[Tecumseh]

Sweet post. I'll give you a point of Edge to reroll the Negotiation test.

Edge Reroll: 8d6t5 1 hit

In theory we should be adding modifiers for "result is advantageous" but also "target is enemy". You would get the "heavy bargaining chip" bonus too, so the end result is only -1, which doesn't affect any hits.

Is this dwarf a survivor or is she the vindictive type? Does she think she can get the drop on James now? He has Combat Sense, but she doesn't know that... or does she? How else could James dodge like he does?

Her dice pool to resist is garbage, so let's see how she does: Charisma - Defaulting: ?d6t5 0 hits

Well it seems one of James' arguments has found a home. I'll IC something later but it might not be until tonight.

[rednblack]

Math is not my strong suit, but let's see what I can work out.  HE grenades underwater deal 20P -2AP.  Combining explosives adds half the DV of additional explosives to the main charge for a single DR test.  If she's telling the truth about having a full clip that's six grenades for a total of 70P -2AP.  Yeah, that's pretty good. 

James is going to try to get her on the boat so they can continue their chat.  He is genuinely concerned that something will come along and try to eat her while they parlay.  I guess another Negotiation test is in order.  While his plan should work in theory, he's hoping that she'll choose to keep hands on her weapon and bring it with her above board.

I have: CHA (4) + Negotiation (4) = 8 dice.
Negotiation: 8d6t5 3

[Tecumseh]

IC response is up. We'll work with the original Negotiation hit for now so that we aren't rolling Negotiation every back-and-forth response.

I'm not looking at the stacking explosions rules so I don't know what they say exactly, but I'm not sure I would allow the "half of DV" to be infinitely scalable. Otherwise you start to get into some silliness where a few clips of HE grenades could blow up a battleship or knock down a building. I'd probably use an approach that halves the DV for each additional grenade, so something like 20+10+5+2.5+1.25+0.625 and so on. That means a clip of HE grenades is worth 39 or 40 DV, which still seems generous but is certainly less excessive than 70 DV.

[rednblack]

I'm not looking at the stacking explosions rules so I don't know what they say exactly, but I'm not sure I would allow the "half of DV" to be infinitely scalable. Otherwise you start to get into some silliness where a few clips of HE grenades could blow up a battleship or knock down a building. I'd probably use an approach that halves the DV for each additional grenade, so something like 20+10+5+2.5+1.25+0.625 and so on. That means a clip of HE grenades is worth 39 or 40 DV, which still seems generous but is certainly less excessive than 70 DV.

I like that a lot.  Makes sense.

ETA: James is a little suspicious of this claim of grenades tucked under the boat. He's going to do Matrix Perception again.
I have: INT (9) + Computer (4) + Matrix Perception Spec (2) = 15 dice.
Matrix Perception: 15d6t5 2

Probably not going to spot it, and probably going to disbelieve her.  This could be fun.

[rednblack]

James is going to use Judge Intentions to see 1. how much she's likely to stick to not having the bandages put over her eyes and 2. if her resistance to it is mostly to be contrarian to James' "order" or is born from personal concern.

I have: INT (9) + CHA (4) = 13 dice.
Judge Intentions: 13d6t5 5
Not bad.

[Tecumseh]

That's a pretty good roll.

James sees a cornered animal who just saw her entire team get geeked. The look in her eyes tells James that she considers the bandage over her eyes to be a death sentence, the blindfold of a prisoner about to be executed. If James gets any closer or presses the issue, she'll likely open up on full auto. James has even less room to maneuver on the airboat than he did on the submarine, so point-blank full-auto might be tough to dodge, even for him.

She's not suicidal; she wants to live. That's probably why she accepted James' invitation into the boat rather than risking a very long swim through a very dangerous swamp. That said, if she is going to die then she's going to take someone with her, hence the fail-safes. James thinks Ohanzee would approve of her tactics.

[rednblack]

I also want to make an Underworld Knowledge Test for Sangre y Acero.  I think that should key off of Intuition.  Let me know if I'm off base.

I have: INT (9) + Underworld (2) = 11 dice.
Sangre y Acero knowledge: 11d6t5 1
Maybe he's heard the name before?

James is also going to examine the contraband and see if he can tell what it is.  Street Drugs?  I have: INT (9) + Street Drugs (1) = 10 dice.
Street Drugs: 10d6t5 3

ETA: got in an IC to delve a little more into James' moral center -- if you can call it that.  I figure it's very Ares influenced.

[Tecumseh]

James has heard of Sangre y Acero and knows that they are commonly labelled as a terrorist organization. What Holly says about them only targeting Aztechnology assets sounds familiar. Whether an Ares asset considers them to be brothers-in-arms or rabid dogs to be put down is up to you. (I don't know if James is going to feel kinship with another corp against a terrorist organization, or with the terrorist organization that targets a rival corp.)

James confirms that the product is indeed a white powder. He can't tell what it is just by sight. Further tests (including tasting or smelling it) might provide additional clues, or he might find himself under the influence.

[Tecumseh]

Rolling Navigation to see if James can find his way back through the swamp:

Intuition 9 + Navigation 4: 13d6t5 5 hits

He can. He hits the witch's hut like a bullseye.

[rednblack]

I had considered taking a Bias against Aztechnology when we were rebuilding our chars, mostly because of my own opinion on the Azzies being such great boogeymen.  I think that James might be a bit sympathetic to Sangre y Acero on that account.

If Illeana wants to stay in the swamp for awhile, what kind of a timeline are we looking at?  James will want to get the Satellite link, some camping gear, and some other supplies if they're going to spend really any amount of time out there.  He'll also be worried about developing an addiction to Rock Lizard Blood, but figures that he'll mostly need a "drying out" period that will be pretty miserable if short-lived.  How would you want to cover that rules-wise?  I guess there's just regular old Deet to consider as well.

I'll wait to see if Illeana thinks that staying out here would be a good idea before writing up a shopping list.  She may decide that moving on to New England is a better bet.

[Tecumseh]

A long IC post is up. And now that I'm done with it, I realize that I didn't even address James' comment about having a brother. We'll need another round to discuss that.

Illeana will say something to the effect of, "Didn't your Ares records say that you had a brother? And that he was KIA in the explosion that put you into the Instigator program?" Or she'll be wondering if James was speaking metaphorically about Holly's survivability, although she doesn't know why James would refer to her as a brother instead of a sister.

We're not quite done with this chapter yet but we're getting close. It depends on what you want to do with the contraband.

The next chapter (should you survive this one) will pick up 2-3 months down the road in New England. What James and Illeana do doing that downtime is up to us to decide. Illeana will probably not have enough karma to initiate again. James will have some downtime to work on his skill progression or whatever else you might have in mind.

[rednblack]

I forgot that the brother was IC knowledge.  May need to edit last IC post to rework some stuff.

[Tecumseh]

How much does Illeana know about powdered milk: Intuition 10 + Artisan 5 + Cooking 2: 17d6t5 7 hits, pretty good

I've been using James' earlier roll of 3 hits on a street drugs test to help inform some of his IC knowledge, including Ripper and potential ratios between bulk value and street value. You're being offered 1% of street value; James thinks a better offer would be 2%. Now some of that decrease represents the percentages that are being paid to Styles and Ohanzee, but it's also possible that they are lowballing you because you are a new, unknown player. If you want to negotiate, you'll have to take it up with whoever shows up at the meet.

In the interests of realism, I've been research this at work. My browser/search history probably looks interesting.

You also have to decide what you want to do with the airboat. You're supposed to be returning one, but you sunk it.

[rednblack]

In the interests of realism, I've been research this at work. My browser/search history probably looks interesting.

My thesis had to do with a guy in the Aryan Brotherhood.  Can you imagine my Jewish wife's horror upon coming home from Anatomy and Physiology to find all those windows open on our home computer?

You also have to decide what you want to do with the airboat. You're supposed to be returning one, but you sunk it.

To be fair, James didn't sink it, the Behemoth did   James will not be keen on returning a bullet-ridden smuggler craft to the air boat rental chummer, much less one that probably has Ownership information that could potentially put James' SIN at risk.  Assuming James had to use his SIN to get the boat.  If they found a less reputable source, he'll happily provide the damaged air boat and some nuyen to cover repairs.  Another option is to use the air boat as the means of delivering the product, and then pay restitution to the original air boat's owner.  It'll eat into profits but keep the SIN above ground.  Even a good SIN is probably cheaper than replacing the boat, but we don't have a line on good SINs at the moment.  Hmm, maybe these dealers will be interested in some trade aspect to the deal as well. 

About the IC post, James will be worried about the security angle.  Illeana and James are only two, and the other party will no doubt bring more than that for the meet.  OOCly, if previous encounters are anything to judge off of, they'll likely have the major roles fulfilled as well -- muscle, magic, matrix -- and if they're cocky it may come to bloodshed.  Compounding this problem is the fact that James and Illeana don't know New Orleans that well, so no home court advantage so to speak. 

James is going to move forward with the exchange.  He'll want to purchase two additional commlinks, a Renraku Sensei and a Metalink and will use the questionable Rating 2 SIN to purchase them -- did we ever get a name and nationality/corp for that one?  He'll use the Sensei for communications with the prospective buyers.  He's also going to want to hit the matrix and look for suitable meet locations.  Not sure what kind of roll you want there.  Maybe Security Design + LOG as a "teamwork" test on a Matrix Search + INT roll?  Let me know how you want to proceed there. 

Depending on how the day goes, I may get an IC up soon, or wait until additional info is available and roll it into one IC later.

ETA: for the hand-off, my tentative plan is to have James with one key so the buyer can inspect and then move in the rest of the product once negotiations are finished and the money has been accounted for.  Similar to the meet with the Draco Foundation, James will want to transfer the money somehow so that geeking him will be less profitable. 

[Tecumseh]

I think I might have PM'd you the ID for the rating 2 SIN, but PMs aren't as easy to search. So, without further ado, I dub thee: Comodoro Dario Liso of Aztlan, a National SIN. The gender matches. The SIN's listed age is 10 years older than James, but age is just a number in the day of cyber/bio/gene treatments. The nationality is a bit of a push unless Dario is one of those Aztlaners of Spanish decent, and even then it's a bit of a stretch. Good thing James speaks some Spanish.

You already have a spare Metalink, but you can buy another (and a Sensei) with no trouble.

Doing a bit of research, James finds that an inexpensive, used airboat is in the low five figures. A decent, new airboat is in the mid five figures.

I'm not sure if I said it explicitly but we're using a different pricing for fake SINs. The price is Rating^2 * ¥1,000. That makes low-rating SINs more affordable and higher-rating SINs less affordable. Availability remains the same. I don't know if we explicitly stated which SIN was used to rent the airboat. Not bothering to go back and look, I'll say that the R3 Jonathan Aarons (UCAS) was sufficient to rend the boat without scrutiny. That makes burning the SIN less expensive than replacing the boat, although you could also meet with the proprietor and negotiate something fair. Illeana, being financially-minded, will suggest that the chummer probably has insurance, and a behemoth skin would go a long way toward convincing him 1) that a behemoth really did sink his boat, and 2) he doesn't want to upset the people who were capable of hunting a behemoth, skinning it, and bringing it back, all without a boat.

As for a good place to meet, let's roll Small Unit Tactics.
James: Intuition 9 + Small Unit Tactics 5: 14d6t5 2 hits
Illeana for teamwork: Intuition 10 - Defaulting 1: 9d6t5 2 hits
Teamwork reroll: Illeana's hits: 2d6t5 1 hit

So 3 hits total. Not your finest. Still, that's enough to think that meeting in the swamp might be the best bet. That will help limit Matrix exposure (at least from remote hackers) and the swamp is more likely to be unknown to them than some location in the city, where James and Illeana would almost certainly be at a disadvantage.

Illeana reminds James, in IC language, that her Magic score is jacked right now, which she did to intimidate/impress the witch in the hut. That will last until this evening. Until then, Illeana is a wrecking ball of magic, and could probably put together some pretty potent preparations that would help keep them safe. Plus she could summon a monster spirit that might make tweakers think twice before starting any drek.