I must have missed that, thanks! That's great news!
Yuuup.
Oh well, RRB, Sub, and CotWG are all great defensive buffs, so we'll do fine without the Shadow Jutsu.
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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
- Start date
-
- Tags
- 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
Oh well, RRB, Sub, and CotWG are all great defensive buffs, so we'll do fine without the Shadow Jutsu.
- Location
- Texas
Forgot to respond to this. I've thrown around the idea of a reusable CATEARS that Kei could wear on her hand. It would let her activate KISS/Force Blades/Explosives as she grabs the kunai without using more supplementals. Maybe a single one at the start to activate the seal itself? But that could easily be on the MARS chain the group uses.
Why does Kei have CotWG before her first turn? It isn't reflexive. Also RRB are +8 now, and EDIT: you forgot boost (although it doesn't matter)
Jounin
Melee Weapons 60 + 10(big buff) + 7(combat style) + 7(some other bonus) +7(invoke "Veteran Ninja") + 7 (Boost) = 98
Kei: Ath 53 + 8(RRB) + 13(Substitution) + 12 (2x Invoke) + 7 (Boost) = 93
2 + 2 (WR) - 2 (PCJ) = 2 stress, no biggie, she can take a few more hits like that.
Now she casts CotWG (Supp), draws+imbues (Supp) and throws (Standard).
Kei: attacks with RW 49 + 15 (CotWG) + 7 (Boost) = 71
Her enemy doesn't get a combat style to defend against RW, since they're rolling Ath. They probably don't want to spend an Invoke so I'm saying they only get Sub
Ath 60 + 15(substitution) + 7 (Boost) = 82
Still easily dodged
Although within the realm of rollsSo fuck that, she'll run instead.
Supp CotWG for free movement. Supp VS to move 2 Zones, Standard Sprint for 5 Zones + 1 from CotWG.
She's 8 Zones away now. Later sucker.
Now if they can't close with her she can kite them down.
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- Location
- Liverpool
We know shadow imitation is thought of as strong by Kei, and in canon it is very flexible.
I do agree that I wish we knew more what shadow step did, since "enhances substitution" is pretty broad, and the action economy differential in there is huge. Like, let's you substitute without the penalty afterwards? Cool. Costs an extra supplemental to do that? Not at much. Is a static effect for the fight? Maybe? It all really depends.
We could always ask her which of those she thinks would currently most benefit her, given her current kit? Though if I remember currently, we binned shadow guardian, which was the one she most liked for that at the time. And she only gave broad strokes the last time we asked.
Also, if she wasn't a summoner, I'd say we should definitely level vacuum step, since I just reread it, and the mobility boost to a ranged fighter is pretty neat, but reverse summoning takes up the "I need to GTFO" portion of the technique. Even still, may be worth getting to the next AB. If only to work towards getting the whirlwind barrier.
Edit: well, wasn't a summoner, and didn't also have CotWG, which also has mobility function built in.
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@eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped
So the way ACE works is that you meditate for a year and then you can buy a copy of the Stunt. You are limited to CR AB copies of the stunt.
So if you have CR 32 (AB 4) and 4 copies of the stunt, can you begin the meditation for a fifth copy while your CR is still 32? With the intention that your CR will be 40+ by the end of the year. At that time you pay the XP cost for the Stunt and you can benefit from it.
Additionally, if you can do that, can you keep meditating each day, so that even if you don't have CR 40+ by the end of the year, when you eventually do, you have a year of meditation "banked" and you can then immediately buy the next copy of the stunt?
So the way ACE works is that you meditate for a year and then you can buy a copy of the Stunt. You are limited to CR AB copies of the stunt.
So if you have CR 32 (AB 4) and 4 copies of the stunt, can you begin the meditation for a fifth copy while your CR is still 32? With the intention that your CR will be 40+ by the end of the year. At that time you pay the XP cost for the Stunt and you can benefit from it.
Additionally, if you can do that, can you keep meditating each day, so that even if you don't have CR 40+ by the end of the year, when you eventually do, you have a year of meditation "banked" and you can then immediately buy the next copy of the stunt?
My point in this section was that in a group combat, Kei's first attack being unbuffed is arguably useful, because it missleads the enemy to save their substitution for other attacks, allowing Kei to get a big hit in on an enemy who'd otherwise outclass her.They probably don't want to spend an Invoke so I'm saying they only get Sub
Ath 60 + 15(substitution) + 7 (Boost) = 82
Still easily dodged
In a 1:1 where the enemy has only one person to dodge, this doesn't work, and Kei switches to kiteing and outranging, sure. But that's not what I was talking about.
Most of Kei's combats will be alongside teammates, where the enemy needs to save substitution for the attacks that actually threaten them, and kiteing doesn't work because the enemy will just target Hazou.
Good catch, thanks.
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I think this is thinking too hard about it.
It doesn't matter who kills the enemy. Any of our PCs can hit pretty hard if they need to.
Hazou: 43 (Taijutsu) + 8 (RRB) + 11 (Roki/FB) + 10 (2x Invokes) + 6 (Boost) = 78 w/ Weapons:4 -> enough to take down a weakened jounin
Noburi: 50 (WW) + 8 (RRB) + 10 (HM) + 12 (2x Invokes) + 8 (Boost) = 88 w/ Weapons:1 -> enough to take down a jounin if they don't Invoke
Kei: 49 (RW) + 15 (CotWG) + 12 (2x Invokes) + 7 (Boost) = 81 w/ Weapons:3 -> enough to hit a jounin not using Sub
Kei's buffs are comparable to the other members of the team. Jobbing just likely means they burn their resources attacking instead of defending. But we want them on the defensive.
If you aim to kill the enemy, you're best off trying your hardest at every opportunity, not trying to counterbluff them into not spending their resources optimally so you can kill them then.
We're now even further past the point where this was likely to be useful, but
Water-repelling Seal: Very weakly repels non-chakra containing water from coming within about a meter. Sufficient to keep items or people in the radius dry in a light rain. Seawater and tea are affected, blood is not, results on other water-based liquids are inconsistent and may depend on astrological influences. Lasts a few hours.
Greater Water-repelling Seal: Repels non-chakra containing water from coming within about a meter, applying ~100 kilopascals of outward pressure. Strong enough to leave a ~10cm depression in the surface of a body of water it is held near to, though past that the the water pressure will start to overcome the seal's repulsion. Lasts a few hours.
Hōzuki's Bane: Repels water - even chakra-containing water or chakra-construct water - from coming within about a meter.
In addition to the effects of a Greater Water-repelling Seal, this imposes a -6 penalty to water jutsu used to attack targets within its radius. Lasts 30 seconds.
Kazekage's Bane: Repels metal - even chakra-containing metal - from coming within about a meter.
Due to a quirk of how the seal was adapted to affect sold objects, it's less effective against larger metal objects, but imposes a -3 penalty to attacks with small metal weapons (e.g. kunai), and a -6 penalty to attacks with very small metal weapons (e.g. senbon). Attacks with thrown metal weapons made by those within the area take the same penalty. Lasts 30 seconds.
Substitution-blocking Seal: This seal affects a discrete non-chakra-containing object it is affixed to, of up to ~200kg mass and .25 cubic meters volume. While the seal is active, it is impossible to use the affected object as a Substitution target. Lasts about 10 minutes.
Jiraiya's Selective Substitution-Blocking Seal: As above, but doesn't prevent the person who infused the seal from substituting with the affected object, though the seal burns out if they do so.
Jiraiya's Inescapable Seal: Prevents all use of Substitution within melee range of the seal. (Attaching it to a kunai won't prevent enemies from using Substitution to dodge, since they're assumed to do so before it comes into melee range of them.) Lasts a few seconds (1 combat round).
Jiraiya's Selectively Inescapable Seal: As above, but the person who infused the seal is not prevented from substituting within its area of effect, though the seal burns out if they do so.
Greater Water-repelling Seal: Repels non-chakra containing water from coming within about a meter, applying ~100 kilopascals of outward pressure. Strong enough to leave a ~10cm depression in the surface of a body of water it is held near to, though past that the the water pressure will start to overcome the seal's repulsion. Lasts a few hours.
Hōzuki's Bane: Repels water - even chakra-containing water or chakra-construct water - from coming within about a meter.
In addition to the effects of a Greater Water-repelling Seal, this imposes a -6 penalty to water jutsu used to attack targets within its radius. Lasts 30 seconds.
Kazekage's Bane: Repels metal - even chakra-containing metal - from coming within about a meter.
Due to a quirk of how the seal was adapted to affect sold objects, it's less effective against larger metal objects, but imposes a -3 penalty to attacks with small metal weapons (e.g. kunai), and a -6 penalty to attacks with very small metal weapons (e.g. senbon). Attacks with thrown metal weapons made by those within the area take the same penalty. Lasts 30 seconds.
Substitution-blocking Seal: This seal affects a discrete non-chakra-containing object it is affixed to, of up to ~200kg mass and .25 cubic meters volume. While the seal is active, it is impossible to use the affected object as a Substitution target. Lasts about 10 minutes.
Jiraiya's Selective Substitution-Blocking Seal: As above, but doesn't prevent the person who infused the seal from substituting with the affected object, though the seal burns out if they do so.
Jiraiya's Inescapable Seal: Prevents all use of Substitution within melee range of the seal. (Attaching it to a kunai won't prevent enemies from using Substitution to dodge, since they're assumed to do so before it comes into melee range of them.) Lasts a few seconds (1 combat round).
Jiraiya's Selectively Inescapable Seal: As above, but the person who infused the seal is not prevented from substituting within its area of effect, though the seal burns out if they do so.
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Interlude: Lord Jashin's Bargain
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Interlude: Lord Jashin's Bargain
The figure threw three dice.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Hazō threw three dice.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
The figure threw three dice.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Hazō couldn't read the dice. Every face was a skull, but only one was a skull Hazō recognised, and that was because it was human.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Hazō didn't know how long they'd been playing. He didn't know the rules. He didn't know if he was winning or losing.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
He suspected he was losing, and he already knew the figure never played games without stakes.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
In the dim, sourceless red light, Hazō couldn't see the figure's face. He couldn't see the figure's body. In fact, he couldn't see the figure rolling dice at all, except that he could.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Hazō couldn't speak. The figure didn't speak either.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Hazō rolled three human skulls.
Did that mean he'd won or–
"Hazō, is that you?!"
Hazō sprang out of his chair. He knew that voice.
"Akane!"
Akane stumbled out of the primordial darkness, into the narrow circle of red light illuminating the game.
She looked terrible. Her uniform was filthy and torn, with the left sleeve missing. Her beautiful brown hair was matted. Her eyes were open slightly wider than was healthy.
But it was her.
"Hazō, I–"
Akane cut off. Her shoulders slumped.
"No, never mind," she said emotionlessly. "You're probably just another hallucination. Go away now. I have to keep moving."
"No, Akane!" Hazō exclaimed. "It's me, it's really me!"
Akane gave him a complex look, made of so many layers of hope, wariness, and despair that it nearly broke his heart.
Then, after a few seconds of stillness, she ran up to him and grabbed him so tight it hurt.
"You're really here?" she whispered. "You're here to rescue me?"
A sharp blade of guilt and pity stabbed through Hazō.
"Not yet. I'm sorry. On my side, this is just a dream. But I'm working on it, I promise. I'm almost there."
Akane pulled back to give him a desperate look.
"Please hurry, Hazō. Please. I woke up somewhere with no light, and I can't get out, and I can't tell what's real anymore, and I think there might be something stalking me, and I keep forgetting things. Hazō, please, you need to get me out of here. I don't want to forget you too."
"I'm almost there," Hazō repeated. "I swear. Just hold on a little longer. Akane, I love–"
There was no Akane.
"No!" Hazō shouted. "No, bring her back!"
Hazō was back in the chair. He couldn't get up.
Silently, the figure unrolled a scroll across the table. It wasn't parchment, but something pale and leathery that Hazō didn't recognise.
No, that was a lie. Hazō knew exactly what the map was made of.
The figure stabbed a dagger through the map. Reflected in one side of its vicious, jagged blade, Hazō recognised the O'Uzu forests. In the other, a great body of what he already knew wasn't water.
With its other hand, if it even had hands, the figure flipped a coin through the air. As Hazō watched, hypnotised by its movement, it came down on its edge on a point on the other end of the map. It didn't stop spinning, somehow horizontally now. Skull. Blank. Skull. Blank. Skull. Blank.
Hazō couldn't read the map. The symbols were alien, and shifted when he looked at them for too long. The topography was nonsense, impossible for any real landscape–just like the sea of flesh-melting acid was. The scale was either unmarked or illegible to him, but he could already tell that it would be a long way to go, easily as long as from O'Uzu to the Fire Country, if not longer.
He tried to look closer, to memorise it as best he could.
A blinding headache tore through his brain, as if the very flesh of it was being disassembled by some merciless, relentless force. Hazō would have screamed, but he still couldn't make any sound.
When it finally passed, an eternity later, and Hazō could see again, there was a gem floating in front of him, a magnificent, elaborately-cut colourless oval the size of two fists put together.
Slowly, the gem floated away until it hung over the table, next to the map. Looking at it more carefully, Hazō could see that it was covered with hairline cracks–so many cracks that he didn't understand how it hadn't yet fallen apart. They pierced through every part of it, dancing across every facet, in places intertwining in what looked almost like numbers and symbols.
He watched, and the cracks shifted. They ran through different places, created different symbols. The sliver of space visible through the gem was somehow different too.
Oh. It wasn't a gem. It was a lens.
It was his lens. It was his forbidden knowledge brought back from the Out, plucked from the depths of his soul and placed between him and the figure… as a bargaining piece.
Finally, Hazō understood. The figure wanted his Out lore, or perhaps it simply wanted him not to have it. But for some reason, it couldn't just take it. Instead, in exchange, it was offering him the map–knowledge of Akane's exact location and the lands in between, making for the swiftest, easiest possible rescue.
Hazō looked between the lens and the map. He needed that lens. It was the missing piece that allowed him to compete with, even surpass, the world's greatest sealmasters despite a gap in experience that even genius couldn't yet bridge. Without it, he would always be a step behind, always a level below what he was truly capable of.
The map was huge. How long would it take to cross those lands without knowing the obstacles that lay in any rescue party's way? Some might even be lethal to the unprepared, like the sea of acid. Besides, without the map, would they even know which way to head from the rift?
Hazō had earned his insight. He'd paid a great price for it. It was an inextricable part of who he was now, and he already knew that if he gave it away of his own free will, he would never be able to get it back.
He was in a race against time. The longer he took to find Akane (and Jiraiya), the greater the risk that Akatsuki managed to rescue Pain–and as soon as they did, they'd either close the rift forever or at least use his power to secure it beyond opposition. All of it would be for nothing if, by the time he got to her, they could no longer come back.
Without the lens, his research would slow down drastically. He'd take longer to create the Akatsuki-killing weapons without which they were all helpless, and if he took too long, Akatsuki would win by default. The same went for the other victory pathway, his own rift research.
Akane was suffering. Her time in the afterlife was costing her not only her memories but her sanity, and what if the afterlife did have predators that hunted the deceased? How much would his insight be worth if, by the time it got him to Akane, there was nothing left of her?
But what would Hazō be without it? Could he go back to being an ordinary blind mortal, scrabbling in the dirt and looking up at the stars that were now forever out of reach? No amount of research would give him back the fundamental knowledge of how things were, behind the lies and distortions of the Paint.
But Akane was suffering.
Hazō couldn't decide.
Clack. Clack. Clack, went Hazō's free will.
"I accept your bargain," Hazō said, hating himself for it almost as intensely as he'd have hated himself for refusing. "Give me what I need to save her."
Hazō's knowledge, Hazō's insight, Hazō's very self drained away. It was like dying. It was worse than dying, because he was still alive to feel it. He was being hollowed out, leaving a feeble shell that would never forget what it had been like to be a complete human being.
Hazō was brilliant but ordinary. He would never be anything else again.
-o-
Hazō woke up in a cold sweat.
That was just a dream, wasn't it? It had to be a dream. He couldn't, wouldn't, really just have traded…
No, it had to be a dream. Kagome-sensei had even warned him, when taking the astrology readings for the infusion earlier today, that tonight was going to be one of those nights when those with sensitive psyches always had nightmares. Yes, in the morning he'd check with Kei, and she'd tell him she dreamt of Captain Zabuza slaughtering them all, and everything would be back to normal.
Hazō tried to go back to sleep. He lay in the bedroll and waited, trying to calm his mind, trying to steady his breathing.
No. He couldn't wait. He had to know.
Hazō grabbed an explosive tag from his bedside armaments pouch. He stared at it desperately in the faint moonlight. He immersed himself in every line the way he had back when he was an apprentice and any tiny mistake would have got him killed. He couldn't see–
He saw. He remembered. The third lateral curve corresponded to the fourteenth of the hundred-and-eight pure harmonics that governed the manifestation of force. That wasn't something Kagome-sensei had taught him back in the day. It was True Lore, incomprehensible to those who had never peeked behind the veil of reality, and he could still perceive it.
It was just a dream.
Hazō tried to go back to sleep. It was just a dream. Just the whim of the kami and the stars, mixed with the many stresses piled up on top of him on a daily basis. He should never have taken it seriously.
Unless, of course, Lord Jashin was just being fair, and waiting to complete the trade until Hazō proved he could make it to the afterlife to begin with. What if, the moment Hazō's feet stepped onto those alien shores, he forever lost his right to call himself a disciple of the beyond?
For the first time, Hazō found the possibility of victory terrifying.
-o-
Voting is closed.
- Location
- Can’t say. I know my momentum.
*Screaming in Kagome*
(Haven't even read the chapter, but it's my first reaction...)
Edit:
Great chapter. Perfect vibes for Halloween. It's also making me question whether you QMs would have Hazō unilaterally accept a bargain like that without having the players vote on it.
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- Location
- France
Honestly I'd be more scared of giving Jashin even more power. I don't know what He'd do with it, but He goes around empowering people like Hidan so I'm reluctant to empower Him.
I am sure that they would offer us a vote.
Perhaps we will see a vote when we win the Rift from Akatsuki.
Emstar
The Shining One
- Location
- Trapped in an extradimensional rift.
- Pronouns
- She/They
Kid, maybe don't give the probably-bound-presence a gateway outside of reality all willy nilly
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
Genuinely horrifying, thank you
I'm more concerned about Jashin getting shinies than Hazō's very understandable "natural" fears. If that's not just a dream... what if he just helped us along this far because he wanted this? what could the mad god want with this? Remember Shikamaru's classification of sealed horrors?
Though I suppose it could be a good source of leverage against some in the meanwhile - "Jashin wants what I have, do you want to risk it?"
I'm more concerned about Jashin getting shinies than Hazō's very understandable "natural" fears. If that's not just a dream... what if he just helped us along this far because he wanted this? what could the mad god want with this? Remember Shikamaru's classification of sealed horrors?
Though I suppose it could be a good source of leverage against some in the meanwhile - "Jashin wants what I have, do you want to risk it?"
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Eisenhelm
gran dutch of douchery
- Location
- Colombia
this is fair in my opinion, when we have the rift open we hopefully won't have to worry about the out.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
Fixing the world is a lot harder without
Speak for yourself. I'd rather permanently lose everyone we care about than lose DotB; Hazō is our only channel to affect the world, and DotB is the single biggest force multiplier he has.
Besides, once we have biosealing, we can just make new friends.
- Location
- Washington, USA
Runecraft is fundamentally better suited to static defenses or long-term utilitarian buffs than to attacking. Even if Hazo hasn't got a unique buff to research anymore, that seems like it would tend to shift the geopolitical situation in a less mass-murder-y direction.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
I'm pretty sure there's more to fixing the world than allowing static defences for the powerful, especially since runes make omnicide trivial
Runes are above all suited to be WMDs, then static defense. But mostly they're best suited to be WMDs.
So yeah it will shift the geopolitical stance, but definitely not in a less mass-murder-y direction.