I've never done this before, so I figured it would be fun to tell the story of the campaign I'm in, about a group of new Yoriki dealing with the flawed world of Rokugan. Hopefully, it's fun for people to read.

The Cast
Kaito Hanako Kaito Shrinekeeper, slightly neurotic girl with worries about not being good enough. Has a sworn enemy in another student at her school who was definitively better than her but not chosen by the magistrate because Hanako was the more friendly of the pair.
Kitsuki Yakumo Togashi Monk. Was going to be an investigator but joined the monks because he was fascinated with philosophy and the secrets of the unseen world. Incredibly idealistic about the truth.
Kakita Ayami Tortoise Courtier. In a very unhappy marriage with a Kakita who was denied access to the duellist schools and instead became a daidoji iron warrior.
Shiba Kensei Shiba Guardian. Acting as guardian to his niece, attempting to rise in prestige to help her future. Practical to a fault, putting it above many aspects of honor.

Introduction - Inheritance Woes

The cast have all been chosen as Yoriki by Seppun Gen'Ichi, a veteran emerald magistrate who is starting to get on in his years. They all arrive at his manor full of hopes and dreams...until he starts talking about what it means to be an Emerald Magistrate. In his job, he has seen the worst humanity has to offer and done work others would consider beneath a true samurai. He is old and a bit bitter at this point, despite being proud of all he has done. This job is dull most of the time and when it isn't dull, it is often deeply disappointing to your faith in your fellow samurai.

Their job is a rather simple one, simply to be there and oversee the resolving of inheritance claims by two twins in Lion lands who's father died without ever naming either of them his heir. If all goes well, it will just be turning up and having some polite conversation before leaving. However, it quickly becomes clear when they arrive that something is up. The guards seem a bit dishevelled and the servants are hurried and nervous. Still, they meet the lord, Akodo Kazu, and the twins, who are polite and engage in pleasant conversation.

Then, a runner suddenly arrives out of breath. Bandits are attacking the town and, worst of all, there are no guards in that part of town to protect the people! Akodo Kazu is clearly unhappy about this failure to properly organise the guards but declares that this will be the test for the twins. Whichever one does a better job of stopping the bandits will get the lion's share of the inheritance. Both sons quickly move off to prepare, leaving the Yoriki waiting with the Lord Kazu.

And waiting

And waiting

Finally, after several minutes, both sons return shamefaced and in partial armour. Neither has managed to find their full armour and, worse still, both have managed to somehow misplace their katana. Kazu is furious about this and Gen'Ichi quietly motions for his Yoriki to move out, as this is what Emerald Magistrates are for.

A fatalistic Ronin and half a dozen bandits are tearing through the town, stealing anything they can get their hands on in a smash and grab attempt. This assault is quickly interrupted by an arrow from an unseen archer passing over the Ronin's shoulder and scaring his followers. Hanako, laying low between each of her shots manages to delay and rattle the bandits long enough with her quiet sniping for the other three to make the rush into close combat with them. Kensei is the one who manages to take on the Ronin himself, his katana taking the eye of the man as he cuts him down.

The town stopped, they return and find Lord Kazu has made his decision about what to do with the inheritance. For an utter failure to perform their duty, failing to maintain their gear and, inconceivably, managing to lose their katanas the pair are going to be declared Ronin. This would be the end of it, had it not been for the sharp eyes of Yakumo. He noticed, just before the bandits were sighted, a nervous looking servant girl heading towards where the sons each had their quarters and doing her best not to be spotted going that way. This requires some investigation.

Kensei acts most openly, when things have calmed down, challenging the lord to a game of Shoji to pass the time. Kensei is an excellent player and uses this chance to evaluate the lord. He is very skilled but he's also very fearful of any failure and quick to take advantage of any perceived weakness. When he's looking likely to win, he gets quite forceful and it becomes very clear that almost nothing matters to him as much as victory. Kensei plays a heck good game but Lord Kazu is a hair better. Still, he gets what he was actually there for.

Ayami quietly makes her way down to the jail, where the one surviving bandit is being held. In contrast to the polite and subtle Kensei, she just gets some time alone with the bandit and scares the ever loving heck out of him with talk about just how unpleasant his end could be, if he doesn't cooperate. He very quickly spills the beans, though he wasn't the one in charge so he doesn't know all of it. They were hired by a older male samurai to raid the town and they were told that the guards would be deliberately set up to not be patrolling where they attack. They were to get in, cause chaos and get out.

Hanako takes advantage of her quiet nature to just vanish into the background and slip around to servant quarters, where she finds the girl that Yakumo spotted nervously doing the washing. She offers a sympathetic ear, talking to the girl about how as a Kaito Shrinekeeper, she knows just how valuable what servants do is and how they serve their lords with no less duty than many samurai. Between the guilt trip and the sympathetic ear, the poor girl breaks down and reveals that the Akodo Kazu himself ordered her to hide the katanas and parts of the armour of the twins. Hanako promises that she won't get in trouble and comforts the girl in private.

Yakumo has decided to go for a much simpler option. If the armour wasn't where it was supposed to be, where was it? He quietly wanders about...and notices a piece of armour stashed where most people wouldn't look for it. It is not, however, part of the armour of the twins. It is in fact part of the armour of their dead father, which should be in a place of honor. This gets his curiosity going and he looks about...finding that not a single set of family armour is complete, every single one of them has been defaced. He uses his knowledge of samurai culture to realise that whoever did this, clearly had a distaste for the family on a personal level as this is beyond what was needed.

Now they get back together and pool information. Kazu himself hired the bandits and strong-armed the servants in order to dishonor and make ronin of the sons of a man he didn't like. He plans to declare that the lands will go back to him with no honorable heir and thus increase his own wealth and status. He gets to deal with someone he didn't like and he also gets a victory.

But what to do with this? The word of a servant and a bandit against a lord, that is not going to go their way.

The group takes what they have learned to Gen'Ichi and admit, from here, they are not entirely sure what to do. Gen'Ichi decides to make this a teaching experience for his yoriki and offer a few options but making them decide which to take.

• They could privately confront Kazu. They don't have enough to actually arrest him but what they do have is enough to make his life very unpleasant if rumours started leaking out, so they could use it to force him him to treat the sons fairly.
• They could quietly imply what they know, without asking for anything. It would put Kazu in their debt, giving them material on him they could use to force his hand some time in the future. As a very powerful lord, having blackmail on him could allow us to tilt the odds in their favour at a later date.
• They could tell the sons directly. This would put the problem of dealing with it onto them but almost certainly start a fight between two hot headed young samurai and a bitter old lord.
• They could just say 'Not our problem' and leave. No crime is officially noticed here, so there will be no shame in not wanting to get involved in an internal affair

The group argues about what to do, with Yakumo and Hanako firmly on the side of confronting Lord Kazu in private in order to get justice for the sons and Kensei and Ayami wanting to get a powerful lion lord in their debt, as it is the most powerful tool to avert a bigger problem than a minor inheritance scuffle.

In the end, while Yakumo and Hanako are passionate, Hanako's nerves fail her when when arguing and quickly lapsed into silence. They ended up going with Kensei and Ayami's preference, despite objections. However, not before Yakumo broke down and said harsh things directly to Seppun Gen'Ichi's face. How this wasn't justice, how the truth had been strangled in the crib and people were going to suffer for this. That this is not what he thought the Emerald Magistrates did and how he doesn't know how he could possibly take pride in this.

Seppun Gen'Ichi's response is to laugh and tell Yakumo that he genuinely hopes the kid can keep that idealistic approach. That he doesn't end up a magistrate like Gen'Ichi, old and bitter and just disappointed with the world. Ayami tells Hanako and Yakumo that they are better samurai than she is and the group depart. No one happy about how it went but their first investigation complete.

Seems a bit odd to get Emerald Magistrates involved in what is entirely an internal Lion Clan matter. But I guess that is the concession one must make in order to allow people to play characters from the full variety of clans.

It is generally a well-constructed story though. Good job!

3 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

Seems a bit odd to get Emerald Magistrates involved in what is entirely an internal Lion Clan matter. But I guess that is the concession one must make in order to allow people to play characters from the full variety of clans.

It is generally a well-constructed story though. Good job!

Gm here. out of character it's basically that. In character the Lion kuge wanted to appear like his decision to cast out the children of a popular Taisa was reasonable and used the presence of the magistrates to help that illusion. He got them there in the first place by calling in a favor from Gen'ichi.

16 hours ago, SpaceViking21 said:

Gm here. out of character it's basically that. In character the Lion kuge wanted to appear like his decision to cast out the children of a popular Taisa was reasonable and used the presence of the magistrates to help that illusion.

That makes sense; "making sure it was totally impartial" is a reason to pull in a neutral 'arbiter', especially when you have no intention of being impartial and think you can pull an end-run around them.

20 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

It is generally a well-constructed story though. Good job!

Agreed. It's a very good story, and one with a couple of interesting hooks for the future campaign;

firstly you've got the twins now 'floating around' as dispossessed-and-probably-angry-about-it ronin in the same magistrature district as the PCs, who might at some point smell a rat - even if they don't figure out their armour was snatched, the fact that 'there are no guards in that part of town' is a red flag to someone looking at the events with suspicious hindsight and plenty of time on their hands. If they're encountered again later in the campaign, especially if they're in dire straits or involved in something borderline criminal and just trying to survive, you'll have an interesting bit of tension because the players (at least) and Kitsuki Yakumo in particular will know they put them there for no better reason than it was politically inconvenient not to. The fact that they're twins opens up all sorts of potential for confusion, too, if one brother were to turn nasty and the other not.

secondly you've got the question that apparently never came up - that's a clever plan but requires a reasonable amount of preparation (because whilst no-one cares about peasants you've got to find the 'Ronin' somewhere); how quickly did Akodo Kazu come up with the plan? Most importantly, did he know in advance that this was planned - and did he have anything to do with the father's death?

thirdly, just why does Akodo Kazu hate that family so much? 'I want your lands back' is a reason to come up with a pretext to take them. 'I don't like your family' is a reason to get rid of their surviving heirs. To deface multiple dead generations family armour as well as the above requires a really big reason - at least in Akodo Kazu's brain - sufficient to justify either defacing the family armours and (presumably) ordering the servants not to clean or fix them. That strikes me as the sort of nasty bit of history that's likely to get ploughed up if Seppun Gen'Ichi's band of merry minons are poking around in the region for any other reason.