We had the best time at your party

Fortuitously, I’d had the idea for the Moon Viewing as a way of interacting with the Tortoise Clan a mere week before the excellent article Running an Intrigue appeared on Jeanne Kalvar’s excellent L5R-fan website (https://craneclan.weebly.com/running-an-intrigue.html). I wanted to try an Intrigue, which a set-piece for social interaction in much the same way that a Skirmish is a set-piece for combat skills, but didn’t have much time to think about setting one up. It is a good read and should give courtier characters a good idea of their possibilities.

Now that I’ve read the article (and I’ll have to reread it) I see that there is only so much set-up you could do: the Intrigue involves a great deal of player input to get its structure. The players set their own goals; they could have done a bunch of stuff… anything really. I half expected them to take the opportunity to dress down the Tortoise or to dig deeper into the conspiracy that ended with Kasuga Yumiko’s beheading. Or try to get them to stomp out the opium dealers or at least kick out the gaijin. A less scrupulous band could have used the opportunity for personal gain too. (Save that note for a Ronin campaign…)

As it was they focused on two tasks: MEN FOR THE WALL and delivering a stern hint to tidy their shit up.

For the first, they actually benefited from the Tortoise Clan’s manipulations: they’d asked Hida Sugi to show up in her ceremonial Topaz Champion armour, in all probability to eat up the group’s time getting it ready and making Sugi uncomfortable in a courtly setting. More fool them, Sugi was very comfortable in her armour, especially since it had been fitted for comfort by the Geisha they had visited. Also, Sugi is just real comfortable in armour.

They even asked Sugi to demonstrate a Kata or two as part of the night’s entertainment. While this is a chance to embarrass oneself, Sugi did not, aceing the Kata and winning approval from several young and enthusiastic Tortoise Clan samurai. Sugi talked with them when she was able, emphasizing the importance of the Crab’s work and the role of visiting samurai and the benefits of this glorious service to the Tortoise with regards to esteem and trade contacts.

Meanwhile, once Sugi had moved on, Koji moved in and extolled the virtues of the Topaz Champion personally. Such discipline, such resilience, such skill! These hardy attributes born abreast the Kaiu wall were the making of the Topaz Champion and could be the making of any samurai exemplar who committed themselves. By the end of this recruiting effort by the Crab and Crane yoriki, four young, impressionable samurai had committed to travelling south before winter to spend a season on the wall, bringing their own retainers and supplies. They were pretty fired up and it was the kind of public declaration that is very difficult to walk back. (“Sorry, I can’t come defend the Wall from waves of hell-driven monsters, I have Inventory that day.”)

Matsu Ono, meanwhile worked on the Governor’s wife. The party was evidently well organised and properly conducted, at odds with so much of Slow Tide Harbour’s everyday vibe. The Governor, still slightly glassy-eyed from that sweet, sweet opium and obviously content with the status quo was not a suitable candidate for influencing, but if his wife oversaw this party, then she might be. So Ono, as politely as possible expressed the difficult decision he was faced with when he made his report to his superiors. But rather than dwell on everything the Tortoise were doing “wrong” he focused on the potential of the town… if only someone energetically competent could take the reins, at least of several key aspects of policy and enforcement.

Shinjo Takuya supported this approach by identifying the Governor’s wife’s main confidants and emboldening them to help make improvements to the town. By the end of the night, this strategy appeared to have paid off for Takuya and Ono, with the Lady in close conversation with her brunch crew.

Of course, other stuff was happening too. There was a flute performance, a poetry reading, Sugi’s Kata, a dance performance, etc. All done exceptionally well (although the dance was a bit dry) and interspersed by conversation, food and drinks.

Kasuga Naru was there too, the samurai they had rescued from the firemen in the alley of the Wallows. And he was being a real dick. Lots of snide insinuations about Great Clan Samurai failing to grasp the complexities of the Tortoise Clan’s vital role in the maintenance of the Emperor’s peace. He was also positively bursting to whip his biggest surprise out of his sleeve: the news that the Unicorn clan had backed out of alliance with the Lion. This would surely result in such dreadful slaughter, and weren’t you being terribly brave and stoic for not letting it get in the way of y- ohhh, you didn’t know? Well, Naru felt just awful for being the one to bring this dreadful news. Yes, Unicorn Clan Champion Shinjo Altansarnai had backed out of a marriage contract with Ikoma Anakazu, daimyo of the Ikoma, because… well, no-one could be sure, what reason could there possibly be? A true Rokugani would surely have gone through with it…

Naru’s goal was obviously to wind up the yoriki and he returned to it later when the party was winding down and sake had perhaps loosened his wits slightly. Boasting of his display of prowess in defeating a dozen or so gang members, he was easily annoyed by the yorikis suggesting that it didn’t quite go down like that. Fatally, Naru downplayed the utility of his yojimbo (who did actually face down a dozen gang members without cowering) because when the conversation turned contentious, and Naru angrily demanded the satisfaction of a duel. His ploy was obviously to goad a yoriki into a duel and then tag out for his substantially more dangerous yojimbo… but, he’d just got done telling everyone how little the yojimbo was good for. Koji pointed out that it would be downright insulting to duel this terrible excuse for a yojimbo. Fury at being pinned by his own words overthrew caution and Naru faced off against Koji.

The duel was to first cut with wakizashi and the two faced each other down in the courtyard. Naru raced off his mark to attack Koji, but was in such a tremendous, unthinking hurry that he charged into striking distance before getting his sword clear. Koji calmly sidestepped and swung at the charging man. The blade went across mouth height and Naru did the rest, his momentum carrying Koji’s strike through most of his lower teeth and tongue. The Tortoise nuisance collapsed to the ground, blood and teeth splattering all around. A strangled scream ended the duel and the yojimbo wordlessly followed his master, casting a long glance at Koji.

The beheading of Yumiko, the burning ship, the rescue of a wayward Otomo and two of their own scions earlier in the day was not mentioned directly AT ALL. Better for everyone that no one ever mentions it. No one talks about it, no one ever has to accept blame. And the same was true of Naru’s disgraceful performance in the duel. Whatever is next for poor old dickhole Naru, it isn’t going to involve much whistling or the enthusiastic support of his clan.

Gifts were presented and the last pleasantries exchanged in what had been a very successful and productive Moon Viewing. Hired porters carried the tired samurai back to their lodgings. The dozing night watchman welcomed them back. In their room, they found a plain white clay mask set in the middle of the floor. The mask was featureless, with no defined features other than the eye holes, and red silk ties to fix it on the head.

The inside of the mask, on the other hand, was finely, finely detailed, to the extent that they believed it had been pressed onto flesh. The face described on the inside of the mask bore more than a passing resemblance to Gaku, the tattooed ronin who went down in the bay with the burning Jealous Zephyr.

Well that was creepy, but they were real tired. They questioned the somnolent watchman who swore that no-one had come in who shouldn’t. Their balcony window was barred shut. It was a mystery that would have to wait for another day.

The next morning, they went to check on their rescued chums. They were emaciated and exhausted and probably massively traumatized. They were also wounded. While they had incurred no huge wounds, they reluctantly showed the strange wounds that Gaku had inflicted upon them. Their torsos were cross-hatched with razor thin cuts arranged in wavy lines, in small square arrangements. They described these as wounds being caused by a small brass box that Gaku would press against their flesh; he’d press a button down and the blades would bite almost painlessly into the flesh. Almost. Gaku would then smear the blood (ew, gross) on strips of paper and keep them for some unknown purpose. It was a revolting process, and they all felt terrible when it happened.

They were also interested in kickstarting Otomo Hiroshige’s samurai engine. So they got him ready to go deal with the Capemaker. These are the hard jobs that samurai must undertake, so they were hoping that accompanying them would help him back on the path set out for him. They gave him a wakizashi (probably not his) but another one they drummed up for him and made him dress the part and at least try to act it.

The Capemaker’s shop was prosperous, the capes, very well made, of good quality rice straw, reed, hemp and linen. The Capemaker was very pleasant and polite and very friendly, right up until Ono unlimbered his jiuhuandao, the giant, dumb sword-with-rings-through-it that had been given by the Shosuro weapons trainer at Shiro Yogasha. That’ll put a cramp in anyone’s day. Ono laid it out for him: the jig was up, but he’d give the Capemaker the chance to end his own life. As a heimin this was indeed… an honour? But this poor bugger wouldn’t know what to do with this blade. He pled for his life, he had a wife, children… Ono assured him that they’d be taken care of… and not in the creepy way. He still wasn’t rushing to end his life on the blade, that straw cape business is lucrative!

At this juncture, Koji put his oar in with a few well placed words in Hiroshige’s ear about duty and hard choices and the unbearable burden of walking the path of the samurai… Hiroshige lost it. For the second time in 24 hours, Koji nudged someone’s composure off a cliff. His hand flew to his wakizashi, which went through the Capemaker’s throat in an instant.

The man looked shocked and then collapsed to the floor, leaving his gore splattered judges to hide their surprise. True to his word, Ono went further in to the house behind the shop and found they poor guy’s wife and child. Her husband was dead. She need not fear for her family or future. Ono stamped out some travel papers to Lion lands with his personal chop (dubious that he has the exact authority to do that, but since there is a very set end destination it might work okay) and seal of the Emerald Magistrate’s yoriki, so it’s better than nothing. The poor woman wasn’t exactly falling over herself to thank Ono, but was probably grateful that her family wasn’t just being exterminated wholesale.

Well, espionage is dirty work.

With this episode behind them though, their dirty work in this dirty town was coming to an end. Time to head back to Shiro Yogasha and report in.