Umbrae Europae [IC] (part 3) - Mist of Nycthemeron, A third installment of the Umbrae Europae Campaing (started elsewhere) Options

[Jack_Spade]

Rex had one favor left with Princess Kikone and decided it would be best used if he wound up in trouble to bail him out.
Once the car had stopped at a safe location, he left his body behind and made his way on the astral towards the mansion. He was confident that he would be able to penetrate even a strong barrier, but at the very least he would learn what kind of protectors the Draco Foundation had left behind.

[ Spoiler ]

Astral Perception
Astral Perception: 15d6t5 6
Assensing
Assensing: 11d6t5 3

[Romain Pelisse]

Arles is an old city, field with history, and the all the buildings have seen generation of people living in it, or passing through it. It makes the astral space around it quite rich and beautiful, but also makes for a difficult read. However, in the comfort of his astral body, Rex finally managed to assert that quiet, chunk of colors he watches is indeed the small building that hosted for some years the Contos Archive. At his surprise, there is no ward, nor magical protection around the building. However, he does spot a little figure, floating more and less in front of what appears to be the main door. The little creature look like a tiny human, wearing a turban over his head.

Rex cannot refrain a smile to grow on his (astral) face - the little creature looks exactly like a genie out of a bottle ! But he knows better than trust deceiving appearance, so he quickly assess the little spirit - a simple watcher. The watcher immediately stands to guards as he can feel somebody is assessing him. Fortunately, Rex is well hidden behind an other building and remains out of sight of the tiny spirit.

[Romain Pelisse]

Arles is an old city, field with history, and the all the buildings have seen generation of people living in it, or passing through it. It makes the astral space around it quite rich and beautiful, but also makes for a difficult read. However, in the comfort of his astral body, Rex finally managed to assert that quiet, chunk of colors he watches is indeed the small building that hosted for some years the Contos Archive. At his surprise, there is no ward, nor magical protection around the building. However, he does spot a little figure, floating more and less in front of what appears to be the main door. The little creature look like a tiny human, wearing a turban over his head.

Rex cannot refrain a smile to grow on his (astral) face - the little creature looks exactly like a genie out of a bottle ! But he knows better than trust deceiving appearance, so he quickly assess the little spirit - a simple watcher. The watcher immediately stands to guards as he can feel somebody is assessing him. Fortunately, Rex is well hidden behind an other building and remains out of sight of the tiny spirit.

[Jack_Spade]

A stationary watcher only made sense if there were other, hidden protections. Using the shadows of the houses and the ability to move through solid matter, Rex carefully closed in on the building's back trying to stay out of sight as well as possible before entering the building itself.

[ Spoiler ]

Stealth (Astral) Int+Sneak: 15d6t5 7

[Romain Pelisse]

After a few instants, looking without any success to where the assessing could have come from, the little creature resume its position. It looks quite bored and could not refrain to yawn while Rex is maneuvering around it...

[ Spoiler ]

@Jack_Spade I got screwed by knowledge of previous edition. I think Watched used to be easy to invoke and task for "stay there a month", but reading again the Ritual associated with Watcher, I realized they are - weirdly enough, only designed to stick around for some hours. In this case, let's replace the little fellow by a simple Force 3 Spirit of Man that has been ordered to monitor the place.

Will the bored genie spot Rex ?: 7d6t5 1

... And clearly, it fails to spot the mage who can sneak into the small building unnoticed. Inside the house, it is very dark and smell or fells .... abandoned. Clearly nobody have been into this place for years, and the astral allows one to taste that. There no sense of dread, or angst, but the place sounds almost... forgotten. A quick look around astral does not reveals anything worth noticing from the astral place. The quiet silence and shades of emptiness covers almost everything, and any items in the room, reflecting into the astral appears grey and dull...

[Jack_Spade]

Not content with cursory glances, Rex began to move through walls and floors, looking for hidden vaults or shielded cassettes. He was aware that it had been a long shot, but he had hoped to find at least some clue.
He began with his search in the cellar and moved gradually upward.

[ Spoiler ]

Astral Search Check: 15d6t5 5

[Romain Pelisse]

It takes a while for Rex to explore carefully every inch of the place - especially as he has to dodge the bored little spirit, coming inside from time to time, however he finally found something. Well hidden, or rather well forgotten, there is indeed, a sort of hole, inside one of the wall of the ground floor. On the astral space, it can also distinctly feels the echo of somekind of item, long forgotten...

[Jack_Spade]

Rex quickly returned to his body. The next part would best be accomplished by a drone. The little gizmos where a lot harder to spot on the astral and had the added bonus of actually being able to retrieve any findings.
<<Good news, this whole excursion might not be a total waste of time. I found something in the estate. It's otherwise pretty much dead, only one week guarding spirit. I'll describe to you where to look...>>

[Haywire]

#40

Waywalker looked carefully at Rex's words in AR before activating his Fly-Spy and going in full VR.
"I think a little extra paranoia can't really hurt..."

[ Spoiler ]

drive the fly-spy: 14d6t5 4
fly-spy stealth: 12d6t5 4
ew through the sensors: 21d6t5 4

[Romain Pelisse]

Rex patient astral searching had took hours and so the sun is now rising as the tiny drone flies away from the runners vehicle. Invisible to the naked eye in his little device, Waywalker quickly finds a hole in the building to slip in. However, inside, it is pretty dark, and it takes a few instant to get its bearing. The interior of the house is visibly empty and has been for years. Expect for layer and layer of dust, Waywalker cannot see anything of value at first.

Finally, helped by Rex tagging in AR, on the feeds, where he felt "something". The drone is flying along the wall, but fails to find any kind of entrance or opening. Not even some kind of secret panel. Landing right where the hidden compartment should be, Waywalker suddenly realizes that there is indeed something, just beneath the wallpaper. Like a set of papers which have been somehow walled when someone glued over the wallpaper...

[ Spoiler ]

@Jack_Spade I consider your astral search took hours because, as you can imagine, awakened of all sort, working for the Draco Foundation have most likely already "scanned" the house, and would have therefore found any information of value.

[Jack_Spade]

Realizing that the Princess would depart shortly, Rex asked her for a last favor: 'Please, before you depart, fetch whatever there is hidden behind the wall - discreetly if possible but quickly if not.'

[Romain Pelisse]

As Waywalker heard his partner, he realized immediatly that his request might not be possible. Even the drone has some tool to cut open the wallpaper, the content hidden behind will most likely be to heavy for the drone. Also, a flying set of page across the air might not be as discreet as the lone fly-spy...

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

I'm not sure I understand you correctly, but I'd think a F9 spirit will have no trouble breaking open the wall and carrying out whatever is inside.
The spirit has concealment, so it might be able to pull this off without being detected, but if not it is supposed to just power through and deliver it as quickly as possible.

[Romain Pelisse]

Shaking his head, Waywalker realizes suddenly that "Princess" is not the nickname Rex gave his drone, but that the mage is most likely talking to one of his spirit.

[ Spoiler ]

@Haywire, sorry that your character had to take the blame for the game master,me, not reading things properly...

Indeed immediately Waywalker feels through the drone sensor a sudden change in the air pressure, and small rise of the temperature. Something has clearly materialized, albeit somewhat conceal in the room. He then flies the drone away from the target, before the wallpaper magically tears apart freeing a set of old papers, that immediately disappear into the mass of barely visible matter Waywalker knows to be "Princess".

Suspecting what is going to happen next, the Waywalker flies the drone through the narrow opening and gets out of the building just in time to see the door of the house being forced open by Princess. As the spirit is still concealed, Waywalker can only guess where its manifested form is, but the sensor array of the drone is good enough to allow to know that Princess is now rushing toward their vehicle, with their (hopefully) precious cargo. However, the exit might not have been unnoticed, considers Waywalker, before turning its sensor array to their immediate surrounding.

[ Spoiler ]

@Waywalker can you roll your Perception + Intuition[Sensor] ? And also tell me your next moves ?

@Jack_Spade do you plan to do anything special, except for waiting for Princess to deliver the papers ?

[Jack_Spade]

Rex was prepared for the next bit. As sunrise neared, Kikone, the Princess of the Shadowmoon would have to depart, leaving them both somewhat exposed in hostile territory. The first measure was to erect some defenses from the spirit side of things.

[ Spoiler ]

Casting Mana Barrier on the astral
Mana Barrier F8: 22d6t5 5
Drain Resist:
Drain resist: 21d6t5 6
No Drain

<<Time to get out of here.>> No sooner had Rex sent that message before the Princess had delivered a stack of papers and departed just as the first rays of the sun crept across the horizon.
<<It's only a week spirit guarding the place, but it could soon get help from a bunch of more beefy types. At that point we are better some place else.>>

While he was sending the message, Rex expended some more of his precious reagents to speed up his own reactions

[ Spoiler ]

Set Limit to 6 with reagents
Increase Reflexes F3: 18d6t5 5
Drain resist: 21d6t5 7
No Drain

[Haywire]

#41

"Now is the time when we go unnoticed or either run like the Devil himself is on our tracks..."
Waywalker jumped in the van and proceeded to go as stealth as possible.

[ Spoiler ]

perception (ew) through the sensors: 21d6t5 10
driving the van: 12d6t5 3

[Romain Pelisse]

Having a clear of view of the surrounding, using the numerous devices attached to the sensor array, Waywalker is pretty confident that door being hurled away from the house has not yet reached the local security or if so, they have yet to react in any kind of fashion. Most of the security drone, discreetly flying over the city are still on a patrol pattern. Sadly, it is the first hours of the day and does feel like Waywalker's vehicle is the only motor car in the city. The rigger keeps driving as casually as possible, going toward the suburbs, hoping to not catch the attention of any security

[ Spoiler ]

Assuming your characters aims to the suburbs to leave Camargue, using the same strategy - concealment and levitation, you should be in the right spot to do that within the hour.

@Jack_Spade I assume, maybe wrongly, that you would then drop the Mana Barrier and cast the other spell, plus summoning a new Kami ?

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

Correct, once we are concealed again, the manabarrier would be a big giveaway (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Summon F9 Spirit of Man: 22d6t5 9
Spirit resist: 9d6t5 0
Drain Resist: 21d6t5 8
Wow. 10 services just as the sun rises from an F9 spirit. No Drain.

Spirit casting Levitate F9:
Spirit Levitate: 18d6t5 3
Drain resist: 19d6t5 7
No Drain

Rex casting Levitate F9:
Levitate F9: 22d6t5 5
Drain resist: 21d6t5 5
Ouch. 1 point Physical drain, and 1.6 tons will probably not be enough lift.

Try again:
Levitate F9: 22d6t5 13
Much better. 2.4 tons lift
Drain resist: 21d6t5 7
No Drain

Spirit casts Manascape:
Spirit Manascape F8: 16d6t5 5
Spirit Manascape F8 Drain Resist: 19d6t5 5
Spirit takes 1 drain

Spirit uses concealment on Car and passengers as well as movement.

Rex waited anxiously for Waywalker to reach the city limits. They had broken line of sight with the building, but Rex kept on to the mana barrier for just a few moments longer. Finally he called out to the Shadowmoon's counterpart: 'Oh blessed Prince of the blinding Sun, hear my plea. Make us light as the morning mist and hide us between your shining rays of light.'
Much to his surprise there was no resistance at all as the bright form of an athletic man without a stitch of clothing around his glowing form appeared.
"I expected your call since you asked for the assistance of my sister. It is good of you to ask for my help, though as comforting the darkness may be, rely only upon the light when you are in need."
Again, Rex combined his efforts with that of the spirit and the car began to lift

[Romain Pelisse]

The two runners have left the city of Arles and got to the border of one of the swamp area Camargue is so known for. behind a couple of trees hide their presence for the nearby road. Of course, with the lack of motor vehicle in the region, the road, while being in a pristine state, is quite rarely used. This is where Rex starting doing the preparation for their trip back.

The car is barely starting to lift that, suddenly, just in front of them, when suddenly a huge creature manifests over the lake, a few meters of in front of them. Shaped like a small dragon - or maybe a Wyvern, the thing looks both scary and somewhat surreal. Before the runners can act, it starts speaking:

"You have trespassed upon our property and stolen what is ours. We do not wish to harm you but we will not let you leave. Await upon my masters to arrive.... or face my might !"

[ Spoiler ]

@Jack_Spade the Mana Barrier set a threshold of 8 to track you down:

Astral tracking Rex's Kami (Princess) - Threshold 8: 19d6t5 6
Astral tracking Rex's Kami (Princess) - Threshold 8, 2 hits left: 18d6t5 4

By the second hour, you dropped the Mana Barrier, so you got caught up (unless I am mistaken)

[Jack_Spade]

<<Shit, that was quick. Keep your head down.>>
Luckily the thing had decided to speak even before it had fully materialized. Rex really didn't want to fight this thing - but neither did he want to caught by the Draco Foundation.
So he went for the reckless option: 'Prince of the blinding Sun slay the Dragon, I implore you.'
while he created another barrier around their vehicle. Blood spurts from his ears and nose as the hastily erected barrier forms as strong as Rex is able to form it.

Meanwhile the Prince of the blinding Sun has begun it's attack on the astral as Rex can see from the visibly recoiling wyrm spirit.

It's the moment he has waited for. His own barrier stretches 12m from his own position through the astral - allowing only entities to pass that Rex has cleared to pass. The wyrm is not among those. The van and he himself are still floating under his mental control and under the influence of the movement power his Kami has provided.
The acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h happened in less than 3 seconds and the car only needs to move a meter or so.
The impact was felt metaphysically only as the powerful barrier collided with the astral essence of the enemy Kami.
The result was much like what happens if a really big bug hits the windshield of a speeding car...

[ Spoiler ]

Giant spirit takes a complex action to materialize

Rex
Simple action: Command Spirit
Simple action: Reckless Spellcasting F12 Lightning Bolt
Mag 6 + Skill 6 + Mentor 2 + Spec 2 + Focus 8 - Sustain 2= 22
Lightning Bolt F12: 22d6t5 7
12 P(e) AP-12 (not that it matters) + net successes
Drain vs. 9P
Drain resist: 21d6t5 10
No drain - amazing enough

Spirit of Man (Prince of the blinding Sun)
Astral Combat:
Astral Combat Prince of the Blinding Sun: 18d6t5 5
Defense of the spirit at -1 for second attack suffered -2 for electricity and -5 Ini (provided he didn't evade the attack)

Ini: 15+2d6 22
Ini Spirit of Man: 18+3d6 30

From the spirits search roll I infer that it is a F9 spirit with an Intuition of 10 (by the way it found us 20 minutes later - every search test takes 10 minutes)
so it's either a spirit of fire or a spirit of man. From the lack of an elemental aura, I assume it's a Spirit of Man

I'll allow myself to roll for it's defense - disregard this if I'm mistaken.
Ini Spirit of Man: 20+2d6 28
Defense: 21d6t5 2
Magic attack ignores immunity to mundane weapons
12+5=17 P(e) DV

Soak: 9d6t5 4
Spirit takes 13P damage to his 8+9/2=13 Physical monitor

And after rereading your post I just realized it has manifested instead of materializing
Slightly different tactics then:

Ini: 15+2d6 22
Ini Spirit of Man: 18+3d6 30

Ini Opponent:
Ini: 18+3d6 30

Wyrm spend his first complex action manifesting
Rex commands spirit and recklessly spell casts an R12 Mana Barrier on the Astral
Mana Barrier F12: 20d6t5 7
Drain resist: 21d6t5 10
Rex takes 2 P damage for a total of 3P (ini drops by 1)
Rex tunes it so that his Spirit can pass through the barrier

Prince of the blinding Sun engages in Astral Combat
Astral Combat: 18d6t5 8
Wyrm defends:
Astral Defense: 18d6t5 8
Nothing happens
Rex uses his free action to accelerate the van with the manabarrier into the two fighting spirits causing an intersection while the wyrm is distracted
Rex: Intersection Defense: 24d6t5 7
Wyrm: Intersection Defense: 18d6t5 6

Wyrm is disrupted

[Haywire]

#42

Waywalker was amazed by the result of Rex's actions. "Remind me to never upset you..."
In the while, he switched in VR to jump in the van.
"We're on the road, they're on our tracks, get this thing on the floor and we run like the Devil is on our heels, which could even be..."

[Jack_Spade]

<<Hey, man's best friend and all that. But you are right, we have to get out of here quickly. I'll leave the barrier up - should make finding us a lot harder.

Once we are under way I'll hopefully find time to take a look at those pages.>>

[Romain Pelisse]

Rex's gambit paid off, the Wyrm like spirit did not see that coming and got disturb by the intersection before it could do react. Flying across the small lake, Waywalker's vehicle arrives quickly to a road, where the rigger quickly leaves the region, putting enough distance between them and their last encounter to ensure an search will not succeed. A few hours later, nearby Lyon, the runner finally estimates they are far enough to be protected for more magical tracking.

[ Spoiler ]

Maybe it was a man spirit, maybe a beast spirit or maybe ... something else, but in any case, it was Force 9, so the math / rolls were accurate enough (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) - regarding the time I used Astral Tracking and not Search, but you are right, Search was probably more appropriate. Anyhow, even it found you before, it waited for you to stop driving for a second.

They at last can take a look at their loot - a few yellow pages, in a bad state, that have been somehow hidden beneath the wallpaper. The few papers have handwriting in french on it, which makes it quite difficult for the runner to decipher. They however immediately pick on the date : 19th November 1943. This exchange - there is a few letters, happened during WW2 and before the Contas Archive content were donated to the state in 1953. They also note a few reference to their first target, a first print of the Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. Getting more than that however, will require some serious translation work...

[Jack_Spade]

<<Fancy that. This could be interesting - but if you don't mind I'll take a day off to heal up - that should give you enough time to find a way to translate the French. Meanwhile I'll ask the Kami for his wisdom.>>

Rex turned to the still in astral space waiting Kami:
'Thank you for your help, oh Prince of the blinding Sun. Now I need your wisdom: What can you tell me about the spirit properties of these documents - or for that matter what do you think they mean?'

[ Spoiler ]

Assensing by F9 Spirit
Assensing by Spirit F9: 18d6t5 7

[Romain Pelisse]

The Kami takes a deep look at the set of pages in the astral before replying:

"The pages are rather old, and their auras are polluted by the anger and despair of the era they were written, but they lack any trace of magic. They are as mundane as they comes."