At rank one, a Bayushi Courtier gains a Free Raise on his social rolls for every three points of social or mental disadvantages possessed by an opponent. Against Tsubaki, that currently means only one Free Raise, unless our Clan's Infamy counts against us there. They also gain a Free Raise when spreading rumours or gossip, have an automatic focus (which allows them to reroll 1's) in Gossip, and can choose to automatically conceal that they are the source of said gossip.
Note that rumours don't have to be negative, but they do play a powerful roll in shaping public opinion. After all, in Rokugan the truth and that which appears to be the truth are held to be of equivalent value. If the Scorpion like us, we'll be benefiting from a good reputation coming in and everyone will think better of us. If they oppose us, we'll be running straight into a wall of whispers and having to fight and claw for every gain.
At rank two, a Bayushi Courtier gains Shallow Waters, which means they get to chat with us for a few moments and then work out what our lowest mental traits and social skills are. Which means they'll easily figure out that while Tsubaki is surprisingly sensitive to social nuance and stubborn as an ox, she's not the brightest and lacks all but the most basic of schooling in the courtly arts.
At rank three, a Scorpion learns that Secrets are Birthmarks. This allows them to uncover the details of any Social or Mental disadvantages that we possess - basically, they'll instantly work out that Tsubaki is Idealistic, and that means they pick up an excellent understanding of how our mind works. This is represented by them gaining the Blackmail advantage, though it's not so much actual blackmail as an intuitive grasp of what they need to say or do in order to elicit any particular reaction from us.
Rank four is where they get seriously nasty. If a Scorpion Courtier possesses Blackmail on someone, which is to say has spent ten minutes in conversation with them, their opponent's dice cannot explode. The Scorpion can also spend a Void point to force the opponent to roll using a different social stat of their choice - if they're manipulating Tsubaki, they'll probably pick Intelligence (remember that their rank two ability let's them know how low our stats are). Say hello to an effective -3k3 penalty on our most important rolls, folks!
Then you get to Rank Five, No More Masks. Multiple times a 'session', the Bayushi Courtier gets to wield the force of rumour and gossip to utterly ruin their target. Specifically, they roll Courtier (Gossip)/Awareness against Etiquette/Awareness, and if successful inflict the Sworn Enemy or Obligation disadvantages on their targets. So they get to either create a feud between Tsubaki and someone of their choice, or place Tsubaki and the Catfish badly in debt to someone.
Remember they're getting gossip bonuses on this, can make Tsubaki roll using her worst stats, and if ther succeed will end up providing more bonuses for themselves via their Rank One technique. If they took the time to get some Blackmail on the innocent little samurai, they get a +5k0 to this roll as well.
It's also worth noting that according to the Errata, technically No More Masks can also inflict Social Disadvantage on the target, which is to say 'strip Tsubaki of her title and make her a ronin once more'. I tend to assume that was a mistake and they actually meant for 'Bad Reputation' to translate to 'Infamous'.
