Hey all:

The internet is down in my apartment complex this weekend, so if I am slow responding to anything vital be aware.

*My only suggestion about moving from the restaurant is for Virgil to hold off using any healing mana until arriving at a safer location. It is obvious that something has been adversely affecting Virgil's ability to weild mana of late, I'd prefer that we be in a more neutral location before another spell is cast just in case the drain is very severe.

*Thanks for posting winterrat, I've been in TA training meetings all morning.

I'm fine with getting to a safer location and being healed. Tenmou isn't really in any kind of condition to drive his vehicle, but if we're going to need to gear up, all of Tenmou's weapons are in his car, so he will need to return to it at some point.

I'm all for meeting at a bar and comparing notes (and getting all closed up).

SR13- Why don't you post grabbing your stuff, and you can meet (and ride with) D&D V3. And then someone can post for us four arriving at this bar.

Cedric- Maybe you better post arriving first at the bar since Erebus is the one who suggested the place, so we can get a feel for it in our subsequent descriptions?

Sure, I was thinking typical dock worker's type watering hole, but I'll be happy to post the entry. SR13 you make your post and then I'll post the arrival at the bar.

Ahhh the joys of the seady blue-collar watering hole. I grew up in a city that has a fair amount of bars and clubs now, but when I visit home the bar I still drink at is this dirty joint next to the train tracks. I will enjoy the posting that we do at this place

-If Tenmou and Virgil ride together than he can be healed before entering the club. If I get a chance to jump in and post I will do so, but please do not wait for me. Below I will post the rolls for the healing spell and the drain so that Shadow . . or anyone else can input them into the story line as needed. I'm doing this just so we can make as much progress as possible . . .

Heal 4 (Sorcery 6 + 2 Spell pool): 10 07 05 03 03 01 01 01
*Yesh. . hopefully that will at least stop him from bleeding noticeably.

Drain (WL 6 + 4 Spell pool): 11 10 10 10 05 05 04 02 02 01
*Much better!!! Though with this strange condition hovering over Virgil I'll not make any predictions as to how good of a drain roll it is.

Ya, in my home town there is a trashy little cowboy joint called Bern's which serves perhaps some of the best burgers on the face of the earth. Its a dive, it looks like a dive, it feels like a dive, it smells like a dive, but their burgers are wonderful. Go figure.

Anyway, as soon and Tenmou has grabbed his gear and his expensive BMW I'll post Erebus' arrival at the bar at just about 5 minutes before 2200 which is the designated meeting time. I'll also post the fact that I made a couple of phone calls too as previously mentioned.

Okay, I posted my leaving Auburn and the arrival at the bar, there is a big gap in there for time so Shadow you can do whatever you need to in the time gap.

Shadow, only please.

Shadow Stealth roll for spotting a tail

01, 03, 04, 10, 21

OKAY!!!!

Of course that's a 21 that's absolutely useless since I'm 99% sure that no one's following me anyway. Still, I'm just thrilled to see 3 sixes in a row on one roll. I LOVE the Irony dice roller.

Bandit, Ronin- I have no problems with Erebus's offer. Whoever gets a chance (among us three) to post first, do it. Unless someone has a problem with it, when someone gets a chance to post just accept and we'll toss the ball back in Cedric's or SR13's court. Sound good to all involved? (including Cedric and SR13)

ya, I'm planning on giving the address to my apartment in Milton which is relatively close by. Its large enough that we can use it as a base of operations with a bedroom and living room and kitchen areas so people can crash out and rest. Its also got an underground garage so we can semi-secure the vehicles.

I'm going to be in trial today so I won't be able to post a response until late today. If you want just have Erebus respond by giving an address in Milton to apartment 36A of the Sunset apartments. Once we get to the apartment we can discuss what our options are.

In that line I'd like to suggest we as a team start thinking in terms of "decker" since we seem to be missing that component. We've got muscle and a rigger but no decker unless Daedalus or Dragons is multi-talented. I think its safe to say we're going to need a decker at somepoint here so we might start thinking about that. Erebus has a deck but no utilities and is at best a novice decker.

Shadow, once we're at the apartment I'm going to try and get ahold of Ridgerunner my Salish smuggler contact to see what he knows about the BP impound yard and any suggestions on how to get something out of there. If he has had to "liberate" things from the impound yard previously I'd love to know how he did it. Just anything he can tell me.

General Announcement

Attention: Shadow's wife is newly pregnant, and for the next few weeks he'll be busy helping her out at home, as well as taking a larger share of the care for their current child. As such, bclements will be taking over running ASVW temporarily until things at home settle down and Shadow has time to get back on track.

bclements requests that we remain in the bar for a bit to plan and discuss so he can get caught up with the various dice rolls that have been made recently, in addition to getting caught up on his reading IC and OOC, plus Shadow's notes. So we'll stay in the bar BC until you post in the OOC thread telling us it's ok to leave.

And Shadow: I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again, congratulations!

CONGRATS!!!!! Way to go Shadow! Give your wife my best and tell her to get plenty of rest, you can rest later.

Congrats Shadow!!! I'll be sure to pour a glass of my 'celebration' whiskey tonight as I work on my manuscript. Well, it's only Basil Hayden's, not too fancy for those of your with real jobs . . . but plently nice for a lowly grad student

Congrats!!!!

SR13: Please educate me, what does "Arigatau" mean? Also, can you post your essence and the number of wound boxes you had, I'd like to know how much you were healed and to calculate Virgil's drain. Thanks.

Basil Hayden's? That's good stuff, and my personal 'OMG, Payday!' whiskey of choice. Well deserved for the papa and mama to be

Also, how are you allotting the wound/time ratio? By my figuring (he had a serious wound), you'll take no drain from the spell with your drain roll.

Cedric: I love the Irony roller as well. You don't see anything following you. Nice roll, though.

Everyone: If you need me to post for you, let me know. I think I'm caught up, so you can post freely IC (and OOC, as per Shadow's ruling). Just as when you were leaving the mob joint, come up with an exit strategy before you leave, just to make sure everyone's on the same page.

Ronin, it's your stuff, so you should probably post and make the call with respect to what Erebus just asked about your stuff.

Arigatau is "Thank you" in Japanese.

Essence is under 1 and I have a little bit of Bioware as well...I had taken a serious wound.

I just wanted to state that I get the keys to my new house tomorrow and will be hit and miss over the next week or so as I get my life back in order. I will do my best to check in periodically during that time, but there will be days I'm unable to check in.

You might have seen it more usually as arigato, bandit; sometimes in combination with domo arigato or domo arigato gozaimasita (for something really polite -- don't do it if you're male, unless you're Bob ). There are several schools of hiragana-Latin transcription.

Edit: of course, given that it's me, that's probably more information than anyone really cared to know.

Okay, if we're in agreement about using my apartment as a base of operations I'd suggest we continue the conversation there. If so then Erebus will head over first everyone can follow him. We'll park in the underground area and I'll move my bikes out of the way so that the car can be parked in my spot and then we'll head up the stairs together.

SR13: You're healed one box of physical damage. Moderate wound penalties apply, so try not to get in a fight in the bar Congratulations on the house!

SR13- Congrats as well on the house!

Cedric- Go ahead and post yourself leaving and arriving at your apartment. For expediency, you can write us in as arriving at your apt as well if you want, I have no problems with that.

BC- we're of course taking steps to ensure we're not being followed on the way to Erebus's apt

Post up to leaving the bar, Cedric, as well as any perception rolls you want along the way

Everyone: Remember the exit strategy from the bar, as per last time. Who's leaving and when, that kind of stuff. Perception rolls if you want to look around.

same as last time guys? scan outside first, then...Dragon, Erebus, Tenmou, Virgil, Daedalus sound ok?

I'm down with the strategy winterrat. Lazarius is already watching our car, which provides an amount of survellience. Virgil will also take a quick moment and astrally project outside of the bar to check for any astral tails that are going undetected. I'll do this after we finalize the exit plan . . .I also want to give Ronin a chance to place some input, since his drones are likely our best chance at detecting a tail.

Thoughts on this?

Works for me. Everyone else?

I think we're all just waiting for Ronin's valuable opinion on this plan of action, since he's the one with the eye-in-the-sky. Once he confirms his actions Virgil and Daedalus can scout the physical and astral simultaneously.

Winterrat: Do you think I should go ahead and post Virgi's scan in the IC? Or should I just hold my horses and wait to hear from Ronin?

go ahead and post IC. May as well since you have to do it at some point anyway

Forgot to mention somehting to BC, so its not his fault. Bandit, Virgil can't astrally project. When he trys, it fails, and it hurts.

Ok...roll drain Bandit, I guess

Sorry, my fault. I forgot to tell you

Hey, no problem at all

bclements (or shadow): Ouch. . although I have been on the lookout for such problems with Virgil and mana recently. I'll post in the IC, but I have one question preceding my drain roll . . can I use spell pool dice?

Sorry for the delay in getting back to everyone. I think we proceed with the exit strategy. Ronin, if you post that we'd rather talk details in private then we can head out per WinterRat1's exit order. My Scorpion is within a couple of meters of the door, and as soon as we exit the door I plan to step over next to my bike. That will spread the group out in case of ambush. . . . like say from a missile carrying blimp, and provide Erebus some cover from some angles.

BC,

Okay, when I step outside I'm going to be looking for possible watchers tails etc. Either perception or Stealth is the same number of dice to me so;

01, 01, 01, 04, 05

ACK! Erebus had a short in his cybereyes! Damn cheap Chiba knock-offs. (Erebus bangs on eye with the heel of his hand.)

Obviously Erebus is going to sound the all clear.

Edit: P.S. Bandit, have you thought about that mana eating virus used by Ares in Chicago? Would that have the effect you're feeling?

bandit: Your resisting 4M stun, go ahead and use spell pool. It's like Virgil can't get out of his body, when he tries he get's slammed back in. Very odd.

Cedric: Go ahead and shoot me that .doc, when you want.

Everyone else that wants to, give me rolls for whatever perception you want. I'll write up leaving the bar after Ronin chimes in.

bclements: I'll save the spell pool dice for assigning spell defense (see below).
Drain (WL 6): 10 05 04 03 03 01 = 3 successes
-A light stun isn't too bad of a sacrifice here.

*Assigning spell defense dice for moving to Erebus's doss:

• Dragon - 3
• Daedalus - 3
• Virgil - 2

Cedric: I am considering that possibility, and several others. Virgil is going to need to get back to the clinic where he has shamans he can trust that can at least see if they recognize anything. Which gives me an idea . . .

bclements: An astral perception roll upon himself to see if Virgil notices anything peculiar about his own aura.
Aura reading: 05 05 04 04
Perception: 09 05 04 04 04 02

Dragon's perception roll: (-1 to TN): 11 05 04 04 03 03 03

ok ok.. hi.

Daedalus is going to look through Icarus (condor drone, stationed reasonably high above the bar)

Primairly he's trying to get a view outside to see if there is anything suspicious i.e. car that seems to be loitering out of place, drones hovering nearby with missiles, large hit team streaming through the door, things like that.

I'm not sure if a sensor test is in order, perhaps and active sensor test to detect something sneaking up.

Sensors rating 3, Clearsight autosoft rating 4, giving me 7 dice for a sensor test.
25 14 07 03 02 02 01

yeeah... wish I could save rolls like that for things that i was sure to be rolling about.. : P

(I did bring my own IRL dice, and that one die has just made the all star team)

Dude, I hear you! I went through ALL my d6s and tested them out and put together an all star team of 12 dice. 8 starters, 4 benchwarmers. Leave them in my bag and carry them with me everywhere.

The statistician in me wants to set you straight about the concept of a "lucky" set of dice . . the the roleplayer in me wants to congratulate you and your team. Guess which side of me wins

You know that some dice are better than others! You've seen it with your own eyes! Throw out the oppressive statistics of The Man that would deny reality and embrace the truth that the dice gods have revealed to you!

Behold:

I am hoping you quoted that from somewhere, not that you made it up...

then again, I'm not sure which would be weirder, the fact that you would type that up, or the fact that someone ELSE out there is so in line with this sort of thinking...

: P

8 starters and 4 bench warmers... hahaha.....

Nope, I have to admit, I just made it up.

Guys hate to get off the topic of the "lucky dice" but please review the time stamps on the last three or four posts. We jumped ahead almost two hours.

I think we need to edit that because we jumped ahead in the middle of a conversation while possible bad guys are waiting outside and I'm waiting for a phone call. I'd suggest we get back from 23:57 to 22:00 to make everything make a little more sense. I've gone through and edited my post to make it better fit the timeline.

Oh, since I'm trying to communicate more through OOC I am going to say this here then follow up at an appropriate time with an IC post. If this is too much communicating through the OOC tell me, this is my first pbp and I'm still getting used to the system versus the RPG I'm used to playing.

Before we leave the bar I plan on telling Dragon, who seems to be leading the team, what the apartment number and building is as well as the 6 digit code for the Maglock on the door. Just in case. That way if we get separated we'll be able to reconnect at a later time and if Erebus gets smoked the team will have the use of his apartment and the gear in the apartment.

Erebus would consider this making an investment and would consider the Milton apartment "un-secure" from now on. Still that's what its intended for so this is merely a cost of doing business. We're not there yet IC but I didn't want us posting our way out of the bar without me getting a chance to add that.

Oh, I'm fine with that much OOC explination and planning. Inflection and speech cadences are hard to do when non in-person, so the OOC stuff can carry that. Good catch on the time, everyone should be in the 2200-ish area after Cedric's post.

EDIT: Sedna's right Bandit, can't check your own aura. If you want to apply that roll to your astral perception test (which you can do), I'm OK with that.

Sedna and bclements: I was pretty sure that I couldn't percieve my own aura, but I thought I'd throw it out there just in case. Either it would be accepted or I would be corrected, and either way I would learn something. It looks like Virgil is going to need to find a trusted magic user to give him an examination.

-I'll go ahead and use those rolls for the astral perception test then bclements. Thanks.

great.. thats kinda creepy...

Daedalus will jump into Talos (faster, slightly better sensors.. plus gun) and fly over to that area to get a closer look. He'll also send a message to Dragon.. which I'll type up right now.

Gimme a roll for Talos.

err.. I hope I conveyed the impression that Talos shouldn't be just barreling accross the street.. something more like a cautious wide angled approach .. somewhat stealthy.. hopefully... ... ?

ok sensors 5, clearsight program 3

09, 07, 05, 04, 03, 02, 02, 01

as for moving stealthily... vehicle stealth? i'd have to default... to... ... reaction? quickness? I'd assume reaction b/c the VCR should help with this sort of thing but here are my rolls for both.

reaction: 11, 10, 05, 03, 02, 02, 01

quick: 13, 04, 03, 01, 01, 01

Cedric- Feel free to go ahead and post that IC, since Dragon's going to wait until Virgil and Daedalus report back before leaving and barrelling out into whatever's out there.

And yeah, I have also been receiving much instruction in the ways of pbp, still a learning process for me too, and I've been learning that the OOC is very important just to communicate stuff at all, as well as to help do it correctly, so I hear ya on that.