Originally Posted by
Diamondeye
I am considering playing a campaign while simultaneously recounting it as a story, but before then (and to get warmed up), I am going to post some short stories from my current campaign as the Chosokabe. Let me know what you think :beam:
I:Tosa
The servant bowed into the room humbly, causing the man sitting there to look up from his table, although not before carefully placing his pen besides the piece of paper he was decorating. The man's gaze, so filled with authority, darted to his servant. "Why do you disturb me?", he asked. The servant shivered slightly before answering.
"Honored Daimyo Chosokabe Kunichika, ruler of Shikoku, a messenger has arrived from General Masayo."
Kunichika got up and nodded. "Bring him to me immidiately. I am excited to hear what news he bears."
The servant bowed his head even lower before standing and hurrying to fetch the messenger. Meanwhile, the Daimyo turned to one of his guards, a silent figure standing along the wall of the room. "Fetch Motochika. I want my son to overhear this, that he may learn something."
The guard bowed silently and disappeared out the door, not daring to hurry his pace until he was outside the room. Finding the young man before the messenger arrived would require some speed.
A few minutes later, a nondescript man arrived, escorted by the servant from earlier, and a few guards. They stood silently, waiting for the Daimyo to recognize their presence. He briefly inspected each one of them, but did not motion for them to speak or sit down. Finally, after another minute or two, Motochika entered. The young man, hardly more than a boy, was dressed neatly, but his hands were folded behind his back. He had been practicing drawing, his father reasoned, and had ink on his hands. He smiled inwardly at the ingenuity of the boy, nodded lightly to him, and turned towards the messenger and his companions, who were currently kneeling for the son of the Daimyo.
"Rise, messenger, and tell me. What news do you bring from the General?"
"Sire, Daimyo Kunichika, I bear the following news from Lord Masayo: Hyuga Castle has fallen to our troops with a minimum of casualties, both among the populace and among our soldiers. The Lord General reports that the Castle held no important members of the Clan Ito, and that their main force is advancing from Osumi in the south; When I left, the winter's cold was still biting, and the Lord General counted on advancing on the Ito army when spring comes, once he has restored order to Hyuga and his armies have recuperated while the Ito starve on the long and cold trek north."
Kunichika nodded, his face not betraying any reaction to the news, but his eyes were shining. His son, still standing, could not completely conceal his mixed emotions at the news, but luckily all eyes were on the Daimyo himself. Kunichika waited until Motochika had gotten his visage under control, before replying. "You bear good news, messenger, and I will reward you and your Lord Masayo for this. Now, I want to ask you, do you have any knowledge of the exact numbers of enemy troops in the advancing army? How are they equipped and who is leading them? And how many men fell at Hyuga castle?"
The messenger bowed again. "The Lord Daimyo is wise to ask these questions. My Lord Masayo killed two-hundred and forty Ito soldiers at Hyuga, losing two of our own men, although several others suffered injuries." These numbers seemed to impress everyone in the room apart from the Daimyo and the messenger, who were familiar with the skill of Masayo on the field of battle. The messenger continued. "Our ninja spies have trailed undetected through the enemy camp on their way to Ito. Their reports indicate that the enemy field roughly eight-hundred armed men, more than half of them archers and about a hundred horses. It seems as if the Ito Daimyo himself is leading the army, along with his oldest son and two of his loyal generals."
"That is all I wanted to hear. I will ask everyone to leave me that I may talk in private to my son Motochika."
The subjects and guards sifted out of the room, some of the soldiers stopping outside the door, protecting the entrance and making sure that no-one disturbed the Daimyo and his heir. Inside, Kunichika motioned for his son to sit, slowly pacing around the room. After a moment, he looked at his heir with his commanding gaze and spoke in a strict voice: "You are nearing your fifteenth year, Motochika. You are my only son, and one day you will rule the Chosokabe as I do now. Before then, you need to learn to control your emotions. You are lucky that no-one but me noticed your flinching today. When you are Daimyo, you don't have that luxury. By letting your emotions uncontrolled, you expose your weakness and bring me shame."
The boy's lip stiffened, but his eyes were dry. He bowed. "Yes, father. I apologize, father."
"Good," the old man nodded. "Now, what was it that shocked you so much about the report? It was good news alone, yet I detected something that was not quite happiness in your bearing?"
The boy bowed again. "Father, sire, I agree. I rejoice just as much as you for the victories in the west: I do not doubt the skill of Lord Masayo, but his personage... He scares me, father. Why does such a... beast... of a man, why does he command so much respect from everyone from the lowliest peasant to your halls and even with yourself, father?"
The old man had frowned, but now his forehead smoothened out as he begun explaining.
"I know that your impression of Kira is not the best," he started. It was true; the first time Motochika had met General Masayo, the boy had only been seven years old, and the General was just returning from a victorious conquest, holding the decapitated head of the enemy general and Daimyo by its blood-stained hair. The boy had been terrified.
"... But Kira is a war hero. He single-handedly led the armies that brought Shikoku under our control and forced the vassalization of the Miyoshi, in less than a decade. You heard the messenger; He lost a meagre two men taking Hyuga Castle! I have no doubt he will be succesful against the Ito in the field."
Motochika protested; "It is not his skill I doubt! I am afraid of his personage! He brings death wherever he walks as others cast shadows! It is whispered among the men that he is followed wherever he goes by a Shinigami, an spirit of death. How can you trust such a bloodthirsty barbarian with our armies, father?"
The Daimyo frowned again, clearly insulted on behalf of the absent General, but answered his son's queries nonetheless; "Kira's loyalty to me is beyond doubt! He may thirst for blood, but it is only the blood of my enemies! Did he not spare the civilians of Hyuga, as I ordered him? He has always followed my orders, and he will continue to do so until death claims one of us. There is no better man to lead the armies than Kira."
"Also," the Daimyo continued, "if you are so impressed by the rumours about my trusted general, imagine how the enemy must feel! When they are sitting with their hands shaking in their camp on the way to Hyuga, it will not be the cold that makes them quiver!"
After a moment, Motochika bowed. "I understand, father. With your permission, I will return to my education now."
Kunichika smiled. "Ah, yes, the drawing! Let me see your hands!"
Motochika blushed and held out his hands, revealing several small smatterings of ink. "Actually, father, I was writing, not drawing. I am almost fifteen, after all."
His father's smile widened. "Is that so? In that case, perhaps you are interested in this..."
His voice trailing off, the Daimyo walked back to his table and his pen, and his son followed.
II: Hyuga Fields
The air was heavy with the stench of blood, death, fire and ashes. On the fields around them and under the few trees nearby, the earth was covered in bodies of fallen soldiers, the irrigation canals were running with murky blood, and several small pyres spouted black smoke into the sky.
Lord Kira Masayo dismounted his horse and marched towards the cluster of men that were gathered around four kneeling figures. He was an impressive man to look at, taller than most and with an exquisite armour that somehow didn't lose as much of its elegance as you would have thought by bearing smeared in blood. It looked very menacing, though.
As he neared the group, the men parted to let him through, into the centre of the crowd, where the four kneeling figures were surrounded by a small breathing space before the crowd of Chosokabe soldiers. Kira walked up to one of the kneeling prisoners, his katana in his hand. He looked at the kneeling man and asked in a rough voice; "Who of you is the Ito Daimyo?"
The man sank something before answering. "I am."
"Good," Kira replied, "And who of these men is your son?"
He didn't really have to ask, seeing as two of the men were more or less the same age as the Daimyo himself. Nevertheless, the Ito clanleader motioned with his head towards his son and heir as a response.
With a lighting-swift movement, Kira swung his katana in two elegant swings, decapitating the two other men, the Ito generals. The kneeling Daimyo and his son both flinched, and two bumps were heard as the bodies of the generals collapsed. A lieutenant stepped out of the lines, picked up the heads, and disappeared. Kira turned towards the Ito Daimyo, not bothering to even wipe his sword in one of the fallen men. He looked at the kneeling clanleader in front of him, smiled menacingly and asked; "Do you know what comes next?"
The eyes of the Daimyo grew wide in panic, and he was about to exclaim something when he heard the song of Kira's blade, sweeping through the air. He closed his eyes, but felt nothing. After a moment where he thought he was dead, he heard a thump behind him. He opened his eyes and turned around the best he could to find the head of his oldest son staring at him with dead eyes from the ground. He screamed in anguish and rose against Kira, but was thrown to the ground by a forceful gauntlet punch. Kira advanced on the fallen Daimyo who pursed his lips to utter a death poem, but before he could speak, the Chosokabe general's weapon had parted his head from the rest of his body. The soldiers around them mumbled and gasped. Kira looked around at them. "That coward couldn't have said anything worth listening to."
3: Higo, two years later
The Sagara Daimyo leaned forward as the kneeling man in front of him spoke. The man was a soldier of the Shoni, allies of the Sagara in their war against the Chosokabe and the Matsuda clans. He was also one of the sole survivors of the massacre at Kagoshima. His voice trembled as he relayed his report.
"... And then, arrows began raining on the courtyard! Thousands and thousands of arrows! We had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide... The castle was surrounded on all sides by Chosokabe samurai and yari formations, and breaking out was impossible... The general sent our archers to the walls, of course, and they inflicted great casualties on the Chosokabe archers, but there were so many, they were like insects... Soon, even behind the walls, our archers had been massacred. The entire courtyard was being bombarded in arrows from all directions, and we were trapped inside, all eight hundred... Or, at the beginning, we were eight-hundred... When the arrows stopped falling, only around sixty of us were still alive, and almost everyone had taken serious injuries... It was then the Chosokabe sent in their Samurai, their agents had sabotaged our gates, and even if they hadn't we were in no shape to man the walls... It was a disaster..."
The Daimyo interefered; "How did you escape, then?"
"Sire, I climbed the wall on the north side and let myself drop its full height into a thick foliage, before running off. When the Chosokabe finally spotted me - and they did - it seemed as if their general held back his cavalry, as if... As if they didn't bother swatting me out like a fly. I admit, it stains my honor to have run away like this, but I need to warn my Lord Shoni... Can I ask for a horse and provisions from the Sagara?"
The Daimyo made a subtle wave with his hand. "You need not worry. We will warn Lord Shoni that the Chosokabe are coming. You stay here and rest."
The soldier's eyes watered. "Thank you, milord! I am much grateful!"
"Oh, you don't need to thank me," the Daimyo responded, and made a more forceful motion with his hand. One of his retainers jagged a knife into the chest of the kneeling soldier. "We can't let you run around spreading these terrifying stories anyway," the Daimyo told the dying soldier. "We need the help of the Shoni, not to scare them away."
He looked around at his court, as if to say, "Here you see what happens to those who spreead the rumour of the massacre at Kagoshima."
Messengers were sent out that same day, carrying a more neutral and less terrifying version of the story to Lord Shoni and asking for his aid. It would take several days before the stories of the massacre had reached the sake houses of the city, but when summer came, the population were panicked, and the soldiers on the walls looked to the south, constantly awaiting the reveal of the fateful banners of Lord Kira Masayo, the harbinger of the Chosokabe.
