7 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Unfortunately for her, the decision had already been made by Sora - Suiren was 'just the messenger' - and she lacked the status to protest. After all, she could hardly suggest the Imperial captain wasn't up to the task without both insulting Abe's own prowess and criticising Sora's judgement for assigning him to her.

Daidoji Unoku bowed and formally apologised to the Lion and the Hare in sequence, but was clearly fuming. She muttered something nasty-sounding about 'consequences' to the Usagi samurai, who looked very worried, and then withdrew from the square - leaving Hirosaka fairly shortly afterwards as it was clear her backfiring plot had basically pushed the Seven Waves otokodate - who, in the person of Hideki, had also witnessed the duel - into the Lion's waiting arms.

Checkmate.

Yeah, I suspect part of those consequences include a "promotion" for her to a far flung and unimportant holding.

On the contrary. At the risk of spoilers, Daidoji Unoku has, despite her superficial 'diplomat's polish', a bad temper, a tendancy to hold grudges, and some very well-connected friends - who for reasons of their own also have some issues with the Usagi family.

She - or at least her influence - will definitely be showing up again.

Just now, Magnus Grendel said:

On the contrary. At the risk of spoilers, Daidoji Unoku has, despite her superficial 'diplomat's polish', a bad temper, a tendancy to hold grudges, and some very well-connected friends - who for reasons of their own also have some issues with the Usagi family.

She - or at least her influence - will definitely be showing up again.

I guess "whispers of failure" disadvantage only applies to Player Characters.

No, I do get it. A DM never permanently retires the opposition. Rivals and villains constantly return to bedevil the players.

Oh, no, she'll definitely suffer for this; her standing within the Crane will probably not recover from this*. But that's not the only power base Unoku is tapped into.

* especially due to what's about to happen - if you didn't pick it up from the Norinaga's observations, the Seven Waves otokodate is about to have a supporting cameo role in Roar of the Lioness , which will, I imagine, go down like a lead balloon with Kakita Riku when the news arrives in Hirosaka.

I mean, infamy and fame are two sides of the same coin. Being famous (or infamous) have their upsides and downsides. I can totally see a player exploiting their whispers of X as an intimidation tool or evidence to win an argument.

”Of course I will lead the vanguard against the Utaku cavalry charge, Akodo-sama. I pray to prove once and for all that I am not the incompetent they all claim I am.”
- Ikoma Kenzo, failed courtier sent to the front lines to act as fodder

Well, that's basically an example of inverting a disadvantage, isn't it?

Exactly! The same could have been done with a Successfully famous character to force them to be the one leading the suicidal charge

3 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

I imagine, go down like a lead balloon with Kakita Riku when the news arrives in Hirosaka.

Well, considering the Adam and Jamie made an 11 kilo lead balloon fly, I think that phrase no longer holds the connotations it once had. Yes, I doubt Riku Kakita is going to be amused by the Ronin. Alas, it is not her problem anymore.

3 hours ago, neilcell said:

Yes, I doubt Riku Kakita is going to be amused by the Ronin.

I think she's about to have a far bigger issue with the Matsu. Fortunately there aren't any within convenient reach.

• So....with the negotiations over, favours to Otomo Kazuda repaid, and Riku back on her feet (and formally taking up her post at Sora's mansion) the PCs were actually left with a bit of downtime for a few days.
  • Goriate decided to start looking into the rumours of the one-eyed ronin attacking opium dealers along the golden river; the PCs have pretty much come to the conclusion that it's (formerly Usagi) Ozaki.
    • In a burst of common sense, he decided not to go down to the riverport quarter and just start asking around.
      • By "burst of logic" I mean Suiren's 'advice' on the topic, which consisted of:
        • "I think going into a dark, isolated alleyway and asking some disreputable people 'Excuse me - I'm from the Emerald Magistrature, have you by any chance had recent contact with a wanted murderer?'and hoping the following conversation goes well sounds like a superb plan."
        • "Okay, no, obviously that would be stupid."
        • "So maybe try and identify likely targets....get ahead of him...that sort of thing?"
        • "Yeah, maybe."
        • "You're right. Going into a dark, isolated alleyway and asking some disreputable people 'Excuse me - I'm from the Emerald Magistrature, are you by any chance involved in the opium trade?'and hoping the following conversation goes well strikes me as even better ..."
        • "So much for you advising us."
        • "I have a duty to provide advice. Good advice is a separate issue."
      • After a frank debate about the nature of an advisor's duties and a few good-natured but graphic threats of violence, a slightly better plan was agreed on.
      • Realistically, there were three places Ozaki might turn up for reasons other than just stabbing drug dealers (for whatever reason he'd taken up the pastime):
        • He might choose to contact his sister, Bayushi Tomoe.
          • "Lets keep that as plan 'b', shall we?" - Suiren pointed out that dealing with Tomoe probably meant dealing with her husband Tomoharu, with whom it's fair to say neither the Hare nor the PCs share the best relationship.
        • If he arrived in Hirosaka, then unless he did so in complete secrecy, the two people likely to know about it were Usagi Norinaga, the Hare representative, and Joshu, the speaker-for-ronin and head of the respected East Wind otokodate.
        • Equally, if he made contact with Shiro Usagi, Norinaga would be able to relay messages on Goriate's behalf.
          • Goriate spoke to both discretely and convinced them to let him know if they became aware of Ozaki, with the promise that Goriate didn't plan on arresting the man and just wanted to talk.
          • He returned to the townhouse to find Horonigai bustling through. the Shrine Keeper basically grabbed him and said "follow me" before storming out again in the direction of one of the city gates.
  • Suiren and Uiri decided to go and visit Chinoka's okiya - Suiren taking tea with Chinoka whilst Uiri spent time with Sakura.
    • Uiri asked the geisha to find out if there had been any more discrete meetings with out-of-town samurai hosted recently - and if any more were planned.
      • Sakura agreed, though she was clearly nervous she was now being watched.
    • Suiren shared some gossip - such as Seppun Abe's demotion - and received some gossip in return from the Okasan.
      • Chinoka, who'd only been in town a year or so, had only recently heard the rumour of a supposed 'lost treasure' in the city - apparently this was a persistant myth; conteporary Hirosaka mainly being built on top of bits of older versions of Hirosaka, it wasn't surprising that there were supposed to be valuables in one of the ruins under existing buildings.
        • Supposedly, she'd been approached by a ronin called Keina, who was the latest person to decide they were going to find the treasure, and who was looking for backers. Chinoka liked the idea of treasure but not enough to open her own coin purse without more proof.
      • There had been a spate of thefts near the Warai theatre. More accurately, there had been a spate of thefts in the Warai theatre - at least two were confirmed to have happened inside. Seppun Ishima suspected one of the staff of the theatre and was furious, since the theatre was a huge deal in Hirosaka's reputation. She'd basically told Kakita Seichii to sort it or the Magistrates would do it for him, and told 'that ronin from the capital' (presumably Hatsue) that she had a free hand to deal with it as she saw fit.
        • This was news to Suiren - Seichii hadn't mentioned anything of the sort to him.
      • He thanked Chinoka for the heads-up
    • At this point, the two were interrupted by a breathless Ryu arriving at the okiya's front door, asking the two samurai to meet Horonigai at the north-east gate of the city as soon as they could, but ' not to panic '.
      • True to every message to friends and family every, beginning a message with the phrase 'don't panic' immediately caused a panic, and the PCs headed out as fast as they could.
  • Horonigai had decided to go visit the Temple to Shinsei - something none of the PCs had actually done since their arrival (though they had encountered Hinata, the abbot).
    • The Temple was part of the shrine complex, one one side of a pleasant square not far from the townhouse. The square was full to bursting with Hirosaka commoners - Horonigai found out that apparently this wasn't unusual when Hinata led a ceremony personally.
    • Nevertheless, she was a samurai, and a magistrate, and people got out of her way readily enough. She couldn't really see the temple that well until she finally emerged from the front of the crowd..... .....just in time to go deaf.
    • A series of massive prayer bells were being struck, leaving deafening peals rippling out through the crowd. The lowest tier of the temple proved to be open on all sides, with the north, west and east wall each consisted of four tall tubular bells, whilst the pillars in each corner were built around four truly massive bells decorated with chryanthemum designs.
    • Horonigai stood, half-stunned by the noise, for a few minutes, whilst the abbot completed the blessing ceremony, and the crowd dispersed, many people leaving offerings on the temple steps.
      • One of these, Horonigai would later recall, was an impressively full looking coin pouch with a Dragon clan mon on it - the PCs had heard a rumour that Uiri's aunt, Mirumoto Kazuya, was a confidante of Hinata, and this seemed to confirm it - and that she put a lot of money into the temple to boot.
    • Afterwards, Hinata came to the front of the temple and started to say something, before looking at the shrine maiden more closely and making an obvious " please come up here " gesture.
      • "How are you not deaf?"
      • "The trick is teaching one's ears when not to hear things that will confuse or hurt them. A very useful skill to have during a monastic education. " Hinata answered.
      • " So.....he's still a stereotypical monk, then. " - Horonigai's player
    • Hinata explained the bells were supposed to drive away evil spirits and the taint. The four large bells were copies of the 'Chimes of Purity' that rang from Kyuden Seppun, protecting the Emperor's second home from any tainted enemy, whilst the twelve smaller ones were copies of the 'Bells of the Dead', whose originals confined an evil spirit in a coastal shrine, stripping away a malevolent spirit's powers. Of course these were just replicas - made at no small expense, but still replicas; the real Chimes of Purity incorporated eight hundred years of wards created by the Hidden Guard, whilst the real Bells of the Dead were empowered by the sacrifices of the lives of twelve of the greatest shujenga in the Empire's history.
      • "But they are still very loud. So I can't imagine evil spirits like them, even if only for the sake of their hearing."
    • The main thing the Abbot wanted to know was what had been done about the deaths of Yoshi and - equally - the various commoners that the magistrates had ignored.
      • Horonigai reassured him that the matter was dealt with, and also said "so you won't be needing to ring the Bells of the Dead any more than you had planned", trying to drop a hint or warning that it had been a supernatural enemy rather than a common criminal without offering too many details.
    • She also asked if there was anything the abbot needed. His response was that there was little he needed in particular, but that, whilst he had absolute faith in the 'little teacher' Shinsei and the Celestial Order, his faith did get tested on a regular basis in minor ways (" which is the best way to ensure it remains sound, I suppose "). Ronin, he said, tended to be the worst. Lacking a lord who was responsible for their conduct, they still had the same needs and desires as anyone but from the perspective of the commoners in the town enjoyed the same legal rights as any other samurai (most importantly being essentially immune to any accusation based on the testimony of a commoner) without the responsibilities. The fact that many were poor and desperate as a result didn't help, and he encountered examples of ronin abusing commoners (always behind closed doors) on a depressingly regular basis.
      • The Kaito, who has a history of caring for the commoners, promised to be a sympathetic ear if there were any problems between the heimin or hinin and the samurai in the town, something Hinata was pleased and impressed to hear.
      • For once in her career Horonigai failed a theology check, meaning she didn't catch the " absolute trust in the little teacher " reference. Evidently the Perfect Land Sect is not something that was ever discussed in Seido Yaku-Yoke. This may or may not be a problem later, especially since Hinata now has her earmarked as a potential convert for the Perfect Land Sect.

• As Horonigai was leaving, Hinata did mention one thing that might be worth the magistrate's time. Apparently there had been an 'altercation' earlier that day at the north-east gate, involving 'confusion over a visitor's status'. Since someone was likely to receive what the abbot thought was a rather unjustified thrashing for it, he asked if Horonigai would investigate.
  • Returning to the Townhouse, Horonigai collected Goriate and sent Ryu scurrying off to Chinoka's okiya to ask the other two PCs to join her at the gate.
  • By the time the PCs arrived, the gate itself was quiet - with two seppun bushi watching traffic passing through. There was a lot of shouting and a loud squalking noise coming from a nearby blockhouse, though.
  • Horonigai went to investigate, whilst Goriate asked one of the sentries what had happened.
    • Apparently, a scorpion clan peasant had turned up at the city gates, and, in the words of the guard, " started issuing orders as if she was a samurai ". The senior guard had taken none to kindly to this, and thrown the peasant into the cells for their presumption, with the intent of having her soundly beaten later and then ejected from the city.
    • One of the guards had gone into the blockhouse to deliver said beating, but was being repeatedly driven away from the cell by ' that damned bird .'
    • The PCs were not entirely surprised to find the 'bird' was an extremely large and angry crow, which had apparently got stuck inside the blockhouse and was angrily attacking anyone entering the corridor where the cells were. The moment Horonigai came into view, though, it settled down, hopped onto a rafter and shuffled off into the shadows of the ceiling with a satisfied ' caw '.
      • Neither of the PCs were under any impression other than that this was the Tengu, Airi, in her crow shape.
    • The 'peasant' turned out to be Ito Moronoka, the goshi of Kawacho village, whom Goriate met on a previous visit. She'd come to Hirosaka seeking help - her first time coming to such a huge city - and as the person in charge of Kawacho, had assumed the person to talk to was the person in charge of Hirosaka. Obviously, an Imperial Daimyo like Seppun Sora deigning to acknowledge the existence of a peasant goshi like Moronoka was so far beyond ridiculous it was actually insulting, but Moronoka's entire dealings with the samurai caste to date had been a couple of backwater scorpion tax collectors and the single visit by the PCs. She tried to be polite didn't realise she had caused offence until the Seppun bodily threw her into the cell.
    • When Horonigai asked why she was in Hirosaka, the goshi responded that she'd come to ask for help.
  • Horonigai told the city guard the PCs " would be taking charge of the prisoner ", and with the other two PCs turning up at this point, plus her magistrate's authority, the Seppun agreed.
    • The PCs promptly took Moronoka to the izakaya near the townhouse for food (the goshi had clearly been walking for several days and looked half-starved) and to ask what help she needed.

• Moronoka was grateful to be released - and almost as grateful to be fed.
  • She'd been on the road on foot for several days; she was exhausted and half-starved.
  • One of the villagers from Kawacho had disappeared, along with a shipment of Kawacho-brewed sake he was delivering to a samurai in Hirosaka called Ide Sayaka.
  • Nori (she did tell the PCs his family called themselves the Hidetaka, not that that family name had any legal weight to samurai) had left Kawacho nearly three weeks ago - more than long enough that he should have reached Sayaka's home near Hirosaka and returned to Kawacho before Moronoka set out.
  • Nori was inevitably going to be longer than usual making the delivery, since he was having to pull the cart by hand, but even allowing for this, he was overdue when his family came to ask for Moronoka's help.
    • "Oops." - Goriate's PC realising the situation may be at least partly their fault.
  • More to the point, Moronoka had followed the same road Nori should have taken - meaning if he was simply delayed, she should have passed him - and she'd visited Sayaka's estate to confirm that Nori had never reached it.
  • There were rumours of highwaymen and bandits - she'd seen no sign of them herself, but she was a single person, on foot, in cheap clothes and carrying swords; basically a walking "this one's not worth the trouble" sign.
  • She was intending to make her way back along the road slowly, checking sideroads and alternate routes. She was asking if one (or more!) of the magistrates could ride to Kawacho and make their way back along the road in the other direction, since that would drastically reduce the time the search would take. She'd come to Hirosaka because finding a Scorpion magistrate would have taken her a week the wrong way (since Kawacho was a very remote village) and they wouldn't have had authority within the Imperial holdings anyway. By comparison, Goriate had seemed like someone she could trust and she hoped she could prevail on whatever goodwill the provision of horses had bought her.
  • The PCs were feeling a bit guilty, and did promise to help. They told Ryu and the household staff to provide Moronoka with a place to sleep for the night and to get four travelling packs made up.
• Since they'd be leaving Hirosaka to pursue the matter, they did think to ask Seppun Ishima before just disappearing for a week.
  • They also felt they should make a point of replacing the mules they took from Kawacho. Getting horses from Ishima for their own travel was feasible, but getting four more horses that they wouldn't be returning took a more challenging courtesy check. They passed - primarily because they were prepared to take pretty grotty nags (they were for pulling heimin carts, not for samurai riding, after all). More importantly, they got enough opportunities for Ishima not to ask about the circumstances in which the PCs found themselves owing a scorpion village a bunch of horses.
  • Ishima was fairly happy to allow the PCs to head out of Hirosaka - she had previously said that she intended to use the magistrates to enforce laws in the outer villages, since she could send them and they'd have 'on-site' authority to make sensitive decisions and rulings that a yoriki or doshin wouldn't.
  • When they told her about the squabble at the northeast gate between Moronoka and the city guard, she seemed unsurprised - she'd had her own problems in the last few days.
    • In this case, she said, she was sending them to look for a runaway peasant named Haru. Sadly, she didn't have much of a description to offer - medium height, medium build, dark hair, and a gift for looking like and behaving like other people.
    • Haru was a con artist - whose main stock-in-trade was impersonating a high-status courtier - he'd pretend to be an obscure ambassador, or distant relative, to worm his way into a wealthy merchant or samurai household, and take advantage of the host's food, sake and occasionally prettier daughters before he was found out and (inevitably) would disappear swiftly.
    • This time, though, the offended party had been rather quicker off the mark than Haru's usual victims, and he hadn't been able to vanish into the common population of the city like he usually did. He tried to flee the city, but a pair of Seppun Ishima's doshin summoned by the family servants had caught up with him as he was trying to flee through Hirosaka's north-east gate.
    • This is where it all went wrong. Because what the Seppun guards on the gate saw was a well-dressed samurai courtier being tackled to the ground by two peasant doshin. So of course they intervened, dragged the doshin off Haru and beat them to a pulp. By the time they managed to explain what was going on, Haru was out of the gates and vanished along the road into the treeline.
    • " So far as we know, he has no money on him. " Ishima said, "and he certainly has no travelling papers so I doubt he'll be stupid enough to dare the Scorpion Clan border. That means he'll most likely go to ground somewhere along the road - which probably means Nestled Village, Twin Blessings Village or Closed Shell Castle. If you're passing through the region anyway, you can search for any sign of him."

• Happy that they'd gotten official permission to look for Nori - and horses into the bargain, the PCs set off.
  • Their first stop, after a day of travel, was Twin Blessings - or rather Otoha's waystop. They planned to do their searching on the return journey, when not slowed down by the four 'spare' horses, so they didn't actually enter the village itself, camping over at the waystop, relaxing with some nice tea provided by Otoha.
  • During the evening, Uiri was slightly irked to discover a piece of parchment in his travelling pack. On it was a haiku:
    • "You are the person / I'll never stop looking for / In a crowded place."
    • It was unsigned, but whilst Uiri didn't know where it had come from in-character, out of character there was a bone-deep sigh.
    • "She's hiding love-poems in my bags now?"
    • Goriate's player is now trying to persuade Suiren to help him forge more love-poems. This will either be hilarious, or result in a duel to the death. Most likely both, as Suiren's player is trying to decide whether to suggest sending a forged poem purporting to be from Uiri back to Suki.
  • The following day, passing through the woods not too distant from Closed Shell Castle, they encountered a huge grey wolf on the road.
    • It was watching them from some distance ahead, and produced an irritated snarl as they approached. Horonigai tried to approach in a non-threatening fashion, at which point it vanished into the underbrush.
    • The PCs were understandably nervous, and were expecting to be ambushed by a wolf pack at some point later in that day.
    • Suiren decided that the best plan was for him to follow the PCs in the trees. The forest was pretty dense, so it wasn't too hard, but keeping up with the magistrates riding would push his Weak Heart .
      • Aside from various George of the Jungle jokes (watch out for that tree!), it went okay. He didnt fail but didn't get any opportunities so wasn't being quiet about it.
    • Whilst the PCs weren't surprised to be attacked by a pack of ten starving wolves, some time later, it's impossible to stay alert indefinitely and they were caught by surprise in the moment. Suiren and Horonigai - with their higher vigilance - were able to go first, but Uiri and Goriate went after the wolves.
      • Horonigai's first action was to draw her wakizashi and cut the 'spare' horses - and Siuiren's horse - loose. Panicked by the wolves, the horses scattered.
      • Suiren tried to scare the wolves off with a bow-shot from the trees, but didn't achieve much.
      • The wolves rushed forwards, ignoring Horonigai but pouncing on and mauling the spare horses.
      • Goriate and Uiri charged forwards, the Crab killing one wolf outright with a sickening crack with his tetsubo, whilst Uiri wounded a second, leaving it fleeing the field.
      • At this point the large wolf appeared. Horonigai tried to talk to it, but any peaceful solution which might have been possible was no longer relevant as the corpse of the wolf Goriate had killed twitched nervelessly ground.
      • She did distract the wolf guardian, though, which allowed Suiren to launch himself from the trees at it, sword in hand. Fortunately (this being a risky action) he didn't screw up, and landed a critical strike, badly wounding the wolf despite its fitness check.
      • Seeing the pack leader wounded, the other wolves turned tail and fled, and the grey wolf followed. Goriate and Uiri pursued briefly, killing a second wolf, before they were outdistanced.
      • two of the horses intended for the villagers had been killed, but fortunately all the riding horses were broadly unharmed.
      • Checking them over, the PCs set of onwards to Kawacho.

• The PCs - and their two remaining horses - crossed the Scorpion Clan border and made it to Kawacho about a day later.
  • Goriate went to see Sasuke - the burly innkeeper and brewer who'd shown him to Moronoka on his last visit, and who was in charge in the goshi's absence.
    • Sasuke was concerned - understandably so, Nori being his brother - but was grateful to the magistrates for investigating. He also accepted the gift of the two horses (it was diplomatically not mentioned that there'd originally been four) on Moronoka's behalf.
    • He confirmed that Nori had been pulling the cart by hand, but had left in plenty of time to make the journey. If he'd disappeared, presumably - though he didn't want to suggest it - he'd fallen afoul of the rumoured highwaymen?
      • Goriate did warn about the starving wolves on the Imperial side of the river. Sasuke thanked him for the warning, but noted that the bushi sentry at the ford should dissuade any wolves from crossing to the Scorpion clan bank.
    • Nori had been planning to stop by the home of Sasami, their sister, who lived in a small farm halfway between Kawacho and the border. She was a widow, with children, so checking in on her when he left for a delivery had become Nori's habit.
  • Horonigai decided to visit the hinin settlement - or more specifically the gravedigger's family. They were terrified - as hinin encountering a samurai unexpectedly usually are - but perhaps less so than most hinin might have been. The grimy hut now sported a tiny shrine in one corner, and under a waxed cloth Horonigai found a beautifully carved jade figure of Tomuko, now Elemental Oracle of Fire. She bowed to the statue and felt a tiny shift in the warmth of the room in response. She left the house, warning the hinin (as if they hadn't figured it out) to keep the statue - and their daughter's fate - a secret, and telling them she would not return again.
  • Uiri decided to make enquiries around the village to see if there was any sign Haru had reached Kawacho. He wasn't surprised to hear no sign of strangers in the relatively rural town; since they and Tomuko had left there had been nothing of significance happen in the town until Nori overdue returning. It wasn't impossible for him to have hidden away on the outskirts of the village but no-one had heard anything that might suggest he had; it was suggested the magistrates check in at Sasami's farm, though, as she was the most remote villager and no-one saw her on a daily basis.
  • Suiren went to talk to the local apothecary, to purchase...." medical supplies ". He has registered that both of his ninjitsu techniques require doses of poison, and - being (temporarily) back in Shosuro territory - he thought it would be a good opportunity to acquire some. It took fairly hard skulduggery and sentiment checks to persuade the apothecary to supply him, but with good rolls (and some ready cash changing hands when no-one was looking) he came away with four discreetly hidden vials of Night Milk.
• The PCs fairly swiftly exhausted the avenues of inquiry in Kawacho. Having made a good impression by the donation of the two horses, they received some fresh rations from the villagers, and decided the best plan was to follow Nori's path to Sasami's farm. Since she was so remote, they decided to take her some food as well.
• Getting to Sasami's farm took half a day.
  • As they approached, a cluster of small children scattered and hid in the nearby rice paddies. Meanwhile, a young woman could be seen sat near the door, with one foot heavily strapped and braced.
  • This, unsurprisingly, turned out to be Sasami. She was shocked to see a quartet of samurai approaching her house, and struggled to stand and bow - her strapped-up foot stubbornly refusing to bear her weight properly.
  • Suiren managed to put her at ease - the food parcel helping, as " they'd eaten through the meals Nori had prepared ."
  • The PCs asked about Nori - and found out Sasami had badly hurt her ankle (based on a Medicine check from Horonigai, she'd not broken it, but the ligament was badly torn) some weeks ago, fetching water. She'd dragged herself back to the house in agony, but had been basically unable to walk when Nori had arrived - barely able to hobble to and from the kitchen area to feed her children. Fortunately, Nori had taken the time to see her properly cared for, confining her to her bed, and spending a week at the farm and laying in a stockpile of food for Sasami and her children. Sasami had protested but her brother had insisted that "he'd have to run the mules into the ground, but he'd still make his delivery schedule" - and besides, there wasn't anyone else; the children were too young to be of any use, and he couldn't afford to leave her to go back to Hirosaka and fetch Sasuke.
  • The PCs agonised back and forth a bit, but ultimately decided to tell her Nori was missing - but that they were searching for him on Moronoka's behalf. She was scared but grateful.
  • At this point, the PCs pretty much figured out what had happened. Not wanting to tell Sasami how far behind schedule she'd made him, Nori had let himself be put a week late crossing the Scorpion border. On foot, dragging the cart, the only way he could possibly make up the time was by taking a massive shortcut...

• "Gah... He went through the edge of the Shinomen, didn't he?"

• Not wanting to panic Sasami, the PCs decided to ask if there was any way there were any shortcuts they could take, to try and save time on the return journey - without leaving the heimin farmer realising Nori had done the same. They did let her know he was overdue, though it was left implied he'd disappeared in Hirosaka, and was probably somewhere in the city's riverport quarter, hungover, ill, or both.
  • Sasami, who lived as close to the border - both of Scorpion land and the Shinomen forest - was able to point at a wooded valley just visible to the west. According to her it ran from just across the river to rejoin the highway some distance short of Nestled Village, bypassing the lazy southwest curve of the road that took in Closed Shell Castle and Twin Blessings Village. It was the Shinomen, but just the fringes, and a quartet of armed samurai could take risks commoners couldn't.
  • There didn't seem to be much else to learn at the farm, so the PCs pressed on.
• At the border, they confirmed that Nori had passed the border post, in roughly the timeline Sasami had suggested. There was no sign of anyone who might have been Haru entering Scorpion lands - the only samurai to pass the guard recently had been going the other way, south (this, of course, is Miya Emon, on his way to Closed Shell Castle).
• Leaving the road and entering the forest shortly after, the PCs felt deeply uncomfortable. The sense of wrongness wasn't as bad as the shadowlands, but it was bad enough. Nevertheless, Uiri soon found cart trails, and a bottle of sake with a Kawacho label which had fallen out of the cart at a bump, so they were clearly on the right track.
  • They also found the crescent moon marks, cut into trees and stained with blood.
    • "Wonderful. Really, really welcoming. Great ambiance. I love this place already."
  • The PCs encountered some of the more disturbing life of the forest - fanged deer, glowing fungi, and so on, but - as hoped - nothing was hungry, angry or desperate enough to attack four armed humans. They did nevertheless have an overwhelming sense of being watched, and the ever-present bloodied crescent moons didn't help people's moods.
  • Finally, Horonigai sensed something more concrete, and looked up into the trees - seeing what at first looked like an elderly heimin couple, until she noticed the bark scales of the skin of their hands. This turned out to be a pair of the Shinomen Forest kodama - tree spirits - who'd been following the PCs, trying to decide if they were the ones who'd been cutting the crescent moons and murdering other kodama, and how they'd go about killing the PCs if they were.
    • The death threat was delivered in such a polite, matter-of-fact fashion that it took a few moments to register with the PCs.
    • "No! Not us.....definitely, absolutely not us! "
  • The kodama weren't too hard to convince- they'd never been able to see the perpetrators before, so it'd be strange to see them now.
    • They also told the PCs they hadn't seen Nori, but had found a wrecked cart that matched the description. They showed the PCs to it, and between the colour of the shattered cart and the handful of broken sake bottles, it was clear it was the right one.
      • "Do I sense anything wierd and wrong?" - Horonigai's PC
      • "Yes - you're in the Shinomen. But nothing relevant."
    • On a less spiritual level, Goriate spotted two sets of footprints - one heavy, one dainty - heading away tgether. Neither looked like they belonged to Nori.
  • Thanking the kodama, and promising to investigate the marks, the PCs followed the tracks, through a darker, swampier bit of forest. Eventually, as it was getting dark, they emerged into a clearing and found themselves staring at a beautiful estate.
    • Suiren decided to skulk in the shadows, whilst the magistrates approached, Horonigai lighting an improvised torch as she did so.

9 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

• Suiren decided to skulk in the shadows, whilst the magistrates approached, Horonigai lighting an improvised torch as she did so.

To use the line spoken by Tris from the Divergent Series Movie, Insurgent "off doing scary boyfriend things".

11 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

• "Do I sense anything wierd and wrong?" - Horonigai's PC
  • "Yes - you're in the Shinomen. But nothing relevant."

I am definitely stealing those lines.

• So - whilst Suiren was off being Suiren, the magistrates approached the estate. The PCs had all pretty much decided this was a trap in some fashion, so there was a general loosening of swords in sheaths, and Horonigai made a point of augmenting one of her arrows with Howl of Isora .
  • What they encountered, leaving the grand entrance hall, was a very elegantly dressed Scorpion samurai and a train of servants. Welcoming them to the estate, she introduced herself as Kuriyama no Soshi Yukiko, and welcomed them to her home.
  • The PCs were already suspicious of everything, and hearing that Yukiko claimed to be a member of the Soshi (whose capacity for illusions and discrete tricks they were fully aware of through painful experience) Horonigai and Goriate had basically decided they were seeing a massive illusory construct (Uiri was also suspicious but said he wasn't sure).
    • Which was true. The reality was, however, to prove a lot worse than they thought.
    • It did mean that they politely refused to give up their weapons, which probably saved their lives.
  • Yukiko led the magistrates into the dining hall, introducing them to 'Lady Atsuko' and 'Lord Kenta', whilst Suiren snuck around the side of the building.
    • Yukiko invited the magistrates to sit and eat, giving them an explanation of how she'd come to live so deep in the Shinomen forest.
      • Goriate and Horonigai declined to eat, despite criticism from Yukiko. Uiri did, but just enough to avoid criticism himself - handing off his plate to Lord Kenta (who'd leant over with an "Are you going to finish that?" when it became clear he was just picking at it)
    • Suiren meanwhile spotted a building connected by a covered walkway to the main house that had the look of a combined kitchens/storehouse. Sneaking in, he found the missing cases of Kawacho sake - and a servant mindlessly chopping away at a carcass of the 'other white meat'.
      • "I am so glad I refused to eat. " - Horonigai.'s player
      • " Bugger ." - Uiri's player, who historically hasn't had much luck with dietary choices .
        • He would a fairly sizeable honour hit later when he knew what he'd done, losing (temporarily) Paragon of Honour . Suiren was somewhat unimpressed to note that he'd almost lost as much honour as the Scorpion's entire honour score, and still had a virtue advantage to his name.
      • Suiren started running as fast as he could back to the main entrance.
    • Back in the dining hall, things were getting a bit ill-tempered. Kenta offered to wrestle with someone, but was ignored. Horonigai stood up, declaring that she was going to go and get some fresh air. 'Lady Atsuko' said she'd show her the way out of the side door, and Horonigai followed through the side rooms, only realising a moment after the door of the mansion closed behind her that that meant she was now alone outside with Atsuko.
      • Who chose this moment to shift back into her true form and attack.
      • Almost simultaneously, Suiren burst through the doors of the dining hall, sword drawn.
      • Yukiko was furious at the interruption and dismissed her illusion, taking her true shape and attacking.
      • Kenta, by comparison, stayed in his prior form, gronf ing away cheerfully on what was now clearly revealed to be a human corpse.
    • The fight was pretty bloody - 'Yukiko' and 'Atsuko' are both very powerful opponents.
      • 'Atsuko' moved first, the serpentine worm ensnaring and beginning to strangle Horonigai.
      • 'Yukiko' hammered Goriate and Uiri (using her strike-two-targets ability)
      • Suiren launched himself at 'Yukiko', using deadly sting with his sekihitsu to deliver one of his newly-acquired doses of night milk, leaving 'Yukiko' prone and disoriented. He also - now the illusion of the 'house' had dispersed - saw Horonigai facing 'Atsuko' alone and being crushed in the centipede monster's coils.
      • Horonigai went next. She had her Daikyu in hand, but was immobilised and unable to use it at such close range, and was being suffocated by 'Atsuko'. Instead, she decided to use the augmented arrow as an improvised knife. This didn't do much damage - sacred meant it passed easily through 'Atsuko's hide, but an arrow driven by hand instead of by a bowstring was never going to penetrate far. It did, however, set off the Howl of Isora invocation, throwing her and Atsuko apart as a short-lived miniature tornado ripped through the sodden marsh.
      • Goriate and Uiri managed to inflict a fair amount of fatigue on 'Yukiko', damaging her hide and reducing its protection.
      • 'Atsuko' lunged forwards, trying to ensnare Horonigai again, but this time missed.
      • 'Yukiko' hammered Uiri with a fair amount of fatigue - Way of the Dragon reduced the number of explosive successes, meaning he wasn't too fatigued, but annoyingly did turn them into opportunities, leaving him bleeding and allowing Yukiko to hammer Goriate as well on her backswing.
        • " Did you just parry the monster's claw into me ?"
        • ".....Oops. "
      • Suiren broke off his attack on 'Yukiko', and tried to rush to Horonigai's aid. Now there were no longer walls and doors to deal with, just the odd layer of entangling brush, he nearly made it in one round - but sadly wasn't able to strike at the same time.
      • Horonigai backed off, using water stance to open the range enough for a (mundane) daikyu shot, landing a critical strike and a fair amount of fatigue.
      • Goriate - somewhat irked - delivered a hammerblow that incapactitated 'Yukiko', and Uiri, using You Taught Me This , defeated her, the monster exploding in a shower of blood, before the Mirumoto basically collapsed himself, incapacitated by fatigue from Bleeding .
      • Outside, 'Atsuko' advanced and tried and failed again to ensnare Horonigai.
      • The Shrine maiden backed up again, this time incapacitating the monster with her daikyu.
      • Surien arrived in time to launch himself into a daring leap, sword swinging in a double-handed stroke at his incapacitated opponent, defeating 'Atsuko' as well.
  • The swamp was left empty and quiet for a moment, before there was a crunch from 'Kenta', who still sat calmly, chewing on a knob of gristle from a vertebra.
    • "Very impressive." He applauded, cheerfully. "Is one of you in a mood to wrestle now?"
    • 'Kenta' stood up, his shape rippling into his true, wolf-headed form, corded in scarred muscle.
    • The PCs were a bit taken aback. They'd expected to have to fight him - albeit that they'd forgotten about him whilst facing the other two as he sat there quietly helping himself to the remaining food - but the idea of being challenged to a wrestling match by an oni seemed too strange to process. Nevertheless, Kenta seemed to be serious - wagering his return to the shadowlands and a promise not to kill anyone along the way if he lost against an extremity of his choice from the defeated if he won.
      • Suiren and Horonigai are both made of paper, and Uiri was incapacitated and bleeding. So Goriate was the choice by default.
      • The crab was somewhat nervous - not least when Suiren helpfully 'advised' that " you should know that the head is generally considered an 'extremity' by the way " - the Oni did have both a better earth ring and martial arts (unarmed) rank, and Goriate had a fair amount of fatigue from his fight with 'Yukiko'.
      • He suggestion that it wouldn't be a fair fight was rebuffed by 'Lord Kenta', who pointed out that he'd not asked the samurai to remove his armour, whilst he was wrestling unarmoured. Kenta also promised to take an arm as his prize.
        • "Oh, well that's completely all right, isn't it?"
        • "You'd rather be decapitated? "
      • The struggle went on for several rounds, played out as an unarmed duel to incapacitation. Thanks to You Taught Me This , Goriate was able to match him for the first couple of rounds - advice from Uiri criticising his form at the Winter Court sumai competition proving invaluable, and his Large Stature helping him endure the Oni's Supernatural Strength .
      • Both contestants were swiftly compromised and took finishing blows - Goriate from accrued strife during the session, 'Kenta' because despite his fearsome stats otherwise, he only has a composure of 8. Neither finishing blow was especially impressive - even with a finishing blow, a punch is only deadliness 4, whilst 'Kenta's deadliness 5 claws rattled off Goriate's lacquered armour thanks to Way of the Crab .
      • Kenta pushed Goriate within a hair of incapacitated, before Kenta was compromised again - Goriate surviving by exploiting Kenta's disadvantage (the Oni's wounded knee). This time, thanks to the Oni's other weakness - only having a void ring of 1 and hence only 1 void point - Kenta was unable to roll enough results without strife to keep pressing the advantage. It took a couple more rounds before Goriate finally forced the Oni down.
      • The PCs were trying to decide if they should finish the Oni off but decided it was a fair fight, and even if the monster turned out to be lying, they should stick to their own word rather than break it to kill an unnatural creature - there will be a slight honour hit for Suiren (who halves the gains from Honour) and Horonigai (who doubles losses from Righeousness)
      • They were slightly surprised and pleased when Kenta - as far as they could tell - stuck to his word, setting off at a limping lope southwards and fairly swiftly disappearing into the dense foliage of the Shinomen. Uiri's wound was treated to stop the blood loss, and a purifying ritual carried out in the remains of the 'estate' - both to drive away any lingering taint from 'Yukiko' and her friends and to remove the Afflicted condition that Uiri had acquired from his decidedly non-vegetarian dinner option.
  • It was well into the night by the time the PCs gathered the horses - and the sake - and made their way back to the valley through the Shinomen. They'd come far enough that the fastest way out was now through, and shortly before dawn they emerged onto the Imperial highway between Twin Blessings Village and Nestled Village.
    • Exhausted, they made camp....

• The PCs woke the following morning after a good night's sleep, with a refreshing lack of fatigue.
• Horonigai and Suiren - with their vigilance 4 - then somewhat ruined the morning by noticing a rapidly-dispersing column of smoke to the north-east.
  • The PCs were pointedly aware that the last time they'd seen something similar, it had heralded the destruction of a Shosuro village and the first appearance (for them) of the Elemental Oracle of fire. So if they were nervous, it's understandable.
  • The smoke wasn't extensive enough to be a destroyed settlement, though. It looked more like it was coming from where Otoha's waystop, outside Twin Blessings village, should be relative to them.
  • The smoke was dispersing, so the fire had either been extinghuished or burned itself out. As a result the PCs headed there directly but didn't ride as hard as they might have if they thought the fire was still burning.
• The PCs arrived some time later, to find the waystop utterly burned out. More concerningly, a crude barricade had been made by pulling down the stable fence across the door, suggesting it had been done deliberately - and that someone had been trapped inside.
  • The PCs had heard enough rumours of bandits to be concerned. Obviously, some of those might have really been the depredations of Yukiko, Atsuko and Kenta, whilst others might have been the wolf pack they encountered, rather than actual bandits, but if there were genuine raiders out there Twin Blessings Village was essentially undefended, with the doshin, Reo, being the only armed defender.
  • Goriate left his horse with Horonigai and headed off towards the town to check in with Setsuo, the village leader.
  • Uiri searched for tracks nearby to try and determine where the attackers had come from and where they went.
  • Suiren went to search inside the burnt-out ruins
  • Horonigai attempted to commune with the spirits, to see if there was any sign of something unnatural
• The waystop had burned quickly, with a straw floor and straw roof that had burned quickly - the latter weakening the roof beams to the point the roof had caved in over much of the building.
  • Suiren found the fire appeared to have been started by two torches being thrown through the blocked doorway. On the far side of the barricade, apparently overcome by the smoke before she could force open a way out, was the body of Otoha.
  • He also found a second body, presumably of a guest, in what had been Otoha's rooms - the guest therefore being high status, or well paying, enough to justify Otoha giving up her room to provide somewhere inside to sleep. The figure and its clothing was badly burned and soot-stained and trapped under fallen roof beams, but curiously the straw floor was more or less intact in a circle around the body.
  • Horonigai was concerned to sense a deep elemental imbalance in the area - not just the waystop but as far as her senses could perceive, covering at the very least the entire village. She also sensed the after-effects of an invocation to extinguish flames; the cause of the unburned circle around the unidentified second corpse. Clearly the unnamed shujenga hadn't been awake enough, or skilled enough, or had been thwarted by the elemental imbalance - whilst they'd been able to protect themselves from the immediate danger of fire, they'd not been able to extinguish the fire in the rest of the waystop and had been killed when the roof collapsed.
  • Suiren, at this point, found in the debris and ash of the bedroom, a wakizashi. It was as covered in soot as the body, and what had probably been elegant silk wrappings were burned to cinders - but there was no mistaking the hilt-guard, which was formed into the shape of the Miya family mon, making the dead body a member of the Imperial families.
    • " Well that's got to be bad for a whole catalogue of reasons. .." - Suiren's player
  • Horonigai also found Otoha's gold ring, tucked away in a hidden compartment that had been revealed by the fire.
• Uiri, meanwhile, found the tracks easily enough in the dry dust of the road.
  • The attackers - there had been two (or at least two horses) - had approached along the road from the north-east, toward the woods where they'd met the wolves, the Scorpion Clan border and Closed Shell Castle.
  • They'd arrived at the gallop, and at least one person had briefly dismounted (to create the barricade across the door), then left at a more sedate pace.
    • Towards Twin Blessings Village
    • "You could have told me that before I went to the village!" - Goriate's player, who was crossing the bridge and well over halfway to the village
    • "You could have waited for the rest of us to find that before setting off." - Uiri's player, not unjustifiably.
• At this point, Goriate heard angry shouting from up ahead
  • The village, he noted, already looked in a sorry state. The rice paddies were dry and the millet fields - by comparison - looked flooded out.
  • Rounding the side of the disused-looking sake brewery, he could see two samurai in purple-and-teal armour gesturing furiously at a crowd of villagers led by Setsuo.
  • The samurai were demanding Sake, insisting that Setsuo must have kept a 'secret stash'. The mood looked ugly and likely to turn to violence at any moment..
  • "Greetings, fellow samurai! Good morning to you!"
    • Not seeing any way around it, Goriate decided to walk into the square and greet the bushi as loudly and as brazenly as he could, tetsubo slung nonchalantly across his back.
    • "Don't worry, the Hida is here to diplomatically prevent matters escalating to violence!" - Goriate's player
    • "Oh, this is going to go so horribly wrong." - Suiren's player

• Shortly after this, it went horribly wrong.
  • The fundamental problem was that whilst Goriate is an Emerald Magistrate, that only really gives him authority over issues which cross clan boundaries (such as fleeing criminals or issues which occur on the Imperial highway) or which threaten an 'official' imperial institution.
  • He has the power to act as a local magistrate within Hirosaka specifically, granted by Seppun Sora, and - to a degree - that authority also applies in the villages of the holdings surrounding the town.
  • Twin Blessings, however, is a holding of Closed Shell Castle, and as of Reju Jikai's investiture, there was a local daimyo who held authority over the village, and who had not granted the Crab samurai similar permission to act as a magistrate in his lands.
  • As a result, Rin - the more aggressive of the two samurai - essentially responded with " what do you want?" , fully aware that he had limited jurisdiction.
    • The other, Genzo, was - despite being the older of the two - clearly the subordinate, and said nothing.
  • Goriate asked what was going on, and why the villagers were yelling. Rin - seeing at this point it was unlikely they were going to get the Sake she wanted - tried to simply ride off.
  • The Hida responded by pointedly taking hold of Rin's horse's bridle, passing a fitness check (helped by his Large Stature ) to stop her riding off. Getting a load of opportunity, he was able to make her take a fitness check to resist being unseated. She didn't precisely fall, but was forced to dismount involuntarily rather than do so.
  • At this point, the short-tempered ex-ronin moved to draw on him and a two-on-one skirmish kicked off - Genzo (reluctantly) moving in to support his superior.
• The other PCs were heading toward the village at some speed, but it was a round before they arrived.
  • Genzo may have been unwilling to get involved in the fight but he proved more than capable once he did, moving in with a brutal mounted iaijutsu strike that delivered a large amount of fatigue. He did take a large amount of strife in the process, though.
  • Goriate got to go next, using water stance to unsling his tetsubo and deliver a heavy blow to Rin.
  • Rin also used an iai strike - between the two ronin, Goriate had taken a lot of fatigue - and was glad he was in his armour.
  • The other PCs arrived at extreme range at this point.
  • Genzo landed a regular strike action, inflicitng a small amount of fatigue.
  • Goriate again tried to hit Rin, inflicting a critical strike and tearing loose a sizeable chunk of the Ronin's armour.
  • The nearly incapacitated Rin - seeing Goriate wasn't alone - responded by grabbing her horse and remounting (Goriate had his tetsubo in a 2-handed grip, so had relinquished his grip on the reins), and riding off, leaving Genzo to deal with the crab. The older ronin looked deeply unimpressed but having already drawn steel couldn't easily back off at this point.
  • The other PCs were meanwhile reaching the bridge, having remounted.
    • Horonigai dismounted and readied her daikyu, using water stance to fire a long-ranged shot at Genzo using Hawk's Precision . She didn't hit but instead landed a huge amount of strife with Pelting Hail style. Added to the strife the ronin had already built up, this compromised Genzo.
    • Suiren used a fire stance maneuver action to close the gap by as many range bands as he could to help Goriate.
    • Uiri, on the other hand, turned his horse towards Closed Shell Castle, hoping to cut off Rin from the castle - the last thing the PCs needed was the local daimyo hearing her version of events without them being present to contradict her.
  • Genzo managed to - briefly - un-compromise himself with a calming breath and land some more fatigue on Goriate.
  • Goriate backed off, and a fire stance strike from Goriate quickly compromised him again.
  • At this point, Suiren thundered past on his horse, delivering a single-handed katana strike to the ronin.
    • Combining Seize the Moment, Path of Shadows and Veiled Menace against the compromised ronin, he delivered a brutal critical strike at Severity 10.
    • Unable to effectively reduce the critical severity due to Compromised, Genzo suffered the Blindness scar disadvantage as the katana's tip slashed clean across both eyes and the bridge of the ronin's nose. Genzo toppled off of his horse.
  • The ronin - to his credit - tried to continue fighting but couldn't hit either of his opponents, and was pinned down and disarmed by Goriate shortly after.

• Meanwhile, Uiri chased after the fleeing Rin.
  • This was resolved as a series of survival checks. Rin managed to get nearly enough momentum to reach Closed Shell, but was a couple of points short when Uiri reached the required momentum to catch her.
  • At this point - with both riders at full gallop - Uiri decided to make a strike at the ronin's saddle-strap. Passing a TN4 Martial Arts (Melee)/Air check by the use of a void point, he cut the saddle free, and Rin tumbled to the ground, knocking herself unconcious.
  • Aware this had happened within sight of the castle, and not wanting to wait around to see what response he got, Uiri rather unceremoniously slung Rin over her horse and rode back toward the village.

• By the time Uiri returned, Horonigai had seen to Genzo's bleeding. Suiren and Goriate, meanwhile, were trying to find out from Setsuo, the village leader, what had happened.
  • Setsuo gave them a quick outline of the village's recent history - essentially, since Reju Jikai had taken his seat at Closed Shell, taxes had become much more punitive. In addition, the daimyo had ordered the brewery closed to avoid the villagers "drinking away his taxes" . Jikai had not been seen in the village - generally his orders had been relayed or enforced by hired ronin, most of whom had been people like Rin who were happy to brutalise the peasants for their own amusement or profit.
  • As a result, several villagers - including his own son, Ichiro, and Reo, the former doshin, had left the village, presumably to find a better life elsewhere.
  • Setsuo blamed Michi, the monk, for this - calling him a bad influence - but did acknowlege that the Brotherhood of Shinsei had been key to keeping the village on its feet; providing seeds, tools and money to help them get at least enough of a harvest to feed themselves.
    • Michi wasn't in the village at the moment, but instead was supposedly up at Closed Shell Castle.
  • In addition, the village had been suffering from some sort of spiritual disturbance - he suggested talking to Daizo, the village priest - which had also ruined the crop harvest, making the taxes imposed relatively speaking even worse.
  • Flooding of the millet fields - and simultaneously dry rice paddies - had ruined much of a promising harvest.
  • It didn't help that there'd been some thefts of rice from the tax warehouse. Lacking Reo to lead the investigation, he'd had no luck finding the culprit and given that plenty of families were going hungry, frankly he'd not tried too hard.
  • The waystop had been burned down, so far as Setsuo knew, that morning by the two Ronin the PCs now had in custody.
• The PCs realised they wouldn't have too long before some sort of response arrived from Closed Shell.
  • Uiri decided to question Genzo and Rin.
    • Genzo was in a lot of pain, but was prepared to talk to the magistrate. He admitted that he and Rin - primarily the latter - were responsible for destroying Otoha's waystop. They were doing so on Reju Jikai's orders; the waystop was not licensed by him and as such was illegal, and he had the right to have it pulled down - but Rin was the one who blockaded the door and didn't allow the old proprietor to leave.
      • That had not been part of Jikai's instructions; he hadn't forbidden it but certainly hadn't ordered it and he thought it unlikely it was the daimyo's intent.
      • He was visibly shocked to hear there'd been another samurai as a guest, and clearly felt far more guilty than he had for not actively restraining Rin.
    • Rin - once awoken very unceremoniously with a bucket of water - proceeded to accuse Goriate of having no right to interfere and demanding satisfaction by a duel.
      • Uiri confronted her with the evidence that her actions had killed another samurai, and her response was simply that he shouldn't have been there. The waystop was illegal, so the samurai's death was their own fault, not hers. This was Reju Jikai's land, and his orders were all that mattered.
      • Uiri said that she'd have the chance to put her case to the daimyo, and if he ordered a duel to settle matters, she'd get her chance then . Apparently Jikai's authority was a lot less relevant when it was stopping her getting her own way, and she proceded to vent quite a lot of anger at the Dragon clan samurai.
      • Uiri decided to leave before he did something he'd regret.
  • Suiren chose to go investigate the closed-down brewery, whilst Goriate decided to provide some advice on flood defences for the fields.
    • Goriate had learned a fair amount about the subject prior to Winter court, since getting support to address flooding on the River of Gold in Crab lands had been one of his tasks at Kyuden Doji. As a result, he assembled a working party out of the villagers, and provided some direction on how to shore up the defences and some irrigation channels to redirect the floodwater to the parched rice paddies.
    • Suiren arrived at the brewery, which adjoined the tax warehouse and tool store, at about the same time. He lacked the labour skill ranks of his practical Crab colleague, but instead did have the high air and water ring that lead to noticing things.
      • Specifically, that rather than the bamboo or cast iron that he'd expect the peasant's tools to be made from, a disconcerting proportion seemed to be (a) made of good steel and (b) very new.
      • He snuck a look in the tool store after the work party had left, and confirmed an initial suspicion that it was basically a sizeable armoury concealed in plain sight.
      • ".....I think the peasants are revolting." "Nothing a bath wouldn't solve." "Really? I mean, really really? Do we have to do that joke?" - Suiren and Goriate's players.
    • Suiren also investigated the tax warehouse, finding a trick panel in the wall which had been levered open, replaced and then crudely concealed. Which meant the thief wasn't someone who normally had access to the warehouse, but beyond that didn't help him figure out who it was.
  • Horonigai spoke to Daizo.
    • She encountered Shinichi in the process, and returned his mother's ring to him. It was pretty clear that the young man had gone from a grumbling, unhappy individual into out-and-out rebelliousness (albeit that he was clearly doing his best to hide) by Rin's casual brutality. It seemed that at least the PCs' weren't included in his anger - the good impression they left in their previous visit, in addition to them not being Reju samurai, meant at least the jury was still out where they were concerned.
    • Daizo was very reassured to see her. He was perfectly open that he was out of his depth trying to placate the river and hot spring kami - he'd made plenty of offerings but to no avail. Horonigai, fortunately, was able to accompany him to the shrine and use Commune with the Spirits and proved far more successful. The message of the Kami wasn't entirely clear, but she did come away with the impression that the kami had been offended, deliberately, by a shujenga who'd intended to cause the very sort of elemental chaos that had ensued.
  • The PCs compared notes - out of earshot of Setsuo.
    • The news that the village had an undercurrent of seditious anger and a large amount of sharp steel totally-not-weapons was concerning in general, but Horonigai had a particularly concerning train of thought:
      • "Setsuo said the tools came from the Brotherhood of Shinsei." - Horonigai's Player
      • "And?" - Uiri's Player
      • "The only person they see out here is Michi."
      • "I guess so. Why?"
      • "Michi is a monk. He's sworn to poverty and basically just owns his clothes. Having tools made up out of weaponry steel is going to be expensive - not only is it expensive anyway but it's clearly being done for....you know....something subversive. So you'd have to pay the smith over the odds to keep it secret too; it'd cost more than just having a 'normal' spear made."
      • "So where did he get the money?"
      • "Exactly. And the obvious answer is Hinata. He runs the temple in Hirosaka and Hinata is big on the rights and wellbeing of commoners. Even if he didn't know the details, giving money for 'tools' for rural farmers would be an easy sell. But that just moves the question on one - where did he get the money?"
      • "Well?"
      • "Umm.....Possibly.... Your aunt ?"
      • "What?!?!?"
      • This is definitely a subject the PCs are going to come back to later, I think.

• At this point, however, the matter was shelved, as the PCs saw a trio of mounted samurai approaching from the castle.
  • Two were armoured bushi dressed much like Genzo and Rin, but the third wore more ornate armour with a Sashimono banner decorated with the Reju family mon.
    • Setsuo confirmed that the central figure was Reju Tsugumasa - a member of the Reju family himself, and Jikai's appointed magistrate.
    • The villagers didn't see much of Tsugumasa, but what little they'd seen of him suggested that he was an honest man, and - if a bit aloof - was a lot more moral a person than the ronin the Reju had working for them.
  • Fortunately, the PCs were all together this time, and met the Reju at the bridge, well away from the village.
    • Reju Tsugumasa was clearly ready for trouble- having seen (from his perspective) one of his lord's samurai ambushed and kidnapped from near the castle.
    • Finding the 'assailants' to be a trio of Emerald Magistrates - and with evidence that Rin and Genzo's actions had resulted in the death of an Imperial samurai - he found himself rather on the back foot. He promised to bring the two before Reju Jikai - and to allow the magistrates to speak freely to give their testimony.
    • The PCs took the offer - Tsugumasa, after all, was the one with jurisdiction here.
    • So far, so good - and then he let them know that he was also here to collect the village's rice tax.
    • " Ah. That's not going to go well...... " - Suiren's player

• In the end, Tsugumasa didn't end up being that unreasonable.
  • The three magistrates managed to persuade him that the village wouldn't be able to pay the tax demands in full, through no fault of their own - citing the floods which were now under control, they managed to persuade him to give the village more time.
  • During the discussion, they did note his reference to the 'village ledger' - something they had not seen in either visit to Twin Blessings Village, and which they (correctly) suspected Setsuo was hiding.
• With that, the PCs, Tsugumasa, his guards and their prisoners set off for the castle.
  • The journey was a lot slower, since Rin and Genzo were on foot, and the unstable weather left Uiri and Suiren exhausted .
  • By the time the group neared Closed Shell Castle, it was getting on for late afternoon. The journey was interrupted as the PCs passed a copse of trees just short of the castle hill by Michi, who'd been meditating under a tree and chose to join the PCs on the way back to Closed Shell.
  • He sounded both unsurprised and unimpressed by the accusations against Rin, but was otherwise pleased to see the PCs again.
  • They wisely decided not to raise the issue of the peasants' weapons (given Tsugumasa was within earshot), instead settling for a brief history of Closed Shell - particularly its recent history, where it had changed from a largely abandoned Otomo holding manned by a skeleton staff to one ceded to the Otomo's Reju family vassals, in the person of Reju Jikai, the new daimyo.
    • Apparently the handover had been far from completely seamless or amicable, and Jikai's retainers - especially his 'army' - were now an odd three-way mix of Otomo servants and ashigaru retained from the caretaker staff by Otomo Nobu, his castellan, Reju family bushi like Tsugumasa and his guards, and ronin quickly hired from the city of Hirosaka to bulk out the numbers, with - as Michi put it - " perhaps less attention paid to their ethics than their affordability and availability ".

• Closed Shell Castle proved pretty impressive - even for Goriate.
  • At the same time, it was a slightly comical - maybe even tragic - idea that Twin Blessings Village justified such an immense fortification to protect it; a result from the supposed paranoia of the original Otomo daimyo of the fortress.
• With both Tsugumasa and Michi in their company, as well as their Emerald Magistrate's papers of office, gaining access to the castle was a trivial activity, and the PCs were quickly and politely conveyed to an audience chamber to wait on Reju Jikai assembling his court.
  • Rin and Genzo were taken to a holding room. Horonigai was very unhappy to let them - Rin especially - out of her sight, but ultimately Uiri and Suiren persuaded her that it was Tsugumasa's jurisdiction and insisting on accompanying them would do nothing but send a message of distrust.
  • The PCs - specifically (unsurprisingly) Suiren - did find the spyhole in the audience chamber, but it was unmanned.
• They weren't kept waiting too long, and soon they, and Rin and Genzo, were shown in to Jikai's audience chamber.
  • As they came in, they noted Otomo Nobu whispering with Jikai's taisa in a conspiratorial fashion.
    • "Oh no. You mean the daimyo's 'Grand Vizier' who comes from a family of infamous schemers might be plotting something? Oh Shock. Oh Horror." - Uiri's player.
  • They also noticed Mamoru Nakama, who they have (as I thought they might) assumed is Haru. Horonigai was slightly puzzled that he seemed to be giving her, in particular, a very intense stare.
  • Rin and Genzo were not bound, but did pointedly have a Reju bushi stood on either side of them in a non-too-subtle indication that they were still prisoners.
  • The debate ultimately boiled down to Uiri, who laid out the charges on behalf of the PCs, versus Nobu, who was arguing that Jikai had every right to order what had happened done, with collateral damage being an unhappy tragedy - Rin had no reason to expect a high-ranking samurai to be staying at an illegal waystation.
  • "She had no reason not to check, either."
  • As a courtier, Nobu was detectably the more persuasive of the two, but Uiri was able to keep pace for two rounds by using You Taught Me This to draw assistance from Goriate's experience. He was loaded with strife - his anxiety being triggered didn't help - but that did also grant him a void point which also aided him in keeping pace with the Otomo castellan. After two rounds, though, he chose to 'tag in' the magistrates' "adviser" - the far more capable Suiren, who swiftly won the intrigue against Nobu.
    • Nobu looked unhappy, but ultimately couldn't argue with Jikai's decision. The Reju daimyo looked rather horrified - he'd instructed that the waystop be closed, forcibly if need be, as it was illegal, unlicensed and untaxed, but he'd given no orders to kill its proprietor, let alone any guests. The two ronin had exceeded their orders in a brutal fashion and needed to be punished.
    • The PCs did intercede here on Genzo's behalf. He'd been against Rin's actions, but he'd followed the commands of the senior samurai - and besides, being blinded, they argued, he'd already suffered a pretty severe punishment for his actions. Jikai agreed, and ordered the older ronin released, but Rin was to be given the chance to redeem herself by seppuku the following day.
    • The two ronin were removed from the court, and Jikai then welcomed the PCs. Having been at winter court himself, he recognized them and noted each of their achievements at the court, particularly Horonigai (Uiri he also recognised but it's fair to say the Mirumoto brought back rather painful memories). He offered them the hospitality of the castle for a day or so.

• With that, the court dispersed, and after they had settled into some guest rooms, they agreed a plan of action of splitting up and searching for information.
  • Suiren went with his usual trick of going to gather rumours incognito.
    • With plenty of ronin wandering around the castle, new faces weren't unusual, so - removing his obscuring mask and changing into travelling clothes - it was easy enough to pretend to be an off-duty guard.
    • He spent a little time in the barracks - ironically enough, talking to the now-blind Genzo, who'd never heard him speak before so didn't recognise him. In addition to a quick who's who of names to investigate, he found out that the castle's stores of arrows had 'gone missing' a few days earlier - rendering yumi bows in the armoury useless.
    • A trip past the kitchens revealed the fact that the servants were taking the long route to fetch water from the moat rather than the castle's own well, as apparently it was haunted.
      • Horonigai's ears, naturally, pricked up when later told about 'supernatural whommy stuff'.
    • He also ended up in the garden-viewing room. Apparently the garden was also cursed, in the much more mundane sense of 'all the plants have died and the gardeners can't get anything else to grow'. 'Viewing' the desolate expanse of dry earth was another of Jikai's guests, Miya Shinako.
      • The Miya samurai was clearly distraught. Believing Suiren to be one of the castle's ronin, she asked him to investigate if the 'imperial samurai' killed by Rin at the waystop had been, as she suspected, her uncle Miya Emon.
  • Horonigai went to the shrine to Shinsei - which she found was newly built - and encountered Seppun Azusa, the lady of the castle. She was pretty much fixated on her devotions, and whilst she exchanged some pleasantries with the Kaito, largely ignored her.
    • Horonigai figured out - and was able to confirm with Michi, who was watching from nearby - that Azusa had, after being crippled by Daidoji Gombei at winter court, basically become fanatically religious to compensate for the loss of her previous self-identity as a swordsman. With both her husband and niece being quietly but pragmatically pious rather than especially ascetic, this was driving her further and further from her immediate family, and the isolation was steadily making what was probably clinical depression worse.
    • As she was leaving, she saw Nakama resting in one of the more green spaces of garden in the castle. Not wanting to 'deal with' him yet, though, she ignored him.
  • Uiri, meanwhile, went to the training courtyard.
    • Reju Masaru, the taisa, was drilling a large block of ronin, and wasn't very approachable, but Uiri did hit it off instead with Reju Daihachi, the sensei, who was instructing a single pupil; Reju Ume, Jikai's neice and heir.
    • Ume was busy working out some pent-up aggression on a trio of Reju family bushi, and Uiri opened the conversation with the sensei the right way by complimenting both teacher and pupil.
      • The conversation covered many of the Reju samurai in the castle, including Jikai's yojimbo, Jinzaburo, who was probably the only individual who could be said to be in Closed Shell voluntarily.
        • "He's in love with Ume, isn't he?" - Horonigai's player, who can see a blatantly obvious plot trope coming a mile off.
      • This subsequently led to a discussion of the rumours of noises and movement in the roof around the family quarters, and Reju Jikai's concerns that shinobi had somehow infiltrated the castle.
        • Suiren perked his ears up at this, and plans to investigate.
    • Ume, it turned out, had thrown herself into her sword studies with the same focus her aunt had shown for shinseism. Having been dragged away from her friends in the capital, it was about all she had left to entertain herself with, and she still harboured hopes of somehow avenging her mother's crippling injury.
    • She ended up talking to Mirumoto Uiri, and - duly impressed to have the kata champion from Winter Court in the castle - asked to spar.
      • This was a duel to first stike with bokken, beginning with weapons readied, and was actually one of the closer fights Uiri has had.
      • Reju Ume is a significantly weaker duellist than the rank 3 Mirumoto - both have Air 3, but Uiri has Martial Arts Melee 4 to Ume's Martial 2.
      • However, Uiri was still exhausted, meaning he was hanging on to his composure by a thread after the events of the day, so couldn't really keep strife results and couldn't last more than a couple of rounds before becoming compromised.
        • If Ume had managed to trigger Dramatic Duellist at any point, that would have been it.
      • Plus, with bokken, his usual opening gambit of an iaijutsu strike wasn't available, and he'd already expended both uses of You Taught Me This .
      • It ended up with both parties fighting in air stance, upping the TN required to hit to 3. As a result, both managed a successful strike in their first attacks, but neither landed a critical strike - Uiri managed to bank away an opportunity for a critical strike the following turns. Ume came close to landing a Dramatic Duellist attack, but Way of the Dragon managed to remove enough successes to prevent the strike landing.
      • The following turn, with one "free" kept opportunity and some lucky explosive success, he was able to land a critical strike and win the duel.
      • Ume was duly impressed. She'd been Kakita-trained, so this was her first exposure to the Mirumoto Niten style, aside from watching a demonstration in the palace where the Niten practicioner clearly had no intention of winning.
        • Uiri realised she was talking about Agasha Sumiko's 'sparring match' with the prince, Hantei Sotorii.
    • The two spoke for a bit, before Uiri excused himself and returned to the guest quarters.
      • Before he left, he was sure there was something else Ume was wanting to talk to him about, but whatever it was the young noble couldn't figure out how to raise it.
      • Horonigai, when they discussed later, hit on it: "You're fighting with two swords simultaneously. That means you've just proved you know how to fight effectively 'wrong-handed'. She's thinking you might be able to teach her aunt."
    • We left things there for the evening - ironically with each of the three PCs having identified a job for someone else to do:
      • Suiren would investigate the castle's roof for these rumoured shinobi.
      • Horonigai would look into the claims the castle's well was haunted.
      • Uiri would try to figure out how to persuade Seppun Azusa to re-learn her swordsmanship skills.

What about Goriate’s tasks? Just raise mayhem?

48 minutes ago, DSalazar said:

What about Goriate’s tasks? Just raise mayhem?

Goriate's player wasn't about for the latter half of the evening (so standard group rules of him following someone about doing 'assist' actions if relevant applied), so we'll have to wait and see.

He did message later "What went wrong after I left?" and was told:

"Uiri ended up in a duel, Reju Jikai's wife is a shinseist zealot who's spending her days high on narcotic incense, someone's stealing the castle's weapons, there may or may not be shinobi in the castle roof, everyone seems to be plotting against the daimyo, you, or both, and you're witnessing a seppuku tomorrow morning."

"I'm sorry I asked."

4 hours ago, DSalazar said:

What about Goriate’s tasks? Just raise mayhem?

I have one for him, but it may be a bit mundane. Any good siege master would be horrified at the missing arrows and would go about looking for them. Or at least account for why they are missing and track down the malcontents responsible for their disappearance. I am surprised that Suiren didn't mention them to the resident crab.

5 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Plus, with bokken, his usual opening gambit of an iaijutsu strike wasn't available

Text of Bokken says it can be used for Iaijutsu even though it isn't Razor-Edged. Good to note for a next time.

21 minutes ago, UnitOmega said:

Text of Bokken says it can be used for Iaijutsu even though it isn't Razor-Edged. Good to note for a next time.

Thanks for the note. It’s one of those things that I guess it should be a proper keyword or something as you need to read the weapon description instead of seeing this information in the table.

13 hours ago, UnitOmega said:

Text of Bokken says it can be used for Iaijutsu even though it isn't Razor-Edged. Good to note for a next time.

Thanks.

As it happens, it wouldn't have mattered, since both combatants began with weapons readied 'at guard'. But noted for any future case.