Into the thick of it

The news that the big Unicorn/Lion alliance was OFF was big. The wedding of Shinjo Altansarnai and Ikoma Anakazu (the Khan of Khans/Champion of the Unicorn and the Ikoma Daimyo, respectively) would settle the remaining tension regarding the Unicorn’s re-claiming of the Kirin Clan’s ancestral lands. For the Unicorn, a massive step forward in their normalization and legitimization as Rokugani. For the Lion, a massive land border sewn up amicably so that they could turn their attention to bullying everyone else, the way they used to before the Unicorn showed up and spoiled it. In addition, cavalry-heavy allies? Yes please! The Lion would be able to throw their considerable bulk against the northern-most holdings of the Crane, like that pesky Toshi Ranbo.

So our two Lion, one Crane, one Unicorn (and one deeply uninterested in clan conflict Crab) yoriki made their way north back to Shiro Yogasha which is concidentally very close to the area the Crane and Lion are squabbling over.

And on the way, even graver news assailed them. The Lion (not put off by the Unicorn fickleness) launched an assault against Toshi Ranbo, trying to retake the city from the Crane. But you’ll recall that Doji Hotaru was passing through Shiro Yogasha a few weeks ago as the yoriki tied up the loose ends of her father’s death, and she was on her way to Toshi Ranbo to inspect the garrison there.

The newly acclaimed Lion Clan Champion, Akodo Arasou, led the assault (classic bold, reckless Arasou) and was shot dead by Doji Hotaru as she held the gate so that the last of her troops could get behind the safety of the city walls. The assault had faltered and a siege began, overseen by new Johnny-on-the-spot Akodo Toturi, the more thoughtful, cautious and thoroughly more alive brother. Ono and Tezuka had both favoured Toturi as Clan Champion, but no-one wanted it to go down like this. Reportedly even Hotaru didn’t want it to go down like this… But Arasou is dead. His fiancée Daimyo Matsu Tzuko is furious and his kid brother is picking up the reins with a calmer hand.

All this news is carried by people fleeing the scene, people rushing to the scene and merchants trying to flee, but only to a profitable distance. The roads are choked with anyone who can travel, village stores being moved to safer ground, as well as troop detachments getting moved around and bands of ronin trying to find an employer.

At Shiro Yogasha, everything is at least a civilized level of frantic, as the Emerald Magistracy can probably count on a lot of Magistrating in the upcoming months. Asako Fumihito is well-pleased with the outcome of the investigations in Slow Tide Harbour because Otomo Saneda is pleased with the outcome of the investigation: his son is returned whole, if a bit ragged, and no-one important found out about his… hobbies. The Capemaker is not mentioned; best left in the past, it was a dirty business.

This particular approval eventually comes with some Imperial largesse: Saneda-sama transfers the ownership of a small holding in Nakamura village below the castle to Fumihito, who in turn gives the use of it to his yoriki. It is a modestly-sized walled estate with a small kitchen staff, gardener and night-watchman. Everyone gets their own rooms and storage and there are a few rooms and courtyards for common use. It isn’t fancy, but it is well-kept.

They also hit the tailors as – in these difficult times – walking around in Clan colours can get a samurai dead. Travel clothes and formal court clothes in Imperial green, with subtle nods to one’s own family is a more appropriate way to go: especially as they will be attending a wedding on behalf of the Emerald Magistracy. Fumihito, as a Phoenix, surely has an interest in this wedding, but he stresses that they are there simply as representatives of the Emerald Champion (even though there still isn’t one yet).

They got measured and fitted and then went to go see Fumihito for their brief while the clothes were being made. He wanted them to attend a politically important and therefore potentially dangerous wedding. Fun! There’ll be drinking and dancing. Maybe.

I mentioned how I don’t want to give away spoilers from written adventures if I don’t have to, but this is very much the set-up and I don’t think I’m spoiling anything:

The Kintani Valley is a strategically important piece of property because it is one of the few easily navigable routes to Toshi Ranbo, that maguffin of a city that everyone is fighting and dying over. It isn’t the only way, but it is the only land route between another Crane holding and that makes it important. What are they supposed to travel up the river? Put your trust in the adorable paws of the Otter Clan? I don’t know about that.

The Lion used to rule Toshi Ranbo and they used to rule the Kintani Valley too via the Damasu, a vassal family based at Kyotei Castle. When Toshi Ranbo passed to Crane hands, the Lion could still claim control of the Kintani and the measure of control of the region that gave them.

But 20 years ago, after years of feuding, the Tsume family, vassals of the Doji, stormed Kyotei castle in the name of the Crane. The Damasu family were entirely put to the sword (mostly in battle) and the Tsume under their aggressive Daimyo Retsu took control of Kyotei and the Valley. The Lion were livid (as always) and it took years of work by Crane diplomats to work to smooth things over for a prize for which they had not even asked. Now that they were committed, they weren’t about to lose a castle and (an albeit aggressive) vassal family.

And they did hold onto it, despite decades of ghost stories about the vengeful Damasu spirits. It didn’t help the spooky reputation that Daimyo Tsume Retsu was found murdered in his bed three years ago. An investigation dragged on until they decided that it was some poor guard and executed him. Retsu was a fierce, ambitious and some say cruel Daimyo, but his son isn’t. Tsume Takashi is cut from a different cloth, but that might be just the thing the area needs. Koji remembers him as an indifferent swordsman but a more enthusiastic poet. Through some solid diplomacy and far-seeing strategizing Takashi is lined up to be married to Shiba Itsuyo, daughter of the Lord of nearby Nikesake town, a Phoenix holding that has been nervous ever since their land-grabby Tsume neighbours moved in and the provocation for war in the area that their arrival provided.

This wedding suits each party well. The Tsume get the recognition and prestige associated with marrying a Great Clan family (and the family descended directly from the Kami Shiba!) as well as a safe border. The Phoenix get assurance that the Tsume aren’t going to pick off more nearby territory and valuable trade between Nikesake and Toshi Ranbo. It is, from all reports, a purely political marriage, but that is the lot of a samurai.

Clan representatives are being sent to witness this happy event. It is unlikely the Crab or Dragon will attend, as they usually don’t leave their lands due to, respectively, “fighting hell to a standstill” and “thinking hard about things”. And the Lion, for obvious reasons, aren’t likely to send anyone. The presence of the yorikis is as representatives of the Imperial bureaucracy, if not the actual Imperial families. And the subtext from Fumihito is that they are there to stop any illegal shenanigans, but in as neutral a way as possible. Fumihito is a Phoenix, but seems uninterested in the politics behind the wedding.

After some very light shopping (only Sugi has really done any work on the assignment from her clan representative, so nobody else is being showered with gifts) that included Koji picking up a katana and billing his parents, they set off in their new travel duds.

The situation on the road continued with the conflict causing turmoil. Arriving at the Kintani, they encountered some of the trouble first hand, as they travelled through a forest of spreading pines. Ahead and on the road they must take were a family of peasants being circled by horsemen.

The horsemen wore armour and bore spears, and they claimed that they were collecting taxes on behalf of the lord of these peasants, who were pretty obviously fleeing with their worldly good in sacks. Some words were exchanged and then some blows. The horsemen had a huge advantage in mobility and rode in with spears stabbing and wildly slashing. Takuya stunned one with an arrow to the chest armour, which put him out of the fight for a bit. Tezuka had a tough time bringing down the other, letting loose Lord Akodo’s roar to daze the hell out of the riders and buying time for the yoriki to recover mid-fight. Wearing neutral colours in a war zone was great and all, but it did nothing in the way of armour, especially not Koji’s flowing, diaphanous, very-fashionable, but not very-spear-stopping ensemble. Regrettably this piece of couture took a bit of a doing during the fight, as did Koji, but in the end they were able to overcome the riders, killing one, wounding another and persuading the last to put his heels in the horse’s flanks and flee. The yoriki caught their breath in the most stoic way they could manage in the shade of the pines before turning their attention to the peasant family they’d just rescued.

And that’s where we stopped.