," he mutters as he fits an arrow onto the string.

Before anyone can start, a great shaking afflicts the beach and the lake. Hachiro is summoning an earthquake. Emishi and Ishan Ashte keep upright but Tomtare, Onuma and Sahpo stagger. Nansobo himself sinks up to his knees in the trembling sand. Emishi seizes his chance and strikes Nansobo for 11 damage. Tomtare, still reeling, misses. Ishan Ashte lets fly his arrow and hits Nansobo for 8 damage. An inspiration strikes Onuma and she casts Breath of Dragon. Nansobo screams as his cloak catches fire and turns him into a giant candle. He is vulnerable to fire! Sahpo is also struck by inspiration and starts the exorcism ritual. He finishes successfully and Nansobo's spirit rank is reduced from 8 to 6.

Nansobo hits Onuma for 11 damage but is too shaken by the earthquake and distracted by the fire to do anything else. Emishi hits him for 7 damage and Tomtare knocks him cold with a hit of 6. Sahpo continues exorcising the now-recumbent Nansobo until his spirit rank is reduced to zero. Then Hachiro gets to his feet and asks for a sword. Emishi picks up his master katana and hands it over wordlessly. Hachiro stands over Nansobo's unconscious body for a moment, then chops off its head.

There is a moment of reflection, then of elation as Tomtare, Emishi and Sahpo realise they have made it to Level 3. The adventurers laugh joyfully at their collective achievements. Hachiro doesn't join in, but, quietly thanking them for their assistance, asks the gleeful party to wait for a minute. He turns into his dragon form, flies over to the cliff where the woman has been watching, kisses her briefly (still in dragon form - the woman shimmers into a dragon form and back almost too quickly for the eye to see) and returns to the five waiting human. He motions them to climb on his back once more and carries them back to Lake Hachiro (though Emishi's luggage arrives at Lake Towada). As the dragon approaches the lake, he flies down and flies a tight circle. Below, crouched in a week-chocked pond, they see the cowering ferryman. Then the dragon flies the short distance back to the beach where they first encountered him and lands. As soon as the adventurers have dismounted he turns into his human form and hands each of his saviours a pearl, which Tomtare reckons are worth a gold piece, and gives Emishi a small figurine of a celestial dragon-horse. Sahpo recognises it as a Steed of Heaven, a magical artefact that summons a winged horse that will carry a whole party. His obligations fulfilled, Hachiro takes off again and flies back towards the mountains, Lake Tazawa and his love.

The five adventurers set about healing each others' wounds and celebrating their success, their achievements and their rewards. Then reality sets in once again.

"I guess we'd better go and arrest the ferryman." They set off once more into the marsh.

Back at Hidasue's house, Hidasue congratulates them on the capture of the ferryman. In the evening they enjoy fine foods and sake with Hidasue, who reflects on his rise in fortunes since his guests were shipwrecked, nearly a year ago.

"I've been thinking of asking you to help me once again. This task is a bit different from the others. I'm going to petition the daimyo to have our family's old estate in Akita returned to me. We'll need wise heads and great verbal skills to succeed. So I thought I'd get us in the mood by having a little poetry contest." The looks on the young half-Ainu faces must have told a thousand words, which is more than most of them know. However, a challenge is a challenge - though no-one bets against Sahpo. Ishan Ashte starts off.

There was a young man from Nantucket, Whose-

"NO! A poem, not a limerick!"

Tomtare has a go.

There was a young lady from China, Who had an enormous verruca,

"No, that's still a limerick."

Onuma recites a soliloquy from a play she learnt from her father. It concerns the death of a ferryman on the Sumidagawa river in Hakodate.

I know I am dying... Please bury me here, by the path to this chapel. Then, if travellers from my dear country pass this way, their shadows will fall on my grave, and plant a yew tree in memory of me.

This goes down well. Emishi composes a haiku.

I bow low and aim
to be grateful, -and not miss.
Then I say: 'Hankyu!'

This is met with some admiration. But Sahpo trumps them all with his extemporaneous essay:

Oh downy yellow flower!
how delicately
you make all
of my allergies
flare up like a
spring morning.
My Father wouldn't
approve.
-How I hate the night!

"Hey, I wrote that!" exclaims Emishi. But no-one believes him and Sahpo wins the contest and gains 13 On.

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