In Thunder's Echo (Legend of the Five Rings Quest)
- Location
- London, England
You've heard rumours of it, but you never actually had hard proof or really believed it. The prohibition on the peasantry carrying weapons extends right the way back to the Second Emperor, and no one willingly violates it.
Technically, the rule is that no peasant may carry or use a weapon without the express permission of a samurai. This is how Ashigaru (conscripted peasant soldiers) and budoka (a magistrate's assistants) get away with it.
You've never served with the Crab, so no, not really.
- Location
- Connecticut
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Eh, going by gut instinct I'm going to guess that most of the people in this bar aren't exactly best friends with the Matsu. Throwing in an audible dig at them seems like a good way to show that we're on the peasants' side (whether or not that is actually true).
- Location
- Earth
I've been trying to work out a different answer, one that would not get us in yet another duel if it got back to the Matsu. Problem is, I can not find words and form I am satisfied with. Some thing that references the Crab rumors we have heard and their Duty on the Wall. But I am just not happy with it. Hopefully the answer we got is a good one. Oh, and the heimin do not poison us. There is allways that.
@Maugan Ra : The know anothers samurai Honor test is an Bushido(Honor) Lore roll, with TN 30, right?
@Maugan Ra : The know anothers samurai Honor test is an Bushido(Honor) Lore roll, with TN 30, right?
- Location
- London, England
Indeed.
Lore:Bushido/Awareness 5k4 = 37
Kaiu Hiraki has an Honour score of 5.1 - this falls into the 'What is expected' level. He's the kind of samurai who tries to stick by the rules of Bushido where and when he can, but he's also prone to failing some of the tenets at different times. For a Crab, this is almost always going to be connected to the Shadowlands.
EtchedSteel
*mumble mumble*
- Location
- Lima. Peru
[X] No, Kaiu-san. Simply enjoying the change of pace from tedious Matsu 'cuisine'.
5.12 - A poor choice of words
- Location
- London, England
You consider saying something, but... no, there seems little to gain from it. For whatever reason the peasants here seem more positively inclined towards the Crab than the local samurai, if you are judging the gesture the initial servant made correctly, and there seems little that telling Kaiu Hiraki your suspicions will actually accomplish.
"No, Kaiu-san." You say politely, taking a seat at the same table. "Merely enjoying the change of pace from tedious Matsu 'cuisine'."
Hiraki's gaze narrows slightly at that, and you suspect you might have made something of a misstep. It would not be hard to interpret your words as insulting your hosts, and if he doesn't feel poorly disposed towards them...
"Tedious, Scorpion-san?" Hiraki says with a slight edge to his tone. "A strange choice of words. What precisely is 'tedious' about it."
Etiquette 7k4 = 16
"Perhaps I misspoke." You say, somewhat hastily. "I am merely used to the inclusion of more herbs and spices in my food, as is the Scorpion style. The Matsu seem to favour plainer dishes, with little variety. It is... a change."
If anything, that seems to annoy the Crab even more. "Scorpion-san, the Matsu favour plain and nutritious food because they are a Clan of warriors." He says with a slight edge to his words. "Some of us have too many duties required of us to dedicate resources to needless extravagance in diet."
The rest of the conversation and associated food passes with similar levels of discomfort. You have apparently offended Kaiu Hiraki in some way, and while he is too polite to make any great scene of it, he is not inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt in any further topics. The meeting ends with neither of you gaining anything of note - particularly not the intended meeting with Yasuki Mia.
You sigh and make your way back to the castle. At least the food was nice, though you don't think you could eat it on a regular basis.
-/-
18th Day of the Boar
Late afternoon
Towards the end of the court session, you once again find yourself walking the halls of Shiro Matsu in the company of Ikoma Genji. The karo is in reasonably good spirits, it seems, and after a few subtle comments and exchanges he deigns to tell you why.
"Someone attempted to provoke the Lion into war, Soshi-san." He says mildly. "Ketsui-dono is a fierce warrior and fears no enemy, but she finds the thought of being made a tool in another's schemes loathsome. I suspect we may actually see peace in the coming year purely as a defiant answer to whoever sought to make a puppet of so many loyal samurai."
"I am glad to hear it, Ikoma-sama." You respond, as though you have no idea about the specifics of such an event. "One should always be sincere in word and deed, and such is difficult to say the least if we are tricked into acting on false pretenses."
-/-
The current plan calls for spending the morning of the 19th preparing for a meeting with Yasuki Mia, and the afternoon of the 20th in attending that meeting. Unfortunately you have offended Kaiu Hiraki, and thus that meeting is not currently going to occur. Thus, you have two 'slots' free in your timetable.
What do you do tomorrow morning?
[ ] Write in
What do you do on the 20th in the afternoon?
[ ] Write in
"No, Kaiu-san." You say politely, taking a seat at the same table. "Merely enjoying the change of pace from tedious Matsu 'cuisine'."
Hiraki's gaze narrows slightly at that, and you suspect you might have made something of a misstep. It would not be hard to interpret your words as insulting your hosts, and if he doesn't feel poorly disposed towards them...
"Tedious, Scorpion-san?" Hiraki says with a slight edge to his tone. "A strange choice of words. What precisely is 'tedious' about it."
Etiquette 7k4 = 16
"Perhaps I misspoke." You say, somewhat hastily. "I am merely used to the inclusion of more herbs and spices in my food, as is the Scorpion style. The Matsu seem to favour plainer dishes, with little variety. It is... a change."
If anything, that seems to annoy the Crab even more. "Scorpion-san, the Matsu favour plain and nutritious food because they are a Clan of warriors." He says with a slight edge to his words. "Some of us have too many duties required of us to dedicate resources to needless extravagance in diet."
The rest of the conversation and associated food passes with similar levels of discomfort. You have apparently offended Kaiu Hiraki in some way, and while he is too polite to make any great scene of it, he is not inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt in any further topics. The meeting ends with neither of you gaining anything of note - particularly not the intended meeting with Yasuki Mia.
You sigh and make your way back to the castle. At least the food was nice, though you don't think you could eat it on a regular basis.
-/-
18th Day of the Boar
Late afternoon
Towards the end of the court session, you once again find yourself walking the halls of Shiro Matsu in the company of Ikoma Genji. The karo is in reasonably good spirits, it seems, and after a few subtle comments and exchanges he deigns to tell you why.
"Someone attempted to provoke the Lion into war, Soshi-san." He says mildly. "Ketsui-dono is a fierce warrior and fears no enemy, but she finds the thought of being made a tool in another's schemes loathsome. I suspect we may actually see peace in the coming year purely as a defiant answer to whoever sought to make a puppet of so many loyal samurai."
"I am glad to hear it, Ikoma-sama." You respond, as though you have no idea about the specifics of such an event. "One should always be sincere in word and deed, and such is difficult to say the least if we are tricked into acting on false pretenses."
-/-
The current plan calls for spending the morning of the 19th preparing for a meeting with Yasuki Mia, and the afternoon of the 20th in attending that meeting. Unfortunately you have offended Kaiu Hiraki, and thus that meeting is not currently going to occur. Thus, you have two 'slots' free in your timetable.
What do you do tomorrow morning?
[ ] Write in
What do you do on the 20th in the afternoon?
[ ] Write in
- Location
- Connecticut
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Whoops! Sorry, guys. I was thinking too much about the peasants, and not enough about Kaiu's reaction. Lessons learned.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
So, we fucked up moderate time. Huh.
Winged Knight
Still just a crazy man with a wolf on his head
- Location
- Texas
Basically, Naoto made an impression of the kind of person the Crab have had to deal with for centuries. That impression is of a young man who cares about frivolous things like the flavor of food, or the latest fashion, when the Crab don't grow enough food on their own lands to feed their armies. They are a Clan that is dedicated to one thing and one thing only, eternal war with the Shadowlands. As such, they can emphasize with the plain and nutritious fair of the Matsu even if they prefer to fry things.
Kaiu Hiraki likely feels kinship with the Matsu because they're both part of Clans that focus so much on warfare. We then made a jibe toward the Matsu and their cuisine. Cuisine that any Crab would be happy to have, because they have to import food in order to feed themselves. Their lands are blighted from purging them of the Taint, and everything within one hundred miles of the Wall is basically ruined wasteland. So Hiraki took this as just a few steps away from insulting the Crab, as well as a frivolous comment that reveals us as shallow in his eyes.
In other words, we came off as an insincere fop and Hiraki didn't appreciate it after we'd given the impression we shared interests with him. It's pretty much broken the illusion of forging a friendship and made things look like what they actually are, making a string of contacts. Hiraki obviously didn't care for this because it looks like we were trying to trick him. It feels too much like what the Crane do, and if there's one thing that comes even close to the Crab's hatred of the Shadowlands it's their dislike for the Crane and their ways.
So he's not all that happy with Naoto right now.
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- Location
- London, England
Pretty much this, yes. Plus the general bad form of making negative comments about your host - there are a lot of complicated rules about what a guest is and is not supposed to do in Rokugan, and this was something of a violation of them.
And, of course, he's inclined to see you in a certain light anyway because you're a Scorpion. Who are like the Crane, only even more treacherous and manipulative.
- Location
- Connecticut
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Possibly we won't. But we can try to make up for it by approaching one of the other members of the delegation. Maybe that Hida we dueled?
- Location
- Connecticut
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I agree, we should wait and see what other opportunities present themselves. Who knows? As honorable as we have been acting it's possible that he will change his mind.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Honestly though, let's just write him off and deal with the consequences for now. Attempting to push through and do something more like this will only lead to ruin.
At least in the short term.
So, what has losing him lost us?
[X] stay at the library and try to catch up on your reading.
[X] play go with Chen.
I don't think there is a 'go crawl in a hole and make absolutely no noise' option, so this will suffice. We need to have a day or two of not fucking up before we even begin to think of how to salvage the fact that we might have done a lot of harm by a single tiny comment.
At least in the short term.
So, what has losing him lost us?
[X] stay at the library and try to catch up on your reading.
[X] play go with Chen.
I don't think there is a 'go crawl in a hole and make absolutely no noise' option, so this will suffice. We need to have a day or two of not fucking up before we even begin to think of how to salvage the fact that we might have done a lot of harm by a single tiny comment.
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- Location
- Connecticut
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah, it's pretty bad.
On the other hand the winter is yet young, and as nice as being friends with Kaiu would be he is only one of several possible routes to the person we really care about, the Yasuki in charge of the delegation.
Also, the Crab are less critical to our success than the Lion, and it's possible that one of the other members of our delegation will be able to succeed where we failed. Definitely a bad mistake, definitely my mistake, but luckily we made it on someone less critical in the grand scheme of things than, say, one of the Matsu.
Winged Knight
Still just a crazy man with a wolf on his head
- Location
- Texas
I don't think it would be a terrible idea to write out a letter apologizing for the whole incident in a day or two. You know, after Kaiu Hiraki has a little time to cool off a bit. Frankly, it's likely also just good etiquette. This was a pretty big faux pas, but not an irrecoverable one. If we show some sincerity in the future, and continue to be relatively upstanding, the bridge can probably be mended.
But that's for a few days down the road.
But that's for a few days down the road.
- Location
- Earth
Well, that's spilled milk. I'll remember to be a bit less hesitant next time. Oh well.
On the plus side, Genji does not seem to want anything more out of us at this time. Oh, and we stopped a war. So that is nice.
19th:
[X] Visit a temple and meditate on your mistakes.
20th
[X] Invite Daidoji Chen to a game of Go.
We have caligraphy practise slotted for the 21th in the afternoon, so we can probably write that letter of apology to Kaiu then as well. Not sure we should be meeting Chen. Not sure what to do about him period. But he is our responsobility, so ok. Question is, what do we even say to him.
@Maugan Ra : Would it be proper to offer our condolences for his loss?
On the plus side, Genji does not seem to want anything more out of us at this time. Oh, and we stopped a war. So that is nice.
19th:
[X] Visit a temple and meditate on your mistakes.
20th
[X] Invite Daidoji Chen to a game of Go.
We have caligraphy practise slotted for the 21th in the afternoon, so we can probably write that letter of apology to Kaiu then as well. Not sure we should be meeting Chen. Not sure what to do about him period. But he is our responsobility, so ok. Question is, what do we even say to him.
@Maugan Ra : Would it be proper to offer our condolences for his loss?
EtchedSteel
*mumble mumble*
- Location
- Lima. Peru
[x] Primemountain
Ouch, that didn't end well. Could be worse, though. We didn't outright insult the Crab by association in a way that guarantied swift response. Still something amendable.
Ouch, that didn't end well. Could be worse, though. We didn't outright insult the Crab by association in a way that guarantied swift response. Still something amendable.