• So...this week proved to be the 'running away from scary things' episode.
• The PCs got a decent night's sleep, and were up early to attend Rin's seppuku.
  • Prior to the event, they decided to do a little investigation.
    • The three magistrates made their way to the (dead) water-flower garden, to investigate the 'curse', whilst Suiren took the opportunity of the pre-dawn twilight to go scrambling up the outside of the keep to investigate the roof - it would be late enough that Jikai and his wife would be up and have left their rooms but not so late that he'd be expected to be somewhere in particular and his absence noted.
    • Uiri, Goriate and Horonigai arrived in the garden to find it already occupied by Miya Shinako.
      • The PCs weren't especially surprised, and Uiri had pointedly brought the wakizashi recovered from the ruins of the waystop near Twin Blessings Village.
        • Shinako described her uncle, Miya Emon, and confirmed he was a shujenga. She said that he'd been coming to meet her at Closed Shell Castle, and then the two were heading on to the holdings of Otomo Osamu, Emon's half-brother and the nearest other local lord (Otomo Niko, one of the other castle's guests, was a sort-of-ambassador between the two daimyo).
        • She tearfully confirmed that the wakizashi was Emon's. Uiri gave it to her and, putting it into her obi, the Miya poet left the garden with a hard-set expression to attend Rin's seppuku.
        • "Must make a point of staying with her, as she might well do something stupid" - Horonigai's player
      • Meanwhile, Goriate was wandering round the garden. Horonigai was planning to commune with the spirits , but Goriate noticed something far more prosaic. There was some life growing in the garden, in the banks of a small fast-flowing ornamental stream, which presumably connected to the same spring which fed the moat and the (apparently haunted) castle well. But away from the stream, there was nothing growing - not even weeds.
        • As he inspected the determined algae, he noticed the ground make a surprising crunch underfoot, and noticed a slight glitter to the soil. Investigating (thanks to the benefit of being the only PC with a decent Labour rank), he noted the distinct smell of rock salt worked into the earth.
          • "Shujenga use purifying salt?"
          • "Enough to poison an entire garden? How incompetent is this guy? I think this was deliberate."
          • The PCs are increasingly coming to the impression that Reju Jikai is being made to look bad.
          • Following Miya Shinako, the magistrates also made their way to the main courtyard, where much of Jikai's court was assembling.
    • Suiren, meanwhile, changed into his 'working clothes' and broke out his tekagi climbing claws, and passed a fitness check to clamber up the outside of the castle from the guest quarters to the very roof. He also got enough air opportunities to avoid the notice of the handful of Reju bushi sentries.
      • Once on the roof, the result was pretty anticlimactic - a large expanse of glazed orange roof-tiles on a gentle slope, with clusters of moss growing in the gaps here and there. Curved ridge tiles coloured in a deeper red ran along the spine of the roof, with wooden shachihoko "tiger-fish" guardian statues at either end.
      • There was no particular evidence that he could see of someone being up on the roof. A set of tiles that obviously formed a hatch into some store-room or attendant's office on the top floor stood out from the others, and the lacquer was in slightly better repair, and the moss much thinner on the ground, within easy reach, but there were no loose tiles or marks that suggested a recent presence on the roof itself. The PCs knew at least one person - Jinzaburo, Jikai's yojimbo - had supposedly been up on the roof, but there was no indication he'd come much further than sticking his head out of the hatch.
      • Suiren had more or less decided the investigation was a bust, and started to make his way towards the hatch, when a loud wooden cracking noise drew his attention. He turned to look, and watched one of the shachihoko turn its head to look at him. Wooden eyelids opened to a dull glow.
        • "Okay.....that's....not normal...."
      • The shachihoko shivered and shook itself, and detached itself from the roof, curving round and 'swimming' towards the Shosuro.
        • "I think you should probably leave." - Horonigai's player
        • "We don't know it's necessarily going to attack." - Suiren's player
      • The shachihoko approached to within ten feet or so, speeding up. Its tiger's mouth spread open with a cracking, crunching noise, revealing rows of razor-edged teeth.
        • "Uh-huh. So.....you were right, I was wrong, and I feel now is the time for me to **** the heck off at some significant speed." - Suiren's player
        • "You see? Next time I say 'run', you run away first and you argue later !" - Horonigai's player
      • Unfortunately, the shachihoko was very close indeed and there was no obvious way to evade it - it was between him and the hatch, and trying to clamber down the plaster walls whilst being attacked by a flying adversary was firstly incredibly dangerous and secondly almost certain to draw the attention of the guards he'd avoided on the way up.
        • His backup plan was to use two more precious vials of Night Milk for Noxious Cloud . By the rules, success (which he managed handily) would leave the shachihoko poisoned - meaning it would suffer disoriented and prone - which felt a little wierd, but frankly Suiren was only using the technique in the hopes of triggering the opportunity to create an area of obscuring terrain.
        • The shachihoko did move up to attack in response, but a combination of air stance and obscuring terrain meant it had no realistic chance of hitting Suiren, and duly missed.
        • Suiren struck back - also missing - but using an opportunity to trigger Skulk . With Skulduggery 3, he was able to evade the angry guardian statue and scramble down the far side of the castle unmolested whilst it was still searching for him in the nooks and crannys of the roof.
      • Returning to the guest quarters, Suiren's first response was to rush to catch up with the other PCs and warn them what he'd encountered.
        • "No. Stay there, and tell our characters when we get back."
        • "Why?"
        • "You're compromised from the fitness checks so you look like you're on the edge of a nervous break down. You also escaped through a night milk cloud, so you and your clothes smell of opium. And in this state, you're going to burst into the daimyo's court insisting you've 'been attacked by a flying daemon-fish monster' when as far as they're concerned you've been in the guest quarters all night. I invite you to imagine how well that conversation would go."
        • "....Or alternatively, I could stay here, drink quite a lot of sake to steady my nerves, and tell your characters when you get back."
        • "Good shinobi. Stay ."
          • Suiren and Goriate's players.
  • With that, the magistrates arrived at the courtyard. Reju Jikai and Reju Tsugumasa, the magistrate, were waiting there, along with a stony-faced Miya Shinako and an impassive Mamoru Nakama. Various bushi and attendants also lurked on the outskirts of the courtyard.
    • The PCs waited for Rin.
      • And waited.
      • And waited.
    • After a few minutes, Otomo Nobu scurried in with a worried expression and spoke in a hurried fashion to Reju Tsugumasa
    • Tsugumasa - with an expression that was more angry than worried, went in turn to speak to Jikai.
      • " She's gone, isn't she? " - Horonigai's player
    • The daimyo - who appeared partly embarrased and partly furious - apologised to his guests and said that 'there had been a delay' and that if they had any other plans for the day, he did not want to detain them.
      • Shinako pretty much stormed out.
        • Worried that she was holding onto herself by her fingertips before the person responsible for her uncle's death was a no-show at her own seppuku, Horonigai followed.
        • She found the Miya samurai staring out across the dead garden, in floods of tears.
        • Horonigai tried to calm her - without, of course, drawing any attention to the fact that calming was needed. She promised that the magistrates would find out what had happened, and that Rin would be found.
          • "I have confidence that you will see the person immediately responsible for my Uncle's murder punished."
          • "....'immediately'?"
          • "Emon-san died because he was in the waystop at Twin Blessings Village when it was destroyed by one of Reju Jikai-sama's samurai."
          • "And he didn't order that. That doesn't make Emon-san's death his fault."
          • "He was travelling along that road in the first place to see me at Closed Shell Castle."
          • "That doesn't make it your fault either."
          • "I was here to see Reju Jikai-sama since he was sent here from the capital after the duel with Daidoji Gombei."
          • "That's still not his fault."
          • "No. The events leading up to the duel are my fault. As is, therefore, everything that proceeded from it."
          • "What....are you saying?"
        • Miya Shinako explained what had happened at Winter Court. She'd arranged to have a servant spook the horses, intending to leave Reju Jikai bruised, dirty, embarrassed, rattled and generally unable to compete in the poetry competition.
          • What hadn't been planned was for Daidoji Eiakasu to try and play hero - shove his teacher out of the way and attempt to wrangle the stampeding horse, and get trampled and lose the use of his arm for his trouble.
          • That in turn led to Gombei's challenge, Seppun Azusa being crippled, Jikai being sent to the relative obscurity of Closed Shell Castle and so on.
        • Horonigai was very hesitant around the Imperial samurai. She was still worried that Miya Shinako was going to do something stupid, especially now she understood the poet was mostly in the castle out of a sense of guilt.
          • She agreed to meet her later that day to talk and take tea later that afternoon - mostly to give her an arrangement she'd already agreed to attend to make sure she didn't decide to take her own life in a self-spiral of shame over the day.
          • Right now, I don't think she's decided what to do about Shinako. She's not said she's going to tell Jikai or, for that matter that she hasn't. I think the supernatural curses, scheming vassals and imminent violent peasant revolt rank rather higher on her 'to do' list and Shinako has slotted in at the "apply enough effort to keep her stable long enough to deal with the issue properly once things calm down" position.
      • Tsugumasa left a few moments later, heading towards the castle's holding cells, with Nobu not far behind him.
        • Uiri decided to follow the magistrate - on the (fairly obvious) assumption that Rin had escaped, he planned to offer his help hunting her down.
          • Not that he holds a grudge or anything.
        • Tsugumasa accepted his offer of help, and the two arrived at the cells together.
          • Nobu had already questioned the guard before reporting to Tsugumasa, and the Reju Magistrate confirmed that no-one had been into and out of the cell block for most of the night.
            • Reju Tsugumasa and Otomo Nobu had been there when Rin had been put in the cell.
            • Reju Masaru had attended not long after, as Rin's commanding officer.
            • Reju Toshio had attended shortly after that, as the priest responsible for offering Rin a blessing in advance of the ceremony the following morning.
            • The guard - a Reju samurai (Nobu had suggested pointedly using a Reju family bushi rather than one of the ronin in case Rin still had friends amongst them) had taken Rin her last meal about an hour later. At that time she'd been in her cell and everything had looked normal.
            • No-one had passed him - on what was the only entrance to the holding cells - for the rest of the night.
          • Uiri went to investigate the cell where Rin had been held. With a good air rank and skulduggery skill, plus the fact he was already sure it was there somewhere, he eventually located a trick panel, leading to a narrow tunnel.
            • He also found some crushed and burned feathers and flowers, which the PCs figured out were probably the aftermath of an invocation offering of some kind.
              • "Toshio?" "Toshio."
            • He followed the tunnel, and emerged into a small bracken-filled clearing just beyond the foot of the castle hill. At the entrance, he found a waxed cloth balled up - roughly the right size to form a waterproof wrap for a daisho - and, given the way something had munched on the taller bracken fronds, evidence that a horse had been left there.
              • Clearly someone had contrived to release Rin and provided her the tools to escape.
              • Uiri tried to ascertain which direction she'd left in, but it wasn't especially clear. He was confident she was riding roughtly south-east, which took her away from Hirosaka, Twin Blessings Village and the Scorpion Clan border, though.
      • Nakama went to speak to Jikai, and seemed to be calming the daimyo down.
        • Since the PCs have decided Mamoru Nakama is the con artist Haru, Goriate decided to get himself involved in the conversation.
          • It turned out Nakama and Jikai were talking about hunting. Aside from poetry, this was Reju Jikai's main passion, and the one benefit from his ownership of Closed Shell was the woodland territory he could (and did) now hunt in constantly.
          • This was the first time anyone had actually spoken to Nakama or seen him close up, and in addition to the gray kimono, goriate noted the sling supporting a wound to one forearm, and the well-cared for but very old sword (an antique dao rather than a 'modern' katana). The samurai was stand-offish but still had a lot of presence, and proved very persuasive.
          • Nakama had suggested the daimyo to go out on a hunting expedition later that day, as a way to take his mind off the castle's problems'.
          • Paranoid that this was part of some plot against the daimyo, Goriate persuaded Jikai to invite both himself and Uiri.
  • The hunting expedition started cordially enough, with Jikai - complete with Toppi, his prize falcon - Nakama, and Goriate and Uiri, both in travelling clothes and issued with loaned hunting spears, and two Reju family bushi guards, all on horseback.
    • Not long after they entered the woods, though, Jikai released Toppi, and the bird was suddenly struck down by an arrow loosed by an unknown assailant.
      • Jikai asked the two magistrates to retrieve the bird and find the archer - the two Reju samurai indicating that they planned to stick close by their master in case any further attack came.
      • Goriate had no luck finding either Toppi or the bowman, but Uiri did find the latter's trail, and managed to get ahead of them and cut them off, bursting through the forest and knocking the attacker down.
        • The attacker turned out to be one of the castle's ashigaru guards - which was interesting since amongst other things it raised the question of where his arrows had come from.
        • Uiri slung the unconscious prisoner unceremoniously over his horse and started to head back to Jikai and Nakama.
      • Goriate, meanwhile, continued to look for Toppi. He couldn't find the falcon, but did find tracks passing his position and heading in the direction of the Reju daimyo. It took him a moment to place them as wolf tracks.
        • It also occured that neither he nor Uiri were currently with the daimyo.
        • "Heading back! SPEED !!!"
    • By the time Goriate reached Jikai's position, the daimyo was surrounded by a snarling pack of seven wolves - the same ones that the PCs had encountered earlier, less their wounded, so far as Goriate could tell.
      • One of the bushi was dead. The other was on foot, trying to protect his lord - and his lord's horse - whilst Jikai tried to find a way out of the snarling circle of wolves. Nakama was nowhere to be seen.
      • Goriate charged in and with a handy fire stance yari strike, knocked one wolf out of the fight.
      • Two attacked Reju Jikai, causing a fair amount of fatigue and giving the daimyo bleeding .
      • Two others turned to attack the hida, failing to cause any fatigue but giving him bleeding .
      • The last two savaged the second Reju bushi, killing him.
    • Uiri arrived a round later, as - emerging from the forest nearby - was the great grey pack leader.
      • It was the same beast that had been with the pack on the road to Kawacho.
        • Horonigai's player registered what was going on first, even if she didn't understand it.
          • "Nakama isn't Haru.....He's....the wolf ?!?!"
      • "Get the daimyo out of here!" Uiri yelled, moving to attack the pack leader.
        • He delivered an impressive 8 fatigue, despite giant wolf's resistance and being in air stance, thanks to a string of explosive successes.
      • Goriate, meanwhile, moved to cover Jikai in water stance, guarding the Reju daimyo and using Crescent Moon Style to ready a retaliatiory swing at anyone who went for him.
      • Two of the wolves did, but were thwarted by the higher TN. One of them took a spear wound for its trouble, and limped away, whimpering in pain.
      • Then the pack leader attacked Uiri back, knocking off half his endurance, and leaving him bleeding and severely wounded (air) in one strike.
      • Seeing how much damage the wolf had done - and pointedly noticing that it had rolled a pool of nine dice in its strike action, the two bushi got the hint and tried to extricate themselves with water/survival horsemanship checks, calling on their bond for mutual assistance. With lucky rolls, they got clear, and - having left two wounded pack members behind them, the wolves didn't pursue far.
        • As they left the forest's edge, Jikai, Goriate and Uiri finally slowed from a mad gallop, and tried to gather themselves before returning to the castle...

• Meanwhile, Suiren and Horonigai compared noted. Suiren had calmed down a bit, and - doing his best to sound 'not insane' - described the monster that had attacked him on the roof to Horonigai.
• The two decided they were overdue a visit to talk to Reju Toshio.
  • The family shujenga was in his rooms, on one of the upper floors.
  • On the way there, they passed Otomo Nobu, with an ashigaru in tow - he'd left the cells before Uiri had found the tunnel, intending to begin a room-to-room search of the castle using the Otomo ashigaru (who knew the castle better than the recently arrived ronin and Reju samurai).
  • When they arrived, Toshio was preparing offerings to try and calm the elemental disturbance.
  • He didn't, he said, have much hope of it working. In his opinion, the cause of the disturbance was the castle itself - a vast artificial fortress, on an artificial hill, with its moat fed by an underground stream forcibly redirected for the purpose. Frankly, short of levelling Closed Shell Castle and starting again, Toshio thought it unlikely the effects could be reversed significantly.
    • He listened to Horonigai's claim of quieting the Kami in Twin Blessings Village (he kind of had to - she's an emerald magistrate and significantly socially superior to the vassal family samurai), but it was clear that whilst he was making supportive noises he wasn't impressed and felt what she'd actually done was a temporary fix at best.
    • When challenged as to what he'd done, he said he'd been primarily inspecting the walls - Closed Shell was so ridiculously over-fortified, by a general who'd been schooled at the capital, that it wasn't unlikely the fortifications contained wards and supernatural protections as well as simply physical earthworks. If so, and if one or more had collapsed or malfunctioned from to poor maintenance (due to no-one knowing they were there and no shujenga being here for years) that could well be the immediate cause.
    • When Horonigai mentioned the well, he dismissed it as servant's paranoia. Not that they probably weren't hearing something, but that it was far more likely to be a symptom than a cause.
      • "He's trying to talk us out of investigating the well, isn't he." "Yup." "So - that's where we're going next?" "Yup." - Suiren and Horonigai's players.
    • Overall, the two didn't really get anything especially useful out of Toshio. Both samurai were certain the shujenga was concealing something but weren't sure what. Horonigai also noted that a lot of the offering components Toshio had in his rooms seemed to be for air invocations, which was slightly at odds with the water and earth offerings he said he was preparing.
• On the way back down to the ground floor of the keep, the two PCs were swept up in a sudden hubbub - Jikai was back early from the hunt, and the daimyo had been attacked.
  • Horonigai and Suiren rushed out as well, seeing Reju Jikai - white as a sheet, but seemingly uninjured - along with a battered Goriate and a wounded Uiri.
    • Suiren checked over Uiri, providing first aid and stopping the bleeding, whilst Horonigai made sure the daimyo was unhurt before he was swept away by a group of reju guards and attendants, led by Reju Jinzaburo, his yojimbo (who'd been casually left behind as unneeded and was clearly shocked that his lord had nearly been killed).
  • The PCs compared notes, with the two bushi sharing their suspicions about Nakama and Horonigai and Suiren sharing what they'd discussed with Toshio.
• Uiri still had his prisoner, so resolved to drag him to Reju Tsugumasa, who promised to subject him to 'strenuous questioning'.
  • Whilst he was there, Tsugumasa confirmed that one of his bushi had followed the trail Uiri had found, and confirmed that Rin had headed south-east as far as he could follow her - she hadn't shown any signs of swinging back toward the castle. South-east most likely meant the holdings of the nearest other daimyo, Otomo Osamu.
    • "Whose half-brother she killed."
    • "Yes but Sorai doesn't know that. And Rin can honestly say Sorai's half-brother Emon is dead because of orders Reju Jikai gave. I feel he will be 'not pleased' by the news."
    • "Wonderful. I love this castle. Solve one problem and three more pop out of the woodwork."
    • "At least it's better than Winter Court; we actually get to hit things." - Uiri and Goriate's players.
• The other three descended into the kitchen cellars to go and investigate the well.
  • The cellars were dark and damp, and - as promised - haunting moaning noises echoed up the corridor from the room where the wellhead was.
  • As they approached, Horonigai started praying loudly, beginning an attempt to commune with the spirits.
  • It turned out the spirits wanted to commune rather more quickly, directly, and violently, as a skeletal figure clawed its way out of the well. It was surrounded by a vaguely humanoid glow, and ectoplasmic tendrils flowed from its limbs back into the well, jerkily controlling its movements in a way disturbingly similar to the puppet shows Suiren had been watching in Hirosaka.
    • Striking first, the figure - rather disturbingly - incapacitated Goriate in one strike action.
      • To be fair, he was on half his endurance after the fight with the wolves, and he was only in travelling clothes, not his armour. But still, putting him temporarily out of the fight before he even got a turn was a deeply unpleasant new experience.
    • Suiren responded by striking with his wakizashi (he was also not really armed for a fight), and - whilst he landed a critical strike - succeeded in damaging the edge of his sword against the resilient bones.
      • The effect was suitably impressive - the glow vanished, and the 'strings' shot back into the well. The bones fell to the floor, seperately.
    • Goriate meanwhile used a void point. His Fear of Corruption anxiety had been triggered by the monster (putting him distressingly close to compromised as well), but it did at least give him the means to use Warrior's Resolve to remove i ncapacitated .
    • Horonigai meanwhile approached the well itself.
    • The following turn, the bones didn't stir.
    • Suiren guarded Horonigai, whilst Goriate performed a calming breath.
    • Horonigai continued her cleansing rite, and was rather disturbed to see a shape - mostly consisting of multiple eyes, tentacles and beaks - swirling up through the water towards her. It reached past her with a quintet of tendrils, snatching up the bone 'puppet', which continued its attack - fortunately missing Horonigai.
      • Horonigai had registered her prayers were making it harder for the spirit to animate the bones effectively. Correctly suspecting the bones were those of the Otomo founder of the castle, she started to invoke the general by name and was rewarded with the animated skeleton's attacks becoming detectably less coordinated, as if the bones were fighting in the monster's grip.
    • Suiren struck at it again, causing only a little fatigue (limited by his damaged sword and the relatively weak damage of a wakazashi), before Goriate struck at it with the hunting spear he was still carrying.
    • An enormous chain of explosive successes and strife results put the monster within a hair of incapacitated - as well as compromising Goriate - but also landed another critical strike, scattering the bones again.
    • Horonigai continued to try and dislodge the spirit in the water with offerings to the kami and theology - which didn't go all that well. Still, it was obvious Otomo Nahoko's spirit was trying to resist its former skeleton being misused, and the monster struggled to try and reanimate the bones a third time.
    • Uiri finally arrived at this point, rushing towards the well and drawing his katana.
    • The samurai waited, taking calming breaths for a round, before the bones reanimated one last time and attacked. This time, the three armed samurai were ready for them, and whilst Goriate missed (being compromised), Uiri landed enough damage to incapacitate it and then Suiren used path of shadows to land a truly brutal critical strike and destroy it.
    • Screaming, the tentacled mass retreated into the water, fading out of existance as it did so. The water fell into the suddenly vacated space, splashing out into the room, whilst the bones collapsed to the floor.
  • "Oh, great. Maho-Cheaty-Bull-****" - Horonigai's player.

• The PCs saw to one another's injuries as best they could, whilst Horonigai performed a cleansing rite on the well.
  • On their way out of the cellars, the bushi let the kitchen attendants know that the well was now 'safe' and that it could be used to draw water - though it was clear from the servants response that they were essentially responding "sure...." and planned on still getting water from the moat unless someone forced them to do otherwise.
• Meanwhile, the PCs were left with a bit of time to themselves.
  • Suiren and Goriate decided to make use of the castle's armoury and smithy - Suiren's sword had become damaged in the fight, and he had no smithing skill himself. The Hida, on the other hand, managed not only to repair it and remove damaged , but to give the Scorpion's family wakizashi durable into the bargain.
    • "Try not to break it again next time." "Very well, I'll make a point of staying out of the fight and letting the next undead maho monstrosity eat your face unmolested, then." - Goriate and Suiren's players
  • Horonigai, with a moment of professional paranoia, took the opportunity to go back into the cellar and place a Threshold Barrier around the well, to try and keep any nasty spirits out. It hadn't - seemingly - worked in Willow Forge village, but that was no reason to ignore something that might help in theory.
  • Uiri went to talk to Reju Tsugumasa. The prisoner was awake and was being questioned - to be frank, was being 'worked over' - but had not given any indication of why he'd attacked the hunt, or who he was working for. The one thing they had managed to get out of him was that apparently the barrels of missing arrows had been moved to the undercroft of one of the derelict towers in the castle wall.
• Meeting up, the PCs decided to accompany Tsugumasa to report this good news to the daimyo - who they found in the main courtroom speaking to the newly-returned Mamoru Nakama, who had " gotten separated from them in the confusion of the attack, but had managed to avoid the wolves after they pursued the others ".
  • Uiri went with Tsugumasa to investigate the ruined tower. The arrows were there, as promised - in several large casks that would have taken a large number of people to move. This wasn't the work of some random malcontent but an effort organised by someone with the authority to do so. Which meant someone important was actively trying to undermine the castle's defences.
• Horonigai, meanwhile, invited Mamoru Nakama to 'take tea in private' - not wanting to have discussions about giant wolves in front of Reju Jikai. Goriate meanwhile secured a formal tea set with a courtesy requisition, and then lurked nearby whilst Suiren and Horonigai joined Nakama for the ceremony in case things got 'noisy'.
  • The ceremony went well, with the participants shedding a great deal of strife and picking up a void point to boot.
  • Afterwards, the PCs decided not to beat around the bush.
  • "So....how's the forearm?" Asked the Shosuro.
  • " Healing ." came a half-snarled response.
  • This wasn't an especially promising start, but fortunately Horonigai - who hadn't stabbed Nakama, and indeed pointedly had tried to communicate before - was able to continue the discussion in a more cordial manner.
    • Horonigai told him of her suspicions of his nature and reminded him of how she'd behaved when they'd first met on the way to Kawacho.
    • Nakama admitted what they suspected - that he was the pack leader, and yes, that he had proposed the hunt in the hopes of isolating and killing Jikai. The daimyo had been hunting continuously since his arrival - it seemed to be his only passion these days - and with the elemental imbalance the woods around Closed Shell Castle were short of prey to begin with. The pack were starving, and this was a move of desperation, which had failed. He reassured the PCs he had no plans to try again.
    • "The daimyo won't leave the castle again without a ring of steel that would slaughter the entire pack if they tried to reach him."
    • This wasn't, he said, his pack, but he had a responsibility to it - and he was 'stuck here', as yet another side effect of the imbalance was that the doorway to Chikushudo was currently sealed. Horonigai did promise to try and help - if the PCs could help undo the elemental imbalance, and help Jikai and his family reconnect, then the pressure on the wolves might be reduced, at least in the long term. With an impressive roll, Nakama was apparently convinced.
    • "Do you know....anything more about the imbalance?"
    • "The shujenga. I can smell something on him. I believe he is causing it - or at least he brought here whatever is ultimately causing it."
    • "We drove something off from the well under the castle."
    • "And it may have retreated elsewhere, such as the springs which feed the well, the moat, and much else nearby. I will investigate."
    • "Should we come with you?"
    • "No. If, and only if, you are needed, I will return and fetch you, and lead you there."
    • "What if you're killed?"
    • "I will be cautious."
    • "It's dangerous."
    • "I will be very cautious."
    • The PCs agreed.
      • "He really doesn't want us going there, does he?"
      • "Bet you that's where this doorway is. So no, I wouldn't want me knowing where it is either." Goriate and Horonigai's players.
  • At this point, the PCs more or less thought the discussion was done, but as he was leaving, apparently Nakama had one last hand grenade to drop - wolves being ones for honesty.
    • "You said, unknowingly, a thing which was not true."
    • "I'm sorry?"
    • "You said that you tried to communicate when we first met on the road through the forest."
    • "I.....did?"
    • "You did. But that was not the first time we met."
    • "So when was the first time?"
    • "When you were being carried from Closed Shell Castle many years ago as a newborn. I recognize your scent."
    • With that, he bowed and left the room. It took a few moments for Horonigai to process.

• "WHAT THE ACTUAL **** ??!?!?!!?!?!?" - Horonigai's player

2 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

• • "You said, unknowingly, a thing which was not true."
  • "I'm sorry?"
  • "You said that you tried to communicate when we first met on the road through the forest."
  • "I.....did?"
  • "You did. But that was not the first time we met."
  • "So when was the first time?"
  • "When you were being carried from Closed Shell Castle many years ago as a newborn. I recognize your scent."
  • With that, he bowed and left the room. It took a few moments for Horonigai to process.

• "WHAT THE ACTUAL **** ??!?!?!!?!?!?" - Horonigai's player

The plot didn’t so much thicken as it became a non-newtonian liquid 😂

1 hour ago, DSalazar said:

The plot didn’t so much thicken as it became a non-newtonian liquid 😂

Indeed. I seem to recall hearing an audible 'clang' noise.

On 12/7/2020 at 8:03 AM, DSalazar said:

The plot didn’t so much thicken as it became a non-newtonian liquid 😂

Love that analogy.

Incidentally, that reminds me of a project my father reviewed at the ISEF international science fair several years ago. The young researcher was experimenting with different materials for helmets, particularly hockey helmets. One of the most promising used a bladder and orifice through which a non-Newtonian fluid passed through when the helmet was hit, allowing it to be used multiple times. Now imagine Goriate wearing such a combat helmet.

5 hours ago, neilcell said:

Now imagine Goriate wearing such a combat helmet.

Since (like, I suspect, a lot of RPG players with access to the internet), Goriate's player and I are big fans of Journeyquest , the exchange "Have you taken many blows to the head?" "Hundreds!" has become pretty standard at our gaming table, especially given that he is (a) a bouncer and (b) plays in our county American Football team as a defensive lineman*.

* Obviously, Hida Goriate is not in any way a bit of a self-portrait.

9 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Since (like, I suspect, a lot of RPG players with access to the internet), Goriate's player and I are big fans of Journeyquest , the exchange "Have you taken many blows to the head?" "Hundreds!" has become pretty standard at our gaming table, especially given that he is (a) a bouncer and (b) plays in our county American Football team as a defensive lineman*.

* Obviously, Hida Goriate is not in any way a bit of a self-portrait.

Then you may or may not be interested to hear that the lady who did that project had the University of Michigan buy her entire helmet testing apparatus, but also gave her a full ride scholarship to include room and board for the entire 4 year course. They were so impressed that they wanted her to continue her experiments, and this was before the revelations about football and head trauma trends. Turns out that there is only one independent helmet testing facility and most of the manufacturers treat the data as proprietary information. So your athlete-gamer may want to keep tabs on the research coming out of Michigan.

• So.... after Nakama left with that particular mic drop, the PCs got something resembling a night's sleep.
• The following morning, they compared notes on their plans.
  • One thing that occurred was that whilst they assumed the apparently honest and competent magistrate Tsugumasa would have let the daimyo know about Rin's escape - specifically that she was helped by someone in the castle, the fact that she was heading to Otomo Osamu might not - since it was speculative. Critically, they hadn't told the daimyo they'd identified the dead Miya samurai as Osamu's half-brother.
  • "Yeah...we should...warn people...about that. This is the sort of thing that escalates."
• It was agreed that Goriate would discuss the matter with Reju Jikai himself. Surien and Horonigai would likewise talk to Otomo Niku, as Osamu's sort-of-ambassador-but-not in residence, to try and gauge the neighbouring daimyo's likely reaction. Uiri, meanwhile, was absenting himself from the 'diplomatic rubbish' and going to give Seppun Azusa and Reju Ume a sword class, trying to show the latter some of the fundamentals of niten , whilst teaching the former to use a sword in what was formally her off-hand with confidence.
  • Goriate's meeting with the daimyo didn't go that well. Reju Jikai did grasp the risk of the situation, and ordered the castle guard stood to, 'just in case', but Otomo Toshio convinced the daimyo that any assistance must have come from other ronin in the castle - worth investigating, certainly, but not with any special priority now Rin had fled. The possibility that she might have fled to Otomo Osamu's lands were dismissed - she had no friends, authority or travel papers, so would be lucky not to be arrested if she did so.
    • Nobu, surprisingly, was nowhere to be seen
    • He did also find out that Reju Tsugumasa had already left the castle for Twin Blessings Village, to investigate further how Setsuo was progressing with the tax harvest.
  • Horonigai and Suiren were to swiftly find out where Nobu had gone. As they approached Niko's rooms, they heard the sound of raised voices - which Suiren's sharp ears determined were one scared - male - voice, and one angry - female - one. They waited and watched, and saw a rather nervous looking Otomo Nobu let himself out and scurry away, before going to speak to Osamu's representative.
    • Niko was as evasive as a seasoned courtier could be expected to be, but she was - very diplomatically - extremely critical of Reju Jikai's management of his lands.
    • The PCs came away with a distinct impression that whilst they'd previously thought the steward Nobu was behind everything, it seemed quite possible that he was in turn working for Niko . Whether Niko was acting at Osamu's orders or out of her own ambition was unknown, but it put a different spin on things if the neighbouring - and much richer and more powerful - daimyo might be backing the plot against Jikai.
    • One thing that did seem to be a nasty surprise to her was Miya Emon's identity.
  • Uiri's niten class went pretty well - Ume may be Kakita-trained, but she's a competent swordsman and picked up the basic ideas quickly enough. More importantly, her aunt seemed to be grasping the idea of using a wakizashi-sized bokken in her opposite hand with a confidence that (Ume later confided) she hadn't seen in her since she was crippled at Winter Court.
• So far, the morning seemed to be going acceptably well. The PCs met up to compare notes in their rooms, when - after a few minutes - Reju Ume suddenly materialised at their door.
  • Apparently a messenger had returned from Reju Tsugumasa in Twin Blessings Village. Not only was the tax harvest not ready despite the delay, but the warehouse had been emptied, along with the village tool store, and most of the village population had vanished into the nearby woods.
  • He had questioned some of the older villagers who were still there and had been told that the unrest was largely due to the influence of the Perfect Lands Sect, supposedly brought by the Brotherhood of Shinsei.
  • Jikai - possibly being poked by Nobu - was incandescently angry, and had ordered the Shinseist monk Michi flung into the castle's jails and questioned, and samurai sent to chase down the villagers.
  • Azusa, Ume's aunt and his wife - the devoted Shinseist convert - had just been told and was storming towards the court hall, every bit as angry as her husband at his cavalier treatment of a holy man.
  • The PCs left - Horonigai to try and calm Reju Jikai, Suiren to try and calm Seppun Azusa, and the two bushi taking off at a run towards the cells....

• Goriate and Uiri arrived first, rushing into the cells to see what was going on.
  • The first thing they noticed was that the cells were being manned by ronin, not reju bushi, which was a change from the last time Uiri had visited.
  • They demanded to see Michi. The monk was locked in a cell (not, they noted, the one with the secret tunnel) and was covered in bruises and cuts, having been beaten within an inch of his life. The three ronin present were quite open that they weren't 'questioning' him so much as 'keeping kicking him until he confessed'.
  • Uiri ordered them to stand down and let them see to Michi's injuries - thanks to Voice of Authority , two complied, but the third didn't, and was on the verge of drawing on them.
  • Goriate stepped forwards.
    • The Hida - who got the initiative - chose to use Improvised Assault , spotting a pair of iron manacles linked by a heavy chain on a shelf by the cell doors.
    • "You really shouldn't harm a shinseist monk. It's very bad luck; supposedly it causes your teeth to fall out."
    • "What?"
    • Having rolled enough opportunities to get a free strike with his improvised otsuchi, Goriate proceeded to....demonstrate.
    • "It's also bad luck, whilst we're on the subject, not to follow an Emerald Magistrate's orders. Now stay down ."
    • "Mynhnngmff..."
    • "You'll live."
  • The cells fairly quickly filled with other guards, and matters might have turned uglier had one of the samurai arriving to investigate the disturbance not been Reju Tsugumasa. He wasn't especially impressed with the PCs beating one of the castle guards to a pulp, but he was even less impressed with the ronin taking it on themselves to torture a prisoner without his orders, especially since they'd nearly killed the monk.
• Meanwhile Suiren and Horonigai tried to head off the explosion between the daimyo and his wife. This....didn't go well.
  • Horonigai found Reju Jikai in the court, fuming, with Otomo Nobu and his henchmen, Reju Toshio and Reju Masaru doing little to calm him down.
    • One thing she noticed was that the Reju bushi she'd normally expect to see lining the walls had, aside from Jikai's yojimbo, been replaced by Otomo ashigaru and ronin. Apparently, Nobu had prevailled on Jikai to use the Reju family bushi for the pursuit force sent into the woods - they were the best trained, and best equipped, so it made sense for them to be used for a critical task. Added to an increased number of bushi manning the castle's walls, and the ones accompanying Reju Tsugumasa to the village, and most security duties inside the castle had been turned over to Nobu's men.
    • Horonigai tried to calm the daimyo - and failed. The Kaito has pretty wide-ranging skills, but courtier-like diplomacy isn't one of them.
  • Suiren and Ume intercepted Seppun Azusa en route, and tried to talk her down, but also failed. In this case it was just Suiren's courtesy dice pool flat-out not co-operating, even with assistance from Ume.
  • With neither party mollified in the slightest, the daimyo's wife stormed into the court and the couple essentially started a full-blown domestic, despite the impropriety of doing so in front of their court, with Suiren, Ume, Horonigai, Nobu, Toshio, Masaru and Jinzaburo all trying to find somewhere else to look.
  • It was at this point that Mamoru Nakama returned - Horonigai happy to find someone to talk to about other subjects.
    • Nakama confirmed that the thing they'd driven out of the well had indeed retreated to the 'springs' - and that therefore he'd be willing to show them where it was. It was badly wounded, and not going anywhere, so (fortunately) there wasn't much of a rush. He honestly thought he could have killed it alone, but he'd promised to be cautious.
    • "You have a larger and more urgent problem." He said. "Whilst passing through the woods, I came across the tracks of many people - soldiers and villagers alike - marching on the castle. They will be here soon - possibly as little as an hour or two."
    • ".....oh."

• This session was the resolution of the main Sins of Regret storyline, and the Battle of Closed Shell Castle.
• There was, interestingly, no debate between the PCs - compared to what happened at Shiro Kyotei or Shiro Usagi, no-one even suggested attempts to mediate or remain neutral. To be fair, with the Reju being an Otomo vassal family, and Closed Shell officialy one of their holdings, this was effectively an internal Otomo matter.
• The PCs decided to support the Reju's defence.
• Suiren decided to go and scout the approaching army - in company of Nakama - and potential set an ambush along with the wolves.
• It took some negotiation (essentially " didn't you stab him? "). Fortunately, they managed to persuade Nakama to participate - in return for their help cleansing the springs and ensuring Jikai's hunting was controlled.
• Suiren found a decent ambush site, where the wolf pack could hide and made a close reckon of the enemy army.
• He was able to confirm it was Otomo Osamu's army, though the daimyo himself wasn't present. Otomo Kazumi, one of his commanders, was leading it in his stead. She was, the PCs recalled, noted as a promising, intellectual commander, but was so far untested in battle.
• Accompanying them was a large mob of rioting peasants from Twin Blessings Village, lead by Natsumi.
• Goriate went to coordinate the troops defending the walls, and pick out any obvious weak spots.
• The two key weak points were the main gate - it would need extended ramming to breach but was still vulnerable compared to the walls - and the ruined tower, which was intact enough to defend but would be hard to move troops into and through if it came under direct attack.
• Uiri and Horonigai stayed in Jikai's court to try and talk Jikai into giving them battlefield commands. They didn't trust Nobu, and that means they didn't trust Reju Masaru, the taisa. Unfortunately, they failed - Nobu being a detectably better courtier.
• They decided Uiri should stick to Reju Ume (Since there was no way she would stay off the front line), whilst Horonigai should stick with the daimyo, his wife and Yojimbo in the court in case something kicked off.

Okay, so how did the battle go?

• The opening round was 'too quiet', as Goriate put it.
• Kazumi's army deployed along most of the southern an eastern sides of the castle, but aside from rallying to support the vanguard, didn't actually launch any assaults. The peasants formed the southwestern end of the line, putting them closest to Suiren's ambush - probably for the best as the heimin would be most likely to break and run.
• Ume (and Uiri) aimed to rally the troops, providing assistance to Goriate.
• Goriate - who'd not been given any official authority by the Reju - had nonetheless made himself defacto commander around the main gate as the ronin, at least, were prepared to be pragmatic: when there is a wall needing defending you listen to the Hida . One reinforce action later, and the area around gate was as secure as he could make it.
• Suiren and Nakama launched a series of hit and run attacks, inflicting a fair amount if panic and fatigue on the desperate villagers. Suiren lacks both command and tactics, but does have air rank 4, and had skilled assistance from Nakama, so was doing pretty well.
• Horonigai stayed in the court, trying to be ready if things kicked off, and wondering where Nobu was. Out of paranoia, she did augment an arrow with Howl of Isora in case a skirmish kicked off locally.
• The second round started with one of Kazumi's cohort commanders launching an assault on the castle gates - which swung open as the Otomo approached.
• " I'm sorry, you said what?!?! " - Goriate's player.
• Fortunately, with the assisted reinforce action from last round, Goriate has managed to up the TN enough that the assault just failed, and fighting broke out across the line of the gate as both sides tried to pour reinforcements in.
• An attempted assault by the villagers to drive Suiren and Nakama's forces off also failed thanks to the TN increases from air stance and obscuring terrain. Suiren in turn took the opportunity to slip through the chaos of the fight and kill Natsumi (we used a challenge action modified to use the Skulduggery skill to trigger the clash).
• Goriate launched a counter-attack with the reserves - less the squad of ronin who should have been in the gatehouse and unsurprisingly had either defected or deserted after their actions. With a solid success, the ronin started to push the Otomo back.
• The fight tipped even further when Ume and the Reju bushi joined the fight. Uiri took the opportunity to issue a challenge action, and brought down the Loyal Bushi commanding the Otomo vanguard. Battered and leaderless, Kazumi's first assault fell back and the gates were secured.
• At this point - unaware that the gates had held - Nobu launched his coup attempt, with Nobu, To Toshio and a group of ronin bursting into Reju Jikai's court. Many of the ronin already in the court turned coat and attacked their neighbours, and ultimately Horonigai, Reju Jinzaburo and Seppun Azusa were the Daimyo's only effective line of defence.
• Goriate guessed - correctly - that having blown her nasty surprise, Otomo Kazumi would launch a follow up attack elsewhere, hoping to break in before reserves could be shifted - most likely at the ruined tower.
• Goriate moved over to reinforce the tower, and once again was able to raise the TN such that Kazumi's surviving cohort commander failed to make any impression.
• Suiren and Nakama launched a final all-out attack on the village peasants, panicking them into flight, and garuanteeing local legends that Closed Shell was guarded by 'daemon wolves' would be springing up within a generation.
• Ume and Uiri were an route to the ruined tower to assist Goriate when Uiri heard the unmistakable sound of a magically induced temporary indoor hurricane.
• He and Ume rushed to investigate, and found Horonigai and Jinzaburo holding off several ronin trying to reach Jikai.
• Horonigai had put one down with her daikyu but the fight was now up close and personal, and however good a brawler the shrine keeper was she wasn't going to stop an opponent with a sword.
• Jinzaburo- with Azusa's assistance - was holding off two other ronin, and Ume engaged a third, leaving Uiri to sprint across the court to save the Kaito.
• He took some fatigue from tremors caused by Toshio, but managed to incapacitate the ronin attacking Horonigai before the ronin could in turn attack the incapacitated Phoenix.
• Horonigai followed this up with an impressive daikyu shot - rolling enough opportunities with void 4/ranged 3 to ignore incapacitated herself and land enough fatigue to incapacitate Reju Toshio. One of the loyalist ronin put him down swiftly after.
• Otomo Nobu, seeing his 'coup' falling apart in front of him - and receiving word that Otomo Kazumi had failed to take the gates - turned tail and fled into the castle keep, with Uiri in hot pursuit.

7 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

• An attempted assault by the villagers to drive Suiren and Nakama's forces off also failed thanks to the TN increases from air stance and obscuring terrain. Suiren in turn took the opportunity to slip through the chaos of the fight and kill Natsumi (we used a challenge action modified to use the Skulduggery skill to trigger the clash).

Just being nitpicky, but Air Stance only increases the TN of attacks and schemes targeting YOU, not your cohort. Again, proving that Stance wise ALONE, the only ones worth taking in Mass Combat are Fire and Void.

7 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

• Suiren and Nakama launched a final all-out attack on the village peasants, panicking them into flight, and guaranteeing(sic) local legends that Closed Shell was guarded by 'daemon wolves' would be springing up within a generation.

No doubt the scorpion was wearing a wolf mask at the time to further enforce the legend.

If you're being nitpicky - no stances do anything in mass battles. In Intrigues and Skirmishes the game calls out stances as providing a passive benefit. (Of course not in a consistent fashion 🤦‍♀️ )
In Intrigues, they "provide their default benefit", in duels they're at least mentioned in a full paragraph (but no mention of benefits) and while in skirmishes they only rate a sidebar, they "grant a helpful passive benefit". In Mass Battles, they also get a sidebar, but no mention of benefits.

So... they work in Intrigues and Skirmishes, but not Duels and Mass Battles?

Or we treat "targeting you" as also covering cohorts, because that's the relatively obvious interpretation of the rules; especially by way of the "default" mentioned in intrigues, implying that the benefits can and should be modified as necessary. Not least due to "For the purposes of identification, targeting, and effects, each cohort is defined by its leader."

Core, page 251

Quote

In addition to determining which ring a character uses for the action they perform during Step 3: Per-form Action and for any other checks they make while in that stance, each stance confers a passive benefit during a conflict, described in Table 6–1: Stances.

Last I checked, Duels and Mass Combats are conflicts, so you have your answer there. And again, this book is horribly organized with related information being spread all over the place.
But sure, okay, we could do that and consider stances affecting your cohort as well, but that would still leave Earth and Water providing no stance benefits because there are no Conditions applied to cohorts and there’s no mass combat action where you don’t roll dice (yet?)

And that was one of the things I liked about stances because some time you will want to choose a particular stance because of its bonus instead of necessarily being your best Ring, in Mass Combats, unless your Void and Fire really suck, they are still the best choices.

Right, but specific overrides general, and stances are called out as having benefits in Intrigues and Skirmishes and not so for Duels and Mass Battles. So again, if you're trying to read the book in the nitpicky style, the lack of consistent templating breaks the game horribly. Go with what's intended and the stances totally work, as does Air stance.
Earth Stance will still prevent you from being Immobilized for example, because again: Things target your leader, and affect your cohort, as " For the purposes of identification, targeting, and effects, each cohort is defined by its leader."
Water stance is still the weakest in Mass Battles, yes.
And sure, if Bonus Successes matter at all, Fire stance is always very very strong, and Void in general is strong - this is not very specific to Mass Battles, although it's exacerbated there, due to the amount of things scaling off of bonus successes. FYI: if you cap Fire stance at a maximum of +2, it's still useful, but not as broken, particularly in Intrigues.

Honestly, they should've taken the idea they clearly had during the Intrigue section and made stance bonuses change depending on the type of conflict. (Intrigues call the stance bonuses out as the "default effect". Clearly, there can be alternative benefits, then. Except... there aren't any in any of the books...)

Is there a shuji that imobilizes a character? Otherwise, I am finding a hard time how you can imobilize the leader of a cohort (and thus the entire cohort) without a kata.

Why do you think that's necessary? Quite apart from the fact that I can try to pin down your cohort without using a specific technique (remember, techniques are there to make things easier/faster/combine effects) I can use a Snaring weapon on you just fine, by RAW 😄

But no, I don't know of any shūji that could do it.

8 hours ago, Myrion said:

Why do you think that's necessary? Quite apart from the fact that I can try to pin down your cohort without using a specific technique (remember, techniques are there to make things easier/faster/combine effects) I can use a Snaring weapon on you just fine, by RAW 😄

But no, I don't know of any shūji that could do it.

Not in a mass battle. Because you don’t roll for martial arts attacks. Unless of course you challenged someone and used a snaring weapon I guess, but again. That goes to show how stupid the mass combat rules are if a roughly 1 hour combat can put an entire platoon/brigade/squad pinned down because the leader of it was challenged by someone using their fists...

So - after a somewhat boring morning of control-x and control-v, salient bits of this thread are now here:

https://rpggeek.com/thread/2564161/5th-edition-campaign-notes

updates will be on rpggeek from now on, in advance of the forum shutdown. I'll probably ping the discord when it gets updated so people know - we usually manage one session a week, but sometimes I don't finish getting it typed up till the following week.

Thanks to everyone for the interest, advice and commentary! It's been very, very welcome and please continue.