The Found Arcana - Chapter 7 [IC] Options

[Beta]

Peshtigo replies to AM <<167 seconds from when you asked your question!>> AM can't see anything on the river, but in the matrix she picks up a cluster of icons a fair way down the river -- although the matrix connection is weak there must be some devices relaying data between here and there. At the same time Trouble tells her that it sees a spirit some hundreds of meters down the river, and some distant auras even further down the river.

Bobby leaps halfway up the front wall, claws tearing into the vinyl siding as he attempts to finish ascending the building -- an then his danger sense provides an intense "get the frag away from here right now!" urge.

Mato's radar scanner easily picks up a 'small' metal drone lurking underneath the building, letting him get a shot in on it before it has locked onto him -- on the other hand a couple of micro-skimmers seem to be coming in from behind. As he nears the building he can smell the faint remains of the tear gas that Bobby briefly experienced.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby listened to his feeling and veered off to the left side, bringing distance between himself and the front of the hut.
Only then he remembered that he could have gotten his animal armor from the car - but neither Mato nor AM had had his bag with him, so it was a moot point. Sprinting at full speed now, Bobby looked around for the next surprise.

[Gilga]

>> They are 800 meters downstream, and there is a spirit about 400 meters ago probably to slow us down. Trouble will accelerate you to chase if you want - but you are very fast also without him. I will try to maintain a line of sight but I am slower. She sends Trouble to help the men in pursuit and continues to move toward them.

[Tecumseh]

Mato charges the cabin and, en route, picks up a few targets. There's a drone camping out underneath the cabin and two approaching from the rear. He elects to disable the one under the cabin, reasoning (on the fly) that it's larger and thus represents more of a threat. This logic may not hold up under scrutiny but he's under some time constraints and needs to act.

"HYAH!" he says, flinging the throwing knife in his right hand at the small drone with off-road suspension. The knife cuts through the drone like paper before drilling into the ground. The drone disintegrates as easily as child's toy, and an especially fragile mass-produced one at that.

With that threat so quickly dismissed, Mato turns his attention to his radar sensors to see what they can tell him about the cabin and any other nearby threats.

[Beta]

Bobby leaps free of the building just before an ear-shattering blast sends dozens of hard gel packets exploding out from just above the door, making a thunderous rain on the wooden stairs and hitting everything within a substantial range with stunning force.

[ Spoiler ]

I might have babbled some earlier about when this detonates. It was set on a motion trigger, so detonates "immediately". However since crossing the island was 'last turn' Bobby has his full movement available to him, so can presumably be a safe distance before the grenade goes off. Also: Mato is screened from the blast by being around teh side of the building. And in case anyone cares, it was a Krime Stinger, from the Krime Katalog).

With his radar sensors Mato picks up that the building has two rooms, the room with the door looks like it has some furniture or storage chests in it, the back room (with the hole in the wall) seems lined with mostly empty shelves. In the middle of the back room there is also a shape of the right size and proportions to be a meta-human, but the signal seems off somehow.

The little skimmers look more like toys than threats, and one veers off under a pine tree looking for all the world like it just figured out that it had realized how overmatched it was, but the other one stayed locked onto Mato and spat a dart at him.

[Gilga]

[ Spoiler ]

If the house is just 20 meters from where we start, and AM is moving at 25 meters/round so she is also very close. In that case, she fires her gun to help.

Automatics + Take aim -2: 11d6t5 8 Edit - I assume it is medium range (-1 more dice) because 6-15 meters. It does not change the hits though, all hits are kept, -2 to doge. Damage is 8P -1 AP. Drone gets -2 dice to dodge, likely finished but let's see.

AM is not very far from the building when the trap goes off, and once she identifies the drone, she helps Mato like a guardian angel from above with a short and very well-aimed burst. Daddy has taught her well.

[Jack_Spade]

'I need to find a way to deal with drones in animal form.' Bobby mused as he tore through the brush in the desperate attempt to evade the explosion.
'Maybe I need to learn to direct drones myself. Can't be that hard. Might even be worth it to keep essentials around.'
His musings were cut short as the gunfire erupted behind him.
This was just too disorienting. He kept running - sprinting really - to get some distance, all the while looking out for the kidnappers and their victim.

[Tecumseh]

Give the microskimmer credit: it was a good shot (maybe too good for a drone...), even against a moving target like Mato. It does its best to get up close and drill Mato when he isn't even looking. It probably would have worked against someone else. Luckily Mato has enough sensors to alert him of its presence. He turns to look at it just in time to see a flicker of motion that means a dart is flying right for his face!

He snaps his hand up in front of his eye. Luckily, the dart embeds itself in the back of his glove instead of in his cheek. Does the dart know that it's hit cyber instead of flesh? Does it still try to inject its payload into titanium? Mato will find out later when he takes his glove off. For now, he's well aware that he was a few centimeters away from an unpleasant time. Maybe his nephritic screen could have dealt with it, but he's just as happy not to find out.

[Beta]

AM blasts apart the little skimmer just after it shoots -- it actually makes a much easier target from above than for somebody who is more on the same level as it. She'd seen the other skimmer hide away under a tree, but it does not seem to be immediately coming out. Perhaps it is scared of the sharp shooter in the sky?

Bobby runs far and fast enough to stay clear of any damage from the blast. His run took him toward the downstream side of the island, and he can see that on that side there is also a flat stone shelf sloping into the water, making for easy launching of a raft. He also sees a small pile of stones in the middle of the flat rock, and given some of the other surprises he can guess that getting near that may not be healthy.

Leaving the dart for later inspection or introspection, Mato keeps moving to make a more challenging for any other suspiciously accurate drones. But he doesn't see any other threats, nor even anything moving that isn't part of his team.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby turned around hasting back to the others. When he was close enough, he established a mental connection to AM

'Seems like they went down river and left some explosives at the landing place. We have to follow them from on high - can you do anything about those drones around here with your hacking magic?'

[ Spoiler ]

Mindlink F2: 18d6t5 7 what a waste of good successes
Drain resist: 13d6t5 2
Compensated by the bare minimum to not take drain

[Gilga]

AM thinks back "I'd rather not try to do any complex hacking while flying and sustaining two spells, but I can shoot the second drone as well. Go ahead on pursuit, I'll try to catch up."

[Gilga]

AM prepares another shot at the drone, but since she did not expect self-preservation in a remote-controlled drone, she'll take a brief look in the matrix to see if it is related to the other drone before terminating it.

[ Spoiler ]

observe in detail: 9d6t5 5
I'll roll an attack if need be.

[Beta]

The skimmer has hidden itself under a dense pine tree. If the tree had been in Seattle someone would surely have harvested it long ago for a Christmas tree because it has the perfect shape for that job -- but the thickly needles boughs sweeping out close to the ground also hide the skimmer quite well. If it comes out it should be easy enough for Mato or AM to shoot, but it would take peering into the tree from close range to get a clear view of it right now. While it is under there it is not much danger, but it might be fast enough to chase after someone walking away from it. And the longer that it can keep the team stalled, the farther away the other raft is getting.

Given how long Peshtigo indicated that Brent had noticed that he was being rained on, and the distance that the other team has travelled, they are moving faster than current and paddling really explains. Whether they have an electric engine (surely you'd have heard a combustion engine), or whether they are making use of the movement power, or something else you don't know.

As to what might be keeping you on the island, there is the skimmer waiting to dart anyone careless, there is likely an explosive trap on the obvious launch spot, and there is whatever Mato's radar detected in the building, that seemed about metahuman size and shape but wasn't reflecting radar quite right.

[Gilga]

AM uses some smart extrapolations from the Drone's icon into the physical world trying to draw a bullseye on where it is exactly, although it is mostly hidden. She'll transfer the tag to Mato and text him >> Mato, I highlighted the drone - see if you can hit it through the tree. I fear it might be used to trigger some more traps.

[ Spoiler ]

Very nice of Jack to offer the tag action ( I never tried that one before). AM has -2 dice from sustaining spells, and no intuition boost so just 9 dice.
Tag: 9d6t5 5

[Tecumseh]

<<I see it>> Mato responds. His radar sensors had picked out the anomaly among the trees and bushes, and AM's ARO confirmed it.

He takes off his left glove, extends his arm, and emits a soft SHUFF from his palm. The APDS round cuts through the lower boughs of the Christmas tree and finds its mark underneath. Once the radar sensors have confirmed that the drone has gone to pieces, Mato pulls his glove back on.

"What's the plan to catch up?" he asks. Who is he even asking? Can Bobby even communicate? Oh yeah, he can do that mind-meld thing. Or he could use sign language if he ever chooses a form that has opposable thumbs.

[Gilga]

Despite being invisible, AM hovers close enough to hear Mato like a guardian angel. She response through the matrix to not give auditory hints to her exact location. She also thinks the message at Bobby in case he missed it. >>I have a mental link to Bobby. I and Trouble can fly you like what I do for myself, it is pretty awesome -- or perhaps you can try to see if the skimmers work above the water surface, and we do magic if they don't. The flying raft was a bit too awkward for an actual gunfight.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby sent to AM: 'I'll change into a flying form again and give you some intel on the escaping kidnappers.'
He dropped the mental connection and transformed once again into an owl, to chase down the river in search for their prey.

[ Spoiler ]

Body Boost: 8d6t5 0
Resist Drain: 11d6t5 3
Body Boost: 8d6t5 3
Resist Drain: 11d6t5 2

Shapechange F6: 15d6t5 6
Using Eagle base but bulking up Body and Agility

Fly multiplier is 7, so 56 m/round movement
Resist Drain: 14d6t5 4

Agi Boost: 8d6t5 4
Resist Drain: 11d6t5 5

B 5(9) A 8(12) R 5((IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) S 2

This time he chose something more robust: A Blakiston fish owl with nearly 2m wing span. That way at least he would be able to go on the offensive if necessary.

[Tecumseh]

Mato palms some more throwing knives. They weren't as good at dealing with armor as the APDS in his cyberarm SMG, but they hit harder. Plus there was the psychological effect of seeing something sticking out of your body. His ancestors from hundreds of years ago knew this well; it was one thing for a comrade to drop from a small hole in the body. It was entirely another thing to see a man turned into a pincushion by arrows. The throwing knives operated under the same principle.

"I can fly with these things," Mato says of his skimmers, hovering a centimeter or two off the ground, "in my own way.

"I can even move over water. I just can't stop; I have to keep moving. Maybe that means jumping in the boat; maybe that means strafing past it until I get to a big rock in the river where I can pivot around. Guess we'll find out!"

He readies himself to charge down the river, giving the improvised trap a wide berth.

[Beta]

It seemed that the kidnappers were not just blindly fleeing. First a substantial explosion ripped through the building, with smoke and flames soon shooting into the air. Just as well that the team had avoided investigating it.

As Bobby started flying down the river, a drone swooped down from higher up and tried to come up on Bobby's tail, like the dog-fighters of the early years of aviation.

Mato starts quickly skating over the water, the motion lending itself more to curving one way and then the other more than dashing in a perfectly straight line. He had not gone far, however, before he notices something bouncing and splashing in the fast flowing water, but not flowing downstream. Possibly a float anchored on a fishing line, or possibly something more dangerous. Mato's current course would take him near it, but perhaps he can curve his course to stay farther away.

[ Spoiler ]

Bobby could counter-attack, manoeuvre, or just try to dodge (or surprise me entirely). Mato could make some roll, likely athletics, if he wants to avoid the whatever it is tethered in the river.

Gilga, is AM monitoring either the astral or matrix, or is she busy enough sustaining spells that she is not also watching other worlds?

[Tecumseh]

Mato clicks his tongue. He had thought the funny shape in the cabin was just a dummy, a distraction. He hadn't thought it might be a giant mannequin of explosives.

These do seem to be slippery folks, ones who leave improvised explosives behind. With that fresh in his memory, he makes an attempt to avoid whatever's floating in the river while advising AM to give it wide berth.

<<Something fishy in the river. Probably not a fish. Advise you to avoid.>>

[Gilga]

AM follows close to the edge, keeping relatively close to the treetops, to make her approach not obvious for astral observers. Tatanka and Trouble would be more visible she reasons. When Mato warns her, she distances herself as much as she can from that thing in the water and texts back >> I can see that. Thanks..

She tasks Tatanka with spying on the fleeing team

[ Spoiler ]

already done a few posts back by the way

. She explains the construct that he should try to identify their mage and spirits ahead of time. So the team knows who is who once they arrive. While Trouble is tasked with keeping the team safe and observing for incoming astral threats. Having intelligence covered, and since she identifies nothing that currently targets her, she allows herself a brief look on the Matrix for possible threats.

[ Spoiler ]

Assensing (Trouble): 10d6t5 3
Assensing (Tatanka): 8d6t5 5
Matrix perception: 9d6t5 4

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby was too preocuppied with the latest threat to establish another connection.
Instead he concentrated on evading his pursuer to finally catch up to to the kidnappers. As with spirits it was no good to merely slay the puppets - you had to cut the throat of the puppeteer.
Everything their opposition did was meant to delay the team - so he would do the opposite - sparks began dancing around his large talons, as he put on a burst of speed, following the river and evading the drone.

[ Spoiler ]

I'm going full evasion and activate elemental strike (not body) while going for the boat

[Beta]

Mato zigs across the river to avoid whatever was floating in the river, but at the same time the current was carrying him downstream towards it. He managed to give it about 8 meters of space as he passed it, which was fortunate when the frag grenade went off. Bobby had already passed the location at a substantial height, and AM is a bit farther back and had already been towards the sides of the river so was at much lower risk.

[ Spoiler ]

It was indeed a grenade glued to a float, at the end of a fishing line anchored to a tree on the island. I just assumed that Mato's perception was good enough to spot it, but they did leave it nicely placed for anyone coming straight down the river after them. Mato has to keep his speed up so he can't stop short, and with skimmers there are no edges to carve a turn, so I called it 2m away with no action +2 per hit on the test -- and yes I was confusing editions, but I don't honestly know if gymnastics or running would have been more applicable?

All of which is to say that Mato has to resist 10P with AP+5 (i.e. +5 soak), AM only faces 4P with AP+5 (if she can just buy the successes, go with that).

Tanaka let's AM know that there is a thin trail of matrix devices running down the river currently, letting it see the quarry that she seeks. It doesn't seem much trail beyond where they are currently, and the trail back to the island seems to have disappeared. There is one dominant matrix device, a Proteus Poisedon RCC (rating 5) as well as some rating 5 commlinks, and a scattering of other wireless-on gear.

Trouble reports that only one of the pursued metahumans is awakened, but that there is a water spirit traveling along with the raft, of force roughly similar to Trouble's. The awakened human appears to be injured but the other three metahumans in the raft all appear healthy.

[ Spoiler ]

I bought hits for both, with a penalty on Trouble for range and rain (net -3). I hope I didn't miss a roll somewhere.

Bobby flies swiftly down river, with just enough rolling and twisting to his path to avoid being an easy target. The drone starts falling behind as Bobby puts on his burst of speed, but it takes a single shot before the range opens up much more. It may be a small quad-copter, but it seems to be armed.

As Bobby gets closer to the fleeing raft he can make out a small outboard engine on it, and four metahuman shapes, along with some other lumps, inside the raft. Apparently they realize that Bobby is getting closer because something in the raft starts spewing out thick smoke, although unfortunately for the people in the raft the smoke doesn't rise high enough to interfere with Bobby.

But then a mesh of magical strands appear around him in the air. As his wings hit the first strands they stretch but cling, providing resistance. Bobby can see that it would be easy to get slowed to a crawl in this magical net, at which point he's not sure if the net would support him once his wings lose lift. However as one strand gives way before his momentum he sees that it might be possible to rip through the spell entirely. Just before the spell hit, Bobby's sensitive hearing seemed to hear someone singing a few words in Sioux?

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

Resistance Body+Str: 11d6t5 2

Reckless casting shapechange f5: 15d6t5 6
Drain resist: 14d6t5 5

Reckless casting shapechange f5: 15d6t5 4

Drain resist: 14d6t5 5

Mage gets to resist with body+whatever amount of counter spell dice he can allocate - ideally the mage would have to roll judge intentions to realize that Bobby casts the same spell twice in a reckless fashion

Bobby couldn't avoid being tangled, but got enough of his wings out to keep moving.
More important, the mage had just revealed himself.
Bobby had no illusions about the skill difference between him and a trained practicioner. Counter magic was a thing after all - but it was limited ressource, and Bobby had just the solution on how to capitalize on that.
Concentrating, he didn't cast one spell, but two in rapid succession, aiming to turn the man into a lion mane jelly fish.
The large creature was deaf and mostly blind and would have trouble doing anything outside the water - and in water the cold rapid stream would do it in quickly.

[Gilga]

AM feels the shock and shards on her suit, but the distance and the armored cloth makes it a nuicence rather than a danger. She helps Bobby mitigate the web spell to a degree.