Proud to be a Dragon

Warning: the following post will not make the blindest bit of sense unless you're familiar with Legend of the Five Rings. If you aren't, please continue on to the next blog post. Thank you for your time.

***

So in our session tonight, one of the PCs -- a Shosuro trained in the Bayushi courtier school -- goes with our NPC companion to hunt down this Yogo who's wanted for a crime. In the course of questioning the peasant innkeeper, she realizes he's lying. And, being a Shosuro, she opts to subtly intimidate him into telling the truth, rather than backhanding him across the face for lying to a samurai.

A Crane in the common room of the inn overhears this. He's a Doji trained in the Kakita dueling academy, and is trying to make a name for himself as a duelist, so he comes over and starts blustering to the Shosuro about the way she's treating this innkeeper -- basically ginning things up into an offense so that he can challenge her to a duel. She (very rightly) calls him out for eavesdropping on somebody else's conversation and butting into business that isn't his, and so thoroughly upsets him that he tries to slap her. Whereupon the NPC companion -- a Mirumoto bushi from the Iron Mountain school -- steps up and rams the butt of his katana into the Doji's ribs.

Stuff and things, we run and get a magistrate to okay the duel (to first blood only), the two guys face off. This could go badly, because the Mirumoto is a great skirmisher, but is much less experienced at dueling. The Shosuro, however, has told him that his opponent has the Brash disadvantage, so the PCs and their NPC companion are doing all kinds of little things to needle the Doji and put him off his game. Which we succeed at well enough that a) he basically false-starts, gets bashed in the ribs again, and has to be ordered back into position by the magistrate, and then b) he continues with his strike even though the Mirumoto went first, and the duel is therefore supposed to be over. But he misses -- not because he meant to, but because of the damage he took from a certain now-broken rib and the first cut -- and so it's an all-round disgrace for the Doji.

( And this is where things start to get fun. )

And you know, this is why I love gaming. Most of the time, the stories are messier and less satisfying than a well-constructed novel/movie/comic book series/other narrative medium of your choice. (You can't revise things after they happen, and sometimes the dice screw up an otherwise good plot.) But because they're improvisational, and because the dice do add an element of randomness . . . those moments when the story pulls together just right? Are all the more amazing. Put Roshin's achievements in a book, and I'll roll my eyes a bit at the implausibility of it all. But dude, I was there: it really happened. And we managed to totally shame a couple of Doji (who were so asking for it), and not only defend the honor of the Dragon Clan, but show that our bushi are smart as well as strong.

I heart Roshin. Best NPC companion ever*.



(*For values of "ever" that equal "in this game." I don't want gollumgollum, oddsboy, drydem, or feyangel to come after me in defense of Grektar.)