The House of Withered Blossoms

Having survived an ambush by a clan of stone giants, the party continued on through the mysterious Forest of Spirits. Despite the unnatural quiet of the forest, the party couldn’t shake the feeling that they were not alone. At one point, several people could have sworn they heard the distant crack of a whip, and Ameiko and Miyaro noticed something flickering beside Zhustin, but nothing was there and the others looked at them like they were seeing and hearing things.

After several more days of travel, something did appear. An enormous albino dire tiger suddenly charged out of the dense underbrush. It roared as it charged, but it almost seemed as if the sounds contained half-formed words. Everyone tensed for a battle, but the beast suddenly pulled up short of the caravan, sniffing the air in confusion.

“This isn’t normal behavior!” Miyaro said, voicing the thoughts of several other party members. She slipped cautiously down off her wagon as the tiger eyed everyone with a mixture of ferocity and confusion. Marie activated her Freedom’s Call aura, on the off chance the beast was under some form of mind control. Nicki stood up on his wagon seat, and began waving his arms in preparation for casting a spell.

“NO!” several voices started to cry out, expecting the tiger to be engulfed in hellfire. But instead Nicki conjured a Resilient Sphere, enclosing it in a sphere of force. Finding itself trapped by invisible walls, the white tiger began roaring and clawing at its impenetrable enclosure, frightened and angry. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they realized the tiger was unharmed and they now had some time to see if they could figure out what was going on.

Shinjiro and Zhustin were convinced the tiger was just the advance guard of some other attack, and fanned out ready to counter any additional attacks. Bella hopped down and walked right up to the big kitty cat, waving at it in a friendly manner, but the sudden movement caused the panicked beast to lunge at her with bared fangs; she quickly moved away. Marie examined the tiger as best she could from outside the sphere, but saw no signs of injury.

“These tigers are rare in the forest, but they are held sacred by the kami,” Miyaro explained. Everyone was doubly thankful Nicki hadn’t incinerated it. “I’ve never seen one act this way though. Such tigers usually have a guardian kami.” Marie tried speaking to it in Tien: “What’s wrong?” All she got was an anguished roar.

Nicki cast Tongues, hoping he could open some communication with the tiger. “Try to stay calm,” he purred “we’re not here to hurt you. Are you a real tiger, or has someone enchanted you? Are you a kami?” As he spoke, the tiger turned its full attention to him, and responded with unintelligible roars. It was as if it could understand Nicki’s words, but was incapable of any kind of speech to respond. But the tenor of its yowls was unmistakably plaintive and sad. Marie, thinking that perhaps some other being had been transformed into tiger form, tried casting Break Enchantment, but nothing changed.

Nicki advanced until he was practically nose-to-nose with the trapped tiger. It watched him with a sad expression. Nicki thought of Miyaro’s comment about the tiger having a kami. “Has something happened to your spirit friend?” he asked softly. The response was a howl of anguished grief. Without hesitation, Nicki snapped his fingers and dispelled the Resilient Sphere holding the tiger.

As it suddenly found itself free, the huge tiger dropped into a predatory crouch, jaws just inches away from Nicki’s face. Then it turned, and sprang off into the forest, dashing away at full speed. The party searched for it for some time, hoping to find some way to help the poor thing, but were unable to track it. When they reassembled at the caravan, Miyaro was waiting for them. “I’ve been thinking about the tiger’s behavior,” she said. “I think perhaps its guardian kami was injured or killed somehow, and the beast was driven insane by grief.” Thinking about the nature of the bond that must develop from a lifetime of co-existence, the party moved on.

Several days more passed without incident. At one point several people thought they smelled smoke, but no one else smelled anything, and after a moment, even those who had noticed the scent could detect nothing. A few days later, Bella heard the unmistakable sound of an axe hitting flesh from somewhere behind her. She whirled her pony and drew her sword, assuming that the caravan was under attack, but to her surprise, everyone was trundling along half-asleep on their wagons as usual. Except for Shinjiro, who was on his feet in the bed of the rear wagon, looking worried and alert. Sheathing her sword, Bella rode back along the caravan, asking if anyone had just heard anything. She got a succession of bored no’s until she reached Marie. “Oh shut the fuck up!” the cleric snapped at her question. Shocked, Bella backed up a step as the usually serene cleric went off on a tirade. “I am so sick of you fucking people! I’ve been on the road with you for months, and you never shut up! And have you ever heard of bathing? You all stink! I’d like to just chop you all up into little pieces and scatter you across the road.” By now, everyone had turned to look at the screaming woman. “And you!” she shrieked, crossing her eyes and looking up at her forehead. “If you don’t get the fuck out of my head, I’m going to take you off and pound you into scrap metal!” Apparently even Helgarval was fraying Marie’s nerves.

As Marie’s outburst subsided into an ongoing stream of dark mutterings and profanity, Nicki quietly slipped out the back of her wagon, wanting to give the unbalanced cleric wide berth. The caravan continued on its way as everyone rode up to Ameiko’s wagon to confer. Something had clearly happened to Marie, but what? Bella asked again about the sound she’d heard, and Shinjiro confirmed that he, too, had heard a sound like someone being chopped up, but had seen nothing.

“I think she’s been possessed,” Nicki said, and Zhustin agreed. If so, this was bad news; Marie was the one they’d normally turn to for something like this. “Do you think this is a kami?” he asked Miyaro, but she shook her head vehemently. “No kami would do this. It has to be one of the spirits of the Forest. I’ve heard of them entering mortals, but since I don’t spend much time around mortals, I’ve never seen it – they don’t bother the kami.”

Nicki and Zhustin racked their brains for options. Neither knew the standard spells one might try in such a case. Bella tried to help. “You know, I’ve got this Nine-Fold Spirit Sword we picked up back in the Necropolis. It’s supposed to be able to dispel possessed spirits.” She paused as everyone looked hopeful for a moment. “Course, I’d have to stab her with it.” Everyone agreed this should be Plan B.

Finally Zhustin looked up. “The only thing I can think of is to try a Magic Circle Against Evil. If we cast it around her, it would grant her a Protection from Evil, which might be enough to drive out an evil spirit. There’s just one problem – it’ll take 10 minutes to draw the circle.”

The group debated options for getting Marie to hold still that long. Shinjiro suggested wrestling her to the ground, and Nicki thought of putting his Resilient Sphere to another use. The only problem was that Marie was good at Teleporting out of danger, and that would leave them possibly forced to fight a possessed Marie. “Maybe she’ll just let us do it if we explain the situation,” Zhustin suggested. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy, but he spurred his horse back to Marie’s wagon.

“What the fuck do you want?” Marie growled as he approached.

“Umm. Well … you see … It’s like this. We noticed you’re not acting quite like yourself, and, um, well, we think that you may be a little bit possessed. We were just wondering if you wouldn’t mind getting off the wagon and sitting still for a few minutes while I draw a magic circle around you, just to be sure. OK?” He managed a weak smile.

Marie drew her adamantine mace and began bouncing its head rhythmically against the palm of her left hand. “You know, your head would look real good tied to a rope behind my wagon,” she snarled. Zhustin gulped and galloped back to the rest of the group. “I don’t think she’ll go for it,” he squeaked.

Everyone spent the rest of the day keeping their distance from Marie, who would periodically start screaming streams of obscenity-laden threats at them for no particular reason. When they stopped for the night, she grabbed a haunch of meat off the fire, kicked a pot of stew Sandru was cooking into the ashes, and stormed off to eat by herself, mace unsheathed at her side. Finally, she spread out her bedroll and drifted off into an uneasy sleep. After watching her for some time to ensure she was truly sleeping, Zhustin crept over and began quietly sketching the outline of his magic circle, everyone else ready in case Marie woke up.

Marie was sleeping. All day, she’d been filled with unfathomable rage at everything and everyone around her. Now, as she drifted off to sleep, she passed into uneasy dreams. In her dream, she was sitting in a rough cabin. She was eating berries she’d gathered in the woods that day as she watched a woman cooking dinner while three children laughed and played at her feet. She knew they were her family, and she loved them. But she hated them. She hated them so much! She wished they would just shut the fuck up! She popped another berry into her mouth as she eyed her woodsman’s axe, leaning against the table beside her. She could make them shut up. Shut them up forever. She chewed one more berry, then reached out her muscled, hairy arm for her axe …

Marie woke with a start as Zhustin’s spell activated. Her hand was wrapped around the haft of her mace. She was aware for an instant of a presence, something that had been with her, but now fled, screaming silently with rage and fury and overwhelming, inconsolable grief. Whatever entity had taken control of her emotions, it was gone now.

The party traveled for two more days, alert and on edge after Marie’s unsettling possession, but nothing else accosted them. Late on the third day, the trees parted to reveal a twilit clearing, the thick leaves blocking most of the sunlight from the sky above. A giant, wooden torii gate, unpainted and unvarnished, stood before the entrance to the clearing. As they approached an armored figure materialized beneath the gate, floating a few inches off the ground. “Who are you, and why are you in the Forest of Spirits?” he demanded sternly in Tien.

“This is Noburo,” Miyaro whispered. “He is a zuishin kami, and the guardian of the sacred grove. You must gain his permission before you may enter.”

Shinjiro stepped forward, and bowed deeply. “Honored guardian,” he said respectfully, speaking in formal Minkaian “we have been summoned by the kami of the Forest of Spirits, and have followed their servant, Miyaro. We bring the Princess Amatatsu Ameiko, true heir to the Jade Throne of Minkai. We seek to depose the Jade Regent who usurps her throne, and restore the royal houses of Minkai. We understand that the kami of the Forest of Spirits share some of our aims, and believe they can help us. We come to express our gratitude for the aid Miyaro has already given us, and to listen respectfully to all we can learn from the wisdom of the kami.”

Noburo listened to Shinjiro’s speech, and seemed satisfied. He eyed each of the party members closely, peering especially intently at Marie. Then he bowed to the party (though not as low as Shinjiro had bowed). “You may enter,” he said simply, and stepped aside.

The caravan passed through the torii gate, and the feeling that they were not alone intensified. They traveled for another hour, gradually becoming aware of something gathering just out of sight in the dark forest around them – possibly a family, or an army, or a little of both. At first it was little more than vague shapes and hints of movement, but then forest creatures began to appear. A fat badger waddled to the side of the path to watch them pass, and they could sense an intelligence behind its glittering eyes. Birds alit on branches to watch solemnly and even the leaves and branches of trees seemed to turn to follow their progress.

They made camp in a clearing in the failing light, and more kami began to hesitantly approach to stare silently. Some were still merged with their animal wards, but others were small humanoids forms, or tiny walking plants or moving rocks. They caught a glimpse of Shunkichi, the guardian of the waymarker they had righted, grinning at them from behind a tree. There was a sense of wonder on both sides – perhaps this many kami had never before been gathered together in one place, and certainly this many had never revealed themselves to mortals.

A sound began to rise in the Forest. At first it just sounded like the breeze sighing through the leaves, but as they listened, they realized it was the sound of thousands of small voices, whispering in an unknown tongue. Miyaro was listening intently, and she quietly began to translate.

“The kami were created by the gods at the dawn of creation, to protect and preserve that which they had wrought. The oni came to be some time later, and desire only to destroy and corrupt. The Laws of Golden Perfection bind us both, and we preserve a balance. The universe was as it should be.

“But many, many centuries ago, a group of oni arose that were so perverse, so foul, that they disrupted the balance. These were the oni who called themselves the Five Storms. The gods restored order by imprisoning them in a pagoda called The House of Withered Blossoms. The kami of the Forest of Spirits took an oath to guard them, to ensure they remained isolated from the world. They could not leave while we were on guard, and we could not enter the pagoda while they were inside. Once again, the universe was in balance.

“Then, 160 years ago, something changed. Somehow, most of the Five Storms escaped the House of Withered Blossoms. We do not know how, because one or more of them remained behind, preventing us from entering to learn their secrets. But we could sense their absence, and soon became aware that they were loose again in the world.

“We know that the Five Storms are allied with your enemy, the Jade Regent. If we could enter the House of Withered Blossoms, we might be able to learn not only how they escaped, but something of their powers and their goals. We cannot enter as long as even one oni remains inside. But you can. Will you help us?”

Everyone turned to Ameiko, but for the tavern-keeper turned princess it was a no-brainer. “We have to go. The more we know about the enemy we’re facing, the better off we are.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, and an audible sigh swept through the thousands of kami assembled around them. A tiny figure separated itself from the crowd, and approached the party, bowing repeatedly. He looked like a wizened old warrior, but had a crooked tree branch growing out of the top of his head. “I am called Akumi. My ward, a small bonsai tree, was recently stolen by the hobgoblin servants of the Five Storms. They took it inside the House of Withered Blossoms. I can sense that it is still alive somewhere inside, but, bound by my oath, I cannot enter to rescue it. Please – if it dies, I fear I will die as well. If you find it, will you return it to me?”

“Just how big is this tree?” Bella asked warily, trying to imagine hauling out a full-grown oak. “Oh no bigger than myself,” the foot-tall Akumi responded. Realizing that wouldn’t prove much of a burden, she readily agreed, and Akumi backed away, bowing in gratitude.

At dawn the next morning, the party rose, and Miyaro guided them the final distance. Soon the forest parted to reveal a broad, deep bowl in the earth nearly a mile across. The ground fell away from the forest tangle in descending rows of frozen terraces. At the center of the depression stood a towering porcelain pagoda, nearly 200 feet tall, its walls and eaves smothered in thick, clinging vines and draped with heavy webs, soaring to a golden rooftop. Stylized representations of forgotten creatures and beasts danced upon the pagoda’s walls, and a band of huge thorny spines jutted from its midsection. A decaying garden surrounded the pagoda, a frozen echo of past magnificence, and icy clouds of violet blossoms drifted through the ruin. The overpowering scent of death and decay hung in the air.

“Behold the House of Withered Blossoms,” Miyaro said solemnly. “It draws its name from the vines that cover it. Every night, they burst into bloom until, by midnight, the pagoda is cloaked with violet flowers the size and shape of human hands. At midnight, the blossoms fall from the vines, drifting in great clouds through the garden surrounding the pagoda, to be replaced by fleshy ochre fruits that grow like cancers until they burst with a scent like honey and horse sweat.

“There are a few things you should know before you enter. Although few of the oni of the Five Storms remain, they have a host of hobgoblin minions who still serve them. They come out occasionally to gather supplies and capture slaves from nearby farms. I’m certain there are worse things than hobgoblins inside as well, but they never come out.

“In addition, about 50 years ago a band of aranea arrived. We don’t know why they came; perhaps they’d heard the oni had abandoned the pagoda and wished to loot it. In any event, they’ve been at war with the hobgoblins and oni ever since. It seems to have devolved into a decades-long stalemate. From what we can tell, the aranea control the upper levels of the pagoda, while the oni and their minions rule below ground.”

“What the heck’s an ‘aranea’”? Bella asked, voicing the question everyone else was too embarrassed to ask.

“Imagine a cross between a giant spider and a fat tick. Intelligent. Venomous. Spell casters. Nasty.”

“So do you think the oni and the hobgoblins would be grateful if we got rid of the aranea for them?” Nicki asked, trying to work the angles.

Miyaro laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous! Oni are never grateful for anything, except for their victims’ slow, painful deaths. They’d still just kill you on sight, or better yet, capture you alive to prolong the fun. My advice would be to try to avoid the aranea as much as possible, and go straight for the oni. Once all the oni are dead and the kami can enter, they won’t have any trouble clearing the aranea out.”

That was about as much of a plan as this group ever hoped for, so they began their descent towards the pagoda. Ameiko started to follow, but Sandru held her back; this was likely to be bloody work, and there was no sense putting the princess at risk, much as she’d like to go.

They began to follow broken pathways down into the gardens. Centuries of storms and earthquakes had taken their toll on the area, leaving paths and terraces broken. Arched bridges that once crossed picturesque streams were now mostly fallen, and toppled statues littered the ground. But the vegetation grew in profusion, perhaps influenced by the presence of so many kami. Turquoise, crimson, and orange orchids grew in profusion, along with white and violet lotus flowers and fields of red opium poppies. Many of the terraces were overgrown with wild rice, sunk in watter that bubbled from gasses in the mud below. The streams had once flowed into a large lake, but now it was just a pit of caked mud, the water disappearing into holes into the earth.

Tall keteleeria trees grew to an unnatural size in groves through the gardens, towering hundreds of feet to canopies strung with thick webs. Hundreds of bucket-sized orb spiders could be seen among the webs, but many of the human-sized (or hobgoblin-sized?) cocoons were clearly too large for even them to have hung there. Nonetheless, nothing descended from the webs to harass the party as they made their way to the giant pagoda.

The House of Withered Blossoms towered overhead as they approached. Judging from the overhanging eaves that curled gracefully out at periodic intervals, it looked to have nine of ten stories at least. The building was completely covered in the thick, woody vines that produced its namesake flowers, and if there were any windows, they were hidden by their embrace. The overgrown path led to a huge bronze door, marked with stylized pictures of dueling dragons. Hundreds of open-mouthed dragon faces surrounded the doorframe, leering hungrily.

Everyone looked at Bella, and she moved cautiously up to the door. Examining it carefully, she detected a craftily hidden trigger mechanism, which she quickly bypassed. From what she could tell, each of those dragon mouths had been set to disgorge some sort of flying missile, but now she was confident the trap was disarmed. No one else was quite as sure, and they all moved away as Bella pulled the door open a crack.

When there was no rain of flying death, Bella breathed a little easier, and looked inside. A hallway ran the entire width of the building, turning down the sides on both the right and left. The corridor was choked with webs, but they could be brushed aside, an annoyance more than a hindrance. Bella decided to check out the right side first; she motioned her intent to her comrades, and slipped silently inside.

At the first corner, she peeked around. The corridor continued along the length of the building, ending in a turn that suggested it followed the perimeter all the way around. Midway down, a broad opening led towards the center of the pagoda. As she started stealthily down that direction, she heard a sound behind her. She turned to see that Marie and Nicki had followed her in. Nicki headed her direction, while Marie went to check the opposite side. She stopped just short of the corner, and eased her head carefully around it. Here, too, the hall continued to the back of the building, but there was no opening; instead, a narrow set of stairs led up.

Knowing their plan was to go down rather than up, Marie turned back the way Bella and Nicki had gone. The rest of the group was slipping inside now, and the clank of armor and arms was getting noticeable.

Bella reached the opening in the western hallway. She listened, but heard nothing, then looked inside. The core of the pagoda on this floor had been gutted. The few remaining walls were crumbling, and only the presence of four huge stone pillars, carved with pictures of battling dragons, seemed to keep the building up. Thick webs filled the four corners of the room. The floor of the central section of the pagoda had been ripped up, creating a steep-walled pit sloping down to a dark shaft choked with webs. She peered up into the shadowy darkness 20’ overhead, but could detect nothing lurking in the thick webs.

She began to creep into the large central room, but almost as soon as she stepped across the threshold, she felt the slightest of clicks beneath her feet. “Shit!” she had time to think before dozens of razor-sharp knives sprang up out of the floorboards. She performed a series of lightning fast pirouettes that weren’t very graceful, but were mostly effective, and escaped with just a single nasty slice up one leg.

Sandoval wasn’t so lucky. He’d decided to explore the side corridor Marie had abandoned. He reached the corner she’d peered around, took one step more than she had taken, and found himself impaled by the blades that shot up out of the floor. Marie, already around the far corner, heard his yelp of pain, and quickly began retracing her steps.

Limping and now watching the ground closely for any more traps, Bella continued gamely back into the big central room. Nicki stayed close on her heels, being careful to step only where she had stepped. They were so intent on watching the floor, they never saw the threat from above.

Something plummeted from the webbed shadows near the ceiling. It was big and squishy, and had too many legs, and it slammed into Bella like a sack of cement dropped from 20’ up, almost knocking her prone. At the same time, another came swinging in on a strand of web, snapping slathering jaws at her before swinging gracefully away out of reach. A third came in from the northwest corner, spinning like a top to slam into Nicki. Shinjiro charged into the room to help Nicki, but caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning, he saw an enormous hairy spider climbing up out of the pit in the center of the room, heading straight for him!

The PCs earned 3,200 XP for the night, putting them at 166,862 XP, with 220,000 required for level 12. We’ll be back at Joette & Rich’s next week. Roger will make a real-time decision whether he’ll be there in person or on call.