Skull-Cleaving Oni



The Skull-Cleaving Oni was the keeper of the False Lantern Grove, an apparent oasis of spiritual purity in the Shadowlands, fashioned as a shrine to the glory of Fu Leng and Jigoku.

Keeper of the Grove
The oni fancied itself a pious shrine keeper and treated all who approached as honored guests, until they refuse to surrender their jade and submit to the Shadowlands Taint. Some samurai succumbed to its offers, joining the ranks of the Lost, and maintained a twisted parody of their old religion. They sometimes returned to the grove to receive the oni's blessing again, as if it were an honored monk. At night, the grove appeared as a thicket full of beautifully blossoming trees. The trees surrounded a simple but elegant pagoda hung with prayer strips beseeching the spirits for their blessing. At day, the trees were shown to be withered and dead. Daylight also revealed the trapdoor beneath the pagoda that led into the oni's den. In these hours, the oni's true form was revealed: that of a thickly muscled monster with a bluish hide and curving horns crowning its head.