Hi there,

I have led a L5R 5th campaign for a couple of month (I am an experienced RPG GM, but this is my first L5R).
Since we have just reached the end of Season One, I thought I might share it with you, in case someone wants to utilize it for their own campaign.
Alternatively, you can scroll down to Side Quests and see if you can't take one or two into your own campaigns.

CAMPAIGN: A TOWN CALLED KAMI'S REST
The concept: The PCs are Emerald Magistrates sent to bring some order to a frontier town (think the Deadwood TV series), where they have to deal with the local government unhappy with Emerald Magistrates interference as well as various shady characters, hidden secrets, magical creatures etc.
The PCs have the order to help and support the populace in the name of the emperor and to prosecute any serious crime, while also respecting the jurisdiction of the Scorpion daimyo, a quixotic order that will be difficult to follow.
My concept is a memorable location, an overarcing story arc and a focus on a variety of "side quests", similar to how a modern computer RPG such as the witcher would approach it. The overarcing story only reveals itself piecemeal through the side quests. The players do not really know what The Story is in the beginning.

THE LOCATION "KAMI'S REST":
The town in question is Kami's Rest, a settlement on the northernwestern beach of the lake of Cherry Blossom Snow, opposite Maemikake, on the southern end of the Shinomen Forest, right where the small river enters the lake.
While the lake borders it on the southern and and the river on the eastern end, the northern and western sides are regular forest for a mile or two, before the giant trees of the Shinomen begin. NO ONE enters the Shinomen, the newcomers are told.
About 500 people live in Kami's Rest, 50 among them samurai. The economy relies on fishing, woodcutting and some agriculture in fields cleared of trees.
Kami's Rest is build on an area of hot springs that perpetually shroud the village in mist. It is said that a dragon sleeps below the village and heats up the ground water, hence the name. It has great bath houses due to the hot springs that are great to trade gossip, especially with non-samurai.
It is governed by a disgraced former courtier of the Scorpion clan named Bayushi Yoroshi, or "the daimyo" in the village. He has grown old and bitter and has gathered a court of rather shady individuals with whom he holds pale imitations of the courts of his glory days. Thus, Kami's Rest is a good place for samurai fleeing from problems elsewhere. The court feasts are held each evening and are a good place for gossip with samurai.
There is a mystery about Kami's Rest: It was founded 120 years ago, but 50 years ago, every citizen vanished without a trace. Meals still on tables, pots still cooking, this disappearance has never been solved, and the village was abandoned and has only been resettled 2 years ago.
That is why there are an abundance of unused buildings: The population was larger before the disappearance. It also explains why it is still a "frontier town" while clearly in Rokugan: The hostile Shinomen Forest in conjunction with the mystery has kept civilisation away.

A few quirks of Kami's Rest:
- Kami's Rest is build on a low hill, starting with the poor fisher's quarter at the lake and with higher elevation meaning more importance. The Daimyos castle rests on top of the hill.
- It is not allowed to burn corpses in Kami's Rest. If someone dies, he gets all the usual rites on a funeral pyre, but the pyre is not lit; after the ceremony, the body is instead taken to the Hare Clan Castle in the east for incineration. The reasoning is that it would be a bad idea to feed the dragon human flesh, lest he learns to like the taste.
- There is a small wood in the west surrounded by cleared fields. The daimyo has forbidden anyone from entering the wood, and sentries patrol the edge (see Sidequests below).
- The wood northeast of the castle is forbidden as well, because it is haunted by the Black Man (see Sidequests below).

NPCs:
These are a number of NPC the PCs meet either at the daimyos court or in Kami's Rest itself. They offer hooks for interactions and are supposed to flesh out the setting, but should not take the spotlight from the PCs. Only a few are directly tied to quests, some are just to offer unplanned interactions. I have given each demeanor modifiers (e.g. [E-2, F+2] means that all Earth ring social skill interactions have their TN lowered by 2, all Fire ring interactions have their TN raised by 2), plus stats and a preferred combat tactic, in case a PC gets into a duel with one or some other development. Assume a ring not mentioned to be of rank 2.
- Bayushi Yoroshi, Scorpion Daimyo and Magistrate of Kami’s Rest. Uses the Wicked Maho-Tsukai stats from the Core Rulebook. More on him below in the Main Quest.
- Hida Inu, Last of the 77 Heroes. His story: A year ago, a tunnel opened way behind the Kaiu Wall and a troop of shadowland creatures attacked a Crab clan village from within. When the Crab warriors defeated the attackers, it was found that some of them had abducted about 50 villagers through the tunnel into the shadowlands. Since following them would lead the Crab deep into the Shadowlands, only volunteers were allowed. 77 volunteered, since known as the 77 Heroes. 4 month later, only Hida Inu emerged from the Shadowlands, carrying 3 children of the village.
This heroic story has a dark ending, however: The three children where severely tainted and had to be killed. Inu's affliction could be healed, but not the scars on his soul and spirit. He became prone to berserker-like rages and was a threat to his companions on the wall, so he was sent away, and came to Kami's Rest. He slowly drinks himself to death, unless someone duels him first or alternatively shows him the meaning of honor and sacrifice again.
[E-2, V+2]. Hida Defender: Earth 4, Fire 3; End 14, Com 12, Foc 5, Vig 2; Tetsubo (dam 7, dls 3); Crimson Leaves Strike kata, Striking as Earth kata.
- Asahina Kitzune, the Red Widow. A red-haired Crane who, ironically for an Asahina, is fascinated with combat. She was supposed to marry an older Lion clan duelist in an effort to improve clan relations, but the Lion vanished in their wedding night without a trace. Rumor says that she ate him like a spider (hence "the red widow", the rokugani equivalent of a black widow), but nothing was proven. She was sent here to be away from the Lion clan's hatred. She is VERY bored and has decided to find the ART in martial arts, training hard all day and always looking for diversions.
Asahina Artificier: [W-2, F+2], Air 4, Fire 3; End 10, Com 8, Foc 7, Vig 3; Katana of Fire (2 free Opportunities for Kusari-Gama-shape as whip, flaming), Coiling Serpent Style kata.
- Kuni Jei, the Inquisitor. Little is known about him, and few want to know anything. Speaks always in a whisper and lives in a house without any furniture, talks about how the gods show him the wicked. Everyone in the village gives him a wide berth. If he thinks someone may use maho, he will attack and kill them without hesitation.
Kuni Purifier: [F-2, A+2]. Earth 4, Water 3; End 12, Com 14, Foc 4, Vig 3; Armor of Stone, Tetsubo of Earth, Crescent Moon Style kata.
- Hiruma Ando, the War Criminal . His story: Ando comes from a Crab village on the border to both the Unicorn lands and the Burning Sands. His village was conquered by a Burning Sands tribe, and the Crab could not spare the troups to conquer it back. So Ando defected to the Unicorn Clan, was given a small troop of Ronin and used them to reconquer the village for the Unicorn using guerilla tactics, arson etc. His plan worked, but cost the life of over a hundred heimin. The crab see him as a war criminal, but since technically the dead were gaijin (the village was in gaijin hands at the time, after all), he was not convicted. Ando gives Inu a wide berth.
Hiruma Scout: [F-2, W+2]. Water 4, Air 3; End 8, Com 12, Foc 5, Vig 4; Bo (dam 6, dls 2), Iron Forest Style kata.
- Tanto, fanatical duelist . Tanto is on Musha Shugyo, a warrior's pilgrimage, and will do anything to duel with others, to the death. He is known to have killed a dozen opponents in duels, and will pounce on any words spoken than can be perceived as a sleight.
Mirumoto Taoist Blade: [V-2, F+2]. Fire 4, Air 3; End 12, Com 8, Foc 6, Vig 3; Flame Fist Katana (dam 4, dls 8), Crescent Moon Style, Heartpiercing Strike.
- Soshi Kumo, man-hating sorceress. A radiant beauty with always perfect hair, make-up and dress, Kumo uses illusions to appear as a beautiful young woman, when in reality she is middle-aged and her face hideously disfigured by acid, from an attack by a rejected suitor in her youth. Kumo is full of hatred for men and wants to form alliances with female characters against the patriarchy.
Soshi Illusionist: [A-2, E+2]. Fire 4, Air 3; End 12, Com 8, Foc 7, Vig 3; Call upon the Wind (to fly out of melee range), The Fires from Within.
- Mizu no Koi, swaggering pirate : The Mantis are sometimes said to be pirates, and Mizu no Koi, the Fish out of Water, could be the archetype of that image. Because the clan tries to advance its political agenda, they sent this problematic figure away where he would be less likely to embarrass them. Koi will try to secuce any woman he meets, brawl and drink and sing. This may make people overlook that he is also a deadly archer.
Mantis Storm Fleet Sailor. [F-2, W+2]. Water 4, Fire 3; End 10, Com 12, Foc 5, Vig 3; Horsebow with Flesh-Cutter arrows, Heartpiercing Strike Style kata, Pelting Hail Style kata, Crescent Moon Style kata.
- Rikishi, the healer : In his younger years, Isawa Ishido was an arrogant shugenja who, with two friends, slew a samurai in a drunken brawl. He has since left that life behind, becoming a monk named Rikishi and selflessly helping anyone in need with his healing invocations. His pasts may soon catch up with him, though.
Rikishi, Isawa Elementalist, [V-2, F+2], Water 4, Earth 3, End 10, Com 12, Foc 4, Vig 3, does not fight, Inari’s Blessing, Path to Inner Peace, Jurojin’s Balm.

SIDE QUESTS :
These are things the PCs can do in Kami's Rest. They have to hear about the problem through rumors or perhaps a villager will come up to them and tell them. Some of these quests point toward the overarching story quests below.
- THE VENDETTA (with thanks to Stan Sakai's Usagi Jojimbo): On their way to Kami's Rest, days before they arrive there, the PCs come upon a skirmish in progress: A well-dressed samurai with a headband fights against two dirty ronin, visibly winning. On his headband written is the word Vendetta. A government TN 2 check tells the PC that this means he is on an official vendetta sanctioned by the Emerald Magistrate, allowed to hunt down and kill certain convicts sentenced to death. If they intervene, he will show them his documentation with the pictures of three men, two if which actually look like younger versions of the two ronin. If the PCs do not intervene or step back after questioning him, he will kill the two, thank the PCs, and continue his quest for the last killer.
The samurai is Kakita Akira, a former great painter whose father was slain ten years ago by three young guests in his home: Shiba Takaro, Kaito Sawa and Isawa Ishido. The three escaped after the deed and were sentenced in absentia. Akira hung up the brush and fanatically trained the sword instead and, after mastering the blade, started looking for his fathers killers. The two ronin are the former two, living as bandits. the latter one now is the healer of Kami's Rest, Rikishi. Some game sessions after the PCs have come to Kami's Rest, when Rikishi has been helpful to them in their quests, Akira will appear in Kami's Rest and call out Isawa Ishido. Rikishi will face him unarmed and will not defend himself, and if the PCs do not intervene, will be slain by Akira. If the PCs try to negotiate with Akira, keep in mind that this is the culmination of a ten-year-quest for him, so it should not be easy. But he may be convinced that the man he hunts is already dead, and that this is another man now, just living in the same body.
- THE KAPPA : A kappa, a magical water creature looking like a humanoid turtle with a bowl-shaped bone crest on his head filled with water, lives in the lake. The fishers have mostly been inconvenienced by it in the past, when it took hold of their boats from below and only let go after they gave him fishes. But recently he took hold of a boat and demanded children (the fisher had two of his young sons in his boat). The fisher was smart and lucky enough to have caught a pregnant fish, and after throwing the fish eggs overboard, the kappa let go. But the fishers are scared now. They had asked Hida Inu for help, who called out the kappa and fought him, but his strikes just bounced off the kappa, that, standing knee-deep in water, his him once, crushing his laquered armor and throwing him a dozen yards back into a fisher's hut.
The PCs should realize that just fighting the kappa is not going to work. Culture TN 4 rolls or speaking to the viollage healer Rikishi will tell them that a kappa is very powerful as long as he has contact with water (Both Resistances 6, Earth & Water Ring 6). If they want to fight him, they have to lure him out of the water. But as he carries water in his head bowl, that alone will not suffice. If he is given the prone or immobilized condition or pushed at least 2 range bands, he will spill the water and become quite weak. Alternatively, he might be reasoned with, a deal offering him daily presents of cake in exchange of him not threatening the fishers will be accepted.
(When the players deal with this quest, they also hear that Hida Inus armor could not be repaired, so the hole in it was just covered with laquer. If they know that, Inus armor counts as resistance 2 instead of 4, should they fight with him, as they know where to hit.)
- THE BLACK MAN : Noone enters the forest part directly northeast of the castle, for this is where the Black Man haunts. He is described as a spirit looking like samurai in dueling clothes that attacks anyone there. Detailed inquiries reveal that a year ago, a terminally ill Kakita samurai stumbled into the village on his way to the Kaiu Wall. Rikishi treated him, but saw that his cancer was too advanced to heal. When Rikishi was out, the samurai left his bed and vanished into the woods.
The black man is a famous Kakita duelist that swore he would die in a duel, but was killed by sickness instead in the woods. He can only be laid to rest by engaging him in a one-on-one duel. Killing him in a skirmish only banishes him for an day (the daimyo's soldiers have tried). If he is bested in a duel, he will vanish, leaving behind his Kakita pattern katana (Shadowlands rulebook).
- THE FORBIDDEN FOREST : The forbitten forest west of Kami's Rest contains a large opium plantation field. While the Scorpion are allowed to grow opium and the Daimyo, if shown evidence, will claim the security is just to keep villagers from stealing and becoming addicted, the daimyo doesn't really have his clans permission to grwo opium. That knowledge can be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations with him. The real reason for the security and field is to keep people away from the Giver of Gifts.
- THE GIVER OF GIFTS : West of the forbidden forest, inside the area of the real Shinomen Forest, is a hill with a cave where a shadow of a man can be seen against a wall. When talked to, he calls himself the Giver of Gifts. If asked for a gift, he snaps his fingers, and the asker suddenly knows the Spiritual Shackles maho spell (Shadowlands rulebook). If asked whom else he has given gifts, he will say that he gave the last one to Yoroshi (the Daimyo), but will not say which one. The gifts of the Giver are always double-edged: The maho spell, if cast on a spirit against its will, will automatically cause the Afflicted condition in the caster, and Kuni Jei will attack that person on sight. Used with a spirits permission (e.g. the tree spirit below), this will not be the case, in this case it does not count as Maho.
The giver of gifts can't be attacked, as he is the spirt of the whole hill, and the shadow is just an illusion. He also cannot be bound by his own spell.
- THE TROLL : Two bridges cross the river flowing from the Shinomen Forest into the lake, one at Kami's Rest and one further north, beyond the little lake. That bridge can't be used, because a troll lives under it and demands a toll from anyone who wants to cross. The troll can be fought or riddled with, in the latter case, solving its riddle means he won't demand a toll for a year and a day, not solving it means you have to pay him a koku for each head in the party.
If talked to, it is obvious that a) the troll is female, b) it is very old and c) while pretty demented, it sometimes mentiones people from Kami's Rest who do not live there, like priest Shobo and Daimyo Ahito. When the PCs ask around in the town, they find out that those are people who lived here before the great vanishing 50 years ago. Patiently talking to the troll may reveal its backstory, mostly forgotten even by her: She was a regular human woman, mistreated by the men of the village. The Giver of Gifts gave her a ritual where when you kill a man during sex and eat his heart, the Ladies of the Forest come to break the rule of men (see Main Story 2 below). She did the ritual, but when she saw what she had called she begged them to leave again. Instead, the creatures turned her into a troll and chased her away.
- THE DEMON BEAR : A wounded woodcutter is carried to Rikishi, saying that a demon bear has attacked them in the woods. If the PCs go hunting for it, they can pick up its trail, and read that it walks unlike a normal bear. They soon find it and see a great bear, half-bent down and covered in filth. If they fight it, it has the regular bear stats with a Water Scar Disadvantage. Talking to it with Nature's Touch or calming it with good Survival skill rolls shows that it is no demon at all, it has an arrow lodged in its belly that has become infected. A good shugenja may heal it. If they help the bear, it may tell them of or lead them to the Tree Spirit below.
- THE DREAM ONI : Villagers from a separated part of Kami's Rest where the peasants for the opium fields live approach the PCs and beg them for help WITHOUT letting the Kuni know about it. If they agree, they are brought to a peasants hut where a young girl lies in a fever, with her hair writhing around her like snakes. Theology can tell the PCs that it is possessed by a dream oni, a powerful monster. Fighting a dream oni is difficult, for if the girl dies, the oni splits in two and vanishes, only to possess the next two sleeping persons. With a meditation TN 3 check, one can enter the girls dream and fight the oni there, but then the PCs are in its realm. It is best fought if it leaves its still living victim. When the PCs enter the dream, they find themselves in the same village, but everyone is gone, and a broad trail of blood goes into the woods. Following the trail leads them into the Shinomen Forest, where they enter a clearing with a giant oak tree a dozen meters across, terribly scarred and oozing black ichor from its great wounds, with a huge oni attacking its trunk. If they attack the oni here, he has the stats of the Sinister Oni from the Core Rulebook, a very powerful enemy. They can talk to it and try to make it leave the girl, perhaps offering to let it possess one of them instead (especially a shugenja would be tempting). If they succeed, the oni and they can leave the dream with another meditation TN 3 check. The oni will try to possess the next shugenja, who has to make Meditation (Void) TN 3 checks to resist every round, but here, it only has the stats of the Vile Trickster Oni from Shadowlands p. 134.
- THE TREE SPIRIT : If the PCs follow the path they went in the Dream Onis dream in reality, or if they helped the bear and it shows them the way, they come to the giant oak tree, poisoned and violated by the Dream Oni before it came to Kami's Rest. It is the home of a very old tree spirit, which can feel its home and itself dying and being corrupted. Healing the tree is very difficult, it would require the help of every shugenja NPC in Kami's Rest, which each have to be convinced to help. If a PC got the Giver of Gifts maho spell, he can offer the spirit to transfer him into a piece of wood to escape the dying tree, he will accept and ask to get a home in a walking staff, so he can see the world. If the PCs do that, their bo staff is turned into a magical weapon that can spontaniously be made to grow longer and shorter, so it can be used to melee attack foes in range 3. Once per session, the wearer can use it to cast any Earth invocation of Rank 3 or lower (even if they are themselves no shugenja) with their Earth ring and Theology 2 (unless the wearer has a higher theology).
- THE RONIN ATTACK : On the southwestern shore of the lake is a hidden encampment of ronin who plan to attack and plunder Kami's Rest with a shiop they stole from Maemikake. One morning at dawn, screams awke up the PCs who find themselves in the middle of a bandit raid. They have to fight waves of Desperate Bandits (Core Rulebook p. 315) to protect the villagers. After a while, the daimyos troops start arriving, so the ronin fall back to their ship, laden with plunder, and make their getaway. If they made a treaty with the Kappa, it will stop their ship (they paid no cake, after all), in which case the daimyos troops will shoot all onboard with arrows till the ship looks like a porcupine. If the strand the ship ashore with a The Rushing Wave invocation or stop it another way, the ronin are killed in apitched battle. If they cannot stop the ship, it will leave with a lot of the villages ressources, causing a famine among the poorer hinin and heimin. If the PCs succeed in stopping the raiders from escaping, they will be hailed as heroes.
- THE BODIES : A few days after the ronin attack, a villager approaches the PCs and tells them that the ronin stole an heirloom of his family: a holy jade shinsei said to hold a kami, and in his dreams, the shinsei calls to him. If the PCs had succeeded in stopping the ronin from escaping, it has not been recovered from the ship. If the ronin got away, he says he can feel it is not in the south, but rather nearer, though he cannot tell where. He thinks that it must have been overlooked on one of the dead ronins bodies and been transported with them to the Hare clan, wher the bodies are burnt. He asks them to make haste, for the item is a holy relic that must not be destroyed.
If the PCs hurry to the Hare clan castle, they arrive to learn that not only have no bodies arrived in the last few days, that Hare clan samurai do not know what they are even talking about: NOOne has ever sent corpses to the Hare clan from Kami's Rest. If they carefully check the path on their way back, they find wher on a stony patch the carts have left the path, entered the forest to the north and turned towards Kami's Rest again. Following theor trail leads the PCs directly to main Story 1 unless they haven't dispatched the Black Men yet.
- THE MURDER : Mizu no Koi is found, murdered, naked in bed in his house. His chest has been cut open and a piece has been bitten out of his heart. The scene itself shows few clues to the murderer, it has been well cleaned up. But Koi smells a lot of men's perfume. Asking around, the PC can find out that Koi was at a bathhouse where he perfumed himself a lot, telling the proprietor that he had a date with a beautiful woman. The PCs can use various ideas to find the murder, listening to gossip, spreading gossip that they have a witness and wait for the killer to come to them, use invocations to get help from animals to track the scent (though all of the perfume is a hindrance)... The GM should react to the PCs plans. Asking for rumors will point them right to Asahina Kitzune, the Red Widow, who is called a maneater. But she has nothing to do with the crime.
The murderer is Soshi Kumo. Weeks ago, she has found the diary of the woman that would become the troll. In it, she described the ritual. After Koi made very unsubtle sexual advances towards her, she committed to a secret date with him and killed him to perform the ritual. If she is not found out, another such murder will occur in a few days. These rituals lead to the Main Story 2 a few weeks later.

MAIN STORY 1 :
Unknown to all but a handful of his men, the daimyo Bayushi Joroshi is a Maho-Tsukai, planning to raise an army of undead in a hidden cellar below his castle. The entrance is on the northern side, in the woods haunted by the Black Man (Joroshi has learned wards to keep him away). After the ronin attack, no matter if it was successful or not, he has more than enough material to set his plan in motion. But the Bodies Side Qust should bring the PCs straigt to his cellar door. Inside, it is time for the big showdown against him and his Bushi Skeletons and Zombie Peasants. If a PC has laid the Black Man to rest in an honorable duel, his spirit will intervene one last time if the tides of battle turn against the PCs, appearing and attacking their foes.
The backstory of Joroshi is that he was a faithful courtier and shinobi who gave everything and did everything every dark deed required for his clan, holding Duty above all, until he grew old and could not keep up with the changing fashions of the Emperor's court. He was given Kami's Rest as a pension. He came upon the Giver of Gifts, and his gift was a vision of his future: Being tortured in ****. This shattered his whole worldview: He always was a loyal samurai, doing whatever Duty called from him. And after his death, he would still land in ****? This told him that Bushido is a lie, that the Kami betrayed the humans, that if Duty demanded something and Courtesy demanded the opposite, the human is damned no matter what he does. So he dicided that if he were destined to ****, he would arrive there as a king, fulfilling Fu-Lengs wishes and be greeted by him in **** as an ally. That is why Joshiro learned maho and created his zombie horde. Joshiro is wrong, of course: It is his actions AFTER the vision that condemn his sould to ****. In reacting to the vision, he made it come to pass.
If the PCs best Joshiro and his horde and show the evidence to the Kuni or the other Scorpion clan soldiers, the Kuni will start an inquisition, quickly finding out the half-dozen of accomplices of the Daimyo in his troops, which will be put to death. Another 20 samurai will commit seppuku in the castle, for having served a servant of Fu-leng. The rest of the scorpion samurai pack their thimngs and leave Kami's Rest for the Scorpion lands. The PCs are given the comissionary control of Kami's Rest: The city is now under control of the Emerald Magistrates, who will have to govern it without any troops or help in Season 2 of the campaign.

MAIN STORY 2 :
This story will be the main story arc in season 2: Soshi Kumo has performed the ritual of hearts to call the Ladies of the Forest, and they answer after the PCs have been given the responsibility of government.
They are Jorogumo, spiders in human guises with powerful enchanting abilities, looking for humans to bewitch, bind up inside the Shinomen Forest and lay their eggs into. But they appear to be beautiful women of the Kuge class, distantly related to the emperor, on a pilgrimage across Rokugan. The PCs do not have the right to question or imprison these persons of higher rank.
The details of this story arc are jet open, as my campaign has just finished Season One with the death of the Daimyo.
Perhaps I will post details in the future.

Feedback?

I am thinking about Season Two going partly in the direction of mass battles: As the new magistrates of Kami's Rest, the PCs may have to levy peasants to defend it.

Possible hostiles include:

- the Hare clan, which probably is not happy with a town next door that was led for two years by a mahu-tsukai, seeing that fighting maho is their raison d'etre.

- another Scorpion daimyo, trying to conquer it before his lord can give it to a rival

- the ronin, back for revenge

- the Ladies of the forest with a monstrous army

That could be spun into something like the old D&D Birthright campaign, with the PC having to send envoys to neighboring powers (Falcon, Fox, Crab, Scorpion) to get help, with them gradually improving their own troops (peasant levy to ashigurai is a big step) and perhaps even managing and building ressources that make the town either prosper or fall on hard times.

1 hour ago, Harzerkatze said:

- the Ladies of the forest with a monstrous army

That one will probably give you the most interesting fight. Using it as something akin to the Shadowlands Horde will mean the players have to deal with (rapidly) rising panic, so will really put them on the clock and/or give mystics cohorts a chance to shine, whilst having a few peasant cohorts give the army an obvious weak point to either protect or level out the challenge level for better generals by asking them to take the more difficult command.

I love it.

Might use it soon, but I'd need to settle my PC into this town. Just one question: why so many clans in such a small town ? The Kuni, especially, would have been taken away by the daimyo for a long time, no ?

On 2/17/2020 at 1:52 PM, eScoub said:

I love it.

Might use it soon, but I'd need to settle my PC into this town. Just one question: why so many clans in such a small town ? The Kuni, especially, would have been taken away by the daimyo for a long time, no ?

The samurai are not there as representatives of their clans. They are the equivalent of bounty hunters in the Mos Eisley cantina: colorful characters for the PCs to interact with and give the town some flavour. Each one is there either because he was sent away by his clan or because he left his duty behind:

- The Hida is broken by his experiences. Since he is a danger on the wall, but a highly honored hero, the clan has pretty much parked him out of sight.

- The Asahina is sent where the Lion do not see her, to avoid further diplomatic complications.

- The Kuni is insane and driven by a personal quest. But as Kuni Purifiers are very independent, roaming about, noone of his family has to give him orders.

- The Hiruma is in hiding, because otherwise he might be murdered or forced into a succession of duels.

- The Shugyosha is a ronin anyway.

- The Soshi is actually hiding, both her face and her identity.

- The Mantis was always figuratively captain of his own ship. And he is an informant, looking for dirt hidden away in this backwater town.

So all have reasons not to be somewhere else. Why are they here?

- The daimyo misses the court days of his past and thus is happy about any samurai, the more colorful, the better.
- Having shady characters around makes it easier to avert suspicion from himself.
- He is an addicted gambler, and this is part of the game. The Kuni hasn't found him out yet. What better way to alleviate suspicion if you have a Kuni around who does not act against you?

I might see things in a more rigid way than you do (Any samurai, but it is only my humble interpretation, should be usefull for his lord. And I don't see the Crab or the Crane "hiding" its samurai in Scorpion territory), but that's just me. The patterns of every character could be translated to some Scorpion counterpart: a Yogo wardmaster should do the trick as "Shadowland expert"... but again, a Kuni witch hunter can indeed roam the Empire and could be an "honored guest" in here. And some of them could have defect from their clan!

Very detailed and interesting sides stories, great work, once again!

25 minutes ago, eScoub said:

I might see things in a more rigid way than you do (Any samurai, but it is only my humble interpretation, should be usefull for his lord. And I don't see the Crab or the Crane "hiding" its samurai in Scorpion territory), but that's just me. The patterns of every character could be translated to some Scorpion counterpart: a Yogo wardmaster should do the trick as "Shadowland expert"... but again, a Kuni witch hunter can indeed roam the Empire and could be an "honored guest" in here. And some of them could have defect from their clan!

Very detailed and interesting sides stories, great work, once again!

The Crane is an Asahina, so they are usually most useful by creating great art of value. Her lord might reason that she can do so just as well in a backwater near a giant beautiful forest as in court where she angers all the Lion courtiers.

The Crab lord may hope that Inu gets better with a little time away from the constant threat that pushed him past breaking. You do not sent such a valuable inspiration to die in the Shadowlands unless you are sure they are beyond salvation. A holiday has brought quite some people back after a break-down.

But yes, in my campaign, the samurai have more agency than in others.

Also, turning them all into Scorpion would remove a lot of the interplay with the PCs, as they would all belong to the "other side". Having an NPC of their clan is another reason for a PC to interact with him, and thus a way for the GM to provide exposition, plot hooks etc.

You're right, and this totally justifies the Emerald Magistrates being where they are.

But PCs surrounded by Scorpion NPCs plotting against each others might be something that might lead to severe paranoia. And I like it

I like how there are just enough background elements for each of the NPCs to create compelling reasons from Clan Samurai to interact with them. There is MUCH potential for character drama that is unrelated to the main adventure plot to allow for hours of entertainment.

On 2/17/2020 at 1:52 PM, eScoub said:

I love it.

Might use it soon, but I'd need to settle my PC into this town. Just one question: why so many clans in such a small town ? The Kuni, especially, would have been taken away by the daimyo for a long time, no ?

Be sure to include the sidequest The Vendetta into their travel to Kami's Rest. Picking up the strings of that story weeks later had a nice payoff in my campaign.

So, Season two of "A Town called Kami's Rest" has ended. It did not all go according to plan, as I found out during play, being in charge of a town is NOT what my players wanted.

But one or two details may be useful to other GMs.

Recap: Season One ended with the daimyo of Kami's Rest dead and exposed as a maho tsukai. His samurai either committed seppuku or left town back for scorpion lands, leaving the town in the temporary control of the emerald magistrates: the PCs.
Additionally, the woman Kuni Soshi had performed a maho ritual to call the "Ladies of the Forest", Jorogumo which are responsible for the desertment of Kami's Rest 50 years ago. In my campaign, Kumo was stopped and executed after her first murder, but before the PCs could learn the purpose of the ritual.

Things that happened during Season Two:

- The village headman introduces the PCs to their new home, the castle on top of the hill, and describes the situation: With the 100 samurai of the Scorpion clan leaving, the PCs are almost the only combatants in Kami's Rest, as the town has no trained ashigaru. The town produces grain, fish and lumber enough to pay its yearly taxes, but not enough to hire a mercenary guard to protect it from the next bandit or ronin or monster attack. The Scorpion clan is now effectively hostile, the Hare clan wants to burn down Kami's Rest to make sure the maho tsukai daimyo did not leave anything lying around. There is the hidden opium field that surely produces something very valuable, but since only the Scorpion are sanctioned to produce opium, the production would be illegal.
The PCs respond by choosing 100 young villagers and beginning their combat training to establish an ashigaru guard, even though that takes months. They send the NPC Asahina Kitzune, whom one of the PCs started an affair with, as an ambassador to improve relations with the Hare and Scorpion clans. After MUCH discussion, they decide to burn the opium fields.

- Since the Hantei is dead and both his sons missing, regent Shoju didn't want to appear to be favoring his own clan by replacing the Emerald Magistrate government with a new Scorpion daimyo. So the regent officially recognized the provisionary government of Kami's Rest by the Emerald Magistrates.
This in turn lead to fears within the clans that the imperial families use the upheaval to take powers away from the clans and move them towards the Hantei, in whose control the Emerald Magistrates are, especially since Toshi Ranbo has been put under imperial government, too. A secret society named the Black Lotus has distributed flyers all over the lands decrying this offensive break with tradition and order, and to combat it, has put a bounty on the head of any Emerald Magistrate or Yoriki in Kami's Rest: Anyone who kills one of those in Kami's Rest will receive a bounty of 100 koku.

- Following the transition of government from Scorpion control into a handful of young emerald magistrates, a lot of people move into Kami's Rest: Villagers from other towns that hope for better treatment than by the clans, a rich merchant named Yasuki Don'Yoku who wants to utilize the confusion to use his wealth to effectively buy the town and thus prepare its transition into Crab clan control, a clan of mercenary ninja lead by a woman named Kage, and of course a couple of samurai bounty hunters in more or less good disguise.

- The mercenary ninjas try to blend in as peasants, but the townsfolk realize that they work too little and three or four of them are always away from the town, so the village headman informs the magistrates. My PCs were very open to making a deal with the ninjas to the effect that the ninja do not perform illegal actions within Kami's Rest, pay taxes and help in the defense of Kami's Rest, should that become necessary, and for that, the emerald magistrates do not interfere in their illegal business done outside of Kami's Rest.
The problem with this is that that the mercenary ninjas have a secondary agenda: They are thugee, part of a Ivory Kingdoms cult that secretly tries to murder powerful warriors by garroting them, believing that this will turn them into heavenly soldiers for an apocalyptic battle between Fu Leng and the Ivory KIngdom god/demon Kali. More on this later.

- The merchant Yasuki Don'Yoku tells the PCs that he sees great potential in economically developing Kami's Rest by building a better road to the east and a better port at the lake, making this a premier way of transporting goods to Crab lands. His plans to fleece the inexperienced emerald magistrates with one-sided deals is surprisingly thwarded when the Hida Defender PC happens to have three ranks in Government, rolls well and comes out of every deal with the advantage. Don'Yoku is bound into developing Kami's Rest economically mostly with his own funds, and since the Hida is from his own clan, he decides to honor the deals. Advantage PCs.

- The PCs decide to finally follow up on the troll that lives under the bridge. They find out that she was a woman cursed by the ladies of the forest into becoming a troll, that she did the same ritual as Soshi Kumi 50 years ago, calling the Ladies of the Forest in the first place, and that that ritual lead to the death of everyone in Kami's Rest. The PC begin to realize the stakes at play here. They still convince her to leave the bridge and move into a house in town. In a desision that had impact later, the house the Kuni Purifier NPC deserted when he left town.

- One of the PCs feels that he is being followed. He decides to go into an abandoned part of Kami's Rest to draw out the pursuer, who of course is happy to show that he is a bounty hunter coming for his head. The PC narrowly survives the duel against the Mirumoto Two-Heavens Adept duelist. The PCs realize that the new samurai in town are potential dangers to their lives, but have no honorable way to send them away before they have commited a crime. The PCs are worried.

- The village headman alarms the PC that two of the NPCs that live in Kami's Rest for longer, the duelist Tanto and Hiruma Ando, have vanished a couple of days ago. The PCs investigate and find their homes deserted, but their things still there. They send the ninja mercenary Kage to investigate further and get her report that the NPC Zhu Baije told her the two commited to a duel outside of Kami's Rest. They travel to the duel place, taking Kage with them, but find no trace of the duel. A Commune with the Spirits shows them that the last duel at that place happened years ago. They decide the Zhu Baije must have lied to them and return to Kami's Rest. While riding through town, one of them realizes that Kage is giving hidden signs to villagers. When he totally fails at inconspiciously communicating that to his fellow PCs, the trap is sprung and the PCs are attacked by the mercenary ninjas swinging kusari-gama from surrounding rooftops. A really epic battle ensues with a narrow victory for the players. It seems the ninja could not be trusted, what surprise. Searching their house reveals a large mural of a strange fanged multi-armed goddess, but noone rolls enough culture to know who that is.

- The PC decide that Tanto and Ando must be around somewhere and also that the bounty hunters are a problem, and that the best solution is to establish a great dueling tournament, to tempt Tanto and Ando back, give the bounty hunters a way to openly attack them so they don't have to worry about hidden attacks (sound plan) and establish Kami's Rest as a new and exciting location for the surrounding towns. They decide to name tzhe tournament "Kami-val". Invitations are sent, NPC merchant prince Yasuki Don'Yoku organizes all the vendors and entertainers and the like.

- Almost by accident, the PC find out that a force of over 100 Scorpion samurai are camping in the forest to the north, obviously planning an invasion to take Kami's Rest back into Scorpion control and preempting a Hantei decision by establishing settled facts. The PC organized what little defences the town has, successfully harry the camping army with setting their tents one fire and spooking their horses, but the next morning still sees 70 hardened samurai veterans marching on Kami's Rest with its 100 untrained villager defenders, 5 samurai and one troll. Luckily, one of the PCs has learned the Pillar of Calm shuji, rolls well and forces the enemy commanders into a skirmish with the PCs as both armies look on. The PC strike down the Scorpion leaders, and the army has to withdraw, disgraced.
The 100 villagers realize that without the heroic PCs, they would all have been killed in the battle, and the PCs smartly fire up that fervor with a public celebration and much sake for everyone. The bounty hunters in town realize that attacking an emerald magistrate in town now will immediately lead to them being torn to pieces by an angry mob, and some of them leave.

- Two weeks later, the tournament only days away, Otomo Kasai, a character assassin , enters Kami's Rest to take part in the tournament. His plan is to disgrace the leading emerald magistrate, the Hida defender, because through the routing of the Scorpion army, the pendulum has moved towards giving Kami's Rest to the Crab clan, but the imperial family wants to keep Kami's Rest in play to foment strife between the Scorpion and Crab clans. So disgracing the Hida prominently leading the town is a good way. His plan works like a charm when the Hida challanges him to a duel within minutes of him arriving in town, and then fights the worst duel in the history of dueling (both combatants wear ceramic armor and katanas. The dazed Hida misses all three of his attacks, the Otomo doesn't attack at all, only giving snide remarks to deal strife. The Otomo freely forgoes his lethal Finishing Blow, instead turning around and walking off the dueling place, showing that the duel is over. The Hida unmasks, runs up to the Otomo and strikes him from behind, dealing no damage at all and damaging his katana instead.).
This leads to half of the PCs to decide that their only aim now is killing Otomo Kasai. The Hida will fight three more fights with him, finally being killed by him in the third. Another (Isawa Joshi, a young shugenja with hideous facial scars) will challenge him to a duel and plans to kill him with a powerful Fury of Osano-wo invocation. But the player forgets that he perpared the duel with a Divination ritual, so to his two Strife dice is added another one, spiritual backlash sets in, and everyone in 100 yards is also hit by the spell. 80 villagers die, as does the Isawa when Otomo strikes him down.
This leads to the Dragon starting to awaken, however (automatic Earthquake spell), which can luckily be stopped with enough successes from multiple Commume with the Spirit rituals. Countless houses and parts of the castle are damaged by the earthquake.

- Meanwhile, the NPC Kuni Jei (hated by half the PCs and loved by the other half, left town during the adventure to avoid the PCs asking him to fight all theior battles and solve their problems), returns, finds a troll in his house and kills the troll because it is a creature of dark magic. The Kitzune Impersonator PC, who is the acting Emerald Magistrate at that point, rules that that is murder and passes a death sentence on Jei in absentia. In following his steps, they find the graves of Tanto and Hiruma Ando, garrotted by the mercenary ninja and, as the shugenja finds out, their souls have neither passed on nor turned into ghosts, which he cannot explain. (Jei had nothing to do with their deaths, he just followed the scent of foreign magic.) They continue to pursue him into Kami's Rest, where this gets tangled up with one of the Hida's attempts to kill Otomo by secretly ordering 30 ashigaru villagers to help him murder Otomo. All this confusion resolves when finally, the Lady of the Forest arrives (just one, as only one ritual was done), turns the 30 villagers into slaves and forces the PCs to fight their own troops before pursuing her. She sits like the spider she is at range 4 on the tower of their castle and another epic battle ensues, where a Call upon the Wind invocation also leads to spiritual backlash, which has the effect that three PCs AND the Lady of the Forest can now fly. An airial battle follows with flung PCs, multiple PCs becoming unconscious from Fatigue, and finally a thrown knife with Heartpiercing Strike ends the threat.

Kami's Rest is damaged, but safe. The dueling tournament happens without problems and as a great success. Otomo Kasai uses the head of the Hida magistrate to bait the Black Lotus into trying to give him the bounty, taking the messanger captive and advancing towards revealing the conspirators in this forbidden secret society. The three surviving PCs are relieved of government duty by the arriving Ruby Champion (acting Emerald Champion), get promoted and honored for their duty. Kami's Rest stays under Emerald Magistrate control, who establish it as a training town for young magistrates to ensure that always enough experienced magistrates are present to prevent another invasion. Kami's Rest actually florishes in the coming years through increased trade through the new trade route and the business the Magustrate school brings. The Dueling Tournament becomes a yearly tradition the town is famous for, as is the peculiar ritual where once a year, the children of the town paint scars onto their faces and go around town threatening to burn everyone with lightning unless they are given sweets, on what is called Joshi Day.

And here is a short sidequest I threw in, when only two players could make it. It should be well transferrable to other campaigns.

STORY HOOK: The PCs, who must include a shugenja, receive an invitation from a neighboring town, in my case Miamikake, asking for help with a haunted shrine that seems to go beyond the abilities of the local priest.

In my campaign, both PCs were shugenja, so that drew their interest. They travelled by pony cross-country to save time, but since none of them had any ranks in Survival or luck rolling, they quickly got lost in the wooded snow-covered area. It began to get dark, and they had to accept they would have to spend a misterable night in the forest without tent or provisions, when they luckily spotted lights through the trees, obviously the houses of the town they were looking for. Quickly riding towards the lights, their horses sudenly stumbled when the stepped into a swamp hole, and the Onibi ghost lights they had taken to be lit windows swooped in to burn them. In our case, they used Nature's Touch to talk to the otherworldly creatures after making sure to grabn them with a kusari-gama of fire without dealing damage. The Onibi were intrigued, stopped attacking and two delighted shugenjas got professional advice from fire elementals on how to do the Katana of Fire invocation better. Finally, they actually reached Meamikake.

THE PLOT DETAILS: The magistrate of Meamikake greeted the PCs and explained the situation. A group of burglars had tried to rob the shrine, but were chased off by the Komainu guardians before even setting foot into the shrine. Since then, the kami of the shrine react in anger, throwing offerings and candles at all petitioners who come to pray, and the local shugenja has been unable to appease them.
The local shrine is very old and large, with two Komainu lion dog statues in front of the two-story building and cared for by a young Moth clan shugenja. The shugenja didn't make much of an impression on the PCs, in dirty sanctified robes and obviously addicted to opium, so the PCs were not surprised that the Kami of the shrine dedicated to the Fortune of Heroism was angered.

The PCs entered the shrine, dodged one or three flung oil lamps and performed a Commune with the Spirits ritual and to their surprise found out that the Kami of the shrine is very content, giving off a peaceful hum and warm glow. Mystified, they withdrew and made plans. The Kitzu Medium used the By the Light of Lord Moon invocation to find out that there is another invisible presence in the shrine, in addition to the kami in his resting place. Nature's Touch was again put to good use to communicate, but the spirit was the lowest kind of ghost, unable to talk and only able to project emotions, which were that she is terrified and trapped. The PCs could not find out who kept the ghost shackled here, looking for a Tained presence or dark spell, but could not find any. They tried to exchange position with the ghost from outside the shrine with the Hands of the Tides invocation, but bad rolls ruined this very good plan.

So they chose a different approach, because where there is a ghost, there is a death, and in projecting her emotions, the ghost had sent one of them the vision of her death: She was strangled from behind on a street in town. The attacker was not visible, but part of a tattoo on the arm of the attacker were, as were her own strange multi-colored clothes. The contacted the magistrate, asked for reports of all murders and soon learned that a young street performer acrobat from out of town was found murdered three weeks ago. They walked the streets and found the street from the vision. They came up with an elaborate plan where one poses as an intimidating official asking the scared locals for what happened, of course getting only excuses, while the other used Mask of the Wind to take the appearance of a local, striking up a conversation afterwards about the nosy official and thus drawing out details what happened. That plan went awry hilariously when the one shugenja totally botched Mask of the Wind and thus did not turn into a local, but but the other one playing the intimidating official rolled their Command check so good that the locals spilled all that had happened to him, without any need for a disguised local.

There is a gang of thugs belonging to the Yakusa terrorizing the neighbothood, and one giant of a man of them was seen grabbing the street performer and taking her money, accidently killing her in the process. The PCs find out where the Yakusa hang out, get a contingent of the watch and have the perpetrator arrested, who matches the locals description and has the right tattoo on his arm. He is executed on the spot, and when the PCs return to the shrine, the ghost is gone, on to the wheel of reincarnation.
The PCs never learn what shackled her in the temple in the first place.

BACKGROUND DETAILS: What really happened: The Yakusa thug killed the acrobat three weeks ago, ands without relatives to mourn her, her unquiet spirit became the lowest form of ghost. She drifted around and was drawn towards the shrine of the Fortune of Heroism, but could not enter because of the Komainu ward against spirits. When the robbers tried to rob the shrine, the Komainu were activated, dropping the ward, and the ghost slipped inside. When the Komainu returned to their spots, the wards went up again, and the ghost was trapped. In its panic, it began to throw things around.
The shrine kami is very content with the Moth Clan shugenja, because he is fighting a thankless secret battle protecting Meamikake against the Baku dream monsters that come from the Realm of Dreams, even using opium to sleep longer. The small ghost did not unsettle it.

I gotta say, I liked your second season very much. I couldn't find the description of your players anywhere (was one of them the Isawa Joshi?). And I really liked Tanto, looks like it could be a path my current Kakita character could have followed with the story had gone in a different direction.

23 hours ago, Diogo Salazar said:

I gotta say, I liked your second season very much. I couldn't find the description of your players anywhere (was one of them the Isawa Joshi?). And I really liked Tanto, looks like it could be a path my current Kakita character could have followed with the story had gone in a different direction.

Thank you! My player group was as follows:

- Isawa Joshi, Isawa Elementarist. A very young shugenja barely past his gempuku, who talked more to kami then men and was sent to become an Emerald Magistrate to learn human interaction. Instantly developed an unhealthy fascination with the legendary dragon under Kami's Rest.
- Hida Hiroshi, Hida Defender. Seems to really miss the clarity of the job defending the wall. Kept agreeing to the most dishonorable actions without pause or thought.
- Agasha Yumiko, Kitzune Impersonator. Sent by the foxes to learn that strange honor thing that men keep talking about. Never seemed to quite grasp it or temporarily lose all memory of it, but ended up becoming the most honorable of the group (although mostly through lack of competition). Ended up being the daimyo of Kami's Rest after almost dooming it.
- Utaku Michiko, Utako Battle Maiden. A young, slim, small women with giant horse named Chenzo and a raccoon, she tended to suddenly disappear and just as suddenly have been standing behind someone all along. Another one who kept going with strange plans (Hiroshi murdered the soon-to-be husband of a hinin woman? Let's spread false rumors about her to force her to move out of the village...)
- Kitzu Suichiro, Kitzu Medium: A professional shugenja and ghost hunter who always had an invocation to help in a problem, but otherwise seemed to always go with what the others wanted, which in this group was not always a good idea.

I made the one with the highest points in the Gempuku beginners's game adventure the Emerald Magistrate (Hida Hiroshi) and the others Joriki, but they kept passing the Emerald Magistrates pin around when one or the other got into solo missions or temporarily quit the job to fight a duel or other reasons, So titles were changed more often than underwear.

Tanto "the knife" (MIrumoto) was an NPC, a Mirumoto Taoist Blade Adept musha shugyo, feared for having slain 7 enemies in duels (the Kitzu medium could see their spirits standing behind him). He was supposed to be a potential threat to the PCs if they acted too overbearing, but they kept avoiding him and had their hands full, so he didn't have much of a presence in the campaign and was killed off-screen with the Silent Elimination ninjutzu by the thugee. Now he awaits his reawakening to fight in Kali's army against Fu Leng, where he will no doubt distinguish himself.