The Mountain Witch (6/2/2024)

GM: Sean Nittner
Payers: Karen Twelves, Dale Hostman, Matthew Klein
System: The Mountain Witch

This was a our third and final session of The Mountain Witch. If my notes allow, I’ll go back and create reports for the sessions on 4/27 and 5/18 as well.

The tension building in this game was just incredible! From the previous two games we have learned (or at least strongly suspected) that:

Ito Jun (played by Matthew), who had killed her lord, was secretly in league with The Mountain Witch, who promised her absolution from her sins as well as preventing the destruction of all of Japan if she aided him.
Ito Jiro (played by Karen), Jun’s older brother, who had always let her get away with everything and had to clean up her messes, was no convinced he’d have to kill his own sister to prevent her from completing her pact with the Mountain Witch.
Saito Kajiwara (played by Dale), who had lost his wakizashi (and therefor maybe his soul?) was being haunted by Hime, the cat enchantress.

Chapter III

At the start of the game, the solar eclipse was frozen in the sky and barely any light was visible from behind the moon. The Mountain Witch’s power was at it zenith and soon, if the ronin did not stop in, all of Japan would be bathed in the fires of Mt. Fuji.

But those were just looming doubts. Yamajiro, the Mountain Witch’s castle was in-sight and the ronin continued to ascend Mt. Fuji to reach it.

Some fun bits of flavor

Zenku, the gardener prayed the sun would return, and… it didn’t. The world was cast in chiaroscuro shadows.
Sakura, the now bandit leader, made a pledge to help Jiro, but she did not want to go up the mountain. She still feared the Mountain Witch.
Otaku was lost without her brother (Tokutaro, who had been killed and turned into a doll) and the ronin asked Yoshi (the Tengu Swordsman who bested Jun in a duel) to take her home. Only Ukyo the priest (Yoshi’s brother) ascended with them.
All three ronin had visions of their dead lords asking why they betrayed (in the case of Jun) or abandoned (in the case of Kajiwara) them?
Ukyo looked with fear as the earth started rumbling. “Brother Sun is blinded by Sister Moon and cannot see her actions. He will rage at this offense” The ground shook, snow fell from trees, and a great roar was heard from above.
We had a moment when we realized that Kajiwara’s dark fate hadn’t come to the fore yet and that it would be good to get it out there so we could start playing off it. He was in love with Jun, which just made the story all the the more tragic. Both Jiro and Kajiwara realized that despite knowing Jun was putting them all into danger they were going to keep following her no matter what…because they loved her.

Challenges during the final leg of the climb

A forking path. One that led to choss that would surely slip away beneath their hands and feet, the other to a crack in the mountain they could try to chimney up.
Bitter cold that made their fingers burn and breathing hurt. Hypoxia setting in (headaches, nausea, vomiting, and blurred vision)
A giant, roused from his sleep by the earthquake.

A dangerous approach

The ronin opted to chimney up the crevasse. At the base of it the found a fallen climber, long dead, with his lead rope cut. Since one would have to make the first climb and drop a rope for the rest, Kajiwara offered to go first. He was known to be “aware of his surroundings” (ability) and they hoped he could make the climb safely.
At the top holding onto an excess of rope was Hime, who played with him and made him ask for her help to make the final ascent. She wanted him to prove himself to her, but really she just wanted him to chase her, and would keep interfering in until his attention was on her.
Once they were at the top, however the Giant heard the sounds of their climb and was hungry after a long sleep.
A terrible chase ensued, the giant hot on their heads and uprooting trees in his wake. Finally in a desperate attempt to lure him away Jun fell back and raced for the edge of the cliff. She leapt off and the giant after her…only he wasn’t holding on to the rope they had climbed. She fell a few feet, he landed all the way down at the bottom with a thunderous crash. The he got up and began tormenting the countryside. A problem for another day.

Castle Yamajiro

At the gates, both Jun (who wore the Mountain Witch’s medallion) and Jiro (who wore his armor, won in a contest) were allowed entrance by the Snow Heron (the Witch’s guards) but Kajiwara was only allowed in because he was accompanied by a priest (Ukyo, who really, really didn’t want to go past the gates but reluctantly did anyway) and even then, they were only allowed to wait in an outbuilding for one of the Witch’s chamberlain to attend. Still, inside the gates was better than outside.
Allowed free rein of the castle, the siblings soon found that the multi tiered baileys that formed the castle grounds were a maze that kept turning them around in circles. While they could see guards and servants on the levels above, they could never find a way out, and instead just kept encountering death traps (cauldrons of boiling oil, arrow slits, and pitfalls) which thankfully were not armed as the ronin’s disguise was still serving them well. Jiro made one final attempt to get Jun to back down, to give up on whatever deal she made. He loves his sister, he doesn’t want to kill her. She knows no other way to proceed.
In the outbuilding, Ukyo performed a tea service. Later Kajiwara was attended to by the chamberlain who wordlessly set down a box for Kajiwara to open. Inside was the head of his lord, who spoke to him again. “Were you wise to leave me and take on a new life as a ronin, or were you faithless and betrayed me?” Kajiwara explained that his lord has been duped by the Mountain Witch and performed seppuku when he should not. He was still serving his lord as best he could. Moved, the head of his lord said to take his soul with him. When Kajiwara looked up he saw the chamberlain was in fact his headless lord, still impaled by his wakizashi. The ronin pulled the blade free and the ghost of his lord disappeared. Ghost Wakizashi acquired!

Confronting the Mountain Witch

Reunited (the siblings found themselves turned all the way around and were back at the entrance) the three ronin slipped past the guards (now, no longer on alert) and finally deciphered the maze that was Castle Yamajiro.
A servant met them carrying all the good for washing clothes (a large cauldron, lye a washboard, etc) and placed them in their hands to lead them to the top of the castle, through countless switchbacks and finally to the top of the castle tower which looked out at all of Japan in one direction, and in the other, down in the the smokey, roiling depths of Mt. Fuji, still cast in shadows by the eclispe.
The servant revealed himself to be O-Yanma, The Mountain Witch, and invited them all to tea. As the tea service began, it was finally clear what was happening. Jun and the Witch would trade tea cups and in doing so trade bodies. Jiro would kill O-Yanma (or at least his old body) and be called a hero, while returning with his sister (who of course was possessed by the witch, and the person he really would kill would be Jun). The stakes were set. Go along with the plan and everyone walks down the mountain together. Break it and Mt. Fuji would erupt to bath the land in fire. There is no option number three…
Unless there is. Just as O-Yanma and Jun had taken their first sips of tea (to imbue their souls) and as they were transferring cups) Jiro’s blade flashed out like lighting to cut the base from the cup that held O-Yanma’s soul, while Jun still held onto her own, mere inches from Jiro’s blade. Jiro not only stopped the ritual, he also gave Jun hope that she could escape her dark pact.
Enraged but also oddly delighted, O-Yanma, separated from his soul, still would summon the fires of Mt. Fuji, of not for Kajiwara challenging him to a duel, now able to harm both the body (with his physical katana) and soul (with his ghost wakizashi), this was his one chance to gain vengeance for his lost lord, redeem himself, and end the terrible threat.

Okay, I’ve gotta say, the duel mechanics in The Mountain Witch are a lot of fun. Each player secretly rolls 1d6 and then decides if they want to rush ahead or hold back. If both agree to hold, they roll another 1d6 and add it to the total. This happens up to three times when the totals must be revealed. Since a definitive victory is one where you beat someone by 5 or more, there’s a value to holding off, but you never know how the other side is doing, as you each stare each other down, circle one another with your blades drawn, and wait for the perfect strike.

Speaking of perfect strikes, with all the trust spent from the other ronin, Kajiwara struck the lethal blow and the Mountain Witch fell into the volcano below. The moon passed and the ellipse ended, Once again the sun shone on Japan.

Holy hand grenades of Antioch was that game tense, and delightful, and uncertain, and heartful, and surprising, and just a joy. A wonderful group of players and a very fun game. It doesn’t get any better.