The PCs are on the road, travelling just ahead of their daimyo's procession, when they come across a roadside temple being attacked by an ogre. A lone samurai (near death) is defending it. Assuming they jump in to help and defeat the ogre, the samurai dies but before he does, they learn that he is the son of a nearby provincial daimyo and he asks them to take his body and sword home to his father. Their Daimyo catches up a bit later and tells them to escort the body (and a priest from the shrine) to the nearby town. She also instructs them to do everything they can to get the father to view them and their clan in a good light, since they share a border and the family would make a valuable ally in the future.

So, they bring the body back, stay the night (possible court attendance) and then attend the funeral the next day, as the rites are being spoken, the body hops up, slaughters the shocked honour guard and advances on the father who is frozen in indecision about striking down his son. Presumably the PCs jump in, bringing down the undead monstrosity. This leads to everyone thinking the family is tainted or maybe maho-tsukai. The father (or mother if he dead) asks the PCs to look into it because he can trust them as impartial and objective.

They look into it...

The real culprit is a political rival whose family could inherit the lands. He used a maho scroll. The "twist" would be something like... He would be a better ally, or that the current family would not be. (I'm open to suggestions on other complications)

My issue is with the looking into it bit . I'm not sure how to flesh it out enough that they don't just do one check and realize who it is... How do I make it more complex?

I would drop the Maho bit or make it a Red Herring. Everyone would think that it was Maho... except that it wasn't. The samurai in question came back as a Kagemusha , or Shadow Samurai, possessing his former body first to get his way, but since it did not work, he would come back as an "evil" spirit of sort.

Maybe the samurai had some kind of fight with his family before he traveled to the temple: a failed marriage to someone he loved, his father naming his brother as the heir, or being forced to stay at the family estate when he wanted to go adventuring. Nevertheless, the samurai is back, and whatever the reason is behind his inhuman anger, he is (literally) ****-bent on enacting a bloody vengeance on his family for it. The PCs can piece this story together from castle rumors and they can also run into the cause by meeting the wronged lover or the cocky brother, or finding the samurai's adventuring plans.

By digging deeper, the PCs find out that the rival family is the real instigator: they sent the wronged lover to seduce the samurai, they conspired with the cocky brother to be named as a heir, or they tempted the samurai with adventure while secretly persuading the father to keep him at home.

There are five complications:

1. The Shadow Samurai is unstoppable. It can be "killed" or banished for a short time, but then it always comes back. The only way to make it disappear is to fulfill its terrible vengeance.
2. Here comes the uncomfortable plot twist: the Shadow Samurai wants both families dead so that it can torture their souls in Jigoku for all eternity. If the PCs persistently oppose the Shadow Samurai, then it will force them to make a choice: side with the Shadow Samurai or it will unleash an unspeakable terror on the PCs' castle too.
3. Now for the +1 difficulty plot twist: one or both families start blaming the PCs for the Shadow Samurai and start undermining their efforts.
4. The tough ray of hope is an ancestral shrine where the PCs can summon various family ancestors to ask for their help. Said ancestors obviously aren't happy with the situation and are unwilling to help unless the PCs take care of a few things. Say, there are four ancestors, and each asks for a thematic thing like striking down a dishonorable family member in a formal duel, helping another family member reach their full potential, finding a lost scion, and recovering an artifact. All the while the PCs have to deal with the Shadow Samurai's attacks too.
5. The compulsory soap opera twist is that the Shadow Samurai is actually a member of the rival family (kinda), born out of adultery. Revealing this will cause tons of chaos where opportunistic PCs can spin their intrigues.

I would advise against Maho btw, it is a non-negotiable thing, anyone who uses it is automatically EVIL and must be destroyed. If anything it only simplifies the story.

Wow, thanks for your detailed response.

I kind of want to set a time limit. They are travelling with their daimyo to new lands, so their daimyo will wait at the temple for them, so a couple days.

Would the ancestors be able to stop the kagemusha?

I want a big part of the decision to be that one side may be better as an ally. They are the founding members of a new minor clan and I would like to keep that theme of doing what's best for their province.

Thanks again for the feedback and advice!

Okay, here is a stab at your plot. I'll be dealing with the following two families. The names are place holders to allow me to reference them by name.

Akiyama Family

• Akiyama Hiroaki - Family Daimyo (Contemplative, Indecisive, Compassionate) - Akiyama Hiroaki places a lot of emphasis on the Bushido tenet of Compassion (Jin), and collects less taxes from the Bonge than most samurai Daimyo. As a result his peasant class is extremely loyal, but Hiroaki's coffers are often less full than those of other Daimyo.
• Akiyama Hiroji - Deceased Samurai (Zombie), only son of Akiyama Hiroaki. (Young, Idealistic) - Akiyama Hiroji spent much of his time travelling their family lands protecting peasants from Ronin, bandits, and the occasional Ogre.

Oshiro Family

• Oshiro Otohiko - Family Daimyo (Intimidating, Driven, Competent) - Oshiro Otohiko believes most in the Bushido tenets of Righteousness (Gi), Duty and Loyalty (Chugi). His expectations upon his land are clear, his taxes reasonable (although a little high), and justice is swift and absolute. While many are intimidated by him, not can deny that his lands have thrived under his rule.
• Oshiro Wataru - Oldest son of Oshiro Otohiko (Calculating, Efficient) - Oshiro Wataru is truly his father's son, with many of the same mannerisms Wataru spends his time dealing with many of the lesser administrative tasks of his fathers lands.
• Oshiro Tadafumi - Maho-Tsuki, second son of Oshiro Otohiko (Driven, Jealous, Tainted) - Oshiro Tadafumi has never managed to distinguish himself in his father's eyes, and is jealous of both his older brother and his political rivals. Tadafumi has communed with the Kansen, sacrificing one of his personal servents to raise Akiyama Hiroji as a zombie ghost in an attempt to discredit the Akiyama family, thereby giving political power to his father. Tadafumi believes that if he is successful, that if he confesses his role to his father, he will be accepted.

Investigating the Body:

• A Theology (Earth) roll would allow the characters to recall the symptoms of the taint, which might result in a zombie corpse.
• A Medicine (Air) roll would allow the characters to analyze the body to determine that it did not show symptoms of taint, and that the wounds from the ogre are not tainted either.

Investigating the Akiyama Family:

• A Government (Water) roll would allow the characters to survey the political climate and determine that the Akiyama family and Oshiro family have a political feud.
• A Government (Earth) roll would allow the characters to recall that there was a shortfall of rice amongst the samurai population in the Akiyama lands two winters ago due to not enough taxes being taken in. After much deliberation, taxes on the bonge were increased a meager 5%.
• A Government (Void) roll would allow the characters to sense how well the Akiyama family will continue to govern their lands.
• A Sentiment (Water) roll would allow the characters to survey the peasants to determine how they feel about their Daimyo (revered) or how the samurai feel about their Daimyo (indecisive, ineffective).
• A Sentiment (Water) roll would allow the characters to survey an the peasants to determine how they feel about Akiyama Hiroji (heroic) or how the samurai feel about Akiyama Hiroji (naive).

Investigating the Oshiro Family:

• A Government (Water) roll would allow the characters to survey the political climate and determine that the Oshiro family and Akiyama family have a political feud.
• A Government (Earth) roll would allow the characters to recall that the Oshiro family more-or-less eliminated bandits on their lands when they swept through their lands several years ago and killed any non-samurai in possession of a weapon. The heads of all bandits were placed on pikes along the roads. This had the unfortunate side effect of encouraging banditry in the Akiyama lands instead, where bandits were either chased off or imprisoned instead.
• A Government (Void) roll would allow the characters to sense how well the Oshiro family will continue to govern their lands.
• A Sentiment (Water) roll would allow the characters to survey the peasants to determine how they feel about their Daimyo (intimidated) or how the samurai feel about their Daimyo (powerful).
• A Sentiment (Water) roll would allow the characters to survey an individual to determine how they feel about Oshiro Tadafumi (viscous) or how the samurai feel about Oshiro Tadafumi (incompetent).

Investigating Oshiro Tadafumi

• The local temple in Oshiro lands will, if asked, freely state that Oshiro Tadafumi never visits, and treats monks poorly. His father, Oshiro Otohiko, visits only once per season to pay respects to his ancestors.
• A Command (Earth) roll allows the characters to reason with one of Oshiro Tadafumi's personal servants to talk about his personal habits and routine.
• A Courtesy (Fire) roll incites a servant to discuss how one of Oshiro Tadafumi's personal servants went missing a few days ago. (They don't know that the missing servant was used as a sacrifice for the Maho ritual).
• An Aesthetics (Water) roll allows characters to survey Oshiro Tadafumi's personal residence and determine that one wall is suspiciously bare.
• A Labor/Skulduggery (Air) roll allows characters to analyze the wall to see evidence of a secret passage.
• A Skulduggery (Fire) roll allows characters to innovate a solution by picking the unfamiliar lock, or alternatively a Martial Arts [Unarmed] (Earth) roll allows them to shatter the secret door with a powerful kick. Stairs leading downstairs descent to a sacrificial room with the body of the missing servant.

Oshiro Otohiko is unaware that his son Tadafumi is practicing Maho. If the PC's are unable to discover this on their own, then Tadafumi confesses to his father, and Otohiko arranges for the public execution of his own son. If the PC's do discover that Oshiro Tadafumi is a Maho-Tsuki first, then Oshiro Otohiko requests permission to commit seppuku for his failure to detect the extent of his son's corruption. His older son, Oshiro Wataru, will govern his land in the same manner as his father.

The PC's will have to determine which family Daimyo is better suited to rule their lands, based on which tenets of Bushido they most value and/or how they view the personal characteristics of the Daimyo.

• Compassion (Jin) - Akiyama Hiroaki (Contemplative, Indecisive, Compassionate)
• Righteousness (Gi), Duty and Loyalty (Chugi) - Oshiro Otohiko (Intimidating, Driven, Competent)

This might be split among clan archtypes, if the minor clan characters originate from a Great Clan:

• Crab (Courage, not Courtesy)
• Crane (Courtesy, not Courage)
• Dragon (Sincerity, not Duty and Loyalty)
• Lion (Honor, not Compassion)
• Phoenix (Righteousness, not Sincerity)
• Scorpion (Duty and Loyalty, not Honor and Righteousness)
• Unicorn (Compassion, not Courtesy)

Anyways, that's my 2 cents. Feel free to use/modify/disregard anything you see.

A really good dissection of the idea.

I approve of the 'second son' idea, because if you just have "a neighbour did it" then unless you're going to have a whole slew of neighbouring territories you have only one suspect, so having multiple possibilities within that neighbouring family is a good idea. Making him a better potential ally requires him to be innocent, so again, as noted, having him innocent plus a different son innocent allows you to kill the culprit plus have a general shame-expiating seppuku which means the surviving party would be seen as pretty much blameless by the law (if not necessarily society).

A key plot-hole is when/where the Maho was used. If the PCs are present when the son was killed, and when he revived, and carried him from one to the other, then either (a) the scroll doesn't have to be in his corpse's presence or (b) you have to contrive an opportunity for it to be used without them going "who was that dude with the black scroll, the chanting and the crushed obsidian?" "Oh, just someone from the tax office, I think.....wait a minute....."

Equally, if checking the corpse 'proves' that the body didn't reanimate because the son was tainted whilst alive, the leap-in-logic to 'an external force reanimated him' might need an external source of information unless the PCs can be expected to know anything about the limitations or mechanics of Maho (due to dealing with the threat before or something). If they've got their Daimyo with them, then he might be a useful source of exposition on the subject if needed.

As an aside question - this area is dangerous, with a roadside temple being attacked by an ogre. As a minor clan you can't have too many samurai, so who's protecting the Daimyo whilst you're off playing Sherlock-san?

5 hours ago, Shinjo Koetsu said:

Okay, here is a stab at your plot. I'll be dealing with the following two families. The names are place holders to allow me to reference them by name.

...

This is absolutely fantastic, thanks so much! I'm really struggling with the skills when building adventures, so I really appreciate it. A further question because I'm not 100% on naming conventions... If the current Akiyama was Matsu, should Oshiro be Matsu as well? Or do you use vassal names? It's a Lion province.

Just now, TheBoulder said:

This is absolutely fantastic, thanks so much! I'm really struggling with the skills when building adventures, so I really appreciate it. A further question because I'm not 100% on naming conventions... If the current Akiyama was Matsu, should Oshiro be Matsu as well? Or do you use vassal names? It's a Lion province.

If they're both Matsu Vassals, then technically they're Matsu Hiroaki no Akiyama, and Matsu Otohiko no Oshiro, especially if your characters aren't Matsu themselves.

Making it two Lion Vassals makes a certain amount of sense; this sort of thing happening across a clan territory border has a much greater potential to escalate out of all proportion as the local Daimyo turns it into a squabble between Family Daimyos who turn it into a squabble between Clan Champions and it all gets very messy very quickly.

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

A key plot-hole is when/where the Maho was used. If the PCs are present when the son was killed, and when he revived, and carried him from one to the other, then either (a) the scroll doesn't have to be in his corpse's presence or (b) you have to contrive an opportunity for it to be used without them going "who was that dude with the black scroll, the chanting and the crushed obsidian?" "Oh, just someone from the tax office, I think.....wait a minute....."

Equally, if checking the corpse 'proves' that the body didn't reanimate because the son was tainted whilst alive, the leap-in-logic to 'an external force reanimated him' might need an external source of information unless the PCs can be expected to know anything about the limitations or mechanics of Maho (due to dealing with the threat before or something). If they've got their Daimyo with them, then he might be a useful source of exposition on the subject if needed.

As an aside question - this area is dangerous, with a roadside temple being attacked by an ogre. As a minor clan you can't have too many samurai, so who's protecting the Daimyo whilst you're off playing Sherlock-san?

Yes, I had tried to think around this as well, I was going to go with some sort of timed/delayed reaction... But I may go with AtoMaki's suggestion of a vengeful spirit and they have to figure out what it wants and how to placate it. If the second son is still the instigator of the plot that drove the spirit to return, I can still use the structure and details of Shinjo Koetsu's outline.

There are two other samurai travelling with them (a rather bookish ex-Asako, and a short-tempered ex-Mirumoto) But their Daimyo was a Daidoji yojimbo and her husband, while a courtier, is reasonably skilled with a blade as well. Plus a bunch of servants to get in the way, that may be training in the spear (low resources province).

As a note about names: What name, and what suffix gets used (Sama/San/Ue/etc) is often a way to add subtext to a conversation.

Akiyama Hiroaki and Oshiro Otohiko  are perfectly serviceable things to call them, and may be used by other locals (since they're 'both Matsu' then the Matsu name might well be dropped when locals are talking to one another since it's just assumed), but if being exactingly correct in an investigation, and talking to outsiders (i.e. the PCs), someone may insist on the correct name.

(especially if non-too-subtly trying to warn them that they're going to aggravate one of the most militant, grudge-holding Families of the Lion clan if not the entire bloody empire if they go about it the wrong way..)

so two thoughts came to mind as I was reading.

First, I was reminded of Elizabeth Bathory (probably the whole "sacrificing a servant" thing.) I thought it could be interesting for the maho-tsukai to not be part of the second family, but instead this is someone who is starting to corrupt the family, through their daughter, who has always been a trouble-maker and is usually locked away. While the investigation might initially point to the second family, the family themselves are actually completely innocent at this point.. and even the daughter might be able to identify the true culprit for the pc's (because she's been locked away again, they might be able to make rolls to discover/remember that she exists, to find out about her dishonorable behavior, and even to actually get a chance to talk to her.), by telling them that she saw something or someone odd recently (at this point, she doesn't know that the bloodspeaker cult is keeping an eye on her.) The Cult, not wanting to be killed in total, might even take actions to make catching/killing "the lone culprit" easy for the PC's. By the way, I'm thinking this daughter might have given the dead samurai a trinket "for luck" in an attempt to manipulate him, (or maybe she actually cares for him) not knowing that the trinket was a cursed item (she got it from the bloodspeaker, whom she'll gladly rat out to the PC's.)

The idea to this kind of set-up is that you could have a kind of "slow-burn" campaign feature here, in which it slowly becomes evident that there's a bloodspeaker cult operating in the area. At some point the Daimyo and his heir apparent will both die unexpectedly, leaving the Black-sheep daughter as Daimyo. With her help perhaps, the PC's eventually root out the Bloodspeaker cult.. but somehow the area continues to be a source of.. "interesting events".. in the meantime, the Daughter eventually becomes a renowned courtier and families send their children to her for training.. children who will never again be seen by their families because.. after all.. they're being successfully placed in positions of importance all around the empire.. right?

anyway, that thought needs work, but I just felt it might be interesting.

The other thought was, where did the Ogre come from? In my story I imagine it having been set loose by the bloodspeaker cult.. but more importantly, I'm afraid that many players might want to chase that rabbit-hole in addition to the undead.. or at the very least they will probably assume they're from the same source.. I mean, that can't just be coincidence, right? Anyway, just something to plan for.