“In closing, the Sparrow family will provide a share of the building cost of the new court. I will also dispatch as many of the Edakumi family artisans as possible. The Sparrow will do what we can to make the new court one deserving of respect. Your friend and ally, Suzume Takato”
The Sparrow daimyo glanced over at the young samurai-ko writing his letter. Suzume Satoka was new to the clan, but she was one of the very, very few trained courtiers that the family possessed. Given the recent actions of the Scorpion in defense of the minor clans, her Bayushi training was even more valuable. She was also very skilled at her current task, transforming his words into the language of the courts.
As the Satoka was reading back the letter and suggesting small changes, Takato noticed a messenger waiting to be recognized at the door. When the changes were finalized and Satoka was rewriting the letter, he signaled the young man to enter with the messages. The young man delivered his letters and was dismissed. The first was a letter from Morito Oishi of the Ox. The daimyo would be sending a representative to the meeting of minor clans and another to Kyuden Suzume. He had been sending his agents to woo the Ox and Badger for many months. He was glad to see that his efforts were beginning to pay off. Now, if only the badger would fall into line. The Ichiro remained fixated on their issues with the Dragon. The even had voiced support for the Crab in the recent conflict. Couldn’t they see that this was the exact same thing that had happened to them, only to a much worse extent?
The second letter was from another of his agents on an important mission. It seemed every mission was important now days.
“Ah, Satoka-san, we receive word from your husband’s expedition.”
Satoka perked up to show that she was being attentive, but continued about her duty. Takato sighed inwardly, not much more could be expected out of a political marriage. Pushing those thoughts aside, he began to read the words of his servant.
To:
Lord Suzume Takato, Lord of Kyuden Suzume and
Champion of the Sparrow.
Suzume Isoroku, humble servant of the Sparrow, sends greetings.
Someone has spent too much time in the courts, Takato thought.
My Lord,
I hope this letter finds you in health and that your ancestors continue
to watch over you. I am writing to
report on the status of my mission.
I apologize for my delay in reporting, but I have been unable to find a reliable
courier since my mission left Zokyo Toshi.
As such, my report will begin from their.
My mission left Zokyo Toshi on the second day of Shinjo. The party consisted of Suzume Hirayuki, Suzume Ein, Suzume
Satsu and the ronin shugenja Tsi
Suki. Since our lands abut the city,
no one paid us much attention. We
left the city traveled into the Shinoman forest under the pretext of hunting
some of the bandits that plague the city and its surroundings. With Crab units
still on the march and a rumor of a Crab takeover of the city running rampant, I
do not think anyone other than the imperial magistrate even knew we were there.
Once we had entered the forest, we traveled to the south and west towards
our destination. This was in
accordance with the information that our ancestors wrung out of the traitor
Suzume Chiaki, may she suffer in Gaki-Do for all eternity. We moved as quickly and quietly as
possible. Thanks to Suzume Ein, we
were able to avoid many of the hazards of the forest, his woodcraft is
exquisite. With luck, we would be at
the Temple of Venom within the week.
Two days later we came across our first snag. Ein found signs of the passage of a
small number of men. Given our
location, there were only a few possibilities, all of which needed to be
investigated. While the lost had not
been a significant threat in generations, given our location, I believe that we
would have been remiss in our duty to the empire not to investigate. There was also the possibility that
it was a Hiruma scouting party and if the Crab did have designs o Zokyo Toshi,
we needed to know that. However,
when we finally caught up with the men we were tracking, it turned out to be
only a few of the bandits we were supposed to be hunting.
The camp we found was small and only contained around a dozen bandits. They were a motley group, peasants
turned bandit with a poor mix of peasant weapons.
They were in poor order and hadn’t even bothered to put out sentries. It was a stroke of luck, they would
give us proof that we were indeed hunting bandits. Just in case the magistrate actually
bothered to remember us. The fight
was quick and one sided. Only one
member of our group suffered any injury at all and Tsi Suki called upon the kami
to heal the wound in seconds. We
gathered what valuables we could without sacrificing speed to return to the
magistrate. Among the valuables, we
found a pair of Crab Wakizashis and a scroll satchel.
Three days later and earlier than I had expected, we arrived at the ruins
of the Temple of Venom. The site was
badly overgrown and in a state of disrepair.
It was as the old stories said the Dragon left it, barely one stone stood
upon another and only the foundation was intact.
We thought that we would have to clear a large amount of brush to get to
the foundation, disturbingly, that was not the case.
We quickly found the cornerstone we were looking for. Much to our surprise, the brush and
saplings around the area had been cut and then carefully replaced. Ein placed the event as little as a
day old, two at the outside. Tsi
Suki tried to summon a kami from a nearby pool, so that we might get a look at
who did this, but was unable to do so.
He said that the kami had been banished recently and the ones in the area
were new. I have seen this before in
my travels in the empire. I placed
Ein on sentry duty to ensure that we were not surprised while we worked. Checking our Jade fingers, we
proceeded.
As Chiaki’s confessions indicated, the entry was to be opened by
manipulating a series of movable tiles.
We could have been there for days, as there were dozens of movable tiles. It would have been handy if Chiaki
had known the combination. However,
the group that had been there before had smudged the growth on several of the
tiles. Hirayuki noticed that the
symbols on the tile could be manipulated to form the kanji for spider or kumo. A few slides later, and the seal on
the cornerstone broke. We slid the
stone aside and entered.
I led the group inside, katana in hand.
As my lamp illuminated the vault, it became clear that we were not the
first people to enter it. What
should have been a vault full of Spider clan weapons and artifacts was largely
empty. Where stacks of crates and
boxes had stood all these years, only outlines in the dirt remained. We moved in to examine what remained,
a few boxes of rusty armor parts, long ruined food stuffs and several bundles of
old scrolls. For a moment I was
concerned that I might not be able to accomplish my mission, but then I saw
them. Two plain smith hammers, under
scraps of rusted armor. The hammers
were of an old, old design and very plain in design, but despite their age, no
patch of rust marred them and the handles were solid as any new hammer would be. Tsi Suki was able to confirm that
they were what we had come for. Too
plain to merit taking by those who had beat us here, the hammers of the Fortune
of Steel were ours. We carefully
placed the Hammers in the box we brought for them and headed out of the vault.
As we were exiting the vault, Ein signaled that another party was
approaching. We returned the area to
its camouflaged condition and quickly concealed ourselves. I wanted to get a look at the other
party before deciding on a course of action, so we waited for them to approach. We had just concealed ourselves when
they came into the area of the temple.
It was a party of three bushi and a shugenja in earth colored clothing. Along with them were 6 scruffy
looking peasants that did not seem to be happy to be here. The group could easily have been
ronin and it seemed like a pointless risk to our mission. I was just about to signal a
withdrawal when one of the bushi spotted Satsu and battle was forced upon us.
The conflict was brief but brutal.
It began with the three bushi attempting to surround Satsu. He dodged the first two attackers,
but the scored a deep wound to Satsu’s leg.
It did, however, give the rest of us time to launch our attack. Ein was able to wound their shugenja
at the outset with a well placed sling stone.
Hirayukia and I weree able to attack the bushi attacking Satsu from a
favorable position, as their attention was fixed on Satsu. We quickly dispatched tow of them,
but the third was a first rate swordsman and evaded out blows. Upon seeing the lead bushi fight, I
realized that he was trained in the Daigatsu School of fighting. We had encountered a party of the
lost. In the few seconds it took us
to pull down the lead samurai, the shugenja almost undid us.
The shugenja started by killing one of the peasants with a knife across
the throat. As the peasant’s life
blood was spilled, the shugenja was surrounded in a red nimbus of power. He took a bite out of his victim and
Ein was struck down with a horrible wound to his neck. The maho user turned his attention on
us and began chanting as we dropped his last bushi comrade. Just before he finished his spell, he
was struck by bolts of jade energy from Tsi Suki.
This further wounded him and broke his concentration long enough for me
to close the distance and take his head.
After the battle, Tsi Suki was able to heal the worst of Ein and Satsu’s
wounds, but it may be spring before they are fully recovered. A quick inspection of the surviving
peasants showed signs of taint in one of them.
Rather that risk releasing tainted heimen into the empire, we killed
them. I instructed Tsi Suki to burn
the bodies and when he was finished we set off.
After a five day journey, we made our way
back to Zokyo Toshi. We
paused only long enough to report our skirmish with the bandits to the
magistrate and to make arrangements to return the swords and scroll satchel to
the Crab. After we concluded out
business there, we continued on our journey.
At Meidochi, I sent Suzume Ein and Suzume Satsu home to carry this
message to you. As per your
instruction, I will travel on to East Hub Village with the rest of the party. One there, I wil present the Hammers
to the head of the Tsi Family in your name.
Hopefully this will give them the push they need to regain their status
within the empire or at least their gratitude.
I also will be leaving word for Moto Qataghu at an inn I know him to
patron, since it is on the way. He
is a Jade magistrate and a friend. I
will report the maho-tsuki to him and had over the scrolls we found.
I will be traveling with all possible haste and once negotiations are
complete I will be headed home. I
have included my planned course of travel in case you should need to contact me
with other assignments before I reach home.
With luck, I will be home on or about the first day of Hida.
Your humble servant,
Suzume Isoroku
“It seems that your husband has succeeded in his task again Satoka-san, but I am afraid that I can give neither of you time to rest. You will travel to join him in East Hub Village. Be sure to ensure the Tsi that we will support them if they try to reclaim their position I the empire. Remind them of our years as allies in the old minor clan alliance. Bring them into our sphere of influence. At least get them to agree to sell us arms. If the Crab continue to rampage next year, we will need all we can get. We have a surplus of wealth thanks to the gifts from the Scorpion and Crane, this would be better spent on our people, but all things considered, I believe it must be spent on our army.”
“After you are done there, you will travel to the Tiger, Tortoise and Hare. Pay our respects and deliver my words to them. Try and make them see the benefits of the alliance to all of them. Among the Kasuga, we have an ally named Kasuga Jin, I will alert him to your arrival and request that he aid your cause. He may be our foot in the door with the Tortoise. You willl also carry an order package for your husband sending him to the lands of the Badger.”
“After you are done it Toku Torid-e, you will travel to the house of high Light to be my voice there. Your husband will be joining you there. Both of you are to work on the Dragon. They were one of the sponsors of the old alliance, but they are one of the clans that have attacked the minor clans in this era. We must improve relations between them and the Ichiro. If we can do that, it will be a major hurdle out of the way.”
“You leave tomorrow; you have until then to gather what gear you need. I will detail a pair of Bushi to be your bodyguards on the journey. See me in the morning for final instructions.”
The young samurai-ko bowed and left to ready herself for the mission. Suzume Takato watched her go and then, sighing, he began to write orders.
“Everything is moving so fast.
We will be lucky is it does not spin out of control”