Palace of the Emerald Champion - Part Two

Our valiant party have finally arrived at the Shiro Yogasha. A quick refresh and onto the meeting with Sumiko where the 'theme' for the session would rapidly become horrifically obvious. That theme appears to be Yoshi sticking his foot in where it should not be. The initial faux pas was after being told to investigate Satsume's death - to discover the 'truth' of the matter - this is the point Yoshi decided to mention that a ghost had told him to ensure that, under no circumstances, was the Crane to be blamed and in fact regardless as to what's happened just 'exonerate' them. So to paraphrase 'yes we will look into it but IF the Crane is too blame then we will utterly not do so as we made a promise to a spirit. Soz' 

Way to go for 'rational argument' and what is 'right' in front of the Empires current highest legal and Police representative. 

The party were quickly hustled out before Yoshi could be locked up as a maniac and went to explore the Emerald Champions quarters. Poor Sō was questioned by Yoshi to within an inch of his life, 'so what was he doing? What was he investigating?' all practically answered with , ' I am peasant he would not tell me such things' and 'I would never spy on the Emerald Champion, please don't suggest such as I would be killed on the spot' 

Searching the room proved more effective though its value was slightly reduced when Masako realised there were chicken feathers in the closet but told Yoshi they were Pheasant feathers for a laugh. He eventually related and told the truth to Sakura (on day Two). 

Day One. 

Breakfast was a stressfull time for all with Akodo Kirohage seeing his 'little' sister and being utterly insulting without realising. Masako has had a full re-roll but as part of the character creation process the controlling player has really designed her closely around her perceived faults/strengths. I would describe this Masako as a character at a crossroads. She holds to Bushido and her Clans tenets rigorously but the success of her brother (without, in her opinion, following Bushido properly) and her own failure to win the Topaz Championship have slightly threatened that total belief. She could go either way - either to become a shining example of an honourable Samurai or becoming disillusioned and turning into the 'Duane Dibbley' of the Rokugan world. It will be fascinating to see which direction the player decides to move her in. 

Obligatory Red Dwarf Reference

That made the unexpected arrival of her brother somewhat challenging especially as the player did not expect it. In retrospect some warning prior to the session might have made it a more verbose encounter than actually occurred. Sometimes having unexpected roleplay flung on you can be difficult to respond to. Masako went for 'quiet utter contempt' in response which is a valid approach. 

Training 

Sucked. None of the group worked out who the killer was but let's be honest they had only just arrived. 

Afternoon 

A trip to the library. Here they bumped into our friendly Scorpion Ago who was very, very keen to explain the many reasons why Hotaru is the obvious candidate for wanting Satsume dead. Yoshi then took a sabbatical from the investigation to read up on the Perfect Land Sect. Yoshi's character has also been re-rolled and is going for the 'pursue enlightenment, friend to all' path aggressively. The Sect link looks solid and I can see Yoshi turning against the Empire's lies and mistruths in its pursuit of stability and tradition big time. Unlike Masako I suspect he would move towards being someone who travels around helping the peasantry - much like a Goshi. Another interesting path for a player to follow. One useful side disadvantage is that Yoshi remembers nothing prior to his arrival at the Monastery thus excusing some truly hilarious questioning. 

My personal favourite? 'Did the Emerald Champion have any children?' 

and the response from the utterly bemused peasant 

'Yes the Crane Clan Champion Doji Hotaru, her sister Doji Shizue and brother Doji Kuwanan ' (da daaaa di da da) 

other blinders included 

'in the last two days did the Emerald Champion visit here?' 

'no he died weeks ago so that would indeed have been unexpected' 

when meeting the scribes for the first time

'so what do you do'

blank look at the scrolls they are writing then, 'we scribe. Hence 'Scribes''

and 

'did the Emerald Champion like getting close and personal to the peasants' 

'???' 

Evening 

For the evening the group decided to visit the Hennery. Here they looked closely into the next Oji's complaints and Yoshi worked out the potential poison link. He then worked out a very convoluted plan involving theft of documents and murder which seems like it offends 'Occam's Razor' in a very critical manner. 

I am not certain the other two 'bought' this incisive analysis. 

Sakura actually managed to find the note with 'gibberish' and decided to keep it. 

They did want to visit the cave but it was , ahem, too dark a fact which had utterly had nothing to do with the fact that I did not want to have a later day occur with nothing interesting to do. 

Day two 

Breakfast was a quieter affair beyond collecting various rumours and ideas. None of which helped clear the fog of 'wtf' as the scenario merrily throws out loads of alternate hypothesis for the party to get their teeth into.  

Training 

This was much more successful with all three of the party successfully defending themselves with peasant weaponry from the attacks of the trainer. None of them wanted to keep the weapons though. Peasants = yuk apparently. This session was more interesting as the poor Scorpion instructor was barraged with questions on poison. Mostly decent ones but I am not sure if they thought the instructor was the Assassin (Scorpion = bad, Scorpion with poison knowledge = evil bad) or were just getting as much information as possible.  

A Castle! with green tiles!! is there no end to the quality research I do to populate this blog

Afternoon 

Time to visit the cave. The party easily discovered the moving stone and Masako shifted it with the assistance of the two others. This led to the unusual papers that seem to link closely to Satsume whether written 'to' or 'by' and the obvious realisation that this was probably the way he left un-noticed but also potentially a way for Assassins to get in to the Castle in the first place.  

Evening 

Post dinner the fight with the veterans went quickly. We ran each combat separately and of the three Masako succeeded in dominating her opponent and received the cheers of the crowd. Sakura got awfully close to doing the same but only just failed and Yoshi had a go but, as he would not use his more powerful abilities, lost. All had tried though so satisfying the veterans and removing any potential bad blood and jealousy concerning their appointment. 

Conclusion 

We stopped the session here. I do not think the group is much closer to deciding what has happened or who is to blame though 'murder' seems more popular than 'natural causes'. It will be interesting to see who they decide is the culprit and why when the next session occurs. Or if they just say, 'we have not got a clue'.  I suspect more peasant vocal torturing will be occurring in the meantime.  

I suspect the peasants hear (with added subtext) something like this. 

'hi! what's your name, do you like flowers? nothing to worry about I am not a Samurai. I like flowers! and peasants! and horses - I really like horses. Horses are lovely aren't they? Ok these two with me are Samurai and yes they are also heavily armed and one (at least) has a ferocious scar and wears a scarf so you cannot really see their face or know who they really are and both could kill you instantly if you say anything that offends them but just pretend they are not there and tell me if you like the Perfect Land Sect….' 

A lot of the Castle Retainers are probably showing the effects of the 'thousand mile stare' and acting like bunnies caught under headlights at the moment. We call it the 'Yoshi Effect' 

Actually thinking about it Yoshi bears more than a passing resemblance to Thog from Order of the Stick

and if you haven't read Order of the Stick then you should. The cartoons are free to view online and also come in very nice books for your reading pleasure.. Here is the site