The Day of Thunder

[Hiruma Naraku]

The day had been long and taxing. The mysteries surrounding the village just kept pilling and Naraku did not know what to think. He paced towards the shrine, stopping before the walls that kept the shrine and the outside world separated.

"I am certain that this shrine holds a secret to what is happening."

What was inside that place was anyone's guess but his gut told him it wouldn't be long until they discovered what was happening inside.

[Shiba Kumori]

A few feet away from the Torii gate, leaning against a large tree a woman stood singing softly to herself as the man approached.

As the Crab drew close she stopped singing and spoke up, “Go any further and the guards will pop out to stop you.”

[Hisomu Reo]

"Are they going to stop us if we start doing things outside the approach?" Reo has been plodding along when he sees the exhange.

[Hiruma Naraku]

"You're the Deceitful Canary," he looked at the woman leaning against tree. He cleared his throat "Apologies, I am sure that is not your name."

He looked at the shrine and nodded. "I imagined. This shrine seems to be the end goal for the festivities in the village. They're probably preparing the final rituals inside."

Probably

He then turned towards the Spider that had just arrived, a smile in his face. "Hisomu-san"

[Hisomu Reo]

"Naraku-san. Good to see you." He looks back at the pair.

"Makime has asked that a fallback fortification be built in this area. I am not sure how much they" Reo gestures vaguely to the guards "will like that. And whether we need the position to take them into account as well. But I am sure that my work will be distracting"

[Shiba Kumori]

She shook her head, “It seems as if they are only upset once you cross the threshold…”

She smiled, “That was a bit of fun earlier, wasn’t it? Judging by your look and what the kind Spider just said, it would seem that you are Hiruma Naraku, defender of the people and slayer of nightmare wolves.”

She looked to both of them, “I am called Han-Hei by some.”

[Hisomu Reo]

"Maker of the Blight of Nightmares" Reo chimes back in. "If you don't mind that turn of phrase"

[Hiruma Naraku]

He blushed when she described him as such, his eyes lowering to the ground. He rose a hand and waived such compliments away, clearly still not fully accustomed to his new fame. "Just Naraku is fine."

"A pleasure Han-Hei-san, I guess that is better than saying Deceitful Canary," he composed himself and flashed a smile. He then turned to look at the shrine. "What do you two make of this shrine?"

[Shiba Kumori]

“I’ve been called much worse than either over the years.” She said with a smile.

“The shrine… Well… the secretive attitude is somewhat… suspicious. But I have spoken with the village headwoman and she has agreed to allow Shinsei to see the shrine.” She looked over in its direction.

“There isn’t anybody I’d trust more to look into this particular mystery.”

[Hisomu Reo]

"If I wasn't already a paranoid loon, I would be after multiple sleepless nights and strange incidents." Reo casts his eyes back up ahead.

"There is something strange here about this entire village. I won't mind working on fortifying a position here to keep something out...or in, depending."

[Hiruma Naraku]

"I don't really find it that strange," he stated. "We do not know what rituals these folk have. They might seem strange to us but they are not living in the land of the clans. Their practices might be old, archaic, from before the Kami fell and the tribes squabbled between themselves." He shrugged "I am certain than even in certain clans, the shrines remain closed in anticipation for a ritual or ceremony."

"What worries me is different. The touch of Yume-Jigoku is not well known by many and its touch is insidious to say the least," he commented. "Dreams of prophecy can be vessels by which the touch spread and the peasants would be none the wiser to it."

"And then there is the other fact," his expression darkened. "Yesterday, after the ritual of cleansing was concluded, those of us that performed admirably were rewarded with dreamstone. Not a corrupted jade finger but dreamstone. Natural dreamstone."

[Shiba Kumori]

“You’ll have to pardon me for my dumbness… But what exactly is a ‘natural dreamstone’?” She asked.

[Hiruma Naraku]

"Oh, I apologize," he chided himself for being to impulsive in his explanation. "Is not something that is very known. A dreamstone is, to put it simply, corrupted jade. Every time jade comes into contact with the touch of Yume-Jigoku, it loses properties until it becomes completely filled with the touch of the enemy. Once that transformation occurs it loses its purity and sheen and becomes a dreamstone."

"Now when I call it natural I should mention I do not mean it is naturally occurring. The concept of Yume-Jigoku is very much not natural," he explained. "What I mean is that the dreamstone looked like a rock or chunk of rock and very much not like the more commonly corrupted jade finger version."

[Hisomu Reo]

"They've been doing it for a while then." Reo muses. "I will say this: that river...if you powder dreamstone, it will dissolve in that water. It's like a mish of all spiritual realms together."

[Shiba Kumori]

“And so you both think that it is dreamstone that is contaminating the river? And that’s why we don’t see it in the wells.”

She asked.

[Hisomu Reo]

Reo chooses his words carefully. "I think something is in the water, and something in that river has a spiritual nature. Some of the chatter that was shared by people investigating the river has it that for some reason, links to the other spiritual realms has been cut off other than Jigoku or Yume Do. Something is blocking it, and the river being uninvolved is a coincidence I am unable to dismiss."

[Shiba Kumori]

She nodded, “I tried to follow the river up stream… kept it on my right side the whole time…”

She then tilted her head, “Somehow it led me back to the village… Wish there was a way of avoiding that.”

[Hisomu Reo]

(OOC: While we wait, Reo is going to do the roll he was planning to do to spend the day constructing something for Makime's plan.

[*]Build and man a redoubt, or it's age appropriate equivalent up near the shrine to monitor the reverse slope and the surrounding area. This will be a samurai job because it's isolated and important. Again primarily during an emergency but depending on the view it could also double as a watchtower.

[Hiruma Naraku]

Naraku's expression darkened. "The reality might be a bit more disturbing."

"I lead an expedition into the forest today. The purpose was simple, to recon the forest that surrounded us and place a few early signal traps," his tone was calm. "Whilst we succeeded, we also found telltales that there was corruption present inside the forest. Spring flowers in full bloom despite the current weather. This lead us to a cave up by the hills and inside the hills was something that I feared."

"The cave span for as far as we could see and inside there were deposits, nay, veins of dreamstone. The dreamstone seemed to be seeping into the cavernous water and the feeling we got assaulted was of intense drowsiness."

"I have already penned a letter recommending swift action in regards to that cave. We should purify the area and see if we can seal off that source of corruption."

[Hisomu Reo]

"A cave of Dreamstone?" Reo asks incredulously. His mind begins churning at the idea. "So much...no wonder. Memory loss. The water dissolving dreamstone. Animals growing drowsy. It's an incredible find."