Yea I think that specific possibility is quite unlikely. More likely (but still pretty unlikely) is that if color cabal / whirlpool were responsible, they have some other form of long-distance communication, possibly a seal, possibly a seal with a trigger usable by a civilian (in which case having a spy network in Leaf and getting the information out quickly seems quite doable). Again, I don't think this is likely, I just bring it up to point out that there are other logical possibilities, besides an infiltrator in the tower, that could explain what we've found, but that all of these possibilities should cause Asuma to be more concerned than he apparently is, which is suspicious.
As far as exiting and entering Leaf, as I understand it, nobody gets in or out without a pass. You could ninja-walk the walls, but doing that in broad daylight without a pass...... it's not a good plan. I'll see if I can make raising the issue more explicit without adding WC at this point.
That is also my understanding, but I think it's worth clarifying. I don't know that it's implausible that a ninja could disguise themselves as a civilian somehow and go unnoticed.
That is also my understanding, but I think it's worth clarifying. I don't know that it's implausible that a ninja could disguise themselves as a civilian somehow and go unnoticed.
The timing is the problem. If they had several hours or days, yes. But they don't, the spy would need to leave right away to make it to the border before dark.
Assuming one of the genin is the leak, it takes an hour or two for them to leak it. Then say another hour or two for the spy to hear about it, pack. Find a caravan leaving that afternoon (they leave in the morning anyway) gain entry and depart Leaf. This is going to take 3-4 hours at a minimum which means, assuming they ditch the caravan at the first bend in the road. They only have 2-3 hours to reach the border before dark, since it's winter.
Running at 20 mph in the dark is a surefire way to get killed. Like, you would trip and die. I can't stress this enough. Although maaaybeee ninja can do it.
The timing is the problem. If they had several hours or days, yes. But they don't, the spy would need to leave right away to make it to the border before dark.
Assuming one of the genin is the leak, it takes an hour or two for them to leak it. Then say another hour or two for the spy to hear about it, pack. Find a caravan leaving that afternoon (they leave in the morning anyway) gain entry and depart Leaf. This is going to take 3-4 hours at a minimum which means, assuming they ditch the caravan at the first bend in the road. They only have 2-3 hours to reach the border before dark, since it's winter.
Running at 20 mph in the dark is a surefire way to get killed. Like, you would trip and die. I can't stress this enough. Although maaaybeee ninja can do it.
Leaf doesn't monitor civilian coming and goings. Nothing is stopping a hypothetical civilian spy from just leaving, going to a drop-off point with a ninja runner, and sending the message that way. Yes, the civilian leaving is at more risk and slower, but the benefit of them leaving immediately (4hr earlier, by your reckoning) is much better.
Leaf doesn't monitor civilian coming and goings. Nothing is stopping a hypothetical civilian spy from just leaving, going to a drop-off point with a ninja runner, and sending the message that way. Yes, the civilian leaving is at more risk and slower, but the benefit of them leaving immediately (4hr earlier, by your reckoning) is much better.
I think they probably monitor them, but not in enough depth to keep track of everyone's comings and goings. And we know there is some settlement outside the walls (we used to live out there) so there must be some civilian traffic, people commuting or visiting family or whatever. If a ninja were able to disguise themselves as a civilian (which might be as simple as selecting a gate without a Hyūga or Aburame or anyone else with a sensory technique standing guard, I'm not sure) I think this plausibly would be unremarkable and swiftly forgotten with no record kept.
The guard captain raised an eyebrow. "Short mission, huh? What, message delivery to one of the villages?"
"Uh, no sir. Just need to have a private talk."
The guard captain looked at him as though Hazō had spontaneously grown a second head. "Yeah, no. Nobody leaves without a mission stamp."
Keiko cocked her head in surprise. "Does this mean that civilian merchants require a mission stamp in order to take their goods to market outside the city?"
The 'brand new second head' look was transferred to Hazō's sister. "Who cares where civilians go? Ninja don't leave without a stamp."
As far as exiting and entering Leaf, as I understand it, nobody gets in or out without a pass. You could ninja-walk the walls, but doing that in broad daylight without a pass...... it's not a good plan. I'll see if I can make raising the issue more explicit without adding WC at this point.
Ino seemed to express that there's been a recent influx of potential spies due to AMITY and the MARI admin stuff causing people to be allowed to visit other villages, leading to her clan needing to scan a lot of people, presumably prioritizing ninja if any are allowed. If any operative is getting snuck in, imo it would be a civilian with socials training as they would go pretty much unnoticed and could pass info to ninja runners in the nearish area.
The more we talk about Leafs intelligence and security apparatus the more I'm convinced that this wasn't an op by them. Frankly they seem to incompetent to actually pull anything off.
The more we talk about Leafs intelligence and security apparatus the more I'm convinced that this wasn't an op by them. Frankly they seem to incompetent to actually pull anything off.
Between the time spent tracking TA (1.5 hours) and their ingress into Fire (4 hours) the attackers were on the move for ~6 hours. You don't enter another nation for fun.
We entered Fire after causing an international incident, evading two groups of border guards and starting a forest fire.
And then stayed in Fire more than a week or so. All of that was when Leaf still had a functioning military and had not less than 20 jonin.
Considering that Leaf has some of the best Sealmaster (Orochimaru, Hazou and Kagome), Ninjutsu stuff (Shadow Clone and the competition) and Summoning Scrolls, having one or two teams trying to grab a high profil ninja isn't for "no reason" and it's not a "high investment" either.
Grabing Akane and interrogating her could have given any nation a huge boost.
Considering that Leaf has some of the best Sealmaster (Orochimaru, Hazou and Kagome), Ninjutsu stuff (Shadow Clone and the competition) and Summoning Scrolls, having one or two teams trying to grab a high profil ninja isn't for "no reason" and it's not a "high investment" either.
I am positive that absolutely no one wants to run into Orochimaru at any point. You could send half the village on the mission and my money's on him. He's one of the reasons I'd say people wouldn't send people anywhere near Leaf. It's not only a game over, but he's dissecting people and taking your secrets.
Take over Leaf's security apparatus. Canvass intelligence agency. Canvass is more valuable as central resource to ninja on missions than tracking trails one by one. Create library of scents. Find smells on people coming in and out of the village. Plant smells on targets too similar to other smells for anyone but Canvass to differentiate. 'Berries one day older grown in the shade'. If everyone comes to rely on Canvass, they rely on us. Kakashi kept the tracking abilities to himself. Maybe insurance against Root, normal secrecy or out of village too often.
I am positive that absolutely no one wants to run into Orochimaru at any point. You could send half the village on the mission and my money's on him. He's one of the reasons I'd say people wouldn't send people anywhere near Leaf. It's not only a game over, but he's dissecting people and taking your secrets.
Some people probably want his stuff, ambushing other Leaf ninja in the believe that they carry his seals or medical information isn't strange.
We sold the Wakahisa a combination of ninjutsu and seals that grow metal on plants and Goketsu has his medical texts.
If anything of that somehow leaked it's not a crazy assumption that other people aquired things from him. And from an outsiders perspective Akane would be a primary target for having any of Orochimarus hypothetical items.
edit: Also, unless you 100% believe this could have only been Asuma/Shikamaru, somedoy did just come close to Leaf. And Rock&Cloud also started a war with us...but fine, maybe they were fully convinced Orochimaru didn't actually return.
Take over Leaf's security apparatus. Canvass intelligence agency. Canvass is more valuable as central resource to ninja on missions than tracking trails one by one. Create library of scents. Find smells on people coming in and out of the village. Plant smells on targets too similar to other smells for anyone but Canvass to differentiate. 'Berries one day older grown in the shade'. If everyone comes to rely on Canvass, they rely on us. Kakashi kept the tracking abilities to himself. Maybe insurance against Root, normal secrecy or out of village too often.
More likely (but still pretty unlikely) is that if color cabal / whirlpool were responsible, they have some other form of long-distance communication, possibly a seal, possibly a seal with a trigger usable by a civilian
The condor, Confute, was thin, with a bald, black head that came up around midway to Hazou's chest. She tried momentarily to resist the pangolin soldier's shepherding. A firm yank on her wings earned her compliance. Hazō couldn't read the condor's body language. What would she be feeling right now? Fear for the coming end, regret for losing control, or righteous anger at an oppressor that for a moment seemed conquerable?
He couldn't let this happen.
Plan, he signaled to Kei and Noburi, check rope, call pangolins inattentive. Make Kei leader. Fight one-on-one if needed. Condor survives.
The less-attentive members of the Conclave started to notice the almost-fight in the room as another pangolin soldier joined to help escort Confute out. Hazō moved without waiting for confirmation. He needed to act before the pangolins took Confute out of the room. Not only would the pangolins struggle to repel his challenge in a public space, but he needed everyone to see him trying to save the condor's life.
With as much dignity as he could muster, Hazō grabbed the discarded Bonds of Civilization and held them up so the rest of the Conclave could see the ropes so instrumental to Pangolin's conquest of the Condor spirit.
"As I thought," Hazō said, projecting his voice over the room. He pressed as much authority as he could into his words, drawing on those scarce few lessons in leadership Mari had given him. "There's not a hint of any damage on these. For Confute to have slipped them, they must have been tied loosely enough to enable the escape. Pangolin Summoner, who is responsible for tying the Bonds of Civilization?"
Kei stepped forward, ending her hand-talk conversation with Noburi. "The Ministry of Doctrine is ultimately responsible for the Bonds, though any pangolin of an officerial role may renew them. As Confute is a laborer aiding in the bulk transport of materials, I expect her bonds were maintained by regional overseers subordinate to Taxiarchos Pankratos."
Between their commanding words, the Conclave's inner trading hall had come to a stop, with all eyes on Hazō and Kei. Even the pair of pangolins escorting Confute had stopped and turned to face the two summoners.
"What would be worse?" Hazō asked. "For the Bonds to be mistied due to incompetence, or due to outright malice?"
"Malice," Kei said. "Universally in legal systems, Pangolin's included, even wild negligence is seen more favorably than a deliberate intent to cause harm."
"I wonder how many condors have been harmed at the claws of Pangolin's overly harsh laws," Hazō mused, "and at the pangolins' own refusal to fulfill the responsibilities they gladly claim."
Noburi stepped forward, completing the triangle of summoners. "Is that why the pangolins tried to usher Confute out so quickly? They wanted to cover up their mistakes?"
Hazō saw one of the pangolin soldiers loosen his grip on Confute and take a step forward to defend himself. Hazō quickly continued to keep the pangolin from getting a word in edgewise.
"From what I've seen, I don't think anyone can claim that Taxiarchos Pankratos is fulfilling his responsibility to the condors," Hazou said. "If the pangolins here will not take their duties to their charges seriously, then a different authority is necessary. I propose the Pangolin Summoner."
"Within Pangolin's military hierarchy, only Pantsā of the Adamant Scales gives me orders," Kei said. "He has personally entrusted me with multiple missions, and he has sanctioned my actions many times in the past. With my full weight and authority as a summoner, I command you to bring the condor before me."
The soldiers looked between themselves, then the one that had stepped forth earlier spoke. "I understand your position, summoner. However, the Office of Statutes' laws about disciplining the beakfaces are really straightforward. Doing justice here is simple, and doesn't require your attention or Taxiarchos Pankratos'."
"I was not negotiating," Kei said, and shards of ice started to form in the spaces between her words. She strode forward and let the crowd of summons shy away from her steps. "Release the condor. Now."
One pangolin soldier released Confute and took two waddling steps back, while the other flicked his tongue nervously. The condor turned between Kei and the pangolin in what must have been confusion.
"I cannot do that, Summoner," the remaining soldier said after a moment's pause. "This condor is a dangerous element that was just fighting in a public space. My duty prohibits me from releasing her."
Behind him, Hazō saw the other soldier beelining to the trading hall's exit, no doubt to alert a superior. Hazō quickly flashed a signal to Noburi.
Stop escape?
How? Noburi signed back.
Hazō could physically leap over there with his Rocket Boots and stop the soldier physically, but that would be too visible. The soldier wouldn't listen to his command. He'd need to concoct some plausible reason, but before Hazō could come up with any ideas, the fleeing soldier had already slipped out.
"Listen to your summoner," Noburi said, jumping into the conversation between Kei and the remaining pangolin guard. "She knows way more about the law than you do. After all, when was the last time you talked to Pantsā? Look, Confute might have tried to fight in a public space, but that's only three points, right? It's slipping the Bonds that's bad, and she thinks that something's fishy there. You saw how the Bonds weren't damaged, right?"
"That's right…" the soldier said.
"And it's the Ministry of Doctrine that is responsible for tying the Bonds, right?"
"Right."
"So if they screwed up tying the Bonds, that sounds like a problem for them, right? After all, it may be your duty to keep fighting out of the trade hall, but there could be bigger problems than one condor causing some havoc – if the Ministry of Doctrine is negligent in their duty, that's a way, way more important issue. That's why the Pangolin Summoner wants you to chill out and let her take care of it."
The guard still looked uncertain, so Noburi continued. "Look, the Summoner investigating potential corruption in a ministry? That's over your pay grade. Why don't you hand over Confute to a neutral party so your summoner can carry out her investigation? Hey Gamakayō," he said, turning to one of the larger toads watching the byplay, "could you keep a hold on Confute for a second?"
Gamakayō, a bulky maroon-red toad slightly shorter than Hazō, looked back and forth at Noburi's callout as if hoping that someone else had been chosen. "Sure, Summoner," he said, after a moment.
Gamakayō hopped to the pangolin guard who reluctantly let go of Confute. The toad placed a warty hand on the condor's shoulder, rather than grabbing her by the wing as the guard had.
Hazō exhaled slightly. Confute was no longer in immediate danger of execution. Now what? They couldn't actually investigate the Ministry of Doctrine for corruption in the pangolins' own legal system. However bad their incompetence looked to the members of the Conclave, the pangolins would protect their own. Anyone with authority would no doubt confirm that responsibility for slipping the Bonds, even if they were loose, laid on Confute's head. Beyond that, the Taxiarchos already had a bone to pick with Confute if the soldier's passing words were honest. If she stayed a slave, it would be a matter of time before she committed another execution-worthy offense.
Worse, Hazō realized, the escapee soldier would no doubt inform Taxiarchos Pankratos about the situation. Even if they forestalled an execution with an 'investigation', the Taxiarchos had the rights of a daimyo in the Conclave. He would demand they turn over Confute for temporary holding, and Hazō had grown up in Hidden Mist. He knew what happened to dangerous elements that disappeared into prison cells away from the public eye.
The Taxiarchos would not respond to bribery. He didn't respect them enough for their words to have any meaning. They didn't have time or agents to dig up any blackmail on him. They couldn't threaten him. They had no path to keeping Confute alive in the long term within Pangolin's lands and laws.
"What now, Pangolin Summoner?" Noburi asked Kei loudly, while shooting a glance at Hazō.
Free her, Hazō signed.
Treason, Kei replied.
Yes, Hazō signed in response.
Prepare skywalkers. Her demeanor hadn't changed, but her signs seemed already resigned to the outcome.
"Confute, Gamakayō, accompany us," Kei said, turning towards the charges as Hazō bent down to swap out his Rocket Boots seals for skywalkers. "The degree of incompetence among the Taxiarchos' people deserves further examination, and I have difficulty believing that he would be so gracious as to exclude himself from said proceedings. We shall go ensure he is adequately informed of the current situation, as well as my expectations regarding his role henceforth."
Kei led the pair of summons towards the trading hall's exit, and Noburi quickly placed himself between Confute and Kei to dissuade any more random attacks. Hazō took a moment to look around the hall. A few of the pangolin guards had started to rush to arrest Confute when the other soldier had handed her over to the toad now playing bailiff, but they had stopped when they saw that Confute wasn't resisting. The near-fight and the resulting byplay had drawn almost everyone's attention. The other condors especially were watching closely. Hazō wished he could read their body language and expressions to tell what they were thinking.
They reached the walkway by the trading hall's exit. The pangolins had constructed the central pavilion in the open space in the middle of the Conclave's sawed-off dome structure. Kei slowed down as they passed one of the arches, beyond which they could see Pangolin's dull brown skies. All Confute had to do was slip Gamakayō's inexperienced grip.
For some reason, she didn't.
Following behind her, Hazō could see the occasional bare patch where the Bands wrapped around Confute's wings had rubbed away her feathers, punctuated at the bottoms by slight redness where in wiggling the Bands downward she had pulled the occasional feather out. She had clearly gone through some effort to escape her bonds. Why wasn't she taking this second chance at freedom? Had she exhausted her inner reserves of rebellion? Had she only been momentarily motivated by revenge?
It didn't matter. He needed to get her out of here before the Taxiarchos could pull her back into Pangolin's lethal legal system. The sooner the better, ideally, since if it happened out of sight, the pangolins would simply assume that they had set the condor free. So long as she pulled off her escape in full view of the Conclave's participants, they could at least claim plausible deniability.
Kei slowed down even further as they passed another of the arches out into the central space, and Hazō could almost feel her tension, waiting for Confute to move but unwilling to turn around and signal what she wanted to happen.
"Gamakayō," Hazō said from behind the large toad, quiet enough that only their party would hear. "Be gentle with Confute. Life under Pangolin rule must be very hard, and we don't want to worsen her plight."
"Uh, okay," the toad said, loosening his already loose grip on the condor's shoulder.
"Egg smasher," Confute said, the first words he'd heard from her since her telepathic castigations moments before the attack. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because…" Hazō trailed off. He couldn't say that he wanted Confute to be free with Gamakayō right there. "Because I want to see justice done."
Confute didn't say anything in response as Kei reluctantly passed the penultimate archway in the trade hall. Some of the Conclave's representatives had already turned back to their conversations, not bothering to wait for their team to fully leave the room to discuss the events.
Confute went into motion as they passed the tallest point of the final arch. She slipped out of Gamakayō's grip and stumbled out into the central open space, spreading her wings with the uncertain motions of a bird that had spent the better part of two years with them tightly bound.
"Hey, stop that!" Gamakayō called out, reaching out futilely for the condor's back.
"Stop!" Kei said, uncharacteristically forced. She turned around to face the trading hall, then locked eyes with Hazō. "She is escaping! Chase her down!"
Hazō dashed after Confute, uncertain about Kei's directions. Confute finally started to beat her wings, generating gusts of wind that beat dust into the air around her as she tried to remember how to fly. The condors were long-distance fliers, he remembered Kei saying, and they preferred to start their flights from a high point rather than beat their wings to gain height. Starting from within the tight space in a deep, vertical shaft in the center of the Conclave dome was possibly the worst place for Confute to try to relearn flight.
Hazō turned around and saw Kei's sign. Slower. Around her and around the entire Conclave hall, the pangolin guards were surging into action, preparing to roll out into the open courtyard or starting their ninjutsu to take down Confute before she could escape. Hazō realized what Kei wanted him to do. He dashed into the dust cloud.
Confute finally took off, slowly rising and circling as she beat her wings harder and harder to gain altitude and speed. Hazō followed right on her tail-feathers on his skywalkers, easily keeping pace with her with the chakra pounding through his muscles. After a moment's thought, he started flickering his skywalkers on and off, pretending that his footing was unstable and that he was randomly getting stuck in the air sometimes as the seals activated unnecessarily. He faked a lunge for Confute and missed by inches.
"Egg smasher," Confute said, glancing back at him. "You chase me now to deny me the freedom you once again dangled before me?"
"Ninjutsu," Hazō said simply, hoping no one would see his mouth move. Around the courtyard, dozens of pangolin guards had emerged and started casting ninjutsu – ninjutsu they had no doubt exhaustively prepared in order to cut down condors rebellious enough to think they still had the right to fly. With Hazō chasing close after Confute, they couldn't fire those ninjutsu at the condor for fear of hitting the summoner too.
They crested the top of the dome and Confute straightened her path, breaking line of sight with the pangolins down below. Hazō pretended to falter, panting and bending over halfway to make it more plausible, hopefully, that he really had tried his best to stop the escaping condor.
"Justice will be done, egg smasher," Confute said as she flew away, rising higher preemptively to evade what would no doubt be a rising hail of ninjutsu fire once the pangolins on the ground outside the dome could see her. Just as she left the functional range of summon telepathy, Hazō thought he heard another phrase, barely audible: "Thank you."
Hazō dropped into the dome's central courtyard, now swarming with pangolin guards and Conclave representatives jostling to see the condor's thrilling escape. Hazō saw the other condors deeper within the pavilion, now closely monitored by a trio of pangolin soldiers. He didn't linger on them, but despite the inscrutability of condor body language, he got the vaguest sense that they were angry at him personally.
The Taxiarchos had arrived at some point in the chase and he was storming towards the central courtyard, barking out orders as he went. He noticed Kei and Noburi and angled his warpath directly towards them. Hazō angled his drop to join them.
"What is the meaning of this?" the Taxiarchos demanded, standing within Kei's reach and towering over her.
"Taxiarchos Pankratos," Kei said cooly. "Your people grossly failed to satisfy their duty to maintain the Bonds of Civilization. The Bonds slipped loose of one of the condors and the condor, suddenly granted freedom without any context, elected to attack Hazō for what I can only presume is the fact that solely his weapons permitted the Pangolin Clan to conquer Condor after eight decades of resentful armistice. Your soldiers attempted to seize and immediately execute the freed condor, failing to consider the importance of the Bonds being tied so poorly that they could merely slip off a condor by accident, and due to their incomparable obstinance, I was forced to deputize a civilian in order to escort the condor to you for further investigation. As you can see, the deputized civilian had no particular skill in keeping condors from escaping, causing this situation that would have been wholly avoidable had you merely had the foresight to authorize me as having rank-superiority to your ordinary soldiers, as I requested many, many months ago."
The Taxiarchos' nostrils flared at Kei's explanation, and he didn't respond immediately. He slowly turned his head to Gamakayō. The massive toad clearly wanted to leave, but was hemmed in at all sides by Pangolin soldiers. He withered under the Taxiarchos' glare. "Hey, I didn't do nothing wrong!" he said, pointing at Hazō. "I had a good grip on her until he told me to lighten up!"
The Taxiarchos turned his glare to Hazō, staunchly ignoring the way that Hazō hovered two feet off the floor with his skywalkers. "Explain yourself."
"I wanted to ensure that everything was aboveboard, rather than there being a miscarriage of justice due to the Bonds not being properly tied as the Pangolin Summoner said," Hazō said. "I told Gamakayō to loosen up because the force he was using could have hurt someone, not because I know how much exactly he needs to restrain a condor. When she started escaping, I chased after her. I was the only one that did so."
The Taxiarchos turned back to Kei. He considered her for a long moment, but she stood firm under his gaze.
"You expect me to believe this birdshit drivel?" he said eventually. "You think you can override the laws set by Pantsā himself by tricking my people into letting you do whatever you want? They need to learn a lesson about the chain of command, but you are scum for trying this."
He stepped in even closer, his head now literally towering over Kei's and his claws inches from her chest. Hazō saw Kei suppress a flinch almost perfectly, but she was still forced to look almost straight up into the looming pangolin's eyes.
"I know what you did here," the Taxiarchos said, voice now a whisper. "I am no idiot. You think you can escort the scavenging birdbrain directly to the nearest patch of open sky and I wouldn't notice? Or that someone wouldn't have told me about the blatantly obvious Condor sympathizing messages you spread among the Conclave's representatives? Do you really think me so foolish that I wouldn't realize that you carefully put your brother in the way of dozens of potential ninjutsu that could have stopped the escape, when standard procedure that I am certain you are well acquainted with indicates that the correct action is to stand by and fire from a distance?
"I can tolerate Condor sympathizers. I can tolerate oathbreakers. Pantokrator's mercy, I can tolerate a disrespectful intruder whose Sage companions force me to temporarily forsake my responsibilities. I have had to bend my morality farther in the course of keeping this Conclave in proper order.
"I cannot tolerate a liar. If this were a battlefield, I would eviscerate you for this. If you were my subordinate, I would have you doing punishment duty for months. Instead, I will do neither. Summoner, I will keep my discretion for now, in the interest of keeping a peace I assure you is in your best interest. But Pantsā will know of this, as will all those on the Seventh Path that you cannot afford to spurn. If they see fit to let it be known that you too lie as you need to get what you want, and that you and your family have no respect for any oath or contract or law, then I assure you, there will be a price to pay."
With that, the Taxiarchos stepped back, interlaced his claws in the peace sign for barely a second, then stormed away, continuing to snap out orders. He raised a claw to the two soldiers that they had cajoled into handing over Confute, who followed after him sheepishly.
Kei released a tense, stuttering breath. "I certainly hope you found this endeavor worthwhile, Hazō," she whispered. "Far be it from me to complain about making even marginal progress towards balancing, no, not worsening the scales of the Condor genocide, but this appears to be a particularly poor exchange rate for political capital. At least in Kago, I had a plausible veneer of legality to my actions that, as the eloquent Taxiarchos points out, is wholly absent here. We are fortunate that he cannot afford to make my outright defiance of the law known without also publicly demonstrating his current inability to punish me for it."
Hazō glanced around at the pangolin soldiers milling about and the Conclave representatives that were still staying close to watch the humans. The two Sages had stuck around to keep an eye on the Taxiarchos, but now hopped back to one of the food tables within the trade hall, while the Rat Clan representative, Nezesari, continued to watch them. She no longer had her back hunched up, but instead extended her body long towards Hazō in a way that he could only describe as curious.
"We saved a life," Hazō said. "After Neck, any life we can save is worth it. As a plus, I think it may have opened some doors for us…"
First, a straightforward TN 30 (Good) Presence check to take control over the room and make his case in a convincing way. Kei is supporting him, so I'll let her add her Presence AB (level 24 -> AB 3) to this roll.
Hazō (Presence): 20 + 3 (invoke "Lord of Clan Gōketsu") + 3 (support from Kei) - 6 = 20 Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Presence): 20 + 3 (invoke "Lord of Clan Gōketsu") + 3 (support from Kei) + 6 = 32
Phew. He takes control of the situation, keeping the pangolins from continuing to escort Confute out and making everyone hear him out. It's such a marginal success though, that I'm going to say that he's barely keeping a thumb on the flow of the room, not dominating everyone's perceptions. No free Aspects/tags.
Hazō has kept control of the room, but he needs Kei to take authority of the situation for at least long enough to free Confute. This is going to be a TN 40 (Great) Presence check from her. Hazō will be supporting her similarly to before.
Rough. Kei's not able to take charge enough to order the pangolin soldiers around, though making a 30 means she's still going to seem commanding (rather than arrogant and imperious).
Well, if that isn't going to work, it's back to ol' reliable.
They take some stress, but they're not Taken Out! Surprising. Looks like Kei's gonna have to do some killing convincing. Actually, Kei may not be the best suited for this situation. Let's see Noburi try to convince the guard to let the condor go (sadly, Hazō's ability to Rapport at the pangolins is very low).
Well that works. Noburi convinces this soldier to hand over Confute. Now what? The plan doesn't specify what to do with Confute. Frankly, I don't see any way to keep Confute alive other than to get her the hell out of Pangolin, and there's really no non-treasonous way to do that. I'll say that they basically walk her to an exit and poke her to go off on her own.
She'd get cut down by ninjutsu very quickly that way, so Hazō needs to follow after to keep the pangolins from firing on her (I'm having Kei notice this as a freebie). Can he keep up with a flying condor with his skywalkers?
Confute (Athletics): ?? + ? (flight bonus) - ? (tied up for two years penalty) - 3 = ??
Hazō (Athletics): 37 + 3 (IN) + 5 (boost) + 5 (skywalkers) + 6 = 56
Quite easily, as it turns out. He will pretend to keep up with her until she's out of reasonable ninjutsu range, then let her go and return for damage control. Making it seem like they did not blatantly set Confute free will be really hard. As a TN, I would say that it's TN 60 (Fantastic). However, Taxiarchos Pankratos' Empathy may be easier to penetrate than a TN 60. Kei is taking the lead here as she was the one nominally in charge of the situation. Let's see some rolls to see how this goes…
Can the Taxiarchos compel the information out of Kei?
Nope. Can Kei spin the narrative in a compelling way to him? While this is clearly Rapport by use, Kei is so adversarial in the way that she frames it, I'm going to list it as Presence with a penalty (from the condescending tone she takes with him).
There's only so much the dice can do with base 10 Deceit. Narratively, the Taxiarchos cannot draw this out further due to the circumstances, so he will end this encounter with one last Intimidation purely to inflict Consequences, out of spite. He needs to prioritize figuring out what to do about the escaped condor.
For the Saturday vote close deadline (1pm Eastern), please write a plan with the [Conclave] tag. For example:
[][Conclave] Just Chill Out For A Bit
Take a day off.
Get back into it, make some trade deals just to talk to people, then make your Dragons pitch one-by-one.
Voting for this plan will be counted from the end of this chapter, not @Velorien's Thursday chapter, so feel free to start plan-making immediately.
Brevity XP: 1 (to be bulk-awarded with GM-fun XP at end of arc, since base XP for this time period has already been awarded)
FP Tally: The whole team spent 2 FP and won a major confrontation, so they netted -1. Kei/Noburi's sheets will be updated, Hazō's arc-FP is at 3.
Tricky plan to write for, very underspecified in some important regards, including what to do with Confute if everything goes well. I note the other plan does specify this, and I could have mix-and-matched, but I decided to tiebreak before writing anything, so this outcome seemed reasonable as an autopilot choice.
A reminder that while Kei has proposed being Pantsā's extrajudicial enforcer in the aftermath of Operation Murdersnout, Pantsā has neither approved nor disapproved of this proposal.
I'll be honest, i see this as an absolute win. I also find Taxiarchos threats hilarious. What are the Pangolings going to do exactly on the diplomatic front? They are more poisonous than us, they burned any soft power they had in the diplomatic arena with the Pangolin Wars, the fact that will talk badly of us is just going to make the other clans curious of what is happening.
Taxiarchos decided to challenge us in the only place in which the Pangolin are hilarious outmatched by anyone.
