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Post by Saito Dosan (Ero) on Jul 24, 2012 0:00:17 GMT -5
He stopped organizing the men for a moment as the elderly man approached along with another who called him a bandit. Lifting the rifle once more, he would come up along side Hitoshi, the rifle held down at his side.
"I don't think this man has stolen anything to be called a bandit."
As the men spoke of Hitoshi he raised a brow, turned his head to the side to look Hitoshi up and down for a moment examining him, offering a shrug he would turn his attention back to the two that spoke..
"I see but a man beside me. I mean, he isn't glowing, no unearthly powers from what I can tell, so tell me, do you normally greet your lord with such allocations that you would call him as such? Why not simply ask him for yourself rather than speak as if he cannot hear?"
Mindless people such as these bothered him to an extent, he would discipline them, but he would set out to see that they didn't treat his new found comrade as an attraction, but as a man. A small shake of his head would be given at his statement.
"A God and a Viper, even if such things were true, it would be one deadly match.
He looked back to Hitoshi, nodding lightly before turning back to the men, some of which seemed to stop working to watch and listen.
"I don't believe I told any of you to take a break, we have work to finish, and we're not even half way done, get back to work!"
His voice bellowed to those gathering supplies and cutting some of the trees down.
(Recruitment post by the way.)
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Post by genghismike on Jul 24, 2012 0:16:30 GMT -5
"Lord Dosan, in the last day I have grown used to it. These people need something to believe in, and in that they are inspired to do that which they have sought for a long time. To them, I am the one they seek for some odd reason, although I'd prefer nothing more than to remain in solitude. I suppose this is currently my lot in life, and there's nothing to be done about it. Should I simply walk off, they'll find another suitable champion, which may simply lead them to their deaths. Perhaps we should make something of this insane fortune, and give the people that which they desire; A life of freedom, away from the oppression and violence of the Regional Daimyo's."
He looked back at the men working, and appraised the size of the forest from what he could see. "There's enough lumber, and if what I've gathered from the local population is true, a nearby quarry to gather a sizeable amount of stone. We'll need to get a barracks in order to house these soldiers, and increase the amount of huts for the common people. I suppose working on building some more smithies would be good as well, for the soldiers will need to be given weapons."
He turned his gaze back towards the shore in the far distance. "The sea will yield bountiful food to supply the people with sustenance, but some farms are in order. I'm certain there are craftsmen among the populous to create items of intrigue for trade. With the coast as a means of transport, trade will be possible with other regions to increase commerce and import other resources needed for a thriving city. With all these people gathered, I see Nagato needing to grow quickly. But first things first, getting situated so we can build some ships."
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Post by Admin on Jul 24, 2012 0:46:23 GMT -5
-Saito Dosan 1,300 Characters/letters for 4,000 Ashigaru
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Post by genghismike on Jul 24, 2012 23:59:54 GMT -5
"My Lord, word has spread of your final intention of taking the Nagato province," the Bandit Messenger said, snapping Hitoshi out of his reverie. The man blinked, then turned to look at the one who had addressed him. The Bandit Messenger had become something of a personal assistant for him, undertaking various tasks and delivering orders throughout the massive encampment which had spread out around the small village. He was pretty useful. Hitoshi didn't even know his name. He pondered asking him, but resorted to taking a swig of his Sake instead.
"Okay," Hitoshi responded simply with a shrug. He knew what he had done, and most of the people in the area had practically decided for him before he had spoken to Dosan about the possibility of establishing a Clan here in Nagato. So the Messenger was basically confirming that they had confirmed that he had confirmed their desires. Hitoshi shook his head. Madness.
"We've taken the liberty of sending out scouting parties in the outlying area's of Nagato, to see if perhaps the local prefect has mobilized forces in response to the threat you now pose, Lord Samurai." The messenger gestured in the distance, towards the central city of Nagato which lay unseen in the far distance, well beyond where they were.
"And?" he asked, curious as to what they had discovered. It seemed they were already setting things into motion without his consent. Even if he wanted to just sit in the village and drink sake and spend his time with tavern wenches, the events which had already transpired would ultimately bring the war to him. What was done had been done. Now he had simply to wait for the events to unfold.
"Well... we can't find the local prefect or his troops anywhere. We don't know where they're at. They seem to have simply... vanished." The messenger seemed genuinely perturbed at this. Hitoshi too wondered how it would be possible that the local military hadn't made an appearance yet.
"What... what do you mean vanished?" Hitoshi demanded, arching a brow. This was madness indeed. What kind of prefect let twenty four thousand militia troops wonder about the countryside, and not do anything about it. Not to mention all the other people who he had seen suddenly appearing in the area. Where in the hell were the local Prefects troops?
"Well, not 'vanished' per say, my Lord, just the fact that there's currently no sign of them. We're here... but the question is; Where are they?" Hitoshi nodded, looking thoughtfully into the distance. Already a massive amount of trees had been felled and stripped, effectively turned into large logs that would be harvested later. Nothing was wasted. The smaller branches that were suitable for staves and spears were set to the side to be utilized for those purposes. Straight lengths of wood that were small and sturdy enough to be turned into arrows were likewise set aside in a different area to be manufactured at a later date. And finally, what was left of the trees that wouldn't be utilized for anything was set into a different massive pile for firewood for both homes and the smiths forges.
"They'll show up sooner or later. In the meantime, the troops not assigned to work duties need to continue performing their drills so they'll be combat ready. When the time comes, I don't want any mishaps in the subjugation of Nagato," Hitoshi ordered.
"Your will, my Lord," the Messenger replied, then set out to spread the word.
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Post by genghismike on Jul 25, 2012 0:57:31 GMT -5
"My Liege, new update," the Messenger said, rushing back. He seemed breathless as he came to a halt before Hitoshi. He glanced at the man for a moment, then took a swig of his sake. More updates. The man was serious about his job, but Hitoshi was starting to think he'd need someone else to receive the updates and issue commands. This was boring. He needed a wench.
"Well, out with it," Hitoshi responded after a moment of silence.
"Well, it'd appear that there's another army in the area. Or... at least more peasants. Seems that a local nut house had a break in, and there's a possibility these might be the more... unwanted population that had been locked away," the Messenger said, giving his report. Hitoshi nodded thoughtfully. Madmen. Just what the madness needed.
"Are the troops assembled?" he asked quickly.
"Those that are doing drills are prepared. Give me thirty minutes, and I'll have the unit Captains form the ranks of the rest of the Militia." Hitoshi nodded, then gestured for the Messenger to go about his duties. This done, he assembled the men working in the woods to gather. He gave them a quick speech about the necessity of giving a show of their prowess, and showing the local populous that they were serious. As the evening waned, and night began to fall, the rest of the soldiers assembled.
Hitoshi gave his orders to messengers, and had them sent throughout the ranks. His units moved out, heading in the direction that the scouts had determined that the strange unit was camped at. He divided the bandits into two units of two thousand and sent them to flank either side of the encampment of visitors. They moved silently through the woods, having spent much of their time living in the woods before he had come around. And since they had seen more combat then the regular people, their units would be able to operate well with the numbers they had. He led the other eight thousand militia directly up to the camp. Once the units were in positions, he had them light up their torches, and advance on the encampment of the madmen. A sea of flames appeared throughout the forest, marking the passage of the torch wielding militia as they advanced.
Hitoshi himself walked at the head of the eight thousand militia, wishing he had a horse to distinguish himself from the rest of the troops. It made others finding the right person to talk to easier. But he figured at the head of the militia, he'd be easy enough to spot.
As his units surrounded the encampment, he shouted out the order for them to halt, then shouted towards the strangers camp. "I am Takao Hitoshi, Bandit King of Nagato!" Cheers of approval rang out around him at the fact that he had finally claimed the title they had given him. He sighed, and shook his head, then spoke once more, his voice carrying across the woods. "What brings you here!? Be it peace or war!? Are you friend or foe?"
[Post directed towards Joshy]
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Post by 一人で Aldis on Jul 25, 2012 1:46:48 GMT -5
It was the middle of the night. His men were sleeping soundly for the first time since they could remember. The whole evening before finding a place to camp the men were skittish. The women huddled in groups. Their eyes were wide with fright. Fright that Aldis remembered all too well. The women had adopted Sparkles almost immediately after escaping their cells.
Although many of the craftsmen had gone to their homes Kenichi stayed with him. Aldis had all but appointed him his second in command. When they finally made camp and settled down he watched the condemned lot of them. They stared up at the stars as they peeked through the boughs of the trees. He wondered how long it had been since fresh air and starlight had touched their faces. Sparkles woke up and Aldis with her. She had gripped him with her claws as cocked her head and listened. Aldis listened too. He wasn’t sure if it was wild animals or something else but a crack of a twig here or a rustle of leaves there, but something was moving. An echoing cry rang through the air...
"I am Takao Hitoshi, Bandit King of Nagato! What brings you here!? Be it peace or war!? Are you friend or foe?"
Aldis’s first thought was, who the hell does this guy think he is. The second was drowned out by bloodcurdling screams. The people that made up his force were just freed from what any normal person would describe as hell. A sound so startling was a sure way to cause every one of these lost souls to lose themselves in their disturbed memories.
He was pulling on his sword and shield as Kenichi pulled his tarp up breathing in to let out a warning. Aldis cut him off. “Torches.” As he passed tents he said words of calming as frightened people stuck their heads out of tent flaps. He walked down the center space between tents towards the voice.
Aldis stood near the edge of his encampment, torches being erected and lit around him. He roared one word, and let it hang in the air. “Silence!”
He could see the firelight glint off weapons as it spread to the timberline.
“If you’re a friend of Muramasa, you’re no friend of mine. You’re also not my king, which means you have no right to know the answer to your other question, especially at the point of a sword.”
[Post answering Genghismike]
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Post by Saito Dosan (Ero) on Jul 25, 2012 18:19:53 GMT -5
He shook his head as if awaking from a dreamlike state, the words of first the scouts, then of Hitoshi shouting to what would appear to be others within the forest. He approached, his left hand being placed on his comrade's shoulder lightly.
"If the unit of the local prefect is missing, he is on his way here now, but it is too soon for them to be here, so it raises the question, could these people be like us? Wanderers perhaps?"
He looked off to the distance as the reply came back, it was an interesting form of communication, but one he did not care for, as it would give away both party's location to the regional lord and prefect, and this they could not afford, at least, not yet anyways.
"We can't keep speaking like this, I'll go bring them to us, the least any of us can do at the moment is talk face to face."
(Speaking to Hitoshi.)
And with that said, the rifle weilding general was off, making his way toward the other encampment. Judging from the fact that they were within earshot of one another, this would mean they are not all that far away, it wasn't long before he heard voices ahead of him, and sure enough, out of the treeline, he spotted the camp.
Emerging slowly, the rifle being lifted up and over his shoulder, he would speak.
"I am Saito Dosan, a friend of Hitoshi, this Muramasa you speak of, I can assure you, we are not affiliated with him. However, we are planning something, and this form of communication may put our plans in jeporady, come with me if you wish to meet Hitoshi."
He made no hostile or quick movements toward the man, or any of his soldiers, but instead, just stood there calmly. If one thought about it, if he was hostile, he would've shot first, then come out, but since this was not the case, one would see that he is infact friendly, for the moment anyways.
(Speaking to Aldis.)
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Post by Sakuraba Nosuke [Raven Curow] on Jul 25, 2012 20:47:51 GMT -5
As Nosuke continued along the road to Nagato he and his men came across a large plain with thousands of in conflict. For a moment Nosuke believe a lord had attacked the area until they realized they carried no banner. As he watched the group he saw a hazy black aura surrounding the battlefield.
"My lord, what should we do?" one of Nosuke's men asked as they watched the carnage.
"This battlefield holds the stench of evil. They are driven by demons of war and chaos. Notice the emblems on their armor. These men are of the same force," Nosuke explained. "I must help them."
Nosuke directed his men to take up circle around the field with sutras spread out between them and to line the circle with any salt they carried in their supplies. After all was done Nosuke started toward the center of the conflict, the men apparently oblivious of his presence. Nosuke planted his staff on the ground and began to chant in latin.
As the chant grew longer and Nosuke's voice grew higher his men began to chant with him. The demonic aura possessing the fighting men left them and attempted to escape, but was blocked by the ring of salted earth. Nosuke spoke a spell and directed the demonic aura into a heard of boars on the next hill and drove them over cliff face into the ocean.
Immediately the air began to clear and a man into more extravagant armor emerged from the group of the now confused soldiers.
"You saved me and my men Master Monk. I was forced to watch as we slaughtered each other with no control over our bodies. The faces still haunt me. We are eternally grateful. Me and my men are deserters. We were tired of fighting for an unworthy cause, but in you I see a worthy one. I see you are raising an army and uniting the people. My men and I will join you on your crusade," the well armored man said.
"But...that's not," Nosuke began, but the man had already returned to his men and shouted for them to form up. Nosuke just sighed and shook his head.
Later that day Nosuke once again returned on his course, this time followed by more men, and finally reached Nagato. As his men passed through the forest path towards the village he noticed another large group of men. And within this group Nosuke noticed a familiar face from his past at the monastery. Nosuke broke off from the men and approached the soldier.
"Would you happen to be Saito-sama?" Nosuke asked.
(recruitment post)
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Post by Admin on Jul 25, 2012 20:54:39 GMT -5
-Sakuraba Nosuke 1,300 Characters/letters for 4,000 Ashigaru
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Post by 一人で Aldis on Jul 26, 2012 0:01:36 GMT -5
Saito Dosan, a man named Hitoshi claiming to be the bandit king, and a friend of Dosan’s were all at his camp. Kenichi stood at his shoulder, the young man unsure of what was happening, but brave all the same. He flinched under the initial gaze of Saito Dosan, but when he realized he wasn’t going to get shot, relaxed. “Kenichi, help quiet everyone down. We are not under attack.” He looked up at Sparkles who had been taking in the new situation with cat like curiosity. “What do you think?” He asked her.
She chuckled, and then dropped her head, as if unwilling to say anything on the situation. “I don’t care who your friend thinks he is, but he frightened sick people. A lot of them. Where I come from, a strong man doesn’t interrogate an invalid at the point of a sword. He looked around at all the frightened faces still peeking through tent flaps. He took a step closer to this Dosan. “if you had just been freed from hellish experiments, and then surrounded at night in the forest buy an unknown force, would you happily great these men, or fear being taken back to the hell you just escaped?” Kenichi came back after setting men to the task of settling people. “Kenichi I want you to get some rest, and then after four hours move the camp deeper into the woods, this racket is sure to have drawn some suspicion, I go to confer with our new friends.”
“If you aren’t with Muramasa, then we may be able to work something out, let us go to your camp and talk.”
(Replying to Ero)
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Post by genghismike on Jul 26, 2012 6:32:36 GMT -5
After Saito had approached the mans camp, he had signaled for his men to stand by, and approached along with the man. He stood by as Nosuke approached and greeted Saito. As for Hitoshi himself, his eyes never stopped straying among the people. There were just so damned many of them. He had been accustomed to living a solitary life as a ronin mercenary, and now he was in charge of twelve thousand people, merged with Saito's twelve thousand. And though he hadn't attained an accurate account, his scouts informed him that this new person whose camp they had entered had near eight thousand. 'This is madness...," he mused to himself. 'This is genuinely insane. What the hell is the world coming to.'
He listened as the man spoke, feeling his temper loosen. Who in the hell did this man think he was? "You speak of frightened people, and yet how do you expect us to react, when you skulk about in the woods at night with a host of people, especially when there's talk of a mass break out of people from an insane house? And we're to sleep comfortably in our beds, when we're on the verge of war, not knowing who this mass of people next to us is!? Your people put my people in the exact same position!
So I don't know who you think you are, but a guest announces himself before wandering into the home of another. They don't simply wait around for someone to walk out and discover to their surprise that someone else has taken up residence on their porch."
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Post by 一人で Aldis on Jul 26, 2012 8:36:40 GMT -5
A great roaring laughter came from Aldis, right in the face of Hitoshi. “Skulking in the woods. Mass breakout? We were sleeping in the woods. I liberated these people from hell itself. We don’t know about any war, nor did we know about any other people here in these woods.” Aldis began to dislike this man more and more. Every word out of his mouth was ridiculous. What did he or his people know about sleeping comfortably. He didn’t care about this man’s war, only of destroying Muramasa.
As they spoke the fearful cries from some of his worst off people had died down. Several of them stood looking out at the confrontation near the edge of the woods. These people were too thin. Their skin was pale, and their eyes were sunken with despair. They had been subjected to every abuse as they awaited experimentation. “Look at these people. Do they look like they’ve been taken care of? Do you think they could go any further? We didn’t choose to stop here. We chose not to kill ourselves by going any further.”
As Aldis’s anger built his madness began to bubble in the back of his mind. Sparkles, decided to take matters into her own paws, to keep him on task she bit him.
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Post by Saito Dosan (Ero) on Jul 26, 2012 11:48:19 GMT -5
He closed his eyes for a moment, even as the monk spoke to him, saying his family name first, it took him a moment to remember the boy, as for the fact that he was but a young teen when he was at the temple where this man was. Holding his right hand up to signify 'one moment'. The rifle was at an angle, pointed at a nearby tree. He squeezed off a round to silence everyone around. He would then speak..
"That's enough, both of you! The regional prefect is on his way.."
He opened his eyes, looking to Hitoshi.
"My lord, we aren't even ready, with all of us combined, we would eliminate the regional prefect and protect not only these ill soldiers, but also take the province, and even build a stronghold here."
He then looked to Aldis.
"And you, if you truly cared for these men, you would show some concern when the regional lord is on his way to likely apprehend you, as well as scatter our forces, so working together with us is also as greatly in your interest as it is our'se."
Finally, turning your attention to the monk now...
"My apologies, Master Monk, but it has been quite some time since I've been to the temple, but you do seem familar to me, as you can see, we are in a bit of a situation here, the regional lord has caught wind of our soon to be rebellion, and is on his way to put us down, if you'd like, you could join us in repelling him and taking the province."
His attention now went back to his lord and the one who seemed to be leading the unwell soldiers, shaking his head lightly before tilting his head to look to Hitoshi, they all needed to band together, if they did, the battle will be won with ease, but this situation was not helping. The shot from his rifle, though loud, it was needed to silence the laughter.
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Post by Sakuraba Nosuke [Raven Curow] on Jul 26, 2012 13:46:31 GMT -5
Nosuke considered Saito's words carefully as he looked among the vast array of men between the camps. It was a long time coming and Nosuke had tried to avoid it, but he could not escape the conflict of his home. And now he realized that to stand by and do nothing was just as bad as fighting.
"I've been running from this war for what seem like forever. I now know that it will follow me wherever I may go. I guess its time I pick a side and hope to save as many innocents as I can. So I pick mine. My men are yours Saito-sama. They are not very experienced far as I can tell. A ragtag band of men that chose to follow me for my services. I was begging to wonder what to do with them all. They think I'm trying to unite Japan. Maybe this way I won't be lying to them," Nosuke replied to Saito.
(Joining Neo-Shinto)
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Post by 一人で Aldis on Jul 26, 2012 16:30:20 GMT -5
"If you help to feed and cloth my people. Each of you must swear that you will do whatever you can to help me in my quest against Muramasa Sengo, then I will join you." He was glad someone in this group of people was willing to look at his people before opening his mouth. Aldis gritted his teeth and forced his words out slowly, carefully. It seemed he would have to take a detour before tracking down his master.
"As far as what I have to offer you, I am a blacksmith trained by the murderer himself, and i have the crafting guild with me."
(Joining Neo-Shinto)
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