#Chapter 4 — Shonetsu(焦熱) · Chapter Overview

Contents

Scorching Heat Hell theme. PCs 6~8 dan. 4 sessions. The mirror chapter. There was a domain that fell here before you. What choice did they make — and what did that choice make them?

Core References

- Required: Three Ways and Six Hearts · Enmadoji Seal

- Reference: Yoma Bestiary · Battlefield Seasonal Terms

- Within this supplement: Shonetsu Mirror Guide · Shonetsu-ryu School · Barrier System

[New Rule] Shonetsu Reversion(還元) Residue

While staying at depth 2 or deeper in Scorching Heat Hell, items carried by PCs gradually become ash. Expand the reversion rules from the Mirror Guide so they also apply to memories, relationships, and vows. This is the core gimmick of Acts 2~4 in this chapter.

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#30-Second Summary (GM Familiarity)

"You stand before a burning castle gate. This castle is familiar — the exact same torii as your domain's stands collapsed and burning. Walls in the same style. The same roof tiles. The same layout of a shrine main sanctuary."

"This is another kokujin domain that drifted into the Spirit Realm 200 years ago. Like you, they stood before a choice, and they chose. This city is the result — burning forever. Never ending. Their souls are still cutting one another down in these streets, even after 200 years."

"At the heart of the city is their lord. In a transformed form. You will see what he became."

"And the final question remains: you have seen the mirror. How will your choice be different?"

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#Chapter Meta Card

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#4-Act Structure (4 Sessions)

#Act 1 — Entering the City (1 Session)

The PCs follow the map clue gained in Chapter 3 Screaming Hell and enter Scorching Heat Hell. On the horizon, they see a burning fortress. The distance is close — but no matter how far they walk, it does not draw closer. The air is not hot. It is cold. Ash falls slowly upward (opposite the gravity of the surface).

First encounter with the talking embers before the castle gate. They do not attack the PCs. Instead, they ask questions. The answers to these questions determine the scenery after Act 1.

Arrival goal: secure a foothold in the first zone of the city outskirts, "Western Samurai District."

#Act 2 — Traces of the Previous Drifters (1 Session)

The PCs discover familiar things in the streets of the burning city. A shrine with the same plan as their own domain's. The same family-crest form (a different house, but the crest of an equivalent kokujin). A 200-year-old diary, record books, and the last letters left by residents.

The name of this domain 200 years ago was Kitamiyama(北見山). They drifted too. They too stood before a choice. They chose transformation — every resident of the domain converted into a Spirit Realm being. In exchange, they preserved the domain.

Discover records of that choice and traces of the first faction split. NPC "Loyal Retainer Haibi(灰火)" first appears — he was the lord's guard at the time, but remained here unable to die.

#Act 3 — Conflict Between Factions (1 Session)

200 years have passed, but the souls of Kitamiyama's residents are still fighting. Those who supported transformation and those who opposed it. Those who serve the lord and those who rebelled against him. They endlessly come back to life and cut one another down — this is Shonetsu's core mirror: anger that never cools.

The PCs are placed in the middle of this fight. The three decision scenes of the past are recreated for them. Each PC is pressured to carry out one of those decisions in their own name (GM pressure). This recreation triggers movement on the PCs' Three Ways and Six Hearts axes.

NPCs "traitor Mikura" and "last soldier Izanagi" carry out their roles in this act.

#Act 4 — Climax · Heart of the City (1 Session)

The PCs climb to the top of Kitamiyama's main castle. The fire grows stronger, and ash begins piercing the PCs like arrows. At the top of the keep sits the shadow of the previous lord.

He was the one who chose transformation. For 200 years, he has become the king who burns his own domain — the one who burns the residents forever in the name of protecting them. What he achieved and what he lost are revealed at the same time.

Boss battle: shadow of the previous lord (Elite-grade+ boss). The victory condition is not killing him — it is making him let go of his own domain.

Ending: the PCs return carrying one question. "How will your choice be different?" This question is the only bridge to Chapter 5.

First hint of part of the truth: just before the shadow disappears, he lets slip, "This drifting was not a coincidence. Wherever the seals loosen, domains fall." The existence of the Enmadoji Seal is exposed to the PC side for the first time.

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#Expected Session Pace

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#Mirror Theme — "Your Mirror"

The essence of Shonetsu is after becoming ash. The previous drifters have already burned out. What the PCs meet is not fire, but residual beings of ash. The PCs see one of their possible futures first.

The mirrors of the four ending branches (see the "Meaning of Return" section in 00-02 Premise) are foreshadowed in this chapter:

Which scene the PCs respond to most emotionally in this chapter becomes an indicator for which ending the GM should emphasize in Chapter 5.

#5 GM Questions (Ask Yourself Before Entering This Chapter)

1. What is the "future self" this PC fears most?
2. What choice does this party least want to make?
3. Which aspect of the previous lord will painfully reach which PC?
4. One Three Ways and Six Hearts axis will tilt in this chapter. Whose axis, and which one?
5. What conflict in the PC party does "anger that never ends" reflect?

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#Chapter Core Law (Rules Summary)

#Reversion Residue — This Chapter's Expansion

Expand the basic rules from the core Shonetsu Mirror Guide.

Recovery condition: memories recover after 1 week of rest after returning to the domain. Three Ways and Six Hearts axis wavering does not recover, and this is the permanent effect of this chapter.

Restraint: apply this rule only after player agreement. Memory deletion is a sensitive narrative tool; agree on its range before the session.

#Shonetsu That Is Not Hot — Paradox Rule

The Shonetsu city is not as hot as it looks. PCs can walk through flames, but the fire does not burn them.

Instead: the instant a PC touches fire, one of their inner anger, remorse, or regret is externalized. The externalized thing becomes a flame doll and follows the PC (NPC "inner anger body").

The flame doll has no combat ability. Instead, it stays near the PC and speaks aloud the words the PC could not say and the decisions the PC could not make. Other PCs and NPCs hear it.

Disable: if the PC expresses in words that anger, remorse, or regret to its target, the doll disappears. If not, it accompanies them until the chapter ends.

#Three Ways and Six Hearts Crossroads — This Chapter's Pressure

Shonetsu strongly shakes one direction of the player's Three Ways and Six Hearts. Depending on the Act 3 recreation scenes and the Act 4 boss battle result, one of the following questions comes to the front:

The GM selects one axis for each PC. Do not change an axis without the PC's consent — guide the PC's play toward that direction, and at the end of that direction the PC's player chooses.

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#Onmyoji and Domain State (At Entry to This Chapter)

#Onmyoji Hoshino Gensho

• Weakening: varies between 5~6 (increases by session)
• Appearance: white hair fully complete, one eye going blind, persistent cough
• Barrier emergency reinforcement count: can use 1~2 times (Energy exhausted)
• Line tone: he begins to realize he may not reach Chapter 5. He does not tell the PCs. He is also silent to Lord Akihisa.
• Note: during this chapter, 1 onmyoji unconsciousness event can occur (Barrier -5 event). GM discretion.

#Barrier HP

• At entry: 35 ± 5
• Entering the danger line. If it falls to 15 or below during this chapter, force the "Night of Barrier Crisis" event (see Barrier System).
• Goal at chapter end: recover to 30 or higher. If the previous lord's core (lord-grade super high-grade) is gained, recover +60.

#Lord Kamijo Akihisa

• Dan: 6~7 dan (synchronized with PCs)
• Heart(心) crossroads in this chapter: Akihisa directly faces the previous lord's shadow. His Way of Rites Heart is decided. Whether he remains at 忠(loyalty) or slips toward 覇(hegemony) depends on the PCs' response.
• Line tone: the question "Will I stand in that place?" comes from Akihisa's mouth for the first time.

#Inside the Domain

• Resident morale: 25~40 (just before crisis)
• Core stock: Minion 10 / Veteran 5 / Elite 2 (standard at chapter entry)
• Side unlock during this chapter: Side Quest No. 7 (Seeds of Rebellion) condition can unlock

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#Previous Domain "Kitamiyama(北見山)" Profile

GM-only prior information. Reveal it to PCs in pieces during the session.

#Basics

• 200 years ago (around 1407, mid-Muromachi), a small kokujin domain in southern Echigo Province
• Lord: Kitami Masanobu(北見 正信) — 29 years old at the time (roughly the age Kamijo Akihisa would have been)
• Onmyoji: Atobe Reika(安戸部 霊華) — woman, in her 50s
• Domain scale: almost identical to Kagamiyama (around 700 people, annual income 4,500 koku)

#Drift

• Trigger: one axis of the Enmadoji Seal had also loosened at the time (shorter and smaller). A small seal branch beneath the Kitamiyama domain broke.
• Hell landing: boundary of Scorching Heat Hell. The first contacted hell was Shonetsu.

#The Choice — Split of the Three Factions

• Within 3 years after drifting, the domain entered a crisis of failed Barrier maintenance.
• Lord Kitami Masanobu accepted the proposal of transformation(變容). A bargain with a vast being of the Spirit Realm. In exchange for all domain residents being converted into Spirit Realm beings(hanyo and spirits), the domain would be preserved permanently and the Barrier would no longer be needed.
• The onmyoji of the time, Atobe Reika, opposed it. For opposing him, she was bound by the lord, and she chose to burn herself to ash for the Barrier (a variant of option B Exchange Return — or more precisely, its failure).
• The domain split into three factions:
• Return faction(歸還派) — a minority seeking a way back to the core world. Atobe Reika, Izanagi, Goichi. In the end, most were slaughtered or fled.
• Settlement faction(定住派) — the middle faction. They argued for a 3rd path: "Transformation goes too far. But return is impossible. Even if we remain in the Spirit Realm forever, let us remain human." Mikura was their leader. They were exterminated by the transformation faction.
• Transformation faction(變容派) — the lord and the majority. Final victors.

Tragedy of the settlement faction: they rejected both transformation and return, choosing "to remain here as humans." But no one can exist in the Spirit Realm without a Barrier. The settlement faction tried to maintain the Barrier themselves, failed, and became fixed in a half-transformed state — unable to speak, unable to die, becoming "Half-Ash(半灰)." Their traces form one scene in Act 3.

#Result of Transformation

• Outwardly, the domain survived. The residents survived forever.
• However: transformation was a conversion into "beings that burn." The residents became beings that eternally burn their own anger, remorse, and unresolved feelings.
• Kitami Masanobu became the king of this city. He protected his domain. But he protected it as an eternally burning prison.
• For 200 years, this city has been reorganized as part of Scorching Heat Hell. Its residents became the "resident yoma" of Scorching Heat Hell.

#Present

• Kitami Masanobu has been renamed the "Great Dharma King of Shonetsu(焦熱の大法王)." He does not move from the top of the keep. He still believes he is "protecting" them. His crown is flame, and his throne is ash made by burning the souls of his own domain.
• The residents fight forever in the streets. The three-faction conflict from the time of transformation is recreated, and they cut one another down.
• Atobe Reika's ash remains at the site of the city's shrine — in the form of ash, but able to speak.
• The settlement faction residue is fixed in the underground of the city's northern zone. They mutter in the state of "Half-Ash." Their words are not language, but they resonate inside the PCs.
• 1 surviving drifted mixed-blood: Uta(唄). A child held almost like a prisoner in the Great Dharma King's palace. This child is not a descendant of the Kitami family — later (in the present era), another small domain drifted into this city, nearly everyone died, and the Great Dharma King took in only this child. Uta is the mirror of "those who will come after you" for the PCs.

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#Connection — Bridge to Chapter 5

This chapter's ending is closed. The story of Kitamiyama is completed when the PCs face the lord's shadow.

The one thing carried to Chapter 5: the sentence "this drifting was not a coincidence" spoken by the previous lord just before death. The existence of the Enmadoji Seal is stated directly for the first time. This is the clue that leads to the "nameless door" of Chapter 5 Mugen.

Entering Chapter 5 is possible without this sentence. But if they have it, the PCs begin connecting the existence of their own domain's sealing stone outside the session (a meta-player clue).

Caution: this chapter only "foreshadows" Chapter 5; it does not force it. The PC party may decide not to go to Chapter 5 (early entry into the Settlement Ending, etc.). In that case, Kitamiyama's final words can remain as "the muttering of a prophetic ghost."

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#Advancement Regulation (Core Constraint of This Chapter)

⚠ Advancement to 10th dan is not allowed in this chapter.

#Design Intent

Reconfirm Design Notes — 10th-Dan Renown Title Boundary. When a PC reaches 10th dan, the Renown Title(偉名) system (Core 04-05) activates, and that breaks the campaign's narrative balance.

This chapter's boundary: PCs can reach up to 9th dan. Reaching 9th dan is recommended — a 9th-dan PC can face the Great Dharma King(lord-grade yoma) with proper desperation.

Handling the ban on 10th-dan advancement:

• Even if a check result satisfies the conditions for 10th-dan advancement, defer advancement with the narration "it is not yet time."
• A PC who could not advance feels "something they almost touched" — this sensation is released in the Chapter 5 climax.
• GM narration: "You could have taken one more step. But that step is not for now. That state waits for you elsewhere."

Only point for 10th-dan advancement: just before Chapter 5 Act 4, when the PC party stands before the nameless door. Only at that moment is advancement unlocked.

Exception handling: if the players strongly demand 10th-dan advancement, the GM may allow "10th dan without a Renown Title" at their discretion — but the Renown Title is not granted until Chapter 5.

#Conditions to Reach 9th Dan (Recommended in This Chapter)

Having every PC reach 9th dan is recommended but not mandatory. If the party average is at least 8.5 dan, they can enter Chapter 5.

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#Mirrors of the Three Factions (Design Standard for Acts 2, 3, and 4)

In Act 3 of this chapter, the PCs witness the last moments of each of the three factions. Each scene becomes a mirror of an ending branch.

#Mirror 1 — End of the Return Faction

Place: city eastern castle gate. The place where Izanagi held out to the end 200 years ago.

Scene content: Izanagi guards the castle gate alone while continuing to cut down 50 transformed comrades. He is crying. He is crying even as he cuts them down. His conviction has not broken, but he no longer knows what he is protecting.

PC mirror: PCs who choose the Return Ending feel the weight of "a result where you keep your conviction but lose everything."

#Mirror 2 — End of the Settlement Faction

Place: underground waterway in the city's northern zone.

Scene content: more than 30 members of the settlement faction mutter while fixed in a half-transformed state. They sit in a circle formation, holding one another's hands. They are the ones who could choose neither transformation nor return. Their domain is gone. All that remains to them is one another.

PC mirror: the dark side of the Settlement Ending — the risk that the resolve to "remain in our original form" becomes stasis and stagnation.

#Mirror 3 — End of the Transformation Faction

Place: city central square — a place where the keep can be seen.

Scene content: more than 100 transformed Kitamiyama residents dance in a circle while burning one another. They are laughing. But that laughter is fixed. They survived, but they no longer know who they were.

PC mirror: the price of the Transformation Ending — "everyone survives, but you lose yourself."

#Mirror 4 — End of Exchange Return

Place: western shrine, before Atobe Reika's ash.

Scene content: recreation of the night when Reika burned herself for the Barrier. Can one person's sacrifice save everyone? She believed so, but the result was failure. Yet that failure is the only link that brought the PCs here 200 years later.

PC mirror: the weight of the Exchange Return Ending — "is one person's sacrifice always repaid?"

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#Enmadoji Seal Map (Climax Reward)

The core reward found in the Great Dharma King's study. The locations of 2 of the 3 seal axes are marked on the map.

#Map Structure

• Axis 1 (recorded): already secured in Chapter 3. Beneath Kagamiyama Mirror Pond.
• Axis 2 (gained in this chapter): beneath another domain in the core world. Name and location specified. This is the axis already loosened — this loosening is the direct cause of Kagamiyama's drifting.
• Axis 3 (gained in this chapter): unknown location in the core world. Marked with a question mark on the map. However, the nearby coordinates and terrain features are specified. PCs can find clues if they investigate after returning to the core world.

#Connection to Chapter 5

This map is needed to interpret the true meaning of Chapter 5's "nameless door." What lies behind the door is the sealed target itself — with the map, the PCs can infer more than half of its identity.

Entering Chapter 5 without the map: possible. However, some climax choices close (option A Return becomes less complete).

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#Resident Morale and Domain Changes (At Chapter End)

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#Links

• Previous chapter: Chapter 3 — Screaming Hell(叫喚)
• Next chapter: Chapter 5 — Mugen(無間)
• Mirror guide: Shonetsu section
• School: Shonetsu-ryu
• Barrier system: 01-02
• Premise and ending branches: 00-02 Premise
• Design notes (10th-dan boundary): 00-05
• Core Yoma Bestiary: 08-02
• Core 10th-Dan Renown Title: 04-05
• Core zone gimmicks (holy fire and flame): 05-05
• Details for this chapter:
• Act 1 · Act 2 · Act 3 · Act 4 Climax
• NPCs · Yoma Bestiary · Rewards and Bridge

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#Spoiler Warning Line for This Chapter (GM Disclosure Priority)

In this chapter, the timing of information disclosure is extremely important. If revealed too quickly, the shock is dispersed; if revealed too late, the chapter ends before the PCs understand it.

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#Bonus — 5-Person Table Impression Log

Hana: Remaining does not always mean the same kind of remaining.

Mei: Transformation can be not only nobility, but also a continuing distortion.

Kuro: That is why Shonetsu is a mirror.

Full conversation: After Chapter 4 — Are we still alive if we become like that city? in 80-09 Milestone Impression Log.

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"What remains after becoming ash? A scent. And the scent is you." — Kitami Masanobu(Great Dharma King of Shonetsu)'s final words, Chapter 4 climax line.