Actually, the decision hasn't been made to send an astral watcher along: people have expressed concerns that it might tip off the target. Also, there's the possibility of whistling for the hired transport, which'll put you a few minutes behind it, but might be able to catch up.

As for the watcher, I think I previously argued that it might, but Oracle would probably be a little more certain that it either will or won't.

Once the watcher is summoned, Oracle can astrally percieve it, and ask: "Will sending the watcher will tip them off."
24 dice:
#D=20 : 21544263256263555363 n1=1 n6=4 nHit=9
#D=4 : 3633 n1=0 n6=1 nHit=1

= 10 hits!

As for hiring transport to follow, I forgot that was an option, but that sounds good. We'll need to get there, eventually, and flying after it seems better than hiking.

Actually, the watcher issue is irrelevant as Ziro summoned a Force 6 Air Spirit to follow the vehicle (remote service).

The question Ziro had was should he also follow the vehicle, or remain behind providing overwatch at the cabin.

OOC:
Blackhat said, "Either one."
Alex said, "Security, please."
DireRadiant did not respond.

None of the PCs have responded IC.

So Ziro continues to provide overwatch until told otherwise.

Ziro will have to take some action at or before dawn, as the remote service expires at that time. He'll send the bound spirit to tract the vehicle if the group decides that it is definitely the target.

I thought we were all waiting on Dionysus.

Ah, well, I'll ask the same question about Ziro following, and change my "either one" to one or the other.

Whatever the risk of being discovered is, that needs to be weighed against what happens if we are not in place to see what happens with the cargo when it arrives at the destination. I think it will take time to get to where the delivery is made, and keeping that gap down would make it easier to track what's happening.

If someone was going to identify us and intervene, they could and possibly should have done so already.

See IC. Are you going to follow it, or wait until it lands/the spirit vanishes?

Thanks for bumping this. We seemed gridlocked with indecision.

To quote Teal'c: "Indeed."

I knew it was to good to be true!

The stuff about remote services was changed in the errata. I will amend my IC post accordingly.

EDITED to remove post that made no sense.

Is it dawn yet?

Dawn breaks, roll for the summoning if you'd like. @Ziro, you're going to continue with your plan about following in the astral? Give an assensing roll when you get a chance.

How about the rest of you?

Grandpa has a tracking device in play but if he can't get airborne it won't do him much good.

Yeah, I think our plan was (nobody had any objections, anyway) to call in our transport, and have it follow some distance behind (so we can keep our tracker in range, but hopefully not have the tail noticed by the rigger driving the TBird).

Sweet. Ok, give me a couple days to get everything together (my p&p meets tomorrow as well), I'll try to make a couple big posts on Sunday to get everything moving again.

I'll wait until then.

One note about following the t-bird: if Ziro astrally projects & his body goes with everybody to follow, should anything go awry he has to do some astral tracking to find his body again (SR4 p184 & 185).

@Oracle:
"Will Ziro following the t-bird tip off the enemy?"
It's a little vague, but you do get the impression that there are astral patrols at some point...you're pretty sure that they don't come into play until the landing site, wherever that is, but there might be something before then. There's definitely astral overwatch that you're going to have to contend with.

@Ziro:
Roll for summoning the new air spirit, please. I'd also like an Assensing roll on the ward & auras you can see in the t-bird.

@all:
So the target seems to be headed for a landing outside Minneapolis. What's your plan?

I did not plan to follow the vehicle personally, as my first priority is to provide overwatch on the group (see post #103). The plan is to join the original air spirit a few minutes before dawn, then summon a new air spirit right after dawn. Have the new spirit take over the tracking duties. Return to my body. I would use watcher spirits to track my body, while I was gone.

Since the watcher spirits I originally summoned probably expired before dawn. I will summon some more right before I depart.

Here are the rolls requested:

Ziro summons some watcher spirits. Two hours should be more than enough.
Roll Magic + Summoning + Focus = 13d6; hits = hours of service
Spirit Rolls hours of service (max=6) to challenge summoning = 6d6
Roll Willpower + Logic to mitigate Drain = 9d6

13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [3,3,2,6,3,2,3,2,4,3,5,1,2] = (2)
13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [2,6,3,2,6,2] = (2)
13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [5,2,4,4,4,1,2,4,5] = (2)

13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [1,3,3,1,6,5,5,3,4,6,1,5,6] = (6)
13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [3,4,3,2,5,6] = (2)
13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [1,1,5,4,1,5,4,4,2] = (2)

13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [2,1,4,2,2,3,4,2,2,5,6,1,5] = (3)
13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [5,3,6,4,2,6] = (3)
13d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [1,2,3,6,6,4,6,3,3] = (3)

Ziro figures 3 watchers is enough redundancy.

Ziro Conjures a Force 6 Air Spirit
Roll Magic + Summoning + Focus + Mentor = 15d6
Spirit Rolls Force to challenge summoning = 6d6
Roll Willpower + Logic to mitigate Drain = 9d6

15d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [3,6,6,4,1,6,6,6,3,4,1,5,4,3,5] = (7)
15d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [2,3,2,5,3,3] = (1)
15d6.hits(5);6d6.hits(5);9d6.hits(5) → [6,3,6,1,5,6,3,1,2] = (4)

Ziro ask the Air Spirit to perform the following set of remote services:

• follow the target vehicle until sunset.
• notify Ziro if and when the vehicle lands.
• conceal itself.
• conceal Ziro, his teammates, and their vehicle (but not from each other) when they are within the spirits range.
• Assense everything entering or exiting the vehicle. communicate the results to Ziro.
• Defend itself if necessary.
• Defend Ziro and his teammates if they are attacked.

Assensing rolls:

Scan cabin prior to departure, looking for last minute surprises: 7d6.hits(5) → [6,2,2,5,2,1,1] = (2)
Scan vehicle for wards: 7d6.hits(5) → [5,4,2,3,4,1,6] = (2)
Scan area for auras: 7d6.hits(5) → [1,5,4,3,5,1,6] = (3)

As for the plan, that would depend on the assensing rolls, I guess.
I'll make the IC post then.

Got it, sorry for the misunderstanding.

Cabin assensing: there doesn't seem to be anything in or around the cabin than you & your teammates; also the spirit flitting back and forth periodically.
Vehicle wards: you know about the ward around the cargo, and now that you have a chance to look more closely at it, you can identify what's been bothering everybody: the ward reeks of toxic magic.

Re. scanning area of auras...not sure which area you mean. The target vehicle?

Since I asked this before he left, can we assume Oracle gave Ziro some kind of cryptic warning about his activities on the astral possibly being discovered once the vehicle has landed?

I say we put our bird down, nonchalantly somewhere, if possible. This is a big city, so unless we try to land within LOS of the target, they have no reason to believe we're following them.

In that time, I expect they're going to begin unloading the cargo, and our tracker round is on the vehicle, not the cargo, so if they move it before we get back, that would be bad.

We could either keep Ziro around to follow them astrally (understanding that soem sort of astral patrol will intercept him at some point, and the alarm will be raised), or we could take our chances landing nearby.

IIRC our objective isn't necessarily to recover the cargo, it was to investigate where ti was being taken - that probably means where in the city. So I think tracking them, in some form, would be our best bet - except that once they get where they are going, security is sure to be much tighter.

*shrugs* THose are my thoughts.

Sure. It's a little moot since he chose not to follow himself, but I assume since he had the spirit conceal/defend itself that the warning (or at least prudent caution) was communicated to the spirit.

Right, and as we approach the landing zone, if we don't decide to use astral recon to keep tabs on it, it might be a good idea to pull the spirit back entirely.
Of course, so far, I don't have a better idea to suggest.

I used one assensing test on the wards. I used the other assensing test to check for astral "escorts" - beings around the vehicle - leading, following, surrounding, etc.

Got it. Nothing other than the usual traffic in astral space.

I'm good with landing nearby as tracking the shipment is top priority.

Here's a google maps link of the area I've got in mind:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/8cyqm3

Ziro, your spirit can see wards scattered around here and there; some in/around buildings and others scattered around the flats. You guys aren't in visual range just yet, so you'll need to go astral to take a look yourself.

So far either the spirit is successfully concealing itself, or the targets are just keeping quiet.

Ziro looks around to see if the spirit can conceal the other runners from him.

Ziro would automatically fail a mundane perception test (Intuition + Perception - Spirit's Magic = 3 + 3 - 6 = 0), unless he used edge to perform a long shot edge test. Ziro gets to roll one die to perceive astrally (Intuition + Assensing - Spirit's Magic = 3 + 4 - 6 = 1).

1d6.hits(5) → [3] = (0)

I'm not sure how spirit coordination works. I'm assuming that two spirits, each with intuition 6 and logic 6, are clever enough to make sure that most of the team is protected by at least one of them, if the team splits in such a way that one spirit can not keep everybody in LOS at the same time. I am hoping that the team is clever enough to not split in such a way that two spirits can not protect everybody.

Yeah, Right!!!

BTW: Don't be too confident. Here is what happens when the first Air Spirit attempts to see what the second Air Spirit is concealing (Intuition + Perception - Spirit#2's Magic = 6 + 6 - 6 = 6)

6d6.hits(5) → [4,2,5,5,2,2] = (2)

Also, I could have given myself a +3 dice pool modifier above by claiming that I was "actively looking" for the others.

3d6.hits(5) → [1,6,4] = (1)

Intuition 4 + Perception 4 + Visual specialization 2 - Spirit Force 6 = 4

4d6.hits(5) = 0 hits

Haven't forgotten about you, works been crazy and we were without internet at home for a week. I'll try to get something up this weekend.

Ok, but who are you again?

Ziro, give me perception rolls for your spirits at -6.

Invisible Castle

#1: 6d6.hits(5) → [1,2,1,6,4,5] = (2)
#2: 6d6.hits(5) → [5,5,6,3,3,6] = (4)

Thanks. Just after you crash land, your spirits report that there are 3 hostile spirits patrolling the grounds, and it looks like they've spotted your spirits, if not you guys. They're headed up to attack. Orders?

If you want to engage, roll init for anyone involved. So far it's all astral, so it'd be just the spirits and you (if you want).

Not planning on engaging. Rolled initiative just in case.

Invisible Castle

#1: 12d6.hits(5) → [5,1,5,6,4,3,2,5,1,3,4,2] = (4) + 12 = 16
#2: 12d6.hits(5) → [6,5,5,1,6,2,2,1,6,2,6,3] = (6) + 12 = 18

Invisible Castle

Ziro: 6d6.hits(5) → [1,2,3,3,4,6] = (1) + 6 = 7

Clarification: Magical Overwatch includes Astral Perception, Assensing, and Counterspelling.

@Ziro: Roll 'em when you get a chance, astral perception is at -6.

@Everybody else: So Grandpa and Cinzia are headed out on foot, Ziro's watching on the astral. Oracle?

Perception checks at -6 all around, pls. If you're trying to stay hidden (aside from the concealment power), roll infiltration.

Perception:
Intuition 5 + Perception 4 + Enhanced Perception 4 + Limbic 3 + Qualia 1 + concealment (-6) = 11 dice
[2,6,1,1,3,4,2,2,6,1,5] = 2 hits

Astral Perception (Also at -6? Modified secretly by you for background count?)
Intuition 5 + Assencing 4 + Enhanced Perception 4 + Limbic 3 + Qualia 1 + concealment (-6) = 11 dice
[4,6,3,2,1,2,4,5,3,1,4] = 2 hits

Also, Oracle will stick with the team, but I would like to have him take a moment before exiting the vehicle to glance into the near future and see "Will we be in combat in the next 10 minutes?"

I think, based on our earlier PMs (ages ago) that you wanted to handle the rolls for those (and that I can't buy hits) so I won't be as certain how well I did. That's fine. I'm mostly hoping for Oracle to have some advice about what we should do next (proceed forward, or run for it), based on his ability to see into the future.... but it is an inexact science.

Astral perception: yes, I'm going on the assumption that astral perception is affected by concealment - I know there's some controversy over this, feel free to PM me if you object.
Re. background count: After running for a bit, you're within a rating 1 toxic domain, within striking distance of the warehouse (around 50m) it intensifies to 2, somewhere in it might go even higher, but you'll have to get closer to see.



Will PM you.

Jsut saw the previous IC post said the team had started down teh northern trail (slightly eastward). Assume Oracle stumbles along visioning for as long as you guys need him to before interrupting.

Infiltration
Agility 5 + Stealth 4 = 9
1,6,5,3,4,6,6,4,6 = 5 hits

Perception
Intuition 4 + Perception 4 + Visual Specialization 2 - Penalty 6 = 4
4,3,1,4 = 0 hits

Int 2 + Perception 2 + Vision Enhancement 3 - 6 = 1 (1d6.hits(5)=0)

Agility 7 + Infiltration 2 + Urban 2 (11d6.hits(5)=4)

Hmmm.... That was Astral PERCEPTION, not Astral Projection.

1d6.hits(5) → [2] = (0)

I don't mind Projecting. First, I would have to call a spirit to guard my body, as the other PCs would have left me behind.

My original plan was to follow them "in the flesh" and provide overwatch, until I realized how useless I would be in that mana zone. Unfortunately, it seems that some people left before without discussing the situation. Who exactly is left in the vehicle?

What is the plan? Are you guys on "radio silence", or what? I don't see where any deployment plan was laid out.

My bad. I fixed the relevant posts.

Here's how I have the tactical right now:

Cinzia, Oracle & Grandpa are headed north-northeast towards the best-guess landing spot. Ziro is hanging back (?) at the t-bird, astrally perceiving. Ziro's spirits are retreating farther and farther to avoid engaging with the hostile spirits.

Oracle, if you're coming along, do you want to roll infiltration as well? The others are ducking & weaving to avoid being seen - plenty of cover for now.

And I assume nobody's changing tactics based on Oracle's vision, if that's wrong please let me know. I'm going to post IC under that assumption to keep things moving.

Might as well roll, but not expecting anything:

Agility (2) + Defaulting (-1) = 1 die
[5] (1 hit)

He will tag along - might not be the best decision, but at least he knows it is where he is supposed to be.

Ziro, the spirit that was headed back to the warehouse changes direction suddenly, headed straight towards you on the astral, its aura burning with hostility. Dark claws form out of its astral body, reaching out in front of it. You're a little distracted by this, but you notice two spirits appear in front of the warehouse, just as the Concealment surrounding it vanishes.

Oracle, Cinzia & Grandpa: while Oracle is playing musical chairs, the warehouse suddenly snaps into focus. You can see a few large vehicle doors (all shut), and three stories of windows, most of the windows on the 2nd story are tinted; either 1-way glass or blocked on the other side. There are 6 armed guards patrolling outside right now, clearly on the alert but not looking specifically in your direction yet.

Any specific questions/requests before we get into initiative?

So like this was a surveillance job?....

Grandpa wants to know which guards are in range and can be taken out quickly. He also wants to know if he can see through the windows with vision mods?

First of all, quick apology: the last two weeks @ work totalled up 140 hours, so I haven't had spare brain cells for GMing. However, the storm has now passed and it should be pretty smooth sailing for the next couple of months.

@[b]Grandpa[b]: The windows block both thermographic & lowlight vision - that's all i saw on your char sheet. There are 2 guards lounging by a door, the other 4 are moving targets, apparently walking a perimeter around the building. Right now, you could probably manage a shot at any one of them.


Everybody roll init, please. Question: do people want me to open a new OOC thread for combat?

Init so far:
18 Ziro Spirit #1
17 Cinzia
16 Ziro Spirit #2
12 Grandpa
10 Oracle
7 Ziro

Initiative: [6,6,4,1,2,1,4,2] = 2 hits, so 10

[4,4,1,3,5,1,6,4,3,1] = (2)

10 + 2 = 12 / 2 IP

-----

As Grandpa has no contract on these people and was hired to observe, he will hold his action for now.