Natsuko caught a lucky break as the sentry turned heel and headed for the artillery battery, its long barrel slowly being illuminated by warm coming of dawn. They had to pick up the pace.
The
drunk cook (minor plot point) she found by the well was well and truly sloshed, an empty awamori put beside him. He spoke in a
mysterious code she lacked the
cunning to decipher.
Yuri's luck ran out when she hopped the wall around the officer?s quarters compound.
"HALT!" The sentry shouted with leveled rifle.
Natsuko nearly jumped from her skin at the rifle shot. An armed, half-dressed sailor threw open the galley door and looked around. Ignoring the
drunk cook passed out in his usual place and the short guy squatting beside him.
"I'm sorry," she began apologizing to the cook. "I need you tell me where my friend is or I'm going to curse you!" She pulled out a
cursed object, an ugly frog-man metal statue thing from Kawaguchi-ko Port and using all her might threatened to beat him with it. The drunk popped her in the forehead with a meaty fist and passed out. She landed on her butt in the mud.
"Ow."
This time it really hurt!
Yuri should have been careful what she wished for. She wanted a straight fight and got it. Charging the nearest sentry, he tagged her with rifle fire before she could get into range, leaving the flailing, screaming assailant clumsily missing every attack. The second sentry joined, careful not to get his fellow (who also owed him koi-koi winnings) with a clean, downward butt stroke. It connected with her shoulder but she dropped and let the momentum carry over her. These were but flesh wound and she fought on unhindered and madder than ever.
Tsubaki was right- shooting Yuri just makes her angrier.
Natsuko continued fighting with the drunken plot point until she was taken down!
"Shoryuken!"
Yuri takes out a sentry with a move she's been meaning to try out, which left her open to the second opponent whose attack connected but failed to bring her down. Breathing ragged and bloodied, neither was willing to quit but in the end Yuri emerged victorious.
Natsuko recovered thanks to her strange luck and Yuri tried her best to overcome a
sophisticated device: a locked door. The ubiquitous locked door was her forever foe and she kicked it something fierce to no avail even as a poorly aimed rifle shot erupted on the wall beside her.
"This is some rescue," the captain muttered.
Out of options and having dropped her cursed doodad down the well, Natsuko succeeded at
strong-arming the drunken plot point with her meager might and he finally yielded. Or got bored of her love taps and threats. Not sure which.
"The girl is in the kura (storehouse) in the officer's compound, now leave me alone."
Refined Kyoto girl that she was, Natsuko bowed fully and thanked him for his help!
The prisoner's location has been revealed, but the alarm has been raised and armed troops begin swarming the area!Yuri heard a banging from the kura and Tsubaki?s voice shouting from behind it's
locked door!
Her sister is released from the locked door's treachery, seemingly unharmed but red-faced and reeking of awamori. No time to ask questions she grabbed her to flee as guards began pouring into the compound!
Natsuko used her weak spiritual energy to blast at a guard, blowing her cover but taking some of the heat off Yuri. Being equally poor shots, both missed each other.
Yuri took cover behind the officer's quarters to avoid pot shots; these sentries were marksmen, not brawlers, so they would choose to take her out at a distance over a fun, I mean "fair," fight. Splinters sprayed the side of her face from a near miss.
Natsuko took out a sentry but at a cost to her own health. She made mental note to get a red kimono next time, to better hide the blood stains.
Taro-come-lately sentry got off a lucky shot at range Yuri couldn't dodge nor "shake off."
How does an
Unkempt Bush decide fate yet again?! Thanks to an umkempt bush, Yuri stumbled as she tried to get over the wall to freedom (her board edge).
Even in her weakened state, Natsuko comes through and takes out Yuri's sniper!
Under fire, the trio got over the wall just as the first rays of dawn illuminated the sky.
That was wild; both girls pulled their weight and took a few blows. Natsuko seems particularly good at getting knocked down and picking herself back up. This game went over the seven turn limit, but I had to see how it ended. Yuri's "hero" health (d10) allowed her to bounce back a few times; since none of these characters are true "heroes" I assigned her "acting leader" with d10 health but otherwise mere d8 sidekick stats. Once it got kicked down to d8 near the end, if she hadn't gotten over the wall I think she may have been worn down.
I tried being smart about the sentries; they could have technically tried to hop the wall like our protagonists but with 1d6 might, finesse, and cunning, I doubt they could have made the peril checks. I had them fight like marksmen, keeping themselves close enough to fire even defensively if charged. This frustrates using someone like Yuri who's good at brawling but can only get off a single shoot dice. Also, unlike previous games, fighting regular humans means she doesn't get her bonus attack dice like she does against the supernatural.
ERRATA Koi-koi is a game played with small hanafuda cards, which was popular despite the ban on gambling. The cards our sentry played with would have been made by Kyoto-based card manufacturer, Marufuku Nintendo Card Co. Nintendo started as a hanafuda-making company in 1889 and would eventually branch out into electronic video games.
"Taro" is a generic man's name, the equivalent of "John"
24 March 2025, 04:28:56 PM