Hidden in the Fine Print?

[Lon]

Um, moneylenders.. That seems like a terrible idea to me, even shady ones, as they will most likely go for the more profitable option of SELLING INFORMATION ABOUT US. Even if they don't right away, as soon as they are paid back, and we are starting to stabilize as a village, they will do so to earn an extra profit. That's assuming they don't do so before then out of fear we'll kill them before paying them back, or just after to keep them quiet (which would also send up flags for the professional spies and assassins looking for us. I'll think about your other suggestions when I'm home, and not on a ridiculously small cell screen.

**Edit** Okay, now that I'm home, I'll admit how I typed it looks more abrasive than I meant it to, but I feel my point still stands. The moneylenders can easily lean on us by setting hunter-nin on or trails, and them suddenly disappearing would have the same effect. Raiding places without using enough chakra to make it obvious we're missing-nin might be a good idea, but until we're better established taking official missions would also be suspicious and have us being looked into. If, however, some of the richer bandit gangs were wiped out by "Rival Gangs" or a band of traveling mercenaries who were just passing through and thought it might be worth a reward, we might be able to swing that.

Alternately, we could exchange some jobs for repairs or supplies instead of conventional funding for a short time to cover the repair expenses. If those same bandit groups came across the unfortunate workmen as they headed home, we could keep them quiet about the new monks as well. You know, the odd ones that had a secret, underground compound dug under their shrine and had all sorts of secret passageways installed. And their odd meditative practices that involved sitting on the sides of trees.

Click to shrink...

Well, technically. Our ninja's area already taking official missions. They're just not raking in enough money to really do anything. Which is why we need to somehow get a mass amount of start - up funds. Though trading jobs in exchange for them doing jobs for us might be something. But then again, I'm not sure how we can swing that to be benificial when our ninja already work for money. And we can just use the money to hire workers instead rather than getting complicated on some kind of worker exchange program.

Anyway, Maybe we're making this more complicated than it has to be.

[X] Send out the Ninja to raid all the bandit camps in the area for supplies and 'workers'.
[X] Have some nin recon about the area, points of interest, local power structure, population census, resource report.
[X] Talk to Nara san about his earlier comments on advantages of Shrine country
.

If it worked for Lina Inverse the Bandit Killer. Hopefully it'll work for us.

 

[ragoogar]

While I'm all for the bandit raiding, I still move for more info on the region before any major decisions are made.


[X] Send out the Ninja to raid all the bandit camps in the area for supplies and 'workers'.
[X] Have some nin recon about the area, points of interest, local power structure, population census, resource report.
[X] Talk to Nara san about his earlier comments on advantages of Shrine country

 

[Lon]

I can get behind that. Edited.

 

[Dreadis]

[X] Send out the Ninja to raid all the bandit camps in the area for supplies and 'workers'.
[X] Have some nin recon about the area, points of interest, local power structure, population census, resource report.
[X] Talk to Nara san about his earlier comments on advantages of Shrine country

 

[Roarky]

Works for me.

[X] Send out the Ninja to raid all the bandit camps in the area for supplies and 'workers'.
[X] Have some nin recon about the area, points of interest, local power structure, population census, resource report.
[X] Talk to Nara-san about his earlier comments on advantages of Shrine country

Who knows, there may be some skilled workmen held captive in the bandit camps that we can use to start the civilian population up too.

 

[shaderic]

I can't help but think the local bandit population is likely downright tiny, given we're not anywhere near any particularly valuable resources. Bandits make money by stealing from people, and if there's nothing there to steal, they may just decide to move on. Or enslave the local population, setting themselves up on top of the pile.

It still can't hurt to take a look around. The area doesn't have it's own formal village or armed forces making the rounds, so making the few roads there are safer to travel benefits both us (since safe roads leads to more trade) and the locals (see previous parenthesis).

[X] Send out the Ninja to raid all the bandit camps in the area for supplies and 'workers'.
[X] Have some nin recon about the area, points of interest, local power structure, population census, resource report.
[X] Talk to Nara-san about his earlier comments on advantages of Shrine country

We've already started getting missions, so that means there's at least some money flow in the area. Let's find out who the movers and shakers are, while we get a better handle on the current situation. From there, we can plan further out.

 

[inverted_helix]

It occurs to me that a ninja village can benefit significantly from a permanent civilian presence. Presumably they flourish off parting ninjas from their paychecks, and the village gets some of it back as a tax and it increases the availability of trade goods.

If we recruited a civilian presence we could likely get the labor we need at a lower rate than just hiring people for it. Since they'd have an investment in maintaining the village that would be their home and livelihood.

Though I'm not too sure how to go about doing that.

 

[Lon]

Shrug, we just have to make living in our ninja village more attractive than living somewhere else.

This could be from protection or a special service. etc etc. We'll figure something out when we have more information to work with.
Like peasant living conditions and stuff.

 

[Roarky]

It occurs to me that a ninja village can benefit significantly from a permanent civilian presence. Presumably they flourish off parting ninjas from their paychecks, and the village gets some of it back as a tax and it increases the availability of trade goods.

If we recruited a civilian presence we could likely get the labor we need at a lower rate than just hiring people for it. Since they'd have an investment in maintaining the village that would be their home and livelihood.

Though I'm not too sure how to go about doing that.

Click to shrink...

I actually thought of that also. To quote my favorite person, myself,

Who knows, there may be some skilled workmen held captive in the bandit camps that we can use to start the civilian population up too.

Click to shrink...

Though we'll need a lot more than that to reach parity*, it's a start.

*I'm probably not using this word correctly.

 

[Happerry]

[X] Send out the Ninja to raid all the bandit camps in the area for supplies and 'workers'.
[X] Have some nin recon about the area, points of interest, local power structure, population census, resource report.
[X] Talk to Nara san about his earlier comments on advantages of Shrine country

 

[Hymn of Ragnarok]

Bears is literally the only safe choice here...

Click to shrink...

It's a moot point now but considering how Sasuke OHKO'd a giant bear back in the Forest of Death pretty casually, yeah, that is a pretty safe choice.

Giant wildlife apparently doesn't mean that much to ninja. Well, unless they're summons I suppose.

 

[Larekko12]

Sasuke can literally fit inside the bears eyes.

 

[Guile]

Sasuke can literally fit inside the bears eyes.

Click to shrink...

Makes you wonder why boss summons are supposed to be scary.

 

[Lon]

It's a moot point now but considering how Sasuke OHKO'd a giant bear back in the Forest of Death pretty casually, yeah, that is a pretty safe choice.

Giant wildlife apparently doesn't mean that much to ninja. Well, unless they're summons I suppose.

Click to shrink...

Well, to be fair. Sasuke was already considered low chunin already. So he's not exactly representative of the average ninja. Bears would be Great training for Genin though. I mean look at Karin. And Naruto got eaten by a giant snake too.

 

[Hymn of Ragnarok]

Well, to be fair. Sasuke was already considered low chunin already. So he's not exactly representative of the average ninja. Bears would be Great training for Genin though. I mean look at Karin. And Naruto got eaten by a giant snake too.

Click to shrink...

I didn't mean to imply everyone chumped the giant wildlife, because yeah, Sasuke's a major outlier. Even assuming only chunin can no-sell the giant wildlife through various means, that's still a pretty significant number of people who can outright laugh at something several orders of magnitude bigger than them. But even genin probably have pretty good chances of either fighting it (albeit less easily) or running away.

This is purely in hindsight, but starting with several B and A rank jounin and calling that a haul below expectations? Yeah, the only people who really had to worry about the bears were the non-ninja. Which yes, includes the PC and clients and and bandits and genin and whatnot. All in all though, not too much of a threat. The jounin could probably set something up to control the populace pretty easily too.

I mean shit, bears hibernate. Stuff them with food, trick them into thinking winter's here (assuming genjutsu), and those guys are better than cattle. Meat all day every day.

Well. They would be. Not to fussed about the winner though.

 

[Heaven Canceler]

Makes you wonder why boss summons are supposed to be scary.

Click to shrink...

Because they are that size and know how to use Chakra.

 

[iamnuff]

yeah, in hindsight, bear country would have been better.

As far as I can tell, there aren't really any towns in Shrine country, meaning nobody to hire us.

also, we need a village symbol to go on a Hitai-ate, so people know that we are a real village, not just a group of dirty criminals.

also, aren't technically a village, because we are a bare couple of dozen ninja sitting in a shrine.

We could recruit some locals to tend the shrine, do shrine-keeper things and keep it from falling apart while the ninja bring the money in, assuming there's enough room in the shrine for ninja AND monks.

But yeah, it's less like a "ninja village" and more like a clan-compound.

 

[Lon]

yeah, in hindsight, bear country would have been better.

As far as I can tell, there aren't really any towns in Shrine country, meaning nobody to hire us.

also, we need a village symbol to go on a Hitai-ate, so people know that we are a real village, not just a group of dirty criminals.

also, aren't technically a village, because we are a bare couple of dozen ninja sitting in a shrine.

We could recruit some locals to tend the shrine, do shrine-keeper things and keep it from falling apart while the ninja bring the money in, assuming there's enough room in the shrine for ninja AND monks.

But yeah, it's less like a "ninja village" and more like a clan-compound.

Click to shrink...

Meh, that's how all the ninja villages started anyway. Besides, we shouldn't rule out shrines yet since this is still the first turn and the Nara did hint at Shrines being a good place long term.

 

[Roarky]

Meh, that's how all the ninja villages started anyway. Besides, we shouldn't rule out shrines yet since this is still the first turn and the Nara did hint at Shrines being a good place long term.

Click to shrink...

I agree that we shouldn't rule Shrine Country out yet. There is clearly not only a large enough population, but a fully functioning, independent governing body since it is its own country. It just means it will be harder to get resources and fully established in the early game.

 

[Darkened]

[X] Lon

 

[Chibi-Reaper]

Think. You have to think.

".... Bandits." you say aloud, after your mind whirls around and around both itself and the problem for a few minutes. "The big problem right now is start-up capital, and the solution to that is banditry. Not... not doing so yourselves, but targeting groups of brigands that are doing very well for themselves. Take their profits as ours, and even if someone notices that bandit numbers are thinning, who's going to complain about it? It's the best chance of getting workers and supplies."

"You'd be surprised." The lazy man says... Nara, yes, you recall the dropped name. "It's not a bad idea. The thing is.... you aren't going to find much in the way of criminal activity in the land of Shrines right now. Not much to target. Even robbing nobility's a bust, because as a religious state the closest thing to a local Daimyo is the head priest of the main shrine of one hundred million gods. Monks don't usually keep a bunch of ready cash on hand and all that."

He scratches the back of his head.

".... So that's going to take forays into neighboring countries, which is still a little risky and going to take a while. And ninja don't usually do this kind of work pro-bono... missing ninja especially, more so if there's a ninjutsu or genjutsu focus. Taijutsu and weaponwork can be disguised, but the others are mostly a big red flag that says volumes. Doable, though, and it helps get the word out. As a 'village', going to want a lot of missions coming in or a steady stream of funds from the Daimyo... without the second readily available, going to need the first all the more."

"Is that the case..?" you say, not having put much thought to the internal workings of a hidden village before. "Anyway, there are a couple of other immediate concerns I want to bring up. First, I need reports, I've never been to Shrine country, I need scouts and information. And I'd like to know what you were alluding to when you said this was a good spot in the long term as well... it seems like this is more than just good defensive ground that you're talking about."

Nara's eyes sharpen as he looks at you. Then he mellows out again and shrugs.

"Well, you know Ninja are the foremost discipline of war, right?" he says, a little smugly and full of self-importance. "... It's because we steal from the others. Priests and samurai.... stole a bunch of weaponry techniques and tactics from the samurai, stole taijutsu from the both of them, and from the monks we stole sealing arts. Fuuinjutsu. More effort than most care to put in beyond sealing and unsealing your luggage or exploding tags, rarely for summoning and things, but supposedly there's a certain kind of climate and landscape that's good for learning. Helps realign your karma and settle the spiritual weight or whatever the monks babble about. Might be a few different kinds of opportunity if they're just right next door."

.... You aren't sure how you feel about robbing holy men and burglarizing temples at any point in the future.

"Anyway, I guess that'll work. Send out the b-grades on bandit extermination, and the chunin to scout and get the lay of the land and such. Go ahead and get settled in... Leader."

---

The land of Shrines is poor, and probably the only reason it's been ignored by the surrounding countries to develop their cliff-top monasteries and shrines is because of how little value there is in moving troops through, compared to the cost.

And it's kind of an eerie country too, particularly at night. There's some kind of chill to the air unrelated to temperature, though the ninja brush it off without noticing or commenting. You spend the next couple of weeks focused on reports and half-desperate planning. There's not much food either... it seems like it isn't enough to wear too much on the ninja yet. They must be used to long periods of deprivation. In any case, the few, spindly fruit-bearing trees at the top of cliffs and herbs, scattered and small wild vegetables, and occasional small animals at the bottom of gorges....

They're problematic and slow to gather, and don't stretch far. You have a little trouble bringing yourself to eat more than the ninja do, in no small part because of how they might take that, but it's much less than you're used to. You're losing weight... getting thinner.

A food source, supplies. It'll have to be imported, but you need to find a way to secure a supply line of edibles soon.

... A lot of the scouting seems to have focused on spying on the monks. Understandably, it doesn't seem like many of the priests and shrine maidens are aware of your presence here, yet, but opinion of ninja, murderers-for-hire... it's obviously low. Might be a little bit of a problem for diplomacy, where a lord would clearly see the value in having a pack of trained assassins close at hand if dirty deeds need doing.

All in all, not the worst position you could start from, but there are some significant drawbacks.

"Hey! "Leader"! Your moron raiding party came back with useless crap." An ornery voice barks, slamming your door open.

It's... she hasn't offered her name, and you haven't yet picked up the courage to ask. Mentally, you've just been referring to her as 'Axe', since the item is what immediately draws attention. Along with 'Nara', the two are the only A-class ninja you have at hand.

She's upset with the outcome of the bandit-hunting, clearly. Dragging alongside herself...

A woman. Late twenties, early thirties. Faint smell of blood lingering about her, a tired look in her eyes. She moves with a stiff soreness that she can't quite conceal.

"I am the niece of the Daimyo of Grass's younger son." she says, voice dull as she volunteers the information before you can ask for it.

... Kidnapping and ransom? It doesn't seem like she considers her situation much improved.

"Barely any cash or food, and they think dragging in some noble old maid is going to make up the difference? You told them to come back with something good, right? You better have! And if those idiots thought about it, the fact that this slice of christmas cake was still with the damn bandits should have made it obvious nobody was buying." Axe huffs, obviously pissed. "If it was a boy, maybe that would have been worth the time and effort."

... That's true. Male children can inherit, while females are married off and the parent needs to pay dowries. She has a point there.

What to do about this...?

---

[ ] Try to ransom her back to Grass anyway, yourself.
[ ] Deliver her to one of the other temples. No longer your problem.
[ ] Keep her in a cage or cell until you decide what to do about this.
[ ] .... You can think of something, surely. (??)

 

[Lon]

Well, definitely can't sell her. If they weren't buying off bandits. They probably won't buy for us.

And I'm not sure if we can keep her. Could ask her if she has any skills though. We do need workers so maybe she can start on cleaning up the place and just hocking her off on the monks seems kind of eh... But then again, if she doesn't have skills and we can't really think of a use for her. It might be our best option to give her to the monks who can take care of her.

And that might also improve our reputation. Since that's the bread and butter of any village.

 

[Vanathor]

[X] Deliver her to her father free of charge. An escort. No ransom, no nothing. Rather then going for a cash reward, see if we can use this opportunity to generate good publicity. Wiping out some bandit thugs, rescuing one of the relatives of a member of the nobility. That can potentially pay dividends.

 

[Lon]

[X] Deliver her to her father free of charge. An escort. No ransom, no nothing. Rather then going for a cash reward, see if we can use this opportunity to generate good publicity. Wiping out some bandit thugs, rescuing one of the relatives of a member of the nobility. That can potentially pay dividends.

Click to shrink...

I dunno. Considering they weren't willing to pay for her for who knows how long. Would they even care?

 

[Vanathor]

I dunno. Considering they weren't willing to pay for her for who knows how long. Would they even care?

Click to shrink...

I don't know. But it has all the benefits of turning her over to a shrine, with a chance of potential pay out that is greater then that. So at the very least it feels like a superior option to me.

 

[Lon]

I don't know. But it has all the benefits of turning her over to a shrine, with a chance of potential pay out that is greater then that. So at the very least it feels like a superior option to me.

Click to shrink...

Actually I think it'd be about equal. In that for the shrine option. We'd probably get at least some modicum of good will which would help overtrun their belief that ninja are murdering scum. While the daimyo option might give us a bigger payout. Or it might give us nothing depending on how much they cared for the girl before her capture.

IF we do do this, I think we should send out a ninja first to scout out what grass thinks of the girl beforehand. I mean, even if they Weren't willing to pay the bandits, why didn't they pay ninja to get her back? That probably would have been either just as or at least slightly less expensive than paying the ransom. And they probably would have definitely gotten her back if she was important. They were only bandits after all.

poke

Click to shrink...

By the way, did we actually get any supplies from the raids or was it a bust?

 

[fitzgerald]

[X] "So what skills do you possess?" Never let it be said that you can't seize the opportunity to get minions

 

[Lon]

Btw, for our supply problem. Depending on what we got on the raids. I actually think we need to send our ninja to raid a supply caravan. Preferably one not guarded by ninja. Because if we don't fix things soon, we're done for. Raiding the monks probably won't help us since they're pretty much poor too. Which means most of our income is going to be from out of the country.

Probably similar to how Akatsuki did things.

 

[ragoogar]

I'm all for Raiding a lightly guarded Caravan, provided that it's Foreign. If we're planning to set up shop in here, we can't have bad rep with the locals.

Though that gives me an idea that can be discussed: What if we dupe the locals, And make a show of driving of Bandit attacks by Ninja from Our organization, while The "Bandits" Are actually disguised members, might help with the reputation problems. Though it has to be sporadic, Like Privateers of old, The "Bandits" make off with the riches, and a few kidnapped people too. Then the Shrine Nin(patent pending) show up and rescue them, sadly the rescue 'destroys' the bandit camp and the goods but at least the people are saved.

And with the girl, well ask her skills, if she's any good, she could be of help, otherwise send her back pro bono: Goodwill and one less mouth to feed.

 

[Lon]

[X] Ask the girl if she has anything she's good at.
- [X] If she answers no, then ask what she would like to do.
[X] If she doesn't have an answer. Deliver her to her father free of charge. An escort. No ransom, no nothing. Rather then going for a cash reward, see if we can use this opportunity to generate good publicity. Wiping out some bandit thugs, rescuing one of the relatives of a member of the nobility. That can potentially pay dividends

Guess I'll go with this. Check if she has skills we can use first.
If no, check what she wants to do. Does she want to go back to her family? Does she not want to go back to her family?
IF she doesn't know either way. We can go with Vanathor's plan I guess.

Do wish we could scout out grass beforehand so we can make our pitch better but eh.