Taimana Choryu

Taimana Choryu, or Slow Tide Harbour, is a busy port on the Bay of the Golden Sun, further north along the shore from the great capital city of Otosan Uchi. It does – by anyone’s estimation – a brisk amount of shipping trade and yet it is – again, by most estimations – kind of a dive.

It’s also not particularly well known. The most the young team of Yoriki know about the place is that it is one of the few major holdings of the minor Tortoise clan. And about the Tortoise clan, they know just about as much. There are small embassies and guest houses of the Tortoise in almost all major trading ports, but they’re neither powerful, sociable or annoying: three things that would cause other clans to take notice of them. Their purpose is a bit shadowy and obscure, but is protected by an Imperial Writ, that they can and do wave in the face of any that get too close to interfering with their business.

The scene that first greeted the Yoriki as they passed along the sorta-maintained road to the Harbour was of a sprawling port situated on a lagoon, stretching across several island in the delta of small rivers that converge here. To the west, the tallest building in town is the temple of the Eastern Wind. Surrounding it and across the river is the Governor’s District, and orderly samurai estates are visible there. The center of town is dominated by the tangle of alleys between two main thouroughfares; a riotous entertainment district called the Wallows. The east of the town is linked by several bridges to islands in the bay that serve as docks, storage areas and mercantile concerns. Between this area and the Wallows is the commercial district, with an open-air market and craftsmen’s businesses. The town is ringed with farmlands and the ever-present hinin village tucked discretely out of sight.

So far, so good, but as they drew closer to the town some things presented themselves for comment. For a start, among all the expected boxy-hulled shallow-water trading vessels were some tall-sailed deep-water vessels, one of which was of obviously gaijin design, the others obviously incorporating gaijin designs.

If this was disturbing to the yoriki, then the people of Slow Tide did little to set them at ease. They presented their travel papers to green and black clad samurai who were casual almost to the point of disrespect. Similarly the townspeople gave them wide berth, but little deference. It was disfficult to tell samurai and heimin apart sometimes, and the two classes could be seen speaking informally out in the open. It was bordering on scandalous.

Their first destination was to present themselves to the Governor. That was a choice they had to make; it might be easier to get things done with official recognition (if not support). The slim hope of support was dashed after their time spent meeting with the glassy-eyed Governor Kasuga Mugatsu and his Magistrate Kasuga Mikoto.

Mugatsu was vaguely polite and politely vague. He seemed most concerned about maintaining the equilibrium and peace of Slow Tide Harbour. If they were any judge, the old guy looked like he was also concerned about getting back to his opium pipe.

Mouth-breathing Mikoto wasn’t much help either. She could tell them that Hiroshige’s disappearance was one of several disappearances of samurai recently, but she seemed pretty relaxed about that. Samurai go missing all the time, for one reason or another. Slow Tide Harbour is a place people drift in, and drift out again. She admitted that one Crab clan samurai, Yasuki Suzaku, had been found dead recently. That was a shame, but… ah well. The Yoriki left the meetings underwhelmed by the Tortoise clan’s administration of the town.

The good news is that outside of Slow Tide Harbour they’ll likely never have to give a shit about the Tortoise clan ever again. But while they’re in Tortoise territory, their power as the servants of the Emerald Magistracy and their status as Great Clan samurai are substantially lessened. They do have the authority to carry out their tasks, but the Tortoise would be well within their rights to all sorts of involvement. Keeping the Tortoise onside in this investigation seems like it will be a difficult task, but they took a good first step in meeting with these two officials… as long as they can keep it up.

After settling in to a guest house in a respectable part of the city, they followed their one solid lead to the Inn of Many Paths, Hiroshige’s last known location. There they met by the proprietor and her beefy sons who filled them in on Hiroshige’s small group of similarly ne’er-do-well friends. One of the sons, (while being visually greased up by Sugi, who likes ‘em big) gave them a lead to a gambling house that a one friend worked at. The other they know is an artist and the fourth is regrettably one of the missing.

They followed up on the ronin who had worked as a bouncer at the gambling house, but that didn’t go very far: he’d recently been fired from the position and his erstwhile girlfriend had kicked him to the curb for his opium use, terrible appearance and overall stench of horseshit. The literal kind, not the figurative kind although… They had to drag the dice-happy Koji away from the gaming tables and took him to find Hade.

He wasn’t difficult to find as he’d taken up a stupefied residence in a horse stable. He was in a most undignified state, even for a ronin. He’d been “sleeping” away the terror with which he’d been plagued since witnessing a trio of men dragging Hiroshige away down an alley. He’d gone to intervene but one of them, a tall ronin with a neck tattoo, had said a “prayer” that robbed Hade of his bravery, seemingly permanently. As unschooled in theology as they were, they could feel a queasy polluted aura around Hade and Sugi suspected the work of Kansen, kami corrupted by the nightmare realm of Jigoku.

They have then three groups of people to investigate:

Hiroshige and Hade’s friend group, last seen together in an argument: Kakita Amano, the artist; and the missing hothead Kasuga Toru. Not one of this fractious group, but a friend of sorts was the Samurai in the Cat Mask; presumably a Scorpion clan samurai, but they know little else about him.

The missing/dead Samurai: Hiroshige, the aforementioned Toru, Kasuga Michiko, Fubato the ronin, as well as poor, murdered Yasuki Suzaku.

People who may wish Hiroshige harm: The moneylenders Kizo and Doro sent men to extract debts from Hiroshige, and the tattooed ronin that maybe, just maybe, knows some witchcraft.

While they have their investigation to conduct they also spiced things up with a bit of a brawl in the alleyways of the Wallows. Passing by, minding their own business, they encountered a gang menacing two samurai: own practically cowering Tortoise and his ronin Yojimbo.

Projecting a bit of force, they caused the majority of the gang to run for it, but the numbers that were left were still not in their favour. A flinch from one of the gang members caused the Yojimbo to sever the man’s arm and the fight was on in earnest. It didn’t last long. The gang members may have been tough customers with daggers and clubs, but these were trained samurai with katanas and no vested interest in keeping any of these shitheads alive. And so, not many lived. Those that did fled, but so did the Kasuga, with not a word of thanks. His Yojimbo at least acknowledged the yoriki’s help before trotting off to attend to his master.

*shrug*