The session started in checking everyone’s health and making sure they were ready for battle. A quick look around confirmed that the larger opponent had left the room somehow. Sandru moved up to the two doors that exited the room and opened one. He found a hallway that opened to doors in the north and south. Each of the group moved in. Sheliak and Ulric looked at the passage and found the north showed signs of foot traffic while the south corridor appeared dusty and unused. Cendrine wondered if the different lengths of the passage indicated anything and realized it was another reflection of the insanity of the creature running the area. Seoni opened the door to the south so it blocked the way and used a piton to secure it. Darsus flew overhead, ready to act if needed.
Sandru moved to the north door and opened it. There was a small room beyond it, the walls filled with a huge mural of a monstrous female oni that had been painted with great care on the walls. Danicia moved in and checked for traps and found none. Cendrine moved in and eagerly started to move ahead of the rogue but stopped when reminded of traps. Sheliak, Ulric, and Darsus followed along.
Sandru and Danicia moved to the next door and they could faintly hear screaming to the west of the door. Sandru opened it and they saw a chamber filled with monstrous sculptures attached to the wall. Another look revealed the sculptures were dead humans, hobs, araneas and other forms, pinned to the wall with expressions of horror and pain on their decaying faces. With the door opened they could see part of the chamber. The end of had a rack with an araneas chained to it, hanging above a bed of nails. As they watched, a Tian women slowly pulled a strip of flesh from the creature while it screamed in pain. She smiled and started eating the flesh. Seoni cast a haste on the group so they could act quickly once the door to the next room was open and Darsus cast a bless to aid the group.
Danicia moved in and stood next to the woman to tell her to stop what she was doing. The woman morphed into a red skinned female, horribly scarred and bent over. She held a naginata in her hand, although it appeared to pain her to hold it. She attacked Danicia but missed, she then scurried to the other side of the chamber. Sandru moved in and waited for Danicia to move into place. Sheliak also moved in and almost blocked the flank position for Danicia but remembered to stay out of the way of Sandru and Danicia. Cendrine and Ulric also moved into help and the five of them damaged the oni. Darsus flew and damaged the creature with searing light just before a cone of cold washed over the group. Their old opponent was now visible and hovering over the pit in the east side of the room.
The maddened creature moved out, taking some damage, while she moved back to the other side of the room. When she stopped, she did something that caused horrible new scars to appear on her while she also healed.
With the second opponent appearing, Sandru and Danicia moved over to remove him from battle. Cendrine and Sheliak moved over to the oni and Seoni flew in and threw a tanglefoot bag. While the bag did not freeze the creature in place, it did slow her down and made her easier to hit. Cendrine and Sheliak dealt blows to their opponent while Sandru and Danicia stabbed at theirs.
The oni moved out of the flank and out of immediate reach of Sheliak and Cendrine. She attempted to hit Sheliak and did some damage. Cendrine moved in to attack and the oni was able to deal a lucky critical blow as Cendrine moved closer to her. Fortunately for Cendrine she remained standing although another blow might take her down. As the creature swung back her blade, she covered Sheliak in the gore of the attack on Cendrine and sickened him.
After taking this damage, Cendrine was still able to deal her blow and then moved away so she could recover from her grievous wounds. Sheliak stepped up and although he was suffing from the gore clinging to him, he was able to deal 3 blows that destroyed the oni before she could deal any more damage. Sandru and Danicia had also finished up their battle while Darsus focused on healing Cendrine.
After the battle, parts of the group explored the room, including the 30′ deep pit. Seoni looked at it and realized it was the remains of a magical portal that had been powered by the sacrifice of multiple humanoids. There bodies were embedded in the rock around the closed portal. This portal had allowed almost all of the oni to escape the pagoda except for Munasukaru. Her presence had prevented the kami from entering and discovering the escape that led to the Five Storms regaining their power.
When examining the equipment of Munasukaru, they found that her naginata was a relic of one of the other imperial houses and might be useful in a battle against Anamurumon. Her armor had allowed her to heal at the cost of scarring on her body. They found some other relics of value and the door to a library at the southern end of the hall. As they looked through the many books, scrolls, and other paperwork, they found notes about the Five Storms that might help them in their eventual battle with them.
While the search continued, Danicia put the araneas out of its misery while Darsus took care of healing the group. WIth their search complete, they started moving up the long way back to the surface, bringing the caged humans with them. When the exited the pagoda, some of the trapped people fell down and wept at seeing the sun again. A few other would require more time to heal from the horror and torture they had endured for many months.
The group made their way to the grove and the kami came out and bowed to them in thanks. They reported that they could now enter the pagoda and they would clean up the horrors left behind by the oni and her minions. They would also help the humans who were still locked in their own mind and make sure they were taken care of. Akumi came up to the group and bowed to them in thanks for returning his bonsai and helping to rejuvenate it. He offered to travel with them and to help them out once a day if they would take care of his bonsai. The group accepted and he merged into his tree, ready for travel.
The group spent the next week resting up and consolidating the skills and abilities they had added while exploring the pagoda. They also worked with the kami to clean out the items of the pagoda and to gather things to take with them on their journey. While they worked, Miyaro started telling them more about Minkai and the havoc the five storms were creating with their ruthless rule of the land. She continued with stories as they traveled through the rest of the forest, providing them history and information that would aid them in helping Sophia to gain the throne. She recommended they talk to groups in the northwest of Minkai who were known to be unhappy with the rule of the Jade Regent. Sophia also grew during this journey and added to her experience. After several weeks of travel, the group learned more about the land they were about to enter. Seoni had also saved out some of the books and scrolls from the library and had also added to her information about the land.
As they spied grasslands ahead of them, Miyaro bowed and made her leave. She said while she was not a kami, she felt as if she had become one after growing up among them. Because of this, she was going to return to her home. She felt confident that if anyone could, the Storm Peace Keepers could work with Sophia to throw out the tyrant and restore the land. She walked back up the path and just before she went out of sight, she seemed to shift into some different creature, like a kitsune, before she moved completely out of their view.
The group moved the caravan to the edge of the forest and found an abandoned village. With the approaching night they decided to camp there for the evening. After several checks for enemies, they set up watches and went to sleep. During the first watch Seoni and Ulric were disturbed by nightmares that felt all too real. They were able to fight them off and Seoni took the next watch with two others. As she and the others kept an eye out, they sensed an odd black smoke that seemed to stay still in spite of the light breeze that blew fog over the trees and grass. Seoni whispered of her nightmare to the others and how she had to fight off the reality of it. They decided to wake the others and investigate the smoke.
After everyone was awakened, they all casually made their way to the west of the camp and prepared for a battle. When they grew closer, the smoke coalesced into two strange looking creatures, a tiger body with a monkey head and a viper for a tail. Both creatures moved and most of the group felt a wave of fatigue wash over them and not dissipate. In spite of the fatigue, Seoni cast haste and the rest moved into attack. Sophia was also awake and cast a spell to help counter the fatigue. Cendrine and Sheliak moved in on one of the creatures while Danicia and Sandru moved in on the other.
With the fatigue Cendrine was somewhat more vulnerable and was damaged by the creature. She was able to fight off another spell that would have weakened her further after being bitten. She attacked to take out her ire against the creature. Sheliak moved in to flank the creature and help to overcome their fatigue. Danicia and Sheliak also moved in and gave a large amount of damage as they pierced the vital spots of their creature.
Cendrine was attacked again and again had to fight off losing some of her expertise. With this round she took her revenge while Danicia and Sandru finished off the other creature. In spite of the fatigue, the group overcame it and killed these dread creatures, the nue. They returned to sleep and continued on their journey to the ronin camp of Hirabashi Jiro, the person Miyaro recommended they contact first. If they could establish a relationship with him, he could provide fighters and information on who else could help them in their fight. The session ended here.