Except someone has to lug your skiny arse around, perhaps we can tie you to the back of Stick's horseman

I've updated the very first post of the OoC thread with links to the tower diagram, map and current initiative passes (to save hunting through the threads...)

I'm just doing a status/assumption check on where we are in time.

Guess number 1: I'm guessing that we have just finished the round in which I said I would:


My IC post assumes that we are in the new round following that. If wrong, just tell me and I will edit it to reflect the fact I am still doing IP3

So if I now in a new round I'm

• IP number 1: Heading to the Sultan
• IP number 2: observing in detail. Heres my list of assensing rolls, I don't think they are all used up and Instructing Legundo to possess one of the attackers (3 hits, not quite a glitch)

What I do on IP 3 will depend on what I see in IP2.

Hmmm...CyWolf got 3 successes too, guessing that's a draw in his favour and Leg gets bounced back to astral space...

I kindof thought that would happen. Force 4 spirits aren't the most scary thing in the world.

In my third initiative pass I summon Umballa, a force 6 spirit of man with the powers of stunbolt and fear. I use a point of edge to summon (the astral background is a killer), get 2 nett successes and take no drain. Umballa's first service is to defeat these three. I am instructing him to possess the third guy (not Cywulf and not the adept).


I will then get on with dispelling the spell on the adept in the next round.
Initiative roll = 13 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2878400/

Is it OK if I post in the IC thread, leaping into the Sultan and arrowing the targets?

Arrows: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2879362/

You're free to shoot in the first IP with that roll...afterwards the NPCs might have something to say about it, futile as that's likely to be given your armour, bdy and magic resistance

...don't forget to duck in the hatchway

Don't worry about re-rolling initiative every time! Ok, IP 1 new round...Joshua crashes in, you start your dispelling check and the spirit tries it's possession...can I have those two rolls please

Oh, and the CyWolves are the gang name of the defenders (as opposed to the Wolf Pack who are the hard core elite)

Umballas possession...I am not very confident: 1 hit http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2883194/
My counterspell...feeling a lot better about that! 5 hits http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2883196/
Resist drain from counterspell 3 hits: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2883197/

Sorry for no IC post today but couldn't get on DS at lunch

Anyway, should get one out tomorrow...

Seth: Had a look at the counterspelling rules...apparantly you need to be on the same plane but as this doesn't really suit the story and as far as I recall doesn't fit with what was possible in previous versions of SR then I'm going to let you do it...you'll take some drain though! Damn that mindnet

You are a nice person thanks. I should have known but forgot

@ Big Fella, time to man up and face the burst fire

First burst 4 net hits @ 6P +5(long burst) +1EX -2AP
Second burst 2 net hits damage as above

@ Seth, the spell you got rid of was a Fc5 Mindnet (Drain 5) so I think that's another two boxes of stun for you?!?

You're not wrong. Mages can go through stun quite easy. I thought it was important to break communications, but it looks like I am a little too late

On the subject of rolling badly:
Attack on the wolf 3 successes: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2895060/. I forgot a +1 but never mind
Parry the wolf 3 successes http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2895064/
Soak the wolf if needed 5 successes if I get out of the background, 4 otherwise http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2895080/

I am obviously trying to get out of the taint by moving upwards while fighting. I don't know how this works, so I've just made some die rolls and you can tell me what happens

If the mage casts a spell at me..don't forget I am an arcane arrestor (which she probably won't know for the first spell) and the force (and hence the nett hit maximum) of any spell she casts at me will be halved.

While we are on the topic of magical threats I have the skill magical threats 6, logic 4. So do I recognise her as some sort of weird toxic shaman, or something like that?

Ok I get 4 and 3 successes dodging the bursts (assuming they are narrow bursts), and 9 and 9 successes (mu ha ha) soaking the damage


I attack to knockdown the first kid with 5 successes, and only get 1 for the called shot at the second kids gun

Thats the end of this round for me!

I'm a bit dubious about 'dodging' the rounds given that you barely fit into the cargo bay but we'll put it down to you angling your chestplate to help them slide past you

...and no, the other shooter isn't a kid...this community aren't all runts despite the majority of your opponents so far...you are now hanging onto the end of an assault rifle pointed at your chest...no dodging the next one for you

The spirit is a Fc6 Beasts spirit and it has gone for your spirit rather than you...I assume it's hanging about for another go at the CyWolves that Joshua is rapidly defeating?!?

Masque on the other hand (name sound familiar? ) is going to persue you without trying to get too close...and no she's not at all toxic, just a little odder than most!

OK cool. I misread the post sorry.

I was beginning to think that the eco-tower was a cover for a magical threat twisting and tricking bright young kids. But no we are the baddies after all

If its OK I will change the post to no longer flee up. I am hoping the force 6 beast spirit is badly affected by the taint as well (I can always hope )

IIRC after my rather poor showing at astral combat, we are in IP 3, so I'll charge Masque in astral combat.
Astral combat 5 successes: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2895807/

I believe that my weapon foci does cha/2 + 2 damage = 5P, as its basically a staff)

Baddies? This is SR! Nothing is that black and white You are mercs doing a job...for The Man no less! Whilst the Stillwater lot aren't tricking anyone they aren't exactly stillness and light either...looking forward to finding out?!?

Nope, the spirit is part of the aspected domain Now you have two against one! Just as well you managed to clobber the mage...are you doing stun or physical damage? (Your choice!)

Gash wipes away a tear from his eye...her words are getting to him. Its fair they are the goodies and we are the baddies... bah!

Anyway I am carrying on fighting them:
Next attack 5 successes http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2898637/

Couple of parries: You probably need to adjust them for multiple attacks and stuff. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2898644/
Couple of soak rolls: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2898648/

I have a bad feeling this is going to hurt: me and her.

(Aside/Dark Days In Denver: I feel bad starting my relationship with Masque in such a violent way...I am sure that we will get on better...in future lives)

I admire your confidence...if anywhere is going to qualify for chunkie salsa it's in here!

Yeah. I told big fella about the chunkie salsa rules (He didn't know about them...12 damage he can take...12 + lots he cann't). But he's a bit of berserker at heart

Well you blocked her blow, took the wolf's and soaked some of the damage (I used them in order - ignoring your first soak roll as that seemed like the best way to let you stay on your feet) - sadly for you it did hurt her (you still haven't told me if you are doing phys or stun?!?) and you That's 3 boxes of physical - good job Dahlia is nearby (if she hasn't rushed off to help the wounded pilot...)

Btw, I'm not sure the grenade would actually kill the people in the rigger cocoons.
Remember, they've got 20 points of armor, behind a barrier. And it's hardened armor. They might not notice.

I'll take 2 scenarios:

Frag: 12P +5 (-1M)
If you're trying to 'shoot through the barrier' it's 20 armor, vs 12P and it's 0 effect.
If you're trying to destroy the cocoon/punch a hole in it
24DV (barrier rules, page 166)
Cocoon: armor 20, Structural rating 10. Soak Roll of 40.
If you buy at 4/hit you get 10, leaving 14 damage which is higher than 10 so you have 1 1 meter hole in the cocoons. Though with 40 dice, I'd take my chances rolling. You only need 15 hits on 40 dice to not take any damage to the structure. The average is going to be 3/hit, which will get you 13 hits. Heck, anyone who had edge on that should roll it, pretty much guaranteeing 0 damage.

But either way the cocoon takes the damage, not them.
Though the cocoons are probably rightly messed up.

Strangely enough because the barrier rules suck balls, a High Explosive grenade would actually do worse. It would be 20DV soaked by 40 armor, needing 11 hits to take 0 damage.

Well ok, you know that, I would have known that if I'd looked the rules up ( ) but the guy with the grenade certainly doesn't! Anyway...there are all sorts of nice bits of exposed hardware in here that wouldn't appreciate being blown up

Sure that's a different story

but Joshua might know that..

In answer to you question physical or stun by preference I will do stun to people: results are similar in the short term, and you can always say "sorry" afterward if it turns out you were in the wrong.

Time for some healing! I am only down 3 physical, and I have 12 spellcasting die, so I will take the 4:1 rule. The Drain code is DV-2 or 1, so I guess thats a couple of rounds of doing stuff.

Summoning Legundo force 6 guard, optional powers (concealment, lightning attack), nett 3 successes, 2 physical drain



Astral scounting(2): http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2907142/

We have.. a logistical problem.
Seth and I are both playing Corporals, his son is playing a PFC, Dahlia is a Runner with no rank.
All the other pcs are totally gone. I'm not sure what to do about that. None of our characters would try to form a plan and overstep the bounds of our ranks.

Seth you have any ideas?

I'm a bit reluctant to have an NPC take charge now (Tantilla seems to be next in line) so if you want to make a plan OoC he will impliment it for you...

...of course you can let me make the plan for you

Bascially you need to go forwards, up or down is up to you (although Squad 1 should be down and the Commando is above you...)

Lemme know!

Firstly I am sad that the others have left: especially without saying anything. I am enjoying this quite a lot. Is it worth PMing them to see if we can get them back? Or posting a secondary recruitment thread?

Secondly my thought is that the military (in the UK, don't know how it works in the US) have a chain of command for a reason. I see the chain pretty clearly (I am a private third class, sabs you are a corporal, and Joshua is a PFC). So Sabs that makes you in charge. Under our current extreme jamming situation, we will be expected to act under our own initiative, and accomplish the mission objectives.

We have a primary objective to deal with, and that is to get some records. Now we know they are tricky buggers, but sometimes a banzai attack can work anyway (see Tora Bora being taken by the SAS as an example). So I suggest that we move into the tower, and start heading towards where the records are held. The crash will be upsetting them too: they will have to running damage control as well as trying to stop us, so it isn't a bad idea. If the heavies move to extreme room clearing (blast the door, pop in a grenade, shoot the first person to move, shoot the nearest person, shoot everyone else) then we can just storm our way through.

Just a question for you Aria: do we have any idea where the records are being held? If not can we get the data out of Joshua's captive? If we don't know where lets go down: sensitive data in a fragile tower is likely to be out of the way of aircraft crashes.

That's a freak load of civvies we'd be killing.
Not sure how Sticks feels about that.

You are of course right. I am still thinking of this tower as being full of AI loving terrorist (which I still suspect it is), but a lot of them are deluded. And I am not so keen either.

OK so next few plans:

• We proceed without the room clearing and take our licks
• We negotiate with them: tell them what we are here for. Tell them that we are tough enough to take them (I suspect this is true). We don't want the massive loss of life this would incure, mainly on them (this is also true), so let us have the data we want, and we will clear out.
• The ships flee, we lurk go in and save the day
• We call it a bust and ship out

The second option looks best to me, but we need a negotiator. Joshua and I are unsuited (him more than me). What about you?

Mwhahahahaha

So, which plan are you going for? OoC/ IC posts please (although I know lots of you are getting stuff ready for Seth's game...)

OK, sorry I was in fact sorting out stuff for my game. So lets get back into this one for a while

Can I verify that the situation is as follows:

Joshua, I and the Heavies are together I think. Sabs I am guessing is in the rigger cocoon near us, but where his actual machines are I am not sure.
I have a feeling that most of the immediate threat is not here, and that most of the baddies (well kindof baddies) are retreating into the tower.
The Jamming is stopping us from talking, although we can probably talk to Sabs through one of his drones being near us.

I am not sure where the rest of us are.

If I am mostly correct, I will do an IC conversation with sabs in which I propose to go and talk to powers that be. I will get a spirit to search for the Masque and follow her in (flying a white flag)

If there are any karma points around that would help a lot as I can get a point of negotiate!

I think we proceed with room to room sweeping. I'm not sure.. My character is completely unsuited to negotiations. Besides which hes' about to pick up "Prejudice, Severe: Technomancers" by the end of this run (if he lives.)

We have 2 concious LT's, and a couple of Sergeants who totally out rank us. They should be negotiating if that's their option. Our goal as I understand it right now is determine if these guys are a threat, and if so..get data so that the UCAS can eliminate them. If we eliminate a few on the way to getting that data.. who cares... right?

OK lets go kick some butt. I wouldn't mind a summary of where I and the heavies think everyone is though.

I'm thinking if we do that.. we're gonna get slaughtered but.. Sticks isn't exactly happy. They tried to steal the Sultan from him. Honestly, he'd be happy to just get back in the Sultan and blow the tower up. Let the Forensic Analysts find Proof, or fabricate it later.

Do we have the firepower to blow up the tower?

I have to admit it's a tricky situation. I think I am tempted to try the negotiation anyway, and if that fails we can move to some serious room clearing.

Summoning Bobangi:


I'm then asking for the search service and chasing after Masque myself.

Dahlia has a stack of explosives but I don't think it's anything big enough to take down the tower...not without a serious amount of prep anyway and I don't think the inhabitants would calmly let you do that!

Thanks for taking the initiative Seth! You'll find Masque in short order...hopefully no other unpleasant surprises Just one other thing, you keep saying 'taint' but there isn't anything massively negative about the aura around the tower, it's just STRONG

Sabs, how would you feel about a retroactive rank upgrade to Master Sgt? I wouldn't normally do something like this but in the interests of not having NPCs running the show that seems a good choice to me...and you've been taking the lead on things anyway so that wouldn't be breaking the game (and guess who buys the farm next?!? Tantilla's days might be numbered )

yeah. I don't know that: look at my tech skills. Gash's view is that they are actually easy to seriously damage, and reinforcements can be here with loads of explosives quite easily.

The "taint" is the astral background from the barrens themselves...I thought we were still in toxic background. Is there a domain to the background?

I'm a big fan of sabs being retrospectively promoted.

The barrens taint ends at the boundary with the Stillwater Community. The area immediatly around the tower is an aspected domain, some sort of nature magic you think...possibly a druidic influence as weird as that sounds...

That's fine you can make me a Master Sgt.
But if you make me an officer, I will turn this bus around!

Welcome Master Sgt "Sticks"!

Do do I call you Sarge or Gunny?

Sarge, or Top would be common. THough in formal settings it would be Master Seargent, or Seargent (up to you)

Nicely recovered Aria: its hard to breath life back into a game and you have done that.

Do you want to put out a recruitment thread as well? A couple more people would be very nice.

Might just do that! I've got lots of ideas up my sleeve (and even an entirely new sequel game) so let's keep this one going

We're oh so not going to live :0

Aria, you did not address this in your post, but I was doing a drone count on my crawlers and stuff trying to see how many I still had.

I was under the impression (rightly or wrongly) that all the crawlers were with Squad 1. Any of your ferrets etc are still out there but getting a line of sight to them will be damn near impossible now I would think...

Still you've got those lovely rotadrones with the big guns (and they will fit inside the tower) and the Nimrods protecting your escape route...

OK I will cast an increase charisma anyway (I resist the drain using 4:1) only got 1 success so abandon it

I am hoping the fact that I am actually telling it the way it is will have a modifier but I am untrained in these things, so I guess its just charisma - 1

Two sucesses

Looks like Sticks is in charge