"Let's start with the centipedes and see where we go from there," Kiko suggests as she swings her crossbow up into play and fires at one of the bloodthirsty bugs.
"Sound logic" Usagi agrees as she focuse on her sword, becoming one with the edge, while tracking the movements of the ugliest centipedes.
Akira's face hardens as she focusses on the centipedes ahead of her.
"I'll head towards them, join me."
Akira begins to move towards the fray as she casts the only spell she is familar with. Admittedly she has only ever used it to confuse the elders when she got herself into a spot of trouble, but maybe it might cause some momentary advantage here as well.
Kiko sends a crossbow bolt flying over the centipedes, which doesn't seem to phase them in the slightest. Usagi confidently identifies the creatures as exactly what they seem, overgrown centipedes who possess a nasty bite and poison.
Akira meanwhile actually gets aggressive, striking out against the vermin's tiny minds. They seem completely impervious however - possibly too stupid to understand the kitsune's real skill.
Two of the centipedes continue chewing on the spirit animal, but one turns towards you all, settling beady eyes on Akira.
"Eat, chew, kill!"
It lands a solid bite and Akira feels venom burn her flesh!
Usagi moves forward to the centipede attacking her comrade, the one she marked for death. Her first swing leads the enemy to the right, where her two following strikes are waiting to carve it into pieces.
Akira darts round to the right of the centipede to make the most of Usagi's position.
As the others move into melee with the peculiar centipedes, Kiko takes careful aim and fires again.
Usagi and Akira dispatch two centipedes with precise blows in a devastating show of competence! Unwilling to be left out Kiko fires at the one remaining centipede and the bolt hits it in the mid-torso region.
Chittering and angry the centipede turns and scuttles towards the three interlopers, leaving the geko alone. The odd phantom remains in its defensive posture and doesn't move to pursue.
Usagi is much too quick for the centipede and dances away from its mandibles.
With a firm focus, Usagi marked the bugs movements and then struck in a flurry of precise cuts.
Usagi cuts the final centipede in half and silence falls across the courtyard. After a few still seconds the ghostly lizard vanishes from sight and shortly after that the door that it was guarding opens cautiously and Doctor Dami pokes his head out.
"Thank you for your help!" He says, before opening the door further and ushering you all inside. "Here, take these as a thanks." He hands over two antidotes and a lesser darkvision elixir.
"You don't seem to be injured, thankfully." He says, looking you all over with a professional eye. "And I don't imagine you were out for an evening stroll. So why have you come to the Hand of Spring?"
"Not an evening stroll no." She replies, with a chuckle.
Its likely the man wouldn't like the idea of the three of them being sent to check on him by Granny Hu so how else can she spin this.
"We have been ridding Willowshore of these monstrous interlopers!" She exclaims, puffing up her chest slightly before glancing around.
"We thought that maybe you might need some additional help out here? How's everything going?"
Kiko gives a nervous glance at Akira. She's never felt comfortable prevaricating and the woman's slightly misleading statement didn't sit well.
She doesn't counter the explanation, though, and waits for Dami's response.
"Well there's a fair few people here who have been hurt. I am the only doctor in Willowshore after all. It's my duty to be here to help people who come to me and with Gin-Tong's help we should be safe enough. Thank you again for the help with the centipedes though. What else is going on in town?"
"Thats very true, we all rely on you here. I wonder, Dr Dani, if you wouldn't mind us visiting your shrine?"
Akira says, trying on her charm.
Kiko's eyes light up. Not having considered the possibility that the good doctor might have his own shrine, Akira's suggestion helps alleviate the young woman's stress regarding finding other ways to bless the needed coins.
"Yes, it would benefit us greatly and help us push all the restless spirits back to the woods," Kiko adds.
Once it is made clear to him that you're trying to relight the Eternal Lantern Dr Dani is only too happy to let you pray at his shrine and leads you into the back of the clinic. There are half a dozen people around with various injuries but none are life-threatening or beyond the doctor's ability to heal. Yet.
At the shrine the doctor offers a small bow and leaves you alone. "Please show yourselves out when you're done." He offers with a smile. "And good luck!"
Usagi wasn't particularly religious, but had wanted to be. She listened to others, read what she could get her hands on, thought it would be amazing to hear whispers of something that knew the way of things, that could guide her.
Maybe that is why she never found the spark. Thinking the whispers of being from something instead of the god/goddess that she felt resonated with her.
Still, she believed, since one would need to be a blind fool not to. So her prayers were real as she sought Q-Zhong's help.
Usagi's prayers are answered by a soft feeling of warmth that eases the aches of a long day and the copper coin starts glowing gently.
Racking her brains before making a plan, Akira ponders about where the last shrine might be located.
Akira knows of at least half a dozen other shrines dotted around Willowshore, maybe a full dozen so it isn't so much a matter of if (Burr) or which one?
The closest is the old shrine to Lady Nanbyo, but that is some thirty feet beneath the river and therefore loses points for accessibility. With Granny Hu's request in mind the easiest option might be to head to the Mother's Coil, the local wizards tower where Jubei - the adopted daughter and only apprentice of Anjal of Thulsadus, Willowshore's original wizard, conducts her work. This dark basalt tower boasts at least three shrines but it lies a long way from the majority of Willowshore and night is falling.
Almost all the remaining shrines are in South Side - unless the group is willing to head even further east to the Mushroom House - which is not only the apparent sight of Granny Hu's irresponsible grandchildren's favourite party house but also boasts a shrine to Lao Shu Po, god of thievery, rats and the night.
Having spent a few minutes looking rather pre-occupied, Akira nods her head assertively with a plan forming.
"Mother's Coil is on the way to the Mushroom House, and Granny Hu asked us to check on her littlest ones. If we're really quick we could probably push on to the Mother's Coil and ask to rest there overnight.. If we had to we could ask Jubei really nicely - its not like there isn't exceptional circumstances right? Or if we're feeling a little risky we could also try to check on the Mushroom house tonight"
Usagi is learning to leave Akira alone during her pre-occupation moments. She is used to waiting through as a forest baby, waiting listening, waiting some more, so she waits.
Well, she cleans off her swords, since centipede blood in the scabbards would be an ever present thing for the rest of her life if she didn't. Then she settled into a watch at the door, then she asked the good doctor about the ghostly lizard, then she waited.
When Akira figured out the plan, Usagi looked thoughtful for a moment "Okay." agreeing easily enough as is her nature "Is the mushroom house secure enough for the kids to be in overnight?" Usagi has seen it before, but has never had a reason to go in.
You make haste along the river bank, heading east towards the towering basalt structure that appeared as if by magic one night nearly thirty years before. As the tower looms out of the ever present mist before you the clouds suddenly part in the sky above and the mist evaporates as a huge red moon appears in the sky and casts the entire town in horrid bloody hues.
To make matters worse the sky opens and hot, sticky, bitter tasting rain crashes down - instantly drenching all of you in... blood.
Out of the mist ahead comes a voice. "Quick, get inside! All of you!"
Between the unknown voice that could hold any sort of threat imaginable - and Kiko certainly has a expansive imagination - and the rain of blood, the oracle chooses the non-sanguine of the two, moving towards the voice.
"This is..." Usagi cannot even finish the sentence, stunned by the pure awful of this night. Which Keeps Getting WORSE.
She does follow Kiko since the alternative is being bled on by the sky.
Akira splutters in disgust as the sky opens, and without thinking, follows Kiko and Usagi towards the voice without hesitation.
Unwilling to face the disgusting rain any longer all three girls rush towards the voice coming from the foot of the tower. Jubei has the door open and slams it shut after Akira passes through, although neither Usagi or Kiko can shake the horror of the blood moon from their minds.
"Come this way." Jubei says, ushering all of you deeper into the tower. "I thought something might happen at sunset, but I had no idea it would be this bad!" She is warm and welcoming, providing towels and tea to lessen the unpleasant experience and, once asked, is more than willing to lead you all to the top level of the tower where her adopted father kept his shrines.
"I won't come in." She says softly. "I still... find it hard. To enter some of the rooms. Take as long as you need and I'll be downstairs when you're done. You're all welcome to stay until sunrise if you'd like."
"Jubei, you know, you are the best." Akira exclaims, as she wipes herself down, with towels. "I'm happy to have a go myself, if you two want to stay down here for a minute? We've done this twice already, I'll be fine." Akira offers, noticing that Kiko and Usagi look shaken by the whole ordeal.
Akira heads up to the shrine and gets to business. Honestly, she rushes through the whole ritual a little, feeling a sense of urgency with everything going on, but is satisfied at the end.
She heads back downstairs struggling to hold in an outburst of verbal spaghetti in all of her confusion and general overstimulation of everything that has occurred in the last 24 hours.
She settles on asking the most simple question of all. "So ...WHAT was that?"
Usagi is pulling off her armor when Akira is coming downstairs. "I... don't know. The moon was wrong, how can they corrupt the very Moon." she shudders, trying to use a few rags Jubei offered to help clean the blood off her. Something she seems near desperate to do.
Akira descends the final step with careful grace and heads over to the hearth. Her boots leaving blood red prints on the stone floor.
Watching Usagi try to scrub at the blood, like she could erase the wrongness of the night with enough friction made the reality of the situation start to sink in.
“They didn’t just corrupt the moon,” she said. “Its like the whole night is corrupted.”
She steps closer, pulling the third coin from her pocket and holding it up between two fingers. It shimmered faintly, like it was trying to remember what light felt like.
“We’ve got the third blessing. That’s something.” She glanced at Jubei, Kiko then Usagi. “Do you think we should go back out to the Eternal Lantern now tonight? If we replaced these coins, maybe it would stop this whole nightmare and everything would return to normal?”
Akira hesitated, fingers tightening around the token. Her thoughts flickered to the Mushroom House, and how they may have failed the grandkids still out there.
Whether Kiko hasn't noticed the red dripping from her clothing, or whether she's choosing to ignore it is not readily apparent. She sits quietly in her wet clothes, staring at the nearest lantern.
"I ... I would like to stay here tonight ... and ... and rest."
She turns to Akira.
"Could we do that?"
Usagi hesitates, worried about the kids, but the horror from the moon is still fresh in her mind. Kiko helps settle her warring insides. "If we push on... through that... we won't be good for much. I think Kiko is right."
Akira looks between the two, noticiing they seem more on edge than ever and her shoulders droop ever so slightly.
She had liked acting the hero of the night, she didn't want to lose that reputation. On the other hand, she didn't particularly want to go back out in whatever abomination was going on out there, and these two just gave her the excuse to stay in.
She nods, "You're right, but we should definitely go back out as soon as sun is up. Jubei, you know what everyone needs? Tea. A warm comforting cup of chamomile tea to help us get to sleep. Do you have any?"
"Umm... I think so." Jubei offers, her pretty face scrunched in concentration. "Yes, in the kitchen, third cupboard on the left, behind the skull. That's where the tea is. And of course you can stay - I wouldn't wish anyone to be outside on a night like this!"
It takes a little while but soon Akira has boiled water and provided tea (probably not chamomile but even her expert nose can't make sense of some of the tea scents she finds tucked in the cupboards) and Jubei produces great heaps of warm blankets and a few furs from cupboards on the first floor of the tower.
"Help yourselves to any room on this level." She offers. "Most of them have beds in them I think. There's a privy in the room with the blue door. Please, stay as long as you want."
Despite (or perhaps because of) the hardships of the day, it's easy to fall asleep and the rooms mostly don't have windows, which keeps the bloody moonlight at bay.
"Couldn't sleep? I don't sleep much either these days... ever since... it's lonely now." She trails off.
---------------------------------------------------
The next morning is overcast and cloudy once again as mist hugs the river and shrouds the other shore, but the blood moon is gone and a new day awaits for the (prospective) heroes of Willowshore!
Usagi sighs the horror off her shoulders, but cannot dislodge the guilt she feels due to huddling inside when others might be in danger. "The kids shouldn't be far, then we can take them back into town with us." the outsider who held a solid sense of self in the wake of all has been shaken too much, so there is doubt in her voice.
The remaining journey to the Mushroom House is simple enough and as you approach you hear a tired voice call for help. Hurrying past the fam of dubious repute you follow the voice towards a small lumber yard. As you respond and approach the voices rise higher in excitement or possibly fear.
"Help! Help! We're trapped. They rigged the stacks and there are all sorts of wires and lines."
Indeed the lumber stacks have been turned into a deathtrap. Sharpened stakes, heavy blocks of timber and at least one knee deep ditch surround a group of four shivering, blood-soaked and obviously exhausted teenagers.
"Please." One of them calls, raising a hand slowly. "Help us!"
Both blades are out, as if she wants to hack her way through. She recognizes this is a dumb idea so doesn't do it. "Who rigged it all and are they still here?"
"No, wait," Kiko says hesitantly as her eyes follow the various connections. "This isn't too different from some of the mechanisms at the paper mill."
Unfortunately, 'too different' is different enough.
Kiko does her best but clearly the malevolent spirits are still lingering and her second touch dislodges something critical. The log piles collapse in all directions with a horrific crash and bury everyone.
By the time the logs are removed, two of the teenagers are unconscious and practically crushed. They're still breathing for now but you only have moments.
Usagi hurries over with a bleeding limp to the nearest kid. The warrior drops her swords, rips up her tattered cloak and applies pressure to their biggest wounds. "pleeeease live" she repeats over and over.
Pulling herself from under a timber that prevented more serious damage, Kiko looks around in dismay.
"No! No, no, no!" she cries out, her hands flying to her mouth. "That wasn't at all how it was supposed to work!"
Her eyes squeeze shut and she stretches out her hands, dispersing healing energy all around her.
"Kiko!" She yells, realising too late what is about to happen. Akira doesn't move quite quick enough as a beam hits her ribs squarely, taking the breath out of her momentarily.
Confronted with the horrifying scene in front of her, Akira is somewhat flummoxed, this is not her wheelhouse.
"So is everyone okay now?" She asks loudly.
'Ok' seems to be very much a matter of degrees. Kiko's prompt intervention seems to have saved anyone from imminent death but all four are at least somewhat buried under logs and all of you have a fairly hefty collection of bruises to say the least!
Still with a little time and a lot of effort all four teenagers are extracted from the log piles. They have little to tell you and even less to offer in thanks, but Granny Hu will doubtless be pleased that her grandchildren haven't been rendered into paste!
With the blessings of three gods and hours of daylight left to go, attempting to relight the Eternal Lantern rests at the forefront of your minds, but to reach it requires crossing the river once more - either by boat or by challenging the forces that hold the Dawnstep Bridge.
"Well, that didn't quite go to plan." Akira mutters, brushing a smear of ash from her sleeve, her mouth tightening with the kind of disappointment that comes from near misses and too many close calls. She glances toward the mushroom house, now eerily quiet, then back to Kiko and Usagi.
"But we did it. We got them out. And now..." Her voice steadies, gathering resolve. "This town is holding its breath for us. We’ve got the blessings, we’ve got each other and we’ve got one last thing to do."
She steps forward, eyes catching the first glint of morning light through the mist. "Let’s go light that lantern. Let’s end this madness before it swallows anyone else." A pause, then a flicker of something else, ambition maybe, dances across her face. "And when it’s done, imagine what they’ll say. The ones who relit the Eternal Lantern. That’s a story worth telling."
After all they have been through Usagi manages to find a smile, which she turns to Akira. "Maybe they'll leave parts of it out, but yes, it will be some tale. Across the bridge it is?" there is a hesitation in her voice, but then she twirls her sword to gain her confidence again.
Finally having ceased to repeatedly apologize to those damaged by her misstep with the trap, Kiko nods in agreement with Usagi.
"We ... we need to light the lantern and stop any more of ... any more damage," she offers in a quiet voice.
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Since one, you are currently to the north of Dawnstep bridge, two, the lantern lies on the southern end of the bridge and three, the bridge is currently being held by 'monsters' you decide to heroically take the boat back across the river instead of charging headlong into whatever forces hold it.
With the boat secured once more on Southbank you approach the bridge cautiously. Akira sneaks on ahead, moving like a shadow through the mist while Usagi and Kiko direct their attention to the bridge itself - trying to see what they can deduce about the 'monsters'.
Sneaking (heroically) up to the lantern Akira reaches inside and carefully deposits all three blessed coins into the cold iron holder in the centre of the five-foot tall stone lantern. The effect is immediate - the lantern glows brightly and the mist that has been lingering over two for the last two days vanishes between one heartbeat and the next. Even the sky seems clearer and a strange weight which none of you had noticed lifts from your spirits. Things have been made right in Willowshore!
Unfortunately the Lantern has also removed any hope of cover and Akira is now exposed, perched on the lip of the lantern and clearly in view of the monsters!
A troop of small creatures like the ones killed at the watchtower are cowering and looking up at the sky in obvious fear, but one much taller figure stands from a seat in the centre of the bridge and marches fowards, waving a large club. From its weaving steps and unintelligible hollering it is clear that the creature is not entirely sober - but it looks strong enough to smash Akira none the less!
His weaving steps are surprisingly fast and the creature closes the distance too quickly for Akira to respond, swinging its club and shouting angrily. Fortunately the kitsune is swift to duck and the club strikes the Eternal Lantern and breaks with a loud crack!
Akira let's out a shriek as she ducks before unsheathing her rapier and aiming for its torso.
"Usagi?! Kiko?!" She calls out, hoping they are not far behind.
Kiko frowns as she raises her crossbow. Something about this seemingly intoxicated foe seems ... familiar.
Usagi is far behind, but rushes forward as quick as she can to help her friend. Normally she would study the enemy, attempt to determine the best way to take them down with the most efficient sword strokes.
But not here, she is too far and her friend being threatened by a true beast.