Session XII - Draggin' Bandits Across the Border

-23rd of Dragon-
Jou's journals show him to be unstable, and being haunted by his ancestor seems to have driven him over the edge. His timeline does fit withSuzuhiho having been on his trail. He was working on a way to protect himself from the kansen to still use blood without taint.
 
Kazue does request Jou's genealogy from Phoenix lands.
 
Give over the journals to Suzuhiho with thanks. We also recommend Ansho-sama let her superior know she did an excellent job.
 
 
-24th - 25th of Dragon-
Inigo writes up a case for getting the eta moved downstream; efficiencies in their process, etc. Genjiro gives the pitch, backing Iamiko and Suzume's request, leveraging the Kaui engineers to assist. Ansho-sama approves.
 
The Kaui will start work on the eta rebuild. One or two will go with Suzuhiho along the river to check on bridges and infrastructure to report back. (Inigo steps in and makes sure that the materials needed are acquired for lower prices).
 
Looking into Shiba Risu, the magistrate that was the second messenger who took news of the governor's death. Find her possessions for Kazue to see if she can get any void readings on. She has a cosmetic kit, nice calligraphy set. Kazue tries the calligraphy set; gets an image of her. Light armor, swords, carried a spear. Then of young man in Shiba colors, holding hands with her when dressed normally. Kazue sketches the man. She remembers seeing him in Koso Mura - one of the soldiers stationed there. Since Risu left through the north with another samurai, we decide to check in there.
 
Decide to head to Koso Mura to follow-up on Risu - take her personal belongings as well as the other magistrate that was dispatched with her. Will take the Kaui miner specialist with us as well.
 
 
-26th of Dragon-
Head out to Koso Mura. Uneventful trip.
 
 
-27th of Dragon-
Evening; we are welcomed by Shiba Gaijitsu and invited to stay in the keep. He hosts for dinner with some of his officers. Introduce him to Kaui Yukito and request projects they are thinking of in regards to the mining. Kazue requests a chance to speak with him in the morning.
 
Kazue gives us the tour of the town at night. Inigo goes and sees a little more
 
 
-28th of Dragon-
Kazue shows him the sketch of the samurai with Risu - he thinks it's Shiba Haruko, one of his soldiers. He can easily setup a meeting. Kazue and Genjiro meet with Haruko. At the mention of Risu, he's upset. He says they were friends and correspondents. He last saw her the day she passed through Koso Mura with another magistrate with a message for Phoenix lands. He says they were in a hurry, spent the night, but pushed on the next morning. He remembers it was hot. He remembers her being excited to be entrusted as a messenger. He only knows of the one main pass through the mountains into Dragon lands. There are smaller paths that aren't always open, due to rock slides and other hazards. They had travel papers good all the way to Shiba castle. He comes back with a collection of small letters and a ribbon.
 
Kazue communes with the void; the ribbon is an image of Risu brushing her hair; the letters, of them walking through the gardens.
 
Brief discussion; Emerald Magistrate Yuriki, Toku Masashi is stationed in Koso Mura
 
Inigo gets a handle on the commerce in the town. There is very little hard bargaining here - most ask for and get fair prices here. There are people from all over the province in Koso Mura as part of this. There are a few pick pockets in the market. Inigo checks on that; some of the urchins are organized, but no major organization running them. It's not out of control; more than you'd like to see, but not terrible.
 
Kazue gets us a reservation at the fancy restaurant, along with Moshi Masako and Shiba Gaijitsu.
 
Handou hits a bath house.
 
 
-1st of Serpent-
Get up in the morning, but get message from Gaijitsue that he wishes to see as soon as possible - it's an emergency.
 
Group gathers up in the keep's meeting room. Gaijitsu, a few guards, and a panting, dusty, imperial legionnaire. He bows to everyone, just arrived from Sujuku Mura, and Gaijitsue after hearing the message felt we should all hear it. He was stationed in Sujuku Mura; they received word late last night that the village of Hitori Mura was robbed by Dragon Clan samurai. Hirumi Moiri and a few scouts were going to see what they could; the peasants who reported said that the samurai left, taking their copper ore and rice, as much as they could carry. 14 samurai were
reported.
 
Inigo points out the rice problem; we request a wagon guarded by Phoenix soldiers dispatched to the village. We dispatch a message to Toshi no Naisho, gear up, and head out. Bayushi Chiziru says they have horses at Sujuku Mura to swap out. She's tired, but looks like she wants to keep up to be ready for a fight.
 
Around 3pm, arrive in Sujuku Mura. The Imperial legionnaires are all on alert. Yoritomo Michiko is the gunso of the squad; she gets horses dispatched for us. The magistrate and scouts haven't reported back as of yet. When we check for a guide, she dispatches for someone to get "Kiyoji". He's a local guide, so knows some of the alternate paths.
 
Timeline; 28th of Dragon around lunch, the village was robbed.
 
We leave Chiziru with her squad, and head on to Hitori Mura. We arrive around 10pm, seeing no signs of the bandits along the way. The guide thinks they used a different trail away from the village. Sou casts his earth tracking spell; finds some tracks in a limited area, but doesn't find anything in the first try. Village is seemingly carved into the mountainside, and even though night, the village is awake and alert. Greeting by Gakuto. As far as he knows,
 
The "Dragon" marched up, 14 people, all men. Most of the villagers were in the mine; headman and the women mostly in the village. The leader, on horseback, said this village is now in Dragon territory, and they were here to confiscate the ore and food supplies to feed the army. The man on horseback had a banner with the mon on it; among the soldiers were kimono in dragon clan colors. They did not attack anyone, made their demands, had the villagers load as much as they could to the cart. The rest of the troops stuffed their sacks and packs as they good; the sergeant. To Kazue, the lack of tattooed monks and shugenja is unusual. Also, the count is odd; a squad is 21 men, including a sergeant in most of rokugan. In Dragon, they do 10 men plus the sergeant for a squad. There was only one archer in the squad. Only 3 of the 14 had daisho; some were only carrying spears. Not much armor at all. And to Gakuto, while the banner and kimono looked new, the rest of the gear looked run down. They can show us the direction they left from. Thinks they were headed to Dragon lands. They took about 500 lbs of rice, all the iron mined since the last trip and 2/3rd of the copper they had mined. The cart was quite overloaded in his opinion. It took about 2.5 hours to round everything up and load it; moving that cart would be at half speed.
 
Inigo talks with Gakuto, gets the low-down on their trade routes, about their young people leaving.
 
 
-2nd of Serpent-
Leave early, tracking the scouts and the bandits. It is relatively heading towards the border. In a few hours, the trail gets narrower, rougher, a bit more dangerous. Spend the full day tracking. We do find a spot where the bandits camped. Less than a half-day from the border. Debate pressing on; decide to.
 
 
-3rd of Serpent-
Around 2 in the morning, guide suspects we've reached the border. We see Miori and the scouts trail split and head back towards Sujuku Mura. Press on.
 
Around dawn, the pass opens up again. We see a moderately sized village near a deep blue lake about an hour away.
 
Meet a Dragon patrol as we travel. Masashi greets them. The leader listens, reviews papers, and asks to be allowed to escort us to his commander. They take us into town, which is also where the tracks go. We are brought before Miramoto Namboku - taiso of the 17th Dragon Legion. (Wearing his armor, which is a bit odd) Masashi explains our tracking. Namboku blusters a bit, says no one in his group has raided or stolen anything. They would not have allowed bandits come through. Tells us we can wait at the tea house, and he will go look. The town is Iero Mura,
named for the lake it sits beside. The tea is quite good!
 
Two hours pass before all of us hear a commotion and what sounds like fighting from somewhere in the village. Masashi checks with the guards outside; they'll check on it, tell us to stay put. Kazue, at the shrine, gets info from the monks about the town, the fish they fish from the lake, the larger city near Sujuku Mura. When they hear the fighting, Kazue asks to be escorted to the tea house. After she arrives, we hear the fighting start to spread. It sounded like one fight, now like one group is running and scattering the fight.
 
After about 6 more minutes, the soldier comes and retrieves us. Namboku tells us that it turns out there were some ruffians in the village. When they tried to question them, they attacked; they've killed 8, and his troops are pursuing them. They found the cart, and the horse. Escorts us to the cart, which appears to still be loaded up.
 
He offers us a fresh horse if we wish to continue; we do. We inform him of the rice, let them keep it.