Scroll 1 - The Master Craftsman's Tea Vessel

[Grognardsw]

I was assuming the shrine. Are there guards at night? We could meet there and then go somewhere else.

[jemmus]

The nakama hasn't seen guards or anyone else at the shrine at night.

[Marullus]

I said in the other thread (where we learned about the wooded maple grove behind the estate) that we should retroactively adjust that it was out escape route.

Back to the shrine also makes sense as an abort plan... we didn't find a better option after Kaida failed her roll.

[Grognardsw]

The wooded grove behind the estate sounds good, avoiding the guard checks and stealth rolls we would fail in getting to the shrine. Are the trees tall enough to get a view over the north wall of the compound?

[jemmus]

Yes, they're tall enough to see over the wall.

[Rex]

The wooded grove behind the estate sounds good, avoiding the guard checks and stealth rolls we would fail in getting to the shrine. Are the trees tall enough to get a view over the north wall of the compound?

Agreed.

[jemmus]

Jinsei arrives at the designated meeting spot in the little grove and is glad to find Kaida waiting there. The friends, classmates, fairly distance cousins, and nakama mates silently nod to each other and smile. Fuma, with the same relationships to the others, soon also arrives, and does the same. Kaida looks into Fuma's and Jinsei's eyes, asking for results. Success? Not yet? Imminent danger? Failure, and abort and return to the Village? She makes the common and considered rather low-class sign in Nippon for money, with the same questioning look. It's the nakama's sign for Minoru's name.

The boy's name Minoru means "wealthy." The Japan gesture for money is like the American OK sign. But held flat at around navel level, and always with a knowing and meaningful look in one's eye.
Minoru has a post to do to leave the mansion grounds and get to the rendezvous point. You guys can wait for the post, or RP your signing or speaking to each other here if you like. It's around 60 yards from the nearest building/ residences, and their lights are out, probably for the night.

[Grognardsw]

Jinsei signed to Minoru they will meet in the woods north of the compound. Then he slipped away with Fuma to the woods, looking for the biggest tree which was the discussed meeting spot with the others.

Jinsei is also there?

[jemmus]

Derp, I had the names confused. Jinsei arrived a little before Fuma. Minoru's not there yet.

[jemmus]

The nakama mates in the little maple copse hear a cat's meow. The "Return to the rendezvous point" call. Minoru steps forward and joins the group. From his demeanor, it seems that had little trouble exiting the mansion grounds and arriving here.

[Grognardsw]

Jinsei whispered: “Why the abort?”

[Rex]

Fuma

"What happened?"

[ffilz]

Just typing in my phone so hard to go into detail.

Minoru will relate how the alarm was sounding about intrusion with the dead dog spotted. Better to get out unspotted.

Minoru is surprised the tea set was now found in the time Funa and Jinsei were in the house.

[Marullus]

"Did you check all the cupboards? Did you find locks?" Kaida asks. "If there truly were none, then perhaps it is on display..."

"The new year is coming - his ego will wish to displayit as a treasure in such company. Perhaps we try to get hired as extra help for the event..."

[jemmus]

I'll summarize for Minoru, who observed and listened from the roof at 6 on the map.

-A young male and a young female servant ran toward the Kaida's Smokes of Nai with buckets of water. When it ended, they and the guards found no ashes from a fire, and suspected magic. The guards wondered why the barking dog had gone quiet.
-The mistress of the house sent the more junior guard running to bring Takeda bushi, the other to find the dog. Kaida says that a patrol that had passed in the street south of the house a few minutes before. The more senior guard (with a lantern on a stick) found the skewered dog soon before Fuma and Jinsei went over the north wall. He went west between the north wall of the mansion and the grounds' outer wall, swinging the lantern and looking.
-A Takeda samurai with a dai-kyu and dai-sho swords arrived. He was leading four ashigaru with yari and katana. The guards led them to the Smokes of Nai site and the dead dog. The samurai questioned the guards about previous intrusions, and If the residents practiced magic. They answered to the first that there had only been some kids filching cherries, and not that they knew of for the second. The samurai assigned the junior guard to guard the west of the house all night, the other the east, and two ashigaru to the north and south.
-Before the bushi started moving to their assigned areas, Minoru quietly departed and moved over the roof to the far west end of the roof, used his climbing device to descended near the cherry tree, and used it again to scale the west wall. He feels that his ninjutsu was successful and he was undetected throughout.

The meeting point in the little copse is around 50 yards NE of the mansion's grounds. To the E at the same distance are the back sides of two-story structures that look typical lower floor shop and upper floor residence buildings.

To the north, outside the copse, lie the patchwork squares of flooded rice fields separated by raised grassy bunds. The young shinobi know that in around a month the peasant workers of the city of Kofu will begin the hard, stooped over work of transplanting hundreds of thousands of rice seedling into the submerged mud of the fields. Rice is the source of wealth in Nippon, and Kofu's rich, flat bottom land flooded and filled by the surrounding mountains is a treasure. But only a samurai or a Buddhist temple may own a rice field-- the merchant Tanaka, for all his wealth, can only own houses on non-arable land, gold and silver, and other portable treasures. This night, the fields should be deserted and quiet. Except for maybe the strange cry of the goisagi hunchbacked brown heron. Jinsei's proposed call for "I need a potty break" that caused so much giggling when the nakama were students back in school.

It's the top half of the Hour of the Serpent* in the little stand of trees. But it seems to the young ninja that the past quarter hour has been like a whole day. The rain clouds in the start to break up and move toward the East. Tomorrow night's Moon will be at half. And New Year's Eve, when all of people of the country will be in their home towns with their families-- will be just four nights away.

*Around 9:45 PM. Past the Takeda clan's posted street curfew in Kofu. Please take two days' rations off of your PCs' sheets.

[Grognardsw]

In all that was described in post #556, how long in time was that? It feels like we got less done inside than I would have though in that time, considering the distances the guards had to run around. How long is a turn, and the distance one can run in a turn?

"Did you check all the cupboards? Did you find locks?" Kaida asks. "If there truly were none, then perhaps it is on display..."

“The room had five closets on the west wall and five on the east wall. Fuma opened the two northernmost closets on the east wall. One was locked. Jinsei and Fuma opened the two northernmost closets on the east wall. One was locked.” explained Jinsei. “It apparently takes more time then we thought to search.”

“Given factors will remain the same, if not worsen due to their increased caution, I am uncertain how to complete the mission,” said Jinsei with shame.

“Perhaps Kaida’s idea of getting in as help can be tried. Or we literally burn a wing down and in the chaos search faster.” Jinsei said , desperate in his ideas.

[jemmus]

From Fuma and Jinsei entering the bedroom to climbing back over the wall - 156 seconds (2.5 minutes). The guard ran to and spotted the dead dog 36 seconds later. (Sorry, I initially said he did that as the ninja were going over the wall).
From the woman sending the guards to look for the dog and bring the Takeda patrol to the patrol reaching the dead dog - Around 12 minutes.

[jemmus]

Fuma, Kaida, Jinsei and Minoru rest and quietly discuss plans in a little stand of trees near the mansion. Jinsei is clearly frustrated at having lost the efforts of a second night, with the bedroom and four of its closets explored, with six remaining. But it seems that they were not detected. Though the skewered dog and the magical smoke leaving no ashes were.

It is the nakama's second night in Kofu. The first night having been quietly spent at the shrine of Hachiman, Shinto kami of war. Tomorrow morning they must check in at the registrar's office again. And if they stay another night tomorrow, the next day they must present proof of having stayed at an inn or a registered residence.

The nakama also knows that three nights from now it will be New Year's Eve. From a series of short lectures by old Hari-sensei ("Needle"-sensei), they know that by dark of New Year's Eve all of Nippon will be quiet, and the streets will be deserted, but for those travelers late arriving to gather with family. And for the few others who can't or won't return to the most important family gathering of the year. If the merchant wants to entertain guests at the mansion, it would probably be a night or two before New Year's Eve. He couldn't expect guests to be away from their own families on the Eve night.

The nakama also knows that in the last days before New Years Eve, the streets of Kai will be bustling. The more wealthy will be shopping for food for the feasting and new clothing and goods for the year. The poorer will be offering their services for hauling, delivering, laundering, housekeeping and groundskeeping. Because every household in Nippon must be immaculately clean, orderly and in good repair for the opening of the new year. (Kaida comments that she saw no disorder or uncleanliness in the mansion, other than the pile of sawed tree branches outside the grounds southeastern wall, and the workmen seen hauling brush yesterday. But the mistress had apologized for the condition of the mansion, saying that they were "having renovations done"-- though she saw no evidence of active renovation work being done in the house). Men in not more than loincloths and poles balanced by two baskets on their shoulders will hasten along the streets, deliver their goods and accept the payments, and eagerly rush off on foot to whatever the next destination. Further, old, worn-out things must be thrown away. Mostly after dark, the less fortunate of the city will walk the streets of the city, hauling their picks of the discarded items away. They would naturally target the wealthier neighborhoods first.

New Years Day will be a day of quiet feasting with the family on the many small special dishes called o-sechi ryori. Children will be given gifts of money (if the household can afford it). In the evening and until midnight, they will visit the Shinto shrines of Kofu to pay their respects to the kami and ask for their blessings going forward. Hari-sensei had said, "If the local samurai have imposed a curfew, they will probably lift it for that night. They probably wouldn't dare to offend the kami on New Year's Day. And it could turn the people against them.

It's quiet in the little copse, and the paper windows of the two nearby store-residences have gone dark. The young members of the Kumo clan can't see above the white and gray tile roofed walls of the mansion. If its rooms are still lit or being searched, they cannot know from here. But they here no sounds from it carrying to them. The ground is strewn with damp leaves fallen last fall, lying over earth soggy from last night's rain. But this kind of place is like a cozy bed for the young members of the clan. Sleeping outdoors in the rough-- across all seasons-- is among their earliest memories.

[Grognardsw]

"Should we enter and search while the family is out for New Years?" suggested Jinsei.

[Rex]

Fuma

"At this point it seems the best option but after our recent foray I would expect them to have increased there defenses considerably."