OOC- Shadow's Dawn: Diving into the past Options

[Seth]

I guess the way the illusions work is:
Subtract OP from successes
Then its a perception roll vs your nett successes.

When I responded earlier, I forgot about the second roll. So I guess the answer to the question "how many do I need" is "as many as possible"

@Sabs
Yes you did a psychometry...there is more there if look (its effectively an extended test and the more successes the more you learn)

[pbangarth]

@Pbangarth
Your assessment is that Sanguine is not going to significantly inpede the blood flow: he is feeding from the blood. Are you astral or mundane? If mundane can you make perception roll?

Well, the merging with the pump would not be what Mandala wanted, so in Round 16 he would have materialized to see what he could do to physically disable the pump. Maybe stop the output out of the room, so the Blood Spirit would still have lunch.

Perception roll: INT 8 + Perception 2 = 10 dice ==> 1 HIT ...d'uhhhh ... the room is rectangular, right?

[pbangarth]

I'm not sure what needs to still be done to move the WWII sub-thread forward. Is there something I can do?

Is it a problem that we have two incarnations of the same PCs going on at the same time? Would it make it easier for the players to suspend the thread in the 'present' whenever we go off into another time-frame?

Any ideas, gang?

[Seth]

Sorry for the slow posting. I am currently in my sickbed (came to LA for three weeks work, and ended up with an unpleasant sickness).

It's up to me to move the WWII thread to Hitlers meeting, and I will do it as soon as I am well enough to be thinking clearly.

I don't think I will be responding to posts for a couple of days (doctors orders: go to bed and don't do anything)

See you all in a few days

[pbangarth]

Toxic, radioactive sludge flooding LA will do that, Seth. Oh... wait... that's in the alternate reality... right.

[pbangarth]

OK, so we the players have a couple of days to catch our collective breath and plan so as to take full advantage of the surprise we still sort of have.

[Aria]

Whilst I would like to request that we "take off and nuke the site from orbit" that would be cheesy so I won't, and we can't anyway so the point is moot. We've got a poor defenceless (possibly mutant) girl to rescue, a small army of drones coming our way and a larger army of pissed off Azzie grunts, oh and a horror to defeat...so plan?!?

[sabs]

And Gilder to frame for it.
Frankly, we're swamped.

[Seth]

Well that feels a lot better! I am human once again.

@Pbangarth
You can roll any mechanical skill or chemistry or anything that seems sensible to see if you can work out how to disable the pumps. If not we can always default to strength -1 as that seems a sensible default for smashing randomly. (You could also zip back / mind link / zip here and send the images to others with more technical skills)

@WWII
This video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1wKO3rID9g is very funny if you are into software development. Even if not though, it shows the sort of meeting that you are in.

[Sephiroth]

Since Fearghas is posing as von Tresckow in WWII, who was one of the leading members of the resistance against Hitler and who helped plan several assassination attempts, I will try to put up a post tomorrow giving y'all some things to work with. I haven't been sure what to do to start off in it thus far, since Fearghas is more or less just chillin' in the Wolf's Den at the moment.

[Alyena]

Hi all,

Sorry haven't been posting last few days, have had a busy weekend with Scouting things.

As we have a lull in the main thread at the moment and seem to be standing in the lion's den in WW2 should we finalise a plan for Hitler?

I can confuse any guard etc who may want to check the briefcase. The room being small with so many people in it could be either good or bad for us. Should we go with the spirit possession idea or just plain old distraction/slight of hand? I'm willing to give the summoning a try but with the magic so low and background so icky it will be a very tiny (force 1) spirit at best! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[pbangarth]

Well that feels a lot better! I am human once again.

Glad to have you back!

@Pbangarth
You can roll any mechanical skill or chemistry or anything that seems sensible to see if you can work out how to disable the pumps. If not we can always default to strength -1 as that seems a sensible default for smashing randomly. (You could also zip back / mind link / zip here and send the images to others with more technical skills)

Hey! Electrical Engineering 2!

OK, LOG 4 + Electrical Engineering 2 = 6 dice ==> 3 HITS!

Right then. That should let him figure out how to muck with the power. I'll post IC soon.

[Seth]

@Pbangarth
These pipes are complex. Not as nice as wiring on a nice circuit diagram. However as every electrical engineer knows, plumbing is just like electricity. Replace volts with pressure, amps with flow and you are laughing.

So using the "if only it was an electrical circuit" you realise that this pump is in parallel with the other blood pumps. Some quick calculations based on Bernouli's equation, mapping it onto Kirchoff's law makes you think that basically this is a pump set in parallel with the other pumps. You think that it is running at roughly 1/4 its maximum power, making you think that any of the other pumps could take over the load of all three.

However if you quick calculations are correct you need to do three things:

• Reverse the polarity (I've always wanted to say that in a game!) These are simple DC motors running with a lead acid uninterruptable power supply. If you reverse the polarity across the motor, it will spin the other way. That will be bad for this motor, and the other motors.
• Increase the gain on the control system (i.e. tweak this dial here), this will make the pump "oscillate"...i.e. pump harder, them softer, then harder... This is almost always bad for the pump, but it will also be very bad for the other motors on the same circuit...they may start to oscillate too, and instead of the blood pumping in the desired direction, it will be moving at random speeds and in random directions
• Remove the safety trip: there is a governor designed to switch this motor off should it start to act chaotically...if you are correct, after a while, the safety circuit on the other pumps will trip...

[sabs]

Moments like this is when I wish Mandala was a possession spirit (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
I do have levitate as well. Although with the background count. I'm not sure I can swing even a force 1 spell.

[Seth]

I do have levitate as well. Although with the background count. I'm not sure I can swing even a force 1 spell.

Don't forget edge, and the 4:1 rule. A force 1 levitate is easily enough for a briefcase

[sabs]

Yeah but I would need to get 6 hits on 5 dice (or 7 if I use edge) that's HIGHLY unlikely.

Well here lets check my math:

Magic(6)+Spellcasting(4)-Background(5)=5d6
Cast force 6 Levitate, -5 = force 1 levitate.

My question is, how many hits do I need on my spellcasting test?

[Seth]

I may have been doing this wrong, but I though that the force of the spell was not diminished by the background count, just foci and your magic. I am AFB until this evening, but I will check it then.

[Sephiroth]

I may have been doing this wrong, but I though that the force of the spell was not diminished by the background count, just foci and your magic. I am AFB until this evening, but I will check it then.

Sustained spells are.

EDIT:

Is it a problem that we have two incarnations of the same PCs going on at the same time? Would it make it easier for the players to suspend the thread in the 'present' whenever we go off into another time-frame?

I have been of similar mind lately. I think that would indeed make things easier.

[Seth]

I have been of similar mind lately. I think that would indeed make things easier.

The two threads were an experiment. I think the WWII did not work very well, so I will try and make the next one better. One of the key results I think is this suggestion. So I propose that we stop posting in 2070, finish the WWII stuff, and then go back to 2070.

[pbangarth]

I knew I should have waited for Seth to respond to my roll. OK, I will edit my IC post to reflect the GM's suggestions.

[Aria]

The two threads were an experiment. I think the WWII did not work very well, so I will try and make the next one better. One of the key results I think is this suggestion. So I propose that we stop posting in 2070, finish the WWII stuff, and then go back to 2070.

Sounds like a plan... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Not that I have any clue what Fraulien Klien is up to in WWII (or even if that was her name!?!)

[Seth]

OK I am just heading off to work. I'll try and sort out a summary of who is who, what is what for the WWII thread, similar to the ones I do in 2070. I should have that ready tonight

[sabs]

@Seth: Is the briefcase already here? sitting underneath Hitler?

I assume I was carrying the suitcase/bomb (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Marduk would have been motivated to do that.
I want to assense the area, see how many awakened losers/spirits/nasties are about.

I believe that in WW2 My assensing is going to be: 9d6 - effects of Force.
3 6 4 5 6 3 4 5 3 (4) hits

[Seth]

OK first a who's who:

• Sabs / XXX I cannot find my reference to your name: can you post it and I will edit this
• Sephiroth / GeneralMajor von Trescow. Already standing around the table in a conversation with 2 others as the main bulk of you arrive
• Aria / Fraulein Petra Klein (Archaeologist).
• Big Fella / Han Bar. SS Officer who is part of your team, providing security and stormtrooping as you explore archaeological stuff
• Pbangarth / Nobert Schantz. Film maker. Busy fusing around setting up the lights, has a camera man with him. Mostly being ignored by everyone
• Alyena/XXX I cannot find my reference to your name: can you post it and I will edit this

@sabs
Hitlers briefcase is at his feet.
There is a force 4 spirit watching the proceedings in the corner of the room, sitting behind Hitler. There is a 50/50 chance you think that it can see the briefcase at all.

[sabs]

Uh, it can't be force 4, unless you're saying it's force 9?
A force 4 spirit cannot manifest in a -5 background count.
Spirits, being creatures of living mana, are perhaps even more vulnerable to background count. A spirit’s Force is reduced in the same manner as a character’s Magic, thus affecting the spirit’s attribute
and spirit powers as well. A spirit is disrupted (Disruption, p. 94) if it’s Force is reduced to 0 or less.

Marduk is going by 2 names: Yuri Resnik is the name he's going by. Hans Schultz is the name on his forged German Papers.