Folded Steel Session 3 - An Oni Hidden Beneath a Shrine
We had a shorter session this week! We had to start later than usual, and people were clearly getting tired towards the end. So we stopped just before the completion of the dungeon, and decided to save the poems for next time when they finish clearing the castle (or die trying, ooooooh spooky).
Nevertheless, our cast this week was the same as last.
Akamatsu ShioriĀ - Our resident Shrine Maiden. Shiori's second virtue is spirituality. She is bound to help the spirits of GekkÅshima, care for their shrines, and respect practices regarding local spirits.
Akamatsu Furi- A bushi seeking mastery of the blade and glory for the Akamatsu clan. Her second virtue is bravery. She is bound not to back down from challenges or allow others to face danger for her.
Akamatsu SumireĀ - A yumihiki (like a bow woman) who has mastered the bow. Sumire's second virtue is abstinence. She is bound not to take part in superfluous indulgences that could distract her from mastering her spirit.
Yuuho - A commoner wandering through GekkÅshima. She writes poems about her experiences, and her virtue is Enlightenment. She is bound to seek and protect new information and knowledge, even when it would be more convenient not to.
The Salty Priest
The first thing our girls wanted to do was check out the garden shrine they heard about at the end of the last session. So out the east door they went, into a garden of gravel raked into waves around island-like boulders and half-eaten plants.
An aged shrine sat in the corner, with 2 3-foot-long claw marks etched into its side. Beside the shrine was a bald man in dirty priest robes, smelling of salt and algae. Opposite the shrine, a 5-foot-long slug meandered about the garden, silently raking gravel back into place and munching on the plants.
Approaching the man, they asked who he was and why he was here. He ignored them and responded, ā8 small legs, 2 big legs. walking sideways, eyes heavenward. What am I?ā
For those playing along, the answer was
Click to reveal answer
a crab!
After a spirited debate over whether it was a crab or lobster, or whether or not Japanese crabs have a different number of legs than other crabs (they do not, but their legs are unusually long), they finally settled on crab.
His riddle solved, the priest transformed, revealing his true form: A giant crab. Outsmarted by the Akamatsu girls, he quickly scuttled out the door. Yuuho was familiar with the creature, a KanibÅzu, and knew that if they had gotten the riddle wrong, the crab would have tried to eat them!
Fortunately, it didnāt come to that. With the priest ousted, the slug ventured closer to the shrine, fixing the gravel and chomping on plants near the shrine. Initially, Furi tried to stop the slug, but after it gave her an angry look, she left him alone to dine.
The Umbrella that Licks You
Before experimenting with the shrine, the party had one more room on the first floor to explore. Stepping into it, they saw a tea room. Torn pillows surrounded a stained wooden table, and broken ceramics lined the floor. A parasol sat in the corner.
Yuuho investigated the room, and was caught by surprise when the umbrella grew a leg and a single eye, jumped up, and licked her! But it barely had time to say āhelloā before Shiori cast sleep on the poor thing to keep from getting licked herself.
Once she dried off her face, Yuuho identified the creature as a Kasa-obake. These creatures are known to be mischievous little living umbrellas, but are broadly harmless. Satisfied with their peek into the tea room, the party left the umbrella to rest and returned to have a look at the shrine.
The Secret Beneath the Shrine
Multiple party members made offerings at the shrine. Upon placing a coin in the offering plate, the shrine started to rumble and whine. It slid away, revealing a staircase descending to darkness beneath the ground.
They lit a torch and plunged right in, following the stairs to a hallway that finally opened to a room beneath the center of the castle. The smell of rancid meat and decay assaulted them as they stepped into a room containing a pit full of skeletons in front of a simple wooden coffin.
A man was chained to the wall, so motionless you almost wouldnāt know he was alive. He was impossibly old, with paper-dry skin so thin you could see every bone. His feet had been removed, as had his tongue.
Barely able to communicate, he answered yes or no questions, telling Furi that he was the lord of this castle and that the skeletons in the pit were the other residents. They decided to free him, but after smashing a single chain, the lid of the wooden coffin flew off.
From it rose a hairy, bright red woman, curved horns protruding from her forehead, and clutching an iron-studded club like a baseball bat. She screamed with rage, ā1,000 deaths would not be enough!ā and charged right towards Furi, who stood in front of the chained man.
What followed was a bit of an awkward combat. Nobody could hit the Oni until late in the second round (she only had an AC of 12). The Oni was hitting, but for minimal damage. Eventually, things picked up a bit. Yuuho threw her tanto into the Oniās back, while Furi narrowly avoided being bludgeoned to death by the Oniās Kanabo. Eventually, it was clear the fight wasnāt going the Oniās way. She spent her last turn to say, āThis is a mercy you donāt deserve!ā Before swinging her Kanabo over Furiās head and smashing the body of the man chained behind her. She didnāt make it another turn, tumbling into the pit herself as her last hit point dropped.
I think I'm locked in on preferring Into the Odd style auto hit for my combats.
Resolution
With the Oni dead, the party had found the bodies the Kasha were looking for. They informed them immediately, and received a bell for their troubles. Upon ringing the bell, the Kasha will appear and do the party a favor, no questions asked, one time only. A small price to pay to finally be free of Castle Katsutoyo.
All that was left was to explore the upstairs of the castle and find the skeletal lord that the Kasha told them about in the last session.
So upstairs they went, into a gallery with defaced paintings of previous lords of the castle. Against the southern door of the chamber, they could hear the cracking of bones, presumably our skeletal lord. Best to check out the other door first, the party decided. The room they chose instead was a study, with bookshelves full of texts on construction, war, and the spirits. Most interesting to the party, though, was a journal sitting on a table.
The first half of the journal was nothing to speak of, just the daily tasks of the castle lord, though every day mentioned visiting the shrine in the garden. As pages kept turning, the daily tasks became fewer and fewer, but the shrine visit was never skipped. Finally, in the last quarter of the book, nothing but the phrase āSee Motherā was written over and over and over.
And thatās where we left off for this week!