Ah, nonlinear time. Is Ami nearby?
Here's the thing...the value proposition for this quest is that it's simulationist. We let the players do what they like and let the chips fall where they may. That means that your successes are sweeter for being earned but you also have the possibility of major failure.
I'm in a bit of a bind here, because I think this plan is going to lead to very bad outcomes; it's going to kill the deal that's on the table, piss Orochimaru off, and make him get the Dragon parts in a different and less prosocial way...but in part this trouble is because of the information asymmetry between Hazō and the players. Whereas the players are looking through a narrow twice-per-week window of text at a world the complete backstory and culture of which they don't know, Hazō is in the situation, knows the culture, and can see Orochimaru's reactions and potentially adjust his words to those responses. We created the affectionately-named 'Hazō-pilot' for exactly this situation. He's supposed to step in and modify or ignore the plan when he has information that the players don't.
Having Hazō-pilot disregard a plan is a big deal. It means that I'm taking away agency from the players, which is against the core value of the quest. It means that, having taken that agency, I'm responsible for what happens next, and that doesn't play out well for me in any scenario—if the outcome is good then I'm setting the precedent that the QMs will step in to ensure things go well no matter what, which undermines the entire point. On the other hand, if it's bad then I'm being cruel and unfair and why did I bother stepping in at all?
The plan consists of haggling out fussy details (e.g. how long you can delay before swapping items) and setting penalties if the items are damaged. This is a reasonable plan for 21st century people from developed nations where everyone is familiar with and accepting of the idea that important deals have contracts and that contracts are detailed and precise. Still, accepting of the idea or not, most first-worlders groan at the idea of sitting down to negotiate a contract.
Orochimaru wasn't well-socialized even back when he lived around people, and he's so powerful that he rarely needs to exert himself to get what he wants, so he's had little reason to learn patience or better manners. Where you or I might groan, he gets angry at the idea that he's being treated as untrustworthy and/or taken advantage of and/or having his time wasted. If I actually write this plan the way it's written, the deal is going to blow up and no one is happy, plus you've severely damaged whatever possibility there was for a working relationship with Orochimaru.
I don't want to deus ex machina this, so I'm going to give Hazō a social roll to pick up on how things are going south (which is easy) and fix it (which is less so). Let's say it's a Fairly difficult roll (20-ish, we'll say 25) to notice the problem in time to fix it. The better Hazō makes the roll by, the better he'll do. I'm not sure which is the right skill here...I could make a case for Empathy or Rapport, but I'll arbitrarily pick Empathy. I might go the other way next time. (Note from future eaglejarl: Turns out it doesn't matter since Hazō's Empathy are Rapport are both the same.)
This is an important roll, so he will definitely want to spend the 1 FP that he currently has. Looking at his character sheet, most of his Aspects aren't a good fit here:
- Creative Idealist: "Invoke when Hazō has an unorthodox idea or gives an impassioned speech." There's nothing unorthodox or impassioned about haggling.
- Lists and Plans: "Invoke when: Hazō and his allies are moving in accordance with a plan Hazō has made in advance." This wasn't planned in advance.
- Promising Sealing Student: This isn't sealing.
- (Formerly) Marked for Death: "The paranoia and alertness of having lived as a missing-nin allow Hazō to display the sort of paranoid alertness and desperate improvisation only veteran ninja develop." Ehhh...maybe this one could apply, but I interpret it more as threat detection and combat tactics.
- Lord of Clan Gōketsu: "Invoke when: Hazō leverages his new position as the head of the Gōketsu Clan." Again debatable, but I don't feel that the clan is central enough to the matter for this to apply.
- Team Uplift: "Invoke when: Hazō draws upon his bonds with the other members of Team Uplift to overcome a challenge." Definitely not seeing this one.
- Toughened Mind: This isn't about mental toughness.
Which just leaves:
Open Mouth, Insert Foot: "Invoke when Hazō painful sincerity melts a cynic's heart." This one is very debatable in a situation where Hazō is simply negotiating for the use of some property, but after some thought I'm coming down on the side of using it. Also, because you'll need the help and because there should be a cost to having Hazō-pilot get involved, I'm going to dump 40 XP into buying 4 Fate Points for you and then burning them for the flat bonus. (That 40 XP is the 38 that were on your sheet, plus the 1 that you would have gotten for an update that covered about an hour, plus the 1 Brevity XP that you got for having a plan that was under 300 words. Also, no FP will be awarded for this update no matter what happens.) I could hold one in reserve for a reroll, but I'm not going to because you will want the +1 if you can get it and I'm already uncomfortable with fixing things like this, so actively fixing bad luck feels like a bridge too far.
Important: Buying FP mid-update is a one-off, not something that you will be able to do normally.
You can spend 10 XP to buy 1 FP, but you normally need to do it in advance.
Preregistered outcomes:
- Hazō fails the roll: The plan is enacted as written, the deal falls through, and Orochimaru is pissed enough to get the Dragon parts in a different way that means you get nothing.
- Hazō makes the roll by:
- 0: The deal that was on the table goes through except that Orochimaru takes back everything he had offered except for a fraction of the money. Also, Orochimaru is irritated and poorly disposed to you next time you meet.
- 1-3 points: The deal that was on the table goes through except that Orochimaru takes back everything he had offered except for a fraction of the money.
- 4-6: The deal that was already on the table goes through without modification. You could maybe have gotten more with a different approach but Orochimaru's feelings towards you don't change.
- 7-12: You get the deal that was on the table and Orochimaru ends the meeting with a generally positive view of you. This doesn't mean things will go well next time you meet, but at least you'll be starting off on a good foot.
- 13+: In addition to everything you were going to get, Orochimaru is positively inclined to you enough that he gives you 1d4 jutsu or seals in addition. (I don't want to influence my decisions in preregistering the outcomes, so I haven't checked whether it's possible for you to roll this high.)
*checks* Okay, Hazō has a 21 Empathy and he's getting +7 from Fate Points, meaning a 28 before dice. If he rolls -3 or better then things are generally okay. If he rolls +12 that would give him 40, which is 15 points over the TN and would get him the best result. Unlikely, but here's hoping. (Higher socials would be useful!)
Note: This TN is made up on the spot and might be significantly higher or lower next time.
TN to spot that Orochimaru is getting annoyed in time to do something about it, and then do something about it: 25
Hazō, Empathy (21) + 3 (invoke "Open Mouth, Insert Foot") + 4 (burn 4 FP for the flat bonus of +1 each) + 3 (dice) = 31
Hazō beat the TN by 6. Not amazing, but not awful either. Here we go.
For what it's worth, I think things were played completely correctly here. Hazoupilot exists not only to reject bad plans but to adjust them on the fly, and it would be strange for Hazou to blindly continue his haggling-speech as the other party gets pissed off. To tell that the other party is getting pissed off is an Empathy check, and if they're not trying to hide it (as they expect the signs to be clear to you so you stop doing the thing that's annoying them), then it should be against a fixed TN rather than their stats.
In general, it's not bad for agency if the result of a bad plan is a mechanical conflict, as that's a different side of player agency -- choosing training and stats for the characters. Maybe this is just my PoV as a mechanics guy, but this is fair. If we chose a bad plan in another situation where we were negotiating with enemy ninja, would Hazou continue blindly following the speech if the enemy took offense and attacked? A good plan could circumvent the problem, but a bad one is naturally adapted by Hazou-pilot according to the changing situation (adjust negotiation strategy/punch their heads off). Social vs physical combat doesn't make a difference.
"Lord Orochimaru?" Hazō asked, the words becoming firm halfway through as he forcibly clamped down on his emotions. "We are agreed that you will have two weeks of exclusive access and then we may recall the items at any time? And that you will make all your research findings public?"
"Yes, yes," Orochimaru said, waving dismissively and not looking away from what he was doing. He had lifted the claw fragment up with a mix of chakra adhesion and repulsion that kept it balanced an inch from his skin. He was turning it back and forth and his forked tongue was extended a foot and a half, tasting the air around the Sageforsaken object.
"Lord Gōketsu?" Kabuto said, a verbal nudge that barely hinted at impatience. "Hazō? Would this be sufficient payment?"
Hazō looked to his clan mates. Noburi was furiously nodding with imploring eyes. Mari was frozen and offering no input.
"This is a very generous offer," Hazō said slowly. "I think I would be a fool not to accept it—"
"Excellent!" Doctor Yakushi said. "In that case—"
"BUT. I would be a fool not to accept it, but I want to make sure that we have the same understanding of what we're agreeing to."
Orochimaru froze for a moment, then dropped the claw back into the box, stood up, and turned to face Hazō. He stepped forward, standing at the precise distance that would be threatening if he were an inch closer.
I am surprised that Orochimaru immediately took note of this, rather than letting Kabuto handle the details and only intervening when things seemed like they'd be drawn out.
"Speak."
Hazō resisted the urge to step back so that he didn't have to crane his neck to look at the much taller shinobi.
"Sir, I'm grateful for your offer and glad to—"
Orochimaru made a cutting gesture with one hand.
Note to self, cut out the niceties in the future.
"Right, sorry. I want to be able to work with you in the future and that means being sure we both have the same understanding. You're giving us these"—he held up the papers—"and we're giving you exclusive access to all Dragon parts that we own, one at a time, for two weeks each. We'll deliver them anywhere you want, which presumably is your estate. Yes?"
"Yes, obviously." He spun one finger in the universal gesture for 'move it along'.
"The Gōketsu continue to own the parts and will reclaim them after your two-week period ends."
"Yes, yes." Impatience was audible in the Sannin's voice.
Yeah, if Hazoupilot can hear the impatience especially in someone dangerous if angered, it seems reasonable to adjust the plan (whose core concept was really "sort out the details of the deal to the appropriate degree" with a hefty misunderstanding of appropriate). Recognizing this consciously enough to adjust is Empathy, yep.
"Whichever parts you aren't using at a given time, the Gōketsu can do what we like with. Let others examine them, lock them away, whatever."
"We already agreed to that."
"The Gōketsu will swap parts upon request with a 24-hour maximum delay."
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed. "Do you intend to demand that I sit in an advocate's office to spell out every tiniest detail and sign a document to which the Hokage shall affix his seal, or are we making a deal as men?"
"We are making a deal as men, sir. That—" Halfway through the sentence his brain caught up to the tone of Orochimaru's words. Alarm bells clanged furiously in the back of his mind and he forced himself to smile in the friendliest way he could manage as he desperately sought to verbally swerve onto safer ground.
He passed the check! I wonder if Orochimaru will hold it against us that we clearly were about to drag him through hours of negotiation before our brain caught up to us.
"—is why I want to make sure we don't misinterpret anything and leave you feeling aggrieved, or disrupt your studies by mistake. You're the best person in Leaf, possibly in the world, to study these items. We want you to be able to investigate them and we want to have a good relationship with you going forward. We also want the rest of Leaf's experts to be able to look at them. That's all."
The annoyed glitter in Orochimaru's snake-slitted eyes lightened slightly. "A very nice bit of sucking up. I applaud you. Move it along."
Nevermind. Include the niceties, but just a little.
"Right." Hazō licked his lips, thinking furiously. "Okay, um...lost my place." He looked down and started ticking points off on his fingers, mumbling to himself. "We'll share all of the Dragon parts we have. We'll deliver and pick up from your lab or wherever else you specify. You'll have each piece for two weeks, one at a time. They still belong to the Gōketsu. Other people can study whichever ones you aren't using. Everything that you or anyone else discovers is to be shared with the Tower, and hopefully they will distribute it back to everyone else. All tests, by you or anyone else, should be non-destructive...ah, right." He looked back up. "The tests should be non-destructive, although we're open to negotiating for destructive testing. We're even willing to talk about outright selling you one or more of the parts if you're interested. Not promising to do it, but we're open to talking about it." He glanced at the box containing the scale and the claw fragment. "Actually, how about we keep things simple? Those two pieces are already here and it would be a pain to get a new box so that we can take one back to the estate. You can take them both as your first installment. In two weeks we'll swap both items out for a single item of your choice. Oh, and we'll get you a list of what we have. Fair?"
A little rough to be reiterating the initial terms a third time, but I suppose the flattery earned a little patience. Have we made any of the other parts available to study by anyone else? I wonder if Tsunade could get something valuable out of them... Good ending to keep things simple and quick.
"Hm." Orochimaru looked away, lips pursed in thought. "Reasonable, although I may need to take a few small shavings, and I intend to use some acids that may cause discoloration or slight pitting of a small area. Acceptable?"
"Yes sir."
Here's where I could imagine that a slight variation in the rolls might have changed things. He could have been irritated by us putting terms on the deal that we can't meaningfully enforce, or he could have been appreciative enough of our respect for his time to actually take note of it.
Orochimaru glanced down at the papers in Hazō's hand, the ones that contained a massive fortune and that he had so casually tossed on the table. "You have your payment. Unless there's anything else...?"
"No sir. Thank you."
The Snake Sannin nodded curtly. He turned away and flipped the lid of the granite-lined box closed, then hoisted the entire massive weight onto his shoulder and casually walked off with a "Kabuto, attend" that sent the doctor scurrying in his wake.
Note to self -- either take the first deal offered, or offer first and try to peg it just slightly above what he would have offered in order to keep him from bothering with negotiating. I assume we'll be selling the parts to him, given that we can do approximately nothing to study them.
The Gōketsu stood in silence and watched the two men go. Only when they turned the corner of the block and disappeared from sight did Mari sag back into her chair.
"What a nice man," she said.
We really need to kill him as a birthday gift for Mari. Out-juice seems like an approach that he maybe wouldn't have defended against? Unfortunately, the Dragon parts might point him in the direction of building defenses against that.
They made it almost to the door of Hokage Tower before anyone spoke again. It was their bright, cheerful, optimistic member who finally broke the silence.
"Hazō, I've got your back no matter what," Noburi said, "but I feel like every time we're anywhere near that guy one of us almost dies."
In fact, true! The dice favored Hazou today.
"Seconded," Mari said. "He's dangerous, Hazō. Be very careful about how you interact with him."
"Definitely," Hazō said. "Definitely, definitely, definitely. He's scary as shit." He sighed. "But, end of the day, that did go pretty well. We got a lot and we gave up very little. We were going to let people investigate the Dragon parts no matter what. Orochimaru just paid us a ton of ryō plus a treasure trove of arcane knowledge for something that he could have had most of for nothing. Good afternoon." The last words and the accompanying nod were to the desk chūnin who was both the receptionist that screened and dispatched visitors and also the first guard in the rings of protections that encircled the Hokage's office.
Unless he approaches us with another deal, I suspect we'll need to decide terms for the next one. That seems dangerous, in that overcharging could lead to similar hostilities as were on the table here.
"May I help you, sir?" The man's eyes flicked across each of them, an instinctive threat check.
"We're here to visit the treasury," he said, gesturing with the blank-note draft that Orochimaru had given him. "I have a note to cash in."
"Certainly, sir. Down the hall to your right, second door."
"Thank you."
Nice little detail to show the inescapable bureaucracy.
Mari and Noburi trailed him down the hall under the vaulted ceilings from which oil lamps hung like inverted scarecrows, chasing away the gloom of what was a fortress before it was a center of administration. They followed him into a room that had originally been intended as a guardroom, or perhaps a storage room, or some other practical and everyday purpose. There were no windows and the low ceiling was stained black with the soot of three generations of oil lamps. The scent of burning lamp oil was a sharp tang in the back of the throat and shadows roamed freely.
As always, I truly love these descriptive lines. They really breathe life into the setting.
The Clerk of the Treasury was a middle-aged man named Koson, a clanless ninja with no family to provide him a surname. As with all critical jobs in the administration, he was a chūnin who had served with distinction before being forced into retirement by misadventure. He had earned his place on the Medical Stand Down list by virtue of literally walking through fire in the service of his nation—or, more accurately, charging straight through a Fireball jutsu in order to capture an escaping spy from Rock. Scars scraped their way across Koson's face, down his neck, and under his shirt. One eye was burned away and the medics had needed to amputate his right hand. Nonetheless, he had captured his man and the intelligence extracted from that man had been critical, as shown by the Medal of Valor that the Third Hokage had hung around Koson's neck. It still hung around his neck even as he sat at his desk in a windowless room, surrounded by stacks and racks of paper and scrolls. It was tucked modestly beneath his shirt, but Hazō could see a telltale bit of silk ribbon peeking out from under Koson's collar.
Hazō knew Koson's story because Mari had taught him that knowledge was power and knowledge of personal histories was greater power than any jutsu. He had made a point of getting at least a basic briefing on every key person in the administration. Koson's title might be Clerk, but he was no mere clerk. He had very definitely been on the briefing list.
Good to know that, little by little, Hazou is growing into his role as Clan Head. This guy's position as a long-time Tower staff probably makes him extra-important, post-Collapse.
Are MSD ninja counted among the total ninja population figures in the census stats we know of?
"Good afternoon, Lord Gōketsu," Koson said, nodding politely. "How may I help you today?"
"Good afternoon, Koson," Hazō said, smiling and nodding back. "I have this draft from Lord Orochimaru that I would like to cash in." He laid the paper on the man's desk and turned it to face Koson.
Koson considered the very short, very simple, document as though it were the most complex of sealing theory. After a moment he looked up; Hazō suppressed a smile. Not bad; it had only taken him three seconds to get over the shock.
"Lord Gōketsu, this draft is against one of Lord Orochimaru's accounts."
"It is, yes."
"Sir, the amount is blank. May I ask how you obtained it?"
It would be funny to leave just one ryou in the account to leave Orochimaru with an administrative headache to deal with rather than just a closed account... but probably not worth it for the prank. Maybe if Naruto was part of the Gouketsu.
"The Gōketsu recently came into possession of some interesting property. He gave us this in exchange for the right to study it in his lab." No reason to mention the rest of what Orochimaru had given them, nor to specify the nature of the property in question.
I suppose OPSEC in the Clan Council meetings is actually fairly good. A bit of a surprise, given that there were a couple civilians in the room when the Dragon parts were shown off, but still.
"I see." Koson looked back down at the paper. "How much did you intend to withdraw?"
Hazō paused. The answer was obvious but did he really want to...? Yes, yes he did.
"All of it. Transfer it to the Gōketsu name, please. And I'd like an accounting of the contents."
Have to assume that Orochimaru signed it all away when he gave it over, and given that he didn't care about it, it's unlikely that leaving some behind will get us into his good graces.
Koson studied him for a moment, then nodded. "Yes sir. You understand that whenever there is a transfer such as this, the recipient needs to sign for it and the records are open to anyone on the chain of custody. Which in this case would include Lord Orochimaru."
Hazō lip's quirked. "Are you very politely saying that if I forged this and Lord Orochimaru comes asking where his money went, you're going to sell me out in a heartbeat?"
"I wouldn't have put it quite that way, but yes. That is exactly what I'm saying." He offered an inked brush. The scars meant that he couldn't extend his arm fully so Hazō had to reach to take it.
At least it's good that Hazou doesn't have to go and grab Orochimaru to sign for it too under Koson's witness. That would be a pain.
Also good that the financial system is developed enough that we can just transfer ownership, rather than having to physically move a pile of stuff from one vault to another.
"Not a problem. Here." Hazō took the brush and swirled his name in elegant calligraphy at the bottom of the paper before adding the word 'all' on the blank line.
Now I wonder what Hazou's signature looks like... Sealmasters must have the best signatures.
"Very good, sir. A moment, please." He rang the bell sitting on his desk; a moment later a young genin, probably a fresh Academy graduate, came through the door.
"Yes sir?"
"Inori, please take this to the archives. Be sure that you stop and tell the desk attendant where you're going so that no one thinks you've left your post."
Ah, D-ranks. Gotta love 'em.
I wonder if longer term posts like this have a salary or if they're still mercenary-type payment? Or is Inori MSD?
I wonder if wartime missions get payment? Did we get a payout for the capture of Shirogane?
"Yes sir!" she said, bowing deeply. She took the paper and turned for the door, but stopped when Hazō raised his hand.
"Don't forget to tell the desk attendant that Lord Gōketsu said to say that the document shows Lord Gōketsu cleaning out one of Lord Orochimaru's accounts," Hazō said, amused. "Need to make sure there's a solid paper trail so no one here gets in trouble if it turns out that I was crazy enough to try to steal from the Snake Sannin. Oh, and show them the paper. Better if they see it instead of just hearing about it."
Now he's just showing off.
The genin's eyes went very big. She glanced at Koson for direction; he nodded and made a 'scoot along' gesture. She vanished out the door.
Koson's burns meant that his mouth didn't have a great deal of mobility, but the unburned side was quirked up in amusement. "If you'll give me just a moment, sir, I'll get the preliminary accounting for you." He strained to his feet and turned to one of the many scroll cases on the wall, walking his fingers down the columns and across the rows. "I only have the top level here—the amount of ryō in the vault and the names and locations of any properties—but I can have the full deep dive sent to your estate if you wish. It will likely take a few days."
Impressive that the tracking-by-reference is even this good, especially post-Collapse. This is probably a humungous pain to keep updated.
"'The full deep dive'?" Noburi asked.
"Yes sir. I have right here...aha." He found the correct scroll and pulled it out, then struggled back to the desk and resettled himself in his chair. "I have right here the top line on what was in the account." He unrolled the scroll and skimmed through it. "Looks like a bit over 36,000,000 ryō, two farming estates of 107 and 89 acres respectively, a share in a merchant ship, and significant debts from two paper mills, a weaponsmith, and Baba Inasa whose name I don't recognize but he has an address here in Leaf and apparently he's wealthy enough to pay back a debt of 700,000 ryō with equal payments to be deposited into this account monthly for the next twenty months." He looked up and offered the scroll to Hazō.
Economics! Let's check this against the Economics infoposts:
First: the Hagoromo debt that we bought was 360,000,000 ryou -- or 10 Orochimaru deals! Insane how deeply they were in Hyuuga's pocket. This was a
very expensive vote to buy.
This could be a tiny amount or a huge amount relative to our finances depending on 1) how many missions we do and 2) how many skywalkers are being made, as we get 50% of all the sales of that, and it's literally the most important seal in Konoha.
It's unclear if we own these lands and enjoy the tax revenue or not. On the one hand, there's this post that says:
Taxes flow like this, with some money sticking at each level:
Rural farmers > Local lords > Daimyo > Hokage > Clan ninja + clanless jōnin
Urbanites (farmer and not) > Daimyo > Hokage > Clan ninja + clanless jōnin
All ninja > Hokage > Clan ninja + clanless jōnin
On the other hand there's this post, which is more recent:
De jure, all land in Fire is owned by the Fire Daimyo except for the land actually under ninja clan estates / Hokage Tower. Nobles
If directly owned land doesn't benefit the clans, then presumably the Clan Heads at the MARI meeting wouldn't have been so pissed about the lowered tax rate -- it would just mean fewer conditional payments if the Tower couldn't provide the gap, which, given their war chest, seems unlikely. At worst, a rush to take missions as they showed up in order to not get stuck in the last 10% of disbursements that no longer existed...
So, the income from directly held lands probably goes to the Clans, and the rest is probably owned by the Tower by default to be distributed via mission reimbursements. So, we got 196 acres of land.
A: Using
Rihaku's calculation, rich and secure land, closest to Leaf is worth 15-30 million ryo per square kilometers.
- Rich chakra land is 2.5x of the value of normal land.
- Farmlands that required patrol missions will lower the value of land, in according to ranked missions. For example, an estate that required 12 C-rank missions per year will cost 120 thousand ryo per year. Rihaku used the equation C - I where C stands for capital value of the land, and I the investment needed to make land safe for farming. Thus, if the estate is valued at 1 million, then the cost will lower by 120K ryo, then the estate is worth 880,000.
Depending on how rich the land is, how close it is to Leaf (and thus how much patrolling it needs, the value of the land to us per year could be anything between 196 acres * 30,500 ryou/acre/year * 0.95 (minimal patrolling needed) * 0.85 (tax rate) * 2.5 (rich land) = ~12M per year, to 196 acres * 30,500 ryou/acre/year * 0.7 (lots of patrolling needed) * 0.85 (tax rate) = 3.5M ryou per year.
Note: since we directly claim taxes on this land, we could (probably) change what tax we collect on it directly...
The debts are probably negligible based on the one with a value listed out, so all that remains is to judge the value of the merchant ship. Now,
this website fully telegraphs how terrible their estimates are because of unknown unknowns, but they seem to be making decent guesses, culminating in around 90k-180k pounds sterling per year per a quarter of its cargo (they use pepper to estimate, as it's apparently well known price-wise). Assume that the actual value of the cargo is 4x, as otherwise more valuable goods would pad some of the pepper space. Assume Leaf as a whole is at the bottom end of Venice's merchant productivity, at 90k->360k pounds sterling in (estimate) 1450 pounds, or 300M pounds in
today pounds. That's 375M USD or 3.7B ryou. Arbitrarily guessing that this is split across 100 ships (which kinda matches
Venice), that's 37M ryou per ship's cargo.
How many times does a ship move its full cargo per year? There's no good way to judge this, as it depends on what trips are profitable, how long those trips are, when conditions are clement or inclement, and many other factors besides. I'm just going to randomly assume that there's enough time for ~3 trips per year, once in the spring, and twice in the summer, so the ships move ~100M of cargo per year.
How much of this is profit? Again, there's no good guideline for how profitable a merchant vessel is, after accounting for all costs (cost of ship, crew, food, supplies, money to buy stuff, bribes and tariffs + having to hire ninja since the waters are dangerous), so I'll just randomly assume 20% margin (more than what we'd expect IRL, but the world is so disparate that there are easy arbitrages), for 20M per year. Finally, we need to know Orochimaru's stake, which I'll guess at 25%, for an income of 5M ryou per year from the stake. Noteworthy, but not humongous.
In all, we're probably coming out of this with ~12M ryou per year of extra income, assuming we don't fuck with the tax rate of the farmland. This covers around 50% of our Hagoromo payments...
Yeah, that Hagoromo debt is huge.
"That's a top-line review, sir," Koson said to Noburi. "If you want to know whether the farms are in arrears on their taxes, the typical cargoes and routes and income of the ship, and so on then I will need a few days." He grimaced, causing his scars to stretch in weird and disquieting ways. "Also, please know that we're still rebuilding the records after the Collapse so if we end up having to go to the actual assets for details then it might take weeks."
Hazō chuckled. "There's no rush. But yes, I would like to get a more detailed picture, but it doesn't matter if I get it now or a month from now. Thank you for your help, Koson. May I take this or is it easier if I leave it and you send me a copy?"
"It would be easier if I could send you a copy, sir. I could have one fetched from the archives but I would prefer to simply make one here and then send it over. I'll have it delivered within the hour."
"Of course. Thank you, Koson. Mari, Noburi...tally ho."
His clan mates followed him out the door in silence, but this time the shock was leavened with a healthy dose of wonder.
Well, assuming you punted on the details to figure them out... there you go! Though probably easier to put this as a narrative thing rather than a mechanical one (until I come out with my FtD Factions rules!)
PSA: Voting is open on a plot element!
The plan that I came up with,
@Veedrac scooped me on, and (EDIT: Sugokawa Aito is going to propose to Mari is going to propose to) Hazō in my next update unless I completely crunk on spoons, is to create elevated roads using the MARI jutsu. This is a default thing, so it's not essential to vote it in, but y'all can choose to vote it down or offer implementation details if so desired. This vote will be separate from the plan vote and will run from now until my next update. See options at the bottom and please be sure to use the options shown. Write-ins are not available, as this is in part an experiment to see what happens when voting is simple and doesn't require people to follow the fast-moving discussion.
Hmm... roads seem tough. For one, there are a lot of trees to uproot. For another, most trees will be taller than the roads, so chakra beasts will still jump down at merchants. For another, level changes might lead to gaps or breaks in the road.
Options must have at least 3 votes in order to be considered, so if voter turnout is extremely low then it's the same as no one voting.
It must be cast on stone/soil/etc, not on metal, wood, a skytower, etc. It always creates a granite wall that is (a) straight, (b) vertical, and (c) 3m above ground, 5m below ground, and 1m wide. You can't stack it on top of itself but you can stack it horizontally, in which case each casting merges together and becomes a single chunk of granite. Put three of these side by side and you have a flat stone road 3m wide with a surface 3m above the ground with no paving-stone joints to roughen the ride. You aren't dealing with bad terrain anymore, so you can move fast across it on foot or using wheeled carts, meaning that civilians can transport cargo quickly and relatively safely. You need to add ramps at both ends to get the carts on and off but that's straightforward. MARI has a 40 CP startup cost and then 1CP / meter of length. A chūnin with 300 CP can therefore create a wall 260 m long per day, which averages out to ~86.7 m/day/ninja. It's roughly 70km to the nearest city (Otafuku Gai), meaning about 804 ninja-days of effort to get there.
At least the road is vertical, so we don't need to worry about slopes as much.
Building the road will involve hiring civilians with Force Wall saws and ninja guards to cut and clear trees, then one or more ninja casters to actually make the road. 'involving Noburi' means that you'll be buying chakra in order to fuel the road building process. It's safe to assume that this will be done in a way and to a degree that won't cause issues with OPSEC, break the bank, interfere with FOOM, disgruntle the administration, etc. In particular, it might need to wait several weeks until AMITY is in effect and Asuma is comfortable with till'n'fill missions resuming.
Cool, that's a good idea. Buying lots of chakra could help cover up SC training costs too!
'many casters' means hiring as many MARI-casting ninja as possible without it becoming a financial problem. The only restriction is that if you vote for many casters+Noburi then you won't be able to run extremely expensive projects while this is in play, so if you want to start e.g. another infrastructure project or buy huge amounts of land then you'll need to delay or put road building on hold.
Even if we put our newfound money to use?
EDIT: Note that players in Discord are raising issues that I, and therefore Hazō, had not considered, such as potential ecological impact. I'm almost reluctant to post this bit because I'm afraid it's going to result in people voting "Don't build the roads and instead have countless meetings about ecological studies" but I feel that it would be unfair for me to have the poll and then have it cause problems later on without pointing out the potential for issues. Obviously, the QMs have no current intent for the project to cause issues but now that the issue has been pointed out to us there's a possibility that it could. Also note that this is an idea that I had and I'm posting it on my own without talking to
@Velorien first.
Ecological impact? Fuck that, we want to impact the ecology into a new dimension. As long as this doesn't, e.g. cause chakra beast rampages into settlements (which seems unlikely, as many beasts will just burrow under or go over the roads, which aren't
that tall esp. compared to trees) seems like a non-issue.
EDIT EDIT: Velorien persuaded me that I should not be putting words in the PC's mouth that the players did not put there. Therefore the idea will be suggested by Sugawara Aito, the hill daimyo Hazō bought the iron mine from. He will suggest it to Mari who will suggest it to Hazō along with a request for funding. Hazō will do it/not do in the manner y'all vote for.
Sounds like the players did come up with it! Still, good to have competent NPCs from time to time.
Good chapter! Thanks as always.
