I know that in the AEG continuity the Castle and its environs were not reclaimed from the Shadowlands until 1130-1131. But thanks to the Adventure Oni's Mask and the Shadowlands Sourcebook, it occurs to me that despite Rokugan descending into civil war and anarchy, this could still be an opportunity to take back the Hiruma Family's ancestral home. And for a Crab focused campaign, many sessions could be devoted to it. Granted it would be more martially focused, but there are opportunities for courtiers to shine, such as acting as "ferrets" for the Kuni and using their social skills to make sure the NPCs remain untainted and spotting those who are before they become a greater threat.

Phase one is pretty obvious, leading a force of Crab to take control of the castle from its denizens for which the Shadowlands source books gives plethora of threats to face. Likewise many of these threats could be used during an extended siege period.

Phase two would be the cleansing and rebuilding of the stronghold. Here courtiers and artisans could put their talents to use making sure the repair crews remain untainted and restoring the damaged or destroyed parts of the castle or completely replacing the areas too heavily tainted for the Kuni to simply purge.

Phase three would be to help the Kuni use the processes they used to purge their wastelands of Kansen and taint in the lands surrounding the Castle and eventually all of Ienikaeru province. Granted, it would be blasted and barren, but at least it would not be corrupted.

A possible fourth Phase might be for Kaiu Engineers to extend the carpenter wall out to and around Shiro Hiruma in much the same manner that Wall Maria and Wall Rose extend out to surround Shiganshina and Trost in the Attack on Titan series. Again, this would be an opportunity for Courtiers and Artisans to shine.

Just some of my thoughts? Anyone have other ideas?

Phase 4 would require a lot of work. Do remember the wall follows the River of the Damned and it would require a lot of work and a lot of manpower to keep the builders safe while extending it to Kyuden Hiruma.

Granted, Daylight Castle is closer now to the Wall than it was in AEG timeline, but still.

19 hours ago, neilcell said:

Phase two would be the cleansing and rebuilding of the stronghold. Here courtiers and artisans could put their talents to use making sure the repair crews remain untainted and restoring the damaged or destroyed parts of the castle or completely replacing the areas too heavily tainted for the Kuni to simply purge

Indeed. Remember there are some monsters - the Watcher and the Wounded Bushi - which are more than just a goblin in a darkened room, and declaring the castle 'safe' could take huge amounts of time and effort.

18 hours ago, Diogo Salazar said:

Phase 4 would require a lot of work. Do remember the wall follows the River of the Damned and it would require a lot of work and a lot of manpower to keep the builders safe while extending it to Kyuden Hiruma.

Honestly, even without an extension of the wall, a chain of outposts and a stable, paved roads connecting the castle to the wall (or more accurately the far bank of the river) is probably stage 1 after the military engagement. If you can't ship tons of stone, dozens or hundreds of labourers and weeks of supplies without carrying them through the disorienting and corrupting shadowlands wastes, don't bother...

3 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Indeed. Remember there are some monsters - the Watcher and the Wounded Bushi - which are more than just a goblin in a darkened room, and declaring the castle 'safe' could take huge amounts of time and effort.

Agreed. Finally purging those monsters could be the climax of Phase 2. They making their final stand while the PCs are helping the Kuni to re-consecrate the Castle after all of the reconstruction is complete might be a nice way to cap off that part.

3 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Honestly, even without an extension of the wall, a chain of outposts and a stable, paved roads connecting the castle to the wall (or more accurately the far bank of the river) is probably stage 1 after the military engagement. If you can't ship tons of stone, dozens or hundreds of labourers and weeks of supplies without carrying them through the disorienting and corrupting shadowlands wastes, don't bother...

I will concede that establishing a chain of outposts along the River of the Damned might be part of phases 1 and two both. The extension of the Kaiu Wall along that route and connecting those outposts would basically be the culmination of the campaign. Perhaps a little anticlimactic, but important none the less.

26 minutes ago, neilcell said:

I will concede that establishing a chain of outposts along the River of the Damned might be part of phases 1 and two both. The extension of the Kaiu Wall along that route and connecting those outposts would basically be the culmination of the campaign. Perhaps a little anticlimactic, but important none the less.

Hey, solving logistics problem should be the climax of ANY Crab campaign.

2 hours ago, Diogo Salazar said:

Hey, solving logistics problem should be the climax of ANY Crab campaign.

I understand the intent, but a Crab campaign should have a penultimate logistics problem that feeds into how good your army is for the big battle against the Shadowlands horde that attempts to turn all of your success to ashes.

Well, clearly I was saying in jest but with a little bit of seriousness. My idea is, if you solve all the Crab logistics problem, defeating the big Shadowland army is the afterthought

My players cleansed daylight castle.

In my campaign, After the events of "Mask of the Oni" the players went to the Crab and asked about mustering an army to take back Hiruma Palace, but Kisada wouldn't allow it, as it would take too many soldiers off the wall. (and Considering Moto Tsume was about to make a major attack on the wall, it turned out Kisada was probably right.), However, the PC's had been on very good terms with the Ratling tribe from "Mask of the Oni", and in one side quest they had also met a Heroic Ratling chieftan who was running around the shadowlands saving other Ratlings from the growing shadowlands army.. That cheiftan ran a warren that was beginning to suffer greatly from over-crowding.. So they ended up helping the PC's take and Garrison Daylight Castle in order to have a more secure place for some of them to stay. Also Hida Yakamo had showed up in the middle of the fight with "His personal bodyguard" in defiance of Kisada.. Yakamo assigned some low-ranking Kaiu to help rebuild Daylight Castle, but that still didn't solve the problem of cleansing the palace and the surrounding lands. In order to achieve that goal, the PC's had to travel around the empire, finding powerful kami and convincing them to go to the shadowlands and chase away the Kansen. It turned out they would also need to use a Naga Pearl (and fortunately for them, some of the Naga were just beginning to wake up), so the PC's had to exercise some diplomacy as they needed to get the Crab, Ratlings, and Naga to work together.

That seems like it was an epic campaign. In terms of in-game time, how long did this all take? (assuming you were keeping track of the passage of time).

13 hours ago, Black_Rabbit_Inle said:

That cheiftan ran a warren that was beginning to suffer greatly from over-crowding.. So they ended up helping the PC's take and Garrison Daylight Castle in order to have a more secure place for some of them to stay. Also Hida Yakamo had showed up in the middle of the fight with "His personal bodyguard" in defiance of Kisada.. Yakamo assigned some low-ranking Kaiu to help rebuild Daylight Castle, but that still didn't solve the problem of cleansing the palace and the surrounding lands. In order to achieve that goal, the PC's had to travel around the empire, finding powerful kami and convincing them to go to the shadowlands and chase away the Kansen. It turned out they would also need to use a Naga Pearl (and fortunately for them, some of the Naga were just beginning to wake up), so the PC's had to exercise some diplomacy as they needed to get the Crab, Ratlings, and Naga to work together.

Perfect! I love these unusual and unorthodox solutions to problems. I still think it would be interesting to build a curtain wall between Shiro Hiruma and the Main Wall, but that your team was able to at least reclaim the castle and provide the Nesumi with a home is quite a feat on its own.

On 6/26/2020 at 10:21 AM, Diogo Salazar said:

That seems like it was an epic campaign. In terms of in-game time, how long did this all take? (assuming you were keeping track of the passage of time).

well.. the campaign is kind of "epic".. but in many ways it's unfulfilling. My original intention was to have the These PC's spend a little time in each clan's territory doing some adventuring as a way of getting my players familiar with the setting. For that reason, there are some things which should probably be their own epic campaign, that my campaign has treated rather lightly. I mostly used "Reclaiming Daylight Castle" as a way to introduce my players to the Naga, the Scorpion, and the plague. (since the powerful spirits they needed could be found in the Shinomen and their quickest path was through Scorpion lands)

At this point my campaign is kind of stalled with Daylight Castle being on a promising, but incomplete path to reclamation. The issue is that I don't really know how this timeline is dealing with the scorpion clan coup and exile, the abolishment of the Akodo and will the Crab ever ally with the shadowlands.. stuff like that. Also I'd rather not have to write my own adventures, but the printed adventures only last 2 or 3 sessions.

P.S.: in terms of game time.. my PC's already had experience, connections, and could teleport vast distances. So the time sync for my campaign really comes down to how long you think cleansing rituals should take, as clearing the Kansen out of a room basically involved walking through the room with the Naga pearl (or the artifact that keeps the shrine from being over-run in "Mask of the Oni" and then performing a cleansing ritual to keep the Kansen from coming back into the room while the transplanted kami do their work. Cleansing the grounds outside the castle proper would probably be more difficult and may even take a completely different tactic.