[001] Dawn and departures

[ffilz]

Plan for at least a week in the mountains once we get off the main track.

I forgot to mention the sturdy walking stick Osamu carries.

[Faanku]

Sumi is also prepared to camp, and states as much. "The inn here is as fine a place as any to procure food for the road."

[jemmus]

Ah, that's a good idea. I'll be right back. Toshizo guesses that food will be cheaper here in the country than in Takayama. He goes into the inn and asks to purchase simple traveler's food, enough for 20 days. A kitchen girl makes 20 small packages of uncooked rice and dried fish and wraps them in a plain indigo-dyed furoshiki. Toshizo returns and loads the furoshiki onto his horse.

GM, I paid the price stated in the rules (2 copper for one day's food for travelers and 1 copper for the furoshiki). If the price should be different, please let me know.

[ffilz]

Ah, that's a good idea. I'll be right back. Toshizo guesses that food will be cheaper here in the country than in Takayama. He goes into the inn and asks to purchase simple traveler's food, enough for 20 days. A kitchen girl makes 20 small packages of uncooked rice and dried fish and wraps them in a plain indigo-dyed furoshiki. Toshizo returns and loads the furoshiki onto his horse.

GM, I paid the price stated in the rules (2 copper for one day's food for travelers and 1 copper for the furoshiki). If the price should be different, please let me know.

Yea, that's good for now. I'm not sure how crazy I will get about costs, but I have a number of sources if people need things not in the book.

I might be forgetting that the situation in Hida province has increased some costs... For now I'll ignore that, but it could come into play later.

[jmacatty]

Ha also has 20 days of food prepared.

[ffilz]

Osamu: You are well thinking folk planning to travel nimbly. I shall secure sufficient food myself. We will have no trouble getting fresh water as we need it. We should however plan on staying in an inn tonight, bypassing Takayama like that might arouse unwarranted suspicion.

[jmacatty]

Ha nods.

[jemmus]

A modest inn in Takayama then, Osamu.

[Faanku]

Sumi prepares for the journey, then agrees to the guides advice. "Whatever you feel is best."

I'll buy 20 days as well then.

[ffilz]

It is several days after the new year celebrations, the 11th day (1st day of the 2nd week) of Mutsuki (the 1st month). The weather is clear.

On the road to Takayama, you encounter a group of religious pilgrims feeding rabbits. Later in the day some wandering artisans (potters) are coming from Takayama.

[jemmus]

Bundled in his winter clothing, Toshizo walks along the road with the group. He leads his horse Jiro, which is saddled and loaded with his two furoshiki and his two cases for his armor. He remembers his father had told him once, "For buke, information can be more dangerous than a weapon. If the enemy has information that you don't, it can be like he has a weapon and you have none. The opposite is also true. A bushi should always seek information. And be careful about how he shares the information he has. He remembered the rumor he heard about shinobi being contracted to assassinate the lord governor. Who was probably in Takayama, where they were headed.

So when the group encountered the pilgrims and the artisans, if they seemed receptive to being greeted, to each he called out, "Good day! Do you have any news about the road ahead?" On the road from Shinano, he'd found that many of Nippon's travelers and its heimin in general loved to gossip and discuss current events. Talking about oneself was impolite. But talking about other people and the latest rumors, that was completely fine. And he'd found that greeting them tended to put them more at ease about encountering an armed bushi on the road. But he didn't greet the travelers who had avoided acknowledging him and silently hurried along there way. "Understandable," Toshizo had thought. "It's said that some bandits try to gain your trust, to make it easier and safer for them to rob you and murder you."

GM, did Toshizo ask the pilgrims and artisans for news? If they did give the group some news, he said back to them "Our travel from [name of the town the group came from] to here has been quiet."

[ffilz]

Both groups share that there have been mutterings of unrest in the province but they can't point to anything too specific. The potters do suggest a particular inn in Takayama where one might hear more about the unrest, though they warn that it is quite a Yakuza gambling den.

[jmacatty]

Ha grunts, "I do not fear Yakuza."

[jemmus]

Toshizo also grunts his assent. Un. A gambling dive sounds good for his tight budget.

[Faanku]

"With such courageous companions, I to have nothing to fear."

Sumi's tone seems genuine, though the glint in her eye is hdden by the large straw-bound kasa she wears to keep the snow off. "I feel we shall have no trouble from any yakuza."

[ffilz]

Ok, to at least get something going right now... You arrive in Takayama. Do you want to go to the inn the potters pointed you to? Your guide has a low key inn appropriate to your station as a suggestion.

[jmacatty]

Ha shrugs Why hire a guide, except to follow?

[jemmus]

Toshizo says, Yes, that inn sounds good to me.

[ffilz]

Let's get this moving again...

Unless anyone wants to do anything in Takayama, you spend the night at the inn uneventfully and hit the trail again the next morning. You are all provisioned up for the trip so unless someone needed something only available in a city I don't think there's a need for anything.

I have rolled one more rumor overheard while dining:

The lords of Etchu province are secretly gathering their troops for war.

[jemmus]

Young Toshizo, young Sumi, and older Ha, and their guide Jiro come off of the road and settle into the yakuza inn. Men in loincloths and yukata cotton overshirts are shaking and throwing dice. "Son! Cho! Lot's of uproar and grumbling. Teenage Toshizo observes and learns for a while. His two blades ready and hopeful for any kind of adventure.

Things, "Nah, these guys don't mean any trouble. It's the oni and kitsune we need to watch out for. Either dead on a sleep slope on a lonely mountain, with many deads around you."