http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...t=0&start=0 might help with stats.

And yes, watcher spirits do not prevent you from summoning nature spirits.

Got it. Thanks.

EDIT: Boy, that entry is 4 years old. I will edit an early post of mine in this thread to reflect current conditions. Wil let you know when that is done.

Alright. Here is the Plan for: Assault on the Parasitic Pixies. I will do dice rolls in IC. Koekepan, could you please tell me at what point you want me to stop IC posting/ dice rolling. (Obviously, this could give me information, so you could throw in a few stops just to lull me into false confidence.) ABORT POINTS are marked where Blue would consider stopping and coming back another day.

1) Have Karmakaze pick up Blue and be the getaway driver / body guard. In Blue's possession will be the following spells-on-a-stick: astral armour; influence; heal.

2) Drive to target location in the small hours of the morning (say 2:30 am.) to assure residents are asleep.

ABORT POINT: residents awake. WAIT?

3) Summon City Spirit. Assign Conceal and Guard vehicle and occupants.

ABORT POINT: take Drain damage. If small, rest in car till head clears. Spirit will follow last command(s) once Blue enters house domain.

4) Summon 8 Watcher Spirits. (1 hour duration should do.) These are mostly to be friendlies in melee if needed. Or to distract stronger opposition.

ABORT POINT: take Drain damage. If small, rest in car till head clears.

5) On front porch, Summon Hearth Spirit. (Need at least 4 hits, so should be a middling level Summon.) Tell it Blue is there to clear away the parasites. Ask a) Who in the house is awake? b) Are there any astral protections set up in the house other than the Pixies? c) Where are the Pixies? Assume in bedroom around the girl. If elsewhere, move there rather than girl's bedroom.

Assign to move with Blue when he returns and protect from any other astral danger than the pixies. (Of course, it can still defend itself.) Spirit will follow the last command when Blue goes back to car.

ABORT POINT: take Drain damage. If small, rest in car till head clears.

6) Return to car and go astral. Comatose body remains with Karmakaze in the car. If shit happens, Karmakaze is to get away with Blue's body and meet up at Blue's place.

Once astral, use the astral armour spell-on-a-stick.

7)Enter house with the Watcher Spirits and join the Hearth Spirit.

8 ) Move to girl's bedroom. (Was there before when first met pixies.) If pixies elsewhere, go there. Keep 9 friendly spirits close to Blue. (see # 9) Try to Surprise Pixies. Be as far from Pixies as possible to accommodate #9.

9) Blast Pixies with the Stunball spell, Deadly Level. Girl has never shown presence on the astral so this should be OK. REDUCE RADIUS to avoid friendlies. This will reduce number of dice available, so a) might have to drop astral armour spell, b) might have to use Karma Pool point here.

ABORT POINT: Girl is astrally active with the Pixies. &^$&^$!!! Decision: Knock her out in order to disrupt the Pixies anyway?

Try to save Karma Pool point to help Drain resistance.

10) All kinds of contingencies can happen after all this, but when/if can, cleanse the astral of the signature of the spell.

11) As leave house, set Hearth Spirit free. Go home. If Watchers are still present, send them home. Thank Karmakaze. Summon Sweeze at highest level safe and rest to relieve Drain. If time before sunrise after rested, research bands Sweeze mentioned. After sunrise, Summon Sweeze again and get some sleep. Late in the day, talk to the bar manager about bands Sweeze likes.

This seems like a viable plan. I think that step 2 has some redundancy with step 5 - is that intentional?

Step 2 is about lights on, people walking in the door, that kind of thing. Step 5 is about the magician in the basement cooking up Insect Spirits, or having a good time with the mother but both still awake despite lights out.

Will post IC by the weekend.

Please give me a reroll - there's nothing acting as a block just yet.

Not even driver errors.

Couldn't remember where Blue's character sheet is here. Found an old one in the Recruitment: Behind the Crown thread. Post # 18 updated to the lasted version of Blue.

So .... does this count as a mini run, after which Blue can rest, get his one Karma Pool back and a point or two of karma??

I think that this is fair.

3 Karma awarded to Blue.

Yay!!

Thanks.

EDIT: Updated character stats in Recruitment thread, post #18.

Blue has been doing a lot of magical gear acquisition lately. Gear in SR3 has an Availability stat that uses Etiquette. I am considering bumping up Blue's ability to find stuff, especially magical stuff. The BBB doesn't show specific specializations related to that. I wonder whether something like "magical equipment sources" would be a reasonable specialization.

Thoughts?

I think that's a little narrow. It would be something like magical etiquette or something like that, related to the magical community.

OK, thanks. Should I choose that route, I'll go with "magical etiquette".

On another tack, something that is becoming even more attractive to me than being able to buy stuff more easily is a process I think of as "the poor man's Quickening".

Magic in the Shadows introduces Ritual Sorcery as a specialization of Sorcery (p. 34). The most common usage is by a group of mages who combine their Sorcery Skills into a Ritual Pool in order to cast stronger spells and even beyond their immediate area using a spotter.

It clarifies that " [a] single spellcaster can perform ritual sorcery alone, with a Ritual Pool equal to the character's Sorcery (or Ritual Sorcery specialization)." (p. 36) One might think that this doesn't make much sense for an individual, or provide any benefit, but here's the way I think someone like Blue could profit from Ritual Sorcery.

A spotter is not needed if the team leader (automatically the individual spellcaster) can see the target. Blue can automatically see himself, or a teammate standing right beside him. Blue could cast a spell as per the Ritual Sorcery rules to cast a spell on himself or, say, Karmakaze. This doesn't make much difference unless the spell needs to be sustained.

Built into the Ritual Sorcery process is the ability to set aside dice to be used at the end to sustain the spell without burdening the spellcaster with sustaining it, and thereby suffering the dice penalty that ensues. (p. 38) Blue has a Sorcery of 5. Let's say he pays karma to get the Ritual Sorcery specialization at 6 (3 karma). Between dusk and dawn he has 2 more dice, giving 8 total. Add to that a Spell Pool of 6 (available because Blue is the team leader) and there are 14 dice available for the casting.

So, Blue could cast a spell with, say, 12 of those 14 dice and save 2 of the 14 dice for sustaining the spell for Magic 6 X 2 = 12 hours. (p. 38) With no dice modifier for Blue's actions because of that sustaining. Duration could be shorter or longer depending on the number of dice withheld from the Sorcery Test. The ritual takes a number of hours equal to the Force of the spell being cast. Possibly important, the astral signature of the casting stays local to Blue's shamanic lodge (where the ritual must be performed). Exclusive spells no longer inhibit other spellcasting once sustained by the ritual.

What spells might be used in this fashion? (* = could be done usefully on both if judiciously limit Force and therefore duration of the ritual)

Oxygenate* (might have to go underwater to sneak or hide, or into a toxic or anaerobic environment)
Magic Fingers (operate things without the -2 penalty for sustaining being added to the -2 of the spell)
Prophylaxis* (might go into a toxic environment ... or decide to go on a drinking binge!)
Analyze Device (the device would have to be in the lodge?)
Mindlink (silent communication)
Increase Attribute (most likely Willpower for Karmakaze, which could add up to 2 dice to her Combat Pool and make her harder to overcome mentally)
Increase Reflexes (difficult target, but could make Karmakaze even faster) EDIT: RTFM

Of course, other spells as Blue's repertoire widens. Blue's team is pretty small, and he does seem to operate on his own more and more, so this is a way to keep him more fully functional on his own.

I'm really liking this idea!

Finally the site lets me back ...

Anyway, I agree that this is effectively a use of Ritual Sorcery that is consistent with RAW, and in fact pretty clearly contemplated by the authors, so I have no objections.

OK! Thanks.

I forgot to do Drain Resistance for the summoning, and then decided to wait till the GM chose how to instantiate the glitch. Here's the Drain resistance roll now:

Drain 4(L), or higher target if Glitch affects that.

WIL 8 + Owl 2 = 10 dice, target 4: 10d6=4, 6, 5, 4, 5, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1, so
7 successes at target 4,
4 successes at target 5,
2 successes at target 6.

Reroll 6s: 2d6=4, 3, so
2 successes at target 9,
1 success at target 10.

Went to an Owl sanctuary today. Had a Great Horned Owl land on my arm and look me straight in the eye.

We communed.

Oh, shit! Wondering what the hell is going on, it struck me. The game started 17 March, 2060. I know what is coming.

Poor Blue has no f(^%( idea!

So, is there a way, in game, to determine a glitch has happened?

You'd have to have contextual knowledge of what is going on, so that you ccould puzzle out the apparent inconsistency.

Well, I don't think Blue has that kind of knowledge, yet. He might gain some experience in such matters. There might be a specialization in Magical Background. "Spells gone awry."

Hmm. Blue makes a Magical Background Test to see if he gets a clue.

Magical Background 3 ==> 3 dice: 5, 1, 1

One has to just laugh. A glitch in trying to figure out a glitch.

It's so obvious. It's right. There is no clue to get - it's right there in front of him! How could there ever be a mistake ... wait, unless Mitsuhama is running some kind of magical interference ...

Actually, that was Blue thinking to himself with +++ rather than talking to Recycler with :::, but the conversation is worth a consideration.

I understood that, but I think that a spirit would be adept at reading attitudes through auras - including elements of surprise.

Makes sense.

I put a link to the post in the Recruitment thread that has Blue's character stats etc. in post #13 in this thread; my first post here.

Spaghetti code!

A couple of things about Ritual Sorcery.

1) I kinda glossed over one step in the process, the Sending Test, which will use up some of the Ritual Pool, and has a target of 6 for a person. That will use up a fair number of dice just to be sure to get a 6. There will then be fewer dice left for the Spellcasting Test and for keeping one or more dice back for sustaining the spell. This could be a fine balance.

2) I wonder how the spells-on-a-stick fit into this scheme. They were cast ahead of time, so the Spellcasting Test was done already, as was the Drain Test. So, the Ritual Pool would ... not be used for the spellcasting? This is your creature, Koekepan. What do you think? My impression is the precast spells make the use of Ritual more attractive. Maybe too strong?

The intention is not to use a precast spell in a ritual. The ritual works because it's a unified process.

I figured. Thanks for the clarification.

I suspect the earlier hooks for Blue and Karmakaze are for a situation that requires more than a magician. Are we at the point where we should start looking for another player?

The pixie thing definitely looks like something Blue can continue to explore on his own.

They could be handled, but they might require a different approach.