Sorry, that's all I had at quarter to two in the morning after a birthday party. But I figured a post was needed quickly.

Nice roll!

Tecumseh, how should I handle Smohalla's wakefulness? Can I just say he wakes up at Stogie's whistling, or is there a roll needed?

Pb, Smohalla has Reduced Sense (Hearing - Partial), so whistling probably wouldn't wake him out of a deep sleep. (Stogie would likely know that.) That said, we're not in initiative passes so you do have the luxury of time. We can say that Jake poked Smohalla with a wet nose, or however else Stogie wants to to wake him up.

However, I am going to say that Ellesar and Smohalla are under the effects of Disorientation (SR4A, p.254), so they'll be at -2 to everything for the next ten minutes, or until something startling happens. Feel free to RP accordingly.

Ok cool

Hahaha, nice.

Good stuff Atropos

Only thing that might wake us up faster is having to eat some more of Stogie's dessert...

Geez... one bad roll and they won't let you live it down!

I didn't realize Smohalla was on the ground too. I thought he was in a tree. Yeah, Jake would have nosed him, too. Oh well.

Yeah, should have Edged that Artisan roll, neh? Pb, I'll let Stogie get the boys up to speed - i.e. why he woke them up (versus why they let you sleep while they dealt intruders) - before advancing things.

Pb? Another post from Stogie to bring the others up to speed on the situation?

Good back and forth, guys. Keep it up.

Serves me right for never actually finishing the equipment list for Stogie. He has earbuds listed, but not what they do. Fuck. Rest assured once we get back to technology, I will have those earbuds fitted for filtering. Fuck.

I'm going to be out of town for about 5 weeks, I'll try to post when I can but it will be less frequently than now - please feel free to auto-pilot Smohalla and all that

pbangarth, I'll be in Vancouver starting Aug 22. Pretty close to Toronto, right?

Much closer to Seattle.

I'll be on vacation next week. I'll have Internet access the whole time but what I might not have is my books.

Phlapjack, when are you back?

Theoretically I'll fly back the weekend of Sep 7th-9th, but I don't actually have a ticket back yet, and there's talk of extending the time in Canada as needed...I'll try to keep up a good flow of posts, but it's a little more hit-or-miss than my current desk jockeying allows...

Yeah, I didn't even think of actually visiting the US!

Only 4000 or 5000 kilometers away. Hop over for supper and a beer.

Jake uses Stogie's adept powers to enhance his own Attributes:

Attribute Boost (BOD, REA): Magic 7 + Power 1 = 8 dice ==> 2, 3 HITS

So, BOD = 4 for 4 Combat Rounds, REA = 7 for 6 Combat rounds

Anybody here going to be gone during Gencon?

Sadly not I.

I'm going to be in Idaho next week. It's kind of like Gen Con, except without the people and the games.

Smohalla's trying to read the barghest's aura, see if it's under any kind of ongoing spell effects or control or something...

Pbangarth, per Street Magic, your Animal Empathy abilities do apply to paranormal animals. If you want to edit your previous post, that's cool. If instead of "my powers" you meant "my experience", then that's fine if you want to RP Stogie that way. I just wanted to make sure that you wasn't a misunderstanding about you adept abilities.

Ah, my recollection of "non-sapient" somehow turned into "only normal". Damn. OK, I'll rewrite the post.

In the meantime, here is an Animal Handling roll to help us figure out what happens:

INT 5 + Animal Handling 3 + animal empathy quality 2 + animal empathy adept power 4 = 14 dice ==> 4 HITS

Heh. Might as well milk this for all it's worth. Though I don't have a clue how to bring the 'encounter' to a satisfactory, safe conclusion.

Dude, what are you doing? You're throwing away a perfectly good barghest!

Stogie, the soon to be collector of strange creatures.

Hey, who knows what goes on in the forest between Stogie and his 'friends'.

Pbangarth, ball is in your court.

There are wolves and barghests and other large predators out here, so there have to be large prey as well. Stogie will spiral out from the camp, searching for a trail of some large prey, deer for example. Having found such a trail, he will encourage the barghest to go after the prey. OK, so for the search, I guess a Tracking roll would be in order.

Tracking 3 + mountain 2 + INT 5 = 10 dice ==> 3 HITS

So, if such a trail exists, hopefully that's enough to find it.

Break.

I will be sending out PMs to you individually outlining karma awards. Same rules as last time: you can spend your accumulated karma on one improvement or you can bank it for later.

In case anyone is wondering about how karma is awarded, it's based on post frequency and post quality. The criteria for quality are the same as they are for a normal game:
1) staying in character
2) advancing the plot
3) being brave or smart (especially smart)
4) humor/drama
5) right skill, right time

As for the current scene, Atropos and Phlapjack can wake up whenever they feel their characters would get up. Pbangarth, you can post about what you were doing overnight, if you want.

Here's a headscratcher for you: how do dual-natured creatures fall asleep in the wilderness? You can't close your eyes to the astral world, so wouldn't it be like falling asleep in a super-bright room? Oh well.

I would imagine that since a separate part of the brain is most likely reserved for perceiving on the astral the rest can remain in a dormant state while it stays active. Sort of how delta waves continue despite being asleep the brain would find a way to block out the active astral.

Before I forget, a few months back I said that anyone who made a contribution to the Shadowrun Returns Kickstarter project would be rewarded with an in-game benefit. I want to make the same offer to anyone who contributed to the recently successful Shadowrun Online Kickstarter. Forward me your confirmation e-mail and I'll share my enthusiasm with a modest in-game perk.

(P.S. While the Kickstarter is officially closed, it is still possible to contribute to the project via Paypal. Of course, any of these donations are eligible for recognition too.)

Just for the hell of it, Stogie will check for interesting plants. Here are a couple of rolls that might be pertinent.

Perception 2 + enhanced power 4 + visual 2 + INT 5 = 13 dice ==> 4 HITS

parabotany knowledge skill 1 + LOG 3 = 4 dice ==> 2 HITS

I'm away from my books for a couple more days so I can't look up anything about the parabotany of the area until Monday at the earliest.

Phlapjack, Atropos, maybe you guys can post to fill the time.

Seven months ago Pbangarth mentioned searching for reagents. There wasn't really time for it then but there is now so I'll take the liberty of having Stogie look around.

The rules for locating reagents are a bit odd but here's what we're working with (from Street Magic, p. 81):

Locating one raw reagent: Survival + Intuition (8, 1 hour) Extended Test

I made all of Stogie's Extended Test rolls at once for simplicity sake. One additional dice drops off each roll, starting with the second roll. Stogie managed 16 HITS over 5 hours, which is enough to locate two raw reagents.

Gathering an herbal reagent is a Botany (2) + Intuition (5) test. Pbangarth (remarkably) listed an assaying kit under his gear. It's the size of a backpack so it is probably unrealistic that he has the whole thing with him, but a talislegger kit is small and serves the needed purpose (specifically, to avoid the -2 dice penalty for not having one), so we'll say that's what he has right now. Each test generated 3 HITS, so Stogie succeeds in gathering both reagents. Congratulations!

Not to overwhelm things, I'll make this post now and give people a chance to respond to it before catching up on the Phlapjack's IC post.

Hmm, Smohalla's diving attack. Is this a diving test or an unarmed combat attack? I'm going to make things up on the fly (ha, get it) and say that it's both. Any successes on the Diving test will add dice to the Unarmed Attack test. I'm also going to say that Diving is linked to Agility instead of Strength.

ouch! so close to soaking it all too...poor little goat...

There's a joke about shepherds and why they keep their sheep near cliffs...


I think dual-natured creatures use astral perception the same way as everyone else uses astral perception, except that they are better at combining the physical and the astral info coming to them. So they can choose to "turn off" astral perception, same as everyone else? I admit, now that you have me thinking about it, the whole idea of dual-natured and how it works seems....difficult...Thought about it some more, and I see what your meaning is now...I would think a dual-natured being knows how to "close it's eyes" to the astral, just like closing your eyes on the physical. It'd be like closing your eyes and trying to sleep in a super-bright room, right? Hard for most, but for some (of us who can and do fall asleep anywhere, even when it's inconvenient) it's not that difficult


So...Smohalla is trying to summon a F3 Earth spirit, optional power Concealment.
Requested services: guard, accompany Smohalla back to camp carrying the goat carcass, movement (in this order, if services allow it)

Pbangarth, it's been a week since your last post. Make with some RP!

Smohalla's summoning:

Oh man, what skill is it to skin a goat. Artisan? Zoology? I'll go with Survival.

Smohalla skinning a goat: 6 HITS, nice work

Good posts, Pbangarth.

Just to clarify, Ellie's spirits are possession-based but the spirits that Hester and Selene summoned last night to help with dinner (the fire spirit and water spirit) definitely materialized.

Got it. I didn't check back. Should have.

Anybody spending karma? I'd prefer to do it now before the new day begins in earnest.

Atropos, any posts for us?

Smohalla will spend Karma on his initiation-please count him as grade 1, centering as his metamagic

if he wants to join groups or do ordeals, he'll have to wait till next grade initiation

I'll wait with spending karma.

I shall also refrain from spending any karma. Sorry about not posting, I was just wondering how my character teleported from the lake to the campfire. Oh well.

Atropos, Ellesar is wherever you say (post) him to be. Play-by-post is never entirely sequential and different threads can involve the same character simultaneously. If you want to edit your post to continue Ellesar's trip to the lake (and encounter with the bird) then feel free to do so. You don't have to come back and talk to Stogie until you're ready, or - shades of quantum entanglement! - you could do both things at once.

Hey, my son just got a PhD in Philosophy, applying Kant to quantum mechanics. Go deep enough into that shit, and anything is possible.

Pb, you're old enough to have kids getting PhDs? Crazy!

Is he going to make you call him "Dr."?

In February, I will be a grandfather.

No, he doesn't demand that. He's a "Dr." My wife is a "Dr." My niece is a "Dr." If I can keep my nose to the grindstone, in less than a year I will be a "Dr." as well. Dime a dozen.

I've tried to go back (twice!) to be a "Master" or "Dr" after being out of school for awhile, and it sucks. Never was able to stick with it. How did you do it?