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Kentaro looks uncomfortable at the rear, feeling for the plight of these mountain commoners as his people. He does not initially speak, respecting Omi as the ranking member.

The older man says, O-ninyo-sama gave us permission to harvest the Emperor's trees. Four pounds of 10 pounds of our charcoal is paid to o-ninyo-sama as tax.

Ha responds, Hgh, and have you seen others in these woods?

The charcoal burners' faces remain deadpan. The woman says, No. The older man's eyes move around, looking over the group. They come to rest on the hilts of Omi's fine dai-sho. Then they look to the left, to the right, and to the left again, as if he is considering something. Sometimes, he mumbles in a flat monotone. Are you looking for someone?

Kentaro replies, not suppressing his own mountain accent as he did with the ninyo. "I am Togakushi no Kentaro, known here in the Hida Mountains, aye? O-ninyo-sama sent my honored companions to seek mura no banjin here on Chiyo-san. Omi-san," he nods to the Omi with deep respect, "already carries their lives."*
OOC:

The older man says in his monotone plain, very informal country Nipponese, If somebody knew where they stay.... And guided you there.... Somebody would be gambling that you can kill all of them. Because if you can't, they would kill that somebody, for sure. For taking that risk, that somebody would ask for 10 silver, I guess.

Ito huddles with his comrades for a moment: There is the bracelet recovered from the creature we downed... should be worth about that much.

Kentaro simply nods with agreement to what Ito and Omi decide between them, unwilling to speak on this matter when he himself is impoverished with no silver and hardly a days' copper to provide.

If it is up to him to continue conversing with the mountainfolk, he says...

Omi looks at Ito and says, perhaps you should remind these peasants that they work for O-ninyo-sama, and we are about his work. Also you might remind them that telling us falsehoods is a good way to get dead.

jmacatty wrote: ↑Wed Jul 14, 2021 1:52 pm Omi looks at Ito and says, perhaps you should remind these peasants that they work for O-ninyo-sama, and we are about his work. Also you might remind them that telling us falsehoods is a good way to get dead.

Ito: I defer to you only out of common respect. Your position allows this but having known you for less than two days I know little about you. You opened the dialog, I offered a suggestion as well as offering. Don't delegate carrying through as a result of my suggestion.


OCC: Oi gents, I am not sure this game is for myself. While I do enjoy the setting, the game within the game (read: social interaction dogma) is not something that I find interesting. I work in management all day at work, I come here for fun. If what we have done so far is the gist of the game I am going to have to step out. I am happy with someone taking over Ito if that works.

@Jemmus, thank you for acting as a GM, a difficult task to say the least. Some of your posts are so detailed, I really enjoyed them. You really bring ancient Nippon to life!

@jmactty, no issues at all. I have been on the fence for a few weeks. See you in another game.

The charcoal burner takes the gold coin from Taisho. Arigato, he simply says. He goes to the woman and gives it to her. The travelers can overhear him saying, Take the tools, winter clothes, and everything else you can carry to your sister’s house in Chiyoda. If I don't meet you there by tomorrow morning, report to the samurai. Kichi, lead them to the robbers' base. Without waiting for any reply, he turns and approaches the group.

Taking those horses won’t do, I guess. Where we’re going the ground is rough. Rocks are everywhere. The horses might break their legs. You can leave them here, or take them as far as to where the trail ends. He starts on the path toward the main woodcutters trail. When he reaches it, he turns to the right, the way the trail goes further up the mountain. The party follows in its single file marching order. The ground steadily rises and after around 15 minutes of walking starts becoming more rocky. Boulders of various sizes lie on the forest floor.

The charcoal burner murmurs, I'll tell you everything I know about the robbers. So there'll be a better chance of them not killing all of us. There are around eight of them, sometimes more, sometimes less. They are very bad men. Three of them are ronin, trained bushi. The rest are heimin, lazy men and boys who abandoned their families and ran away from farm work and their samurai masters. They're all kichigai. One of them is a boy from Chiyoda who was born bad. He used to torment dogs and cats. His parents locked him up, but he escaped and joined the bandits.

Their leader is a hunter, and he knows that you kill a deer by learning its habits. So they have no habits. If they leave their base by this southern trail one day, they take the northern trail the next day. If they leave their base in the hour of the hare one day, the next day they leave in the hour of the dragon or the goat. Most days they don't depart at all. Their base is in a field of boulders and they hop from one to another, so there is no trail and hardly any tracks. The only thing certain about them is they return by dusk-- unless the Moon is full or almost full. Tonight the Moon will be gibbous. I expect they'll return by dusk, if they've gone out to rob.

I don't know about now, but the last time I saw them the bandits had two bows and some naginata and yari. The ronin had dai-sho, and most of the heimin had wakizashi. About half of them had armor.

The group continues northwest up the mountain for about a quarter hour. The charcoal burner leaves the trail, toward the right. Don't forget this place, the man says. It's very easy to get lost and wander and die on Chiyo-san. The group picks its way along a path between boulders, until there is no path any more.

Continue north. You will see a big, tall rock with a big flat rock in front of it. The bandits' lean-to is built against the tall rock, on the far side. There is also a well and cooking shed nearby. Without another word, he turns and starts going back the way group came.

Taisho will try an prophesy:

BCS is 6 or 7 (not sure if averaging rounds up or down):



Looks like a critical success? 10 Minute Turns of prophesy (I'm assuming tactical time):



Oh, and it took:



Hmm, not sure if we had a chance to recover the 1 power used previously, the trance took 9 power.

BCS is always rounded down, so the BCS was 6. The Trance was a Critical Success, so let's add the Effect Number (5) to the Prophecy's duration. This is more of a Tactical Scale situation than Strategic Scale, so 60 minutes duration.

I think Taisho's Power is miscalculated, because of an error in the Exce sheet's formula. It may be set up for Shugenja rather than Gakusho. Gakusho should use Will for Power, rather that Wit.

Taisho's Power restored to full at dawn today. We'll assume that he found a place on the Neno-san mountain to observe the sunrise, as any gakusho would naturally do every day. If Taisho ever sleeps indoors, you'll need to state that he leaves and finds a place to observe the sunrise. That could sometimes lead to insignificant or significant encounters.

Since Taisho had a Critical Success, let's award him shugendo for the spell (Knowledge in Karma Yoga20 / 20 = 1 shugendo). Please update your char sheet.

1074.3
The Power Ability is equal to the permanent Will Attribute. It is
increased every time the Gakusho achieves a new Level, starting
with 1st Level. This increase is equal to the Gakusho’s Level plus the
roll of 1 D10. Thus, the initial Power score is equal to the Will score
plus 1D10 + 1.
Expended Power may be recovered by Gakusho at sunrise, as is
the Power of the shugenja. Shinto priests must be in clear sight of the
dawn sky, since their Power derives from Amaterasu, Goddess of the
Sun.

1063.4b
Trance
Achieving a Lesser Trance in which some previously unknown
information is received, or a good question regarding the situation is
asked, or some danger is avoided by prophetic warning, gains
Shugendo = Knowledge in Yoga used/20.
Some concrete result must result from the Trance in order to gain
Shugendo.

The character sheet is basing Power of WILL + Level + 5 (I don't think I ever rolled that 1d10, so when my sheet was updated, someone must have just assumed 5 which is fair).

Kentaro heeds the warning about the horses. He brings his no-dachi and dai-kyu, then packs one day's food, the waterskin, bandages, and healing salve in his belt pouch, opting to travel light. (still unencumbered) He wraps his remaining food and extra clothes carefully in his furoshiki, and together with his cherished samisen and grandfather's dai-sho, wraps them all together in his bedroll and ties them on the back of his warhorse. He considers his length of hemp rope for a long moment, then leaves it on the horse as well. "We are not binding prisoners this time," he murmurs to Tafu as he scratches the horse's muzzle. "You keep safe. If anyone comes to rob you, you kick them. Bite them, too. But if it is the Yūrei following us from the forest, then you run back to that chicken-man near O-ninyo-sama! You understand this, yes?" He takes the horse's whickering for an assurance and seems comfited.

The large ronin approaches the charcoal burners, asking respectfully for the best place to tie the horse there at their home.

Kentaro follows Omi and Ito, alert to each explanation of their guide, confirming with his own skill if what the man says is true or false. He commits their path to memory to ensure he can find his way back to Tafu, his father's horse. Finally, he examines the ground as they reach the boulder field, looking to confirm if the bandits' sign shows them departing to rob or returning most recently....
Tracking [1d20]=2
Boom!