[Tecumseh]

James notes the lack of AAA corporations in the investment portfolio. Illeana seems to have focused on A- and AA-rated corporations, which provide greater growth opportunities but also greater risk. There's always a possibility that one of the AAAs could gobble up one of the smaller players that it saw as a threat, or so thoroughly undermine its business that the stock price collapses.

From a company selection, James doesn't see much to quibble with. He might have selected ARGUS over Aegis Cognito, but their business models - independent intelligence agencies - look very similar. ARGUS is located in the Allied German States, so James presumes that Illeana selected Aegis Cognito (headquartered in Lisbon) for her stated goal of geographic diversity. (The AGS is already represented in the portfolio by the Frankfurt Bank Association.)

[Tecumseh]

Great IC post. You put the whole thing in a quote tag though. Could you clip that out for aesthetic purposes?

[Tecumseh]

Next IC post is up. Twists and turns galore. Again, it's very tight with the canon.

[Tecumseh]

You have some more quote tag goofiness on your last IC post.

Go ahead and post your Swamp Loadout for the Bayou. I'll be keeping an eye on the environmental severity rules in Run & Gun (p. 146-7). The heat is in the 90s Fahrenheit, which only qualifies as Mild, but the Humidity is High, which halves most duration modifiers.

[rednblack]

IC fixed.  Is this a day trip, or are James and Illeana planning on doing some swamp camping?

Swamp Loud Out:
Chameleon Suit
Ballistic Mask
Defiance EX-Shocker (Arm-slide)
Ares Predator V (Concealed Quick-draw holster, with Gel rounds, 1 spare mag with same)
Ares Crusader II (Concealed Quick-draw holster, with APDS, 1 spare mag with Regular Ammo)
Ares Desert Strike (with APDS, 1 spare mag with same, and 1 with Ex-Explosive)
Monofilament Garrote
Medkit (rating 3)
Medkit (rating 6)
Slap Patch (rating 6) X 2
Trauma Patch
Survival Kit
Rural type kicks
Hermes Ikon

The above load-out is under the assumption that we have bags for gear.  Also, how will we be handling water?  I've never found any water purification gear in SR.  Is that hand waved, or will we be relying on the Survival Kit for that? 

[Tecumseh]

You have plenty of space for bags and gear. I just wanted to know what you'd be wearing around by default.

Illeana doesn't want to spend any longer than necessary in the swamp, but it's unlikely that you can do everything you would need to within a single day. James' Survival training tells him to always be prepared, so he would have plenty of food and water on hand.

The survival kit is sufficient to purify water. Illeana could boil it, but the survival kit will do a better job handling the salinity of the brackish swamp water.

Is James wearing the chameleon suit and ballistic mask around by default?

I'm looking at the chameleon suit on your sheet. It says "Armor 9, Ruthenium Polymer Coating 4,Auto Injector, Pulse Weave 4".
- Did you "upgrade" the chameleon suit with the Ruthenium Polymer Coating? So it's like a super-chameleon suit?
- What's in the auto-injector?
- Pulse Weave doesn't have ratings, to the best of my knowledge. What does the 4 stand for?

[rednblack]

In Auto-injector: Rating 6 Stim Patch (set to be injected should he fall unconscious) and 1 Trauma Patch (set to be injected should his physical Condition Monitor fill up).  If it's possible to have a medkit installed a well, so that it would heal him once his Condition Monitor filled up, I'd like to do that as well.  Due to his Fire Watch training, I don't think James is really the combat stim kinda guy, so I haven't bought any of those for him.  I do wonder if his thinking might start to change after all the help he's been getting from Illeana, though.

I did soup up the chameleon suit.  By default the chameleon suit raises Sneak Limit by 2, and if it's Wireless, it adds 2 dice to sneaking tests.  The Ruthenium Polymer Coating imposes a 6 dice (Rating 4 + full suit 2) penalty on visual Perception tests to spot James.  There's no reference to the RP coating needing to be Wireless to function, at least that I could find.  There are no rules that state that chars who are only spotted via sound or smell benefit from the Blind Fire modifier on attacks against them, as they would from Improved Invisibility.

The rating on Pulse Weave has a number of charges equal to its rating.  No official word on what constitutes a "charge," but my assumption was one Combat Turn.

James would be wearing his Rural Kicks to rent the boat, and would change into the Chameleon Suit once we got away from people.  The Ballistic Mask would not be worn until it looked like things were going to go hot, should James have that luxury.  So default is Chameleon Suit with Ballistic Mask on belt, similar to the day in Kansas.  The sniper rifle is in a duffle bag on the boat. 

[Tecumseh]

Stim patch and trauma patch in the auto-injector sound good. A medkit is far too large and complex for an auto-injector though.

I figured that's what you were doing with the chameleon suit. So it will be -6 Visual Perception and +2 Sneaking limit with wireless off, and all that with +2 Sneaking with wireless on. No wireless in the swamp though, unless you want to drag a satellite link along with you.

Give me a few rolls:
1) Perception (visual or hearing)
2) Tracking
3) four (4) fatigue rolls

Fatigue is usually every 6 hours at Mild environmental severity, but the high humidity divides that in half. Roll Body 5 + Willpower 7 - Armor 5 = 7 dice. Damage is only 1S but it won't heal until you're out of the swamp.

No need to roll for sunburn as cyberlimbs are immune, per the rules.

[Tecumseh]

Illeana will be bringing:

Form Fitting Body Armor (8) w/ Non-Conductivity 3
Ballistic Mask
12 throwing knives
Highland Forge Claymore weapon focus
survival knife
60 Reagents

Team Inventory
3 high explosive grenades
2 smoke grenades (regular, not thermal)
2 flash-bang grenades
1 chemical grenade (tear gas)
1 stim patch (Rating 6)
1 trauma patch
1 alchemy kit
1 gecko tape gloves
1 binoculars (optical)
1 Rating 6 medkit

Summoning F6 water spirit: Magic 6 + Summoning 4: 10d6t5 3 hits
Spirit resist: Summoning Resist: 6d6t5 1 hit, so two services
Soaking 2 drain: Willpower 6 + Intuition 10: 16d6t5 3 hits, no drain

Optional powers: Guard, Weather Control

She's going to have the spirit use both its optional powers. The description for Guard specifically calls out that it can help someone avoid heatstroke, so I guess we can drop those fatigue rolls I requested. She'll also have the spirit summon some cloud cover, as the intense sun makes her nervous. I'll just buy hits for that, so it takes 2 hours to fully develop.

She's also going to make some preparations. I'm going to be experimenting with some house rules for alchemy; namely, the rolls are no longer nested. The alchemist creates the preparation at a given Force, soaks the necessary drain, and when the preparation is triggered the spell goes off with a Magic + Alchemy [Force] roll. Less bookkeeping this way, and less unnecessary rolling upfront.

She has a new Centering focus that she'll be using. It's a carving knife, and her Centering requires her to be carving for it to be effective. This is borderline "too subtle" so I'm thinking about how to punch it up a bit and still have it feel Wiccan. With the focus and Centering, she has 27 dice to soak drain. As I'm too lazy to do a lot of rolling, I'll just buy successes and keep drain at 6 or less.

Preparations
2x Fireball @ F6 w/ Command trigger
2x Knockout @ F6 w/ Command trigger
2x Heal @ F6 w/ Command trigger
2x Physical Camouflage @ F5 w/ Touch trigger
2x Physical Barrier @ F5 w/ Touch trigger

James gets one (1) each of the Heal, Physical Camouflage, and Physical Barrier preparations. They can be whatever items you want to RP.

[rednblack]

Give me a few rolls:
1) Perception (visual or hearing): I have INT (9) + Perception (6) = 15 dice
Perception in swamp: 15d6t5 2
Vision Spec: 2 dice
Vision Spec: 2d6t5 0
Specifically Looking: 3 dice
Specifically Looking: 3d6t5 1
I rolled a general test (also Hearing, I guess), and then the Vision Spec and Specifically Looking mod separately.  James will be keeping an eye out, but I'm not sure if the latter would apply for a general test.  Apparently James is having a hard time while piloting the craft and dealing with the sound of the rotors.  2 or 3 hits depending on how it works out.  Ouch.

2) Tracking: I have INT (9) + Tracking (2) = 11 dice
Tracking: 11d6t5 4
Ok, so James is perhaps a bit singularly focused on the trail.

And no Fatigue rolls, thanks to the Spirit. 

James will grab one of the flash-bangs, and one of the HE grenades.

I'll put the preparations in the IC when I get a bit.

Illeana could be singing an incantation as she carves. 

[rednblack]

Rock Lizard Blood Duration: Rock Lizard Blood Duration: 1d6 1
Well, that's not great.  I guess that means 2-3 hours of Immunity, but after that things could get kinda nasty.  Anymore of that stuff on hand?  I know it's expensive.

[Tecumseh]

Yes, she has several doses. The concern is more about Addiction. That said, the addiction rules don't really go into what happens if you take a whole bunch all at once and then never again.

My knowledge of Louisiana geography is limited. I'll be handwaving most of it under the clause of "eh, the Awakening changed it" if what I describe is meaningfully different from the current day reality.

[Tecumseh]

Next IC post up. I'll write some more later but I'm trying to not let individual posts ramble on too long. You can chime in here or you can wait for the next IC post.

[rednblack]

I'd like to make a Perception Test on the immediate surroundings.  Looking for potential ambush points in the swamp and canopy. 

I have: INT (9) + Perception (6) + Visual Spec (2) + Specifically Looking (3) = 20 dice
Perception + Specifically Looking + Visual: 20d6t5 2
Wow, I have not been rolling anything well today. 

I also think that an Etiquette roll is in order, though to be honest, I'm kind of scared to give it to you.
I have: CHA (4) + Etiquette (4) = 8 dice.
Etiquette for dwarf: 8d6t5 3
Can't argue with that.

Last, I'd like to make a Knowledge Check on Wildlife (Signs) to see if anything big and nasty looks like it's been creeping around lately.  I'd be interested to know if big bads might stay around a dwelling due to the detritus and general source of food from trash, or if the metas around might spook them.
I have: INT (9) + Wildlife (4) + Signs Spec (2) = 15 dice.
Wildlife (signs): 15d6t5 5

[Tecumseh]

R.I.P. Poindexter. That said, I've been expecting this since last summer. I'm just happy we wrapped Tabula Rasa in time.

Looks like you're putting Deep in the Shadows of Texas on hold too. Don't know if you saw it but sounds like Jayde Moon might be out for another five weeks or so. See here.

As for 2 hits on 20 dice, it's still 2 hits. It's one of those things where if you only had 5 dice you'd be pleased with 2 hits but because you rolled 20 dice it seems like a disaster.

James sees lots of ambush points. He'll have to keep his eyes peeled and hope that Illeana's spell can give them some forewarning.

James sees plenty of wildlife signs of all shapes and sizes.

As for Etiquette, you lose 2 dice for being dressed strangely. That costs a hit. Etiquette resist: Charisma + Perception: ?d6t5 3 hits

The dwarf declines your invitation. I'll expand on these points in the IC.