That was...unusual. Kyuzo made for his mount but pain from his wounds reminded him of how bad his condition was. Takeshi was even worse. They were in no position to give pursuit. With a hiss of steel, he sheathes Kikko. "We should make haste in case more arrive. Lady Sakiko, can you get him on his feet?" he asks the diminutive priestess.
In the interim, he bandages his own wounds so that they would not continue to bleed. He then gingerly gets back on his horse and makes ready to leave.
Amon sinks to his rear, groaning as his fatigue sets in. He shakes his head, trying to take a drink from an already dry flask. "Ugh... it was that bad?" he mutters, looking down at himself and at the bodies littered around him. "Yep. That bad." he admits. "Anyone got any sake!?" he shouts, falling onto his back.
Nidashi wearily replied to Amon as he cleaned off his katana, "No time to rest, get up you drunkard." He moves of to their downed companion and mutters a few indecipherable words.
"I'm only a little drunk." Amon protests from the floor. "I'm also a little... hurt. Gimme a min."
Takeshi's eyes slowly open as Nidashi's small ritual restores some of his vitality. He looks puzzled for a moment, looking around at the carnage.
"Thank you, friends." He winces as he slowly gets to his feet and bows.
"You fought well." He looks a bit sheepish, before muttering under his breath, "better than I did, anyway..."
"What are those things?" he asks, indicating the clay soldiers. "I have never seen the like. Certainly I did not think the hillmen could craft such things."
He roots around in his pack for a while, before finding what he was looking for - a small tin vial. He twists off the wax seal and drinks from it.
Seemingly much refreshed, he begins poking around in the remains of the hillmen, looking for something that might provide an explanation of why they were attacked.
...
Takeshi's search does not reveal much of interest. The hillmen are mostly wearing scrap metal and skins - even their shields are little more than frames of wood with uncured hides stretched over them.
Their commander, however, is clad in gear that any warrior would be proud to possess. From his crimson silk cloak, down to his ritual wakizashi, all of it is top quality.
Otherwise, they have remarkably little noteworthy or even personal items. There's a few necklaces and hidden trinkets, but nothing of personal value. A few of them have small containers of homebrewed alcohol hidden in their pockets.
Yangsheda replenishes his quiver from the gear of the vanquished and sees to it that the commander's gear is stowed on their horses. He then takes a moment to study the hill man commander in detail, sketching his likeness and any symbols or clan/family marking on his gear into his notebook for later reference.
Lets not allow this skirmish to distract us from our purpose. As soon as everyone is able, we should be back in the saddle.
HP 10/18
Maneuvers readied: scything strike, shoulder rush, dizzying venom prana
Extracts prepared: none
Inspiration Remaining: 4/5
As Takeshi searches the enemies and describes his findings, Kyuzo's mood sours. The disparity in the gear was awful. The commander should indeed have had better weapons and armor but the silk cloak and the ritual wakizashi were pointless pageantry. The money spent on them could have better prepared his subordinates. That in turn would have made the fight harder but he couldn't help being angry at such disregard for ones soldiers.
"Mm." Sakiko does her best to prop up Takeshi as Nidashi works his ritual. Luckily, that seems to be enough. As the gear was collected she took the opportunity to call for the spirits to help the other wounded; while haste was called for it would be no good if anyone fell out of their saddles!
"There." she concludes as she finishes the last prayer over Yangsheda. While finding and remounting her pony again she takes a closer look at the clay-men. "We have some statues at the shrine. But they don't usually move ..."
"Ugh." Amon rises to his feet, swaying, and stumbles off to find his horse. "Come back, beer pony. Come back..."he mumbles. Despite his injuries and drunkenness, he manages to sheath Oni's Fang without difficulty.
As the halfling says her prayer Nidashi feel his wounds begin to close. With a slight bow he says, "Thank you." He looks around and suggests, "If we are done here we should get going." He gathers his horse and mounts.
Kiyoshi looks down at the dead around him as the clay figure crumples, a worried look upon his face until he sees Takeshi begin to wake. He relaxes visibly and a sad smile comes across his face as he pulled off the smiling devil mask he wore. "How unnecessary this all was..." He would turn and breathe in as his wounds began to seal and the bloodflow come to a stop.
"Thank you Sakiko, your talents are ever useful on these ventures..." Kiyoshi would say as he climbed back into the saddle, grunting at the exhaustion of his limbs. "That was a pretty decent ambush..."
His horse would trot up to Amon's, giving him a nod as grinned. "You looked tired out there. Drinking finally getting to you?" He said with a teasing smirk, giving him a nod. "I'm glad to see you alright."
With Nidashi's suggestion, Kiyoshi nodded "I agree. We can rest once we are in town."
Abe sniffs one of the jugs of hillman moonshine, wrinking his nose. He hands the containers to Amon, clapping him on the shoulder.
"You display a unique style of swordsmanship, bother! When this all blows over, you must show me some of your technique in greater detail."
He assists in securing the salvagable equipment, and then climbs stiffly back on to his horse and prepares to head out.
"A decent ambush indeed. They spent many men on this attempt, and suffered the destruction of their ... doubtless expensive crockery. Life is not easy in the mountains, and they will feel the loss. I would feel more comfortable with understanding of why they would take such a risk..."
Sakiko bows her head in appreciation for the thanks. "Let's just hope I don't need them too often!" she adds sternly, but with the hint of a smile. I'm mostly worried if something happens that require greater talent! But Nidashi had some magic as well, so at least there is two of us...
"A curious quandary indeed." Sakiko replies on the topic of hillsmen and looks down on the fallen warriors from her pony. A frown crosses her face, but quickly converts into a smile. "Maybe we can just ask them?"
She guides her pony around the scene a little until she can find one of the least wounded ambushers and dismounts. As soon as she lands she kneels down and places her hands on the warriors wounds.
The whispy forms danced around the warrior and stopped his bleeding, but not much more then that. With a small sigh of disappointment Sakiko headed over to another of them and tried again.
This one seemed to do better! Seeing as he was disarmed Sakiko didn't feel like she needed to do more then place her hand on the haft of her blade and wait for him to come around. When/if he did she kneeled down next to him and asked.
"Why? Why did you ambush us?" She looked him straight in the eyes and frowned. "And why did your leader not know when he was beaten?"
Riding up along his horse, the massive blade being hefted between two hands as he looks down at the hillman that Sakiko had brought back to life. "I'd answer the question. Do not think of doing anything foolish, I rather keep the blood that has already been shed today's offering." The warrior says with a stern voice, those eyes daring the man to try and strike at them rather than follow along with Sakiko's kindness.
Nidashi holds his tongue while Sakiko questions the captive. He takes a position on the perimeter looking for the next threat.