L5R – JYTB Campaign Report 4

Continuing on their way towards Cold Wind City from the Shaiga outpost, the characters com across a shrine to Oinari, fortune of rice, fertility, agriculture (and foxes) where the priest of the shrine is weeping as the statue of Oinari has been stolen during the night.   The priest is well dress and explains that he may have had too much to drink last night and arriving late at the shrine, he found the statue gone!   Also stopped at the shrine is Oda, a monk of the Order of Osano-Wo (see the updated cast list).   The monk and the yoriki naturally agree to try to track down the missing statue.

The first clue is a huge, four-toed footprint.  They track the trail up into the hills.  Hearing loud voice arguing ahead, they split up and approach what turns out to be a cave mouth, inside are two common oni arguing over a large turnip.  (A brief aside here, common oni are the traditional monster from Japanese myth, malicious and dangerous spirits but untainted by the Dark.)  One is red with one horn and three eyes, the other yellow with two horns and four arms.  They talk with the oni but do not get them to admit to stealing the statue, though it is obvious that they have, or where it is now.  Our heroes lure the oni out of the cave and attack them, the Usagi rushes into the cave to see if the statue is there which it is not, rather there is only a large bag of turnips . . .   The red oni is killed and the yellow oni surrenders.

The oni is forced to admit that, yes, they stole the statue and takes our heroes down to where the oni traded the statue for a huge bag of turnips.  They track the wagon across the fields and finally to a ruined temple, just as the sun was setting.  As a night of the new moon, it seems like a good night for blood magic.  The Usagi scales the walls while the rest of the group breaks down the barred door.  Inside is a blood ritual in progress, seven cultists, a bonfire and a slaughtered ox.  The Usagi gets to use his magic resistance to shrug off the cultist leader’s magic, the rest of the group charges in and the cultists go down like chumps (which they were).   An old metal box filled with . . . recipes?  The Usagi think that there is something encoded in them and they are destroyed.

The cart the turnips, and later the fortune’s statue, was transported in was found confirmed by stone dust found in the bed along with a long feather.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we rusted though the last part where they tracked down the Tengu who traded the old box for the statue and then, in turn, traded it for sake and rice . . . to the priest.  When they come back down to the shrine at dawn, the priest is dusting the statue which is back in its proper place.

Notes: This was deliberately a lighthearted game, even though there was a fair amount of combat, after the grimness of last session’s murder mystery.

On to Report 5.