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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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1234qwerty said:
Also, did anybody else get the vibe that the Mori's are cryogenicists based on the 'garden' and their bloodline being 'icy'? I wonder if we have enough clues to crack the currency puzzle.
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If we figured this out, would Keiko have the sudden realization? Otherwise I don't think it's worth the hivemind's time to figure this out without being able to convey it to our party (given that this is an OOC knowledge thing).
 
On one hand, I wanna poke fun at the comments saying there's still a lot of time before the next voting deadline. On the other hand, I'm not really contributing to that effort, so I wouldn't have the moral high ground. >_>

Instead, since there wasn't much feedback about the lore update, I'll leave some comments about that. :)
Velorien said:
Most of the buildings had been designed many generations ago by Mori Genzō, a branch family member with particularly weak access to the Frozen Skein who had instead turned his attention to architecture. Finding his inspiration in nature, he drew on the patterns and dimensions of seashells, trees and the more fascinating parts of animal anatomy to create houses of mathematically perfect ratios and elegant asymmetry. Works of art from the outside, inside the rooms were proportioned so as to instill mental and emotional calm while still serving essential ninja functions of privacy and security. Any intruders would find themselves hopelessly turned around until they stumbled into a fiendish series of traps, while residents who had memorised Genzō's design principles could be blindfolded with their legs tied together, and still be able to navigate the compound as if it were a set of ordinary civilian dwellings.
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Ha, that's an amusing bit of world-building. And maybe Kei would be interested in helping to make the group's future hidden village look nicer (and filled with lethal traps).
Velorien said:
No Mori since had ever approached Genzō's genius, and whenever new construction was necessary, they could only draw on the library of blueprints he had left behind – a treasure guarded as jealously as any scroll of secret clan techniques. To this day, the reward for a Mori who had done the clan a great service was a haori decorated with one of Genzō's signature fractal symbols.
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I hope the other team members learn about that last detail at some point. It would be a neat (and emotional) thing to present Kei with.
Velorien said:
Kei nodded. Yumi's "art installation", as she called it, received few visitors, mostly travellers and a handful of merchants that visited Mist on a regular basis. Mitsuhide was one of these, and invariably generous with his contributions to the donation box, even if the forgetful silk trader always dropped in a variety of coins from different countries, most of them near-worthless here. Not that he was the only one – a number of visitors seemed to think that the symbolism of the gesture was more important than actually supporting Yumi's art (though in reality the Chiaroscuro Chamber was fully funded by the clan, and Kei wasn't entirely sure why the donation box was really there).

It was a rule of the Chiaroscuro Chamber that any Mori present at closing time would carry the donation box home, leaving Yumi free to stay and maintain the equipment, especially the expensive chemical lights. Yumi had not failed to impress upon the rest of the clan that the donations were an invaluable contribution to the Mori finances (which was a lie), and as such the loss of even a single coin from the box would place the deliverer in mortal peril (which probably wasn't).

Kei frowned as she picked the box up. Her intuition was tingling, telling her something was off. Something about the box? No, it was the same as always, in colour, size, shape and approximate weight. That only left one obvious possibility.

She looked at the foreign coins more closely. Four Leaf ryō. Two Frost ryō. Nine of those peculiar little coins they used in Fang. Kei quickly went through the rest of the coins. That combination… it was exactly the same as the last time Mitsuhide had left a donation in her presence (she'd been training her memory – one day it would need to be as good as Master Saruhiko's if she was going to become an elder herself). It seemed Kei had stumbled across something important.
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Velorien said:
This time, Kei did not hurry away from the treasury and its somewhat intimidating atmosphere after handing over the box, but stayed next to Uncle Junpei, curious to see what he would do. She watched, as unobtrusively as possible, while her uncle sank deep into the Frozen Skein. Eventually, he picked the coins out of the box, one by one, stacked them according to currency and value, and then did something strange.

He took each coin, in order, and slowly ran the tip of his right finger around its ridges, before putting it down in a specific position and picking up the next.

After some time, with all the coins processed in this strange fashion, Uncle Junpei opened his eyes and withdrew from his focused state.

"What were you doing, Uncle?" Kei asked, cursing her lack of subtlety even as she opened her mouth.

"Checking for counterfeits, little Keiko," Uncle Junpei explained. "I don't mind you watching – elders willing, you'll be the one doing this job instead of me one day – but do bear in mind this is a secret Mori art, so don't go blabbing about it to everyone, OK?"

Kei gave him an insulted look, or what she hoped came across as an insulted look.

"Now, would you be a dear and go ask Elders Kazushi and Mirano to come down here?" Uncle Junpei asked, looking at the coins contemplatively. "There's something I want to talk to them about."

Unfortunately, that was as far as Kei's investigation went that day. Elder Kazushi promptly sent her on a series of trivial errands, and by the time she was done, the sun had set and it was too late for anything but dinner and bed. Nevertheless, she resolved to take the time to find out what was really going on – perhaps after she came back from her upcoming mission, she would have earned a sufficient measure of trust.
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These passages are the main bits that I'm surprised no one has commented much about yet. I guess there's perhaps too little info to discuss much. Or maybe these details have already been mentioned at some point, and I'm late to the party.

1. Any speculation about what kind of info is being passed around? It's apparently important enough to be kept secret from the general Mist populace, probably enough to fool most spies. The amount of info encoded in the ridges of the coins ought to have some limits. It might not be their only info-passing avenue, though. And it's not so secret such that the treasurer uncle hid his reading of the coin ridges from Kei (unless if that was a ruse too, which is possible).

2. And for what purpose? The Mori clan runs logistics, so perhaps it's related to that. Or something more sinister, like the scorch squads.

3. And is this coordinated with Mist leadership, or separate? It might almost be seditious if they're running their own secret info-gathering network. At first glance, I'd guess it's only kept secret from the general populace and regular Mist ninja; the actual Mist leadership would be aware and heavily reliant on the Mori for info, in addition to their logistics and analytical work.

4. And would Jiraiya, Orochimaru, etc. be more interested in Kei, knowing that her clan runs some kind of international info-gathering network?

At the least, it could inform the group's ideas of how to start and run their own info-gathering network.
Velorien said:
"Yeah. We've got the full story now, and apparently she didn't just go too deep. That scumsucker Ayanami wanted to show off his new Lightning technique, and he overextended and pulled the unit straight into an ambush. She had to use that, or it would've been a full wipe."
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Huh. I'm probably forgetting something--anyone know what "that" refers to? Or are they simply talking about Frozen Skein?
Velorien said:
"Anyway, listen, I've got a going-away present for you. You'll love this: it's my lucky shuriken."
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Velorien said:
Kei held her sister's gaze, feeling her eyes grow wet. Only this woman could take a piece of ridiculous, offensive tomfoolery… and turn it into an expression of deep affection.

"Make me proud out there, runt. Aunt Noriko and I will be waiting to welcome you back."
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Aww ^_^


On a completely separate note, I'd like to continue seeing more variation in characters' speech styles and inner voice. Maybe I'm forgetting things, but I sometimes feel like the characters' sentence types, vocabularies, etc. are oddly similar. IIRC, I felt that most often during the Hidden Mountain arc. But again, I might simply be forgetting the details. :)


Edit: Nevermind the question about "that". I presume it refers to this:
*The Best Laid Schemes...: Once per [story], the Skein user may draw upon all his/her hoarded reserves of initiative and creativity in the ultimate expression of Yin reactivity. They may perform any sequence of actions necessary to counter one otherwise extremely formidable plan or scheme, as it reaches its culmination. For this brief, shining moment, the Skein user is every bit the equal (or even the superior) of the Nara they were created to rival.
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So here's an idea. Well, two ideas.

First, we want to keep an eye on J, to make sure the exchange doesn't happen with us unaware. Not by trailing him tho, a Jounin will likely notice, but by having someone in the main areas of resort present all the time, so if J goes from dinner to, say, bathing, he leaves Mari's LOS as she chugs drinks and enters, I dunno, some servant's LoS who's tasked with bringing more towels or whatever. We know J doesn't keep the scroll on him in baths, so it's unlikely something will happen there. But in public spaces we should find a reason to hang out, like Mari sunbathing or Hazou's drawing lessons.

Second, here's an idea I had on how to check the suite.

Have Hazou and Noburi pretend to be local workers washing the floor in the corridor. Hazou is already a pro at doing chores, it's in his backstory, he has calluses to prove his mastery of floor washing. Noburi can be the clumsy newby who stumbled over the bucket :>

Spill the water outside the suit, right next to it so water seeps inside. This gives us an excuse to knock and ask to clean up. Even if they avoided inviting service inside till now, they have a big wet mess to deal with.

I doubt they will say no if we ask to clean up if we say we'll get punished if we don't. Woman or boy or both will likely stay to observe, esp. if they both came to open when we knocked. That's fine. We're just a distraction anyway, though I hope Nobyy can figure out a way to get them in the water (or water on them) to check their chakra inconspicuously.

While we're making a show at the suit entrance (possibly with spilling water again, which gives Hazou a reason to send Nobby away and finish cleaning himself, while keeping attention focused on them) Mari+Kei sneak in through the window for a quick search of servant's room while it's empty.

If only one person goes to open the door Mari hits the remaining one with a daydreaming jutsu while Kei does the search, otherwise both look for things. When they hear the commotion end, they leave through the window they came in.

Best case scenario, we do this while J is at baths. Because the item will not be with him, and if it's not in servants' room, then it's in his.

If this suite is anything like I've seen, then rooms will have (lockable) doors in addition to windows. Bet J keeps his room shut when he's not in. So we ignore the servants, just break in through the window all quiet like while he's away, servants won't even know better. Assuming they aren't ninja, which is why Nobby should check via spilled water.

To keep the distraction going, maybe get Honami to send a real servant to deliver that fruit basket, in recompense for earlier mess. Make the thing more plausible?
 
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Muer'ci said:
So here's an idea. Well, two ideas.

First, we want to keep an eye on J, to make sure the exchange doesn't happen with us unaware. Not by trailing him tho, a Jounin will likely notice, but by having someone in the main areas of resort present all the time, so if J goes from dinner to, say, bathing, he leaves Mari's LOS as she chugs drinks and enters, I dunno, some servant's LoS who's tasked with bringing more towels or whatever. We know J doesn't keep the scroll on him in baths, so it's unlikely something will happen there. But in public spaces we should find a reason to hang out, like Mari sunbathing or Hazou's drawing lessons.

Second, here's an idea I had on how to check the suit.

Have Hazou and Noburi pretend to be local workers washing the floor in the corridor. Hazou is already a pro at doing chores, it's in his backstory, he has calluses to prove his mastery of floor washing. Noburi can be the clumsy newby who stumbled over the bucket :>

Spill the water outside the suit, right next to it so water seeps inside. This gives us an excuse to knock and ask to clean up. Even if they avoided inviting service inside till now, they have a big wet mess to deal with.

I doubt they will say no if we ask to clean up if we say we'll get punished if we don't. Woman or boy or both will likely stay to observe, esp. if they both came to open when we knocked. That's fine. We're just a distraction anyway, though I hope Nobyy can figure out a way to get them in the water (or water on them) to check their chakra inconspicuously.

While we're making a show at the suit entrance (possibly with spilling water again, which gives Hazou a reason to send Nobby away and finish cleaning himself, while keeping attention focused on them) Mari+Kei sneak in through the window for a quick search of servant's room while it's empty.

If only one person goes to open the door Mari hits the remaining one with a daydreaming jutsu while Kei does the search, otherwise both look for things. When they hear the commotion end, they leave through the window they came in.

Best case scenario, we do this while J is at baths. Because the item will not be with him, and if it's not in servants' room, then it's in his.

If this suit is anything like hotel suits I've seen in movies, then rooms will have (lockable) doors in addition to windows. Bet J keeps his room shut when he's not in. So we ignore the servants, just break in through the window all quiet like while he's away, servants won't even know better. Assuming they aren't ninja, which is why Nobby should check via spilled water.

To keep the distraction going, maybe get Honami to send a real servant to deliver that fruit basket, in recompense for earlier mess. Make the thing more plausible?
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Mari as part of the breakin team strikes me as a plus, and this seems like the most plausible and risk-free way I've seen so far, so I greatly approve.
 
Muer'ci said:
Second, here's an idea I had on how to check the suit.
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I don't mean to be nit-picky, but perhaps you mean "suite"?

Or are you proposing that we spill water on J's clothes while he isn't wearing them to check said clothes for chakra emissions, like from a chakra sealed/locked scroll?

Actually, we could check the laundry at the resort to see what kind of pockets J has in in clothes. That way, if we have to pick pocket him, we will know where a scroll could be hidden on his person. Of course, he could simply keep the message in an inconspicuous miniature storage seal, but how long would it take to check, really? Mundane suits can be tailored to better conceal holstered weapons, and with the amount of ordinance a ninja can carry there has to be some modifications made to their clothing to compensate for all of the hidden weapons they probably carry on themselves at all times, even in disguise.

Do the ninjas here just refuse civilians doing their laundry for them?

Gah, so many questions, so little time. Just spit-balling ideas whenever I have the time just to see if anything sticks.
 
I have a nagging suspicion that the message we are after is tattooed on the back of one of J's followers. The messenger is the message and all that.

I am also worried that we have no idea about capabilities of J's followers.

The third thing I'm worried about is J's jounin-level chakra. Messenger duty rarely necessitates sending jounin with retinue. Either this message is very important, or something else is going on.

Hell, maybe there is no message. Maybe we are used as scapegoats to steer trouble in the Hot Springs.

So, even though our team is in a very good position for completing the mission (ready escape routes, servants on our side, numerical superiority) I still think that mission reward is too small to risk trifling with a jounin.

I also don't think that trifling with a jounin for XP is worth it.

Let's abort. Taking this mission was dumb, but insisting on continuing it once we fully understood how dumb it was would be even dumber.
 
HyperCatnip said:
I am also worried that we have no idea about capabilities of J's followers.
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We can fix that by getting them wet in Nobby's presence. Hell, maybe we can make the roof leak during rain.

@Velorien @eaglejarl what's the weather like and how is it expected to change in next three days?

HyperCatnip said:
I also don't think that trifling with a jounin for XP is worth it.
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Trifling with a Jounin is absolutely worth the XP it will generate, as long as we're alive and not permanently damaged. Given our preparations, chances of permanent harm coming to us are incredibly low.

Nothing is ever risk free. Even the ice plan. We have three days till Day X. Might as well use them to find out more about the situation, even if we decide the heist itself is too risky to pull off. Observe the exchange, if nothing else. 'Meet' the players, see how these things happen.

Guess we'll know if tattoo theory is correct if one of companions goes with J's contact. I don't imagine at will happen tho, bit too permanent a way to write down info, coded or no.

E: the funny was a misclick.
 
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Muer'ci said:
Guess we'll know if tattoo theory is correct if one of companions goes with J's contact. I don't imagine at will happen tho, bit too permanent a way to write down info, coded or no.
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A better method would be to just have the civilian memorize the info and use the jounin just as muscle to keep the message carrier safe.

Muer'ci said:
Second, here's an idea I had on how to check the suite.
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This seems active, interesting and has most of the team participating so I'm all for it. Lets consider how this could fail and try to figure out counter measures for it.

Muer'ci said:
Have Hazou and Noburi pretend to be local workers washing the floor in the corridor. Hazou is already a pro at doing chores, it's in his backstory, he has calluses to prove his mastery of floor washing. Noburi can be the clumsy newby who stumbled over the bucket :>

Spill the water outside the suit, right next to it so water seeps inside. This gives us an excuse to knock and ask to clean up. Even if they avoided inviting service inside till now, they have a big wet mess to deal with.
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First thing that can go wrong is that actual servants show up and start asking what is up. We could use Honami, but I would hate to implicate her if we absolutely don't have to. We could do something like henge into Joutaro and tell the servants not to get close to the suite for awhile.

Muer'ci said:
I doubt they will say no if we ask to clean up if we say we'll get punished if we don't. Woman or boy or both will likely stay to observe, esp. if they both came to open when we knocked. That's fine. We're just a distraction anyway, though I hope Nobyy can figure out a way to get them in the water (or water on them) to check their chakra inconspicuously.
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Next problem is that we need to pass a Deception check against the person coming to the door. Even a competent civilian can pierce Hazou's Deception and Nobby has even less dice (we can raise it from 8 to 10), not to mention if the person coming to the door is a Deception heavy chuunin or up.

Not much we can do about that beyond preparing a fast exit strategy. Alternatively we could just have the normal servants muck up with water to create a diversion, but then we probably won't be able to get a read on their chakra levels.

Muer'ci said:
While we're making a show at the suit entrance (possibly with spilling water again, which gives Hazou a reason to send Nobby away and finish cleaning himself, while keeping attention focused on them) Mari+Kei sneak in through the window for a quick search of servant's room while it's empty.
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The next problem is breaking and entering stealthily. Mari should be able to spot the traps, but I'm not sure if she has any skills to undo them without triggering them with clones or Zephyr. Also, how are they going to deal with a window that is most certainly locked? Zephyr's Reach will probably help with simple locking mechanism, but if there's anything more elaborate there (Mechanism or Seals) they are boned.

The stealth part is also an issue. I'm not sure if we get to do this when there's no light but in any case if Mari and Keiko are fiddling with the window in full view of the patrols and ninjas. Not sure how to help with this. Another distraction or are we just going to trust in our superior dice?

Muer'ci said:
Best case scenario, we do this while J is at baths. Because the item will not be with him, and if it's not in servants' room, then it's in his.
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Then there's the miscellaneous problems. What if there are more than 3 people in the party? Smuggling more in would be a cake for a ninja and an excellent backup idea against pretty much any hostile elements.

Anyway, we are going to need good exit strategies when things inevitably go wrong.

Any other problems that need to be solved before we can write a plan based on this?
 
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Muer'ci said:
We can fix that by getting them wet in Nobby's presence.
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I know Noburi is a smooth talker, but there is only one female companion.

I doubt Mari has taught him the more "varied" forms of sweet talking people outside of his normal preferences just to receive a monetary reward.

It would be interesting to ask her though...

*hair ruffle*

"Silly Hazou, you can't just ask your teammate if he is willing to go gay for pay."
 
Twofold said:
First thing that can go wrong is that actual servants show up and start asking what is up. We could use Honami, but I would hate to implicate her if we absolutely don't have to. We could do something like henge into Joutaro and tell the servants not to get close to the suite for awhile.
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Cleaning happens on schedule. We get it from H and do this in the time window when normal employees are busy elsewhere. Maybe generate a mess specifically for us to clean, so we have an excuse of doing this outside of standard time.

Twofold said:
Next problem is that we need to pass a Deception check against the person coming to the door. Even a competent civilian can pierce Hazou's Deception and Nobby has even less dice (we can raise it from 8 to 10), not to mention if the person coming to the door is a Deception heavy chuunin or up.
Not much we can do about that beyond preparing a fast exit strategy. Alternatively we could just have the normal servants muck up with water to create a diversion, but then we probably won't be able to get a read on their chakra levels.
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Get Hazou to play the main role, with Nobby as support. Floor cleaning is not traumatic enough to trigger TYS malus, so 12 deception should be sufficient. Hell, our obvious practice at cleaning might even get us a circumstance bonus! Surely those hours spend scrubbing floors in the Academy have to pay off.

If they get suspicious and demand to see the manager, we could bring in Honami to apologize and assure them 'these particular servicemen' won't be bothering them again.
Twofold said:
The next problem is breaking and entering stealthily. Mari should be able to spot the traps, but I'm not sure if she has any skills to undo them without triggering them with clones or Zephyr. Also, how are they going to deal with a window that is most certainly locked? Zephyr's Reach will probably help with simple locking mechanism, but if there's anything more elaborate there (Mechanism or Seals) they are boned.
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Since the break in happens through civilian side, I don't think it will be so heavily trapped Mari can't deal. I doubt they installed their own locks in windows, so we're dealing with standard resort equipment.

We should practice a break in on one of other similar suites, tonight, if Mari thinks she needs it.

That leaves us seals. Honestly, I don't think seal masters happen to wander outside villages so often that seals are likely to be used.

We could bring in Kagome as part of sneaky group, just for the break in part? His stealth is good, though dogs may be a problem. He's sure to notice any suspicious decorations on/close to windows.

Twofold said:
The stealth part is also an issue. I'm not sure if we get to do this when there's no light but in any case if Mari and Keiko are fiddling with the window in full view of the patrols and ninjas. Not sure how to help with this. Another distraction or are we just going to trust in our superior dice?
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That mess we make on purpose? Do it in the evening to make sneaking easier, though J has to be away. If he goes for a late soak, good. We will know, since we should be keeping an eye on him anyway. If he doesn't.. in stealth we trust. If our sneakier members can't get past genin, we're doing the whole ninja thing wrong.

Maybe there's a tree to hide in nearby, and do the ZR from there? Resort is the kind of place where you'd expect to see a lot of greenery.
Besides, patrols aren't stationary. We figure out the best time window, and go then.


Twofold said:
Then there's the miscellaneous problems. What if there are more than 3 people in the party? Smuggling more in would be a cake for a ninja and an excellent backup idea against pretty much any hostile elements.

Anyway, we are going to need good exit strategies when things inevitably go wrong.

Any other problems that need to be solved before we can write a plan based on this?
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Not sure how there would be extra people in the party (did they get sneaked in in luggage?) but just looking in the window to see how many people are in the room should be enough to decide if breaking in is feasible or not.
If there's someone unaccounted for waiting inside we abort, and pat ourselves on the back for procuring more info.

(E: actually, leave that to Mari's discretion. Maybe plan "hit them with genjutsu while Kei goes through their things" can still work, Hazou and Noburi just have to distract two people rather than one person.)

Communication for two parties might be an issue. I'm thinking, Hazou and Noburi start on floor washing first, Mari and Kei hide in the trees or on the roof or whatever. Akane loiters nearby. When Mari decides to strike she sends Akane a message w/that wind talk jutsu, Akane quickly comes to Hazou and coughs loudly in our corridor or something. Commence watery distraction.

For exit strategy, how about drop everything and run? We have nothing to pick up. We have routes secured. Maybe split in two groups, one goes with Mari one with Kagome. Meet at predetermined point. Plan from there.

I want to make a plan out of this, but mobile bound again. Will hopefully make it to PC tomorrow, but.. well. Either way, hope to see more feedback.

E: as prep work, get Mari to take a closer look at the place this night, when it's dark. Dogs and patrol are not a problem even with her rolls, so she should find a suitable way to sneak into the suite, what cover there is nearby, that sort of thing. Examine the window for traps/seals (without doing anything about them!) and yeah, break in one of those other suites as practice. It'll be good for her.
 
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Muer'ci said:
Since the break in happens through civilian side, I don't think it will be so heavily trapped Mari can't deal. I doubt they installed their own locks in windows, so we're dealing with standard resort equipment.
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Let us assume that the companions have the package. Why would Joutaro not trap something like their windows, that don't really need to be opened all the time?

I have a hard time figuring out the window team setup. Best would be to use all three (Akane, Mari, Keiko) but is three people too much?

Muer'ci said:
That leaves us seals. Honestly, I don't think seal masters happen to wander outside villages so often that seals are likely to be used.
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You don't need to be a sealmaster to use them. Stacking up on few alarm or locking seals sounds like a plausible precaution a jounin could take for this kind of a mission.

Muer'ci said:
Not sure why there would be extra people in the party, but just looking in the window to see how many people are in the room should be enough to decide if breaking in is feasible or not.
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Because they are expecting trouble or they are paranoid. Having the third genin from the jounin + 3 genin setup work on his stealth and provide an extra surprise for any hostile ninjas sounds like a standard precaution.

Muer'ci said:
For exit strategy, how about drop everything and run? We have nothing to pick up. We have routes secured. Maybe split in two groups, one goes with Mari one with Kagome. Meet at predetermined point. Plan from there.
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I assume we have routes secured outside the the resort. But how are we going to make sure that we can escape from a jounin inside the resort (without blowing everything up)?
 
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vali said:
@Velorien Doing some quick googling: to have n equidistant points requires n-1 dimensions so 4 equidistant points would need to be arranged in a pyramid rather than on the same plane.
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I think my visualisation skills suck. What I was trying to say is that the seal arrangement is with the four support seals as corners of a square, and the primary seal is at the square's centre. (which on reflection would have been a lot simpler to say)

1234qwerty said:
While I'm pinging you, sorry if I come off as a bit pedantic, but I can't seem to find the chakra cost for Syrup trap. Also, I was wondering if all Hazou's strorage scrolls have identical designs and if the symbol that appears when something is stored is also always the same.
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The Syrup Trap Technique costs 20 CP. As for the storage scrolls, yes, all have identical designs. The symbol is not always the same - it has some vague correlation to the nature of the items being stored, but is not something being chosen by the creator. The most popular theory is that it's created unconsciously.

1234qwerty said:
It might be that I'm missing something, but it's curious to me how the seals differentiate the hammer spaces from each other. I would guess some sort of 'fingerprint' based on how no ink will dry the same way on different paper twice if seals are otherwise identical, but it would be important to know if we ever try to make dry erase seals.
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At activation, the seal temporarily connects a real-world location (where the object is being held in front of it) with a point in extradimensional space. The four-dimensional coordinates of the real-world location determine the point in extradimensional space, so that even if an identical seal were triggered to put in an identical object at an identical location, the involvement of the time dimension would prevent it from connecting to the same point.

Cariyaga said:
If we figured this out, would Keiko have the sudden realization? Otherwise I don't think it's worth the hivemind's time to figure this out without being able to convey it to our party (given that this is an OOC knowledge thing).
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No. In addition, bear in mind that neither Hazō nor Keiko have ever heard of cryogenics or even the basic concepts involved.

Oh I am slain! said:
On a completely separate note, I'd like to continue seeing more variation in characters' speech styles and inner voice. Maybe I'm forgetting things, but I sometimes feel like the characters' sentence types, vocabularies, etc. are oddly similar. IIRC, I felt that most often during the Hidden Mountain arc. But again, I might simply be forgetting the details. :)
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This is a major weakness of my writing style, and I really should be trying harder to work on it. Aside from my own failings as a writer, part of the problem is that in serial fiction, even if you think of a way to differentiate your characters while the series is in progress, you have to be really careful in putting it in, otherwise it comes across as jarring. Another part is that @eaglejarl and I usually don't have the time to coordinate our updates to the level of individual character voices, so you have characters with two separate overlapping idiolects that make it harder for them to have distinctive speech patterns.

Muer'ci said:
@Velorien @eaglejarl what's the weather like and how is it expected to change in next three days?
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Sunny and chilly. Perfect weather for visiting a hot spring resort.

Reliable meteorology is beyond the Narutoverse's tech level (many would hold that it is beyond ours too), but there are no obvious signs that the weather is about to change.
 
Cariyaga said:
e: (as an aside I'll probably be relatively unresponsive for the next few days as the muse has struck for the first time in ever and so I'm writing)
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Go you! Let us know when you publish it.

Oh I am slain! said:
On a completely separate note, I'd like to continue seeing more variation in characters' speech styles and inner voice. Maybe I'm forgetting things, but I sometimes feel like the characters' sentence types, vocabularies, etc. are oddly similar. IIRC, I felt that most often during the Hidden Mountain arc. But again, I might simply be forgetting the details. :)
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Velorien said:
This is a major weakness of my writing style,
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Mine as well. All my characters always sound the same. :/ @Velorien was the one who created the formal-talking Takahashi and gave him a unique voice that sounded different from the party.
 
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Interlude: A Grifter, Not A Thief
  • Threadmarks
    • "So while Noburi and I keep them distracted up front, sensei and Keiko will sneak in through the bedroom window and--"

    Inoue's hand shot up. "Oooh, ooh, Criminal Mastermind Sir? How do we get through the locked window?"

    Hazou froze, flummoxed. "Um...you pick the lock?"

    Inoue gave an exaggerated "what?!" expression. "How do I do that?"

    "But...you're a jōnin," Hazou said, floundering. "A ninja. And a jōnin. You know how to pick locks...."

    "Shikigami didn't pick locks," Inoue said. "The Mizukage doesn't pick locks."

    "But...you're an infiltration specialist," Hazou said. This conversation really was getting away from him.

    Inoue laughed. "Sweetie, I'm a grifter, not a thief. The target opens the door for me. I have no more idea how to pick locks than how to bake a cake."
     
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    • ...

    Mari, I am disappoint.

    *sigh*

    Back to the drawing board.
    Also, Akane just shot up in importance. Unless she doesn't pick locks either? >_>
     
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    Velorien said:
    I think my visualisation skills suck. What I was trying to say is that the seal arrangement is with the four support seals as corners of a square, and the primary seal is at the square's centre. (which on reflection would have been a lot simpler to say)
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    You could still do something like:

    Where the brown rectangles have just support seals, the orange rectangles have central seals and the overlapping black rectangles are sets of Five Seal Barrier seals. You can expand this design to support an arbitrarily large area as long as you can support the outermost ring, which we can do by building a frame off the immovable parts. It wouldn't be much more work then building a floor already was.
     
    This thread still has best fan art tho.

    But yeah.

    I had a response in the works. So much typing, wasted.

    I'd drown my sorrow in alcohol, but that makes typing harder >_<
     
    Akane, teach everyone how to pick locks of all types. We should be able to get an up close and personal view of the type of locks on the windows in the building with our contact of Honami. It would give us a chance to practice in an unhurried pace and maybe give a bonus to the dice roll?
     
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