Picture, if you will, a body being found somewhere in the city, flesh and bloody, only minutes dead. A magician passing by notes that the area of astral space around the corpse...indeed, everywhere around the body for dozens or hundreds of yards...is relatively undisturbed. This is unusual, because death, especially such an apparent murder as this (let's say the victim's stomach was cut open and the entrails surgically removed) leaves an astral background count. What could have happened?

The idea is this: murder leaves a background count behind, and multiple murders in one place over time can create a sustained background count. But what if the murders happened in a moving vehicle? Would the background count develop at the physical location of death (which the vehicle would travel past, having no mark), or would the background count be confined to the vehicle itself.

Imagine a serial murderer driving around in a car that's a black morass of pollution on the Astral.

Imagine a Corrupted mage bidding on a car that was in a drive-by shooting. Maybe he wards the vehicle to keep others from seeing the dark energies he enjoys.

Imagine a travel-trailer used by a team of organleggers, trying to avoid the scene of the crime.

Imagine Ambulance 13, where the EMT, through clumsiness or bad luck, keep losing patients...and the wraith that ends up following it...

Imagine a blood spirit rising from a sacrifice made by a crazed magician in the back of a cab in the shadow of the Aztechnology building; and that the free Blood Spirit is confined to the vehicle, masquerading as a cab driver to lure in unwary fares and thus feed its ravaging hunger.

The runner team buys a former book-mobile (possible Hermetic-library, medecine lodge or Enchanting shop on-the-go) or ice cream truck (keeps bodies and weapons cold, great for defeating thermal scans and hiding armor) on the cheap for a great price, only to find that it's haunted by a former occupant.

Y'know, just a few spare thoughts.

Cool idea, AH! A toxic waste dumptruck would make a portable zone for those Toxic critters who are allergic to Purified Air and Water...

Imagine the VW 'Love Bus,' still touring the UCAS since '68. If you can get past the persistant stentch of old pot smoke (incense helps) you can still get those good, good, GOOD, good vibrations.....

I'd personally put some background count on both the location and the car.

~J

Some very nice ideas AH!

Kagetenshi - if the car was stationary when the murder happened, then yes. But say it is moving at 60mph down the I-5? Do you think the entire stretch of road where the car passed should have a background count? (imagine a thirty minute drawn out ritual)

What if it happened in an airplane, or on a boat?

A good way to look at the issue might be from the point of view of domains. When is a vehicle its own domain and when is it just part of the domain of its surroundings (ie, city for on city streets, hearth for when parked in a garage, forest when in the woods or a park, etc.)?

A vehicle like an RV or a creepy conversion van that has been substantially lived in might eventually become its own domain. If used for positive purposes (ie, the Love Bus) it would behave like a normal hearth domain. If used for nefarious purposes, though, it could become its own twisted hearth domain.

The question becomes where to draw the line. I've driven all over the country in my Neon, but I think it would be silly to consider it it's own domain (despite the privisions stashed under the seats and the towel in the back, I wouldn't say I've really lived in it enough to make it a hearth domain). Then again, I've only had the car for two years. Would a vehicle (bus? taxi?) that spends most of its time inhabited by humans with strong feelings (eg late for work, going on a hot date, stumbling home from the bar after the aforementioned hot date) develope a magical signature of its own?

If a vehicle exists as its own magical entity, ie, domain, then background count accrued in it might not bleed much or at all into the surrounding domains (no pun intended).

The locations where the murders occurred, if sufficiently emotionally charged, would receive background count. If a single vehicle was used multiple times for such a purpose or was used for a particularly charged event, it would also begin to gain a mobile background count.

The areas where such a car passes would probably gain a count for a minute or two, same as a car spewing noxious gasses would only render the air unbreathable for a limited amount of time.

~J

Neat Idea™ and all that aside, my understanding is that no vehicle without both a hull rating and living amenities is considered a separate domain from its currrent location - and even then, its the people living there that makes it a domain, not the vehicle itself. I also dont think that there are any physical means by which someone could *move* background count, other than by moving the domain itself, and a normal vehicle is not a domain.

Background count is a tainting of ambient mana, right?. So, in order for that background count to follow the car/truck/whatever, the ambient mana would itself have to move as the vehicle moved. Youre going to have a hard time convincing me that this would reasonably happen.

The general idea is that because the murder happened within the vehicle, which has its own aura, the background count might be contained within the aura of the car. Like I said, just a thought, and worth discussing. I can well imagine a mile-long streak of background count in the sky where a dragon was eating a hapless interloper.

Wait... back up. Non-living things dont have auras... they just cast astral "shadows".

...Or am I mistaken about this?

Everything has an impression on the astral plane. I have to look up the exact ruling again, something about magic and vehicles.

Ahh yes, here it is - page 171, SR3:

A mobile powersite is a power focus.

But I agree in principle.

hmm, i kinda like the idea of say a van becomeing cold to sit in even on a hot summers day if you astraly sensitive while it would not produce a background count in an area it was parked in you would get a distinct feeling of death and pain when entering it or in other ways comeing into contact with it (even more so if you get hit by it at high speed but thats a diffrent matter ). i wonder, would one be able to conduct psychometry on it?

as for a mobile powersite, that cant happen as a powersite is the crossingpoint of 2 or more leylines (or whatever you want to call them). and to make that mobile you would have to manipulate the ley lines, and i belive thats a tall order even for a dragon

Hardly. The difficult part is doing it repeatedly and predictably.

~J

Umm...

No, power sites are not simply the crossing of manalines. Often, strong powersites are connected by manalines (which are, themselves, a type of power site)... but this is certainly not always the case. If it were as simple as that, the section in MiTS would not say things like "No one knows how power sites come into existence or why"

Granted, some very powerful and insightful magicians (such as dragons) have figured out how to generate power sites by manipulating manalines, but this is by no means the only way they come into being.

Oh, and yes, you can conduct psychometry on the astral imprints left on nonmagical objects. It says so rather explicitly in the book.

yea i read that later. silly me

a power site or background count is allways (atleast thats what i recall) created over time by slow manipulation of mana in the area. background count is created via aspecting it to specific emotions and similar while a power site is a spike in the mana level. one equals fm modifying a radio wave while the other is like am, right?

i fear that if you have a item that can generate either it will make a foci addicted mage look like a lightbulb next to a solar flare...

Not quite, Hobgoblin. Intense emotions and events can generate temporary background counts (murder or a big festival, say), representing the general clouding of the astral plane. Over long periods of time or repeated use, the background count can ebcoem permanent.

Certain other factors affect the level of power sites; certain calender dates and astrological conjunctions can temporairily increase the potency of a site. Creation of increase of a power site requires either a) the unsure method of consistent use in a place, like the nexus of two mana lines, where a power site might develop; or b) the use of geomancy or other related arts to alter the landscape and focus the mana in a power site (this can be aided by the use of a focus, such as the Jade Dragon of Wind and Fire).

There's no reason a givn location can't have both a background count AND a power site rating.

Ancient, I think your idea about a long smear is probably how I would have it happen. The way to think about it maybe is like an infrared signature. If you have a sudden, fast moving heat source, it will heat up the surrounding environment. The objects surrounding its path (the road, the buildings, sign posts) and even the air around it will absorb some of that heat; nothing nearly as strong as what you'd see at the source, mind you, but something very definite that would be traceable.

What I'd portray it as for my players would be as if there was a lingering smell or noticeable "heaviness" to the astral space, a smeared trail leading in a certain direction, the buildings and road speckled rather than painted with the astral signature. With a good enough assensing roll, I'd let the mage track it -- which probably wouldn't be that hard, considering the speed someone can move in astral space compared to the speed of a car, and the unlikelihood of a mage being able to erase an astral signature miles long. I'm not sure it'd be that great a move, at least if the people in the car knew someone would be looking for them -- if they didn't, it might work okay because the trail wouldn't be nearly as strong, and unlikely to catch anyone's gaze at first glance.

Why, none whatsoever. Whatever do you mean?

~J