This is your space guys.

Sphynx

Hey Sphynx, how much do we know about the operation going in? If nothing else I think that a certain level of disclosure would have to be given to the team as to why they are detonating a nuclear device within a populated city. If we don't know about bug spirits specifically, then perhaps the briefing merely described them as some sort of highly dangerous insect like spirits that have drawn a cult, and they must all be wiped out at once or else.

Debriefing didn't even include that the weapon was a nuke, just in case you would decide not to do it based on the danger.

All you knew going in was that you were to penetrate, activate the device, withdraw, wait for orders with a warning, be prepared for active hostiles of a magical or astral nature.

got 10, 10, 1 on my knowledge: insect spirits...so just how much do I recall about them?

Wow... lots of reading to do...

I uh wanted to reiterate that Frost is actually a girl. Lily Coldfire is her more formal name, but both are valid and linked to the same SIN, its all part of the Rite of Passage that Elf nobles go through.

We straightened out the Glitch so I hope it was ok for me to post.

Not sure how you want the rolling to be handled

For my Armor Spell:
6 Sorcery dice + 4 Spell Pool Dice for the Sorcery test
10 dice @ TN #6

9 Willpower + 4 Spell Pool for Drain
13 dice @ TN #5


Also I'd like a knowledge Test to learn anything about insect spirits
6 dice for Knowledge Spirits

I assumed my two foci were primed and ready with the highest amount of mojo I could cram in them before the mission. Tell me if that is cool. The Levitate foci is off for now, regardless. Also, I am the only other person who has been referred to by a rank besides the Lt. Is my Sgt. rank the next down the line?

Heh, is there anyone in this game that doesn't have astral sight?

Well, I suppose when looking for spirits, you want to send in the team best able to find them in the first place.

Whizbang, your Knowledge roll was a 10, 4, 2 (I roll in my online games). Insect spirits come from a different metaplane than other spirits, and it takes a powerful shaman to perform the Astral Quest to gain control of them. He becomes a Queen Spirit who can then summon an indefinite number of insect spirits, most likely through the use of human sacrifices, since studies show that people always turn up missing during the summonings.

Shalimar, 4 successes, no drain.

Cthulhu, Sgts run a squad, Lt runs a platoon (which is 2 to 5 squads).

Did he want me and Leslie going into the building in Astral, or as normal? Radation being bad and all.

Right, I know what Sgts do, but am I the only one or is there another Sgt for our other small squad since we have two?

Also, what was the plan we were given (but of course isn't going to happen) for extraction after the blast?

What is our time frame for the recon, limits of engagement, how bad off is Chicago at this very moment, where is our recon taking us towards, etc? If I'm the sergeant of the squad I want this one by the proverbial and oh-so-cliched numbers.

This is addressed to the team: Do all of you use subvoc's or transducers to talk at all times? I couldn't really tell from some of the in character posts. You can assume I always talk with my transducer unless I specifically say otherwise.

The only Sgt, the 2 mages are not actually their own squad, you're all 1 small platoon that broke into pre-arranged teams at the beginning of the story. If you opt to go for squads or continue as a platoon is up to you guys. Right now you're the only Sgt (if there's a 2nd can also be left up to you guys), Lt is the leader (assuming he posts within the next 20ish hours, or the NPC dies in the first bug fight instead.), and the rest are team mates.

Hi Sphynx,

Any chance you could give us a quick briefing on what we're supposed to be doing in the game? So far all we know is we've detonated a nuke and we're supposed to do "recon."

Could you fill in the details of any mission briefing we may have had? how long we're supposed to be here, are we to engage or just observe, how are we leaving, any specific objective etc.

thanks

I have a feeling this is going to be a more 'player driven' type of game.

I do think we need to be given a little bit more background briefing so we have a better idea of what we need to do. Up until the Bug breakout, Chicago was a pretty normal city, so we should expect a police, fire, and other civil authority response to a nuclear detonation in the harbor district, so that would've been taken into account in the intial plan. As well as what we are supposed to do afterwards, even if the plan was 'throw all combat gear into Lake Michigan, get on a bus, and ride casually out of town.' I think we just need a bit of guidance to figure out what needs to be done next.

Another IC post from me in a few more hours, I wanted to give everyone a chance to post first (Lt still hasn't posted) before I get the ball fully in motion.

Sphynx

if Sphynx is going by canon, then the concrete walls would have been up about a week

I don't have Bug City or Burning Bright with me right now, but I thought the walls went up after nuking the big nest sent bugs spirits flying everywhere?

Before I post my next action, how are the two of them from Rupert?

Most of this is OOC Knowledge only ! ! !

Canon: August 22nd, Chicago closed to bugs. World (including you guys) believe there's a Vitaes plague going on. Though you are aware of the plague, you should have assumed your mission was dealing with that issue.

September 1st is today. You were sent inside the quarantined area and detonated a bomb which put alot of spirits in stasis. Things had quieted down on the streets of Chicago, and it was felt something major was about to happen. Mages scouted the area and made an assumption that decided where to put the bomb.

You are unaware of how long the problem has been going on, as far as you know, you just went into a quarantined vitaes area and placed a bomb somewhere that was unpopulated (old abandoned warehouse) for unknown reasons. The explosion seemed to have had a strange effect as astral entities are flung throughout the area, placed in a stasis form.

Hope that helps. (Sorry, I forget not everyone knows the history of Bug City, my apologies for not being more detailed on the account)

Sphynx

Ah, I thought the problem started with the nuke. My bad. I guess Rupert will up his guess about civil response time then.

It is strongly recommended that you include at the bottom of every post (in the OOC area) dice allocations such as combat pool and spell pool. Declaration of actions should include complete dice allocations unless you're wanting me to guess how much effort you put into an action.

Sphynx

Uh, question for you that wouldn't come up without your magic system so no clue how the base SR sytem would handle it. Are my Improved Reflexes active on the astral since they are magical in nature? If yes, then my reaction on the Astral is 10 instead of 6, just wanting to double check this.

That's not a valid question. Improved Reflexes are on the Adept, not on the Astral. If you intend to ask if it's visible, on the Astral Plane, when you use an adept power, the answer is no.

Sphynx

Heh, I love how a spell wakes up the spirits, so what do you guys do? Cast more spells!

I think that the error of that course of action will be learned quicly enough. In fact, it had better be learned or we're going to be in for a world of hurting.

But a world of hurting will be fun! I haven't had a character die on these boards yet.

I don't think anyone but Frost could really determine a cause and effect relationship between spells and the bugs awakening yet, and since she didn't say anything we all began the fight in the best ways we could.

Right now this is just OOC BSing, but I think by the end of the combat, magic and bugs going wakey wakey well be pretty well estrablished. Rupert was looking right at Frost when her fist spell went awry and started waking things up, and I think we're about to see that feat repeated for our enjoyment. Multiple times.

I didn't say anything because I am suppoused to be surprised, I figured I'd start to react once the bugs had started having their fun. Lets see what level 8 mystic armor and a willpower of 9 can do for me against a few spirits, see how deep the dreck is.

Right, I'm not saying anyone made a bad decision, I'm saying that no one made a bad decision based on what we know right at the surprise situation.

I had to do alot more lookup/calculations than an 8 man game should have. Please include in the bottom of your posts all possible dice/info. Ie:

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Initiative: 5 + 4d6
Attack dice: 9 (Edged Weapon: 5, Focus: 4)
Armour B/I: 7/4
Damage: 15S (Strength +14)
Body: 1
Combat Pool (Attack/Defense): 12/36
Reach: 3
Wounds: Moderate

Combat Pool Allocation (you should fully allocate it every time, since it regenerates before your next action)

Etc, Etc. Having to open and go through 8 txt files while trying to post is a bit tiresome by the end of the first hour it takes to do such a complete post, and then going back and being descriptive enough to maintain interest is a chore instead of the pleasure of telling a story. Make it easy for me, and the story only gets better as its told.

Sphynx

every action? love the house rule

No, not every action. Bad wording. Every Combat Phase, but every series of posts should envelope 1 combat phase. Thus every post by you should have full allocations for that pool.

Sphynx

before I post my next bit what kind of action is centering?

Centering is a Free Action

2 quick questions

Since I am on the astral, my body is my willpower stat, so thats 9 dice to resist damage, right?

The other question is if my level 8 mystic armor is working since its stated to work against Astral attacks.

Yes and Yes (sorry if I made a mistake, like I said, I had to look up everything....)

Sphynx

Stupid me....I just had it brought to my attention that I forgot to buy armor... having plenty of money left over...I couldn't by any chance remedy that failure, could I? If no...guess I'll have to keep an eye out for some.

sorry, error. I'll post later

As the combat continues, the spirits immediately congregate on Leslie, realizing that she lacks any form of armour. They all attack her in full force until she....

Oh wait a second, this is the OOC thread, I'll be right back, gotta go to the IC thread for this I guess.

.......

Crap, appears I took too long, Leslie has Armour on her now. Oh well.

Sphynx

Sphynx,

What was the original plan for extraction?

I realize it's trash now, but Knight Errant must have had some plan for how they were going to get us out, what with the wall around Chicago and it being a no fly zone. Obviously we can't rely on Knight Errant now, but any intel they may have told about extraction would have been useful, e.g. two helicopters landing at x time at x place, guards at part of the wall bribed to turn off the cameras for five minutes at 2am, that sort of stuff.

Sphynx, On that First Aid roll, I'll spend Karma if I need to.

I'm going to be on vacation starting tonight and returning on Weds. Don't expect much posting from me until then, though I may get on once or twice, we'll see.

Just something I thought that we should keep in mind as we make plans for our next action. Chicago inside the wall has not yet become an armed camp over run with spirits and other nastiness. It was our little sparkler that sent the spirits spilling out into the rest of the city, so with the cover story of the VITAS outbreak, things would7ve been quiet, but still civil. This is all in the process of changing while we wait, but it's also information that we would not yet be aware of.

Still, our main priority is exfiltration, we should not be seen if at all possible, we need to head towards the wall, and at least we are now well aware that bugs are gonna be all over the fraggin' place. There have been riots at this point as well, so we may as well make sure that we are somewhere safe.

First Aid roll on Leslie (TN 10 [Awakened +2, Bad Conditions +1, Body4 -1]):
Complimentary Dice from MedKit: 11, 7, 5, 5, 1, 1 (2 successes needed)
BioTech Roll (TN 8 due to 1 success on MedKit roll, and using a superior medkit): 10, 8, 8, 8, 4, 3 [1 karma spent for re-roll]

Healed 4 of 9 boxes of damage reducing her to a Moderate +2 Wound.

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Extraction, you were ordered to extract yourself from the city, since there's no way to send in an extraction team, and then call for a lift if/when that is accomplished.

Sphynx: Will try to not post too much except in OOC unless something happens that requires interaction. Right now as you're all on your own, I will simply reply to questions on the OOC board as you roleplay your way around.