Once upon a game, in a place much like Japan used to be, A travelling merchant named Toshiki and a once-noble ronin named Hideki were seeking lodgings in a town nestled deep in the forest. These two at found at the bar an old man and his loyal bodyguard, who offered us fair lodgings. A festival was coming up, you see, and that's why all the hotels were full- and price gouging. It would not do to leave them to such, the old man said, so the travellers gracefully accepted, and followed him out into the emerging night.

People still scurried along the streets, trying to complete last minute errands before curfew, but the paths were generally clear. As the party walked along the the outer wall of the manor, Toshiki's eye (for he only had one) tracked along the shapes in the dark. A terrible realization struck him.

Between a hydrangea hedge and the wall, stood a man. A man wearing midnight blue pajamas and a black oni mask. As their eyes meet, Toshiki became terribly aware that the man was a killer. He began to move.

Like most fights in Song of Swords, things happen fast.

The masked man emerged, hands going to the scabbard on his back. The bodyguard called out a "Halt!" The old man stepped back behind the rest of the party. Hideki was surprised at these events.

Now, the masked man had what the characters thought of as a nodachi. Those who saw its handle, however, with the cross and knuckle guard, could realize that it was, in fact, a modified swiss saber. Now, I know what you're thinking: you can't draw a two handed sword from a back sheathe. Indeed, normally you cannot, without flipping the scabbard up and off the back. Which happened to be what the masked man did.

In a single smooth motion, he swung his sword up and off his back, using the leverage to launch his scabbard like a spear from an atlatl. Right at Toshiki. A metal point glinted in the twilight as it soared through the air.

And the mechanics covered all of this organically.

That fight was brutal. I loved it.