Legend of the Ronin (Legend of the Five Rings)

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While I'm disinclined to go along with the plan, I don't have a real alternative right now. Go back to speak to Iuchi Yukiko?
 
How very Scorpion.

Thanks for confirming what he is.

Assuming he's telling the truth, we have a thorny tactical issue. This is basicly an urban assault on a underworld fort, filled with paranoid scum. With only 2 of us, and we're the only tank.

We need to scout the place a bit. Then, we're going to need either reinforcments, or a distraction.

Hm. Jumpy, undisciplined thugs. Twichy boss. Open to the public.

Need a fire. The boss will run, with guards. That's his opening, and ours. Risky, though.

Opinions?
 
[] Laugh in Tsuchi's face and challenge him to tell you what really is going on: After all Gozaburo's last King is "destinied" to die tonight in the middle of his powerhouse. Why bother with a strategy inside, if all Tsuchi has to do is wait for a day before he can reach the mobster?
 
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[] Laugh in Tsuchi's face and challenge him to tell you what really is going on: After all Gozaburo's last King is "destinied" to die tonight in the middle of his powerhouse. Why bother with a strategy inside, if all Tsuchi has to do is wait for a day before he can reach the mobster?

That works.
 
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So first, yes, egregiously terrible plan is egregiously terrible, as expected. It's not even a *good* bad plan. It requires enormously dishonorable behavior from the beginning (violating precepts of Honesty for the lies ad Honor for the disrespect, at bare minimum) but even after that it depends on our ability to bluff, on their ability to disguise us as one of our clanmates, on this woman not showing up, on our ability to bluff playing a well-known high-roller *without* dumping enormous amounts of koku everywhere, on them not happening to ask us for our weapon anyway on a night when he's super-paranoid... and all that's really won by this series of thin threads is that we can get inside and maybe have our weapon. I note that the guy who almost killed us in a duel is apparently not his last "King". By extension, even if we have our weapon, meeting the last King is likely to get us killed.

I note that he before let slip that he wanted a distraction. By that light, having us fail horribly at pretending to be that woman while in the middle of the enemy stronghold may well serve his purposes better than having us succeed. For that matter, it puts him in basically the perfect infiltrating position - he gets to get in while everyone ignores him.

Pretty sure that what he's *not* saying is that he's the one that's been knocking off the Kings. He's currently implying it. Insisting that he state it outright would be rude, and demonstrate a lack of understanding.

On the other hand, we now have quite a lot of new information. Our friend is in danger... because the place she's a prisoner in is about to burn down... because someone (probably this guy) is going to set fire to it in an attempt to kill Gozaburo and/or his last "King".

[] Challenge Tsuchi to tell you what really is going on: the plan he spun for you is flatly terrible on the face of it. It's clear that he doesn't care how utterly dishonorable it would be, but surely even he cares for *effectiveness*, and there's no way that you can successfully pretend to be a well-known and well-liked patron of the establishment without even having met her - let alone the issues with disguise, money, the possibility that she might actually show up, and so forth.

/*****/

Other thoughts...
- His assertion that she's been pulled back to this place? They're awfully convenient for him (gives us a reason to go with his mad plan) but there's not an enormous amount of evidence backing them, even if what he says *is* true. Assuming that he's *mostly* not lying, she might well still be back at the warehouse on the edge of Senbonzakura.
- Given that we're not willing to be Horribly Dishonorable, and, again, assuming that he's largely telling the truth, our ability to get into this place with a weapon is goign to be pretty starkly limited. Our ability to get into the cellars at all is going to be an issue, given that our only real pertinent skill is swording, and we're injured. Honestly, I think we need to go back to the monk on this one. Get a better idea of *why* she was taken, and what's going on with the whole hilt thing. That *might* give us info that we could use to somehow convince Gozaburo to let her go before the fires start and/or a way in that's better than "utterly reject Honesty" or "just start killing".
- Worth noting that the "just start killing" plan is a fail in two different ways - first that we're already wounded, and reasonably likely to die, and second that we've been directly ordered by our superior to leave this guy alone, and turning his minions into a bodycount is pretty much exactly the opposite of that.

Also, on the matter of honesty... @gman391, lying is governed by a contested roll of Sincerity vs Investigation. We have an Investigation pool of 7k4 (-3). Could we please have a roll to see if we can spot this man lying to us?

edit: figured out a better plan (I think)
 
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Sure you can get that

Tsuichi rolls 7k4 Sincerity Deceit
Rolled: 8,6,6,6,3,3,2
Total: 26

Megumi tolls 7k4-3 Investigation
Rolled: 19,7,6,5,5,3,2
Total: 34

While Tsuichi is lying. It's about his name, and his expectations this will work.
Interestingly you're able to discern he has no idea who is killing the Kings.
 
Innnteresting. So...
- Tsuchi isn't there to kill the King. He really doesn't know what's doing that.
- He expects this plan to fail, and for us to take the fall in a big way while he does... something. Probably kill Gozaburo? Still, that brings us around to the other question. Why not wait? Surely it'd be easier after the King gets knocked off.
- He intends to use us as an expendable patsy. No surprising.
- He *does* think that our Kaiu friend will be in the basement, most likely. Also, there *is* someone stalking our prey.
- He expects our Kaiu friend to be in danger... but the only real reason to expect that would be the fire from the fireworks, and the only reason to specifically expect *that* is that he's planning to set them himself. Really, Tsuchi?

I'm also thinking that, as a magistrate, we might object to the idea of burning down buildings containing significant numbers of reasonably-innocent people.

Also, on second read it looks like my write-in is incorrect - it's not that this lady has ever been to this establishment, it's that her pattern of behavior on enterign a new town suggests strongly that she *will*. That's a lot more plausible (if still equally dishonorable, and still not likely to succeed - especially if he stabs us in the back at some point, which he's reasonably likely to do).

Will need more thought to come up with a new one. Further thoughts from others appreciated.
 
We need backup, and we can't get it from the magistrates, given our orders.

That also means we cannot go after the crime lord in question, without breaking our orders.

Do we know anybody who would be willing to stage a brawl out the front, then help with rescuing everybody from the fire? We'd need at least 6-10 people, I'd guess. That'd attract almost all the attention, and allow us to move in for the rescue.

Does that work? Small riot, fire, rioters helping to rescue everybody, and we go as deep as required. Risky, but could work.
 
Hmm, going off soon but:
[X] Challenge Tsuchi to tell you what really is going on: the plan he spun for you is flatly terrible on the face of it. It's clear that he doesn't care how utterly dishonorable it would be, but surely even he cares for *effectiveness*, and you can see that the only likely role you would play there is a sacrificial diversion, nor a particularly skilled one at that.

We don't particularly need to come up with a counterplan for him, considering we don't even know his real plan.
 
Okay. Am back. Have a few more ergs....
- He's told us some stuff. That's useful. We still don't have as much as we might like, but there's no guarantee that we can get more.

Potential plans for trying to ensure that our friend survives the night:
- Convince this guy *not* to set off fireworks in a crowded gambling hall
--- Possibly by convincing him to go with some other plan.
----- Caveat: it's entirely possible that he'll smile and nod about whatever other plan we propose and then whip out the fireworks *anyway*.
- Somehow prevent him and/or his cohort from setting off fireworks in a crowded gambling hall
--- Prevent him ourselves by whatever means (how?)
--- Let Gozaburo know about the plot early enough for him to prevent the fireworks from being set (possibly using that as a distraction).
--- Somehow enlist the magistrates. Magistrates tend to disapprove of arson on general principles.
- Get in there and rescue her before the fireworks go off (how?)

Issues with the above: Preventing the fireworks only keeps her alive for a short while longer. It doesn't get her free. Also, severely thwarting this man's plan may... upset him. No. I have a better plan.

[x] (speaking in a slightly overdone, "I am speaking with my official voice" tone) "Tsuchi, I am surprised at you. The plan you have described is both deeply dishonorable, and doomed to failure. Further, as a magistrate, it is my Duty to see to the well-being of this city. Arson via firework, particularly of buildings packed with innocent citizens, is completely unacceptable. Unfortunately, as you are clearly not one to be swayed by the dishonor of your actions, and I do not know how many compatriots you might have, I do not believe that I have the tools at hand to prevent your dastardly plot. Clearly, having uncovered it, my best recourse is to provide warning to Gozaburo-sama of this plot that I have uncovered in my investigations, so that he might either have his guards search the area thoroughly to find and dispose of your bombs, or perhaps evacuate the building entirely."

Not sure if I got this quite right, but the basic idea is that we're going to go warn the currently-quite-paranoid Gozaburo of this new threat in our role as Honorable Magistrate, letting him obsess about that, and leaving openings that other plans can exploit. We're making it obvious to Tsuchi that we're entirely aware of what we're doing, and that this is the aid we feel we can give him. Then we can go to Gozaburo, and put him on the alert for this specific threat while being entirely honest, and not disrespecting anyone. Adding to our ability to be honest, there's even a decent chance that Tsuchi and/or his associates will place a small number of well-hidden fireworks around, in order to give the guards something to find and be increasingly paranoid about.
 
The only problem I see with his plan is that kind of implies that we might need to meet Gozaburo directly. And since he'd be an idiot to trust us, we might become a hostage while his men look for bombs, and end up caught in a rather uncomfortable situation.
 
Paranoid crime lord.

Very, very small chance it goes our way. Remember, magistrates who bother him die, so he'll most likely just kill us out of hand, or worse. Besides, he'd simply assume it's a trap, and... Yep. More reason to kill us.

Face to face isn't going it work. Saying something to his doorman? Nah, even if he beleves, he's got time to act, and from the sounds of things, his imediate actions are going to be to 'vanish' any problems.

Hm.

We need an 'informant'. Somebody who Gozaburo will beleve, when he comes by, to trade info for money. We don't know any, but the Scorpion might. No, no good.

Somebody comes by a crime lord, tells him about an attack, he evacuates himself, but sends minions to eliminate evidence. That's not what we want at all.

I keep going back to setting fire to the building, or at least a lot of smoke. Everybody runs, we rescue, Scorpion has his chance, everybody wins. I hope.


So, Vote.

[]"I have a better idea. If you can make enough smoke, or at least a fire in the right place, you can scare him out. That will allow me to rescue Tanako-sama , and give you your chance."


Any opinions?
 
Magistrates who "bother him" - ie, try to take him in for his crimes and/or make him follow the law? Yeah, he'll have those killed. "Bother him" as in warn him of an attempt on his life when he's expecting an attempt on his life? Less so.

Also, our Sincerity score is decent (6k4-3) and we'd actually be telling the truth. We'd be leaving stuff out, but we wouldn't be lying. That gives us a decent level of ability to convince.

Also, we may not get Gozaburo himself, given his level of wealthy and busy, but there's a decent chance we can get his majordomo/manager or equivalent. The point here is to give someone who can give his guys orders reason to be concerned and act... and an honest tip by a cop that your place may be targeted by arson is absolutely a reason to be concerned. This is basically the equivalent of pulling the fire alarms or calling in a bomb threat, except that the fact that it's coming from a magistrate gives it a bit more heft.

Other thing you're missing. The real point of this action is to prevent the fire from happening in the first place. I have no confidence in our ability to infiltrate and rescue our Kaiu friend under any circumstances. If the place burns down and she hasn't been rescued, she almost certainly dies. If it *doesn't* burn down, though, then when the sun rises tomorrow, she'll likely be alive.
 
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Sure its the only solution proposed so far. I'm concerned by how vauge the next things that we'll do are however I do think its the least bad of our options.

[X] (speaking in a slightly overdone, "I am speaking with my official voice" tone) "Tsuchi, I am surprised at you. The plan you have described is both deeply dishonorable, and doomed to failure. Further, as a magistrate, it is my Duty to see to the well-being of this city. Arson via firework, particularly of buildings packed with innocent citizens, is completely unacceptable. Unfortunately, as you are clearly not one to be swayed by the dishonor of your actions, and I do not know how many compatriots you might have, I do not believe that I have the tools at hand to prevent your dastardly plot. Clearly, having uncovered it, my best recourse is to provide warning to Gozaburo-sama of this plot that I have uncovered in my investigations, so that he might either have his guards search the area thoroughly to find and dispose of your bombs, or perhaps evacuate the building entirely."
 
[] Walk away from Tsuchi and tell him that you are going to go and rescue Tanako-sama. If he gets in the way with more lies or putting her into danger, he will be dealt with.
 
So.

Ok, a fire is risky. What allies can we bring in? We have a single, untrustworthy Scorpion here. Anybody else?
 
From Arc IV Chapter 2
"According to your dossier helpfully compiled by Kitsuki-san. Your first night awake in the city, you had drinks with a Kaiu Tanako, who is currently under contract to forge a number of armours for the Tenth. The issue being that she hasn't been seen in a week and a half. Given how we want those armours, I'm giving your squad the job of hunting her down and finding out why she hasn't surfaced. She was last seen in the Mori Ward."
 
Thanks @gman391 !

So. Get squad. Then, with a little backup, magistrate, smoke bombs, rescue Kaiu Tanako, go out the back door.

Works for me. Anybody else? Works with current vote, too.
 
Okay so no one actually put x's in their votes. I typically take that as a tentative vote open to change. Therefore I am going to ask you to post x's in your votes please.
 
Fine. I've got nothing else, so I'll go with this.

I still think we need backup, our squad if nothing else.

[X] (speaking in a slightly overdone, "I am speaking with my official voice" tone) "Tsuchi, I am surprised at you. The plan you have described is both deeply dishonorable, and doomed to failure. Further, as a magistrate, it is my Duty to see to the well-being of this city. Arson via firework, particularly of buildings packed with innocent citizens, is completely unacceptable. Unfortunately, as you are clearly not one to be swayed by the dishonor of your actions, and I do not know how many compatriots you might have, I do not believe that I have the tools at hand to prevent your dastardly plot. Clearly, having uncovered it, my best recourse is to provide warning to Gozaburo-sama of this plot that I have uncovered in my investigations, so that he might either have his guards search the area thoroughly to find and dispose of your bombs, or perhaps evacuate the building entirely."
 
[X] (speaking in a slightly overdone, "I am speaking with my official voice" tone) "Tsuchi, I am surprised at you. The plan you have described is both deeply dishonorable, and doomed to failure. Further, as a magistrate, it is my Duty to see to the well-being of this city. Arson via firework, particularly of buildings packed with innocent citizens, is completely unacceptable. Unfortunately, as you are clearly not one to be swayed by the dishonor of your actions, and I do not know how many compatriots you might have, I do not believe that I have the tools at hand to prevent your dastardly plot. Clearly, having uncovered it, my best recourse is to provide warning to Gozaburo-sama of this plot that I have uncovered in my investigations, so that he might either have his guards search the area thoroughly to find and dispose of your bombs, or perhaps evacuate the building entirely."
 
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