Chapter 3: Commerce and Bandits----------
Io sees the farmer acting paranoid, throwing yells and jeers into his direction.
"Come out here you coward!" He yells this, swinging his knife around. He isn't very smart, as he stands in one place while a skilled archer attacks him. Io silently knocked another arrow into place. He reoriented his target, now focusing on the man's left chest, directly at his heart. He pulled tension into the bow, closing one eye to increase precision. And then, he let the arrow loose.
(2 vs. 4)
What was with his accuracy today? This arrow comes close to hitting the man, but only grazes his shirt. The man roars and charges into the tree where Io hides. The farmer looks up.
"Aha! I see you now, and I'm going to catch you and slit your throat!" He sheaths his knife and hoists himself on the tree trunk, and starts scaling it. Io buries his face into his palm for a moment, as he can not believe he is witnessing such ignorance.
Taking this opportunity to finish the job, Io removes his pistol. The farmer grunts as he gets higher and higher into the tree. Io aims his pistol, a clean shot into the skull, down through the man's body. A guaranteed fatality. He waited until the farmer was just at the right elevation. And then cocked the pistol. The farmer looked up and stated,
"Huh? What are you holding?" (5 vs. 6)
The bullet flies straight at the man, misses his skull, and would go into his torso or hip..but it
ricochets.Off.His.Fucking.Knife. The farmer gasps as he is hit, almost losing his balance.
"Aaaahhh! How could you shoot me! I will destroy you!" He resumes climbing, getting very close to Io's branch. Io seriously considers ripping out this man's intestines and then strangling him with them.
Name: Sarawa Io (Last, First)
Gender: Male
Age: 22
Clan: Ruita (Neutral)
Appearance: A man at 6'0", he is not physically muscled but lean. He is built for speed and dodging.
Biography: Io was born to the family of Sarawa. The Sarawa family never really served Ruita, but in the woods they thrived. Modern day ninjas they always fought for their own needs which could mean taking jobs for any clan, or being bandits. They did whatever was necessary to better themselves. Io grew into this family and accepted the traditions. Io knows no master now and has trained for what he needs.. Io intends to write his own destiny wherever it takes him. He simply wants a purpose.
Attributes:
+: Agility, Stealth, Instinct
-: Strength, Charisma, Luck
Primary Weapon: Bow (Yumi)
Secondary Weapon: Pistol (Bashido)
Inventory: Traditional Kimono, Sandals, 1800 Yen
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Nikolae sees that the train prices would eat up what money he had brought here. He says to the ticket-master,
"Hmm, that's a bit expensive. I'll come back later." With that, he departs. He decides to go back to check the different areas of employment he found before.
Nikolae founds the ox-driver who was searching for a bodyguard before.
"What are the details of this job?" Nikolae asks the man. The driver responds,
"I want to get back to my home village in Shutomo. But alas! Highwaymen armed with swords and guns travel the road, and hidden Imperialists hide in the woods, ready to ambush anyone." ((Last turn I made a mistake, I said he was scared of the Shogunate, not the Imperialists. Sorry.))
"It will be a 2-full-day journey. I'll pay you 4200, that's all I have...actually, I'll throw in a weeks worth of food too." Nikolae takes in the information, stroking his chin.
"Well, I'll consider it." The two men wave off, the driver saying
"Please do consider!"Nikolae looks around if there are any other jobs. While not really a job, he finds a task that pays outside a Fur Trading building. The paper says,
Valuable Animals from Forest Wanted. We will pay good for full corpse. Payments:
Red Fox (3000 Yen)
Silk Deer (5000 Yen)
Black Bear (8500 Yen)
Name: Nikolae Kriegsmacher
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Clan: Kotowa (Neutral)
Appearance: 5'9", long blonde hair tied in a ponytail and clear blue eyes. His body is muscled and built for agility without forsaking strength. The young man usually wears leather pants, a loose white long-sleeved shirt topped by a black vest with a silver pocket watch attached to it and resilient brown leather boots. Due to his fencing classes, he took the habit of donning a chail mail under his clothing.
Biography: Inheritance? Nikolae had no need for such things, especially because his older brother would receive all of it... Anyway, hailing from the Kriegsmacher family from the Prussian area of Germany, Nikolae was given a large sum of gold and convinced to leave the country or face the consequences of a struggle for the ownership of all the family's possessions. The youngster always wanted some adventure, and the prospect of not having to worry about poison in his food and assassins hiding in his bedroom seduced him, and to Japan he went. He is almost always smiling and his intelligence shifts along different areas, causing him to appear to be rather stupid sometimes.
He had fencing classes and carries a longsword along his rifle, which always has an attached bayonet.
Primary Weapon: Rifle (Dafeinher w/ Bayonet)
Secondary Weapon: Sword (Wrustbalgr)
Attributes:
+: Strength, Endurance, Agility
-: Stealth, Intelligence, Charisma
Inventory: Chain Mail, Brown Leather Pants, Loose White-sleeved Shirt, Black Vest, Silver Pocket-watch, Brown Leather Boots, 80 German Gold Marks (Equal to 2000 Yen)
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Zubo received his command.
"Yes Shimizu-San." He barks out to the unit,
"Keep firing!" The soldiers go back to pointing their rifles over the rock edge, shooting more into the Line Infantry. Shimizu worked on unjamming his rifle. (2) He grits his teeth and tries wriggling the trigger, but it seems to be stuck very well. He sighs and works his way a bit away from his unit.
He peaks his head over the rock wall, hidden from the Infantry. There are many bodies on the ground, and more crying out in pain. Shimizu estimates 1/3 of all troops received causalities. Still, that leaves about 80 Line Infantry left. His unit might be better shots, but the Line Infantry could be a serious threat if they come within sword-range.
Name: Shimizu Katsuo (Last name, first name).
Gender: Male.
Age: 23.
Clan: Shutomo (Shogunate).
Appearance: A short, agile man, Katsuo has short dark hair and blue eyes. He stands at 5' 5'', and isn't too muscular.
Biography: Katsuo was born into the Shimizu family as their second-eldest son. He enlisted into the army as soon as he could, and trained as a sharpshooter in his natal Shutomo. He's traveled far and wide, and as a result knows some foreign languages, like Chinese and English. Now that the war between the Shogunate and the Imperialists started, he sided with the progressists, and will do nearly anything to further their goals.
Primary Weapon: Rifle (Charleston Scoped)
Secondary Weapon: Knife (Kirite)
Attributes:
+: Agility, Stealth, Intelligence, Dexterity, Luck
-: Strength, Endurance, Will, Toughness, Instinct
Inventory: Sharpshooter Uniform, Helmet, Leather Boots, 1500 Yen
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"Certainly!" Canterbury turns to his colleagues.
"Does anyone have a company pamphlet?" The men ruffle through their briefcases, until one carries it out. He hands it over to Horokomoi. Horokomoi opens it:
He sees a picture of a man standing on a naval ship, peering out into the distance, and the ship holds a giant British flag. The title says in Japanese:
Harbuckle: Modernizing the World, One Piece of Metal at a Time! He opens the pamphlet up. The first page is a statement that the company delivers the highest quality British made industrial machines to anywhere around the world. The rest of the pamphlet displays all sorts of interesting objects. There is the 'Mechanical Washing Machine', a mechanized machine which would rotate clothes in water over a fire, claiming to wash them automatically. The 'Motorcar' is a carriage like machine that is fueled by steam or gasoline. Finally, there are pages filled with weapons, including Mortars. The pamphlet claims Mortars can shoot explosives shells across an entire field, and can destroy an entire military unit.
The Mortars are priced at 20 million Yen for a unit of 4. The Orogami household has 300 million Yen, with about 80 million more in assets.
Name: Horokomoi Orogami
Gender: Male
Age: 30
Clan: Tokugawa
Appearance: A man average in stature, Orogami has brown eyes and his hair twisted back in a bun.
Biography: Orogami was born into a long line of Imperialists, but he decided that Japan needed a change. Since then he has lived in the capital as a noble, but he still has some imperial traditions.
Primary Weapon: Sword (Royal Katana)
Secondary Weapon: Pistol (Martelez)
Attributes:
+: Intelligence, Will, Charisma, Luck
-: Endurance, Perception, Toughness, Stealth
Inventory: Royal Kimono, Sandals, 4000 Yen
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The leader smirks back.
"Hah! I am only seeing if the so called great Satoshi is really a Samurai, or just a made-up folks tale!"As he says this, the bandits continue to close in at Matsuo. Matsuo, grips his spear in preparation. One of the knife-wielding bandits lunges forward, and Matsuo takes this opportunity to attack. (3 vs. 5) Matsuo miscalculates and his thrust goes past the bandit! The bandit slices his knife at Matsuo, (2 vs. 5) but Matsuo expertly blocks the attack with the shaft of his Spear.
The farmer with the Kama sneaks up on the knife-wielding bandit's side and goes for a sneak attack. (6 vs. 1) He buries one Kama into the bandit's ribs, and a scream of pain ensues. As the bandit buckles, the farmer brings the other Kama onto the bandit's head, silencing him. The other farmer attacks a bandit, and swings his Bo into the bandit's head, sending him rolling away unconscious.
With two bandits down, the remaining ones start to lose morale. Their leader laughs.
"Ha ha! Matsuo, it looks you've been outskilled by two peasants!"Name: Matsuo Satoshi
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Clan: Banke
Appearance: A Giant of a man with a muscular body honed through years of training and small conflicts. Despite taking part in a number of duels and minor battles Satoshi remains unscarred. He wears his hair extremely long giving rise to a local myth that he will only shave it when he is defeated in battle
Biography: A legend among his people Satoshi's boisterous and warrior like nature have seen him become a popular figure among the Imperialist small-folk and samurai alike. He has a great love of battle and prefers to fight with traditional methods, though he does not look down on the men who have adapted to more modern ways. Satoshi is not well liked by a number of the higher ranked imperial officals due to his brashness but his fighting ability is well respected, meaning that while he may never have a command of his own he is still a potent weapon when simply pointed towards the enemy.
While Satoshi would prefer Japan to remain true to its traditional ways he does not disrespect the Shogunate and sees them as a worthy opponent who have presented him with the opportunity of a life-time to prove himself.
Primary Weapon: Spear (Yari)
Secondary Weapon: Sword (Doragon)
Attributes:
+: Strength, Toughness, Endurance, Charisma
-: Agility, Perception, Stealth, Intelligence
Inventory: Samurai Kimono, Sandals, 1300 Yen
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Akira goes into the Post Office.
"I'm going after Boto Kiawa. Where was he last scene?" The man at the front says,
"Oh, Boto the thief? Well, I last heard of him in Kyule just up the road. Be careful, he's a cunning one." Akira heads off to the general store. He spends 500 Yen getting supplies for the journey, with 2500 Yen left over. ((Sorry for doing this automatically, but I thought you would buy this stuff anyways.)) He sees they sell things like Tinderboxes, Venom Antidote and Cigarettes, and he makes a note of this.
Akira heads over to the bar last, to pick up some of his old acquaintances. He walks into the smoky air, and he hears them having a good time. Smiling, he walks over to them and announces,
"I'm going on a bounty after a thief named Boto Kiawa. Does anyone want to come along?" (3) They all decline, except one guy. He wears peasant guards, is averagely built, and wields a Tanto, a knife that is like the smaller version of a Katana. "If you're willing to split, I'll come along."
Name: Akira Hiroto
Gender: Male
Age: 24
Clan: Shutomo (Neutral)
Appearance: He appears well educated, with a runners body and short hair.
Biography: Hiroto was the son of a minor lord, he looked the part but certainly didn't feel that way. His lessons bored him and people held no more interest than animals to him. However, like animals he enjoyed torturing them as well. Eventually, his dark experiments were discovered and he was locked up. Being the son of a lord however, he got a light sentence. However, while imprisoned he killed his cellmate and was going to be executed when a shogunate raid showed up, and Hiroto offered his services to the leader of the raid. He was taken to the Shutomo, and a new chapter in his saga begun.
Primary Weapon: Rifle
Secondary Weapon: Sword
Attributes:
+: Agility, Intelligence, Charisma
-: Toughness, Stealth, Luck