In Thunder's Echo (Legend of the Five Rings Quest)

[Maugan Ra]

Nodding to yourself, you nudge your pony forwards towards the front of the caravan. You don't consider yourself a particularly exceptional rider - leave that for the Unicorn - but you can stay in the saddle easily enough, and the ponies you've been given are either well trained or just sufficiently indifferent to everything that they've given you no trouble so far.

Bayushi Kimoko is a tall, almost regal looking woman who rides like she was born in the saddle. Her mask is a pale white shell that covers the left side of her face almost completely - curiously, there does not appear to be any kind of gap for her left eye, hinting at some form of injury or other defect. The most notable thing as far as you are concerned, however, is the streaks of grey in her otherwise lustrous black hair. Most samurai retire from active duty when they start showing such signs of their age, either shaving their head and becoming a monk or taking up a teaching position somewhere. The Scorpion in particular tend to favour the latter option, and you have always associated elderly samurai with great wisdom and respect.

It is not an easy road your Clan walks, after all, and simply surviving to old age is a mark of great skill or luck.

The samurai-ko looks over at you as you ride up on her right side, and inclines her head to you - actually bowing while on horseback is a difficult affair.

"Soshi-san." She acknowledges. "Did you wish to speak?"

"Hai, Bayushi-sama." You reply, making sure that your tone is properly respectful. "I seek a better understanding of my intended role upon our arrival, that I might better serve the Clan."

Kimoko smiles, very faintly. "A well worded request. And a surprising one - are you not more curious about my history, and why I have been selected to command this delegation?"

You pause for a moment. "Will such knowledge be of use in carrying out my duties, Bayushi-sama?"

"It might well be, Soshi-san." Your commander replies. "For one thing, I am quite certain that I am less knowledgeable about a great many topics than you are, if your sensei are to be believed."

You flush slightly at the implied praise of your teachers, but say nothing. After a moment, Kimoko continues. "Your duties, then, will be to observe and document. Anything and everything that you can learn, either from the Matsu or anyone else they have invited to court, may well be of use. I'm sure I don't have to instruct you in methodology."

You nod silently. This is approximately what you were expecting, for the Soshi have always served as the silent and discrete gatherers of information for their lords. There are many ways of acquiring such knowledge, from simple observation to covert infiltration, though you would judge yourself more suited to the former.

"I have never met a Matsu, Bayushi-sama." You say cautiously. "Might I ask for advice in what to expect?"

"The Matsu are... direct." Kimoko says with a kind of deliberate emphasis that could mean everything or nothing. "On the battlefield, they favour headlong charges and trust to their own skill and courage to see them through. In the courts, they will issue blunt questions and speak with great passion, no matter how sensitive the topic. For example, you can almost certainly expect one of them to bring up the attempted Coup."

Your superior looks at you with a glint of curiousity in her one visible eye. "What do you think about that? I am interested in the thoughts of the younger generation on such matters."

Respond:
[ ] It was the right thing to do, no matter the cost. If we had succeeded, Rokugan need never have experienced a second Day of Thunder.
[ ] I must judge by results. The coup did not achieve it's goals and cost us greatly. It seems obvious that another way would have been the better choice.
[ ] The Champion commanded, we obeyed. What else is there?
[ ] Write in.

 

[Stormseed]

[X] Option 1

 

[Maugan Ra]

I don't particularly like any of them for Naoto but Option 2 seems to be closest to him.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I spent quite a considerable length of time searching for pictures that would be a better match, but there aren't many that seem to fit very well. I eventually just picked those three to break my own deadlock. If anyone can come up with a better picture, please feel free to make a suggestion.

Now, if you'd all voted to be a Samurai-ko, things would have been much easier. There are loads of images of female samurai in L5R's artwork.

 

[kyuden]

[X] The Champion commanded, we obeyed. What else is there?

Loyalty is considered one of the more important tenets of Bushido to the Scorpion.

 

[al103]

[ ] It was the right thing to do, no matter the cost. If we had succeeded, Rokugan need never have experienced a second Day of Thunder.

Click to shrink...

Judging by intent. A bit naive for Scorpion. Intent worth nothing in failure.

[ ] I must judge by results. The coup did not achieve it's goals and cost us greatly. It seems obvious that another way would have been the better choice.

Click to shrink...

Judging by result. A bit naive for Scorpion. Sometimes there are no better choices.

[ ] The Champion commanded, we obeyed. What else is there?

Click to shrink...

Hypocricy. And stupidity. Loyalty is must but it was case of breaking loyalty to keep loyalty. There was oh so much else in it.

...

I'll wait for write-ins.

PS.

Loyalty is considered one of the more important tenets of Bushido to the Scorpion.

Click to shrink...

Yes. And Champion ordered to break Loyalty. It was choice of loyalty to superior and loyalty to Rokugan for Champion, replace "Rokugan" with "Champion" for the rest of the clan.

 

[mothematics]

Oh Jesus this is a loaded question if ever I've seen one. It's also going to reflect on us a person so... @al103 about sums up my thoughts. Hrm.

Le'see now...

Gimmie a few to put together a write in. I'd like to tackle this.

 

[Nix's Warden]

@Maugan Ra How about this?

 

[gman391]

[x] Write in:
"It is a complex topic, we are the clan of Chugo, of Duty. So we were bound to follow our champion and trust that he knew what he was doing. That he was wrong does not change that. However he betrayed his loyalty to the Emperor for the Empire. I think, I think that he was too quick to put one loyalty over the other. To betray one loyalty for another, that is not right. The desire to save the Empire was right, but the methods seem with the benefit of hindsight a bad one."

 

[Bastur2]

[X] gman391

 

[mothematics]

[ ] It was the right thing to do, no matter the cost. If we had succeeded, Rokugan need never have experienced a second Day of Thunder.
[ ] I must judge by results. The coup did not achieve it's goals and cost us greatly. It seems obvious that another way would have been the better choice.
[ ] The Champion commanded, we obeyed. What else is there?

Click to shrink...

Okay. This... as I said this is a loaded question, not in how our superior is going to react to us per se, but in what it says about us. These are all straightforward answers. "BUT IT WAS RIGHT THO", "We didn't get it therefore bad" and "I have no mind of my own despite my huge brain and orders are all that matter".

I think we could strive for a bit more nuance than that.

[X] "We acted as we saw best, for the sake of the Empire. We did as our lords saw fit. And then we failed to do even that. I cannot predict what else may have happened. I cannot question my lord's decisions; nor can I render judgement on an issue above my head; all I know is what it has cost the Empire, and our Clan, and that we live with the consequences today."

It's... somewhat of a non-answer, really, but I feel like refusing to take a hard stance is, in its own way, a stance. Refusing to judge can say just as much as judging harshly.

 

[A Nation's Virtue]

[X] Rook
[X] Option 3

 

[Joyful_Overkill]

[x] Gman

 

[Winged Knight]

[x] Rook.

I like the idea that we're not completely sure about if the coup was or wasn't right, but that we can see the consequences of doing it and wonder if it was all necessary. It says we're willing to consider things from many possible angles, and that we won't get hung up on binary answers.

 

[Tomsawyer18]

[X] "We acted as we saw best, for the sake of the Empire. We did as our lords saw fit. And then we failed to do even that. I cannot predict what else may have happened. I cannot question my lord's decisions; nor can I render judgement on an issue above my head; all I know is what it has cost the Empire, and our Clan, and that we live with the consequences today."

 

[al103]

[X] Rook
[X] Option 3

 

[Dirtnap]

[x] Rook

 

[Seventeen]

[X][Answer] Rook
[X][Portrait] Option 3

Remember to vote on the character portrait, guys.

 

[veekie]

I think I'd take another tack

[X] That it was the right thing to do, but the execution was lacking. Decisive action must be paired with success, lest that it's failure prove worse than the doom it sought to prevent. It is a lesson expensively learned

It's the right thing to do but it failed. Why did it fail is what should be addressed, not who's to blame.

 

[Joyful_Overkill]

Vote changes:
response to question about the coup.
[x] Rook

character portrait/ look

[x] Nix's Warden

 

[Vanestus]

[X] Rook
[X] Option 3

 

[Bommelom]

[X] I must judge by results. The coup did not achieve it's goals and cost us greatly. It seems obvious that another way would have been the better choice.
[X] Option 2

 

[Reklaw]

[X] Rook
[X] Option 3

 

[Maugan Ra]

Okay. This... as I said this is a loaded question, not in how our superior is going to react to us per se, but in what it says about us. These are all straightforward answers. "BUT IT WAS RIGHT THO", "We didn't get it therefore bad" and "I have no mind of my own despite my huge brain and orders are all that matter".

I think we could strive for a bit more nuance than that.

[X] "We acted as we saw best, for the sake of the Empire. We did as our lords saw fit. And then we failed to do even that. I cannot predict what else may have happened. I cannot question my lord's decisions; nor can I render judgement on an issue above my head; all I know is what it has cost the Empire, and our Clan, and that we live with the consequences today."

It's... somewhat of a non-answer, really, but I feel like refusing to take a hard stance is, in its own way, a stance. Refusing to judge can say just as much as judging harshly.

Click to shrink...

On the subject of nuance...

This is going to be a court-focused game. Thus, nuance and properly worded speeches are going to be very important. When I put options up for a vote, I'm generally going to be writing summaries of what you will say, enough for you to know what you're voting on without needing to spend a paragraph or more on each vote.

When it comes to making a roll dependent on your dialogue, well chosen and well written write-up options will offer a mechanical bonus - usually a flat number added to the total of the roll. This would also apply to any of the pre-existing votes where people add their own qualifiers and suggested turns of phrase. In this way, I hope to encourage player participation without just leaving everything to a write-in.

This might work, or it might turn out to be a terrible idea, but I'm going to give it a try and see how it goes.

 

[Felius]

Towards whom or what is a Scorpion's ultimate loyalty, their Champion, the Emperor or the Clan or the Empire as a concepts? This is a question that must be answered when it comes to the matter of the attempted coup. What's the loyalty that must be kept above others? When they are in conflict, which must kept and which must be broken so the first can be kept?

Secondly, since it clearly failed, one does wonder: was there a better option? Or was it truly the least horrible of many horrible options? But in practice though, the question that is being asked here is: Were the actions taken to protect the Empire or out of a lust for power? We know that the minds behind it were not incompetent, so we must believe the action chosen was what they thought the best way to achieve their goals given the information they had. Thus, the question being asked is what were their ultimate goals. And the answer is even clearer: If the goal was power, the coup was unneeded, so it follows it was an action motivated out of a desire to protect the Empire, which means said actions were justified if unfortunate.

 

[Maugan Ra]

You flinch slightly, for that is perhaps the most loaded question you have ever heard. You cannot predict how your superior will react to your answer, but neither can you realistically expect to lie, for Bayushi Kimoko has almost certainly been trained to detect such attempts. It crosses your mind to attempt a deflection... but again, no, you must assume that your superior will not be fooled by such things.

"We acted as we saw best. We did as our lords saw fit." That is the expected answer, and to some degree the safest one. Samurai are expected to obey the commands of their lords, even unto death, and while other Clans might expect seppuku in protest over a dishonourable command the Scorpion rarely find themselves embracing such things. And yet... it is also not enough, at least in your own mind.

"And then... we failed to do even that." You shake your head, conscious of the sudden sharpness in Kimoko's gaze. "I cannot predict what else might have happened. I cannot question my lord's decision, nor can I render judgement on an issue above my head. All I know is what it cost the Empire, and our Clan, and that we must live with the consequences today."

Bayushi Kimoko is silent for a moment, then nods thoughtfully. "A reasonable answer, one provided with caution and the appropriate degree of sincerity." She says slowly. "You must be prepared to answer many hard questions in your time at Shiro Matsu, for the Lion are apt to seize on any weakness and gnaw at it relentlessly."

She looks away, returning her gaze to the path ahead. "Still, in this particular field you may have an advantage. When the truth of the Last Hantei's possession was made known, the Lion were riven with discord. A considerable portion of their Clan was inclined to support him anyway, even if it would mean casting in their lot with the forces of Jigoku. Eventually their Champion - a Matsu, no less - committed Seppuku over the matter and leadership passed to the ronin named Toturi, who led them against the enemy."

You cannot help but be somewhat shocked by this revelation, for the lessons you were taught held no mention of a split within the Lion Clan. It is not difficult to see why, since you doubt it was made public outside of the higher ranks of the Clan, and voicing any suspicions to that effect in the wake of the Second Day of Thunder would have only given cause for insult and retaliation.

"It seems to me that the Matsu would seek to avoid the topic, then, Bayushi-sama." You say slowly. "For fear of unflattering comparisons to our own decision."

"They might. Certainly the prospect of being forced to debate such a thing in open court is likely more than most of them would be willing to stomach." Kimoko allows. "Or they might seek to use it to provoke a duel, which they naturally feel confident of winning. Predicting such things is often difficult."

She pauses, then turns to look at you again. "I would advise you to pay attention to the Heimin. Fortunes know the Matsu will not, and that can be a potent advantage if carefully applied."

Looking up at the passing mountains, you suspect you have time for another conversation before you reach the end of Beiden Pass and enter the lands of the Lion.

Choose one:
[ ] Speak to Pale Oak.
[ ] Speak to Yogo Hanzo.
[ ] Ask Bayushi Kimoko about something else.
- [ ] What?