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Lady Atsuko
Lady Atsuko was the persona of an elderly oni.
Appearance and Demeanor[]
The wiry, willow Lady Atsuko was born from a Tainted marsh in the Shinomen Forest, made from the corrupting powers of the Taint mixed with the spiritual power of the Shinomen. She spread Taint and sickness everywhere she went, and swinged wildly between responding with terse, one word replies and then sickly sweet compliments. In her guise as Lady Atsuko she alternated between extreme kindness and disgust for those around her. Her wrinkled face was scored with heavy dark bags under her eyes. She hid unders the guise of an elderly woman. Atsuko's voice was gentle and airy, full of feigned interest. In her oni form, she was a wiry, serpentine monstrosity with ghastly mandibles and many eyes, of an old woman on top and a giant, 15 foot long centipede for a body. Her mouth had centipede's pincers and they dripped with an acidic fluid that burned the ground. [1]
Shinomen Forest[]
Lady Atsuko and Lord Kenta, another oni, were invited by Lady Yukiko, a disguised rakshasa, to her lavish estate deep in the Shinomen Forest, there two oni, to be her honored guests at a final banquet before they sow discord in the rest of Rokugan. Atsuko was intensely jealous of Yukiko's beauty. Yukiko and the oni were uncovered by a group of gaijin foreigners, rōnin, and peasants who had been hired to investigate the disappearance of an absent courier, Hidetaka Nori, and the shipment of sake he would deliver. [1]
The Yogo Curse[]
In 1123 Atsuko moved to the Scorpion lands and begged for an audience with Yogo Junzo, claiming to have some secret knowledge of the Shinomen Forest that must be shared with the the Yogo Daimyō, concerning some threat from the Shadowed Swamps. Lord Yogo Yasuhide granted the passage to Atsuko an assigned Yogo Jiro as her escort in her way to the Castle of Learning. [2] Lasy Atsuko was met by Junzo, who had sensed its taint, and expected he would entrap her within the audience chamber, and then interrogate it to discover its plans. But Lady Atsuko shifted to its centipede and attacked Junzo and his guards, while goblins, ogres, and terrible monstrosities were attempting to scale the castle walls and, failing that, trying to tear down the main gate. Inside the castle was Kunshu, the blade of the Hantei, which had been awakened after it tasted blood of the late Emperor, the blood of the line it was wrought to serve and protect. The bloodthirsty spirit of Kunshu called out to Junzo, and the Yogo Daimyō fell down, unable to fight Kunshu and the demon at once. Jiro scaped from the fray, on top of a horse, unaware of the ancient scrolls that were in the saddlebags, and he was ambushed once Jiro was outside of the castle on the way to Otosan Uchi. [3] Yunzo had been killed by the dark sorceries of Lady Atsuko. Many artifacts secured within the castle were evacuated to the Capital, but Kunshu was not one of them. [4]
See also[]
Lady Atsuko
External Links[]
- Atsuko the Calamitous (Under Fu Leng's Shadow)
References
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