Yabuta of the SandsReport
English：Yabuta of the Sands · Characters
A Scorchlander held in a cell inside Tengu's Vault. Free him and let him escape alive and an entirely new hostile faction appears across the southern half of the Empire, taking two settlements with it.
Psh. You know… stole a few greenfruits, picked a few pockets. Tell me, do I deserve Tengu's hell Vault, brother? Lady luck doesn't sink any lower than this… — Yabuta of the Sands
Yabuta of the Sands is one of the prisoners held in Tengu's Vault, the military prison at the southern end of Skimsands, guarded by United Cities Samurai and reserved for the Empire's worst.
His own account is a few greenfruits and a few pockets. His personality tag is Crazy. Put those two facts side by side and draw your own conclusions about the account.
What happens if you let him go
Tengu's Vault holds several characters who can be recruited or released; Yabuta is the one with the largest consequences. If he is freed and successfully escapes alive, a chain of world states fires:
| Trigger | Effect |
|---|---|
| New faction | The Yabuta Outlaws come into existence |
| Fort Simion | If still held by the Rebel Farmers and you are not allied with them, it is renamed Fort Yabuta and changes hands |
| Stoat | If held by the Tech Hunters at the time, it falls to the Yabuta Outlaws |
| The Great Desert | Cannibal patrols stop spawning, if they were spawning at all |
| Heng | Rebel Farmer patrols become less frequent |
| Patrol spread | Yabuta Outlaws begin patrolling Bast, the Grey Desert, Heng, Sinkuun, Skimsands, the Great Desert and the Hook |
In Skimsands specifically the new patrol is 5–9 Yabuta Outlaws at spawn weight 10 — a high weight. The rocky sands that used to serve as a buffer between the Holy Nation and the United Cities gain an extra armed faction because you picked one lock in a prison.
A leader who leads nothing
The most curious part: Yabuta himself is not a member of the Yabuta Outlaws.
The faction is born under his name and splits into Yabuta Chiefs and Yabuta Outlaws, but he never officially joins it and never appears at any of its holdings. Better still, the members do not recognise the person who freed him — you get no credit and no goodwill for it.
You open a cell door, and the world acquires a group of people who have nothing to do with you and are not grateful.
Statistics
Strength, Dexterity, Melee Attack, Melee Defence, Martial Arts, plus Katanas, Sabres, Hackers, Heavy Weapons and Blunt all sit at 60; Athletics and Field Medic likewise, randomised by ±3 and multiplied by the Scorchlander racial modifier.
The one stat never raised is Toughness. It is simply not set in his data, so it sits near zero. He hits hard and runs fast, and he does not take a beating well.
His armour is Shoddy, and he carries no weapon at all.
Trivia
"Yabuta" combines yabu (藪, thicket) and ta (田, field) — literally "a field of bushes". It is also a homophone of the Japanese yabutta (破った, broke or violated), as in breaking a promise.