Beginner Box Adventure Replay

[ElSuave 273]

The following is not a quote-by-quote replay. Just a summary replay of how our adventure went. I ran the game with 4 other players.

Characters:

Akodo Masako
Bayushi Kyo
Doji Ren
Isawa Aki

[[While the players were selecting their characters- The player for Bayushi Kyo decided to keep their real identity hidden and instead introduce themself to the players as Bayushi Umiko (The fiancé of Doji Ren). This created an interesting way for the PC’s to become acquainted with each other since Doji Ren had never met his fiancé before.]]

 

Scene 1

On the road to Tsuma, the 4 PCs made small talk after learning all of them were on their way to Tsuma to compete in the Topaz Championship. Upon meeting the peasant Ryu- only Bayushi Umiko and Akodo Masako were willing to help. Isawa Aki saw this as a task that was beneath her and Doji Ren looked down upon peasants. Akodo Masako was really the only one putting her strength into lifting the cart as Bayushi Umiko rested her hands on the cart and pretended to push it. The players learned that Ryu lost his balance because he thought he saw the ghost of Doji Satsume standing on the river and then a sudden gust of wind knocked his cart over. The PCs learned some information about the Topaz Championship from Ryu and discovered the letter that was written to Doji Toshimoko. Akodo Masako decided to keep the letter and proceed to Tsuma.

 

Scene 2

As they enter the House of the Laughing Carp they see a young man wearing the colors of the Mantis Clan yelling at the woman in charge of the inn. Akodo Masako notices that he’s actually very handsome and convinces Hitoshi that he can stay in her room.  After defusing the scene the PCs decide to mingle with the other guests inside the inn.

Bayushi Kyo walked up to Bayushi Mei Lin and whispered that he couldn’t handle acting like Doji Rens’ fiancé anymore. He points over to Doji Ren who is currently singing in the middle of the inn. Bayushi Mei Lin tells Kyo to keep his voice down and to not speak of such things out in public. She agreed that she would arrange for his original mask and garments to be delivered to his room in the evening.

Akodo Masako immediately walked up to Ikoma Tsubasa, a fellow Lion Clan member, to learn more about him. She immediately felt sorry for him after learning that Tsubasa needed to pass his gempuku or else he would have to commit ritual suicide. Masako decided to keep Tsubasa company in order to keep him calm and focused.

Isawa Aki took this opportunity to look for any cute guys inside. She wanted to take advantage of still being a young teen before she would have to accept becoming a recognized adult in society in the next few days. She turned to Yasuki Jun who was short and balding, so he was a no. Tsubasa was busy crying in the corner with Masako, so that’s definitely a no. Shiba Toya had a nice strong physique but his face and attitude seemed way too serious. She noticed Hitoshi was sitting by himself since not many people would bother talking to a member of a Minor Clan. She took Hitoshi upstairs to talk to him privately by the window. Aki tried to be a little flirtatious with him. She didn’t care that he was Mantis and that pirates would sometimes raid Phoenix lands. She only saw a handsome young man with silky black hair and skin as smooth as any Crane. Hitoshi didn’t think much about her forward talking. He couldn’t understand why a member of a major clan, let alone a Phoenix girl, would try to talk to him in such a way. Maybe this was their way of trying to mock or shame him the day before the competition. He needed to stay focused and decided to go to Masakos’ room and call it a day. Isawa Aki couldn’t believe what just happened. She just got rejected Hitoshi, a Minor Clan member, and he went straight to Masakos’ room?! Flustered with what just happened the decided to go to her own room as well.

[[One of the players had a theory that Hitoshi might actually be a bastard child after hearing the description I gave about Hitoshi.]]

 

Scene 3

It is near midnight and everybody is asleep. Bayushi Kyo is the only one awake. Bayushi Mei Lin taps on his door to bring him his original mask and garments. She waits for him to change so she can receive Umiko’s mask and garments and quietly walks away. Moments later a bright blue glow from the courtyard wakes up the other 3 PCs and all 4 of them make their way to the courtyard. They question who this new Scorpion person is since they never met him earlier in the inn. He remains silent and just follows them outside. They find the ghost of Doji Satsume sitting with a tea set in front of him. Doji Ren immediately pushes the others aside knowing that he alone must be the one to perform the tea ceremony. Doji Satsume is pleased with the ceremony and begins talking to the PCs. Aki recalled her Theology studies to remember that ghosts are usually very cryptic and will not always give a straight answer to every question. Eventually he tells them that he wishes for them to look out for Hitoshi and to make sure that he survives this Championship. The PCs confirm that they will do this task for Doji Satsume. The ghost slowly fades away and everybody goes back to their respective rooms. Masako had earlier decided to let Hitoshi sleep on the bed as she was used to sleeping on rough surfaces as part of her training as a Lion Clan bushi. She sees Hitoshi sleeping calmly on the bed with the moon shining on his brilliant face. She tells herself in her head, “Don’t worry Satsume. I’ll keep him safe.” And she falls asleep on the floor.

 

Scene 4

The competitors make their way to the Kakita Dojo for their first day of competition. There they met Kitsuki Yuikimi and Bayushi Sugai. Kitsuki Yuikimi is the current Topaz Champion and Bayushi Sugai was the runner-up from last year. They didn’t have a chance to talk with them as the competition was ready to begin.

Sumai
The old priest took his time to set up the rope ring. Afterwards Toshimoko reached in the clay pot to call for 2 names. Yasuki Jun and Akodo Masako. Both competitors entered the ring and began their match. Yasuki Jun thought he might’ve had an advantage with facing a girl in his match. But the strength of Akodo Masako surprised him as she overpowered him and slammed him into the ground. The judge called for match to end and Masako would win.

Next was Bayushi Kyo vs. Isawa Aki. Both players rolled the exact amount of successes. Bayushi Kyo and Isawa Aki both immediately jumped towards each other and locked hands with each other. Kyo was composed trying to find a weak spot while Aki was aggressively trying to overpower him. Both players could not overcome each other as they would escape each other’s grapple maneuvers. The judge was impressed with both of their performances. He called the match and gave each of them a pass.

Then we move on to Ikoma Tsubasa vs. Doji Ren. The adventure book suggests that Tsubasa should fail in this competition and Doji Ren happened to fail his TN 2 roll. This match ends up in the exact opposite of the previous match. Doji Ren tried to use the Air ring to make a quick and tactical maneuver to push his opponent out of the ring. Doji Ren saw Tsubasa trying to charge after him and calculated his sidestep so that he would push Tsubasa from the side and out of the ring, but he didn’t expect Tsubasa to trip forward during his charge and Doji Ren ended up pushing the empty air after making his flashy maneuver. Not having a body to push off of- Doji Ren ends up falling as well and both competitors land on the ground face first. The judge shakes his head in disappointment after seeing this embarrassment. He calls for the match and fails both competitors.

 

Heraldry

We decided as a group to quickly RP some of the competitions that weren’t as exciting. Bayushi Kyo came out as the front runner for this competition. Masako and Aki both succeeded with Doji Ren missing the mark here.

 

Composure

Doji Ren does really well here. Everybody except for Isawa Aki passes here. She becomes pretty flustered with herself for not passing.

 

Athletics

Akodo Masako shows off her stunning Lion strength as she moves through the obstacle without breaking a sweat. The crowd cheers as they expected the young Lion to put on a great performance in all the physical activities.

Bayusho Kyo puts on a similar performance being able to overcome the obstacle with ease.

The Isawa are not known for their physique so not many people had high expectations when Isawa Aki moved forward to the start of the obstacle. The player for Isawa Aki ends up rolling extremely well for only relying on black ring dice. Aki couldn’t believe that she failed the Composure test and needed to redeem herself quickly. The orange fire glows in her eyes as he calls for the spirits of nature who reside in the obstacle course to show her the way. She can see the gentle spirits marking exactly where she needs to step, jump, land and climb in order to complete the obstacle as quickly as possible. Aki dashes fiercely from the start position with great confidence as she can see exactly where she needs to go. Instead of walking on the log like most competitors she quickly jumps on the middle of the log and hops off to the other side of the stream. Then she dashes, jumps and grabs the one rope that’s long enough for her to swing over the mud puddle without having to grab onto anymore ropes. As she reaches the wall obstacle she can see the spirits showing her where the cracks and stones to grab onto are. Without stopping she quickly climbs the wall. The spectators look in awe and shock and see Aki moving swiftly up the wall as if she were flying. Aki reaches the end of the obstacle making sure to catch her breath as she slowly comes to realization on what just happened. She looks up at the judge who smiles and declares Aki as the current front runner who completed the obstacle in record time. Aki keeps her front runner position throughout the Athletics competition.

Doji Ren unfortunately comes up short. He manages to get past the log obstacle. Ren swings and lands across the mud puddle, but not all the way. His feet end up splashing in the muddle puddle and therefore cannot keep a good grip when trying to climb the wall. His feet keep slipping and gives up on trying to climb the wall. Doj Ren fails this competition.
 

Horeseback Riding

All PCs roll well in order to pass the competition.

Bayushi Kyo and Doji Ren makes a strong performance being able to quickly complete the course.

Akodo Masako takes a slow and composed approach. There is no time limit so she makes sure to slowly lead the horse and carefully grab each flag and ring with success.

Isawa Aki continues the momentum with her previous success and fiercely grabs and each flag and ring with confidence.

 

Scene 5

After a long day of competing the PCs follow the crowd of their fellow competitors over to the Poisoned Water Sake House. Everybody gathers around and grabs their drinks. Some drink to their outstanding performance while others, like Hitoshi, drink their sorrows away. Their fun time together immediately gets interrupted as 11 Ronin plus their leader, Hatsuichi, make their way inside. He looks over to see a young unicorn competitor. She looks different compared to every other girl in Rokugan. She has curly hair instead of straight hair and her skin tone is a dark sandy brown color instead of the usual pale white. Hatsuichi begins by throwing an insult towards the young female Unicorn bushi: Moto Batbayar. She is stunned by the sudden insult but decides to keep her mouth shut and grits her teeth together in order to not make herself and her clan look bad. Hatsuichi follows up and turns toward Akodo Masako and gives her an insult. Akodo Masako is not the type to sit back and take an insult. She leaps forward in anger and punches Hatsuichi straight on his nose. Hatsuichi begins bleeding and tells his fellow Ronin to give the competitors **** as he runs away. The Ronin slowly engage each PC and NPC competitor. The workers all flee while the long-time customers pull up their seats and sit against the wall to enjoy the free brawl that’s about to happen in front of them.

The brawl erupts and Bayushi Kyo is the first to strike. He notices the Ronin in front of him has a limp leg. Instead of reaching for his wooden weapon he decides to grab a chair from the bar and smacks the ruffian on his weak leg. The ronin falls and cries in agony as he tries desperately to at least stay on his knees. Kyo is enjoying this a little too much.

Masako is in a defensive stance. She notices Hitoshi is struggling since he can’t keep his footing with the amount of sake he drank. She pushes him back and decides to engage against 2 ronin herself. She decided to fight with her fists and delivers two quick punches to the ruffian closest to her. The ruffian takes the hits and smiles, eager to deliver back the blows.

The spectators are cheering at the great fight before them. Then we move to Doji Ren. Doji Ren does not want to engage in such a barbaric fight. He instead takes out his fan and covers his mouth as he talks insanely fast trying to convince the ronin that he is making a mistake and he should just forfeit right now. The ronin is confused at first but ignores the words of Doji Ren. The spectators boo at Doji Ren for not wanting to fight.

Isawa Aki is to the right of Doji Ren. She takes out her staff and tries to swing at the ruffian in front of her. She completely misses as she waves her staff at the empty air. The ruffian grabs her staff, pulls her towards him and smacks Aki in the face while shoving her to the ground.

The ruffian engaging Doji Ren unleashes a flurry of punches to his stomach and forces Ren back a bit while still maintain his composure.

The ruffians fighting Masako manage to land a few punches but nothing that she can’t handle.

The ruffian struggling against Bayushi Kyo tries to get up and completely misses his punch as he falls back on the ground due to his weakened leg.

Bayushi Kyo has more Strife than his Composure at the start of his turn. The player wishes to perform his Unmasking and incorporate it with his attack. The player rolls and succeeds with more than enough damage to finish off the poor ruffian. Bayushi Kyo looks down on the ruffian, raises the chair with one hand and proceeds to smack the ruffian repeatedly while letting out a maniacal laughter of pleasure from seeing the pain he has inflicted on the ruffian. The ruffian is knocked out cold from the brutal beating.

Masako readies her wooden training weapon as the fight escalates. She lunges for the same ruffian she has been fighting. The wooden tip stabs the ruffian in the chest and he falls with a burning pain still on his chest. He is still conscious, but he is near his limit.

Doji Ren continues to talk to the ruffian he is engaging. Still talking hastily about how this fight is about to turn around and that the ruffian should flee.

Isawa Aki is pissed. She got rejected by Hitoshi, she didn’t outperform everybody in the competition and now she got slapped in the face and pushed to the floor by a ronin. Everybody was watching her embarrass herself. She gets up slowly with a frown on her face and her hair covering the mean look in her eyes. She readies herself in a fierce stance ready to strike. The player makes an impressive roll. A success with 4 bonus successes. More than enough to take down a healthy ruffian. Isawa Aki lets out a yell as she lunges her staff forward and hits the ruffian in the groin. The ruffian bends forward from the shock of the pain. Aki immediately follows up by driving her stuff upward to hit him straight in the chin making the ruffian stand straight with his mouth wide open trying to cry in pain. Aki then lands the finishing blow by turning swiftly in a complete 180 motion and uses the staff to smack the ruffian across the face. The ruffian falls and loses consciousness.

The ruffian fighting Doji Ren has now gone into a panic after seeing his companions fall. He and the rest of the ruffians flee while carrying off their friends.

The young contestants rejoice in their victory and continue in their celebration with more sake. However, there is one thing that has been troubling Doji Ren. Instead of fighting he was actually analyzing the room around him looking for anything suspicious during the brawl. He noticed one of the contestants who was with them earlier was not present during the fight. Bayushi Mei Lin was missing.

 

Scene 6

Day 2 arrives and the contestants wake up and gather around the floor of the inn. The competitions is still a few hours away, so the players decide to roam around the village.

Doji Ren and Akodo Masako decide to visit Kakita Toshimoko at his estate to deliver the letter that Ryu was carrying. Toshimoko reads the letter and recognizes the handwriting belonging to his brother. He doesn’t understand the meaning behind the letter and tells Masako and Doji Ren that the letter means nothing to him and hands it back to Masako. Toshimoko tells them they should instead be preparing for the competition that will start shortly.

Isawa Aki decided to visit the Shrine of Fortunes. As she approaches the shrine she sees a familiar person praying at the shrine. Kitsu Tsubasa, the Lion shugenja, is praying for good luck so that he may pass his gempuku. He has every right to be scared since he will have to commit ritual suicide if he doesn’t pass. Isawa Aki doesn’t pay much attention to him and walks over to an isolated spot near the shrine. She offers her prayers to the Air kami, hoping they will look after her today and bring her good luck.

Bayushi Kyo visited the exotic market. An old peddler waves him over to his stall. The peddler recognizes the clothing of a Scorpion samurai and immediately shows him what he has to offer. A bottle filled with green liquid with a skull on it. The peddler tries to convince Kyo that it is a deadly poison that any Scorpion would love to get their hands on. Unfortunately, Bayushi Kyo sees through the lie. The liquid is too thin to be an effective poison and the color resembles that of a sleeping drug and not a poison. Kyo decides to buy it at a deep discount along with a pouch of herbal tea that was sitting in the corner of the stall. 

As the contestants finish their tour of the village they all head back to the inn to gather their belongings and head over to the Kakita Dojo to get ready for Day 2 of the competition.

Weaponry

The weaponry competition begins with Akodo Masako and Bayushi Kyo both showing great proficiency at handling a weapon against each other by deflecting each other’s attacks. Although the same cannot be said for Isawa Aki and Doji Ren. Doji Ren had persuaded Aki to not hurt his beautiful face giving her a minor penalty to her check. Doji Ren didn’t know how to handle the wooded practice sword too well and was swinging wildly. Isawa Aki could not read his random movements and tried her best to deflect his flurry of attacks. Aki backed away and ended up tripping on a rock and fell on her back. Doji Ren was too busy trying to lunge at the empty air and fell on his face. Both competitors failed this competition.

 

Poetry

The poetry competition was a big success for all the players. Akodo Masako and Isawa Aki had to come up with a haiku with the theme being ‘cherry blossoms’. Bayushi Kyo and Doji Ren had the theme of ‘strawberries’. Both Doji Ren and Isawa Aki tied for the front-runner position.

 

Law

Akodo Masako was the only one among the players who failed this competition. Masako could only come up with answers that were half-right and half-wrong. Bayushi Kyo and Doji Ren both showed great knowledge in the laws. Isawa Aki was impressive to the point where she could come up with answers before the judges could finish their questions. Isawa Aki was the front-runner.

 

Go

Both Akodo Masako and Bayushi Kyo failed this competition after making too many mistakes and not remembering the rules of the game. Isawa Aki and Doji Ren faced off and both competitors displayed great tactical knowledge. Doji Ren thought he had the advantage until he realized he had played into Aki’s strategy this whole time. Isawa Aki would dominate the game and become the front-runner for this competition.

 

Archery

Hitoshi is the first competitor to compete here. Hitoshi takes careful aim and releases the first arrow. Before the arrow can hit the target he quickly pivots back to the second line and immediately releases the second arrow and repeats this motion for the third arrow. All three arrows hit the bullseye in quick succession. The crowd cheers and the judge is very impressed by his showing.

The players are told that Hitoshi must keep his front-runner position if they want him to pass his gempuku.

Akodo Masako failed to hit the target at all and did not pass this competition.

Bayushi Kyo and Doji Ren both performed well by successfully hitting the target 3 times.

Isawa Aki was able to land 2 bullseyes on her first two shots and the third shot landed in the inner ring of the target.

Hitoshi remained the front-runner for this competition.

 

Hunting

The competitors were told to hunt and bring back the most impressive game they could find. Isawa Aki and Kitsu Tsubasa are both shugenja and cannot hunt game, so instead their objective was to retrieve a medicinal mushroom from the forest. Akodo Masako was able to catch a red fox near the water in the forest. She bent down to retrieve the corpse of the fox. The letter, addressed to Toshimoko, she was carrying had fallen into the water. She picked up the letter and saw black streaks of ink where the words used to be. She looked down and noticed there were fish eggs in water underneath where the letter had landed. She decided to grab a handful of these fish eggs and store them in her pouch. The rest of her friends didn’t do so well. Bayushi Kyo was wearing his mask the whole time and it got harder to see as the sun kept setting. He couldn’t find any game to hunt before time was called. Doji Ren came back with a small squirrel he managed to capture, but the squirrel bit his hand and ran away before the judge could see what he brought back. Isawa Aki came back with a regular mushroom and not the medicinal mushroom she was instructed to bring back. All three of them failed the hunting competition.

 

Scene 7

With the trials over it was time to celebrate in the Magistrates estate with a feast. The competitors each presented a gift in traditional order. Bayushi Kyo presented his gift when it was his turn. He offered a strong horse that could match any Moto horse (Kyo stole the horse from a Moto scout on his way to Tsuma) Kakita Toshimoko humbly accepted the gift. Isawa Aki presented a poem, but Toshimoko was not so pleased as Shiba Toya had also presented a poem before her. Eventually he accepted the poem out of politeness, but it was clear he was disappointed in Aki for not having something unique or original. Doji Ren presented a painting of a crane residing in Doji Rens’ hometown before the tsunami consumed it. Toshimoko was very pleased with this gift and knew exactly where he would hang it later. Akodo Masako presented a fine katana that she had crafted before she set off to Tsuma. The katana is a traditional Lion katana. A kakita duelist probably would not wield it, but it would make for a good teaching tool for future Crane students. Toshimoko humbly accepted the gift.

After the final gift was presented the servants immediately started serving the first course meal. Hitoshi was angry that he was skipped because he was a minor clan member and was forbidden to present a gift. He let out a huge outburst that left the rest of the room in silence. Masako stood up and talked to Hitoshi in order to calm him down. She passed a government check to remind him the rules of the land and that he needed to respect them no matter how bad it may look. Hitoshi remembers Masako helped him out previously, so it didn’t take much for her to convince him. He apologized for his outburst and the feast continued for the rest of the night. The servants presented a large scroll and revealed its contents to everybody in the dining room. It was the official standings and everybody was eager to see where they placed compared to everybody else.

1. Bayushi Mei Lin – 15 points
2. Moto Batbayar – 14 points
3. Kakita Riku – 14 points
4. Isawa Aki – 13 points
5. Bayushi Kyo – 11 points
6. Kitsu Tsubasa – 11 points
7. Akodo Masako – 10 points
8. Shiba Toya – 10 points
9. Doji Ren – 9 points
10. Mirumoto Hinata – 9 points
11. Hitoshi – 9 points
12. Yasuki Jun – 8 points

The competitors boasted about their points while others were just glad that they actually passed. They enjoyed their feast for the rest of the night.

 

Scene 8

The following morning, the contestants gather for the final stage of the Topaz Championship. Most of them will be competing in a single elimination iaijutsu competition while the two shugenja will compete in the taryu-jiai competition. The first match is between two competitors who did incredibly well in the first two days- Bayushi Mei Lin and Moto Batbayar. After a quick duel- Bayushi Mei Lin triumphs over Batbayar.

The next duel is Kakita Riku vs. Hitoshi. Kakita Riku dashes towards Hitoshi to end this duel quickly. She knows she can easily overpower him in a duel. Hitoshi is unable to deflect her attack and is struck in the chest. That’s when the disaster happened. Hitoshi’s chest now had a huge cut across his chest. His blood splattering on Kakita Riku, her face now covered with his blood. Kakita Riku couldn’t understand what just happened or why it happened. She fell on both knees with her eyes wide open, not even being able to gasp for air. She was completely shocked. Kakita Toshimoko and nearby healers rushed over to Hitoshi as he let out a cry of pain and agony while bleeding out on the floor.

The 4 players notice a slender figure near the exit holding what appears to be an exact double of Kakita Riku’s blade. Akado Masako tries to give a command to nearby spectators but everybody is too busy witnessing the tragedy that just happened in front of their eyes. They rush over to the mysterious person and follow Kitsuki Yuikimi who is leading the chase. They all grab a live/sharp katana from the weapon rack as they exit the dojo.

Kyo and Masako are able to keep up with Yuikimi while Aki and Ren start to trail bit further behind. As they cross the bridge they see Yuikimi taking a longer route around the buildings hoping to cut off the mysterious person from exiting the village. The players look back and see the mysterious figure moving through the crowd of villagers hoping to lose his pursuers. Kyo knows this trick very well and is able to gently slip past the crowd and keep up with the mysterious person. Masako is trailing behind while Aki and Ren managed to catch up with Masako. The three of them can’t see the mysterious person but they can still see Kyo and follow his lead. The mystery person attempts one last effort to lose his pursuers and sprint across the bridge on his left leading to the docks. Kyo is out of breath at this point and can barely see where they mystery figure went to. He points in the direction of the bridge to signal his allies where to go. Masako leads a full sprint through the crowd and towards the bridge. Aki could feel the air kami guiding her on the easiest route to take. She follows the breath of the wind and runs towards the edge of the village and leaps across the water towards the edge of the bridge. It’s as if Aki were flying towards the bridge. She lands on the bridge railings and takes the lead by dashing towards the docks. Ren is just able to keep up as both he and Kyo make their way across the bridge with Masako in front of them.

They corner the mysterious figure who reveals himself to be Bayushi Sugai. Sugai is not happy that these students were able to witness him fleeing from the Kakita Dojo. Four ronin emerge from behind the large crates in the docks. Sugai and the four ronin start to surround the players as Sugai orders them to kill the students and leave no witnesses. Akodo Masako walks straight towards Sugai and declares a duel between the two. Sugai could care less about her honorable duels but he will gladly end her life. Kyo grabs onto his sheathed katana as two ronin make their way to his direction. Kyo quickly strikes the first ronin across the chest and leaves his lifeless body on the floor. Kyo lets out a maniacal laugh at how easy these ronin are. The second ronin panics and tries to swing at Kyo but completely misses. To Masako’s left there are two ronin approaching Aki. Aki walks back towards Masako with her back against Masako’s. Aki tries to conjure a tempest of air against her enemies, but all she could do was summon a small breeze. The two ronin then run over to Aki. Aki is able to deflect the first ronin’s attack but she can’t evade the other attack. The ronin swings and cuts Aki across her shoulder. Doji Ren is standing behind Kyo and tries to persuade the one ronin on their side to give up and go home already. He sees Aki is in trouble and runs over to her direction. Sugai has his blade locked with Masako. They both pull their blades back and Sugai is able to leave a deep cut on Masako’s chest. Masako falls to her knees from the pain but quickly gets up and launches a counter attack and delivers the same attack onto Sugai. Both Masako and Sugai are bleeding and are struggling to keep fighting.

Kyo dashes past the sole ronin on his side and smacks the ronin in the back of the head with he hilt of his katana. Kyo runs towards the crates to conceal himself from all eyes. Doji Ren waves his hand in front of his face as he tries to spew out a barrage of words towards the ronin who were after Aki. The ronin don’t take his words kindly and charge after Ren. Aki takes this opportunity to turn around and help Masako who is currently injured and struggling to lock blades with Sugai. She runs past Masako and delivers a quick swing to Sugai’s exposed stomach. The side of his stomach has a deep gash and now he is bleeding out from his chest and abdomen area. Sugai falls to his knees but is not yet done with his fight. If he’s going to go down then he can at least take one of them with him. He lifts his hands to deliver an upswing on Masako. This time his blade cuts through her flesh from her outer thigh up to her lower abdomen. The cut isn’t deep but it’s enough to send Masako on the floor incapacitated for a few short seconds. Behind them they can ear a katana hitting the floor as Doji Ren takes the attacks from two ronin. He has cuts on both his right arm and his left leg. Doji Ren struggles on the floor from the pain he just received.

Kyo emerges from the crates behind Sugai. He charges forward with his kata straight out in front of him. Sugai is struggling to get up as he pushes down on his katana against the ground to find his footing. The momentum of Kyo’s charge drives his katana straight through the back of Sugai and out through his chest. Sugai can’t breathe as blood is dripping out of his mouth. Masako opens her eyes and sees blood dripping on the floor in front of her. She looks up and sees Kyo’s katana drenched in Sugai’s blood. Kyo pulls his katana back out and sheathes it as Sugai drops dead on the floor. The other ronin see that Sugai has fallen and run away across the bridge while they still can. Kitsuki Yuikimi arrives moments later to see the players helping each other up and the corpse of Bayushi Sugai laying on the floor.

The players return to the Kakita Dojo with Yuikimi. Yuikimi is holding the corpse of Bayushi Sugai and explains to everybody what had happened. The issue is resolved and Kakita Riku is relieved from not having to commit ritual suicide in front of the large crowd. The iaijustsu competition is scheduled to continue. Doji Ren has no problem sitting this one out due to his injuries. Akado Masako does not share the same feelings. She asks for the healers to bandage her wounds so she can keep competing. The healers make quick work to stop the bleeding. It’s not a perfect recovery but it’s just enough to allow Masako to stand and use a weapon.

The duels continue with Shiba Toya making quick work of Yasuki Jun. The next match is between Bayushi Kyo and Mirumoto Hinata. Kyo is still feeling energized from the previous battle and shuts down Hinata with ease. Akodo Masako will receive the first bye due to her injuries.

The second round starts with Akodo Masako going against Kakita Riku. Riku is still shook from earlier but regains her composure as she glares across at Masako. Masako’s blood is still boiling from the battle she had with Sugai. She uses that surge of energy to overpower Kakita Riku who loses her grip on her weapon and concedes to Masako. The following match is Bayushi Kyo going up against Shiba Toya. Both Kyo and Toya are ontop of their game. Both clash their weapons against each other for at least 10 minutes until Kyo notices Toya starting to stagger. He uses that opportunity to slip past Toya and swing back towards Toyas gut. Toya falls and Kyo is declared the winner. The bye for this round goes to Bayushi Mei Lin due to having more points than anybody else in the competition. The judges talk to one another and decide that the final round should be a triple threat match between Akodo Masako, Bayushi Kyo and Bayushi Mei Lin.

The three enter the dueling area and they all stare each other down. Masako signals over to Kyo to gang up on Mei Lin. Both of them dash forward to Mei Lin. Masako locks blades with Mei Lin while Kyo misses his swing. He causes a distraction with his fake swing and leaps back away from Mei Lin. Using this distraction Masako quickly swing at Mei Lin leaving her stunned on the ground. The only two competitors left are Masako and Kyo. Masako and Kyo clash blades without either one making a mistake. Masako thought she saw an opening but Kyo was quick to deflect any oncoming attacks. Masako knows that Kyo should be getting tired soon and continues clashing directly with him. With one final ferocious swing Masako is able to knock Kyo’s weapon right out of his hand leaving Kyo no choice but to submit to Masako.

With Masako being the iaijutsu champion it now turns to Kitsu Tsubasa and Isawa Aki for their taryu-jiai duel. The two competitors walk up to the dueling area and glare at each other. Kitsu Tsubasa is the first to make his move. Tsubasa raises his staff and a blue ethereal being starts to form out of his body. An old Lion samurai towers in front of him staring down at Isawa Aki. Aki reveals a small glowing white pendant with a kami floating inside. She whispers to the pendant saying she promises to make a shrine for the kami near the edge of the village. This particular kami has not yet experienced this part of Rokugan and is pleased with Aki’s words. She breaks the pendant with her hand and a sudden gust of air begins to form around her. The air quickly takes shape in the form of a dragon’s head. The dragon’s head quickly charges with its fangs wide open towards the ethereal samurai. Its fangs meets the blade of the samurai as they are now both locked in combat. Tsubasa struggles to keep his footing as Aki shouts for another burst of energy. The dragon pierces through the ethereal katana and breaks the ethereal samurai in half. Tsubasa gets knocked to the ground with the dragon hovering over him and concedes to Aki.

The judges are extremely impressed with the students who competed this year. Under normal circumstances the judges might call for Aki to win the Topaz Championship. However, Akodo Masako pushed through the competition with sheer willpower. She suffered great wounds when confronting Bayushi Sugai and was still able to overpower her fellow competitors who all outscored her in the previous two days. It was a tough decision but the judges called the winner of the championship to be Akodo Masako with Isawa Aki as the runner-up.

[[The story ends as written in the book. Everybody passes their gempuku. Asako receives the Topaz Champion armor and the 4 players are invited by Agasha Sumiko to become Emerald Magistrates leading into the next story.

Fortunately, the player for Kyo had the quick instinct of disguising himself as Bayushi Umiko in the beginning. It gave me something to build off of in order to make his character make sense as to why a Bayushi would be helping/siding with the other players. I explained that Bayushi Sugai received orders from the Scorpion Clan to make fools out of the Crane clan by inviting Hitoshi (the bastard son of Kakita Toshimoko) to the tournament and make it so it looks like Toshimoko wanted to kill his own bastard child. This would redeem Sugai of his failure from last year when he was ordered to win the Topaz Championship or face the consequences. However, the Scorpion Clan had another plan set in motion. They saw Bayushi Kyo was a promising young samurai who could have a bright future. They ordered him to go compete in the Topaz Championship and kill Bayushi Sugai. Bayushi Kyo is great at disguising and impersonating other people. He came to the village of Tsuma under the identity of Bayushi Umiko. Sugai was not aware of his true identity and thought the two Scorpions coming to compete were Bayushi Mei Lin and Bayushi Umiko. Two letters were delivered overnight telling both Mei Lin and Umiko to stay away from the Sake house the following day. The letter never reached Kyo because he registered at the inn under his real name. The innkeeper threw away the letter that was addressed to Umiko. That is why Kyo was at the Sake house but Mei Lin was not. And that also explains why Kyo was willing to kill Sugai and help out his fellow competitors.]]

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Overall the Beginner Box was a big hit with our group. They can’t wait to start on the sequel adventure. Sorry for any bad grammar. I just wrote it up as quick as I could. This was my first time running an RPG let alone an L5R rpg. When I look back it does look like I gave very descriptive details with how Isawa Aki played through her actions compared to other players. It might be a mix of me being a Phoenix clan nerd and also because there were many instances where she rolled an extremely high amount of successes. Hopefully this will help give some creative ideas for others running their games. 

 

Edited September 18, 2018 by ElSuave

[Vutall 128]

I really like how you handled your Scorpion PC. Very nice!

[Hida Jitenno 586]

Doji Ren sounds like a complete d-bag.

But then, he's a Crane, so it's perfect.

Thanks for sharing!

[Vulcan646 60]

So now that you have provided us this wonderful write up , my next question is going to be when/if you will post the follow up adventure write up. 

Regardless of what you decide, thanks for sharing your GMing experience and story with the beginner box adventure

[Hida Jitenno 586]

7 minutes ago, Vulcan646 said:

So now that you have provided us this wonderful write up , my next question is going to be when/if you will post the follow up adventure write up. 

Regardless of what you decide, thanks for sharing your GMing experience and story with the beginner box adventure

Seconded, plus maybe the adventure from the Beta? You're a great writer!

[ElSuave 273]

Our group is going to reconvene in 2 weeks before we start up the adventure. Some of us are busy and it also gives me time to read up on the other rulebook and the Palace of the Emerald Champion adventure. I'll most likely summarize that adventure as well. It might be a while before it gets posted since we won't be starting again until the following weekend. I tend to write up the summary after each game session. It took about 4-5 hours for our group to play from beginning -> intermission which was perfect timing for us. On the second game session it took closer to 5-6 hours to go from scene 6 -> end. So in 2 weeks from now I'll probably have our next game session written up and saved but I'll wait until the entire story arc is done before I post it here. Glad to hear you guys enjoyed it!