Session 26. (13/7/12)

"Let's go!" shouts Emishi and rides off into the hills. Yoshi Yeesu and Ishan Ashte follow him, resignedly. Sahpo falls behind and loses sight of them and the faint pathway. Tomtare takes the rather more obvious path that leads back to the village.

"Hey, where are you going?" asks Ishan Ashte.

"Up to Little Storehouse Peak," replies Tomtare.

"Well it's this way, stupid." Tomtare and Sahpo catch up to the others and head up towards the mountain that does indeed look like it has a building on its summit. Now Emishi, Yoshi Yeesu and Ishan Ashte lose sight of the path while Sahpo and Tomtare stay on the trail.

"This way, stupid," calls Tomtare to Ishan Ashte, caustically. Then they both get lost, while Sahpo, Emishi and Yoshi Yeesu have no such problems.

"This way, stu-"

"Yeah, yeah, we know."

Tomtare leads them the rest of the way until it reaches a corrie, a deep depression between two large mounds, which reminds them of Emishi's girlfriend. "The path seems end here - hey, where did Emishi go?"

Emishi has got lost. He turned off into a gully and got distracted by an unnatural-looking hollow. Unfortunately it turns out to be the lair of a giant trapdoor spider. The spider pounces, but fumbles its attack and breaks one of its legs. Emishi's horse rears and Emishi falls, landing on his head. The spider tries to bite the soft, juicy target that presents itself, but misses. Emishi's horse runs away. Emishi stands up, draws his sword and chops at the spider for 11 damage. The spider nips in and nips Emishi with its venomous bite, but Emishi resists the poison. He lands a critical blow for 26 and kills the spider.

The others have started searching for Emishi. Yoshi Yeesu's and Sahpo's successes, together with Ishan Ashte's and Tomtare's critical successes, allow them to piece the puzzle together - the sound of a scream, the hiss of a giant spider, the clang of a sword, Emishi's horse racing past them from out of a deep gully - and quickly find Emishi, just as four more trapdoor spiders pounce from their lairs. Emishi, sword already drawn, turns and chops one for 13 damage. The other fighters pile in and inflict 7, 9 and 12 points of damage. The spiders find their prey much tougher than usual and fail to grab a single bite. Emishi kills the first spider while Tomtare clubs one for 13. Sahpo gets his turn and fires three Arrows of Wood at the three remaining spiders. All arrows score: one spider collapses in a heap, and the other two are severely weakened. Ishan Ashte and Yoshi Yeesu repeat their previous hits of 9 and 12. As the spiders feebly stagger back to their nests, Tomtare, Ishan Ashte and Yoshi Yeesu close in for the kill. Tomtare scores a 10, killing one, Ishan Ashte misses and dazes himself and Yoshi Yeesu gets his third 12 in a row, finishing the last spider.

While Sahpo takes a few minutes to come to terms with his newly-acquired Level 4 status, Emishi searches the trapdoor spiders' burrows, but finds nothing of interest. Yoshi Yeesu retrieves Emishi's horse, Park-n-Ride, and returns it to him. Then the five of them search the gully, the corrie and the valley all the way back to the village but find no shrines, caves, entrances to heaven or hell or any sign of a path leading to the top of the mountain. The rocky cliffs surrounding the peak are too sheer to climb. Undeterred, Emishi recalls his vision at the shrine.

"I saw a glowing path, leading from the first gate to the last. What could make a glowing path?"

"How about the sun shining through a mountain pass?" offers Yoshi Yeesu.

"But the pass - if there is one - is to our north. The sun never shines from that direction," says Sahpo, quickly quashing their hope of a simple solution.

"How about the moon?" wonders Tomtare. "What phase is it tonight?"

"New moon," says Sahpo promptly.

"What about a path of golden trees in autumn... or something," puts in Ishan Ashte, but not even he thinks this is very likely.

"Come on guys, we need to solve this," urges Emishi, impatiently. "I want to go home and see my girlfriend."

"Don't we all?" says Yoshi Yeesu.

"And find the gates of heaven," adds Sahpo, sotto voce.

"We should go up to the top of that peak and look down on the gates, see if it means anything from up there," says Tomtare.

"But the mountain in unclimbable," protests Sahpo.

"What about that flying horse amulet thing?" suggests Ishan Ashte.

"You mean the dragon-horse enchantment?" asks Sahpo, taking the netsuke from his purse. "Well, it will take a charge each to get us there and back, but there are six charges and only five of us."

"Let's do it, I'm getting homesick," says Emishi.

"For Shikabe, Yakumo, Miyoshiville, Taisei, Ikusyun, Tennō or Sannohe - or Hana?" asks Sahpo sarcastically.

"Who cares, let's just go!"

Sahpo invokes the amulet and a forty-foot Steed of Heaven appears. The five investigators mount it and it flaps smoothly into the sky. Soon it reaches the top of Ogura-dake and they dismount gingerly onto the rocky summit. It is clear that the appearance of a building was just a trick of the particular shape of the rocks. They look down and see Rikuchū, the central region of Mutsu province, laid out at their feet.

"There's Ichinohe, just the other side of this ridge," says Sahpo. "And Ninohe is there, then Sannohe... Herai must be there, there's Gonohe, Rokunohe is lost in the haze... Shichinohe is way to the north, out of sight from here... then Hachinohe must be there, where you can just see the sea, and Kunohe is behind us, of course."

"The land sure looks nice," says Tomtare, "All green and lush."

"Well its good grassland, lots of limestone round here," says Ishan Ashte, then sees the others' astonished stares. "What, can't I know a few things you don't?" he demands.

"I can't see a glowing path," says Emishi, disappointed.

"Maybe it was metaphorically glowing," suggests Sahpo.

"Or the result of eating inadvisable mushrooms," mutters Ishan Ashte.

"Well let's decide quickly or get off this mountain. I'm freezing my kintama off!" says Emishi.

They decide to sleep on their decision and remount the dragon-horse, which has been waiting patiently, and return to Kunohe where their horses have been left. During the night, Ishan Ashte has a vivid dream that he has deduced the answer to the puzzle and presented it to Hidasue - unfortunately, his dream does not reveal which answer he thinks it is. Tomtare dreams of squirrels. Emishi dreams of his girlfriend... as does Yoshi Yeesu. Sahpo dreams of Emishi - but not in that way - more in terms of rendering him silent. On the two-day ride back to Sannohe they ponder further on the puzzle. Ishan Ashte and Tomtare are in favour of the horse ranch theory. Emishi supports the gates-to-Nanbu territory explanation. He is also bored and wants to ride a dragon again. He ignores snide remarks about his girlfriend. Yoshi Yeesu puts forward a new suggestion that the nine towns are part of a trade route, but with no evidence and no support from the others, lets it drift away like so many other suggestions. Sahpo won't be drawn on which theory he thinks most likely and so the matter is unresolved when they arrive back in Sannohe. Emishi rushes off to see his girlfriend, who is very pleased to see him - apparently Onuma is no substitute for a warrior with a big sword. The others sit and discuss the problem, trying to decide what they will report to Hidasue. Sahpo goes through the stories they have heard.

"Gates to heaven and hell... unlikely. Invisible gates in every village... "

"We didn't see any," puts in Tomtare.

"...no. Shrine of Inari in every village... well, there weren't shrines in every village, at least, not until we were there. Nine horse ranches..."

"That sounds plausible," says Ishan Ashte. "We did see a few ranches."

"OK, that's possible. Nine gates to the Nanbu domain. Definitely possible, though we didn't see any defences. Nine gates to the underworld… no, we didn't see any, just a village of rokuro-kubi. Nine dragons..."

"...who were supposedly guarding eight powers," adds Yoshi Yeesu.

"...in nine villages," continues Tomtare.

"...and we only saw one," finishes Ishan Ashte.

"- and killed it," puts in Emishi, arriving back after a passionate five minutes with his girlfriend.

"...no, not very likely," concludes Sahpo. "Though more likely than the majaan hand. So what shall we tell Hidasue? He's got to say something to Nanbu Masayasu."

"We should tell him everything, but recommend that the most likely are the horse ranches and the nine gates to Nanbu," says Tomtare.

"But Masayasu wanted a definitive answer," protests Sahpo. "Only one story can be the right one."

"Then we tell him the one he'll want to hear," insists Emishi. "The nine gates to Nanbu^*."

Everyone nods in agreement (perhaps for the first time ever) and they report to Hidasue. He goes to see Nanbu Masayasu and returns an hour later to report that Masayasu is very pleased to have had the problem solved at last. Everyone gains 5 budo for the resolution, two On for choosing a pleasing solution and seven On for their performance explaining it to Hidasue.

* In fact the villages and towns are named after horse ranches, one to nine (excluding four, as is customary in Nippon). Herai ("next ranch") was the tenth, by which time they were clearly already getting sick of numbering the ranches. Choosing this solution would have got them 10 budo!

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