There are apparently a bunch of pretty powerful ninja camping out in this forest. Personally it think this should make us drop the hell out of the plan and leave immediately, but maybe i am being paranoid and they are going to leave us alone as long as we don't come close to their territory... If we knew their territory.
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
- Location
- Yes.
The number of explosive tags involved in that -whateverthefuck- suggests to me whoever set them off doesn't expect survivors. Explosives of that magnitude means they won't find a body, or anything suggesting a body was ever there. I think the enemy is not in the area, and this trap was an automated trigger that we set off. Whoever shows up to investigate will assume we died in the blast given the insane die (900 vs. Inoue's 1000!) and won't search for anything.
Seriously, the thing nearly killed us even with Inoue's 18 Awareness.
Seriously, the thing nearly killed us even with Inoue's 18 Awareness.
- Location
- Canada
Awareness continues to look super important.
Diplomacy 2 sounds like it will come in handy, with the upcoming caravan, and just generally.
If Inoue doesn't have a technique handy, we could boost substitution, being able to get out of sticky situation's faster is always good.
It looks like explosive tags come in jumbo size.
- Location
- Yes.
Actually we have one point left over. 11 from the Iron Escorts plan, 24 from this plan, so 35 XP total. Spending to get Awareness 8:
Resolve 2 [4]
Wits 3 [10]
Awareness 6 [16]
Awareness 7 [23]
Awareness 8 [31]
Adding Diplomacy to max:
Diplomacy 1 [32]
Diplomacy 2 [34]
So one point, for one basic jutsu/other skill/saved. I'm really hoping we can master the basic Hiding like a Mole technique, or something similar to it.
Resolve 2 [4]
Wits 3 [10]
Awareness 6 [16]
Awareness 7 [23]
Awareness 8 [31]
Adding Diplomacy to max:
Diplomacy 1 [32]
Diplomacy 2 [34]
So one point, for one basic jutsu/other skill/saved. I'm really hoping we can master the basic Hiding like a Mole technique, or something similar to it.
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
Based on this update I'm revising how high I want awareness before we do harder stuff: there are threats which Inoue's awareness is barely enough to deal with. If she had not seen it, it would have been instant TPK. Awareness is such a higher priority than other things, that I'm fine with banking 5 XP to use on avoiding death. Because as much fun and utility having earth doton or diplomacy provides, it's unlikely to be the difference between life and death. Having a higher awareness is a difference of life and death. With that in mind, here's my proposed XP spending plan:
Also, we have 36 XP (10 XP from Iron Escorts plan, 1 XP from not being evil, 1 XP from making Eaglejarl laugh, and 24 XP from labour week)
[X] Constant Vigilance!
Resolve 2 [4]
Awareness 6 [10]
Wits 3 [16]
Awareness 7 [23]
Awareness 8 [31]
Bank 5 XP to use on awareness in future.
From here, we'd need just 4 more XP to get awareness 9, and 22 XP for awareness 10. Honestly, I think I'd like awareness 12 before investing in too much other stuff (requires a total of 87 XP investment from current stats). We should be able to get there if we survive maybe three more updates?
Also, we have 36 XP (10 XP from Iron Escorts plan, 1 XP from not being evil, 1 XP from making Eaglejarl laugh, and 24 XP from labour week)
[X] Constant Vigilance!
Resolve 2 [4]
Awareness 6 [10]
Wits 3 [16]
Awareness 7 [23]
Awareness 8 [31]
Bank 5 XP to use on awareness in future.
From here, we'd need just 4 more XP to get awareness 9, and 22 XP for awareness 10. Honestly, I think I'd like awareness 12 before investing in too much other stuff (requires a total of 87 XP investment from current stats). We should be able to get there if we survive maybe three more updates?
I think you should not go too crazy with spending on awareness. You are forcing the GM to throw ever more stealthy shit at us. The pattern i can see makes it pretty clear that no matter how many points we drop into this, the environment will always have one or two dice more. Can't leave our Taijutsu and Tactical Movement too far behind either.
- Location
- Yes.
I agree and disagree. Awareness should be our top priority but we shouldn't tunnel so far into Awareness that we don't spend any XP on anything else. Especially when we'd be banking points otherwise, that's a horrible idea since we keep points away from us.
Given how much XP we got from the Iron Escorts mission I expect the next update (in which we escort civilians to the town) would not give us a lot of XP. I doubt we'd get the 22XP needed to actually get Awareness 10; it's smarter to settle for Awareness 9 next update and spend some extra XP on Diplomacy and/or Doton.
Given how much XP we got from the Iron Escorts mission I expect the next update (in which we escort civilians to the town) would not give us a lot of XP. I doubt we'd get the 22XP needed to actually get Awareness 10; it's smarter to settle for Awareness 9 next update and spend some extra XP on Diplomacy and/or Doton.
- Location
- Yes.
@eaglejarl @Velorien @AugSphere @Jackercracks Does Inoue know any Doton jutsu or other techniques Hazou could learn? And if yes, what are they?
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- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Point of order; you would have utterly owned the water bug and the voles were only hard to spot because they were, if you recall, underground and not moving. The person that Inoue went after...well, I suspect you can figure out why they were so hard to spot.
I'll get back to you on that; we haven't chosen her jutsu list and none of the others are around.
Later on, when you sit down to discuss it, Inoue will reveal that the thing she chased was a man, although she never got a good look. Mori will point out that he didn't act against you in any way until Inoue chased him, and that after he set off his giant bomb trap he just left instead of attacking.
Inoue will then say "yes, but the fact that he didn't try to kill us today doesn't mean he won't in the future."
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Jackercracks
In a British accent
- Location
- England
You may safely assume that something in the water can damage a metal pipe.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The near edge is about thirty meters horizontal and a little under two vertical. I don't have the domain knowledge to estimate the size of the field, though -- does anyone here? The village is ~80 people and the soil is excellent, if that helps.
- Location
- Mu
I agree with this.
The 881 roll on the ambush suggests a Jounin level opponent. So does their ability to escape from Inoue. We must accept that if a Jounin wants us dead, we will die without Inoue's intervention. Our reliance on Inoue isn't something we can mitigate yet. Awareness is our top priority, but it shouldn't become our only priority. In the best case scenario against this caliber of opponent, we would be able to spot the ambush, then die horribly anyway when we're outclassed in all forms of combat.
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
I disagree with this. We had a lot more dice than the waterbugs for instance, it's just the voles and the Black Hunter which outclassed us. Ultimately awareness should allow us to assess incoming threats reliably, which we're not really able to do at the moment. The alternative solution is what we were doing at the start, which is just dump everything into Taijutsu so even if we're surprised, we just murder everything. That said, I'm wary about assuming we can use taijutsu rolls in response to, say, explosive tags of an absurd magnitude.
The black hunter is now aware of some of our abilities (don't know if they were watching us earlier), knows we have a "genin" with jounin level abilities, and have the capacity to spot them. From this, they may be able to conclude that we're not a normal ninja team (since our best was disguised as a genin), and probably can infer that we're missing nin. We also know from civilians, that they live in the forest. We also know that they are isolationist, since they haven't contacted the village, and spied then ran instead of talked to us. Ultimately, I don't think we need to worry too much about it. Here's my prediction matrix to try to figure out what Black Hunter will do:
- Black Hunter is a missing nin (60%)
- Black Hunter is an isolated person(s) (90%)
- Black Hunter just wants to survive (50%)
- Black Hunter will seek us out if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (5%)
- Black Hunter will leave us alone if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (95%)
- Black Hunter has a purpose aside from survival (50%)
- Black Hunter will seek us out if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (50%)
- Black Hunter will leave us alone if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (50%)
- Black Hunter just wants to survive (50%)
- Black Hunter is in active contact with others (10%)
- Black Hunter will let the others know about us (90%)
- Black Hunter will seek us out if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (50%)
- Black Hunter will leave us alone if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (50%)
- Black Hunter will not let the others know about us (10%)
- Black Hunter will seek us out if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (10%)
- Black Hunter will leave us alone if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (90%)
- Black Hunter will let the others know about us (90%)
- Black Hunter is an isolated person(s) (90%)
- Black Hunter is a non-missing nin (25%)
- Black Hunter is an Iron ninja (85%)
- Black Hunter will let others know about us (100%)
- Black Hunter will follow us (85%)
- Black Hunter will attempt to engage us in combat (50%)
- Black Hunter will not engage us in combat (50%)
- Black Hunter will not follow us (15%)
- Black Hunter is a ninja from a different nation (15%)
- Black Hunter will let others know about us (100%)
- Black Hunter will follow us (70%)
- Black Hunter will attempt to engage us in combat (50%)
- Black Hunter will not enegage us in combat (50%)
- Black Hunter will not follow us (30%)
- Black Hunter is an Iron ninja (85%)
- Black Hunter is Other (15%)
- Black Hunter is an alien (1%)
- Black Hunter is a weird chakra monster (5%)
- Black Hunter is a Bounty Hunter (50%)
- Black Hunter will follow us (85%)
- Black Hunter will engage us in combat (80%)
- Black Hunter will not engage us in combat (20%)
- Black Hunter will not follow us (15%)
- Black Hunter will follow us (85%)
- Something I haven't predicted (44%)
- Location
- Mu
This more or less gels with my intuitions about the situation.
The Black Hunter was more interested in driving us away than in killing us. The villagers also mentioned that if they drop what they're carrying and run, they aren't harmed. (Note: We should ask the villagers what supplies they tend to be carrying when the Black Hunter shows up.) So, he's reluctant to engage in combat if he can avoid it. Driving people away suggests he has something to protect, most probably just a camp in the area. Given the villagers are all familiar with him he must have been there for awhile. He's not openly hostile, but wary. He definitely did not appreciate Inoue leaping after him.
If he's a Jounin level ninja, then presumably he is skilled enough to have defected to one of the major villages and chose not to. Too many possible reasons for that. He's not set himself up as a local warlord, leading bandits, or trying to take over the area, so we can safely assume amassing power isn't one of his goals. He seems more isolationist than anything. Possibly a war veteran who got sick of the fighting and decided to live in relative peace?
He also used a larger number of explosive tags, including an enhanced version, but he wouldn't have easy access to procuring more unless...
Wait. Oh my god. He's our seal master, isn't he?
- Location
- Wall Gazing
- Black Hunter is a missing nin (60%)
- Black Hunter is an isolated person(s) (90%)->(54%)
- Black Hunter just wants to survive (50%)->(27%)
- Black Hunter will seek us out if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (5%)->(1.35%)
- Black Hunter will leave us alone if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (95%)->(25.65%)
- Black Hunter has a purpose aside from survival (50%)->(27%)
- Black Hunter will seek us out if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (50%)->(13.5%)
- Black Hunter will leave us alone if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (50%)->(13.5%)
- Black Hunter just wants to survive (50%)->(27%)
- Black Hunter is in active contact with others (10%)->(6%)
- Black Hunter will let the others know about us (90%)->(5.4%)
- Black Hunter will seek us out if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (50%)->(2.7%)
- Black Hunter will leave us alone if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (50%)->2.7%)
- Black Hunter will not let the others know about us (10%)->(.6%
- Black Hunter will seek us out if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (10%)->(.06%)
- Black Hunter will leave us alone if we go somewhere else (or lead a caravan) (90%)->(.54%)
- Black Hunter will let the others know about us (90%)->(5.4%)
- Black Hunter is an isolated person(s) (90%)->(54%)
- Black Hunter is a non-missing nin (25%)
- Black Hunter is an Iron ninja (85%)->(21.25%)
- Black Hunter will let others know about us (100%)
- Black Hunter will follow us (85%)->(18.0625%)
- Black Hunter will attempt to engage us in combat (50%)->(9.03125%)
- Black Hunter will not engage us in combat (50%)->(9.03125%)
- Black Hunter will not follow us (15%)->(3.1875%)
- Black Hunter is a ninja from a different nation (15%)->(3.75%)
- Black Hunter will let others know about us (100%)
- Black Hunter will follow us (70%)->(2.625%)
- Black Hunter will attempt to engage us in combat (50%)->(1.3125%)
- Black Hunter will not engage us in combat (50%)->(1.3125%)
- Black Hunter will not follow us (30%)->(1.125%)
- Black Hunter is an Iron ninja (85%)->(21.25%)
- Black Hunter is Other (15%)
- Black Hunter is an alien (1%)->(1.5%)
- Black Hunter is a weird chakra monster (5%)->(.75%)
- Black Hunter is a Bounty Hunter (50%)->(7.5%)
- Black Hunter will follow us (85%)->(6.375%)
- Black Hunter will engage us in combat (80%)->(5.1%)
- Black Hunter will not engage us in combat (20%)->(1.275%)
- Black Hunter will not follow us (15%)->(1.125%)
- Black Hunter will follow us (85%)->(6.375%)
- Something I haven't predicted (44%)->(6.6%)
Summary:
The chances of the BH seeking us out is 6.6%
The chances of the BH leaving us alone and not telling anyone of us is 42.39%
The chances of the BH being a ninja and will follow us and engage in combat is 10.34375%
The chances of the BH being a ninja and will follow us, but not engage in combat is 10.34375%
The chances of the BH being a ninja and not following us is 4.3125%
The chances of the BH being a bounty hunter and will engage us in combat is 5.1%
The chances of the BH being a bounty hunter and following us without engaging in combat is 1.275%
The chances of the BH being a bounty hunter and not following us is 1.125%
The chances of the BH being/doing something else are 18.51%
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- Location
- Yes.
@eaglejarl @Velorien @AugSphere @Jackercracks how small/flexible are the lake monsters, really?
Cuz I'm thinking of making a pipe to allow water to flow from the lake to a manmade ditch which lets water flow without risk of chakra monsters entering. Then create an Archimedes Screw or something similar to move the water uphill.
Cuz I'm thinking of making a pipe to allow water to flow from the lake to a manmade ditch which lets water flow without risk of chakra monsters entering. Then create an Archimedes Screw or something similar to move the water uphill.
- Location
- Canada
@Solace If Black Hunter was actually there, I'm changing my guess of what that sound was to a technique, rather than a jumbo explosive tag.
Inoue would have seen it either way, we could just ask her if we are curious.
@faflec Wouldn't that take a rather long time? Also, I doubt that the villagers have the needed materials.
Inoue would have seen it either way, we could just ask her if we are curious.
@faflec Wouldn't that take a rather long time? Also, I doubt that the villagers have the needed materials.
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- Location
- Yes.
The piping can actually be made from wood and clay I think. Villagers would have a hard time getting the wood but ninjas should be able to get that pretty easily.
And I don't think it'll take a long time. It's not like we want it to be a 30m pipe. We just want a connection to transport the water to a ditch while filtering out the chakra monsters. Making the pipe a meter long, with the rest being a civilian-dug ditch or similar, is fine with me.
Same thing with the Archimedes Screw.
And I don't think it'll take a long time. It's not like we want it to be a 30m pipe. We just want a connection to transport the water to a ditch while filtering out the chakra monsters. Making the pipe a meter long, with the rest being a civilian-dug ditch or similar, is fine with me.
Same thing with the Archimedes Screw.
- Location
- Mu
Admittedly, it may have been a technique. Though:
Assuming from the way it's worded the smaller explosions were explosive tags, that's still 7 explosive tags. That's a significant investment of non-renewable resources for it to be his first choice under pressure.
So either he has some technique that involves creating multiple explosions, or else he knows enough of sealing to create more explosive tags. I think sealing is more likely.
Or he's burning resources very quickly, suggesting he's terrified of Inoue. Which is frankly understandable.
ClawClawBite
Mad Engineering!
- Location
- Seattle, WA
Awareness is interesting, and should be one of our prime skills, but focusing on that means we have less agency and versatility.
We need to polish our social skills, get some tactical movement, and possibly boost our ranged power.
We need to polish our social skills, get some tactical movement, and possibly boost our ranged power.
Jackercracks
In a British accent
- Location
- England
I have a sneaking suspicion that you are overestimating the amount of spare (not already allocated) metal that a pre-industrial village has access to. Reminds me of the old saying "beat swords into ploughshares" which reminds me that good metal was once so rare that farmers would re-use the metal for part ownership of a plough.
- Location
- Yes.
Water pipes can be made out of wood, @Jackercracks.
Jackercracks
In a British accent
- Location
- England
Indeed they can. Fun fact, water pipes where there is no air at all don't rot. Apparently parts of the London water mains still make use of ancient wooden pipes. I just figured you were talking about metal since you asked about the strength of metal pipes.
- Location
- Wall Gazing
would have to fire the clay to prevent the pipes from eroding away. Do they have a kiln?