Ninja! – Attempt 2, Part 14

Aside : 150th post!  Awesome!

I launch the final assault on the enemy ship.  No confirmation as to whether I give a mighty pirate-style “ARRRRRRR!” before setting off in my faux fishing ship.

The canister of oil is about the size of a beer tankard interesting comparison for me to make), and I make sure it is ready to go as I grow closer to my goal.

On nearing my objective, I note that it has both sails and oars, and that I will need to disable the oars as well as setting the sails ablaze.  They obviously got conned at the dealer’s into buy the deluxe package.  Hope their finance deal wasn’t too crippling.

Aside : Having said that, you would think that if the sails of a ship you were on caught fire, you’d probably be more focused on putting the fire out and, you know, not dying, rather than frantically rowing to catch the arsonist.

 Anyone feel like rowing?

 

Anyway, I strap the flammable oil container to my back before swimming towards my destiny.

I see there are two possible ways onto the ship : to crawl up the anchor chain, or to tug on an oar (where most, but not all, of the oars have been pulled up to the deck) and lift myself from a ‘down’ oar to a ‘raised’ oar.

I’m thinking anchor chain, since pulling on an oar would attract attention, and I couldn’t be positive a mere oar could bear my weight.

The anchor chain has, in fact, been barbed, as a deterrent to people attempting to reach the deck this way, which makes you wonder exactly how often they’ve had to deal with this problem.

I lose 2 Endurance but do, in fact, make it to the deck.  Skulking in the shadows, I see a dozen or so sailors, together with a couple of ‘supervising’ samurai in grey armour.

Hey, the heavier the armour, the quicker they’ll sink to the bottom.

I’m casually informed that my first priority is to take those pesky oars out of action.  I can either throw my voice, attempting to convince the crew that someone has fallen overboard, garotte a sailor and attempt to take his place by stealing his clothes, or start a fire to distract the crew (using my oil).

Two of these options have self-evident difficulties.  Setting a fire now removes my ability to use the oil for its intended purpose, on the sails.  Attempting to impersonate a member of the crew is massively risky since (1) Its complete luck as to whether the clothes will fit. (2) Its fairly likely that the remainder of the crew will have at least a passing acquaintance with each other and will immediately recognise me as a stranger, notwithstanding the supposedly familiar clothes.

Only one way to go :

I throw a ‘belaying pin’ into the ocean with a resulting splash, and my ninja-ventriloquism does the rest!

There was no mention of this ability in the skills discussed at the start of the book, and I’m strongly reminded of those Superman stories when all of a sudden he could perform….

Super-ventriloquism!

In any event, I successfully reach the hatchway and creep down.

Till next time!

Stats : All modifiers : 0 Endurance : 18, Inner Force 5, Shuriken 6