Hello, everyone! I’m afraid it’s one of those short months again, when I have information I can relay on only two products, both of which you have heard about previously. I do hope you’ll forgive me; the development and release schedule simply has these wee hiccups now and again. I will try and compensate with a longer preview, this time on… let’s say the Book of Void, shall we?

Sword & Fan

This book is very near the “go to print” phase of its development, so it should be emerging from the pipeline for your consumption in the not too distant future. Last time we looked at the beefcakiness of the Yasuki Taskmasters and the insidious Imperial Influencers. Today, I wanted to dial it back just a little bit and examine something near and dear to my heart: ruthless canines intended to murder your enemies on the battlefield.

Unicorn War-Dog Master
Rank: 4
Replaces: Shinjo Bushi 4 (possibly also Moto Bushi 4?)
Requires: Awareness 3, Willpower 4, Animal Handling (War-Dogs) 5
Special: Enrolling in this Path grants you a pack of Unicorn War-Dogs (core rulebook, page 321). The total number of war-dogs you can control is equal to your Awareness.
Technique – The War-Dog Masters learn how to train an entire pack of war-dogs and how to control and direct the pack in combat. As a Complex Action, you can roll Animal Handling (War Dogs) / Willpower at TN 20 to give your War-Dogs a simple command (such as “Attack” or “Track” or “Hold Position”). You can Raise on this roll to convey more sophisticated commands, subject to the GM’s judgment and limitations. Also, when your War-Dogs carry out attacks which you have ordered them to make, they gain a +1k0 bonus to their attack and damage rolls.

Isn’t that lovely? It’s no secret t hat I’m a huge fan of my friend Rob Hobart’s design work, and given that I had to sit this book out in its entirety due to the commitments of my Kickstarter, it was like Christmas getting to review all the mechanics he had developed for this. In particular I like the similarities and differences with the Matsu Beastmaster path, which is another one near and dear to my heart.

Come to think of it, I think I wrote the Crane Falconer Path as well. Man apparently I have got a real yen for animal-related Paths. I wonder what that means?

The Book of the Void

Although I have as of yet had relatively little time to devote to this book, I foresee the next ten days being a real whirlwind of development, and truthfully I’m a little excited about it. I’m working with Max and Chris Hand, which is a great team to have on your side, and I find the ideas behind the setting very exciting. This is the snippet that I wrote for them to introduce the ideas I had in mind for the chapter. They seemed to like it, so I hope you will as well.

Chapter Six: Nazo Mori, the Forest of Enigmas

Little Junchiro knew that many of his playmates did not like to work in the fields, but he always liked it. It was time that he and his father were able to spend together, and his father was always so funny. He was always saying funny things or making silly faces to make Junchiro laughed, and he loved it. His father was the best man he knew, so much nicer than all the grumpy other men who lived in the village. Junchiro never saw his friends playing with their fathers. Their fathers were too busy.

Junchiro was still giggling over a silly song that his father had been singing a few minutes before, but his father was now busily trying to pry a large stone from the garden so that they could finish the planting. In the meantime, Junchiro was enjoying the other thing that he loved about working in the field. This one was a secret, even from his father, and he never mentioned it to anyone. He thought maybe they might make fun of him, or even be mad at him for something. He didn’t it when people made fun of him, and he really didn’t like it when people were mad at him, especially his father.

North of the fields was the forest. It had a name but they just called it the forest most of the time. No one talked about it much anyway. While he was working in the fields, Junchiro liked to look up at it from time to time. It was quite some way off, but still, he could see something moving in the shadows at the treeline. He wasn’t sure what they were, and when he was smaller and had asked about it, his father had not let him come back into the fields for more than a week. He hadn’t liked that very much. But whatever the things were that were in the shadows of the tree, they danced. They always seemed to be dancing when Junchiro watched them. They made him laugh, but he tried to keep it quiet. He did not want to upset his father any more.

“Look at this!” his father was saying, lifting up a stone the size of his head. “Look at this size of this turnip! We are going to eat well tonight, son!”

Junchiro laughed. “That is a rock, Papa!”

“No, this is a turnip,” his father said seriously. “And I am hungry!” He brought it toward his mouth as if to bite it.

“No!” Junchiro shrieked, laughing so hard he almost fell over. “You will hurt your teeth!”

Papa stopped and squinted. “Are you sure this isn’t a turnip?” Seeing him shake his head, Papa sighed and tossed the rock to the side, away from the field. “Oh well, maybe I will find a turnip in a moment.”

Junchiro kept laughing, but after a few minutes he remembered something that he had heard the day before and he had wanted to ask about. “Papa,” he said, “Shunji says there are samurai staying in the village. He says one of them is a scholar, maybe even a priest.”

“That happens now and then,” Papa acknowledged. “It is not that uncommon this time of year.”

“Shunji says that the man was asking about the forest.”

Papa stopped work and glanced at him, which made Junchiro feel awkward. His father had that look that said he was thinking serious, grown-up thoughts. “Oh?” he said calmly.

“Yes,” Junchiro said. “Shunji says the man said that there were ruins in the forest.”

There was a clattering sound, and Junchiro turned to see his father’s tools on the ground. He was looming over him suddenly, and scooped him up in his arms and held him tight. “Papa!” Junchiro said, surprised and a little frightened.

“Listen to me, son,” he said, his voice all scratchy. “We never, ever talk about the ruins. Do you understand me? We never talk about them, not for any reason. There are no ruins.”

“Papa!” Junchiro said again.

“Please,” Papa said, his eyes watery. “I lost your mother, and your brother. I cannot lose you too!” And with that he crushed Junchiro to his chest in a big hug that squeezed the air out of Junchiro’s lungs.

As he was hanging there, trapped in his father’s embrace, Junchiro looked to the north and saw that the shapes in the shadows had stopped dancing.

Now they were simply… watching.

The Curiosities of Nazo Mori
In the grand scheme of things, Nazo Mori is not a particularly large forest. North to south, it runs about twenty miles long, and half that distance in width. It is irregularly shaped as one might expect, but can generally be described as oval. The true oddity of the forest is that it does not appear on any known maps, not the maps maintained by Imperial cartographers, nor the maps independently maintained by local clan and family authorities. Cartographers familiar with the region are invariably familiar with the forest, but for reasons that remain unknown, it has never been depicted on parchment. Occasionally, travelers with some status pass through the region and are annoyed at the forest’s absence, but any attempts to have the official maps altered are quickly quashed, oftentimes by members of the Imperial families who have significant authority to do exactly that.

And that’s all I’ve got for you this month, guys! See you next time!