2nd Day of Summer 1303
The Wu-Jen Jan Xian Two days had passed from the early morning attack on the laborers’ encampment, with no sign of the laborer who had been carried off by the Kenku.
Proper watches had been put in place and the laborers had buried their dead comrades and begun the digging for the lost battlefield of fallen heroes.
The villagers meanwhile, held their Summerfest celebration; inviting the Samurai, soldiers, and teamsters to participate – holding a large picnic with some sporting contests, dancing, and the like.
The Samurai had a difficult time enjoying themselves though, knowing that it distracted them from their vigil against the Kenku. The holiday went on without incident however, until midnight, when everyone made a great clamor with bells, pots, pans, and cheering to officially ‘ring in’ the coming of summer.
Surprisingly, nothing came out of the sky, nothing attack the village, nothing bad happened.
Then, on the morning of the third day, after excavating to a depth of six feet (over where Yuki had pointed out), one of the laborers brought news of their find – bones upon bones in the rusting remains of armor and weapons!
As the laborers set to the task of unearthing them, Yuki felt a sudden rush of power, which to her alarm, she knew heralded the onset of some very powerful spell!
Before she could raise a warning, a sudden cry among the laborers confirmed her fears, as a vast swarm of shimmering hornets, cut from pure ice, flew from the trees on the west side of the field, sweeping over everyone in their path and cutting down the laborers in a bloody swath!
The swarm was so widespread; that it tore to pieces every single laborer out in the field – and even one of the armored soldiers that had been out there overseeing them was cut up badly enough that he was forced to throw himself to the ground and cover himself with his shield just to survive!
When it was over, the ice hornets melted away instantly, falling back to the earth in a rain of cold water that seemed to mix with and expand the red pools of blood staining the field of dead laborers strewn across the ground.
It was then, that the attacker decided to show himself, abruptly appearing out of nowhere in the sky, riding on a white cloud. He was a very old-looking Chinese man with long braided beard and matching eyebrows – and a large flock of eighteen black magpie-like Kenku attended him; each armed in chain shirts with bows drawn and a katana and wakasashi at their sides.
The Wu-jen, called down at the Samurai in a loud and powerful voice – “I am the Wu-Jen Jan Xian! By decree of the Shogun Taiko T’ien Shinhan – You who have re-opened this old wound must die! And the village of Kurokawa will be no more!”
With that, the Wu-Jen began casting another spell and the Kenku drew crackling bolts of lightning across their bows…
Observing their adversaries meanwhile, Miya could see with her Ruby Eye of Discernment that there were only six Kenku – each with two illusionary duplicates of itself – and that the Wu-Jen himself was also an Illusion – that he had to be somewhere else in all of this…
---
(OOC – Combat has started – good luck! PS - everyone is now Intimidated, thanks to Righteous Indignation
Author
Topic: Mythic Nippon Adventure IV (Read 230481 times)