Scroll 1 - The Master Craftsman's Tea Vessel

[jemmus]

Kaida silently watches as the patrol of five ashigaru and one samurai of low rank go by.

From his vantage point on the mansion's tile roof, Minoru sees the tips of the ashigaru's long yari go by above the compound's southern wall. He watches the guards' house and the grounds around it. There is a light inside the house, but no guards are to be seen.

Jinsei and Fuma stand outside the mansion's wood and paper shoji walls and see no light from inside shining through. Jinsei climbs onto the wooden walkway outside the walls makes a tiny cut into the paper and looks in. The room is completely dark, and no sounds can be heard. He lifts a shoji out of it rail and removes it as smoothly and quietly as he can.

We need a ninjutsu roll for Jinsei to climb onto the walkway silently and a deftness roll for removing the shoji Need a ninjutsu roll from Fuma to climb onto the walkway.

[Marullus]

Once the guards have passed, Kaida assumes her Nakima must surely need the distraction now, signal or no. Hopefully her napping negligence has caused them no harm.

She walks as a gakusha quietly on the street, pausing near the gate only a moment, but long enough to kindle the smoke breath of her dragon blood within the guards shack. She then continues on to the next alley...

Smokes of Nai (BCS 11) [1d20]=7

[Rex]

Fuma

Ninjitsu [1d20]=6

[Grognardsw]

Jinsei Ninjitsu 10 [1d20]=12, Deftness 25/9 [1d20]=9

[jemmus]

Jinsei silently ascends onto the columned walkway outside the mansion's master bedroom. Fuma silently does the same. The forward ninja lifts the shoji up from its bottom rails, angles it outward, and places it leaning against its companion shoji on the external walkway. An aperture, two yards wide, is open to the dark, quiet space of the wide room beyond. Jinsei and Fuma silently exchange glances.

On the corner of the roof above, Minoru quietly breathes, listens, watches, and waits. It seems to him that the mansion is not yet asleep. But perhaps it's the end of the day, and preparations are being made. He watches the bobbing spears of the Takeda patrol pass into being obscured the southwestward angular peaks of this same great tiled roof. He wonders at what kind of vast wealth could have caused to be made such a structure.

After dozing off in the alley, Kaida gets an inkling that she never did really did, in lazy negligence of duty to the nakama, clan, and mother, go to sleep. She's wide awake, and focused on the here and now. She hears the sounds of a Takeda foot patrol approaching, and knows exactly what they will do. March past her spot in the alley, and keep going on their way. She smiles to herself. But... "The kakuri-yo... The Hidden World. The world of the Real, and not the world of Illusion. Of terrible and brutal Nippon." She ponders and wonders, wonders and ponders. Which all happens in but a slice of a day in this world of Nippon. The yurei ghost of the old handmaid. Her unresolved love for her lover in Kyoto. And possibly, the yurei's great, but pure and innocent, presence in the kakuri-yo.... "If you will take me to Kyoto, I will aid you.... If you will please help me, I will guide you..."

But Kaida knows that a yurei in the kakuri-yo, among the demons, kami, gods, and other such denizens, soon fade away. Into kind of a horror. A monster for children's dreams, in Nippon. But this ghost seemed just a sad and lonely girl asking for help and offering help.

The dog has stopped barking and gone silent for a while now. The time for the unseen friends of the classmates nakama-- Fuma, Jinsei, Minoru-- to do and do quicky should be about right. She draws down the Smokes of Nai, and let's them loose across the wall into the area of the guards' house.

Atop the roof, a cricket of the quiet night chirps. It's a particularly loud chirp. Followed by a more quiet one.

Minoru sees two ashigaru bushi run out of the watched guard house and cast their eyes around the grounds and house.
What? Smoke? Fire!
-Crap! What did you leave burning?
I didn't leave anything burning. You know that! Are you blind?
-Well, alright. Go check it out. Oh, now you've roused the misses and we're in for a night....
[A hideous shriek from the lady of the house inside of it.]

[Grognardsw]

Phase Two: Breaking and Entering

Time: 10:15. It could be sooner or later depending on how fast dog appears.

J & F break into master bedroom …

At 10:45, M signals K (a small rock thrown from roof over east wall where K is?). At this point, K casts smoke spell to fake fire at guard post. We don’t want it to go off too early.

During “fire” diversion, J & F who are now inside search bedroom closets, etc…

If we find teacup, it goes in box. J & M
escape from fastest route possible. If chased, split up to divert enemy and cause confusion. M could help if necessary.

Agreed upon tactic: Goal is get teacup out, even if its placing on top of wall and continuing on so if caught we don’t lose cup. It could be searched for later by another ninja.

Hiding spots during escape: 1) roofs; 2) along stream / pond bottoms with bamboo breather stick

GM question: In reviewing J sheet, there are some Ki Powers including the Stalking Shadow. Does he have those, or is that at higher level?

Jinsei was glad the ninja’s timing of ‘phase two - entry’ was on schedule, before the house master would retire to his bedroom and make searching more problematic. Jinsei immediately began searching for the teacup, looking in obvious places of display for honored objects before moving to the closets.

Jinsei signed for Fuma to look in the closets and for secret compartments.

[Rex]

Fuma

Fuma will check the closets.

[Marullus]

Kaida feels a pang as her thoughts stray back to the Yurei, but it is not in her power. She wouldn't know how to transport a ghost if she wanted to. She has not the freedom to go to Kyoto, not with direction of the elders. To bring a yurei back to the village to request a trip to Kyoto would be... well. She best not think on it.

No, they have a mission. Her nakima completes it now. The elders will be most pleased to learn all they discovered of the villa... including of the yurei. It will be their wisdom to decide what is next. They may even prefer the yurei to grow angry and torment the greedy merchant in the villa. It is not her place to supercede their judgment...

[jemmus]

Fuma and Jinsei hear from a room yards to the south a woman yelling, Fire! Fire in the guard house! Oh, those stupid peasants have started a fire! Mati-ichi! Sanae! Atsuko! Carry buckets of water from the laundry to the guard house! Hurry! Children, stay in the house! Closer voices to the southeast answer Hai! in response and there's the sound of activity.[/ooc]

Jinsei and Fuma enter the wide bedroom. It’s quiet and no lit lantern illuminates it. But by the faint light of the Moon through the paper panes of the shoji, the trained shinobi can see an arm’s length before them. They remember from Kaida’s map that the room is approximately 20 yards east to west and 10 yards north to south. She also said that the eastern and western walls of the room had fine hardwood sliding closet shoji, which, typical of Nippon, were solid with no fragile paper panes. And that she said the eastern ones had locks, but the western ones none. And further, that there was a bathroom in the bedroom, and that beautiful standing screens divided a corner of the room from the rest.

Kaida hears the two guards reacting to the magical Smokes of Nai, as well as the merchant's wife yelling inside the house.
Coughing, I can't go in there, there's too much smoke! I can't breathe and I can't see anything!
-Bear it! If the guardhouse burns down, it will be our jobs! Look where the lantern was!
It's silent for moment, then there's violent coughing. Can't! I can't even breathe in there![
It's silent for another moment.
-That fire smoke really came pouring suddenly.... Where's Kuro?
Cough. Hmm... He should be barking at the fire. Is he too afraid of fire? Dogs always bark at fire!

Minoru faintly hears a woman yelling from the southern end of the house. He sees the two ashigaru in the distance, one gesturing toward the guardhouse. The other runs into the billowing smoke, but after only a second, runs back out and bends over in a fit of coughing. They discuss for a moment and look toward the area around the northern wall.

This was Turn 1
Fuma and Jinsei can see in the dark for 1 yd (1 yd/character’s level). Which means they can't see each other if they're more than a yd apart. If they use ninjutsu and are successful, they can't hear each other either either, no matter what the distance.
We’re in Tactical Time Scale, which is variable. In this case, it’s 12 seconds per turn. The ninja can search 2 yards per turn.
The Smoke of Nai spell's duration is 1d6 six second Detailed Time Scale turns. [1d6]=5 5 turns. 30 seconds. Since we're in 12-second Tactical Time Scale turns, 2.5 turns.
Which closets does Fuma search?
From the room’s description, where does Jinsei start his search?
Need ninjutsu rolls to move and search silently. The shinobi can search twice as fast if they don't care about using ninjutsu.
Need Detection of Hidden Things rolls (Wit STs) from Fuma and Jinsei for this turn. Ninja roll at twice their level, so at +2 for success. And +2 for the general nature of the merchant's and his wife's spacious urban bedroom.

[Marullus]

They are enchanted with Fire Eyes, so can see 30' for one hour.

[jemmus]

Oh, thanks! Sorry, I completely forgot. Jinsei and Fuma can see 10 yds all around the room. That's quite a lot of it, but not all of it. But at least they may be able see each other most of the time, depending on their actions.

(Re)Enter the Dragon!

[Rex]

Fuma

Just checking, the room is really 84 feet by 42 feet or 3,528 square feet? That seems massive. Twice the size of my 2 story house.

[Grognardsw]

Jinsei started his search at 12 o’clock with a perimeter scan for any shelves and display cases, figuring a prized tea cup would logically be displayed for enjoyment.

Hearing the voices elsewhere in the house, Jinsei figured Kaida’s diversion had been executed. In that small period of distraction, the ninja gambled that their light footfalls wouldn’t be heard (no ninjitsu in favor of speed at the moment.)

Jinsei Wit (10) Detection at +4 [1d20+4]=14+4=18 Or is that 14-4 = 10?

If the tea cup was not in an obvious place, Jinsei searched the closet opposite the one Fuma was searching. He kept an ear open for voices or noises from without.

[jemmus]

I botched the math converting from Japanese ken to yards. The room is 20 yds E-W and 10 yds N-S, so still a big room. The ninja can see 30' (10 yds).

Jinsei Wit is 10, which divided by 3 plus his level gives him a saving throw of 4. Plus 4 bonus = 8 or under to save.

[Rex]

Fuma

Fuma searches the closet. Going for speed over caution with the noises outside.

[jemmus]

There are closets on the east wall and the west wall. Kaida said that the one on the east wall have locks. Which side does Fuma search first?

[Rex]

Fuma

Fuma will take the locked ones.

[jemmus]

Really sorry for the delay, I was waiting for a post. I didn't get a notification about Rex's post and there was no magenta box unread message display.

Fuma quickly searches the east wall and sees the sliding hardwood doors Kaida described. He tests the first one to the north and finds that the panel smoothly slides to the side. Inside it is fragant with the smell of cosmetics and perfumed oils. There's a fine lacquered rack with combs and brushes of different shapes and sizes. There are hand mirrors of various sizes. And colored ceramic flasks, and a partitioned box with various kinds of cakes of soap. There's a richly lacquered and ornamented box about a third of a yard square, but too shallow to hold a tea vessel. And another around half the length and width, but tall enough to hold such a vessel. If the teacup is here, it's not in obvious sight in this closet. Fuma quickly tests the next panel, but this one doesn't budge.

Jinsei hastily looks around the room and finds a tokonoma alcove in the great bedroom.

To one side are three beautiful women's kimono hanging from racks with sleeves outstretched on poles. On the tokonoma's floor are beautiful glazed pottery vase holding a not especially skillful ikebana flower arrangement. And daikon giant white radish and a stoppered sake flask. Offerings to the honored deceased, of course. Adjoining the main tokonoma is a secondary one for display, with three ceramic dishes beside it are obviously of fine artistry. But they don't match the description of tea vessel that is the object of the mission. Of that, he sees no obvious sign.

Both young ninja operatives know that what they've seen so far in this room probably represents more wealth than they have ever seen in their lifetimes on The Mountain. Sale of even a few of the items could feed the clan for weeks or months, or provide valuable capital for its future missions.

Kaida waits in the dark, listening to the talk of the rough-talking peasant guards. She hopes the nakama comrades to enter the mansion and perform the role of the Snake are already well on their way.

Minoru on the roof watches the guards and keenly listens to catch their speech. He knows that Jinsei and Fuma have limited time until Kaida's spell expires and a guard, or both, come to look for the dog.

Actions?

[Rex]

Fuma

Fuma tries to pick the locked panel.

Pick Locks [1d20]=6

[jemmus]

What is the nakama's meeting place/rendezvous point? Please remember that Kaida is not welcome at the shrine after her henjutsu failure. Map of Kofu in the Game Setting thread: viewtopic.php?p=664968#p664968