Otoha, Waystop Proprietor

ADVERSARY | CONFLICT RANK: 1 8

Otoha grows and prepares herbs for healing and other, more dubious purposes. The villagers now fear her, but she was once one of them. She left the village and set up the way station with her husband, but he was from Hirosaka, and the villagers disapproved of her marrying outside the village. This is partly because Setsuo, who had only recently been made leader, was in love with her. Setsuo now maintains that she used her knowledge of herbs to force him to love her before abandoning him, but whether that’s true or not only she knows.

Otoha is a mature but attractive woman—also something villagers attribute to her knowledge of herbs—with sharp eyes and a sharper wit. She has an unnerving way of welcoming visitors to the way station as though she already knows them, and she can usually guess what items they would be interested in. She wears bright-colored clothes that are finely made and embroidered as a display of her prosperity.

Although she is happy to talk about her husband’s mercantile savvy and obviously has fond memories of his drinking songs, she won’t discuss his death. No one knows how he died or what happened to his body. Rumors abound in the village: that she poisoned him accidentally or with purpose, that he was never human to begin with and simply returned to his own kind, or that he had enemies in the town who murdered him when he went there to trade.

15 | 7 35 | 16 09 | 5

+2, –2

DEMEANOR - SHREWD

5

HONOR | ENDURANCE

GLORY | COMPOSURE

STATUS | FOCUS

VIGILANCE

SOCIETAL | PERSONAL

1 4 2 | 1 3

ARTISAN 2 MARTIAL 0 SCHOLAR 1 SOCIAL 4 | TRADE 3

ADVANTAGES | DISADVANTAGES

Fortune Telling: Scholar; Spiritual

Whispers of Cruelty: Social; Interpersonal, Infamy

FAVORED WEAPONS

Tessen: Range 0-1, Damage 4, Deadliness 3, Ceremonial, Concealable

Gear (equipped): Lucky robes (Physical 1, Supernatural 1), 2 poison vials (noxious poison), 8 koku

ABILITIES

SKILLED HERBALIST Once per scene, Otoha may make a TN 3 Medicine check (Air 5, Fire 1) targeting one character. If she succeeds, she may remove 3 fatigue and strife from the target, plus 1 additional fatigue and strife for each bonus or . Additionally, she may remove one of the following conditions from the target: Bleeding, Burning, Dazed, Disoriented, Dying, Unconscious, or Lightly Wounded.

FUTURE SIGHT Once per scene, a character may exchange a favor to Otoha for insight into their future. The character chooses a skill group. The next time that character makes a check using a skill from that group, they roll and keep one additional .