The Grandmaster of the Dawn smiles and says, 'You pass the test for you have answered both truthfully and rightly. It is not wrong that you should wish to avenge Naijishi who loved you and taught you to love our Lord Kwon, but you must wait patiently for your time to come and never forget that the service of Kwon is the helping of all mankind. It is only through failing a mission that a true Ninja would be captured and there is always time to bite off one's tongue from one's head and bleed to death rather than risk betraying secrets under torture.'
He continues, 'We have never seen one who shows such promise nor one who has mastered so ably the Way of the Tiger. I am going to recite to you the secret litany of the Ninja Grandmaster – remember it, for one day it may be of use to you.
I AM NINJA
My parents are the Heaven and the Earth
My Home is my Body
My Power is Loyalty
My Magic is Training
My Life and my Death is Breathing
My Body is Control
My Eyes are the Sun and the Moon
My Ears are Sensitivity
My Laws are Self-Protection
My Strength is Adaptability
My Ambition is taking every Opportunity with Fullness.
My Friend is my Mind
My Enemy is Carelessness
My Protection is Right Action
My Weapons are Everything that Exists
My Strategy is One Foot in front of the Other
My Trust is in Kwon
MY WAY IS THE WAY OF THE TIGER'
His words are etched into your memory.
Next, he pulls an Opal Ring from his finger and passes it to you. 'This may be of use to you,' he says and you slip it onto your own finger. When the echoing words of the Grandmaster have died away they lead you back to the Temple Hall where the monks and villagers have waited to see whether you would pass the test. Prayers to Kwon are offered up as art of the ceremony at which you are ordained as a Grandmaster of the Five Winds. Gorobei applauds with the others. For now he remains an Adept of the Inner Circle but his time will come, for he is a great warrior and a good monk. Should you die, he will probably take your place.
After the ceremony you all file out of the temple onto the golden sands and there is a frugal feast of rice and fruits shared by the villagers and the monks. You eat sparingly and take your leave early, wishing to meditate before you sleep. Relaxed from the meditation which frees your spirit from the shackles of your aching body, your eyes close as soon as you lay yourself down on the straw-filled sacking that is your bed. You drift into a deep but troubled sleep.
You see a sleek-oared ship setting sail from the Land of Plenty. A tall resolute looking man is on the high stern castle, his legs braced against the swell. He wears a thick cloak of dark green against the weather and the sun flashes so vividly on the buckle of his sword belt that you believe this is not a dream but a vision. A sailor calls him by name, 'Glaivas,' and he turns to look at you, but then the vision fades and the brilliant blue sky is replaced by sombre purple clouds against which a large and dark castle looms. Three turrets on a black Keep seem to pierce the clouds. You are walking towards it, bent on completing a difficult and important mission.
When you awake you remember the dreams as if they were pictures painted on the wall of your monastic cell, but your sleep has at least restored any Endurance that you lost in your contest with Gorobei. You are walking towards the Temple when there is a commotion on the beach and two fishermen run up to you with the news that a ship is riding at anchor offshore. A man rows himself to the beach and steps out, as the Grandmasters walk to the strand to greet him. He introduces himself as Glaivas and, bowing respectfully, he asks to talk to the Grandmaster of Grandmasters.
'You may address us all,' says the Grandmaster of the Dawn, ' for we have no secrets on the Island of Tranquil Dreams.'
'Not since you lost the Scrolls of Kettsuin,' Glaivas returns darkly.
'What do you know of the Scrolls of Kettsuin?' asks the Grandmaster. The monks wait tensely as Glaivas looks around carefully before replying.
'The Scrolls of Kettsuin hold the secret to the Word of Power which will bind Kwon himself in Inferno if it is spoken at the Pillars of Change in the great snow-wastes of the north. Yaemon, Grandmaster of Flame, of the order of the Scarlet Mantis stole it from you many years ago and he has deciphered the Word. It is the month of All-Mother Splendour and for three days the moon will turn red during the Great Conjunction of the Planets – something that occurs only once every five hundred years. If the Word is spoken at the Pillars of Change at this time, your God Kwon will be imprisoned in the bottomless pit of fire, leaving the monks who worship Vile free to spread their dominion over the lands of men.'
At the mention of Yaemon's name there is uproar, but as Glaivas continues an unnatural quiet descends. 'Yaemon is preparing to set out even now from the city of Doomover on the long journey to the Ice Wastes. Though a Ranger long used to patrolling the wilderness on the edge of the Rift, I am no match for such as he. Is there one among you who will try to stop him?'
As Glaivas spoke you felt the burning need to be revenged on Yarmon flare within your breast. Your dream of Glaivas, for it was he you saw astride the deck of the ship which now rides at anchor near the sands, has convinced you that you are destined for this quest, and you step forward saying, 'I shall stop him.'
'You are young,' says Glaivas, 'can you succeed where I, a Ranger Lord, would fail?'
'I am Ninja,' you reply.
Glaivas starts. The Grandmaster of the Dawn sighs and says, 'Yes, I rename you Avenger, for if anyone can succeed, and you must for the sake of all mankind, it will be you.' With that he turns toward the Temple and prayer.
The city of Doomover lies on the western coast of the Manmarch, and Glaivas gifts you a map which shows the many cities and strange lands which stretch north to the snow wastes.
You spend the rest of the day preparing, lacing the iron sleeves to your dark hued costume and gathering together the tools of the Ninja, before spending some hours in quiet meditation. You board Glaivas' ship in time and sail on the evening tide. You must find Yaemon and kill him before he reaches the Pillars of Change or all will be lost.
Avenger, Grandmaster of the Five Winds
Inner Force: 5
Endurance: 20
Shuriken: *****
Ninja Tools: Ninja Costume, Breathing Tube, Iron Sleeves, Garotte, Flash Powder, Flint & Tinder, Spiderfish, Blood of Nil.
Special Items: Opal Ring.
The ship which Glaivas has chartered, the 'Aquamarin,' has a hundred oars and two masts. The winds are kind to you as you scud across the azure plain. The sea is so calm that after two weeks without the tang of salt spray on your lips you forget that it is composed of water at all. The oarsmen row for ten hours a day, but they are free men, not chained to their oars. Two bear the scars of a pirate's persuader; captured by buccaneers, they are of the lucky few who have lived to see the sky again. All of them have the heavy upper body of the oarsman, some who turned to the sea for their livelihood too young are squat and mis-shapen, moulded by life at the oar into grotesque travesties of the mountain dwarves.
The Land of Plenty passes to the south and you are in sight of the Isle of the Magical Goddess when the lookout cries a warning. The helmsman steers a new course and the drum-beat quickens as the oarsmen redouble their efforts. The ship that is approaching is long and low, painted green and red and flying a red pennant at the top of its mast. Glaivas, standing next to you at the rail, says 'That ship is from Port o' Reavers, we'll never outrun it.' So saying, he draws his sword.
The oarsmen strain, sweating with effort, but they cannot match the pace of the slaves on the Reavers' ship, galvanized into a frenzied spurt by the barbed whips of their overseers. At last the captain gives the order 'prepare to repel boarders' and you ready yourself for combat. The pirate ship carries a spiked ram, but they are obviously trying to take the Aquamarin as a prize for they grapple and come alongside. The Reavers carry scimitars and chain nets and are led in their rush by a nine-foot monster whose body is covered in knobbles of mis-grown bone, an Ogre with a large spiked hammer.
The Aquamarin's crew look no match for the battle-scarred buccaneers.
• Leap into the rigging and hurl a Shuriken at the Ogre?
• Attack the Ogre as it comes aboard, flattening a section of the Aquamarin's rail?