Looks like it's just you and me for a while, Phlapjack. Atropos is wading through real life, he'll be back with us when he can.

The to-do list for the return to civilization included:
1) talk to Gunny
2) Ellie's list of errands

Other than that, it's up to you! If Smohalla wants to go get tacos and a pedicure, that's cool too. It's mid-morning now.

I'll have Smohalla set out on the errands for Ellie. Tacos are messy to eat with a beak, and while pedicures could be cool, he's not sure how long they'd last while snatching baby goats off of cliff sides.

I left Smohalla wandering in the wreckage of Greenwater. I'll bring him back with another post in a day or so (RL day), unless something happens IC.

I'm back at my computer for about 12 hours, so if you want to throw something at Stogie, I might be able to do a post before I head out Tuesday morning. I'll be back Friday, late.

Well played.

That blood-eagle thing...wow! The best (worst?) part was the part at the end, where after breaking ribs and spreading them open like bloody wings, then pulling the lungs out through the wounds caused by this...THEN the captors poured salt in the wounds. I've never seen a more blatant "fuck you" than that. I'm sure after that, they said bad things about the prisoner's mother or something.

Torture / execution methods of long ago...jeezus.

Yeah, I'm a bit skeptical. Not that I'm any expert in pain thresholds, but it seems likely that the victim would pass out long before the application of the salt. And, really, even if they're alive (and kicking) when the salt goes on, isn't it the last of their worries? Would they even notice it at that point? Would they even be alive long enough to care? So I'm dubious, but it's colorful, no?

Reading some of the accounts of things that went on "back then" makes me think pain thresholds were just generally higher or something. But then I just saw something recently where a guy bungee-jumped with the ropes attached to a multitude of back piercings. *shudder* I didn't have the guts to even watch the video to see what happened, whether the guy had an actual "normal" harness attached also or what. My balls are shriveling just thinking about it now...

So yeah, colorful I had been thinking of maybe having Smohalla do something like this for an Initiation Ordeal, but maybe now I won't...

You sure? You could save 3 karma. That's worth getting torn open, right?!

Heh. On the list of the many, many rules that should be altered, the Initiation Ordeals are on the list for sure. Some are cool, but some are things you would never ever take, like Sacrifice (lose 1 point from an Att) or Suffering (gains 10BP of NQ, chosen by the GM). To save 3 karma. Uhhh, yeah...

The more I GM, the more I appreciate having a wide variety of choices even if many aren't mathematically optimal. When I'm building NPCs it's usually not to a certain BP or Karma level, it's whatever feels right for the given character. So having sub-optimal options helps add a lot of color to the game, even if they are things I would never select for myself as a PC.

That's said, I'd prefer not to RP a Sacrifice or Suffering ordeal. Like, ew!

No, I agree. I'm usually not one to worry about "sub-optimal" choices. It's just, these seem SO suboptimal. Almost like you said, these are in the range of "no PC, ever, will take these". It's for NPCs only.

Give me Suffering or Sacrifice ordeals that give a FREE initiation. Then we're talking

Excellent recap, Pbangarth. All good questions.

Yeah, unfortunately more questions than answers at this point

So I was going back over the IC thread looking for "clues" and trying to form some ideas...try this one on for size!

So apparently Gunny is "going on 65". He's decked out in really old cyberware, and seems kinda...angry. He's got a job to stop these 3 Sisters, but no real proof that they're toxic or whatever. The only "sniff" we've had about anything toxic is from the ork shaman, Grugnir, who has a vested interest in stopping the Sisters, as they're disrupting the mining.

Ellie is described as being sort of old and graying, and she left a family behind when she Awakened. What if Gunny is the husband she left behind, and it's left him angry and bitter? His old cyberware means he would have had it during their marriage, a possible catalyst for her feeling like she had to leave him. The only "clue" that started me thinking this was Ellie mentioning something was in a gunny sack (and wondering if Tecumseh is THAT sneaky). Grugnir has a grudge against the Sisters and so he gets in touch with the man he knows will also have a grudge against them, the jilted ex-husband, and spins a tale of toxicity. Gunny laps this tale up, and feels like here's a chance to get back at his ex. He has the moral high ground now, so he thinks.

Crazy?

Ha!

[furiously taking notes]

You'll have to ask him when you call.

This was my dilemma, either this would hit the nail on the head or give you ideas to use against us

Smohalla's not going to be able to call Gunny, so it'll fall to Stogie or Ellesar...

I'll stand back and let you have some fun, AtroposReborn.

Thanks, I look forward to some fun.

Sorry about being so nonexistent for the last few weeks; things have been getting better though. Hopefully that means more regular posting for me.

Welcome back, welcome back, wellllllllllcome baaaaack!

Wellllcome baaaack

Pbangarth, that show went off the air in 1979. I think that was about 10 years before Atropos was born. I've never seen it and had to look it up on Wikipedia.

Considering I was raised mainly by my grandparents I watched mostly shows from the 50's and 60's. I've also developed a taste for much older music. As far as the aforementioned show is concerned I honestly have never heard of it.

I'm a '77 baby and I watched the show, I can't remember why / how though. Guess it was still in reruns ("syndication"?) for a few years or something...

Man, watching that youtube link...the opening song is still awesome. Right in the feels...

So pbangarth, how did you get to see Welcome Back Kotter? I'm showing my ignorance, was there that much American tv being shown in Canada?

I grew up on British tv shows (all BBC stuff on the local public broadcasting station (dirty, hippy liberal publicly funded stations (PBS))), so I guess it's not so strange for Canadians to have a lot of American tv.

*edit* holy crap, I was just looking through old threads. Faranji hasn't been on DS since Dec 2011. Wonder what happened to that dude. Wouldn't think you could lost interest in a website THAT suddenly. And being the '00s ('10s?), it's hard to imagine not having some kind of internet access no matter your situation (unless you're REALLy badly off...))

Yes, there was, is, and probably always will be lots of U.S. television in Canada. Think tugboat in the wash of an ocean liner. Tough and sturdy, but bounced around like hell anyway. That's our entertainment industry in comparison to the juggernaut down south.

I wasn't posting the link to complete the earlier "wellllllllllcome baaaaack". That just reminded me of the show's title song.

Ooooohhh. Here's our opportunity to piss off the Johnson!

It was supposed to be from the title song! Great minds think alike...

Go Atropos, make us proud!

Anything more? Open RP. Anyone can chime in at this point.

Is Ellesar relaying Gunny's tirade to us? Are we linked to the conversation through our commlinks?

Smohalla doesn't even have a commlink. Unless Ellesar has his commlink on speakerphone...

It took me a few days but I came through. Is it still called speakerphone if you're not using a phone?

Heh - good question I would think so, there's many words that are used even though they might not make sense anymore.

I have no idea what comm etiquette is in the future. I presume in this case that it would be a conference call with Ellesar leading and Stogie listening in. If it were a private conversation, I would have put it under spoiler tags or PM'd the player directly. Smohalla doesn't have a commlink but I presume that the contents of the conversation are relayed to him, unless someone tells me otherwise.

I do refer to commlink communication as "calls" - although I have no idea if they are calls as we think of them, or video calls - although I don't know what would be providing video of the callers, so maybe there's only video of what the callers are seeing themselves? I don't know. It's probably best not to get too caught up in the details of a make-believe world.

You can write a lot on a grain of rice, you know...

Very naughty, Phlapjack. That wasn't your spoiler tag.

I rolled Assensing for Stogie and Smohalla. I gave you both a floor of 2 successes, based on what you could have purchased by buying hits (since this is a non-stressful situation).

Stogie - 3 HITS
Smohalla - ??? HITS

Phlapjack, if you ever get around to it could you add your Perceptive quality bonus to your character sheet next to Assensing? Back when the game started, Chummer didn't include the Perceptive quality bonus in the Assensing dice pool. It has since been updated/corrected.

Sorry, realized too late the spoiler tag was only for Stogie...as a player I failed that Perception check

I think you want me to update my char sheet that's at the start of this thread? I'll do that today...done

Smohalla's infiltration: ??? HITS
Opponent perception: 2 HITS

Between their camo and their ability to buy hits with Infiltration, I figured Stogie and Ellesar would remain hidden. I didn't roll for Jake; I suppose I could have.

I forget...I hope someone else has sign language Maybe Jake...

Nick's perception roll: 2 HITS

Stogie's infiltration roll: 2 HITS
Ellesar's infiltration roll: 2 HITS

Tie goes to the defender. Nick is unaware of Stogie, Jake, or Ellesar.

Yeah, Jake will get your drift.

Young punks, out looking to score big on their first run. This can end badly. By that I mean unnecessary death.

But.... that Hotspur -could- make part of the trip back to the Sisters easier.

This is what the value of life has come down to in the Sixth World.

This is getting more and more interesting. Fake mage, mohawked punks...

These guys look like they're late to the game. Wonder why that is - is there an "open" recruitment thing going on?

I'm sure they're taking anyone and everyone. The woods are going to turn into a wasteland if a bunch of unstable, bloodthirsty murderers meet up.

Ahh, the Tata. If only one of you actually knew how to drive. Well, I suppose Stogie has Pilot Groundcraft 1, so I'll amend that to say "if only one of you knew how to drive well."

Phlapjack, just to be clear, during the recent call with Gunny he confirmed that the price on the Sisters heads is a bounty. In other words, anyone can claim it, and anyone and everyone is welcome to try. He offered you ¥15,000 per Sister, so a combined prize of ¥45,000 would certainly draw a lot of interest. That's real money, even to jaded Seattlites.

If only Smohalla had the magic fingers spell right now

So, is there any opinion on how people want this to go? On one hand, Smohalla's of a mind to teach them a lesson about real magic and how well they'd fare against it. But he's also of the mind that these jokers don't really pose much threat and to just let them be on their way. Either way, they don't seem like they know anything useful.

Nick's a different, intriguing story. Might try to salvage him from all this.

Thoughts?

Never trust an elf and all that. They do seem pretty dense, however. This Nick character is an interesting one alright. Hopefully he's not a lost cause.

Heh - I just randomly found this map while roaming the internet - a map of what will happen when Mt.Rainer blows. Looks like Greenwater might be a victim of a natural disaster...or the Sisters are able to control the mountain, a scary thought...

Mt. Ranier disaster map

Yes, if/when Mt. Rainier blows there will be quite a mess. Forget lava; the lahars are the big problem. All the geothermal heat will melt the glacier ice and send a giant wall of mud speeding down all the surrounding valleys at 60mph. Realistically (as much as we can say that for a futuristic game involving magic), Greenwater would not have survived the eruption. The surrounding lakes and rivers would probably all be gone too. But who's to say how much of the town would be rebuilt in the 50+ years following the eruption though, or what rivers the new rains and snowmelt would carve. I've been using the modern maps for convenience and because I'm not a geologist. Plus, "magic" is a good excuse to hand-wave these things.

My SR lore is pretty lacking - didn't Mt. Ranier blow when the Great Ghost Dance happened? It would make sense that in the 50+ years since then that they've rebuilt it...even makes more sense that it didn't get rebuilt very big and so was easier for a lone fire-spirit to wreck the place.


So we should probably kill them ourselves to save them from this horrible fate Plus like pbangarth said, hey, free Tata!


Just realized this - isn't Ellesar an elf?

I was wondering whether that would pop to someone's mind.

You have any opinion on how to proceed from here? I'm of the opinion more and more that we'll have to take 'em out...