3rd Scroll - God of Thunder

[ffilz]

Sorry, I meant Hiroshi not Haruto (I constantly get confused because I'm playing a Haruto in a Traveller play by post...).

OK, I need to read up some more on animists and try and work out some things Taisho should be able to do, but having some thoughts from Jemmus would help also...

[jemmus]

I think that's good advice about incorporating Animism. In Nippon, the kami are all around. For example, the kaminushi who did the trance channeling said that his shrine was built to give honor to a stone and some bushes that have particularly strong kami spirit. An anthropologist who wrote a book on shamanistic Shintoism translated kami as "numena."
nu·men
/ˈno͞om(ə)n/
noun
plural noun: numina
the spirit or divine power presiding over a thing or place.
"the spirit of the place—its numen—was strong"

A Shinto gakusho has the ability to commune with and understand the ordinary daily kami. At higher levels, he/she can commune with (and understand) the greater ones. I'm not sure how the Bushido rules mechanically handle that. I don't think they do, really. The spells are traditional OSR, and the list of kami NPCs treats them as... well, NPCs with attribute scores.

A hint: Shrines are for honoring local or universal kami, and for purification. It may be possible for a Shinto gakusho to use a shrine as a focal point for communicating with local kami and gaining insights and intuition. Taisho and everyone else in Nippon knows that visiting a shrine is always a good thing, and never a bad thing. But the visitor must enter with pure intention. Or they will just be standing in another place on the earth. With sufficient time communing with the kami of Nippon, a pure of intention person can gain valuable insights into the nature of this world, Intuition and glimpses into what may come in the future. A roadside shrine is always a welcoming sight. Except for the greedy and worldly, who scoff at them and shun them.

Yes, at this point the story is pretty linear and on rails. You're literally on a highway to the east end of the Kanto, and you still have a long way to go. Some days will be fairly uneventful, and they may not even foreshadow some future event. But they should provide some information on the nature and course of the quest you're on. I think you've rightly decided that the kami-- certain kami at least-- have noticed. For example: Snow is common, but thundersnow is something people of this region and generation have only heard of, and doubted. Thunder and lightning, in quiet drifting down snow?

Another hint: The kamunushi at the inn of the night before last (the trance-writing channeler) and the kami said that joining the energies of two elemental kami (Fuujin and Raijin) could be a powerful-- and possibly frightful-- thing. And that every circumstance on Earth and in Heaven would rise against you. You were given the chance to turn back. Well, as RPGers, we take such things with a grain of salt. DM building tension for DM's next planned and set-up move. But it really was a warning, and a chance to decide on another course.

[jemmus]

The whoomps and muffled drumbeats and flashes lightning in the distance were loud, and amazed the confused cattle. As well as their drover. But innocent, quiet snowflakes continue to drift down and fill up the road ahead. Probably behind and to the sides of the highway too. He calls ahead, Well, this may be where the old boys and old girls die,I think. It was good knowing you, you dogs of the road! I'll just curl up under old Peony here and hope she takes a hot pee on me! Meet you at the end for tea! If the Snow Woman girl don't like you're ugly mugs!

Farm boy Buru gets behind the oxen, talks to them and pushes. Successful Farming skill BCS rolled, The oxen bellow about the fearsome weather. But one starts moving, and the rest of the small herd follows. The oxherd looks Buru up and down, then in the. Thanks, fella. You're alright. See that lantern shining up there, a mile ahead? That's where you and me are going to drink hot sake He winks. My treat. He brushes the snow off his coat and call out into the night. It turns out ittle budoka is alright, you guys! He'sl liittle, but he's a scrapper! And Peony just about peed on him! The leather-faced old hauler grins at Buru claps a frozen hand on his back. A sizeable lantern-lit town is in the distance, on both sides of the Kanto Kaido highway Warm irori fire-warmed hearths, hot tea, and warm futon blankets and sleep lie ahead.

[ffilz]

I think that's good advice about incorporating Animism. In Nippon, the kami are all around. For example, the kaminushi who did the trance channeling said that his shrine was built to give honor to a stone and some bushes that have particularly strong kami spirit. An anthropologist who wrote a book on shamanistic Shintoism translated kami as "numena."
nu·men
/ˈno͞om(ə)n/
noun
plural noun: numina
the spirit or divine power presiding over a thing or place.
"the spirit of the place—its numen—was strong"

A Shinto gakusho has the ability to commune with and understand the ordinary daily kami. At higher levels, he/she can commune with (and understand) the greater ones. I'm not sure how the Bushido rules mechanically handle that. I don't think they do, really. The spells are traditional OSR, and the list of kami NPCs treats them as... well, NPCs with attribute scores.

The Kami's rank is a penalty to BCS, so higher rank requires higher level to have a decent BCS.

A hint: Shrines are for honoring local or universal kami, and for purification. It may be possible for a Shinto gakusho to use a shrine as a focal point for communicating with local kami and gaining insights and intuition. Taisho and everyone else in Nippon knows that visiting a shrine is always a good thing, and never a bad thing. But the visitor must enter with pure intention. Or they will just be standing in another place on the earth. With sufficient time communing with the kami of Nippon, a pure of intention person can gain valuable insights into the nature of this world, Intuition and glimpses into what may come in the future. A roadside shrine is always a welcoming sight. Except for the greedy and worldly, who scoff at them and shun them.

Yes, at this point the story is pretty linear and on rails. You're literally on a highway to the east end of the Kanto, and you still have a long way to go. Some days will be fairly uneventful, and they may not even foreshadow some future event. But they should provide some information on the nature and course of the quest you're on. I think you've rightly decided that the kami-- certain kami at least-- have noticed. For example: Snow is common, but thundersnow is something people of this region and generation have only heard of, and doubted. Thunder and lightning, in quiet drifting down snow?

Another hint: The kamunushi at the inn of the night before last (the trance-writing channeler) and the kami said that joining the energies of two elemental kami (Fuujin and Raijin) could be a powerful-- and possibly frightful-- thing. And that every circumstance on Earth and in Heaven would rise against you. You were given the chance to turn back. Well, as RPGers, we take such things with a grain of salt. DM building tension for DM's next planned and set-up move. But it really was a warning, and a chance to decide on another course.

[jemmus]

The travelers reach the edge of a large village or small town. The snow continues to fall, at this moment more heavily than before. The light of the lantern glimpsed before disappears. In the distance there's the flash of light and muffled whump of another bolt of lightning striking the earth. The inn lantern glimpes earlier Haruto, ahead of the group and separated it, passes by a copse of bare maples and tall pines to the left (north) of the snow-filled road. There's a stone path leading north into the woods, with a pathway cleared in the snow. It's the kind of path that would lead to a temple or shrine. Or a mansion. But it's unlikely that either a mansion or a temple would be built inside a copse-- unless things are different in the Kanto region. The foreman has been here before, and would know. But for Buru, Hiroshi, Taisho and Haruto (and probably Akemi too-- but one never can anything for sure with a ninja), it's a first visit.

Akemi follows Haruto at a distance, and as she passes the snowy path, there is a flash as bright as the Sun just and a huge crash deafening crash, just to the left. A terrible never before power courses through every shred of flesh and every bone of the travelers' bodies, from the inside to out. A half an instant later, hard-slapping waves of steam, scalding plasmic vaporized sap, and and splinterized pine particles wash over them and probably every roof and structure of the entire village.

We need a Health ST and a Strength ST for all characters, per the rules of the spells that follow. Both spells are at Level 3. Haruto has a +2 bonus to distance. Buru at the end of the train, +1 do to the same. All other PCs are at +0. We can assume that distance modifiers apply for the haulers and oxen as well.

Spear of the Heavens
Kn: 80. Range: Very Long. Cost: 7 x LoS. Duration: -
The Shugenja can toss a lightning bolt at a victim. This does 1 D10
per Level of Spell Lethal damage unless a Health ST is made, which
reduces the damage die to 1D3. A fire attack is suffered, its Strength
equal to Level of Spell/2. The damage suffered is the percent chance of being
rendered unconscious, suffering Subdual damage equal to the
Current Hit Points.

Wooden Storm
Kn: 66. Range: Very Long. Cost: 10 x LoS. Duration: -
The Storm Spell of the School of Wood creates a Storm area filled
with flying sawdust and jagged splinters. Characters must make a
Strength ST or suffer the following effects:
-1 D3 per LoS in Lethal damage from wooden splinters.
-Be Blind due to dust in eyes. This persists until a Health ST is
made, rolling on the victim’s Base Action Phase.

[Marullus]

Health ST (BCS 1+2=3) [1d20]=19 damage [3d10]=22[3d3]=7
Standing alone in the blowing snow, Haruto is fried alive by the searing blast of lightning. Thrown back into a drifting bank. In a moment that seems an eternity, his life flashes before him - he thinks of his brother's wife, his neice and nephew, his hopes for their future. A pang of regret for the loss of his father and brother, the sting still fresh.
He is reduced to -18 hit points by lethal damage and is dead. He can spend 1 Ki per round to continue acting, which he will do to use Pure Flesh four times.
Pure Flesh (BCS 13) [1d20]=17 [2d6]=6 [1d20]=20 [2d6]=10 [1d20]=5 [2d6]=9 [1d20]=14 [2d6]=7
He only succeeds once, raising him +9 to -9 hp. He then dies for real.
Lying in the snow, his mind asserts itself over his frail body, as it has had to do many times before. "No. I am the Chosen One," he whispers drawing strength from the prophecy uttered with his mother's last breath, from the love of his mother's memory, "it cannot end like this..." He tries to focus his Ki, channel the power taught him by Fujiin, that his frail body would not be a prison. He spits blood and waivers, hands shaking. (Fail, -1 power) His brow furrows with effort, the charred flesh of his fingertips cracking as he tries to make the madras. He feels the power draining from him, his body only clinging to the edge of death by the force of his spirit. (crit fail, -6 power)
"Mother... be with me now..." he croaks in a hoarse whisper around the charred remains of his tongue, tears of anguish and failure freezing on his cheeks. The warmth suffuses him, his heart beating once, twice, as his body rebels against the pull of death. (success, -6 power, +9 hp) But it is too much. His arms shake as he repeats the motions, his least breath exhaled before they can take effect. His frail body still, being covered by the falling snow. (fail, -1 power, dies)

...

Health ST (BCS 6+1=7) [1d20]=19 damage [3d10]=25[3d3]=7
31-25= 6hp.

The fire attack causes 1d3 damage and also rolls 1d10 +2(fire str). If that is higher than AC they are on fire and take 1d6 more lethal damage and also have a % chance of being subdued equal to that damage.
[1d3]=3 damage. [1d10+2]=8+2=10 fire vs AC. [1d6]=2 damage. [1d100]=19
(now 1 hp, still conscious.)

...then the splinters.
Strength ST (BCS 12) [1d20]=16 [3d3]=5
He is blind, naked, burned, and at -4hp from lethal damage. He is dead.

Buru is thrown backwards by the lightning strike, his body singed and charred. His meager peasant clothing erupts in flames, quickly burning away itself and his remaining skin as he screams in agony. He looks just for a moment, time slowing with each second an agonizing eternity, as splinters pierce his eyes. He screams - the world going black as the ichor from his punctured eyes runs down his face - and collapses. He exhales his last breath. His last thought is of his murdered wife, the bodies of his two sons. I will see them now, he thinks with some solace, and is gone. All that remains is the naked, blinded, blackened and burned corpse of the man he once was, with none to remember him.

[ffilz]

Taisho

Hirsoshi

Looks like both Taisho and Hiroshi are dead.