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Alright, so the first game begins with Rei (Scott) and a monkey-man (Justin) doing the usual starting out type of thing. Y'know,
getting to know eachother somehow usually involving the tavern in some way. Immediately, Rei met Keiken, who challenged Rei
to a friendly duel to test his strength. Of course, Keiken won and knocked him into next week, literally. When he finally
woke up, Rei and Keiken (see character section) somehow became friends. They have breakfast in a nice restarurant, and then
Keiken leaves the town, telling him to wait for him. Rei took that a bit to the extreme and sat in the middle of the main
gate and refusing to move until he came back. While he was still away, Rei was approached by a peasant, asking to meet him
later that night. They meet, and he tells Rei of a planned rebellion in which they need strong warriors to lead the peasants
against the Kurou Family currently controlling the town. About two days later, the battling started in the middle of the day
n a restaurant. Rei and the monkey-man lead the rebellion, and kill many of the police officers. They even manage to collapse
part of the town hall. Their victory was short-lived, however, and the police re-organized and put down the rebellion in a
matter of days. Rei and the monkey-man survive, as well as a few others who were leading. They were put into prison, and and
while there, the Koga Clan came to liberate the peasants. (And to kill some of the Kurou) After a couple days of political
garbage, Rei and the monkey-man join up with the Koga and go with them to their secret cave headquarters.
Rei's first mission was to investigate a large cave system to the south-west. He was assigned the monkey-man, a ninja,
Tadaji, and Ozaki (see character section) and a wagon with horses. They left after recovering from their wounds, and met a
lone minotaur along the way in the hills. H challenged Ozaki to a duel, but he suggested Rei to fight in his stead. The minotaur
accepted, and they faced off in a ring of dead samurai's katana. Rei was narrowly defeated, and actually cut the minotaur
in the process. The minotaur was so impressed by Rei's cut that he let him take all of the swords with him to return to the
samurai's families, and then he left to join the Koga. They move along on their way and wyverns attack and destroy their wagon.
They are forced to stay put for a number of weeks, as a couple of them were grievously wounded in the fight. They actually
build a cabin during that time, and Rei's curse finally takes effect. (In a previous fight with a Tigbanua-Buso, he was cursed
to become a creature of the same type most nights) In the night, Rei kills the monkey-man and eats his brains. (From then
on he was bound every night) They finally make it to the caves, and find it to the a Formian Hive. While inside, they were
attacked and fled, but never made it out of the cave. Instead, they were captured and led to the Queen for her to eat. (They
were betrayed by Tadaji, that's why their escape was cut off) They somehow escaped in typical fashion, piss off the monsters
and book it. They would have been killed and eaten, but luckily Ozaki had a couple sticks of gunpowder. He collapsed a tunnel
and they ran really fast out of the cave.
After fleeing the cave, they head back to the little cabin that they built. After recovering from their wounds, Ozaki
and Rei (the only survivors) traveled south to the nearest town to re-supply for their return trip to the Koga headquarters.
Once there, they find out some odd things about the town. All of the men fit to fight have left to attack the village across
the jungle. They learn from the woman serving as temporary innkeeper that there is still one fighting man, an old man who
is master of their local dojo. Rei goes to meet the man, and finds that he is most definitely not native to Ithidor. The man
is a Desert Warrior named Mugash-Alad, and he agrees to a friendly duel between him and Rei. Alad, by using a completely foreign
dueling technique, caught Rei off-guard and defeated him. Rei and Ozaki decide that they can possibly stop the conflict between
the two villages here, and that they are in no rush to return to the headquarters. They do not listen to the womens' warnings
about the volcano in the middle of the jungle, and since the fastest way to the other village was a straight line over the
volcano, they go straight there. They fight their way through the jungle and make it there expecting an even greater danger,
but are greeted by amazons who have not seen men in a long time. Now, I don't think it necessary to describe what occurs,
but both Rei and Ozaki leave happier than they were when they got there. They reach the next village just fine, but find no
men there either. They find from the women there that the northern village's men never arrived, and their men had just recently
left to go exterminate a number of wyverns in a cavern directly to the north. They rest for the night, and the next day a
Koga ninja arrives telling them of a great Oni Lord that has appeared to the north-west, and Keiken has ordered that threir
forces focus on the new threat instead of the Kurou. Rei is to gather as many warriors as he can, and Ozaki is to rendevous
with the main Koga army at the Kaiu Tower.
While the Koga are massing as the Kaiu Tower, Rei goes about recruiting a small band of warriors to the Koga. He gets
a half-dragon (Garret), a Celestial Wolf-Man named Karyn (Dom), a spirit cat named Lias (Kris), and a samurai named Jack (Danny).
Satisfied with his small but lethal group, Rei begins traveling to the Oni Tower at a leisurely pace to allow the Koga time
to reach the Tower at the same time. On their way, they find the ground has been corrupted and is now gray, dead ash. The
sky itself has been blackened in the area surrounding the Tower. Nearby, they see a large number of the undead marching to
a cemetary. Rei decides that it is a nice target to test their strength and team-work on, and they ambush the group of ghouls.
The wolf-ninja sneaks up behind them and slits the rear-guards' throats, while the half-dragon flies above to breath his ice-breath
down upon them. The samurai make short work of the remainders, while the spirit cat lazily floats nearby. Suspecting the cemetary
of having more undead inside, Rei leads the party into it and is indeed correct and the group has to fight off a great number
of various undead crawling out of the graves. They more or less dispatch them with ease, but the half-dragon and spirit cat
were paralyzed for a couple hours by the ghouls. Rei senses a very powerful evil force from inside the main mausoleum, and
foolishly charges inside. Jack and Karyn follow, and they are met by an exceptionally large ghast covered in arcane runes.
The door immediately closes behind them, and the party charges the ghast. They all strike and cut the monster, but Jack's
blade cuts deepest of all, nearly severing an arm. The beast's blood is acidic, and sprays out of the wounds, burning them
all. It lets loose a noxious cloud of gas, incapacitating Rei and Karyn, and ferociously attacks Jack. Jack, a true samurai,
keeps a clear head through the barrage of claw swipes, and jumps back, sheathing his sword. He then leaps at the monster,
getting hit full on by a flaming bolt of magic, and calling upon the power of the void, bisects the ghast with a perfectly
executed iaijutsu attack. Burned and cut all over, he stumbles out of the mausoleum carrying Rei and Karyn, and then collapses
on the ground.
This little pit-stop costs them quite a bit of time, due to them having to rest up a bit after the fighting. When they
finally resume their march towards the Tower, they find a small village on the way. They choose to finish resting there, and
they stay about two weeks. During their stay, Karyn more or less teaches himself how to make explosive, while the half-dragon
trains with Rei. Jack is undergoing complete bedrest, and Lias is doing what he usually does, absolutely nothing. Rei meets
a swordsmith that recognizes him as Koga, and he offers to upgrade their weapons and armor. Karyn gets a brand new pair of
beautifully made ninja-tos, and the samurai get spears. Anyways, after all that stuff, they are once again on their way to
the Tower.
They rendevouz with the rest of the Koga Army on the outskirts of a swamp. They have a war meeting in Keiken's tent, and
decide on their battle plan. Keiken, Kaiten, and Rei's group will sneak into the Tower while the army buys them time outside.
The entire Koga army collects on the large open plain before the Oni Tower, and whatever you want to know is in my story
in the Writings section of this page. Now, inside the Tower the small group of warriors faces many traps and guardians. Immediately,
Keiken and Kaiten are seperated from the rest by clever traps. Rei, Karyn, Lias, Jack, and the half-dragon continue upward,
hoping to meet up with Keiken at some point. They nearly die many times, and one trap involving a large boulder and a slope
should have killed them all, but they were saved due to DM pity. They make it to one of the upper floors of the Tower, and
find no more stairs, only five portals. Jack enters one, and it immediately disappears with him. They all must take seperate
portals, each leading to an individual fight. Rei encounters a little child, who toys with him using psychic powers. He doesn't
kill Rei, promising to meet him later to finish him. Karyn fights a Gambol in a large bamboo forest. Being a ninja, he uses
the forest to conceal him and easily slays the creature. Jack fights a Toshigoku Spirit in an iaijutsu arena, and wins as
well. Lias, due to him actually attacking the portal, doesn't fight anything at all and safely passes through to the roof.
Finally, the half-dragon fights an arrowhawk in an extra-dimensional pocket of air, but he is killed by the arrowhawk. After
these battles, they all arrive at the roof to witness the duel between Keiken and the Oni Lord (also detailed in the story).
There was a bit more after that, but that is basically the end of the campaign there. They'll be returning for more,
they always come back!
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