Hikonaga's page

Hello.

Common message for all the games I was participating in:

I know I vanished without warning. Trust me, it wasn't planned. My wife had a new medical condition flare up, and I've been going to work, doing my job, coming home, doing bothe her chores and mine, taking care of her because she's had extermely limited mobility, taking care of her service animal, covering chunks of time that she had pledged towards watching our grand-daughter, and then still trying to keep up with my existing Scouting obligations.

I was suddenly very busy.

She's been better the last couple of days, so I've built the time to craft this message and distribute it. Today she started having a reaction to the medication that was helping her be better, so that bodes poorly. She also has a procedure tomorrow that is part fo the continuum of care for her problem (as required by insurance companies), but her doctor doesn't think is actually going to address her cause. He said tha's another 3 procedures down the list, but the insurance won't approve him skipping down the list or trying multiple things in quick succession.

I want to apologize to everyone for the impact my real-life has had on your entertainment. You at least deserved to hear from me sooner, honestly.

Now you know why I vanished. And why I don't know if my availability is actually going to get any better in the short term or not.

So, I'm afraid out might work better for me for now.

"We all sought shelter in a large shrine at the same time. Then things became very . . . unusual. The kami have apparently tasked us, but I know I understand neither the assignment nor the message. Maybe Inoue can explain it?"

"Hai. One direction is as good as another when you do not know where you need to be."

"Don't be worried about them. Be worried about how their lord chooses to punish us for refusing to be killed by them."

Don't worry about the mythical party balance. Play what you think will be fun.

Hearing the refusal of the attempt to remove the ronin from the room, Hikonaga closes his eyes for a moment, looking down at the table. The young man listens for evidence of the Daidoji response . . ..

The young man in dark blue laughs. "Were it that easy, do you suppose they would walk around in the rain?"

They aren't carrying a lot of fat on them at this point, but they don't have a desperate look in their eyes. Yet.

"Can't prove there was a temple at this point. This has been a very confusing time."

Stepping into the tea house, the young man holds the door until his companions are inside before trying to shake the worst of the water off and placing his weapons in the cabinet. "Something warm would be marvelous right now, don't you think?"

"As you say. I do not understand the kami's intent, and must trust to the shugenja for guidance. Let's head back, then." 'Naga looks at his cousin and shrugs as they go to follow their own trail backwards.

The young man shakes his head. "I don't understand. It looks like the spirit is talking about the end of the celestial order? That can't be remotely right. This doesn't make any sense to me."

"The land is going to drown? What could cause such an imbalance in the order? Is there anything we can do to help keep order? Our duty is to protect the people, yes?"

I don't really know if the cave appears to keep going on or not.

"It couldn't hurt to look. We don't have anything more pressing."

"Were the beast a man, the loss of his family could have caused the rampage, but that's not how beasts behave, is it?"

"Ronin? Are you challenging this clan samurai's testimony and honor?"

hunting is 3K2
defense is 7k4

And, generally, when you pick a bow for an "any weapon" choice, you get arrows to go with it. 10 or 20. I know mine was specified by the school.

Your skills are obviously wrong.

As you didn't list the skill ranks, I can't tell you what they should be, but . . ..

Skill rolls are (Skill Ranks + Attribute Ranks + anything special) K (Attribute Ranks)

So, if your Kyujutsu is 4 ranks of skill, the skill roll is 8K4, which is amazing for a beginning character.

Your school identifies your starting gear. My book is buried, or I would look up what the Sun Tao ronin start with.

Hikonaga is as capable as he is because I bought an outrageously expensive advantage that adds +1K0 to all school skills. His school technique also adds +1K0 when in an Attack stance.

Edit: Your skill "keep" values total 16, which is the amount of insight your skills should be providing you, so, assuming those are skill ranks, your skills should be more:

1 Iajutsu 5K4+4
1 Athletics 3K2
3 Defense 7K4
1 Hunting 4K3
1 Kenjutsu 4K3
4 Kyujutsu 8K4
3 Sincerity 6K3
2 Lore (Bushido) 4K2

Early characters are not experts. That's not how the game was envisioned, but it is how the game plays.

You can afford to wait to purchase an emphasis. You really can.

The attributes tied to what you want to be better at out of the gate should be at least a 3. 4 is really expensive, but as much use as an archer gets out of Reflexes it COULD be an acceptable cost.

I recommend not buying many 1 rank skills. They are cheap enough to get later, and you want to have a chance to succeed at the things you start out knowing how to do.

4K2 is really not much worse than 5K2. As a rule, 5K3 is much better than 4K2.

'Naga recognized the fly, and what it usually represents. He stopped where he was, and watched the shilouttes of the other bears, looking for the movement of flies on corpses.

If he sees them, he'll sheathe his katana and say "Mate and cubs. Dead. We might want to make a fire for better light so we can see what they would tell us."

Near a whisper, 'Naga talks to the others. "By the bureaucrats' paperwork. Looks to be another bear in here, but I can't tell, yet, if it is breathing or dead."

He will attempt to tell just that . . ..

In case I need to:

Stealth (6k3): 6d10 ⇒ (10, 5, 4, 10, 9, 6) = 44
Explosions: 2d10 ⇒ (5, 6) = 11 For 40!

The young man draws his blade, putting caution as far forward as he can, as he moves slowly into what he hopes will be an empty cave . . ..

"Anybody see anything nearby? Places where the bear worked his claws int the trees?" 'Naga looks around quickly. "I hope the cave is shallow. Light will be a problem pretty quickly."

"It does seem the best option, unless you see anything I missed, Senno?"

Unless she provides some revelation that we've missed, Hikonaga will start finding a path in the direction the bear might have come from.

In the grand scheme of things, everything is going marvelously. In the short-sighted, self-centered view, things are kinda sucky. My seasonal allergies are on enough of a rampage that WITH antihistamines AND decongestants, my sinuses are full of mucous and I'm having trouble seeing, breathing, or thinking.

But since I know it is all allergies, I know full well that this shall pass and I'm not going to suddenly be diagnosed with a huge tumor in my nose doing all of this to me.

Another Scout camping trip. This time with the troop, like is supposed to be normal. Going back to the site with no cell coverage.

My allergies are hitting me hard enough I want to just crawl into a ball and do nothing. All the boys can't get there unless I drive.

""Hai."

Hunting 5K2: 5d10 ⇒ (5, 4, 3, 2, 5) = 19 For a 10. Ah, well.

"I am not seeing anything unusual at this point. The bear chased the Crane that way" as he points back in the direction of the vanishing shrine "so, with nothing else to go one, we could assume it came into their camp from that way." He points in the opposite direction.

"{b]There are no certainties, but it is a place to start.[/b]"

More scouting. Helping run a training course that will keep me occupied through late Sunday. I am in cell range and might get a few minutes like this every now and again.

The young bushi looks at the Crane's body in confusion. "That's not normal. I was thinking about trying to figure out if there are more rampaging animals, or something causing it. THAT I know something about trying to see."

Honestly, I was thinking about searching for the source of the bear.

The lack of natural rot on the woman was a pretty obvious clue, but one my bushi doesn't know how to look into.

We don't know which Emerald Magistrate to report to, or where one is at the moment. The other option on that path would be to go to the capital to report the deaths at the Emerald Magistrate headquarters. THAT seems like just asking for trouble to me.

I was planning on asking about trying to find some sign of raving animals.

Time for another BSA Campout at the facility with no cell signals. I head to work in the morning and then go meet the troop and head to camp. I'll be back on Sunday.

"What of you? Following a girl? A dream? Your nose?"

<sigh> Have we lost half the party already?

"In particular? Not to a specific location, but I am looking for a way to be recognized as a fully honorable Samurai, so that I can fulfill the duties that shaped my youth. I am seeking my destiny." He loses his face enough to clearly look embarrassed. "Or does that sound too staged, too much for Ronin such as ourselves?"

"I'm just curious at this point. Don't know that there's anything to do or not. But I do know the lord promised nothing more than to return the Samurai's possessions. Didn't even seem to care about the rampant beast. That makes it a peasant problem normally, doesn't it?"

"Everything in Rokugan is Clan matters. I have no desire to leave, so I must involve myself in Clan matters. But when it is obvious that the Clans intend to do nothing about something like the unexplained attack and rampage of the bear, well, that is something I could look at without causing harm."

"Well, at least we're not being blamed for anything. It feels . . . unfulfilling, though. Anybody want to see if we can find the camp again, and see what's in the area? It just feels like we've missed something important. Something that's probably not our problem, though."

Hikonaga bows before the local lord.

"Lady Katai. I am Hikonaga. My associates and I sought shelter from the rain at a shrine, where we met, actually. As we were preparing to rest, a Crane with a spear and an angry, injured bear ran into a clearing where we could see them. We raced to save the Crane, but the bear finished her before we could stop it."
"Looking at the samurai-ko, we realized that she had been Yoriki, though we know not to whom. We chose to gather her important possessions, and attempt to follow the trail of their fight back to her camp, to report her death to any she had left behind, hopefully even her Magistrate."
"We found a scene of destruction. It seems the bear had torn through their camp, killing all who got in it's path. It must have chased the yoriki because she was fighting back. This allowed the eta we rescued to escape the death given to his master."
"Knowing that such a thing had to be reported, we gathered the mons, daishos, and anything else which seemed it would be important to their families, and brought it to the closest Lion Lord we could find to report the incident. And thus we are here."

'Naga indicates the stack of material the group brought with them before settling back into a waiting pose while the others take turns speaking.

Spend a point of Void, because this is important.
Sincerity 4K3: 4d10 - 5 ⇒ (6, 5, 7, 9) - 5 = 22

'Naga takes a position near the center of the room and tries to relax into a simple meditation. He doesn't say anything, but he seems resigned to the idea that there will be a significant wait.

And I'm thinking we all choose to follow him.

"So, the question becomes do we notify the local lord of the loss of a magistrate within her territory, hoping she doesn't assign fault to us, or run for it like honorless pigs and hope they don't blame us and chase us down?"

Actually, I was done. I could probably come up with more to ask her, but I got what I was after:

Nope, the locals didn't know about the Crane magistrates.
What to call the local lord as we seek an audience to discuss what we found.

Last week was a shooting sports event for the local BSA council.

This week is a district camp-o-ree and I'm off to camp with the troop. See everybody on Sunday!

"Thank you, grandmother. Have you seen any samurai in blue here recently?"

Nope. Already said I'm not gonna do it. But I'm not the only one here, am I?

Athletics/Earth 4K2: 4d10 ⇒ (8, 9, 9, 1) = 27 =18

Curious? You bethca! Willing to risk my neck to find out? Nope!
Though I do wonder if a blade could be used to make it look like it was ripped open by the bear . . ..

Headed to a Boy Scout Shooting Sports campout to run the archery range. In the Hill Country and a valley, so there is no cell service after I get there.

Will be back Sunday night.

"I believe that was the plan. We should seek out someone in authority to report these deaths to. Ryuk had remained with the body to protect it. Do you plan to continue this task, or do wish to help us report these events?"

"Are we in the right place? Where did the shrine go?"

"Before we take him back to the shrine, we should gather the material to return to the lords and families. Their weapons, mons, and anything else that looks significant. No need to keep bouncing between there and here."

No real issue with gathering the stuff and moving on, just can't see leaving it all behind. Returning it is most of the proof of our story.