At the start of the session we asked some more questions of the tax collector we were travelling with, Shisaru Shingen, and learned that his immediate superior was the magistrate Terutaru, and the Daimyo was called Subaki. Shingen knew very little about the affairs of the court, being hapy to just follow orders from Teritaru. Shingen had first noticed strange orders about a year ago when Subaki ordered all imperial representatives in his domain to be arrested - that was about three months after the coup, about as the same length of time as it would take a rider to travel from the imperial city. In retrospect, he noticed the Daimyo had been unlike his old self some time before that. Since that date, things had become worse, with the elimination of the Etta through the winter, and most of the food being shipped to the Shisuro capital, "The Castle of Pretending".

In the castle town, everyone was suffering - going through a market day with most people hardly able to stand up due to malnutrition and overwork. A few of us helped out some of the locals in small ways, and Sammo saw the magistrate arrest a stallkeeper for falling asleep on the job and draft a passer-by to fill his role, then ignore several other sleeping stallkeepers.

We approached the castle, were shot at with arrows, then ran away. We saw about three peasants pushing a cart piled high with inedible food up to the castle, and after some discussion about whether or not to hide in it, we gave the peasants a letter for the daimyo. At the castle, the archers stopped the cart and searched it eagerly but didn't take anything. One of the archers took the scroll into the longhouse and didn't come out again.

We spoke to an old man on a bench near the castle, who told us that he had seen the Daimyo recently.

At one point we contemplated getting arrested as a way of getting into the castle but decided against it because Sammo was the only awesome kung-fu man who could win a fight after having all his stuff taken away.

About this point, Andy had to leave so Juichi became an NPC.

We went to Teritaru's office, and found out he was away until the evening. We got some information about a guard who although reluctant to speak ill of his superior, was eventually persuaded to admit that Teritaru was very unpopular, owing to his loyal enforcement of unusually harsh laws, but enforced them fairly.

Sammo and Yoritomo's bosun scouted out the crags behind the castle for a way up, while the rest of the party slept in preparation for a night attack, and I took advantage of the downtime to drag Juichi along on an entomological expedition.

When we returned to the magistrate's house we woke him up to complain about Yoritomo being treated in a manner unfitting for the king of the islands and a holy quester seeking hospitality (being shot at). Yoritomo nominated Masaki to speak for him to avoid seeming like a pompous ass (his words).

Within Teritaru's house, we could smell appetising cooking. At Masaki's urging, Teritaru revealed that Subaki's strange behaviour had started when he acquired a sword from a Crane merchant by the name of Yasuki Ayumi for much less than it was worth. Teritartu told us he could bring a small number of us in courtly apparel to the castle, and warned us that Teritar had had all shugenja in his domain killed. as we were leaving, he casually mentioned that the archers would likely all be asleep - however, we elected to come to the castle openly in the morning now we had the option open to us, instead of making an assault.

I contemplated stealing the sword, but figured it would be too risky (and metagamed that Jim was likely to have planned a denoument involving all of the party)

The next day, Teritaru brought Masaki, Sammo, Yoritomo and me (wearing clothes borrowed from one of Yoritomo's men and carrying only four spell scrolls, hidden among all my notes and sketches) up to the castle and into the longhouse. The longhouse was full of sickly looking Samurai and their families, sitting at tables piled with rotten food. On a stage in the centre of the room lay a scattering of headless bodies. About thirty ashigaru guards lined the room. The daimyo stepped forward and announced his intention to execute us, and Masaki challenged him to a duel. Teritaru encouraged me to intervene, and I brought out a spell scroll under the pretence of recording the duel, while Sammo and Yoritomo took up flanking positions. None of us could intervene without triggering a fight against everyone, and as it turned out we didn't need to. After an hour or so of focusing (even if I'd had appropriate spells for cheating in duels they'd have worn off), Grant won the quick draw on an honour reroll and took Subaki down. (I think Jim forgot to deduct honour for intending to intervene in the duel - especialy given that it turned out to be unnecessary, and for allowing cowardice to factor into at least my decision of when to intervene)

Teritaru took over, and cleared the hall. Investigating Subaki's private quarters, he found Miya messages announcing that the Scorpion clan had been outlawed and the bodies of Subaki's family. With the aid of the crystal sword, Masaki saw that Subaki's katana was exceptionally well crafted and had a blood-red blade. Once I'd had time to meditate enough to raise my willpower, I cast reflections of Pan Ku to identify the sword (Pan Ku is the fortune of Chaos, who was once a dragon, and Yoritomo remarked that the dragon had referred to his quest as the riddle of Pan Ku). I found the sword to be the sword of secrets, one of the blood swords, made by someone called Asahina Yaijinden, full of lots of powerful magic and seeming a lot like Sauron's One Ring.

Teritaru sent out riders to gather help from nearby towns, including Etta, and we stayed for a few weeks to help out however we could. Teritaru entrusted the sword to us to keep it safe.

After leaving the town we journeyed to the temple of Osano-Wo, where Yoritomo spent some months with the monks training in how to fight with his kama. We then travelled into Shinamen forest, where we were surrounded by ratmen, who spoke in a language none of us could recognise. When I spoke the oracle's words, they took us to a village of Naga (snake men like those Yoritomo got the kama from), who spoke in a similar language to the words the oracle had given me and seemed to understand the words I spoke and another prase Yoritomo knew (although I still don't know what they mean). After living for three months in the naga village (which has a large number of crystal structures) our bedraggled party is finally leaving the forest and making our way to the next objective on Yoritomo's quest - a tower on high crags looming out of the mist