Regions Of The Shadowlands

[Vutall]

Regions Of The Shadowlands
While it is possible that the denizens of the Shadow-lands have subdivided their territory into something similar to Imperial provinces, most Rokugani have no knowledge of such demarcations. To the Empire, the Shadowlands is essentially a single place, an undivided realm of corruption and horror. That said, those who study the Shadowlands do recognize there are sub-regions within it, distinguished by the intensity of the Taint as well by geography.

Big Stink
It is said that long ago, when Daylight Castle fell to the Shadowlands, a lesser Hiruma fortress also fell to evil. This was the Haikyo sano Kappa, which is not mourned to the same degree as the lost Hiruma home. Though this castle had great tactical value, few pressed to reclaim it then. Time passed, and given other pressing concerns, it was almost forgotten. Years later, when Hiruma scouts arrived to assess its status, they were astounded by what it had become.

There, where once had stood the proud and strong Kappa fortress, was now a place of ruins infested with countless goblins. The vile creatures had transformed it into a twisted city, complete with crude markets and congested streets. Hovels had sprouted up haphazardly like foul mush-rooms, overflowing with goblins. The scouts could discern the markings of multiple goblin warbands, somehow coexisting without erupting into battle.

Captured goblins revealed their city’s new name: Big Stink. It was certainly accurate given the intense odor from the concentrated goblins, one which could be detected many miles away.

he Crab promptly gathered a large force to eradicate the creatures; they could not reclaim the land, but they could at least cleanse it of goblins. It was a difficult campaign, but they left behind an empty city when they returned to the Wall.

This did not last long. Only a season later, other scouts reported the city infested again, filled with even more goblins. Though it was late in the year, a second Crab force was dispatched and put it to the torch. Early the following year, though, it was once more infested and the stench even more powerful. The cycle repeated multiple times over the following years, but slowly it became apparent that the goblins in Big Stink were far less of a menace than other Shadowlands dangers that were menacing the Wall and beyond.

Today, Big Stink is somewhat ignored. Occasionally, Crab bushi are assigned to become part of the next cleansing force as punishment. Only the Kuni keep a close watch on the city and its denizens, studying goblin society and seeking tactics to better deal with them in the Shadowlands and elsewhere in Rokugan.

Near The Wall
To the Crab, “near the Wall” is the semiformal designation for a specific part of the Shadowlands. It consists, of two parts: “Wall-Sight” and “Three Days' March.

The strip of land within sight of the Wall is simply known as “Wall-Sight.” The extent of Wall-Sight varies; in any given place, it extends from the base of the Wall to the horizon as seen from the top of it. This is the least-Tainted part of the Shadowlands, and the Crab consider it to be relatively safe unless an attack is imminent or underway. Most others would see it as quite horrifying, of course, for the ground near the Wall is always soaked with blood and littered with unnatural bones. The Crab note that the Taint from the Shadow-lands largely fades just before reaching the Wall, indicating to them that the Wall is a spiritual barrier as well as a symbolic embodiment of the defiant spirit of their clan.

The wider strip of land known to the Crab as “Three Days' March” extends from the limit of In-Sight to a point three days’ journey from the Wall. Geographical-ly, this is a much more diffuse area, given that travelers move at different rates depending on their intent and burdens, as well as the weather and shifting terrain of the Shadowlands. This doesn’t seem to matter, though. Over the centuries, the Crab have learned that while the effects of the Taint intensify and the number of Shadowlands creatures seen increases—making Three Days' March itself hazardous—past the third day of travel, the danger increases dramatically.

The reason for this is not clear. The Kuni speculate that it may be related to the fact that the Hiruma lands at their widest encompass about three days of travel from the Kaiu Wall. Since they have been incorporated into the Shadowlands for only about four hundred years, the power of the Taint within them may not have been able to build up to the same extent. Still, the effects of the Taint are the same in areas of Three Days March that weren’t originally part of the Hiruma lands. Speculation on this phenomenon continues.

The Deep Shadowlands
Beyond Three-Days' March is what the Crab recognize only as the Deep Shadowlands. Here, the corruptive power of the Taint increases in a dramatic way, its effects seeming to intensify with each step. Early in the Empire’s history, the Crab made attempts to enter this horrific realm to find and destroy the wellspring of the Taint.

Few who made the effort survived, and none were unscathed. The most notable expedition was that of the Seven Thunders as they ventured into the Shadowlands to face Fu Leng. It is believed they traveled almost as far as the Festering Pit to confront the Dark Kami in his keep. Only Shosuro and Shinsei returned from the Day of Thunder, so the account is somewhat unclear, beyond conveying that reaching Fu Leng’s keep involved great trial. This vividly illustrates just how dangerous the Deep Shadowlands can be, that such mighty heroes as the Thunders found it difficult to enter and survive these areas

Despite the Deep Shadowlands’ largely impenetrable nature, hints of some of its places and features have filtered forward through the centuries. Lakes of blood, massive volcanoes, and strange, unnatural structures resembling blasphemous temples or tombs are all said to be found in this nightmare realm. How much of this is true is unknown; what is clear is that two subregions are commonly recognized as existing in the Deep Shadowlands—the Festering Pit of Fu Leng and the Haunted Jungles

The Festering Pit is the portal between Ningen-dō and Jigoku created when Fu Leng crashed through the Mortal Realm and into the Realm of Evil. In that sense, it is an existential wound in creation through which the malign influence of the Taint impinges on the mortal world. Aside from the Thunders, there have been very few known expeditions to the Festering Pit—and even fewer that returned. It can only be speculated that it is a fundamentally horrific place, where the raw stuff of Jigoku is exposed to the Mortal Realm. It is likely that the elements are so badly corrupted here that the land and air are entirely mutable and inimical to life, or at least life that isn’t itself an embodiment of the Taint, such as the demonic oni

A further point regarding the Festering Pit is worthy of note. According to the recollection of the nezumi, Fu Leng smashed through a great city inhabited by their ancestors when he fell, destroying it and subsequently causing that civilization to fall into ruin. This may be apocryphal, however; just a distortion of barely remembered stories passed from generation to generation

Far beyond the Festering Pit (from the perspective of Rokugan) sprawl the Haunted Jungles. This would represent “the other side” of the Shadowlands, possibly bordering the distant Ivory Kingdoms. Little is known about these corrupted lands, aside from brief and sporadic accounts that filter into the Empire from gaijin travelers. One can only imagine what nightmarish effects the Taint has on thick, verdant lands teemoing with life, many instances of which were already supremely dangerous.

The Sea Of Shadows and The Thorn Coast
On its eastern and southern sides, the Shadowlands borders the sea. These Tainted waters earned the name the Sea of Shadows: a vast swath plagued by sudden and destructive storms, long spells of eerie calm, and endless banks of thick, cold fog. Sometimes the water itself becomes a deadly foe, suddenly boiling, freezing into jagged ice, or clinging to the sides of ships as it congeals into blood, sludge, or corrosive acid.

If these threats weren’t enough to persuade the Empire’s ships to avoid the Sea of Shadows, the monstrous creatures that dwell within it certainly would be. Those who are brave enough to dare its dark waters—and survive—report glimpsing, just beneath the surface, the passage of gigantic, scaled things many times larger than kobune ships, huge masses of writhing tentacles, or swarms of glowing eyes. There are even more sporadic reports of especially horrifying and otherworldly encounters, such as with the Skull Tide—a literal tsunami of chattering, biting skulls many leagues across, which consumes everything in its path

The shoreland bordering the Sea of Shadows, known as the Thorn Coast, is like the interior of the Shadow-lands in character, except that it is much more rugged and mountainous. The Crab have deployed koutetsukan—stout but ponderous ships protected with iron armor and jade—on expeditions to investigate both the Sea of Shadows and the Thorn Coast. Sailors who survived the effort have said that the corrupted coastal lands are almost impossible to traverse, as the already significant dangers inherent to any mountainous region have been horrifically magnified by the Taint

Intervening Regions
A number of notable locations rest uneasily between the Shadowlands and the uncorrupted lands of the Empire. These can be considered transitional, being wholly part of neither region

The Plains above Evil:
The Heigen yori ue ni Warui, or Plains above Evil, are a broad expanse of barren wilderness separated from the vast woodlands of the Shinomen Mori, and the Empire beyond it by the northern range of the Twilight Mountains. They border the Shadowlands to the west and southwest, and the Crab lands to the south. The Plains are not, as far as the Crab can discern, rife with Taint; in fact, Shadowlands creatures generally avoid them. Still, their bleak, dry grasslands dotted with enigmatic ruins are inhospitable to the Rokugani. Attempts have been made to settle them, but crops failed, sources of water dried up, and disease and other misfortunes afflict-ed the would-be settlers. The Kuni speculate that there is some unknown involvement of the Taint. As there has yet been no success in dealing with the matter, the Plains above Evil remain empty and forbidding

The Kuni Wastelands:
Once Tainted by a Shadowlands incursion, the Kuni Wastelands, which are on the Rokugani side of the Wall, were later cleansed of the Taint. The process, however, left them dead in an elemental sense, effectively devoid of life

The Shadowlands Marshes:
In 815, a vast army of monsters attempted to force passage into Rokugan through the immense forest of the Shinomen Mori. Some mysterious and ancient power within the forest stopped and ultimately destroyed the raiders, but a sodden region within the woodlands became Tainted in the process. Whatever power destroyed the invaders appears to have contained the Tainted area, limiting it to a small but persistent corrupted region known as the Shadowlands Marshes. Unfortunately, the exact location of the Shadowlands Marshes isn’t known (or it is possible they may drift within the forest), meaning that any expedition into the Shinomen is at risk of stumbling into them

[Vutall]

Fallen Chrysanthemum Lake
Far beyond the protective stone of the Wall, there is said to be a most wondrous vista. Serene and peaceful, it includes a beautiful lake that is even more a marvel given the despoiled nature of the Shadowlands. For lost scouts or warriors seeking respite from ravenous predators, it appears a blessing. What they soon realize, however, is that the blessing is actually a curse, for they have stumbled upon Fallen Chrysanthemum Lake.

Waters Of Death
The lake appears quite idyllic at first glance. Flowering cherry trees line the shores, their blossoms slowly drifting down like gentle clouds. Soft breezes waft the sweet-smelling air to and fro. A village filled with mounted samurai lies along the far shore. There is a stillness here that contrasts with the brutal violence and screams that seem to fill the wretched desolation elsewhere. Then, as one grows nearer and studies the setting closer, the lake unveils its true nature. The tall and proud trees have small barbs running along the bark like fangs, many glistening with a dark, oily residue, for they are not true cherry trees. Entangling vines run up the trunks, and vicious grubs burrow into the surrounding ground. The smell grows stronger, into an unforgettable stench. The flowers leave a rich, blood-red stain on everything they touch; even a few petals can contaminate a large swath of grass to give the illusion of a mass of blossoms. What might look like the setting sun reflecting on the lake is the actual hue of the water, for the falling petals share their deep crimson col-or as they bleed into the water like a beheaded samurai.

Even worse, the blossoms themselves carry the Taint. The lake, filled with ages of dissolved blossoms, is more terrible still as its effects are not apparent at first. It is only perhaps a day later when those foolish enough to touch or dare drink from it notice their vision turning red as their limbs grow numb and their blood thickens into gelatinous strands.

Like all things within the Shadowlands, the Taint infuses everything in this otherwise picturesque location. Even if someone avoids contact, merely breathing the air near the lake over a prolonged period allows its fumes to enter their body, thus corrupting their flesh. Blossoms that fall nearby are also hazardous for reasons Kuni scholars do not fathom

Mutations arise from these instances that seem to reflect the vile nature of the trees. Skin turning hard and inflexible, eyes dripping crimson tears, and bony protrusions from the skull and joints are said to be common results of acquiring the Taint after exposure to the lake. More horrifically, it is said that if anyone so Tainted decides to end their life, their body melts into a pool of blood that, slowly and inexorably, makes its way back to the lake to spend eternity in the crimson waters.

Legends of the Lake
One samurai claimed that when she extinguished a burning branch in the lake, the waters cried and a gout of steam roared in fury, burning her face.

Once a boastful scout threw a rock into the lake, only for a wave to arise and pull him in. When the wave returned his corpse, his bones were missing.

Two hundred years ago, the Oni of Feathers stole a powerful nemuranai, the great hammer Soulbreaker, from the hero Kaiu Kyosuke, and cast it into the lake. The hammer, said to be the only weapon capable of felling this oni, lies there still—miraculously uncorrupted, as if to tempt any foolish enough to brave the Tainted depths.

Once a brave Kaiu attempted to chop down the nearby trees to end the plague of blossoms, only for hundreds of flowers to fall on them in a huge crimson mound. When all the flowers were swept away, their body was gone

The Rise of the Dark Moto
Most of the Crab hold that Fallen Chrysanthemum Lake rests far inside the Shadowlands, and those who have managed to survive the experience claim it was a seemingly endless trek to return to the Wall. As with many places within this corrupted expanse, however, every attempt to map its exact location seems doomed to failure, as either human senses cannot function properly the farther one goes into the Shadowlands, or more troublesomely, the lake shifts its position within this twisted land. One group seems always able to find the lake, however: the Dark Moto.

The Dark Moto, who date from shortly after the Unicorn Clan’s sudden reappearance early in the ninth century, are the result of one of the most courageous but foolish deeds in history. The Moto family, descended from the nomadic Ujik tribe that joined the Unicorn when the clan was in gaijin lands, saw the horrors of the Shadowlands as they roared through it and past the Wall. A decade after their arrival in Rokugan, their daimyō, Moto Tsume, declared that he and the greatest of his warriors would ride forth to do what the Crab Clan could not: end the threat of the Shadowlands once and forever.

His monumental hubris would be the end not only of him but of all who loyally followed him. None of his vast force would survive, or at least survive as the humans they once were. To this day, no one knows exactly what happened to them, only that none of the Moto returned.

Soon after, though, Hiruma scouts spoke of Moto in the Shadowlands riding demonic steeds. These Moto were clearly and fully corrupted with the Taint but still fought with the discipline of true samurai. Tsume himself was sighted on occasion, leading his fallen troops with perfect precision while wielding horrifying powers. The Crab realized they now faced a new enemy across the Wall, one unlike any other.

Home Of the Dark Moto
sume became enchanted with the beauty and deadliness of Fallen Chrysanthemum Lake and constructed an equally pleasing village known as Thundering Tide Keep along a bank. He and his Dark Moto reside there, along with their onikage steeds and large numbers of attending slaves. Their ill-treated unfortunates must be replenished often; the Dark Moto seem to be eternally vigorous in their Tainted forms, but those they take captive soon become decrepit and perish.

It is here that the Dark Moto train endlessly, making them perhaps the most dangerous of the many threats to the Emerald Empire that exist in the Shadowlands. In combat, they display a fighting cohesion that most other Shadowlands beings lack. The ageless Dark Moto also retain much of their Ujik culture and weaponry, including the hunting skills that allowed mounted Ujik to encircle and take down huge herds of creatures or groups of humans. They remain loyal to their daimyōand firmly believe it is they who are the True Moto

For centuries now, the Dark Moto, and especially their immortal leader, have conducted a campaign of terror against the Empire. Sharp-eyed watchers on the Wall have claimed to have seen the Second Wind’s own tattered banner in raiding parties striking at the Wall. If Tsume himself truly rides to war against Rokugan, the situation has truly grown as dire as the dourest of Kuni prognosticators claim.


False Lantern Grove
The False Lantern Grove is an apparent oasis of spiritual purity in these fell lands. The sorcery of its keeper allows it to masquerade as a shrine kept safe by the kami during the night, when the inviting glow of its paper lanterns draws in the foolish and the desperate. Under the blessed light of Lady Sun, however, its truth is revealed: the “lanterns” are the hanging skulls of those who have fallen victim to the oni who dwells within

History of the False Lantern Grove
The grove is not well-known to the Crab, and only a few rumors of its existence having made their way to the Wall. The first report that might refer to it dates from two centuries ago, when a patrol reported hav-=ing encountered a fearsome oni who slew many of its number, only to retreat toward a shining light in the distance when the tide of battle began to turn. The much-reduced group dared not pursue the oni far, but their most daring scout made it far enough after the creature to see a number of hanging lanterns amid a copse of trees. The next force to travel past the reported grove found nothing, how-ever, and the story was dismissed as an illusion the oni conjured to cover its escape. Over time, similar encounters were reported across the Shadowlands, although rarely near each other in distance or time, making it difficult for the Crab to be certain of the threat they face. The clan’s scribes and shugenja regularly pore over reports of the strange threats found south of the Wall to try to determine patterns, but the fragmentary accounts that make their way out are of little help in solving this strange mystery

What the Crab do not know is that there is but one False Lantern Grove, hidden by the twisting landscape of the Shadowlands. It was fashioned as a shrine to the glory of Fu Leng and Jigoku by a devoted lesser oni. The oni fancies itself a pious shrine keeper and treats all who approach as honored guests—until they refuse to surrender their jade and submit to the Shadowlands Taint. While most of the samurai who have crossed paths with this oni refused its sermons and lost their heads for “blaspheming” against Fu Leng, some few saw its terrible power and succumbed to its offers, casting away their jade instead of their lives and joining the ranks of the Lost. Those who have fallen in this way maintain a twisted parody of their old religion, and sometimes they return to the grove to receive the oni’s blessing again, as if it were an honored monk.

As Different as Night and Day
The False Lantern Grove cannot be seen in its entirety at any one time, for it appears differently by the light of the sun and of the moon. At night, without the blessed illumination of Lady Sun to cast away illusions, it appears as a thicket full of beautifully blossoming tree

Each tree appears to have its tallest branches hung with paper lanterns that shine in the darkness of the night. The trees surround a simple but elegant pagoda hung with prayer strips beseeching the spirits for their blessing. However, a samurai or learned individual who has a chance to examine the prayer strips more closely may realize that they do not beseech the kami, but subtly invoke the kansen in their place, and that they praise not Hantei or his siblings, but Fu Leng

Unfortunately, the oni caretaker of the shrine is rare-y far from the pagoda, and its attempts to monopolize the attention of any visitors to prevent such realizations. At night, it adopts the guise of an unarmed Rokugani monk, using illusions to conceal its obsidian cleaver as a walking stick

A visitor who happens across the grove by day sees a much different sight. Under the revelations of sun-light, the trees are shown to be withered and dead, blackened with rot and the Shadowlands Taint. Hanging from their decrepit branches are not lanterns, but skulls. Out of their eye sockets, the skulls cast light from candles that burn with an unnatural flame. Only the pagoda in the center of the grove appears unchanged, for it truly is as it seems: an exquisitely crafted monument to spiritual devotion. However, daylight also reveals the trapdoor beneath the pagoda that leads into the oni’s foul den, in which it slumbers when it believes no guests are forthcoming and pens its blasphemous prayers in the blood of its victim

In these hours, the oni’s true form is revealed: that of a thickly muscled monster with a bluish hide and curving horns crowning its head. This form also becomes apparent when it strays from the shrine or becomes enraged with any who dare question its wisdom


The Festering Pit Of Fu Leng
Although the geography of the Shadowlands is fluid and mutable, it can nevertheless be said to have a center. The dark heart of this terrible realm is the Festering Pit of Fu Leng, the ancient site where the fall of the Dark Kami tore a hole in the mortal world and opened a doorway into the hellish realm of Jigoku. It is from the Festering Pit that the malevolent power of the Shadow-lands originates, flowing into the mortal world in waves of corruption. While the Shadowlands Taint spreads in many ways, it is the Festering Pit that is its ultimate and original source

Near the Festering Pit, the power of the Taint intensifies, oni wander freely, and even the blessed protection of jade falters. To approach the Pit is to approach Jigoku itself. As terrible and malign as the Shadowlands are as a whole, there is nowhere in all of Ningen-dō as terrible as the environs around Fu Leng’s descent. On the rare occasions the Crab have cause to send scouts near the Pit, they do not expect them to return, hoping only that they will accomplish whatever urgent mission draws them forth before succumbing to the Taint. The rare few who do return become some of the Crab Clan’s most venerated heroes—assuming the Kuni find them to be who and what they claim to be.

History Of The Festering Pit
The story of the Pit is a story unlike any in Rokugan, for it is not a story of Rokugan and its people. It is a tale of the oni, and only the most fragmentary details are known to mortals. Not even the Kuni know what occurred in Jigoku before Fu Leng’s arrival, but it is clear that since the descent and torment of the Dark Kami and his subsequent rise to power in that realm, the oni have turned their attention toward Ningen-dō and Rokugan.

According to ancient legends, it was this attention that led to the first expansions of the Shadowlands from around the Festering Pit, as Fu Leng’s acolytes and servants boiled forth from its depths to conquer the Mortal Realm. The Day of Thunder halted the spread for a time, as did the rise of the Carpenter Wall after that, but the oni are always hungry. In the depths of the Pit, they wait still, the boldest of them venturing forth to lead assaults against the Wall or to answer the call of mahō-tsukai seeking power.

Jigoku Unleashed
As terrible as the Shadowlands are, the Festering Pit is worse. The sky above the Pit is alternately red with fire or black with smoke, and blood is more likely to fall from the clouds above it than rain. The Pit itself yawns hundreds of yards wide, a gaping maw lined with jagged rocks and shards of obsidian, boring down through the belly of the world. It is said the lower reaches of the Pit roil with an inchoate sea of bile and filth from which constantly crawl newly formed monstrosities. Were a visitor somehow able to fight their way past the hordes of Lost samurai, oni, and stranger things that dwell around the lip of the Festering Pit and descend safely into this nightmarish froth, it is believed they would arrive in Jigoku itself. No one in Rokugan’s history has been foolish enough to attempt to test this theory, and even the bravest samurai give the Pit as wide a berth as possible.

And yet, to say that the wastes around the Pit are safer and more hospitable than the Festering Pit itself qualifies as truth only by the barest of technicalities. For miles around, the land is cracked and broken, with sharp rocks and deep fissures lining every possible path. Foul oozes and pools of ichor fill many such crevices, while others serve as lairs to the fiercest monsters to crawl from the Pit. The very winds across the wastes are said to be the breath of Fu Leng, and the voices of countless oni can be heard echoing past at all times

Legends of the Pit
It is said that long ago, Crab bushi pursued a band of Lost to the very lip of the Pit. There was only one survivor. Recently, a worried Yasuki scholar dis-covered that in each generation of the survivor’s descendants, one has gone missing on a mission near the Pit.

Reports occasionally surface of the Lost traveling to or from the Pit in large numbers and at great speed, as if energized by it. When near it, they fight with a terrible fervor. Over the years, some scouts have begun wondering if the Pit resembles some sort of foul parody of a holy site or shrine for the Lost, their journeys standing in for pilgrimages of sorts.

Sometimes the arrival of a particularly mighty and terrible oni from out of the Pit can be noted from far away, as flames rise into the dark skies of the Shadowlands. Some say these signs have been seen far from the direction of the Festering Pit—perhaps even outside the Shadowlands. Surely oni cannot enter the Mortal Realm from anywhere else but the Pit, can they?


The Forgotten Tomb Of Fu Leng
Deep within the Shadowlands lies an utterly inhuman building. The architecture of this ancient structure is alien, with impossible angles no mortal can fully comprehend. Its purpose is infuriatingly unclear. Its aura of doom and decay has given rise to the belief it is a tomb, but no one has found evidence or written records to prove anyone is buried there. Some leg-ends hold that the Black Scrolls contain the sundered body of Fu Leng—his bones, his breath, his skin, his eyes, and other animating parts. Theologians have long argued over whether the Fallen Kami’s soul was banished back to Jigoku, split among the scrolls, or trapped in Ningen-dō, the Mortal Realm. What the Tomb actually contains is a haunting question with no comforting answers, for evil creatures throng about it and no mortal has returned from it sane.

Once in known history, scouts attempted to claim the Tomb in hopes of using it as a stronghold deep in the Shadowlands. Under Hiruma Kosami, a legendary Crab renowned for his bold tactics and dauntless leadership, twelve brave Hiruma scouts entered the Tomb to drive out whatever evil lurked there. They were never seen again, and the Crab have avoided it since. Now only a desperate or ignorant samurai would attempt to take refuge from the dangers of the Shadowlands in such a place.

A Window Between Worlds
The area around the tomb is seemingly devoid of life. Despite its damp ground, even Tainted weeds cannot take root. Each step taken toward the tomb leaves an imprint that fills with water, and in a certain light, these puddles offer glimpses of a very different landscape: the gnarled branches of dead trees, cliffs of blood-red stone, or a black, starless sky. Gaki, or hungry ghosts, infest the air from twilight to sunrise, and all manner of vile demons and creatures come and go, attracted by the power of the place but apparently repelled by something, too.

Wicked priests of Fu Leng use the tomb as a temple, performing depraved rituals and vicious sacrifices to receive favor from kansen, oni, and even the Dark Kami himself. They build altars and shrines outside and erect tent-like structures to sleep in, hoping to gain prophetic nightmares. They also leave grisly offerings hanging from the walls or on metal spikes pushed into the boggy ground. These odd accessories are made of bones, rusted metal, and shards of obsidian knotted together, and they rattle when the wind rises. Every night, some disappear while others materialize, whether Fu Leng’s priests appear or not.

Beyond The Threshold
Some scouts describe the tomb as an enormous structure expelling putrid air from a gaping doorway, inside which burning eyes peer out from the dark. Others describe a squat mound sporting a mass of hornlike protuberances on the roof, with pillars leaning at odd angles inside. Many recount sensing a malefic presence, which augurs interpret as the cacophonous whispering of innumerate kansen that promise the power of mahō to anyone who can hear them.

Legends Of The Tomb
Nothing human could have built the Tomb, but its origins are unclear. Some Kuni theorize it was built by the nezumi before the fall of Fu Leng. The nezumi, for their part, say their Rememberers have no accounts of this edifice.

It is no tomb, but a doorway between realms, releasing the hungry dead into Ningen-dō.

The Dark Kami himself built this as a another, secret entrance to Jigoku, the Realm of Evil.

There is a source of great power hidden inside, something that grants accursed priests their desires, something a great mahō-tsukai could harness and control


The Lost Library
From a distance, the Lost Library appears as a large spike on the horizon, hazy and indistinct in the murky Shadowlands fog. Up close, it is a tower of black stone, rough and jagged to the touch, that rises so straight and tall that the spiked roof disappears into the sky. No one knows who gathered this profane collection deep in the Shadowlands, but for mahō-tsukai, it is a treasure trove. Lining the inside walls are curved shelves stuffed with crumbling tomes and ancient scrolls, some in languages no Rokugani scholar could identify

Many of those who pursue wicked lore have made the journey to this library—as have a few brave or fool-ish souls who seek to understand it. Rumors among the Kuni whisper of scrolls so brimming with accursed knowledge that their ink spills from their pages, crawl

Forgotten Origins
The Kuni family has compiled records of library sightings, but these often conflict. The earliest records describe a much smaller tower and so are generally regarded as unreliable. The history taught to Kuni students, their interest piqued at the thought of this source of power, is that the tower was built before the fall of Fu Leng and the creation of the Shadowlands. It was a magnificent repository, until corruption spread through the landscape and the books within the library rewrote themselves, texts transforming just as those carried near the library are said to doing into the eyes of would-be researchers, and of ancient sorcerers lost amidst the vast labyrinth, their foul curiosity pulling them ever deeper into the maze. The original collector is unknown, be they sorcerer, demon, or being as old and alien as the tower itself. Some say that the collector is the tower itself, the true collection is not books, but scholars.

A Haunted Tower
The tower has no visible entrances, but it has windows high up the walls, just below the roofline. The uneven walls are climbable, but a fall from even halfway up would result in certain death. Even getting close enough to the tower to climb is a challenge, since a tangle of lurid green brambles grow around its base. Tunnels below the tower lead to a hidden entrance, but it is easy to get lost in this dark, cramped maze. They are home to vermin and small Shadowlands creatures. Some-times, text can be seen scrawled on the wall or floor, possibly leaked from nearby books. These words appear suddenly and unexpectedly, and they always cause unsettling emotions in those who attempt to read them.

Possessed Tomes
Within the tower, the walls are lined with books, scrolls, and piles of parchment, and if there are doors or stairs, the texts conceal them. Items often fall from the shelves as if leaping for attention, landing with pag-es open to particularly corrupting passages. Whether possessed by kansen or somehow animated by the power of the words within, some of the books in the Lost Library seem to have achieved something akin to sentience. Their only goal seems to be to share their knowledge, either by compelling a visitor to read them or by escaping to find unsuspecting readers elsewhere. Some painfully adhere to any hand that touches them, forcing unwilling readers to leave an imprint of skin or else carry the book indefinitely. Others latch onto an unwary hand, crushing fingers between pages. Some texts draw attention by some subtler means, whisper-ing promises of knowledge and power.

Legends of the Library
The tower is filled with Tainted shiki-gami that have killed their creators and seek those foolish enough to carry them into Rokugan.

Soon after the Isawa destroy a book of mahō, it re-forms in the tower.

Renowned scholar Kuni Toriko is said to have visited the tower. She denies it, but always with a hint of fear in her voice—as if she dreads to say more.