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_01 0:40

We were so enjoying uh Tony Tony, there's a lot of singing today, I've realized.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

Yes, he was just singing the final countdown by Europe. Was it Europe or were you doing the Leidbach version?

SPEAKER_04 0:51

Oh no, that Europe. There was a very nasty Spanish version, but I'm not gonna sing that one.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

No, you should definitely sing that one. I want to hear the nasty Spanish version. I'll pause the recording, okay? No, no. Okay, the recording is paused. Tell me. Tell me, tell me.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Well, welcome back to another non-musical edition of uh Stories of the Dice. As always, I am joined by differently. Marco, Tony, Charlotte, and Scott. Hello, everyone.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

You have to give their titles.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Hello!

unknown 1:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Their titles. Well, apparently you've got Mr. Marco, we've got Tony, CBO, and CSO. What does that stand for?

SPEAKER_03 1:39

What does that stand for? Chief Business Officer and Chief Sexy Officer. We've got Charlotte. The CTO. Chief Time Officer.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Scott, Ciorro. The Chief Relaxing Officer. And Worldley, I've been changed to CCO. Chief Creative Officer. And CGM? Chief GM. Okay, right, well. Clearly we know that Marco has far too much time on his hands.

SPEAKER_03 2:09

Just random nonsense that pops into my head. Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Well, anyway, you've been introduced to all of us, so yeah, you know who we are anyway. So if you if you don't know who we are and we're starting here, go back to the beginning and start again. So we've just left off. The group have managed to get hold of, I should say, on the way to Shirazurai at last. They've come across some gribbly kind of bandit types who seem to be infected with some kind of like shadowiness and sort of gribbliness around the face and eyes of warts and pus and dribbling, and in short order, they managed to make good of an ambush, apparently, with the wonderful help of Akasha Yame blasting what would have been a horrendous amount of rock and wood onto the onto the group. Saved everyone from having to make sort of rolls to avoid a lot of crushing damage. So well done. But you're now left with these two dead bodies on the path and potentially a body up if anyone fancies climbing up the side of a a mountain side to go and have a look.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

Hmm, I might do that.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

I'm gonna burn them.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

Okay. I mean you can burn them. Is climbing athlet athletics? It is. I'll climb and have a look. As long as you've got athletics, that's fine, you can do it. Okay. Are you gonna toss it down so we can burn it too? Yeah, sure, I'll kick it down. I'm not gonna touch it. Don't touch it, then it's bad for you.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Okay, so Akira's gonna go and climb up the uh side of the uh the mountainside, not a problem, it just requires a bit of concentration on your part. You find the person above you was quite a frail old person, and it looks like they had sort of like rocks and stuff ready to go to fall on whoever it might be. When you kind of like kick her over, she appears to be in her sort of like 70s, maybe late 60s, early 70s. Real frail old woman. Uh but she's also got these pustules and sort of like this dark kind of like hatching on her neck and up her face, and she's got all these boils and sort of like cold sores and stuff around her face and up her nose and into her eye.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

No, I feel terrible. I just killed a seven-year-old woman, someone's grandmother. She was already dead. Yeah, you want do you want to kick her over the edge?

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yeah. You kick a grandmother down over the edge. Kick a granny when she's down. I mean, she kind of like hits a couple of rocks on the way, there's a couple of like broken bones and sort of like a snap neck as it kind of hits the floor on the path. Is there anything else up here? You have a look around, they don't seem to have any kit or gear or anything like that. Everything they seem to have had was on them. So there's no rucksacks, there's nothing. You'd expect if if someone was going to do that, they might pile all their stuff up here, do the ambush and then come back to it. There isn't anything like that here at all. You do notice though that there is a lot of sort of like game trails and paths that kind of like crisscross up here. So you imagine that they could probably travel around here without too much notice.

SPEAKER_03 5:08

So there are no footprints? Human footprints. Make hunting roll. It's just game? Okay. I'll make a hunting roll. That's lovely. Uh difficulty's gonna be well, we'll say, oh, it's gonna be 12.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

I quite like a difficulty of twelve. Uh does my trailblazing emphasis count? Or no? Sure, yeah, because yeah, why why not? Why not? We can have an extra plus two to that. Well, 23 is gonna do it. Right, well. You do find indeed some uh some some footprints. It looks like three people came this way quite recently, going further to the north, into the trees, and up through more boulders and sort of like rocks.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

Is that in the direction of of the of Shiro?

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Kind of. It kind of matches sort of like the so you've got the path that kind of winds up around the mountainside, and it the paths kind of like follow above them to a degree. Okay. So it's in the general direction.

SPEAKER_03 6:02

I'll climb down and let the the group know that I found tracks up there leading north. Leading to Castle, perhaps.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

So, Yame, you definitely can tell that they are showing signs of corruption.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Does anybody want to take a closer look at any of these people before I put them to the torch to cleanse them?

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Just thinking about the about the footprints. Did you say they were heading to the north or coming from the north? Coming from the north. So coming from the castle rather than heading towards it?

SPEAKER_03 6:34

Possibly, yes. Which could mean that we're in for a nasty surprise when we arrive. Okay, well you've now got these three bodies.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Now I take it none of you want to go through their belongings because, you know, ugh, nasty. The only person that could potentially do it, Hironobu, you have got your uh few servants that are following you around. They potentially could do it if you ordered them to, but they're not particularly putting themselves out there to do anything like that. Anything you want to do, Tony, or are you No. Which case, uh Ayama, you by all means can consume them with fire, that's fine. And I shall do so. You don't need to roll anything, you just commune, you just knock off a spellstot for fire, and you can consume all three of them. Purge the taint from this land. You do indeed. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 7:23

We continue to find sources of corruption.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Seems like we're on the right path.

SPEAKER_04 7:29

Yeah, and although we are not following the advisory notes of do not engage corrupted forces without preparation.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

We did not engage, they engaged with us.

SPEAKER_03 7:40

And we were entirely prepared. Well put, Ayami-san and Hiroshi-san.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

As you continue into the peak, you can see sort of like the you kind of like go out of the mountains and then further down into sort of like some valleys. You can see there's a lot of like rice paddies and stuff in these in the in these in these valleys, and it seems to hide a lot of things from the main road. You'd never guess that it was actually quite fertile in these lands. As you kind of make your way through and into the sort of I guess the paths, as you kind of lead between the valleys up into the mountains again, you kind of come across more of these sort of like streams coming from the mountains. And as you kind of get closer, see this scene, a path which kind of follows the sort of like streams heading towards um a keep or a castle, a shira in the distance. It's again of the same sort of colours that you would expect from the dragon. It's a sort of like a sandstone kind of walls with emerald green rooftops emblazoned with the dragon symbol on the side. As you get closer, you can see that this is the ancestral home of the Zuri family, nestled high in the mountains. It's a stronghold both as a fortress, and you know there is also some mystical monks that call this place home. So you make your way towards it and you can see that it's quite well defended. It'd be very difficult to get an army up here, and even if you did, you'd have to go through these long sort of stretches of roads, which have got, I guess, rivers either side, flowing streams, rocky outcrops. As you get closer, you can see there are troops on the walls. The gates are themselves open to the main the main keep, and you can make out small buildings just along the edges of the uh of the of the keep, which is sort of like the village of uh Shirazurai. And what time of day is it? It's kind of getting towards evening. As you kind of get closer, I guess Hiroshi, you're up front again. Hiroshi will be in front. You can see a couple of the samurai are making their way out of the gate to come towards you. Both of them have got Gary and traditional sort of like Wakazashi and Katarong, both wearing heavy armor, it appears, as they kind of come towards you. As they see you, they kinda do a a a a gentle bow. Well bet, my friends. What business do you have in Shiruzurai?

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Hiroshi will swing himself off his horse.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Apparently we're here to keep your paths clean, your roads clear of bandits.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

They look at both of you and say we have, of course, as everywhere does, we have bandits. What do you do you mean of this? He he says, um he looks you over. Phoenix You have three less bandits now. Well, thank you very much, my lord Unicorn. Corrupted ones at that. Again. He he narrows his eyes at you, says, There are there's no taint here.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

That, my friend, is a misstatement.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Anyway, what do you really want here? Other than, he says in a sarcastic tone, keeping our road safe. You are magistrates and a step forward. He he he almost like laughs, which is a bit of breaking in protocol. It's not the usual dumb thing. It's the sort of thing you expect from a crab or something. And he says, You are magistrates?

SPEAKER_04 10:55

Please, and I uh ask somebody in my retinue to show the scroll.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Yeah, the person comes and hands it to them. They kind of open it up and he kind of like reads it, he hands it and kind of like bows a bit deeper and says, My Lord magistrates, I was unaware that you were coming. How can we have helped you?

SPEAKER_04 11:12

First you will treat us with respect, second you will take us to the castle.

SPEAKER_03 11:16

Oh, but before any of that occurs, you will apologize for your disrespectful greeting.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

He looks over at you. There's sort of like this little uh little uh little ember of sort of like annoyance in his in his eye, but he kind of like he bows low and says, I did not mean any disrespect, and I'm very grateful that you are keeping the road safe for our lord.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

You may proceed.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Please come with me. And he then shows you towards the gates. You can see as you go through the gates, there's another set of gates, and you kind of go through the murder part of the of the keep. You can see there are three or four guards above you, all sort of like looking down at you, and you go through the main gate, which is uh a double reinforced wooden gate, carved with dragons and your jimbo symbols. They take you into a central courtyard, which is this big open space, and you can see there's a a large founder, a large statue of the family's founder, Zuroi Ito, and he's sort of like quite he's probably about 15 foot, maybe 18 foot tall statue of this this gentleman in sort of like full regalia. He's kind of half kneeling with the the Katana Wakazashi to his left, and he's almost kind of judging everyone that seems to come through that gate. The guard says, please wake here and I will get my lords. I'll be back shortly, he says as he he wanders off. And you're left kind of like in this kind of courtyard.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

I didn't realise it was so easy to ruffle the feathers of dragons. I didn't realise dragons had feathers.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Sometimes with scales so soft they appear feathery.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

Perhaps these dragons are more like cats. Do most of the people here that we see look normal?

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Yeah, they all look like you'd expect. Is this an unskilled roll? Uh yeah, if you've if you don't have perception. As always, Hiroshi's busy staring at his shoes. Akira has an 18. Nice, okay. Yeah, I mean, pretty much. We'll wait for Tony to roll. Well, so uh 18. Yeah, so uh Hirinobu and Akira are looking around. You can see the majority of the people here are from the Zuri family. You can see that as you sort of like to sort of like your left-hand side, there are like a set of shrines and what look like a monastery built into the the left-hand side of the um of Shi Zuri. You can see people going about their daily business either in prayer or going to and from rituals or some kind of training or whatever they're doing. To the right hand side, you can see what looked like living quarters and lots of military stuff. Um, and it seems like the two the keepers kind of divided left and right between the kind of ascetic sort of monk stuff and the military stuff. I think I think someone made a I think it might be Charlotte actually. You you asked about Shirizuro in a previous episode. Did you know that it's known for being uh producing a lot of yojimbo? So a lot of the uh a lot of the the the kitsuki dragon usually have a Zurai Yojimbo with them, much like the Kikita are too or that the lion might have. Some someone who's really really good at sort of protecting their charges, so this is what this is what they're known for, as well as producing a lot of monks who query and question things. They don't really come up with any answers, they just have a lot of questions. And that's what that's what the Shirazurai is um known for. But you're waiting around. You don't see anyone weird or strange. What you do see is a gentleman who is really large, and as soon as you see him, this is both Hironobu and Akira, you recognise him as a crab clan samurai. He's probably about six foot three, six foot four, and he's really powerfully built. He kind of sees you and waves and kind of like makes his uh makes a beeline over to you. He says, Hello, how are you all? He's got like this really kind of booming voice. And in fact, he comes over to you, Akira, and goes, Hey, cousin, how are you? The crab calls sort of people from the Mantis clan their cousin because that's where they're where they're originally from. What are you doing this far north? I see you with some Oh There's a lot of different He kind of looks over at the uh at Hiroshi and goes, We've got a unicorn, a crane, and a Phoenix. He's really, really kind of breaking any kind of protocol that you would normally expect. But you kind of expect that from the crab clan. And he's he seems quite young, he's probably about 17, maybe 18. And uh he he kind of says, uh, what brings you not here? If I can ask. He almost forgets, and sort of like, if that's okay. You may not ask. He looks at you, kind of he kind of like scratches his chest and says, Well, if you want a game of cards or or or dice later on, give me a shout.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

Or if I perhaps want to ask you about what you may know about the shadow taint, could I give you a shout? Sure, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

He sort of like stops, bows, and then um he kind of walks off, going to the military side of the um of the of the castle. It doesn't take long for uh you to sort of wait for a um a person to turn up. This is a older lady, she's probably in her sixties, wearing the a very traditional sort of dragon kimono, and she says, Good evening. I am Murauto Yuna. I am the Hatamoto to my lord. Zuri. I understand you have come here on business as magistrates.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Hiroshi sort of stands back and lets let's the others do the talking because he's already upset people too much.

SPEAKER_03 17:27

Akira says that is correct, and then he bows. How can we help you? Perhaps Hironubu can can explain this better than I can.

SPEAKER_04 17:35

We've come here following traces of corruption. We engage three people that show very strong signs of this corruption, not a few hours from here, and we were wondering if there have been more signs around the area.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

We have seen the odd this is true, but she kind of looks at you and says, Would this have anything to do with the missing samurai that have been well that that have kind of happened within the last three weeks. Are you referring to patrols? Indeed. We have plenty of people out looking into things and understanding things, and uh we we we hear things. We have we have people within the uh lower T ceremony and the upper T ceremony um housing. So please, we would very much like to hear.

SPEAKER_04 18:27

Yeah, we it might be related. We would be very grateful if you can show us where these disappearances happen.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Well, shall we get you settled into the keep before before we do that? Perhaps maybe some food. I I wouldn't want you to think that we didn't have any manners up here in the uh in the mountains. Of course not. Please. And she sort of looks you all over and kind of like casts an eye over you and says, I'm sure we can find you suitable uh suitable uh accommodation for however long you intend to stay. And she smiles and she sort of like bows to you and says, Please follow me. And she kind of steps inside in time with you, Hirinobu. So Murachi Yuna uh takes you all to the um keep where she kind of sets you up in your own individual rooms, which are, you know, sparsely but but but but but suitable for your needs. Everything's in the livery of the Dragon Clan, but within sort of about an hour and a half of being there, you very much go for a sh go for go for a wash, get rid of all the sort of like travel stains from from from your female from female towel the whole day, plus any kind of blood or anything else that might be in your kimonas or anything from your combat, and you come back to your room, which is no longer dragon, but is as about as close as they can probably get to Phoenix colours, crane colours, mantis colours, but then unicorn colours. So it's enough to make you feel vaguely at home, but clearly they're not meant to have a lot of guests here, it's not the sort of thing they have. You're all left with a small note to say that you would all could you all please be ready for this evening's meal. But that gives you about an hour and a half of contemplation and prayer before food, and someone will come and collect you.

SPEAKER_04 20:12

Yeah, I want to meditate because I'm very low in void points.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Same here. Cool. Well, you guys can make some meditation rolls then in that case. Yeah. I think just a standard roll.

SPEAKER_04 20:25

And do it, do do we recover the wounds? Because I have two points of wounds since we battled with a watch hour. Okay. Yeah, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

That would have gone by now, so you've had a couple of days of of travel.

SPEAKER_04 20:35

Yeah, that's what I was wondering.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

That's fine. You can get rid of that.

SPEAKER_04 20:39

Should I roll then a meditation? I got uh 21.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

21. I think that's more than enough. Do you recover one or two? I think it's one unless you go for a raise, in which case it's two. Let me just double check. But if I raise what's your what's your rank in meditation? One. Okay. Simplest means okay. Ah, so the void, it's a void roll versus target number of twenty to recover one void. Sorry, I got one more. Yeah. If you want to fast and meditation, which means you go for a ignore the going for food and water per day, then it reduces the the target number down. But yeah. For for if you want to go for a successful raise, or if you have rank three in meditation, you can restore up to two void points. No, because you didn't go for any actual raises when you went for that. What about you, Charlotte?

SPEAKER_00 21:36

I rolled, what was it, 29? Yep, that's fine. And I do have three ranks, so I do get both points back.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

You do. So you both take sort of like half hour, 45 minutes to kind of meditate, and you get your void back.

SPEAKER_03 21:52

I will also meditate to get some void points back.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Okay, so if you want to make a meditation roll as well, my Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Yes, sir. That is exactly what I want to do. Difficulty twenty. Oh no, I got a fourteen. It's been a bit of a day.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

You can't just get there. You just can't quite get to that that point.

SPEAKER_03 22:13

I'm still I'm distracted by the by the seven-year-old woman that tried to murder us in a landslide that I ended up killing, yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Yeah, it bothers you somewhat. You can't like get out of your memory or your out of your mind. So you were all you'll have your food. You all have your your time to meditate or do whatever you wish to do within your hour and a half. And a gentleman comes along and says, please come with me. And uh he takes you into a main hall. Inside the main hall, you can see there is a number of low tables set up. You were brought to the far end of the table and sat with three seats in between you all, and you are essentially at the head of the table. So if this is a wedding, you'd be at the head table. You can see a whole selection of people who are then brought in and sat down at the lower end of the tables, and then with a little bit of pomp and ceremony, but not a huge amount, three people come in. You can see this gentleman who is the daimyo of the Zurai family, Zuri Tsutomo, and he is followed by a woman who is probably in her 30s, and then a younger younger boy or younger younger man in his sort of like early twenties, and they all come and sit down in between where you've all been sitting. It looks like it's the Daimyo and his two eldest children. The as they all kind of like sit, the old lady Miramotu Yuna welcomes Zurai Totomi, Zurai Aya, who is the eldest daughter, and Zurai Renji, who is the uh younger brother. And they all sit, at which point food is brought, drinks are brought. You can see on the far end that crab clan samurai. You can also see a bunch of others that are like spattered around. It appears that food and drink are kind of given you all, but no one seems to talk. It just seems to be very quiet. They're all kind of taking their food in quite quiet circumstances. How many of you do you think would have spent any time with any kind of monks? I'm guessing Ayame probably has. What about Akira, Hironobu, and Hiroshi? Not so much.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

I don't think Hiroshi would have.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Okay. So if all three of you can make an it an etiquette roll, that'd be great. Difficulty is just gonna be a standard ten.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

Okay. If you if you're rolling something untrained, what is it you roll? Your clean is uh check. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

So it would be Akira got an 18. I think it's intelligence, I think. No, it's um well it's not intelligence, what am I doing? Ed, you're a moron. Hey, you'd be nice to RGM. Alright, sorry, Ed, you're great. It's awareness. Make an awareness role and click on it to uh say that it's um untrained. Right, so Akira, you got an 18. You well, in fact, you and Hiroshi kind of make sure that you don't talk. You kind of sit there, you eat your food, you basically follow the rest of the etiquette. They're very much following that of the uh the Tugashi monks. Here in Obu, you kind of like ask a couple of questions, sort of like in the in the middle of the sort of like, so you know, what's the next thing to do? You look you you can either speak to either the the younger man or the younger woman. Who would you like to talk to? Which which one of those two would you do you want to interrupt essentially?

SPEAKER_00 25:52

When he tries talking, can I just put my finger up to his to my mouth to Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:59

I just roll the form.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Yeah, you sit next to him, you're kind of like so and then you can see that I was like kind of thing.

SPEAKER_04 26:08

Like you probably stuffing rise in my mouth.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Yeah, you're like, well what do you what what's the Yeah She uh she sort of like sort of like half smiles and sort of she sort of puts her hand not on you and but she puts it just sort of to the side of you and she sort of shakes her head and then points over at Akashi Yame and then puts her fingers to her lips and sort of motions to eat and then and then continues to sort of eat herself. Yeah. Or we'll just eat. You eat, and you pretty much do that all in silence. The food is brought, it's very weird, all you can hear is the swishing of kimonos and the placing down of wooden cups or or china cups and bamboo plates, that kind of thing, or the sounds of sort of like the chopsticks touching the sort of like wood on wood, so it's very, very quiet. You can't hear much because where you are located, you're sort of like in the central part of Shurizuri. It's quite quiet, and you imagine that if you were to meditate in this space, you think it would probably be quite easy to sort of like nod off. Once the food is all done and dusted, Zurei Tutomu sort of like gets up half, kind of kneels towards you all, and says, Magistrates, I understand you have some pressing business here, and you have mentioned something about Shadowlands taint and corruption. I would like to hear, please, tell me how can I help you and how can the Zuri family help you?

SPEAKER_04 27:41

We have been following the trail of the taint that appears to be happening here in the Dragonlands. We would like to investigate further the situation, and everything we have been following takes us to the area around the castle. We would like to know where the patrols, you know, the samurais that were patrolling the area disappear. Better understand how is it possible that this taint is here coming from the Shadowlands.

SPEAKER_03 28:10

We were just outside your castle, waylaid by three individuals who were tainted in such a manner.

SPEAKER_04 28:18

We had to burn them to avoid that the taint spreads spreads on the land and taints everything.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

As you should, only through fire can you purge corruption.

SPEAKER_04 28:29

Yeah, Akasha Ajami sure was the proper way.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

He bows at ear and says, I am much honored, Gasha Sama. One of them was a seven-year-old woman. An old woman, you say. Their tracks came from this location. You saying that there are corrupted individuals within my village.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

Maybe not within your village, your lordship, but certainly within a day's ride.

SPEAKER_03 28:53

Well, what do you plan to do, my magistrates? Do you have reports of any missing individuals?

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Perhaps someone's grandmother? We can of course find out. He kind of claps his hands and says, Titherin, and a lot of the other samurai, which are like towards the end of the other tables, kind of get up, they all kind of bow and they kind of like wander off out, leaving just a few people here. And he says, Bring out the maps. And quite swiftly you can see some of his confidence and stuff. His younger brother kind of comes over and sort of like brings out a map of the Zuroi lands, much like the map that you kind of have, but it's sort of like just as sort of like the um the area around Shirazuroi, uh down into the mountains, and then it kind of stops an early dawn shrine. So, really, they're kind of like lands, if you want. It's the sort of like the mountain ranges that's in the middle of the map that we have. And he kind of writes, says, Well, these are my lands, and they they're kind of divisioned off into different sort of like smaller parcels of land with um various people looking after each of them, and says, The lands that you were talking about are directly below, and they are my lands. We have two villages which are nearby. We have a few smattering of farmlands. I don't profess to know all my um my all my uh vassals. Not sure how we would go about finding out who that is. I guess that as magistrates you are skilled at doing such things. When was the last time you had patrols go to those villages? I mean they might have their own Eureki, which you know is a sort of like a equivalent of an under-sheriff kind of thing. They kind of do the the equivalent of the law enforcement. Villages themselves don't always have samurai because unless there's something very special about that village, it's just kind of left to the head man of the village, and then they kind of generally have either a very low-level samurai or a kind of higher-ranking peasant, sort of like who will take on that role of of being the sort of like the the the sheriff or whatever it might be. He says we we we check every now and then, but since since the uh the missing patrols, and he basically points all the patrols are just outside his his area, so towards the sort of like east road east road tea house as opposed to inside his lands that he says that all the kind of like patrols that went missing or the people that have gone missing have all been just on the edge of the land of uh the Surai family. In fact, some have come has happened on the other side. Could all of you please make investigation rules? I don't have.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

So you can just use perception then in that case. Have an emphasis in interrogation. Can I use that? You're gonna interrogate the uh turn?

SPEAKER_01 31:49

Okay. Right, well, in that case, I have a 27 entirely. Okay. Right. How's that gonna go? Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte. Let's have a look. What is your status and what is your glory?

SPEAKER_00 32:08

My status is one. Mm-hmm. And my glory is also a one. So he has a status of six.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Cool. Can you please make an interrogation roll? Your difficulty is 40. Jesus Christ. How well can you blag this? Alright, here we go.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

27.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

Cool. Okay, well, Hirinobu, Hiroshi, you're like, no. You know, you're having a conversation. Hiroshi's still kind of looking wistfully for the last of the food which has disappeared. Yeah, he it looks like he is purposefully minimizing where the things are happening to just on the boundary of his lands. Obviously, you can't tell why that's the case, but he's very clearly making that that that statement to say that it isn't happening here, it's not part of his fault, or the fault of the Zuroi family, or the Zuri clan. He's a he's a good samurai, he basically does all the things he should do. This is an outside influence, which is just kind of coming in. That's his general take about how he how he says it. You definitely know that he's trying to uh not cast any kind of like blame on himself or his family or, you know, indeed, his duty to his lords. It's very difficult to like kind of say otherwise, because that would be a massive breach. You could do it if you wanted to, but that could see a significant loss of honour and glory to yourselves if you were to do that. Says he's not saying the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

He's definitely not saying the whole thing. A lie by omission is still a lie. I appreciate the stance that you are taking, and I do not mean to press too forcefully, but as all of this is happening on the edge of your lands, are you not worried that it is going to encroach upon your lands? Therefore, undermining your entire clan's integrity, threatening sacred sites that may be in your lands, eroding the trust of the family with the with the rest of Araquagan. There are so many things that could go wrong if this is not addressed and tried with the proper attention.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

He looks at you for a second and says, Well, I'm very glad that you and the rest of your magistrates are here to protect me and the dragon lands from such a threat. I am very grateful that you will look into this and sort out any kind of problems that are happening in my lands. And in fact, he sort of like bows sort of quite low and says, I am more than happy to offer anything that I can to aid you to wipe out and destroy this corruption within my lands. Clearly, my Lord Tigashi and the Daimyo of the Kitsuki have a lot of uh faith in your abilities to do that, and I can see why all of you have been chosen to do such a thing. He's he sort of like says, in which case I will 100% support whatever it is you need. You have anything and everything that I can give you at your disposal. In fact, I do not expect you to fail. And he basically gives you another short bow.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

In an effort to make this as efficient as possible, can you send two detachments to the villages, have them scout around and come back while we start to gather some information closer to the keep? Of course I can.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

In fact, I will get my daughter to deal with it. He looks over at the at the woman and says, Aryasan, will you do this? Aryasan says, Yes, father, of course I will do that. I can do that now. He says, No no, first thing in the morning is more than is more than fine. And she sort of like says, Yes, father, of course I can do that. He looks to you and says, Anything else? I don't believe so at this moment. He looks over at the rest of you. Does she uh speak to you as your leader? She speaks for us. She speaks wisely. She does. You are wise to have her as your leader.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

Does the cura bristle at that at all?

SPEAKER_04 36:31

Yes, and belief in leaders.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

He says, Is there anything else I can do for you? Can you provide us with a room to center our investigation out of? And access to any records that we may? He says Yuma.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

She says, My lord. That's the old woman. While you while they are here, you can you can have her to help. That will do nicely. Anything else?

SPEAKER_03 36:52

You require a food taster. Of course. Do you think that you are uh at risk? Would not have asked for one if I thought otherwise. Would not be logical. Of course.

SPEAKER_01 37:04

I will uh give you one of my own. That would be agreeable. Anything else from yourselves? He looks at Hirinobu and Hiroshi.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

Hiroshi smash it. Merely stabling for my for my steed. Consider we're already done.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

In which case I bid you good night, and may the Kamis bless your investigation. And hopefully you brought you bring this to a close very quickly.

SPEAKER_00 37:27

May the Kami bless your house.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Everyone gets up and he leaves, leaving you alone with uh Muromotima. Says, please, come with me. And she sort of like takes you all to where your rooms are, just around the corner from your room, to say another separate room, which she's kind of says, I will get this this room set up for you. Please feel free. And she sort of like gets a couple of servants to put some a chair down or some like cushions down along with um a table, and she says, If you need anything, please just ask. And then they shut the um show you screens and they disappear leaving you alone together.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

Why do I feel like we have placed one foot in a bear trap and been asked to hop?

SPEAKER_04 38:09

In fact, uh well done, Ayamesam. I was wondering if there is any way to detect the corruption in an individual or in an area. I don't know the ways of the Sugenj Sugenja. So I'm wondering if it is wise for us to stay here.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

Well, we don't have anywhere else to stay.

SPEAKER_04 38:30

Can you see if the corruption is here already?

SPEAKER_00 38:35

There is a way, I believe. Is there not, Ed? There is. It's earth spells that can see that. What's your earth? I mean, what's your earth spells like? I got like earth stagnation and elemental ward. And commune. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

So yeah, you could probably do that. There is. I see if I can get my brain in gear. Yeah, you could probably commune with with the earth to understand whether there's corruption nearby.

SPEAKER_04 39:05

Very nearby.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

I mean, usually stuff like Jade Strike, that kind of thing, is the the best way to uh to discover corruption. But yeah, that's uh void, you'd be able to check whether there's some balance within their uh within their elements. Anything else you'd like to look at? Do you? Can I do void? Yeah, I mean you can you can cast any spells. So you you can cast void spells as well. Commune with void? You can indeed. And hopefully the void does not commune back? Yeah, it can very turn you can quickly turn that way. But mostly it's gonna be earth, is the sort of thing you do. You commune with the earth, maybe I'll tell you whether the um whether it was corrupted or not. Uh but you'd have to be quite close to it. So I couldn't Could I like ask if it was like within this household? You could, it'd be a basically the further the further out from the center that you want it, the more successes you're gonna require, or the higher the success number will be.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

Our immediate vicinity to see if we're like kind of safe where we are now would be low on the difficulty scale.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

Yeah, so if you were safe in this in this room, the difficulty would be like, you know, 10. If it was sort of like an extra sort of two or three rooms away, then it's going to be in increments like that. Okay. So plus five, plus five. So so if you wanted to check the entire castle, you're probably looking at target number of 50, for example. So it's quite unforgiving. Gotcha. Because you're not specifically trained in the way of corruption. If you were sort of like a crab shigenja, you probably have other ways to do that. And in fact, you might even have like a technique that you have that's part and parcel of your school that would help you do that.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

Could I make use of one of our travelling companions to assist with this? You could.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

Well, you've got so the one thing you've noticed actually is that Muromoto, she has not really engaged with the Zuroi very much. She's been quite quiet, Muromoto Akari. And she's not really said a huge amount. She's kind of like stayed into the background. But you can use her, she can she can help you. I would like to do that. Alright, so you want to try and see if you can uh it probably like a sense, I suppose, is the sort of thing you're gonna want to do. How far do you want to go? How big a radius do you want to check?

SPEAKER_00 41:22

I would say as much as I can get for keeping it around like the 20 DN mark. So you're probably looking at sort of maybe a floor or two of the castle? We'll probably give you that. And I guess the question Well the initial question would be if there is anybody that shows signs of shadow taint. Okay. Well, everyone you've seen has not as yet.

SPEAKER_01 41:51

In a household like this, there are so many that are unseen. There are a whole load. So you probably have to like spend a lot of time to just literally stop and watch people. That's what you'd have to do.

SPEAKER_00 42:00

Next episode will be all about people watching.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

Indeed. Well, so make your roll for Earth. I will do the same.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

Uh so she's got an Earth of two. Do I want to use a void point to help with this? Well, that's what she's rolled. We can't see it, all we can see is check more question marks. Yeah, I'm gonna use a void point on this. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

You both kind of start doing a ritual, sort of like see if you can sense any kind of corruption within sort of like the next couple of floors, and the you don't get anything. It appears that there's at least the two floors that you're that you're involved with are not corrupt. There's all there's no corruption that you can find. So you're pretty so sure that there's no corruption nearby. Call me say ask again later. Please call later. We're busy right now. Please try again. But there is a a soft knock at the door. Because that is some where you say come in. The door opens, you can see an older gentleman standing outside. Well, he's not he's kneeling outside. He is a servant, and he says, My lords and ladies, may I present myself? I am Kobiyashi Fumio. I've been asked to bring you this, and he he comes in and he kind of like hands you some drinks and some sweet rolls, and says, if there's anything else I can help you with, please feel free to uh ask. I'll be just outside if you need anything. Can all of you please make an intelligence roll and or investigation roll, whichever you prefer. 910 for me. I have a 23. For everyone who's you've got more than you got more than 10. If you look at the investigative charter, there is a part four, says known allies, Kobiyashi Fumio, Zuri retainer and tunnel warden familiar with hidden roots and family secrets, which is which is on the investigative charter.