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.
We’re not voice actors, professional entertainers, or trained performers—just friends from around the globe sharing virtual dice, stories, and a laugh or two as the game unfolds.
Stories with Dice
Shadows in the Peaks Episode 11 - A Legend of the Five Rings Actual Play
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In the penultimate episode, the samurai uncover a Zurui family secret — a pact with dark forces and a debt that demands an impossible choice.
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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_04Hi! It's a penultimate episode. Oh my god, how do we get here so quickly? Well, teach me for doing a short story. Walker, how are you? High Lord Edward II. I'm fine. How are you? Yes, we yeah, I'm I'm good. I'm I think more people should call me High Lord.
SPEAKER_02I think that's I didn't put that in there, by the way, that must have been you. It was never me. I wouldn't do such a thing. That sounds like sarcasm. Okay, maybe it was me.
SPEAKER_03We are joined as ever with Scott. Hello, penultimate session, and my copy of Way of the Unicorn has just arrived. Yay, just in time. So I'll be playing this game, playing a unicorn. I still haven't a chance to read it, so I'm just gonna be making it up as I go along like I happened for the previous. Yeah, but you know, we'll play five rings again at some point, you know, when there's uh Exactly.
SPEAKER_04When there's a Symbaroom game that we're not playing. Season two. Don't get me started. Don't get me started. We're just currently scheduled circa 2037. Something like that. We're also joined by Charlotte. Well, hello there. Another person who's gonna run me Five Rings, Fifth Edition, and try and convince me that it's a better edition. We'll see. We'll see what we can do. And then finally joined by Nobody Loves Me, Tony.
SPEAKER_01Yes, because indeed nobody loves me anymore.
SPEAKER_04What did you do? What did you do?
SPEAKER_02Life. What did he do? I'll tell you what he I'll tell you what he did. He promised to be here for the schedule, for the one ring, and now he's telling me he made plans with his wife. I mean, how dare you do something like that? I would never do anything like that apart from the next special.
SPEAKER_05Tony, you really gotta get your priorities sorted out. Tony, it can't be both of us.
SPEAKER_02It's gotta be her or me. Well you offer him, Marco. I mean, how normal.
SPEAKER_04I love the way he's negotiating. I know.
SPEAKER_03That wasn't just immediately the end of Tony's illustrious podcasting career. Well, I haven't done this for a very long time. What do you mean, a total party kill? I mean, I haven't done that yet. It's only a matter of time. Scott, what happened last session? What happened last session? That is a very good question, Ed. We were, as I recall, didn't didn't horrible shadow samurai rock up and start beating the snot out of all of us? Horrible shadow samurai did turn up out of the middle of nowhere and start beating the shower.
SPEAKER_04Some of you. Other other of you, please note PG listeners, I said snot. It was Ed who swore. I swear a lot, this is not a PG game or a PG podcast. Things like fuck, bollocks, shit, is all perfectly acceptable. Yes, that's true. You had some samurai that turned up.
SPEAKER_03Anything else that was our Shugenja ended up going absolutely wibble and passing out and being having all kinds of black vomity horribleness. I didn't know. No, the other uh it was the other Shugenja, the NPC Shugenja that we had no control over. The one who is obviously less effective than I have. Obviously. Anything else? I've slept since then, Ed. You can't expect me to remember more than two things. Anyone else? Anybody else who were up the up the ante with that?
SPEAKER_01I defended the big Damian, right? With my super family sword, sacred family sword. Mm-hmm. And I fought Alin against the shadow.
SPEAKER_04Anything happened in that interaction that you remember that was kind of important?
SPEAKER_02The evil the evil shadow samurai said something to the leader about a debt. Ah yes. Good good one.
SPEAKER_04We have come to collect the debt you owe us, I think was the word. Yeah. Da! And that's where we're gonna kind of pick up for exactly where you left off. Maybe we'll call it half hour, 45 minutes later. We'll kinda go around. So Agashi Ayame is looking after Miramoto Akari, and she's now settled down and is, for all intents and purposes, being looked after by servants and stuff to kind of keep her, I guess, calm and relaxed, and and she she's kind of gone in and out of consciousness, and she's now settled down to sort of just being unconscious and sleeping. We kind of then went across to Scott, Hiroshi, and Akira. You fought one of these things with the crab samurai, and it kind of went down, and you managed to essentially kill it.
SPEAKER_03I think just to increase my own recollection, as far as I can I'm aware, it was Akira and the Crab Samurai who did the fighting. While Hiroshi stood and defended the doorway. Correct. To Akira's displeasure. Yes, this is true.
SPEAKER_04And then, well, in fact, actually, during the sort of previous session, Akira found out about passageways that were dug under the castle on the keep in the mountain. Basically, spoken to one of the spies for the Unicorn investigation family, had kind of got some information from them saying that yes, a lot of the family use the tunnels that go around. And then, Hironobu, you cut down the dark samurai or whatever that was attacking the uh the daimyo. Mm-hmm. And then he said, We've come to collect a debt, and then you took him out. That's where we kind of ended it. So it's about 45 minutes later. You've all kind of come together to kind of explain what's happened previously. Is there anything you would like to do as a group, having found out that information about what to do next?
SPEAKER_02Uh, where are we in relation to the the Lord?
SPEAKER_04If you wanted to be with them, that's not a problem. I mean, the revelation was pretty damning. Well, I guess, first of all, Hironobu. That's quite a damning thing for a creature of darkness to say. Now it was you and the Daimyo's younger brother, daughter, and a couple of the Hatamoto and a couple of trusted retainers, and you. So you're the only ones that now know this. Would you impart that information to the rest of the team? Yes. Okay, that's fine. In which case you have, well, I guess, some questions, I guess, to ask. What, where, how, all the rest of it. But more importantly, how does that sit with your ideals as a samurai? Following the codes of Bushido and the codes of Shigenja, how does it sit with the family having made some kind of deal, debt, or something to what clearly looks like a corrupted entity?
SPEAKER_01The problem is that I cannot demand anything to the daimyo. He's still the Daimyo. So I cannot be an ass. Uh I need to do I I don't know. And and perhaps I can ask, but in a very diplomatic way, I guess. I don't know. Can I roll for etiquette to know how to do it?
SPEAKER_04Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Because that's I mean, I I mean I I guess I I couldn't even know how to unit as a player.
SPEAKER_04I mean, normally you wouldn't interact with a diamond at this level, you'd usually go through an intermediately.
SPEAKER_05May I make a suggestion? Let's grab his daughter. Let's bring her in on this. She was in the room when it happened.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Because we might not have this status, but his own flesh and blood. It's a bit of a shorter gap.
SPEAKER_03Like the idea.
SPEAKER_05And if she has dreams of gaining rank and status on her own, she could potentially use this as a way to climb the rungs faster.
SPEAKER_01Sounds good to me. Yeah, why not? Because she was in the room now. She was not in the room, no?
SPEAKER_04No, I mean she was in the room at the time, but obviously now. We'll we'll say you kind of have got together separately from everyone else to kind of have a a conflab of all the information so that all the stuff that's happened previously you can kind of talk about and say you would have done that. As a group, what's the next steps that you would like to do?
SPEAKER_02I would like someone to take care of my wound. That's just me speaking selfishly.
SPEAKER_04What's your uh healing spells like, Charlotte? A what? Nope, none.
SPEAKER_05I don't think I have any. Let me double check that. Let me check Murmurta Yana. I think she does. So why are you automatically going to the woman to assume that she might have healing skills?
SPEAKER_03Because you're the only one with any kind of magic or ability whatsoever that isn't bopping people on the head. I mean Or because Ed is sexist, uh, you know, take your pick. I mean, there is a there is awesome. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_05That's what they call me sexist Ed. That's that's me. No, for those who are listening, and if this may be your first time, Ed is not sexist. I was just making a joke. Ed is actually a really good person to play with.
SPEAKER_03But it's really funny when we mock him for it. I mean, I'm used to it, it's fine.
SPEAKER_05I know I got protection, I don't have healing.
SPEAKER_04Marco, you can heal 15 wounds. That is the exact number of wounds that I have. Well, it's highly. For Hatsumoja, who's a Shigenja, she will heal you. A whole load of Shinsei's blessings on you, and then Costa Spell, which makes you sort of like feel very warm, and then your your wounds that you have like bind over, leaving slight scars. So it doesn't feel blemish-free, but there are sort of slight scars on them. Yes, that's fine. So you get healed.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. I I appreciate it greatly. So she'll be there if you want to ask her anything. Me? And no, I don't want to ask her anything. Does anybody else want to ask her anything? I'm fair.
SPEAKER_03No, no, no, no. Yeah, sorry, I was thinking wrong. Shigenja. No, I've got nothing to ask her.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if we can ask her about the this depth thingy. I mean, can I I mean uh Aurora 25 for my etiquette thingy? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So technically you would ask the Hatamoto, you might ask lower a lower status samurai to then have a to request an audience, and you might then have an audience with uh with the daimyo at their convenience. So potentially they're gonna be months away. But considering what's just happened, and you have just saved the daimyo's life, which means I need to give you some uh attention. Yeah, it means that your choke your chances are you'll probably want to be spoken to. It doesn't help asking the people that do all the work around the castle to do it for you.
SPEAKER_05Should we also bring in Kobayashi Fumio into this? These are men on the inside, he might know a little bit more. He is the no-win scenario.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean you could ask that question. There's no reason why you couldn't. I bet remember you couldn't find him.
SPEAKER_05I'd say let's bring in the daughter to try and sway her to our side before we try and make any moves against the Damyo himself. Okay. And she could also help us get that meeting set up. Yes, she could.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so Mirurachi Yuna will come along, do the healing, check you're all okay, and then wander off again. You then request Zurai Aya to kind of pop in and see you, which she does. She's looking less prim and proper than you'd expect her to. She's still wearing her armour, and when she comes to speak to you, she she gives enough etiquette and shows enough deference to kind of like come and see you, but she's clearly in a hurry, so it's everything all the all the bows, all the kind of like conversation is very equipped and very quick to sort of like, oh, are yeah, what are we doing here kind of thing? But without saying that. You know, I want to be somewhere else, this isn't where I want to be, but we'll be polite about it.
SPEAKER_05What do you want to ask her? Well, first off, we appreciate you coming when the state of your house is in disarray. We discovered some information during all this that we feel you may want to know. Yes, go ahead. Then I'll let uh Hironobu carry on with what he saw and heard.
SPEAKER_01During the Tremblor, during the moment of chaos in the house and you know when the mountains exploded and the the earth kamis shake. I went right away to save check on the daimyo to make sure that he was safe. I was very surprised when I arrived there. Darkness appeared on the room. I don't know if it is called the throne room, but on the throne room or it was it was the daimyo's reception room, I guess. Reception room. Being on the reception room, a darkness that I've never seen before. You know, I fought bravely to protect the daimyo, and thanks to the sacred katana from my ancestors, and I touched it lightly. Somehow, this cause that the you know my attacks were effective, you know, had an effect and I was able to fight back this corruption, this darkness. But before it disappeared, this shape, because it was indeed a shape, a shape of a bushy, a samurai, a dark samurai, mentioned something that shook me to the core. I've come to, you know, to crash my depths. You know, in a way saying that somehow your house was in depth to this shadow, to this bushy, to this samurai. Wouldn't you happen to know anything about this?
SPEAKER_04She lifts to you and given your last interaction with her, she says, Yes, I was shocked to hear that said about my father, and I was not aware of any dark pact or deal or oath or anything like that between my father and and any corrupted beings. She says, I I am I to believe that you will have to make this knowledge available to the rest of the clan? That depends on you. What do I need to do to offer the safety of my father to whatever has happened?
SPEAKER_05I think you should concern yourself less about the safety of your father and more the safety of your house at this point.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely, the Zero family would be very dishonored should this information go anywhere. And I of course will do whatever is required of me.
SPEAKER_05As is my duty.
SPEAKER_02That is good to hear.
SPEAKER_05Because by the end of today, you may be the head of this family. She doesn't look happy about it.
SPEAKER_04She says, as the investigators, what what is the next step?
SPEAKER_02We will confront your father.
SPEAKER_04And we would like your assistance in this.
SPEAKER_02Of course.
SPEAKER_01And if it goes badly, you are not to get in the way of what must be done. Let's not together head of ourselves. Perhaps we can offer assistance to the family.
SPEAKER_04Her hand pretty much goes to her Wakazashi and Katara, but she sort of like stops and she's She says, I will do my best to honour my family and my clan. Okay, let's go and speak to my father. Come, if she gets up. Are we all ready?
SPEAKER_05Do we need to do anything?
SPEAKER_03Just I am assuming at this point that we are all still in our kimono, and going of going in front of the daimyo, armed with, say, a giant Naginata, would probably be considered bad.
SPEAKER_05Well at all not good. But with everything that just went on, you could we're still uncertain if there is any hostiles in the building, so being decked out would be reasonable, in my opinion. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04You'd be able to, like, you know, wonder your swords and stuff. You'd you know, if you were to go to sort of like visit the visit the daimyo, you'd probably put your Naganata outside and take your Wakazashi and your katana with you and just lay them in the appropriate place. Okay. It's it's a bit hard to wield the sort of Naganata, but you can definitely have it nearby.
SPEAKER_03He will keep the Naganata to hand, if not on him, then. He'll take it, he'll take it with him.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so as you sort of like make your way again back up to the top of the back up to the castle, the there are reports coming in that there have been others sighted throughout the castle, and some have been taken down by other members of the various visiting samurai, monks, the students at the at the keep, as well as even a couple of peasants have kind of, or a large group of peasants have managed to subdue and kill one of them. It seems that what happens is once they once they have been dispatched, the body stays around for a short period of time before it basically doing exactly what it did, how it came to being, it disappears into this formless, smokeless substance and then disappears, leaving nothing behind. And so as you're sort of making your way towards the Daimyo's chambers, a load of samurai from various different statuses and ranks kind of make their way to I and kind of just give updates, which she has to do. So it takes a bit of time to have to keep stopping, starting, stopping, and starting. She's shown sort of like damage that's been done, or you know, she'll see to someone who's injured. She won't see to them, but she'll like ask after them and and check that everything's okay. So as you're sort of like going with her, you get the sense that she would make a particularly good and caring daimyo, and and she's already sort of like proven that she's willing to do whatever the duty says. Or so she says anyway. You haven't seen it actually happen yet. But you make your way to Tomo's reception room, same thing as before, Erinobu. It's not as big as you would expect, the cranes one, all the same, you know, for the for the unicorn. But it is a suitable size for someone to receive reception. You can see where the tables that were all overturned during the course of the fight have been moved away and fresh tatami mats have been laid down. The daimyo is on his knees sitting next to a board with his chop and his his writing implements, and as you come in, you're not stopped by anybody. As soon as they see that it's a eye that's coming along, people get out of her way, and she comes in and says, Father, the investigators wish to see you. And then she turns and sits on his left-hand side.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_04There's there's a couple of other samurai there. They kind of motion you to sit in front of him, probably about ten feet in front, and there are six cushions arranged in a sort of parallel line for you to sit in. And then uh he waves them away, and it's just you, him, and his daughter in the room.
SPEAKER_01I will sit with my you know Daisho to my right, and I will bow.
SPEAKER_04Bows back to you, and uh in a very curt voice he says, How can I help you, investigators?
SPEAKER_01Will I speak and say, I'm very sorry, Suri Sama, to bring this to you today. But as you are aware, I I was present during the fight with the shadow, and I was happy to be able to protect you and to save you from this horrible apparition. But the words that he this entity mentioned at the end shocked me to the core, and you know, I I am I try to not to look clearly to him, to you know, give him a kind of you know, not to annoy him or to yeah, deference to him. And if there is any way that we can help you with this entity, please do say so.
SPEAKER_02What my companion is trying to say is we would very much like to know what is this death that you owe these these abominations.
SPEAKER_04I think it is probably better that I show you. Pete, would you accompany me? Where below the keep, there are corridors that we use that have been around for a very long time.
SPEAKER_05It is there that I will show you. When he mentions the corridors, I'm gonna look at his daughter and see if she makes any kinda tick towards a mansion. Make I guess investigation is probably your best bet.
SPEAKER_0424? Baldo? Yeah, she she looks a little not confused, she looks a little surprised. Good. He says, please come with me. And he gets up and he picks up his wakazashi and katana. He turns to the um the mon of the of the Zuri family and he kind of bows to that and he says, Please, come with me. As he goes to move, about ten samurai appear out of nowhere, and he waves them off and says, No no, I will be going on my own. I have these, these is my uh rescue, they will be fine. You can see all the samurai looking particularly nervous, all his local bodyguards like what? But he sort of waves them off um and he sort of takes you down a very personal back service area, which you guys would never ever go down under normal circumstances. Am I able to grab my Lagonata on the way down? Yeah, yeah, that's fine. You can you can grab that. And he sort of takes you down the back end of the keep and he takes you to a a a wall which looks like a fucking old wall, and he kind of moves it and it very quickly turns into a door. He says, This way, please. And he starts to walk down this set of stairs, heading down deeper into the bedrock itself. As he kind of makes his way down, he says, The hall was built many, many years ago when one of my ancestors had realized that there was jade within the within the base of this old castle, and they built some of these corridors to mine some of the jade. You can see sort of like as you're Kind of going through it now, it makes sense that this is sort of like a mine that has then been almost smoothed out to accommodate maybe two people standing abreast, but it's not particularly high. So you know, if you had any kind of like no darchy or your Naganachi was difficult to wheeled around these um corridors, he says about 160 so years ago, my ancestor Zero Ito carved the chambers to preserve our ancestors' history. And as he says that he he walks into this large chamber. The chamber itself is a large circular chamber. There are seven stone doors marked on each of the around the circular chamber. It's all carved from what looks like an obsidian-veined stone running through them. Sitting in the centre of the circular chamber is an altar, which again is sort of this granite jade kind of altar. At the very back of the chamber, as you come in, there is this heavy shadow sort of like lining the wall at the back of the back of the actual chamber itself. As soon as you walk in, a Yame feels the hum of void energy.
SPEAKER_05I'd quietly say to everyone, be on your guard, there's darkness abound. This is the legacy that we have.
SPEAKER_04He said, I thought it was to preserve it, but it's not the case. When Ito decided to build this, our family was dying. Trade routes had collapsed, the carmies turn away from us, and Ito he listened to something beneath the mountain, and he basically points to the altar, and then he points past the altar to this like shadow of darkness where the lights are sort of like not quite hitting it. As he walks in, he you can see on all the different walls around the room there are all these carved names. As soon as you look at them, as soon as you look at the names on the on the carvings, as you get closer to it, it blurs, so you can't actually read the names. The further away you get, the clearer they become, the closer you get, the harder it is to read the names. He says, each generation we give something. A truth, a name, a voice. My grandfather could not remember his brother's face. My father forgot his own wedding vows. And I I gave up what my mother sounded like. This pact that was created between the darkness that listens and my family allowed us to be the best that we could be in regards to facing threats. And part of our technique is linked to this. We learnt the trainings from the darkness that listens. You really are your best if you're consorting with demons? He looks at you and says, I was told it was protection to our family, that it would allow us to offer our best services. It was not corruption. Our best Shigenja had found no connect corruption. It lives in this, and he basically points to all the jade around. So how can it be?
SPEAKER_03If a if a retain if a retainer were to take Koku from your treasury whilst counting it and then hand it to his to his family, would that not be corruption? It may not be corruption in terms of the shadow taint, but it's corruption nonetheless. Abuse of one's position is corruption of a sort.
SPEAKER_04So I is looking around, looking particularly agog at all the kind of stuff that's happening. And he says, We pass the tradition on when the next person ascends to dime your ship. We have to take the small debt to allow us to honour the clan and to do our duty as we should. He looks all at you and says, Of course, I am willing to do whatever I can to help you.
SPEAKER_02So help me understand what is this debt that you owe. Debt is forgetting something. The debt is giving you already or you already forgot your mother's voice. You've spoken a lot about this darkness that listens and your family, but I am still not understanding the debt that you owe this creature. They attacked your castle for a reason.
SPEAKER_04I think it is time that we need to redo the debt. I guess I have been a daimyo far far longer than my father or my father before them. And perhaps maybe it is time for me to either well, he looks at you and says, I guess I only see three things that we can do. Either redo the pact, cancel the pact, or create a new pact. Where you see three, I see one.
SPEAKER_05He looks at you.
SPEAKER_02Do I think he's telling me the truth or is he withholding something?
SPEAKER_05I'll make an investigation, Rolf, please. Also on that line, does this have anything to do with why the feet why the Agasha family broke away from Dragon? It could be. It definitely is never it's around about the same sort of time. So would I have any even half-learned information that would kind of connect these dots?
SPEAKER_04What skill would we use for that? So I'll get back to you in a second. One second, Marco. I have a yeah, I have a 23. Do you I reckon it's gonna be I think it's gonna be spellcraft. And I'm gonna require a difficulty of 40. What? Because it's quite an unknown information. So it's gonna be very difficult. Obviously, feel free if you wish to use void if you have any left.
SPEAKER_05Well, I'm just I have any. Did I r meditate after using all my void up last time? When did I meditate last? Where am I? Who are you all? Make a meditation roll for me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think I used up my void last session too.
SPEAKER_04No, you probably don't have enough.
SPEAKER_05Out of five dice, I got 14.
SPEAKER_04That's terrible. Yeah, maybe not. You just didn't have enough time to do that after all the things you've done. So if you've not got any void left, then you haven't got any void left? I don't know, let me check a Gary sheet. It says you have no void points left.
SPEAKER_05So Yeah, no, that's what I'm looking at. It's like, and then I was wondering, it's like, when did I last meditate? What have I done since then?
SPEAKER_04No, it's been yeah. So you would have had it's all like the 45 minutes after the fight kind of thing.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04To do anything.
SPEAKER_05But I didn't fight, so I wouldn't have needed to use it. Unless I used it to try and help her. I think you did.
SPEAKER_04I think you used to cast out the darkness that was taking over there. Anyway, I'll try the spellcraft. I've got Give it a go, give it a go. Yeah. Usually when I give these kind of crazy target numbers, players usually get them. Twenty-seven. So no. So no, you were never privileged to any kind of information around that, but it is around about the same time that the you separated. So it could well be that there might be something in there. So yeah, Marco, is he telling the truth? He appears to be telling the truth. Is there something he's leaving out? If he is, he's not specifically trying to deceive you. There might be just more things that he's trying to think of and it's just not coming. So it's a very halted thing, and he seems very unsure of himself. He's, you know, a well-known dimeo, he's he's well thought of, and he's definitely not being that with you. So he's kind of letting his guard down quite a bit.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I'm just trying to understand what this is what debt he owes these creatures. It's because it's based on what he said, it sounds like he's already paid that debt.
SPEAKER_04He has. He he assumes that that he that the the debt is paid every single either either per daimyo, but that might not be the case. Maybe it is every 10 years, 15 years, however long it might be. And maybe this is the time that the debt is needed to be either repaid or renewed, or something along those lines. That's what he's ex- he thinks, he's not sure.
SPEAKER_03Basically, has he been too successful at not dying? Yeah, pretty much. Okay. Thinking back to what to what Hiroshi's seen and read in terms of lineage whilst he's been there. And maybe he asks this of one of the more well-read members of the group. How long has this Daimyo been in post versus his predecessors? Has has he survived notably longer than the others?
SPEAKER_04Why don't we make a I take it no one will have lore dragon, but why does anybody have any kind of knowledge around, or do you have actually do you have does anybody have any merits and flaws, as it were, boons, whatever you want to call them, around like heraldry or any kind of skills like that, or any kind of advantages or disadvantages that would allow you to know about families and clans and things like that?
SPEAKER_03None of me. Hiroshi absolutely doesn't, and Hiroshi also is lacks the social graces enough to just say outright, how much longer have you been Daimyo than your predecessors? Is that something that could have prompted the debt to be recollected? Suzumi Nori has law history.
SPEAKER_04I knew we kept her around for a reason. And she got a 22. Suzumi Nori sort of like steps up and says, Well, I can tell you, and she sort of like starts to reel off, sort of not quite verbatim, but sort of a general timeline for each of the the previous predecessors. And they all seem to sort of be a daimyo for about 10 or 15 years. Whereas the current reigning daimyo has been daimyo for 19 years.
SPEAKER_03And I'm just I'm just thinking there are two lines looking back at think about some of the notes that we've had. The note we found at the watchtower mentioned that the oath was broken. Akari's note to us said that through silence the oath will break. Is that could the it could the silence be the not giving up a memory on time? Potentially. Possibly. And again, Hiroshi's voicing this in front of everybody with absolutely zero decorum whatsoever. He's that's right. Literally just thinking this through out loud in front of everyone, including I, uh the Daimyo, and obviously Nori as well. She already said so the Daimyo, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he'd already kind of like said that he thinks that maybe that's something that that that needed to happen. But yeah, as soon as you kind of put them all together, actually the the words start to make sense.
SPEAKER_03And we know so following that line, following that sort of following that thing, we've got through sacrifice the peak will shatter, which I'm guessing is the eruption. Through silence the earth will break, beneath the stone the shadow waits. But so above the flame the truth awakens. I can kind of track the first three, but I'm not really working I I can't sort of think about what above the flame might mean. I think we need to put on fire the castle, that's what it means. Do you say that? We'd burn the castle to the ground.
SPEAKER_01Burn the castle, that's the case. I mean, yeah it's an option, right?
SPEAKER_03For more of it is the only way to be sure.
SPEAKER_01We just need to burn everything, cleanse the soil, that's it. No more surui, done.
SPEAKER_03Well, it's the fact it says above the flame. So maybe on the peak of the volcano?
SPEAKER_01There are no flames on the moc on volcanoes.
SPEAKER_03But if you're being metaphorical, you've got all the red hot burny stuff, haven't you? Because Hiroshi, you know, doesn't understand the concept of magma and lava and things like that.
SPEAKER_02The issue is that he lived too long, we could take care of that. Just, you know, spitballing.
SPEAKER_05Oh, I want to get give him a chance for an honorable way out through Sapuku with his daughter.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, for him at this point, the honorable way out would be killing himself.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. Through Sapuku with his daughter as a second.
SPEAKER_03But would would would that be enough to fulfil the debt? If he's incurred a new memory that needs to be surrendered? It will not be him.
SPEAKER_04He he's he says, it's not me, and he looks over at his daughter.
SPEAKER_02The days of this clan making deals with with these entities is over.
SPEAKER_05So is the power attached to the room itself or is there an object?
SPEAKER_04So the power is radiating from the shadow in the back of the room, which is that whole wall. And what was the line about the fire again?
SPEAKER_03The line in the I've closed on my nose.
SPEAKER_04So through sacrifice, the peak shatter. Through silence, the oath will break. Beneath the stone, the shadow waits. Above the flame, the truth awakens.
SPEAKER_02I think that means you need to cast fireball on that shadow. I was thinking that.
SPEAKER_05Or at least illuminating the room to dispel the shadow.
SPEAKER_04Well, if you were you gonna voice any of this, or you you're all pretty much like talking about it, or you Yeah, I think I think Okay. So he goes over to the the altar, and what looks like part of the altar he opens, and there is a scroll, which he then places on the altar. What is this? This is the scroll, and I think if I understand it, this is the scroll that has the pact on.
SPEAKER_02Interesting. And what would happen if we destroyed it?
SPEAKER_05While uh Akira asks that.
SPEAKER_02Earn it. Earn it. Yes, read it first. You never want to read a c a scroll that has like a compact in it between you should always read it. Out loud usually helps even better. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Always always read the the demonic contract. That's what lawyers are for.
SPEAKER_05I've got an idea. And let me know what you think. Flame on its own is good. A purifying, yes. But for something like this, I'm not sure if regular flame would be enough to cleanse the taint from the scroll and the pact and the souls of the people here. But what if we took it to a flame that is more powerful, that is stronger, that is ever-burning, so that there won't be a chance for this to reforge. What if we took it to Mount Doom? So what you need is two hobbits, a ring.
SPEAKER_02No, no, no, no, we we just need some eagles.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's fine, yeah. Cut all the rest out. Yeah, I that that could be an option. You know, you need a a powerful flame that would do something. Cast us into the volcano.
SPEAKER_03I'm I'm not I'm I'm not against a little hoof up a mountain. How far away is this mountain?
SPEAKER_04For you guys, it's probably about a ten-day trek deeper into the Yellow Dragon Lands. We definitely can't do that in one more one more episode. I mean that that sounds like a GM's problem to me.
SPEAKER_03I mean it's fine. I mean we could do a second season, I'm happy for that. It would justify owning my way of the unicorn for more than one day.
SPEAKER_05I will turn to the Dimeo and ask him, how did you interact with a scroll? Have you signed it? Have you spoken the words of it?
SPEAKER_04I opened it, I spoke it, and I committed a deep memory, which I sacrificed.
SPEAKER_05So I am wondering if not how do I want to put it? I want to see if I can remember various ways of binding one's self to a pact. So like if he was to die right now, and if we were to go and cast this in off-camera, later on down the road, if she would be safe from this pact.
SPEAKER_04No, it's if you essentially if it's a if it's a family sort of lineage thing, the moment he dies, she then has to do the pact. Well, if she doesn't, then presumably the debt will still be owed and they will take whatever the ask would be for whichever the debt might be. The only person that knows that, unfortunately, is no longer around. Convenient. Charlotte, why don't you make a spellcraft rule for me? Why certainly. Then make a theology rule.
SPEAKER_05Oh that eyes. Spellcraft 38, theology 30. Very nice.
SPEAKER_04Okay, well, there are multiple ways to fulfil these pacts. You would need to look at the contract to understand it fully. I mean you can ask the Daimyo what he remembers of the history behind it. Essentially, the the summary would be that Zero Ito's bargain would be that he that that he would basically offer up a forgotten oath, an unspoken truth, some kind of ancestral silence. Pretty much that the terms of the pact be something like prosperity for silence, the land would flourish, trade would return, enemies would fault would falter. In exchange, each generation would surrender a truth, something vital, personal, and unspoken. Should they not do this, the pact will demand silence not just in speech but in lineage, essentially ending the line of the Zero family. Names would fade, faces from memory, voices from dreams. Essentially, that family would be as if it never existed. And it looks like every generation must descend into the chamber and offer a truth withheld, a vow unspoken, or a memory erased. That's essentially what this pact would allow. And essentially, every sort of like 15 years or so it appears to have happened. It appears that Aya has not done this. And it looks like her father has never explained this to her. And she's probably older than you would expect, like the the heir to be. So clearly he's obviously been trying to protect her, but in doing so has then caused the oath to be pulled out and actually you owe us for the debt that you're supposed to do. Essentially, I needs to basically make a pact herself. And if she doesn't, her and the rest of her family will go. Disappear.
SPEAKER_03That is a rockin' hard place, isn't it, really?
SPEAKER_04So there's so, as far as they can see, they've got three, they've got three options. What's what's Ai's reaction if she finds all of this up? I mean, she's very much taken aback by the whole thing. She's very kind of stoic, and she hasn't sort of like in true samurai fashion, she has not sort of like burst out into sort of like, how dare you, or anything like that. She's kind of like nodded and sort of like been very kind of quiet. You you imagine that she must be going through this whole sort of like journey about what she should do for a duty, what she should do for a family, what she should do for a clan, and what is the right thing to do? The Daimyo looks to you and says, I will do whatever is required of me, but I do not wish my daughter to be part of this.
SPEAKER_02I'm happy to do whatever is required. Can another clan take this, take on this oath, more or less, freeing their clan? Yep, you could do that. Even though the power source emanates from within their lands.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you it just means that if, say, for example, if you wanted to do that, for example, then you would be the one bound to that pact.
SPEAKER_02So you could create a brand new pact. And like say, I don't know, the Kitsuni people uh clan can take over the Manthis clan? I mean that's the Kitsuni family, I should say.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's that's something. If you wanted to write that into the uh into the pact, you could do something, say, like that. Bring back the uh what's the name of their old clan? The Fox clan. The Fox clan, yes.
SPEAKER_05Yep, you can do that. Are you saying any of this out in the open? No, I'm asking the GM. Hell no.
SPEAKER_04Murder a kira now, murder, everyone kill him. I will put my fireball away. Yeah, so essentially that's something that can be done.
SPEAKER_02Is that something that Akira would know? He has no lore of any kind.
SPEAKER_04Uh no, I mean a yamay would would would be able to would say, I only imagine it in in the in the discussion of what that could be done. So yeah, somebody else could take the pack. Obviously, it says at the moment that the lineage is a yame. But sorry, Aya. But yeah, you could you could quite easily take that on. So as long as you gave up that, then you would divert that to you, and then save the Zerai family from any more issue, but then you would essentially take that pact off of them, and you can either continue the same, or you could rewrite the pact, you could destroy the pact and try and break it, or you could renew it. So that's the three kind of choices that you probably have. But how you do that, that's another thing entirely.
SPEAKER_02I ask him, Will you break the pact to save your daughter?
SPEAKER_04He looks over at his daughter and says, Of course I would. On my life I would.
SPEAKER_02Then that is what you must do.
SPEAKER_05If he breaks the pact, he's saving her from the duty, but dooming her to never have children, and the dragon would be descending.
SPEAKER_02Then one of us must take up this burden.
SPEAKER_03That raise that that gets a raised eyebrow from Hiroshi.