Page 1 of 1

[Plotboard] The Low Road

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 5:05 am
by Sanjuro
"Here we are!"

Gendo yawned and stretched, blearily blinking the sleep from his eyes. After the… incident, the gang had been fortunate enough to run into a trader, Eizo, that had just emptied his cargo and was heading back to Chuuishi. Gendo, frustrated at all the running they had been doing and the severe lack of wine or good food had immediately beggared the elderly man and his young nephew, Kaisei, into giving them a ride.

That had been two days ago. The trip had been largely dominated by small talk and discussing the festival period of Fur Country where Eizo had been selling what wheat he good to the festival food stalls.

"I must admit, I do not recall the journey being so long." Gendo was rubbing the top of his head, feeling the stubble that was growing back in. "This is Chuuishi then?"

"Nay, good monk. This is Kiso, my home. It's a farming village, see?" The aging man pointed out with a heavily wrinkled finger and Gendo followed it to the fields of what Gendo assumed were meant to be wheat. They looked sad and dilapidated. "Ah, yes, I suppose if you're not from around here it's a bit of a sight. I'm afraid it's been a harsher year than most. Not to worry, not to worry. We get bym, we always do." The older man laughed, though it sounded force, which quickly devolved into a heavily cough. The young boy sitting up with him was quick on the draw with their waterskin, which the man drank heavily from. "Anyway, he Onan river runs just down through the valley there. Chuuishi is maybe a half day on foot but please, come meet my family and have some tea. I insist, truly! It has been many years since the village has seen a monk. Perhaps you could pass on your blessings, yes?"

The large man chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head a little harder, looking across to Fuhen and Sato in silent apology for what sounded like it was going to be yet another delay on their journey.

[Plotboard] The Low Road

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:27 pm
by Zao
As Sato set across from the round monk in the back of the trader’s wagon, the older man they had come to know as Eizo had been kind enough to allow for the trio to ride with him and his nephew, Kaisei. Though as the young man’s grey eyes looked out from just above the crimson scarf that still covered the majority of his face at the moment, he couldn’t help but shake his head as a faint smile could be found on the currently hidden lips. This was because he’d thought about how the monk had chased his master whom had whipped out some fine wine, but who would have thought that it would cause the heavy set monk to turn into a possessed demon for a short period of time. Yet, it had been for the best as it caused them to run into the old man and his nephew which in turn had gotten them a ride.

Something that Sato was rather thankful for, even with the monk’s warm clearing the way for them earlier his cold and tired body, especially his tired legs needed a well deserved rest. Two days seemed to pass rather quickly with discussions about the Fur country festival between the three and small talk made between the three men and the two civilians as they journeyed closer and closer to the first major destination on this trip. Finally on the second day they had finally arrived at a small farming village, as the thin man looked out hearing Gendo and the older man speaking he wondered if this was the Chuuishi the man had spoken about on their journey in the now. ‘A farming village?

Reaching up to uncover his face, the scarf was pulled down to reveal the thin and long face of the Dragon country native as he looked out over the crop field, having seen such a scene a lot while traveling through his homeland but none of them had looked this sad. He could only shake his head lightly as the man turned towards his master and then tilted his head a bit so that he could hear and understand the words being spoken to master’s monk friend now. "So we haven’t gotten there yet, at least we are much closer than before." It was not that the swordsman in training started to understand the situation, the man had brought them here to hopefully bless the farm land to produce more crops in the future, something he’d heard of but never seen himself. Did such a thing actually work?

Sato himself had never gotten into religion and thus didn’t fully understand it, but Gendo had enlightened him a bit on at least the path of a monk, even if it seemed that the man didn’t completely follow it to the letter. As the large man now looked across to his master and himself, the spikey haired teen let out a light laugh and shrugged his shoulder, not worried about a small stop. Part of coming along on this adventure to ‘save the world’ was to also experience the different places and cultures of the rest of the world and see how they differed from his own country. Every new place they went was very interesting to the young man and thus he glanced over to Fuhen now to see his reaction to the situation.

[Plotboard] The Low Road

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 7:26 am
by Nick
The Frog had quite been enjoying the trek. His two travelling companions really made for great company, and despite the fact that the cow-sized monk had become a full-blown bull for a moment, the trio got along quite easily. Just as well, the monk had a way of finding his way around that Fuhen could not imitate very easily, knowing how to garner favor from locals almost as soon as he met them. Fuhen was certainly the friendly sort, but people didn't always want to do things for him, especially if they were unfamiliar with his genetics, and thought him some kind of malformed freak. Well, he was, really, but that's besides the point.

"All things go with old age, Gendo." The frog commented with a lazy wink in the direction of the larger man. "Memory, sense of direction... But I guess appetite is the last one to go, eh?" He teased with a chuckle, sitting up from his laid back position. He heard talk of a local river, which made him smile. In rocky terrain like this, finding actual rivers was a bit more rare, as most had to dig down and make wells to find their water. It reminded him a bit more of home. He wanted to make another comment about how if Gendo blessed the crops, he might end up eating what remained of them. He held back to save his friend some face.

Sat up fully, he began to maneuver himself off the moving cart, though his foot caught on something on the way out and he tumbled, falling to the earth with a roll and a groan. "Aye Sato. If there's one thing ye learn while being samurai extraordinaire..." He grumbled, peeling himself of the earth, and then working to peel bits of earth off of himself. "It's that every destination ends up having twelve more destinations ye didnae even think were real." As he fully cleaned himself off, he jogged back up to the front of the wagon to meet with the kindly man, Eizo, and the younger one, too.

"What's hittin' the crops, eh? Bit o' a dry season? River runnin' low?" He asked, genuinely curious. From what he understood the lands of rock country weren't the greatest for farming. The animals in the area made great hunting, but growing food was much more difficult from a combination of the climate, as well as unfertile ground. "We've got the opposite problem down by home sometimes, rains too much, washes the crops out!"

[Plotboard] The Low Road

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 5:49 am
by Sanjuro
"A healthy appetite is a sign of a healthy body, and a healthy body is a healthy soul." Gendo spoke sagely, pointedly ignoring the dig at his rotund appearance. He smiled at Sato when the youngest member of the trio piped up. "Indeed, young master. Though, perhaps a little further south of the mountain range than I had intended. Still, every step along a journey is just as important as the destination." In saying that, the idea of every step on the half day journey to Chuuishi to find a guide sounded incredibly painful. "Tea sounds wonderful." Anything to delay the inevitable heartburn of walking miles upon miles of rocky terrain.

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" The old man smiled, several teeth missing. "Not far now."

The younger of the two, Kaisei, was watching in fascination as Fuhen fell out of the back of the wagon and scrambled back up to join them, clapping and grinning like it was all some great play. When Fuhen asked about the crops, the child's grin turned to a sad, hungry frown. "No, we gotta whole heap o' rain this season. But it froze and killed the harvest. Killed Yuri too."

A heavy sigh came from the old farmer. "Yuri was a good old mare. She'll be missed. Izumi here cost what we had left, but she's young 'n' strong, she'll last a good long while yet. Things wouldn't have been so tight, but the Earth Daimyo was in Chuuishi when the frosts came. We'd already been paying extra in taxes while all the nobles were around."

Gendo closed his eyes and muttered a prayer to the West. "I'm sorry for your loss and hardship." It was an unfortunate fact of life that sometimes when it rained, it poured. Life as a farmer in Rock Country wasn't an easy life to begin with, so even a small issue could be catastrophic. Suddenly Gendo was dreading the heartache that was awaiting them in Kiso far more than the hike to Chuuishi.

Still, it was far too late now to run away now, and the part of his mind that still remembered what it was like to be a monk remembered that to help the downtrodden and helpless was part of what they did. Even if it was only a small measure of false hope that he granted them with some words and prayers.

[Plotboard] The Low Road

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 7:50 pm
by Zao
Sato's half smile was hidden by the current crimson color wool scarf that was wrapped around the lower portion of his face and completely encircled his neck as well at this point, he shook his head lightly back and forth as his master teased Gendo a little. The two of them seemed to be almost complete opposites when it came down to looks or even personality but also the closest of friends of which had probably experienced tough or even possibly very dangerous situations with one another. Though something that he couldn’t have expected was for his skilled master to literally fall out the back of the back of the wagon from a slight misstep. He’d quickly step out of the wagon behind his mentor extending his hand in case he needed it now. “Master, are you alright?

Though he didn’t believe that Fuhen would be injured from such a small fall it still felt like the proper thing to do now, a few moments later the older man extracted himself from the ground and stood back up as though nothing happened. “Every destination ends up having twelve more destinations?” The statement from the Frogman caused for the slender figure to ponder the words. Perhaps the journey was sometimes more important than the actual destination sometimes? Or was he saying that it was easy to get lost along the way? A bit confused still the bundled up young man would follow closely behind his teacher now and meet the kind old man and the younger one closer to his age.

The subject changed after the initial pleasantries as the question came back to just what was happening with the crops. When he heard about the hard freeze it made sense to the youth as this mountainous environment couldn’t be easy to farm in and with the ability of the weather to shift from one extreme to another in a short period of time he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the farmers. Every time the young swordsman in training felt that he’d experienced a new level of hardship he seemed to meet another who had it far worse that himself. His grey eyes shifted over onto the heavy set monk who had turned to the west and appeared to be praying in order to bless these lands.

‘Hopefully it’ll help these villagers.’ Sato wasn’t to sure such a thing would actually have any effect but part of him hoped that the prayers of the monk were able to help these people that were rather down on their luck due to the freeze that had swept through their village. For the mean time the spiky haired youth would just stay quiet as he observed and listened.