Over a month and a half have passed since the new Magistrates convened. They have spent the time in pursuit of training or relaxing and enjoying their rewards.
It is heading towards mid-summer when three of the gathered Magistrates learn of the death of an Imperial Tax Collector.  The body was found in the distant lands of the Tortoise Clan, along Rokugan’s Southern Coast. Concerned with this serious breach of the Emperor’s Law, they set off to investigate.
Arriving in Tortoise lands, the magistrates meet with the Daimyo of the small Clan, who explains that it was likely their aggressive neighbor, the younger brother of the Sparrow Daimyo, who has done this thing. The Dragon’s yojimbo is, strangely enough, blamed with murder of a Tortoise samurai. While he is proven innocent, his katana has mysteriously disappeared. The matter of the Tax Collector forces the Magistrates to press on.
Introduced to Tento Rengenjo, the young son of the Tortoise Daimyo who currently guards the mines from a small holding, the Magistrates find him to be an honorable, if naive lord. They are told that the Sparrow should be questioned, as the nearby lord, Suzume Kaishu, is an aggressive warmonger. The young Heroes note that there are only fifteen or so samurai in the holding; the rest of Rengenjo-sama’s forces are local heimin ashingaru. Some of the spearmen practice with boken. Kaishu-sama explains that he does not have enough samurai, thanks to the bandit and Sparrow attacks. In this way, he can quickly name new samurai who have some knowledge of the katana for bravery and service in battle. “After all,” he notes, “they are but boken, not katana.” The Emperor’s Law has not, technically, been broken.
The Magistrates head out quickly, determined to avoid being caught in the Tortoise Castle during an assault as well as to solve the weird case of the Tax Collector. On the advice of Rengenjo-sama, they head directly for the Sparrow Clan Palace, seeking audience with the Clan Daimyo rather than his hot-headed younger brother. They head north through the mid-summer mountain passes, detouring to the holy site of Suzu Sano Shinda (Bells of the Dead) to light some incense. There, they encounter a wandering monk. They are also waylaid and ambushed by twice their number of bandits. The black armored bandits are slain to the last, but Mirumoto Kunto takes two grievous spear wounds to his abdomen and shoulder. Unable to heal him properly, the Magistrates are forced to detour from their intended destination of Kyuden Suzume to the closer Shiro No Sansharro. Read the rest of this entry »
House of the Jade Lantern 