Pre-Show[]
MATT: Hello, and welcome to tonight's very special one-shot sponsored by Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed Shadows, the ultimate feudal Japanese video game experience. A new creed rises over Japan as the country is on a brutal path towards unification driven by the iron will of Daimyō Oda Nobunaga. Set against the backdrop of the turbulent late Sengoku period, Assassin's Creed Shadows lets you live the intertwined stories of Naoe, an adept shinobi assassin from the Iga Province, and Yasuke, the powerful African samurai of historical legend. Explore the vast world centered around Kyoto with 10 regions that each have their own biomes and visual themes. Now, as a reminder for our one shot tonight, it is set in the world of Assassin's Creed Shadows, but we are not creating a historically accurate story, nor are we telling a tale that is canon to the game. Tonight's events are instead just lovingly inspired by both. But thank you again to Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed Shadows for sponsoring this one shot. Visit AssassinsCreed.com/Shadows for all the latest. Now let's meet our wonderful players at the table for tonight's game. Let's start with some familiar faces in the studio. Over here with Liam O'Brien.
LIAM: Hey, it's Liam. Today I am going to be playing Garrett O'Neil.
MATT: Thank you, Liam. Over on this side we have Robbie Daymond.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah! I am playing Rufino. Just Rufino.
MATT: Wonderful. We have two wonderful new friends at our studio today who are also cast members from the game Assassin's Creed Shadows. Emily Piggford.
EMILY: Hello, I'm Emily Piggford. I play Tomiko in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Today I'm playing Umi.
MATT: Wonderful, perfect. Over on this side we have Peter Shinkoda.
PETER: Peter Shinkoda here. I'm playing the character I designed, Ryuichi, in this game. But in the video game, I play Fujibayashi Nagato. You'll find out who he is. (laughter)
MATT: More context to come for those characters. But tonight, we'll get to see your characters and your creations here in this world. So with that, let's jump into tonight's story. (anticipatory Japanese string and flute music)
Part I[]
MATT: Our tale takes place in 16th century Japan during the late Sengoku period, where over a century of political unrest and clans warring for control in the wake of a waning emperor's influence has left the peasantry suffering through famine and the masses of military warriors exhausted. In this era, land and name are key to your survival. You either own them, or die trying to defend them. Now less powerful daimyo are challenged to ally with stronger ones or risk decimation, and a handful of dominant clans have risen to prominence and power. Though none as ambitious as the Oda clan, under the leadership of the ruthless visionary who seeks to unify Japan under his rule, the Daimyo Lord Oda Nobunaga. Lord Nobunaga's quest to make every region of Japan as one was growing more and more successful. One of the locales he sought to achieve this goal was the autonomous port city of Sakai, an international trading hub boasting emergent technologies and abundant wealth bolstered by Nanban trade, or trade with foreign merchants. The independent merchant council of Sakai recently refused Lord Nobunaga's request to join his expanding rule, and a palpable tension sits across the city streets. But life goes on, and business within these walls is ever booming. It is here our story begins, an hour from dusk within the prosperous port city of Sakai where a ragtag troop of figures seek their individual fortunes. Now, standing against the beautiful Osaka Bay and surrounded by a massive moat and large, defensible walls, the bustling city of Sakai is a vibrant and wealthy city filled with people of all walks of life. Here, the busy streets wind through multi-level wooden structures of intricate sloping tiled and thatched roofs intermingled with Minka style households and the occasional shrine. Plumes of smoke drift up from the numerous ironworks and, there at the heart of the city's industry, the clanging of worked metals echoing in the distance. Textile storefronts and food merchants line the roads, and closer to the port, as you get there, it's here at the water's edge of the Osaka Bay, you can see the vibrant mix of fishing vessels and trade ships coming and going. Now some of these ships bear the design of foreign sails and make, as do some of these denizens within the center of commerce, such as this figure we see sauntering up with a brisk pace and determination. Liam, would you like to describe Garrett for us?
LIAM: Garrett O'Neil is a tall, broad Irishman that washed ashore in Sakai the better part of two decades ago, and has since made a life for himself here. These docks here along the water are where he spends his days working and living, translating and helping facilitate the movement of goods across the sea. He is very tall, muscled figure with straight red hair that hangs, muscled figure with straight red hair that hangs, pushed back down and has a bit of light red goatee or scruff on his face. He wears his clothes fairly loose and anyone seeing him walk by can see the edges of very, very faded Celtic knot work the edges of very, very faded Celtic knot work tattoos poking out on his neck and chest and a little bit down one forearm. He carries a kanab , a thin kanab , a wooden one, that is in his hand almost like a walking stick as he makes his way down the docks. He wears a fairly reserved expression at all times and affords himself a grin at the familiar sights here at the bay.
MATT: You, in one hand, twiddle with the missive scroll that had called you to Takeda Shingen, who is one of the various owners to Takeda Shingen, who is one of the various owners and managers of business that's along this shipyard, his specifically being the ship repair business. He's offered you quite a bit of work in the past. He's made a reputation of himself, both as a reputable individual to get your seafaring vessels repaired, as well as a very trustworthy source to get things you can hide on these vessels both in and out of the city and to foreign shores as well. Since his business does indeed require interacting with foreigners often through Osaka Bay, you've become one of his favorites to pull from to discuss and directly converse with to discuss and directly converse with some of his less savory foreign clients as they come through.
LIAM: After two decades, I know a lot of people here in town.
MATT: Truth. So, this means that he has a bit of business. It's been dry for a bit. You know, a little extra coin, a little extra money in your pocket wouldn't hurt. So as you coast up the side of the bay you can hear the creaking of ropes and some of the nearby ships pushing up against the heavy wooden docks with the tide. Not too far off, moving at about the same pace and catching your eye just as you catch his, Ryuichi, would you please describe what we see, as you are heading across the bay?
PETER: Ryuichi, he's a handsome fellow. He's got a full head of hair and a ponytail, a samurai's ponytail bun. He's got wisps coming down. He's wearing a blue kimono, a little bit muted. I guess the accompanying garb is earthy colors. He's got some tabi on. But he is adorned with a katana. But he is adorned with a katana. Usually samurais carry katana and a wakizashi. The symbol of the two makes you the samurai. But he only carries one. He's formidable. He also has on his back a naginata, that's a wooden staff with a blade. That's his secondary weapon. But his personality is reserved, it's muted. He's walking down the street, not calling attention to himself. Although, I think he exudes a reserved power. But he's not, it's not commonplace what he does. I think people can assume that he might be a combatanto, but he's not asking for the-- but he's not asking for the-- He doesn't want attention. I think that he's reserved because there's things in his past that he wants to forget. He's compartmentalized them and he just wants to move on with life. Moralistically, he's very sound. But I believe he does not fear death. In fact, invites it.
MATT: (laughs)
PETER: Ryuichi.
MATT: I think it's that mood that drew you to Takeda's attention. As when you are delving in some, maybe not the most locally legal affairs of trade, or at least things that aren't sanctioned by the merchant council that is in charge of Sakai, it is importanto to have figures that give the air of well guarded to his interests. that give the air of well guarded to his interests. You've been a good hire in the past, to the point where violence has not been necessary. Just your presence seemed to keep probing thieves and other surrounding outside interests from getting too close to his interests as well.
PETER: I like that.
MATT: You have crossed paths once or twice with Garrett, who catches you're eye as you're both arriving at around the time of day with that same look of intent.
PETER: Okay.
LIAM: Ryuichi san.
PETER: Garrett san.
LIAM: I don't think we're all met. A couple more. Hopefully not a long wait.
PETER: Time will only tell.
MATT: As these stoic figures walk side by side with a fair distance of just enough familiarity, not too far behind them we see, catching up quickly, these also familiar figures. Umi, would you describe what we see as you begin to close the distance?
EMILY: Yes. As Umi emerges from the alleyways and sees some familiar faces, she fills the space with her mass. Though she's only about 5'3" tall, she's very wide. Built strong from heavy work on the farm. She's new to Sakai. Recently moved here to pursue her life long desire to be a warrior. Having come from a samurai family, but raised with all these brothers and a father and mother who passed when she was a child, they saw no need for her to delve into the training and to be a samurai on the battlefield, as she did. So between all of her heavy work, she would take what training she could and learned to wield a kanab . So over her armored shoulder she has a massive kanab , a great club studded with metal. At her side, beside her breast plate, back plate, she has a wakizashi. The rest of her attire is truly humble farmer's garb and quite lightweight. She runs hot as a fire. She's rather withdrawn, so focused on the task at hand, so focused on looking for a master, looking to train, looking for an opportunity to fulfill this dream and to level up her skills to become a very competent samurai. Or a female samurai. But she'll settle for being, if she can, even just a bodyguard. So Sakai feels like a good place to do that. If there's people who's interests need protection, perhaps she can put some muscle in front.
MATT: Indeed, your initial meetings looking for such work has been met with a bit of disinterest to even some outright disrespect.
EMILY: Yes.
MATT: But it was Takeda that saw a little bit of opportunity in you, as his initial disinterest in hiring you was set aside when the hired bodyguards that he had used for one of his businesses found themselves quickly laid low by a series of bandits that had been waiting along the outer road. Whereas you had followed them in hoping to prove yourself and stepping in, managed to dispatch and frighten off the rest of those that sought Takeda's goods. Upon returning them and throwing them upon his desk, he decided maybe there's more to this young farm girl than meets the eye.
EMILY: Below her straw hat with the low brim.
MATT: He told you in time he'd have a calling to have you prove yourself. Indeed, you received your first true missive for possible business this day. Now having kept your eye on those who he's done business with in the past, you've recognized both these figures, Garrett and Ryuichi, as having come in and out of Takeda's business warehouse near the docks a number of times. You maybe have crossed paths or had brief conversations, but now is your opportunity as you see them approaching carrying very similar missives as the one you have in your hand.
EMILY: Mm-hmm.
MATT: You, of course, hear the footsteps coming up from behind. Maybe not the most stealthily trained figure, you normally hear this as a sign of someone approaching with intent.
PETER: Mm. I see you.
MATT: (laughs)
PETER: And I approve of you. I don't really have that many adversaries in the world anymore. But I nod. Also being somewhat of an outcast now, I also know how the females might feel. So, absolutely. She can walk with us and I approve. Let's go see what Takeda has for us.
MATT: As you approach, expecting that same kind of arm's length energy that you receive from other established men in this space, there is a welcoming air to the side of these two half strangers, as the three of you approach the outside of the large shipyard warehouse where Takeda Shingen does his work. There, waiting on the outside after arriving maybe a good minute or so beforehand, we have Rufino. If you wouldn't mind describing what they see as they reach the outside of his office.
ROBBIE: Yeah. Yeah, just leaning up against a corner with a half eaten apple. Just taking in the scene that comes through. It almost seems like Rufino always has a shadow to step out of. In the humblest of garb, you could almost call it dirty. Maybe you would imagine he's got a little musk, a little funk, a little smell to him.
MATT: (chuckles)
PETER and ROBBIE: (chuckle)
ROBBIE: But what's contained is this absolutely feral, mop-topped, lively spirit that exudes danger, for sure. He's Portuguese. Somewhere between late 20s and early 30s. You can't tell because it's obvious he's lived a hard life. He first arrived here on a missionary ship years ago, He first arrived here on a missionary ship years ago, and much like most of his life afterwards, it was defined by bad timing and ill fortune. He came into the great rush, into Kyushu when Catholicism was starting to become more and more accepted. Then the minute that his group got there, suddenly it started to get pushed out and in less favor. He was abandoned by his group of missionaries that he traveled with. He was only a child. He was a cabin boy on the vessel. With no one there to take care of him as a young person, he basically wandered from village to village, wandered the countryside barely surviving until finding himself on the outskirts of Sakai at a natural onsen on the outskirts of Sakai at a natural onsen where he was taken in by the manager there and raised. where he was taken in by the manager there and raised. So while he's Portuguese in appearance, he's Japanese by the way that he was raised, he's Japanese by the way that he was raised, though he's never seen as that way and he knows it. So he continues to operate in the shadows in a feral way. If there's money to be made, he'll be there.
MATT: (laughs)
ROBBIE: As they approach, he immediately clocks everyone in the group. Huh. Ryuichi, Garrett, Umi. Interesting. (chuckles) Not who I was expecting, but, well, interesting.
LIAM: Still breathing.
ROBBIE: (laughs) Yeah, I'm surprised. The last time I saw you, you were face deep in a stein of ale.
PETER: (laughs)
LIAM: Well, you have to afford yourself a little bit of kindness once in awhile.
ROBBIE: Sure. Nice to see you, Garrett.
LIAM: Yeah, been awhile.
ROBBIE: Does anybody know exactly what this is about? How much information is in this missive?
MATT: Only given a brief note saying, "Possible work, should you have a little bit of time. This afternoon, if possible."
LIAM: Being that Umi-san is newer here in town, I don't really know her the way I know many people here and I've been sizing her up this whole time and the thing that stands out the most to Garrett in this first minute of spending time together is the fact that I am 6'4" and wielding this rather anemic-looking kanab , and wielding this rather anemic-looking kanab , and you're about half my size, but hoisting this massive iron weapon over your shoulder and I can't help but crack a half-smile at it.
ROBBIE: It's a little demasculating, isn't it?
MATT: (laughter)
LIAM: I'm comfortable with this life.
EMILY: Trying to make up for--
MATT: (laughter)
EMILY: -- my height, my gender, and the disadvantages that might put me at in this society. I try and lean into other advantages such as my strength and my weapon and hiding behind my hat, but yes, I sense that I'm in very good company to learn from, but we are all very different in skills so I can only imagine we'll all be working together. I don't think we're in competition with one another for this job.
PETER: I don't believe so either. I think Uichi is always suspicious, but I think my curiosity is overtaking the suspicion and I have to follow this through. This is the most uncommon motley crew of people put together. I have to see what is going on.
EMILY: It's your job.
PETER: Yeah.
MATT: It doesn't take too long before an associate of Takeda brings you into the warehouse, past the heavy movement of various ship hands moving materials and various tools for repairing and setting up and hoisting things coming and going throughout the entire dock side. You move and weave through, following the associate until you're brought to the back chamber. The door slides open and you can see there set is the table before Takeda Shingen, a man in his late 50s or so, thinning long salt and pepper hair that's pulled back into a loose ponytail. He's dressed like a mid-level merchant throughout the city, a man that probably got his hands dirty in his younger years and now is trying to imagine himself above that, but you can tell by the toughness to his fingers and texture that he's done a fair share of his own dirty work as the years have gone on. He has a thin mustache and he's in the process of finishing, filling out some papers before he rolls up and sets it aside and looks, "Ah, you've arrived. Perfect. If you wouldn't mind closing the door." Slides shut behind you, he goes, "The pleasure is mine to have you all come on such sort notice. This is a possibility that I think could make all of you quite a bit richer, not to mention myself. There is a series of trade vessels to come in in the morning, as you, I'm sure, are well aware, there's a lot of conflict up to the north and conflict can be a very profitable business. They are bringing with them an order of, well, a fair amount of matchlock type of firearms that I will be able to distribute to a number of interested buyers. Unfortunately, they did not include ammunition in this shipment, so I would like to prove the capabilities of some, not just in battle, but perhaps as some extensions of my will and interests in the city. The four of you to find somebody who might be interested, in a short period of time, crafting and delivering a large volume of iron bullets discreetly. And should they prove difficult to find, have the skills to maybe muscle information out of those that could lead you to such figures. Do you see yourselves available and interested in what could be a very simple job that can pay very well?"
PETER: Takeda-san, I live to serve. Bullets.
MATT: "Indeed."
LIAM: That's it.
MATT: "That's all I need. I just need to establish a new contact within this city, somebody who, with your keen senses of judgment, could be trustworthy and capable, as I see the number of you have a knack for finding hidden capability, and perhaps there might be a few of these weapons left over that could be a good keepsake. Do you find these terms acceptable?
PETER: Most importanto question to me would be once you match the bullets with these rifles, who's going to own them?
MATT: "Well, whoever wishes to pay for them, that is how business goes.
ROBBIE: See, Ryuichi over here suffers from a long-term honor disorder. Yeah, he really can't shake these old ways. Some of us are just like that, right?
PETER: Yes, certainly.
ROBBIE: It's a fair question, though.
MATT: "With all due respect, this city will take care of that quickly enough. (slightly menacing laughter)"
PETER: I hear that often.
MATT: "Mind you, you don't have to discard your honor, but learn to put it on hold when it's necessary. There could be some vibrant opportunities in the future for a man that can set it aside momentarily. But this is a simple ask. Find somebody who can fulfill this order for me. Assure me that you think they're capable and trustworthy and return. That is all I need."
EMILY: I embrace the opportunity to work with these fine gentlemen and learn their skills, and to prove myself of service to your business in the future, and perhaps learn how to use these firearms as well.
MATT: "Indeed, it seems they are quite the way of the future. No disrespect," as he looks upon your katana.
EMILY: (chuckles)
PETER: I speak for myself, but I will go along with it. But if there's any ounce of treachery, people will die around me. I trust your word is good, because in my past, words have been just words. Protection.
ROBBIE: It's a great point, Ryuichi. I picked up on a couple of words you said a couple times. You said "simple" so many times over and over and I don't know, I've done a few deals before. I just usually find when someone overstates something, maybe it might be the other way. Listen, I'm grateful for the opportunity too. It's going to be a wonderful learning experience, I'm sure. Any pitfalls we might need to be aware of? Anybody else you might have sent out on this quest other than us?
MATT: He continues to fill out paperwork like he's now half-paying attention to your troop now that he's put the business before and you start looking at the paper and he says, "Well, the first part is simple, of course. If once we have the contact, then production has to continue. When production is completed in various stages, I will need those to deliver them and keep them safe when they're being brought to the clients, so with this first step proven, perhaps you would be capable of being responsible enough to keep them safe upon the delivery, and from there, the money just continues to flow, so this part is simple. Should you enjoy this transaction, there are more opportunities to come, perhaps not so simple. So a provider, a contact, a blacksmith, somebody that can either be an independent source for this ammunition or can craft them with haste would be perfect."
LIAM: We'll take it one step at a time.
PETER: Exactly.
MATT: "Now I have much business to get to. The day grows short. Thank you so much. If I am not present when you have completed your task, my associates will be up until the early morning on the outskirts of the warehouse. They'll receive your confirmation."
ROBBIE: I don't think he likes me very much, sorry. I'm not trying to blow it for anybody else.
LIAM: You do try to poke the bear a fair bit.
MATT: (door closing) His office door-- (laughter)
MATT: -- is closed behind you and you are led out of the warehouse back onto the streets of Sakai next to the docks and the beautiful city streets that extend beyond, the massive buildings and long walkways. Even though, at this point in time, the sun has begun to set, as the colors shift, it is still quite a bustling town. You can hear the conversation and chatter echoing from the core of the populace, the marketplaces themselves are vibrant and probably very accessible places to search for such a contact, but the city is yours.
ROBBIE: What do you think, farm girl? You cool with it? Illegal armor?
EMILY: Yes? I'm here to observe and to advance in this city, whatever route to get to my goal.
LIAM: Well, I was hoping for a display of your prowess, but I think we're just talking about a bit of legwork at this stage.
EMILY: Yeah, in fact, I'll be following behind as I am new to the city, so forgive me, I'll be here to just reinforce as necessary, but I let you take the lead.
LIAM: Just a bit of commerce.
PETER: You do understand there's repercussions. If we fail or to succeed in our mission, we're moving the highest-tech weapons in the world. After that, people die, and more people die. We cannot predict who they may be, but it's only going to create chaos.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah people die, you step on a butterfly, there's a tsunami across the sea. I get it, I get it.
LIAM: How does that work?
ROBBIE: Ah, I'm not really sure.
MATT: "Sweet friends, sweet friends." Gentleman steps up from the side. Long, black robes, sweaty and dirty from the thicker materials. He's wearing on what was a relatively hot afternoon, white collar around. "I could not help but notice amongst you, perhaps some of you have taken to the worship of our Lord Jesus Christ." You immediately remember and acknowledge this to be one of the Jesuit missionaries that are just beginning to perpetually flow into the town in recent years. You see him: 50s, balding, bearded, and is coming around, holding his rosary wrapped around one hand and a book under the other and is immediately coming forth and looks to you, "Are you, you..."
ROBBIE: "Yes, of course, brother, well met." And out out of my tunic, I'll pull a tiny little silver cross. Give it a kiss. "Nice to see you, yeah."
MATT: "Indeed, well, you are in good hands. Please be so kind as to make sure they understand the way, the life, and the love of our Lord and salvation beyond that." Looks to you and goes.
PETER: I don't subscribe to that. My faith belongs somewhere else. You can move on to one of my comrades.
MATT: Looks to you, looks to you, looks to your weapons. "Have a good day." (laughter)
MATT: He backs up.
ROBBIE: Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on a second, hold on a second. Come back, come back here, come back here. What's your name?
MATT: "Jeremiah."
ROBBIE: Jeremiah, where are you from, Jeremiah?
MATT: "From the British Isles."
ROBBIE: Oh. How are you finding it here?
MATT: "Terrifying, I don't know." He's been talking in very broken Japanese through this period and like--
EMILY: I was going to ask if this was in English, so Umi's just like.
LIAM: Yeah.
MATT: It's like half-English, half-Japanese. You're picking up bits and pieces, but you definitely pick up the things that are importanto based on his garb and his mode. Definitely, and this has been an increasing presence within this city as of late, but he is like, "I was sent here, but I'm having a hard time, brother."
ROBBIE: "Culture shock, that's true. Well, I think you are doing amazing work." Is there anything about this guy that could serve any purpose, for I mean like, as he approaches us?
MATT: Roll with guile.
ROBBIE: Okay, yeah. I want to take in the whole picture. That's all right, an eight.
MATT: Eight, not too bad. Looking at him, there is no way this man knows more about the city than you do and at the very least seems to be a figure that could be a future scapegoat or a person that might have other uses if you need a Jesuit missionary.
MATT: Got it. Sorry for eating up so much of your time.
MATT: "Oh, no, that's fine."
LIAM: This whole time, since Garrett heard this fellow's broken Japanese with English accent on it, has been skull-fucking him silently the entire time.
MATT: "Good day." And wanders off. But the city streets lay before you.
PETER: Any ideas?
ROBBIE: Garrett, you got any?
PETER: Sure, lots of idea.
ROBBIE: Metallurgy, I mean, you're the man that knows the men. I sell my stuff.
LIAM: Well, I've moved copper, silver, iron. I know people around town. I reckon I could probably stop in at any number of drinking houses and have a conversation or two.
MATT: Sure, sure, yeah. Make a cognition check for me.
LIAM: Great. That's cocked is what that is.
ROBBIE: Yeah. Well, it's fun to say in the accent.
LIAM: Oh, terrible. That's a two.
MATT: That's a two. Yeah, there's probably a few places. Metallurgy, I mean like, you've, hmm, let's walk. (laughter) You're having a hard time recalling it.
ROBBIE: Can I scan the skyline for any kind of smoke from a forge or a foundry anywhere in town?
MATT: Yeah, you can easily see a number of smoke stacks rising over there, and it's getting harder as it gets darker in the day to pick up the color, but it's still enough where you can follow deeper into the core of the city where most of the iron works are represented.
PETER: Clearly every town, prefecture, there's a political system. There's usually a lord, a daimyo there. There's usually a castle overlooking each town. Would we go to any military installments to see if they're expecting anything?
MATT: You can certainly check into that.
PETER: I also don't want to instigate a fight and then turn them onto any illegal arms coming in.
MATT: Of course.
PETER: I don't want to do that. I want to service Takeda and then get the hell out. So could we find a military, a gate or a military arms factory or could we go to the castle?
MATT: Well, it's interesting. There is no daimyo of Sakai. It is a merchant council. This is one of the few autonomous cities, especially at this scale of wealth and prosperity at this time, which I think is why it's been on the outskirts of the main conflicts that have swallowed the majority of Japan as of late. But there is a military guard of presence here and there the merchant council does have hired mercenaries to look over their vested interests and to protect the town.
PETER: Is there existing opponents, somebody that questions their existence? Who's their biggest enemy?
MATT: Make a cognition check for it. Go ahead and roll with your cognition bonus.
PETER: Okay. The 12, right?
MATT: Yep. And add your--
PETER: Okay. Five and a two, so I got a seven.
MATT: A seven, not too bad. Most of the enemies of the merchant council are foreign merchants and other political interests that would like to ally or absorb such a wealthy place. You have heard rumors and discussion--
PETER: Exactly.
MATT: -- of Lord Nebunaga, who has been making quite a large political play for a number of the outlying cities of this level of trade and wealth.
PETER: Political play? You mean this by outright attacking?
MATT: Or--
PETER: Political play?
MATT: No, by conversing with.
PETER: Oh.
MATT: There was representation within this city as of late. There were meetings between the council. There has not been an assault on this town, but there has been rumor and discussion of representatives of Nebunaga, if not himself possibly being present and meeting with the council, so there could be an agreement underway. You're not entirely certain.
LIAM: Above the table, we're trying to find someone who can, in addition to whatever their legit business is, also on the side squirt out some bullets, right?
MATT: Seems to be, yeah. Or at least have a contact where they can get it there. As you're looking around and walking through the city, people are coming up to you or looking your direction, trying to sell their wares. You can see there are shop fronts that are open. Glancing around quickly, you can see there's smells of cooked fish off to one side. You pass carts with millet and daikon radishes and adzuki beans, taro, all manner of farmers and various other merchants that fill the streets. The dense populace in this area. The outside of Sakai is massive spreading farmland and everyone comes in here for the day to try and sell their wares, to trade it. You're immediately, as you're looking around, swallowed in by the vibrancy of the populace. One man in his late thirties with very edge mustaches and a dark mop of hair up top comes up and says, "Friends, friends, hello. I am looking to sell some of the finest mulberry silk and mulberry leaves, if you'd like. Or other quality crafts. No? I'll continue on."
PETER: Other quality crafts?
EMILY: Crafts?
PETER: What other quality crafts? We're not talking livestock and plants. You can move military hardware?
MATT: "I am a simple farmer. Sorry." He continues walking along, having found the wrong sort of folk he seems than he was looking for.
EMILY: Perhaps rather than finding a forge, could we find a merchant who's selling wares, metal goods and try and trace and maybe see if this person is hungry enough to be peddling their wares if we could convince them to make some bullets for us, rather than looking around trying to find a blacksmith?
ROBBIE: Yeah, I think if we're walking around knocking on doors saying, "Hey, can you make some bullets for us," not exactly as clandestine as we need to be. I figure if our employer could just buy these, he'd do it himself. So obviously we need to find a roundabout way of doing this, and above-- table check. We're talking flintlock pistols. We're talking balls and shot?
MATT: Yeah, these are like iron balls, specifically for tepp .
ROBBIE: So, relatively high tech weaponry, low tech ammunition.
MATT: Correct.
ROBBIE: Where if we find someone who knows how to manipulate metal, they should be able to make this ammunition for us.
MATT: Correct. It's also right about this time, it's hard not to notice. As you're heading through this area, you notice the crowd is keeping a wide berth around the exterior of one officious looking structure, where you notice a troop of several armored soldiers, a number of ashigaru, straw hats not too dissimilar to yours with yari spears at their side and armored, a cluster of them guarding the exterior of this building. Since you are the most connected here, I'll say make a cognition or a guile check. I'll accept either for this.
ROBBIE: All right. Eh, a seven.
MATT: Seven is not bad. It hits your mind just as the figure emerges, two figures actually emerge. One you do not recognize is stepping out of the building, a fully heavily armored samurai, a daunting figure, tall and wide, full helmet. You can see across their face this mask that has teeth carved into it with large, almost tusk-like curves out the side, a toothed grin that curves up the wiry mustache that sprouts out the edges, cold eyes from beneath. The menp mask itself, it holds a intensity. The figure next to him that you do recognize, a well-dressed middle aged man that you know as Imai Sokyo, who is a member of the merchant council of the city and is very much mingled in the business and trade of the town.
ROBBIE: Imai Sokyo?
MATT: Imai Sokyo.
PETER: Imai Sokyo.
MATT: They both emerge from the building, talking to each other. As they do, other townsfolk see the samurai figure and step away. He carries a presence with him and the other ashigaru soldiers follow in kind as they continue to walk down the street together, just having a casual conversation. It's rare to see a samurai in full garb but also this one is particularly-- His armor is designed to set a presence.
PETER: So he's more of a peacekeeping presence as opposed to somebody that's-- I guess he's an assassin. Maybe not technically a samurai because it's these merchants that are controlling the city. But you say that it's unique that he's coming out. But you say that it's unique that he's coming out.
MATT: To be walking in--
PETER: Yes.
MATT: -- the middle of the town at this point with one of the heads of the merchant council, which do not have any classical samurai on this scale under their employ, it is odd. You'd likely get the feeling that he's either not local or somebody is wearing the garb of a samurai. Make a cognition check for me.
PETER: Okay. All right. The 12, right?
MATT: Mm-hmm.
PETER: Five plus two, seven.
MATT: Seven. Okay, that's not too bad. The best you can make out, you do not recognize this figure at all. You've never seen them, but you've never seen them, which means they're definitely not from Sakai. This is not their home, so they're likely visiting and they're visiting and conversing very casually with one of the members of the council here. So there was some big business going on around this time.
LIAM: Pardon, did you say the face was visible?
MATT: Of the--
LIAM: Samurai.
MATT: -- samurai, no. You can see the eyes just barely beneath the helmet. And there is a menp mask in the front that completely obfuscates the front of the face.
LIAM: And they're all chill?
MATT: Yeah.
LIAM: In their discussion?
MATT: They're just talking as the rest of the ashigaru soldiers are walking alongside them.
PETER: The fact that he's out there, and then that we just got propositioned for this one deal, that's too much for one day in normal Sakai.
EMILY: Yeah.
PETER: I need to find out a little bit more before I fulfill this order from Takeda. I'm going to look at you all. So we need to figure out exactly where we stand in this, whatever it is. Is there any way these guys, one can be sent in to feel out, to cause a commotion or an incident?
ROBBIE: You want to do a classic walk and follow him, maybe?
PETER: Perhaps.
ROBBIE: Yeah, all right, how's your--
PETER: I don't want it to be prominently-- I don't want to be out there or I'm going to look like a challenge to them.
ROBBIE: How's your play acting? I'm sorry, we don't exactly blend in.
EMILY: Yeah. Yeah, we don't exactly blend in. I'm quite agile--
PETER: We go and offer him your services.
EMILY: Are we saying let's go and eavesdrop?
ROBBIE: I've already slipped into the shadows.
EMILY: Yeah, you're still--
ROBBIE: As soon as I hear the waffling, I'm going to break off from the group and try to slowly start following them through the shadows.
LIAM: I think you took too long. (laughter)
MATT: Make a guile check.
ROBBIE: A guile check, okay. Cool. My intent is full stealth here. Hey, that's not bad.
PETER: Or you could approach and say: How can I join the ranks here?
ROBBIE: That's a 10.
PETER: I'm a female, but I'm formidable.
ROBBIE: Yeah.
MATT: Okay. You slip into the shadows. It's a combination of both keeping off of the road and keeping out of sight, but also blending with the crowd best you can, for being visually a non-local, but still managed to pull it off pretty well, obscuring your features.
ROBBIE: I think my dark, stick-straight hair, I'll wear it down and low and if I can obscure myself in my traditional, the villager garb.
MATT: So you do a great job of hiding. However, a voice perks up between the three of you that goes, "You look funny." (chuckles) You can't help but, Garrett, look down, this towering redheaded massive mountain of an Irishman, at a boy probably no older than 11 years old who's looking up at you, his arms cocked on his hip. He's got that kind of attitude that a pre-teenager has when his parents aren't around. He's like, "So what's your deal? Where are you from?"
LIAM: It's true, isn't it? Did you know I have a head like a torch and at night, it burns and can be seen for miles around?
MATT: "No." (laughter) That's-- "No."
EMILY: I feel compelled to step in at this point as this child is perhaps blowing our chance to be subtle and get more information and would like to intimidate him away, or intimidate him into silence, so we can fulfill our purpose of gaining information. (laughter)
MATT: All right. What do you do to try to intimidate this child?
EMILY: So I think I might roll for might and see if I can intimidate him away with stepping forward alongside, I mean, Garrett is formidable, but just to growl from below the brim of my--
MATT: All right, roll with might.
EMILY: Great. Oh, that's 14 might for this little one.
PETER: Wow, wow.
ROBBIE: Wait, wait, wait, you're doing this to the child?
EMILY: The kid, so I might step forward, drop the kanab on the ground with a little thump and exhale in his direction.
MATT: The kid goes, "Um, I. Look-- I didn't know. Ah!"
EMILY: She raises her finger to her mouth.
MATT: "Tomiko!" Then he turns back and looks back and you see a young woman in her twenties or so, dark hair, normal working clothes, rushes up and goes like, "Heiji, what's-- I'm so sorry."
LIAM: This one belongs to you?
MATT: "Oh, no, no, no, belongs to a friend. Their smithy's down the road. He's just a rambunctious kid. "Heiji, would you not bother the clearly armed and intense figures walking the street?"
LIAM: Short temper, this one.
MATT: You see that he's looking back and is like, "Yeah, his head's on fire." (laughter) "Of course it is. That's why you don't bother them." And moves Heiji a little bit behind his head. "I'm sorry to bother you about that. We'll get out of your hair."
EMILY: I love that interesting information about blacksmith family, did you say?
PETER: You said blacksmith.
ROBBIE: Smithy.
MATT: "Yeah."
EMILY: Smithy family just down the road?
MATT: Yeah, she stops and she's like, "Yeah, Heiji's parents, they're blacksmiths."
PETER: Well, hold on there a minute then. I think that we can afford a moment or two. Could you point us to this blacksmith?
MATT: "I don't know, Heiji looks pretty spooked." He's like--
PETER: He can trust us.
MATT: "Does the fire man get to come?"
EMILY: Aw.
PETER: Absolutely.
LIAM: You ever go for a ride on a mountain? (whooshing)
MATT: You pick Heiji up and put him on your shoulder. He is this spindly boy and clutches on around your neck and is like, "Whoa, it's not fire!"
LIAM: Careful of me hair, it burns!
MATT: Starts tussling as you carry along. Tomiko--
EMILY: That's just lice. (laughter)
MATT: -- crosses her arms a bit and smiles like, "Sure, I'll introduce you to Rin at the very least. Thanks for letting your friend give him a little bit of a ride. He doesn't get to wander too much if he's not helping at the smith, so anyway." So as you walk back with them towards the smith, we're going to come to you as you are--
LIAM: Right, I look over my shoulder going: Where the fuck is that one? (laughter)
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah. So I'm trying to stay tight within 15, 20 feet in the shadows, blending in with the group. And I'm trying to clock any kind of info about what, because this has piqued my curiosity, too. I do feel like I know a lot of people in town and this is, I don't know, it's just one of those serendipity kind of days.
LIAM: A lot of passion.
PETER: Yeah, yeah.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MATT: So, they're walking. They're walking, talking to each other, and it seems to be their conversation is casual, but then every bit of time, Imai leans in pretty close and seems to whisper a bit to the samurai. The samurai seems unaffected. There's two different levels of conversation happening here.
ROBBIE: Hmm.
MATT: I guess you could say.
ROBBIE: Yeah, but no information about anything moving through the city? I'm really trying to peek in for anything that might--
MATT: Want to listen to their conversation?
ROBBIE: I want to get close enough to.
MATT: Roll cognition for me to see.
ROBBIE: Cognition. Well, that's second best.
LIAM: Let's go.
ROBBIE: Oh boy, I'm just poopy. Ah, fuck, but whoops. (laughter) A five.
MATT: A five.
ROBBIE: Damn, I know not great. I know.
MATT: You try to listen and move through, and as you are getting close enough where you're starting to pick up bits of the conversation, you turn around the corner and one of the ashigaru soldiers steps in front, gives you the notion of "Fuck off" essentially.
ROBBIE: Oh, so I'm made.
MATT: Or at the very least, he's like, you're too close.
ROBBIE: Okay, I'll just give him a beaming smile, but then also a little bit maybe inhibited but then also a little bit maybe inhibited and just wave away, hands in-- no pockets, but wander off back to the group.
MATT: Okay.
ROBBIE: Yeah. Useless side quest.
MATT: All right. Wandering through the streets of the city, the sun slowly comes to set and the night comes into the streets of Sakai. At this point now, some of the shops have closed, but also some of the evening establishments have continued their business in-- You can catch all manner of people still going about their business and work for the day, until Tomiko is walking along the way, conversing a bit at the rest of the troop here. "So, I see kind of a motley crew walking through town here at this hour. What's your business? What do you need a smithy for?"
LIAM: Well, business does bring together strange bedfellows. We are actually hunting around town for someone who is especially versatile in metal working, for someone who is especially versatile in metal working, have sort of a unique need and business is stretched a bit at the moment and we have a possibility, if we can find the right craftsmen.
MATT: "We'll see if we can. Rin and Nakamura are very talented blacksmiths. Most of their work tends to be in the realm of what sells well, which their specialty is tobacco knives. However, they make all sorts of odds and ends and I'm sure whatever sort of custom asks you might have, at least they can be of help. Here it is coming right upon it." Off to the left hand side of the main road where she's led you, you can see this compact, very modest but very functional smithy built into a longer building with the front of it there. You can see a woman in her thirties or so is sitting on the side with a display spread of various small blades and utensils. Right as you begin lumbering up, she kind of sits up and goes, "Heiji! Heiji, what are you doing?"
LIAM: Sorry, I heard this was yours.
MATT: She takes him and he's like, "Mom, I rode a giant. It was amazing." She's like, "Okay, Heiji. Well, thank you for giving my son a ride, and Tomiko." She's like, "I tried to follow him. He gets like how he gets." She tousles his hair a bit and he smiles up at her. She goes, "Anyway, Rin, these fine folks here are looking for someone of your craft and skills apparently, so I guess a little bit of good fate has brought you all together. Feel free to go about business and I'll try and keep your son in order." He's already run off and is being a terror in the street. Rin sits up and wipes her hands free. You can see she has a little bit of that soot on the edges of her chin and she has cloth wrapping around her head. She's not wearing her leather apron, but it is hung up on the side. Already the heat that emanates from the inside of her complex itself is noticeable as you approach. But she sits up "(groans)," adjusting her back a little bit. "So, what can I help you with?"
PETER: Could we take a moment inside her very heated complex? I mean, have a word with her? (laughter)
MATT: You going to ask her that?
PETER: Yeah.
MATT: She's like, "Sure, yeah. We can step in a bit." Takes a moment back and you can see Tomiko and Heiji are now sitting outside a bit. Heiji's now looking back in, he's trying to be curious about what you're all doing and his eyes are still locked on the strange red-haired man. What are you doing at this time?
ROBBIE: I'm not back yet.
MATT: Yeah.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I lost him a little bit, so I'm making my way back through the market, looking for signs of which direction they want to go. I feel like I've got an idea, but I'm not quite caught up yet. I'm also going to try to steal some shit.
MATT: Okay. (laughter)
MATT: Okay.
ROBBIE: Nothing major.
MATT: All right, what are you trying to steal?
ROBBIE: I'm trying to shoplift some food.
MATT: Sure, roll guile for me.
ROBBIE: Yeah, great. Oh, that's what I'm good at. (laughter)
ROBBIE: Finally found it. 14. (laughter)
MATT: 14, yeah. Easily, whatever you want, you pocket it with a 14.
ROBBIE: I'm not greedy, I'm going to take one, two, three, four-- I guess I saw them. Were they engaging with the kid yet when I left? I'm going to grab half a dozen onigiri and one apple for myself.
MATT: Okay, fair enough. As you begin to find your way back, while you separated for a bit, you come to find the exterior of this smithworks.
ROBBIE: Yeah.
MATT: So well done.
ROBBIE: Yeah.
MATT: They've found something.
ROBBIE: They're all standing in a semicircle looking in and I'm going to pop up behind Garrett and go: Huh, found the smithy.
MATT and ROBBIE: (laugh) I'll toss them each an onigiri.
LIAM: Ah.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah.
MATT: You all get a snack as you're all walking inside. As they're all stepping in, you see across the street, a little further down, the samurai and Imai Sokyo are stepping out of a nearby street and are joining into the main intersection just across the way and they've stopped for a second with the rest of the soldiers there. While you all step into the smithy--
PETER: Do we see that soldier or only he sees it and keeps it to himself?
MATT: Only he sees it because the three of you have stepped into the building at the time.
PETER: Okay.
ROBBIE: I'll walk into the building with you. Is there a shut-able door?
MATT: No, it's an open storefront.
ROBBIE: Oh, oh. Okay, I'll duck out of view. Yeah? I made my presence felt.
MATT: So Rin's wiped her hands. "What can we help you with?"
LIAM: Thank you for giving us a bit of your time. We are trying to facilitate a bit of business this evening. We have been vetting different metal workers and we're on the hunt for somebody with a bit of versatility.
MATT: "Versatility? I mean, we're pretty versatile in what we can do. I can check in with my husband, Nakamura. He's currently with a client on the south end of the city. But I'm pretty crafty in my own right. What is it you're looking for?"
LIAM: Well, we saw your wares outside. Looks fine enough, but you'd be able to improvise a bit?
MATT: "Sure, sure." She takes a little cup of now cold tea off to the side and sips it.
PETER: Ammo.
EMILY: A simple product in large volume.
LIAM: Direct, I like it.
MATT: "Oh."
EMILY: (laughs)
ROBBIE: I'm not used to it, but it'll do.
MATT: You see a look behind her eyes of acknowledgement.
EMILY: She's not got that much going on.
ROBBIE: Yeah.
MATT: "That makes sense. Certainly a lot of soldiers coming through town these days. Is there some kind of naval operation underfoot I'm unaware of?"
PETER: That's a great question. It's one that I want answered. I haven't gotten it yet, but that is the most importanto question. But, you know, I'm dealing with the issues at hand right now. Can we find somebody that can supply a certain amount of ammo?
ROBBIE: We're more of a middle people.
MATT: She nods for a minute. "Okay. It wouldn't take too long to--" At this point you hear some gasps outside. And people's attention. (multiple gasps) Everyone looks around and you hear Heiji's voice go, "What?" As you all turn and look across the street where that conversation was happening, a standard civilian of the town has been knocked onto the ground, into a bit of muck and is on all fours, pushed down. The armored samurai stands over him and as he glances down, intensely, cracks his head to one side. "Your disrespectful gaze is noted, worm. Now bow before me, as you would before Lord Nobunaga." People freeze around all the various movement and chatter has come to an immediate standstill and the gentleman who was pushed to the ground turns around, looks up at him fearfully. And leans down and goes into a very, very deep bow before the samurai. The samurai nods. Looks to the Imai Sokyo to his right, nods to him. "Good." (sword slashing) With one fell swoop--
ROBBIE: No!
MATT: -- carves through and cuts this man down in the street. The collective "(gasping)" gasps. You see Heiji step into Tomiko. Tomiko, guarding him for a minute and taking a step back, he flicks the blood from his blade and looks at it. "Needs to be sharpened." (sword sheathing) Sheaths it and walks away with Imai, who's a bit disturbed but continues conversation. The rest of his soldiers staying behind across the road. Rin leans out a bit and goes, "Tomiko, why don't you go take Heiji over to tori Shrine for a bit, play with him there. Maybe get him out of the-- Get him out of the thoroughfare." Tomiko nods, "Of course. Heiji, why don't we go-- Why don't we go play somewhere else, right?" And he goes, "Okay." She takes him by the arm and they both leave slowly. The cityscape begins to reclaim a semblance of its energy but there is definitely a shaken mood to the space.
ROBBIE: Yeah, Sakai is-- I mean obviously, a bustling town, a lot of commerce. But is open murder in the street-- It's not a common occurrence or--
MATT: It's not a common occurrence, however--
ROBBIE: But it's a violent place?
MATT: Violence does break out here.
ROBBIE: Okay.
MATT: There is, unfortunately in some spaces, a samurai activity referred to as sword testing. That some Samurai use as a power play in public to where they want to check whether or not their blades are battle ready and sometimes will use people that don't matter to check that.
EMILY: Oh man.
ROBBIE: Okay.
EMILY: What I caught and bristled at was the name of Oda Nobunaga from him. So I'm curious if this samurai is affiliated with Oda Nobunaga and if that then means that there's some connection between Oda and Imai, with the merchant council. Is some move about to be made on Sakai from Oda Nobunaga?
MATT: Could very well be.
EMILY: Yes.
MATT: Based on the terminology he used in the street, it seemed to imply some sort of connection of perspective between him and as he said, Lord Nobunaga. But he has now continued up the street with Imai, while the rest of his soldiers stayed behind there and keeping an eye in the middle of the walkway. Rin has stepped back into the structure here and kind of-- "(sighs, heavily)"
PETER: Is there anybody that we can ask about what is happening, what operation is going down? Is anybody familiar with what's happening? Why the samurai has come out? Could we ask his soldiers?
MATT: If you want to.
PETER: Yeah. That's fair enough, I say.
MATT: Sure.
PETER: So what would I-- Can I roll? Can I go up and say, what is--
MATT: You can walk and approach, if you'd like to. Now, where they stand, especially because of what just transpired, there is a rather wide berth. People who are still walking keep a fair distance.
PETER: How many of them are there?
MATT: You would see there are six figures you see. There are three ashigaru with yari spears. You see two ashigaru with bows. There is one kind of-- appears to be an armored samurai, helmet-less at the moment, that is not anywhere near as ostentatiously decorated as the masked figure that left with Imai.
PETER: Me, being such an imposing figure, perhaps Garrett, could you ask them? I'll be there to back you up.
LIAM: I think I might stand out just a little bit.
EMILY: I would, personally, love to approach. I feel very--
PETER: You will go, too.
EMILY: Yeah, because I so want to be a warrior and learn how and so to approach them seems appealing to me. and so to approach them seems appealing to me.
MATT: Okay, as you all begin to step out, Rin goes, "Wait, what are you doing? What are you doing?"
LIAM: Side question. Because I don't want to march up to these soldiers at all, but are there shops on this street in addition to where we are? (laughter)
MATT: Oh, there are many shops.
LIAM: Okay, so what I'm going to do, because I don't-- I'm nervous about this going tits up. I'm going to walk across the road and pretend to browse wares. So I am close in the vicinity, but not having eyes on it. I'm just tracking it.
MATT: Sure. You're used to drawing eyes, anyway. Just by the nature of you standing out like the reddest of sore thumbs--
LIAM: Very used to it.
MATT: -- amongst the populace. But yeah, you duck into one of the nearby shops.
PETER: I'll walk with you, but I'll detach from you. Keep 100% of my attention on you, but I do not want to be going with you to antagonize them. So I will let you, but I'm there to back you up, so I'm absolutely in with this. You? You stay out of the way and you, you are watching your samurai guy. You're off stealing apples, right?
ROBBIE: I am sitting right next to the-- Who was the head of the forge? Not Tomiko--
MATT: Oh, Rin.
ROBBIE: Rin? Yeah. I'm sitting next to Rin, finishing up my onigiri, watching you guys walk out into the streets.
MATT: Yeah, and you notice her--
LIAM: We dispersed, right? There's other people walking through the thoroughfare?
MATT: Oh yeah, there's all sorts. People are still going about their day. You get the sense that moments of violence like this are uncommon, but not to the point where the shock halts people's day. The city's kind of-- Everyone's slowly going about their business, but there is that tension that sits in the air.
ROBBIE: As I'm sitting there, what material-- Do we remember what they asked for? Was it lead or iron?
LIAM: Iron, iron.
MATT: Iron.
ROBBIE: Iron? I'm watching you guys walk out. He's rolling his eyes to himself. Because we're off-mission. Where he's like: (grunts) All right. My last little bit of rice from my onigiri, as I'm sitting next to her and talking to her, I'm going to roll into a little ball, roughly the size of a piece of ammunition. I'm going to hold up my hand and I'm going to lean over to Rin and go: One of these. Iron. Couple hundred, couple thousand. That's the deal. I'm going to flip it to her.
MATT: She catches it and she's paying attention to you, but she's also watching your friends approaching this cluster of--
ROBBIE: Oh yeah.
MATT: -- armed warriors. And is like, "Okay, I'll keep this in mind."
ROBBIE: Yeah.
MATT: "I'll talk to my husband when he gets back." She, without even thinking, takes a bite.
EMILY: (laughs)
MATT: You see her eyes darting off in the direction of where Tomiko and Heiji went and is-- There's just-- She's a bit distracted at the moment. But then eventually goes back to you and goes, "I'll talk with my husband."
PETER: See? There's something going on in this town. These guys, they want to complete the mission. I have reservations about completing the mission. I'll complete it if it's fine, but I have to check out every angle. See if we're not going to start a national war.
ROBBIE: I got you, baby.
PETER: Oh okay!
ROBBIE: I'll be an angle on your angle.
PETER: Okay.
ROBBIE: So to that, I'll slip out of the room and duck into to an alley and I'm going to wait for you two to do whatever it is you're going to do. But I got your back whether you clock that or not.
MATT: All right, so the two of you approach with Umi leading the--
EMILY: Yeah.
MATT: -- the forward momentum.
PETER: Yes.
EMILY: Because I feel like this is the turning point. If I get the information about what battle might be about to transpire, that we might be facilitating by--
PETER: Exactly.
EMILY: -- getting munitions to it. Because--
MATT: (laughs) as much as I would love to be a warrior, I don't like Oda Nobunaga. That's who I feel I am against. I don't want to aid him. So before going through with this first mission of checking in with the forge and getting all this ammo.
PETER: Exactly.
EMILY: I would like to approach the man who is not as heavily adorned that you described.
MATT: Right. So yeah, the samurai. As you approach, this gentleman in his 30s, scruff around his chin and his upper lip, longer, oily hair. You can see he probably hasn't bathed in a few days or so and the armor is probably sweaty in its own right. It's not heavy, but definitely enough to show his station as a samurai.
PETER: He's commanding the squad? He's the highest.
MATT: It looks like amongst them, yes. Because all the rest of them are either mercenaries or ashigaru soldiers with straw hats on. They're probably taken off--
PETER: So bows and--
MATT: -- at this point in the day.
PETER: -- staffs and stuff. What's he armed with?
MATT: Oh, he has a katana.
PETER: Okay.
EMILY: Okay.
MATT: Katana and wakasashi. But as you step, they're all looking about and conversing with each other. They all look a bit like they're waiting for something. As soon as you begin to step forward, the samurai glimpse over at you, turns his head to the side at the sight of this 5'3" armored mountain of a woman, looks-- "Can we help you?"
EMILY: That samurai mentioned Lord Nobunaga. And just dive right in. (laughter)
ROBBIE: So scared! You guys are scaring the shit out of me!
EMILY: This is the thing, Umi is not very subtle. So that's why she's reluctanto to talk.
LIAM: Garrett's holding a melon 20 feet away and his eyes go--
EMILY: She's very direct. (laughter)
ROBBIE: I love it, I love it.
PETER: Their thumbs are on their swords, they're like--
EMILY: She's 20 years old. She's lived on a farm her whole life, surrounded by brothers. She's just left the farm. She's like, hate Nobunaga. But she's very inspired by the subtlety and the intelligence of you all. So she's like, I'm going to try and be-- Step in and have a slick conversation with this samurai.
MATT: He looks at you as you say the name and he kind of--
EMILY: Nobunaga.
MATT: -- nods and gives a little smirk. "Indeed, we are here on a diplomatic mission for Lord Oda Nobunaga."
EMILY: A diplomatic mission.
MATT: "Mm-hmm."
EMILY: Very interesting.
MATT: "Why do you ask?"
EMILY: Now she thinks, how can I get-- This poor gal is like, diplomatic mission? What does that mean for this city? So-- (anxious panting)
EMILY and MATT: (laugh) Now she's like, okay. She really wants to have the help of this, who she sees as a mentor, though he doesn't know it.
PETER: I'm going, say the right thing, girl. Say the right thing! You want to join and where can you--
EMILY: Yeah, so trying to get more information to play. Ah, a diplomatic mission. Are you in need of fighters?
PETER: Yes, good.
LIAM: Oh, we're in it now. (laughter)
MATT: Okay.
EMILY: (laughs)
MATT: Make a guile check for me.
EMILY: Okay. Let's see if I can boost my zero guile.
LIAM: Let's go.
EMILY: Nine.
PETER: Yeah.
MATT: Nine's not bad.
EMILY: Hey, nine's nice.
MATT: He gives you a look, says, "You're certainly armored as a warrior."
EMILY: Trained as one, too.
MATT: "Where does your alliance lie here in the unification of our great nation?"
EMILY: My alliance is with the greatness of this nation and all who pull towards that.
PETER: That was a good answer.
MATT: Looks at the other soldiers. "Well, then, stay close. The night should get interesting."
PETER: Oh.
MATT: That's all he says.
EMILY: She bows and retreats. Okay.
PETER: So she comes to share that with us or with myself?
MATT: Do you choose to go and share that with the rest of the team?
EMILY: I will share that with the rest of you, yes. In case of interest to y'all.
ROBBIE: So--
PETER: Diplomatic?
ROBBIE: Yeah, that's so weird.
PETER: Diplomatic, I heard that in "Star Wars." Diplomatic.
MATT and ROBBIE: (laugh)
PETER: Diplomatic means war.
EMILY: Diplomatic. It sounds as though it means discussion, but to be receiving, to being open to recruits. It sounds like there is a battle coming.
PETER: So you could get in close with them.
EMILY: Yes, perhaps get more information.
PETER: But Nobunaga, I also don't have affection for him.
EMILY: We don't like him, no.
ROBBIE: When he says-- They're talking out loud like this. You can get in close and she says "Yes." Is there the equivalent of an insight check on this? I want to know how interested she--
EMILY: Ooh, that's cool.
ROBBIE: Can I clock?
MATT: Oh, sure!
EMILY: Yeah.
MATT: Yeah.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MATT: So then I want you to roll cognition.
ROBBIE: Okay.
MATT: And you roll guile once more.
EMILY: Great. Okay.
ROBBIE: I want to see how honest that answer was.
EMILY: 10 guile.
ROBBIE: I rolled a natural 10 plus two.
EMILY: Ooh.
MATT: So a 12.
ROBBIE: So a 12 on cognition.
MATT: So--
EMILY: Okay.
MATT: Yeah. Give him an honest read of your intent here.
EMILY: Right. My honest read. I-- (sighs) I don't support Lord Nobunaga. My intention is to get closer, to get more information, and perhaps to thwart Lord Nobunaga's intent.
ROBBIE: All right, so I glean that that was your intention in talking with them. I go--
EMILY: Yeah.
ROBBIE: Yeah, I knew I could trust you, farm girl. So what's the play?
MATT: Rin, at this point, by the way, who is at the back of her shop, watches you all walk back after conversing with these soldiers, unharmed after watching another civilian cut down, nods. "I'm going to go and retrieve my husband, and Heiji, I think I'm going to close shop early. Maybe perhaps we have enough business to not have to worry about being open for the night." She begins to shutter up. About this time, you hear in the distance: (trumpet sounding) Another horn goes off. (trumpet sounding) (horn sounding) The soldiers across the street look at each other, the samurai reaches to a side and pulls out his own horn and blows into the air loudly. As soon as he finishes his horn, one of the warrior's next goes, "Is it time?" The samurai goes, "It seems it is."
MATT: At which point they--
LIAM: Fuck!
MATT: -- all draw their weapons and start carving through the closest civilians they can. Screams begin to erupt throughout the street. You begin to hear the intensity of combat erupting here in the middle of Sakai into the early night, as bloodshed and cries take the space. Rin is now put against the back and other people are running out. Children, merchants, all of certain types. What do you do?
LIAM: So, wait. Hold on a minute, Matt. Hold on a minute. (laughter) (laughter)
LIAM: So we're in a fairly wide open public thoroughfare, multiple shops, including the smithy.
MATT: Yes.
LIAM: The blinged up samurai and a few additional guards are slaughtering anybody around them.
MATT: The masked samurai is gone. The samurai that's been head of this contingent is there with five other figures that are ashigaru mercenaries.
PETER: So it's clear it's Nobunaga.
MATT: You can gather at this point--
LIAM and EMILY: Yes.
MATT: -- that some sort of--
EMILY: This is a "diplomatic mission"--
MATT: -- siege is beginning.
EMILY: -- to kill everybody.
PETER: With no mercy.
LIAM: They were floated throughout the city, and it just kicked off, and we're watching?
MATT: Yes.
ROBBIE: Our slice of life is over.
LIAM: Our slice of-- (laughter)
MATT: Yeah, I think a lot of people's slice of life is over today.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah.
LIAM: We had a good run.
ROBBIE: Yeah.
PETER: I think it's clear that bullets are needed for this battle.
EMILY: What if it's to defend Sakai? What if our merchant--
PETER: I don't know.
PETER: This is the thing. Who is it for?
EMILY: Takeda. Yeah. Now we don't know who it's for. If they're already--
PETER: Takeda?
EMILY: -- slaughtering people right now.
PETER: Who's Takeda on? Who is he supplying?
LIAM: That is a larger hovering problem, but at the moment--
EMILY: We got to stop these guys.
LIAM: -- there are people getting slaughtered.
EMILY: Let's fight these ashigaru.
PETER: Preserve our own lives and save anybody else who's in the line of fire.
EMILY: Yeah, we're on the battlefield now.
MATT: (sword slices) Another person nearby gets carved down by the shoulder. This older woman who's trying to flee gets cut down to the street. You see the samurai pull his blade back and is looking for his next target. Behind him, you see one of the soldiers is now setting fire to one of the buildings across the way, as flames begin to burn and curl up to the thatched roofs.
PETER: I got to go out.
LIAM: Yeah.
EMILY: I'm running in-- and slay these guys.
LIAM: I'll tell you what. Until this point I was like, don't make a scene because you stick out like a sore thumb amongst the local authorities. These are not local authorities.
EMILY: Mm-hmm.
LIAM: (unsheathes weapon)
PETER: Yes.
ROBBIE: Yeah.
LIAM: Stride out.
MATT: All right. So I need to have everybody roll initiative for me.
LIAM: Oh!
ROBBIE: Oh, let's go!
PETER and ROBBIE: All right!
MATT: Roll your d12 and add your initiative.
PETER: 12. Wait, Robbie, which ones are 12s?
EMILY: Six.
LIAM: The roundish one.
ROBBIE: There you go, buddy.
PETER: Okay.
LIAM: Come on!
PETER: Come on! Here, all right.
ROBBIE and LIAM: (laugh)
MATT: Okay.
LIAM: (laughs)
PETER: Goddamn, a two.
LIAM: Roll a one.
EMILY: I rolled a 10, which is good, because I'm at negative four. So I got a healthy little six.
MATT: All righty. So with that, we have 10 to five. So you got a six?
EMILY: Yes.
MATT: Wow. You're out of the gate! Hell yeah. Okay.
ROBBIE: Wait, are we rolling 12s or 10s?
EMILY: I was just chatting with these guys.
ROBBIE: I'm sorry.
LIAM: d12.
EMILY: I feel like I'm also closer to them.
ROBBIE: 12?
LIAM: d12.
ROBBIE: I rolled a natural 11 with a zero.
MATT: Oh, so yeah, so you're up first. All right, so we have Rufino.
EMILY: Oh, gorgeous. Okay.
PETER: Jesus.
LIAM: He's quick.
EMILY: Yeah, yeah.
MATT: Rufino followed by Umi. So that's 10 to five. Five to one? Okay.
PETER: I had a two plus a three.
ROBBIE: Whoa!
MATT: Oh, you had two plus three? So you're five, right?
PETER: Yeah, five, yeah.
ROBBIE: You're a 10, baby.
MATT: All right, great.
LIAM: Yeah.
MATT: Yeah, so that'll put you-- All righty. So Ryuichi.
PETER: Tell me when.
MATT: Then we have--
PETER: We made it to the center of the street.
EMILY and PETER: (laughs)
EMILY: Did we win? Is it done?
PETER: The fight hasn't started yet.
MATT: All right, and you are?
LIAM: Negative two.
ROBBIE: Negative two? (laughs)
PETER: What?
EMILY: You haven't eaten your onigiri. You're still chewing.
LIAM: I rolled a one minus three.
ROBBIE: What was the order?
MATT: All righty.
ROBBIE: Me, Umi, Ryuichi, okay.
EMILY: Yeah.
MATT: So Rufino, you are up first. You can see now, these six warriors are spread out now. There's three with spears. The one that finished lighting the building has now set his torch down to the side and they're now nocking arrows into their large bows.
PETER: Plus that dude.
MATT: Plus the samurai up front, so six total.
ROBBIE: It's going down everywhere.
EMILY: Six. Okay. Okay.
ROBBIE: If honor were a stat, Rufino's would be in the negative, for sure. But seeing that old lady cut down, that's where he draws the line, because it reminds him of the old lady that took care of him when he was a child. Blood boils, and I'm going to see if I can-- Is there any way I can make my way to any of the rooftops of the shops around? Could I use my--
MATT: Yeah, you can totally do that.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MATT: All right, so roll agility to try and-- Agility or might, your choice, to try and get up to the rooftop.
PETER: You're leaving us?
ROBBIE: That's cocked.
MATT: Yep.
ROBBIE: Oh, and that's a-- (sputters) Man.
EMILY: You did it!
ROBBIE: Steal some onigiri, I'm off the chain. (laughter)
ROBBIE: Climb a roof. That's a two.
MATT: That's a two. So you go and leap to the nearest rooftop, or go to head towards it as the torch from the other bowman gets thrown up there, (whooshing flame) and that ignites.
PETER: Oh jeez.
MATT: There's now the faintest bit of crackling flames now starting to catch all around you in the space. So as the entire central space here is starting to burn in your area, you have no rooftop to get to. But you still get an adrenaline point, because now that we are in combat, any rolls acquire adrenaline. So nothing up there. What do you want to do?
ROBBIE: I'm just like: (frustrated sigh) Shit.
PETER: Did you parkour?
ROBBIE: Time to get my hands dirty. No, I failed.
PETER: Oh.
ROBBIE: So fate said I cannot parkour. Although I would've very much liked to.
MATT: (laughs)
ROBBIE: (groans) That is not what I'm built for. I'm going to dip through the crowds, super sneaky style. I'm going to go for that guy that cut down that old lady.
MATT: Okay, go for it.
ROBBIE: Yeah, let's go.
MATT: So because you've already rolled once, this would be pushing the advantage on the strike.
ROBBIE: Oh! Okay, so I'd lose--
MATT: So because you're still doing it in the same turn, your first roll-- Well, the first roll failed actually, so no. You know what?
ROBBIE: Oh, I'm done?
MATT: Yeah, because you finished in this one, unfortunately. Sorry.
ROBBIE: Come on, Matt!
MATT: So you try and get there.
PETER: He doesn't, though.
MATT: Yeah. Well, by the way, I think I leaned here before, but I created the system for this game. So also we're learning it as we go and I can tweak things if I want. I'll say, because that wasn't an actual major action, you didn't even get a chance to do it in this space. I won't consider that your first action. So you still get your turn, because that would be no fun.
EMILY: That's cool.
MATT: So go for it.
ROBBIE: Yeah, I was trying to make a move to make a play.
MATT: Yeah, that's okay.
ROBBIE: All right, cool. Yeah, so I'll duck through and I'll go in for that guy. You guys talked about your weapons. I never did. I have a very common looking hunter's bow, a yumi bow on my back.
PETER: Oh! So that's why you were going up.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, uh-huh.
PETER: Nice.
ROBBIE: Then I have a quiver that is also very, very basic and you can't see the arrows. That doesn't matter. Both of them have hidden the tanto that I have strapped to the small of my back. I'm going to pull it out. While I am so plain clothed and nasty looking, this is the finest weapon you've ever seen. I mean it is just, it's like my entire life earnings have been put into this weapon, and it is beautiful and gilded, and I'm going to pull it out. I'm going to go stick this guy. I'm going to try my best.
MATT: Let's go.
ROBBIE: All right. Cool.
PETER: Okay.
ROBBIE: I'll dip in on him. Pretty good.
PETER: Nice.
ROBBIE: That's a nine.
EMILY: (gasps)
MATT: A nine definitely hits him.
ROBBIE: Cool. Cool. Then, so that's just one. I am going to push my advantage, because why not?
MATT: All right. Takes a wound.
PETER: Hit him a couple more times.
MATT: So for those who are unaware, this is a d12 system, d12 plus attributes. I should explain this to the audience who are watching now that we're in the thick of it. Success or failure based on the difficulty or the dodge of the opponent that you're attacking. But if you succeed on a roll, you can push the advantage, which means you can do an additional follow-up action or an additional follow-up attack. But each time you push the advantage, the dice gets smaller and if you fail while pushing the advantage, there is a consequence to it. So you are pushing the advantage. So your d12 becomes a d10.
ROBBIE: Yep, I am. I'm also going to spend two adrenaline to use my special action, Blade Fury, in which I can add my cognition to my next roll.
MATT: Indeed.
ROBBIE: That's going to be-- On the d10, pretty good. Nine, 12, 14. I'll come in for another poke.
MATT: That's a success. (laughs) Two wounds on the samurai who cut down the old lady.
ROBBIE: It really pissed me off, so I'm going to push my advantage again because you made a fun system.
MATT: Let's go!
LIAM: Let it roll!
MATT: That's a d8.
ROBBIE: (battle cry) Shit! (laughter)
PETER: One?
ROBBIE: Nat one for a four.
LIAM: (groans)
MATT: Four does not succeed. So you come in there, fury in your eyes. One stab with the tantoo , it hits the armor. The second one comes through, manages to catch some of the flesh. The samurai rears back. The third blow you go for, he actually kicks you square in the chest and is going to come down with his blade as a reactive motion. His attack on you... That's going to be an eight to hit you. What's your dodge?
ROBBIE: Ooh, ha! It's a nine, baby.
MATT: Nine?!
EMILY: You were close!
MATT: You just duck out of the way.
EMILY: Nice.
MATT: The benefits of being unarmored is you're quick on your feet. Now you're engaged and he gives you a look like, "Where the hell did you come from?" Then a grin comes across his face.
ROBBIE: I'm going to do a mocking wipe of the blood, of his own blood, and I'm going to turn the tantoo into a downward, like a knife fighter's pose.
MATT: Heck yeah.
ROBBIE: And stand squared off. That ends my turn.
MATT: Great. That finishes your go. Next up we have Umi, with Ryuichi on deck. What do you want to do now?
EMILY: Well, though I'm slow, I was hot on your heels, and you've done three attacks there. So by this point, I am right where you are standing, and I would like to swing my kanab and give a nice uppercut to this--
MATT: (laughs)
EMILY: You got to.
ROBBIE: The same guy that I'm faced off of with?
EMILY: Yes.
ROBBIE: Let's go.
MATT: All right, so roll.
EMILY: I'd like to knock him out.
PETER: They're finishing off this lead dude.
EMILY: Yeah.
ROBBIE and MATT: (laugh)
ROBBIE: We'll see.
EMILY: Okay, we're going to plow through one at a time. One, and then we're going to get onto the next person who's lighting little fires.
MATT: There you go!
EMILY: So--
MATT: d12 plus your might.
EMILY: Plus might. Ooh, that's 10 plus 13 might for my attack.
MATT: That definitely succeeds. So you take an adrenaline point from that strike.
EMILY: Oh, that's right.
MATT: As you uppercut him with your massive iron spiked kanab . Whack! You can see it hits him upside the head. If he would've had a helmet on, it would've knocked it off. But as he pulls back, there's a massive bloody spot on his head and he has to shake it off. He takes three wounds from that heavy kanab hit. Are you good with that in your turn or you want to push the advantage?
EMILY: Oh, I'd like to push the advantage and see if we can finish this. A quick question. How many points does it take to finish one of the--
MATT: You don't know.
EMILY: Oh!
MATT: He looks bloodied and hurt, which means he's taken a few hits. He's not on death's door, but he's definitely not looking pristine.
EMILY: Mm.
LIAM: Let it ride.
EMILY: So I think we'll let that one go. I'd like to carry this momentum through and go on to attack somebody else. So I guess that ends my turn on this guy then.
MATT: Okay, so you're holding off. Okay, got it.
EMILY: I'm just going to rush through.
MATT: That finishes your go. Ryuichi.
PETER: Okay. I'm in close vicinity to them.
MATT: Yeah, you guys are all staying together, so if you want to follow up to either go after the samurai or any of the other targets--
PETER: No.
MATT: -- you're welcome to.
PETER: I'm confident in her ability.
ROBBIE: (laughs) Yeah.
PETER: And his.
MATT: All right.
EMILY: Yeah.
PETER: They've double-teamed on that lead guy.
ROBBIE: (laughs)
MATT: Hell yeah.
PETER: I feel I have exceptional skill. I want to take on these four, or five?
MATT: There are five other figures. There's three with the yari spears that are spearing people, spinning around, getting other civilians, chasing them down. There are two that you can see are firing arrows off into the distance. You can also see as you're glancing around, there are--
PETER: They're not facing me, but they're close?
MATT: Not at the very moment, but they're close by. You could get there if you rushed.
PETER: I'm going to take out as many as I can.
MATT: Okay, you're going for--
PETER: I have the advantage. If they're not looking at me and I'm not their definitive target, then I have the advantage. I'm quick with the sword. Instead of going off for one person, I could take out these four, who are clearly a threat. I'll take out as many as I can before I die, so--
ROBBIE: (laughs)
MATT: Let's go. Are you going for a spear figure, or--?
PETER: Well, who's closest to me?
MATT: The spear gentlemen are closest to you. The ones with the bows are behind them.
PETER: Yeah, the spear guys first.
MATT: Okay.
PETER: One by one. I'm going to keep them separated.
MATT: I love that.
PETER: Because there's four of them, I can play their positioning so that they cannot get a clear shot. So it's really maybe two I'm facing at all times, and my skill's exceptional. I'm going to roll.
MATT: Let's go for it! All right, you run forward, a hand on the hilt of your katana. Roll a d12, add your might.
PETER: Great. All right. Is that a nine or a six?
ROBBIE: (laughs)
PETER: I can't tell.
ROBBIE: It's a six. Yeah, nine total.
PETER: And might, nine.
MATT: Versus nine. That is a success.
PETER: Oh god, yes.
MATT: You strike the first ashigaru warrior.
ROBBIE: You talked a lot about your skill being exceptional.
PETER: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (laughter)
MATT: Let me build up on that one. So you did it! You did it. (laughter)
LIAM: Welcome to tabletop.
PETER: So I took out one guy--
ROBBIE: Yay, I did it!
PETER: -- or took out two?
MATT: He took two wounds, because with your katana you do one. Your first strike. You carve through. He puts up the spear defensively and is not fast enough, and you cut them through.
PETER: Okay.
MATT: They have tatami chest armor on the sides and it carves through the first half of it. He takes the wound, brings the spear around to get ready. You can continue to attack if you want to push the advantage.
PETER: Yeah, I got to push the advantage.
MATT: Let's go. Roll a d10.
PETER: All right.
MATT: Add your might.
PETER: d10, d10, that's this one, right?
ROBBIE: Yes.
PETER: Okay. Come on! Five.
ROBBIE: Plus might, eight.
PETER: Plus three.
MATT: Five plus three is eight. That hits as well. He takes two more wounds.
PETER: Yes!
LIAM: (laughs) This one you-- (katana whooshing) Secondary slice down. You cut him, the blood spatters in the ground and he's like, "(groans)" He's still up, but he's barely standing, and he's looking very, very hurt. You also have earned two adrenaline points for those two strikes.
PETER: So I have two adrenaline total.
MATT: Correct. Do you want to push the advantage again?
PETER: Yes.
MATT: All right!
PETER: I need to take them out.
MATT: Let's go for it.
LIAM: Oh god. Roll a d8 for me and add three.
PETER: What do I need to beat them, or you can't tell?
MATT: You don't know.
PETER: Oh jeez.
ROBBIE: That's what that whole thing is for.
PETER: What the hell? (laughter)
LIAM: Drive it like you stole it.
MATT: (laughs)
ROBBIE and LIAM: (laugh)
ROBBIE: Oh, good! Oh, well, I can't tell.
PETER: What's that?
ROBBIE: It's a five.
PETER: Five! Plus three. Eight!
MATT: That hits. (cheering)
MATT: All right. (laughter)
MATT: So that finishes that one ashigaru soldier. How do you want to do this?
LIAM: Yeah!
ROBBIE: Yeah!
PETER: I'm looking at the other three. I do a little spin, a little twist.
MATT: Uh-huh.
PETER: (grunts) (laughter)
PETER: Then I'm walking towards them.
MATT: He's like, "(groans)"
PETER: Yeah.
EMILY: He doesn't even look.
MATT: He crumbles to the ground, his spear dropping, as you continue to walk towards the other ones. You close the gap. You can continue, if you want to push the advantage again.
LIAM: Oh boy.
MATT: But the dice gets smaller. Or you can end your turn there, up to you.
PETER: I'll end my turn.
MATT: Okay. (laughter)
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
MATT: You got it. Awesome. That finishes your turn.
PETER: Yes, yes, yes.
MATT: The two bow users in the back watch one of their own get cut down. Both of them looking at each other, seeing you both also coming in, smacking and taking nearly the head off of their samurai leader. One of the individuals with a bow is going to fire on you while the other one's going to fire at you.
PETER: Oh.
MATT: So against Umi over there it's going to roll, oh, that is a five.
EMILY: Oh, seven.
MATT: What's your-- Seven! (arrow swooshing) Fires an arrow and it goes by without an issue. The one that's firing on you, Ryuichi, oh, rolls a one plus one, two. Both arrows go wide. They're panicked at the sight of one of their friends carved down so quickly. When they saw themselves being surrounded by the riffraff of Sakai, they didn't expect all of a sudden to have these figures emerging and attacking them immediately. They're shaken. The two remaining spearmen are going to try and get vengeance for their fallen friend, and they're both going to be attacking you.
LIAM: Right.
MATT: This one's going to be a six plus one, seven to hit. What's your dodge?
PETER: My dodge, it says eight.
MATT: It's eight? Ugh. (spear whooshing) Out of the way. He's frustrated. He's going to push the advantage. So he's going to try and attack again, but it's a d10. That's only going to be a five. So that fails on his end. You get to roll an attack back on him for free.
PETER: Yeah! That's a 12?
MATT: Yep, d12.
PETER: Okay.
ROBBIE: Those are tough to read.
PETER: I know.
MATT: (laughter)
ROBBIE: That's a five.
PETER: Five plus three, eight.
MATT: Eight'll hit, so you get two wounds. As a reactive strike on that yumi spear. "(groans)" He takes a hit. His friend is going to try and use that moment to come up and attack you for his turn.
PETER: Right.
MATT: That is going to be-- Nah, that's a one. (laughter)
MATT: So yeah, you are carving through. They're trying hard to get any sort of purchase of their weapons on you and you are untouchable. That's going to finish both the spear holders. That brings us to Garrett and the samurai's turn is after you.
LIAM: Now, my confidence is not as sky high as my ronin colleague, so I take advantage of the fact that he has them so busy and I take my kanab and hold it in a really weird way. Now, I've been here for two decades, I have definitely learned some things here, however, I am holding it in the bataireacht style, Irish stick fighting position. It's a little bit like a tonfa, if you're familiar with that style of weapon and fighting. And I come up from behind and almost like I've got a lightning bolt in my hand, I spin it down and try to strike twice on the-- I know it's just one attack, but--
MATT: One attack damage, but you--
LIAM: Super fast to the (impact, impact) to the sides of his head. 12.
MATT: This is to the samurai or one of the yari soldiers or the bowman?
LIAM: (sighs) Let's do the-- Fuck it, let's do the samurai.
EMILY: Yeah.
MATT: All right.
LIAM: That is an eight for might.
MATT: An eight hits. That kanab strike is three wounds on him. Whack, a heavy crack on top of him. (pounding) You watch as part of his chest armor gets knocked to the ground and he stumbles into his back leg. His head is still heavily bloody, one eye is clouded with his own blood from the hit that you left on him, and the second one clobbers him up the side. He's looking real rough.
LIAM: If I give this fucker a chance to on turn me, it's not going to be pretty, I'm pushing the attack. That is a-- I rolled a 10, that's a crit.
MATT: That is, yes. EMILY, PETER,
ROBBIE: Yes!
MATT: So that is an additional wound on the hit. How do you want to do this on the samurai?
LIAM: Oh!
ROBBIE: Yeah!
PETER: What'd he get?
MATT: He got the kill.
PETER: Oh yeah--
LIAM: All right, so it was crack-crack, to daze the guy, and as he stumbles forward, I spin the thing in my hand and bring the thick end of my wooden kanab straight into the fellow's face, and unfortunately ruin it.
MATT: (blow hits) Done. He is a hamburger patty face man on the ground, scattered across the dirt. The whole center point of this area is wide open now. People have scattered off to the far ends. People are running and screaming in the distance and you can see other distanto rooftops are now starting to catch fire, other parts of the city simultaneously. You get the sense that this is far from the only force that is attacking from the inside. However, there are still two standing yari soldiers, ashigaru soldiers, and two bowmen that are still present. You can try and engage somebody else if you'd like to and push the advantage again or end your turn.
PETER: Did I not kill one?
ROBBIE: It's so fun.
MATT: Yeah, you did, there were three-
PETER: Oh, Jesus.
MATT: You took one out. There's just two. And there's one of them that's wounded by you as well.
EMILY: Two spear, two archer.
MATT: Yep.
EMILY: One spear guy's wounded.
MATT: Yep.
EMILY: Cool, thanks.
PETER: I have to go to the restroom quick.
MATT: You can go, come right back.
ROBBIE: We'll keep them busy 'til you're back.
MATT: Yeah, we got you.
LIAM: So, if I am going to push it I'm going to be stupid. So the heft of the weapon hit that fellow in the face, and if there's someone else close at this point--
MATT: You can dash over to one of these spear users, possibly the one that's been wounded.
LIAM: Okay, I spin it down and immediately start running in low and feint and then go towards the other one, not the one I was running towards.
MATT: Sure.
LIAM: Pushing the attack. I will use--
MATT: It's a d8.
LIAM: Do I have to declare the adrenaline at the beginning?
MATT: Yes, you do.
LIAM: All right. Let's make this a cleaving blow. I'll use the two adrenaline I've earned.
MATT: Okay.
LIAM: But it has to succeed. That's a nine.
MATT: That's a nine, that succeeds on both of them. All right, so cleaving blow is three wounds.
LIAM: Three and three, yeah.
MATT: Three and three and the other-- The one that Ryuichi had struck earlier, you dart up and (whooshing) body check him and finish him entirely. As you go through, the sheer force of the blow cracks into the other spear holder next to him, so you get a two-for-one strike on each. As one of them is now (grunting), the wind is knocked out of him briefly, while the first one that you hit crumples to the ground.
LIAM: We got to get the fuck out of here. And that's the end for me.
MATT: Okay, that finishes your go. The samurai is dead, he doesn't get his turn. All right, Rufino, you're up.
ROBBIE: Yeah, after watching this red-haired whirlwind just smash the guy that I was faced up with, zip across and smash another guy.
LIAM: Fight in a pub.
ROBBIE: Yeah. I'm going to lean over to Umi and go: Remind me to mind my manners if I ever visit the Isles. Give her a little wink. And I'll whip my bow off my back. I'll nock an arrow and I'll try for the archers in the back flank.
MATT: Okay.
ROBBIE: Yeah. Yeah, that's 12er. Doo-doo, poo-poo, poopy-doos. (laughter)
ROBBIE: Do big 'ole poopy poops. That's a three.
MATT: Three is unfortunately not going to hit.
ROBBIE: I know! (laughter)
LIAM: I love it, the shoplifting big success.
ROBBIE: I mean, I said the cool line and gave the girl the wink and everything.
MATT: I know, I know,
ROBBIE: Ah, man.
MATT: Ain't that just life.
ROBBIE: The arrow just goes boing! (laughter)
MATT: All right, so that finishes your go there. Finishing up, we're back to Umi and then--
EMILY: That's right, I'm right behind you. Behind you and beside you. I'm beside you.
ROBBIE: I'm going to clear my throat. And just kind of--
MATT: Fair, fair.
EMILY: I'm going to look to you, give you a wink and a smile, and I'm going to take a swing at that same archer who's now turned to face us.
MATT: All right, so you dart past the spear. So he took out the one that you had wounded.
PETER: Okay.
MATT: And then damaged the one next to him, so there's still one of the spearmen standing who is wounded, and now these both have focused on the archers in the back now.
PETER: Okay.
MATT: You watch Umi run past towards the archers in the back.
ROBBIE: Big time.
MATT: Go ahead and make your strike.
EMILY: Okay, so wielding my kanab with a six plus-- Nine.
MATT: Nine hits. That's three wounds on the bowman. Now these gentlemen are not heavily armored and that first strike hits him and sends him back. He has to pick up his bow and he sits up and (coughs) coughs some blood onto his chest and goes and gets his arrow at the ready as he backs up and try and get a shot on you. Do you want to continue, or--?
EMILY: Yes, I would love to, oh, I can do adrenaline.
MATT: You get an adrenaline point and then roll a d10 for your next attack.
MATT: Right, so I'm going to push that and I'm going to try a cleaving blow. I use two of my adrenaline here.
MATT: All righty.
EMILY: With a three, plus, so six.
MATT: Six, unfortunately, does not hit.
EMILY: I've tried to engage two, so.
MATT: You did, you go try and point them both down, get your kanab ready and as you go to swing towards you, before you even get a chance to swing, the one that you didn't strike was already at the ready and had an arrow nocked and (swooshing) releases it towards you. That is going to be a 10 to hit you.
EMILY and ROBBIE: Ooh!
MATT: Want to dodge?
EMILY: Dodge is seven, so that's three.
MATT: Dodge is seven, you take two wounds.
EMILY: Two wounds.
ROBBIE: Two for archer?
MATT: Yeah.
LIAM: Do we--
MATT: Two wounds from the one arrow that (swooshing) hits you and stops you, stops the momentum in the track and sets your strike just off enough where the other archer ducks out of the way and backs up against the wall, getting into offensive position with his his ally to the side. But that's going to finish your turn. With that, Ryuichi, you're up.
PETER: Nobody hits sisters on my watch. (laughter)
ROBBIE: You better roll good. I tried to do a cool line and then--
PETER: Can I go off and take them two on at the same time?
EMILY: Yeah.
MATT: Do you want to try and attack one and then push to tackle the other?
PETER: Well, I'm going to separate, I'm going to step in between that archer. I'm going to take the guy that just shot her.
MATT: Yeah.
ROBBIE: Okay.
PETER: And, if I can, if the other guy's in the vicinity, I'm going to take him out two all in one.
MATT: Let's go for it.
PETER: Yeah.
MATT: So you charge away from the one standing wounded spearman, runs towards the bow guy user. As you come rushing--
PETER: So I shoot her. I step in between, I'm going to take out him, and secondarily, the last archer.
MATT: Great, so the archer that got pulled back that's already wounded by her, pulls back his arrow and sees you rush him and goes, "Aah!"
PETER: Right, right.
MATT: Didn't expect to see you out of his periphery.
ROBBIE: I need a hot pot.
MATT: Are you attacking with katana or naginata?
PETER: Katana.
MATT: Okay, so strike the wounded bowman. Roll a die.
PETER: I (grunting)-- Seven plus three, 10.
MATT: That's 10, that hits.
EMILY: Yes!
MATT: All right, with that, you take him down. How do you want to do this? Describe how you destroy this bow user.
PETER: It's clean, man. I look at him in the eyes (sword cut) his head right off, man.
MATT: Onto the ground, pushing the advantage to the other bow user.
LIAM: Can I aid on it if you push? I want to spend an adrenaline to make it easier for you.
PETER: Yeah.
LIAM: Yeah.
MATT: All righty, so you push your advantage, roll a d10 and add your might and what are you adding to this?
PETER: d10, right?
LIAM: I'm going to use might, I'm going to horse kick the remaining guy at him.
MATT: Oh great!
ROBBIE: Ooh!
MATT: So as the other bow user turns around to try and prepare himself to defend, you watch out of the corner of your eye, Garrett goes ahead and whack! Heavily kicks the standing spearman, who gets pushed into the side of the bowman, throwing off his ability to avoid. Roll your attack.
PETER: What do I got to roll? High, all right.
MATT: And then add his might as well.
PETER: That's a three.
ROBBIE: So we got to get you new dice. That is a three, but you've got his advantage, so it's six total.
PETER: Six. Do I add my might or no?
MATT: Add your might, yeah.
PETER: I got a six.
LIAM: You're going to add my might. Two, I have two plus two--
PETER: It's eight.
MATT: So it's eight, which does hit.
ROBBIE: Yeah!
EMILY: (cackles)
MATT: That is two wounds. That is awesome. (laughter)
PETER: Nice.
MATT: So you manage to carve down the bowman (grunting). He takes a heavy hit. He's still standing, but he's pretty badly hurt. Do you want to continue?
PETER: This is the last one.
MATT: Well, him and the spear user as well. Those are the last two standing.
PETER: I roll with a 10 now.
MATT: You roll with an eight if you attack again. Do you want to risk it or not?
PETER: Fuck it, yeah.
ROBBIE: Yeah!
EMILY: Yes!
MATT: Yeah.
PETER: Which one's the eight? Which one's the eight?
ROBBIE: It's the triangle, the pointy one.
PETER: Okay.
ROBBIE: There you go.
LIAM: After this, we go to Vegas. (laughter)
PETER: This one, huh? Aah!
ROBBIE: It's good.
PETER: What is it, eight?
ROBBIE: That's a crit, baby. That's an eight.
MATT: That's an eight, yeah! (cheering and clapping)
EMILY: Nice! (laughter)
PETER: I love this game. (laughter)
PETER: Winning, winning, winning.
EMILY: Let me play with you.
MATT: You guys are rolling pretty dang well.
EMILY: Please teach me. So how do you want to do this? How do you want to carve down this final bowman?
PETER: I'm going to pull. He pulled one of these arrows back.
MATT: Large arrow back towards you as he's turning to step away.
PETER: At first I'm going to cut right through all that equipment, that apparatus.
EMILY: Yeah.
PETER: Like it could take a finger off or his wrist off like that and he falls to his knees.
MATT: "(grunting in pain)" Stab him right through the collarbone, right through the neck, right into his torso, through his groin.
MATT: "(grunting in pain, death rattle)"
PETER: (chuckling)
MATT: The spear user is like "(panting)," and is going to try and turn to run. Do you want to continue to push? (laughter)
PETER: No. (laughter)
PETER: He's going to go run and he's going to bring a message back to Nobunaga.
MATT: Okay.
PETER: It's not going to be that easy.
MATT: Fair enough, the final spearman who's wounded goes charging off to try and get away from this.
LIAM: Am I up next?
MATT: You will be in a second. Don't forget to mark your adrenaline for each of them.
PETER: Oh, how much did I win? Two? (laughter)
PETER: Super.
MATT: That would've been--
LIAM: Three.
MATT: -- three.
ROBBIE: Yeah.
PETER: I'm full adrenalined.
MATT: Hell yeah.
PETER: Oh yeah.
EMILY: Makes sense. (laughter)
ROBBIE: Yeah, got to add your own personal adrenaline. (laughter)
MATT: Perfect, all right. So he's running away full tilt to try and get away. We're going to come back to Garrett.
LIAM: He's too far, I don't know if I can make it to him, so instead I reach into my clothing, tucked into my belt and I pull out my tont and I throw it at his back.
MATT: Okay, so make a guile throw.
LIAM: So it's guile. There we go, come on. Nah, I miss him, it's a tree.
MATT: It's a tree. (whoosh) You do earn adrenaline from the roll, but the tont does go wide and, clink, clatters off and hits something else in the distance.
LIAM: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
MATT: But with that point, he's off.
LIAM: Let him go.
MATT: (panting) You all take a moment to breathe and look at each other and really take in the intensity of what's transpiring. You look around the space, and over there on the outside of the blacksmith, you see Rin is slumped against the wall.
EMILY: No.
MATT: Looks like clutching an arrow of some kind as she's trying to stand up. "(grunting)"
LIAM: I beeline over.
PETER: What kind of an injury is it?
MATT: Well, from what you can see, it's an arrow. You approach.
LIAM: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm going to kneel down.
MATT: "(panting)"
LIAM: What do we do here?
EMILY: (laughs)
ROBBIE: Yeah, where's the injury? Does it look mortal?
MATT: She looks up at you and says, "I'll be okay. I need to find Heiji." You look at where the arrow is and it is bleeding profusely, likely hit some a heavy vein or artery and she is trying to pass it off, but she sees the expression on your face.
ROBBIE: Hey, we'll deliver it. What do you need to tell them?
MATT: "Just get them out of here. Get Tomiko, get Heiji, get them out of here, please. Please, go to the shrine and get them. Please."
PETER: Okay, we vow that we will.
MATT: She reaches out towards you and grabs your hand. Blood comes streaking out on your hand and as she grabs it she says, "Thank you, thank you," as her eyes get heavy and she succumbs to her wounds. You all stand there in the tense moment of what is now the empty street, but even in this paused moment of tense quiet, the sounds of battle continue to rage louder throughout the siege of Sakai. And that's we're going to take our break.
LIAM: Oh.
PETER: Wow.
ROBBIE: (tapping)
EMILY: So good.
PETER: This is cool, it's like--
ROBBIE: What are going to do?! (laughs)
MATT: So we'll come back here in a few minutes. We'll see you all shortly. (heroic music)
Break[]
Part II[]
MATT: And welcome back. So our troop of four unlikely companions sent on a mission find themselves thrust into an unexpected bit of chaos. As the city of Sakai is under siege, it seems by likely the forces of Oda Nobunaga. After your first fray in the center of the street, you manage to fell a number of soldiers that were lying in wait before the horns of war called them to attack the populace. Striking them down, the dying breath of Rin the blacksmith, you had spoken to sends you to go and see that her child and his guardian, currently Tomiko, are brought to safety. And with that, you head off down the streets towards the tori Shrine to find them. So as you all begin to trek down the road in the direction of where you know the tori Shrine resides, you pass through a number of the side roads. Other people are in hiding off the side. They're closing whatever ways into the buildings they can. You can see already other bodies lining the sides of the street. The orange glow of flames continuing to grow and spread across a number of the various building tops, causing the skyline itself to have this hellish orange hue at almost all directions. (whizzing) A few wayward arrows come flying, striking into the nearby building. You duck out of the way, seeking no source, not knowing how far away those might have been lobbed and found their mark further and further away. As you continue heading down the way, you hear a new sound. (galloping) As you glance backward, you see two horses in full gallop with armored samurai rushing down the street, (slash) carving past and cutting one person down to the side and heading your direction, coming up quickly. What do you do?
LIAM: Oh jeez.
ROBBIE: Is it a main thorough-- Oh, go, go, go, yeah.
EMILY: My first thought was to-- I don't like it, so I don't think I can say much--
PETER: You got to go.
EMILY: I want to trip--
PETER: You got to do it.
ROBBIE: Come on!
EMILY: Trip the horse.
PETER: Yes!
MATT: Okay! Okay.
PETER: You've got to. I mean, lob the legs right off.
EMILY: Get those guys down. If they're up there, slicing and so--
PETER: Absolutely.
EMILY: But I feel bad for the horse.
LIAM: Are they two horses side by side?
MATT: They are, they're-- One's a little bit ahead of the other, but they're both working in tandem.
LIAM: All right, I'll do this with you.
EMILY: Okay, we'll try a combo move.
PETER: Do they see us?
LIAM: Yeah.
ROBBIE: I will not.
MATT: It looks like they had cut through a couple of civilians and are heading down the road in your direction. So if they haven't seen you yet, they're going to shortly.
EMILY: Great.
PETER: Well, I'm prepared to kill them. I will, you know, unsheathe my sword. Take cover and I will take out one. I'm expecting she will take out the other, so--
EMILY: I still have this arrow in my shoulder, so first things first. I'm going to-- Actually, you know what? I can do this first.
PETER: Yes.
EMILY: I'm going to take my kanab and get down low and swipe it across the hooves of the horse nearest me.
MATT: Okay.
PETER: I would like to take on the other side, I would take the other one's out.
MATT: All right, so I'm going to need the two of you to roll a d12 and add your initiative to see whether you or the samurai get to strike first--
EMILY: Ooh!
PETER: Whoa!
ROBBIE: Shit!
EMILY: No.
ROBBIE: Eight plus three.
PETER: 11, eight. It's a might one, right?
MATT: Oh, this is for your initiative.
PETER: Oh, oh, oh.
LIAM: So the lightning bolt.
MATT: The lightning bolt on your sheet.
PETER: So I got eight plus zero.
MATT: Okay, so it's eight?
EMILY: Oh nice. I've got one. I got five and negative four.
MATT: Okay, got you. So you're going to go first. The samurai are going to strike and then you go. So as they get up close to you, you see both of them, they have their blades already out. These are not standard katana, these are dachi. These are longer cavalry weapons. You watch as they both (stomping) get close enough, you get the strike out first. You're rolling for the horse? Roll an attack with your might.
PETER: (groans) 10 plus three.
MATT: (slashes)
PETER: Take out both!
MATT: The horse is struck and stumbles and lands on the ground throwing the samurai on your side of the road off. Flung down (thudding), rolling on the ground about 15 feet away. His turn is wrecked. He's going to try and take his turn, but he's at a serious penalty. The other one manages to strike before you get your blow. He's going to attack you. That's going to be a nine to hit. What's your dodge?
EMILY: Ooh, dodge is seven.
MATT: Dodge is seven?
EMILY: So-- I should've taken the arrow out first.
MATT: Fair. The blade (slashes), one massive swoop in your direction, you take three wounds.
EMILY: Okay.
ROBBIE: Ooh.
EMILY: Can I put one on my armor and then take two wounds?
MATT: Yeah, you can do that.
EMILY: Great! So my armor catches one. But then, I'll take on two wounds.
MATT: So you're almost striking simultaneously. The arc hits you just as you're striking the horse. Roll your attack.
EMILY: Great. Ooh, 11. Might. 14.
PETER: Might.
MATT: Easy enough to do. Both of you knocked the horses off-- I'll say for the purposes of liking animals.
EMILY: Yes.
MATT: You both cut-- You cut the protective barding from these animals and send them stumbling and throwing their riders off to the side. The wounds being taken by the figures riding them as they're flung from it and then stumble onto the ground with the heavy hits. So that's two and three wounds to each. The horses then catch themselves up and go (thudding) scattering off in different directions now, spooked without their riders. Now the two samurai stand there and get up looking at the rest of your troop. They look at each other. Get their blades at the ready. Now you both, if you want to engage, roll initiative.
ROBBIE: Oh. (groans)
EMILY: (chuckles)
ROBBIE: Yeah.
LIAM: Five for me.
MATT: Okay.
ROBBIE: Pfft, four.
MATT: Okay, so we have--
ROBBIE: Are we keeping their initiative from the top?
MATT: Yes.
ROBBIE: Okay.
MATT: So we have Ryuichi. We have Garrett.
PETER: Did I get an adrenaline for striking down that horse?
MATT: Yeah, you both would've gotten an adrenaline for both.
PETER: But I'm maxed out. I'm already at five.
MATT: Yeah, so you don't gain anything more. It's why you got to spend it, man.
PETER: I'm done.
MATT: You got to use it!
PETER: All right, understood.
MATT: (laughs)
EMILY: Spend the money to make adrenaline!
PETER: Understood, yep.
MATT: Okay. All right. Then, Umi, holding up-- Okay cool, so with that being-- they've gotten up. They are taking their turn, since they've taken the-- They're going to dash towards the two of you and basically trying to retroactively get vengeance for what you've set upon them.
PETER: Uh-huh.
MATT: The one striking at you, Ryuichi. Oh, that's going to be a 10. What's your dodge?
PETER: An eight to dodge.
MATT: Eight? Okay, that's going to hit you.
PETER: Yeah.
MATT: So (slashes) one massive strike that carves into you for three wounds.
PETER: Okay.
MATT: Mark that on your sheet. The other one that's coming towards you, Umi, is the one that already hit you once. It's going to try and finish the job for another strike on you. Another 10.
EMILY: Oh man!
MATT: That's three more wounds on you.
EMILY: Three more wounds on me. I'm going to take all three of those. Wow.
MATT: It's been a hefty impact in this moment.
PETER: Yeah, yeah.
EMILY: Yeah, that's a lot.
MATT: With that, Ryuichi, your turn is up.
PETER: Okay, well, I took the wound. So trying to brush it off, ignore it. Recompose. Re-attack. I imagine that, you know-- (laughs) He thought he had me down, but I'm up, ignoring the pain and I'm going to attack.
MATT: Let's go. All right. So the one that struck you, roll a d12 and fight him with your katana at the ready.
PETER: Ooh! 12, baby.
MATT: That's a crit! (cheering)
ROBBIE: The dice are on your side.
MATT: Three wounds on him there. (slashes) Takes a heavy hit. He's looking pretty hurt at this point, even just from the two strikes. Do you want to try and push the advantage and strike a second time?
PETER: Yeah, absolutely! How many advantages can I use, two?
MATT: Well, you can use as many adrenaline as you want.
PETER: Oh, adrenaline.
MATT: But push the advantage goes for secondary attack.
PETER: Absolutely.
MATT: So if you roll a d10, do you have any of your weapon abilities you want to spend your adrenaline on?
PETER: Oh.
MATT: You have a keen strike ability that costs two, that adds two wounds to the attack, if you succeed.
PETER: What do you think, Rob?
ROBBIE: Mm.
PETER: What do you mean? This is my katana.
ROBBIE: I'm no samurai, baby.
PETER: I've got my katana. So I can put the adrenaline on my katana?
MATT: But you can spend two adrenaline to use the keen strike ability, which lets you do two additional wounds if you hit.
PETER: Yeah. Yeah.
MATT: All right, so we'll erase two of the adrenaline.
PETER: Okay.
MATT: Then roll for the attack.
PETER: All right, the 12 or 10?
MATT: This is with the d10. d10, because you're pushing the advantage.
PETER: Which is that one?
LIAM: Hot dice.
ROBBIE: The space one, yeah.
PETER: Okay, come on!
ROBBIE: You don't need me anymore.
PETER: Ooh! What is that? That's on the corner. What is that?
ROBBIE: We call that cocked.
PETER: Yeah, yeah, that's right on the corner.
MATT: Roll again, yeah.
PETER: That's a five. That's clearly a five.
MATT: Plus--
PETER: Plus what?
MATT: Five plus three.
PETER: Eight.
MATT: Eight, eight hits. So with that being the case, it's two wounds because you've used your keen strike on your adrenaline, that's four wounds on the strike. You get to finish him off. How do you want to do this?
PETER: Oh.
EMILY: Wow.
PETER: (groans) I'm going to put this one right through his heart. Right through his heart.
MATT: Blade up in the air. This massive long dachi you have like, "(grunts)" and without a second (slashes)
PETER: Yeah, right through his heart. From the front or is it the back?
MATT: I guess it's up to you.
PETER: I like in the front.
MATT: The (grunt).
PETER: Yeah.
MATT: Tries to, with his last bit of might to strike downward, but his body isn't listening to him. As you withdraw the blade.
PETER: His body off the blade.
MATT: (splat) He crumples to the ground. You can move to the other one, if you want to try and keep pushing the advantage or you can end your turn there.
PETER: Yeah, I'm going to move to the other one. She needs help.
MATT: All right, go for it.
PETER: Okay?
MATT: So you dart up to offer her--
PETER: Can I use two adrenalines again?
MATT: If you want to, yeah.
PETER: Yeah, I've got two.
MATT: You're rolling a d8 to hit.
PETER: Oh, shh--
MATT: You're still pushing the advantage.
PETER: So the adrenalines only work if the number, if I beat him?
MATT: Correct. Got to do it. Got to do it. This is the eight. Is this the eight, right here?
MATT: Yep.
LIAM: The one's a diamond.
PETER: Yeah, this is eight, right?
ROBBIE: No, this one.
MATT: That one, yeah.
ROBBIE: Pointy.
LIAM: Let's go, hot dice. Hot dice.
MATT: Let's go--
PETER: Five plus three?
MATT: That hits!
PETER: Eight!
MATT: All righty, another four wounds on the other.
PETER: (exclaims)
EMILY: Nice.
PETER: Oh!
MATT: You rush a heavy carve down with your blade on the one. As you're squaring off, you have your kanab at the side. He has his blade at the ready and then (slashes) takes a heavy strike from the back. He stumbles forward, catches himself and you see Ryuichi just at the ready behind his bloodied blade. You both make eye contact as this samurai's in the center. Do you want to continue to push the advantage or do you want to end your turn?
PETER: No, I will end my turn.
MATT: You got it. All right. Garrett, you're up, with Rufino on deck.
LIAM: Well, I just watched this amazing display of finesse and skill and I see that Ryuichi has hobbled this fellow and I do the exact opposite. I just fucking bash his brains in.
MATT: (laughs) Okay, roll.
LIAM: I'll finish the job. That is a seven.
MATT: A seven? Seven just hits.
LIAM: Just hits?
PETER: Ooh.
LIAM: All right, well, that happened. Is he still moving?
MATT: Three wounds on that? No, that's going to finish him. How do you want to do this?
LIAM: Oh, I just cave in his skull. It's pretty simple.
MATT: (bashes)
LIAM: I can't compete with that.
MATT: Fair. All righty. So now, with those two warriors out of the way, their current assault through this roadway to an end. You recollect yourself and continue on your journey. Rushing through the city, as the flames continue to grow around, you go down one way toward where the shrine is, but you can see a bunch of materials, a bunch of furniture and carts have been pushed into the center of the road like a barricade and lit on fire as well. There's a wall of flame that prevents the direct route. Which of you would like to try and navigate the city streets to find a more direct path to the shrine?
LIAM: Hold on a second. You look bloody as fuck.
EMILY: Mm-hmm.
LIAM: Is there any-- So the streets are empty?
MATT: I mean, where you're staying right now is empty because most of the civilians are in the process of fleeing or have hidden within buildings.
LIAM: I'm going to plant my hand on Umi's shoulder and drag her back a third of a city block. I'm going to kick in a door to a random home.
MATT: Okay.
LIAM: Inside.
PETER: Absolutely, I've got bandages, too. We have some time. There's no absolute rush. We need time to consider what this barricade means. We need to fix her. We have that chance. I got bandages, can I use them?
MATT: Yeah. You have sarashi. So you all pull off into this back room, shutter the door, block it off for a minute and take a minute to rest, to breathe and take care of your wounds. So all of you get to remove one wound you've taken as part of this rest.
EMILY: Arigat gozaimasu.
PETER: So I can remove one wound?
MATT: You can remove one wound as part of this rest. If you want to use your bandages to bandage somebody, you can do that as well to roll for healing. But once they've been bandaged, they cannot be bandaged again for this section.
PETER: What?
LIAM: Two people can't bandage one?
MATT: Hmm?
LIAM: Only one person, only one set of bandages can be applied?
MATT: Correct, it's used once it's applied.
PETER: How hurt are you?
LIAM: Very.
EMILY: I'm very hurt. So I have three available and that could be--
PETER: That could be one loss.
EMILY: Then, two for my armor.
PETER: How many do I take away if I give her a sarashi?
MATT: It'd be a four-sided dice plus one.
PETER: Great.
LIAM: So roll the pyramid and add one.
PETER: Yeah, I'm going to bandage her.
MATT: Go for it.
PETER: So the four-sided dice?
MATT: Four-sided dice, yeah, the little pyramid.
ROBBIE: I think you have one, bud.
MATT: Oh, there you go.
PETER: All right.
MATT: Roll that and add one.
PETER: Where is--
LIAM: Whatever's at the top.
ROBBIE: Three.
PETER: Three plus one.
MATT: All right, so--
EMILY: Really good.
PETER: Is it? Cool.
EMILY: Arigat .
MATT: (laughs) As you take a moment to pull back some of the armor and look at the wounds, you communally dress them.
PETER: So I fix four?
MATT: Correct.
PETER: Oh nice.
MATT: So you clear off four wounds as the sarashi bandage is placed around the wounds and your arm and your shoulder and the chest area. The armor gets reapplied and in a rapid fashion you feel yourself a little more ready to endure combat.
ROBBIE: When we broke into this building and we cleared out the-- They cleared out the samurai on the horses, did it look like there was any enemies in the immediate vicinity as we moved through?
MATT: As you moved through, there weren't where you were currently, but it looked like there was a trail of bodies, that this road had already been swept through. It either had been abandoned by those who lived here or people who were in hiding.
PETER: Before, we encountered the horsemen that we dismissed, he said there was arrows being lobbed in. So there's snipers are at a high advantage point? Are we still a target of those guys or did they stop?
LIAM: Or were they errant arrows?
MATT: It seemed more like they were errant--
PETER: Okay.
MATT: -- arrows fired at a further distance that didn't hit their mark and landed nearby. More of the atmosphere of warfare that is engulfing the city.
ROBBIE: Yeah, after seeing the roadblock, I would like and making sure that Umi's okay. They got the doctoring handled. I'll slip out the door we came in and try to make my way up to the rooftops and see if I can find a different route toward the shrine. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MATT: Certainly. Yeah, so the building you're in right now, it looks like it is an in-between homestead. It looks like it was rapidly abandoned. Some of the chairs are pushed over and some of the valuables were gathered and run with and as the door was left, looks like the family took what they could and ran. So it looks almost like a small modest family home that is frozen in time where they had to grab what they could and go. It's a little haunting to walk through the space and you begin to clamber up to the next floor. Then eventually, the top floor, in which there are now three different homesteads. You can see there's three different families that probably lived in here that have fled. As you get up to the outer part of the rooftop, you find the outer window and climb up onto it. Thankfully, the entire city isn't being burned to the ground yet, but there are definitely numbers of patches and rows of flames. Now you have a much better view of the overall perspective of Sakai from up here. You can see the distanto perimeter walls and you can also see many, many soldiers along the outer perimeter wall. You see (fluttering) whole volleys of arrows coming from the far side of the city. You can hear, from up here especially, the weirdly mixing din of war shouts and screams of fear. But knowing the direction of the shrine from where you are currently, you could probably find a pretty solid path to it if you feel confident in your roof hopping skills. Who would like to lead the troop across the rooftops?
LIAM: It seems like your M.O.
EMILY: Yeah.
MATT: (laughs)
ROBBIE: Gonna try, sure.
MATT: Go ahead and roll a cognition roll for me.
ROBBIE: Sure.
MATT: On the most direct path.
ROBBIE: Nine.
MATT: Nine's great. Glancing around and looking across the cityscape, you can just barely see the top of the tori shrine. You can see it's flanked by a number of trees, a beautiful greenery space around it, as well as seeing the torii gates that mark the entranceway to the shrine, but you can see that some of the trees are beginning to smoke, which means that some flame is being lit within the perimeter of it, so you do not know how much time you have if they're still near or at the shrine. So I will say here for the group, in trying to traverse this, I would like all of you to make either an agility or-- Let's say an agility or a vigor roll.
LIAM: Oh good.
MATT: Your choice.
ROBBIE: (laughs)
MATT: To try and represent--
PETER: On the 12.
MATT: Yeah, everybody rolls a 12 and add either your agility or the vigor.
PETER: So I got to declare vigor or agility?
MATT: Yes.
EMILY: 13 agility.
LIAM: Vigor.
MATT: 13 agility, whoo!
ROBBIE: What?!
MATT: Umi is just ready to go.
EMILY: Thank you for the bandages. They worked wonders.
MATT: Let's go.
LIAM: Destroyed the roof tiles as you landed.
EMILY: (laughs) Yeah.
PETER: Goddamn two, plus one vigor.
MATT: I think he rolled the d8 on that one. Don't forget to roll the d12.
PETER: Oh, I did, sorry, sorry.
MATT: It's okay.
PETER: Oh yeah, yeah, you're right.
LIAM: Take that free re-roll.
PETER: Eight plus one vigor, so nine.
MATT: Nine, much better. Okay, that's great.
PETER: Okay.
LIAM: 10 for vigor.
MATT: 10.
ROBBIE: I think I rolled a d8 too. No, no. (laughter)
ROBBIE: That's a natural one for a two.
MATT and LIAM: Oh!
ROBBIE: I am bad at the things that are supposed to be better.
MATT: So you're guiding these folks directly through the city, but they're also leaving you a little bit in the dust. They are driven and extremely athletic in their capabilities and you watch as they're leaping from rooftop to rooftop, darting across tops, looking back and catching as they go. Describe to me what's distracting you in these moments. What in your head is keeping you from remaining as focused on the task in front of you.
ROBBIE: The violence. Yeah, yeah, so I'm used to it in a personal, intimate, and controlled way, but this sort of fog of war type environment, I do not have the mental steel of perhaps a warrior who's either seeking this out or has been through it before. I don't have the maturity perhaps that Garrett has. I'm not sure, I don't want to put that on you, but he seems pretty-- For me, when things feel out of control, I begin to falter, yeah, yeah, yeah.
MATT: So as you are getting closer and closer to the shrine, there is one larger leap that goes from an upper sloping roof pinnacle to what is a stone separation wall sloping roof pinnacle to what is a stone separation wall that leads into one of the other districts of the city. One by one, you all leap rapidly and catch yourself on the side. As you turn back, you see Rufino goes to leap and something about his mind sees that his brain and something about his mind sees that his brain is slightly elsewhere and as he leaps for the arc, he's not going to make the jump. You all reach out and catch him and you just manage to do so, but you slam hard into the stonework and take a wound just from the impact against the separating gate and you pull him back up onto the wall and continue your trek. You all push to the outside of the tori shrine and climb down, now that the buildings vanish at the perimeter. You can see the massive torii gate still stands there marking the front of it. You can see the komainu, or lion statues, that are the placed guardians to the shrine entrance there greeting you. For the first glance, it feels safe, if not for the growing bit of flame on the far end of the shrine, and you see one of the trees is starting to burn as that process. You also hear a scream, a woman's scream further in the direction of the shrine.
PETER: Hmm. Is the fire and the scream in the same direction?
MATT: The fire's a little ways off to the right. The scream is from the shrine directly.
LIAM: How far off is the shrine from our location?
MATT: From where you're standing now? Probably about 150 feet.
LIAM: 150 feet.
MATT: 200 feet maybe.
PETER: Well, there's two targets.
ROBBIE: Then where in the city in relation to the docks and the countryside is the shrine? Are we smack in the middle of it?
MATT: You're in between where the docks and the north gate is.
EMILY: Okay.
ROBBIE: Okay.
PETER: Are the combatantos protecting it or we've already negotiated through that?
LIAM: We're inside the wall.
MATT: You're now at the perimeter of the shrine as you step through the torii gate and look in, you can see, after you're hearing the scream, you see figures currently battling each other on the outskirts of the shrine.
LIAM: And no sign of these kids from where we are.
EMILY: Heiji and Tomiko. I feel compelled to run towards the scream to start with.
MATT: Okay. Umi takes off towards the shrine, the direction of the scream. You all follow?
ROBBIE: Oh. It's so hard for me to follow. Like everything inside me is screaming "Dip out," but I think we talked about earlier that fog of war, that fear is going against my worser nature that fear is going against my worser nature and yeah, I'll follow you for lack of any other beacon, so yeah, yeah, yeah.
PETER: You come with me. We got to split up. Are there people, the silhouettes people, are they towards the scream or are they towards the shrine? Silhouetted people fighting.
MATT: Well, the screams coming towards the shrine where that conflict is happening. You now hear (gunfire booming) two blasts of gunfire and one of the figures that was battling in that, still with the shrine, crumbles.
PETER: Oh, there's a woman in trouble. There's somebody that's either on my side or not in trouble. Somebody's on my side where the people are fighting. I have to go that way. I think you go towards the woman. You decide to go with her.
ROBBIE: No, actually.
PETER: Need some help, yeah?
ROBBIE: Are you breaking off from Umi?
PETER: I got to help this woman.
LIAM: I think his confidence in the moment in the middle of the chaos dictates and so I grab my weapon right down the middle and I start following, staring at his heels as we head in that direction.
MATT: All right, so if--
ROBBIE: All right, man. (laughter)
PETER: This is what I want to.
ROBBIE: I almost instinctually followed you, but then when you broke off together, I'll stick with you.
EMILY: Thanks, bud.
ROBBIE: Sure.
EMILY: Yep, yep.
PETER: Does that approach her?
EMILY: I feel like that's Tomiko and Heiji, so we can hold it off, one for each.
PETER: These guys are idiots.
MATT: No, no, no. So Ryuichi and Garrett are heading towards the flames on the far right side, and we have Yumi and Rufino are heading towards the shrine property.
LIAM: Love it.
ROBBIE: We'll reconvene.
LIAM: Love it.
MATT: All right.
EMILY: Yes.
MATT: So as you two splinter off a little bit, the first thing you notice as getting towards the shrine, there is a non-armored samurai there is a non-armored samurai with a naginata, similar to that bladed polearm that you saw strapped to the back of Ryuichi, who is currently battling what looks to be one of the priests of the shrine what looks to be one of the priests of the shrine who is trying to defend it. You see him holding up a stick and he's trying to block back and he's shouting over his shoulder, "Get back, get free." He's yelling to somebody behind him right as the blade (thudding). it carves through his chest And he crumples to his knees and goes, "Hachiman, protect us," and falls.
ROBBIE: Who?
MATT: Hachiman, which is the Shinto god of war. As he crumples to the ground, the naginata samurai looks around and looks towards the shrine proper and begins to turn inward as you see--
PETER: To rob him.
MATT: We'll see. As two other ashigaru come off of the left-hand side that you didn't see, so there's now three of them in the shrine heading inward.
EMILY: Oh.
MATT: While the other two, who are heading towards the flames, you see off to the side where the fire was set, one figure that is currently setting flame to the nearby trees and holding a long tepp rifle in one hand, while another one has the rifle at the ready and is aiming it, you can make out this to be the sound of that flintlock firing in the distance.
PETER: He's an old mama's man.
MATT: Very much seems the case. As you are running at a distance, the one tepp trains over and shouts, "Hey! We got them." The other one that's in the flame drops his torch in the ground, spins around and puts the gun at the ready. I need everyone to roll initiative.
LIAM: Can I kick it off by throwing my smoke bomb down right now, or is that my move?
MATT: That would be your move.
LIAM: Great.
PETER: Initiative, 12.
MATT: Initiative, yeah.
PETER: All right.
EMILY: Aww.
LIAM: Ugh.
EMILY: Negative one. (laughter)
PETER: Dead four.
EMILY: I was very injured. I'm bandaged, but I'm still in a bit of pain. There we go.
MATT: That's okay.
EMILY: Little slow.
MATT: Ooh.
PETER: I always roll shit initiative.
MATT: That's okay, I didn't roll that great either.
EMILY: But you deliver on the kills.
PETER: Yes, exactly.
ROBBIE: Probably that bum knee maybe.
PETER: Yeah, exactly.
LIAM: Like bringing a tantoo to a flintlock fight, right?
ROBBIE: Yeah, right.
MATT: All right, so 10 to five.
EMILY: As they say.
ROBBIE: Six.
MATT: All right, so we have Rufino.
EMILY: Beautiful.
LIAM: Gosh.
MATT: Five to one.
LIAM: (glumly) One.
ROBBIE: Geez, guys.
MATT: All right.
EMILY: I'm negative one.
ROBBIE: These are tough.
MATT: Now mind you, everything that fights with the weapon generally has pretty slow speeds. It's not like super high initiatives. Heavy weapons have penalties as well, so enemies also do go down slow sometimes.
PETER: Like you guys with the guns.
MATT: Exactly.
PETER: So, okay.
MATT: Sometimes. Depending on what I rolled. (laughter) All right, sorry, it was, Garrett, you got one?
LIAM: All right, that's a race.
EMILY: Negative one, negative one.
MATT: Negative one.
EMILY: Yep.
MATT: Okay, yeah.
EMILY: Sorry.
MATT: All right, that is with Umi, and what did you get?
PETER: Four.
MATT: Four?
PETER: Yeah.
MATT: Awesome. Four's not bad.
PETER: Really? And a 12.
MATT: I mean, higher's better, but some of these guys haven't rolled that well either.
EMILY: But it's not negative four.
MATT: So, Rufino, you're up first with Ryuichi coming up second, and then it looks like tepp -carrying warriors are in the process of getting ready to fire directly after that, so you're up first.
ROBBIE: Yeah, I have a target, so I'm shaking off my shell-shocked nature and I'm realizing that I'm just inspired by Umi. and I'm realizing that I'm just inspired by Umi. Are you running toward? I need your pathway. Are you running toward that samurai?
EMILY: Yes, I'm running towards a samurai who just killed our--
ROBBIE: As I clock what she's doing, that's going to charge me up and I'm going to start running the same direction, but I'm going to go a little bit faster so my speed is going to start to cook. I'm unarmored and I'm, boom, all of a sudden, I'm, you know, 15, 20 yards ahead of you and I'll go straight for the guy.
MATT: You see he has his naginata at the side and he's going towards the shrine where you see two figures cowering in the back of the broken open front of it. You see the female figure of Tomiko and holding Heiji, both trying to pull him back from the charging r nin, but you get to him first. What are you doing?
ROBBIE: No stealth. (laughter)
ROBBIE: He's got both of his hands behind him. No, it's not what you think. (laughter)
MATT: I don't believe it.
ROBBIE: He's reaching for a weapon, but I'm trying to keep it concealed until I see what's happening.
MATT: Hell yeah.
ROBBIE: I'm going for the main guy straight at him.
MATT: All right, so with tanto?
ROBBIE: It is with-- Oh my god, this is so bad. I have five.
MATT: Five--
ROBBIE: I know.
MATT: Unfortunately is not going to hit.
ROBBIE: I know.
MATT: You try and go towards him, as you pull the blade out, he goes into a defensive stance with a naginata and you find yourself having to slow or you're going to impale yourself on his blade. You try and shift to the right and he moves with you. This guy's pretty well-practiced, probably better trained than what you've previously faced.
ROBBIE: Yeah, I'm still going to take a swipe at him and I think it'll glance or parry away. Yeah, and it's scary. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it for me.
MATT: All right, that finishes your go. Ryuichi, you're up.
PETER: Okay, I'm confused. There was two guys with their muskets.
MATT: Correct. They're over at the shrine. You've peered off to the side of the forest and there's two guys with the tepp rifles, now trained on you as you approach.
PETER: Ah, ssh.
LIAM: We're dealing with a total of two on our end.
MATT: Yes.
LIAM: Not more, okay.
PETER: They're turning and they're reloading, they're like, "What?" I mean these are old school, but they got to take at least five, six seconds and I move fast.
MATT: That's true, which is why you're getting to them first.
PETER: Exactly, I could move to them, I take out one guy and literally cut the stock right off the, you know, I got to go right to them.
MATT: Let's go for it.
PETER: Yeah.
MATT: You charge in, blade at the ready. You watch as they train in and aim, and right as their fingers are about to pull, you take your turn. Go ahead and roll for your attack on the first one.
PETER: All right, is this a 12 or is this a two?
ROBBIE: You got it, you got it, yeah.
PETER: It's a 12, okay, come on. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no, this is going to be a gut wound.
ROBBIE: (laughs)
PETER: It's a three plus a three, it's a six.
MATT: A six.
PETER: Ooh!
MATT: They just dodge, unfortunately. You go to swing your first blade and as your blade comes down, he pulls back and holds it up and part of the metal barrel of this weapon actually (blade clinking) puts it off to the side. It's not meant to parry, but he pulled it off. Backs up quickly and unfortunately throws you off balance a little bit and that's going to end your turn.
PETER: Right.
MATT: So now it's their turn. He backs up. The one who is not attacked on this is going to take a fairly close shot against you with the rifle. That's going to be-- He rolled a 12.
PETER and ROBBIE: (groaning)
EMILY: Oh no!
PETER: Is that like a shot between my eyes?
ROBBIE: (laughs)
MATT: Well--
EMILY: (laughs)
ROBBIE: Those are the two choices? (laughter)
MATT: You tell me where it hits. Where does it get you that hurts the most?
PETER: Hurts, or it's like your heart or the head is going to be dead?
LIAM: What's the coolest?
PETER: (laughs)
ROBBIE: Where do I get shot?
PETER: I'm right-handed. Most Japanese are. I think the one in the left. I don't know, my left arm or-- Where's the--
MATT: (gunfire booming)
PETER: My collarbone, I guess.
MATT: It impacts and does not go through.
PETER: Oh.
MATT: Which means there is an iron ball lodged somewhere in your shoulder, but the impact sends you stumbling back and you have to catch yourself on that arm and as soon as you put the weight on that arm where the wound is, you crumple to your elbow. It is a pain you haven't felt before. You take four wounds since it was a critical hit against you.
PETER: Okay.
MATT: He is going to attempt to push the advantage against you.
EMILY and ROBBIE: Oh no!
LIAM: You don't get to do that like we do!
MATT: So he's going to put the tepp to the side and he's going to pull out a wakizashi he has at the side and it's going to attempt to strike at you.
PETER: No.
EMILY: No.
MATT: That is six?
PETER: I dodge?
MATT: What's your dodge?
PETER: Eight.
MATT: Eight. You dodge out of the way, which means he fails and you have an opportunity to strike back at him now, so you can attack with him with a d12 for free.
PETER: d12. What is that, seven plus three, 10.
MATT: Seven plus three, he takes two wounds.
PETER: Yeah.
MATT: That tepp warrior--
PETER: I get an adrenaline or no?
MATT: You do, because it's a successful attack, yeah.
PETER: Okay.
MATT: So that's going to finish his turn. The one that you struck and parried off to the side, he's going to get up his gun to try and fire on-- Actually, you seem like you took the big hit. He's going to shift over to you because you're running up behind, because you're, especially out of the shadows, a terrifying, massive Irishman in the middle of this fray. You are from some perspectives, an oni. You are a nightmare come to life out of that expected encounter. He's going to fire at you. That's going to be, they're rolling high right now. It's 11.
LIAM: Oh, for sure. Oh yeah.
EMILY: Oh, for sure.
MATT: (gun blast) You take three wounds from the tepp shot, the iron ball hitting you in the side and tearing through your abdomen--
LIAM: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
MATT: -- about an inch away from the edge. It carves through muscle and skin. It slows you down, but you keep pushing through. He's going to push the-- No, he saw his friend get hit, he's not going to push the advantage on that one. (laughter) So that's going to finish their go. That brings us to Garrett, and then Umi after that.
LIAM: All right, so I take that shot, stagger back for a moment, but keep moving forward thinking about how I have been steady and careful for all these years, avoiding trouble, but this trouble is too big to avoid, and I come crashing down on the one that just shot me.
EMILY: Yeah!
MATT: Let's go.
LIAM: That is not great. That is a six.
MATT: It is a six? Unfortunately, he dodges. All the brush around here, they're over in the forested side of it. So even as you're striking, there's a bit of cover within the shadows as well. It's hard to find purchase on your target. So that finishes your go. Actually the r nin does go before Umi does. So now that you've rushed up into the front here. The r nin with the naginata is going to try and swing wide towards you since you were the first one to come at you. That's going to be eight.
ROBBIE: Miss.
MATT: Miss? Okay.
ROBBIE: Phew!
LIAM: Sneaky boy.
ROBBIE: Nimbley bumbley.
MATT: A massive swipe with the naginata, the blade comes towards where the top of where your neck and the skull meet and you just duck out of the way in time. That's going to finish his turn. Umi, you're up.
EMILY: Gorgeous. And while he's distracted in his attack on you, I'm going to draw my wakizashi, a bit lighter because I'm still feeling my injuries. So I'm not going to wield my kanab and I'm going to take a swipe with my wakizashi.
ROBBIE: We've all failed, wait! Oh!
EMILY: (laughs)
PETER: It's good?
EMILY: Six.
ROBBIE: Can I aid but before I know the result?
EMILY: Oh, oh, yes!
MATT: Yeah, you can yeah.
PETER: Six plus three.
EMILY: That's what you were--
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah, someone's got to succeed here.
MATT and ROBBIE: (laugh)
MATT: So you spend an adrenaline.
ROBBIE: Yeah, I'm going to spend an adrenaline to give you some aid.
EMILY: Thank you.
ROBBIE: Can I be sneaky, can I use my guile?
MATT: Yeah, yeah.
ROBBIE: As I see him fall off target, I'm going to do dirty move. I'm going to do a foot stomp on the top of his foot as hard as I can.
EMILY: Great.
MATT: (grunts) You kick it and you feel the ankle bone pop for a second, which gives just enough momentum for you to better aim, so what did you roll?
EMILY: I rolled a six, so I wonder if with my might--
MATT: With your wakizashi, which is a plus two.
EMILY: Oh right, oh right! Wakizashi plus two. Mm, yes, it's agility, so--
ROBBIE: Plus three from me.
EMILY: Gorgeous. So eight, nine, 10, 11.
MATT: That is definitely a success.
EMILY: For my wakizashi stab.
MATT: Great. So that's a wound on the r nin with the wakizashi. Do you want to push the advantage and continue to fight?
EMILY: Yes, please.
MATT: All right, and do you have any special abilities with the wakizashi you want to use?
EMILY: With the wakizashi? Rapid Strike, okay, let's try that. I'm going to burn one adrenaline for a Rapid Strike.
MATT: Okay, so you roll a d10 to hit now because you took the advantage.
EMILY: Yep. Nine! (cheering)
ROBBIE: Heck yeah.
MATT: So that does an additional wound, right? On the strike?
EMILY: Yeah, plus one.
MATT: Great, so two wounds on him from the wakizashi, just one slash, a heavier slash, that carves across the front of his clavicle and blood (spurts) on the nearby broken stone opening around the shrine. Do you want to continue to push the advantage or are you good?
EMILY: Yeah, we're going to do that one more time.
MATT: Let's go.
EMILY: Because I've got one more adrenaline, so same Rapid Strike just to finish him.
MATT: Let's go! So roll a d10 now, oh sorry a d--
ROBBIE: Oh sorry, go ahead.
MATT: A d8 on this roll.
EMILY: d8, yes.
ROBBIE: I'm going to use my last adrenaline double combo. I'm going to see you succeeding, see you taking this moment and tearing him to pieces. After foot stomp, I'm going to duck around, I'm going to give him a kidney shot right in the little opening of his armor right there.
PETER: Can I add anything to hers too?
MATT: You're, unfortunately, far away from her right now but you can add it to each other as well as you're doing this.
PETER: Okay, okay.
EMILY: You can cheer for me from across the field.
PETER: All right.
MATT: Yeah.
PETER: All right.
ROBBIE: So you'll get another plus three.
EMILY: Great, another plus three on this roll. Gorgeous, thank you. Let's see if we can finish it, six.
MATT: All righty. Fantastic. So that definitely hits. Two more wounds with the wakizashi. (blade slashing) Carving upward, this one cuts under where his armpit is, and he watch as his backhand, where he balances the naginatas, like, (grunts) it's a little off now, and he's having a rough go right now, he's looking pretty hurt. Do you want to keep pushing the advantage or are you done?
EMILY: I think I'm done with that.
MATT: Okay.
EMILY: Yes, good. We've done lots of blows, thank you for the assists.
MATT: That's great. All right.
ROBBIE: Fighting together.
EMILY: Yeah.
MATT: With that, Rufino, you're up.
ROBBIE: Oh shit. Yeah. All right, I'm going to go for him. Let's go, with the tantoo. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So after I've been barehanded fighting, I'll take my weapon back and-- Oh my god, bro. (laughter) I'm doomed, dog. I am doomed!
EMILY: I should have assisted you!
ROBBIE: No, I'm doomed. Yeah, yeah, miss. Big miss.
MATT: Aw, buddy.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, nat one.
MATT: (groans)
ROBBIE: I can't roll tonight.
MATT: Rough.
ROBBIE: It's bad.
MATT: It's bad.
ROBBIE: Yeah. I'm trying.
MATT: Well, you've helped her do a lot.
LIAM: Two times in a row.
EMILY: Yep.
MATT: You still take an adrenaline from the fail because it's still a roll.
ROBBIE: Okay, yeah, that's right.
MATT: But you try and come back with the tantoo to strike him again, and even though he's taken the heavy hits from her, you've been leaving him open after the kidney shot especially, he whips around with the back of the naginata and before you can even try and strike him with the blade, he clocks you up in the side of your skull and it just knocks you off. Not enough to do damage, but enough to prevent your strike from even finding his body. That's going to finish your go. Ryuichi, you are up.
PETER: Okay, where was I left off? I was shot.
MATT: You were shot and a heavy wound and he's reloading his weapon right now looking at you while backing up towards the woods.
PETER: Oh yeah. I'm ignoring that pain. I take a few steps forward into his personal space and I'm going to fuck him up.
MATT: Let's go, yeah, roll for an attack, bro.
LIAM: I'm going to assist. I'm going to assist. I see him trying to reload the gun so I take my kanab and I rope it over him and I lift him into the air so he's a fucking target for you.
MATT: Kicking his legs for a second. He puts up his gun to try and prevent you from choking him. But that's not the point of choking him. It's just restraining him. So between your kanab and his gun, he's now held and his feet are kicking in the air. Go ahead and make your attack and add his might to the roll as well.
PETER: How can I target him? I could take off a leg, arm--
MATT: If you want to try.
PETER: Well, his legs are kicking out in front of me. That's going to disable him.
MATT: Let's go!
PETER: One leg. Okay, do I add a katana three or the might three on this roll?
MATT: The plus three for katana is the might included, so yeah.
PETER: Oh okay, okay, got you.
MATT: So add three, do you want to use any adrenaline for this or?
PETER: (exclaims)
LIAM: It's plus three, plus two for me. Plus two for me.
PETER: A one, three--
LIAM: Two.
PETER: This is my first failure.
EMILY: Six.
PETER: I got five, yeah, six.
MATT: Six, that fails unfortunately.
PETER: Am I dead? No?
MATT: No, no, no. They don't strike back unless you fail while pushing the advantage.
PETER: Okay.
MATT: So if you fail on your first strike, then it's the end of your turn. So you go to try, and as you're trying to find an opening, as he's being held up, he kicks around and there's a brief moment where you're uncertain if you were to attack now if you would cut this enemy or if you would cut Garrett. That brief moment of hesitation prevents you from even taking the blade to him.
PETER: Okay.
MATT: Finishing your go, the character who is being held by you. He's clutching up there, he is going to reach down and grab blade from his side and try and stab you with a tantoo--
LIAM: Yeah.
MATT: -- while you're up against his back.
ROBBIE: (laughs) Yeah, yeah.
LIAM: That's fair. That's fair.
MATT: That's going to be a five.
LIAM: Oh, I see it coming. so he's going here-- Oh man, I grab the gun in his hand and wrench his other arm down, twisting it so that the knife goes astray.
MATT: (grunts) It clatters off into the shadow nearby. It's going to finish his go. The other one is going to, seeing you this close, he can't even take the time to try and reload, he's going to take his wakizashi and he's going to come for you because you're the one who looks the most wounded and he is going to try and do what he can to stop you in your tracks. But not with a natural three he's not.
PETER: No! No. (laughter)
MATT: Goes to strike towards you, how do you deflect his blow?
PETER: He was trying to-- Was he using his hand or the barrel of his gun?
MATT: Well, he set the gun aside and pulled his wakizashi and went (grunts) and struck out towards you.
PETER: Oh, well, I blocked it with my right hand. I blocked it, yeah, and I'm going for the counterstrike.
MATT: All right, so we'll get to that on your next turn, that finishes up their go. But Garrett, you are actually up.
LIAM: All right, so I freed up one hand from my kanab to get the gun wrenched down, that means I'm back to holding the kanab one hand, so I backhand with the butt-end of it. Butt-end of it to hit him in the face. That'll hit probably, that's a nine.
MATT: Nine definitely hits.
LIAM: So that hits. All right, there's an adrenaline, and I will for sure push it.
MATT: Well, first off, the one that's in your hands, he's already wounded, you finish him off.
LIAM: Oh.
MATT: So how do you want to do this?
LIAM: Oh jeez.
MATT: As you're clutching him to you.
LIAM: Right, so I shoulder him away and then come with the kanab and strike him in the face, sending him flying into the second feller as I follow.
MATT: Great, (grunts) he takes the hit and before he can even recover, you're right there. Both of you are flanking him from each side. So if you want to push the advantage, roll with a d10.
LIAM: All right, and I'm going to go for Rolling Fury with this. I'm going to spend an adrenaline to make it hurt more.
MATT: Okay.
LIAM: If I'm able to. Oh yeah, that's an 11 to hit.
EMILY: Oof.
MATT: 11 to hit!
LIAM: So an extra wound on top of what's regular.
MATT: Ooh, that's four wounds on him with one hit from the kanab . Crack! As you impact the other standing ashigaru, you hit him so hard that his arm where he was holding the gun on the side cracks and breaks and you see the elbow, the bone stick out and he screams (yells). Falls to the side. The shock takes in and that fight or flight is really taking him over. As he looks at you and you, he looks like he's about to run.
LIAM: Oh, well, I'll push then.
MATT: Okay. (laughter)
LIAM: I've got the kanab almost at that midway point and I've gone butt-end, front-end, stab right into the eye with it.
MATT: Go for it.
EMILY: (laughs)
LIAM: That's a nine.
MATT: It's a nine. How do you want to do this?
ROBBIE: He's on fire now.
PETER: Yes! (laughter)
ROBBIE: That's the Liam I know. (laughter)
MATT: All right, so you're puncturing him through the eye?
LIAM: Well, it's a pretty hefty thing so it's more of a cave-in.
MATT: I was about to say, yeah.
LIAM: Than a stab.
MATT: Yeah, but yours is--
LIAM: It is--
MATT: Since yours is a little smaller by size, and it's about the right size. It's like pushing a baseball bat into someone's ocular cavity, it's going to break the skull around it and still take him out. So cracks hard and as you impact, the very butt-end of your kanab has just enough purchase on his skull that he hangs on it for a minute before you have to pull it away and he falls to the ground.
LIAM: (groans)
MATT: Brutal, brutal. But yeah, that finishes your go, both the opponents in the trees with their very powerful ranged weapons have been dealt with in quick time. You both look back to the shrine where your other allies are and they're currently engaged with a r nin and from what they don't see, and what you two see are two other figures rushing up from the opposite side of the shrine to join the fray as well.
LIAM: Oh, our friends do not see reinforcement?
MATT: Or at least they're both focused on this r nin and beyond them on the backside you see two other figures approaching.
LIAM: You all right?
PETER: I'm okay. We must take care of them. So we go over.
MATT: All right, so you guys--
PETER: They clearly don't see them. We have to go over, we intercept them.
MATT: Okay.
PETER: I'm hurt. But I only need one arm.
MATT: That's true.
ROBBIE: (chuckles)
MATT: Okay, so that finishes your turn.
LIAM: We're probably en route. We're probably frozen in time.
MATT: Yeah, you guys are rushing towards the shrine now. It is now the r nin's turn. He is going to-- Let's see. You've done a pretty heavy hit too and he's going to consider you the immediate threat now. Sees the bits of wounds to your armor and sees a little bit of weakness there and is attempt to try and use that to his advantage. Striking at you with six?
EMILY: Dodge with a seven.
MATT: Ooh, by one.
EMILY: Just miss.
ROBBIE: With authority. (laughter)
MATT: Swings wide. Describe to me how you barely parry this massive arc with his polearm.
EMILY: Just the slightest duck.
MATT: It carves a few hairs from the top of your head.
EMILY: Yeah.
PETER: Yeah, exactly.
EMILY: Just a squat, just a little squat.
MATT: That finishes his go, right into your turn, Umi. So you're up.
EMILY: Gorgeous. I still have the wakizashi in my hand, and now I'm at such close range and if I can just shave a little of the hair off of him, so to speak, I'm going to take a swipe for his guts.
MATT: Let's go for it.
PETER: Oh my god.
EMILY: 10!
ROBBIE: Hey!
EMILY: So 12.
MATT: That'll definitely hit. So he takes three wounds. Heavy hit right into the middle of the rib cage, crack! Now he's not wearing chest armor, he's pretty quick and has some high dodge, but you rolled pretty high and you feel the bones crack at the impact. He stumbles back and catches himself and his legs skidding a minute, and he's woozy on his feet. You see him (coughs) cough up a big spatter of crimson.
PETER: Got to pee.
MATT: Go for it, bud.
ROBBIE: Do it.
MATT: No worries.
PETER: I'm running, I'm running.
MATT: You've got two turns.
EMILY: I would like to push the advantage and try to finish this.
MATT: Let's go, so roll the d10.
EMILY: Okie-doke with my wakizashi. Can I storm forward with a two? A two, so four.
MATT: Unfortunately that isn't enough. He is on death's door and in that moment that he coughs up, you're like, "This is your opportunity," and you charge forward with the wakizashi, and in that brief moment where you're about to finish it off, his eyes shoot up and meet yours like he was goading you into it.
EMILY: No!
MATT: As you rush forward with the wakizashi, he grabs your arm and uses your momentum to push you behind him. As he does, he spins his naginata to try and strike down with it upon you with a--
EMILY: Yeah.
MATT: That's going to be a seven. I think that does hit you.
EMILY: Okay.
MATT: Right?
EMILY: Oh a seven is to seven, so I'm going to let that hit my back armor.
MATT: Okay.
EMILY: So if I--
MATT: Do you have any defensive abilities to use your adrenaline on?
EMILY: Oh, interesting, like to deflect?
MATT: Do you have any deflect abilities with your wakizashi at all or?
EMILY: I do, I could burn my two adrenaline and roll to deflect with my wakizashi.
MATT: Okay, what does it turn your dodge into?
MATT: Is it high enough to?
EMILY: Oh, I see, so because I have seven dodge.
MATT: So that would turn it into nine.
EMILY: Against two, yeah, so nine.
MATT: So that would actually cancel the attack.
EMILY: Okay, so do I have to roll?
MATT: You don't have to roll for it.
EMILY: Oh great.
LIAM: Because you spend the adrenaline.
EMILY: That's right, gotcha, gotcha. So I spend my two adrenaline to have a nine dodge and I do dodge that attack.
MATT: So what does it say? It just increases your dodge by two?
EMILY: Yeah.
MATT: Does it do anything else?
EMILY: And the attacker takes one wound.
MATT: He has one wound left.
ROBBIE: Oh!
MATT: So.
EMILY: Oh!
MATT: How do you want to do this?
ROBBIE: (laughs)
MATT: (laughs) As he goes for the final blow and you deflect it and kill him in the same sweep. Describe to me how you finish him off.
EMILY: Yes, so he's pulled this arm forward with my wakizashi in it, swung for my back, and I'm going to turn on the spot and swipe him once more across his torso.
MATT: He spins in the air and right as he's about to bring it down, you are faster than he expected with your squat warrior form and-- (grunts) Spilling his insides onto the shrine floor, he doesn't have enough strength in the swipe for the naginata to do more than to hit the side of your shoulder armor with practically no impact, as he stumbles to the ground, no longer moving. The two other figures that were rushing up to the shrine stop and turn around and run the other direction at the sight of their own--
PETER: Our guys? (laughter)
LIAM: There were two swooping down on them.
MATT: Yeah, as you guys arrive to the shrine, you watch as Umi--
LIAM: Spill the guy's guts.
MATT: -- finishes off the r nin, a wakizashi carving right through the middle of its midsection and dropping it and the two approaching soldiers turn around and run the opposite way.
PETER: Yeah, we got more girls like her. (laughter) Awesome!
LIAM: Garrett was running up pulling out a smoke bomb. (laughter)
EMILY: Save that for later. (laughter)
MATT: There's a brief moment looking around and you watch as Tomiko comes out. Herself, looks like she has a little bit of blood on her head and Heiji is in her arm. And she comes out in the middle of the shrine to, "Thank you. (panting) Thank you. Oh god, what's happening?"
LIAM: Chaos.
MATT: "Heiji, are you okay?" He nods, just saying nothing. This 11-year-old boy is stunned to silence. Panic in his eyes.
PETER: Nobunaga wants your blood. What are you hiding? What is it?
MATT: "My blood?"
PETER: You're protecting something.
MATT: "I'm protecting this child. We've got to get out of here."
PETER: The child of the shrine. There's something here.
EMILY: I say we head to the woods which are nearby and take these two to shelter.
ROBBIE: I know the countryside fairly well.
MATT: "I have a farmstead just out of the north gates of here. My husband's there right now. We can be safe there."
LIAM: If it's close.
MATT: "Can you take us?"
ROBBIE: (sighs)
PETER: Absolutely.
ROBBIE: What he said.
MATT: "Heiji, can you come with us? Can you walk?" He nods. "Okay. To the north gate. Thank you. All of you." At this point, she gathers him, the four of you flanking them, and you leave the shrine and start heading northward towards the outside and hopeful safety from Sakai. Now, as you have a brief moment here to rest, would you like to try and recover a little bit of injury.
LIAM: I was going to say, if--
PETER: Absolutely.
LIAM: -- if looking out the entrance here, if we don't see anything, anybody crawling over walls or intruding.
MATT: Not at the moment.
LIAM: All right.
MATT: What you had fought here in the middle of the shrine seem to be the handful of soldiers that had come this deep into this part of the city. Shrines usually aren't a big focus of destruction necessarily.
PETER: Not usually.
ROBBIE: (laughs)
MATT: But it seemed that the presence of this woman and child that the presence of this woman and child was enough to get them to try and finish off anybody that could be escaping or whatever wanton destruction they were setting to course.
PETER: Oh, was that it? They went to the shrine, they thought they were going to have some protection, but it wasn't enough. They weren't protecting something in the shrine then, it just happened to be a coincidence.
MATT: It could be. Well, you did hear Rin sent them to the shrine--
EMILY: Just for safety.
PETER: Why? Was it for safety?
MATT and ROBBIE: (laugh)
MATT: Make a cognition check to see if you can read Tomiko's--
PETER: Okay. I will. Cognition. (laughter)
MATT: Yeah.
PETER: Got to know. Got to be comfortable with these rules.
MATT: Of course, of course.
PETER: 12!
MATT: Ooh, a crit!
PETER: Speak the truth.
MATT: Nice!
PETER: Read your mind. Tell me.
MATT: So, watching Tomiko as both she, you know, protects Heiji and looks to all of you and is looking off in the distance. You catch up. You are an incredible read of certain people, especially when they are in the midst of danger and threat. You've spent a lifetime at this point protecting those that you deem innocent, and there is in her gaze a fear, but a strength to protect as part of that. While this is not her child, this is the child of her friend. Also as she looks to the northward side of where you're heading, you see a hopefulness at what awaits her there at that farmstead where her husband can help keep all of you safe and away from where the city siege is happening. You believe you can trust her.
PETER: I believe her completely.
MATT: Yes.
PETER: She's telling the truth. We shall follow.
MATT: All righty.
LIAM: Sit for a spell.
PETER: Okay, cool. I like that. That's reassuring. Now I'm like, okay, the shrine. Let's go.
MATT: (laughs) No, that's great. That's where the cognition comes into play. That's where reading people is perfect.
LIAM: Ryuichi-san, sit for a spell. So I have, what was it? It's sarashi, right?
MATT: Sarashi, yeah. The bandages.
LIAM: Right, so I gingerly lower his clothing away from his shoulder, and can see that there's a bullet wound there. I probe it. I don't think I can get it out of there, but I do take the bandages, and with trees on fire in the distance in an absolutely heavy metal tableau, I start to bandage up-- (laughter)
LIAM: -- the wound.
MATT: Great.
LIAM: So, everyone else takes one-- Do we gain one for the rest?
MATT: Everybody for this rest clears a wound from your sheet.
PETER: Okay.
LIAM: I roll for--
MATT: For Ryuichi's wounds.
LIAM: -- sarashi.
MATT: Yeah.
LIAM: That's-- (grunts) Fuck you, die.
MATT and EMILY: (laugh)
LIAM: That's two wounds.
MATT: So, you take off two more wounds.
PETER: I get two off. That's great.
LIAM: I rolled a one.
MATT: Not optimal, but still better than nothing.
LIAM: Yes.
EMILY: Uh-huh.
MATT: But I believe that is the last sarashi you have amongst your troop, too.
LIAM: That's right.
EMILY: Oh.
MATT: So, outside of any future rests--
PETER: Thanks, G.
MATT: (laughs)
EMILY: "G." (laughs)
MATT: I love it.
LIAM: Somewhere, an electric guitar. (laughter)
MATT: You can still hear the echoing of distanto gunshots. (distanto explosions boom)
PETER: Is it approaching?
MATT: Hard to tell. It's distanto enough where it's echoing and scattered, so it doesn't feel like it's terribly close. But there is still a lot of death transpiring in these city walls.
PETER: I would take that moment to say that out of that mission to get guns-- We were going to supply these bullets to the people that are trying to kill us. I'm not trying to fulfill that mission anymore. Right? (laughs)
MATT: I think you certainly feel like there might be more larger things at work now--
PETER: Exactly.
MATT: -- than the job you were hired for.
PETER: Right. Now, we have to protect the village and stop Nobunaga.
EMILY: Mm-hmm.
PETER: I don't know if you all agree, but I'm not looking for weapons to fight, you know?
EMILY: It doesn't feel like the time to be making bullets.
PETER: Right.
MATT: (laughs)
PETER: So now, our main concern is the child and the woman, Tomiko, and we're bringing them there to Nakamura.
MATT: Yeah. Well, her husband.
PETER: Her husband.
MATT: Nakamura is the husband of Rin, which was the blacksmith, but you haven't met him. He's somewhere else in the city.
PETER: Right, okay.
MATT: Tomiko's husband waits for her at her homestead.
PETER: Okay, okay.
ROBBIE: That's outside of the city, like countryside?
MATT: Yeah, that's outside the north gate.
PETER: Okay, so we're on our way there.
MATT: Yeah, the Setsu area.
EMILY: Taking them to safety, fulfilling our promise to Rin.
MATT: To Rin. All right.
LIAM: On the way out of the shrine grounds, I swing past the feller who tried to stab me in the gut and I grab his tantoo blade that he tried to kill me with to replace the one that I lost in the streets.
MATT: Okay.
PETER: You can do that?
EMILY: Cool.
MATT: Yeah, you can take weapons that aren't in use. You can take it if you want.
ROBBIE: (laughs)
PETER: I mean, I could add a musket and-- (laughs) I mean, I could.
MATT: If you want to take a tepp , there's one over off to the side. Do you know how to use it?
PETER: Yes, of course I do.
MATT: Okay.
ROBBIE and LIAM: (laugh)
EMILY: Will you show me?
LIAM: (laughs)
EMILY: Will you teach me how to use the tepp?
PETER: I will.
MATT: (laughs)
EMILY: This is what I'm thinking now. Can we--
PETER: That's gaijin advantage though.
EMILY: That shipment of tepp , has that arrived, the one that Takeda has tasked us to find ammunition for?
MATT: You don't know.
EMILY: We don't know where it is.
MATT: But what you do know is of any weapons of the fallen enemy around you, you can take and use to your advantage. There are, I'd say one and a half tepp .
MATT: Well, one that's--
EMILY: (laughs)
MATT: -- been somewhat damaged from the combat and one that hasn't been off near where you two both dispatched those two gunmen, off near where you two both dispatched those two gunmen, those ashigaru. So you can gather those if you'd like to.
PETER: I would like to take one. I just need one bullet to finish this thing, you know? I mean, they only can shoot one bullet every two, three minutes. So I will take it.
MATT: Great. So as you finish your rest, your bandages across your torso, gather yourself to escort these two and yourselves to safety outside of this chaos. You go over to where that battle transpired, pick up the one tepp that seems the most battle ready and one of its iron payloads.
PETER: Can I add that to my little--
MATT: Yeah, just write down tepp and whenever you want to fire it, I'll tell you what you get to add to it.
EMILY: Cool.
PETER: Okay. Okay.
MATT: So.
PETER: Let's go.
MATT: You continue your journey northward.
ROBBIE: Oh man. I-- (sighs) I do not. So as they're heading out toward the countryside, I'm going to pull Umi aside.
EMILY: Mm-hmm.
ROBBIE: I'm going to pull out a small little scroll from my side sash. I hand it to you. Here you go.
EMILY: What is this?
ROBBIE: Sometimes it's in a chicken coop, sometimes it's under a marshy bit of log, but there's some food, some cash, a few stores I have outside of town. Take it and take care. I'm sorry. This isn't my fight.
EMILY: Where are you going?
ROBBIE: I got a little boat in the port. We're about halfway distance. I'll take my leave here, but it's been an honor. (laughs) I'll nudge Ryuichi in the side. I'm sorry. This isn't for me.
EMILY: You can't make it to the port alone.
ROBBIE: Oh, I'm pretty sneaky. (laughs)
MATT: The sound of heavy hoof prints, multiple sets, grow loud from different sides and shouts as two mounted samurai begin to rush up and shouts as two mounted samurai begin to rush up and begin to meet the northern gate where you've all been trekking. As they begin to gather and surround, they are throwing flaming objects they are throwing flaming objects towards the sides of the gate that (explosions) detonate, and sending flames emerging up the sides of the nearby buildings. The exterior of your exit gate to the wall of where you were leaving the shrine and going to send the family off is now ablaze. As you look back towards the city in the opposite direction to try and escape further in, a third horse rides up before its rider leaps off. Where you see a tall, fully armored, masked samurai who had previously cut down a civilian in the street during its meeting. Looks down at the rest of you. "Were you thinking to escape?"
PETER: Two guys burning our exit route. This guy blocks us in on the other side. We are trapped.
EMILY: I instinctively pull Tomiko who's holding Heiji, pull them back to pull them behind.
PETER: Good.
MATT: They both back away. The flames crawl fast. Some sort of accelerant within these objects they threw have sent fire to crawl up all manner of nearby buildings that already come up to it, and immediately the landscape begins to burn around you. It turns into the center of hell--
ROBBIE: (laughs)
MATT: -- as this--
EMILY: It's amazing.
MATT: -- armored demon of a samurai steps forward. (heavily armored footfalls) Women and children first.
EMILY: (gasps)
PETER: Oh hell no.
MATT: He pulls from one side of himself his katana that was sheathed, wakizashi left, and from his back in one hand, a gnarly looking kanab . Wielding both simultaneously, he rushes forward towards all of you as the two other mounted samurai pull their bows free and begin to encircle the space. I need you all to roll initiative.
LIAM: I feel like that boat ride will have to wait.
EMILY: (laughs)
ROBBIE: Oh!
PETER: This is the climax here, right? I can tell. (laughter)
EMILY: Please. Oh no!
ROBBIE: You sure about that?
PETER: Oh shit.
EMILY: That's a zero for Umi.
PETER: What?
LIAM: Damn!
PETER: Okay. Okay.
LIAM: (laughs)
MATT: Okay, hold on.
PETER: Rolling.
LIAM: Oh!
PETER: Oh god!
EMILY: (laughs)
MATT: All right.
PETER: Damn! What is it? We add three? It's plus your--
LIAM: The lightning. Whatever's in the lightning.
PETER: Oh shit!
EMILY: Whatever's in your lightning. (laughter)
EMILY: Oh! Okay.
ROBBIE: How'd you guys do?
LIAM: Rolled a one.
PETER: Oh my god.
MATT: Oh boy. All righty. So out of the gate at the top of this, 10 to five, anybody?
LIAM: I wish.
MATT: What you got?
ROBBIE: Six.
MATT: Rufino. All right. Five to one? Oh.
PETER: I got two.
MATT: Oof. A total of two?
PETER: Total of two.
MATT: Oh, yeah. That's great. That's good to know.
PETER: What? Is that good?
MATT: Well, it's better than lower than one.
PETER: Yeah. (laughter)
MATT: All righty, so Ryuichi.
PETER: It's not a 12.
MATT: No, that's true. All right, zero to negative five.
EMILY: Zero.
LIAM: Negative two.
MATT: All righty, so that's at one. And then... Okay. Then with Garrett at the end.
EMILY: Oh man.
MATT: So Rufino, you are up first.
ROBBIE: Yeah. So-- (laughter)
LIAM: So about that.
EMILY: Sorry.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
EMILY: You didn't get away.
ROBBIE: I'm going to turn and try to sprint away from the conflict to where it looks like I'm trying to run away into a back alley. For all intents and purposes, I'm trying to make it look like I'm running away.
MATT: Okay. Roll a guile test for me to see if you do not seem like an immediate target to any of the other surrounding combatantos.
ROBBIE: Yeah. 12.
MATT: 12.
ROBBIE: Dirty. (laughs)
MATT: You put up your most I-am-not-a-threat expression ever and dart out of the center of the battlefield while the rest of your companions look like they are ready to have a showdown. You feel pretty confident that you are not the focus of attention at the moment.
ROBBIE: Yeah.
MATT: What are you doing?
ROBBIE: I'm going to try, if I can finally do it. I do want to get, I want to try to get a vantage point somewhere up high, rooftops again.
MATT: Yeah.
ROBBIE: Yeah.
MATT: Okay. I will say because now we're pushing forward, we can say push the advantage to try and do this. Do you want to do it?
ROBBIE: Oh! Okay.
MATT: So roll a d10 and add your, I'd say agility--
ROBBIE: Bro, I am going to leave. (laughter)
EMILY: I am so sorry. I don't even have an adrenaline--
ROBBIE: I was trying to fake leave in character.
EMILY: -- to give you.
ROBBIE: I was trying to "Old Yeller" myself, and now I'm going to do it in real life.
PETER: Oh my god.
ROBBIE: Apparently Rufino can do lots of things other than climb on a box and get to the top of a roof. That's a nat one.
MATT: Aww, buddy!
ROBBIE: What is happening, dude? What is happening?
EMILY: It's been a big night.
ROBBIE: Yeah.
MATT: (huffs) Well. So you--
EMILY: (laughs)
MATT: I'll say this. You do manage to find a vantage point, but it ends your turn.
ROBBIE: Oh!
MATT: You do come up there. You get to a place where the flames haven't yet gotten to and there is a tiled roof edge that you clamber up to unnoticed. But the process of doing so takes the entirety of your turn. That's going to finish its go.
ROBBIE: Oh, okay.
MATT: But you are in position.
ROBBIE: Okay.
MATT: Ryuichi, you are up. As the masked samurai--
PETER: Okay. Let me understand. Two archers--
MATT: Yup.
PETER: -- flanking us, coming. They're on horse?
MATT: They're on horseback.
PETER: The guy, he dismounted, the samurai. So he's walking towards us in the center.
MATT: He's rushing towards you in the center with both weapons out.
PETER: Rushing, okay. So, everything is urgent. I'm going to take out one of the archers with a shuriken.
MATT: (laughs)
PETER: I got shuriken, right?
MATT: Yeah!
ROBBIE: (laughs)
PETER: So not only ninjas have them. I got a few here. (laughter)
PETER: I go, (slicing throws) you know. Two or three. I'm going to take out one. So that's my first battle.
MATT: Okay, so as you see this going on, you throw an attack, so--
PETER: Yeah, I can grab like this and go-- (swish)
MATT: All right. So for this, you can roll with either agility or guile. Your choice.
PETER: Ooh.
LIAM: Pick the higher one.
PETER: Guile is a minus one. Agility's zero.
MATT: So just roll a d12.
PETER: (sharp inhale) Six! (groans)
MATT: Okay.
PETER: I missed?
MATT: Unfortunately, you miss on the first shuriken. (whoosh) It goes wide. They're hard to hit when they're riding on horseback, but it's not impossible. Do you want to push the advantage and try for another one?
PETER: Do I have to roll with a smaller die?
MATT: You do.
PETER: Yeah.
MATT: Let's go!
EMILY: Yeah!
PETER: It's this one, right?
MATT: Yup.
PETER: Six! Plus or nothing?
MATT: Well, if you don't have a bonus to your thing, then that's just a six.
PETER: What about the shuriken? I don't have no bonus?
MATT: Oh, no. That would be adding your agility or your guile, I said. So that would be a zero.
PETER: Zero. Shit. So I miss again.
EMILY: Tricky, tricky.
MATT: They're so hard to hit.
PETER: Okay.
MATT: However, because you were pushing the advantage, as you're throwing these shuriken--
EMILY: Oh, right.
MATT: -- you assume this massively armored figure would be slow given the weapons and the size of him. He moves quicker than you expect, and suddenly he is upon you (grunts) with a massive swing. That is going to be an eight. Does an eight hit you?
PETER: Dodge is an eight. I got eight dodge.
MATT: Oh, eight dodge? He just hits you.
PETER: Okay.
MATT: Yes, it has to hit or higher. Do you have enough adrenaline for a defensive maneuver?
PETER: I have four adrenalines, so--
MATT: Do you have any weapon abilities that add to your dodge? Under your katana.
EMILY: Deflect?
PETER: Weapon ability. On a successful attack, you can do plus two wounds.
MATT: Then above that, there should be a defensive or a--
EMILY: Does anything say deflect?
PETER: If you or an ally close to you are attacked, your ally gains plus two dodge again the attack.
MATT: So you or an ally can get plus two. If you want to spend the two adrenaline on that, you can add plus two to your dodge and try and deflect it.
PETER: Yeah.
MATT: Okay, so spend two adrenaline.
PETER: Okay.
MATT: That brings your dodge up to 10.
PETER: Right.
MATT: Which causes his attack to miss.
PETER: Okay, good.
MATT: So he comes down rapidly with both weapons and you deflect if off to the side.
PETER: Okay.
MATT: He barely misses taking a chunk out of your head.
PETER: Okay.
MATT: But now he's there in the fray next to you. That finishes your turn. It's now his turn. You're right there. You can now see the cold and cruel eyes that are just barely visible between his mask and his helmet, and he reads you. "(derisive chuckle)" He's going to spin around and come for you.
PETER: What?
EMILY: (gasps)
PETER: He made eye contact.
MATT: Ooh, that's going to be a 13 to hit.
LIAM: For sure.
EMILY: Ooh, ow!
LIAM: I have no fancy deflection moves, so--
MATT: Okay. You take three wounds as both weapons come down upon you. You try and hold and it pushes you back, a heavy impact on you. He's going to push the advantage.
EMILY: Oh man.
MATT: That's going to be a seven to hit you?
LIAM: Meets it beats it, yep.
MATT: Seven hits you again. Another three wounds.
LIAM: (groans)
EMILY: Oh!
LIAM: Blood sprays on the ground.
MATT: (heavy attacks) It is brutalizing Garrett.
LIAM: Staggering. Staggering back, yeah.
MATT: Garrett's already in a rough place from these hits. He's a cruel figure. He's going to push the advantage again.
EMILY: Oh no!
PETER: (groans)
ROBBIE: Oh!
MATT: That's how it goes.
EMILY: (laughs)
MATT: That's going to put it at a six.
LIAM: That misses.
EMILY: Whew.
MATT: Now, because he failed while pushing the advantage, you get to attack him back.
EMILY: Good.
LIAM: (sighs) Okay. All right. So I just got slashed--
PETER: Your ears or something.
LIAM: My kanab is in the dirt and I'm bleeding out rapidly, but I will, pressed this desperately, I will, even though it fucking hurts so fucking bad, I'll double hand the kanab and try to strike him in the side of the skull with the heavy end.
ROBBIE: An arrow comes out of nowhere--
MATT: Yeah?
LIAM: Yes, just in time.
ROBBIE: -- and helps him from the side. I'll use adrenaline to give you aid.
PETER: Yes.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
LIAM: Wow.
MATT: Adding which?
ROBBIE: I'm going to-- (sighs) Well, that's interesting.
EMILY: (laughs)
ROBBIE: It's sneaky. What would it be?
MATT: Because it's sneaky and you're unnoticed, it could be guile.
ROBBIE: I want it to be guile.
MATT: You choose. You have to think about how you apply that.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's meant to be a sneak attack. It's plus three.
MATT: Correct. It's not wounding him, it's just to distract him?
ROBBIE: Correct, yeah.
MATT: So that's a plus three to your roll.
LIAM: That gets me up to nine.
MATT: Nine? Nine hits. So with that, that is three wounds to the masked samurai.
PETER: Yes!
MATT: Crack! A heavy hit. It impacts the armor and the armor takes the hit, and he just slightly moves.
PETER: Oh jeez.
MATT: I mean, he took three wounds, but he has a lot of armor on. So the armor absorbs a lot of it. But that finishes his turn. Umi, you're up.
EMILY: All right. I want to break through that armor so that we can get at him with our finer weapons. So I'm going to give Tomiko and Heiji a little shove back, and run forward with my kanab .
PETER: Yeah.
MATT: Awesome.
EMILY: Oh, and deliver a 14 point--
LIAM: Oh!
PETER: Yeah!
EMILY: -- smash from behind.
PETER: He's bleeding!
MATT: Crack! Yeah, he's not even focused on you right now because he's a smart, brutal warrior, focusing somebody down in the moment if no one else is defending, and you use that advantage to crack a heavy hit on the back of the armor. That's three wounds to him. Do you want to push the advantage?
EMILY: Yes, I would love to push the advantage.
MATT: All right.
EMILY: So I'm going to--
MATT: Now don't forget, before somebody rolls, you can spend an adrenaline to try and add--
LIAM: I am going to--
PETER: Oh, I'm going to--
LIAM: Oh.
EMILY: Adrenaline.
PETER: Yeah, can I throw in one adrenaline?
MATT: If you want to, you can spend an adrenaline, and then how do you aid her attack? Which attribute do you add to her?
PETER: How do I aid her?
MATT: Do you want to add your might to her role?
PETER: Yeah. Oh, that's how? I can add one of these?
MATT: Yeah, you add one of your bonuses to her roll.
PETER: Oh, absolutely, yeah.
MATT: But describe how you help her with her strike.
PETER: Oh. How do I help her with her strength?
LIAM: Write your own action movie. (laughter)
EMILY: So right now he's been smashed in the chest, smashed in the back, his armor is compromised, and I'm just winding up for another swing with my kanab now to his head. That's where I'm heading.
PETER: Well, he's distracted.
EMILY: To get his helmet off.
MATT: Uh-huh.
PETER: So I'm going to approach from the opposite side to throw off his concentration so he cannot, you know, rely on his eyesight. Well, his eyesight's on her, but he's seeing me, so he has to concentrate on me. So I'm distracting him by circling around him.
MATT: Okay, great. Great, so you circle around, flashing the weapon--
PETER: Yeah.
MATT: -- to try and draw his attention, and as he--
PETER: Yeah, so I'm being a second opponent.
MATT: He's now caught between the three of you.
PETER: Right.
MATT: That gives just enough of an opening for you to strike. What was your total?
EMILY: The 14? That hit a 14.
MATT: The 14 was the first roll. Now you roll a d10.
EMILY: Great.
LIAM: Multiple people can't aid, can they?
MATT: No, not multiple people.
LIAM: Okay.
MATT: One person.
EMILY: Great. So my d10-- Oh, 10! Ha! Critical!
ROBBIE: Yay!
MATT: That's a crit!
PETER: Yay!
EMILY: It's my first!
MATT: Four wounds on him--
LIAM: Yes!
MATT: -- with a heavy hit. Nice!
PETER: Can I take my adrenaline back?
EMILY: Great!
MATT: Unfortunately no. But hey.
PETER: All right.
MATT: It all helps.
PETER: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
MATT: It's all good.
PETER: It worked.
MATT: All right.
EMILY: So that was a smash to the back of the head to blast his helmet, hopefully, off.
PETER: Off.
MATT: It cracks off, but it doesn't remove itself. His strap is hardy on his neck.
EMILY: Ah, right! But the back of his neck is exposed?
MATT: But the back of the neck is exposed.
EMILY: Gorgeous.
MATT: Are you going to push the advantage?
EMILY: I'm going to try and push the advantage, and slash down there--
MATT: All right.
EMILY: -- with my wakizashi.
MATT: All right. So now you're rolling a d8?
ROBBIE: What are you rolling?
EMILY: Yes. A d8.
MATT: With agility, right?
EMILY: With agility--
MATT: Plus two?
EMILY: -- for the wakizashi, yes.
ROBBIE: (whoosh) Another arrow comes out of nowhere.
EMILY: Yes!
MATT: All right. Spend another adrenaline.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
EMILY: Oh right, I've got to roll--
MATT: All right, so you get to add another plus three to that one.
EMILY: Oh, when I push the advantage, I have to take off an adrenaline, right? Yes, correct?
MATT: No, no. Just to use your abilities.
ROBBIE: That was adrenaline for me.
EMILY: Oh.
PETER: Yeah.
EMILY: Adrenaline for you. Oh, it's an eight, right. So pushing--
ROBBIE: The arrow rips, it dinks off of his shoulder.
MATT: Yep.
ROBBIE: Yeah.
MATT: So roll a d8 and add plus three on top of your plus two. So plus five total.
EMILY: Okay, so I got seven--
MATT: 12. That hits!
EMILY: -- 12.
PETER: That's nice!
EMILY: So this is with my wakizashi. I slash down on the back of his neck.
MATT: That's just one wound on that one. So you strike down on the back of his neck. (grunts) It's now carved, and you can see the blood oozing from the back of it, and you hear, "(devious laugh)"
EMILY: No!
MATT: Spins around, and now looks you in the face and goes, "Oh, you're so tiny. You'll make a tiny corpse."
PETER: (laughs)
MATT: That's going to finish-- Unless you want to push the advantage again, or do you want to end it there?
EMILY: I have a question. Wait, so every time I roll, I get an adrenaline. When I'm pushing the advantage and rolling, can I still gain adrenalines for every roll?
MATT: Yeah.
EMILY: Okay, so--
MATT: Each time you do--
EMILY: Every time I roll.
PETER: But the die number--
EMILY: Great.
MATT: The die number now, if you want to push the advantage again, it becomes a d6.
PETER: Oh jeez. Don't.
EMILY: Right. So--
MATT and ROBBIE: (laugh)
EMILY: He's facing me and I've got the wakizashi, and he's bleeding out really bad. I would love to try and stab him in the face.
MATT: Okay, so roll a d6.
EMILY: Let's see what happens with this d6.
LIAM: I swing the kanab right into his ankle as I see her pressing the attack and aid.
PETER: Cool.
MATT: Okay. So roll the dice--
LIAM: So add plus two from my might.
MATT: -- and add plus two.
EMILY: Okay. Six!
MATT: Another crit!
EMILY: Crit!
PETER: Yeah!
MATT: Damn!
PETER: Holy shit!
ROBBIE: Woo!
EMILY: Okay.
ROBBIE: Oh, that's fun.
PETER: Is this guy dead yet?
MATT: So that's two wounds from the wakizashi. As you stab into the abdomen, he's taking these hits and he's looking hurt, but he's standing. With each wound, he seems to grin. You see the blood now dripping out from underneath the mask, which is this horrible visage now of this Oni grin with the fanged teeth and the blood pouring out. As you stab him in the stomach, he slams his-- His katana arm wraps around you and pulls you into him so he pulls the blade into his stomach and he looks right in your grin. Do you want to push the advantage again for a d4?
EMILY: Yeah, you know, I kind of do.
MATT: Let's go!
EMILY: That's fun. Let's see--
PETER: That's gambling.
EMILY: -- if I can do a little, what is it, harakiri? I'm going to see if I can drag this wakizashi up to his heart.
LIAM: I flip the kanab and I drive the handle into his ribs, pressing him towards her, aiding you again.
MATT: Okay.
EMILY: Yes.
PETER: I can't help as well? We can't three-prong him? No?
MATT: It's one help per round, unfortunately.
PETER: Okay, okay, okay.
ROBBIE: Do it!
EMILY: One.
LIAM: Plus two, plus anything?
EMILY: So this was a natural one, and then, so with my wakizashi--
MATT: That's a plus three.
LIAM: Two from me and three from you.
MATT: That is, unfortunately, going to fail. First off, he's going to use, because you've wounded him, on one of the previous wounds, he's going to use his special ability to, as he holds you in, to, crack, headbutt you.
EMILY: (grunts)
MATT: You automatically take one wound.
EMILY: Yeah, okay.
LIAM: (groans)
MATT: Then he's going to, as you are there, the blade pushed into his chest, and you're right there, he's going to go ahead and-- That's attacking you for a 12 hit.
EMILY: (gasps) oh!
PETER: Oh!
EMILY: Yo! So I have seven dodge. What can I do? Deflect with my wakizashi, dodge. I'm going to burn two adrenaline.
MATT: What does it bring your dodge up to?
EMILY: Well, that only brings it up to a nine.
MATT: That's not going to be enough. So you take three wounds. As he's pulled you in close, now what he does is he takes-- As he's holding you with the katana hand, he takes the kanab in the other, and while bear hugging you against him, crack, crack, and is slamming you in the back with this bat as he's laughing in your face. "(devious laugh)" So that's three wounds on you there. That finishes your turn. Now it's the bow riders.
LIAM: Oh boy.
ROBBIE: Yeah.
MATT: (horses trotting) One of them is going to take a shot. It's going to take another shot at you from behind. That's going to be, oof, a 10.
EMILY: A 10 attack on me?
MATT: Yeah. What's your dodge?
EMILY: I got--
ROBBIE: Little old me? (laughter)
EMILY: I've got seven. Quick check, so did I burn those two adrenalines--
MATT: You did not.
EMILY: -- trying to do it? Right. So now my dodge is seven. I wonder--
MATT: Bringing it up to nine isn't going to be enough, unfortunately.
EMILY: Because nine's not enough. Then I still have two points on my armor that can take it.
MATT: Yeah, so it's two wounds from the bow. So you take two wounds from the arrow that--
EMILY: Right, that's going to my armor.
MATT: -- sinks into you. So you mark those off your armor. Your armor absorbs the blow.
EMILY: Great.
PETER: Nice.
MATT: It's going to push the advantage. Because that works both ways. That's going to be a seven. Does seven hit?
EMILY: I'm a seven dodge, so I will burn two adrenaline here--
MATT: Okay.
EMILY: -- with my wakizashi to try and-- So this is the archer coming at me?
MATT: Yeah. So now you push off the masked samurai after he's impacted you, and you hear-- (arrow whizzing) One hits your armor.
MATT: Yeah.
MATT: Another one-- (arrow whizzing)
EMILY: (blade clangs)
MATT: You cut it out of the air, backing out of the way. The arrow splits off into two pieces.
LIAM: Sick!
PETER: Cool!
MATT: It's awesome. That's going to finish his turn. Because that's a miss, technically. So that ends his turn immediately.
EMILY: Cool.
MATT: The other one is currently trying to train on who's there. You're probably the most prominent one. It's going to try and fire at you. That's going to be a four to hit, which misses. Ends its turn. Garrett, you're up with Ruffino on deck.
LIAM: Okay. Garrett is heavily wounded and is staring at his own blood in the dirt and thinking how much he loves this city. If he's got to die anywhere, it better be here. He goes ape shit, and I charge at the samurai. I am going to take a full baseball bat swing at his face to begin.
MATT: Go for it.
LIAM: Come on. No.
ROBBIE: (gasps)
LIAM: No, that is a five.
MATT: A five unfortunately misses.
LIAM: Yeah.
MATT: You go to swing towards him and--
LIAM: Slip in my own blood.
MATT: Actually yeah, you slip a bit, and he hears the gravel grind of your foot, even though he has been focused on Umi. Almost without looking, he barely glances over his shoulder, swings his kanab back, and both your weapons collide at the same time, leaving this heavy crack sound that (echoing crack) echoes throughout the entire area of this region of the city.
LIAM: Now, how do the rules work? If I miss on my first attack, am I able to push for a second try?
MATT: No.
LIAM: No, so it's just done.
MATT: Only when you succeed can you push.
LIAM: Got it.
MATT: However, because your first one missed, there is no consequence. It's only when you miss on a push that you--
LIAM: Got you, got you.
MATT: So your turn ends there. Ruffino, you're up.
ROBBIE: Yeah, cool. I'm going to nock one and try to shoot at these mounted archers.
MATT: Okay.
PETER: I have no idea how this ends.
EMILY: Nobody does.
ROBBIE: Oh, it's different though.
LIAM: We're going to find out together.
ROBBIE: Seven.
PETER: Yep.
MATT: Seven? Seven is what you needed to hit them.
EMILY: Woo hoo!
ROBBIE: Okay, okay!
PETER: Nice!
ROBBIE: Good, good, good, good.
MATT: So that's two wounds on that one?
ROBBIE: That is two wounds, that's correct.
MATT: So one of the mounted riders is getting its arrow set up. As it's aiming, it does not even notice you as you let loose. Takes a hit from the side and glances over towards the direction of where you are, and just barely makes a bead on where you're sitting on the rooftop. Do you want to push the advantage?
ROBBIE: Oh, absolutely.
MATT: Anybody have adrenaline to help here if they want to?
EMILY: Oh yes. I would love to. I'm going to aid an ally.
MATT: Okay. How do you aid him against the mounted archer?
EMILY: Right. (laughs)
MATT: (laughs)
EMILY: So where am I right now? Oh right, so I have just deflected a shot.
MATT: Yeah.
EMILY: Deflected an arrow, so I've got my wakizashi out. So as he's turned to try and get a bead on where you are--
MATT: Yeah.
ROBBIE: Mm-hmm.
EMILY: -- I'm going to take a swipe at his arm.
MATT: So you're going to rush up towards, as the the horse is running by, you're going to try and meet and slash at it?
EMILY: Yeah.
MATT: Awesome.
EMILY: Or even, yeah, run towards and get it in as I pass, yeah.
MATT: Great, so as you're charging towards the horse, he's nocking the arrow and looking down at you. That distracts him just enough for you to get the shot as you swing wide without making impact, but it definitely sets him off in the horse's mount. So you take the shot.
LIAM: Let's go, Ruffino.
EMILY: You have a plus two.
LIAM: Come on.
ROBBIE: Let's go, baby.
LIAM: Come on.
ROBBIE: Doink! What's my bonus?
EMILY: Plus two.
ROBBIE: Yeah, 12.
MATT: 12? Definitely.
EMILY: (victorious laugh)
ROBBIE: Two damage?
MATT: Two wounds. The second arrow sticks into him and he's like-- "(grunts)" He slumps forward, and for a second, you think he's dead, and he "(grunts)" gets back, "(panting)" barely holding on.
ROBBIE: Yeah. I'm going to press into the eight, but I'm going to use my special action, Take Aim. So I'm going to spend all three of my adrenaline and I get to add my guile to my attack roll.
MATT: Yes, you do.
LIAM: I'm also going to throw the tantoo blade that I picked up at that archer's back as I see you taking action, so you get plus one from my guile.
MATT: You got it, so spend that adrenaline.
ROBBIE: Seven?
MATT: Seven is exactly what you needed.
PETER: Oh nice!
MATT: That was with his plus one?
ROBBIE: Thank you.
MATT: Oh boy!
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MATT: How do you want to do this?
LIAM: Yeah!
ROBBIE: Yeah, since the action is Take Aim, it's that moment where you've got a bow fully drawn and he's locked in, and these are like a recurve bow, so they pull the full weight, and he's going to think of all the times he's failed throughout the day, and his self-loathing is going to allow him to pull an extra five pounds on this fucking bow. It's going to (arrow whizzing) That arrow's going to (arrow whizzing)
MATT: (thud) It goes through the throat and sticks and stays in place.
PETER: Oh nice!
MATT: He falls back in the saddle, "(gurgles)" coughing, as the horse now takes off, and now that it's not being controlled, the flames that have grown so high spook it and the horse takes off further into the city with the now still strapped-in corpse of that one samurai. The other one's still riding around.
PETER: Right.
EMILY: Right.
MATT: Still your turn, do you want to push the advantage on the other one, or are you good?
ROBBIE: Yeah, I'm going to look down at Garrett, point at him and then--
LIAM: (grunts)
ROBBIE: But I'm going to give him a big thumbs up and then I'm going to-- That was like--
LIAM: (groans)
ROBBIE: Hold on, yeah. I want to, as that's happening, if we can, just for flavor, I'm going to move positions--
MATT: Okay.
ROBBIE: -- and try to move to a different part of the rooftop.
MATT: (footsteps)
EMILY: I'm going to-- Wait, are you going to attack on this one?
ROBBIE: Nope, I'm done.
EMILY: No? Okay, got it.
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
EMILY: I was going to aid you.
MATT: So that finishes your turn. Ryuichi, you're up.
PETER: Okay, so there's two men left. The samurai, who's maimed.
MATT: He's hurt pretty bad, but he's taken a lot of hits and he's still standing and laughing, and there's the mounted samurai, which hasn't been hurt yet.
PETER: He's, what, circling?
MATT: Yeah, he's circling and shooting arrows around the outside of the battle.
PETER: Umi's got her eyes on both of them.
EMILY: Yeah. Because I just slashed one.
ROBBIE: You just engaged with the guy that I just merked?
EMILY: Yep.
MATT: Yep.
PETER: She knows that I am taking on two opponents.
MATT: Yeah.
PETER: I'm going for the samurai.
MATT: All righty.
ROBBIE: Cool.
PETER: She can handle this guy.
MATT: The masked samurai, you mean?
PETER: Yeah. The masked samurai, the one that just fucked up my buddy, Garrett.
MATT: Yeah. Let's go.
LIAM: I'm engaged with.
MATT: Let's go!
EMILY: So he's been slashed the back of the neck, run through--
PETER: I go right to him.
LIAM: I see you running up and I go, (grunts) and I headbutt him right in the face to assist you my plus two.
PETER: Okay.
LIAM: Seeing you coming.
MATT: So make your strike.
PETER: Now, I had a little bit of room, so I took out my naginata.
MATT: All right.
PETER: I am going to, from a distance, maybe eight to nine feet, I'm going at him with my naginata and how can I boost this attack?
MATT: What abilities do you have there?
PETER: I have one adrenaline.
MATT: Any of the abilities that require--
PETER: My special action on my naginata?
MATT: Yep. Do either of them take one adrenaline?
PETER: Whirlwind strike.
MATT: Whirlwind strike is multiple targets. You don't need that against the samurai.
PETER: Okay, no. Defensive flash, no.
MATT: Okay. So nothing that'll help you in this strike, but you can keep in mind that defensive ability can possibly save you in a pinch.
PETER: Yes.
MATT: All right, so take your strike with the--
LIAM: My headbutt gives you plus two.
EMILY: Nice.
PETER: Okay. Oh really?
LIAM: Yeah. I just crunched his nose a bit.
MATT: Let's go.
PETER: Six.
LIAM: Plus two?
PETER: Plus three here.
MATT: Six plus three is nine plus-- That definitely hits.
PETER: Yes.
ROBBIE: There you go.
MATT: So with that, it's two wounds from the naginata?
PETER: Sorry? Two wounds.
MATT: Two wounds?
PETER: Yeah.
MATT: All right. So he takes a hit very hard. He's going to use his special ability to after he takes the headbutt from you, you strike him. He runs around and grabs your naginata with the other hand, dropping his kanab pulling you in and headbutting you, and then you take a wound.
LIAM: Oh!
PETER: Okay.
MATT: As his reaction to that. Do you want to press the advantage?
PETER: Yes. I'm that close. Only one of us is leaving. (laughter) Yeah.
MATT: All right. So you roll a d10 and add your might.
ROBBIE: Instead of hearing (blade scraping) you hear (thudding). A coin bag goes flying through the air and hits the guy right in the face. (laughter) So you're going to get a plus three-- That one right there.
PETER: Okay.
ROBBIE: You're going to get a plus three on this.
PETER: Oh really?
MATT: Yep.
ROBBIE: Yeah. That's my last.
MATT: Let's go.
PETER: I don't add a might to this. I do.
MATT: You do.
ROBBIE: But you get my plus three, too.
MATT: So it's a plus six roll.
PETER: Ah, doh! Zero!
LIAM: That's a crit.
MATT: That's a 10 technically.
PETER: Oh, that's a 10.
LIAM: That's a crit!
MATT: That's a crit.
EMILY: Yo!
ROBBIE: I spent all my money on that?
ROBBIE: (laughs)
PETER: Oh! Nice. (laughter)
MATT: Ryuichi, how do you want to do this?
ROBBIE: Yay!
PETER: I am going to get up close. I'm going run my hand up to the top of my naginata blade. I'm going to bring it to his throat and slowly, like in "Saving Private Ryan" when the--
MATT: Shh, shh, shh, shh!
ROBBIE: (wheezes)
PETER: I'm going to look him right in the eye. Oh. I'm going to slowly sever that jugular.
MATT: As you're doing that, his hand reaches up, grabs your throat and is strangling you.
PETER: That's fine.
MATT: He's looking you with intense fury as you cut and carve and you feel like you're trachea beginning to collapse. Right at the point where it might be too much, you feel his grip begin to fade as the life leaves his eyes. As you carve back, the mask comes loose in the final minute. You see that cruel smile as he drops from your grasp onto the ground. Now there is a horse mounted samurai running. Do you want to push the advantage?
PETER: What do I want? Young lady to have glory.
EMILY: I can aid you in your attack if you do.
PETER: No, I got to let her have the glory.
MATT: All right.
EMILY: Let's see.
PETER: Like I see that she wants it. (laughter)
MATT: That finishes your turn?
PETER: Her life means everything. It means everything to her. She has it.
MATT: I love it. All right. With that, the masked samurai is not on the initiative order. Umi, you are up.
EMILY: Wonderful. So I'm now going to, this archer on horseback is charging towards us with it drawn. I'm going to run towards him with my wakizashi drawn and try to slash again at his body.
MATT: Go for it.
EMILY: Okay, great. Here we go. Oh, two.
PETER: I'm reloading my musket by the way.
MATT: Okay.
PETER: While she's doing that, I'm going (ramrod clicking)
EMILY: Great. I strike them with a-- I hit a four. Swing with a four.
MATT: Swing and a miss, unfortunately. Some heavy hits, but at this point, especially watching the masked samurai crumble and Ryuichi just finishes that off, this awesome terrifying moment of execution, realizing that there's still something on the field and you rush towards it and it's so close to victory. You're almost distracted in the moment. As you try and swing wide, the horse gallops out of the way. No impact. That finishes your turn. It's now the archer's turn as it carries around, it's going to look back over and take a shot at you. That is going to be at 11 to hit.
EMILY: Oh, yuck.
ROBBIE: Oh no!
LIAM: Getting right down to the skids here--
MATT: You take two wounds from that hit.
LIAM: -- everybody.
EMILY: Yeah.
MATT: It's going to push the advantage.
LIAM: Ugh.
EMILY: No! (laughs)
MATT: That's going to be a nine to hit you?
PETER: Oh.
EMILY: Okay. I've got seven to dodge, so I'm going to burn--
MATT: A nine will still hit you.
EMILY: Oh.
MATT: It's hit or above.
EMILY: That's right. Okay.
MATT: So you take two more wounds from a second arrow.
ROBBIE: (gasps)
PETER: Oh.
EMILY: I fall to the ground. I'm on my knees.
PETER: You're alive?
EMILY: I have two arrows in me and I'm bleeding out.
MATT: So Umi is incapacitated. Two massive arrows sticking out of her torso. On her knees, weapon dropped out of her grip. As the horse is, (clopping). He's going to push the advantage and take a shot at you. I'm going to roll this in front of the screen, actually. Because we're down to the wire here. So this is a plus one. It's a six to hit.
LIAM: No.
MATT: That does not hit, which means his turn is done and you get to respond if you'd like.
EMILY: Yes, please.
LIAM: (sighs and growls)
PETER: Isn't he crippled on the ground literally he's dying?
ROBBIE: He's alive. Yeah, he's alive. He's hurting. But he's alive.
MATT: He's hurt real bad but he's still standing.
PETER: He's standing? I thought he was on the ground like his knees were--
LIAM: He's--
MATT: Conscious. (laughter)
LIAM: But archer's still on horseback, right?
MATT: Correct.
LIAM: All right, so--
MATT: You could close the distance if you want to.
LIAM: I actually invite him to come acting as dead as I feel and as he approaches--
MATT: (galloping clatter) Goes to release arrow.
LIAM: As he's coming by, I try to catch him in the throat with the kanab .
MATT: Roll an attack.
LIAM: Eight.
EMILY: Oh, nice.
MATT: Eight hits.
EMILY: Yes.
MATT: Heavy crack to the chest.
EMILY: Get him!
MATT: I'll say, actually, knocks him off the horse, tumbles off. The horse skitters off. He gets up, gets his bow at the ready and begins to back away. He's hurt, but still definitely has some vim and vigor in him. That's going to finish his turn. Garrett, you're up.
LIAM: Oh, that was just my response?
MATT: That was your response to him failing after pushing the advantage.
LIAM: All right. All right. Yeah. I'm going to leap at the guy on his horse and try to swing it to the side of his head and knock him.
MATT: He's fallen from his horse already.
LIAM: He's fallen already?
MATT: Yeah, the horse took off. He's on the ground before you so you can go and close the distance on him quite easily.
PETER: He only has his bow and arrow?
MATT: Bow and arrow and there's a wakizashi onto the back.
PETER: Has he drawn it?
MATT: Not yet. He's just recovering from falling from the horse.
LIAM: Then rewind, I see him standing up and I run as fast as my wounds will allow me, and I upswing into his jaw.
MATT: Go for it.
LIAM: Yeah. 13.
MATT: 13 will hit.
LIAM: With adrenaline, I meant to say.
MATT: Yeah.
LIAM: So that's adds one to the wound.
MATT: All right. How do you want to do this?
ROBBIE: Yeah!
EMILY: Oh!
LIAM: I think I take his jaw off his face.
PETER: Yeah.
EMILY: Yes.
MATT: He tries to back out of the way and the jaw gets flung off into the rooftop. It lands near you. (laughter) He falls to the back. At that moment, you all look around you, there's no immediate combatantos, but you do hear shouts of soldiers, streets not that far off getting louder. This area's about to fill with more cavalry and backup as you all glance over and see Umi standing or sitting there on her knees bleeding out into the ground. The two arrows stuck, still holding on, but in a bad place. Tomiko at this point rushes out with Heiji in her arm. "Is everyone all right? Oh god. Help her! Help her!"
LIAM: I run and scoop her up.
MATT: All of you help get Umi to her feet and you're still conscious, but your feet are a little dragging and you're stumbling as you go. But with all their help, you all head towards what is now the flaming exit gate to the north. A little bit of confidence, a little bit of bravery, you all push through. The heat is intense, but not enough for any of you to catch as you push through. And are met on the opposite side with the night sky, beyond the flaming chaos of the city. The welcome view of stars in the night above, as you all begin to push into the Setsu countryside, the rolling hills of grass. The welcoming sight of non-crumbling architecture.
PETER and EMILY: (chuckle)
MATT: But it doesn't take you long before you push into the fields that you can see numerous other citizens who have run. Who are crying in the nearby grass. You pass by one of the creeks that carves through where you see families trying to gather and make sense of what's happened. You can see other Nobunaga soldiers who have been cut down by gathered civilians defending themselves. Trying to avenge those that lost in the escape. But this moment of peace is mingled with the sense of this is just the beginning. Tomiko leads you towards the outskirts of one beautiful little section of farmland before guiding you into this rural estate. She comes to the door and slams on it. It slides to the side and you see a handsome gentleman in his mid to late 20s or so. "Tomiko, are you okay?" Pulls her into his arms and holds him. And they just hold for a minute before he stops and says, "Heiji. Who are these?" Tomiko turns back. "They, they saved us. They helped us get here." "Well, come in, come in. You're guests here. What's happened? I had everything ready." You look at the side and he had packs ready to go. Tools. Was ready for some shifting. "I was going to come find you. I--" She goes, "It's good you didn't. It's-- It's bad." He looks to Heiji. "Oh, what of what Rin? Of--" And she put her finger on his lips. He looks solemn, but nods. "Why don't you take care of Heiji? We'll get him into safety." He looks back to the rest of you. "Whoever you are. Thank you. Let's dress your wounds. Let's get you better. I need to figure out how to get Heiji out of here. Wherever is safety for you all, we're going." It's that moment you hear dozens of horse galloping sounds getting louder and louder as you look back at the hillside grasses beginning to catch flame. That's where we're going to end this one shot.
PETER: Really had me on that.
EMILY: Just begun.
PETER: It actually, it does segue right into--
ROBBIE: (chuckles)
EMILY: Yeah. The game.
PETER: -- Shadows.
EMILY: Yeah.
MATT: (chuckles)
PETER: Wow.
EMILY: Beautiful. Beautiful.
MATT: Well done y'all. That was awesome.
EMILY: Thank you so much.
PETER: That was amazing, man.
LIAM: Guests, you were so much fun to play with. There were so many--
MATT: Sincerely!
ROBBIE: That was awesome.
PETER: That was cool.
EMILY: You were wonderful. It's so gorgeous to get to learn from you all as well. This is my first time playing.
MATT: I know!
EMILY: Thank you so much.
LIAM: Would've never have known.
PETER: It's still taping as we're talking right now?
LIAM: Yeah.
MATT: Yeah.
PETER: Oh my god. Okay. Jeez.
MATT: We're allowed to talk and reflect.
PETER: No, that was wicked.
EMILY: That was epic.
PETER: Yeah.
ROBBIE: Did you have fun?
PETER: Yeah, it's great. I can't believe it's over.
ROBBIE: You sure seemed like it.
PETER: Yeah. It's great.
ROBBIE: Yeah. It's awesome.
PETER: It was great. But I could see how this is absolutely in line with Shadows.
MATT: That's the idea.
PETER: Absolutely.
MATT: Though, as a reminder: None of tonight's events are canon to Assassin's Creed Shadows, nor are they in any way historically accurate. But to your point, we've had a lot of fun. We've taken a lot of inspiration from these pieces. So yeah. So I have to clarify for that. But yeah, the intent was to tell the story that felt like a nice fictional companion to some of the characters in the narrative. You guys did great. All of you did great!
PETER: I should write this as a prequel. (laughter)
PETER: Just kind of-- You were saying yourself, we're writing our own story.
EMILY: Yeah. It's gorgeous. A story that emerges from the characters, the relationships, and it's--
LIAM: Through choice and chance.
EMILY: Through choice and chance.
LIAM: This made me want to play the game.
PETER: Your characters were glorious.
ROBBIE: (laughs)
EMILY: Yeah.
MATT: It was such a fun motley crew. It was very much like putting this together. It was like, I hope this feels this grounds itself somewhat in the reality of some-- I think you all slipped into it so well. I'm so happy with it.
EMILY: Yeah.
PETER: Yeah. Now I got a Tomiko, huh?
EMILY: Yeah. I'm so sorry we didn't run for your boat. We could have avoided so much pain if we'd only been like, "You know what? Let's go for that boat."
ROBBIE: I was never really going to leave.
MATT: (laughs)
ROBBIE: Then Matt ensured it! (laughter)
MATT: We were also pushing the three-hour mark. I was like, "I got to move stuff along."
ROBBIE: Yeah. (laughs)
MATT: The GM's got to keep that plot going, you know?
ROBBIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
PETER: So you had it. You had it written out, all those beats, those moments, and then right to the last samurai and then leaving the gate, you knew the story?
MATT: Well, there were multiple things that could have happened. Those are the things that felt the most appropriate given the direction that it was going and the choices you all were making. There are a few things that never occurred, you know? There are a few things that you stopped from happening.
EMILY: Yep.
MATT: Yeah. It's what makes these games so fun. It's like, I don't really know what's going to happen.
PETER: It's great. It's great how you designed it, because I didn't know what was going on the first ten minutes. What? But as it progressed unfold--
MATT: That's how most games start.
PETER: Yeah, yeah. As you started to walk us through it, I'm like, "Oh, this is like a plan." It's like, it's like "The Game." I don't know if you know the movie "The Game" with Michael Douglas.
MATT: Oh yeah.
PETER: It's like, you know exactly what we're going to do. You're going to plan perfectly. You're going to walk right through it and you're going to win at the end.
MATT: That is the greatest compliment I could have hoped for.
PETER: No, it was great. I could see. I was like, I thought you were making this up. No, I was like: Oh man, this is-- Right when it ended, I was like: Oh shit. We walked right through, this guy's like Mr. Rourke. He's created the game, but we cannot die and it's going to be, you know, we're going to explode.
MATT: Oh, you could very much have died.
ROBBIE: You were close.
EMILY: Very close.
PETER: You almost died.
ROBBIE: How many hit points did you have left?
EMILY: I'm full wounds and no armor.
LIAM: I had three left.
ROBBIE: You had three left?
MATT: You guys had a great opening volley on that masked samurai. He had a fuckton of hit points and he still had another use of his headbutt.
EMILY: Yeah. That was a lovely first attack.
LIAM: He was scary.
ROBBIE: My only wound was when I twisted my ankle. (laughter)
MATT: That's true!
ROBBIE: Unscathed!
EMILY: That's suitable for Rufino, I think that tracks.
MATT: Hey man, you got a bunch of bruisers at the front line doing what they do. Take the hits.
ROBBIE: Yeah. Thanks for the story, man. That was really fun.
PETER: Yeah. It was wicked, man.
EMILY: The rigor and the research, and--
ROBBIE: That was awesome.
LIAM: Your rolls were dogshit, and yet the character was so memorable.
MATT: Yeah. That's half the game.
ROBBIE: On brand.
MATT: No, thank you all so much for joining us so much. Sincerely. I look forward to seeing your characters in the game.
PETER: Yeah, thanks for the invite. It was great. I was a little bit reluctant because I wasn't skilled at the game, but now I know it's absolutely, it's friendly.
MATT: Yeah.
PETER: You know what I mean? It's open to make mistakes and--
MATT: Hell, yeah.
PETER: It's great. I saw you guys whipping out all kinds of like, I'm going to go do this. I'm going to adrenaline, and what can I add on this? I'm like, what the? There's real skill involved in this.
MATT: Yeah.
PETER: That's why I was like: I'm going to pick up that gun. I could use it later. I didn't know that we could pick up weapons until you said, I'm going to go and grab that. What, what?
MATT: That's all good.
PETER: I could have been walking an arsenal. I could have everything. (laughter) So yeah. I guess, the more you play-- Obviously, you guys are skilled at this.
EMILY: Yeah. Very skilled and talented. Also, to feel your characters come to life as well beyond describing actions. It's so nice to hear you in character and I feel inspired to play more.
ROBBIE: Hooked another two.
PETER: Yeah.
ROBBIE: Got them!
MATT: But also you two picked that up so quickly and met us all on that level so well. It was so much fun.
ROBBIE: Crushed it.
MATT: Sincerely.
LIAM: Absolutely.
PETER: Cool. I'm glad that we could embellish up on this.
ROBBIE: (laughs)
PETER: I mean, I get it now. I get it. I understand. (laughter)
LIAM: Eyy!
MATT: Welcome to the fold.
PETER: I'll come play again if you ever invite me.
MATT: Hell yeah, man. Good to know.
EMILY: Yes. Yes.
MATT: Good to know.
EMILY: Anytime.
MATT: Well, thank you all so much. I hope you had as much fun as we did. A massive thank you again to Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed Shadows for sponsoring this one shot, letting us play our game in the world of your game. Check out assassinscreed.com/shadows for all the details surrounding it. Thank you all so much. Thank you to our wonderful players. And have a good night.