Stealth II

[Oda Nobunaga]

You successfully completed the first stealth exercise with flying colors! However, your Lordship asks that you continue to show this excellence, so your work is not done yet.

Objective: There is a small enemy camp outside your faction's territory that is allowing a courier from their faction to rest for the night. The camp has about twenty guards on patrol, and patrols switch every hour. You must get inside of this camp, steal the courier's documents, and plant false documents in their place. You may not be seen. You may not engage any hostiles. No guards may be knocked out, wounded, or killed.

Rewards: Up to +3 Dex. Proficiency: Stealth - C

Prerequisites: 15 Dex. You must have completed Stealth Training.

Location: Any camp outside your faction's territory.

[Yamabara Shou]

Sending a courier to steal and replace the documents carried by a courier of the Uesugi. It made sense in some twisted way. It didn’t mean that Shou had to like it. Alone without back up of any kind, and probably not strong enough to fight his way free if things went sour. At least he had some advantages over other who may have been sent. The demonic armour he had taken to wearing, was uncovered and he wore the mask. Something that he didn’t like doing but not only did it cover his identity. But it was mostly black, and during the night that was a great boon.



The camp lay not far off, and Shou pressed to the ground watched from atop a local hill in the terrain. He remained there for some time, simply watching the guards. Figuring out the routes that the ones on this side of the camp were taking and noticing how long between each change of guard. After the first couple changes Shou knew that he would have to go on the next one. It would be went the night was at its darkest and clouds above would cover more of the moon’s light, as they blew in from the west.


Waiting until the guards where once more went to change, Shou would move. Getting to his feet quickly he would move towards the camp in a crouch of a run as the guards closet spoke to their replacements, distracted before heading into the camp. Managing to time his approach not only mid guard changing, but between two of the patrols, so he was father away from both of the groups. Reaching the side of the first tent. Shou would slide a dagger into his hand, and silently slice through the canvas of the tent. Peaking inside Shou would notice sleeping guards. Eyes darted across the room, each bedroll in the tent was occupied, a good sign as it meant those return from there patrols wouldn’t be heading in here more than likely.



Shou would creep slowly across the room, foot falls as silent as he could manage and making sure to avoid anything that lay on the floor. However as he passed the second row, Shou heard one of the guards start to stir. Staying here was a bad idea. Quickly stepping pass the row before the guard managed to wake father, he got to the ground and rolled on his side out the other side of the tent. Listening out he heard the guard groan, and the a thud of the man letting him fall back into his bedroll.


Looking round the camp, Shou examined the different tents and notice one much smaller than the others, but less decorated then what he would expect from a commander’s tent. Shou would sneak up the side tent e was next to and look both ways. Before sudden flattening himself to the side of the tent, as three guards walked passed. Shou saw one start to turn to look in his direction, and Shou stepped back father allowing the tent to wrap around him slightly blocking him from sight.


Once the guards had moved on, Shou quickly as he could, still running in a crouch moved to the side of the tent he was aiming for. Repeating his tactic, he cut the tent open quietly and looked inside. Sleeping alone in the tent, Shou could tell from the belonging in the room that he was in the right place. Hanging from a peg, was a small wooden tube sealed at the top. Silently Shou moved over to the tube, removed a tube of similar design, and then gentle pealed the seal on the tube off the courier and attached them to his own before replacing the tubes.



Job done, Shou retreated the way he came. Hiding in the shadows between some of the tents until he could hear the guards changing once more. He followed his route out, but headed round the original tent rather than through it, before making his way between the patrols and to the hill he had started at and safety.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Yamabara Shou: +3 Dex

Proficiency: Stealth - C

[Sanada Yukimura]

The art of stealth. Although Yukimura had some training in it, he was far from a master of it. After all, he was a samurai, not a ninja. But after receiving word that a small enemy camp was set up outside of Kofu, and a courier from the Uesugi faction was resting there for the night, Lord Takeda had summoned Yukimura and commanded that he sneak into the camp, steal the documents and plant false ones in their place. It sounded simple enough, except that he was not allowed to engage any hostiles, nor knock out, wound, or kill any of the guards. In short, all he was allowed to do was sneak past. This was not going to be easy by any stretch of the word. Camped on top of a hill overlooking the camp, laying flat on his stomach, Yukimura had staked out the camp for about an hour, to get a sense of the patrol paths the guards he could see took. They weren't exactly predictable, but there was enough of a pattern that Yukimura had an idea of how to get through at least half of the camp.

Wasting not a single moment, he would quickly hop to his feet and staying low to the ground, would quickly dart down the hill before taking up a hiding spot behind a fairly large tree. His black demon armor also helped a little, as the shadows felt deeper when he was wearing it. Darting out from behind the tree, he would hide behind a nearby horse stable just as one of the patrols passed by. There were at least twenty men patrolling the camp, from what he could see, all of them highly trained, and it was going to take all of Yukimura's wits and stealth to get past them. As the guard moved past him, his back facing Yukimura, it seemed the goddess of luck was smiling down on him tonight, as he decided to take a break. While that was happening, Yukimura slowly edged his way around the horse stable, keeping as far away from any and all light sources as possible. A group of four guards up ahead, Yukimura would quickly step behind a nearby empty tent, waiting for all four to walk away in different directions. The moment they did, Yukimura was on the move, slinking quickly but carefully through the shadows, as the time gap where all four had their backs facing him was very limited. Quickly stepping behind another tent, keeping within the shadows as much as possible, up ahead was a much larger group of guards, at least six.

Waiting for all six to move away, in different directions, he would stick to the shadows and quickly move through the camp, keeping an eye out for a smaller tent that could only house one occupant. Quickly covering a large distance of the camp, he would encounter a group of five guards, and would quickly dart into a nearby empty tent, waiting until they had passed by, before quietly cutting through the fabric of the back of the tent and continuing on his way. Moving slowly but silently, he would come upon the final group of guards, another set of five, as just behind him, he could see a smaller tent than the others, which meant the courier was inside. Watching carefully from the shadows, all five guards had different patrol paths, and not all of them had their backs facing away from him at the same time. His only option was to slowly but steadily inch towards the tent, and get in when the opportunity presented itself. Slowly edging along the outside of the tents, the back of two guards facing him, he would quickly step in behind a tent as the three remaining guards kept a vigilant watch while they patrolled.

As one passed by, his eyes darting around, like he could see through the shadows, Yukimura would wait until the other two had moved further away from the entrance, before quickly darting out from behind the tent and slipped into the smaller tent unnoticed. Staying crouched down low, he would take a moment to let his eyes adjust to the darkness, before quietly padding over to the wooden table in the tent, and on top of the table, was a sealed scroll that contained the documents. Reaching into the inner fold of his haori, he pulled out an identical scroll, but this one contained the false documents. Quietly and quickly switching the scrolls, making sure the false one was even facing the same direction the real one had been, though he got through one difficult part, one other laid ahead. Getting past all the guards again and getting out unnoticed. Stepping close to the entrance of the tent, he would carefully listen for the guards footsteps, and when he was sure they were far enough away, would slip out of the tent and make a quick dash for the shadows. From there, it was simply a matter of tracing along the path he had taken, albeit in reverse, but moving even more cautiously than before. With the guards on high alert, he wasn't going to take any chances, and would stick to the shadows and move slowly, because he didn't want to risk getting caught. Though it was agonizingly slow, eventually, Yukimura managed to get out unnoticed, and once he was far enough from the camp, would run the rest of the way.

[Amakusa Takehiro]

Takehiro had caught wind of something rather strange. A Tokugawa courier seemed to be crossing through his territory, heading right back into Tokugawa territory. Naturally, he felt as though his people were being spied on, and it was possible that numbers and valuable locations were being recorded on paper and sent to the Tokugawa for an attack of sorts. Something like that could be devastating to the people, though Takehiro was more than certain he could deal with the problem before it even became one.

Following the courier's trail, Takehiro happened upon the camp he was staying the night at. He saw things simply, here: get the documents, whatever they were, and replace them with false information. Going in and killing the guards would likely be seen as an act of war, and given the peoples' current numbers, he wasn't going to risk that. No, he was going to get in there and do this quietly. So, until nightfall, Takehiro would observe the camp carefully, watching patrols and memorizing their routes. Before long, he knew every fault in their system.

As soon as the sun fell, Takehiro used his shawl to meld with the darkness and jumped down in front of the camp's entrance. His boots kept him from making a single sound as he landed, and this gave him the opportunity to walk right in, just as patrols were changing. He would proceed alongside them for a moment without them ever knowing he was there, before turning away from them and proceeding to the tents where he saw the courier was being kept.

There were quite a few candles to light the way, given it was night time, and Takehiro compensated for this by using his dark ability to put the fires out, allowing him to continue in complete darkness. Once he arrived at the tents, he would peer into them to find the courier. As soon as he did, he slipped inside completely quietly and invisible to the naked eye, took the courier's documents, and replaced them with some that stated the Amakusa troops were marching onto Takeda territory at Shinano with Imagawa assistance. The numbers would deter any thought of attack, and if they did not, the Tokugawa would send few troops due to the numbers they believed to be small within Totomi, and the Amakusa could launch an effective counter-attack.

More simply than he slipped in, Takehiro would take his leave. He would proceed to the center of the camp, and in a single bound, leap over its walls and up onto the hill he used to scout the area out. From there, he would proceed home, to observe the courier's documents. And no one would ever know he was there.

[Takeda Shingen]

Amakusa Takehiro: +3 Dex

Proficiency: Stealth - C

[Oda Nobunaga]

Sanada Yukimura: +3 Dex

Proficiency: Stealth - C

[Miyamoto Kenji]

In the dead of night, a certain shugyosha in dark, lightweight clothing lurked in the shadows, hunched down behind a great stone not too far ahead of a encampment. The banners bore the Akita mon and colors, flying silently in the darkness. He peered around it once again, having counted off an hour of time. Sure enough, he could see the guards starting to turn inward, about to head in. This left a question to answer.

Why was Kenji out in the middle of the night, watching a military camp?

Simple. A couple days after his last job retrieving an old medallion, Rusu Yukikaze, governor of Kenji's town, posed another task to him. The Akita had been sighted past the northern borders of Mogami territory, apparently arraying camp for some purpose or another. Readying an invasion, most likely, or perhaps conducting their own training exercises. Hard to tell without being inside. Regardless, a few days after they were spotted, a courier bearing the Satake mon came up through the northernmost Mogami village, heading for the camp, or so said the villagers. When the information reached the daimyo, Yukikaze was contacted and ordered to investigate. The governor thus decided that the best course of action would be to penetrate the camp and look for whatever the courier had been carrying. Thus, he arranged for Kenji to be the man to sneak in, and if the courier had indeed been carrying documents from the Satake to the Akita, he was to replace them with a prepared set of forged documents as a measure to prevent the two from having any kind of good relations. Such would bode poorly for the Mogami, after all, if either clan decided to expand in Dewa.

That, in summary, was why Kenji took the role of ninja instead of swordsman for tonight, much like he had for the stealth test arranged by the Mogami lord.

Moving along, Kenji had been staking out the camp for three hours, manuevering between hiding spots and observing as many angles as possible, all in order to discern the number of guards in the camp, their patrol routines, and most importantly, when they switched shifts. He had learned that there were around twenty men within, and that the patrols changed every hour, on the hour. If there were but twenty soldiers, this camp was more likely a scouting camp more than a base for a coming invasion. Either way, the Satake courier was slated to be within, and Kenji had the duty of acquiring whatever he held.

So as the patrols began to change, the two men close to Kenji's hidey-hole making to enter camp, the mercenary deigned to slip out from his rock and tail them inside from a distance. When the patrols switched, it was an excellent time for one to make their entrance, for no one was truly watching for intruders. Not in a twenty-man encampment, at least. He made it in, and immediately dove into a tent. His risk paid off, as no one was inside this one. Quietly, he stooped down and listened for the watch to finish changing over and for activity within the camp to normalize. This came to pass in a mere few minutes.

Kenji slinked out of the tent, crouched low, and moved around, using other tents and deep patches of darkness - those areas away from the lit paper lanterns that were set up every so often - as cover to advance. A close call came when he stepped on a twig and snapped it, prompting him not to freeze, but to instead dive behind another tent. He observed from this spot as an Akita soldier meandered over and glanced down at the broken wood, visibly pondering for a moment, then scanning the area. By the time he looked up, Kenji took the chance to move from his perch and continue along, before the soldier could end up checking his cover spot.

In due time, the shugyosha spotted the courier wearing Satake garb and froze in the night, watching, waiting. The man walked into another nondescript tent, then departed a minute later and took his leave. Checking on his parcel, most likely. Now in the clear, Kenji looked both ways for any coming patrolmen, then seeing none were on the way, darted across the small clearing and slowed down to slip into the tent. Upon entry, he spotted the Satake mon sealing a scroll that layed on a small table, next to a knife, writing brush, and a letter that was probably something personal for the courier. Kenji left this item alone and zeroed in on the scroll, picking it up and slipping it away into his robe, pulling out an almost-identical missive and placing it in the same spot, taking a couple extra moments to make sure it was in the exact position as its real counterpart.

With his mission all but complete, Kenji made a quiet exit from the tent and advanced to another empty one, taking refuge inside and waiting patiently for the patrol to shift at the end of the hour. When it started, he stole out and breezed through the empty southern entrance, jogging in the night to make his escape. All that remained was returning to Yukikaze back in town, then get a good night's sleep.

Doing stealthy things was exceptionally, thrilling, he noted. No wonder ninjas existed.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Miyamoto Kenji: +3 Dex

Proficiency: Stealth - C

[Deleted]

The sky was overcasted on this night and thick clouds veiled the moons pallid light. Juubei was thankful for this. He crouched low upon a hilltop overlooking a camp of soldiers from some unknown military faction. Why was Juubei there? Earlier that day a man had come into the mercenary’s camp and proposed a job. It was straightforward enough, get into the camp where a courier was staying the night, steal the documents he carried, and replace them with counterfeit documents that served the mysterious agenda of the people who’d hired them. Juubei was seeking to outdo himself from his previous job and this was his chance. Juubei was informed that he couldn’t be detected; he couldn’t kill anyone, harm them, or even knock them out. This was going to make the job considerably harder and it was evident that is was going to require Juubei to perform some reconnaissance.

Juubei visited the nearest town, where the soldiers were getting their supplies, and mingled with the people. He learned the names of some of the men, discovered what their uniform style was, and the rough layout of the camp. The next step was to plan the entry into the camp and that was going to be the trickiest part. He couldn’t knock anybody out to steal their uniform like he’d done in the training mission in the castle, so Juubei had to come up with something new. Juubei supposed he could just abduct a guard, take his place, and just leave him bound and gagged a distance away from the camp, but he wasn’t sure. Juubei wanted to outdo himself and that was hard to do if you reused old tricks. An idea hit Juubei. In the village where some of the men and women congregated from the enemy camp, Juubei started sewing seeds of hatred. He spread rumors, bribed some people, and eventually started a fight amongst some vagabonds and the soldiers. Of course it was broken up with haste, but it was a start.

That night, as Juubei overlooked the camp, he began grinning. Juubei had hired a fairly attractive girl he’d met in the village to seduce a guard and lead him away from the camp where he’d eventually be drugged. That went off without a hitch. He had the man’s clothes and that’s when the second phase to his plan started. Juubei had gotten those same vagabonds worked into a rage earlier that day and all it took was a little bit of money and they were manipulated into attacking the camp to set fire to some stuff and generally just harass them. A fire lit up outside of the camp as men came through with horses and began trashing the place. The guards were in an uproar and Juubei used this time to sneak in He put on his clothes, and simply walked right into the camp. Juubei had to be careful and not get too close to anyone, lest he be discovered before all the conditions had been cleared. To increase his odds of going unnoticed, Juubei scrambled around like a chicken with his head cut off, mimicking the actions of the other guards. In his hasty meandering around the camp, Juubei sought out and found the couriers tent. As expected, the man was so tired from his trip that he’d not awoken in all the commotion. It was simple to swap out the documents and all Juubei had to next was rush out of the camp like he was responding to the marauders and simply vanish into the night. The camps leadership had assumed the nights festivities had been caused by some flaring tempers and a guards inability to resist a pretty face. They had no idea what had really gone on.

[Takeda Shingen]

Kurosawa Juubei: +3 Dex

Proficiency: Stealth - C

[Ichimura Ryunosuke]

While he was busy arranging the reports that the militia passed on to him, he came across a particularly disturbing report. Word was that a man came through some important documents from the Amakusa headquarters, and somehow slipped through the heavily-guarded area back to a camp within Totomi allied with the Tokugawa. In extreme urgency, he himself darted towards the camp, assigning work for the other militia.

He reached the camp in the dead of night, and there were soldiers guarding the entrance of the camp. Surveying among the trees for the best spot to infiltrate the camp, he found a narrow alleyway that was only occasionally passed through by the patrols. He then threw a grappling hook towards the wooden walls of the camp, and then scaled the wall. With a quick drop, he found himself within the well-lit camp. Patrols were frequently scouring the area in twos, and so Ryunosuke thought that he would be discovered if he would not hide well. Starting at the tent near him, he drew a knife and made a slit on the tent to take a peek. He only saw sleeping soldiers within that tent. He then moved to the next tent, quickly stepping towards it so as to avoid the eyes of the patrols. Nothing there either but soldiers. He then moved on to the next tent, with the same results. After searching intently, there were no signs of the courier within the outer tents, only soldiers sleeping. He then quickly but stealthily moved on to the inner tents, quickly taking advantage of a patrol who just passed by there.

Reaching a tent, he quickly made a slit on it and took a peek. A lone man just slept there, but it doesn't seem to be the messenger. By the fabric on which he lay, Ryunosuke could surmise that he was the leader. He quickly moved away from that tent, knowing that the patrols were tightly guarding it. He moved towards another tent, hiding within its folds as a patrol came by, and when the patrol was gone, he quickly moved by the way which the patrol traversed, until he was without the sight of the leader's tent behind another tent. Not wasting time, he slitted the tent and peeked. There was a lone man within the tent, sleeping, but now it was evident, from the bamboo tube that was slung near his bed, that he was the courier. He then moved towards the entrance of the tent without being detected by the patrols, and went in. He then moved towrds the tube and opened it quietly without awaking the courier. He then took all of the contents of the tube, and replaced them with the failed calligraphy that he made some days ago. He then peeked through the entrance to make sure that no patrols would be seen from the tent, and then went out. He then moved swiftly towards the side of the tent, and then, after a patrol moved by and then out of sight, he moved towards the outer tents, and then, while there are no patrols in sight, he tossed his grappling hook towards the walls of the camp, and quickly climbed up and jumped away out of sight of the patrols.

[Takeda Shingen]

Ichimura Ryunosuke: +3 Dex

Proficiency: Stealth - C