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)