Maybe Fiona can learn something, that will give us a bit more insight.

But, at least, we have found her. And from the looks of the "master bedroom", she is also staying there.

That cell-like door does not exactly scream voluntary to me.

Bye
Thanee

P.S. Killing everybody, just because, does not sound like it would fly with the extra qualities we got here. Also, maybe not the best idea, considering this is a fairly high-security neighborhood. With patrolling spirits and guards and whatnot, even getting to the apartment might be tricky.

Fiona already knows the wards goes around the whole apartment, fitting the inner walls and window.

So it would be rolls for moving through the ward slowly, assuming she doesn't try and slam through. You could use Tubesnake's feed to pass along info to let her pop into the room within a closet.

If I know you're trying to be sneaky I can do infiltration rolls for you, and may often let you buy successes and just write if circumstances are appropriate. But if you wanted to do them yourself it would be one roll to get to the apartment, in case anyone astrally perceiving is about or if the patrolling spirit comes by. Then another roll for being inside, but I assume she's being quite careful about staying out of line of sight of the hall and particularly the known spirit.

Then assessing rolls tied to what she's assessing.

Alright, bunch of rolls incoming...

Astral Infiltration (to get back to the apartment) 4 hits
Passing through the Mana Barrier 8 hits (!)
Astral Infiltration (moving through the apartment) 5 hits

Assensing Sophie 3 hits
Assensing Frank 3 hits
Assensing "Wolf #2" 5 hits
Assensing Nari 8 hits (right, on the least important one )

Overall, pretty solid rolls I would say.

Bye
Thanee

Can Fiona figure out what kind of spell that is when assensing it? Is there any notable change in behaviour?

At the very least, she should be able to see the type (probably Manipulation, though), and relative Force to her own Magic when buying 3 hits.

Also, if she assenses the Ward, is it the same astral signature as Frank (still assuming, that "lead wolf" is Frank, but it seems quite certain). 3 hits are also good enough here.

Bye
Thanee

Mostly just paused in case of wanting to counter, but that could be risky, and it sounds like she isn't.

So manipulation spell, lower force, successful, and sustained.

The ward is similar to the wolf, but a little something else mixed in.

Team effort probably.

Bye
Thanee

Something else might also give some important clues... the emotional state of the four people there.

What can Fiona say about that?

Bye
Thanee

So, uh, has anyone else noticed that Willie et al are supposed to make landfall at "Slaughter Creek"?

Time for the butchery to begin.

"Awright! Awright! Awwwright!" says Willie.

In my defense that's what it's actually named.

Probably not the best choice for tourism.

Edit: Looking it up the name comes from a whole story about pirates in the region. Something I hadn't known or incorporated....yet.

Yeah, yeah. "Honest, guys, I didn't go looking for a place with a name and pirates and stuff."

As long as there is actual cover, you can still use stealth as normal, but the bright glowing of astral forms certainly makes things tricky, when you get too close.

Which is exactly why Fiona stays away from the room with the spirit in.

Bye
Thanee

Passerby holds his nose and shouts at Tubesnake, "Hey, loser! Shouldn't you be blowing air into the sewer for the guy down there? Drek, they'll hire anybody now."

Tubesnake says: "That's why I'm union and you're not. Air comes in elsewhere, combustible fumes come out here before they reach explosive levels. Enjoy having a city that works, dumbass."

I believe Tubesnake is sharing the feed, so you could respond to it.

But I'm reading it that so far Tubesnake and Bongo are looking to advance time.

There is a chance that if we just let the night advance, the people will be pretty exhausted after the party, and we might have an opportunity there to do something.

Early morning seems to be the best time to make a move.

Bye
Thanee

I see your point, Thanee. Maybe we get to just connect with the young woman outside the building. If she is allowed to go by Frank. If not, then we have a clearer idea of her situation.

I have to go back and read our mission statement. Exactly what meets the parents' requirements for us to be paid?

EDIT:



This is one of those cases where a couple of questions at the start would have helped. Do we need to merely tell the parents where to find her, or do we need to pull a bag over her head and manhandle her to a meeting place of their choice?

I'm pretty sure the task is to actually bring her back.

Bye
Thanee

Sounds like three votes to advance time. You can interrupt, but I like to get some level of consensus since if others are replying it gets tricky to wind back the clock.

I'm in favour - or at least until the next significant event.

Time has advance to 3:30 am. The others are starting to plan their moves.


Also I assumed Selina was just leaving her headband on so she could keep tabs on the job as needed, but it's fine for it to have come off at some point.

Though now I have this song in my head...but with "you can leave your headband on."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdpUfMKm730

Drone sensors: all I'm expecting is that an annelid poking its tip against a vent grille will get effective line-of-sight with wiggling around and some fisheye effect, on pretty much everything in the room, and that standard line-of-sight visibility will do just fine for infrared and low light sensors to provide a detailed composite image. However, this does more than just highlight living bodies, because through heat dispersal it will also tell us where functioning utilities (i.e. household nodes and/or maintenance drones) are.

Ok, sounds good.

Also if Selina wants to walk over to Franks apartment, you can just let me know and I can describe it. I'd let you know if it seems like there's troubles.

@Koekepan: Bongo mentioned earlier, that he has a Maglock Passkey. Hopefully, that will work. Otherwise we might have to improvise.

Bye
Thanee

I'm not quite sure, I fully get how this is supposed to look like.

Are these vendors and people on the street level? Or are they inside the building one floor down?

i.e. is it one big building, or is it like two towers with a bridge between them?

Bye
Thanee

That repository of extraneous boxes, is that at the bottom of the elevator You have Bongo on?

There was a description a while back, but I'll take another shot.

The structure is over four rows of rowhomes. There is essentially a long tower over each of the four rows the rowhomes, and the towers connect to each other. Instead of being simple rectangles they have a more angular shape. They're Pointed at the top, and the sides first angle away from the rowhomes and then back in to give what is supposed to be a gem like impression, it's also how you have apartments out over the street like Mikes.

Between each of the four rows of rowhomes is a street. The angled walls don't quite reach each other over people's backyards and the streets, and so you get a more flat bridge area there, occasionally supported by support columns.

This flat bridge section is the promenade floor, going across all four "towers" and instead of the bottom of the cement or something it's one way glass (where it isn't steel girding). The ceilings are high, so it's more like three floors in that sense, and the ceiling is also glass and girding.

Interior sections of this floor without access to any windows aren't apartments but are instead restaurants, stores, a gym, vending machines, utility rooms, and things like that.

So if Selina first went south she'd be carried along the walkway and could either look up at the stars, or down into the backyards of the downtowners below and folks sleeping on the street. The downtowners still awake would be the ones trying to send ads to Selina's comlink. Though they can't see if anyone is still up there this late.

She'd then get off that walkway and select one going east, it would take her through the next tower over, over the street I mentioned where people aren't sleeping in it, and it's the front of the rowhomes facing each other instead of the backyard, then through next next tower, then over where Bongo had been hanging out, where if she gets the right angle she could see the park where Nari was. Then it would take her into Franks tower. She'd get off the walkway and walk to an elevator to take her down to Frank's floor.

I might not have said it yet, as no one was there, but the hallway on Franks floor is rather like Mike's and is actually quite spartan. Just a long hallway going north to sound with external elevators at either end (one of which Bongo is in) and two more at even spacing on the sides. Between these are three banks of internal elevators that don't go outside.

Thank you!

Bye
Thanee

Did we see how Frank opened the door to his apartment, when the fox girl arrived or the other guests left?

Was it as simple as just opening it up from the inside?

Could Fiona materialize and open it, or could there be some electronics involved?

Bye
Thanee

FYI on vacation, so sorry if I'm extra leggy.

There-s a matlock on the front door, but Angel now can control that
No chain, so it should just open from either side

Enjoy your vacation!

Bye
Thanee

Just so I have it straight, are there maintenance rooms, potentially with boxes and drones, on each level, or just at the bottom?

I assume that in this universe the Francis Scott Key Bridge was repaired after the cargo ship crashed into it? Before Willy and Lenny and Flatline motored by underneath it?

Each floor. It isn't a big room, but this minimizes elevator usage by utility/cleaning drones.

I have been following that.

I'm curious if GMs play much with the concept that Shadowrun is the future of the past. A strange setting full of nostalgia for a place we've never been.

It's a game and genre of the 80s, and the timelines diverge in 1990, which was then the future. The timelines have diverged radically by 2024.

It's tempting to drop in little things that play with that.

Like having a dwarf named Taylor Swift, whose career ended when they goblinized , but with the longer lifespan they still work smokey coctail bars with their red lipstick.

I'm just poking around the marina and the church in Google Maps. There are a lot of churches and cemeteries around there.

And roads that lead out into open marsh and just ... end. No buildings, nothing.

Hmmm. Willie has Moonshine Production as a Knowledge Skill. Maybe he will see something familiar.

Oh, wow! Please let me know if Willie sees the logo for "Palm Beach Willie's" right in the Slaughter Creek Marina.

I've let him know he only has a couple days to reply or we move forward.

It has been years since I GMed or played a non-awakened PC, so bear with me please. I believe a shooter who takes two Simple Action shots in an action phase must declare both actions in the declaration part without waiting to see the results of the first shot before declaring the second.

Do you concur?

*facepalm*

I never thought to use Influence on a spirit! You rock, Thanee!

The part about declaring and resolving actions certainly sounds that way (A. Declare, B. Resolve).

I cannot remember ever having played like that, though. We pretty much ignored A. and just did one action at a time.

But, yeah, when strictly reading it should work like you described.

Bye
Thanee

P.S. Hopefully the Influence works and keeps the spirit away long enough.

I spent years using satellite imagery as an archaeological tool. The more I look at the Google maps/Earth images of the area around the church and the marina, the more I think there is shit going on there local people don't want us to see.

Good pick, sunnyside. Even without awakened creatures, this place probably has all kinds of "Keep the fuck outta here!" vibes.

Ok, so let me share some rule thoughts I'm working through.

For Bongos question it seems like he's right. I've never played it that way, but maybe that's a change in this edition nobody registered?

Now on the Fiona. Now what I think Thanee is trying to work around is that even if Fiona one shots the spirit, having the psychic connection severed to a spirit is something the summoner notices, so a good chance Frank would wake up with a jolt.

So they want to do something that doesn't trigger that.

So the first bit was the ability to override a summoners order. But as far as I can tell a spirit is independently trying to follow instructions, and so can be influenced.

The next issue is noticing it happening. The section on noticing magic refers to magical skills. Force 6 is incredibly noticeable. We're talking +4 dice...against a threshold of Zero.

But then does it matter? Can you just throw a force 6 disco party and influence works anyway? As far as I can tell it does...but it doesn't shut down everything else going on with them. So if you use it on someone in the middle of combat they might do the thing, but may also do other things. So for stealth you want its use undetected, especially if the target has an active telepathic link.

Now you could try dropping the force used to make it sneaky.

FYI Frank wasn't casting with so high of a force.

The question was really for Willie, as Bongo doesn't shoot unless something is really wonky.

It certainly makes sense in Willie's case to declare both at the start of the Action Phase, because a Combat Turn is 3 seconds long, and Willie has 3 IP, so each pair of Simple Action shots fits in a third of a Combat Turn, or about 1 second. So half-way in a 1 second Action Phase seems awful fast even for Willie to determine the effects of the first shot and realign. It should apply for those who have fewer IPs, as they are slower to react anyway.

Now, the attacker is allowed to declare multiple targets for a burst each, but I think that would have to be done before the first burst is fired. Same for Semi Automatic Mode single bullets.

As with all magic, it is pretty obvious, that magic is being used (especially in astral space).

It should not hinder the effect, though.



Influence does not make the target braindead, of course. It is, basically, giving them something that will become their highest priority. And it feels like their own idea, which means it does not seem like something strange is happening (maybe afterwards, or if someone asks them why they are acting so weird - then the target can start making additional tests to break free of the effect and shake it off).



Just to be sure, this is a spirit power, not a spell. I don't think it has an actual Force rating.

Also, I don't think Force would matter, as every astral activity is pretty obvious in astral space.

The one way to avoid the spirit from noticing that there is something happening in astral space, is avoiding line of sight (which should be doable as he is focused on the bedroom mostly, but might require successful Stealth, which is why I was refering to that in the IC note).

Bye
Thanee

Have we lost a player or two?

Apparently Willie smells bad or something.