Asahina Midori

Asahina Midori is a Scholarly Shujenga, and attempts a Fire Stance courtesy check (Fire 3, Social 3) targeting Seppun Hirohide and Shinjo Khenbish (Base TN4 for Hirohide's vigilance, reduced to TN3 for courtesy checks due to Midori's lower status).
Rolls: Blank, Oppportunity x2, Success x2, Explosive Success/Strife

Keeps: Success x2, Explosive Success/Strife

Resolve Explosive Success: Explosive Success/Strife - further resolves into Opportunity/Strife

Resolve Strife: Gains 4 Strife

Resolve Opportunities: Shinjo Khenbish gains 2 strife

Resolve Success: 4 Successes vs Difficulty 3 - succeeds with 1 bonus successes, plus 4 bonus successes from strife for a total of 5.

• Persuade Seppun Hirohide (Kitsuki Fuji as Castellan) - 4/5 momentum

Bayushi Katsu

Bayushi Katsu is a Seasoned Courtier with the Sneaky template, and attempts an Air Stance courtesy check (Air 4, Social 4) targeting Seppun Hirohide and Shinjo Khenbish (Base TN4 for Hirohide's vigilance, reduced to TN3 for courtesy checks due to Katsu's lower status). He gives up 1 glory and 1 honour to interrupt the lower status Asako Hoharu.

Rolls: Blank, Opportunity x2, Success/Strife x2, Explosive Success/Strife x2

Keeps: Opportunity x2, Explosive Success/Strife x2

Resolve Explosive Success:Success/Opportunity x 2

Resolve Strife: Gains 2 Strife

Resolve Opportunities: Opportunity x4: Shinjo Khenbish loses 2 momentum unless he offers a minor concession (implied to be supporting Katsu to the post of the castellan's advisor)

Resolve Success: 4 Successes vs Difficulty 3 - succeeds with 1 bonus success.

• Persuade Seppun Hirohide (Shinjo Khenbish as Castellan) - 5/5 momentum and completed if you give the concession, 3/5 if you do not.

Alright, team, what do we think? Advisor isn't a position either of you were interested in, so we could afford to share it. We don't know anything about Katsu and you should never trust a Scorpion, but we don't know much about anyone else either, and I'm not sure I trust anyone else here other than maybe the Lion anyway. It looks like the window to get castellan is probably going to close if one more Crane or Phoenix gets a chance to speak, so if you don't think we should let Katsu be advisor, I would appreciate someone else helping me get those last couple of momentum points right away. Thoughts?

I honestly don't think I can provide sufficient momentum to get you the role in one action. I'd take the Scorpion advisor. I don't reckon he wants to harm you and accepting the offer now shows that you're willing to scratch backs, which he'll appreciate.

Go for it if you want! What could possibly go wrong?

So that's a yes?

Yes. I'll concede support for Katsu as Advisor.

Asako Koharu is a Seasoned Courtier, and attempts an Air Stance courtesy check with Nasu Masumi's assistance (Air 4, Social 3, skilled assistance, Inexhaustible Politeness ) targeting Seppun Hirohide (Base TN4, reduced to TN3 for courtesy checks due to Koharu's lower status).

Rolls: Blank, Opportunity x 2, Success, Success/Opportunity, Explosive Success/Strife x3

Rerolls ( Inexhaustible Politeness ) Opportunity, Success/Strife > Success, Success/Strife

Keeps: Success, Success/Opportunity, Explosive Success/Strife x3

Resolve Explosive Success: Success, Opportunity/Strife, Explosive Success/Strife > Blank

Resolve Strife: Gains 5 Strife

Resolve Opportunities: Opportunity x 2 - Provide skilled assistance to Tsume Ron.

Resolve Success: 6 Successes vs Difficulty 3 - succeeds with 3 bonus successes, generating 2 momentum

• Persuade Seppun Hirohide (Tsume no Doji Ron as Senior Gunso) - 2/5 momentum

Oh man. I want Sayaka to get the gunso position, and I also specifically don't want Tsume Rin to get it. I want us to treat the Yobanjin with compassion, and Rin's record with the Goseki isn't great. Maybe we can ask for help from Matsu Tomuko? Tomuko is probably more motivated than I am to stop Rin. Possibly Yokoi too? Maybe we ask Chinatsu to help? It seems like whatever favors we can call in, now might be the time to do it.

That said, since I got the position I wanted, I want to defer to other players with how we use whatever remaining resources we have to put them in the positions they want.

Also, I might have mixed something up in my notes. Is it Rin or Ron?

Yes, it's Ron, apologies and well caught. Blame crossed wires with another campaign currently playing Sins of Regret (featuring a ronin named Rin). Corrected above.

Sayaka can trust to Chinatsu's backing as a friend, assuming the ronin gets a chance to speak (as a low status individual she's potentially going to be interrupted and talked over), and won't really need to do anything to get her assistance.

Tomuko can almost certainly be ultimately talked into any plan that involves Tsume Ron not being her superior officer.

Doing anything with her in a coordinated fashion, though, will require someone to actually talk to her (she's just behind you on the closest table at the 'foot' of the hall, so it needn't be obvious but will require someone's action*). Obviously Khenbish has already acted, but fortunately so have a fair proportion of the Phoenix and Crane.

You will also probably need to figure out what to offer for her support. Yes, she hates Ron, but Sayaka and Ron are not the only two possible candidates. Based on the argument of combat experience, both Yokoi and Fuji would definitely qualify (though if the Dragon are trying to avoid senior posts the latter may not thank you, and the former is arguably better suited to the junior gunso's ashigaru commander responsibility)

For that matter, having the first (and arguably most important) two positions both go to Unicorn samurai when you're (a) the only two in the room in a group of two dozen and (b) fairly close relatives is something that some in the audience who might otherwise be neutral might be reflexively opposed to; the Legions have an (admittedly often circumvented) tradition of avoiding any one clan having a dominant control of a garrison.

* note that since it won't require a check, a water stance free action is fine, but it will nevertheless count as a 'scheme' type action, so Persuade would be unavailable for whoever does it, limiting them to the 'support' type action Assist .

Given my lack of Courtesy, I might be better off doing an Assist in Water than anything else...

I suspect that we're going to need to have a non-ally in one of the 3 military roles. And I think I'm counting Lion as an ally group currently. The question then becomes where do we want to compromise? We could try going the other way and suggest that Rie would obviously be a good choice for one of the Gunso positions, since they are more familiar with the conditions there than one of the Crane.

Gonig off topic slightly, does anyone want to lean into social skills and Shuji? It seems to be an area we are lacking in. The last character I played long-term was a Shugenja + social, so it wouldn't be my first choice...

I'll probably pick up at least one more rank in a social skill. Courtesy is currently my highest social skill, and it's in my rank 2 curriculum, so there's some temptation to lean into that. Command isn't, but it probably makes more sense for a castellan, especially if we might see Mass Battle. Maybe I do both? I wasn't planning to pick up any more shuji (except maybe for Mass Battle) until rank 3, when they're in curriculum again.

What if we propose this: Shiba Rie as another advisor, Sayaka as gunso, Yokoi as junior gunso, Umeko as head priest, and... the Yasuki as negotiator? I would expect Tomuko to support this, since it pushes back against Tsume Ron as being a superior officer and gives Yokoi an appropriate appointment. It concedes something to the Phoenix without giving them too much power. It gives players the positions they want. I'm especially flexible about the negotiator position, but since they probably need to negotiate with Dragon and Phoenix the most, a Yasuki seemed like someone more likely to be impartial.

Also, trying to think a little outside of the box here, I'm not opposed to marrying the right person, if that helps us politically.

That's going to require persuading Hirohide to appoint two advisors - currently there's only one on the books. Plus Bayushi Katsu may not be too pleased to see you trying to split the appointment he's after into two.

Yokoi as junior gunso

• is a logical choice from the perspective of experience, so should get the pragmatists on side
• Might be seen as sufficient quid pro quo for Tomuko's support somewhere else (i.e. Sayaka for senior gunso)
• Is potentially placing a Ji-samurai in command over full-blood clan samurai, which might get up the noses of the traditionalist clans - but since those are the Lion, Phoenix and Crane, and the latter two are probably against you whatever you do, that might not be a big deal.

Might also be worth checking with the Yasuki before including them in your proposed command structure.

There are also three Yojimbo slots the garrison needs to see assigned; yours, the ambassador's and the senior gunso's.

Just checking in with where we're at. Are we waiting for @Zantosa to make a roll, with Assistance from Umeko?

technically Umeko goes first, since the assist action precedes the persuade action.

Which means what you're waiting on is an agreement what you're offering Matsu Tomuko, and what you're asking for, in the scheme action. There's no check, so there's no extended negotiations and you won't know whether she's going to take the deal until she takes her turn.

My priorities, in order, are:

• Making sure other players get positions they want
  • Maybe starting with Sayaka, just because it looks like the senior gunso position window will close soon
• Getting other competent people in power. Most people we don't know well enough, but Yokoi as junior gunso seems good
• Getting our allies in power. Matsu Tomuko & Chinatsu?
• Blocking Harumori from getting a position

Working with the Lion to secure the two gunso positions seems promising. Should we try that?

Ultimately, I'll support anything the other two players agree to.

What's the worst that can happen? Let's give it a go.

Tomuko is clearly employing a Lion Clan sign language of some sort to pass directions - mechanically speaking equivalent to

Sayaka can make her Persuade action with Umeko's support. She can also take Chinatsu's support as well, but risks the lower status samurai being interrupted (since, again, Chinatsu has to take her turn first if you want her assistance)- please indicate before rolling whether you wish to do so so I can let you know what happens...

I've been slowly debating with myself if Sayaka is suited for being the Senior Gunso, and the implications of trying to fill all higher positions with Unicorn doesn't sit well with her sense of honour. So is there a third party we might want to see as the Senior? And maybe "do a Scorpion" and suggest having Sayaka appointed the junior?

you could always swap things around and argue for

Yokoi would have to deal with issues of status but unless she's very close to the Daimyo's immediate relatives, theoretically so would Tsume no Doji Ron, being a Doji vassal and not a Doji herself. As a former heimin it'd be far more pronounced for him, of course.

Plus he's clearly a veteran too, which was the argument put forward for Ron, as well as an experienced drillmaster. You don't know the details of his history, but it's fair to assume without making a check that describing an act which saw the protagonist elevated to samurai rank, especially in the traditionalist and militaristic Lion clan lands, as 'a minor ruckuss' is likely to be a serious understatement....

That does sound good for me, but might have other implications? What does the rest of you say?

For my part, I feel like all my interests are satisfied. You get a role you want. We elevate an ally. We put someone competent in power. If you're happy with it, I say go for it.

what he said

I think I get two assistances then?

Water/Courtesy: Success/Strife, Blank, Explosive/Strife, Success, Explosive/Strife, Opportunity

Not keeping blank

Explosive/Strife => Opportunity (keep)

Explosive/Strife = Explosive (keep) => Opportunity (keep)

5 successes, 3 opportunity, 3 strife. Lower strife by 2 with one. Using the other two to render assistance to the next person who supports the motion. Sayaka does not share the strife with any of the assistants.

And wow, assistance is more powerful than I first thought, I missed the extra kept dice before!

Sayaka :

Courtesy reduces TN4 to TN3, meaning success with 1 bonus success, giving 2 momentum.

• Persuade Seppun Hirohide (Yokoi as Senior Gunso) - 2/5 momentum

.....and that's everyone now taken their turn, I believe?

Tomuko :

Matsu Tomuko is a Loyal Bushi, and attempts a Water Stance courtesy check with Shinjo Sayaka's assistance (Water 3, Social 1, skilled assistance) targeting Seppun Hirohide (Base TN4, reduced to TN3 for courtesy checks due to Tomuko's lower status).

Rolls: Opportunity x 2, Opportunity/Strife, Success, Success/Strife

Rerolls (Spends a void to Invert Sworn Enemy [Tsume Ron] ) Opportunity x2> Success, Opportunity

Keeps: Opportunity/Strife, Success x 2, Success/Strife

Resolve Strife: Gains 2 Strife

Resolve Opportunities: Removes 2 strife.

Resolve Success: 3 Successes vs Difficulty 3, generating 1 momentum

Persuade Seppun Hirohide (Yokoi as Senior Gunso) - 3/5 momentum

Bonus Water Stance action: Assist Kitsu Harumori for a persuade action (Sayaka as Junior Gunso)

Ron :

Tsume no Doji Ron is a Loyal Bushi, and attempts a Fire Stance courtesy check with Asako Koharu's assistance (Fire 3, Social 1, skilled assistance, Ferocity ) targeting Seppun Hirohide and Matsu Tomuko (Base TN4, reduced to TN3 for courtesy checks due to Ron's lower status).

Rolls: Success/Strife x 3, Explosive Success/Strife x2

Rerolls ( Ferocity disadvantage exploited) Success/Strife x 2 > Opportunity x 2

Keeps: Opportunity, Success/Strife, Explosive Success/Strife x2

Resolve Explosive Success: Opportunity, Explosive Success/Strife > Success

Resolve Strife: Gains 3 Strife

Resolve Opportunities: Matsu Tomuko gains 2 strife, reduce the TN of the next check Shiba Rie makes by 1

Resolve Success: 5 Successes vs Difficulty 3 - succeeds with 6 bonus successes thanks to Fire Stance, generating 4 momentum

Persuade Seppun Hirohide (Rin as Senior Gunso) - 6/5 momentum and completed

....Erk. That was a rather better roll than anticipated!

Interesting times!

Oh, I forgot there's a water bonus action, but I can't really find anything worthwhile to do with it in an intrigue. You have any idea?

Also, new initiative?