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[Seth]

OK the IC thread is up and running.

The game is starting in the middle of a run. Timeline so far:

• You had about 12 hours notice to get to the council, which was in Tir Tainglire
• The council meeting lasted about 10 mins, in which the overview of the mission was given
• Ambrose is given a magic ring that enables magical tunneling. You thought this type of magic couldn't work at this level of magic: well you learn something every day.
• You were taken straight from the meeting with the council to Aztlan, by a Nape of the Earth helicopter, in which you were given a more detailed briefing
• You had 6 hours to get arrested
• 24 hours after being arrested you were in the train on the way to Tzetlan camp 23
• You arrived at dawn
• During the day three bus loads of 20 prisoners each were taken to the research facility. The prisoners were selected at random it seemed. The prisoners didn't come back. If that's blood magic involved...its a lot of power.
• Lights out at 8pm
• You started digging at 10 mins to midnight
• You finished digging at midnight

Right now you are under the concrete wall of the reactor. The tunneling device can be operated by Ambrose to penetrate the reactor floor.

I recommend you initially post flashbacks in which you do info gathering, and optionally grumble about being blackmailed / force-ably recruited by the Council of Princes. This gives anyone who needs it enough time to finish character creation. Once we have had a few of those, we can move into the pyramid itself!

[Seth]

Pre recruitment thread
Recruitment thread
IC Thread
In the past interesting posts:
Overview of Earthdawn mods
Questions about Earthdawn mods
The Earthdawn Spreadsheet
The Storm Swift

Rules on dream manipulation

PCs
Sabs --Marduk of Throal /Marduk The Mad Scholar/ Mark "Mad Professor" Vladisnov-- Dwarven Wizard / Mystic Adept -- Magical expert -- Tradition:
Aria -- Kirylle (Ryl) deBathayre /eTher --Human Drake Adept -- Hacker
pbangarth -- Mandala -- Free spirit -- Scout / Buff bot / Blaster -- Tradition: Buddhism
Sephiroth -- Fearghas -- Immortal Elf . Tradition: Path of the Wheel
Alyena -- Alyena -- Immortal Elf Nethermancer -- Kills magical threats. -- Tradition: Nethermancy (possession)
Big Fella -- Bjorn -- Bear Shifter / ex-Horror construct -- Tank -- Tradition: Way of the warrior
Edana - Angel - Rescuee and Technomancer
Polite man - Immortal Li - Oriental Magician
E-do - Boris - Ex-physical adept on his way to Cyberzombie status
Zardaine - Dannrhil - Martial Artist drake

Used to be PCs
Ol'Scratch -- Ambrose -- Troll (Fomori) Mystic Adept Alchemist -- Magical Expert + Creator of all things magical & mundane -- Tradition: Akashic (possession)
Halinn -- Aren -- Windling Adept -- Infiltration / Social Skills
Ghost In The System - Lean'drea- Bard

Reservists
Red-ROM

[Seth]

Here are the summaries of what has happened
Start of 3
Start of 5
Start of 7
Start of 9
Start of 11
Start of 13
Start of 15
Start of 17
Start of 18
Start of 20

Most recent map

EarthDawn Initial Briefing
Who will be guarding the various areas

The 10th hour starts IC and OOC

[Seth]

Communications with a horror

I have aggregated together the scenes in which the horror has communicated with the party

Fearghas's dream
End of Feargash's dream
Boris's Groundhog day
Immortal Li's dream

[pbangarth]

I can't access the map we are given in the helicopter. Says page doesn't exist.

[Seth]

I can't access the map we are given in the helicopter. Says page doesn't exist.

OK I got the same result when not logged in to google. I have changed it to use image shack. Should work now, and you can admire my artistic talents

[pbangarth]

Got it now.

[Seth]

@Pbangarth: As you wing your way back from the Buddhist heaven to Tir, you feel yourself enter a magical trap. A web of energies corruscates around you, as you are pulled to a different destination to the one you wants. Can you make me a force roll to resist this please (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ork.gif)

[pbangarth]

Oh cool! I get to play first! I get to play first!

Hmmm... Shadow's Dawn for the campaign on Invisible Castle? I'll use that for now, and change if the name is different.

Force 9 = 9 dice ==> 3 HITS

[pbangarth]

Oh, sorry about the sig in my IC post. I will work on that.

[Ol' Scratch]

You can just edit the post and uncheck the checkbox at the bottom.

[pbangarth]

Excellent! Thanks.

[pbangarth]

Nice touch, Ol' Scratch, with the song link. You might want to have a look at THIS as a Shadowrun cover of that song. Stay till the end, it feels a little like what a Horror might do.

Your flashback is cool. Among others here, you demand a step-up in my game. So be it.

[Seth]

Thank you everyone for modifying your posts.

Can you post in this OOC thread any data searching / contact chatting you might want to do. Include a bundle of rolls from invisible castle please. Remember that you are together for a fair while during this time, so you can ask each other questions, or ask them to use their skills on you, if you feel the need. We'll post the answers in the IC thread when everyone's finished their first post

We should be able to do some legwork before Mar 7th, On Mar 7th that concrete roof will be sorted, and you get all the fun of going into the reactor.

For your viewing pleasure the reactor looks a little like this, although its a little smaller. The circular area is around the main reactor core, and the room to the west holds all the steam pipes and stuff. You will of course be pleased to know that the reactor is cooled by liquid sodium at 510 degrees centigrade, although it is not pressurized, and that the secondary circulation system will hold super heated steam at around 180 atmospheres / 450 degrees C or so. Even more fun is the fact that a steam leak is invisible and acts a bit like a mono filament whip. (As a side note I have used slightly higher pressure water to cut through 6 inches of work hardened steel...so its good at armour penetration too).

The generator is of course cooled by hydrogen (also at high pressure), and the generator if it gets damaged is likely to make loads of sparks.

The transformer is cooled by Sodium Hexaflouride, which has the nice properties that it is an asphyxiant in high concentrations, no odour warning. (In other words you die without realising it, and respirators don't help)

The open copper bus bars are only at 11000 volts (think 5 times the electric chair, but a lot more current).

Not that I think you need to worry about this sort of stuff, but I thought it might reassure you to realise that the radiation is by no means the worst hazard, and that there is a lot of stuff in the reactor room that you probably don't want to damage.

[Ol' Scratch]

Can you post in this OOC thread any data searching / contact chatting you might want to do.

These are the actions that immediately jump out at me. I may add a bit more depending on how things evolve during the course of the planning stage.

[ Spoiler ]

Regarding packing for the meeting:

• Knowing that sneaking a firearm into the queen's court would be futile, Ambrose decides to leave his Desperado at home. He does throw on his Steampunk Line clothing and fills his smuggling compartment with the following, however: A flask of Irish whiskey (topped off before leaving), his lockpick and microtronic tools, a mechanical pencil and small notepad, a cigarette lighter, and some Aspirin. When he's done, he inflates the small air sacks therein to make sure everything is secure. He also double checks to make sure his auto-injectors are properlly loaded, then seals his arm shut so that it looks as smooth and harmless as possible. Before entering the palace, he also deactivates and places his Power Focus in the compartment until he leaves, too. He doesn't want any of those blasted elves taking that away from him.
• Before leaving, he will take a good long look at the wards he has placed around his home (Luxury Security) in an attempt to try and figure out how Trias entered undetected.

Regarding contacts:

• Ambrose will get in touch with his liaison for Transys Neuronet, alerting them that he will be on holiday for an indeterminable amount of time, with the addenum "the Queen has requested my presence."

Regarding the nuclear reactor:

• When he has the time to focus on doing so, Ambrose will use his Enlightening ability to access the Industrial Mechanics (Rating 6) active skill and the Nuclear Physics (Rating 3) and Nuclear Reactor Design & Schematics (Rating 7) knowledge skills. The rolls used Magic + Arcana + Power Focus, plus a complimentary skill for the last two as noted in the roll results. EDIT: I just realized that I left out his initiate grade on the rolls, but I figure the above are good enough anyway so I'm just going to stick with them for now. If any negative modifiers exist, please let me know so I can try to counter one or two of them with the missing dice.
• Using this knowledge, Ambrose will take a critical look at the information we were given to try and figure out any way to shut the reactor down or otherwise make it less likely to kill us on the spot. Rolling once for each skill. Please let me know if more are needed. Industrial Mechanics (5 hits), Nuclear Physics(7 hits), and Nuclear Reactor Design & Schematics (7 hits) I'm assuming I wasn't at my lab when making these rolls, so I left out the Home Ground quality, but I did include the Analytical Mind quality. If necessary I can throw in a Techno-Jargon roll, too. If Analytical Mind doesn't apply to any of those rolls, please strike out the last two dice.

[Seth]

When he finished, he held the sketchbook at arms length and gave it a critical eye. "Well, at least I'm not fragging Marked..."

I have some bad news for you "Well at least I'm not fragging possessed" is slightly more accurate. Mind you ... you could have forgotten that as its 10,000 years ago or so. Nice post I enjoyed it

I'm not sure that its easy to check for horror marking (I am AFB at the moment): If you roll 10 assensing rolls (You could even get help if you want) I'll tell you if you see anything (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ork.gif)

[Ol' Scratch]

lolwut? <pauses for a moment as it sinks in> Oh that ain't right!

Okay, let's see here. That ominous revelation he made upon seeing the apparently uninspired (since I'm assuming that's what you meant with your response) "portrait" will certainly crank his paranoia up a bit. I'll edit the specific post once we've ironed this out. The actions he'll perform are in the following spoiler tag. Warning: It's a bit of a doozy.

[ Spoiler ]

• First, he'll summon a Force 5 Guidance Spirit to assist him in this endeavor. (Summoning Test, Spirit's Opposed Test, Drain Resistance Test: Result is a Force 5 spirit with 5 Services and No Drain. Optional Power is, hmm, Fear.)
  EDIT: I accidentally rolled Forcex2 instead of just Force for the Opposed Test, so I went back and ignored the last five dice on that roll.
• Next, he will spend a service to request the spirit's aid in helping him assense his aura. I'm assuming this is all just one service. If not, let's just assume it only helped with the first roll (it shouldn't change the outcome much as the rolls were really good anyway). The results are:
  Spirit's Teamwork Rolls: Intuition + Assensing - +3, +2, +5, +4, +5, +4, +2, +2, +5, and +5 dice on Ambrose's Psychometry Tests.
  Ambrose's Psychometry Tests: +2 Teamwork Dice, +3 Teamwork Dice, +4 Teamwork Dice, +5 Teamwork Dice.
  Final Results of Psychometry Tests: 12 hits, 6 hits, 10 hits, 10 hits, 8 hits, 10 hits, 8 hits, 7 hits, 9 hits, and 7 hits.
  Note that I didn't include any of the modifiers on the Psychometry table (SM p. 58), though the only ones I saw that applied were bonus dice, and even a few negatives wouldn't impact the results much. But feel free to adjust them as you see fit, of course.

[*] Finally, Ambrose will expend another service to ask the spirit to use Divination on his behalf to see what his encounter with Thais means for him.

Divination Test: 2 hits.

[*] Remaining Services: 3. Ambrose will thank the spirit for its assistance and ask if it would please stay around just in case he needs its help again.[/list]Phew. Please let me know if I did anything wrong or you want adjustments made. It's really late and I'm pretty tired, so it wouldn't surprise me if I made any other blunders.

Blargh, I can't even figure out why this list isn't formatting properly. I'm going to bed! <stomps off>

[sabs]

It's not that the Portrait is uninspired. It's that the reason people in Earthdawn all have artisan skills, is because Horror POSSESSED people cannot do anything creative. Horrors cannot create beauty, so anyone they possess cannot either.

Horror marks are nigh impossible to see. In order to see a Horror Mark you had to make a Astral Sense test with a target number = Spell Defense of the Horror.

So, to translate that into shadowrun.
You need to make an assensing test with a Difficulty of Horrors Magic Rating+Counter Spelling score.
Conservatively for THAT Horror. Magic Rating of 14, Counter Spelling 6 so a TN of 20 is not unreasonable, and it might even be higher than that.

[Seth]

You and your spirit think that maybe there is a dark mark in your aura, around the area of your liver. You are not sure: it could have been there before, because your rarely look that hard. You probably find yourself scratching that area now, and its a bit itchy


Your divination: I hope this helps
"The Sun and Moon align each 3 decades, dark of moon, longest sun. The songbird does not sing. A tower is built. Blood fights blood. One seeks to gain by giving, the other seeks to gain themselves. You are the spanner".

To disable the reactor:
Get a crowbar (ideally a really big one). Throw it on the bus-bars (from at least 30 feet, preferably further away). Step back to avoid the vaporised remains of the crowbar. The safety systems will shut down the reactor
or
Throw a grenade (or equivalent) at the low pressure turbines (the biggest ones). This will fill the room with 120 degrees celsius of fairly low pressure steam.
or
Identify the gamma alarm, and trigger it (you would need to look around, and this might take 10 seconds, it could take 10 minutes)
or
Go to the observation area and press the "trip" button.
or
Open a load of panels, see what's in there, and work out how to trigger an alarm (probably only needs 10 successes on Electronics + Logic with a threshold of 1 combat turn)
or
Open a load of panels, and rip out a load of electronics and hope you damage something important

Sadly you suspect there is no off button in the reactor itself.

[Aria]

Was there any consensus on where our gear will be? I suspect we will be arrested with nothing worthwhile on us and have to aquire it during the mission?!?

A

[Seth]

Was there any consensus on where our gear will be? I suspect we will be arrested with nothing worthwhile on us and have to aquire it during the mission?!?

Basically anything with a decent concealment rating you can have. Aren's stealth skills are awesome, and he is the only one that wasn't arrest (although I haven't made that clear yet) and I am happy for you to load anything you can onto him, he can carry stuff to you as you are being shipped into Tzetlan camp 23 in cattle trucks. Alyena has a smuggling compartment in her arm, which I think currently carries very little.

So in a nutshell:

• Holdout pistols, small tool kits, small bits of jewellery are OK. Respirator OK
• Ambrose knows how he is carrying his potions around
• Commlinks can be smuggled in
• Foci I am assuming are sufficiently small that you can hide them, as long as they were disabled, or you had advanced masking
• Fearghas's spear/sickle thing I have sorted out for him: he's carrying it, but no one seems to notice it.
• Armour will be replaced by prison fatigues (Ballistic 0 / Impact 0 / Style very negative)
• You might want to invest in a geiger counter...

I'm mostly blurring over the details and not worrying about them too much

If I've missed anything let me know, and I'll give a yes or no..

I think you can be confident that there will be many weapons and ammunition inside the pyramid. Most armour worn by the guards will probably be in the nature of quick to put on flak jackets etc that can be worn by anyone.

On a second note I am assuming that your group name is now Ouroborus also known as in other tongues as Jörmungandr. Of course should we get to the end of the world it is prophesied that Jörmungandr will come out of the ocean and poison the sky ... I'll have to see if I can work that in...


@Ol'scratch: Tiny change I would like you to make. Elven queen name is Alachia not Alicia

[pbangarth]

I'm in between meetings, so I can't regurgitate everything rushing around in my head, so more will come:

[ Spoiler ]

- Mandala will collect basics from his stash in the Tir -- commlink I think will be the only thing not taken from him as per your list of things that can be hidden while under arrest.

- Ouroboros (note the last vowel is an 'o', not a 'u') will remember I'm sure, but Mandala can be charged up with energy by Absorbing a spell cast at him, after which he can use that energy to reduce drain during his own casting. Once he knows we are going into a reactor, he will let folks know (in IC I hope to remember) that he can protect the team from radiation, since he has been working in L.A., but needs help to beef up his Drain resistance. This will be just before we enter the reactor. I know we probably don't need it, but he has been working in L.A.

- speaking of which, if he has time he will have to message his trideo exec buddy that something has come up, and can he delay the shooting of the deodorant commercial by a few days.

- again if there is time between being bitch slapped and getting arrested, Mandala will try to contact the Draco Foundation, and Aina in particular, to see if she knows anything about a box of Ysrthgrathe, and why the bitch would want it.

[Ol' Scratch]

Sorry, I'm terrible with names.

And is it really possessed individuals that lose their creativity? I could have sworn it was the marked. Thanks for letting me know! It's an easy enough change to make in the post. But I do believe this revelation means one thing and one thing only: I need to play Earthdawn more. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[sabs]

It is... That being said, our Nethermancer should have a better shot at recognizing Horror marks. Except of course, she's probably forgotten most of that stuff. I know my Wizard has forgotten more about Magic than he remembers.

I dmed Earthdawn for 10 years (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) It's by far my favorite world/system. Even more so than Shadowrun. (except I can't find anyone to play it with me) So this game fills a happy niche for me.

I also love how we're all so respectful of Queen Alachia (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[sabs]

Stuff Marduk would do/have with him.

Items:
His 2 foci, and his Commlink. They're pretty small.

Marduk doesn't believe in guns. That's what Crushing Will is for.

As for research. Marduk is going to spend some time doing internal memory searches to try and remember everything he's forgotten about Ys and that last fight they had.

I have 1 problem, I don't have access to a hosted dice rolling system from work. I usually just use random.org/dice and enter the dice rolls in posts? Is that okay?

Memory Test: Logic + Willpower 8+7=15 6 2 5 2 1 4 5 3 6 1 6 5 5 1 1 (7) hits

[Ol' Scratch]

^ On that note, I did include a similar roll in my first IC post (I just failed to declare it properly). The results of the roll and which skill I used are in the "revelation" link in said post.

[Seth]

Yes I like Earthdawn. We played Earthdawn for a couple of years, mostly from the point at which the Kaers opened and early expansion of the cities. We used variant rules but the setting is nice. Mostly I like that its about hope: the bad times are over and its time to create a whole new world.

I'll need your help to keep me canon (when I pnp GM I never worry about canon as none of the players ever read the books)

Back to the horror mark. IIRC to spot one you use your astral sense vs the spell defence of the horror. I'm not sure of Ol'scratche's diagnostics were the correct route, but the result of his and his helpers assensing is that you decide that the mark over Ol'scratch's liver is indeed a horror mark. The mark is a snake curled around the liver with its fangs deep inside the large bloodvessels.

All of you remember this stuff. Roughly put

• The main way to get horror marked is to use raw magic (like you do with the spellcasting skill) in astral space tainted by the horror
• The horror mark allows the horror to use its powers, and communicate with the target. The closer you are the more unpleasant the effects that it can use
• After a year and a day, the horror can choose (at no cost) to renew the power
• It is possible to break the link with enough range...maybe.
• The Horror can probably use your edge, or give you edge.

Its easy to get rid of the Mark: Kill the horror, or persuade it to remove the mark.

It is of course possible to use the Mark to astrally track back to the horror. This is a astrally powerful group, so you could go and visit it if you want.

I should say that while I am being very cavelier with you all and giving many of you unpleasant experiences, I am just doing this to set the scene, and I may do it at the start of memory sequences as well. When we move to the game, if I want to (say) capture you alive, the bad guys will have to roll die, and do it properly!

[Ol' Scratch]

Don't feel bad about it at all! I, personally, enjoy being a GM's chew toy. Makes things interesting. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

(And did it really have to be his liver? I guess that makes sense giving his drinking problem though.)

[sabs]

The horror can also.. cast spells through the horror marked person. Not just /at/ the Horror Marked person, but using the Horror Marked Person's senses to obtain LOS. Freaking Horrors. Most Horrors that are worthy of the name have the following powers:
Increase Karma Die - this would probably look like increasing your 'edge score' for the purpose of rolling. SO lets say you decide to use Edge, and your Edge Score is a 4. You might get 5 dice or 6 dice extra instead of 4. Doing this though, increases the hold the Horror has on you.
Karma Drain - Horror can just eat up your Edge dice
Karma Block - Horror stops you from being able to use edge
Twist Fate - They can force a reroll of your dice, especially edge dice.
Horror Mark
Skin Shift.. actually I'm /positive/ that Marduk has burned that memory from his mind.

Just to name a few fun ones.

[Seth]

OK answering questions:

@Pbangarth: roll me some charisma + ettiquette (10 will do ), and I'll tell you what happens with Aina.

@sabs: Its ok to do the die rolling like that. If I need a really important one, I'll ask for a hosted service, but I don't think thats going to be very often (if ever). 7 successes is good. You have heard of Ysrthgrathe being spoken about. Its fairly common knowledge that it and Aina Dupree had a child called Thais. You can look up any thing you want on Google, and its likely close to the truth. You yourself (as far as you know) have never met Ysrthgrathe (for which you are grateful). You vaguely remember seeing a box like that, and it being important, but you are sure it was back in the 4th age, and you have a vague vision of the box sprouting thorns and bleeding... But then again with Queen Alachia around, its hard to avoid that imagery.

@Ol'scratch. I missed the 9 successes on recognising/percepting Thais. You recognised him from his description, seeing straight through his (quite seriously powerful) illusion. With that many successes you saw that he was tired and worried: emotions that you don't normally associated with the horrors.

[sabs]

You say I've never met Ysgarthe, but Bjorn was created by Ysgarthe. So, did we run into him in a Kaer abandoned by Ysgarthe?
Okay Knowledge of Ysgarthe scrubbed from memory (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Seth]

As far as you know Bjorn has created by some horror that you defeated shortly after the kaers opened. You vaguely remember a skyship, a ravaged windling kaer, and a horror that was doing some hideous ritual that you interrupted. The ritual imploded and the horror was either banished or defeated. I'll ask Bjorn to correct his character sheet.

[pbangarth]

Contacting Aina: CHA 8 + Etiquette 1 = 9 dice

10 rolls:

Hmph ==> 24 HITS

[Aria]

Ryl will do her hacker thing while we are in the air and check the commlink security of the team...making sure everyone is running upgraded Firewalls and Encryption (can I copy my programs onto their comms - including tacnet?). Is there a benefit in slaving their comms to mine?

I assume that when I'm in drake form my comm still works, just that I can't access it...?!?

I will also download some Spannish linguasofts for anyone who needs them

[Seth]

I assume that when I'm in drake form my comm still works, just that I can't access it...?!?

If you want you can have the commlink on an elastic bracelet, so its still there when you you are in drake form. I'm not too sure how drakes can interact with AR/VR..does anyone know

[Aria]

They can't! They can't even use trodes! I went for the implant because it seemed reasonable at the time but I won't if it means it stops working when I shift...can't have the tacnet go down for everyone else even if I can't use it at the time...

...although there is stuff in Big D's will for companies working on the matrix problem for drakes and I know Transys is working on it...

[sabs]

Well, the tacnet can also switch to running on one of our commlinks, if necessary.

[Seth]

Just a note for the tacnet (I am all for the tacnet if you can pull it off): You all need to have lots of sensors to make it work. IIRC its 2 sensors per level of the tacnet.

Assuming you are going for a tacnet 4 (which you have enough numbers to support), you will need to have 8 sensors.

[pbangarth]

I have yet to buy gear for Mandala. If he needs tacnet software/hardware, let me know. I should warn you though, he goes astral a lot. He also has the Mindnet spell, for linking the team under conditions that may disallow commlinks.

[Seth]

@Pbangarth. Sadly you cannot benefit from tacnet as you are a spirit and cannot use AR/VR. Plus it will be really hard for you to have a commlink (or in fact any physical object) as you will be constantly moving between the astral world and the mundane world.

I think the friends pact is awesome for things like this. Gives you communications at a range of 10*magic metres (admittedly they can only talk to you) but my free spirit has found it awesome in infiltration scenarios. The downside of loosing force if some one dies is unlikely to be much of a problem in this game: immortals by their nature don't die very often. Bad things can happen to them, and they might want to die, but they are really hard to kill.

[Aria]

Just a note for the tacnet (I am all for the tacnet if you can pull it off): You all need to have lots of sensors to make it work. IIRC its 2 sensors per level of the tacnet.

Assuming you are going for a tacnet 4 (which you have enough numbers to support), you will need to have 8 sensors.

Was going to go for a lvl 1 for just a minor boost but means more of the team will be able to use it because of the sensors issue...

[sabs]

well, we should put together a quick list of 'sensors' that most of us could be carrying.
Seth, can we talk quickly about Group Pattern and the kind of threads we might have had a long time ago that would be resurfacing as the magic level goes up?

[Seth]

You think that the mana levels are now strong enough to reaffirm,your group pattern. Your group pattern required an annual ritual to empower it, and you haven't done that for a few thousand years. In fact you cannot really remember how to perform it: but that's ok all you need to do is go back and reenact creating it the first time.

I suspect that with the time constraints I have given, you won't have the option to re-empower the pattern before breaking into the reactor. (Mostly I have the scenario for the pyramid sorted out, and am keen to play it).

I am hoping that we conclude "Shadow's Dawn" in a reasonable amount of time (a few months) and can continue into the next scenario. If we do that, I suggest that we spend some time in Earthdawn remembering how to re-empower your group pattern.

[pbangarth]

@Pbangarth. Sadly you cannot benefit from tacnet as you are a spirit and cannot use AR/VR. Plus it will be really hard for you to have a commlink (or in fact any physical object) as you will be constantly moving between the astral world and the mundane world.

I think the friends pact is awesome for things like this. Gives you communications at a range of 10*magic metres (admittedly they can only talk to you) but my free spirit has found it awesome in infiltration scenarios. The downside of loosing force if some one dies is unlikely to be much of a problem in this game: immortals by their nature don't die very often. Bad things can happen to them, and they might want to die, but they are really hard to kill.

Yes, I foresaw the communication/gear issue when I chose the Mindnet spell. It being Extended, the range can be amazing.

My other Free Spirit has the Friendship Pact, but her situation puts her in much more danger of losing Force. It has made me a little gun shy of that Pact. Again, Mindnet makes up for it to some degree, and Power Pact has its own fun aspects. Given that you are allowing us to gain Karma normally anyway, I would rather not use Friendship Pact.

[Ol' Scratch]

They can't! They can't even use trodes!

I'm pretty sure that they can use 'trodes in their metahuman form, just like dragons. It's the drake form that cannot benefit from them.

I went for the implant because it seemed reasonable at the time but I won't if it means it stops working when I shift...can't have the tacnet go down for everyone else even if I can't use it at the time...

It won't necessarily go down for everyone else, it'll just become less effective since it'll lose access to your data.

...although there is stuff in Big D's will for companies working on the matrix problem for drakes and I know Transys is working on it...

<coughs>

Anyway, regarding connectivity, my character (Ambrose) is somewhat paranoid. He has a secure commlink dedicated to his PAN, but he keeps it completely wireless and never uses it for communication, which also means he won't be able (or more correctly, won't be willing) to share the data from the few sensors he has in his monocle and the like. Instead, he has a cheap CMT Clip that's probably full of adware, trojans, and virii that he basically just uses as a cellphone. So you probably don't want that connected to a network. I do have enough cash to buy a Micro-Transciever, and I can probably throw a couple sensors into that as a dedicated system, but he'll be operating it manually and only when absolutely necessary.

Think that'll work? (And hey, this gives me an idea for a new alchemical potion... will have to work on it once we get some down time...)

[Seth]

OK Guys its the 3rd today, and we kick off the game proper on the 7th.

Are there anymore things people want to do? As examples:

• There are quite a few missing pieces in the security briefings that you might want to find about
• There is the encrypted stuff and a node address you might want to go to
• You all have other contacts and relationships that you can chase for information.

[sabs]

Marduk would have liked to speak with Hestaby before leaving. If that was.. possible. Though he might have been seriously worried about The Thornies, and distracted by that.

[Seth]

Marduk would have liked to speak with Hestaby before leaving. If that was.. possible. Though he might have been seriously worried about The Thornies, and distracted by that.

I'm a little slow..."The Thornies"?


Can you give me around 10 charisma + etiquette rolls, what sort of questions are you asking?

[sabs]

Alachia and her children :)
Really, it's what he calls all the Blood Wood Elves, in the modern age. He's kinda hoping that the magic level will get high enough that the Ritual of Thorns will reactivate and make their lives a living hell for a couple thousand years again. :-)


Going to be asking, What wasn't in this lovely briefing. Why would Jenna have a Box made from Ysgarthe. Basically just trying to get more information out of Hestaby (hoping our Relationship of 5 will make him open up a bit more)

10 Rolls Charisma 4 + Etiquette 2
1) 1 3 1 6 1 6 (glitch)
2) 4 3 4 2 2 1 (0)
3) 3 6 1 2 6 3 (2)
4) 3 1 3 4 4 4 (0)
5) 3 5 3 1 3 3 (1)
6) 4 1 3 3 5 5 (2)
7) 4 5 2 6 5 3 (3)
8) 6 3 4 6 5 3 (3)
9) 1 3 1 4 2 3 (0)
10) 2 3 5 1 1 4 (1)

I am the mighty mighty roller of etiquette. I should have taken a specialty in Dragons :)

[Ol' Scratch]

Don't you get to add any Loyalty rating as bonus dice to get your contacts to reveal the information they know? Then again I don't know how that'll work with the Relationships bit.

Anyway, I didn't realize we had quite this much time before things went down. I thought it was much more of a rushed scenario. If possible, I think Ambrose may request a video conference with Celedyr, politely asking for his assistance in learning more about what is going on (particularly with the Matrix stuff) as well as asking for his counsel on the matter as a whole. After a moment, he will also hesitantly tell him about his encounter with Trais, praying that 10,000 years of friendship doesn't get wiped away by an 'accidental' Thor Shot.

[Seth]

So pleased to see glitches on etiquette rolls with dragons.

Luckily for you, that was the etiquette roll to get in to see Hestaby. You are basically stonewalled. Sorry

[pbangarth]

I'm in the process of moving from one house to another. Internet access may be spotty for a couple of days. I'll do my best.

[Ol' Scratch]

You may have missed this post, too. Happens to me all the time when a page change occurs. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Seth]

Anyway, I didn't realize we had quite this much time before things went down. I thought it was much more of a rushed scenario

If you look at the time line you all have a few hours free
The journey time in the helicopter (I didn't say but say its 6 hr), and the 6 hours waiting to get arrested.
The time in captivity (a day)

Your communication options are:

• via spirits (summoned or Mandala) that can teleport
• via commlink (Ryl can just own the rating 4 detention centre nodes)
• Via Aren who is stealthing around, and about as sneaky as its possible for a sneaky thing to be
• Anything else you can think of

I'm mostly trying to fill the time until kick-off productively and build up the background for the story.


As far as adding loyalty rating...you do?? awesome I didn't know. Doesn't work with the relationships though, only contacts.

After a moment, he will also hesitantly tell him about his encounter with Trais, praying that 10,000 years of friendship doesn't get wiped away by an 'accidental' Thor Shot.

Wow honesty and trust from a shadowrunner, ok working on it.

[Ol' Scratch]

I didn't think we were technically shadowrunners. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Seth]

I didn't think we were technically shadowrunners

Fair point

Outstanding actions:
Before we can kick off we need:

• Halinn's first IC post
• Fearghas's first IC post

Things that can be still investigated:

• The background to Aztechnology research pyramid code name Huitzilopochtli
• The names in the security briefing (there was a lot of redacted stuff)
• The encrypted file in the security briefing
• Zero's address "sexy@lotsOfFriends.com"
• If you really want to you could track Thais through the horror mark (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ork.gif)

[Sephiroth]

I will have my post up tonight.

I'm still a little confused about the redacted stuff in the security brief. You said that this was information obtained by spies (perhaps unknowingly) serving the Council/Alachia, right? Then why would she black out all that information? If she actually wants us to do the job she's assigned, we kinda need to be aware of those kinds of security details so we can plan accordingly. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/question.gif)

[sabs]

I will have my post up tonight.

I'm still a little confused about the redacted stuff in the security brief. You said that this was information obtained by spies (perhaps unknowingly) serving the Council/Alachia, right? Then why would she black out all that information? If she actually wants us to do the job she's assigned, we kinda need to be aware of those kinds of security details so we can plan accordingly. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/question.gif)

She didn't
The AI living in the Pyramid we're infiltrating redacted it.

[Seth]

It turns out that the only stuff Zero modified was DISPLAYED LIKE THIS.

The redaction had been applied at the source: apparently you didn't "Need To Know"... The reasoning of security weenies is always hard to understand.

Still thats what contacts are for.

[Aria]

Rule clarification: I use the -1 die per extra test for extended tests (that means I tend to have lower extended test targets of course), but I am happy to take that into account if you just roll the starting die in invisible castle. (I'll add this to the rule clarifications section in the first post).

Ok Mr big tough Ryl, lets flex those muscles. Lets keep this in the OOC thread until we have the results, then you can post the results IC.

• Do you want to start decrypting that message in the matrix security briefing? I think thats decrypt + electronics warfare (1 hour...who knows how many successes?).
• Do you want to go visit sexy@lotsOfFriends.com? An extended data search (1 hour, 12 successes) will find you a node
• Do you want to go visit the Aztechnology research facilities external matrix, or leave it to "The Thornies"?
• Do you want to data search any of the names / matrix ids given in the security briefings?

• Decrypt + electronics warfare (1 hour): 3 successes, then 1, then 2, then 2, then 2
• Find sexy@lotsOfFriends.com? Extended data search (1 hour, 12 successes): 4 successes, then 5, then 0, then 2
• Aztechnology research facilities external matrix, or leave it to "The Thornies"?: Probe = Hacking + Exploit Extended Test (1 hour VR): 9 successes, then 10, then 8, then 6 (Ryl ROCKS!)
• Data search any of the names / matrix ids: 3 then 3 then 2 then 4

Hopefully have time for all that lot, I didn't add up the hours! If I have some spare time I'll check out AzzieWatch to see if they have anything on the pyramid - or I could send my Agent 'Garyn' (after my lost love) to do it. Oh, and I've finished updating my sheet with a weaponised drone (which I guess isn't coming) and my Agent. I have assumed I can make copies of my progs to run on the Agent but if that's not the case the he'll need a series of pirated ones to run (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

All rolls can be found from the Invisible Castle link in my sig. Just out of interest is there a way to tell Invis Castle to take off 1D after each test? Would save some counting (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Seth]

OK rules stuff first:
I believe that as a competent hacker you can remove the copy protection on your programs to get to your agent. I assume you do it in the day or so a month that you have to devote to keeping your skills and programs up to date.
I don't think you can modify invisible castle: very sad.

Easy Results:

• Keep going on that encryption. Its seriously hard. You think you are making headway
• You have the link to sexy@lotsOfFriends.com.
• Jonathan Beaureguard: Lot of respect for this guy on the security forums. Good solid hacker with the odd flash of genius.
• Master Sergeant Huicton: Aztlan special ops for 5 years. Very bad man. Lots of suspected atrocity stuff
• Master sergeant Tiacapan: Aztlan paras. 7 years. Nothing bad on record.
• Camaxtli Cenyaotl (Spirit Bane). Failed Graduate of Charles University (3 years ago he was kicked out for gross misconduct).
• Tenzacatetl (Boss). VP of aztechnology. No records past 5 years ago.
• Ezhuahuacatl Opochtl (Snake head). You find video footage of him morphing into a man with cobra head, eating someone like a snake (totally and utterly sickening) and turning into them.
• Acatlozin Ahexotl (Warder). One seriously unpleasant dude. Born 2000. First murder when he was 6. Been killing ever since. You have find a recording of his being killed in a Texas prison (electric chair) in 2022. The same guy (finger prints and DNA match) re-emerged in the shadow scenes and ran a snuff movie house for 10 years before being closed down. He's now a respectable Aztlan citizen.
• There are a lot of Zeros. Really...lots and lots

Medium hard stuff (Inside the Aztech external security)
There is a spider on duty. Please make me a hacking+stealth roll, and a computer + analyse.

Exert from the medical requisitions:

"Major Nopaltzin. He's having some problems. Extradoses of clozapine, risperidone and aripiprazole are requested. Lots"
Captain Zeia is on a heavy diet of Manerix

Exerts from the email logs inside the external matrix.

From: Captain Zeia
To: Commandant Heisler

Bob,
I find myself in a difficult position. As loyal as I am to the goals of the company, I am finding this mission particularly challenging. Please reassign me immediately.

Zeia
---------------------------

From: Mst Sgt Tiacapan
To: John Rogor

<encrypted - but you cracked it>I'll tell you John, there is some weird shit going on in here. I have never felt so powerful, but the air feels twisted like a bad taste in the back of the throat. I had a run in with the boss last night. It was all I could do to avoid a show down. It feels like we are building to a climax. Everyone is so busy and the clock is ticking.

I love you
Sally
----------------------------
From: ZERO
To: Ryl
KNEW YOU WOULD GET THIS. ARE YOU GOING TO FIGHT ME? HOWS THE DECODING GOING?

Could

[Aria]

Medium hard stuff (Inside the Aztech external security)
There is a spider on duty. Please make me a hacking+stealth roll, and a computer + analyse.

5 Successes & 6 for computer+analyse

Oh, and my shadow handle is eTher - would that be the name Zero addressed me by?!?

[Seth]

OK the game kicks off for real tomorrow (7th March).

If you have any information gathering or anything to finish off please do it asap.

Hang on to your hats, it should be a fun ride

[pbangarth]

I have yet to do Mandala's gear, but given the current situation, i don't think that will interfere with play. I'll do that as we go.

[Seth]

Could you let me know what your plans are for the next 10 seconds or so:

Do you want to stay in the tunnel, or come out?
The background count is seriously unpleasant: your magic is reduced by, as are the force of any spells you have active, and any foci. Adepts can you decide what powers you loose?
The sound levels are horrific. Those in the tunnel are -2 to everything, those in the room -4. These penalties can be countered by damper ears (reduces the penalties by 2)

For those of you that are astrally active, the toxic spirits (just on the astral plane) are throwing a ball of fire in your general direction, it's travelling quite slowly. What do you want to do with it (duck, catch, blast it...)

The door to the observation area is to the south.

Currently you can detect no wifi network in the area: only huge amounts of electrical static noise.

[Alyena]

Don't like the way the toxic background is rising.... will get rid of that asap.

Will use cleansing meta magic to remove it: magic 9, counter spell 6, mentor 2, minus background level.
Default dice (4:1 rule) will just work. This will remove 1 level of background/sec.

Have spoken with the GM, assensing the ball of fire it looks to be a magical construct round a glob of nuclear fire.

Here is my slaughter spirit casting:
Casting roll: 9 successes (sadly capped to 7)
Drain roll: Using the 4:1 rule, no drain

If only i had done the force 9...

[Aria]

I confess I lost track of the timings for the IC post...let me know if there should be more of a gap before I report on my matrix findings...

...oh, and in relation to fireballs, I'll stay near the back for now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) no point in the comms getting fried before the group has a chance to do anything...

[sabs]

@Aria - Marduk passes over a Hermes Ikon that's still in the shrink wrapper, including a shrink wrapped Response upgrade chip. He also hands over a datachip, which when you search it holds the basics for his custom operating system, including his personalized config files, etc. It's geared towards Data Searching, Research and Organizing large data-sets.

@seth - Quick question for you. How high is the background count? How many ranks of Magic are we losing? I'm planning on running up to the big giant door, and lightly touching it with my fingers. I'm doing a combo move:
1) Psychometry/Assensign the door
2) Casting Analyse Device on the door to analyze the purpose and operation of a piece of equipment. I need to beat it's OR, so I'm probably overcasting the crap out of this spell.

Force 9 spell:

Spellcasting + Magic + foci 3 + edge = 4 + 6 + 3 = 13 - Background count
13d6 = i 3 6 4 5 5 3 5 1 5 4 6 1 5 = 7 hits (not sure what the OR of the door mechanism is)
Drain Value: 9/2 = 5?
Drain Test: Willpower(7) + Logic((IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) = 15d6 4 6 6 5 5 4 1 5 6 6 5 3 6 6 3 (10) hits
So I take 0 drain from that spell.

Assensing Test: Inuition(3)+Assensing(6)=9d6 3 4 4 5 6 1 4 6 3 (3) hits

[Seth]

@Sabs: The background count is 4, but Alyena is reducing it to 0 near here. The door is probably still at 2 at the point at which you get to it, although it is still dropping (cleansing takes time). That comes off magic attribute, and any foci. So only cost you 1 success. It added 2 to the drain, but with that roll you resisted it anyway

Edit: removed this post: it was for the wrong game

[ Spoiler ]

@aria: Can I get dahlia to first aid me? Her 4:1 die will just heal me back up to full I think. I'm thinking how to respond to these death happy psychotics (they went from terrorists, to misunderstood to psychotics in quite a short period of time (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ), I'll post tonight

[Aria]

@aria: Can I get dahlia to first aid me? Her 4:1 die will just heal me back up to full I think. I'm thinking how to respond to these death happy psychotics (they went from terrorists, to misunderstood to psychotics in quite a short period of time (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ), I'll post tonight

Wrong game but yes no problem...consider yourself healed (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Seth]

Wrong game but yes no problem...consider yourself healed

How embaressing is that ::blushes::

[Seth]

@everyone:
As you know this is my first pbp game that I am GMing, and I am struggling with how to manage time. At the moment we are all posting in an ad hoc way and that seems to be working OK. As I post Alyena is raining down unpleasantness on the spirits, and cleansing the air. Ryl has left her to deal with the threat, and is moving across to the door to investigate it. Ambrose / Ol'Scratch has sent me a PM and will be not posting for a few days at least. I'll wait until Wednesday pm for the rest of you to post, then respond IC. At the moment I don't think we need initiative as all the actions seem to be separate.

@aria:
can you chance the post details of your matrix post to include the words "-flashback" in the "when it happened sections. The covers your question about when it happened: it happened some time before the mission began, and the exact when isn't important. Thanks for pointing out I was posting in the wrong game.

@alyena:
the spirits reel back under the effect of that most impressive spell, they are fairly blasted and are covering taking cover in the heart of the reactor itself, which seems to be regenerating them.

@sabs, now that I am replying for the correct game:
The door looks about as tough as you would expect the main gamma shield into a reactor. Its made of concrete, boron, lead and quartz. The window through the door looks to be 15 centimetres but you are good enough at science to realize that its probably a meter or more thick and the apparent closeness of the other side is because of the high refractive index of the "glass".

The OR of the door is three (its made of some fairly exotic materials and has some some simple electronics)

The analyse device on the door reveals:

• The primary purpose of the door is to act as a barrier between 2 places, to stop motion except that which is allowed.
• The allowed direction is to allow people in. People rarely leave through the door, and only when they leave the door open.
• Its other main purpose is to stop radiation coming out of the room
• A secondary purpose of the door is to inform others and raise an alarm when the door is opened.
• Another secondary purpose is to provide enjoyment for toxic priests

The psychometry reveals a very distressing image from the door of a series of people who are hammering on the door, and slowly dying while trying to get out. A snake headed man watches them through the window, and is using their deaths to feed his magic.

Now that you look you can see some scratch marks on the door.

Your guess is that the concrete here is 2 or so meters thick, as is the gamma shield.

[Seth]

Ryl! We got a problem, can you hack this door? Do you have wireless in here? Or does Mandala have to cross into the other room?

You are pretty sure that the door cannot be hacked: no wireless, or wires connect it. It looks pretty straightforward although to open it from the other side. You would guess "that" big green switch that you can see through the quartz would open it. Probably take 10s or so to open: its a very big door.

[sabs]

Oh hey.. Mandala can use psychokinesis and open the door (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[pbangarth]

Sorry, out to job interviews etc. Caught me by surprise here, I had finished background work but not action in the tunnel. No probs.

Mandala raising a Radiation Barrier: I think his Magic is currently 8.

Radiation Barrier Force 5: Magic 8 + Spellcasting 3 = 11 dice ==> 6 HITS limited to 5 by the Force of the spell.

Drain resistance (5/2) + 5 = 7DV
WIL 7 +INT 8 + Centering 4 = 19 dice ==> 7 HITS leaves no drain!

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

[sabs]

That's a good question
1) Is there a Ward at the door's edge?
2) If so, what does it look like
3) Is Psychokinesis blocked by wards?

[Seth]

Oh hey.. Mandala can use psychokinesis and open the door

Cool idea

1) Is there a Ward at the door's edge?
2) If so, what does it look like
3) Is Psychokinesis blocked by wards?

Vaguely on the other side of the quartz window you can see an astral ward glowing with the same green colours as the nuclear fires of the reactor. The quartz makes it hard to assense through (-6 total minus's for casting though it). You would guess its a charged ward (p125 street magic) and a seriously high force one at that ( force 16). Probably lethal to attempt to touch it (16 damage soaked with body/will + mystic armour).

You options as I see it for the ward are:
1: Try warding and sleeze past it (intuition + magic + initiate grade) you think you need 4 successes (I am taking the 4:1 rule for the wards opposed roll), fluff it and get fried
2: Blast it with spells.
3: Do something clever I haven't thought of

Psychokinesis will be reduced by 6 strength/agility (reading p194 of sr4a ) You only need 1 strength/agility though.

@Pbangarth, you have a spell specifically designed for this "shatter shield". If you want you can change the spell for the "ranged LOS" version which has 2 more drain, but doesn't end up with you getting fried by the charged ward. This is probably one of the most unpleasant wards you have ever seen.

Your radiation barrier also appears to be warding the nuclear fire spirits: they don't seem to want to play any more. It increased the intensity of the commlinks whining: "Gamma pulse imminent. Gamma pulse imminent. Run. Run. Run." it's saying now. None of this "walk carefully and calmly to the nearest exit" stuff.

Edit: Alyena said to remind you that if you smash the ward, you will alert who ever created it: she was too lazy to post herself

[pbangarth]

I'm happy to change the Shattershield spell to a ranged version, thanks, Seth. Given that, I can blast the ward with this spell. Sleazing through a Force 16 ward would not be easy. (Force 16??!! Are you for real??!) Hmmm... actually sleazing is Mandala's best ability, but it would still be 24 dice for him versus 32 for the ward, unless he uses Edge, which would give him somewhat better than 50% chance. Also, I don't believe I can take other people through with me when I sleaze the ward. They also have to do it, so in this instance we will have to remove the ward rather than sneak through, because some of us are likely to fail.

As we understand it, the door will give an alarm if it is opened. Since it can't be hacked, we will set off an alarm as soon as we open it anyway. So unless someone vehemently objects, or something else happens, Mandala's next action will be to destroy the ward. (Positive thinking.)

[Aria]

@everyone:
As you know this is my first pbp game that I am GMing, and I am struggling with how to manage time. At the moment we are all posting in an ad hoc way and that seems to be working OK. As I post Alyena is raining down unpleasantness on the spirits, and cleansing the air. Ryl has left her to deal with the threat, and is moving across to the door to investigate it. Ambrose / Ol'Scratch has sent me a PM and will be not posting for a few days at least. I'll wait until Wednesday pm for the rest of you to post, then respond IC. At the moment I don't think we need initiative as all the actions seem to be separate.

Going well so far (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[sabs]

Sounds like we need to blow the Ward no matter what, taking 16 damage sounds Icky. This of course means that we're going to suffer some serious opposition, and Warder will be awake and aware of what we're doing. WHose bright idea was it to sneak in via the Nuclear Death RItual Chamber.

[Seth]

The "plan" was dumped on you by people that weren't going to take part in it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chicken_and_the_Pig lets you understand this more. They were interested in the plan, but you were committed to it.

You can just try astrally sneaking through the ward: that's why you were shown the astral signatures during the briefing.

[Seth]

@Pbangarth
Warder is pretty good at his job, and he gets all the nice blood magic benefits. The aztechs really don't want visitors.

For the ward I will just be using the 4:1 rule, so you "only" need 9 successes. The ward doesn't blast you if you fail in this attempt (see p124 street magic: "the ward doesn't alert the creator unless you try another approach"). The retry rule of "roll again but you have 1 fewer die each time is applicable, but I suspect you can all get through. The die you need is magic (9 for most people) + initiation (4 for most people) + intuition (say 3) so thats 17 die. I suspect this is the time to use a point of edge.

Most people can just walk though the ward (deactivate foci / cancel spells). People who cannot:
Mandala: spirit
Bjeorn: dual natured
Fearghas: has quickened spells

Now Mandala can be summoned on the far side by someone who can just step through it, (your group thread is a good enough link to allow any group member to summon you) so that just leaves Bjeorn and Fearghas.

[pbangarth]

If we can figure a way through for Bjeorn and Fearghas, then I'm happy sneaking through, otherwise I will shatter the ward. Any thoughts, gang? Presumably the moment we take here in RL to think this through represents our long-term association... "Oh yeah, remember when Mandala did that thing with his dooey ...we could do that now, too."

[Sephiroth]

Most people can just walk though the ward (deactivate foci / cancel spells). People who cannot:
Mandala: spirit
Bjeorn: dual natured
Fearghas: has quickened spells

Now Mandala can be summoned on the far side by someone who can just step through it, (your group thread is a good enough link to allow any group member to summon you) so that just leaves Bjeorn and Fearghas.

Fearghas can, just not right away. He would need to have a spirit follow the astral link back to Warder and assense him, and then Fearghas would be able to attune his aura to match Warder's so as to fool the ward.

[Seth]

Fearghas you probably missed it, but during the briefing you were shown warders aura.

[Sephiroth]

Fearghas you probably missed it, but during the briefing you were shown warders aura.

Ah yes, that's right. That certainly simplifies things. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I will have a post up tonight.

[Aria]

It would certainly be better to sneak than set an alarm off five minutes into the mission (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Just out of interest, what's the background count now? Has it been cleansed fully?

[Big Fella]

One rounds worth of bashing the door: 3, 3, 2 and 4 successes
Base damage str 4, Claws 2, critical strike 7, Martial arts DV+3 = 16. Times 2 using focus = 32.

So damage 35, 35, 34 and 36. That should do the job!

Masking my way through the ward: 19die. Made it on the first try(needed 9 successes, got 10) http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2925229/

[pbangarth]

Is the door bashing coming after or before dealing with the ward? I thought after.

[Seth]

The concrete wall is armour 24, so rolls 48 die to absorb damage:

18, 17, 18, 15 damage absorbed

The first punch has 35 - 18 = 17 damage. Thats a one square meter hole.

After the four punches we have a 1m *2m hole thats smashed through the 2m thick concrete wall.

The rubble errupting on the far side is (I think) impressive, so the people on the far side need to make composure rolls or just gibber. In any case they are stunned for a round (at -2 on all actions).

One of them is just gibbering, the other is reaching for the communicator.

[Seth]

At the end of every cycle of me posting, your replying, when a couple of combat rounds have gone by, I will try and do one of these situation summaries.

Situation summary: 00:00:18 21st Jun 2010 (end of round 2 in the reactor room)

At the end of couple of combat rounds inside the reactor:

• Alyena has cowed the spirits (they seemed to be just playing) and cleansed the area up to the ward (background count down to zero).
• Mandala's radiation ward is keeping them at bay, and preventing the rest of you from taking radiation damage.
• The sound is still a problem, even with damper ears you are at -2.
• The ward is a force 16 charged ward, created you are fairly sure with blood magic.
• The door has been examined is between 1m and 2m thick, and has a quartz window that you can just see the controls (which are on the other side of the ward).
• Psychokinesis would probably work, but would have to overcome the ward.
• You have discovered that the reactor is actually a Nuclear Death Ritual Chamber.
• Bjorn has smashed a hole through the concrete wall (ignoring any subtleties such as TKing buttons), masked his way through the ward and is facing the reactor technicians
• Visibility modifiers in the reactor room and observation room are equivalent to smoke because of the dust from the wall being smashed.

Fearghas and Arren still have to post

Things for you lot to do:

• I would appreciate it if people could roll initiative now for rounds 3 and 4, as the deadly reactor technicians with their lab coats and clipboards will be acting next round. So far you have been unopposed clearly the bad guys are not prepared for you!
• When you get into the observation room, you discover that there is a wifi network around. (it is not hidden)
• What are you doing with your commlinks(are you slaving them to Ryls?)
• Do you have a tacnet?

As a side note: Ambrose / Ol'scratch is sadly not going to be posting for a few days, perhaps longer (medical reasons), I will play him as staying at back recovering from the drain of using the tunneling device.

[Seth]

@Aria, you can roleplay Aria's involvement freely. I don't mind what assistance she gives, as long as it is in character for her.

[pbangarth]

Well, OK, then. If Fearghas is going to try to sleaze through the ward, and Bjeorn is already through, then Mandala might as well try it, too. I'm not sure there is much surprise anymore, Aria, what with the earthquake through the wall. There must be radiation warnings going off throughout the building, or there will be as soon as the Radiation Barrier is dropped.

Mandala's Initiative rolls for rounds 3 and 4 (I'm assuming the -2 for the noise does not affect this?):

12 dice (on physical plane) -2 for sustained Radiation Barrier = 10 dice ==> 2 HITS, 2 HITS ... hmmpph.

round 3 ==> 14
round 4 ==> 14

[Big Fella]

That was my Stealth attack

That was me stealthy

[Seth]

There must be radiation warnings going off throughout the building

Gamma radiation (the only serious threat) travels in a straight line, so you would be surprised if much of the building is impacted. The tunnel through is oblique to the reactor itself, so only a very narrow strip is affected.

what with the earthquake going off

I've not had to worry about seismic sensors to detect players before now...

[Seth]

(I'm assuming the -2 for the noise does not affect this?):

I've no idea what RAW says, but I am happy for it not to affect initiative

[pbangarth]

That was my Stealth attack

That was me stealthy

Heaven help us! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/twirl.gif)

[Aria]

@Aria, you can roleplay Aria's involvement freely. I don't mind what assistance she gives, as long as it is in character for her.

I'll take on the challenge of playing my namesake, just need to get myself into the mindset of mischevious ten year old meets ancient wisdom (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Not sure about the hacking rules of all this but in principal Ryl will want to stop the techie making a comm call...electronic warfare jamming or hacking an account on the commlink? Any thoughts which would be best...I assume Ryl would know even if I haven't got a clue (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I'll be in AR as I don't want to drop my body on the floor in the middle of a reactor (or the control room)...oh, and Ryl's naked and running her optical camoflage...initiative (at -2 response - see character sheet) = 19 with 3IPs hot sim

[pbangarth]

Seth, now that you have had us roll Initiative, do you want us to wait to declare our actions in Initiative order, or just go ahead as before?

In any case, it looks as if Mandala's first action in round 3 will be to sneak through the ward, but he will leave the reactor room after everyone else has passed through the ward, as he wants to drop the Radiation Barrier to lose its distraction while attempting to pass through the ward.

Here's the roll for scamming the ward, whenever it takes place (I'm assuming the background count is no worse than 1):

Magic 9 + INT 8 + Edge 8 = 25 dice ==> 9 HITS

That should do it.

On the other side, his second action in round 3 will be to study the frightened technician in detail, both in the astral and in the physical. He wants to have the option to masquerade as this individual. You'd be surprised where an insignificant lackey blubbering in abject terror will be allowed to go.

I'm not sure whether a dual-natured being such as Mandala needs to make separate Assensing and Perception Tests in such a case. I'll roll the Assensing now:

INT 8 + Assensing (auras) 4 + Active looking 3 - distraction of noise 2 = 13 dice ==> 2 HITS

Hmm... enough to recognize him again, anyway, so that should do for pretending to be him.

[sabs]

Stealthy is as stealthy does.
I gotta figure out if I can even come close to 9 successes for sleazing that ward.

Sleazing: Magic((IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) +Initiate (4)+Intuition(3)+edge(2)=5 5 1 3 1 1 3 6 5 3 6 3 2 6 5 2 6 2 ((IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) hits, 4 Rerolls: 3 5 3 6 (2) hits, 1 Reroll: 2 Total hits (10)

Woot, I made my sleaze roll.

Initiative: 6+6d6=1 6 4 5 1 6(3) = 9

Since I was standing right there, I'll match my aura, slide through the ward and then on my initiative cast Mana Bolt on the guy going for the comm system.

Spellcasting test:
Magic(6)+Spellcasting(4)+SpellFocus(3)=13d6 5 2 1 5 5 2 3 5 4 6 3 2 2 (5) hits
Force: 9 Spell going to use up to 3 hits for damage value increase. So it would do 9
Drain Value: (9/2)+3=5+3=8
Drain Test: 15d6 = 6 3 5 6 1 6 3 4 1 2 6 2 4 4 5 (6) hits 2 Drain

Stun Track: 2/12