FATHOM #1 - The Oni of Wankiboni

The samurai are quite familiar with the place. Heihachi says, "Oh, yeah... I've done my share of guard duties there. Beautiful place."

Kikuchiyo adds, "Too crowded if you ask me, at least during tourist season."

As for what the people in the vision were wearing, the men had fine clothing, and some had local women with them. The women were mostly in their 20s while the men were considerably older.

The tall, bearded man dressed like a samurai, but even without his orange hakama and many sheathed swords, he would stand out in a crowd. He is roughly as tall a Xenalite, and his pointy beard and man bun make his head appear to be almost vertically symmetrical.

Little time is wasted, except so that the party can fully heal. ((Full HP all.))

The captain then leads the way to the village, and after an hour-long hike along the perilous-yet-family-friendly Coastal Cliffwalk, our heroines see tourists arriving by the boatload to one of Roku-Roku's most famous attractions—

(famous according to the samurai anyway; our heroines never heard of it)

—the Great Falls of Hum Ti!


As the party enters the village, they pass by a group of healers. With them is a wide-eyed man in a bloody shirt with a stump where his left arm should be. Shuddering, the man tells the monk tending to his arm, "'I'll show you a rip-off,' he says. Oh, he ripped me off alright." He then turns to a one-legged fairy healer, griping, "Why take my arm? I already paid him fifty bucks, and he didn't even keep the arm! Just tossed it over the rail!"

The fairy replies, "There are worse fates than losing a limb. I can't speak for losing all those bucks though. I never lost one before." She then sprinkles pink dust on the man. This shapes the stump so the end is rounded, and the limb appears healthy.

Wynry in particular notices the fairy healer's left leg ends the same way as the man's left arm. Whatever healing spell the fairy cast, it's apparent that the magic will not re-grow a severed limb.

There are a few other traumatized patients, including the young women from the vision. Their clothes are somewhat torn and bloody, but unlike the 'ripped-off' man, none of the others are maimed, but just as wide-eyed. The young women speak to each other in a variety of Eastern dialects, while an older Western woman says "I told you so" to a Western man, whose only reply is "Yes, dear."

 

The fairy seems at a loss. "Some tour guide went crazy and started getting really violent with his customers. At least that's the gist of what my patients told me.

"Oh... I wasn't one of his victims." She gives her own shortened leg a pat and clarifies, "This is an old wound. A wolf had mistaken me for a snack."

 

Before the healers can say something to the effect of we-got-it-all-under-control, four men pulling rickshaws rush over to the healers.

One tells the monk, "This is all that cannot walk on their own. This couple is bleeding badly."

The Fairy nods at Einin's offer. "Anything you can do—yes, we need help." The fairy and monk get to work.

((Ireth, Corwynn, Peebothuhlu, feel free to roll one Magic Atk to cast "Sacrificial Maiden."))

 

((One each.

Sorry for the confusion. I just emphasized "one" so you wouldn't roll a bunch of healing spells.

EDIT - Ireth, that^ said, if you roll a zero go ahead and re-roll until you get a non-zero. I can play it up like Einin was struggling with her patient.))

 

The fairy gives Einin a look of concern, as Sacrificial Maiden takes some of Einin's life force away ((–1♥️)) from her and gives it to her patient.

After healing her own patient, the fairy offers Einin some pink fairy dust. She says, "Rub this on your fingertip... or wingtip, rather. And then, when you heal your next patient, touch her wound with your dusted feather while you sing."

((Ireth, you healed the man who was about to bleed out. Now heal his wife. Feel free to roll as many times as it takes to get a nonzero.))

 

Einin manages to save the couple in time, and the spell that saves the wife seems to reverse the draining effect from the spell that saved the husband. ((By which I mean +1♥️; Einin's back at full health.))

There are others in less dire need. The Fairy offers her pink dust to anyone who wants to help heal, though Einin's not sure what the dust does.

 

Wynry accepts the pink dust, but judging by the look of surprise from the other fairy, the surge of power flowing through Wynry's fingers has nothing to do with the pink dust. The monk just steps out of the way, as Wynry heals everyone who still needs it.

"Oh wow..." The fairy gives the monk a look, then turns to Wynry and Einin. "...um, that was very impressive, Your Highness. But I, um... if you don't mind me saying, I noticed your feathered friend was using sacrificial healing magic. I discovered a way to make healing painless. Y'know... for the healer."

The monk gently taps the hovering fairy on her one heel and says something in an eastern dialect.

"Oh... right." Giving Wynry a sheepish smile, the fairy says, "Forgive me, Your Majesty. I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Gator, and this big guy with me is Lunk."

 

Suny's healing spell fully heals those who were still a little wounded.

The man with the missing arm is still missing his arm. The inventive fairy healer (Gator) has not figured out a way to heal a lost limb. As for what she has figured out, the samurai don't stick around to find out.

The captain tells the monk, "You are lucky these ladies arrived. Their healing magic did wonders for my team as well."

Kitsu chimes in, "And they're powerful warriors too! They could easily earn their way to Level 426."

Heihachi says, "That's an island for men only, nimrod."

"I know that. I just mean they're way tougher than Tora."

"I don't know what your friend thinks he'll get out of that place, but he's been there nearly a year, so I guess he's doing okay."

The captain suggests his men save their conversation for after the summoner is detained. Shichiroji is sent to the palace to make sure the princess is safe. The others pair off and head in three different directions to hunt down the villain.

 

As samurai head out to hunt the summoner, the one armed man watches, slowly shaking his head.

Lunk the monk turns to Einin and Suny, with a small pouch in each hand—small enough for a human-sized person to place on a belt; large enough for a fairy to fit inside. Gator hovers over each pouch and sprinkles some of her pink dust inside.

She says, "If you're warriors too, I suppose you're going to help find that crazy tour guide. If you get hurt, be sure to use my dust before you cast any healing spells."

((Our heroines have enough pink dust to cast 6 "Pure Maiden" spells. It's like Sacrificial Maiden, except you don't lose HP. The healer can opt to heal herself, but needs to give more than she gets.))

To Wynry she adds, "I heard the queen here was a fairy, but I didn't know you were so good at healing and fighting. No wonder the humans voted for you.

"Well, if you don't already know how to make pink dust, I'm happy to show you how I made it when you have time. Lunk and I will be here all week."

She points to a building with a multilingual sign that reads Hum Ti Monastery.

 

Once again, our heroines have saved lives that surely would have been lost without their intervention. Now all that's left is finding the man who summoned dozens of demons yesterday and hundreds today. Who knows how many demons will be on the island if he summons again tomorrow?

But where could he be? The samurai are already searching the upper, lower and midlevels of Hum Ti? Do our heroines simply follow one of the samurai pairs, or.......???



((You're near the building on the left, which is south. Every detail in the picture is actually there—and was also there a minute or two ago when you first arrived. The only thing the picture doesn't show is the people.))