Glory of the Emerald Empire (Legend of the 5 Rings Quest)
- Thread starter Winged Knight
- Start date
- Fantasy
There is nothing that would bar a yorei from entering Meido, the realm of waiting.They can face their judgment at the hands of Emma-O, the Fortune of Death, at any time if they so choose. The tricky part is to convince them that this is the best course of action.The poor woman needs trauma counseling, but unfortunately, all she has is us.
There is also still a chance that this is Bog Hag in disguise, so we shouldn't drop out guard entirely.
[X]Apologize.
[X] Tell her the truth. As kindly as we can manage.
There is also still a chance that this is Bog Hag in disguise, so we shouldn't drop out guard entirely.
[X]Apologize.
[X] Tell her the truth. As kindly as we can manage.
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Bog Hags skin those they kill and wear them as a disguise. That allows them to look and sound exactly like their victim. I'm not entirely sure how this pertains to preexisting wounds, the rules are a bit vague in this regard.
As these things go, she is probably a ghost. But the creatures tainted by Jigoku are numerous and cunning. As a general rule you shouldn't trust anything you encounter in the Shadowlands.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Why does no one like my idea of asking if there's anything we can do to help? It makes her more likely to be willing to move on, and might give us a message to pass on that the recipient would be glad to hear. Compassion is one of the Bushido virtues, after all.
I'd rather we kill her, but that apparently isn't a wise decision yet.
- Location
- Canada
[x]Apologize.
[x] Tell her the truth. As kindly as we can manage.
[x] Ask if there's anything we can do to set her spirit to rest - any unfinished business, or messages she would wish us to carry.
Little side quest here might be interesting. And as long as she doesn't ask something to demanding of us we should be fine. Plus, it is the nice thing to do.
[x] Tell her the truth. As kindly as we can manage.
[x] Ask if there's anything we can do to set her spirit to rest - any unfinished business, or messages she would wish us to carry.
Little side quest here might be interesting. And as long as she doesn't ask something to demanding of us we should be fine. Plus, it is the nice thing to do.
From my perspective?
We aren't a priest, we don't know the proper rituals for sending a spirit on, doing them wrong leads to bad things.
- Location
- Canada
I was thinking it would be more of a "bring a message to my family" type thing.
If I am right and she is a yearning ghost, then it's mostly a matter that we can't kill her. Unless our weapons are crafted from one of the sacred materials (jade, crystal, obsidian), they will go right through her without doing any harm. She on the other hand can just attack us normally. It may take a while for a peasant woman to beat a Crab bushi to death with her bare hands, but there is nothing we could do to stop her.
The other thing is that since ghosts are already dead you can't kill them. If you somehow manage to reduce one to zero Wounds, it will simply flee to recuperate. Long term, all you achieve by hurting ghosts is pissing them off.
To get rid of a ghost, you need a priest or an exorcist who can talk them into leaving voluntarily. And we have neither the time nor the training to deal with such matters.
Edit:
Something like that might be possible. The problem is that we have no idea why she hasn't moved on, so it would be foolish to give her a blanket promise.
If we are genuinely lucky it may be possible that she just hasn't realized that she is dead yet and will leave once we point it out to her.
If we are unlucky she refuses to leave her husband or something like that. In this case, someone needs to give her a talk about the Great Wheel and why the dead shouldn't linger in the realm of the living. Since we don't have the Lore (Theology) skill, we are ill-equipped to deliver said speech.
If we are really unlucky her problem could be something that can only be solved by traveling to the Lands of the Mantis. Since the Clan lives on the Islands of Silk and Spice off the coast, we would need to travel by ship for several days to get there. Not to mention that meddling in the affairs of peasants would make us the laughing stock of at least two Great Clans.
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- Location
- Canada
Hm... perhaps the wording should be changed to sending a message to her family or something that won't result in massive obligations.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
- Pronouns
- He/Him
My write-in isn't offering a blanket promise. It's asking for information. It incurs no obligation whatsoever - it just presents us as sympathetic, and if her issue is one we can help fix, lets us help fix it.
It's possible that she's been dead so long that the people that she'd want to interact with are also all dead.
Also, if what we need to do is pass a message on to the Mantis lands, then we can simply find a Mantis vessel going the right way, and pass the message on. We don't need to do this in person the whole way.
It's possible that she's been dead so long that the people that she'd want to interact with are also all dead.
Also, if what we need to do is pass a message on to the Mantis lands, then we can simply find a Mantis vessel going the right way, and pass the message on. We don't need to do this in person the whole way.
1.7
Winged Knight
Still just a crazy man with a wolf on his head
- Location
- Texas
I'll let you all know now. You've got everything you need to handle this situation. It just depends on how you use the tools at hand.
[x]Apologize.
[x] Tell her the truth.
Courtier Roll: 2k2=7
Investigation Roll: 4k2=16
Lore Shadowlands Roll: 3k2=17
You shift uncomfortably. You've never had to deal with something like this, and you can't help but feel awkward. You know you should say something to her, help her pass on. The Celestial Order has to be maintained, because if it isn't then problems happen. And you're almost certain this woman is a ghost, even if her body looks awfully solid.
The only issue is, you're not one for words. That's supposed to be the Yasuki Family's job, and even if you were more eloquent in your speech it's not like you're a Monk or and Exorcist. They'd be best suited for helping this poor woman. But they aren't here, and you are. So you've got to do something.
You clear your throat, and Yori stops muttering to back at you.
"I'm sorry, Yori," you say as gently as you can. "But you're dead. You must have died when you came-"
"What?" Yori asks, interrupting you. "What are you saying?"
You wince a little at the loss of your momentum, but grit your teeth and soldier on. "You're not alive any more, Yori. You've two wounds on your legs. You must have bled out in the water."
Yori's expression turns stricken, and she looks behind herself at the back of her feet. Her shoulders tense, and she looks back at you. Her eyes are wide, almost impossible so, and there's a light growing behind them.
"No," she whispers, but her voice is rising in volume. "No, that can't be true! It can't be. I'm alive!" She claws at her face, scouring lines in her skin. But no blood flows from the wounds. "I'M ALIVE!"
She falls to her knees, screaming toward the sky. Her voice reverberates strangely, and her flesh begins to melt off her body. It puddles in a steaming mass around her, dripping like sludge. That makes your eyes shoot up in alarm. She has physical substance? How is that possible? Ghosts shouldn't be able to do that, right?
You can see blue, ethereal light coming from her empty eye sockets, the illumination of Yori's soul. She screams louder, and you can see the light pour out from her jaws. Her spirit must still be inhabiting her body! But zombies aren't coherent. They're just shambling monsters that attack everything around them. How, then, can she have spoken to you?
"I'M ALIIIIIIIIIIVE!" Yori cries, clutching her face with skeletal fingers as the skin on her hands falls away. She screams again at the sight of her oozing flesh, howling into the night.
Even through all the madness going on before you, something catches your attention. Around Yori's skull is a patch of dirty air, darker than the rest of the night. It's almost like smoke. The light of Yori's soul pushes against it, but the dirty air pushes it back down into the body, which only makes Yori scream louder.
You're dumbstruck for a moment, at a loss for what this could be. But then you remember something one of the Kuni told you once about the Shadowlands, about the Kansen. They are dark kami who were corrupted by Jigoku's influence, and cause misfortune wherever they go. And those who lack spiritual sight see them only as patches of dirty air, if they even perceive them at all.
Could that be what is holding Yori's soul within her own corpse?
[] Write in.
[x]Apologize.
[x] Tell her the truth.
Courtier Roll: 2k2=7
Investigation Roll: 4k2=16
Lore Shadowlands Roll: 3k2=17
You shift uncomfortably. You've never had to deal with something like this, and you can't help but feel awkward. You know you should say something to her, help her pass on. The Celestial Order has to be maintained, because if it isn't then problems happen. And you're almost certain this woman is a ghost, even if her body looks awfully solid.
The only issue is, you're not one for words. That's supposed to be the Yasuki Family's job, and even if you were more eloquent in your speech it's not like you're a Monk or and Exorcist. They'd be best suited for helping this poor woman. But they aren't here, and you are. So you've got to do something.
You clear your throat, and Yori stops muttering to back at you.
"I'm sorry, Yori," you say as gently as you can. "But you're dead. You must have died when you came-"
"What?" Yori asks, interrupting you. "What are you saying?"
You wince a little at the loss of your momentum, but grit your teeth and soldier on. "You're not alive any more, Yori. You've two wounds on your legs. You must have bled out in the water."
Yori's expression turns stricken, and she looks behind herself at the back of her feet. Her shoulders tense, and she looks back at you. Her eyes are wide, almost impossible so, and there's a light growing behind them.
"No," she whispers, but her voice is rising in volume. "No, that can't be true! It can't be. I'm alive!" She claws at her face, scouring lines in her skin. But no blood flows from the wounds. "I'M ALIVE!"
She falls to her knees, screaming toward the sky. Her voice reverberates strangely, and her flesh begins to melt off her body. It puddles in a steaming mass around her, dripping like sludge. That makes your eyes shoot up in alarm. She has physical substance? How is that possible? Ghosts shouldn't be able to do that, right?
You can see blue, ethereal light coming from her empty eye sockets, the illumination of Yori's soul. She screams louder, and you can see the light pour out from her jaws. Her spirit must still be inhabiting her body! But zombies aren't coherent. They're just shambling monsters that attack everything around them. How, then, can she have spoken to you?
"I'M ALIIIIIIIIIIVE!" Yori cries, clutching her face with skeletal fingers as the skin on her hands falls away. She screams again at the sight of her oozing flesh, howling into the night.
Even through all the madness going on before you, something catches your attention. Around Yori's skull is a patch of dirty air, darker than the rest of the night. It's almost like smoke. The light of Yori's soul pushes against it, but the dirty air pushes it back down into the body, which only makes Yori scream louder.
You're dumbstruck for a moment, at a loss for what this could be. But then you remember something one of the Kuni told you once about the Shadowlands, about the Kansen. They are dark kami who were corrupted by Jigoku's influence, and cause misfortune wherever they go. And those who lack spiritual sight see them only as patches of dirty air, if they even perceive them at all.
Could that be what is holding Yori's soul within her own corpse?
[] Write in.
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Sirrocco
Pedantic
- Pronouns
- He/Him
okay. So. tools at hand...
- We have a single finger of jade. Pretty sure that dipping it into the "dirty air" would make things pretty unpleasant for the Kansen. On the other hand, we kind of need that jade in order to survive the next three days untainted. How much of its purifying power is likely to be expended if we use it in this way?
- Getting rid of the Kansen is good, and will solve the problem handily. Just pissing it off, though, would be a bad idea. Being dogged by misfortune while making our way through the Shadowlands is quite possibly a death sentence.
- We have a testubo. I don't know that it's the *right* tool, but it certainly is *a* tool. If nothing else, destroying Yori's skull might be enough to prevent the Kansen from forcing her back into her body. Of course, that might well result in said Kansen being still here, and likely turning its attentions on us - again, not the happiest idea in the world.
QM, could you please include current inventory in the character summary?
- We have a single finger of jade. Pretty sure that dipping it into the "dirty air" would make things pretty unpleasant for the Kansen. On the other hand, we kind of need that jade in order to survive the next three days untainted. How much of its purifying power is likely to be expended if we use it in this way?
- Getting rid of the Kansen is good, and will solve the problem handily. Just pissing it off, though, would be a bad idea. Being dogged by misfortune while making our way through the Shadowlands is quite possibly a death sentence.
- We have a testubo. I don't know that it's the *right* tool, but it certainly is *a* tool. If nothing else, destroying Yori's skull might be enough to prevent the Kansen from forcing her back into her body. Of course, that might well result in said Kansen being still here, and likely turning its attentions on us - again, not the happiest idea in the world.
QM, could you please include current inventory in the character summary?
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EtchedSteel
*mumble mumble*
- Location
- Lima. Peru
Not sure how much is this for an idea, but here it goes:
At this moment, best thing is running away. There's no shame in not being able to do any for a tormented soul without provoking said tormenter to aggro at us. Also, Kansen might attract more shadowlands creatures than we can handle (althought that is why we are here in first place).
At this moment, best thing is running away. There's no shame in not being able to do any for a tormented soul without provoking said tormenter to aggro at us. Also, Kansen might attract more shadowlands creatures than we can handle (althought that is why we are here in first place).
The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
Break off a small portion of our finger of jade, crush that portion in our fist, then toss the resulting powder into the kansen.
I'd rather resolve this on our terms if we can.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
- Pronouns
- He/Him
We are a Crab, trained in the Hida Bushi school, confronted by a being of the shadowlands who is currently tormenting a loyal (if dead) citizen of the Empire and you think we should *flee*? No. All of my no. It would be better to die here, pursuing our Duty, than to be so dishonorable.
This is a non-terrible plan. I'm not sure if it's the right plan, or even a good plan, but it is non-terrible, and that's a start.
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EtchedSteel
*mumble mumble*
- Location
- Lima. Peru
Ok, ok. So fleeing is not an option, got it.
So, crushing a piece of jade would be the best option for now. Setting the soul free and making the kansen to aggro at us still don't make an option for me.
Winged Knight
Still just a crazy man with a wolf on his head
- Location
- Texas
So, any definite votes on a plan of action?
Sirrocco
Pedantic
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Inquiry: the Kansen is a variety of Kami. We don't know all that much about them, but do we have any reason to believe that it might be either destroyed or driven away by flinging jade dust at it, rather than, say, pained and driven back for a short time?
...but because you want a vote...
[x] Advance upon the kansen, brandishing your jade finger at it.
[x] Call out (not too loud) "Yori! There is an evil spirit doing this to you! Fight back!"
[x] Keep your testubo in your other hand. If it doesn't work, crush her skull. Possibly destroying it will free her from it.
...but because you want a vote...
[x] Advance upon the kansen, brandishing your jade finger at it.
[x] Call out (not too loud) "Yori! There is an evil spirit doing this to you! Fight back!"
[x] Keep your testubo in your other hand. If it doesn't work, crush her skull. Possibly destroying it will free her from it.
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Winged Knight
Still just a crazy man with a wolf on his head
- Location
- Texas
The only force that has ever definitively destroyed any of the kami is the power of the Nothing, and you don't want to get involved with that. It's arguably worse than the Taint. Kansen are corrupted by Jigoku, though, and Jade is a pure substance that repels the essence of the Realm of Evil. Also, Jade in general is effective against beings from other realms. It's just especially so against those who come from or are influenced by Jigoku.
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