I'm okay with climbing the hard way. If I can get an arbalest from the Academy after my level-up discussion, we can have what amounts to a batrope launcher as well (it would also work for snagging a guard and yanking him off a ledge).

The problem with Yukio climbing is that then she's with you guys, on stealth duty. Robert neglected to put that part of my plan up. If Yukio goes with the ninja, then either we leave our most powerful combatant outside sitting on her ass, or she's inside with the ninja, and as poor as her ability to sit down and shut up is, I'm pretty sure she can keep it together when screwing it up means death, while she is pretty damn hopeless at Stealth, probably completely untrained and even not in her class. Leaving her outside walking with Kasumi is almost as bad, and besides, this way, if/when things go bad, Kasumi's not 100% by herself in the middle of the base and pretty much completely screwed. I'll take whatever extensive period of time it takes to roll up a solid disguise for Yukio, so they'll have to seriously score a great roll in order to see through it.

(Edit: Also, while Kasumi is asking the Red Dragon questions about Yukio's hit, the ninja sneak around either extra-sneakily or Splinter Cell: Conviction-style (one's harder, one's more likely to get detected, considering this is their stronghold and is full of bad guy, I'd go with stealthy myself) and try to find evidence about who is behind Yukio's hit themselves.)

Gatty confirms the tower is higher than the fortress. If we can take the (slightly) isolated tower first, we can batrope/zipline down to the fortress wall.

I think Yukio should go with Kasumi as well, if nothing else then for the buddy system, and that way Kasumi is not walking into the enemy base with two Red Dragon people with her. At least having Yukio would make it a 1:1 ratio.

Situation update for our three ninjas: You're the green dots sticking to the side of the tower, Red Dragon goons are in black with the lines showing where they're currently looking. The cyan thing is the courtyard, with small huts on it shown in red. The yellow blob thing is a pile of hay.

And here's a craptastic side view so you can get a feel for the relative heights:



There's a stairwell inside the guard tower, accessible either from the top (entailing that you get past the three guys you decided not to kill last time) or from the walls, which also have guards on them. You don't know if there's more ninjas inside the tower, though. The alternative is to simply climb around and jump down - a 40 foot drop or thereabouts carries the potential for 4d6 falling damage, but Kiara and Toshiba have 5 damage reduction against falling damage and Kage literally can't fail the Acrobatics check to break fall and halve his damage, so imo it's worth considering if you want to keep stealthing.

My instinct says to attempt an Assassin's Creed style aquatic assault. Float closer underneath the docks, hell, use the time-honored blowgun or reed-as-snorkel trick, climb up behind their perimeter, sneak into the warehouse, ???, and profit!

Okay, here's how that could work:

a) Swim under the wharf. You'd have to get about 80 feet closer, since the shoreside wharf structure is solid stone for a bit before it turns into a wooden bridge. From there on, it's Sneak against their Notice.

b) Underwater, with snorkel. Doable, and you'd definitely know the technique - what do you want to use as gear? Athletics to move underwater. Ninjas get a few chances to spot you, but not as many as swimming under the wharf.

c) Underwater without snorkel. Faster than without snorkel, no way for them to spot you. The only problem is holding your breath the entire way - this is keyed off your Constitution. If you have to surface for air, that's gonna be an instant roll for the ninjas, and the bonus will be on their side.

C is out. None of us have exceptional Con.

A is doable, but too many Sneaks vs Notice = chances are they'll spot Takao first.

B seems reasonable. We all have good Athletics, and reducing the sneak/notice rolls means Takao's lack of Stealth will hurt less.

Toshiba has his flute; he could snorkel with that perhaps after sealing the finger holes with... candle wax? Or we could go get/steal some pipe or tubes or reeds. Bamboo rods? Lop off the end of some sword scabbards and use them to breathe through?

Kagemaru also has Kiara's ninja-to, which comes already built with the ability to use the detachable handle as a mini-snorkel. Because the flute's a creative idea, I'm gonna rule that you're hiding behind a shipment of candles. Ninjas will get a chance to spot you lighting a candle to melt for wax, but that shouldn't be too bad given the distance. Unfortunately, there are no reeds or bamboo nearby to use since this is seaside in a built-out port. And you don't really have sword scabbards to spare, though the basic idea is workable. Alternatively, I'll let one of you roll, say, Search, to go through the nearby crates and locate something suitable.

So, how does Takao want to distract the ninjas?

Adam's explanation of how the dice roller works is here.

Does the sloop look like it could be the repository for such secrets as we seek? It seems a long shot. It seems more likely that we will be taking these guys out and hopefully having one left mostly alive to question if and where their real base might be.

The sloop's covered and big enough to carry the ninjas, so yeah, that would make a decent item storage. Who wants to climb aboard?

I say we grab Adler, dress him up in a ninja suit and boot him off the top of the tallest building in town for Herr Chief of Police to find and claim he personally bested in combat.

And make sure it's identifiable as Adler. We'll go full Scooby Doo with this. A gaijin impersonating Imperials to murder rivals means less Imperial/gaijin riots and possibly a better chance of the lockdown being lifted, and thus being able to continue our mission!

Is the Blue Oni a widely known figure? I have so far assumed that Takao did not know who he was.

The Blue Oni is a pretty notorious bandit, who is seemingly immortal (but really just a succession of people who wear the armor and use the identity). Think of John Dillinger, if he was the Phantom.

Given that there are no newspapers or TV, would you say his notoriety is more local, and someone from a different region would not know of him?
How long has he been active?

Well, it's mostly the peasantry where his name is local. Law enforcement throughout the empire, especially the bigger cities, is well aware of him. They make no effort to spread his tale wider, though - really bad PR to have a bandit who has been active for generations and seemingly cannot die.

I'd be a lot more okay with adding in an ego signature to the Oni armor if you hadn't written that daydream about turning Toshiba into the authorities, Andersen.

But... what the hell. I reject my protective instincts and substitute flair!

OK, so I'll claim ignorance, since I'm not law enforcement.