Iris-Iven-Ibis
Interested-Idiot-Immortal
- Location
- You know
[X] [Not!kei] Precommit to blowing up this "The Great Worm" as soon as its possible
Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
- Start date
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- Tags
- naruto rational 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
- Location
- Europe
Hazou, Mareo, Kei, so many new Summoners to meet when we get back!
- Location
- Liverpool
Why does everyone think it was Kei, instead of Ami? She does talk more like Kei (I initially thought Akane, clothes burned by fire jutsu), but we know Ami has been gone for a long time...
Iris-Iven-Ibis
Interested-Idiot-Immortal
- Location
- You know
For the reason you said because it talks like her
More than a few reasons
Freaks out when naked, not commonly associated with I/S specs.
Touch-averse
Talks like she's reading a thesaurus (derogatory).
Also, I think this is Snow. This bit reads like Snow.
- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The real good April Fool's (made canon) would be that SCs popping actually counts as dying, and that there's an entire village of Hazos (and Narutos, Sage have mercy) out there, toiling away.
...if an SC pops and that counts as dying enough to create a Pure Lands...imprint? person? they'd probably lack the bloodline, right? That would explain why we're seeing Snow. And their memories might be scrambled because, y'know, SCs and memory transfer and all that junk.
Obviously of everyone to have ever used Shadow Clone, Naruto has done it the most. Who do we think is next? Us? Akane?
Orochimaru. He's been using SCs as research assistants for 35 years
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- He/Him
A village?
"Welcome to Hazōtown, a particularly treasonous settlement formerly in Naruto Country. The last secession was a few months ago, but we're expecting a reunion within the next couple of weeks."
You commit treason once against Hiashi fucking Hyuuga and no one will ever let you live it down. Smh
- Location
- Europe
KEI: "My ....name...? Snow...flake...this .... this can't be right? I must be named after Snow! That's it! Yes, I am Yuki!"
GHOST-AMI: "Yuki Yukino, meet my newest sister, Yuki!"
Well if she doesn't have the Mori Voice it's not going to be Kei, but if it's not made by the SC can we be sure that it's just Snowflake? Considering she is made by the afterlife we should give her the codename "Nether" for now. Obviously because she is in the Netherworld.
Iris-Iven-Ibis
Interested-Idiot-Immortal
- Location
- You know
Remember if it's not made in the Mori Clan It's not a Mori Voice
It's just Eldrich depression.
- Location
- Europe
Don't care. I will blame the Mori Clan regardless.
Still banned since the 20. August 1069.
ContextBot, #1 Mori hater and proud of it.
- Location
- The Soviet Republic of Canuckistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Our bloodline is a weird mutation of a genetic phenomenon.
Kei's bloodline is a fragment of an eldritch entity that scared Pantsaa.
Maybe when she dies, the fragment is freed, and so is she.
Kei's bloodline is a fragment of an eldritch entity that scared Pantsaa.
Maybe when she dies, the fragment is freed, and so is she.
I don't agree with this characterization. I think it's more like: Kei's bloodline is a phone line to this entity.
She can contact it. It probably leaks out the other end. Pantsaa doesn't like the leakage. It's bound wherever it is by the existance of these ties. Which is why exterminating any of the Five Clans is bad news. But one living member is sufficient
But the entity is not imprisoned in her, and portions of it are not freed with Mori deaths. Although perhaps the connection is severed and she loses the bloodline.
- Location
- Europe
Pretty sure the Frozen Skein is integral to Kei as a person. If it's gone it's either Snowflake or someone new.
What happens when New-Kei steps back onto the Human Path, does she just get it back? If she can't get it back, doesn't that mean original Kei is actually dead?
And for all we know the Frozen Skein is the connection to said Fragment, not the actual Fragment itself.
And the Pantsa stuff isn't fully incorrect but he wasn't specifically scared,
It's mostly Kei's assumption. And she also assumes that Pantsa doesn't know about the Mori, which is likely not fully accurate. We do now know that
- Grandmaster F was accepted as a Summoner, probably instructed about the actual dangers the bloodline can cause
- The Toads being aware of the Five an their names
- Shikamaru later explained the existance of the Five to Kei
- Most of the 7th Path being unaware of the Dragons and the Great Seal
- The Toads telling us about the 7th Path being a piece of the Animal Path
- Ami and Shikamaru insisting that killing all members of one Clan being a horrible idea
Itachi was pretty clear that a lot of Bloodlines had a specific purpose, the Mori are likely just much better informed about that then many others.
Oh, and what @Sir Stompy said. The Mori bloodline might just exist to communicate with said abomination.
- Location
- UK
I am not sure if I more object to the 'violence against something where the only information we have on it is the suggestion it's making a positive sum trade with humanity' part, or to the 'precommit' part.
- Location
- Europe
Chapter 707: The Sage's Prodigal Heirs
- Location
- USA
Hazō would call the sky overcast, except it clearly wasn't. He'd invented skywalkers. He knew that a grey sky was just a thick layer of clouds sitting like a blanket over the world. He knew that clouds sat at different heights, and he'd even gotten a sense for how high those clouds would be. He remembered (for now) how sometimes, while attending to his business as a Clan Head on the old Gōketsu Estate, he would sometimes see the thick cloud cover hanging low and feel suffocated as if trapped in a cave too low to walk comfortably. And he remembered how on other, clearer days, he would see a cloud that he just knew was miles and miles in the sky and had to resist the urge to abandon his duties and go run with the clouds and winds.
He never had skipped his duties just to enjoy a run. Did he regret that? Was the world a better place for the fact that he signed off on a handful more pieces of administrative trivia?
With that intuition he'd honed, he could tell that the sky in the Pure Lands was tall. If there were clouds making up that infinite gray expanse, they were higher than any cloud he had ever seen. It was the opposite of suffocating – Hazō nearly felt a thrill when he looked upwards at the sheer feeling of infinite space above him. As if, were gravity reversed, he could fall forever up into the sky without ever brushing against anything more real than rushing air.
The infinite mountains almost creeped up on them. They must have been gradually fading out of the distance, because at some point, Hazō looked up and saw them. He stopped dead.
"Yeah," Keiji said, once he'd noticed Hazō's pause and doubled back. "They sure are something, aren't they?"
They were dozens of miles away from the mountains' base, so Hazō couldn't see any fine details. He could only see their shape – rising and rising and rising. True to what his companions had said, he could see no peak. Instead, the mountains just kept getting taller and taller, receding into the distance, until the haze of the air itself kept Hazō from perceiving them anymore. He could already tell they were impossibly tall though – even from this distance, Hazō had to lean his head back to lock his eyes on their peaks.
"Hey, neat thing about these mountains," Keiji said. "Normal mountains, you can look at them straight on when you're far away, but you need to look up when you get closer. These ones? There's no top that gets any closer. If you're looking up the slope, you look up by the same amount whether you're miles out or right next to them. Neat, isn't it?"
Like with clouds, Hazō was familiar with the thin haze that air carried. Even when skywalking on clear days, he couldn't see forever. The air eventually grew misty, bluish white with enough distance and kept him from seeing the whole world from a skytower.
"Are they really infinite?" Hazō said. "How do you know, if we can't see the whole slope?"
"How tall do you think that mountain is?" Keiji asked. "If there's a thousand miles of slope, it doesn't matter to me if it's ten or a hundred thousand miles in total. I ain't getting up it either way."
"But that's not infinite," Hazō said.
"It is," Keiji said. "All that matters this side of life is what we see and experience, and these mountains are infinite to me, to Miki, and now to you. Look, if you want to run a mile or two up there and see for yourself, feel free. Not like we're in any rush to get to the shrine."
"It's fine," Hazō said, still looking out into the distance. "Sorry for stopping. Let's go."
o-o-o
Night never came in the Pure Lands, but arriving at the base of the mountains was as good a reason to camp as any. Miki snored loudly in a hollow in the ground, while Keiji fiddled with some bushes he'd ripped out of the slopes a little ways up the mountain (technically, zero percent of the way up) to start a small fire for them. Hazō, meanwhile, mixed some of his prepared charcoal with water in yet another attempt at making chakra ink. Keiji had loaned Hazō his bronze bondmark while they were camping, and Hazō was pretty sure that bronze and brass were both made using copper, so the metals might be similar enough for the bondmark to work in the chakra-ink production ritual.
Hazō went through the steps, rubbing the round end of the bondmark against his belt, spoke his chant, then blew over the surface of the ink. He tapped his finger against the surface of the ink and attempted to infuse it with his chakra. It didn't…
Huh? As Hazō stopped pushing chakra into the ink, he swore he felt a faint fading sensation. Like the ink had taken the chakra for a moment, then immediately lost it. Except… that couldn't be the case. The chakra hadn't actually left Hazō, had it?
Shit. Was the ink taking Hazō's chakra, then getting immediately drained by the afterlife? He'd thought that it would last longer than that, given that his seals had lasted for several minutes during his last (voluntary) visit to the afterlife, but those were infused seals rather than pure chakra ink.
No, he hadn't actually felt the ink get infused. The ink didn't feel like it had the capacity to take his chakra charge… except he didn't think he'd hallucinated that sensation of the ink's chakra fading. Maybe the ink had a capacity to hold chakra, except that capacity was much lower than it should be because of him butchering the ritual and using his own shitty ink and-
"Hey!" Keiji called out. "Watch out!"
Hazō leapt to his feet, sending-
-tamping down his instincts to send chakra through his system, instead turning with agonizing slowness to see what Keiji was looking at up the slope.
It looked almost like a tumbleweed, if a tumbleweed were made of strips of paper thinner than his little finger, and those strips of paper were constantly branching, merging, and writhing like the surface of a boiling pot.
"Paper wraith!" Keiji said, pulling out his machete, while Miki shook herself awake and rolled to her feet. "Absorbs violent memories. Don't bother talking. This looks like a strong-"
And then it was upon them.
Hazō ran forward to intercept the creature before it could fall upon the civilians, unclipping his Pangolin-claw gauntlets along the way. Keiji was using his machete, so Hazō needed a blade as well. This creature didn't seem like the sort he could punch through.
The writhing mass of paper almost shied away from his steps, tendrils folding inwards. Then, it changed, strips of paper suddenly moving like they were wrapping around a solid object, and Hazō got the faint impression of a square-jawed young man made out of origami in the middle of a storm. The man thrusted forward, a spear of paper strips appearing in his hands as he struck, and Hazō raised a gauntlet to parry – before realizing he didn't know if he could parry this attack at all.
He ducked out of the way instead. The spear thrust was slow, like a civilian's, and Hazō had rolled to his knees before the spear was even retracting back into that storm of paper. He needed to kill this thing somehow, so Hazō struck out, slashing his gauntlets through where the young man's leg would have been. The gauntlets passed through the storm of paper like it was nothing, paper strips flowing around the claws like they weren't there, but when it hit the man's leg, Hazō heard a distinctive tearing of paper as he ripped through the man's leg.
So it wasn't vulnerable except when it took form to attack. Good to know. Hazō leapt back, watching the rolling storm. Were the paper strips any shorter now? Was there any obvious sign of damage? He didn't see it "leaking" paper like blood, but the attack had to have done something. Otherwise Keiji wouldn't have gotten out his machete.
Hazō ran back in, and the wraith took form again. A teenager of indiscriminate gender put their hands together, then lances of paper shot out of its "mouth" and expanded fractally through the air.
Hazō grinned. He could take a genin. He slashed through the incoming attack, twisting and moving through the space it didn't occupy to get into its heart and rip the pieces of paper apart, before he crouched and leaped at the paper-genin, tearing through them from their shoulder to their opposite waist.
That had definitely done something. The paper strips Hazō had cut fell on the wind for a few seconds before rejoining the storm, and Hazō thought he saw a shimmer of light in the air before the storm reshaped again, this time into a tall, skinny man wielding a cudgel. The man didn't even have time to swing before Hazō tore his arm off, then slashed through his chest.
The wraith backed off, forming into the shape of a squat samurai-looking man, but Hazō pounced forward like a predator, slashing it to pieces. He was in the heart of the storm, whirling as he cut down his foes, and this wraith would soon regret-
The paper strips swarming around him didn't make another fully humanoid figure. Instead, they formed hands – one already wrapped around his wrists, the other at his neck, and Hazō found himself being thrown through the air. Hazō had a moment to appreciate the throw from his mid-air position as he saw the wraith reforming yet again, this time into a tall ninja wielding a sword, its point barely an inch from Hazō's heart.
Hazō slammed against the ground, sharp stones digging into his back. He knew he should have had the breath knocked out of him, and that he would get stabbed a moment later, but something else happened. A memory came to him.
A sparring exercise in Mist's Academy. He'd been thrown to the ground, but he wasn't a civilian who had to lie there and die under his enemy's blade.
Hazō's body moved almost on its own as he kicked against a boulder with chakra repulsion, leaping horizontally along the ground and gritting his teeth against the innumerable stones scraping against his back. The blade passed between his legs and he kicked up, knocking the sword out of the wraith's hands, even as his hands went over his head to pivot him up.
He flipped back to his feet, and in the same motion ran his gauntlets through the length of the wraith's form, from groin to skull.
The wraith burst into strips of paper that fled back up the slopes.
Hazō looked around, but there were no more threats. Apart from those couple scrapes, no one had been hurt. He felt empty. After a moment, he realized it was the silence. After a fight, he expected to hear his heart pounding in his ears, but he was dead. His heart didn't beat.
Keiji was standing back protectively with Miki, his machete up, which he lowered as he saw the wraith fleeing.
"Sage's infinite blessings, Hazō, that was incredible," Keiji said. "You were like a whirlwind of death. I thought for sure we'd be going back home after that."
Hazō shook his head. "That thing… you said it was made out of violent memories?"
"Sure," Keiji said. "You saw it. A million moments of killing and death, all bundled up into one little thing. Most of the monsters here aren't that dangerous – I think a lot of them are actually people's memories of chakra beasts reforming – but paper wraiths are a bad one and that one looked pretty strong."
"Oh!" Miki said. "Maybe it absorbed some of Daiji's memories. Daiji also did a lot of fighting in his life, so he probably had more than enough to make a paper wraith of his own. Wait, what am I saying? Are you okay, Hazō?"
"I'm fine," Hazō said. "I scraped my back a little bit, but that's all."
"Oh, well that won't do," Miki said. "Take your shirt off and come over here. I have some things to ease the pain. It wouldn't do for you to be wincing the entire rest of the journey, now would it?"
Alertness
Paper Wraith
This monster is totally indiscriminate. It just attacks Hazō because he's closest.
It attacks not with normal FtD rules, but by rolling 8d20 (for this particular paper wraith, numbers might change for paper wraiths in general), and picking the 5 lowest numbers to add together (anydice: "output [lowest 5 of 8d20]"), with a weapons rating of [1d6 - 1]. It doesn't have a single score for any skill, as it is an amalgamation of memories from many different sources (because of static initiative, I won't be changing its initiative every round). I could add Fate Dice on top of this, but this is already random enough.
Paper Wraith: [1, 8, 1, 3, 14, 20, 2, 2] = 9
Hazō (Athletics): more than that
Hazō easily dodges!
Hazō
Hazō has no clue how this creature operates, but will attack it with Taijutsu because what else is he going to do? He's not going to spend any chakra because the creature's initial attack seemed limp. He will equip his Pangolin gauntlets, since Keiji brought out a bladed weapon, so it seems wise to follow the more experienced person's lead.
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 9 = 55
Paper Wraith: [3, 12, 7, 14, 3, 11, 1, 17] = 25
Hazō would deal 12 stress and annihilate it… but the Paper Wraith takes quarter-damage from non-energy attacks (and none from bludgeoning, so good thing Hazō used the gauntlets), meaning that it's only got its stress track filled!
Keiji
Uh. Shit, almost forgot that Hazō was a ninja there. He's moving pretty fast… maybe just stay out of his way?
Miki
Ditto.
Paper Wraith
This monster has no conception of being damaged, or even really of losing fights. It keeps attacking Hazō, who will counterattack this time.
Paper Wraith: [10, 15, 8, 2, 15, 8, 18, 2] = 30
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 6 = 52
It takes a Mild and a Moderate!
Hazō
Finish it!
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) - 6 = 40
Paper Wraith: [7, 12, 8, 9, 11, 3, 12, 11] = 38
Close, little wraith, but close isn't good enough.
Ah, combat is so much easier to run without all the seals and bullshit. This scratched the itch a little, but really, the goal is to get back into proper FATE-y combat, where it's less about stacking buffs and more about creating and discovering Aspects, interweaving narrative and gameplay in a way that's more interesting than "and then I turned on my Banshees". Hopefully I'll get a bit closer to that in the next combat.
- Paper Wraith: 3d20 = 19 + 3 + 20 = 42
- Hazō: 36
- Keiji: 26
- Miki: 15
Paper Wraith
This monster is totally indiscriminate. It just attacks Hazō because he's closest.
It attacks not with normal FtD rules, but by rolling 8d20 (for this particular paper wraith, numbers might change for paper wraiths in general), and picking the 5 lowest numbers to add together (anydice: "output [lowest 5 of 8d20]"), with a weapons rating of [1d6 - 1]. It doesn't have a single score for any skill, as it is an amalgamation of memories from many different sources (because of static initiative, I won't be changing its initiative every round). I could add Fate Dice on top of this, but this is already random enough.
Paper Wraith: [1, 8, 1, 3, 14, 20, 2, 2] = 9
Hazō (Athletics): more than that
Hazō easily dodges!
Hazō
Hazō has no clue how this creature operates, but will attack it with Taijutsu because what else is he going to do? He's not going to spend any chakra because the creature's initial attack seemed limp. He will equip his Pangolin gauntlets, since Keiji brought out a bladed weapon, so it seems wise to follow the more experienced person's lead.
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 9 = 55
Paper Wraith: [3, 12, 7, 14, 3, 11, 1, 17] = 25
Hazō would deal 12 stress and annihilate it… but the Paper Wraith takes quarter-damage from non-energy attacks (and none from bludgeoning, so good thing Hazō used the gauntlets), meaning that it's only got its stress track filled!
Keiji
Uh. Shit, almost forgot that Hazō was a ninja there. He's moving pretty fast… maybe just stay out of his way?
Miki
Ditto.
Paper Wraith
This monster has no conception of being damaged, or even really of losing fights. It keeps attacking Hazō, who will counterattack this time.
Paper Wraith: [10, 15, 8, 2, 15, 8, 18, 2] = 30
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 6 = 52
It takes a Mild and a Moderate!
Hazō
Finish it!
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) - 6 = 40
Paper Wraith: [7, 12, 8, 9, 11, 3, 12, 11] = 38
Close, little wraith, but close isn't good enough.
Ah, combat is so much easier to run without all the seals and bullshit. This scratched the itch a little, but really, the goal is to get back into proper FATE-y combat, where it's less about stacking buffs and more about creating and discovering Aspects, interweaving narrative and gameplay in a way that's more interesting than "and then I turned on my Banshees". Hopefully I'll get a bit closer to that in the next combat.
o-o-o
They saw the shrine before they next made camp, more than a mile up the slope of the infinite mountains. Miki had described it as "blue and black", but Hazō felt that those words did the shrine a disservice. Even the torii gate outside the shrine was a work of art – each post painted in an indigo so rich that Hazō thought he could see the gradations of a setting sun and waxing starlight in its colors, topped by a crossbeam so black that Hazō couldn't even perceive its shape. Miki forbade them from passing under the center of the beam, so Hazō got to see the post in even more detail, and it didn't even seem painted. The wood simply seemed to have that infinitely rich color on its own.
They passed through the gate, bowing as they did, and found a small basin of water waiting for them. Miki seemed to know what to do with it, washing her hands and anointing herself before stepping onwards.
The shrine itself sat on a leveled section of mountain, though Hazō could imagine no one who would have put in the effort to do this construction in such a remote part of such an esoteric dimension. Maybe it had simply… appeared this way.
The shrine's body was small by the standards of the Hagoromo's grand temples in Leaf. It would perhaps contain a half-dozen rooms inside it. A long courtyard lay before the shrine, paved with three-meter-square gray stones. Along that courtyard, a number of small gray pillars had been planted periodically, and a bald man knelt in front of one of them.
Hazō led the way to the man, passing a handful of pillars as he did. Each had a small, carved idol on top of it, clearly placed there by another worshipper, and messages written along its length.
He saw an idol of a woman, perhaps rising from an ocean. Underneath it, messages were scrawled: "May the oceans reclaim all that is here," "You fed me well in life," "Akito," and more scratchings that Hazō couldn't read as he passed by.
An idol of a great serpent, raising its head up to strike. "Wretched fool that I am." "I deserved this." "Destroy them all, as you destroyed me."
An idol of a cloaked figure. "Let me be avenged." "Survive, where we could not." "Remember me."
Hazō paused at one. He recognized the tall, bearded man with his cloak and crescent-moon staff – a common depiction of the Sage of the Six Paths across the Elemental Nations. The scratchings beneath were denser than on any pillar so far, and Hazō could barely make out any words. Some had taken to carving their words into the stone to make them last. "Protect my children"?
The bald man – no woman, by the shape of her face and body – stood as they approached. She was ancient, her face sagging with folds of skin, and her earlobes hung equally low under the weight of square-cut carmine stones. She wore long monks' robes, and Hazō couldn't help but tense slightly as he saw the sword at her belt.
She clearly noticed his reaction. "A ninja?" she asked.
Hazō forced himself to relax and offer his hand. "I'm Gōketsu Hazō. It's nice to meet you."
"I do not give my name so freely," she said, tone aloof. "But I am glad to meet you."
"Do you know anything about this shrine?" Hazō asked.
The woman shrugged. "I know less and less every day. Some things don't change between life and death, I suppose. About this shrine…"
She pointed. "It's over there. It's worth going in and seeing the being in its heart. The Prince of Bitter Nights, he calls himself. There are shrine guardians. Treat the shrine well, and they won't bother you in the slightest."
"There's really a shrine kami?" Miki asked. "Can we talk to him?"
The woman chuckled. "You can talk to him. You can also talk to any old rock or tree, girl. He's sleeping – or drowsing, at least. If you talk to him, he might talk back about the same as those rocks. He speaks sometimes, but I didn't make any sense of his babbling." She cut a wry grin at Hazō. "Maybe he doesn't bother speaking to people as unimportant as myself. A ninja might wake him up a little more."
"How did you know about this place?" Hazō asked.
"It's pretty visible, isn't it?" the woman said.
"And how did you know the shrine kami's name?"
"Mothers' blood, boy, I went in the shrine!" the woman said. "Don't grill me for things when you can poke your head in and see things for yourself!"
She gestured down the mountain. "Look, there's a settlement down that way. Maybe a dozen miles and around the bend. They send people up here occasionally, but it's not too many. Not too many dead appear around here for whatever reason. Now, this place is much too crowded for me. Enjoy your worship."
She promptly started walking away down the mountain path out of the shrine.
Hazō took a moment to inspect the idol she'd been kneeling at: a tall, leafy tree that looked much like the ancient oaks in Hidden Leaf. The messages beneath it were illegible. Some had been scratched out, maybe even by her sword.
"She seemed strange," Hazō said.
Keiji shrugged. "I've seen stranger."
o-o-o
Miki and Keiji started their way up the stairs to the shrine while Hazō circled the building. Hazō's eye for architecture was lacking (he had never actually figured out design plans for the new Gōketsu Estate, had he?), but he could tell that the shrine had been excellently constructed in an ancient style. Something about it felt just right – as if this were the kind of thing that the Hagoromo and the various priest castes had been imitating and caricaturing for centuries.
The building was cold. Even approaching it made Hazō feel a chill, and placing his hand against a wall felt like touching a kunai left out in winter – it robbed the heat from his skin instantly.
The roof tiles still bore that incomprehensible black color, darker than the darkest night, that made it hard to tell the shape of them, their borders, or anything at all beyond that they were there. The outer walls of the shrine were made of that indigo wood. Hazō looked closer, pressing his face almost to the wooden panels, and in between the grains and whorls of the wood, he thought he saw faint, glimmering patches of white, like stars hidden in the night sky.
A couple of the rooms had tiny, square windows to the outside, and Hazō peeked in, walking up the frigid walls to do so. One had a fountain of water, with a handful of coins glimmering in an intermediary basin before the fountain spilled out into a full bath. By its sound alone, the water was probably on the verge of freezing. The other room was totally unadorned but for the simple stone square resting on the wooden planks with a circle carved into its center.
Eventually, Hazō had to go in. He stepped up the stairs. They didn't creak or even bend under his weight. A pair of flickering yellow paper lanterns hung by the door, but more notable was the shrine guardians. Two men, each easily two meters tall, stood by the shrine's doors, wearing eldritch-looking suits of black-and-indigo armor. Each carried a naginata with a pair of red tassels hanging from just below the blade.
Miki and Keiji had walked between the guardians, so Hazō tried to do the same, only to stop suddenly as the two figures swiftly moved to cross their spears.
"You may not enter the shrine," a voice said. Hazō felt a cold wind pass over him and frowned slightly. The armor didn't have a normal faceplate – instead, the voice came through a mask painted with the visage of a laughing horned demon, white and cerulean in its cruel mirth. His fellow didn't speak, instead simply gazing down at Hazō with a mask depicting a weeping ghost.
Hazō looked them up and down quickly. They had definitely moved faster than a civilian could to bar his entry, and now that they were in front of his face, Hazō could see that their speartips seemed to darken the world behind them slightly, as if they were sucking in light.
Their armor… Hazō blinked. The demon-faced armor was empty. He could see right through it – and the ghost-faced one as well. Neither set of armor had a human inside of it. These guardians were animated suits of armor that moved on their own accord? The armor was scratched and scuffed in several places, clearly ancient, and Hazō caught a glimpse of scratches where their joints met – thin and precise as if made by a blade.
They didn't move, not even faint shuffles or the rising and falling of their chests as they barred Hazō's way.
"Is there something I can do to enter the shrine?" Hazō asked.
"Your kind will never be permitted to enter the shrine," the demon-faced guardian said, voice echoing out without its mask moving. "You inherited the Sage's legacy, then squandered and corrupted it. You carry all of his sins and none of his virtues."
"Our kind… being ninja?" Hazō asked.
The guardian did not respond, though Hazō thought he heard a faint whine from the ghost-faced guardian.
"Can I petition the kami of the shrine for entry?" Hazō ventured.
"You may not petition the kami to enter this shrine," the demon guardian said.
"My friends are in there already, speaking with the kami," Hazō asked. "If they convince the kami that I should be let in, will you let me in?"
"No," the demon guardian said. "The only way you may enter the shrine is by renouncing the Sage's tainted gift."
"Do you mean I should spend all my chakra? Or that I should become a civilian somehow?"
The demon-faced guardian did not respond. Again, the ghost-faced guardian whined softly.
"Right, good talk," Hazō said, reaching down and unhooking his Pangolin gauntlets. He put them on, then paused. "Is it fine if I cast ninjutsu outside the shrine?"
"Your corruption cannot touch the shrine," said the demon-faced guardian.
So the shrine was immune to ninjutsu? Or maybe immune to damage altogether. Probably the latter, based on the way the thin stair slats hadn't bent under his weight. Whatever, he didn't intend to damage the shrine itself. He still wanted to talk to the shrine kami. He just needed the guards out of the way.
Hazō backed down the stairs a couple steps. He definitely didn't want to get nicked by those strange blades with their inverted light. Hazō wanted to use Pangolin Earth Armor, but it cost so much chakra… better to use Ghost Scales. Pantokrator's Hammer was a more chakra-efficient form of chakra-boosting, so he'd use that too. He looked around. There were no convenient Substitution targets in range. He'd be doing this entirely hand-to-hand, then.
"Pangolin Clan Technique: Ghost Scales! Pantokrator's Hammer!"
Hazō's hard-fought chakra streamed out of him into a shell of chakra-armor, filling his body with buzzing energy. The guardians' armor was scratched, but not cracked or dented. They might be impervious to damage, same as the shrine. Those scratches in the armor chinks looked like sword markings – maybe the old lady had pulled them apart like splitting a crab by its joints? He'd use the Ghost Scale claws till they ran out, then switch to his gauntlets.
He bounded up the stairs in two massive leaps then fell upon the shrine guardians.
They raised their naginatas to meet him, so they were clearly intelligent enough to recognize his attack. He landed in front of them, then leaped to the porch ceiling, flipping midair and adhering to it. One of the guards – Ghost, Hazou decided – was taken aback, but the other, Demon, snapped its spear up to slash at him. Hazō jumped again to a pillar to the side. Ghost was only starting to look up when Hazō took it in the side, prying his claws of shimmering energy into the cracks of its armor.
Hazou felt an icy chill blunted by the armor construct, then he got the gauntlets in the crack and twisted. He felt resistance, then a snap as something inside broke, and the armor's vambrace and gauntlet fell off. Inside, he saw only another void, absorbing-
Shit, the other guardian! Hazō ducked, but too slowly, and Demon's naginata slammed into his head, throwing him to the ground. He was alive – well, not really – but his Ghost Scales had popped to absorb the blow. Ghost tried to stab down at the prone Hazō one-handed, but Hazō rolled out of the way and snatched a kunai from his belt, jamming it in a gap in Ghost's leg. He was forced back to a shrine wall as Demon slashed at him.
They were moving oddly, Hazō noted. He thought he recognized the motions. They thought they were faster than they actually were, like an old ninja trying a dodge he knew he could have done in his prime. They'd clearly degraded at different rates too – the ghost-masked guardian, especially down an arm, was much slower than the demon-masked one. Which meant Demon was the main threat.
But wait, no other part of the shrine seems to have degraded with age. Something else must be causing them to degrade.
Hazō didn't have an eternity to think, because Demon was stabbing at him again, and Hazō danced back along the shrine walls. It was fast, but Hazō was faster. He could escape into the shrine, but then he'd be trapped. If there were more of these things in there, he'd be toast.
He needed some advantage to get a clean attack off.
The lanterns!
Hazō leaped back to the ceiling. Come on… There!
Demon slashed outwards with its naginata, and Hazō released his chakra adhesion to drop out of the way. The naginata slashed through the rope holding the paper lantern in place, and it started to fall. Hazō kicked off the guardian's breastplate, then flipped midair to land on the far pillar and punched the falling lantern back at Demon.
Demon slashed through the lantern. A mistake. It burst, oil suddenly spreading out in a conflagration as Hazō grit his teeth and leapt forward to jam his kunai in the slot in the armor's neck. He got it in, prying to rip the thing's head off, but he gasped at the sudden and intense cold of its torso. Demon let go of its naginata with one hand and grabbed Hazō by the shoulder and thrusted him away with inhuman strength. Hazō tried to reorient midair but the guardian had thrown him way faster than he'd thought possible. He hit the shrine wall hard and didn't latch on, instead falling to the ground. He only saw the naginata an instant before it struck and twisted to have the blow glance off his ribcage instead of ripping through his guts.
Good thing it was one-handing, he thought. If that had been a strong, two-handed thrust, it might have gone right through him. He only realized a moment later that his skin and ribs felt absolutely frozen where the blade had passed through his shirt.
Hazō's maneuvering had split the guardians, and now Ghost slashed down at him. Hazō sidestepped the slash and kicked it in the chest. It barely stumbled – the guardians weren't just strong, but way heavier than they had any right to be – but it did stumble, and Hazō took the opportunity to dive at its leg and jam his kunai in there properly. A moment of work later, and Ghost collapsed to its knees as Hazō ripped its greave off, and with it, its whole foot.
Hazō spun and stood. That one wasn't a threat now. That just left…
The oil fire on the stronger shrine guardian was going out, extinguished by that agonizing cold emanating from the armor and spears. A shimmering light – chakra? – swirled around the naginata's tip. A moment later, that light was absorbed, and the guardian's crooked headpiece shifted and corrected itself. It lowered the naginata to point at Hazō's chest.
Had it healed with chakra, his chakra, somehow?
Shit. He'd put his all into that attack and only gotten himself cut. He couldn't win like this.
Luckily, he was a ninja. He kicked to the wall, then one giant leap took him a dozen meters from the shrine. After a few more strides, he turned to see the lead guardian watching him with its spear extended, but not chasing him.
Well, he'd gotten away. He looked around, but there were no more threats. This shrine was going to be a tougher nut to crack than he'd expected.
At the start of the encounter, Hazō has the opportunity to notice critical details about the shrine guardians. More results with every 10 points, maxing out at 60.
Hazō (Alertness): 36 + 12 = 48
Remaining details can be discovered narratively, or through Maneuvers using Examination.
Shrine Guards:
Shrine Guard 1 ("Demon"; better condition):
Shrine Guard 2 ("Ghost"; more degraded):
Initiative: Hazō initiates combat, so he's first, then the two shrine guardians in order. While GS gives a Taijutsu bonus, buffstacking rules means he can only get a bonus from one source here, which in this case will mainly be PKH since it's a much bigger bonus.
Hazō (pre-combat)
Cast Ghost Scales
Mechanically, try to create an Aspect "Death fromAbove the Left!" for bouncing off the ceiling at an unexpected angle on his approach up last round. This will make a tag if he beats the guardians with Athletics against their Alertness. It's not worth spending chakra on boosting/PKHing this
Hazō (Athletics): 37 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 3 = 46
SG1 (Alertness): ?? + ? = ??, succeeds!
SG2 (Alertness): ?? + ? = ??, fails!
Hazō
Supplemental: PKH (Effect: 2; he'll rely on the GS bonus for managing counterattacks)
Standard: Attack SG2.
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 10 (PKH tags) + 5 (tag "Death fromAbove the Left!" ) - 3 = 58
SG2 (Weapons): ?? + ? = ??
Hazō deals 3 + 1 = 4 stress! SG2 takes 2 stress as a Mild Consequence, "Lost Vambrace", leaving its stress track at 2 boxes.
Supplemental: PKH (Effect: 2) to ward against counterattacks.
SG1: Demon
Attack Hazō.
SG1 (Weapons): ?? + ? = ??
SG1 spends a FP to reroll! 2 FP remain.
SG1 (Weapons): ?? + ? = ??
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 10 (PKH tags) + 0 = 56
Hazō takes 1 + 2 = 3 stress, breaking Ghost Scales! Hazō takes no damage, though.
SG2: Ghost
Attack Hazō.
SG2 (Weapons): ?? - ? (Mild) + ? = ??
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 5 (tag "Lost Vambrace") + 0 = 51
Hazō deals 1 + 1 = 2 stress. SG2's stress track is already at 2 boxes, so the damage rolls up to the third box, filling out SG2's stress track! Further damage will inflict at least a Moderate, and four or more points of stress will destroy it!
Hazō
Hazō could definitely beat down SG2, but the stronger SG1 is rather threatening. Without PCJ, Hazō is actually at risk of taking a big hit if the dice turn up wrong, especially given that he has only one personal Aspect to call on. He's pretty sure he doesn't need to double PKH, so he'll take a Supplemental to look around to see if there are environment features he can use to make a situational Aspect that could turn the tide against SG1. Nominally, this should be an TN 20 Examination check, but I'll let him make it with Alertness at ½ level because it's a combat situation.
Hazō (Alertness): 18 + 3 = 21
Hm… the lanterns! Hazō creates the Aspect "Flaming Hot Potato"
Hazō will try overpowering SG1 using the lanterns. Supplemental PKH, then attack.
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 10 (PKH tags) + 5 (tag "Flaming Hot Potato!" ) - 6 = 55
Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 10 (PKH tags) + 5 (tag "Flaming Hot Potato!" ) + 0 = 61
SG1 (Weapons): ?? + ? = ??
Hazō inflicts 1 + 1 = 2 stress, not quite filling SG1's stress track.
SG1: Demon
Attack Hazō.
SG1 (Weapons): ?? + ? = ??
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 5 (invoke "Flaming Hot Potato!") + 5 (invoke "(Formerly (Formerly)) Marked For Death") + 0 = 56
Hazō takes 1 + 2 = 3 stress, filling his stress track! Hazō additionally loses 30 CP to the naginata, and SG1 heals (3/2, rounded up = 2 stress), healing it completely.
SG2: Ghost
Attack Hazō.
SG2 (Weapons): ?? - ? (Mild) + ? = ??
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) - 3 = 43
Hazō counterattacks, inflicting 1 + 1 = 2 stress: a Moderate Consequence: "Lost Leg!"
Hazō
Hazō has to retreat at this point. He couldn't inflict a Consequence on SG1, which means he can't realistically win anymore. If he had relevant ranged attacks, he could finish off SG2 at distance, but he doesn't.
He'll spend a round trying to study the shrine guards to see if there's anything else he can figure out about these guys before he runs with his Standard. Again, this should be Examination, but I'll let him roll ½ Alertness just this once.
Hazō (Examination): 18 - 3 = 15
Hazō discovers the Aspect "A Shadow of Their Former Selves", and gets a tag on it. These guardians are much weaker than they used to be – and that's something he can exploit in battle (and maybe not in battle). He'll then Standard Sprint a bajillion Zones away, ending the combat. Hazō crippled one of them, gathered information, didn't take any injuries or spend too much chakra, so I'll cautiously count this a win and award him a FP for achieving his goals.
Hazō (Alertness): 36 + 12 = 48
- 10: The shrine guardians moved at faster-than-civilian speed to bar the way
- 20: The shrine guardians' speartips seem to suck in light
- 30: The shrine guardians' armor is empty
- 40: The shrine guardians' armor has scratch marks on the inner parts of their joints, suggesting that they can be defeated by prying them apart
Remaining details can be discovered narratively, or through Maneuvers using Examination.
Shrine Guards:
- "Animated Armor"
- [...not yet discovered…]
- "Fragile Animation"
- 3 points of ablative armor against physical damage until this Aspect is discovered and the opponent uses some attack that can disassemble the armor itself (e.g. prying it apart)
- [...not yet discovered…]
- "Void Naginata"
- Weapons:2
- If it deals stress, steals 10 CP per stress inflicted from the target.
- Heals 1 stress per 20 CP stolen.
- Can heal a Mild Consequence for 60 CP or a Moderate for 120 CP.
- "Icebound Ancient"
- 3 box stress track
- No Severe Consequence slot.
- [...not yet discovered…]
- [...not yet discovered…]
Shrine Guard 1 ("Demon"; better condition):
- Weapons: ??
- Athletics: ??
- Alertness: ??
Shrine Guard 2 ("Ghost"; more degraded):
- Weapons: ??
- Athletics: ??
- Alertness: ??
Initiative: Hazō initiates combat, so he's first, then the two shrine guardians in order. While GS gives a Taijutsu bonus, buffstacking rules means he can only get a bonus from one source here, which in this case will mainly be PKH since it's a much bigger bonus.
Hazō (pre-combat)
Cast Ghost Scales
Mechanically, try to create an Aspect "Death from
Hazō (Athletics): 37 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 3 = 46
SG1 (Alertness): ?? + ? = ??, succeeds!
SG2 (Alertness): ?? + ? = ??, fails!
Hazō
Supplemental: PKH (Effect: 2; he'll rely on the GS bonus for managing counterattacks)
Standard: Attack SG2.
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 10 (PKH tags) + 5 (tag "Death from
SG2 (Weapons): ?? + ? = ??
Hazō deals 3 + 1 = 4 stress! SG2 takes 2 stress as a Mild Consequence, "Lost Vambrace", leaving its stress track at 2 boxes.
Supplemental: PKH (Effect: 2) to ward against counterattacks.
SG1: Demon
Attack Hazō.
SG1 (Weapons): ?? + ? = ??
SG1 spends a FP to reroll! 2 FP remain.
SG1 (Weapons): ?? + ? = ??
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 10 (PKH tags) + 0 = 56
Hazō takes 1 + 2 = 3 stress, breaking Ghost Scales! Hazō takes no damage, though.
SG2: Ghost
Attack Hazō.
SG2 (Weapons): ?? - ? (Mild) + ? = ??
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 5 (tag "Lost Vambrace") + 0 = 51
Hazō deals 1 + 1 = 2 stress. SG2's stress track is already at 2 boxes, so the damage rolls up to the third box, filling out SG2's stress track! Further damage will inflict at least a Moderate, and four or more points of stress will destroy it!
Hazō
Hazō could definitely beat down SG2, but the stronger SG1 is rather threatening. Without PCJ, Hazō is actually at risk of taking a big hit if the dice turn up wrong, especially given that he has only one personal Aspect to call on. He's pretty sure he doesn't need to double PKH, so he'll take a Supplemental to look around to see if there are environment features he can use to make a situational Aspect that could turn the tide against SG1. Nominally, this should be an TN 20 Examination check, but I'll let him make it with Alertness at ½ level because it's a combat situation.
Hazō (Alertness): 18 + 3 = 21
Hm… the lanterns! Hazō creates the Aspect "Flaming Hot Potato"
Hazō will try overpowering SG1 using the lanterns. Supplemental PKH, then attack.
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 10 (PKH tags) + 5 (tag "Flaming Hot Potato!" ) - 6 = 55
Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 10 (PKH tags) + 5 (tag "Flaming Hot Potato!" ) + 0 = 61
SG1 (Weapons): ?? + ? = ??
Hazō inflicts 1 + 1 = 2 stress, not quite filling SG1's stress track.
SG1: Demon
Attack Hazō.
SG1 (Weapons): ?? + ? = ??
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) + 5 (invoke "Flaming Hot Potato!") + 5 (invoke "(Formerly (Formerly)) Marked For Death") + 0 = 56
Hazō takes 1 + 2 = 3 stress, filling his stress track! Hazō additionally loses 30 CP to the naginata, and SG1 heals (3/2, rounded up = 2 stress), healing it completely.
SG2: Ghost
Attack Hazō.
SG2 (Weapons): ?? - ? (Mild) + ? = ??
Hazō (Taijutsu): 40 + 6 (Iron Nerve) - 3 = 43
Hazō counterattacks, inflicting 1 + 1 = 2 stress: a Moderate Consequence: "Lost Leg!"
Hazō
Hazō has to retreat at this point. He couldn't inflict a Consequence on SG1, which means he can't realistically win anymore. If he had relevant ranged attacks, he could finish off SG2 at distance, but he doesn't.
He'll spend a round trying to study the shrine guards to see if there's anything else he can figure out about these guys before he runs with his Standard. Again, this should be Examination, but I'll let him roll ½ Alertness just this once.
Hazō (Examination): 18 - 3 = 15
Hazō discovers the Aspect "A Shadow of Their Former Selves", and gets a tag on it. These guardians are much weaker than they used to be – and that's something he can exploit in battle (and maybe not in battle). He'll then Standard Sprint a bajillion Zones away, ending the combat. Hazō crippled one of them, gathered information, didn't take any injuries or spend too much chakra, so I'll cautiously count this a win and award him a FP for achieving his goals.
Hazō spotted one more shimmer along the route. It was a small one, but undefended. Overall, he finishes the update with 265 CP. He gained 2 FP and spent 3 FP, for a net of -1 FP.
Hazō asked Keiji and Miki about the singer that supposedly took the triangle of black metal. Miki claims it was a tall, black-haired, narrow-shouldered man carrying a massively-oversized pack who accompanied his stories with a remarkably-elaborate set of hand-drums. Keiji says she's gotten her memories mixed up, and it was actually a shortish, plain woman with tied-back brown hair who sang beautifully but was still learning how to accompany her songs with a lyre, the most recent lifesinger to pass through town. They talked about it, but couldn't resolve their disagreement. Neither of them know anything about the singer's heading beyond "going out in this direction, maybe because it's on the way, maybe because they want to grab the triangle before moving on".
Hazō has gained 50 XP.
Vote time! What to do now?
Voting ends on .
Lovely update Paper!
[X] Training Plan: Taijutsu Supremacy
Taijutsu 40 -> 41 (spend 41 XP)
[X] Training Plan: Taijutsu Supremacy
Taijutsu 40 -> 41 (spend 41 XP)
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- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
Mmm, level-appropriate enemies. I get the feeling that we don't need to press the topic here and try to beat these guards, but that if we kept throwing ourselves at the problem from different angles we could at least uncover the rest of those bits of intel.
I'm left wondering what happened with our companions, though. Did they notice the fight? Have we already gone our separate ways? I wouldn't want to be rude and ghost them.
If we don't pursue the shrine challenge again, the main thing sticking out to me is the other villages we've heard of. They probably have their own crop of strange landmarks, or maybe even leads on how to reach the larger cities in this place. Getting access to seals would definitely turn the tide against these guards, with the advantage RRB gives us.
Thanks for the chapter!
I'm left wondering what happened with our companions, though. Did they notice the fight? Have we already gone our separate ways? I wouldn't want to be rude and ghost them.
If we don't pursue the shrine challenge again, the main thing sticking out to me is the other villages we've heard of. They probably have their own crop of strange landmarks, or maybe even leads on how to reach the larger cities in this place. Getting access to seals would definitely turn the tide against these guards, with the advantage RRB gives us.
Thanks for the chapter!
Iris-Iven-Ibis
Interested-Idiot-Immortal
- Location
- You know
Hazō why did you Decide that it was your best course of action, when you have very limited chakra, too attack the shrine guardians?!?
Ninjas
Sidenote the weird creatures are really cool, Fantastic design! 👍
Remind me of some SCPs
especially that 1 spider-Teapot one, it has similar energy.
Edit: We should really take a moment to try to figure out what exactly is different with our bloodlimit.
Ninjas
Sidenote the weird creatures are really cool, Fantastic design! 👍
Remind me of some SCPs
especially that 1 spider-Teapot one, it has similar energy.
Edit: We should really take a moment to try to figure out what exactly is different with our bloodlimit.
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[X] Action Plan: Alpha Strike
Word Count: <299
Word Count: <299
- Buy 2 FP (-20 XP)
- Take a look around and see if there's anything else Hazou could use against these armors.
- Investigate the outer parts of the shrine.
- If the woman we met hasn't gone far, ask her if she knows anything about the guardians.
- Take another crack at these armored jokers.
- Cast PCJ for Armor first.
- They seemed to respond poorly to questioning. Go and see if they're willing to answer a few questions.
- How did they come to be guarding this shrine?
- What do they know if the Sage and his companions.
- How is Hazou's corruption chakra, or his Sharingan-descended bloodline?
- If they attack instead, skip GS and follow the rest of the plan.
- Now attack! Cast GS for additional Armor first.
- Use PKH for attack bonus and Pangolin Gauntlets for WR
- Don't use GS if it would interfere with the WR:2 gauntlets
- Alpha strike Demon
- Attempt to create another Aspect for a tag on the first attack roll.
- "Invoke (Formerly (Formerly)) Marked for Death", "Pangolin Gauntlets", and "Fragile Animation", and use the tag from "A Shadow of Their Former Selves", and any other discovered Aspects. Invoke "Lists and Plans" if this is enough of a list to qualify.
- Mop up Ghost with counterattacks.
- Use PKH for attack bonus and Pangolin Gauntlets for WR
- Go see what's inside the shine. Be polite to the Prince of Bitter Nights.
- Grab the guardian's swords on the way out.
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- Location
- Texas
[X] Training Plan: Taijutsu Supremacy
[X] Action Plan: Alpha Strike
[X] Action Plan: Alpha Strike