For what it's worth, the Hiramori family got their first fairly well fleshed out character in the new background in Poison River - Daidoji Shin's bodyguard is the long-suffering Hiramori Kasami.
She seems to be very good at the noble art of 'inserting pointy bits of metal into people not wearing blue' - in the time it takes Shin to knock one opponent down, grab his knife and turn round with a triumphant "ha-ha!", the fight is already over and she's turned five of his friends into thinly sliced sashimi.... She's also pleasantly cynical and blunt, for a Crane, informing him when he calls on her to intervene that his grandfather is her lord, not him, he started the bar fight of his own free will, and that - provided the other participants 'play nice' and stick to kicking the snot out of him in a non-permanently-damaging fashion rather than using blades, she's happy to let them. She would, of course, feel compelled to avenge any permanent harm. Sadly, they feel differently, try to go for both of them with knives, and regret it. Apparently the Uebe marshes have a detectable rural accent - which even Kasami's formal education hasn't entirely smoothed the edges off.

A big point about the distinctions and passions is that they're only examples and not an exhaustive list.
So in my opinion, the right way to go here is to make up your own, fitting advantages.

Your group forgot the last 'incident' with Jackie, and somehow bra sizes came up during the fight.
{Another reason Ni Fang cannot have anything other then Pepsi during sessions}

Make sure to give someone else the Tone Deaf adversity. 

A big point about the distinctions and passions is that they're only examples and not an exhaustive list.
So in my opinion, the right way to go here is to make up your own, fitting advantages.

I can think of something like:
Music (Fire)
Types: Interpersonal, Mental
Effects: The following apply to a character with the Music passion:
- You can always identify a Rokugani musical instrument or at least how to play it if it’s gaijin made.
- After performing a check to stir an audience with your song (such as a Perform [Fire] check) or to write a new song (with a Composition [Fire] check), you remove 3 strife.
Biwa Prodigy (Water)
Types: Physical, Interpersonal
Effects: The following apply to a character with the Biwa Prodigy distinction:
-You can recognize the material of a biwa (and possibly its maker) just by listening to its melodies.
-When making a check to tune a biwa (such as a Artisan [Water] check) or to put your Audience at ease (with a Perform [Water] check), you may reroll up to two dice.

A big point about the distinctions and passions is that they're only examples and not an exhaustive list.
So in my opinion, the right way to go here is to make up your own, fitting advantages.

Even if they have broadly similar status, the jisamurai is a full member of the clan, and, lacking anyone more senior, is legally the proxy for their clan champion.

Goriate and Uiri arrived first, rushing into the cells to see what was going on. The first thing they noticed was that the cells were being manned by ronin, not reju bushi, which was a change from the last time Uiri had visited. They demanded to see Michi. The monk was locked in a cell (not, they noted, the one with the secret tunnel) and was covered in bruises and cuts, having been beaten within an inch of his life. The three ronin present were quite open that they weren't 'questioning' him so much as 'keeping kicking him until he confessed'. Uiri ordered them to stand down and let them see to Michi's injuries - thanks to Voice of Authority, two complied, but the third didn't, and was on the verge of drawing on them. Goriate stepped forwards. The Hida - who got the initiative - chose to use Improvised Assault, spotting a pair of iron manacles linked by a heavy chain on a shelf by the cell doors. "You really shouldn't harm a shinseist monk. It's very bad luck; supposedly it causes your teeth to fall out." "What?" Having rolled enough opportunities to get a free strike with his improvised otsuchi, Goriate proceeded to....demonstrate.  "It's also bad luck, whilst we're on the subject, not to follow an Emerald Magistrate's orders. Now stay down." "Mynhnngmff..." "You'll live." The cells fairly quickly filled with other guards, and matters might have turned uglier had one of the samurai arriving to investigate the disturbance not been Reju Tsugumasa. He wasn't especially impressed with the PCs beating one of the castle guards to a pulp, but he was even less impressed with the ronin taking it on themselves to torture a prisoner without his orders, especially since they'd nearly killed the monk. Meanwhile Suiren and Horonigai tried to head off the explosion between the daimyo and his wife. This....didn't go well. Horonigai found Reju Jikai in the court, fuming, with Otomo Nobu and his henchmen, Reju Toshio and Reju Masaru doing little to calm him down. One thing she noticed was that the Reju bushi she'd normally expect to see lining the walls had, aside from Jikai's yojimbo, been replaced by Otomo ashigaru and ronin. Apparently, Nobu had prevailled on Jikai to use the Reju family bushi for the pursuit force sent into the woods - they were the best trained, and best equipped, so it made sense for them to be used for a critical task. Added to an increased number of bushi manning the castle's walls, and the ones accompanying Reju Tsugumasa to the village, and most security duties inside the castle had been turned over to Nobu's men. Horonigai tried to calm the daimyo - and failed. The Kaito has pretty wide-ranging skills, but courtier-like diplomacy isn't one of them.  Suiren and Ume intercepted Seppun Azusa en route, and tried to talk her down, but also failed. In this case it was just Suiren's courtesy dice pool flat-out not co-operating, even with assistance from Ume.  With neither party mollified in the slightest, the daimyo's wife stormed into the court and the couple essentially started a full-blown domestic, despite the impropriety of doing so in front of their court, with Suiren, Ume, Horonigai, Nobu, Toshio, Masaru and Jinzaburo all trying to find somewhere else to look.  It was at this point that Mamoru Nakama returned - Horonigai happy to find someone to talk to about other subjects. Nakama confirmed that the thing they'd driven out of the well had indeed retreated to the 'springs' - and that therefore he'd be willing to show them where it was. It was badly wounded, and not going anywhere, so (fortunately) there wasn't much of a rush. He honestly thought he could have killed it alone, but he'd promised to be cautious.  "You have a larger and more urgent problem." He said. "Whilst passing through the woods, I came across the tracks of many people - soldiers and villagers alike - marching on the castle. They will be here soon - possibly as little as an hour or two." ".....oh."  

Since (like, I suspect, a lot of RPG players with access to the internet), Goriate's player and I are big fans of Journeyquest, the exchange "Have you taken many blows to the head?" "Hundreds!" has become pretty standard at our gaming table, especially given that he is (a) a bouncer and (b) plays in our county American Football team as a defensive lineman*.
 
* Obviously, Hida Goriate is not in any way a bit of a self-portrait.  

Indeed. I seem to recall hearing an audible 'clang' noise.

The PCs saw to one another's injuries as best they could, whilst Horonigai performed a cleansing rite on the well.  On their way out of the cellars, the bushi let the kitchen attendants know that the well was now 'safe' and that it could be used to draw water - though it was clear from the servants response that they were essentially responding "sure...." and planned on still getting water from the moat unless someone forced them to do otherwise.  Meanwhile, the PCs were left with a bit of time to themselves.  Suiren and Goriate decided to make use of the castle's armoury and smithy - Suiren's sword had become damaged in the fight, and he had no smithing skill himself. The Hida, on the other hand, managed not only to repair it and remove damaged, but to give the Scorpion's family wakizashi durable into the bargain. "Try not to break it again next time." "Very well, I'll make a point of staying out of the fight and letting the next undead maho monstrosity eat your face unmolested, then." - Goriate and Suiren's players Horonigai, with a moment of professional paranoia, took the opportunity to go back into the cellar and place a Threshold Barrier around the well, to try and keep any nasty spirits out. It hadn't - seemingly - worked in Willow Forge village, but that was no reason to ignore something that might help in theory. Uiri went to talk to Reju Tsugumasa. The prisoner was awake and was being questioned - to be frank, was being 'worked over' - but had not given any indication of why he'd attacked the hunt, or who he was working for. The one thing they had managed to get out of him was that apparently the barrels of missing arrows had been moved to the undercroft of one of the derelict towers in the castle wall.  Meeting up, the PCs decided to accompany Tsugumasa to report this good news to the daimyo - who they found in the main courtroom speaking to the newly-returned Mamoru Nakama, who had "gotten separated from them in the confusion of the attack, but had managed to avoid the wolves after they pursued the others". Uiri went with Tsugumasa to investigate the ruined tower. The arrows were there, as promised - in several large casks that would have taken a large number of people to move. This wasn't the work of some random malcontent but an effort organised by someone with the authority to do so. Which meant someone important was actively trying to undermine the castle's defences. Horonigai, meanwhile, invited Mamoru Nakama to 'take tea in private' - not wanting to have discussions about giant wolves in front of Reju Jikai. Goriate meanwhile secured a formal tea set with a courtesy requisition, and then lurked nearby whilst Suiren and Horonigai joined Nakama for the ceremony in case things got 'noisy'. The ceremony went well, with the participants shedding a great deal of strife and picking up a void point to boot. Afterwards, the PCs decided not to beat around the bush. "So....how's the forearm?" Asked the Shosuro.  "Healing." came a half-snarled response. This wasn't an especially promising start, but fortunately Horonigai - who hadn't stabbed Nakama, and indeed pointedly had tried to communicate before - was able to continue the discussion in a more cordial manner. Horonigai told him of her suspicions of his nature and reminded him of how she'd behaved when they'd first met on the way to Kawacho. Nakama admitted what they suspected - that he was the pack leader, and yes, that he had proposed the hunt in the hopes of isolating and killing Jikai. The daimyo had been hunting continuously since his arrival - it seemed to be his only passion these days - and with the elemental imbalance the woods around Closed Shell Castle were short of prey to begin with. The pack were starving, and this was a move of desperation, which had failed. He reassured the PCs he had no plans to try again. "The daimyo won't leave the castle again without a ring of steel that would slaughter the entire pack if they tried to reach him." This wasn't, he said, his pack, but he had a responsibility to it - and he was 'stuck here', as yet another side effect of the imbalance was that the doorway to Chikushudo was currently sealed. Horonigai did promise to try and help - if the PCs could help undo the elemental imbalance, and help Jikai and his family reconnect, then the pressure on the wolves might be reduced, at least in the long term. With an impressive roll, Nakama was apparently convinced. "Do you know....anything more about the imbalance?" "The shujenga. I can smell something on him. I believe he is causing it - or at least he brought here whatever is ultimately causing it." "We drove something off from the well under the castle." "And it may have retreated elsewhere, such as the springs which feed the well, the moat, and much else nearby. I will investigate." "Should we come with you?" "No. If, and only if, you are needed, I will return and fetch you, and lead you there." "What if you're killed?" "I will be cautious." "It's dangerous." "I will be very cautious." The PCs agreed. "He really doesn't want us going there, does he?" "Bet you that's where this doorway is. So no, I wouldn't want me knowing where it is either." Goriate and Horonigai's players. At this point, the PCs more or less thought the discussion was done, but as he was leaving, apparently Nakama had one last hand grenade to drop - wolves being ones for honesty. "You said, unknowingly, a thing which was not true." "I'm sorry?" "You said that you tried to communicate when we first met on the road through the forest." "I.....did?" "You did. But that was not the first time we met." "So when was the first time?" "When you were being carried from Closed Shell Castle many years ago as a newborn. I recognize your scent." With that, he bowed and left the room. It took a few moments for Horonigai to process.  
"WHAT THE ACTUAL **** ??!?!?!!?!?!?"  - Horonigai's player

Meanwhile, Suiren and Horonigai compared noted. Suiren had calmed down a bit, and - doing his best to sound 'not insane' - described the monster that had attacked him on the roof to Horonigai. The two decided they were overdue a visit to talk to Reju Toshio. The family shujenga was in his rooms, on one of the upper floors. On the way there, they passed Otomo Nobu, with an ashigaru in tow - he'd left the cells before Uiri had found the tunnel, intending to begin a room-to-room search of the castle using the Otomo ashigaru (who knew the castle better than the recently arrived ronin and Reju samurai). When they arrived,  Toshio was preparing offerings to try and calm the elemental disturbance. He didn't, he said, have much hope of it working. In his opinion, the cause of the disturbance was the castle itself - a vast artificial fortress, on an artificial hill, with its moat fed by an underground stream forcibly redirected for the purpose. Frankly, short of levelling Closed Shell Castle and starting again, Toshio thought it unlikely the effects could be reversed significantly. He listened to Horonigai's claim of quieting the Kami in Twin Blessings Village (he kind of had to - she's an emerald magistrate and significantly socially superior to the vassal family samurai), but it was clear that whilst he was making supportive noises he wasn't impressed and felt what she'd actually done was a temporary fix at best. When challenged as to what he'd done, he said he'd been primarily inspecting the walls - Closed Shell was so ridiculously over-fortified, by a general who'd been schooled at the capital, that it wasn't unlikely the fortifications contained wards and supernatural protections as well as simply physical earthworks. If so, and if one or more had collapsed or malfunctioned from to poor maintenance (due to no-one knowing they were there and no shujenga being here for years) that could well be the immediate cause. When Horonigai mentioned the well, he dismissed it as servant's paranoia. Not that they probably weren't hearing something, but that it was far more likely to be a symptom than a cause.  "He's trying to talk us out of investigating the well, isn't he." "Yup." "So - that's where we're going next?" "Yup." - Suiren and Horonigai's players.  Overall, the two didn't really get anything especially useful out of Toshio. Both samurai were certain the shujenga was concealing something but weren't sure what.  Horonigai also noted that a lot of the offering components Toshio had in his rooms seemed to be for air invocations, which was slightly at odds with the water and earth offerings he said he was preparing. On the way back down to the ground floor of the keep, the two PCs were swept up in a sudden hubbub - Jikai was back early from the hunt, and the daimyo had been attacked. Horonigai and Suiren rushed out as well, seeing Reju Jikai - white as a sheet, but seemingly uninjured - along with a battered Goriate and a wounded Uiri. Suiren checked over Uiri, providing first aid and stopping the bleeding, whilst Horonigai made sure the daimyo was unhurt before he was swept away by a group of reju guards and attendants, led by Reju Jinzaburo, his yojimbo (who'd been casually left behind as unneeded and was clearly shocked that his lord had nearly been killed). The PCs compared notes, with the two bushi sharing their suspicions about Nakama and Horonigai and Suiren sharing what they'd discussed with Toshio.  Uiri still had his prisoner, so resolved to drag him to Reju Tsugumasa, who promised to subject him to 'strenuous questioning'.  Whilst he was there, Tsugumasa confirmed that one of his bushi had followed the trail Uiri had found, and confirmed that Rin had headed south-east as far as he could follow her - she hadn't shown any signs of swinging back toward the castle. South-east most likely meant the holdings of the nearest other daimyo, Otomo Osamu.  "Whose half-brother she killed." "Yes but Sorai doesn't know that. And Rin can honestly say Sorai's half-brother Emon is dead because of orders Reju Jikai gave. I feel he will be 'not pleased' by the news." "Wonderful. I love this castle. Solve one problem and three more pop out of the woodwork." "At least it's better than Winter Court; we actually get to hit things." - Uiri and Goriate's players. The other three descended into the kitchen cellars to go and investigate the well.  The cellars were dark and damp, and - as promised - haunting moaning noises echoed up the corridor from the room where the wellhead was.  As they approached, Horonigai started praying loudly, beginning an attempt to commune with the spirits. It turned out the spirits wanted to commune rather more quickly, directly, and violently, as a skeletal figure clawed its way out of the well. It was surrounded by a vaguely humanoid glow, and ectoplasmic tendrils flowed from its limbs back into the well, jerkily controlling its movements in a way disturbingly similar to the puppet shows Suiren had been watching in Hirosaka. Striking first, the figure - rather disturbingly - incapacitated Goriate in one strike action.  To be fair, he was on half his endurance after the fight with the wolves, and he was only in travelling clothes, not his armour. But still, putting him temporarily out of the fight before he even got a turn was a deeply unpleasant new experience. Suiren responded by striking with his wakizashi (he was also not really armed for a fight), and - whilst he landed a critical strike - succeeded in damaging the edge of his sword against the resilient bones.  The effect was suitably impressive - the glow vanished, and the 'strings' shot back into the well. The bones fell to the floor, seperately.  Goriate meanwhile used a void point. His Fear of Corruption anxiety had been triggered by the monster (putting him distressingly close to compromised as well), but it did at least give him the means to use Warrior's Resolve to remove incapacitated. Horonigai meanwhile approached the well itself. The following turn, the bones didn't stir. Suiren guarded Horonigai, whilst Goriate performed a calming breath. Horonigai continued her cleansing rite, and was rather disturbed to see a shape - mostly consisting of multiple eyes, tentacles and beaks - swirling up through the water towards her. It reached past her with a quintet of tendrils, snatching up the bone 'puppet', which continued its attack - fortunately missing Horonigai.  Horonigai had registered her prayers were making it harder for the spirit to animate the bones effectively. Correctly suspecting the bones were those of the Otomo founder of the castle, she started to invoke the general by name and was rewarded with the animated skeleton's attacks becoming detectably less coordinated, as if the bones were fighting in the monster's grip. Suiren struck at it again, causing only a little fatigue (limited by his damaged sword and the relatively weak damage of a wakazashi), before Goriate struck at it with the hunting spear he was still carrying.  An enormous chain of explosive successes and strife results put the monster within a hair of incapacitated - as well as compromising Goriate - but also landed another critical strike, scattering the bones again.  Horonigai continued to try and dislodge the spirit in the water with offerings to the kami and theology - which didn't go all that well. Still, it was obvious Otomo Nahoko's spirit was trying to resist its former skeleton being misused, and the monster struggled to try and reanimate the bones a third time. Uiri finally arrived at this point, rushing towards the well and drawing his katana.  The samurai waited, taking calming breaths for a round, before the bones reanimated one last time and attacked. This time, the three armed samurai were ready for them, and whilst Goriate missed (being compromised), Uiri landed enough damage to incapacitate it and then Suiren used path of shadows to land a truly brutal critical strike and destroy it.  Screaming, the tentacled mass retreated into the water, fading out of existance as it did so. The water fell into the suddenly vacated space, splashing out into the room, whilst the bones collapsed to the floor. "Oh, great. Maho-Cheaty-Bull-****" - Horonigai's player. 

The thing in Shadows is that the Shadowbrand user was unsanctioned. He was a shinobi entrusted with the art who was experimenting with it outside of approvals, and went rogue, completely enabling brands outside of the Scorpion clan's approval. 

In the case of Deadly Sting, it deals damage equal to whatever weapon you're using's deadliness + bonus successes +4, as Noxious Poison increases the deadliness by four.

In the case of Noxious Cloud, what happens is that it deals 3 damage, as the technique describes. Deadliness doesn't enter into the technique (and thus Noxious Poison doesn't do anything - it only affects deadliness, after all) unless the opponent cannot defend against this damage.
In that case, you're right, the game tells you to use the deadliness of a weapon (+4) that isn't involved in the first place, so ??? If in doubt, you can look to Unspecified Deadliness on p270, of which I think that Extreme Temperature is the most fitting - a poison cloud feels like a dangerous terrain more than a fall or a kihō. So the deadliness would be 9, imo. (This is likely much nastier than a weapon, but hey, make poisons dangerous.)

And indeed https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2020/12/2/the-yogo-curse-part-2/
On behalf of all the RPG players of The Highwayman at GenCon who didn't manage to kill off Lady Atsuko before this point in the story......"Oops."

When picking a soundtrack for the evening's events, you briefly consider Ilan Eshkeri's "Oishi’s Tale" from 47 Ronin before you instead scroll straight past to Drowning Pool's "Let The Bodies Hit The Floor". Your GM's notes say the scene is supposed to be an Intrigue.

I guess this is an extremely late review of the book but I'll do it anyway.
All this is just for chapter 2 and 3, that contain actual mechanical stuff.
Centipede Clan: great to have some fleshing out of this minor Clan and I admit I don't know so much about it from AEG time, but they look cool. They provide 3 possible schools for the minor clan, and the book provide only one. The Sun Sentinels, that for some bizarre reason have the shugenja AND bushi tags, even though they just mentioned that the Moshi do have a bushi school and it's a shugenja school with no access to invocations, except the ones given in the curriculum which is only Fire invocations, which would be fine, except that 9 pages ago, they mention how the Sun Sentinels are famous for their Air and Fire invocations. I guess someone failed on their proofreading check... I had discussed this with others that had already given their opinion on the schools but now actually having the chance to read them, let's go through the other schools: Agasha Alchemist: a waste of a page. They are what the Yogo Wardmasters are but with potions instead of wards. Besides, the Agasha Mystic alredy have in their fluff, if not their mechanics, that they already use alchemy to fuel their invocations anyway, so having another Agasha school called Agasha Alchemist, is redundant to say the least. If this was an Agasha smith instead, to do a homage to the the Tamori... Asahina Envoy: another Crane Courtier school but at least they are not Doji. This school is actually interesting, providing another way to play an Asahina that is not a Shugenja and providing another way of playing a Crane Courtier that doesn't have to always deal in favors and gifts. Ishiken Initiate School: after almost 2 years of waiting we finally have the Ishiken. I gotta say I am actually surprised how interesting this school is compared to previous iterations of the Ishiken. Kaito Spirit Seeker: I like this different aspect of the Kaito obligations. Really cool school. Kaiu Architect: another waste of a page. We have a Kaiu Engineer already, why have a Kaiu Architect? What are we going to have next Kaiu Surveyor? Kaiu Interior Designer? (which actually makes me think a Kaiu Shugenja/Sage based on geomancy could be a really cool school for them). Kitsu Realm Wanderer: a way better Kitsu School than the Kitsu Medic from Shadowlands. With an interesting fluff and interesting mechanics. Besides, they are from the only interesting family in the whole Lion Clan. Shosuro Shadowweaver: ooooh, look at me, I am so edgy I have 3 different tags and even though I have a misleading name, I don't have any Shadow Brand mechanics.  Also, I am yet another Shugenja and Shinobi school in a clan where 6 out of 7 schools are Shugenja or Shinobi... It's interesting that they can work better inside obscuring terrain but their school ability is like creating a sphere of darkness from DnD on the battlefield and hope an adversary will decide to go inside? Granted, on Rank 4+ that's the entire battlefield covered in darkess but stil... As assassins, the Shosuro Infiltrator from the core works better than them, as Bushi, the Deathdealers are way more interesting, as Shugenja they have a different role than the Soshi, but still feels like a waste of a really good page for a better school. Utaku Stablemaster: another waste of a page. A school that feels like an NPC school or if someone wanted to play the Lone Ranger in a High Fantasy Samurai game... Guys, look, I can summon a ride when I whistle... The new advantages and disadvantages are really good and offer some interesting ideas for more. Ancestral Swords: I mean, I guess it can have some value for those that want to know what the equivalent to a DnD artifact could look like in L5R but they are more interesting for fleshing out their stories than their actual mechanics. Agasha Pattern: that would have worked amazingly with an Agasha Smith school in this book. Instead, I guarantee in the future we will have an Agasha Smith school that won't have this pattern because they won't reprint this pattern in that book. Techniques: lots of invocations. It would be nice if we had had some kihō as well, we could have definitely removed some schools to have 4 pages that could be filled with a dozen new kihō... Inversions are strange, which I guess was the intention. I like the way they use the dice, focusing on blanks which is like a really insightful idea. Places of power are really nice. The Bond with a Spirit title is awesome and creates some awesome storytelling hooks. The moon cultist title on the other hand, feels like something that an NPC would have and in this case, it could just be an NPC profile instead. I am honestly disappointed that there's a single new NPC. I was hoping for more supernatural creatures being shown here. Overall, I would give this book a 4 out of 10. I had so many expectations for it and waited so long that I feel cheated. I honestly don't have much hope for Fields of Victory AT ALL, after this book.

Wholeheartedly agreed. But I guess that's the point; which is pretty much what @Hiemfire was getting at; Sol Sixxa or Nym, seasoned with Talents, Turrets, and Havok or Cad Bane to taste, are awesome, and don't really need much argument in their favour.
But if you try to field multiple scurrgs, their cost-effectiveness drops off a cliff in a way it doesn't for generic Imperial Navy heavy bombers. They're rather like the TIE aggressor - not bad, per se, but most single jobs you could ask them to do are better done by another ship, and if you try to make a multirole ship they get expensive enough that you might as well take a well-equipped unique pilot.
Which - frankly - I'm fine with. Scum encouraging miss-matched squadrons (say, for example, Havok and Andrasta as a bomber group rather than a trio of identical punishers or K-wings) makes more sense and looks more pleasing for scum than it does for 'regular' navy forces.
 
 

So...this week proved to be the 'running away from scary things' episode.  The PCs got a decent night's sleep, and were up early to attend Rin's seppuku. Prior to the event, they decided to do a little investigation. The three magistrates made their way to the (dead) water-flower garden, to investigate the 'curse', whilst Suiren took the opportunity of the pre-dawn twilight to go scrambling up the outside of the keep to investigate the roof - it would be late enough that Jikai and his wife would be up and have left their rooms but not so late that he'd be expected to be somewhere in particular and his absence noted. Uiri, Goriate and Horonigai arrived in the garden to find it already occupied by Miya Shinako.  The PCs weren't especially surprised, and Uiri had pointedly brought the wakizashi recovered from the ruins of the waystop near Twin Blessings Village. Shinako described her uncle, Miya Emon, and confirmed he was a shujenga. She said that he'd been coming to meet her at Closed Shell Castle, and then the two were heading on to the holdings of Otomo Osamu, Emon's half-brother and the nearest other local lord (Otomo Niko, one of the other castle's guests, was a sort-of-ambassador between the two daimyo).  She tearfully confirmed that the wakizashi was Emon's. Uiri gave it to her and, putting it into her obi, the Miya poet left the garden with a hard-set expression to attend Rin's seppuku.  "Must make a point of staying with her, as she might well do something stupid" - Horonigai's player Meanwhile, Goriate was wandering round the garden. Horonigai was planning to commune with the spirits, but Goriate noticed something far more prosaic. There was some life growing in the garden, in the banks of a small fast-flowing ornamental stream, which presumably connected to the same spring which fed the moat and the (apparently haunted) castle well. But away from the stream, there was nothing growing - not even weeds.  As he inspected the determined algae, he noticed the ground make a surprising crunch underfoot, and noticed a slight glitter to the soil. Investigating (thanks to the benefit of being the only PC with a decent Labour rank), he noted the distinct smell of rock salt worked into the earth.  "Shujenga use purifying salt?" "Enough to poison an entire garden? How incompetent is this guy? I think this was deliberate." The PCs are increasingly coming to the impression that Reju Jikai is being made to look bad. Following Miya Shinako, the magistrates also made their way to the main courtyard, where much of Jikai's court was assembling. Suiren, meanwhile, changed into his 'working clothes' and broke out his tekagi climbing claws, and passed a fitness check to clamber up the outside of the castle from the guest quarters to the very roof. He also got enough air opportunities to avoid the notice of the handful of Reju bushi sentries.  Once on the roof, the result was pretty anticlimactic - a large expanse of glazed orange roof-tiles on a gentle slope, with clusters of moss growing in the gaps here and there. Curved ridge tiles coloured in a deeper red ran along the spine of the roof, with wooden shachihoko "tiger-fish" guardian statues at either end. There was no particular evidence that he could see of someone being up on the roof. A set of tiles that obviously formed a hatch into some store-room or attendant's office on the top floor stood out from the others, and the lacquer was in slightly better repair, and the moss much thinner on the ground, within easy reach, but there were no loose tiles or marks that suggested a recent presence on the roof itself. The PCs knew at least one person - Jinzaburo, Jikai's yojimbo - had supposedly been up on the roof, but there was no indication he'd come much further than sticking his head out of the hatch.  Suiren had more or less decided the investigation was a bust, and started to make his way towards the hatch, when a loud wooden cracking noise drew his attention. He turned to look, and watched one of the shachihoko turn its head to look at him. Wooden eyelids opened to a dull glow.  "Okay.....that's....not normal...." The shachihoko shivered and shook itself, and detached itself from the roof, curving round and 'swimming' towards the Shosuro. "I think you should probably leave." - Horonigai's player "We don't know it's necessarily going to attack." - Suiren's player The shachihoko approached to within ten feet or so, speeding up. Its tiger's mouth spread open with a cracking, crunching noise, revealing rows of razor-edged teeth. "Uh-huh. So.....you were right, I was wrong, and I feel now is the time for me to **** the heck off at some significant speed." - Suiren's player  "You see? Next time I say 'run', you run away first and you argue later!" - Horonigai's player Unfortunately, the shachihoko was very close indeed and there was no obvious way to evade it - it was between him and the hatch, and trying to clamber down the plaster walls whilst being attacked by a flying adversary was firstly incredibly dangerous and secondly almost certain to draw the attention of the guards he'd avoided on the way up.  His backup plan was to use two more precious vials of Night Milk for Noxious Cloud. By the rules, success (which he managed handily) would leave the shachihoko poisoned - meaning it would suffer disoriented and prone - which felt a little wierd, but frankly Suiren was only using the technique in the hopes of triggering the opportunity to create an area of obscuring terrain.  The shachihoko did move up to attack in response, but a combination of air stance and obscuring terrain meant it had no realistic chance of hitting Suiren, and duly missed. Suiren struck back - also missing - but using an opportunity to trigger Skulk. With Skulduggery 3, he was able to evade the angry guardian statue and scramble down the far side of the castle unmolested whilst it was still searching for him in the nooks and crannys of the roof. Returning to the guest quarters, Suiren's first response was to rush to catch up with the other PCs and warn them what he'd encountered. "No. Stay there, and tell our characters when we get back." "Why?" "You're compromised from the fitness checks so you look like you're on the edge of a nervous break down. You also escaped through a night milk cloud, so you and your clothes smell of opium. And in this state, you're going to burst into the daimyo's court insisting you've 'been attacked by a flying daemon-fish monster' when as far as they're concerned you've been in the guest quarters all night. I invite you to imagine how well that conversation would go." "....Or alternatively, I could stay here, drink quite a lot of sake to steady my nerves, and tell your characters when you get back." "Good shinobi. Stay." Suiren and Goriate's players. With that, the magistrates arrived at the courtyard. Reju Jikai and Reju Tsugumasa, the magistrate, were waiting there, along with a stony-faced Miya Shinako and an impassive Mamoru Nakama. Various bushi and attendants also lurked on the outskirts of the courtyard. The PCs waited for Rin. And waited. And waited. After a few minutes, Otomo Nobu scurried in with a worried expression and spoke in a hurried fashion to Reju Tsugumasa Tsugumasa - with an expression that was more angry than worried, went in turn to speak to Jikai. "She's gone, isn't she?" - Horonigai's player The daimyo - who appeared partly embarrased and partly furious - apologised to his guests and said that 'there had been a delay' and that if they had any other plans for the day, he did not want to detain them. Shinako pretty much stormed out.  Worried that she was holding onto herself by her fingertips before the person responsible for her uncle's death was a no-show at her own seppuku, Horonigai followed. She found the Miya samurai staring out across the dead garden, in floods of tears.  Horonigai tried to calm her - without, of course, drawing any attention to the fact that calming was needed. She promised that the magistrates would find out what had happened, and that Rin would be found. "I have confidence that you will see the person immediately responsible for my Uncle's murder punished." "....'immediately'?" "Emon-san died because he was in the waystop at Twin Blessings Village when it was destroyed by one of Reju Jikai-sama's samurai." "And he didn't order that. That doesn't make Emon-san's death his fault." "He was travelling along that road in the first place to see me at Closed Shell Castle." "That doesn't make it your fault either." "I was here to see Reju Jikai-sama since he was sent here from the capital after the duel with Daidoji Gombei." "That's still not his fault." "No. The events leading up to the duel are my fault. As is, therefore, everything that proceeded from it." "What....are you saying?" Miya Shinako explained what had happened at Winter Court. She'd arranged to have a servant spook the horses, intending to leave Reju Jikai bruised, dirty, embarrassed, rattled and generally unable to compete in the poetry competition.  What hadn't been planned was for Daidoji Eiakasu to try and play hero - shove his teacher out of the way and attempt to wrangle the stampeding horse, and get trampled and lose the use of his arm for his trouble. That in turn led to Gombei's challenge, Seppun Azusa being crippled, Jikai being sent to the relative obscurity of Closed Shell Castle and so on.  Horonigai was very hesitant around the Imperial samurai. She was still worried that Miya Shinako was going to do something stupid, especially now she understood the poet was mostly in the castle out of a sense of guilt.  She agreed to meet her later that day to talk and take tea later that afternoon - mostly to give her an arrangement she'd already agreed to attend to make sure she didn't decide to take her own life in a self-spiral of shame over the day.  Right now, I don't think she's decided what to do about Shinako. She's not said she's going to tell Jikai or, for that matter that she hasn't. I think the supernatural curses, scheming vassals and imminent violent peasant revolt rank rather higher on her 'to do' list and Shinako has slotted in at the "apply enough effort to keep her stable long enough to deal with the issue properly once things calm down" position. Tsugumasa left a few moments later, heading towards the castle's holding cells, with Nobu not far behind him.  Uiri decided to follow the magistrate - on the (fairly obvious) assumption that Rin had escaped, he planned to offer his help hunting her down. Not that he holds a grudge or anything.  Tsugumasa accepted his offer of help, and the two arrived at the cells together. Nobu had already questioned the guard before reporting to Tsugumasa, and the Reju Magistrate confirmed that no-one had been into and out of the cell block for most of the night. Reju Tsugumasa and Otomo Nobu had been there when Rin had been put in the cell. Reju Masaru had attended not long after, as Rin's commanding officer. Reju Toshio had attended shortly after that, as the priest responsible for offering Rin a blessing in advance of the ceremony the following morning. The guard - a Reju samurai (Nobu had suggested pointedly using a Reju family bushi rather than one of the ronin in case Rin still had friends amongst them) had taken Rin her last meal about an hour later. At that time she'd been in her cell and everything had looked normal.  No-one had passed him - on what was the only entrance to the holding cells - for the rest of the night.  Uiri went to investigate the cell where Rin had been held. With a good air rank and skulduggery skill, plus the fact he was already sure it was there somewhere, he eventually located a trick panel, leading to a narrow tunnel. He also found some crushed and burned feathers and flowers, which the PCs figured out were probably the aftermath of an invocation offering of some kind.  "Toshio?" "Toshio." He followed the tunnel, and emerged into a small bracken-filled clearing just beyond the foot of the castle hill. At the entrance, he found a waxed cloth balled up - roughly the right size to form a waterproof wrap for a daisho - and, given the way something had munched on the taller bracken fronds, evidence that a horse had been left there.  Clearly someone had contrived to release Rin and provided her the tools to escape.  Uiri tried to ascertain which direction she'd left in, but it wasn't especially clear. He was confident she was riding roughtly south-east, which took her away from Hirosaka, Twin Blessings Village and the Scorpion Clan border, though.  Nakama went to speak to Jikai, and seemed to be calming the daimyo down.  Since the PCs have decided Mamoru Nakama is the con artist Haru, Goriate decided to get himself involved in the conversation. It turned out Nakama and Jikai were talking about hunting. Aside from poetry, this was Reju Jikai's main passion, and the one benefit from his ownership of Closed Shell was the woodland territory he could (and did) now hunt in constantly.  This was the first time anyone had actually spoken to Nakama or seen him close up, and in addition to the gray kimono, goriate noted the sling supporting a wound to one forearm, and the well-cared for but very old sword (an antique dao rather than a 'modern' katana). The samurai was stand-offish but still had a lot of presence, and proved very persuasive. Nakama had suggested the daimyo to go out on a hunting expedition later that day, as a way to take his mind off the castle's problems'. Paranoid that this was part of some plot against the daimyo, Goriate persuaded Jikai to invite both himself and Uiri. The hunting expedition started cordially enough, with Jikai - complete with Toppi, his prize falcon - Nakama, and Goriate and Uiri, both in travelling clothes and issued with loaned hunting spears, and two Reju family bushi guards, all on horseback. Not long after they entered the woods, though, Jikai released Toppi, and the bird was suddenly struck down by an arrow loosed by an unknown assailant. Jikai asked the two magistrates to retrieve the bird and find the archer - the two Reju samurai indicating that they planned to stick close by their master in case any further attack came.  Goriate had no luck finding either Toppi or the bowman, but Uiri did find the latter's trail, and managed to get ahead of them and cut them off, bursting through the forest and knocking the attacker down. The attacker turned out to be one of the castle's ashigaru guards - which was interesting since amongst other things it raised the question of where his arrows had come from.  Uiri slung the unconscious prisoner unceremoniously over his horse and started to head back to Jikai and Nakama. Goriate, meanwhile, continued to look for Toppi. He couldn't find the falcon, but did find tracks passing his position and heading in the direction of the Reju daimyo. It took him a moment to place them as wolf tracks.  It also occured that neither he nor Uiri were currently with the daimyo. "Heading back! SPEED!!!" By the time Goriate reached Jikai's position, the daimyo was surrounded by a snarling pack of seven wolves - the same ones that the PCs had encountered earlier, less their wounded, so far as Goriate could tell. One of the bushi was dead. The other was on foot, trying to protect his lord - and his lord's horse - whilst Jikai tried to find a way out of the snarling circle of wolves. Nakama was nowhere to be seen.  Goriate charged in and with a handy fire stance yari strike, knocked one wolf out of the fight. Two attacked Reju Jikai, causing a fair amount of fatigue and giving the daimyo bleeding. Two others turned to attack the hida, failing to cause any fatigue but giving him bleeding. The last two savaged the second Reju bushi, killing him. Uiri arrived a round later, as - emerging from the forest nearby - was the great grey pack leader.  It was the same beast that had been with the pack on the road to Kawacho. Horonigai's player registered what was going on first, even if she didn't understand it. "Nakama isn't Haru.....He's....the wolf?!?!" "Get the daimyo out of here!" Uiri yelled, moving to attack the pack leader. He delivered an impressive 8 fatigue, despite giant wolf's resistance and being in air stance, thanks to a string of explosive successes.  Goriate, meanwhile, moved to cover Jikai in water stance, guarding the Reju daimyo and using Crescent Moon Style to ready a retaliatiory swing at anyone who went for him. Two of the wolves did, but were thwarted by the higher TN. One of them took a spear wound for its trouble, and limped away, whimpering in pain. Then the pack leader attacked Uiri back, knocking off half his endurance, and leaving him bleeding and severely wounded (air) in one strike. Seeing how much damage the wolf had done - and pointedly noticing that it had rolled a pool of nine dice in its strike action, the two bushi got the hint and tried to extricate themselves with water/survival horsemanship checks, calling on their bond for mutual assistance. With lucky rolls, they got clear, and - having left two wounded pack members behind them, the wolves didn't pursue far. As they left the forest's edge, Jikai, Goriate and Uiri finally slowed from a mad gallop, and tried to gather themselves before returning to the castle... 

It's called D1-C3, and was originally for Star Wars, but can do L5R and Genesys, too.

It's called D1-C3, and was originally for Star Wars, but can do L5R and Genesys, too.

It's called D1-C3, and was originally for Star Wars, but can do L5R and Genesys, too.

I hold Celestial Realms in my hands.

Goriate's player wasn't about for the latter half of the evening (so standard group rules of him following someone about doing 'assist' actions if relevant applied), so we'll have to wait and see. 
He did message later "What went wrong after I left?" and was told:
"Uiri ended up in a duel, Reju Jikai's wife is a shinseist zealot who's spending her days high on narcotic incense, someone's stealing the castle's weapons, there may or may not be shinobi in the castle roof, everyone seems to be plotting against the daimyo, you, or both, and you're witnessing a seppuku tomorrow morning."
"I'm sorry I asked."