JA2 is the starting point if you like old games - and a lot of jokes only make sense if you have played it.

Though if you prefer a modern experience like X-COM, you'd be better off starting with JA3

I just read the wikipedia article on the history of the Jagged Alliance games, and I'm amused that I first read about the series in this game thread, when a lot of the development happened here in Ottawa!

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

Should we leave poor Mato not in a hole? I think he was going to be ready to rush the car once it stops? Alternatively Tamarind could be a few hundred meters back, doing her best to hide in the corn, and could still do her thing well enough.

Having played computer games since the mid-80s on an Apple IIe, I have a fair degree of tolerance for old school experiences.

That said, now that my gaming time is relatively limited, I confess that I don't mind a certain amount of handholding. Automaps, journals with to-do lists, a bit of a tutorial, yes please.

~~~

The plan was to put Mato in the foxhole.

Are we surrounded by corn then? If so, how tall? Might be great camouflage, both physically and astrally, but could also work against us if the vehicle is on autopilot and the ne'er-do-wells are on foot.

Edit:
Jack, how much ammo did we get out of Bobby Ray?

And what sort of shells were available for the Marpinger Mannlicher's shotgun barrels?

I thought vehicles were electric by default? Jack, from what Tamarind saw of the vehicle, what type of engine is it (and if internal combustion, is it aluminum?)

This car is an electric one - but for shooting its engine, it doesn't really matter - it's the same modifier either way.

You got enough ammo

The shotgun barrels are supplied with flechette and stick'n shock

The corn is currently about 150 cm high - tall enough to hide a car

A drone spy from above should be useful there.





Can we help here? Rachel has Intuition 5 and Disguise 5.

Bye
Thanee

Definitely seems like Raven would be able to help with the camouflage.

And, okay, wow, tall corn. Different than what I was envisioning but here we go.

(I pretty much assume that Texas is always brown and dry and dusty, but of course this is a gross overgeneralization.)

Also, a point of clarification: the IC post from three days ago said it was a black SUV. The most recent IC post calls it a "van". Does the vehicle appear to have changed from an SUV to a van, or do we think this is a different vehicle altogether?

Yes, certainly.

@Tecumseh

The vehicles look quite different. Though there are more than one explanations for that

Maybe we don't start shooting until after it has gone through the mana barriers? If there is no sign of astral intersection, we hold off until we can learn more?

If Gilga is off-line right now, would it be OK for us to roll for AM hacking the vehicle to see what she could learn?

Should I make one roll or multiple rolls for the disguise?

Any teamwork bonus dice?

Bye
Thanee

Tamarind doesn't have Disguise skill, but she can improvise assist.

disguise improv.: 4d6t5 0

Hunh, I probably should have thought that through a bit more before rolling four dice. Critical Glitch. I don't even want to know what all that would mean just now, so she'll spend 1 edge to reduce that to a glitch.

Sure, roll matrix perception

@Thanee
Yes, correct, Mato is holding fire until the targets are confirmed.

@Beta
It's not a critical glitch. It would have been in 4E rules where 50% of the dice needed to be 1s, but in 5E's rules it needs to be 51%. So it's a close call but not a glitch.

Good IC post though. I liked how you explained goofing up.

Disguise + Intuition 2 hits

Not great...

Bye
Thanee

Well, well, well... that definitely leveled the playing field quite a bit.

Rachel's Initiative 14

Bye
Thanee

I will post tonight, summer is a bit difficult to keep up.

Some rolls for the Trix/ prepping for combat with improved intuition seems like a good spell before combat.

drain: 11d6t5 5

Matrix perception:
Matrix perception(AR): 16d6t5 6

Let me know if there is anything to hack before combat.

As for combat:
Initiative: 17+1d6 18 --> AM
Initiative: 10+3d6 22 -->Trouble:

Initiative:
init: 15+2d6 24
Oh, first use of Lightning Reflexes is a nice one

(IC will be tomorrow though)

Hmm, I don't see any illusion spells under those spoilers. Curious.

Initiative, CT1: 1d6+15 18

I'm not sure what's immediately obvious. I'll spend a Simple Action from Mato's first Initiative Pass on Observe in Detail to see if he can acquire a target.

Visual Perception: Intuition 6 + Perception 5 + Specialization 2 + Vision Enhancement 3 + Attention Coprocessor 1: 17d6t5 6 hits, his vision magnification and flare compensation should help too

The second Simple Action will likely be relaying what he sees to the others. Any attacks will probably be in his second Initiative Pass.

What's the approximate range to the vehicle?

@Tecumseh

Since you are going to learn it soon anyway: during their travels they used vehicle mask to change the appearance of their car. Once they got close to the border with it's spirits, they dropped the spell, so they wouldn't cause attention.

The car is now about 25 m from your position and about 50 from Gladius.

Yeah, that part was pretty clear.

And once outside of "camera territory", they do not really need the disguises anymore. Those were mainly to not easily be able to identify/track them during their travels.

Luckily, their canine behavioral knowledge was a bit lacking.

Bye
Thanee

Alright, let's go...

P1 - I14 - Rachel summons a F12 Spirit of Air (which will be F13 when it appears; Optional Powers: Elemental Attack, Fear, Guard, Noxious Breath)

Summoning 3 hits + Edge Re-Roll 5 hits vs. Spirit 3 hits = 5+1 services
Drain (vs 6P) 8 hits (no Drain)

Those spirits really want to help with this, it seems.

P2 - I4 - Rachel commands the spirit to materialize inside the car, ideally behind the passengers, in order to knock out the two mages with Noxious Breath at the first opportunity, and generally try to disable any hostiles there without killing them



Spirit of Air

Initiative 35

P1 - I(35)14 - Delay
P2 - I(25)4 - Materialize inside the car
P3 - I15 - Noxious Breath on Tien IV and Phillip (holding off to roll for this, as I do not know if anything else happens before)
P4 - I5 - ...

Bye
Thanee

Does Mato's Observe in Detail notice anything?

I'm not sure what to tell you - the car stopped, but it has the standard mirror shade windows, preventing outside observers to look in. No-one got out yet and the car doesn't look to have been modified.

@Jack_Spade, I have some questions, that effect when things happen (and then I queue up some rolls for once they happen)

1) Tamarind actions to issue commands
I realized that I'm not actually sure what sort of action it is to command a drone to perform an action (under its own pilot, as opposed to using Control Device to do it directly). So I'm not sure if Tamarind can order both Toothless and The Aunties in the same pass?

2) Distance from Toothless to the Van?

The CRB speed tables are incredibly borked, but by them at speed 1 'running' would cover 10 meters in a turn. Alternatively, if I make a wild assumption that ground speed 1 is ~30km/h, then with acceleration 1 Toothless would average 15km/hr over that turn (hitting speed 1 by the end of turn) which would be on the order of 12m moved in the turn, so that checks out the table reasonably well for that speed.
- If that is not enough, then Toothless is not ripping open anything this turn. For when it is ripping, rolls are below.

3) Type of van? In the rolls below I assumed a Bulldog. (if it is an Econovan, such as what Tamarnind drives, then Toothless opens it up in two 'attacks' (not counting the last six dice of each roll soaks one less damage on the first pass and two less damage on the second pass, and it only has body 14))

Rolls:
====
Since they are taking their own actions now, initiative rolls for Toothless (medi drone, pilot 4) and The Aunties (Flying Eyes, pilot 3)
Toothless
Toothless init: 8+4d6 20
The Aunties
Aunties init: 6+4d6 23

Tamarind goes at 24, so at 20 Toothless should move (and start working on the door?)

With the car immobile, I don't think this takes an attack roll? But can it 'attack' on its first pass, or does it need a 'ready weapon' to position the tools properly?

Be it on pass 20 or 10, when it starts doing damage, per Jack some pages back:
For the Crash Cart: 18 strength translates to 18P damage, enough to get through most vehicles in one or two cuts, using the barrier rules (Armor+Body to resist, with Body boxes of damage for a 1m wide hole)
I'm not sure of the model of van, but just to be pessimistic let's assume that it is a Bulldog, with body 16 + armor 12=28 soak
soak vs Toothless: 28d6t5 9
So takes 9 damage, less than its body of 16, so no hole yet.

The next question is how fast the jaws of life work? Can they roll every pass? Anyway, whenever the next 'attack' happens, let's have the damage soak roll ready:
soak 2 vs Toothless: 28d6t5 12
only takes 6 more points, totally 15, and still not open ... but maybe other damage happens by then?

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

I've not provided Tarmarinds other actions yet, depending on how many actions to do the two sets of drone orders, and whether Toothless attacks this turn or not, I'll determine appropriate actions for her to take.

1) Commands are simple actions identical to messages. You can give the same command to multiple recipients. So you'd need two simple actions

2) let's assume your character considered the speed issue and gave toothless a hole close to the ambush site. Roll in for the drone and use some actions to sprint. I'm ruling the combination allows you to get close within one round and you get one attack with your last action.

3) the van is a generic one with body 12 and armor 6. Buying hits that's enough damage to cut through in one complex action.

4) the real problem is, that neither driver nor car are disabled yet. Unless that is done, they'll simply drive away from the drone.

I wasn't assuming that the vehicle had a mirrorshade windshield, but maybe that makes sense in the context of astral security. I suppose I was also thinking that thermographic vision might reveal if there are any forms in the front seats and what their posture might be.

I think I'm getting sick so I haven't read today's posts yet. Hopefully I can sleep it off.

CT1 IP2
Simple Action - fire at vehicle engine
Simple Action - stand up
Free - jog toward vehicle
Free - (from Perfect Time) comm something to the team

EMBARRASSMENT: Mato doesn't actually have Longarm. This whole time I thought he had the Firearms skill group but he doesn't. Well, I guess I know where the next block of karma is going. I am currently out of karma so I don't have any to buy rating 1 with.

Well, let's find out if it works. He has a good Agility, a smartlink, and a big stationary target. Maybe it will work out great

Agility 10 - Defaulting 1 + Smartlink 2: 11d6t5 4 hits

Take that, engine. Base damage is 11P -8AP + net hits.

Exhausted now. I'll try to IC post tomorrow.

Get well soon

Thermo doesn't work even with a regular car (insulating properties of car glas)

You are allowed to use automatics at -3 to substitute for longarms, but you hit anyway. So let's assume you used the called shot for -4

No armor and only 12 body dice for the car to resist: Soak: 12d6t5 5

9 boxes filled and the car is stationary.

Now let's see how the spirit is doing:

Manifests and is hit with two banishing rolls:

Banishing: 14d6t5 4
Banishing: 13d6t5 3
-1 service

Banishing: 12d6t5 4
Banishing: 13d6t5 3
-1 service

That leaves the spirit enough services to do it's job
Noxious breath: 29d6t5 11

Defense: Defense: 10d6t5 3
Defense: Defense: 12d6t5 2

21 and 22 Stun damage

Soak: 4d6t5 1
Soak: 6d6t5 2

So both take 20S

That rolls over to a full stun track and 5 P

Wow! That worked rather well!

Sidenote: They would also both suffer 6P Drain from the Banishing attempts. But that will not make any difference, it seems.

Bye
Thanee

Is the Shedim gone, though (disrupted)?

So, it is just the dead body now, which will soon begin to decay, now that the magic is not keeping it from doing so?

And does Arione carry anything?

Bye
Thanee

No, the spirit is still inside - just with a full stun track

Ok, so we can expect the spirit to become active again in about an hour, I suppose...

So, how does one get rid of a Shedim? Fill its physical monitor? Destroy the body?

Do we have any knowledge that helps with this?

Bye
Thanee

Yeah, destroy the shell and then disrupt or banish the spirit.

Grim work... I mean, she is dead already, but still...

Bye
Thanee

That's so metal.

I'm back and caught up on the IC thread. I'll post in a minute.

I just had dinner right where we had the meet with the Hackers Club back in Chapter 7. The ice cream pop-up that was there two years ago (in the middle of the pandemic) has moved around the corner into a bigger spot. Then a fancy Italian spot that my parents like opened up and expanded into the space. Bellevue today is a actually a pretty good approximation of Bellevue in the 2070s, at least in terms of socioeconomic status and corpers (and not, say, metas).

@gilga How are the protests? You're making the news every day here.

@Tecumesh - The biggest ones we have seen in Israel. My family and extended family are very active in them. At the same time, the gaps between the political parties are not that big. Still, somehow I don't see any opposition leader doing something so unpopular as to compromise when there are so many people in the streets demanding to stop. The coalition leaders are having a similar difficulty because backing off may break the government. After all, they delayed everything else to deal with the judicial reform, and all that effort has resulted in very little so far. We need a responsible adult to take the political system out of this dead-lock and I am not sure we have anyone.

The issue seems to be trust rather than the specifics of any laws. I suspect that the government is ready to back off but is looking to keep face to preserve itself so they need some 'victory' to compromise. I think it all goes to another delay of a year or so, and nobody knows what will happen after that. There are real problems with the economy and personal security and a year from now - they may take the center stage. This is where a government should be focused rather than on fixing a system that has been broken for the last 30 years or so. There are always more urgent issues to handle.

Agreeing on 'stalling' leaves both sides able to say to their supporters that they did not compromise, but time is limited.

Hope your people get this resolved at some point.


Was about to have Rachel heal the wounds (5 physical each on Tien IV and Phillip from stun damage overflow; luckily this gets halved, it was 20S they suffered) with her spell, but I don't think that even works while petrified, so she asked AM to do this instead (she should have a few more dice also with Trouble).

Bye
Thanee

Gilga, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I generally find what you share to be more insightful than what we read in the news over here. Not that the news is inaccurate, but it misses some of the context.

Alright, let's make sure we have a complete To Do list, not necessarily in this order just trying to get everything down:

1) break shell
2) scramble eggs shedim
3) bury Victoria
4) drop petrification / heal Tien IV and Phillip
5) loot as appropriate
6) deliver Tien IV and X-T to Tien III
7) pack up (tarps, guns, etc.)
8) scrub Matrix
9) scrub astral
10) C-Square things (Mato has 5 units)
11) not sure what do with the vehicle we just shot
12) get paid, go home

Did I forget anything?

6) but make sure, he does not do something stupid (again)

11) burn it? Maybe with some sort of timer...

Bye
Thanee

Oh, and Rachel actually has a Medkit 6.

Bye
Thanee

Mato has an HE grenade. (Five, actually.) I suppose we could chuck it into the vehicle along with Victoria.

If the vehicle is still operational (which it may not be), I suppose we could have it drive into the land mines along the fence to the no man's land.

New business plan for SIS: since nobody else seems to be paying attention, AM and Tamarind take over the automated farm and funnel all the produce to us. (Or, you know, the revenue from the produce.)

Aren't you forgetting the mana line that spawned the Shedim in the first place

Technically, that's not part of your job 😉

But if you want to investigate, you'll have to infiltrate the farm

Yeah, but if it's all automated and we're handling it remotely then the shedim have nothing to possess! Except, you know, car accident victims.

Okay, seems like the To Do list is fairly complete. Let's start checking things off.

Mato is rather more detached than the rest of you, or so I presume. If Tamarind is going to have nightmares vaporizing Victoria's face, then what about this:

A) Mato plunks Victoria from a medium distance with the Mannlicher
B) Trouble + Raven's spirit curbstomp the shedim
C) Mato chucks Victoria's body into the incapacitated (?) vehicle and tosses an HE grenade in to keep her company

That keeps the shooter at a safe distance so there's no lifeform right there for a shedim to attack.

Or we could skip the shooting and just let the grenade do the shell-breaking. Could trigger it via wireless.

The car is indeed incapacitated - otherwise, yes, that is perfectly doable (technically you could let the F13 spirit fry the body and also astral combat the spirit as one service - with that much power, the F8 Shedim won't stand a chance)

That's a fair point. That would definitely work.

I was thinking of what to do with the vehicle and an HE seemed like a viable way to dispose of it.

You could just tow it, you know

Yeah, but to where? And do what with it when it got there?

AM has the Fix spell. Could that get it operational again?

Fix should do it.

A chop shop would give you a bit of cash for the car and make it vanish

Probably not a big issue, but still... if the spirit destroys the body, the Shedim will have a small window between destroying the body and being able to act again.

While, if the spirit waits for the body to be destroyed, he could act immediately against the Shedim.

Bye
Thanee