The Waiting Stone

The Waiting Stone was a ryokan (inn) in Aru in Wa in the 1770s on the Wa Calendar. It stood in the northern Mixed District. It was run by a woman known as a mama-san.

Description
Rooms were divided by shoji screens and were warmed by braziers on which aromatic woods were burned. Each had futon beds.

History
In high summer of, a group of adventurers newly arrived in Aru were staying at The Waiting Stone. It was here, late at night, that a troop of samurai led by Tsukku woke and summoned them to a midnight meeting with the daimyo, Benju Matsutomo. The Waiting Stone would be their base throughout their activities in the town, with the monk Yaemon possibly sending them a message, messengers coming to them, and any blow-back from their investigations and associations potentially finding them here. On a later night, samurai once again woke and summoned the adventurers to a meeting, this time in secrecy with Benju's consort Naomi. At one point, their rooms may have been ransacked by a thief in black looking for valuables to steal; the mama-san saw the thief leave but thought it was just another odd visitor.

Background
The Waiting Stone is only mentioned twice in Ninja Wars, and only once as the place where PCs stay when the adventure begins. The rest of the book only refers to "their ryokan" and similar. For convenience, this article assumes all references to the PCs' ryokan or inn are to The Waiting Stone.