Stories with Dice
Stories with Dice is an actual-play podcast where a fellowship of everyday gamers explores fantastical worlds, distant futures, and parallel realities through tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) from Free League Publishing, Chaosium, Modiphius Entertainment, and more.
Over the years, we’ve told stories around our virtual table in the worlds of Tales from the Loop, Pendragon, Mutant Year Zero, Star Trek Adventures, The One Ring, The Electric State, Forbidden Lands, Legend of the Five Rings, and Symbaroum. Going forward, we’re focusing on a smaller lineup of games, giving us more opportunities to return to each story sooner. As campaigns reach their natural conclusions, we’ll add new stories from the worlds of Twilight: 2000, Vampire: The Masquerade, The Walking Dead, and more.
We’re not voice actors, professional entertainers, or trained performers—just friends from around the globe sharing virtual dice, stories, and a laugh or two as the game unfolds.
Stories with Dice
Shadows in the Peaks Episode 5 - A Legend of the Five Rings Actual Play
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Our samurai warriors defend the Broken Fang Watchtower as unnatural wolves attack.
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This is Shadows in the Peaks, a Legends of the Five Rings actual play from Stories with Dice. If you're enjoying our actual plays, please subscribe to Stories with Dice so you'll never miss an episode. Don't forget to rate and review us. It really helps others discover the podcast. Follow us on social media to stay updated. You'll find the relevant links in the description of each episode. Evening.
SPEAKER_05How's everyone doing? Dandy. Excellent. We like Dandy. Nice and short and sweet. Everyone's uh figured that we do the second session after the first session, so no one actually does more of the introduction stuff. If they don't, they do now. Hey Marco, how are you? Dandy. Excellent, still saying Dandy. Tony, how's things?
SPEAKER_00Hello. All good. I'll go. Just waiting for the warps.
SPEAKER_05Yes, for wolves. We like wolves. Scott? All good here. All good here. No one can beat the Dandy yet. Charlotte, can you beat Dandy? So far so good. Okay. Fantabulous. Fantabulous. I I like it Fantabulous. Damn it! I was the undisputed champion. Not now. She's just like sweatered straight underneath your feet. Straight into Fantabulous. And looks less angry than last session, so it's always good. Than before. There's still time. There's still time. There is still time. Swap at last session? Go listen to it. I'm not going to explain it. If you start here.
SPEAKER_04If you listen to it, you'll find he said exactly the same thing to us when we asked him some for some information. Go find it yourselves.
SPEAKER_05Affirmation? What do you think? Some kind of like games master or something. He made us search rooms in a roll dice.
SPEAKER_04What the fuck? I went, what the hell? Anyone think it's a role-playing game? And then told me to go to Discord to read the thing he'd already posted, which is just entirely unreasonable. I see.
SPEAKER_02What was it?
SPEAKER_05I mean, yeah, alright. So those uh massive 30-foot tall wolves that you're about to encounter, I'm sure nothing bad will happen to any of you. So, yes, where we left off, you were all discussing that technically you have completed your contract uh according to the uh charter. Which technically is true, but then Gashoyama was explaining that maybe you could do a little bit more rather than the bare minimum. Pretty much like anyone who's ever sort of like been at work in an office. Why would you do more than just the bare minimum?
SPEAKER_02But apparently this might be something you would do. Because I only get paid to do the bare minimum.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we're gonna have to tell.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it would also be a really rubbish podcast if we closed after four episodes, five episodes.
SPEAKER_05This is true. Wait a second, that won't be us. So you uh as you were saying that, we were trying to think about something else to say to sort of bolster the troops as it were, and then you heard the wonderful wolves come back that apparently attacked this place. Right, well, after the the howling of the wolves and the sort of growling that you can hear from outside, because you know, this watchtower is not particularly large, it's maybe twenty foot by twenty foot, it's not a huge space.
SPEAKER_02What are you gonna do? Is there a window or any kind of like murder hole?
SPEAKER_05It is indeed. There is a there is a there is a window that you can look out of.
SPEAKER_02Okay, I ready my bow, I look out the window.
SPEAKER_05Okay, you ready a bow, you look out the window, you can see about ten wolves outside. They're all growling, they're all in very bad shape, at least. They look like slightly matted looking large dogs to you, and they're sort of like around the base of the watchtower. Can Hiroshi go and take up a stance near the door to the watchtower, the front door.
SPEAKER_04Go downstairs, yeah. You can do that? Yeah, and basically stand right to defend the door.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, is there are there any windows that we can look outside?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, there's there's there's four windows, one on each side of the, I think one one of the windows is currently uh occupied by Kitsuni Akira, which leaves you three others, one looking south, east, and west.
SPEAKER_00What do we what do we see?
SPEAKER_05You also see the these these wolves, they're all sort of like crowding around the watchtower. Again, they're all sort of like dark-ish-coloured wolves.
SPEAKER_02They have those pustules on their mouths.
SPEAKER_05Can we see? Yeah, they they've got like sort of you can see sort of like mud or blood or or something sort of like around their muzzles. They don't look in the best of shape. I mean none of you are really sort of. I mean, Scott, you're probably the best person to kind of notice. They don't look like your everyday run-of-the-ll wolves, they look very malnourished, and they definitely do not seem to be moving like you would expect a normal wolf to do. Just want to check where the where my horse is.
SPEAKER_04Your horse is currently outside whinnying. In that case, I'll in that case I'll bring I'll bring him in before returning to the doorway.
SPEAKER_05So currently the the wolves are going towards your horse.
SPEAKER_04Okay, in that case I will inter uh Hiroshi goes outside and interposes himself between horse and wolf.
SPEAKER_01Do you ask for help?
SPEAKER_04Only if that he doesn't actually. He does not directly ask for help. I will shoot the closest wolf to his horse.
SPEAKER_05Sure. Okay, well, why don't you shoot the nearest wolf? So it'll be your uh Fi-Jitsu skill. The difficulty hit these things is twenty. Twenty. Twenty! Ooh. That's cheating. They're they're they're moving around there, so well I'll tell you what, we'll give you a free raise because you're up high.
SPEAKER_02That's more like it. Alright, let's see here. What does that mean, a free raise? So essentially you need a 15. Okay.
SPEAKER_05I mean 27 is pretty good. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, you hit one, roll for damage. Uh you get a free raise, so you can have one extra dice to roll but not keep. You got 12 damage. So yes, yeah, you you fire at one of the uh wolves and it hits it straight through its armoured toughened hide. It gives out a howl and it growls and sort of like stops to try and get the arrow out of itself, but it hasn't run off, which is what you would expect if you shot a normal wolf. Right. Tony, you were looking out the window as well to the side, and you can see some the wolves are all sort of around, kind of doing their own thing. Charlotte.
SPEAKER_01Okay, first I have a question. And I forgot where that question is. Are creatures like this controlled?
SPEAKER_05No, they are usually unless they're undead, in which case they might be, but if they're not and they're just they're just shadow corrupted or shadow tainted, then they would be acting on their own.
SPEAKER_01Okay. I was wanting to do something, but then as I was looking up, it's like that's like a six-tier spell. Even though how I was wanting to do it was like a combination. It's like Phoenix is known for like combining weird shit, right? So I was thinking about how can I combine stuff to make things go boom, but I don't think I can. You think you've got things go boom spell, I think. What I wanted to do was combine fire and air with my tempest of air and like summon to make to get fire and then try and blow the fire out in a cone. But that's Tempest of Fire, which is a mastery six spell or something like that, apparently. Yeah. You're not quite there yet, I'm afraid to say. Um I'm debating between protecting Hiroshi first or his horse. Leave Hiroshi to his fate. He's the one that didn't ask for help. Poor Hiroshi.
SPEAKER_04Hiroshi's not even paying attention to anyone else right now.
SPEAKER_01Okay, you know what I'm gonna do? I am going to. Doors are closed right now. Oh no, doors will be open because Hiroshi went out. Yep. Did our two so our guard friends didn't close it behind him? Oh, well, they're sort of like by the door.
SPEAKER_05They might be rushing out behind the same reason.
SPEAKER_01I am going to follow Hiroshi out, dodging the arrows that are coming out of the windows. And I am going to use my foundry, Tempest of Air to try and knock them all down. So now it's a cone attack. How far were these things away again?
SPEAKER_05They're sort of like probably, if you're at the doorway, they're probably I don't know, 10, 12 feet away.
SPEAKER_01Area of effect, a cone 75 feet long and 15 feet wide at its end. Would I be able to hit all of them all at once? You'd probably be able to hit probably about eight of them in one go. So then if I use a raise, it would either give plus five feet to the width of the cone, which could create You could catch the other two. It could increase damage, increase range, or as a special, increase the TN against knockdown per rays. Alright, so what I want to do is add a raise to widen the area to get all of them? Yeah, pretty much. That makes sense. And that is instant, so I don't have to worry about waiting turns. That's air, tempest of air. Mm-hmm. But the how do I cast this again?
SPEAKER_05You should be able to double check. Yes, you roll your air ring and then you add your insight rank. So if you've got an air of two, you've got an insight rank of one, you'd roll three dice, and you keep whatever your air is. So three keep two. And your difficulty is ten plus the mastery level of your spell. So 15 is what we're after.
SPEAKER_01But you wanted a raise, so it's 20. I did that. I don't think I had to add anything onto the roll itself, and I only got 10, so.
SPEAKER_05You're a 10, so you didn't get a raise, unfortunately. So you wanted to do something a bit more complicated than the basic spell. So you start to channel the air kami. Unfortunately, um, they are not listening to you. Those best. Nothing happens, I am afraid. I will be blowing some pepper into the air into their general directions tonight. Suzubi Nori unsheathes her sword and heads out to back up Hiroshi. Unfortunately, Miraumoto Akami does not. She stays inside. And the the young god that you met also steps out with his Yeri. Right, well, I think this definitely calls for um a combat. We haven't had one of these properly. I'll make an initiative roll for all of you. That's really helpful. So I've handly rolled all your initiative up, which means that it's Kitsuni Akira. You are at top of the uh the list.
SPEAKER_02What would you like to do, sir? Well, obviously, I am going to shoot my bow. The wolf that I shot initially, he is not dead. And is he still moving toward the horse?
SPEAKER_04Yes, he is still moving towards the horse. Ed, did you take into account the fact that I'm using a pole line with the mastery for plus five initiative? It would have probably if not, you can have an extra plus five.
SPEAKER_02I have a 24. And now I will attempt to do this damage again. Correctly, I hope. So I put a one in roll modifier, keep modifier stays zero.
SPEAKER_05Zero. And you don't have to put anything on the other one, just one. Okay, yeah. Are you using another one of your armor piercing? You are. Looks like it's nine. Yep, that's fine. Yeah, the um the this this arrow hits the same whole same wolf. Yeah, and uh it kind of it howls and sort of like it sort of like goes to run away, but then it kind of looks around and it does not. What is it looking around at? It's just looking around at the rest of its wolf mates, I suppose. It's pack. It's kind of it's almost I wouldn't call it sort of like sentient, but it's kind of looking for some kind of direction from the others. It's just looking at its pack. Definitely the two arrows seem to have gone straight through the hide and it's bleeding all over the snow, but it's not down.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna run out of arrows before this wolf runs out of blood.
SPEAKER_05True. Ayame, you are next on the initiative list. What is the duration of a turn in real world time?
SPEAKER_01In real world time, it's sort of three to six seconds. Okay, so like if I had something that has a duration of one minute. Yeah, then it will obviously last for quite a long time. Okay.
SPEAKER_05So what's that?
SPEAKER_04I mean, that's maths.
SPEAKER_05Geez.
SPEAKER_04Ten rounds. Ten rounds. Did you assume six seconds it's ten rounds?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we'll we'll go we'll go with that. Ten rounds. I am going to use fires of purity on Hiroshi. Anyone who comes into contact with him or strikes him with a melee attack takes two K2 wounds. Anyone that targets strikes in melee with an unarmed attack or a weapon he carried when the spell was cast also takes an extra 2k2 wounds. Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_05Very nice. So, in which case you now have affinity with uh fire, so you can take that box so you get extra dice. Alright, fire, affinity. Again, difficulty is 15.
SPEAKER_01Unless you're going for any raises? No. Okay. No, because that would to use a raise, we gotta use a void point, yeah? No. No?
SPEAKER_05No, you can just go for raises. If you void points allowing you to get extra dice and re-roll dice, that kind of thing. Gotcha. So you can do it, you you can anyone can ask for a raise up to the number of void points you have. So if you've got a void or two, you can go for things that ask for two raises. So if there's a spell that gives you various different things and you want to do one of each, you can only have to kind of like decide what what it is you have based on the number of void points. Then that would be a good one. You ask for a raise, then you grips the target number five.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Nah, nope, nothing special to stand. Spellcaster roll, let's go. 19.
SPEAKER_05Well, that'll do. So, Scott, thanks to the fires of purity, you now, anyone who attacks you, or when you attack them, you do an extra 2k2 damage. Thank you very much. So, Charlotte, what does that look like when when you cast it on um Hiroshi?
SPEAKER_01From my side, you would see her make a few quick movements, like very straightforward and pointed. Maybe a brief light at the palm of her hand, and then you would see Hiroshi enveloped in almost like an aura of fire, but you would see it more as the mirage of heat around him, more so than fire itself.
SPEAKER_05Very cool. Okay, so anyone's looking at that can see Hiroshi is enshrouded in this haze of heat. Right, well, next we have Hiroshi.
SPEAKER_04Hiroshi's Naginata is held down low as he steps forward and just attempts to cleave the lead wolf in half. So I've got a bonus because Hiroshi is Utaki Mounted Infantry. He adds plus one to his dice, to his dice pool. I also get a bonus of plus one dice because of my pole arm skill. And because of my because of my emphasis on the Naganata. So hopefully this won't utterly suck. That's a lot of dice. So two dice have exploded. Which gives Hiroshi's first attack of the campaign a grand total of 28. Well that hits! So damage for you, kind sir.
SPEAKER_05And remember the 2k2 that I've given you.
SPEAKER_04Yes, you can add 2k2 to your roll. So damage roll. Roll two. Keep two. And it's so this is 7k4. 8k4. That'll do it.
SPEAKER_05Uh 34 damage. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so you uh you wheel your uh Nugonata around. And uh yeah, you basically cut the lead wolf, you know, assume it's the lead wolf, sort of like front leg almost off, dragging your Nagonata down the flank of the uh wolf, cutting open its side, and you can see there's a bit of sort of like intestines or something, like pops up and drags along the snow as it sort of growls and sort of spits and hisses at you. Okay. And stays up. It stays up. Most importantly, it stays up. It stays up, but its leg that it's trying to like use on the front is kind of like just buckling in in itself because it's got nothing to sort of like there's no muscles left, they're all sort of like stringy around all over the snow.
SPEAKER_04Without any doubt these creatures are unnatural, that might be it.
SPEAKER_05I think we can put that to rest. So Zuminori takes a couple of steps forward, assumes a stance, and she looks them up and down and attacks them. She sort of like draws a sword. If anyone is particularly watching her, she has a very basic crane stance, which is very similar to the way the the crane family fight, but it is slightly different, and she hits, or she tries to hit, and the wolf sort of like jumps out the way. She's seems like she's a competent Kenjitsu person, but she her form is Tony, as far as you're concerned, from what you can see, is lacking some sophistication. But she's giving it a good go at least.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm wondering why I'm the last one. Because I have the way of the crane. Did you account for the Jajutsu skill that gives me double, you know, I have like six extra for my initiative role. I mean, it doesn't matter, I can be the last one. That, but maybe just check. I was surprised. That was the last one.
SPEAKER_05It adds twice your Jitsu skill. So uh what's your jiu-su skill? It's adds six, right?
SPEAKER_00It's three, so that would be six more.
SPEAKER_03I shall add it to this one.
SPEAKER_00So I should be after Kitsune Akira.
SPEAKER_03That's alright, we'll we'll uh add it for the next round.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I will go out, and I think I have uh plus one one K1 to a total of attacks and focus while assuming central stance.
SPEAKER_05So you're gonna go into starts, right? So we've assumed so far that you know if if you're attacking, so like Scott, you're going for like a normal start, normal attack stance. Nothing special, you're not trying to defend, you're not trying to sort of like be aggressive in your in your stance, you're just kind of assuming a normal form and then attacking. So, in regards to Tony, you want to go into a center stance. So in this round, you kind of like stop and you essentially stand in front of them and start to sort of like center yourself, not really doing anything else apart from drawing in sort of like I guess your inner power and your waiting before you attack the next round. So, what that will do is you can add 1k1 plus your void ring to the total of one roll. You're also getting a bonus of plus ten to your initiative score in that subsequent round. So your initiative is gonna go up by 10 next round.
SPEAKER_00You just go very slowly with my preparing, like holding slightly my, you know, preparing my katana for the strike. And I just move very delicate in between the warps. And all the it looks weird because they had all these crazy the warps like and then like very calm, just standing there, the wind flowing.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean it's it's uh it's it's very iconic. It's what the crane do really well. This is what we call aura farming. Yes, then the wolves rush forward towards you. Two of the wolves head towards the horse, which uh Takeuheroshi is now in front of. Two of them head towards Suzuminori and two head towards the crane who is shutting his eyes and just waiting for something.
SPEAKER_02Which of the two heading toward the horse is the injured one that I've been hitting?
SPEAKER_05Uh yeah, one of them is, because they're the ones that were kind of going towards them, so yeah. You're welcome, Hiroshi san.
SPEAKER_04Is the other one the one I hit with the Naganata?
SPEAKER_05Yes. Um, it's what we're bleeding, so they're the ones that were kind of like going for you guys. So the one that has two arrows in it is going to attack you. So, Scott, what is Hiroshi's title to be hit?
SPEAKER_04Armor is 20 in total. 20. So he's got a base of f he's got a base of oh, I tell a light, it's 25.
unknownYou remember?
SPEAKER_04He has a base of 20 and an armor bonus of five, so armor 10 of 25. With a damage reduction of three.
SPEAKER_05Well, one of the wolves uh comes towards you attack and snaps at you, attacking your lacquered armor, and it scratches, and the the you can see as it kind of like bites or tries to bite and scratch at you, the uh nails are all festering. It definitely looks like they're very unclean and probably carry some nasty diseases. And it scratches around you, but it doesn't quite get in there. It's really close, but you manage to like hold yourself. The other wolf that that that you kind of cut open stops for a second and then falls over dead from blood loss. It didn't quite know it was dead until then.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so that first one would take damage from the fire or fire's apparently that her or she has.
SPEAKER_05Yes, so he takes the damage. Which is 2k2, I think. Was it Charlotte? Why don't you roll 2K2 for me, sir? Uh oh that Charlotte roller is her spell. Come on then, Charlotte.
SPEAKER_01How the hell do I do that?
SPEAKER_04I think you just rolled 2D10 down in the bottom uh right hand corner. 14 Cool.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Yeah, as it kind of like it goes, as it scrapes and scratches at you, its skin starts to blister and burn. And as it sort of like scratches at you, it's it's its last action as it forced the floor, a steaming corpse. Look at that. That's two down, only eight more to go. Right, burn. And and and the wolves are sort of pairing off against each other. She is just taking a time to sort of like back off and defend herself, which she's doing. Tony, one of the wolves comes towards you and goes to attack you. What is your target I'm gonna pick, Tony?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm attacking. Yes. Well I unfortunately rolled a fifth. A fifty. A fifty.
SPEAKER_05Uh yeah, so you kind of like go into your center starts and it lunges forward to sort of like wait to hit it. Um and it bites at you. And I have you cannot do anything. I know you're in the start. Well, actually, that's not true. I think if you spend a void point, you can reduce the damage. Yeah, you can reduce your wound stuff by ten. I mean increasing your armour target number work. Yeah, so that's not gonna help you. But you can at least reduce the damage done by ten. So let's have a look. What is it gonna do? I need to declare whether I use a void point already or not. Let me just see how much damage it does. Then you can use the void point. And it does a whopping 12 damage. So, did you want to spend a void point and reduce that damage down to two points damage?
SPEAKER_00Yes, please.
SPEAKER_05That's fine. So you're not actually hurt because you're just the way it tracks, if you look at your um character sheet, you'll see that you've got a number of wounds and they're sort of like healthy, nicked, grazed. So the first damage that you have on that track is nicked, but obviously you haven't you're not you're nowhere near there yet, so you're still healthy. It's just it's basically bitten into your armor, it's kind of like it's kind of maybe grazed your very nice kimono, but it hasn't caused you to actually take damage and you're not kind of like knocked out of your centre stance. The other wolf isn't quite at you, the others are howling and just basically baying to kind of like come towards you. But the younger kind of Ashigaru, he's kind of out there with his Yari also attacking one of them. Marco, you're the one who's sort of like above everyone else, kind of looking down at this. Can you please make A? What kind of skills do you have? Some of some kind of perception-y kind of skill. Hunting. Hunting, yeah, and hunting is the yeah, hunting is a good one.
SPEAKER_02Do I use an emphasis?
SPEAKER_05What's your emphasis?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I have survival, tracking, and you can only have one emphasis, so whichever one it'll be.
SPEAKER_05Trailblazing of the three I have. Okay, that's fine. No, so just a straight. So you can get one emphasis per rank. You have to buy the emphasis. Ah, okay. So just a straight straight hunting roll, please. I have a 20. Okay. Yeah, so obviously the the the the wolves aren't acting normal, but what you can also see is that weirdly the the pack is acting in in a unified fashion. Almost they're kind of like doing their maneuvers in a almost military fashion. They're they're kind of organized, they're breaking off into pairs, they're you know, they're they're sort of like flanking with they can. They're not acting they're not acting like normal wolves.
SPEAKER_02Like normal wolves. Okay. I mean, I mean, you know, normal wolves will they cooperate and coordinate, right, but this is above and beyond that.
SPEAKER_05This is above that. They're massively coordinated in in the way they do things. Yeah. I'm guessing you want to shoot another one.
SPEAKER_02Yes. I will shoot this one right here. I guess that's the one that bit. Yes.
SPEAKER_05That's the one that bit uh so you're literally shooting straight down into the ironable, yep. Yep. Again, free raise because you're up high. Did you want to go for any raises? If you think you're better than being able to get a normal 15, you know, you can go up to two raises if you wanted to do more damage. For every raise, you get an extra one dice to add to your damage. If that's what you'd like to do.
SPEAKER_02That sounds promising, but I feel like the minute I do that I'm gonna roll shit. That's always the way. Okay. So can roll. But yeah, why not? Okay. One raise.
SPEAKER_05One raise. Okay. So your difficulty is back to 20.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And of course I rolled a 15.
SPEAKER_05That's always the way, right? Yeah, you fire straight down, but there's the the lip that you kind of like can't quite if it fires and hits the hits the snow just to the side of it.
SPEAKER_02We'll go. So Tony, one of my arrows just like hits the snow right by your foot. Now we're back into proper initiative.
SPEAKER_05So Kita Hironobu.
SPEAKER_00We'll use well, we'll attack using Jujutsu, no? Like focusing. Can I hit two? No. You can hit two, no, you can hit one. I know, I know. So you get the one.
SPEAKER_05So for you, when you roll your skill, whatever bonuses you get from Way of Prank, you also get to add one K1 to your uh to that roll. And so where where you've got the lines that say one, one that says keep, where you've got another one, you also add your void. I think it's one times two. Plus you add your void ring to the total.
SPEAKER_00So I click void, yes, and then roll modifier is one. Or keep modifier is roll modifier one.
SPEAKER_05And then there should be another plus modifier, which is just like an add modifier, which should be on the list. Total modifier. Total modifier, you add your void ring to whatever that is. So if it's two or three, you add that. So essentially when you roll your dice, you're gonna add plus three to the end result.
SPEAKER_00Okay. 35.
SPEAKER_05That'll do. Okay, uh, yeah, so you uh roll for damage, please. Okay. Do I have extra damage? You didn't go for any extra raises, so you do not get any extra damage, I don't think.
SPEAKER_00Does the state uh because I have a striking as void as my technique. And that I think you gave me something, no? I love it.
SPEAKER_05I'll have a look for you. So striking as void. Kikita Bushi. So the way of the crane is what you have. Yeah, twice your Jitsu skill to initiative roles, you also bonus of 1k1 plus your school rank in terms of all attack and focus rolls. The special plus two in combat, okay, that's fine. And then you've also got striking as void, which I stupidly did not put on your uh character sheet.
SPEAKER_00No, that's what I'm looking back. I can't remember it was something like this.
SPEAKER_05Hang on, sorry. Everyone who's listening, there is a slight error.
SPEAKER_00It's one of my techniques. I'm trying to Sorry, I was trying to find it, but it's not super easy in the book.
SPEAKER_05Please hold the line. Your call is important to us. I believe. Maybe yours has the PDF, it's a lot easier than uh looking up.
SPEAKER_00No, the PDF is gigantic. I found it.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I found it. When in center extends, your armor TN is increased by your void ring. Okay. Okay. What is that?
SPEAKER_05Surge your void ring. So whatever your void ring is. Your void is three, it means your armor gets plus three when you're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay. So we'll just do damage then. Not saying.
SPEAKER_05Roll straight damage.
SPEAKER_00So that would be eleven.
SPEAKER_05Okay, that's fine. You can spend a void point to increase your damage by 1k1 if you wish. Nah, that's okay. Okay, yes, you sort of like slash out the at the wolf as it kind of cuts its face and chest and it kind of growls back at you as it sort of like spits out sort of blood and push and stuff. Gonna see center stance or not? No, no, once you've done your center stance, you're now just in normal combat. You could go into another center stance, which means you'd this round you'd be hittable again, and then go back into it again. No. Right, Charlotte, Agasha Yame.
SPEAKER_01She is annoyed at not being able to do the Tempest of Air. So she's gonna try it again, this time using Void to increase the likelihood. Okay. She's annoyed. So the three that are in front of Hironobu and Hiroshi are gonna be her targets. Because if I try to get the other one looped in there, then Hiroshi might get hit. Yep, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_05And you're probably by the doorway, I'm guessing is how I kind of imagined you're sort of like by that doorway, sort of like leaning out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I am going to go to my character sheets, find myself Tempest of Air. Nope. I am going to go up to the air ring. Void, yes. No affinity, no deficiency, using a spell slot for air, which is my last one for this day. For today, yep. No modifiers, spellcasting roll, and go. I got 15. Yep, that's enough to hit.
SPEAKER_05Hurrah! Let's have a look. What does it do? So, you summon a powerful gust of wind or air which emanates from your position, crashes to all the path, locking them to the ground, all targets in the area of effect suffer 1k1 wounds. And thus making a tested roll against their earth. Against your airs. What's your air? It's two, right? Yep. Ah, and it was a 15. So what have they got? Let's roll. Roll them as a pack. Okay. So they all get blown over and get pushed around quite a lot for 17 damage. For all like each each each one of them.
SPEAKER_01All three of them each get seven damage.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. So you you you you basically lean out to the side of the doorway, cast your spell, or you entreat the commie of the air to push the air forward towards them.
SPEAKER_01Heck yeah.
SPEAKER_05And yeah, they they all the walls kind of get pushed, all the snow gets sprayed up either side as it kind of like buries this furrow in the um snow surrounding. Nice. And all three wolves go flying. They're all dazed and they're all on the floor, man on their side.
SPEAKER_01And I'll show to the others, use this opportunity while you can. Okay, well. I guess that leaves Hiroshi.
SPEAKER_04Hiroshi will send the kufufu back into the castle.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_04The horse listening. And then he will step next to Suzumi Nori. In fact, he's gonna go the s yeah, we put to this side. And he's going to drop into a defense, a full defensive stance, and he's gonna use the guard maneuver. Okay, what does that do, sir? So it raises her until his next turn, it raises her defense TN by 10. Hiroshi is reduced by five, but that's offset by the six he gains from the defensive stance. Nice. So I'm on a net plus one and Nori is on a net plus ten.
SPEAKER_05Plus ten. Okay. Nori takes full advantage of that and cuts the other half of the one that she was attacking in two and flicks what's remaining of the blood across the snow as the other one rushes, as the other corrupted wolf rushes in to buy at her, as she manages to then sidestep. And you kind of come in and sort of like take the hit on the sword, essentially doing what God does. Okay. The rest of the wolves, having seen their comrades get hit and stuff, in a very uncharacteristic way, back off and start to make their way back the way they came. Howling and and then running off. As they run off, you can see that, or you can hear rather, no sound from their feet as they run across the snow. There's no crunching of the compacted snow or anything. And they run pretty quickly back the way you assumed they had gone into the hills. Is it is it leaving paw prints? Uh yeah, they're still leaving paw prints and stuff. Just silent ones. It's just quite silent. Unnaturally silent. And before you know it, they're all running off. Kitsuni Akira could potentially fire a park a parting shot. I mean, there's the three that are knocked down. Yes, they they're all kind of like they're running off as well. But if they're knocked down, they're knocked down for a turn, right?
SPEAKER_01So they're lagging down.
SPEAKER_05So they're gonna they they're gonna do the same things. But at the moment.
SPEAKER_01But you can't chase them down and stab them in the snow.
SPEAKER_05I mean, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02If you want to chase them down and stab them, you can do. I'm gonna give a parting shot to one of those three that she knocked down. Fuck those wolves. Standard roll? I am going to use a void point on this attack. 1k1 to your uh roll. 17. Yeah, give it. Roll for damage. And I'm gonna use my oh, can I use the void point again or no? No, no, you're gonna use one void point per. I should have done it on the damage, not the hit.
SPEAKER_05Nine. Yeah, it it kind of like pins one of them in its in its chest as it's sort of another howl. Hirinobu, are you gonna go and attack for three or are you gonna stay where you are? They ran away, right? Yeah. They will yeah, they will be. The three that have been knocked over are sort of like trying to get back up.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so yes, in that case I will just charge. I will probably seize the katana and just run and try to hit again.
SPEAKER_05That's it. Twelve for damage.
SPEAKER_00Thirteen.
SPEAKER_05I don't do a lot of damage. No, I mean you're sort of Dr. City rolling grey at the moment, but yeah, you um Yeah, you go in and you sort of like slice open the side of the wolf. It kind of howls, but you what you realise when you're hitting it, much like you did with the others, there is there's definitely a toughness to their hide that you wouldn't normally expect from from a wolf belt. So it kind of like has almost like a you can feel the blade as it sort of like goes through the skin. It kind of like hits like a knobbly effect. Almost like you were running your a Tanto across a tatami bat. It's uh a bit of a weird kind of like feeling. Uh and not one you used to, because you know you're so used to cutting flesh and straight through. Okay. Well, Charlotte. Anything Aguashoyama wants to do.
SPEAKER_01So the one that Yoronobu just hit is not dead.
SPEAKER_05Uh is that the same one that I hit? I don't know. Well hang on, you tell me. Tony, did you want to go for the one that has the arrow in it or another one?
SPEAKER_00Uh the one that's gonna have more damage. Which case, um, it's still not dead, but it's um it's on its last legs.
SPEAKER_01I want to j Oh, what do I want to do?
SPEAKER_02Take its last leg and beat it to death with it.
SPEAKER_01I'm not sure that's that distance in time. Smack I mean, I do have a war fan, like it there's blades on it, so it's yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05I mean if your if your character's engaging in hand-to-hand combat, something's gone wrong.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes. What is envious flames? Burn something, I think. Yes. SpongeBok's fire came, which lances toward the target, hitting unerringly, so long as the target is within range. So is that like a guaranteed hit?
SPEAKER_05I think as long as you do it, that's all we like. Okay, yeah, so it is. You just have to like summon it, you don't have to roll the hit, so it doesn't matter what their target number is, you just have to summon the kami. So essentially it's you know uh a basic target number of 15, so it's quite a handy one to do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, some will do that to the one that's been wounded already. That's quite clever because it doesn't do any extra damage, but yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. So as long as you pass a standard roll, it'll have 2k2 wins. So just roll 2k2. I mean. Do you want to uh re-roll the 10 again?
unknownSure.
SPEAKER_05So just add another 10 to 18. Someone do some. So 25. 25 damage. Yeah, you've you you summon quite a powerful Kami. And it leaps from your hand, streaks across the uh battlefield past uh Kakita Hironobu and lands on the uh on the wolf as the wolf suddenly bursts into flames. I cast fireball. Pretty much it's uh a little fireball.
SPEAKER_01Hang on, we're not playing that game. No, um fire lance, like a spear going. Yeah. Like a like a like a magic missile.
SPEAKER_04Almost like a magic missile. Hmm. TM. The one that was disengaging from Suzumi Nori. If it's running past Hiroshi and he doesn't have to move, he'll take a full attack, uh, full attack.
SPEAKER_05Good one then, why don't you do that? Look at you using all the manoeuvres, so full attack. Oh, stances and maneuvers.
SPEAKER_04It's one of the best parts of this.
SPEAKER_05So best with full attack stance may not make simple or complex actions other than to attack and only use move actions. Characters gain a bonus of plus two K1 to attack rolls, but suffer a men a minus ten to your armor target number in the stance. Full attacks may not be used while mounted. So, add two k1 to your um attack.
SPEAKER_04I have to do maths on this one though. Yeah, I'll let you do that. So it's a total of roll an extra three, keep an extra two, and I've got my emphasis. Roll it. Not so many as I would have liked, but I mean it's still not terrible.
SPEAKER_05Uh 42. Okay. Roll for damage.
SPEAKER_02It's not bad, I guess. It's a shame that number is not the damage. I know it's adequate. It's adequate, isn't it? Well, his his damage is still.
SPEAKER_05I have played unfortunately many a five rings game where that is the damage that seems to keep being worse.
SPEAKER_04Is his is the fire ability still was it lasting for a minute, Charlotte? Did you say?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, so you've still got to go in so add 2k two t damage.
SPEAKER_04Three and three. Let's roll some serious damage here.
SPEAKER_05I mean 45 is enough, right? 45 damage. That's amazing. Basically, as the wolf starts to run off, you essentially step forward and slice it in half down its flank as the top half kind of disassembles itself from its legs and it drops to the floor dead. Not bad for a guy from the Unicorn clan.
SPEAKER_04He's alright. Luckily, Hirosh is so focused on uh slicing things uh, you know, being effective in combat that he doesn't notice that little uh that little quit.
SPEAKER_05Right, well, in which case they um I think it's everyone? I think that's everyone. Yeah, everybody's done their thing. The two remaining ones that were kind of knocked down get up and they sort of like follow the others as they run off. I think we'll call that combat ended.
SPEAKER_02Am I able to recover like the arrow that missed and went in the snow? I can go grab that. But the ones that hit didn't think the bodies one of the wolves, right? I think one of the wolves died, the other one ran off, right?
SPEAKER_05Yes, so one that that that died with Tony, fine, you can you get that one. The one that you shot that got emulated, unfortunately you've lost those. So you can have all but two back. That's fine. Oh no, I was keeping track. I have all I have all but one back. Okay, that's fine. Right, well, you kind of stop. You can see these wolves. They are definitely, and now you're really close to them. They smell bad. They've got you can see now now that you're really up close to them if you're looking at them, you can see they have sort of like red markings on their fur and their pelts in sort of like very kind of poor script, almost like they've been written on, and all the script says exactly that it says in the in the little piece of parchment that you found, all in sort of like really bad kanji along its side. It says the same thing. It talks about Oh. Where is it? Sorry, I've lost it. Anyone can remember it? Because I can't.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I've got it here. It says The earth is broken, the stone remembers, the wolves are watching. That is written on their on their coats.
SPEAKER_01Guess if we want our proof, here it is. You've got proof.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, we definitely do have proof that these are unnatural. Yes. Are we taking one with us? Or Hiroshi just strikes down with his Naginata and takes the head off of one of the wolves. Puts it into a bag. Alright, that is that.
SPEAKER_05You wish to pick up the head of the wolf, you can do so, but uh you were going to lose some honour for that, my friend. Because you were touching the dead flesh of a creature.
SPEAKER_04What is your honour currently? My rank is five, my points are six.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you will lose two points of your honour. So it'll still say rank five, but it'll go down to four.
SPEAKER_04Uh Hiroshi genuinely doesn't really care because back in the days when they were when they were wandering outside of Rokugan, the Unicorn and the Kir or the Kirin and then the Unicorn would quite often have to take the heads of their enemies to study to understand what exactly the threat towards the Empire was. Others may deem it dishonourable, indeed. But for Hiroshi, it's necessary.
SPEAKER_05Definitely for the likes of Yukita Horinobu, it is like a oh no. In fact, you do what what what every good Rokagani would do when someone is dishonourable, you look the other way and pretend it never happened.
SPEAKER_01Should we leave these bodies for the guards to put as a warning to others, or should I immolate them to destroy the corruption in the area, prevent it from spreading?
SPEAKER_05Well, the guards, on the lookout, they won't touch them. They'll have to send word to the nearest town to get peasants to come and do that for you. So they've they'll use the the half the the no people to do that, the human. Alright, I I'm just gonna torch them. Okay. That's fine, you don't have to make a roll for that. That's not a problem. You you summon the you summon the fire kami and burn them to ash. But yes, you you you now have proof of what is happening. Yes, the decision now is what do you want to do? Do you want to go back to uh Shokitsuki and say, hey, I've done my job. Thank you very much. Can we um can we go home? Or but do you want to investigate further? And I guess that's a question that will be answered in the next session. Oh dun dungeons. Um So I'm gonna do something a little different. I'm gonna give you some XP. How about that?
SPEAKER_04A little peek behind the curtain for the audience. We love our listeners.
SPEAKER_05It's been a while since I've uh awarded XP for five rings. So for anything, really.
SPEAKER_02What are you saying? He's saying that you're a stingy GM. He's about right. It's about the long, the short and the curly of it, yeah.
SPEAKER_05So, awarding XP. You were all here. We've done how many sessions? Three? Four. Four sessions. So you have 4 HP. Have you proceeded to uh to develop the story? I think you I think you all have really. I don't think that's something that you haven't been doing. I think you've You've done that so we can give you all a point for that. Do you think that any of you have acted specifically within character? If so, please feel free to tell me what you've done.
SPEAKER_01I've interrogated the innkeeper, which aligns with my own personal ethos of not telling lies and of not standing other people's lies.
SPEAKER_05So if you look at your um you should all have adva advantages and disadvantages in this game. Have a look at those and have a look to see whether or not you think that you've kind of met some of those advantages if you use them, so I don't know. Is one of your advantages not to lie? Can't lie. Can't lie. Okay. Good for everyone else to lie.
SPEAKER_02What do you think of this? I believe I believe I worked within mine, especially his overconfident disadvantage in the last session with that Ronin.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't think I have a disadvantage advantage to apply, but I was being as you know, following, you know. Supposed to be a dutiful samurai that follows the orders to the letter, so I think you I agree you're doing that.
SPEAKER_04Hiroshi Hiroshi's horse has a particular meaning for him as part of his uh bit of betrothal. He will defend it at all costs, above and beyond anyone he travels with. And a curate is far more important than any of you.
SPEAKER_02And the curate knew that and appreciated it, and that is why he went after that wolf. Hmm.
SPEAKER_05Well, why don't you have another couple of XP for all of you? So that's how many is that? Um six.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Seven. Six.
SPEAKER_02I already have six, so if you're giving us more, then I would have seven.
SPEAKER_05Well, seven XP then for all of you. Just, you know, I'm being particular. Huzzah, because you're a card out. Indeed. Charlotte! Cool. So yeah, she'd be able to spin all that, which we can do offline. But it when when you're looking at the uh the how to give XP in in a fourth edition, I don't know where's fucking the others. It's just basically about how you played your character stuff, dude. You don't normally get a lot of XP, well at least with me. I'm quite low on the XP. Yeah, which take a while for you to have That's why we're just It's like you played games with me before, Marco. I mean honestly.
SPEAKER_02Me, I'm a grown man, I don't play games.
SPEAKER_04Sorry. Get involved. What are we doing now? Physical and social simulations. Exactly, Scott.
SPEAKER_05I got you back, Marco. See, it's a really handy way of kind of giving them it's it you you there there's some discussion to be had with players as to how they feel they've done and actually talking about how other players think they're other players have done. So you can have that kind of long kind of conversation if you wanted to. But yeah, I think that that's pretty much it for this session. So um thank you very much for listening. And we'll be back again, same time, same place.