Dunja removes an oni head from oni shoulders as she strikes the magic missile scorched oni!
Xu hesitates, and the villagers attack the now visible enemies.
One of the remaining Oni's goes down, an arrow sticking through the back of his head. The light level continues to increase as more of the warehouse burns.
Kimiko moves closer to the warehouse, to where she can see to aim her spell, casting another 'create water' over the fire.
The last Oni steps to Dunja and attacks with his axe! Up close, Dunja can see the axe is a massive two-handed thing!
The axe misses Dunja completely, slamming into the ground, shattering several stones in the walkway!
An arrow sprouts from the head of the last oni, and it slumps to the ground.
Kimiko continues creating water over the fires until they are out.
Dunja will cast healing magic on Kasani right away to stem the bleeding.
The villagers begin turning out now that the oni are down, and begin setting up a bucket brigade from the lake.
As Kimiko is casting water to put out the fire, she runs past one of the downed oni, and it doesn't look quite right. As she stares in the dim light of the dancing lights, the Oni's features begin to melt, slowly at first, then faster and faster, clothing and body, until finally it is just a pile of goop on the ground that begins to evaporate. Only the belt pouch seems to be unaffected.
"Something is wrong with these oni" she says to the nearest of her companions... "They are melting as if they were never quite real..." She picks up and looks in the belt pouch to see if it is some kind of spirit bag that animated the oni's flesh somehow.
She casts another create water to aid the villagers.
The belt pouch contains two flasks. Otherwise, it seems like a very poorly made and crude belt pouch made out of badly cured animal skins.
The fires are put out, and Kasani brought magically back to life... again.
The villagers begin gathering up the remains of the Oni, which amounts to 19 alchemist fire flasks (including the ones the PCs found) and 142 arrows. Nothing else remains of the attackers.
The village elder hobbles up to the PCs. "This is as you can see it, why we called for help. None would believe if not see. They come, all alike. Like brothers of same birth, and all melt away on death, as if never here." She sighs, and looks bitter. "Our own dead are left all too real..."
By the time Lingfeng finally makes it to the front lines, the oni have not only been defeated, but... well, they're not even there anymore.
Hands on her knees, panting, Ling looks around at the rest of the party with an indignant look on her face. "So, what kind of devilry- ack, hold on-" she stops to wheeze, and adjusts her robe into a bit more modest position. "All right, sorry. What was I saying? Oh, right- what kind of devilry is this?! I mean, obviously their weaponry was real, so they weren't illusions, but... I don't know, some sort of simulacrum?"
Regardless of whether or not her study of the arcane proves to turn up any answers, Ling knows that this presents a serious problem. If the creatures attacking the village are not real oni, then it's no wonder that the town is in such danger; only one group's numbers are being worn down by this conflict.
So... letting them come to us is not going to work, then.
Actually, none of the weapons are still there... other than ammunition.
Ling has a fairly vague memory of a discussion she overheard one time about some herbalists, hedge mages, and other pseudo-magicians and non-people, but she can't remember anything beyond that.
Creatures summoned from another plane would disappear in this manner would they not? But to be able to summon so many, and from where?
"As far as I know, creatures summoned wouldn't leave their pouches behind... nor do they turn into goo, they just wink out..."
Dunja is helping Kasani to her feet.
"I haven't the faintest idea. Maybe some kind of construct? Is there anything strange about the goo?"
Dunja senses a weak aura that's fading quickly. It's a mix of types though, conjuration, divination, and necromancy.
You've just realized that Kasani is not waking up.
Dunja turns away from the aura when she realizes Kasani isn't responding. "Ah! Oh no, somethings wrong. Did I not do it right?"
The wounds are still there, they are not bleeding, but they are not healing either. Her skin is gray, and she's cold to the touch, with blue lips.
"Poison, maybe? Have the Oni used poison in the past?" she asks the villagers. While she does she tries to find the pouch of the axe oni to check it again. Perhaps there was something they had missed?
Kimiko checks Kasani... "Even if the wounds were enough to kill her, she shouldn't be cold and blue so quickly.. something else is going on here...."
"Unfortunately, my schooling in such things is proving lacking... I have no idea what's wrong with her."
The villager's shake their head. "No one ever survive before after being hit." The elder says, looking at Kasani. "Never see that reaction before."
Do we take her back to our compound? Could the tree spirit we aided somehow help us with this?
"Moving her may be dangerous..." The village elder comments, checking her vitals. "You would be better off finding whatever caused this, and then we might possibly reverse it."
"Let's get her inside at least. We still need to wait out the rest of the night."
The villagers get her onto a pallet, and then get her into the inn, and settled in one of the rooms on a bed.
The village healer (the elder) tends to the downed woman.
As dawn brightens the sky, everyone is tired from an interrupted sleep, and worry about a downed companion, but the village is still alive, and the warehouse was only minorly damaged by the fire. Fortunately the tobacco didn't catch, so the fire went out. The soaking the villagers gave the building before sundown helped.
Morning breakfast is a mix of oatmeal, bread, and fried sliced bacon meat.
"Last time we tried you two barely came back. We'd need another approach."
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"Last time we tried, there was only two of us, and we ran into all those oni. This time we can all go, and the oni are dead. I don't think another attack is imminent, which relieves us of the necessity to protect the village for now, and if we can destroy the source, we will not need to protect it at all."
Strike first, strike fast, crush your enemies beneath your heel... Ling raises an eyebrow. "I like it. And besides, I think the nature of our enemy proves that we can't wait around for them to come to us again. It seems like our best bet for finding a cure for... well, whatever it is that Kasani has come down with, too. I'm all for it."
After the words have aleady left her mouth, Ling finds herself wondering how much of that statement belongs to her, and how much belongs to a particular scaly ancestor of hers.
"I have to agree, taking the fight to them sounds like the best idea... I will need time at sunrise to renew my spells, and perhaps pick better ones for fighting these foes."
I'll need to ah, retake my gear. Or if someone of the appropriate gender will aid me?
"Fine, let's get on with it. Your things are in the next room with Kasani; we already removed most of her equipment when we were treating her last night."
Yanyeeku ducks his head in a bow and moves off to get his gear back together. Once finished he rejoins the others, Where do we start?
"Then where should we go from here? Can you pick up the trail again?"
The group begins heading out, the same way Zamu and the cat man who fled in fear had gone originally on their scouting trip. They find the ravine where they encountered the Oni, and begin following the trail back. A dozen Oni leave a decent trail to follow, so it's not terribly difficult to follow them.
The second day out from the village, the group comes into a clearing that contains a camp. An oni sits at a fire on the other side of the clearing, camped just off the trail that the attacking oni left.