Alright, I'm on my phone and tired, but I don't want to leave the voting situation be like this.
[X] Training Hazou: Nope
[X] Training Noburi: Nope
[X] Training Keiko: Nope
[X] Training Akane: Nope
Let's not spend XP now. I would need more time and I hate it when we get two votes that decide on our entire expenditure.
As for the Action Plan, we should keep on with our previous plan.
[X] Action Plan: Stay The Course
We will finish going through the previous voted-in plan, with a few additions.
We really need to get Inoue's input on this. It feels like none of us have discussed any concrete plans of attack, and we need to define our strategies and pick the best one. My quoted post down below contains an ambush plan, though it should also be helpful for any situation where combat opens up with her. It is focused on finishing the fight ASAP and not getting too close, with each of us knowing exactly what to do and delivering the maximum possible force onto her bodyguards. Noburi will be bound in holy matrimony with the Macerator Seal for all the wonderful things they will do with each other, and Keiko will deliver our paralytic payload if we dont have her locked down but still are amenable to live capture. Every effort is going to be taken to minimize the danger. Be well stocked in all types of seals. Stop the update before Arikada's earliest estimated time of arrival. You will have plenty of scenes to work with.
Second, get the confusion with Panchipama straightened out. We are pretty confused as to why Keiko is setting up this drug heist against the Yakuza and will sell it back to them. We really want combat Pangolins for the Arikada fight. If we can pull off some sort of heist like that soon, and manage to grab some permanent contracts, that would be great and really help us here. Though if we've announced our presence here, that's a stupid idea. Just get this contract stuff figured out. More than one would be hella dope.
Have the listed chat with Akane. Be respectful and supportive, making it clear that the decision is completely hers, and we'd support and understand any decision she makes. Hazou will really miss her, but he'll be happy that she gets back her shot at a safer and stabler life in her Village. Just clearly communicate that Hazou is actively trying not to influence her decision.
I'm pretty skeptical of the benefits of establishing contact with the local authorities, and I'm unclear as to whether that had been done already, but definitely only do that if we can't hit Arikada before she gets into town, or we decide that we have a really great intrigue plan that will slip under her notice. I am nervous about the mayor, since he is caught in a delicate game of appeasing all of the clans when staying independent. And he would be the most likely person to have access to some ninja. Totally up to Inoue for all of it.
[X] Action Plan: Hunt-Run-Watch
The update should end no later than the day before Arikada's earliest expected arrival.
Some bits stolen from
@ChronOblivion's plan.
Goals:
- Obtain more paralytic, test it, and Noburi's newfound abilities
- Have several important team / teammate discussions
- Return to our base near Sarubetsu and continue infiltrating the town
Methods:
- While in Iron
- Spend at least part of the day training with mist macerator loads and Noburi's new ability while hunting dragonflies - try to figure out his range, precision, and draining speed limits through mist, and gather all the paralytic we can
- (If it's not too horribly far away/out of our way) check if the villagers near Kagome's old hideout know where the dragonflies tend to nest or hunt (where do they avoid going due to the bugs?) Be open to providing medical treatment and walls in payment (or in charity if anyone is so inclined)
- If we end up with significantly less than or more than 2 doses (i.e. we're not right on the cusp) test small amounts on another animal to see if it wears off. If we find that it wears off and doesn't always stop the victim's breathing, see if someone can perform sealless techniques or trigger seals while under its effects; have Noburi on hand just in case.
- Test if Noburi can drain a person and not a seal they're holding - make a clone stand way over there with a little bit of chakra ink on a paper (not actually a seal) and try to drain the clone. While hiding behind a bunker.
- Keiko should keep working on Pangolin Cultural exchange and finding contracts over the next couple days
- Intra-team actions
- Go over this heist thing - what's being planned and why does Keiko think we're selling things back to their owners..?
- Ask about Mari's minutes-lasting genjutsu - how does it work, what are its limits. Relatedly, work on developing better protect-the-mage tactics for when she's zoned out, and see about obtaining binoculars to try and extend her range.
- What happened in the mindscan/what was it like?
- Kagome
- How good is his transformation, given that he got a (sarcastic?) compliment on it? Can he take on animal shapes? Ask about why people don't go around henged as themselves most of the time to prevent aging/illness.
- Ask him (in a diplomatic way) how he would defend against potential enemies if he was a bit less adept at explosives and were also good at alarms, to give us an idea what Arikada may be doing.
- What kinds of alarm seals has he heard of, to get an idea what we might need to get ready for?
- Talking with Akane.
- I hope you know that all of us will support and understand any choice you make.
- I would really miss you if you left, but I would be happy knowing that your life is safer and stabler.
- Leave this evening/night, get back to our base southwest of Sarubetsu
- Return to/stay in Sarubetsu
- If we leave tonight, should arrive two days ahead of Arikada's earliest expected arrival.
- On the way, look out for anyone else approaching the town, since we'll be coming from roughly the west and our intel says Arakida will be doing the same
- Begin surveillance of the area/road to the west.
- Try and get at least a briefing on, if not a brief team training with, the Panchipaama
- Mari and Team Talky continue investigating the town
- Get a room at the Firefly and buddy up to Emi the Younger - we heard she has "an extremely strong sense of personal space" from the merchant on the road, which probably means he was being a jerk to her, and Mari can probably relate
- Where does the Firefly Inn they get their food and other services?
- Hazou suggests trying to secure Mayor Emiya's cooperation with the following strategy:
- Get a general feel for the Mayor from local rumors (Emi The Younger, The Stickler)
- Use henge and face covering scarfs/hoods/masks under it
- Make sure no clan ninjas are listening in on the conversation
- Initiate the talks when the Mayor is alone
- Check the adjacent rooms for people listening in
- Have Noburi and Hazou keeping guard outside the room (additional benefit: They won't fuck up the negotiation)
- Why should she help us:
- Arikada will throw a sack full of wrenches at the local power balance
- Her sealcraft relies on experimenting on humans, meaning it's the civilians of Rice who will pay the price if she gets away
- She is part of something bigger going on in Rice, we have a hunch that outsiders are messing with clan politics, but we have no proof of this
- Why did we come to her:
- We know Arakida will be in town, but if we find and fight her in town or without proper preparation it will create a huge amount of collateral damage and we don't want that
- She is the authority figure in town, it makes sense to work with her to catch a dangerous criminal
- We have heard good things about her (competent, on the side of the civilians)
- What we want from her
- Help to identify, keep track, and ultimately isolate Arakida so we can take her out
- Information on local players so we don't step on too many toes
- Help identifying what organization Arakida is working with (low priority for us but it probably aligns with what the mayor wants.
- Her best guess as to who Arikada's new employer will be, given available information.
- Mari takes point on sniffing out/ hunting down/ eliminating Arakida's contacts, but the boys should be present for backup whenever possible.
- Focus on any notable newcomers to town, the local Yak guy we heard about, the Yak-involved clan, and the medical clan.
- Keiko should keep working on finding contracts, or help puzzle out who Arakida may be meeting if she's already found a sufficient number.
- Suggest basic options for our plan.
- Ambush options on her way into (or out of?) town
- Full-on lethal barrage before she can set up her seals, under cover of mist to blow up her seals as a last resort
- Delaying and defensive tactics to let Noburi drain her dry, switching to Code Black if things get bad (see Contingencies #5)
- Slip poison/paralytic into her drugs (e.g. by getting Smiling Miki on our side), then capture/kill
- Try and drain her while asleep, using e.g. mist and an open window
Contingencies
- Travel under long-range SOP
- Be extra careful about cover stories, taking into account the stated xenophobic nature of Rice culture
- Set up multiple escape and meetup contingencies in the area - Kagome and Akane's jobs to trap/explodify the routes
- Maintain our seal supply -explosives, loaded PMYFs, mist and wood macerators (Post-deadline edit: paralytic macerator(s), and Izanai Red macerator(s) if we get any of it)
- If we run into Arikada's group unexpectedly, try to fill the area with most to allow Noburi to start draining and allow Keiko to slip in a paralytic payload stealthily. Use delaying/defensive tactics (syrup traps, wind walls, earth walls, area denial explosives, clones, PMYF-velocity 100kg granite slabs aka "Fist of the Flying Earth God no Jutsu", genjutsus any guards, kill guards ASAP, go code black as soon as it looks like we don't have a notable advantage)
Well, I don't have as thorough of an answer, but I do have a basic framework for an ambush (which I do think we should go for). Our opening salvo should be as strong as possible, ideally with a lot of PMYF'd logs or boulders flying at them at kunai speeds. All present bodyguards are targeted with the most lethal and reckless force, and ( all weapons that won't grind her to paste or blow up her body go towards Arikada. Many Mist-Macerator kunai go towards Arikada to cover a big area around her so she can't dodge entirely. Noburi takes any opportunity to drain Arikada as fast as he can through the Mist, and Syrup Trap could help that if it hits.
Inoue moves onto Step Two and tries to grab Arikada into a genjutsu, while Panchipama guards her. if there are still bodyguards. If she succeeds, we watch her like a goddamn hawk, Keiko delivers a paralysis covered kunai that has enough powder that it probably won't kill her (Due to the possible lethality of this, hold off until she resists the genjutsu and capture becomes more unlikely). Noburi also drains her into unconsciousness. If Inoue can't grab the genjutsu for Arikada has devised a method to escape it, then every paralyzing kunai from Keiko and Inoue flies towards her in addition to more Mist Macerators and Noburi's chakra draining and Syrup traps. If those fail we give up taking her alive and go full lethal with all techniques that won't smush her face. No one approaches Arikada close-range, and continually evade. Kagome's rings demonstrate that a clever sealmaster can kill you in ways that are basically impossible to predict ahead of time.
The presence of the bodyguards will complicate things if they survive the opening salvo, since I'm not sure how much power to devote towards fighting them. I think Kagome should definitely fight them with his full-on explodey prowess, and probably Hazou/Akane since they shouldn't approach Arikada close-range. That leaves Inoue/Keiko/Noburi/Panchipama to focus on Arikada with their suppression techniques.
Thoughts?
