Yoshi, Tomo, Buro, and their retinue of Crab samurai were brought to Yume-do—the realm of dreams—by a mysterious woman bearing the mon of the Moth clan. This woman identified herself as having been a shugenja stationed at Daylight Castle when the castle fell to the Shadowlands. She further explained that as a last ditch effort to protect the souls of the Hiruma from being consumed by the demon Atsumari, she completed a ritual which took the souls to Yume-do where they have been hiding for the last 400 years. The woman asked the party for their help undoing the ritual so that the souls of the fallen Hiruma may finally rest in peace. In order to do so, the party would have to find three keys which could be found in Daylight Castle. First, they would have to find the last verse of the Moth shugenja’s ritual which could be found in the castle’s temple. Secondly, they would have to find the ancestral blade of the Hiruma, a wakizashi which belonged to the Hiruma daimyo. Finally, the last key was to identify the Moth shugenja’s name which the shugenja had forgotten as part of the ritual.

The audience with the strange woman was rushed to an end, as the party came under attack by the Crimson Moon Tribe in their camp on the Plain of Last Stand. The Nezumi attempted to overwhelm the party in the dark of the night with superior numbers and advantageous positioning. At the site of these attackers, Togashi Yoshi, overcome by his fear of rats, fled from combat, leaving the rest of the party to fend for themselves against overwhelming numbers. After a grave battle which left most of the party wounded and in poor condition (including Kuni Akari who barely managed to survive thanks to a selfless act of courage by Soshi Burezu), the party fended off the Nezumi attackers and proceeded on their mission to Daylight Castle.

That day, the party scoured the Plain of Last Stand for a subterranean entrance into the castle in order to avoid the potential traps which might still be active on the walls of Shiro Hiruma. After hours of searching, they eventually found an abandoned tunnel which would lead directly to the central keep. There, the party made camp for the night.

While camped out in the vacant tunnel, the party made a few startling discoveries. First, their food supply was running low. Realizing they only had about three days worth of food left, they decided to ration their remaining supplies, hoping to make it last for twice as long. Next, they discovered that Hiruma Takana was not recovering from his wound suffered by the oni which claimed his arm on the Plain of Last Stand. If he was not given immediate medical attention, he was not likely to survive much longer. Finally, they discovered that Kaiu Daisoto was deeply offended by Togashi Yoshi’s cowardice in the face of the Crimson Moon Tribe, damaging the trust which Yoshi worked hard to earn from him.

On the morning of the sixth day in the Shadowlands, the party ventured deeper into the tunnels until they eventually found their way beneath the interior castle walls. There they found a hidden courtyard which held evidence of once having been a garden with a deep well and shrine to the Fortunes in the castle interior. The plants were long dead and the Fortunes twisted into hideous and profane gestures. 

There, Buro spoke with the kami, revealing some secrets of the castle. The kami told him to speak with the sisters, mentioning that they have an unknown knowledge which he seeks. They also said that there had been another person communing with the spirits, seeking far greater power than Buro could understand. Finally, they told him that he should seek the daimyo’s quarters for an ancestral gift.

Moving forward, the party found a trap door leading away from the hidden courtyard. On the other side, they discovered the ruined remains of Daylight. They were now in the heart of the complex, in the great keep of the ancient castle, Shiro Hiruma.

Credits

Album Art by Dylan Munoz

Music

"Rokugan Theme" by Brandon Spain

"Ethereal Presence" by Brandon Spain

"Dangerous" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

"Satiate" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Buro, Tomo, Yoshi, and their Crab clan retinue discovered the ruined keep of Daylight Castle. While exploring the first floor of the castle, they found the castle temple, untouched by the Shadowlands foul taint. Inside this temple, they found the first of three keys to undo the ritual which brought the souls of the Hiruma to Yume-do—the final verse of the Moth shugenja’s ritual which sealed the Hiruma away.

On the second floor of the keep, they encountered a small group of goblins guarding a wooden bridge between the central keep and one of its towers. The samurai slew a handful of the goblins, forcing the others to retreat across the bridge. While pursuing these monsters, Kaiu Tomo discovered that the bridge was covered in pitch and rigged to be set ablaze. The rest of the samurai covered Tomo from the goblins amassing in front of the castle tower as he quickly turned around to exit the bridge. Being firmly positioned in the keep and having routed the goblins, the samurai decided to burn the bridge, preventing any goblins from crossing it.

Climbing the castle keep, the samurai found a disheveled Crab samurai imprisoned in an obsidian cage slick with blood. The Crab identified himself as Hiruma Tomoharu—daimyo of the Hiruma family and witness to Daylight Castle’s defeat. He explained that he had been imprisoned there to look over the castle, and vaguely reported that “the demon” saw through his eyes. Weighed down by the shame of his defeat, he asked the samurai to retrieve the ancestral wakizashi of the Hiruma so he may commit seppuku with it. He warned the samurai, however, that this blade was now being watched by a foul demon in his former quarters. When asked about the strange woman in the Moth robes, he identified her as Hiruma Masami, the savior of Daylight castle and woman responsible for ending Atsumari’s war against the Crab. This unlocked the second key for the samurai to use in undoing the ritual that binded the souls of the Hiruma.

Next, while investigating the castle library, the samurai found a detailed chronicle of the final days of Shiro Hiruma before it fell to the Shadowlands. Remembering the promise they made to Hida Hachiro on the Spear of Dawn Watchtower, the samurai took these scrolls and safely stored them away to be handed over upon their return.

Deciding to investigate the castle further before facing the demon guarding the Hiruma wakizashi, the samurai traveled to the castle’s armory. There they found an experimental suit of wargear—half Kaiu engineering, half Kuni ritual. A ten foot tall suit of animated armor wielding a sacred Naginata, built to defend the armory against the forces of the Shadowlands. Kansen had since corrupted it, preventing it from distinguishing friend from foe, simply killing everything in its path. Tearing it apart limb by limb, the samurai eventually defeated it, claiming the sacred blade as their own.

Before ascending to the daimyo’s quarters, the samurai decided to rest in the castle temple, calming themselves before battle. Here, Tomo discovered that Buro had been repeatedly contacted by kansen, trying to convince him to join them in the waters flowing through the fissures now cutting across Daylight castle. These voices had gotten progressively stronger as the samurai moved across the Shadowlands and throughout Daylight Castle. Before moving on to retrieve the ancestral wakizashi, Hiruma Takana finally breathed his last breath, a result of his wounds not finding the attention they needed.

On the top floor of the keep, the samurai found an unnatural darkness. Blood dripped from the ceiling and walls, forming pools on the staircase leading to the daimyo’s quarters. Lighting this room with torches, the samurai caught a glimpse of a strange creature hunched over a dead goblin. The creature turned to face the samurai and stood up, revealing a pale kimono stretched across a gaunt human body, its face mouthless with shut eyes.

The creature’s kimono blinked, revealing dozens upon dozens of eyes stitched into the fabric. Then the creature opened its eyes, showing nothing more than rows of sharp teeth, like two gaping mouths upon its face.

Yoshi, Tomo, Buro, and their retinue of Crab samurai stood face to face with an oni in the former daimyo’s quarters of Daylight Castle. The oni wore a pale kimono of woven human eyes, and where normally there would be eyes on the face of the monster, there were only two giant gaping mouths. After discovering the beast was afraid of fire, Buro and Yoshi attempted to draw the beast out from its hiding place in the darkness of the ruined castle. Seeing Buro put in harm’s way, Kuni Akari abandoned her position with the other Crab samurai and ran to protect Buro. Lashing out in defense, the oni attacked Akari, latching its mouths to her face and sucking her eyes right from their sockets. Her eyes became yet another pair in the oni’s collection. With their combined abilities, the party eventually defeated the oni and reclaimed the ancestral blade of the Hiruma from the daimyo’s quarters, the third and final key described by Hiruma Masami.

The party then returned the ancestral wakizashi to the Hiruma daimyo, Hiruma Tomoharu, caged in obsidian on the floor beneath them. As his final wish, he asked that the party return this precious heirloom to the Hiruma family, so it may be with its rightful owners. With this blade, Tomoharu then committed seppuku, allowing his soul to move on to the afterlife, and releasing his body of its hideous cage.

Shortly after his death, a large tremor shook the castle like an earthquake. Investigating its source, the party discovered that one of the towers which had previously been completely destroyed had now been resurrected as a ghostly visage of its former self. Upon entering this tower, they found it crawling with the resurrected dead, intent on killing them as they made their way up the tower. At the top, the party found the maho-tsukai, Kitsu Sokori performing some kind of dark ritual with the revived corpse of her loyal bodyguard, Gaku.

Wading through a horde of the undead, the party were not able to reach Sokori before she completed her ritual. Upon its completion, the souls of the fallen Hiruma returned to Daylight Castle and the Plain of Last Stand, tearing them from their sleep in Yume-do. With the ritual complete, a shadow stirred in the corner of the tower, revealing itself to be the ancient demon, Atsumari no Oni. Looking over the castle and the distant plain, Atsumari used his demonic powers to return the fallen samurai to life, creating an army of undead warriors.

Yoshi, Tomo, Buro and what remains of their Crab retinue now stand in the ghostly remains of the destroyed tower, being overwhelmed by an onslaught of skeletal minions. Opposite them, are the evil sorceress, Kitsu Sokori, and her dark lord, Atsumari no Oni, the soul rending demon responsible for the fall of Daylight Castle. Before them, the newly resurrected remains of the fallen Hiruma, an unholy horde of profane warriors hungry for one thing… the death of all life.

Kaiu Tomo, Soshi no Burezu, and Kuni Akari have spent the past month recuperating in Clear Water Village from their adventure into the Shadowlands. Along with them is Bayushi Tsubasa, who has been recruited to help the party—a favor owed to him for helping them prepare for their previous mission.

While there, Soshi Buro spent his time helping Kuni Akari with the wound she sustained at Daylight Castle as well as forging a mask—a rite of passage for all Scorpion samurai. Kaiu Tomo started his duties as governor of Clear Water Village and crafted himself a yumi made of an enigmatic dark wood that his uncle had begun selling at port.

One late summer day, the party received a letter inviting them all to the Emperor’s winter court in the capital city, Otosan Uchi. Their purpose at court is threefold: first, to tell their story so the emperor may hear it firsthand; second, to show Togashi Yoshi’s armor to the emperor; and third, to head a council which will determine the final resting place of the armor.

Upon hearing this invitation, Kuni Akari suggested they seek out her father, Kuni Chiyagi, who lives in the Kuni Wastes. She says that he may know a way to open a permanent link between themselves, and Togashi Yoshi. Their time is short though, as Yoshi’s armor will be a necessary component in her father’s work, and they may never have access to it again. 

While preparing to leave and enjoying their last night in town, they met a boisterous Lion bard named, Ikoma Kenshi. He had heard the tale of the party’s journey beyond the wall, and wished to meet the folk heroes for himself. Kenshi, recognizing Tomo, Buro, and Akari’s fame as a stepping stone for his own personal glory, asked to join them on the road in exchange for music and entertainment.

That same night, Buro received a letter from his father, daimyo Soshi Bantaro. In his letter, Bantaro dismissed his son’s accomplishments and demanded that Buro return home for his own winter court. Conflicted and angry, Buro wrote a letter back to his father, ignoring the daimyo’s request and insulting his honor.

Kaiu Tomo, Soshi no Burezu, Kuni Akari, Bayushi Tsubasa, and the newly recruited Ikoma Kenshi now travel deeper into the Crab lands, to the Kuni Wastes, in search of a way to bring the Martyr Monk, Togashi Yoshi, back to the realm of the living… unsure of whatever that may entail.

Credits

Album Art by Dylon Munoz

Music:

"Rokugan Theme" by Brandon Spain

"Timpani" by Podcast of the Five Rings

"Tsubasa's Theme" by Podcast of the Five Rings

"Sake House" by Podcast of the Five Rings

"Background Harp" by Podcast of the Five Rings