Session 24. (29/6/12)

We catch up with our heroes in Gonohe as they prepare to set off for Rokunohe. Sahpo and Tomtare have also caught up with them, having got over their bout of Jisa-boke (daytime drowsiness). They are debating how to get to Rokunohe: it is a difficult day's ride over the mountains to the north or an easy two days' ride down the Kamiichi valley to the outskirts of Hachinohe and up the Shimoda valley. Eventually the more hesitant riders have their way, and they make their way down to Hachinohe in a leisurely way. There are five inns to choose from in this large town, and the party decides to split up so they can meet more people and gather more information.

"I'm going to this one," announces Emishi.

"I'm going to that one," says Sahpo. And Tomtare. And Ishan Ashte. And Yoshi Yeesu. All in unison.

"He'll need an inn to himself just to have room for his ego," mutters Yoshi Yeesu under his breath.

Eventually Sahpo agrees to stay with Emishi, perhaps because he hasn't had to suffer Emishi's bragging over the past few days. The parties head to their chosen inns and settle in. Emishi goes to have a bath and finds a man already in. It turns out he is a Shinto priest. Emishi wastes no time in probing him for information.

"Do you know where there are shrines of Inari in the local towns?"

"Yes - there's one in Gonohe, and one in Ninohe."

"Do you know there's a new one in Herai?"

"Yes - I helped train the priest who did the inauguration. Why, here he is now!" he exclaims as Sahpo arrives for a bath.

"What about here in Hachinohe?"

"There are five shrines, one of them to Inari."

"Do you know about the legend of Nine Gates?" asks Sahpo.

"The nine gates refers to the towns and villages that mark each of the nine approaches to the original Nanbu domain, and thus were guarded gates many years ago, before the Nanbu expanded to control the whole of Mutsu (and now Dewa) province," explains the priest.

"That makes more sense than some of the tales we've heard," comments Sahpo to Emishi.

The next day the adventurers meet up and set off for Rokunohe. Emishi and Sahpo relay their discovery. The others haven't found much out, except that the shrine of Inari in Hachinohe is again not the fox-form of the goddess. "I'm beginning to think there isn't much to this shrine idea," comments Ishan Ashte. Yoshi Yeesu stubbornly insists they keep going to the bitter end.

By late afternoon they arrive in Rokunohe and check in to the inn. As soon as they are settled in, Sahpo goes to check what shrines are in the town. There are three, including one to Inari (but again not in fox form). Tomtare and Ishan Ashte, thinking about Emishi's latest discovery, look to see if there is a gate near the town. They find no sign of fortifications, though they do come across a small horse ranch. They bump into Sahpo and the others as they pass the shrine of Inari and all make offerings and wishes. As usual, the gods appear to be deaf. Undeterred, they pray at the other two shrines, but the result is just the same. They split up to see if any of the old people of the town know about the legend. Tomtare is the "lucky" one, meeting a man sitting in the town cemetery. Tomtare wastes no time asking about the legend. The man clearly knows the local version and tells Tomtare that Nine Gates are gates to the underworld, and must be guarded; each is located in a cemetery, some are invisible, and some only open at night. He explains that he is guarding the sixth gate, which lies in this cemetery. Excited, Tomtare offers to keep the man company, and goes to fetch the others and some bedding. The others eagerly join him and soon all turn up with enthusiasm and bed rolls. But as the night drags on with no activity, one by one the adventurers fall asleep.

"When do they come?" asks Tomtare.

"They come at any time," answers the man. Tomtare looks round to see that Sahpo, Emishi and Ishan Ashte are sound asleep. Yoshi Yeesu is managing to stay awake. Tomtare yawns and turns back to the man.

"Where..." he begins, but stops abruptly: the man has gone. Suddenly he feels a sharp pain on the back of his head. He turns to find a disembodied head flying through the air, trying to bite him. He leaps up in fright grabs for his tetsubo. Yoshi Yeesu has seen the head at about the same time and emits a blood-curdling yell, draws his sword with a lunging motion and cuts the head in half! The others are woken by Yoshi Yeesu's yell and immediately grab their weapons, but are distracted by the arrival of another six floating heads, biting at their necks. Tomtare, Ishan Ashte and Emishi are all bitten, though the wounds are quite minor. Tomtare manages to hit a head, knocking it back. Ishan Ashte tries a quick draw but misses his target. Yoshi Yeesu hits one of two heads hovering around Sahpo. Emishi forgoes an attack to put on his helmet to guard against attacks from the rokurokubi. The heads attack again and Emishi and Ishan Ashte receive nasty nips. Once again Sahpo is spared and the two heads collide, one ending up dazed. Sahpo casts two Arrows of Wood at one and, to his surprise and delight the dazed head succumbs to the poison and falls to the ground. Yoshi Yeesu hits and downs Sahpo's other tormentor. Tomtare attacks again and swats another of the heads with a cry of "Fore!". Emishi hits a head for 14 damage but the head replies with a critical hit and stuns Emishi. Yoshi Yeesu gives his reply with a critical hit of 18 on the pesky head. Ishan Ashte is lightly nibbled by one of the two remaining heads, then the heroes dispatch the three heads with hits of 7, 9, 7 and 11.

Ishan Ashte looks for the man who was guarding the cemetery and soon finds his headless body - he was one of the rokurokubi! He turns to tell the others and sees one of the defeated heads - the one in two halves - flying unsteadily back to the body. Ishan Ashte quickly grabs a bed roll and wraps it around the neck and chest of the headless body, securing it tightly so the head cannot reattach. The others see what he is doing and look round to see most of the other heads floating up and away towards the town. Only the poisoned one lies still so Sahpo is quick enough to grab it, tie it in a bed roll and weigh it down with pebbles. Emishi sets off after one of the heads but can't keep up and it loses him in the town. Tomtare sprints after another and keeps close behind it all the way. It floats silently in through an open window. Tomtare steps in through the window and sees the head trying to reattach to a headless body. He interposes a bed roll and ties up the body. At dawn the head falls to the ground, all signs of life or pseudo-life gone. Yoshi Yeesu has tried to follow another head, but tripped and it got away. Ishan Ashte did the same as Tomtare and followed a head into a house where he keeps it from reattaching, eventually leading to its demise. Yoshi Yeesu chases one last head into the town and sees it go in through a window. He isn't quick enough to stop it reattaching, so he runs his sword through the body of the townsman as it tries to come back to life, then detaches the head with one swing of his sword.

In the morning the adventurers collect up the five heads and bodies and take them to the town elders. The elders praise the visitors for their actions; the townsfolk are clearly perturbed to find that the rokurokubi actually lived among them.

"Do you think we should tell them about the two that got away?" whispers Ishan Ashte to Emishi.

"No, that can be our little secret," he replies.

"I never bought that 'nine gates to the underworld' thing anyway," complains Tomtare.

The next two days are spent travelling up to the village of Shichinohe, the seventh gate. It turns out to be a small village without even the facilities of an inn. There are two shrines, but neither of them is to Inari nor any god of fertility. Yoshi Yeesu is disappointed that his theory is not holding up. Everyone prays at the two shrines anyway, but nothing seems to happen apart from Ishan Ashte suffering from pins and needles, which he attributed to spending too long in the saddle. They go to see the village headman to arrange for accommodation. While that is being sorted out, Emishi asks if they can build a shrine to Inari.

"Inari?" squeaks the headman incredulously. "We're fertile enough as it is!" he splutters indignantly.

"Do you mean the fields or the wo-why did you kick me, Sahpo?"

Meanwhile, Tomtare is asking the headman about the legend of nine gates.

"'Tis said that the towns and villages are the homes of nine dragons who guard the eight powers of yijing."

"Eight powers?"

"That's what is said."

"Yijing?"

"Yi and jing, the Chinese philosophy of opposites, like dark and light."

"Oh, from China - south of here."

"No, it's across the sea," says the headman, getting thoroughly confused.

"Can't be, we came from over the sea, and that's to the north."

"Look, I've got a diagram on my wall." He shows them an astrological chart. They peer at it intently, though only Sahpo can read the symbols. Except for Yoshi Yeesu - his gaze is through the window, fixed on something high in the sky - a smoke trail.

"A dr-dr-dragon," he exclaims hoarsely. The trail suddenly heads for the ground about a mile away.

"Come on," shouts Emishi rushing for the door, "Let's get it!"

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