Revision as of 00:01, 24 May 2023

Clan: Dragon

Family: Kitsuki

School: Kitsuki Investigator (Rank 2)

Title: Jade Magistrate

XP: 49/52 [20 School Rank 1, 3 School Rank 2, 21 Jade Magistrate]

Description

Umi is about 5'4", with a wiry build. She tends to favor understated but well-tailored flowing clothes in muted colors paired with sturdy footwear. Her black hair is worn long in a simple style, typically loose but put up into a bun when she expects to be active. She is fairly pale in complexion due to working primarily as a scribe and researcher living in the cold mountains. Umi is reserved and steady in nearly all situations, which some take to be cold-blooded, but is also highly observant. Occasionally she makes people uncomfortable when her attention is turned on them. Umi has a very deadpan delivery and sense of humor that doesn't always come across. She carries a jian instead of a katana, and keeps her uncle's journal tucked into her obi.

Summary Character Sheet

Rings

Skills

Techniques

Honest Assessment

Activation: As a Support action, you may make a **TN 2 Courtesy (Earth) check** to appraise the weaknesses of a character.

Effects: If you succeed, choose one of the target’s known disadvantages. The target does not apply that disadvantage to their checks until the end of the scene.

New Opportunities

Earth +: Choose one additional disadvantage per O spent this way.

Earth : Reduce the TN of the target’s next skill check using the ring the disadvantage is attached to by 2.

Iaijutsu Cut - Crossing Blade

Activation: As an Attack and Movement action using one sheathed Razor-Edged weapon, you may make a TN 2 Martial Arts [Melee] check targeting one character at range 1–2.

Effects: You draw and ready the sheathed weapon in a one-handed grip. If you succeed, you deal physical damage to the target equal to the weapon’s deadliness plus your bonus successes.

New Opportunities

: Ready one other sheathed Razor-Edged weapon.

Shallow Waters

Activation: When you make a Social skill (Water) check targeting a character, you may spend Opportunity as follows:

Water : Learn of one material item or worldly experience the target desires.

Water : Learn the target’s ninjō (see page 38)

Tactical Assessment

Activation: When you make an Initiative check, you may spend Opportunity in the following way:

Air : Choose an enemy in the conflict. Learn one of their advantages (of their choice) and their physical or supernatural resistance (your choice).

Earth : Choose a character in the conflict. They do not apply any of their disadvantages to their checks until the end of their first turn.

Water : Choose a piece of terrain in the scene (see Terrain on page 267). Until the start of your first turn, it counts as having the Obscuring quality for Attack action checks targeting you and your allies.

Fire : Choose a character in the conflict and one of their advantages you know. Until the end of their first turn, they apply that advantage to all of their checks.

Truth Burns Through Lies

Activation: When making a Scholar skill (Fire) check to assess a character’s story, you may spend Opportunity in the following way:

Fire : If there is a single statement upon which the character’s story hinges, you determine what it is and what you would need to do to verify or disprove it.

Underneath the Underneath

Activation: As a Support and Scheme action, once per session, you may make a TN 4 investigation(Void) check using a skill of your choice to pull answers seemingly from thin air.

Effects: If you succeed, you immediately intuit the answer to one yes or no question related directly to the skill used, plus one additional question per bonus success. The GM must answer these questions truthfully or perform seppuku.

New Opportunities

Void +: One such question per opportunity spent may be unrelated to the skill used.

School Ability

Kitsuki’s Method

When performing a check to investigate with any skill (see The Art of Investigation, on page 170), you may treat your ranks in the skill you are using as being equal to your school rank. If your ranks in the skill are equal to or higher than your school rank, or if you have 5 ranks in the skill, you may add a kept Ring Die set to an Opportunity result instead.

Distinctions

Precise Memory (Earth)

Types: Mental

Effects: The following apply to a character with the Precise Memory distinction:

• You can recall anything you have read or heard within the current game session exactly, and you often dredge up older facts with much greater ease than others.
• When performing a check for which you must recall details precisely (such as a Games [Earth] check to recall the opening moves of a classic defensive strategy in shōgi or a Government [Earth] check to remember the specifics of a historical event), you may reroll up to two dice.

Subtle Observer (Air)

Types: Interpersonal, Mental

Effects: The following apply to a character with the Subtle Observer distinction:

• You can understand the cues that people give off while speaking, and you can read people’s lips and facial expressions to understand what they are saying, even if you cannot hear them.
• When performing a check for which you need to spot or use small details of other people nearby (such as a Courtesy [Air] check to reveal an unpleasant truth pleasantly or a Sentiment [Air] check to detect someone else’s weaknesses), you may reroll up to two dice.

Adversities

Scorn of Uncle's Enemies (Water)

Types: Interpersonal

Effects: The following apply to a character with the Scorn of Uncle's Enemies adversity:

• You have earned the ire of a particular group, which has seriously damaged your ability to work with its members or enlist their help. You have been barred from entering their facilities, and they refuse to meet or communicate with you directly. Confer with the GM to select a campaign-appropriate group when choosing this disadvantage.
• When performing a check to interact with the chosen group that relies on your rapport with its members (such as a Courtesy [Water] check to persuade them to do something or a Performance [Water] check to impress a group of them), you must choose and reroll two dice containing Success or Explosive Success. After resolving the check, if you failed, you gain 1 Void point.

Passions

Bonsai (Air)

Types: Mental

Effects: The following apply to a character with the Bonsai passion:

• You know a great deal about the art of bonsai, including the tools and techniques used in its practice. You can judge the quality of a bonsai tree and tell when a piece has been neglected.
• After performing a check to interact with a bonsai piece (such as an Aesthetics [Air] check to prune or maintain a tree or a Sentiment [Air] check to identify someone’s emotional response to a bonsai work) you remove 3 strife.

Curiosity (Fire)

Types: Mental

Effects: The following apply to a character with the Curiosity passion:

• The first time you attempt a new task and fail, you always think of another route you could take to try to overcome or learn more about the problem.
• After performing a check to seek answers to an intriguing question (such as a Medicine [Fire] check to create a new chemical concoction or a Theology [Fire] check to try to determine the metaphysical underpinnings of a particular kami’s behavior), you remove 3 strife.

Anxieties

Conspiracy (Earth)

Types: Interpersonal, Mental

Effects: The following apply to a character with the Conspiracy anxiety:

• You are plagued by the knowledge that there are greater plots in the world than what most others can see. Everywhere, treacherous schemes wait to ruin the lives of good people, and you cannot help but warn others of these awful machinations.
• After performing a check to interact with an unfamiliar authority figure (such as a Courtesy [Earth] check to be properly deferential or a Government [Earth] check to remember an authority figure’s specific role), you receive 3 strife. If this is the first time this has occurred this scene, gain 1 Void point.

Outfit

6 koku

Traveling clothes (Physical 2, Durable, Mundane, Subtle), wakizashi (short sword), knife, calligraphy set, jian (straightedged sword), traveling pack, journal of observations, scrolls in dream language

[Token for information in Medinaat al Salaam]

Weapons

Twenty Questions

1. What clan are you part of?

   Dragon (+1 Fire, +1 Meditation, Status 30)

2. What kind of upbringing did you have?

   Kitsuki. I was born into the Mirumoto family, an unexpected late life child to my parents. They were carried away by a spring sickness when I was very small, so I was raised by my eldest sister until my ninth year, when I was formally adopted by Kitsuki Hiroshi, partner of my mother's brother, who had also died of the spring sickness. He raised me as his daughter and as a Kitsuki. (+1 Water, +1 Government, +1 Sentiment, Glory 44, 6 koku)

3. What is your school?

   Kitsuki Investigator. My father was a well known investigator, a former Jade and then Clan magistrate. He began my training, encouraging my natural curiosity and skills of observation. He ensured that I would have excellent tutors and teachers once my formal schooling began. (+1 Air, +1 Earth, +1 Culture, +1 Government, +1 Martial Arts [Melee], +1 Medicine, +1 Sentiment, Honor 45, Kata, Rituals, Shuji, Tactical Assessment, Shallow Waters, Kitsuki's Method)

4. How do you stand out within your school?

   Self-awareness and insight. Though not every investigator is a stoic, the school does teach thoroughness and patience, so that aspect of my personality did not stand out much there. But I found I often saw, or sensed, patterns and connections others missed, that I could hold both the detail and the larger image in my head at once. I also found it easier than most to put aside my own biases, to take what I saw as it presented itself.(+1 Void)

5. How do you stand out that got you one of your clan's coveted spots at the Rainbow Games?

   I am part of the Dragon contingent for the Summer Court. I must admit that I am not notable as a speaker or particularly good at deal making. My role is to observe the other contingents and proposals, to sniff out hidden traps, alliances, motives, and weaknesses for the other members of the delegation to leverage. Additionally, I acted as Kitsuki Hiroshi's secretary even from a young age, so I have a great deal of practice in preparing formal and legal documents. (+3 Government -> redistributed to +1 Composition, +1 Government, +1 Martial Arts [Melee])

6. What do you long for, in both short and long term?

   I would like nothing more than to be able to take up the same role as my adoptive father - to act as a researcher and consultant, while being able to remain on his small estate and enjoy the peace and beauty of the mountains. But I know I need more experience to really fulfill such a role, and that peace was shattered by his death in any case.

7. What is your character's relationship with their clan?

   I have been told by others that I am the very image of a Dragon, especially a Kitsuki, in my appearance and manner. I am not so sure. Though I do find my home the most comfortable place, I also worry that all of our storied mysticism and insight is mostly performance. We are too often self-centered and self-satisfied. We only look out to learn a lesson about what is within. But what is outside of us doesn't exist to reflect ourselves back. It exists for it's own purposes, and we should try to understand them on their own terms. (+1 Aesthetics)

8. What do you think about bushido?

   It is a useful guide to good behavior... but only a guide. The context of any individual situation is paramount and not always solved by a rote series of principals. And especially in the matter of truth. Truth is not merely belief. It is an objective thing in the world, and a falsehood does not become true because it was believed sincerely and in good faith. The cold of winter is not deterred just because you believe it is summer with your entire soul. (+1 Survival)

9. What is your character’s greatest accomplishment so far?

   (Two corrupt courtiers were using a code that involved quoting obscure historical facts, correctly or incorrectly, Umi noticed they were wrong sometimes and right others on the same subject but never acknowledged it and was able to unravel their scheme) (Precise Memory)

10. What holds your character back the most in life?

    My uncle had a surprising amount of influence, and many old acquaintances, though most of his actual friends have passed on. But he had enemies too. I know some are acting from the shadows already, but I am even more worried about the ones who aren't - those with old grudges who are like hidden pits for me to stumble into without warning. (Scorn of Uncle's Enemies)

11. What activity most makes your character feel at peace?

    Being able to focus on a new bonsai or saikei or penzai. To make a truly beautiful example, one has to pay attention to every detail while keeping the totality in mind. Clipping a single leaf, placing a single stone, can change the entire character, which is only knowable when you see the whole. It is a microcosm of the world, except I can hold the entirely of this one in my mind, and thus truly know it. I would not like the wider world to be this way, but it is a relief to escape into these smaller ones from time to time. (Bonsai)

12. What concern, fear, or foible troubles your character the most?

    Some hidden power is acting within the Empire. This is not mere paranoia - my own observations, information given to me by my own few contacts, my uncle's notes, and his fate all make it undeniable. But while I can see the ripples on the surface, I cannot see what moves in the depths to create them. I do not know who is involved, only that they are powerful. And this is paranoia. Any person in authority could be a conspirator, but I have to trust some of them to make any progress in learning the truth. There is danger everywhere. (Conspiracy)

13. Who has your character learned the most from during their life?

    My uncle was my closest family member, my first and most effective teacher, and the one person who trusted me without reservation. It was from him that I learned how to observe people in the same way I observed the world around me. (Subtle Observer)

14. What do people notice first upon encountering your character?

    (Intense stare)

15. How does your character react to stressful situations?

    (Closes up and gets quiet, might seem calm)

16. What are your character’s preexisting relationships with other clans, families, organizations, and traditions?

    • Crab (has had negative experiences with them but is fine)
    • Crane (like)
    • Lion (neutral)
    • Scorpion (dislike)
    • Brotherhood of Shinsei (it's complicated)

17. How would your character’s parents describe them?

    My uncle often commended my manners, though he also said I should be less stiff. I'm not entirely sure what he meant for me to do. (+1 Courtesy)

18. What legacy have your ancestors left you?

    My uncle's journals are in my possession. They contain many answers and even more mysteries - if I can decode his ciphers properly. And even then, it is less an exhaustive account than a series of mnemonics, so it is a series of signposts rather than a map.

19. What haunts your nightmares?

    I am in my uncle's estate - my estate - desperately searching for something I cannot find. Worse, I am lost within my own home, unable to find my way despite knowing this place intimately. I do not know what I am looking for, only that it is imperative I find it, and that feeling grows each time I have the dream.

20. What dreams leave you disappointed and sad when you wake because they're just a dream?

    This dream too is of my home. Of a cold, clear winter day on the mountain, a fresh snowfall from the night before. Yuki in my lap, a hot cup of tea, discussing matters with my uncle while looking out on the garden and enjoying the quiet. But that is a thing that has been, and cannot be again.