Kitsu Kōhī

Clan: Lion

Family: Kitsu

School: Kitsu Medic School

Description

Kōhī is a very serious looking wirey Lion. He's skin is darker and more tanned than tradition would suggest is acceptable but he dresses very conservatively, traditional, and uptight. He has a well worn brooch to Jurojin displayed proudly on his kimono. A large healers satchel is almost always on his shoulder with history books poking out of it. In short he looks like an upright stick in the mud and more of a nerd than one would expect from the Lion. If you look past that though... Tools, herbs, and texts that no traditional Rogukani would consider proper are in large supply. There's an eagerness behind his eyes when he speaks of healing that's a touch off putting.

He has the traditional mane of Kitsu hair fizzed out. He usually wears it half tamed in a pony tail. It's a chestnut blond, instead of the golden those stronger in the blood have.

His eyes are a hazel, his face unremarkable, his looks average. He could be plain if it were for that eagerness, tanned skin, and hair.

He is built like a runner.

In settings with a crowd he seems to go rigid and twitch all at once.

Summary Character Sheet

Glory	32
Honor	43
Status	35

Endurance	8
Composure	4/10
Focus	3
Vigilance	2
Void Points	2

Rings

Air	1
Earth	2
Fire	2
Water	3
Void	2

Skills

Culture	1
Fitness	1
Government	1
Martial Arts [Unarmed]	2
Medicine	3
Sentiment	1
Survival	2
Tactics	1
Theology	2

Techniques

Crescent Moon Style

Activation: When you perform Guard action (see page 264), you may spend Opportunity in the following way:

Water O:After a character at range 1–2 performs an Attack action targeting you or another character you are guarding, you may perform a Strike action with one readied Martial Arts [Melee or Unarmed] weapon targeting that character (if they are within your weapon’s range). This effect persists until the start of your next turn, or until you perform a Strike action this way

Stonewall Tactics

Activation: When making a Social skill (Earth) or Martial skill (Earth) check targeting a character, you may spend in the following way:

Earth O: Increase the TN of any check the target makes that does not target you by 1 per spent this way. This effect persists until the beginning of your next turn.

Path to Inner Peace BLOOD MAGIC

Activation: As a Support action, you may make a TN 2 Theology (Water) check targeting yourself or another character at range 0–2

Effect: If you succeed, you mend your target’s exhausted muscles. The target removes fatigue equal to your Water Ring plus your bonus successes. Each target cannot be affected by the Path to Inner Peace invocation again until the end of the scene.

Threshold Barrier

Activation: As a downtime activity, you may make a TN 2 Theology check using Air, Earth, Fire, Water, or Void targeting a threshold, gate, or other entryway at range 0–1.

Effect: If you succeed, the threshold is barred against a particular type of entity, based on the ring you chose, for one hour, plus additional hours equal to your bonus successes. When an entity of this type attempts to enter, it must resist with a TN 3 Meditation (Void) check or be repelled by the spiritual barrier. Whether it succeeds or fails, you immediately become aware of its attempted entry. The particular type of being is based on the ring you chose, as follows

Air: Ethereal Otherworldly beings such as spirits and ghosts.

Earth: Living Tainted Beaings.

Fire: Undead beings with corporal forms.

Water: Wild Animals.

Void: Humans.

Focusing Herbs

Activation: As a downtime activity using an alchemy kit (PoW page 114), you may make a TN 2 Medicine (Water or Fire) check, targeting one character.

Effects: If you succeed, your target adds +1 to Focus (Fire) or +1 to Vigilance (Water), plus one for every two bonus successes on the Medicine check. Lower the other value by an equal amount. This effect persists until the end of the next scene.

O+: Choose one additional target per O spent this way.

O: Instead of targeting characters, you may instead preserve in honey one dose for each target you would be allowed, and it may be used later, each use persisting for a single scene.

O: You grant the same bonus to both Focus and Vigilance, regardless of ring. The scene after this bonus lapses, the target's Focus and Vigilance are lowered by an equal amount, to a minimum of 0.

School Ability

Field Medicine

When you perform a Medicine check to remove fatigue or a condition from a friendly character, that character removes additional fatigue up to your school rank

Distinctions

Ancestral Tie Asako Hanasaku (Fire)

Types: Spiritual

Effects: The following apply to a character with the Ancestral Tie: Asako Hanasaku distinction:

• You have an astounding breadth of knowledge about herbs, medicines, and poisons, and can always ID any of them that you've ever encountered before or read about, which is almost everything used in the bounds of Rokugan, including the Burning Sands. When you encounter any medicine, herb, or poison that you've never seen or read about before, you are possessed of a strong compulsion to try it on yourself, just to see what it's like and document it properly.
• When you make a check to identify, treat, or concoct an herb, medicine, or poison, you may reroll up to 2 dice

Religious Connections

Effects: The following apply to a character with the Religious Connections distinction:

• You have cultivated useful allies and associates among Rokugan's religious caste, including the Qamarists, the worshipers of the Shi-Tien Yen-Wang in the Burning Sands, the monks of Shinsei and the Fortunes, and the many orders of shugenja. You can use these contacts to find information, or obtain goods or services.
• When performing a check that benefits from your religious connections, such as Theology[Earth] to reason with a monk of Fukurokujin, or Sentiment[Fire] to get aid from a temple to Jizo, you may reroll up to two dice.

Adversities

Stained Lineage (Void)

Types: Interpersonal, Mental

Effects: The following apply to a character with the Stained Lineage adversity:

• Your family has a bad reputation. Whether this reputation is hyperbole or truth, most people in your region know about your family’s history and know you belong to that family. These people make negative assumptions about your character, even when given evidence to the contrary. Even if you aren’t awful currently, it’s in your blood, and they believe you will live up to your family reputation one day
• When making a check to interact with anyone from your home region (such as a Commerce [Void] check to attempt trade in the open market without drawing much attention or a Courtesy [Void] check to warn others of an incoming disaster), you must choose and reroll two dice containing Success or Explosive Success . After resolving the check, if you fail, you gain 1 Void point.

Passions

History

Effects: The following apply to a character with the History Passion:

• After a short time spent studying it, you can discern the era and context of any object, structure, or text you encounter—or else you know for certain that no chronicler of the Emerald Empire has encountered this thing before.
• After performing a check to remember a historical anecdote (such as a Government [Earth] check to draw parallels to past events or a Smithing [Earth] check to know about past uses of and trends in the creation of tools and artifacts), you remove 3 strife

Anxieties

Eyes of Many

Effects: The following apply to a character with the Eyes of Many Anxiety:

• You are constantly worried that others are watching and judging you, whether maliciously or not. You are unable to relax in crowded places, and you tend to worry about your impressions on strangers more than most other people would.
• After performing a check in a crowded place or where two or more strangers are actively listening to you (such as a Courtesy [Air] check to tell your employer your mission went very well when it did not in front of their other retainers or a Fitness [Air] check to avoid notice), you suffer 3 strife. If this is the first time this has occurred this scene, gain 1 Void point

Outfit

4 koku Traveling clothes, ashigaru armor, daishō (katana and wakizashi), satchel of medicinal supplies, opium license, Blanket, bowl, chopsticks, four days of travel rations, flint and tinder

Boon of Fukurokujin: Fukurokujin, Fortune of Wisdom, illuminates the truth even when tricksters seek to obscure it. Once per game session, the wearer may spend 1 Void point to remove a condition or persistent effect caused by a Scheme action.

Pillow Book: Great Battles of the Lion

Pipe.

Weapons

Weapon	Skill	Rng	Dmg	Dls	Grips	Qualities
Punch	[Unarmed]	0	1	2	-	Snaring
Kick	[Unarmed]	1	2	1	-	-
Bite	[Unarmed]	0	0	3	-	-
Katana	[Melee]	1	4	5	1-hand: -, 2-hand: Dls +2	Ceremonial, Razor-Edged
Wakizashi	[Melee]	0-1	3	5	1-hand: -, 2-hand: Dls +2	Ceremonial, Razor-Edged

Books Referenced

Benali's Travels of Hanasaku's Gardens - A modern Qamarist text about Hanasaku's notes on plants. It discusses advance mixtures and potions along with detailed effects on the human body.

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?

   (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?

15. How does your character react to stressful situations?

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

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.