The Story So Far - Night of 1,000 Screams

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=== New characters: ===
The People of the Orange Blossom Inn:
* Doji Juzo - The senior partner of the Merchant patron group. 
* Daidoji Anitano - A bodyguard of noteworthy skill who died in the attack
* Doji Usiina - The sole survivor of the Oni attack upon the Crane party. Also a merchant patron
* Hametsu (Innkeeper of the Orange Blossom Inn)
* Kimoko (His wife, co-owner and tea server)
* Hakiku (their daughter, the waitress)
People of the Crane Consulate
* Doji Tsumetsu - Hatamoto of the Crane Consulate 
* Doji Ukidanu - Tsumetsu’s elderly father.
* Doji Naigoko - Head Samurai-ko of the Consulate guard. 
Other figures:
* Oni no Chizaro - A would-be Oni Lord. Trying to take Shosuro Chizaro's name.
* Doji Oruku - Crane Clan Magistrate
*Unknown Thief who fled the Crane Consulate
*Shosuro Chizaro - Cultist who gave their name to an Oni.
*Shosuro Fujun - One of a pair of Scorpion brothers found at the Shosuro Warehouse. 
*Shosuro Hodei - One of a pair of Scorpion brothers found at the Shosuro Warehouse.
== The Magistrate's Wedding Bells: ==
Coming towards the end of the Summer, the Emerald Yoriki have finally had an opportunity to relax. 
Their master Bayushi Sugai is due to be married shortly and his invitation to have the ceremony in the Temple of Amaterasu in the Imperial Capitol of Otosan Uchi. It will be the social event of the season and involve over a hundred nobles taking nearly a week to travel to the capital and another week to return. 
Until then he plans to leave law enforcement in the hands of his most trusted team, with a suggestion that elevation to Magistrate was on the cards if they did well.
He warned that the Bon festival would occur after he left. An annual celebration of the ancestors, where families would clean the shrines to their deceased relatives and give them fresh offerings, followed by a night of raucous celebrations where people dress up in scary costumes and set off fireworks to scare away the spirits of the restless dead. The festival culminates at sunrise at the temple of Amaterasu, where prayers to the rising Sun would banish the spirits of the dead back to the spirit world. Historically the festival had been associated with public drunkenness, assault, confidence tricksters pretending to be dead ancestors and so on. Something that would be made worse by the majority of the Thunder Guard going with the wedding party. 
Bayushi Sugai put out a call for Clan Magistrates, but so far only a few Scorpion Magistrates and a single Crane Doji Oruku, had responded to his request. Doji Oruku would be arriving on the day of the Bon Festival before sunset and would meet them at the Orange Blossom Inn. 
Thankfully crime had been seeing something of a lull with the only exception being thefts by the Wind (The Wind had recently stolen what was to be a wedding gift from the Unicorn estates)
Fade's Bandits, the Ryoko Owari Ninja and the Firemen had not disturbed the peace in several weeks. 
Shinjo Tomoe wishing to impress, speaks to Kitsune Tansen, who helps make a beautiful Kitsune costume for her with ears and three tails. 
Iuchi Ayana went shopping for a costume, she was passing by Whisper's (P45) Shop `Southern Treasures`, the warehouse area at the rear had been torn open by great force. 
The others meet at the inn and are served freshly brewed tea from his wife and promised a delicious meal of duck in a sweet orange sauce.
Ayana arrives and tells them 
Bayusi Sumi arrives, her wedding to Shinjo Takaaki has been delayed due to her being involved in relaying messages to the Imperial Capitol. She's relieved to see her fiancé whom she's grown to appreciate even more following her rescue from Maho cultists. 
The Inn is fairly quiet, with only the innkeeper (A portly man named Hametsu), his wife (Kimoko), his daughter (Hakiku) and a Biwa player as the only staff. 
Their only guests beyond the Magistrate's party were three Cranes happily celebrating, a Ronin and a couple of regulars. 
The team are discussing their next move, when the door flies off its hinges and crushes one of the Crane's party. A powerful Oni with multiple arms and lumpy protrusions from its back stalks in and makes a straight line for the party of Cranes. 
The Yoriki spring in to action, whilst Bayushi Sumi retreats to the safety of the bar. Shinjo Tomoe, Tsurichi Okura and Iuchi Ayana ran for their weapons, which were stored above the door. Whilst Anzu attacked with her iron pipe and Tessen and Shinjo Takaaki picked up the table and swung clumsily at the creature. It was fast however and it seemed to have little impact on them. 
The Oni picked up another of the Cranes and pulled their head off, seemingly unconcerned for the others. The Ronin, the regulars and the Biwa players all beat a hasty retreat. 
With a Jade strike from Iuchi Ayana, both of the Shinjo's being armed now and Tsurichi Okura firing arrows in to it, it begins to take some serious hits, although barely a fraction of what they expected. 
It tore miniature versions of its self from its back and hurled them at Tomoe (who dodged) and Takaaki (Who took it on the chest) 
The one that missed Tomoe violently assaulted the innkeepers wife, killing her, The other attacked Takaaki for no real effect. 
The Oni lept up to the room and would shortly flee, tagged by arrows and magic. It was soon gone leaping between rooftops. Too difficult to track. 
The Yuriki finished off the two lesser Oni with only Takaaki receiving a nasty bite wound. 
Ayana saw that the prints match the marks found at Whisper's warehouse. 
Only one of the three cranes survived, a man named Doji Usiina. His colleague who was killed initially was their bodyguard Daidoji Anitano and his partner Doji Juzo was decapitated by the beast. They were merchant patrons who had recently been travelling with an overland caravan primarily with silk kimonos suitable as festival costumes. (they were considered to be out of fashion, so would sell better in Scorpion lands). 
 
Outside there were sounds of shouting and a Crane Magistrate flanked by two Thunder Guard rushed in. It was the Crane magistrate they had agreed to meet; Doji Oruku. As soon as he had heard the noise, he summoned some of the spread out thunder guard and rushed to assist. Once he realised the threat had passed he sheathed his blade and bowed apologising that he did not arrive sooner. 
He commented upon one of the dead bodies, Daidoji Anitano was a bodyguard of some note who had spent time in the Crab lands, perhaps he was the demons target? Doji Usiina pointed out that the bodyguard had a rare and impressive sword called the Blade of Secrets that he had a great deal of pride about, however it was not here and resided back at the Crane Consulate. Concerned that the Oni might return to finish what it had started Doji Usiina politely asked for an armed escort back to the embassy. 
After some theorising about what might be happening, the Yoriki agreed whilst some Eta were sent to fetch the bodies and the innkeeper and his daughter mourned their wife/mother.
Before going on however, they stopped off at the Magistrate's residence, they would need greater weapons than those they had and Takaaki picked up his Nodachi.
Then travelling on to the Crane Consulate, they took a moment to appreciate its beautiful garden, arrayed in stylish and simple elegance as fireworks illuminated the sky overhead. However as they did so, a wave of drowsiness overcame them and one by one they found a comfortable place to lay and dozed off, with the exception of Takaaki who fight through the sleeping magics and entered the estate, passed a pair of Samurai guards sleeping soundly against the gates.
There was however one thing that caught his eye. A burst of swift movement. The silhouette of a man bare to the waist, bald, wearing a headband and carrying a blade wrapped in cloth across his back. Takaaki gave chase but the figure took an acrobatic leap from a window to a street, nearly 30 feet below and disappeared. 
After a short time the others awoke, along with the guards and other inhabitants of the household. 
Iuchi Ayana noticed a crushed piece of glass in Takaaki's sandal which led her back to a tiny crushed hourglass. From the slumber she surmised that this was no demonic power or blood magic, but prayers to the Kami of slumber and dreams contained within the small hourglass which had been released when it was crushed a magical token (One-use magical tokens such as this are in general known as tsangusuri, whilst permanently awakened items are called Nemuranai.), 
Tsurichi Okura noticed that whilst the crime of stealing from the Cranes would be impressive enough for the Wind, the Wind never left footprints, whilst this person did, nor did the Wind seem to make use of magical items. So this was either a departure from form or a different criminal. 
After some time the owners of the estate were called and came down to greet the Magistrate's party. The Hatamoto (A formal ambassador a very prestigious rank within a clan) Doji Tsumetsu.
== Oni Rising ==
Greeting the Hatamoto Doji Tsumetsu, they availed the ambassador with the frightening stories of the events of the evening so far. 
Behind him the Hatamoto's elderly father Doji Ukidanu invited the Magistrates to come in and take tea with him and maybe he could find a reward suitable for such brave Emerald Magistrates. However the dutiful Yoriki declined the kind invitation stating that they had duties of dire importance. 
They reviewed the evidence they had gathered so far and Tsurichi Okura revealed that he had some ideas about their other major cases in the death of Naritoki and the identity of the Bandit Lord Fade. However with an Oni on the loose there was no time to act on the information. 
They advised Doji Tsumetsu to ask his guards to check the house for signs of a theft, which his guards obediently did. They returned shortly afterwards with word of two issues. Firstly, the Sword of Secrets had indeed been stolen from the guest rooms where the trio of Merchants had been enjoying the Consulate's hospitality. Secondly a ground floor wall had been demolished from outside and a number of crates had been ransacked. 
Tsurichi Okura went down to look at the scenes of both crimes and through communing with the spirits of objects touched, he was able to see the Oni rampaging through the wall to search and break open the crates. The Oni seemed confused by the sleeping body of a maid servant and after some prodding left her alone. 
He also examined the stand on which the blade had rested and saw the metal image of a young bald muscular man with a bare chest, a green headband, loose pants and a heavily tattooed body step in and take the blade. 
Iuchi Ayana saw to Takaaki's wounds and was able to help cleanse and mend them with magic. Then she went to speak to the air spirits of the guest room. The air spirits were keen to communicate 
Takaaki accepted the old mans invitation and sat down for some tea. The hospitable environment giving him a moment to rest from his recently healed injuries. 
Anzu spent his time speculating on the mysteries before her and the Hatamoto's seneschal went down to the store room to inspect the damage caused when the exterior wall was destroyed from the outside.
Kitsuki Oki arrived with Ample as her bodyguard. She'd recently acquired a wooden backpack frame for holding scrolls which could be turned in to a writing desk. She provided a message from the Scorpion chief magistrate Yogo Osako, who was across the river in the Eta quarter dealing with a criminal attack on the Crematorium. When Iuchi Ayana mentioned the warehouse Kitsuki Oki was impressed that they had heard about it so swiftly. Ayana clarified that she meant the warehouse behind Whispers shop, whilst Oki meant the Unicorn warehouse owned by the Shinjo 
Kitsuki Oki wanted to know what she could do to help and was sent out to compare the crate wreckage at Whispers with the crates in the Unicorn 
They team asked her to look at Whispers shop, the remains of the store room and then compare it with the Unicorn Warehouse, then report back. 
They debated responding to Yogo Osako's (P10) message, and decided to swing by the Crematorium, but decided that the Unicorn warehouse was closer.
Bidding the Cranes of the Consulate farewell they made their way through the busy city streets where the happened upon Kitsune Tansen, carrying a child on each shoulder. He'd agreed to look after some of the Scorpion children whilst they were away at the wedding and take them to the festival. He was overjoyed that Tomoe enjoyed the costume he helped make (Which she wore over her armour) and invited her to join them and go bobbing for apples. However she said that her duties were too important and he asked her to at least try to meet him at dawn at the conclusion of the festivities at the temple.
Arriving at the Shinjo warehouse, they found Shijo Sanefuza (P12) bitterly complaining to a local magistrate that his precious stocks had been ruined and despaired of recouping the substantial losses before the return of his father (Shinjo Yoshifusa - P11), he became much more compliant once they mentioned it was somebody from "From the Far South" that was responsible.
Anzu's investigations revealed that two boxes were missing from the yard and they quickly deduced that the Oni must have scaled the wall of the open courtyard to take them, completely bypassing the guards. 
Just then Kitsuki Oki and Ample caught up with them. She had found a symbol common between both sites and the manifest of the Shijo warehouse confirmed her suspicions. Whisper and the Cranes, had both had crates marked with the brand of a Shosuro (A Scorpion family) merchant. two Shosuro marked crates were missing from the Shijo warehouse. 
They had found the common thread. The Shosuro family have a warehouse not far away in the merchant quarter. So they set off immediately expecting to find another dead end. 
Moving away from the well travelled streets, paper lanterns illuminated the sky under the fat full moon and they came to the blocky two-storey warehouse of the Shosuro clan. 
Outside were two heavily armoured guards. Such armour was suspicious, but not unheard of among merchants, but these guards were evasive and deflective (and not particularly good at it.). They first greeted the Magistrates in a slightly over-loud voice and advised that they didn't require any assistance, thank you. When they wanted to examine the property, the guards said that they would need the approval of the owner who was not here right now. The stalled and deflected further, but once it was obvious that the Magistrates were not going to take no for an answer they allowed them inside. 
Once inside they closed the door and shouted that "Magistrates, kill them now or we're all dead!"
2 leaders and four more guards dashed out from the shadows. the Leaders, squaring off against Anzu in centre stance, seemingly reluctant to engage her directly. 
The remaining six lashed out badly injuring Tomoe and Ayana, However the arrows of Tsurichi Okura found their mark unerringly seeking out limbs, pinning combatants the the walls and breaking bones. The group was slightly outnumbered and the guards wore heavier armour but the Magistrates were far more skilled fighters and even against these odds swiftly turned the tide on their attackers. 
The leaders spoke with Anzu, eventually clarifying their situation and advising her and the others to run and not look back.
As it became clear they could not prevail the leader Shosuro Fujun and his brother Shosuro Hodei told the guards to put down their weapons and run. They stayed in their place. 
They told them that they had no choice, they had been told to stay and guard the warehouse and if they failed, the Oni would hunt them down.
Fujun took them upstairs to reveal a room with a dirty bloodstained man with greying hair and withered features muttering to himself incoherently inside a circle of bowls of blood, each of which held a candle. 
Fujun told them that he had been like that since sunset. They knew they were working for bad people, but they didn't expect something so obscene, by which time it was too late. The man was Shosuro Chizaro and he was in the process of giving his name to the Oni. A terrible thing, which even the most hardened Maho practitioners would not do willingly as it destroys a persons spirit utterly and feeds it to the Oni.
When a wagonload of goods that they were expecting failed to arrive, three figures in basket hats came to visit Chizaro, taking him in to a locked room and conversing with him. Voices were raised and terrible threats about Chizaro's family were uttered. They left and then today at sunset Chizaro began the ritual and summoned the Oni. 
Once an Oni receives the True name of a Samurai, it becomes an Oni Lord. A creature of unrivalled power capable of laying cities to waste. 
He warned grimly that when that happened, the city would ring with the sound of a Thousand Screams. Unless they found and killed the Oni before the ritual concludes at dawn. 
== The Blade of Secrets: ==
As they were about to leave Shosuro Fujun mentioned one final thing. They knew little of the cult that orchestrated this and drove Shosuro Chizaro to begin this terrible ritual, but they had been told to accept the delivery of Masks from a local Crab merchant patron, somebody apparently intrinsically trusted by the cult, suggesting that it was one of them. 
As they left the warehouse to contemplate their next steps they received a knock on the door. A team of Firemen wearing a blue dragon costume and carrying water pails on a yolk had heard the disturbance and tried to investigate as they thought a fire might be involved. Takaaki tried to co-opt the leader, a man named Hiroshi in to finding them a Crab Shugenja who might have a better idea of what to do. However the short fireman was adamant, that he had a sacred duty by order of the Governess herself to patrol for fire and this was the night of the year when the most fires happen due to all of the fireworks and costumes, but as there was no fire there, he was dismissed. 
Fortunately Kitsuki Oki appeared with a report. The Thunder Guard from the Gate of Oni's Teeth had witnessed a "Terrible Monster" with Four or more arms leaping over the locked gate and escaping in to the countryside, this report was about 30 minutes old. 
She also pointed out a strange man standing on one of the piles driven in to the nearby lake around which the city was built. 
The man was bare above the waist with only a headband and loose trousers over his muscular and tattooed body. As the Magistrates approach he smiled and spoke softly. 
"As the Tao says: When the work is done, wait, wait, bide. Abide my friends, and we will speak. Patience brings knowledge."
Indicating that he could cut the conversation short by diving in to the water he carried on. "I know what you seek. A fortune-teller cannot tell his own fortune. But I know your part in this. You want the sword... Whisper's new sword, the Blade of Secrets. Now I will tell you what you wish, if you wish it. Nothing is as it seems, you know. Nothing at all." He the pointed to himself and said "Ikyoto". Clearly one of the mystical Tadashi Tattooed monks. 
As he was trying to introduce himself Okura spotted a black-clad figure running past the edge of the alleyway and with blinding speed drew his bow and fired, hitting one of the targets in the knee as the two others fled in fear. Heading over it became clear however that this was no ninja. Their sword was painted wood and their costume was simply a set of old rags dyed black. The peasant on the floor mewled for mercy, but only Tomoe had any sympathy, giving him enough money to at least pay for his care for a while. 
They then went back to the monk, who had waited patiently. His answers were cryptic and indirect, but he did take the sword and give it to Whisper, who was fearing for his life after his shop was ransacked by the Oni. The monk suggested that "The best place to unravel thread is at the beginning." Hinting that Whispers may have left some clue in his shop. He also indicated that he feared that the Oni would return tonight and that the Sword of Secrets held a terrible price. 
They left for Whisper's shop "Whisper's Antiques, Artefacts and Oddities", a simple storefront. Although the front door was closed and barred, the rear of the property was more accessible through the large Oni-shaped hole. His wares were largely cheap trinkets and local reproductions of Unicorn or Mantis novelties and religious charms. Although he did have several costumes. 
Heading upstairs they found a personal bedroom where he clearly slept. A few things had been hastily taken, but he had left in a hurry and an inspection of the room revealed a diary beneath a rug and a loose floorboard. The diary had been updated from the previous night, he appeared to be religious about maintaining it. 
Whilst it did not give his location, it mentioned that he regularly pined for a young Geisha from one of the less prominent Geisha houses on Teardrop Island, Suruko from the House of Water Lilies. There were a couple of painted pictures of her around the room. 
So the Magistrates set out for the Little Gate where they could catch a Ferry to Teardrop Island. As they were handing over their weapons to Gate the owner of Swords Polished, they lamented getting anything out of the famously tight lipped Geisha houses. However Anzu realised that anybody going to and from the Island would need to go through Gate's shop. So she asked about Whisper and the Geisha and he told them that if they had not gone to Whisper's home then, they had likely gone to he home in a shop above merchant's row. He was able to provide directions and they set off again. 
Arriving at Suruko's tiny apartment, it was unlit and quiet. However persistence managed to reveal that Whisper was hiding inside, apparently terrified. 
Takaaki kicked through the door but ended up with his foot embedded in a chest of drawers and Suruko persuaded Whisper to open up. 
Inside Whisper held the sword like a club, clearly unsure of how to use such an elegant weapon. The Magistrates promised to help him and he eventually relented handing over the blade to Tomoe. 
Whisper confessed that he followed the Cranes to where the stolen goods were being fenced at the Shinjo Warehouse. He purchased a few of the fine masks for himself and sold them on for a tidy profit, one of which went to his patron Yasuki Nobuko [P24].
They headed out aiming to return to the Shosuro warehouse and maybe then to go across to the Crematorium to investigate reports there. 
However as they were heading through the streets, Oni-no-Chizaro lept out and tried to kill Whisper, not quite managing to kill him. 
Takaaki applied Jade powder to his Nodachi whilst Okura attacked with arrows that could kill a human in a single strike, whilst Tomoe was momentarily flat footed. The Oni launched more of its smaller spawn at the Magistrates rallied. 
Tomoe carrying the Sword of Secrets cut through the Oni with a terrible strike, grievously wounding it and causing it to fixate all its attention on her and Takaaki's Nodachi now covered in powdered jade dealt a less effective, but still respectable blow. Okura's arrows and Ayana's spells also contributed and the Oni managed to land only a few light blows. 
A second blow from Tomoe's blade cut deep in to the Oni's chest and it fell lifeless to the floor, its face a twisted combination of Chizuro's and the Oni's own. However it drew its power directly from her body, leaving her weakened and frail. 
As they finished the Oni, the left some Thunder guards to guard its corrupted corpse and went back to the Shosuro warehouse, but they found only a smouldering wreck. The Warehouse had caught fire from within presumably from the Oni's death. However a skilled team of nearby firemen extinguished the blaze before it could spread.
The Oni was dead, but the cultists still lived. Whispers told them the names of the four Crab merchant patrons in the town:
* Hida Muchi
* Kaiu Shirya [P23] - The Weaponsmith who gifted the Magistrates weapon cleaning kits when they arrived.
* Yasuki Nobuko [P24]- His own patron
* Kuni Ryo 
One of these four was certainly a member of the cult, but there was no indication which was guilty. 
== Four Merchants ==
Kitsuki Oki and Ample returned with a Witchhunter named Meishozo Nisei. He was staying at the Crab Consulate and had been in the city on the trail of a cult in possession of a porcelain mask. The smaller masks that they had been told about were likely created by the master mask which is about twice as large. 
Doji Oruku returned from the Crematorium saying that mourners at the cemetery were attacked, killed and robbed for their valuables whilst visiting their ancestral shrines.
Yogo Osako left a message saying that she had broken off pursuit of the bandits in response to a message from the Thunderguard and was following the tracks of the Oni. With Oruku, Oki, Nisei and Ample they now had a second group who they could deputise to take on minor tasks that they did not have time for. So the group sent them led by Tsurichi Okura to track down Osako and bring her back to the city. 
This left the four of them with four possible Crab Merchant Patrons, so they split up hoping to take one each: 
Iuchi Ayana set off to seek out Yasuki Nobuko, but as she pushed through the crowded marketplace she felt a small hand pulling on her robe. A young boy wearing a goblin mask explained that they had lost their parents and worse yet, he only had a very vague idea of where he lived and the names of his parents are "mummy" and "daddy", being a peasant he did not have a family name. She did her best to find his parents, but she was busy and so found another family and asked them to take care of him and she would collect the boy at the temple of Amaterasu at dawn. 
With that dealt with, she went looking for the townhouse of Yasuki Nobuko. The servant at the door greeted her and when she mentioned she was working under the auspices of the Emerald Magistrate, they ran off to fetch their mistress. 
Nobuko was very unhappy to be disturbed as she had a very important guest, a merchant patron trading valuable fireworks. She did however recognise the seriousness of the situation and deflect them elsewhere. 
“I don’t like to spread gossip, my friends, but word has it that Hida Muchi is in some trouble with the Scorpion right now. Surely you heard about the death of his lovely daughter? Such a tragedy." 
“Well, he would do anything to get back at the Shosuro, you know.” She smiles, whispering, “If anyone was going to back the Moon Cult in the city, it would be Muchi. The Moon Cult, it is said, wants to destroy the Temple of the Lady Sun, and cause her to curse the city. Muchi would be for anything that hurt the Scorpion - and their precious city. Not out of fanaticism, of course - but out of revenge. ”
She said that she did have one of the masks and heeded Iuchi Ayana's warning not to put it on.
Through the door she could see a man waiting wearing Phoenix robes. She was knowledgeable enough to recognise the mon of Isawa Orimono. A cousi of the Phoenix Daimyo, but one who had dropped out of the Shugenja school. However after this Ayana left her to her business to rejoin the others.
Shinjo Tomoe pressed through the busy streets and was accosted by a merchant, who offered to sell a potent tsungusuri (A type of magical fetish containing a potent spirit which would work only once). The asking price was steep, 4 Koku, nearly a quarter of her biannual allowance and a small fortune for a peasant. However the merchant was sincere in their presentation and persuaded her. So she left with a small sun symbol decorated in gold and silver. 
Heading on to her target Tomoe found Kaiu Shirya. He was hastily loading a rickshaw with boxes of clothes and other items. His heavily pregnant wife sitting nearby. 
“I really can’t talk right now - my wife and I were just leaving.”
Tomoe challenged him about his rapid departure and asked why he was in such a hurry. 
“Excuse me, please, but my wife is pregnant, and we have to get her to her mother’s house at Yogo Shiro as soon as possible. I fear it’s going to be a difficult birth.” The Kuni ran one hand through his hair, and his eyes dart about nervously. “Look, if anyone in the city knows anything about maho, it would be that Kuni. He deals in dark magics, you know.” Shinya threw another bag onto the cart, and says, “He knows much more than he says about maho, and that many of his customers are known to be dealers in dark magic and Shadowlands lore. If you want to find your masks, leave an honest merchant alone and talk to the maho-tsukai!"
She thought about finding a doctor to help with the delivery here, but decided against it as finding a suitable doctor and the right priests could take all night. She mentioned the cultists and the recent Oni attack and Shirya countered that this was even more of a reason to leave the city. So reluctantly let him go. 
Shinjo Takaaki meanwhile narrowly avoided getting drawn in to an arm wresting contest after he was accidentally pushed in front of performance. His quarry was Kuni Ryo. 
The skinny Shugenja was evasive and vague claiming to know nothing of the masks that Takaaki sought.
Anzu's passage through the busy streets came to an end at a performers tent where a red-haired gaijin woman wearing a fox mask offered to tell her fortune. However Anzu was ever-wary and politely declined her offer, although she said she would be around until Sunrise if he changed his mind. He the went onwards in search of Hida Muchi. 
Hide Muchi was as fat as he was blunt and as muscular as he was short tempered. He was found set cross-legged supervising his store workers. He had no time for subtlety or discretion and told Anzu to come out with it straight and say Oni if he meant Oni. He did have some of the cursed masks, but had sold them on, he didn't recall to whom. He said that Kaiu Shinya would know the most about that sort of thing.
Dejected by the lack of leads he returned to the fortune teller who used a large glass ball and peered in to it. 
She saw three futures, the near, the medium and the far ad asked which she wished to know about first. 
Choosing the near future, the fortune-teller said that "When all is chaos and death, rise above it, gain fresh perspective, Only by seeing what others do not is there a path to victory."
Curious she then asked about her mid-term future. The fortune teller said that there was much sorrow in Anzu's love life and that this was her fault for being too fussy. The fortune teller suggested Anzu be more open and bestowed a blessing. "Whenever you refuse a proposition, let your stature in the city be diminished." When she confronted the fortune teller to ask if she was a spirit of Sakkaku, she said yes and that "You shouldn't go around arresting friendly fox spirits." before turning in to a fox and scampering under the back of the tent. 
They met back up at the marketplace with various degrees of success uncertain of where to go next. But the marketplace was a poor location to conduct official business, so they made their way South towards the Civil Hall from where they might plan their next move.
As they made their way back towards the Noble Quarter where the Civil Hall was located, some of them heard a low chanting.
Takaaki's right arm was struck by a malevolent spasm, Tomoe's Katana grew incredibly hot in its scabbard and Iuchi Ayana became terrified of her own scrolls. Worse yet, there was a blast of fire that filled the alleyway with no sign of where it came from. 
Following the sounds, Takaaki kicked down the door to the property that the chanting came from and found a dead body slumped against the wall. The others followed in under a barrage of more Maho spells. Tomoe tried to charge up the stairs, but the cultists had anticipated this, having broken a hole in the steps and covered it with an illusion. As Takaaki and Anzu jumped over the gap they briefly saw Kuni Ryo along with three apprentices. Their spells inflicted crippling damage to the magistrates and one of the cultists fell swiftly, but Kuni Ryo bought a curse of darkness down on the area. Without being able to see, they might strike each other as much as the cultists who would be able to attack with impunity. 
However Tomoe remembered the small golden sun that the merchant had sold her. Invoking the power of Lady Amaterasu she prayed that the darkness be banished and in an instant it was, allowing the samurai to cut down the remaining cultists, although leaving one alive for questioning. Although with Ayana's healing running low and everybody having suffered serious injuries there was talk of heading to the temple district as they felt they could not survive another fight like that. 
== Sunrise! ==
Tsurichi Okura returns with Yogo Osako, her Thunderguard and the rest of the team he departed with, just in time to see a guard on the civil hall put away their opium pipe and to leave a cloud of opium in the air. 
The rest of the team meet Kitsune Tanzen along the way who was alarmed at the sight of Shinjo Tomoe covered in blood and so offered his services and prayed for Inari to grant her blessing to heal her as well as Shinjo Tanzen. With him and the children heading off to join the procession they carried on to the Civil hall. 
They arrived shortly after Okura with Anzu having been held up, accepting several offers by merchants to purchase things. 
Their prisoner, a woman named Yaraiko was put in to cells in the prison next to the Civil Hall whilst the team brief each other on what they found. Yogo Osako did not reach the end of the Oni tracks but it was presumed that they were heading to the Lunar Caves. Okura knew of legends that there was only a single family that knew enough to act as guides and nobody but them knew if the caverns had an end.
Realising that this could have been where the Oni took the masks, Takaaki asked for the Lightning Squad to be dispatched to investigate, and a message was sent to the palace to do just that. 
Finally they returned to the matter of Yaraiko. She was bought in with stocks on her hands and a gag to prevent spellcasting. The guards let her fall and from the floor she hurled blind insults at them taunting them and insulting their ancestors. Refusing to answer questions. The insults were so grave that Tomoe took her katana and cut off the prisoner's foot.
Pitiful the torturer (missing both his legs) first applied a tourniquet to the wound and then took 10 minutes alone with them, gently imploring her to give him a reason to stop as he inflicted terrible pain.
She gave up a story that the cultists were preparing their ritual in an old abandoned manor house in the countryside to the North of the city.
They gathered horses and sent part of the Lightning squad out towards the manor to scout. They were close approaching sunrise. 
The scouts reported seeing no more than a handful of figures in the old mansion. However when the magistrates rode up three ronin emerged bearing weapons. They were simple squatters with no sign of moon tattoos. 
The prisoner had lied to them. 
They circled back to the city, but as they approached their escort tensed up as soon as they were in sight of the city walls. Flags set up by Shosuro Jocho provided alerts of threats to the city walls. The flags in this situation showed an attack on the Dragon gate. They broke in to a gallop, through the Eta quarter and found a horde of a few dozen of the undead clawing at the city gates, each dressed in festival clothes and costumes. The guards were firing arrows down on them, but undead flesh was resilient and over a hundred arrows had destroyed only a few of them. 
Tsurichi Okura decided to break off from the others and followed the tracks of the zombies to find their place of origin whilst the others moved up to clear the zombies from the gate. 
They were very little threat to the mounted samurai, but they were an exhausting foe, requiring several blows to kill one, even from the Shinjo warriors. As they fought there were sounds of alarm bells coming from within the Temple Quarter of the City. 
Okura returned after a few minutes. The bodies were the victims from earlier, they had emerged from a building where their bodies were presumably being prepared for cremation. He had found tracks leading to a few eta homes from the crematorium. 
He gathered the other Samurai, who left the guards to deal with the zombies (Given the thick wood of the gate they posed only a minimal threat) and headed to the household of the Eta. The first house had an elderly eta woman living alone. She denied knowing anything about the attack of the walking dead, but Okura had other trails to follow and managed to locate another of the Eta mortuary workers who confessed that they opened the morgue for a Phoenix Samurai. 
Heading back to the gates, they found that the guards had cleared the remaining dead from the gate. So they rode through at top speed towards the sounds of a thousand screams. 
A larger horde of zombies, likewise dressed in numerous costumes had swarmed around the temple of Amaterasu. They had driven the crowd in to a fierce press of bodies. The few people with weapons were barely able to swing them due to the chaos. Against armed and armoured Samurai they were little threat, but for the celebrants of the Bon Festival, clad only in costumes and holding little beyond paper streamers, temple offerings and fireworks, they were extremely vulnerable. 
Coming in to the compound, various people had sought shelter in the surrounding woodsheds, classrooms, stores and alms-houses that surrounded the temple. 
Near the entrance they could see Doji Tsumetsu (The Crane Ambassador) and Doji Ukidanu (His elderly father) besieged. Whilst they took out of of the zombies attacking them, they did not stop and instead poured rushed through to save others. 
On a woodshed Dove, normally a composed and courageous warrior was experiencing a panic attack, screaming and pulling herself in to the wood shed to escape the grasping hands of the dead. Fortunately for her, Tomoe rode up her horse and tempted her with a way out. 
Around the other side, Kitsune Tanzen was protecting the children in his care, the Magistrates dispatched Yogo Osako, Kitsuki Oki, Ample, the Witch Hunter and Doji Oruku to rescue them. 
Takaaki wasted no time rescuing Bayusi Sumi from her perch atop a supply shed and she did an impressive leap to join him on his horse. Sadly she wasn't quite good enough and fell short, but a sprained ankle aside, she was able to get up on to the horse. 
Anzu instead went of the high priestess on the steps of the temple. She was being guarded by a trio of monks, but they were still being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers and the Priestess was extremely frail. Anzu saw a fox watching her with an oddly exasperated expression. She recalled the fortune she received in the marketplace. "When all is chaos and death, rise above it, gain fresh perspective, Only by seeing what others do not is there a path to victory." 
She eyed the temple and saw that she was able to get up there. Clambering up, one of the monks helped pass the priestess up to her. From her elevated vantage point she was able to see a figure dressed as a ghost flanked by a pair of armoured oni as his bodyguards. The man dressed as a ghost had his arms raised and had cut his own wrists. 
As the fighting intensified the earth began to shake beneath them. 
Tomoe found the family that Ayana had tried to help earlier. She was able to charge her warhorse through the crowd to give the family a path to escape. 
Anzu pointed out the ghost and Takaaki found a building where zombies seemed to be emerging from and he rode his horse in to the building. The former classroom had become a factory line where people were being pulled in to the building from one side, their throats were slit over a bowl of blood which contained a large master mask. Then once the master mask had absorbed enough blood, it produced a smaller mask. Another Acolyte forced the mask on to the newly murdered body. However the arrival of an armoured and mounted Samurai put a stop to their opperation. 
Okura spotted a pair of Geisha, Precious and Magda who had clambered to safety and with a skilled shot, was able to peel at least one of the walking dead from them, allowing them to hold out a little longer. 
As the earthquake intensified. people were thrown to the ground, though the Magistrates were made of sterner stuff. 
As the temple began to rock, Anzu climbed down intending to attack the caster, but saw a particularly strong quake knock High Priestess Meiyo from her perch. 
Okura, Tomoe and Takaaki converged on the Maho-Tsukai who seemed to be behind the earthquake spell. A sword blow and a deadly accurate arrow through the ghostly mask, killing to spellcaster dead. 
With the caster dead the quakes subsided leaving only moderate structural damage to the city. Priestess Meiyo reached the front of the temple and finished the final blessing to welcome the sun and to banish the spirits of the night. 
The Sun hit the golden orb of the temple and bathed everybody in light as the Thunder Guard rallied in numbers to put down the remaining zombies. 
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