The Mountain Witch: the highly anticipated "Resevoir Dogs" ending
Last night was the intense and deeply satisfying conclusion of the Mountain Witch (here are write-ups of part one and two.) I didn't take notes, and I should have, because after game hamsterprophecy urged me to do another synopsis. There was even more going on this session than last, so I'm going to do my best to muddle through. I hope you'll forgive me if my recall is less than perfect. Richard was once again unable to make it to game, so we had only six samurai for the final showdown.
When last we left our heroes they were poised on the threshhold of the Mountain Witch's keep. Nanami and Ieyasu had both revealed that they were prepared to lead the party onwards from this point. Following Hiroshi’s standoff with the others the party discovered that Sanjuro was nowhere in sight; presumably the blind sage had taken advantage of their distraction and made his way inside ahead of them. That left four samurai (or three samurai and a ninja, or two samurai and a ninja and an emperor, depending on how you’re counting) who proceeded to make their way inside the castle. Shortly they came upon a small room with four doors; one black, one white, one red and one blue (these being the colors of the four remaining characters’ trust tokens, which in our game were represented by poker chips.) This brought Ieyasu up short, a puzzled expression on his face. After a brief hesitation Taro pressed forward, walking towards the white door, white being the color associated with death in Japanese symbolism, and the door belonging to Nanami.
Nanami stopped Taro and told him that the white door was not meant for him, it was meant for her. Taro insisted that no door could bar him entry. Nanami shrugged and reiterated that he was welcome to find his own door, but she knew this one to be hers. Hikaru, evidently tired of the bickering, pressed on through the blue door (the "correct" door for her character, based on trust token colors), and Taro hastened to follow after her. Ieyasu and Nanami proceeded through their own doors, leaving Taro’s door unopened. Beyond the door lay the characters’ fear; not what they feared most, but what they most feared would be behind the door.
Meanwhile Hiroshi struggled against the cold and the wind, embittered and alone. Walking along the castle wall he encountered another party of four samurai struggling up the mountain slopes. Taking a moment to adjust his now-shabby clothing he stepped forward and offered them a formal greeting. One of the samurai made as if to reply and was prevented by his fellows.
"Obviously he is a servant of the Witch," explained one of the samurai succinctly. Hiroshi thought this over and let out a deep sigh. He gestured in the direction from whence he had come.
"The door is that way," he said simply, and went on his way.
Hikaru and Taro emerged through the blue door into a small open courtyard where a young cherry tree was in full bloom. As they strode forward the blossoms began to blow off the tree and freeze to their bodies. Hikaru pressed onward until he was covered in blossoms and unable to walk. Taro used Hikaru to shield himself somewhat, and then lifted him up when the other stopped walking. Carrying Hikaru in his arms Taro arrived at the tree, where the blossoms swirled around them. Hikaru was touched to the tree and the blossoms fell away. Taro, confused, made to press on, only to find Hikaru lingering.
"Not yet," whispered Hikaru to the tree, to Taro’s visible consternation. The pair pressed onwards.
Ieyasu stepped through his own door to discover the Mountain Witch before him, seated at a low table with a formal tea set before him. Ieyasu joined the Witch and served the tea, which turned out to be not only bitter but icy cold. By the terms of the tea ceremony they could not truly discuss business, except obliquely, and so they did so. Concurrently Nanami emerged through her own door to also discover the Witch, and also a captive Sanjuro. The Mountain Witch was whispering words of despair to Sanjuro, while a pair of young women fawned over him and made promises of love and solace. Sanjuro looked worse for wear, having aged visibly in the short time he was gone. Back in the tea ceremony the Witch told Ieyasu he had a task; Ieyasu, apparently eager to discharge his obligation, took the Witch’s hand after compelling the Witch to swear upon his blood that their business would come to an end. Ieyasu explained that if the Witch required him to kill someone, he would need to be provided with a sword.
Hikaru and Taro ascended some stairs and found themselves along the castle’s parapets. A pair of the Witch’s guards had arrows drawn and aimed at an unaware Hiroshi, who was continuing to amble along. Hikaru let out her terrifyingly loud kiai (one of her abilities) and startled the guards, who wheeled around and let loose their arrows not at Hiroshi but instead at Hikaru and Taro. The pair drew swords and charged into the fray. There was some scuffle, but the sides seemed to be evenly matched, and Hikaru was minorly wounded. Just then Hiroshi appeared over the edge of the wall behind his fellows, as if he had scaled it barehanded. For a moment his presence seemed ominous and full of menace, his hulking girth no longer amusing, his size simply emphasizing his power. The moment passed and that impression faded; Hikaru led a charge against the arches, and with Taro and Hiroshi backing them up they were handily dispatched.
Back with Nanami and Sanjuro the (other) Mountain Witch ceased whispering to Sanjuro and stepped forward as Nanami approached. His form was suddenly covered over in ice and Ieyasu exploded forth from it, wielding a sword, the blade of which was forged from the Witch’s icy blood. Ieyasu gripped this new sword in a low guard and stepped forward.
"This is unnecessary," he said.
"Perhaps for you it is," Nanami replied, and the two squared off in a duel. Ieyasu charged forward and disarmed Nanami, and all at once whatever magic was keeping her corpse animated seemed to dissapate, leaving her weakened and decaying. Hiroshi, Hikaru and Taro emerged from a staircase then, rejoining the party into one group and briefly distracting Ieyasu and Nanami. There was another scuffle and the Witch’s sword was able to break the magic over Sanjuro, freeing him and allowing him to pull away from the two strange women. He was still wizened and prematurely aged, but his mind was cleared, and he took Nanami’s hand and was helped to his feet.
Nanami attempted to hasten Sanjuro away and out of danger through a previously concealed side door, but Ieyasu stared her down, stating that they should move along and implying that they would need all the help they could get. Nanami seemed unhappy with this but eventually the whole group got underway. They emerged in a large hall to discover a table strewn with a banquet. None of the party save Hiroshi had eaten since their journey began, yet he was still the first to rush forward and began stuffing his face, making his way around the table like it were a buffet. Hikaru shrugged and began simply making some tea as Taro commented that a proper host ought to dine with his guests. Ieyasu offered that it was equally improper to turn down hospitality when it was offered, and a disgruntled Taro pointed out that it had not yet truly been offered.
The Mountain Witch appeared then, seated at the head of the table. Standing at his side was Hikaru's doppelgänger, dressed in robes that were woven with cherry blossoms. Hiroshi led the charge of making proper obesiance, although as the Witch was seated Taro could not bow to him without breaking protocol. Sanjuro seated himself and began quietly playing his shamisen and singing, seemingly to himself. Taro accused the Witch of breaking his oaths and contracts, and a verbal battle ensued and quickly escalated. Taro, who had just been handed a cup of hot tea by Hikaru, threw the scalding water into the Witch's face. The Witch by now having demonstrated a certain affinity for the element of ice, this was clearly intended to do serious harm. Taro intended it as the opening salvo in the group's final confrontation with the Witch.
Unfortunately the Witch seemed undeterred. Hikaru's double patiently wiped the tea from his face. The Witch waved a hand and the feast turned icy and frozen, and Taro looked askance at his comrades, who did not seem to be rushing to the fight. Hiroshi, after lamenting the loss of the food, stepped forward to the Witch.
"When you are ready, we wish to fight you," he said, which earned him a brief nod of respect from Ieyasu. The Witch rose from his chair and Hiroshi drew his sword. The two squared off, and as Hiroshi ran forward the Witch reached out almost casually and made a shallow cut across his cheek, sure to leave a scar. The cut was not deep and did not look especially painful, and yet Hiroshi seemed unduly shaken.
It is at this point that my memory becomes decidedly unclear; a lot of things were happening all at once, and the game did a fantastic job of simulating that. I can't hope to reconstruct a blow by blow of the fight, and I'm sure I'm leaving some things out, or getting things out of order. What I recall happening next is Taro rushing forward and dispatching the Witch with his sword of Heaven. Nanami was ordered to kill Sanjuro and, when she refused, squared off with the evil twin of Hikaru. Hikaru himself joined that fray and somehow was struck; a crack appeared in his face, as if it were a mask. Sanjuro's music reached a climax as Taro stabbed the Witch through the heart. All at once Sanjuro disappeared and reappeared on the blade, back to the Witch's front, simultaneously skewered in a self-sacrificing act. The blade somehow bent time and space and extended back as well as forward, cutting into a startled Taro.
The room exploded into columns of flame that mimicked the pattern on Sanjuro's geomancy board, and he made a dramatic speech (my greatest regret in this synopsis is that I didn't have the presence of mind to write it down.) The upshot was that the Witch's blood, Sanjuro's blood and Taro's blood were spilled; the Witch and Sanjuro vanished and in their place was left a perfect, living copy of Nanami, her chest likewise cut open to reveal a still-beating heart with Sanjuro's dead hand wrapped around it. Just then Hiroshi stepped up behind the thoroughly startled Taro. Dropping his sword he withdrew a hunting knife from his belt and went to stab Taro in the back. Ieyasu broke the sword of ice the Witch had granted him over his knee and threw the hilt at the fat samurai, interrupting him.
Taro dropped his sword, catching blood from his wounds in his hands as he teetered over the prone copy of Nanami. Ieyasu ran forward and snatched it up, quickly dispatching the traitorous Hiroshi. As Hiroshi fell dead the sword of Heaven turned on Ieyasu, displeased at being used for this act of vengeance. Ieyasu allowed it, falling to his knees. He had a final moment with Taro; the two lamented that he was unable to pass into the Emperor's service, and Ieyasu repeated that he was unworthy. He buried his sword in his own guts and committed Seppuku, and almost casually Nanami strode up and acted as his second, taking off his head on her way by.
Hikaru faced off against her own double then, removing her broken mask to reveal herself to be a much older man underneath. She took a moment to write a note addressed to Taro and set it on the table before she and her double, now revealed as her lover, committed mutual suicide. That left only Nanami and Taro standing, and Taro's cupped hands were nearly overflowing with blood. Nanami looked dubiously at the copy produced by Sanjuro's sacrifice as it lay dying on the floor.
"I'm not sure I deserve this," she murmured, and Taro took matters literally into his own hands. Spilling his blood into the open wound he reached for the heart, pulling it from the copy's chest and plunging it into Nanami's, restoring her to life -- now with imperial blood flowing through her veins. He told her that he would need allies at the court and, taking Hikaru's note, the two made their exit from the castle of the fallen Mountain Witch.
When last we left our heroes they were poised on the threshhold of the Mountain Witch's keep. Nanami and Ieyasu had both revealed that they were prepared to lead the party onwards from this point. Following Hiroshi’s standoff with the others the party discovered that Sanjuro was nowhere in sight; presumably the blind sage had taken advantage of their distraction and made his way inside ahead of them. That left four samurai (or three samurai and a ninja, or two samurai and a ninja and an emperor, depending on how you’re counting) who proceeded to make their way inside the castle. Shortly they came upon a small room with four doors; one black, one white, one red and one blue (these being the colors of the four remaining characters’ trust tokens, which in our game were represented by poker chips.) This brought Ieyasu up short, a puzzled expression on his face. After a brief hesitation Taro pressed forward, walking towards the white door, white being the color associated with death in Japanese symbolism, and the door belonging to Nanami.
Nanami stopped Taro and told him that the white door was not meant for him, it was meant for her. Taro insisted that no door could bar him entry. Nanami shrugged and reiterated that he was welcome to find his own door, but she knew this one to be hers. Hikaru, evidently tired of the bickering, pressed on through the blue door (the "correct" door for her character, based on trust token colors), and Taro hastened to follow after her. Ieyasu and Nanami proceeded through their own doors, leaving Taro’s door unopened. Beyond the door lay the characters’ fear; not what they feared most, but what they most feared would be behind the door.
Meanwhile Hiroshi struggled against the cold and the wind, embittered and alone. Walking along the castle wall he encountered another party of four samurai struggling up the mountain slopes. Taking a moment to adjust his now-shabby clothing he stepped forward and offered them a formal greeting. One of the samurai made as if to reply and was prevented by his fellows.
"Obviously he is a servant of the Witch," explained one of the samurai succinctly. Hiroshi thought this over and let out a deep sigh. He gestured in the direction from whence he had come.
"The door is that way," he said simply, and went on his way.
Hikaru and Taro emerged through the blue door into a small open courtyard where a young cherry tree was in full bloom. As they strode forward the blossoms began to blow off the tree and freeze to their bodies. Hikaru pressed onward until he was covered in blossoms and unable to walk. Taro used Hikaru to shield himself somewhat, and then lifted him up when the other stopped walking. Carrying Hikaru in his arms Taro arrived at the tree, where the blossoms swirled around them. Hikaru was touched to the tree and the blossoms fell away. Taro, confused, made to press on, only to find Hikaru lingering.
"Not yet," whispered Hikaru to the tree, to Taro’s visible consternation. The pair pressed onwards.
Ieyasu stepped through his own door to discover the Mountain Witch before him, seated at a low table with a formal tea set before him. Ieyasu joined the Witch and served the tea, which turned out to be not only bitter but icy cold. By the terms of the tea ceremony they could not truly discuss business, except obliquely, and so they did so. Concurrently Nanami emerged through her own door to also discover the Witch, and also a captive Sanjuro. The Mountain Witch was whispering words of despair to Sanjuro, while a pair of young women fawned over him and made promises of love and solace. Sanjuro looked worse for wear, having aged visibly in the short time he was gone. Back in the tea ceremony the Witch told Ieyasu he had a task; Ieyasu, apparently eager to discharge his obligation, took the Witch’s hand after compelling the Witch to swear upon his blood that their business would come to an end. Ieyasu explained that if the Witch required him to kill someone, he would need to be provided with a sword.
Hikaru and Taro ascended some stairs and found themselves along the castle’s parapets. A pair of the Witch’s guards had arrows drawn and aimed at an unaware Hiroshi, who was continuing to amble along. Hikaru let out her terrifyingly loud kiai (one of her abilities) and startled the guards, who wheeled around and let loose their arrows not at Hiroshi but instead at Hikaru and Taro. The pair drew swords and charged into the fray. There was some scuffle, but the sides seemed to be evenly matched, and Hikaru was minorly wounded. Just then Hiroshi appeared over the edge of the wall behind his fellows, as if he had scaled it barehanded. For a moment his presence seemed ominous and full of menace, his hulking girth no longer amusing, his size simply emphasizing his power. The moment passed and that impression faded; Hikaru led a charge against the arches, and with Taro and Hiroshi backing them up they were handily dispatched.
Back with Nanami and Sanjuro the (other) Mountain Witch ceased whispering to Sanjuro and stepped forward as Nanami approached. His form was suddenly covered over in ice and Ieyasu exploded forth from it, wielding a sword, the blade of which was forged from the Witch’s icy blood. Ieyasu gripped this new sword in a low guard and stepped forward.
"This is unnecessary," he said.
"Perhaps for you it is," Nanami replied, and the two squared off in a duel. Ieyasu charged forward and disarmed Nanami, and all at once whatever magic was keeping her corpse animated seemed to dissapate, leaving her weakened and decaying. Hiroshi, Hikaru and Taro emerged from a staircase then, rejoining the party into one group and briefly distracting Ieyasu and Nanami. There was another scuffle and the Witch’s sword was able to break the magic over Sanjuro, freeing him and allowing him to pull away from the two strange women. He was still wizened and prematurely aged, but his mind was cleared, and he took Nanami’s hand and was helped to his feet.
Nanami attempted to hasten Sanjuro away and out of danger through a previously concealed side door, but Ieyasu stared her down, stating that they should move along and implying that they would need all the help they could get. Nanami seemed unhappy with this but eventually the whole group got underway. They emerged in a large hall to discover a table strewn with a banquet. None of the party save Hiroshi had eaten since their journey began, yet he was still the first to rush forward and began stuffing his face, making his way around the table like it were a buffet. Hikaru shrugged and began simply making some tea as Taro commented that a proper host ought to dine with his guests. Ieyasu offered that it was equally improper to turn down hospitality when it was offered, and a disgruntled Taro pointed out that it had not yet truly been offered.
The Mountain Witch appeared then, seated at the head of the table. Standing at his side was Hikaru's doppelgänger, dressed in robes that were woven with cherry blossoms. Hiroshi led the charge of making proper obesiance, although as the Witch was seated Taro could not bow to him without breaking protocol. Sanjuro seated himself and began quietly playing his shamisen and singing, seemingly to himself. Taro accused the Witch of breaking his oaths and contracts, and a verbal battle ensued and quickly escalated. Taro, who had just been handed a cup of hot tea by Hikaru, threw the scalding water into the Witch's face. The Witch by now having demonstrated a certain affinity for the element of ice, this was clearly intended to do serious harm. Taro intended it as the opening salvo in the group's final confrontation with the Witch.
Unfortunately the Witch seemed undeterred. Hikaru's double patiently wiped the tea from his face. The Witch waved a hand and the feast turned icy and frozen, and Taro looked askance at his comrades, who did not seem to be rushing to the fight. Hiroshi, after lamenting the loss of the food, stepped forward to the Witch.
"When you are ready, we wish to fight you," he said, which earned him a brief nod of respect from Ieyasu. The Witch rose from his chair and Hiroshi drew his sword. The two squared off, and as Hiroshi ran forward the Witch reached out almost casually and made a shallow cut across his cheek, sure to leave a scar. The cut was not deep and did not look especially painful, and yet Hiroshi seemed unduly shaken.
It is at this point that my memory becomes decidedly unclear; a lot of things were happening all at once, and the game did a fantastic job of simulating that. I can't hope to reconstruct a blow by blow of the fight, and I'm sure I'm leaving some things out, or getting things out of order. What I recall happening next is Taro rushing forward and dispatching the Witch with his sword of Heaven. Nanami was ordered to kill Sanjuro and, when she refused, squared off with the evil twin of Hikaru. Hikaru himself joined that fray and somehow was struck; a crack appeared in his face, as if it were a mask. Sanjuro's music reached a climax as Taro stabbed the Witch through the heart. All at once Sanjuro disappeared and reappeared on the blade, back to the Witch's front, simultaneously skewered in a self-sacrificing act. The blade somehow bent time and space and extended back as well as forward, cutting into a startled Taro.
The room exploded into columns of flame that mimicked the pattern on Sanjuro's geomancy board, and he made a dramatic speech (my greatest regret in this synopsis is that I didn't have the presence of mind to write it down.) The upshot was that the Witch's blood, Sanjuro's blood and Taro's blood were spilled; the Witch and Sanjuro vanished and in their place was left a perfect, living copy of Nanami, her chest likewise cut open to reveal a still-beating heart with Sanjuro's dead hand wrapped around it. Just then Hiroshi stepped up behind the thoroughly startled Taro. Dropping his sword he withdrew a hunting knife from his belt and went to stab Taro in the back. Ieyasu broke the sword of ice the Witch had granted him over his knee and threw the hilt at the fat samurai, interrupting him.
Taro dropped his sword, catching blood from his wounds in his hands as he teetered over the prone copy of Nanami. Ieyasu ran forward and snatched it up, quickly dispatching the traitorous Hiroshi. As Hiroshi fell dead the sword of Heaven turned on Ieyasu, displeased at being used for this act of vengeance. Ieyasu allowed it, falling to his knees. He had a final moment with Taro; the two lamented that he was unable to pass into the Emperor's service, and Ieyasu repeated that he was unworthy. He buried his sword in his own guts and committed Seppuku, and almost casually Nanami strode up and acted as his second, taking off his head on her way by.
Hikaru faced off against her own double then, removing her broken mask to reveal herself to be a much older man underneath. She took a moment to write a note addressed to Taro and set it on the table before she and her double, now revealed as her lover, committed mutual suicide. That left only Nanami and Taro standing, and Taro's cupped hands were nearly overflowing with blood. Nanami looked dubiously at the copy produced by Sanjuro's sacrifice as it lay dying on the floor.
"I'm not sure I deserve this," she murmured, and Taro took matters literally into his own hands. Spilling his blood into the open wound he reached for the heart, pulling it from the copy's chest and plunging it into Nanami's, restoring her to life -- now with imperial blood flowing through her veins. He told her that he would need allies at the court and, taking Hikaru's note, the two made their exit from the castle of the fallen Mountain Witch.