Soshi Natsuo

Please note: This article is about the shugenja. For other uses of the term, please see Natsuo (disambiguation).
Soshi Natsuo was a Scorpion Clan shugenja and a member of the 12th century Gozoku conspiracy.
== Shadowed Tower ==
Natsuo was a charming and slightly eccentric shugenja known throughout the Unicorn controlled city of Ryoko Owari as the subject of countless odd tales. With his cousin Bayushi Ogura, son of the Imperial Chancellor Bayushi Kaukatsu, Natsuo joined the Shadowed Tower, a Scorpion sect that employed maho and secret magic in an attempt to overthrow Scorpion Clan Champion Bayushi Yojiro. Unlike Ogura Natsuo started to truly adopt the organization's philosophies. Four Winds, p. 92
=== Scoured by Witch Hunters ===
Kuni Junji was a Kuni Witch Hunter who investigated Ogura for suspected involvement in maho practices. In 1159 the Witch Hunter had accompanied Ogura to the Unicorn Seikitsu Pass, who managed Junji to be eventually killed during a mission that put to rest the King of the Trolls. Ogura's yojimbo Bayushi Katai and Natsuo destroyed all the evidence that had been gathered by the Witch Hunter. Four Winds, p. 87
=== King of the Trolls ===
Natsuo met a group of samurai who were investigating the role of his cousin Ogura in the defeat of the Troll King. The meeting was interrupted when Crab led by Kuni Witch Hunter Kuni Hiroji attempted to arrest Natsuo, but Scorpion guards halted his capture. Natsuo arranged the group a meeting with Ogura. Four Winds, p. 86
=== Hataki's Forged Scrolls ===
Natsuo and Bayushi Seiryo were distant cousins of Bayushi Kuemon, who had been killed by Matsu Hataki in 1160, a renowned hero since his death from the wounds he took during the fight against overwhelemed odds. Kuemon had been Bayushi Shamate's lover and killed her when she married Hataki. Siryo and Natsuo had found themselvcs tainted by their link to him. They planted a sack with forged scrolls, as if they were written by Hataki. In the notes the Lion told he was very close to finding Shamate's murderer, but provide little proof other than that Hataki "feels certain" that Shamate's former lover was responsible. The notes indicated that Hataki was leaving to search for the culprit in a small, unnamed pass to the south. The Scorpion were hoping to call into question Kuemon's guilt and painted Hataki as a raving lunatic obsessed with vengeance. Their scrolls were found by a group of samurai, but Shamate's brother, Bayushi Eitarou, quickly denounced them as forgeries. Four Winds, pp. 55-56
=== Shadowed Tower's Exposed ===
Natsuo was confronted at Shiro no Soshi with his involvement in the Tower by Soshi Yukimi. Natsuo claimed he believed his acts were done on behalf of Yojiro's orders. He also claimed that he discovered otherwise, and escaped to a secluded location to attempt to atone for his misdeeds. It was here that he was found in 1160 by a member of the Kuroiban, Yogo Hiroji, who attempted to kill Natsuo. Not knowing about the Kuroiban, or their purpose, Natsuo killed Hiroji in self defense. The Essence of Loyalty, by Shawn Carman and Nancy Sauer Yogo Hiroji, formerly known as Kuni Hiroji, had been driven to bring Natsuo to justice for his involvement in Kuni Junji's death. 
== Gozoku ==
Being fouled the Shadowed Tower conspiracy Natsuo joined its revival, the Gozoku. In 1166 he surveyed the conspiracy activities of Doji Jurian at Sunda Mizu Mura. Conspiracy, by Shawn Carman
== Black Scroll ==
Some years later, following the Battle of the Tomb and the discovery of the Black Scroll, not one of the original twelve scrolls, Natsuo was enlisted by Soshi Yukimi to research the scroll alongside Soshi Korenaga. Natsuo convinced Korenaga that the only way to truly know what the scroll was capable of was to open it. Travelling to the southern Scorpion Border, Natsuo ventured into Crab lands where he sacrificed himself by opening and using the scroll. Natsuo survived, but his body and mind became irrevocably damaged. The event created a field entirely devoid of life, the Blasted Lands, in 1169. Vacant Throne, p. 59
=== Essence of Jigoku ===
Korenaga and Natsuo guessed the scroll, called the Essence of Jigoku, was created via elemental magic, and it contained, the essence of some vital portion of an entity's power, stolen from it through magic they did not understand, but not through maho. The Black Scrolls were used to seal away power taken from external sources. Natsuo's ravings seemed to indicate that whatever was affected by the power was in some remote corner of the world, far from Rokugan. This Black Scroll could free them of a god whose time in the Empire has passed. This entity years later began the Destroyer War in his quest to find this scroll. The entity could be Kali-Ma, avatar of the goddess Shiva, or the goddess herself. Searching, by Rusty Priske
== Death ==
Natsuo and the scroll Destiny Has No Secrets, by Lucas Twyman Essence of Destruction, which the Scorpion had seized and substituted in its place with the unknown to the Empire Essence of Jigoku deceiving the Phoenix, were being transported during the Destroyer War in 1172. The Scorpion were ambushed by Destroyers and Natsuo was killed in the battle. 
== External Links ==
* Soshi Natsuo (Heaven and Earth)
Category:Scorpion Clan Members