Year 913 - Turn 1 - Results
- Location
- Connecticut
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] anowack
You carefully consider the words of your advisers, and mull over them for a little while. You would love to have Yu find evidence of wrongdoing in the books that Genryu left behind, but the possibility exists that no evidence exists at all. In the mean time, there is definitely a threat of disruption to the merchant trade by your takeover of the city, and that is clearly the more important and pressing problem. Similarly, while you would love to develop some ties with the Great Clans, or to speak with the Silent Canaries, your biggest priority for your chief diplomat should probably be the most important diplomatic matter that you're currently aware of - Winter Court. Plus, there was a certain feeling of wariness coming from Hatsuyuki when she suggested the scheme to become Patrons of the Arts; a feeling of a dream long deferred, a fear of rejection. It is the fact that it is clearly so important to her that finally tips the balance.
For Wakaba, you're minded to give her something easy to cut her teeth on without too much in the way lasting consequences if she fails, and spying on a bunch of targets that are due to leave the city anyways is the perfect first assignment. Minato you have no such concerns about and you are almost tempted to just let him at the river pirates but eventually prudence wins the day and you decide on equipping your soldiers properly, perhaps for a battle next season. And part of the reason that you hired Chouko in the first place was for her insight into Inari-no-kami; if she thinks that the best way to serve the Goddess of Rice is to act right away, then that's what you have to do.
You let everyone know of your decision. Yu looks uncomfortable, even nervous about dealing with the merchant houses, but does not protest. Hatsuyuki looks surprised and pleased at your decision, and is practically overjoyed when you tell her that you will give the project your personal attention. Wakaba accepts her assignment with a determined nod, Minato looks a little bit disappointed and bored when you tell him that he doesn't get to pick a fight yet, and Chouko accepts your decision with an absent-minded 'okay, sure.' ... You kind of get the impression that's how she would have reacted to just about anything you asked of her.
Decisions made, you call the meeting to an end - and get to work.
EARTH
Managing the affairs of trade in a city is practically a full time job in and of itself, but Yu somehow manages to find the energy to get through that and personally speak to the leaders of the trading houses that work through Zakyo Toshi. As he describes it, "It's the same shit, same questions every day. No, we aren't raising taxes. No, we aren't raising tariffs. Yes, we still plan to continue to buy things. Yes, we'll be keeping the rivers safe. Yes, we'll be keeping the roads safe. Yes, we will be eventually getting some of our own artisans, but we're not planning on competing with your market. No, I won't tell you what I plan on making yet. Yes, I'll consider buying raw materials from you. Yes, we will be making large purchases in the future, we probably have to build a Clan Castle. And on, and on, and fucking on." You don't leave it all to him, of course - you are called many times to meet with the samurai patrons of the merchant houses and anybody else whose ego needs to be stroked by a meeting with the Clan Champion. After several months of efforts, you begin to see the positive effects; the quantity and frantic tenor of the merchants seems to diminish as the consistency of Yu's message seems to resonate with the various merchants despite its lack of eloquence. For a while it almost seems that you overreacted in focusing so much of Yu's time and energy on this task.
It turns out in retrospect that your caution was a wise decision. A samurai named Bayushi Osamu is soon seen nosing around the merchants with whom you have special relationships, suggesting that your merchants switch to transporting goods via the 'safer' overland route. While Yu would have really liked to have known about this ahead of time from Wakaba, he manages to shore up the failing relationships with your trade partners by routing the large purchases that Hatsuyuki and Minato make through them. In the end, only a few merchants jump ship, and none of them your most important trading partners. (ENEMY ACTION 1 - TN 45 - FAIL)
[Trade relationships preserved! Bayushi Osamu identified as trade rival.]
AIR
You'd always known that Auntie Hatsuyuki was a woman of some importance in the geisha community, but you underestimated just how highly esteemed she was in the world of the Flowers and Willows. Hatsuyuki isn't just the head of the Silken Smile. She isn't just a formerly successful geisha. The woman who you call Auntie was once The Yuki-Onna of Zakyo Toshi, a woman of legendary beauty and unattainability, the woman who demanded - and got! - over ten thousand koku for her first night's bride price. In the face of that staggering sum, your one thousand koku donation to her project seems somehow paltry - yet it is that donation that moves the geisha of Zakyo Toshi to act. One by one the okiya of the city, high end parlors and whorehouses all, open their purses to support the idea of a city where they can live freely and without shame. With your frankly titanic war chest, Auntie Hatsuyuki purchases an enormous former warehouse in the center of the city, and then dragoons, hijacks, bribes, or outright seduces what seems like every carpenter in the city and a few heimin who are willing to pretend at carpentry skill to construct the first ever geisha-run Kabuki House.
Your next surprise comes at the auditions. There is frankly a staggering amount of artistic talent tucked away in the brothels of Zakyo Toshi. There are talented musicians for seemingly every instrument, for what courtesan would choose not to distinguish herself from her competitors? There are talented dancers of various styles, as being able to draw a customer's eye is a necessity. You are almost surprised by how many of the geisha show theatrical skill, until it is pointed out to you just what is required to fake one's reactions to a wealthy but undesireable customer. When it becomes clear just how much talent is at your disposal, Auntie Hatsuyuki abandons any of her previous thoughts and makes the decision. The Silken Song's first play can only be the tale of Tsubaki, the woman who saved the life of an Emperor.
Though by this point you were not really expecting the geisha to hesitate when it came to supporting their new daimyo, you are once again surprised by how fervently they take to it - though perhaps you shouldn't be. For it is not just your story, but theirs. You are the daughter of a geisha, raised by a benevolent ronin to become one of the geisha's protectors. On a mission far from home, despite the fact that you risk losing your home if you are late with your cargo, you nonetheless leap to the Emperor's defense. You make it to the Emperor in time by singing river-songs. You escape from the mysterious assailants by singing river-songs. You divest yourself of your clothes in order to save your comrade's life, and walk proudly into the town of Maemikake clad in little but your honor. The Emperor is delivered safely unto the Crab, and you return home clad in newfound status and glory. It is, in Auntie Hatsuyuki's words, practically tailor-made for a play, and she will be damned if some Scorpion gets ahold of it and adapts it before she can!
So it is that you spend your every free moment speaking with the geisha performing. You sing them river-songs, telling your stories again and again in various ways so that they can be studied for the best effect, offer encouragements and praise and the simple fact that they are being acknowledged for their skill and hard work by one as far above them in the Celestial Order as a hawk above a fish, and in return you see them blossom and grow under your instruction. You have little doubt that they will be loyal to you as a person, and not merely as a symbol or a leader of a Clan. As autumn comes to a close, the curtains of the Silken Song rise for the first time to a packed theater. For many of the Emerald Guardsmen stationed in the city, this is their last week in the city before they are returned home or sent to other courts on other assignments, and you make sure that every single one of them has an invitation to see the performance.
From the first note you know that Auntie Hatsuyuki has created something special. The dozens of performers of the geisha district play as one in a wall of sound, biwa and drums and shamisen and flutes all playing as one, a melody not intended to stir feelings of sublime beauty, but to inflame, to impassion, to incite. The play is deliberately racy but just on the right side of scandalous; in the scenes where you row to rescue the emperor, the actors imitating your crew do so with kimono half-open and legs half-bare from 'the heat'; the scene where the woman playing you strips off her robe to bandage Gohei deliberately is accompanied by terribly serious and martial music that would be rude to interrupt with whistles - but the striking sight of the back of her neck and shoulders is doubtless seared into the memories of every samurai attending. Even the notion of women on stage is a new one, yet the subject matter and the skill of the execution makes it the most natural thing in the world to watch.
You are particularly impressed by the lead actress. Like most kabuki actors and geisha, her face is covered by white rice flour to stand out better on stage, but unlike those actors her makeup is deliberately asymmetrical. An artistic blotch of red covers only her left eye, and the similarity to you is unmistakable. Her voice rings out clearly in the crowded auditorium, a higher soprano than yours that still manages to carry the emphatic rowing-songs of the Catfish with the appropriate rhythm and emphasis. Accompanied as she is by the hidden orchestra in the background, you have little doubt that the tunes she sings will find themselves on the lips of many a worker and oarsman for some time to come.
[Musical theater invented! Stunning performance delivered! Attitudes towards Geisha significantly shifted! Geisha become personally loyal to Tsubaki! 20 Points (2 Ranks) of personal glory gained and 10 Points (1 Rank) of Clan Glory gained! Future Theater Income practically guaranteed!]
The curtain closes with a resounding crash and thunderous wave of applause, the samurai in the audience forgetting themselves with their delight to stomp and clap and shout with the heimin. You have little doubt that word of the fantastic performance will spread far and wide. Nor was that the only thing to come out of your time assisting Auntie Hitsuyuki. Somehow in the midst of everything, she and her cadre of other senior courtesans found the time to teach you their secrets.
[Tsubaki's studies with Auntie Hitsuyuki to be covered in a separate post.]
In the midst of all of this, it briefly occurs to you to worry about the potential for riots - after all, peasant heimin have been known to react with fear to changes of administration just as badly as the merchants do. Luckily for you, however, it appears that your encouragement of Miya Sato to donate rice to the city has prevented any riots by the simple expedient measure of keeping the populace well-fed and happy. The presence of a sudden influx of entertainment only further quells the populace.
[Enemy Action 4 forestalled due to Player Choices!]
WATER
Wakaba takes to observing the samurai of the Emerald Guard with a will. Though still new to her tasks, Wakaba yet manages to gather a few pieces of tasty blackmail. Kakita Okari takes Opium, and goes on your list of people to watch for contacts to the Brotherhood. Mirumoto Dosuke has an inordinate fondness for geisha. Akodo Jiroubou is badly in debt. Much of it is gossip, but some of it is useful, and it gets the various irregulars under Wakaba's employ used to working as a unit. You help out where you are able, calling various members of the Emerald Guard in for interviews and questions to your office so that Wakaba can trail them home afterwards to see where they go.
When Yu tells Wakaba about the actions of Bayushi Osamu, Wakaba decides to handle his case personally with her brother. She personally sees him visit a group of merchants that are all traveling on the same cavalcade of boats, and offer veiled threats to each of them. However, all of the merchants refuse his offer to change means of travel, and so Osamu-san leaves by boat. Just in case, you have security doubled on that particular set of shipments.
[Gossip gained! Spy network was not revealed! But, success was not achieved in time to grant a bonus to Yu's roll, and no exceptionally juicy material was uncovered.]
Sadly, not all of Wakaba's news is good. The Brotherhood of Autumn has seemingly taken the lack of oversight by the Emerald Guard to expand their operations. More and more people are being found on street corners in near-catatonic hazes. Despite your warriors' best efforts, they are unable to arrest the well-armed monks of the Brotherhood, and a quiet war of the streets take place, a war of oars against sang kauw and bisento.
The one consolation is that you do get a name to attribute to the organization - not of the leadership of the Brotherhood, but of the ambitious underling leading the push towards greater influence over the streets of Zakyo Toshi. The name is Brother Tiger.
[Enemy action 2 - 26 vs. TN 20. Enemy success with raise! Brother Tiger gains great deal of influence over the underworld and gains strength accordingly, ????]
FIRE
With the additional funds that you give Minato, he is able to get your bushi equipped thoroughly and completely. Each of your warriors now has well-fitting ashigaru armor in Clan colors, with your few lieutenants (as well as Minato and you yourself) gaining access to true samurai armor. However, it is in the weapons that Minato's expertise truly shines. The eku that he equips your bushi with are just a little bit shorter handled than a normal oar, and for more lethal weaponry he equips all of your soldiers with nagamaki. The nagamaki is an unusual weapon, with a blade the length of a katana, but a much longer hilt. The nagamaki is startlingly close to Minato's revised eku in size, though the eku has a much heavier blunt head in comparison to the nagamaki's thin steel blade. Still, it will be possible to share many kata between the two weapons, greatly increasing the ease of future training.
That is not the only thing that Minato does, of course; there are patrols to organize, training sessions to lead, and people to shout at to keep them working together smoothly. You contribute to this as the leader of the Catfish Clan, adjudicating disputes when necessary and assisting Minato with your knowledge of the Gold River's waterways.
Between Yu and Wakaba's information, you are wholly unsurprised when River Pirates make an attack in force upon your trade ships as they travel upriver past Scorpion lands. Luckily you were forewarned, and manage to easily repel the thieves with acceptable loss of life.
[Enemy Action 3: 14 v. TN 22 - failure. No damage to your caravans. Bayushi Osamu identified as probable associate of River Pirates.]
VOID
For all of her spaciness in person, Chouko is a practiced speaker when it comes to addressing large crowds. In kitchen after kitchen across the city, Chouko repeats the same few key points - that hunger teaches a greater appreciation for the gift of the kami, that it was Shinsei's gift of rice to Togashi-no-kami that led him to enlightenment, and that the kami hunger for the thanks and prayers of humans just as humans themselves hunger for rice. With what resources can be spared from Hatsuyuki's construction efforts, humble shrines to the Goddess of Rice soon go up around the kitchens distributing food to the masses, and it is soon a common sight to see the poor kneeling in prayer while waiting for their daily meal. After several months of these efforts, Chouko appears pleased by the results. "It's enlightenment of the masses," she says. "Maybe it's true that the kami don't listen to heimin as much as they do samurai, but if it takes a hundred heimin to achieve the same piety as one samurai, all you need is to educate a hundred and one heimin to come out ahead."
[Gold Province gains +1 Enlightenment, and thus +1 Void! The Catfish Clan has committed to a permanent expenditure of 1000 koku a year to feeding the poor (covered by the Miya Clan for the next 9 years) for as long as they want to keep the program running.]
WAVE PROVINCE
Boss Koibu reports that all is quiet on the Eastern Front. His troops have run into a few bandit camps, but nothing serious. For now he is basing his operations in the area around Taka's aviary, using its central location and excellent communication abilities to keep tabs on the many far-flung settlements that he is now in charge of administering. He does however ask that helping him build more permanent fortifications for himself and his men would be greatly desired in future years.
As the season runs to a close, your preparations to leave for Winter Court in the lands of the Yasuki proceed apace. You have been alotted space to bring 10 people other than yourself. 5 of these should definitely be your advisers, but you must also decide who to bring for yojimbo. Also, there is the question of whether it is wise to bring Hatsuyuki, a geisha, to Winter Court - and what have you decided on as gifts?
Who do you bring for your 5 yojimbo?
[ ] The most loyal
[ ] The most skilled in battle
[ ] The most diplomatic
[ ] The most clever
[ ] The most honorable
[ ] Write-in
Who do you bring as your chief diplomat?
[ ] Stay with Hatsuyuki. She is the most experienced person you have with dealing with nobles, and the Silken Song's recent performance should have won you the Glory that you need to get away with it.
[ ] Bring Boss Koibu. It will hurt not having him at home in Wave Province, but he is completely unobjectionable as a choice of person to bring, and you do sort of want the Emperor to get the chance to meet him.
[ ] Bring Jiro. He is the samurai who can most easily be spared from his duties, and bringing him with you to such an important event would be a show of trust that could secure his loyalty for years to come.
[ ] Write-in.
What do you bring as a gift for the Emperor?
[ ] Write-in
What do you bring as a gift for the Yasuki?
[ ] Write-in.
Do you bring a gift for anyone else?
[ ] No.
[ ] Yes (write-in).
You carefully consider the words of your advisers, and mull over them for a little while. You would love to have Yu find evidence of wrongdoing in the books that Genryu left behind, but the possibility exists that no evidence exists at all. In the mean time, there is definitely a threat of disruption to the merchant trade by your takeover of the city, and that is clearly the more important and pressing problem. Similarly, while you would love to develop some ties with the Great Clans, or to speak with the Silent Canaries, your biggest priority for your chief diplomat should probably be the most important diplomatic matter that you're currently aware of - Winter Court. Plus, there was a certain feeling of wariness coming from Hatsuyuki when she suggested the scheme to become Patrons of the Arts; a feeling of a dream long deferred, a fear of rejection. It is the fact that it is clearly so important to her that finally tips the balance.
For Wakaba, you're minded to give her something easy to cut her teeth on without too much in the way lasting consequences if she fails, and spying on a bunch of targets that are due to leave the city anyways is the perfect first assignment. Minato you have no such concerns about and you are almost tempted to just let him at the river pirates but eventually prudence wins the day and you decide on equipping your soldiers properly, perhaps for a battle next season. And part of the reason that you hired Chouko in the first place was for her insight into Inari-no-kami; if she thinks that the best way to serve the Goddess of Rice is to act right away, then that's what you have to do.
You let everyone know of your decision. Yu looks uncomfortable, even nervous about dealing with the merchant houses, but does not protest. Hatsuyuki looks surprised and pleased at your decision, and is practically overjoyed when you tell her that you will give the project your personal attention. Wakaba accepts her assignment with a determined nod, Minato looks a little bit disappointed and bored when you tell him that he doesn't get to pick a fight yet, and Chouko accepts your decision with an absent-minded 'okay, sure.' ... You kind of get the impression that's how she would have reacted to just about anything you asked of her.
Decisions made, you call the meeting to an end - and get to work.
EARTH
Managing the affairs of trade in a city is practically a full time job in and of itself, but Yu somehow manages to find the energy to get through that and personally speak to the leaders of the trading houses that work through Zakyo Toshi. As he describes it, "It's the same shit, same questions every day. No, we aren't raising taxes. No, we aren't raising tariffs. Yes, we still plan to continue to buy things. Yes, we'll be keeping the rivers safe. Yes, we'll be keeping the roads safe. Yes, we will be eventually getting some of our own artisans, but we're not planning on competing with your market. No, I won't tell you what I plan on making yet. Yes, I'll consider buying raw materials from you. Yes, we will be making large purchases in the future, we probably have to build a Clan Castle. And on, and on, and fucking on." You don't leave it all to him, of course - you are called many times to meet with the samurai patrons of the merchant houses and anybody else whose ego needs to be stroked by a meeting with the Clan Champion. After several months of efforts, you begin to see the positive effects; the quantity and frantic tenor of the merchants seems to diminish as the consistency of Yu's message seems to resonate with the various merchants despite its lack of eloquence. For a while it almost seems that you overreacted in focusing so much of Yu's time and energy on this task.
It turns out in retrospect that your caution was a wise decision. A samurai named Bayushi Osamu is soon seen nosing around the merchants with whom you have special relationships, suggesting that your merchants switch to transporting goods via the 'safer' overland route. While Yu would have really liked to have known about this ahead of time from Wakaba, he manages to shore up the failing relationships with your trade partners by routing the large purchases that Hatsuyuki and Minato make through them. In the end, only a few merchants jump ship, and none of them your most important trading partners. (ENEMY ACTION 1 - TN 45 - FAIL)
[Trade relationships preserved! Bayushi Osamu identified as trade rival.]
AIR
You'd always known that Auntie Hatsuyuki was a woman of some importance in the geisha community, but you underestimated just how highly esteemed she was in the world of the Flowers and Willows. Hatsuyuki isn't just the head of the Silken Smile. She isn't just a formerly successful geisha. The woman who you call Auntie was once The Yuki-Onna of Zakyo Toshi, a woman of legendary beauty and unattainability, the woman who demanded - and got! - over ten thousand koku for her first night's bride price. In the face of that staggering sum, your one thousand koku donation to her project seems somehow paltry - yet it is that donation that moves the geisha of Zakyo Toshi to act. One by one the okiya of the city, high end parlors and whorehouses all, open their purses to support the idea of a city where they can live freely and without shame. With your frankly titanic war chest, Auntie Hatsuyuki purchases an enormous former warehouse in the center of the city, and then dragoons, hijacks, bribes, or outright seduces what seems like every carpenter in the city and a few heimin who are willing to pretend at carpentry skill to construct the first ever geisha-run Kabuki House.
Your next surprise comes at the auditions. There is frankly a staggering amount of artistic talent tucked away in the brothels of Zakyo Toshi. There are talented musicians for seemingly every instrument, for what courtesan would choose not to distinguish herself from her competitors? There are talented dancers of various styles, as being able to draw a customer's eye is a necessity. You are almost surprised by how many of the geisha show theatrical skill, until it is pointed out to you just what is required to fake one's reactions to a wealthy but undesireable customer. When it becomes clear just how much talent is at your disposal, Auntie Hatsuyuki abandons any of her previous thoughts and makes the decision. The Silken Song's first play can only be the tale of Tsubaki, the woman who saved the life of an Emperor.
Though by this point you were not really expecting the geisha to hesitate when it came to supporting their new daimyo, you are once again surprised by how fervently they take to it - though perhaps you shouldn't be. For it is not just your story, but theirs. You are the daughter of a geisha, raised by a benevolent ronin to become one of the geisha's protectors. On a mission far from home, despite the fact that you risk losing your home if you are late with your cargo, you nonetheless leap to the Emperor's defense. You make it to the Emperor in time by singing river-songs. You escape from the mysterious assailants by singing river-songs. You divest yourself of your clothes in order to save your comrade's life, and walk proudly into the town of Maemikake clad in little but your honor. The Emperor is delivered safely unto the Crab, and you return home clad in newfound status and glory. It is, in Auntie Hatsuyuki's words, practically tailor-made for a play, and she will be damned if some Scorpion gets ahold of it and adapts it before she can!
So it is that you spend your every free moment speaking with the geisha performing. You sing them river-songs, telling your stories again and again in various ways so that they can be studied for the best effect, offer encouragements and praise and the simple fact that they are being acknowledged for their skill and hard work by one as far above them in the Celestial Order as a hawk above a fish, and in return you see them blossom and grow under your instruction. You have little doubt that they will be loyal to you as a person, and not merely as a symbol or a leader of a Clan. As autumn comes to a close, the curtains of the Silken Song rise for the first time to a packed theater. For many of the Emerald Guardsmen stationed in the city, this is their last week in the city before they are returned home or sent to other courts on other assignments, and you make sure that every single one of them has an invitation to see the performance.
Seriously, it's worth listening to the entire thing, but the first movement (around a minute and 20 seconds in) and the call to arms (33 minutes in) are especially good places to listen to.
From the first note you know that Auntie Hatsuyuki has created something special. The dozens of performers of the geisha district play as one in a wall of sound, biwa and drums and shamisen and flutes all playing as one, a melody not intended to stir feelings of sublime beauty, but to inflame, to impassion, to incite. The play is deliberately racy but just on the right side of scandalous; in the scenes where you row to rescue the emperor, the actors imitating your crew do so with kimono half-open and legs half-bare from 'the heat'; the scene where the woman playing you strips off her robe to bandage Gohei deliberately is accompanied by terribly serious and martial music that would be rude to interrupt with whistles - but the striking sight of the back of her neck and shoulders is doubtless seared into the memories of every samurai attending. Even the notion of women on stage is a new one, yet the subject matter and the skill of the execution makes it the most natural thing in the world to watch.
You are particularly impressed by the lead actress. Like most kabuki actors and geisha, her face is covered by white rice flour to stand out better on stage, but unlike those actors her makeup is deliberately asymmetrical. An artistic blotch of red covers only her left eye, and the similarity to you is unmistakable. Her voice rings out clearly in the crowded auditorium, a higher soprano than yours that still manages to carry the emphatic rowing-songs of the Catfish with the appropriate rhythm and emphasis. Accompanied as she is by the hidden orchestra in the background, you have little doubt that the tunes she sings will find themselves on the lips of many a worker and oarsman for some time to come.
[Musical theater invented! Stunning performance delivered! Attitudes towards Geisha significantly shifted! Geisha become personally loyal to Tsubaki! 20 Points (2 Ranks) of personal glory gained and 10 Points (1 Rank) of Clan Glory gained! Future Theater Income practically guaranteed!]
The curtain closes with a resounding crash and thunderous wave of applause, the samurai in the audience forgetting themselves with their delight to stomp and clap and shout with the heimin. You have little doubt that word of the fantastic performance will spread far and wide. Nor was that the only thing to come out of your time assisting Auntie Hitsuyuki. Somehow in the midst of everything, she and her cadre of other senior courtesans found the time to teach you their secrets.
[Tsubaki's studies with Auntie Hitsuyuki to be covered in a separate post.]
In the midst of all of this, it briefly occurs to you to worry about the potential for riots - after all, peasant heimin have been known to react with fear to changes of administration just as badly as the merchants do. Luckily for you, however, it appears that your encouragement of Miya Sato to donate rice to the city has prevented any riots by the simple expedient measure of keeping the populace well-fed and happy. The presence of a sudden influx of entertainment only further quells the populace.
[Enemy Action 4 forestalled due to Player Choices!]
WATER
Wakaba takes to observing the samurai of the Emerald Guard with a will. Though still new to her tasks, Wakaba yet manages to gather a few pieces of tasty blackmail. Kakita Okari takes Opium, and goes on your list of people to watch for contacts to the Brotherhood. Mirumoto Dosuke has an inordinate fondness for geisha. Akodo Jiroubou is badly in debt. Much of it is gossip, but some of it is useful, and it gets the various irregulars under Wakaba's employ used to working as a unit. You help out where you are able, calling various members of the Emerald Guard in for interviews and questions to your office so that Wakaba can trail them home afterwards to see where they go.
When Yu tells Wakaba about the actions of Bayushi Osamu, Wakaba decides to handle his case personally with her brother. She personally sees him visit a group of merchants that are all traveling on the same cavalcade of boats, and offer veiled threats to each of them. However, all of the merchants refuse his offer to change means of travel, and so Osamu-san leaves by boat. Just in case, you have security doubled on that particular set of shipments.
[Gossip gained! Spy network was not revealed! But, success was not achieved in time to grant a bonus to Yu's roll, and no exceptionally juicy material was uncovered.]
Sadly, not all of Wakaba's news is good. The Brotherhood of Autumn has seemingly taken the lack of oversight by the Emerald Guard to expand their operations. More and more people are being found on street corners in near-catatonic hazes. Despite your warriors' best efforts, they are unable to arrest the well-armed monks of the Brotherhood, and a quiet war of the streets take place, a war of oars against sang kauw and bisento.
The one consolation is that you do get a name to attribute to the organization - not of the leadership of the Brotherhood, but of the ambitious underling leading the push towards greater influence over the streets of Zakyo Toshi. The name is Brother Tiger.
[Enemy action 2 - 26 vs. TN 20. Enemy success with raise! Brother Tiger gains great deal of influence over the underworld and gains strength accordingly, ????]
FIRE
With the additional funds that you give Minato, he is able to get your bushi equipped thoroughly and completely. Each of your warriors now has well-fitting ashigaru armor in Clan colors, with your few lieutenants (as well as Minato and you yourself) gaining access to true samurai armor. However, it is in the weapons that Minato's expertise truly shines. The eku that he equips your bushi with are just a little bit shorter handled than a normal oar, and for more lethal weaponry he equips all of your soldiers with nagamaki. The nagamaki is an unusual weapon, with a blade the length of a katana, but a much longer hilt. The nagamaki is startlingly close to Minato's revised eku in size, though the eku has a much heavier blunt head in comparison to the nagamaki's thin steel blade. Still, it will be possible to share many kata between the two weapons, greatly increasing the ease of future training.
That is not the only thing that Minato does, of course; there are patrols to organize, training sessions to lead, and people to shout at to keep them working together smoothly. You contribute to this as the leader of the Catfish Clan, adjudicating disputes when necessary and assisting Minato with your knowledge of the Gold River's waterways.
Between Yu and Wakaba's information, you are wholly unsurprised when River Pirates make an attack in force upon your trade ships as they travel upriver past Scorpion lands. Luckily you were forewarned, and manage to easily repel the thieves with acceptable loss of life.
[Enemy Action 3: 14 v. TN 22 - failure. No damage to your caravans. Bayushi Osamu identified as probable associate of River Pirates.]
VOID
For all of her spaciness in person, Chouko is a practiced speaker when it comes to addressing large crowds. In kitchen after kitchen across the city, Chouko repeats the same few key points - that hunger teaches a greater appreciation for the gift of the kami, that it was Shinsei's gift of rice to Togashi-no-kami that led him to enlightenment, and that the kami hunger for the thanks and prayers of humans just as humans themselves hunger for rice. With what resources can be spared from Hatsuyuki's construction efforts, humble shrines to the Goddess of Rice soon go up around the kitchens distributing food to the masses, and it is soon a common sight to see the poor kneeling in prayer while waiting for their daily meal. After several months of these efforts, Chouko appears pleased by the results. "It's enlightenment of the masses," she says. "Maybe it's true that the kami don't listen to heimin as much as they do samurai, but if it takes a hundred heimin to achieve the same piety as one samurai, all you need is to educate a hundred and one heimin to come out ahead."
[Gold Province gains +1 Enlightenment, and thus +1 Void! The Catfish Clan has committed to a permanent expenditure of 1000 koku a year to feeding the poor (covered by the Miya Clan for the next 9 years) for as long as they want to keep the program running.]
WAVE PROVINCE
Boss Koibu reports that all is quiet on the Eastern Front. His troops have run into a few bandit camps, but nothing serious. For now he is basing his operations in the area around Taka's aviary, using its central location and excellent communication abilities to keep tabs on the many far-flung settlements that he is now in charge of administering. He does however ask that helping him build more permanent fortifications for himself and his men would be greatly desired in future years.
As the season runs to a close, your preparations to leave for Winter Court in the lands of the Yasuki proceed apace. You have been alotted space to bring 10 people other than yourself. 5 of these should definitely be your advisers, but you must also decide who to bring for yojimbo. Also, there is the question of whether it is wise to bring Hatsuyuki, a geisha, to Winter Court - and what have you decided on as gifts?
Who do you bring for your 5 yojimbo?
[ ] The most loyal
[ ] The most skilled in battle
[ ] The most diplomatic
[ ] The most clever
[ ] The most honorable
[ ] Write-in
Who do you bring as your chief diplomat?
[ ] Stay with Hatsuyuki. She is the most experienced person you have with dealing with nobles, and the Silken Song's recent performance should have won you the Glory that you need to get away with it.
[ ] Bring Boss Koibu. It will hurt not having him at home in Wave Province, but he is completely unobjectionable as a choice of person to bring, and you do sort of want the Emperor to get the chance to meet him.
[ ] Bring Jiro. He is the samurai who can most easily be spared from his duties, and bringing him with you to such an important event would be a show of trust that could secure his loyalty for years to come.
[ ] Write-in.
What do you bring as a gift for the Emperor?
[ ] Write-in
What do you bring as a gift for the Yasuki?
[ ] Write-in.
Do you bring a gift for anyone else?
[ ] No.
[ ] Yes (write-in).
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