@RaiderJ why is Vincent acting like he has never met Dana? Any particular reason ? Because he has met her in fact she was the one to make him an eagle.

He flew too high. Bad for the brain.

Or maybe he kept the bird's brain

LOL I guess Maya has nothing to say until someone chimes in up at the council meeting.

I hope Lindsey will have something to say -- although possibly she's staying quiet because she is getting what she wants without having to be seen lobbying for it? But we probably need Aria to speak for Rick on this one -- we don't know all of his motivations so I wouldn't feel comfortable speaking for him. I suspect that putting words in Simon's mouth would be OK, if anyone feels like it (he's mostly been voiced by players all the way through)

Sim should also answer regarding Maya's doubts about the possible failure of the spell. Or the fact that he just bluffed and has no truth spell at all.

I edited Addie's last post (post 574) to address the question of magic, truth, etc, to partially address the concerns that Maya raised. Sim can justify himself more, if Aria wants.

I assumed that Rick let the rules be known, but I agree that this was never covered in a post. (I do assume that a lot of the operations of the big camp don't make it into posts)

For day to day operations I agree. When we're talking about branding someone like cattle... I would have thought it warranted at least one post, it's not exactly a consequence-free decision after all.

But I'm not "main camp" anyway so...

Those rules were agreed to by the council .... except for maybe Lindsey. See in here where Simon and Sim agree (and Rick had already agreed): http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?s=&a...t&p=1323349

It isn't until a few posts later that Lindsey is actually recruited into the council. We didn't do a post where the full five go over them again. I'd left it for Rick to promulgate the rules, nothing was ever posted one way or the other, so I agree that it can be read either way. I tried to go down the middle in my recent post where I had Addie summarize those rules, and that by the lack of reaction she thought people were not surprised -- maybe they knew, maybe they were just too tired/worried to make a fuss.

Up until now I've been pretty happy to jump forward in time if I'm lagging the general narrative. I.e. if the small camp is at dusk and I've last posted about affairs at dawn, I'll skip to Addie coming back to camp and include some flashbacks on points that I thought were interesting (which usually means something related to character development, either Addie or NPC). And I try not to put words into Rick's mouth that are more than bridges for what is going on (i.e. I try not to 'play' Rick), as I consider him such a key NPC. All of which does leave big gaps that are open to interpretation, and we get only very limited glimpses of Rick in action, so we probably all imagine his demeanor differently (but we can all reference the same visuals, thanks to his pick on OP!)

Oh I know the council agreed, I didn't say otherwise. And you hypothesis may be true, and they even probably think that it doesn't really matter, since they won't do anything to get branded anyway. But now that it becomes reality... I don't know.

Another reason could just be that Aria didn't answer since then, and most of us don't really like talking for the NPCs (or, at least I don't)...

Had some stuff to deal with IRL; I'll be able to post something tomorrow. Wouldn't have made any significant mods to what's occurred. Sorry for the unannounced absence.

Hi, I'm back, just catching up...!

I'm going to assume that the rules have been spread to the group otherwise this whole thing takes on another crazy dimension...we've glossed over some fairly significant stuff and the announcement would have been an NPC to a bunch of NPCs so I'm not unhappy about that! Hope to get an IC up today!

I am not dead, just travelling. Given that Blank is not going to be privy to the whole camp dynamic, that seems to have worked out fine.

A bit too fast here, Lindsey is not the only one that doesn't want to have anything to do with a Toxic Mage...

Coward

I don't mean it! There's a reason you are playing kids not hardened (insane) runners!

I'd intended for it to be vague enough to cover whoever she did bring, without being specific. .... But I could have phrased that better, sorry.

ETA I rephrased that sentence now.

ETA2: Bullet, shark .... easy mistake to make, right? (I don't know if she actually somehow glimpsed Dana's mentor, or if it was just her psychology knowledge kicking in at a sub-conscious level to tell her something about Dana -- either way I don't think she gleaned any information she would not already have, she just came up with a metaphor to better process the information with)

I love it don't worry about it.

I think the players are all in place to finally talk about this toxic mage. I know Rick had earlier made some suggestions, but now he can do it to the small camp people.

I may not have much chance to post over the weekend, so if others are posting, just advising that Addie will let discussion run for a while, stepping in only when needed to get herself in the hunting party (eventually she will go into reasons for that, but feels she needs to be quiet for a bit first).

Geez you guys move fast. Ive been busy and im already left behind.

Come to the planning of dealing with the toxic mage -- it took some doing, but I think we have every PC except Blank there (assuming Raf comes). A chance now for lots of interaction!

Lindsey left, to "take care" of Nyiaf.

Yup, she nope'd on out when it became toxic time!

Just checking in - back from a quick back-and-forth to Japan that I am way too old for, so rather jet-lagged.

I'll keep an eye in case anything is needed from Raf, but mostly he'll just follow his group and quietly work on his bow. One more day to go, I think...

Going to a wedding today about 150 miles away. Returning tonight.

Im gonna be slow responding for a long while though.

Oh... And here I was, fearing this Toxic. If he's an alchemist it's ok, nothing to fear

He also summoned spirits.

Guidance spirit [6] (Summoning, Defence, Drain): 12d6t5 5 6d6t5 3 13d6t5 6
Two services, no drain, but it was a close call there...

First (and probably only) service is to use a Divination
Divination (Guidance Spirit): 10d6t5 1 yeah... Not so good there, Cailin will give an edge point to the spirit.
Divination (Guidance Spirit, edge): 9d6t5 3 better

Four successes, which meets the threshold of a specific question, probably good enough but I'll wait for Aria's answer there...

Oh and since it's there... Let's give him a second question of "who should go?", which Cailin hopes dearly will not include herself...
Divination (Guidance Spirit): 10d6t5 3

I did not see that coming, nice going

Cailin hopes that with this, she will have done enough to not be required to go, while still helping. Of course, it will probably backfire but...

I made a small roll to know more about Toxic Magic, not sure how much it gives but I suppose the types of spirits is not that secret. And it's not like there is much to know anyway, it's not blood magic...
Magical Threats (Toxic Magic): 9d6t5 2

I didn’t want to assume that the small camp crew would share everything with the big camp, or that they’d give an unslanted version of things – hence having Addie asking for details IC, rather than just going “Once the small camp crew had explained all that happened…”

Since neither Dana nor Cailin know anything more regarding this supposed Toxic than Addie & Co, that's not a bad thing

I’m not honestly quite sure how this toxic thing got started, as in I don’t think Aria described anything, right? So I guess that even RaiderJ doesn’t really know what Vincent knows?

It comes from the fact that Dana shapechanged Vincent into an eagle for some recon. But RaiderJ disappeared for a few weeks, and since the spell should have ended by the end of the day, a solution had to be found, he went with a toxic shaman abducting him. So nothing from Aria no, the only pieces of information we have come from RaiderJ. Which can be sumed up by "There's a toxic shaman who practices alchemy and Vincent may be able to roughly describe the area he was in".

OK, that was what I had gathered -- I just wasn't positive that I hadn't missed something somewhere along the line.

Also: as a player I do realize that Addie's plan has some potential flaws in it. She may be doing a better job at not noticing them.

I would have described the flaws as "huge holes" myself

Well yes, there is the risk that Addie finds the toxic so sympathetic that she decides to side with him and set up everyone else for destruction and misery …

More seriously, and thoroughly OOC:
I’ll work with whatever plan people come up with. But I’m fine with Addie biting off more than she can chew, or even stumbling into the worse horrors that are actually lurking out here and coming to a bad end. I’ve seeded Dot, Pierre, Sprocket, and Rusty as potentially interesting characters to move to, and I never figured that we were all guaranteed of getting out of this horror story alive. The death of the person who is possibly working hardest to keep the large group socially cohesive would be pretty classic as the point where things go from bad to worse.

I’m not trying to get her killed -- but I am playing her a particular way, with the understanding that in this environment those choices are not the safest option (be that batting some soft lobs to Lindsey or having Addie not be sufficiently paranoid in this sort of situation). This is not to be perverse, but to make opportunities for the story to turn in interesting ways. Normally in ShadowRun I'd be trying to eliminate risks and variables, but this scenario is sufficiently different that I'm taking quite the opposite tact and trying to create opportunities for things to happen.

Anyway, Addie has spoken her bit for now, time for others to come up with alternate plans, etc. I've taken up enough camera time for the moment.*

* I fully expect that if the bait plan goes ahead, at some point Addie is taken out of action and it is up to the rest of you to decide if you take the risk to push forward once your spy is gone, and if you do whether you get there in time to save her. At worst instead Addie is trying to get out of the way or find a safe spot as the rest of you sneak in and make the assault. Really not planning on this being Addie takes over the whole toxic mage thread.

OOC: Dana admires Addie now Addie shows the bravery Dana wanted to find in herself.

is my interpretation of Caillin leaving correct? I'll edit if she just say she is leaving but does not actually leave.

She was not yet leaving, but may as well, as she sees it she doesn't have anything more to contribute to the discussion anyway since she already did all she could (or all she is comfortable doing at least).
And to her the only possible course of action is first to get more information: talking about what to do next is premature without more data, and since she doesn't really enjoy the company of this "tribunal"...

Makeover (Cast at Force 6, effective Force of 4): 14d6t5 4
No drain, nice day at a beauty salon, yada, yada.

Blank continues to explore. Blank feels productive, and is pretty damn sure he'll find crates out where he is. Even ten kilometers from the camp he figures there is something to be found.

I have a feeling everyone in the camp is chasing a fever dream. Thematically it suits kids trying to make their way in the scary unknown very well. Kudos.

Eddited a bit to suit for Mercy's post. Dana did not stop Caillin, she somewhat reluctantly joined Caillin. So for it to make some sense, I'll just assumed that Maya went a bit downhill a bit to get the two girls back.

Their conversation does not make sense when the other council are within hearing range.

Ended up with a rather long post, so decided to put all the introspection part under spoiler tags. Read it if you want, or if you prefer to take in just the more observable parts then don't read under the tag, then don't and save yourself some time

If you do read it, please also read in the spoiler tags below

Poor Addie... She must be feeling awful.

Well, she did set up Niyaf to get raped. I think that would be a big deal for most people. Mechanically throw in a code of honor to protect those (who she perceives to be) weaker than herself, and in story terms that she's driven by duty, guilt, and a gnawing sense of inadequacy, and ... it was inevitably going to be character changing. Plan A got shot down, so on to plan B ...

(which reminds me: I need to look up the consequences for breaking a code of honour -- I think that there is an ongoing penalty until you've made up for it?)

Not much of one.
Assassin's Creed:


Warrior's code, it's this:


So at worst (mechanically speaking), you'd lose a karma point.

Sorry folks, crazy RL at the moment! I'm loving what I'm reading but Rick isn't quite ready to wade in yet! As the toxic is Raider's creation (although it fits well!) I'm happy for one of you to give voice to the returning spirit with useful Intel! He's not hiding! But he's not from your original group either!

On the question of 'who should go' the answer will obviously be 'the PCs'

I'm pretty sure the spirit will answer "The PCs, minus Cailin" myself

Mechanically it will be a lot harder without Caillin as she is the only one who can counterspell. I'll have Dana talk to her while the time is right.

Oh? Damn... Maybe I'll put some xp there then, there's not a lot at the moment...