Yue nods and walks over to the sliding panel. He attempts to slide it open.
|
The sliding doors are slightly stiff, but eventually move with a bit of force, another loud sigh is heard as the door opens.
This once-elaborate banquet room has become a den of filth, littered with unwashed dishes, food stains, and what looks to be the aftermath of many grisly slaughters. Bodies flayed or partially digested to the point of being unrecognizable lie heaped in corners or sway from ropes tied to wooden beams above. A pile of filthy, soiled cushions and blankets lies in a nest-like heap in the middle of the room.
On one of the tables, a humanoid seems to be annoyed, he was enjoying his tea, he looks over and his next extents unusually high.
Yue's heartbeat quickens even more upon revealing the slaughter. His brow furrows in anger.
Zhēnzǐ creates another oak tree sapling by Yue and raises his buckler to protect himself if any projectiles come towards from the other side of the door Yue just opened.
Denkō moves to see what's beyond the door and is appalled by the scene before him. He speaks with venemous disdain, the only words that leave his mouth are: Burn, freak.
Critical Success The target is unaffected.
Success The target takes half damage.
Failure The target takes full damage.
Critical Failure The target takes double damage, and if it's a metal creature, it gains weakness 2 to physical damage until the end of your next turn.
Denkō moves to investigate, and is disgusted by what he sees. With a sneer, he says: Gods, how is it that you managed to be even uglier than your pet toad? Killing you will be a mercy.
|
|
The creature looks taken a back by Denko's appearance, small in stature, but strong in voice. "HAH! A funny lizard. You AMUSE me, but you are upsetting my tea time. LEAVE, and LEAVE anything you own, and perhaps you live to see another day." His neck grows longer, and he watches what the party would do next.
~~~~
Encounter Round 3
Bold may action
Lady Lao
Jing
Zhenzi
Denko
Yue
??? (frightened 1)
"Leave our town or my friends will end you."
"What's all this chattering about?" Lady Lao says as she moves in to get a better look.
"Oh my goodness! Is that...you killed her!" Lady Lao exclaims in horror as she recognises some of her fellow villagers hanging from the ceiling.
Not willing to take the bait and move in, she Recalls Knowledge on the long-necked creature.
She then Exploits Vulnerability on the enemy. It just so happens that the Willowshore Chronicles has an entry on exactly this creature's weaknesses!
|
|
"END ME? HAHA. I'd like to see you try, at least that would be finally be some entertainment!", the humanoid laughs as he easily dodges.
Lady Lao would recognize the humanoid to be what's known as a rokurokubi, a cursed mortal, though normally they are innocent by nature and has been cursed as a result of an act of a family member. But in this form, they lose their humanity and act more like evil spirits. They especially have quick reactions (reactive strike), and can make a threatening lunge. (Extend neck, demoralize, and strike as two actions). Willowshore Chronicles mentioned that this creature has no weaknesses.
~~~~
Encounter Round 3
Bold may action
Lady Lao
Jing
Zhenzi
Denko
Yue
Rukorokubi (frightened 1, clumsy 1, stupefied 1)
Seeing the creature readying to do something and forewarned, Yue makes two swift throws. The shuriken veer wide and sink deeply into the table and wall. "Curses!"
He slips around the table to divide the cursed soul's attention. There, he takes a defensive stance.
Critical Success The target is unaffected.
Success The target takes half damage.
Failure The target takes full damage.
Critical Failure The target takes double damage, and if it's a metal creature, it gains weakness 2 to physical damage until the end of your next turn.
Denkō reaches back as metal coalesces in his hand, and throws a rusty spike, casting another spell as it flies through the air. Fire certainly can't make the smell here any worse.
|
|
Yue distracts the Rukorokubi as Denko attempts to get a few attacks in. "Gah! You people are so annoying!"
His neck retracts as he moves to close the gap with the party, and immediately hurls his sharp teeth towards Yue. The act itself is terrifying that Yue jumps slightly as he gets a sharp bite on his shoulder and starts bleeding.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Encounter Round 4
Bold may action
Lady Lao
Jing
Zhenzi
Denko
Yue (frightened 1) -6
Rukorokubi (clumsy 1, stupefied 1) ⛨<21 ♥️-8
Lady Lao watches as the Rukorokubi sits there, daring them to attack. As Yue rushes in and starts to bleed from a bite, she sees the faces of her many of her friends and fellow villagers. People she'd play cards with, gossip about and spend time with...to see the monster hang them up like ornaments makes her blood boil. She explodes with fury.
Lady Lao bellows at the top of her lungs.
Incensed, she rushes over and smashes her hammer into the creature's chest.
|
|
As Lady Lao strides in, the unusually long neck extends her way and the creature snaps at her! Fortunately, she is able to avoid the hit and knocks the creature with a powerful blow. He vomits some blood, and is bloodied as a result.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Encounter Round 4
Bold may action
Lady Lao
Jing
Zhenzi
Denko
Yue (frightened 1) -6
Rukorokubi (frightened 2) ⛨<19 ♥️-18
Zhēnzǐ moves up behind Denkō and wills a weeping willow tree on the table between Yue and Lady Lao.
"Great Willow, protect us with this sapling so we can save our town."
Yue releases a short scream when the rukorukobi tears his shoulder. He girds his nerves and follows after the retracting neck. With Lao to distract it, he takes a shaky breath and strikes with the guard's spear. He follows this with a swift, open-palmed strike at the rokurokubi's chest. He shifts stance and makes another strike at the cursed soul's chest with his open hand.
Blood drips down his arm with the effort.
Taken aback by the sheer force of Lao's rage, Denkō knows his foe lies on death's door. Conserving his energy for later fights, he casts 2 simple cantrips, hedging his bets - either the cold will claim his quarry, or Lao will.
|
|
Yue's effort pays off, the rukorubi suffers some serious injuries and dies as a result. But for a moment, the ranger thinks the creature smiled before his demise. "haahaa, see you soon...." It whispers with it's last breath.
The door to the, presumably, pantry is locked on both sides with heavy duty padlocks.
Once a relaxing area in which guests could enjoy tea and quiet conversation, the furniture and walls of this room have been vandalized and bear deep scratches. A hole has been smashed into the wall to the northeast.
|
|
Yue's effort pays off, the rukorubi suffers some serious injuries and dies as a result. But for a moment, the ranger thinks the creature smiled before his demise. "haahaa, see you soon...." It whispers with it's last breath.
The door to the, presumably, pantry is locked on both sides with heavy duty padlocks.
Once a relaxing area in which guests could enjoy tea and quiet conversation, the furniture and walls of this room have been vandalized and bear deep scratches. A hole has been smashed into the wall to the northeast.
As the strange creature falls, Denkō will say: Gods am I glad to be rid of that foul thing. Is everybody alright? anybody in need of healing?
Denkō will then search the gore around him for familiar faces - he'd mourn the loss of any villager, sure, but he's hoping not to find anybody he's particularly familiar with. We ought to give these folks proper burials - I don't know that we've the time now, but we should bring some of the others over once this blows over so we can get them all ID'd bare minimum. This is a sorry state of affairs.
Moving to the pantry he'll see the lock and say: funny thing about these sort of locks is that it doesn't much matter how strong they are if they're just on a regular wooden door. One of you want to take a crack at it?
Zhēnzǐ cautiously walks into the room and creates a healing version of Yue's favorite fruit for him.
A look of deep sadness appears on Zhēnzǐ's face as he looks around the room at the murdered town residents that are hanging.
"Let's get them down from there and lay them on the tables before we bring others in to identify them, as there is no need to cause their loved ones additional trauma from seeing they were put on display after being murdered."
Zhēnzǐ creates timber sentinels and climbs them to cut them down with his companions holding the victims before he releases each of the victims from the bindings suspending them from the beams.
Lady Lao gives the rukorukobi's corpse a final, spiteful smash.
"Good riddance." She spits out before turning to help the others retrieve the bodies. "Burial is...is something that should be handled by the family and the Church of Pharasma. We should leave it to them to bury the dead." Lady Lao helps take down the bodies from the ceiling while she searches the room.
When the party arrives at the pantry, Lady Lao thinks back to the rukorukobi's corpse.
"Young Master Yue, did you find anything on the rukorukobi's corpse? Like a key? If not, we might need to pick the lock to open it. Sadly, I lack Thieves Tools."
The noble woman tries calling out to anyone inside the pantry.
"Hey! Anyone in there?"
After the rokurubi speaks their last breath, Yue stands there staring wide-eyed and silent at the hanging corpses. He numbly accepts the peach that Zhenzi offers, hand dripping with his own blood. A little verve seems to return after he mechanically bites into it.
He startles as Lao speaks to him. "Oh?" Rifling through the rokurubi's corpse, he finds a key. He offers it to her.
"Thank you, Young Master." Lady Lao grasps the key and is about to open the door before realising that her hands and outfit are stained with the blood of various creatures throughout the day. She holds out the key to Jing.
"Young Jing, could you get the door for me instead? I'm rather bloody from all this...exercise today. Whoever's behind that door might be more set at ease with a young, handsome lad like yourself greeting them!"
After the bodies of the victims are removed from the beams and laid onto the tables (and floor if there is not enough space on the tables), Zhēnzǐ creates plenty of lavender underneath the tables to help counter the stench of the decaying bodies.
"We should remove the monster so the loved ones of its victims do not need to see him. If you move him outside I could create enough earth to cover him completely. Though at some point I think it would be best that we remove his corpse from town completely."
|
|
The party does what they can to pay respects to the victims of this terrible tragedy, and clean up after defeating the rukorukobi. Behind the doors of the Pantry, young Jing finds a dozen bounded and gagged, barely clothed, but alive villagers.
A quick search upstairs would find nothing useful, resources or clues to what happened to the town in the last two days.
~~~
The second day of summer soon comes to close, the sight of spirits no more. Peace, if you could call it that, is somewhat restored to the small town of Willowshore. But the town still remains haunted by the scars of the event. Injury, blood covered streets, bodies of the departed, and the broken homes. Everyone seems to be at a heightened awareness, watching their backs at every corner. But in the midst of the chaos, it would seem that Willowshore has found itself some heroes, as word travels across Northridge and Southbank of the brave few who reclaimed the bridge, the Eternal Lantern, and downtown. But heroes are not enough to rebuild a broken town, it would take a community to restore the town back to it's former glory. As most rest and secure their homes, the town council meets to discuss matters at hand. Usually headed by the Heh Shan-Bao in his manor, the remainder of the council, Granny Hu, Cleric Kim, Old Matsuki, Doctor Dami, Nadoya Sanmi meet at neutral grounds, Hand of Spring. Word has gotten around that they will announce all who are not accounted for, whether missing or dead. For the most part, assumed dead...
The adventure continues on the third day, possibly back in downtown if you are curious enough to know who is unaccounted for, otherwise. You may go about your day...
Zhēnzǐ is not really capable of dragging the corpses of the invaders so asks his fellow heroes to help bring corpses of the invaders out of town by taking them across the eastern bridge and asks Lady Lao, "Do you think burying them or burning their bodies would be better to prevent them from being able to come back as spirits to bother the town?"
"I think I will go to the accounting tomorrow," Yue says. "Sometimes the least expected survivor is trapped somewhere, waiting to be found." His expression and tone convey that is words are not merely forced optimism but stem from something real and painful.
While the others help to free the captives, Lady Lao drags the body of the rukorukobi out of the tea house so that she and Zhenzi can bury it in a shallow grave. As they work on the corpse, Zhenzi asks her a question about proper burial rites.
"That...is a really good question. I don't know. Would you like to ask that young lady who works for the church of Pharasma? I bet she would know." Lady Lao suggests to Zhenzi. Before she leaves to consult the Pharasmins, she asks the party about their collected hoard.
"You know, those animated objects might still be around town. We should be ready for a fight - I would like to sell their stuff we found and use it to give my Warhammer a Potency rune. You never know when we could be ambushed by something."
On the third day, Lady Lao attends the meeting. She sits next to Granny Hu, listening to the older woman plan and occasionally whispering something into her ear. As Yue walks in, she gets up and gives the young man a firm handshake and a hug.
"Don't worry about Granny Hu...If there are survivors to save, I'll be out there with you to assist, regardless of what she says." Lady Lao whispers into Yue's ear reassuringly.
You raise a good point with the parasites, they'd definitely know more than any of us on this. As for the animated objects, ive still got a few in the chamber as far as bigger spells go, I wouldn't mind hunting them down.
Wherever that goes, denkō will attend the accounting as well. Even with how much the parry did to help willowshore, he knows he doesnt have the full picture on who 's where.
|
|
Elizeth Candora, the head priestess of Her Fluvial of Souls cathedral, would know a thing or two about ensuring proper burial rights. She would explain that burying the dead in consecrated land should do the trick, or the Eternal rest ritual, both things she can organize with the members of the deceased family. If none of the family is alive, she will see to it herself, and thanks you for your service.
If you go looking for animated objects, or jinkins, they would have all seem to have left town, coincidentally (?) at the time the Rukorukobi was killed.
Zhēnzǐ will attend the accounting on the morrow with Jubei.
Zhēnzǐ will offer a healing fruit to any and all town residents there he sees are hurt, as well as an ample amount of normal fruits to sate everyone's hunger.
He goes with Lady Lao to see Elizeth Candora, and asks her, "Is there consecrated land on on the land past the bridge where Ugly Cute watches? I think the people of the town might have less nightmares if none of the invaders are buried within town."
Casually talking about the location where the spider statue has been most of his life, he looks to Lady Lao, "Lady Lao. We should find Ugly Cute!!"
"We should...but I'm sure it'll pop up eventually. For now, let's take care of ourselves, the dead and this town." Lady Lao says, exhaustion clear in her voice. It has been a long two days.
|
|
The group decides to rest after what feels like extremely long days. In the morning, the town of Willowshore gathers in downtown, gathering folding chairs and tables to create what looks to be a large meeting hall. The atmosphere is somber as the people continue to mourn their loss, and dread the clean up to come.
Whispers are heard all around you as fingers point, the word heroes, being thrown in the mix. Your deeds in suppressing the attack and relighting the Eternal Lantern has spread very quickly, but all turns to silent soon as the council begins to speak.
Not surprisingly, the Northridge and Southbank residents sit on opposite ends, but try to look somewhat unified when making their announcements. Granny Hu and Old Matsuki try to take stage but both keep interrupting each other like immature siblings. The first announcement, the dead and missing, about two to three dozen unaccounted for currently. Governor Heh Shao-Bao was the most prominently named missing person, but curiously named are also Yuli Sanmi and Hu Lelong, all three of which bodies have not been found.
"As you are aware, not only are people missing, but so is the governors manor, and our guardian statue Ugly-Cute." Old Matsuki chimes in, "We do not yet know why or how this occured, but rest assure, the hunters are looking into both of this."
Granny Hu scorns a little at the mention of Ugly-Cute, likely thinking it's a waste of resource. She jumps in to speak, "But what we will focus first and primarily is on the safety and wellbeing of this town. Increased patrols and safety precautions will be planned by the imperial guards alongside the hunters."
"Additionally, the damage from this attack has caused us to lose some of our resources, we have not enough horses to continue our trades. And food stocks are low. We need aid, Commander Wen of Karahai would be in the best position to hear our plea. But as we focus on ensuring the town's safety with what people we have, we need volunteers." As Granny Hu ends, slowly all the eyes turn to the party, as if, it might be a task for the heroes.
|
|
In the midst of the meeting, an unfamiliar face begins to set up a merchant stand in downtown, his overly friendly demeanor seems to cause the other villagers to be weary of his presence. But he waves at everyone that passes him by, including you if you would look his way. A top of his stand, a raven sits.
Zhēnzǐ waits until the elders have finished speaking then climbs up onto Jubei's shoulder, then raises his voice to be heard by everyone gathered.
"Hi, everyone. I can help with the food shortage. While I cannot help with providing any meat or milk, I can help restock fruits, nuts and vegetables each day. I think it would be convenient if I spent some time each day creating a few days worth of food at each of Elders Matsuki's and Granny Hu's places, the doctor's place and one place downtown here. Which building downtown do you all think would be the best one to keep stocked with fruits, nuts and vegetables?"
Zhēnzǐ walks over to the stranger's stall, "Hi, what's your name and what are you selling?" asks the apparently jovial man. Zhēnzǐ looks up at the raven, wondering if it can talk...
|
|
"We appreciate the offer Zhēnzǐ, but it is not sustainable for us to depend on you. We have enough food for a few weeks, but we need to re-establish our trade routes, and that would be best through ensuring Karahai has our back." Granny Hu firmly responds.
~~~
The stranger tips his straw hat and with a fairly jovial voice responds, "Oh well hello there! I am Shinzo, the travelling merchant." He opens his carts filled with various common items. "If nothing interest you, I'm known to be a man of many resources, If there's an item you seek, I can find it!"
Zhēnzǐ is curious of how Shinzo would acquire such items, "How long does it take you to find an item you do not already have? How many days would you be gone until you come back with the item?"
After the town meeting: As it stands, it sounds to me that our current highest priority is re-establishing trade routes; Having sufficient resources will help any other problem, and my expertise lies in negotiation and bureaucracy anyways. Normally I'd say I can go on my own, but after recent events I'm not sure how wise that would be. Confident as I am in my own abilities, if monsters still lurk, there's safety in numbers.
At Shinzo's: It's nice to meet you, Shinzo! I can't say I'm in the market for anything in particular at the moment, but given our current predicament, I'm sure a man of your talents will come in handy. How long do you plan on staying in town?