Ring of Earth - Descent into Darkness

[Vardaen]

"The Emerald Champion is not known to be in the city that I am aware off." The man hands back the papers, "Your offices, as I am certain you know Magistrate-sama, are located in Okura Dsitrict, just down this road...." he gives you directions and you are soon off.

For the rest of the day you partake in the dragging duties of finding the Emerald Magistrate estates, dealing with your mounts, your gear, cleaning the road from you, reporting in to those of any rank above you, dictating your reports or handing them in. Countless minor functionaries collect and scribe your words, you have to record expenses and kills, and taxes and report over and over again until late into the day. During it all however you collect your Magistrate Stipend, everyone gathering another ten koku to their purses for the year. Lunch, dinner, practice in the dojo for a short while, some meditation in the shrine. It all takes place until it is late evning, the sun has set and you find yourselves once more gathered together on the porch of the estate. You've learned there are four other Emerald Magistrates present in the estate, but you haven't actually met more than two them, and those two are more the courtier type than the out on the road types like you.

So sitting on the porch, you have a bottle of warm sake, a pot of hot tea and a kiseru pipe to smoke if they suit you. The view is pretty, a pair of cherry trees in full bloom, one white, one pink flank a koi pond. Strung above the water are a dozen colored paper lanterns that cause motes of light to dance over the rippling water. Beyond the walls of the estate the city lights sparkle like stars. Someplace a biwa player plays and the music soft and filtered reaches your ears and you start to forget your aches and pains of the road.

GM

Adding 10 koku to your sheets

[Trogdor]

Eisai sits on the porch and relaxes. Ascetic though he is, the monk nevertheless enjoys a kiseru pipe - a rare pleasure he allows himself here at the offices of the Emerald Magistrate. It had been a long journey to reach here, and a long day in properly reporting things. But at least their duty was discharged. Tomorrow they could take it up again. But tonight was a time to rest.

"I'm sure we'll receive further orders once our superiors have looked through our reports," Eisai says to the others. "I just hope those orders will permit me a chance to return to Dragon lands for a time. I have business with the Ise zumi that I would take care of sooner rather than later."

[Hayabusa]

Ryuichi is glad to have some time in the evening. He's not fond of dealing with money and only a bit more of reports but he does so anyway as it is part of his work as a magistrate. Among the things he wrote was also a letter to his betrothed and he mailed it just as dutifully as anything else although he does not expect a reply soon. In the evening he sits with his fellow magistrates, cup of steaming tea and a kiseru pipe although it is not lighted yet.

"Hmm," he replies to Eisai, wondering if his duty is going to interfer with the wedding to the Asahina. "It would be good to return there, Eisai-san. The last time I left there, it was to accompany a young samurai-ko. It seems like more time has passed than it really did though. Like a rock in the surf who sees the waves come and go every hour, every day."

[ManWithDoor]

"Very poetic, Ryuichi-san." He reaches over and takes a puff of the kiseru pipe as well. He isn't a huge fan of the thing, but it is something new and different to try, a change of pace from the long road they have journeyed. "We've also been in the middle of nowhere for a while, a minor ronin city and a Minor Clan holding. Surely our fellow Magistrates must know if something is transpiring in the Empire as a whole. If we found Maho, peasant rebellions, and human sacrifice in a small corner, I fear to find out what has been happening elsewhere." He takes another puff. "I think that your visits to the Dragon lands will be short indeed. Every Magistrate is needed to combat such things."

[Trogdor]

"Ah, but that is just where you would expect to find trouble," Eisai replies. "A spider does not build her web in the main entrance to a house. Rather she builds it in the back part of a storeroom where those who clean the house are unlikely to go." He takes a puff of his kiseru pipe. "So too, I suspect, have the Maho looked to an area of small importance to the Empire to build their strength."

[Hayabusa]

"Hai," Ryuichi says to Eisai. "But that may not have been the only dark und unwatched corner where spiders and snakes are hiding. Many times you only seem them when it is too late. Though I am not one who deals with these creatures a lot. For a time I had imagines that watching samurai murdering and stealing the weapons of other samurai and selling them to gaijin would be bad enough. And it is in itself."

[ManWithDoor]

"It surprises me as well, the depths to which dishonorable men can sink." Which is saying a lot, since the Kuni isn't exactly very honorable according to standard definitions. "To be corrupted by the Ninth Kami is horrible, but such a supernatural force can be understood to control the action of a man. But willing collusion with Tainted ronin? Being involved in rebellions against the Celestial Order? Human sacrifice? It is almost too much to be believed, if we had not witnessed it with our own eyes."

[Vardaen]

The trio of magistrates simply enjoy the moment of zen they have here. That moment turns into an evening, and that evening into the next day, and the next day into the next week. Before you realize it you've spent nearly 9 days in the Imperial City not doing much of anything. You've had time to shop, to train, to relax, to get the feel of things in the empire from reports of fellow Magistrates. It becomes clear the Emerald Champion isn't about or returning any time soon. You take care of more official business and gain fresh traveling papers granting you effectively free reign throughout the Empire. Your goals to continue to investigate the strange problems you've encountered, as well as the Ashalan and the burn on Ryuichi's hand are noted and you aren't so much given the go ahead, but your desires are recorded and you aren't reassigned to something else.

So by the ninth day in the capitol you decide its time to do something else, and that means travel to the Dragon Lands. Eisai can speak to his dojo master and see about his tattoos while the others can investigate the burn mark of the gaijin artifact on the Kitsuki's hand.

You leave the hustle and bustle of the Imperial Toshi Ranbo behind and travel north toward the Dragon Lands. The road is safe, this is the heart of the empire, and worst you encounter is some bad soya along the way from a road side stall you dared to eat at. For a week you travel north along the roads, no terrible rush, but no reason to delay. You pass through a nearby town of Oiku, then north over the River, a stop for the night at Toi Koku (Distant Paddy Village), west into the Dragonfly Clan's holding of Kyuden Tonbo. While there you over see a duel, A Dragonfly and a Fox clan samurai have a small dispute about honor and you officiate the duel, to fist blood, and the Fox wins proving his point that Yoritomo was indeed NOT fat but only stocky and well muscled.

You press on now into the mountains. The road is ever climbing upwards as you eventually reach Shiro Kitsuki. Eisai is a monk of the Dragon, so the mountains are no trouble to him. Zenko is a Crab, and while these are different mountains there is no harm for him among them. Ryuichi was raised at Shiro Kitsuki for part of his life, and he is must used to this climb. You idly wonder if any of the others you've traveled with would be as at home among the mountains as you three.

You decide that you'll want to stop at Last Step Castle (Shiro Kitsuki) for at least a day to allow Ryuichi time to visit his home before moving on. Last Step Castle in the Shinpi province is so named so because of the steep climb that led away from the castle to the High House of Light, the gateway to the Dragon mountains. The castle has a small garrison but other protections such as magical wards that flings anyone trying to climb the walls to their doom.

Shiro Kitsuki

http://l5r.wikia.com/wiki/Shiro_Kitsuki

ounded Edit

Shiro Kitsuki
Added by Oni no Pikachu
The castle was awarded to Agasha Kitsuki after he was permitted to found the Kitsuki family. Some said there was a secret path leading from the flatlands to Shiro Kitsuki, but if there was it was well hidden. [3] only known to the Kitsuki and few Tattooed Monk. The castle was also the final destination for those who went to the Great Climb to the west. [4]
Appearance Edit
The castle had a very small garrison, but it had many other methods of protection. Many of these were enchantments, such as one that flinged anyone trying to scale the walls to their death against the ground. [5]
Trial Court Edit
It held the one of the largest courts in the Dragon lands, second to Dojo of the Perfect Word. Most trials and sentencing in the Dragon lands by their magistrates were carried out in the castle. [5]
Kitsuki Magistrate Dojo Edit
The castle was home to the Dojo of the First Glance, which was where the Kitsuki Method was taught to all would-be Kitsuki Magistrates. [5] There was an ongoing collaboration between the Kitsuki and the Tamori shugenja. The Tamori had built a temple at the castle to a great Earth spirit that lived in the mountains, despite their affinity to Earth. [citation needed]
Kitsuki library Edit

Last Step Castle
Added by Oni no Pikachu
A great library at the castle compiled all the Kitsuki Journals gathered by the magistrates at the end of their investigations. [6]

Map

Purple was the old travel, yellow is the new. Green is current location.

[Trogdor]

Eisai is pleased to find that there is no need to slow his pace as they enter the mountains. The last time he had taken this path, he was in the company of a Phoenix shugenja and his yojimbo. And while they were excellent traveling companions, their pace climbing uphill was painfully slow. Much better to set the current brisk pace that the magistrates were making.

"I look forward to seeing your home, Ryuichi-san," the monk says to his companion. "Has it been long since you were last here?"

[Hayabusa]

"It has been a long time indeed, Eisai-san," Ryuichi nods as they climb up the path. "Though I come from the Kitsuki family I was trained at a Mirumoto dojo."