Sisters of the Broken Path

Over the course of a few minutes, the party had teleported into the second floor of the crooked pagoda they’d discovered deep beneath the House of Withered Blossoms. They’d ambushed the guards (who’d been expecting an assault from outside, not from the room behind them), defeated an armored golem and a clan of ogrekin hobgoblins who’d come to the guards’ aid, and held off an assault of hobgoblin lepers. All this before breakfast. It was shaping up to be a rather taxing day.

Marie dealt out healing as the group caught their breath. Zhustin and Bella had taken blows from the golem that had left some nasty, open wounds, but luckily Marie’s divine healing closed them up. As they revived, they discussed where to go next. They knew there was an ominous looking pit blocking the path at the top of the stairs above them, but had no idea what else might be lurking on the ground floor below. Deciding that they’d rather know there was no threat at their backs, they decided to head down the stairs.

The room at the foot of the stairs was empty. Dominating the room was a revolting statue of a strangely goblinoid creature. The statue stood on a bed of nails, and had four demonic heads: one smiling, one angry, one eating, and one screaming. It was clearly female, and obscenely pregnant, with multiple teats sagging over her swollen belly. It was in the act of  giving birth to multiple monstrous creatures, some humanoid with goblinoid features, others wormlike with human faces. Marie recognized both the statue and her goblinoid spawn as ja noi oni. Everyone recognized the wormlike children – they’d faced one like them in the Ruby Phoenix Tournament: they were naga. A pile of offerings was heaped on the floor at the statue’s feet, including the mummified arm and head of an aranea, numerous dead giant spiders, and an assortment of small valuables.

As Bella began pawing through the offerings, the others took in the rest of the room. The walls were covered with Tian writing engraved into the stone, but the engravings had been crudely scratched out. Marie began translating, and realized that the writing seemed to be a list of names and titles, a roster of sorts of the leadership of the Five Storms. There were dozens of names, and among them she recognized “Kimandatsu The Greedy” and "Kikonu The Fanciful”; these were the oni who’d confronted them in Ravenscraeg and Brinewall Castle. At the top of the hierarchy was “Anamurumon The Mighty, Supreme Ruler”, but his titles had been especially fiercely erased, and a crude hand had replaced them (apparently in blood) with “The Betrayer”. At the very bottom of the list was the name “Munasukaru The Least”. The name had been left intact, but the title replaced by “Supreme Lord of the House of Withered Blossoms”.

“I think we’re seeing some history here,” Marie murmured, wondering exactly what had prompted the names’ vandalization and Munasukaru’s apparent “promotion”. “I think we might want to record this,” she said in a louder voice, and summoned anyone else who could read and write Tian to help her in copying down the Five Storms’ roster.

“Do you think these are all of the Five Storms?” Shinjiro mused as he wrote. “I doubt it,” Marie responded. “I think it’s just their leadership, their officers if you will. I doubt their rank and file, like the ogre magi we’ve fought, are on here, for example.” She couldn’t be sure, though, since they’d never bothered to try to take names before kicking ass. Shinjiro continued talking as he wrote. “Didn’t the kami tell us that the oni escaped from here 160 years ago?” Marie nodded, intent on her work. Shinjiro marveled that Kimandatsu and Kikonu had been on this roster, recorded over a century and a half ago, and had still been alive. Were oni immortal? He wasn’t sure.

Bella wasn’t interested in the writing. She was surprised at how many of the party members could read and write Tian (in fact, she was surprised that that many of them could read and write at all). As soon as she’d stuffed her pockets with anything valuable looking from the offering pile, she headed for the door in the south of the room. It had been left standing open by the ogrekin, and led into the open guardroom with the drawbridge and its windlass. Seeing nothing here but some crude furniture and half-eaten snacks, she proceeded on to an opening in the south wall of the guardroom. The room beyond was mostly natural cavern, and was filled with a repulsive pile of waste and rot, all covered with the ugly fungi they’d seen in the cave above them, which seemed to be a staple of the hobgoblins’ diet.

There was one other door in the guardroom, and it was closed. After checking it carefully, Bella pulled it open. It revealed a storeroom, well-stocked with supplies for the pagoda’s garrison. In addition to dried fungi and badly cured meat of dubious origin, it was full of various mundane supplies: picks and spades, rope, tools, and a variety of boxes and barrels. Marie, taking a break from her scribing, cast a quick Detect Magic in the room, and to her surprise, saw a faint glow leaking from around the edges of a brick in the back wall. Removing the loose brick, she found a hollow where one of the hobgoblins had apparently hidden some treasures from her comrades. There was a pouch of coins, a vial of liquid, and a surprisingly delicate folding fan made of feathers. Marie was taken with the fan. She unfurled it and admired the sheen of the feathers, then gave it a quick flip. Instead of a soft, cooling wisp of gently moving air, a gale erupted from the fan. Boxes were knocked over, tools were ripped from their hooks on the wall and hurled away, and urns toppled over and shattered, spilling their smelly contents across the floor. Marie hurriedly folded the fan and stuffed it into her haversack; she’d better be careful how she used that!

When they finally finished copying the roll of the Five Storms’ leadership, they climbed back upstairs, and then up the steep stairway leading up to the mysterious pit. An arched doorway opened from the broad landing at the top of the stairs and revealed the pit beyond, stretching some 60 feet from wall to wall. The pit’s depth was indeterminate, as it was filled with a grayish-green, bitter-smelling mist. A handful of widely spaced iron bars, no more than six inches wide, spanned the length and breadth of the pit, providing the only visible means of crossing. Similar archways could be seen in each of the other walls, but darkness hid whatever might lay beyond them on the north and east; to the south, a dim light spilled out from behind folding screens that were erected just beyond the opening.

Most of the group had no desire to tip-toe across the iron bars, but they didn’t see that as much of an obstacle. Marie unfurled her wings and Sawyer activated Suishen’s Air Walk power. Sawyer planned to carry Sandoval, with Nicki holding onto his belt and using his Boots of Levitation to tag along. Marie would carry Bella, then come back and pick up Zhustin. Only Shinjiro trusted his balance to walk along the narrow grid of bars.

Sawyer, Sandoval, and Nick set out. Halfway across, Sawyer realized that they hadn’t actually talked about which of the three doorways they would go to. Making a command decision, he flew south, towards the only room showing light. As he approached, he could see that this opening was actually a twin archway, carved to resemble beheaded humanoid figures. A set of high black lacquer screens were set a few feet back from the arches, shielding whatever was beyond from view. He set Sandoval down in one archway, Nicki in the other, and turned to wave for Marie to follow.

Without warning, three figures suddenly charged out from behind the screens. They were female hobgoblins, heavily tattooed with scenes of greed, and their skin dotted with numerous piercings. These were the Sisters of the Broken Path, an order of female hobgoblin monks who had risen above their lesser kin through their dedication to the art of combat. One aimed a vicious kick at Nicki, narrowly missing him. Her sister attacked Sawyer with a flurry of nunchucks. She didn’t seem to be trying to hit the fighter; instead, she seemed to be trying to wrap the whirling bars of her weapon around Suishen’s blade, and pull it from his grasp. The third charged Sandoval. She lashed out her foot, and delivered a Punishing Kick to the center of the bard’s chest, sending him hurtling backwards into the pit! His arms waved wildly as he fell, and his fingertips just managed to grab onto the lip of the ledge, saving him from dropping into the unknown depths.

Ah, the best laid plans… Shinjiro skipped across the grid of bars and leaped over Sandoval to confront the Sister who’d knocked him off, and prevent her from stomping on his straining fingers. Zhustin fired off a volley of Magic Missiles at the one attacking Sandoval, and Bella added a flight of arrows, although her form, like her sisters’, seemed blurry and difficult to target. Then Marie grabbed Bella and carried her out over the pit. They flew under the archway then continued on over the screens, risking attacks from the hobgoblin monks as they flew over their heads, to land in the room beyond.

It was a bedroom. Not just any bedroom, but one which celebrated every form of sexual excess. The walls were carved with explicit carnal scenes and a dozen statues of similar nature stood throughout the room among several lacquer and bamboo cabinets. A magnificent bed, decorated with similar erotic carvings, stood against the far wall, its satin sheets in disarray.

Beside the bed stood a hulking ja noi oni. He had clearly endured agonizing abuse and torture in his life, as his body was disfigured with countless scars, brands, and tattoos, but he seemed to bear them with pride. He leered at the two women as they landed. “Ah, have you come to play with me and my consorts?” he oozed. “We could have great fun. I’m a lover, not a fighter, you know.” The wickedly sharp nodachi in his hand seemed to belie this statement. He turned all of his focus on Bella. “Especially you - you’re so little! I’m sure I could hurt you in the most exquisite way. You’d love it, I promise.” Bella felt a cold stab of fear; she could feel the oily touch of his eyes on her as if it were a physical thing, and for the first time in her life realized just what a ‘fate worse than death’ might be. Choking back her fear, she spat at him, a great gob of spittle that struck him square in the face. He smiled, and wiped the phlegm off his face with a massive finger, then slowly extended his tongue and licked it off. “I love a woman with spirit!” he purred, then abruptly charged at Bella. His sudden attack took her by surprise, and she wasn’t fast enough to avoid his slicing blade. He laughed at her grimace of pain, and then licked her blood off his blade with an expression of ecstasy.

Marie was thoroughly disgusted. She Teleported to a spot directly behind the oni, and swung her mace two-handed at his head. He somehow sensed her blow coming, and ducked and spun out of its way, but that opened him up to Bella. With a scream of fury, she sliced and stabbed with both her blades. One blow sliced his side open, and she could see the glistening of his intestines threatening to spill out. The oni clutched his wounded side, and to her shock, threw his weapon to the side and dropped to his knees, crying. “Please don’t kill me!” he begged. “I surrender! I’ll tell you anything you want to know – about my mother, my brothers, my sisters – anything! Just don’t kill me!” But even with Bella standing over him, murder in her eyes, he couldn’t contain his basic nature. “But you can hurt me! Oh yes, I can be your slave, your plaything, and I will endure your punishments and give you endless pleasure in return!” Bella trembled with rage and loathing, and raised her blade to finish him off, but then she heard a scream of pain from one of her friends outside. “Stay right there and don’t move!” she commanded, and the oni shuddered with pleasure. “Yes mistress!” he said meekly.

While Bella was getting acquainted with her new playmate, the battle outside was intensifying. Sawyer unleashed a blinding flurry with Suishen, and the Sister who’d tried to disarm him toppled down into the pit. Nicki launched himself backwards out over the pit, counting on his Boots to keep him aloft, and blasted his attacker with a trio of Scorching Rays. But five more hobgoblin monks suddenly came pouring out of the dark room to the north. They ran across the iron bars as if they’d been doing it all their lives (which, in fact, they had). In a flash, Nicki found himself surrounded, and Shinjiro and Sawyer were both flanked by monks. Nicki managed to slap one with his Corrupting Touch as she charged Sawyer, but he knew he was in trouble. The Sisters assaulted their foes with feet, fists, and nunchucks, and their blows landed with resounding thwacks. The ones attacking Sawyer seemed to be intent on knocking the flaming sword out of his hands, but he dodged their efforts time and again.

One of the newcomers had diverted to the western landing, where Zhustin had been left all alone when the others flew away. She hammered him with a spin kick, and he once again found himself overmatched in hand-to-hand combat. He scrambled backwards and quickly cast Mirror Image on himself, and her next flurry of blows only succeeded in dispelling some of his images. Zhustin backed away and hammered his attacker with a blast of Scorching Rays, but she shrugged off the flames and kept advancing. Zhustin knew he was being backed into a corner.

But his wasn’t the most dire situation. Sandoval was still clinging to the edge of the pit, trying desperately not to fall in. He slid himself hand-over-hand along its edge, trying to pull himself up, but the battle on the ledge above him was furious, and he knew it was only a matter of seconds before someone, friend or foe, stepped on one of his hands, sending him plummeting down into the mists below. As much to bolster his own spirits as anyone else’s, he began to sing, then Dimension Door’d out of his precarious position and into the room on the other side of the screens.

Nicki was also in a tight spot. He was levitating just above the iron grid, surrounded by monks who were pummeling him from all sides. He had no way to move horizontally even if there had been somewhere to go, and while he could float up, it would open him up to a free round of attacks. He too decided it was time for a drastic change of scenery, and cast his own Dimension Door to vanish and reappear halfway down the stairs they’d just come up. He ran back up the stairs, and fired off a Lightning Bolt at the Sister chasing Zhustin. To his shock, she twisted with inhuman speed and totally avoided his bolt, but she did dash around to put Zhustin squarely between herself and this newcomer.

With Nicki gone, the monks who’d been attacking him went after new targets. Two closed on Sawyer, but one dashed into the bedroom, intent on protecting her master. Bella swung around to defend herself from the monk, prompting a moan of pleasure from her captive kneeling on the floor behind her. “Oh my god! Your tight little ass is so hot from this angle. God, I want to …” and then he proceeded to spew out a stream of erotic desires that made Bella blush and gag at the same time.

Sawyer and Shinjiro were still fighting for their lives on the narrow ledge beside the pit. Shinjiro was trading lightning-fast flurries of punches and kicks with the monks facing him. His opponents were Blurred, and seemed to be using their ki to bolster their natural armor, and were hard to hit, although when he did hit, he hit hard. They were not having the same problems, and hammered him with hit after hit.

Sawyer was surrounded, but that was just how he liked it. Suishen whirled about him in a blazing blur. One of the Sisters fell, but was immediately replaced by another. His attackers mostly seemed to be trying to disarm him, but he was easily dodging their clattering nunchucks. Until he didn’t. One of the monks kicked him in the back, and as he stumbled forward, her sister flashed her nunchucks around in a dizzying display. Suddenly, the chain of the nunchuck wrapped around Suishen’s blade, just above the hilt guard, and the monk jerked it sideways. Everything seemed to shift into slow motion. The ancestral blade was ripped out of Sawyer’s grip, and went hurtling end over end out over the pit. It bounced once off one of the iron bars, then fell, the flame on its blade extinguishing as it disappeared into the mist below.

Sawyer felt himself settle heavily onto the ground as Suishen’s Air Walk ability deserted him. He felt naked without the sword, as if it was his own right arm that had disappeared into the pit. But he was still surrounded by foes, and had no time to mourn. With a snarl, he pulled his kukri out of his belt, and sank it into the monk who had just disarmed him, and she followed Suishen into the depths.

Now that the flaming blade that had been doing so much damage had been taken care of, the Sisters focused all their attacks on killing, rather than disarming. Shinjiro was fighting for his life. He was calling on all of his training, but his foes’ superior defenses were giving them the edge. Two of the Sisters had ganged up on him, and buried him in a furious flurry of kicks and punches. One of the kicks should have crushed his windpipe, but the Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier, which he’d looted from the Swine Shogun, saved him. But he was reeling nonetheless, and retreated a step to quaff a Potion of Cure Serious Wounds. He feared it wouldn’t be enough.

To the west, Zhustin was still trying to stay out of reach of the hobgoblin monk who was chasing him. He blasted her with another round of Scorching Rays, but she just kept coming. “Duck!” he heard Nicki cry from behind him, and Zhustin hit the deck. A stream of Maximized, Empowered Scorching Rays came screaming over his head, and the hobgoblin exploded into a cloud of red steam. “I was getting tired of that bitch!” Nicki muttered. Together, he and Zhustin strode to the edge of the pit to see how they could contribute to the battle on the other side.

The balance there was finally starting to shift. When Sandoval had appeared in the bedroom, he’d joined Marie in harassing the Sister who’d attacked Bella, giving Bella the opening she needed to run her rapier through her back. By now, the oni was composing love poetry (well, more like lust poetry) to Bella’s backside. With the bedroom cleared, Marie flew back out over the screens to attack one of the sisters from out over the pit. As the monk turned to face this new threat, Bella slipped out from behind the screen, sandwiching the monk and sealing her fate. Sawyer was slashing and thrusting with his kukri, and while every blow seemed to strike, it just didn’t have near the killing power of Suishen. Marie saw Sawyer using his fighting knife, and her eyebrows went up in surprise. “Where’s Suishen?” she asked in confusion, but the only answer was an angry growl.

Sandoval rushed out from behind the other side of the screen to catch Shinjiro’s attackers by surprise. His echoblade cut deep, but the monk whirled with lightning reflexes and hammered the bard with a series of stinging attacks; only the Fortification of his shield kept him from being possibly mortally injured. But that was the distraction Shinjiro needed, and he leaped forward and delivered a lightning series of kicks that sent the other monk hurtling back into the pit. From the far side, Nicki and Zhustin began laying down a steady fire of Magic Missiles, some empowered, some maximized, all unerringly accurate, against the last surviving monks, and more began to fall. Marie and Bella teamed up with a one-two punch, and the last Sister fell. She clung for a moment to one of the iron bars, but then the life left her eyes and her grip loosened, and she too fell into the unseen depths.

The only sound was hoarse panting as everyone struggled to catch their breath – and a steady stream of obscene pleas from Bella’s captive as he begged her to come back to his den of pleasure. Then Sawyer let out a bellow of frustration. "We've got to get Suishen back!"

The PCs earned 6,400 XP for the night, putting them at 205,491 XP, with 220,000 required for level 12. Joette and Rich will be in North Carolina next week (sadly, not at my house), and won’t be able to attend. Leo will play Sawyer and Brian will play Shinjiro. We’ll be at Leo’s (naturally).