Rob Hobart

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The minor side-theme of competition between the Empire’s three major theatre troops, which I had been dropping into the campaign intermittently for years, finally got its moment in the spotlight with this module. All three troupes get their moments to shine, which was a lot of fun to write. Fittingly, the module takes place in the artistic district of Toshi Ranbo (drawing on materials I had helped create for Masters of Court), and thus also serves to show what the Imperial Capital looks like after the defeat of the Mantis/Thrane gambit. (I made a point of throwing in a scene in which Mantis samurai get into a shouting match with Crane samurai over the recent events, with the Imperial Chancellor intervening to shut things down and to make clear that the Mantis were, for the moment, still accepted as a Great Clan.)

Since this module’s central plot involved the PCs serving as judges in the competition between the Empire’s three most prominent theatre troupes, I made a point of bringing back several of the campaign’s prominent “dirty courtiers,” most notably the Crane couple (Yotai and Sensa) from Shiro Hanagensai and the blackmailer Bayushi Tenmaku who had first shown up all the way back in Topaz Championship. In fact, it was in this module that Tenmaku could finally “cash in” any blackmail he had gained on PCs in earlier modules. I also brought back Doji Keitomaru, also from Topaz, who as a result of both that module and Voice of the Emperor was effectively under Scorpion control; I wanted to give the PCs an opportunity to persuade Keitomaru to reclaim the path of Honor.

In many ways this module was thematically similar to Unrequited Love, in that the PCs are caught in the middle of a multi-sided court competition. However, having learned my lesson with the earlier module, this time around I made sure to give the PCs a whole lot more to do over the course of the mod, ensuring there would be sufficient playing-time. Also, by having the PCs “randomly” chosen (by Fate, in the form of the Module Author) as six of the nine judges for the artistic competition, I ensured they would be unable to avoid getting involved in all the various courtly shenanigans – in contrast to Unrequited where the PCs often did not feel particularly committed to their “side.”

The module featured both an opportunity for the PCs to make indirect contact with Toturi Hisako (following up on a similar moment in Winter Court: Shiro no Shosuro), but by far the most important sub-plot involved another Imperial princess: Toturi Maihime, “the Scholar,” who had previously appeared on-stage only in Imperial Funeral. With the outcome and revalations at GenCon 2009, I felt that the Scorpion (now controlled by Hido) would be doing their best to set up Hisako as their own puppet Empress, and this would involve getting rid of her rivals – including Maihime. So this module put the fate of an Imperial princess in the PCs’ hands, albeit in a subtle way. (A majority of tables did save her, so she got to stick around until the end of the campaign.)