The Dragon's Village 2017

[smartalec]

"It is sharp metal," Wen agrees, inspecting the edge of the jian before rolling his wrist and bringing the blade around in a tight sweep. "Yet it is more than that. It is trust. This is Master Wang's sword... he would be the one to put this to rights, hunt the beast. He has given it to me. The sword... the task. The trust."

He tilts his head as he sheathes the sword, considering it. "So in a sense, it is not a piece of metal at all," he says, in distant tones. "It is... a commitment, a decision... hm. It is a state of mind," he eventually concludes, looking around at the others, and at the fields, and the trees, and the sky. He smiles, slinging the scabbard over his shoulder again. "Yes. A state of mind. Like all things."

[Topato]

"Did I not tell you we would get you a proper sword? And a very heroic figure you cut with it." he pauses a moment and glances at the rest of the group. "Now perhaps we can find something better than sticks and rocks for the rest of our brave company eh?"

[Gulfwulf]

Forin chuckled from Tsun's shoulder. "And your state of mind may be in doub-"he's cut off as Tsun grabs his jaw. "Hush you," Tsun harshly whispered to him. "Did you learn nothing from Master Wang's lessons? Oh, right, you were busy off chasing butterflies."

"Those lessons were for you, Tsun, not me," Forin retorted.

Tsun smirked back at him. "Not that it really matters because I doubt you could hold even an ounce of his wisdom in your head, seeing as how it's full of hot air." Forin glared at him but did not reply. Tsun looked at the others, "Well, now that that is done, remember I said Master Wang left a sword with a minor enchantment that he received as payment in his tower. Given that the village's need is great: the people cannot survive long without the meat and dairy the cows provide, I doubt my master will begrudge our borrowing the sword. We must remember to return it after we are finished with it. While I am sure it would possibly fetch some coin, it was a gift and should be honored as such." He pointed south of the river entrance. "Anyway, the tower is this way and is very close."

[Shadani]

Ning followed the others, clearly distracted. Her eyes turned to the stream, and there, just below the surface, she saw the stirrings of old things, at once hidden and ever-present. It wanted her near, to show her things she did not wish to see.

In the monastery, it had been easy to avoid the visions. Out here, where everything was so such much louder and wilder, they would not be denied.

[Lazybones]

Session 3

+150xp for full-party IC posting.

[Mirgalen]

The "Band of Dragons" ventured into the forest looking for the monster who according to the farmer was eating cows. They first stopped at a well furnished tower. They gathered a few items. Tenko grabbed a few papers with magical writings. He could not read them but certainly a trained wu-jen could. They also found a special weapon, an enchanted Tanto, the second weapon of some samurai. Tenko had renounced using such weapon and would rather use ninjutsu, the secret martial art or a pair of kamas if he had to fight in close combat.

They followed a fey to a grove that had been corrupted by another type of fey, half man, half beast. He spoke but the group decided to attack and he was killed with his pig minion. Panda Bear vanished too and some of the "Dragons" were injured. The magic of the Shukenja was enough to restore everyone injured to full strength.

This was onny the first step. The team then moved to a cave that was the lair of the browl creature. It looked like a large bear with the head of an owl. It was defeated with the enchanted Tanto. Someone also had found a wakishasi with some enchantment. Not sure if it was effective against the beast. The cave also had tiny spiders. They were critters just like the strange birds who attacked the group in the forest. Tenko found a piece of metal but nothing else of value.

They were bones in the cave but nothing to indicate that the creature was responsible for killing the village cows.

As they returned to the village, the expected to have gained a bit of honour and some considerations for their achievement. Yet, the villagers were a bit cold and old Gao was as enigmatic as usual.


// Had a crash to desktop while waiting in the OOC room.

[Karvon]

The group plodded thru the woods to the deserted tower of a mage, apparently hoping to find some weapons to help kill the beast terrorizing the village. Gojiro scouted out ahead, looking for any signs of danger. He heard some heavy thrashing thru the trees and slipped forward to see what was causing the ruckus; it was a bear sized creature with the head of an owl devouring some luckless badger. The beast meandered off and he shadowed it for a bit to insure it wasn't sweeping around to take the party by surprise. It continued on towards a cave behind a waterfall, so he made his way back to the group. They found the tower fenced off by a dense hedge of thorns. If it were up to him, he'd have just burned or hacked a path thru them, but the rest dithered till a tiny fellow showed up and offered to clear away thru in exchange for some help with an intruder of some sort. The group obligingly followed him back to a grove and slew some sorta half goat half man creature that'd been causing troubles. He, in turn, did some trickery and opened a lane thru the thorns. The team searched the tower and found a few useful scrolls and a couple of weapons, a dagger and short sword. No one seemed to want the dagger, so Gojiro picked it up and stuck it in his boot. He didn't really fancy daggers, but it did seem to be of exceptional quality and figured it might be worth a few coins at least.

He guided the group to the cave the beast had disappeared into and they all marched in to face it. Unfortunately, the beast was as tough as they'd been told; virtually none of their weapons even scratched it. Gojiro confidently waded in with his new dagger, but quickly discovered that was worthless against the creatures thick hide as well, and hastily retired out of reach. Fortunately the short sword and spells proved sufficient and the beast was cut down after a long hard slog. The weary band skinned the monster, hoping the hide might prove useful in crafting some armor or other goods for the party. The return to the village was definitely anticlimatic; there was no bounty nor winsome maidens, just a few insults from a grumpy farmer, who Gojiro pondered visiting later.

The group decided to visit a nearby tanner to see if he might make anything useful out of the trophy hide. He complained about spirits preventing him collecting needed lime from the nearby canyons, so, naturally, the team decided to look into the problem. They rather quickly ran into some angry earth spirits which had to be destroyed in self-defense. Further into the canyons they encountered a larger more intelligent - and reasonable - spirit with whom they were able to discuss and negotiate a solution to the problem. The tanner had been dumping his waste in the canyon, polluting the land. He promised to stop and find an alternative dump site and the local spirit was satisfied. Again, no coin was gained, but the tanner did promise to create some armor out of the hide for the party, so perhaps it wasn't a total waste of time.

[Lazybones]

Just a reminder that there won't be a session on October 7.

[Topato]

"All in all a very fruitful day! adventures aplenty and rewards abound! Our fame grows and our souls grow with it, do you not feel the change?"

[Shadani]

"There is much that I feel," Ning said. Her eyes were distant once more, as though gazing into a "A forest with bloodstained roots. A child in mourning. The hunger of beasts and men made flesh, sure to devour them both."

She blinked. Shook her head.

"Sorry. The spirits are even crankier than usual today."