GM: Sean Nittner
Payers: Karen Twelves, Dale Hostman, Matthew Klein
System: The Mountain Witch
We ended the last session arriving at a temple the day before a solar eclipse. Many people were gathered here to pray, to connect with each other, to hide, or just to wait in anticipation. Horror is not my strength, but the situation seemed ripe for a haunted house. There was a graveyard outside, a mysterious priestess, and an auspicious event…perfect for a night of terror. I also especially enjoyed the idea of being trapped in a house with paper walls. The would be so easy to cut through…so I started thinking of spirits that would be angered or set free if/when that happened!
To prepare for the game I made three lists: Looks (things the ronin might encounter or descriptions of of the shrine), Cast (notable NPCs that they might run into), and Threats. I also opened with a short sermon on duality to call out some of the themes from the game. Here’s all the bits.
Flashback (some things I missed at the end of the last write up)
Last session just before we wrapped up, Kajiwara looked to see if he could perform any chores to help out. He met a temple guardian that was so comically large (wide and tall) that his head never fit into view (one of the Nio twins). He handed Kajiwara a thatch broom and pointed him to the porch. A pleasant job on a crisp afternoon.
Jun followed his lead but the 2nd person to offer to help always gets the worst job. The second of the Nio twins handed her a dusting cloth and pointed her to a room at the back of a the shrine. It was full of tortured souls trapped in wood and cloth…otherwise known as dolls. Dozens of them stacked on a shelves all staring at Jun as she picked them up individually and began to dust them.
Introducing the Threats
We started with Yuki-Onna (a name that sounded familiar to the ronin) giving a sermon on duality and how truth is found in the moments between states when both of them are present: light and dark, human and beast, living and dead, duty and desire. After the sermon, Yuki-Onna looked to the congregation to continue after her “we’ll fill the evening with songs and stories to appease the kami”.
- Jiro told a story that reflected their adventures so far.
- Jun asked to go with Yuki-Onna into the haiden to commune with the kami directly.
- Kajiwara performed the song of the Maiden and the Wolf, accompanied by Fumiko, the koto player.
As Kajiwara performed he noticed his eyes blurring, what were four doors in the far wall became three. The tried to keep track of the patterns, but more and more it all seemed like a single wall.
Meanwhile in the prayer room Yuki-Onna’s cold hand took Jun’s and led her to the shrine to make offerings to the kami. Beside the shrine Jun saw an ornate wall mirror tucked away into an alcove so that you could only see it fully if you entered the alcove and looked directly. Fascinated she asked if she could look into the mirror, knowing it contained a fire kami within.
Still holding onto Yuki-Onna’s hand Jun looked in the mirror and saw all of Japan burning behind her and the deal she had made with the Mountain Witch. The inevitability of destruction unless the powerful forces were guided by his hand. All hinged on Jun bringing O-Yanma to his sister. Jun would be a necessary tool, consumed in the fire. But wait, maybe she could find her own way. Maybe O-Yanma’s offer wasn’t the only choice. She jerked away from the mirror and realized it had almost consumed her. She looked away before her soul was lost or the fire kami escaped. Yuki-Onna was impressed.
In the honden, Jiro and Kajiwara noticed that Tokutaro had gone into a back room to get the mats for sitting and he had been gone longer than they expected. In fact, the could no longer be sure which door he went through or if it was even still there. Wisely Jiro suggested that they look for Tokutaro but that once a door was opened someone stand in it so that it could not disappear. Nio who bore a staff stood in the first door. Otoku (Tokutaro’s sister) stood in the second. Jiro stood in the third. Kajiwara had just one more door to open, but the temple halls were labyrinthine. He had a strange feeling that if he abandoned this search he would find Hime waiting for him in another part of the temple, but he contained his curiosity and opened doors (without passing through them) till he found where the tatami mats were stored. In a tumbled pile of mats he found the dead body of Tokutaro, his face split down the center as if struck by an a terrible blow.
On hearing of this, Otuko tried to run to her brother (and thus leaving the door unguarded) but Jiro stopped her and told he to return with him to the main hall so that we did not suffer the same fate. They would tend to the body of Tokutaro in time.
Night Falls
As it became daker outside, more braziers were lit, doors outside were closed, and shadows danced upon the paper walls. Our ronin knew it was dangerous inside, but they had regrouped and were prepared for anything that came at them, which was when they heard the cries of battle outside.
From the front porch they could see the bandits, who had previously opted not to enter the shrine, surrounded on all sides by the hungry dead. Bodies that had risen from the cemetery outside the temple, who grasped at the living. Their eyes were full of sorrow and their faces has the appearance of fallen loved ones. The dead did not relish in their violence, but they committed it just the same.
Seeing Natsu and Sakura fending for their lives, the ronin and their Tengu ally Yoshi ran to their aid, swords drawn. The Jikininki (zombies) were grasping and clawing when the ronin visited their blades upon them. Though the ronin were each skilled with their swords the sheer numbers of the dead would quickly overwhelm them. Sakura was injured so they formed a wall around her and tried to get her back to the temple.
In the crowd of the dead Jun saw the face of fallen lord who asked why she turned on him? Why she took his life? Were their any answers to be found, or just more foes to be fought?
Swords flashing, the ronin eventually made their way through the first temple gate, the second, and the third, at which point the zombies were held at bay. The had clamed some of bandits and that would be all they feasted on tonight.
Just as the ronin made it to temple porch and had a moment to catch their breath…there was a horrible scream from inside. A scream that wouldn’t stop. The wails were coming from one of the rooms down the hall. Jun knew where it was, the doll room. She pointed her brother Jiro too it and he entered, finding the doll that looked just like Tokutaro (next to one that looked like Otoko). It was a wooden doll that did not move, but there was a huge split down it’s face like the one Jun saw on the real Tokutaro and from it and endless scream wailed. Jiro did not have time to think the screams were so intense. He drew is blade and in one motion decapitated the doll. Finally ending the wailing.
Confronting the Host
It was midnight and the ronin were nursing several wounds. It was time to confront their host Yuki-Onna and put an end to this haunting. She was nowhere to be found, however Jun felt a cold wind brush past her and knew to follow it. The wind coursed through many corridors and Jiro wisely placed someone at each doorway until the he himself had to stand in the final door and watch Jun enter the private room of O-Yanma.
In the middle of the room was Yuki-Onna, the Winter Storm, serene as a falling snowflake. At the end of the room was O-Yanma’s armor held up on a stand beside his daisho. On the chest of the armor was the Tenshin emblem. “As a servant of the Mountain Witch, the armor is yours…if you can claim it.” Jiro pleaded with his sister to back away, to leave the room, come back with him, but as always, his pleas for safety and prudence went unheaded.
The armor came to a life of it’s own, as if animated by the cold winter breeze that had filled the shrine since they arrived. It drew it’s blade and advanced, ready for battle. Jun looked to her old brother, holding the door open so she could escape instead of fight, looked to Yuki-Onna who waited expectantly, and looked to the armor of O-Yanma, that she still needed to prove something to. She waited, she thought, she drew her blade.
Sword clashed and Jun found that there was no body to strike under the armor, only air, but she also noticed that an emblem of Tenshin hung from the “neck” of this animated spirit and with a deft blow she cut the chain holding it and caught the emblem. The deadly armor fell to the ground. Lifeless.
Yuki-Onna smiled and said “Take the armor, it is yours now. And go with my gift”. Matthew wrote “The Gift on Winter” on his character sheet. He gave the armor to Jiro to wear so Karen added that as well.
The first rays of light began to shine and the ronin were free of the haunted shrine, but not of the eclipse…
