The party was introduced to both the Thousand Years of Darkness and their patron, Daidoji Uji. Uji left them with rather basic instructions for their first task. Scour the island and remove any underpinnings of Taint, Corruption, or anything else. This mission was to gauge their usefulness to The Last Crane. The party set off to the South to find the village that they would start their search in. The village, numbering only between 500-1000 souls and within that only 50-100 samurai, was run, not by a Magistrate, but by the Head Doshin Daishudo. After the Bayushi and Kaiu questioned a table of Lion samurai and Crab peasants respectively, they found that there have been reports of the offerings at the edges of the fields being taken by the spirits of the forest, and that there had recently been a duel in which both combatants were currently serving jail time for. The party initially investigated the duel and found it was over a question of Heritage, a self-proclaimed Kakita dueled a Shiba bushi over the question of whether she was truly of Crane stock. After seeing the “Kakita’s” technique it was determined that it was close, and at best an incomplete style of the basic Kakita technique. Questioning the Shiba bushi they determined that he was the most senior ranked samurai currently on the island, with a Miya Herald as following close behind.
