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.
Join us at our virtual table as we play Mysteries of the Loop, our Tales from the Loop series; explore the Arthurian mythos in The Sword Campaign, the first part of our Great Pendragon Campaign; chart the stars in Star Trek: Magellan, our Star Trek Adventures series; and sail the seas in Dark Blue Sea, our Mutant: Year Zero campaign. Stories from other worlds are coming soon, including The One Ring, The Electric State, Legend of the Five Rings, Twilight: 2000, and so much more.
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Stories with Dice
Shadows in the Peaks Episode 9 - A Legend of the Five Rings Actual Play
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While the daimyo’s daughter hunts for answers in nearby villages, the samurai turn their attention to the keep—where hidden tunnels and uneasy household members may hold the key to the mystery of the shadow corruption.
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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 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_05It's another evening, and it's another wonderful Letter of the Five Rings session. I am joined, as always, by I'm not gonna read out their names, Mr. Marco.
SPEAKER_03Why, hello, Sir Ed, the Royal GM. That's me. How are you? I'm hanging in there.
SPEAKER_05Let's see if we can hang in some more. We've got Tony, sexy Spanish person. Hello. You good? I'm very good, very good, very sexy.
SPEAKER_00You have Charlotte sometimes.
SPEAKER_02I don't know how that works and always. And then you say evening, but for me it's not even noon yet. We can go all day if we need to. Good up now.
SPEAKER_05Good morning, pre-morning, pre after pre- uh it's that time. Yeah. We've also had Scott has internet at last. Scott has internet and I could actually see you clearly without this like weird haze of like non-connection. Clearly now the pixel's gone. My god, it's gonna be one of those sessions. You love a musical session, is in the right setting, unless well, unless someone can pull out some kind of uh is it Sami San, is it?
SPEAKER_03That the correct pronunciation is it? Scott, I'm looking at you because you Unless unless somebody pulls out a naughty version of Final Countdown in Spanish, it is not gonna be a musical.
SPEAKER_00It's never gonna happen.
SPEAKER_03Tony is under pressure now to uh dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun Under pressure. God.
SPEAKER_05You know there are sometimes you just don't want a GM people.
SPEAKER_04Everything you say can be signed back at you. The musical episode worked for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, okay? It can work for stories with dice.
SPEAKER_03Can it work for my brains? I'm not really sure. For Star Trek Strange New Worlds, funny enough. This is true. This is true. Okay, right. We've done Subspace Rhapsody. It's a good episode. Anyway, sorry. We have got off the rails.
SPEAKER_05We're massively off off tangent now. Right. You are at Shirazuri. You have met the Daimyo. You have set a plan in motion to look for an old woman and two potential people who are gribbly that you met last time on the road into the into the into the keep. You are you've got you tasked, well you haven't, the Daimyo has tasked his daughter, who is one of his Yojimbo and generals, to go to around the the Zuri lands to kind of look at the various villages nearby to see whether or not anyone is missing, and they're gonna go and ask around. So while they do that with a detachment of troops, you're left to kind of like fend for yourselves in the keep. We left off last session where you met up with an older gentleman who was a servant named Kobiyashi Fumio, which is weird because he's actually got a name and a surname, which means that he is a very trusted servant and probably from a vassal family, but not quite attained full samurai status. But you know he is one of the guys mentioned on your letter that you've been given to say that he is someone who is a trusted advisor there and also trusted by the investigation family to speak to if you need to. So he kind of left you with some clean linen and some various other bits and then kind of wandered off. So you have got you managed to arrange like a central room, and around that central room you've got all your kind of your sort of each of your personal rooms with all your stuff in. It means that you don't have to go very far to kind of communicate with each other, and if you want to meet, you can meet in the in the central area. It also means from their point of view, you're very contained into one location and you're not just wandering off anywhere. But you are free to wander around as the uh magistrates that you are. So we're gonna kind of like skip ahead a couple of days. If there's anything you think you might want to do, I'll just go to each of you. Anything in particular that you'd like to do over a couple of days, they can't really do anything else because it's gonna take a few days to kind of like wander around to all the villages to get all the information that you want. Right. Scott, what is Hiroshi going to do in those couple of days? Anything particular that stands out for you?
SPEAKER_04He's not gonna be doing anything in particular. He's carrying his normal routine, so he'll look after Biakufu, he'll spend a bit of his time training, going through his kata, working with his with his Nagmas, his Nodachi, and in his downtime, he's going to try and get a couple of games of Kamari going.
SPEAKER_05So, Zuroi is well known for its Yojimbo training, and so they they have a school here that that that teaches Yojimbo. So there are a bunch of aspiring young samurai who come from all the various places in the Dragonlands, as well as the occasional student from elsewhere, which is where you met the the the crab guy, and so you're more than welcome in the mornings to go through those and train with them if you wish.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, happy for you to do that. He'll do because his his style is very defensively oriented anyway. Although it's a lot more about standing your ground against all comers than bodily protection and intercepting threat.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and absolutely with those people, you will also be able to set up some games. They quite they're quite happy to do that. A lot of the the young samurai spend a lot of their time in quiet contemplation, but they do have like a number of hours to kind of because it's the Tagashi monks, they want people to experience multiple things rather than just be very insular, and so they feel that sort of like those kind of games are also helpful for tactical processes, and it offers a different, unique, different way of kind of understanding tactics, whether it's a game or whether it's actually small skirmish techniques. So that is absolutely fine. More than happy for you to do that. While doing that, could you please make me a role? And if you could do me some kind of if you've got it, some kind of social skill.
SPEAKER_04I could use games kamari, but other than that, that is that is the only social skill he has unless you're unless he's talking to a horse.
SPEAKER_05I'll tell you what, why don't you use games makamari? But instead of using agility, why don't you use your awareness with it?
SPEAKER_04Doki dokie, I'm gonna try fiddling around with this on my so you should just be able to fiddle with it. There we go, that looks about right.
SPEAKER_05I think that's given me a total of a thwenty. Twenty. Nice. Well, while you're talking to them, just in the games and sort of like the conversations that you're having with them, you find out from the various samurai that are here that this year Jimbo School is quite prestigious. It's not quite the same as some of the crane schools, but it is it is it is relatively well done in the Northam. It's not quite the same as the Phoenix Jimbo School, which is probably the most prestigious of all of the um schools within Roccagon, but it is probably a close to third or fourth. They they really enjoy the training. It's actually quite a disciplined school, but because they get some people from others, it's it means that they get sort of information from outside of of the lands. One person that's here that is definitely very large in the whole thing, is the Hiruma guy. The guy that you met at the very beginning last time. His name is Hiruma Daisuki. He's a crab clan samurai training with the Zuroi family to improve his defensive techniques. He is quite brash, occasionally clashes with the Dragon Clan philosophies, but he does respect the family skills. He, as you've already met him, he is quite a gregarious kind of person, very much a crab, which actually suits you because you do have your unicorn elements, you're slightly not the same as your standard kind of rock and gani. See, he's he's always happy to sort of like share a bottle of sake over a game and talks quite a lot. He talks quite a lot about the um the war that's happening at the moment between the phoenix and the dragon, and he thinks there's something further happening at the same time that the the sort of like beginning skirmishes happened between the dragon and the phoenix. They saw an amassing of Shadowlands creatures down by the crab wall, down in the south of Rockingon. And so he thinks, as well as the crab clan thinks, that there is something more afoot. Almost as if, and this is something that the crab always say, that the dark the Shadowlands are always on the attack. This time it's going to be a multiple pincer manoeuvre from the north and the south. So he thinks that there's something more at more at play, but doesn't quite know what. Is there anything you particularly want to ask anyone or get any what any kind of particular information you'd like to get?
SPEAKER_04Keen to see the kinds of Shadowlands creatures that that he says he's seen down at the crab wall, and if any of them match any of the any of the I guess symptoms or traits that we've seen up around here.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so as soon as you start talking about the traits and stuff that you've seen of the guys that you saw with the pustules around the face and and sort of like the weird ferleness around around the way they're they attacked and stuff, 100% he confirms that that is very classic corruption taint, and that is someone who has he says there's a certain level that you can kind of get away with that you can keep in control. So he says he talks about the sort of the dark sorcerers and that kind of thing, and they're very good at hiding their kind of corruption. The lesser people, the the Himan and the Helen, and then the kind of half people that are around the servants, they don't have the same strength as a samurai, and so therefore they turn into gibbering messes a lot quicker than the others, you know, good old-fashioned classes. So he's he's very much of that kind of description of what they are. But yeah, he says that he's seen that at a certain point you can no longer control it. He said the best thing to deal with people who are corrupted is jade. So if there's any jade, that'd be really helpful. And if your Shigenja knows anything, there's a specific spell called Jade Strike that he's aware of, and that their Shigenja know that really strikes the heart of corruption and damages them even more than traditional spells will. Otherwise, he gives you a whole load of like rituals and stuff to sort of ward yourself off from corruption, but he doesn't know how useful it is.
SPEAKER_04Given that Hiroshi has the occult ability of the common house brick, the the rituals probably aren't going to be much help for him. But he will definitely try to remember, and if he gets a chance, he will introduce Daisuke to Ayame. Well, that that leads handily onto Charlotte.
SPEAKER_05What is Ayame gonna do for a couple of days?
SPEAKER_02Wander around, get uh used to the place, see if she can hear anything that's being talked about that might be of interest.
SPEAKER_05Who would you spend time with in the place? Or would you just generally go around amongst everyone?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, just wandering, wandering. If there's any scrolls or knowledge to be had, then she'd spend some time there. As well as conferring with various kami and meditating. How are you gonna interact with people in the in the in in in the castle?
SPEAKER_05Eavesdrop. Just eavesdrop, okay. Well, I would definitely say that would be a stealth thing, but you probably don't have stealth. So maybe I guess either investigation or defense is so or etiquette, sorry, not defense. Investigation or etiquette are your two sort of things I'd probably go with. Pick one.
SPEAKER_02In investigation, because it uses my perception, which is three, whereas etiquette is awareness, which is only two. Okay. But etiquette is two, so it kind of balances out in the end.
SPEAKER_05Oh, but you get to keep more dice with investigation than you will with.
SPEAKER_02Fair. Alright. Well, let's do that. Emphasis no. Because I'm not interrogating anybody. Or could I?
SPEAKER_05I mean, if you want to interrogate people, you can do.
SPEAKER_02I think that would depend upon what she hears along the way. Like if there's anything worse. Okay. Like just randomly interrogate some random on the street in a city that I don't know. Yep, that'll work out well for me. Uh 19. Okay.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so you kind of make your way around most of the the key. So the one thing you you would you recognise and you probably have you've got SK anyway, haven't you? So I do. Yeah, so a lot of the there are a lot of servants' routes, which the samurai and the standard people do not use. There are lots of them. The castle is quite large and has a lot of I use the word secret passageways, and they're not secret, they're just they're just used by all the servants, and samurai never go down them. So a lot of people come and go that way. It seems like there's a lot of ins and outs. People generally seem quite happy in their lot in life, as as you would expect. There doesn't appear to be there doesn't even appear to be any worry about anything weird or strange going on. The biggest chat that's going on at the moment is you lot that have turned up to do an in an investigation. Well, people don't know. The average person doesn't know what's going on. But you are a group of non-dragon who've suddenly turned up and are wandering around. They don't know who you are, no one's kind of said who you are. They, you know, they're they're loyal enough not to ask questions or smart enough not to ask questions, but you can definitely tell that there is there is a group of people who worry more about what's going on, and that is the sort of lower end of the servants, the ones that clear out the waste, that touch all the leather, essentially the no people, the people who just you know they generally live on the outside of the keep, come in during the day, do the work, and go back outside. And so those those hidden people seem to be more worried about anything than anyone else. But as soon as anyone spots you being anywhere nearby, they disappear off down these passages and out of out of sight. I should have changed into my non-branded Phoenix clothing. While you are wandering around, you do go meet a monk who takes a lot of interest in you, what you're doing here, what you what you're doing. His name is Togashi Minoru. He is a monk who is here to sort of keep watch over the passes. So the Togashi family are the kind of like main family for the Dragonland for the Dragonland, and the monks serve as we won't use the word spies, but people who observe who the comings and goings of of various people. And so he is assigned here, and he because he's a man, he's a monk, he's obviously very spiritual, and so he very quickly comes over to you and asks you a whole manner of theological information around the kami, around Shinsei, and around all the various parts that you would have as a Shigenjad. What was his full name? Tagashi Togashi Minoru. When you do speak to him, one of the things that he does in his downtime is he carves miniature dragon statues, some all the eastern sort of like style dragons, which he kind of has tattooed on himself, and he sort of like carves and his quarters, or at least where he works outside of his quarters, there's a whole raft of them, sort of like just kicking around. Different sizes, some sort of like the same size as sort of a leg, others sort of like the same size as a finger, and he's obviously done quite a lot. It seems his way of meditating. Does he tell me that? Yeah, yeah. He's he's quite open about that. I would like to purchase one. So he definitely does not definitely does not allow you to purchase one. He definitely gives you one, and he spends a lot of time sort of like contemplating which one's the best one to give you, and he gives you sort of like a a palm-sized dragon, which also has a fiery bird flying alongside it. Mm-hmm, fancy. And it's all sort of like polished and sort of lacquered. You have yourself a nice little trinket from a Togeshi monk. Mr. Marco, what is Akira up to?
SPEAKER_03Kira will probably, similar to Scott, you know, maintain his sort of established routine of meditation and training. If there's a an appropriate place for him to do that, the training and all of that. But also he kinda is interested in what is this guy's name? Kobayashi Fumo?
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_03He's the guy that we met at the end of the last episode. Correct. Yes. Who is in the investigative charter and he said that he was there to help us. Yes. So he's just kind of interested in, you know, talk not being rude or overbearing or anything like that, but just uh and certainly not interrogating him, but just sort of chatting with him, seeing, kind of getting a sense of, you know, can we really trust this guy? Who is he, you know? That kind of thing. And what does he know about because it says in the investigative charter that he knows family secrets. I'm assuming that means the family secrets of this castle. Yes. Sort of lightly, yeah, lightly start to kind of like probe. Yeah, just sort of have have chats, but then kind of direct them towards certain places, you know.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so he is probably in his like 50s. He is a relatively quiet man, so he's quite quietly spoken. As you'd expect for someone who's always kind of around samurai, doesn't want to kind of annoy them or bother them, is very good at sort of like being there but not being noticed. You sort of like strike up any kind of conversation with him, he is quite happy to do so in very much a very respectful kind of manner, which I don't know how Akira takes that because you're not your very typical samurai. So how friendly do you want to get with and how how do you want to have that samurai servant kind of relationship, or are you looking to are you kind of a bit more sort of grounded and sort of down to earth with servants? I'm I'm not really sure how how does how does Akira feel with that status level of actually you're a samurai and everyone else is to do whatever you want them to do?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I don't I don't think that's Akira's jam. Certainly not with this gentleman. He's in our charter, he seems like he's might be important, so he's definitely not, in my view, some lowly, you know, servant who is should do what he's told and keep his mouth shut, kind of a thing. But I'm also not being like, hey, you're my buddy, you know, like overly friendly with him. There's gotta be some middle ground there somewhere.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I'll tell you what, why don't you make me a role? You can either go through the etiquette way or through an investigative way.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I feel like it's more investigative, I think.
SPEAKER_05Well, why don't you use investigation, but instead of using perception, use your awareness. So it looks like I expi I have a 22. You do. Well you got 10 mightn't explode. No. Yes, you've got a 22. That's really good. Okay, uh yeah, so he he he pretty much tells you that that he he he has he's been here for a long time. Do you show him you do you show him the letter? When you talk to him about it or you mean the charter? The charter, do you show him the charter or are you sure, why not? Okay. So he explains that he is a tunnel warden, that Shirazuri has a lot of tunnels. It's been around for a very long time, but the uh family's been or had these lands for as long as the dragon lands have been a thing. They've always been a vassal family, they've never kind of like attained great family status. But the thing they do, they do really well, is provide that Yojimbo service to the rest of the uh the dragon clan. He basically makes sure that the tunnels are safe because a lot of the Zuri family are buried under there and there are ancestral relics down under the keep. And so he is one of those people who kind of keep watch of all those sorts of things. He is quite protective to the Zuri family. Um he says he's more than happy to obviously help, especially seeing that you've given he's part of the charter, and he says that in the last sort of like couple of weeks he's been having strange visions of the keep crumbling to the ground around the actual ancestral items. He's been dreaming of running through corridors and the corridors collapsing on himself and then him slowly suffocating in the dark, and then he wakes up. He doesn't quite know what to do, he doesn't really want to speak to the the daimyo about it. He is under contract with Mitsuruchi, who's the guy that kind of gave you the charter, and he is one of many Kitsuki spies, again, within the various keeps, to keep an eye out on what's going on within those families. But his first loyalty is to the family that he's responsible for. So he's sort of a bit mixed as to what to tell you. He says that he. Has been given a scroll which has been entrusted to him by Kitsuki Mizurochi when only to open that with the utmost urgency should a Kitsuki investigator request it. He is unsure whether he should do that because you are not dragon kitsuki investigators, you are hired on by the Kitsuki. And so he needs to think about whether or not you should open that scroll now that you are in questing an investigation around what's going on.
SPEAKER_03That's understandable. Is there a way in and out of the castle through those tunnels? There is. And those entrances and exits are secure? Yes, they are secure unless you know how to get through them, yes.
SPEAKER_05And who would know how to get through them? So there are only a few people that would know. There are there's himself. There are two others that worked with him that are tunnel wardens. Also the Daimyo and their direct family members would know how to get through them.
SPEAKER_03Do they use them often? Only if they do not want to be seen, coming or going. Well, obviously yes, but do they use them often? Not often, no. Just trying to get to the, you know, just trying to understand the danger that this keep is in and try to mitigate or avoid catastrophe?
SPEAKER_05He would very much like to see anything bad happening, especially the rumors around the corruption that's happening nearby, just on the outskirts of the lands. He wouldn't want any of that to come in. So he he's very keen to help you however he can.
SPEAKER_03Does anyone in the castle, anyone at all, including at the lowest level, all the way to the top, and the you know, the family, does anyone give you pause or make you concerned? Do you think someone within these walls might be corrupted?
SPEAKER_05Not that he's aware of. He said that the only two that might be an issue, about the same time as the issue started. A Ronin has started to is now living here and has been hired by the Zuri family. Hired is not the right word, has come to an agreement with the Ronin to allow the Ronin to study at the um Yujimbo School for services. And at the same sort of time, well, previous to that, just before winter started, the crab clan guy turned up. And they are notoriously, you know, around corruption. What's to say that the crab guy didn't bring corruption with him? But they're the two that he's definitely kind of got his eye on. But he doesn't want to kind of target them because it's just his own personal opinion. Have they done anything to make him concerned? No, he just doesn't like that basically. Okay, okay. They'll be pleased be foreigners to our lands, it's that kind of thing. You guys are okay, you're samurai, Ronin, a bit suspicious, and the crab, well, you know. They're always messing around with things they shouldn't be. So that's his kind of like his view basically on that.
SPEAKER_03Okay. If I can like over the course of the next few days, sort of get a bead on where those two individuals are, and then just sort of keep, you know, keep an eye on him a little bit.
SPEAKER_05The uh the crab clan samurai spends a lot of his time with Hiroshi playing games and just studying the the various Yojimbo techniques. So he he's easy enough to find. It seems that the Ronan decides every now every now and then to do like certain bits of Yojimbo training, and spends a lot of his other time sitting around just chilling out, drinking sake and being a Ronan. In the traditional sense, as far as other samurai see them. He doesn't seem to have any skills, he just seems to chill out a lot and doesn't really do very much. But yeah, he can usually be found again in the training or in sort of like the lounging areas of the key. Right, so we come to Tony. What is Kikite Hironobu up to for two days?
SPEAKER_01Well, I think Kakite Hironobu is gonna be you know working on his obsession, which is dueling with samurai's with other bushy. Well, so he will probably just spend time on the courtyard, whatever they are training, and you know, push himself to practice as much as he can with other school people, because you know that's how he can learn and get better at it. Uh he basically will be just obsessed with being with these people and he probably will spend too much time with them, with whatever bushes there are, and you know, obviously at the end of the day, if they go to take some sake, you know, he will go with them and you know try to also befriend uh them. I mean, he does it just because he likes you know dealing with other people, not because he's looking for something, he has no double intentions. But if it happens that he learns new information, something interesting about what's going on, then so be it.
SPEAKER_05Okay, well, you definitely spend quite a bit of time hanging around with I suppose they're not necessarily a dueling school, but because they are Yojimbo, they need to learn to do a quick draw to defend their lieges and and whoever they whoever their principal is. So definitely part of their technique training is being there to sort of like strike first, or at least defend first, I suppose. So there is a little bit of a crossover between Aijutsu and Kenjutsu. One of the people that are there that seems to be very, very focused on that part of it is a young samurai, he's probably about 13 or 14, named Zurai Aki. He is really impressive when you look at him. He could be an extremely good duelist, but he is obviously studying the Yujumbo school, but he spends a lot of his time training, and the the masters here are more than happy for any of them to go against you know friendly duels with yourself. You know, being being a Kikita, they're like, oh, who else better to sort of train against than the foremost duelists amongst the clans? So they are more than happy to have you as a training dummy to work with. And if you're happy to do that.
SPEAKER_01I take it seriously, and I even try to train them instead of just being they practice against me, perhaps I'm even teaching them proper form and you know, I take I mean I don't know how many days we have here.
SPEAKER_05It's got a couple of days just kind of down as it were.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so perhaps the first day I just uh you know, not so much, but perhaps from the second day I start now. If they allow me, the teachers, I will probably take a more active role. Well push them a bit.
SPEAKER_05Why don't you make an I Jitsu role, but instead of using your reflexes, use your awareness because you're teaching them.
SPEAKER_01Your my awareness. Yeah, yutsu with awareness. My emphasis doesn't have noise, assessment and focus. Okay. Does it does perhaps assessment?
SPEAKER_05Oh, was it assessment that you have or is that focus? Or did you have both?
SPEAKER_01Both, I have both. Assessment and focus.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, assessment would probably be the best one, so you can use that. So I plus two.
SPEAKER_01What much did I go? 22. You got 17. I know, yeah. I didn't why I don't see my wrong. Okay. And then you refresh.
SPEAKER_05Refresh that. Okay. Yeah, so you got a 17. So yeah, you they're really helpful, they're really grateful for your help. You know, you kind of start show them sort of like some some rough techniques of ijutsu, sort of first strikes, and the the sensei there sort of use that knowledge to sort of counter first strikes. And yeah, you you spend a couple days of hard training. Along with Hiroshi, you probably protect shine from Taki. He is, like you said, he's he's really driven, which you quite like because it's something that you're quite obsessed with, and so is he. But he struggles quite a lot with self-doubt. But he wants to be as good as the Daimyo's daughter, and he's kind of got a bit of a soft spot for her. But you can definitely see this, but as he gets older, it could be a problem. But yeah, he's he he wants to be the best he can be, so he can impress her that he is the best Jujimbo that the school has ever produced, and that drives him all the time to do training. So if you speak with him, he is more than happy to tell you who he is, where he's been. He is sort of like a a fourth cousin, something along those lines to the Zerai family, and so he is very keen to sort of step into the shoes of the rest of the family and do them proud. That's his kind of main thing. But he struggles with his abilities. He thinks that he's not good enough, even though everyone tells him he's good enough, he's not sure himself. But as soon as you start showing an interest in him, he starts showing an interest back in you. And he's also very kind of he asks lots of questions about the crane techniques and what you do, how you do things, and then he you can see his mind's quite quick. He wants to kind of find a way to counter any techniques that you would show him to stop a crane from basically attacking a dragon. You can see it's kind of turning over in his mind quite quickly. But he's he's he hasn't quite grasped the etiquette of not telling you what he's thinking about, so he's he's in a way similar to the crab, in so much that he blurts out ideas without thinking them through or thinking about the consequences of him saying things. And I guess how would you how would you deal with that? Because you are quite honourable, I think.
SPEAKER_01I will try to teach him. I will take it as uh you know he's young, he's he needs to learn his proper position. So I will basically um try to show teach him etiquette.
SPEAKER_05I think your honour is 5.5, I think it is.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, five.
SPEAKER_05I don't know if it is super high, but uh I'll tell you what, why don't you roll me five dice? Keep those five dice for your honour.
SPEAKER_01Thirty-eight?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, okay, nice.
SPEAKER_01I mean if you if you sum them up, yeah, it's 38. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's what I want. And I had to even add 10, but I guess it's not explode in.
SPEAKER_05No, okay. I'll tell you what, why don't you uh add 0.4, so you should be on 5.9 to your honour, for teaching him the correct way of of acting more like a samurai. I mean he's still quite young, and some of the sort of like techniques and stuff that you would you were taught as a young, craned samurai, you kind of start to impart some of that information. Yeah, okay. Nice. Yeah, and you start to build up a bit of a relationship with them. And through that, through the teachers, you definitely build up sort of like a reputation with them. Alright, well, that's that's all of your two days. After a couple of days, you all have your interactions, and Aya comes back and she says that there is no one missing from the villages that matches those descriptions. They kind of went to the various ones around Shiro Zero. I couldn't find any. It could be that they are from some of the villages further out, but that would take you know a week or so to sort of traverse through the mountain passes and stuff, and some of those mountain passes aren't quite passable yet. So she says she is sorry that she has not been able to account for the missing people. Although what she has done is she did try and look on the trail, but obviously you guys threw them off the trail. You all kicked them off, and you burnt the bodies, didn't you? And then threw the bodies off the trail. So they can't necessarily identify who these people are, other than some descriptions that you gave them. But she has said that they've not come across anything suspicious. They've raided some of the um headman's houses, they've kind of like kicked over various things, but couldn't find anything suspicious.
SPEAKER_03Find that suspicious.
SPEAKER_05I mean, if you think she's suspicious, sir.
SPEAKER_01I suspect everyone.
SPEAKER_05You suspect everyone.
unknownOkay?
SPEAKER_05I want to interrogate her. If you want to, Yame, you can bring her in and interrogate her in a nice way, I suppose.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like not so much of an interrogation, but a friendly discussion amongst friends with no other ears around. Wanna wanna play good cop, bad cop? Maybe. What could possibly go wrong? Want to? How can that backfire on us? With a cura and in her imaging house. The shame and dishonour. Sure it'll be fine. I'm sure it'll be fine.
SPEAKER_05I don't trust you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know what? I would like to bring her in to talk with us privately.
SPEAKER_05She's obviously more than happy to do so. She understands that you need to sort of be away from everyone else, so not a problem. Uh so she'll come to your your quarters, as it were.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and then obviously recognize all of the rituals and honors, like having tea and all that. Do you like tea ceremony? I don't think I do. I don't think I do. I have etiquette. Make an etiquette roll for me. Etiquette rolling the dice. And I'm getting a twelve.
SPEAKER_05Okay. She probably finds that you're quite quaint with what you do. So she comes in, you kind of offer all the sort of like the tea and the and all the kind of other bits and pieces that will come through it. Is anybody else gonna be present or is it just gonna be a Kira and a Yame?
SPEAKER_04No, I will go. I will be there too. His scene, he's probably still busy out playing games and roughhousing in the mud and generally being incredibly uncultured. I like that. That's cool. What if he was summoned? Would he then come? If he was summoned and requested to be there, then of course he would be there.
SPEAKER_02Consider himself summoned and requested.
SPEAKER_04In that case, if if yeah, if he's summoned or requested, he will be there as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I feel like it's something that everyone should be here for because we all might have different questions to ask regarding what's going on. Yeah, no, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_05She sits down with you all, has some tea, which you provided with her, she tells you a little bit about going to the sort of like five villages that were around the the keep and not being able to find anyone that matches the descriptions, or at least questioning anyone from those villages. Four missing grandma and two other people, and then she finishes her report. That was the quick sum-up. Uh but she probably spends about an hour talking about who she's spoken to, where she's been, what she's done, that kind of thing. And then she asks if there's anything else she can help you with.
SPEAKER_02Was there any inconsistencies between the first relating of her investigation and the second relating of her investigation?
SPEAKER_05Well, why don't you make an investigation role there?
SPEAKER_02Well, I just might. Would that be considered an interrogation?
SPEAKER_05Uh that would be considered an interrogation, yes.
SPEAKER_02Emphasis 15. So yes, so she her story seems consistent. Alright. We do apologize for bringing you in like this. We just want to make sure that anything that we have to discuss of a sensitive nature is not overheard by ears that should not be hearing this information. We don't want to cause a panic, we don't want to open speculation or rumors. We want to try and maintain the peace here as much as we can while we're on our visit.
SPEAKER_05She says, I understand Agusha Summer. I have no problem with answering any questions that anyone requires, especially as you are investigators working on behalf of my clan.
SPEAKER_04When you were out and about, I know you weren't specifically looking for this, but did any of the townsfolk you spoke to discuss any kind of afflictions, maybe boils or pustules around the mouth, either of themselves, family members, people that they'd seen?
SPEAKER_05No, we we looked for signs of corruption or anything that was of an ill disposition, but we could not find anything. Now we could not search every single person, but on casual observation, we could not see anyone that looked like they were corrupted or had any weirdness about them.
SPEAKER_02Oftentimes our instincts will see more than our eyes. Did you feel any unease when you walked into these villages? No. I did not feel anything like that.
SPEAKER_04You met with any kind of unusual hostility or reticence to No, people were were curious as to why we were out at this time of the year, because we wouldn't normally do this.
SPEAKER_03But no, no no one that was And no one reported anything out of the ordinary?
SPEAKER_05No, no. I um I didn't see anything, no one reported anything strange. Quite care I care quite deeply for my land and my people. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to them. It's my as the as the heir to the the family. It's my my belief and my honour, and indeed my duty to look after those that cannot look after themselves. And I and I take that guardianship very seriously.
SPEAKER_03Did you sense that anyone in any of these villages appeared frightened?
SPEAKER_05She says no more than you would normally expect peasants to be frightened. They are, after all, there for our back and call. Well some might think that. She kind of looks over at the the Kikita. But we are we're a different we we we treat we treat our peasants slightly differently. When was the last time you were in the tunnels?
SPEAKER_03She looks at you. Sorry, what tunnels? Wait, doesn't the family members uh don't they all know about the tunnels? Yeah, they do. Yeah, but it is lied to you. Yes. But her face is completely like unreadable. She says, what tunnels? You know exactly what tunnels I am speaking of. You are lying to me, which now puts your entire testimony into question. She looks at you and says, I'd be careful. Yes, I would. You're not in your hometown now. No, but we are here with a purpose. We are magistrates after all. If you cannot answer our questions truthfully, then well, that puts you under a cloud of suspicion, does it not?
SPEAKER_02I will try and interrupt to try and get this a little under control. Please, please forgive his bluntness. We have been on the road for many days, and despite the wonderful accommodations that you provided, we are we are weary and we want to get home. But he does bring up a valid point. We do know that the servants' passageways exist. We would be very surprised if you didn't. We're just trying to do our duty here.
SPEAKER_05You can see that her eyes sort of like there's just a little flicker in her eyes. Here and over you see that she sort of she's got a wakazashi on her, and you can see that she her thumb is close to the tuba to sort of like spring it out, but she hasn't done it. She's you can see that that's the sort of thing that she's waiting to do. It's only very imperceptible, only it's a it's definitely an jitsu kind of thing, but she hasn't done it. And she says my apologies. There are some things that I do not wish to compromise, and the security of this keep is that, yes, I have used the tunnels. It is a good way to get about without being seen.
SPEAKER_03Why would someone want to get about without being seen if they have nothing dishonest to do?
SPEAKER_05there are things that people would like to do with others that would not be seen to be the right thing in their eyes of their father. And she sort of like raises her eye.
SPEAKER_03Understood. Ah, understood, understood. My apologies.
SPEAKER_05I assume the secret will stay within these walls. Absolutely. I um I have been seeing someone not of my station. My father would not understand. And neither would my husband. I do not wish to sally the waters of that. I will try and be as honest as I can with you.
SPEAKER_02We appreciate that and recognise there are some things that you do not wish to be open knowledge. So at that point, you hear a scream coming from one of the other rooms.
SPEAKER_00Stand up and go quickly to the next whatever the noise comes from. With my katana at hand.
SPEAKER_04We're in we're inside sort of the main can. You're inside the keep, you're right in the main keep. I'm assuming we wouldn't be walking it would be very, very odd to be walking around in full battle gear. Yeah, you wouldn't be wearing armor and stuff. I can expect to not have Manodachi Managinata, but almost certainly the Katana and the Wakazashi. Yeah, you'd have the Wakazi.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, your Daisho beauty because it's part of your status. I mean if you if you felt really, really, really relaxed in a in a place, you probably would only have your Wakasashi. Or maybe a Tangato.
SPEAKER_04I think I've still got the the I've got the whole Daisho, but I definitely haven't I'm not running around the castle with a Nagana and Adachi strapped to my back.
SPEAKER_01Okay. I'm probably not even I'm not even the armor.
SPEAKER_05Oh no, absolutely not the armor. Okay. So take it you're also gonna Get up Hiroshi and Hiroshi scream.
SPEAKER_04She will always run towards the sound of a scream.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Ayah. Arrowfall. Arrowfall two. So you you make your way outside into the corridor and across to one of the rooms. It's the room of Miromoto Akari, your dragon shikenja. Okay. Who's going into the room first? I go first. Okay. You pull open the shady screen and you walk into the room. You can see Mirama Akari. She is on the floor. And she is rolling around in what looks like a lot of pain. You can see that she has been sick and there is vomit all over the floor and she is shaking. She kind of turns to you as you come in. She shouts in your direction. Through sacrifice! Through sacrifice! The pigs will shatter! The pizza can s and she sort of starts shouting and she starts throwing up. The stuff she starts to throw up is sort of like horrible black, gooey stuff that kind of is icore. Yeah. All over the place. Her hands sort of like go into weird shapes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I call it a damn it's fun.
SPEAKER_02Damn it! I will push those in front of me out of the way and then try and cast Elemental Ward. Which is used to enhance the resistance to hostile magic. Spirits of Earth armor the target's body and soul, rejecting other cami when they try to attack the target.
SPEAKER_05Seems like a good thing to do. Uh difficulty's gonna be 10, I think it's a master double one. One. One. Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Alright. That is earth. Am I using a void? No. Do I have affinity or deficiency? No. Spell spot. Yes. Roll and dice. Ten.
SPEAKER_05Right on the nose. Very handy. Yeah, you sort of like. What does it look like? What does your spell look like when you do that?
SPEAKER_02I think I would kneel on the floor beside her with my hands and forehead on the ground, trying to entreat the commie to protect her.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, she sort of like looks at you as as you do that while you're sort of like chanting your head at the head on the floor. She looks over at you. She turned over and she sort of points at you and she says, You! You and she points at the doorway where you're standing. She says, You don't understand her eyes roll back in the head. She twitches and force the floor.