Session3

The checkpoint, the fire and the fugitives

After leaving the Monastery of White Petals? behind, the four samurai continued on their way to Toshi Ranbo.

Separating the lands of the Lion Clan from the newly acquired lands of the Crane Clan was a small stream; around the bridge crossing this stream a checkpoint had sprung up. Several wooden buildings manned on one side by Lion bushi and Crane on the other.

Just to the south of the stream, on the Lion side of the checkpoint, they found a small village. Daidoji Ryou noticed a column of smoke rising from one of the houses which quickly erupts into fire. A bell started chiming urgently and heimin began grabbing buckets, filling them at the stream and running to the burning building. As the fire continued to rage and the alarm continued to ring, bush from the check point began leaving their posts to assist the heimin put the fire out.

Then, emerging from one of the simple houses near the crossing, a group of armed figures began moving stealthily from shadow to shadow towards the checkpoint.

Realising that the fire was a diversionary tactic by these armed figures to give them a chance of crossing the checkpoint unchallenged, the travelling companions decided to intervene.

Running headlong to the checkpoint the four travelling samurai ran after the mysterious armed men. By the time they reach the checkpoint, the men have fled over the arched bridge and engaged in combat with the few remaining Crane samurai on the far side.

Harakou, Takeyoshi? and Ryou engage the men -ronin by the look of them- just as the last Crane was killed. The leader of the band, someway past the checkpoint by now turned around and was recognised by Takeyoshi and Ryou, he was the bandit who threw the knives at Tsuru?, the travelling samurai they met the day before. Isawa Bin, withdrawing a scroll from his satchel, summons with the fire kami and commands them to strike at the fleeing bandit leader, killing him instantly.

At that moment, Akodo Haraku feels a touch upon his soul, something he has not felt for a long time, indicating that the gaki they encountered was satisfied at the death of this man.

Before long, the bandits were defeated and the fires in the village put out. The commander of the Crane troops introduced himself as Daidoji Shintaro and thanks them personally for their intervention; he informs them that a group of bandits -led by an outlaw name Hideyoshi?, the man with the knives- have been raiding the villages and hamlets in the area all winter and had so far evaded capture. Ryou tells him of the desecration of the Monastery of White Petals and asks that eta and a priest are sent to repair and purify it which Shinaro, with a sad face, says he will arrange.

With the thanks of the Crane border patrol the four samurai take their leave and make their way to Toshi Ranbo for the next day is the day of the Tournament.

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