FYI: This little trip is meant for the team to get to know each other.
Eliza will answer questions as far as she can

As soon as you feel like it we'll make a time jump and begin the second chapter in Vienna.

sounds great
I'm currently in Kathmandu, so posting rates will be erratic. Especially from 25th to 30th I will most likely be unable to post.

As for the news... have there been news about the incident? I thought, I had read somewhere by our dear GM, that the place was corporate-owned, so there wasn't much in terms of news, but couldn't find it again.

Bye
Thanee

Ok, I found, what I was thinking about...



and



So, there are no actual news about Sharky killing that mage, right?

Bye
Thanee

That is correct. Without cameras recording and the police not being allowed to investigate inside, all they had was eyewitness testimony of panicked people running outside. And of course the S-K guards who shot some Chipheads.

Oh, my bad. I'll edit my post.

@Volker: I honestly doubt, that you can hide a battle-ready sniper rifle on a rotor drone. Those things are not that huge... and the rifle... well... kinda is.

Or did you mean something like chameleon-coating?

Bye
Thanee

Uhm, to be fair, I just saw that a hidden sniper rifle mount takes 6mp and the drone has 7. Now I'm unsure whether or not that wasn't a bit naive.
But at the end of the day it's Jack's choice. Like I said, it's something we but during a run, nothing I bought.
I think. I can't remember... :-/

Honestly, I have no idea where you got the sniper drone from - I don't think I ever tried to kill the team with one of those.
But anyway: The MCT-Nissan Roto-Drone is medium sized - so it takes as much space as a human. The sniper rifle can be integrated into the framework - I'd have to look up the stats for a final decision, but all in all I'm in favor of letting this go through.

Hmm, maybe I'll find the time to search through the forum to find out when we got it.

Anyway, of more importance: I believe there's a misunderstanding: bnc didn't post a single post from her own account, as described above:

"What she does is, she identifies middle-rank posters with some credibility who post in an irregular pattern. I'm especially looking for people I believe are a bit sloppy, i.e. don't care for grammar, miss questions they were asked, and so forth, to minimize the risk of them getting aware of the fake posts from their account. I then try to find subforums they use rather infrequently. I.e. if the subforums are split up by region, I'll find a region where they posted once or twice only. Again, to make it more difficult for them to find out. There I place false sightings, trying to imitate their style."

So I use accounts which already have credibility and post under their name, going to lengths to avoid them noticing those fake posts. That way, no trace can lead back to her, the false sightings are more credible and in the same moment, credible users lose credibility.

Ah, ok, I'll edit that accordingly, although you won't find a lot of profiles posting in different regions. Also it's pretty much impossible for the users not to notice that they were downvoted and pretty easy to find out why.

Okay, I understand. Yah, I'll still try it that way. My prime goal is to disencourage people to post and follow hints. So, it will still work. I don't expect the group as a whole to realize what's happening too soon as they seem to work more than a bee hive than a corporation. Also, as I said, I try to identify users who tend to post in an irregular way anyway. In the end, people will be more frustrated and less confident; or so I hope. Even if single individuals realize they have been hacked, they still can't do a lot about it, and they will still get a downgrade. It won't magick away the hunts but every individual who stops out of frustration is a gain.

For your information: There is a Level 2 BGC in this area. Also, unless you are looking along the paths, your line of sight is blocked by headstones.

Also, a map: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1daPEfMsgh...amp;usp=sharing

Ahhhhh, please post those questions in the new OOC. I'll go crazy when I'll try to reconstruct conversations in the future

The blue dot at the Parkinglot is your current position, the blue dot called hideout is the entrance to the safe house.

Whoooops, sorry for that!

Did bnc have time to don her chameleon suite? I certainly planned to do that before we start anything risky but the spirit thing came when I was unable to post. But then, bnc has hardly a kind to think of details

It certainly is the weather for wearing a full body suit - and you did have enough time.

@Volker: english rulebook (I have the official, updated PDF) says this about VR initiative:




@SuirrelDude: Background Count (Street Grimoire p. 32) gives you a negative dice pool modifier equal to its value (i.e. -2 for BGC 2) on all tests that somehow have magic involved. i.e. if you use a magically-boosted attribute or skill, you get the penalty. If you use Killing Hands, you get the penalty on the attack roll. If you use your Combat Sense 1, you get the -2 on top for an effective -1 on your defense roll, so better to deactivate that one (you can do that with a simple action). Your initiative is unaffected, though, as it only modifies dice pools.

Bye
Thanee

Speaking of Edge... how does it refresh? One point per day as usual (plus the occasional extra)?

Bye
Thanee

@Luckace - notice that summoned spirits resit with F dice (not F*2) so you are likely not as drained as you thought.

As far as I can tell, I did buy the drone myself but I can't find any stats of it. Is it okay for you, if I flesh it out now and pay any difference between a unmodded roto-drone with an unmodded Nissan and what I'd buy with the money I have left?

I would go for:
- imaging scope 300
w/ low-light 500
w/ thermographic 500
w/ vision enhancement I 500
- Silencer 500
- electronic firing ???
- trigger removal 50
- external smartlink system 200

makes for a total of 2.550 (if electronic firing is free?)

Is that O.K.? Did I make any mistakes? Would you recommend something else?


Also, if you agree (which you seem to indicate), I'd build in the co-processor for the moment.

Don't think you need that (not that it costs much), as a weapon mount should provide that kind of functionality.

Electronic Firing is 1,000¥.

Bye
Thanee

Ohh... good point! That would be 2 hits less (-4 stun damage and it would also mean the summoning was successful!).

Bye
Thanee

Ohhh right thanks a lot!
* phew * I was getting really worried...
I'll edit my post and add the appearing spirit.

The Angel Summoner is here!

Now where's the BMX Bandit?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFuMpYTyRjw

Bye
Thanee

Wow it is so funny!

I have seen this so many time. It's one of the most commonly posted videos in 3.5/Pathfinder to illustrate magic vs non-magical class balance.

That does not make it any less funny, tho.

And it just seemed so fitting with the angel-winged spirit.

Bye
Thanee

As it provides RC, dp penalties for perception checks and ACC, I guess, I'll have to pay for it nonetheless. Jack?

Do guns in weapon mounts even have recoil?

Bye
Thanee

Yes, electronic firing is a very nice mod to have and does cost accordingly.
As for Recoil: Drones get their body as base recoil compensation, so 4 in this case.

Edge is regained the usual way: Sleeping soundly and having a good meal
- critical glitching without using edge
- Heroic acts of self-sacrifice
- Achievements of personal goals
- Succeeding at important objectives
- being particularly brave or smart
- Pushing the storyline forward
- and whenever I say so

And yes, Mitchell and Web are extremely funny in general

That's amazing!
I didn't know them yet.

Is Anna still astrally perceiving?

Also, happy birthday Luckace

Nope... Though we have a summoned spirit.

Thanks!
btw, now that we have an active spirit: Would you like to control summoned spirits and their rolls yourself, or can the summoner do their actions and rolls?

So ... You approve of the drone as it is, obviously.

@luckace oh darn, I missed it. Again ^^ Well, Viel Glück zum Nichtgeburtstag, hurra!

Happy birthday!

@Volker

yeah, sure

@Luckace
No, the spirit is yours to command and to roll

Happy Birthday!

Thanks, guys!

There seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding about the situation...

We were near the van.
The light appeared about 50m away.
We moved towards it.
As we got closer, it disappeared and appeared further away.
We stopped moving (at least Nova did).

I don't think we are farther away than, say, 30~40m at this point. Still in LoS to the van.

Bye
Thanee

That's about right, except that 40 metres during night, heavy snowfall and stark winds, is doubtfully los. Also bnc cried out when you were still moving. Also, 50 metres is a hell of a distance if a spirit manifests inside the van. Every single one of you left the car and walked away.
In this situation, it is a possible death sentence for a decker.
Also, all of you changed the plans we agreed on without coordinating. bnc is not overreacting. This time.

Vision has been mentioned to be about 50m. It will be concealed by ths snowfall, but still visible, I believe.

But, of course, there is also the matter of perception. From Nova's point of view, everything is well under control. She is also much less worried about such things, than bnc is, apparantly.

Anyways, the thought (at least mine) was to not leave the vincinity of the van. It was close enough to take a look. Since it is just luring us away, the investigation was stopped. Noone is changing any plans. This is in direct reaction to the (astral) scouting. And we cannot just ignore this spirit, if it poses a threat to us.

Also, there are a few people and entities with astral sight around. They should notice, if anything astral closes in on the van.

Bye
Thanee

Not quite. It was a reaction to a light blinking SOS and was, as far as it we could tell at that moment, entirely unrelated to the monster spirit. Our reaction to the astral scouting was taking up arms and getting ourselves in battle position - which is pretty much the opposite of moving 30 to 40 metres away from a group member which is currently unable to move.
The point when she freaked out was when not one of you went out to scout but all four (!) of you left the van and her behind, dashing out into a raging storm without reaction to her plea to stay back or explaining to her what you were going to do while there was a huge spirit that made Anna freak out and was obviously not much impressed by the spells Anna flung at it. May be a matter of perception but at this point it looked a lot like leaving her behind because four ot of five people scouting does not make the remotest kind of sense. What the group did was so far away from any professional approach - no communication, no command structure, no sensible divison of the manpower - that there was no reason at all to rely on anything. If, for example, only Anna and either Nova or Shark would have checked, that would have made perfect sense, but this was just an unorganized chaos where everybody shortmindedly dashed whereever he or she thought it would be most exciting.
Or maybe it's just me playing bnc who likes to have things under control.

Yeah, everyone tagging along wasn't quite necessary.

And, of course, we do not have any sort of command structure here... dunno about lack of communication, though, Nova clearly said, that she would go and check it out. How much more information do you need at that point?

Also, I would consider our current distance to be not much different to standing right next to the van, as it is still within movement distance (for Nova, at least). It's certainly not far enough away to leave anyone behind.

Bye
Thanee

@ Volker: Having read "all four", I do believe that there was a misunderstanding concerning Wraith's actions:

1: The summoning was obviously not on the graveyard, so he had entered the cemetery only one turn before she exploded (not that there's anything wrong with bnc exploding, IC it makes perfect sense).
2: One turn passed since then, and even if he wanted to, there's no way he could have covered 30-40mt in one turn (rulewise, he couldn't even make more than 16 mt a turn without sprinting, but as this isn't a combat turn, I assume that doesn't matter too much)
3: I explicitly stated that Wraith follows the team, but if they're already far away from the van (which 30-40 metres definitily is), he stays in vicinity of the van: "He followd the rest of the team, but [...] made sure not to walk too far away from the van and the team's decker. If they've already gone too far ahead to join them and still be in proximity of the van, he'll fall slightly back so he can still keep an eye and on the van. "
4: Even after that, I stated that he slowed his pace down and offers to watch the van.
5: He's communicating only via comlink (instead of simply talking) because he's not really near anyone of the team.

But I admit that I haven't made any exact remarks as to where he stands (tbh, I wasn't sure who was where exactly) and perhaps that statement was to vague.
So far I just assumed that he followed the team into the graveyard (because he has to be there to see or do anything) enough to roughly hear what they're saying, but didn't go as far away from the van. I imagined him to be somwhere in between, 20mt perhaps, but I didn't think that would matter that much.
As I don't recall bnc ever telling her teammates that the wheather doesn't allow piloting the drones remotely, Wraith has no reason not to assume bnc couldn't just leave the van, if the necessity arises.

On the matter of coordination, I agree with you. we could have done that better.

By the way... while you make phylosophical discussions I am wsiting on assense test, spirit respobse. Which is why i don't participate. My two cents is that bnc is reckless for being in VR and that she should use her meat body. Refusing to do so when there is no need. Or refusing to explain that she may lose a drone... is just her being well bnc.

Yeah, some more information on the astral side of things would certainly be helpful.

Bye
Thanee

Your wish is my strong suggestion

Consider this little incident a much needed training exercise

@Jack_Spade: Did Wraith See nothing alarming when he assensed two turns ago? I don't think I got a reply for that yet

As I understood you, you didn't want to move to far away from the van and kept your focus in that direction. But yes, if you move towards the light you can make out the same shape as Anna

Also, you can make a Magical Threats knowledge check (or magic theory with -3)