S1E5: Burning Bridges

Buro, Tomo, Yoshi, and their Crab clan retinue discovered the ruined keep of Daylight Castle. While exploring the first floor of the castle, they found the castle temple, untouched by the Shadowlands foul taint. Inside this temple, they found the first of three keys to undo the ritual which brought the souls of the Hiruma to Yume-do—the final verse of the Moth shugenja’s ritual which sealed the Hiruma away.

On the second floor of the keep, they encountered a small group of goblins guarding a wooden bridge between the central keep and one of its towers. The samurai slew a handful of the goblins, forcing the others to retreat across the bridge. While pursuing these monsters, Kaiu Tomo discovered that the bridge was covered in pitch and rigged to be set ablaze. The rest of the samurai covered Tomo from the goblins amassing in front of the castle tower as he quickly turned around to exit the bridge. Being firmly positioned in the keep and having routed the goblins, the samurai decided to burn the bridge, preventing any goblins from crossing it.

Climbing the castle keep, the samurai found a disheveled Crab samurai imprisoned in an obsidian cage slick with blood. The Crab identified himself as Hiruma Tomoharu—daimyo of the Hiruma family and witness to Daylight Castle’s defeat. He explained that he had been imprisoned there to look over the castle, and vaguely reported that “the demon” saw through his eyes. Weighed down by the shame of his defeat, he asked the samurai to retrieve the ancestral wakizashi of the Hiruma so he may commit seppuku with it. He warned the samurai, however, that this blade was now being watched by a foul demon in his former quarters. When asked about the strange woman in the Moth robes, he identified her as Hiruma Masami, the savior of Daylight castle and woman responsible for ending Atsumari’s war against the Crab. This unlocked the second key for the samurai to use in undoing the ritual that binded the souls of the Hiruma.

Next, while investigating the castle library, the samurai found a detailed chronicle of the final days of Shiro Hiruma before it fell to the Shadowlands. Remembering the promise they made to Hida Hachiro on the Spear of Dawn Watchtower, the samurai took these scrolls and safely stored them away to be handed over upon their return.

Deciding to investigate the castle further before facing the demon guarding the Hiruma wakizashi, the samurai traveled to the castle’s armory. There they found an experimental suit of wargear—half Kaiu engineering, half Kuni ritual. A ten foot tall suit of animated armor wielding a sacred Naginata, built to defend the armory against the forces of the Shadowlands. Kansen had since corrupted it, preventing it from distinguishing friend from foe, simply killing everything in its path. Tearing it apart limb by limb, the samurai eventually defeated it, claiming the sacred blade as their own.

Before ascending to the daimyo’s quarters, the samurai decided to rest in the castle temple, calming themselves before battle. Here, Tomo discovered that Buro had been repeatedly contacted by kansen, trying to convince him to join them in the waters flowing through the fissures now cutting across Daylight castle. These voices had gotten progressively stronger as the samurai moved across the Shadowlands and throughout Daylight Castle. Before moving on to retrieve the ancestral wakizashi, Hiruma Takana finally breathed his last breath, a result of his wounds not finding the attention they needed.

On the top floor of the keep, the samurai found an unnatural darkness. Blood dripped from the ceiling and walls, forming pools on the staircase leading to the daimyo’s quarters. Lighting this room with torches, the samurai caught a glimpse of a strange creature hunched over a dead goblin. The creature turned to face the samurai and stood up, revealing a pale kimono stretched across a gaunt human body, its face mouthless with shut eyes.

The creature’s kimono blinked, revealing dozens upon dozens of eyes stitched into the fabric. Then the creature opened its eyes, showing nothing more than rows of sharp teeth, like two gaping mouths upon its face.

Artwork by Dylon Munoz

Music by Brandon Spain & Podcast of the Five Rings