Dark Edge Village

The Iuchi have gathered the contestants around a large bonfire. According to their explanation, each of the contestants is to mix up a special batch of rare herbs, which is then to be heated in the bonfire and drank. If done correctly, the mixture will allow the contestant to step briefly into the spirit world so that they can catch a brief glimpse of the future. If done incorrectly, however, the contestant will probably just poison themselves.


Time Slot: Early Night

Magic: Allowed



Mixing Up Herbs: Each character makes a TN 15 Craft: Poison/Intelligence Roll to mix up a batch of herbs. If the character has the Herbalism emphasis for the Medicine Skill, they may instead make a TN 15 Medicine/Intelligence Roll. On a success, the character correctly mixes the herbs and gains 1 Spirit Point, plus one Spirit Point per successful Raise. On a failure, the character mixes up and drinks a dose of potent poison, suffers 2k2 damage, +2k1 damage per failed Raise, and cannot advance any further in this event. If two or more of these dice explode, the character's immune system is permanently damaged by the poison and gains the Bad Health Disadvantage.


Enter the Spirit Realm: After imbibing the herbal mixture, characters can feel their soul hovering outside their body. In order to leave their body behind and visit the spirit world, each character must succeed on a TN 15 Meditation/Void Roll. On a success, the character earns 1 Spirit Point, plus one Spirit Point per successful Raise. On a failure, the character's spirit is unable to leave their body behind and cannot advance further in this event. Characters with the Enlightened or Medium Advantage gain +1k1 to this Roll.


Glimpse the Future: Once the character has traveled to the spirit realm, they only have a short amount of time before the herbs wear off and their spirits are drawn back to their body. The character makes a TN 15 Divination (No Emphases)/Intelligence Roll. On a success, the character catches a glimpse of a future where the samurai of the Empire are caught in a great war against their own ancestors and gains 1 Spirit Point, plus one Spirit Point per successful Raise. On a failure, the character learns nothing of importance from her brief time in the spirit world.


[Additional Hazard]If the character has the Bad Fortune (Curse of the Shi-Tien Yen-Wang) Disadvantage, they must succeed on a TN 15 Willpower Roll. On a failure, the Shi-Tien Yen-Wang reach out from the veil beyond death and snatch up the character's spirit. The character does not wake up from their trance and eventually perishes.


Scoring: The character(s) who earns the most Spirit Points earn 3 Courtship Points, the character(s) who earn the second-most Spirit Points will earn 2 Courtship Points, and the character(s) who earn the third-most Spirit Points will earn 1 Courtship Point.

This was to be a dangerous challenge. While Hirase understood this, he also understood that this was the closest he could ever come to understanding what it was to be a shugenja, the heart of his Clan.

It could not be passed up.

He spoke, for a long time, with Eriko that night. Instructions on what she was to do, who she was to contact, if this went terribly wrong. He left a letter for his boy, just in case, and then set out into the flickering bonfires of the field.

He had never trained formally in the making of medicines. It showed. Within moments of putting the vial to his lips, he doubled over, his throat and stomach burning. {{9 damage, voiding to nil}}

It took him a long time to recover before he could make his shaky way from the grounds, disspirited that the chance to gain more understanding had been lost.

Monkhbaatar goes out to participate in the rituals around the bonfire. He is somehow fortunate enough to mix the right ingredients together, setting his mind in an altered state, but extremely unfortunately he is unable to find his way to the spirit realms and ends up just getting high.

D9 EA, Mixing Up Herbs, Craft: Poison, Unskilled, VP +1k1, TN 15: 3d10 14 Luck Reroll
D9 EA, Mixing Up Herbs, Craft: Poison, Unskilled, VP +1k1, TN 15, Luck Reroll: 3d10 22 +1 Spirit point
D9 EA, Enter the Spirit Realm, Meditation, VP Phantom Rank, 1 CR, TN 20: 4d10o10k3 19 Luck Reroll
D9 EA, Enter the Spirit Realm, Meditation, VP Phantom Rank, 1 CR, TN 20, Luck Reroll: 4d10o10k3 13 Luck Reroll
D9 EA, Enter the Spirit Realm, Meditation, VP Phantom Rank, 1 CR, TN 20, Luck Reroll 2: 4d10o10k3 15 Failed

Total: 1 Spirit Point

Mizuki does manage to create the potion, but cannot leave her body.

Spirit Points: 1

Shinjo Liu Yue sat at the bonfire and stared at the components in front of her. there were herbs and flowers and other things. I have no idea what I am doing.

However, by some stroke of luck, the tall Shinjo prevailed! She took a swig of her poison and looked around. I wonder if I made it right. Or maybe my body is absorbing it just like alcohol. I wish I could get drunk easier.

She looked over at Mizuki. It was difficult, given the fire, her bad eyesight, and the fact that Mizuki was shrinking to be less than a foot tall. Wait, that isn't right at all!

Her body flopped over but she found herself looking around, almost weightless. She looked down to her left and a sudden rush hit her. My arm! It brought back my arm! By the Fortunes it's back! This is so great! The Shinjo continued to squeal in her dreamlike state and was consequently unable to concentrate on the competition's original goal.

Of course, she eventually woke up. She jolted up and looked at her hands, or more aptly, hand. "Oh dammit..."

---

Craft: Poison/Intelligence TN 15, VP for +1k1: 9 Failure!
Craft: Poison/Intelligence TN 15, VP for +1k1, Lucky Reroll: 18 Success!
Meditation/Void TN 20, VP for Skill, 1 CR: 16 Failure!

Total: 1 Spirit Point

Herbalism? That was a little like blending tea, wasn't it? You combine the right ingredients in the right amounts. The results were just a little more dangerous than tea, that's all.

Unfortunately, if you mixed in too much ginger, the tea might just taste too sharp, it won't send you into a fit of retching that leaves tears streaming down your cheeks as you desperately try to keep your stomach contents down until you are far enough away from the other participants that they won't hear you. Too little chamomile won't leave your throat burning and your diaphragm aching, even as your stomach continues to clench and try force up the poison, long after it is empty.

When the clutching and spasming of her stomach has stopped producing anything, she begins to make her way, shakily, back to her yurt.


---

Mixing Herbs >> 12 | 10 Failed!
Venomous Poison >> 8 Damage

Udo understands what they are asking him to do, and he is pretty excited. Meditation is kind of his thing.

He successfully mixes up the herbs, heats them up, and drinks them. He settles in to meditate... and spends the entire time just thinking about how cool it would be to meditate on this special mixture of herbs.

---

Poison = 2 Points

Fails Willpower check to try Meditating, so I assume he's done.

The Lion tried to mix the poison, his ignorance of herbs noted as he added some mildly toxic components. His reward was a coughing fit as well as a disqualification.

---
Poison - Failure
Damage - 3

That... did not go as planned.
The Hare ended up poisoning herself mildly, and became ill. She was removed from the event, and went to her yurt to sleep the effects off.

Craft: Poison/Intelligence TN 15 Void 1k1: 3d10k3 11
Damage: 2d10o10k2 13

Yurio didn't really listen to the instructions, he already had a plan. Once given the herbs he sniffed every one and only put the ones he liked into the mix. It was an excellent plan. No one else had thought of it.

Once heated and handed back to him he downed it in one and sat to meditate. Tying back his hair he put on his best meditating face.



Soon things began to go a bit trippy. Not so much an out of body experience as an out of his head experience. His first step on the Quest for the Question was when the Owl of Wisdom told him to climb the Tree of Life. Which had just appeared out of nowhere beside them.



He did so, yet at the same time he sat still. He had mastered being in two places at once. Wooooahhhh! Once he had climbed the tree he found Inu and Neko floating in space. They gave him the next part of his quest. To find the Peacock of the Ages!



He set off immediately, floating on air. Soon he found the Peacock's Guardian and defeated the fiery spirit after an epic kenjutsu duel that would be remembered forever! They had leapt around time and space, clashing blade against fire for almost an hour.



As the guardian collapsed into a pile of ash and blew away on the coloured winds of antiquity, Yurio faced the Peacock of the Ages and completed his quest.



KITTEH CAN DO ANYTHING!!! He asked the question of the future . . . but his vision faded away. To outsiders the littlest Lion had slumped forward almost immediately and proceeded to drool quietly into the ground for the last half hour before starting to snore.



/ooc

Mixing Up Herbs: Unskilled, VP for +1k1, TN 15 = 15; 1 Spirit Point
Enter The Spirit Realm: Unskilled, VP for +1k1, TN 15 = 12; 0 Spirit Points and out


Total = 1 Spirit Point

Taira thought that this might... might... be an event where he could show his skill.

Of course, when it came time, he was shocked to find out what they wanted.

Make and drink poison. All his training told him that this was a horrible idea, but he still made the attempt, because kami help him, he had to do something impressive this miai. And apparently helping kill a dragon didn't really count.

So he mixed, he drank, and he found himself having a very trippy experience.

Then he found himself unable to pass on, distracted at the last moment by the ruddy brown and red cat which was watching from the corner, staring directly at him, not his body.

That weirded him out, so he just floated until the trip was over, unable to focus enough to pass along further.

_________

1 Raise: Craft Poison, Void, TN 20: Passed
Void for skill, Tn 15 meditation: Failed

2 points.

Bayushi Suteichi seemed to be a natural at creating the the concoction. He consumed his made formula and prepared to enter into a trance but the attachments he had to this world kept him anchored in Ningen-Do. He was not frustrated by not entering the spirit world. He was more proud of the fact that he made a poison well.

Hmmm... I may have to explore this newfound talent.

----------

Craft/Poisoning/Intelligence + 1 VP for Craft/Poisoning TN 15: 3d10o10k2 18 Pass


Meditation/Void + 1VP for Meditation 1 TN 15: 3d10o10k2 14 Fail

1 Spirit Point

Kutakuhime faces the Iuchi judges with her newest cocktail in hand. It looked neat with all those weird colors that simply wouldn't mix with each other.

Imane-chan will love this!

"Kampai!"

She downs the content, giggles, and slowly falls down on the ground to meditate while looking the stars.

Somewhere, in her reverie she sees them: Pink, fluffy unicorns. Dancing on Rainbows.

"Sugooooooii, neeeeeee~!"

--
Mixing Up Herbs: TN 15 Craft: Poison/Intelligence Roll + VP: 3d10 17 +1 Pt
Enter the Spirit Realm: TN 15 Meditation/Void Roll + VP: 3d10 17 +1 Pt
Glimpse the Future: TN 15 Divination (No Emphases)/Intelligence Roll.: 2d10 13
Total = 2 Spirit Points

Kemuri listened carefully to the instructions, wishing they were a little less vague.

How much is a pinch?

When the moment of truth came, he did not die. He wasn't sure of that, but he hoped he was experiencing the vision quest that had been intended. He definitely found himself in a different realm, regardless of how he got there. It was time then, to find some hint of things to come.

He wandered through a great city, as large as he remembered Medinaat al-Salaam was and everything he imagined the capital city to be. At the center, he found a gargantuan statue. This was surely of a great Emperor or even a Fortune.

Wait... was that Butaj...?



I must have mixed the herbs wrong...
____
Mixing Up Herbs: Success
Enter The Spirit Realm: Success
Glimpse the Future: Failure

2 Points

Ryori settles into a meditation position, having carefully mixed the ingredients as he was told. Kyra watches him questionably "I am sure it will be fine" he tells her as he empties the ghourd into hi mouth then begins his chanting. He begins to hear ... Something...the world moves around him as the spirits begin to speak to him, and the spirits are.... Unhappy ... His world begins to turn and then he realizes the angry spirits are...inside him, in his belly. He grabs the ghourd and quickly refills it with a quiet wretching noise trying to not disturb others meditating as his sister shakes her head and covers her ears with her paws.





spirit quest poision tn 15 w /void: 3d10o10k2 14
spirit quest poision damage: 2d10o10k2 11
(Voiding damage to 1)


0 spirit points
1 damage