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[5e OOC] Deep in the Shadows of Texas: Chapter 2, A Savior's Legacy

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rednblack

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« Reply #135 on: <12-11-14/1227:03> »
Windows are a weird one for me.  Are windows opaque in the astral?  As for flying up a little higher, that's probably a good call.
They were in prior editions. I don't remember if Spell Grimoire ever clarified that, I'm pretty sure the Core Book did not.

Cool.  We'll keep with that then.
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rednblack

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« Reply #136 on: <12-11-14/1813:17> »
Just checking in. Do you guys want to continue the conversation with Dr. Ken or regroup and come up with your plan?
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Poindexter

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« Reply #137 on: <12-11-14/1942:03> »
i'd like to keep at Dr Ken, but not for too much longer.

just trying to get it right in my head.
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JackVII

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« Reply #138 on: <12-12-14/1009:22> »
We need to ask Dr. Ken about Odysseus Max. I figure Bookworm has now had sufficient time to review Breeze's notes and she has questions about whomever that person is, she would have shared them IC with everyone before leaving for the meet (if R&B is okay with that).
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Poindexter

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« Reply #139 on: <12-12-14/1110:41> »
Ok, Odysseus Max brings up a point ive been meaning to get to for a while; the fact that this game has been going on for a long time and there's probably important details and names that I've forgotten about.
RnB, would ya mind making one post detailing all the important people we've met as well as the names we've heard that we've assigned importance to?

I'm starting to forget a lot of stuff.
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JackVII

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« Reply #140 on: <12-12-14/1121:51> »
I put together a file saved in a DropBox with IC information and speculation. Consider these files that Bookworm has put together. It's a goddamned shame that Spoiler Tags still don't work here...

Notes on the A&M Magical Studies Department

Staff Listing
Dr. Leonard Drampe (Chair of Magical Studies Program)
Dr Sue Owlfeather (Full Professor)
Dr. Ozhun Olgar (Associate Professor)
Felicity Rhoades (TA)
Jaime Garcia (TA)
Cheyenne Villalobos (TA)
Josef Antar (TA)
Odysseus Max

Expected Response time to unwarranted Intrusions: 215 seconds

Notes on the Magical Studies Laboratory

Security

Hellhounds: The hellhounds patrol various levels on various days -- never the
ground floor for obvious reasons -- as whenever janitors were scheduled to clean
the Magical Studies Department there was always a floor off limits for safety
reasons. There didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to what floor was barred
at any particular time, though sometimes it would be the same floor for a few days
to a week at a time -- usually the third or fourth. During those times, janitors
complain that they are forced to come in and clean during a day shift between
classes and office hours. This was a major pain in the ass, as they'd have to work
faster than usual and would be kept to the same cleaning standards.

Astral Security: As for the astral security, the vast majority of spirits and barriers
on premises are largely the work of TAs and graduate students. As such, they tend
to be of varied strength. They're usually the result of a midterm or final
assignment, so a lot of care has been put into them, but they are by no means all
done by students of equal skill.

Floorplan

Floor 1: Just for clarification's sake, let's say that the top of the image is north. The
north doors are the main entrance and made of glass The doors at the corners are
side exits, and will be locked, obviously. All doors open in the direction of the solid
blue box. The computer desk thing in front of the main doors is the security area.
It's a fishbowl setup enclosed in glass. The small rooms on the north side of the
building are restrooms. The larger rooms are classrooms, with the biggest room in
the southeast being a lecture hall. The boxes with arrows are elevators.

Floor 2: You remember the second floor so well because it's kind of the main hub.
The southern elevators are the only way to access the fourth and fifth floor. The
narrow, northernmost room is a restroom. The computer desk is a a secondary
security station, though this one is not enclosed. The rest of the rooms are
classrooms, with the exception of the southwestern most room, which is a utility
closet.

Floor 3: The large cross-shaped center room is the applied casting lab. Hopeless is
pretty sure that there are classrooms on the west and east, but he can't remember
where the doors are, or what size the rooms are. The narrow room at the north is
another bathroom.

Floor 4: The fourth floor is pretty confusing. Hopeless remembers most of the
doors, but he's unsure about the size of each of the individual rooms. As he remembers, the best bet for a substance dispenser would be the room in the far northwest corner, or the far southeast corner.

Floor 5: The rooms on the eastern part of this floor are private faculty offices for
research and development. If you guys are looking for some extra payday here,
some of the other rooms are where a lot of reagents are kept. Security will be
tight, but money!

Dispensary

Renraku: B-43 Integrated Med-Dispenser Unit
The Renraku unit has a pyramid shape and coded access panel -- rating 5.
Administrator access is coded for biometrics, rating 5, and the unit has both
wireless and wired functionality with an internal battery providing power for twelve
years. Security features include an anti-molestation RFID dispersal cloud, a
tripped-to-wireless alarm, and integrated shock weave. The B-43 boasts the
slogan: "Protect your patients, and your bottom line." It's popular with large
hospitals and some governments for their training programs.

Notes on the Retro-Futurists

Open File: RF Member List (A&M Cell)
Il Duce: Marshall Edgestrom <Comm #>
Vice President: Dwayne Comstock <Comm #>
Information Specialist: Niles Gray <Comm #>
Secretary: Vivian Holt <Comm #>

Members in Good Standing:
Felix Walker <Comm #>
Sam Colton <Comm #>
Walker Green <Comm #>
Leah Phoenix <Comm #>
Warren Hendricks <Comm #>
Catherine O'Hare <Comm #>
Jep Philips <Comm #>

Prospective Members:
Jessica Comstock!!!
Miles Dailey
Carey Hemingway
William Prescott III
Patrick Delaine

Banished:
Cal Smith
Derrick Stockebye

Open File: Dossiers
Leonard Drampe: Pig Magician in Charge
Objective: Discredit
Bio: (Copied and pasted from various wikis)
Assessment: D is hiding something, but he's good at covering his tracks.
See contact: <Contact Link>

Ken Bauchon
Objective: Discredit
Assessment: This waggly-fingered freak can't keep it in his pants. Should a student
come forward, he would be forced to resign, or we may be able to force some
cooperation before leaking to press.
Hindrances: He fucks other waggly-fingered freaks. Unlikely to come forward. May
be able to leverage/pay M to convince Carla T'nyoll or Margene Espada to come
forward through Womyn's Rights Commitee.
Secondary Strategy: Gambling problem???

Wabash
Objective: Potential Asset
Overheard 3/12/75 calling McCormack a "tusker," Potential human's rights leaning.
Unconfirmed for enlightened ideas toward magic users. Cursory genealogy search
shows no metas in family tree.
<Note: This drek is getting expensive. @Edgestrom, so long as applicant is human,
shouldn't that be enough, at least for allies and prospective members? --BD>
<Re: Note: @BD, sometimes I doubt your dedication to this cause. You wouldn't
have anything to hide, would you? Beside, a cursory check shows W to have
substantial E. European ethnicity. Use him if you must, but DO NOT trust. Mud
people are for the earth. We have a higher calling—ME>
Strategy: Approach cautiously; let him know door is open. Perhaps a feminine
touch, Vivian?
<Note: I'm not blowing another security guard, slotface. Get >>JC on it? --V>
<Note: No way on Jessica. Dwayne wouldn't stand for it. --BD>
<Note: @BD, I'm somebody's sister too, ya know. --V>

Compton Brills
Objective: Call a plumber? <Note: don't ever put anything like this to text again.
No data trails. --ME>
Assessment: Compton has been in the MS department for many years now. As one
of the longest-standing of the student body, his loss would be a big blow to the MS
department in general, and a stern warning to prospective students. If we can't
discredit, we rely on fear.

Felicity Rhoades
Objective: See above. Felicity may be easier to access, as she lives on campus.
Given that she's a woman, it may be best to start a harassment campaign. We all
know what those magic users are like in the sack. Anybody got access to a sex
trid? I can work my digital magic.

Cesar Dominguez
Objective: Discredit
Current head of O.R.K. on campus. Solid grades in courses. Can a tusker be that
smart? Consider questioning academic integrity. Possible to plant evidence?

OM
Objective: Established Asset -- Continue course
Should not be trusted, as we're at cross purposes, naturally, but OM will provide us
with samples. Potential uses are obvious, though we must fear the allure of astral
space.
<Note: What about vamps? --V>
<Note: @V, unconfirmed. Do you have one lying around to test? --ME>
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rednblack

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« Reply #141 on: <12-12-14/1145:19> »
@Jack, thanks for collecting and posting.

Re: McCormack, he's an ork, and was in charge of school sec when shit went down in the quad.  When Loki was reading minds of another security guard, he got the following: God-damned fucking nutri-soy bullshit.  Every day.  And I gotta work a double?  Move those fraggin' hellhounds up to the fourth floor in two separate elevator trips.  I should be getting hazard pay for this.  And why the hell is McCormack giving me the names of these gits.  Really?  Princess and Bunny on the west hall, while Sophie takes the east.  They all look the same to me.  "Be sure to leave Tex on the third floor."  Whatever, McCormack.  Why don't you get off your wide fraggin' ass, and do some of the heavy lifting yourself.  I hate that fraggin' ork.  One'a these days I'm gonna visine his soykaf.  I wonder what Joe's making for dinner tonight?  The new "Antebellum Gunsmith" should be on tonight.  At least that's one thing to look forward to. . .

Re: Odysseus Max, some sort of code name, obviously.  You guys haven't been able to dig up much, though Jack has mentioned in the past his suspicions that OM might be either a Meta or Awakened. 

Also, Jack has mentioned his suspicion that Big Daddy is Niles Gray.

@Poindexter, has Hopeless had his Transys Avalon running silent since he re-booted?
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JackVII

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« Reply #142 on: <12-12-14/1204:35> »
@Jack, thanks for collecting and posting.
No problem, I should probably share that folder to you guys via PM if you want to read it. I copy-pasted it directly.

Re: McCormack, he's an ork, and was in charge of school sec when shit went down in the quad.
I can't remember, was he actually on-site during the riot? I thought I remember a reference to an ork campus sec officer during that deal.

Re: Odysseus Max, some sort of code name, obviously.  You guys haven't been able to dig up much, though Jack has mentioned in the past his suspicions that OM might be either a Meta or Awakened.
Bookworm derived this from the RF files. She is of the opinion that the OM referenced in the RF Dossiers is Odysseus Max.

Also, Jack has mentioned his suspicion that Big Daddy is Niles Gray.
I think Breeze also shared his suspicions in his death message.
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Poindexter

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« Reply #143 on: <12-12-14/1207:23> »
@Jack, thanks for collecting and posting.

Re: McCormack, he's an ork, and was in charge of school sec when shit went down in the quad.  When Loki was reading minds of another security guard, he got the following: God-damned fucking nutri-soy bullshit.  Every day.  And I gotta work a double?  Move those fraggin' hellhounds up to the fourth floor in two separate elevator trips.  I should be getting hazard pay for this.  And why the hell is McCormack giving me the names of these gits.  Really?  Princess and Bunny on the west hall, while Sophie takes the east.  They all look the same to me.  "Be sure to leave Tex on the third floor."  Whatever, McCormack.  Why don't you get off your wide fraggin' ass, and do some of the heavy lifting yourself.  I hate that fraggin' ork.  One'a these days I'm gonna visine his soykaf.  I wonder what Joe's making for dinner tonight?  The new "Antebellum Gunsmith" should be on tonight.  At least that's one thing to look forward to. . .

Re: Odysseus Max, some sort of code name, obviously.  You guys haven't been able to dig up much, though Jack has mentioned in the past his suspicions that OM might be either a Meta or Awakened. 

Also, Jack has mentioned his suspicion that Big Daddy is Niles Gray.

@Poindexter, has Hopeless had his Transys Avalon running silent since he re-booted?

yes. Messages he's been sending have been through the burner.
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JackVII

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« Reply #144 on: <12-12-14/1218:42> »
OK, Bookworm is using her astral mobility to zip back and check out the car. She's going to approach it from behind and stick her aura through the rear glass to hopefully prevent detection by the occupants of the car. She is going to go ahead and prepare herself and allocate all of her counterspelling dice for spell defense.

Here are three assensing rolls (not sure how many people are in the car):

INT (5) + Assensing (6) [8] (11d6.hits(5)=4, 11d6.hits(5)=4, 11d6.hits(5)=4)

3 rolls, 4 hits on each one. :)
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rednblack

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« Reply #145 on: <12-12-14/1221:41> »
Nobody on the team knows McCormack by sight, but Dr. Ken says he was in the quad, so that's your ork.

@Ryo, ok, so no telling on whether or not there are extra marks on Hopeless' comm. 

IC post forthcoming.

ETA: can you hear when astrally projecting?  I went with "yes" here, but I'd like to know for future reference.
« Last Edit: <12-12-14/1226:45> by rednblack »
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JackVII

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« Reply #146 on: <12-12-14/1244:17> »
ETA: can you hear when astrally projecting?  I went with "yes" here, but I'd like to know for future reference.
I would personally say you can't hear anything on the Material if you're wholly on the Astral (unless you Manifest, which is part of the point of it). With that said, you can see emotional fluctuations in the aura. You might not know what they're saying exactly, but may be able to pick up what's going on if there is a significant emotional switch.

It's also not entirely clear if you can hear other astral forms in the Astral. I think the safest bet is to say that you can communicate with other astral forms and can be "overheard" unless you have some kind of mental connection (i.e. the spirit-summoner link).
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rednblack

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« Reply #147 on: <12-12-14/1254:39> »
I found this in a thread on that topic:

Quote
[Street Magic pg 114: Other Senses]

Characters may converse and be heard in astral space, and language
is still a communication barrier there, but an assensing
character will be struck more by the emotive content rather
than by the words themselves. It is also possible to eavesdrop
on the noises, communications, and even smells of the physical
world from the astral plane, but just like reading a physical
book, the assensing character will perceive the emotional tone
and impressions rather than the physical sensation.



So, maybe?  Not sure if they're talking about Manifesting or Projecting though.  Guess I need more books.  Damn you, Topps Company, INC.  Take all my ¥
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« Reply #148 on: <12-12-14/1309:03> »
I've got Street Grimoire. I can check it when I get home. I would roll with that... I think it means that you're not going to get exact wording, just emotional content. So, Bookworm wouldn't hear the words, but would pick up that the one who spoke is questioning and impatient, but may not really be all that interested in the answer.
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JackVII

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« Reply #149 on: <12-12-14/1316:59> »
I guess I'm pulling over then, barring input from the team.
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