Courts of the Crane Clan

Shiro's right about the cleaning. Burning a little incense and saying some prayers probably helps.

As for Shourai...um...Well, technically, she pushed up the floorboards that were under the chief's house to get in, and ended up through great bad fortune to be pushing them up right under a kid who was sitting right there. Said kid screamed (understandably), so Shourai bolted before she would get caught. Nobo the Wolf told Shasimasu that he thought it was a badger, but may or may not have realized what had happened and was just being polite about it.

Thank you. I asked because if tending a shrine involves cleaning it up... well, they don't need a shugenja to do that, right? Though yes, incense and prayers help.

What an unfortunate roll that must have been. :/

They didn't need a shugenja to do it...they just hadn't been taking care of it with proper reverence. One of those things that happen in a war.

May the Fortunes bless them now then.

The most recent game was fairly quiet, though it went on a while.

The party met Nobu, and were welcomed well. Nobu knew nothing of the evil spirits that Matsumoto had encountered in the keep, but wintered there often. He revealed in private conversation to Shasimasu a variety of things that Shashimasu did not reveal to the rest of us. However, we did learn from Kitsu Chiyori that Nobu was a direct descendant of the Scorpion Clan Thunder, which at least revealed some things to us.

There were, finally, baths, which was obviously very important. Shourai calculated that they had three days...if a messenger had been sent or they had been seen entering the kuyden, it would take three days for the messenger to reach the Moto, and for their enemies to return with a response. In the meantime, Shourai worked to make friends among the ronin villagers and help with their preparations for wintering....and defense. It was clear that the ronin thought an attack might come, but the party agreed that not remaining in the kuyden was the best thing they could do for the villagers. The Togashi meditated, the Mirumoto also helped with preparations, and Chiyori (this time 'properly'...at least by Lion standards...tended the shrines).

Shasimasu did, finally, reveal that he had been sent by the Scorpion to rescue the last Kitsu and the Kirin's daughter, and the Dragon obviously found such mysterious titles dreadfully important, but the pragmatic Daidoji didn't add much stock to mysterious titles and it was not so mysterious that she was of the line of Daidoji Chiroku. The key thing was that Chiyori needed to be protected...and the Moto wanted her for some evil ritual or something that would harm the ancestors.

Shasimasu did not, however, receive any further direction from his Scorpion benefactors, so he agreed (well, technically, pretended he had thought of it first) to Chiyori and Shourai's desire to go to the Hall of the Ancestors in Lion Lands. It was their hope that they would be able to tell from there whether or not Shourai's younger brother still lived, and if Chiyori's parents still lived. If they lived, the samurai had an obligation to save them....if they did not, maybe Chiyori's communion with the ancestors when ancestors were so clearly involved with whatever was happening would bring more clues.

The ronin supplied the samurai with good supplies for their journey, finally, and bid them farewell.

And, far away to the north, by the light of a blazing bonfire, two Utaku battle maidens disguised as Moto, from among the ones who protected us, were dragged before the Moto high priest. He condemned them for their treason to him, and then told them that they would serve now as they hadn't before. Casting some evil ritual upon them, he warped their bodies. They doubled onto all fours, and suffering agony and terrible mutation, the priest turned them into giant, corrupted human hounds and sent them out to hunt the prey he sought.

The party traveled along the edge of the mountains headed for the Hall of the Ancestors. They were trying to travel without getting noticed. They reached the ruins of another kuyden, this one of significant size and completely empty. It had no traces of a village or other habitation nearby and the walls were intact, though the gates were broken. The party took shelter under the stairs on one of the walls, while the watches patrolled the top of the walls for anyone who might come.

Near dawn, when Kitsu Chiyori and Daidoji Shourai held their watch, three figures materialized out of nothing and attacked them. Two were great, black, warped and deformed hounds, and the other was some kind of regally dressed, elongated humanoid who seemed to be summoning down a spell from the sky. The humanoid gave a great shout, a message of some kind that echoed across the horizon, while the hounds attacked. Though the shugenja and yojimbo held them at bay for a little while, they were overwhelmed by the hound's attack and pushed to the ground by their ravaging. The rest of the party were able to climb the steps and come to their aid. The Dragon and Scorpion/Spider monk focused their concern on the Kitsu and the spellcaster, tossing the humanoid from the wall into the courtyard and freeing the Kitsu. They fought and defeated the hounds, each dissipating in mists and the sounds of sobbing.

By the time they were able free Shourai she was very badly hurt. (My character is certainly going to end up with a severe phobia about dogs after this and her initial background story.) But Shourai stood to lead the way for Chiyori down the steps to see what remained of the humanoid. The humanoid was gone, but a mist gathered in the courtyard. Out of the mists, pale figures arose. Their faces were noble, but ghostly, and though their feet were hidden in the mists, you could see their armor of silver and blue, their white hair and ghostly banners stirring on an unfelt breeze.

Daidoji.

1. I am glad that someone made friends with the villagers and helped them prepare. (I feel sympathy for nameless, innocent NPC's caught in the conflict of PC's).

2. Hooray for shrine tending!

3. Did anything happen at the baths?

4. Daidoji!!! More Crane!

Oh...for all our L5R games, no matter what, all the long, in character time we spend trying to figure out what to do next, the nature of the enemy, or the challenges that we're struggling to understand , always happen in the baths. Of course, this is plenty Japanese, which makes it even funnier. In this particular instance, Shourai and Chiyori had gone off to take a bath, with the intent of quietly discussing whether to stay with these crazy strangers they seem to have ended up wtih. Then suddenly, Togashi Nao pops up in the middle of the conversation to offer her opinions (from where? Hiding under the water I guess), shortly followed by opinions from the NPCs and male characters, who, when confronted about why they're contributing to the discussion are apparently /all/ guarding the door of the bathhouse and tossing in occasional extra logs on the fire below for the bathing ladies.

For some reason it always ends up this way.