Minor Clan Families and Schools

[Vutall]

The Falcon
Falcon Families
Toritaka: +1 Perception

Falcon Schools
Toritaka Phantom Hunter School [Shugenja]
-Toritaka Exorcist, Great Clans
From the days of the Falcon Clan founder, Toritaka Yotogi, Toritaka Phantom Hunters have sought out gaki and other malign supernatural beings, a task that is often unfortunately easy, given the clan’s proximity to the haunted Shinomen Forest and the corrupted Shadowlands. Phantom Hunters often act in concert with Crab Clan warriors, using their legendary abilities to detect supernatural threats that others, even the skilled bushi stationed on the Wall, cannot perceive.

• Benefit: +1 Willpower
• Skills: Calligraphy (Cipher), Investigation, Lore: Shadowlands, Lore: Spirits, Lore: Shinomen Forest, Spellcraft, any one Weapon Skill
• Honor: 4.5
• Outfit: Robes, Wakizashi, Knife, Scroll Satchel, Traveling Pack, 3 koku
• Affinity/Deficiency: Earth/Water
• Spells: Sense, Commune, Summon, 3 Earth, 2 Fire, and 1 Air

Techniques

• Rank 1: Purge the Darkness
  You can sense the presence of dangerous spirits (ghosts, gaki, yokai, creatures from the spirit realms, etc) by making an Investigation (Notice) / Perception roll. The base TN for this roll is 20, but may be increased by the GM for spirits who are exceptionally difficult to notice. You may make 2 Raises on the roll to learn the specific nature of the spirit you detect (e.g. a yorei, a gaki, etc). You may take a Complex Action to attempt an exorcism on someone who is possessed by a ghost, gaki, oni, kitsune-tsuki, or similar entity. You expend one spell slot and make a Contested Willpower roll against the spirit; if you first place an exorcism ward on the target, you gain +2k2 on the roll. With a success, you force the spirit to leave the body it is possessing; it cannot attempt to re-possess that same person for at least 24 hours.
  
  Exorcism Wards:
  Many Toritaka Exorcists enhance their exorcisms by placing specially-inscribed paper wards on the target. They (and only they) can create these wards as a Complex Action that requires expending an Earth spell-slot (which cannot be regained until the ward is used) and rolling Calligraphy / Intelligence at TN 25. Placing an exorcism ward on an unwilling target is an unarmed attack that uses a Spellcraft / Agility roll; placing it on a bound/helpless/unresisting target is a Simple Action. Exorcism wards are especially useful items because they can potentially be employed by other people, not just the Exorcist who created them. Any non-Exorcist shugenja or monk who has a Toritaka exorcism ward may place it on a possessed person and then try to perform an exorcism (a Contested Willpower roll) as a Complex Action; this expends a spell slot for a shugenja, or a Void Point for a monk. The PC does not gain any bonus to the Contested Willpower roll from the ward and in addition must successfully call three Raises on the roll for it to succeed.

[Vutall]

The Mantis:
The Mantis minor clan are a group of rugged sailors, having grown from a loose alliance of merchants, rōnin, and castoff members of the Great Clans to a massive organization that operates along Rokugan’s coastline. While the Crane Clan has historically been one of the Mantis’ major clients, recent political turmoil has pushed them apart, and the Mantis have sought allies elsewhere in the Empire. They sail from mainland ports to the Isles of Silk and Spice and beyond, and rival the Unicorn Clan in their exposure to foreign cultures. Having risen from less than the Great Clans, they are not so quick to look down upon those of lower station—but humble origins do nothing to quell the ambitions of their dashing and piratical leader, Mantis Clan Champion Yoritomo.

Mantis Families
For complicated historical reasons, the Mantis do not have a family name. Its samurai all belong to the Mantis Clan fleet, however, and so they take their names from the kobune ships they sail with. Tsuraikaze no Kudaka (Kudaka of the Bitter Wind) or Susano-o no Hitoshi (Hitoshi of the Susano-o) are how they style themselves, changing their names as they sign on with different crews. Those Mantis who stay on land are known by the port where they live, such as Kinushima no Miaka or Tokigogachu no Tōya.

Mantis gain +1 Trait of their choice excluding Void.

Mantis Schools
Storm Fleet Sailor School [Bushi]
-Yoritomo Bushi, Core Rulebook. Replace Rank 3 with Yoritomo Scoundrel, Core Rulebook
Life on the seas between and beyond the Isles of Silk and Spice has made the Mantis Clan practical. Its sailors know most true fights do not take place in a dōjō, but in wild ambushes and on the rocking decks of kobune. A sailor must know when to push their luck—and when to settle for what they have. Opportunists to the core, the warriors of the Mantis Storm Fleet eschew no weapon, push every advantage, and yield only to the rolling sea.

• Benefit: +1 Strength
• Skills: Commerce, Defense, Jiujutsu (Improved Weapons), Kenjutsu, Knives (Kama), Sailing, any one Skill
• Honor: 3.5
• Outfit: Light Armor, Sturdy Clothing, Daisho, any 1 weapon (or pair of Knives), Traveling Pack, 10 koku

Techniques

• Rank 1: The Way of the Mantis
  You suffer no penalties to movement or attacks for rough or uneven terrain. You do not lose Glory or Honor when using improvised weapons, or weapons with the Peasant keyword, in combat. You suffer no penalties for fighting with a Small or Medium weapon in your off-hand if that weapon has the Peasant keyword. finally, you gain a bonus of +1k0 to all attack rolls.
• Rank 2: Voice of the Storm
  Every time you hit an opponent in melee, his Armor TN is reduced by 5. This penalty only applies to your attacks, and lasts for 2 Rounds. This Technique is cumulative (a number of times equal to your School Rank), and the duration resets with each application.
• Rank 3: Revel In Villainy
  Whenever you spent a Void Point to enhance an Athletics, Commerce, Sailing, Sincerity, or Low Skill Roll, you gain an additional bonus to the total of the roll equal to twice your School Rank.
• Rank 4: The Rolling Wave
  If you move at least 5 feet, you gain a bonus of +10 to your Armor TN until your next Turn. You may sacrifice this bonus during your Turn before you roll any attack to gain two Free Raises that may only be used to perform the Knockdown Maneuver.
• Rank 5: Hand of Osano-Wo
  You may choose to activate this Technique by spending a Void Point as a Free Action. You keep an additional number of damage dice equal to your Strength. If these attacks hit a Prone target, you gain a bonus of +0k2 to the total of your damage rolls against that target.

Storm Fleet Tide Seer [Shugenja]
-Yoritomo Shugenja, Great Clans
The tenkinja are priests of the tide, trained in the ways of reading the sea and appeasing the kami of wave and storm. These seers have served the Mantis Clan for generations, and without their blessing at the outset of a journey, even the most seasoned of Mantis sailors are uneasy to take to the open ocean. As with most Mantis traditions, the tenkinja have no formal center of learning, instead training individual apprentices during their journeys and periodically congregating in the Isles of Silk and Spice to share the wisdom they have attained.

• Benefit: +1 Perception
• Skills: Athletics, Calligraphy, Knives, Lore: Theology, Meditation, Sailing (Navigation), any 1 Skill
• Honor: 4.5
• Outfit: Robes, Wakizashi, any 1 weapon, Scroll Satchel, Traveling Pack, 10 koku
• Affinity/Deficiency: Water/Earth
• Spells: Sense, Commune, Summon, 3 Water spells, 2 Fire spells, and 1 Air spell

Techniques

• Rank 1: Child of the Sea
  You may expend one spell slot to alter the wind conditions in your current location by one degree. If you also spend a Void Point, you may instead shift the entire weather status one degree. You may expend a maximum combined total of spell slots and/or Void Points equal to your School Rank each Round to enact these shifts. These shifts affect an area a number of miles equal to your School Rank in all directions from your current location. You also gain a Free Raise on all spells with the Thunder keyword.
  
  Wind and Weather:
  Degrees of Wind: Still, Breeze, Gusts, Storm
  Degrees of Weather: Calm, Showers, Rain, Storm, Torrential Storm, Hurricane
  
  Heavy winds or bad weather will inflict penalties on ranged attacks (and possibly spell-casting, if visibility is low enough), beginning with Gusts or Rain at +5 to the TN and increasing at +5 per degree of severity thereafter.
  
  Wind and Weather effects are not cumulative, as Wind is assumed to be included in a listed Weather effect.

What Does Your Character Know?
All Mantis Clan characters have a greater awareness of the following topics:

You have a general awareness of the politics of Crane and Crab lands, as well as ports many Mantis call home, such as Tempest Island and Thunder Dragon Bay.

You know many basic facts of life about lands accessible by sea, such as the Isles of Silk and Spice, as well as foreign lands like the Ivory Kingdoms.

You know at least some words from foreign languages such as Ivindi, Myantu, and Portuga, and might even be fluent.

You know how to make yourself useful aboard a ship, and are used to shipboard life.

What Does Bushidō Mean To Your Clan?
The Mantis believe that everyone must prove themself—higher station of birth carries certain benefits, but comes with an expectation that an individual will achieve greater heights to match. Even the lowliest member of the clan can advance if they serve exceptionally. Courage (Yu) holds a special place for the Mantis. Most members have ancestors who were born as commoners or fell from grace, so the Mantis is more tolerant of foibles than other clans. The Bushidō tenet of Honor (Meiyo) is less important to members of the Mantis Clan

[Vutall]

The Tortoise
It is possible there would never have been a Tortoise Clan if not for the terrible events of the Battle of White Stag. The conflict clearly displayed the dangers of unchecked and unmonitored gaijin activities in Rokugan, though, and it is now the duty of this unheralded and unassuming clan to be the eyes of the Emperor against this menace. From their merchant fronts they act like mere peasants (and often behave and dress like them), ignoring the open contempt from other samurai. Most clans simply ignore them, though Tortoise connections to the smuggling of gaijin goods are an open secret in many areas. All the while, the Tortoise secretly serve the Emperor by controlling and limiting such smuggling and gathering intelligence on gaijin activities. Such a life may seem like one without honor or glory, but the Tortoise know their duty is more important than their image.

Tortoise Families
Kasuga: +1 Perception
The main family of the Tortoise, the Kasuga can trace their lineage even beyond the clan’s formation to the Dragon, from which the Tortoise founder Agasha Kasuga originated. It was Kasuga who rescued the stranded gaijin after their fleet was crushed, and it was Kasuga who the Emperor charged with forming a new minor clan out of a motley collection of clanless rōnin, heimin, and even some of those same gaijin. When samurai think of the Tortoise (if they do at all), they generally think of the Kasuga and their smuggling and other criminal activities. The Kasuga follow their duty, no matter who they must deal with and the honorless actions they must endure. They eschew higher status, knowing that their service in this vital matter is its own reward.

Tortoise Schools
Kasuga Smuggler School [Courtier]
-Kasuga Smuggler, Core Rulebook
The Kasuga have several schools that are the public faces of the Tortoise. Outsiders who are even aware of the Smuggler school believe it to be linked to tawdry merchant affairs, and thus beneath their notice. The Tortoise do their best to foster this misconception, for it actually trains their samurai who oversee the clan's extensive smuggling and covert trading operations. Kasuga smugglers must be proficient in a wide range of activities, from simple deception and disguise to negotiating with gaijin traders and Rokugani criminals. Many travel to gaijin lands and might spend long periods at sea. As they rise through the school, their focus can shift from base smuggling and dockside brawls to more refined operations as they interact with wider stratas of Rokugani society of various legitimacies. At the height of their power, they may acquire foreign works of art for Rokugani collectors or command large trading concerns that interact with many other clans. Some even “retire” to small merchant concerns, using their years of experience to better monitor gaijin activities and gaijin goods at a lower level. No loyal Kasuga ever forgets the true reason for the Tortoise, after all, and all know the price should they fail.

• Benefit: +1 Awareness
• Skills: Commerce, Etiquette, Investigation (Notice), Lore: Underworld, Sincerity (Deceit), Stealth, any one High, Merchant, or Low Skill
• Honor: 2.0
• Outfit: Extravagant Clothing, Wakizashi, any 1 weapon, Calligraphy Set, 5 koku

Techniques

• Rank 1: The Way of the Tortoise
  At character creation, you may learn an additional gaijin language for free with every purchase of the Languages Advantage. You do not lose Honor for using Low Skills, or Glory for using the Commerce skill in public, so long as you are doing so as part of your duty to your clan. When dealing with heimin or hinin, such as peasants, merchants, and eta, you gain a +2k0 bonus to all Social Skill rolls.
• Rank 2: The Shell of the Tortoise
  Any clan or Imperial samurai who physically attacks or openly slanders you without provocation on your part (GM's discretion) will immediately lose a number of points of Honor equal to twice your School Rank.
• Rank 3: The Eyes of the Emperor
  When acting on behalf of your clan, you may roll additional unkept dice equal to your School Rank on all Low Skills in which you have at least one Skill Rank. This includes any School Skills which only function as Low Skills when used in certain ways (such as Sincerity with the Deceit Emphasis). This does not work with Advantages and Techniques which simulate Skill Ranks (such as the Crafty Advantage.)
• Rank 4: Hand in Hand
  Once per session, if you have access to the local heimin or hinin, you can roll Lore: Underworld / Awareness at TN 25 to learn one useful piece of information (chosen by the GM) that cannot be learned any other way.
• Rank 5: The Tortoise Smiles
  When making a Skill Roll with any of your six specified School Skills, your maximum Raises are not limited by your Void. A number of times per session equal to your Void Ring, you may gain a +5k0 bonus when making a roll with any of your School Skills. This bonus can stack with the bonus from your Rank Three technique.

What Does Your Character Know?
All Tortoise Clan characters have a greater awareness of the following topics:

You have a strong grasp of the politics within Tortoise lands, as well as general information of the clan’s major cities and ports such as Kyuden Kasuga and Slow Tide Harbor.

You know much about gaijin lands such as Pavarre and the Ivory Kingdoms, including their local customs, and may know several gaijin traders personally.

You can speak one or more foreign languages such as Ivindi, Myantu, or Portuga fluently, and are at least conversant in almost any foreign language that one might encounter in Rokugan.

You know the importance of keeping secrets and abiding lesser infractions of law and honor for the good of the Empire.

What Does Bushidō Mean To Your Clan?
The Tortoise believe in the Path of No Path, whereby each clan member can choose a direction for their life individually, rather than a single, established path that all must follow. This grants greater flexibility for solving problems within the clan, and also greater moral flexibility when dealing with criminals and gaijin. The only thing that binds all Tortoise samurai is their mandate from the Emperor. For this reason, Duty (Chūgi) holds a special place for the Tortoise as their every honorless action is done to as per Imperial decree. The Tortoise have little patience for courtly deeds, though, and care even less for diplomatic niceties. Such things are trivial when the entire Empire is at stake should they fail to prevent another Battle of White Stag, after all. Thus, the Bushidō tenet of Courtesy (Meiyo) is less important to members of the Tortoise Clan

[Vutall]

The Deer
The Deer seek societal balance. When the Great Clans are equal in power, they strive to outdo each other, but do not dare go to war. Oneness and harmony are impossible ideals in a world where differences and conflict are unavoidable. Therefore, when the Deer observe that one clan is strong and another weak, they strive to make them equal. They are manipulators, working for balance within the Empire. Shika Matchmakers mingle with high society to collect information and guide the courts, while Speardancers carry out secret missions in the shadows. They save and they destroy, all for the sake of balance.

Deer Families
Shika: +1 Perception
The Shika family are the descendants of the clan’s founders and their first followers. Members of the Shika family support one another with encouragement and acceptance, but this love is reserved for the Deer alone. Outside of their borders, the Shika learn to silence their hearts and coldly observe people as means to their Clan’s ends. They are taught they must be personable without letting their bonds with outsiders grow too deep, deadly without spilling too much blood, and flawed while remaining confident and calm. Unsurprisingly, many do not live up to these ideals.


Shika Matchmaker School [Courtier, Shugenja]
-New School, Created from scratch
Shika Matchmakers are shugenja guided by Musubi, the secretive Fortune who binds together the fates of people. While they are skilled in the art of invocation, their greatest power is their ability to see the bonds people form—with other people and with destiny. A practitioner of Musubu can sense the future results of fortuitous or inopportune matches, and they use this information to serve the Deer Clan’s goal of achieving a balanced world. Although most of their matches prove successful for all involved, occasionally a couple’s happiness must be sacrificed for some greater goal.

• Benefit: +1 Awareness
• Skills: Calligraphy, Defense, Divination, Etiquette, Meditation, Spellcraft, any one High skill
• Honor: 4.5
• Outfit: Robes, Bo, Divination tools, Traveling Pack, 4 koku
• Affinity/Deficiency: Air/Fire
• Spells: Sense, Commune, Summon, 3 Air, 2 Water, and 1 Earth

Techniques

• Rank 1:
  You may perform a Musubu ritual. This ritual takes a half hour and involves 1 other person. It requires a Divination/Awareness roll at TN20. Upon success, you learn all of their Social and Spiritual advantages and disadvantages. You may spend a void point to grant the individual the Blissful Betrothal Advantage, free of cost, which they gain at the time of marriage, the target of said marriage being another individual you or another Matchmaker has conducted the Musubu ritual with. Additionally, after the ritual, you may make a Meditation/Void roll with a TN of X time 5, where X is equal to their Social and Spiritual advantages and disadvantages. If you succeed, you gain +xK1 to all socials rolls involving that individual where X is equal to their Social and Spiritual advantages and disadvantages. This effect lasts until you have made a number of Social rolls involving that individual equal to your School Rank.

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Shika Speardancer School [Bushi, Shinobi]
-New School, Created from scratch
Shika Speardancers are yōjimbō and shinobi, but to the outside world, they are simply seen as messengers, known well for their swiftness and neutrality. They deliver urgent or romantic missives to both dignitaries and lovers throughout Rokugan. The Deer Clan directs its Speardancers to monitor targets deemed crucial to maintaining or restoring balance in Rokugan. Their cover as couriers frees them to work as bodyguards or assassins without drawing attention. Speardancers exude fierce independence and tenacity. These wild warriors focus on becoming an extension of their yari, practicing a unique set of kata that combine dizzying spins, lightning-speed twirls, and deadly accuracy.

• Benefit: +1 Agility
• Skills: Sincerity, Perform: Dance, Stealth, Athletics, Weapon Skill: Spears, Investigation, Any 1 Bugei or High Skill
• Honor: 3.5
• Outfit: Light Armor, Sturdy Cloths, Yari, Daisho, Traveling Pack, 4 koku

Techniques

• Rank 1:
  Add your Perform: Dance to all attack rolls made when using Spears. You do not lose honor when using Low skills when carrying out orders from your clan. You gain +xK1 to your Sincerity rolls, where x is equal to your school rank.
• Rank 2:
  If you are in the Full Attack stance, you may ready a spear as a Free Action. When wielding a spear in combat, you gain a damage bonus of +0k1. You gain a bonus of +2k0 to your Stealth rolls.
• Rank 3:
  When using a spear to attack an opponent, if you strike an opponent who has not yet acted this round, he must make two Raises to successfully attack you for the remainder of this Round.
• Rank 4:
  While you are in the Defense posture and wielding a spear or polearm, immediately after an opponent makes a melee attack against you or one of your allies within 10' (whether or not the attack hit), you may spend a Void Point in order to take a Free Action to attack that opponent with your spear/polearm. You may also use this Technique in the Full Defense posture, but making the attack will require spending 2 Void Points instead of 1.
• Rank 5:
  While wielding a spear, you may ignore a number of reduction your opponent has equal to twice your rank in Perform: Dance

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What Does Your Character Know?
All Deer characters have a greater awareness of the following topics:

You have a strong awareness of the specific traditions and plans of the Deer Clan, including details about the Fortune Musubi; the hidden history of the clan; the clan’s current goals and targets; and the groups it is seeking to reinforce.

You know about the general state of political and military affairs between the Great Clans and where the balance of power lies among them at the moment.

You have a working knowledge of survival in forested areas.

You are well aware of the traditions, etiquette, and processes of forming and breaking alliances, especially with regard to marriage.

What Does Bushidō Mean To Your Clan?
The Deer believe that nobody can follow all aspects of Bushidō at once, as such would require an impossibly perfect person. Therefore, they believe that individuals and organizations should strive to embody one or more of Bushidō’s aspects in each of their actions rather than maintain all at once. By making a particular action conform to one element of Bushidō and then taking a different action that conforms to another, the individual and the group alike can achieve true balance. The Deer have a dual nature, so Sincerity is of lesser importance to them. Additionally, because the Deer can see the deep bonds between others, but must often blunt their own emotions to prevent forming such connections with future foes, Compassion is of less importance to them. What the Deer lack in Sincerity and Compassion they make up for in their sense of Duty and Loyalty—Duty and Loyalty to other members of the clan, to Musubi, and to balance itself.

[Vutall]

The Fox
After the Day of Thunder, the majority of the Ki-Rin Clan rode out of Rokugan in pursuit of the Empire’s enemies, leaving a small group to safeguard their land. Unfortunately, they were too few to withstand an invasion from the Lion. The remaining Ki-Rin were pushed southward until the Emperor himself intervened and declared the orphaned group a Minor Clan. They were given the territory encompassing Kitsune Forest and changed their name to the Fox Clan to reflect their new home. Despite this good fortune, the Fox Clan’s troubles were far from over. Emperor Hantei Genji had given them land that he had no authority to give: it had already been claimed by spirits. The Fox Clan had to adapt to the rules of the forest, and through the guidance of the kitsune fox spirits of Senkyō, they achieved harmony. In return for the Fox Clan’s respect and reverence, the spirits of Kitsune Forest give the clan their protection.

There are few forests as beautiful as Kitsune. The canopy filters the sunlight into an emerald glow that saturates everything, while the ground is carpeted with mounds of moss, fragmented by trickling streams, and freckled with tiny white flowers. Fluffy spores become visible in beams of light as they drift about trunks covered in step-like mushrooms. The Fox Clan keeps the forest floor clear of deadfall and tends to any sickly trees. As a result, there is only vibrant life. The plants exhibit creativity, twisting their branches to form elegant arched corridors and patterns. Everything within Kitsune Forest feels imbued with a playful intelligence, and though travelers feel watched, they rarely feel threatened. The spirits know to be patient with humans, but they have also learned that mortals make easy marks. Many spirits cannot resist pulling a (mostly) harmless prank, and if their mischief is met with good humor, they are sure to bestow gifts upon their forgiving targets.

In every village near the Kitsune Forest, one can hear of the imikotoba. Long ago, the spirits of Kitsune Forest requested that humans refrain from using the following words while traversing their woods and instead employ the corresponding substitutions:

• Death—Slumber
• Illness—Rest
• Tears—Salty Drips
• Blood—Pain Sweat
• Meat—Mushrooms
• Grave—Dirt Pile

And of course, they ask for no discussion of cutting, sawing, hacking, or snapping in the least. Such talk stresses the kodama to salty drips.

Fox Families
-Shapeshifer: You are a Kitsune spirit and not actually part of the Fox Clan, though you have decided to impersonate one of their samurai for whatever reason. Instead of creating a character as normal, you are are an 8 tailed fox spirit. Your spirit form is the following, and you may not spend any XP to improve it:

Air 2
-Reflexes 5
Earth 2
Fire 2
Water 1
-Perception 4
Initiative: 6k5
Attack: Claws 2k2 (Complex)
Damage: 2k1
Armor TN: 25
Reduction: 5
Wounds: 15: +10, 30: +20, 45: Dead.
Skills: None
Special:
Swift 2
+3k0 to Stealth rolls
Spirit

You must take the Kitsune Impersonator Tradition school.

Kitsune who live as samurai must adopt the Code of Bushidō and conduct their actions in accordance with it, even if they never fully accept its veracity. In many ways, Bushidō directly conflicts with a kitsune’s nature as a trickster, giving rise to great internal struggles. Accordingly, Kitsune Impersonator characters have an honor value just like any natural samurai, and they follow the normal guidelines for gaining and losing honor. As a kitsune, you must lose 1 honor to appear as a samurai of higher status (in addition to any honor you must lose for any dishonorable actions, such as lying, that you take under that guise, as usual). Additionally, Kitsune spirits are fond of tricks, often playing them on the Samurai around them, one of the greatest being to get them to believe the spirit is one of the samurai kind. Finally, Kitsune spirits have a fondness for gems, and wherever you go you have a stash of gemstones you love dearly and would protect without hesitation, though once lost the Kitsune will not go to much trouble to retrieve them and instead begin collecting new ones. If they find gems they know previously belonged to them, they will make the individual that possesses them the target of many tricks.


Fox Schools
Kitsune Impersonator Tradition [Courtier, Shugenja]
-New School, Created from scratch
Kitsune are fox spirits from Chikushō-dō, the Realm of Animals. On rare occasions, one of these tricksters chooses to remain in the Realm of Mortals and live as a human. These kitsune may marry or fall in love with a human, and any descendants of such a union favor their spiritual heritage to a greater or lesser degree. While in human form, kitsune often appear radiantly beautiful or youthful and handsome. They generally can’t avoid an attitude of good humor, and they tend to be inquisitive, even to a point considered rude and prying by most. More potentially revealing than their behavior are their tails, which sometimes reappear even in their illusory human guise. Kitsune gain additional tails throughout their lives, and the oldest and most powerful kitsune have nine tails.

• Skills: Acting, Spellcasting, Lore: Chikushudo, Sincerity (Deceit), Lore: Fox Clan, Games (Any), Stealth
• Honor: 4.5
• Outfit: Kimono, Wakizashi, Any one game, loose gems worth 3 koku, Traveling Pack, 3 koku
• Affinity/Deficiency: Air/Water
• Spells: Sense, Summon, Commune, 3 Air, 2 Fire, 1 Earth

Techniques

• Rank 1: When you select this school, You gain the following:
  You may turn human for one full day (until the next sunrise) as a Complex Action. You may choose to use this ability consecutively without reverting to your normal form; if you do so for at least one year and one day, you lose your shapeshifting abilities permanently, becoming entirely mortal. You cannot tell anyone your true nature or your true name, and if discovered you must return to Chikushudo and never come back to Ningen-do. Any spells that effect spirits effect you in Human form as well. If you are slain, you return to Chikushudo, leaving no body behind (though your effects that were on you remain)
  
  While shape-shifted, you are a Human with all rings starting at 2, Awareness 3, and gain the skills, spells, affinity/deficiency, outfit, and honor listed for this School. You may spend experience as normal on your human form. Finally you must take the Dark Secret disadvantage for no bonus points, and on every full moon, you must pass a TN20 Willpower roll or have your tails appear in your human form for 24 hours.
  
  Additionally, you must select 4 of the following and add them permanently to your human form (You do not pick new ones when you change forms):
  
  You cannot drink alcohol.
  You cannot cross running water.
  You cannot eat meat of any kind.
  Your shadow always reveals your true form.
  You cannot bathe.
  You cannot lie.
  You cannot answer any question with a straight answer; instead, you must answer with another question.
  
  Finally, select two of the following and add them permanently to your human form (You do not pick new ones when you change forms):
  You cannot kill another living being.
  You cannot enter a shrine or temple.
  You cannot allow a human to touch you.
  You may never touch an item created by humans.
  You must marry a worthy human within one year and treat your spouse with loyalty and respect. If your spouse proves unworthy of being by your side, you must return to your own Realm and never come back to Ningen-do.
  
  You understand the chittering of natural animals. You may not speak their languages yourself, however, as most animals simply are not smart enough to understand what you are attempting to say.
  
  Finally, you gain a free raise on any spells with the Illusion keyword. When you increase your human form's insight, you gain new spells as other shugenja would.