Tamura's Fate

Metaphysical / Paranormal event

The samurai investigators arrive at Tamura close to noon. Here, they find no signs of human life. The great "white ghost" described by peasants turns out to be an enormous white magnolia tree towering over the village. What's more, they discover a line cut into the dirt as if by a blade, encircling the entire town. Through communion with the spirits, Bayushi Chūyō determines a kami of great power has gone berserk, and its incredible power is trapped within this barrier. Seppun Raehua divines that they are in no danger, however, so the group cautiously enters.   Upon passing through the barrier, all of the pent-up spiritual power is dispersed, like air from a punctured balloon, and the great tree withers and dies before their eyes. Spirits of the earth describe to Raehua an antlered samurai with corruption in their veins visiting the village when these strange events began. Air spirits likewise whisper to Chūyō, thanking her for freeing the kami of the tree from its misery. She reasons that some great sacrifice was performed here to rapidly and violently increase the tree kami's power, which was then held by the barrier for some unknown purpose.   Aki has been investigating the lumpy shapes beneath a blanket of magnolia blossoms on the ground, finding them to be the corpses of people who calmly laid down and died wherever they happened to be. They, then, must be the sacrifice. As Togashi Daigo circumscribes the village looking for any other threats, Meishozo Sasara appears strangely obsessed with the spiritual power held in the blossoms. She believes she could make extraordinarily powerful occult compounds from them. At Raehua's command, however, she takes merely a few blossoms with her.   Chūyō briefly seduces a bird on the tree's branches, but it offers little useful information. So convinced they've pieced together the events of Tamura, the party returns to Rindō without further event. Yogo Kōichi meets them at the edge of town. He is to carry a short report to the magistrate, while they'll fill her in on the details in the morning.