No movement can be seen inside the station.
We take position in some tree cover just byond the station's broken
gate. Cutting its shoulder to scent the
air with blood, we use a goat to lure the creature out. Having heard tales of the beast's foul stink, we tie perfumed
cloths about our faces. We wait.
Time passes slowly. Just as we begin to think
that perhaps it was all nonsense, a dark shape crawls from the mouth of the
well. It bounds straight towards the bleating goat at an incredible speed. A
hunched monstrosity with a vicious hooked beak for a face and cruelly spiked shell upon
its back. Arrows and bullets fly, the crack of the musket echoing loudly
through the gloaming. The creature falls to the ground, still and lifeless, its
thick black blood staining the white snow. The noise has attracted others, two
more claw their way from the well mouth, one a giant hulking beast much larger
than a man. They are aware of the trap we set for then and ignore the goat,
heading straight for us. The perfume has most likely given away our position. A
single arrow suddenly whips past the larger monster’s face and slams into the
smaller creature. The force of the blow knocks it off its feet and it lies
kicking on the ground, the arrows fletching protruding from its mouth, the
arrowhead from the back of its skull. The samurai Tsukimi Junzaburo smiles, a perfect
shot indeed. The large beast does not slow however, taking no notice of its kin’s
fall. It also fails to notice the hulking bushi Moto Kenichiro hiding just
beside the remains of the broken gate, for as it passes through he swings his
huge axe in a low arch, almost severing one of the creature’s feet. The beast crashes
into the ground, black blood spraying in all directions as it struggles to
stand. But before it can right itself, it is descended upon by our group,
katana, club, axe and spear making short work of the foul thing.
Unsure
as to whether there may be more of the things down the well, our leader
Tsukimi-san decides that any possible threat must be neutralized and leads us
down the well. As the medium Yuuo prepares to climb down, he has a violent seizure,
it lasts only a few seconds but is followed by several minutes of catatonia.
When he comes to he claims the well is full of death, and that with such an
overwhelming numbers of tortured souls down there, perhaps it is better that he
guard the well mouth with the baggage carriers.
Halfway down, on the side of the
well shaft, is a cave entrance, slick with blood and other, more disgusting
bodily fluids. Within it we find to our horror, a nest. Perhaps two dozen
sickeningly translucent eggs, sitting upon a pile of rotting human corpses, their
visible contents squirming. What’s even more terrifying however, is the half a
dozen newborn monstrosities shrieking and cowering in the corner. It is decided that the
things must be killed and the bodies purified. The sohei Akuso performs the funeral
blessing and douses the bodies with oil. The fire is started and the
kappa-spawn along with the eggs are crushed and throw into the fire.
As they climb out of the well
several of his companions notice tears in the eyes of the sohei, it was not
easy for any involved.
...
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