Pretty sure he's dead, although I guess if anyone could take 20 boxes of physical damage and survive, it would be a troll adept. Hope Ramirez doesn't mind...

ETA: What kind of action is required to get out of our holes? Jack is about to make a run for the hostage.

We'll call it a simple action.

I have to leave for a couple of hours - my son has a concert at school, I'll be back later this afternoon.

I have to leave this afternoon, and won't be able to post until later this evening (and likely just OOC). I'd like to get a sensor lock on the runner, move closer then fire a 10 round burst at them (I realize that's probably 2 actions). I think I have 8 recoil comp on the AK (4 from the drone, 3 from the gas vent, 1 inherent from how the system works, pg. 175).

Thanks,
-DrZ

I unfortunately will be in a meeting most of tomorrow.

I would like (if the Rotodrone has a loudspeaker, I seem to remember it does?) to spent my 2nd simple action from my sensor lock round to have to broadcast, "Freeze or it'll be the last thing you do!" (preferably in a scary robot voice.)

If I can't, I'd like to spend my remaining actions firing on the runner, then mopping up the remainder of the bad guys with the rest of the team;

Firing (mostly 10 round bursts), moving into better position and acquiring sensor lock, firing again, etc.

I will try to check on my phone after noon or so, but otherwise please keep going without me!

-DrZ

Having nothing better to do, Amy will follow along with the plan and continue the attack against the targets still standing. Clout F6 against the summoner.

I'll save you the trouble and roll right away.

Casting the spell (12 dice - 1 for background, no visibility mod due to low light).
11d6.hits(5)=2

This is an indirect combat spell resisted by Reaction + Intuition + any remaining spell defense dice. DV 6 + net hits stun, AP -6.

Resist Drain 3S
13d6.hits(5)=5

No drain.

Ok - he is unable to dodge due to his being surprised, so he resists:
10d6.hits(5)=5

So he takes 3 boxes of stun.

Will modify the last IC post to include Amy's last action, here is next round:

Amy
4d6+11=22
Grease
4d6+7=23
Overkill
2d6+9=18
Jack
2d6+7=12
Spirit of Air
2d6+16=26

Dark Hair#1
1d6+8=10
Dark Hair#2
1d6+8=9
Long Blonde Hair
2d6+9=15

Spirit of Air 26
Grease 23
Amy 22
Overkill 18
Long Blonde Hair 15
Jack 12
Dark hair#1 10-1 for wound=9
Dark Hair#2 9 -1 for wound=8

Spirit of Air attacks Dark Hair#1
11d6.hits(5)=6

Cannot be dodged as he is still surprised until his action

Resists
10d6.hits(5)=4

So he takes 8 boxes of physical damage (so is barely conscious)

Grease goes next and attempts a sensor lock:
Perception 4 + Int 3 +2 for hot sim +2 for CR, -3 for metahuman target
8d6.hits(5)=2

Long Blond Hair resists
Agility + Infiltration
7d6.hits(5)=0

So he acquires a sensor lock with 2 hits and has the drone announce "Freeze"

Amy is next up.

Overkill will target Dark Hair #2 with his next FA Burst.

Since it seemed to have at least some effect, Amy will once again throw a Clout spell at the summoner.

For my IP, Jack is going to:

- Free Action: Swap Sneaking Skillsoft for Unarmed Combat
- Simple Action: Climb out of spider hole
- Sub-Free Action for Simple: Turn on Skilljack Wireless
- Run (not sprint) to the damsel in distress. How long will this take? The terrain looks pretty iffy. If Jack would have assessed (in a meta sort of way) that it would probably require Gymnastics checks to negotiate, he would have slotted that instead of Unarmed Combat with his free action. Alternately: Is the water deep enough to make swimming viable?

Amy casts another Force 6 Clout:
11d6.hits(5)=2

Summoner (Dark Hair#2) again unable to dodge, Resists
10d6.hits(5)=5

So he takes another 3 boxes of Stun

Amy resists 3DV of drain
13d6.hits(5)=2

And so she herself takes 1 box of Stun

Overkill joins in the fun and after aiming for his first simple action, fires:
Agility 5, Automatics 4, Smartgun +2, 2 Aim actions +2, -1 for range compensated by Vision Mag, Vision penalties compensated for by lowlight, 6 points of recoil, RC=Gas vent 2, Shock pad, 1 natural, 1 for strength=5, total of 13-1 for 12 dice total

12d6.hits(5)=2

No dodge possible
He resists 13 DV AP 3
13d6.hits(5)=2

Taking 11 boxes of physical damage, he is out for the count.

Long Blonde Hair puts his head down and again sprints for the car
6d6.hits(5)=2

Covering another 28 meters. He is about 20 meters from the car at this point. The car itself starts up, and the passenger door opens.

Jack does this:

- Free Action: Swap Sneaking Skillsoft for Unarmed Combat
- Simple Action: Climb out of spider hole
- Sub-Free Action for Simple: Turn on Skilljack Wireless
- Run (not sprint) to the damsel in distress. How long will this take? The terrain looks pretty iffy. If Jack would have assessed (in a meta sort of way) that it would probably require Gymnastics checks to negotiate, he would have slotted that instead of Unarmed Combat with his free action. Alternately: Is the water deep enough to make swimming viable?

To answer the question of distance, you are approximately 40 meters from the sacrifice site. You are near the shallow end of the water, so you can probably wade through it (slowing you down), or you can run around the shoreline, which will triple the distance run.

Your Agility is 5, so running it will take 6 turns to run around the shoreline, while wading through the water will be slightly faster at 4 turns (I'm doubling the normal amount of time it will take due to the fact that you have to wade).

Dark Hair#1 - 9, - another 2 for wounds now goes at 7.

Having been knocked to the ground by the electrical strike, he cowers on the ground.

I'll use whichever method takes the shortest amount of time. If I can cover it faster using the shoreline and sprinting actions (average of 3 hits on each test), I'll do that, otherwise, I'll wade.

Just to recap...

Down for Good: Truck, Short Blond Hair, Dark Hair #2
Down: Dark Hair #1
Running for the car: Long Blond Hair

Dark Hair #2 was the summoner, right?

I'm intrigued about Long Blond Hair. He came up as being mundane, right? Augmented for sure.

Ok, so, if you assume 3 successes on your sprint test, that means you are covering 26 meters per turn, so to cover the 120 meters around the shoreline would take you 5 turns.

Cutting straight across the water is still faster at 4 turns. Did you still want to go around?

Also, your assessment on who is up and who is down is correct, and yes, Dark Hair#2 was the summoner. (and yes, Long Blonde Hair came up as mundane)

If the runner doesn't stop I will light him up with my next action, and if he doesn't go down lay down suppressive fire between him and the car.

I'll wade.

Ok - just an FYI, one of your actions (either 13 or 3) is going to have to be a "Control Vehicle" Complex action, otherwise the drone might crash.

Strictly speaking, you should have had to use one of your actions last turn to do so as well, but as I forgot, I'm not going to penalize you

Should I assume you are going to save the action at 3 to control the drone? Or do you want to risk the crash?

Also, I made a goof with regards to Vision Mag. In order to gain the benefit from Vision Mag, you have to take a Take Aim action (which would then not give you the +1 die).

It didn't make a huge difference in the combat, and I'm not going to try and retcon 1 die, but I figured for everyone's knowledge, going forward, if you want to have the penalty for range negated by your vision mag, you need to spend a Take Aim action.

Man, I think Overkill went into the wrong vocation. Its the only type of roll he hasn't missed on yet, (apparently, Invisible Castle likes when he shoots people.)

Granted, I think it is only the 3rd shot he has taken thusfar.

Just to "crunch" the numbers, this means that using VM at -1 range is pretty pointless when the standard Take Aim action nets you the same benefit (unless you have a great die pool and terrible accuracy). It is sub-optimal if you have a working smartgun/link, since you get both the +1 dice pool and accuracy when using Take Aim action in that instance. At greater ranges, it makes more sense to use VM to offset the 3+ dice penalties due to range.

This makes sense to me, and I don't think it's a bad design. Vis Mag should really be for aiming from far away.

@Lobo: Do I have the Long Blond Haired Cultist's Commlink spotted?

If so, what rolls do I need to hack it and override his control of the vehicle?

If not, I may have to try and spot and brick the Americar. (Bummer that just spotting something's Icon is a Complex Action.)

Hopefully he can't outrun that air spirit. Amy was going to spend her next action instructing the spirit to capture him alive, possibly with engulf, which would be stun damage. But of course your character wouldn't know this.

You have not spotted his commlink - so it is probably easier to spot the Americar and brick it (unless you want to try and drive it out of there afterwards).

So is my action on 13 to get a sensor lock, and issue the warning? I just want to know if I still have a chance to shoot this round.

-DrZ

You still have a simple action left at 23 (Sensor Test was a Simple Action, Issue the warning was a Free, still have 1 Simple left)

However, you have two actions left, 13 and 3, one of which has to be control vehicle or risk crashing.

Next IP

Spirit of Air 16
Grease 13
Amy 12
Overkill 8
Long Blonde Hair 5
Jack 2


The Spirit of Air continues on its rampage, blasting the remaining cultist
11d6.hits(5)=3

The cultist, finally able to dodge, attempts to feebly do so.
7 dice base, -2 for physical wounds, -1 for stun wound, -2 for being prone
2d6.hits(5)=0 and fails miserably

He now resists
10d6.hits (5)=2
So in addition to the 8 boxes of physical damage he already took, he takes another 13 boxes. You are going to have to pick him up with a spatula...

Your actions?

Ok.

On 13, 10 round burst. On 3, control vehicle (moving to cut him off from his ride)

-DrZ

Well damn, I was hoping to keep one of them alive in the interest of trying to find out if they have another sacrificial offering locked up somewhere. I'm fairly confident everyone who has been dropped is dead. Maybe they left an address on a commlink or something...

Jack will continue making his way through the shallows to get to the victim.

Simple Action: Ready SMG
Simple Action: Take Aim towards the combat site (if I can even do that, I kind of think I actually need a target to Take Aim).
Free Action: Load Running Activesoft. Full skillsoft load is Automatics (4), Running (3), Unarmed Combat (4).

Grease shoots:
Gunnery 4 + Specialization 2 + Agility 3 + hot sim bonus 2, CR bonus +2, -1 for range, no penalty for vision, +2 for sensor lock, Recoil -10, RC (Body of Drone 4, Gas Vent 3, Base 1) +8, total=12 dice
12d6.hits(5)=6

Long Hair Dodges
Base 9, +Dodge Interrupt Action adds Gymnastics +4, +2 for running, -9 for full auto = 6 dice
6d6.hits (5)=3

Now he has to resist base 10+1 for Explosive, +3 for net hits, =14DV, -3AP
15d6.hits(5)=8

So he takes 6 boxes of damage (His physical limit is 6, so you just barely missed knocking him down)

Amy and Overkill?

I just checked the rolls, so it doesn't really matter, but sensor lock reduces their dodge pool, rather than adding to your attack pool. Dropping two dice from each roll changed nothing (neither of the last two dice on either test were hits). With that said, I think that sensor-based targeting is when you use Logic instead of Agility to roll the attack, although that might only apply to Passive Targeting (the Gunnery section is not entirely clear on whether jumping into a drone constitutes remote operation of the weapon or not). I'm not sure.

Also doesn't matter in this case (since they're the same for Grease). Does it matter that I'm using passive, not active targeting?

Getting a sensor lock is active targeting.

Passive Targeting: Replace weapon accuracy with sensor attribute of the vehicle/drone. Incur modifiers to the attack roll based on the sensor signature table. Use Logic in place of Agility.

Active Targeting: Acquire a sensor lock using a sensor lock attack action. From that point forward, any attempt to avoid your attack by that target suffers a penalty equal to the net hits gained from the lock. No modifier to attack roll (the modifier was already incurred in achieving the sensor lock). Not sure if you get to use Logic in place of Agility here.

The Gunnery rules are funky at best.

Dr. Zaius - Passive targeting gives you the ability to substitute the Sensors rating of the Drone for the Accuracy of the weapon, and does not add dice to your roll or subtract dice from your opponent's defense roll. Given you dice pools, since an AK has an Accuracy of 5, and being jumped in increases all limits by your CR rating of 2, this is something you should probably never use.

Active targeting (which is what I assumed you used) subtracts dice from your opponent's defense test (my bad for thinking it added to your roll)

...I think that's what I meant.

ETA: At least until the Rigger book comes out, and I can get better sensors put into my drones!

I am going to try and spot the Americar with a Matrix Perception check.

Matrix Perception
Computer + Intuition=8 dice, 3 noise cancelled by datajack and signal scrub
8d6.hits(5)=2

Americar is running silent
4d6.hits(5)=1

You are able to spot the icon.

A lot of people just say that you can pay for an upgraded sensor array, which is already priced in the core book. It doesn't explicitly say you can do this, however.

Most of the rigging stuff is woefully under-explained. I basically inferred from the book which sensors I could attach to my drones, but I have no concept if that's correct or not.

-DrZ

Ok just to check, the only cultist still standing is the one running away towards the car?

If that's the case, I'd like Amy to use her action pass to do 3 things:
- Tell the team <<"My spirit will try to get the last one alive.">>
- Instruct the spirit "Quick! Stop the one running away! And try to keep that one alive."
- Get out of the hole and run towards the action in a straight line

ETA: And drop the Mass Confusion spell.

When you go toward the action, you are at hex E2, the site at hex H5. A straight line will require you to swim across the lake (a swimming distance of about 120 meters). Or you could run around the lake, which is (including cutting across the shallow end) 360 meters. (Which at your running speed will take you 30 CT to accomplish) If you swim, that will take you approximately 40 CT to accomplish.

Whichever you prefer - the rest of it is fine.

Haha I was forgetting about positioning. Ignore "straight line", I mean to take the most direct path

I'll see you in a minute and a half everyone

Here is a quick summary of the last IP - IC post to be up soon.
Spirit of Air 16
Grease 13
Amy 12
Overkill 8
Long Blonde Hair 5
Jack 2

The Spirit of Air continues on its rampage, blasting the remaining cultist

Grease shoots at Long Blonde Hair

Amy to uses her action pass to do 3 things:
- Tell the team <<"My spirit will try to get the last one alive.">>
- Instruct the spirit "Quick! Stop the one running away! And try to keep that one alive."
- Get out of the hole and run towards the action in a straight line
ETA: And drop the Mass Confusion spell.

Overkill spots the Americar's icon

Jack will continue making his way through the shallows to get to the victim.

Simple Action: Ready SMG
Simple Action: Take Aim towards the combat site (if I can even do that, I kind of think I actually need a target to Take Aim).
Free Action: Load Running Activesoft. Full skillsoft load is Automatics (4), Running (3), Unarmed Combat (4).


Next IP

Spirit of Air 6
Grease 3
Amy 2

Spirit of Air moves after the fleeing cultist
9d6.hits(5)=1

So it moves 9x4+10 meters, or 46 meters - covering half the distance between itself and the Long Blonde Haired man.

Grease uses this action to control his drone

Amy?

Unfortunately, I think Grease is going to fire on 13 (you go on 12). If he doesn't murder the guy your spirit may have a chance to stop him.

-DrZ

ETA: Oh! Nevermind; I'm controlling my drone on the action you're describing.

If it's safe for Amy to sprint, she'll do that. Apart from that she'll ask Overkill if there's anything specific she can do to help. We can all use a free action during each pass even if we have no initiative score, so I believe it's possible for him to answer something short.

Something occurred to me, if Amy asks the spirit to go quickly, could it use its pass to use Movement on itself as well, since he has an extra action anyway?

@Chrome

He could have, but it wasn't necessary given the distance. As far as safe to sprint, it is going to take you a long time to get there even sprinting, and it will start building up fatigue. Up to you if you want to try.

Next Combat Turn

Spirit
2d6+16=22
Amy
4d6+11=17
Grease
4d6+7=15
Overkill
2d6+9=18
Jack
2d6+7=17
Long Blonde Hair
2d6+9=12

Spirit 22
Overkill 18
Amy 17
Jack 17
Grease 15
Long Blonde Hair 12 -2 for wounds=10

The spirit closes the distance to the target and engulfs him
15d6.hits(5)=7

Long Blonde Hair Dodges
Base 9, -2 for wounds
7d6.hits(5)=1

So he has to resist 18S with no armor
5d6.hits(5)=1

So he takes 10 boxes of stun and another 3 boxes of physical damage

At this point, combat is over - and you can RP freely - although if you plan on doing something time sensitive though, we'll keep that in mind.

Jack will break out his medkit and examine the bad guys to make sure they're dead. I'm going to assume that a few of them are pretty obvious and probably don't require a check. Once he's checked vitals and reported them to the team, he's going to cut the girl down (discreetly popping his hand blade and resheathing it before anyone gets too close) and check her out with his first aid skill. He'll use his medkit/first aid skill to try to revive her.

Actually, I'll make an IC post for this.

I will wait til after Jack posts to do the same. Glad I dropped that cram!


As an aside: how many vehicles did they bring? An americar and a van, right?
-DrZ

If we can figure out a way to steal the van, it would be awesome...

+1

Ok, so as Jack investigates the bodies:

Dark Hair#1 5 stun 21 physical - melty eyes, quite dead
Short Blonde Hair 5 stun 14 physical - extreme ballistic perforation - also quite dead.
Dark Hair#2 6 stun 11 physical - bleeding to death, but not yet dead.
Truck 3 stun, 20 physical - bleeding to death, but not yet dead.

I'd actually like to discuss this with Lobo. It's not really my intention to jack every ride we come across; but I would *not* mind a van. What is your feeling on how this would play out?

That synchs with Jack's report. I'm not lifting a finger for Truck or Dark Hair #2 unless the team chimes in...