Scroll One: Kyōen no Torekkā

The Emerald Empire of Rokugan. It is a land upheld by honor, guided by fate, ruled by destiny. The Great Clans each support the Emperor, but inter-clan conflict is inevitable—both in the Emperor’s courts and on the battlefield. In the midst of danger and turmoil, honor must be your sword and your armor.

It is an era of sudden change and upheaval in the Emerald Empire. Mortal schemes, elemental imbalances, and celestial turmoil have disrupted the political, military, and spiritual equilibrium of Rokugan. Long-simmering rivalries and fresh betrayals ripple through the courts and on the battlefield. The Chrysanthemum Throne is beset by threats from without and within, and the honor of the seven Great Clans shall be put to the test.
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Re: The Great Wave: Impact

Post by Orvost » Mon Apr 13, 2020 9:09 am

Vardaen wrote:
Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:14 pm
He manages to dive down and hold his breath, his bare feet kick off the wall and he swings down through the swirling torrent. He is struck by floating tables, a keg of something, and avoids a jelly fish like table cloth come to attack him. He reaches out, a barely visible glint in the dark waters, and his hand wraps firmly around the handle of his ancestral blade!
Shonogen smiles, a full toothy grin that fills his mouth with water. In this murky world he wasn't required to maintain his face or keep his emotions in check. He holds the sword in front of him for a moment before replacing it in its saya. Grandfather had publicly gifted the sword to Shonogen a few short weeks ago making him the legal guardian and owner, but it wasn't until this moment that the sword had voiced its opinion about the arrangement.

Urusai could have been anywhere; carried out to sea, buried in mud, swept to where someone else could find it. But it had chosen to be here, where his searching, outstretched hand would grasp it. This is the moment where Shonogen knew that the sword had chosen him and they were destined to forge a destiny together.

Shonogen kicks for the surface. He had to find a way to escape the debris-filled room of the inn and get to the gardens.

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Re: The Great Wave: Impact

Post by Vardaen » Tue Apr 21, 2020 5:03 pm

Ryoko pivots, and wades back through the water, she's furiously removing debris from her master, but then pauses as she reaches the one long board shoved through back to front, still partially attached to the wall as well. Removing it or him likely means death. Kirino reaches up meekly and tugs on Ryoko pulling her face down close to his. "...listen to me.... it... it...was..." he whispers into her ear, barely audible over the roaring of the waters.

Then his head goes limp and his life drains out of him as the water around the two is colored crimson.


Jun and Kyousuke are poised to escape, now on the soon to collapse balcony. There is another roof, not too terribly far away they could try and swim to, but first healing. Jun removes a scroll from his satchel, the whole thing is awkward and precarious, and what should be a simple call to the kami becomes a tricky summoning. The waters around the two grow warm, then bubble like a hot spring. As the water heats up Kyousuke can feel his injuring melting away like a long extended stay inside a sauna.
Touch of the Hot Springs: +5TN cause of the situation = TN 15
Rolled: 4K2
19, 9, 3, 3
Totaling: 28
Adding 0 = 28 - 15 = 13 Wounds Healed
Kyousuke @ 7 Wounds (Healthy +0)
Gensai reaches out for Kanko-Cho the moment she plunges under the surface of the water. He is holding on to his make shift raft as best as he can, kicking with his feet to spur himself closer and closer to where the young woman went under. He grabs something, and can only hope in the black murky water under the light of Lord Moon that its her. He feels a hand grab back and he pulls, kicks, and up comes Kanko-Cho spitting water like a drowned cat.
Rolled: 4K3
15, 4, 2, 1
Totaling: 21
Adding 0 = 21 vs TN 15 Success
Shonogen, nearly drowning himself with a smile, kicks back to the surface. The tiny air bubble that is trapped between the rafters of the first floor is nearly gone, one more breath, maybe two, then Shonogen will be out of air here. He must get out, he must escape!
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

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Re: The Great Wave: Impact

Post by Muskrat » Tue Apr 21, 2020 6:34 pm

"Kirino-sama!" shouts Ryoko in distress. She tugs in vain at his body before it really sinks in that he is dead and that there is nothing she can do for him. "Kirino-sama," she says again, this time in a whisper.

She forces herself to turn away and try to find higher ground, some place relatively safe. As she tries to make her way to the roof of the inn, her minds race. At first she thinks that Kirino-sama was accusing the person he named of causing the tsunami, but Ryoko quickly realized he was talking about the misappropriated rice taxes. Does it even matter now? she wonders, but after a few moments, she realizes that it does. Someone corrupt can not be allowed to remain in a position of authority now, when there was so much that needed to be done honestly if the village was to rebuild. But she was no magistrate, only a yoriki, and she had no evidence, only her testimony about a dead man's accusation. She would need to investigate and find allies.

As she sloshed through the water to the roof, she thought, Well, first I need to survive if I am to fulfill my duty to Kirino-sama, the clan and the Empress.

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Re: The Great Wave: Impact

Post by Sasori » Tue Apr 21, 2020 9:22 pm

Kanko-Cho spits water and coughs, trying to catch a breath, now that she is above the water again. When she realizes that Gensai is the one who holds her hand, her face turns bright red.
Part of her wants to hold on to him longer and part of her wants to let got of Gensais hand.
"Arigato", the young Asahina manages to say, between the coughs.
“The wind moves with such subtlety, you do not even notice your own breathing. Be aware. Only a fool knows the wind is empty.” Tao of Shinsei

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Re: The Great Wave: Impact

Post by ManWithDoor » Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:05 am

Kyousuke's breath catches as the healing warmth flows through him. He lets out a shaky breath as it passes, giving a weak smile in gratitude. "My thanks, Jun-san." He points to the nearby roof. "That looks promising. I'm not seeing anything better at the moment anyways. Shall we?" He shakes out his feet, trying to loosen up before jumping into the chaotic water.
Rule Number 12: "A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head."

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Re: The Great Wave: Impact

Post by Orvost » Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:45 am

Shonogen was no expert on fluid dynamics, but he could tell from the water dripping from above and the hissing escape of air from his shrinking breathing pocket that the upper floor of the inn was filling with floodwater too. He had to get out, but where?

The building had held up well under the onslaught of the tsunami floodwaters, a testiment to the late proprietress of the inn. Perhaps she hired Kaiu engineers to build the structure. In any case, Shonogen decides to get to the inn's roof to survey the damage to the rest of the city. With one last gasp, he dives and tries to move with the current as much as possible to find a way up or out.

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Re: The Great Wave: Impact

Post by Graven » Fri Apr 24, 2020 3:45 pm

Jun replaces the scroll carefully, "Yes, the roof seems the best options, let us go, then." Clearly apprehensive about the swim, Jun slowly slips off the table and out into the water.
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Re: The Great Wave: Impact

Post by Hermit » Mon Apr 27, 2020 11:19 pm

If Gensai is aware of Kanko-Cho’s reaction to such informal contact, the rōnin seems to pay it no mind, their continued survival taking precedence over whatever breaches in etiquette may have been made, now rendered utterly meaningless in the wake of this catastrophe. The damp chill soaking deeply into their bones coupled with the lifeless bodies of hapless victims that bob to the surface or float by in eerie silence serve as a constant reminder of the dread fate that awaits them should they remain adrift and at the utter mercy of this pitiless deluge.

“We must get to higher ground!” bellows Gensai urgently to his fellow survivors over the dull crash of the rushing waves, all the while frantically looking about their immediate surroundings in hopes of discovering some means to aid them in their desperate climb to an elevated position.
''At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.'' - Lao-Tzu

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Re: The Great Wave: Impact

Post by Sasori » Tue Apr 28, 2020 10:13 pm

Kanko-Cho nods in agreement.
"Hai, Gensai-san. I can try to ease our way and calm the kami of the water a bit down, but I'd need to rely on your help for a while longer", the young Asahina says.

The Shugenja then pulls out a kanzashi of her hair.
Come to think of it, she wonders how so many of those were still in place.
She looks closely at the hair jewelry to remember the design, so she won't recreate it.
Kanko-Cho then starts to pray, her voice loud enough to be heard by the kami, but low enough to not disturb any Samurai around her, without the intention of whispering or being secretive. She just does not want to break their concentration.

Her hand, which is holding the kanzashi, softly strokes the surface of the water, while she starts to speak in a calm voice.

"Oh mighty kami of water, we feel your anger and it pains us to see you so agitated.
Oh generous kami of water, please allow me to help you calm down a bit.
Oh ever moving kami of water, please take this humble token as a symbol of our respect for you.
Oh eternal kami of water, please allow us to get to a safe place, so that we may honor you.
Oh pure kami of water, please accept my promise to never recreate this kanzashi I offered you as a token of our respect.
Oh gentle kami of water, please ease our way to the roof, so that we may pray to you."

The Shugenja starts speaking, but after a while she changes to singing. Her voice modulated in a way so that the prayer sounds like a calming lullaby. After finishing the prayer, she places her hand on the surface of the water and sets the kanzashi free, so that the kami may take her offering.

But the Shugenja does not stop her sung prayer after this.
She repeats the process, pulls another kanzashi out of her hair, looks closely at the jewelry to remember the design, so she won't recreate it, repeats the song and sets the kanzashi free in the water.

When Kanko-Cho tries to grab another jewelry she realizes she doesn’t have any left.
But the young Asahina feels like this is not enough, so she shortly thinks about what else she has with her and can be offered to the kami. Aside from her clothing, only the scroll satchel and her wakizashi are left. Neither would be an offering, which would not end up making trouble for her. So the young Shugenja tries to think of things the kami of water like.
Movement. Life. Perception. Change. Senses. Health. Purity. Renewal. Rituals. Growth. Travel.

"The kami are already in movement, so breaking a dam or similar might not be enough to stop them or ask for their help", Kanko-Cho thinks,"I could offer to forfeit my sight, which is a bit extreme, or offer to not use my sight for an amount of time. Or help rebuilding the shrine dedicated to the ronin or travel to a nearby village, I do not know the villages here, or maybe help recreate the gardens here or promise to take care of all the wounded or take care of the funeral rites for the dead. Yes. I will offer this."

She repeats the prayer song and offers her help with the funerary rites, as soon as the waves withdraw from the land as a third sacrifice, still willing to offer more, if the kami were to demand anything else.
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“The wind moves with such subtlety, you do not even notice your own breathing. Be aware. Only a fool knows the wind is empty.” Tao of Shinsei

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Re: The Great Wave: Impact

Post by Vardaen » Fri May 01, 2020 6:26 pm

Shonogen has to get out of there, taking his last breath he dives back under the water and makes for the front door. The door is long gone, but the opening is there and he kicks out into the wider water of the town square and is swept away! He surfaces a dozen yards from the front door of the inn near a tree and grabs hold. He's made it out and take stock of the situation.

From there the Crab can see a few form scrambling up on the crumbling roof of the Inn. Ryoko, yes its Ryoko atop the Inn's roof. Half of the roof has collapses in and she's standing up there with another figure, but who it is Shonogen can't make out in detail. The samurai-ko can however. Its the cook from the Inn, a peasant man who clings to the frame terrified for his life.

The Crab then can see two forms leap from a balcony into the water and they are swept away. Toward another rooftop that is still poking up out of the water. Jun and Kyousuke take the plunge into the water, and regret it almost right away, but both manage to help one another in reaching the second roof. There isn't much more than half a dozen square feet on the roof for the pair to share.

Floating away on some boards is the ronin Gensai and the priestess Kanko-Cho and the young Crane Takashi, the three zoom past the Crab on their little rafts. He can hear her praying to the kami asking for aid, for calm, for it to take care of them. The kami seems to maybe hear her, for the current takes the trio right into a patch of trees. The tops sticking up from the water, bent but not broken, and both are able to leap from their flotsam and grab hold of the heavy branches and hang on. Takashi grabs a branch, "Climb up!" He reaches out to help Kanko-cho.

More people are now being spotted in the water, peasants, some alive, most dead. A crane samurai, face down is washed inland past Shonogen. While Jun and Kyousuke see a basket hat and long flute tangled up among some jetsam nearby. Ryoko on the cracking and creaking roof in sees a very strange sight -- a horse, a powerful warhorse swims through town as its washed away westwards.
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

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