Campfire Tales (D5, LE. Open)

[Togashi Saruko]

Another evening, and like many evenings before, Saruko was by a fireplace and waiting for a good time to start another round of stories to ease the minds after a long day.

[Doji Kaze]

Sitting just outside of the glow of firelight, Doji Kaze waited in silence for the tales to begin, his spear resting across his lap.

[Miyako]

Another end to another day, and another round of good times around the campfire! Or so Miyako hoped. As she did over the previous nights, she started working her way from fire to fire, listening to drunken songs, brags over hunting trips that day, just how big that fish really was that got caught in the stream, and right before she made her way to the fire of the storyteller she had quietly fled a tipsy argument by two burly brutes over whom had the sharpest knives well before she thought it might turn into an ill-timed demonstration. She smiled and nodded her head as she took a seat near the fire and pulled out her cup and wineskin.

"Berry-wine, anyone?" she offered the skin after pouring herself a good and full cup.

[Seppun Dawei]

Dawei, having eaten a bit in advance of his going on patrol later, finds a seat warmed by the fire. He takes out the piece he had worked on previously and proceeds to work on it more. His efforts improve upon it (Woodcarving 39), such that the figure of the Nezumi begins to be discernible as an individual, rather than as a generic character.

He offers a nod to Kaze amid his work.

Then, as Miyako offers, he says "Yes, please," and accepts the skin.

[Seppun Chisei]

Having finished with his own fireside chat, Chisei was there to see Saruko's offering. Despite the gloom of the swamp, the expression on his even features was, if not cheerful, at least pleasant.

Gently, almost playfully, he nudged Takako, seated next to him. "What do you think, my dear? Wine?" He murmured softly to her.

[Seppun Takako]

Takako sat silently, and nodded to her husband. "Arigatou Chisei-kun." She glanced around the others. "Have you heard Togashi-sama's other stories?"

[Seppun Chisei]

"Berry-wine, anyone?" she offered the skin after pouring herself a good and full cup.

"In that case, once you're done, cousin Dawei." Chisei said cheerfully. "And thank you, friend." He said to Miyako.

Takako sat silently, and nodded to her husband. "Arigatou Chisei-kun." She glanced around the others. "Have you heard Togashi-sama's other stories?"

"Unfortunately not." He said. "Although I knew she told them; I remember that much from five years ago. But I was never able to attend." He smiled. "I didn't want to be returning to your father's house too late, after all.

[Seppun Dawei]

Dawei takes a pull, grunts a laugh at the commentary, and passes the skin along.

[Togashi Saruko]

"Come gather around on this chilly evening. Let's share stories to brighten the mood, and spirit, and allow me to tell the tale of Kaminari. A mighty burly warrior, who was one day robbed of his prized weapon!"

Saruko accepted the offer of berry-wine and let people settle in for the tale. Like before, she stood as she told the tale, and this time around she did a lot of effort with making the voices to match the characters and gesturing as they spoke. Hopefully it would give some good laughs.

"Long ago, when the world was young and myths lived side by side with humankind, lived the man called Kaminari. It is said his temper was like that of the thunderstorms and his spirit fiercer than the lightning that can split mountains, and he wielded an incredible weapon named Sunder - a warhammer which had been forged by the dragons of the sea and harnessed with the power of the storms. Few were powerful enough to wield the weapon, but Kaminari was one such man.

Kaminari felt a strong bond with his weapon, and it rarely left his side. Even in sleep, it was beside him. And so it was that one morn, Kaminari woke to find that his weapon was gone! Vanished! Disappeared like a ghost in the night! He immediately questioned his friend Tanuki, who was a trickster and sometimes a thief and on occassion not a friend, but Tanuki denied any knowledge of what had happened to Sunder. At the threat of violence, much of it said to be directed at his lower parts, Tanuki promised Kaminari that he would help him find his weapon.

And so Tanuki went to Kaminari's sister, Hatsuki, who was the most beautiful woman in this age, with hair as silver and eyes the color of summer-green, and he stole her magic cloak that would allow its wearer to take the form of a bird and fly great distances much faster than any man could traverse on foot. With the might of this cloak, he looked high and low and far and wide for where Sunder could be. And as he rested on a branch, he overheard from the northern birds that the ogre-kings of the northern mountains had recently found a mighty warhammer that had made all the other ogres subservient to him. This could only be the mighty weapon Sunder, Tanuki thought excitedly and with all haste flew into the frozen mountains of the north, to the halls of the ogre-king.

The ogre-king, known as Kuro the Ice-cold, was a powerful being, mightier than any ogre that lived before or after, and Sunder had only made him stronger and more fearsome. Tanuki appeared before him in his bird-form, and then assumed his own shape as he adressed the ogre-king. "Oh mighty Kuro, king of all ogres for now and ever, how did you ever find such an amazing weapon?" he asked as smoothly as he could. To which Kuro barked a laugh as he replied: "This? I stole it from that fool Kaminari, and it was as easy as stealing a child's toy. For while he might be my better in a fight with Sunder, he is nothing without it!" Now Tanuki knew that he would not be able to steal Sunder from Kuro, but he had a silvertongue and after much flattery and kind words, he was able to get the ogre-king to agree to a possible way of giving up Sunder. On the condition that he'd give it to his bride on their wedding-day, and that his bride would be none other than Hatsuki - because only the most beautiful was worthy a king!

A little horrified at this, Tanuki said it would be done and rushed back home to Kaminari and Hatsuki. He explained the ogre-king's terms, and Hatsuki vehemently protested against it as she had no wish to be married to a ogre, no matter how much her brother begged! Tanuki thought long and hard on the problem, until he came to a solution: Kaminari would disguise himself as Hatsuki and thus recieve his warhammer back once the ogre-king gave him the wedding-present. Hatsuki readily agreed to this idea, and while Kaminari was strongly against it at first, Hatsuki's charm and kind words won him over and she made such an effort to dress him up. She put the finest robes on him, but they were a little short and small, because he was tall and his limbs were powerful. He refused to shave off his beard, and so they settled on draping a lovely veil over his head to hide his features. Tanuki could not help but to laugh at the sight, and he too disguised himself - as Hatsuki's attendant. Truth be told, Tanuki made a more convincing woman than Kaminari, but he was after all a trickster with many tricks up his sleeves.

The two set out and arrived at the ogre-king's halls, where they were recieved as honored guests and the wedding arrangements were quickly underway. Kuro was immensly thrilled that the beautiful Hatsuki would be his bride, and he spared no expenses to throw a great feast. On the other hand, Kaminari had a hard time playing the role of lovely lady bride, and often Tanuki had to make up clever answers to maintain the disguise.

"The bride sure drinks a lot for being a girl of less than twenty summers!" "Oh, she's just trying to keep up with her new tribe's customs!"

"That's... quite the healthy appetite she has." "Oh, but look at such muscles! She's been working out hard to be a strong wife for her husband, and she must keep up her strength for all the children she'll bear!"

"Why is she growling?" "Oh, her throat is sore from all the songs of joy she was singing as we travelled here!"

"Why does she... have a beard?" "Oh, it's so cold up here, she's worried her face will freeze!"

It was unbearabe for Kaminari and he was beginning to lose hope, until his *groom* leaned in closer and said; "so, my darling Hatsuki, do you want to see the mighty Sunder?", to which Kaminari responded: "By the damn moon, yes! *ahem* Yes, darling!". And so Kuro produced the warhammer from the sack he carried with him everywhere and presented it to his *lovely* bride... who then cast off the veil the moment the weapon was in his hands, revealing his true nature! Shocked at the trickery and stunned that Kaminari had gone so far as to dress up as a woman to get the better of him, Kuro howled in panic and the confused fear quickly spread through the hall among his ogres. What followed was a thunderous battle, as Kaminari not only got revenge from the unjust theft that had been done to him but also scared the ogres so much with his ferocity that they dared not mass together in such large groups again in the northern mountains.

And that is but one of the many tales of Kaminari."


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D5 LE Storytelling/Awareness to keep up morale and spread cheer! +1k1 Voice.+2k0 Tattoo. 3 raises called. TN 35: 10d10o10k5 50

[Miyako]

"I hope those of Stag-Clan-Tribe enjoy," Miyako said to the Seppuns as the wineskin was passed around. "That one is a drink we call 'Spring's Embrace.' When almost all the leaves of the trees in our forest have fallen but well before the first frost of the cold season has come, we take some of the berries from the final bounty that the trees offer us, smash them and mix them with cool water from the stream in jugs of clay, throw in a few herbs and spices, and bury the jugs in one of the older parts of the forest. They rest under Earth until the last of the frost is behind and the first blooms of the warming season emerge where we dig up the jugs and crack them open during the spring festival to celebrate putting the cold behind us. Take as much as you like, I brought a few skins to share just in case," she explained as the skin was passed around before Saruko took it and started her story. She wrapped herself in her blanket as she listened...

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The tribeswoman laughed as the story came to an end, though others could likely tell she was greatly amused by the story overall as she had been chuckling earlier than that, especially so at the back-and-forth that Tanuki had to do to keep Kaminari's disguise going.

"Kaminari certainly went through a lot in order to get Sunder back. As funny as it was the way he went about it, Sunder was quite special in its own right but also special in particular to him and I am sure he would have done far more than that if it came to it," she observed before taking a sip from her cup of berry-wine.

"Perhaps not as mighty as Sunder might be, but as the story unfolded I thought about how some of my cousins feel just as strongly about their bows. Many of us, myself included, received our bow when we were acknowledged by our village elders and seers and shamans as being able to take on the responsibilities of the Chinsei villages as full adults, that we might take the lead in hunting parties, provide guidance to the young ones, and so on. My bow was made for me, just as my cousin's bow was made for my cousin, my friend's for my friend, but even then we make them our own even more than that, though I have not had much time to add my own carvings and decorations to the wood. Still, however, I bond to it as Kaminari does to Sunder. Even if it should break beyond repair that another is made for me, the old is cast into the cleansing Fire, the ashes rubbed onto and over the new one so that it contains the memories of the old. And when one among us passes into the realm of the spirits, their body cleansed by the pyre of Fire, we do all we can to see to it their bow is in the same Fire with them, if not then some other, so that they might have it in hand on their next journey," Miyako explained before taking another sip of berry-wine.

"Were Sunder my bow, and I in Kaminari's place, perhaps I would do the same to rescue it. Even if I had to figure out the beard part somehow," she said with another chuckle.

[Togashi Saruko]

"Thank you," she beamed happily at her fellow storyteller's words, and listened with great interest to her speak of the Chinsei's traditions.

"I'm sure you could find some man's beard to shave off and claim for yourself to keep you warm in the winter." Saruko chuckled mischievously at this suggestion.

[Jiyo Ayumu]

Ayumu, back for more, tilted his head as the slightly more gaudy story than yesterday. That gave him an idea of his own.

"Since the theme is funny stories, I might have one too."

He cleared his throat, hesitated for the slightest second, then went on anyway:

"Once upon a time, there were a warrior, a monk and a priestess on a quest. Their journey took them through a dark and ancient forest. There, they found a clearing. And within this clearing, they found a mysterious stone that did not fit its surroundings at all.

The warrior stared at it and said:

"This rock looks strange into my eye. I will force its secret out of it."

And so the warrior started turning around it with a mean glare. He shouted at it, ordering it to talk with his biggest voice. He pointed his sword at it and threatened it of the worst things if it did not cooperate. Finally, he tried to stare it into submission.

The rock remained still and silent.

The monk then talked:

"Your approach is wrong, man of many weapons. His secrets must be unraveled through respect and kindness."

And so the monk started rubbing the rock clean of its dirt, until it shined under the sun. He built a shrine around it, so the rain will not damage it anymore. He plucked the soil around it of its more parasitic plants and trimmed the others, making a calming garden out of the wilderness.

The rock remained still and silent.

The priestess then talked:

"That's not how respect to the powers-that-be work. You have to talk to them in their own sacred tongue, and offer them the true sacrifice of your own flesh."

And so the priestess began to pray. She prayed for six days, then six nights, then six days. She prayed to the sun and the moon, to the sky and the earth, to the fire and to the water, to the Fortunes and to the spirits, and even to the great void beyond. And she gifted the rock with her own blood, until it became as red as the setting sun.

And finally she asked her question:

"What is your secret spirit of stone?!"

And the rock answered!

And it said:

"I. Don't. Know.""

(Base success, no Raise)

[Reiko]

Story time would be graced by a new face this time, as the champion of the Spider Reiko had made her way over. Sitting nearby, giving people smiled and bows as she listened to the stories. Not interrupting to what was being told, just enjoying the evening.

[Seppun Dawei]

After the stories in sequence, Dawei nods his head to Saruko. "It's good," he says. "I'll look forward to more after."

And he continues whittling away at the forming Nezumi figure.

[Seppun Chisei]

Saruko's story got some measured cheering from Chisei; nothing undignified, of course. Ayumu's got a chuckle.

"As it happens, I've had pretty much that exact exchange with a rock spirit." Chisei said, amused. "Although, in truth, if someone asked me for my secret, I might answer the same."

[Miyako]

"Can't say I've had the pleasure of doing so. I imagine in conversation, rocks would be quite unmoved," the tribeswoman mused with a chuckle. "Maybe the size of the boulder matters? You might have a better chance with a pebble!"

[Togashi Saruko]

Saruko chuckled along to Ayumu's story, awarding it with grinning and nodding. "Sounds like a story I might've seen happen myself," she giggled and drank some more of the wonderful berry-wine.

"What are rocks like when you talk to them?"

[Seppun Chisei]

"Unmoved." Chisei chuckled. "Just so."

"As for what they're like..." Chisei smiled. "I expect that if you imagine what an earth spirit would be like, they're very close to that."

[Reiko]

"Direct and factual. Straight to the point. Some of the best elements to converse with, from my experience" Reiko offered to the conversation on Earth kami "all the elements have their charms, but how they approach you is very different depending which element you speak with."

[Jiyo Ayumu]

"I'm happy my story has pleased you.

From my limited understanding, that spirit was indeed patience made rock and straightforward in its answers. As Chisei suggested, I think the problem lied not in its character but in our questions. We simply did not know what we actually wanted of it, and our own confusion was mirrored back at us."