Avlis Campaign 2: Chapter 3

[Orleron]

With the help of their newfound guide, the heroes made their way to the village of Rishi-do, which lay before them. Gor told them he knew of a place to rest, an Inn.

Upon arriving at the Inn, the adventurers did not feel secure. Orianna mentioned to them that she had stolen a few things from the Uraki-Oni, and that he may be on his way to try and collect them. With grim expressions, Van and Arie made battle plans and assigned rooms to everyone in the group. Then they settled down for what they thought would be a tough night.

They were correct.... It happened in Orianna's room. She was sleeping on the floor, while Arie was in one bed and Van's henchman was in the other. A loud popping noise was heard, and there stood the Uraki-Oni with some of his undead Naikimono creations.

The battle was fierce. The evil spirit went after Orianna with reckless abandon. Seeing this, she thought of only one possible escape: to tumble over her attackers and out the window. The broken glass was everywhere, as were the flames send by the Naikimono in an attempt to burn everyone.

The noise from the fighting woke everybody. Arie was keeping watch and was ready. She began to hack into the Naikimono. Van's henchman made a groggy attempt to get up. It took a while, but by the time the Naikimono were cut down by the heroes, the battle had moved outside.

Desperate, Orianna took out the folded tower fortress she had in her pocket and commanded it to open. With the help of her haste amulet, she was able to make it inside safely before the enraged Uraki-Oni was able to catch up.

Around this time, the city guard showed up. They were samurai in the service of the local Daimyo. Van had jumped out the window, and the rest followed,, some through the door, some through the window.

The battle was fierce, and the Uraki-Oni was defeated several times, only to reform. At one point, the Uraki-Oni was able to break away and go for Orianna again, and he was confused to see her standing just outside the door of the Inn. The distraction almost costed him his life once more as Van ripped in to him. The "Orianna" that he saw took the distraction as an opportunity to change back into Kung, the monk. Then everyone ran inside the tower to take shelter against the onslaught.

The Uraki-Oni immediately began to attack the tower. He flew up into the air and started casting spells at anyone whom he could see through the arrow slits. The heroes returned fire from the inside using spells and arrows. On one occasion, the Uraki-Oni used a powerful magic spell to rip the sword out of Van's hand. As he pulled it to himself and grabbed it, it burned his hand, causing him to drop it on the ground below him.

Eventually, the Uraki-Oni succumbed to the spellfire and arrows coming from the inside of the tower. As he dissapated, Van recovered her sword, before he came back again.

A little while later he did come back, reappearing inside the tower demanding the heroes return a stone they stole from him. Confused, they asked him what stone, and he told them that when they took the tower from him, they took his green gem with him and he wanted it back. However instead of giving it back, Van took the stone from Orianna and crushed it. Enraged, the Uraki-Oni teleported away.

Meanwhile, the town guards were confused about what was going on. The adventurers came out of the tower and explained, and the guards told them that they should come see the Daimyo about the matter. They agreed and after paying some reparations for destroying part of the Inn, they left.

They were taken to a stronghold and met by an angry man in pajamas. He was the local lord, and it was the middle of the night. The heroes reiterated their story to him, and after some unfortunate breaches of protocol by Kung, the Daimyo let them know that there has been much trouble with spirits lately. A lot of the local spirits have been behaving in an evil manner, even if they are not normally evil, and even some people have been purported to be acting this way. The people were often changed in appearance as well... leathery skin, bleeding gums, all manners of maladies.
The Mashimizu clan, which the Daimyo ruled a part of was concerned. There was a town a little ways to the west that had a high number of people acting this way, including the local Daimyo over there. However it was improper to ask questions of another lord, and he told them that it would help him greatly if an outsider went in to ask the questions, since the transgression could be forgiven if coming from them.

The heroes agreed to do this because it would lead them closer to the Uraki-Oni, whom they thought knew the wereabouts of Ari's final stone, and they also wanted to stop him from spreading evil to the main continent as well.

So they made preparations and journeyed off. On the way they met a few perils.... an evil female spirit with snakes for arms, a gigantic spider who swallowed Tupaia whole, and a goodly Bisan who needed to be cured of taint. This lead them to another battle with some very evil spirits called Gekido-Oni. In this battle, Kung was forever tainted and suffered a malady whereby his skin is always cracked and leathery.

Arriving in town, the heroes set to work. They questioned citizens in the area and collected information about the place. They found out some interesting things. The local lord of the area was tainted by the spirits, and so were man of his men. He is now sending out even more men to be tainted in the same way, and has just decided to secede from the Mashimizu clan in order to form the new Kuro Mashimizu clan, a dark version of the old. With his new dark clan, he would create counterpart powers of evil for the whole Celestial Order. The heroes were appalled at this, and while they did not find out the whereabouts of the Uraki-Oni, they did find out that he was one of the spirits working on the same goal. Who the evil Daimy and the Uraki-Oni worked for was still unknown, but they suspected some powerful evil force behind it.

With their new information, they returned back to the village of Rishi-Do.

The End: Chapter 3