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The door splinters open at your attack, but the sound of the door cracking open and, from the overwhelming force of your attacks sending the door caving in completely, immediately draws the attention of the villagers, their eyes turning around from where they had gathered in confusion. Their sight locking on you, several of them rush forward with panicked looks on their faces, looking around as though for the culprit.

"Iki? What's going on?! Who smashed in the door?! Are we under attack!?" the villagers seem ready for battle, but being ready for battle for a bunch of civilians is a rather paltry excuse for it. You could probably take all 43 of them with a single hit to each, and the odds of them hitting two experienced Ninja are low...however if you engage them in battle, you must annilate everyone in the village to stop them from fleeing and potentially informing their allies you might be coming for their children next...

You realize if you manage to make it seem like the children escaped by themselves, you may have a chance... but you'll need to do some quick thinking at the moment. They don't see through your disguises, so you may have a chance...

Masumi and Emiko
((Reaction: The villagers seem to buy your excuses hook line and sinker, nodding passionately as they spread out in search, leaving you the well earned opportunity to go into the elder's home unhindered.

Once inside, it still seems quite deserted. The barely concealed trap door that leads down into what seems to be a cellar, upon entering, with the knowledge that you now have you are able glean from overhearing the guards conversation that there is an entrance here, you are able to quickly uncover a loose stone amids the wall that when pressed, reveals a stair case leading further down. It would seem that this base of there's is at least more extensive than a few farmers with pitch forks, hopefully though, your disguises should be enough to get you through...

Entering mapped area....



At the base of the stairs, you come to stone passage the splits off in two directions. You don't see anyone around for the moment, though with the commotion above that may soon change. With a choice of directions, which way will you go...?

< The Left way


*You may make any checks you feel are necessary before choosing*

Masumi and Emiko
((Reaction: The path forks off from here, but as you stop to perk your ears...yes, you can hear voices coming from the direction of the right path, they seem to be rather at ease, apparently not having gotten wind of the chaos above yet. There are no voices to the left, but logically speaking, from the lay out of the village and where you know the second entrance to be, that is likely at least in the direction that the children are being kept. Then again, from the exact angle you ar standing, the right path goes straight, and may curve around...at this particular juncture, the path might connect again somewhere ahead, thus making this choice a mere matter of shorter or longer ways. There's no telling.

From a survival standpoint, it would most likely be wise to stay away from any potential human contact, seeing as that's one more person who might see through your disguise, but given the quality of the henge, it's unlikely. The tracks in this area seem to split off evenly, offering you no real clues merely from that... it seems to be a toss up...

No one, to your knowledge, detects your presence...

The two men who were conversing looked up as the two entered, giving a laugh at the pair's exchange. "Heh, easy there, man. You're usually more mellow than this." the guy reached into his back pocket. "Here, just take mine." he raised a brow. "And what about the kids? The kids the invillage know better than to..." his eyes widened. "W-wait a minute?! You mean some of them escaped?! Crap!" he gestured to his partner. "Come on, we'll go help the others up top!" he handed the twins the map without hesitation. "Hurry up and check to make sure they didn't ALL escape, and for god sake keep them away from were those...guys, are meeting...I don't care if they are helping us, I don't trust them..." he gestured for his friend and they ran passed the twins back up into the village, leaving them once more alone in the stone passage...


The map displays as thus.




From the looks of it, there might actually be a pair of thin walls into the cell where the kids are being kept close down the left hand passage if you wanted to double back, but breaking down a wall would be a loud activity, and it would probably be apparent that it happened from the outside rather than the inside. It might be a quick way to escape, but you risk drawing attention going through it before your ready. You appear to be in a hallway that leads down passed a store room, and furthermore connects with the other passage not far on passed...

What do you do?

< Move on to the store room

< Double back

As you head back and move down the left hand passage, using the map's dimensions you manage to pick out the wall in particular. You're glad you had the map to point this out, because from a visible standpoint it looks just as solid as any of the walls around it. There doesn't seem to be anything else of note in the stone corridor.

As you move down to the store room, you find it unguarded and left open. Idiots. You suppose they figure having a hidden base makes them exempt from having to lock their doors...then again you note you probably would have just destroyed the door anyway, but it's the principle of the thing. the hall way continues down a bit before turning off to the right, though the store room is just...sitting there.

Emiko
((Reaction: The storeroom seems to contain mostly junk, but in the corner, with a bit of searching, you manage to uncover of a little bag of ryo that seems to have been mixed in with the supplies, but that is far from all. Not only to you find a copy of the map, you manage to uncover a crumpled up letter in particularly unpleasant corner that you suspect they also use for keeping the trash before they dump it... apparently this is the less glamorous of the store rooms.

The Letter is vague and speaks mostly in seeming nonsense (Innuendo check) but the end of the letter seems to strike you as suspicious.

"The three center rings of the circus will meet on the day in question. I do love when the circus comes to town."

The strikes you as rather off. Circus's are rare if non existent in these more rural parts of the country, in fact rice in general... had there been one traveling about there would at least have been news about it... this letter may hold information yet untapped if given a closer look...

+50x ryo
+1x Spare Map
+1x Coded Letter




Masumi
((Reaction: You make it back to the storeroom quickly and without incident... ))

Emiko
((Reaction: Looks like a bunch of jibberish, you don't hear anything down either side of the corridor...


Masumi:
((Reaction: As you examine the letter more closely, you come to quick conclusion that there is FAR more here than meets the eye. While the letter is clearly in code, from the use of language, the constant inclusion of numbers, and more importantly the repeated "names" which are in reference to "the circus" you are able to draw the hidden meaning with expertise. While the letter does seem to fire back on forth on issues that you can only guess at near the beginning, you manage to pick up that it's talking about moving a shipment of some kind, weapons, possibly, resources, definitely. It's possible though that it could refer to the children themselves. Leading on in the letter, you are able to pick up that a few of the references represent dates. The week before last, which was when the first kidnappings started, leading up through the current day. The current day, being the indicated day, it would seem that whoever was involved in this corresponding not only PLANNED the kidnappings, but plans on meeting this very day. There's nothing to so specifically indicate where, as the "appointed place" is not referenced so much in the letter by more than that name, you would hazard a guess that it's this very facility...

One line of the letter that has you troubled though is this. While it's very roundabout in saying so, cracking the code the message seems to be this: "Orders from the employer.The child of the second, potential candidate, is to be left within, and moved to the valley of ghosts for retrieval. The ex-knife thrower is also the be left as is, not questioned, not hold for long. All should serve as proper diversion for storm brewer. Interaction with Water severed. Alliance cut. Cut off influence to The Lord."

This you would understand if only you had more context for it...you've broken the code but even the message it itself spells out is encrypted in it's own way... even so. You have learned much from this, and now know that there is a meeting likely taking place somewhere in this very facility. Not only that but you have retireved information you expect that Director Hisoka will be...VERY glad, to have.))

((Reaction: The landing at the top of the stairs seems rather deserted, apparently, you assume, because with the commotion you caused above, much of the guards that might have been on patrol here are absent. In addition to the one's that you sent up, you might indeed have clear run of at least this area. No one seems to detect you, and furthermore, as you perk your ears...yes. Ever so faintly, just at the very edge of hearing, you think you may have caught wind of a voice, but it's too distant to pick out any details. The second store room appears to be locked, but you may choose to either force the door, or continue on down the hallway.

Luckily, before you force the door, you a manage to find some sort of wire hooked to the top, which may have triggered and alarm... disarming it, silently as possible, you are now free to try your options...))