I think hes just confused...that happens when spirits are around

Big F...can you make a defence roll against the shotgun burst please? I leave it to you to decide if you want to go full defence or not...?!?

Anyone else got any questions/wild theories?

Bit of an oops on the timestamps in the alternate reality...should be 04:13/14 Aug 23 but i think that only affects Sabs at the moment (have editted my posts)...he will shortly get confirmation of that time (assuming he logs on to his nexus?!?)...

Its very chaotic and confused for the players, but I suspect less so for the characters. As far as Gash is concerned I think I can see two living creatures (the guy with the gun and Feral) and a swarm of robots.

There is little I can do about the droids, but the cool thing for me is that Feral is dual natured, and thus vulnerable to astral attackers. Anyway 6 successes on a force 8 stun bolt targeting Feral...and the cool thing is the feral won't be regenerating this. My spirit is going to possess the guy with the shotgun, and with 8 successes I feel fairly confident that will happen

Invisible castle is down (again...)

So I will try and all out defend against the shotgun blast:

Reactions 8, Reakt 2, gymnastic dodge 2, synthicardium 3 = 15 =
5 and 6 if I need a second one. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3024792/


In case I need to soak: 21 soak dice
7 and 4 on the soak http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3024793/The all out defence meant that I only had 2 arrows that round, so I now have 11 left.

I will shoot feral next tound, and I discovered I am better at archery than I rolled last time: agility 9, archer 6, spec 2 for bow, smart link 2 = 19 this time.
Still rolling bad. 3, 4 and 8 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3024794/

Much confusion reigns

Feral has disappeared from view on the mundane world...force 8+ spirit concealment! Gotta love aspected background counts

The guy with the shotgun is a droid therefore immune to possession! That said, Joshua has dodged the blast (which flayed another DW trooper instead - fish in barrel!)

Feral is visibly affected by the spell but not down for the count (spell defense!) and now he is sending a pissed off wolf spirit after Gash...

IC to come...

Please forgive me for wrenching you away (one by one admittedly) from the mass combat...think I'd like to get back to a few fewer NPCs and you lot working harder for your pay

Questions/comments, fire em my way...

I'm taking a bit of a liberty with Feral's disappearance I know but -8 conceal plus thermoptic camo plus general chaos should make him damn hard to see...don't worry, Gash's spell has more or less taken him out! 1 for the team!

I am enjoying the wierdness: keen to find out what it is

I take it that I am not in the general melee..ah well that was my moment of glory! I'll post once I know what's going on

I'm guessing Cpt Roberts probably hasn't seen Sticks in the flesh, before (if he's always in his horseman), so he might not recognize him, and might confuse his crawling on the floor with having his legs wounded. If not, we'll chalk it up to groggy confusion from waking up.

Also, Roberts's commlink is integrated into his helmet. Was he left with his helmet and armor? I'm assuming the predator at his side, and his alpha were taken away.

Quick question. Who are Deepwatch engaged with now then? are there any enemies still fighting?

Yep, as far as you are aware DW are still engaged with the tower inhabitants...although you are winning the fight! Cpt Roberts has disappeared and so has Gash (although you may not be aware of that as he was wallowing in a pool of blood trying to be inconspicuous!)




Helmet, armour, weapons, all gone! You are in your basic uniforms or whatever was on under your armour. Apart from the Horseman there isn't any sign of your kit in here...



You'll have seen his personnel file in the original briefing I would have thought...and he's wearing a DW uniform...

Held off from the actual injection in case Sticks wanted to shout out something like "Are you crazy? Don't do what she says!" or turn his gun on Roberts or something like that.

Aria.. I would quite like to post, but I don't know where I am. I am with Captain Roberts?

Wow, I feel slow. I know what's going on

God I hate these guys. I say we literally blow up the entire freaking tower.

After Blackhat brought me into the future in his post, do I now exist in 2 places at once? I don't mind that, it's kinda cool

I haven't really brought you through yet - unless it works immediately. I'm guessing it'll take a few seconds, since when each of us woke up we saw the lady who did it standing over the next person, ready to strike. So you'll probably come to in a little bit.

We've been in a matrix simulation.. sigh. When he figures it out, Sticks is going to be royally pissed
That's why there were 2 versions of the Tower, and we couldn't spot each other.

That's my guess - which suggests they have a scarey amount of intel on us. Even if they weren't simulating the crew (maybe they're plugged in in another room), they had to make our equipment and nodes and whatnot (or at least make us believe what we were experiencing). It would have been neat, for example, if you had reached for your hidden firearm in your drone and found it not there (since they obviously didn't know about it, if they left it in your horseman).

I spin my top!!!!!


That was also my guess, and something I've experineced before in a very long and twisted Cyberpunk 2020 campaign some years back.....

The questions now though are:
1) For how long
2) Are we actually where we think we are now, and
3) Has any of this been real, or is all this a Deepwatch training sim? This of course relates to point 1

(To go with your #2... ) Who's to say we've found ourselves somewhere any more real?
If the stillwater community has a UV node (or really good simsynth technicians) that can fool us once, they can basically fool us forever. The only way to find out would be to, as you said, spin our top. We'd need to think up something that only we would know, and then test that thing. The location of your handgun was a good example, except that if they did find it, they could have easily put one in the horseman in this sim, too. We would need to come up with something external that we don't think the technos here could have found out... like maybe some code words we could exchange with Deep Watch HQ that we don't think the technos have compromised.

This reminds me of Red Dwarf, and leaving Better Than LIife. They thought they had left, then they discovered that in fact they were in a new Better Than Life, and had to work out how to leave that.

I have to admit that I was suckered in. Very clever Aria.

I am surprised that when I summoned spirits the spirits didn't arrive in the real world, and talk to me (they can do that even if you are in AR, VR) saying "WTF are you doing lying there...". Especially when they possessed me and walked in. But then again maybe the VR stopped me actually focusing the willpower. "Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic".

Well done BTL with the right parameters would short circuit your ability to put the mana together. It also explains why some of those people were doing things that are, for lack of a better word, impossible with Shadowrun magic

<<BIG EVIL GRIN>>

Looks like you've rumbled me then...or have you?!? As BlackHat said, is this real? Was that real? Who's to know?!?

Yes, putting together an IC now that will hopefully explain where you all are...funnily enough it just happens to be the PCs that are the first to be awoken, there are six other NPCs in here too...the rest of the beds are empty...

...I don't think you'll have to worry about that part

Could be wrong but my memory says that Gash and Joshua had turned up when the recording shows you going offline?!?

Yep, this is the post where the recording has your brain signals going loopy: White flash!

oops, I will edit

As I understand it astral tracking is an extended test with a time period of an hour.

I think I am saying good bye to magic do-hickeys. Ah well.

Ok guys, I'm not done with you yet, I've a few more twists and turns up my sleeve but we are approaching the end of this mission (and there are reasons why I'm not twisted enough to have you in a simulation in a simulation - although I considered it ). It was never my intention for you to find out exactly what is going on in the background...I'm saving those gems for a future plot

There are a couple of options I'd like to discuss with you:

• We can complete this mission and call it a day (I hope this isn't the one you choose but still...)
• We can complete this mission, which I guess has about a month of posts left in it, and I can simultaneously start the recruitment thread for the next bit - Emerging: End of Days - which is a mission inside the UV node set in a dark apocalyptic future. It will share some themes with this game, big guns, magic, mechas and tech, except this time I won't be taking them off you . The intention is to reveal some of Stillwater's motives. You could play your existing characters, you are mercs after all, and keep karma rewards etc or run with new ones and come back to these in a later Emerging game (I always think a couple of runs in advance so I can weave in plot lines...). Starting the recruitment thread before the end of this game should mean we go straight from one IC thread to another...
• For something completely different I could run a 2-3 month interlude game set around European nobility - this will be more about the emerging TMs but in the rich and famous circles rather than the street...there will be other tie ins with my meta plot of course!
• Other ideas you guys have?!? I hope you'll stick with me as this has been a great game to run so far...

...and as I said, it ain't done yet

Thoughts/questions/rants very welcome!

Question: Does Roberts remember calling in that strike? Do we remember anything prior to being captured - or are we all (as we've been assuming) not sure when the simulation started?

As for where to go from here, I'm sure these PCs will be eager to get out (and not get blown up), but I doubt any of them would be eager to volunteer for another go in the UV node. As we saw, there isn't much even a highly trained paramilitary group can do when up against opponents who can literally cheat and bend reality to their will. I'm actually with Deep Watch on this one. Nuke 'em from orbit (with dumb bombs, of course). That's the only way to be sure.

I think if you are going to go with the second idea, you'll have no trouble getting interested parties, but it would make more sense if they were different characters (who don't know what they are getting into, yet)... or the current PCs would need some heavy motivation or some reason to think they can even the odds. Captain Roberts has been trying to avoid fighting the technomancers on their home turf for exactly this reason. The absolute worst place to engage a hacker is in his home node. I also assume, although we don't know what it is yet, that there would be some piece of intel or something that we need to extract from the UV node... otherwise there would be no reason to go in. To me, that smells like exactly the sort of job you hire Runners to do for you, so that your hands don't get dirty, your brains don't get fried, and you don't risk handing over more Deep Watch secrets to the enemy.

Will reply IC when Aria lets me know if I remember doing it or not. It could be they faked the request because they want to take our planes/bombs or something, but I hope by now that Deep Watch is using only vehicles with the Drive-By-Wire mod (so they can turn off wireless control of the vehicle) and dumb-missiles.

Also, I suspect Deep Watch will have orders regarding accepting any wirelessly transmitted data from us (or from the area). Your buddy might still take the file, but it could be loaded up with Techno-magic malware that could compromise their whole network, so I'm expecting they'll disconnect us as soon as they notice we're back online and sending out files and making requests. At least, that's what Roberts would order, if he were in charge of their cyber-security.

Sticks was on a backdoor, segregated system used by the tech-heads. It's not linked to DeepWatch's network specifically. Think of it like off the books nodes, being maintained on people's private time that the heads don't officially know about.

Ah, then its probably a matter of how much risk they're willing to take on. I assume the more tech-y you are, the more you'd understand the risks of letting someone who might be a brainwashed spy onto your node and accept files from them.

I'm happy with any of the ideas you suggested Aria. I have enjoyed the game even if it was BTL.

Or in this case, WTL.

W(ay)W(ay)W(ay)W(ay)W(orse)TL


I'm happy with going into the next one. Although I think I might make a different character. If Sticks ends up in that hellhole of a node again, he'll have a psychotic break.

Wow, seems like you can miss a lot in a day! Been trying to get on all day but I think dumpshock was down, at least for me it was! I do have a couple of IC related questions. What is a Violet node exactly? Second question, Roberts and sticks are messaging each other but I thought we were all in the same room now?

On continuation, I'm definitely up for carrying on. This is the only game I'm playing so don't want it to finish! I'll make a new char, though I like bryn so hopefully I'll get to use him again. If you decide to go for the interval game I've always thought playing a rich playboy style character could be fun

No, I'm matrix-communicating with a fellow NCO GeekSquad guy down @ HQ

Yeah, it makes sense. I've just re-read it and followed it fine. Last night when I read it I got confused. Unless it's been edited I seem to remember someone relaying a message through Tempest, but I can't see it now. Maybe I was just tired or on crack

Legundo force 6, optional powers concealment and fear


Summon: 4 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3033290/
resist: 1 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3033292/
resist drain: default die

3 services in use: concealment and movement and fight things in the way as we flee

Sorry for not replying sooner but DS was down for me too...as I'm on my phone I'll respond to ic stuff and take up other queries later...

Cpt Roberts doesn't remember contacting DW... You remember all the ic posts and that's it so you have some missing time...

A UV node is a matrix sim of real life but more BTL...

Will get something more to you all tomorrow!

Did you take background count into the equation? It's back at 1 here...

I forgot but actually it didn't make any difference as the last die I rolled was a failure anyway.

Couple of questions:
How many of us are awake? and how many people are still asleep?

All the PCs are now awake in the 04:14 reality (whichever one that is ) and in a few moments the 6 NPCs with you will be awake too...including Tantilla who died!!!

Don't forget you came in here with two platoons of DW troops though...of them there is no sign

And Tempest is still babbling about warning the tower...

10 minutes should be enough time to get clear as your nexus navigation software will tell you that you are about 10-15m below ground level...but the others? Who knows...?!?

Is the mage that Capt Roberts and Co brought along still alive? If so I suggest that the good captain could instruct him to get a second spirit to provide movement, as we get out of dodge

aria, what about those APC vehicles.. can I figure out if they're really there?

I hadn't forgotten, will IC this tomorrow!

He may be alive but he's not with you at the moment...Tantilla is a dwarf snake shaman and may have movement stuff but he's currently looking a little weird...feel free to question him!

Ok guys...a few options open to you...leggit through the other set of doors to where (hopefully) your equipment is

There's stuff to hide behind, the medical hubs coming from the ceiling are quite big and you can get in the recessess...even if they feel a bit like graves

Sabs can shoot the whip lady, or the other one...or anyone else for that matter

Something I haven't thought of (and let's face it, that's the most likely course of action )