Do we need Candoru and Cansaku on call? Can we free them to defend their pack? Would it look insubordinate to Cannai?
Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
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- naruto rationalist romance armageddon is looking better and better damn you kishimoto explosions everywhere explosives solve everyone if in doubt surrender to the mercy of zabuza it seemed like a good idea at the time looks like a really bad case of being a jōnin my god. where does the lore end? precommitting is the winning plan screaming in kagome screw the rules i have explosives something bad might still happen sometimes you gotta sociopath stabby zabby subsection c of paragraph 9 should include we can weaponize this so hard
To repeat: we already solved this problem. See the below:
If we can add this to normal explosives we can add it to Remote Explosives. (Which we also already prepped and found to be well within our capabilities, since you raise making them work at all as a problem.)
A lot....? You're stuffing 10x the complexity on the trigger inside a dead simple rune. This is a Medium project minimum. Explosives are very very easy for sealing to do, complex conditional triggers? Much harder.
That's if it's possible at all. Chakra is notoriously finicky about stuff like this. MARS can't manage simultaneous explosions from tags. Why are runes different?
As for hitting the Zone with several independent explosions. Your original proposal won't do that, and I think the activation delay on runes in general makes this a non-starter. Perhaps a primed remote explosive with the target Zone set at final activation could be usable in this way. Anything else? Not a chance
They will get to roll Ath against the blasts. There is no universe I can see in which they don't. There has never been a situation in the history of the quest where an Ath roll for defense was disallowed without another roll establishing a Block first, and even that probably shouldn't have been done. The TN rules for explosives were established after that to forbid it from ever happening again.
I don't care if it's "theoretically possible" I mega doubt it's happening and I don't expect coordinating explosions to help.
As for evading our rune, it detects chakra, so I sure hope they do empty their reserves lol.
Well ...
This chunk from our fight against the Leopards suggests that you can have terrain where it's not possible to dodge explosives. It's arguable that, for a TN 100 explosion, all terrain in the detonation Zone constitutes terrain where it isn't possible to dodge, because the terrain will cease to exist during the explosion. I agree it's unlikely that this would work for one RE, but I think there's a solid argument that it should work for a coordinated barrage of overlapping REs.The team is currently in a hilly area with low brush and not a lot of ground cover. We'll use a 3x3 grid of zones with:
small copse of trees grassland especially flat grassland grassland mildly hilly, rocky mildly hilly, rocky mildly hilly mildly hillyy grassland Unless stated otherwise, zones are always assumed to have sufficient terrain features that it's possible to dive for cover from an explosion. (And yes, this refers only to land-based zones, not air or water zones, since that is in fact a question that came up in thread!
) People can reposition freely within the zone on their initiative so it's usually not possible to take cover from a single-target attack if someone wants to get you. This is the default unless stated otherwise.
'Grassland' means essentially flat and little ground cover. Everyone is in sight of everyone in the zone at all times unless they have some specific ninjutsu or etc to change that.
'Especially flat grassland' means that there isn't even enough cover to avoid an explosion.
Yeah they can still Sub out of said Zone, or activate any number of busted Sub alternatives allowing off turn or reflexive movement. We know for a fact that most of them have movement jutsu (except Sasori) and frankly, this is not enough.
I have not heard one convincing argument for why we'll get a coordinated barrage of explosions rather than the runes going off randomly (as seals do) and Akatsuki simply avoiding the rest of the explosions with movement techniques. Our explosive runes are simply not large enough or coordinated enough to hit them multiple times.
Seals do not go off randomly. There is a slight variability in the time taken for an impulse to propagate through a MARS seal, which over sufficiently long seal chains adds up to a noticeable variability that prevents shenanigans like complex RB arrays or detonating an entire stack of explosives at once, but our entire MARS stack still happens on our turn. Other people don't get to take Standards, or even non-reflexive Supplementals, in between us triggering the chain and e.g. Banshee Fuckers activating. (Unless you're referring to something other than MARS with the "as seals do" comment?)
At the moment, we do not know how much variability is involved in the landmine primed-trigger mode, because we haven't researched it. It could be that actually it's a full second either way, in which case sure, Akatsuki probably get to take their turns partway through. It could also be a tenth of a second either way, in which case I'm hard pressed to believe that Akatsuki would get to take even a non-reflexive Supplemental. (And yes, they could Sub or use Sub equivalents; I'm not disputing that Akatsuki would get to roll Ath, via hacks if nothing else, but as I understood it you were saying that Ath alone would always be allowed as a defence, which is what I was arguing against.)
What does "coordinated" mean in your usage? How close together do the explosions have to be before they count as coordinated? I feel like I must be missing something about your viewpoint here.
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Setting off a MARS chain of 12 explosives is not modeled as 12 attacks at TN40. It's modeled as one.
Coordinated here means timed precisely enough that they aren't modeled at a single attack.
If the dodge TN of an explosive is representative of the difficulty of getting into cover in time, once you've dodged the first explosive, you're covered and the next 10 aren't a threat. So it's modeled at one attack.
It's unclear to me exactly how this would play out mechanically. It is possible that we can drop 10 explosions on Akatsuki before they can react by having SCs activate a bunch of runes all aimed at Akatsuki.
In that case I think it's worth trying, and regardless I want to research Remote Explosives. But it is not obvious that this is a gamechanger or indeed an efficient use of our time/chakra at the Rift.
- Location
- United States
@Kyreneryk you may be interested in this.
- Location
- Europa, Jupiter Orbit
Wasn't the aqueduct in the old compound? The one we lost to Shimura. It would presumably be harder to get to demolish a path from the city walls till our compound for some massive piece of infrastructure unilaterally.
- Location
- Washington, USA
I'm proposing this as an add-on to refine remote explosives, after we've got the basic functionality of those worked out. Sorry I didn't make that more clear.
Runes are different because they're three-dimensional - more surface for external contact points, more volume for fiddly internal logic.
Yes. I'm not claiming they wouldn't - just that they'd need to roll multiple times, thus burning through more of whatever resources they've got for boosting such a roll. Or, if chain-detonated explosives are modeled as a single attack, dodging it would presumably be more difficult than one alone, so we can just keep stacking on more power until the difficulty is high enough that all their essie tricks put together won't be sufficient.
Ideally, we link up a heap of remote explosives to some long-distance Akatsuki-detector such that it continues tracking them in realtime during the sequence, so every time they Substitute (or Vacuum Step or Spacetime Warp or whatever) into a different zone, next detonation directly targets wherever they are now, instead of where they were. Downside of smarter targeting is longer development time for the sensor, and risk of being spoofed.
Brute force is less efficient, but also seems less likely to fail outright due to some overlooked esoteric technique, and we've potentially got the option of throwing an entire Hidden Village's worth of chakra at that side of things. Could also tap two different Thinker Clans for optimizing a precalculated volley to make it harder to escape.
Historically, this has not been the case. Hence my skepticism.
I see. Right. I hadn't realized that - I'd been assuming that all we needed to do was get them close enough together, not that we'd need to think about carefully distributing them so that they'd be modeled as separate attacks. I suppose that kind of makes sense, for most kinds of defence?
(Just to check - you mean that if even if I distribute twelve explosive tags across a Zone and then set them off with MARS, that's still modelled as one attack? I'm pretty sure from context, but want to make sure you're not just drawing on the first-tag-destroys-the-others thing that's the reason you can't just stick twelve tags on one kunai.)
Question, actually - is the 12-explosive MARS chain modelled as one attack, or one defence roll against 12 instances of the attack? It wouldn't come up if you succeed since all twelve attacks are flat TNs, and almost everyone succeeds so the issue wouldn't normally arise; but if you fail your roll (e.g. you don't make it into cover in time, or your Geode Coffin doesn't come up fast enough) do you then take more damage from there being 12 tags instead of 1? (As in, I roll Ath 30 + 9 = 39 against a single tag in my Zone, taking 1 stress; if there are instead 12 tags, and I roll a 39, do I take 1 stress total or 1 stress per tag?) Presumably not, because that kind of no damage/death disjunction feels unrealistic; but so does one explosive tag having exactly the same effect as twelve explosive tags.
I am, very - this is most of the questions I wanted answered in regards to REs. I assume you're still waiting for answers or you would have included them?
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That is correct. It's been long enough that you can probably bump them and let the QMs know you have an interest in them as well, if you want.
Out of curiosity, what are the questions you have that aren't covered by that?
Principally, "can you actually dodge a TN100 explosion with Athletics", and "what happens if you Substitute into a Zone that's also exploding".
Barring indestructible or otherwise anomalously durable cover, that is.
And as you suggested:
@eaglejarl @Paperclipped @Velorien, bumping the above questions.
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Is there any reason whatsoever to think you couldn't if you rolled high enough? If the TN exists then that thing is possible if you can roll high enough, that's the point of having TNs, that's what they mean.
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- United States
Oh! I didn't ask that becuase I already got that answered. You should check this out!
Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
Really, the whole quote chain upwards from the post I quoted when I pinged you may be interesting to you.
Thanks! That's good to know, especially since it seems to support the idea that Ath alone is not necessarily enough to dodge sufficiently big explosives even if you can hit the TN. (At least, it demonstrates that the QMs do consider the question of whether it's possible to dodge explosives with Ath, even if they (sensibly) want to keep looking at it on a case-by-case basis.)
Not necessarily - remember, there are other ways to defend against an explosive than dodging. The TN is also relevant for e.g. barrier ninjutsu, Substitution, destroying objects with Durability, etc.; it doesn't necessarily mean that Athletics works as a defence. (And the post @_The_Bomb linked above seems to support that idea.)
- Location
- Texas
If I recall correctly, setting off multiple explosive seals in a small area is not actually possible even with MARS. One will go off before the others and destroy them before they actually go off. Remote explosives would theoretically work differently since the explosions wouldn't destroy the runes that are far away. Stacked remote explosives might have different rules that increase the TN or require multiple dodges.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You can stack explosives with timers (for example in the Shirogane mission (Note that there wasn't a roll for this particular example just showing the concept is possible)) and I'm pretty sure it still doesn't change the TN. They didn't all go off for the same reason you mentioned but most of them did. I think any mechanical advantages are going to be ad hoc ruled by the QMs, not something that will be codified into the mechanics.
EDIT: For that matter, I'm pretty sure we were told that for MARS in particular the timing only becomes noticeably asynchronous at the 10th tier and beyond, hence why we've never accidentally Banshee'd ourselves before the slayers activate using MARS.
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- Location
- Texas
I think there was another ruling to this beforehand that Paper is referring to, but this is hopefully evidence enough. We can't stack explosive seals in the same AoE.
Rune of paper in range is immune to explosives or rune of give seals energy armor. Then stack reusable explosives. But if you are gaming out rune chains with remote effects some of the runes should stop enemies from escaping the effects. Block lines of sight. Stop movement.
Chapter 683: An Imperfect Defense
- Location
- USA
"Noburi's declared Yuno all better," Hazou said, "so once I finish this latest round of rune research, we should get moving. Before we go, I wanted to run an idea by you. I think we can force anyone tracking us to cross through Bear if they want to get to us. We cross over Wind's western river, then once we've gone far enough into the desert, we turn north and end up on the far side of Bear."
"The far side of Bear?" Mari asked. "Does Bear have a far side?"
"I assume so," Hazou said. "Surely the… Bear-ness ends at some point, right?"
"And how will we know where that point is?"
"We just go as far as we can," Hazou said. "We have skywalkers. If we run three hundred miles into the desert then turn north, surely we'll have gone past the borders of Bear, right?"
"Bear isn't really a country. I don't think it has borders so much as a 'we're pretty sure people stop coming back if they go farther than about here'. We're already going into territory that no sane ninja would follow us into. Why overcomplicate things by going into the one place more dangerous to us than Rain?"
"Because I'm not worried about the sane ninja chasing us. I'm worried about Hidan."
Mari considered that for a minute. "I still don't think it's worth it. Based on what you said, he doesn't track like he's got a compass pointing at us. Instead, Jashin, I guess, somehow leads him to us. If we can walk a path to the far side of Bear, he can as well. Speaking for myself, if I were giving directions to a ground operative, and a big obstacle stood between them and their objective, I'd give them the route around, not just tell them to barrel through. Unless his tracking really is a dumb compass, and he's also dumb enough to blindly follow it into Bear, I don't think we get anything out of the risk. Let's keep it simple. Head into the deep desert, secure a site, then get you set up to be as productive as possible."
"Fair enough. Let's go tell the team."
o-o-o
With a final, monumental twist of chakra, Hazou pressed reality inwards and compressed it into the stone blank in front of him. He felt momentarily disoriented as a thousand choirs sang colors of ever-so-slightly different shades, but they rotated and the light finally shined through.
If his calculations were right, he'd just completed the Iron Earth Rune.
He activated it, then stood and stepped back, and immediately he felt the difference. The sandy ground under his research site had changed. It felt almost solid like a pavestone, except it shifted ever so slightly as his feet oh-so-slowly sank into it. He reached down to scoop up a handful of sand and had to chakra-boost to get his hand in and pull it free of the ground. As he pulled it free of the ground, the incredible resistance the earth had shown suddenly ended and he flung the sand in the air. It flew like normal, but when it landed, it didn't make the soft susurrations he'd expected. Instead, each grain neatly stuck still, failing to cause any tiny adjustments in the nearby sand.
He pulled another handful of sand from the ground more carefully and watched it stream through his fingers where it pooled in too-tall pyramids that collapsed slower than they had any right to.
If all went well, this would prevent (or at least, massively slow) tunnelers from entering Leaf from below once the village had the protection of a Runic Air Dome to cover itself from above. It was the start of a defense that would keep the village safe from even Akatsuki.
o-o-o
It was well past sunset when the team emerged from the cave. They quickly dismantled the defensive perimeter and climbed on their skywalkers into the dry desert night. The stars and moon shone bright overhead, and the cool air eased the exertion of stair-stepping a mile into the air. They turned west and walked over the mountains.
Strangely, the mountains seemed to split the desert away from a green paradise. Trees and bushes covered the far side of the mountains they crossed, and dozens of streams fed down into a wide, slow-moving river on the far side. They had plenty of time to watch the river from above as they crossed high in the sky, and it made Hazou think. Abundant water from the wide, twisting river should have made those plains a perfect place for farming and settlement, yet the land remained completely untamed. Had the chakra beasts here really prevented Hidden Sand, so desperate for grain, from claiming the land?
Well, it wasn't just the danger. They'd had other land to worry about before the war, and protecting this area would have required projecting force through their great desert. Still, if they could reach out to the southern coast, maybe they would choose to settle here as well in time.
Past the river, life still covered the land. The pale moonlight illuminated endless tall grasses, only occasionally broken up by patches of crooked trees. It reminded him of the terrain in Rice Country, except without rice paddies set up around every stream and pond.
The team had surely left the area that any cartographer would have included in their maps by now, but they continued to run. Without any landmarks or directions, they had no target in mind. If they ever wanted to come back into the Elemental Nations, they just needed to go in the direction of the sunrise.
And if they came back to the world already under Akatsuki's iron grip, Hazou intended to do so with the power to end their tyranny once and for all.
o-o-o
Their pace slowed as they ran into a heavy headwind, and they took the opportunity to collapse onto skytowers, relying on Kagome-sensei's Darkness Domes to shut out the light so that they could sleep. They rose well past sunrise and carried onwards into the wind, until the scattered rocky outcroppings and thin grasses of the savannah finally gave way to sandy desert again. They continued for a couple hours longer, then prepared to make their base.
Hazou, Noburi, and Kagome-sensei waited on a skytower while the more combat-capable members of the party descended to secure an area against roaming chakra beasts. Once they got the all-clear, they reunited on the ground where Hazou and Kagome-sensei set up a more thorough perimeter.
Hazou burned through the day's allotment of chakra casting a powerful Earthshaping. He ignored the sounds of occasional explosions and fighting around him as his teammates violently expunged a few recalcitrant beasts from their former territory, instead reshaping the sand around him into a maze of walls of compressed quartz surrounding their fifty-meter-wide camp. Kagome-sensei had plenty of suggestions and corrections, changing patches of the walls from opaque to transparent and back so as to maximize the team's sightlines out while minimizing any sightlines in.
Then, Hazou turned his attention to the underground, increasing the density of the stone and making underground pockets of air that Kagome-sensei would fill with yet more traps for potential burrowers. He sealed the caves, collapsing them and filling them with dirt, and moved the bedrock to the surface, so that the team could have stable stone to run on if they were attacked rather than loose sand or glass.
The rest of the day was more of the same. For the next few hours, while Hazou crafted the base's time-acceleration rune, the local beasts wanted to test their luck against the newcomers. Kagome-sensei and Yuno analyzed their capabilities and updated the defenses, iterating until, finally, the beasts seemed to realize that Team Uplift was no easy meal, and the explosions came to an end.
Finally, Hazou could start his research.
o-o-o
Several days later…
Slowly, Hazou drew himself away from the strange abstractions of the Out and back into reality. He heard crying.
"What's wrong?" he asked, once he'd found his way across camp towards where Kei and Tenten and Noburi huddled around a crying Yuno.
"A particularly malfeasant type of chakra beast," Kei replied, her hair whipping slightly in the ever-present eastward wind as she watched Yuno. Noburi was holding his wife, leaving Kei and Tenten standing around awkwardly.
"Is it alright if I ask what happened?" Hazou asked, stepping closer and kneeling down beside Noburi and Yuno.
Yuno faced him, face still screwed up, but Hazou caught a hint of a smile on her face. "Yes! Hazou, I'm so glad you're here. I thought…"
"Give her a hug, Hazou," Noburi said. "Contact is good."
Hazou hugged her.
"Do you want to know the story?" Yuno asked.
Hazou nodded.
"They were jackals. They weren't that big – maybe up to my waist? I think it was only two of them that I found, close to our perimeter, and I should have just killed them both. Instead, Satsuko split one just to make sure they weren't too fast, and the other one looked at me and put me in this genjutsu.
"It was a salt flat. So endlessly flat in every direction. In the distance, I could see mountains in every direction, but they were so, so very far. Above, there was the full moon. Only the moon. I didn't see a single star.
"I dispelled, and the genjutsu went away. The genjutsu was weak and the beasts were slow so I thought I could handle them. I went ahead of my clones, since I know shadow clones are weak to genjutsu, and I let the other one go so I could track it back to its den. I was worried we were sitting on the jackals' territory and that they might come back and hunt you or Noburi. I wanted to clear them out."
Yuno paused to wipe her tears away, breathing deeply. "I used that jutsu Orochimaru gave you, then I went into the den. It was a big cave, nothing too tight. There weren't that many of them. Less than twenty. The place had a dry stink to it, like dried blood and shit. The floor was covered with bones and hair. It was light outside and only a little bit of light was going into their cave, but their eyes…
"It was like they were reflective, like a cat's, but they were shining this dark, endless purple. And when I saw them, they sent us… somewhere else.
"It was that same place, that same endless salt flat. I dispelled again right away, but there were so many looking at me, and in an instant they sent me back. I kept dispelling, but each time I was only able to take a step forward before they sent me back there again. I was moving so much faster than them in this world, but it was in stutters as I came here for a third of a second at a time. Satsuko split one, then, somewhere in the next dozen dispels, I ran out of chakra.
"I was stuck in that salt flat with Satsuko. She was the only one there with me. She was supposed to be rising up to parry away one of their attacks and spray blood in another's eyes but instead she was dry. Not even the jackals were there. I tried to use your seals, but they didn't work while I was there, and while I could feel my chakra, I had spent it all, so I couldn't even use any jutsu.
"I was there for a long time. I wanted to think and see if there was some way out of there, but I was so tired. Maybe it was because I was out of chakra – I don't think I regenerated while I was in that world – but I mostly think it was a part of the genjutsu. They didn't want their prey thinking or planning. They wanted it to give up. I think I would have died myself, if it weren't for the fact that every time the genjutsu was about to end, there was this faint creaking, tearing sensation in the world that let me get ready to go back to this world so that I could twist my feet a little, swing Satsuko a bit farther, start to duck under an attack, whatever, before they sent me back to that world.
"We tried walking towards the mountains in the distance. I don't know how long we walked for. They never got closer. I would have tried running, but I was so, so tired. I couldn't manage more than a walk. The moon fell behind the mountains I was walking towards, but the sky didn't get lighter. Instead, it stayed dark, and the moon just rose again from the mountains behind me. Each time I was there, the moon would fall and rise six times before the genjutsu ended with the moon high in the sky again.
"I tried sleeping, but I couldn't. The salt was thick in the air. I could feel it sapping the water from my eyes and my mouth and my lungs. When I laid down, it was worse. I could feel it rubbing into my skin, with the faintest burning that kept me from sleeping. I tried meditating, training, anything, but I was just too tired to make it work. For one of the genjutsu-cycles, I tried walking towards the mountains the whole time, but I never got closer. After that, I didn't care where I walked. I just picked a direction.
"I tried writing messages in the salt. The words when I stayed close, but when I walked away and came back, they'd been smoothed over. I don't know who did that. Even when I wrote the message and didn't leave it for all six moons, it was gone after I went back to this world for however many seconds.
"I never gave up. It was so hard. Eventually, all I could do was try to fix what I last saw in this world in my mind. The jackal pouncing at me, the lightning around me, anything, just to remember some experience that wasn't the endless salt. I planned out what I needed to do next – as much as I could with that fatigue running through my mind – then I just lay down and stared at the moon, or walked. I tried to remember my plan until I felt that creaking, tearing sensation, then came back into this world, maybe killed another jackal, then went back.
"I don't know how long I spent there with only Satsuko. Not Noburi, not you, not anyone. If I didn't have Satusko, I don't know if I would have kept fighting. It was just us. I think it was months. Maybe a year. I'm so happy you're all here with me, that this world is the real world. It is the real one, right? I don't think I would make it if I saw that world again. I started to wonder and doubt. Did I really remember what I thought my life was like, or was I just making it up? It was getting harder and harder to remember what I was like before the salt flat. The tiredness killed my ability to remember too. I couldn't even remember your faces while I was there. I'm glad that I can see you all again. I hope what I remember is real
"I don't want to sleep tonight. Or for a long time. If I went back there, I think I would go mad.
"Thank you for being here. Thank you for being real."
o-o-o
"What are those birds doing up there?"
"Eagles, looks like," Kagome-sensei said, squinting. "Must think we're prey. Too many stinking chakra-sensing beasts. They're able to find us despite the illusion arrays. Doesn't matter. They'll cut themselves up on the skyslicers if they try to swoop down at us."
"I don't like having them overhead," Mari said, bounding up to Hazou's side. "I'm going to burn your spare chakra for the day to make some shadow clones to scare them off."
Hazou's face soured. They'd already had to cut into the chakra he was using for shadow clone training in order to refill their fighters after some encounter with chakra beasts in and around their camp. It was necessary to keep everyone at maximum fighting capacity, but still the waste grated at him.
Hazou nodded, and Mari bounded off to Noburi. A minute later, the team huddled in tight formation as a pair of Mari and Tenten shadow clones went up, passing through gaps in the skyslicer net to the hawks above.
The birds swooped faster than Hazou could track, and he saw a puff of a shadow clone dissipating. Tenten winced.
"They're fast!" Mari said as the birds tucked their wings into a dive, aiming, somehow, for the holes in the skyslicer net while the clones trailed behind. "Girl power, now!"
Hazou cut his thumb against the pin on his belt in an instant as he heard Kei, Yuno, Tenten, and Mari starting to incant their combat ninjutsu. The 'soft' members of the team – that is, the men – were to retreat into the Seventh Path while the rest held their ground. Hazou hated it, but against hordes of beasts that could even injure Yuno if she didn't take care, he couldn't stick around and expect to survive.
"Summoning Technique: Cantelabra!"
And, just according to orders, the young dog immediately pulled Hazou back across the planes.
o-o-o
Hazou had no choice but to wait. The Dusk Willow pack had asked if they could help, but Hazou just needed to count sixty seconds before he could return to the Human Path. His team would survive, he knew it, and they would be there to greet him, so he anxiously counted down the seconds until he could return. If, against all odds, they weren't there, he'd skywalk up while summoning Cantelabra again, returning to the Seventh Path if there were still beasts around.
Finally, his mental timer ran out and he formed the twist of chakra that released him back to the Human Path. He landed on the sand with his stomach complaining from the summoning lurch, but he forced himself to trigger his skywalkers and run as he turned and saw-
Mari flagging him down. Scattered corpses of the eagle creatures across their camp. Everyone else hovering around a body on the ground.
Kagome appeared behind him in a pop of pale viridian smoke.
"What happened?" Hazou asked, coming to a stop by Mari's side. Noburi was holding a hand against a bleeding wound in Tenten's side, while gesturing at Yuno to hand him something from a pouch. He could see that Tenten was conscious and gritting her teeth as Kei held her hand, pale as a sheet.
"Tenten got stabbed by one of their beaks," Mari said. "Everyone else is fine, the clones took a lot of hits. Snowflake didn't make it. Wound doesn't look that bad, she should live."
"If you're not helping, don't be a fucking distraction," Noburi turned to snap at Hazou and Mari. "Get away. Make sure we're not disturbed. Yuno, the poultice in the red jar, quickly. Here, rub it into the wound, and let me…"
o-o-o
The ground shuddered and Hazou looked up from his storage-sealed desk to see the scattered grains of sand on the ground shaking.
Kagome-sensei was on his feet. "Incoming, that's-"
The ground shook again.
"-a breach on the-"
The ground shook again. Hazou scrambled to his feet as his more agile teammates – Mari, Kagome-sensei, Yuno – were already chakra-boosted and climbing into the sky.
"-underground perimeter, section-"
The ground shook, shuddered, and finally gave in as a giant sinkhole opened under what had previously been their camp.
Hazou's didn't hear the rest of whatever Kagome was saying. Instead, he activated his skywalkers and sprinted, trying to climb into the sky as the sinkhole opened further and he saw something coming up from the depths, and fast.
It was a circular maw, large enough to swallow the Hokage Tower whole, and lined with teeth, each taller than a two-story building.
Hazou pushed chakra through his legs to outrun the beast, but he was too slow. The maw opened and extended, and the razor tip of a tooth tore a shallow cut through his leg. Then, like zigzagging lightning, the maw started to close, at that same tooth turned around and punched into his stomach.
Hazou reacted instantly, flickering off his skywalkers so that the tooth only stabbed him rather than fully impaling him. The creature's bite was taking him to the center of its maw. He twisted midair, gritting his teeth as the tooth grinded into his belly, and crunched his feet to his core. He burst out, smashing the tooth with a chakra-boosted strike and activating his skywalkers as he jumped up and away from the creature's gullet. Behind him, he heard teeth clack as the beast failed to shred him in the center of its ring of bladed teeth.
Hazou climbed, glancing around him to see Noburi and Kei and Tenten climbing just above him, each of them bloodied by the beast's attack. He reached to the blood at his gut, wetting his fingers to start the summoning technique to make his escape, when he noticed the giant-mawed worm-like beast below. It thrashed once as a shallow section of its face came loose to hang as a thick flap, split by the even line of a skyslicer. Then, apparently deciding that its prey was too much trouble to finish hunting, it pulled its mouth back underground and burrowed away.
Another narrow survival. Hazou didn't know how far the creature could leap into the air, but if it wanted to, Hazou was in no shape to survive another attack.
That wound in his gut was bleeding pretty heavily. He should probably check-in with Noburi about that.
Kagome's underground perimeter gives everyone forewarning that this is about to happen, so there's no "surprise round". Instead, combat starts like normal.
Initiative
Mari
Kagome
Yuno
Chakra-sandworm
Tenten
Kei
Noburi
Hazou
Mari
Sprint into the sky. She would stick around to provide a Substitution target, but everyone needs to get into the sky anyway where Substitution doesn't work, so there's no point.
Kagome
Sprint into the sky.
Yuno
Sprint into the sky.
Chakra-sandworm
Takes ?? stress passing through and destroying the skyslicers. AoE bite attack on everyone in the camp. This is one of the stronger solo chakra beasts at this distance from the EN in terms of overall power, but it's more of a tank than a DPS, so its attack is not actually that strong. Weapons:2.
Attack: ??
Everyone is using a Reflexive Supplemental to activate skywalkers.
Kei (Athletics): 53 + 7 (boost) + 5 (Skywalkers) + 6 (invoke "Team Uplift") + 6 (tag Kagome's Perimeter forewarning) + 6 = 83
Kei takes 5 + 2 = 7 stress! PCJ soaks 2 and pops! Her stress track soaks 3! Kei takes a Mild Consequence!
Noburi (Athletics): 45 + 8 (boost) + 5 (Skywalkers) + 5 (invoke "Team Uplift") + 5 (tag Kagome's Perimeter forewarning) + 6 = 74
Noburi takes 8 + 2 = 10 stress! PCJ soaks 2 and pops! His stress track soaks 3! Noburi takes a Mild and Medium Consequence!
Hazou (Athletics): 37 + 3 (IN) + 6 (boost) + 5 (Skywalkers) + 10 (invoke "(Formerly (Formerly)) Marked for Death" + invoke "Team Uplift") + 5 (tag Kagome's Perimeter forewarning) + 0 = 66
That's enough to survive, but not enough to avoid taking a Severe! Hazou has only 1 FP left, so he cannot buy enough half-tags to avoid taking a Severe! Hazou will reroll: a +6 or above will let him dodge a Severe, but a -9 or below would kill him. Taking a Severe would jeopardize the mission and risk far more than his life, so Hazou's willing to take the gamble based on recent characterization of him being super mission-driven. In most worlds, the result is the same as it currently is.
Hazou (Athletics): 37 + 3 (IN) + 6 (boost) + 5 (Skywalkers) + 10 (invoke "(Formerly (Formerly)) Marked for Death" + invoke "Team Uplift") + 5 (tag Kagome's Perimeter forewarning) + 6 = 72
Hazou takes 8 + 2 = 10 stress! PCJ soaks 2 and pops! His stress track soaks 3! Hazou takes a Mild and Medium Consequence!
Tenten (Athletics): ??
Tenten
Sprint into the sky.
Kei
Sprint into the sky.
Noburi
Sprint into the sky.
Hazou
Sprint into the sky.
Round 2
Mari, Yuno, Tenten, Kagome
Continue running vertically, getting 100s of meters in the sky.
Chakra-sandworm
At this point, with its skyslicer injury stinging and its prey far off in the sky, it decides to call off its attack and return back to the earth.
Initiative
Mari
Kagome
Yuno
Chakra-sandworm
Tenten
Kei
Noburi
Hazou
Mari
Sprint into the sky. She would stick around to provide a Substitution target, but everyone needs to get into the sky anyway where Substitution doesn't work, so there's no point.
Kagome
Sprint into the sky.
Yuno
Sprint into the sky.
Chakra-sandworm
Takes ?? stress passing through and destroying the skyslicers. AoE bite attack on everyone in the camp. This is one of the stronger solo chakra beasts at this distance from the EN in terms of overall power, but it's more of a tank than a DPS, so its attack is not actually that strong. Weapons:2.
Attack: ??
Everyone is using a Reflexive Supplemental to activate skywalkers.
Kei (Athletics): 53 + 7 (boost) + 5 (Skywalkers) + 6 (invoke "Team Uplift") + 6 (tag Kagome's Perimeter forewarning) + 6 = 83
Kei takes 5 + 2 = 7 stress! PCJ soaks 2 and pops! Her stress track soaks 3! Kei takes a Mild Consequence!
Noburi (Athletics): 45 + 8 (boost) + 5 (Skywalkers) + 5 (invoke "Team Uplift") + 5 (tag Kagome's Perimeter forewarning) + 6 = 74
Noburi takes 8 + 2 = 10 stress! PCJ soaks 2 and pops! His stress track soaks 3! Noburi takes a Mild and Medium Consequence!
Hazou (Athletics): 37 + 3 (IN) + 6 (boost) + 5 (Skywalkers) + 10 (invoke "(Formerly (Formerly)) Marked for Death" + invoke "Team Uplift") + 5 (tag Kagome's Perimeter forewarning) + 0 = 66
That's enough to survive, but not enough to avoid taking a Severe! Hazou has only 1 FP left, so he cannot buy enough half-tags to avoid taking a Severe! Hazou will reroll: a +6 or above will let him dodge a Severe, but a -9 or below would kill him. Taking a Severe would jeopardize the mission and risk far more than his life, so Hazou's willing to take the gamble based on recent characterization of him being super mission-driven. In most worlds, the result is the same as it currently is.
Hazou (Athletics): 37 + 3 (IN) + 6 (boost) + 5 (Skywalkers) + 10 (invoke "(Formerly (Formerly)) Marked for Death" + invoke "Team Uplift") + 5 (tag Kagome's Perimeter forewarning) + 6 = 72
Hazou takes 8 + 2 = 10 stress! PCJ soaks 2 and pops! His stress track soaks 3! Hazou takes a Mild and Medium Consequence!
Tenten (Athletics): ??
Tenten
Sprint into the sky.
Kei
Sprint into the sky.
Noburi
Sprint into the sky.
Hazou
Sprint into the sky.
Round 2
Mari, Yuno, Tenten, Kagome
Continue running vertically, getting 100s of meters in the sky.
Chakra-sandworm
At this point, with its skyslicer injury stinging and its prey far off in the sky, it decides to call off its attack and return back to the earth.
o-o-o
"Ugh, my research notes got eaten," Hazou said from his reclining position on a skytower while Noburi quietly worked at his abdomen. "Along with my good desk, my good chair, my good brush, my good everything. That's going to set me back days. Plus, we're going to need to relocate and set up a new base, and that takes time and chakra."
"You still want to stay out here in this Sage-forsaken desert!?" Noburi asked incredulously. "I thought that encounter would be your wake-up call that it's time to get out of here and go chill on some of those beaches in the southern islands with the normal wildlife. It's been about two months, right? Shouldn't it be clear of hunter-nin by now?"
"No, I don't think we should leave yet," Hazou said. "It's the dangerous beasts that are protecting us right now. This was just a fluke."
"If we're staying, we need to take our defenses much more seriously," Mari said. "No more keeping everyone on a ground base. You need your time runes to do research, right? Will they work on a skytower?"
"It should work," Hazou said. "I wouldn't want to infuse a rune prototype near interference from active seals or runes, but I've got the time rune's design ironed out and it should work fine on top of a Five-Seal Barrier."
"Good, then we're going to spend all our time on skytowers. Dealing with only fliers will make things easier. We'll set up a ground base with static defenses, but keep it unoccupied, except maybe making sure it's clear with clones occasionally. When you need to infuse your prototypes, you do them only through shadow clones, and we'll all make shadow clones to guard you. No more setting our real bodies on the ground where all the beasts are."
"That's pretty extreme, Mari," Hazou said. "We've got fewer defenses in the sky, and we'll be restricted to small skytowers the whole time if we don't want to be burning valuable skywalker-hours."
"You nearly died ten minutes ago, Hazou," Mari said. "Extreme is warranted. And I trust Kagome to figure out adequate perimeters. No, if we're sticking it out here, we need to take things seriously."
o-o-o
"Hey Noburi, how's the bloodline study coming along? Have you figured out whether you can cast Shadow Clone yet?"
Noburi looked up. His hand hovered above the exposed skin of his forearm, glowing with green medical chakra, but the light quickly blinked out.
"Itching to teach me so bad, so that I finally get a shot at surpassing you? Sorry, I can't risk my life on it yet. I haven't found any obvious no-go's that makes me confident that the technique will murder me instantly if I try to cast it, but my chakra system is really complicated and there are so many experiments I want to run. Even Tsunade didn't bother trying to document my system completely. She just focused on the stuff where she thought there would be interesting room for progress."
"How come it's taking so long?" Hazou asked. "I would have thought 'can I cast this technique?' would be a pretty basic question for an expert med-nin like you. After all, Dr. Yakushi thought he could have an answer for us in a couple weeks."
"Well, Yakushi-sensei is a more skilled medic than me and a much more experienced researcher," Noburi said with a scowl. "This is my first real project, and it involves figuring out the interaction between the world's most powerful ninjutsu and the world's most powerful bloodline. I don't dream small, but I need some time to figure this out, alright?"
"Sorry," Hazou said, holding his hands up. "I didn't want to get on your back about it or anything. I just wanted to ask: since you're spending a while every day healing me, why don't you teach me while you do it? We've been over this before, and with the ninjutsu-cost-reduction from the pool finally fading away, I should have the spare hours in the day to actually be a dutiful student."
"You really want me to teach you medical ninjutsu?" Noburi asked. "Starting now?"
"Yes," Hazou said.
"Okay," Noburi said, his expression going distant. He pointed at a small stone basin he'd unsealed on a table nearby. "Go wash your hands."
"Sure," Hazou said, walking over to the basin to dip his hands in and rub them off. He heard Noburi follow him but paid it no mind.
"Not like that, you twit!" Noburi suddenly said. He grabbed Hazou's wrist in one hand and a horsehair brush materialized in his other. He rubbed the brush across a soap brick, then started to scour Hazou's skin as though it had offended him.
"Ow! Noburi, that's-"
Hazou disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Noburi stopped mid-scrub, then looked guiltily to the adjacent skytower where Hazou Prime had looked up from his research notes with a sharp glare.
"Was that really necessary?" Hazou said, once Noburi had walked over with his tail between his legs.
"It was something that Hashimoto used to do to me," Noburi said. "I guess I should try to be a better teacher than her, huh?"
"Yes, please. Try to channel your inner Tsunade instead, if you can."
"I wouldn't call her a better teacher…" Noburi said. "A better medic, sure. Less physical, yeah. More oh-my-god-I-can't-breathe-because-I'm-being-crushed-by-a-mountain though. And a pretty similar amount of verbal abuse, honestly."
"Well, then be yourself and prove that you're better than either of them. Now, I believe you owe me some chakra, so that I can remake the shadow clone you so rudely popped?"
o-o-o
The laws of nature complained, shuddered, and shook as Hazou grabbed them by the wrist and forced them into a brutal armbar. Finally, they grumbled and tapped out, and the brilliant, glowing colors coalesced into the rune sitting on the ground in front of Hazou.
This was it, then.
He activated the hopefully-final version of the Force Dome Rune and waited. Nothing visible happened, which was good. The rune should have created only an invisible force field, but he'd struggled immensely to get the damn thing to stop leaking power during the prototyping process.
Slowly, Hazou stood and walked away from the rune with a hand extended in front of him, waiting for that inevitable-
Bump
-as he touched the wall of force that now cut him off from the rest of the world. The barrier felt neither warm nor cool. It felt just like the air around it, but when he touched it, he found that his hand simply refused to go any farther. Looking down, he could barely see the line in the sand where the Force Dome Rune had pushed and split grains of sand to dig into the earth.
Now came the important part: testing whether the Force Dome Rune actually had achieved true invulnerability. If he was right, this could form the new cornerstone of his perfect defense, and he could finally get to the real meat of this research trip – developing the weapons to kill the demigods he'd taken as his enemies…
o-o-o
"Hazou," he heard Mari's voice quietly call out. He pushed himself to his elbows, deactivated his Darkness Dome seals, and got promptly blinded by the distant sunset… which he'd somehow forgotten that he'd gone to sleep facing.
By the time he blinked the glare out of his eyes, Mari was sitting by the edge of the skytower, legs hanging off and red hair whipping in the westerly wind.
"You okay there?" she asked. "Letting yourself get blinded like that will get you killed when I'm not around, you know."
"You are around," Hazou said simply.
Mari was quiet for a second. "You trust me a lot. Too much for a ninja."
"Should I not?"
"You can. That doesn't mean you should."
"I do trust you," Hazou said. He finally sat up fully. "Anyway, what's up, Mari? You wanted me for something?"
Mari sighed. "It actually has to do with that. Look, you and Tenten and Noburi have healed your various injuries from the giant worm attack, and I hear that Yuno can finally sleep longer than fifteen minutes at a time without waking up in a panic, so our combat capacity is on the mend – even if Kei needs to go do her Pangolin missions soon. Still, the sheer number and variety of chakra beasts we've faced makes me scared, Hazou.
"I'm sharper, faster, and stronger than you, so I'm pretty sure I can handle myself against almost everything out here. I think Yuno can mostly do the same, plus or minus some outliers. The issue is that I don't think you can. That giant worm thing would have killed you if you were just a hair slower, or it were just a hair bigger, and that isn't even the worst possible situation. The thing I'm afraid of isn't that you'll be too slow to dodge an attack. It's that if we spend long enough out here, we run the risk of just randomly encountering some sort of chakra beast that's got an ability so weird that it just instantly kills one of us. I know we're going after resurrection magic, but I assume you don't want a death in the team any more than I do, and my honest guess is that if we stay out here, it's just a matter of time. We can't defend against everything indefinitely."
"That's a reasonable worry," Hazou said. "But our tools are getting better. With your full-sky strategy, we didn't even take any injuries this last week. We're understanding the beasts better, and I'm making new runes. If we apply them right, we can reduce our risk even more."
"That's a possibility," Mari said. "But we've taken injuries in fights before this week, and we're still seeing the occasional beast. As someone who's been in more ninja fights than you've had game nights, a fight in which a teammate takes an injury is not that far from a fight in which a teammate dies. We're already pretty close to the edge. Plus, our defenses were supposed to be good enough. And they are really good – I'm guessing that something like eighty, ninety percent of beasts that would otherwise cause trouble are instead getting turned away at the door by the illusion seals or killed by Kagome's perimeters. Still, that still leaves a few that get through, and the thing about our defenses is that they carve off beasts from the bottom of the distribution more than the top.
"The ones that bypass our defenses make the most problems. Remember that giant rolling ball of fire that came at our skytower a couple days ago? We ran away from that, but who knows what will happen the next time a really weird beast is in the area. I can't tell you for sure how a beast kills us, because then I'd just tell Kagome and get the hole patched. I'm just saying that I'm getting an intuition, as the experienced jounin of the party, that if we stick around these parts, some of us are going to die. It would most likely be one of the weaker members of the party. Maybe Tenten first, since she can't reverse summon."
"Okay, okay, I get it," Hazou said, leaning back against his elbows. "I don't think the desert is as bad as you're saying, but I'll take it into account."
"Thanks, Hazou," Mari said, rising with a smile. "Now, remember how you were saying that you trusted me?"
"Yeah? I do trust you to- wait-!"
But it was too late to fight back. Mari disappeared around him in a flash and grabbed him in a brutal combined headlock and hair ruffle.
Noburi has made substantial progress on understanding the Shadow Clone/Vampiric Dew interaction. He has put that on pause to tutor Hazou in MedNin for a while.
Kagome has been too busy scribing seals and maintaining defensive perimeters to research Banshee Fuckers.
I'm not sure what "off-track" means – it does not appear in any previous plan, nor is it defined here. I could try to figure it out, but alas my patience for ambiguous plan lines is low. If it means "research without occupying a seal-track worth of SC time", that's impossible. If it means "research using an SC, instead of Prime's time", write that. If it means something else, please write that out. I'm going to ignore that whole plan line.
Similarly:
Day 1
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 2
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 3
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 4
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 5
Infuse Force Dome.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 8 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) - 6 = 46
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 27 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 8 (prep) + 3 = 72
Infuse Iron Earth Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 8 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) + 3 = 55
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 27 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 8 (prep) + 0 = 69
Day 6
DoB rest.
Day 7
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 8
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 9
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 10
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 11
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 12
Infuse Force Dome.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) - 6 = 48
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 28 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 6 = 66
Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 28 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 6 = 78
Infuse Iron Earth Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) - 12 = 42
Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) + 3 = 57
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 28 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 3 = 69
Hazō completes the Iron Earth Rune! TENTATIVE mechanics*: Anyone tunneling within around a kilometer needs to roll their tunneling technique (or Physique, if working by hand) against the user's Runecrafting. Each shift of failure causes the tunneling to take 1 step down the timeladder longer.
RUNE MECHANICS MARKED AS "TENTATIVE" ARE PRETTY LIKELY TO CHANGE WHEN WE GET A CHANCE TO DISCUSS THEM. DON'T BET STRONGLY ON THESE MECHANICS BEING WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO GET.
Day 13
DoB rest. Running out west.
Day 14
Setting up new base and research site.
Day 15
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune. Difficulty Result: Medium. Hazō is attempting a limited-range version of the rune, hoping that, like chakdar and the jinchuuriki seal chain, he'll be able to scale it up once he has a working version. Also, because he expects that "limited-range" for a rune will still be pretty impressive.
(buys 1 FP, -10 XP)
Day 16
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 17
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 18
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 19
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 20
Infuse Force Dome.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) + 6 = 60
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 29 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 9 = 82
Infuse Ninja Radar Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) - 3 = 51
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 29 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 0 = 73
Day 21
DoB rest.
Day 22
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 23
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 24
Research is interrupted by an overpowered chakra beast encounter destroying the entire base and research site.
Day 25
Moving to and setting up a new base and research site.
Day 26
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 27
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 28
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 29
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 30
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 31
Infuse Force Dome.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) + 6 = 60
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 30 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 9 = 65
Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 30 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 12 = 86
In a stroke of luck, Hazō completes the Force Dome Rune! TENTATIVE mechanics: Forms over around a minute, AoE limits are twice that of Air Dome, immovable while active, unbreakable and undamageable by any force Hazou or the team is able to bring to bear.
This counts as progress towards his sealing stagnancy barrier, but does not clear it.
Infuse Ninja Radar Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) + 0 = 54
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 30 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 0 = 74
Hazō estimates he is around a third of the way done with this rune.
Day 32
DoB rest.
Similarly:
- Once the pool effect ends and FOOM blocks decrease, redo all previously difficulty checked but unresearched runes, starting with the Great Seal and any ...well within..., then move to ...maybe..., then ...beyond…
- This is higher priority than notes, but lower than learning mednin or FOOM
Day 1
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 2
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 3
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 4
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 5
Infuse Force Dome.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 8 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) - 6 = 46
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 27 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 8 (prep) + 3 = 72
Infuse Iron Earth Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 8 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) + 3 = 55
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 27 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 8 (prep) + 0 = 69
Day 6
DoB rest.
Day 7
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 8
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 9
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 10
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 11
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Iron Earth Rune.
Day 12
Infuse Force Dome.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) - 6 = 48
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 28 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 6 = 66
Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 28 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 6 = 78
Infuse Iron Earth Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) - 12 = 42
Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) + 3 = 57
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 28 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 3 = 69
Hazō completes the Iron Earth Rune! TENTATIVE mechanics*: Anyone tunneling within around a kilometer needs to roll their tunneling technique (or Physique, if working by hand) against the user's Runecrafting. Each shift of failure causes the tunneling to take 1 step down the timeladder longer.
RUNE MECHANICS MARKED AS "TENTATIVE" ARE PRETTY LIKELY TO CHANGE WHEN WE GET A CHANCE TO DISCUSS THEM. DON'T BET STRONGLY ON THESE MECHANICS BEING WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO GET.
Day 13
DoB rest. Running out west.
Day 14
Setting up new base and research site.
Day 15
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune. Difficulty Result: Medium. Hazō is attempting a limited-range version of the rune, hoping that, like chakdar and the jinchuuriki seal chain, he'll be able to scale it up once he has a working version. Also, because he expects that "limited-range" for a rune will still be pretty impressive.
(buys 1 FP, -10 XP)
Day 16
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 17
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 18
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 19
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 20
Infuse Force Dome.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) + 6 = 60
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 29 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 9 = 82
Infuse Ninja Radar Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) - 3 = 51
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 29 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 0 = 73
Day 21
DoB rest.
Day 22
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 23
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 24
Research is interrupted by an overpowered chakra beast encounter destroying the entire base and research site.
Day 25
Moving to and setting up a new base and research site.
Day 26
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 27
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 28
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 29
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 30
Prep Force Dome.
Prep Ninja Radar Rune.
Day 31
Infuse Force Dome.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) + 6 = 60
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 30 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 9 = 65
Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 30 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 12 = 86
In a stroke of luck, Hazō completes the Force Dome Rune! TENTATIVE mechanics: Forms over around a minute, AoE limits are twice that of Air Dome, immovable while active, unbreakable and undamageable by any force Hazou or the team is able to bring to bear.
This counts as progress towards his sealing stagnancy barrier, but does not clear it.
Infuse Ninja Radar Rune.
Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) + 0 = 54
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 30 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 0 = 74
Hazō estimates he is around a third of the way done with this rune.
Day 32
DoB rest.
Following the chakra budget:
Sum of XP rates is 26.5. Total SC XP is 26.5 * 4 (base) = 106. So, total XP earned is 128 + 106 SC XP + 10 (brevity) - 10 (FP buy) = 234 XP, for 252 XP total with Hazou's existing 20 XP. Based on the plan, he buys: PrimSeal 28 after the first research cycle, PrimSeal 29 after the second research cycle, PrimSeal 30 after the third research cycle, and PrimSeal 31 after the fourth research cycle. Hazou puts 1 level into MedNin, representing that he has started the training. We're saying it'll be around six weeks till he has a suitable grasp of the basics to the point where he can then continue to improve on his own (a little less than Noburi's equivalent time-investment when he was at that point of his ninja career), so with the weekish here, around five weeks remain.
- Day 1 (prep)
- 1.3x
- Day 2 (prep)
- 1.3x
- Day 3 (prep)
- 1.3x
- Day 4 (prep)
- 1.3x
- Day 5 (infusion)
- 0.6x
- Day 6 (rest)
- 1.4x
- Day 7 (prep)
- 1.3x
- Day 8 (prep)
- 1.3x
- Day 9 (prep)
- 1.3x
- Day 10 (prep)
- 1.3x
- Day 11 (prep)
- 1.3x
- Day 12 (infusion)
- 0.6x
- Day 13 (travel + DoB rest)
- 1.0x
- Day 14 (setting up new base would normally consume all chakra, but pool discount allows low rate)
- 0.4x
- Day 15 (prep; minor chakra beast encounter costs chakra from fighters, only 500 CP for the day)
- 0.6x
- Day 16 (prep)
- 1.3x
- Day 17 (prep)
- 1.3x
- Day 18 (prep)
- 1.3x
- Day 19 (prep)
- 1.3x
- Day 20 (infusion)
- 0.6x
- Day 21 (rest)
- 1.4x
- Day 22 (prep)
- 1.3x
- Day 23 (prep; chakra beast encounter ending with Tenten wounded would normally consume all spare chakra, but with pool discount 250 CP remains)
- 0.3x
- Day 24 (prep; interrupted by chakra beast attack; only partial SC training completed)
- 0.5x
- Pool bonus runs out here.
- Day 25 (setting up new base consumes all chakra)
- 0.0x
- Mari starts using ~250 CP / day on clones to make sure ground areas are clear. Budget down to 250 CP.
- Day 26 (prep; chakra beast attack costs chakra from fighters, 0 CP for the day)
- 0.0x
- Noburi starts teaching Hazou MedNin here.
- Hazou and Noburi heal their Mild Consequences.
- Day 27 (prep)
- 0.3x
- Day 28 (prep; chakra beast attack costs chakra from fighters, 0 CP for the day)
- 0.0x
- Day 29 (prep)
- 0.3x
- Day 30 (prep)
- 0.3x
- Hazou and Noburi heal their Medium Consequences. Shoutouts to Noburi for making it possible for Hazou to do the next infusion without a Consequence penalty.
- Day 31 (infusion)
- 0.0x + chakra "debt" (Noburi is out of chakra after refilling Hazou clones for infusions + Kei/Mari clones so they can defend Hazou-clones against potential attackers that, if they interrupted him, would cause a runic infusion failure, and spends the rest of the day on the Seventh Path)
- Day 32 (rest)
- 0.0x (repaying debt so Noburi can be at full chakra)
Sum of XP rates is 26.5. Total SC XP is 26.5 * 4 (base) = 106. So, total XP earned is 128 + 106 SC XP + 10 (brevity) - 10 (FP buy) = 234 XP, for 252 XP total with Hazou's existing 20 XP. Based on the plan, he buys: PrimSeal 28 after the first research cycle, PrimSeal 29 after the second research cycle, PrimSeal 30 after the third research cycle, and PrimSeal 31 after the fourth research cycle. Hazou puts 1 level into MedNin, representing that he has started the training. We're saying it'll be around six weeks till he has a suitable grasp of the basics to the point where he can then continue to improve on his own (a little less than Noburi's equivalent time-investment when he was at that point of his ninja career), so with the weekish here, around five weeks remain.
FP Tally:
- Start with 3 FP.
- Spend 2 FP on Day 12 infusion.
- Buy 1 FP on Day 15-19 for new cycle.
- Earn 1 FP on Day 20 for brevity-based-bonus.
- Spend 3 FP on Day 24 to survive chakra-beast encounter.
- Earn 3 FP on Day 24 for surviving encounter without a Severe + 2 Consequence-based FP.
- Earn 1 FP on Day 30 for brevity-based-bonus.
- Spend 1 FP on Day 31 infusion.
- Earn 1 FP as refresh on update end because started + ended with <4.
- Final amount: 4 FP.
This update covered 32 days, but 26 days objectively for the team, due to the use of Time Runes. It is hard for the team to maintain a steady sleep cycle when using Time Runes and also spending most of the day outdoors in sunlight, which is confusing people's bodies about when to feel awake or tired (they sleep under Darkness Domes, of course).
XP Award: 128 + 10 (brevity) = 138 XP
GM-fun Award: 2 XP
Shadow Clone Training XP: 106 XP
Vote time! What to do now?
Voting ends on .
- Location
- United States
Cool to see that Mair has the same concern that I did!
EDIT: Ah man, was really hoping that we would be able to do a prep day on the Great Seal.
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- Location
- Yes.
@eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped Any word on the prep days we did for Chapter 681, and mechanics on the Icarus Rune we invented?