Scenario: The forces of the Steel Chrysanthemum have reached Toshi no Omoidoso!
Unlike most of the enemies fought by the armies of Rokugan, the Hantei’s forces are not arrayed in any sort of formation or marching order. Screaming heimin race into battle alongside growling samurai, more akin to a frenzied mob than any sort of organized fighting force. Stranger still, the entire throng seems to glow with a faint red light.
The first line of defense against the Traditionalist forces is the archers arrayed on the city’s walls. Every enemy that falls to a well-placed arrow is one less enemy that must be fought off by the defenders at the gate.
Participants: Five characters.
Imperialist Victory: If the Imperialist forces achieve 75 or more Kill Points, the enemy forces are weakened, which will make an easier fight for those defending the city’s gates. Every character participating in this event receives +1.0 Glory for their heroic defense of the city.
Imperialist Bonus: If the Imperialist forces achieve 125 or more Kill Points, the enemy forces are devastated. The battle at the city’s gates will not include any extra attacks from ashigaru opponents.
Traditionalist Victory: If the Imperialist forces achieve less than 75 Kill Points, the enemy forces make it to the city walls in good strength, requiring the gates' defenders to slay an increased number of Enraged Samurai to achieve victory. In addition, every character participating in this event is overwhelmed by enemies attempting to scale the wall and suffer 2k2 damage.
Traditionalist Bonus: If the Imperialist forces achieve less than 50 Kill Points, the enemy forces make it to the city’s walls at full strength. The battle at the city’s gates is skipped as the Hantei’s army destroys the weak defenses and surges into the city, slaughtering people at random.
Every character in the game gains one disadvantage of their choice from the following list as they are injured in the fighting: Bad Eyesight (missing eye), Blind (missing both eyes), Dependent (relative of a fallen ally you swore to protect in the fighting), Lame (injured leg), Missing Limb (injured in the fighting), or Permanent Wound (injured in the fighting). Characters gain XP equal to half the amount of the chosen disadvantage (rounded up). The Steel Chrysanthemum captures Toshi no Omoidoso, providing his forces with a holding from which they can strike out at the surrounding area. The Empire gains +70 Traditionalist Points.
Rules: Each round, the enemy forces move closer to the gates. At each distance step, a character has one round to make attacks against the enemy. A bow can fire an arrow an additional distance up to twice its listed range, but it suffers a -1k0 penalty to the attack roll for every extra 50 feet (or portion thereof) beyond its listed range.
Because of the distance between the enemies and the characters defending the wall, melee weapons cannot be used in this event.
When the Distance Tracker reaches 0, the enemy has reached the gate and the archers are forced to spend the rest of the thread defending the walls from those who would climb over them, effectively ending their participation in this event.
Characters capable of casting spells can do so, provided that the army is within range of the spell. Each casting attempt takes the appropriate number of rounds. If a character fails their Spellcasting roll by the margin imposed by the opened Black Scrolls (i.e., if the Spellcasting roll fails because of the +6 TN penalty), then they have become so sickened that no further casting attempts can be made during this event.
The Traditionalist Army begins this event 600 feet away. At the end of each round, the army surges forward according to this table:
Code:
Round Distance at start of Round (Ft.)
1 600
2 540
3 480
4 420
5 360
6 300
7 240
8 180
9 120
10 60
11 0 (no actions allowed on this round)
A character can make an attack against either an Ashigaru or a Samurai.
Ashigaru have an Armor TN of 15 and 5 Wounds. If a single attack deals enough damage to kill an Ashigaru, the character earns 1 Kill Point. If it does not, their target disappears into the crowd and cannot be targeted on future rounds.
Samurai have an Armor TN of 25 and 15 Wounds. If a single attack deals enough damage to kill a samurai, the character earns 5 Kill Points. If it does not, their target disappears into the crowd and cannot be targeted on future rounds.
Spells that have a wide area of effect will only hit Ashigaru; the samurai take cover and push the Ashigaru in front of any magical attack, using them as human shields. One Ashigaru can be affected per 5-foot square in the spell’s area of effect. Ask the GM if you have questions how many squares a particular spell will affect.
Board index » The Past » Toshi no Omoidoso » City Gates and Surrounding Areas
