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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Briefvoice said:
The yakuza have to live in this village. They can't be seen to be openly helping out a non-Mist team.... especially a team so many of the Mist ninjas are super-pissed at!
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Sure they can. They live under the Mizukage's eyes. The mizukage who is looking for a tacit alliance with Leaf. And is Hazou's aunt.

Even setting that aside, there is no reason to assume that we are the source of the attacks. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to come from a Mist team, given the yakuza associations?
 
Briefvoice said:
No; the domes won't form if a solid object blocks their way.
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Is it a good idea to even them then? Since all the enemy has to do is touch the client from below, anyone with Hiding like a Mole could "kill" the client without much risk. And an Earth Dome is pretty obvious target to hit, I think.
 
Tua said:
Is it a good idea to even them then? Since all the enemy has to do is touch the client from below, anyone with Hiding like a Mole could "kill" the client without much risk. And an Earth Dome is pretty obvious target to hit, I think.
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Only to the extent that an enemy has HlaM. And recall that we also have the technique (Hazou and Pangolins) and have ways of detecting underground enemies.
 
I have made some edits. See edit log, but in summary put in a provision to discussion protection against poisoning (offering Karina several alternatives), a bit of clarification on combat tactics, and an offer to facilitate a drug trade to the pangolins because why not.

Oh, and right now this plan is tied with Armageddon Initiative. Might want to give it a second vote for safety!

Briefvoice said:
Okay, putting up a plan so we at least have something in place. Go ahead and start suggesting changes/edits.

[X] Plan Bewitched!

Establishing Rapport with the Client
  • Be friendly. At minimum try not to show how uncomfortable she makes Hazou and Noburi.
  • Respond to some of her flirting jokingly. If she becomes too forward, rebuff her gently and inform her that your professionalism demands that certain boundaries not be crossed.
  • Find a way for Hazou and Noburi to engage her. Maybe she wants to listen to some made up stories of ninja adventures. Maybe Noburi can talk to her about her knowledge of herbs. Or perhaps she likes talking about her business. We want her to like spending time with us, less chance of her wanting to gallivant around the city in her free time out of boredom.
    • As befits his higher Presence, Hazou is probably best off trying to project confidence
    • As befits his higher Rapport, Noburi is best for being chatty
  • Whenever she is resistant to some of our security practices, try to leverage our good rapport and charm her into agreement.

Establish a SOP with Granny Karina
(all of this done with the greatest politeness)

Moving Granny Karina Around
  • During travel, one team member takes to the rooftops to have a higher field of vision while the other two stick closer to the palanquin to be able to converse with with client and keep ground-level eyes out
    • Given client's expressed preferences, Keiko should normally be on rooftop duty
  • When we arrive at a location, the group will stop in the street outside. Karina stays in the palanquin.
  • One team member will go in to scout the location for assassins and announce Karina's arrival.
  • The other two stay on guard outside, looking for snipers. (If necessary, send someone to investigate any suspicious areas where an enemy sniper might be concealed.)
  • Determine if Karina needs to take in a sample case of some sort. If so, then it will be carried either before or after her, but not at the same time.
  • If all seems safe, Karina will exit the palanquin and be escorted inside by all three ninjas. Instruct her that if danger appears, she is to duck down and huddle on the spot and we will protect her. Running will only expose her to danger.
    • See "attack response" discussion below for more details.
  • Reverse this procedure upon exiting.
    • Palanquin to be inspected for traps before Karina enters it each time
Attack Response
  • Always have at least two people (one can be a Noburi clone) close to the client whenever she's out of the palanquin, with Blocks prepared for stopping any attack targeting her.
  • If she follows our instructions and ducks be prepared to deploy an Earth Dome above her. Demonstrate this to her ahead of time so she doesn't panic if it happens.
    • Unless we identify the attackers a Rock team or anyone else we suspect can manipulate the ground that can manipulate the ground, in which case get her the hell off the ground.
  • Otherwise, move her into cover without breaking the Henge. Always be on the lookout for appropriate cover.
  • If three people (counting clones and Pangolin) are available, one goes after the attacker. Don't start a full on fight in the city streets, but attempt to intercept and stop them from going after the client.
  • Once the attacker is confirmed to have fled, proceed as previously planned.

Where are we going?

Determine Immediate Destination
  • If Karin has no preferences on order, we will respectfully suggest going to the up-and-coming business first and then the upmarket area second.
    • Our team's logic is that the upmarket area is likely to be where many teams will travel, and we want to have a chance to scout it out before jumping into the mix.
    • In addition, Hazou is most familiar with the up-and-coming area and has better chance of noticing anything unusual
Discuss Longer Term Plans with Grandma Karina
  • Respectfully inquire with Karina if she has appointments at specific times/places over the next five days
  • Determine if she has any plans for meals.
    • Will she be taking dinner meetings?
    • We of course desire to ensure that her food is safe. We are happy to go out and buy food for her, watch its preparation, prepare it ourselves, or whatever will ensure client-san a satisfying and safe meal experience.

Offer Grandma Karina the Opportunity to Trade with the Pangolins
  • Bring up that as the Pangolin Summoner, Keiko could offer access to an untapped market
  • Pangolins aren't humans so one would have to be cautious about trading drugs, but Keiko would be happy to summon a pangolin and allow Karina to see if she can sell anything - can't hurt, right?
    • If Karina drops into Proctor mode, be prepared to truthfully swear that this is not transferring money - if the pangolins buy, they'll be buying for real
While at the Shop
  • Inform Karina respectfully that for her safety one member of the team will be going ahead to scout the next location while the other two guard her during negotiations.
    • Default to having the team member back within an hour or so, unless Karina thinks negotiations will be faster or much slower.
  • Send one team member to the next area by rooftops and to go check out the next location and the path to it, checking out potential ambush spots along the way.
    • Likely this will be Keiko, but we can quickly discuss by handsigns. Keiko can send a Messanger Pangolin as required as well.
  • While doing this, try to spot other teams, their method of travel, and their merchants. See what's visible.
  • Fate Point Declaration: We prearranged a message drop location with the other teams where we can communicate information back and forth dropping messages in a Leaf code.
    • Keiko can drop off message identifying our client's trade and that she acquiesced to our arrangements for the night and any observations she may have made about other teams along the way.
    • Check to see if other teams have dropped any messages of their own.
    • Attempt to arrange meeting later in the night where teams can send representatives to exchange information in person
      • Ideally we'll all be staying at the same boarding house so this will be literally no problem at all
  • Otherwise Keiko's actions are to her own best judgment. If she sees a target of opportunity from a team that's being careless, she can drop a trianing explosive their way
  • Two members remaining at the shop are to remain on their guard but also observe the negotiating process closely.
Contingencies

If another team with a client in the drug trade shows up.
  • Prioritize protecting our client over targeting theirs
    • Move Karina back, move into blocking position.
    • Do not be the first to initiate combat and be open to rapid negotiation if they seem to hesitate
      • It's not going to improve our rating to needlessly pic a fight in front of the client
      • Unless the other team are total suckers and leave such an easy shot we can't resist taking it, of course.
If the Yakuza show up trying to enforce their no-drug-trade rule
  • Attempt a social intervention by convincing them to step to the side and listen to you before acting
    • Drop Saitō's name.
    • Explain (if these particular enforcers are unaware) that this is a game for purposes of the Exam and attempt to convince them to step away and at least check with Mr. Saitō before interfering further.

EDIT LOG:
  • Edit Batch 1:
    • Adding an offer to facilitate pangolin trade with Grandma Karina. What reason does she have to refuse another market?
    • Editing contingencies for "if another team shows up" to concentrate on protecting our own client and not starting a fight rather than assuming talking our way out of it.
    • Editing combat contingencies to avoid earth dome against teams from hidden Rock.
    • Adding contingencies to protection from poison.
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@Briefvoice Would Pangolin trading be considered violating the "no giving client money or its equivalents"? Honest question here. And in either case, it would probably be best to talk with Keiko about that first. Then again, we should probably talk with Keiko and Noburi regarding the entire plan first. Are we assumed to have discussed the plan with our teammates before meeting Karina, @eaglejarl @Velorien @OliWhail?

[X] Plan Bewitched!
 
faflec said:
@Briefvoice Would Pangolin trading be considered violating the "no giving client money or its equivalents"? Honest question here. And in either case, it would probably be best to talk with Keiko about that first. Then again, we should probably talk with Keiko and Noburi regarding the entire plan first. Are we assumed to have discussed the plan with our teammates before meeting Karina, @eaglejarl @Velorien @OliWhail?

[X] Plan Bewitched!
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Moreover, I suspect that if either the Messenger pangolin or Panashe wished had the technique, they could henge and pose as buyers.

On that note, @faflec, do you remember where the Pangolin we got are (page number wise)? It doesn't seem to be under 'informational' threadmarks.
 
faflec said:
@Briefvoice Would Pangolin trading be considered violating the "no giving client money or its equivalents"? Honest question here.
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I mean, that's really a proctor ruling. Hopefully the proctor, whomever he/she really is, is greedier than they are determined to screw us. Note that there's no "you get DQed if you try to give the proctor money" rule, you're just not allowed to do it. So I feel on more solid ground offering it as an option.
 
Cariyaga said:
Moreover, I suspect that if either the Messenger pangolin or Panashe wished had the technique, they could henge and pose as buyers.

On that note, @faflec, do you remember where the Pangolin we got are (page number wise)? It doesn't seem to be under 'informational' threadmarks.
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Yes.

Edit:
Velorien said:
Pandamonium is a heavy weapons pangolin. He uses ninjutsu to scoop up earth and stone to shape into huge projectiles, then prodigious physical strength to lob them.

Panta is a courier pangolin. He has an excellent memory and a talent for staying stealthy while running very fast.

Pangaya is a bodyguard pangolin. She uses ninjutsu to get allies out of harm's way and/or redirect harm's way from them to herself.

Pandojuru is a battlefield support pangolin. He uses ninjutsu to strengthen and energise allies, though some of his abilities only work on other pangolins.

Pangolin jutsu are next on the list. Whose character sheets are you asking for?
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[X] Plan Bewitched!

Providing the client with more opportunities to trade seems like the exact kind of assistance we should be providing to increase our score from earnings. Facilitating trade with the Seventh Path would be a very unusual, but valid method of achieving this. And as long as it's actual trading and not Pangolins giving the client money because Keiko ordered them, there's no obvious reason for the proctor to disagree. Not sure if Keiko will go for it, but asking won't hurt anyone.

It would be pretty hilarious if our client sells all of her stock to the Pangolins and we spend the rest of the event relaxing in our rooms, playing board games. It's even in character for our client to agree to that.
 
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I haven't seen any comments about the part of the plan where a Fate point is spent for a declaration we have a message drop with the other teams and are using it to exchange information. Are folks cool with that?
 
Briefvoice said:
I haven't seen any comments about the part of the plan where a Fate point is spent for a declaration we have a message drop with the other teams and are using it to exchange information. Are folks cool with that?
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I'm indifferent, honestly. I'm not sure how much the info exchange will be worth but also am unsure how much FP are really worth.
 
If we actually want to eliminate any of the notable teams, the info drop is probably a necessity. We're bound to find some targets by just keeping an eye out with 5 teams on the move.
 
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Well, do we have any ideas for how to find the Lightning team and that other high power team?
 
Cariyaga said:
Well, do we have any ideas for how to find the Lightning team and that other high power team?
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Best bet is to locate where they are sleeping. Even if we don't try a nighttime ambush, it's a location they leave from every morning and return to every night, which is predictable. Also, "all the hotels in the city where a merchant might stay" is a far smaller subset of locations than "anywhere in the city".
 
[X] Plan Bewitched!

Also, in response to ideas of hiring people to attack people - I'm pretty sure that'd count as inciting collateral damage, which is a big nope.
 
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