Rob Hobart

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This module was constructed from two different player-submissions, one “primary” which supplied the main plot and storyline, and a secondary one from which I drew only a few possibilities and ideas.

The primary submission supplied the actual plot and the major NPCs: a corrupt daimyo and a corrupt magistrate conspiring to skim off taxes, with the local Imperial officer using a false identity to raise a peasant revolt against this abuse. Although the campaign had made a number of references to peasant revolts, this was the only module where the PCs could be directly involved in either abetting or averting such an event.

The secondary module submission was an attempt to create a situation in which the Lion, rather than the Dragon, initiated the impending war between the two clans. This was a remote possibility at best, since Akodo Gintaku definitely did not want to wreck his army by invading the Dragon mountains, but I wanted to at least offer some chance for things to go differently. Although I decided I could not use that module as submitted, I incorporated its basic goal into this one by making the meddling Imperial officer into a Mirumoto; if his identity was revealed to the corrupt Lion lord, the lord would use that as an excuse to attack the Dragon border and thereby cover-up his own dishonorable activities. In the event, no premier tables saw this happen, so the Dragon ended up the aggressors (as Mirumoto Daikabe wanted).

This module is set in the Kintani Valley, the location of the classic L5R adventure “Murder at Kyotei Castle” and a site I had visited multiple times in HoR1. I liked the idea of returning to the place in HoR2 and showing how it fared in Rokugan 1500, in the wake of the Lion conquest in the War of Bleeding Flowers. Of course, since the specific Lion lord was corrupt, this module didn’t offer a very positive picture of Lion administration… but on the other hand, the skimmed taxes are being smuggled out by Daidoji merchants, so the Crane don’t get a shining image either. Essentially it was another subtle “beat” on the campaign’s running sub-theme of corruption and social unrest, which had taken something of a back seat once the wars got rolling.