That was a pretty sad roll

I guess I was saving my luck for someone with a cooler name than Fish!

Well looks like we relay on magic more than we think.
Healing spell: 10d6t5 4 - F5

drain: 10d6t5 2
no drain.

The background count roughly balances the lack of basic tools/gear in terms of dice impact (not even counting that we don’t have the ‘ware and gear that would add dice), the kids were specifically not to be optimized like adult runners and were mostly built more as generalists so dice pools are mostly not-so-high, and magic is powerful in general … so yep, magic will still be our strongest tool until background count starts notching up noticeably.

Hopefully by the time the background count is getting up there we’ll be able to scavenge or make more in the way of tools and gear, to help balance things out a bit. Now is not the time to try and get some of those modern bows, I think, but maybe eventually … we’ll have to see how long the game runs, but we do have some pretty interesting skills kicking around the group, which haven’t been tested much yet because we’ve mostly just narrated those areas.

Also: been sick the last couple of days and not checking in, but it looks like it was safe to just assume nothing of note has been happening at camp so far. I'll try to get an IC up later today about Addie getting the kids ready to head out as soon as the sky is brightening up.

Yes, well though I can't wait for Dana to get a decent bow. Figuring out she'll train with it tirelessly.

Hope you feel better, and I feel that the no equipment thing - makes magic all that better, but the medic kit should have added dice to the healing test - I am not sure what its rating is. And a spells are combatwise so so when the alternative is guns/armors but when there is no alternative - magic becomes the only weapon we do have.

It is not like we have an Ares Alpha with APDS ammo to compare to the fireball...

And at least we are not facing any Ares Alphas, either! (so far ... )

ETA (26 Jan):

Sorry for leaving an IC post half-finished, I'd had a plan for it, but I decided to actually work out the numbers instead of just making things up ... and they didn't work out. So in summary I need to come up with a different story, and just didn't find the time/energy/focus today -- if I don't have it before the other group comes up I'll get rid of the more to come tag note and pick up with where things are. (bummer of getting over being sick is trying to catch up from missing a day, while still feeling blech, so really haven't been very creative this week).

(So I learned a thing last night: I thought of ju-jitsu as a bit of a size equalizer (it is infamous for the smaller but skilled practitioner flipping larger but less adept foes), but in SR5 it only works if you have high strength (throws compare attackers strength to defenders physical limit, and you need enough net successes to overcome the gap). i.e. the average human or elf needs two net successes to throw another average human or elf (all threes in attributes, giving physical limit of four, 4+1-3=2)), butgive the opponent a single extra point of body and it takes their limit to five, requiring three net successes.

Then there is humans trying to thow an orc. Average orc has a physical limit of 7, so average human needs five net successes to throw one, so allowing average defense dice, about 21 dice :-/ I'm thinking that those 12 karma (and six skill in unarmed combat) that I sunk into ju-jitsu in Addie's character creation as a sort of size equalizer ... was not the best investment. (definitely will be counting on her electroshock in any combat against, well, anyone of any degree physical buffness).)

I was trying to figure out about how many people are left at the camp, and would like to get a double check on my memory, as well as thought it might be useful to post this for future reference.


Dead:
- one of the attackers on the first day
- Grok (eaten by the six legged cat)
- Rick (radiation poisoning following possession by a toxic spirit)
- Jamal and three other hunters (so far not-named)
- Claire (killed by toxic dogs)
(total: 8 )

Split Off:
- Blank
- Simon and a small group (five-ish)?
(total 7? Maybe room for a few more to have disapeared, to support future story?)

AWOL:
- Vincent (last seen at the 'big camp' when all the chaos was happening, around day 4 or 5)
- Niyaf (last seen during the day on day 11, before arrival in camp)
(total: 2)

Hunting the hunters:
- Maya
- Dana
- Raf
- Gem
- Jim
- Klarissa
- Tarok
- 1-2 others chosen by Klarrisa
- Fish
(9-10, 2 heading back to camp soon?)

I think that is something like 25 (maybe up to 30?), out of the original ~60 (I think we agreed to bump up the original count to around 60 from the original 40-50 as it gave more flexibility)

So about 35 (to as few as 30) left at camp, unless I'm missing some other losses? And the full remaining group is probably on the order of 45 kids.

Also to note: took the "to be continued" off an earlier IC post, and just continued in a new post.

edit to remove Mohamed from the dead list.
edit to add Clair to the dead list and Vincent to the AWOL list, and move Caillin off the 'hunting the hunters' list

@Beta - dude, this is great work. Makes everything a lot clearer. Thanks!

I think that Muhammad is still alive - Rick sliced himself up... this is why Dana scorns him so much. She thinks he was weak.

Ok thanks, I didn't go all the way back to find that post -- I thought Rick had sliced someone up? I can try to go back through the posts later to make sure.

=======================================

Spending a bit of karma:

- last week I'd already put on the character sheet taking knowledge of the group kids up to three from two (and changed the name from "Main group kids" to "Run!ners"
- Buying navigation to 1 (had time to learn during the hike)
- Adding sacrifice throw to her ju-jitsu. Probably throwing good karma after bad, but oh well,

And posting a quick flash-back scene to cover Addie finally mastering sacrifice throws. I hope Gilga doesn't mind what I wrote for Dana in that scene.

Well, he sliced himself up pretty good.

OK, Dana kicked him good, putting him out of action for a while. I suppose he probably survived since we never mentioned him dying from his wounds (not sure that anyone would have given him magical healing, but will assume that he got spinted/strapped together enough to keep up). Will have to add him into the scene I'm writing then. Will modify my list above.

Sorry for the chains of ic and ooc posts.

^ne last one for now to note that I've left what happened to Niyaf hanging. I'd been planning to have one of the kids give some clue that would suggest she might have also encountered our foes, so that she could be dead or captured. But those versions of things just kept feeling really clunky, while once I dropped it, things flowed better.

So if anyone else wants to do anything with her, feel free.

Also Addie may be slightly awful for having forgotten about her so quickly, and it is possible that Karissa won't be happy with her interference with the orcs. It is possible that she is actually the more disruptive force than Lindsey. The road to he'll and all...

The list is pretty good.

One of Lindsey's girls died in the dog attack, and did Victor leave or is assumed to just be in the crowd now?

I can't even remember a Victor?!? Argh...will have to pull my socks up as things seem to be getting back on track!

Sorry, it was Vincent, not Victor.

Took me a while (sorry about that), but I've finally answered.

Made those updates. Will try to find time to put this on the Run!ners page on the OP wiki too (or at least, re-organize entries to group the dead, split off, and missing).

@Aria - just a crazy hunch in line with earlier theories, but what the heck...

Raf will walk around a bit looking for signs not of footprints or wheel tracks, but of rotor wash...

Tracking test looking for signs of rotor wash: 8d6t5 1

Well, only one hit. But seems like it'd be fairly obvious if that was what anyone with Tracking training was looking for....

Good guess but no cigar for you, just as well considering your age! Will try and update the google map tomorrow but bear in mind you're in very dry rocky ground, not the easiest terrain to track on in the bloody dark!!!

Oh well, worth a try!
Thanks!

Maybe someone can get back come morning? I'm wondering if there might be a lot of oddly well organized animal prints around there? (if we can shape shift, NPC can shape shift!)

I've updated the Google Map to show the ambush location...at 5km on from the camp site it might be considered to be a bit too far off but I wanted to choose a location that shows up on Google Streetview so you can see the terrain 'in person' ...of course the road is long since buried under shale etc...there might be signs that there was once a road bridge if you look closely enough!

<<Google Maps Overlay>>

I'm proposing to time jump you to morning, or just before...any objections just yell, or you can flashback to events if you want to!

Jumping us is fine for me.

I'm fine with jumping, just remember that Addie is pushing people to be out of the caves and heading downstream (yes, closer to the ambush site ...) as soon as the sky is light enough to make it possible. She'll have her four hours of sleep done by 2am or so I'd judge, then was going to go and keep watch for a while and start waking people up a little while before she judges it to be light enough (and with her internal link she's got a clock running -- it might not be quite accurate but by now she knows about when by her clock things will be bright enough, as she's been up every morning to see that). (she's pretty committed on this point and will cajole, threaten, drag, etc to make it happen -- she feels that still being there when the sun comes up is a risk that they don't need to take)

Unless the group that went out looking for the hunters comes back and says otherwise, of course. She won't disagree with the others at the moment. If you have plans that require the group at the caves still, could say that the others changed the plan when they got back?

Uh, Cailin will most definitely be against it for two reasons:
1) She will have stood most of the night to watch in the astral in case something/someone comes
2) All the best fighters are away, and the best time to ambush people is when they are on the move

I guess this is the peril of long posts, that people won’t catch everything. Posts 1109 had Addie tell those heading off that if they weren’t back by dawn to look for the group down river, in posts 1130 and 1132 she was getting everyone in the caves ready to move out pre-dawn unless those looking for the hunters came back before then and said not to. Caillin would have been there for post 1109, but I think you were away from the boards for a bit at that point, and Caillin was not at the caves to catch the other parts.

So simple enough, we say that the Maya, Raf, Dana group made it back in the middle of the night and made the call not to head out in a few hours. Sentries and anyone awake then would have been told, and Addie would have heard when she woke up and went out to take up watch a couple of hours later. With nobody waking them, people would sleep in (and anyone who did wake up early told that the early departure was off, go back to sleep).

Which would take us to dawn with probably Caillin keeping an astral watch, Addie up a tree keeping watch, and a couple of the orcs that bulldog had persuaded to do sentry duty out there (maybe awake?).

And that saves a bunch of posts of Addie and Caillin arguing.

Sound fair?

That's fine by me.
Plus she'll be able to sleep if the group comes back in the night, and will be able to move in the day.

Lovely flashback post Beta, could feel the dynamics between the two.

I've taken some liberties in allowing the foe within spitting distance of you, but the terrain is pretty concealing (even from the astral...you can't see through trees any more than you could do in the flesh) and this is the first sort of LOS judging by the contours... if you'd been astral scouting you might have seen them further out, but again only if you were dodging through the trees themselves as the canopy is fairly dense.

If this is really a problem or I've misinterpreted your defences then let me know and I can edit the IC a tad!

Just astral perception for Cailin so it's fine for me. Just that is disgusting enough. She doesn't want to bathe in the background more than she has too.

Addie is trying to coordinate their matrix folks. I included Digital Heroin's character Scrap in there, because presumably she is still with the group. Is that OK?

One advantage of using her is that she is statted out -- computers dice pool of 9 (skill 4). If we want to omit her, I'll guess that Aria, our other little technomancer, has something similar. (if anyone has better computers willing to use that, obviously) Addie will augment with leadership -- while she doesn't trust her leadership overall this is an emergency! She's at a -2, so just 9 dice, which would be enough to buy two successes. Assuming that the other kids can augment for another 2 dice at least (i.e. computer dice pool 4 or better) (Scrap's max teamwork benefit is four dice), that would take us to 13 dice for ... I guess it is matrix perception? Not by my books, but I think it is something like each net success gets you a piece of information about the target icon -- anyone else know those rules better? (I'll look it up later tonight) Also not sure if there are penalties of any kind due to circumstances. Assuming no penalties for now:

Matrix perception
matrix perception?: 13d6t5 6

Six successes -- nice! Hopefully enough to know if that is a commlink, or a smart gun ....

ETA: Addie is up to 3 levels in her Run!ners knowledge, and given that she can do basic matrix sensing, I figure that by now she'd know who has a matrix presence.

There's probably some noise due to the poor quality of the connection, but I suppose there are at least some noise reductions so you probably can ignore that.

You indeed get one information per net hit. However if the icon is running silent, it has a defence roll of Sleaze + Logic (or Sleaze + DR if it's not a persona, which in most cases translates to DR alone since there's no Sleaze). So odds are you know pretty much whatever you want to know about that icon.

Ok folks, I'm snowed this week so I will try and give you OoC intel so that you can continue posting!

1. The matrix signals (two of them) are bionodes, other TMs! More matrix savvy people can probably tells us what can be done against them, signal intercept springs to mind although they aren't actually communicating with each other at the moment but they aren't running silent either
2. The group seem content to wait on the ridge, they are no longer hiding...as it gets lighter you can see they are a) dressed in a variety of animal headdresses etc b) probably a group of kids much like yourselves c) have a smattering of modern weaponry...perhaps they got luckier on a drop than you lot?
3. Anyone looking in the astral can identify two magic users and a single spirit in the line up
4. In case it wasn't clear they are spread out, about 20-25m between each of them...I've updated the Google map...you might want to tinker with where you think the caves might be and where Dana is digging a way out?

Now that we can get a better view on them, can we tell anything about races (trolls and dwarves at the least should be clear enough even from a distance, depending on how elaborate the costumes are elves and orcs might be a bit harder to tell?) For that matter can we tell male from female? (certainly one area of concern given the ratio in our drop group, if they are similar they could be looking to take the girls) ETA: just checked the map and they are ~500 - 600m from the caves (closer from the edge of the woods near the river -- they are on the ridge on the far side of the river), so no we won't get much detail unless someone takes an astral jaunt or has vision with range extension (hawk eye quality or cybereyes with that). Possibly take a shot at identifying trolls by their profile, but they have their backs to the brightening sky / eventual sun-rise, and we'll have trouble at that range telling how high each is standing, so I doubt we get more visually.

ETA: just looked at the map, and one note is that it is probably 'tent' singular (and that one with a roughly patched hole in it). At least, I doubt we went back to the dog's territory to recover the tent that the girls took, and I don't know that we took the radioactive one (while it should have been safe after a bit, per the rules, I can't imagine anyone volunteering to carry it .... ) Hence the great appreciation of the caves!

And at that, from what was written by Mercy initially, and that I then followed up on, the kids were all in the two caves for the night (so no need for the tent for a change).

Besides Beta's questions about metatype and gender composition, I'd be very interested in average age/age range.

So looks like the earlier theory about Most Dangerous Game/Predator-style rich-people-hunt-the-kids is out the window. Looking a bit more like a previous group similar to ours, now gone all feral and Lord of the Flies - though that doesn't jive with them leaving one of those badass arrows behind if they are in limited supply....

How about these animal skins - do they at all match the fauna we've sighted around here?

The animal skins match...and the badass arrow was broken so no use any more... Lord of the Flies it is

Age, metatype etc is fairly close to your own group and follows the approx. population curve for say, Downtown Seattle

Addie is pulling from her intimidate skill and psychology (child) knowledge in that post about showing strength and all of that. Happy to have opposing points of view (per the usual I expect Caillin to dismiss whatever Addie says )

In fact... I think you'll be surprised ^^

Well if it wasn't a war before it certainly will be after you follow this plan

Shape earth isn't instantaneous, you need to sustain it for Force Combat Turns...but we won't let that spoil your vicious plan!

I would also point out that you have no evidence that these are the people that killed your hunters...it's likely...but you have no hard proof!

WAAARRRR!!!!

Except that Cailin is a pacifist. War? No way!

According to Dana's philosophy: "So far everything we met have tried to kill us... why would these people be any different."


though seriously as an OOC comment perhaps we can try to figure out a non violent course of action - allow some other PC's to take the spotlight? I feel like Dana's combat abilities are always the center of attention because everything tries to kill us.

I still like the 'bring someone to us' option -- not just for the reasons that Addie has mentioned, but it makes it easy to have all the player-characters involved (while they would be less likely to all troop across the river to try and parlay)

As a player I agree that the plan to kill a bunch of them and capture one will start a war. Dana however is keen of solving problems with violence, this is what she did in all previous problems so she thinks it is a brilliant idea.

Note that I'm advocating 'capture one without killing a bunch of others' (although I'm not against causing some chaos and disruption).

Dana will go with whatever plan... she has no opinion. If she was alone she would have just butchered them for getting so close, without talking to us. She has a code of honor to protect the group, so she has no idea what if they do not show hostility.

Kids still seem to be waiting on the ridge, for some sort of sign perhaps?! That and my work schedule is going to be crazy again this week, sorry

Will get an IC up if I can but otherwise you seem to be fine arguing amongst yourselves

Bit of a placeholder post up in the IC thread – a long way to say ‘waiting to see what happens with Cailin and Maya, but watching for any other surprises just to be on the safe side.’

(and in case anyone reads it and doesn't remember the isue with Fig, he was one of the two boys who started assaulting one of the girls on the first day. Grok killed the other boy, but we never did do anything about Fig, and I figure Simon wouldn’t have taken him off of our hands.)

@Gilga, I think Simon is with the other group of kids, up on a ridge and about half a kilometre away ... even for Dana that is probably beyond leaping range.

I edited.