The Mountain Witch - 3
Eisaku and Omni traveled closer to the main bailey, but became distracted when the street ahead was blocked by a stage. (Remember, for this telling, O-Yanma's castle is in fact, a small city.) Several performers were drawing a crowd and beginning to tell a story. Eisaku's story.
It followed lord Ito through a terrible battle. At first he was surrounded by his yojimbo, but slowly they were killed or separated from Ito. The cast encouraged Eisaku to take the stage with them, but he refused. Then one of the yojimbo returned to Ito's side and betrayed him. Ito lay dead, and the betrayer announced "It is finished, Ito is dead." The performers exited the stage, the crowd dispersed, but the betrayer called Eisaku out to a duel.
After exchanging a few superficial injuries, Eisaku became backed up to an edge of the stage, and a terrible wind rushed at him, intent to blind him. Eisaku rolled back and received the charge, killing the betrayer and dropping him to the ground. Eisaku removed the mempo of the betrayer, but the wind howled and blew his costume across his face. When it calmed, he saw that the man had no face at all. (Personally, I was hoping to make it the face of Eisaku, but it was in his authority to decide, as he won the conflict by a large margin.)
Omni became bored with the struggle and walked away to pursue his own interests. There were black clouds above and below their elevation, which prevented them from realizing it was early afternoon. It had begun freezing rain, and Omni approached a stone wall. Omni reached into his obi and produced an invisible key, which could only be seen because of the rain colliding with it. When Omni stepped inside the secret passage, he could help but notice two celestial lion-dogs, on on either side of the passage. Traditionally, these statues looked inward, frightening evil spirits and keeping them from the doorway. But these looked outward, as if turning a blind eye to whatever wished to enter the castle.
He could hear a commotion ahead. In a room connected to the hall, some tengu were gathered around a body while a kijo performed some bizarre ritual. Omni recognized the armor that the dead man wore, and retrieved a sheet of paper, marking another tally. The count had reached twenty one, and there were only four left.
A few of the tengu were heard to argue over a bottle of sake, which turned out to be a bottle of lamp oil. They drank it regardless, hoping to get drunk.
The secret door Omni had used opened once more, and Omni crouched against a wall, ready to attack. It was the mujina, the faceless guard of the hot springs, this time wearing a face with gray eyes. It called out Omni's name, and the commotion brought the kijo and the tengu into the hallway. Omni distracted them by taking on the mujina's shape, and the tengu didn't know what to do.
They got more drunk and waited.
The kijo was less patient, and came forward to attack Omni, whichever one the true Omni might be. The mujina slid the face it was wearing off, and replaced it with the face of Omni's father. The battle went on for a few quick but sharp exchanges. The tengu began taking bets instead of helping.
The kijo was mildly injured, but Omni and the mujina were never scratched. Omni broke off the fighting, declaring that they were obviously too evenly matched, and that continuing this fight was foolish. The kijo became angered that it didn't get to help the mujina kill Omni, and took out it's frustration by lighting one of the lamp-oil soaked tengu on fire.
Omni demanded to know why the mujina had been killing off Omni's family. The mujina responded that it had been doing so in order to meet Omni, and that it had waited thirty years for this moment...
FADE TO BLACK. I love it when players do that.
Meanwhile, Masahiro and Xi were on a quest to recover three pearls to break an enchantment on the three beautiful women in the bath house. They found the "moat" that had been described, but it looked as though the waste and refuse from the castle was used to fill it. Masahiro prepared to wade through the shit to get to the chest at the bottom, wary of this guardian in the waters. Xi came into the moat as far as he could, and they soon discovered the fish.
Masahiro could breath underwater, but it was unpleasant given the circumstances. He was also wounded already. Even though they worked together, the fish ravaged the both of them, and to make matters worse, it swallowed the chest. Xi dove under the water one last time and the two of them split the thing in two, at last dragging the chest to the surface and recovering the pearls. They found some fresh show to clean themselves off with before returning to the women.
Xi took one of the pearls and left the other two for Masahiro. Both were anxious to break this spell and get their reward. But Xi, just before he tossed the pearl to his chosen woman, stopped short. He could see that the pearls would not break the enchantment that turned these women into monsters. Instead, it would break the enchantment that bound them to this bath house.
Flashback. Four years prior. Xi, a bandit on the run with his loot, crashes into a hot spring and tumbles over a beautiful woman. One of the women in the bath house he is currently trying to free. Xi is pursued by soldiers, and takes the woman as a hostage, not even giving her the consideration of clothing. A few clouded memories tell us time has passed, and the woman at first resisted the bandit's company, but has now come to love him. Xi wishes to give up this life, and to marry and become an honorable man, but the woman's father, Lord Soriyama, has put a reverse dowry on her. Xi will have to raise a ridiculous sum of gold before he can take her hand, and so he sets out on his quest. Until he hears that O-Yanma has paid that dowry, and that the woman he loves is in the clutches of the Mountain Witch.
Xi, back in the bath house in present day, reads the eyes of the woman he loves. She will help him defeat the other two if Xi can free her. What happens after that is uncertain. Xi pulls Masahiro back to council, and their voices are drowned by the pleading of the three women. The plan is for Masahiro to try to quench his wound in the pool while Xi gets all three pearls to his beloved.
The plan is not realized. Masahiro is intercepted, and Xi's love is pushed back by the other two women, who jealously lash out at Xi. Having expended almost all of their trust in one another, they find this encounter particularly trying, but Xi manages to get a pearl to his love at the cost of also giving one to another of the monstrous women. Xi demands an end to this struggle, and offers to give the third pearl to the third woman.
They accept, but just as soon as they are all three free, all three women dive hungrily towards Xi. His love makes it to him first, and manages to control herself long enough for one passionate kiss, but her fellow monsters jealously dig into her, and she turns on them. Xi watches helplessly, and in an instant nothing is left but a blood stain.
All the while, Eisaku is wandering through the streets with Pen Pen, followed closely by those eerie animated dolls. Eisaku is weary from his encounters, and wishes rest. He find himself a suitable place and a soft mat. Pen Pen offers to guard him, but Eisaku gives him a few of his remaining coins and trinkets from his pockets and tells Pen Pen to find what enjoyment he can.
In a haze of near-sleep, or perhaps sleep itself, Eisaku perceives the door to his room sliding open, and a woman kneeling on the other side. She comes into the room with an ornate tray, and then closes the door behind her. The tray has a powerful and rare blend of tea from the Eishi province, which is famously held to be an aphrodisiac.
She is gorgeous. Pale as the geisha powder, though she wears none, with hair black as a moonless night. Her body moves with an icy elegance, and she takes tea with him in silence. Then she pushes him back down onto the mat and strides him. He does not fight off her advance. Afterwards, she puts her elegant kimono back on and assembles the tea set on the trey once more. As she leaves, she sees Pen Pen and the dolls outside. She calls out to the dolls by name, and tells them to be joyous, for soon they will have another child to play with.
End Chapter 4.
Wow, so Xi... does he have a reason to keep fighting? What can his motive be now that his love is revealed and then dead? The drunken tengu were way more comic relief than I wrote them in to be, but it's a matter of tone and of word count. I can't type everything. Eisaku and Omni are alone now, isolated... Masahiro has healed his burn wounds, but now he travels with Xi, who has died a horrid death with his own eyes.
One final chapter, scheduled for Monday, and then the final confrontation with O-Yanma.
It followed lord Ito through a terrible battle. At first he was surrounded by his yojimbo, but slowly they were killed or separated from Ito. The cast encouraged Eisaku to take the stage with them, but he refused. Then one of the yojimbo returned to Ito's side and betrayed him. Ito lay dead, and the betrayer announced "It is finished, Ito is dead." The performers exited the stage, the crowd dispersed, but the betrayer called Eisaku out to a duel.
After exchanging a few superficial injuries, Eisaku became backed up to an edge of the stage, and a terrible wind rushed at him, intent to blind him. Eisaku rolled back and received the charge, killing the betrayer and dropping him to the ground. Eisaku removed the mempo of the betrayer, but the wind howled and blew his costume across his face. When it calmed, he saw that the man had no face at all. (Personally, I was hoping to make it the face of Eisaku, but it was in his authority to decide, as he won the conflict by a large margin.)
Omni became bored with the struggle and walked away to pursue his own interests. There were black clouds above and below their elevation, which prevented them from realizing it was early afternoon. It had begun freezing rain, and Omni approached a stone wall. Omni reached into his obi and produced an invisible key, which could only be seen because of the rain colliding with it. When Omni stepped inside the secret passage, he could help but notice two celestial lion-dogs, on on either side of the passage. Traditionally, these statues looked inward, frightening evil spirits and keeping them from the doorway. But these looked outward, as if turning a blind eye to whatever wished to enter the castle.
He could hear a commotion ahead. In a room connected to the hall, some tengu were gathered around a body while a kijo performed some bizarre ritual. Omni recognized the armor that the dead man wore, and retrieved a sheet of paper, marking another tally. The count had reached twenty one, and there were only four left.
A few of the tengu were heard to argue over a bottle of sake, which turned out to be a bottle of lamp oil. They drank it regardless, hoping to get drunk.
The secret door Omni had used opened once more, and Omni crouched against a wall, ready to attack. It was the mujina, the faceless guard of the hot springs, this time wearing a face with gray eyes. It called out Omni's name, and the commotion brought the kijo and the tengu into the hallway. Omni distracted them by taking on the mujina's shape, and the tengu didn't know what to do.
They got more drunk and waited.
The kijo was less patient, and came forward to attack Omni, whichever one the true Omni might be. The mujina slid the face it was wearing off, and replaced it with the face of Omni's father. The battle went on for a few quick but sharp exchanges. The tengu began taking bets instead of helping.
The kijo was mildly injured, but Omni and the mujina were never scratched. Omni broke off the fighting, declaring that they were obviously too evenly matched, and that continuing this fight was foolish. The kijo became angered that it didn't get to help the mujina kill Omni, and took out it's frustration by lighting one of the lamp-oil soaked tengu on fire.
Omni demanded to know why the mujina had been killing off Omni's family. The mujina responded that it had been doing so in order to meet Omni, and that it had waited thirty years for this moment...
FADE TO BLACK. I love it when players do that.
Meanwhile, Masahiro and Xi were on a quest to recover three pearls to break an enchantment on the three beautiful women in the bath house. They found the "moat" that had been described, but it looked as though the waste and refuse from the castle was used to fill it. Masahiro prepared to wade through the shit to get to the chest at the bottom, wary of this guardian in the waters. Xi came into the moat as far as he could, and they soon discovered the fish.
Masahiro could breath underwater, but it was unpleasant given the circumstances. He was also wounded already. Even though they worked together, the fish ravaged the both of them, and to make matters worse, it swallowed the chest. Xi dove under the water one last time and the two of them split the thing in two, at last dragging the chest to the surface and recovering the pearls. They found some fresh show to clean themselves off with before returning to the women.
Xi took one of the pearls and left the other two for Masahiro. Both were anxious to break this spell and get their reward. But Xi, just before he tossed the pearl to his chosen woman, stopped short. He could see that the pearls would not break the enchantment that turned these women into monsters. Instead, it would break the enchantment that bound them to this bath house.
Flashback. Four years prior. Xi, a bandit on the run with his loot, crashes into a hot spring and tumbles over a beautiful woman. One of the women in the bath house he is currently trying to free. Xi is pursued by soldiers, and takes the woman as a hostage, not even giving her the consideration of clothing. A few clouded memories tell us time has passed, and the woman at first resisted the bandit's company, but has now come to love him. Xi wishes to give up this life, and to marry and become an honorable man, but the woman's father, Lord Soriyama, has put a reverse dowry on her. Xi will have to raise a ridiculous sum of gold before he can take her hand, and so he sets out on his quest. Until he hears that O-Yanma has paid that dowry, and that the woman he loves is in the clutches of the Mountain Witch.
Xi, back in the bath house in present day, reads the eyes of the woman he loves. She will help him defeat the other two if Xi can free her. What happens after that is uncertain. Xi pulls Masahiro back to council, and their voices are drowned by the pleading of the three women. The plan is for Masahiro to try to quench his wound in the pool while Xi gets all three pearls to his beloved.
The plan is not realized. Masahiro is intercepted, and Xi's love is pushed back by the other two women, who jealously lash out at Xi. Having expended almost all of their trust in one another, they find this encounter particularly trying, but Xi manages to get a pearl to his love at the cost of also giving one to another of the monstrous women. Xi demands an end to this struggle, and offers to give the third pearl to the third woman.
They accept, but just as soon as they are all three free, all three women dive hungrily towards Xi. His love makes it to him first, and manages to control herself long enough for one passionate kiss, but her fellow monsters jealously dig into her, and she turns on them. Xi watches helplessly, and in an instant nothing is left but a blood stain.
All the while, Eisaku is wandering through the streets with Pen Pen, followed closely by those eerie animated dolls. Eisaku is weary from his encounters, and wishes rest. He find himself a suitable place and a soft mat. Pen Pen offers to guard him, but Eisaku gives him a few of his remaining coins and trinkets from his pockets and tells Pen Pen to find what enjoyment he can.
In a haze of near-sleep, or perhaps sleep itself, Eisaku perceives the door to his room sliding open, and a woman kneeling on the other side. She comes into the room with an ornate tray, and then closes the door behind her. The tray has a powerful and rare blend of tea from the Eishi province, which is famously held to be an aphrodisiac.
She is gorgeous. Pale as the geisha powder, though she wears none, with hair black as a moonless night. Her body moves with an icy elegance, and she takes tea with him in silence. Then she pushes him back down onto the mat and strides him. He does not fight off her advance. Afterwards, she puts her elegant kimono back on and assembles the tea set on the trey once more. As she leaves, she sees Pen Pen and the dolls outside. She calls out to the dolls by name, and tells them to be joyous, for soon they will have another child to play with.
End Chapter 4.
Wow, so Xi... does he have a reason to keep fighting? What can his motive be now that his love is revealed and then dead? The drunken tengu were way more comic relief than I wrote them in to be, but it's a matter of tone and of word count. I can't type everything. Eisaku and Omni are alone now, isolated... Masahiro has healed his burn wounds, but now he travels with Xi, who has died a horrid death with his own eyes.
One final chapter, scheduled for Monday, and then the final confrontation with O-Yanma.