I take it the red tower is the mine? And what's the red line going from what looks like Seattle up to the dragon's territory? A major highway or something?

Stolen current maps. Yeah, that is (was) a highway. It is still servicable, but with the dragon's land in the north, it is not as used as it once was.

At that, I'd like to make a Magic and Druidic Background test to see if I know anything about the region, or even the dragon or other eco-groups operating in the area. Probably going to have to default to them if you don't think they're spot on.

Belfast doesn't know of any specific organizations working in the area, though there was a large, rather insane cult routed from those woods approximately ten years ago. They were apparently engaging in human sacrifice, though it wasn't related to blood magic by all accounts.

Yep, my hovercraft can go right across the bay to the island. If we take a car, we will have to go over a bridge, and bridges make nice chokepoints for gaurds. Of cours, that will be after we get into the Salish-Shidhe nation, but even so the bridges may well have good security.

Carrying capacity is the real issue, I'm afraid. The survey equipment is going to be about 12 CF worth of gear and about 200kg. Which is me being nice and making it small and light

Well crap, I have the cargo space, but folding one of the benches down won't give me enough load for that. I'll have to remove the reinforced bench seat, unless you want me to just carry gear and no passengers. Or, I can carry all the illegal gear, and you can just take the surveying stuff in the other vehicle, which should work. I'm starting to think I should have designed my vehicle from scratch.

It may be too late for suggestions, but a RR Prairie Cat has amphibious and off road capabilities as well as living amenities.

Never heard of it. What book is that in?

I'm also fairly certain my character could score a sample of the material without needing the survey equipment, but I think the Johnson still wants the actual survey done as well. Might be able to save some space by ditching the unneeded parts, though.

We can't not bring the survey material. We have to analyze it on-site. I don't think you understand what exactly we have to do. We aren't just going to grab a few rocks. We are going to drill several meters into the mine walls, at least a dozen times, and analyze what we drill. We may only bring home a couple buckets of samples, but the total amount of stuff we analyze will be way more than we can carry back with us.

R3, it's an RV like the Ford Canada Bison.

Ah, I didn't remember that one. We won't be able to get one of those. Actually, what I am really thinking is that I should have gotten a van that could just drive along the bottom of the bay. That would be even better than going on the bay with a hover.

I'll let you make vehicle revisions for a day or two if only for the sake of the game as a whole. Your best bets are probably a rotor craft or a land vehicle.

Keep in mind that the sensors watching the border around Seattle are pretty stout.

Also, keep in mind that I am not now, nor have I ever been, a miner. You can probably talk me into anything reasonable.

Half of the bulk is taken up by the survey drones and their base station. Those you definitely can't get along without.

[edit] Masuru is a very busy wyrm, and his interests are mostly on the other side of the globe. I wouldn't expect him to actually be in residence on the island, though certainly has a few agents which are. [/edit]

I might have missed it, but did the johnson provide any casualty index?

Nope. You get a feeling that he probably doesn't have one worked out.

A Leyland-Rover with the Amphibious Operation Package (level 2), Life-Support Systems, and EnviroSeals should be more than enough to get us to the island (while being relatively dirt cheap).

Throw in Sensors 5, SunCell Power, and an External Cargo Mount, some Engine Customization for Load if necessary, and there should be tons of space with a good Signature, Sensors, and no worries about fuel acquisition. Add Radar Absorbant Materials 1 (25,000¥ and Avail 18) Active Thermal Masking 2 (Engine Customization x2, 3 CF, and 100kg Load) and Signature increases to 8 real easy. Alternatively, depending on how TKG calculates Ruthenium Polymers for a vehicle, you can get it up to +6 Signature without any Load or Cargo if you take it with 12 scanners.

That aside, I didn't say to ditch all of the equipment. I said that we wouldn't need the mining/extraction portions of the equipment due to high Force Shape Earth spells and high force Great Form Gnome Spirits, and those components are likely to be the heaviest and bulkiest components. We'll still need the analytical parts, however.

If we ditch the equipment, we better keep the spirit/spell guy healthy.

I've got a 10 in first aid, if that counts.

I doubt if it'll be a problem. Something tells me the resident mage isn't the "come on, hurt me hurt me hurt me" or even the "hey look, I'm a mage" type.

Grab a RL example of the vehicle and go from there.

Best case scenario for the Rover would be something like this. Ballpark figures are 5.6m l x 2m w x 2.6m h. That comes to about 14m^2 per long side, 5m^2 per end, and 11m^2 for the top. Or 49m^2 for the entire vehicle. There was some rounding in there, so give or take a couple of meters to get the real exterior surface area.

Suffice it to say that the drone calculation leaves much to be desired for passenger vehicles, even when you add in seat CF, etc., by a factor of 3.7 or so.

Not sure if it'll help, but I've got an Samuvani Chriscraft Otter but no skill for it.

sig of 3/3
cargo of 48
load of 650.

Ouch, 49 square meters is a little too pricy for Ruthenium... so I guess that's right out unless you have over half a million to blow on it. Still a nice option for smaller vehicles, though.

It's pretty much only an option for drones Vehicles are simply too large most of the time, though you might be able to aford a super-small compact.

Yeah I know, I just never calculated how big a van was before, so seeing it at 49 square meters kind of shocked me.

Photovoltaic Chameleon Paint with technological camouflage and other patterns from the American Northwest would still be pretty useful. I think the former provides, what, +4 against Sensor tests? Not too shabby at all.

Camo is weird. You get +4 to be spotted if you're standing still. You get a +1 to be shot or seen if you're moving... so it's useful.

What, you mean I can change my vehicle?

That's what he said earlier up, yes.

Hey TKG, can you get the J out of the room so we can go to work?

Done. And yes, you can change around your vehicle choices. Most games I wouldn't allow it, but it's pretty important this time out, so I will, if only to keep things flowing.

Oh, and you guys shouldn't have worried about smuggling the gear, after all Seems it was part of the deal between Fredrick and Rainwater that it got into SSC lands without incident.

[edit] I will also allow a custom vehicle, provided it is 1) not equivalent to something on the market with modifications and 2) it's reasonably done. Don't spend too much time on it, though, since I'd like the group to be on the move ASAP. [/edit]

Alright, creating my submerisble van. Man, I had forgotten how much money I spent on that hover. Just totalled up the cost, since I forgot to write it down, and it was around 420 Gs. That gives me 485 grand to use.

I'm not sure if anyone heard me, but Sedryk has a boat, Samuvani Chriscraft Otter to be specific.

Hey Chance, I think we could use it, so be sure to mention it IC.

Yeah, it is a pretty decent boat for a stock build. Defintely an asset, even if just for a back-up if nothing else.

Navigation roll: 2,3,8.

I've never seen someone's eyes perk up, Shadow. Do you have special cyberware that lets you do that? ;)

I finshed my van. It has 2 bucket seats, 2 folding bench seats, and a reinforced folding bench seat, and 202 cargo factor. It has a load of over 6 tons, and a signature of 6 and electronic deception of 2, and photovoltaic paint. It probably won't be quite enough to carry the whole team, our gear, and the survey equipment, but combined with Sedryk's boat, it would be more than enough.

Okay, so with the name thing settled, my character will be going by the name Paris for the rest of the run. I hope this clears things up!

JaronK

Sorry about that ninja edit in the IC forum, I was originally thinking about going by Onyx but settled on Paris right after.

JaronK

Perception roll for the map chip: 2,2,3,4,21

Also with my internal GPS could I figure the distance from here to the mine?

Interesting note. The map chip is virtually useless for water navigation. It'd work fine for roads, but you're gonig to need a chart of sea currents, etc, if you want to safely navigate at sea. The GPS does help and tells you that it's about 200 miles to the target area.

I have issues with assensing other players anymore. Last time I did it, someone went psycho OOC.

I was thinking about doing a perception roll to figure out what the heck is going on with Skeeter, since Paris is having a little trouble figuring it out, but for similar reasons I decided against it.

JaronK

It's no big deal to me. I hope people realize IC is only that. "In Character" With the information you can get by assensing, I find it hard not to do it all the time when playing someone with the capability.

Skeeter is good at HtH, clubs, stealth, and athletics. Plus "some" adept abilities. No gun skill, little Etiquette (I hope this is coming through) but not your usual uncouth tough or nerdy clod.

Just thought of some more inappropriate banter...

As best I can tell, we have a mage and a physmage. One of them hermetic, one of them wujen, I think.

Just wait. When everyone is nearly dead and the only hope rests with the half-crazy, ex-miner, Polish immigrant hermit, then you'll be glad you brought old Skeeter along.

He is very proud of his self taught Polish.

I can see myself being glad we have Skeeter. "Okay Skeeter, I need you to go plant this wad of c-4 with the radio detanator stuck in it. Once you plant it, I'll set it off with this remote. Go on, go on."