While Tsubaki and Natsuko meekly crept upon their targets while avoiding patrols, Yuri bound through the woods toward the suspicious all night udon stall. A miasma was upon it, even more so than that caused by stewing hot tonkatsu ramen. The miasma confirmed this killer wasn’t human and their means was supernatural; she pulled a paper ofuda talisman and slapped it on the counter’s underside, where it was least likely to be bothered. With a sizzle, the miasma evaporated and the air cleared, much like your sinuses after downing a bowel of tonkatsu ramen. Yuri made a mental note to stop by Hakata for tonkatsu ramen on the trip home.
"Ojou-sama," a stern voice surprised her. A police officer, his hand resting on his saber's hilt, had snuck up on her. The card she was dealt was "suspicious person," and this time it was she, not someone else that was suspicious. She popped up and lacking finesse or cunning, dodged his line of questions. To her surprise, it worked. He walked off, muttering something about "stupid
inakamono (country people)."
Natsuko snuck behind the Matsuura Shuzo sake truck, the policeman's back was turned so he didn't notice. Unlike her friends, she lacked any strong spiritual gifts but had strong hunches and an unfortunately powerful sense of smell. A hopeless drunk propped against a water pump, cradling an empty sake bottle, emitted an obscene miasma of his own.
"Excuse me, sir..." She squatted to his eye level, careful to keep the hem of her kimono out of the dirt. "Have you-"
"Don't go down to the water's edge!" He blurted out. With a defensive wave of his hand he continued, "I didn't do it, but I saw who did, you see?"
"What did they look like?!" She asked.
"Don't go down to the water's edge!" He repeated. This was going nowhere. Just in case, she slapped on ofuda on his forehead. His body went limp and she crept the equivalent of 3" away!
As she left the old loon she could still hear him mutter, "If they did it once, they can do it again."
I didn't do a thing, should have done something!"
Crazy people are weird.
Down the way, Tsubaki initially had an easy go of things. The sailor didn't see her as a threat, gave her a pat on the head as she dodged his questions then walked off. He said the place didn't feel right and suggested she run along too. The miasma was oppressively strong but she was confident she could overcome it; all she had to do was-
Tsubaki banged her head on low hanging debris and fell on her butt. Shaking it off she'd try again to find the proper place for the ofuda but in the jumble of house debri nowhere felt right. It was frustrating as she was supposed to be the smart one of the group, but there was no easy, obvious placement-
She faceplanted in the debris and her glasses went flying into the heap.
"My glasses! I can't see without my glasses!"
It was almost as if the ruin was actively fighting her.
Tsubaki was down, but not out.
Feeling more confident, Natsuko turned out onto the street and saw a sentry coming her way. To turn away now would be suspicious, but she quelled her shaking and took a deep breath.
Just walk natural. The sailor approached her with intent.
Don't make eye contact. No! That's weird. Look away. No! The sailor did an about face and ignored her. She was at turns relieved and concerned at how homely he must have thought her. Putting her years of impoverished living to use, she rummaged through the trash bin until she gleaned treasure. The clue was a torn piece of newspaper, telling the tragic tale which connected the miasma, that which is down by the water's edge, and whatever other clue may be found later! For good measure, she put an ofuda on the trash bin lid and scampered off to see if Tsubaki needed any help.
Yuri wasn't particularly tough, finely skilled or cunning but she could dodge like no one's business, whether it was physically or verbally. Sneaking behind the damn greengrocer she found a police officer milling about outside the power station, which was also where the miasma was strongest. She dodged his line of questioning about a strange girl sneaking around at night and honestly told him she wanted to put an ofuda on the station for safe operations and that according to the sect of Shinto she just made up, this could only be done under the light of a full moon prior to the hour of the ox.
He bought it. Mission complete.
A blue flash briefly lit the sky and a wail emanated from near the house ruins.
Uh-oh.
An enraged yurei, the vengeful spirit of a young woman wronged, murdered then damned to stalk her final home appeared before Tsubaki- and just as she found her glasses! Bloodlust oozed from her presence and like light she tried to attack the so-far hapless girl but finally, luck was on her side! The yurei missed 5d8 times but Tsubaki struck her while chanting a banishing spell.
From behind, Natsuko charged into the fray, tripped, stumbled and struck the yurei with an ofuda. The ghost's shriek could wake the dead as it burned and fizzled along with the ofuda. Her blue flames snuffed out under Tsubaki's shoe. The terror was over.
It really does happen!The girls locked eyes.
"You didn't see me trip."
"You didn't see me lose my glasses."
They both let out uneasy laughs and went to find Yuri. Their work here was done and there were many more places in need of their services.
I was rather surprised for Natsuko to be the MVP of this game. I made up the dumb luck background, but she lived up to it by constantly getting easy perils to pass and twice have patrols just turn and walk away from her. Poor Yuri though, she kept getting hit with perils that require three successes and missing it by that much.
When it started, I assumed Yuri would be the one to take down the yurei as she rolls as many brawl dice as the other two combined. What saved them both in the end was Natsuko's luck as a skill allowing her to re-roll her single attack dice and Tsubaki getting one extra attack die against the supernatural. Up until this point neither skill had come into play.
This was a lot of fun to play; almost all the minis in use are my own miniatures. I started Sakuragi Miniatures as an excuse to create my own minis and now I could finally use them all at once in a scenario!
April 02, 2013, 05:40:24 AM