Cunning Jounin's Plan vs. Entire Village?

[Zatoichi]

Here's the setup.

There is a bounty set for a missing-nin that is estimated to have chuunin-level abilities. The Chuunin-level PCs are sent out to capture him alive. They are given Death Row Cuffs (The manacles that function as a sealing tag) for this job.

He is actually an ECL 16 with a particular penchant for Craft (Chemicals) but is otherwise a generalist in his nature.

Smart 6, Shinobi Adept 3, Ninja Scout 2, Ninja Operations Counter 5

The PCs find him, and he puts up as much of a fight as one would expect from a Chuunin, allowing himself to be ensnared in some debilitating jutsu and get handcuffed, though he conserves his chakra.

They drag him back to the village, bringing him to the local 'Bounty office' as night falls upon the town, and then they are summoned to the resident village elders/Kage so they can be debriefed and paid.

This bounty office is manned by one chuunin ninja policeman (everyone else has gone to sleep for the night) and is fairly relaxed considering the captor is also a chuunin and has been handcuffed with chakra-seals.

He is about to lock him up in the prison cell when the bad guy manages to get his manacles infront of him, uses entirely kick-based taijutsu to dispatch the ninja police, and spits out an improvised lockpick to pick the 30 DC lock with maybe an action point or two if needed.

Now, this is where I would need some creative input.

His ultimate goal is to get to the village's water supply and to poison it (He summons giant barrels of already-brewed poison and tips them over before desummoning them so there's no evidence) and then fleeing.

Naruto D20 doesn't have that many useful ingested poisons but D20 modern does have... arsenic! In real life, arsenic can and will get in drinking water, and boiling the water won't even get rid of it. In D20, it's extremely cheap and quick to make. With enough time (or minions), he can craft infinite quantities of this at virtually no cost.

This, he hopes, will be enough to hold the village hostage so that he can make his demands (for the epic level macguffin) by offering a solution as collateral. (If anyone in the village discover it's the water he's tampered with, the plan is pretty much ruined... but he's counting on all the panic and confusion to blind them to such an obvious truth.)

An illusion cast on the prison cell should make it look like nobody was killed and he's still in his cell, then he can use Henge no Jutsu to disguise himself as the ninja police.

But I hesitate to use DM fiat in order to pull off this next stunt, as I think that would detract from the message I want to send to the PCs; That this guy is smart. And evil. But smart enough that an entire village is powerless to stop him.

He needs to make his way from the prison cell to the water supply (I haven't really decided if that's going to be a river or a pump or a plant or somesort, considering the setting's epileptic technology) undetected, and Henge no Jutsu might not be reliable enough to bypass everyone he meets along the way.

Then there is the issue with sensors; he might trip off 'intruder alerts' with his foreign chakra signature if the water source is a protected facility of some sort. What sort of techniques are there that one can use to bypass these?

And then, finally, escaping. Chances are, something will go wrong with the illusion or the Henge and his plan will crumble on his way out. He would have ANBU squads, nigh-epic Jounins, and pretty much the entire village after his ass. How would one escape from this all by themselves? Heck, if Naruto could do it in the 1st episode, I'm sure a jounin could, too.

And then morning comes around, and all the ordinaries and academy students (IE: those with low fort saves) begin to die within a few days. Although, I suppose if you drink enough water you're bound to roll a 1 for your save inevitably, so even the chuunins and jounins may experience a much milder effect, but an effect nontheless.

The PCs, for gameplay's sake, will be spared from the poison by virtue of 'No time for breakfast, chumps, recapture that dude you caught last night!' ...

...I'm also having trouble with his particular motivations on this attack. There is the previously stated extortion for macguffin, but that's only to avoid the cliche 'kill for killing's sake' trope of evil villians. Really, character exposition is the hidden purpose behind the whole thing. Again, I want to demonstrate how friggin' ruthless and cunning he is. The poor academy students might very well all bite it before the village catches on to the tainted water supply. Especcially if their mothers feed them herbal tea by the bucket as a remedy...

[SirShadow]

For getting around relatively unseen there is always Meisagakure

[Frankto]

There's a number of ways one can get around. For one thing, not everyone is on alert all the time. For those sensors who are, and can somehow recognize one in a village of thousands, there is always suppress chakra.

The easiest way to detract pursuit is to distract them with something else. For an evil minion of Evil, blowing up a school, or part of a school, is a fair plan. But regardless, in the case of Medium and Major villages, they will almost certainly get back on their feet quickly and either head him off or send experienced tracking team after him.

The easiest way to deal with that is... well, a lot of dummy trails or to just kill the pursuers. Among thongs. Most likely they'll catch up quickly.


As for his motivations... well, you're on your own; poisoning the water supply is pretty clich?, and he'll need a lot of poison. If you want him to show how ruthless and cunning he is, plan out what you think your players are most likely to do, think ahead of them and squash their hopes for any kind of plan with a show of force.
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[Hito Hyuga]

another thing would've been to sneak in a minion to henge into the guard so the jounin could appear to have never left his cell thus leading them to think someone else is attacking them instead, then hire a ninja or some random thugs to add to the effect of a new attacker.

[Zatoichi]

Thanks.

So, Meisagakure with a little help from hide/move silently... then on the escape; throw down a smoke bomb, 4 bunshins run in opposite directions. Rinse, Repeat. That sort of thing?

My concern is running out of chakra. No doubt the PCs will be involved with the pursuit, and he might be a little worn out.

Although I might want to prepare for the off-chance that the PCs hit him with an empowered Chidori or something when trying to 'capture' him.

[Frankto]

A smoke bomb and multiple clones is a workable option but it's a rather crude tactic. If caught, the shinobi should have an exit plan or a very good plan B.

I would elaborate, but that might give my players some insight into my twisted and wicked mind, so I shan't.
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Thanks to all who donated! Your generosity is what keeps the project going!

[SirShadow]

Bah, dashing my hopes again...

Anyways... If he can make an illusion that makes it so it looks like he's still in his cell and the dead guard is alive, then I don't see why he can't make his way to the water supply using stealth.

[Jensik]

Possible Escape Plans:

- Pull an Ocean's Eleven; make it look like he escaped, then disguise himself as part of the tracking team.

- Appear like an ordinary citizen. Suppress Chakra or use Chakra Seals (or both) to the point he's indistinguishable from Joe the Plumber. Walk out the front gate. ANBU are good, but who really memorizes the names and faces of each and every one of the 4,000+ people living in a major village?

The whole point is to make his pursuers look somewhere he isn't. Any Diobolical Mastermind or Chessmaster knows that the exit strategy is the most crucial element to any ploy. He won't worry about being chased because he'll create a scenario that doesn't include being chased. It's not part of his plan, so it's not going to happen.

If you need inspiration in making a long, drawn out, convoluted plot that is so devious and cunning that even the so called "know all see all" types don't even see it coming... then look no further than this mother fucker right here.
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[Zatoichi]

An idea:

One can simultaneously use Henge no Jutsu with any cloning technique to disguise the clone, yes?

Well... This particular character has the Raven bloodpact, and uses Avatar (Large Sized) Karasu to fly around.

The thought is this, he creates two clones... one that looks like him, and another that looks like his Karasu flying mount. Unless he's being watched, how will anyone be able to tell the difference?

Henge, unfortunately, can only make a clone smaller than you, not larger. Yet Gugenjuu no Jutsu (Beastly Manifestation Technique) works quite well in the context... But the technique is more oriented towards combat than deception, which goes against the character somewhat, and it doesn't look like you could transform a clone with it.

If nothing else, I can create a technique that's something inbetween Henge and Gugenjuu.

Although, to really get into the nitty-gritty, there's Baika no Jutsu (which Kage Bunshins can use, being rank 2) but that requires some... liberal interpretations of the words 'forbidden technique', which I'm not keen to throw Kinjutsu and Hijutsus around will-nilly.

Or just actually summon his mount and put the clone on it, but that might take up too much chakra and it just seems sloppy.

Generally, I'd like to avoid an illusion because it requires the 1000+ people looking into the sky to fail a will save. Clones and Henge is much more reliable. Even a low-to-mid level Byakugan user might not be able to tell the difference if he's on the ground and a couple hundred feet away... and only a handful of people in the village will likely have the bloodpacts/abilities enabling them to chase an airborne opponent. The rest will just watch in awe, enabling somewhat of an easy getaway. Heck, I need to just look up Kakashi's doton underground travelling technique and nobody'll think that he's actually below them.

I suppose I could simply use DM fiat in any case, but really it's just become a thought experiment of my own. Deus Ex Machina is cheap.