The Gaijin's Guide to Rokugan
Part IV: Distant Thunder
The events that follow are those that are encapsulated in the Imperial Edition.
With the opening of the first Black Scroll, a mysterious wasting disease has spread across the Empire. Even the young Emperor has fallen prey to its clutches or so it would seem.
The Crab Clan has begun to move armies away from its traditional guard posts to gain strategic advantage.
Togashi Yokuni, the Champion of the Dragon Clan, has disappeared, but not before he leaves Akodo Toturi, dishonored and disgraced by the young Emperor for his failure to protect his father, as the general of the Dragon army. The fallen Lion moves the Dragon army toward Beiden Pass, knowing that if the Crab gain the pass, the west and east Clans will be cut off from each other.
The Crane Champion, Doji Hoturi, arrives in the Capital to meet with the Emperor. He finds the young Hantei has been isolated so his disease will not spread to others. Only his bride, Lady Kachiko, is allowed to see him. Hoturi commands Kakita Toshimoko - who has journeyed with him from the Crane Lands - to return to Doji Palace and prepare an army to protect the Crane Provinces while he stays behind to protect the Emperor and his new bride.
The Unicorn, unlike the other Clans, suddenly find themselves without centuries of favors to call upon. They send a small army, led by Shinjo Yasamura, to the Dragon to seek out allies. Meanwhile, the Unicorn ambassador spends much time with Lady Kachiko, learning the delicate intricacies of politics among the Clans.
The five Elemental Masters of the Phoenix have "felt" the disturbance the opening of the Black Scroll has caused. They send Isawa Tadaka, the Master of Earth, into the Shadowlands to discover the source of the evil presence. He does not return for months. Shiba Tsukune, a samurai-maiden who has grown weary of her monastic life, gathers together a small army of rambunctious youth to go out into the southlands to discover what's going on. She comes across a Lion army, waiting on the edge of Crane territory. The leader of the army, a shugenja, tells her to go home. She does not take the insult lightly, kills the shugenja and destroys his army with her own.
Matsu Tsuko, enraged by the action, declares a blood feud on Tsukune. The Lion Clan, in the meantime, prepares for its assault on the Crane. Without the Emperor's support, the Crane are next to helpless before the superior force of the Lion Clan. However, before they can strike, the armies of Hida Sukune of the Crab arrive and attack Kakita Castle. The Crane send messengers to the Imperial Palace, but no word returns, either from the Emperor or their Champion. They must stand alone against the combined forces of the Lion and the Crab.
Then, from the north, two armies approach: the Dragon army of the ronin Toturi and the Phoenix army of Shiba Tsukune. The armies meet, but not in time to save the ancient Crane stronghold. Sukune is forced to retreat to Beiden Pass, where his brother, Hida Yakamo, waits in secret with supplies and reinforcements. Toturi follows the retreating Crab army, along with him is Mirumoto Hitomi, the young samurai-maiden whose brother was killed in a duel by Hida Yakamo.
Much of the Phoenix army stays behind to help protect the wounded Crane provinces and Toturi meets up with Shinjo Yasamura and his Unicorn cavalry. The Dragon and Unicorn armies meet with the two crab armies in a preliminary skirmish before Beiden Pass. During the battle, Sukune is beset with disaster as the superior skill of Toturi outmaneuvers him time and time again. Yakamo takes charge of the army, but on his first day in command, he meets with Mirumoto Hitomi. Armed with her brother's sword, she fights a deadly duel with the Crab Hero. The duel appears to be to Yakamo's advantage until a blind strike from Hitomi slices off his hand. Crab bushi grab their hero and protect him from Hitomi. Nearly mortaly wounded herself, she finds herself in Toturi's arms, being dragged from the battlefield.
While the previous battles have only been small skirmishes to establish ground, the Battle at Beiden Pass meets in full force the next day. Yakamo is forced to remain behind as Sukune engages Toturi's army. Again, Sukune cannot match the skill and daring of the fallen Lion Champion. The next day, a third army arrives from the west, sent by Sukune and Yakamo's father, the Great Bear Hida Kisada. It is led by the shugenja Kuni Yori, a marching mass of undead. Yori has learned of Yakamo's condition, and gives to him a gift: an enchanted appendage that was created by "a quiet ally."
Yakamo reluctantly accepts the gift, but even with his Shadowlands reinforcements, Sukune cannot keep Beiden Pass. The price for Sukune's failure: he is nailed up on the warbanner of the Shadowlands army. Meanwhile, back in the Imperial Palace, Doji Hoturi is in the bedchamber of Lady Kachiko, poisoned and paralyzed. She smiles over the prone form of the Crane Lord as she uses the ancient Egg of Pan Ku to create a magical doppleganger of the Champion. The false Hoturi takes up the Ancestral Armor and Sword of the Clan and rides out to the west, where a Shadowlands army of gibbering madmen awaits him. The false Hoturi rides the countryside, destroying farms and villages, leaving behind his name while the real Hoturi lingers on the edge of death Ð as does the Emperor.
So ends Distant Thunder, the first chapter of Legend of the Five Rings.