I figured as much but it was still nice to get the shot.

So, what do you guys want to do once we reach the encounter? Smooth talk our way out, outrace it (I'm pretty sure a Force 7 spirit using Movement can have us flying across the waves, but it's probably only something we wanna do if we have a good pilot to handle the Stress or Crash Test that may result), or do the really stupid thing and attack it? I could probably throw up an illusion or even use a little mind control magic if we go with the first option.

Well, if anyone still has loose cash, bribery and fast-talk shouldn't be that hard. I've only got maybe 300 left after buying the Nav-Dat GPS.

As you may notice, I backed us up so that we can go through this again from the boat boarding

Hmm, I'm a little unclear on the plan... which characters go via what vehicle? I'm assuming illegal gear goes in the van, whereas easily explainable stuff stays on the boat. But where are each of the characters going to be? Paris needs to know where to go!

<laughs>

Okay, well, my initial instinct was to throw up an illusion so that we all appeared to be fisherman, and I was going to suggest that Hellcow simply try and fast talk his way into letting them let us go fishing even though we don't have a license and are possibly fishing in a "no fishing" zone or whatever (fear my sportsmanship knowledge).

If that failed, I could just take control of their captain's mind or we could do the fast escape from there. Or otherwise make it up as we go.

JaronK: See Shadow's post above.

I was just gonna tell them we were going camping over there. We have all this camping gear, camo clothes, etc.

Here'd be a good place for a knowledge skill check.

<delve delve delve>

Always the last character I check. <dice roll> Thor has a pretty good idea that the SSC uses a lot more magicians in governemntal rolls than most countries. Border patrols included.

Not a certainty, by any means... but it might bear thinking about before you do anything too drastic

If we were just going camping, there'd be no reason for us to be stealthy or dressed covertly as I'm sure a few are, let alone sneaking across the border. At least fishermen trying to sneak around the law for a little poaching is more believable... especially if we're doing it on the Salish side (if its the UCAS border patrol) or UCAS side (if the Salish patrol).

And TKG: The standard routine I talked to you about Bel's shielding and spell defense is in full swing. Both he and Red Tom are keeping an eye on things astral, too, so if you need or want any rolls for that, just ask.

Just keep in mind that no amount of physical world illusions or stealth is going to stop a mage from seeing a flaring beacon on the astral, if one were to be present.

Anyway, I said I'll reroll the sensor checks, which means that there's a good chance the boat will get through. TN to spot it is 8 (base 3 -2 for LOS, +7 for spirit).

Ah, so Concealment from two spirits don't stack? Okay, cool, I won't waste a service from Elizabeth on that, then.

And yeah, I was going to take care of any mage's if one was present. Unless he's got the kung fu in him, I'm pretty sure I could take control of his mind long enough for him not to let them know the other patrollers know the gig was up... assuming it came to that. I was also thinking I could use Masking to hide the illusion's presence on the astral, but I'm not too sure how or even if that would work.

Um, I know Paris is on Alpha team, I just don't know which vehicle Alpha team is in!

JaronK

Oh. Alpha Team is the van, Bravo Team is the boat.

Thanks!

Skeeter brought a fishing pole and will try his damnedest to use it and actually catch fish.

You know, that's why Paris figured it would be good to throw Skeeter on the boat. Who'd really think he'd get hired for a run?

JaronK

Thats why i wanted to bring Skeeter too.

Okay, redid the border crossing with the book in front of me. For the boat, it's TN 8 (base 3, -2 for LOS, +7 for spirit). The sensor rating at the SSC border with Seattle on water is 5 (base 5, +1 major city, -2 straight/sound (custom mod, half way between lake and sea), +1 random factors table).


Contact was made with the boat. The approaching vessel is approximately Corvette sized.

Sensors are useless against submerged vehicles. Passive sonar from the patrol ship does not detect the sub (I'm giving it a sonar signature of 8, +3 for the detecting vessel being a surface ship)


The sub just evades notice by the ship. Since you're not a traditional sub, you're likely not going to trip any MADs sensors, either.

Sub? Are you talking about the boat, or the van, or something else? Have we decided that I'm taking the van under water?

A corvette? Crikey. I thought we were just jumping to the Salish-Sidhe, not heading into Aztlan or something. This should be interesting.

Can I see anything from my perception check?

What's going on? In the IC thread, neither the boat nor the van have gotten underway yet, what's with this talk of corvettes and subs?

Thats what I was wondering.

I'm bringing my condor, arachnoid, and skimmer drones, but leaving the steel lynx and strato-9 behind. Also bringing all my other gear, other than the vehicle shop of course. The van has signature of 6 and electronic deception rating 2.

Van under water = good. After having a read through the rules for sonar vs. sensors, I can't see a good reason to stay above the surface if you have the ability not to. There is no sub, only the van, by the way.

Corvettes are small and "cheap". They're used for coast guard and border patrol duty You might be in Puget Sound... but you're also traveling along the main SSC-Seattle smuggling corridor. There's a reason there's a Corvette in the area. It's the smallest ship in Rigger 3 that doesn't amount to a glorified speed boat. [edit] Actually, there's a chasis for a patrol boat. It's about half the size of a corvette, so that's what teh ship will be. [/edit]

Shadow, the ship is showing SSC colors and the SSC flag. If I remember correctly, this is a nighttime crossing so making out too much more won't be possible till it draws a little closer.

What happened was that earlier, I posted a longer post. However, since people wanted to back up a bit, I did so (I thought it made sense to do so, as well). It'll be in the next post tomorrow morning. Sorry for the confusion. Here's the text from the original that got cut.


Expect to see a repeat of much the same in the IC tomorrow some time.

Options available via Bel:

• I can create a storm to keep the ship occupied while we get away (but doing this would require me to channel the Undine into myself, which gives me effectively unlimited services for about an hour or so in exchange for quite a bit of drain that'll be hard to soak). By doing so, this will also give me access to Accident, Movement, and several other choice services.
• Throw some mojo on the captain and hope there's no mage around providing spell defense or trained to go psycho if he sees a spell coming, as he most likely would be.

Okay, so that's about it. :D Anything to take out the ship itself is doomed to failure, and there's no way we could take out the entire crew in one swoop (which would be necessary if it was attempted at all).

If it is, indeed, a full corvette, there's no chance that we'd be able to take it down, and there's going to be too large a crew to take down as well... so subterfuge or evasion are our only real options. Considering that they're used to dealing with smugglers, I doubt if subterfuge will work very well, so my recommendation is to get the hell out of Dodge.

And just to muck with you, TKG, Rigger 3 specifically mentions the Salish-Sidhe Council as using patrol boats instead of corvettes. :) Not that a patrol craft (Hull 2 instead of 3, and slightly worse sonar and handling) is much better. But I can see why you might have one there if smuggling was really bad... just seems like really, really, really bad luck on our part. (So help me if I find out anyone on board has Cursed Karma or something. <shakes his fist in the air menacingly>) :D

EDIT: And a big :P (and reluctant applause) to Crechebaby for the the Princess Bride reference.

Where exactly are the boat and van right now as we load up? Are we in the city harbor? I would prefer to go to an out of the way beach before driving a van into the ocean.

RoUS, I decided on a patrol boat. If you'll notice, I said Corvette size, originally. Patrol boats are approximately the same size... umm... okay, so I'm covering. The reason I picked a Corvette originally is that there aren't any premade patrol boats in R3. I didn't notice the chasis until later. At which point I've decided to make it one of those. In any case, I'd expect heavy guns suitable for putting a hole in a a heavily armored and armed smuggling vessels.

Not that it'll make a whole lot of difference, in the end since one is much like the other. The SSC doesn't have too much in the way of sea power, mostly just enough to keep the Tal and the Tir from having a totally open route into their lands. The Vancouver-Seattle smuggling route is big, so I assume that there's plenty of sea traffic on it, too.

sooo... what's up with the surveying equipment? have we picked it up? if not, where are we doing that? (is a little dazed and confused here..)

The survey equipment is on the road from Seattle to Vancouver. It's a side trip. The indication I had was that the van would be heading that way. Your routes are similar across the border, though.

So.. why are we going by sea before we get to the point where we need to then? I'm so confused, too. <sobs>

And seriously dude, I was just kidding about the corvette. You don't/didn't need to go design a new ship just for that. It's not going to make a lot of difference if things get ugly anyway.

Nope, I'm not changing it for that reason. A patrol ship just makes more sense. I was looking at the boats and saw basicly a speed boat and then a Corvette and decided to err on the side of logic (the Corvette in R3 is specificly mentioned for coast guard work). It was a mistake based on not looking at the chasis

And I wouldn't say that it's a bad idea to cross the border by water. The van is the only thing that could cross by land, and it'd actually be much worse off trying it that way (as it is now, it's virtually invisible to anything they have on the border). For the boat... well, you really only had the one choice for it.

I was just thinking that if we didn't have to cross by water until higher up (at which point the distance would be significantly shorter anyway), only one or two people with legal SINs could have had to be on the Otter with no illegal gear to speak of... just out for a pleasure cruise or something. Then we could have met up near Vancouver or whatever and crossed there.

But again, I'm not complaining just pointing stuff out. I'm really thrilled by the pace of the game. It's nice to see some danger actually manifest in a game for a change.

I got pretty confused as to who goes where. I thought Alpha team was the boat.

Ah well, as long as we're not spotted.

I love the movement but I'm quite confused... luckily Paris is on the Van below and therefor not part of all this!

Wait, so the survey gear is being shipped to vancouver, and we will meet it there? I'm lost too.

Since I'm on Alpha, just consider me on the van. Thor and Raven have been ignoring me anyway.

Okay, what's happening in brief. Everyone meets at the warf and piles into their respective vehicles. Thor finds a convenient stretch of waterfront with a gentle slope with no prying eyes and rolls into the water. The team moves along with the current, keeping as low a profile as possible. As you near the border, Belfast has a spirit conceal the boat, and the sub drops under the surface.

Van (Alpha)
Thor
Paris
Swift Eagle
Evans
Brand

Boat (Bravo)
Sedryk
Skeeter
Belfast
Raven
Hellcow

Today's post will move us ahead and bring up the boat that we've been talking about here.

Sorry about the pace, guys. It's hard to accept that a board game is actually intent on limiting planning to just one or two RL days, I know. I personally find it kind of odd, myself, but that's my intent. One of the games I'm in has been in planning/legwork for two months so I understand how it can be a shock. My concession to this is that I do remind you guys OOC of things that were apparently forgotten, such as picking up the survey equipment.

I don't intend to penalize the group for not taking a long time to plan, after all, that's no fun for anyone.

Cool. Like I've said a couple of times, I actually like the pace. It confuses things a bit, but it's still a refreshing change. I hope it catches on a bit more around here.

Anyway, Bravo Team (Boat) needs to figure out just what we want to do so we can coordinate our IC posts, though. My vote's still on the Brave Sir Robin tactic of running away since I doubt if fast-talking will work (though Hellcow can try it now over the radio before the patrol boat gets too close), but I'll back up the consensus.

I'm sure that a combination of the Storm, Accident, and Movement powers (with one of Bel's spirit speeding us up while the other slows them down), we can get away from this ship, but there's not telling how many others are in the area or what kind of magical support they have onboard. I can always summon another undine or maybe even a slyph if its nice and windy, too, for additional support just in case. Red Tom would probably try to use Mob Mood to cause the crew (at least those that are visible) to feel lethargic and unwilling to persue, too.

Other than Hellcow trying to sweet talk our way out on the radio, I don't really know what the rest of you guys are really capable of in this sort of situation so I don't have anything else to suggest in that regard.

Police proceedures would be a good knowledge skill to use for hints. So would border patrol tactics, but only Thor has that and he's in the van/sub.

Oh, duh, I have Police Procedures myself. (Had to stay one step ahead of those dad-burn Tir pigs somehow.) It's not a high rating, but here goes nothing...