I don't follow you on why you think we can still blow the place up after we removed two explosives packs the entire dead man's trigger may be off depending on the specific of the wiring.

AM does not want to hack again, but she would if you insist. She feels like hacking is what got us into this mess in the first place.

Bobby doesn't have enough experience to reliably identify the explosives, but their appearance is more like plastic explosives (Semtex, C-4, whatever the future equivalent is) rather than sticks of dynamite.

@gilga
There are more explosives in the building, but they are in inaccessible places (like, inside cinder blocks in the walls). These two satchels are what's readily accessible. So there's still enough left to detonate and blow up the building if you want.

As best you can figure, Huge's dead man's switch needs an active "I'm dead" signal. So just turning his biomonitor off, of Huge going into an area of no Matrix signal, won't trigger the switch. The dead man's switch needs to receive a signal that Huge is flatlining, which can be done if you spoof it.

Gilga has way more explosives experience than I do so it would be best if I defer to that expertise. In my head, Bobby has disconnected the accelerator/detonator but not removed it from the satchel. (If this is illogical then feel free to say so. In my head he was keeping them together for easy transport, but if keeping them together introduces an unacceptable element of risk then he would not have done so.) He also disconnected the wireless functionality so that it can't be triggered remotely while you're transporting it.

I was thinking each satchel had about 2kg of plastic explosives, but again I admit that I am venturing far beyond my actual experience or expertise.

The accelerator is an unstable explosive it still needs to be detonated and it is relatively safe to move around but you should handle it with care is there is an unlikely but real chance that tossing it around would detonate it. A C4 brick is about as stable as a real brick, it would not explode if you misuse it or if it falls to the ground, or if you toss it out of the window.


Thus, safety-wise you want the accelerators away from the main explosive because if they accidentally trigger it would only cause a small explosive. An accelerator alone can perhaps cost you a finger if it explodes in your hand, a C4 brick may seriously hurt you at such a distance.

In our criminal case, we still need to move the accelerators so tossing them has some risk of accidental explosion. (no idea how much risk because I always handled accelerators with care).

Yeah, with Bobbies limited skills, he went for the safest approach of defusing: pulling out the detonators, while making sure that they aren't equipment with a mechanical trigger that would go off if they are pulled out.

4 kilos of C4 is a good haul for the risk we took

Sounds like moving things slowly is the way to go.

This is how CT IP2 ends.

CT1 IP2
15: Bobby - jump out the window
9: Host - nobody around to see
9: IC - nobody around to see
8: Doberman - investigate noise
7: AM - switching to AR
7: Trouble - psychokinesis on satchel
7: Jawsey - scrub background
7: Hunter Brother - scrub background
3: Huge - open door, observe in detail

We're technically on to CT1 IP3, which I presume involves Bobby running after he leaps out the window.

After that, we're on to CT2. Let's do initiative again, please.

Ini: 12+4d6 23

Bobby keeps running - hopefully the Huge is still a bit sleepy and his thermo vision doesn't spot the Weasle Pants ™ on that impertinent raccoon.

What direction is Bobby going?

East (toward the river) is away from the car but offers almost immediate cover.

West (toward the car) is across concrete parking lots and so is more exposed.

Right now I think Bobby is in charge of transporting the first satchel that was levitated out the window, so that could also complicate his escape in raccoon form.

Trouble still has concealment on Bobby, right? So if he makes some effort to sneak he should be pretty hard to spot. And note that if AM is able to see the situation, she could have Trouble Conceal the satchels too (once Trouble is out of the building, of course). Or simply use Movement on Bobby and he should be at the car in two shakes of a raccoon's tail.

Concealment only helps in situations where a Perception test is necessary.

If Bobby hides in the trees and bushes near the river, Concealment will make it hard to find him.

If Bobby runs across an empty parking lot with no cover, Concealment will do absolutely nothing.

Same for the satchel. A satchel floating around in the rafters probably won't be noticed unless someone looks up. A satchel floating in midair at eye level will be noticed, regardless of Concealment.

In case it matters, the garage doors face east, toward the river. The window faces north. So Bobby can turn left and run for the car or he can go right toward the river.

Once AM has line of sight to Bobby she will make him invisible. I am not sure where the car is, and know that she is not exactly aware in real time to everything.

If it helps to visualize things, we're approximately here:

https://goo.gl/maps/tkBR4mtg8huUi1ZL9

The buildings are similar to the ones shown here but not exactly the same. The garage is one of the buildings closest to the river, with the garage doors facing east (toward the river).

Where AM and Jawsey are parked is a bit ambiguous but I'm thinking it's somewhere along Redmond-Woodinville Road to avoid the scrutiny of the cameras that cover the parking lot for the light-industrial complex. There wouldn't be much traffic at this hour.

AM turning Bobby invisible once she has LOS is feasible, but it's another spell to scrub from the astral.

Thanks, that helps a lot

Alright, new plan. Bobby grabs the lone packet and hides it and himself in one of the bushes

I'm using Body Boost to up my lift and carry ability Body Boost: 9d6t5 2
I don't think I can carry 2 kg easily in this form, but once I have a spare moment out of sight, I can get out of the Weasle Pants ™ and change into a fox to carry it away like a typical urban scavenger.

Pygmy Raccoon Bobby will be able to drag it if not carry it. Dragging it makes some noise but you can get to the bushes relatively quickly so it might not matter.

Google Maps seems to be down at the moment, if anybody is having trouble with the link.

Still looking for initiative rolls. I have Bobby at 23.

I know most actions are in the background at this point but I'd like to keep track of everyone in case the situation evolves.

At the very least, I'd like a roll from Trouble because kitty still needs to escape. Not hard to pop back to the astral and depart, but that would leave the second satchel stranded. Trouble can reappear elsewhere and resume psychokinesis, but that process goes at 20m/turn.

Init: 10+2d6 17

Once hidden, Bobby will use his complex action in the second ini phase to get out of his little vest and turn into a fox (provided Seattle has a population of urban foxes)

Tangent: I live in a very dense, very urban portion of Seattle just a few blocks from where the Aztechnology Pyramid would be.

We had some snow over the winter. When I went to our back patio, I found some dog tracks back there, which was strange because our patio is fenced off. It was a large track so I took a photo of it with my hand next to it and then didn't think anything about it for weeks.

Fast forward a couple weeks to a news article about coyotes being seen at a nearby park. Again, in a very urbanized area, lots of condos and apartment buildings. That reminded me of the big footprint that I saw, so I looked it up online using the photo I took and - sure enough - it was a coyote footprint. So, I recently had a coyote running through my backyard about a kilometer uphill from the downtown Seattle core.

End tangent.

Back to the game at hand, a coyote would be more realistic than a fox.

Noted, coyote it is

I am not entirely sure why I need init for Triuble, but I rolled a few posts ago. He'll try to stay hidden and finish moving the explosives out before dematerialize and reappear outside to take them to the car. Is there any particular reason not to move both packets at once(two hands?).

I was more thinking about getting the packet out of sight quickly, before Hugh can look out of the window.

But yes, moving the packages by spirit is always an option - provided we can do so unobstrusively.

Long story short, you're not out of the woods yet. (Metaphorically. Bobby actually is in the woods, kinda.)

Is Trouble in any danger? No, not really, but there's still the opportunity for things to go sideways, especially with the second satchel.

Bobby doesn't have to run far before he gets lost in the bushes - 30 meters at most - so odds are good that he's getting away since that's only one combat turn worth of movement for him.

But the second packet is just now getting out the window, so - as Jack notes - there's still a good chance that Hugh will either see it floating away or see it out the window.

I know we've been in this encounter for a bit but it could be fairly consequential - either in getting away with a 2-4kg of high explosives, or in getting caught in the act - so I'm trying to follow the rules (and action economy) quite precisely. That way no matter what happens we'll all know that it was by the book and not foreordained in any direction. (I am personally ambivalent about the outcome. I think it's interesting either way.)

As for Trouble moving both satchels, that works if both satchels are together. Per the rules, the two "hands" of Magic Fingers / Psychokinesis must be "within a meter or so" of each other, just as your hands must be when they're attached to your body.

Doberman: Initiative: 4d6+6 22
Huge: Initiative: 1d6+10 13

Here's what I have for CT2 IP1.

CT2 IP1
23: Bobby - running across parking lot
22: Doberman - investigate noise
17: Trouble - psychokinesis on satchel
13: Huge - walking toward open window

I'll IC as much. Then we'll move on to CT2 IP2. I presume Bobby is still running so let's get an action for Trouble.

@Beta, if you want to change course, go ahead and roll initiative and then declare your action.

There is just a gap in the perspectives between you and me. I read the situation and feel like the 3-6 seconds it would take Trouble to GTFO are plenty enough before Huge figures out what is going on. Trouble is a realistic-looking cat and there is an open window -- even if he sees the packet would he really blame the cat?


PS. I visited the dead sea recently and went to a spring named "Ein Bokek" which in biblical Hebrew is spring of the Destroyer (as in one of the more ominous names for the Lord) but I actually thought of Iktomi.

As I said, Trouble is not in any particular danger. Trouble can dematerialize in one Complex Action (about one second) and be gone.

But the second satchel is an entirely different matter. If Huge sees the second satchel - which, presumably, he will recognize since it is his - floating away, what conclusion will he reach? When he finds out that two satchels are missing, what's he going to think?

And Huge is not an idiot, otherwise he wouldn't be a very good bombmaker. A certain attention to detail is necessary for success, or at least not to expire early in your career. He's going to know that the window was locked (from the inside) and that a cat cannot reasonably claim responsibility for two satchels missing from the rafters.

Trouble successfully moves the satchel out the window during CT2 IP1. The question is where it should go now during CT2 IP2. The trick is that now that it's out the window, Trouble will lose LOS on it if it moves too far in any direction, thus limiting Trouble's control over it via Psychokinesis. Trouble can dematerialize, move, and then rematerialize to resume moving it, but all that takes a few initiative passes.

Since this was an idea floated (pun not intended) earlier, we'll say that once the satchel it out the window then AM can see it and try to cast Invisibility on it.

Putting the packet down just below the window outside, should bring it out of sight from Hugh, considering that he won't have a high vantage point.

Here's CT2 IP2:

CT2 IP2
13: Bobby - running across parking lot
12: Doberman - investigate screwdriver
7: Trouble - psychokinesis on screwdriver
3: Huge - reaching open window

On IP3, Bobby will reach the safety of ground cover.

The drone seems unsure about how to address the screwdriver. It seems to understand that shooting it would not be productive.

Now that Bobby is safe, let's see if we can move a little faster through CT3.

@gilga What's AM/Trouble's plan for the second satchel now that it is out the window? Huge might see it when he closes the window, but - then again - he might not.

The second package is out? AM would just make it invisible then, and Trouble would dematerialize.

Invisibility F4: 11d6t5 5
drain: 10d6t5 5

Improved Invisibility, as a Physical illusion, is resisted with Logic + Intuition. Huge has been drinking this evening so his Logic takes a slight hit.

AM's spell is capped at 4 hits due to Force.

Huge spell resist: Logic + Intuition: 9d6t5 4 hits

A tie! Now, what does that mean for spells... "The magician must generate more hits than the observer for the illusion to be considered real." So Huge knows something's amiss.

CT3 IP1
Bobby - safe in the bushes
AM - cast Invisibility
Trouble - dematerialize
Huge - close window, notice satchel

Go ahead and post plans for the next initiative pass, so one Complex or two Simple actions (plus Free actions as applicable).

I'd assume he'll also need a perception test to notice it but no worries. When Iktomi does not want to - it the dice are crazy.

Oh boy, we should have bought some Laes for a situation like this.
I assume I still have my Ini 3 Complex Action? Otherwise I'll use my action of the next round:

Bobby turns Hugh into a sloth.

Baleful Shapechange F7: 16d6t5 2
And I'm spending edge, because apparently this is supposed to cost us dearly
Edge Baleful Shapechange F7: 14d6t5 4
Drain resist: 12d6t5 4
No Drain
Alright. Hugh gets to resist with his dwarfen body stat (and only his body stat) + whatever adept magic resistance he has.



Ini: 12+4d6 29

Yes, we're assuming that Bobby has 3 IPs.

Jack, we need a casting roll and a drain soak roll for Bobby's transformation to a coyote.

Adept spells are soaked with Body + Willpower, so the soak roll for the change to a coyote should use the raccoon baseline and the shapechange against Huge should use the coyote form, potentially modified by net hits.

The core rulebook has dogs at Body 4, but those are security dogs. Coyotes are only half the size of the breeds listed. But coyotes are bigger than cats (Body 2), so we'll say that the default Body for a coyote is 3.

Bobby could have gotten out of his Weasel Pants during CT2 IP3. Then he could transform into a coyote during CT3 IP1. Casting Shapechange at Huge would happen during CT3 IP2.

It isn't totally impossible for Huge to resist this, but odds are against him: Body: 6d6t5 3 hits

A valiant effort, but it comes up short, like Huge himself.

Sorry I hadn't posted anything -- Jawsey is in an ongoing action and not changing course for now.

I would have delayed the coyote transformation until after the commotion died down (not sure how big the bushes are I'm hiding under)
I still had my Body Boost going for the roll against Hugh, that's why my raccoon form was able to soak with more dice.

This is where the rewind spell is so potent. I'd thought about it for Jawsey, but decided that he didn't have a big enough dice pool to make it reliable yet.

AM has an impressive ability with manipulation spells but well she does not have that spell.

Let's ease our way out of initiative passes as everyone is outside of the garage and nothing is actively opposing you for the moment. The IC posting already reflects this, but let's continue on.

If Bobby is casting Shapechange on Huge while in his pygmy raccoon form then I would pencil out his drain pool to be Body 2 + Willpower 5 + Body Boost 2 = 9 dice, which would potentially leave Bobby with 1P of physical damage. There were some net hits leftover from Bobby's Shapechange spell that could affect physical attributes but at some point a pygmy raccoon isn't so pygmy anymore.

Jack, go ahead and soak Bobby's Body Boost, which expires. And please do roll Drain for transforming into a coyote.

What's Bobby sustaining penalty at this point? I think we have -2 for Mind Link, -2 for Shapechange (Bobby), and -2 Shapechange (Huge). I believe Heightened Concern/Concentration takes care of one of those but is there anything else at play? Potentially that could have affected the Demolitions rolls but that's in the past so we'll leave it in the rear view mirror.

Potential sources for Laés/Leäl:
- Triads (Bau Chou or Cheng Mu Chou)
- Fagin (AM's contact, don't know much about him/her, but a roll could be made)
- Comcomly (Jawsey's contact, don't know much about him/her, but a roll could be made)

Leäl would be preferable to not erase too much (about 2 hours' worth), but it would be a race against time to acquire some and apply it. But if Fagin makes deliveries it could work. Leäl is also easier to find (10F vs. 12F for Laés) and costs less (¥400 vs. ¥750).

Bobby has Mag 8, so his Focused Concern power let's him ignore 4 points of penalties from one source - which I usually use for shapechange and the mind link spell. Keeping the sloth form going reduces my pools by 2.

Don't forget that, Bobby has a fetish (Colibri Feather on an elastic band) linked to shapechange, so his drain is 2 points lower for a total of Force -5 - so even with the reduced body score, there are enough successes to soak

Drain resist: 7d6t5 1
Body Boost only causes 1 drain per point of the power, so I'm fine on that account.

Rolling for the coyote, now that I have to take care of the sloth, but first I go in for another Body Boost:
Body Boost: 9d6t5 6
Shapechange F6: 14d6t5 2
Drain resist: 12d6t5 3

Capturing the sloth shouldn't be a problem after refocusing.

Jawsey is still in the building, erasing signatures (well, his body is in the car, but he'd certainly argue that 'he' is in the building, the meat being more of a vehicle for his spirit). He likely knows that Huge went out the window, but he probably doesn't know much beyond that (none of it would have been in line-of-sight of the opening in the window). And he is not mind linked, so he doesn't know of the other discussions. He is just trusting Bobby and AM to be able to deal with one dwarf.
@Tecumseh I think we went off initiative passes before he or his spirit were done, but let me know when you figure that enough time has passed.

@Jack
Ah, yes, the fetish. That does lower the drain.

I thought sloths were medium-sized, like wombats, but it turns out they're much smaller.

I also thought that Attribute Boost drain was equal to hits on the boost test but, upon review, it is indeed just the level of the power.

For the purposes of Heightened Concern/Concentration I'm inclined say that each spell is a separate source; I do not think I would not sum the cumulative penalty of sustained spells and call that one source/modifier. But I will think on this.

@Beta
Astral travel is so fast that it wouldn't be any trouble for Jawsey to keep an eye on things outside. Plus, there's plenty of casting that needs to be scrubbed outside, so it would be easy enough for the Hunter Brother to be scrubbing inside while Jawsey scrubs outside (and therefore knows what's going on).

As for the time spent, I think we needed about 21 Complex Actions-worth of scrubbing, but then Bobby added an F7 shapechange on Huge so now we're up to 28. The good news is that astral initiative is fast so Jawsey is averaging 3 IPs per Combat Turn while the Hunter Brother is probably at 2. So that's 6 Combat Turns worth of scrubbing, which is only 36 seconds of real time. Jawsey and the Hunter Brother will probably be done by the time that Bobby has Huge at the car.

@Gilga
Let's roll some dice for the Availability test. AM is willing to pay double so that's 4 extra dice for the test.

Finding it: Charisma + Negotiation + Paying Extra 4: 14d6t5 2 hits, ah, lamentable
Leäl: Availability 10: 10d6t5 3 hits

Looks like the Leäl doesn't want to be found, unless AM wants to Edge it.

Jawsey's pool for this is strong (13) so he could try once he's back in his body.

We'll ignore the Delivery Times Table, which is a bit extreme.

@Sustaining

It's a cumulative penalty, but a single source - unfortunately, the rules prevent adepts from getting focused concentration as a positive quality (only available to adepts), but I intend to get a sustaining focus tattoo in the near future, now that we have a somewhat positive cashflow

@Tecumesh I was under the impression that if we use contacts then the contact rolls the dice rather than AM or Jawsey. I mean, if we both have the same contact then it is better that Jawsey address him? (seems strange).

If AM rolls with her Charisma then Iktomi can help
she can buy 4 hits with the improved charisma spell.
drain: 10d6t5 4


Rolling these dice:
Improve charisms dice: 4d6t5 3


and the dice keep giving me extreme values so 5 hits rather than 2. Which is still below expectation for 18 dice.

@Jack
Respectfully, I disagree. The fact that you can add or subtract from a sustaining penalty in discrete increments says to me that each spell is a separate penalty, rather than a contributor to a single sustaining penalty.

Separately, I would disagree that adepts are prevented from taking Focused Concentration. The book says, "This quality may only be taken by magic user characters that are able to cast spells and technomancers." An adept with Adept Spell, or a barehanded adept, would qualify.

@gilga
I almost wrote a tangent about this last night but my post was already getting long.

I was reviewing the "Contacts and Availability" portion of the rules and decided that it didn't make any sense. As written, Contacts are only beneficial if their Charisma+Negotiation exceed yours. I thought that they got a bonus to their dice pool from their Connection rating but, no, that's only a bonus to their Social limit.

As a Connection 3 contact, I was going to give Fagin Charisma 4 and Negotiation 4. But then I checked AM and said to myself, "per the rules, Fagin would be worse at this than AM." Which, as I said above, doesn't make any sense.

Jawsey in this scenario (dice pool 13) would have almost no need for Contacts because he'd be better off doing it by himself. But who the heck is he asking? The earth? The sky? Is he going alleyway to alleyway to ask around? The book doesn't say.

So in this case I bumped up Fagin's Charisma and Negotiation to match AM's so that you wouldn't take a penalty. That said, I wouldn't go so far as to add Improved Charisma. If you want to go through Fagin and have it delivered to you then it needs to be something that could conceivably benefit Fagin. Improved Charisma no, but Edge - "luck, the favor of the gods" - is nebulous enough that I would allow it, especially given AM's relationship with Iktomi.

If AM wants to use Improved Charisma approach and do the alleyway-to-alleyway thing then that's a possibility, but that will take real time in-game, and the clock is already ticking.

I'm open to other suggestions and opinions about how others have handled Availability tests and Contacts in their games.

Fair enough - I'll invest the 24 Karma at my next opportunity, so we don't have to retcon too much

I must admit that I was confused that you rolled the 10 dice that's all;)
Let's do the edge reroll because she really does not want to murder Huge.

Feel free to edge, alternative is that in about twelve more seconds (barring Bobby casting anymore spells), Jawsey will be back in his body and can try his contact and hope for kinder dice.

I'd imagine that it is work that would require longer timeframes so let's just skip to conversation resolution?

@Jack
What's the 24 karma? The sustaining focus is a better value than Focused Concentration, although I suppose cost and Availability can be factors depending on what Force you were thinking.

@All
Okay, if we're going with the Edge reroll then we can repurpose gilga's roll for Improved Charisma into Edge and turn the purchase roll into a success.

I posted ICly as such.

What's the plan for the next 40-45 minutes? Are you going anywhere or are you going to wait where you are?

24 Karma to purchase 3 instances of Focused Concentration - yes a sustaining focus would be cheaper karma wise, but those are locked in for only one type of magic and can be rather easily deactivated by high background count (and a tattooed focus should be purchased at its highest level, so you don't have to pay for upgrades) considering how long it takes to get such a tattoo and the monetary cost, I think I'm better off with the quality.


For the meeting: We shouldn't meet him near Huge's place - we don't want there to be any more connections to this situation than necesary. We can save some time by meeting him half way, as we can apply the lael directly to hugh and knock him out. That gives us some more time to bring him back and set everything up as it was.

Yes, good points about the background counts and being flexible about the spell type they are sustaining.

AM would likely try to eliminate evidence in the matrix for her botched snoop command. That should happen before all the drugs and legwork.


Some rolls to remove the evidence of the failed hacking attack:
Hacking host: 17d6t5 9 Going silent entering host

edit file: 15d6t5 4

I assume she boosts her appropriate attributes and uses Trouble to sustain a spell for a few seconds while she hacks.
She can buy the 4 hits:
drain: 2#10d6t5 4 5

Let me know if you need more rolls

@Gilga, where are you doing this hacking from? Are you going to do it at the Stuffer Shack? When you get back to the garage? Or on the road while someone else drives?

@Jack, are you staying in the coyote form or are you going to transform at some point?