Given that Fire is super fertile and green and full of forests that does seem a bit weird. That said, its southern reaches are the same latitude as Wind (which is a desert) and Fire might have rainforest instead of what we're used to at higher latitudes. That can be fertile as well, given enough rivers.
I guess the best way to calculate it is to count the distance from Snow (which I assume is always snowy?)
Hey, what way is that river that touches all three missing hamlets flowing?
Wait a second that's supposed to be an ocean... right??? So the inlets just don't make sense
Answer: whatever way nature says
Okay, so the river flows from south of fire into fire, we know this from the implied hills in the map. Keishi sits at the end of the river after hamlet three, we should stop there first.
Can we spend a fate point to have Leaf send a hunter nin south to.... the ocean... whirlpool? To check their mission board for scary monsters moving through rivers
Ryoko sprinted through Fire Country's dense forests, each stride rapidly consuming the distance between her and her destination, each footfall performing the rhythmic beat of land-adhere-adjust-repel with a rapid perfection that only years of repetition can achieve.
There were downsides, of course, to Ryoko's unsubtle charge towards Santoshi. Like the immense elephant-cheetah, trumpeting a warcry as it barreled through the thick foliage, its lightning element aura leaving a burning trail of embers in its wake.
At least she was making great time, Ryoko indulged herself with the errant thought as she twisted, midair, boots planting on the next tree's trunk, then launched herself at an angle, weaving away from the maddened chakra beast as it continued to stampede in the former direction.
Ryoko paused, and reached over her shoulder, to the braided handle of her spear, strapped across her back –her sword was useful, but the sheath made it a bit more awkward for high-speed travel, and she still hadn't cleaned the blood out of her axe's grooves.
A chakra beast like that might rampage for several miles, yet. And while Ryoko wasn't that close to Santoshi, Santoshi was still pretty close to Keishi, and there were a multitude of smaller outlying hamlets that speckled the countryside. And many more of them were unmarked on any map.
No civilian could hope to outrun an elephant-cheetah, let alone fight it.
Ryoko was a ninja of the Hidden Leaf, and knew her duty.
She rocketed forward, handseals flashing. "Fire Element: Ancestral Fury!"
She grabbed her spear, and the weapon lit up with azure flames dancing merrily along its length.
Ryoko swung as she approached, and a violent arc of flame ran away from the rip of her spear, only to diminish against the elephant-cheetah's lightning aura, and then part against the elephant-cheetah's thick hide.
Ryoko's grin faded into a frown –when had she started to grin? –the chakra beast, having spotted Ryoko, charged towards her tree, and sweeping up a fallen log from the forest floor with its trunk, heaved it towards her.
Ryoko shutter-stepped her chakra adhesion, falling towards the ground and allowing the log to sail within inches of her face, before adhering herself to the tree branch. She flexed her chakra, leaping from the tree. Speartip alight with azure flames, Ryoko forced her weapon through the white-hot cloak of sparks the chakra beast emitted, and stabbed her spear into the chakra beast's thick neck.
The creature reared up on its hindpaws, trumpeting in angry panic, its trunk desperately trying to reach Ryoko but falling just short of her spear. Sparks of lightning chakra began to condense around he–
"Earth Element: Mud Bullet!" a young man cried out, adolescence causing his voice to crack halfway through the jutsu.
A boulder of mud slammed into the elephant-cheetah's side with a wet suctioning sound, and quickly began to solidify into something sticky and disgusting.
The chakra beast mewled pitifully –an odd, disconcerting sound that came out of its tusked mouth –and struggled violently against its muddy binds.
Ryoko adjusted her weight, knees bending with the elephant-cheetah's movements, pulled her spear out of the creature's thick hide, and then stabbed. Again and again, blood spraying. Again and again, azure flames leaving the hide untouched. Again and again until–
"Ryoko, ma'am?"
Shin was suddenly beside her. Well, at a distance –the boy wasn't stupid, after all… just a bad case of tunnel-vision.
The sixteen year old looked at her with concerned wariness.
"I think it's dead, ma'am."
When did it die? Why did it die so easily?
Ryoko shivered at the second, fleeting thought, and accepted Shin's proffered cloth.
Shin was a good kid, even if his file was more redacted than Lord Uzumaki's dating history. He just needed help every once in a while. Like now.
"Have you caught up with Sugiyama yet," Ryoko broke the awkward silence as she wiped her face, staining the white cloth red.
"We actually left Leaf together, ma'am." Shin paused, his nervousness only serving to highlight his youth. To Ryoko, he looked a little bit like a baby chakra giraffe: all knees and elbows… just watch out for the teeth.
"Then where are they," Ryoko prompted, pitching the question softly. Shin might be an awkward teenage boy, all knees and elbows, but he was solid enough. If Sugiyama were in danger, or if something had happened to them, Shin would be a lot more distraught.
"Quite a way's away, ma'am, to the south." Words that started as a trickle began to overflow like an anxious waterfall. "I was scouting around camp when I heard you running from something. I wanted to help. But when I went back to camp and told Sugiyama, they said you'd be alright, and that we should focus on setting up camp, but…"
"But you were worried." Ryoko couldn't help it, amusement blossomed within her heart and warmed her tone. The kid had good ears, but he was a worrier.
"They gave me permission to engage!"
"Likely after you fretted and set off a trap."
"...I didn't set off a trap," Shin pouted, but didn't deny the fretting.
No, he wouldn't have. The kid was better than that. Much better, given the "volunteer" remedial training he'd been suffering these past few months.
"Alright kid, lead me to camp. I'm tired and want to rest my legs."
"Sugiyama will want to examine you for injuries, ma'am."
"...just lead me to camp, kid."
It is approximately late afternoon, early evening. The party will reach Santoshi early the following morning.
Vote on how you want to approach examining Santoshi, the hamlet that went silent most recently.
[] Cautious and carefully. Search the outlying fields, first. Then circle around the hamlet, looking for hostiles. Only then do you enter the hamlet.
[] Loud and brash. Charge into the heart of the hamlet.
[] Write in.
Shin said that he went through some of the Tower's mission reports for this area, and some of the less public ones that he has access to as a Hunter Nin. He can't really go into too much detail about the missions, themselves, but he should be able to answer any questions Ryoko might have about this area of Fire Country.
Sugiyama says that they stopped by the Akane Seal Bank to re-up the team's stock of explosive tags (a total of 9 between all of you), and that they gave a donation of ryo using your emergency mission funds. Ryoko is a bit irked at the unexpected expense, but admits that it was a smart idea.
If you have questions about your teammates, your mission, or the area, ask them in thread and I'll answer them.
Voting's going to be open until... Sunday-ish?
Does Ryoko stumble into any chakra beasts?
1d10 = 3, yes she does
What class of chakra beast does Ryoko stumble into?
1d100 = 83 oh, a special one!
This is so weird, why is the chakra beast rolling Physique to dodge an attack? I'll chalk this up to chakra beast weirdness.
It might be helpful to break things up into rounds too, I can't really tell who is attacking whom. I don't see the chakra beast ever getting an attack roll for example.
"Hey guys, looking at our map the three hamlets sit on this river, with the first hamlet to go missing being the one nearest the ocean. Have we heard anything from Kiri about abnormal chakra beasts?"
"Hey guys, looking at our map the three hamlets sit on this river, with the first hamlet to go missing being the one nearest the ocean. Have we heard anything from Kiri about abnormal chakra beasts?"
Shin: "We haven't heard anything from Mist about that, and the mission records from around this area say that sea-based chakra beasts have been pretty quiet in the past few weeks. It's not impossible for an oceanic chakra beast to have swam upriver and caused this, but it would be very unusual... Something to keep an eye out for, but that's also the case with angry sky spirits."
Sugiyama: "Tsunade rants and raves about everything under the moon, but she hasn't complained about needing to treat water lung, and I think she was in the area three months ago? Four?"
You need to explain the connection between water lung, tsunade being in the area, and the likelihood of a oceanic chakra beast invading Fire. Everyone here can infer, but do it enough and someone will eventually get it wrong.
Pivot
How about Keishi. There could be a deposit of something at the headwaters of the river disturbed by a chakra beast migration.
The river near the ocean would be the first to thaw, exposing the hamlet there to the danger first despite being furthest from the original source.
Shin, read any geologist reports of the Keishi area recently?
(IRL I'm picturing asbestos, personal experience lmao)
What are some of the most common and unusual things she was treating there Sugiyama?
Are sea-based chakra beasts usually that quiet, Sugiyama and Shin?
What are some of the most common and unusual things she was treating there Sugiyama?
Are sea-based chakra beasts usually that quiet, Sugiyama and Shin?
Sugiyama: "I don't know about the truly unusual, but the most common stuff Tsunade heals are the usual civilian maladies: poorly healed broken bones, infection of sickness spirits, malnutrition, etc. This area sees the occasional spike in water lung cases, which is when someone narrowly escapes drowning, and vengeful water spirits destroy someone's lung for escaping their rightful death. But unless a mednin happens to be close --and they can be bothered to render aid to a "mere" civilian --these poor souls die a... rather unfortunate death. I think I heard from that Goketsu kid that Lady Tsunade helped out said something about a progressive organ failure that turned out to be a bad combination of parasite outbreak and metal spirits wreaking havoc on a well? Lady Tsunade sorted it out, but if it's the hamlet I'm think about, then that particular hamlet died to a chakra beast before Leaf's Till'n'Fill Teams could build them a wall. Lazy fucks. Too spineless for combat, too slow to save those civilians. They make us look bad."
Shin: "Well, ma'am, I'm a bit new to being a hunter nin --thank you for your help with that, by the way! --but from what I understand, unless you sail into open waters, oceanic chakra beasts are pretty much your standard chakra beasts. There are extremes to both ends --one where even civilians can drive them off, and one where even Orochimaru might struggle in a fight --but civilian hamlets don't last long if they're in the territory of a strong chakra beast, Till'n'Fills or not. Those new MARI walls might raise the defense rating for a hamlet, but, well... sorry, ma'am, but I would be hard-pressed to think about a civilian town or hamlet that would stand up against an elephant-cheetah, walls or not. That's why Leaf has chakra-beast missions in the fir... sorry, ma'am, I got on a tangent. Oceanic chakra beasts. Our hamlets aren't in a great deal of danger from them --the really threatening ones can't fit in the river --but the mission reports say that the coastal waters have been unusually quiet lately. Nothing too egregious, just... less chakra beasts. Not "none," but "less" you know? I suppose we're about due for one, but given the war, and rebuilding? I'd just as soon count my blessings, ma'am. Too few of those, these days."
This area sees the occasional spike in water lung cases, which is when someone narrowly escapes drowning, and vengeful water spirits destroy someone's lung for escaping their rightful death.
Oh, lordy lordy. I'm now imagining that the biggest cause of death among young male ninja is their voice cracking during combat and causing their jutsu to fail.
Sugiyama says that they stopped by the Akane Seal Bank to re-up the team's stock of explosive tags (a total of 9 between all of you), and that they gave a donation of ryo using your emergency mission funds. Ryoko is a bit irked at the unexpected expense, but admits that it was a smart idea.
ooh, lovely update. the descriptions are really nice, there's a good sense of energy to the running and fight, and a bunch of cool details. (voice cracking while shouting jutsu is a hilarious image).
huh, ryoko is a bit fucked up, isnt she
loved the interactions with shin. good kid, and i'm already a fan of the dynamics here.
futilely, i vote caution
[x] Cautious and carefully. Search the outlying fields, first. Then circle around the hamlet, looking for hostiles. Only then do you enter the hamlet.
while contemplating my options, i thought "what could be the downside of caution here. giving something time to notice us and escape/set up traps, maybe? but that's a maybe"
but everyone seems to think going for the throat is the way to go, hm
You need to explain the connection between water lung, tsunade being in the area, and the likelihood of a oceanic chakra beast invading Fire. Everyone here can infer, but do it enough and someone will eventually get it wrong.
Created by Jiraiya, Lord Uzumaki's dating history file takes the form of a full-size imitation summoning scroll, with his past girlfriends' redacted names instead of summoners. Tower clerks are secretly panicking as the scroll is getting close to running out of room.
The Shadow Clone Technique really is the world's greatest ninjutsu.
