Here is the way the rules work, at least as has been clarified on the official forums:

Official Rules

To sum up:

You have to change the ownership on the vehicle, which requires:
Extended Hardware + Logic [Mental] (24, 1 hour) - and here is the kicker, the wireless has to be on the whole time. Which means the thing is transmitting its location the whole time that you are messing with it (which means that it will be at least an hour and realistically 6 or 7 hours).

Well, it isn't really broadcasting its location, but if its owner wants to trace it, they can do it relatively easy since they are considered to have all the MARKs on it. Now, if one of the dudes bleeding out on the ground is the owner, it may not matter too much, but I don't know how we would determine the owner.

Now, the Americar, at least, is sitting there with the doors open and engine running, so it doesn't seem like we need to do much to at least drive off in that one.

Tough call on Truck.. we could drop him somewhere with a piece of evidence and the eye witness (who hasn't even seen us). But then again he knows about us, though I'm not sure who would listen. The advantage is that we got a killer arrested and into prison this way, fulfilling one of our objectives.

On another topic, Amy will want to thoroughly search all of them, keeping an eye out for anything with the potential for magical use.

ETA: Could we add Reagents to the Ammo section of the resource tracker?

Because I realize I didn't say it - the girl just has 9 boxes of Stun, and is simply unconscious.

Amy, when you search the bodies, you find mix of minerals, mostly quartz, limestone, and obsidian. There are 100 total reagents here, but as they are attuned to hermetics, they are only worth 50 to you.

The cultist with the short blonde hair has a knife which is clearly magical - you'd have to take it to someone to know what it is (since you have know real knowledge of artificing)

Apart from that, they all have very nice suits, black robes, commlinks (Transys Avalons to be precise), and nothing else of interest.

Truck has an Armor Vest, several throwing knives, and a commlink.

- Of course, none of the suits are ork-sized.

- I'm going to wait until we're on the road before making a first aid check to revive the girl. I figure the environment would be a little bit better in a semi-clean car than at the edge of a lake.

- Let's grab whatever we need and do whatever we can to clean up the scene. I wonder if we could get a water spirit to make their bodies disappear in one of the lakes or down a stream somewhere.

- I'll go through everyone's ammo expenditures and update the tracker. I may have to wait until the weekend to get to it though. If you know how many rounds you fired, please report it here and I'll make the adjustments. Adding reagents shouldn't be too tough, I don't think.

Here's my recollection of the ammo expenditure (if it will save you some time)

Jack - 12 explosive
Overkill - 12 explosive
Grease - 16 explosive
Amy - 10 reagents

That looks right to me, I should have the time to double check this weekend. Thanks!

Probably should take a few pics of Truck's body if we aren't going to try to help him recover. We actually need to make a decision on Truck and the summoner, as Jack isn't going to leave anyone the team doesn't take with them alive.

Pretty good bounty right there! 50 reagents isn't too bad, but those commlinks could give us leads (especially Truck's ofc..) and we can maybe fence them. The weapon I might also try to sell back to someone if it doesn't turn out to be evil or something, and we can split the profits, although I fear it may be traceable so I'll have to be careful about that, maybe put it in a metal box as a start. Can I learn anything at all by assensing it, Lobo? It seems like it could give me at least some pieces of info, though maybe not all that I'd like to know (ETA: details about the focus require artificing, but the object is magical, so it has an aura that can be assensed for stuff like signature, whether it's bonded to someone (I'm assuming), emotions linked to the object, etc.).


Not sure what the spirit would do other then sink them, or bring them some place specific. You're worried that somehow they could lead someone back to us? Animals and insects would probably do the job if we leave them here.

Reagents: I was down to 20, used 10 during the run, found 50 more on our enemies.

It may be impossible, but I was hoping to turn the whole thing into a big mystery for anyone who might know that the cultists were out here and comes looking for them. Rather than it be obvious that it was a firefight, I was thinking we could get a spirit to cause some destruction and move the bodies in order to make it look like a spirit may have had an objection to what was being done here and just decided to take matters into its own hands. If nothing else, a lack of bodies might make it difficult to ascertain what happened (so yeah, maybe sinking the bodies into the deepest part of the lake would work).

Sorry for the lack of updates, its been a crazy week.



Hmmm... I am really torn on Truck. On the one hand, Drave truly detests having to kill, but on the other, he may well know that Truck is too dangerous to be left alive.

Do we have any footage or other evidence linking Truck to the any of the murders in the conspiracy?

I will get my IC up in the morning, exhausted.


By the way; My daughter turned 1 today!!!

'

Happy birthday to the little one!

Times Two! That's awesome.

As far as I know, we do not have anything conclusive on Truck for the murders we are investigating (although Jack witnessed him killing at least one elf and we have footage of him killing the first sacrificial victim). The only footage we have that he might have been in was doctored to make him look like an ork, IIRC.

Also bear in mind we've had the Fly-Spy on Air Cap the whole time, so they caught the whole thing. We can edit it down as appropriate to share with Ramirez, including us taking Truck out.

-DrZ

ETA: Just as an FYI, I'm going to be out of town all weekend, so I won't really be able to post (at least not IC). Not that we've been posting a lot over the weekend, but I figured I'd mention it.

Thanks,
-DrZ

Good point on the fly-spy. I'm assuming Lobo is going to wait until we finish hashing out what we are doing IC.

Exactly - you guys are in the driver's seat now

@Overkill: We may have cross-posted. The girl is still unconscious, but I relocated her to a more comfortable spot under a nearby tree. I figure it will be easier to do our work and possibly remain somewhat incognito if she stays that way for the next hour or so. I slapped my biomonitor on her so that I would get indications that she was waking up (elevated heart rate and breathing, for instance). I'm also now en route to Grease's location.

Slightly out of sequence, but I don't think its much of an issue.

Having considered it further, I am thinking we need to put Truck down here and now. Even if we wanted to keep him alive, I doubt he could be saved (It would be hard enough just to move him; where the hell could we put him?)

Overkill will take care of the dark deed that must be done, though he will take no satisfaction in doing so.

Grease or Jack would be willing to do it and would most certainly take satisfaction in doing it.

I think thinks will sort themselves out. At any rate, Grease isn't leaving him with a pulse, no matter how thready. Vampires, guys! I'm surprised you're not more concerned.

-DrZ

You have got to be kidding me, Grease was right all along!

I really got to get better at assensing

Initiative?

ETA:

Famous last words?

Good thing Grease is packing that Ingram!

LOL, is cram a hallucinogenic?

ETA: Apparently not!

Cram causes "hyper alertness to the point of paranoia" and to "react quickly, often without thought, and prone to irrational outbursts."

In this particular case, all of this is in Grease's head (since he was paranoid about vampires before he took the cram)

I imagine the body twitched (since he isn't dead, just unconscious) and Grease overreacted.

In reality, the body isn't moving at all, and Grease just sort of fell backwards with his hand over his face protectively.

I'm not sure any of you can actually see this (as he is beyond the trees) but you would hear him yell.

Sorry, I couldn't resist - I'll let you deal with the fallout IC

I figured as much OOC. Barring you throwing an initiated vampire mage with masking at us. Even then, not sure you can mask that you have an actual astral form due to being dual-natured.

I took a little bit of liberty by having Grease attack the vision he's seeing, not the actual body itself. Still, it's going to be a while before he lives this down..

-DrZ

This is making my day.

Glad to see you being such a good sport (you are actually taking it further than I anticipated, but it is a lot of fun)

Updated the Resource Tracker this AM with expended rounds and added Reagents at the bottom in its own little column. I have Amy with 60 (effective) reagents at the moment: 145 (CharGen) - 125 (Binding) - 10 (Spellcasting Ambush) + 50 (Loot). I wasn't entirely sure if the spirit she bound was Force 5 or not. The only binding reference I found when I searched was for the aborted binding attempt near the beginning of the game, but I know she bound a Spirit of Man for the fight in Horseshoe Park.

She did and it was F5, 60 is the right number. Thanks for that! I can keep track of that column from now on, but you made it a lot more convienient.

IC post is up wrapping up Grease's little episode. Ready to push forward, figure out what we're doing with this unconscious guy. My guess is, nothing he'll like...

-DrZ

Hope everyone had a good weekend - I'm just lurking waiting until you guys decide what to do, then we can move on

Just to go through what we need to accomplish and make sure we haven't missed anything:

1) Treat hostage (Jack/Accomplished)
2) Search bodies for ID/comms/valuables (Amy/Accomplished)
3) Get vehicle situation squared away (Grease & Overkill/Pending)
4) Dispose of Bodies (?/Pending)
5) Clean Site/Fill in Holes (?/Pending)
6) Get Out (Everyone/Pending)

Seems like a spirit would be best for #4. Jack and Amy can try to address #5 (with spiritual assistance with the holes) while Grease and Overkill work on #3. I figure Amy can set a spirit on a remote task to fill in the holes if it is going to take any length of time.

Any additions? What have I missed here?

From my point of view, filling the holes is not that important. Getting rid of the bodies is only barely more important. Amy's spirit can provide some very important surveillance and security for the time being, if you ask me.

We should completely turn off all the recovered commlinks for now, just in case. This way Overkill can work on them at a convenient time.

In getting the vehicle situation squared away, include searching those vehicles and/or destroying those we're not taking, perhaps.


The woman is the victim? I must be missing something here.

The corpse that is still hanging from the other cross.

ETA: I think getting rid of the bodies is important because we have intelligence gaps and it's kind of critical that Lynx's crew be in the dark about what's going on with Truck.

1) We don't know if the gates to the Arsenal are guarded and, if so, whether they are working with Truck and crew. If they are working together, they might come and check up on the group after a while (maybe less if they heard the shooting). If there are no bodies, they can't be sure what happened, if anything.

2) We don't know how much Lynx's crew knows about Truck's activities. We know that Stinger is hiding his BTL forays from the group, but they may full-well know that Truck is involved in some nasty black magic stuff in the Arsenal. It wouldn't take much for them to swing a drone over here if they have an idea of what's going on and/or if their mage astrally projects over here to see what's up.

Oh yes, I had forgotten about that for a minute.


I think if we're gonna be attacked, we'll be happy to have extra protection. Also, the spirit on a remote service can lead back to me (from the link between us I think?), whereas the bodies don't.

1) We'll know about it if they're coming our way. Even if there are no bodies, that's a piece of info in itself. There'll be signs that something happened all over the scene whatever we do.

2) Keeping Lynx in the dark if he knew about this is pretty much impossible regardless. He might not find the bodies but he'll know something happened. Either way, it doesn't necessarily point to us doing the deed.

We disagree, but I don't think it's a big deal. We can hash it out IC and hear from the others' opinion about it.

It'd be a lot easier if I wasn't a mole, that's for sure.

-DrZ

Absolutely.

A mole? Grease, your teeth are lovely

Ok, so the poor victim's body is disposed of, that took a minute or so.

Next up - what about the rest of the bodies, who is coming, who is staying, and how are we getting them out of the Arsenal.

Discuss amongst yourselves, I'm all verklempt...

From my perspective:

- Kill Truck and the summoner
- Bring the living girl and the long haired dude
- Take the Americar. If possible, the van. Seems like if we can get the van started (hack the van/control device), we could turn off wireless on both vehicles and simply drive them manually without fear of them being tracked for the time being.
- As far as the bodies... If nothing else, we probably should move them a bit so they aren't laying exactly where they were gunned down/electrocuted. Maybe load them in the back of the van and ditch them on some other part of the Arsenal property before we get back to civilization.

I'm okay with all that.

We have to make a minimal effort on the van.

Commlinks should also be turned off, but my character wouldn't think of it immediately.

For the bodies, a simple solution is actually to dump all of them in the lake. Not sure we want to carry them in the to-be-ours vehicles. Even if they're still fresh they still leave blood stains. But I don't mind it either if that's how you all want to do it.

We haven't heard from Overkill in a while, we can at least wait for a word from him.

I was thinking moving them away may make it more difficult to find them if searchers were to use the same trick we used to find the Yak bodies (Spirit Search Power). I understand the concern with the van. Maybe hitting a Stuffer Shack on the way back to Nic's (or wherever we are heading) and get some bleach would be a good idea?

ETA: Also totally down with waiting for Overkill. Jack's regimented mind would suggest he is still in command in any event.

From my perspective of watching tons of crime TV shows, it's never a bad idea to put them in the water. We could try weighing them down a bit as well.

Logistically, due to BP restrictions Grease is not really able to hack the van or car, just drive them really quick. I'd also assume that one or both are stolen (not that that's really a problem for us, either).

In fact, does this look like the same van that we saw in the footage of the drive by? There may be some trace evidence inside tying it to some of the other murders.

-DrZ

It in fact does look like the van from the footage of the drive by

I've uploaded Bullets and Bandages to the Dropbox in the Sourcebook section.

I guess for right now we will wait on Overkill, although if necessary I will play for him.

I'm currently trying to finalize my understanding of the rules for stealing vehicles (which are woefully incomplete in the book) and coming up with house rules, which of course I will post here for you guys to view and give feedback on.

I also picked up "Bullets and Bandages" last night.

Quick question about these supplemental sources:

Do you want to just use them wholesale, or should we consider stuff we want out of them on a case by case basis? I know there was some rainforest carbine or somesuch that everyone claims is broken; I would want to avoid conflicts like ahead of time.

-DrZ

I would say that if it is in the sourcebook it is probably alright, with the caveat that certain things might be broken and I'll deny or work with you on a fix on a case by case basis. The Rainforest Carbine is a good example, as it is completely ridiculous at 14P damage for the cost and size of the weapon.

One of the nice things about the PbP format is that we have plenty of time to think about and discuss rules changes/clarifications - it isn't like we are at a gaming table and I have to make a snap decision. (For example, the vehicle repair rules from R&G where we house-ruled them to make them make more sense and be less cost-prohibitive for runners).

I would say the default going forward would be:

1) For equipment, just assume everything is okay - all your new equipment has to go through me when you order it from your fixer, and it isn't like you are going to be basing character decisions on what equipment you buy (maybe for a completely new character, but for already existing characters you probably wouldn't be).

2) For rules, I would say if it isn't optional, assume it is in the game, although I would recommend just shooting me a quick PM if you want to use a particular rule and you aren't sure of my interpretation of it.

3) I haven't actually had time to read Bullets and Bandages yet - but when I do I'll let you know if I see anything that jumps out at me as us not using.

I'm so annoyed - was almost done with a post and then I closed the window by accident and had to retype all of the below all over again

So, my take on stealing stuff (2nd time)

Wireless on/off - this must be some sort of matrix action, since you can shut off all of your wireless functionality as a free action (see page 421).

So, shutting off the wireless on a device is either a free action if you are the owner, or requires a Spoof Command action if you are not.

Remember that a Spoof Command action requires you to have a mark on the Owner of the device, and not the device itself. Which means that if something is owned by a company (like a company car) you can't ever turn the wireless off, since you can't get a mark on the owner of the vehicle.

You can, of course, cut the power to a device, which will shut the wireless off on it. However remember that simply shutting a car off doesn't actually cut the power to it, you'd have to remove the battery.

So, for the commlinks for the cultists, you now have their commlinks. As long as these are on, their wireless is on, since you can't turn it off, since they are dead and you can't get a mark on them. If you shut them off, then no one can track you, but you can't access the commlink either.

Changing Ownership - if you want to become the new owner of a device, this requires the wireless to be on, and then the Hardware+Logic extended test requiring 24 hits with a base time of one hour for each time you roll the dice. Which means you better either have killed the owner, or make sure that whoever owns it doesn't realize it was stolen, since otherwise by the time you actually change the ownership of the device, he will have found you.


Big Ticket Items - Stealth RFID tags are essentially free at 10 a piece. With any expensive piece of gear, it is foolish to not implant several of these. With cars, these can be put in hard to reach places, out of the range of a tag eraser without taking the engine block or chassis apart.

You could of course find these tags with a Matrix Perception test, and then use Data Spike to crash the RFID, but of course as soon as you do this, it alerts the owner of the RFID that the tag was under attack - and if there are multiple such tags, then all he/she has to do is run a Trace on one of the other tags.

I'm not sure I really understand this, but I think it goes more to the confusing nature of the interaction between ownership/personas/SINs/devices. If a guy has a smartgun and I want to spoof a command to it, I have to MARK the owner. To MARK the owner, I would have to MARK the persona. What if the guy doesn't have a commlink? As far as I'm aware, that's not required for the use of a smartgun, just the smartgun and smartlink which speak directly to each other. Is there no way then to spoof that device? Since a smartlink doesn't have a wireless bonus, I'm not sure if it needs to even be accessible through wireless in order to work, just the smartgun (which is the device you want to spoof).

Sorry for my absence, we have a family emergency.

but as far as things here are concerned;
-Obscure our presence as best we can,
-I think moving the bodies to a deep part of the lake and sinking them there would be best.
-How bad off is the summoner?

I agree that the ownership rules are vague at best. I think the idea is that commlinks are even more ubiquitous in 2075 than cell phones are today, and almost everyone in a 1st world country today, even people who are well below the poverty line, own a cell phone.

So I would say that technically, yes, if someone owns a smartgun and doesn't own a commlink, then you can't actually MARK his persona, and therefore you can't Spoof his smartgun - however, at least in my world, basically everyone owns a smartlink (there may be rare exceptions, but I would say 99% of the time, if the person is living in Denver, he has a commlink.)