Prologue

Sun Doru's army faced a mysterious ronin host in the lowly hills that broke the Dragon Heart Plain. Ikoma Takehiko and the ronin Zigawa distinguished themselves in the front, while Chukan Yuzuko and Isawa Sumire skirmished the flanks and rallied a small group of Shiba scouts. They faced a half-starved Crane ronin that was leading the flanking light cavalry, leaving him for dead.

Doji Tsukiko and Otomo Yatori escorted Sun Doru when a group of five heavy riders sprung from a goat path and separated them from the main army. A stray arrow killed Sun Doru's mount, almost crushing him on the fall. The leader of the riders seemed to be no other than the mysterious commander of this ronin army. Sun Doru got himself free and engaged him in a duel.

The Fortunes smilled upon the group, as the managed to help Sun Doru. They faced the assaultants, that seemed to speak Yobanjin. A lucky strike from Yatori's falcon revealed the identity of the enemy commander: the youngest brother of the current daimyo of the Morito family.

After the battle Sun Doru requested an audience. Chukan Yuzuko spots a strange figure on the battlefield: a masked shugenja that presented herself as Moshi Ujirei, accompanied by an eta. She claimed to be purifying corpses and preventing the Taint of the Plain from animating them, and suggested that Yuzuko should visit her Daimyo the next time she visited the Plain.

At Sun Doru's tent, the Warlord praised their devotion and explained his role in doing the Empress' bidding. He also told the group that his army was in the Dragon Heart Plain to help the Morito Clan, as he got a message from them, claiming to have ronin problems. Sun Doru rewarded the group as their Disciples, spending the rest of Autumn training them.

Confident of their abilities he gave them their first mission.