The Found Arcana - Chapter 7 [IC] Options

[Gilga]

Trouble follows Bobby, and would strike the spirit if it chases Bobby.

[ Spoiler ]

Movement action keeps up with Bobby easily when on astral.
Delayed action astral combat if spirit gives chase (his orders are to keep Bobby safe).
Astral combat: 10d6t5 3
He'll edge it, because he really wants to protect Bobby.
Astral combat: 7d6t5 4

AM can feel that something is happening but she is unable to help at the moment, at her desperation she sends Tatanka to follow Mato and warn him of any magic threats he can't even see the spirits coming. He hasn't left long ago so finding him would be easy, but Bobby is in combat now with three professionals and may not survive until Mato arrives. Trouble echos that he is running - fearless Bobby. Mato would arrive on the island all alone versus three professional mercenaries including a mage Bobby may be gone that island is the perfect murder scene. Something bad is unfolding and she is powerless to stop it. At least Tatanka would warn Mato of spirits or magic and give him some fighting chance.

Then she visualizes her mates dying there, and her being left alone in the cold woods, in a foreign country without a SIN and with illegal equipment. She is lacking the contacts or magical means to get back to Seattle. Not that there is much to return if she goes back alone. She feels increasingly discomfort and hyperventilating. "Useless useless useless, they are going to die --- and I am powerless to help.

Situation was dire she tried to clear her head. No matrix signal, telepathy spell is down, Bobby does not even have a comlink so no way to contact him. Mato is going to a no matrix zone - so no way of contacting him unless she hacks that anonymizer again. Tatanka can keep communications but he cannot help much. Somehow she manages not to cry, not to flee in panic - not that there is anywhere to go. She waits carefully trying to not get in trouble herself and hoping that Trouble and Bobby would not be separated so that she can at least talk to her two friends and rally them into a plan... if they do not get themselves killed that is. It is just fear, Amy - it hasn't happened yet. You will survive whatever comes. she mumbles trying to coerce her mind into rationality. She tells Peshtigo to ask Bernt to keep quiet about his abilities.

[ Spoiler ]

Iktomi especially hates it when they do not have a plan, this scene seems like a clear cut for that. Total chaos so AM suffers -2 to all her dice rolls if I recall correctly.
Composure: 10d6t5 4

[Beta]

Charging straight away from the side of the building had Bobby reached the edge of the island in the amount of time best measured with automated timing gear, and then he was into the river. He quickly realized that he was fighting a powerful current that swept around the island-- but bears are capable swimmers, and with the boost from Trouble he surged forward against the current. Soon he was into a slower area, where there was a shelf of ice along the more shadowed shore. He made it there in time to dash a couple of hundred meters further up the valley, splintering ice along his way, before the blind panic finally stopped.

Trouble saw the spirit's magic hit Bobby, and Bobby flee away from the magic. The aura of the orc indicates his surprise at this turn of events. The Fire Spirit surges out of the building as soon as Bobby has fled, and moments later the Ward snaps back into place. The spirit turns its focus on Trouble for a long second, then Trouble feels the larger spirit's attention move on, and the fire-bird carries on its way along Bobby's path. At the edge of the island it banks in a turn, staying above dry land, then cuts a path back across the island. If swiftly reaches the other side, turns to one side a bit again before crossing the island again. It appears to be running a search pattern.

AM finds herself alone, largely out of touch, and short on strands of web or plan to grasp. But then Peshtigo returns with some news. <<Brent says he's keeping quiet and not doing anything to the equipment! He also says that he thinks he recognizes the icon of the gun of the orc who knocked him to the ground! He doesn't recognize the persona, but the gun icon is custom and he's sure he saw it on security that his parents hired one time!>>

[Gilga]

Since the spirit is not directly hostile toward Bobby AM instructs Trouble to take her on-site. Deciding to be active and brave this opportunity and not let the bad things she fears materialize. She sends him back to Bobby asking him to maintain the spell until she arrives to the island.

She casts the levitation spell and asks for movement to make it feasible and perhaps safer than in the water for transportation. She flies over the river, but as falling into the water may be a death sentence when possible she'll fly over land very close to the water but safer. She'll instruct Tatanka and Trouble to try and group everyone to a single remote location for regrouping and planning.

[ Spoiler ]

Improve charisma + Troublehelp: 15d6t5 3
drain: 13d6t5 3
levitate F5: 15d6t5 4
drain: 13d6t5 4

Speed is 25 meters per 3 seconds, 30 kilometers per hour - slower than a car but reasonably fast. Not sure how it is compared to the current in the river but I think that it should be competitive with the boat in the river.

When it is due time, it would be best to eject the clip from the gun. We'll be right there I'll let you know.

[Beta]

Soggy, but still in the raft, Mato finally exited the narrow chute to a much calmer area. The water here was slow enough that ice shelves have formed along the banks, sticking a few meters into the river. As Mato scans for the next danger to navigate, he is surprised to see a bear along one bank, a distance ahead of him. He'd have sworn it wasn't there a moment ago.

[Gilga]

Tatanka materializes and tells Mato "That must be bobby as there is a clear spell on him. AM is coming briefly, and asks for you to wait for her if you can.". In the meanwhile, Trouble tells Bobby "Bobby, you were affected by a spell through the astral. Your opponent is a fire spirit in astral form. If you stop perceiving the astral you will be more protected because that spirit would find it very unpleasant to be forced to materialize during the rain. I am no big expert but the effect of the spell may fade because these things tend to be limited to a specific plane of existence.

Also, AM says that Mato is almost with you, try to find him and that she would take a few more minutes to join. I accelerated her moments ago, but she is still not very fast.

[Tecumseh]

Mato sees the bear charging his direction and braces for impact. But then Tatanka appears and delivers its message.

Mato is unaccustomed to being addressed by Tatanka, but he's also unaccustomed to white water rafting at night in the winter. With Tatanka's advice in mind, Mato uses his various vision mods to study the bear for a moment and confirm the presence of a hummingbird feather on a piece of elastic around the bear's foreleg.

Mato steers the raft toward the ice shelf along the shore. Initially he had been trying to avoid it because ice is sharp and he's already done some damage to the inflatable raft. With luck this ice would have enough resistance to stop the raft without having enough structure to pierce it.

Once the raft comes to a halt, Mato barks "Mad Cat!" to get Bobby's attention.

He exhales, his breath sending up plumes in the frosty air. He's soaked from the knees down and not getting any drier. There's no particularly good way to bail out the water sloshing around the bottom of the raft so he uses the flat of the paddle to laddle it out one splash at a time. He momentarily debates stepping out to flip the raft over but he doesn't know if the ice will support him. Stepping on shore doesn't seem prudent, given the neighbors.

AM left the car? Mato wonders to himself, reflecting on Tatanka's message. That wasn't the plan. What changed? Whatever it was, it probably had something to do with Bobby sprinting madly upstream as if fleeing from the devil himself.

[Jack_Spade]

Finally, finally the haze cleared and Bobby realized how fragged he was. Seeing Mato before him made him pause. First he closed his third eye, than he dropped the spell. Steaming in the cold he managed to say: "Oh, hi Mato. The bastards had three spirits. One is still around. Got me good with a panic attack. I hope you brought some APDS, because it's a heavy motherfragger.
We need to find the conjurer and put him down hard.
Damn it's cold here. I need to turn into something with more fur."

[Tecumseh]

Mato knows basic survival skills. He wishes that he could build a fire to warm up, dry off, and plan their next move. But the locals here are unfriendly and he doesn't dare step foot on either bank lest he draw the ire of Aztechnology or the Salish military.

"I have a few different flavors of ammo but no Blight," Mato tells Bobby. "It's for my cyberarm SMG, which is more for surprise and emergencies. I suppose this is the latter, but it still doesn't hit very hard. About the same as the Walther that AM is carrying. Low caliber, high volume. Might not be a good recipe for a heavy motherfragger."

Mato leans on his oar, trying to distribute his weight over a larger area.

"If you were the captors, what would you do?" he asks. "Hunker down? Relocate? In a sense, they are as trapped as we are. They can only go upstream or downstream too.

"We could wait until morning, until the large fragger leaves with the sunrise. They'll be paranoid, on watch on night. We can hit them at daybreak when they're tired and don't have the spirt with panic attacks up their sleeve anymore. And if they decide to move before then, we'll be waiting. They'll be out in the open and vulnerable."

[Jack_Spade]

"And they can call in reinforcement. The good news is, I likely destroyed their bound spirits. So he can send his big one only after one of us. They had drones ready to go - but they looked more like a measure to prevent an escape - non-lethal.
If Trouble can keep the heavy occupied we could rush the mage together.
I turn him into a blob fish and you riddle him with bullets. That should take care of his armor."
Bobby began to shiver and readied himself to turn into snow tiger.

[Beta]

While he'd been fighting the river, Mato had noticed the cold as a distant thing, more annoying than dangerous. However now that he's getting to take it easier he can feel the cold, at least on that part of his body that feels such things. So far he can shrug it off easily enough, but being wet in temperatures barely above freezing is going to be harder to ignore before long.

Bobby also feels the chill, all the worse for lack of clothes, but he at least knows that he can switch to a form that better tolerates the conditions.

AM also finds it cold and miserable, but not being soaked in near freezing water puts her timeline to exhaustion in terms of hours, instead of tens of minutes as is the case for Mato.

[Gilga]

When AM lands there is a silly grin on her face, flying was one of the childhood fantasies she never got to realize, and now that she has Trouble -- she can actually fly. Sorcery has never given her so much joy, but it still was too cold, to really enjoy it and the frozen air on her face as she moves through the air, the gentle rain they all took their toll.

When she arrives she gently lands on dry land and checks her clothes for a moment. Once caught up on the gist she'll give her input "We'll need to be quicker than that, the weather is not good enough to wait till the morning. I planned to play decker, but matrix conditions are terrible, and I did learn the Perrify spell following the incident with Katya, so I figured out I'd do you more good on the field than in the car as we just lost the element of surprise. Petrify with Trouble and Iktomi, it should be difficult to resist, and if I can connect the spell with one of them it would tilt the odds in our favor.

I have also made contact with Peshtigo and he says that Bernt can also help with one of the guns. So we could use it as a distraction. So my plan would be to try and lure them out of the cabin for a line of sight for the Petrify spell to connect. Then, we'll just move in fast before they realize we got brave. "

[Jack_Spade]

"Even better, let's do this before we turn into meat popsicles. I'll lure them out, get ready to shoot. "
What Bobby didn't say was, that he still couldn't bear to meet that big spirit again. Intellectually he knew that it was just magic messing with his head, but for some reason his lizard brain didn't want to take the hint and rebelled vehemently at even the thought of that creature. Didn't help that the spectral flames and his animal body had an even worse reinforcing effect.

Not being able to stand the cold any longer, he turned and took the form of a majestic siberian tiger.

[ Spoiler ]

Body Boost: 8d6t5 4
Agi Boost: 8d6t5 1
Shapechange F7: 15d6t5 3
Drain resist: 15d6t5 5
Trying again for more successes
Shapechange F7: 15d6t5 4
Resist: 15d6t5 4
No Drain
Focused Concentration to remove spell upkeep penalty.
B 6(10) A6(7) R 6(9) S6

It took longer this time as his first try hadn't quite hit as he wanted, but finally he was ready.

[Tecumseh]

"Sure we could wait until morning. We'd just go back to the car, dry off, eat that soup we bought, and have Trouble and Peshtigo keep us informed of any changes.

"It's one thing if the enemy robs you of options, but don't rob yourself."

Mato readies himself. The Walther had a mag of gel rounds loaded (for driving around Bellevue). He removes a different mag from one of the smuggling compartments on his legs and hands it to AM.

"Explosive," he says. "Make some noise."

Then he does the same thing for the SMG in his cyberarm, unloading the gel rounds and pulling another magazine from his smuggling compartment.

"APDS, per your request," he tells Bobby as he loads the mag into a port on his cyberarm. "But, all told, I hit hardest with throwing knives. The catch is I only have a few."

He palms a couple, getting ready to paddle himself down the river.

"If things go pear-shaped, regroup at the car. If they go REALLY pear-shaped, meet back at the gas station where we stopped. Don't worry about me. Bobby can fly and I have my skimmers."

[Gilga]

AM nods, "petrify first option Walter second" despite her meager appearance she grabs the gun proficiently, changes the ammo, and strokes it fondly. It is strange to her to prefer magic over the gun, but these guys are likely armored. She smiles at Mato, and asks How is this wildness going for you, do you guys want a ride across the river?" she clearly referring to Mato's early joke on being a 'wild-orc' in her layman humor.

[ Spoiler ]

I'll use this post slightly laters.

and then with a minor hand gesture disappears, and mutes her sound. She uses a combination of the improved invisibility spell, and the silence spells trying to avoid being detected, and while a bit distracted from both spells - she tries to keep stealthy nevertheless. Trouble, on the other hand, would use the concealment on the group as another layer of security until they go loud they are harder to spot.

AM carefully makes her way toward the treehouse, following Bobby from a distance, and aiming to locate herself in a position where she'll have a line of sight to the door, but if the possible cover in case of a gunfight. She prays to Iktomi to remain hidden and hopes that by the time they discover her the conflict would be over.

While walking she keeps her spell defense field on her friend knowing that she is not skilled enough to do much more than tilt the odds a bit in their favor. Counterspelling is a difficult skill to master. "The strange things that money makes me do. Not what I'd initially think." she admits to herself.



5 reagents for invisibility with Troubles.
Invisibility F3+reagents: 15d6t5 4
4 hits.
Repeat process for silence spell-
silence F3, 5 reagents: 15d6t5 4

drain for both spells:
drain: 2#10d6t5 6 4
no drain.

Now, if her invisibility/stealth combo is cracked, she is also sneaking. (-2 for sustaining the spell).
sneaking: 8d6t5 1

[Tecumseh]

"Well, remember, the point of the gun is to not look like the mage," Mato reminds AM, probably unnecessarily. "The bigger the gun, the less you look like a mage. Wish we had my AK for that."

The trio finalize their flying-river-raft plan.

"Trouble distracts the spirit. I can take a bullet so I'll take point. Bobby and I leap off the raft and blitz the cabin. I'm going to run my radar sensors; they should give me a good sense of who is inside the cabin and where. Presumably they'll have their hard man up front and their softer targets in the rear. If I can, I'll go through the wall for the element of surprise. My can-opener is smaller than Bobby's but I can punch through a wall too.

"If the targets are unclear or the most direct route is uncertain then I'll go through the front door like a bowling ball and daisy-chain my way from there. And if the spirit materializes and tries to give me a big hug? Well then the rest of you better hurry up!"

[Gilga]

AM nods "Not looking like a mage, right -- I'll keep my flying broomstick at SIS next time." she comments with a serious expression.
When Bobby mentions the fire spirit AM suggests The fire spirit is a mistake of the summoner that got stressed from Bobby's attack. He summoned the most powerful spirit he could, ignoring that the environment. It is a fire spirit in the rain, on an island, with a raging river all around them...

If you cannot get rid of the fire spirit by brute force -- lure it to fly over the river, and I'll drop it into the river with creative use of the petrifying spell. I'll only sustain it for the brief second it takes the spirit to drop like a rock into the river. I believe that the river is strong enough to disrupt a fire spirit quite reliably.

Once they are ready and decide on a flying boat, she casts the levitate spell, while Trouble seats next to Bobby and admire the sheer size of the tiger. All of it looks very heavy, she hopes that she can lift it. Very carefully, and for safety keeping her own levitation spell as a backup. She begins lifting the raft, not much just a notch above the water level. If the spell fails, the boat would simply fall to the water. She enters the boat, and Trouble then pulls off his superior magic to accelerate it. The two guide the boat slightly above the water, safe from the raging water underneath.

[ Spoiler ]

levitate F5: 15d6t5 5 up to 1,000kg of lifting.
drain: 10d6t5 4

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby got ready to disembark at hight speed. Running interference was likely his best chance to contribute - next to turning the mage into a blob fish, forcing them to spend time and energy to counterspell.
What people forgot about that old saw about keep trying to do the same thing expecting a different result was: Enough applications of drops over time could erode a mountain.

Just before they closed in, he renewed his enhancements

[ Spoiler ]

Body Boost: 8d6t5 2
Agility Boost: 8d6t5 4

[Beta]

The different magics combined for a ride that had to be rougher than what they would have had on the water. The raft would shoot forward then slow down then speed up again. Levitate normally provided only slow movement, but the extra speed from movement averaged out to something like a normal person's running pace.

The team had to hold on to avoid being tossed around or possibly right out -- except for the tiger that had four legs and a low centre of gravity. The tiger looked even lower with how much the floor of the raft sagged under Bobby -- without the water to provide support the raft sagged around the weight of the large feline. Fortunately the raft seemed to be tough enough to hold up to this abuse even after what Mato had put it through coming down the river.

Despite the jolting ride, they made it over the island with one last jolt of speed. So far so good; they hadn't been shot, counterspelled, or fireballed. Even better news: there was no sign of the fire spirit, at least not yet.

[Tecumseh]

Mato looks back at Bobby. "No claws on the raft, saavy?" he whispers urgently.

Then he tests his own footing, seeing how much traction the raft would provide for a leap. Not much. Too squishy, with no buoyancy underneath.

He has his throwing knives palmed, knowing that they are silent. He'll pop his spur later just to play it safe with the raft.

He tenses, ready to launch himself once he's close enough to land. Then out come the skimmers and the race begins.

[Gilga]

The ride is uncomfortable a lot less fluent than her flying herself. She spends some moments thinking about the mystic explanation but then focuses on the mission on-head. The two men disappear as soon as they reach the island, and she realizes that she has to be very quick because they are racing rather than sneaking.

She kept the levitation spell sustained, and so only needs some help from Trouble to accelerate her. She adds a layer of Invisibility to not be too obvious to people with guns. With the two dangerous males running around, who would notice the invisible mage at the tree-top level? When making her way, she is also mindful of how astral perception works and tries to keep hidden if she can. She sends Tatanka ahead to notify her of living beings in the vicinity and keeps Trouble close in case she needs his help Petrifying the threats.

[ Spoiler ]

I wanted to go with invisibility and stealth- but then decided to maintain the levitation so I'll keep just the invisibility due to not wanting to take -4 for all actions.
Invisiblilty + Silence: 2#15d6t5 5 5
drain: 2#10d6t5 4 5

5, hits - no drain.

Now Trouble is astral and sneaking and AM is also sneaking.
For AM (-2 penalty due to sustaining)
sneaking: 8d6t5 2
For Trouble:
Sneaking (astral): 4d6t5 1

For Tatanka: (assessing)
Scout ahead: 8d6t5 3

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby growled in agreement, being very careful how he used his paws. Sprinting away at full speed, he enjoyed the sensation of being in the body of such a powerful beast.
A true battle cat. Maybe he could get Mato to one day take up sword fighting.
It would certainly make for a good promo video if Matt called out the old catchphrase.
Focusing back on the here and now, he looked out for the opposition.

[Beta]

Bobby was literally made for sprinting (at least in his current form), and Mato's skimmer's thrived on the mix of bare rock and hard packed soil. As a result from the time that the raft crossed above the island to the time that the two converged on the building was a mere seconds.

Mato came around a bushy pine tree and gained line of sight on the hole in the side of the building. There was no obvious figure standing in the hole nor near the side of the building -- but the building was dark behind the hole, hadn't Bobby mentioned having been able to see an orc in there clearly? Of course, in the dark, at Mato's speed, finding less obvious targets or threats wasn't easy, but he thought he heard the whine of an electric motor suggesting that at least one drone was on the move.

Bobby arced around a couple of trees to where he had a straight run toward the stairs that ran up to the only door on the building. He could see something a bit odd at the bottom of the stairs, but the door was still closed and there were no obvious weapons. Best of all, no sign of that fire spirit.

Soaring above the trees AM had a better view of the island, although even to her elven eyes the rainy night was quite dark, except right near the building where a bit of light leaked out here and there. But also her matrix devices finished shaking hands with the devices now alive on the island and she suddenly had a weak matrix connection. Enough that Peshtigo practically screamed a message at her <<Brent said to tell you that he told me to tell you that the men gave him a drug patch and a blindfold and now he's all confused but he got to go outside and now he's on a bouncy mattress and that would be OK but the roof is leaking and he's getting wet.>>

[ Spoiler ]

perception roles to spot dangers, etc. (take into account what your current vision is. Rain gives a -1 to anything visual or smell based, and the sounds from the river give a -1 on everything sound. Low light is OK within 5m of the sides of the building, but it is an illumination level one worse that low light once you get farther away than that. Thermographic vision or astral perception have no additional penalties beyond the rain.

While you are at it, an init role would be a good idea. Not sure we are going to need them immediately, but possibly soon enough so might as well make them now.

Matrix noise level is -2, which I thin AM is equipped to cancel.)

[Tecumseh]

No spirit, no bullets... Mato immediately suspects that the island is empty. If it had been him, would he have stuck around? No, he would not wait for a siege. Not unless the cabin were surrounded by traps. Speaking of which...

He runs his radar sensors, trying to pierce the walls of the cabin to see if anyone was still inside.

In addition to his natural low-light vision, he sweeps the area with his thermographics too. They do better in the rain, and away from the dim light of the cabin.

He uses his olfactory sensors to look for sniff for explosives and to see if he can catch the scent of anyone leaving. He turns his head to see if the electric motor is actually an outboard motor that might be propelling another raft away.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby sped up, towards the hut, but moved in zig-zag to make himself harder to hit by whatever there was waiting for him.
His intention was to run up the wall of the hut and make his way over the roof - hopefully to get a better vantage point.

[Gilga]

AM texts Peshtigo >> How many seconds ago, did he send the message? and to Mato >> They are moving him, Bernt feels the rain - hurry up. She observes physically from her elevated position to see if she can notice any movement or anything of interest, and then she looks into the matrix knowing that Bernt can be detected if she knows what she is looking for and that there should be at least one SmartLink. She also instructs Tatanka (who is scouting ahead) to look for a group of people heading down the river. In the meanwhile, Trouble allows himself to be a bit faster than AM and he tries to get a better perspective a bit higher up, but he is still close to her.