The power states that the critter can engulf its victim, or use the terrain it controls to do it. It doesn't seem to have to be the spirit itself doing the engulfing, but the wording is too vague to my liking.

Summoning a F3 Earth Spirit with the Concealment power (it really doesn't matter which since he'll be doing a physical task)
12d6.hits(5)=2

Ugh.. that's not so great, let's see how the spirit does.
3d6.hits(5)=1

Ha! At least I get the service I want

Resisting 2S drain
13d6.hits(5)=7

Is the spirit able to accomplish the task to our satisfaction? Does it look more or less like what we want?

I can also modify the IC post slightly if we should have a 4th hole for a drone somewhere.

Yes - even a Force 3 Earth Spirit has a 7 strength - so no worries.

One other thing - the one position that Jack picked out is literally a small island in the middle of the lake - that one is going to be prone to flooding...

Grease also as the Influence group, so in theory he could make leadership tests to direct Overkill in how to fix the drones. I'm not sure Overkill would consider Grease his 'superior officer', but I think that an argument could be made that he would listen to him when it came to fixing drones and vehicles and whatnot.


HOWEVER, since he can't default on the skill it's sort of a moot point.

-DrZ


ETA: Can I get a spider-hole too? I realize I am going to be farther away than the rest of the team, but I still don't want to be the one thing sticking out like a sore thumb when the vampires come (and yes, I'm convinced they're vampires).

Perhaps we can find an alternate spot.

Just as a reminder, Amy may want to wipe her signatures before we leave the site.

I'm also still not entirely sure if I'm just not going to get in the water and be a little closer to the group in case we think we might need someone to be able to get close to the group physically (rescuing the sacrifice victim for instance).

I have a sort of metagaming question, and I'm not sure of the answer - I'm choosing this particular topic because either way it resolves, it doesn't matter, but it could matter in future.

The group needs 3-5 holes dug in the ground.

Is the service "Dig 5 holes" or should it be 5 services to dig 5 holes?

Should there be some sort of hard limit on something, or should it just be a GM call each time?

For instance, "Dig one hole" or "Dig 3 holes" - causing that to be 3 services seems sort of picky. But "Dig 1000 holes" - seems too powerful for one service. Curious as to your thoughts on where the line should be, or if it should just be up to the GM.

Personally, I think it has to be a GM call, since the sheer number of things you can ask a spirit to do are too varied to ever have one rule cover them all.

It's definitely a GM call. I mean, you could use one service to tell the spirit to "Dig a hole matching the specifications of an Olympic Swimming Pool," assuming it knows what that is. It's one service, but that would be a massive undertaking.

I think it depends on the scale and complexity of the services provided. 5 would seem within reason for a single service, but 10 or more might be stretching it.

Gonna be at work for the next few hours, probably be back around 2-3.

Thanks for the feedback - I figured it would have to be on a case by case basis.

In this case, I don't have a problem with making it one service - and even if I didn't, summoning a force 2 spirit takes 3 seconds, and Amy is unlikely to take any drain anyway, so making her roll to summon 5 separate earth spirits seems just over the top.

At any rate - After you've determined how many holes need to be dug, and Amy erases her astral signature, you guys can head back to Overkill (if you are ready).

Yeah I also think it's a GM call depending on the complexity of the task or tasks at hand. Dig a few holes here and there doesn't seem excessive to me.

Amy will of course erase the signatures for her two summons. The spirits themselves didn't use any power, so their actions shouldn't leave any trace.

Amy will make the spirit dig the holes according to the preference of Jack and Grease, after a brief discussion. The spot on the island should be moved to somewhere on land. One spot (for Jack) can be closer to the actual sites.

We should also spend some time to make improvised roofs for those holes, with branches and mud and leaves. Enough to block line of sight. Amy has the survival skill with a dice pool of 7, if that helps.

I think it would also depend on the force of the spirit. A Force 2 spirit may dig you some pretty crappy holes. "Oh, I thought you wanted to put a badger in it or something." whereas a Force 10 spirit would do it without shrugging.

There's an opportunity here for you to consider creating a "Force vs. Hole Digging ability" reference chart, probably on a logarithmic scale, provided you have forgotten to take your medication.

-DrZ

Ok - Jack can assist:

5d6.hits(5)=1

Amy's Roll:
7d6.hits(5)=3


I'm thinking that making some sort of latticework with leaves for 4 holes is going to take about 30 minutes (you have to gather all the materials put them together, etc).

We just need them to be marked on the map where the holes are going to be. That will put you at 3:35 or so with regards to the timeline, which would put you back at the abandoned house around 5:15.

Good! I'm glad the survival skill is useful already!

Our ambush is shaping up

ETA: Grease could have defaulted to his willpower and made a roll too.. lol

Sounds good to me. If we're good with it, I would say we head back to the house, get all of gear accounted for, and head back out as early as possible. All this work is going to be pointless if they show up before we get back out there.

LOL, I am pretty sure you don't want him rolling that one die.

Agreed, even if it's gonna be a pretty long wait.

What are the consequences of a critical failure in that test? I get the sense the consequences would be hilarious, but probably not life threatening. Him falling through the lattice and ruining the hiding spot, for example.

-DrZ

Well, since it is a teamwork test, there would be no increase to the limit for the leader at all. Then apply the rules for a critical glitch. I dunno... you accidentally mistake a copperhead for the perfect branch to go in the lattice you're building?

@Lobo: Are you treating it as a teamwork test where my one hit adds a die to Amy's roll + raises her limit by one?

Correct - I was treating it as a teamwork test.

You guys can go ahead and put up stuff IC getting you back to the house, interacting with Overkill, etc.

I am going to be away until late tonight, I'm taking my son to Medieval Times for his 10th birthday

Nice, LOL

I'll be gone for the rest of the day in a few minutes. Probably make most sense of DrZ or Overkill post next with arrival back at the safe house.

1-2-3 not it!

Not that it matters, but shouldn't Amy's roll have had one more die (to account for Jack's success) or do I not understand how teamwork works?

No you understand it right - I rolled one too few dice.

I edited my earlier post to cover the action up to 3:35.

Hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day - I put up an IC post with the team arriving back at Overkill.

What's next? Are we just grabbing some food on the way and go straight to the ambush site?

Did we ever resolve the "whose in charge during tactical situations" question? If not, I've got a post I'll throw up about that before we move forward.

-DrZ

Yeah, grab some grub on the way out to the site and get setup.. Not sure if we ever finalizes a tactical leader.

I'm enjoying Grease's role shaking up the status quo.

Man this didn't turn out like I expected, but I'll roll with it.

After all, maybe Amy will be allowed to order people around with her leadership skill

Should be fun.

From a meta perspective, I think trying to have you mage as a leader in a combat situation is a bad idea given the action economy, but we might as well give it a shot.

From the same perspective, she also has more passes in a given combat turn. This being said, I've always thought Jack should lead.

Right, but it's about what you have available to you in a given IP. If you want to tell people what to do, that takes a free action. If an enemy mage then uses a spell later on that same IP, using spell defense now becomes an interrupt action and costs you 5 initiative. Likewise with Leadership, it's a Complex Action and mages almost always have something they could be better doing with those actions. Just my opinion based on the two spellcasters I am playing.

Really though, get your feet wet, should be fun. With as much lead as we're going to be slinging, we may not need as much magic defense/support.

From a Meta perspective, I think Jack should probably lead as well. However, I don't think Grease trusts him with that just yet.

-DrZ

ETA: Grease is being a real toolbox, I'm sorry everyone

LOL, OOC it makes sense to me IC, if that makes any sense.

What is going on is pretty awesome. I feel like we're in a heist movie or something.

Oh, I would say based on our character's backgrounds that, if we were really working this out like rational people, Overkill would be leading. He's the only one who has routine combat and a military structure as part of his back story.

Lol, I like Jack looking out for numero uno... Or #7, as the case may be..

-DrZ

Enjoying the conversation

If you need anything from me just ask.

I'll say that the absolute last NQ I would ever take would be one that disallowed an inner monologue, LOL.

I'm very curious to see what Overkill (the PC)'s reaction is going to be to all this.

ETA: It's ironic how the character with a mental problem (can turn berzerk if one of us takes wounds) insists on being the one who decides when retreating is okay or not.

Grease (the character) seems to be sowing seeds of discontent between the team, and I (the player) don't know why.

-DrZ

I'll always figured the Amy/Overkill thing would come to a head at some point. No matter what Grease does though, I know the rest of the team will stick with the ork. Always Bet On Jack! (LOL)

In retrospect, it probably would have made more sense for Grease to choose Overkill as the team leader. However, Grease doesn't really know Overkill's background, and more to the point playing off the potential wedge between Overkill and Amy makes it possible for him to manipulate the situation whereby Jack *isn't* in charge.

I suppose now it's just a matter of him taking credit if it works out, or blaming someone else if it doesn't The true Shadowrun way!

Of course, when the lies and manipulations catch up...

I do feel that we're way too trusting of Grease, TBH. Don't know him from Adam other than Chapel's vouching. In the matter of four (?) days, we've determined that he's a known junkie and spied on us without telling us. I'm honestly not sure why anyone would listen to him.

As for Jack, he's suffering from the misfortune of fate/GM fiat in the scheduling of conflicts, LOL.

Wow, I knew Overkill's input would put a damper on things, but that caused a much more heated reaction than I thought it would.

Working on response.

I resemble those remarks! In all honesty, I'd probably be more of a team player had Jack not gone off. At this point it's mostly projection. Note he didn't suggest HE should run things. I don't feel particularly bad about the filming, since he came clean about it.

DrZ