I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, I thought you were nearly outside Angel's room when the excitement started, but I am just as happy with your interpretation.

If we slightly rewrite history that way, you are able to go into the first room on the left. This means that you are able to overhear the conversation with the masked man, and the screams of the machine gunners, but have managed to break contact with the enemy.

The room you are in is...disturbing. Background count is Dragonic: 2 / Aztech 4.
The door closed behind you as you came in. The lighting is low. There is a faint fog on the ground to the height of about 2 feet, so you cannot see the floor. In the room you see a number of robot arms, one per egg. You can see the top half of around 10 eggs...looking leathery and faceted.

Around the side of the room are benches with test facilities, chemistry sets and some old fashioned display screens.

There are a number of pillars in the room, with arcane runes on them. The one just in front of you has a Health and Safety sign on it "Extreme Danger. Wear C4 gear at all times"

Wow. Treasure rooms every which way you go!

Have you seen the scene from godzilla? or Aliens? just curious.

Don't worry Lean'drea the sign on the door was probably only advisory. If you make a suitable skill roll, I'll tell you what C4 means (clue: it's not an explosive)

I don't think Lean'drea has any skills that would be even remotely relevant. I know what it means though, so, not so happy about her being there, but she doesn't know much better (other than she likely doesn't have it).

Well, I just realized a day ago that I got the conversion factor from Knowledge Skill points to Build Points wrong again (did it for Jovan, too), so I'm going to have to give him more language and knowledge skills. No wonder I felt tight on points for languages. It's cool though, I won't get any Theran Lore skills or whatever. That would be cheap. Probably Metaplanar and Horror Lore, though.

• Logic + Intuition roll to try to intuit some sort of general meaning out of the runes, maybe? Or maybe a defaulted Intuition or Logic roll?
• Chantrel's Horror is the one with the form of a mutilated humanoid figure floating in a metal frame modded to the brim with sawblades and scalpels and whatnot, right? Because that's the first thing that came to mind when I read that.

I guess I'll do an Observe in Detail action around the room and in the torture chamber for now...
Room: Intuition 5 [9] + Perception 2 + Actively Looking 3 = 14d6 = 3 hits hmm...
Chamber: 14d6 = 4 hits4 hits

@Sephiroth
The room you are in:

• Feels like a police interrogation room
• Has a number of "prisoner" rooms off to one side behind bars. Aren is in one of those cells. From the look of him, he has been put through the next room
• There is a table in the center.
• There is a rack with keys on it: they look like the keys to the cells
• The hooded man is faded out, and the box he is holding is faded out. The box has pictures of snakes intertwined with dwarven runes. The runes are difficult to read with the bluring effect, but you have seen this sort of box before. It is often constructed by Nethermancers to hold powerful spirits. While he was in the room you had a massive desire to open the room (which you mastered as you are not a beginner in the ways of magic)
• Under the hood, the face of the man cannot be seen

The torture chamber:

• Does like a bit like the wood carvings you have seen of Chantrel's horror. But then again its a big torture chamber, and lots of horrors would dream about having one
• The people on it look like the souls of people who have traded for power with the horror, then finally died.
• Perhaps this is a part of a Hellish metaplane?
• It 'looks' to be endless, you haven't explored far

@Alyena
Your spirit: Gets all of them! Cadarvermen are not famous for their intellectual prowess. I suspect timing wise that this probably happens at the start of next round, as there is a horror in sight until the end of this round.
Your mana bolt. The major shrugs it off (just take the first roll)

@General
The rough state is:

• The Major has used spirit powers and stuff to get to the security room near the entrance. He has pressed a panic room button. The door will take a couple of seconds to open, and a couple more to close, so at the end of next round he will be in there. You can guarantee that there will be no wifi in there, so any hacking needs to be complete before he gets there.
• At the end of IP 2 the cadarvermen are ripping apart the machine gunners. By the time the horror finishes talking to Spirit Bane it will be the start of next round.
• Fearghas is currently unconcious and in a dream
• Lean'drea has broken contact with Spirit Bane by escaping into a research and development room, with lots of dragon eggs in it

I think the only outstanding actions are the hacking attempts / matrix events with Aria and Edana. I don't think I am holding anyone back: so if you are waiting for a response from me please hassle me again!

I've time-stamped my posts such that Mandala is one round ahead of everybody else, or at least 2 seconds ahead. I guess I am off in my time estimate, so I will post as if Mandala is in synch with the rest.

I edited my post so I didn't actually stab spirit bane.. but listend instead.

Should I roll Init for the next round, and go surprise strike on Mr Spiritbane?

Basically, I'm going for a Coup de Grace stab.. given the surprise nature. Thruogh the Neck/Shoulder opening into the Heart.. or under the chin and up into the brain.. which ever you think is more appropriate?

Do I have actual surprise, and he gets no defense dice? or? and should I reroll the 'attack'? Can I take Aim with a dagger?

@General
It occurs to me that the combat in the Matrix is totally decoupled from the other combats now.

Consequently I am happy to move on to the next round for all the out of matrix stuff

@Sabs
Go Do! Get that initiative. I think you have already rolled for Mr Pointy.

• You cannot aim with a dagger as far as I know, but can do a called shot.
• You can add up to +4DV in exchange for -4 die on attacking. (this is the coup de grace thing: +4DV and no dodge with little armour is going to be very unpleasant).
• I think you can easily have a +2 for superior position.

If you want to change the number of die you are rolling, just roll again. While you are at it...just make me a willpower roll when you do the attack.

I will delay action on IP2 so that I can go in with Angel on 3 and act on 5 instead (in case of unpleasant surprises and because I don't want to leave Angel behind <honest!> )

System+Analyse = 12D well I would roll but Invis Castle seems knackered at the moment...can we assume 3hits?

Iniatiative: 8d6: 6 4 6 5 2 5 6 5 (wow) 14
Willpower test: 7d6 (unless I get to add something) 1 5 5 4 1 2 5 (3) hits
Attack with the variants:
logic (8) + closecombat (2) + superior position (2) - called shot (-4) = 8d6 2 5 6 1 6 5 5 4 (5) hits


here goes nothing?

Interesting. So is there only one entrance or exit in the room, the one to the torture chamber? Do the other prisoner rooms contain any prisoners? Does Fearghas recognize anything about them if there are any others?

The only way in is through the torture chamber, which you now suspect to be a metaplane. The other rooms do not contain prisoners, although the torture area does. Most of the prisoners in the nearby torture chamber you don't recognise. One you do: a very pretentious Paladin of Lugh Surehand called Alladril ... you forget his sirname, who you have had run ins with in the past (his sense of overwhelming superiority, and his liking for the ability to abuse his position in small ways was very annoying). He is currently not very conscious, and being bent on the rack, being worked on with two snake headed things who are mostly ignoring you.

We haven't had a post in a few days, so I suspect you are all waiting for me. I of course am waiting for you! This of course is where play by forum is different to a pen and paper tabletop game.

I understand the situation as follows:

• Ryl and Angel are heading into the next node. I think I have told you lots of stuff about the next node, but to summarise: its a system/firewall 6 place, much easier than the current 8 (still tough!) in it are the controls for a bot net, and a piece of IC "the sergeant" who has a large whip. When you go in, you can make stealth rolls, as the Major is actually busy right now, and cannot spare the time to sic the IC on you.
• Alyena has astrally chased the Major to his panic room, and is still bolting him
• Fearghas is dreaming, if you could post an IC thing about what you have found while exploring, then I will post him returning
• Bjeorn is chasing the Major
• Marduk: If you let me know how your stabbing goes (you asked about coup de grace options, so I had ignored your earlier die roll)
• Mandala: I think you are up to date, and will probably do something after Spirit Bane gets knifed/
• Ghost: Can you post about you running into the room with the dragon eggs, and let me know what you want to do

Please correct the above list if it's wrong.

I still have to do the Matrix actions for Jonathan and SPIKE: I'll do those after Ryl and Angel.

No problemo. Tomorrow's my day off, and I would like to write up something nice for such a scene with a Horror and a torture chamber, so it will be all done tomorrow when it isn't nearly 1am.

OK, good. I felt as if I were taking too many actions. Glad the timing is aligning. Yay for stabby-stabby!

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?s=&a...t&p=1080645

I did a new roll? couple of days ago

Thanks for that. Its easy to get out of sync, then things stop happening.

@Sabs: You are the spirit of Speedy Gonzalez. Well Spirit Bane doesn't make his surprise roll: for some reason he doesn't seem to get one when you hit him with that. You discover some more of the properties of the knife. As you strike with the knife something strange happens:

You strike and hear the sound of 1000 souls screaming in joyful anticipation, as you blade descends. As it strikes Spirit Bane, the dagger seems to explode in your hand and you drop it, shocked back to your normal material form in room 27a. can you roll dumpshock? Base damage 5P. Resist as through resisting drain. The dagger on the floor is pulsating. You loose the rest of the rouSee the @Mandala thing for what happened.

For your benefit you felt the knife strike deep, slicing through his mystic armor as though it wasn't there.

The Magical TacNet just shows a purple blur where you were.

@Mandala
Suddenly the room you are in is full (and I mean full) of low ranking Aztech rage spirits (thank goodness for golden aura...otherwise they would be force 5 and 6s in an Aztech background). They begin to wreck the joint. This has a tiny problem that they are striking at Angel's life support machinery, as well as the chairs, the notes, wires...everything. Think poltergeist.

@Ghost
You can hear this, but its on the other side of the door, and they are not coming in to where you are.

@Alyena
Your spirit vanishes: it doesn't get to mod mind. You feel its disruption through your summoners link.

Ooops.. that's what I get for using an Artifact I picked up literally 3 minutes ago

Resist Drain: 15D6 4 1 5 1 2 5 3 2 5 3 4 5 2 3 6 (5)

holy Hell

sorrry guys? I think I just disrupted all of the little aztech spirits SpiritBane has been collecting over the years.

Will try and get some rolls up tonight...time to blast some IC!

EDIT:

Matrix Stealth 22D = 9 hits

Matrix Attack 18D = 5 hits (-3 armour)

Agent's Attack 14D = 9 hits typical (-3 armour)

Attack progs both rt 6

My understanding of turn order, let me know if I'm wrong and I'll alter this to fit:

IP 1-2: Finishing off the first set of IC
IP 3: Complex Action to switch nodes, if the new IC notices us, it could potentially attack before we can do anything.
IP 4-5: We can attack or do whatever other actions we want

With that understanding, I'm going to thread my stealth on IP 3 before switching nodes. I'll probably drop it on IP 4 when I attack. (It's still going to be bad with everything I'm sustaining at the moment, but at least I'll have a prayer .)

Thread Stealth: 5 Hits
Fading 5P: 7 Hits = No damage
Stealth Roll: 4 Hits (haha, yeah, that's bad)

Going to wait on attacking to see if I have to defend myself. Though, maybe my paladin sprite's lack of stealth altogether will be the lucky target .

Notes

Hmm. The control for the buttons is unplugged, but damaging the life support just won't do. Mandala will have to deal with the spirits, even though some may very well be innocent victims of whatever it is Spirit Bane was able to do.

EDIT: I assume these guys light up in Mandala's DangerNet™ as a whole swarm of enemies?

His DangerNet™ is just seeing a blur of purple, swamping all data in the area. Its much worse outside Angel's room.

@Sabs

Gotta love giving the players atomic hand grenades. This to you looks like a horror slaying kit (book, dagger, skull), you just don't know yet how to use it. You don't know if the knife is "used up".

@Edana
Your IP summary looked correct to me. The 'out of matrix' group are one round in front of you, as there is no real need to keep them absolutely in sync.

This node is not nearly as hard as the outside, although still respectable. The IC is of the Obediah series. Noted for persistence, and indestructability. It sees you, it's left eye starts to twitch and with a cry of "Get him men", and a snarled "I'll have you" it leaps forwards swinging it's whip.

Something a little wierd happens:
Computer + Analyse to work out what... but everything goes really slow, and you (and Ryl) are at around -4 on all die.
Attack from Obediah: 4 successes I suspect you will have little trouble with this, even with the minus's.

From this node:

• You can move into the command and control node (complex action)
• Move into his record's area (complex action)
• Deal with the IC (several complex actions)
• Work out what is slowing you down (simple action to matrix perception)
• Try and take control of the bot net (free action for each, although probably there is a program somewhere that will allow you to take control of the lot)
• Do something else I haven't thought of

Hmm....

Sooner or later this mindless swarm will get damage through to both Mandala and Angel if Mandala does nothing. He could dematerialize and try to draw them away from her, but if he is going to do that, he might as well reduce the odds a bit. Who knows, they are in a weakened state, he actually could clear the room... for a moment. Anything that can see him can be seen by him. (Good thing he can't actually see Angel from over on the table through the viewport in her life support unit.) Yet again, this could be something really stupid, but ... surprise the swarm with with a stunball.

Force 8 Stunball: Magic 9 + Spellcasting 3 = 12 dice ==> 6 HITS

Woohoo! OK, 8S DV plus 6 hits.

Drain is (8+3)/2 + 1 = 6P DV

Drain Resistance: WIL 7 + INT 8 + Centering 4 = 19 dice ==> 5 HITS

Yeah, the luck has to balance. Mandala takes 1P of damage from the spell.

I never seem to have the time i want for dumpshock these days... : ( My post is almost done but im at work now. It will be up tonight after i get home. Sorry about that.

Casting F4 Mob Mind on Aren: Magic 6 + Spellcasting 6 -2 to reduce radius of effect +/- whatever modifiers are appropriate = 10d6 = lol 1 hit

I'm trying to make Aren essentially talk in his sleep - go through a brief rundown of how he got here and what happened to him that he can remember in his current state. I'm not really aiming to talk to him, as that seems rather difficult right now, just to get him to start talking.

And here I was thinking we were in the C&C node Too good to be true

I'll leave my IC post intact as I was intending to try and crash the IC as soon as we jumped in (not sure what the -4 D does though)...and a good job the IC is going for Angel as I'm sure she is much harder to hit than Ryl (even though it galls me to admit it )

Comp+Analyse = 17D (assuming the -4 doesn't affect perception??) = 7 hits (5 if it does)

My attacks were 3 hits and 5 hits from my agent taking into account the -4D

Hope Angel can do better!

... incidentally Edana, I think we need to agree a plan...hopefully trash the IC first is part of it

@Pbangarth

Its all true.

I'm treating these as a Mischief in the Running Wild book (page 25). Their group rating is 5 (there are about 40 of them in this room). The body rating of the mischief is 6. Good news for you is that area effect attacks are very effective: they reduce the rating by half the DV.

The Mischief doesn't have counterspell (they are too busy raging and destroying), so they resist with 6 die: and get 3 successes
The force 8 is reduced by the golden beauty to force 4, so thats 4DV + 6 hits - 3 = 7 SV. which reduces the Mischief to a rating 1 (it was only just a 5, so I rounded up).
After the blast there are a handful not disrupted. Disturbingly for you, the spirits are not distrupted and sent to their metaplane, they are now hanging in astral space unconscious.

The remaining few attack you with Astral Combat: 3 hits. Their base damage is 1S.

At the end of IP1, the spirits are (mostly) smashed, the room is smashed (40 spirits can wreck a room really quickly), you are obvious to the handful that remain, and their are more pouring into the room in a diffusion kind of way: there are a lot in the corridor.

Even more scarily, just outside the door, you see Spirit Bane's reanimate as one of the (much higher ranking out there) spirits possess his body. You suspect that shortly as the spirits move through the temple, all the dead bodies will start reanimating. Can anyone say "Zombie Apocalypse?"

We move into IP 2 for you, the swarm in your area has increased to rating 2.

@Fearghas

Yeah me too. I thought unemployment would give me more time, but closing businesses takes time

Anyway thank you for the post...suitably grim and unpleasant. The hooded man can now return from his HR issue, satisfied that everything is under control, and that his minions are bringing him his sacrifices. More monologues in the near future I suspect

Cool idea with the mob mind on Aren. You are correct that he isn't rational, but I suspect that this will make him talk.

The usual..."No...No..." flash backs to his torture. You conclude that he was here for a long time, his mind has retreated. He is tougher than he looks, so he will probably recover. Your best guess is that he didn't give the horror what the horror wanted. Interestingly you come to the conclusion that the horror is not very skilled at this sort of thing: in your opinion he is much better at the long term slowly applied pressure than the "quick I need to get it done now", unlike Chantrell's Horror.

@Aria
Sorry about the C&C. You can take another complex action and flip their now if you want: the only Black IC is attacking Angel, and she looks to have it well under control.

The computer perception tells you that there is a denial of service attack just starting on you. You have excellent defenses against this sort of thing, so you haven't been shut down, but there are over a hundred different machines using your network bandwidth. They are all trying to hack you on the fly. Their skills are in the low digits, so it will take them a while to get in. The problem you have at the moment is the sheer number of them swamping your feed. Curse that trace IC.

I don't think this sort of thing is covered well in the rule books, so my thoughts are:

Options:

• Ignore them, and take down the Major then reboot
• Fight them with spoof ( change your effective ID, redirect them to another target...)
• Fight them with stealth (make it so that they cannot find your machine)
• Other ideas from your self gratefully received.

@Ghost
Just reminding you to post your arrival in the dragon egg room

@Edana
You may have missed the post in which the Obediah IC attacked you: . It's now your go.

I may be treating background count incorrectly.

Does Mandala's Resist Background Count power reduce the effects of BGC only on himself directly, or also on the spells he casts?

And, in resisting the Drain, should I have then resisted Drain as if the spell were Force 4 + 3 instead of the Force 8 + 3 that I did?



Ouch. Nasty little guys. They can Materialize to damage the machinery and Possess to animate the dead. Once you straighten me out on the BGC thing, Seth, I'll post Mandala's defense and next action.

So Maybe turning Spirit Bane into Spirit Chow wasn't the best idea. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

IP 2: I think I'm done acting for the round, because in meat form, I have 1 ip, which I used while I was in Astral form? That is correct right.

Yeah, not going to risk getting hit by Black IC since I'm at pretty hefty minuses with sustaining and the DDoS, so full defense gets me 6 Hits. That essentially costs me my IP 4 action though, so no return attack this pass. Presumably the IC won't have a pass 4 or 5 though, so I should be able to attack on IP 5. I'm dropping my stealth CF on IP 4 though, since I'm already a target anyway.

Unfortunately spoofing AccessID to get rid of the DDoS would also dump all current connections, so that doesn't really seem like an option.

Aria: I'm harder to hit under normal circumstances, but damage is considerably more dangerous to me, and I don't think I'm much better at soaking . As far as a plan goes, we might be best served by my distracting/killing this IC while you move to C&C (I have more passes than IC, so I'll win eventually unless it gets stupidly lucky). Presumably that's where the control for the bots is, as well as being able to shut down the Major to keep him from getting away.

Notes

Well I'll leave my IC post in place (rather ineffectual attacks on the IC)...feel free to IC that you'll deal with this Obadiah sucker and that I should go on ahead...I'm not sure Ryl would leave you behind without discussing it.

Seth (or anyone else?!?): Can I write an access acount for my other commlink and then log out and log in with that one? Tinker with the program loadout (it's currently set up to run the tacnet) and that should remove the DDoS attack as it'll be a different ID...they can continue working on the other comm for as long as they want then ...of course if I can't write a backdoor then I won't bother because I don't want to have to hack-on-the-fly again!

Sounds good, I'll put it in IC. Though I would definitely appreciate it if you can take out the botnet, since that -4 is mighty inconvenient .

You can write yourself an access account..

If you already have admin access, it's a computer+edit(4, complex action) extended test.
If you don't have admin access, it's a hacknig+edit(4, complex action) extended test.

But this node, is behind at least 1 layer of nodes, possibly two. You can't GET to this node, without going through the other 2, which you do not have accounts on. If you spoof your accessID and reset your connections, then, you get dropped back out to #1, and you have to hack on the fly back in.

It'd be hacking+edit regardless, since there's a restricted alert active against our ID's. But yeah, creating an account for this particular node won't really help in a short term way.

There was me thinking we had admin accounts for the whole of the Major as we seem to be able to jump between nodes (in a fixed path at least) without making new hacking rolls?!?

Ok, forget jiggery pokery with spoof - going for the heart in IP4, will get to act on IP5 I think as I delayed IP2 (?)

Let's hope that's where the botnet command prog is!

2 free perception rolls for the node ahead 17D = 5 hits and 7 hits (or 5 and 6 if the -4 applies?)

No, it was a great idea! One might have guessed something like this could happen, given Spirit Bane's diet, but he just as easily could have consumed them permanently.

This just gives us insight into Seth's mind. Next time we will be more informed.

<<Shudddder>>

Tell me about it! You should see some of the twists he comes up with in table top.

Any way initiative for round 19, 7 dice

1 success +7 = 8 <<sigh>> will just twiddle my thumbs for a while til it's my go.

My last spirit was quite useful so think I'll summon another, this one with first aid.

5 successes

Spirit's resistance 2 successes

Alyena's resist drain: 5 successes

Set the spirit to first aid Fearghas, with a first aid kit from one of the Major's minions. This gives 14 for the spirit's skill + 4 for the kit - 2 for the conditions and - 2 as he's awakened, so back to 14 dice: 6 successes take threshold of 2 means 4 stun back.

@Pbangarth

It works on your spells, I'll add one to the damage that you did. It doesn't change the quantitative assessment though: you laid some serious smack down on a load of spirits, and a load more are flooding into the room. When you resist the drain, you resist against the force 8. (Basically background sucks)


There are split approximately 50:50


You say the sweetest things!

@Sabs

You pretty much had to kill him. By the way...the spirits came out of the dagger, not Spirit Bane.
Your point about meat form is valid.
You might want to do some arcana type rolls to work out what is happening, and if you can do anything about it

@Edana/Aria
Just to remind you: the outside was much harder than in here: Hard exterior, relatively soft interior

@Aria
What Edana said: Hacking + Edit (4). You can be still subscribed to the outer node if you want to be, and do the Computer + edit there, then its just a complex action to move between nodes. Using your other commlink will just work. The network bandwidth is getting chewed as well though, so you will experience some pain.

Your perception rolls are affected by the Denial of Service, but you see clearly enough anyway. Your assessment is that it is a low threat place.

The command and control center are just started to reboot. There appear to be two agents in there, doing "stuff": Damage control, Running Medic programs on his Icon, Running First Aid on him, Calling for help, Triggering all sorts of automatic "oh my god" sort of things. These don't look very hard: your guess around rating 4. The control room has maps, charts, filling cabinets, a desk that sort of imagery.

There is a full size image of the Major here, which allows you to click on and investigate and (to a limited degree) control his impressive cyberware.

There is also a box on the table "For the attention of the one known as Angel".

I'll make the rolls you tell me when I figure it out ;)

Logic (8) + Arcana (4) + PuSHeD (1) = 13d6: 1 6 3 3 5 3 5 5 2 1 5 3 6 (6) hits
Logic (8) + Matric Theory (6) + PuSHeD (1) + Educated (1) = 16d6 1 1 6 5 5 6 3 3 2 3 3 6 6 4 2 1 (6) hits.

I'm feelnig like Mister 6 today.

OK. I have the system figured out now. Thanks Seth.

So, Mandala has to resist the little buggers' attack. This should be fun. I'm not sure how a voltmeter can dodge, but then, Mandala doesn't get the benefit of Object Resistance either. Actually, Mandala can still move, even without legs. Think Walt Disney and those animated household items in Beauty and the Beast (hop left... hop left... hop right):

REA 4 + Dodge 1 = 5 dice ==> 3 HITS

Wow. This kid is lucky! No damage.

IP2: Blow some more away. Beats me what they are. They could be useful allies in the right circumstance.

Force 8 Stunball: Magic 6 + Spellcasting 3 = 9 dice. Hey to get this many dice, Mandala needs to have dropped DangerNet™. Sorry. Anyway, it's gone now.

==> 5 HITS

So the Force becomes 4 and DV is 4S + 5 hits.

Resist Drain (8+3)/2 + 1 = 6P

WIL 7 + INT 8 + Centering 4 = 19 dice ==> 7 HITS

No Drain damage.

Ok, initial thoughts...

1. Is the botnet command program in here? If not is there a node directory that will tell me where the hell it is? Angel could do with it being nuked so that is probably a priority...

2. Can I spoof the agent doing medical stuff to overdose the Major on painkillers? He must have so little meat left in him that the smallest amount should knock him out / finish him off. Failing that I suppose I could just crash them but they seem to have direct control of things...

I have a feeling that the good Major is becoming a distraction from the real course of events and whilst important is more or less out for the count with all those stunbolts incoming. I guess the only way he’ll affect the course of events now is if he has some sort of self destruct we could activate at a critical time or he comes back to the fray (hopefully unlikely!)...there must be more important things that Angel and I should now be doing (correct me if I’m wrong?!?)...

3. Could log in with my other commlink but I’m hoping there’s a better way!

Yeah, I'm getting a little worried about Mandala hanging around Angel's room so long. He's been lucky so far, but he really is more of a lover than a fighter.

Unfortunately the fighters are busy

Yeah, I noticed.

@Pbangarth

I think astral combat is mostly a mental thing, but the image of the voltmeter jumping around is fun so go for it!

These spirits are basically the results of Spirit Bane sacrificing things, and trapping them in the dagger, so there are loads of different types. All of them are very cross at the moment.

Roughly the same thing happens on IP2. There are a finite number of these things, though.

The room is becoming shredded even with your dampening, and Angels life support now has red lights flashing on it.

@Sabs
Mister 6 is on form. That is a critical success, so I guess its only 1 action. What happened is pretty simple:

• The dagger is full of loads of souls/spirits
• Stab someone and loads of souls/spirits come out and play
• You need a willpower check to hold onto the dagger, the more you make, the more spirits come and play
• There are still many, many spirits in the dagger...
• Pretty obviously the book and dagger work well together: use the book to project, spray the area with spirits as well as doing hideous damage, and then exit stage left.
• Mind you this isn't enough to kill a horror. But then you have the skull...probably its useful somehow, not sure how yet

@Aria
1: Part of an earlier description: The area you are now in has a whipping post, and a load of soldiers watching the IC that is attacking angel. Those soldiers are the bot net. You can control one bot net at once with a free action, but there are hundreds of them. I could ask you to roll computer + analyse, but to be honest you are Angel are both good, and you have multitasking. The whip of the black IC is the control program: beat the IC, crack the whip, and the botnets do what you say.
2: Yes you can spoof the agent if you get into the same node as him. You think it would be pretty easy. It was hard getting here, but quite easy once inside.
I think you are right about the Major. With the best Magical and Mundane healing in the world, he is hours away from combat readiness. I quite fancy him getting away as a Nemesis though!

@Aria/Edana
Angel and Ryl are still a little behind the others, and I am loath to progress into another round. I'm just checking the situation is this:

• Angel has dodged Obediah
• Ryl has studied the area

I think its your two actions on or around IP 4. The IC isn't doing anything as it doesn't have any more IPs.

@General
My understanding of the situation is:

• Mandala is supressing with prejudice the spirits rampaging in Angels room. is on IP 2 of round 19
• Alyena has bolted the Major, summoned another spirit to first aid Fearghas. Is also on or around IP 2 of round 19
• Bjeorn is mostly just chasing after the Major, and is mostly out of combat: will spend round 10 getting to the closing panic room door
• Fearghas has explored the torture area, had a chat with a hooded man, and has just woken up. Will be free to act round 20
• Angel and Ryl are smashing their way into the Major's cranium. Are on IP 3/4 (not sure) or round 18
• Marduk has struck Spirit Bane on IP 1 of round 19, and will be spending round 20 working out what happened and deciding what to do about it
• LEan'drea entered the dragon egg area on IP 1 of round 18 (I think) , and has yet to act in round 19

I expect the list above is a bit wrong, so feel free to post with corrections. When most of us get to the end of round 19, I'll do a proper summary.

To clarify, the IC controlling the botnet is the one attacking me?

Kind of busy at work atm, but I'll try to get my IP 5 action up tonight. IP 4 I've only got a free action, as going full defense used up my IP 4 action.

-----

Editing in my plan and rolls. I'll very likely be gone the bulk of the day tomorrow, so feel free to skip or roll for me if need be.

IP 4: Full Defense carried over from IP 3
IP 5: Attack Obediah IC, 5 Hits (11 base damage)

Round 19 Init: 22 (That's a raw roll, not sure how the DDoS impacts init. I'm guessing it shouldn't double-dip, so likely puts me at 18, 17 if it does double-dip.)
IP 1: Full Defense if I get attacked before it's my action will cost me this action. (10 hits.) If I end up going before the IC I'll end up attacking instead (3 hits, 11 base damage) and will sacrifice my IP 2 to full defense when I inevitably get attacked.

Notes

Seth, I'll move into the C&C node in IP4 (leaving Angel to deal with the nasty whip cracking IC) and aim to spoof the IC in IP5 - is it sufficient to be in the node or do I need to search for access codes or something? I'm still a little confused as to what my admin account has gained (first node only or all in the tree?!?)

Must read more matrix rules when I get a sec

Yes. If you defeat it, you can take the access codes from it. (think looting the corpse!)


As far as I know its for a system...which is a set of nodes. The IC is still attacking you even though you have an admin account (it was sicced on you by the Major).