OK! We're back in action!

Yep. I'm waiting to see what's happening with my character inside the compound.

Now that O'Conner has completed his surprise round I will be posting about what happens next in a little while.

Tricky bugger, Crossbow! Throw in a moral dilemma for the PCs, eh?

Everything popped off before we could prepare, so that little girl needs to be second priority. If Starlet focuses on that guy in the first Initiative Pass, then O'Connor is looking at being really dead really fast. There's still a spirit hovering around the Compound and he has no way of fighting it.

What little girl? It's been a while, I'm not sure who that was again.

The girl will be one to whom the old man referred (though Sammy won't know this) as a "witchy harlot". I think the accepted form of being Awakened in this corner of the world is something like a cleric.

I do believe Crossbow is throwing this in to see what Sammy will do. it could slow the two of them down and bring attention to them directly. I'm not sure how intervention will hurt O'Connor directly, except in that intervention will alert the defenders that someone is inside. But, hasn't O'Connor pretty much done that?

It hurts O'Connor for the reason I just stated. To reiterate, there's a new spirit on the premises and O'Connor has no means of effectively combating it. Starlet is the only one on the team that can.

Yeah, but spirits would be drawn to the use of magic more than to the use of bullets. If Sammy uses magic to neutralize the young male orc, that will catch its attention more than O'Connor's participation in the general bullet storm.

It's behavior will be entirely dependent on the services it's been tasked with.

I have no idea what you are talking about sir.



This was already said but I will reconfirm it. This is the young untrained awaked talent you found
when you first did an Astral scan of the place.





True dat!

Given the untrained nature of the girl's abilities, and the description of the spirit, I doubt its hers. I'm unsure if its army or dissident controllled, but it doesn't matter really. Likely one of it's tasks will be neutralize enemies, which is us no matter what.

I don't think a "small free spirit of a mischievous bent" is in the service of anybody. It may actually be a semi-ally, reveling in the chaos.

Nevertheless, the objective focused part of me feels they should ignore the distraction until the idol is retrieved. The rest of me bristles at the treatment, despite the cultural context. Right now the former is in the lead.

How Sammy deals with the situation is entirely up to her, and I support however farothel chooses to go.

That is the spirit I am referring to.

Oh. THAT spirit. Yeah, it could be a real problem for O'Connor if the King's Guard decide to waste its efforts on him. I say the Guards because seeing as it was not there in any of the other times we have checked out the compound, it is likely theirs.

I say waste because a guy with guns can be handled easily by a disciplined armed force. It hovering above the compound and being dual-natured, it will have noticed Torley's magical Command and Voice Control confuse the Guards, and more importantly, the magic auras of the two sneak thieves. Each of those two anomalies would be more interesting to it and its controller.

Most importantly, I bet it is hovering where it is to keep an eye out for the aura of the magical idol should someone try to get it away. I would lay money that that is its primary task: direct the Guards to the idol and its bearer(s).

Having been reminded of that minor (!) problem, I am trying to figure out what roll I can convince Crossbow to allow me to make for Torley, so he can try to suss out the mage and try to get him to send the spirit away. Or screw with him in some other way so he can't effectively control his spirit.

[Sorry, farothel, I use the masculine because of the current cultural context.]

So, Crossbow, what do you think? Perception? Memory?

Let me clarify:

They will think O'Connor is easily handled by soldiers. We of course know different.

Their priority for the spirit will be elsewhere.

It's been quite busy at work, so I haven't had much time to reply.

Question: can I just slit the guy's throat and kill him quickly that way? The girl might actually know where the idol is, making it easier for us as we don't have to search.

And, but this is metagaming I know: we can use her to gain access to the Daughters of Yemeja.

Can someone remind me about the Daughters of Yemeja, please?

As far as the situation at hand, it may be more complicated than you think to just off the guy because he can't see you or, because of Silence (?), hear you. And who knows how quickly he will die, or how the girl will react to his throat just splitting open out of nowhere?

This could be a seminal moment in Sammy's life. I'm not sure if this dilemma has any resonance to events in her past, but even if not, it is a tough decision: keep your mind on the task at hand, or show compassion for an innocent (? See question at the top.) ?

If you live in Lagos you're accustomed to violence, especially off Victoria Island. But yeah, we could try to finish the mission as quickly as possible and then come back.

Daughters of Yemeja is a group of awakened women who try to save other women (especially awakened who are often killed or sold to corporations). I've used them in the background of another character of mine some years ago, which is why I know about them.

Yeah, if our boss lady allows us the time, and if the (hoped for) humiliation of the loss of the idol doesn't get the men of the compound looking to vent their frustration on a scapegoat.

selling her to the corps is a good compromise and we can still try to save her if we come back this way. But that should keep her alive until we can get the idol. And a mage is quite valuable, so she would probably have a better life with the corp anyway.

And greed should keep the locals in line.

Can Starlet try to kill the young ork? Absolutely.

Can Torley some how manifest the ability to find the mage that controls the spirit he cannot perceive? Absolutely not.

Hey, come on. There -could- be a guy dressed like the troll mage on the cover of the SR3 GM screen.

Away from home Saturday late morning till Tuesday afternoon. Internet access will be spotty at best. If I can do something before I go tomorrow, let me know.

farothel, I need a surprise check from Starlet.

Sure, here it is
surprise: 7d6t5 3

That's 3 hits. Probably not all that surprised (I hope).

I'm baaaack!

Ooohhh! Surprise roll! Merriment ensues.

Wait a minute! People with guns and an unknown "MA" coming after Torley?! That's not in Torley's plan, Crossbow. Not at all!

OK, taking Combat Paralysis into account, Torley has only half of 7 dice to roll, rounded down to 3: 0 hits so Initiative is 7.

Crossbow, I 'm sorry, I can't remember whether Torley has any Edge left.

1) If he does, I won't use any on the roll above, but instead use one Edge to go first in the round.

2) Torley will draw his Roomsweeper (JFC, that is as last resort as it gets for him.), but his action as soon as he can act will be to use his Commanding Voice.

Leadership 4 + 2 + CHA 6 + Kinesics 3 = 15 dice: 7 hits

Torley is scared, and there could be a bunch of them, so if there is another Edge left, I will reroll misses on the Commanding Voice = 8 dice : 1 hit

I told you he was scared! So, either 7 hits or 8 hits.

Reaction 8 + Intuition 3 - CM 1 = Initiative 10
Initiative: 10d6t5 1

Initiative: 11

Are any of the security goons clustered togather, or are they spread out? Thinking of tossing a flashbang, but don't know how many I could get.

Most effective target of a flashbang would probably be the barracks building, it would even affect two of the guys shooting at you.

That is a targeted throw though, not a drop,
And you are not skilled, just a reminder, scatter can be a bitch.

I'm aware, just wondering if there's a large enough cluster that might be worth chancing it.

So probably not worth chucking a grenade. Is the truck in the middle of the courtyard, on the map, actually there at present moment? If so, how many of the current assailants would that provide cover from, and how many are on O'Connor's side of the vehicle?

This reminds me of a critical glitch years ago. My PC, very skilled in Throwing Weapons, hurled a grenade up onto the roof from which we were being ambushed. The grenade fell back among the members of my team.

In a narrow lane way between brick walls.

*sigh*

farothel I will need you to roll initiative, the spirits actions may affect you before you are able to leave the room.

That truck is, in fact, not there it WAS rumbling down the street behind the pickup truck towards the compound. No one that is shooting at you this round has any cover from you.

I thought that throw was its first action, but for later, here it is:
initiative: 7d6t5 3
So that's a 10.

Nope, that was a surprise action.

Only sporadic access to internet till Saturday 18 June. Will try to keep up.

I'm back.

Holy cow! Does Torley survive the next three seconds??

Have we hit a wall?

I think it's called finals. Should be finished soon if I recall correctly. It's been a while for me.

Sporadic connection till the 6th.

No way I will stand for this thread to drop off the bottom of the page.

Why does that even matter?

It doesn't. The post was an attempt to see if anyone else is still out there. Happy to hear from you!

I checked on Crossbow recently. He said life stuff was keeping him preoccupied but that he'd would check in soon.

I'm still here, although I haven't posted, I do check in from time to time.

So, farothel, have you ever yielded to evil?

Not so far, at least not IRL.