Day 5, Late Morning, Who was on weather watch today?

[Rixy]

The lower floor of the palace is free for the samurai's exploration...any number of tea rooms, meeting rooms, art galleries, no fewer than four formal dining halls, a large kitchen, and a vast library are all easily found and entry is never denied, though there are guards present in the library.

Only at the great sweeping stair are the samurai stopped from proceeding, politely but firmly.

[Akodo Jishaku]

Jishaku looked the guards up and down but didn't try to force the issue. He tries speaking in Rokugani to see if they understand. "We were given leave to see the palace, why not here?" He points up the stairs. Probably the maharaja's rooms but maybe they'll let something slip.

[Rixy]

The two warriors gave him bland looks familiar to yojimbo anywhere in the world. One of them, the older of the two men, made a slow horizontal gesture with his left hand, saying something in a language that was neither Rhuumal nor Rokugani.

[Bayushi Nobuyoshi]

Nobuyoshi shrugs.

"They seem about as friendly and helpful as the guards are in Crab lands to me, Akodo-san." Nobuyoshi offers.

A small glance back at the library.

"A pity to have a whole library laid out and be unable to understand a word."

[Akodo Jishaku]

Jishaku keeps his eyes on the guards but after a moment nods. "An apt assessment Bayushi-san." The Lion gives the guards a nod and turns to face Rooster. He sighs, as though he would much prefer to deal with the guards than the option he is about to suggest. "A library eh? Why dont we see if it will be more co-operative." With a dark expression Cub stalks off toward the stacks and stacks of books.

[Rixy]

The books were a wild assortment of works, from simple scrolls to books bound in gilded leather and everything in between. Most, of course, were written in the serpentine scrawl that seemed to be that of the Ivory Kingdoms but here and there, another language would appear.

{{INV/PER if you want to find a particular subject/langauge. Raises are good.}}

[Akodo Jishaku]

Jishaku was not a fan of libraries. Still he might as well see about making use of it while he was here. The young Lion began by searching for a book in Rokugani or Rhumaal that might explain the symbols that had been on the boat that Jayant Utpal had pointed out the day before.

It was going to take a while.

[Rixy]

Perhaps to his surprise, Jishaku found a copy of Leadership tucked away on a shelf.

Alas, not what he was after.

[Akodo Jishaku]

The Rokugani equivalent of 'Sweet!' popped into his head, followed only a moment later by recognition that wasn't the book he was searching for. Still, he pulled it down off the shelf and flicked through to see if it had been annotated, and if so how old the copy was.

After a few minutes he resumes his search, possibly faring a little better.

[Rixy]

This particular copy was, it seemed, from the reign of Hantei XXI. It had in fact been annotated and pages had been added to the back full of the conclusion the annotator had drawn from the work.

[Bayushi Nobuyoshi]

Assuming that it'd take more perceptive ability than he has on his best day, and at least a passing familiarity with languages he doesn't have, Nobuyoshi just takes the book nearest to him and idly flips through the pages.

"So, Akodo-san, you can now say you've been to gaijin court." Nobuyoshi says.

[Akodo Jishaku]

The Lion smiles absently as he flicks through the old copy of Leadership before continuing his look for books about the Ivory Kingdoms' navy.

"Hai, not exactly what we signed on for. A great honour to be chosen to help the Captain though."

He looks back at the Scorpion.

"I was looking for books on their navy. Our former passenger showed me that his assailants' ship is in the harbour. I was hoping to find a book that explains the markings they use in the Ivory Kingdoms. It might give us some useful information."

[Bayushi Nobuyoshi]

Nobuyoshi nods.

"Not a bad idea, although I somehow doubt we're fortunate enough to stumble upon one that not only explains what we're looking for, but does so in proper Rokugani. Nobuyoshi offers. "Assuming we're invited back to the palace at some point for some sort of welcoming feast or some such, it might be wise to know who on our boat actually has some skill with gaijin tongues, and have them take a tour of the library."

"Not everyone, as that'd look suspicious, just a small gathering of literary lovers." he adds.

Nobuyoshi looks over the Lion.

"So, Akodo Jishaku, Military Advisor to Lord Yoritomo of the Half Moon, one wonders what your take on gaijin court was." he asks, those his usual flat tone of voice lends itself poorly to divining if he's serious or not.

[Akodo Jishaku]

"Well now Bayushi Nobuyoshi, Defender of Lord Yoritomo of the Half Moon, Explorer of the Palace of the Maharaja of Lanka, I would have to say it felt more like a theatrical performance. These gaijin are scared, they want our help and they are too proud to simply ask for it." He shrugs lightly. "But I am not an expert on matters of court Bayushi-san. I would be interested to hear your own take on it,"

As he speaks the Lion continues to look around the shelves for a book on the flags and symbols used by the naval forces of the Ivory Kingdoms, in Rokugani or Rhumaal. This time he might actually have found something useful.

[Roll = 32, one raise called]

[Bayushi Nobuyoshi]

A small smile behind the mask.

"Defender and explorer? A very Lion title. To the locals I'm sure it's more like 'Pet Villain'" he says in his normal flat tone of voice.

"They do want help, whether or not it's ours is a different matter. There's only so much help our little fleet could even provide, were we of a mind to. If it's something big enough to frighten the entire Kingdom, we're not strong enough to fight it, and we can't exactly load up the entire kingdom's populace onto four little kobune, even if we wanted to, even if we had somewhere to take them."

"They're probably hoping they have enough time to convince us to bring the full aid of the Empire. If they can't manage that, they'll have to come up with another plan."

[Akodo Jishaku]

"In the worst case perhaps they will ask us to take their Kuge to safety, as wards of the Empire?" Jishaku starts flicking through the titles on another bookshelf.

[Bayushi Nobuyoshi]

Nobuyoshi nods.

"That would be a difficult thing to ask, indeed." Nobuyoshi offers.

[Rixy]

This time, Jishaku finds a treatise on maritime warfare, complete with several beautifully done diagrams on how they are constructed. As Uminushi had warned them, the Ivory Kingdoms were not much for heraldry...short of a few universal flags flown to indicate things like 'plague on board', 'imperial ship', 'message bearer', and the like, the number of personal flags for individual fleet masters ran in the hundreds.

Happily, someone had done their level best to collect as many of those hundreds as they could...the last quarter of the manuscript was nothing but flags.

[Akodo Jishaku]

Banzai!

A smile spreads across the Cub's face as he finally locates the book he was looking for. He starts flicking through the pages and gives the Scorpion a look of triumph.

"Here we are. A treatise on maritime warfare in the Ivory Kingdoms, complete with annotated flags. I'm not normally one for hanging out in libraries Bayushi-san, but this might just be worth my time. I'm going to see what I can decipher from this text, might take a few hours so you might be better off leaving me here. I will let you know if I find anything relevant to our situation."

With that Jishaku gives him a bow and looks for a quiet comfortable spot to start the tedious process of looking for the blue flag with the four hands.

[Bayushi Nobuyoshi]

Nobuyoshi nods.

"As you say, Akodo-san, but with we've been through the areas of the palace we can get to, and the storm prohibits leaving." Nobuyoshi offers. "I'll just flip around and looking at the artistic value of some of the books, quietly."