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.....Yeah. They actually went ahead and pulled this on me.
Basically, the group whom I've been giving rather hilariously insulting obituaries about in the Jade Regent Obituaries thread finally managed to get the aid of the Three Monkeys, and a nice discount on top of it for killing Sikutsu Senaka's evil brother (albeit just by marching up to his manor with the monk shouting "Yo! I'm comin' ta kill ya!" then... comin' ta kill him.) The money they made for selling O-Sayumi's samisen of oracular vision helped them, too. (Gotta love major cities and their one-stop 24-hour Ye Olde Pawnne Shoppes, huh?)
So. They easily buy the aid of the Emerald Branch ninja clan, and use the Shinobi Fuhonsen to buy the Black Lotus's aid (their choice was "the ninja clan that's kinda sketchy, and the ninja clan that is sketchy!" "You know, we are all ninja. By definition, all of us are sketchy...")
Two clans down, they pays the Shadow Dragons their ten thousand gold koku, expecting their aid.
Shadow Dragon Rep: This isn't enough.
Pan Li: What? Yeah, it is. You said ten thousand koku!
Shadow Dragon: That was before you paid those dogs in the Black Lotus with the first coin ever paid to a ninja in Eyshan history.
Black Lotus Rep: (middle finger to the Shadow Dragon rep)
Pan Li: We had a deal! >=(
Shadow Dragon: The deal has changed. (pushes the stack of gold coins back) Twenty thousand koku.
Pan Li: Trip. (this is the vanara weaponmaster fighter/monk that has Lunge, Greater Trip, and Vicious Stomp.)
Shadow Dragon: You have made a powerful enemy today!! You will regret this!!
So. I initially have him Dimension Door out, but the group, Pan Li's player in particular, don't want me to DM BS our about-to-be-ex representative of a clan of elite merciless killers that might or might not be led by a sovereign dragon's whims out of harm's way. They wants a fight.
Considering the party is 13th level, and the poor bastard representing the Shadow Dragons is a 7th-level ninja, he is going to be easily killed.
Any way I can salvage this situation, like have the Shadow Dragons become a thorn in the party's side in Book Six? Boost the Shadow Dragon's combat levels up so he can provide a more-or-less fair fight? Or just have the other two ninja clan representatives dispose of the body and say "Well, that was stupid of him. Zazazaza (head nodding). Now the Dragons will need a new mouthpiece."