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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Kiba said:
What do you mean to be ANBU? ANBU skill level? Or Chunin who dressed up as ANBU?
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Personally, I think that of the "ANBU" proctoring the exam, some are Jounin+ 'actual' ANBU, some are Chuunin-Jounin 'technically' ANBU, and some are Chuunin told to dress up as ANBU so Mist can puff out its chest a little. I wouldn't say they exist in roughly equal quantites, but I don't think there are very many of the first and last groups.
 
Cariyaga said:
Chuunin dressed up as ANBU, yes. It's frankly ridiculous to expect that Mist can spare 50 ANBU/jounin to cover some genin gallavanting in swamp.
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But it's rather less ridiculous to send those Chunin into the Swamp to actively interact with the Exams, rather than keeping them on the outside guarding the Swamp.
 
faflec said:
But it's rather less ridiculous to send those Chunin into the Swamp to actively interact with the Exams, rather than keeping them on the outside guarding the Swamp.
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There are twenty-five on the inside of the swamp by Keiko's estimation. I do not think that Mist can afford any more than 5 of those to be actual jounin, and likely far less. In which case, Panashe has already demonstrated her ability to assess her targets, and can avoid those that would likely see her.
 
Cariyaga said:
Chuunin dressed up as ANBU, yes. It's frankly ridiculous to expect that Mist can spare 50 ANBU/jounin to cover some genin gallavanting in swamp.
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How large do you expect the ANBU forces to be? 10% of total ninja pop?

IIRC, I think there was a dozen Mist Jounin in the UBOUD, which was countered by ANBUs with skywalkers. So minimum force size may be something like at least 12 individuals.
 
Kiba said:
How large do you expect the ANBU forces to be? 10% of total ninja pop?

IIRC, I think there was a dozen Mist Jounin in the UBOUD, which was countered by ANBUs with skywalkers. So minimum force size may be something like at least 12 individuals.
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Do you think that the jounin and ANBU that Mist still has would be placed inside the swamp, or guarding against action by the students' jounin teachers and kage?
 
Cariyaga said:
My idea was having Hazou seal up an explosive/banshee seal within the single token he has along with a Party Trick (the Night Lights cycle colors slowly, so it shouldn't be obvious), and drop it into water. As long as he gets the timing right, it hits the water, goes kerblooey, everyone makes a big huff.

Alternatively, we can have Shino help us out by having his bugs 'suddenly' emerge from it. Lots of options to fake sealing failures.
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This looks like it avoids the problems of "accidentally triggers a real sealing failure" but I think will be fairly easily seen through by proctors, since we'll be bringing our own to drop, rather than dropping something they provide us. I've added it as a thing for Team Asuma to consider if they help out with convincing proctors. I don't expect that it'll actually lead to anything, and I still don't want to send Hazou on that mission, but it might happen if whoever writes the next update has an extraordinary amount of time (which I find highly unlikely).
Inferno Vulpix said:
Hitai-ate and Byakugan, respectively.
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Thanks. I've fixed the spellings.
Inferno Vulpix said:
3 burned-out Night Lights, specifically.
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Sure, I've changed it to that for clarity.
Inferno Vulpix said:
Don't normal Banshees cap out at 150 dB?
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Citrus said:
@Radvic can we have more reasonable volume banshee seals please?
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Inferno Vulpix said:
When we were trying to invent Banshees in the first place, we wanted to aim for 'bursts eardrums' and we tossed around a bunch of sources that didn't agree on much. General consensus was that eardrums burst 'around' 150 dB, so when the QMs had Hazou research Banshees they pegged the objective volume at 150 dB.
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Right, so I misunderstood this - I thought Hazou could make earbusters at whatever volume he wanted, which I now believe is false. He can make Banshee Slayers (the earmuff seals) at whatever volume cutoff he wants, which is very different. So, I've changed it to setting the Banshee Slayers (earmuffs) at 130 dB, which should prevent damage while not impairing hearing I think. My initial intent had been to make sure the banshee slayers did B-class wounds instead of A-class wounds (which is what I think they do at 150 dB), but alas, doing research here is likely beyond us (and I think the banshee seals Hazou can make are not adjustable). We also haven't field tested banshee seals at all, so hopefully something attacks us and we can figure out how effective they are.

huhYeahGoodPoint said:
I mean, if you're so worried about sealing failure why are you voting for Keep Your Head?

I'm assuming at a minimum there are fifty seals in circulation. If the actual number was this low I could barely conceive that this would be possible, so that seems to be a reasonable lower bound.

I'm also assuming that as the competition goes on, teams accumulate seals without destroying them, simply by stealing/beating the shit out of the other teams. This picks up especially towards the endgame, where we now have multiple teams with multiple seals.

I would find it pretty unbelievable if there weren't multiple teams with more than three seals in the endgame, so that's the assumption going forward.

While hiding the seals are an option, it's a highly dangerous one, considering the seals glow, and if anyone can find it without you around to defend it you're done. I will assume no top contender battles without their seals.

That means that every fight between top contenders has at minimum six points of seal failure. The worst part is that seal failure will likely compound; one seal failing in close proximity to the other two will likely cause the others to fail; at that point, you have three seal failures, feeding into each other. It could do nothing, or it could create a chain reaction which breaks the other three seals belonging to the other team, or it could open a portal to blademonsters, etc. I think the compounding seal failures would tilt towards having the kind of effect which gets the other three seals in the fight involved, which would also magnify the Minimum Safe Distance.


This is just when seals are so rare that I don't think it makes sense - what happens when there are hundreds, or thousands, or in some of the worst possible cases, tens of thousands? When each fight between top contenders involves dozens of activated seals?

It seems to me that taking the risk that all the top contenders will take down all of their opponents with techniques that will absolutely not destroy the seals, and the defeated party doesn't destroy their own seals when they know they're beaten, thus increasing the risk factor, is too much of a gamble; even if there are only a hundred or so teams and sixteen top contenders, that still makes for roughly a dozen fights where seal integrity is not guaranteed.
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So, this is actually one of the things that I think Keep Your Head does really well. Rather than appealing to the authorities to stop the exam (which I doubt will be successful) it attempt to warn everyone in the exam about the danger. This will let all the genin take appropriate caution with the seals they have aquired, hopefully not wearing the ticking time-bombs into battle and instead hiding them under rocks or something. By offering trades and explaining the danger to anyone who will listen, we increase the likelihood that genin will choose not to wear their Night Light seals when they enter combat.

Kiba said:
Remember that ANBU operatives are supposed to be special ops. Even if they only have chunin level skills, it is likely that they are not your bog standard chunin.

Your pangolin might have techniques, but so do ANBU operators.
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Pretty sure these are fresh ANBU, given the majority of Leaf's ANBU died off in the battle, and Mist is a little smaller than Leaf. I think the Pangolin's Reach method of taking seals from proctors is clever, and if I were to write another action plan, would almost certainly include it.

Cariyaga said:
Leaf hitai-ite, Byakugan (will be able to see you approach underground),
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note it might be "hitai-ate" not "hitai-ite"? Idk. Just noticing a discrepancy between this and what I was told to correct it to.

Cariyaga said:
talk about the metal-beasts we've fought (from sealing failures) [Meta: Nope, opsec] talk about some of Kagome's more believable sealing failure stories
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Good catch. I've updated my plan with this change.

I wouldn't count on any more revisions of Keep Your Head before voting closes, though if somebody brings up an obvious problem I'll try to fix it. The current version of Keep Your Head is here:
Radvic said:
[X] Action Plan: Keep Your Head

This sealing revelation presents a serious risk which we should address, but is worth abandoning everything to stop the exams - everybody knew the exams were dangerous, it just got more real for us. Fortunately, our previous maneuvering has put us in a position of authority over five ninja. Let's use them to mitigate the danger as best we can within the context of the exam, and modify our plans based on new information. Remember that there are many powerful ninja nearby ready to deal with any incursions from the Out in case something goes terribly wrong, making an upper bound on the potential damage. This plan modifies our defenses and interactions with others to mitigate sealing failure risks, and includes four concrete actions to prevent sealing catastrophes (pangolin message to Jiraiya, proctor warning, storage seal bartering for message to Jiraiya or sealmasters, and genin warning expeditions into the Death Swamp).

Part 1) Immediate Action
  • Our fortress presents on of the biggest risks of seal activation due to the explosives we use to defend it. Replace the explosives with Banshee seals (that Hazou can make), make Banshee slayers for everyone in the fortress. Set them to 130 dB.
    • Switching from explosive to sound defenses should reduce the chance of triggering a sealing failure
  • Keep watches - let the Leaf nin sleep in shifts if they need it
  • Make an obvious entrance to our fortress (if not already done) and light it with a single Party Trick Seal
    • We want a clear entrance to the fortress, and want a place for customers to come, demonstrate that we're sealmasters (Party Trick Seal), but hide the extent of the number of PTS we can make (hence only one). If asked, describe the Party Trick Seal as a modified Night Light Seal
  • Use explosives occasionally to signal where we are, double frequency during the night (now 2 / hour).
  • Have Hazou make ~300 night light seals to store in the Summon Realm (un-activated) for us to pull out at the end.
    • This is a safe place to store them, especially when inactive, and guarantees us a fair number of points for us and our allies at the end.
    • Establish a pay mechanic before we have people leave:
      • Individual pay = (num_seals_at_end * num_hours_worked) /(total_hours_labor)
        • e.g. If we get 3 additional ninja who help out for 24 hours and wind up with 300 seal points, then the six initial ninja get paid 300 * 48 / 360 = 40 seals each and the three later ninja get paid 300 * 24 / 360 = 20 seals each
  • Continue production of Party Trick Seals
Part 2) Night-time Allied Action
  • Have allied Leaf teams assist in defending the fortress, keeping at least a full ninja squad on watch throughout the night
  • Have whatever pangolin has highest awareness (aside from our infiltrator pangolin) keep watch
  • Send out infiltrator pangolin to find other Leaf teams. Identifying features include: Leaf hitai-ate, Byakugan (will be able to see you approach underground), chakra bugs, dogs, etc.
    • Use henge to provide the Pangolin with a description of our allies faces.
    • Remind that permanent damage is off limits (though we've got good medics) - suggest breaking all their fingers and toes
  • Have Keiko send a message to Jiraiya via Pangolin messengers warning about the seals (he should get this message within a day or two if he keeps his old check-in schedule)
Part 3) The New Deal (whenever someone comes by with non-hostile intent)
  • When our customers come, explain the situation to them - warn about the dangers of sealing breaches, mention the lost village of sealmasters (implying a sealing failure caused it) talk about some of Kagome's more believable sealing failure stories. Suggest they take care to avoid damaging any night-light seals they see in combat, as sealing breaches unpredictable and can even cause damage to those who cause them from afar and (in our experience) target those who trigger them (e.g. the lose of Oliwhail).
  • Provide the same deal as before: 2 lit Night Leight seals for 1 Party Trick seal, or 3 burned-out Night Light seals for 1 Party Trick seal.
  • If the group is interested in the sealing damages and wants to stop it, suggest that if any seal master aside from the one who made these examines the night light seals, the danger should be clear, offer a sum of storage seals in payment to deliver a message quickly to Jiraiya or another seal master.
    • If anyone accepts, provide 10% payment up front and 90% payment afterwards. Have them hand over a night-light seal blank to Leaf-nin and explain that the seals Mist is using for the event are ticking time-bombs in the Swamp. Use Hazou's name, and say that any sealmaster should be able to see the danger.
Part 4) Second Day - Missions
  • Send out an expedition to interact with a proctor
    • Party comp: Don't send Hazou (need seal production) or Keiko (need Pangolin coordination/summoning capabilities). Include Akane, as she'll have witnessed sealing failures (and is a very robust combatant). Ideally include one deception-specced ninja
    • Methods: Use Henge to disguise themselves as Rock-nin. When they find a proctor, describe a sealing failure they witnessed (pick one of the sealing failures Team Uplift has seen if we haven't yet seen a night-light seal fail) and explain that there's a dude making seals in a fortress who swears that the night light seals are dangerous and can cause additional failures. Ask for more seals, explaining that they can trade them for non-nuclear options from the sealmaster in the fortress.
  • Continue production and defense of the fortress, summon an additional Pangolin to account for loses in personal for missions.
  • Send out an expedition to gather allies and warn genin (either after proctor interacting party finishes, or with additional personel provided by Leaf teams arriving)
    • Party comp: Don't send Hazou (need seal production) or Keiko (need Pangolin coordination/summoning capabilities). Include at least one combat oriented Pangolin. Keep at least 3 ninja + 1 Pangolin at the fortress
    • Methods:
      • If previous Pangolin reconnaissance found any Leaf teams, go to them, warn of the danger and offer them a piece of our fortress pie.
      • If previous reconnaissance has failed to locate Leaf teams, have our Combat Pangolin travel in an obvious attention gathering fashion with the rest of the team trailing, hopefully attracting Leaf teams (who know Leaf has the Pangolin summoner), or ambushes (which we should be able to defeat).
      • When approached by others, first warn about the danger of the night lights, then offer the trade deal of our fortress. If ambushed, simply defeat them, then warn them of the night lights (don't mention the fortress)
  • If Team Asuma arrives and is willing to help, have them start by going to a proctor and explaining about sealing failures they've seen (since they're social specced), consider faking a sealing failure with an explosive seal and party trick seal in a night light seal casing.
  • If we have excess personnel hanging around the fort, send additional warning parties, advertising the dangers of the night lights and trade (and baiting out ambushes to eliminate ninja teams and take their stuff).
  • Keep at least Hazou, Keiko, and two other combat capable bodies around to defend the fortress at all times.
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[X] Action Plan: Gotta Catch 'Em All
 
Radvic said:
This looks like it avoids the problems of "accidentally triggers a real sealing failure" but I think will be fairly easily seen through by proctors, since we'll be bringing our own to drop, rather than dropping something they provide us. I've added it as a thing for Team Asuma to consider if they help out with convincing proctors. I don't expect that it'll actually lead to anything, and I still don't want to send Hazou on that mission, but it might happen if whoever writes the next update has an extraordinary amount of time (which I find highly unlikely).
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No, no, there is to be some subterfuge involved -- such as hiding the extra seal up his sleeve, or just turning to the side a little so that they can't see that he's not activating the one they gave him.
 
@Cariyaga We have no idea how lethal or non-lethal our rock macerators are, which is what the QMs are trying to figure out. I suggest we switch back to banshee seals.

Chance are, the other genins won't have sound countermeasures anyway.

Keep watch bullet point can be simplified to: Everyone get sleep and nap as needed.

I suggest you prioritize an action for Panche to do. Looking for a proctor means not looking for our allies.

Using explosive seals is not recommended by @Radvic because it might cause seal failure in Night Light Seals, which we don't want to happen. That is why he recommended the use of banshee.
 
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Radvic said:
So, this is actually one of the things that I think Keep Your Head does really well. Rather than appealing to the authorities to stop the exam (which I doubt will be successful) it attempt to warn everyone in the exam about the danger. This will let all the genin take appropriate caution with the seals they have aquired, hopefully not wearing the ticking time-bombs into battle and instead hiding them under rocks or something. By offering trades and explaining the danger to anyone who will listen, we increase the likelihood that genin will choose not to wear their Night Light seals when they enter combat.
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I think your plan is assuming that people will come and trade, which while maybe a sound assumption at the tail end of 36 hours in the Swamp, is also too late; if there are only twelve hours left, endgame fights for seals have already begun, and nobody's warned off of ninjutsu except by their opponents who "are weak pussies", assuming the people who come by actually take our advice. There's still too much risk that the weak chakra beasts in the Swamp will destroy a hidden stockpile of seals, that other teams who either haven't or choose to ignore our warning go for seal destruction, and that's all game over conditions right there.
Adhoc vote count started by huhYeahGoodPoint on Sep 19, 2017 at 7:10 PM, finished with 405 posts and 18 votes.
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Macerators put out a bunch of instances of ~550 joules of force in fist-sized chunks (without the added force a punch provides it). It won't be hurting anyone too badly, surface area's too big.

(~6 pound (2.72 kilograms)fist-sized rocks delivered at 20 meters/second. Kv = 1/2(2.72)(20)^2 = 544)
 
Cariyaga said:
No, no, there is to be some subterfuge involved -- such as hiding the extra seal up his sleeve, or just turning to the side a little so that they can't see that he's not activating the one they gave him.
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Right, and to my knowledge, this sort of subterfuge would allow you to roll stealth against their awareness, which I think is unlikely to be successful for Hazou? Maybe if he could make it a deception check. Regardless, in my plan, Hazou doesn't leave the fort, and he leaves this sort of subterfuge to the subterfuge experts (Team Asuna) if it's done. Delegation!

Side note, I really want the "gather allies and do stuff" strategies to work. It'd be a crazy strong point in Hazou's favor. "How did you address the challenge of the chunnin exams?" "I made myself defacto Hokage."

huhYeahGoodPoint said:
I think your plan is assuming that people will come and trade, which while maybe a sound assumption at the tail end of 36 hours in the Swamp, is also too late; if there are only twelve hours left, endgame fights for seals have already begun, and nobody's warned off of ninjutsu except by their opponents who "are weak pussies", assuming the people who come by actually take our advice. There's still too much risk that the weak chakra beasts in the Swamp will destroy a hidden stockpile of seals, that other teams who either haven't or choose to ignore our warning go for seal destruction, and that's all game over conditions right there.
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So, my plan doesn't do things in the night (as most plans don't), but it does send out expeditions which are intended to warn any genin they see about the night light seals, which is both how I intend to get genin to come to the fortress, and how I intend to warn genin (aside from the fortress stuff).
 
Radvic said:
Right, and to my knowledge, this sort of subterfuge would allow you to roll stealth against their awareness, which I think is unlikely to be successful for Hazou? Maybe if he could make it a deception check. Regardless, in my plan, Hazou doesn't leave the fort, and he leaves this sort of subterfuge to the subterfuge experts (Team Asuna) if it's done. Delegation!

Side note, I really want the "gather allies and do stuff" strategies to work. It'd be a crazy strong point in Hazou's favor. "How did you address the challenge of the chunnin exams?" "I made myself defacto Hokage."
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Fair point, you've convinced me to try to get them to go along with it.
 
Cariyaga said:
Stolen mercilesssly from Radvic. This plan is more aggressive in securing cooperation and preventing sealing failures, while still refusing to give in in the exams, primarily in the following ways:
  • Panashe, or another Pangolin if she does not know the technique (which I would be surprised if not, it's a really good technique for subterfuge) goes around stealing the proctors' seal pouches and immediately unsummoning with it.
    • Meanwhile, we capture uncooperative ninja for Noburi to use as drainslaves to fuel the repeated resummoning of Panashe. Utilize Pandaa as a go-between summon, so that Kei isn't constantly blowing Panashe-level chakra.
    • Because of this, Hazou does not bother creating Night Light seals himself.
  • Hazou goes out on a single expedition to find a different proctor from the one before and feigns a sealing failure on accidentally dropping a token into the water.
    • He does this via using the casing from the one he has already, placing a bruise-level explosive or toned-down banshee seal in it as well as a party trick seal, and timing the explosive/banhsee seal's activation with its hitting the water.
      • Hopefully this gets him some gotdamn circumstance bonuses on it.
    • Night Lights change color slowly so it shouldn't be obvious that isn't what it is.
  • There are a few other minor changes -- they will be highlighted in red


[X] Action Plan: Gotta Catch 'Em All

This sealing revelation presents a serious risk which we should address, but is worth abandoning everything to stop the exams - everybody knew the exams were dangerous, it just got more real for us. Fortunately, our previous maneuvering has put us in a position of authority over five ninja. Let's use them to mitigate the danger as best we can within the context of the exam, and modify our plans based on new information. Remember that there are many powerful ninja nearby ready to deal with any incursions from the Out in case something goes terribly wrong, making an upper bound on the potential damage. This plan modifies our defenses and interactions with others to mitigate sealing failure risks, and includes four concrete actions to prevent sealing catastrophes (pangolin message to Jiraiya, proctor warning, storage seal bartering for message to Jiraiya or sealmasters, and genin warning expeditions into the Death Swamp).

Part 1) Immediate Action
  • Our fortress presents on of the biggest risks of seal activation due to the explosives we use to defend it. Replace the explosives with stone-loaded macerators.
    • Switching from explosive to kinetic defenses should reduce the chance of triggering a sealing failure
  • Keep watches - sleep in shifts, as needed, with majority awake at all times.
  • Make an obvious entrance to our fortress (if not already done) and light it with a single Party Trick Seal
    • We want a clear entrance to the fortress, and want a place for customers to come, demonstrate that we're sealmasters (Party Trick Seal), but hide the extent of the number of PTS we can make (hence only one). If asked, describe the Party Trick Seal as a modified Night Light Seal
  • Use explosives occasionally to signal where we are, double frequency during the night (now 2 / hour).
  • Only have Hazou make ~300 night light seals to store in the Summon Realm (un-activated) for us to pull out at the end if Panashe doesn't bring back seal bags.
    • This is a safe place to store them, especially when inactive, and guarantees us a fair number of points for us and our allies at the end.
    • Establish a pay mechanic before we have people leave:
      • Individual pay = (num_seals_at_end * num_hours_worked) /(total_hours_labor)
        • e.g. If we get 3 additional ninja who help out for 24 hours and wind up with 300 seal points, then the six initial ninja get paid 300 * 48 / 360 = 40 seals each and the three later ninja get paid 300 * 24 / 360 = 20 seals each
  • Continue production of Party Trick Seals
Part 2) Night-time Allied Action
  • Have allied Leaf teams assist in defending the fortress, keeping at least a full ninja squad on watch throughout the night
  • Have whatever pangolin has best awareness (aside from our the pangolin responsible for the following section) keep watch
  • Send out Panashe (or other Pangolin that knows the technique, if she does not) steal the proctor's seal bags via Pangolin's Reach, should they know it.
    • They should be disguised in whatever fashion they is able (pangolin-variant henge, etc.) as something other than pangolin.
    • If the pangolin is detected by a proctor upon stealing the bag, they should unsummon with the bag in tow. Otherwise, return to camp.
    • Take opportunistic targets out -- anyone that doesn't seem aware enough, go for a nonlethal, non-mutilating takedown on.
    • Additionally, keep an eye (and nose) out for Leaf teams (Identifying features include: Leaf hitai-ite, Byakugan (will be able to see you approach underground), chakra bugs, dogs, etc.): send them back toward us.
  • Have Keiko send a message to Jiraiya via Pangolin messengers warning about the seals (he should get this message within a day or two if he keeps his old check-in schedule)
Part 3) The New Deal (whenever someone comes by with non-hostile intent)
  • When our customers come, explain the situation to them - warn about the dangers of sealing breaches, mention the lost village of sealmasters (implying a sealing failure caused it), talk about the metal-beasts we've fought (from sealing failures) [Meta: Nope, opsec] talk about some of Kagome's more believable sealing failure stories. Suggest they take care to avoid damaging any night-light seals they see in combat, as sealing breaches unpredictable and can even cause damage to those who cause them from afar and (in our experience) target those who trigger them (e.g. the lose of Oliwhail).
  • Provide the same deal as before: 2 lit Night Leight seals for 1 Party Trick seal, or 3 unlit (burned out) Night Light seals for 1 Party Trick seal.
  • If the group is interested in the sealing damages and wants to stop it, suggest that if any seal master aside from the one who made these examines the night light seals, the danger should be clear, offer a sum of storage seals in payment to deliver a message quickly to Jiraiya or another seal master.
    • If anyone accepts, provide 10% payment up front and 90% payment afterwards. Have them hand over a night-light seal blank to Leaf-nin and explain that the seals Mist is using for the event are ticking time-bombs in the Swamp. Use Hazou's name, and say that any sealmaster should be able to see the danger.
Part 4) Second Day - Missions
  • Send out multiple expeditions (not simultaneous) to interact with a proctor
    • Expedition Alpha:
      • Party comp: Don't send Hazou (need seal production) or Keiko (need Pangolin coordination/summoning capabilities). Include Akane, as she'll have witnessed sealing failures (and is a very robust combatant). Ideally include one deception-specced ninja. Equip the expedition teams with explosive seals (A and B-rated) both for use in combat and as a sign that they need backup.
      • Methods: Use Henge to disguise themselves as Rock-nin. When they find a proctor, describe a sealing failure they witnessed (pick one of the sealing failures Team Uplift has seen if we haven't yet seen a night-light seal fail, as well as big booms and keening sounds) and explain that there's a dude making seals in a fortress who swears that the night light seals are dangerous and can cause additional failures. Ask for more seals, explaining that they can trade them for non-nuclear options from the sealmaster in the fortress.
      • Repeat this under different guises and stories a few times with other proctors
    • Expedition Beta:
      • Party comp: Once we've got enough people around to defend the fort, request that Team Sarutobi (or whichever team is best at lying, or stealth if that would be more salient) go to a proctor and get a seal and then do the following:
      • Methods:
        • Hazou fixes up the casing for the single Night Light he has to contain both an explosive seal (bruise-level) and a party trick seal.
        • After activating both of the seals on the replacement token (so it'll glow), pull some sleight of hand, accidentally drop it into water, boom, oh no seal failure, etc.
        • Contingency:
          If Hazou thinks this is likely to, in itself, cause a sealing failure, use banshee seal, or bugs with Shino's help, in place of the explosive.
        • UPON POPULAR REQUEST: THIS IS NOT A NIGHT LIGHT SEAL. HE DROPS IN AN EXPLOSIVE SEAL + PARTY TRICK INSIDE THE CASING OF A NIGHT LIGHT SEAL, TIMED TO EXPLODE AS IT HITS THE WATER.
  • Continue production and defense of the fortress, summon an additional Pangolin to account for loses in personal for missions.
  • Send out an expedition to gather allies and warn genin (either after proctor interacting party finishes, or with additional personel provided by Leaf teams arriving)
    • Party comp: Don't send Hazou (need seal production) or Keiko (need Pangolin coordination/summoning capabilities). Include at least one combat oriented Pangolin. Keep at least 3 ninja + 1 Pangolin at the fortress
    • Methods:
      • If previous Pangolin reconnaissance found any Leaf teams, go to them, warn of the danger and offer them a piece of our fortress pie.
      • If previous reconnaissance has failed to locate Leaf teams, have our Combat Pangolin travel in an obvious attention gathering fashion with the rest of the team trailing, hopefully attracting Leaf teams (who know Leaf has the Pangolin summoner), or ambushes (which we should be able to defeat).
      • When approached by others, first warn about the danger of the night lights, then offer the trade deal of our fortress. If ambushed, simply defeat them, then warn them of the night lights (don't mention the fortress)
  • If Team Asuma arrives and is willing to help, have them start by going to a proctor and explaining about sealing failures they've seen (since they're social specced)
  • If we have excess personnel hanging around the fort, send additional warning parties, advertising the dangers of the night lights and trade (and baiting out ambushes to eliminate ninja teams and take their stuff).
  • Keep at least Hazou, Keiko, and two other combat capable bodies around to defend the fortress at all times.
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My plan, currently.
e:
Cariyaga said:
Stolen mercilesssly from Radvic. This plan is more aggressive in securing cooperation and preventing sealing failures, while still refusing to give in in the exams, primarily in the following ways:
  • Panashe, or another Pangolin if she does not know the technique (which I would be surprised if not, it's a really good technique for subterfuge) goes around stealing the proctors' seal pouches and immediately unsummoning with it.
    • Meanwhile, we capture uncooperative ninja for Noburi to use as drainslaves to fuel the repeated resummoning of Panashe. Utilize Pandaa as a go-between summon, so that Kei isn't constantly blowing Panashe-level chakra.
    • Because of this, Hazou does not bother creating Night Light seals himself.
  • Hazou goes out on a single expedition to find a different proctor from the one before and feigns a sealing failure on accidentally dropping a token into the water.
    • He does this via using the casing from the one he has already, placing a bruise-level explosive or toned-down banshee seal in it as well as a party trick seal, and timing the explosive/banhsee seal's activation with its hitting the water.
      • Hopefully this gets him some gotdamn circumstance bonuses on it.
    • Night Lights change color slowly so it shouldn't be obvious that isn't what it is.
  • There are a few other minor changes -- they will be highlighted in red


[X] Action Plan: Gotta Catch 'Em All

This sealing revelation presents a serious risk which we should address, but is worth abandoning everything to stop the exams - everybody knew the exams were dangerous, it just got more real for us. Fortunately, our previous maneuvering has put us in a position of authority over five ninja. Let's use them to mitigate the danger as best we can within the context of the exam, and modify our plans based on new information. Remember that there are many powerful ninja nearby ready to deal with any incursions from the Out in case something goes terribly wrong, making an upper bound on the potential damage. This plan modifies our defenses and interactions with others to mitigate sealing failure risks, and includes four concrete actions to prevent sealing catastrophes (pangolin message to Jiraiya, proctor warning, storage seal bartering for message to Jiraiya or sealmasters, and genin warning expeditions into the Death Swamp).

Part 1) Immediate Action
  • Our fortress presents on of the biggest risks of seal activation due to the explosives we use to defend it. Replace the explosives with 130 db Banshee Seals.
    • Switching from explosive to sound-based should reduce the chance of triggering a sealing failure
  • Keep watches - sleep in shifts, as needed, with majority awake at all times.
  • Make an obvious entrance to our fortress (if not already done) and light it with a single Party Trick Seal
    • We want a clear entrance to the fortress, and want a place for customers to come, demonstrate that we're sealmasters (Party Trick Seal), but hide the extent of the number of PTS we can make (hence only one). If asked, describe the Party Trick Seal as a modified Night Light Seal
  • Use explosives occasionally to signal where we are, double frequency during the night (now 2 / hour).
  • Only have Hazou make ~300 night light seals to store in the Summon Realm (un-activated) for us to pull out at the end if Panashe doesn't bring back seal bags.
    • This is a safe place to store them, especially when inactive, and guarantees us a fair number of points for us and our allies at the end.
    • Establish a pay mechanic before we have people leave:
      • Individual pay = (num_seals_at_end * num_hours_worked) /(total_hours_labor)
        • e.g. If we get 3 additional ninja who help out for 24 hours and wind up with 300 seal points, then the six initial ninja get paid 300 * 48 / 360 = 40 seals each and the three later ninja get paid 300 * 24 / 360 = 20 seals each
  • Continue production of Party Trick Seals
Part 2) Night-time Allied Action
  • Have allied Leaf teams assist in defending the fortress, keeping at least a full ninja squad on watch throughout the night
  • Have whatever pangolin has best awareness (aside from our the pangolin responsible for the following section) keep watch
  • Send out Panashe to retrieve the other Leaf genin, using characteristics like Leaf hitai-ite, Byakugan (will be able to see you approach underground), chakra bugs, dogs, etc.) as identifiers, and then send them back to us. Lead them personally if necessary.
  • Have Keiko send a message to Jiraiya via Pangolin messengers warning about the seals (he should get this message within a day or two if he keeps his old check-in schedule)
Part 3) The New Deal (whenever someone comes by with non-hostile intent)
  • When our customers come, explain the situation to them - warn about the dangers of sealing breaches, mention the lost village of sealmasters (implying a sealing failure caused it), talk about the metal-beasts we've fought (from sealing failures) [Meta: Nope, opsec] talk about some of Kagome's more believable sealing failure stories. Suggest they take care to avoid damaging any night-light seals they see in combat, as sealing breaches unpredictable and can even cause damage to those who cause them from afar and (in our experience) target those who trigger them (e.g. the lose of Oliwhail).
  • Provide the same deal as before: 2 lit Night Leight seals for 1 Party Trick seal, or 3 unlit (burned out) Night Light seals for 1 Party Trick seal.
  • If the group is interested in the sealing damages and wants to stop it, suggest that if any seal master aside from the one who made these examines the night light seals, the danger should be clear, offer a sum of storage seals in payment to deliver a message quickly to Jiraiya or another seal master.
    • If anyone accepts, provide 10% payment up front and 90% payment afterwards. Have them hand over a night-light seal blank to Leaf-nin and explain that the seals Mist is using for the event are ticking time-bombs in the Swamp. Use Hazou's name, and say that any sealmaster should be able to see the danger.
Part 4) Second Day - Missions
  • Send out Panashe (or other Pangolin that knows the technique, if she does not) steal the proctor's seal bags via Pangolin's Reach, should they know it.
    • They should be disguised in whatever fashion they is able (pangolin-variant henge, etc.) as something other than pangolin.
    • If the pangolin is detected by a proctor upon stealing the bag, they should unsummon with the bag in tow. Otherwise, return to camp.
    • Additionally, keep an eye (and nose) out for any remaining Leaf teams (Identifying features include: Leaf hitai-ite, Byakugan (will be able to see you approach underground), chakra bugs, dogs, etc.): send them back toward us.

  • Send out multiple expeditions (not simultaneous) to interact with a proctor
    • Expedition Alpha:
      • Party comp: Don't send Hazou (need seal production) or Keiko (need Pangolin coordination/summoning capabilities). Include Akane, as she'll have witnessed sealing failures (and is a very robust combatant). Ideally include one deception-specced ninja. Equip the expedition teams with explosive seals (A and B-rated) both for use in combat and as a sign that they need backup.
      • Methods: Use Henge to disguise themselves as Rock-nin. When they find a proctor, describe a sealing failure they witnessed (pick one of the sealing failures Team Uplift has seen if we haven't yet seen a night-light seal fail, as well as big booms and keening sounds) and explain that there's a dude making seals in a fortress who swears that the night light seals are dangerous and can cause additional failures. Ask for more seals, explaining that they can trade them for non-nuclear options from the sealmaster in the fortress.
      • Repeat this under different guises and stories a few times with other proctors
    • Expedition Beta:
      • Party comp: Once we've got enough people around to defend the fort, request that Team Sarutobi (or whichever team is best at lying, or stealth if that would be more salient) go to a proctor and get a seal and then do the following:
      • Methods:
        • Hazou fixes up the casing for the single Night Light he has to contain both an explosive seal (bruise-level) and a party trick seal.
        • After activating both of the seals on the replacement token (so it'll glow), pull some sleight of hand, accidentally drop it into water, boom, oh no seal failure, etc.
        • Contingency:
          If Hazou thinks this is likely to, in itself, cause a sealing failure, use banshee seal, or bugs with Shino's help, in place of the explosive.
        • UPON POPULAR REQUEST: THIS IS NOT A NIGHT LIGHT SEAL. HE DROPS IN AN EXPLOSIVE SEAL + PARTY TRICK INSIDE THE CASING OF A NIGHT LIGHT SEAL, TIMED TO EXPLODE AS IT HITS THE WATER.
  • Continue production and defense of the fortress, summon an additional Pangolin to account for loses in personal for missions.
  • Send out an expedition to gather allies and warn genin (either after proctor interacting party finishes, or with additional personel provided by Leaf teams arriving)
    • Party comp: Don't send Hazou (need seal production) or Keiko (need Pangolin coordination/summoning capabilities). Include at least one combat oriented Pangolin. Keep at least 3 ninja + 1 Pangolin at the fortress
    • Methods:
      • If previous Pangolin reconnaissance found any Leaf teams, go to them, warn of the danger and offer them a piece of our fortress pie.
      • If previous reconnaissance has failed to locate Leaf teams, have our Combat Pangolin travel in an obvious attention gathering fashion with the rest of the team trailing, hopefully attracting Leaf teams (who know Leaf has the Pangolin summoner), or ambushes (which we should be able to defeat).
      • When approached by others, first warn about the danger of the night lights, then offer the trade deal of our fortress. If ambushed, simply defeat them, then warn them of the night lights (don't mention the fortress)
  • If Team Asuma arrives and is willing to help, have them start by going to a proctor and explaining about sealing failures they've seen (since they're social specced)
  • If we have excess personnel hanging around the fort, send additional warning parties, advertising the dangers of the night lights and trade (and baiting out ambushes to eliminate ninja teams and take their stuff).
  • Keep at least Hazou, Keiko, and two other combat capable bodies around to defend the fortress at all times.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Modifications made at Kiba's request.
 
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I probably will not be adjusting the plan any further. I have been up going on 20 hours and think it unwise for me to continue doing so until I sleep.
 
I just caught back up to the thread, but I've skipped most of the discussion. Can we use Pangolin telepathy with Jiraiya?
 
So...it seems to me that the biggest single danger is the possibility of seals being dropped into water (being a swamp, and all). Why is that so destructive; because the paper gets soggy?

A single unleashed eldritch horror gobbling up genins would probably be enough to result in at least one victim's seal(s) falling in the swamp, releasing another eldritch horror, and continuing to double as long as a) there are more active seals being carried around (but there could be hundreds), and b) no one strong enough to contain the breach is on the scene (but response time may be slow, since the proctors don't mind genin dying).

If an appreciable fraction of all seals fails disruptively, I think you can kiss the Elemental Nations goodbye. Jiraiya might not be overly worried about seals, but he never faced a hundred seal failures in one place.
 
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