- Location
- Europe
We do? When did we get those? I thought we never made it to the blacksmith with the bristles to get our reward.
Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
- Start date
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- 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 open voting
We do? When did we get those? I thought we never made it to the blacksmith with the bristles to get our reward.
- Location
- Somewhere in Gensokyo
One way that we could use to identify "us" is to leave them with a parchment with a drawing of a spider-bear (do we have a personal symbol?) and these instructions:
- Show NO ONE this drawing.
- When/if we return, we might have to be in disguise. however, it might also be our ninja enemies.
- To prove it is us, we'll provide an exact second copy of the drawing (made with our blood limit).
- While NOT showing us or ANYONE the first copy, confirm that the two pictures are exactly identical.
- If they are, it's probably us.
- If it isn't, it is DEFINITELY not us.
- ... And this method might soon be compromised. Be wary of anyone else who comes later with an exact copy. (add a second and third drawing?)
- (Leave them with a written copy of the instructions with the drawing if we aren't confident in them being able to remember instructions)
I'm sure this will stump your average jonin. All the dice in the world wouldn't allow a ninja to talk their way out of not having an exact copy of the drawing. Even if the ninja snuck in and replaced the drawing with their own (that they had two of), there will be differences (unless it's a really good stamp).
Them getting in contact with us is another matter. It would involve sending a message to everywhere in the elemental nations and only us being able to read it, or us having something that's quantumly linked with something we left at the village. (break this stick, and ours will break too. We'll come as fast as we can.)
According to this, all we have is "Ninja Stuff" and a "green spandex leotard".
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- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Location
- Yes.
@eaglejarl Since you're here:
Will we pass through Yuni (the larger town mentioned in Story 11) with this caravan? If so, how far away is it?
Did the blacksmith use steelback bristles to make those spearheads or no?
What did our teammates train?
Will we pass through Yuni (the larger town mentioned in Story 11) with this caravan? If so, how far away is it?
Did the blacksmith use steelback bristles to make those spearheads or no?
What did our teammates train?
- Location
- Somewhere in Gensokyo
@eaglejarl, an updated character sheet is a happy character sheet. We might be able to stem some of the questions of the post above if the sheets were updated.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Updated.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
When is Mori and Wakahisa going to spend all that delicious XP? Is that being postponed until we at least give them suggestions? Mori taking Weapons, Noburi taking Vampiric Dew, and both taking Deception would be best, I think.
Also, not a whole lot of voting going on. I already like Radvic's plan so I don't mind, but only three votes total. Anyone got a different plan or just haven't voted for Radvic's yet?
Also, not a whole lot of voting going on. I already like Radvic's plan so I don't mind, but only three votes total. Anyone got a different plan or just haven't voted for Radvic's yet?
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The other GMs aren't around; we'll talk about it tomorrow and get it spent.
Voting closes at 9am Pacific time tomorrow -- that's about 18 hours.
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
Main reason I want a rapier is that it seems the most narratively nice way to let Keiko use her weapons score in close range combat. There was discussion about 50 pages ago as to what weapons would be best, and I vaguely remember rapiers being the conclusion. I don't particularly care too much, just figured a rapier would be good. If they aren't in high supply, then we just take a weapon which Keiko can use. If she can also use it as a disguise, great. Most likely, if rapiers are very distinct, the caravan won't have one, in which case we just trade for whatever weapons they do have. Hence the phrase "preferably."
I'm mostly indifferent about it. I think it nets out to approximately even. Given that others were voicing opinions against it, I didn't mind removing it from the plan. Feel free to make a counter plan.
While the bristles have decent worth, I think they're pretty easy for us to get. I was under the impression steelbacks are also native to this area.
This doesn't take long for us (less than a day's work), and has the potential to greatly improve the villager's lives. I figure it's a low risk low reward thing. It might get us some XP, and it will likely get us more of the villager's goodwill, which is worth something probably (though not much). I figure it's worth the couple hours it would take us to, say, cut a bunch of trees with taijutsu and carry them over. I'm not envisioning a huge expedition and building project, just giving them some supplies as a parting gift or something. Some way to wring the last XP we can out of the place and cement their vision of us as good people who they should help out if we need something they have. While this may very well do nothing, I don't really see it causing us problems, and it might give us benefits (e.g. if the Black Hunter is somehow connected to the village).
Hm... This method works, I like it. I've slightly edited it (no reason to use a spiderbear which might lead people to know we came from the swamp) and added it to the plan. While almost certainly overkill for this village, it should be pretty good at scaling to larger villages and organizations. We just provide a new symbol each time we leave, then remake the same symbol when we return. It's a good practice to get into.
Yeah, I can't really think of any solution, but I'm also not very knowledgeable of the Naruto-verse. If we ever develop long range communication, we could always just use the same identification procedure, for us contacting them, but that might not work depending on what form our communication is. Also, for what it's worth, quantum entanglement can't be used to transmit information (at least in the real world). I'm sure there's a Naruto-verse solution somewhere though.
Yeah, I'm suprised about how silent the board has been. Ideas are good. Also, it's interesting to me that there's disagreement on what actions we should take (e.g. contact/don't contact BH, Murder caravan/do the sensible thing, what to purchase from the caravan, tell village to stay silent/let them do as they please, Stay in Iron/leave Iron) but only one serious plan (I'm assume the stupid evil plans were not serious). Don't just have disagreement, offer other options
If you like all of my plan except a small part, just copy my plan and then edit the parts you don't want, and give it a different title. Speaking of, here's the present state of my plan, as always, feel free to steal parts you like and make your own plan or variant.We've done all the easy stuff at this village. Lets take our quest rewards, lay some contingencies for the future and head out. Here's the bare bones.
- Trade for a map from the caravan
- Trade for a barrel from the caravan (for Wakahisa)
- Trade for a weapon for Mori from the caravan
- Preferably a quality bow and rapier
Leave a message for the Black Hunter (probably expressing desire for cooperation, potentially by leaving a note at the explosion, or something for the villagers to carry and abandon when they see BH)- Leave a way for the townspeople to get in contact with us, or recognize "our associates" (us henged once we're better at deception)
- Leave an identification drawing (of a waterbug) with the villagers, and tell them to not show it to anyone.
- Tell them we or friends we send to them will have an exactly identical drawing to verify it is them, which they can and should compare to at their leisure.
- Have Hazou memorize the drawing to reproduce if we return here.
- Leave the villagers with a surplus of logs and meat and suggestions for how to build a wall if they have the time (we can give them the materials)
- Go to another village of comparable size to this one and help them out
- Finally tell Inoue about our seal abilities, because there's very little reason for us to hold out on her anymore
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That was me talking about my personal experience of swords. I'm at least passingly familiar with several different civilian sword arts and Spanish rapier is the most dangerous by a long margin. Much as I would love to write that, it doesn't really fit the setting. It's possible that there is some minor enclave somewhere that has evolved rapiers and the Spanish rapier style, but you aren't familiar with them.
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
We've been making plans with a short title and then a long description of what to do. We've been encouraged to provide more detail than I suspect normal quests do, which is why they're so they're so detailed and long normally. So, for instance, you could make a plan titled Steve as follows:
[an X goes here] Steve
Description of the actions plan Steve entails. Could be in paragraph form, or bullet form, or whatever you want, or just a single sentence.
The reason my plan has stuff underlined and
- Location
- Europe
I think the conclusion was that it was best in EagleJarls opinion. Since he makes the rules, a rapier is probably an excellent choice.
But anyways, you should take the weapon buying option out of the vote. It's not like there is any rush and we don't have that much to trade with anyways. It's my only major sticking point in that plan.
Should we also decide where we are going? Or are we going to do it after we have the map? In that case we should probably ask some questions about all the nearby villages, in order to not give away where we are going next.
I'm also against telling Inoue about the seals. The fact that she hinted that we should tell her about it doesn't increase my trust in her.
That is how you normally make plans in most Quests. I was more thinking about how you usually spoiler them.
[X] Sticking around and gathering information
- The encounter with the Black Hunter is not something that should just be brushed aside. You need to learn more about his motives to determine whether he is a threat to the team.
- Inoue should confront an influential village leader with the fact that the Black Hunter is a Shinobi. If they fail to react apropriately, she may interrogate them discretely. Ask her if she can use her Memory Erasion Genjutsu should she decide to play rough with the villagers in order to gain information, we don't want to ruin our benevolent image. Repeat these interrogation tactics as Inoue deems necessary.
- Kurosawa and Mori should stealthily observe the merchants around the clock. First Priority is to look for a connection to the Black Hunter, meaning suspicious wares (ninja equipment, sealing paper, etc.), caravan members trying to go into the forest (do not follow without alerting Inoue), merchants with signs of ninja training etc. Second priority is to find out more about he merchants and their character (Inoue can help here if she is done with the interrogations)
- If no suspicious wares are found during observation, break into the merchants wagons at night to have a look at their wares. Get Inoues help if necessary, and do not steal anything. Check for Hidden Compartments. Arrange for a distraction for the merchant crew before the heist, and put a possible guard under a genjutsu.
- Wakihisa tries to buy a Barrel and a Map from the caravan, and talks to them about innocuous topics. He should try to get a feeling for them.
- The team should meet up to make new decisions when they either find information on the Black Hunter or the caravan is about to move on.
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- Location
- Canada
[X] Finish Up and move out.
I am also for keeping the seals secret. Inoue has no way to use the knowledge to our benefit right now, so there are only downsides. (Apart from the potential loss of trust later)
On the black hunter, we don't need to know if they are a threat if we leave the area.
I am also for keeping the seals secret. Inoue has no way to use the knowledge to our benefit right now, so there are only downsides. (Apart from the potential loss of trust later)
On the black hunter, we don't need to know if they are a threat if we leave the area.
Unless they really are a Hunter Nin operating from a hidden base near the village and decide to follow us for our bounty as soon as the merchants bring the updated bingo book from Kiri.
We know absolutely nothing about the Black Hunter, even assuming that they stay isolated is ultimately just that, an assumption. We know precisely nothing about them, and nothing is more dangerous than not knowing.
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
Ah. I've been spoilering the updated plans (the first time I proposed this plan it was not in a spoiler). That way I only need to update one plan as I change it, basically just as a way for people to see what changes I made without going back to my original post. It'd probably be more clear if I quoted my original post. I'll do that in the future.
Hm... I have been mostly just crossing my fingers and hoping the Black Hunter isn't a problem if we move to a different village, which just isn't true in many situations. My brief attempt to deal with them was to do something with blanks, but it doesn't really solve much. I like this plan. It's a little slower (we spend another update in the village), but addresses Black Hunter concerns better, so is probably worth it. Concerns I have with it are below (if these are addressed I will likely change my vote):
- We really should tell Inoue about our seal blank making ability. Idk if it would fit into the period of time that this update encompasses, but we could just add a point about mentioning it if we have a moment.
- Given that we don't know what our teammates have trained, I'm hesitant to assign a particular teammate to stealth.
- Breaking in sounds hard and risky. The caravan will certainly have some sort of guard at night, and remember that using genjutsu removes Inoue from the field, a dangerous proposition for us. I don't think the risk of being caught is worth the potential gain of finding out all the caravan's secrets.
- Location
- Europe
[ ] Finish Up and move out, no weapons or seals
Basically follow the Finish Up plan but don't buy weaponry and don't reveal our sealing related abilities to Inoue yet. It's really not that long since we left the swamp and we haven't really learned that much about Inoue. I suggest we don't mention the sealing before we have a situation or a plan where we could make use of it.
That being said I'm ready to change my vote and I'll change it later if there is need.
@Chronic I kinda like your idea of gathering info, it doesn't really tie us to anything.
Using Inoue to do the interrogation sounds like a smart idea but I doubt the memory erasure thing is cheap enough to use here. Also it would be better if Inoue tried persuasion instead of force to get the info, I don't really want to hurt these nice villagers.
I don't think the breaking in part is going to work. These guys are experienced caravan guards, checking out their stuff without them noticing anything is probably a doomed proposition. Unless we use genjutsu...
Actually both Finish Up and Stick Around could be combined into one plan, where we stick around for few days to give the villagers some stuff and spend that time to scoping out the caravan. At the end of the next update we would have a map, a barrel and possibly some new info on the hunter.
Basically follow the Finish Up plan but don't buy weaponry and don't reveal our sealing related abilities to Inoue yet. It's really not that long since we left the swamp and we haven't really learned that much about Inoue. I suggest we don't mention the sealing before we have a situation or a plan where we could make use of it.
That being said I'm ready to change my vote and I'll change it later if there is need.
@Chronic I kinda like your idea of gathering info, it doesn't really tie us to anything.
Using Inoue to do the interrogation sounds like a smart idea but I doubt the memory erasure thing is cheap enough to use here. Also it would be better if Inoue tried persuasion instead of force to get the info, I don't really want to hurt these nice villagers.
I don't think the breaking in part is going to work. These guys are experienced caravan guards, checking out their stuff without them noticing anything is probably a doomed proposition. Unless we use genjutsu...
Actually both Finish Up and Stick Around could be combined into one plan, where we stick around for few days to give the villagers some stuff and spend that time to scoping out the caravan. At the end of the next update we would have a map, a barrel and possibly some new info on the hunter.
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- Location
- Yes.
Personally I'm against contacting the Black Hunter. His actions suggests to me he's a missing-nin because he's alone and ran away as soon as he was spotted, and only tried to seriously kill after his standard evasion tactics failed. If he were a hunter-nin he wouldn't be alone and would have done something in the several days between our meeting and now. Our faces are in the Bingo Book and I'm pretty sure we weren't under Henge: he should have an idea of who we are if he bothers to keep track of anything.
If this is true we'll both want to avoid each other: both of us are missing-nin and thus have no way to cash in bounties without getting killed ourselves. But if the guy isn't a missing-nin, and is something like a solo bounty hunter who lives here...He still wouldn't report us to Mist. He wants that bounty for himself, fuck sharing. That's assuming he'd still fight us.
Keep a constant lookout and boost our Awareness until it goes to like 15 or something.
If this is true we'll both want to avoid each other: both of us are missing-nin and thus have no way to cash in bounties without getting killed ourselves. But if the guy isn't a missing-nin, and is something like a solo bounty hunter who lives here...He still wouldn't report us to Mist. He wants that bounty for himself, fuck sharing. That's assuming he'd still fight us.
Keep a constant lookout and boost our Awareness until it goes to like 15 or something.
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
None of the three proposed plans involve contacting the Black Hunter. One of them involves getting information on the Black Hunter. Also, we totally have ways to cash in bounties without getting killed ourselves. We're infiltration ninja, disguises is what we do. If he's a solo bounty hunter, the concern is that he follows us and picks us off as Inoue is off doing other things. He knows she's the most powerful of us. I don't think it's a terribly likely risk, but it's a risk that's relevant enough we should probably do more than just hope it goes away.
- Location
- Mu
I'll suggest again that we add to all plans a step about asking around the village for more information on the caravan. If the caravan is actually suspicious, it's a cheap way of getting information on them that doesn't involve any risk. If they are legitimate, then asking about the village won't ruin our relationship with them either.
All we would need to ask is if the villagers have noticed anything unusual about the caravan. If they haven't, great. If the caravan has arrived at a weird time, or if there's more or less guards than usual, or if they don't have the kinds of goods they ought to have, or whatever - then that information is useful and important.
Importantly, we should do this even if we're leaving the village in case the caravan is connected to hunter-nin. If they're suspicious, then we can take more care than usual to cover our tracks.
All we would need to ask is if the villagers have noticed anything unusual about the caravan. If they haven't, great. If the caravan has arrived at a weird time, or if there's more or less guards than usual, or if they don't have the kinds of goods they ought to have, or whatever - then that information is useful and important.
Importantly, we should do this even if we're leaving the village in case the caravan is connected to hunter-nin. If they're suspicious, then we can take more care than usual to cover our tracks.
- Location
- Yes.
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
- Location
- Yes.
@Radvic Why do we have to do this? The only people who know of our Henge disguise are the villagers and the merchant-people. I get the feeling it would be much simpler to just say we might come back and when we do we'll have the same Henge disguise.