Potential Motives/Ninjo: Potential Locations:

The Mountain Witch — by CBass • One ronin is desperately in love... or is it • The Bridge of Serpent’s Teeth:
more of an obsession? A wood bridge is half-destroyed; Under-
A replayable adventure of risk, vulnerability, and trust. neath are jagged rocks and scattered
• One ronin’s past allegiance is calling them bones; A shallow ledge can be scaled.
Rules: Each player creates a ronin PC, considering why their PC is a ronin and why they here to collect on an old favor.
desperately need money. The party of ronin are complete strangers, although some may • The Mountain, “Amaterasu's Blindspot”:
secretly have a history with another PC via their Ninjo. Each PCs Ninjo should serve to • One ronin is actually here for their own Deserted guard post, abandoned helmets;
create opposing loyalties or bring into question their commitment to the group. Ninjo selfish revenge against another. There’s no signs, roads, or pathways;
should be kept secret until act 3. Instead, players focus on foreshadowing their Ninjo
Trees limit sunlight at all hours of the day.
throughout the story. The GM’s job is to encourage questionable behavior during play, • One ronin has been to the fortress before
even pretending that truly innocent or beneficial actions were intended to be ulterior. and hides their true motives. • Hauntlands of the Dread Lord Noboru:
Warped trees wrapped in chains and pa-
Before play, all players will need to establish their starting Trust Rank for each other PC. • One ronin holds a bargain with the witch, per wards; A snowstorm separates the
This can be determined by comparing their individual tenets of Bushido: If two PCs have who on their word will deliver.
the same paramount tenet, they start with 3 ranks of Trust towards each other. If a PC party; Carnivorous trees with living vines.
views another PCs paramount tenet as less significant, they start with 0 ranks towards • One ronin’s fear lingers in their mind, • Defiled Ancestral Shrine:
each other, otherwise all other PCs start with 2 ranks. During downtime scenes between causing them to question how they will Stone steps lead to a decorated shrine;
each act, players will secretly modify their Trust ranks for each other PC: Increasing their continue on if it manifests. Candles, glowing green; several corpses sit
Trust rank by 1, reducing their Trust rank down to 0, or making no changes. Those choices in a corner, eyes open, watching the PCs?;
are revealed at the start of the following act and each PC gains a number of Trust Points
up to their new rank for each other PC. Potential Scenes: • Spiral Keep:
Mechanically, Trust Points act like temporary Void Points that can only be used to aid or • Bandits intending to loot the shiro offer A maze of false paths, water, and gates;
betray the PC who trusted them. Trust can be used to Invert, Seize, Leverage, or Exploit Snowstorm settles into a fog; The Shiro is
to guide the PCs, but whisper betrayal. lifted up on sloped piles of rough stones.
Advantages and Disadvantages, or to “Seize the Moment” against that PC in a conflict.
Note that Inverting another PC’s Advantage will also give them a void point. However, • PCs help each other cross a bridge, but • Shiro of Noboru’s Buried Sins:
spending a Trust Point will also be required in order to target a PC with any Actions or one PC must scale a ledge to cross first. 5 stories tall, some floors are damaged;
Techniques that have the Support or Scheme keywords. Players should describe how their
PC is involved when using Trust Points in ways described above. • A snowstorm pushes the PCs towards A vengeful spirit roams the halls, crying;
tainted, carnivorous trees. Something a PC wants is held by the spirit.
Alternatively, whether or not your PC is physically present in a scene, you can use a Trust •
Point to narrate the results of a player’s roll, twisting the outcome while still respecting • The party sets up camp in an ancestral Dungeon of Maddening Hunger:
shrine, sheltered from the storm. A giant centipede hides in the shadow, a
the overall rolled success or failure. All unspent Trust Points are lost at the end of an act. Gakimushi; Various torture devices; Some-
Premise: Lord Izaku Kanazaki, whose lands border between the Phoenix and the Dragon, • Dreams plague the party: visions of im- thing a PC wants is trapped in a cell.
have need to investigate a mountain said to be home to a great evil, a mountain witch. pending betrayal, foreshadowing.
Rather than sending their samurai, distressing the Phoenix’s alliance with the Dragon, • Court of the Mountain Witch:
they send for local ronin, promising a large sum of money. However, only the most • Something a PC says, a corpse, voices in Impossibly large for being the overlook;
desperate and down on their luck would answer such a dangerous and foolish task. their head, visions in the fog — Some- Dark, with dim green fires alight from lan-
thing reminds the PCs of their real goals. terns; Overwhelming pressure and a sick-
Act 1: The ronin’s goals are to get to know each other. Who will they trust? The ronin face ening feeling in your stomach.
mundane terrors, like dangerous animals, criminals, and obstacles, and these dangers will • Navigating a maze, trudging through
prove easy to deal with, giving the ronin some confidence about their journey. After, they murky waters, climbing up to the shiro. Consider the following:
are met with the fury of nature, challenging the ronin to continue and showing clear signs
of the Witch’s power. To finish the act, the ronin find overwhelming evidence that they • The PCs’ ninjo is within grasp if they just Ask what the party wants out of a horror game,
are on the right path to the fortress. push a bit further-- desperately, foolishly. what crosses the line, and what kind of fears
would they enjoy roleplaying.
Act 2: Now within the grounds of the Shiro, it’s clear that there is no turning back. • The witch isolates and tempts the PCs;
Servants of the witch begin to test the ronin. Strange apparitions, voices, and visions Monstrous promises; The thing you want, Who or what the witch is, that’s up to you.
remind the ronin of their true motives, foreshadowing and pulling them towards their in a PC’s possession; Ritual grants a wish; After all, the story is not really about the witch.
fates. Trust is tested in this act as the ronin build up their relationships with each other, The final encounter doesn’t even need to be
and both the challenges and consequences grow greater.
• Epilogue: what happens to each of the particularly difficult. The tension should be
ronin after the quest is done? whether the PCs overcome their issues. Give
Act 3: Inside the shiro the terrors are monstrous, pushing the ronin towards the witch’s ample time to roleplay over multiple sessions.
den. Meanwhile, the true motives of the ronin are revealed when temptations are just
out of reach. Perhaps one of the Witch’s servants appear to offer a character a deal, Potential NPCs: 1-5x Gaki, a group or The Shadowlands book is great inspiration for
maybe one of the character’s missing items appears in another PC’s backpack. A long lost just one strong one the dangers of the Witch’s domain. Path of
4x Desperate bandits Waves is great for creating ronin, but the CRB
lover or comrade appears, or perhaps a the ronin’s greatest nightmare manifests itself. 1x Horionago, as the ronin path work just fine too.
Act 4: The ronin seek to both resolve their Ninjo and to confront the witch. The terrors 6x Fudoshi vengeful spirit
here become psychological, pitting ronin against ronin. The thing they’ve needed to fulfil Note that the “Blood and Consequences” op-
1x Bog Hag, modified 1x Gashadokuro tional rules playset from the official Erratta are
their Ninjo will now become clear; Why… it fell into the hands of another ronin, it’s
always been there! Or perhaps it’s the witch who offers to grant their wish instead. Will highly encouraged to support gameplay.
some succumb, freezing to indecision, or will some run headlong into the witches den?
Will they pull through and defeat the witch, or will they end up joining the witch instead? This is an L5R hack of “The Mountain Witch” by Timothy Kleinert
this submission is under creative commons: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0