Sapphire Ambassadors

Perhaps it was this day's theme, or just conversation with other Samurai, but Inori felt motivated. Obliged, perhaps, to find out something - both about the hint she'd seen recently when she tried to prepare for one of her pieces, but also about herself and what her duties would be at this point.

Prayer, contemplation, possibly a search for religious or mystic texts, they all led to the same place.

Inori rinsed her hands and her mouth with the sacred water and bowed to the guardian Kami of the Shrine, then entered.

Inori will find Asahina Jorujo within, praying.

He will finish his sutras and take note of the Lion, though he will not interrupt her if she seeks to pray. Hardly a priestly thing to do, really.

Inori bowed deeply to the temple's priest.

Well, he probably knows about some of the things I might ask him about. Might as well ask him. It still took some willpower to do it - Inori had not gotten entirely comfortable with higher ups, despite her parent's position opening doors for her before.

"Good morning Asahina-sama. I have some questions. Might you be able to help me with them?"

Jorujo returns the bow.

"I might," he says, "depending. There've been a lot of such questions recently. Will you come with me?"

He gestures towards a smaller room, within which stacks of scrolls--some haphazard, others neat--are visible.

Inori nodded, This went faster than she expected, but...she would hardly complain.

But also....several such questions? she asked herself.

The Lion bowed to the central altar inside hurriedly while she followed the Asahina.

"Thank you for the invitiation, Asahina-sama" she said.

Jorujo enters and seats himself.

"So, Matsu-san," he says, gesturing to a cushion opposite, "speak these questions to me."

"Basically, well" Inori faltered for a bit "Okay this might take a little explaining. I am...Not quite a shugenja, but something like it. I can...see spirits. Kami, possibly. And during my time at the inn...Well"

She stopped for a bit, ordered her thoughts.

"I didn't see anything directly, just hints that there was something wrong there"

"What kind of hints, Matsu-san?" Jorujo asks, getting paper and ink. "And what kind of wrong?"

"I can't be entirely sure, but it seemed like someone had set something up like...a ritual of sorts. Or some sort of invocation, possibly one performed by multiple people" Inori frowned.

"It was very vague, so I thought I might look in on the expert to figure out if such a thing was even possible"

"There are such rituals, of course," Jorujo says. "Some of the most powerful prayers are those said together."

"My...education on these matters is spotty. I have some ability to figure out these things, but no references to compare. Would Asahina-sama have texts that explain the concept that I could have access to?"

Jorujo laughs.

"Oh, my, yes!" he says. "Take your pick, and take a look, Matsu-san," he adds, gesturing to the piles on his desk and along the wall. "There's bound to be something here."

(Roll one of the following, TN open:
Spellcraft / Intelligence
Lore: History / Intelligence, subtracting 7)

Inori dug in, and after a bit of trouble in the beginning managed to have some success (rolling a 33)

Matsu Inori wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 21, 2022 5:54 pm

Inori dug in, and after a bit of trouble in the beginning managed to have some success (rolling a 33)

The research reveals, in bits and pieces, not the ritual earlier hinted at--that turns out to have been poetic embellishment--but the spell Yari of Air, of which Inori may make a quick ink painting with Artisan : Painting / Agility, TN 20.

That such things are efficacious against many spirits is noted.

Inori frowned in concentration...then broke out into a smile as she realized what she'd found. Not something immediately pertinent, but a thing that might aid her in the future - a spiritual weapon, of sorts, where she to need it.

Not expressed in terms she knew, of course, but she could visualize it - whisps, spirits, coalesced from the air around, woven into a lance of sorts but for a moment by her request and act of will, held in hand lest they dissipate again.

She furiously started on a preliminary sketch that turned out better than she had anticipated

(result being 35)

But if there was something, or more to this - she might need to speak to other contestants to see what they could tell her.

Jorujo does not attend closely as Inori works, being engrossed in his own reading.

He does look up at one point, though, blinking, and sees the sketch.

"Getting your presentation ready, then, Matsu-san?"

"Of sorts" she says, stumbling for a bit

Which is when she remembered Bushido holding honesty in high regard

"I found something in these documents that...well, I derived an image from them that I fixed in this sketch. It works...a little akin to what Asahina-sama would call a spell, I suppose."

"Oh?" Jorujo leans forward. "A prayer through painting, then? How novel!

"Tell me, what do the spirits say to you in this?"

"I can bequeath fleeting, whispy spirits of air to...coalesce, shape themselves into a lance I can hold in my hands for a few moments before it dissipates again. A bit like the paintings shows."

She hesitated.

"Well, I think I can. I should be able to"

Jorujo's face goes still.

"I...was unaware such things were contained in the scrolls here," he says. "How interesting."