Swords in the Moon - Information and Summary thread

[Andres]

~~~ Swords in the Moon ~~~

Night 6 - Conclusion.

Hour of the Rat

Miyamoto Musashi (Husar) was standing guard at the front door of his masters’ room. 6 nights of guard duty had taken the best of the swordmaster. If it weren’t for the pain in his shoulder, he would probably fall asleep.

Miyamoto grinned uneasily. He should thank the scumbag who had wounded him, since he saved him from the shame of being found sleeping on guard duty.

Nature called and Miyamoto stood up. This moment was exactly what the man hiding in the shadows was waiting for. He sneaked up on Miyamoto and planted his wakizashi in his back. Miyamoto looked down and saw the point of the sharp sword sticking out of his chest.

“For a samurai, there’s no greater honor than to die in the service of his master,” were his last thoughts, before he died and dropped on the floor.

The killer nodded respectfully towards his famous victim and left the scene unnoticed.

~~~

Hour of the Rat

Oota Taiki (Death is yonder) was standing guard at the outside gate. He had been given the questionable honour of being responsible for any outside attacks.

Oota knew for sure nobody was watching him so he could freely shake his head and curse at the stupidity of the idiot who had given him the order to stand guard outside the yashiki.

The mountain passes were blocked with snow and all killers were inside. He sighed. What could he do about it? He was just a young samurai who had to obey orders. Would he become as big an idiot as the veteran samurai once he grew older, he wondered. He sighed.

The wind started to blow again, dampening the sounds of the shady figure behind him.

Oota would never become an idiot, a poisoned shuriken in his neck ended his life in seconds...

~~~

Hour of the Rat

Fujiwara Taiki (Haudegen) quickly went inside after sunset. The events of the last days and nights had exhausted the young samurai and he decided to go to bed early. He took off his soaked through kimono and hung it on a laundry pole, to dry it out overnight.

He decided to skip the regular bath and simply washed his hands and face with ice cold water. Afterwards he went immediately to sleep.

While he was dreaming of better days, a shadow sneaked its’ way into his room, in his hands Fujiwara’s kimono and the laundry pole. With a sickening “thwack” sound, the thick pole came down on Fujiwara’s neck. The killer then jumped on top of his victim and, using all his mass, he drove the staked end of the pole straight through Fujiwara’s eyeball and out the other side of his skull. The killer then hung the kimono, soaked through with blood, back on the laundry pole and left the room.

~~~

Hour of the Ox
Saruwatari Kenta (Captain Blackadder) came back to his room. He calmly put down his swords and grabbed a piece of cloth.

With experienced hands, he started cleaning his short sword. As a samurai who had seen quite a few battles, he knew that you had to take care of your weapons and armor, no matter what the circumstances were. Not only was it a matter of honor and avoiding the shame, it could also well mean the difference between life and death in combat.

Ironically, due to being busy cleaning, he didn’t notice the man entering his room. Two strong, dark gloved hands grabbed the head of Saruwatari and with tremendous force, twisted it into an unnatural direction, breaking his neck and ending his life instantly.

The man quickly left the room unnoticed.

~~~

Day 6 - Things started to look grim

Hour of the Rabbit

The Tiger felt clean after his hot bath. He put on a freshly washed kimono and started to eat breakfeast. From the sounds on the courtyard, he understood that this nightmare wasn’t over yet. Within the privacy of his room, he sighed. Of course, he would never show his true feelings to his mean, but here, he could, for a brief moment, feel the weight of being the leader of one of Japan’s mightiest clan.

The samurai on the courtyard were silent and bowed deeply when Lord Takeda came outside. Cold as ice and with no expression on his face, Lord Takeda mounted the platform.

He looked at the familiar sight of dead bodies in the morning, picked up the scroll next to him, paused for a brief moment and then nodded towards Iino Miki (Beefy187) and Omura Sumitada (GeneralHankerchief). Both men stepped forward and bowed for their Lord. A senior officer nodded to both men. “No armor, no hidden weapons, just katana and wakizashi.” Both samurai bowed to the officer. They looked at each other and the attentive observant would see that these two men held no love for each other. Indeed, they had been at each other’s throats for days now, throwing challenge after challenge at each other and everybody knew Lord Takeda had made a wise decision by letting them battling it out.

Iino Miki wanted to end this soon. He didn’t like Omura, he didn’t like him at all and finally he could use steel to tell that idiot how he felt about him. He ran forwards, unsheeting his katana and aimed for the neck of his opponent. Omura stepped aside, blocked the attack and kicked his opponent in the groin. Iino was out of balance and the pain made him crumble. Omura swung his katana at his opponent, who was out of balance. Somehow Iino blocked the blow and stepped backwards. The pain and the bickering that had been going on for days, brought him in a fury and screaming profanities at his opponent, he attacked again. Omura ducked away and his katana pierced through Iino’s belly.

Iino stared in disbelief at his deadly wound. Omura stared at his victim, rage and hatred for this man clearly visible on his face. He waited until Iino started to moan, thus losing honor and shaming himself, before he beheaded him.

Lord Takeda nodded respectfully to the victorious warrior.

~~~

Alive (30):

Quintus.JC
GeneralHankerchief
FactionHeir
Caius
Ichigo
Wishazu
White_Eyes:D
Sasaki Kojiro
Stephen Assen
Peasant Phill
Kukrikhan
Gobbledygook
Psychonaut
taka
Rhyfelwyr
AggonyDuck
Beskar
atheotes
Kagemusha
CountArach
Tristan de Castelreng
Chimpyang
Yoyoma1910
Seamus Fermanagh
Banquo's Ghost
woad&fangs
ajaxfetish
glyphz
Dutch_guy
Yaropolk

Killed (21):
Khazaar
spL1tp3r50nal1ty
Lord Winter
The Spartan
Iskander III
Shinseikhaan
Olavi
Thermal Mercury
Chaotix27
pevergreen
Gregoshi

Reenk Roink
LittleGrizzly
Louis VI the Fat
Crazed Rabbit
A Very Super Market
Glenn
Husar
Death is yonder
Haudegen
Captain Blackadder

Fallen in battle (5):
Northnovas
Ignoramus

El Diablo
YLC
Beefy187

Lynched (5):
Askthepizzaguy
Sigurd
shlin28

TosaInu
TinCow

WoG/Suicide (3):
Xehh II

Jolt
Beaver

~~~

It's now day, you can start voting. Due to RL, it'll be an extended day phase which will last until Saturday, the 2nd of May, 10.00 pm (GMT+1), which is +/- 35 hours from this post.

EDIT: sorry for the delay guys; it's splendid weather outside and didn't notice I had been sitting at the breakfeast table, enjoying the sun, for more than an hour. Life is beautiful