Yes, he gave you a phone number you can reach him at.

Sorry, paul, I seem to be making a habit of the near-simultaneous post this week. This time I edited mine a bit to make it flow. The essence is still the same.

don't worry about it. In terms of heading out to hunt for Melissa Blaze is going to wait for us to finish up with anything else in this meeting before heading out, sorry about that, I kinda thought we were rapping up the meeting.

Everyone: what's in that file is a printed summary of what's in the chip, edited to the team's needs. For this first group we can consider that we have all the relevant details, with a slight focus on the practical and regional "tone":

• roads (between Seattle and California), condition (good chance of running into actual troops, especially closer to Bay area)
• satellite weather imagery of the area, visible and IR
• border requirements (visa, ID scans, pretty solid checks)
• San Francisco
• eta camps / "Centers for the Protection, Education, and Relocation of Metahumans"

For "Redwood County Center for the Protection, Education, and Relocation of Metahumans", there is a note that the search turned up blank.

For Alexander Wong and sister, there are a list of Matrix "pings" for future examination, but no further information.

Shev, if Avalanche wants to pursue the original purpose of the meeting, Alleycat will back you up -- but if you don't speak up, the meeting will probably morph here and now toward a discussion of how to go about finding Melissa, and Alleycat will support that equally.

Sedna- What was it that Durin grabbed for you guys? I know the generalities, but you had a specific list somewhere I believe? If you could post that list here, I'll respond in the Salvation IC thread and let Avalanche know what Durin grabbed for you guys.

Fate (and for my career good fortune) has conspired to keep me offline for at least the next two weeks. As of Monday I'll be posted to the HMCS Regina, headed off to defend the great Canadian coastline, and hit some bars along the way. Sadly, this is going to be a major setback for Tin Star's participation in the run, so I'm not sure what I should be doing.

Digital, thanks much for advance warning! Much appreciated in this day and age of sudden and unexplained drop outs. Send me a PM detailing the level and nature of your character's involvement that you'd authorize me to play, and I will play your character for you to the best of my ability (minus the accent, I don't know how well I can pull of the Texas thing without butchering it, but I'll try ).

For example, would you like me to involve him in combat or no? If so, how would he fight? Any particular aspects of his personality I should be aware of and highlight or try to avoid? Basically, a few sentence primer on how you'd like Tin Star played, and I'll do my best to handle it.

That counts toward the on-ship experience essential for promotion iirc. Congratulations! (Just as long as you're not doing the northwest passage cruise in winter ) [Edit: you said IC Tin Star would be interested in helping with the Melissa finding, so I kept you involved but without specifying the particulars: hope that's okay ...?]

WinterRat: found that e-mail, re-sent the particulars.

It's what I did on October 14 in this thread wrt knowbots, only this time the search will focus on Melissa parameters and concentrate more on Shadowland references:

Shev, sorry about the delay. Somehow it slipped my mind that I was Durin now. Whoops. My bad.

And Sedna, your search turns up absolutely nothing.

actually I have a quick question, do you want us to do the search for Melissa in this thread, or in the world thread, it doesn't exactly have anything to do with this run, but I wasn't sure.

Good question. Finish the meet (and thus the planning) in Salvation, and when you actually get searching, go to World IC. Normally it would all be in World IC, but since the conversation (and the events that started it) happened in Salvation, it's appropriate to finish the convo here.

Oh, and fyi, I haven't forgotten about the magical group thing. It takes time to find though, and I figure you have plenty of personal stuff going on as is. Don't worry though, when he finds it (have been rolling to see when) he'll let you know.

thanks, and i wasn't worried, just building up plenty of Karma to use on initiating

Sorry for the short posts recently. Avalanche is new to this kind of situation, so don'r expect any innovative ideas fro me...I mean him

He DOES have an intelligence of 6, and Sedna's posting may be a bit...sporadic over the next few days due to real life. If you have a plan, it might not be bad to post it and try to put one into action. That goes for everyone.

Side note: I will point out Paul, that searching the Barrens astrally will be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. You don't know her aura, so even if you found her, you wouldn't recognize her.

Appreciated, WinterRat. Looks like for now I'm still managing the one post per thread -- makes a very useful outlet/distraction (thanks, everyone!) -- but I can't guarantee that I can continue this regularly. (If anyone is interested, some of the details are in the link in my profile.)

I'm fully aware of that, and in fact Blaze is more or less aware of it too, he's just a little too focused right now to care, I'm working on doing the dificult job of balancing his need to find Melissa with his intellegence, and failing somewhat. But yeah, I know its a needle in a several miles wide haystack.

And thanks everyone for putting up with my derailing of this thread/meet.

alright conjuring test. Force 3, watcher

TN 3
conjuring: 7,5,2 (two successes)

Drain 5L
Charisma: 5,3,2 (one success light Drain)

I have a GM/house rule question about watchers. I was rereading the rules for watchers, and nowhere in them does it say that to have a watcher search for someone the summoner needs to know what the aura of that person is.

"the watcher needs an immage of what that person looks like" about how it describes it.

So the question is, could Blaze summon two more watchers and send them out to look for Melissa?

Paul, I concur with your interpretation, yes, it is possible. Keep in mind that because your mental image of Melissa is based off of a picture, your mental image will not come through as clearly. Translation: I'll probably modify the TN some, but you can try.

If Avalanche is willing to give her a lift, write Alleycat as far as you see fit, Shev. The drop-off point would be the same as last time.

WinterRat: can you cover for Tin Star? I don't want to just abandon him there.

that's fine, it's slightly more (in terms of your niceness as a GM) than expected but I'll take it.

Alleycat's catching the next bus to her Puyallup apartment, which is in Terms/Ripper's turf. There's a reasonable off-chance they might be in the area. If not, Alleycat's going to start working her way through the bars and such that are open in the area, asking if anyone's seen Ripper, listening always for motorcycles. She won't "belong" in the bar environments, but she also won't look like she's challenging anyone either.

Paul- Heh, well I said I'd try, so no promises. Actually, I admit I'm making this up as I go, so let's try this. Roll a Magic Test. I'll use this as a rough guideline of the 'emotional/mental imprint' that picture currently has with you. The rationale is that it's obviously something that is very significant to Blaze even if he's only had it a short time and has no idea how accurate that picture is to her current appearance. Based on that roll, I'll modify the TN to your watcher's search due to the stronger emotional imprint.

Translation: The magic test will modify downward the considerable increase in TN for your watcher, since Blaze has never seen Melissa before. It's a duct-taped sort of solution, I admit, but for the time being, it should suffice.

Sedna- Pick 3 numbers between 1 and 10

Everyone- Tin Star is currently covered, at least as far as having left the bar. He'll probably be pretty inactive, barring specific requests from anyone, since I'd prefer to play (and thus establish a perception of) a character for a player as little as possible.

4, 7, 8

ok, I'm going to be doing all the posts for things like this in the world IC now, including the magic test.

Hey, I just wanted to let everyone know that I am around; between graduation from grad school, moving into a new apt, and trying to get adjusted to being in a new state by myself, RL has been extremely hectic. I realize it's me who's holding up the hunt for Melissa, I apologize and will get on it ASAP. Should be in the next day or two. Thanks for your patience!

For the look, think drow meets "The Matrix"-style sleek black leathers, but with sneakers. All it's missing is a sword -- and right now she looks as though she'd know how to handle one.

Assume that Tin Star and Dice will not show up to the meet, unless you want them to, in which case feel free to write them in, or tell me here in this thread, and I'll write them in. Otherwise, proceed as you will. You're supposed to use the same password as last time, in case you forgot: "Mutual Interest"

Fast-forwarding through about half an hour, if that's okay ...?

fine by me, I don't think there's anything else you need from me, at least not till the actual meet.

Go ahead, I'm just waiting on you two

perception: 16 04 03 02 02 01

astral perception/ assensing: 11 08 05 03 01 01

I didn't know whether the

I'm working on the assumption that the three of them feel genuine in what they're saying to every sense Sal has.

Btw -- this wouldn't happen to be the ork from the Paradigm Shift, would it?

Yes they feel very genuine, straight up to Sal. And no, this is not the same ork from the club. But since no one's asked him his name, he hasn't volunteered it, just fyi.

I realize I should have done this long ago, but here's an asensing test to study the emotions of the other people in the room.

going from left to right as Blaze sees them, so

Elf: 11 11 04 04 03 01

Ork: 19 04 03 03 01 01

other guy (sorry bad memory) :05 05 04 03 03 02

For now I'm counting on one of you, Blaze (or Tin Star), for that deposit Of course it'll be compensated once the run's complete. Pick this up via her body language or not, as you see fit: if you don't, it's something she'll tell you afterward.

Actually, under the circumstances, it might not be inappropriate for Tin Star to make the offer afterwards ...

Gah, it's hard to write a negotiation from a purely Leadership approach!

Indeed. Well it's time to roll that Negotiation (or related default) please.

Partial default, since further upping of Leadership awaits assigning of karma

CH: 13, 9, 5, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1 (Hey, I managed to get every possible number in there!)
Leadership: 5, 1

Linked secondary skill Psychology: 5, 5, 5, 4, 3, 3, 3

" 'base", short for "database". Decker slang.

I just couldn't stay away... think I'm caught up on my reading...

Don't know, maybe this will help, for quick searches at least.

I have nothing to add in this particular aspect, assume you make it to the new location and meet up as you all see fit. Whoever wants to post as arriving first to the location and begin from there may do so, assuming that none of you takes any detours or does anything else in the meantime.

second to last post editted to help with continuity and keep the time flow and info in Sedna's correct. (in case for some reason it winds up mattering)

Is anyone waiting on me for anything? I didn't think so, since you're just planning and conversing, but I just wanted to check.

Just fyi: the direction I'm heading with this, in case anyone else follows it, is that one of the most common ways of smuggling illegal immigrants (for whatever purpose) into a country is by boat. If we happen to run across word of such a boat, we could "kill two birds with one stone" -- free them and acquire water transport. But that's just a heads-up: I recognise that this might go nowhere.

Just fyi -- we've already got everyone's number, this time Remember, Alleycat had been trying to call up help last night?

Ok I've finally gotten a chance to write up a decent post. I'm sorry if it's causeing a lag in the story. I likely won't have anything substantial until late next week but I'll try to get at least something in before then.

No worries, I'll get to you and Digital later today. As an aside, I'm assuming we're all ok with the pace of Salvation since from my POV you're all still planning and setting your plans in motion, correct? I'm not going to toss something in just to mess with you all and have something happen for the sake of something happening, so otherwise I'm just managing your plans (where my involvement is needed) and letting you all work on getting all your stuff in order.