House of Escalating Doom

The ninja house that was hired by the Cartogramancer to get the Talismans.

They also seem to have been hired by a Southerner to steal the Sankara Stone that the party has been carrying.

They're a Tortoise ninja clan, based in the City of Light; we have the location of one of their bases, although we believe they have a secret backup headquarters somewhere else not too far away.

The ninja have "we study you for a long time and then you are defenseless against us" schticks. This has manifested in terms of "some number of your schticks don't work against me"; "my dodge pools increase in efficacy over time"; "I do you a pile of damage, no defenses".