Rob Hobart

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The second module in Parvez’ saga of Toritaka Yamamiya was also IIRC the only module in the campaign to feature a genuine maho cult cell as the bad guys – I suspect this was a residual creative influence on Parvez from the first campaign with its ubiquitous maho-tsukai villains, but I didn’t mind too much since the story was basically a one-off. If my recollections do not betray me, this was actually the second and last module in HoR2 to feature Bloodspeaker-type maho-tsukai as the villains – all the later users of maho in the campaign (there weren’t that many of them) would be from the Shadowlands.

Even more than its predecessor, this module played up Yamamiya’s curse (which included three full Ranks of Unluck on the character) for maximum impact, both serious and humorous. In fact, Parvez put his own character “at risk” in this module, with the possibility that his bad fortune could result in his being executed for a crime he didn’t commit if the PCs did not uncover the real villains. The odds were against this, of course, but it could have happened… and the funny thing is, it didn’t even occur to Parvez that he could lose his character until after he submitted the module.

Of the Remorseful Seppuku modules, this one had the least connection to the others, since the threat (the maho cult) is a stand-alone plot and the only advancement of Yamamiya’s personal story is his discovery of some of his ancestor’s writings (which reveal the connection between this campaign’s version of Toritaka Tonozaka and the actual PC from HoR1). The by-the-book Phoenix magistrate in this module was designed in part to be a symbol of traditional Rokugani law-enforcement’s increasing difficulty with a society in transition. I included an option for PCs to gain him as an ally or enemy with the intent that he would later reappear and the PCs’ standing with him would impact their ability to succeed in that adventure. This was another example of the sort of long-term storytelling and lingering consequences that I wanted to use in HoR2, but in this case I wasn’t able to find an opportunity to re-use this particular NPC until Corrupted Ground two years later.