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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Black Omega" data-source="post: 1216" data-attributes="member: 79">And so it begins.Hiruma Toshiro's destiny was contained in that letter, not to fight on the wall but instead a long journey to the lands of the Unicorn.  Toshiro was accompanied by his friend Sho, a former Crab Samurai who's lord and family had fallen to the Shadowlands, leaving him a ronin.  Along the way they stopped by the Temple to Osano-wo to pray for success.  A whim sidetracked them briefly, venturing into Shinomen Forest in search of the reclusive Reihaido Shinsei.  They didn't find the Crow Temple of Shinsei but they did encounter a curious creature, a large monkey with blue-grey fur and leather scale armor.  And the monkey talked(!)  identifying himself as Mindra, a Shaman of the Vanara send by the spirits to work off a debt to Toshiro's ancestor by helping Toshiro.  United by fate, the three began the long trip to Bugaisha.By the time Hiruma Toshiro's group was approaching Bugaisha it was the month of the Monkey, the heat of summer having melted away the snow that gave the Heigen Yuki it's name.  At the same time a caravan was approaching from the other side, completing the six month trip that stretches from one end of the Golden Way to the other.  Representatives of two merchant houses, a number of independent merchants, the mysterious and reclusive Red Wizard delegation and assorted guards as well as a few adventurers new to this trip.  At the final stop before Bugaisha Malacon the Axe, caravan security chief and man of appropriately suspicious demeanor, assembled those new to Rokugan for a pointed chat, letting them know a lot of gold was involved in this trade and there would be little patience for some newbie screwing things up.  The roko warriors were a touchy sort, very concerned with honor and easily offended.  The boss of the town was Shinjo Jyaku, a member of the Unicorn.  At a question from Volar, a highly curious moonelf, he clarified that Unicorn was just one of the clans of the Empire, there was no real unicorns.  The unicorn was their symbol.  The group was informed the native warriors were easy to identify, they wear two swords and dress in purple with unicorn symbols.  Quite a few of them speak common, so don't think you can make smartass comments without them understanding!  Roko clerics worship spirits, and a pretty lenient about clerics practicing their religion, but anyone who stirs up trouble and tries to mess around with local politics is dealt with swiftly and it's not pretty.  We have an area for ourselves where the merchants set up.  For those of you without a place to stay, there is a proper inn, called the Dancing Ferret, with proper food and drink, not the rice and noodles you'll find in the rest of the city.The caravan entered the barbarian area slowly, purple and white clad Unicorn Samurai checking in each person by having them sign in and leave a thumbprint by their name.  The merchants area was guarded by a wooden barricade and the buildings were familiar, Thesk and Rashemen styled.  While the merchants migrated to their own areas..even the Red Wizard delegation already having a house ready for them, others made their way to the Dancing Ferret, a classic Faerun inn.   Perhaps a little overpriced,  but where else is there to stay?  Far away from home, Volar fell in with Mir, a bard and cleric with an aura of otherworldly beauty, and Verick, a young man with the features of a rokugani and some knowledge of their language.  Setting off to explore, they found posters promising 'Gold!  Adventure!  Fight Bandits!  See Echigoya, Plum Blossom Merchant House.'  After a brief discussion their path took them toward the merchant house.From the south, Toshiro and friends entered Bugaisha proper, a walled town of filled with buildings made from wood and paper.  Guards at the gate checked Toshiro's papers and directed him to the citadel, formerly the small for Bugaisha was built around.  Waiting on the audience with Lord Shinjo Jyaku, the three met a shriveled old man with a halo of white hair over an otherwise bald pate.  His name was Echigoya, head merchant of the Plum Blossom merchant house, a man with an eye out for warriors.  There was some polite conversation and a mild misunderstanding that had resulted in Echigoya offering to buy the talking monkey, Mindra, as a pet.  An offer that earned a harsh glare from Hiruma Toshiro and many apologies from the merchant.  Finding the Samurai had arrived to serve Lord Jyaku, the merchant humbly requested the three to stop by his merchant house later, he had a way they could serve.  Before there was time to follow up on the mysterious offer, Toshiro was summoned into the main chamber.Waiting on him sat Shinjo Jyaku, Lord of the Snow Plains and Bugaisha, honorable Samurai of a dishonored house.  Burly, middle-aged and with a hint of barely restrained energy about him, Jyaku-sama got right to the point, welcoming Toshiro into his service, enquiring after his father, letting him know his duties as a Unicorn Samurai.  To serve him..to protect the peasant..and to learn how to ride, damn it!  About the only way to keep most Crab Samurai on a horse is with rope.  Toshiro was given a small house of his own, and at his father's request, Jyaku-sama was assigning him a maid with substantial experience.  If Toshiro was disappointed to find that the main would be old and wrinkled instead of young and pretty, he gave no sign, as was appropriate.  Toshiro was given a week to settle in, then required to show up for training in horsemanship.After being dismissed, Toshiro, Sho and Mindra first visited his new home, a wooden and paper house at the edge of town.  The maid was a sprightly old woman at that hard to define place between 70 and ancient.  But the house was obviously well kept and Mindra the monkey even managed to laugh when offered a swinging bar for his room.  After briefly looking around, the three continued on to see the merchant Echigoya.[DM Note:  Mindra being treated as a pet has become something of a running joke.  Someone in the group has joked that if they can get the bard to do the music and convince Mindra to dance and tip his hat to people who offer money, they'll have a good racket going.]At the appointed time, three hours past noon, the six converged on the Plum Blossom Merchant House.  After bringing them into a sitting room and politely serving tea, Echigoya finally got around to the business at hand.  Bandits.  Echigoya runs a gold mine, a large part of which goes to Lord Shinjo Jyaku.  And bandits have been attacking every third or fourth shipment.  Jyaku-sama has been very patient about it so far.  Patrols have been sent to the area and he's even told Echigoya not to trouble himself over it.  But the wizened old man didn't want to wait until it became a problem, so he was taking action now.  Speaking in a mix of Rokugani and common for the two sides, he asked them to go with this next gold shipment, to guard it from the bandits he was sure would strike.  Especially since word had leaked out this shipment of gold would be especially large.  The six agreed, with Volar taking out an advance on their payment for the job by buying kimono's, Mir also getting a healing kit while Volar purchased some sleeping fire, a local alchemical item.  Wary of speaking to long to Volar in common to avoid offending the samurai, who obviously didn't understand the conversation passing by him, Echigoya put off until later explaining about how travel papers work for the empire and other minor questions.The group started off the next morning, following a guide provided by Echigoya, traveling north along a path that lead from the Snow Plains to rugged foothills.  The two days there were uneventful, the loading of the mules with gold equally tedious and unexciting.  Volar talked with the guide a little, discovering a few little tidbits Echigoya had evidently forgotten.  Guards had been hired previously, ronin.  The bandits were led by a ronin who had killed the guards.  The other bandits had not actually done anything but look mean.  A little bemused the guide and others guiding the mules had never resisted, Volar saw to it that this information was alos passed along to the Samurai.  A brief discussion over who was in charge inevitably resulted in Hiruma Toshiro taking charge in rather blunt fashion.  Well..at least is sounded blunt once Verick had 'translated' for Mir and Volar.[DM Note:  Currently only Mindra and Verick speak both Rokugani and Common so they do all the translating.  sometimes the players just say 'We're translating.'  Now and then though, they say 'And this is what I translate it as...'  Various people are already getting suspicious the translations are not always faithful.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />   ]The trip back south through the rugged foothills went smoothly for the most part, until late in the day.  As they approached a bend in the trail they heard movement on either side.  Then a ronin flanked by three spearmen stepped into the path ahead, blocking their way.  All the men had their faces blackened by soot and were dressed in ashigaru armor, simple breastplates with arms and leg armor strapped on.  The Ronin?s challenge was blunt and to the point.  Step away and let us take the gold and no one gets hurt.  The Crab Samurai's answer was just as to the point, an arrow fired at one of the spearmen as he charged.  As he charged, the Ronin called out orders then snarled to Toshiro, asking what name he should put under the Samurai's head after he chopped it off and stuck it on a spike by the road.  The Crab remained silent.  The battle joined, an archer appeared on either side of the group, firing from rocky outcroppings up higher.  The Crab and Ronin clashed, the Ronin drawing first blood with a fearsome overhead strike that slashed into Toshiro's shoulder.  The crab stoicly ignored the bandit's stinging insults and and attacked back, drawing blood with a swift slash to the chest to even it up.  The three spearmen charged Sho, who drew his two swords and counterattacked.  A spear wounded him in the arm but he quickly began to hack through the bandits.  While Mir, Mindra and Volar exchanged arrow fire with the other ambushing bandits, Verick charged up the rocky incline, taking two arrows before closing the range and hacking down one archer.  The other archer scored hits on Mindra before taking an arrow to the shoulder that wounded him badly.  Then he disappeared after one last shot.    The three spearmen cut down, Sho watched as Toshiro and the Ronin matched each other evenly, stroke for stroke, both covered in blood.  The battle ended when Verik charged down to help..trying to jump down from the outcropping, but his armor caught on a rocky edge and Verick slide face first down the slope to the Ronin's feet.  Undaunted, he leaped up, proclaiming himself Akodo Verick of the Lion and attacked.  The Ronin snarled, lashing out with a furious strike that cut a deep gash in Verick's arm, while Toshiro angled in from the side, launching a powerful cut that took the Ronin's head off.The battle finished, Mindra and Mir put their healing spells to use curing those wounded.  One bandit was found to be merely dying, not dead yet, so he was healed as well and tied up.  The Samurai and Sho conferred, leaving the barbarians to search the bodies.[DM Note:  This was  the first d20 DnD battle I'd run and it was about as close as I expected.  Not very.  But I was trying to err on the side of caution.  Even then my bandits and one Ronin scored the first three hits including a crit threat and it looked close for a couple of rounds.  But in the end the group won pretty handily.  Don't worry, we'll see PC's hit negative hp's soon enough...   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />   ]</blockquote>

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