Question now seems to be: Is the drone going to find us before we leave the river and if yes can AM do something about it - if no Mato might have to shoot it down before it hurts us

Well, I suppose the second questions would be, "Will it care? What will it do?"

If it finds a mammoth walking downriver then that might be more cause for curiosity than concern.

I think opening fire on it will draw the ire of the military. That seems risky unless it's actively trying to shoot us. Hacking it would be a softer approach.

Hacking while levitating, and invisible is a bit rough for AM, at -2 due to two spells, no VR, she is silently running for additional -2 (decks are not legal) and there are hostile drones looking for us.


So from the 11 dice, she'll have like 7 remaining perhaps 9 if she asks Trouble to sustain one of the spells for a while, not looking very sharp for her. Spells like increase intuition are easily visible (perhaps not if she is invisible??) so no augmentations while being near the drones.

Feel free to ask her if you want, and I'll channel her to see how she responds. I'd assume that such penalties imply that she does not considers it a realistic option at the moment.

As soon as Bobby can reach dry land for the others, he can turn into a hawk and take down drones organically.

But maybe we can just leave it to the remaining merc to take care of them - after all he was the one causing the investigation in the first place.

I don't think we want to carry him around all the way to Seattle anyhow. Let them handle the drone scoop the mage, regroup and let Bernt sort up his debt, or handle the long-term situation one way or the other.

Sorry, I came to see the posts today, and found that I'd never committed the post I wrote last night. So hit "Add reply" and called it done.

How far are we from the access road?

Would 'come to land' be on the Salish military property?

Perhaps you can brave the Aztechnology territory figuring out the military would not cross there so quickly?

I don't think that we'd have better deal with the Azzies. With the NAN military I at least have a relevant connection.

I suppose it's also worth asking which side of the river is the access road on: the Azzie side or the Salish side? In my head it's the Salish side but that could be incorrect.

But AM has a long flight ahead of her, then a long drive to get to the access road, so it's not like our getaway vehicle is imminent.

Access road is on the Salish military side, but beyond the limits of the military base (Azzie territory extends farther). Extracting there is off the military base, but whether or not that stops them from doing something is a different question.

@Jack brilliant post was so much fun to read.

I love it too -- great solution (and crazy movement multiplier, I don't recall how much Jack put into agility when he took mammoth form, but anyway you slice it, it sounds like a lot of speed.

Now to see how well he sells the "out of control" bit. Make a con roll .... at +5 because it is likely they don't have much idea of what an out of control mammoth looks like so it shouldn't take a lot of skill to sell this.

More interesting in all of this is whether the raft stays balanced on Bobby's back. He probably can't be holding it in place with his trunk while appearing to look out of control. Mato should likely do something to avoid him and/or Brent being tossed out onto the rocks. (or at best into some shallow water). And also what Bobby does about the petrified jellyfish mage on his tusks.

Agility is 6
Rolling Con
Con: 10d6t5 1
Spending edge to reroll missed
Con: 9d6t5 2
3 successes total
Gymnastics to keep the stoned mage secure
Gymnastics: 12d6t5 6

Sorry about the delay in posting. I went hiking yesterday and when I came on to post today Dumpshock was down for the entire afternoon. Posting now before bed.

Debating how Mato would handle this. It seems like it would be some sort of combination of Agility and Strength. The values are more-or-less the same, so I'll just roll Agility + Gymnastics like Jack did for simplicity.

Agility 10 + Gymnastics 1: 11d6t5 2 hits

God help me, Orokos... Dangerously close to a glitch, but managed to avoid it. Let's see, the last time I had an above-average roll was... August 18th.

I feel for you - spend my last point of edge for the con roll, because somehow 10 dice are worth only one success for Orocos (only to grant me 6 successes with 12)

I'd planned to post Sunday because I knew my Monday was not going to give me time (holiday here with plans with family and friends), and Dumpshock was down. Sorry for the delay.

Does the drone appear armed (as best Mato can tell with low-light and thermographic vision)?

Rolling Con with Mato's lie: Charisma 4 + Con 2 + Plausible Evidence 2: 8d6t5 3 hits

Hey, hey! A slightly-above-average roll! I added a couple dice for Plausible Evidence but they didn't add any hits.

Brent makes a Pulse Storm, bolstered by his sprite
Make noise!: 13d6t5 4 and edge the fails
more noise (edge fails): 9d6t5 1 for a total of 5 successes.

Just realized that I forgot the penalty for being AR (and hence still holding on) but ah well, let the kid have a half-way useful moment.

Add in the 2 noise already present around here, and the drone is facing 7 noise + distance from pilot, reduced by RCC noise reduction. Not enough to shut it down, but certainly enough to reduce its effectiveness.

Does the drone appear armed? Does Mato have a sense of what sort of drone it is?

@Gilga: I've lost track of where Trouble is? (with AM? With the rest of the team?)

A quote of me in spoiler answering that question a few posts ago.


Trouble is with AM, astrally, Tatanka is with the team - tasked with notifying them if anything spiritual approaches.

For the record, I audibly laughed at this.

So did I!

I do what I can...

@Gilga
Interesting idea!

Indeed - maybe if you can get a real owl to attack the drone - or a bunch of ravens/crows - those like to cause trouble for the hell of it.

Looks like the Animal Control should work -- I had two points of uncertainty:

- It has to be normal behavior. Any birds around here would not normally fly at night, but flying is normal. I come down on the side of 'this is a fun use of a seldom used ability' so consider it normal enough

- Speaking of 'birds around here' I have no idea how many birds would be in these mountains in mid-winter, but again is seems fun so let's assume that there are some.

==========================

I updated my last IC post, as I'd forgotten that the orc street-sam was trying to talk to Mato in Or'zet (he may have learned Or'zet mostly from watching black-market dubs of Neil the Orc Barbarian).

I know very little of the biome but perhaps there are bats? or owls or other night active birds? but thank you for approving it I figured it would be a fun distraction.

Well luckily this biome is my backyard, relatively speaking (125km as the shapeshifter adept flies) so I know a bit about it. In fact, my wife just drove through Leavenworth a few hours ago, which is where AM and Mato stopped for gas and is next to our Wild Orc Ranch.

I'm single-parenting while she's on a business trip so I'm behind for the moment but I should be able to catch up tonight after the kiddo is in bed.

Okay, back in the saddle.

My son has decided that birds are his thing so my birding knowledge is above-average at the moment.

The good news for our IC purposes is that there are several great options.

Now, most of the small species (hummingbirds, flycatchers, swallows, thrushes, etc.) are migratory and wouldn't be around in January.

But there are lots of larger birds that stick around through the winter and could seriously complicate life for a drone: bald eagles, spotted owls, barred owls, and plenty of corvids, like ravens and various Jays.

The corvids are the most "social" and potentially curious about what we're doing, but they're not active at night. But, as a trickster spirit, Iktomi might have some kinship with Raven, another trickster spirit.

The owls are the most shy, but they are absolutely nocturnal and almost certainly watching what we're doing.

Potentially any/all of these would qualify as "small" animals by the book's example, which includes cats. Owls are only 1kg, ravens are up to 2kg, and bald eagles vary from 3kg to 7kg.

...

Having written this, I see that Beta's already IC posted. Ah well. Some bird knowledge for you!

@Tecumseh this is a good read, feels like you live in an incredible biome.

The West Coast of the United States can be very diverse in a relatively small area. Within 200km or so you go from 1) ocean shores to 2) rain forests on the coast to 3) lowland valleys and grasslands with rivers running through them to 4) forested foothills leading toward the maintains to 5) snowy mountain peaks to 6) high deserts and scrubland in the rain shadow of the mountains, with all the different biomes those represent. Our current game is in #4.

I always thought Seattle was a fairly inspired choice as the default setting for Shadowrun. Not because the city is inherently unique itself but because the geography is so compelling. The city is tucked down in the corner of Puget Sound, surrounded on on sides - except for the water side - by the (presumably) hostile Salish-Shidhe Council. When I was a kid I loved the sense of the city being surrounded by dark and mysterious wilderness, which had gotten even more "wild" with the Awakening and the Salish reclamation of the land. I love that you can go from hyper-urban to hyper-rural in the less than a hour's drive.

I need to read up on Free Seattle because I'm curious how it plays out long-term. I've been avoiding it because I was going to be playing in a campaign using it as a setting but, as usual, the GM disappeared during legwork, right after the meet with the Johnson. That's exactly what happened during my last 6E game too, so now I'm 0 for 2 for 6E games.

Free Seattle is an odd duck of an adventure. It often seems to provide more detail about the meet than the run, and a couple of the runs would logically seem to likely have repercussions but those are never discussed. So you aren't missing much in terms of what is written in the book, but like all adventures the GM and players can make it far more interesting than what is written.

Sorry that I'd posted an IC THursday night, before I saw your OOC about the birds today. Around here most of what stick around in the winter are various types of sparrows and starlings (and the occasional blue jay or cardinal for a splash of colour), so I took a guess that such species would also winter out in the cascades. But your point about trickster spirits is good, and I've changed the IC to specify a (none-too-quiet) flock of crows. (ravens seemed maybe a bit big)

@GM
Beta, your spoiler said "you should be able to narrate mobbing the other drone, rampaging to the waiting vehicle, and heading out" but I wanted to make sure that's we're cool with a big fast-forward here.

I think AM had a 7-minute flight to the car, and then a 15-minute drive from where the car was parked to this access road where we could get picked up. Bobby just needs a minute or two to get out of the water, so we could potentially be stampeding through the forest for 20 minutes while waiting for our ride.

Sorry I wasn't clear.
- The kidnappers are offering to drive Bobby, Mato, and Brent away from the site, as the quid pro quo for not being killed (they have a vehicle Bobby is about to reach). The latest check on truce was the Rigger wanting it repeated before letting them into the truck. THen they'd need to sort out where to meet AM, and if one side betrays the other or not.
- Or Bobby and Mato can carry on, on foot, with Brent, until AM arrives. However she will be a bit (she needs to circle around the military base, essentially)

Thanks for the clarifications. I didn't realize the ride was coming from the kidnappers.

At this point is Bobby switching to something smaller and quicker? (another owl or whatever?). Mato can be pretty quick on food with his skimmers, so I imagine the two should be able to make pretty quick speed out of there, while keeping a pretty low profile. Maybe a round of posts on getting away in some clever fashion, then we can deal with getting Brent back across the border?

And sorry for the delay, it was year end at work and some bawky software was between me and getting some commitments done by the deadline, and a few days got entirely consumed. Over that now and slept enough this afternoon to be vaguely coherent again (until the next crunch).

Yeah, Bobby would wait for the mercs to get out of sight and then turn into a horse, so we can carry Brent.

My primary concern was "how are we going to get Brent out of there" but Bobby's solution is elegant.

The border could be tricky. I presume Brent is a SINner but I doubt the kidnappers got him a visa to visit Salish-Shidhe, so his paperwork might not be in order. Or, who knows, maybe they did.

Getting out is usually less of a problem than getting in.
The original plan still holds: Bobby turns him and AM into a small form to smuggle. Alternatively, she turns them both invisible and flies over the boarder.
Unless we want to go the unprecedented road and come clean about our rescue mission. Though I don't recommend that, as it would cause delays and likely expose Brent's secrets.

The kid would probably appreciate not being transformed again.

That said, levitating over the border has risks. Not just border patrols on both sides, but also exposure to the elements. On a scale of 1 (easy) to 5 (severe), crossing the Seattle border is rated as a 2 (normal) in 5E's Coyotes. It's rugged terrain and the border is fairly long compared to the metroplex's footprint. I think there's only so much that spirits and drones and fences can do. I think AM could get herself and Brent over, especially with Trouble's help, but I'll leave that decision to gilga.

Mato does have a couple tranq patches. We could put the kid to sleep if Bobby's going to transform him into a gerbil for the crossing.

The sleepaid would probably be the best solution. The boy likely has already a few points of stun anyway (and maybe he'll even fall asleep in the car when the adrenaline rush drains away)

Wow, look at Bobby giving Brent the option. Mato was just going to drug him whether he liked it or not.

You've got to respect the client if you want repeat business

FYI, limited internet access this weekend. Won't be able to properly post until Sunday night or Monday sometime.

Come to think of it, I just drove within 10km of our IC location. Will pass by it again on Sunday.

Cool! I admit that my desire to visit Seattle some day is driven in no small part from all the time virtually visiting in ShadowRun, it would be cool to have more of a feel for the geography.

+o++++oo+++++++

What IDs are Bobby and Mato running? (Nationality and, if fake, rating?

Bobby is using his real ID (Paying very dear taxes for that privilege) - same as when he went into NAN territories.

We ran our real national SINs coming in (to smooth over the visa issue, as we decided that NAN SINs had some benefit) so we'll be doing the same going out.

Seattle is ridiculously beautiful, surrounded on all sides as it is by water and snowy mountains. The one thing I hear most often from visitors is that they didn't realize how hilly it is. The terrain was carved by glaciers and is almost never flat (unless developers and city planners flattened it). The Seattle Metroplex is also hugely varied, with everything from dense urban environments to rural areas that are basically horse farms and orchards.