Battle Event (Beginning EM, continuing until?)

[Fukurokujin]

!!!Important Note!!!
This is a multiple-stage event in which each stage must be completed before the next opens. It is also a combat event, which means characters who participate face injury, death, and worse.

[Fukurokujin]

Throughout this event, Opportunities may be spent in the following ways:

• Per Techniques on rolls appropriate to them
• The General, Conflict and Martial Skill, and Initiative examples (Core book 328-29)
• Air, 2: Confronted with the horrors of the Taint, you remain alert and able to discern a weakness in your foe. Reduce the TN of your next check made to oppose or harm a Tainted character by 1, as you examine the threat before you and formulate an appropriate response.
• Air, Tainted, 2: Your newfound cunning is able to redirect attention away from you, potentially concealing your Tainted nature or letting you avoid scrutiny. The TN of the next check made to scrutinize you or your actions is increased by 1.
• Earth, 2: You are able to weather such terrible things as the revelation of a secret mahō-tsukai or the summoning of an oni. The next time you suffer Strife this scene, you suffer 2 fewer strife, to a minimum of 0.
• Earth, Tainted, 2: No mortal concern can slow you, as you already endure worse than most can even imagine. For the rest of this event, whenever you suffer fatigue reduce the value suffered by 2, to a minimum of 0.
• Fire, 1+: The righteous fury you display can cow even the most terrible of Tainted fiends. Each Tainted being in the scene gains 1 strife, plus 1 additional strife for every 2 Opps spent. If you are unaware if another character is Tainted, the GM should record this strife secretly.
• Fire, 1+: You spur your comrades on with pleasing encouragement or biting criticism. One other character in the scene per Opp you spend this way reduces their next TN to resist physical hardship or the influence of the Shadowlands by 1.
• Fire, Tainted, 2: The furious power of Jigoku flows through you, granting you unnatural might. Add 1 kept Ring Die showing a Strife result to the next Martial Arts check you make. This effect persists until the start of your next turn.
• Water, 1: You adapt yourself to better fight the corrupted power before you. Once before the end of this event, you may either reduce the TN of a check to resist a Tainted power, such as a mahō technique, assailing you by 1 or increase the TN of another character’s check to target or affect you with such a power by 1.
• Water, 2+: By luck or careful scavenging, you are able to find a useful item not yet corrupted by the Shadowlands. Such items have a maximum rarity of 3, plus 1 for each additional 2 Opps spent.
• Water, Tainted, 2: You briefly become fluid in mind or body, shaking off disorientation or even injury. You remove one of the following conditions: Dazed, Disoriented, Immobilized, Intoxicated, Lightly Wounded, or Prone.
• Void, 3: Though Jigoku’s power weighs heavily upon them, you are undeterred. By drawing on memories of the un-Tainted lands north of the wall, you can keep yourself focused and ignore all Strife results on your next check.
• Void, Tainted, 1+: The unnatural insights of the kansen voice themselves wordlessly to you, granting knowledge you could not possibly have known otherwise. You learn something relevant to the current situation, appropriate in scope to the number of spent. For each Opp spent in this way, you receive 1 strife due to the unnatural means by which you gained this knowledge.

[Fukurokujin]

The Shadowlands forces arrayed against the Wall here are a standard Shadowlands Horde (Core 280). The Legion is an Elite Samurai Army (Core 280), its Strength and Discipline adjusted by the gains and losses accrued by PCs along the way.

In each stage of the event, the PCs must secure sufficient momentum to complete the stage before PCs fail more times than the commander’s Focus. If the PCs fail in a given stage more times than the Rikugunshokan’s Focus (7), he dies in the fray, and the Shireikan steps up to take command of the Legion. If the PCs then fail more in a given stage than the Shireikan’s Focus (also 7), the Legion *loses*. Additionally, if the Legion’s Strength or Discipline is exhausted during the battle…try not to let that happen.

In the event that the PCs fail a given stage more times than the commander has Focus, the PC whose failure exceeded the commander's Focus, or any PC who has not yet acted in the stage, can perform a heroic sacrifice, giving their life for the commander's. This requires no roll, but is automatically successful--again, at the cost of the PC’s life. Doing so resets the stage's Focus counter but *not* the amount of momentum needed to succeed at the stage. Assuming the Legion wins, the self-sacrificing character's immediate family will receive one of the two following:

• Support of the Seppun Family, having ensured Fumin succeeds (per the Distinction, Core 110)
• The rescued commander as an Ally (per the Distinction, Core 101)

PCs start with Void Points equal to their Void, 0 Strife and 0 Fatigue. Any Strife and/or Fatigue earned carries forward through the Event. There is no rest time to be found, here; not even death will offer release…

[Fukurokujin]

Individual stages will open as they become available. Each will begin in its own thread. Please only reply to each stage in the relevant thread.

And thank you for bearing with us as we test this stuff out.

[Fukurokujin]

Owing to your efforts, the Legion starts with the following
Strength 187
Discipline 116

Excellent work, y'all.