[Tecumseh]

Is there anything else that James wants to do in the swamp? We're approaching a break. James can either go hunting for smugglers or he can stand guard (and be bored) while Illeana works with the witch. We'll fast-forward if it's the latter. Let me know what he would do ICly.

We'll do karma soon too. I'm splitting it evenly between us since this is a shared project and we're writing for each other. I have reread the first 4 IC pages and there will be a minimum of 14 karma each so far (since it appears I never assigned any from the first chapter) if you want to start mentally spending it. The final tally will be a bit higher depending on how much more time we spend in the swamp.

If you would prefer to move on, the next stop will be Boston a couple months down the road.

[rednblack]

Looking for smugglers sounds interesting, but James would be worried about being out of comms range with Illeana.  On the other hand, he's very interested to see if Tempo has indeed made a comeback.  We'll let the dice decide. 

First, James will comm Illeana and ask whether her to ask the witch if she's seen any smugglers, or other such folks tooling around the swamp.  Then, he'll try his hand at tracking again, preferably in a specific direction that the witch could provide.

For Tracking I have: INT (9) + Tracking (2) = 11 dice.
Tracking: 11d6t5 4
Not bad.  If James got a tip of some sort, that proves promising. 

Assuming that there's something to pick up on, James will try to be sneaky and spotty, and see what there is to see.

For Perception, I'll roll the Visual Specialization separately.  I have: INT (9) + Perception (6) + Specifically Looking (3) = 18 dice.
Perceiving the smugglers: 18d6t5 4
Visual Spec: 2 dice.
Visual Spec: 2d6t5 0

For Sneaking, I have: AGI (11) + Stealth Group (6) = 17 dice.  I presume no Wireless bonuses on the Chameleon Suit.
Sneaking: 17d6t5 5
Potential spotters are at a -6 to their Perception rolls due to the Ruthenium Polymer Coating.

Let's see how that pans out. 

[Tecumseh]

The witch will know of some "modern men" (and women) who come and go in the swamp. She points out a direction.

James will be able to pick up some clues with his tracking rolls.

Illeana can send her two spirits with James if he wants to go. The bound spirit will stick around and do what he says but the unbound spirit will only offer one service once it's beyond Illeana's range. (Off the top of my head, I think it's Magic * 100 meters, so 1,100 meters since her Magic is jacked right now.) Illeana could do some preparations as well.

Before we get that far, the question is "how does James want to get around". In theory one of the spirits (presumably the water spirit) could just push the raft without it being levitated, but it will be slower and noisier. Also, the raft will be quite obvious, even if James is semi-invisible.

Wireless bonuses in the wilderness are funny. From a game balance perspective, I go back and forth as to whether you just need to have wireless on and talking to your commlink (if not the Matrix) so that you are available to be spotted wirelessly and/or hacked, or if we should follow the semi-absurd fluff descriptions of how wireless bonuses work and not apply them when Matrix access is unavailable.

[rednblack]

Before we get that far, the question is "how does James want to get around". In theory one of the spirits (presumably the water spirit) could just push the raft without it being levitated, but it will be slower and noisier. Also, the raft will be quite obvious, even if James is semi-invisible.

Yeah, I've been thinking about this, and I can't say that I've come up with a very satisfactory answer.  I think James could probably handle some mooks solo, but the element of surprise is probably a necessary ingredient.  So, a few questions:

1. I'm assuming James would not be able to effectively jump from plot of ground to plot of ground to make his way, correct?

2. How insane would it be for James to activate his air tank and swim it?  Would his thermo vision give him enough input to go on?  Would it allow him to spot predators?  Would James know that this is a really bad idea?  Without thermo, how far could James see in the swamp water?  If James swam it, could a Spirit use the Concealment power on him to let him slip by predators? 

Wireless bonuses in the wilderness are funny. From a game balance perspective, I go back and forth as to whether you just need to have wireless on and talking to your commlink (if not the Matrix) so that you are available to be spotted wirelessly and/or hacked, or if we should follow the semi-absurd fluff descriptions of how wireless bonuses work and not apply them when Matrix access is unavailable.

I don't have a good answer for this either.  Some Wireless bonuses do make sense that connection to the matrix is necessary: smartlink, for example.  Others don't make much sense at all: Hydraulic Jacks.  But Vision/Auditory Enhancement?  Dunno.  The Chameleon Suit might take in information from the matrix to make it blend, but could just as easily be sensors in the fabric that operate wirelessly to get color hues and patterns right, etc. 

I'm really fine however you want to play it.  Case by case is cool, all Wireless bonuses require matrix access is fine, as is the idea that you can rune Wireless Enabled without matrix access.  From a player's POV, I'd like James to have access to all his neat toys, but I also enjoy the strategy of deciding when to put him at risk by enjoying those benefits, and that trade-off doesn't seem to be there -- or at the very least it's substantilly minimized -- if there's no matrix access.

[Tecumseh]

Current spirits:
Bound: F3 Spirit of Air with Guard as the optional power. Current active powers are Concealment, Movement, and Guard. 6 remaining services.
Unbound: F6 water spirit with Binding and Weather Control as optional powers. Currently only using Weather Control, I believe. 3 remaining services.

Illeana can game the system a bit by issuing orders to the Unbound Water spirit that will remain in effect even as remote services. Such as "Maintain the Movement power on James until sundown," etc.

The Movement power is restricted to the environment controlled by the spirit, so if James is swimming the water spirit will still need to use Movement even though the air spirit is already sustaining the power.

Guard doesn't seem to have environmental restrictions. Thus the air spirit can use the Guard power to prevent James from drowning, which is one of the explicit examples in the book. That said, every individual use of the power counts as a service, so it could (in theory) chew up services quickly if James finds himself in a pinch.

The water spirit might as well use Concealment too, since it's more powerful than the air spirit's. I'm not sure there's a good candidate for the water spirit's fourth service. "Protect James" is too opened-ended.

That leaves us with:

F3 Air Spirit (6 remaining services)
Concealment, Movement, and Guard

F6 Water Spirit (1 remaining service)
Concealment, Movement, Weather Control

Illeana isn't thrilled about the prospect of James swimming around in the swamp, but James is a big boy and she's not going to stop him. Plus she can give him some spirits and preparations to help even the odds.

To answer your questions:
1) James cannot jump from island to island or tree to tree.
2) James can swim, either on the surface or underwater with his air tank. Illeana would prefer not to cast and sustain Oxygenate as she needs her concentration for the conversation with the witch (and she's already sustaining a spell to alleviate her allergy to wood, which is important in the mud hut made out of vines and branches.)

Swimming is viable, although with some meaningful risks. Visibility underwater is maybe 1 meter, either thermographically or via normal vision. Concealment is powerful but not invisibility. As a base swimming rate, James can swim 9.5 meters per turn, 190 meters/minute, 11.4 km/hour. With the spirit's movement power added in, he can really motor along. That said, it still requires effort. James will need to make a Fatigue test every 3 minutes. The first test will be 1S, the second test 2S, the third test 3S and so on until he rests and resets. He will soak Fatigue with Body 5 + Willpower 7. Granted James can swim pretty far in 3 minutes at the above speeds, but all the Concealment and Ruthenium Polymer Coating in the world won't conceal the wake he kicks up swimming at 42mph.

If the spirits are disrupted, James is in trouble. If they run into a mana ebb or surge, things could get interesting. Given that it's summer and light out late, we'll say that James has about 8 hours until sundown and the departure of the water spirit.

Wireless bonuses, let's say that everything is eligible but the smartlink. This will make James noticeable to anyone scanning for devices. He can run silent with this Stealth dongle, but it's reasonable to presume that smugglers will have defenses in place to be on the lookout for approaching devices, which they will likely equate to non-friendly sources (especially if said devices are running silently).

[rednblack]

Man, the forums are chewing me up today.  So slow.  And they're eating my posts.  Anyway, another "ripple" in the James-will-swim-it plan is that I have no idea how James would use Tracking while he's underwater and swimming.  Keeping his nigh-invisible head above water as he treads along is an option, but that will only make his wake worse.

I think I will risk swimming it.  Hopefully, James will be able to commandeer a vessel from the smugglers, and make the trip home much more comfortable.  He'll keep his head above water, and keep a pace that is conducive to keeping up with his Tracking roll.  He'll also stop every 200 meters or so to do an Observe in Detail and see if he can spot or hear any water crafts, keeping careful attention to the fact that the're most likely camouflaged.  Let me know if you want any additional Perception rolls in that regard.

James will try to keep his speed to about 24 mph, which is just shy of 39 kph.  That should outrun any errant alligators by about double, and with the murky water, I doubt they'll see him coming unless he also sees them and re-routes.  Should a behemoth show itself, well then frag, he'll go hoop-out as fast as he can, and leave a trail of his man scent in his wake.

Fatigue rolls X 3.
Fatigue Rolls X 3: 3#12d6t5 2 5 2
1 Stun on the last test.  Should I have been dropping dice?

As for the load-out, I don't suppose the Desert Strike would fit in a dry bag, would it?  What if he breaks it down?  If the latter works, I'm assuming the rifle could be reassembled in as little as 1-2 minutes?  Perhaps faster with James' intimate familiarity and preternatural Agility.  If not, James is not keen on putting his baby back in the same state it was after the altercation with the behemoth, so he'll opt for the Ares Crusader II in a dry bag.

Let me know how this plays out, and I'll start working on an IC, unless further rolling needs to be made.

[Tecumseh]

No need to drop dice from the Fatigue rolls, as it's not technically an Extended test. The increasing DV already serves the purpose of making the subsequent tests more difficult.

Commandeering an vessel is an interesting idea. James has a bit of Hardware skill if he needs to hotwire something, although it would be more reliable to snag one that's already running.

The Desert Strike will not fit in a dry bag unless James breaks it down. If he breaks it down he can reassemble it fairly quickly (1-2 minutes, sure) especially with his improved reflexes, but getting it to "return to zero" will be the trick. Depending on his Armorer rolls, James may face Accuracy penalties after reassembling it.

[Tecumseh]

IC post is up. It might be interesting to explore how James feels about the effects of Magic (especially the water spirit's Movement power) and whether this conflicts with his qualities (Redliner, Cyber-Singularity Seeker) or amplifies them.

Illeana has also provided James with two F8 Heal preparations. They'll last 8 hours, which is as long as the water spirit will stick around.

Edit: And two F5 Physical Barrier preparations as well. All preparations have the Contact trigger.

[Tecumseh]

Next IC post is up. I'll list out the targets you have spotted so far. I'll number them for easier reference. They are all between 110-120 meters away at the moment. James is at a right angle to the sub, so he's looking at the broad side of it.

#1 - male elf sentry standing lookout on one end of the sub, assault rifle
#2 - female human sentry standing lookout on the other end of the sub, assault rifle + Horizon Flying Eye drone above her
#3 - ork male standing on the conning tower, pulling up packages out of the sub via rope, no visible weapons but there might be something within reach that's out-of-sight
#4 - same as #3
#5 - male troll in one of the airboats, loading packages for transport, an LMG within reach
#6 - female dwarf in the other airboat, also loading packages for transport, carbine within reach
#7 - air spirit on patrol

James might reasonably assume that there are others within the submarine who are loading packages onto the rope for the orks to pull up. It's possible also possible that this is being done by drone. It's fair to wonder why the packages aren't being moved magically, either via levitation or spirit. It's also possible that there's no magician present (i.e. the air spirit is being loaned to them like the spirits James has with him) or that the magician isn't a manipulation mage, so to speak.

It's also possible that there are other targets on the other side of the sub that are obstructed.

All the targets currently have Good Cover from the intervening trees. James can lower that to Partial Cover if he advances 40-50 meters, or no cover if he advances 80-90 meters.

James is outside of the 100 meter perimeter, which will help keep him concealed from someone looking for Matrix icons (if he decides to run Wireless On).

The increased intuition from Illeana's magic points out that the sub can obviously carry much more than these two airboats can haul. That suggests that others may have come through earlier and/or that more are coming later.

[rednblack]

Yep, that's a pretty full deck, as it were. My first thoughts after reading the IC was: who's the mage.  Any roll I can make that may help James figure out if one is present?  Magic Traditions, maybe? 

James is of the opinion that it may be best to let them finish transferring the goods and then see if the submarine sticks around for another delivery.  The sticking point there is gaining access to either the air boat or the submarine once they pack up.  Does James know how fast the air boat or sub are likely to go through the swamp?  I'm not sure how wide the avenues are, or how much they are likely to slow down the smugglers.  Can James out-swim either with the spirit's Movement power?  What about having the air spirit use Movement to drop him in from above? 

Another option is to activate the Internal Air Tank, and swim in.  Would the swamp water interfere with #7's perception?  If so that would knock out the Air Spirit and the Fly Spy.  Of course, then they'd be very up close and personal, and that's a lot of guys to go knocking around against. 

I'm going to think about this for a little bit.

[Tecumseh]

None of them look like a mage externally. James can ask his air spirit, who will say that none of them look like a mage to "her" either. (Feminizing so that I don't have to use gender-neutral pronouns.) Of course, the magician could have Masking, which is probably more than a small F3 air spirit could overcome. If you want the air spirit to recon inside the sub it will cost a service and potentially alert someone inside the sub and/or the air spirit on patrol.

The air boat is likely to be rather sluggish while hauling 1200+ kilos. James suspects that he might be able to outswim one, but doesn't know for certain without trying.

James' air spirit is nowhere near strong enough (Strength 1) to pick up James to conduct an aerial insertion.

The vast amounts of delicious microbial life in the swamp are more than enough to obscure James' approach both physically and astrally if he decides to go the underwater route.

[rednblack]

Ok, another suite of questions: can James have the Air Spirit tell him the Force, or nearest IC equivalent of the rival Air Spirit?  Would that cost a service?  Can James get an impression by its size?

 The underwater explosives table on page 158 of R&G list a HE grenade as dealing 20P damage.  Would James know if that is likely to pierce the hull of the air boat?  If the air boat is set on pontoons, would it at least capsize the ship?  My understanding of SR styled grenades is that they're relatively small, and won't have a pin to pull, etc.  This makes attaching the grenade to the hull of the air boat problematic.  Patches are also not likely to adhere underwater, though I'm less sure about the adhesives that would be present in a Survival Kit for dressing wounds, etc, If there are pontoons on the boat, James could conceivably shove the grenade up where the pontoon meets the hull with minimal exposure -- they aren't likely to see underneath their feet.  Last option I can think of would be to put the grenade in the grate of the air boat's motor.  That may well minimize the chances of sinking it, though. 

[Tecumseh]

Your air spirit rolled 4 hits on 6 dice for Assensing, so nice work there. She cheerfully informs James that it is an F6 air spirit.

Hmm, I didn't even know there was an underwater explosives table, but there it is. If anything I think it's underselling the damage increase for an HE grenade (from 16P to 20P), but it's good enough for our purposes. Nice find.

James thinks that there is a high likelihood that an HE grenade will seriously screw up an air boat. He'd be surprised if it didn't sink. Even dropping the grenade into the boat (so that explodes above water, not below) will provide an excellent chance to capsize it.

The air boats are flat-bottomed and not on pontoons. James doesn't really have any adhesives that will function underwater. I don't know what the physical action to trigger a grenade is, but if it's not a pin then there's some manual option. (You need some way to arm and activate it without it being wireless enabled.)

[rednblack]

It may well be a pin, but I always pictured them with some fancy but small interface.  Even if there is a pin, I still don't see how James can attach it.  I've considered his cyber spurs, but I just don't think that they're pierce the hull without a serious punch, and his STR being halved doesn't make that likely.

I think I'm going to attach the grenade with adhesive tape from the survival kit just above the water line near the stern of the boat.  James will choose port or starboard based on the air spirit's location -- he would prefer to keep the boat and illicit goods between him and the Spirit's "vision."  And stern to be as far away as possible from the sub.  I guess James is going to have to risk running the grenade Wireless On, but at least it will be slaved to his commlink with the stealth dongle.  Then, James will approach the sub, and climb that ladder like a champ -- or even better jump his way up to the deck.  Then we're going to see exactly how crazy this whole idea was. . . But first, the air boat will blow up.

Last, I know I'm slowing down three of your games right now.  I'm assuming you've seen what I posted in Trial by Fire, but things really should calm down soon.  Just want to let you know that I'm not losing interest or going to bounce or anything. 

[Tecumseh]

Eh, I'm not worried about it. My Trial by Fire post was intended for that game only. I have plenty going on as well. I'm doing the jobs of two people at work, and will be for a few more weeks until we can get someone hired. (I should say trying to do the jobs of two people. Unsurprisingly, I'm falling behind.)

What are you teaching?

The submarine does not have a ladder going down to the water line. There is a ladder going down the conning tower to the deck of the submarine. James is probably athletic enough to scramble out of the water onto the deck and then take the ladder up the conning tower (or even leap up the conning tower), but there's no real way for him to get out of the water onto the deck by leaping. There's not a particularly graceful way to manage that step.

The two airboats are lashed together, and have a simple line connecting them to the submarine. (It's not windy and there's not much in terms of a wave, so a simple line is all that's needed to prevent them from drifting off.) The airboats are pointed toward the submarine so that the fans/propellers don't get in the way of the packages/parcels being tossed down. This means the sterns are away from the submarine hull. The starboard hull of the starboard airboat (which has the female dwarf in it) will be slightly further away from the air spirit. You could potentially put the grenade between the two airboats and blow them both up, but then you don't have an easy ride to steal.

Let's be clear on the intended order of operations:
1) swim to stern of an airboat
2) attach grenade slightly above water line (setting it to Wireless On for remote detonation, slaving it to commlink and running silently)
3) swim to submarine
4) detonate grenade
5) get on deck
6) shoot someone, or stab someone, or something

Rearrange those as appropriate.

Rolls to make:
A) Agility + Sneaking
B) Logic + Sleaze as a defense against Matrix Perception. Depending on what step you plan on detonating the grenade, we may need a few of these.