A Briefing for New Magistrates

Basic Game Premise

Background

Gaijin from the nations of Thrane (Holland) and Merenae (Portugal) across the seas have returned to Rokugan and the empire has warily opened to them. This has created a great deal of change in an incredibly short period of time with everyone looking to what the future will hold.

The party are currently Emerald Magistrates assigned to the city of Ryoko Owari. This is the second largest city in the nation, located in the heart of the Scorpion lands. Situated on the River of Gold, it’s notable as a trade hub between the Scorpion, the Unicorn to the North, and the Crab and Crane to the South. It also has a reputation as one of the most decadent, dissolute dens of iniquity and vice in the empire. Surrounded by vast fields of poppies, it is the center of opium production in the empire. Not to mention smuggling, gambling, protection rackets, and just about any other way to earn a dirty koku. The party was recruited to take over following the assassination of the previous magistrate several months prior, a crime that has remained unsolved.

Most recently an international incident escalated into the naval bombardment and total destruction of a Phoenix Clan city by Merenaen forces. In the wake of this and the arrival of a "peacekeeping" flotilla of Thrane ships anchored off the capital, a new treaty was signed with the gaijin granting them significantly enhanced rights as well as reparations.

Game Style

The game play is a mix of investigation, social interaction, politics, fighting, and personal themes. Combat is generally de-emphasized, occurs rarely, and is over quickly. The structure is highly open and runs as a sandbox. I rely heavily on players to define their own goals and desires within a large, active world rather than designing many concretely plotted adventures. There are usually numerous plot hooks and ongoing situations running simultaneously. Much of the plot is long-form, coming in and out of focus based on recent events and information rather than resolving definitively.

Honor

It is worth noting that samurai social codes and forms play a major part in L5R. You may have noticed the mechanics for honor, all of the concepts for dealing with rank, etc. That’s important, but I play pretty loose with that. Probably looser than most other GMs in this setting. Those elements are important, but I try to work them gently into the situation rather than hammering players with mechanics or mistakes. That means I do a good deal of GM translation of player intentions. I’ll also ask for clarifications at times and try to help you figure out what your options are based on the setting. It's more about the feel of things with few mechanical considerations.

Who Are the Players?

All of the other players are duly appointed Emerald Magistrates. They are assisted in this role by a number of other yoriki (deputies) who handle many of the day-to-day duties, investigate crimes, and other affairs. Their yoriki are named NPCs that they either have existing personal relationships with or who were assigned to aid them when they requested help from their clans. In addition there is an unnamed support staff who manage even more mundane and technical matters like collecting imperial taxes, providing basic guard duties, servants, cooks, and the like.

The Nature of the Emerald Magistrates

Answering directly to the Emerald Champion, who in turn answers directly to the emperor, they are tasked with enforcing the law at an empire-wide level with significant privileges and responsibilities as a result. In general they unilaterally investigate crimes, try the offenders, issue a sentence, and enforce it. There are no hard sentencing guidelines, matters are left to their discretion… making them personally accountable to anyone who might disagree.

The full charter can be found on pages 4-9 of the book, City of Stories: The Player’s Guide to Ryoko Owari.

Major Locations

They and their yoriki live in a large walled estate within the Noble Quarter of Ryoko Owari. They have further constructed an escape tunnel hidden under a small bathhouse that leads to a shed in a field just outside of the walls. They additionally have the use of courtrooms and prison facilities at City Hall.

Kasuga rents a small workshop by the docks in the Merchant District where he collects a number of plant and animal specimens. He has additionally been instructing a small group of students in the sport of t

Mirumoto has been rebuilding a kenjutsu dojo in the prestigious Downhill neighborhood. He was previously a student there under Kitsuki Jotomon until her recent death at the hands of a masked figure, during which the dojo was almost completely burned to the ground.

Characters

Ichiro Bando

Clan: Badger Clan (Minor Clan)
School: Badger Bushi
Advantages: Strength of the Earth
Disadvantages: Brash, Outcast (Former Hostage)
Player: Mark

Ichiro is the tough guy. His clan is known for their physical and mental strength and he certainly lives up to the reputation. He tends to be fairly direct, but is less concerned with social niceties. He's a strong fighter, both unarmed and as an archer, with a good ability to exert control over the battlefield. He's started to get involved in the world of sumo and underground fighting. He recently settled a matter of honor that started out as a duel on the battlefield and led to a widely publicized sumo bout that has turned him into a minor local celebrity. Even more recently he has found that he was adopted and is the heir to a long-lost Minor Clan, the Tanuki Clan, an offshoot of the Badger that vanished from the empire over a hundred years ago. They have been trapped in the spirit realm of animals and he is working to restore them to the realm of man.

Kasuga Osamu

Clan: Tortoise Clan (Minor Clan)
School: Kasuga Smuggler
Advantages:
Disadvantages: Failure of Bushido (Courtesy), Phobia (Maggots)
Player: Ryan

Kasuga is more of a scholar than a fighter. He usually prefers to be left alone with his plants and his hobbies. When the party requires his areas of expertise, however, he's more than capable of doing the difficult things that need to be done. He relies on shuriken and stealth, utilizing various poisons and alchemical concoctions to debuff enemies. He also has connections to the underworld and is used to interacting with peasants and eta.

Mirumoto Tetsuzae

Clan: Dragon Clan
School: Mirumoto Bushi
Advantages: Balanced, Enlightened
Disadvantages: Touch of the Void
Player: Nate

One of the few members of a Great Clan, Mirumoto is a young man with a deep sense of right and wrong. He's concerned about how the lower classes are treated within the empire and cares about seeing justice done. As a fighter he's a strong duelist, winning the Topaz Championship alongside Akodo. The event formed a bond of friendship between the two that has made them exceptionally close.

Togashi Tenko

Clan: Dragon Clan
School: Togashi Tattooed Monk
Advantages: Hands of Stone
Disadvantages: Ascetic, Bad Fortune
Player: Mitchell

This mysterious monk arrived in town at a convenient time to help the magistrates and soon decided that the Fortunes must have placed her here for a reason. Though not an Emerald Magistrate herself, she has proven to be a valuable companion. She has recently infiltrated a group of Matsu Baku rebels attempting to foment insurrection and place Shogun Matsu Tsuko in charge of the empire. Her involvement in a terrorist attack on the capital has led to someone matching her description being wanted for questioning by the Kenjingumi special police force.

Shiba Tetsuo

Clan: Phoenix Clan
School: Shiba Bushi
Player: Jack

A young man who recently was appointed to the Emerald Magistrates and sent to bolster their ranks in Ryoko Owari after several recent successes. He has expressed some concerns about the safety of his family back home given recent political developments.

Akodo Tadashi (Currently Inactive)

Clan: Lion Clan
School: Akodo Bushi
Advantages: Tactician, Strategist, Sage
Disadvantages: True Love, Brash, Idealistic
Player: Kyle

Akodo is the most traditional samurai among the bunch and he's the one dating a gaijin, which should give some idea of how the far the party can be from the expected stereotypes. He's honorable and straightforward, but not naive. He's heavily involved in the political events that have engulfed his clan.

Kitsune Nitsuki (Currently Inactive)

Clan: Fox Clan (Minor Clan)
School: Kitsune Shugenja
Advantages: Dangerous Beauty, Benten's Blessing
Disadvantages: Lechery
Player: Lucy

Kitsune is a lover not a fighter. She's generally interested in having a good time and is easily distracted by pretty people and food. Oh, did I mention that she's also a shape-shifting fox spirit that grew up in the human realm? She keeps it hidden, but it was revealed to the party when they accidentally found themselves in the spirit realm of animals. She's good at stealth, tracking, and seduction in addition to being a shugenja who's skilled at Fire and Air magic. She has a sister that she doesn't talk about very often.

The Story So Far

The Topaz Championship

The party members met at the Topaz Championship, the most notable gemppuku coming of age ceremony in the empire, attended by dignitaries from all over the empire including the emperor himself. They resolved an attempt to disrupt the tournament, attracting the attention of those in power. In addition, two of the party members, Akodo and Mirumoto, won the tournament in a spectacular tie. The first time in history that two Topaz Champions have been awarded.

Slow Tide Harbor and Encountering Kitsu Sokori

Several years later they were summoned by a friend they had met at the tournament to resolve a delicate personal matter for his father-in-law, a high-ranking member of the Imperial Court. It resulted in uncovering the schemes of a blood mage kidnapping samurai, but the ringleader escaped. Following their deft handling of this and ability to handle extreme circumstances with discretion, they were recruited to be Emerald Magistrates and assigned to Ryoko Owari.

The Hare Clan

On the way to their new assignment they stopped to visit a friend among the Hare Clan and take advantage of the knowledge gained in their long-standing history of fighting blood mages to track down the one that had escaped. They stumbled into a quest to retrieve the Hare’s ancestral sword, long thought lost, from the Shadowlands.

Upon returning with it, found the Hare castle under siege by the Scorpion Clan army of Bayushi Tomaru. A Scorpion retainer had been killed and a scroll stolen by the Hare. The party joined in the defense of the castle during the siege while tracking down the scroll, [item:686473|a mysterious coded message acquired under suspicious circumstances that alluded to dark deeds]. The party was able to negotiate an end to the battle, surrendering the scroll while keeping a copy of it themselves.

They entered into an agreement with the heir to the Hare Clan, Usagi Ozaki, that he would continue investigating the matter alongside a Scorpion Magistrate, Shosuro Rei, who had become aware that something sinister was transpiring.

Not long after the battle, the emperor [event:1158707officially dissolved the Hare Clan after allegations of blood magic had been testified to]. The Clan Champion committed seppuku in response, his son Ozaki could not be found, his daughter Tomoe had been betrothed to Bayushi Tomaru as a condition of ending the siege, and the clan’s samurai became ronin.

Chasing Kitsu Sokori

Coming to the aid of a friend from the Topaz Championship the party found evidence that strongly pointed to the maho-tsukai (blood mage) they had previously encountered, Kitsu Sokori. They pursued her along the coast through various ports in the Crane lands eventually uncovering that her final destination appeared to be the fallen castle of Shiro Hiruma located in the Shadowlands. Passing beyond the wall they traveled through the cursed realm, encountering and helping a tribe of Nezumi (rat-like humanoids) along the way.

They explored the haunted castle and uncovered evidence that a ritual was performed centuries ago when it was assaulted in order to prevent the souls of the dead from being raised by an oni. That ritual, however, had left them trapped in the realm of dreams ever since. Sokori reversed the ritual and was in the process of raising the trapped souls as undead when the party confronted and defeated her. The souls thus safely passed through the mortal realm and on to their final rest in Meido, the land of the dead.

The Lion Clan Champion

For their entire history the Lion Clan have been ruled by the Akodo family. The latest Champion, Akodo Toturi, was not the first choice for the position. Previously spending his life as a scholar shuffled off to a monastery he only ascended to the role after his brother, Akodo Arasou, was killed in battle beside Matsu Tsuko, Arasou’s betrothed and the daimyo of the Matsu family. While many in the clan have resented the gaijin, Toturi took little action against either them nor did he aggressively pursue the war with the Crane Clan over the disputed city of Toshi Ranbo.

In response to this [event:1818770|Matsu Tsuko recently declared herself Champion of the clan], claiming that Toturi was unfit to rule. This sharply divided the clan with many supporting Tsuko and her hard-line, nationalist views. Seeking to prevent bloodshed and a war within the clan, [event:1818907|Toturi abdicated and renounced his name to forestall any attempts to reinstall him]. He left his family lands and has not been seen since.

Just recently the Phoenix ambassador to the Imperial Court has advocated for the creation of a new, long-theorized position of Shogun to serve as the head of the national military. He cited that the head of the Lion Clan would be the natural choice for such a position.

After becoming Shogun, Matsu Tsuko reorganized her forces and was able to seize the city of Toshi Ranbo from the Crane. She subsequently forfeited the Lion Clan claim to the city and returned it to the emperor as a national possession. With the resulting occupation and pacificaton efforts it has become the de facto center of power for the national military forces under command of Shogun Tsuko.

Ryoko Owari

The Fire Eaters

The party came into conflict with the Fire Eaters, a particularly violent street gang. The matter has recently been resolved with a tentative alliance to jointly pursue their rivals, the Moment's Edge Firemen, who have started getting involved in trafficking a new drug, blue flame, that is combined with opium to make it even more potent.

The magistrates led a raid on the headquarters of the Moment's Edge that saw it burned down in the resulting riot by the Fire Eaters. The leader of the Moment's Edge Firemen was subsequently released from custody by the governor.

While the magistrates were out of town for several months, the leader of the Fire Eaters was assassinated and the two gangs have become engaged in a brutal war. At present the Moment's Edge have managed to make significant gains as the Fire Eaters are mired in internal power struggles.

The Wind

They investigated the thefts among the nobility attributed to the unknown cat burglar referred to as “The Wind”. In the course of their investigation they came upon a leatherworker girl with a pet monkey, Hiccup. Suspecting it of being involved, the monkey was taken into custody. After a week without any thefts, they attempted to return it to the girl. Upon doing so they found that she had not been seen since taking her pet. None of the stolen items were ever recovered.

After an assassin attempted to kill the magistrates, claiming it was revenge for Hiccup, Genki was tracked down to the The City of the Rich Frog where she had started a new life as a merchant. Returning with Hiccup, Kasuga slit the monkey's throat in front of her and threw his body at her feet. As punishment for her crimes Genki was sent into exile at a harsh and distant monastery.

Yemon’s Legacy

A Crab appeared who was being haunted by his ancestor, Kaiu Yemon. Apparently centuries ago a vault of some sort had been created before a member of the Shosuro family kidnapped Yemon, interrogated him until he produced a map, and then killed him. Recently Yemon’s spirit was summoned and questioned by a Mantis who was looking for the map. The defeated the Mantis and his cabal before finding that the map was hidden in the Shosuro family crypt in town, protected by deadly traps. They uncovered an urn whereupon a ghost appeared charged Akodo with the defense of the map. Claiming that a terrible doom would befall Rokugan if the vault it depicts were ever to be opened.

Fade

The bandit known as Fade has been preying on the surrounding area for the past several year and growing rapidly in that time. The party attempted to negotiate a truce with him, but this offer was rejected. They arranged for a procession in disguise to hopefully draw him out, but while out of town their compound was raided by men in disguise as leatherworkers who ransacked their home.

Having heard the story of Otaku Isas, they feel that he may be involved. They attempted to get more information from his cousin Otaku Genshi, who was deeply affected by what happened to him, but were unable to learn anything new or confirm her involvement.

After degrading his forces significantly and killing his primary lieutenants he issued a challenge for a final duel. During which Mirumoto slew him as he was incapacitated with a panic attack.