Bonus - Sirrocco analyses the Otomo
Sirrocco
Pedantic
Mind you, I'm not going to feel totally comfortable with it until we've managed to up his social skills a bit - sincerity, Courtier, Etiquette, and Investigation would all be much better as 3s. Fortunately, "Winter Court" means that we should be able to use our relatively strong social and informational abilities to cover for our relatively weak martial skills until we can afford to bump things like Reflexes, Kenjutsu and Iajutsu.
- He's balding and slightly plump, as a samurai. He's almost certainly a courtier rather than a bushi, and probably has some years on him. Given the importance of individual Otomo vs the importance of the Matsu as a winter court, he's likely the head of his "delegation", and may be the only samurai-caste Imperial here.
--- Side note: if he is, that makes an offer of assistance that much more valuable, as he doesn't have other samurai under his direct control to run around for him.
- He is courteous by default. He refers to us as "samurai-sama" even when it's pretty clear that he outranks us (he's one of the imperial family. If we outranked him, he's likely know who we were already - that or he has even less in the way of information resources than I'd thought).
- In spite of this, he shows momentary displeasure when we join him. He'd been hoping for and/or enjoying the solitude of his baths. By extension, he's probably sick of dealing with people (Matsu?) right now.
- As an Otomo, in general he probably doesn't get along too well with the Matsu. There's nto quite the same level of difference as between them and us, and they certainly wouldn't show him the same level of hostility - but they're not exactly kindred souls. It's also pretty likely that he's personally accustomed to more luxury than the Matsu have anywhere.
- He's with the Ministry of Service. They're all about tracking the civilian resources of the Empire - including the Heimin. This may well be another source of mild frustration with the Matsu, as they're pretty much the family that pays the *least* attention to their civilian populace (and also to paperwork), and getting accurate and pertinent information out of them on how many people of what kind they have may be like pulling teeth.
- The recent disruption meant a lot of death and suffering for a lot of people, but much of that is past. For him, though, (as we noted) it means a huge amount of extra work (and associated annoyance) right now. Again, for a variety of reasons the Matsu were likely not this guy's first choice on where to spend Winter Court. Probably best to keep him away from Yogo-san. He may well be looking for a safe target to vent petty annoyances on, and in this time and place, the nephew of Yogo Junzo is about as safe (and appropriate) a target as it gets.
- He is likely pretty self-important. His ministry actually is pretty significant as far as making sure that the Empire keeps functioning. At the same time, it's exactly the sort of thing that the vast majority of the Empire doesn't know about, and doesn't care about. He's likely sick and bloody tired of talking with people who don't care enough about the systems that keep the empire running to have any idea of what he does. That's our opening. Having someone to talk to who is interested and cares is likely a measure of blessed relief. We might even want to play it up a little. Not too much, though - 4k3 sincerity isn't terrible, but it doesn't stretch but so far. We probably want to keep it at low enough that even if he spots what we're doing he'll take it as politeness and consideration rather than mockery or outright manipulation.
That's what I read off of the update. Now, checking our Handy Internet Resource (likely largely accurate, but not certain to be so)
- Otomo Family (We're certain of this one):
- Otomo Courtier School (We're nearly certain of this one)
Tier 2: Spend void point and roll to hit your contacts and garner a single piece of critically useful information (you don't get to decide what it is, but it will be useful)
Tier 3: Is almost certainly the Otomo Bureaucrat alternative path. Spend some time, potentially up to a few hours and make a contested roll. against someone who is trying to get something done in the courts. If successful, they are delayed for the next two weeks by red tape. Given his age and station, he is probably at at least this level. Tier 4 and 5 are less sure.
Tier 4: Spend a void point and make a contested roll when in an argument. If you succeed, they must either immediately acknowledge the superiority of your position or lose half a rank of honor.
Tier 5: Gets much better at contested rolls.
So... hadn't realized this before. Basically, this guy is a *terrible* foe to have in the courts, and is generally inclined to set various groups at each other's throats just because. Given how disliked we are, we would have been perfect targets, too (though his position in the ministry might have made him less inclined to cause the closing of Beiden Pass). Given this, I'm going to say that our top priority should probably be getting enough on his good side that when he looks around for people to take the fall he decides to hit someone other than the Scorpion delegation. That... doesn't actually change the overall strategy from before, but it does change some of the emphasis. Additionally, it's likely that at some point he's going to feel inclined to ruin *someone's* year. Perhaps multiple someones. Getting ourselves into a position where we might influence who he picks as that someone is bound to be helpful - as long as we can make sure that we don't seem like we're playing him. If he thinks he's being played, that could get real ugly, real fast. Given that, one of the better ways to influence where the hammer comes down is likely to be feeding him information to make the task easier. We don't know who, and we don't have any info like that yet, but putting ourselves in the position of being his little helpful info guy is likely to be a good start.
...or he just wanted a clear view of the door out of a sense of mild paranoia. Still, it's a useful bit of characterization, and something to run alongside of our other considerations. What do we know abotu this guy so far?
- He's balding and slightly plump, as a samurai. He's almost certainly a courtier rather than a bushi, and probably has some years on him. Given the importance of individual Otomo vs the importance of the Matsu as a winter court, he's likely the head of his "delegation", and may be the only samurai-caste Imperial here.
--- Side note: if he is, that makes an offer of assistance that much more valuable, as he doesn't have other samurai under his direct control to run around for him.
- He is courteous by default. He refers to us as "samurai-sama" even when it's pretty clear that he outranks us (he's one of the imperial family. If we outranked him, he's likely know who we were already - that or he has even less in the way of information resources than I'd thought).
- In spite of this, he shows momentary displeasure when we join him. He'd been hoping for and/or enjoying the solitude of his baths. By extension, he's probably sick of dealing with people (Matsu?) right now.
- As an Otomo, in general he probably doesn't get along too well with the Matsu. There's nto quite the same level of difference as between them and us, and they certainly wouldn't show him the same level of hostility - but they're not exactly kindred souls. It's also pretty likely that he's personally accustomed to more luxury than the Matsu have anywhere.
- He's with the Ministry of Service. They're all about tracking the civilian resources of the Empire - including the Heimin. This may well be another source of mild frustration with the Matsu, as they're pretty much the family that pays the *least* attention to their civilian populace (and also to paperwork), and getting accurate and pertinent information out of them on how many people of what kind they have may be like pulling teeth.
- The recent disruption meant a lot of death and suffering for a lot of people, but much of that is past. For him, though, (as we noted) it means a huge amount of extra work (and associated annoyance) right now. Again, for a variety of reasons the Matsu were likely not this guy's first choice on where to spend Winter Court. Probably best to keep him away from Yogo-san. He may well be looking for a safe target to vent petty annoyances on, and in this time and place, the nephew of Yogo Junzo is about as safe (and appropriate) a target as it gets.
- He is likely pretty self-important. His ministry actually is pretty significant as far as making sure that the Empire keeps functioning. At the same time, it's exactly the sort of thing that the vast majority of the Empire doesn't know about, and doesn't care about. He's likely sick and bloody tired of talking with people who don't care enough about the systems that keep the empire running to have any idea of what he does. That's our opening. Having someone to talk to who is interested and cares is likely a measure of blessed relief. We might even want to play it up a little. Not too much, though - 4k3 sincerity isn't terrible, but it doesn't stretch but so far. We probably want to keep it at low enough that even if he spots what we're doing he'll take it as politeness and consideration rather than mockery or outright manipulation.
That's what I read off of the update. Now, checking our Handy Internet Resource (likely largely accurate, but not certain to be so)
- Otomo Family (We're certain of this one):
- Otomo Courtier School (We're nearly certain of this one)
Tier 1: Does not lose honor for intimidation, and with a contested roll can provoke arguments between members of the Clans (Great or Minor).
Tier 2: Spend void point and roll to hit your contacts and garner a single piece of critically useful information (you don't get to decide what it is, but it will be useful)
Tier 3: Is almost certainly the Otomo Bureaucrat alternative path. Spend some time, potentially up to a few hours and make a contested roll. against someone who is trying to get something done in the courts. If successful, they are delayed for the next two weeks by red tape. Given his age and station, he is probably at at least this level. Tier 4 and 5 are less sure.
Tier 4: Spend a void point and make a contested roll when in an argument. If you succeed, they must either immediately acknowledge the superiority of your position or lose half a rank of honor.
Tier 5: Gets much better at contested rolls.
So... hadn't realized this before. Basically, this guy is a *terrible* foe to have in the courts, and is generally inclined to set various groups at each other's throats just because. Given how disliked we are, we would have been perfect targets, too (though his position in the ministry might have made him less inclined to cause the closing of Beiden Pass). Given this, I'm going to say that our top priority should probably be getting enough on his good side that when he looks around for people to take the fall he decides to hit someone other than the Scorpion delegation. That... doesn't actually change the overall strategy from before, but it does change some of the emphasis. Additionally, it's likely that at some point he's going to feel inclined to ruin *someone's* year. Perhaps multiple someones. Getting ourselves into a position where we might influence who he picks as that someone is bound to be helpful - as long as we can make sure that we don't seem like we're playing him. If he thinks he's being played, that could get real ugly, real fast. Given that, one of the better ways to influence where the hammer comes down is likely to be feeding him information to make the task easier. We don't know who, and we don't have any info like that yet, but putting ourselves in the position of being his little helpful info guy is likely to be a good start.
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