#Chapter 1 - Drift (漂流)

Contents

"Where you fell, stand up once more." - Campaign motto.

Main Arc Chapter 1 · standalone-complete structure. A 4-session adventure themed on Reviving Hell (等活地獄). This chapter alone can form a complete story. Final question: "On the first night of the Drift, does the domain survive?"

Core References

- Required: Three Ways and Six Hearts · Dice System · Yoma Bestiary

- Reference: Non-Combat Checks · Squads

References in This Supplement

- Required: Premise · Barrier System · Core Economy · Squad Limits

- Required: Young Lord · Retired Onmyoji · 6 Retainers

- Required: Spirit Realm Topology · Travel Rules · Hell GM Guide: Reviving Hell

- Within this chapter: Act 1 · Act 2 · Act 3 · Act 4 · Chapter NPCs · Chapter Yoma · Rewards and Next Chapter

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#30-Second Summary (read aloud when opening to players)

"It is dawn on the day after the Drift. The domain has not yet raised smoke. The barrier holds, but the onmyoji's hands are trembling."

"Outside is a blood-soaked wasteland. In the iron-colored sky, a moon split in two still hangs. The corpses lying across the wasteland, people who were residents half a day ago, slowly stand again."

"This is Reviving Hell (等活), the edge of the first hell. A land of those who stand again even after death. Everything outside the domain is this."

"Before tonight ends, you must decide. Who goes out. What you bring back. Whom you leave behind."

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#Scent - The First Breath of Chapter 1

Chapter 1 should focus less on the fact that the domain has fallen into hell, and more on the faces of people enduring a day before they fully understand that fact. The residents are terrified, but not completely broken. The lord is young, but not yet bent. The onmyoji is already old, but he is trying not to collapse before the end. The air of that uncertain first day is the core.

The GM is better off treating this chapter not as mass chaos after a catastrophe, but as the time in which a small domain barely regains its stance. Enemies come almost immediately, but the more frightening pressure is that in every scene the group must decide for itself: "Who goes beyond the barrier?", "Whom do we leave behind?", and "How long can we hold?"

#Operation Points

• Put the emotional line of the first session on responsibility, not fear. Everyone is afraid, but someone writes the list, someone shuts the gate, and someone goes outside.
• Present Reviving Hell through the repetition of standing again, not exaggerated gore. Severed corpses rise again, wounds close, and rusted weapons are lifted once more.
• Until the Act 4 climax, leave the hope that "we can still hold." That makes the Barrier HP drop in the final siege land harder.

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#Chapter Meta Card

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#Full Chapter Structure - From Act 1 to Act 4

#Act 1 · Session 1 - "A Morning with No Smoke Yet"

Inside the domain. Council room → boundary patrol → first lesser-yoma encounter just inside the barrier. PC 1st-dan orientation.

• Act question: "Do you know where this domain now stands?"
• Geography: domain central council room, shrine, castle gate, inner edge of the barrier
• Main encounter: 1 lesser yoma that has seeped inside the barrier, demonstration of the first failed core harvest
• Wounds tension: low (tutorial density)
• Details: 10-01 Act 1

#Act 2 · Session 2 - "The First Step Across the Threshold"

First entry into the Spirit Realm. Exploration of the Reviving Hell edge just outside the barrier. First encounter with reviving yoma. Introduction to unstable-core harvesting.

• Act question: "If what falls rises again, what must be brought down?"
• Geography: boundary zone outside the barrier → first footprints on the iron-colored plain
• Main encounter: reviving gaki squad, 1 rusted oni individual (alone)
• Wounds tension: medium (the PCs receive Exposure for the first time)
• Details: 10-02 Act 2

#Act 3 · Session 3 - "On the Blood Plateau"

Deep in the Reviving Hell wasteland. Exploration of the Blood Plateau. Discovery of ancient Reviving Hell ruins → a fragment of a clue toward return.

• Act question: "Those who fell here before - where did they go?"
• Geography: 2 days into the iron-colored plain → Blood Plateau → collapsed shrine ruins
• Main encounter: a swarm of small spirits from a blood-spraying forest, a recovering oni chieftain, 1 intelligent yoma (can converse)
• Wounds tension: medium (first close encounter with an Elite-grade yoma)
• Details: 10-03 Act 3

#Act 4 · Session 4 · Climax - "The Night of the Barrier Assault"

A night siege in which the Lord-grade yoma "Crimson Kooni" pounds the barrier. A dramatic Barrier HP drop + the story of gaining a high-purity core.

• Act question: "On the first night of the Drift, does the domain survive?"
• Geography: domain gate, barrier front, onmyoji's shrine
• Main encounter: Crimson Kooni (Lord-grade boss), remaining followers (reviving gaki squad 2, rusted oni 2 bodies), barrier-crack management subplot
• Wounds tension: extreme (Barrier HP drops 15~25 at once, triggering the onmyoji emergency-maintenance option)
• Details: 10-04 Act 4

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#Entry Point When Playing Only This Chapter (one-shot/pilot)

If a group familiar with the core rules wants to sample Drift of the Spirit Realm in a single day, this chapter can be run as a one-shot. Prepare the following for a one-shot entry.

#One-Shot Preparation Card

#One-Shot Storyline Summary

Combine Sessions 1~2 into the 1st sitting (4 hours). Run Session 3 as the 2nd sitting (4 hours). Run Session 4 as the 3rd sitting (5 hours). The one-shot can finish in a total of 3 sittings, 13 hours. For pilot purposes, Session 4 can also be staged alone (Barrier HP set to 40 + direct route to Crimson Kooni).

Ultra-light single-sitting variant: the "Night of the Barrier" scenario only = Session 4 alone, 5 hours. After a 30-minute orientation for 1st-dan PCs, enter the Crimson Kooni siege.

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#Standalone Completion Paths - How the Story Ends with Only This Chapter

Like the 1st volume of a Pathfinder Adventure Path, this chapter provides a complete story even on its own.

#Standalone Ending A - "The First Night Endured"

Crimson Kooni defeated or successfully driven off + Barrier HP maintained at 40 or higher. The onmyoji survives.

Dawn came. The barrier remained, trembling, and the residents looked at the sky through gaps in the windows. Lord Akihisa spoke from the shrine steps: "We survived the first night."

What comes after those words - tomorrow will bring it.

This ending can also become a natural bridge into Chapter 2. See Rewards and Next Chapter.

#Standalone Ending B - "The Lord's Choice"

Crimson Kooni not driven off + Barrier HP 15~39. Onmyoji weakening 3+.

The lord came out of the shrine. He stood in the center of the barrier. The residents gathered around him. "We will live here," or "We will find a way out of this land" - he chooses one side.

This ending branches into a "settlement" or "long drift" story. The starting conditions change when entering Chapter 2.

#Standalone Ending C - "The Fallen Night"

Barrier HP 0, or Crimson Kooni successfully enters the barrier interior.

There was a sound as the barrier broke. It was like water coming to a boil. After the sound came - stillness. The residents' screams were swallowed by that stillness too.

This works as a one-shot ending. In that case, the GM adds a short epilogue: several generations later, the ruins of "another domain that fell into this land" are discovered. The "previous drifters" in Chapter 4 (Scorching Heat) are the ruins of people who met just such an ending.

#Standalone Ending D - "Flight"

Just before the barrier collapses, the PCs flee deep into the Spirit Realm with some of the domain residents. The darkest standalone ending of the campaign.

Behind you, the barrier went out. Thirty-six people walked across the iron-colored plain behind you. How many of them will see the next dawn - no one knows.

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#Core Lessons of This Chapter (player-facing goals)

#Functional Learning

1. How to reveal and read Barrier HP. It starts at 75; watch how the number changes each session.
2. The basics of core-harvest checks. What kind of check it is to extract one unstable core.
3. The difference between squad slots A/B. What immediately happens when Slot A moves.
4. The meaning of 1 round of Spirit Realm travel. Exposure and time move as one bundle.
5. The "mirror" principle of hell scenery. Reviving Hell reacts to PCs who carry wounds.

#Narrative Learning

1. Akihisa is the decision-maker, but he is not enough. The PCs must support his decisions.
2. Gensho is alive. But he is alive by calculation. His appearance changes each session.
3. Domain residents are not numbers. One retainer's name is remembered in the next session.
4. The weight of "those who leave" and "those who stay" is the same. Staying inside the domain is not cowardice.
5. Reviving Hell is not punishment, but a mirror. Not dying is not the punishment; what matters is what the fact of not dying reflects.

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#Three Ways and Six Hearts Branch Points in This Chapter

Three Ways and Six Hearts (忠/覇/慈/虛/眞/魔) is the core rule for confirming a Heart (心). These are the major branch points presented to the PCs and Akihisa in this chapter.

The branch in each act causes Three Ways and Six Hearts score changes for the PCs. Score accumulation is tracked across the whole campaign, and at the end of this chapter nothing is confirmed yet; only tendencies remain (confirmation comes around Chapter 3).

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#Session Pacing Guidelines (for the GM)

#Reading 4 Sessions as One Breath (呼)

#Standard Length of Each Session

Recommended: Session 1 = 3 hours / Session 2 = 3~4 hours / Session 3 = 4 hours / Session 4 = 4~5 hours. Total 14~16 hours.

For online remote play, Sessions 1~2 may be combined into a single 5~6-hour sitting.

#Points Where Failure Is Allowed

Within this chapter, the points where "failure is actually critical" are:

1. Critical failure on the first harvest check in Session 2 → harvester loses 1 Wound (not a level of erasure)
2. Confrontation with an Elite-grade yoma in Session 3 → squad Cohesion -1 possible
3. Barrier HP 0 in Session 4, or onmyoji weakening 10

Other "failures" should be handled as narrative costs (squad member severely wounded, resident morale -1, core destroyed, and so on), while avoiding direct PC annihilation. Wiping out 1st-dan PCs is not the purpose of this chapter.

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#The Memory of This Chapter - What Remains with PCs After Play

#Material Traces

• first yoma cores, 3~8 total (mixed grades)
• 1 fragment of Crimson Kooni (high-purity core shard - 1-use relic)
• 1 bronze piece from the Reviving Hell ruins (Act 3 reward)
• resident morale change (+1 or -1)
• 1~2 retainers severely wounded or killed in action

#Sensory Traces

• Iron smell: from now on, when PCs smell iron, they remember Reviving Hell.
• Two moons: this image remains in the sky throughout the campaign.
• Pulse of the barrier: when they wake in the morning, they intuitively know the barrier's tremor.
• Faces of residents: those who have seen death look longer at the faces of residents.

#Narrative Traces

• Whether Akihisa broke once. The PCs witness the moment he wavers in Act 4.
• Whether Gensho performed emergency maintenance once. If he did, his appearance changes.
• Which retainer gained a name. A named retainer returns in Chapter 2.

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#Next Chapter Connection - To Chapter 2 (Black Rope)

If Chapter 1 ends with Barrier HP 40 or higher, the onmyoji alive, and Crimson Kooni defeated or successfully driven off, it forms a natural bridge to Chapter 2, Black Rope Hell.

Three threads of the bridge:

1. Ruin fragment found in Act 3 → decoding begins in Act 1 of Chapter 2 → points toward the sealed forest in the Black Rope direction.
2. Crimson Kooni's last words (if defeated) → "They will come soon - dragging black threads" → foreshadows the threat of Chapter 2.
3. One new line added to Akihisa's diary → "Today, I drew my brother's wakizashi. With my own hand, I cut down a person."

The detailed bridge is in the "Bridge Narrative" section of 10-07 Rewards and Next Chapter.

#If Ending Chapter 1 as a Standalone One-Shot

If the story does not continue into the next chapter, use the "4 standalone endings" in 10-07 to close the campaign. The PCs survived one night. That is enough.

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#Pre-Start GM Checklist

What the GM should prepare before starting Session 1.

The player safety agreement matters because of Reviving Hell's Cadence of Revival. Before Session 1, share that themes of self-harm and repeated trauma can appear.

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#Tone Setting - Three Lines for This Chapter

1. "What is dead does not stay dead." - the core of Reviving Hell.
2. "The onmyoji's hands do not tremble today. May they be the same tomorrow." - the sense of a deadline.
3. "Is leaving courage, or is staying courage?" - the morality of squad slots.

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#GM Control - Pacing Adjustment Levers

Levers the GM can pull when adjusting the pace of this chapter.

If the GM feels "this session is too fast," pull the first two levers. If it is "too slow," pull the third and later levers.

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#1st-Dan PC Balance Principles

This chapter is tuned for 3~5 1st-dan PCs. PCs are not "heroes." These are the chapter's key design principles.

#Yoma Grade Limit

From Act 1~Act 4, yoma that directly engage the PCs should be Minion-grade to Veteran-grade. Elite-grade yoma in Act 3 are subjects for "conversation/evasion/observation," not extermination targets. The Lord-grade "Tyrant of Revival" is driven off in the Act 4 climax through the combined system of barrier, onmyoji, and environment.

#Combat Density

#Allowed Casualties

"PC party wipe" is not intended in this chapter. However, severe injury/death of 1~2 retainers is allowed. Retainer death is narrative weight. For details, see 10-05 NPC.

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#Core Clue of This Chapter - The Unreviving Corpse

The decisive clue the PCs discover in Act 3: 1 unreviving corpse found in the Blood Plateau ruins.

#Meaning of the Clue

In Reviving Hell, every corpse revives. If one does not revive, that means:

• This person is not from Reviving Hell. They came from outside.
• This person is outside the law of Reviving Hell.
• In this person's clothing is 1 sealed scroll fragment.

#Function of the Clue

This clue is the seed leading to Chapter 3, Screaming Hell Sealing Records. In a standalone ending, it remains undeciphered and ends as the question mark: "Someone had fallen into this hell before."

• Previous drifter: the writing style on this scroll fragment is Japanese Muromachi style. It predates the current Drift by several generations.
• Characters on the scroll surface: half-erased, but only the three characters "輪 (ring)", "封 (seal)", and "還 (return)" can be confirmed.
• Connection to the Chapter 3 sealing records: the Screaming Hell sealing records mention 3 "sibling scrolls" of this scroll.

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#GM Preparation Guide - Before Running This Chapter

#Required GM Knowledge

1. Tone of Reviving Hell: themes of resurrection, repetition, and self-harm. A player safety agreement is required.
2. Barrier HP disclosure principle: from this chapter onward, reveal Barrier HP to players. It is the core tension value.
3. Onmyoji weakening: stays at 0 in Acts 1~3. Spikes in Act 4 if barrier emergency maintenance is used.
4. Squad slot rules: Slot A is defense, Slot B is expedition. The two slots do not go out at the same time.
5. Names of retainers: if the GM deliberately emphasizes one retainer's name, that retainer returns in Chapter 2.

#Optional GM Knowledge (useful if available)

1. The structural feel of the 1st volume of a core Pathfinder-style Adventure Path (introduction, exploration, facility, boss).
2. Spatial layout of a Sengoku-era lord's residence and shrine.
3. Buddhist and Shinto background of Reviving Hell (details in 03-06).

#Pre-Session Player Sharing

What the GM should share with players before starting Session 1.

1. Campaign tone: dark, but not nihilistic. A small amount of hope remains.
2. Sensitive themes: repeated trauma, self-harm, resurrection imagery. Agree to use the X-card if uncomfortable.
3. PC characters: 1st dan. Not heroes. Survivors.
4. Expected pace: Session 1 is slow. Session 4 is fast.

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#Bonus - 5-Player Table Impression Log

Mei: It introduced the rules, but emotionally it was nothing like a tutorial.

Jun: The gate, well, storehouse, and smithy. At first I thought they were background, but every one was a lifeline.

Kuro: In this campaign, space is not background. It is a structure for staying alive.

Full conversation: 80-09 Milestone Impression Log, After Chapter 1 - After Enduring the First Night.

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#Next

• Session 1 details: 10-01 Act 1
• Session 2 details: 10-02 Act 2
• Session 3 details: 10-03 Act 3
• Session 4 climax: 10-04 Act 4
• Details on NPCs unique to this chapter: 10-05 NPC
• Details on yoma unique to this chapter: 10-06 Yoma
• Rewards and next-chapter connection: 10-07 Rewards and Bridge

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"Those who did not die on the first night remember the first night." — Hoshino Gensho, from the liturgy on the day after the Drift.

"Leaving is courage, and staying is courage too. Today we will use both kinds." — Kamijo Akihisa, final words of the council on the day after the Drift.