If there was a word for your current condition, it would be excited. You had waited a long time to get where you are. Or it felt like it anyway. You were a woman who had actually managed to attain priesthood at an early age. You knew there were other priests who disagreed with how elevated you were, but they can go to the youkai realm for all the shits you gave. You had made it. Of course, that is what you had thought.
Then you realized just how boring and ineffectual priesthood had been. Sure you could lead people in prayer and they could give worship and you could tell them all how to avoid impurity and a variety of other means to defend themselves against the darkness that boils in the depths of your land. That doesn't mean much when all the young ones cared about was their recent test grades or how popular they were. The middle aged ones were all about how their jobs were affecting them, are their spouses cheating on them, etc, etc. They were all valid concerns, true, but you wished they could put them aside for prayer at least.
You liked the old ones though. They gave offerings to the nature kami, and listened to you seriously on how to deal with and avoid impurity and the youkai that springs forth from that. Which brings you to another sore point. You were stuck in a temple while there were youkai out there that needed to be purified. And warning people about the dangers and how to prevent youkai was all well and good, but they rarely listen anyhow.
Now though, you can really fight back. Your mentor had seen how restless you were, and had put your name forth as a candidate to lead Japan's newly formed supernatural agency. When you had been chosen, it was all of your prayers answered. Your name was Renko Kochika, and by the kami you were going to purify Japan.
Martial: Your Military advisor is one Okimoto Ieyoshi. When asked what his service record was, he simply handed you a file with nothing but black lines in it. A man in his thirties, Okimoto is covered in various wounds and what seem to be acid burns cover half his face, and he's missing an eye. You were told due to his recent loss of vision, he was being taken out of active duty to assist you. While you had your doubts, he proved himself in how he trained with your troops. The man knows how to kill something, that's for sure.
[X] Knowledge Is Not As Easily Killed: Frankly, Okimoto recognizes that your men barely stand a chance. An umi-bozu will destroy any naval force, and an oni is a 9-12 foot pile of muscle holding a club the size of a missile. However, he thinks that if your troops know how to identify the difference between a hihi and a chimi, that they'll be much better equipped.
Cost:0 Upkeep:0 Reward: Troops get a crash course on which monsters are which and how to fight them. +5 bonus to Yearly operations and Military actions against Japanese spirits.
There was once a divine beast that said there are 11,750 different kinds of youkai. Unfortunately for you, the list of said youkai has been lost. Fortunately for your men, the list of said youkai has been lost. Between the Hihi hunting and this, your troops have taken a mental beating this year. You have to cram thousands of years of religious history and know how into their heads within the year, and by the kami you have succeeded.
Any complaints of being led by a woman have ceased, after you beat into their heads how little you take failure. Any asshole who thought you would be another nadeshiko they had to handle business for has been proven desperately wrong. You taught them the insides and out of everything you thought they needed to know. Now, your troops could identify youkai on site, not having to rely on the accompanying priests to tell them what you were dealing with. Then you tell them habits and behavior. About how oni hole up in caves and lurk there, or how yama uba always live alone, but have powerful magics to defend themselves with. Most of what you tell them scares the absolute shit out of them.
There is another side effect however, because you also tell them to just run like fucking hell if they see an oni, or to stay out of a yama uba's hut and you'll be safe from their stomachs. Basically, you tell them how to survive encounters with the supernatural. You see the effect of this when one day, walking down the hall, a passing soldier makes a snide remark about your gender under his breath. You're about to beat him senseless for insulting a superior officer, then send him to run a hundred laps around the facilities, when the soldier walking next to him stops and lays him out with a right hook. Immediately realizing his situation, he bows to your stunned appearance and loudly declares, "My deepest apologies for my friend's comments, sensei!" before dragging his stunned friend away by the arm hissing "Have respect, you fool!" under his breath. You smile a bit for the first time in weeks. It's nice to know they appreciate your efforts to keep them from being youkai food. Reward: +5 to troop actions against japanese spirits and yearly operations. Your troops respect you now, despite your gender.
Diplomacy: Your chief diplomat is a woman named Kawayama Kiriyo,a woman with long, braided, brown hair and business wear. She's cheerful, kind and overall a very genuine person. Or so you thought, until she met Okimoto and immediately became a brusque and professional expert. Okimoto grunted his approval and moved on. Kawayama was all smiles again, but she probably wanted you to notice. If there's one thing Kawayama is an expert in, it would be twisting people's perceptions of her. You couldn't ask for a better asset.
[X] Appease The Spirits: You have too many gods. You say this, because it seems that all of them want tribute. And if you fail to give them that tribute, they'll either cause a natural disaster, which the government is sure to be displeased about, or level some curses at you, utterly fucking up your operations. And if you don't get to it in the next three years, they're pushing the big red button on you. You look at the projected cost and wince. Cost: 100 Upkeep: 0 Chance of Success: 100% Rewards: Don't get the living shit blown out of you. No disaster within these three years.
Required: 1 Rolled: 7
The spirits are not impressed. That's the best way to describe it. This was your first real impression with them, and it failed miserably. You aren't sure why, but it appears the priests who went out to pay tribute to the shrine did exactly that. However, while the money and tributes were good, your subordinates acted with all the respect of toddlers at a shopping mall. The nature spirits decided that it's to be expected from lowly humans, and have decided not to make their displeasure known through prodigious disasters.
Unfortunately, they are basically demanding proper respect next time you pay tribute. Failure to do so will land you in some deep shit. Personally, they gave you a sickness that had you barely keeping food down and vomiting for two weeks. Even when your stomach was empty, sludge and other filth poured from your mouth. Once those two weeks were over, the only sign it had happened was incredibly traumatic memories, although the kami's meaning was perfectly clear. Respect or else. Still, you can't even bring yourself to punish the priests you had assigned. They had received terrible luck throughout the year. Some fell terribly sick for much longer than you had, some lost their savings to fraud and theft, a few fell out of romantic relationships that had lasted years. Mental, physical, financial health, it didn't matter. They all lost things that were valuable to them. Reward: No disaster within Turns 1-3 assured. Irresponsible priests learn their lesson. Chance of failure next Appease The Spirits action. Nature spirits think you're kind of a cunt.
Stewardship: Your manager is an old man who looks upon you with an undisguised sneer. Ito Yoson is an expert with finances and policy, which just barely makes up for his irritable and asshole personality. His entire views on women, youth and even race just kind of makes you want to beat him. Despite this, he's already planning ways to make you money, so you, as many already do, manage to drown your moral issues with lots of cash.
[X] Who Dunnit?: Police have a lot of cold cases that irritate the living hell out of them. Well, you have a legion of priests who can talk to yūrei, the ghosts of the murdered and tragic dead. Have them make rounds among police stations pointing cops in the right direction and you could get some funding from the police department. You get money, they get to boast about a near perfect record, everyone wins. Cost: 40 Upkeep: 20 Chance of Success: 90% Reward: +50 Police funding
Required:10 Rolled:10
It almost doesn't work. There are a thousand and one ways it almost goes wrong, but you manage to avoid the vast majority of them. The first problem is the initial meeting. When the police chief hears that they want priests to talk to ghosts to solve crimes, he almost explodes. He has a furious shouting match with one of your higher ups, insisting that he was trying to turn his police station into a "fucking psychic circus". He then checks the entire room for cameras to make sure he's not being pranked. And then he and his detectives make snide comments throughout their stay. which makes the priests pray for patience, or they just may curse them and their households.
The second problem is when the first five cases that they give to him are misconstrued suicides. The priests talk to the ghosts, send them onto the higher plane, and call it done. This does not help their standing with the police. It's on the sixth case that an actual culprit is named. THe detectives are laughing the entire time that they go to talk to the guy, thinking they'll get jack shit and move on. To their surprise, as soon as they ask the guy about the victim, he panics and runs. After an investigation and a warrant, they find a murder weapon and a confession waiting for them. The rest of the cold cases proceed in a similar vein. However, the police don't like being proven wrong about things like this. Even now, the yearly cold case duty is essentially the shit duty of your onmyōji. Reward: +50 Police Funding
Intrigue: Your spymaster is… nonexistent. Frankly, you don't have one. When asked why, most of the founders just kind of shrugged. Apparently, any spy that would be trustworthy and skilled enough to help you is in deep cover, or on a "they contact you" basis. You're going to have to find them yourself.
[X] Peek A Boo: Find a spymaster. Cost: 20 Upkeep:0 Chance of Success: 100% Reward: Spymaster, actual Intrigue actions.
Required: 1 Rolled: 33
Wakai Munoto is not all there. You can tell this because he sometimes stops to chat with walls or threaten the local wildlife. It bothers you a little bit that your new spymaster is somewhat delusional, but you can deal with it. I mean, the man got to you before you even put the notice out, which means he somehow got it from the prime minister, Shinto priesthood or Emperor higher tiers. And you did find him in your office having bypassed all the security there. The only problem is that as soon as you walked in he maced you. In the eyes. You requested his files, and found that he had been suffering from an undiagnosed mental disorder all his life.
Or so they thought. Upon examining him, your priests told you that Wakai was born with an extraordinarily high level of spiritual perception. Unfortunately, he went so long without an explanation that he began seeing other things. Still, he had been recruited by a classified intelligence operation as a disposable asset, and then shocked everyone by not being disposable. Rather, he excelled.
The man before you is tall and lanky, wearing a black trench coat and a baseball cap that hides his eyes. His face is covered in stubble, with a scraggly goatee on his chin. Long, oily black hair is pulled into a ponytail, and his eyes occasionally twitch for no reason. He does have occasional bouts of dementia, but he insists that it helps him sneak. You suppose you'll see how he does. Reward: Intrigue actions available
Piety: You actually have two religious advisors. Imai Denbe, a Buddhist monk, is a kind and unobtrusive individual. In his mid thirties, his primary features are a shaved head and a patient smile for everyone. Inokuma Toju, the forty year old Shinto priest, is rather different. He's not scornful like Ito is, but he has a sense of severity to him. He mandates that whenever you meet him, you purify your hands, for one. Whether this is him telling you you're impure or his way of protecting you and himself from impurity, you aren't sure. Still, he does his job eagerly, and so you can't begrudge him for that.
[X] Mass Produced Seals: Seals are hard work to make. They require careful precision and dedication, with a lot of blessing and preparation beforehand. However, there are weak seals that you are told can be used to stagger or block spirits. It can even work against oni, although that wouldn't last for more than a second or two. Inokuma thinks he can have your shinto priests mass producing them enough that it will be available to all of your agents. He warns you that if you gain more agents, they won't be able to continue the practice, but it's enough for now. Cost: 50 Upkeep: 30 Small Bonus to yearly operations, small bonus to fighting lesser youkai.
Unlike guns and explosives, seals cannot be mass produced. They have to be carefully hand drawn, blessed by the shrine, and then double checked. A flawed seal is a gateway to impurity, and no adequate priest will accept substandard work in a holy symbol. A downside to such excellent quality control is the fact that it takes a pretty large amount of time to actually make one, for an approximately ticket sized piece of paper. But, this is solved in the typical Japanese method, more work and scheduling. Every night, the onmyōji report to Inokuma, and give him three completed Lesser Seals. Inokuma looks over these seals before bed, approves or denies them, and distributes the acceptable ones among the troops. Soon enough, the men have enough seals to carry five each, and by half a year, you have thousands of them in a storage room. Now, the onmyōji only have to maintain a certain number, reapplying seals after the troops use them in the field. Reward: +5 to yearly operations and fighting Lesser Youkai
[X] Memorizing Sutras: Evil spirits in Buddhism are typically driven out by monks wielding khakkhara and sutras. While giving every soldier a khakkhara sounds tempting, it's not feasible. What is feasible is making them memorize some basic sutras to push back evil spirits. It won't work on any higher tier enemies, but it will likely deter weaker spirits for a brief time. Cost: 0 Upkeep: 10 Bonus against Buddhist evil spirits.
Imai, or Denbe as he insists you call him, is overjoyed to hear that you want him working with the soldiers to memorize sutra verses. In fact, he throws himself into the practice. He explains to you that by teaching sutras, he's also spreading the Buddhist way of life. You remind him that the Buddhist methodology of never hurting a single creature, even evil spirits, doesn't connect well with a military way of life. Still, he shrugs and waves off your take on it. To him, it still means that they may take the way of life into their everyday life, and help preserve life in all of its forms. Whether that means that the Lieutenant takes in an abandoned puppy, or the First Private chooses not to start a bar fight, he doesn't know. What he does know, is that it is certain to help someone, and therefore worth throwing all of his efforts into it. You can't help but respect Debe's adherence to his tenets, even if it's different than your own.
Either way, your troops find themselves reciting sutras in their off time, and half meditating when they sit still for too long. Many of them, haunted by previous missions, find a sort of peace in this activity. Luckily, none of them are willing to give up on their military career for religion. However, you do hear that Denbe has heard requests for teachings about the practice of warrior monks in recent times. Reward: troops gain a bonus when fight Buddhist evil spirits, warrior monk action available next turn.
Learning: Your resident scientist is fairly excitable. Apparently, Kaibara Tamaki had already theorized on the existence of youkai, and had gotten laughed out of her laboratory for it. Now, she not only had verification that they existed, she got to dream up new ways to kill them! Really, it was a dream come true.
[X] Now You See Me: A major problem with recruiting new agents is how few of them can actually see the youkai that surrounds us. The two hundred you have were the bare minority of agents who were actually able to scrounge from special forces with the potential to see youkai. But your research division has found a mountain spirit called a Hihi that is incapacitated by laughter and whose blood can allow others to see youkai with no trouble. Now, Kaibara wants your men to go into the mountains armed with automatic weapons and bad jokes, and hunt down a few. Cost: 20 Upkeep: 20 Chances of Success: 70% Reward: Constant supply of Hihi blood, Option to recruit new troops.
Required: 30 Rolled: 60
Your troops absolutely hate it. You watch the surveillance tapes and laugh your ass off. The hihi is named after its distinctive laugh. The creature has freakishly loose, flapping lips, so when it laughs, it does so hard enough that it cannot see. Which is saying something for an eight foot monkey man. This is where your troops chain it down and throw a grenade down its laughing mouth. It blows the head off, and wastes a lot of the valuable blood, but the hihi is large enough that it doesn't really matter. The researchers hate being in the field, but they're the ones who are authorized to carry and use the equipment. The blood is harvested, and now you have gallons upon gallons of the stuff sitting in a backroom. More than enough to induct entire squads of agents. You inform the squad leaders that they would be performing those hunts semi-regularly, and you can see the collective cringe. Upon asking them what's wrong, they simply answer that if they ever hear another bad pun, it would be far too soon. You remember the surveillance tapes and crack up again. Reward: Supply of hihi blood, can now recruit new agents.
Personal: Now there's you. You're definitely in a busy position, but you don't need to oversee everything. That's what your department heads are for. So now you need to decide what to do with your time. Pick 1
[X] Tsukumogami: A tsukumogami is an item that has seen over a century of use, gaining awareness and a soul. Surely you have one in your family line? It could become a powerful personal weapon against the various spirits attempting to cause your downfall. Cost: 0 Upkeep: 0 Chance of Success: 70% Rewards: Possible spirit tool
Required: 30 Rolled: 84
You are more than pleased to hear that you do in fact have a century old precious heirloom. A sake jug, used by your family for centuries. It is no longer in use, but how it was used is in record. According to your ancestors tales, the jug was used by one ancestor, who was also a priest, to share a friendly drink with friends on the road.
Due to his occupation as an exorcist, and the frequency of the jug's use, the jug became able to seal spirits inside of it. The proper method was to hold the neck of the jug in one hand and the lid in another hand. You then say the name of the spirit, and greet it or invite it to drink. If it returns your greetings or accepts your invitation, it will fly into the jug. You then slam the lid into place, sealing the spirit. It can only hold one at a time, or seal a portion of its power should the youkai be on a higher tier. It cannot work on kami, but is especially effective against youkai that don't have a physical form. Overall, it's a powerful weapon, and you make sure to thank your ancestors for allowing such a useful tool into your arsenal. It should have its own will, but seems to be asleep after so many years of lack of use. Reward: Sealing Jug, Currently asleep.
Yearly Operations Roll: 54+10=64
Nothing of particular import happens within your troops performance. They get in, do the job, and get out. A variety of lesser youkai attacks are spoiled, with creatures such as kotengu and others finding slim pickings. There's still a fairly consistent civilian death count, as your troops usually get to the scene after the monster has killed someone, but your higher ups just sort of nod and say it's about what they expect. According to them, at this stage of the operation, you weren't expected to solve Japan's millennia old spiritual crisis, just start on it. And, they note, your men are proficient and efficient enough in their duties to earn you a small bonus this year. +50 Funding for Turn 1
What's Waking Up Roll: 75
Another concern that is widely held is that of a higher youkai coming down from the mountains or the sea. While this is a legitimate concern, it doesn't happen this year. Nope, only lesser youkai for now. You just thank the kami that none have come before you're ready. In fact, your men spot a Baku roaming through the woods this year. While not a particularly powerful spirit, the baku is known as a guardian of mankind through dreams, and youkai and evil spirits tend to avoid it like the plague. Its presence could help ward off any of the more monstrous youkai next year. Bonus to What's Waking Up roll during Turn 2.
