Omoyani's Deadly Kiss

The battle in the dojo still raged. Although the group had dispatched three of the Frozen Shadows monks who had ambushed them there, one still remained. Worse, their ninja-monk training master, Omoyani, had entered the fray. She had slipped her blade into Bella’s back as the rogue had fought the lone remaining monk. Bella felt a numbness start to spread from the wound, but she fought off the effects of the poison. Before she could whirl around to confront her new attacker, Omoyani vanished into thin air.

Sandoval finished off the last monk with a thrust from his echoblade, and moved around Bella to try to block Omoyani’s escape. Nicki shifted his Flaming Sphere into her former spot (leaving a trail of burning floorboards behind it), and Shinjiro joined the cluster around that spot, but there was no sign of her. None, that is, until she suddenly appeared behind Nicki on the other side of the room. Her dagger found its mark, and Nicki suddenly learned what it was like to be on the receiving end of a dose of poison. He felt it burning through his veins, sapping his energy and will to live. He stumbled away from Omoyani, keeping his wits enough to summon his Flaming Sphere to her space, and had the satisfaction of seeing its flames sear her flesh.

At the same moment, another of the Frozen Shadows monks appeared behind Sandoval, and pummeled him with a flurry of blows. Bella reacted immediately, and charged the new monk. Shinjiro rushed to Nicki’s aid, interposing himself between the sorcerer and Omoyani. He unleashed his own flurry of fists and feet, but there seemed to be multiple copies of Omoyani occupying the same space, and some of his blows “landed” on what turned out to be thin air. Sawyer had been hovering near the ceiling, trying to beat out the flames started by Omoyani’s exploding shuriken. He finally extinguished himself, and flew down to attack the ninja-monk, but he, too, only hit one of her images.

Marie hurried to Nicki’s side. Nicki was trying to fight off the effects of the poison, and Marie added a Lesser Restoration to restore his lost constitution. Then she turned on Omoyani with her Wand of Inflict Moderate Wound, but like the others, hit only an image. The good news was that it seemed she had dispelled the last of the images … until Omoyani shifted away and pummeled Shinjiro, at which point a whole new set of shadowy images suddenly appeared. Sandoval tried to zap her with his Wand of Scorching Ray, but only succeeded in dispelling an image. Nicki, fed up with her antics, moved his Flaming Sphere one last time. As its fire surrounded both Omoyani and her images, she let out a shriek of pain and fury, then collapsed to the floor. On the other side of the room, the final monk had been dealing damage to Bella, but she’d been returning it and more, and her dagger finally took him down. The smoke-filled room fell quiet, save for the crackling of the small fires that blazed across the floorboards.

The fires were quickly extinguished, and the party began a furious flurry of healing. The battle with Omoyani and her students had taken a heavy toll. Marie and Sandoval both exhausted their healing spells, Marie even converting one of her higher level spells into a Cure Moderate Wounds. Marie ultimately had to resort to using her Wand of Cure Light Wounds to top things off, but finally everyone was, if not healthy, at least no longer in danger.

That taken care of, the looting began. Omoyani’s dagger was inscribed with Tian characters, which Shinjiro translated as Deadly Kiss, the magical dagger’s name. Her shozoku was also strongly magical. They quickly checked the rest of the doors in the dojo. Each revealed a small monk’s cell, identical except for Omoyani’s, which contained an ornate lacquered screen and a small leather trunk. The trunk contained a set of old washerwoman’s clothes and a disguise kit. With a start, they realized they’d seen an old woman dressed like this squatting a the mouth of alleys in Kalsgard, scrubbing other people’s laundry. It seemed the ravens hadn't been the only ones spying on them. There was also a writ signed by King Sveinn Blood-Eagle giving the bearer the authority to commandeer any of the Linnorm King’s huscarls within 2 miles of Kalsgard. There was a moment of panic – did the conspiracy against them reach all the way to the king? But Sandoval examined the writ and saw that it was an obvious forgery, although probably good enough to fool an untutored huscarl.

The final door in the southwest corner of the room led to yet another unremarkable monk’s cell. However, as she was about to leave, Marie noticed that the floor was scattered with an unusual amount of grit and masonry dust. Suspicious, she checked the floor and ceiling but found nothing, but she decided to summon Bella to come take a look. She had to tug on the rogue’s sleeve to get her attention; she was still deafened by the monks’ Thuderstones. Bella quickly spotted a secret door in the south wall. Bella was not the only one still deafened; Shinjiro and Zhustin were also shouting at the rest of the party as they searched the bodies. Deciding that stealth would be difficult under these circumstances, the party decided to rest for an hour or so until everyone’s hearing returned to near-normal.

Once everyone could hear again, they cautiously opened the secret door. On the other side was corridor hewn from the native rock. Zhustin could see that this corridor was more recent construction than the rest of the cellar they’d been traversing; its construction likely accounted for the dust on the floor of the cell outside. At its far end, the corridor took a turn to the left, and there was a closed door about a third of the way down its length.

Everyone took up positions outside the door, then pushed it open. Inside was a cluttered bedroom/study. A brazier in the corner glowed faintly with red coals, its smoke filling the room with the stench of scorched flesh. A short bed with a headboard carved in the image of an open-mouthed demon stood against one wall, sitting on a threadbare carpet, and a small table cluttered with books, scrolls, and a stuffed and mounted stirge sat across from it. On the far side of the bed, a magic circle was scribed in the floor with chalk. Torn papers, bits of old food, and other debris were scattered about the room, collecting in corners and under the bed and table.

Bella moved warily into the room. Worrying that the old rug might conceal traps, she flipped it up with the tip of her rapier, but found only bare floor. She moved across the room to the magic circle, and began trying to scuff it away with her shoes. Suddenly, something scuttled out from beneath the bed. It was an oversized hand, its flesh putrid and bones and tendons protruding from its severed wrist. Its filthy nails clawed at Bella, narrowly missing her.

Sawyer and Marie hurried to Bella’s aid, but no one seemed to be able to hit the wriggling hand in the cramped confines of the bedroom. It clawed at Bella again, but again she avoided its grasp. Zhustin jumped up onto the bed and grazed it with a splash of acid, and Nicki found an angle that allowed him to cast Disrupt Undead, but did minimal damage. Shinjiro, figuring that Sawyer and Bella should be more than a match for one little hand, stood guard in the hallway lest any other attackers try to outflank them.

Finally, Sawyer managed to land a solid hit with his longsword. But as his blade sliced the hand’s skin, a gout of vile pus erupted, spraying him in the face. Nauseated, he could do nothing but retch in the corner of the room, out of the fight for the moment. The hand clawed at Bella again, and this time its nails sunk deep into her thigh and didn’t let go. Bella slashed frantically at the grasping digits, but no matter what she did she couldn’t hit it. Marie swung her mace ineffectually and Sandoval fired arrows that narrowly missed both the hand and Bella. Only Zhustin and Nicki seemed able to inflict any damage on the thing, and their magic wasn’t taking it down. Finally Marie, exasperated with her mace, flung it aside and cast a Cure Serious Wounds on the hand. The healing energy countered the negative energy that powered the undead construct, and it finally released its hold on Bella, its fingers curling lifelessly.

When nothing else emerged to threaten them, the party began to examine the room. The items on the table were assorted paraphernalia related to magic research, including a partially scribed Scroll of Planar Binding. The scroll was incomplete and currently well beyond the abilities of any of the party to complete, so Nicki began feeding it and the rest of the research into the coals of the brazier (the strips of flesh that had been burned in the brazier were unidentifiable, and they suspected it was better they not know what – or who – it had come from). The table also contained a well-thumbed book, Ecology of the Oni, that appeared to be a translation from the original Minkaian. Marie did a Detect Magic, and could seem some emanation from behind the headboard. On closer examination, Bella discovered a secret compartment inside the demon’s mouth. She found no traps, but still was uncomfortable sticking her hand into a demon’s mouth, so Zhustin summoned a Mage Hand to open it. Inside were a trio of Scrolls of Magic Circle vs Evil, along with a vial of powdered silver necessary to construct the circles.

By this time, everyone was both physically and magically exhausted. The corridor outside the bedroom led to a flight of stairs leading down into more darkness, and no one knew what might be awaiting them at the bottom. They retreated back into the dojo, and decided to rest for the night in the monks’ cells. They could only hope that Ameiko was still alive and that they would find her tomorrow.

The PCs earned 1,257 XP, putting them at 27,005 XP, with 35,000 required for level 7. We’ll be a Rich & Joette’s next Sunday.