Salted Wounds [OOC], a Deep Black Sea game Options

[Gilga]

So can we get out of combat time?

[Jack_Spade]

Depends: Do you want to stick around?
Because there are more enemies inbound

[Gilga]

I had Anna rush to the man, touch him to cast the stabilize spell and she would slowly carry him to the van. (I assume it would take a short while, as she can only levitate him 7 meters a combat turn unless the Shark/Nova get there to help her.). Anna plans to do as bnc commands and go to the van.

I assume these actions would take more than a combat turn (but let's see how it goes) I'll edit if needed.

[Volker]

Wait, easy... We're not yet ready to leave the CR sequence. There's still the mage running about. Please remain within the sequence until everyone has declared action that are not time-critical

[Jack_Spade]

Yeah, Wraith is still in a combat situation with the two spirits, but the mage is pretty safely out of play as he makes his way away from the appartment building (for reference: 15m below Wraith means the mage is in the sub-basement - which is quite a trick considering that the building has only one cellar level.

[Gilga]

Phase 3:

bnc: 11,
Anna's spirit at 8 (but without an order, it can fulfill it cannot face the spirits.).
Gurdian spirit 1: 5
Gurdian spirit 2: 3

I'll wait for my turn then (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Does Anna knows that Wraith is in a combat situation?

[Volker]

Yeah, Wraith is still in a combat situation with the two spirits, but the mage is pretty safely out of play as he makes his way away from the appartment building (for reference: 15m below Wraith means the mage is in the sub-basement - which is quite a trick considering that the building has only one cellar level.

He can still be followed by spirits.


Something else entirely: What can my spy drones (=Noizquitos) tell me about incoming enemy reinforcements?

[Jack_Spade]

Quite simple: Police sirens can now be heard getting closer.

@Spirits: Yes, although you'd need to use the spirit search power - and preferably before the mage takes refuge behind a powerful barrier or gets to far away.

[Gilga]

@Jack Quite impressive about the police considering they raised the alarm 9 seconds ago, but very dramatic.

Seems like it is high time to disappear. My suggestion is to let the mage go, we can torch the place/explode it to protect Bean-si - but we are not positioned well to go after him. I barely remember what happened before the combat, but I assume we had other hints to exploit? (There was a river-ship I remember).

[Luckace]

Well, I'd still favor sending spirits after him. Underground he's quite cut-off from backup and he's pretty slow in his mist form (assuming that's how he got underground, but I don't know too much about infected).

@Gilga: I don't know if Anna knows about the combat situation, but her spirit could theoretically know about it.

@Jack: Does my air spirit still have to use the search power? It should now his exact location, after all.

Initiatives for next round:
Initiative Aeraziel: 12+3d6 21

Initiative Wraith (astral): 10+2d6 15

[Jack_Spade]

@gilga
The police call went out shortly after the drones went down. You took a few minutes to get into position.

@Luckace
AFAIK your air spirit did not find him, but you got him with your detect enemies spell.

Furthermore: Spirits and other astral beings can't enter the earth. So without knowing which pipe he is crawling through and where it surfaces, you can't even say where to enter.

And before someone disputes that:

"The Earth is solid on the astral plane, just as it is in
the physical world; astral forms cannot pass through it.
Secure facilities are often built underground to keep out
astral intruders."
p. 314

[Volker]

Something else entirely. Jack, please confirm:
From my point of view, the van should be very close to Assault as I moved it to the piece of lawn behind the flat - which is the exact piece of lawn we are all now. So, unless I'm mistaken, they should pretty much be on the same place.
If not, would I need a Complex Action Pilot Groundcraft to steer the van towards Assault? Or else: The van still has the command to drive to a certain point. Will a Free Action be enough to change the location it goes to - to Assault?

[Jack_Spade]

It's no problem to get the van to Assault and load him into the back. The backyard leads to the garages so the ground is paved to be driven on.

[Gilga]

@luckace - It'll take us a while to find the mage, and it would be difficult to take him down, even if we do and slay him in his myst form in the sub-sub-basement. What would it accomplish? We are not going to dig him out, and I don't see how we can capture him alive. (Not that we are equipped to restrain a person of his caliber in the first place). I don't understand what you are trying to accomplish.

[Luckace]

@Gilga:
Hm... Reading through the whole process again, you might have a point. You are probalby right, at this point, the chances of catching him are extremely small. A shame, he could pose quite a threat...

I had not expected him to get so far away so easily: At 27, he became mundane, since then he had two passes.
I expected him to travel by mist form (which takes a complex action and only goes 5m per turn, I believe), so i had figrued he could not go underground (let alone travel from the fourth floor to underneath the basement) as quickly, even if becoming dual natured again works instant.

@Jack: You sure that he can cover this much ground in just two phases (keeping in mind that the rooms should probably have a minmum height of 2,40m plus ceiling plus floor, even if he can move downwards in a single, straight line, which I would doubt )? If he's using a different way of moving, then I take back any doubts - no need to spill how he does it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

You're right that my spirit hasn't found him, but shouldn't it know its exact location through my spell? Can it travel there / what actions would I have to spend to have it look for a sewer crate or whatever he used?

[Thanee]

Maybe he is using a spirit with the Movement power, that can make you really fast.

Bye
Thanee

[Jack_Spade]

@Luckace

Don't assume an error immediately, there are in fact several ways to take the skin of a rat...

As for finding your way to him: Just because you know where someone is in a labyrinth doesn't tell you how to get there. You'd need the Spatial Sense spell to do so.


Once Wraith has acted:

bnc 11
Mage 7 (gone)
Guardian Spirit 5
Bound Guardian Spirit 3
Aeraziel 3
Nova 1

[Luckace]

OK, thanks for clarifying. I take back any doubts about mist form (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
And just to make sure there's no unnecessary waiting: I consider wraith's action done, he has spent his two simple actions on revealing the mage.

[Volker]

I tried to find any rules regarding this, but apparently there are no penalties or other disadvantages whatsoever for hacking while Jumped Into a drone.
Also, I'm still not sure whether or not I need any actions to steer the van towards Anna but you made it sound like I wouldn't.

So, if both is true, I will try and help Eliza with the spider:
Phase 11:
Free Action: Swap Baby Monitor for Toolbox.
Complex Action: Matrix Perception (hot-sim): 15d6t5 9
With that, I should be able to locate the spider.

Remember, my priority is getting to Anna, so if that takes an action I will do that instead.

[Jack_Spade]

@Volker
You do find the spider indeed: they are using he equivalent of a Sony CIY-720 with two modules (using the new quality from Kill Code), a modded attribute (lowest was reduced by one, highest increased by one). Also the deck is overclocked and switches rapidly configurations. As far as you can see, they are in hot-sim and use full defense. One of those modules is a virtual machine carrier, the other is noise reduction.

But once the decker notices your persona joining the fray, their first action is to vanish into a host.


Next actions: The two guardian spirits vanish to their home plane.

[Volker]

And show exactly did he notice me without an matrix perception check?

[Jack_Spade]

Are you running silent and hiding from her?
Otherwise I assume, teammates are aware of each other's personas

[Volker]

Wait. Is Eliza vanishing or the spider?

The point is, I'm not hiding for her or him but I have neither moved nor set any actions against either of them. For all they know, I'm still engaged with the others. They have no means to tell whether I'm treating Assault, searching for the mage or looking for the spider.

Please describe the current matrix situation. Who is on the same grid with me, how much damage has the spider already received, does Eliza have a mark on him (I should be able to see that with my Matrix perception roll)?

[Jack_Spade]

The decker uses the ninja vanish quality to gain a hide action whenever Eliza marks them.
We are running into the rules/description disconnect:

Fluff says that you move through the matrix to visit whatever event/persona/icon you want to see.
But the rules don't support that in a meaningful way.

If you want we can leave that kind of description out in the future. In that case I'll need a list of questions that you want answered with your matrix perception test.

To answer your question, she had a mark on him and he deleted it followed by a free hide action.

[Volker]

I'm happy either way, as long as it's consistent. Just tell me which way you wanna play. But since you said I have to perform a matrix perception to look for the spider despite my knowing Eliza's position and knowing there were in combat with each other, I naturally assumed that my simply looking for him would not raise his attention. That's why I don't understand why he ninja vanishes. It's something else entirely, if that's just coincidence and he tried to escape her the very moment I spotted him.
Either way, I just need to know how we play it and where who is.

The ninja vanish action doesn't provide a hide action. It just allows to erase marks. He still has to manually hide and change the host. Or did you mean Fade to Black? It's still an action, though. There's no such thing as a Free Hiding action. That means, even after spending an action, I either still spot him or he's still on our grid.
Unless I miss a thing, of course.

I don't want to discuss anything. I just wanna know what situation I'm in.