Designed for an Oriental setting, this adventure plays upon the constraints imposed by a rigid adherence to the code of Bushido or similar comprehensive code of honour. A hitherto courageous daimyo is plagued with nightmares of his ancestors meeting their ends in inglorious ways, not the heroic deaths the legends tell of them, and wants his most trusted retainers (the party, in other words) to find out what REALLY happened to them.

The DM's Background explains just why poor Lord Jingoro is having nightmares, and contains a reminder that as his faithful retainers the party are charged with guarding his property as well as his person... when the entire adventure takes place in his palace, this means that they ought to take care when fighting or spell-casting so as not to do too much damage!

It all begins when the party arrives at the palace one fine summer morning and find Lord Jingoro's wife Suko in floods of tears. The poor fellow is in a terrible state believing his whole life to be built upon the lie of praising dishonourable ancestors and he is threatening to take his own life. The party will need to sift through the records and deal with ancestral spirits themselves to find out if this is true in an attempt to save their lord's life. There's a map of the estate for them to search through, scrolls to read and shrines to visit in their quest; as well as servants to question.

The whole thing is quite convoluted, but captures the essence of matters important to the oriental mind that would not concern westerners to such an extent. Plot and counterplot ensure that there's enough going on. There are some annoying typos, but it's easy enough to figure out what is intended. Virtually every possible outcome is noted, just about all of which have ramifications for the future of your campaign.

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Reviewed: 7 January 2018