Need Scorpion Winter Court Help
Dec 26, 2015 16:40:33 GMT -8
Post by ghostdancer on Dec 26, 2015 16:40:33 GMT -8
Help me forum members, you’re my only hope!
Mine is a woeful tale of a first time L5R GM (but with 20+ years of GMing other systems) whose players have taken the story well beyond the few sessions it was intended to be.
The short version: My players intend to infiltrate a winter court of the governor of the Scorpion’s Nezuban Province. I haven’t the slightest idea what cast of characters should be present or what should be going on. Any guidance anyone can give, I’d be most thankful for. I own the base rules, Emerald Empire, Enemies of the Empire, The Great Clans, and Unexpected Allies. I haven’t read them thoroughly, though.
The long version: I ran a free published adventure, Dark Subtlety (http://dojooflies.com/?p=526), for my players with my only L5R experience being Stu’s podcast and this being their first L5R experience. Most of my players wanted to be Crab samurai/shugenja. So, I concocted a crisis that there was a place on The Kaiu Wall that was riddled with caves that would allow the creatures of the Shadowlands to easily penetrate the Crab lands if they were able to find their way through them. A temple was built over this area, and the Crab shugenja maintained a great spell that would mask the caves or confuse those trying to navigate them, or some such (I'm sure I'm breaking numerous magic rules, but heck, it's a one-shot). A sacred sake created in the Nezuban province was a key component for this ritual, and the latest shipment was long past due. The PC’s were sent to investigate. From there, the adventure was pretty much run as written with the players attending the gumpukku ceremony of the governor’s son and learning that the fields are getting sown with obsidian, with the person putting the peasants up to it escaping into the night. That was all fine and good until my players demanded a continuing adventure.
So, I start improvising. After a few month’s shipments being normal, shipments are either late or missed. The PC’s are sent to investigate again. Several missed and misinterpreted clues later, and the PC’s begin to suspect the governor’s son. Sure, I think, the governor’s son’s sensei was a member of the organization responsible for sowing the fields with obsidian, and the son has been fully corrupted by him. The governor is sick, because the son is slowly poisoning him. A new player wants to join, and I slide him in as a guard loyal to the governor who has reasons to suspect the son, and he allies with the Crab samurai because he doesn’t know who to trust within the governor’s troupes. They discover the sake being brewed specially for the winter court has been spiked with obsidian (my thought being to corrupt the attendees, perhaps to make them susceptible to some sort of mind control spell, or something). They follow a trail that implicates the son, but on some fairly soft evidence. For the big climax, the party confronts the son in front of the ailing governor, and lacking the hand-in-the-cookie jar evidence to truly show the son as guilty, the scorpion guard challenges him to a duel . . . and due to Stork-esque rolling, he loses! So much for my grand dismount. So, the Crab get expelled from the governor’s lands as the Winter Court attendees come streaming in, and just before they crest the last hill out of the governor’s lands, they hear the bells tolling signaling the death of the governor.
Now, the players are demanding another session or three to resolve this. I don’t know how they are going to pull this off, but I’m prepared to yes-and until I melt down. The governor’s daughter knows what her brother has done, and I’m thinking she might entreat her master (or host family, or whatever, who will be conveniently attending the Winter Court) to disguise the Crab as members of his/her retinue, with the player of the dead Scorpion guard being a member of the retinue. Those are all details I can work out. What I’m stumped on is the setting. Who will be attending the court, what will they be there for, and where will these people be staying (what does this castle that I’ve hand-waved so far look like, and what is its capacity vs attendees, and where does everyone who doesn't fit into the castle stay?). How many retinues attend a Scorpion governor's Winter Court and who are the leaders of each? I'm sure there will be X from Scorpion lands (how many from major families and how many from vassal clans, how many from within the Nezuban Province, and how many from other provinces) and Y±Z from each of the other clans. What does each retinue consist of? They are there to negotiate marriages (like that of a new, young Scorpion governor and his sister) and trade deals, but what else is on the table. This is a Scorpion court, of all things I have to address. I'm sure there will be a thousand other beneath-the-table agendas that I haven't even began to conceive of. Basically, I feel like an herbivore tasked with eating an elephant. I know it has to be eaten one bite at a time, but I feel I don't have to tools to eat it.
Any enlightenment that anyone can give, I’d be very thankful for.
Mine is a woeful tale of a first time L5R GM (but with 20+ years of GMing other systems) whose players have taken the story well beyond the few sessions it was intended to be.
The short version: My players intend to infiltrate a winter court of the governor of the Scorpion’s Nezuban Province. I haven’t the slightest idea what cast of characters should be present or what should be going on. Any guidance anyone can give, I’d be most thankful for. I own the base rules, Emerald Empire, Enemies of the Empire, The Great Clans, and Unexpected Allies. I haven’t read them thoroughly, though.
The long version: I ran a free published adventure, Dark Subtlety (http://dojooflies.com/?p=526), for my players with my only L5R experience being Stu’s podcast and this being their first L5R experience. Most of my players wanted to be Crab samurai/shugenja. So, I concocted a crisis that there was a place on The Kaiu Wall that was riddled with caves that would allow the creatures of the Shadowlands to easily penetrate the Crab lands if they were able to find their way through them. A temple was built over this area, and the Crab shugenja maintained a great spell that would mask the caves or confuse those trying to navigate them, or some such (I'm sure I'm breaking numerous magic rules, but heck, it's a one-shot). A sacred sake created in the Nezuban province was a key component for this ritual, and the latest shipment was long past due. The PC’s were sent to investigate. From there, the adventure was pretty much run as written with the players attending the gumpukku ceremony of the governor’s son and learning that the fields are getting sown with obsidian, with the person putting the peasants up to it escaping into the night. That was all fine and good until my players demanded a continuing adventure.
So, I start improvising. After a few month’s shipments being normal, shipments are either late or missed. The PC’s are sent to investigate again. Several missed and misinterpreted clues later, and the PC’s begin to suspect the governor’s son. Sure, I think, the governor’s son’s sensei was a member of the organization responsible for sowing the fields with obsidian, and the son has been fully corrupted by him. The governor is sick, because the son is slowly poisoning him. A new player wants to join, and I slide him in as a guard loyal to the governor who has reasons to suspect the son, and he allies with the Crab samurai because he doesn’t know who to trust within the governor’s troupes. They discover the sake being brewed specially for the winter court has been spiked with obsidian (my thought being to corrupt the attendees, perhaps to make them susceptible to some sort of mind control spell, or something). They follow a trail that implicates the son, but on some fairly soft evidence. For the big climax, the party confronts the son in front of the ailing governor, and lacking the hand-in-the-cookie jar evidence to truly show the son as guilty, the scorpion guard challenges him to a duel . . . and due to Stork-esque rolling, he loses! So much for my grand dismount. So, the Crab get expelled from the governor’s lands as the Winter Court attendees come streaming in, and just before they crest the last hill out of the governor’s lands, they hear the bells tolling signaling the death of the governor.
Now, the players are demanding another session or three to resolve this. I don’t know how they are going to pull this off, but I’m prepared to yes-and until I melt down. The governor’s daughter knows what her brother has done, and I’m thinking she might entreat her master (or host family, or whatever, who will be conveniently attending the Winter Court) to disguise the Crab as members of his/her retinue, with the player of the dead Scorpion guard being a member of the retinue. Those are all details I can work out. What I’m stumped on is the setting. Who will be attending the court, what will they be there for, and where will these people be staying (what does this castle that I’ve hand-waved so far look like, and what is its capacity vs attendees, and where does everyone who doesn't fit into the castle stay?). How many retinues attend a Scorpion governor's Winter Court and who are the leaders of each? I'm sure there will be X from Scorpion lands (how many from major families and how many from vassal clans, how many from within the Nezuban Province, and how many from other provinces) and Y±Z from each of the other clans. What does each retinue consist of? They are there to negotiate marriages (like that of a new, young Scorpion governor and his sister) and trade deals, but what else is on the table. This is a Scorpion court, of all things I have to address. I'm sure there will be a thousand other beneath-the-table agendas that I haven't even began to conceive of. Basically, I feel like an herbivore tasked with eating an elephant. I know it has to be eaten one bite at a time, but I feel I don't have to tools to eat it.
Any enlightenment that anyone can give, I’d be very thankful for.