Legend of the Five Rings RPG: Shadowlands (Angol nyelvű)

Shadowlands is a 144-page sourcebook for Legend of the Five Rings that covers everything from terrifying new enemies to exciting new player options. Today, we are going to examine the harrowing locations found in the first chapter of the sourcebook. Each profile features a history of the location, adventure hooks, rumors, NPCs and more!

The 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.

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 trees. A visitor who happens across the grove by day sees a much different sight. Under the revelations of sunlight, 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.

Those players who find themselves lost in the Shadowlands may seek security in the warm glow of lanterns, but perceptive samurai understand nothing is ever what it seems in the southern depths of the Shadowlands. 

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 Shadowlands 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 environment 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.

Players have little reason to risk coming in contact with the Pit, but those courageous enough to venture to this cursed location will never be the same.  

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 that it is a tomb, but no one has found evidence or written records to prove anyone is buried there. Some legends 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.

No one can say for sure what awaits those who venture into this long-forgotten tomb, but it is unlikely to be a pleasant experience. 

Throughout the Land

The corruption prevalent throughout the Shadowlands takes on many different forms. Every location is dangerous, luring samurai of Rokugan to a fate worse than death. Will you brave these tainted lands as a samurai of Rokugan, and survive with your soul intact?