[ Reincarnation of Post or Die thread. ]

Current crew:

GM:

pbangarth -- PC Professor is the sort-of Johnson for the next little while -- not sure if I will post his new stats

PLAYERS:

Sephiroth -- Jovan

Warlordtheft -- Zo

Glyph -- Void

QUEUE of PLAYERS:

Fastball

Off in the woods till Thursday (18 July), then at work for two days. The week after that, I am taking off but staying in the city, so I plan to get the story off and running that week. Expect to see some lengthy posts then. YAYYY!!!

The next week (into the first days of August) I'm off in the woods again (different woods, different woman), but after that, life should settle down and afford me time to be a regular poster here.

So just let us know where we are picking up at! I think it was mentioned were going straight to the drop off. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

There will be a major post regarding the drop off.

Delivery IC post is up. Let's start IC interaction after Professor's story in the next IC post.

That certainly got us started off with a bang. Nicely written, pbangarth.

If we are using Street Cred, Notoriety, and Public Awareness, is it alright if Jovan receives a deduction to his Public Awareness score, given his paranoid carefulness in keeping his face, aura, and general identity a secret? It's one of those GM discretion things that the core book says you can do if you as GM feel like it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

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I'll look into it, Sephiroth.

OK, gang, the IC post is up, go ahead and talk things through. Some points:

1) I don't like the blue we have been using for speech. I would like to try colour AFEEEE, which is one of the preset colours, and looks like this kind of colour that is easier on my eyes, anyway.

2) Any gear... yes, any gear you want to buy through the Spaniard's connections with that 100,000 nuyen up to availability 20 will be available. No implants ... cyber, bio, nano or genetech ... will be available in the time the team has. Items that require karma are OK, and can be bonded, IF you saved karma from the 50 plus I gave you earlier. Yes, I know I did not tell you about this then.

3) This is Saturday night. Tomorrow I am going to a cottage on an island till next Saturday night. With the woman I love and with whom I hope to rebuild a relationship. Wish me luck.

I believe I will be able to get to a wifi setup once or twice during the week. I will try to check in then to see if there are questions, etc. In the meantime, have fun talking it over and checking the books for toys. Be creative, throw some curves at me. After all, I want to find new ideas for my NPCs, too! I should leave around 9 am tomorrow. I'll try to check in before I leave.

4) In the spirit of #3 above, the Post or Die rule will take effect for all starting next weekend. If someone is drawn away and can warn us ahead of time, he can avoid the guillotine.

5) So, we have Jovan, Zo and Void (what a team!) on deck, with the possibility for more to join if they pmail me to get on the waiting list and have a PC ready.

Relationships are one of the most important and person-shaping things in life, and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor, pbangarth.

Question for everybody: One of the things I am thinking about is getting Jovan a light military armor to make him a bit more able to assist physically and infiltrate better. However, one of Jovan's two contacts is a professional assassin who also has HMHVV-1, and I am wondering whether some of Jovan's money would be better spent hiring his contact's personal assistance for this run, possibly with the light military armor being given as payment (and it might be better used in his contact Zayne's possession than in Jovan's). What are your thoughts on this?

Also, what has happened to Notso?

A month ago he was worried about his posting schedule, and hasn't posted since, though he indicated he was interested still. So, Notsoevildm, you still have the grace period this week to get back involved. It'd be good to have you!

@Seph--even Zo's thoughts aren't in proper english. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

I'm back.

Excellent! The posts are starting to stream in. I fixed the text of Professor's description of The Blind Man. He is a purveyor of 'goods', not 'good'. Very different connotation. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

pbangarth, I have three questions for you in terms of shopping lists. First, do you think it would be possible for Jovan to purchase a handgun and have it modified to contain a small but powerful dose of plastic explosives within the frame, detonated by a specific radio signal? If so, what kinds of costs would this involve?

Second, how difficult would it be for Jovan to find someone to forge an industrial-strength sphere of metal, one that would be somewhat larger in size than a basketball and made out of a metal with a very high barrier and/or armor rating (making it capable of enduring sustained barrages of bullets without much deforming)? Would it also be possible for him to find someone capable of placing a unique enchantment on it so as to turn it into a high-force sustaining focus for one spell and one spell only? If so, what would be required for this to happen?

Also, what kinds of dusty old grimoires and tomes might Jovan be able to seek out that offer more magical options for him and that do not necessarily require a Karma expenditure? For example, tomes explaining the paraphernalia and rules of negotiations involved in calling wild or insect spirits, grimoires that list possible uses for the Shape [Material] spells in other magical activity (such as metal forging), tomes that list the locations and appearance times of various alchera and/or power sites, and so on? Or even darker, more obscure tomes that expound on magical techniques involving the use of his main critter powers: Influence, Compulsion, and Fear?

(anybody else can chime in as well if they have ideas for possible items along these lines)

Dat Ork, he's such a silly thug. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/spin.gif)

This should be relatively easy to fabricate, though the Spaniard's sources may not be in a position to make it happen in the time frame in which they are available. Figure out what it would cost to implant an explosive device and trigger and present the plan to me. Include the cost of an armourer doing the work. So, gun price, explosive price, radio price, labour cost... that should do it.


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The mechanics of fabricating the sphere should be doable, but a bit time consuming to get it 'just right', as in the seams welded and smoothed properly, etc. Would you want it to be able to be opened, and then closed from the inside? I suspect a barrier rating somewhere around heavy structural material would be appropriate. Labour cost would be a few thousand (let's say 3000 nuyen) if you wanted it to be as good as possible for a focus. It would have a high object resistance, though, for any enchantment. I would put that at a 3 or 4, depending on the exact material you wanted. That would add to the threshold of the extended test. It would be a mundane telesma, taking 4 dice away from the dice pool for enchantment.

Finding the enchanter who has the right spell and is willing to enchant for you could be a run in and of itself, depending on the spell and force you are looking for. Something like the Reinforce spell would be relatively common. This is where the real expense would come, and I would need to know more details to work out that cost. I'm up for that kind of side trip, though!

Ah, now this is definitely side run material! How many magical organizations can we get suddenly interested in Jovan? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif) Start canvassing your contacts for info.

+++++

My interpretation of your last IC post is that Jovan has not yet committed. Does he need more info? Is he in or out?

You know its bad when you go through what your PC says and then have to edit it to remove the proper english.

Well Zo has indicated he has contacts for that sort of thing...but I doubt Jovie would ask.

As to the sphere, I'd go with a solid titanium sphere. That would be nigh industructable, but it could be laser engraved with "magic runes" and the inside could include a hidden/sealed area containing the blood of a noseferatu (a rare ingrediant). Jovan would have to be there when enchanting it though.

I love ya, man.

Hey! Last week I got bitten by the infected.

I had the misfortune of stepping on a ground nest of wasps. They were not pleased, and stung me several times. After a few days, the pain/itching/swelling went away, but yesterday it all came back, worse, with redness spreading down my limbs from the sting sites. So now I'm on antibiotics, got a tetanus shot just in case, and have to watch the redness because if it continues to spread, I have to go to the hospital. I've got the red areas outlined in marker to help see any change.

Cool, eh?

You seem to be riding the stuggle-bus lately, friend. Have there been any new developments of this? I hope you're getting through it ok.

Also apologies for the delay in getting back to this. School exam prep and some very serious developments (of the more insidious kind) with a situation that a friend of mine has been going through have been causing no small amount of priority reassessment. But I will try to get on this presently.

Jovan's likely going to say yes. He likes puzzles and intellectual challenges, and firmly believes that Professor et al won't be able to survive against someone as brilliant at planning as the Blind Man without another skilled planner to use as a trump card. He's just very paranoid about the whole thing and can know the marks of a deep conspiracy coming when he sees them.



WARLORD I LOVE YOU THIS IS BEAUTIFUL. Also I might even be able to match you one step up from just his blood: paying someone to rip his heart out of his chest and then using that inside the titanium sphere focus. Also PBANGARTH DOES THIS MEAN THAT JOVAN CAN USE HIS OWN BODILY FLUIDS AND/OR ORGANS AS RAW ANIMAL REAGENTS FOR ALCHEMY AND ENCHANTING PURPOSES???? (can you tell that I'm really excited about this idea?)

Yes, I can tell you are excited! You are a nosferatu, and your parts should be usable in this regard. You might think a while about potential ways a GM might be able to use this awesome access to an unlimited source of reagents against Jovan.

Please don't abuse it.

The three of you cover most of the bases in terms of skills. I haven't had much of a nibble from the wait list, so unless you guys want to keep it small for a while, I'm thinking of putting out a casting call.

Thoughts?

The first and most problematic is astral tracking an ritual sorcery. Don't over do it Seph!

A casting call might be in order. We need a decker and a rigger most.

No worries. I'm not planning on crafting an infinite amount of magic items or anything silly like that. I'm actually thinking that a pink mohawkish plan against the Blind Man might be fun to do, but would probably keep things as quiet and clean as possible for at least the first half of our operations against him while we build up a power base and get the ball rolling against him. I'm also thinking of playing with Renfield a bit first, which is a lot less likely to draw attention and will give Jovan and our team in general some needed friends in high places.

Do we need to get a decker and a rigger? Things might be more streamlined if we don't have to worry about the matrix much on the PC side. We could always hire the assistance of an NPC decker when necessary.


It would not need to be opened and then sealed from the inside. It is not intended as a protective shell for Jovan to fly around in (he would consider that to be distasteful and extremely conspicuous, and basketball-sized is too small for him to fit in anyway), but rather as a physics-based tool for him to use with a degree of versatility. The spell that I have in mind for this focus is Levitate, which Jovan knows already. Probably between Force 8 and Force 10, depending on whether I can afford a Restricted Force 10 unique focus without draining Jovan's entire bank account. If we go with using Jovan's heart in a focus formula for the titanium sphere, would that reduce the costs at all? Would Jovan have to find someone who knows the techniques of including metahuman organs and body parts in foci first, or find a tome that details such things? If the answer to this question is yes, I'd like your thoughts on this tome by Ancient History and whether this would be a difficult item to find for Jovan.


I was thinking of starting fairly small, actually, more along the lines of this and especially this. What are your thoughts on this?