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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Black Omega" data-source="post: 546463" data-attributes="member: 79">Thanks to thin paper walls, no one was surprised to see Toshiro looking so cheerful in the morning.  But when Toshiro produced the rose and the poem everyone’s guard went up.  Toshiro wasn’t very talkative about who his visitor had been, but privately he was convinced it had really been O-Hisa.  The others were convinced it was something more sinister, but Toshiro was still walking on air and not really listening.  He did at least let the group keep the poem and rose.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Verick took the rose straight to Akodo-sensei, presenting it to him to confirm what Verick himself was already sure of.  The rose was cut by the same swordsman who has cut the first rose.  Verick also reported everything he had discovered so far.  As well as his own strong suspicion Mir was the target of the Bloodspeaker plot.  Akodo-sensei listened carefully, nodding at the appropriate times.  His only words of advice where from Akodo’s Leadership “When facing the enemy let him see only what you want him to see.  Show him your right hand, strike with your left.  Hide all he does not need to see, for the sting of your slap will ease the pain of a sudden blade in his side.’  You are doing well, Verick.  But be careful.  If their leader is good, they won’t give any clue who the real target is until they make their move.”[DM note:  The quote is from Way of the Lion, but like many things in WotL it paraphrases the Art of War.  I had told my group previous some of my villains were planning using the Art of War.  When Akodo Setei made this quote Volar’s player pulled out a pocket copy of the Art of War with the comment “I’ve read that before…here it is!”  So now at least one of my players is reading the Art of War to get a step ahead of me.  We’ll see how well it works later.]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Before Toritaka Kazuyuki had a chance to report to duty, he had an early morning visitor.  A concerned looking Shinjo Yuji.  After polite but brief conversation over tea he asked somberly “Has Toshiro-san been himself lately?  I mean, has he been acting unusual in any way?”Kaz gave it a moment’s thought before replying “Well, maybe a little.  But he’s getting pretty serious about O-Hisa now and that’s been getting to him.”Yuji blinked “Toshiro and O-Hisa?  I’d…not heard about that.  I’m always the last to know…”  he muttered “That makes this more important then.  Could Toshiro have been replaced by someone else?  Or maybe even...cracked?  He’s been under a lot of pressure…”Kaz shook his head “I’m pretty sure Toshiro is Toshiro, no one else.  Why are you asking this?”“Well, I heard about him running from...well..something last night.  We’re not really sure who or what.  And just to make sure everything was covered, I had someone check the temple’s records.  Toshiro has visited the temple several times, during periods where he would have been on duty.  Either someone can look like him, or he’s been sneaking away.  It’s possible, the Hiruma are famous for being stealthy.  Once inside the temple it’s possible he could have sneaked to the garden area.  The strongest defenses guard the perimeter.”Kaz did have to give that some thought.  “No, I’ve never seen him sneak anyplace.  I doubt he’s capable of that.  But we’ll check into him and the temple and see what is going on.”“Excellent.”  Shinjo Yuji nodded “I’ll put Toshiro on some special training.”~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Toshiro was walking on air as he dropped by O-Hisa’s residence, gift in hand.  Much to his surprise, O-Hisa’s servent revealed she had already left on a patrol.  All very sudden.  Evidently O-Hisa had been troubled the previous night, not sleeping well, pacing constantly.  Then just before dawn she’d gotten into her armor and included herself into one of the early patrols.  It’s not like anyone would tell the daughter of Lord Jyaku she couldn’t come along…And now Toshiro was truly confused.  Who –was- leaving him the roses and haiku.  Well, on second thought haiku didn’t sound very much like O-Hisa.  And whoever came to the house have been very stealthy, something O-Hisa was not.  The more he thought about it, the less he wanted to think about it.Which was just as well.  When Toshiro reported for duty he was met by Shinjo Fujinami, chief training or Lord Jyaku’s samurai.  Clad only in a kimono despite the chill temperatures he greeted Toshiro with a hearty “Good morning!  I understand you’ll be training with me today!  You don’t know how hard it is to find someone with the same enthusiasm for training in freezing temperatures!  The crunch of the snow, the cold air, invigorating!  Let’s start with a run through knee deep snow to warm us up, then move on to dueling tactics for icy surfaces!  I love training in winter, weather like this lets you know your alive!”~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~That afternoon when the group got back together, there was some good news from Kaz.  Asking around guards had turned up  someone who recognized the white haired girl who had met Toshiro.  Koyuki, a member of Fubuki-tai, the Blizzard Group.  Their dojo was evidently in the barbarian sector of Bugaisha.  The group decided to visit there later.  But first, the temple.At the Temple of the Seven Fortunes, the group was shown where Toshiro had signed in the two times.  Both within the past week, and neither time had it been the real Toshiro.  Reluctantly, the monk admitted if someone got inside and was stealthy enough, the person could have gotten to the garden.  But he was clear, no one tainted could have done it, the magic protecting the temple would have detected whoever it was and destroyed, or at least injured them.  But Toshiro by his own admission could not sneak to save his life.  It was certainly not a skill for an honorable samurai.While the rest of the group was checking out the registry book with the monk, though, Toshiro got this impulse.  And slowly he started edging to the side…silently moving back and away.  He would have stealthed away with no one the wiser if Mindra had not caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and asked loudly “where are you going, Toshiro-san?”All eyes turned to Toshiro, just a step away from being out the door.  And only the monkey had been alert enough to notice.  The monk nodded to the rest of the group “You see?  The Hiruma are famous for their stealth.  He –could- have done it.”As soon as they were out of the temple Volar looked over Toshiro “Why did you do that?  We were trying to show you could not sneak and were innocent, and there you went and proved to everyone that you –could- have snuck into the garden!”Sheepishly Toshiro admitted “It was just an impulse, I have no idea why I did it. Everyone seemed to think I could sneak…but I’ve never tried before.  I just wanted to see if I could…”With a groan the group decided to postpone this discussion, preferably until a time when they had some clubs handy..<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=":)" />~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Visiting the barbarian quarter of town, the group had little trouble getting around but drew a lot of stairs.  The only samurai seen around were on duty, and the group had the look  of looking for trouble of some type.  They found the Fubuki-tai dojo easily enough.  The sign was in Rokugani only, along with the sign of a snowflake.  A young man with closely  cropped hair was on guard outside, watching people distractedly as they walked by, and often sneaking looks into the dojo to see what was going on there.The group watched for a time, but they decided to save this confrontation for later.  As they headed back to the gate, Mindra noticed the young man seemed to listen to something, then nod and jump up, jogging over to catch up with the group.With a flourish, the young man clapped his hands and announced dramatically “I am Kuroiyuki, the Yellow Snow of Fubuki-tai!”  as he did so, he jumped up in a one legged pose, his arms held out in different directions.The group simply stared, not quite sure how to react to the sheer silliness of it.Kuroiyuki was about to say something further but as soon as his mouth opened, Kaz held up his hand “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch all that, could you do it again?”Kuroiyuki started over again, the clap of hands, the goofy posing and the overly dramatic announcement.  And once again the group just stared.  Overly serious, the young man nodded ‘I can see you are truly impressed by my introduction.”“Actually…” Volar smiled “We are trying not to laugh.”Kuroiyuki looked a little crestfallen at that but rallied quickly “I’m new to the group still, I’m still getting the hang of doing it right.  Please excuse me.”  He said, bowing quickly then looking to Toshiro “I’m here to deliver an challenge from my…”Volar stepped in quickly ‘I’m afraid Toshiro-sama doesn’t deal with people directly, you’ll have to speak to me first.”A surprised Kuroiyuki replied “But, this is a challenge to Toshiro and…”Volar cut him off again “And you will have to speak to me first.  Toshiro’s very busy and doesn’t have time for just anyone.”Kuroiyuki as about to start in again when Kaz asked “Who is trying to challenge Toshiro, anyway?”“O-Yuki, my master, the leader of Fubuki-tai!”  Kuroiyuki answered, “He’s a great admirer of the Crab Clan.  I am as well, see?”  and then he  squatted down just a little, making pincher movements with hisa fingers before doing a shuffling sidestep “My dance for the Crab Clan!”Again a few stares but laughter as well, the two Crab Clan samurai especially seeming amused by the display.Before Kuroiyuki could go on Mir stepped in to ask, “You don’t have a Lion Dance, do you?”  Her eyes sparkling mischievously as she glances to Verick.And sure enough, Kuroiyuki had a Lion Dance.  A comical pounce with hands held high in a  clawing position and a silly sounding growl.  Verick was no so amused, however, that vein on his forehead starting to pulse as his eyes narrowed.“Are you going to stand for that?  Should you be insulted over that Crab Dance?”  Verick asked over to Kaz.Kaz shook his head with a chuckle “Yes, but it really is funny also, so I’m not offended.  I might show it to a few friends back in Crab Clan lands.”“Remember that Lion Dance as well!” Mir chimed in.“I know a Unicorn Dance as well, but some samurai don’t appreciate…”  Kuroiyuki started again.Volar interrupted quickly “Didn’t you have some business with Toshiro?”“Ahhh, I’m sorry, I got distracted!  Toshiro, I’m here…”  he started.“To me, it has to go through me.”  Volar broke in again, trying to keep the flustered young man on track “Tell you what, Toshiro, may I write a letter for him to take back to answer this challenge?”At Toshiro’s agreement Volar jotted down a fast note.O-Yuki,Toshiro will accept your challenge, but regret he is a very busy man and must answer challenge in order of worthiness, so it might be some time before he can get around to you.Cheerfully, Volar handed the letter to Kuroiyuki for him to deliver before the group moved on..~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Still shaking their heads over the encounter with Kuroiyuki, the group went on to the Golden Carp Teahouse to meet with whoever Buka’s contact was.  Volar carefully disguised himself with a spell to look like the portly peepingtom, Mir creating a disguise with magic as well.  Verick and Yukiyo went with more traditional, mundane disguises.  Kaz and Toshiro settled for finding a dark corner where they might not be noticed.  The group filtered in over time and then finally just before the appointed time Volar made his way into the teahouse, finding a spot right in the middle where he could sit and see everyone.  And then he waited.Not long afterwards a boy entered, carrying a small box, wrapped in white and light purple.  He walked right up to the disguised Volar “I was told to give you this…”  the urchin said, obviously waiting on some sort of payment.  Volar just gave him a glare and a brush off before looking at the package.  Lacking any thief skills and not wanting to call attention to any of his disguised friends, Volar finally decided “What the hell…”  and opened the package.  He had a split moment to see a gem swirling red and black, then it exploded,  an eruption of fire that filled the entire teahouse, blasting out through the door and windows with a red hot FOOOSH!Next!  The player’s new PC’s…just kidding.  Next!  Violence!  Bloodshed!  Fubuki-tai posing!</blockquote>

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