A ship with "twelve dozen guns" is going to be pretty large. The H.M.S. Victory, first-class ship of the line, had 108 guns and was over 200 feet long. If we're bringing the powder over by ninja, we pretty much have to hit the powder magazine. Takao won't be able help much; samurai don't float, and expensive swords don't like salt water.

Do we have any ideas of what the meetings between Olafsen and the Blue Oni usually look like? Takao could join the meeting as Oni henchman, to provide muscle.

Hell, he could go as the Oni, freeing up a full Team Ninja to strike Olafsen's ships while he's landlocked.

Ah, I think you'd be butting up against Takao's concept of honor here. Posing as an associate of a known criminal is borderline, posing as the criminal himself is out of question. Besides, given Takao's lack of skill at deception, that ruse would at best work to draw Olafsen on land, but would be up as soon as Takao starts talking.

Ah, but we have someone in the party who is a known criminal. How would Takao feel about accompanying The Crane as her second bodyguard at the pier?

Here's the idea I currently have in my head. We set the bombs, but the ninja stay in the water (and safely away from the blast zone, just in case). Kasumi walks up, and offers Olafsen a choice: come with us peacefully, or the bombs we've already planted and lit will blow up his ships. We blow up a part of the pier as a demonstration, just to show that we're not kidding about the "things will go boom" threat. If Olafsen agrees to come with, awesome, if not, then it's time for FIGHT. I think that this is a better option than leading off with blowing his ships (and therefore his people) sky high without warning, since he seems to be pretty attached to his men, and therefore killing a whole bunch of them probably will not earn us that many points.

I also suggested that someone might be able to pull off crafting an impact-hammer trigger, something that you pull back on a string, it pulls back on a sprung hammer, and when you let it go, it drops the hammer on a sensitive explosive and the whole thing goes boom. Robert suggested that Toshiba might be able to pull that off, which would also greatly aid with preventing us from blowing up something at the wrong time, not to mention making the charges fail safe for the ships. We can probably fuse the one of the pier, though. We want that one to explode no matter what.

Forgot about the whole honor thing. Right, he wouldn't wear the Oni suit.

So we'll go with no Oni, Toshiba and Kagemaru in the water, plantin bombs in ur shipz, and everyone else ready to haul Olafsen off / stabbify his escort at the meeting.

Oh, he can come with Kasumi, especially if Kasumi doesn't feel a pressing need to introduce him as "one of my most trusted henchmen" or the like. That puts two people close to Olafsen who are skilled swordsmen, in case it comes to blows.

So, how do we think this is going to go down? Is Olafsen going to sail into the port? Will he just take a pinnace? Might he even show up without any ship at all, having laid anchor outside of the town?

I dunno, blowing up part of the town doesn't really seem the right or smart way to go.

I think we're missing something here: why would Olafsen expect to meet someone in full face-hiding imperial battle armour on the Kargbeck docks? Would he sail so lightly into a place with its own armed force that wants his head on a pike?

Do we even know what he looks like?

OT: Feudal Japan Star Wars

Doh! Ghostbusters reference fail!

Toshiba's not there to decide, but I am totally okay with fighting pirates on a ship.

False flag, indeed. I half expected him to arrive with papers promoting him as the new Sea Lord.

Right now, we only have his word that the ship's crew is Imperial, and even that does not mean that they're not in his employ in any way.

By getting on the ship, we might be just putting ourselves into his power.

We might be able to retain some parity if we refuse to remove the second bomb. That way, we keep Olafsen on his toes.

I imagine the imperial crew, if any, are likely all dead or pirates, yes.

Man, I should have suggested placing a shore battery on the head lands above the city so we could just blow his ship out of the water.

Still, the inevitable ninja vs pirates battle is most likely destined to happen at sea. Because, you know, pirates.

Revelations! (Black holes, less so, but the day is young.)

If Takao was the political, bargaining type, he would right now suggest to Olafsen that what he gets for payment for his help is protection from his erstwhile allies - since we are going to cut them into tiny bits.

As is, he is reeling a bit from the magnitude of the revelation, not only that he is sitting beside the Imperial Heir, but that his entire way of life may be threatened by a madman and his gonnes.

And here's a flashback to the roots of the conspiracy for you guys to chew on.

Okay, Kasumi: A: is not too comfortable leaving Olafsen's pirate crew, which by all accounts is pretty substantial, just lying around with their leader and quite possibly sole voice of conscience, and B: thinks that if Olafsen is serious about walking a more righteous path and finding peace, he gets to start right now.

She proposes that Olafsen give his personal wealth to the citizens of Kargbeck, tell the Imperial Navy where his secret base is, but give his men time to clear out and high-tail it back to whatever country they came from. And he delivers his donation to Holger in person.

It's good to aim high. I say go for it, but I'm not going to be surprised if there's a fight about it.

Well, Takao is about to confront him about Tingarsson as well (or have I been sleeping again and we already know for sure who ordered that hit?), so the only way Olafsen is getting out of a duel is by making a deal with Yukio (if he did it, that is).

He hasn't admitted it, but yeah, he definitely arranged for Tingarson to be killed.