The old man is usually in his study in the early evening, when most of the work of the day is over and there is less likely to be danger, so he can sit quietly and, well, study.
There is some farming done here. They use mainly horse manure as fertilizer, and most of what is grown is, in fact, rice.
As for Sayuri... She hasn't been able to find out anything you didn't already know, yet, but she's trying. It's a bit hard to follow Tsuyoshi directly. A lot of his followers get in the way. So she's decided to follow his followers, and see what she can grub up that way.
Everything is going smoothly so far, so I'm going to go see the old man. I go the very next time I'm free and I've found he tends to be free, and stop back until I get ahold of him.
The old man is there, reading a book.
He happens to be alone. There's a pot of tea with about half a dozen cups on his desk, but he hasn't poured yet.
I approach the old man and bow respectfully. "Master, I've recently developed a talent of a... different nature. I come to you to ask if you would help me guide this talent in a useful direction, something like one of your 'Life Saving' techniques." If he asks what I mean, I go out to the door to see if anyone's coming. If not, I close his door, go back over to him, and cast the Negate Light spell. I keep my laptop bag open to drop the stick into, should the effect last for longer than I need.
"What do you make of this, Master?"
(Since I'm probably not going to be on tomorrow, I'll post this now.)
You cast your spell. It shrouds the room in a bubble of magical darkness. The old man gasps.
"How is this possible?"
How long do you let one of your sticks "burn" for before you toss it in the laptop bag?
Once he reacts, I toss it in the bag to bring most of the light back into the room, but I leave it open to... enhance the effect. If he wants to hold the stick, I give it to him, warning him to keep his hands off the "business" end.
"Master, what if I were to tell you that I came from another world? That I've experienced death not once, but twice before? Maybe it's because it is not yet my time to die. Maybe some higher power is counting on me ending up here. I don't know, we could discuss it until the end of our days and come no closer to understanding it.
"What I do know is that if I can do this, then I can probably learn something like you can do. All I want to do is help, you know that. All I'm asking for are the tools to do it effectively, and the guidance to do it right. Will you help me, Master?"
The old man is still pretty confounded, but finally he nods.
"Anyone who can do what you have done... must learn to do so responsibly. I ... I must teach you."
He seems hesitant at first, then rises and pokes the column of darkness with his cane, as if making sure it's really just darkness.
My mission to freak out the squares has met with genuine success. I close the bag, as I can see the Old Man is nearly at his limits of acceptance.
I bow to him. "Thank you, Master, you won't regret it."
He stands and shuffles over to one of his bookcases. He plucks a few books from it, and hands them to you one by one.
"Philosophy!" he exclaims, "Before I can teach you how to do this... you must first learn why..."
Naturally, all of the books he hands you are written in Feudal-era Japanese.
Craptacular. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I can't help but hear the gods going "Nya nya" on this one.
"Master, I am unable to read these books, the only language I can read is this one." I show him the business cards from my wallet, mostly the ones with my notes on their backs.
"On the other hand, if someone were to read them to me, are we still good? I know someone who owes me a favor."
He nods, slowly.
He squints at your business card, which he holds sideways, attempting to read it down the page as though expecting it to be printed in the Japanese style.
"Come back at this time tomorrow. You will find another of my students who has been doing very badly, and needs to put in more time. His task will be to read to you."
"Very well, thank you, Master." I bow and take my leave.
If there's still daylight out, I'm clover hunting. Otherwise, if there's a smith shop in the camp, I need to... "acquire" a chunk or two of coal, bigger than a golf ball but smaller than a baseball each.
There are three things I want to add to my daily routines. First, if possible, I want to get acquainted with the pregnant woman in the camp. (However, I'm not going to push the issue if it will make me look like a stalker. There are ways to "bump into" people without looking like you've been watching them.) If I'm gonna need baby tears, I've got to have an excuse to be near a baby. I answer general over-the-counter medical questions at the drugstore I work at all the time, so I know enough general medical advice to sound legit enough to sow the seeds of trust.
Second, from here on out, if there is an opportunity to train near, with, or against Tsuyoshi, I take advantage of it. I don't care if he finds excuses for cheap shots, bruises, pranks, whatever; I can take anything he can dish out. I need to study him head on, if only to give Sayuri a chance to study him while he's not focused on her, front and back, if you will.
Finally, I want to start finding out what the teachers think of Tsuyoshi and his antics. Do they approve, disapprove, not care? Do they think he's taking good initiative, do they think he's being a disruptive a****le? Is his little gang a strong showing of camaraderie or is he corrupting their views, values, and concepts of honor and respect? Inquiring minds want to know.
From here on out, I'm keeping track of all the intel I get on the situation. If paper is available to the students readily, I'll nab some of that, if not, I'll start writing on the inside covers and blank buffer pages on the 3.5 PHB. If what seems to be the most intellectual man in the camp can't read English, then no one else can, even then, I'll be damned if they can read MY chicken scratch. I'll hide the book only with the intention of making sure no one swipes it, I know no one will be able to read it.
By the time you make it outside, you've got about an hour of daylight left.
There is a smith, and he won't question why you need coal, but if you need hot coals he's going to take issue, not because that's a ridiculous thing to ask for, but because, well, how do you intend to carry it?
You can train with Tsuyoshi easily enough. He patently doesn't like you, but he will spar you. As you predicted, he's all about the cheap shots. After a few rounds of getting your posterior handed to you, though, you start to catch on to how his style works. He's focusing on shots to the head and neck, shots to the joints, and stabbing attacks that, being unusual for a katana, are harder to defend. Against you it seems like a dirty way to fight. Against an opponent in layers of armor, it would be just as devastating.
Between yourself and Sayuri you're able to get a few people to talk about him. Not many, but a couple. Two of the three Mayumis think he's dangerously unstable, while the third thinks he's a genius. The other master's won't talk about him, but some of their subordinates will. His courage earns him some respect among the fighters, but among the assassins they think he's disrespectful - of his teachers, of his opponents. He has no regard for life and that makes them look askance at him. (Part of what the assassins teach is that you always respect your opponent and show a regard for life. Part of the reason you kill by stealth is out of respect for your enemy's skills, either as a fighter in his own right or as a leader to rally others.)
And you can, in fact, find paper. It's Japanese-style paper, so it's onionskin thin and the only ink you're likely to find is watery calligraphy ink. Regular pens tear this thin paper to ribbons. And no, in fact, they have no idea what the alien glyphs you call a language are supposed to be.
No, no, just coal, dusty black rocks that burn.
I doubt Tsuyoshi has any idea what psychological profiling is, so any chance, and I mean ANY chance I get to, uh, "volunteer" to take a poke at him, I'm there. If he refuses, I will try to goad him into it. There are only so many times a stereotypical "alpha male" leader can take assaults on his masculinity before he's forced to act, *wink*. His style of leadership falters if he doesn't accept and dominate all challengers.
Now that I know how he fights with a weapon, I've got to see how he fights without one. I have to assume that they're training us to fight hand-to-hand, in case your weapon is way over there in the corner. I'll bet half my check that he fights like a sloppy heavyweight, with powerful, but slow blows. I've never practiced my Boxing with anyone here, so they'll have never seen the style before, and even if they have, it will still help. From what I can figure, if even Tsuyoshi is making strikes in an armor-negating fashion, that samurai fighting must be the core of all the combat training. That means that I'll have to fight and move as if armor would be a hindrance.
I also make a note to see the best blacksmith on camp about engineering a pair of cesti, maybe even a few swatches of chain mail. Not now, but when I'm free, and I can find him. If Tsuyoshi wants to play dirty pool, he'll get dirty pool.
If the clover hunting doesn't pan out today, I'm not going to trip. I wasn't expecting to find one in an hour, but you know, damned if I'm not going to at least TRY.
I don't mind painting out my notes if that's the only source of good paper. (BTW, the reason I'm being so verbose in my thinking is because it's what's going into my notes. I consult this thread as if they were my notes.)
I take my chunks of coal back to my quarters and begin breaking them up. I want to crush them into a medium coarse powder, just barely thicker than ground coffee. Also, in retrospect, I've deemed the "Growing Rice Inside" plan a failure, so I will disassemble the box. From one of the smaller panels I will start to whittle pieces off. Once I've made a heaping double-handful of shreds, I'll separate half of them and try to make them as fine as possible. I want tinder-grade and kindling-grade wood shreds. I keep working at this until it is time to crash, unless the next day is the "day off," if that is the case, I work until continuing work would be hazardous to the health of my fingers and hands. Busy busy busy.
Tsuyoshi continues to accept your spars. If you're not fighting like you mean it, he'll continue to thump you soundly but not abuse you on purpose. If you DO fight like you mean it, well, we'll have to go to dice. He certainly does seem like the Alpha Male type, and he's fairly adaptable - you've seen him beat challengers from all three schools.
You notice from sparring with others that not everyone fights to negate armor. The assassins, for instance, fight you like they're fighting you, armored or not, however you present yourself. That armor-fighting style seems to be characteristic of the Raiders, for whom the will to fight samurai is most of what they do.
As for unarmed, he's not the ninja-academy deity that he is with a sword, but Tsuyoshi does accept challengers. Boxing seems to confuse him a bit the first time you use it on him, and you earn the favor of the crowd when you give him a black eye, but he answers by focusing on your legs and using some acrobatic styles that the Marquess of Queensberry rules just aren't designed to deal with. The day ends with you bruised and in pain. Again.
There is a blacksmith on hand, and he says he can make you armored gloves if you like, but he can't spare the good steel for a pair of metal gloves. The idea strikes him as silly. He has some low-quality scraps that, if you really wanted to, you could melt and make wire out of and eventually weave into chainmail, but he doesn't have the tools required to make the rings for proper riveted mail.
You shred wood. How much wood could a woodchuck... Oh never mind. Tomorrow is your day off and by the time you're too tired to continue, you've fairly well ground one panel to confetti.
I wake up and bundle up the coal and wood shreds to keep water away from them until I need them. I'm going to be spending the bulk of the day doing two things: first, looking for either a mortar and pestle I can 'obtain,' or suitable stones that I could use for the same purpose. Second, clover hunting. It's broad daylight, and who knows, maybe I'm feeling lucky... Pardon the pun.
Win or lose, after those two hunts, I return to the Old Man's chambers at the pre-determined time for my philosophy lesson.
Mortar and pestle are usually made from nonreactive stone. It's unlikely you're going to be able to help yourself to a five-finger discount on something like that, in a camp literally filled with ninja. There are, however, a few people who have them, and you might be able to ask where they got theirs. The old man. The guys who pack the pepper blowers. The guys who pack the smoke pellets. They all seem like logical people to talk to - people who deal with chemicals.
As for your clover hunting... Today is not your day. You find plenty of shamrocks, but the luck of the Irish is not yours.
You return to the old man, and there is a student there ready to read philosophy to you. It's actually a bit painful listening to this guy read philosophy. You know how there's always that one guy in class who reads like he doesn't know how to read, giving full pauses at commas as though they were periods, and never realizing when a question is coming? Yeah, he's that guy. On the other hand, if you should talk to him about something else, he's decently articulate. He speaks well, he actually thinks about the philosophy he's been reading. He's not stupid, but he is fairly provincial, and his literacy level reflects that.
Punctuation and oration aside, he'll do.
I'm going to grab some other text and lay it out in front of me so I can see the characters; though I don't know the language, I know enough to know if it's upside-down or not. As the student reads to me, I'm going to try to reach out to his mind with my own.
The whole fact that I comprehend these people without knowing their language first hand has inspired me. I must be subconsciously doing a similar action, through the shock of total immersion or something like that. If I can gain cognizance over it, and maybe refocus it, then I see no reason why I can't conquer the written word the same way.
I understand that there is a part of the brain that processes language and words and such. My goal is to try to synchronize his language center with mine, so while I have said link, I'm able to read what he can read.
My guess is that this student barely knows how to read period, let alone this language. I can read, and can grasp the subtleties of languages in general, so I think I'd be able to get more done with that literacy level than he. Even then, if it works, I could always try it with a much better reader. At least he's no dummy, he grasps the concepts and can discuss. I'm just after his ability to turn kanji into words. I can handle words.
I focus on how it feels in my head when I read something out loud, and try to find a similar resonance coming from the student. I also try to keep aware that he's not really speaking English to me, but some unknown force is converting their audible language to one I can wrap my mind around.
Sensory-wise, I compare it to working someplace that stinks: you get used to the smell to survive. Metaphorically, I'm trying to remember what that stink smells like again.
If I feel any sort of success in that, I'm going to glance at the text in front of me and see if I can make anything from it. If I get any sort of success, I'll discuss it with the Old Man and see if I can try sitting in on the sharper students, the one that study here all the time. If I get nothing, then I'm more than happy to discuss the lesson with the student I'm with. I get the feeling that one way or another, we can help each other.
You open your mind and reach out to his. You can feel something happening. For a moment there, you're definitely not in your own head any more. You lose the thread of what he's saying, but his mind is a vast space and the target you seek eludes you. Lost in the mental fog, you return to your own senses, a few sentences further across the page and no closer to deciphering written Japanese.
Oh well, worth a shot. If anyone noticed my absence, I'll pretend that I just zoned for a second. As for the rest of the session, as long as someone's willing to read to me, I'm willing to sit, study, and discuss. I'll engage the student in a quick, but active discussion after the lesson to make sure I cover anything I might have missed during my little jaunt.
As a token of good faith, I let the student know that if there's anything he needs help with that I'll do whatever is in my power to help him. There's no way he could comprehend how big of a favor these sessions will be. I realize now that there's not going to be any shortcut to written comprehension within my reach at this time.
Unless anyone has anything to add afterward, I'll head back to my quarters. Should I see Sayuri anytime before I crash for the night, I'll ask her if she has any more intel for me. I'll inform her of the new Tsuyoshi experiment.
Given the recent success the boxing training has yielded, I inform her that we are now to publicly refer to Tsuyoshi exclusively as "Shiner." If she asks, I'll tell her that it's my native language's slang for a black eye. If Japanese has a slang term for the affliction, we'll use that, but either way, he will feel the sting of slander. We will also be gesturing to the black eye as well. You know, winking, patting the corresponding eye, pointing to it... We're going to rub it in. Hard. I'll explain that I intend to provoke him and that if she's not comfortable with the potential, uh, 'attention' she'll get from it, then I'll do it by myself. I don't want another "Frozen Lake" incident, and nothing like it on my conscious, either.
I want him mad. I want him furious. Between the injury and the hazing, I don't want him to be able to see straight. If it doesn't affect him perceptibly, then I'll tighten the thumbscrews; I'll go total smart@$$ on him. Any mistake, any accident, any crack in the facade, and I'm on him like white on rice on a paper plate with a glass of milk in a snow storm.
And the whole time this experiment continues, I persist in my spars with him. I want to be sparring almost exclusively with ol' Shiner, and now I've got to get serious with the bouts.
Besides this, it will be routine as usual. Training, study at the Old Man's, and Clover Hunting.
Harry, I'm bumping this post to keep this thread alive. You should already have received the summary from Ubercon and the changes to my character sheet. I'm looking forward to playing again.
Right. I've received your character sheet, though I've not truly had a chance to review it.
You got your eyes fixed.
You learned a Cure Light Wounds spell.
You learned a Remove/Prevent Fatigue spell.
We left you off attacking a tax caravan.
Correct me if I am mistaken in any of the following:
You stalked them for a night and a day to establish their patterns.
You discovered that they rest every night, with four archers and four lanterns, the archers atop the wagon, the lanterns in the woods to each corner of the wagon.
You used your Darkness spell to hide a lantern.
One of your Rogues botched his assassination attempt and spooked the guards.
A different Rogue killed the first guard.
Two dropped down behind the wagon.
You grabbed the arrow of darkness and charged the nearest wagon door, while the remaining visible (to everyone but you) archer loosed at you and missed (probably because you are a bubble of darkness).
We left you off arriving at the wagon door.
Did I miss anything important?
That's the long and short of it. The contingency plan of "You guys shank everyone down there as quietly as possible, I'm gonna loot the wagon, then you set wagon on fire" has commenced.
I snatched the arrow from the ground with the express purpose of jamming it in the side of the wagon, next to the door, to give me cover and further confuse the guards. I'll open the door, climb inside, close the door, and light my Zippo for light, if nothing stops me. I need to see what's inside to make with step two of the "plan."
You slide open the door, and immediately realize three things:
1: Your intel was seriously, seriously wrong.
2: This is not a tax caravan. It's a wagon full of weapons.
3: You are staring into the cold ceramic face of one of the Emperor's Own.
Outside, the sounds of battle fade to a dim roar. You are aware that your people have engaged the enemy.
Oh sh!!fire, the situation is flailing madly out of control...
I'm going to reach for a pepper blower, give him a face full, rip out the darkness arrow, and toss it inside. Elite warrior indeed, but let's see him sort out a face full of pepper in pitch blackness.
If I'm able, I'm going leave and close the door. I'll yell to my compatriots, "Burn this sumb!!ch and retreat!"
I'll wait for any of them to leave before I go. I KNOW what'll happen to me if I die.
You pull your pepper blower and blow like the big bad wolf, but instead of hitting him in the face you hit him in the crotch. He seems unimpressed.
He draws his sword and slashes in one perfect, fluid motion. Even as an enemy, it's fairly impressive. Thankfully, your darkness arrow obscures his view enough that it swishes over your head. As you drop back, you can see his sword cut a good six inches into the wood of the wagon wall.
The others have, by now, finished off the archers. Your archers have their guards pinned down under the wagon. One of your raiders hurls a lantern onto the roof.
The other rushes over to you and asks, "What happened?"
You have one ninja - a raider - with you, two rogues off in the woods where you can't see them, one of the Emperor's Own still in the wagon, and four draft horses right over there.
What now?
Note to self: Either fill pepper blower with highly flammable substance, or learn how to shoot the blasted thing.
"It's a trap! There's a f*****g SAMURAI in there! MOVE OUT!!!"
I look over at the horses. If I figure it'll take any more than 10 seconds to get them free enough to let them run away scared, then I'll do that and spook them off. Otherwise, I hate to say this, but we can't afford to have anyone chasing us on horseback; gonna hafta put the horses down. The ninja-to would suffice.
Either way, once the horses are dealt with, now that I know the raider is the only one still here, it would seem discretion is the better part of valor tonight.
(BTW, well played, very exciting. XD)
The hobbles are simple leather ties. It shouldn't be too much work to cut them free.
Your raiders return at that moment, their outfits soaked in blood. One of them is bleeding himself, and favoring his left leg. The uninjured one leaps onto the first horse you unfetter and reaches down to give an archer a hand up behind him.
The wounded raider hears your instructions, and gives a nod. He begins to untie his sword-belt.
The other archer leaps onto another horse and looks to you for guidance. These men aren't the best riders, and these are far from the fleetest footed mounts, but any horse is better than going on foot, or so their thinking seems to be.
This leaves you with two fettered horses and a samurai who is making his way out of the wagon, and out of your quickly fading bubble of darkness. The horses are a bit spooked by the fire, and prancing a bit while the riders try to keep them reined in.
"We'll ride until we lose them, then set the horses to wander. We should be good once we lose sight of them for a few minutes. If they really knew these woods well, they'd have attacked us first."
I look at the wounded raider, and nod reassuringly. "Once we get some breathing room, I'll tend to your wound. You'll be fine by tomorrow."
If there are horses left, besides the ones we're riding, we can't afford to leave them there. After cutting them loose, I'll stand out of range of a back kick and stab them shallow in the rear flank. They'll heal up, but I highly doubt they'll just stand there anymore.
Worse comes to worse, if they don't move after a light stabbing, I'll have to dispatch them.
You're severely underestimating how difficult killing a horse with nothing but a short-sword is.
Stabbing in the flank is more than enough to get them running, however, and someone had the foresight to point them in the opposite direction, so anyone emerging from the smoke would hear hooves both ways.
Your wounded raider shakes his head. He says, "They are faster than you can imagine. I will buy you time, until my time is come. Go, and do not waste this." His swordbelt, with his sword, is in the hands of the other raider. His own hands are filled with a pair of weighted chains.
"When you meet your ancestors, do so with your head held high, for you do them great honor. If there is anything you want me to do for you, tell me now."
If he doesn't have anything to add, I'll start the retreat. We won't stop until I'm certain they can't catch up. Once certain we've lost them, we'll get off the horse, and send it running on down the road, then make for the trees and get back to the staging-point-village.
He shakes his head. "Nothing. And thank you. I will tell my ancestors to keep a place for you at tea." He begins moving his chains in the intricate sweeping arcs that constitute a guarding posture, keeping an enemy at bay.
The rest of you escape just fine.
The people at the staging village take you in and squirrel you away into various homes, hiding you with other ninja-sympathizers. Your wounded men are tended to, and this town's one actual ninja comes to debrief you. He's a relatively young man, with the build and swagger of a Raider.
"It was a trap. I was told that this was a tax caravan. When I got inside, there was nothing but weapons and one of the Daimyo's samurai. We distracted him enough to burn the wagon down and escape, but we lost one of the men in our escape. Poor bastard bought us enough time to get out of there. I'm fairly certain we weren't followed. How do we proceed from here?"
"Go back to where you came from," the ninja tells you, "Tell them what you have told me, and tell them to find the party who scouted that caravan."
He will put your men up for as long as you need. With the end of winter comes a melting season, and that coupled with some early rainfall means traveling is going to be a miserable experience just now.
Once everyone's rested and ready, I'll thank the stationed ninja for all his help and care, then lead the troops back to the training camp. I'm no stranger to sloppy, muddy, cold hiking, so I'm keeping a close watch for slippery patches, mudholes, sinkholes, and other various hidden travel dangers associated with walking through a forest. I try to keep the pace as fast as possible while still avoiding said dangers. There's foul play afoot, and at this point, I'm pretty certain this was no accident.
Unless something or someone requires different, we try to make it back as quickly as possible.
As quickly as possible is still a matter of days. By the time you get there one of your archers has a cold. Otherwise everyone seems intact.
The Raider from your party turns over his fallen comrade's sword to the Raider leader, who also wants a word with you considering you took charge of this mission.
I convey the events of the assault in as much detail as possible. After debriefing, I prostrate myself as one who has screwed up royal would: hands and knees, bowing low, no eye contact.
"Sensei, I understand that my decisions and leadership are at fault for my comrade's death, and I accept any and all responsibility for it, but this deed was not all my doing. I conducted this raid in the manner that the reconnaissance dictated: that this was a tax caravan that could be taken with stealth and precision.
However, I believe this was a trap. The wagon only held a mass of weapons, guarded by one of the Daimyo's own Samurai. I believe this is not a scenario that could have been won.
I humbly request that we investigate the recon team that scouted this caravan, Sensei."
The recon team that scouted this caravan... He won't give you their names, but he promises he will investigate. For now you are instructed to go back to your training. You did the best you could with what you had, so he's not inclined to punish you too severely. You just won't be going home as quickly as you might have expected.
Well, the only thing I can do from here on out is continue my training as normal. Physical training during the day, philosophy/language lessons at night, and if the Old Man wants to show me anything specific, I'm more than happy to oblige.
During said training, I ask that Sayuri look into the recon team situation inconspicuously. I want to know why we were set up.
Sayuri is an assassin. She'll be happy to do some spying for you.
The Old Man has nothing in particular for you, but his library is open if you feel your Japanese is up for it. (On a side note, please add 'Requires that you stick a calligraphy script to the subject' to your Remove Fatigue spell, and an additional +2 to the SM for it. This is a limitation the Old Man has on all of his magic, and since you learned it from him, he taught it to you with that limitation in place.)
Other than that, business as usual until Sayuri gets back. This will be a few days, if there is anything in particular you want to do in the meantime.