You lay down after a hard day of work to have a strange dream. You have entered the Court of White Lies. Everyone here is telling a partial truth. What is being said is anywhere from one percent to ninety nine percent truth. You must discern the underlying truth in order to awaken. Should you never unwrap the lies, and expose the truth, you will simply pass from life unto death without ever waking.

This was just a thought in passing while eatting lunch. The Court of White Lies seems like a perfectly polite hell, possibly of one's own making. Any other thoughts on mind prisons that could afflict an honour bound samurai?

This could make for an interesting session or story arc for a campaign. Might even be something Kinzen could use in her Togashi Dynasty game.

Heeeeeeeee. Man, just last night I wrote a little scene for our campaign, where the ex-Scorpion Shosuro Actor ronin talked to the Ikoma Bard about his inability to connect with the virtue of Sincerity. I decided that, more than Honesty, was his big problem, because he has three ranks of Perceived Honor -- he knows how to pretend to be a good man, so even when he tries to actually be one, it feels to him like a performance. (A train of thought which got rolling because I was thinking about how Shosuro Actors get trained, and decided that it involves truly epic amounts of gaslighting: they have to learn to let go of whatever they "know" and accept the script of the moment, because the fundamental lesson of the Actors is that there is no truth, only performance. Whether other samurai realize they are performing or not.)

Running your Court of White Lies scene would be absolutely fascinating . . . and also exhausting, I think. Reminds me of the White Fomori in a Changeling game my friends ran; they believed that all truth was a negotiated contract, and that any conversation is a series of propositions regarding that truth, the acceptance of which binds you in a kind of debt to your conversational partner. I mostly avoided talking to the White Fomori, because it made my head hurt. :-P

What sort of Truth do you envision for the Court of White Lies?

This truth I envision would be the fact that during that day he just lived he was given an oppurtunity to do the "right" thing. Instead he avoided that oppurtunity, turned a blind eye to it. It is said that a man who knows what is right to do, and does not do it, that is counted against him as sin. Thus the half truths, partial truths, outright lies could be his own excuses for why he turned a blind eye. Therefore until he admitted to himself that he simply failed, and pledged to do better he would continually be led in circles of his own doubts, and excuses. Something like that, a mental maze of his own construction.

The idea for mind prisons is nothing new. There are many examples of such through fiction, and other roleplaying games. You do not have to go with my take on it. You could create your own.

I loved a bard that I played that would befuddle, confuse, put adversaries into a temporary mind prison. That was so she did not have to spill their blood, or kill them, but could go on about her business, delivering a message, an artifact, warning a town of impending danger, and so forth. I would love to create a bard for Legend of the Five Rings, just not sure what they would be since they are neither shugenja, bushi, or courtier, but more a mix of all three.

Ikoma Bard, clearly. :-D

I will take a look at the Ikoma Bard when I get home. I may have to make changes though, I am a Unicorn Clan Loyalist. Even within that clan I usually play Shinjo, Otaku(Utaku), and on rare occassion Iuchi. I would also prefer to play as a gaijin bard, Ra-Shari, or Merenae. Maybe even make a Gaels bard based on Celts. Definately freckle faced, red wavy hair, and green eyes, now that would be something.

Iuchi with a Gaijin name trained as an Ikoma Bard because a particular Iuchi Daimyo had a favor from an Ikoma in his sleeve and wanted to teach him a lesson?

No, the Ikoma Bard is a nice storyteller historian, but not what I was thinking. I was thinking more along the lines of the following introduction:

Breahna Kenda Vahdyn

Dawn Singer

Status 0, Glory 0

Fiery red hair, brilliant green eyes, and a face full of freckles mark this robust young woman as a gaijin explorer. She was first discovered in Ki-Rin Pass by a Shiotome Patrol. Later she was seen near the second wall by Scorpion Sentries. Both times she vanished into thin air, gone with only a lilting music lingering in the air.

"Now I am the third to tell of her arrival here in Rokugan. I knew immediately she was a gaijin spy of some foreign land come to take a census of our land. Evaluate its worth for her masters. I hesitated not in cutting her down. Except she was not where she appeared. Time after time I only sliced thin air. I was being mocked by her laughter. Then she began tossing short blades like tantos into the air. She danced around me catching, and tossing the blades. She sang a haunting melody as she danced. When she stopped, she had caught all her dancing daggers, and resheathed them. My armor then fell to the ground around me. I stood there in my silk komono. I was not sure what to make of her bazaar attack that left me without any cuts, but now armorless. She made some gaijin jesture of kissing her palm, then blowing across it toward me. Then vanished into thin air before my eyes. Only the lilting sound of her music left as testimony of her ever being there. My Champion Dairuko, I ask permission to commit seppuku for my failure. This gaijin still roams our lands, and I am to blame."

"You mean that woman? Standing behind you? Carrying your armor intact?" Dairuko questioned.

"Well I felt bad leaving it all sliced up." Breahna replied in perfect Rokuganese,"So I am here to return it, even cleaned it for you."

Exiled from her own homeland. Branded as witch. Her red hair, and green eyes had made the sell easy to the over superstitious, ignorant population. Breahna still fumed for not being more careful. You would have thought they would be grateful she had healed the War Leader's Child, Brannon. No, someone cried sorcery! Well the rest was history. If she floats she is a witch, if she drowns she was innocent, God take her soul. Hitting her head on that rock, and becoming unconscious may have saved her life. She woke up who knows how much later, spitting up water on the beach of the river delta. She looked up the river, up into the hills. Looked into a land that would no longer be her home. So be it. She would head south along the coast. South into the lands occupied by other warlords. She would find a new home.

Not fully understanding why her mind chose that moment to flash back to a painful memory. Breahna refocused on the present situation. A wall of air encircled her. Dairuko's guards shielding themselves against the torrent. Dairuko herself staring at her in astonishment. Four polearms laying at her feet. Breahna dropped the armor she was holding, and changed the melody of the song around her. She stepped into the space between. Her place of refuge. Only spirits walked this realm. Spirits that were always grateful for Breahna's help. Now however a different type of spirit looked back at Breahna. One that looked at her with hunger.

First the torrent of wind, which the strange gaijin woman appeared to be at its center. Then a lilting melody arose, the column of wind dispersed outwardly knocking Dairuko's guards off their feet. The gaijin was gone, vanished. She had looked directly at Dairuko, and then vanished! Dairuko shouted out the alarm. All samurai, and shugenja were to work together to find this intruder. The Castle of the Swift Sword came alive with activity. Each shugenja found themselves being accompanied by no less than four samurai. The shugenja were getting traces of two ghosting spirits inside the castle walls. One chasing the other, no, they were fighting. The shugenja began to cast spells to herd the pair into an open courtyard. A loud clap of thunder resonated, shaking the very walls of the courtyard. The two spirits taking form there.

One the fiery red headed woman hovered in the air above an ogre magi. The ogre saw its predicament and feared for its own life. It was angry with the soft human, its prey that had stepped into its parallel dimension. Turned out to not be so soft, possessed of powerful magics the ogre had never seen before. How had it known! He had been ever so careful to infiltrate, not be seen. How had this strange human shugenja sensed him! Now she was pointing that strange sword at him. The sword was resonanting, amplifying the woman's voice. Her words resounded with the volumn of thunder in his ears. Who was this?

Dairuko could scarcely believe what she was seeing. The red haired woman floating above a rather powerful ogre magi. How had it, or this strange woman entered the castle undetected? The Kitsu were chanting, and a perimeter was being formed by her samurai. This gaijin woman was currently holding a strange sword pointed at the ogre. Dairuko was not sure who summoned the storm, her Kitsu, or this strange gaijin. She only knew she wanted some answers.

Breahna spoke in the tongue of her anscestors, spoke an ancient rite of summoning elements. The sky answered her call. She could hear the thunder, and feel the air ionizing. She named a target. The sky brightened with a flash. The bolt incenerated the ogre. The ordeal had been a bit taxing on her reserve. She began to feel shaky. She descended to the courtyard. She was very tired, and allowed sleep to overcome her.

The samurai slowly closed in toward the two bodies lying in the courtyard. When a roar brought them to a halt. The thunder dragon lit atop Breahna, caught ahold of her with its claws, and flew off over the wall with its prize.

"Don't just stand there agape!" Dairuko commanded, make sure that ogre is dead, and dispose of the body. I want the castle grounds searched and someone to report why we had two univited guests!"

The samurai continued now with their approach on one body. The ogre sensing the only being capable of stopping it had left, sprang to its feet. The ogre's left arm dangled helplessly at its side, causing it considerable pain. It breathed out a cone of icy mists across the approaching lion samurai, catching also a few of the shugenja. They all reacted in much the same way, dropping to one knee and shivering. This opened a hole in the spirit barrier formed by the shugenja's ritual. The ogre took its oppurtunity. It lept for the outter courtyard wall, vanishing from sight as it did. The shugenja confirmed it had left the castle grounds heading toward the Seikitsu Mountains. Dairuko was furious.

"My Lady?, " a young acolyte aproached sheepishly, "I believe I found why they did not set off the alarms." He extended his hand out with a decoration offered toward Dairuko.

An elder Kitsu stepped over to assess the item. Inside the festival decoration was hidden a dampening charm. The kind meant to disable protective wards, and alarms. He nodded to Dairuko, "Aye, he is correct, and this was crafted by a Yogu."

"Close the castle! Search the grounds for a spy!" Dairuko's eyes went fierce, "We have an enemy among us still." Even as her words echoed across the stones, and beams around her, a lone figure rode off towards Shamate Pass.

******************************

Utaku Sakkiko chided herself for not noticing the potential for a storm before she rode so far out from the palace. Lightning struck a tree not far off her chosen path. Sakkiko spurred her horse directly toward the area. If that starts a fire, it could spread rapidly. She arrived almost instantly, and sure enough some dry grass had caught, as well as part of the sheared branch. Using her cantina she quickly doused the fire. She breathed a sigh, grateful for her mount's speed. Then she noticed her. A red headed gaijin, wounded, laying in the grass unconscious. Sakkiko loosened the leather corset, and cleaned the wound. Then wrapped it in clean cloth, and rebuckled the corset to maintain pressure. The woman had lost a lot of blood. What had happened to her? How had she come to be here upon the plains of the Unicorn Clan?Those questions could be answered later. Sakkiko lifted her up on her steed, and rode toward the nearest temple. The shugenja wil definately know what to do for her.

A dragon smiled as a horse with two riders vanished into the distance. "I will look forward to seeing you again, Ancient One."

Something I used on my players once in an L5R game could be applicable. Basically, they players woke up to find themselves facing themselves. The other them informed them that this was just another in the long line of duels they have been through, and that if this was their first iteration then they should prepare themselves. The next was slightly different, and so on and so forth. Each time, their other self would always end up dead. The point was to try it get them to accept that they may not be the heroes of the story, and sometimes what you need to do is fail. To escape, they had to accept defeat and let their other slay them. More useful on prideful Samurai, ones who think that they can never fail.