Kamo runs up to the pile of debris and looks for the survivor buried within.
When's found the old man, he makes a trick shot with his dagger to try to bring down the stuffed doll.
The dagger pierces the doll's cape and blinks back to Kamo's hand, bringing the doll with it.
Pagma quickly combined her chemicals into a foul tasting healing potion and helps the old man gain enough mobility to get out of here.
Jing lacks the necessary knowledge to deal with the haunt and, with his companions doing a magnificent job at rescuing the unfortunate townsfolk, there is little left for him to do but follow and support his companions.
Sakura moves to lift the rubble off of Aruka, managing to free her. The kitsune thanks Sakura as she starts to hobble out of of the building. Kamo spots Zhen Luoyang in the rubble and alerts Pagma, who gives the old man a healing elixir. He thanks her and leaps to his feet, spryly making his way to the exit. Kamo then hurls his dagger across the room, where it dislodges Mr. Jelly! Yu Er catches her doll and her parents pick her up and start carrying her to safety.
The two ghostly figures create pulses of rippling energy around themselves, causing the surrounding structure to appear to age rapidly and become distorted. They then drift closer to you, one of them coming up alongside Pagma and Kamo!
Kamo wards off the haunt with a brief incantation.
"Be gone with you, spirit!"
Jing calls upon the divine to grant Kamo guidance and grace.
Pagma has been learning from Kamo, all the bits of spirit lore and tentacle weirdness. She sees it wiggle at his words and backs it up with confidence and as shout of "Please!"
Gritting her teeth, she fixes her gaze on one of the haunts. She steps forward, her voice low and commanding as she channels all of her pent-up frustration and fear into her words.
"You will not take this town!" she shouts, her voice echoing through the collapsing building. "We’ve come too far, and I will not let you destroy these people’s lives!"
You are able to disrupt the two strange haunts in rapid succession, banishing their presence from the mindscape you are trapped in. You make your way out of the building, where the crowd praises you for rescuing the trapped citizens and preventing the structure from collapsing completely.
After catching your breath, you start to leave the area, but you don't get far before a second plume of red smoke rises into the air! It wells up from the eastern end of the street, and for a brief moment, several more of the strange gold-eyed, crimson-clad phantasms appear, only to vanish again.
However, two incorporeal spirits suddenly surge forward from the smoke. These distorted shapes resemble deformed, miniature willow trees with screaming animal faces growing from their trunks. They float effortlessly to attack you with dangling roots, drifting through the air almost like ghostly jellyfish!
Jing calls upon the Moon and Sun to undo the malformed willow tree spirits. The call is answered by the power that dwells within him, and as he channels it, it takes the shape of a beam of pure moonlight.
Kamo gasps as Jing-De obliterates one of the spirits. "Daikitsu's Whiskers!"
The investigator activates the ghost scarf they found, wrapping his dagger in a misty energy. Then he looks for a plan of attack.
He slips the dagger from its sheath and flicks it at the spirit in one smooth motion.
for and
The dagger blinks back to his hand.
Jing-De's holy light completely eradicates one of the spirits! Kamo hurls his dagger at the other one, but it doesn't seem to hurt the incorporeal foe much.
The spirit flies into your midst, lashing out at Jing-De with its dangling roots!
Kamo looks for openings in the spirit tree's defenses, then steps up to slash at it.
for and
Sakura's spiritsight ring constantly tickles her finger with the presence of the spirit nearby.
Sakura tries to inspire her allies to rally against this spirit.
She then takes a swipe at the spirit.
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Pagma's pouch is stuffed with various magical bombs, which she has to scramble in for the proper ones to use here. "fire, frost, sunlight... oh, for ghosts!" she pulls out three pale glowing bottles and throws them.
Not made for close combat, Jing worms his way out of the melee. He then calls upon the endless love that fills the void between the distant celestial lovers to shower their foe with life.
The spirit resists Jing-De's spell. Pagma splashes it with her first two bombs before scoring a hit with her third one. Both Kamo and Sakura hit, though neither of their attacks seem to do much harm to the incorporeal foe.
The spirit floats forward to pursue Jing-De, attacking again!
Jing tries to get away but his body refuses to listen to the commands he gives it. Muscles are despondent and when he does manage to get them to move, they move sluggishly at best.
Kamo runs over to interpose himself between the spirit and Jing-De, and does his best to patch up the sorcerer, though there is nothing he can do about the bark that has started to grow on his skin!
for
Unsure how to help Jing-De, Sakura continues to swing away! Every little bit helps, right?
◈
◈
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Pagma digs into her bag for more ghost bombs, but find none. "Rice paddies!" she swears as she throws together several ingredients to make one more and throws it.
She also grabs one of her sun bombs and throws it for good measure
The Yuzuki siblings each score a hit on the spirit, then Pagma blasts it with a pair of bombs, causing it to discorporate!
The street is quiet again, but the air is charged. You get the feeling that you aren't safe just yet...
Pagma pants heavily "The air is funny, like when I was experimenting with catching lightning in a bottle. I don't think we are safe yet." Pagma needlessly tells her companions.
The sorcerer takes a moment to heal himself. A pale moonlight washes over him and flesh knits back together as he concentrates on mending what was torn and traumatized. "Does anyone have a clue as to what's happening? We haven't seen this yet, and it is terrifying."
"It's those golden-eyed phantoms, whatever they are."
Sakura has no wise words and remains on high alert. She can feel the charged atmosphere around them, and like the others, she knows that something else is coming. The brief respite is just that—brief. They need to be ready for whatever comes next.
After a few more minutes, each of you suddenly feels a strange chill—the classic sensation some describe as feeling as if “someone just walked over your grave.” A moment later, nebulous black forms rise up from each of your shadows, the shape taking form and appearing as a smoky, distorted ghost of each one of you! The shadowy figures cry out in pain as they lunge to attack!
Kamo draws a bead on the (handsome but creepy) Shadow Kamo, and slashes at him.
for and
Then he strides over to get behind the shadow of Sakura.
Kamo believes these undead to be shadows, though they may have variant abilities due to their unique nature. He delivers a critical hit to his own shadow, but without any anatomy to strike, his precision damage is ineffective.
Kamo moves behind Sakura's shadow, but his own shadow follows in pursuit. Each of your own shadows attacks you, their icy touch draining your vitality and weakening you!
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Jing responds to the cascade of shadows by tapping into the light that shines within him and his companions. As magic and the soul meet, a burst of healing light pulses from Jing. Whatever these beings are, they're not Jing, Sakura, Kamo, or Pagma!
Jing-De's burst of vitality destroys both Kamo's and Sakura's shadows, while nearly wiping out the other two as well!
Pagma retreats from her shadow, the familiar fear ripping up into her, but the light of Jing's spell reminds her of what is important. So she doesn't flee, but instead grabs her last two sunlight bombs and tosses it at... 'herself'
The bombs make quick work of the remaining shadows. With their destruction, a sense of relief washes over you—a feeling that, for now at least, this latest danger has passed.
The townsfolk remain wary for several minutes after the chaos has been dealt with, waiting to see what horrible thing might happen next. When it seems that the invading force is gone—at least for the time being—the industrial district of Willowshore begins to stir as people emerge, taking the chance to assess the damage before getting down to the unglamorous work of putting their lives back together. The overall attitude of the aftermath is defiant, with older residents loudly complaining and insulting the unseen forces that caused it all.
***
The next day, Mynwa Kawaka, the tengu owner of Cloud Paper House, visits and gives you a reward for saving his shop and the townsfolk: a greater smokestick, eight moderate healing potions, a vial of sovereign glue, a potion of quickness, and a runestone bearing a resilient armor rune. In thanks for rescuing Mr. Jelly intact, Yu Er’s parents personally thank you with a pair of slippers of spider climbing before lamenting how difficult it would’ve been to find an identical replacement for the toy.
***
Now that winter is here, you no longer need to focus on shoring up the town. It's time to pursue your investigation of the leads you uncovered at the Tan Sugi Monastery. You and everyone else in Willowshore are trapped in a mindscape that keeps repeating the same year over and over. The mindscape formed after the town’s previous governor, Heh Shan-Bao, tried (and failed) to perform a ritual to protect Willowshore from Kugaptee’s influence. You will need to do some research to find out how you and the rest of Willowshore might escape back into the real world.
Solo Investigations: You spend the day looking through the collection of books and scrolls gathered from the hidden library in the Tan Sugi monastery; Maximum RP 8
Research Checks DC 21 Academia or Library Lore, or DC 23 Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion
Brainstorming Solutions: You spend the day discussing theories and investigating possible solutions with other learned locals in Willowshore; Maximum RP 4
Research Checks: DC 23 Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion, or DC 25 Diplomacy
Sakura gathers with a few of the more knowledgeable and respected elders in Willowshore inside of the Cerulean Teahouse to brainstorm possible solutions to the mysterious mindscape that has trapped the town in a repeating cycle.
Jing unwittingly contacts the same crowd of people for knowledge and wisdom as Sakura and thus ends up learning nothing new.
Kamo has been enjoying helping around the town, but, "There's nothing better than settling in with a pile of dusty scrolls!"
"But there are things to do..." Pagma's mind keeps slipping to new recipes, some explosive, some just tasty, so the reading doesn't get done.
Kamo and Sakura make some progress with their research, but Pagma's false discovery sets you back some.
Another day, another chance at finding answers. Jing collects a bundle of dried tea herbs which he grew in his moon garden and then heads out for Elizeth Candora. A hot cup of tea, pleasant company, and a shared interest in the afterlife should lead to new insights!
When Pagma 'discovery' turned out to be a wild mouse chaise, the alchemist felt horrible, and avoided disturbing the others as much as possible. While she did try to research more, she found nothing of use.
Sakura is not nearly as successful on the second day. Kamo stole her breakfast and she leaves the house grumpy, causing her to be less flexible and open-minded in her discussions.
"Another day or research. Did any of you find anything?" Kamo asks at breakfast. There are noticeable streaks of ink or dust on his forehead.
Governor Heh Shan-Bao’s failed ritual to offer protection from the influence of the dead fiend Kugaptee had the opposite effect; it resulted in the creation of the mindscape you are now trapped in and allowed the fiend’s influence to grow stronger in the mindscape.
Kugaptee no longer directly threatens the mindscape, yet the fact that it remains and that supernatural threats continue to threaten Willowshore confirm that there’s a greater effect at play. Governor Heh Shan-Bao likely performed the ritual in his manor, and when it failed, he and his manor seemed to have been shunted into their own mindscape, in parallel to the rest of Willowshore.
Kamo shares this information. "We will probably have to go into this mindscape to rescue the governor, I expect. Though, Qi Zhong only knows how we would do so."
"How many layers does this onion we call reality have?", Jing asks no one in particular. But that's not the only question that's bothering him. "And perhaps more importantly, how will we get into Shan-Bao's layer of madness? I imagine the wall between our layer and his is thinnest at the site where his manor used to be."
Sakura's day doesn't go as planned, thanks to Kamo, leaving her feeling grumpy and less effective during the session.
It becomes clear that to break free from the cycle, they might need to enter Shan-Bao’s parallel mindscape, likely accessed through the site where his manor once stood, but Sakura has trouble reconciling this.
"I think you are on to something, Jing-De. I do not have a better suggestion, perhaps we should start there tomorrow ..." she turns to face her brother, "... after we ALL have our own breakfast."
After two more days of research, you make further discoveries. Normally, to enter or exit a mindscape, one must use a complex ritual called mindscape door. While this full ritual’s intricacies are beyond discovery using the resources in town and gathered at the Tan Sugi monastery, it should be possible with a little more study to come up with another ritual capable of opening a door into Heh Shan-Bao’s mindscape, due to its metaphysically close proximity to Willowshore’s mindscape. Perhaps with Heh Shan-Bao’s aid, or using references likely still contained within his manor, the full mindscape door ritual can be researched, allowing for a full escape from Willowshore’s mindscape back into the real world!
"Well, that explains where the governor is," Kamo concludes. "He's still here, kind of!"
He makes a few more notes about the ritual. "I think I've worked all of this out. Let's head to his mansion when we are ready."
Kamo thanks the townsfolk profusely for the expensive component of the ritual, "Don't worry, this will be worth it when we bring back the governor and get out of this fog."
He uses the tip of his staff to carefully trace the ritual diagrams into the ground just in front of the doorway to the governor's vanished mansion. Then, he gestures for his companions to place incense around the3 circle and light it.
Smoke from the incense curls curiously around the symbols, wrapping around the legs and bodies of the companions as Kamo chants the appropriate phrases.
Jing tries to follow Kamo's lead, but the esoteric nature of the ritual is too much for the sorcerer to comprehend. Lighting the incense goes well enough, but then disaster strikes. The swirling smoke gives him the feeling he's being separated from his friends and in that moment of weakness, uncertainty lunges forward and snaps its jaws around Jing.