If you are not related to a deceased character, then you are here at the request of one of the two Satake characters, and are associated with and have worked for them before. Choose either the elder Satake Motoyuki, bushi in-service to the Daimyo, or Satake Taka, mysterious Shugenja rising in prominence as your previous tie-in.
You stand with a letter in-hand, contemplating the front of a tidy yet modest tea house. It is early in Uzuki, the month when the deutzia blooms before the coming of summer. Roughly two weeks had past since you last heard from you relation, saying only something cryptic about an opportunity in the nearby Hida-Sanmyaki Mountains, when you received the letter. Fine paper, an impeccable script, an anonymous writer with information on "the fate" of your relation... Directing you here, this night.
The sun has set and the last of twilight is fading as it approaches Sho-Ino-no-Toki, the Lesser Hour of the Dog (7:00pm). Lanterns are lit on the front of each establishment and the light spilling from open windows illuminates the street, casting many shadows. When you step into the Tea House, the proprietor notes your arrival and directs you to a private room with polite courtesy.
There is a palpable tension on the streets of the city. As winter has faded and summer comes, the fires of discontent among the heimin grow hotter as well. Not enough food and goods have come through the winter from neighboring Etchu province and deprivation has been keenly felt. The taxes of the Washima have been too much, say the mutterings over sake, and at the finer tables the samurai worry of a peasant uprising. It has been ten years since strife has ravaged the province, since Washima Fuhito rose to be the daimyo over the coalition of families. The rarest whispers speak of his failing health, and though none can confirm it, it fans the discontent.
The city of Takayama is the capital of Hido province and the principal seat of power for the Washima clan. The Daimyo rules from his castle here, brisk trade flowing in and out of the city as the powerful clans all come here to sit in their councils. With almost 12,000 residents, its crowded streets teem with activity and it is easy to move about with anonymity for those who choose it. The tea house is located on the opposite side of the city from the Sho-gawa river and its multitude of fisheries, from which the city derives most of its income. Besides the citadel, you see the red, upturned roofs of Kogyoku-o-tara, The Jade Temple, and Majime-na-hoshii-o-tara, The Temple of Earnest Desires for Enlightenment, rising serenely above the din of the streets on high ground, across the city from each other. Each temple is large enough to qualify as a village itself, but is dwarfed by city around them.
(Class D city, Level 4 Citadel)
Hida Province: