Oathday, Pharast 28, 4713 mid day
Beneath the House of Withered Blossoms

A partition blocked access through the southern archway, but those of us who were flying peeked over the wall and… hmm, yes, well, some things you cannot unsee. Takoda made a rude noise, and really there wasn’t much any of us could add to that.

The room was an elaborate bed chamber and the walls were painted with scenes of hobgoblinesque carnal delights. A massive bed squatted against the far wall, and a pair of the monk-like hobgoblins that had just attacked us outside were in the bed entertaining a pseudo hobgoblin type creature.

“Now we know the difference between male and female hobgoblins,” Pookie added helpfully.

I replied, “Right Pook, but the male doesn’t look fully like a hob-gob, I wonder if it might be an…”

“Oni!” I heard Kali whisper to my right.

The word was passed back to those waiting in the hallway, and Kali filled the room with webs while the rest of us jumped down.

The two female hobgoblins screamed threats at us, like “Begone and trouble not the offspring of our god!” But the, er, proverbial son immediately fell to his knees and began to beg for his life.

He surrendered once we went through the formality of killing his entourage (naked and unarmed they posed only a minor threat).

Ichirou was the spawn of the real oni that we originally came here to find, and was perfectly happy to betray his mother by telling us what he knew of the place and her defenses.

He was in charge of these upper levels, although it seemed obvious that Fuji, the samurai oni we had slayed earlier was the one doing all of the work. Ichirou provided a description the “upper” level where we were now and some rudimentary details of his mother’s stronghold, which was at the bottom of a deep shaft he called “the drain.”

He sketched out a crude map for us and described her defenses as being mostly the hobgoblin monks (the Sisters of the Broken Path) and his mother’s offspring, including his two sisters (his mother’s “true daughters”), who were apparently terribly mean to him and had the bodies of giant snakes. These sounded like nagas, and one of their names was Yassu.

This information was not quite as useful as it might have been in that it lacked pertinent details, or to be more precise the details were for the kind of things that interested Ichirou. What mostly interested Ichirou was getting into the pants of anything female (especially the “sisters”).

Several times during his questioning he leered at me with a squinty eyed stare and made lewd suggestions about how he could be of even more service.

I would have suspected that his previous success with the sisters was mainly do to their fear of reprisals from his mother should they be anything but receptive to his repulsive demeanor, however the sisters seemed to think of his mother as some sort of a god.

Maybe that’s why they are still here. It was obvious any of them could leave if they wanted, but they don’t. I simply do not feel bad for cutting them down like vermin.

I think that the actual Oni of the Five Storms are significantly more powerful than the minions we’ve met thus far, but even so it seems like hobgoblins have a lower standard for deities than we.

Ichirou had told us all he was going to say and I was just about to offer Olmas a toss of a coin to see who killed him when Ivan shot an arrow through his eye, slaying him instantly.

We did our usual job of loot collection.

Perhaps this place is starting to get to me, but lately I have found Beorn’s whisperings to make more sense than usual. He definitely has a think outside the box approach to tactics which I fear we may need once we confront the the head oni.

Ichirou’s lair reminded me a bit too much of the Runeforge area Takkad described as belonging to lust. Only without the decorum. Or restraint. And this place is pretty shabby: sort of like what would happen if you had hired the Runelords of Lust and Sloth as your interior decorators.

We moved on to the barracks when the remaining hobgoblins launched a surprise counter attack. It might have been more effective if we had not placed Zos’ giants in front. They took the brunt of the damage while turning the nearby hob-gobs into goo, and we took out the rest.

Soon thereafter we came to the top of a shaft leading down. A noisy river cascaded over the lip and plunged down the center and a ramp of slippery wet stone pathway cork screwed around and downward.

We sent the giants ahead of us, but they soon toppled off the ramp. Fortunately Dasi was ready with a spell of Feather Fall, and so they slowly drifted down as we walked the long way.

Perhaps halfway down we were confronted by another of the sisters blocking our way. We could make out another pair climbing up the walls to flank us from behind. Olmas took care of the sister in front of us and Ivan shot the surviving sister who menaced Zos (the other having plunged to her death after falling victim of a Hold Person spell courtesy of yours truly).

We finally reached the bottom of “the drain”, and happily our giants were safely waiting there for us. The floor was a pool of water, with stepping stones providing a way forward, but Radella has returned from scouting and has reported a pair of sisters standing guard on a ledge some distance off.

We will make use of the noise of the water falling down the drain to sneak up and swiftly take them out.