Part 1: The Setsuban Festival
            They are recruited by a Unicorn Daimyo, Shinjo Gidayu, to safeguard a caravan carrying the grand prize for the Setsuban Festival. In addition to that, two other members were given duties by their own family daimyos to petition the Emperor's niece for her hand in marriage.

Where to begin...let me sum up...

Getting to the Festival was fairly uneventful, UNTIL, they were attacked by bandits who made off with the Festival's grand prize. They had to continue on to the Festival without the scrolls they were guarding. Arriving at the Shinjo's tent they meet a bushi named Otaku Iruko, the sight of her stops Isawa Ahiro in his tracks, the woman is a dead ringer for a woman he saw killed in a duel at his gempukku ceremony almost two years earlier. Our intrepid bands decides to try to recover the scrolls before anyone notices

They track the group that stole the scrolls to a village. After a small talk with a man named Niban, they find the only way to get the scrolls back is to help the village shugenja get into the Setsuban, it seems he is not allowed to compete because he is ronin. Three of the Magistrates feel a scorched earth policy is best, kill everyone, take the scrolls. One Magistrate feels perhaps they should petition the judges to let the man compete. With a lot of grumbling the other three relent but make a silent pact to return and teach these thieving peasants a lesson.

Returning to the Setsuban site they approach Shinjo Gidayu to explain why the scrolls were stolen and what the demands are to get them returned. Wanting to keep the knowledge of the scrolls being gone a secret, he agrees to help get the man admitted into the Competition. Its at this moment things get...complicated.

Hida Tagasuru, the current bearer of the Bloodsword: Rage, after contemplating on the recent events, decided that Shinjo Gidayu, in his want to help this thieving man into the Festival instead of taking a more decisive action against the peasants and ronin that took the scrolls, was no better than the thieves that took the scrolls, so he drew his sword and all but decapitated the daimyo. A fight breaks out in the tent between Tagasuru and his fellow Magistrates. He is cut down by our heroes and the Bloodsword is taken from the Magistrates.

All are healed by some of the many shugenja nearby, and Gidayu thanks the party and asks them to come to the Winter Court he will be holding. End Part One.

Isawa Ahiro: Currently involved in a hush-hush romance with a very powerful and influential member of the Phoenix Clan. He has done such a good job at keeping this relationship a secret that his daimyo has ordered him to go to the Setsuban to woo the Emperor's niece! Unhappy with this current turn of events, he says nothing though and he does his duty and promises to do his best. When it comes time to square off in the village against the villagers, Ahiro is the single voice of reason wanting to back the shugenja's petition to enter the Festival while the rest of the group wants to bath in the villages blood.

Akodo Kasumi: Enraged at the thought of these lowly peasants stealing from them. One of the three who opted to teach the village a lesson in humility. She was almost killed in the battle in Shinjo Gidayu's tent, having to fight her friend Hida Tagasuru. She struck him a mighty blow but that was ignored by the Mountain Does Not Move.

Daidoji Kage:Wanted to single handedly outflank 200 people. He too wanted to lay waste to everyone in sight at the village for the theft of the scrolls. Tried to get the scrolls back by challenging Niban to a duel, winner keeps the scrolls. Niban couldn't risk their only bargaining chip in such a fashion and declined Kage's offer. This also seemed to peeve the Magistrate. Kage reluctantly struck the killing blow that finished off Hida Tagasuru. The one to pick up the Bloodsword after Tagasuru's death and echoed a vow made by another Magistrate a lifetime ago: "I'll never draw this blade"

Hida Tagasuru: RIP. The man that had stepped forward to take command of this group of Magistrates so early on. The man that had watched the Bloodsword work it's magic against Moto Buta before him, and who, only weeks earlier, had vowed "I'll never draw this blade. It has nothing to offer me." This Samurai sold his soul to remember the name of the Emperor's niece. The pillar of strength for the group had a weak foundation evidently. With a decision warped by the Bloodswords influence, he attacked the Unicorn daimyo, only to be cut down by a fellow Magistrate. A distinguished career ended in disgrace.