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Glory of the Emerald Empire (Legend of the 5 Rings Quest)

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    Once again, you have been addressed. As much as you feel you may be in over your head in this setting, you can't let an acknowledgement from your superior be met with silence. But, at the same time, being too verbose allows more opportunity for someone to use your words against you.

    Someone like the Doji, for instance. You glance at her, wary of attracting her attention. She is hiding the lower half of her face behind her fan, but even without seeing her expression you feel she is uneasy. But even off balance, she still manages to hold some influence over the flow of conversation.

    "Yes, I was," you say, taking care to phrase your words carefully. "It was horrifying that a single Lost could spread his taint so quickly to so many, yet their unnatural prowess could not stand before the discipline of Scorpion Bushi."

    "So he was dispatched quickly, then?" the Doji asks, dropping her fan to reveal the barest quirk of her lips. "As troubling as this… creature's presence was, it is good that he dealt with quickly and efficiently."

    "The Lost One himself had terrible strength," you respond. "Enough to fling me clear across the room with a single hit, but he faced those who knew their duty. I am simply glad he was located before he could carry out his orders further."

    "Though I must admit," the Bayushi says. "I can't help but be concerned that this monster was found so deep within the Empire, and that he had spread his corruption amongst the peasantry."

    "I mean no offense, Bayushi-san, but you don't need to be so circuitous," the Ikoma cuts in. She leans on the table with an elbow, her other hand holding a cup of sake. "You're concerned if there was one, there may be more of this filth hiding about."

    "I suppose there may very well be," the Bayushi replies. "After all, this one managed to remain hidden for some time, which means he might not have been the only one secreted away." He shrugs. "It's certainly a concern worth considering."

    The Ikoma rolls her eyes at the man's phrasing, but she doesn't say anything against him. Instead, she takes a sip of her drink and frowns, deep in thought. The woman is blunt, and wears her emotions openly as all the Ikoma Family do. It's a little discomforting to see Samurai express themselves so, but it is their way and has always been.

    She's obviously mulling over the Scorpion's words despite having been so candid about getting straight to the point. But aside from her concern, you see little else of her thoughts in her expression. That surprises you, considering how open the Ikoma are. Perhaps their lack of a public face is not so much of a weakness, but a clever way of distracting those who would try and read them? It's certainly an intriguing method.

    "It has been some time since my ventures past the Kaiu Wall," Asako Akio says, snapping you away from your thoughts. His voice is soft, and he seems to be looking on toward something only he can see. "Duty drove me then, and I have not been eager to return to those lands after the War of Shadowed Clouds." He takes a deep breath, and then exhales. "But it has been two decades since, which is plenty of time for new enemies to arise."

    Silence once more reigns in the wake of Asako Akio's words, and for several minutes no one does anything but partake of the meal. You finish your own plate swiftly now that you're not engaged in providing entertainment or conversation, and finish another with similar speed. You hadn't the chance to eat breakfast, after all. You need to make sure to keep your strength up.

    Everyone recovers soon enough after such heavy topics of discussion, however, and the delegations begin to talk amongst themselves as they eat. A quick look toward Yasuki Goro reveals he is smiling as he eats, obviously pleased with how this meeting of court has fared. You can understand why. Aside from some uncomfortable moments, your group has made quite the impression upon the assembled parties. With this, hopefully the groundwork has been laid for even more favorable days to come.

    Movement catches your eye, and you see the three Togashi rising from their seats to approach Kitsuki Ryojiro. They speak quietly for a time, and you are unable to hear what they're saying. Not that you would eavesdrop anyway, for that would be rude. But whatever their conversation, it ends when the Dragon Daimyo rises from his seat to address the room.

    "I wish to again thank you all for your presence within my lands," he says. "And hope you will enjoy the accommodations of my people. It is my hope that I may speak with each of you in turn these next few days in order to better express the hospitality of the Dragon Clan and of the Kitsuki Family."

    He bows to the room, and then exits with the Togashi in tow. Several members of the Mirumoto follow suit, though many remain to stand guard over the room and its occupants. Hanabi, you notice, is amongst those staying. She smiles at you before standing straight in a proper guard position, hand resting near her katana and ready to draw at a moment's notice.

    Perhaps it would be best to simply leave her to that, for now. It would be impolite to distract her while she is on duty, after all. Your presence seems to do enough of that already, though you still don't fully understand why.

    "Seems we're being left to our own devices for the time being," Yasuki Goro says, pitching his voice low. "I doubt we'll be called into conference too quickly, so you're free to do what you wish for now." He smiles at you. "You did a fine job, Sosuke-san. A fine job indeed! You've more than earned yourself some time to relax if you desire."

    [] Interact with one of the other delegations. (Choose one.)
    [] Do something else. (Write in.)
     
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    • I have an idea, but I'm not sure about it.

    We could talk to the Crane, asking her about storytellers amongst them. It may disarm to some degree.

    The other idea I have is to ask Asako Akio for more details about his experience with the Shadowlands. We ask as he is clearly far beyond us, we could learn a great deal from his wisdom.

    Any opinions?
     
    Eliar said:
    Hmm converse with the Ikoma and tell her about the story shared by the Ogre? Ask if she knows of anything simular?
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    For all that the Lions aren't Crane and are actually kind of bros they're still one of the traditional, mainstream Clans and thus don't know crap about the Shadowlands beyond what they would care to record from what we Crab cared to tell them.
     
    Eliar said:
    Hmm converse with the Ikoma and tell her about the story shared by the Ogre? Ask if she knows of anything simular?
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    Has potential but I feel that now it's not the time. Just acknowledging that we didn't fought the Ogre, let alone listened to his story and thought it might be worth retelling, is something very iffy. We don't quite yet stand so high and honorable (like the honorable Asako Akio) that we could just trample through the issues of propriety, we are not quite that good at telling stories that that would overcome anything, nor the Lion is quite that friendly with us that we could put it aside for the issue. Telling Asako Akio-sama the story might be okay, and, if we are willing to take ridiculously major risks, so it might be telling the Scorpion, who, while not actually our friends, wouldn't screw us over with it so long it's better for their interests to keep us unscrewed. But even so, I'd say we shouldn't share it for now, it's the kind of story that has major implications and is so shocking it would make our previous story look downright harmless and family friendly.

    In all, now is not the time or place to strike with that story. It's to be told either for those who would have practical use of the information (the Kuni family and maybe other major active players against the Shadow Lands), or in when our Honor is so beyond doubt we can get away with all but advocating for an Ogre, even if said Ogre rebelled against the Shadowlands.

    For the present time, I'd consider try to approach members of the Dragon clan itself, since it could both give us an insight on how to best get the jade, plus the appearance of having an in with the Dragon can be useful all in itself.
     
    Eliar said:
    Hmm converse with the Ikoma and tell her about the story shared by the Ogre? Ask if she knows of anything simular?
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    That... honestly, I feel like the Ogre story is the sort of thing we should recount as faithfully as we possibly can to the appropriate Kuni, and then never speak of again. It is a dark lore, from a savage and inhuman people. That sort of thing is what the Kuni are for, and they're the ones that have the tools to pull actionable intelligence out and not be overly warped by it.

    Simonbob said:
    I have an idea, but I'm not sure about it.

    We could talk to the Crane, asking her about storytellers amongst them. It may disarm to some degree.

    The other idea I have is to ask Asako Akio for more details about his experience with the Shadowlands. We ask as he is clearly far beyond us, we could learn a great deal from his wisdom.

    Any opinions?
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    For the first... the Crane has her duty, as do we. It is not possible to convince her to not do her best, because winning here is pretty much her job, and the Crane virtue is Excellence. It might be interesting in some ways, but it would also be odd, and seen as odd, as we've been obviously *at* odds this entire time.

    Approaching Asako Akio would be... bold. I suspect we could spin it in some appropriate way, though - be all sorts of respectful, and ask if he has any advice or insight for one who seeks to follow in his footsteps of slaughtering the enemies of Rokugan in enormous numbers. The problem with that is that he's a shugenja, and we don't even travel *with* a shugenja, so the sorts of things that he remembers are unlikely to actually be all that useful. He also mentioned that he has not been eager to return - he was compelled by Duty then, and he may feel compelled by Duty again, but it's not the happiest of topics with him. I'm not saying that there isn't some way we could usefully approach the man, but I personally don't see it.

    I would be more interested in speaking with the Ikoma. She's expressed interest in us as a storyteller, and she obviously knows a fair bit about storytelling. It would be pretty easy to go over and ask her for her critique, discuss storytelling as a process and oru experiences with it and so forth. The only real danger I'd see there is that Himawari is likely to still be with her, and Hanabi is *watching*. Now, at some point we're going to want to start desensitizing Hanabi to the idea that we do occasionally have conversations with people of similar age and opposite gender, but now might be a bit too soon.

    By now, our relationship with the Scorpion has been revealed, along with its source. We could totally talk with them... but I'm not sure what we'd say, other than appropriate gratitude and politenesses. Still, appropriate politenesses are no bad thing, especially in Rokugan, and perhaps the scorpion would have something they might wish to speak to us about.

    Really, though, I think we're tired. Sousuke is no courtier, and he has had a pretty intense time of it in this short span. As Yasuki Goro said, he can afford to take some time off. Possibly excuse ourselves (once the timing is appropriate) and see if we can find Shirou for some training? Serious physical exercise might help us find our center again (and would give Hanabi the opportunity to sneak up and watch us being all Manly And Sweaty, which would be a decent segue into talking with her again in less dangerous surroundings).
     
    Sirrocco said:
    Really, though, I think we're tired. Sousuke is no courtier, and he has had a pretty intense time of it in this short span. As Yasuki Goro said, he can afford to take some time off. Possibly excuse ourselves (once the timing is appropriate) and see if we can find Shirou for some training? Serious physical exercise might help us find our center again (and would give Hanabi the opportunity to sneak up and watch us being all Manly And Sweaty, which would be a decent segue into talking with her again in less dangerous surroundings).
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    Agreed, now that I think about it.

    [X] Do something else. Go train.
     
    [X] Do something else. Go train.

    if someone wants something they can talk to us I guess.

    Another question. please do remember that I am a complete n00b lore wise.

    How about talking with the Fire guy about what happened with the demon?
     
    We don't want to accidentally insult our hosts saying the needed us to kill a demon. And Crane-chan will try for it if it comes up.
     
    My thought at this point is that we do Courtier work if and when Yasuki Goro tells us to. Yasuki Goro has just told us we can take a break. That means we should take a break from Courtier work. Any passing of information or suggestions or wheeling and dealign or whatever left to be done, he is *far* more qualified at than we are. He just used us *hard*, and to great effect, and now he's decided that it's time to put away the testubo for a while and go back to the more civilized forms. I'm okay with that.

    That doesn't mean that we stop doing useful stuff - just that we stop interacting with the Court. We can still be useful killing tainted things, preparing to kill more tainted things later, social frobbing among fellow non-courtiers of our own status tier (and below), and picking up useful and potentially exploitable information for the boss.

    Right now, top strategic priority is probably getting the Hanabi situation under control. Looking into Himawari might also be cool, but we don't want to do that until after we have our yandere calmed down a bit more. Shinjo Wanli is another concern, but essentially everything that touches her is going to be better handled by the boss until and unless it comes time for us to go kill things and/or Shinjo Wanli is invited in and shows up, so that's blocked.

    [x] Thank the boss for the complement and the permission.
    [x] See if you can track down Shirou for some training - or if he's doing something else interesting, maybe join in on that instead.

    Who knows? Maybe he'll be deep in conversation with the Togashi by the time we get there. Listening in on a conversation like that sounds like it might be enlightening.
     
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    [x] Thank the boss for the complement and the permission.
    [x] See if you can track down Shirou for some training - or if he's doing something else interesting, maybe join in on that instead.
     
    [x] Thank the boss for the complement and the permission.
    [x] See if you can track down Shirou for some training - or if he's doing something else interesting, maybe join in on that instead.

    Better said than my version.
     
    [x] Thank the boss for the complement and the permission.
    [x] See if you can track down Shirou for some training - or if he's doing something else interesting, maybe join in on that instead.
     
    [x] Thank the boss for the complement and the permission.
    [x] See if you can track down Shirou for some training - or if he's doing something else interesting, maybe join in on that instead.
     
    [x] Thank the boss for the complement and the permission.
    [x] See if you can track down Shirou for some training - or if he's doing something else interesting, maybe join in on that instead.
     
    [x] Thank the boss for the complement and the permission.
    [x] See if you can track down Shirou for some training - or if he's doing something else interesting, maybe join in on that instead.
     
    [x] Thank the boss for the complement and the permission.
    [x] See if you can track down Shirou for some training - or if he's doing something else interesting, maybe join in on that instead.
     
    [x] Thank the boss for the complement and the permission.
    [x] See if you can track down Shirou for some training - or if he's doing something else interesting, maybe join in on that instead.
     
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