An adventure for the Kitsuki

Challenge

Travelling between provinces, the samurai come across the body of a samurai lying dead in the middle of the path. There are no marks on him to indicate how or why he died. The foliage is mostly brush and skinny trees. The land is relatively flat, being mostly soil with no large rocks.

Focus

The tracks of the samurai are fresh, made within the day, and there are no tracks of man nor beast anywhere nearby as recent. The branches of the local trees do not appear to be strong enough for an assailant to make a getaway without touching the ground. The man's weapons are still sheathed, and even his silk clothes are not damaged, other than from his apparent fall to the ground. There is no trace of magic or Taint nearby. The one oddity is a large patch of burned ground next to the trail, but that is approximately 200 yards beyond the body and not readily visible from its location.

Strike

The samurai was deathly allergic to poison ivy. While walking along this trail, he spotted some next to the path. Scared of what the poisonous leaves might do to him this far from civilization, he decided to take no chances. The samurai took his flint from his travelling sack and lit a fallen branch on fire, throwing it into the poison ivy. After the ivy had burned sufficiently far from the trail, the samurai continued on his way. Unfortunately, the samurai did not know that burning poison ivy only makes its toxins airborne. He inhaled enough of the plant's vaporized oil that it swelled his windpipe closed, killing him where the party found him.

The fire left no trace of the poison ivy, and the wind has dissipated the smoke and vapors enough so that the characters will not have an allergic reaction. The only hint that the ivy existed is a few pieces of jewelweed on the edges of the scorched earth. Jewelweed favors the same growing conditions as poison ivy, and is often found nearby. Which is especially handy since its sap can act as a remedy for poison ivy.