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The Vendetta
Toranosuke parts company with the ikkō-shū as they head on towards Nagashima. He is staying at a village one evening, and gets to talking to a retainer of the Hachisuka clan named Sadatsugu. Toranosuke is relating his tale of the fight against the brigands on the way there, when a commotion is heard outside. Toranosuke and Sadatsugu rush out to find a well-dressed man fleeing in terror, a man with drawn sword hesitantly backing away from a group of armed men.
The two walk forward to see what is going on, when the group attack. Sadatsugu immediately strikes down one of the assailants, and contemptuously pushes another aside. The other man rushes forwards and cuts down one of the attackers, but is himself cut down by another attacker. Toranosuke darts forward and strikes the assailant dead. The others flee.
It seems that the group were attacking a merchant as part of some vendetta. They had overcome the man’s guards but he had managed to flee with one of his bodyguards. The irony of intervening in such a matter to protect the merchant is not lost on Toranosuke.
Sadatsugu and Toranosuke go back to their talk. Sadatsugu is on a mission for the Hachisuka clan to locate and destroy a band of brigands who have been menacing nearby villages. He offers to employ Toranosuke, which, given Sadatsugu’s cool headed behaviour in the fight, is an offer Toranosuke accepts.
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The ikkō-ikki
The Hachisuka forces conduct a sweep towards the border. Sadatsugu’s own men, along with Toranosuke, take the centre. The ‘brigands’ it turns out, are in fact members of an ikkō-ikki that had crossed the border from Ise and entered the lands of Hattori Tomosada. From there, they had infringed upon Hachisuka territory.
Sadatsugu’s group encounter a force of ikki troops and move to engage. Toranosuke defeats one of the apparent leaders, as does Sadatsugu. But then, cries of confusion break out, as some of the Hachisuka have changed sides…
Toranosuke leads the attack with his group, while Sadatsugu defends his position with his now characteristic cool-headedness. In a hard fight, where Sadatsugu’s sashimono bearer is knocked unconscious by a teppō ball, the Hachisuka eventualy drive off the bandits. The cost is heavy, however. Between death and desertion, there are only 7 men remaining. Sadatsugu wryly observes that at least there are 7 that he can trust.
The ‘traitor’ event was inspired by one of the clan traits from the Sengoku expansion. The event naturally followed from an extremely favourable result of the meeting with Sadatsugu. There had to be a reason Sadatsugu was so keen to take on Toranosuke, and it was a reasonable inference that he couldn’t wholly trust some of the men he had hired. Historically, one of the reasons for the antipathy powerful daimyō had for the ikkō-shū was that some of their own vassals were members and could have divided loyalties.
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The pursuit
Sadatsugu meets up with the other Hachisuka forces. The left wing had decisively defeated the ikkō-ikki force, but the right had been led into a trap by traitors and annihilated. Sadatsugu sends the left wing force to find the main ikkō-ikki force, while he and the reserve group sneak into Hattori territory and try and catch any stragglers. Sadatsugu’s force encounters a band of ikkō-shū and attempts to stop them escaping into Hattori territory. Toranosuke is given command of one of the groups. Initially the Hachisuka prevail against the ikkō-ikki, but the fight turns against them, and the ikkō-shū men successfully break through and escape.
Overall, the operation has been only partly successful. Sadatsugu returns to Hachisuka Masakatsu to report.
Hachisuka Masakatsu
Masakatsu-dono is surprisingly favourable given the lack of success. Sadatsugu explains the problem with ikkō-shū members within the clan being asked to fight their co-religionists. Sadatsugu gives Toranosuke a good reference and Masakatsu suggests that Sadatsugu take him on as a retainer.
This battle was a bit larger than normal so was played using ‘Feudal Patrol’ rules. It could probably have just about been played with ToH using a lot of groups, but I thought I’d have a go at integrating another game into the campaign for larger actions. Feudal Patrol is very adaptable and you can create characters with better than normal stats to cross over ToH characters.
Sengoku 'blog: https://tenkafubu608971038.wordpress.com
Same as any other civil war really. Troops will stick together, you know the guys you’re fighting alongside because they’re probably from the same place. But they did also attach small pieces of cloth to the shoulders and back as an identifying mark. Similar to the use of sashes or ‘bends’ in Europe to identify a particular side.
Sengoku 'blog: https://tenkafubu608971038.wordpress.com
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