Meeting with the Rindō Magistrate

Gathering / Conference

Led by Yogo Kōichi, the samurai travel to an introduction with Shosuro Jūko at the Magistrate's Manor. On the way there, they encounter Horiuchi Makena, whose talkative jubilance immediately puts the party ill at ease. Inside, Koichi remarks that a suit of armor has been stolen from a decorative pedestal on the manor's first floor.   Jūko is obviously displeased to have an Imperial outranking her at the meeting, but she maintains a reserved disposition throughout the meeting. The samurai are there to investigate a mysterious disappearance of all the residents at a nearby village called Tamura. What few local peasants who approached the place have fled from what they describe as a "white ghost" looming over the settlement. Raehua reads a divination of ill portent from these events, with a supernatural flair that all present recognize but Jūko will not acknowledge.   After the meeting, most samurai return to their lodgings and meditate. Aki and Daigo instead interview a peasant who reiterates the sight of a great white figure looming over Tamura, as well as the dire position in which this loss of a rice farming village leaves Rindō.