The following text is taken from the Kolat Informer (the website itself claimed to have "taken" the report from Dr. Zen Faulkes' Steel and Iron website). It claims to be a report from a Scorpion player, unnamed.
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For the past year, Jim Chatham pretty much single-handedly defended Scorpion pride at Lotus edition tournaments in North America, winning a truly ridiculous number of top Scorpion finishes. One of those was last year’s GenCon Indy, where he bucked the prevailing trend and rejected the Shogun’s offer. His reward was Shosuro Jimen, who got some story time and a pretty awesome card in Truest Test. Jim really, really wanted Jimen to accomplish big things, and so when Jimen was revealed as one of the Emerald Champion competitors, Jim was determined to do his best to get Jimen chosen.
As for myself, I’m a big fan of the political wing of the Scorpion clan, and Jim is a friend of mine, so I might well have chosen Jimen anyway. But at the last minute when my other plans fell through, Jim was able to give me a ride from Detroit to Indianapolis to Gencon, and we had a chance to talk over what pick to make for EC. So I didn’t really think twice about my choice of Jimen. But if I hadn’t gotten that ride, it’s quite possible I would have chosen Bayushi Adachi, whose art and character I like and who I had enlightened last year by winning the Detroit kotei.
...
7. A drunken agreement
That night I went on the pub crawl. I resolved not to stay up too late, though, because I wanted to play my best the next day and you really can’t do that when you’re exhausted and hung over. I was matched up against Myke Clark in the top 4, which was cool, because we had been offering each other encouragement through the whole tournament and he is a nice guy and he had a very cool and original deck. I had tried to talk him into joining the Jimen bandwagon, but he really wanted to try and go as far as he could and support his favourite character. [EDITOR'S NOTE: It is likely that Myke Clark was endorsing Bayushi Hisako.]
I felt I probably had the upper hand in the matchup, however. For one thing, I was probably one of the few people in the tournament who knew almost all the battle tricks he was likely to pull. And for another, Scorpion military is usually good at winning battles, but not as good at taking provinces, and as long as I could keep my provinces intact long enough, he would be dishonoured out.
But that night at the pub crawl, I ran into Scott Rixson, who was in the other bracket of the top 4. I first met Scott at origins 2005 in the top 8, where my Scorpion Chi-kill/duelling deck got steamrolled by an earlier version of the switch dueller he won GenCon with later that year. We had had fun playing the match and he later joined my L5R team, the Straw Dogs. So we knew each other pretty well, and we started talking about how cool it would be if we got to play each other in the finals. Being a Scorpion player, I tried to talk Scott into conceding the match, and found him to be a willing accomplice. It turned out he thought that Jimen would be a cooler Emerald Champion than Noritoshi, and he liked the idea of some sort of political deal or blackmail that would force Noritoshi to concede. And what better way for a political deal in the story to be represented than by a political deal in the final match?
8. Sunday Finals
I woke up much earlier than I wished and went to the card hall. It was sparsely populated, understandably. We sat down and began to play the finals. It was a totally different atmosphere than it had in past years, because almost nobody was around. In 2002 and 2004, I had played my top 4 match surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of people. This time, it seemed more like I was playing a friendly game, not like a tournament – although the judges watching us did give it a bit more of a tournament feel. I don’t think most of the players there even knew the top 4 match was happening.
Semifinals: Scorpion – Kyuden Wasuremono, Myke Clark
I lost the die roll to go first. I brought out a Personality turn 2, however, so I could start hitting him with the stronghold. His deck was able to put an impressive amount of force on the board because he was running both Bayushi Iyona and Yogo Rieko. I got Paneki early, but I knew I had to be extremely careful with him because even with Seat of Power it would be easy for Mike to deal with him in a battle – the worst possibility being dishonouring Paneki off of Assigning Blame and then hitting him with Unexpected Betrayal. For that reason, I mostly defended with Paneki at the province he wasn’t attacking, which allowed me to use Paneki’s ability to kill his dishonoured courtiers from afar. I was wary of duelling him because I knew he ran weigh the cost, but he was wary of killing my personalities because of Adieko and assigning blame. He was able to take a province or two, but Paneki and hired killers and Adeiko did a good job of keeping the number of Personalities manageable, and I gradually dragged his honor down until I could finish him off.
In the Second game, I went first and brought out Maru exp. 2 and a Saya. He flipped up all gold in his provinces. I had farmlands out, and was one force away from taking his province, but couldn’t quite manage it. It would have been cool, though. It developed very similarly to the first game, but we couldn’t finish it and when we were almost out of time he conceded. I think the final 4 of a tournament as important as gencon should have been allocated more time to be completed, but by that point there wasn’t much we could do about it. Pablo and Scott’s game went all the way to time too, which tends to suggest a bit more time would be a good idea.
Afterwards, Myke and I talked to story and answered the Top of Clan question for Scorpion together, and asked if Hisako could end up as Jimen’s Yojimbo in the aftermath of the tournament. After all, he ought to have been pretty impressed with her Iaijutsu skills!
Finals
Scott and I talked to Shawn, the head of Story, about our plan. He thought it was reasonable. We shuffled our cards, dealt them out, and then Scott conceded. The only way for Jimen to be Champion, was for me to win the tournament. But really, this was a championship for both Scott and me. I didn’t beat him, and his deck probably has the edge over mine in the head to head matchup. But since we are both former world champions, I don’t think either of us felt the need that most other players would have felt to win. We just wanted a cool story and a cool Emerald champion, and we’d proved anything we needed to prove about our playskill and/or decks by making the finals. I gave Scott the special green honor counter that went to the tournament champion, since he had earned it just as much as me.
And that’s pretty much the story. I think there are two types of decks that win worlds: the almost unstoppable overwhelming favourite kind – like Scott’s in 2005 or Bryan’s in 2003 – and the solid deck with good matchups, like Salman’s in 2004. My deck and Scott’s both fell into that second category. Play out the tournament again, and there would be no particular guarantee I would be in the final 4 – or even make the cut to top 16 (making top 16 with 120 players is hard). But the deck was good, and it surprised people (which was a big advantage), and I played it well, and that turned out to be enough, when you added a bit of luck. My congratulations go out to all the other players, especially those who went 5-2 but missed the cut, as well as the rest of the top 4 and especially Scott, who has an equal right to call himself Champion. I personally hope that the storyline result will make Crane players just as happy as Scorpion players (as long as they don’t mind being blackmailed a little): as I think I mentioned, I am hoping there will be both a carrot and a stick involved in Noritoshi’s concession, and the carrot may end up tasting pretty sweet. But that is all up to the story team.
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The following text is from the L5R Wiki:
Bayushi Hisako was a bushi of the Scorpion Clan and student of the Dark Sword of Bitter Lies. Hisako was the second wife of Bayushi Kwanchai. She was surprisingly calm and collected for a Bitter Lies Swordsman. She was also a sensei at the Dark Sword of Bitter Lies Dojo. Under her leadership the dojo gained fame and respect between the Scorpion. She was selected as a sensei of the Honor's Lesson Dojo, which had begun to train the Bitter Lies school.
Hisako participated in the Test of the Emerald Champion in 1169, where she made it to the semifinals. She notably defeated Akasha in a duel during that contest, where the two women bonded both over their unusual backgrounds and the peculiarity of their respective husbands. Hisako was defeated against Kakita Noritoshi. She was appointed as yojimbo to the new Emerald Champion, Shosuro Jimen.
Kakita Noritoshi was a bushi and duelist Kenshinzen of the Crane Clan. He became Kakita Daimyo and Master Sensei of the Kakita Dueling Academy following the death of Kakita Kaiten in 1159. ...
Noritoshi competed to become the Emerald Champion in 1169. He defeated Bayushi Hisako, and Noritoshi confronted a ronin opponent, Eiya who meant to kill him. Noritoshi managed to wound the ronin who left the tournament disappearing into the crowd, followed by the Seppun guards. He reached the final event of the dueling competition, but conceded to Shosuro Jimen when the Scorpion threatened the honor of the Crane Clan when he spoke about the Harriers, and the life of Noritoshi's son. Jimen told his son had been poisoned at Kyuden Otomo and he would give the antidote if Noritoshi conceded defeat. Noritoshi swore he would exact vengeance after he secured the safety of his family and the honor of his Champion. Later Noritoshi knew there was no sign that his son had been poisoned.
...
In 1173 after the end of the Destroyer War Jimen was in his estate waiting the arrival of his mortal enemy. When Noritoshi arrived Jimen offered tea to him, and told his remorse for the Blood Feud between them. Jimen had seen how their madness had spread to all those they touched, and apologized about Kakita Mai's death. Noritoshi answered striking Jimen down, and he heard Jimen's final words.
"Agents poisoned you at the tea house last night. I thought that if you sat with me, if we could realize how badly we had failed then perhaps we both deserved to live. But no, it is better this way. I suppose you could say I win." - Shosuro Jimen's final words
Jimen passed away and Noritoshi sat to wait for the poison in his veins to do its work.
Shosuro Jimen was a Poison Master and courtier of the Scorpion Clan. He was entrusted with the Scorpion sword Shinjitsu, and became the Emerald Champion in 1169. ...
Jimen became the Emerald Champion in 1169. He won the competition after reaching the final event of the dueling competition, where he forced the superior duelist Kakita Noritoshi to concede by threatening the honor of the Crane Clan when he spoke about the Harriers, imperiling the Crane’s strongest alliance, the honor of Doji Domotai, and then, when all else failed, the life of Noritoshi's son. Jimen told Noritoshi's son had been poisoned at Kyuden Otomo and he would give the antidote if Noritoshi conceded defeat. He already had used his tricks during the Test of Leadership with his Phoenix opponent, goading Shiba Majushi into an inappropiate outburst. ...
Jimen always considered politics as an end to themselves, and often seemed to act for his own amusement. He often relished the controversy and rumors surrounding him, especially after his elevation to Emerald Champion. On the other hand, Bayushi Paneki has said "He is most trusted representative, and he speaks with my full authority." Given Jimen's reputation, some have wondered about the truth behind that statement. ...
Jimen was seen by many as a predator, an animal. Everything said in his presence was stored and used as a weapon. Some said he was Paneki's personal assassin as well. ...
Jimen was not the archetypical Emerald Champion, the Champion of Justice. Instead, he was a reviled villain who plotted several murders. Following is a list of those he supposedly murdered or commanded to murder, in chronological order: