Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Pancaek]

((Sorry for the few days of silence. Had a few long days at work and just didn't feel like it at all. Also, from this point onwards I'm going to try and give a few options for actions. You're in no way required to pick any of them, but they might give you a better idea of what Hideki knows/is capable of, or just point out certain things I might not have made clear in the update itself.))

To Nara!

Turn 10:

The road to Nara

And so, in the drizzling rain, Hideki decides to promptly resume his trip to Nara. A lesser man would take the boat halfway or join a caravan, but not Hideki. He is determined to walk the path of the meifumado, on foot if need be.

Three weeks later, in the province of Gifu

Hideki walks a mountain path, as he has done so often these past weeks. The more travelled roads would be faster, but Hideki would be subject to occasion checkpoint controls. And a lone ronin without some kind of travel permit would arouse at least a bit of suspicion. That, along with the fact that his enemies have surely put a bounty on his head, made him take these less travelled back roads. Upon closing on a bend, a man on horseback suddenly gallops into view. He stops a few meters away from Hideki, and it is at this point he notices that two other men are flanking him. They must have been hiding in the bushes all along. The two men flanking him are holding clubs, while the man on horseback is wielding a spear and wearing a protective chestpiece. He points the spear at Hideki.

"Hold it right there traveller. It seems that you are using my road quite happily! That is all fine and dandy, but me and my boys need some compensation to keep this road so nice and free of undesirables. How about you give us our rightfull toll, eh? Just hand over your supplies and your valuables, and we can all walk away from here."

What will Hideki do?
Try to reason with the bandits?
Fork over his supplies in the hopes they leave him alone?
Attack the man on horseback first?
Attack the flankers first?
Try to run away into the bushes?
Other?

[vishdafish]

Throw the throwing knife at the throat of the one with the spear. Unsheathe katana and hack the left flanker with Muramasa and, if successful in cutting down or incapacitating the left flanker, turn to face the right flanker.

[NRDL]

+1 to the above, but first make the pretence of handing over our supplies so they're distracted, then let the knives start flying.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

PTW

Oh goodie, we could use a horse and some armor. Keep in mind that there may be a fourth with a bow somewhere.

[vishdafish]

+1 to pretending to hand over supplies first.

[Ardent Debater]

+1 to the above, but first make the pretence of handing over our supplies so they're distracted, then let the knives start flying.

+1, I've been lurking.

[Pancaek]

Turn 11

On mountain path, Gifu

Hideki puts his hands up, to which the leader smiles.

"Very well, I want no trouble. Take my supplies and let me go on."

"A good choice, friend! We'll all be on our ways in an instant."

One of the flankers lowers his club and walks up to Hideki, the grin on his showing that he's quite happy with this turn of events. Hideki bides his time, and lets the flanker get closer.

As the flanker is only a few steps away from Hideki, he quickly snaps his arm forward. The throwing knife goes flying straight towards the bandit on the horse. He sees it coming and throws his arms up to his protect his face. The knife thuds harmlessly into his breastplate, but his panicked reaction made him lose balance and he falls off his horse.

The closest flanker takes a second to process what just happened. He tries to get his club up for a swing, but Hideki bursts into action. With his left hand he grabs the flanker's club, preventing him from bringing it down. At the same time, he uses his right hand to draw Muramasa and slashes across the flanker's chest, leaving a very deep gash. The flanker goes down. To the second flanker's credit, the man simply raises his club high and charges at Hideki as this all happens. His club is heavy and his movements are clumsy though, so Hideki merely sidesteps as the club comes down. He then spins around and brings Muramasa down on the man's back. The blade makes a large gash from his right shoulder to his left hip.

With both flankers out for the count, Hideki turns to face the leader and raises his katana. The blade is bloodied, and has an almost live looking purple sheen when the sun catches the blade. The leader stands up, raises his spear, screams and charges at Hideki.

"This could have been easy, ronin! Now you die! AAAAH!"

How should Hideki deal with the spear charge?

[vishdafish]

((Distance between Hideki and leader?))

[somemildmanneredidiot]

Side step at the last moment, using our blade to guide the spear past us, followed by decking to guy. The advantage of the spear is its range, once we're inside of that range we have a few moments where we can do what we like. Like deck him. We can either try to make him a companion or interrogate him to get an idea of what's going on in city.

We COULD slice the spear, but I'd rather keep it or sell it.

[vishdafish]

Side step at the last moment, using our blade to guide the spear past us, followed by decking to guy. The advantage of the spear is its range, once we're inside of that range we have a few moments where we can do what we like. Like deck him. We can either try to make him a companion or interrogate him to get an idea of what's going on in city.

We COULD slice the spear, but I'd rather keep it or sell it.

+1 maybe we could smash him in the temple with our hilt when we are close.

[Pancaek]

((Distance between Hideki and leader?))

((let's say anywhere between 10 to 20 strides. Honestly, I'd rather just leave it open and adjust it to the action we're taking rather than put a hard number on it. Lest we fall into the pit of tactical combat, in which every fight will take 6 turns to complete and have actions with large amounts of "if x, then Y".))

[VoidSlayer]

What about taking the heavy club and using it to knock the spear to the side with one hand and then spring forward and slice the bandit in the face.

[NRDL]

Side step at the last moment, using our blade to guide the spear past us, followed by decking to guy. The advantage of the spear is its range, once we're inside of that range we have a few moments where we can do what we like. Like deck him. We can either try to make him a companion or interrogate him to get an idea of what's going on in city.

We COULD slice the spear, but I'd rather keep it or sell it.

+1 to nonlethal takedown, interrogations are ALWAYS a good idea.  Don't really care about the spear, it's a rather unwieldy weapon in close quarters and its not like our guy's specialty is anti-cavalry or open battles.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

Side step at the last moment, using our blade to guide the spear past us, followed by decking to guy. The advantage of the spear is its range, once we're inside of that range we have a few moments where we can do what we like. Like deck him. We can either try to make him a companion or interrogate him to get an idea of what's going on in city.

We COULD slice the spear, but I'd rather keep it or sell it.

+1 to nonlethal takedown, interrogations are ALWAYS a good idea.  Don't really care about the spear, it's a rather unwieldy weapon in close quarters and its not like our guy's specialty is anti-cavalry or open battles.

Options are always nice, and our primary source of income at the moment is murdering people and selling their stuff, so I'd prefer as much equipment intact as possible.

[NRDL]

Now that you mention it, we have been doing the usual "selling random combat loot" in every RPG.  If this weren't already a vicious, violence-prone setting I'd suspect this pattern would be used against our guy, allow him to be followed.  But then again, everyone who wins a fight in war-torn Japan's probably doing the same thing.