SPEAKER_03 0:05

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 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.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Hi, welcome back to another episode. It's Five Rings, as it has been for the last however many episodes it has, I lose count sometimes. In fact, I lose count of a lot of things. Six episodes, okay. Six. Six episodes, okay. Yes. Um that's always good. Well, in that case, we'll just say hi to everyone. Hey Marco, how are you doing? Hey, how are you? I'm fine, thank you. Tony, hi.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Hello. Well that's no one. Charlotte, how's stuff you? Greetings and salutations. Stuff with me are stuff. They're stuffing. They're things, they're thinging. It's gonna be a busy day today.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Ah, right, I need more beer. Scott, how are you? I'm just feeding off the energy coming from my fellow players today. Everyone seems so enthusiastic. Woo! That's because we're up.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

We have no idea what we're doing. Okay, so we left off last time. You'd come to the next tea house. And in the tea house you caught sight of our mysterious man in the white and grey. The rod for my own back that I created as a throwaway character has gone wrong. But before that, I ended the last session with the birth of Rokhagan and a story around that. So actually, I've done a little tiny bit of prep, just a little bit. So you are watching these uh these performers perform the the founding of the Rokhagani Empire. And so we open on this uh on this scene. There is a black void, there's sort of colours sort of flapping down the sides of the stage. I mean the stage is sort of like a a setup just off to the side of the tea house, or in the tea house, but in the corner of the room. Lots of different coloured ribbons sort of flapping around. Before the world had shape, before names had meaning, there was the breath. So begins the chant of a dragon monk who comes on stage. Not with fire or war, but with silence. The celestial heavens shimmered with ten kami, born of Lady Sun's brilliance and Lord Moon's shadow. But even then the void whispered, Togashi heard it, not as a voice, but as a question. The kami looked down upon the mortal realm, a place of suffering and yearning. Hante saw a throne, Akodo saw a battlefield, Doji saw a court. Bayashi saw masks, Shinju saw roads, Shiva saw sacrifice, Isawa saw power. Fuleng saw dominion. Togashi saw a possibility. When the kami leapt from the heavens, Togashi did not fall, he descended, not in fire, but in stillness. He chose the mountains where the stars touched the earth. There he waited, not to rule, but to watch. Fu Leng too fell, but not by choice. The void twisted his path, or perhaps he chose a deeper truth. At which point the screen behind sort of raises up out of the void, and it is it is changed by mountains and sort of pine trees, sort of like crudely painted in the background. And then some people come out from the side, they all look like dragon monks, and they all say in unison, the first riddle is the fall, a punishment, or a path, and they pose that as a question. A lot of music happens, there's some chanting, and then there's um some drums, and sort of the screen sort of goes away, and then it comes back, and you're then left with a group of players on the stage, all of them having masks of all the different khani. From this mountain to Gashi watched the kami shape the world, each built a clan, a legacy, and a mask. Hante forged the empire, he bound it in lore, and you can see sort of Hante sort of walks centre stage, and he has got a whole pile of scrolls, which he's kind of showing everyone, and then he walks off. Akoda taught honour, he made war sacred. Akodo comes out full in battle armor, sort of all the yellows and the browns, and he kind of like pulls out his sword, does a couple of cuts in the air, and then stops off kind of quite jokingly. Next, Doji crafted beauty but demanded perfection. The Lord Doji comes out and he has in his hand a sword by his side, and this person sort of holding like a painting easel, and he's got a paintbrush in the other one, and he's just going at it all over the place on the actual easel, and both sort of walk off. Bayushi whispered truths but hid his face, and this guy in black and red kind of comes in, and he's got this over-exaggerated mask with all the scorpion motif around the edges, and he sort of like very coily opens up this overly sized fan, which he sort of flaps around and then walks off. And then Shinjo rode far but left her heart behind. This this female riding a horse, which is essentially one of those sort of ponies that you kind of put your feet into and then you hold the reins, but it's got the sort of like long black flowing hair. She sort of like goes off to the side. Shiba bowed to Isawa but lost his voice, and Shiba's kind of comes on with Isawa, sort of like doing this quiet comical bow and basically doing whatever Isawa wants. Fu Leng raged, but was once a brother and this dark, sort of like only red-shaped kind of person, kind of like sets on stage, and so people there's a low kind of hiss and stuff from people. Tigashi did not build a city, he built a monastery. He did not name a clan, he named but a question. The dragon clan was born not of conquest, but of contemplation. Its samurai was scribes and swordsmen, poets and prophets. They did not seek answers, they sought meaning. Togashi comes along bare chested as this monk, and he kind of like walks in, very much not a caricature like the others, but a sombre, kind of reflective kind of person. And he stops in the middle of the stage and says, The second riddle is a mask a lie or a truth waiting to be seen. Everything kind of goes black again, and there's some more music, there's some more sort of like drums, people kind of come around and offer you all sort of sake or tea, as you sort of like have a almost like an intermission, and then the seren's open again, and you've got this dark, wasted land in the background. You can see this is the Shadowlands, you can see a large sort of the crab wall, sort of like painted off to the side. The monks say again, Fu Leng Rose, twisted by the void, his army of horrors swept across the land in the background. You can see all these paper only and stuff that are sort of really large compared to some of the samurai that are on stage. The kami fought, the empire bled, the twelve black scrolls were sealed, but were not destroyed. Togashi did not fight as others did, and there's a whole load of fighting, sort of like mock fighting on stage. He walked among the dying, and Togashi kind of makes his way amongst all those that have fallen down, throwing out these red ribbons to show blood. He walks among the dying, he whispered to the Oni, he touched the edge of madness, and he returned. He saw that Fu Leng was not a villain, he was a mirror, a warning, a possibility. The war ended, the empire endured, but the questions remained, the third rival. Is evil a force or a choice we make again and again? Or the monks come out, and they all say, The story of Rokhagon is not written in ink, but in breath. Every choice, every duel, every betrayal adds a line. Togashi lives still, they say, or perhaps he died long ago, or perhaps he's reborn in every soul who asks why. The final riddle. Is the story of Rokagon a tale of gods or of mortals who dare to dream of being gods? And then everything kind of closes. And then everyone kind of like does very much sort of a very sedate kind of clap, and then all the performers come back on stage, they all bow, and then they all kind of like go their separate ways, and the rest of the tea house erupts in conversation about well, this is a very different thing. Now, all of you know that this is a very stylized founding of Rock'n'Gun, specifically seen through the dragon's eyes, as opposed to your own clans. Hirinobu, you would have had the founding be very much about obviously the perfection and about how the crane were there to sort of bring peace amongst the clans, that kind of thing. Again, the the asarra is about knowledge and being able to understand the power of the kami and and to entreat them. That's the kind of stuff that you learn. Hiroshi, your kind of understanding of Rokagan is very different because Shinjo was a kami for quite a long time and until they went off to the Burning Lands, she was there. So she actually stayed, apart from Togashi, one of the longest staying kami, like walked them into the world, and then disappeared, and then you all came back without her. And then, I guess to a degree, uh Kitsuni, Akira, yours is a relatively new clan in the grand scheme of all of them, and so the mantis are not featured in the founding of Rokagon. The Mantis came from the the Kreb clan many, many years ago, so there is no sort of like founding Mantis clan or anything like that. And then your clan itself, your family, it's being Kitsumi, isn't even mentioned at all. So it's not even a footnote in the whole history of Rocagon.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

Of course, I expect no less.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

But everyone else seems to think it's really good. The uh the play was called The Veil Between the Stars, and they were performed by the Mountain Gate Mount Entertainment Troop. Um, so they seem to be quite a well-known troupe, and they all kind of like have a conversation and they're happy to sort of like wander around. Now they they've taken off all their masks, and they're sort of like you know traditional kind of dragon monks for the most part. Yeah, but that kind of like gives you the rest of your evening. Are you going to particularly do anything or are you kind of gonna I don't know, what's your plan?

SPEAKER_04 11:01

Uh I'm thinking what would be the proper way to acknowledge that they did a good job and it would be okay if I invite them to a psyche or something. Absolutely, that's fine. So we'll do that.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

There is a there is a tithe box to show your pleasure. You may add Boo or Zenny or or you know, if you're really really generous of Koku, which I don't think anyone's going to do. And and of course, if you just stand up and obviously introduce yourself and explain that you really enjoyed their work, that is probably far more rewarding to them in society than actually the money.

SPEAKER_04 11:35

Yeah, I I will probably do that. I will stand up, approach the crowd, and I mean the troupe, and basically acknowledge that I really enjoy the representation and how the crane clan you know help bring Rokugan to to where it is now. And I will just ask from some sake and I will invite them all to drink with me. I will not drink a lot, just a sip, just to be polite, but I will allow them to finish the bottle. Cool. What is your status? My status, that's uh and your glory.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

How well how well known are you, and how good are you how well whereabouts you are?

SPEAKER_04 12:15

And my glory is one.

unknown 12:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:17

No, I yeah. Okay. And nobody. It's fine. I'm just gonna roll some dice, hold on.

SPEAKER_03 12:25

But I enjoy the fine arts. Those dice have all question marks on them, so we don't know what he rolled. Marco loves that. My favorite thing in the whole world.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

So the the the lady that you're speaking to, she bows and says, Lord Hironobu, I I understand that um you are from the Kikita family, and we have heard of you. You have great prowess with your um with your with your with your dueling abilities. We are very honored to uh have such esteemed guests now. I guess I'll play. And they kind of bow very low.

SPEAKER_04 13:00

And they'll bow too, not so low, but I will bow. Okay. It turns out that they've heard of you. In that case, I will tell them about one of my duels, in which I don't know. I would I would make I mean I will talk about something that I actually did, but without being humble about it.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

I mean you can make a sincerity role for me. 21. Okay, yeah, you you pretty much explained about your duel. What was it, Tony?

SPEAKER_04 13:30

Tell me, what was your duel? So it was on in our lands with a gaijin, with somebody who was perhaps harassing, you know, one of the one of the villages in our lands, and there was this gaijin who was actually, you know, not behaving well, like mistreating the villagers and taking advantage in one of the inns. And I basically uh I guess I was working with the rest of the students of my Kakita class, and I basically confronted him and I told him that this was not a proper behavior and that he should be behaving properly. He basically stood out to me and I just could not stand his way of talking to me, and I just showed told him to prove his value with a duel. And I basically, you know, I basically kissed him.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Well, I'll tell you what you can do by by your great your great way of just of of explaining that. So when you're doing that, you obviously explain ever all everything that's happened around the jewel. And it's not just to her, there are people around you that are actually listening to this as well. Congratulations, you've uh explained basically what's happened in such a way you've actually raised your glory through doing that. I mean, normally it takes your lord to do that, but obviously your lord will have would have would have agreed to this and and you would have learned that way. So, but they don't know that. So at the moment, because that's happened, because you have the duel, you can have point two so on your character sheet of glory. So I think you've got glory one at the moment. So it should have glory one, and then there should be another box next to it. You just put two points in that, you've raised your uh you've raised your glory by by expressing who you are. So while while the samurai are not overly boastful, when you're quite honest about something you've done and you will use the quote in quote boast about it, you're basically saying this is how good I am, and other people acknowledge it. When they do that, you gain glory. If your if your boss or your your your senior sees that, you might raise in status or maybe in honour, depending on what it is that happens.

SPEAKER_03 15:26

Marco, anything you particularly want to do? A cura is actually going to put a koku in the box. Was it a box? Yeah, was it a box? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. I only have two kokos, so now I'm one headload. That's like a year's salary. And uh he doesn't say much of anything, but he will uh acknowledge the the performers, you know, with sort of like a a bow after he puts the the coco in the in the in the box, he'll just sort of acknowledge the performers and bow and thank them for their exceptional performance.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Okay. They um they're very grateful and they sort of show that. They bow a lot and are very grateful for the fact that's what you've done. Some of them some of the sort of like younger performers are sort of like, did he just do that? I mean, that's just a lot of money, but okay. What about you, Scott? What are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Uh Hiroshi will raise an eyebrow at Akira's uncharacteristic display of charity. Well we'll also furnish we'll furnish a few coins, but absolutely not a koku uh in support, and we'll make a point of singling out the actor who played Shinjo and nod and say that they did the Mistress of the Four Winds great honour. They are extremely grateful for that.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Bow a lot, and obviously thank you for the money. And it's it's a you're you're you are the only unicorn that's here, so they're very, very grateful. In fact, others around you kind of hear your words because you know you're the only other unicorn to go, actually, it's I I liked your unicorn depiction. And they're also like they nod sorrowingly, kind of like go, oh yes, that's you know, that's good, that's good. I guess that leaves you, Charlotte. What is uh Ayame gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 17:15

I would give the players praise for their performance and then offer them a blessing. They're very grateful for your blessing.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

And as monks, they're obviously they're they're all followers of Shinsei and of the kami, so they're very grateful for that, and especially as such a they use the words someone who is a knowledgeable Shigenja as the Snawa and the Phoenix are, so they're very grateful for the your blessings. So you kind of do all that, you kind of get distracted by the theatre, and when you look again, the gentleman in the sort of like the grey and the white has basically shuffled off. Oh look, it's them again, right? Run away. Which leaves you the rest of the night to sort of like finish off your food, and I guess in the morning, unless you particularly want to do anything else here, are you gonna head off to Shiraziro?

SPEAKER_03 18:00

I believe so. Yeah. Okay. Scott, you know nothing of a Cirus charity.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Nothing. Nor does anybody else, because no one's ever seen it before.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Right, well, you kind of head off.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Scott, I guess you're up front as usual. As always. And you've got a way of the lands. I thought Scott was always in the rear. Scott is Hiroshi's normally up front.

unknown 18:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Scott Scott tends to hide as far away from anything serious as possible.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Well, you um you make your way towards Shiruzurai. Uh which means you have to make your way north off the main road and into the mountains. You kind of follow this track. There is a road that kind of goes that way. So it's not like it's it's a hard ship to sort of find. Do we still see the rift? Well, the rift is way long gone. So it's in the general direction of where it was, but that that rift was way back in um.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Oh, so it wasn't like leading an actual path to it?

SPEAKER_03 18:52

No, no, it was only like a foot, it was only a foot-long gash in the earth.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

I misunderstood then.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

But yeah, so you it would be on the same lie, I suppose, of where that that little thing was. But yes, you still you make your way towards the mountains. It takes about half a day to sort of go up into the hills, and then before long you're actually starting to um follow a mountain path up towards Shirozirai. It's chills, there's still snow again on the ground, and you have to kind of make your way through a lot of sort of debris that seems to have fallen onto the road, so you kind of have to make your way gingerly over that. You reckon it's gonna probably take you the good part of the whole day to get here, uh Hiroshi. Yeah, you sort of like make your way towards the the keep. Is there anything particularly you want to do or anything like that? Or are you happy just as to keep ahead of the game and I mean you you you're on the horseback, or you're gonna be leading the horse up the mountains?

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Apologies. Hiroshi will keep keep to the paths mostly. He's not gonna be riding he'll be doing what he normally does. He'll ride maybe 150 feet ahead of ever of the main column. Trot back every now and again to make contact with them, but largely keeping to the roads and the paths. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

Could you please, kind sir, make some kind of perception skill role? If you have perception?

SPEAKER_01 20:21

He does indeed. So, yep. Okay. Unless I can add his hunting to it, I guess, but probably not. And no, no, you're just basically making your way up.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Up the up the mountain path. You're up front, sort of leading your horse. And as you're kind of like getting sort of like probably about halfway into the mountains, a fog is kind of lifted and kind of, or more point, the the fog has kind of come down from the mountain, low-lying cloud, everything starts to get that that chilly kind of feeling, as it's sort of like the the drops of sort of the cloud kind of like touch onto your satin and your and and your silk kimonos, and just sort of like making your way towards or just keeping away ahead. You can see maybe ten or so foot in front of you, and so you just kind of keep to the main sort of like path. As you're kind of getting towards the main sort of path, you can see a gentleman kind of like steps out onto the path, and he's sort of like got a a large sort of like club, which he's sort of like wielding on his shoulder. You reckon he can see you, but probably hasn't seen the rest of them.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

And he says, Well well now, what have we got here? I am Utaku Hiroshi of the Unicorn clan. And you would be Kazooie, the whisper, I'm called. Well met. He says, There's a toll to be paying in these parts. Is there now? How much would that toll be? How much money have you got? Ah, a negotiable toll.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

He kind of looks down at his feet and um he starts talking to them and says, What do you mean, negotiable toll? I don't think it's negotiable. And he looks off to his side, just up into the mess and just goes. I don't think it's negotiable. Do you think it's negotiable? No, I don't think it's negotiable. And he kind of looks at you again and he's sort of like sprinting and sort of like his eyes are like flipping backwards and forwards.

SPEAKER_03 22:10

Do we do we see this now? Oh sorry.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

So yeah, so you're you're kind of like coming, so you can hear the conversation that's being through the mist. So I guess who's next in the in the in the line? Sort of like going up uh going up the path. Well we'll say it's continuing Akira, because that would make sense, right? So did you want to like step closer so that you'll be seen, or do you want to just so you can just see the back of Hiroshi's horse?

SPEAKER_03 22:34

I don't want to be seen, no, not by this guy. But if I could somehow get a view of him without being seen, that would be preferable.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

I guess it's that kind of as soon as you see him, he'll probably be able to see you in the mist, so unless you to kind of disappear off the path, perhaps, but that would require some kind of stealth, and that would also require an honor roll from you to kind of show that you're using dishonorable tactics like hiding from your enemy.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

Dishonorable tactics? Alright, I will step forward. He can see me, and I'll make sure he sees my bow.

SPEAKER_02 23:10

Yeah, you kind of sort of step forward and he kind of goes, Well, my friend, looks like you've got another friend. I've got friends too. Look at them all. He kind of looks around him.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Looking at this guy who's on his own. Your friends are a truly mighty host. Yes, they are. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

We are, they are. We all are. I think yes, that that's exactly what we are, he says as he sort of like starts swinging this um club around.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

You just hit three of your friends around the head. That's not very nice.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

Hahaha He looks confused for a second. You can't be like that with me. I'm no I'm far too clever for you.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

I'm definitely far too clever for you. But my friend, you're stood on a very narrow piece of road surrounded by all these wonderful friends of yours. I'm afraid you are going to have to let us pass.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

I don't think so. What do we think? Do we think we'll let him pass? I don't think we should. Or what should we? What will they do you think? I'm not sure. And again he sort of like turns around and sort of like talks behind him and says, Should we? I um no, I I don't think we should.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

I I think I think we need something from you. At that point I would probably pull up beside Hiroshi. They've got themselves priest. Yes, a priest, we've got a priest.

SPEAKER_03 24:33

I will notch an arrow and I will say, Step aside, gentlemen.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

He looks at you and says, Now we're talking. Any more? He shouts into the sort of like mist. What's uh Hiro Nobu gonna do?

SPEAKER_04 24:45

Just wait him, you know, just analysing the situation.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 24:50

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

Can you make a perception role for me as well? Twelve. You c you kind of look around and you can you hear something behind you. You can see coming out of the uh out of the mist a woman who's kind of really disheveled looking. She's got two serrated blades in her hands, and she's sort of like trying to keep low to kind of hide, and you can see that she's sort of like dribbling, there's all this like spit and stuff coming out of her mouth, and she's sort of like her eyes are also sort of like darting left and right, but you can see that sort of as she sort of like is coming closer, she doesn't look like she's actually seeing you, she just looks like she's just in her own world. You can see that she's got a whole load of like pustules around her nose leading up to her right eye.

SPEAKER_04 25:31

Sway down and around a little bit. To kind of behit him at all.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

Yep, okay. While you do that, you can see that Suzuminori has basically gone down into a stance, ready to receive any kind of charge, and Murray Tura Kari has kind of just stopped and is also sort of like she's slightly behind you and kind of looking to see what's going on. Right, back to the front. Okay, you notch an arrow, Marco. That is correct. Does he move out of the way? He does not. He sort of like starts to walk sl I mean he's probably about I'd say he's about ten feet away from you. And he sort of like starts to gingerly take a step forward while swinging this sort of like large club around.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

How close is he to Hiroshi?

SPEAKER_02 26:16

He's uh he's about eight feet away from Hiroshi.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Hiroshi's Naganata is about six and a half feet long. So as long as he's not within Naganata's striking range, Hiroshi will let him come closer.

SPEAKER_03 26:27

So I'll just tell the guy I'll warn him again to step aside and I will step aside friend. We wish you no harm.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

He says, I don't think so. I think we'll we'll be fine. Of course we'll be fine. Yes, we'll be fine. As he takes a couple of steps closer, you can see that his his his skin is quite pale. You can also see that there's these around his neck, you can see these sort of like shadowy tendrils kind of like coming up, almost like it's kind of like holding onto his neck as it kind of like spills out over its over his sort of like really tattered looking clothing.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

I'll say to Hiroshi, what should we do?

SPEAKER_01 27:06

Let him come. If it's a fight they wish, it would be dishonourable to turn him down. Then you won't mind if I do this.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Yahweh, is there anything you particularly want to do prior to Akira shooting? Possibly. Do we have any lanterns with us?

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Yeah, probably maybe. Miramoto Akari probably had one. Yeah, she was probably in the middle holding it up. That would make sense. What about spare oil for the lantern? I I'd imagine there's probably a small bottle for maybe probably kind of like one of those kind of like inkwell bottles.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

I mean it's not a massive amount. Kira, before you do that, do you think you could get him drenched in oil at all? We could make this quick. Like toss the lantern at him, throw some of our oil reserve for the lantern. Do I have a lantern? Uh, you did not.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

You'd have to get off of Akari, throw it, throw at them. A carrier probably has the actual oil. So you've probably got maybe five, ten seconds to kind of have a conversation before you shoot.

SPEAKER_03 28:09

So uh Yami mentions that, but I'm like, I don't have any oil. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

Well, in that case, you can shoot for me, please. The difficulty is going to be twenty. What? Whoa!

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Should have tried harder to find the oil. Oh, that's a hit. That's fine. Twenty-five!

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Yeah, rough damage. Damage is nine. Ooh, okay. Like yeah, you you you shoe him, the arrow goes straight into his chest, and he doesn't seem to be showing any sign of stopping. But it's embedded in there. Right then, I guess, uh Scott, you're uh you're up next.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Uh in that case, the moment he's in Naginasa range, Hero She will strike. Do you could do you can you strike and then go into a stance, or do you have to go into a stance first? So you determine what your stance is.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

You just could be in the standard attack stance, you're gonna be in a defensive stance, you know, you're gonna be in an aggressive stance. You have to decide that before you go into combat, essentially.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

Before you strike. Okay, so in that case I'll go just go standard stance then.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

You don't get any bonuses or negatives, yeah, just hit him. He will attack with his whole arm's ability. Oh, that's uh that's a good day at the office. Should have gone for some razors, right? That should have gone for some razors. That's 48. Yep, you well and truly him. Naginata is an additional dice and additional damage. Because it's his first strike. Ooh. 27 27 damage.

SPEAKER_02 29:40

You uh I guess you kind of swing wide and around and slash down with your Naganata, and yeah, you kind of catch him along the side, just under where uh Akira had planted the um arrow, and you open up his chest and his stomach as part of his intestines kind of like come out, and he sort of makes a horrible sort of like pitiful moan, but takes some more steps towards you, which is like that that should have put anyone down, but has not for this gentleman. Charlotte.

SPEAKER_00 30:11

What does that yami want to do? I'm gonna see how this plays out. I'm just gonna tell. Okay, they've rolled up Hirinobu at the back.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

You hear obviously the the the exchange behind you, you can't see it. The crazy woman in front of you with the two sort of like seray blades dribbles some more and kind of like makes her way towards you. What would you like to do?

SPEAKER_04 30:33

I guess ready with my katana, I'm just in position to you know, just to just waiting, waiting, getting ready, and whenever she moves, I will just Okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Well, she she moves.

SPEAKER_04 30:47

What is my this is the center position with which I intend of getting ready and whenever she attacks I will just shh.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

Yep. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 30:55

And the head build style.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

So you go into your center stance and yeah, you she basically comes towards you, so that's fine. Go on then. That's you go into your center stance, but she's attacking you this round. So you can either wait or you can or you can change and just defend. It's up to you. You're just gonna hold the floor.

SPEAKER_04 31:12

I will hold the position. Okay, and just hold and just hold in.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

What do I need to hit you, sir?

SPEAKER_04 31:17

My armor TM base is 20.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

Okay. Yeah, so she sort of like dribbles and sort of like starts twitching her eyes and she starts slashing wildly, but she's actually sort of like slightly off-center of where you are, so she attacks almost next to you instead of you, so she can't quite seem to see you for some reason. And as she does that, she laughs hysterically. She sort of like starts slashing around in front of you. Either she's misjudged it or or or or something's gone awry. Yeah. Okay. Well, Suzuma Nori can't quite get round, so she's sort of like backing up with the dragon Shigenja. You can hear the dragon shigenja starts to uh mutter something under her breath as she starts to prepare a spell. Okay then. Well, I am gonna go back straight to, I guess. Well, we're gonna go with you actually, Tony. What's Hironobu? I know what I know Hirinobo's gonna do. He's gonna basically attack her. One strike. You'd I get an extra, no? From your centre stance, all actions while in that stance. On a round following the adoption of the center stance, you gain a bonus of one K1 plus your voidering on any one roll made during that turn.

SPEAKER_04 32:28

So okay. So on basically I I click on void, I guess. You do. And then roll modifier one, keep modifier one. Yep. And I just roll.

SPEAKER_00 32:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 32:40

That seems like a lot or not? 36. Yeah, you hit. There you go. And no, no changes for my damage, right?

SPEAKER_02 32:48

I think your damage does. Well, you didn't go for any raises, so I'm just gonna double check. But I think that with the Ijitsu skill of three. I just want to make sure that you have yeah, it's just a stain standard damage. I say standard, but it's like 27. Yeah, that'll do. So if you want to. Oh yeah, so with with with a katana, if you want to, you can spend a point of void to increase your damage by 1k1.

SPEAKER_04 33:17

Yeah, why not? I will use.

SPEAKER_02 33:20

Okay, so 27 roll dice and add that to the 27.

SPEAKER_04 33:23

So I roll another. Just roll one d ten.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

Just roll d10, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:27

Okay. Three more.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

So thirty.

SPEAKER_04 33:30

Thirty.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

Yeah, again, you kind of like go to the centre starts, wait for her to attack, she kind of goes off to the side, which is weird, which means you just take one t one step and you slice down, taking off her left arm at the at the elbow, which she sort of like looks at you in horror and kind of like turns towards you as sort of like the arm is like spurring all around. It's this dark, sticky, kind of black blood as opposed to sort of like the bright red that you would normally expect. It's not nice. There's something infected and something going on here.

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Akira, what would you like to do? Akira would like to shoot this gentleman again. I don't know if there are any special I was looking at the stances, but it didn't seem like there was anything sort of specific for a ranged attacks, so no.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

I mean, normally you'd probably go for sort of like a defense, because then that allows you to defend while while shooting, but you've got Hiroshi between you and that, so there's no need for you to do that. Okay. So did you want to go for any raises? You can do, you can go up to two raises. But that would mean it'll be 30 to hit. Depending on how you dice you think you have.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Well, okay, in which case it's just a standard roll, please. Wait, hold on. Yes. Can I essentially partner in action with Akira shooting a bow by summoning a little bit of an air a little bit of air to try and get the arrow to go faster? Sure, why not? I like that. So that's something that you Okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

Why like that too? Why don't you make an Yeah, you're gonna entreat the Kami to do that? Hmm, okay, well we'll we'll be creative. I I I like that, yeah. So why don't you So I guess you're summoning the the air comedy, right? To kind of do that. Okay. Yeah, alright. Well why don't you make roll using your air as if you're casting your spell?

SPEAKER_03 35:20

Priest is in the fray.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

What are you summon or just uh air roll? Air roll difficulty is gonna be 15.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

And for every raise above that, we'll give you will give Mar will give Rakira an extra dice to roll for damage.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

I do not want to raise. Okay, so just I don't I don't I only have two in air, so. Okay, plus so two in the air, plus your one from your um your school rank. So it's three dice. Use spell slot, da da da da da spell casting roll. 14.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

So straight across the board. I mean you can always spend a void point to add to add an extra dice to that. Let's do it. Go on, do it. More than one, I think you should be fine. Let's roll with ten. Ha! Two! Yay! So, right, Akira, you can uh shoot and you'll get an extra one dice in damage. No. Would you also like to spend a point of void to get an extra dice? Yes. Go on then. I'd be very generous if you will. D10? It's as a D10, yes. You gain 1k1 essentially to your roll. Sugar honey iced tea. The Kamiya definitely not with Akira. Even what was it, one point away from being able to hit anyway. A very fast arrow goes flying past the person in front of you and embeds itself into sort of like some bedrock. So close, so close. Hiroshi.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

Hiroshi is confused that the uh that he's basically disemboweled this guy and he hasn't, but hasn't really got the time to think about it, so we'll spin the Naganata over his head and strike again. He's going to try and decapitate this chap. You want to try and decap- what's your void? Uh my void is two.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

So you can't decapitate him, you're not good enough for that. But you never know, you can just give it up. Good old whack. Very rude. Do you know what I am going to do? You need a void of three to decapitate someone.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

I've not done it before, I don't think, but I'm gonna take a raise on this one. Okay, so difficult 25 for you? I think that's gonna make it. With a number of explosions, I've just rolled a 45.

SPEAKER_02 37:41

Alright, well, today appears to be all the luck seems to be going Hiroshi's way and no one else's way. So, yeah. Roll for damage. Uh you get an extra one dice to add to your damage.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

Is that a roll a roll and a keep, or is that just a roll? Uh it's just a roll. Just a roll. No, no, ignore that. I just rolled five oh, did I? Why is that? I just rolled seven dice. That should not have rolled seven dice. My damage is three keep two, so it should have rolled four dice, but it just rolled seven. I will try that one again. So what's your strength? My strength. Strength is two? Strength is two.

SPEAKER_02 38:16

Strength is three, sorry. Yeah, so. So it should be six K7 two. Plus one extra dice. No, seven K2 is correct. Okay. I didn't really do strength to damage as well. Yeah, yeah. Well it automatically does it for you in in the foundry system, which is handy. Okay, yeah, so you you basically raise it to go and decapitate it, uh, but you get your Nugonata caught straight through its collarbone, straight to its chest, and you pull it out. It kind of gives one final sort of noise as it kind of like stands towards you and then falls forward, Tetsubo falling on the floor with sort of like this icky, sort of black, gooey blood kind of like oozing out of it. It appears to be dead. Hirinobu, the slightly crazy woman, turns to her weird face and dribbles some more and tries to attack you. She swings wildly about and she kind of connects with your uh katana a couple of times as you sort of like deftly block her. She's more fervent than accurate. She she's kind of she seems to have gone into a bit of a sort of rage, but she's not particularly aiming the attacks anywhere. So can I attack her with my genjutsu? You can, but unfortunately there's uh someone else going. Ah. Why? I know. The hell? You can hear this sort of low rumbling from above you all, as you just make out out of the corner of your eyes another person who seems to have let go a bunch of rocks and and logs as all the rocks and logs roll down the mountain towards you all. What would you like to do? I'll start on the one side. Ayame, what would you like to do?

SPEAKER_00 39:51

Can I use Tempest of Air to try and push them out of their path? Absolutely, you can. That is what I would like to do. Did you want to split it here void to get some extra bonuses before you do this? Probably. I only have one point of void left, and this is my last air spell slot. I'm just having a quick look.

SPEAKER_02 40:13

So you're you're basically gonna probably be able to knock, I would say, most of the stuff out of the way with just a basic standard roll. If you wanted to raise it, you're gonna you'll definitely get everything out. So standard roll is gonna be 15.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

If you want to go for one raise, it'd be 20, and you'll guarantee to knock all of it out of the way. Can I get it angled in a direction to take out someone else, like a Kira? I mean just a cannabo. That's gonna require another raise, that's gonna be 25. I don't like those odds. I will just try and get most of it out of the way. Well, no, sorry. I will spend the void point to try and get it all. Does that increase my difficulty? So you get one keep one dice.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

So you get to have an extra dice to roll and keep, but the difficult still stays at 20.

SPEAKER_00 41:06

Oh, okay. So casting spell roll, let's go. Here we go, here we go. Oh my god. 11 30.

SPEAKER_02 41:13

That'll do. Yeah, so they they all start to look, you kind of start chanting and then you you cast your spells. I guess what does it look like, Charlotte?

SPEAKER_00 41:20

So that I would pull out my war fan and just use that within the motions to give it a qu or a strong swipe to try and clear everything out of our path. Or everything that's everything that's above us that we're in the path of. Yep. And move it off inside.

SPEAKER_02 41:39

So using the sort of like fan as the motion, so from the fan, this large cone of I guess not cone of air, but this large tempest of air kind of like pushes out from your fan and kind of knocks all the sort of like prevailing logs and stones and and kind of like throws it everywhere else, protecting all of you. Well, the rest of you don't have to do anything because Ayame has saved your skin. You're welcome. Alright, I guess Hirinobu, you're up next.

SPEAKER_04 42:08

So we'll go for this woman. Uh we'll canjutsu her.

SPEAKER_02 42:12

Uh yep. So it's just a standard Kenjutsu attack, unless you particularly want to do anything else with it. No. Oh, that sounds like a lot of damage. Or left. Okay, yeah, that's more than enough to hear. Look at you guys, you should all be going for like raises. That's my damage. 16. Okay, you kind of like cut cut across her, and then you sort of like use your katana in a stabbing motion to sort of like push your katana straight through her chest, put your foot on her sort of like hip, you kick her off, and she sort of staggers back, kind of looking at the wound, holding up half of her arm, and is kind of unsure what to make of what's happened. She's not down yet. Akira, what would you like to do?

SPEAKER_03 42:54

The creepy guy in front of us, Hiroshi has dispatched.

SPEAKER_02 42:58

Indeed.

SPEAKER_03 42:59

Hiroshi son. Okay. And there's this woman now behind? Behind me, so Yes.

SPEAKER_02 43:05

And there's also someone above you.

SPEAKER_03 43:07

Oh, they're the ones who started the avalanche.

SPEAKER_02 43:09

Yes, correct.

SPEAKER_03 43:10

Okay. Are they above you of the range, I can see them?

SPEAKER_02 43:15

Yeah, you can see like a shadowy kind of figure in the mist, just sort of like within within view.

SPEAKER_03 43:21

I suppose I will try to shoot the shadowy figure. How hard could that be, right?

SPEAKER_02 43:25

Yeah, I mean it's gonna be a standard fifteen to hit? Well.

unknown 43:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 43:32

They're not really doing anything. They're not expecting sort of like an attack or anything like that. They're a little bit uh taken aback by the fact that they've thrown a bunch of rocks and logs down and it hasn't done anything.

SPEAKER_03 43:42

I have an 18, and my damage will be I'm gonna use my last void point.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

I think you can make void point for damage, I think.

SPEAKER_03 43:52

Yeah, because it's right in the damage window here that I just opened up. Yep, go on then.

SPEAKER_02 43:58

Okay. Oh, it's over. Well, not only one damage. Yeah, you fire your your the person. You just see your arrow stick like in their throat and the the body kind of like falls back out of you. It appears that you only have one person standing.

SPEAKER_01 44:15

Hiroshi! Hiroshi doesn't want to get involved in Hironobu's fight unless Hironobu needs him. So he will move. Since the other two have been dispatched. He will move to place himself between Hironobu and the rest of the group. And he'll enter defensive stance. If the crazy woman tries to get past Hironobu, he will inspect her.

SPEAKER_02 44:38

Okay. Yeah, you see, as you kind of do that, you can see Suzuminori. She kind of like comes forward and she also will have a go at said crazy woman, but she does.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

And she hits her as she comes past can Hiroshi shift his stance to guard her.

SPEAKER_02 44:55

Yes, she's kind of going forward. She was already ahead of where you are. So it was Crazy Woman, Hironobu, Suminori, and then the Murmota Shikanja. Then it was uh Ayame and Akira, and then you. So you're trying to uh go past Ayame and Akira to head towards that. Now that you've um now that Hironobu has stabbed the um the crazy woman, Nori has kind of like seen her sort of like like a uh a window of opportunity and in a very traditional sort of crane sort of strike, she sort of like steps up and then splashes down with her katana, slicing the woman's face and just open the woman and then kind of like gives off this crazy laugh and then drops the floor.