The Makuran Dragon II

Makura's Rise

Journeying on the four winds, they came together where Kara-zan towers above the sea and there brought the mortal dragon down from the heavens, like a song of death falling in the morning sun.  Only Feng Show survived, the ashes of the other Companions scattered on the same winds that bore them there.

- Feng Tsuwan
Ten Thousand Winds

Characters

• Feng Tsuwan  Female Sparrow Hengeyokai, Wu Jen
• Vindu  Male Vanara, "Initiate of Winds"
• Mat'irt'chuk  Female Nezumi, Rogue Budouka (Martial Artist)
• Shou Ken Rei  Female Human, Warrior-Monk of Shou Ken's "First Quarter" Guards Slain
• Toomn  Male Genasi, Grumpy Ronin
• Akana Tiro of House Akana  Male Bamboo Spirit Folk, Samurai Comitted seppuku
• Tawashei  Male Human, Ishikisha (Psion: Egoist)
• Kakita Naru of House Kakita  Female Human, Samurai

Campaign Journal

• 1260, Tsuo (first month), 1st day: New Year
• 1260, Tsuo (first month), 6th day: Departure for Taiyo-ga-nai
• 1260, Tsuo (first month), 7th day: First Attempt at Taiyo-ga-nai
• 1260, Tsuo (first month), 23rd day: Second Attempt and Return to Korobubaru
• 1260, Ju (second month), 4th day: Third Attempt
• 1260, Ju (second month), 16th day: Voctory... to be Haunted
• 1260, Ju (second month), 28th day: Journey in the Spirit World
• 1260, Yu (third month), 15th day: To Defeat an Ancient Spirit
• 1260, Yu (third month), 27th day: Welcome
• 1260, Kao II (fifth month), 17th day: Dragon Boat Festival
• 1260, Kao II (fifth month), 28th day: Death
• 1260, Chu (sixth month), 20th day, Part I: Flaccid Ancestral Daisho
• 1260, Chu (sixth month), 20th day, Part II: Aerial Dueling
• 1260, Chuu (sixth month), 20th day, Part III: Denouement
• 1260, Hisang (seventh month), 8th day, The Tournament of Tael
• 1260, Hsiang (seventh month), 15th day: The Tournament of Himei
• 1260, Hisang (seventh month), 17th day, Winning, Part I
• 1260, Hisang (seventh month), 17th day, Winning, Part II

Map of Nation Kokubura | Map of Island Makura | Map of Village Korobubaru

Characters

Feng Tsuwan, female sparrow hengeyokai, adopted daughter of Feng Show, wu jen

Tsuwan, pushed from her nest by an unexpected gale, found herself adopted by an aging crane named Feng Show.  Taking in the helpless Tsuwan, he reared her on the isolated marshes of northeastern Makura where the forested slopes of the Ki Mai fall to the sea.  Feng taught her true, showing her the way of wind and water.  It was a bleak day when she found his aged body in crane form, crumpled and wet, in the marsh.  Feng died fishing.
    After her loss, Tsuwan left the marshes, seeking to immortalize her "father's" memory in deeds and action.

Vindu, male vanara, shugenja, "Initiate of Winds"

Vindu was plucked as a young monkey from the fruit trees in a garden of T'aeru Ko.  His family apparently decimated by the spring hurricanes and wako raids, the poor child was scavenging what he could find.
    The local daimyo heard his case pleaded, and in a rare show of leniency, bound him to the woodcutter's han to help in their operations.  While there, Vindu picked up the human tongue and patterns of interaction, but made his escape a few years later.
    Adopted by a bisan whose tree he slept in the night of his escape, Vindu came to discover the ability to commune with the natural powers about him.  The bisan introduced him to several remarkable acquaintances, including a  young T'ien Lung dragon who helped her bring to fruition an understanding of the soul embodied in air.
    Vindu has now set out to see this world where he was once held captive.

Mat'irt'chuk, female nezumi, rogue budouka (martial artist)

Mat'irt'chuk came to the rebuilt Shou Ken one day, bypassed the guard, scaled the fresh walls, and appeared at the foot of Master Shiei.  Impressed, the monk watched in silence, whereupon Mat'irt'chuk ate and drank the monk's meager victuals, then began reading his texts and consuming each page as she finished it.  "What are you doing?!" Shiei interceded.  "When you live as a rat, eat as a rat, die as a rat, you must consume all the slight time you have," she replied.
    Reflecting on this, Shiei bade her finish the tome, which she promptly threw in his face.  "But don't ever treat me as one!" she squalled.
    Shiei, realizing he'd not experienced enough of the world, left that evening on a pilgrimage while Mat'irt'chuk undertook the application to join the monks of Shou Ken.
    Mat'irt'chuk had grown up literally in the sewers of Shin-Himei, living off the trash nobles discarded.  Though she tried honestly and often to obtain a recognized form of livelihood, she was ever denied because of her race.  Finally despondent and come of age, Mat'irt'chuk took the journey to Shou Ken Cloisters to try her mind and will at the meditation of a monk.

Shou Ken Rei, female human, Warrior-monk, First Quarter of Shou Ken Cloisters

Slain by a the dragon Ushuranomen near Tael on the 18th day of Kao II (fifth month), 1260.

Rei grew up among the great cedars of the northern Ki Mai range.  Though she has fond memories of her home, she also recalls how they suffered under constant threat and raids from magic-wielding oni and bakemono.  One of these raids actually broke through the town defenses, and would have slaughtered everyone there, had not a force of shaman leading sohei and monks from Shou Ken Cloisters arrived and driven the attackers off.
    With the village destroyed, Rei's family had no choice but to live under the auspices of the Cloisters as refugees until a monk was dispatched to found a new temple with them in tow.  It was during this time that Rei was inducted, by choice, into the guards of the Cloister and henceforth into the ranks of the temple sohei.
    Rei takes her duties seriously but with consideration for the impact they will have.  She is now on "year leave" (as part of her membership in the First Quarter guards) to develop her skills.  She is to report to the Cloisters when her training is finished.

Toomn, male earth genasi, ronin

Toomn is somewhat of a refugee from the Shau Lai mountains of Takara-ken.  Able to speak the tongue of mainlanders, he was often used as the go-between for his clan of genasi and the mineral traders from Wei.  Despite his rudeness, Toomn's utility allowed kept him the position until a band of scouts from the Tourmaline throne beset the negotiating parties.  The Weians have yet to return, and Toomn wasn't long tolerated among his own family.
    Since then he has ventured Sakara, the capitol of Takara-ken, and Himei, the capitol of Makura.  Between those two cities he traveled by boat, which he now swears are agents of hell.  Indeed, he prefers to keep both feet on the ground at all times, and refuses to board a ship again or even ride a horse.
    Toomn wields a no-dachi (greatsword) with ease, owing to his great physique and dedication.
    Toomn is probably grumpy because his "predecessor" was fried by a blue dragon.

Akana Tiro of House Akana, male bamboo spirit folk, samurai

Committed seppuku after losing katana "Akana no Namida" in a foolish combat incident

Tiro grew up a direct descendent of the famed samurai Akana Kiku, and it is her spirit he has in mind when he engages in battle.  He was born, in fact, under her sign.
    Tiro became of age in the same small fief Kiku did, below the eaves of the forest Tara Ko on the river Nai.  Though clan properties had been demolished by the Makuran Dragon, a remnant of the ancestral bamboo grove still stood, and thus engendered the recover of House Akana.  Indeed, some outsiders though the clan extinct until recently.
    Now, Tiro is ready to re-assert his family's position, not only in history, but as the continuation of an illustrious saga.

Tawashei, male human, ishikisha (psion: egoist)

Tawashei comes from the upper horn of the island Makura.  Ever the curious,  he joined pilgrims going to holy peaks and groves.  Though his family did not fully approve, Tawashei became ever the more intrigued by what lay beyond his small village.
        What galvanized his life was a trip to Choukin-san, a holy peak of mists blanketed by great cedars.  It was there his fellow pilgrims were haunted and soon pursued by a shinen-gaki, an undead fire spirit.  They would have found a grave there on that high mountain along with the skeletons of scores of burned trees, had not a doc cu'o'c guarding the area interfered.  The battle went badly -- another shinen-gaki joined the fray, and after the doc cu'o'c defeated the both of them, it lay dying.
        It was then that Tawashei found the power within him to absorb others' pain.  Though he saved their protector, his companions grew suspicious of him, and one morning he found himself alone and abandoned.  Understanding the message, Tawashei set out by himself, first to Shou Ken Cloisters, then to Himei, and then to Tael...

Kakita Naru of House Kakita, female human, samurai

Naru-chan, as her instructors call her, comes from the provincial city of Sakara of Takara-ken.  Though related to the current daimyo, the blood connection is far removed.  As do all samurai of Sakara, she grew up schooled in the arts of war and the court.  As fast a draw with the katana as anyone, she is just as competent composing a poem.
        Naru wears her hair long and usually loose.  She also prefers to looser clothing of the swordsmaster, as her fighting style relies on grace and agility.  And she is quick -- sometimes as fast as her sensei, who nevertheless admonishes her to be even faster.
        She takes every instruction to heart and performs her duties with the constant good of House Kakita and its retainers in mind.  She supports the Tourmaline throne and its shogun, and likewise prefers just government everywhere.
        House Kakita has sent Naru on a visit to the Himei daimyo on behalf of House Sakara, which rules her home city.  The mission is diplomatic in nature, and Naru's talents in that area are expected to do her clan well.

Campaign Journal

Map of Nation Kokubura | Map of Island Makura | Map of Village Korobubaru

From the brush of Feng Tsuwan, adopted daughter of Feng Show

1260, Tsuo (first month), 1st day: New Year - May even withered blossoms fall not in vain.

Opening the new year with a great festival, Korobubaru has certainly become a festive place since my father first ventured here.  Drawn by the rumors of good fishing, Show had visited simply on a whim, but when he left, my father was beginning to be blown by the very winds of fortune he later learned to wield to seal the Dragons' fate.

Though this is a time of year dedicated to family, the populace seems to gather in impromptu meetings to dance and drink, celebrating the beginning of a new year and wishing away the bad luck of the old.  I have even found some who remembered my father and been invited to their homes to learn of his exploits as a youth.  Apparantly a great evil had sucked under the grove of a prominent bamboo spirit folk clan in the nearby forest, and though he was not powerful enough to reverse it, Show did help in eradicating the aberrations it was breeding.

I would like to visit that site once the New Year's is concluded, if but to see a the place where he began his journeys.

1260, Tsuo (first month), 6th day: Departure for Taiyo-ga-nai - "If the wind can wait, so can I." (Men-shou saying)

Having prepared for the journey, I find myself sitting on the edge of the woods waiting for one of my new companions to complete his morning invocations.  He is a vanara, and is called Vindu.  He comes from these very woods.  Kind but wary, Vindu hails from this very forest.  I met him three days ago as I was walking down the remnents of the Old Road.  Reluctant to come at all close to Korobubaru, he nevertheless is eager to travel with me on my journey to where the twisted grove once stood.

Coincidentally, I fell in with a samurai from the noble House Akana - an ancestor of the very Akana Kiku-sama who aided my father in the final battle with the Dragon.  It seems his purpose meets mine, though he is seeking to further the glory of the Compaions, while I am simply trying to record it.  He has with him two retainers from Shou Ken Cloisters, one a human and the other a nezumi, one of the suspicious creatures that sprang from the magical opened by the aftermath of the Battle of Makura, wherein the Dragon was made mortal.

We go now.

1260, Tsuo (first month), 7th day: First Attempt at Taiyo-ga-nai - To be like a leaf in rough water...

Disaster.  I had hoped to simply visit the first battleground where father Show started on the journey that would become an epic.  Instead, we ended withdrawing after the unexpected.

It started when Tiro-san, braver than I'd thought, plunged down the rope we'd hung over the chasm.  Show had spoken of the decent and how he'd enchanted some of the poorer climbers to aid them, but Tiro-san seemed hearty enough and I had not the magic.  He fell, and landed among a pack of rats which nearly chewed him alive.  The sohei Sho Ken Rei-san touched the floor as Tiro-san's katana slew the last.

Almost comically, Tiro again fell into a concealed pit, inhabited again by a rat.  This time he did not wait before striking.

I remember painfully now Show told me of the myriad of traps in his journeys.  Just because he ventured here once does not make it safe.  That was, after all, almost four centuries ago.

And painfully, Tiro-san, wading in front, fell a final time before the onslaught of three bakemono springing to greet us at the first door.  Rei-san also fell, and it was a combination of the poison I spewed from my lips in a small incantation Show taught me and the lightning speed of the nezumi Mat'irt'chuk that saved us all from death.  I am beginning to see an honor in the nezumi I had not expected to see before.  Tonight, food and water nearly consumed, we rest at the base of the chasm, waiting for Tiro-san to regain consciousness so we can return to Korobubaru.

1260, Tsuo (first month), 23rd day: Second Attempt and Return to Korobubaru  ...and you will have purpose.

We're back in Korobubaru.  Though the past few days have been harrowing, the calm of the slight wind coming in off the sea reminds me of my father and his enchantment with fishing...

Returning to the sunken fortress of Taiyo-ga-nai, we lowered ourselves down the cliff, this time with a few climbing magics I had prepared.  Coming to the room where we had defeated the bakemono, we were surprised to have to defeat them again -- animated, they were, though their bodies remained cold and dead.

Likewise, in the rooms we came to thereafter, we encountered skeletons, probably of nasty kobolds, who attacked us at every turn.  I recall Show telling me of the brief armistice they had formed with the kobolds, who bade them rid the dungeons of competing bakemono and recover a pet dragon -- of all things for lizardkind to have.

I was only sorting through these coincidences when we came to a great, long hall barely supported by pillars.  In some areas the roof had collapsed, but the immediate danger was not the crumbling architecture, but a troop of those hideous undead, skeletons and some more "bodied," so to speak.  While they were nothing we hadn't removed before, of painful note was a kobold zombie that actually cast spells -- missiles of fire, it seemed (I must get my hands on that spell!) -- that first felled Tiro-san, then the whirlwind Rei-san had become.  It was left between the vanara and myself to bring it down, and we did, though I do not remember its last moments, as I was struggling not to join the spirit world.

We did recover a fair amount of coin and a few scrolls of magic.

And now, sitting here under paper lamp as the sea blows its wind against the inn, I recall father Show telling me about the leader of the kobolds, a sorcereress...

1260, Ju (second month), 4th day: Third Attempt - Count the grains of sand in the ocean...

I chide myself for not remembering more of father Show's tales.  What I can recall is that he and the rest of the Companions plummeted into the depths of the crevasse wherein a sunken fortress lay.  Aiding a tribe of kobolds in their quest for a dragon kidnapped from them, they ran afoul of a horde of bakemono.  Deeper within, they came to the roots of the bamboo grove that had been tainted by an unknown evil, and did battle with the twisted creatures the bamboo spirit folk had become.  During the battle one of his friends was slain, but they managed to set the grove afire before it infested any more of the forest above.

The kobolds... one of them was a sorceress.  I have no way to know, but I sense uncannily that the very undead we slew was the same creature Show made peace with so many hundred centuries ago.  I queried the sohei, Shou-Ken Rei-san about it, and she said it was possible for these types of creatures to remain animated for at least that long.  So perhaps Show and the Companions did not remove the entire evil...

Perhaps to augment my fears, I will describe our latest foray into the citadel.  Amazingly, we had to re-slay several of the undead creatures we had taken down before.  It seems that the evil animating them in the first place has the ability to re-animate them ad infinitum.  We finally set upon the idea of incinerating the bodies so as not to have to see them again.  We nearly ran out of oil, but hopefully we will not see them again.

Surely enough, we finally came to a cavernous room wherein stood, still as death, a horde of zombies -- crafted from the husks of bakemono, each of them bearing marks of having been through a fatal battle before.  I fear we destroyed the very same bakemono my father slew almost 500 years ago.  Coming to an circular room, we came across an almost welcome sight -- living creatures, though the ghouls they commanded did nothing for our confidence.  The rat and Rei-san were soon incapacitated by the ghouls' foul touch.  Meanwhile, we learned a serious lesson in judging the enemy -- the living humanoids were rokuro-kubi, women with snake-like necks that darted about, bit, and brawled.  At last only the vanara Vindu and I were left sparring with the rokuro-kubi, and as the last one fell, so did I in a dead faint.

These last few days we remain in Korobubaru.  I have been thinking more about incantations of force that could be wielded as if a shield.  Additionally, watching my comrades makes me think the ability to strike, and strike reliably in combat, may be just as important as striking hard.  Tomorrow is the festival for Kita no Kami-sama (spirit of the north).  The day after the celebrations, we plan on returning to the citadel to explore its depths.  Are we not relentless waves?

1260, Ju (second month), 16th day: Victory... to be Haunted ...innumerable spirits.

Returning to the citadel, we descended to the second level.  Perhaps a shaman could have told us more about the place, but it seemed almost that we entered a darkened Spirit World, where even the shadows were tangible and light was of little consequence.  We took to throwing a torch with a light incantation I had cast ahead of us, to illuminate the way before our own meager lantern could push aside the darkness.

Much of the dungeons had caved in, and our path was rather straightforward, though we had two battles with undead denizens of those depths -- a pair of wang-liang zombies and a pair of ghouls.  We certainly felt confident as we strode into a great, natural cavern covered with gray waste.

Of the ensuing battle, I remember little.  Another rokuro-kubi stood in wait for us, this time guarded by several of the wang-liang undead.  Though we fought well, we were nearly spent before the last zombie fell.  In the mean time, the snake-woman shifted her attention from Tiro-san, who had finally fallen, to me.  I used to good effect a magical protection I had devised, but as one of teh zombies stepped closer, I shifted the barrier too much, and the rokuro-kubi's sinuous neck wound about me and squeezed what air and life I had from my lungs.

Though I cannot remember much of the battle's remainder, I recall seeing the vanara bending over Tiro, who slowly felt about for his katana, stood up painfully, and then rushed our foe, sinking his blade into her side then falling himself as injuries overtook even his stoic constitution.

Perhaps a day passed as we recovered in the depths of that evil place.  Rei-san examined the armor of the rokuro-kubi after we burnt its foul body.  She did not know the insignia engraved upon it, but could tell it was of a religious institution -- which one, she did not know... and Rei-san knows every major and minor faction in Makura.  She hypothesized that the snake-woman was actually a warrior-monk, a sohei, of this unknown sect, much like Rei-san herself.

Maybe the death we escaped at the hands of those fetid creatures will take us yet.  As I sit here in my room in Korobubaru, I am beset by a malaise that drains the spirit of the body and of the soul.  I understand every one of us but the nezumi suffers now from this affliction.  It is not disease -- a skilled healer told us that.  What spirit we angered by entering that place has followed us.

1260, Ju (second month), 28th day: Journey in the Spirit World Follow the night sky...

We are in the Spirit World.

After several days of the malaise growing worse, we pooled our resources and paid a shaman of Temple Makura to decipher our curse.  Although he is fairly adept, he was amazed that despite the power of the spell he cast, nothing specific could be discerned... nothing save that we were haunted by a dire spirit, one of another realm, one that had vengeance on its mind... and one that as he spoke to it struck him mad.  I am afraid Korobubaru has no priest of Temple Makura anymore.

We decided to make haste to the nearest priest with enough power to hold back the evil spirit and possibly cast it out.  Ironically, the closest place is the headquarters of Temple Makura itself.  We left that day, after purchasing mounts.

It was but two days out of town that we encountered an angry doc cu'oc, who came bounding for us on his single leg.  He was agitated that evil beings as ourselves would invade his land, and if it weren't the fast thinking of the vanara, he would most likely have slain us.  Instead, Vindu-san induced him to look beyond our visage, and see that the evil that we brought was actually in the form of a cursed spirit following us.

Realizing this, the doc cu'oc was nonetheless still incensed, but offered to get us off his land as fast as we could.  Leaving our expensive mounts behind, and yielding up all our magical treasures, we held hands... and the doc cu'oc lifted us into the Spirit World.

It seemed as nothing had changed, and yet everything was different.  Where before we stood in the shadow of a small bluff green with lichens on stones, we now stood at the foot of a seeming small mountain adorned with boulders covered in verdant moss.  The sky was ever so much brighter, and great clouds of silver sailed across it.  And yet... above us, every one save the nezumi, lay a gray shadow, one which blocked no light but could yet be seen - our cursed spirit.

I think we all had on our mind ways to physically battle it, and yet seeing what it had done to the Makuran priest, we didn't feel as if our meager powers could drive it off.

So we set out the way were going, toward Temple Makura.  The doc cu'oc had warned us that time stood still in this realm.  We needed not water or food, and we would be denied age.  But upon returning to the Material Realm, all that we had escaped would catch up with us.  I deduced that the influence draining us of our lives could be held at bay - and I was right.  Though we did not recover, we lost no more of our souls to the curse as we traveled.

Several times we were assailed by angry denizens of this place.  While I would normally consider the Spirit World an aggressive plane after this, one incident stands out among the rest, an incident that makes me feel that this dark spirit was tainting our very selves, so that when we were seen by anything in the Spirit World, we would be seen as an abomination.

It was Vindu that awoke screaming one night to run away, grabbing his things and practically pulling us to our feet.  I had been on watch, but was more startled by his abrupt behavior than if a monster had leapt fro the trees.  He kicked at the fire we had burning and demanded that we run from this place with haste.  When asked why, he screamed in our faces and took off.  We had no choice but to follow him.

Many breathless minutes later we caught up with Vindu who had regained his composure.  We all demanded to know what happened, and he vividly explained a vision he had seen in his dreams - a vision of a great fire searing down from angry spirits, ones livid that we would bring such evil to their sacred home.  Whether or not the dream was true, here in this lucid place, it seems better to believe and run than doubt and die.

What we shall do when we reach Temple Makura, I don't know.

1260, Yu (third month), 15th day: To Defeat an Ancient Spirit ...to know your way in the sun.

As I sit now in the village of Tael reflecting back upon the days since our journey in the Spirit World, I fear the great burden lifted from us has yet to leave even though my friends say otherwise.

Where to begin?  We were nearing Temple Makura when a troupe of spirit centipedes beset us by surprise.  The human head on each one of these hundred-legged vermin is more than to turn the senses, and the party soon succumbed to their venomous breath.  Incapacitated, we watched as the fog dissipated and an even more hideous creature slithered from a nearby copse -- a dark naga, a gigantic snake with the head of a woman -- beautiful in appearance with long, silken hair, the presence of it on such a body made even the spirit centipedes appear acceptable.

 The beast smirked, and Tiro-san, apparently recovered enough to act, charged the creature and snatched his katana at the last moment to deliver a terrible blow... he froze, the blade an inch from her serpentine body.  Tiro-san turned, a blank look on his face.  I was the next.  The snake's consciousness invaded my mind, making her thoughts my own.  As simple as that, and we were hers.  I recall now the naga threatening the others with dire harm were we to disobey her orders.  To demonstrate, she caused a sudden burst of cracking fire to appear where the spirit centipedes sat in a group.  The smell of burning wood and something less pleasant was all that was left.

We left, Tiro-san and I in her mental grasp, the others following with fear and caution.  Once Mat'irt'chuk-san, the nezumi, pounced on our host, but with a flick of her tail she cast him off.  When she landed, the nezumi had a bland look on her face, as well.

Through our several-day ordeal, I learned much from the presence within my head.  Our dark naga was named Chamyoka, an I have yet to encounter such a despicable being.  She has traveled extensively in the Spirit World, all the while enacting dark plots in the Material Plane.  Unlike her sisters who are skilled in sorcerery, Chamyoka displays a talent with powers of the mind, especially those that affect others' minds.  Were we to oppose her, she would simply cancel that desire and make us her willing slave.  In fact, as the days passed, she dominated all of our party.

Several days later we came to a great river, bent around a town -- the first sign of habitation we had seen in the Spirit World.  "Tael," Chamyoka whispered in my mind, deliciously.  Small houses with thatch roofs dotted clustered together, their paper walls closed to the chill of the slight Spirit World winter.  Rei-san explained later that though the Spirit World mimics the natural features of our land, unnatural ones, such as houses and roads and such, are rarely replicated, except where such connection with the Spirit World is strong.

Tael's connection with the Spirit World must be as strong as any.  For as we approached, we could see the wispy form of spirits floating about -- lacking form except in spare moments when they appeared human in form.  "Guardians of Tael," Chamyoka explained.  I recalled father Show telling me of an early companion he had from Tael.  Known as a cursed place, the armies of sohei and samurai that ravaged over Makura throughout history always skirted the village, though its bounty was well-known.  Even bandits steered clear.  Apparently to harm one of Tael is to harm oneself, which makes the "curse of Tael" a blessing for those born there.

We waited at the outskirts of town.  One of the spirits approached.  As I watched the dark, translucent cloud overhanging us since we left the sunken fortress near Kokubura reached out, wrapped itself around the spirit.  I heard a faint ghostly scream, and the spirit disappeared.  The dark cloud drew back.  Chamyoka laughed gloriously.  "A human has died," she gloated.

Now I understood, if at least I did not yet object.  Each spirit was a manifestation of the curse of Tael, and each spirit watched over a singular inhabitant of the village.  To kill the spirit was to kill the human associated with it.  Chamyoka's plan was becoming evident. 

She was patient. As evening came, a few more spirits came from out of the surrounding countryside, from where I guessed that the people had been working.  One by one, as they went by, in groups or individually, the dark spirit haunting us leapt out and strangled the lighter, smaller spirits.

After a time, another group of spirits came from the town.  They were spaced evenly -- the militia, I guessed.  There were twenty or more, from what I could see in the dimming light.  They approached warily, and the dark spirit wrapped around them.  I could imagine the humans the Material world seeing their fellow townsfolk collapse as if nothing had happened, strangely strangled.  It wasn't over quickly, however... it took a few minutes for the last, faint scream to signal that the guards had been dispatched.

So... the dark curse haunting us wasn't omnipotent, and the lighter spirits associated with the residents of Tael were stronger in numbers.  The full import of this I did not realize until the following day, for we retired as night set.  Chamyoka had realized the threat to her plan, and decided to withdrawal.

.....

The next day we attempted the same, circling about the outskirts of Tael and picking off lone spirits our dark one could overcome with ease.  Though the natives could possibly have won were they to amass and strike, apparently the death we had dealt the previous day convinced everyone to stay put.

Chamyoka sent me into a small house somewhat separated from the town to see if there were a sizeable population of spirits within, one that would endanger the dark spirit we possessed.  I went to the house, pushed aside the paper door, and entered.  Looking to my right, I came face-to-face with myself -- a full-length mirror stood on the reed mat that was the floor.  Suddenly, the presence that was Chamyoka broke from my mind.  I knew what to do.

Instantly, I transformed into a small sparrow, my native form, and darted toward the opposite side of the house.  A paper screen stretched in my way, but with a determined flutter I burst through it.  Dazed a moment, I fell to the wooden porch and then took off for the center of Tael.

As I suspected, a great massing of spirits stood near the structure that must have been the town shrine.  The people were rightfully worried.  I flew straight into the midst of them, the ever-dark shadow following above me.  Soaring through the crowd, I watched as well I could as the dark spirit attempted to grapple each lighter one we passed... and failed.  Separated from the its main body over my companions, it was too weak to fight.  Soon, a conglomeration of the townsfolk's' spirits beset the dark curse over me, and as if a great weight were lifted from my wings, I felt the dread thing die.

Free.  From the curse and Chamyoka.

I winged back to the house with the mirror and changed into a larger form of the sparrow that was my true nature.  Taking the mirror, I stepped through the door and sought out my companions.

Chamyoka had taken them a fair distance away.  I circled far overhead, watching them.  Apparently Chamyoka did not want to risk losing another party member and the portion of the dark spirit associated with it, for as I watched she entered another house herself.  I dove.

In front of my companions I brought the mirror, and instantly I could see light of self-consciousness awaken in each of them.  "Run!  Toward the center of the town!  Stay away from each other!"  I yelled, and flew back into the sky to watch for the dark naga.

They ran.  Mat'irt'chuk-san, the nezumi, was the first to reach the settlement.  She disappeared among the buildings.  Chamyoka appeared from out of the house, bursting from its walls in a rage.  She knew her hold over my companions was broken.

She pursued them, but as I skirted far over the dark naga, I saw one then two of the light spirits assail her.  With a fight, she dispatched them, but not easily.  More came, and she was surrounded.  As I watched, Chamyoka drew forth a small item I could not discern, and with a wispy flash, disappeared.

.....

I sit now at a low table in Shingu Ryokan, the only inn Tael possesses.  My companions, freed of Chamyoka's possession, took the dark spirit in it's disparate and weak sections into the town, where it was overcome by the spirits of the people of Tael.

Nevertheless, we would have been trapped in the Spirit World had a priest of Temple Makura appeared.  Called to Tael by its troubled people, he had discerned that their malaise was coming from the Spirit World, and with a Fire-Walker bodyguard, jumped across the thin barrier between the planes to investigate.

With his facilitation, we were healed of the dread affliction the dark spirit had left us with, and with might magic, once again, taken across the planar border into our world.

1260, Yu (third month), 27th day: Welcome - In Kokubura, the words of a traveler's mouth say not where he is going; to know his destination, look at his feet.  (Kokuburan saying)

Our welcome back into the Material world and its aspect of Tael itself was facilitated by a Fu-Shinsei priest of Temple Makura, Shei-sama.  Shei-sama was apparantly called upon by the village to help them in their travail.  He had passed through only two days before our arrival, and upon hearing the news, hurried back.

Shei-sama knows a great deal about the planes, and with a Makuran Fire Walker at his side, transported to the Spirit Plane where we met.  At first hostile, he soon knew our tale and became sympathetic.

It's a long tale between there and here, but with his help we were taken "home," though the crowds of Tael were not so pleased to see us.  After all, we brought the deadly spirit that slew so many of them.  Shei-sama interceded on our behalf, and we were granted some reprieve.

Having facilitated the desimation of the town militia, we were to serve for a year in their capacity.  Tiro-san was incensed, and eventually was able to remove himself from the contract.  A samurai from House Akana, he was proud to note, would serve not a lowly village head.  Rei-san, being a warrior-in-trainig for Shou Ken Cloisters, was also treated leniently.  She opted to stay in Tael, but her service was foremost to her faith.

Mat'irt'chuk and I were the only ones explicitly bound to the place.

Tael, home?

1260, Kao II (fifth month), 17th day: Dragon Boat Festival - "Look, that boat is winning!"

Almost two months had passed since we came to Tael.  The work wasn't difficult, but I wasn't fond of it... mainly settling disputes and driving off wild beasts.  Everyone on Makura knows of the curse of Tael, and even bandits keep a wide berth.

We made friends with amiable giant -- a large man named Tawashei-san who was traveling the area.  When I found he had been traveling the island alone, I was shocked -- strong though he be, not many can keep the dangers of a wild Makura at bay.  And despite his musculature, he did not appear a warrior.

An event we were all looking forward to was Tael's Dragon Boat Festival, a grand celebration I had heard of but never seen.  This occurs in the middle of Kao II (the fifth month), just after the season's planting was finished.

Fabulous -- Tael is small, but its heart big.  At dawn each day of the festival a great firework was shot into the sky, awakening everyone for the activities.  Colorful booths, sake, friendly people, great drums and marching bands of dancers and cymbals, lion dances... all finished at the end of the day with a great fireworks display.  They were long days for us, as town guard, but the sights and events were enough to keep one interested.

Dragon boat races were of course held every afternoon along the  Tora River.  They must have kept them from year to year, so fantastic were their forms and decoration.  Men rowed each as a great drum beat out the rhythm.

Finally the last day of the celebration came, when the winners' boats would compete for the final prize.  As everyone was drawn to the river, so were we.  I saw Tawashei-san standing by the water, and went to him.

"Boom!" A firecracker started the race, and the crowd erupted.  Six boats plied the waters for all they were worth.  As we watched, one in particular came in front of the rest.  The shipwrights had done a superb job -- every twist and turn of the boat's body mimicked that of a serpent.  The head even bobbed slightly as it moved.

"Look, that boat is winning!" a small boy beside me exclaimed.

That boat did, indeed.  For as we watched, it rose from the water on wings of rainbows, flew over the stand where the race was to end, and came back to land in a splash and screams on the lead -- real -- boat.  Men dove from the craft as it crumpled and sank quickly.  Another boat had come to a stop, but the three remaining kept rowing.  People on shore watched, or ran.

I managed to invoke a shard of ice which I flung toward the dragon, drawing its attention from the only boat still left floating.  I could see meager crossbow bolts bouncing off its hide, but I had enchanted the spell with another, making my aim true.  It hit.  The dragon turned toward me, and launched into my face the most horrifying thing I had ever experienced -- a bolt of lightning.  Lightning may be beautiful from afar, but it's the last, brightest thing you'll ever see when it comes at you.

I barely held on, lying stunned on the shore.  The dragon flapped its wings, arose from the water, and barreled toward us.  It was then Tawashei-san intervened.  Stepping in front of me, he simply stood, staring at the impending serpent.  I heard the sound of bells above the ringing already in my ears, and saw a ball of... something appear in his hand, which he launched at the dragon with all his strength.

The ball spread as it flew, catching the dragon on its left wing and body, gluing them together.  As we watched the beast tumbled into the water before us, drenching Tawashei and me.

Vindu-san the vanara appeared at my side, and lay a blessing on my body, granting me enough stamina to regain my feet.  I readied an evocation, and as the dragon's head appeared above the water, called forth a blast of icy air aimed directly at the serpent's head.  Several arrows and bolts followed suit from my companions.  Some found their mark.

Once again lightning streaked from its mouth, this time thankfully toward somewhere else.  Arrows, bolts, more gusts of ice -- I don't know if we significantly hurt the beast, but at last it was enough to make it burst from the water and fly away.

1260, Kao II (fifth month), 28th day: Death - In the midst of passion, there is death.  Release passion, and death cannot find you.

The next day we set out to hunt the dragon.  The chou-chou (mayor) suggested we inspect an abandoned temple fortress a day's northeast, and the town's shaman confirmed by tossing bones and interpreting them that we would find the beast there.  And the dragon's name was Ushuranomen. We left, Tawashei joining us.

A day later we came to the temple.  Broken and destroyed as it was, it nevertheless once would have been a harmonious place before its demise.

Tawashei managed to scare -- of all things -- a giant frog sitting in a pool outside the temple.  More of a nuisance, we had to kill it.

We entered, cautious.  I had enveloped myself in a ward against lightning in case the dragon was there.

It was.  To detail the battle would be nearly impossible, so chaotic was the struggle.  What my memory leaves me is recalling Mat'irt'chuk the nezumi falling to a great bolt of lightning from the dragon's mouth.  Several others were hot as well, but managed to stay on their feet.  In the midst of the struggle, I morphed into my humanoid form and flew to the roof of the fallen temple.  

I spied Rei-san sprinting across the wrecked courtyard.  Ushuranomen followed.

With words and might, I left fly a blast of chill air, smacking the dragon across the breast and drawing its attention.  Not again...

Tiro-san and Tawashei-san were in the courtyard.

And again, bolts and arrows stung at its hide.  Ushurenomen turned, belched a great clap of thunder and lightning into the crumbled tower that guarded the worn entrance to the temple.  From out of a crack came falling the body of Rei-san, the remnants of a daikyu in her charred hands.

Two, then three more missiles dug into the dragon's flesh, and it flapped its great rainbow wings, soaring across the courtyard and out over the wall.  We waited, bows drawn, while Vindu-san appeared from among the rubble and ministered to Rei-san.

We heard wings.

The whish and thock of arrows leaping from drawn strings presaged the fall of Ushurenomen.  It amazes me still that the tools we use to hunt simple game in the fields can down even a mighty beast.  The dragon spat yet another line of thunder, took a last bolt into its gut, and fell heavily onto an already-ruined section of the wall.  The reverberations of its body hitting caused several stones to fall fro their places in the fortress.

Tawashei ran across the courtyard to where the dragon yet breathed, and sank his spear into its neck.

We'd won.

As we gathered, we were as joyful as our exhaustion allowed.  We were even relaxed in style of speech, and I addressed Tiro-san as an equal accidentally.  He never seemed to mind.

Then Vindu came and told us the news.

We'd won, but Rei-san, warrior-priest of Shou Ken, we'd lost.

Tonight as I write this, it is the last day of mourning for Rei-sama.  Tomorrow we send Rei-sama's ashes to the Cloisters, and then set out for the ruins once again.

1260, Chu (sixth month), 20th day, Part I: Flaccid Ancestral Daisho - A broken blade, a broken bushi.

We sit again in Tael, fulfilling our charge of guarding the small town.  Only Tiro-san is gone, returned to his ancestral bamboo grove to the east.  Whether he will be back or committ seppuku, I do not know.

Joining us on our return to the temple was Toomn-san, a member of the race of earth genasi.  Though quite possibly the most dour of beings I have ever met, he had a strong build and can wield a no-dachi as best I've seen.  Apparantly he had been traveling though the area and obtained employment in guarding Tael as while we were hunting the dragon.  More on Toomn I do not know -- he is not the most pleasant to talk to.

Returning to the razed temple we found the corpse of Ushuranomen decaying in the early summer heat.  It was not the most pleasant of sights, though few wild animals had been able to gnaw past his tough hide.  We bypassed the corpse and entered.

Ironic that we left behind something so powerful -- as we entered, we assured ourselvesthat the danger was largely taken care of.  We explored the ruins, Mat'irt'chuk-san leading the way with her keen, ever-searching eyes and twitching nose.

Suddenly something leaped up -- a dark shape -- and grabbed at her.  Though the nezumi sprung back, it was apparant that whatever had attacked was quite intent on harasment.  Tiro-san then made a reasonable move that he will regret until he dies.  Simply, he rushed at the creature, drew his katana, and slashed it down onto the gray, amorphous substance that it was.

His katana dissolved.

I had yet to see a samurai display overt emotion, but Tiro-san backed away as if in a daze, holding the mere hilt, still steaming from its brush with the gray matter.

The rest of us wasted no time in loosing arrows and bolts into the ooze, which seemingly died without a whimper.

Tiro-san stood holding his bow, but with an empty look in his eyes.

Nobody said anything.  We left that room.

Our party managed to stay the better part of two days in the ruins, first encountering a band of gnolls and then the hideous undead, some of which had a touch that would paralyze.  Tiro-san wielded his lesser blade, the wakizashi with fervor.  But it was aparant to all that his honor was more like the hilt he still carried than the proud samurai with his daisho intact.

Among the occupants, we found several shaman who bore the same religious trappings as the rokuro-kubi we fought and felled in Taiyo-ga-nai, the ancient sunken fortress my father once seemingly purged of evil.  Without Rei-san to interpret them however, it was impossible to know anything more.

And below the dungeon lies the strangest place I have ever been.  A small room with an open pit contained a winch and pully system that held a platform.  Tawashei-san and Toomn-san took charge of the ropes.  Only their exertions were audible as they lowered us into the pit...

Darker than night.  An incantation Vindu-san had cast allowed us to see.  Below us lie a great, round, black surface, surrounded by a faint illunination.  Down we went.

Suddenly Mat-irt-chuk gave a muffled cry, and we saw her floating into the air -- a great beast with tentacles and razor beak held onto her limp body.  We exploded into restrained action.

We were not yet to the floor, and so our movement was difficult on the confines of teh platform, but I managed to cuff it with a shard of magical ice, and several of the others drew bows and loosed bolts and arrows.  We were winning, but the dread creature held Mat-irt-chuk-san far over the bottom of the pit, which we now saw as not the black round surface, but a chasm that surrounded the black area.  How far down, we did not know, but if the monster let go...

The men lowing the platform managed all the more quickly.  Vindu-san cast a spell on Mat'irt'chuk-san from a distance, and I managed to morph into my small sparrow form.  By the time Vindu-san had put another incantation on Tiro-san, the creature had been worn to the point of defeat -- slowly and then increasingly, it plummeted, loosing the nezumi in its grasp.  She fell.

1260, Chu (sixth month), 20th day, Part II: Aerial Dueling

Owing to Vindu's quick thinking however, Mat'irt'chuk-san fell slowly, though still unconscious.

I leapt from the platform, plummeting to where she had fallen.  I caught sight of Tiro-san leaping from the platform, kicking off the black surface, and falling slowly again to the real floor of the cavern a hundred feet below.

We arrived at the same time, the ratling's body between us, and bent to examine her grievous wounds.  I barely heard a breath, but she was nevertheless breathing.  A soft bump, and Vindu-san stood beside us: "Let me help."

The party stood on the cavern's floor, Mat'irt'chuk-san standing as well, due to the vanara's administrations.  A soft glow illuminated the area.  Tawashei warned us of the dangers of touching the black obelisk which rose in the center of the cavern to the darkness above.  Apparently the first platform lowered onto it, and a second to the side took those who could not fall safely or fly like me down to the true bottom.

The mammoth size of the obelisk astounded us -- for it stood on what appeared an unsubstantial pillar several times smaller than it at the center of the room.  It appeared the obelisk could topple at the slightest prevarication, but apparently it was good for a little shaking.  Tawashei-san said that as stood on it, a dark force had reached from its surface into his mind.  What he lost, I don't know, but he did not appear as calm as he usually was.

1260, Chuu (sixth month), 20th day, Part III: Denouement

What we encountered next, I can hardly describe.  Not that I wasn't in my right mind -- for suddenly before us appeared a rotund, loathsome being of flesh that invoked a cloud of the most noxious vapors that have yet graced my nostrils.  Both Tiro-san and I were incapacitated, while the exited with haste and looked about for the menace.

When fought off enough of the stench to regain my capacities, I saw on a cliff above a great shaman, bearing the same religious mark we had seen earlier.  Amazingly, the man floated off of the ledge, and turned to cast a spell.

Mat'irt'chuk-san leapt off the cliff at the shaman, almost had his ankles -- and then plummeted to the stone floor below in a graceful tumble.  The man flew over my head, but Vindu managed to push him back with a magical gust of wind emanating from his outstretched hand.

Our unfriendly shaman then turned to Toomn-san, beckoned him, and watched as he took one, two steps out -- and simply fell off the cliff.  If he weren't so dour, I would have felt sympathy.

Finally, it was my turn to rectify the melee.  Calling on what father Show taught me, I let loose a blast of frigid air, which knocked him unconscious.  A quarrel from Mat'irt'chuk-san settled the matter.  The man lay limp, still hovering above the cavern floor.

It has since been near 15 days since that encounter, and still we sit in this wretched town of Tael.  Having defended them not only from a dragon but also a sect haunting even their shops and homes, you would think they would seek to release us from our service.  Mat'irt'chuk-san and Tawashei-san argue that we serve out our term.  Vindu-san seems indifferent, though he does long to leave our quaint prison.  If they do not see reason soon, there will soon be one more sparrow in the sky.

1260, Hsiang (seventh month), 8th day, The Tournament of Tael

At last!  Blast Tael!  We leave!!!

 Well, for a while...

Let's see, where to start...?  The Makuran daimyo in Himei requested of all towns on the island to hold a tournament.  Why, I do not know, but apparently such things are rare.  Even small Tael was not overlooked.  The daimyo usually busies himself with battling either Shou Ken Cloisters or Temple Makura or both.  Nevertheless, happy for reason for another celebration, Tael complied.

I am not one to engage in tests of strength or speed, but Tawashei-san and Mat'irt'chuk-san were more than eager.  The tournament went well for both of them.  My personal opinion is that Tawashei-san doesn't really comprehend fighting with but his hands, but the man's extraordinary power and determination more than knocked over his opponents.  Mat'irt'chuk-san excels at the opposite side of the spectrum -- dancing, tumbling, and feinting, she finds the best place to strike an opponent, and does so.  Her last round involved a certain wandering inkyo named Yushei, who almost had her with his mastery of ki and luck -- but she pulled off a win.

So it was that Mat'irt'chuk-san and Tawashei-san won both of their tracts.  While I would normally be happy for their achievement, I am more than elated -- they will now travel to Himei to compete in the daimyo's tournament!

1260, Hsiang (seventh month), 15th day, The Tournament of Himei

What an amazing city!  This is the first time I have ever been in Himei, the provincial capital.  I had never dreamed there were so many humans on the island.  The festival-like atmosphere simply adds to the effect.  Sometimes I'm overwhelmed.

Golden banners and silk carp fly at every corner, and shopkeepers display bright arts in front of their stores.  The crush of people is amazing.  I even lost a coin to a deft hand.  And every night fireworks shoot into the sky outside the city walls, creating sometimes great booms or magnificent explosions.  No fireworks are allowed in Himei itself, of course.  A fire would gut the city in minutes. 

Though the trip here was rough, we all made it.  What ever happened to Tiro-san and his flaccid ancestral daisho, I do not know.  But we are five, representing the town Tael in the tournament.

The chouchou (mayor) almost did not let me go.  Well, he didn't... but one sparrow looks like any other in the sky.  If my companions seek to return after the contest, I will have to take my leave.

I can see how living here would be oppressive, however.  Every time we enter a ward the guard questions us and demand "passing" -- a few coins to earn the right to enter.  Mat'irt'chuk-san and Vindu-san, nezumi and vanara respectively, are given the most grief.  If it were not for her entry in the actual tournament, I believe she would have been thrown out of the city already.  Only Vindu-san's way with words has allowed him to remain with us.

And no one is allowed her weapon.  I thought Toomn-san we going to be killed by the guards when they demanded his no-dachi and he refused.  I hope he learned.

Mat'irt'chuk-san and Tawashei-san are doing quite well in the tournament.  The latter has dropped a round but managed to pull himself into the finals bracket.  Mat'irt'chuk-san leads her side of the pool.

1260, Hsiang (seventh month), 17th day, Winning, Part I

Neither Mat'irt'chuk-san nor Tawashei-san won the tournament, but we nevertheless won.  Here's the tale.

Both had been doing well as I said before.  Mat'irt'chuk-san was even raising eyebrows as one of the top contenders, and Tawashei-san was raising eyebrows on account of his unorthodox fighting style.  While the latter rounds saw the contestants screened by the daimyo's wu jen -- to thwart magical trickery -- neither of our entries were held back.

Both earned places in the final round, scheduled for today.  So, last night we retired early to our inn.  I espied Tael's chouchou (mayor) in the crowd, come to watch the representatives from the town compete.  I can only hope he did not spot me.  I shouldn't worry.  It's not as if he were the brightest flower in the arrangement.

 A shout and then a scream -- I awoke in the dead of the night.  What sounded like blows followed, and I thrust back the paper screen to the courtyard.  Dark shapes stood menacingly, and I could hear Mat'irt'chuk-san's call for help.  Tawashei-san called as well.

Suddenly a body came falling through the paper wall between our rooms, and I could see the nezumi and Tawashei fending off several attackers.  I prepared a spell of protection, while Toomn-san and Vindu-san burst from their quarters.  Toomn-san had a no-dachi in hand (how he carried one in the city, I do not know), and felled one of the assailants.

Before I could ascertain what to do next, they were off -- and out and up, scaling and leaping over the walls as if they were nothing.  We were left alone again.

"Fire!"  The shout went up -- and in moments smoke and flames danced above the thatch.  We rushed the door, but the assassins knew their work.  Meant to keep their type out, it was now blocked from the other side and kept us in.  The innkeeper and the other guests stood in the courtyard, panicked as the flames devoured the inn.  We could hear shouting from outside.

So Toomn-san and Tawashei-san put their shoulders to the gate.  If they had been lesser warriors, we would now be members of the Spirit Realm, but the doors burst aside and we tumbled out into the crowd tossing buckets of water over the blazing structure.

Perhaps we should have assisted.  Mat'irt'chuk-san and Tawashei-san hesitated, but it was Toomn-san who actually convinced them to take leave.  There was sure to be a martial investigation, and regardless of who the perpetrators were, we were guilty by association.  Such is the law in this land, and I am not eager to test it.

We fled across the ward, managed to find a worn-down inn by the docks and catch a few hours of sleep before the final rounds...

1260, Hsiang (seventh month), 17th day, Winning, Part II

That was last night.  What a disappointment.  Mat'irt'chuk-san and Tawashei-san were sorely hurt in the scuffle, and Vindu-san spent all his healing magics on them.  What more, Vindu-san himself had been stuck with a poisonous knife, and to save him and his capacity to restore us, Tawashei-san managed to absorb the poison into his own body and nullify it.

While that was honorable of him, it left him mentally drained.  What powers him, I do not know, but come the tournament, he had to drop.

Thus it was that we found ourselves looking at the finals board -- to find Mat'irt'chuk-san already slated to fight to championship match.  How that had happened we had no idea.  To win top rank, she would have had to spar at least four times this day.

Asking around, we discovered the morbid news.  Most of the top contestants had disappeared or dropped out the night previous.  It wasn't a strenuous mental leap to see that the attacks we suffered were most likely carried out several times last night.  In fact, the top contenders had all been eliminated.  While we support Mat'irt'chuk-san, we never expected her to have a chance at winning the tournament.  Here she was, one of the top seeds.

We ventured to the Western Ward where the final round was to take place.  Fees to enter the gates were unreasonably high, and even then Mat'irt'chuk-san had to pay several hundred sen to have the privilege to enter the final round.  Tawashei-san wasn't feeling so bad after that.

The crowd was enormous and yet quite up-scale.  On a hill overlooking the dirt sparring grounds the commoners sat, perhaps half of Himei's population.  Near the grounds were stands with nobility and aristocrats, all members of the jou-mei (social class).  Women with many-layered kimonos sat under eaves sipping tea while their house retainers stood at attention, their katana hanging at their side and threatening violence to anyone who would insult.  Servants plied the air with fans and perfumes, and everywhere I looked a samurai wore his daisho as if ready to cut down the commoner offering the smallest slight.  I had never been in the presence of so many samurai.  It was with great trepidation I entered the area by the ring.

One is to bow and keep bowing in the presence of the jou-mei, but how reckless I felt simply bending at the waist and the walking on to follow our train.  Toomn-san seemed not to mind.  He is so stupid, but I could see the others felt equally at dis-ease.

Officially, only a healer and a retainer are allowed by ring to support the combatant, and so Vindu-san and Toomn-san took their post.  Vindu-san was of course our healer, though spent of all his incantations the night before battling our assailants.  The others chose Toomn-san over my objections.  Their reasoning was that a warrior would add honor to Mat'irt'chuk-san's case.  With his demeanor, I thought, he's likely to get himself cut down in dry dirt and Mat'irt'chuk-san with him.

The other contestant appeared.  I think we all gave a start -- the last time we saw such a creature, we had been mentally enslaved to on our trip in the Spirit Realm.  A human torso and head "adorned" a serpent's body.  We were simply revolted, and I could see several samurai cease their pleasantries and focus only on him.  Mat'irt'chuk-san's opponent was an asp naga, one named the difficult Kwansh Thi.

Then the daimyo's retainer appeared, and even the crowd on the distant hill grew silent.  I had never seen a man in such a high office, and perhaps never will, for we all bowed as one.  While the samurai and courtiers about us simply bowed as low as they could go at their waist, as commoners, we were expected to show ultimate humility, and threw ourselves in the dirt, prone.  Were I not so overwhelmed, I would have taken relief in the fact that the asp was doing likewise.

The samurai stood, but we remained on the ground.  At least we were permitted to regain our hands and knees.  The daimyo's speech lasted several minutes, and then a chorus of samisen and cymbals broke the air and played for nearly half an hour.  When they were finished, the hot sun was overhead, and the dirt on the ground beneath me was beginning to turn to mud for my sweating.

The whizz of a rocket, a silence, and a thunderous boom: The tournament began.

The asp and Mat'irt'chuk-san sized each other up before crowd.  The snake was burly.  We prayed the nezumi's speed could outwit his thick arms.  A referee in blue and white stood forward, signaled the combatants.  Mat'irt'chuk-san and Kwansh Thi bowed first to the daimyo, then to the referee, and then to each other.

"Hajime!"  The referee slapped down his fan, and backed away.  The asp and Mat'irt'chuk-san circled one another.  Slowly, slowly... then they broke their stances and closed.  Mat'irt'chuk-san leapt high and attempted a kick to the torso but the blow simply tapped at the snake's armor.  Why they allowed the asp to wear armor, I don't know, but they tell me the best fighters go without, as it is considered a hindrance.

The asp's fists balled and struck, not with grace but with thunder.  Mat'irt'chuk-san flipped in mid-air and landed on her feet despite the blow.

Two more half-hearted kicks, and another strike from the asp left her almost dazed.  Kwansh Thi came down for the kill... and Mat'irt'chuk-san rolled to the side, lurching up and smacking the abomination in the temple.  The asp lilted, and she followed up with a lightning combination.  The crowd reacted -- no one liked to see a nezumi win, but better a half-rat/half-human than a snake.

Kwansh Thi's blows came again, as though he had not felt a thing.  Mat'irt'chuk-san easily dodged the first, but a second caught her on the foot and pinned her to the ground momentarily.  The snake overstretched itself however, and she pulled down on his arm with sharp claws.  Kwansh Thi's tail raised behind him as he attempted to keep his balance, and our nezumi landed another blow on his throat.  The commoners on the hill cheered.  Perhaps at that distance they couldn't tell it was a rat that fought "for them."

Mat'irt'chuk-san struck again, then once more, but her small fists seemed to inflict little damage to the large snake.  And she rolled with a great punch from the snake's balled fist.  Mat'irt'chuk-san landed in the dirt, leapt up, blood rolling down her nose.

Could she take another hit?  Seemingly so.  For as she dodged the creature's first hand, the second caught her on the midriff, and she stood tottering.  Now even the nobles were reacting -- how could an asp win the daimyo's tournament.

Kwansh Thi pulled back both his fists to finish her small frame.

Mat'irt'chuk-san leapt, caught him in the chin with a graceful foot, and crumpled to the dirt, unconscious.

[Mat' was at 0 hp before she made this attack, and Kwansh Thi had about 5.  Mat' rolled a 20... and then failed to confirm the critical.  Even then with d6+1 damage she could have called a tie, but the snake ended up with 3 hp and she was down.]

The crowd erupted, in celebration or dismay, I don't know.  Protocol requires the round to end officially with respect shown to the other contestant, the referee, and of course the daimyo, and Vindu-san had to hold off from rushing to Mat'irt'chuk-san.

The asp regained his original mark in the ring, bowed to an empty place where Mat'irt'chuk-san stood at the beginning of the match.  The asp bowed to the referee who took several steps out toward the center.  The asp turned and bowed to the daimyo... and split in two as if sundered by a great blade.

The commotion at the unwanted win hit a sharp silence, and then exploded as samurai flung their fists to their swords, looking about for the unseen assailant.  The daimyo's bodyguards instantly formed a cordon about the silk pavilion, blades ready for a questionless strike, and nearly everyone else rushed about, panicked or stern, alert and confused.  The crowd on the hill was in mayhem.

I caught a glimpse of Toomn-san standing over the fallen body of Mat'irt'chuk-san, his no-dachi drawn and waving about, as if trying to cut something invisible.

Forgetting etiquette, I rushed to her side.  Toomn-san gave me a look but kept watch.  "Invisible assassin," he grunted.

Vindu-san, held up in the crowd, finally came lurching forward and bent over the nezumi.  "She's alive!"

"Let's keep it that way," Toomn-san replied, his eyes till searching for what could not be seen. In the center of the ring, the snake's body slowly bled the remainder of its sorry life away.

We found the referee next to our group.  "She's alright?" he asked.  His eyes darted nervously about.  "It may be a death sentence, but since the winner cannot attend, she'll go to Nigashi."

"What?" I looked up at him.

"The winner goes to Nigashi.  We have to send someone to represent Makura at the Imperial Tournament.  Unfortunately she's the best we can show of our island... she will accept won't she?"

Vindu-san pulled out a scroll I didn't know she had, and began reading an incantation of healing.

I still can't believe my lack of tact, talking to such a high official, but the excitement and danger was still in my ears and mind.  "You mean she goes to Nigashi?!"  Nigashi -- the capital of Kokubura.

"Yes," the referee said.  "You're her sponsors, aren't you?"

My thoughts were these: we had only by luck been able to temporarily leave Tael, Mat'irt'chuk-san and most of the rest had argued in favor of serving our sentence to the village, and now we had not only a chance to escape that wretched village but also this island?

If Mat'irt'chuk-san was revived, I feared she would speak in favor of keeping our contract with Tael, leaving all of us here.

As quickly as I thought, I reached out and tore in two the scroll from which Vindu-san was reading.  I didn't even look back to acknowledge his surprise.

I stood before the referee and bowed, then: "We're her sponsors.  She will go."

Next -- Under suspicion by the daimyo... to Nigashi or jail?

The Wu Jen