The Longest Week

According to their account, only a week had gone by, and yet in front of them stood Drallus' scribe, Ando Kuaikado, now an old man. He told them he had been living at the edge of the forest for fifteen years; ever since Hideo's defeat by Lady Arigohi at the battle of Meifumada. All told they had been in the woods for twenty-five years. He told them that Lord Hideo had commanded them to destroy the leader of the Arigohi and gave them a box containing a letter as token of their authority in this matter.

He further informed them of the means by which Hideo was overwhelmed; of the army of creatures created as a hybrid of undead and mechanicals -- the Arigohi golems which are rightly regarded as the most devastating creations of the Arigohi lore master, if no the most powerful. Ando tolf them of the fall of Teraka and Suito previous to Hideo and of the siege of Yuni which was then underway.

In the box with the letter was a proof of lineage showing that the line of the emperor did not pass through Arigohi, but instead through Ashikaru, the previous Lord Hideo's wife's family. Lady Hideo had born a son, Yoshimasan, who would reach his eighteenth birthday later that year. The document would prove the child to have a claim to the Imperial throne, should the document be validated by a council of the clans. The child was at the time being held in a hidden location by the Arigohi, where they were waiting until his majority to marry him to an Arigohi woman and secure the succession for themselves, in the event they were unable to destroy the proof of lineage document.

The five revealed that they had been visited by the Imperial Godess on the sacred isle, who had informed them that Ashikaru Yoshimasan was a sacred warrior and avatar of justice, and they resolved to rescue him from the Arigohi clan.

It was at this time that the man known as "Revenge" made himself known to them. He urged them to destroy Hideo's nemesis immediately and swore with terrible oaths his complete commitment to that goal. He would wait for eighteen months for them, and then he could wait no longer; he would kill Lady Arigohi without their aid. Surrounded by the Lost Regiment they held a council to resolve their course.