Session 1. (3/11/99)

Lord Chozo's troubleshooting team, Kimori (Tony Hummerston), Koei (Andy Allen), Mariko (Paul Burton) and Sugiyama (Dave Weaver) arrived back in Masaki village after a long voyage from Tarumizu during which they were busy training and studying and paused only to throw wild cucumbers to the kappa as they passed through the Bungo Strait. On the face of it little had changed - Lord Chozo's daughter still hadn't married the Daimyo's son, the province was at peace and Lord Chozo was serving the Daimyo faithfully - but underneath a feud had developed between Lord Chozo and the Daimyo, precipitated by the Daimyo's involvement in the theft of the wedding ring stone and his attempt to ambush the troubleshooters at the Inn of Restful Sleep in Kami-Nada. No-one talked about the feud, but everyone knew it existed. Now that the Daimyo has returned to Edo for a year (a rule of the Shogun), quiet rumours were implying that Lord Chozo planned retribution.

When the troubleshooters were called to see Lord Chozo they were not surprised to hear him say that he was planning a rebellion against the Daimyo (not, that is, if they were listening to the introduction by the Narrator, right) which will come to fruition when the Daimyo returns next year. The first stage of the plan is to train quality troops and officers for Lord Chozo's private army, and for this he had already bought the School of the Blade in Matsuyama. It was a little-regarded class F specialist kenjutsu school, but now Lord Chozo wants the troubleshooters to run it and teach at it, get large numbers of students from which Lord Chozo's army can be recruited, and get more teaching staff. Lord Chozo's clerk also pointed out that it should make a profit as well, and gave the team 100 silver pieces to get the business started.

The intrepid four spent a few days preparing for their challenge. They decided that Kimori, Mariko and Sugiyama would teach, between them covering most of the Bushi skills, and hire Tee-Shu Thin, the Master Armourer from Imabari to teach one day a week (for an extortionate wage). They would look out for a new teacher to cover the Budoka skills. Meanwhile Koei set out to study magic and prepare magical objects for use later in the campaign. Kimori was voted Sensei of the school. Sugiyama had the idea that to generate interest in the new school they should hold a contest similar to the one they themselves had entered to get their current employment. The others agreed, planned the contests and spent 12 SP of their working capital to prepare posters and buy advertising space to promote the school and the contest. Mariko wrote the words for the posters and did a pretty good job. Kimori designed a banner for the school.

The following week the school opened. Kimori spent a lot of time and money just before the opening cruising the bars of the city drumming up interest. As a result, the first week was oversubscribed, and the three teachers were fully occupied with teaching (though they did also learn a little themselves, Sugiyama and Mariko improving their karumijutsu and chikujo-jutsu respectively to teaching levels, and Kimori improving his deftness). At the end of the week there were 13 alumni prepared to join Lord Chozo's army, a small profit was made, and a L3 female Bushi called Nakatomi applied for and was given a teaching post at the school. Koei was studying at the magic school in Matsuyama and had learnt the L4 Bind Fire spell.

The next week was the week of the contest. 37 young hopefuls entered, trying to win the prize of a superior sword and a junior teaching post. In the end the winner was Hatakeyama Nagate, a L1 Budoka. The addition of his skills allowed the School of the Blade to qualify as a Martial school (instead of a specialist school), greatly increasing its reputation and customer base. Consequently the next week was again oversubscribed and attracted another teacher, a L1 Bushi called Sakanoe. His knowledge of heraldry allowed Kimori to release the Master Armourer from the teaching staff and save a lot of money. By the end of the third week of the school (week 15), it had made 46 SP profit and had 48 recruits for Lord Chozo.

Then things took a turn for the worse. One evening Mariko witnessed the slaying of two former pupils of the school by the six leading members of the Daimyo's bodyguard, known as the Death Squad, ostensibly on a charge of treason. She was unable to intervene because of the large crowd cheering the action and because of the speed with which the fight was over: one assailant moved with great speed and got his attacks in before his hapless foe could react; the other, a woman, used an aiguchi so rapidly that her opponent was dead before completing his first attack. In the aftermath Mariko asked around and heard that the two assailants were Hatano Jyuso, second in command of the Death Squad, with reflexes like a cat , who was once caught in a surprise attack and still managed to get the first two blows in; and Uemura Seki, a knife wielding woman who can supposedly dice a lizard's tail before its brain knows she's there. In the following weeks, the number of pupils applying to the school dropped dramatically to an average of 11 per week. Fear of the Death Squad could account for it, but was there something more?^*

^* Yes, the Narrator, having mistaken his cue, had told more of the plot than was necessary at this stage.

The first half of this episode (second half to be broadcast next week) began with three of the principal characters, Kimori (Tony Hummerston), Mariko (Paul Burton) and Sugiyama (Dave Weaver) teaching at the School of the Blade and wondering why there were so few pupils applying to join. Sugiyama spent some time slipping quietly through the city and listening to interesting conversations, and, apart from learning about the marital problems of half the city, heard about another member of the Death Squad, Atami Hirotsugu who has a terrible battle club that once knocked out an ogre with one blow, and also heard about a magical object, the Stone of Slôn, owned by the Daimyo and giving him the power to turn people to his side.

At the end of week 18, Lord Chozo called the troubleshooters to see him. He said he had a very difficult but very important mission for them - to sneak into the citadel in Matsuyama and steal the Stone of Slôn, a magical stone that reputedly gives its owner the power to cause men to rally behind him. Once the theft became public knowledge it should be sufficient to trigger an uprising against the Daimyo. Recruits to the school should increase and a few months’ preparation should see the downfall of the Daimyo. But the Daimyo was not to be killed - this would be counter-productive for the revolt.

The troubleshooters set out to find out more information on the stone. It is located under a small shelter at the north end of the Parade Ground in the outer part of Matsuyama Castle, from where the Daimyo addresses his troops. The stone itself is a rough block about 20 inches long and too heavy for one man to carry. Kimori heard a tale that it gave its owner the power to see into peoples' minds. Koei (Andy Allen) broke off from her studies of School of Soil magic to help, and reconnoitred the castle from the astral plane. She found out that by night the interior of the castle is protected only by its high, steep walls, troops in guard posts and the occasional patrol. This would be the obvious time to strike.

Kimori suggested the bold ploy of walking straight in with a palanquin (a word Mariko didn't think Kimori knew, and which Sugiyama had to look up; in fact Kimori had come across it while watching the new show "Cor-mai brouf", currently doing the rounds of the more arty theatres and academies, where the word was variously described as a litter for carrying one person, a dress-maker's dummy and a knight-errant), load up the stone under the cover of darkness and simply walk out again, brass-faced. Alas for this intricate and cleverly worked-out plan, Mariko discovered by way of a social visit to the castle that the gates are closed at night.

Eventually the group agreed to sneak up to the castle at night, climb the high walls, carry the stone between them and drop it over the wall. It would land in a pit or mud hollow (one they made earlier) to prevent it crashing all the way down the steep, wooded hillside and to conceal it for recovery once the hue and cry had died down. They also planned to put a dummy stone in its place that would collapse when the troops' commanding officer stood on it to address them, hoping to damage the morale of the troops and their leader. All they had to do now was wait for a dark and stormy night.

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