Barrel's-looking without opening it?, Zephana Don't look here!! Options

[torzzzzz]

We have a standard oil drum, which we belive it has a bomb and toxic material in side. We are surposted to implant this bomb inside the storage tanks of a oil cargo ship in a days time, my totem has told me if i do this the city spirits will be very angry at the outcome ( which has given my self and the other shaman in the group a bad felling!). How do we find out what is inside this barrel without opening it? We have already x-rayed it (which showed up the bomb) but we are short of time and need to know if it is the contents of the barrel that will cause the problems??

The barrel is security sealed and we belive that if we open it apart form poisoning our selves we will set of an alert to the people who gave us the job.

Any help would be great, as we are all at a loss!!!!

torz x :(

[Aes]

I could think of several ways. But seeing as I'm not in your campaign and you are pressed for time, that's be cheating ;)

[Critias]

Maybe there is nothing in there but a bomb. It doesn't have to necessarily be something obviously and potently magical to upset spirits -- a bomb going off in a ship full of oil drums would cause some serious mess/polution/upsetting of nature's balance/whatever you want to call it, even without there being any toxic magic innately involved.

[DrJest]

Just my 2 :nuyen: as the other shaman in the group - we do suspect that the spirits are cheesed because the long-term effect of our current series of runs seems to be to get Shiawase the power contract for Seattle, which would result in another Shiawase power plant within the city limits. Since it's the city spirits in particular that are miffed... Anyway, we're now between a rock and a hard place, since neither shaman is particularly keen to carry on with the run at this point but a combination of professional ethics and survival sense make us reluctant to abandon the mission completely.

EDIT: What this translates to is, if the Johnson lied to us (we specifically asked if the barrel contained nuclear/toxic/explosive/harmful chemical compounds, to which we were told it held a chemical to spoil the oil and a small bomb to rupture the barrel, but that it was otherwise harmless) it's an acceptabe justification even to the non-shamans in the team.

[Shockwave_IIc]

Simple put the bomb in there but it got damaged in such a way as to stop it from going off.

[apple]

Use magic like "detect object (security electronics)" and "catalogue" (the spell, where everything is listed in a certain radius).

SYL

[Edward]

Not doing it would be harmful to your reputation as professionals regardless of the reasoning. Even those you help today won’t trust you next time.

You said you x-rayed it, how big was the bomb, make a demolitions roll and compare the size of eth bomb to the size you believe would be necessary to only rupture the drum. (you don have a demolitions skill don’t you)

Then consider the chemistry, what could you add to an oil tanker only one drum of to make it unusable (if you don’t have the chemistry knowledge then do a matrix search), and what would the owner do with the oil (FYI I don’t know of a way to render oil useless, other than start a fire, but if you did scuttling your tanker in international waters and paying the fines would be the cheapest way to dispose of it)

Lastly consider who owns the oil tanker and there relationship to the power industry you have had dealings with. One possible course of action is to try and convince the owners of the taker to transfer the oil to storage and let you plant the bomb on a tanker they wanted to retire anyway, this will fool your employers and allow your new allies t to be ready to respond when your employers (I assume Shiawase) over extend them selves believing the tanker owners scuttled with there shipment of oil.

Don’t try that if you don’t have a face and you must ask for payment otherwise they wont take you seriously, payment in something hard to get on the streets but cheep for them works best. Do a bit of research and see what they can give you. EG is the oil tanker is owned by a power company that MCT owns you could ask for a cool deck or programs from MCT)

Edward

[torzzzzz]

that was a possibility to pull a fast one on our employers by tipping off the oil company son that the job is done but the bomb douse not go off, But form a personal point of view i am more concered abiut hacking off the spirets!

torz x :D

[Kagetenshi]

[BitBasher]

Or even why cirt spirits would care about a boat, which isn't their doman, that may explode into the body of water, which also isn't their domain?

[Garland]

For that matter, why would city spirits care about (theoretical) pollution, which has been part and parcel of cities since humans started worrying about how deep a latrine to dig.

[Club]

Free city spirits might care. Esp. the bigger (Meaning smarter) ones.

Might try weighing the thing. you have an x-ray of the bomb, so subtract that weight (Roughly) and figure out the rough weight of whatever is in there. Might not tell you what it is, but would eliminate some things. IE. liquid propane is light, radioactive metals are heavy

[Kagetenshi]

Still not seeing why they'd care.

~J

[BitBasher]

[Zolhex]

Any chance you have the time to encase the barrel in concrete then put it on the boat?

If incased the explosive force and anything in the barrel is way less which should contain it to the cargo hold let the company deal with the side effects.

[wagnern]

if the city sprits would be miffed, it must hurt the city. If an oil tanker catches fire in port, it could very easly catch the port on fire, and from there a large part of the city. Refinery accidents have been known to devistate entire towns. Suposably Chacigo was burned down by one lantern kicked over by a cow, you're going to be kicking over one huge lantern.

Now a modern oil tanker has an inert gass system, that fills the tanks with inert gass (CO2). If this is the case, a fire is verry unlikly. Now if the explosion is large enough to rupture the deck, then all bets are off.

If the purpous of the bomb is to set the tanker on fire, the drum is probably just full of desile fuel and fertalizer.

[Kagetenshi]

The Great Chicago Fire is thought to have been caused by one Daniel Sullivan (the person who reported it) trying to steal milk from the barn. It did start in one barn, though.

At the time, they lacked the technology to essentially immerse the entire area in water or a similar cooling, non-flammable liquid. The same cannot be said in 2060.

~J

[Aku]

couldnt the mage of the group just project, and slip into the barrel and... see whats in it?

[Kagetenshi]

Heh, looking more into the Chicago fire, wooden plank sidewalks and the fact that the river itself was polluted enough to catch fire were major aspects to its severity. I know the corps don't exactly have the best ecological track record, but I think it's likely that most bodies of water won't be flammable.

~J

[mfb]

how long would it take to learn Detect Toxins at force 1?

[DrJest]

[Kagetenshi]

Right, but that explains exactly nothing. Why do the spirits care?

~J

[Club]

In Burning Bright and 2XS the spirits are people. Smart enough to care, and free willed.

Shiawase getting another plant into Seattle would change the city. Cause and effect, and I can see the spirits being long-sighted enough to realize it. Or maybe the NAN corp Genetronics (sp?) is bribing them somehow.

I'm not sure how you think of spirits, but it sounds like maybe you consider them focused only on their immediate surroundings? .

[FlakJacket]

Guess it depends on how the alarm system is wired up. Some ideas I can come up with are- internal light sensors so if you open it and let light in it goes off, pressure sensor linked to having the inside of the barrel at a slightly lower pressure so when opened it normalises and triggers, GPS and INS plus a cellphone so it can be tracked and once it's in place set so if it goes a certain distance (this assumes the bomb is meant to detonate whilst the ship is in harbour) kablooie. Also allows command detonation.

[Edward]

The spirits probably don’t want another nucellar reactor. I seem to recall radiation being a bad thing from a magical standpoint.

@ Kagetenshi

I was referring to planting the bomb.

They have taken a job to plant a bomb in an oil tanker. Having taken the job not completing it shows a lack of professionalism. Allowing the bomb to explode causing poisoning in the ocean and knowing as you do that it will likely result in a series of events will bad results to Seattle on a mystical level would show a lack of humanity.

Future employers are more concerned with how professional you are than wether they want you dating there daughter. The challenge is finding a balance that achieves both ends, and that is what my suggestion was about.

Edward