Here is a variation of the Zombie Peasant I have used:

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Clay Human
They have a grey skin and most of them do not seem to have any intellect, this is the newest experiment from a maho-tsukai. Often made from the ashes and bones of human, baked in clay and controlled by an imprisoned animal spirit. Those are the servants of a maho-tsukai who cannot find human remains good enough for becoming a Zombie Peasant. When brought to live, those clay golems are often searching for human souls to fill its emptiness. Only those without any maho-tsukai controlling their actions can be found digging at grave sites, searching for souls that have lost their way to Emma-o.

Conflict combat 3, social 0.
Air 2, Earth 3, Fire 3, Water 1, Void 0.
Artisan 0, Martial 0, Scholar 0, Social 0, Trade 0.
Endurance 6, Composure infinite, Focus 3, Vigilance 2.
Advantage: Hunger for Souls, Fire Martial; Mental. Disadvantages: Slow mover, Earth Martial; Physical. Speechless, Air Social;

Headbutt: Range 0, Damage 4, Deadliness 5.
Grasping Hands: Range 0-1, Damage 2, Deadliness 1.
Gear (equipped): Baked clay body (Physical 2)

Abilities:
Little Cracks – The Clay Human is an Otherworldly and Tainted being of silhouette 2. The first time its Fatigue > Endurance, it receives a Scar disadvantage chosen by the GM and its Fatigue is restored to 0, but its Endurance has become 2.
Does Not Bleed – The Clay Human ignores conditions and critical strikes from a non-Sacred sources.

A possible quest where this creature may be found is this; While the group rest at a inn in a local village, the inn keeper seems to be occupied by the smoke not to far from the inn. The inn keeper knows that there should not be any house this close to the graveyard, thus where does this smoke come from. If the group directly investigates, they can find a maho-tsukai baking those Clay Human and has already finished creating X amount. However if they group wait till night time at the inn, they will be surprised by an attack on the villages from X+Y amount of Clay Humans and the maho-tsukai seeing that its new invention seems to be working.
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I was inspired to create this creature after seeing the Inuyasha episode where Kikyo was created.

At long last, a new entry into my Creature Compendium:

The Nue , a chimera hidden in darkness that theatened the life of the 78. Emperor of Japan, if legend is to be believed, and that Usagi Yojimbo faced in the comic 'The Wrath of the Tangled Skein'.

A few things that you might consider...

Akamanto - A ghostly spirit who is traditionally dressed in red. They will come upon those in need and offer one of two items to the person-- for example, offering a red cloak or a blue cloak to someone in need. They will kill those who choose incorrectly-- though some believe both answers are 'incorrect' and that the only way to survive is to ignore the spirit entirely.

Amanehagi - Creatures with furry brown bodies and red or blue demon faces that live in the mountains. During mid-winter they terrorize the homes of peasants, looking to take away any children who behave badly. They tend to be armed with a pair of sharp knives and are slightly larger than human.

Ameonna/Yukionna - Both of these take the form of women, are often considered to truly be women who died in the rain or snow, and cause heavy rain or snow to appear around them. They lure people out into the storm by calling for help or acting seductively and draw them out further and further until those chasing them die from the attempt. Legends vary as to whether they are simply malicious or simply lonely and wish to create another ghost to be their companion.

Bakeneko/Nekomata - A shapeshifting cat spirit with human intelligence that can change themselves into different objects. They are also said to be able to eat inedible things and cause fire or sparks. Bakeneko tend to have two tails while Nekomata make far more effort to try to play at being human (generally being so bad at it that no one would be fooled, unlike the Kitsune). They are generally not overtly hostile, but can be nuisances and quite dangerous if threatened.

Basan - A creature that appears to be like a chicken, but can spit fire at those it is angry at. It typically does not have much higher intelligence than a typical chicken though and very little control of its fire-spitting abilities. However, it is also immune to the flames itself and so will not be burned if it lights everything on fire.

Chouchinobake - Spirits that disguise themselves as standard chouchin lanterns. They can manifest faces with eyes and large mouths, but are only able to hop as far as locomotion. Although generally not too terribly dangerous if one is aware of them, they can drop onto people and bite them.

Dodomeki - A woman youkai with eyes all over her body, particularly across her arms. Likely someone who has been cursed for either snooping too much into other people's lives or someone who made the wish that she could due to being harmed by information others were keeping from her.

Funayuurei - The spirits of people who drowned at sea. They either attack ships or appear on the shore looking to drag others below the waves in order to increase their numbers.

Futakuchi-onna - Literally "two mouthed woman", it appears to be a woman with very long black hair. Hidden within the hair in the back of her head is a second mouth. The hair can also be moved like living tendrils, grabbing things with far more strength than hair should have while being entirely flexible. Some legends say that the second mouth hungers for human flesh.

Goryou - Aristocratic ghosts who are generally the spirits of nobles who were sacrificed or martyred "for the good of the empire". They can preside over courts of other ghosts, enlisting far more deadly ones to do their bidding. Beyond the influence they hold over other ghosts, they are no more dangerous than they were in life-- however their desire to continue their existences can cause them to do things they otherwise would not, they are no longer bound by codes of honor.

Hashihime - The spirit of a woman who generally killed herself by leaping off a bridge into a river. Her spirit continues to dwell within the river below the bridge and looks to drag anyone who would cross the bridge at night and alone into the river to join her.

Hibagon - Basically sasquatch or yeti, you can apply most of what you know about those to this creature.

Hitotsume-kozou - A bald child-sized youkai with a single eye in the middle of its head like a cyclops. They are not overtly malicious, though they do like to jump out and surprise people. Otherwise they are fairly simple and childish and only cause trouble due to boredom and loneliness. They might be the spirits of still-born children who still cling to the world.

Jikininki - Like a ghoul or wendigo, they are those who have eaten human flesh (generally under pretty desperate circumstances) and have now become superhumanly strong creatures who are driven to consume only human flesh.

Jinmenken - A dog with a human face and generally human-like intelligence.

Jubokko - A tree that grows on battlefields that have seen quite a lot of bloodloss. They become vampiric, desiring to drink more human blood and are able to animate their branches in order to accomplish that task.

Komainu - Lion-like giant dogs that are used in real life to guard temples. Since Rokugan has lions and it is clearly established that temples do not use magical komainu guardians, I am not sure how they would fit-- but they do feel like an omission.

Nurikabe - Youkai that are most commonly seen in cities and take on the form of fake walls. They generally do not physically harm people, but they like to disorient people or cause them to get lost allowing other spirits to do more direct harm. They are able to stretch up to any size and are effectively harder than stone making them virtually invulnerable to direct attacks.

Onryo - Vengeful ghosts who have been abused in life, most commonly children, who use supernatural curses to return from the dead in order to enact vengeance upon the world in general. They are typically bound to something like a house or an object and only capable of harming those who enter their house or handle the object and often come upon their victims in their sleep, appearing seemingly out of thin air. The Grudge and The Ring are two famous movies that involved these spirits.

Shikigami - Spirits bound to paper dolls that are often used to perform simple tasks such as spying or stealing objects. The kami bound to the paper dolls are obedient to the one who bound them to the paper and generally last for only a short while. If greatly damaged the papers will light on fire and burn away on their own as the bound kami leaves them.

Tanuki - Typically a slow, comical little badger-like creature, some of these animals are able to utilize magic leaves in order to take on virtually any shape, often resorting to simply becoming rocks or statues, but can also become things like balls or wheels. The males have extremely large testicles that they can use as drums or stretch their scrotums to be used as parachutes.

Tsukumogami - Common, every day items that have been treasured and used for ages. They have come to have an awakened spirit and come to life under specific circumstances. Although typically protective of their owners, should they be lost, forgotten, abandoned or otherwise left along for long enough, they can become malevolent. The most famous, though by no means common, one is an umbrella that typically manifests itself a single eye and a mouth with a long tongue.

Ushi-oni - A giant spider the size of a cow and with a head that very much resembles one too.

I think I could do a lot more, but I think this at least scratches the surface.

10 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

Basan - A creature that appears to be like a chicken, but can spit fire at those it is angry at. It typically does not have much higher intelligence than a typical chicken though and very little control of its fire-spitting abilities. However, it is also immune to the flames itself and so will not be burned if it lights everything on fire.
Jubokko - A tree that grows on battlefields that have seen quite a lot of bloodloss. They become vampiric, desiring to drink more human blood and are able to animate their branches in order to accomplish that task.

Komainu - Lion-like giant dogs that are used in real life to guard temples. Since Rokugan has lions and it is clearly established that temples do not use magical komainu guardians, I am not sure how they would fit-- but they do feel like an omission.

Shikigami - Spirits bound to paper dolls that are often used to perform simple tasks such as spying or stealing objects. The kami bound to the paper dolls are obedient to the one who bound them to the paper and generally last for only a short while. If greatly damaged the papers will light on fire and burn away on their own as the bound kami leaves them.

Those are covered already: The basan is in Path of Waves, and Komainu are already in my Creature Compendium. And even three kinds of Shikigami (who are covered in the Shadowlands book)...
But thanks for the others, I'll look over those.

10 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

Akamanto - A ghostly spirit who is traditionally dressed in red. They will come upon those in need and offer one of two items to the person-- for example, offering a red cloak or a blue cloak to someone in need. They will kill those who choose incorrectly-- though some believe both answers are 'incorrect' and that the only way to survive is to ignore the spirit entirely.

"Those in need" is hilarious, seeing that according to wikipedia , the spirit appears in public toilets and offers red or blue toilet paper...

7 minutes ago, Harzerkatze said:

"Those in need" is hilarious, seeing that according to wikipedia , the spirit appears in public toilets and offers red or blue toilet paper...

I don't know how much more "in need" someone can be beyond being stuck in a filthy public bathroom and realizing there is no toilet paper. But there are versions where they offer a cloak or something too.

I was thinking of translating the legend of the girl with a mask over her lower face that comes up on those who are traveling alone outside train stations and asks "Do you think I am pretty?" and attacks whether they answer "yes" or "no", but I can't seem to find the name of that one.

16 minutes ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

I was thinking of translating the legend of the girl with a mask over her lower face that comes up on those who are traveling alone outside train stations and asks "Do you think I am pretty?" and attacks whether they answer "yes" or "no", but I can't seem to find the name of that one.

That's Kuchisake-onna . The Constantine TV series used that in the fifth episode, strangely set in New Orleans.

Yeah-- a lot of the Japanese monsters have very literal names rather than unique ones like are given to animals or peoples.

Also, a good deal of them simply are not particularly intimidating if one presumes that the protagonist has any effective manner with which to fight back. The horror stories tend to presume the target has virtually no way of fighting back directly and thus meet pretty quick and gruesome ends.

It seems a rather high percentage of them fall under the category of "scary, abnormal women" too with only the nature of the abnormality differentiating them. But, when broken down into abstract mechanics-- I got to wonder if there is really functionally so much difference between them.

The problem with most yokai is that while they may be atmospheric or even spooky, they offer little in an RPG context. A ghost that takes the form of a paper lantern is a staple of japanese animation, but you would not need L5R Stats for it. The same goes for women with eyes all over their bodies or dwarves with just one eye: If they don't DO something with their special features, I feel like they are not good entries into my Creature Collection.
Others are similar to existing entries. I have the Kasa-Obake , a rather harmless umbrella obake, so a harmless lantern obake would be too close. Likewise, I have the Jinmenju , a tree feeding on people, so I think a Jubokko would offer little new. Same goes for "women who strangle with their living hair": Anyone wanting to use a Futakuchi-onna can base it on my White-Haired Witch . I wanted to create a Bakeneko , but stopped realizing that from the PCs perspective, there is little difference between facing that and a Kitzune, for which we have an entire school with invocations and all.

I will create an entry for the Hashihime / Funayūrei , which are both pretty much "drowning spirits". We have rules for suffocation, so a spirit living in the water able to pull PCs down and then make them Immobilized or Prone would offer a dangerous challenge. The Yuki-onna looks interesting, too, but we lack rules for cold or freezing, which makes it harder to translate her to L5R.

Another category of Yokai seems to be "one threat, one solution yokai": Creatures that have a very special way of doing things that always leads to them killing someone, but with one special way of breaking the pattern. The Akomanto and Kuchisake-onna you talked about are prime examples, as is the Umibōzu , a large spirit appearing next to ships, asking for a barrel and then drowning the sailors in it, with the pattern breaking option being giving it a barrel without a bottom. My Akikage or Con-Tinh is similar. If you know other yokai of this pattern, tell me, perhaps it serves to make them all into one group of challenges.

I think those can be made into great RPG creatures, but one has to change "killing" into "attacking" and add the special feature that the creature keeps reappearing as long as the circle is not broken. So the Kuchisake-onna could ask its question and attack whether answered yes or no, and be killed after a fight, but appear again the next night. The PCs can try different solutions, which leads to the same fight if they don't work, but their work of protecting the innocents from the threat is only finished if they find the right solution.
It is important that the PCs can try different ways, for unlike in the stories, it is almost impossible to get it right the first way through.
The alternative is that the PCs encounter the story first. So they know that the Kuchisake-onna kills whether told yes or no, so they know they have to find an alternative. The danger to the latter approach is that some PCs tend to try before planning, so a GM should know their group before challenging them with a one-solution-yokai.

Those kinds of creatures make good low-level challenges or good side-quests for an evening of samurai ghostbusters.

Man, I am really tempted to give my creature Collection a cool L5R cover, but I don't think that would be legal under the fair use provisions, as the logo and such are trademarks.
Still...

And here is the next creature: The Drowning Spirit, e.g. a Hashihime or Funayūrei .

And another one: Ittan-Momen , a flying bolt of cloth that wraps around people to suffocate them. A low-level opponent for a change.

A cute new entry for my Creature Collection: The Pipe Fox or Kuda-Gitsune , a sweet animal from Chikusho-do that can bond with humans and help them with their magical powers, but has a Sorcerer's-Apprentice-like drawback.

On 12/4/2020 at 7:46 AM, Harzerkatze said:

I think those can be made into great RPG creatures, but one has to change "killing" into "attacking" and add the special feature that the creature keeps reappearing as long as the circle is not broken. So the Kuchisake-onna could ask its question and attack whether answered yes or no, and be killed after a fight, but appear again the next night. The PCs can try different solutions, which leads to the same fight if they don't work, but their work of protecting the innocents from the threat is only finished if they find the right solution.

It you've read Deathly Turns, that's kind of the approach with "Hakane" - yes, you can (in theory) beat him in a fight, but he'll keep coming back until you resolve his grievance in some way.

Next entry: the Nurikabe , a spirit with the ability to suddenly create walls of stone.
Ever become lost in a city? It's not you, it was a Nurikabe's fault.

On 12/7/2020 at 9:22 AM, Harzerkatze said:

A cute new entry for my Creature Collection: The Pipe Fox or Kuda-Gitsune , a sweet animal from Chikusho-do that can bond with humans and help them with their magical powers, but has a Sorcerer's-Apprentice-like drawback.

Hey, Watanuki had one of these in XXX-holic.

Speaking of xxx-Holic, are the hands from episode 24 from mythology or just the minds of CLAMP? Cos they really were pretty creepy.

If you don't mind, I'd like to plug this wonderful resource on the Court Games podcast. Do you mind? And should I credit you under a different name, or this name? Thank you!

@Harzerkatze

46 minutes ago, KakitaKaori said:

If you don't mind, I'd like to plug this wonderful resource on the Court Games podcast. Do you mind? And should I credit you under a different name, or this name? Thank you!

@Harzerkatze

Hi there! I'd be honored to be featured on your podcast. You can call me harzerkatze, or Ruven, my real name.

The Strange Creatures of Rokugan creature compendium is an ongoing work in progress, of course.
I regularily update the document to include new entries I designed.

17 hours ago, Harzerkatze said:

Hi there! I'd be honored to be featured on your podcast. You can call me harzerkatze, or Ruven, my real name.

The Strange Creatures of Rokugan creature compendium is an ongoing work in progress, of course.
I regularily update the document to include new entries I designed.

Thank you!

A new entry for when you want to give your players that sinking feeling: the Undertaker, for a change not directly inspired by a japanese legend.
A creature of earth that creates quicksand to give you a permanent place in its kingdom.
And a cautionary tale of the consequences when you just change your burial habits as a culture...

I have to say I was positively surprised that the Ring order in L5R fit exactly how I planned it for the Undertaker.
Representing the story image of quicksand, you sink deeper if you struggle hard, but less if you remain calm.
That means a Fire approach should be more difficult, an Earth approach better suited.
Whether by chance or concept, that is exactly how a Water-focused check works.

Next entry, inspired by something from the Trail of Shadows L5R novel: the Totate Gumo, or Trapdoor Spider Monster.

Another one: the Ikiryō , a ghost of a still living person, inspired by the great novel Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter , which has a very nice L5R feeling to it.

Well, while we're still here: a new creature, the Chōchin-Obake . The floating lantern yokai that are seen in everything from Spirited Away to The White Snake .