They look like pythons ... with atavistic features ... is this a box of atavophid basilisks? They don't seem to be singing right now, but maybe they don't feel like it.

Hmmm. A box of babies from outside the facility. Things are getting even more out of control. But, what would make the Polidemos woman think they would purge the facility. Hmmm.

Maybe they are only half-basalisk / half-python.

so, I take this to actually say:

While this is going on, Karmakaze notices a car slow down, and pull into the Petsonal Petsonalities fenced parking lot, look through the wire and leave. Nice car, as if it might have cost three times what an Americar does.

Is that a reasonable interpretation?

....

whatever drugs you took, it was either too much, or too little.

Do you ... do you listen to a lot of Pink Floyd? Tangerine Dream, maybe?

Used to ... Pink Floyd. Not much now.

Aha! The thick plottens.

Last night, for some.reason, my phone drained of power. I use it as my alarm clock, so there was nothing to wake me.

At dawn, I learned the time later, I woke with a start.... to the sound of an Owl hooting.

Eh? Ehhh?

Ominous!

But at least more stylish than walking out to wring the neck of the crowing cock.

I woke up to self-induced bad karma. What is going on!?

My wife and I are flying to Vancouver Island this Monday, 28 March, to visit family and friends. Other side of the continent!

We will be there and traveling around till 11 April. I will have my phone and, I'm sure, relatively common WIFI connection, so I should be able to put my two cents' worth in during that time. Forgive me if my presence is less than the overly eager, retired guy looking for something to do, it usually is.

I guess the opportunity presents itself, Bastard, for us to discuss what level of risk and attitude we are willing to allow our PCs to display. I see Blue as having a strong aversion to being pushed around and cheated, tempered by a sense of responsibility to his partner not to get them killed ... at least too soon!

Any thoughts?

I wasn't asked, but I'll throw in my two cents: play as you see fit, I don't depend on you taking any particular approach.

Oh, yeah, I know, Koekepan. We are in a situation, though, in which a person of wealth, and probably influence, could call a shitload of police power down on li'l old Blue. What happens next will have to be negotiated quickly if Blue wants to set the record straight with this ... bit ...woman.

But hey, it could be worse. Traveler is an old role playing game in which it is possible to kill one's PC during character creation. I did that once, so Blue has already missed the chance to set a new over all record. If he dies or is ended here, it might be the fastest for a Shadowrun PC of mine, though.

In the context of what has happened so far, a lot of decisions and situations have been forced on Blue by various persons. That's life in the shadows, but maybe Blue hasn't figured out yet that discretion is the better part of valour.

Importantly, I don't want to force anything on Bastard. Hence the question above.

Well i was expecting a less dramatic approach, but I have guns, so lets GOOOOOOOO!

Blue gets his 1: 3d6t3 3

Blue gets his 2: 4d6t4 3

Sorry, Koekepan, I don't quite understand.

Did the bullets penetrate the armor spell, bringing it down? Are those damages for Blue to resist? If so, what is the damage level and target?

And with the car window broken, can either of our heroes see the shooter?

Sorry, forgot to add that. Those are two rounds from a Browning Max-Power (9M), but they blow holes through the window rather than blowing the whole thing out; those windows don't shatter. Those were her attacker success tests, so while you couldn't have seen the first one coming I'll let you try a dodge roll on the second. Then, damage resistance.

OK.

1) First shot
I hope I am doing this right.


So, if I have it right, the first shot blows through the armor spell, but uses up 6 of its 9 Power. Then Blue has to resist a 3M round with 4 armor, which I suspect reduces it to -1, but minimum is probably 2, so he resists 2M with Body 3 and any Combat Pool he adds.

BOD 3 + 2 Combat Pool = 5 dice, target 2: 4 successes reduces M damage to nil? Or, do his 4 successes exceed the 3 hits of the shot? Maybe that's it. {page 110?) So then, the damage of this shot is not reduced, so Blue takes a M hit.

2) Second shot

Scared shitless, Blue Dodges for all hit 8 remaining Combat Pool, Target 4 (Is this increased because of his damage from the first shot? Ah shit, it is, so target 6) :

Damn the cab is here to get us to the airport. I'll finish later.

I don't think you are right, based on my reading of what you have.

Check page 113 in the Third Edition book. Her first shot has a chance of getting snuggly with Blue's internal economy, but doesn't get to do so without a damage resistance test first. Quoting from the book: "At this point, the target gets to make a Damage Resistance Test to lessen the effects of damage. To save his skin, the target rolls a number of dice equal to his adjusted Body attribute, plus any dice he wants to use from his Combat Pool. The target number for this test is the Power Rating of the attacking weapon, modified by any armor the character is wearing. To determine that adjusted target number, subtract the rating of the armor from the weapon's power. Treat any result less than 2 as 2. Roll the dice, using the Rule of One and the Rule of Six. Each result that equals or exceeds the target number is a success."

I left out a bit about dermal armour that doesn't apply here, but the essence is that you get to roll dice against her first bullet, with your ballistic armour from your spell reducing the target number for resistance way down. The second bullet gets similar treatment, plus any successes from dodging. Where you put your Combat Pool is up to you.

Edited to add a clarification on the spell: it's not ablative armour. For the duration of the spell, it augments your armour rating, period.

OK, thanks. I guess I should do it over, then. Blue's armor then is 6.+4=10. How does that affect.a.shot with Power 9?

On the bus to the airport, where I have a few hours to wait.

Oh! I see. Power 2 minimum. So I get BOD 3 + some Combat Pool for both shots.

I'll wait till I am in the airport, this bus ride is murder on my typing.

Alright. Got our boarding passes and our fill of overpriced airport food.

First shot BOD 3 + Combat Pool 4.= 7 dice, target 2: 7 successes

4 in excess of the 3 successesnallows 2 levels of reduction to nil.

Second shot use 5 Combat Pool for 8 dice, target 2: 8 successes

5 in excess, so reduce M damage to nil.

Saved one Combat Pool for GM nastiness.

Fair enough, you can post that in IC.

Wow. She went into the pariah firm's building. Curiouser and curiouser.

Wow. She went into the pariah firm's building. Curiouser and curiouser.

Blue will catch on to what Karmakaze is doing in a post later, once we have changed location from one relative to another. Later today, hopefully.

I'm back home from my peregrinations. My one cat that likes to sit on my desk in front of the computer when I am typing is there again, and purring contentedly.

It would probably occur to Blue, once the cologne and lace trim kick-started his thinking processes, that the policlub was just caught red-handed trying to drive a violation of the weird contract, which they were obviously angling for Blue to catch, which makes him their catspaw.

That's what Blue figured, but it isn't clear whether the woman has fired him and sent that info back to whomever. Maybe the electronics will give a clue.

Haven't seen Bastard in nearly a week. MIA?

Hey, it takes a while to scan those chips.

Things wearing you down, buddy? Damn that 'responsibility' thing.

Rough week.

For me too, now. My wife and I are both fighting a COVID infection. Could have been a lot worse if we hadn't been vaccinated.

Good luck. I had it back in January. I felt alright, just really tired. It was more like mono.

Sure, that would be fun! But ... Acidsalt Dieselsmog won't be coming back any time soon. That limo's electrical short sent it back to wherever to heal for at least a month. And I don't know if Blue can actually summon a particular city spirit. Hearth, yes, as in Madel and Sweez, but they are locked to a location.

Actually, Blue is the first PC of mine who ever tried to name a spirit, or ask its name. I don't know why I hadn't done so before. Must be something about Blue that is coming out as I learn about him. (Although I have played a couple of Free Spirits in SR4A who of course had names. Maybe that helped.)

This reminds me. Blue should summon another spirit to bump our numbers.

Did we put someone in my trunk? If so I completely forgot.

I believe we have Jimmy in tow.

Well, if they eat him, doesn't that solve at least one problem?

Heh, yeah, but Jimmy isn't really a problem. We kept him in case we could get more info from him later. Then the woman happened, and Jimmy became redundant... and forgotten.

My granddaughter just wrote this poem and shared it in her school's poetry day:

Owl

On a branch
An owl was perching
For his dinner
He was searching

Blue is going to find this in some moldering old book someday, I just know it!

We should really drop Jimmy off somewhere then. Behind some abandoned strip mall works.

Rolling 3 (3) Sprawl Life for "A safe, but lightly surveilled area of town."

3 Successes!!!

I think DS was down for a few days, no? I asked about it on a Facebook DS page, and the response suggested I was the one that twigged the powers that be. Huh?

I figured it was me!

Heh! I figured sooner or later we were going to have to chase down the snakelets.

Any herpetologist would tell you that snakes are great escape artists. This is one reason for using things such as Tupperware to transport them.

Somewhere back in the discussion I recall that being mentioned. But hey, one learns more from one's mistakes than one's successes, right? Right?