I think they've got this under control.. well at least, I Hope so. :)

IP 1 Appear to Mandala in the GOlden Beauty Zone
IP 2 Appear to Lean'drea
IP 3 StabbyMCStab SpiritBane in the back (hopefully with some surprise) using the Dagger of Suffering™


Logic(8)+closecombat(2)+anysurprise modifiers you want: 10d6.hits(5)=3
3 hits is acceptable.

Especially since I'm mostly just trying to drive the I destroy Aztec Magic dagger into him so that it will destroy his Magic Rating.

After Marduk's tacnet visit, Mandala reforms himself to be undetectable as a machine in the room:

Disguise as a multimeter:
(I don't know if I even have to do this test, but what the hell. I figure Mandala's Electrical Engineering Knowledge Skill includes exposure to these things)

INT 8 + Disguise 2 + Force 6 (from Mutable Form + Realistic Form) = 16 dice

==> 6 HITS

Aura Masking to hide astrally as such a machine:

INT 8 + Magic 6 + Edge 6 = 20 dice

==> 4 HITS

Hmmpph. Well, they have to actually look, and their Astral Perception will be blocked as well.

@Ghost

You have seen Cadarvermen before. They are slow shambling things until they experience pain. Pain buffs them (seriously buffs them) and they become crazed slaughtering machine. They attack things that cause them pain preferentially, then anything that moves, then maybe everything else. You can regard them as immune to voice powers (they are in such a berserk rage that they are not in control of their own actions) . They are dual natured, so have astral vision (although there is quite a strong background count here that might interfere with that).

This means that you are in a lot of mess. I think you mostly had the situation with Spirit Bane undercontrol: the guards were going to give Spirit Bane a bad time, and he would probably have done some damage to them, you have invisibility and could easily of slipped away. Unfortunately the situation is much worse name. The bad guys sent the Cadarvermen to "deal" with the invaders, and you are not a strong combatant, and not prepared. This is going to only end one way if you try and fight them. Using Spirit Bane might buy you a round, these guys are faster than you.

Playing dead might work especially if you mask (your pretty white shift is more a bloody rag covered with entrails at the moment). Getting a door between them and you might. Turning invisible / other illusions might, if they don't make an astral perception roll.

Feel free to post: the cadarvermen have acted already on IP1, and you go (just) before Spirit Bane. I'll still have him banging on Mandala's/Angel's door because that is funny, but we'll treat that as a free action for him.

@Mandala
He's coming for you...wait that banging on the door sounds desparate...and there are screams outside. You can still hide if you want to.

@Sabs
Noted. I am not quite sure that you see at the end of IP 2, as Lean'drea still has to act. I suspect though you will see Spirit Bane in the process of being shredded.
I suspect that at the end of IP 3 there will be no Spirit Bane left (more exploding / shredded bodies), and you will be in the happy position of toe-to-toeing it with the dual natured cadarvermen. I love it when a plan comes together!

@General
I think all the characters under my control have acted for IP1 (this is exhausting running four separate battles - 2 matrix, 2 real word, with around 20 different combatents, so I suspect I may have missed some).
Still on IP 1 for Angel/Ryl/Lean'drea/Alyena I think

@Ghost



I second this suggestion! My advice is to get on the floor, next to the 2 shredded guards and mask like hell. Let Spirit Bane attract their attention and then try sneaking away invisible. Mindless killing machines are not going to respond to anything more subtle (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) . The machine gun nests are going to try protecting Spirit Bane. By firing on the cadarvermen they will probably become the next target.

As for Alyena, more parrying and more Slaughter Spirit I think. Will set my Pet on the minions behind the Major.

Parry

7 successes Oh Yeah!

Slaughter Spirit

6 successes

My pet spirit's Stunball on the minions

1 success grrr (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

and its resist drain

6 successes

@Alyena
The last spirit goes down. With it goes the spell suppression for everyone but the Major.

The stun ball is resisted by the troops http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3068563/

Well suprisingly, given the hideous onslaught that they have been under 3 go down. Or more precisely don't get up from the knockdown from Fearghas.

Well, there are a whole lot of things on Mandala's DangerNet™ on the other side of the door, and if they are chewing on each other, that's just fine with him. Despite what one might think from his actions to date, he is not suicidal. While things go down outside the door, he is in there as a last line of defense for Angel, and he can think about what to do next regarding the outer Ward.

Just want to quickly check before I decide what to do in IP1

What's the worst that trace IC can do? I assume when it finds me they will know I'm here <duh> and they can get my ID for spoofing my agents/drones - well I only have one of those in play...

I recall trace/burn IC from previous editions of SR but couldn't see rules for them (but then I've not been through UW in detail looking for that info...

It won't affect the tacnet (that everyone seems to have forgotten - it's only Rt 1) as that's on my other commlink!

Advice appreciated! Ignore trace, and attack the black...or go to the C&C node and risk being followed + any IC in there?!?

I don't think a trace is going to do much to you at this point. At worse immediately they can spoof your agent, which could kinda suck. They can try and hack into your commlink, but that it likely to take a few IP at least, so you don't need to worry about it immediately.

I would probably recommend ignoring the trace as well, though it's more meaningful to you than it is to me, since my accessID is nearly useless to a non-technomancer. (Bionode is unhackable and sprites can't be spoofed unless you're a techno.) We should probably kill off the IC though if possible, since they'll likely just follow us and add to whatever happens to be waiting in the C&C.

It may not matter though:

IP 1: Attack all 4 IC, 7 hits (11 damage + net hits if they fail to avoid. Clearly the roller knows that I didn't actually want to kill the IC last turn (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) .)

Notes

Ghost had it mostly. It can:

• start hacking you on the fly, which would be unpleasant if they succeed
• alert troops and call them to your location (not such a big threat here as usual)
• spoof you
• other nasty things that a research and development lab such as this might decide to do

Don't forget that his defenses are not set up with the current situation in mind, but with a more general set of defenses, so their actions might not be optimized for the current situation. Normally the Major would find out where the hacker is and pay them a close personal visit.

Do you lot have a tacnet? If so you probably want to shout about it. Currently only Bjeorn would benefit from it I think.

I'm guessing that Angel squishes the IC while Ryl stands around waiting for her turn...lemme know and I'll post up my next actions...scanning for data bombs in the C&C node sounds a good idea!

Ok, will get my pet to stunball the minions a 2nd time, then I'll try to manabolt the Major.

Pet's stunball: 4 successes

Pet's resist drain: 5 successes

My force 9 stunball on the Major: 4 successes

My resist drain: 3 successes. I take another point of stun, bringing the total to 3

@Edana
Dodginess: 3, 7, 6, 5 For Guard, Guard, Dog, Dog
Soak : 2, Ignore, 6, 10
Translation: You hit one of the guard's very hard, his icon derezzes. One of the dog's 's is wounded badly, the other scratched before it vanishes.

@Aria
All yours.

@Alyena
Your pets deals with half the remaining guards. The Major ignores the Mana bolt as it sparkles and fades against his defenses.

Well more of the plot is revealed!

@Sephiroth
Fearghas is unconscious at the moment, but I suspect a couple of rounds of first aid will wake him up. In the meantime you have the opportunity to either listen to more monologues, or ask some questions. Ysthgarthe is quite chatty at the moment, and seems to genuinely want to join his side.

Gotta love that post Seth (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Will try and get my IC IC bashing up later today (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Matrix attack 20D = 6 hits (hopefully no dodging this time please (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) )

Yeah, that outer ward is getting more important by the second. Mandala has to wait for the rest of the action to catch up to him, but he hasn't forgotten about the ward.

And I am genuinely debating whether to have Fearghas do so or not. He has immense pride for his race, and certainly wouldn't have agreed to something like this back in his Lightbearer days. But time can do a lot to change a person, and he may not be as much of a noble knight as he used to be (Harlequin is a prime example. The guy was dedicated to preserving Elven culture as a Lightbearer and is pretty much one of only two people in the world who would qualify as a force of good besides Dunkelzahn (and he admitted that he would have had to kill Big D eventually anyway, with the whole IE-GD bad blood and all), but in 2070 he's a self-serving coward who's hard to motivate to get back into the heroic schtick).

Anyway, I'm busy with job applications at the moment, but just two things:


The hell is he talking about?
Memory roll: Will 6 + Log 3 [4] = 10d6 = 4 hits but since remembering things that happened large amounts of time prior is applied as modifiers, not threshold increases, I don't know whether that's all that great.
General History: Log 3 [4] + General History 3 [4] = 8d6 = lol 1 hit
Earthdawn history: Log 3 [4] + Earthdawn History 1 = 5d6 = 1 hit

I just rolled all those because I don't know which particular one would apply here. You can take whichever one is most appropriate.


Is Ysrthgrathe actually talking about Alachia? I get that there's a potential link between the two having to do with the Ritual of Thorns, but "I have enjoyed her suffering" sounds more like he's talking about his emotional joytoy Aine Dupree. Queen Alachia does not suffer, that would be a sign of weakness to her! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohplease.gif)

@Fearghas
It all happened a long long time ago... You remember that the Theran empire had a widget that stopped mana levels dropping, and that was a bad thing^TM. The bad thing was some complex thaumaturgical stuff (think of the difference between where the mana is supposed to be, and where it is as energy in an elastic band. If the elastic band snaps, that would be a very bad thing).

You and the others were blackmailed asked to recover the widget but you forget the details. Something about putting the widget in a box, and gradually switching it off, so that the elastic band would be released slowly instead of snapping. The box was a powerful elven artifact that had been used in the ritual of Blood and Suffering. The big council players were all involved...so hard to remember the details. There was this woman that helped you: she had an anti magic aura that she could control, negating many of the Theran defences. She was a council member too...called the White Rose.

I agree that Aine is his chewtoy, and sex doll... very sad story. No you are convinced he is talking about Alachia. That is news to you. You have never seen her "suffer". Mind you sometimes when you are in charge you have to do unpleasant things, things that you rather not have done. Remember a person's public personna might be different to her private.

I encourage you to draw him out in conversation. As James Bond will tell you, getting caught is the best way to get the bad guys to tell you what is going on.

@Aria
We dodge/dodge/dodge all the day through! http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3071811/
You smack the little doggie that was once scratched by Angel, and give him a nasty wound http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3071815/
Can you IC this?

@General
I am travelling for a couple of days starting tomorrow and will find it hard to Internet. Its a chaotic time at the moment, but I trust normal service will resume soon!
When I get back it will be time for IP2. Time perhaps for the cadarvermen to find a new and tempting tasty target.

I was only attacking the one piece of IC figuring that my +2 targeting might be better than area 2 from Jonathan's attack prog... so happy to assume i hit something (although I'm not sure I did really if they dodged with 8 successes!!!)

Lemme know and i'll IC it

@Aria
Lets assume you went for the dog. You cut it nasty, it sparks, then it fades out as it starts tracking you.

Black IC guard on you, sparking and spluttering as it moves in for the kill: 5 successes
If it touchs you, please do the whole horrible "locked down by Black IC routine". I am Away From Books at the moment, so I cannot remember the roll

@Aria/Edana
OK having dealt with a guard, and badly wounded the trackers, you just have one piece of IC left. Feel free to move to IP 2: you two go first. Don't worry about the nice little doggies, just focus on the guard.

If you deal with the guard, its a complex action to move into the next node

@Sabs/Mandala
I guess you are meeting up about now. You can now hear the sound of heavy machine gun fire in the corridor, and more screams.

I'm a little confused on the state of the IC's health:

IP 4: I miss all around

IP 5:
15(4) -> 0 (Guard 1)
15(4) -> 13 -> 4 (Dog 1)
15(4) -> 13 -> 9 (Dog 2)
15(4) -> 0 (Guard 2)

IP 1:
18(7) -> 15 -> 13 (Guard 1)
18(7) -> 0 (Guard 2)
18(7) -> 12 -> 6 (Dog 1)
18(7) -> 13 -> 3 (Dog 2)

You've not been listing which order they're in for the rolls, so that's best guess based on what you indicated. But it should have been Guard 2 (Unwounded) and Dog 1 (10 damage) left for Aria to pick from. (Assuming R8 based on your rolls, thus 12 boxes of matrix condition monitor.)

I'll write up my IC post through IP 1 once I make sure I have things correct.

@Edana
I am not certain that I have been consistent in which order I have said attacks. I'm not too worried. The state as I understand it is "Guard1 down. Guard 2 badly wounded. Dog 1 and dog 2 badly wounded and vanished". If I am wrong, I am only wrong by a couple of condition monitor points, which will be max 1 IP out.

Yeah! Now we're talkin'! Stick that pig good, big guy! I'm right behindja! Well, behind the door, anyways.

I will sic my agent on the last IC...if by some miracle he hits it's armour piercing 3 (I bought 2 copies of the prog so can run both!)

14D = 6 hits woot! Rt 6 program

Will IC this and my own miserable attempt when Seth lets me know if I hit (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)