Heroes of Rokugan I
- Plans and Storyline Development - A Discussion
- Satsume's Tournament
- Kitsuki Evidence
- A Chance Meeting
- Spiritual Presence
- Legacy of the Dark One
- Winter Court: Kyuden Asahina
- The Face of Fear
- Arrows From the Woods
- Evil Feeds Upon Itself
- A Mantis and His Rat
- The Falling Darkness, Soul of Iuchiban
- The Ties that Bind
- The People's Expense
- Occult Murders, Soul of Iuchiban
- Lies, Lies, Lies
- Drawing Out the Darkness, Soul of Iuchiban
- A Foreign Legacy
- A Magistrate's Duty, Soul of Iuchiban
- Fury of the Elements
- To Do What We Must
- Winter Court: Kanrinrin's Duty, Soul of Iuchiban
- The Fate of a Hantei, Soul of Iuchiban
- Smoke and Mirrors, The Lion and the Crane
- A Hidden Blade, The Lion and the Crane
- Treachery and Deceit
- Winter Court: Shiro Kyotei
- Ancestral Dictate, The Lion and the Crane
- A Heart of Vengeance, The Lion and the Crane
- Soul of Akodo, The Lion and the Crane
- Darkness Beyond Darkness, Shadow's Path
- The Chrysanthemum Festival, The Lion and the Crane
- Kuro's Fire
- Duty on the Wall
- Fist of the Earth, Shadow's Path
- Day and Night
- The Scorpion's Sting
- Flower's Kiss
- In Time of War
- Winter Court: Shiro no Kaiu
- Proposal of Peace
- Way of Deception
- A Walk Through the Mountains, Shadow's Path
- Narrow Ground
- Peasant Defense
- The Price of Loyalty
- Dark Eyes on the Wall
- Tao of the Naga
- The Cost of Duty
- Storm and Forest
- Stain Upon the Soul
- Command of the Kami
- The Jade Championship
- Twisted Forest
- Funeral Pyre
- Time to Pay the Price, Shadow's Path
- Damning Evidence, The Hidden Temple
- Test of Courage
- Winter Court: Kyuden Bayushi
- Corrupted Ground, Shadows of an Iron Citadel
- A Question of Honor, Shadows of an Iron Citadel
- A Last Wish, Shadows of an Iron Citadel
- Blood of Midnight, Shadow's Path
- Fires of Retribution, The Hidden Temple
- Faith in My Clan
- Along the Coast at Midnight
- Unmaker's Shadow, Shadow's Path
- The Dragon's Heart, The Hidden Temple
- Time of the Void
- The Day of Thunder
Heroes of Rokugan II
- Plans and Preparation
- The Topaz Championship
- Treacherous Terrain
- Writ of Justice
- Tears of a Fox's Heart
- Wrath of the Kami, Remorseful Seppuku
- Unrequited Love
- Devoured by the Sea
- Scholarship, Remorseful Seppuku
- Uncertainty
- Unquiet Graves, Remorseful Seppuku
- Way of Death
- The Sapphire Tournament
- Bloom of the White Orchid
- The City of Lies
- The Bon Festival
- Stolen Relics
- Forgotten Shrine, Remorseful Seppuku
- A Say's Sail, Shipping Lanes
- Charge of the Baraunghar
- The House of a Thousand Stories
- Winter Court: Shiro Hanagensai
- In Search of the Future
- Compassion, The Code of Bushido
- Bayushi Lineage: Fathers and Sons
- Unexpected Find
- Legacy of My Ancestors, Shipping Lanes
- Corrupt Officials
- Grave of Heroes, Ominous Portents
- Voice of the Emperor, Ominous Portents
- Imperial Funeral
- Test of Purity, Ominous Portents
- Essence of Yume-do
- Shadows on the Court
- Strength From Weakness, Twenty Goblin Winter
- City of the Lost, Twenty Goblin Winter
- Failure of Courage, Twenty Goblin Winter
- Kharmic Vengeance
- Sleepless Nights
- Honesty, The Code of Bushido
- Journey to the Burning Sands
- The Tortoise and the Hare
- Harsh Lessons
- A Champion's Heart
- Corrupted Region, Shipping Lanes
- Unexpected Betrayal
- Courage, The Code of Bushido
- City of Empty Dreams
- Campaign Fiction: Scenes from the Empire, Summer 1502
- Secluded Village
- Cursed Gift
- Touch of Obsidian
- The Siege of Shiro Usagi
- Campaign Fiction: The Seppuku of Bayushi Tenkai
- Retirement
- Shadows of Beiden
- Into the Darkness
- Heated Discussion, The Code of Bushido
- Campaign Fiction: Scenes from the Empire, Autumn 1502
- Broken Words
- Assigning Blame
- ➔ Winter Court: The High House of Light
- Winter Court: Shiro no Shosuro
- Duty and Honor, The Code of Bushido
- The Cherry Blossom Festival
- Campaign Fiction: Scenes from the Empire, Spring 1503
- Undignified Death
- Loyalty, The Code of Bushido
- Marriage Celebration
- Fall Before the Master
- Border Conflict
- Campaign Fiction: A Summer of War, Parts 1-4
- Nemesis of Justice
- Summoned to Justice
- Essence of Toshigoku
- Doom of the Crab
- The Hidden Heart
- A Long Journey, Shipping Lanes
- Allegiance to the Emperor
- Campaign Fiction: A Summer of War, Part 5 and 6
- Contest of Artistry
- Reverence for Chikushudo
- Masterpiece: Iron Crane Chef
- Mujina Tricks, Remorseful Seppuku
- Spider's Lair
- Words and Deeds
- The Final Interactive: Weekend in Rokugan 2010
- Campaign Fiction: Brother and Sisters
- A Fallen Friend
- Truth and Falsehood
- A Hard Rain Will Fall
- An Arranged Marriage
- Whispers of the Moon
- Fate of the Assassin
- March Unto Death
- Celestial Journey
- Words Cut Like Steel
- To the Last Breath
L5R Homebrew
- A Root Problem: Conflicting Themes
- Power Levels and Power-Creep
- Defense Versus Offense
- Raises
- Narrative Control Mechanics
- Wounds and Death Part 1
- Thugs Versus Characters
- Dueling
- Wounds and Death Part 2
- Schools, Techniques, and Kata Part 1
- Spells and Secrets
- Schools, Techniques, and Kata Part 2
- What's with these Shugenja, anyway? br>
- Unofficial 5th Edition
This module was essentially a sequel to Touch of Obsidian, giving the PCs the chance to free the Dragon Clan Champion from the control of the Obsidian Dragon. It was also the conclusion of a specific player-character arc in which that PC (Otomo Torokage) accepted his destiny as a tamashii. I had known for a long time that Torokage would somehow be involved in the redemption/restoration of Togashi Imasu, but I did not know _how_ that would happen until I came up with the idea that Imasu would be possessed by the Obsidian Dragon. The module was presented as half of a high-low pair (with the module Winter Court: Shiro no Shosuro) as part of my ongoing effort to depict a two-tier storyline, and as such it also incorporated a great many minor sub-plots and resolutions, both for various NPCs and for the PCs interacting with them.
The High House of Light is not a normal site for a Winter Court, but I liked it for specifically that reason – it was a strange and unique place where the “normal” Winter Court things would be out of place, allowing me to get creative with the events taking place during the module. The in-story justification for this unusual Winter Court was a duel between Kakita Saburashi and Mirumoto Kanjo (the enlightened sword-saint who lost out to Mirumoto Daikabe), but I also worked in a Go tournament between Kamato (the monk Grandmaster from Unquiet Graves) and Doji Mizuki, the Crane grandmaster who had secretly murdered the previous Crane Grandmaster, Doji Fujimura, in a regional Interactive.
Due to both the setting and the prominent events taking place, I included a large number of NPCs in the module, including many recurring figures (great and minor) from earlier in the campaign – among them fan-favorite Hitomi Fuguki, former Emerald Championship contestant Doji Matsui,the now grief-stricken Go player Kuni Otango, the Scorpion “disbeliever” Shosuro Mitaka, and the tormented duelist Kakita Amika. I also included several daimyo, most notably the Crane Clan regent Doji Akane. Since she had not gotten much story attention up to this point, I decided to include an option for her to have a “winter romance” with a PC – a classic Japanese theme of a brief ephemeral love-affair that leaves only memories behind. (Probably the most interesting result from this little sub-plot was the Crane duelist who later perished in a duel when he flubbed an Honor Test on a failed Focus roll… he wrote a lengthy and eloquent fiction showing how his illicit affair with Akane led to his Honor “breaking” at the critical moment.)
Having made the mistake in previous “court intrigue” modules of not having enough interesting things happening for the PCs to interact with, I was determined to make sure this module was chock-full of cool character stories and interesting moments. In addition to the potential romance with Akane, I also incorporated the possibility for a PC romance with Hitomi Choujo – the Lion-turned-Hitomi from In Search of the Future – although this had more story significance for the module since she was also the reincarnation of Togashi Imasu’s lost love. Other story-moments in the module included the three religious celebrations over the course of the winter, the Game of Letters, Fuguki and the other tattooed men being driven slowly mad by the influence of Obsidian, Grandmaster Kamoto exposing Mizuki’s crime by recoginizing it in her Go-game, and Kuni Otango passing on the last remnants of his granddaughter’s prophetic gift to a PC. (I had already made a specific PC into the “primary” inheritor of her gift, and used that to have him utter ominous prophecies at Interactives, but I wanted to have more options for in-module prophetic revalations.)
The climax of this module – in which Torokage and the PCs confront the possessed Imasu and must give him the strength to cast off the power of Obsidian – was probably my single favorite moment in the entire campaign, especially the final moment in which Torokage fulfills his destiny by sacrificing himself to save Imasu’s soul: “Step forward, my lord, and I will catch you!” I wrote the whole scene one evening in a single two-hour surge, feverishly typing without a break. I’ll confess, though, that the cool final line was not my own creation – I was inspired by the climactic moment of Tim Powers’ novel “Earthquake Weather,” in which one of the characters makes a similar sacrifice. (BTW, Powers’ novels are uniformly excellent – I heartily recommend them to anyone looking for some good reading.)
Although the big confrontation was the module’s high-point, I also greatly enjoyed the way the outcome of that event fed into the module’s concluding sequence: the duel between Saburashi and Kanjo, in which Saburashi – who has spent decades obsessively trying to attain “the perfect strike” – loses because the enlightened Kanjo has actually discovered the Perfect Strike while on musha shugyo. The consequences of this duel are directly influenced by whether the PCs managed to free Imasu from Obsidian… if Imasu is still a prisoner of the Dragon of Sin, Saburashi attacks Kanjo and the two perish in a shocking tragedy, but if Obsidian’s influence has been banished, Saburashi in turn is freed from his compulsion by the enlightenment of defeat, and accepts retirement. This, in turn, affects the PCs who are obligated to duel Kakita Amika: if her beloved sensei sees the error of his ways, she does as well, offering her apology to the PC. Conversely, if Saburashi died on the path of sin, Amika insists on her duel to the death. (I was entertained by the PCs who had spent two years building up their dueling skills to face Amika, only to have her apologize to them… at which point their own Honor required them to grit their teeth and accept.)