As the party drifted off to sleep they collectively joined a strange dream. They were all brought into the domain of Eilo, the god of illusions. Eilo told the party how he was after someone draining his power without Eilo’s say. Eilo claimed that it was the same person the party was after, the one behind the disappearances. The deity offered a reward to the party if they could complete the task of finding and killing this man and even offered the help of one of his subordinates, Jack Jones. He told them that Jack would be in SushiMei’s bar awaiting more information. Afterward, Eilo snapped his fingers and the party awoke.
After a quick chat with Gon Ku they sent him to retrieve the carpet from the magic item shop tender. As Gon Ku set off the party went on their own towards the bar. At the bar, they immediately saw Jack and started a conversation. Jack told them that the man behind this was in fact the Shadow Shogun Itorosu. Itorosu had been draining energy from Shaiyo for his own nefarious deeds, which in effect was draining power from Eilo as well. Jack also said he predicts Itorosu will be attempting the creation of an Elder Mimic to destroy the entire town of Noroi.
He did give one last piece of information to the fact that Itorosu is not who he says he is. Itorosu is in fact a Doppelganger named Guanko a terrifying being who is a servant to the deity, Kontoru. He has been masquerading as Itorosu to raise the least suspicion whilst collecting souls for his nefarious goals. Guanko’s powers come from the embodiment of control which makes him able to take control over beings and even use their powers as his own. Guanko normally would never be able to control the power of an elder deity. However, Shaiyo was left completely unguarded with his powers sealed, which allowed Guanko to control the old man. Even with Shaiyo under Guanko’s control, he was only able to tap into one of the gods which Shaiyo served under, Eilo. Still, with Shaiyo’s massive connection to the dark gods, Guanko was still able to pull a massive amount of energy from him.
After receiving the information from Jack a young woman came from the other side of the bar to read the fortunes of the party. The party ended up agreeing and the woman saw into their futures. What she saw was complete darkness, not a shed of light or color within the futures of the samurai. The woman flipped out and offered a card pick from her deck of many things to each of the party members. Celosia got a -2 on saving throws, Jack’s soul was transported into an item somewhere, Ghost summoned a ghost girl who follows him constantly, Demetri lost all memory of his life, and Akabono received a seed.
After absolutely flipping their shit for a minute the party settles down a bit as Gon Ku joins back with the party showing them the magic carpet which now speaks with Jack’s voice. The fortune teller says that the only way to retrieve Demetri’s memory and restore Jack's body would have to be through divine intervention. Celosia quickly gathers everyone in a circle and they once again visit Eilo. The deity was disappointed at their arrival, having just met with Jack they had already run into trouble. Eilo begrudgingly restored Demetri’s memories and put Jack’s soul back into his true body.
Once the party awoke they started their way over to Shai Lou’s estate for a special presentation before the festival. When they arrived they set up in different places around the courtyard waiting for something to happen. As they waited a dot appeared in the sky as it grew closer it revealed itself to be Leito the Dragon Shogun. Leito greeted everyone and a beam of radiant light shined down upon the stage showing a hologram of Zaifu the Emperor of Light. Zaifu congratulated the samurai on their success in hunting down Ozzy and stopping the disappearances. He also announced that he would finally be opening Hanabira’s borders for the first time. After his speech, he beamed out and the festival had begun.
The party then snuck into the home of Shai Lou. Inside they waited for Leito and told him about everything they found out. Leito told them that if the worst happens he will summon Ryujin to help fight and begin his trek up the mountain. Meanwhile, the party put their focus on the town and started to evacuate as many citizens as possible. Celosia started by using skywrite to tell the people to leave which mostly confused them. After seeing this Celosia went to plan B and summoned a Fey Mammoth and commanded it to stomp through Noroi and cause a ruckus. This made the townspeople go into a panic causing many of them to start fleeing.
During the evacuation, a pulse of red energy surged through the city causing everyone to stop what they were doing as the sky fell black. Within the stars of the sky formed the face of Itorosu who greeted everyone and initiated the start of the true festivities. The earth rumbled as the old castle grew to life towering over everything in the valley. As it finally stood up it started destroying the city. The party as quickly as possible tried to make it over to the beast. As they grew closer the monster spewed a tsunami of acid through the streets and market, killing many people and destroying buildings.
The party tried some attacks on the creature but to no avail. During the combat Winger, Gally, and Gon Ku met up with the party to help. After a bit of fighting the massive creature opened its mouth and started to suck everything it could see into its mouth. After a while, Akabono was the only person left standing, as he ran away he saw in the distance a man flying on the back of a dragon. Leito has come with the help of Ryujin, and as Akanono saw this he accepted his fate and got sucked into the mouth of the Elder Mimic.
However, this is not the end of the story, as everyone opened their eyes they lay in a sea of acid with many disintegrated corpses. Everyone was still alive besides Gally and the Mammoth, who had died in acid. After making their way onto dry land they separated into two groups. The first group with Celosia, Ghost and Gon Ku went into the right room which contained three statues that represent the spirit of adventurers. After praying Celosia felt healthier and Ghost felt stronger. Meanwhile, Jack, Demetri, Akabono, and Winger went into the left room which contained mounds and mounds of gold and treasure. Demitri went to the center of the room and pulled a sword from the stone. With this, the ground shook and coins clattered as four hoard mimics revealed themselves.
