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Over the next couple of days everyone gathers what baggage and equipment they need for the journey to the Unicorn lands.
Isawa Hisa has retained a peasant as a porter. Koro has a peasant scribe.
Koro expedites travel papers for all his non-yoriki: Mikio, Haruto, Shotaro, etc... Mikio chooses to keep his old papers as mementos of his journey from Bayushi Castle.
The cover story: We are traveling to Unicorn lands to attend the Setsuban Festival on the eighth day of the Monkey (effectively August 8th). It celebrates the end of summer, the season of war, the winding down of war and the peace that follows. We will be following a route across Phoenix lands then tracing the Lion border.
Traveling across Phoenix lands is relatively quiet. Koro takes the opportunity to stop at a few shrines and make contact with some kami, earth and water spirits, he doesn't normally get the chance to speak with. Earth spirits are very direct. Water spirits show images in water to communicate. They are mischievous and playful. Koro considers being more in tune with all the elements. The water spirits show a stone pedestal with incense braziers, in the stone pedestal there is a depression filled with water and a flame dancing on top of it. All the elements in balance. Koro recalls there is a place likethis in Isawa lands where there is a temple that honors all the Elemental Dragons, it is the Temple of the Eight Guardians. It is dedicated to all of the Eight Celestial Dragons (Celestial, Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Void, Jade, Thunder). (NOTE: Reference sourcebook, Masters of Magic, pgs. 98-99)
Hoshiko suggests creating a new shrine to the Jade Dragon. A few discusses how a shrine could be made and what they would make it with and put into it. Mikio offers to carry the stones.
Eventually we arrive at a watchtower, a structure not normally seen in Phoenix lands. It is heavily guarded by 150 Phoenix guards. Across the river is a mirroring watchtower, more impressive, and vigilantly guarded by a like number of Lions.
The group is asked to wait while they're papers are taken to be examined. The captain of the guard is in light armor of an exceedingly functional design. The captain asks Koro-san to walk with him in private. The captain relates what he has heard and seen of the Lions movement. If we continue on this road we will arrive at the Castle of the Swift Winds where the Akodo bushi school is. Their conversation lasts about 15-20mins.
There is a fjord across the river at this point. We are sent across with a herald. Thirty armed Lion guards meet us on the other bank. Mikio stays near the rear of the group. The herald provides a flowery speech and then presents Agasha Koro. We are granted a temporary stay and given permission to step on their lands. The captain of the Lion garrison questions Koro-san. Afterwards he returns to the watchtower, a few minutes later a junior samurai emerges and escorts the entire party into the watchtower.
After standing around for a few minutes each of us is escorted into an interior room to be questioned by a Lion clan magistrate. Mikio answers that he carries things. Koro chooses not to disclose his position. The magistrate writes each person papers across Lion lands towards Swift Winds Castle and to a specific village on the Lion-Unicorn border. The magistrate suggests that Koro may find some Lion poetry enlightening.
Eventually we are allowed to leave the watchtower...
As we trudge down the road there are a number of shrines, fewer than in Phoenix lands, there are a number of shrines to ancestors and a number of patrols, almost every mile. Each patrol performs a cursory inspection of the parties papers.
Late afternoon/ early evening we come across the city of Oiku. The village is of modest size but it is surrounded by a tent city of a few thousand. Mikio keeps an eye out for wrestling contests. Nothing seen in the village itself but in the tent city there may well be. Mikio decides it would probably be a bad idea to enter the army camp to find a wrestling match.
Koro arranges accommodations for the group and his scribe. Two bu for everyone in the common room. For everyone's arrangements we end up with three rooms.
Price - one koku for everything. Hisa provides for his porter to be in the common room then heads off for the bath house. Koro hears of a Noh theatre and makes arrangements to attend after his bath. Hisa joins Koro at the Noh theatre. Horatu goes looking for a gambling game. He finds a game with several men in kimonos of brown and gold of a quality better than a peasants and no armor.
GM Task - Stipend for Jade Magistrate. Unless otherwise discovered 150 koku (confirmed by Paul).
Mikio returns to the temple they passed on the outskirts of town to find a garden. It's a shrine to Bishimon, the Fortune of Strength. It seems familiar but doesn't click for Mikio. He finds three elegant gardens - two of foliage and one meticulous rock garden. The temple is larger than it first appears with a fair amount of open area. There are various tasks of strength to show ones devotion to Bishimon. Mikio tries his hand at some. Think strongman competition - a large round stone to be lifted up onto a pedestal. As Mikio speaks with the monks he finds that Bishimon is very revered by his clan. Before Mikio leaves the temple he asks the monks for some incense to make offerings to Bishimon each night. Mikio leaves with a new appreciation for temples.
Koro, Hisa and Hoshiko attend the Noh theatre. Hoshiko finds the performance much better than she is familiar with (Crab Noh Theater that is). Hisa enjoys the performance.
Horatu fits in quite well with the group and finds that the soldiers are rather bored. There is a fair amount of bragging going on as is to be expected. Anti-Crane sentiments, dismissive of Phoenix... After a couple of hours Horatu has 15 more bu than he started with. There were a few drunken brawls but no live steel was drawn.
The next morning we head out and take to the road again.
We move towards the Castle of the Swift Winds staying at road houses each night.
Costs are negligible for the stays. Once at the city itself Akodo Osuma asks permission to seek training which could take up to a week, this is granted and the party makes preparations to stay in the city for a week. During the stay Koro seeks out a Kitsu shukenja. Three days after we arrived Akodo Asuma comes back and requests an audience with Agasha Koro. His face looks part pained part angry. The party finds out after the meeting that he is no longer Koro’s yojimbo and has been relieved of service to attend to other matters.
(To get Rob’s previous character out of the game, he received a message at the dojo – they knew he would be there soon for training, that his father and brother had been killed. He was now the oldest living male of his family. He asked for permission to be relieved of his duty as Yojimbo to take care of his family. He does not know exactly what happened, did they die in battle, assassinated or anything – only that they were killed.)
2 XP for everyone for the session.