The Agency: Fear & Loathing OOC Options

[dionysus]

Actually, the decision hasn't been made to send an astral watcher along: people have expressed concerns that it might tip off the target. Also, there's the possibility of whistling for the hired transport, which'll put you a few minutes behind it, but might be able to catch up.

[BlackHat]

As for the watcher, I think I previously argued that it might, but Oracle would probably be a little more certain that it either will or won't.

Once the watcher is summoned, Oracle can astrally percieve it, and ask: "Will sending the watcher will tip them off."
24 dice:
#D=20 : 21544263256263555363 n1=1 n6=4 nHit=9
#D=4 : 3633 n1=0 n6=1 nHit=1

= 10 hits!

As for hiring transport to follow, I forgot that was an option, but that sounds good. We'll need to get there, eventually, and flying after it seems better than hiking.

[De Badd Ass]

Actually, the decision hasn't been made to send an astral watcher along: people have expressed concerns that it might tip off the target. Also, there's the possibility of whistling for the hired transport, which'll put you a few minutes behind it, but might be able to catch up.

Actually, the watcher issue is irrelevant as Ziro summoned a Force 6 Air Spirit to follow the vehicle (remote service).

The question Ziro had was should he also follow the vehicle, or remain behind providing overwatch at the cabin.

OOC:
Blackhat said, "Either one."
Alex said, "Security, please."
DireRadiant did not respond.

None of the PCs have responded IC.

So Ziro continues to provide overwatch until told otherwise.

Ziro will have to take some action at or before dawn, as the remote service expires at that time. He'll send the bound spirit to tract the vehicle if the group decides that it is definitely the target.

I thought we were all waiting on Dionysus. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

[BlackHat]

Ah, well, I'll ask the same question about Ziro following, and change my "either one" to one or the other.

[DireRadiant]

Whatever the risk of being discovered is, that needs to be weighed against what happens if we are not in place to see what happens with the cargo when it arrives at the destination. I think it will take time to get to where the delivery is made, and keeping that gap down would make it easier to track what's happening.

If someone was going to identify us and intervene, they could and possibly should have done so already.

[dionysus]

See IC. Are you going to follow it, or wait until it lands/the spirit vanishes?

[BlackHat]

Thanks for bumping this. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) We seemed gridlocked with indecision.

[ludomastro]

We seemed gridlocked with indecision.

To quote Teal'c: "Indeed."

[De Badd Ass]

I knew it was to good to be true!

The stuff about remote services was changed in the errata. I will amend my IC post accordingly.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[ludomastro]

EDITED to remove post that made no sense.

[De Badd Ass]

Is it dawn yet?

[dionysus]

Dawn breaks, roll for the summoning if you'd like. @Ziro, you're going to continue with your plan about following in the astral? Give an assensing roll when you get a chance.

How about the rest of you?

[ludomastro]

Grandpa has a tracking device in play but if he can't get airborne it won't do him much good.

[BlackHat]

Yeah, I think our plan was (nobody had any objections, anyway) to call in our transport, and have it follow some distance behind (so we can keep our tracker in range, but hopefully not have the tail noticed by the rigger driving the TBird).

[dionysus]

Yeah, I think our plan was (nobody had any objections, anyway) to call in our transport, and have it follow some distance behind (so we can keep our tracker in range, but hopefully not have the tail noticed by the rigger driving the TBird).

Sweet. Ok, give me a couple days to get everything together (my p&p meets tomorrow as well), I'll try to make a couple big posts on Sunday to get everything moving again.

[De Badd Ass]

Sweet. Ok, give me a couple days to get everything together (my p&p meets tomorrow as well), I'll try to make a couple big posts on Sunday to get everything moving again.

I'll wait until then.

[dionysus]

One note about following the t-bird: if Ziro astrally projects & his body goes with everybody to follow, should anything go awry he has to do some astral tracking to find his body again (SR4 p184 & 185).

@Oracle:
"Will Ziro following the t-bird tip off the enemy?"
It's a little vague, but you do get the impression that there are astral patrols at some point...you're pretty sure that they don't come into play until the landing site, wherever that is, but there might be something before then. There's definitely astral overwatch that you're going to have to contend with.

@Ziro:
Roll for summoning the new air spirit, please. I'd also like an Assensing roll on the ward & auras you can see in the t-bird.

@all:
So the target seems to be headed for a landing outside Minneapolis. What's your plan?

[De Badd Ass]

@Ziro:
Roll for summoning the new air spirit, please. I'd also like an Assensing roll on the ward & auras you can see in the t-bird.

@all:
So the target seems to be headed for a landing outside Minneapolis. What's your plan?

I did not plan to follow the vehicle personally, as my first priority is to provide overwatch on the group (see post #103). The plan is to join the original air spirit a few minutes before dawn, then summon a new air spirit right after dawn. Have the new spirit take over the tracking duties. Return to my body. I would use watcher spirits to track my body, while I was gone.

Since the watcher spirits I originally summoned probably expired before dawn. I will summon some more right before I depart.

Here are the rolls requested:

Ziro summons some watcher spirits. Two hours should be more than enough.
Roll Magic + Summoning + Focus = 13d6; hits = hours of service
Spirit Rolls hours of service (max=6) to challenge summoning = 6d6
Roll Willpower + Logic to mitigate Drain = 9d6

13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [3,3,2,6,3,2,3,2,4,3,5,1,2] = (2)
13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [2,6,3,2,6,2] = (2)
13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [5,2,4,4,4,1,2,4,5] = (2)

13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [1,3,3,1,6,5,5,3,4,6,1,5,6] = (6)
13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [3,4,3,2,5,6] = (2)
13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [1,1,5,4,1,5,4,4,2] = (2)

13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [2,1,4,2,2,3,4,2,2,5,6,1,5] = (3)
13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [5,3,6,4,2,6] = (3)
13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [1,2,3,6,6,4,6,3,3] = (3)

Ziro figures 3 watchers is enough redundancy.

Ziro Conjures a Force 6 Air Spirit
Roll Magic + Summoning + Focus + Mentor = 15d6
Spirit Rolls Force to challenge summoning = 6d6
Roll Willpower + Logic to mitigate Drain = 9d6

15d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [3,6,6,4,1,6,6,6,3,4,1,5,4,3,5] = (7)
15d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [2,3,2,5,3,3] = (1)
15d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [6,3,6,1,5,6,3,1,2] = (4)

Ziro ask the Air Spirit to perform the following set of remote services:

• follow the target vehicle until sunset.
• notify Ziro if and when the vehicle lands.
• conceal itself.
• conceal Ziro, his teammates, and their vehicle (but not from each other) when they are within the spirits range.
• Assense everything entering or exiting the vehicle. communicate the results to Ziro.
• Defend itself if necessary.
• Defend Ziro and his teammates if they are attacked.

Assensing rolls:

Scan cabin prior to departure, looking for last minute surprises: 7d6.hits(5) → [6,2,2,5,2,1,1] = (2)
Scan vehicle for wards: 7d6.hits(5) → [5,4,2,3,4,1,6] = (2)
Scan area for auras: 7d6.hits(5) → [1,5,4,3,5,1,6] = (3)

As for the plan, that would depend on the assensing rolls, I guess.
I'll make the IC post then.

[dionysus]

I did not plan to follow the vehicle personally, as my first priority is to provide overwatch on the group (see post #103). The plan is to join the original air spirit a few minutes before dawn, then summon a new air spirit right after dawn. Have the new spirit take over the tracking duties. Return to my body. I would use watcher spirits to track my body, while I was gone.

Got it, sorry for the misunderstanding.

Assensing rolls:

Scan cabin prior to departure, looking for last minute surprises: 7d6.hits(5) → [6,2,2,5,2,1,1] = (2)
Scan vehicle for wards: 7d6.hits(5) → [5,4,2,3,4,1,6] = (2)
Scan area for auras: 7d6.hits(5) → [1,5,4,3,5,1,6] = (3)

As for the plan, that would depend on the assensing rolls, I guess.
I'll make the IC post then.

Cabin assensing: there doesn't seem to be anything in or around the cabin than you & your teammates; also the spirit flitting back and forth periodically.
Vehicle wards: you know about the ward around the cargo, and now that you have a chance to look more closely at it, you can identify what's been bothering everybody: the ward reeks of toxic magic.

Re. scanning area of auras...not sure which area you mean. The target vehicle?

[BlackHat]

@Oracle:
"Will Ziro following the t-bird tip off the enemy?"
It's a little vague, but you do get the impression that there are astral patrols at some point...you're pretty sure that they don't come into play until the landing site, wherever that is, but there might be something before then. There's definitely astral overwatch that you're going to have to contend with.

Since I asked this before he left, can we assume Oracle gave Ziro some kind of cryptic warning about his activities on the astral possibly being discovered once the vehicle has landed?

I say we put our bird down, nonchalantly somewhere, if possible. This is a big city, so unless we try to land within LOS of the target, they have no reason to believe we're following them.

In that time, I expect they're going to begin unloading the cargo, and our tracker round is on the vehicle, not the cargo, so if they move it before we get back, that would be bad.

We could either keep Ziro around to follow them astrally (understanding that soem sort of astral patrol will intercept him at some point, and the alarm will be raised), or we could take our chances landing nearby.

IIRC our objective isn't necessarily to recover the cargo, it was to investigate where ti was being taken - that probably means where in the city. So I think tracking them, in some form, would be our best bet - except that once they get where they are going, security is sure to be much tighter.

*shrugs* THose are my thoughts.

[dionysus]

Since I asked this before he left, can we assume Oracle gave Ziro some kind of cryptic warning about his activities on the astral possibly being discovered once the vehicle has landed?

Sure. It's a little moot since he chose not to follow himself, but I assume since he had the spirit conceal/defend itself that the warning (or at least prudent caution) was communicated to the spirit.

[BlackHat]

Right, and as we approach the landing zone, if we don't decide to use astral recon to keep tabs on it, it might be a good idea to pull the spirit back entirely.
Of course, so far, I don't have a better idea to suggest. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[De Badd Ass]

Re. scanning area of auras...not sure which area you mean. The target vehicle?

I used one assensing test on the wards. I used the other assensing test to check for astral "escorts" - beings around the vehicle - leading, following, surrounding, etc.

[dionysus]

I used one assensing test on the wards. I used the other assensing test to check for astral "escorts" - beings around the vehicle - leading, following, surrounding, etc.

Got it. Nothing other than the usual traffic in astral space.

[ludomastro]

I'm good with landing nearby as tracking the shipment is top priority.