So my 5 year campaign (3rd edition) is finally coming to a close. The story is ending with the players stopping the scorpion coup a couple days before the event by killing Bayushi Shoju. They got Kachiko on their side who will spin it for them and keep the loyalists already inside the city from enacting their plans.

The problem I have is that I need some really cool npc guards (bushi, ninja and shugenja) for the players to fight on the way in and final confrontation. The old forums had a custom npc list stickied thread in the gamemaster section that I was planning on stealing from but that is no longer an option. So I was wondering if anyone had any cool npc/pc scorpion characters that I could borrow to make this final fight as epic as it should be. All the characters are between insight 7-9 so I am looking for some definite high level scorpion characters. Any suggestions, advice, or characters is appreciated!

Personally my belief is that for Boss Fights like this it is a good idea to find matchups against the Players. Perhaps a couple of the guards are trained in styles from outside of the Scorpion Clan? Or are trained in 2 schools. Yes I know that it is rare and not supposed to happen often. But what will go through the players heads when they come swinging in on some Bayushi and it turns out that he's not a Soshi trained shugenja. You're messing with a Isawa Trained Void specialist. That Yogo with the warhammer, guess who spent some time on the wall learning the Hida school. Or oh no, that last guy standing next to Shoju, that kid grew up in the woods raised by a Kenku, enjoy your beatings kids.

The Scorpion already have an arsenal of dirty tricks at their disposal. Considering the fact that even their courtiers are technically trained with the mindset to be assassins, add this to the then prevalent Lying Darkness that traced its way through the Scorpion in the form of kage yaiken and shosuro infiltrators, the yogo and soshi shugenja, as well as the bayushi bushi school. Mix in liberally the fact that they had a bevy of magical artifacts at their disposal, the fact that the more a bloodsword killed (Ambition), the more powerful it got... yeah. You have a baseline for the Final Guard being purely scorpion trained.

Bayushi Shoju in and of himself would at this point be weilding a katana that autohit for massive amounts of damage. He'd have an honor guard of the most elite Bayushi Bushi, at least one of whom would be a personal champion. Add to this the fact that Aramoro, though he loved Kachiko, also loved his Brother, so he would somehow be able to give Shoju forewarning. You then have the Wards that would be scribed along the corridors, traps laid and everything else.

Shoju's betrayal was a pivotal point in the universe's history. Thus, there might even be powers unknown working to aid him in his endeavor, to make sure the inevitable occurred. As such, the players might be operating at a penalty, and everyone in the throne room might be acting at a bonus.

Those are just a few suggestions.

Just remember that Scorpion Bushi Feint.