Looks like Hazou's got enough for TH 22, though there's no project we need to do imminently (unless we try to figure out that 'activate runes with Earthshaping/earth jutsu like how Konan activates explosives with paper jutsu' tweak.)
Once the Mednin 10 training plan goes through, we'll have enough support to raise THing to 20 if we want. That said, we might just want to wait until Hazou can level it up to the 30s for free.
Right now, Hazou can raise two new 30s with the pyramid support that he has right now. I'd recommend THing, and then either Mediknow/Mednin.
Might need to raise a 10-stat or something, but we have BRI and a bunch of other good Earth ninjutsu we can start to raise.
Hmm I wonder if with all the fancy new stunts he just got, if Noburi can distinguish what nature chakra 'looks' like vs. human chakra so he doesn't absorb it on accident. I mean, he can determine people's elements just from their chakra, so it seems within the realm of possibility of his research, right? And just because he senses chakra doesn't mean he needs to absorb it. So this might be able to assuage the concern of him draining our suite of chakra runes and then stoning himself like an idiot
Once the Mednin 10 training plan goes through, we'll have enough support to raise THing to 20 if we want. That said, we might just want to wait until Hazou can level it up to the 30s for free.
Right now, Hazou can raise two new 30s with the pyramid support that he has right now. I'd recommend THing, and then either Mediknow/Mednin.
Might need to raise a 10-stat or something, but we have BRI and a bunch of other good Earth ninjutsu we can start to raise.
Spending the TH notes would immediately drop us into combat stagnancy. I really do not want to spend them unless we have an urgent project. That we must solve in the short term.
Seriously guys, it can wait until after we unstagnate 17000. That's 2 barriers. We need to first finish raising PS to 32, then raise Ath/Tai to 49. That's our XP all the way to 17000.
After that, we should work on unstagnating 18000 (3 barriers), once we've done that, we have a clear shot to raising TH to the 40s. So we can dump all the notes and spend XP to raise it to 40. That'll put us at 18700 or so total.
Remember that we have to juggle Sealing barriers too. We don't want to lose out on XP just for a stat that isn't being rolled.
If we want to do the mednin/medknow notes too, that's an additional combat barrier (4 total) and puts us right at 19700 total XP. We'll probably read all the notes while we can't FOOM, but that does not mean we should spend them.
In fact, please do not, we want to think about this very carefully. Timing it so we don't stagnate too much is a balancing act.
Is Cloak of the Wind God compatible with Hazou's Pangolin gauntlets? And if they were imbued with tags would Hazou be able to use them on his Taijutsu rolls?
You're saying that in the far far future we can have Hazō rolling Taijutsu with a +7•AB bonus from using Strength of the Storm and Cloak of the Wind God, in addition to one further buff and a chakra boost?!
You're saying that in the far far future we can have Hazō rolling Taijutsu with a +7•AB bonus from using Strength of the Storm and Cloak of the Wind God, in addition to one further buff and a chakra boost?!
Well I don't think she has any Pangolin Gauntlets.....
Anyway CotWG is good, but opportunity cost is large. Not for Mari but for us. It takes 1000 XP to unlock the Element and we already have a triple buffstack for Taijutsu (Roki&FB + RRBs + Lightning). Compare that to RRBs + Wind + Lightning and all you get is a little more than 1 AB for attacking and some movement. We don't get enhanced range and WR is covered by FBs already. For defense, it's a similar story since CotWG competes with Sub for Supps and in the buffstack. Sub is usually about a 2xAB bonus. So it's similar improvement over Roki&FB there.
This grew out of a discussion about unlocking Jounin Aura on Discord in which it was suggested (by Paper, he might have been trolling (I give it 50/50 odds here)) that a common element among all the JA aura users we have seen is that they have 3+ Elemental natures. (See the Ami knowing 3
Elements question from last night). Akatsuki all have 3+ Elements etc. So thinking about Hazou's 3rd element to learn, Wind seemed a good option.
But mostly only if we can TH a variant of CotWG that doesn't demand so many Supps. It takes 1 per turn to use. Which is astoundingly bad for anyone who isn't using them already on RW.
You're saying that in the far far future we can have Hazō rolling Taijutsu with a +7•AB bonus from using Strength of the Storm and Cloak of the Wind God, in addition to one further buff and a chakra boost?!
Easy to console yourself with the idea that at least if it really came down to it you could just kill the guy if you run into him (even if this scenario has no chance of happening). Personal power is the ninja's copium
If he can also put you in the ground if he runs into you it changes everything
This grew out of a discussion about unlocking Jounin Aura on Discord in which it was suggested (by Paper, he might have been trolling (I give it 50/50 odds here)) that a common element among all the JA aura users we have seen is that they have 3+ Elemental natures. (See the Ami knowing 3
I would make an argument to the contrary based on Akane's proto-aura from that one time she got really angry, but I guess that might have been under the previous mechanics?
I loved theorycrafting about aura
Very sad that all of it is now useless and all the evidence we gained in character is gone.
I would make an argument to the contrary based on Akane's proto-aura from that one time she got really angry, but I guess that might have been under the previous mechanics?
My headcanon, which is purest ponwog, is that almost any ninja can leak a tiny bit of 'aura' when they are under the influence of sufficiently extreme emotion, usually rage. It's called 'jōnin aura' because by the time you manage to get it under conscious control you have made it to jōnin but it isn't like it's a merit badge that you get with the promotion papers. You can't simply issue promotions for all your Academy Students, giving them the rank of jōnin, and expect them to start aura blasting their enemies.
In short, if you're reading one of my updates and an angry non-jōnin ninja leaks a little aura, you should not take that as signifying anything about the world.
My headcanon, which is purest ponwog, is that almost any ninja can leak a tiny bit of 'aura' when they are under the influence of sufficiently extreme emotion, usually rage.
My headcanon, which is purest ponwog, is that almost any ninja can leak a tiny bit of 'aura' when they are under the influence of sufficiently extreme emotion, usually rage. It's called 'jōnin aura' because by the time you manage to get it under conscious control you have made it to jōnin but it isn't like it's a merit badge that you get with the promotion papers. You can't simply issue promotions for all your Academy Students, giving them the rank of jōnin, and expect them to start aura blasting their enemies.
In short, if you're reading one of my updates and an angry non-jōnin ninja leaks a little aura, you should not take that as signifying anything about the world.
"Hah. Yes, well, still worth mentioning. Granted, I'm not sure you have time to sit around doing chakra work with her. Have you figured out what you're going to say to Akane yet?"
Hazō looked at his commander with dismay. "How do you know about that, sir?"
"Hazō, half the village knows that you and your girlfriend had a spat. She went stomping out the gates of the Gōketsu estate and made a beeline for the Yamanaka estate with a near-visible thunderstorm crackling around her. Shoot, some reports suggest that she was actually leaking a little bit of killing intent, which isn't something I've heard of from her before now."
My interpretation at the time was that this was a sign that Akane was approaching the requirements for jōnin aura and could now trigger it while undergoing extreme emotional distress.
You're saying it's just that she's never been that angry before? That actually totally makes sense given that it's Akane (ignoring her original betrayal from her sensei, which probably wouldn't have been where it would have been recorded).
Admittedly, I have been basing a fair amount of my opinions on JA from Haru's proto-aura and an old copy of his (canonized) stat sheet. Hence why I was never sold on the sixties combat suite being important. @eaglejarl Should I disregard all the theory crafting I have done based on that including, notably, the fact he only has one element and has been close to an aura for a long time?
Dread it, run from it, player XP munchkinry arrives all the same. Firstly, I think Noburi's note XP is under allocated. Based on this post, it should be 400 XP rather than 373:
"Orochimaru's MedKnow notes #4: S: 0, B: 27, R: 48". Probably the remainder got counted but not the already-read-and-banked.
Secondly, @Paperclipped said he might or might not re-run Noburi's income from Tsunade to see if he would've earned more day by day rather than using the flat stagnancy rate since players were asking about it, but I went ahead and did a less-than-100%-rigorous analysis of his income from tsunade for 3 different scenarios:
- Spend note xp every day (not explicitly possible since it would only be spent when he could afford another level, but average is good enough.) The other problem with this route is also that he can't actually have finished the notes in time as his stagnancy would get too high too early and he would read the notes slower.
- Spend note xp at the very end of his training (mechanically the best option, but probably not the most representative narratively.)
- Finish and bank all the notes, and then spend it over the remaining days. (I think the best compromise between narrative and mechanical possibility.)
The spend-every-day option nets around 160 Tsunade xp which is less than what we earned, but as I expressed above, it's not actually a possible course of action for a few reasons.
The spend-at-the-end option nets around 212 Tsunade XP, 32 more than Noburi currently received. Again, this option is the most favorable to the players, but it's up to you if it makes sense. This is pretty much how Hazou does notes, but I know it is to the chagrin of certain QMs.
The finish-reading-and-then-spend option nets around 200 XP from Tsunade, 20 more than Noburi currently received from her.
So, depending on which option the QMs think is more appropriate (and whether they agree with my analysis), Noburi should've earned either an additional 47 XP, or an additional 59 XP, when combined with the missing notes XP.
TLDR: please gib Noburi a refund of +50 XP from medic training 🙏
Question about elements, for anyone who cares to answer: do we actually know what learning an element involves? I don't think anyone from the main cast has done it onscreen - Mari had Water/Wind/Lightning before we met her IIRC, Kei learned Shadow offscreen with the Nara, and no one else in Uplift has more than one element.
I'm asking because I'm wondering what actually happens if a human tries to learn one of the exotic elements that the summons use. We know that there are more human-learnable elements than just the standard five. Orochimaru vaguely implied that Shadow Element is something to do with the nature of the Thinker Clans:
"Your sister learned the Nara's Shadow Element, I presume?" Orochimaru asked, as he inspected various vials. "They are the only non-standard element users in Leaf, and I do not believe you have traveled far enough to find another clan so willing to share their secrets."
"Yes, Lord Orochimaru."
"The Shadow Element is not a typical example, as it is not anchored to the Nara's bloodline. But that should be a trivial inference, given that you already know about the Five clans.
So, perhaps that it requires a connection to one of the Five to use, maybe to provide the same kind of 'seed' that he talks about for Seventh Path elements:
Orochimaru shrugged, turning to arrange various glass instruments on the operating table. "I do not know. It is still a mystery why chakra expresses itself in these particular, discrete forms. It is something that sages have spent centuries contemplating without finding answers. As to bloodline elements, I believe your hypothesis is correct. Bloodlines such as Boil or Magnet release allow the user to passively aspect the faintest amount of nature chakra in order to create a seed of the alternate element that the user's human chakra then fuels. Rarer nature-chakra elements, such as Star Element, are completely incompatible with human chakra, and thus cannot be used as the foundation of a human bloodline. Naturally, this is all information which I have inferred as a result of my own painstaking research."
But what actually happens if you try to learn one of these elements, without the apparently-necessary prerequisites? Presumably it doesn't work or the world wouldn't look like it does, but exactly where does the process go wrong?
The end goal of this line of questioning is wondering whether there are actually a fixed number of elements at all. There are a lot of elements on the Seventh Path, and some of them overlap (e.g. Sun Element and Star Element). I think it's worth at least considering the hypothesis that it's actually possible to create new elements with Technique Hacking or some evolution thereof. It's unlikely, because if it was possible we'd expect people to be doing it, but Primordial Sealing provides precedent for incredibly powerful lost arts, and the elements having been created artificially would explain Oro's mystery of why chakra "expresses itself in these particular, discrete forms".
This is probably an incredibly long-term thing that we'll never get to in the timeline of the quest. However, if and when we unlock Minatosealing and level it a bit, it might be worth investigating whether we can use it to cheat our way into new elements without actually learning them properly. If we can, it might conceivably be possible to use a Minatoseal to generate the supposedly-necessary "seed" for an exotic element and then use that as a basis to learn the element. It's pretty unlikely, but I think it's worth keeping in mind.
"Welcome back, Canvass," Hazō said. "How did it go?"
The summoned bloodhound shook her head around the long axis of her body, making her droopy ears flap furiously and flinging bits of blood and dog spittle around.
"Gross!" Noburi shouted as a fleck of spittle struck him where he was prepping his gear for the upcoming assault on the cave system Orochimaru's notes had led them to. "Canvass!"
"Apologies," the dog called. She turned back to Hazō. "Ran into some giant bugs. They were delicious. I have never tracked in a place like this. You called it a 'desert'?"
"Yes," Hazō said. "Although not the deep desert." Turning, he surveyed the arid land around them. The tan-brown soil was working hard to achieve its lifelong goal of absolute desiccation. The land rolling like a sleepy sea, flat fat hills of widened girth and shortened stature, all covered in silver-green scrub and lichens and an occasional sapling stubbornly refusing to accept reality and move someplace decent. (Well, mostly. The team had passed one trio of migrating trees on the way here, and given them a wide berth.)
"The deep desert is pure sand," Hazō continued. "Massive waves of it, dozens of feet high. Life exists only in little spots called oases, wherever there is water."
"Hm. That sounds difficult to track in," Canvass said. "The sand would shift under your paws and it wouldn't hold scent well."
"By all reports it's also extremely difficult and unpleasant to live in."
"Yes, well, remind me not to answer if you try to summon me there."
"Did you guys find anything? Also, how was it working with Mari?"
Canvass glanced over to where the redhead was pouring water on her face and fluffing out her hair to let the heat off her neck.
"Nothing particularly interesting," the hound said. "No especially dangerous plants or animals, although the nighttime stuff might be a different story. As to Mari, she is a good runner and interesting to talk to. She had some fascinating stories about you, actually."
"They were lies. All of them."
"You don't even know what she told me, how can you know they were lies?"
"Because I know Mari and she absolutely would not miss a chance to prank me."
"Hm. A pity. I was quite impressed with the idea that you set up an education program for the younglings of your pack, then opened it to other packs."
"Wait, really? That one is actually true, it's called—"
"Now, now, Summoner. Don't try to take unearned credit. You already said it was all lies, you can't walk it back just because one of the lies was pretty."
"No, really, it's true!"
"Of course it is. Now, as I was saying, the scouting was informative. A surprising number of creatures in the area given the conditions. Mostly bugs and lizards of various kinds, many of them quite delicious. I recommend avoiding the snakes with the red and green markings; they can spit their acid quite a distance."
"Noted. Thank you. Anything else?"
o-o-o-o
"I can't believe I'm asking this but...are you sure this is all necessary?" Noburi asked. "We're here to study the pool that Orochimaru recommended, right?"
"Yup. And it is at the bottom of that cave complex. The last two times we went into caves, one of us almost died. Thus, yes, we are going to be careful."
"Sure but..." He gestured towards the entrance to the cave.
The team had spent two days mapping out every place that the cave system connected with the surface that they could find. This entrance, the one that Orochimaru had recommended, was the only one large enough for a human to walk through, with the majority being simple slits in the ground a few inches across, sufficient for scorpions or snakes to go in and out.
Heroes of legend, such as the Sannin, would have stormed into the cave with chakra ready, knowing that their battle-honed reflexes were more than sufficient to keep themselves safe. Kagome-sensei was not a hero of legend and felt that what they made up for in power they lacked in brains; Hazō, his student, fervently agreed. Accordingly, the exploration of the cave had been done in a proper Team-Uplift-approved fashion; to wit, the safest and most efficient way possible.
"It feels unfair somehow," Noburi said as he stepped to the cave entrance and raised a misterator seal. "Here, little chakra dumplings! Uncle Noburi is going to drain you right to death." He fired off the cone of heavy mist and spread his bloodline through the resulting haze of water.
Three months of researching alongside Tsunade had enhanced his medical and bloodline skills immensely. He had progressed so much that two days before going missing, he had come to the office to find Tsunade, Hospital Director Kon Ai, and the Hokage waiting in solemn tribunal.
"Gōketsu Noburi," Naruto said gravely. "Lead Doctor Senju has come to me with a most serious statement about your behavior as a medical professional."
Noburi forced himself to keep calm, not summon his Water Whip and brace for attack, and not run for his life before he could be thrown into a killbox. Damn it, Hazō was supposed to be the treason dragon in the family!
Naruto waited for Noburi to say something and looked disappointed when he didn't.
"Specifically," he said at last, "she said that you have demonstrated competence at a level well above those of your peers and she has formally requested your promotion to special jōnin."
"...Really?" Noburi cursed himself for asking, and for the way his voice squeaked. "Are you sure?"
"What, you don't want the promotion?!" Tsunade demanded, crossing her arms.
"Tsunade!" Naruto said before Noburi could reply. "There is a certain decorum to this, you know?"
The Sannin rolled her eyes. "Fine. I just wanted you to give him the paper so we could get on with this."
"Sensei," Kon Ai scolded gently. "Promotion to special jōnin is a huge milestone in anyone's life, and the fact that Noburi has achieved it at such a young age is impressive. He deserves to have a meaningful ceremony."
"Fair enough." Tsunade visibly took a grip on herself. "Gōketsu Noburi. In my rank as Lead Doctor of Leaf General, I have worked closely with you for the past several months on a project of novel research. This project required you to demonstrate a wide array of medical skills, which you did with grace and aplomb. Your skills are significantly above those of your cohort, you have embraced the medical ethos and requirements of Leaf medic-nin and brought honor to the profession. In recognition of these facts, I hereby grant you the title of Senior Doctor within the Leaf medical establishment, along with all the rights and responsibilities of that rank. You have full access to hospital resources and you answer only to myself and Administrator Kon Ai." She paused, then shook her head and, in a move so bizarre that it made Noburi want to check her ears for lupchanzen, she smiled. It was a very, very small smile and it existed mostly on half her face rather than dare to attempt proliferation, yet still it was a smile.
"You've done a hell of a job, kid."
"Thank you, ma'am," Noburi said, dumbfounded. "Thank you, Lead Doctor."
The smile disappeared. "That's enough of that formal twaddle. Come on, kid, we've got experiments to check on." She started to rise, only to stop when Naruto caught her arm.
"Ahem," said the Nine-Tails jinchūriki, Hokage, and youngest of Leaf's three S-rank ninja. "I believe there is a small matter of military promotion as well?" He turned to Noburi and produced a vellum scroll with elegant cherry endcaps. He unrolled it and began to read aloud.
"Whereas, Gōketsu Noburi has demonstrated loyalty to the Leaf and her command.
"Whereas, Gōketsu Noburi has an unstained disciplinary record.
"Whereas, Gōketsu Noburi has used his skills in service of the Leaf.
"Whereas, Gōketsu Noburi has received attestations of skill well above those of his peers and well beyond his current years."
"Therefore, I set my hand to the following document of promotion for the aforementioned Gōketsu Noburi to the rank of special jōnin, seconded to the Medical Corps. Congratulations, Special Jōnin Gōketsu."
He allowed the scroll to roll up and set it on the table before offering a shallow bow of the head, a gesture of respect from the Hokage to a loyal supporter.
"Thank you so much, Lord Hokage. I did not expect this."
"No one expects promotion to special jōnin, or to jōnin," Naruto said. "It's always a surprise. We don't want people getting demanding based on time in grade or whatever."
Noburi nodded. "That makes sense, sir. I can—"
"Noburi? You ready?" Hazō asked.
Noburi shook himself out of the pleasant memory and nodded. "Yup. Commencing Operation 'Mist Drain All the Monsters to Death Instead of Going in There Like Real Ninja' now, sir!"
Hazō looked narrow-eyed at him, clearly taking note of the barb. Still, he said nothing. There were too many other things to do, like set up barricades across any side passages and set up skyslicers by the door and then flood the cavern with smoke to drive animals out and through the 'slicers. All in all, it should make the cave exploration at dull as possible. Dull was good; especially as a sealmaster, Hazō thought dull days were the best days. Once the caves were secured the team could have fun and excitement researching the magical pool that had brought them here. Until then, dull was good.
I'm assuming Prime was busy doing stuff during this time period so we have 38 training blocks to read notes at 0.8x stagnancy. Will adjust this if we turned out to have enough chakra to FOOM due to Noburi draining the caverns. Recall that a maximum of 8 blocks can be spent per set of notes, as this update covered 2 days.
Can we assume that we secured the pool with no major combats and skip straight to that or should we plan for combat still?
Additionally, would it be possible for Cansaku to be added to Hazou's sheet? This update does specify that we want to make that contract with him. Also, @MMKII has been asking us to make a contract with Canzappu, is he a member of Cansaku's pack? Would simplify us getting in contact with him again if that was the case.
@_The_Bomb has already asked this, but with the chakra influx from the beasts in the cave and reduction in chakra costs from the soothing effect from the pool (assuming we did secure it) was Hazou able to conduct limited (or unlimited) FOOM this update? Would just be the second day if it applied at all.
EDIT: Also I wanted to confirm that the Mednin training plan for Hazou went through, as well as the combo-stunt for Kei.
[x] Action Plan: It's No Beach Episode, But It'll Do
Words: tbd
Secure the pool, close off any deeper tunnels with ES/MEW, and set up a trap perimeter outside the cave.
Use ES to study the cave with the chakra pool.
Pay attention to any unexpected interactions of ES with the chakra in the earth away/near/in/under the pool, and any potential differences thereof.
Noburi, using Vampiric Dew, and Hazou, using both chakrascope and MS8...
Examine everyone's chakra system and chakra regeneration, before/during/after they step into the pool.
Everyone takes a turn, repeating over the course of several days/weeks, to maximize data points (NB: timeladdering/prep days as much as Noburi's stats allow)
Except for Noburi, if he thinks his bloodline would interact dangerously with the pool.
Test to see if resting in the pool (open tenketsu) allows for Noburi to more easily drain them.
Does Noburi think he could replicate this with his bloodline/medical ninjutsu?
Does Hazou think he can replicate this with Runecrafting?
Look for any fungi and plants with medical properties.
Suggestion for saving QM Spoons: provides a taggable Aspect ("Medicinally-relevant plants") on Mednin rolls? One tag per Mednin roll, and then the amount we harvest corresponds to the amount of rolls we can use them on?
Medical Research from the Rules Doc implies that there are a whole host of pharmaceutical drugs that Noburi could research from the medically-relevant plant/fungi found in the cave... but the rules doc also makes no mention of if there's a mechanic like Prep Days (as with seal research) or Time Laddering (as with, say, casing a joint). It could also be that, as with Technique Hacking, there is no such mechanic.
My action plan, above, assumes that Medical Research has some sort of "increased time, increased roll" mechanic. Is this okay? Can we get a soft ruling on it, for the sake of the coming update?
All in all, it should make the cave exploration at dull as possible. Dull was good; especially as a sealmaster, Hazō thought dull days were the best days. Once the caves were secured the team could have fun and excitement researching the magical pool that had brought them here. Until then, dull was good.
