Well then, I guess it's time for Adler to take a nap. If I had it, right now I'd be supergluing his hands together

Because realistically neither thief has the chance to take out Kagemaru in a fight and they *both* rolled a Natural 1 on their attack rolls, I'm offering a special result: Thomas, if you spend an Action Die, the two remaining thieves will knock out each other, leaving you free to mop up the (still blinded) Thief 2.

Edited the Kasumi post because I advised Kasey to spend the AD even though the DC could only have been hit on an exploded die - I wasn't thinking about only being able to add one AD to a roll normally. Since I'm somewhat lax about that otherwise, too, I asked Kasey if he wanted his AD back or if he wanted to spend another to try and hit the DC. He spent another and succeeded with that, so the post is edited with some background info.

What's everyone's take on that rule? Should I try harder to remember it or are we fine with allowing multiple AD on a single roll?

I vote firmly in the "if you have AD, why not spend when/where you want?" camp.

I thought you were allowed to spend AD when you have them, no limit. Some of the character abilities give you 2 AD to roll for each AD spent, but I don't recall a limit. FWIW, the folks on the Crafty forum also seem to add ADs til they get bored with it.

Well then. Per the written rules, you get to add one AD unless otherwise specified - that's one of the changes from Spycraft 2.0, I believe. But yeah, nobody seems to really enforce it and I know I've let it slip previously, so what the hell, add your Action Dice however you like.

Since the plan now seems to be the ladies taking the informant with them to the regroup point rather than follow hom to Adler's hideout, they might as well just take the rest of Aiko's stuff with them?

Your last post reads like a fine conclusion to the Shinobi 18 thread; Takao doesn't really have anything to add to that. Do you want to close that thread there, or did you have something else in mind?

Yeah, I'm cool with that. Any preferences for how Takao rejoins the action?

I thought the group was going to find together again at the Count's place, and either go after Olafsen or Van Synt from there. That would make rejoining the action easy. But if they head off in a completely different direction, then I'll have to come up with something else.

Mike, I swear it's not much longer until we're all the the Count's place. If you want to do something in the meantime, feel free to tell me.

That's alright. I'm pretty buried with work these days anyway.

If the Count is done monologuing and gives Takao leave to wander the estate, then he will do so, trying to get a better understanding of the foreign culture.

Nice Goetz von Berlichingen reference, btw.

Mike, you can upgrade Takao to level 7 now, everyone else already got the go from me.

Alright, let's wrap this thread up so can get started on the next chapter. Pithy remarks and whatever strategizing you need to do.

OK, finally got some quality time with the book and updated Takao. Only thing missing is the feat from Fight On. I was going to solicit some recommendations from you guys before I choose.

Takao's main schtick, of course, is boosting his attack bonus to +19 using the think ahead trick and doing large amounts of damage by converting the margin of success into damage with Sword Supremacy. He can currently do this 5 times per combat (# of Melee Combat feats). With this in mind, here are the feats I'm currently looking at:

All-out attack: lets me leverage the large attack bonus even more and gives an extra use of think ahead.

Lightning Reflexes: gets Takao into the fight earlier, and shores up a save weakness

Quick Draw: mostly for flavor, simulates Iaijutsu

Martial Arts: makes Takao more useful when not wielding a weapon, and boosts Ini and Defense by +3 even when armed (Wis 18 vs Dex 12)

Right now, I'm leaning towards Martial Arts or All-out Attack.

Suggestions?

I'd say All-out Attack.

I want to deny Olafsen a few of his military assets.

Now, both these plans depend on Olafsen actually bringing his ships close enough to reach Kargbeck. If he doesn't, however, then those ships are by extension not an immediate threat.

Plan #1 is balls out, and involves using Adler's hang gliders to fire Olafsen's vessels from the air. It's predicated upon having an appropriate launching point and sufficient explosives / incendiaries to destroy or disable his ships. It's a very Ezio Auditore plan.

Plan #2 is SEAL ninja style, and involves using snorkels to approach his ships under cover of night and sabotage them from underneath. It's a very Chuck Norris plan.

If we're not interested in getting his boats, let's stock up on ninja smoke bombs, cover the meeting with choking fog, and drag his ass off to a hole somewhere where we can get the information on Yukio's contract with the messy problems of pirate gunnery and whatnot.

After dropping off Adler, Aiko is going to inspect the harbor, look at sea charts, ask sailors who have had run-ins with Olafsen, etc in an attempt to determine what his strategy for arriving at the meeting will be (given the huge bounty on his head and that even his big arse boat would be vulnerable to shore canon).

This will include interviewing the Oni

I don't think we don't care so much about the ships, except for the big guns on them. If we can get Olafsen out away from the guns and his guard, then we don't need to worry about them so much. That said? I doubt we'll be able to do so, so we'll need to neutralize his men and his ships.

I have an addition for Plan #2. If Kagemaru knows how to make remote or time-delay fuses for some bombs for the ships, do the ninja think they can deliver them to the ships?

"If the Count knows how to buy some" or "did Adler have some gunpowder barrels in his hideout" might work even better.

If we can transport the charges in watertight containers (wax-sealed?) all the better for Plan #2. Do we know that ships like this have powder magazines and stuff, or are they just big scary magic dragons to us? If the former, it means we might be able to trade "encumbered by gunpowder bombs" for "just enough to completely blow a ship's magazine".

And Toshiba is fine with wearing the Oni armor and hoping Aiko's questions kick in that Intersect-flash kind of knowledge.