Setting & Scenario Information — "The Ikoma Library"

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This thread will contain any relevant background information to the setting as we need it.


Calendar of Rokugan

Maps of Rokugan

Game Scenario

Adventure Chronicle (tba)

Current Rumors and Events

Beiden Pass Locations

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Starting Location: South Hub Village of Otosan Uchi (60 on the big map)



"Otosan Uchi is the capital of Rokugan, and the greatest testament to the power of the Hantei Dynasty. The walls guarding the city are so wide that horses can ride along the ramparts. The guards are chosen from Rokugan’s finest samurai. The entire capital exists solely to support the Emperor and his court. Diplomats from all Seven Clans (and many of the minor ones) reside in the Emperor's palace, plotting, bickering and seeking the favor of the Son of Heaven. Policy for the entire Empire is determined here, and those without an invitation may not pass through the gates.

"When the city and palace were built, Crab engineers and Phoenix shugenja worked together to make the palace impossible to infiltrate. Some shugenja say that the walls are enchanted with a powerful spell that renders its streets and passageways an impenetrable maze; only those with Hantei blood may find their way around."


First Goal: Beiden Pass, through the Spine of the World Mountains (mountain road leading SW of castle location 67 on the map)



"This is the mountain range that splits Rokugan in two. The mountains contain the tallest peaks in Rokugan (including the lengendary Mountain of the Seven Thunders), and the few trails through it are narrows and fraught with peril. The only pass large enough to move an army through is Beiden Pass, and many of Rokugan's greatest battles have been fought to determine who controls it."


The Beiden Pass road cross Three Sides River (34), "Perhaps the most contested body of water in Rokugan. It provides the heart of trade and commerce for three Clans (Scorpion, Lion & Crane)."


The Pass also overlooks the Lake of Sorrows (45), "Stories say that this lake is haunted by the souls who died at Beiden Pass and were not properly buried. Small shrines dot the banks in homage to those who fell and are unremembered."

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旧英十三年の判亭の三十四
木犬年
皇紀九百七十一年

The 13th Year of the Reign of Hantei XXXIV
(Imperial Year 971, since the founding of the Empire)

The Year of the Wooden Dog







High Week, Middle Week, Low Week
Most people operate on a calendar that splits the month into 3 weeks, each of 9 or 10 days.

Religious Calendar
The monks and educated people keep a 7-day week just like our modern one. These are named after the elements.

Luck Calendar
The nature and spirit priests of Rokugan keep a special 6-day week, which is associated with luck and misfortune:

1. Morning Day: the morning is lucky, the afternoon is unlucky. This is the best day for beginnings.
2. Cursed Day: bad things will happen to your friends. Avoid funerals.
3. Evening Day: the morning is unlucky, the evening is lucky. This is the best day to end things.
4. Death Day: this is the most unlucky day. Avoid weddings. Shrines close on this day because death is in the air.
5. Luck Day: this is the most lucky day. This is the best day for weddings and events.
6. Horse Day: the 'hour of the horse' (midday) is lucky.

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Maps of Rokugan

Beiden Pass, around the Lake of Sorrows


World Map of Rokugan (high resolution map here)

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Placeholder.

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Rumors and Plots
Please use this thread to point out clues, mysteries, or any other points of interest that you would like to have included in this rumor list.

• The Lion Clan is preparing for war (overheard in West Hub Village while waiting to leave for your journey).

• Osaru's old ronin acquaintance Shota murdered a merchant in Matsu Castle Town.
  • Investigations revealed that Shota had grown into becoming a spy and smuggler for one of the Great Families of the Clans (which one isn't known), and that he frequently stayed in the city specifically to shadow the merchant.
  • The merchant was another sketchy character: he frequently travelled along a specific route (Scorpion lands > Beiden Pass > Lion lands > Unicorn lands, and back), but the city quartermaster suspects he made his money trading information rather than actual goods.
  • The merchant had just come up through Beiden Pass from Scorpion lands, and was about to leave to return to Beiden Pass with "valuable merchandise" when Shota lured him into a trap and murdered him.
  • Presumably, the only thing Shota stole after the murder was a special little scroll case the merchant kept on his sash at all times.

• "The Strange Howling," Sakemono, menaces Beiden Pass.
  • Sakemono appears to be the demonic spirit of the wind. It used to haunt the pass for several weeks at a time, sending nightmares (mostly to young people of questionable morality), until it selected its victim. The victim would then stay out all night glutting on vices, remembering nothing but nightmares, occasionally murdering their latest paramour. When the victim was finally spent, Sakemono would leave their body in a blaze of violence: gouging out their own eyes, cutting off their hand, and generally running amok until killed.
  • It used to go months or years before each haunting, but lately it seems to be a persistent threat, never having respite.
  • The oldest samurai at Lord Nasu's manor remembers being a boy, and the court librarian telling him about the old daimyos of Beiden Pass centuries ago. He said the daimyo Akodo Omoera had offended the Wind God of the Pass, and that's what Sakemono is: the Wind God boiling up in anger again. What it was that happened between Omoera and Sakemono, probably only the spirits and the archivist historians of the Phoenix Clan know.

• An oni blood cult was eradicated from The Village of Soft Winds.
  • The villagers had an arrangement with the eta serfs nearby: the eta would deliver bundles of enchanted timber, obtained by unholy means with the aid of the minor oni Gekido, to the village; the villagers would in turn deliver a cut of the gains from their famous wooden crafts.
  • The party stumbled upon and killed Gekido, leading to a showdown with the cultists in the eta village. The eta no longer have a way of located enchanted trees in the forest, which will ruin the village's trade.
  • You were given some Blood Scrolls of dark magic by the innocent members of the eta village. They had no power to destroy them, and figured you would know what to do with them.

• Rumors of other demon cults ripple through Beiden Pass.
  • Lady Nasu O-Chizu has quietly confessed that there have been growing rumors of demon worshippers throughout the South Side Pass, in the direction of the Scorpion provinces.

• A priestess has seen a terrible omen about the dead rising up out of the water in Beiden Pass.
  • The occupants of Lord Nasu's manor believe that her vision might have been of Pure Green Water Village, on the banks of the Lake of Sorrows.

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Gazetteer of Beiden Pass

(Note: West is at the top edge of the map)

1. Beiden Hill Manor
   "Nasu Castle" to the locals. The daimyo governor of Beiden Pass is Lord Nasu Mide. He leads a company of 50 bushi retainers and 50 ashigaru soldiers (these are not professional soldiers, but a rotation of 200 peasants who take 1-week turns on guard duty).
   The daimyo acts like his authority is threatened from all sides. He claims that the Scorpion and Lion Clans are always trying to strong-arm him under their control, and the local Monastery (location 4) rules over several villages that he believes should be his. "Monks should stick to praying and let the bushi rule the land," he says. He refuses to make donations, and often acts blasphemous around the monks to rile them up.
2. Midway Quiet Village
   One of the oldest villages in Beiden Pass. It has always been ruled by the Monastery (location 4), even before there was ever a daimyo. The village shugenja, Arai Toshimoto, is from the Fox Clan, a very minor clan in the south, near Scorpion territory, who have ancestral ties to the Unicorn. The Fox used to be more important until the Unicorn returned from exile two centuries ago; these days they have the reputation for being parochial, poor, and bitter.
   The PC Kitsune Shōe (a Fox shugenja) is currently staying with Arai as an NPC contact for the party.
3. Mountain Shrine
   Lady Mizumi (or Mizumi-sama) is the Kami of Lake Mountain, and this is her shrine. She appears to women occasionally, bring ill omens. Many women in the valley are convinced that she gives these bad tidings because she is restless, and that harm shall befall Beiden Pass unless Lady Mizumi is appeased of whatever is tormenting her.
   Only four people live here: the shrine is maintained by a blind Shrine Maiden priestess and her apprentice, and there is also a male shugenja priest and his assistant who maintain a small side shrine to Izumi-sama (location 7).
   It is known that the shugenja of the Mountain Shrine are increasingly at odds with the monks of the Monastery (location 4). They seem to be on good terms with the daimyo, Lord Nasu.
4. True Words Visionary Monastery
   The monastery that overlooks the mystical Lake of Sorrows is built over a holy site: a small network of natural caves that lead directly into the Lake. There are 50 monks, though there is room for 100 or more (it used to be a much more important monastery).
   The abbot rules Midway Quiet Village (location 2), and also has an active role in governing Pure Green Water Village (location 5) because of the fish they supply to the monastery—though the latter is technically still owned by the daimyo.
   The monks keep a large library of local history, sacred and mystical texts, and medical knowledge.
   There is a lot of growing tension with the shugenja of the Mountain Shrine (location 3), and the monastery has always had an antagonistic relationship with the current daimyo, Lord Nasu (see location 1).
5. Pure Green Water Village
   This destitute little hamlet of lake fishers doesn’t really do much more than supply fish to the Monastery (location 4) and Nasu Castle (location 1), eating whatever they have leftover. Because they live right on the Lake, they have the closest relationship to it, but also incredibly superstitious and looked down upon by the other villages as strange.
6. The Village of Hot Stones
   This mining settlement is the largest village in the area. There are several bathhouses which take advantage of the hot and cold springs that bubble up from the mine and trickle down from the Dragon Spring Caves high above (location 7). Only some of the mines active; the older ones are abandoned and the locals believe them to be lair of Gekido himself.
7. Dragon Spring Caves
   No one goes to these hot springs high up on the mountainside, but you can often see the steam rising into the sky from several miles off. People say there used to be a temple shrine there to Lord Izumi (aka Izumi-sama), the dragon spirit of the Mountain and consort to the kami Lady Mizumi (location 3), but it was abandoned many decades ago after a landslide. For whatever reason shrine was never rebuilt and now the place is shunned; instead, Izumi-sama’s priests keep a small shrine at Lady Mizumi’s temple on the other side of the valley.

• Soft Wind Village (not on map)
  The village where Yiki hid his death cult. About a full day's walk from the castle.
• Abandoned Naga Temple (not on map)
  About halfway between Soft Wind Village and Beiden Hill Manor is the site of an abandoned temple or monastery, high up in the mountains. It looks like it was built on top of an older, larger temple from the time of the Naga (before humanity and the Emerald Empire).
• Imperial Waystations (not on map)
  There are waystations at either end of Beiden Pass, down at the foot of the mountains. The northern one is controlled by the Lion Clan, and the southern one is controlled by the Scorpion Clan. Both have strong garrisons of troops and rapid communication with nearby military castles.