What Jack described is exactly what I had in mind.

And yeah, now I have to tell everyone we need to go back

They don't know that I could have done things differently anyway, so I could just warn them before getting out of range of the spirit that we'll need to come back at some point.

Ok - modified my post - feel free to talk back and forth IC until you go back into Yak territory (if Amy can convince you guys to do so )

I think that's fine. Just post something IC and we'll work it out there.

Hmmm... other than bricking them, is there anything else I can do with their hacked Smartguns?

Since I have their gun's Icons pinpointed, could I use them to look for any other devices they may have, perhaps I could find and monitor their commlinks?

Well, smartguns are able to be fired without the trigger being pulled. They also have a camera, so you might be able to observe what they're pointed at...

One thing to keep in mind - from the second that he did his first Hack on the Fly, his Overwatch Score started. He got an overwatch score of 0 on his first Mark, but then he did 8 more Hack on the Fly attempts:

5d6.hits(5)=2, 5d6.hits(5)=0, 5d6.hits(5)=3, 5d6.hits(5)=1, 5d6.hits(5)=2, 5d6.hits(5)=3, 5d6.hits(5)=0, 5d6.hits(5)=1

So his OS is now 12. Plus 15 minutes have gone by, adding another 2d6=5 5, so total OS of 17.

That is going to continue to go up by 2d6 for every 15 minutes until he reboots - at which point he loses all his MARKs.

I had considered that, although I am only showing 3 or 4 minutes having passed since Overkill MARKed the SMGs. Is the timeline supposed to have advanced further?

Yes - crap - I didn't change that. It takes you time to get from the park to the parking garage. It should be around 3:55 now.

No problem. We can just edit our posts. What time should it be when we get to the garage?
Duh, I am an idiot, considering it's the second sentence in your post.

I'm thinking we could get to Smoky Hill Road and hopefully be within communication distance of the spirit, then just tell him to dig his way north for a bit and pop up, hopefully close to us.

When she tells him to, he'll come directly to Amy.

Well that would make things pretty easy. Get in range and have him dig to us.

The problem is, you would have to search for "commlinks" which are going to get you a TON of random ones. You don't know what type of commlinks they are using, or really any other reference.

How about "commlinks connected to this smartgun system", or "commlinks located physically near the icon of this smartgun system"? Can these things be used to narrow the search?

"commlinks located physically near the icon of this smartgun system" - this one wouldn't work, in that you are in a populated area. They are standing near a tenement building with hundreds of occupants, so you'd have a chance of getting all of them in there as well.

"commlinks connected to this smartgun system" - that is a good one - had not thought of that, that WOULD narrow it down. Good idea Chrome

Overkill, do you want to search using those parameters?

Were they slaved to the commlinks? That would seem to be a valid request. Not sure what we're going to do since none of us speak Japanese, but could be fun.

They were slaved to their commlinks. I agree, the conversation you would overhear would be spirited, but meaningless

Ok - I'm going to give Overkill a chance to respond as to whether or not he's going to try anything. If he doesn't want to do anything, then we can adjudicate what happens when you go back to meet the spirit.

I'm confused by Grease's speech. Is he saying he wants us to leave, or he wants us to try it right now?

I was too, but I think I figured it out. He's saying that we're going to do it, but he's going to make the call if we need to bug out before getting the links because it's too dangerous.

That's a bingo. Sorry if I was unclear IC.

DrZ

Eta: my ic post was missing an "if". I edited it, hopefully it's clearer now.

I will do a search on for commlinks connected to the Smartgun systems.

Will have an IC post up first thing tomorrow.

Ok

Matrix search is normally 8d6, +2 for Hot sim (assuming you use it, because, well, why not), -2 from noise for the Warrens, -3 for noise for distance, -2 for public grid, +3 for noise negation yields 6dice.

6d6.hits(5)=2

So you find 2 of their commlinks

I was reading through some of the matrix stuff earlier, and I found this:


Does this mean everyone gets -2 at everything whenever they're running silent, and have we been playing with that rule? (maybe we don't want to, but I'm just making sure I understand how things work).

It means that they get a -2 on all Matrix Actions.

My assumption (unless you tell me otherwise) is that for Amy and Jack, everything is ALWAYS running silent, since you almost never do any Matrix actions. For Grease and Overkill, I assume that everything except their RCC and deck are silent, while for the RCC/commlink and deck, I assume they are not running silent unless told otherwise.

If you would like to change that, please let me know.

For the Goons - having their SMGs running silent has absolutely no effect whatsoever on their performance. Having their link's running silent has no effect on them, unless they have to do a Matrix search, at which point they could turn the running silent off, and search with no penalty.

Very interesting, thanks!

Ok - so:

Are we all ready to head back to the park?

A quick note - as you will be getting (potentially) within 100 meters of people. Are Grease and Overkill now having everything running silent?

Ready, Jack does take the time to reload in case he needs to use suppressing fire again (P.S. Cyril did it again on the last Archer, LOL)

@Jack - such a great show

@Jack and Grease,

I counted 2 CT of suppressing fire from both of you, so that is 20 rounds used from each (not that Rhex is in danger of running out of ammo soon

Should probably add an "Ammo" section to the banking spreadsheet...

I only remember 1 round of suppressing fire. I remember I looked at it pretty hard because I knew that Jack only had one CTs worth of ammo for suppressing fire (it takes 20 rounds per CT, BTW). Rhex may have done two IPs worth.

Looking back, I think I just laid down SF in CT1, IP2. In CT2, IP1, we skedaddled.

I'm ready to keep moving forward. Jack laid out the plan in IC.

Ok - yes, sorry about that, Rhex would be 2 turns, Jack 1, so 20 for Jack, 40 for Rhex.

Overkill, what sort of distraction do you want to do when the car approaches?

Btw, your MARKs tell you that the 3 goons you marked are still at the park.

IC post is up. I am presuming Overkill can deck while I drive back to the location, as it takes him tens of seconds to do so.

-DrZ

ETA: I figured RHex did 2 rounds as well. Gotta love that 250 round ammo bin! I am going to create a new sheet on my character sheet for "current gear" so I can just C&P from there in the future.

ETA2: Since I haven't been but should, here's my program loadout on my RCC: Encryption, Armor, Biofeedback Filter.

Firewall 5, Data Processing 4, +2 dice to resist matrix damage, +2 dice to resist biofeedback damage.

I think firing off a burst from a couple of their guns would do the trick, do any of them have a Full Auto setting?

Is so I will empty the clip, should be quite distracting.

Fire them then fry them.

I almost want to call one of their commlinks right beforehand, telling him to "watch his back," right before shooting off one his friends guns and seeing him whip around and fire at his friend.

Kind of a long shot though... stick with the safe plan.

Awesome. I was kind of surprised the mage just didn't keep summoning spirits against us.

Grease,

Ok - so:

Vehicle Test:

Pilot skill 6 + Reaction 7 - needing a threshold of base 3 (a hard test), increased to 5 since you are on a side street, decreased back to 3 due to your Control Rig 2.

13d6.hits(5)=5 (your handling is 6, so no worries)

So you manage to avoid the spirit

Overkill

Control Device - since you are not actually aiming at anything, and simply firing, it will be an opposed test, EW+Int vs Int+Firewall

EW 6 + Int 3 -2 uncompensated noise, -2 for running silent (and I'm assuming that you are in AR and not VR)
5d6.hits(5)=2

Vs
Int of 3, Firewall 2
5d6.hits(5)=0

So, successful

And now, it is initiative

Well, to be fair, you didn't steal anything (that they knew about), and you didn't actually hurt anybody. It looked like you just botched your job (whatever it was), so she was fine just making sure you got out of their territory (and perhaps a little curious where you went).

The fact that you were coming back into their territory means she had to act.

Amy
4d6+11=28 (Damn - nice roll )
Grease
4d6+7=20
Overkill
2d6+9=17
Jack
2d6+7=16
Amy's Earth Spirit
2d6+9=13

Mage
3d6+8=17
Enemy Earth Spirit
2d6+9=19

So:

IP 1
Amy 28
Grease 23
Enemy Earth Spirit 19
Overkill 17
Mage 17
Jack 16
Amy's Earth Spirit 13

Actions everyone?

Action 1: Vehicle test.

-DrZ

Not much for Jack to do here, TBH. I'll wait to see what happens with Amy and the spirit for now.

I am chuckling at my desk just thinking about track-suited Yaks lazily standing around in a groups when two of their weapons suddenly go off. I bet several of them had accidents.

ETA: Never mind, I figured out the spirit bit. Sorry.

I think I got just as big a smile reading it as Drave did hearing it.

Trying to banish this new spirit. It's gonna be tougher now.

I think the reason the mage isn't summoning too many of them is that he's outgunned magically, so he's attempting guerilla warfare right now. And it almost worked. Also we weren't coming back so there was no need to engage.

After we're done with this one, Amy will have to perceive to make sure no more surprises like this happen again.

Here are the rolls
Banishing
10d6.hits(5)=3
Drain Resist
13d6.hits(5)=6

Headed to my to my Dad's for a visit shortly, I will be back in a few hours, but don't wait on just me. Drave will follow the lead of the team, and help anyway he can.

Be back soon!

5d6.hits(5)=2

So, you negate 1 of the spirit's services, and have to resist 4DV drain (which you do).

ETA - Grease, Jack, or Amy - anyone want to post something in IC reflecting the above, or should I write it up?

The spirit is still around, however.

IP 1
Amy 28 - Banish Attempt
Grease 23 - Avoid Collision
Enemy Earth Spirit 19 - Use Fear Power
Overkill 17 - Delay
Mage 17 - Delay
Jack 16 - Delay
Amy's Earth Spirit 13


Fear Power
Will 5 + Magic 5
10d6.hits (5)=2

Jack
Will 3 + Log 3
6d6.hits(5)=3
Grease
Will 2 + Log 3
5d6.hits(5)=1
Overkill
Will 3 + Log 8
11d6.hits(5)=3
Amy
8d6.hits(5)=7 - Holy Crap! The dice freaking LOVE you.

So, unfortunately, the guy who is driving the car is the only one who failed the Fear check.

So on his next action, Grease is going to accelerate and get the hell out of there.

Posted IC to that effect. I imagine if we get rid of the spirit somehow, Grease could be convinced to circle back around.

-DrZ

IP 2
Amy 18 -
Grease 13 - accelerate
Enemy Earth Spirit 9
Overkill 7 - Delay
Mage 7 -
Jack 6 -
Amy's Earth Spirit 3

Hmm... I guess I should have at least used Full Defense in the first IP since I can't really do anything. I'll save that for the next CT I guess.

I'm just going to post up a IC post for my action this IP.

I'm okay with your ruling on the Fear power, but I just want to point out that this is likely a house rule, as the power seems to be written in order to affect only one target.


1) It doesn't say it affects more than one target (except for the word victims)
2) It only states that the power can fill its victims with terror, but not that it allows the power to do so in one use of the power. The rest of the entry is written in singular ("the victim flees", "opposed test against the target's", "the target must succeed").

By RAW, it really seems to affect one person. House rule as it fits your story though.

ETA: And do you intend to extend other powers as well, like Confusion, to an area or group spell?

@Jack,

OOC, the power reads:

This power gives a critter the power to fill its victims
with overwhelming terror. The victim flees in panic and
doesn’t stop until he is safely away and out of the critter’s
sight.

I'm thinking that until the power wears off - it lasts one CT per net hit - so it will wear off at the end of next combat turn - Grease isn't going to be interested in how to get around the spirit and back to the park. He is going to be trying to get the hell out of there.

Now, after that combat turn, he can make another Will+Logic test with a threshold of 2 to try and face the spirit again.

Mea culpa (this comes from not reading it thoroughly). RAW you are absolutely correct, it should only affect one person. I assumed (which is terrible, I know) that it worked like Concealment, where you could use it on multiple characters. However, the rules say that unless it specifically says otherwise (such as in the Concealment power), powers can only affect one target at a time.

So, all is well that ends well, in that the spirit would have used it on Grease (as he is the driver), and the rest of you passed the test anyway (had you failed, we would have negated that failure).

Sorry guys