Let's Play Ronin (Mork Borg)! Part 3: The Fallen Osho
Let’s continue our story! After traveling and checking off the required Destination days toward our goal, we arrive at the Temple of the Sacred Forest.
Current sheet for the session
Day 3 (Destination 2/2)
d4 Woe Activation: 1!
d66 Black Calendar: 53
Unexplained wildfires rage, and from the ashes a Ryu rises.
d10 Weather: 3, gale-force winds
Wildfires plus strong winds makes for a scary combination, and that’s not counting the Ryu, which is a giant dragon that is now loose in Kage no Shima.
Our first Woe has been activated! Another 6 and the world is no more.
I’ll deal with the wildfires—and possibly the Ryu?—after the Temple.
Temple of the Sacred Forest
We are gonna generate the dungeon now. There’s a nice guide in Tales of the Masterless (TotM). The first step is deciding the size, which has a DR and a die assigned to it. I’m going with Small (DR 8, d8).
To explore, we roll for room description, type, contents, and for d4 exits. Then we check if the next one is the Final Room by rolling 2d20 vs the Dungeon DR (8, in this case). A fail means the next room is an ordinary one and has a trap or enemy in it. A Weak Hit means it’s an ordinary room, and we roll for the contents.
On a Strong Hit, it has a chance to be the Final Room. We roll again with the Dungeon Die (d8 for us) + the number of explored rooms. If the result is equal to or higher than the Dungeon DR, it’s the Final Room.
Temple Room 1
Room descriptors (I’ll roll on various tables): Fading, ominous hum sound. Smell of cherrywood. Haiku-carved.
Room type: Entertainment lounge.
Room contents: Sudden peril
A hidden threat emerges, such as a Trap or a silent attacker.
Exits: 4
A faint buzzing greeted Zen as he entered the Temple. He lit a torch, and the glowing light gave life to wooden walls completely engraved with haiku. They told of servitude, bargains, and coveting.
The chamber smelled of cherrywood, sweet and fruity. Zen inspected the carvings as the humming grew louder, making him tense.
A swish. The air moved behind him.
2d20+1 Swiftness check (DR 12): 2, 16 = weak hit
Zen drew his sword and met the kusarigama coming for him. He deflected the blade at first, but the chain twisted around his katana and the sickle bit at his face.
d2 damage: 1 (HP 7/10)
The shinobi clad in black leered at Zen. “Do not resist the Lady, ronin,” he said. “She will tend to your soul as she has to ours.”
Zen grimaced and sheathed his sword, ready to attack.
I’m using a slightly enhanced Bandit enemy sheet here. HP 8, Morale 8, d3 defense, d6 damage.
Round 1
d6 Initiative: 4, mine
I’ll use Iai Slash (full damage, once per combat).
d20+3 Vigor check (DR12): 13, hit! Full 10 damage!
d3 defense: 3, of course. 1 HP left.
d20+1 Swiftness check (DR12+2 from medium armor): 9, hit.
d6 damage - d4 defense: no damage!
I won’t write roll for roll anymore because it’s clear now how combat works, right?
Note: Editing this before publishing, I realized I forgot to make a morale check for the shinobi. We do those when:
- The leader is killed.
- Half the group is eliminated.
- A single enemy has only 1/3 of its HP left.
It happens.
Zen kills him without taking any more hits.
This time, I’ll make a d66 roll for corpse plundering.
d66: 23 = pouch of tea leaves worth 20 Ryo
I wanna use the Juice Oracle here.
Is this a safe place to meditate?
Oracle: Yes
We can meditate once a week. If successful, we gain 1 Honor, and +1 to a chosen stat for a day.
2d20 Spirit check (DR 12): 13, 16, strong hit!
Alright, with a strong hit we get both benefits! A weak hit only grants 1 Honor, and a fail means something dangerous distracts us.
I’ll put the bonus on Swiftness (+2 now). Honor increased to 12.
And I’ll also use a bandage (3) before proceeding.
d4 healing: 1
My hate for the d4 is renewed.
HP 8/10
Temple Room 2
2d20 Final Room check (DR 8): 16, 9, strong hit. Possible Final Room.
d8+1 (DR 8): 3, ordinary room.
Room descriptors: Foreboding thunder. Damp earth smell. Sakura-decorated.
Room type: Artisan’s workshop.
Room contents:Familiar Foe
A previously encountered adversary or obstacle relevant to the area.
Exits: 4
Hundreds of cherry petals covered the floor, and the smell of damp earth lingered in the room. A constant knocking and chipping came from the figure crouched by a workbench. A woman. She turned toward Zen and offered him a seat, then tools and a block of wood. “Carve your regret, wanderer,” she bade him.
2d20+2 Swiftness check (DR 12): 13, 21, strong hit!
Zen carved with remarkable precision the face of his former pupil, Yen.
Yen opened her eyes.
“Good,” the artisan said. “Good indeed. Now smash it.”
Zen breathed and raised his regret. Acceptance wasn’t easy, but he was trying.
He hurled the carving onto the floor. It shattered with a resounding boom, throwing him backward. When he came to, the artisan was gone.
Temple Room 3
Another roll for Familiar Foe here. This part of the temple leads into a watchtower with a bell. Before it became a Temple, the shogun used the place as a small fort.
Thunder booms outside, and the smell of fire and smoke sends Zen into a coughing fit. (tying in the Woe result here). A terrifying wind shakes the bell and whips Zen’s clothes, carrying the ominous, dense black smoke around him.
2d20+2 Resilience check (DR 12): 7, 6, fail!
Terrible roll. The smoke fills Zen’s lungs, acrid and ashen. His eyes water, and a violent cough wracks his body.
All Resilience checks until the end of the day will receive a -3 modifier.
Temple Room 4
I get into a room covered in burnt tatami mats, still warm. The contents roll here was Treacherous Terrain. Each step makes the floorboards creak.
2d20+2 Swiftness check (DR 12): 15, 9, weak hit
d2 damage: 2
HP 6/10
Zen carefully navigates the room, but his leg breaks through the floor, scratching and burning him.
Temple Room 5
Final room!
The osho, a large bald man, sits cross-legged in a lantern-lit room. He’s groaning as if struggling against something. He sports a long black beard, under which hangs a beaded necklace. An orange kimono is half-open and stretched at his immense belly.
His eyes roll back as Zen approaches, and he stands up. A dark energy surrounds the osho. A purple aura curls away from him like smoke. Zen can see he’s possessed by something.
The amulet he received from the old man on the road hums.
“Another vessel arrives,” the osho said with another voice on top of his. “Your resistance means nothing, Genji. They come of their own volition.”
A jolt of dread ran through Zen’s back. “Who are you?”
“I’m your Lady, and you will feed me. Bow!”
2d20 Spirit check (DR 14): 12, 6, fail!
Zen fell to his knees, bleeding through his nose. He grimaced as the osho got closer, fists closed and burning with purple fire.
“Now join us, ronin.” The osho clutched his head, and Zen felt the fire scorching his insides.
2d20 Spirit check (DR 14): 18, 5, weak hit.
As the cursed fire ravaged him, Zen, in a desperate attempt, managed to draw his katana. Years of experience turned each of his draws in a potential hitkill. The osho, sensing the threat, jumped back.
Zen gasped for air and settled into a fighting stance.
The osho laughed with two voices. “So be it.”
I’m going to a duel here. Dueling rules are a little different from normal combat. We can choose between attacking, guarding, or riposting. Attacks cause weapon damage (or receive damage in case of a fail). Guarding blocks all damage and gets us a +4 on the next attack. Riposting deals double damage on a success, but a fatal hit on a fail. As it requires a Resilience check against DR 14, the -3 I have makes it a hard pass for me.
TotM has a table for generating duelists, but I’ll choose his stats: HP 10, d8 damage, and d4 armor.
I’ll start by guarding.
d20+2 Swiftness check: 4, fail.
Failing to guard causes half damage, d4 in this case.
d4 damage - d4 armor: 2
HP 4/10
The battle goes on. The osho squirms with every powerful punch he unleashes. I whittle him down to 2 HP. I’m at 3/10.
The medallion now glows and buzzes. I realize that it’s reacting to whatever is possessing the osho, and I try to immobilize him.
2d20+3 Vigor check (DR 14): 18, 21, strong hit!
Wasn’t expecting that.
Zen dodges an attack, circles the opponent and grabs him in a stranglehold. When the medallion touches him, it generates an explosion of blinding light, filling the room.
Whatever controlled the osho is now gone.
He tells me his story. His name is Genji Fujiwara, a former member of the Iron Monks, a Monastic Order whose members take a vow of silence in favor of martial arts and meditation. They remain mostly neutral in the affairs of Kage no Shima. Genji renounced his vows to protect the people from the Eclipse, believing he could do more as a wanderer than as a monk seeking unattainable perfection.
The being that possessed him is a Blood Witch, a powerful Yomi demon from the underworld amassing power in the land of the living. Demons and spirits are waging war and vying for power in the depths of Yomi, and the Blood Witch has been forming an army and increasing her influence in both worlds.
Genji says his brothers from the Order might be killed or worse to fuel the Blood Witch. As powerful figures fall, the Witch grows more dangerous, and all the souls in Kage no Shima might know a fate worse than the Seven Woes.
Beware the dead, ronin. Even they aren’t immune to temptation.
The traveler’s words echo in his mind.
Zen’s code dictates his next steps. He will join forces with Genji and search for a way to hinder the malignant Blood Witch.
And the Ryu, that giant dragon that is now loose in Kage no Shima? Maybe their spawning has a connection with this war in the underworld…
Ok, we managed to kind of converge most open threads here and create new ones. There’s still the mystery of Masako in Uzabe Village, and maybe that’s related to Genji, somehow?
That’s it for Ronin, I think. I’m really looking forward to the upcoming expansion Densetsu. It’s supposed to add a lot to the game.
Ronin and Tales of the Masterless are available on the SRG website and DriveThruRPG.
The barebones edition is free! It’s an art-lite version of the full rulebook.