Sorry, I've been a bit busy and waiting for an opportunity to post. I think I'm missing something, though, GM--who is Akira?  Or did you mean to type Aki?

Akira is the young servant who witnessed Daidoji Ryu exiting Doji Kusanagi's rooms covered in blood

Did I miss something?  I searched my entire thread for the name Akira and couldn't find it...

though Fuji never actually said what Akira's import was, his statements would suggest that Akira is somehow involved in whatever investigation Daidoji Sakura is doing and that his life was the one threatened by the ambush

Are we using the Spellcraft Mastery Rules? The standard book does not have them, but 3E Revised and one of the supplements do ...

I haven't seen them, so I can't say, where can I find them?

Daidoji Ryu is the head of the Daidoji in Toshi Ranbo, Daidoji Tokagero is his second in command ^_^
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:58, Thu 21 May 2009.

To 2, Darn -- that causes even more problems. I thought he was just the Head General.

Spellcraft: Master's of Magic, p. 12. (Also in 3ER under Spellcraft skill)
Rank 1: Max number of raises equal to Spellcraft Rank or Void, whichever is higher.
            Rank 5: Free raise when casting spells.
            Rank 7: May now apply appropriate elemental emphases to spellcraft roll.

Good day to all! I'm heading the southern armies!

"For those that joined us late ..." (if anyone else recognizes that line ...)

Daidoji Sakura and Shosuro Kasumi are the same person -- she's a Scorpion spy that infiltrated the Crane so long ago (long before the Clan War began) that even most Scorpion don't realize that she's one of their own.

Also, for those that know of such things, she normally just uses elemental magic; but, by GM's permission, she also uses the variant of Shosuro Deciever that taps on a primitive form of Void magic ("elemental nothing", part of the definition of Void; found in the School Update project).

Oh, and welcome to all the new folks!

I know, I planned it that way ^_^


yes, we'll use the spellcraft mastery rules ^_^

 Regarding the idea that the Governor might be tainted... I'd say that if he wasn't before, making him so now would seriously screw with events that have taken place. If the absolute highest ranking Crane in the city were in fact The Enemy then the party is dead and it only becomes a question of how many Ashigaru and Bushi are needed to snuff them.

 Of course, I'm not terribly interested in the whole Lying Darkness plot anyway, shadow-boxing has never really been my favourite sport but that's just my t'penneth. ^_^

in all honesty, the Lying Darkness stuff was supposed to stay in the background, but some people (::cough:: Sakura ::cough::) kept bringing it up ^_^ it necessitated several plot scrambles on my part ^_^

I think its worked out okay, at least I hope so--and no one is going to have to fight super powered shadow spawn (unless something goes horribly out of control) ^_^

I'm horribly lost and confused...
Where am I? Am I even with the party any more? o.O

This doesn't seem to have been a good game to play a economic courtier in.

 Heh, I'm also lost and confused - so lost and confused that I actually started a list of 'who's who' to try and keep all these random people straight before giving up and just pointing myself at the short-term goal of shedding Sakura so I can get on with actual plot.

 'Course, she's trying to get rid of Kedo for exactly the same reason. ^_^

So,  I don't want to screw Sakura based on out-of-game knowledge.  DM, can I count on you to tell me if and when it becomes appropriate for me to make an opposed Investigation role against her?

*laughs*

Don't worry, you'll know! It'll start with something like "... Sakura hated to lie around a Kitsuki, but she had no choice ... "

With a certain Ronin ::cough Kedo cough:: hanging around her 24-7, she has learned not to tell a direct lie -- and to tell the truth whenever she can get away with it.

*ROFL!*

Kedo has already told me how much of a pain this revelation is ... but I discovered (in another campaign) that I don't like to play this kind of PC without anyone else reading it ... ruins the fun for me.

Ironically enough, she's probably gonna die soon anyway ...

*evil grin*

BTW, GM, if you didn't want Sakura to latch on to Shadow Spawn you shouldn't have used a whole Platoon of them in broad daylight!

*ROFLMAO!*

 Yup, it ticks me right off to have someone playing a secret character and then for them to turn around and share the secret OOCly from dot one because it completely ruins any RP based around finding them out and undermines any possible revelations.

 But to each their own - I just want to disengage myself from this whole Evil Secret Force Undermining The Empire plot and get back on my original thread which was 'trying to make a nice sword and impress the Crane whilst fighting off the Lion army, you remember them, nice lads, parked outside.' ^_^

Yeah ... ironically enough, I just remembered something. When we first started creating characters, pretty much everyone did it in the open ... which put me over the edge.

*grins*

See, if you'd started up front you could have voiced your objections ...

Lin Ru-Fang:  you are still with the party (unless you'd like to be somewhere else ^_^) this isn't actually a bad game to play an economic courtier in, it just happens that the murder mystery part is coming to a head just now.  If you're interested in things that might be more your specialty, the Scorpion have a diplomatic proposition on the table as do the Mantis, so you could go over to one of them to begin negotiations as a third party to save face if things fall through ^_^

Kedo et al:  the people you care about can be narrowed down into five categories:
1)  people who could help you in your personal quest (Daidoji Tomoe and Kakita Tsutomu)
2)  people in authority who are also your allies (Doji Kasarugi, Doji Kusanagi [deceased], Miya Shiko, Kitsuki Fuji, Kitsuki Ryoma, Mirumoto Yamada)
3)  people in authority who are not your allies (Daidoji Ryu and Daidoji Tokagero)
4)  servants (Akira)
5)  PCs who have come and gone (don't make me list them all, it'll make me depressed ^_^)

Kitsuki Toshirou:  of course I'll let you know ^_^

Daidoji Sakura:  well, they were supposed to show up and never show up again--barring certain realizations which haven't actually happened yet--but then you guys ended up pursuing that course over others I offered (had the rest of the original party stuck around, I think the political/strategic plot would've stayed center stage--especially with the death of Doji Kusanagi--but they didn't ^_^)

No kidding! I just looked back over the clue thread and that one alone almost made me cry!



Yeah, that's certainly true. With the courtiers and Bushi still around, things would have certainly went much different. Imagine how things would have went if my original (Daidoji) Yojimbo was still here ...

But they're not ...

 Actually, as of the last update to my list (I'd gotten as far as 'Murder Mysteries' it looks like this:


PC's

Active
Daidoji Sakura      Shifty shugenja with secrets who may know something of Shosuro Kasumi.
Bayushi Kenji       Wears a Daisho, a little blade-happy.
Satoru              A monk with one and a half arms.
Doji Kanisai        A tall, battered Bushi involved in military planning. Good with sieges.

Defunct
Musashi             Monk of Osano-wo
Daidoji Kumi        A part-time courtier and scout, a specialist in urban warfare.
Daidoji Yoshiko     Sakuras original samurai-ko yojimbo.
Daidoji Sachi
Doji Minako         An Asako-trained courtier-librarian wearing Crane colours and a Mon of Phoenix and Crane together.
Asahina Jiro        Student of the Monkey Bushi school.
Kakita Ukyo         Sickly master swordsman
Kakita Zenko        A swordsman with no particular skill in leading or assessing others.
Doji Akibieden      Gunso of the armies of Toshi Ranbo, veteran of the Clan Wars. Chui of the southern Kaisha (involved in city defence).
Daidoji Tsukiko     Some sort of snobby courtier
Seppun Masashi      A quiet fellow who gives occasional military advice in the form of fortune-cookie quotes.
Soshi Manami        A quiet woman
Tsuruchi Hidemoto   A quiet man

NPC's

Imperial
Miya Shiko          Courtier attacked by 'bandits' going to Toshi Ranbo. Bandits killed by faceless 'ninja' men.

Lion
Ikoma Kuromaru      Border-post Bushi on the road to Toshi Ranbo
Kitsu Arimi         The reprobate who took Asahina Miki's scrolls in Shiro Sana Kakita, not Tsutomu

Crab
Kaiu Kuromori       A disgraced weaponsmith with a daughter. Now Daidoji Kuromori

Crane
Doji Kusanagi       A man who inspects wall defences, only officer survivor of last Crane assault on Toshi Ranbo, Murdered.
Doji Kasurugi       Daimyo of Toshi Ranbo. The buck stops here.
Kakita Tsutomu      A sensei who has been a ronin, a friend of Kedo's through Kitsuki Moritomo.
Kakita Asakura      Serves Doji Kusanagi, took Tsutomu into service after Kitsuki Moritomo cleared his name. Ex-commander of southern Kaisha.
Daidoji Tomo        The daughter of the disgraced weaponsmith, Kaiu Kuromori and student of Kakita Tsutomi
Daidoji Kuromori    Weaponsmith once of the Kaiu family, still has a daughter.
Daidoji Ryu         A Crane officer seen when Doji Kusanagi's death was announced. Shireikan (general) of Toshi Ranbo. Present for Kedos Epiphany.
Daidoji Tokagero    A Crane officer seen when Doji Kusanagi's death was announced. Sneered at Soshi Manami. Present for Kedos Epiphany.
Doji Kuwanan        The Crane Champion. Not 'a' champion, The Champion. He was in the prelude.
Doji Igarashi       The subject of some sort of Scorpion marriage alliance proposal with Shosuro Shinobu.

Dragon
Kitsuki Moritomo    The magistrate for whom a man who would one day be Kedo once worked.

Scorpion
Bayushi Tenma       The big Scorpion in town - gave Kedo leave to 'always' speak in his presence.
Shosuro Shinobu     Lady with a limp, tertiary aide to Bayushi Tenma. Beautiful, courtier. Kitsuki-trained.

Mantis
Tsuruchi Hidemoto   Middle-aged man with a walking stick, an aide to Yoritomo Akuto in Toshi Ranbo.
Yoritomo Akuto      A big bluff fellow

...now I'm depressed ^_^

no really, you've got the entire cast of characters who matter right there--everyone else is just a PC who dropped in and dropped out, an inconsequential character who's just there to deliver info, or dead ^_^

4 of those NPCs are involved in the Lying Darkness bit
10 of those NPCs are involved in the Lion Attack bit
(there's some overlap)
7 of those NPCs are just for Kedo ^_^

Yeah... I'm not even on that list. c_c;

To double-check... he's saying that he saw Ryu physically emerge out of Kusanagi's body?

 That's because of:



 And you hadn't turned up yet. ^_^