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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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[x] Noburi Training Plan: Removing the Weights on Better Buffs
Hoz. Mantle 20 -> 29 (-112)
118 XP Remaining

With this, the debuff to Hoz. Mantle should be removed. Noburi's next step will be to raise SC to 20... unless the QMs rule that researching Vampiric Dew/Shadow Clone interactions doesn't count towards raising Shadow Clone, itself.

If this happens, then, we can funnel the XP that Noburi generates in the meantime towards raising Water Dragon Bullet, in preparation for Noburi's eventual WDB 40.
 
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@eaglejarl, @Velorien, @Paperclipped

This latest update showed several combat rolls where the characters took Consequences. It was also called out, narratively, by both Noburi and Mari, as a location that was too dangerous to remain. Did any of them unstagnate their combat domains, or make progress towards it?

EDIT: Further, did Noburi's medical treatment of these Consequences allow him to fully unstagnate his medical domain, or did it merely contribute towards an unstagnation --much like the Chakra Pool Cavern contributed to a medical unstagnation.
 
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Paperclipped said:
We're saying it'll be around six weeks till he has a suitable grasp of the basics to the point where he can then continue to improve on his own (a little less than Noburi's equivalent time-investment when he was at that point of his ninja career), so with the weekish here, around five weeks remain.
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That feels a little high. Hazō already has a decent grasp of Medical Knowledge, it's just the actual Ninjutsu he needs to develop.

For what it's worth, his teacher is way better in the subject than Noburi's was as well.
 
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So, where do we move camp to next?

The crazy duration of TR140 means that we want to choose very wisely... or go back down to TR130, and head toward a more temporary base in the Southern Isles or Northern Lightning or such.

Any ideas?

EDIT: by they way, helluva chapter!
Thank you @Paperclipped, and QMs in general.
 
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Paperclipped said:
It was a circular maw, large enough to swallow the Hokage Tower whole, and lined with teeth, each taller than a two-story building.
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Bless the Maker and all His Water. Bless the coming and going of Him, May His passing cleanse the world. May He keep the world for his people.

Paperclipped said:
Takes ?? stress passing through and destroying the skyslicers.
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Paperclipped said:
At this point, with its skyslicer injury stinging
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What? Skyslicers killed a dragon and this thing is just going straight through them? Was it like, a glacing blow? Or were the skyslicers configured such that the sandworm destroyed the seals before getting significantly sliced?

Paperclipped said:
"That's a reasonable worry," Hazou said. "But our tools are getting better. With your full-sky strategy, we didn't even take any injuries this last week. We're understanding the beasts better, and I'm making new runes. If we apply them right, we can reduce our risk even more."

"That's a possibility," Mari said. "But we've taken injuries in fights before this week, and we're still seeing the occasional beast. As someone who's been in more ninja fights than you've had game nights, a fight in which a teammate takes an injury is not that far from a fight in which a teammate dies. We're already pretty close to the edge. Plus, our defenses were supposed to be good enough. And they are really good – I'm guessing that something like eighty, ninety percent of beasts that would otherwise cause trouble are instead getting turned away at the door by the illusion seals or killed by Kagome's perimeters. Still, that still leaves a few that get through, and the thing about our defenses is that they carve off beasts from the bottom of the distribution more than the top.

"The ones that bypass our defenses make the most problems. Remember that giant rolling ball of fire that came at our skytower a couple days ago? We ran away from that, but who knows what will happen the next time a really weird beast is in the area. I can't tell you for sure how a beast kills us, because then I'd just tell Kagome and get the hole patched. I'm just saying that I'm getting an intuition, as the experienced jounin of the party, that if we stick around these parts, some of us are going to die. It would most likely be one of the weaker members of the party. Maybe Tenten first, since she can't reverse summon."
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@eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped Does Mari's risk assessment here take into account Iron Earth and Force Dome runes? If not, does she think the risk is acceptable if we were to set up defenses using those runes?
 
acidshill said:
What? Skyslicers killed a dragon and this thing is just going straight through them? Was it like, a glacing blow? Or were the skyslicers configured such that the sandworm destroyed the seals before getting significantly sliced?
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A few options come to mind:
  • It did in fact get sliced to pieces, but for a creature of its nature that's only a minor wound (perhaps strong regeneration).
    • As a sub-idea, it might be composed of countless smaller creatures that have no trouble re-integrating after being divided by wires (even if the ones in the line of fire got cut in half)
  • Its passage was preceded by enough heat to melt the wire, or by something sufficient to cause a chemical reaction that also breaks the effect.
  • It had tendrils that reached out and destroyed the chakra sources in the vicinity - i.e. the skyslicer seals - before it properly hit them.
  • It really was much tougher than the Dragon, physically, and the skyslicers broke before it did.
  • It used a freaky chakra-nullifying effect or other hax that invalidated the effect before it could reach them.
The phrasing seems to favour options that don't involve premature disabling of the skyslicers. I also note that the Dragons, while ancient eldritch beings of unfathomable power, are a very diverse group of creatures and there's no guarantee that they all have SS+ physical defenses by nature. IIRC we skysliced one of the more fleshy ones, so it could be that it really just wasn't as physically tough as it's possible to be, even by apex chakra beast standards.
 
Notes for days 1-13
Per the budget Hazou gets:
2 blocks per prep day (9 days) - 18 total
9 blocks per infusion day (2 days) - 18 total
0 per rest day (1 day) - 0 total
5 per travel day (1 day) - 4 (it's actually 4 cuz this was a combo rest/travel day)
Sir Stompy said:
Orochimaru's TH notes #4: S: 0, B: 134.4 R: 15.6
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6 blocks applied
Orochimaru's TH notes #4: S: 0, B: 150 R: 0
Sir Stompy said:
Orochimaru's TH notes #5: S: 0, B: 41.2, R: 58.8
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24 blocks applied
Orochimaru's TH notes #5: S: 0, B: 65.2, R: 34.8
Sir Stompy said:
Orochimaru's TH notes #6: S: 0, B: 20.8, R: 79.2
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8 blocks applied
Orochimaru's TH notes #6: S: 0, B: 36.8, R: 63.2
Sir Stompy said:
Orochimaru's TH notes #7: S: 0, B: 9.6, R: 40.4
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2 blocks applied
Orochimaru's TH notes #7: S: 0, B: 11.6, R: 38.4

Notes for Days 14-24
5 prep (10)
1 infusion (9)
1 rest (0)
Assuming Hazou does the smart thing and reads notes whenever he has free clone hours but no chakra for FOOM he should have gotten
15 blocks on day 14
9 blocks on day 15
12 blocks on day 23
0 blocks on day 24 (interrupted)

Orochimaru's TH notes #5: S: 0, B: 65.2, R: 34.8
18 blocks applied
Orochimaru's TH notes #5: S: 0, B: 100, R: 0

Orochimaru's TH notes #6: S: 0, B: 20.8, R: 79.2
24 blocks applied
Orochimaru's TH notes #6: S: 0, B: 68.8, R: 31.2

Orochimaru's TH notes #7: S: 0, B: 11.6, R: 38.4
10 blocks applied
Orochimaru's TH notes #7: S: 0, B: 21.6, R: 28.4
Sir Stompy said:
Orochimaru's TH notes #8: S: 0, B: 7.2, R: 42.8
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3 blocks applied
Orochimaru's TH notes #8: S: 0, B: 10.2, R: 39.8

Notes for days 25-34
No chakra for SC training on day 25.
Day 26/28, Hazou has 17 total blocks with the Moderate, spends 7 of them on Mednin + prep - 10 each
Day 27/29, 7 blocks each w/ SC training
Day 30, back to 19 blocks total, 9 for notes
Day 31, 15 blocks on notes - He might start Medknow notes
Day 32, 14 blocks on notes

Orochimaru's TH notes #6: S: 0, B: 68.8, R: 31.2
16 blocks applied
Orochimaru's TH notes #6: S: 0, B: 100, R: 0

Orochimaru's TH notes #7: S: 0, B: 21.6, R: 28.4
28 blocks applied
Orochimaru's TH notes #7: S: 0, B: 49.6, R: 0.4

Orochimaru's TH notes #8: S: 0, B: 10.2, R: 39.8
20 blocks applied
Orochimaru's TH notes #8: S: 0, B: 10.2, R: 19.8

We have 8 blocks remaining here, and no more sets of TH notes, Hazou will begin the Medknow notes

Shrooms said:
Orochimaru's MedKnow notes #1: S: 0, B: 0, R: 100
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8 blocks applied
Orochimaru's MedKnow notes #1: S: 0, B: 32, R: 68
 
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acidshill said:
@eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped Does Mari's risk assessment here take into account Iron Earth and Force Dome runes? If not, does she think the risk is acceptable if we were to set up defenses using those runes?
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I dunno. I read it as they're so big they just swallowed the entire skyslider trap whole. But on second thought yeah....What are skysliders attached to exactly? If they were attached to the ground, seals, or such, it make sense, but if they're just attached to nothing, and frozen and immovable in air then...???
 
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Inferno Vulpix said:
A few options come to mind:
  • It did in fact get sliced to pieces, but for a creature of its nature that's only a minor wound (perhaps strong regeneration).
    • As a sub-idea, it might be composed of countless smaller creatures that have no trouble re-integrating after being divided by wires (even if the ones in the line of fire got cut in half)
  • Its passage was preceded by enough heat to melt the wire, or by something sufficient to cause a chemical reaction that also breaks the effect.
  • It had tendrils that reached out and destroyed the chakra sources in the vicinity - i.e. the skyslicer seals - before it properly hit them.
  • It really was much tougher than the Dragon, physically, and the skyslicers broke before it did.
  • It used a freaky chakra-nullifying effect or other hax that invalidated the effect before it could reach them.
The phrasing seems to favour options that don't involve premature disabling of the skyslicers. I also note that the Dragons, while ancient eldritch beings of unfathomable power, are a very diverse group of creatures and there's no guarantee that they all have SS+ physical defenses by nature. IIRC we skysliced one of the more fleshy ones, so it could be that it really just wasn't as physically tough as it's possible to be, even by apex chakra beast standards.
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I got "the skyslicers were not large enough to kill the worm" vibes from the chapter.

We set very large nets to kill the Dragon and the sandworm was too big to take a serious wound from them. It also probably was big enough to destroy the supporting seals rendering the nets no longer invulnerable.
 
Rift-maker runes. listed in order of expected safety.

1) Null Rift
Opens a rift. This design attempts to avoid the targeting problem by identifying a trivial solution: the rift points to itself, and goes nowhere. Nonetheless, it is still a rift that other seals or runes could interact with.

2) Microrift Rune
Opens a tiny rift, as close to the rift-scar in size as possible.
Don't make an effort to deliberately target somewhere.

3) Pathbound Rift Rune
Opens a rift to another Path.
Don't make an effort to deliberately target a specific Path, any of the normal 7 Paths are fine.

4) Non-Spahgetti Rift Rune
Opens a rift to someplace with normal-ish physics. (three spacial dimensions, time goes forward, Newton's laws of motion apply, etc)
Don't make an effort to deliberately target anywhere, beyond "has normal-ish physics"

5) YOLO Rift Rune
Open a rift.


QMs, I recognize that you're quite limited on spoons for prep days at the moment. Unfortunetly, these aren't prep days we can afford to blow off or delay.

Would it help for the plan to say "prep day on [these five runes], research Hazoupilot's choice"?

This lets Hazoupilot pick whichever one he/you thinks is the best speed vs safety tradeoff, and go with it. No need to get bogged down trying to give us numbers for all of them.
 
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Paperclipped said:
Looking down, he could barely see the line in the sand where the Force Dome Rune had pushed and split grains of sand to dig into the earth.
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@eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped is it the case that the Force Dome Rune is capable of either digging into the earth as it forms the dome, or of simply forming the dome inside the earth and interpolating whatever matter is already there? I kinda feel like this has implications you guys would rather avoid (seals/runes being capable of forming chakra constructs inside of matter seems potentially problematic) and if so I encourage you to retcon the quoted sentence sooner rather than later.

If you're fine with this... time to research force sphere runes, I guess. Probably the ideal would be a force sphere with one or more doors that can be opened and closed at will.

And, since I forgot to mention this earlier: this was an excellent chapter. One of my favorite aspects of MfD is its cosmic horror, and Paper, you did a great job depicting that with the genjutsu jackals and general vibe of the chapter.
 
[X] Action Plan: The (Sand)worm's Turn
Word Count: <299
Duration: Until we reach our next destination (Until then/1.4 solar)
  • All Uplift
    • The most pessimistic timeline for Akatsuki opening the Rift is approaching (3 months objective).
      • Kei, what's your estimate for how much time remains?
    • Discuss contacting Orochimaru via dead drop in Arachnid, to set up a future binary signal for "you need to return to Leaf immediately".
      • This contradicts Naruto's orders, but what he doesn't know he can't leak.
      • What's the chance Orochimaru is compromised by Akatsuki?
      • What's the chance Orochimaru tries to harm Hazou through the dead drop?
      • There are some logistical workarounds necessary, since the Arachnids swore not to pass messages to Hazou/Kagome.
      • Seems doable using creative interpretations: an oathsworn Arachnid getting an unsworn Arachnid to pass messages.
    • If the team approves, compose a suitable dead-drop and leave it for Orochimaru.
      • Suggest including, and if approved, include the research notes for Force Domes, as payment.
    • Time to move.
      • Hazou favors Fang, the southwestern coast of Wind, far eastern Gaikotsu Bay, or the Southern Isles.
        • The first two are closer, but might have Akatsuki agents. The latter two are more remote.
        • The hunt should've left the Southern Isles by now, no?
  • Kei
    • Your leadership skills are getting rusty.
    • Could you practice leadership with your assigned team of Pangolins?
    • Failing that, could you try to practice leadership by contracting jounin Pangolins?
    • Take as much time away as needed.
  • Research
  • Head for the consensus destination after ELF Explosives finish.
    • Use ELFE on the camp's TR.
    • Determine if Force Domes are chakra constructs with chakrascope/MS8/Noburi.
 
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Left-Hand Mutant said:
1) Null Rift-Maker
Open a rift to the current(ie. Human) Path. preferably somewhere nearby.
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I object to this on copyright terms. My own Null Rift rune, linked below, is distinguished by trying to avoid the problem of targeting entirely, not by setting a constraint like "on the Human path, somewhere nearby". I get that you're trying to come up with other ideas for easy rift tech, but this name is already taken.
Inferno Vulpix said:
Null Rift

Rune

Opens a rift. This design attempts to avoid the targeting problem by identifying a trivial solution: the rift points to itself, and goes nowhere. Nonetheless, it is still a rift that other seals or runes could interact with.
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(I should stress, the point of this rift is that if the endpoint is the same as the startpoint then you don't have to define any reference system for the rift. Whatever coordinate system you use, the displacement between startpoint and endpoint is 0. The impression I have is that any kind of targeting at all is an extremely hard problem, and so I'm trying to define an operation that, in a very meaningful way, does not need to target at all.)

((Also, it would take us approximately five minutes to start charting out how to turn "it opens a portal to somewhere nearby" into a variety of very useful rift applications. I don't think "Null Rift" suits that very well.))
 
Sir Stompy said:
Kei
  • Your leadership skills are getting rusty.
  • Hazou realizes you're in a rough spot with the Pangolins right now.
  • Could you possibly lead them to be less genocidal? Or inspire them not to kill their prisoners etc.
  • Failing that, could you try to practice leadership by contacting some jounin Pangolins?
  • We could use the extra firepower...
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I suspect this, as implemented by Hazoupilot, would make Kei upset. My proposed revision:
  • Kei
    • As your training advisor: this would be an especially good time to challenge your leadership skills
    • You may be able to do this with the Pangolins
    • Is there anything we can do to help you in this matter?
 
Inferno Vulpix said:
I object to this on copyright terms. My own Null Rift rune, linked below, is distinguished by trying to avoid the problem of targeting entirely, not by setting a constraint like "on the Human path, somewhere nearby". I get that you're trying to come up with other ideas for easy rift tech, but this name is already taken.

(I should stress, the point of this rift is that if the endpoint is the same as the startpoint then you don't have to define any reference system for the rift. Whatever coordinate system you use, the displacement between startpoint and endpoint is 0. The impression I have is that any kind of targeting at all is an extremely hard problem, and so I'm trying to define an operation that, in a very meaningful way, does not need to target at all.)

((Also, it would take us approximately five minutes to start charting out how to turn "it opens a portal to somewhere nearby" into a variety of very useful rift applications. I don't think "Null Rift" suits that very well.))
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Oop, changed. I was shooting for an even-easier version by not even trying to specify the endpoint at all, but I'll stick with your vision.

Left-Hand Mutant said:
1) Null Rift
Opens a rift. This design attempts to avoid the targeting problem by identifying a trivial solution: the rift points to itself, and goes nowhere. Nonetheless, it is still a rift that other seals or runes could interact with.
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Does that look better?
 
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acidshill said:
I suspect this, as implemented by Hazoupilot, would make Kei upset.
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Yes that's the point :Hazoulook

Shrooms said:
Did we ever even explain that we had such orders?
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We can do "This is contradictory to Naruto's orders (explain his orders), but what he doesn't know he can't leak to Itachi"

Paperclipped said:
Hazou (Athletics): 37 + 3 (IN) + 6 (boost) + 5 (Skywalkers) + 10 (invoke "(Formerly (Formerly)) Marked for Death" + invoke "Team Uplift") + 5 (tag Kagome's Perimeter forewarning) + 0 = 66
That's enough to survive, but not enough to avoid taking a Severe! Hazou has only 1 FP left, so he cannot buy enough half-tags to avoid taking a Severe! Hazou will reroll: a +6 or above will let him dodge a Severe, but a -9 or below would kill him. Taking a Severe would jeopardize the mission and risk far more than his life, so Hazou's willing to take the gamble based on recent characterization of him being super mission-driven. In most worlds, the result is the same as it currently is.
Hazou (Athletics): 37 + 3 (IN) + 6 (boost) + 5 (Skywalkers) + 10 (invoke "(Formerly (Formerly)) Marked for Death" + invoke "Team Uplift") + 5 (tag Kagome's Perimeter forewarning) + 6 = 72
Hazou takes 8 + 2 = 10 stress! PCJ soaks 2 and pops! His stress track soaks 3! Hazou takes a Mild and Medium Consequence!
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@eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped

I'm not asking for a whole combat unstagnation from this, but how about some progress towards the next one?
 
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