Cube World 41 -A Fistful of Silver in the Lands of the Southern Daimyos

 

 A Fistful of Silver  

· 3 page adventure with maps, NPC descriptions/stats/spells/weapons proficiencies etc, and abestiary

· Written for LOFP but can be used with most old school game systems.

· Played in a single, 4.5 hour session

Human stories driving a grand political narrative, create enough verisimilitude that you can layer the most fantastically wretched, whimsical, magical and evil elements atop them, and still walk away with a dark and gritty, real-feel game night. Hell, GRR Martin made a whole career out the same formula. Such is the case with A Fistful of Silver, which at its essence can be boiled down to the distinct pulls of Gold, Politics and Love upon human desire….. but damn… thats a serious understatement as to how fun this adventure was. 

Loosely set in a mythical archipelago of feudal Japan, it brings cool old school Japanese weapons like the naginata, wakizashi, and katana back to the forefront of the D&D battle …..and even cooler, they are wielded by samurai, ninja, clan lords, and high-born ladies rockin the finest kimonos. I live in Japan and I ran this session for my game wife and a few of our Japanese friends (first time players) and they ate it up……..the twisted Japanese folklore, western archetypes of Asia, magic, monsters, all of it ...just all of it!!! The set -up is simple, but the devil is in the details (literally … and he goes by the name of either Lady Nine Island or Red Iron, take your pick!) But there are:

3 different Clan Lords of differing demeanor and loyalty; 

2 different Clan Wives (one magic, one shrewd); 

2 Clan sons (one traitorous, one stupid) and; 

1 Badass Clan daughter: loyal to family, martially-trained, brutal, bloodlusty and beautiful,

1 retinue of ninja; 

1 host of samurai; 

…….and your party, which is wrapped up with all of them in individual covert negotiations. All parties, schemes, truths and lies will ultimately collide at a beautiful Japanese castle, (Sleeping Crane Castle) in a few days time at a meeting of the Clans.  And if your session goes anything like ours, all hell will break loose! Oh and did I mention! one of the clan wives is a futakuchi-onna / has two mouths, and a Clan Lord has a panther on a chain just to let folks know he means business!?! 

 The party is enticed via coin and/or morality to make decisions and take certain courses of action, but there are no totally right answers here, and therein lies the rub. This will push the players to make the “better” decision either financially, politically or for their souls. And if they cant decide as a group, each player can exercise their player agency and set an individual course for glory or death …..their own or the entire party.

 I cant overstate how exquisite the dilemmas in the adventure are orchestrated, these new players got so involved in strategizing with in- and out- of game discussions, when the appointed clan-meeting time came, they all took a shot of alcohol! Obligation and Honor are on full allegorical display, because the whole adventure is pretty much based upon the decisions made, coin accepted, promises exchanged and how well the players role play their characters towards those ends, and of course the luck of the die. Needless to say, nothing went as planned, former allies became formidable enemies and that was before the master of the naginata showed up! In total 2 of 5 characters died, and 1 of the remaining characters has the dead characters' blood on her hands! ….the snowball effect of dishonor. And one character found a valuable secret set deep within Sleeping Crane Castle. 

Good times, Good stuff!!!

One of the new players asked if this was Dungeons and Dragons all the time?? (I wish it was, but didn’t want to lie to him) I told him no, this level of intrigue, fighting, plot immersion, and character involvement is hard to create and maintain every session. But the good news is there are 2 more adventures already available In the Lands of the Southern Daimyos.…… all the players are returning at the end of Golden Week in Japan when I run Forest of 500 Shadows in same setting!

         Mandatory, pre-session adventure review at the ramen stand!