So, here's a worked example, between Kakashi and his Chair-ignoring evil twin Shikaka, who put those 116 points (and ten more) into three levels of Alertness. All rolls are +0, but they don't know that. They both start with no FP and infinite chakra.
That is to say, Shikaka is Current Kakashi with three extra levels of Alertness, and Kakashi here sunk the same(ish) XP into three more levels of Physique?
FATE doesnt handle Evil Twin combat too well. If starting in a white room with no fate points and+0 rolls, its going to come down to action economy shenanigans because ties go to the attacker on a lot of rolls.
On tags/invocations:
A tag is just a free Invocation of an aspext that you get for certain things. Three important ones that we've seen:
1) Taijutsu-styles (or more general combat styles) which are ways to generatea tag on the relevant skill based on the fluff of the combat style. For Strong Fist, thats Athletics. Kakashi uses that one all the time, but needs to win the Athletics rolloff to get that one.
2) Maneuvers, where you spend action economy to give future!you (or present!teammate) an advantage by generating a tag for you or someone else to use after your turn. This was seen when Kakashi trolled Mieko into attacking him by reading a book instead of fighting.
3) Consequences. If you deal someone a Consequence, they recieve an appropriate Aspect for that. You then get a free tag on that Aspect to use for the rest of the scene.
invoking an Aspect is paying a Fate Point to (in a situation where this is sensible to do) implicitly generate some sort of narrative (be that external or internal) or environmental advantage. This is represented mechanically by adding the relevant Aspect Bonus to the skill you were rolling when you Invoked it. Most character sheet Aspects can only be Invoked once per scene.
Note that Shadow Clones are *REALLY* expensive. It costs 150 + (N * 25) CP for N clones, and after you pay that cost your chakra gets distributed evenly between Prime and all extant clones. Kakashi has 370 chakra when he's full up, meaning that making one SC leaves him with (370-175)/2 = 98 CP. When the clone pops he will get back however much chakra it still has, meaning at most 98. That would leave him at 196. If he casts another SC he will be at (196-175)/2 = 11 CP. When the clone pops he will be at 22.
Basically, it's very inefficient to make clones one at a time and we can't create more than two per day if we're doing them one at a time.
Hm. True... I'll take that part out. I was picturing Kakashi sending out a shadow clone once or twice a day while guarding the Daimyo and waiting for Glacier's response and preparing his equipment.
[X] Hunt down Dotō Kazahana and figure out where the heirloom is. Use possession of the object to open contact with Rōga.
[X] Hunt down Dotō Kazahana and figure out where the heirloom is.
[x] Action Plan: Turning Wealth into Explosions
[X] Hijack both groups of Yakuza anyway. Why not?
[x] Hijack both groups of Yakuza anyway. March them into Glacier.
I'm all for an explosive entry but I think we should prep and think it through a little more before we actually start making things explode lol
Ask your Hidden Glacier hostages about what they know about Roga's abilities
Capture the usurper leader, killing any jonin that may be with him, while disabling chunin or below, and bring the usurper to his brother, make him explain why Kakashi was even hired to begin with
Tell your employer that the old guard of ninja at Hidden Glacier are not trustworthy and you intend to depose the rest of the Jonin and install your leader of choice
Your cooperation would be helpful, but not required. Still, we've already killed one of the four jonin, so helping us might be in your best interest. Anyone can be replaced, after all.
Some minor edits. Included asking our hostages information, and then verifying that information against what Kakashi's learned from the yaks. Rearranged the order a bit.
[X] Kazuma the Innkeeper is a really good guy. After all the stress these Glacier ninja guys made for him, you should really do something nice for him. Oh, you know! You'll make him your pats-- ahem, your friendly leader of Glacier! He can turn the place into a resort that you could take vacations in during your future missing-non-hood. Now, to go convince him that he's the best man for the job...and then perhaps your captives... you mean your future, completely non-Sharinganed -- nope, nope, nope; they're doing this completely due to your overwhelmingly charming self -- revolutionists.
[X] Kazuma the Innkeeper is a really good guy. After all the stress these Glacier ninja guys made for him, you should really do something nice for him. Oh, you know! You'll make him your pats-- ahem, your friendly leader of Glacier! He can turn the place into a resort that you could take vacations in during your future missing-non-hood. Now, to go convince him that he's the best man for the job...and then perhaps your captives... you mean your future, completely non-Sharinganed -- nope, nope, nope; they're doing this completely due to your overwhelmingly charming self -- revolutionists.
[X] Kazuma the Innkeeper is a really good guy. After all the stress these Glacier ninja guys made for him, you should really do something nice for him. Oh, you know! You'll make him your pats-- ahem, your friendly leader of Glacier! He can turn the place into a resort that you could take vacations in during your future missing-non-hood. Now, to go convince him that he's the best man for the job...and then perhaps your captives... you mean your future, completely non-Sharinganed -- nope, nope, nope; they're doing this completely due to your overwhelmingly charming self -- revolutionists.
Darn, too late to vote thanks to the need to sleep.
Wow with Glacier's location they're really lucky they haven't gotten on Iwa or Kiri's bad side.
@MMKII I don't expect Kakashi to know too much IC, but is an invasion of the Land of Iron even feasible? Glacier is just about the smallest Hidden Village, now even smaller. Ninja don't have a very high opinion of samurai, but the Land of Iron has its own reputation, and the bar for being a samurai does seem lower. Is Dozo just using it as a propaganda soundbyte?
It would potentially be in the cards if they quit the isolationist thing and spent a few years gearing up, but it's definitely pretty suspect as far as success odds go.
Which, to Kakashi, either sounds like a charismatic leader doling out propaganda, or that somebody knows something that he doesn't.
They're one of a couple classes of organizations that hold a significant amount of soft power throughout the Elemental Nations. A potent resource, but not necessarily one that would be helpful for a Hidden Village to have besides on the intelligence front (and even then, in a limited sense). Much better for a missing-nin on the run.
Similar unwritten rules govern the interaction of the various hidden villages with the yakuza as the ones with the various Daimyo and the ninja. Both are generally left alone, and in return they do their jobs and consequently ensure that society is working a little more smoothly. There is one big difference:The existence of missing-nin, wandering ninja tribes, and some other non-ninja chakra wielding organizations (the samurai clans of Sea country come to mind), mean that offending some shadowy crime lord or their underlings can have consequences at a later date.
One generally keeps interactions polite and business-like as much as possible. To do otherwise risks some degree of unpleasantness.
One generally keeps interactions polite and business-like as much as possible. To do otherwise risks some degree of unpleasantness fun and exciting story events.
Kakashi directed the guardsmen up the stairs of the half-ruined inn with an exaggerated wave. The dozen or so individuals stepped carefully through the debris and pieces of ruined furniture. The innkeeper was still off somewhere drinking himself to sleep.
The response time was piss poor. He had waited an hour after the jōnin died, before sticking his head out the window and noticing that half the town guardsmen were standing in front of the partly-demolished(but partly un-demolished!) building, shuffling their feet nervously instead of doing their jobs. He would have given them a lecture about the pros and cons of hesitation, but that would require him to care.
Kakashi pointed at the makeshift litters carrying Ichihara and the unconscious Koyasu. The former was trying her hardest to not move a muscle whatsoever (not that she could, being bound up in enough rope to haul a megalodon) while the latter was covered in twenty layers of animal skins and furs. The bloody mess of a bathtub was already stored away in a seal in his pocket, while the corpse inside it was chopped up to fit inside two small black storage seals. The jōnin was one big motherfucker. The Nadare was similarly bound, but not strapped to anything, instead just wrapped in a couple old burlap sacks that Kakashi had found out back.
"Yeah, these two, carry them back," Kakashi said. "Throw the blonde one in a room somewhere, but the other one gets a cell. Just dump the litters wholesale, don't fuss with their bindings or anything."
The guards nodded. Good, they wouldn't argue. Although, it was a mystery whether they were listening because he was the ninja assigned to guard the daimyo, or simply because he was a ninja that happened to be telling them to do something authoritatively. On the other hand, their internal motivations didn't matter so long as they did what he said.
"But you need to keep someone ready to poke them with something sharp if they look to be trying any funny business. Not before then though, since I need them for something."
The guards nodded again.
"Right, ah," Kakashi shrugged, "Time to get going. Chop chop?"
The guards scrambled into action. Kakashi tossed the Nadare onto his shoulder and jumped out the window. As every ANBU cadet learned, jumping in and out of windows mysteriously was just how you had to do things. If you couldn't even make good entrances and exits, then what was the point?
Kakashi darted quickly over the rooftops. The weather had worked itself up to a heavier blizzard, and the wind and snow had picked up a fair bit even as visibility in the city dropped like a stone. It was perfect. Perfect weather for moving about the city undetected, and perfect weather for hunting important noblemen who were already in the city. He arrived at the back of what was supposed to be the Frost yakuza headquarters.
Kakashi knocked on the heavy wooden door. After a few minutes, he heard someone fumbling with the latch. The viewing window slid open. The man on the other side peered back at him for a moment, before Kakashi heard a sharp intake of breath.
Kakashi waved. Flecks of dried blood flew off of his fingers. Huh? Oh, right. He was still half-soaked in blood and gore. Whoops. Hopefully they wouldn't be too offended by that.
Kakashi pointed a thumb back to the unconscious Glacier ninja slung across his shoulder.
"Can you let me inside before he dies of hypothermia or something?"
o-o-o
The Frost yakuza scored style points as far as Kakashi was concerned.
The room was less gaudy then the room back in Kushiro. Different organization, different tastes. Maybe they just didn't have the budget to spend on luxuries and baubles that were only useful for laying around. That's what happens when you're an up and coming group of lawful (lawless?) criminals, maybe. They had a nice room to store his prisoner though, and some hot tea. Not his favorite, but it was fruity and pleasantly spicy.
They also had the foresight to keep some missing-nin around. He found that one out after they let him in the room. Not super surprising, since the yakuza tended to outsource protection to wandering ninja, missing-nin, and similar miscellaneous groups. These two must have been laying low in this building for quite a while though. They tensed up noticeably at first glance, but calmed down after he had sit down and accepted the tea that their third partner had offered him.
They were nontraditional, as far as Kakashi's expectations for standard yakuza organizational structure were concerned. Their organization had three leaders. Partners, of a sort.
Ryūzaki Kinzo, the brains and face of the operation, wasn't at all what he had expected. The man from Frost Country looked like some senior bookkeeper or archivist from the Leaf village library. Wouldn't peg him as a criminal at all if you looked at him from across the street. Kakashi figured that meant he must be really good at his job.
The first missing-nin was from Frost as well. Watari Sadatake. Kakashi vaguely remembered his entry from the bingo book. Ranged weapons, some jutsu, nothing too special. His face was heavily scarred, probably by some chakra beast attack by the looks of it. The chūnin had been missing-nin for a few years, he had left before the war broke out. He'd probably picked up some tricks on the road. Best to factor that in.
The second one, Yanagita Seiichi, was from Hidden Claw. Guy looked like he could throw a mean right hook. Kakashi had no idea who he was, which was a double-edged kunai as far as signals went. Either he wasn't anyone of import, or he was one of those ninja you just didn't hear about until your blood was pouring out on the floor and their hands were playing cat's cradle with your intestines. Kakashi had been that second type for a little while, not too long ago.
"So, Mr. Hatake," Ryūzaki said, "you come here with rather interesting cargo. What's the occasion, that you'd delight to involve our organization in your ongoing affairs in such a matter?"
Translation: Why the fuck are you here, what's with the unconscious Glacier ninja, and what the fuck do you want with us?
The two ninja in the group looked on with patient expressions. Watari was bouncing a small knife in between his knuckles, while Yanagita was rubbing his chin in a motion that signaled thoughtful attentiveness. They seemed content to let Ryūzaki do the talking, and both looked pretty comfortable with this meeting so far.
They've been around the oak tree a couple times then. Good.
"Well," Kakashi said, "I needed to find a place to store my, ah, cargo, as you called it. For a few days. Some place where it wouldn't obviously be tracked down immediately. Just in case, you know?"
Ryūzaki smiled politely and gave him a gesture that —together with the microexpressions in his face and the stiffness of his posture— roughly translated to 'go on, I'm willing to hear what else you have to say, also I am trying very hard to not offend you', or something similar enough to that.
Kakashi leaned forwards slightly.
"I'd be willing to compensate you monetarily, of course," Kakashi said. "If that doesn't suffice, then I'm sure we can work something else out. I figure an organization of your size and apparent ambitions might have a use for some discretionary applications of my talents."
I'll owe you a favor and maybe work with you on some other stuff and I'm saying it this way to make you more comfortable.
Ryūzaki's eyebrows almost leapt off of his face. He glanced at the other two for a split second. The two ninja looked at each other for a moment, something passing unsaid between them, before turning back to the civilian. Watari nodded at him and Yanagita's fingers twitched an affirmative. Ryūzaki turned back to meet his eyes and gave a slight nod.
"Mr. Hatake, we would be glad to safely store your valuables for as long as they're needed. Please, get in touch with us when you need them, or if you'd like to discuss any other matters."
Kakashi gave them a thumbs up.
"I'll be in touch."
He sipped his tea some more.
"Also, do you have any more of this tea? It's nice."
"Taiga, if you wouldn't mind fetching Mr. Hatake a container of it before he departs?"
Finally, reasonable people in this country. Thank the blazing Will of Fire itself.
o-o-o
"My brother is doing WHAT!?"
"Ichihara, from the top."
"Uh, right, so we were first approached by him…"
o-o-o
The northern wall of the lakeside cottage exploded.
Kakashi walked through the hole, accompanied by a howling torrent of wind and snow from the blizzard outside. Everyone else in the room was coughing from the smoke.
"Huh, hope that didn't kill anyone important."
He waited for the dust to settle. There were a few people who looked like nobles or high-society folks, and a bunch of civilian thugs carrying all sorts of makeshift weapons. The biggest one came at him with a cudgel. Kakashi dropped to his knees and used the man's momentum against him, tripping him up before extending his body like a spring, throwing the man clear through the wall.
Kakashi paused dramatically.
You were supposed to pause dramatically before calmly delivering badass threats. Everybody knew it was half the delivery.
"Anybody else?" he quipped.
Silence.
"Didn't think so," Kakashi said. He strode into the room and yanked up the man that matched the description of one Dotō Kazahana. The man was shaking and looked at him with terror in his eyes. The younger Kazahana swallowed before contorting his face into what was probably his business face, or something like that. Not like it mattered.
"Ah, Hatake Kakashi," Kazahana said, "we heard you were in town, hired by my brother. Now, let's not be hasty, we can still have a rather promising relationship even —"
Kakashi broke his arm.
"You know," Kakashi said, "I have a policy against letting smart, socially adept politicians try to coerce me into being their lap dogs. If I get the sense they're not saying anything immediately useful to me, I start breaking limbs. Hasn't failed me yet."
Kazahana howled in pain, shock plastered on his face even as tears formed.
"Huh. That wasn't anything useful. Alright then, you asked for it." Kakashi said. He grasped the man's left hand, gripping the index finger and pulling it back.
"Wait! Wait, just a minute!" Dotō yelled.
"I'm not hearing anything useful…"
"Okay! Okay! What do you want to know?"
"Let's start with Nadare and this heirloom. You can save explaining the treason for when I drag you back to your brother. If you explain well enough, he might even let you live."
o-o-o
Kakashi fiddled with the box of thin stones next to him, grabbing one and brushing off some of the white powder that was quickly accumulating. The lake was frozen over, and it was difficult to discern anything through the storm. He had found a faint trail that led to one side of the lake, but any hint of it vanished a couple dozen meters after crossing over to the icy surface. He drew his arm back and tossed the rock at the lake.
thunk pat skrtt
The stone bounced off and slid across the snow on top of the lake. Nope, not there. Ice was too thick.
thunk pat skrtt
Nothing. Another?
thunk patapat skrtt
thunk pat
thunk pat pat patter
What a waste of time, he was almost out of rocks.
…
thunk pat pat patter
Kakashi 's eye twitched. This was just getting ridiculous. Fuck this. He went through a series of hand seals before cupping his hands to his mouth.
"Fire Element: Fire Dragon Bullet."
The familiar dragon-shaped torrent of flame roared out of his mouth and melted a decent sized patch of ice in front of him. He unsealed some metal spikes and drove them through the ice with his hand, before tying off the rope ends.
"Earth Element: Earth Clone."
One massive surge of chakra later, and there were three earth clones standing next to him.
"Earth Element: Living Roots!"
The trio of clones cast the technique in unison, their eerily empty voices echoing across the terrain. They started tying the free ends of the ropes to themselves.
"Jump in there," Kakashi said, pointing to the hole, "to go look for this damned box."
There was a trio of splashes. Kakashi unsealed a towel to dry his sopping wet hair.
Kakashi manages to find the rough location where the ice was split to throw the box down.
TN???
Kakashi, Ranged Weapons: 25+ 9(dice)=34
Nope.
Kakashi, Ranged Weapons: 25+ 3(dice)=28
Nope.
Kakashi, Ranged Weapons: 25+ 0(dice)=25
Try again.
Kakashi, Ranged Weapons: 25+ 0(dice)=25
Nada.
Kakashi, Ranged Weapons: 25+ 0(dice)=25
Didn't hit it.
Kakashi, Ranged Weapons: 25+ 6(dice)=31
Nice try but no.
Kakashi, Ranged Weapons: 25+ -6(dice)=19
Wow, no.
(This continues).
Alright, its burninating time.
TN :???
Fire Dragon Bullet: 30 -3 =27
You hit this one!
He sends three earth clones to plumb the depths with Living Roots. They find the box.
o-o-o
"Dear readers,
Wow, what a bunch of write-in letters we got for this one! Thank you so much for buying the anniversary edition. Your patronage brings tears to my eyes! Me, the Gallant Jiraiya himself!
Now, reader mail response time!
This first response goes to Ikeda, who is wondering how the dashing samurai managed to use a saw to get through the ice on the frozen river to get to the Vermilion Carp. Well, it turns out that this is a thing you can do! In my travels up in northern Lightning country, I passed through a fishing village whose fishermen actually went fishing on the lake in the dead of winter. They used a bunch of specially made tools, including a big hacksaw, a hammer and chisel, and a —"
Ah, right. Kakashi paused, looking over the landscape. Dotō's lackey probably had some experience in ice fishing. A pity that he saved reading the author's notes in the special anniversary edition for this trip.
Oh well.
Moments later, there was a tugging on the rope, and soon after a pair of hands reached up and tossed a metal box over the rim of the ice. It skid through the snow a few feet before stopping in a pile of accumulated white powder. Kakashi walked over to it, absentmindedly giving his clones the thumbs up to dispel on the way. He heard a few splashes as their chakra construct bodies slumped into a pile of mud and clay before dissolving. He fiddled with the lock for a second before ripping it off with a burst of chakra enhanced strength.
Kakashi reached inside and grabbed a small cloth bundle. He unwrapped it, revealing a cylindrical gemstone. Emerald? What little light there was was reflected down the surface and rainbow patterns danced across its many tiny facets.
"Bingo."
AN:
Needs another editing pass, but eh, good enough for now.
You have stowed the Nadare away with the Frost yakuza as an insurance policy. They have two chūnin missing-nin. The organization might be amicable towards working with you on some dangerous plots, but they would expect some give and take (probably along the lines of "Help us take over this country's criminal underworld by murdering the other chaps." but thats just a guess) afterwards.
Kakashi did his best Kool-aid Man impression to the cottage that Dotō was hiding away in nearby. Luckily, he wasn't hiding anywhere complex and figured one of the Kazahana properties would do. Dice came out in your favor on that one.
The rest of the captured ninja are secure in Castle Kazahana. Ichihara is in a secure room, while the Koyasu and Dotō are in separate cells in the dungeon. They won't be escaping anytime soon, as best as you can tell.
Kakashi has spent the rest of the 20th with this chapter, and has spent the 21st shadowing the daimyo and his family off screen. His Mild consequence has now healed. This country has excellent medicine for frostbite, who woulda thunk?
You've weaseled some information out of Dotō. He knows a dead drop location to get in contact with Rōga. Through this interrogation you have discovered one of Nadare Rōga's Aspects, 'Searching for Hidden Secrets'. You also have the heirloom that he is supposedly searching for. You will get 3 tags on this Aspect that can be used so long as you maintain possession of it, and the situation allows for it.
There may or may not be a bonus scene occurring during the 21st, pending me able to scrounge up the spoons for it. Mostly exposition and characterization, not anything actionable happening that you'd need.
What do you do now?
[] Leave a message at the dead drop location, arrange a meeting, let Rōga know you have the object he's looking for, and you're willing to make a deal.
[] Approach the Frost yakuza, offer to nuke their opposition in exchange for helping you take out some of the other Glacier jonin.
[] Make a public announcement in the middle of the city: You'll be publicly executing the Glacier ninja you've captured one by one until Rōga shows up to fight you man to man. He has three days to get his ass over here.
[] Hang tight and wait for them to make the first move. They'll have to do something eventually.
[] (write in)
Voting will close Saturday, January 16th, at 9am Pacific Time.
[x] Approach the Frost yakuza, offer to nuke their opposition in exchange for demonstrating their jutsu and also helping you take out some of the other Glacier ninja.
[x] Approach the Frost yakuza, offer to nuke their opposition in exchange for demonstrating their jutsu and also helping you take out some of the other Glacier ninja.
[x] Approach the Frost yakuza, offer to nuke their opposition in exchange for demonstrating their jutsu and also helping you take out some of the other Glacier ninja.
