Legend of the 5 Rings: A Question of Honor

[Dovahsith]

Hi all, currently in a running game of L5R, i being a humble monk following the Toa of Shinsei,:durkon: have come upon one of the things which separate this particular RP from most others.

My most honorable companion is a magistrate of the Sparrown Clan, investigating both the dissipearance of his Diaymo and the Clans ancestrial weapon, a waizasaki i believe. We have discovered it and it is now in our Sparrow Clan members possesion but this brings in a problem. the weapon was hidden due to distrust of the acting head of the clan, the diaymo's wife. though the smart thing to do is investigate the diaymo's dissapearence, the Sparrow Clan of the party has already sworn to return to the clan the moment he finds it. Though this is obviously stupid, it is the honorable course of action due to fullfilling his duty. As the monk of the group, i'm being used as the deciding vote when the party is split, like now, but i have no idea which side to take. What is the opinion of the eldars of the internet?

[Sidmen]

The Sparrow in your group swore to return to his clan as soon as he finds its prized weapon, and he has found it. So he must return to his clan. Simultaneously, he also has a duty to discover the whereabouts of his Diaymo or if something untoward has happened to him. So he is duty bound to continue the investigation.

Here is the kicker: who assigned the Sparrow to investigate the Diaymo's disappearance? And to whom did he swear to bring the weapon back as soon as it was recovered? Hopefully, these two people will be of different ranks; so you can choose the higher-ranking obligation.

[The Rose Dragon]

Hold on, what's a diaymo?

Regardless, the answer depends on how much the magistrate cares about his actual honor, and how much he cares about the appearance of honor, as well as how he feels about the tenet of Duty. While all samurai are expected to be paragons of bushidō, clearly most of them don't actually perfectly adhere to it.

The more important question is: why is this a matter for the party to decide on, instead of solely the magistrate in question? Honor is not something to be determined by popular vote, after all. It is a deeply personal matter, and how much he cares about his honor should (ideally) not be altered by peer pressure.

[Black Jester]

Of course you bring the sword back. That's what honor, and most importantly, duty demands, and it is also the more dramatic decision. You are allowed however, to really loathe this decision as long as you perform it.

If you know that this might be a trap, take precautions to avoid it, or at least to make sure that you keep the letter of the promise, if not the intent. One option could be that a treasure such as this needs additional protection and the safest route possible, which is why you really need to go somewhere else first to get some support.

high Honour L5R play is a bit of a competition of who dies in the most awesome and memorable way anyway.

[BWR]

The core of any good samurai drama: honor vs. duty, and duty vs. duty.

This being Rokugan, an ancestral heirloom like the wakizashi is considered far more valuable than any one person (except the Emperor), especially when it's a clan heirloom. Even had the Sparrow not been sworn to return it instead of finding his daimyo, it would be the natural thing to do. He might want to make penance, perhaps go ronin or seppuku, for leaving his boss in a fix like this, but that's the way the game works.

However, as a monk you are probably less concerned with material things and more concerned with people. While you are aware that the samurai place great value on objects, and monks have sacred objects too, you are more likely to go after the daimyo. Suggest that you split up. Send the Sparrow back home with the sword while you continue the investigation as best you can here. As a monk, no samurai can legally order you to do anything. They may give orders and many samurai tend to look down their nose at (Taoist) monks, especially Lion and Crab, but as a monk you can go your own way.

[IdleMuse]

If he pledged to return it to the clan, then return it to someone who also distrusts the Daimyo's wife.

[Dovahsith]

Very interesting thanks
to answer your questions, the Diaymo dissapeared in a meeting with the party where the room was filled with darkness, and not shadowlands, i checked rolling absurdly high on lore, apparently from what i can tell its connected to the void. :smallannoyed:When the party awoke the diaymo was gone, the room was filled with what was later discovered to be animal blood. Brilliant idea, what if say, my monk humbly suggests finding the diaymo so that we may return the weapon to him? that way we not only complete the duty to return the clan weapon, in this case to the higher authority, but also find the diaymo keeping the Bushi's Honor

[Amechra]

I say go with that.

[BWR]

If you pull it off, it's an excellent idea. It would bring much glory and honor to those involved and you will be praised for your wisdom and ability.

Do you have confidence in your abilities?

Because if you fail, you are risking the clan sword as well as the daimyo.

[Dovahsith]

Morning all fellow rokugans,

figure i may as well update what occured:

well we now know that the diaymo is dead considering his ghost is currently inhabiting the subconcious of our sparrow bushi

meanwhile we have encountered a new addition to the party, a unicorn ambassidor to the sparrow with incredble luck considering due to lucky rolling she has captured the leadership to the forest killers in an epic duel.
Both her and the bushi have now been discovered in the same room as the dead bodies of the old diaymos family with blood on their weapons. the only reason they weren't murdered out of hand was that i managed to convince the guards that the only people with suitable station to judge the unicorn ambassidor and technically the new diaymo would be those from out of the clan. now i'm the only party member not confined to quarters, waiting for the Kuni witchhunters coming to investigate, it looks like i'm becoming some sort of monk detective for now. so far i've found a seal of illusion hidden in the castle and also have been driven into a fit of madness by a vision of the void from the murder room when i attempted the kiho touch the void dragon.:smalleek:, now i'm afraid of pure darkness, considering i took dark fate i find this incredibly ironic:smalltongue:

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Find the Avatar.

[BWR]

The Sparrow are important enough to warrent an ambassador? From the Unicorn? :smallconfused:

[Dovahsith]

its not that the sparrow are important, more that they are on the opposite side of Rokudan from the rest of the clan, everytime the unicorn battle maiden player wanders from the clan, she tends to diviate from her actual orders but become so covered in glory the clan champion decides not to complain. for example she was sent to carry a message to the scorpian lands, accidently took out the forest killer leadership, was once sent as part of a delegation to dragon lands, gets involved in massive battle against goblin army in the edge of crane lands

[BWR]

Ah, that makes more sense.
I've also had hypercompetant characters. In one game set in semi-historical Japan, I managed to kidnap Oda Nobunaga and present him to my lord. My lord was trying to stay mostly neutral in the war and got upset with me and told me to put Oda back where I found him.

[Dovahsith]

welp, been a while
alot has happened, does anyone want to know and if so which first?
1. Encountering a magic forest and a Ki-Rin
2. The duel for leadership of the Sparrow clan and subsequent events
3. The "spiritual" pilgramage my monk went on

[BWR]

Just start at the beginning and end at the end.

[Dovahsith]

Just start at the beginning and end at the end.

you speak with much wisdom

well where were we, oh yes, my Sparrow clan friend and our "helpful" unicorn were scanned, due to the wonders that is Rokugan Justice, despite being found covered in blood and holding bloody weapons, due to their joint status and high honor, technically unless a clan leader went out of their way to accuse them, they were fine. The Kuni came, basically scanned them for taint, nothing was found relating to the shadow lands but they found that a part of the Sparrow clan bushi's mind was on lockdown so until that was unlocked, they'd be holding judgement and the castle in a sort of regency. We then embarked upon the epic quest to find a tranquil spot to figure out how to deal with the Sparrow Bushi. We started the journy to pheonix lands thinking this magic was above our pargrade so we needed someone who actually knew what the hell was going on. On the way we passed through a forest and was abushed by a lost. This one was smart, though his stats were so low that the local peasants could curbstomp him, he had set up a ward trapping us except the unicorns horse inside. The Sparrows eyes then decided to roll inside his head. That was a bad move due to promt action with a bow staff disarmed him and had him pinned to the ground. Meanwhile the increbly smart horse using the spear kept in its saddlebags and abnormally high rolls on animal handling speared the lost in the face deactivating the wards.

leaving the forest we found ourselves in front of a shrine on a large mountain. Turns out when we went to investigate it was the shrine of the Ki-Rin which decided to make an appearence. A Ki-Rin to those who don't know is basically a uncorn with a mane of fire trailing lightning. While the Unicron Bushi started spasaming on the floor with fangirl, the sparrow was hit with the main, knocking out a shadow from his head, unlocking all his memories with the removal of a dark precence. The GM then took him aside to tell him what happened.