Mission 1: Breakout - Hell's Gate
Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 1:28 am
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None of the bands and groups and tribes had a single tent large enough to fit all the representatives of the different parties--- so they had to enlarge one instead; but then it became too tall and too obvious, so they had to camouflage and erect wards around it not to draw attention from the oni, or worse, the garrison.
It's been two days since the Takuga band started spreading word of their plans to break out of the shikoku gate, the only gateway to the Death Lands. Now, one undersized 'tribe', five bands, and two groups, all in their own defensive encampments, loosely surrounded the large 'HQ tent' which sat just under two miles from the fortified keep that governs access to the Death Lands. Conveniently, it was also on the other side of a ridge and was barely visible from the gate...
Kawanoe Yuzuru, leader of the Takuga band, watched as the representatives sat down around a large circle inside the tent. There were also a few independents and stragglers, who were most likely new to Shikoku and just good enough at survival and combat that they haven't gotten killed yet.
'Well, it's not like my darned memory can remember all these people quickly--- let's just get started and get this planning out of the way.' thought Yuzuru.
"So, as most of you have already heard, we've received fresh information from newcomers that the Mouri is about to engage in a decisive battle with the Akashi. As a result, they have stripped their rear garrisons bare. This seems especially the case for the gate of Shikoku, which is militarily insignificant in their war and was left with only a small garrison of Mouri's worst troops. We believe that this is the best time to break out of Shikoku and establish a domain of our own--- a place where exiles can live..."
"Oh that sounds just peachy, great!" Interrupted Idagawa Ren, leader of the Senpuuji band, in an obviously irritated tone. "We'll just assault that gate, take it over, walk out, and claim a piece of land as our own! Say, what are you going to do when some local lord brings a few columns of armored troops to your doorstep?"
Yuzuru glared at Ren for a split second before he managed to soften his eyes to a less provocative level. Rumors has it that Idagawa betrayed Hokuto, the last Senpuuji leader and Ren's own blood brother, during the midst of battle so he could take control of the clan. Now--- Yuzuru decided that this new guy was both untrustworthy and shortsighted, which made him an absolutely worthless man.
"That's why we need to pull as many of us out from shikoku as possible after taking control of the gate," Yuzuru explained. "We need to form our own army, one capable enough that any local lord would be unwilling to attack us directly because of the costs he'd have to pay, especially when they are already in war with the neighbors. There are thousands of exiles with shikoku, possibly more, and many of us are top notch fighters thanks to our unending struggle with the oni--- why do we have to waste our lives in here and eat off foraged scraps instead of going out there and taking a shot at forging our own domain?"
Several of the other leaders around the room nodded in agreement. They all knew it was a gamble. But since the only thing that awaited them in shikoku was a life unfitting for humans and eventual death at a young age, why not take their chances outside? Only two days had passed thus far and they've already gathered over 120 battle-hardened warriors and twice that number in civilians with enough combat training to fight better than any ashigaru soldier they'd encounter outside...
"For now I think we should just focus on the immediate challenge--- taking the gate itself," declared Zanma Gou, an elder of the Wolf Fang 'tribe'. " Once we have the gate, we'd gain both the ability to advance and retreat, not to mention a fortified position and access to far more information from the other side of those walls."
"Exactly," Yuzuru nodded in agreement, "which is why I recommend that we deal with all the messy details on the other side of the gate..."
'Not to mention the results of the battle itself will clearly show just which groups are capable enough to make the actual decisions, and which ones should just stand aside,' Yuzuru thought to himself.
"We also have a bit of a plan on how we can take that gate easily and with minimum casualties--- Ryouma?"
Sakamoto Ryouma looked towards Yuzuru and received his nod before she began to explain her idea. Lately, she's been getting the distinct feeling the Yuzuru is pushing her more and more towards the front during these meetings, much in a way like how leaders groom successors. But--- this also made it the most dangerous time when she has to clearly show her loyalties and not overstep her boundaries.
"As you all know, it's been a particularly dry season in shikoku, and our men have managed to gather a lot of flammables over the last few days. The outer battlements of the shikoku gate are old, poorly maintained, and built entirely out of wood. As far as we can tell, the troops haven't been taking care of it either and has been dumping trash towards our side of the gate. Furthermore, the next two days are also heavily cloudy, which meant that there will be very little moonlight during the night time."
"How exactly is that good for us?" questioned Mumei Aikuchi, daughter of the Kyoudo band's leader. "The low visibility would lower our ability to defend the encampment from the oni."
"But that also makes it harder for the gate's guards to see us," Ryouma replied before continuing. "My plan is to take the next two nights to pile up more flammable material on the underside of those battlements facing towards us and set it alight--- not too high though, we don't actually want to burn up the keep, we just need to create enough smoke for them to think that a sizeable fire has started on this side. With the smoke blinding their abilities to measure how much of a danger the fire is to the gatehouse, they'd have to open the gate and examine the situation from this side--- that's when we rush in with a small team hidden just outside and hold the gate long enough for reinforcements to arrive and seize it."
"Can't we just send a team to scale those walls and open the gate ourselves?" said one of the new independents.
"Those walls are un-scalable and uncrossable. Not even a bird could fly over them. The Hojo clan took considerable pains to erect a major barrier along those walls to make sure that nothing alive could get over them, not as long as an particular artifact held in the gatehouse is undamaged." Ryouma then paused for a moment before continuing in an uncertain tone: "supposedly the gatehouse sits atop a major lay line crossing which allows it to maintain a magical spell of such ridiculousness."
"So we're stuck with tricking them into opening the gate huh? No wonder why the bastards feel it's such a safe garrison."
"Well, that's how it is. Any questions? comments? suggestions would be much welcomed."
[ You may all consider you're in this meeting... and no you don't have to respond line-by-line (gets too time consuming too quickly, this was just start-of-mission campaign fiction that I felt like writing xD)]
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None of the bands and groups and tribes had a single tent large enough to fit all the representatives of the different parties--- so they had to enlarge one instead; but then it became too tall and too obvious, so they had to camouflage and erect wards around it not to draw attention from the oni, or worse, the garrison.
It's been two days since the Takuga band started spreading word of their plans to break out of the shikoku gate, the only gateway to the Death Lands. Now, one undersized 'tribe', five bands, and two groups, all in their own defensive encampments, loosely surrounded the large 'HQ tent' which sat just under two miles from the fortified keep that governs access to the Death Lands. Conveniently, it was also on the other side of a ridge and was barely visible from the gate...
Kawanoe Yuzuru, leader of the Takuga band, watched as the representatives sat down around a large circle inside the tent. There were also a few independents and stragglers, who were most likely new to Shikoku and just good enough at survival and combat that they haven't gotten killed yet.
'Well, it's not like my darned memory can remember all these people quickly--- let's just get started and get this planning out of the way.' thought Yuzuru.
"So, as most of you have already heard, we've received fresh information from newcomers that the Mouri is about to engage in a decisive battle with the Akashi. As a result, they have stripped their rear garrisons bare. This seems especially the case for the gate of Shikoku, which is militarily insignificant in their war and was left with only a small garrison of Mouri's worst troops. We believe that this is the best time to break out of Shikoku and establish a domain of our own--- a place where exiles can live..."
"Oh that sounds just peachy, great!" Interrupted Idagawa Ren, leader of the Senpuuji band, in an obviously irritated tone. "We'll just assault that gate, take it over, walk out, and claim a piece of land as our own! Say, what are you going to do when some local lord brings a few columns of armored troops to your doorstep?"
Yuzuru glared at Ren for a split second before he managed to soften his eyes to a less provocative level. Rumors has it that Idagawa betrayed Hokuto, the last Senpuuji leader and Ren's own blood brother, during the midst of battle so he could take control of the clan. Now--- Yuzuru decided that this new guy was both untrustworthy and shortsighted, which made him an absolutely worthless man.
"That's why we need to pull as many of us out from shikoku as possible after taking control of the gate," Yuzuru explained. "We need to form our own army, one capable enough that any local lord would be unwilling to attack us directly because of the costs he'd have to pay, especially when they are already in war with the neighbors. There are thousands of exiles with shikoku, possibly more, and many of us are top notch fighters thanks to our unending struggle with the oni--- why do we have to waste our lives in here and eat off foraged scraps instead of going out there and taking a shot at forging our own domain?"
Several of the other leaders around the room nodded in agreement. They all knew it was a gamble. But since the only thing that awaited them in shikoku was a life unfitting for humans and eventual death at a young age, why not take their chances outside? Only two days had passed thus far and they've already gathered over 120 battle-hardened warriors and twice that number in civilians with enough combat training to fight better than any ashigaru soldier they'd encounter outside...
"For now I think we should just focus on the immediate challenge--- taking the gate itself," declared Zanma Gou, an elder of the Wolf Fang 'tribe'. " Once we have the gate, we'd gain both the ability to advance and retreat, not to mention a fortified position and access to far more information from the other side of those walls."
"Exactly," Yuzuru nodded in agreement, "which is why I recommend that we deal with all the messy details on the other side of the gate..."
'Not to mention the results of the battle itself will clearly show just which groups are capable enough to make the actual decisions, and which ones should just stand aside,' Yuzuru thought to himself.
"We also have a bit of a plan on how we can take that gate easily and with minimum casualties--- Ryouma?"
Sakamoto Ryouma looked towards Yuzuru and received his nod before she began to explain her idea. Lately, she's been getting the distinct feeling the Yuzuru is pushing her more and more towards the front during these meetings, much in a way like how leaders groom successors. But--- this also made it the most dangerous time when she has to clearly show her loyalties and not overstep her boundaries.
"As you all know, it's been a particularly dry season in shikoku, and our men have managed to gather a lot of flammables over the last few days. The outer battlements of the shikoku gate are old, poorly maintained, and built entirely out of wood. As far as we can tell, the troops haven't been taking care of it either and has been dumping trash towards our side of the gate. Furthermore, the next two days are also heavily cloudy, which meant that there will be very little moonlight during the night time."
"How exactly is that good for us?" questioned Mumei Aikuchi, daughter of the Kyoudo band's leader. "The low visibility would lower our ability to defend the encampment from the oni."
"But that also makes it harder for the gate's guards to see us," Ryouma replied before continuing. "My plan is to take the next two nights to pile up more flammable material on the underside of those battlements facing towards us and set it alight--- not too high though, we don't actually want to burn up the keep, we just need to create enough smoke for them to think that a sizeable fire has started on this side. With the smoke blinding their abilities to measure how much of a danger the fire is to the gatehouse, they'd have to open the gate and examine the situation from this side--- that's when we rush in with a small team hidden just outside and hold the gate long enough for reinforcements to arrive and seize it."
"Can't we just send a team to scale those walls and open the gate ourselves?" said one of the new independents.
"Those walls are un-scalable and uncrossable. Not even a bird could fly over them. The Hojo clan took considerable pains to erect a major barrier along those walls to make sure that nothing alive could get over them, not as long as an particular artifact held in the gatehouse is undamaged." Ryouma then paused for a moment before continuing in an uncertain tone: "supposedly the gatehouse sits atop a major lay line crossing which allows it to maintain a magical spell of such ridiculousness."
"So we're stuck with tricking them into opening the gate huh? No wonder why the bastards feel it's such a safe garrison."
"Well, that's how it is. Any questions? comments? suggestions would be much welcomed."
[ You may all consider you're in this meeting... and no you don't have to respond line-by-line (gets too time consuming too quickly, this was just start-of-mission campaign fiction that I felt like writing xD)]