Swords in the Moon - Information and Summary thread

[Andres]

~~~ Swords in the Moon ~~~

Night 9 - Conclusion

Hour of the Rat

Kuroda Yoshitaka (Caius) was standing guard outside the yashiki, at the courtyard. He didn’t like standing guard outside, in the freezing cold, but at least, the walls of the yashiki provided some shelter against the blowing wind. It reminded him a bit of the cave near the village where he grew up. As a child, he used to play in there and one time, he had to stay in the cave because of a sudden snow storm, a warm fire his only companion.

He let a sigh or relief. Everything was quiet so far. Had they finally disposed off all the ninja?

Time passed and Kuroda was trying to polish a dull spot out of his brass armguard when a seemingly panicking and out of breath samurai ran up to him and pulled on his shoulder.

"Come quick! There's someone in the cellar, they're trying to poison our winter food store."

The samurai took off running with Caius tailing behind him. They ran up to their supply cellar, a room accessible through a small gate. The door stood flipped open. Kuroda turned to the other man and bravely said: “I was standing guard and I should have noticed this first. It’s my duty to enter that cellar before anyone else.”

Kuroda stepped forward and stared into the darkness. At that moment an arrow flew out of the shadows behind the men and pierced Kuroda’s back. At the same time, the man in front of him turned around and in a single motion drew his katana and drove it through Kuroda’s chest. He pushed the brave samurai’s body off his sword down the cellar stairs with his foot and shut the cellar door.

~~~

Hour of the Rat

Watanabe Kyousuke (Wishazu) went to his room. He slided the door open and started to undress. As he was taking off his kimono, his memories brought him back to his mother, who had repaired this piece of clothing numerous times for him. He still remembered the frown on her face when she had washed it the last times; those blood stains were hard to get away indeed. Nonetheless, the old woman loved him with whole her heart. He smiled. Soon, there would be another woman doing all this little tasks for him. He couldn’t wait to go back home and meet some girls. One of the local young women already had shown interest and he knew his family would accept her.

These nice thoughts were a welcome relief from the attrocities that had been taking place the last few days. Finally undressed, he went to sleep.

A shrouded figure entered Watanabe’s room. He listened to the calm breathing of the sleeping samurai while his eyes adjusted to the darkness.

Earlier that night, he had been counting the rooms that had only empty straw cots in them. When he had passed over some of the empty cots, he had been smiling. He counted them again in his head...18...22...25....

His gaze now stopped at the a cot on which slept Watanabe, a fairly young samurai of no particular distinction. He was not of high rank, but did have a few scars he earned in battle, so it seemed.

The figure drew a long nodachi from a scabbard hanging off his shoulder, and with a swift silent cut separated the sleeping man's head from his body. The killer skilfully stopped the blade just before it would've cut the cot. He grabbed the severed head and escaped out of the tent.

~~~

Hour of the Ox

Nakamura Kinji (White_Eyes) was standing guard. Nothing had happened thus far and he started to feel bored. The life of a samurai seemed adventurous to many people, but in reality, being a samurai was boring. People always thought of glorious battles and heroic deeds, but in fact, battles were few and most of the time, samurai were carrying out boring tasks, like standing guard on a silent, cold and uneventful night.

Nakamura was looking into the sky, counting the stars. He yawned out of pure boredom.

Suddenly, someone reached from behind and gagged his mouth. With the other hand the killer slit his throat with a sharp dagger.

The killer then threw the bleeding Nakamura to the ground, drove a dagger through his eye, and disappeared into the darkness. Nakamura would never feel bored again.

~~~

Day 9 - Samurai

Hour of the Rabbit




The samurai entered the courtyard early that morning. It didn’t take too long before they realized that there were only 12 of them left. Moral was getting low and it took a while before they realized that there was work to do.

An older samurai picked a long straw and a short straw. He walked towards those who were willing to duel and presented them the straws.

“Short straw will duel.”

Souma Tadayoshi (Seamus Fermanagh) stared at the short in the hands of Omura Sumitada (GeneralHankerchief).

The older samurai nodded at both men. “No armor, no hidden weapons. Just katana and wakizashi.”

Both duelists nodded at the older samurai and then bowed for each other.

Souma seemed to be in a hurry as he unsheated his both swords and stormed at Omura. Omura wasn’t surprised by this attack of the unexperienced samurai and blocked both swords easily. While Souma was trying to find his balance back, Omura managed to cut him in his leg.

Souma stepped backwards and seemed more careful. He struck quickly with is katana and Omura had difficulties to block the long blade. Still recovering from the blow, he hardly noticed Souma stabbing his wakizashi at him. He jumped aside, but the short sword ruined Omura’s kimono.

Encouraged, Souma attacked again, but now his opponent was ready. He jumped aside and injured Souma severely with a mighty blow from his katana. While his opponent was looking down at the small pool of blood underneath him, Omura’s katana beheaded him mercifully.

He nodded to the body of his opponent and then bowed to the samurai.

After were done with the proper rituals for the dead, the men started to discuss.

Again…

~~~

Alive (11):

GeneralHankerchief
Ichigo
Stephen Assen aka Tiberius of the Drake
Rhyfelwyr
Beskar
Kagemusha
Chimpyang
Yoyoma1910
woad&fangs
ajaxfetish
Dutch_guy

Killed (30):
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
glyphz
Banquo's Ghost
Kukrikhan
Sasaki Kojiro
CountArach

Gobbledygook

Caius

Wishazu
White_Eyes:D

Fallen in battle (9):
Northnovas
Ignoramus

El Diablo
YLC
Beefy187
AggonyDuck
Yaropolk
atheotes
Seamus Fermanagh

Lynched (8):

Askthepizzaguy
Sigurd
shlin28

TosaInu
TinCow
Quintus.JC
Peasant Phill
FactionHeir

WoG/Suicide (6):
Xehh II

Jolt
Beaver
Tristan de Castelreng
Psychonaut
taka

~~~

It's now day. You can start voting. Day will be extended and will last for 36 hours (that's until 10.00 am (GMT+1)