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[Devastator]

Beat! Beat!

You decide to get things over with, and take some direct action.  Life is too short to take weeks investigating things.  You'll get this done with and let the chips fall where they may.

Having watched him for days, you set an ambush on the way home.  You climb into an abandoned shop, and unbar the door.  The place is mostly empty save for a couple insensitate addicts upstairs.  You have no trouble evading them.

This evening, however, something is different.  There's the man, and he's walking with another person, one of the workers at the smelter.

Unfortunately, you noticed that after grabbing the metallurgist, sword out, trying to tip him off-balance and pull him back through the doorway.

(3+2+1= 6 vs 5-1=4)

(6)

He is pulled off his feet, and goes down in the doorway.  You don't manage to get him all the way in, but you're mostly out of view of the street.  The other man shouts, and tries to come in after his friend.  He's framed by the doorway, and it's a short, sweaty, balding clerk, who shudders visibly upon seeing the sword.

..and flees, crying out for aid.

You pull the metallurgist in and bar the door.  There will be guards, but you should have a moment.

"Where is it."

The metallurgist obviously knows what you are talking about, and you can see that he's recognized you.  He responds by trying to burst up and knock you down.

(6+1+1 = 8 vs 12-1=11)

He explodes up quickly and charges head-first, and you stumble into an obstruction when trying to dodge.  The two of you get tangled and go down together.

(9 vs 5-1=4)

You both hit the floor, but things are not equal.  You maneuver and land on top of him, going down with a bang.  Quickly, you get back on your feet, and are still between him and the door, sword in hand.  You're winded from the collision, but still pretty much fine.  You suspect he's in similar condition, if perhaps a bit worse.  It looks like nobody got cut, which was pretty lucky.

"Where is it?"

"I can't tell you.  They'll shut me down.  Or the triads will hurt me.  You know what they do to rats"

"The triads are the ones who got you caught.  And if the mandarins want you shut down, you're going down.  You could get arrested, and they could tear your business down brick by brick.  Or your family."

"Or you could tell me and I'm the worst thing that has to happen to you."


"Alright.  There's a couple of buckets hanging on a rope halfway down the south chimney.  There's two of them, hanging one over the other.  You can pull them up from the top.  It gets picked up Wednesday sometime during the night."

Once that's been said, you bolt.  You don't think he's lying.


No actions remain this week, but do you wish to return the information to your employer?  Pick up the buckets and bring them in?  Keep them for yourself?

[syvarris]

((Oh, this updated?   Yaaay.))

Just return the information.  Taking it isn't proof of where we got it, and we really shouldn't get mixed up with illegal goods like this.  I know we don't have any more actions, but if possible we should watch the building at night so he doesn't go remove the stuff himself.

I read the IRC logs, so take the paktong to our employer.

[Devastator]

(There are risks involved in taking the paktong, but they're more along the lines of "risks realated to getting accosted while carrying large amounts of valuables."  Leaving them would have the risk of them not being there tomorrow.)

Will update in a few hours.

[Egan_BW]

Yeh, grab the shit.

[Devastator]

I read the IRC logs, so take the paktong to our employer.[/b]

Yeh, grab the shit.

You go back to the building, climb the fence, and sneak in.  There's a handy pipe up the wall to where you need to go to get the paktong.  You haul the buckets up, and they're quite heavy, there's about twenty kilos here.  You can only guess at it's worth across the sea, but certainly several thousand silver.  Probably gold, even.  Distracted by the wealth, your grip slips lowering the buckets to the ground, and small ingots spill out across the ground, making a loud racket.  Fortunately, nobody comes, and you clean up, and manage to make it all the way home without any more interruptions.


Your rest is not calm.  You see a darkened ocean, under a dark sky, with a steady wind, from the ocean towards the land, rocky cliffsides with hills behind.  On the land you can see a small foreign village, with a couple of fishing boats moored at a few small docks, the houses well away from the sea, above the narrow beach.  On the hills above is a small mansion, obviously for some local notable, with walls made from the same gray stone of the cliffs.  It's a poor place, and you aren't certain why this would be shown to you.

The weather is changeable, with warm sunshine mixed with sudden heavy showers and some thunder.  The city is more steady, with little happening, or those who know of the current news keeping mum.  The Emperor's Birthday is next week, and you hear the navy will be on display.  There will also be the traditional fireworks, as well as several more local expressions of patriotism.  These might include things such as the presentation of gifts to the state, soldiers and officials swearing oaths, combat arms demonstrations, archery and gunnery competitions, etcetera.  The city is mostly a naval base, so you'd expect that to be the primary focus.

Your work goes swimmingly.  Your familiarity with the city is paying dividends, as over the past months of running back and forth, you've found many shortcuts between places, and always know the best direction to go.

(Gained Urban Navigation skill)

Your training, on the other hand, goes poorly.  You pull a muscle early in the week, and the injury retards your progress significantly.  It's not persistant, but little progress was made.

Finally, but certainly not least, you return to your handler with the buckets.  She looks grimly at you. After a moment, her grim face melts, and she pulls out a purse, and counts out fifteen silver coins.

"That was a little messy, but that's fine.  I'll make sure any special work in the future is more in line with that.  In fact, I might have something else for you now.  You okay with hurting people or just threatening them?"

Spoiler: Status (click to show/hide)

Assets and Abilities:
Prestige = 1
24 silver.
Ancient bronze short jian.
fine map of the Empire
poor maps of the countries across the sea.

Skills:
Gather information, +1
Shopping, +1
Urban Navigation, +1
Weapon handling I
Jian skill +2/+1

Allies:
Min Li, spirit reader, 2 prestige, 1 favor
Huan Zhang, diplomat, 2 prestige, 0 favors

Currently employed running messages.  pays 1 silver/week, consumes two actions.
Engaged in focussed jian training, costs two silver/week, consumes one action.

After your decision, there will be time for two actions this week.

[AoshimaMichio]

Can't say we enjoy hurting people, but if that's the only option left then we do what must be done.

[syvarris]

Threatening is definitely better, but yeah, hurting is okay if there's no better option.

[Egan_BW]

Of course we enjoy hurting people!

[Maegil]

"It's not that I actually enjoy hurting people; if it can be solved without actual violence, so much the better, but I'm not above it either."

[Devastator]

Sometimes.

"Well, I've got a job for you, if you're interested."

"There's a thug who works for the Golden River gang called Du Quinbao.  He stole some money from a friend of mine, and needs a good beating, maybe a broken arm or something.  You can usually find him drinking away in the Red Rooster tavern down by the docks.  Look for the sleepy-eyed short guy with the weak chin and broken nose.  Got a bit of a paunch.  Not anyone important, just a tagalong heavy."

"Interested?  It'll pay 20 silver."

[Egan_BW]

YES
MONEY
VIOLENCE
YES

[Maegil]

Yes. Follow him home and ambush him somewhere dark. Take a crowbar, they're sufficiently sword-shaped for us to use but are better at breaking bones.

[syvarris]

Get some rope first.  Rope is just a great thing to have.  Then, as Maegil suggested, we ambush him on his way home, knocking him out.  Tie his hands, and drag him into a secluded alley or something.

Not sure we should use a crowbar, though.  Our training is specifically for jians, which implies it doesn't even apply to other swords.  Hit him with the hilt, or the blade's flat?

[Egan_BW]

A jian is a weapon, a crowbar isn't. It's heavy, but the weight is centered in the middle, making it unwieldy to swing. Our sword should suffice as a blunt weapon, and has the added benefit of a point for negotiation.

[Maegil]

You might be able to break bones with our sheathed short bronze jian, you might break the scabbard, or you might achieve nothing but to piss off a bruiser; that is why I'm suggesting to take a heavier implement beside the sword.

+1 to rope, it might come in handy. Go to a blacksmith and buy a crowbar, also see if we can get caltrops - just in case.

Ask the employer if he wants to deliver any particular message, or maybe use the opportunity for a false flag to cause friction between the gang and a third party such as one of his enemies or another gang.

Scout properly: see if the target lives alone, and if it's possible to ambush him at home; if not, scout the route the target follows after leaving his friends and pick a suitable place. Do not attack until we have his itinerary. Mark the gang's watchers' positions.

Make an escape route that avoids the gang's watchers (possibly including setting the rope to climb a wall, a plank between two high places, a hidden boat far from the nearest bridge, and/or an overcoat stashed somewhere at the route's end) before we melt into the crowds.

A handful of sand from behind a corner or doorway, followed by a good two-handed swing with a heavy iron bar to the shin or the midriff, has a good chance of instantly breaking a bone or at very least hamper him with excruciating pain. Even if he doesn't fall down we can bash at his weakened defence, that is likely to break an arm.
If absolutely necessary, we could still resort to the sword, but that might well end up with a dead body.