11th Day of Mid Summer 1303
Kurokawa Held Hostage
Leaving Roka in Sendai, Yuki teleports herself, Miya, Udo, and Rai back to the Village of Kurokawa.
Arriving at the outskirts of the village, about two in the afternoon, they see that they are standing on the narrow cart track leading into Kurokawa.
Up ahead, the Samurai can see a makeshift shantytown sitting in a neglected bean field, just off the road – hobbled together from old boards, tarps, and blankets. What appear to be most (if not all) of Kurokawa’s children currently occupy the area. Milling about aimlessly or huddled together under the shanties.
A number of older boys stand watch by a tended bonfire at the center of the hovels, completely surprised and awed by the Samurai abruptly popping out of thin air – too stunned to say anything or run away.
The children all appear to be afflicted in boils of some kind and look rather haggard and sickly.
As the Samurai take this in, a spirit of some kind slowly manifests in the road between them and the shantytown.
It appears as a willowy seven-foot tall golem, composed of a stomach churning mass of wriggling worms and other parasitical things; wearing a black porcelain facemask depicting hungry sorrow.
It stands on the road, silently regarding the company …
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Observing the disgusting Yori with her Sorcer’s Sight, Yuki recognizes it as a Concept Spirit – Namely ‘Corruption’. The appalling thing was known to spoil food and inflict its victims with parasites and boils.
From her studies in the Sendai Order of Arcanum, Yuki knew that Concept Spirits could not be ‘killed’ – instead, they had to be ritually banished. Sure, the Samurai could use Spirit Cutting or Spells to disrupt it for a few hours, but it would always come back, over and over again, until properly banished.
Fortunately, Yuki knew the ritual for banishing this particular Yori – The porcelain facemask the Yori wore had to be struck and broken with a Shinto-blessed club, hewn from the heart of a freshly felled spirit willow; a tree that only grows high in the mountains and marks the transition between the physical realm and the spirit world.
That and it could not pass over a line of salt…