Hey, if we're really lucky Toothy will only kill most of them before he dies. Then we have two less problems and a free Tata. Which reminds me that I've been meaning to ask the Sisters about the crazy monster.

Good point, but who ever said he was trustworthy?

Well... I sorta want to. And not just for the Tata. In the process of hunting for the Sisters, these guys are going to ride rough-shod (literally) over anything.

Hmmmm... what if we set it up so the Sisters and we together take these guys out? Would the Sisters like us more? Tell us more?

I think Smohalla would have a problem with that - he'd rather a more straightforward "alright, we decided to take these guys, so let's get to it without all the trickery"

BUT this area's got a BC of 2 so he's less effective with his magic, which is pretty much all he's got...

I'll get a post up after work. In the meantime does anyone know which way the Tata is facing? I'd like a clear shot on the driver's seat if possible.

It's been a year since our last fight so I guess it's time for another.

I'll try to post later tonight with a more complete description of the situation, including ranges, modifiers, and the like. If you have specific details that you'd like to know (like Atropos' question about the direction the Tata is facing) then pass them along so that I can address them.

Stogie and Ellesar will have the element of surprise. We'll say that Smohalla will hold his action until Stogie and Ellesar have gone so that he doesn't tip off the lads before the fireworks begin. There will be enough time for Take Aim actions plus for Stogie to use his Attribute Boost powers. Minor adjustments in position will also be possible.

Thanks. I was going to ask about those. I'll wait till your situation report.

The bad news is that the Tata is parked 100 meters away across the river. They didn't drive it right up to the river bank before hopping out. The good news is that the burned-out town has no cover (except the Tata) while your side of the river is heavily forested and offers ample opportunities to shoot and stay hidden. Firing from good cover is a -2 penalty. You can find partial cover if you prefer, which removes the firing penalty, but will make it much easier for them to spot you.

You are north of the Tata. It is facing northwest, so you have a 45 degree angle on the passenger side door. The men are walking back to the Tata from the southeast, which is roughly the direction that the trail leads out of town. If they re-enter the vehicle in the same pattern that they exited it, then Nick will enter the passenger side door first. The human with the skillsofts will jump on the back, while one elf drives and the other takes the passenger seat.

The area to the north of the river is outside of the background count. However, spells cast into the background count will still be diminished. (I'm not sure if the rules are explicitly clear on casting a spell into a background count, but this approach seems reasonable based off the crunch and the fluff that are provided. If anyone knows of the rules saying something different, please let me know.) That said, since Smohalla is outside of the background count the drain of the spell would not be adversely impacted as it would be if he were inside the background count.

There are no visibility modifiers. The weather is not a factor. This is a bad range for Stogie's shotgun. It might be possible to sneak across the river to the south bank if you want to close the distance, but you'll have to act quickly because they'll likely have reached the Tata by the time you're in position on the other side. Also, moving across the river will put Stogie into the background count, forcing him to lose adept powers.

Ellesar's bow is less-bad at this range (-3) than Stogie's shotgun (-6). One possibility would be for Stogie to take Ellesar's Remington 750 while Ellesar goes to his bow. The modifier for the sporting rifle will be -1 until the target reaches the Tata, at which point the modifier will be 0. Take Aim actions are possible and, given the element of surprise, probably wise.

Questions? Something I overlooked? Let me know.

All sounds good, thanks for the clarifications! I also am not 100% sure on the whole background count thing, but your interpretation sounds fine to me.


I feel like there's some significance here that I'm missing...I'll keep wracking my brain until it comes clear, like, what dastardly plot could the Sisters have involving these ingredients? Poison tea and cookies?

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Also, I'm going on vacation starting April 3, won't be back until April 15. Posting'll be sporadic for me during that time, but I'll try to post up a little when I can.

Well, Smohalla can be off shopping for the Sisters! Ellesar and Stogie (and Jake??) will take care of the punks.

I / he has every confidence in you

(I can just imagine Smohalla walking into a modern store and trying to buy things...very fish-out-of-water stuff )

I'm looking for directions about what you guys want to do. Spell, strategy, tactics. Given the element of surprise, it's possible that this will be a quick encounter. (Or maybe you'll glitch everything.) But I still need to know what you want to do.

Smohalla will wait until the others have fired, as he needs less "aiming" with his spells. As far as letting the others know this, he'll raise his eyebrows to Stogie and Ellesar and then turn to keep an eye on the unfortunate souls.

Let's be very specific so I make as few assumptions as possible. For example, which spell? I presume Smohalla would be use Buffet, because it's his ranged offensive spell. But it's theoretically possible that he would want to dive bomb them with Death Touch. Free action, centering? Or something else?

Yeah, free-action: centering.
Spell: Buffet (as an American, I like any sentence with "buffet" in it )

He won't target Nick unless the guy looks like he's a threat.

Not summoning any spirits - he doesn't want to subject them to the BC of the area.

I considered something like dive-bomb/death touch combo, but didn't want to be in the midst of a firefight like that unless it was absolutely necessary...

Pbangarth, Atropos, please give me some guidance too.

At work. I'll get in on this this evening.

Assuming Ellesar goes along with the suggestion (and he could have some great reasons not to, I guess), Stogie will use the Remington to shoot the driver as he approaches the driver side door. Switching the weapons will likely be a complex action at least. Boosting AGI and REA will take another complex action. Next action, since the Remington is a SS weapon, Stogie will take an Aim action and then shoot. I'll throw in an Edge to make it a good shot. Don't want these guys getting away.

So:

Attribute Boost MAG 7 + Boost power 1 = 8 dice for AGI, then REA: 3 HITS, 1 HIT ==> AGI 6, REA 4 (Boosted AGI will last 6 combat turns, REA 2 combat turns)

Shot with Remington AGI 6 + Skill 3 + Aim 1 - shoot from cover 2 - range 0 (at Tata door) + Edge 4 = 12 dice, exploding 6s ==> 3 HITS

==> damage 8P, -1 AP, 3 hits

OH, I guess I should do an Initiative for the shot, or a Surprise roll, just in case: REA 4 + INT 5 = 9 ==> 2 HITS

Thank you, Pb, that's exactly what I was looking for. Two things to note:

1) The driver's side door is on the opposite side of the Tata from you, so I'm going to say that Stogie will be firing before the driver passes behind the car (where he would be in cover). Anyone within the immediate vicinity of the Tata (say, a meter or two) is at 100 meters from you, so that you don't have any range modifiers for the Remington.

2) The attribute boost roll for Reaction was a glitch. Do you want to spend Edge to negate it? If not, I'll figure out something amusing for some lols at Stogie's expense. Examples include:
a) boosting the wrong attribute;
b) boosting Jake instead of Stogie;
c) boosting the wrong attribute in Jake instead of Stogie;
d) no drain resist;
e) ???

Thanks, that works well.

Damn, I didn't notice that. I want to save Stogie's Edge so, yeah, go ahead and have some fun. Actually, off the top of my head I don't know how much edge Stogie has left. Do you?

I'm reasonably sure that the point of Edge you used for the shot is the first since it last refreshed. (I would have had it refresh overnight but I didn't bother since I don't think anyone used it "yesterday".)

Atropos, let me know what your plan is so that we can move this a step forward.

Oh, sorry, man. I just scanned back and found this post. Sorry for stepping on your plan. If you have your heart set on shooting the driver, I can switch.

Well Stogie is shooting the driver, while Ellesar is shooting the driver's seat, so there's no conflict there.

Atropos has been MIA for 10 days now. I pinged him mid-week, but still haven't heard from him. I'll commandeer Ellesar if we haven't heard from him by tomorrow.

Reviewing Ellesar's sheet, he has the Pacifist (Minor) quality that hasn't really come up in play yet. It wasn't relevant for the scrap with Toothy, and this is the game's first man-on-man action, if we don't count Stogie breaking Smohalla's ribs. I'm going to have Ellesar express reservations about geeking these guys. He'll be aiming to wound and disable, not to kill. If that changes any of your plans, please let me know so that I can adjudicate the actions appropriately.

I've played several PCs in a row who had the Pacifist Quality. Too much like me. Enough is enough. Stogie's whole life has been fucked over by guys just like this. Their swagger and thinly veiled brutality is the same behaviour he saw in the men who came to his farm. They left behind them ashes and dead dogs.

'Nuff said.

I think this is going to be interesting, because it's a steep slope our group is descending, from initially "hunting" the Sisters to now fighting those that hunt them.

I'm tempted to say too much here. Remember this moment and we'll revisit it when we debrief at the end of this adventure, whenever that may be.

I promise I'm not dead.

Sorry for the delay, the motherboard for my new PC actually was dead on arrival. I should have taken the time to let you guys know from my phone but the interface is just so terrible when I try to do anything online.

Anyway, lets get into a more exciting discussion. Ellesar is certainly going to have some problems attacking non-aggressors. With things as they are he will be handing over the rifle with the condition that Stogie stick to non-lethal shots. His own attack will be more shock and awe than damaging, hopefully. The current plan is to hand the rifle to Stogie, switch to his bow, aim, fire an explosive tipped arrow a good 20 meters away from the tata, and call out a warning.

Air assault: AGI (4) + Archery (6) + Specialization in bows (2) + Aim (1) - Cover (2) - Long range (3) = 8 dice >>> 3 hits

I'm not sure if the initiative is needed but just in case: REA (4) + INT (4) + Lightning reflexes (2) = 10 dice >>> Also 3 hits

At the range he shot the arrow it shouldn't do any damage but let me know if I'm incorrect on that. Also, would his warning be considered intimidation if he has no hostile intent? I'll get an IC post up once I'm sure what's going on.

Hmpphh. Stogie will grumble, but he would respect Ellesar's wishes. Go ahead and post something, A.R. so Stogie can grumble IC. All the more reason to buy his own arsenal soon.

A non-lethal shot sounds like a called shot. I don't recall the dice rolls I did on Invisible Castle, but I guess you could drop the last four dice, Tecumseh, to see what Stogie's non-lethal shot does. Go for a leg, maybe?

On these guys, a non-lethal shot might be a head shot...

Glad to have you back, Atropos. Everything you said sounds great; go ahead and post something ICly so the game can have it "on the record". (You know, for when future generations are re-reading our campaign.) Plus, I am curious about how you'll word the warning - it will probably shape their response.

The rules for attacking an area instead of an individual are a bit of a joke, to the degree that's more or less impossible to miss unless you glitch. (As an aside on the rules, many grenades will only scatter a maximum of 6 meters no matter how badly you roll, but their area of effect is 10 meters. So technically it's impossible to miss with some grenades, doubly so if you aim for an area - which doesn't get a dodge roll, so you only need 1 hit - versus an individual who gets a roll to evade. End aside.) That said, because Ellesar is actually Robin Hood, I have no problem with him intentionally missing.

Phlapjack, what does this do to Smohalla's plans? I'm away from my books right now so I can't remember if Buffet/Blast does damage (stun damage?) or just hits the target with a knockdown roll, or both. What Force would Smohalla be casting this at?

If I wanted to make this really interesting then I could say that Smohalla's reducing hearing doesn't allow him to overhear the side conversation/plan between Stogie and Ellesar, but perhaps it wouldn't matter since he's probably casting the same spell either way.

Rolls:


There's a chance to speak briefly here before the next IP begins. If the RP doesn't satisfy either side, we'll roll initiative and continue to the second round.

Buffet does blast elemental damage, which is stun damage with a better chance to knockdown (Force + net hits vs Body? I'm away from books too). His plans are the same, he doesn't shy away from killing so anybody that seems a threat gets a spell to the face.

Force would be 5, most always he'll summon/cast at F5 (Magic) unless noted otherwise. I'm considering raising his Magic to 6 somewhere along the way, but that might be a few scenes in the future

Phlapjack, did Smohalla shift into eagle form or are you just RPing the shamanic mask?

Combat Monster Composure Check: ??? hits, easy pass, Smohalla can break away if he wants to. Additional rolls will be necessary if fighting resumes.

Just rp'ing the shamanic mask and the combat monster idea a little. The idea that if he fails the check, he loses control and goes full eagle.

Hmmm.... Actually, there could be a fair bit of profit in ambushing every bunch of bounty hunters that comes through here.

Edit: OK, so our plan to "deal" with the problem of the Sisters (and still get paid) in a way that doesn't cause them harm is clearly a no-go. Bounty hunters are going to keep coming with the money being offered. So... do we align ourselves with the Sisters more formally/completely? If so, then really the only way I can think of to help the Sisters permanently is to "deal" with Gunny.

Thoughts?

It's getting interesting! That's my thought.

Well from Gunny's own words we know that there is already a large amount of hunters after them. Taking them all on would just escalate the situation. We could keep them out for a time but eventually they would overpower us.

So if the source of the money disappeared, there would be no point in pursuing the bounty, would there?

Yeah, if we stop the bounty from being offered, that seems like it would be exactly what we need. We need to find out exactly who or what is the source of the bounty - I suspect ultimately it's not Gunny, although he's involved of course. How did he become the Johnson for this?

The sisters may have some idea. Too bad they don't seem to understand the danger they face.

True. Plus the fact that they weren't that hard to find.

Well, we had a guide. That same guide probably would have eaten these young bounty hunters.

We'll have to make sure to erase our tracks, physically and astrally

Good conversation, and all good points. I'll make the request that it be recapped ICly once the current encounter has resolved itself. The ball is in your court there.

LOL - this reminds me of that scene from Oh Brother Where Art Thou so much!

"well which is it young feller? iffin I raise muh hands, I'ma gonna be in motion..."

That was Raising Arizona, not O Brother, Where Art Thou.

Mind you, I've never seen Raising Arizona, but I've seen O Brother enough times to know the movie backward and forward.

Ah, you're right. Either way, great movie and funny scene here

Anybody else want something with these kids? Atropos, Pbangarth, speak up soon or I'm going to cut them loose.

I'll have to check back through the thread. I don't remember much about the guy who died watch tower. That sounds like a good angle.

Sorry guys, there's been illness in the family and I have been preoccupied. I'll try to get back on track this evening.