[ We find Our Heroes headed out to find where all those ronin came from, after arranging with Alcinoe to guard the town from further attacks while they're gone! ] [ Between Patrick, Seylin, and Tia, there should be no problem tracking the bandits, so this should be a quick, simple affair. Of course. No doubt about it. Cakewalk. ] [ Hehehehe. ] [ Session Start! ] [ Our Heroes are currently about half a mile north of the town, off the main road, but on a dirt trail that seems to have had recent use. ] * Patrick picks up some dirt from the road in one of his hands and lets it fall through his hand in a small stream of dirt, sniffing it as it falls. "True to form, they really didn't try to hide their tracks. Good for us, definetly." Good. Let's hurry. [ The trail leads east by northeast for about two more miles, until it abruptly ends in a sandy spot beneath two old oaks that cross branches with each other. ] * Tia trots along beside Patrick, helping him track. * Patrick keeps moving along, going east by northeast torwards some low crags that look like they used to be stalagmites. * Tia keeps up easily, grinning cheerfully as they go. [ Patrick becomes stymied at the spot where the trees arch. He even finds half a footprint there. ] * Tia suddenly skids to a halt. Hey, guys! Yes, Tia? * Tia runs over to the two trees and sniffs the air delicately. We have a break in the trail. Almost magical in nature. * WillS comes to a stop behind Tia. "Hrmm?" D'ya see that shimmer over there? Between the trees? [ No, you do not. ] * Tia sniffs a few more times and coughs quietly. "Smells like burning hair." * Seylin shakes her head. Dunno what it is, but there's something shimmering between those trees. And it smells bad. * Tia wrinkles her nose. * Patrick sniffs, trying to pick up the scent. Strange. Looks sorta like a portal, maybe? Only one way to tell. * Kenji hops through the arch formed by the trees. But Kenji! [ Kenji disappears! ] * Tia whimpers softly. "It smells bad! I'm not sure we should go in there!" Kenji disappeared! It is a portal! * WillS blinks. "He just jumped in like that?" * Patrick smirks. "Well, that makes things interesting." Wait for me Kenji! Don't go alone! I guess we should follow. * Patrick walks into the portal. * Tia reluctantly jumps in after Kenji. * Seylin walks in after Patrick and Tia. * WillS walks over and examines the portal closely. * WillS sighs and jumps in too. [ Will's the smart one, here. Too bad. ] [ Everyone comes out on the other side in the middle of a pool of acid, perhaps twenty feet wide and five feet deep. Odd trees grow on the sides of the pool; they appear to be willows with snakes instead of vines. ] That, ladies and gentlemen, is a sight I cannot claim to have seen before. You said it. In fact, I'm not certain -any- samurai has ever seen it before. Looks oddly familiar to my mother's Halloween decorations a couple years back, though. What is this place? * Tia looks around anxiously, her tail and ears quivering. "I don't like the look of this place, guys." She looks behind her for a way back out. [ Nearby is a long, narrow path that claims your immediate surroundings as its only wide point; the rest is a pitiful path that clings to the sides of the titanic mountains all around you. Many of them rise far, far out of sight, and the valleys between them lay too far below to make out details. ] [ You become oddly aware that the ground emits light, here; you cast shadows on the mountains nearby. Far above, you see an inky black sky with strings of red orbs curling off in either direction. ] * Tia stares at the ground. "Whoa! The ground's glowing!" Yeah. This place gives me the shivers. So...unnatural. It's disturbing. It looks like quite a lot of fun. * Kenji is currently balancing on the mountainside itself, a good ten feet above the pool of acid. * Seylin hovers above the acid. * Kenji shakes one boot, getting a last few drops of acid off him. * Tia suddenly hops out of the acid and onto solid ground. "Ow, it burns!" * Patrick jumps out of the pool of acid, landing on whatever surface is conviently nearby and not covered in snakes, and glances around for a good bit. "What plane is a good question. Will, you have any ideas?" Glowing ground, trees with snakes for branches, and pools of acid lying casually about. I imagine if I were a more knowledgeable man, I should be able to identify this place simply from those. Seriously. * WillS climb leaps to a non-acidy spot and takes a look around. "Hrmm. Let me think for a bit." * Tia , out of curiosity, pokes at one of the snake vines with the end of her axe. This looks like the first layer of Carceri. It's where liars and thieves go when they die if I remember correctly. So we're in hell? Carceri? That's in hell? We're in -a- Hell, at least. Ah, hell. Such a wonderful god-fors- Why the fuck is there a portal to hell in the woods? We're nowhere near the Shadowlands yet. * Kenji pulls a small, jade-inlaid mug out of his sleeve and presses it delicately to the ground. * Tia pokes some more at the snake vines. * WillS frowns a bit. "And some bad demons named Gehreleths live here. I don't recall any method of leaving this place." What about the portal we came from? How about being not dead and innocent? * Kenji frowns. I don't know, can't you cast a spell of somesort, like um... a planer travel spell to get us out of here? Well, this place isn't Hell, but one of the lower planes. We're not meant to be here, so I don't think they created a way for us to get back. I'm sure we'll figure something out. We're resourceful. It shouldn't be that difficult. Still, what kind of good meglomaniac bent on destroying all that is good and holy puts a portal to the lower planes in the middle of a forest in the middle of nowhere? I guess it makes it easier to use without people noticing, but geeze. Anyways. I'd think that's probably the main reason. Will. How much did you learn about the Shadowlands, and Jigoku? * Kenji slips the mug back up his sleeve. Little Loremissy made sure I studied up on both of them. What do you wish to know? * Tia explores the nearby environment, poking at things she doesn't recognize. She doesn't stray too far from the group, though. Are we there right now? * Patrick walks next to Seylin. "What do you think of all this?" [ A few plants try to kill Tia, but can't seem to hurt her. ] No Kenji. We're not in Jigoku itself. Thankfully. Good. Then I see no reason we shouldn't enjoy this little outing. I think we should be able to find a way out. Patrick, Tia, please continue tracking. Ah, of course. * Tia wanders back. "The plants here are mean. I don't think I'll play with them anymore." * Patrick sees if he can catch wind of what he was tracking earlier. Um, oh, right! * Tia sniffs at the air again and searches the glowing ground for tracks. * WillS taps his foot as he ponders on this place. "I wonder why they'll open a portal to this place though. Almost seems as if they want a second festering pit into Rokugan." THAT is just absolutely unacceptable. I'm afraid they're going to have to die. * Kenji doesn't sound very afraid. Ooh, Kenji, think I can help you hit the bad men? They made me step in yucky water that burns. Everybody will get their shots, Tia. Okay! * Tia continues tracking. First find them, then we can kill them. * Patrick leads off in the proper direction that the trail leads. * Seylin follows, staying alert for traps and ambushes and whatnot. Especially the whatnot. That's the dangerous stuff. * Seylin holds a hand up. "Wait. Trap ahead." * Kenji stops Wire enchanted to match the stone. * WillS takes a couple steps back and stares closely at the stone. "A trap?" If we toss something into it, it'll go off. Something we don't want back, obviously. I almost missed this one. Definitely have to keep my eyes peeled. Take your time. [ Well, there *are* those snake-trees. ] * Seylin eyes the trees. "I'll bet we could use one of those snakes to trigger it." [ The snake-vines hiss in disapproval of the idea. ] Well, I grabbed a Sack of Fuzzy Grey Things To Throw at Traps. Patrick, you'll make Tia cry. Yeah, that's why I'm not pulling it out. * WillS stares at those snakes. They understood Sey's words? [ Probably not. ] * WillS shakes his head and chalks it up to his imagination. Those snakes are always hissing anyways. [ The snakes hiss in confirmation of this notion. ] * Tia just grabs a snake and yanks. Tia, do you think you could... thanks! Sorry, Mr. Snakie. I hope this doesn't hurt... * Patrick watches as the snake probably tries, and fails, to hurt Tia. [ The snake protests, bites tia, breaks its fangs on her, and goes limp after she pulls it free. Poison flows out of where it was connected to the tree. Neither the snake nor the tree seem to register any pain from this, so they prolly don't have minds. ] Ewwww. * Tia flings the limp snake at the wire Seylin pointed out earlier. [ There's a *shlrp* as the wire noose cuts the snake very cleanly in half and tosses the upper half off the side of the path, down into the unknwon depths. ] [ Apparently, the wire is very, very sharp. ] * Tia blinks a couple times. "Wow. Good thing you saw that one, Sey! Is it safe now?" This one should be, but there may be more. Think I should grab a few more snakes, just in case? [ The wire hangs limply a few feet above your heads. ] If you don't mind holding onto them. * Patrick whistles. * Tia grins, grabs two huge handfuls of snake vines, and pulls sharply. "I don't mind. They're kinda gross, though. In a drippy, weird way." I agree. * WillS eyes the sliced snake. "Good thing Sey found that one." [ Tia defoliates a tree. Without being able to eat passerby, it will probably wither and die. Good thing Greenpeace isn't here. ] * Patrick examines the poison dripping from the snakes. "What kind of poison is this stuff, anyways?" ( The real question is, would Greenpeace and PETA fight over who gets to go after her? ) ( Probably. ) You wanna check 'em out? * Tia holds up the limp snakes toward Patrick. Sure. * Seylin scans ahead for more traps. * Tia wags her tail and lets Patrick examine the dripping snakes. WEll, on the bright side, they don't actually *eat* anything using that poison. You think. On the downside, that means they just kill for the hell of it. *shrugs* Pretty normal down here, I s'pose. They're not real snakes, right? They're just snake-shaped branches? * Tia puzzles over this. As far as I can tell, yeah. Not actually 'living'. That's good. I wouldn't wanna hurt actual, living snakes. Never seen a tree like that before, though. Welcome to the planes. [ Up ahead, the path winds on. ] The planes are weird. Do they all look like this? And who peed in that pond back there? * Seylin suppresses a laugh. No, and... you know, I *really* don't want to know. * Patrick snickers. * Tia giggles too and stays by Seylin so as to throw snakes at any other hidden wires. * WillS smiles and shakes his head towards Tia. "The other half of the planes are actually really nice, Tia. Those are the good planes." Ooh, better than where we live? What's it like? Are they made of pancakes? I don't know if that's half... I mean, you also have other planes that aren't good or bad, right? Like, mmm, elemental? * WillS blinks. "I was talking about the outer planes. Since we're in one right now." And Tia, I don't know if there's a plane made of pancakes, but they are said to be very very pretty. Ooh, do they have butterflies? Yup. A lot of them have butterflies. Really pretty ones too! Wow, can we go after we get out of here? I wanna see! I think one plane, Aborea, even has butterfly-peoples. I wanna go! I wanna go! Sure thing, Tia. When the chance comes up lets go take a look. You have to be really good though. * Tia nods emphatically and wags her tail. "Aren't I being good?" I didn't even break anything today! * WillS smiles. "Good job Tia. Keep it up!" Another trap up ahead! Ooh, where, Sey? Lemme at it! * Seylin points to where the next trap is. Toss away! * Tia flings another snake. "Take that, trap!" Nice job on that Sey. I can't even see'em before you point them out. ^^ [ *shlorp* *fling* ] Thanks! * Tia cheers with a throaty roar. [ Tia's roar echoes ponderously and painfully off the mountainsides, and a few pebbles fall here and there. ] [ After the roar fades, all is still. ] * Tia is grinning and wagging her tail. I... don't think you want to do that too much. Yeah... drawing attention to us... not a good idea. Oh, oops. Sorry. Or avalanches. But it's okay. * Tia smiles sheepishly and hides under her wings momentarily. Yeah. Just try to hold it in next time while we're still in this wierd place. * Tia nods. "Okay. I can do that. Forgot for a sec that we were possibly in danger." She grins. [ Just as our heroes round the next corner, they see a trio of figures; two tall, gangly manlike figures with odd, upright-oblong faces curled in displeasure, the other a massive, bloatedly corpulent and barely-winged vaguely humanoid *thing*. The area around them reeks impossibly. ] * Tia gags and covers her nose. Well, you're not half as ugly as I expected. I assure you, though, the smell MORE than makes up for it. [ The two tall gangly figures eye you and one of them starts ranting immediately. "BLOODY FUKKIN' 'ELL. AZIF WE DIN' HAVE ENOUGH OF A STICK UP OUR COLLECTIVE CRAPPER, NOW WE GOTTA DEAL WITH A BUNCHA PRIMES WANDERIN' ABOUT AN--" and he *does* *not* *stop*. ] [ The larger, fat one actually looks happy to see you all, but not in a way that makes you feel good. "Well well! Look at this! It seems we have a few extra wards to take care of, now! Weeeeelcome to Carceri, good friends, you will be staying for quite some time, now." ] You know 'em, Kenji? [ "Here," the fat one says as three-foot-long claws extrude from his fingertips, "Let us make you comfortable." ] [ Session End! ]