#Oni, Tengu, and Yoko Lines

Contents

Oni are violence, tengu are the boundary, and yoko are the face behind the name. Understand the three and the great axis of Sengoku yoma stands.

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#Fiction Intro — The Cup Beneath the Mountain

Three guests sat in the drinking hall beneath the mountain.

The first held a jar of sake and drank. He used no cup. The second did not touch the sake to his lips and only smelled its scent. The third laughed as he changed his own face reflected in the cup into another person's face.

The host asked.

"From which mountain do you come?"

The first said. "The place where the castle burned."

The second said. "The place where people were told not to cross."

The third said. "The place pointed to by the rumor you heard today."

The host took no payment. Instead he set out three more cups. The next day the hall had no guests, and only three empty cups stood facing the mountain.

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#Scent — Three Fears

Oni look like human violence that has gained a body. Tengu announce the boundary humans must not enter. Yoko show how easily the face a human believed in can change.

Among the many yoma of co, these three lines are easy to use for great villains, organizations, companions, and PC conversion alike. That is why, the more strongly you handle them, the clearer you must make their desire and taboo.

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#Law — Variants by Line

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#Operation — How to Use the Three Together

When you put all three lines into a single event, divide their roles. If oni are force, tengu are the boundary, and yoko are information, they do not overlap.

Setting all three as enemies makes the event scattered. Set one as enemy, one as neutral, and one as a trading partner, and the politics of the hundred demons comes alive.

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#Variant Data — Oni General

A reinforcement background attached to the oni or Great Oni of co.

[Oni General]
Condition: a scene with a ruined castle, battlefield, mountain fortress, or oni unit.
Effect: Cohesion +1 for Minion/Veteran oni/ko-oni squads in the same or an adjacent zone.
Cost: each Lull Phase, if there is no human corpse or sake offering, the Oni General's next check -1.
Resolution: reveal and break the war-order it last obeys, and it loses this effect.

#Representative Stats: Oni of the Red Gate

#Scent

The first thing you see is not the oni but the gate. One leaf of a broken castle gate leans inward, unable to close, and on its frame a dark-red stain like a palm print has dried and stayed. The oni rises slowly from the shadow of that gate. Its body is twice the height of a man, its hide thick and rough like tanned leather, and in one hand it holds, without weight, a club studded with golden spikes. Whoever first faces it is for a moment unsure whether he has blocked the road or whether the road itself has become him.

The sound comes first — the dull scrape of the club's tip dragging across the stone floor, and a roar boiling up from deep in the chest, which is less a threat than the signal of a fall. When the roar strikes the narrow road and returns, the small oni at its side square their shoulders and re-form their ranks. The smell is of dried blood and sake, and of mold like a castle long sealed shut. Even cut down, as long as the threshold on which it stands is unharmed, it gives the impression that it will rise once more. To end this being, you must close that gate before the blade.

Oni of the Red Gate (赤門鬼) — Elite
Wounds 5, Defense 15, Energy 10
Courage+3, Finesse+0, Physique+3, Presence+1
Domination +4

Special: The Gate That Will Not Close — at Wounds 0 in a castle-gate zone, it revives 1 time per battle at Wounds 1. If the war-order left at the gate is resolved, this does not trigger.

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#Variant Data — Mountain-Gate Tengu

[Mountain-Gate Tengu]
Condition: mountain path, the mountain behind a shrine, a training ground, a pass.
Effect: during the first round, flight movement cost -1 Energy. Enemy ranged attacks in the same zone -1.
Taboo: call a name from inside the mountain gate without permission, and the tengu's next check +1.
Resolution: acknowledge the mountain's taboo and restore the rite, and passage is possible without combat.

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#Variant Data — Biu Mountain Yoko

[Biu Mountain Yoko]
Condition: yoko, Yoko Spy, or nine-tailed fox line.
Effect: holds one disguised identity before first appearance. On a failed Perception Target Number 13, it is not exposed.
Cost: against a target who knows its true name, all deception checks -2.
Resolution: reveal two of name, tail, or shadow at once, and the disguise breaks.

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#Higher Archetypes and Lower Units

The oni, tengu, and yoko lines gain power only when you use their lower squads and lord-rank names together. Do not bring out the lord-rank every time directly; show it first through the rules and rumors of the lower units.

#Shuten Mountain War-Order

An organization-type variant attached to the Shuten-doji, Great Oni, and Ko-oni Warrior lines.

[Shuten Mountain War-Order]
Condition: when 2 or more oni-line beings, or an oni-line squad, are on the same battlefield.
Effect: at the start of combat, designate one oni-line being as commander. Until the commander is incapacitated, the first attack check of Ko-oni Warriors and oni squads +1.
Cost: if the commander does not promise one of sake, loot, or prisoners, allied Cohesion -1 at the next Lull Phase.
Resolution: seize the original text of the war-order or break the sake jar, and it loses this variant.

Shuten-doji is the body of this war-order. Even before fighting directly, reveal it through the way the oni share the same sake jar, sing the same song, and never break the same taboo.

#The Fallen Mountain Gate

A corruption/scouting variant attached to the Tengu-Tsukai, Kotengu Scout, and Mountain-Gate Tengu lines.

[The Fallen Mountain Gate]
Condition: when a tengu line has been absorbed into a human army or yoma organization.
Effect: during the first round, the Perception and evasion checks of a tengu line that started from high ground, a roof, a cliff, or a treetop +1.
Cost: fail a negotiation that questions the mountain's taboo, and flight movement is impossible for 1 breath.
Resolution: find and return the original mountain-gate name, and the Tengu-Tsukai can break off combat and withdraw.

The Kotengu Scout uses this variant most lightly. Rather than growing direct damage, it makes the enemy be spotted first through signal fires, footprints, and the sound of the wind.

#The Shadow of Tamamo

A political-type variant attached to the nine-tailed fox, Tamamo-no-Mae, and Yoko Spy lines.

[The Shadow of Tamamo]
Condition: when a yoko line has disguised itself as a power-holder, envoy, performer, or merchant.
Effect: at the start of a scene, declare one false identity. The first Negotiation or deception check against an NPC who believes that identity +2.
Cost: each time one of mirror, incense, tail, or true name is revealed, Domination -1.
Resolution: make public the order document or oath obtained under the false identity, and the disguise effect ends.

Tamamo-no-Mae is less the strong foe of a single battle than a name that makes a whole faction misjudge. When handling her as a lord-rank, decide "who already believes in her" before damage output.

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#The Gate of the Spirit Realm

• For oni, the gate is a feast and a supply line. When the gate opens, things to eat and things to fight come.
• For tengu, the gate is a borderline. When the gate blurs, humans cross and the mountain grows angry.
• For yoko, the gate is a stage. Rather than entering through the gate, they take the chaos of a world with its gate open as a mask.

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#Faction Response

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#Closing Line

Oni break the gate, tengu guard the gate, and yoko hide the fact that there was a gate.