No need to repost your sheets.

Chapter 10 karma may be spent immediately, but nuyen will need to be spent ICly.

Is there a plan for how to retrieve the RCC? If not, please discuss (either OOCly or ICly). If so, would someone please outline it ICly?

Karl Kombatmage, hahaha, what a great reference! I had totally forgotten about him.

Gilga can Edge AM's next Interlude roll on the house.

Thanks Glad you liked it.

AM's karma shopping is:
- Arcane bodyguard.
- Initiation: shielding
Spells:
- Mana barrier
- Detect individual
- Manascape

She'll be generally uninterested in the foci since they are too powerful for her to use. (AM only has magic 5).
Raven can have them.

I don't think, Rachel would bind all of the foci. The Power Focus is pretty amazing, obviously. And she could learn Centering with her first initiation, which is not a great choice usually, but with the Centering Focus would make a lot more sense. Both would also help quite a bit with Alchemy.

The other two foci we could just store in the HQ for now.

Bye
Thanee

Definitely get the power focus and centering focus. It seems like a great combination for everything, really. I mean, even for making foci you'll be at 13 dice with a single skill point.

Anyhow, AM would seek to acquire a counterspelling focus to complement her countermagic abilities. A lower force power focus was also on my wish list.

Yeah, with some Artificing, Rachel could then look into making one for AM.

Bye
Thanee

Good stuff, Gilga. I was wondering why AM wasn't more interested in initiating, but that IC post explains her logic well.

Here's the shopping list I had from Bobby Ray's:

Marpinger Mannlicher w/external Smartgun: 2000 ¥
1x Ghillie suit w/ R4 Thermal dampening 2600 ¥
1x Ghillie suit 600 ¥
2x Smart Firing Platform w/AK and external Smartlink: 2x 3650 ¥
Autosoft R6 3000 ¥

That totals ¥11,850. I'm going to suggest we take that out of the ¥200K payday as business expenses to complete the job. That would leave everyone a share (including Bobby) of ¥37,630.

Raven suggested taking less in exchange for the Power and Centering foci. I'll let Thanee put a price on those.

Can Bobby use the Manipulation spell sustaining foci (he doesn't have any Health spells to sustain currently) or does casting through Adept Spell make that not viable? The rest of his spells are through Barehanded Adept; I'm not sure if that benefits from foci or not. I could check but I figure someone knows off the top of their head.

Tien picked up the ammo and grenades. I never got a quantity from Jack so I'm going to assume:

Shotgun, flechette x25
Shotgun, stick'n'shock x25
Rifle, APDS x20 (19 remaining)

This is based on some Googling about the number of shells/rounds in a box.

Beta, did you write down the grenades?

Bobby could use the focus, but won't - only tattooed ones stay with him through transformations reliability.

The power focus alone is actually worth 108.000 Nuyen - together they are worth more than the whole haul

Ammo is sold in 10 shot increments - so 20 rounds each or 30

I guess, the only sensible answer here is "all of it" (i.e. Rachel will take none of the Nuyen). That is still a lot less than those foci would cost, if you buy them (of course, there are other methods with Artificing, but that will take a lot of time, too).

But, of course, she can also help the others get the foci they are looking for... speaking of which...

@Jack: What do you need in addition to Artificing, in order to make those tattoo foci? Artisan?



Rachel's Karma goes to:

- Binding Power Focus [36]
- Binding Centering Focus [18]
- Initiation Grade 1 (Centering) [13 -10%]
- Initiation Grade 2 (Masking) [16 -10%]
- Chosen Follower [10]
- Artificing 1 [2]
- Artisan 1 [2]
- Astral Window Spell [5]
- Combat Sense Alchemical Spell [Chosen Follower: free; Q1/2079]
- Increase Reflexes Alchemical Spell [Chosen Follower: free; Q1/2079]

Knowledge:

- Awakened Threats 1+2+3 [6]
- Area Knowledge (Downtown) 2 [2]
- Cocktail Mixing 2+3 [5]
- Cooking 2+3 [5]
- Golfing 3 [3]
- Tattooing 1+2+3 [6]
- Sioux Sign Language 3 [3]

Bye
Thanee

I wasn't looking for a specific amount from Raven. I don't see any need to charge her full retail price for the foci. What makes her more effective makes the team more effective.

Although I might ask that we don't solve every fight with an F12 spirit of doom. Just some of the fights.

Note that my post above assumes that everyone who ponied up money for Bobby Ray's gets it paid back out of the job proceeds, so if you deducted that amount (whatever you loaned) then make sure you add it back.

New shares with ¥188,150 split four ways = ¥47,037.

Here's what I have for the not-yet-stolen RCC:

- swarm
- hardware autosoft 6
- electronic warfare autosoft. 6
- pilot sparring drone 6
- encryption
- shell
- virtual machine
- agent 5

It's attributes were A- S3 D5 F6.

That S3 was due to the sleaze dongle.

It's running Encryption (+1 Firewall) so that would make the base stats D5 F5. That would make it a Shiawase Cyber-6 RCC (p. 68 Kill Code). The fluff said it has a "rugged rubberized case," which I suppose would be appropriate for a farm. It also has a specific mechanical difference:

"While a rigger is jumped into the drone, this deck provides
all drones commanded from the console with +2 Initiative, and
+1 limit on all tasks. If the rigger is dumped from the console,
dumpshock damage is increased by 4."

Retail is ¥72K. Happy hunting!

Beta's post said the RCC should actually be a Lone Star Commander. I don't remember seeing that but I wasn't paying close attention. I just remember the stats that Jack gave.

The price is almost the same between the two so I'll let Beta pick if Tamarind would prefer the Lone Star Commander or the Shiawase Cyber-6.

No worries!

Normally, I would not summon spirits of this level at all. But there weren't very many alternatives here or back at the apartment.

Bye
Thanee

It's a remote commander - I didn't include the software in the attributes

Sorry for the misunderstanding

Oh, for sure. Mato was glad she did.

Everyone needs a moment in the spotlight

Karma spending (I haven't updated Tamarind's character sheet yet, but I have this in my spreadsheet)

From the last interlude: two knowledge skill specializations:
- on Gardening "HOA Approved"
- on Seattle Food Delivery "Bellevue"

10 free knowledge karma from this adventure:

Kn/A: Agricultural Rigging 1
Kn/I: Cooking 3->4 (eating genuine tex-mex food gave her new ideas!)
Kn/L: Sioux Sign Lang 1->2 (they got in some practice, between one thing and another)
Kn/A: Awakened Threats 1
Kn/I: Area Knowledge: South Texas 1
Kn/I: Marketing 1

She gains an overwhelming 92 karma. I ended up mostly spending it on qualities because that was faster than pouring through all of the skills. Some held in reserve, either to later get bartered with Green Toes or for some skill tune-ups.

Skills: Hacking 1->2
Attributes: Edge 3->4
Qualities:
- Silence is Golden (all with 10m of her get -2 matrix noise. Very handy when dealing with drones at a distance!) for 18 karma
- Blandness (harder to remember her well enough to describe, harder to spot in crowds) for 16 karma
- Analytical Mind (+2 to Logic tests involving patterns, clues or puzzles etc) for 6 karma
- Codeslinger (1 on a matrix attribute)
That leaves her with 22 karma for later.

Sounds like AM isn't keen on grand theft andro. I'll let Raven chime in.

In either case, it sounds like extracting the RCC is the first step.

The basic plan is for Trouble to zip in, materialize, yank the RCC, then psychokinesis it through the drainage pipe? Seems plausible.

Any other nuances or contingencies I should understand?

I'm not clear on how many cameras are along the fence/how they are spaced/ their visual field. I guess it all comes down to how many cameras would need to be dealt with to create a dead zone?

BTW, Gilga -- I doubt we end up stealing all of the drones, but Tamarind is certainly going to explore the possibilities before giving up on it.

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

Unrelated to any of the above, is someone planning a new chapter for once these interludes are done?

Answered the camera question ICly.

I'm planning the next chapter. Maybe after that we'll let Thanee take one, but in the meantime let's keep integrating Raven into the SIS dynamic before we ship her off for a chapter.

Beta - no worries from me, even if it goes sideways, it would be fun to play.

AM is and has been, since the start paranoid - I imagine it as the aftershock of serving the Trickster and getting tricked once too many. So I channel her in the most authentic voice I can.

I'm gradually getting a better feel for Tamarind. Haven't gotten her all figured out yet, but I think something like "pessimistic enough about life to take chances -- if life is going to screw you over anyway, there is no point in playing it safe all of the time." Which manifests here as feeling that they shouldn't just walk away from this potential windfall, even if there are risks, but also not being heavily committed to that course of action.

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

On the topic of running new chapters:

- @Tecumseh I look forward to it -- but I hope that Mato has an easier time of it than during your last chapter!

- I'm working on a chapter ... with my son. I've been running SR for him for many years, but he also runs games in other systems for his friends at times (mostly Pathfinder and Call of Cthulu). We definitely have different styles as GM's so this is going to take a while to prepare, but it is fun to collaborate in this way, and I look forward to running it for SIS at some point. No great urgency to run it, but just sort of sticking my hand up to say that I should have something ready anytime after Tecumseh's run (not necessarily right after)

Beta, how old is your son now? How long has he been playing SR?

Mato will not be getting blown up this time. He'll go in for Synch treatment which, as gene therapy, will take a month in a vat. His Essence will be 0.03 when he's done, so he needs to upgrade the rest of his 'ware to free up some room. His arms are the obvious candidates, as they are currently Used, but upgrading them to Alpha will cost somewhere between 100K and 120K for each arm, so he'll need to save for a bit before that happens. He'll probably do one arm first, then fill up the Essence hole with goodies, but even that will take a few chapters of income and karma-to-nuyen conversions.

Most of Mato's karma will go to skill increases (currently plan in 36 of it), 5 will go to nuyen, and the other 5 I'll keep in reserve because I invariably think of something that I wish I had a few karma for. His knowledge karma will likely go to Contacts that I wrote ages ago but never set aside the karma to purchase.

The the meantime, let's put the IC plan into motion, or continue to revise it before executing.

He is 25 now, I think he was 16 when he found my old SR 2e rules book in the book case and asked to end our Hero Wars campaign and give ShadowRun a try, so about 9 years. We ended up picking the 5e CRB and have played 5e ever since. The original character is based in Seattle, so we've logged more time there than anywhere else in the SR world (although less lately, more of the recent focus has gone to two newer campaigns set elsewhere). So he is rather fluent with the rules and the setting.

Oh, wow. In my head I thought he was still a teenager, so I had that wrong. Maybe I assumed that when you were telling him about Urubia's offer to Jawsey and he was encouraging you to take it.

~~~

I spent most of Mato's karma:

Pistols at rating 3
Longarms at rating 3
Six different skills at rating 2
Nuyen 5
a handful leftover

I was going to spend Knowledge karma on Contacts but, upon review, I already purchased those Contacts. So I'll look at Knowledge skills instead. I'll probably pick up the Agriculture specialization for Business since Jack suggested it. Also, I have it in my head that Mato's parents were corpers for Wind River Corporation, so maybe he absorbed some of it when it was younger.

~~~

Let's get some IC posts going so we can keep this Interlude moving.

My son has a fatal attraction to dragons. Absolute moth to a flame

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

I'm leaning on Tamarind's magical theory skill to justify her being comfortable with what Trouble can do. But of course the plan still manages to incorporate several drones!

Boiling things down a bit, your two primary goals are:

1) getting the RCC into the pipe, and
2) getting the RCC out of the pipe.

An anthro drone is a plausible approach to #1.

Trouble (and Psychokinesis) is a plausible approach to #2.

What you might want to be careful about is getting Trouble in and out of the drainage pipe without being observed, especially on the astral. Perhaps Trouble could just zip from the cornfield to the pipe, which is obviously fast on the astral, but what if Iktomi has other plans?

Can't Trouble go through the ground?

Bye
Thanee

I thought Trouble enters through the pipe and steal the thing - did I miss something?

Spirits can't move through living earth - the planets aura prevents them

Right. There was that.

@Gilga: Not sure, if we are missing something. The first time, we masked the aura of whoever went through there (Mato?) with that Manascape spell from Gladius.

I am not certain, whether that was only necessary to actually make the path available and isn't needed now.

Bye
Thanee

Gladius masked Mato's aura so that Mato could investigate the fence. However, Gladius has left the scene with Tien III so that option isn't available.

Trouble could go steal the RCC, but it's possible that the spirits would object to Trouble's presence. Or not, who knows. At this point it's not clear what the spirits' instructions are. Are they just border security? Are they there to make sure that what's in the farm stays inside the farm? Raven's IC post has some good theories.

Beta's plan sidesteps the question of "how will the spirits react to Trouble" by having the anthro drone deliver the RCC to the drainage pipe. If Trouble can get into the drainage pipe unobserved, then Trouble can use psychokinesis to retrieve the RCC and pull it through the pipe. Then you just have to get Trouble to the cornfield, which will provide visual and astral cover.

Seems like a good plan

If the approach through the pipe is not completely hidden from the spirits, I would definitely not use anything awakened for that purpose, since that will exactly be something the spirits will report to their summoners.

Bye
Thanee

The pipe itself is underground and completely hidden from the spirits.

The only trick is the 15-20 meters between the edge of the cornfield and where the pipe emerges from the ground. That section is exposed, but it's possible that it's outside of the spirits' area of focus, as they seem to be concentrating on what's inside the fence. Traversing that distance is also very fast on the astral too, although dragging the RCC out via psychokinesis will be slower.

~~~

ICly, hiding yourselves in the corn fields won't be hard, but you still have the GMC Armadillo with you. That will stick out, either for plowing a huge gap in the corn or from kicking up dust as it drives off. Perhaps you can address these concerns if you want to try to remain concealed.

Let's make sure we all have a common understanding of the situation.

The farm is about 20km west of San Angelo.

There's a gravel/dirt road that leads from the main road (Highway 87) to the farm. The gravel/dirt road is about 2 km. Victoria's remains are halfway down the road so as to not be too close to the farm, or - more specifically - the spirits and sensors watching over the farm.

The gravel/dirt road only goes to the farm. Everything else around you is corn, which is about 1.5m high right now.

There is a ~25 meter-wide band of dirt outside the farm fence that isn't planted with corn. The drainage pipe extends about 10 meters outside of the fence, leaving ~15 meters between the end of the pipe and the edge of the cornfields. This is the space that Trouble would have to traverse between the cover of the cornfields and the cover of the irrigation pipe.

As stated previously, it's easy to hide in the corn. The problem is the GMC Armadillo, which can't be hidden so readily. You could drive it toward the farm, and then go off-road next to the fence (in that 25 meter band of dirt outside the fence) but that would 1) kick up a lot of dust, and 2) might look more suspicious, like you're fleeing the scene of a fire.

You could drive back to Highway 87 via the gravel/dirt road, but then you'd be passing by the fire truck.

Alright, I edited it according to your explanation. Hiding in the corn field and pretending to be in love seems more interesting than GTFOing with the car. Gives us some social control on the situation.

hahaha I like it

I'm back home - regular posting schedule should be possible again 😊

Alright, let's move this along so we can get back to Seattle and have Bobby rejoin.

They actually do have a mage... so no Influence spells, I guess.

Bye
Thanee

Unless it is the mage you target with a low-force spell to keep everyone from noticing - but AM would keep sorcery as a last resort if things go very poorly. She'll prefer to talk her way out of a mess.

Moving forward with the plan.

Gilga and Thanee, go ahead and roll Charisma + Con if you get lyin'. Depending on the nature of your story, you can add +1 for "has plausible-seeming evidence" and +1 for "subject is distracted".

The elf eyeballing you on the astral is a potential complication, but it's possible he's not very good at assensing and/or he's distracted by the background count.

(The astral was heavy to begin with due to the ley line, but Victoria's passing has polluted the local manasphere.)

Sorry for the brief absence. For the first time since moving into the house in 1976, my mother had her basement flood (yay climate change making for more intense storms). Clean up was time constrained to avoid mold issues, and exhausting. Just fell asleep before looking at the computer the last couple of days. (all done now, other than waiting on the insurance company -- which got me thinking, in the SR world, do you need a 'shadowrunner' rider on your house insurance to have coverage in case people end up randomly shooting it up?)

Now going to go read through the last bit of ICs and get caught up.

I'll let AM rolls it because of the free edge;)

Chrisma + con: 13d6t5 5
Karl Kombatmage bonus: 8d6t5 2

I assume Raven would give cooperation dice: up to two more hits:
cooperation: 5d6t5 2

So 7-9 hits.

@Beta, it seems like a rough day.

Yeah, it's crazy how much damage water can do.

Rachel's Con: 6 hits

Bye
Thanee

I've never dealt with fire or smoke damage, but water damage is insidious. That's the power of water: it will flow and find every little crack and gap.

~~~

Per the IC, the fire truck and firefighters are gone but the elf's water spirit has stayed behind to keep watch on you.

There is a point of background count now due to the violence that dispatched Victoria, and the tattered remains of the shedim in the air. While this is unpleasant, it is a bigger headwind for the little water spirit than it is for you.

Rachel's summoned spirit will be on standby, not around her in astral space.

Bye
Thanee

I think me and Thanee posted in parallel, but I'll keep the post because I think it's funny.

That mage part was pretty obvious to him, anyways. Not much to admit there.

Bye
Thanee

I imagine AM sees all forms of magic as a dialogue with Wakan Tanaka. Tit for tat, I get knowledge and power, and the great spirit gets to play me like a pawn in their plans. Even now, she chooses to let the perv watch because she feels her totem would approve, and she owes him big for the Shedim. Tit for tat - a relationship where every bit of good luck or talent use has some hidden price.

Where Raven just *is* a mage and astrally projects or casts a spell as one would reach out and touch something. Which is a great and useful approach. So AM is astonished that Raven zaps in there or casts a spell for their amusement because she would resort to sorcery only as the nuclear option. If things go really bad in the mundane approach.