Battle in the Ruined City

The Battle in the Ruined City fouled the bloodspeaker attempt to create a new Festering Pit in the ruins of the former Imperial City, Otosan Uchi. This event was in between the return of Iuchiban and the Rain of Blood.
== Bloodspeaker Plan ==
Seppun Jin sought to connect Jigoku with the Mortal Realm using the portal to Jigoku that Daigotsu had opened in 1159 in the actually ruined Imperial Palace. He and Chuda Masaru had to prepare a ritual in the destroyed Imperial Throne room, and they would use their forces to destroy any who would interfere the ritual. (Training Grounds Cards flavor)
=== Gathering Resources ===
In 1165 at Otosan Uchi Jin met a merchant, Kasuga Keita. The Tortoise had arranged with Jin to sell him a full sack of jade. As soon the merchant show him the jade, Jin ordered his yojimbo, the undead Voitagi, to kill Keita. Jin used the Tortoise's blood to taint the jade creating obsidian. Ruins of the Past (Training Grounds Story), by Rich Wulf
=== Portal opens ===
With the transformed material they opened the portal and more than thirty oni were summoned wrecking havoc in the city. Ruins of the Past (Training Grounds Story), by Rich Wulf The ritual had not been finalized, what was opened could be closed again. Jin and Masaru endured with another long ritual that would remain open the gate forever. 
== Lion expedition ==
The new Akodo Daimyo Akodo Shigetoshi was tasked to lead an expedition to the ruins of Otosan Uchi, to search for any historical records that could have survived the city's destruction. Dragon Dancers (Training Grounds flavor) Shigetoshi brought along with him Matsu Aoiko, Akodo Tadenori, Matsu Hyun, Akodo Yobi, and twenty members of the Lion's Pride including Matsu Ferishi. 
=== Yotsu Patrol ===
A patrol of the Sword of Yotsu saw more than thirty oni and they were attacked by one of them. Yotsu Iemitsu and two fellows were able to run, followed by the monster. They met the Lion expedition who took care of the Oni. Hyun was sent on her steed to send words for reinforcements to Kyuden Seppun. Aoiko and Yobi were sent to scout the enemy, and saw several Yotsu defending from the tainted filth. Yobi charged alone toward a Lost who mortally wounded him. Aoiko used her trident and pinned the undead down, and Jin magically retrieved the Lost from combat. Aoiko took Yobi, and retreated with the remaining Yotsu until their previous position, in the Deathseeker's Shrine, were the Rokugani were cornered. 
=== Voitagi ===
Voitagi led the shadowlands forces in the battlefield. He was a ronin who before the Second Day of Thunder believed the Shadowlands would gain victory over the empire and bargained his safety, becoming a Lost in secret. He was part of Toturi's Army and tried to kill Toturi the Black, but his fellow Yobi discovered him and struck the ronin down. Voitagi was left dead, but was raised later as undead. Now he had faced again his nemesis, Yobi, but now was the Lion who would die. 
=== Yobi ===
Akodo Yobi became a ronin when he followed Toturi the Black and joined the Toturi's Army. Secrets of the Lion, p. 18 He killed the assassin Voitagi before the Day of Thunder, saving Toturi's life. Yobi did not rejoid the Akodo until the Battle of Oblivion's Gate was fought. When he saw the face of Voitagi in the battlefield his rage and bloodlust had overcame him, and Yobi would die for it. Aoiko swore to dying Yobi that she would avenge him. Aoiko put a torch to the blanket that lay over Yobi's body and gathered his swords. 
== Escaping from the City ==
The messenger sent by the Lion, Hyun, had been noticed by Seppun Jin, who sent his monsters against her. Before she could escape the city the chase began. Hyun had to abandon her steed and hid her between the ruins, to make another escape attempt during night on foot. She escaped the city, only to find the farms beyond now besieged as well. A trio of ogres attacked a farmer and his family. Though her mission was foremost, her honor would not allow her to stand aside and killed the ogres aided by the ashigaru nearby.
=== Reinforcements ===
The peasants run to spread word of what was happening, and Hyun rode again over a borrowed steed towar the Kitsu Tombs. The Kitsu Daimyo, Kitsu Juri, was reported and prepared a counterattack to close the opened gate to Jigoku. The Lion boarded the Deathless and sailed toward Otosan Uchi's beaches, at the command of Ikoma Otemi. 
== Battle in the Ruined City ==
=== Cornered ===
The Lion sack of defenders were attacked by the Shadowlands forces. Several Yotsu had been fell to the taint and now were attacking their former allies, as Yotsu Iemitsu. In the third day another assault was made and Voitagi faced Aoiko, wounded her in one arm, her trident fell. Before the Lost drew the final blow Aoiko rose with Yobi's katana in her hands, cutting the demonic samurai from hip to shoulder. 
=== Shadowlands Defeat ===
Masaru and Jin had been working in the maho ritual all these time, but it still was not completed. Jin sensed the arrival of Lion reinforcements from sea, and he was reported of the death of his warrior leader Voitagi. To avoid their doom, Jin and Masaru fled from the Ruined City. Their oni were defeated, but what they had learned from their summoning remained theirs, a lesson learned to use another time. 
=== Releasing the Lion sack ===
Half of the Lion troops followed Hyun to the shrine routing the enemy. The other half followed Kitsu Juri, as he tracked the magic that had released the demons. Juri and his samurai burst into the Bloodspeaker's makeshift temple, but the villans were already gone. 
== Aftermath ==
The Kitsu closed the portal; Aoiko laid Yobi's daisho on his grave; Masaru became an expert Oni summoner; Otosan Uchi was lost to the Empire forever, tainted spread over each corner; several Yotsu became Lost; Hyun prayed in the Deathseeker's Shrine decided to follow the path of the dishonored samurai and to spread their deeds to the Empire. Matsu Hyun (Training Grounds Boxtext)
== Involved Personalities or minions of the Shadowlands ==
* Akodo Shigetoshi
* Akodo Tadenori
* Akodo Yobi - died
* Chuda Masaru
* Ikoma Otemi
* Kitsu Juri
* Matsu Aoiko
* Matsu Ferishi
* Matsu Hyun - joined the Deathseeker
* Matsu Kenji
* Matsu Mabuchi
* Nairu no Oni
* Seppun Jin
* Voitagi - died
* Yotsu Iemitsu - tainted, joined the ranks of the Lost
Otosan Uchi 1165