Below is a link to my Google Docs page and a file for Google Earth with placemarkers for where I think things are. Karoline, let me know if anything is wrong.

LINK

I take it the choppers are a few klicks apart at drop time, yeah?

Does the city look old enough to expect only pre-crash 2.0 tech?

Lucky Eddie aiming for the office tower:

Parachuting skillsoft 1 + BOD 6 + (this could be kinda important) Edge 5 = 12 dice, exploding sixes

==> 5 HITS

Yeah! Right on top, baby!

Here is a map for you in google earth. It defines all eight drop points, the landmarks mentioned so far, and also gives you an idea of the boundaries for the war zone itself.

Yes, with that many hits, Eddie may land anywhere near or even on the office building that you wish.

If anyone has architecture and/or nature knowledge skills, you may roll to try and guess at how long the city has been abandoned based on the state of decay of buildings and/or the encroachment of plants and such.

And yes, should be at least 2 km or so between drop zones.

OK, Lucky Eddie does architecture to find out how long the place has been abandoned;

INT 5 + Architecture 1 = 6 dice ==> 2 HITS

Thanks for the map!

You're welcome. You had the buildings right, and at least one team right, but I figured showing all the team's positions would be good.

Lucky Eddie figures it is somewhere between 5 and 30 years based on the decay. Some buildings show more or less age. The newer looking ones could have been tampered with more recently, or might have simply been built to better standards, or maintained better when they were occupied.

Dunno if I'm remembering right or if the sheet i=I have reflects the final alterations on the sheet I sent you, Kara.
But here are my rolls according to what I've got recorded.

Defaulting on Parachuting test 9d6.hits(5) → [6,6,1,1,5,4,4,1,6] = (4)

Defaulting on botany test to gauge how long the city has been abandoned. Logic 5 + 3 NANs -1 defaulting = 7d6.hits(5) → [1,6,3,6,1,3,1] = (2)

Four hits is also sufficient to reach the top of the building.

And yes, I'm showing the same stats.

That reminds me, has anyone popped any drugs or infusions or anything of the like yet?

Fitz wont change the standard settings oh his parachute, so it should open at the preset height.

Defaulting on Parachuting test: 2 dice => 1 hit and a gitch ( I hate rolls with 2 dice -_- )

Fitz wants to aim his parachute also to the building where lucky Eddy lands. Unfortunately, this wont work propperly with a glitch. So, as soon as he realizes that he is drifting in the wrong direction, he will take of his parachute in midair, and will be swearing while doing that. (Using his multitool to cut the harness if necessary). Then he flies, and starts a nose dive heading for the building, to make up the lost time.

No, but my Auto-Injector is programed, so that it injects: Guts when the Biomonitor reports an overnatural high fear-reaction, the traumapatch when the Biomonitor reports more than 10 boxes of physical damage, the stimpatch when the biomonitor reports more than 11 boxes of stun damage (but only if the physical damage is below 10), Oxyrush when the oxigen level in the blood is dangerously low, and Neuro Stun Nantidotes when the Olfactory Sensor reports a dangerous dose of Neuro Stun in the air.
Furthermore, when Guts is injected, my team is informed via tac net.

And by the way, I use counterspelling to protect us when ever possible. I will alway try to keep Eddy and BT in my field of view. That means that I will be positioned behind them, when we go somewhere.

Good, will keep that in mind. And yes, normally 1 hit would give you a 1:3 glide ratio so you'd fall short anyway, and the glitch halves that to 1:6 glide ratio and a sour landing if you hadn't gotten free and begun to fly. Combined with the 500m auto-open. So yeah, they'll be nearly there by the time your chute opens and a sharp wind nearly sends you for a loop.

I rolled my infusion thing back when we were still statting out, though the roll is technically not supposed to happen until it wears off, which might be after I have to burn some Edge to stay alive or something.

But I did include the Sideways bonus to perception when I was making perception tests, so, I guess, yes?

Gymnastics check! 7 Agility +3 Skill +2 Synthcardium +2 Raptor Legs = 14d6.hits(5) → [2,1,1,4,6,2,4,2,2,2,4,1,5,5] = (3) aww.. only marginally impressive.

I woud like to summon 4 watchers which should stay for 2 hours.

First watcher summoning (2 hours): 10 dice => 2 hits
First watcher drain (2 hours): 14 dice => 2 hits

Second watcher summoning (2 hours): 10 dice => 1 hit (this guy will only stay for 1 hour)
Second watcher drain (2 hours): 14 dice => 3 hits

Somehow all this dicerolls are BS, but better to roll bad now than rolling bad when its important

Third watcher summoning (2 hours): 10 dice => 4 hits
Third watcher drain (2 hours): 14 dice => 4 hits

Fourth watcher summoning (2 hours): 10 dice => 7 hits (what a waste )
Fourth watcher drain (2 hours): 14 dice => 4 hits

The second half was fare better

no drain so far.

Rolling for kick-a-pow.
Agl 9 (just using the leg) + 2 skill + 2 charging bonus + 1 sideways = 14d6.hits(5) → [6,3,2,1,4,5,4,6,4,6,3,1,2,4] = (4)
Base cyberlimb damage is (str/2)P str is considered +2 for the raptor legs and is 11 after cybermods.

So, DV should be 11P

I'm going to roll against a "security door," (which is "reinforced" 8/9 Armor/Structure)
I figure it's not really a big thing, since I can kick over and over again until it gives, I just like rolling dice for the sake of story.

7x2=14d6.hits(5) → [3,2,1,4,4,3,6,5,1,4,3,1,3,4] = (2) so the door takes 9P and shatters. Opps! Actually that should have been 8x2=16, but, whatever. I'll pretend like they missed too...

Moving on.

I tell the four watchers now: "Check this building for living beings that are bigger than a rat. If you find something, assense it and then return to me. If one of you dies, return to me immediately."
I let every single watcher repeat this order, to make sure they understood it, then I send them down.

I activate my Concealment(Self Only) power, but exclude BT, Eddi, my own spirits, and any obviously official shadow-wars camera-drones.

Hehehe, seems like everyone's taking on BT's overly-proper speech pattern

Probably BT's professionalism has influenced Fitz already

And talking this way is really practical for explaining your arguments plausible.

Karoline, is there any sign of matrix presence in the city, or are the communications limited to mutual signal range only?

Also, anything up with this building? Do you want sensor rolls or anything? Did we spot the general landing sites of any of the other crews?

Basically, we need to implement some of these plans, so is there anything you need us to do to make that happen.


If your semester just started and it's kicking your ass, let us know, hey?

Hmmm... we seem to have lost our tormentor.

I hope Kara is okay...

Anyway, Gravel, don't forget that casting into a BC increases the Drain by (BC/2). Probably not a problem...

Drain is only increased, if the spell is cast within an area with BC besides reducing the spell's force. If the spell travels into an area of BC only its Force is reduced. If the Spell travels through an area of Bc this has no effect on caster or target.

Spotty access to internet next couple of days.

So your argument is that you shape the mana only at your location and not at the location where it takes effect?

Maybe that's true?

This is a tough one, and GMs may differ on the interpretation. Some argue that the mana is 'packaged' at the magician end and tossed at the target, in which case the BC around the target may not affect the magician. Others argue the mana is channeled along a link from magician to target, and if the link enters a BC then the magician suffers. We should get Karoline's opinion on this.

Hello, sorry for my sudden disappearance, but I've had some very serious RL issues that needed to be dealt with.

There is no matrix that you can detect running through the city. There are camera drones floating around, operated by Shadow Wars, but they don't provide relays for you. So yes, you are limited to mutual signal range for each other and your drones (well, plus the slight added distance of being your own personal matrix). There is also no connection to the matrix at large either.

The UWBR picks up all 17 floors of the office building. Most of them look like they are dedicated largely to cubical farms with offices around the edges. The first floor (US standard) is a lobby, the second floor seems to contain the employee lounge as well as most of the cleaning supplies. The 3rd through 15th are standard office space. The 16th contains a couple of large meeting rooms and big, comfortable looking offices. The 17th contains one office of executive proportions near the front, and what looks like an entire apartment/penthouse suite. The stairs you are looking down don't actually connect to the 17th or 16th floors. There is a back stairwell that connects only the 17th and 16th floors, and a private elevator that connects only the 1st and 17th floors.

It looks as though the building should be operational. There are desks, cubicles, office equipment and supplies. You'd swear the office was simply closed for the weekend, not abandoned for several years. The only defenses to speak of besides a multitude of cameras are a handful of recessed turrets in the lobby. You can't determine if they're functional or anything of the sort from here though. There is evidence that there may be basement levels, but the UWBR falls short of seeing any.

The watches are sent on their way, there is no word back from them yet. They're likely simply still searching at this point.

You have a good idea of where everyone landed more or less, but they could be moving quite quickly.

Of course, there isn't a ton of time to consider all this information as BT breaks down the door, sending a shattering echoing crash through the entire building. The air inside the building is stale, old, like this is the first time a door or window has been opened in years. There is also of course a large plume of dust that is stirred up. Clearly housekeeping hasn't been keeping up on things.

P.S. Thanks for keeping things up as well as you have while I was gone. If this was an ongoing game I'd give you guys a nice little karma reward But since this is a one shot, that'd be fairly pointless

Well, Fitz plan is, that, he approaches the background count until its verge. Then cast the clairvoyance spell. With the clairvoyance spell you can shift the point of view within the range of the spell. He shifts then the point of view into the arcology, where the background count should be. Although Fitz himself, and the spell he cast on himself, remain still outside the background count, the BC in the arcologie should affect the spell, or at least how much he can see with it.
I don't know if there is a rule that especially adresses the case, where an Detection spell is outside the BC, but the thing you want to detect is inside the BC. But the BC should have some effect on the spell. After all, wards effect clairvoyance too, you can't see trough them.
At least extrem cases like locking with clairvoyance into a deep mana void from outside should be impossible. I guess just subtracting the BC rating from the power rating of the spell, for callculating how much you can see in the reach of the BC, would be the most logical conclusion.
But it's indeed a GM decision. Fitz's theory could be wrong.

Dam it, I tried to write this simple, but it still seems way too complicated.

P.S. Good to see you back

"Oh! Look! There's a pile of healing potions over by that tree!"

Yup, good to have you back.

Question: If I cast Clairvoyance on BT (or the better version Mana Window to be correct), he will be able to switch between the Clairvoyance-view, and his normal view at will. He won't have to use the Clairvoyance-view all the time. Is that correct?
If not, it wouldn't make sense to cast it on him now, because the Clairvoyance-view hasn't got usefull stuff like Low-Light Vision and Thermographic Vision, and would be a disadvantage.
(When BT says "We should commence with this activity immediately", does he want Fitz cast the spell now, or does BT just want us to decamp to the arcology now? Fitz assumes the last.)

Fitz summons a level 6 Guardian spirit now. Optional powers are Concealment and Elemental
Attack (lightning).

Summoning test level 6 Guardian spirit: 14 dice => 3 hits

Opposed summoning test level 6 Guardian spirit 6 dice => 1 hit fortunately he rolls even worse than me.

Resist drain level 6 Guardian spirit 16 dice (forgot Centering last time) => 5 hits => no drain

We have 2 services. I had hoped for 3, but no drain is fine.

Ok, what do we want?

-Movement
-Concealment
-A bodyguard

Choose any two.

Oh, that's just his way of being enthusiastic. basically a translation of "let's do this shit!"
I still want to mess with the turrets in the lobby before leaving, but that's really something for the Agent to handle.

As to powers, I guess the thing to consider is that with two services, do you want to stretch those services out, or use them up and get a new ghost?

Well, a level 6 gost is nice, and normally I would stretch the services for the rest of the day. But I would estimate that it will be only a level 3 gost in the arcology because of the BC.
Level 3 is too low, to be much help, so I will probably summon a bigger one before we go in. That is risky, because the drain totally depends on how good the ghost rolls in the opposed summoning test. But going into the arcology is risky anyway, so it won't make much difference.
So I won't stretch the services. The question is: Do we need movement to be faster at the arcology? We are the nearest, but other teams could have the movement power too. And it would be good if the time difference between our arrival at the arcology and the arrival of the next team would be big.

Movement could be nice in this situation. Get to the building first, and run away quickly if we have to. Given the spirit can maintain the power till sunset, we have all day to be damn fast, if Fitz doesn't go for another spirit.

Any team that isn't presented with a similar opportunity is likely to secure their base first. The limited impression I have of the Dogs is that they are into explosions, so they may go for the booby trap thing, too. A high reaction Eddie, sped by a spirit by a factor of six, would be one damn hard target to hit with a molotov cocktail. Even if we don't run on them right away, this is something to remember for future. Eddie is not bad as a shooter, but let's face it. He's the sucker to draw fire from the enemy to reveal their location to the real killers, you two.

Ok, it's movement and bodyguard then. I think you guys have enough dice for being silent, and I have concealment(self) anyway.

I definitely like the idea of running at about 285m/ct and scaling something like the office building in ten seconds flat.

They changed the ruling of the movement Power in SR4A. Now the effect is halved if the targets body is higher then the spirits magic, and there is no effect if the targts body is higher than the spirits doubled magic.
You have Body 10 and the spirit has magic 6, so your multiplier will only be 3. But even with only the half multiplier, you seem to be still as fast as we are, so it won't matter.

Apologies again crew. I've been sick with some kind of stomach bug or another
Let me try to get back on this again.


Sounds good to me.

And also, there just might be a few medical supplies I forgot to mention in one of the building's many mandatory first aid kits.

Okay, catching up on all the posts.....

Yes, you can set up the door so that it looks less broken into from a distance, and even up close, but a stiff breeze might be enough to knock it over.

BT's acrobatics are sending large drum like reverberations through the building. You're a bit worried about the stairs supporting his weight as he jumps 4 meters at a time, but they seem to hold.

You notice no booby traps, and as nothing explodes, you suspect you haven't managed to miss any either. The floors offer plenty of places to hidein the cubicals, since the cubical structure has been left there, but it won't provide any real protection in a gunfight. Otherwise the simple open design of the building leaves few hiding spots. The top levels suffer from similar problems, though the apartment level has plenty of good ambush points.

The drones around the building report nothing out of the ordinary. One of the nearby businesses seems to show signs of recent activity, as it is the only building in the area that has its front door open, but otherwise nothing odd (To them at least, and to you looking over their data)

As for the BC, you're welcome to make an assensing test when you get closer to it to figure out what BCs are in the immediate area.

+1 for the Thundercats Reference.

+1 for the Viking summoning

+1 for Zig and Zag

At some point the UWBR manages to get through the floor of the building and you can see that there are two levels of underground parking. On the third underground level, besides some more parking, is what appears to be a generator designed to power the building for emergencies. Make a perception check over the UWBR (so no bonuses for vision enhancements or anything that works on a particular sense, but attention processor works fine.)

Int 5 +2 skill +3 attn co +2 Limbic NAN = 12d6.hits(5) → [2,3,1,2,1,2,4,2,4,1,2,4] = (0) ...nice.

Beautiful. Oh, and by the time you reach the bottom of the building, the watcher spirits still haven't returned. Either they are being very careful in their search, or something has happened to them.

If the spirits were disrupted, wouldn't Fitz know?

Ah, I missed how something worked. Yes, he does indeed sense the sudden loss of his two watcher spirits after a minute or so. They give no indication of what happened to them or where they were at the time, and both seem to have been destroyed at the same time.

Ok, since I told the watchers to return to me, if one of them dies, I see four possible senarios.

First: The two remaining watchers didn't witness that two of them died, and are still searching the building, as I ordered them.

Second: The two remaining watchers witnessed that two of them died, returned to the top of the building, didn't find me there and are searching me now.

Third: The two remaining watchers witnessed that two of them died, returned to the top of the building, didn't find me there and didn't know what to do.
They are still there and are whining that they can't fulfill the job for their precious master.

Fourth: The two remaining watchers witnessed that two of them died, and didn't return, because that was only for the case that one of them dies. They are still searching the building, as I ordered them.

I summon a new watcher and tell him: "Fly onto the top of this building and look if there are one or more of my other watchers. If yes, tell them where I am and lead them to me. If no, just return to me. You will find me either here or further down this staircase."

Summon 5th watcher for 1 hour (10 dice): 3 hits

Summon 5th watcher, drainresist (16 dice): 5 hits, no drain

I think the line "Be careful what you order watchers to do, they take their instructions very literally." Might be one of most potentially entertaining lines in the book. Especially when followed by the caution not to tell them to search every corner of the building.

Anyway, an interesting list of possibilities, one of which might be correct.

A rare IC post coming up

I use my Geiger counter to scan for radiation. Is the level over the natural average level?

Afterwards I will attach the Geiger counter to my belt and keep the it scanning passively. But it wont make noise, and will only inform the tac net if it finds something.

I found this in a job site for archaeologists:

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Archeologist

The Bureau of Reclamation is seeking an Archeologist for permanent Federal civilian employment in Rapid City, South Dakota. The person in this position will be responsible for Reclamation' s National Historic Preservation Act compliance for federal undertakings in South Dakota and Keyhole Reservoir, Wyoming, and will contribute to preparation of National Environmental Policy Act, land use planning, and resource management documents. Consultation with tribes and State Historic Preservation Offices is required, as well as fieldwork including inventory, evaluation, and mitigation of historic properties, and report preparation.
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It would be just a little freaky to be working there and running there 60 years later... at the same time.

Weird sounding job. Seems like you'd be going to people's houses and explaining to them that their fancy looking drink coasters are actually priceless antiques and that you need to take them to the museum.

Oh, no, looking a second time I guess you'll actually be telling people they can't tear down that old building because they let it get just a little too old

You should do it. You can go to the spots you're running in and take photos

Edit: The Geiger counter show radiation a bit higher than you might expect in an average city, but nothing remotely approaching dangerous levels.

I suppose we should get this nag running again, no?

affirmative.

Shall we assume drones and another watcher were sent into the basement for confirmation?

Sounds good to me:

DAWGFUCC: Drones and Watchers go first under common conditions

Fine with me. I order the remaining watcher to check the basement for living beings that are bigger than a rat, and anything that exists on the astral plane. If it finds something, it shall return to me immediatly.

Now that I had enough time to think about it, I feel like we should bring the security of this building under our control before we leave. It just feels right to secure our HQ properly before we leave it.
This should be done fast, since most of it will be matrix stuff the agent does for us anyway. At least if there are no unexpected things like a basement full of ghouls. With the movement power we should still be the first at the arcology.