Session 11 (8 XP)

The PCs came upon a shrine in the shadowlands tended by an old monk. He tried to convince the party to visit the shrine and see Diagotsu's art, but the party refused. He turned into a skull cleaving oni and attacked but the defeated him.

The party wandered in the shadowlands until they were fond by Crab harriers and brought to Shinsei's Last Hope- a crab city in the shadowlands. They learned that the Isawa family was disbanded by the emperor and several high ranking shugenja were executed. This may be the end of void magic. They learned that the kitsu- who represented void are extinct, the last 3 (made mortal) were the precursers to the Lion's Kitsu clan, and that Zokujin (lion mining slaves) represent the element of earth.

They learned that the Spider Clan is coming with an army of oni summoned from the Oblivion's Gate, and they informed the crab that the destroyers were coming also. They learned that the snake caln were marching ogres and goblins to this city as well, so they left and approached the wall. They asked the crab to retrieve their brass weapons, and the crab said "after we deal with all these armies".

They got to the wall, but were unable to get the crab to let them pass. (They had no proper identification, they had not crossed the wall to enter the shadowlands, they were there illegally, and the borders were shut down so the families could not be verified). They were able to find the secret labrynth under the wall, and they went through the labrynth, bypassing the traps within, and found their way to the other side where they entered Rokugan proper.

Session 10 (3 XP)

The party took the trails of Fire at Amaratsu's Forge. When they were done, they found some crab who had come seeking Ignatious' expertise. They had experimented with a white jade paste on some ronin. 3 died, one survived. The paste made him more or less immune to the effects of taint, but he drew taint into himself, becoming some form of a grey harrier.

The crab were going to try to destroy the Oblivion gate at Volternum, the old troll capital, before the Spider could use it to summon armies of Oni from Jigoku.

Lost Library

Travelling on, the party found the Lost Library. They got in through a tunnel in the basement, and found it was full of cursed books that contained valuable knowledge, but made the readers obsessed with reading the books indefinitely.

At the top they met the Dark Scholar. He told them that Rokugan was doomed- that Kali-Ma would conquer Fu Leng on her way, and that all the Oni summoned by the Spider would turn against them, and together the Oni and Destroyers would march on Rokugan to a crab clan ill-prepared for them.

Meanwhile, the Lion are dying from Orochi's Curse, and the Scorpion are being possessed by the Raksasha, and Yogo James' mother is attacking scorpion allies in the cavern of the Oni's eye.

While they spoke with him, the Goju Blood Mage climbed the tower to talk with the Dark Scholar. The group let him, and asked him to speak with them when he was done. After a while, they saw he left without them. The Scholar said that he heard information that caused him to hurry.

They went on towards Rokugan.