Session 03: Trail of Death, Bridge of Wind
General Summary
Standing at the end of the pier at the base of the trail, the group gazed into the darkened trail winding upwards as it beckoned them forward.
Gazing around, the group could hear the soft lap of the waves upon the sand and pebbles of the beach and insect noises from the dark jungle. The narrow beach reached only forty or fifty feet from the shore, before the jungle began in an abrupt wall of greenery. The cold stars glittered overhead.
Vulpis noticed two posts over to the left forming the start of the pathway, too straight to be natural. The beach appeared pristine without a single footprint marring the surface. Everything was cast in shadowy twilight by the darkvision, with inky shadows from the starlight.
Emeny used a moment's preparation to trigger her detect magic sense, then carefully examined the posts. Looking at them, the group's suspicions were correct; the posts were indeed magical. Both Conjuration and Enchantment effects imbued them, although it was difficult to tell exactly what they would do. Each post was about twenty feet high and made of stone, forming a foot-thick and remarkably regular column, with faces carved into the top of each. Another pair of posts were deeper into the jungle forty feet away, with spaced timbers laid into the ground forming steps between them. The jungle did not encroach into the pathway, and no animals ventured upon it within sight.
Vulpis called for the group to wait for a few moments, as he began a ritual spell-chant to identify the posts. He frowned in puzzlement as he realised he could feel an affinity to the posts with his necromantic abilities. Looking closer, he realised this was the fate of a failed aspirant - the faces were those of the students who had not performed to Korgawa Academy's standards. The group soon spotted another oddity of the posts; no matter which angle the post was viewed at, the faces were always regarding the viewer, despite never being seen to move.
Junko felt a familiar tug at her senses and reached out to the world around her. The surrounding area had an unusual affinity to the spirit realm, and a moment's examination revealed that it had not one source but many. She noticed a small ornate house near the path in the shape of a pagoda - a spirit house, somewhat like a tombstone in other cultures. More spirit houses were scattered deeper into the jungle, but none had any specific markings for occupants or memorials. Vulpis realised that the path was not merely a path, but also a graveyard without corpses. The remains of failed aspirants had been rendered to ash, mixed with some form of malleable stone, then turned into the stone spirit houses and columns. More and more of the pagodas swiftly became noticeable buried in the undergrowth once the group realised what to look for.
The waist-high spirit houses resembled pots or cauldrons on brazier-type legs, with a small open doorway resembling a gaping mouth and two windows resembling eyes, and the tiered roof of a pagoda topping it. Within each was a small yellowed and tattered scroll, likely a memorial, but the group chose not to disturb them.
The party advanced cautiously, Emeny flying ahead. She heard a fluttering, flapping noise in the slight breeze, and looked ahead to see another scroll attached to one of the posts, with another animated eye peering around, the edges of the ink drifting like watercolour inks in a pool of water. Wheeling around, Emeny flew back to the others with her warning.
Vulpis momentarily considered casting remove curse on the scroll, but as swiftly dismissed the idea as he realised it would have absolutely no effect. Instead, the adventurers attempted to stealth their way past, using Cebril's illusionary cloud to once again muffle the eye's senses, until Emeny's gear clattered as she was buffeted by the light breeze in her flight.
The eye snapped over to stare at Emeny, and a ripple of force spread outward from it, the dirt and leaves puffing and rippling in an expanding circle. The eye-like windows of the nearest spirit house lit up from an eerie light within, then the next spirit house in turn, until all the houses into the distance were lit. Junko felt the oppressive regard of the spirits levelled upon the group of interlopers.
Kayle and Cebril lifted their heads and hissed a warning as they heard a distant, irregular wind approaching, stirring the leaves. The group began to race up the path in unison, their footfalls audible no matter how they tried to keep silent, and the path became steeper as they fled ahead of the approaching sounds.
There was a a whistling, chirping noise like a bird flying past, and Mortimer felt a tugging on his hair before he saw a few severed strands drifting down. Vulpis felt a thudding impact on his chest, and looked down at his ribs to see a kunai projecting from his armour. Emeny felt a pair of kunai whistle past, and Kayle dodged another.
Looking around, the group realised they were surrounded by half a dozen martial artists, with the three ahead and one to the side about twenty-five feet up in the trees. Two more on the ground behind attempted to box the party in. They wearing dark green robes, cut in a style reminiscent of the Su Chi Academy students, and appeared young, mostly in their mid-twenties.
Junko used her Spirit Walk ability to leap up into the trees next to the ninja to the side, attacking and wounding him twice. Startled, he yelped, and Junko yelled, "This one's injured!" and leapt to the branch beside the next attacker - only to slip, falling to the ground below with a painful-sounding thud and a startled gasp.
Cebril turned to Kayle and played a short ditty, inspiring him, before casting Bigby's Hand at the injured ninja. The magical hand grabbed the foe around the chest, his ribs creaking. The ninja stayed standing, although swaying on the branch.
Kayle raced toward Junko, hurdling her prone form, then ran up the tree above her. He punched the ninja, the bardic inspiration resulting in a crack of thunder & wounding the masked martial artist further, then Kayle's fists glowed with Ki as he rained down a flurry of blows.
A wave of Emeny's flower-staff cast Faerie Fire in front of her and outlining one of the ninjas in glowing light, but the second flipped out of the area of effect just in time. She snarled as she raged, flowers and vines bursting through the ground around her.
Vulpis and his bodyguard of samurai skeletons surrounded one of the ninjas on the ground, swords hacking and wounding him badly.
A ninja attacked Cebril, hitting and missing him in equal measure, and a well-placed thrown kunai thudded dead into his chest. The faerie-fire-outlined ninja missed Emeny with two kunai as she corkscrewed through the air, but hit her with the third. Her power backlashed at the two ninjas within thirty feet of her, the surrounded ninja grunting as necrotic energy withered him, and she flushed with new energy. The surrounded ninja glanced around, spotting Vulpis as the creator of the skeletons, and attacked him, hitting twice. Vulpis reeled back, stunned and wounded. Another ninja leapt behind Vulpis, flanking him and wounding him three times, and knocking him prone. The ninja foolishly disregarded the butterfly-winged fairie behind him, a mistake he would shortly regret.
The ninja wounded by Cebril's magical hand leapt to the ground away from the magical construct, and raced over to Mortimer, critically wounding him as the priest was lashed by a kick to the chest, a palm thrust to the chin, and a wheel kick to the head. He reeled, dazed, and fell prone. The ninja facing Kayle missed, then hit him twice. He attempted to kick Kayle out of the tree, but Kayle effortlessly kept his footing.
Mortimer looked up at the ninja monk standing over him, seeing him making a claw hand with bluish-purple flickers of energy around his palm as it lowered toward Mortimer's chest. The cleric frantically tried to cast hold person, but the monk resisted it. Instead, Mortimer scrambled to his feet and prepared to defend himself.
Junko leapt to her feet and ran at the monk attacking Mortimer. A radiant aura surrounded her blade as she swung, burying her glowing blade into his side and through him, bursting from the far side in a gush of blood. He looked startled, the energy flickering out, then collapsed limply to the ground.
Cebril moved his magic hand to the monk attacking Vulpis from behind, grappling him the ninja, and reached over to cast cure wounds on Mortimer. Meanwhile, Kayle slammed the ninja in front of him with a flurry of blows, wounding him sorely. He reeled, but managed to avoid falling out of the tree. Emeny smashed her weapon into the hand-grappled ninja, then the skeletons guarding Vulpis pressed their attack against the ninja they were surrounding, wounding him again.
The ninja monks attacked, one of them throwing a pair of kunai at Kayle. He grabbed one out of the air and flung it back, but missed as he was distracted by the other kunai grazing him. The second ninka threw more kunai at Cebril, wounding him and disrupting his concentration on the hand. The construct disappeared in a shower of glowing sparkles.
Surrounded by undead samurai, the encircled ninja leapt up into the branches overhead. The formerly-grappled ninja attacked the prone Vulpis, wounding him three times and kicking the shortsword out of his hand. The ninja facing Kayle wavered, then attacked. Uncertainty filled his features and only one blow landed. Kayle effortlessly kept his footing on the branch, amusement filling his eyes as he stared at the outmatched monk.
Mortimer channeled the divine power of his god, The Changer, a dim twilight lighting the darkness around him. A spiritual weapon shimmered into existence next to the monk who had fled into the trees, hitting him and dealing force damage. He fell out of the tree, landing with a graceless thud and did not move again.
Junko looked around, then charged at the one ground-bound ninja in front of Emeny, standing over Vulpis. She slashed twice with her glowing sword, wounding him badly. She snarled, a surge of energy filling her, and slashed twice again, her blade leaving sparkling after-images in the night, and her final blow decapitated him. She howled a battle-cry, intimidating one of the ninjas.
Cebril inspired Kayle again, then dodged.
Kayle punched the ninja out of the tree, killing him, then leapt to the next closest ninja in the trees. He attacked, but missed. Emeny flew to the other surviving ninja near her, hitting him three times with great hacking blows of her quarterstaff.
Barely conscious, Vulpis staggered toward the ninjas and crouched, his samurai forming a shield wall, as he cast enervation against one of the martial artists, who dodged most of the crackling dark energy.
The ninja fighting Kayle hit him twice with great blows. He would have wounded Kayle badly, but he was bolstered by the divine power channeled by Mortimer into the area. The temporary boost to his vitality absorbed fully half of the damage, and Kayle barely twitched from his stable footing. The second ninja attacked Emeny, wounding her slightly, and tried to kick the quarterstaff out of her hands. His foot juddered against the rock-solid staff, and he winced as he caught her narrow-eyed gaze.
Mortimer chanted a sonorous prayer and his finger raised to point forbiddingly as he cast toll the dead against the ninja fighting Emeny. The chime of a deep bell sounded ethereally as the ninja was wounded by necrotic energy.
Kayle slammed blows into the ninja he was fighting, making him reel back, and Emeny killed her foe. Vulpis cast enervation once again, crackling black energy outlining him.
The sole surviving ninja hammered Kayle with blows, but once again the Changer's divine vitality absorbed most of the damage and the Guardian of Eonnoe effortlessly kept his footing on the tree branch. The deep chime tolled once again as Mortimer cast, and the ninja grabbed his head trying to block out the noise. His eyes rolled back and he fell from the tree, dead.
Vulpis and his undead samurai gathered the remains of the six ninjas, checking their uniforms and discovering they carried nothing but kunai - fully eighty of them were secreted in pouches. Emeny grabbed a dozen for herself, and then Kayle claimed the rest as throwing weapons, secreting a dozen in his clothing before carefully stowing the remainder. Afterward, Vulpis arranged the corpses, including attaching the head of the decapitated one, then hissed a spell over the remains. Unearthly language filled the night air and a pressure grew as he summoned the spirits of the dead warriors of Fire Mountain to animate the dead. Flesh sloughed off the remains, and the grinning skeletons rose from their slumber. Shimmering sparks of light coalesced in the darkness to outline the standing bones, then swelled outward to form a ghostly after-image of samurai armour. With a final burst of light, the armour flashed into existence, and the squad of undead samurai had tripled in size.
The group rested for an hour, moving slowly up the trail, with Kayle watching carefully for more guards or interlopers. They left the stone houses behind, and were soon able to pick up speed. Checking the positions of the stars in the night sky, they judged it to be about three hours past midnight.
The trail began to make switchbacks as it zig-zagged up the looming mountain. The air grew colder and colder as the night winds blew off the sea, and two-thirds of the way up the mountain, the jungle was replaced by rocky scree. The adventurers shivered as their protection from the wind fell away, before continuing resolutely onward and upward.
Shortly after, they reached an area where a level clearing had been excavated, and a gigantic pair of studded red metal doors were set into the rockface. The doors were slightly ajar, opening into the mountain.
The doorway stretched twenty-five feet above the ground, far above their heads. The doors showed signs of having once been painted, but now only bare metal remained. The rock surrounding the doors had giant handprints in different positions, each four times the size of a human handprint. They looked as if they were formed by a giant pushing their hands into soft clay, with nine pairs of prints in different positions around the door.
Above the doors, a protrusion in the rock almost concealed the slight flicker of the corner of a piece of parchment, flapping in the night breeze. Emeny cautiously flew up to the parchment, and identified it as another eye scroll. Vulpis cast a fire bolt at the scroll, and the scroll was consumed by flame in an instant, ashes drifting on the wind.
As the party pushed the doors open, there was a faint grinding vibration through the rock and a deep sonorous chiming in the distance, although the doors slid remarkably easily. Lanterns on either side of the tunnel burst alight one pair at a time, casting reddish light from behind papier-mache faces, forming a line of lights showing the way into the tunnel, deep into the mountain. The passage was exactly the same size and shape of the doors, with precise corners.
After walking down the hall for some time, a black spot appeared at the end of the tunnel where no further lights shone, and the group emerged onto an open area. Ahead, a stone bridge arched over a deep gorge, the wind whipping past and fog concealing the ground far below. The cut in the mountain was easily a thousand feet deep. At either end of the bridge, a pair of one-storey stone towers rose beside the path. Emeny landed, as the wind was making it difficult to fly.
In the middle of the bridge, an immense three-storey grey stony figure stood immobile, only the fact that its wind was whipping in the wind revealing it was alive, and the starlight glinting off the huge studded bronze club hanging from one fist. Junko gasped in horror as she recognised the being; one of the fabled Oni Lords, might warriors and indomitable foes. Turning the group, she hurriedly whispered a warning; "Oni Lords are legendary creatures, and honour-bound. If he is bound to a task, then it will be impossible to negotiate with him, and I don't think our chances of fighting past him are good."
The oni lord stood like the rock he appeared to be carved from, regarding the group. A chained container rested on one shoulder, ghostly-translucent pleading hands and desperate faces visible in the openings - possibly captive souls.
Junko reverted to her oni form, racking her brains to try to remember the Oni Lord's name, if she ever knew it. Eventually, she gave up - she may have heard of him, but couldn't remember his name. Vulpis & Junko stepped to the end of the bridge, and Vulpis called out, "Will you allow us to pass?"
The oni stood impassively staring at them, seemingly waiting for something.
Junko called out in Oni spirit-speech, "Oh great lord, may we pass in peace?"
"You may not, little sister. I am paying the debt," roared the being, his voice sounding like grinding rocks crashing off the side of the mountain.
"What debt? May we assist you in paying it, so we may pass?"
"The debt is time, nothing else. Only if you can spin the world and make years pass in moments, could you do so. I am Musu Kasu, King of Stone and Wind. I am bound to test all those who pass. You must defeat me in combat or evade me to get past, or fail and join those in my house of souls." He jostled the stone pagoda on his shoulder, and the captive souls flailed and the faint sound of souls in torment howled on the wind.
Junko asked, "Who do you owe the debt to, great lord?"
"Korgawa, master of the island," came the reply. Ghostly arms shimmered into view around Musu, forming patterns in the same sequence as the doors. Wind blasted from the depths of the gorge, howling vertically at impossible speeds.
Vulpis drew his short sword with a steely ringing sound, saying, "Vulpis Red of Fire Mountain accepts your challenge." The nine samurai skeletons stamped their feet and crunched their fists against their chests in a warrior's salute, raising their bows before moving up to surround Vulpis.
Junko charged onto the bridge, raising her sword and a shimmering aura surrounding her as she prepared to dodge. Mortimer moved into the centre of the skeleton horde, and channeled the Changer's divinity to create a dome of twilight.
Musu strode forward with deceptive speed, solemnly saying, "Goodbye, little sister." He raised the tetsubo and swept it down, hammering into Junko. She staggered as he laughed, and raised the tetsubo again. He swung again, and she angled her sword to deflect the blow, the bronze-headed club slamming into the bridge. Cracks radiated out across the stonework, then it was as if time reversed and the cracks wound backward until it was as if they had never existed.
Kayle ran toward Musu Kasu, then stopped just short of him and exhaled a line of acid onto Kasu's stony form, followed by a flung kunai which tinkled as it ricocheted off into the gorge. Kayle gracefully swept into a defensive position, Ki glittering in the depths of his eyes as he channelled it into a patient defence.
Musu roared with laughter. "Goat spit and dancing? This is no challenge!" He raised a foot and slammed it on the bridge, shaking the entire structure. Junko fell prone, but Kayle dexterously kept his footing. The skeletons at the end of the bridge shuddered as the ground bucked, but were otherwise unaffected.
The skeleton squad formed ranks and fired their shortbows down the centre of the bridge, with only one hitting. A faint 'tink' sounded as the non-magical arrow ricocheted off. Vulpis formed seals with his hands and cast enervate, a beam of crackling negative energy outlining Musu.
"Ah, casting of spells! A fine challenge," Musu roared. "See how you fare against my spell."
His spirit-arms formed subtly different patterns, and a column of rocks and boulders blasted forward in a line five feet wide and sixty feet long. Kayle adroitly stepped to one side and the blast hurtled over Junko's prone head, but seven of Vulpis' skeletons were obliterated in the torrent of stone.
Cebril moved up to sixty feet away from Junko and began a rousing song, barely audible over the howling wind, but enough to inspire Junko. He then cast phantasmal killer on Musu Kasu, just barely managing to take effect. The oni recoiled as something formed in his vision, invisible to everyone else.
Emeny raised her Wand of Wonder, casting upon Musu. She laughed as a rhinoceros appeared next to him, yelling, "Go get him, Ollie!" The rhinoceros was not under her control, and it snorted in confusion as it looked around. The fairy barbarian raged, and then charged forward to stand beside Kayle. As she focused, a blast of light shot from her chest to impact Kasu, blinding him. The angry rhino charged the oni lord, goring his shin with its horn.
Junko looked at Emeny in bewilderment, then stood up, moving to the side of the bridge away from the rhino, before swinging her aura blade, hitting Musu Kasu twice. She wounded him, but noticed that some of the damage was starting to heal.
Mortimer cast spiritual weapon behind Musu, attacking but missing, then an ugly clang sounded as he cast toll the dead ineffectively.
Musu Kasu made a subtle flattening movement with his hands, and a twenty-foot section of the bridge turned misty and slightly translucent. "Little sister, you are fighting well with your friends," he roared in approval.
Swinging his tetsubo wildly, Kasu hit both Junko and the rhino, wounding them as the enormous bronze spikes slammed into each.. He failed to fight off the Phantasmal Killer and recoiled, roaring and grasping his head, as the psychic damage took effect. He blinked madly, clearing his sight.
Running forward to cover the remaining distance, Kayle rained a flurry of blows on Musu, Draconic Strike infusing the blows with acid.
Musu stamped his foot again. Kayle kept his footing, but Junko and the rhino fell. The two remaining skeletons charged forward and tried to climb Musu to reach his head, but failed. Vulpis cast blight, a necrotic fireball enveloping the oni lord.
Cebril cast vicious mockery on Musu, and Emeny charged him and attacked recklessly, hitting twice with her flower-staff, before a stillness fell upon the battlefield, as if it were paused in time.
Report Date
29 Mar 2022
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