Part I:  Core Identity

1.  Which clan's lands did your character grow in?

Migeru was born and grew up in the Scorpion lands.

Ring Increase:  +1 Air
Skill Increase:  Skulduggery
Status:  24

2.  Who is your Family?

Migeru was originally from the Shosuro family of the Scorpion.  His family was pretty influencial.

Ring Increase:  +1 Water
Skill Increase:  +1 Performance
Glory:  40
Starting Wealth:  6 koku

3.  Where did you learn their skills?

Migeru was a playful child but he followed the ways of his family.  He entered the Shosuro Infiltrator School.

Rings:  +1 Air, +1 Fire
Starting Skills:  +1 Fitness, +1 Martial Arts (Melee), +1 Martial Arts (Unarmed), +1 Performance
Honor:  30
Techniques Available:  Kata, Rituals, Shuji
Starting Techniques:
* Ninjutsu:  Deadly Sting
* Shiji:  Sensational Distraction
The Path of Shadows (School Ability): While performing an Attack action against a target who is Compromised, Incapacitated, Unconscious, or unaware of your presence, treat the damage and deadliness of your weapon as being increased by your school rank.

4.  How does your character stand out within their school?

Migeru acts friendly as expected by his parents but at times he was not really happy about it

Adaptability, friendliness, awareness
Ring Increase: +1 Water

Part III: Honor and Glory

5. What is your past?

During one assignment, his group underestimated their target who turned out to be a majo tsukai.  He survived the encounter but has been infected by the Shadowland Taint.

Past:  Failed an assignement and got tainted because of it.

6. What does your character long for?

Migeru longs for normalcy.  He yearns that the Shadowland Taint be cleared but has accepted that it will not go away soon.

Ninjo:  Be cleansed of the Shadowland Taint.

7.  skipped

8. What does your character think of Bushido?

Divergent.  Bushido is useless against that which is really important to self.

Bonus skill: +1 Seafaring

Part IV: Strengths and Weaknesses

9. What is your character’s greatest accomplishment so far?

Migeru has successfully hidden the existence of his Taint and has become used to approaching people as if it really did not exist.

Distinction advantage: Dangerous Allure (Fire)

10. What holds your character back the most in life?

The Taint has affected Migeru that he cannot feel anything physically.  He cannot deny the effects it has done to him and he longs for true companionship.

Adversity disadvantage:  Shadowland Taint (Earth)

11. What activity makes your character feel at peace?

He plays the flute.

Passion Advantage: Playfulness (Air)

12. What concern, fear, or foible troubles your character the most?

Anxiety disadvantage: Irrepressible Flirtation (Earth)

13. Who has your character learned the most from during their life?

A Kasen spirit (Khipapboi) has been tutoring him on how to control his Taint

1 Mentor Disadvantage --> Haunted
1 Mentor Skill  --> +1 Theology

Part V:  Personality and Behaviour

14. What detail do others find most striking about your character?

He has above average scorpion features which he does not keep behind a mask.  He is usually playful to the point that he might break decorum.

15. How does your character react to stressful situations?

When stressed out, his first reaction is to talk to himself.  His mentor sometimes whispers back to him.

16. What are your character’s preexisting relationships with other clans, families, organizations, and traditions?

His yearning to be free of his family's pretentious care has forced Migeru to join up with the crew of the Karasubofu.  He has invested in a pair of mantis escrima weapons during his tenure with them.

Part VI: Ancestry and Family

17. How would your character’s parents describe them?

His parents were well known courtiers and business people.  They tried to instill the lessons to their child but he continues to rebel more so after they ignored the fact that he is tainted.

Bonus Skill: +1 Martial Arts (Ranged)

18. Who was your character named to honor?

A Shosuro ancestor once infiltrated a Maho Tsukai cabal and was able to steal some of their sacred text.  With the help of his mentor, Migeru was able to access these.

Samurai Heritage result: Stolen Knowledge (Honor -5), Maho ritual:  Mark of Desecration

19. What is your character’s personal name?

Migeru or Migu.

Part VII: Death

20. How should your character die?

Burning out his Shadowland Taint to unleash it against his enemies (which he will hopefully defeat) and then rise up as one of the Tainted.

* * *

Migeru

Rings and Ring Values:

Air 3
Earth 1
Fire 2
Water 3
Void 1

Skills and the Dice they add

Artisan
Martial
- Fitness 1
- Martial Arts (Melee) 1
- Martial Arts (Ranged) 1
- Martial Arts (Unarmed) 1
Scholar
-Theology 1
Social
- Performance 2
Trade
- Seafaring 1
- Skulduggery 1

Derived Attributes

Endurance:  6
Composure:  8
Focus:  5
Vigilance:  3

Void Points:  1

Honor:  25
Glory:  40
Status:  24

Equipment:   Traveling clothes, traveling pack, two flutes/escrima sticks/ninja-to.

* * *

Experience

Rings:
Earth 2
Void 2

Endurance:  8
Composure:  10

Skills:
Skulduggery 2

Techniques
Kata - Soaring Slice
Kata - Striking as Air
Ninjutsu - Veiled Menage Style
Ninjutsu - Skulk

Nemur

Rokugan is a land where supernatural powers run rampant and, sometimes, provincial intrigues are truly not the greatest threat in a story. GMs and players who wish to explore stories about champions banding together to save cities, provinces, or even the world itself can certainly do so in the Emerald Empire, as the setting is rich with cosmological threats.


Assumptions of this Playstyle This playstyle assumes that the player characters are samurai who are tasked with dealing with a suitably epic problem—or series of problems—that threaten multiple
clans, and perhaps even the Empire itself. Dangers such as massive Shadowlands armies, bloodspeaker sects, lunar cultists, and other, more insidious threats create story opportunities for characters to undertake epic quests to protect their homes and loved ones. This playstyle mirrors more “classic” fantasy adventures of great deeds, mighty heroes, and dire foes to be vanquished.
There are numerous locations in Rokugan where this sort of campaign fits most naturally. The Shadowlands encompass a vast realm surrounding the Festering Pit of Fu Leng, and this region is the grave to countless heroes.

The Shinomen Forest is an untamed wildland within the Empire itself, to which no clan lays claim and in which primal beings still stir. Even within smaller patches of wilds, there are strange and dangerous beings. Not all spirits are friendly to humans, and some see the expansion of towns into the wild lands as an affront to nature. The PCs might need to find compromise between ancient forces and humanity so that both can survive and thrive.

Character Creation Alterations

Apply the following alterations to the Game of Twenty Questions (see page 41) for each character:

Question 5: What is your character’s appointed quest?

Instead of a giri, each PC has a quest: a task given them by their lord, by their own will, by supernatural forces, or perhaps by destiny itself. This task might be to set something right in the universe, recover or destroy a magical artifact, seal a particular evil entity again for another ten thousand years, or face a particular foe who threatens the entire realm. As with a giri, a character’s  quest should be able to conflict with their ninjō, and sets the means by which the character will strive for glory. At the discretion of the group and the GM, all characters might share a quest, or they might have different quests with overlapping objectives.

Extra Experience: After character creation, each character receives 30 XP to spend on advancements.

Nemuranai

Nemuranai, meaning “unsleeping” in reference to the object’s kami, are miraculous artifacts of spiritual power. They are items that, through centuries of use, miraculous origins, or other incredible events, have attained power and even a degree of awareness. While they can appear in any campaign, they are usually vanishingly rare, accessible to PCs only under exceptional circumstances. In this
campaign style, however, each PC chooses one nemuranai with an appropriate sealed invocation of their choice that they possess as their quest begins. They must also determine how the item relates to their quest:


Awakened Weapon

A weapon nemuranai has the standard profile, plus:

• Its deadliness is increased by +2, and it has the Durable and Sacred qualities.
• It has a distinguishing quirk with narrative effects.
• It has one Attack or Scheme action invocation of Rank 1–3 sealed within it. Once per game session as an action, the wielder may perform this invocation, substituting the skill used to wield the weapon for Theology.

Awakened Armor

An armor nemuranai has the standard profile, plus:

• It has physical and supernatural resistance +2, and it has the Durable and Sacred qualities.
• It has a distinguishing quirk with narrative effects.
• It has one Support or Movement action invocation of Rank 1–3 sealed within it. Once per game session as an action, the wearer may perform this invocation, substituting Fitness for Theology.

Awakened Item

An item nemuranai has the standard profile, plus:

• It has the Durable and Sacred qualities.
• It has a distinguishing quirk with narrative effects.
• It has one invocation of Rank 1–4 sealed within it. Once per game session as an action, the holder may perform this invocation, substituting Meditation (or other skill of the GM’s choice) for Theology. While wielding this item, the character adds a kept  set to an  result to their Theology checks using sealed invocation’s Element.