Cariyaga
Handsome Gentleperson
- Location
- United States
Honestly, I really look forward to Hazou having a more holistic grasp of the setting's magic. It's neat!
Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
- Start date
-
- Tags
- naruto rationalist romance armageddon is looking better and better damn you kishimoto explosions everywhere explosives solve everyone if in doubt surrender to the mercy of zabuza it seemed like a good idea at the time looks like a really bad case of being a jōnin my god. where does the lore end? precommitting is the winning plan screaming in kagome screw the rules i have explosives something bad might still happen sometimes you gotta sociopath stabby zabby subsection c of paragraph 9 should include we can weaponize this so hard
Cariyaga
Handsome Gentleperson
- Location
- United States
Well, we're working on the "die" part of scry and die, so how about the other?
Distant Mirror Rune (aka Scrying Rune; if you'd like to use the latter name in-character that's fine, I just thought I'd provide you an in-universe-compatible name too)
Projects an image as the landscape-equivalent of the clone technique (a hologram, in RL-terms) of a given volume of space up to [X] distance away as if an eyeball were at a spot, though it is not one, where X is whatever Hazou thinks is easiest, to start. The location of the sensor may be changed while the rune is active.
(As for how it is changed, and this is just a suggestion and does not in any way prescribe that other runes will be capable of being interacted with similarly: I was musing on it as being based on chakra repulsion against the surface of the rune. The closer to the "bottom" you start, the more fine grained the movement, the closer to the top, the faster and farther it'll go. A second concurrent chakra repulsion adjusts the viewing angle.)
Ideally, the sensor is invisible and intangible (can freely pass through walls), although these are stretch goals that may freely be dropped if Hazou thinks it renders it too difficult. Ideally, the sensor takes continuous video; if that is too difficult, to start, Hazou can instead choose to make one that creates a single still image.
Design priorities are, in order:
1: Hazou can research it and it gives veterancy toward the higher-numbered design priorities
2: It allows for visual viewing of a distant area
3: Range
4: Adjustment of location viewed while rune is active
5: Video view, as opposed to snapshot
6: Viewport is invisible/intangible
These are not strict; if Hazou thinks one of the lower ones would be really easy to add (a cost of like, +1 TN or some such) by all means add it.
On-research-finish questions that we will inevitably ask: Can Noburi detect it? Can anti-hyuuga seals block it?
Suggested answers: No (this provides no information as to whether other people can, but it doesn't appear as a chakra-based effect, being runic in nature), no (anti-hyuuga seals block the particular chakra effect the byakugan uses).
Distant Mirror Rune (aka Scrying Rune; if you'd like to use the latter name in-character that's fine, I just thought I'd provide you an in-universe-compatible name too)
Projects an image as the landscape-equivalent of the clone technique (a hologram, in RL-terms) of a given volume of space up to [X] distance away as if an eyeball were at a spot, though it is not one, where X is whatever Hazou thinks is easiest, to start. The location of the sensor may be changed while the rune is active.
(As for how it is changed, and this is just a suggestion and does not in any way prescribe that other runes will be capable of being interacted with similarly: I was musing on it as being based on chakra repulsion against the surface of the rune. The closer to the "bottom" you start, the more fine grained the movement, the closer to the top, the faster and farther it'll go. A second concurrent chakra repulsion adjusts the viewing angle.)
Ideally, the sensor is invisible and intangible (can freely pass through walls), although these are stretch goals that may freely be dropped if Hazou thinks it renders it too difficult. Ideally, the sensor takes continuous video; if that is too difficult, to start, Hazou can instead choose to make one that creates a single still image.
Design priorities are, in order:
1: Hazou can research it and it gives veterancy toward the higher-numbered design priorities
2: It allows for visual viewing of a distant area
3: Range
4: Adjustment of location viewed while rune is active
5: Video view, as opposed to snapshot
6: Viewport is invisible/intangible
These are not strict; if Hazou thinks one of the lower ones would be really easy to add (a cost of like, +1 TN or some such) by all means add it.
On-research-finish questions that we will inevitably ask: Can Noburi detect it? Can anti-hyuuga seals block it?
Suggested answers: No (this provides no information as to whether other people can, but it doesn't appear as a chakra-based effect, being runic in nature), no (anti-hyuuga seals block the particular chakra effect the byakugan uses).
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- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Idle question, @Velorien, @eaglejarl, @Paperclipped
We've made no secret about our plans to do major THing to Earthshaping once Hazou reaches THing 40.
However, the THing Mechanics have no real clause for veterancy, so there's a very real possibility that this would be Hazou's second ever attempt at THing. But mechanics are supposed to align with the narrative, and it is the mechanics that change to better suit the narrative, rather than the other way around.
And making such a big project Hazou's second-ever THing work seems... narratively dubious.
So, my question is this:
Should Hazou tackle such a major THing project as Earthshaping without much in the way of practical experience, would Hazou receive a demerit/debuff/higher TN for that project, since his knowledge would be mostly theory-work, rather than practical experience?
Namely: Should we do random Earth Element THing projects to build up Hazou's experience, before we tackle such a project?
We've made no secret about our plans to do major THing to Earthshaping once Hazou reaches THing 40.
However, the THing Mechanics have no real clause for veterancy, so there's a very real possibility that this would be Hazou's second ever attempt at THing. But mechanics are supposed to align with the narrative, and it is the mechanics that change to better suit the narrative, rather than the other way around.
And making such a big project Hazou's second-ever THing work seems... narratively dubious.
So, my question is this:
Should Hazou tackle such a major THing project as Earthshaping without much in the way of practical experience, would Hazou receive a demerit/debuff/higher TN for that project, since his knowledge would be mostly theory-work, rather than practical experience?
Namely: Should we do random Earth Element THing projects to build up Hazou's experience, before we tackle such a project?
PLTR 125 was voted in but looks like Hazou skipped it in the update, we'll need to do it again (probably should have done it this plan but I forgor)
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- Location
- The Void
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Thank you. Also I want to suggest that next cycle we use a check on the gravity rune you proposed
Did you mean Tobirama? Because IIRC Minato did not make Flying Thunder God Technique.
Maybe that's what Minato did, realize that seals can affect spacetime pretty easily and then combine the art of casting jutsu with sealing. If you can cast a jutsu that creates a seal that affects spacetime, or make a chakra construct that affects spacetime attached to your chakra network, then it seems like it would be easier than to reconstruct spacetime TH theory from scratch.
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Like many ninja who weren't around in Tobirama's day, Hazō thinks he did.
So Hazou is unaware of this, or you guys actually decided to change it?
Inb4 the HDK
Speaking as the person whose idea it is, I think it's fine not to have done it for this plan (which is why I didn't push for it); it's a short one, and the six prep days already in there will probably use up most of our time constructively. That said, I would very much like to find out if it's possible or not - it's been nearly five months since it was voted in for the first time! - so would very much appreciate it being in the upcoming plan.
Hm... hologram might not be understood by Hazo. Maybe something like "a facsimile of a location by creating clones of them", directly using chakra as the mechanism?
- Location
- Yes.
Call it the landscape equivalent of the standard Clone Technique.
Cariyaga
Handsome Gentleperson
- Location
- United States
Editted in! Also adjusted the "lesser effect but easier" section to include a spot for "distant snapshot" rather than "distant video". It's much less effective, but still pretty handy, and good veterancy.
e: Oh, I should make note: A part of the reason I'm pushing this is because it's a good way to keep an eye on the afterlife rift.
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- Location
- U.S.
I like the idea but I think the formatting should be different, with 'design priorities'. For example:
Distant Mirror Rune
Allows for the viewing of distant areas as a landscape-clone, like a video feed. You can change the viewed location after infusing the rune by interacting with the rune somehow, such as chakra adhesion.
Design priorities:
1: Hazo can actually research it.
2: It allows for visually viewing a distant area.
3: It has as long of a range as possible
4: You can change the view position after infusion somehow.
5: The view is 'video', as opposed to a single snapshot 'picture' or similar.
6: The viewport/sensor/camera/whateveryacallit of the rune is invisible.
The idea behind this is that it makes it clearer to the QMs on how to interpret the rune description. They can more clearly see what parts of the design are critical vs useful vs a mere bonus.
Cariyaga
Handsome Gentleperson
- Location
- United States
Added a design priorities listing.
- Location
- Liverpool
There is a clause for veterancy, so the simulation does already track. Also, with this in mind, I wrote a bit titled "Technique Hacking Effort Post for the Future", on the best path. Very short version is that living roots is a best veterancy builder, but trying on a couple of the decent-looking Earth jutsu we didn't invest in yet would also be good fodder.
[X] Orochimaru is a monster and should be reformed.
I fully admit that my reasons for why we should try reform rather than eliminate him in a more permanent way are not logically based, given just how big the unknowns are for reform. I mostly think it would make for a better story with better themes. I also think that it is the sort of thing that would be poorly emulated by the social stats of the system, and would be better resolved through roleplay rather than opposed rolls (so to speak) and I don't know if the GMs are up for something like that, or how we would go about trying.
I fully admit that my reasons for why we should try reform rather than eliminate him in a more permanent way are not logically based, given just how big the unknowns are for reform. I mostly think it would make for a better story with better themes. I also think that it is the sort of thing that would be poorly emulated by the social stats of the system, and would be better resolved through roleplay rather than opposed rolls (so to speak) and I don't know if the GMs are up for something like that, or how we would go about trying.
- Location
- Washington, USA
He's familiar enough with illusions to be using them for campsite perimeter defense, familiar enough with telescopes to use for scouting, and familiar enough with the Hyuga to understand an occasional need for anti-seeing-through-walls sealtech. This would simply be an illusory image of a different location, possibly scaled down for convenience, like a telescope which can see through walls.
Chapter 684: Relocation
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"So..." Hazō began.
Around the fire, everyone groaned. Noburi threw a piece of honeybread at his brother with a "Boo! No serious stuff over dessert!"
"How do you know it's serious stuff?" Hazō demanded with injured innocence. "Maybe I'm going to say, 'so, I solved all our problems today'. You don't know."
"You only use that tone when you've got Things To Discuss," Mari said, leaning on the final words.
"Let us make it simpler," Kei said. "Did you solve all our problems today?"
"Well...no. But that wasn't what I wanted to talk about!"
More honeybread flew, along with a single blueberry. (Among the many reasons storage seals were awesome: out-of-season fruit compote!)
"Be serious, please," Hazō said. "This is important."
Sighs.
"My most pessimistic estimate for when Akatsuki could open the rift was three months," he continued. "We're coming up on that. Also, we've been in this location for a while, it's proving to be more dangerous than we bargained for, and I'd like to start talking about where we go next." Hazō held up a hand in a 'wait' gesture. "I don't want to move until I've finished my current project, the Extremely Long Fuse Explosive seal. I'm not comfortable leaving rune blanks and even active runes behind every time we move. I'm working on an explosive seal with a fuse of up to a year. I figure we put it next to the rune we want to destroy, set the timer for a month, and bounce."
Frowns.
"Is that safe?" Noburi asked. "Sounds like a good way to get a runic failure."
Hazō shook his head. "We won't use it to destroy any active runes. Most of the long-duration runes I've come up with this far automatically shut down after about a month. The timer on the ELFE—"
"Elfy?" Mari asked. "You seriously named your super destructive thing 'elfy'?"
"ELF-E," Hazō said. "Extremely Long Fuse Explosive."
"Nope." Crimson hair shook in a faint susurration. "From now on it's Elfy."
Hazō opened his mouth, suddenly remembered a slew of old sayings such as 'pick your battles', 'stay on mission', and 'lose the battle so you may win the war', and shut his mouth again.
"Fine, it's Elfy. Whatever, the point is that we set the timer for after the active rune expires, then when it blows there's no runic material or blanks sitting around for other people to study."
"Instead there's a large crater covered in crystal shards to mark the site," Snowflake noted. "Doesn't that call attention to our tracks?"
"By the time anyone finds one of those sites, we'll have been gone for weeks. And I can probably figure something out to make it less obvious. Anyway, not the point. The point is that we're getting close to the point when Akatsuki might have figured out how to open the rift.
"And this is why we don't discuss serious stuff over dessert," Mari said, setting her fruit compote down. "Now my stomach is all twisty."
"Even once they get the rift open, they'll still have to search for Pain," Snowflake said. "He won't be standing at the entrance."
Hazō shook his head. "Don't forget Hidan and his ridiculous tracking abilities. Apparently Jashin will lead him to his target."
"Hasn't so far," Kagome-sensei noted. "We're still here."
"Lord Jashin loves Hazō," Yuno pointed out quietly. "Hazō is high priest of His aspect of Birth."
Everyone took a moment to digest that.
"Leaving aside for a moment the question of Hidan seeking us," Kei said, "for safety we should assume that Hazō is correct. When we seek to recover Jiraiya and Akane, we shall need to hunt. Hidan may be able to walk directly to Pain."
"I've got three questions," Hazō said. "Kei, I know this is asking a lot, but can you make any estimate of how long we might have left before Akatsuki cracks the rift?"
She shook her head. "Optimization and estimation rely on accurate and sufficient data. I have no way to judge the difficulty of the task, the skill of Akatsuki's sealmasters, the existence and nature of any resources required, or Akatsuki's access to such hypothetical resources."
"Fair enough. That leads into my second question: we need some way to know when Akatsuki cracks the rift. One potential method would be to leave a dead drop in Arachnid for Orochimaru. We ask Kumokōgō to please pass on only one single message: 'you need to return to Leaf immediately'. That way we can't be influenced by threats and we only come back when Orochimaru decides it's necessary. It's against Naruto's orders, but what he doesn't know he can't leak."
Everyone took a moment to digest that.
"That is...beyond playing with fire," Mari said slowly.
"Hang on," Noburi said, eyes narrowing. He had been reclining with Yuno leaned against him but now he lifted her gently off so that he could sit up, eyes narrowed at Hazō. "'Return to Leaf'? We're missing-nin. Sure, you made that big speech about how if we managed to kill Akatsuki then we'll be welcomed back and Naruto will back-date orders, but why would it be safe for us to return before we've done that?"
"Same way that we got in the first time," Mari interjected before Hazō could come up with anything. "Offer up enough good stuff, any village is glad to have you. We simply tell them that we were never missing. Hazō went on a research mission, which he properly cleared with the Hokage, and the rest of us decided to join him as a family vacation. If they thought we were missing...well, that was their mistake and we are frankly disappointed in them for jumping to such a ridiculous conclusion."
"There is no way that's going to pass," Noburi said. "No. Way."
The jōnin shrugged. "You'd be surprised at how much you can get away with given enough raw audacity. If something is simply too far out of whack, people's brain try to backfill an answer that makes things seem reasonable." She chuckled. "One time, I ran through a restaurant wearing a nighty and pushing a wheelbarrow, shouting 'Quick! Put all your food in here, no time to explain!'" When I got to the end of the line I pulled a guy to his feet and said 'You're strong, push this and follow me!' Then I turned to the two guys sitting with him and said 'Go get the Jōnin Commander and the Kage, have them meet us at Torture and Interrogation!'"
Everyone stared at her.
"...Ohhhhkay," Hazō said after a minute. "And why did you do all this?"
"Glad you asked! The guy I told to push the wheelbarrow was the civilian spy I was there to extract. He and I ran the wheelbarrow out to the front gate and told the guards to 'Open it! We have to get this stuff outside before it explodes!' They opened the gate and let us out."
She took a sip from her flask, grinning impishly, and chuckled at the memory before casting it aside with a casual shrug.
"More seriously," she said, "we're coming back with megaexplosives, some of which have timers long enough that an infiltration team could be all the way back in Leaf and thoroughly alibied before they went off. We've got protective runes, this that and the other thing runes, and, oh yes, time manipulation runes. Runes that let Leaf's ninja advance faster than those of any other nation. You can bet your adorable little boots that Leaf would take us back."
"And Akatsuki?" Snowflake asked.
"Beyond my pay grade," Mari said. "That's for Clan Heads to solve, not poor overworked rank-and-file ninja like me."
"Rank-and-file," Hazō said, snorting with derision. "Hardly. Anyway, if we could please get back to the main point: I am not advocating this idea, I am exploring it. We set up a dead-drop with Orochimaru such that he and only he can send us exactly one message: come home immediately. This lets us know when we're out of time and need to move against Akatsuki.
"The real problem is Orochimaru. What are the chances he's been compromised by Akatsuki?"
Everyone looked at Kei. Kei looked grumpy.
"This is a woefully underspecified question," she complained. "The multitude of definitions for 'compromised' alone make it—"
"Your best guess," Hazō said. "It'll be better than everyone else's detailed study."
"Do not for a moment think that you can push aside my rightful irritation by means of such transparent flattery, Hazō. I—"
"Can consider all of the castigating remarks to have been made and cut to the chase," Hazō said with a smile. "Give us your best guess, Kei."
"...Fine." She paused to think, her face going blank as she reached out to the Ice. (Reached Out to the Ice?)
"It seems highly unlikely that Akatsuki has control of Orochimaru," she said, her voice remote. "He has few levers and values his freedom to an inordinate degree. Were anyone to find a valid means of coercion he would most likely simply depart from Leaf. He undoubtedly still has a large number of bases and resources hidden outside the city."
"Great. What are the chances that he tries to hurt me through the dead drop?"
"The mere action is impractical. You need only ask your escort to ensure that he is not present before you speak to the Empress. Were he to attempt leaving an explosive, a snake, or such, it would undoubtedly be found."
"Great," Hazō said. "Now, there's one problem: the spiders promised that they wouldn't pass messages to us, so we'd need to do some kind of workaround. Have an oathsworn Arachnid use an unsworn Arachnid to pass messages, something like that. Do you see any issues with that?"
"Obviously, it would be catastrophic. Just as Cannai was displeased with you attempting to go behind his back in assembling a diplomatic mission, Kumokōgō will be displeased with you attempting to suborn her people into breaking her oath."
"Ah." Having been on the receiving end of a Clan Lord's displeasure, Hazō was not eager to repeat the experience. "Well...maybe I can release her from the oath or get her to modify it. Something."
"Perhaps."
"You're leaving out the key part," Noburi said. "It's Orochimaru. Y'know, the guy who wanted to vivisect you and Kei? Why would you trust him for something like this?"
"He's the only one who could do it," Hazō said. "We can't go through Naruto because Akatsuki will be checking in with him and he's clearly such a little wuss that he'll give up the instant they frown at him, so—"
"Hazō." Mari's tone was sharp. "He's a teenage boy who was starved, abused, and tortured for months before being used as fuel for a ritual we don't know the nature of. That would traumatize anyone even if done by normal means but, according to Orochimaru's dossier, the Sharingan has an ability that imposes torture beyond what is physically possible. If you think you could go through all that and not leak information when your torturer shows up to question you then you aren't as smart as I think you are. And you are far too demanding."
Hazō tossed one hand in momentary acknowledgement. "Fine, whatever. Reasonable or not, Naruto can't keep secrets from them so we can't use him as our point of contact. We need a summoner so we can make contact on the Seventh Path instead of having to sneak in where we might be spotted. We need a summoner who has contracts co-located with our contracts, and we need someone who checks in with their summons regularly. That leaves out basically everyone except Orochimaru."
Everyone digested yet another unappetizing point.
"I hate absolutely everything about this idea," Noburi said.
"It seems extremely risky," Yuno offered, her voice tentative. "What if he made a deal with Akatsuki to hand you over in exchange for something he wanted?"
"I think that, oh rats." Snowflake began to speak and then disappeared as her time ran out. Moments later she was back as Kei re-cast the Shadow Clone jutsu.
"I think that you are far too comfortable with the idea of Orochimaru," she continued, offering her creator a brief nod of thanks as she re-affixed her ribbon of distinction.
"Not...really?" Hazō said. "I think I understand him, at least a little bit. He doesn't like people, he wants to be left alone to do his work, but he's very smart and he always chooses long-term over short-term."
"Kagome?" Mari asked. "You're being very quiet."
Kagome-sensei shrugged, not taking his eyes off the piece he was whittling. It appeared to be an musical instrument of some kind, perhaps a recorder.
"It's obvious we're going to do it," he said casually. "Best to let everyone get their concerns out. Hazō will wear them down eventually."
Hazō looked at his teacher in surprise. "Sensei? Do you think it's a bad idea?"
Kagome-sensei let his hands drop into his lap and stared at Hazō in surprise. "Of course it's a bad idea! Dealing with that stinker is always a bad idea! Except in this particular case it's a less-bad bad idea than not dealing with him. We need to know when those schnooks get the rift open and it's either let Snakeschnook tell us or we have to go scout it ourselves, which I'm not happy about. If we don't have some way of knowing when they get it open then we could be sitting out here, dumb and happy, researching things that we don't have time to finish before they get their leader back and put lupchanz in everyone's ears so that we all act nice and loyal and don't fight or yell at each other anymore."
No one spoke.
"That...is an entirely valid point," Mari admitted after at least a minute. She laughed. "What is the world coming to when dealing with Orochimaru and potentially pissing off the Boss of one of the largest and most powerful clans on the Seventh Path is our safest option?"
No one spoke.
"Okay," Noburi said, visibly putting the topic aside. "So, you were mentioning relocating? Where to?"
"There's a few options," Hazō began.
"If the next words out of your lips are anything other than 'the Southern Isles', I swear by the Sage I will shave you bald and tattoo 'I am an idiot' on your forehead," Mari said. Her voice was entirely sincere. "I have had enough of roughing it in the desert—"
"'Roughing it'?" Hazō asked, looking pointedly at the small bowl of blueberries, raspberries, and cream in blackberry compote that she was eating, before sweeping his gaze across the camp chairs and piles of pillows.
"—sand constantly in my fruit compote, completely unable to sleep because of the monsters attacking us at all hours, never feeling completely clean because the stream is so loaded with minerals, my clothes always crusty—"
"I'm not sure you've worn the same outfit twice since we left Leaf," Hazō objected.
"—and all the other privations I have suffered through with such grace and good cheer! If crazy terrorist demigods are maybe going to end the world, you will take me on a holiday to beautiful sunny islands first!"
Hazō raised his hands in surrender. "The Southern Isles it is. Unless anyone else objects?"
"I have wanted to see them ever since Noburi told me of your last visit there," Yuno said. "They sound beautiful. And perhaps we could go past that island with the giant crabs that have chakra metal in their shells? Satsuko and I would like to see those crabs."
"Kei, do you foresee any specific reasonable circumstance that would make it more dangerous for us to go to the Isles than anywhere else?" Hazō asked, suppressing a smile as long experience allowed him to phrase the question in a way that left her no objection.
She glowered at him but finally admitted, "No, I do not."
"Great! It's a plan. Now, we're not leaving until I finish..." He sighed, then bowed to the inevitable. "Elfy."
"You had best finish it quick," Mari warned, fiddling with a blade that she hadn't been holding a moment before.
"Ha...right. Yes, I'll be as quick as I can. In fact, I'll go to bed now so that I can get started early tomorrow. G'night!"
Author's Note: I will leave the conversation with Kei for @Velorien if he wishes to write it, or we can assume it happened offscreen.
Day 1
Prep Remote Explosive. Difficulty Result: Easy.
Prep Landmine Rune. Difficulty Result: Easy.
Prep ELF Explosive. Difficulty Result: Chūnin.
Prep Null Rift Rune. Difficulty Result: Hard. A rift is by definition a hole between two dimensions, meaning that Hazō has no idea how to create a rift from one Path to the same Path. He cannot rule out the possibility of a portal effect from one point on the Human Path to another but that would be distinct from a rift.
Easy runes only require one of full-prep or DoB, and these runes were assigned DoB-status, so Hazō can rip it ASAP on those, but chūnin seals require one of DoB or 5 days of prep, so Hazō will prep for a full rune-cycle before infusion in order to sync up the cycles.
Day 2
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Prep Microrift Rune. Difficulty Result: Easy. Hazō notes that this rune could be potentially extremely dangerous, as he has no control over whether the rune connects to a Path, the Out, or something else entirely. He would rather not accidentally connect a particularly dangerous/malevolent part of the Out to the Path where he lives…
Day 3
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Prep Pathbound Rift Rune. Difficulty Result: Hard. Without any way to target, Hazō thinks he might be able to target a random location on the Paths, but he doesn't know for sure whether it's possible, much less any information about where the rift would actually open. He does think that the targeting problem might be ultimately solvable if he were willing to open hundreds of rifts in the process.
Day 4
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Prep Contracting Force Dome Rune. Difficulty Result: Hard.
Day 5
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Prep Space-Contracter Rune. Hazō doesn't know how much compression he can manage with runes, but he thinks that starting with 2000x+ would be too much to ask for. He'd rather start smaller and chain up, so he preps a variant which compresses a cylinder of space 10 meters long and 10cm in diameter down to a cylinder 0.1 meters long and 10cm in diameter. Difficulty Result: Medium.
Day 6
Infuse Remote Explosive.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) - 3 = 51
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 9 = 84
Hazō makes massive progress; he thinks he's over halfway done with this rune!
Infuse Landmine Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) + 0 = 54
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 0 = 75
Hazō makes massive progress; he thinks he's over halfway done with this rune!
Infuse ELF Explosive.
Hazō (Calligraphy): 47 + 3 (Dampeners) + 10 (prep) - 3 = 57
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 53 + 10 (prep) - 3 = 60
Hazō makes substantial progress, he thinks he's a third of the way done. He thinks he could probably afford to drop some prep, but he'll give it another cycle before making such decisions…
Prep Great Seal.
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 18 (crossover bonus from unboosted Sealing) + 6 = 55
Result: [TBD]
Day 7
DoB rest.
Day 8
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
A "track" worth of clone-hours from here on out is spent on seal-scribing, stockpiling skywalkers for the big trip to the southern isles.
Day 9
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 10
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 11
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 12
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 13
Infuse Remote Explosive.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 10 (prep) + 0 = 54
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 3 = 72
Hazō completes the Remote Explosive Rune!
Mechanics:
The blank is 5x larger (i.e., consumes 5x more substrate) than an equivalent explosive rune and can be made in the same sizes as an explosive rune (puffer, training, full strength). It is shaped like a point-type crystal instead of being approximately spherical.
At infusion time, the creator chooses a distance to target, which can be anything up to 1 mile. This is the maximum range that the rune can fire, not a fixed distance. (In general you will probably always choose the 1 mile range but you have the option to choose shorter if, e.g., you are giving the rune to someone else and want to disguise its full capability.)
Activating the rune is a Standard action. Upon activation, the air within 3 zones of the rune starts to faintly ripple and warp and there is a clearly audible hum that steadily builds in intensity. Shortly thereafter, the rune triggers, and the effects of an explosive rune occur within a zone in front of the crystal's point and distance-to-target away.
The rune can be slowly rotated in three dimensions in order to change the target zone. It will typically require at least a Standard action to get it rotated and on target and may require several such actions.
The rune can fire up to 3 times and then burns out. It deactivates after firing, meaning you need to reactivate it for each new shot. [The rate of fire is still under QM discussion]
Sighting in the rune requires at least one practice shot. When you initially fire it, you choose a zone within the range and flip a coin. If the coin lands heads then you hit the target zone. If it lands tails then it hits a randomly-selected adjacent zone. The shot-drift is consistent for a specific rune so once you have done the sighting shot you can always hit the target zone even when retargeting. Each individual rune must be sighted separately.
The rune requires line of effect but not line of sight. That means you can shoot through (e.g.) the canopy of a forest but not through (e.g.) a Force Dome.
Infuse Landmine Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 10 (prep) + 12 = 66
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 3 = 78
Hazō completes the Landmine Rune!
Mechanics:
After a small amount of chakra (seal-activation levels) is applied to the rune's surface, the rune's humming/glowing quickly crescendos. At the same point in the next combat round, the rune suddenly explodes (so if Hazō triggers the Landmine Rune on Round 1, it activates on Hazō's initiative in Round 2).
Same mechanics as the explosive rune, but triggers much quicker. Compatible with ARS/MARS.
Infuse ELF Explosive.
Hazō (Calligraphy): 47 + 3 (Dampeners) + 10 (prep) + 12 = 72
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 53 + 10 (prep) - 3 = 60
Hazō thinks he should finish this seal in another cycle. He thinks he could skip prep, but at this point, it won't save much time and will add some risk, especially given that he's going to be trying new runes next cycle. His Calligraphy is so high that he thinks that Sealing is his limiting factor here, and without DoB, that's pretty limiting. He thinks he could have gotten this seal done in 4-6 days if he'd been willing to spend a DoB track on it.
Day 14
DoB rest.
Day 15
Prep Storm Rune. Difficulty Result: Easy.
Prep Air Leadening. Difficulty Result: Easy.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 16
Prep Storm Rune.
Prep Air Leadening.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 17
Prep Storm Rune.
Prep Air Leadening.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 18
Prep Storm Rune.
Prep Air Leadening.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 19
Prep Storm Rune.
Prep Air Leadening.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 20
Infuse Storm Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 10 (prep) + 6 = 60
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 9 = 66
Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 3 = 72
Hazō thinks he's about a third of the way done with this rune.
Infuse Air Leadening Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 10 (prep) - 6 = 48
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 0 = 75
Hazō thinks he's also about a third of the way done with this rune. This has a pretty similar difficulty to the Storm Rune.
Infuse ELF Explosive.
Hazō (Calligraphy): 47 + 3 (Dampeners) + 10 (prep) + 3 = 63
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 53 + 10 (prep) - 6 = 57
Probably won't cause a sealing failure, but Hazō doesn't want to spend even more time on this seal if this roll by chance happens to prevent the seal from completing… Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 53 + 10 (prep) + 6 = 69
Hazō completes the ELF Explosive!
Day 21
DoB rest, starting travel to the Southern Isles.
Prep Remote Explosive. Difficulty Result: Easy.
Prep Landmine Rune. Difficulty Result: Easy.
Prep ELF Explosive. Difficulty Result: Chūnin.
Prep Null Rift Rune. Difficulty Result: Hard. A rift is by definition a hole between two dimensions, meaning that Hazō has no idea how to create a rift from one Path to the same Path. He cannot rule out the possibility of a portal effect from one point on the Human Path to another but that would be distinct from a rift.
Easy runes only require one of full-prep or DoB, and these runes were assigned DoB-status, so Hazō can rip it ASAP on those, but chūnin seals require one of DoB or 5 days of prep, so Hazō will prep for a full rune-cycle before infusion in order to sync up the cycles.
Day 2
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Prep Microrift Rune. Difficulty Result: Easy. Hazō notes that this rune could be potentially extremely dangerous, as he has no control over whether the rune connects to a Path, the Out, or something else entirely. He would rather not accidentally connect a particularly dangerous/malevolent part of the Out to the Path where he lives…
Day 3
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Prep Pathbound Rift Rune. Difficulty Result: Hard. Without any way to target, Hazō thinks he might be able to target a random location on the Paths, but he doesn't know for sure whether it's possible, much less any information about where the rift would actually open. He does think that the targeting problem might be ultimately solvable if he were willing to open hundreds of rifts in the process.
Day 4
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Prep Contracting Force Dome Rune. Difficulty Result: Hard.
Day 5
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Prep Space-Contracter Rune. Hazō doesn't know how much compression he can manage with runes, but he thinks that starting with 2000x+ would be too much to ask for. He'd rather start smaller and chain up, so he preps a variant which compresses a cylinder of space 10 meters long and 10cm in diameter down to a cylinder 0.1 meters long and 10cm in diameter. Difficulty Result: Medium.
Day 6
Infuse Remote Explosive.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) - 3 = 51
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 9 = 84
Hazō makes massive progress; he thinks he's over halfway done with this rune!
Infuse Landmine Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) + 0 = 54
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 0 = 75
Hazō makes massive progress; he thinks he's over halfway done with this rune!
Infuse ELF Explosive.
Hazō (Calligraphy): 47 + 3 (Dampeners) + 10 (prep) - 3 = 57
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 53 + 10 (prep) - 3 = 60
Hazō makes substantial progress, he thinks he's a third of the way done. He thinks he could probably afford to drop some prep, but he'll give it another cycle before making such decisions…
Prep Great Seal.
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 18 (crossover bonus from unboosted Sealing) + 6 = 55
Result: [TBD]
Day 7
DoB rest.
Day 8
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
A "track" worth of clone-hours from here on out is spent on seal-scribing, stockpiling skywalkers for the big trip to the southern isles.
Day 9
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 10
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 11
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 12
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 13
Infuse Remote Explosive.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 10 (prep) + 0 = 54
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 3 = 72
Hazō completes the Remote Explosive Rune!
Mechanics:
The blank is 5x larger (i.e., consumes 5x more substrate) than an equivalent explosive rune and can be made in the same sizes as an explosive rune (puffer, training, full strength). It is shaped like a point-type crystal instead of being approximately spherical.
At infusion time, the creator chooses a distance to target, which can be anything up to 1 mile. This is the maximum range that the rune can fire, not a fixed distance. (In general you will probably always choose the 1 mile range but you have the option to choose shorter if, e.g., you are giving the rune to someone else and want to disguise its full capability.)
Activating the rune is a Standard action. Upon activation, the air within 3 zones of the rune starts to faintly ripple and warp and there is a clearly audible hum that steadily builds in intensity. Shortly thereafter, the rune triggers, and the effects of an explosive rune occur within a zone in front of the crystal's point and distance-to-target away.
The rune can be slowly rotated in three dimensions in order to change the target zone. It will typically require at least a Standard action to get it rotated and on target and may require several such actions.
The rune can fire up to 3 times and then burns out. It deactivates after firing, meaning you need to reactivate it for each new shot. [The rate of fire is still under QM discussion]
Sighting in the rune requires at least one practice shot. When you initially fire it, you choose a zone within the range and flip a coin. If the coin lands heads then you hit the target zone. If it lands tails then it hits a randomly-selected adjacent zone. The shot-drift is consistent for a specific rune so once you have done the sighting shot you can always hit the target zone even when retargeting. Each individual rune must be sighted separately.
The rune requires line of effect but not line of sight. That means you can shoot through (e.g.) the canopy of a forest but not through (e.g.) a Force Dome.
Infuse Landmine Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 10 (prep) + 12 = 66
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 3 = 78
Hazō completes the Landmine Rune!
Mechanics:
After a small amount of chakra (seal-activation levels) is applied to the rune's surface, the rune's humming/glowing quickly crescendos. At the same point in the next combat round, the rune suddenly explodes (so if Hazō triggers the Landmine Rune on Round 1, it activates on Hazō's initiative in Round 2).
Same mechanics as the explosive rune, but triggers much quicker. Compatible with ARS/MARS.
Infuse ELF Explosive.
Hazō (Calligraphy): 47 + 3 (Dampeners) + 10 (prep) + 12 = 72
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 53 + 10 (prep) - 3 = 60
Hazō thinks he should finish this seal in another cycle. He thinks he could skip prep, but at this point, it won't save much time and will add some risk, especially given that he's going to be trying new runes next cycle. His Calligraphy is so high that he thinks that Sealing is his limiting factor here, and without DoB, that's pretty limiting. He thinks he could have gotten this seal done in 4-6 days if he'd been willing to spend a DoB track on it.
Day 14
DoB rest.
Day 15
Prep Storm Rune. Difficulty Result: Easy.
Prep Air Leadening. Difficulty Result: Easy.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 16
Prep Storm Rune.
Prep Air Leadening.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 17
Prep Storm Rune.
Prep Air Leadening.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 18
Prep Storm Rune.
Prep Air Leadening.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 19
Prep Storm Rune.
Prep Air Leadening.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Day 20
Infuse Storm Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 10 (prep) + 6 = 60
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 9 = 66
Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 3 = 72
Hazō thinks he's about a third of the way done with this rune.
Infuse Air Leadening Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 10 (prep) - 6 = 48
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 0 = 75
Hazō thinks he's also about a third of the way done with this rune. This has a pretty similar difficulty to the Storm Rune.
Infuse ELF Explosive.
Hazō (Calligraphy): 47 + 3 (Dampeners) + 10 (prep) + 3 = 63
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 53 + 10 (prep) - 6 = 57
Probably won't cause a sealing failure, but Hazō doesn't want to spend even more time on this seal if this roll by chance happens to prevent the seal from completing… Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 53 + 10 (prep) + 6 = 69
Hazō completes the ELF Explosive!
Day 21
DoB rest, starting travel to the Southern Isles.
You have completed research on Elfy and are now in the Southern Isles. Not sure how much time that should have taken but you did it.
XP AWARD: 91 This chapter took 28 days subjective between research and travel to the Southern Isles. It took 23 calendar days.
Brevity XP: 10
"GM had fun" XP: 0 No strong feelings.
Vote time! What to do now?
Voting ends on Wednesday, .
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It's supposed to be a seal, was this an error or did 'pilot decide to do it as a rune?
- Location
- Liverpool
It would be really funny if a random ninja finds the speed up rune, briefly stays there because it's so cool, goes back to tell their friends, and then it's blown up and no longer working by the time they return.