Scroll 1 - The Master Craftsman's Tea Vessel

[Grognardsw]

Thanks for the clarifications. If Jinsei was last at the Registar’s office, could he walk east down Koshu Kaido St., away from the larger of the checkpoints, thereby avoiding them, then turn north to fish just above the last letter ”r” in Registrar?

[ffilz]

Minoru will accompany Kaida.

[jemmus]

Hensu-jutsu [1d20]=18

Kaida shows her valid registration and explains she is on her way to meditate upon the Kami...

Kaida's BCS is 9. 18 roll - 9 = Effect Number 9. The ashigaru must roll under it.
[1d20]=12

Kaida plays the priestess rather alarmed and being suspected of something. She shows her stamped registration and explains her spiritual intentions for the day. The young peasant bushi is satisfied, makes no further comment, and she passes through the checkpoint.

[jemmus]

Thanks for the clarifications. If Jinsei was last at the Registar’s office, could he walk east down Koshu Kaido St., away from the larger of the checkpoints, thereby avoiding them, then turn north to fish just above the last letter ”r” in Registrar?

The nakama has passed through another checkpoint on the Koshu-Kaido, the easternmost one. It was as large as this one, and moreover, it had a Takeda samurai shugenja present. The checkpoints on the intersections of smaller streets have been smaller. Generally, a samurai and three ashigaru.
That part of the river is Kofu Castle's moat. Jinsei knows from his fisherman hensu-jutsu training that commoers are not allowed to fish in the daimyo's moat.

[jemmus]

Minoru will accompany Kaida.

Hensu-jutsu Wit STs
Koshu-Kaido checkpoint [1d20]=13[1d20]=11[1d20]=7[1d20]=3[1d20]=3[1d20]=7[1d20]=20[1d20]=13
Smaller checkpoint
[1d20]=10[1d20]=6[1d20]=16[1d20]=13

Kaida at the smaller checkpoint
[1d20]=13[1d20]=13[1d20]=11[1d20]=9

The priest and priestess continue on and reach the nearby intersection of smaller city streets. The lightly armored samurai bushi is inspecting two fast foot messengers.

The three ashigaru wave the familiar faces on.

[Grognardsw]

Jinsei walked toward the east bank of the river on the western side, where fishing was permitted.
To get to a less populated part of the city, and closer to the Hachiman shrine base and the merchant's house, Jinsei passed through the same checkpoints again.

[Rex]

Fuma

Fuma follows along with Jinsei.

[jemmus]

Minoru hensu-jutsu
Main checkpoint
[1d20]=12[1d20]=7[1d20]=8[1d20]=4[1d20]=4[1d20]=7[1d20]=18[1d20]=7
Smaller checkpoint
[1d20]=2[1d20]=12[1d20]=20[1d20]=11

Fuma hensu-jutsu
Same order
[1d20]=3[1d20]=2[1d20]=8[1d20]=10[1d20]=12[1d20]=19[1d20]=17[1d20]=19
[1d20]=6[1d20]=3[1d20]=15[1d20]=13

The bushi wave the travelers returning from the registrar's office on.

On the riverbank not far from the Hachiman shrine, Jinsei makes a show of digging for earthworms for bait and casting his hook into the river gently flowing through the rice paddies. They've been flooded, but the seedlings won't be transplanted to them for another month. The foot traffic of Kofu is behind him, on the narrow streets between the fronts of the stores, tall warehouses, and houses. He is hardly noticed, except by the fishermen in boats anchored in the middle of the river, and the occasional small merchant barge headed south downstream or paddling north upstream.

Minoru and Kaida return to the Hachiman shrine not far from Tanaka Jiro's mansion. The kamunushi Shinto priest and the three miko shrine maidens are there. Two of the miko look at Kaida with curiosity, and the third at Minoru the same way. But they courteously bow to the visitors. The kamunushi ventures to approach them with a friendly greeting. The man is not old, but he has the demeanor of one who was born a deep thinker and a contemplator of mysteries and truths.Ohayo gozaimasu, o-kyaku-san. I see that you are also kamunushi, and that you have come again today. Have you come to honor the kami of war, or to commune with him and learn more of him? But as he looks at Kaida more closely, his face shows an expression of puzzlement.


Yes, even more hensu-jutsu rolls are needed. Such is the nature of covert actions within a city. The kamunushi's roll is first, followed by the miko's.
Kaida
[1d20]=2[1d20]=2[1d20]=1[1d20]=15
Kaida needs three hensu-jutsu rolls.

Minoru
[1d20]=15[1d20]=9[1d20]=15[1d20]=2
Minoru needs one roll.

Fuma's action to spend his time in Kofu until dark?

[Rex]

Fuma

Fishing.

[ffilz]

[Marullus]

Hensu-jutsu (BCS 9) [1d20]=1[1d20]=16[1d20]=11

[jemmus]

Effect Number 7
[1d20]=2

Effect Number 2
[1d20]=16

One of the miko looks at Kaida even more closely. The turns her head, hold her hand before her mouth, and whispers something to another Miko. The kamunushi notes the activity and turns his head to watch.

[Marullus]

"One must always seek to learn," replies Kaida to the kamunushi. She continues to close her eyes and meditate until interrupted.

[jemmus]

Post substantially revised from the first one
The kamunushi and miko, servants of the kami, dedicated to purity and attempting to help maintain the harmony and balance and order of things in Nippon in these rough and violent times... look to one another with ill ease. And look at silent, eyes closed Kaida with greater concern and discomfort. The kaminushi says, O-kyaku-san.. Hachiman is the spirit, mind, and persona of warfare. To fight and battle is one component of the nature of humanity. But we do not want crude and brutal physical manifestations of that nature in this purified space. We do not know who you are, or why you have chosen to come here. And that is disturbing to the shrine and its grounds and younger kami.

A miko says to her fellows, The Takeda strictly forbid it! We will be punished and driven out! And our families will be punished as well! Kamunushi-sama's family has served the shrine and the great kami for generations. A replacement will be the ruin of the shrine. Unless the new kamunushi is very wise.

A distraught but more calm miko replies, A new kamunushi cannot know the great kami as the o-kamunushi does. In this time of war our kami's Hachiman's power grows with each combat and confrontation of warriors. Each brutality by a bushi done to further the war, against an enemy or an innocent.

The third miko listens, but has nothing to say. She looks at Kaida, and her heart seems full of distrust, but with some sympathy and remorse for the young woman.

The kamunushi starts to say something, but stops. Then, We have no weapons, armor, or bujutsu skill, of course. But we will not easily be killed and let impurity contaminate the purity of the shrine. And feed base crude instincts to the kami of honorable and selfless warfare. Such would be a terrible thing for this world at this time or warfare....

The second miko quietly speaks up. Kamunushi-sama, gomen nasai. Please excuse me, I am selfish, I apologize. If the impostor is caught, and the shrine is revealed to have sheltered her.... My old father will die. If the samurai don't punish him and my mother as spies and traitor, I'll... not be able to get back to the home to cook rice, heat the bath, and help Old Dad stand to his feet. I'm sorry, Miss shinobi-san. She bows at the waist.

Minoru is up.

[jemmus]

The situation at the shrine: Kaida's disguise has failed, and she's been spotted as a counterfeit. Whether the miko shrine maidens knows she's ninja, she doesn't know. But she knows they know she's pretending to be someone she isn't. And under the Takeda clan's edicts, anything suspect must be reported, under consequence of extreme punishment.

Minoru's disguise hasn't been detected. He knows that as a trained ninja he has a number of options. The obvious one is combat, whether lethal or . As a pious layman, he knows that these Shinto gakusho have little power, either offensive or defensive, against violence. He has the option of either Lethal damage or Subdual (from his ju-jutsu) damage. It probably wouldn't take much to make these peaceful people flee.

He also knows that another option is to create a distraction to allow Kaida and himself to escape.

There may other creative/tactical options from Minoru's char sheet, I don't know.

Resolving the situation doesn't depend on Minoru's action. He's just up for a post before the next GM post.

[ffilz]

I’ll try and post something tomorrow.

[jemmus]

Not far to the west of Kaida, Minoru and the Hachiman shrine, Fuma and Jinsei sit by the bank of the river, baiting hooks with earthworms and casting them into the river. And waiting for nightfall. The sky is still overcast, but there are only occasional periods of scattered drops of rain falling. Tonight the New Moon will be waxing toward crescent.

[Grognardsw]

Jinsei spotted an Ayu sweetfish and Iwana char fish as he and Fuma relaxed by the river.

An hour later, Jinsei’s pole tugged and the fisherman ninja pulled in a small Amago, the red-spotted masu trout that live in the streams and rivers of the region.

“Lunch,” Jinsei announced.

“Tonight we must be extra careful not to make noise. I wonder if we should have a diversion ready?”

[Rex]

Fuma

"Excellent, I was getting hungry."

"Agreed, we need to finish this and must be prepared for any contingency."

[jemmus]

The Shinto priest ponders and considers for a long moment. Then says to meditating Kaida, My responsibility for the protection of the shrine and these maidens and their families is to report you to the governing samurai clan. But you are young, and you face of a kind person born with old wisdom. I feel that your execution now would prevent some future benefit from coming to this rough and violent world.

So. We'll not report you to the bushi. But you must leave, immediately, and not return to here again. If you do, I must carry out my responsibility. With finality. He bows a short bow, and the three o-miko-san shrine maidens do so as well.

Towards sunset, Fuma and Jinsei pull in and carefully wrap and coil there lines. They start to carefully but casuall heading toward the nearby Hachiman shrine meeting point.

I think the PCs left it as meeting at the shrine (the Hachiman shrine) before proceeding to the merchant Tanaka Jiro's mansion after dark. From the past evening, they know these things:
-They can bypass the samurai checkpoints along the ways by passing through woods and "jaywalking" across narrow city streets;
-The previous route doing that led to an encounter with a gambling den, yakuza thugs, and a blind gambler-swordsman;
-At the mansion, in the yard were a servant with a candle lighting stone lanterns, an alert dog ("Kuro") and two ronin sheltering in a guardhouse at the southeast side;
-Inside the vast, mostly darkened mansion, were the talkative and boastful wife of the merchant, her two adolescent and teenaged children, a maid/kitchen assistant/laundress/server, and an older cook/kitchen and servants boss woman.
-And a ghost.