[Tecumseh]

Sorry, what I meant was "Chino can chime in on the conversation that's taking place over the comm," not the conversation about comms. In other words, Chino's opinion on the breakdown of the DIMR negotiations and what he would vote to do next.

With five hits, Ace is very familiar with the threat that technomancers pose to physical security, including commlinks, cyberwear, and security hardware like cameras, sensors, etc.

[Tecumseh]

New IC post is up. Please let me know anything you plan on doing in camp, security-wise or otherwise.

Katsina's cooking roll: Intuition 6 + Artisan 2: 8d6t5 5 hits

Dinner is awesome, in a comfort-food sort of way.

[Poindexter]

Please let me know anything you plan on doing in camp, security-wise or otherwise.

I'm not certain if he has or not already, but if Sam hasn't had the time to set the avalanche trap/s, he'll need to get around to that, post haste.

[rednblack]

Please let me know anything you plan on doing in camp, security-wise or otherwise.

I'm not certain if he has or not already, but if Sam hasn't had the time to set the avalanche trap/s, he'll need to get around to that, post haste.

As per a previous IC post, Ace will follow Sam's lead on the security preparations.  If you'd like to make that a teamwork test, I just need to know what to roll, and I'll do my best to assist.  We still have plenty of micro-wire, and that could make a great tripwire for triggering any avalanches. 

[Tecumseh]

There is enough time for Ace and Sam to set the avalanche trap(s) between the time of rebooting the comms and when the away team returns with the van. If you don't want to disrupt the timeline of the IC flow, then they can do it right after dinner.

It is not a difficult process. Options:
1) One trap or two. You can trap both sides of the valley (east side and west side) to make it more effective, but doing so uses more of your inventory;
2) Trigger. You can rig simple tripwires with a Survival (1) test or you can use detonators. The danger of a tripwire is it could be accidentally triggered by the environment. The benefit of tripwires is that you don't have to use your finite quantity of detonators. A radio detonator could also be rigged out of a commlink, probably with Doc's help; and,
3) Size. You can trigger a small (but effective) avalanche with a flash-bang grenade or det cord. For a medium-to-large avalanche you need to use commercial explosives or foam explosives.

Other than the trigger, you only need a Demolitions (1) test to set the traps.

In the last IC post from Malevolence, I'm not sure if the "little insurance policy" Ohanzee is referring to is Sam's custom bomb for the artifact. If so, the key component of that bomb is the fact that it magnetically binds to the base of the artifact, which is mostly iron. If the base is separated from the top - which is hepatizon, an alloy or orichalcum and cerrukite - then Sam's bomb will no longer stick. Sam should point this out ICly.

[Malevolence]

That was what Ohanzee was referring to. So to mod it for a base-less artifact will require a whole new attachment mechanism. We'll have to see what the options for that are, or we can leave enough of the base for  a magnetic attachment to still work - there's a lot of valuable metals, so even taking just 50% of it should meet our financial needs for the foreseeable future.

[Poindexter]

There is enough time for Ace and Sam to set the avalanche trap(s) between the time of rebooting the comms and when the away team returns with the van. If you don't want to disrupt the timeline of the IC flow, then they can do it right after dinner.

Let's do it after dinner.

1) One trap or two. You can trap both sides of the valley (east side and west side) to make it more effective, but doing so uses more of your inventory;
2) Trigger. You can rig simple tripwires with a Survival (1) test or you can use detonators. The danger of a tripwire is it could be accidentally triggered by the environment. The benefit of tripwires is that you don't have to use your finite quantity of detonators. A radio detonator could also be rigged out of a commlink, probably with Doc's help; and,
3) Size. You can trigger a small (but effective) avalanche with a flash-bang grenade or det cord. For a medium-to-large avalanche you need to use commercial explosives or foam explosives.

Other than the trigger, you only need a Demolitions (1) test to set the traps.

1) both sides.
2) No tripwires, too risky. It's likely our camp will be caught in the avalanche, so we absolutely cannot have them going off by accident. If I'm not mistaken, Sam already has one radio detonator, a rating 3 I think. We could make that last burner comm into another one if need be. What sorta test would that be? And yeah, we'd LOVE Doc's help, if he's got time.
3) Sam's gonna blow the wad on this one. He's going all out and using whatever of his explosives and whatnot he needs to in order to ensure this thing is HUGE. Maybe one side big and the other HUGE, I'm not certain, but either way, he's willing to use as much of his rating 5 commercial explosive, his rating 6 foam stuff, and his det cord as it takes to do this. He really doesn't feel like any of the group is ever leaving this valley anyway.

The key component of that bomb is the fact that it magnetically binds to the base of the artifact, which is mostly iron. If the base is separated from the top - which is hepatizon, an alloy or orichalcum and cerrukite - then Sam's bomb will no longer stick. Sam should point this out ICly.

whoops, I'll edit my IC post. one sec.

[Poindexter]

That was what Ohanzee was referring to. So to mod it for a base-less artifact will require a whole new attachment mechanism. We'll have to see what the options for that are, or we can leave enough of the base for  a magnetic attachment to still work - there's a lot of valuable metals, so even taking just 50% of it should meet our financial needs for the foreseeable future.

That's a good point. Hell, we don't even have to leave 50%, just enough to stick the bomb to, right?

[Zweiblumen]

Sorry I've been crushed at work today.

Doc has input on the values of the base, he'll be posting those ICly as soon as I get a chance.
Also, more than happy to help out with the burner... one problem out here is signal.  Tec, can Doc convert it to just use radio instead of matrix for detonation?  that way we don't need *other* signal, just the freq that it'll listen on?  Or, I guess we've got the sat-rec and that could provide (shitty) signal for all of our equipment.  Not sure on the range don't have my books here.  This is going off of the quotes on this forum that noise just adds penalties, it doesn't prevent comms from working.  So I would have a hard time hacking it, but could call it (doesn't make sense to me, but that's what they've said :/)

[Tecumseh]

1) Regarding the burner, yes, Doc can convert it to use radio instead of Matrix. See below for the required test. Given the terrain, you will need to be within 500m to trigger it reliably.

2) As for the base and how much of it you need to remove, it is unclear right now how the tablets at the top (the magic bits) are attached to the metallic base. They're attached firmly enough that you just can't pull them off manually, but what exactly is binding the two (and how) isn't obvious. This is part of the risk of separating the two.

3) Additionally, you don't know if the base is homogenous: i.e. if the composition is the same all the way through. (Katsina's scanner can only see the top layers.) It's possible you'll cut away the base only to find that the interior is pure copper and no iron. If so, there would be nothing to attach Sam's device to.

4) Both Sam and Doc would know that you have to leave enough iron for the electrocmagnet in the pull detonator to attach to. Doc could do all the math (Ampere's Law, the Biot-Savart Law, etc.), which I cannot because we don't know the fictional strength of the fictional electromagnet. I'm going to say that you need to leave 10kg of iron for the electromagnet to stick with enough of a connection that it can't just be pulled off.

5) Given the discussion, Sam would recognize a certain work-around for his insurance policy: namely, the receiving party could just cut off the portion of the obelisk that Sam's device is attached to. It's possible that they wouldn't have the tools to do so, or perhaps the time, but if you can cut the base then so could they.

6) Regarding rednblack's IC post, with Smashing Blow and Penetrating Strike Chino can hit barriers at 24P -4 AP. The base of the obelisk is roughly Structure 12, Armor 20. In other words, yes, Chino can basically break the barrier off with his bare hands. (Thank you, Ryo.) This is literally the brute force method and would likely result in breaking off one piece at a time, for better or worse.

Next
IC post for Doc regarding scrap metal prices
two Demolitions tests (threshold 1) for Sam
one Hardware extended test (threshold 4) for Doc
Chino chopping up the obelisk??

[Zweiblumen]

Quick Reply for the win!

Modify Comm (Logic 9 + Hardware 5 = 14): 14d6t5 4
Got it in 1!
I'm going to write it up like that's a 1 hour test.

[Zweiblumen]

Sorry for the screwed up formating.  Hard to do with quick-reply.  I'll turn that into a table once they fix the forums.

[Tecumseh]

For anyone having trouble posting on the forums, evidently it's a conflict between the forums and JavaScript. I'm told that if you block JavaScript then the forums will function normally.

In the meantime, Quick Reply seems to be the only way to respond to threads. It's at the very bottom of the page, in a red bar that looks like a border or a banner. Click the + symbol to expand and then type away. The downside is that it doesn't offer you the convenient formatting buttons, so you have to format things (color, etc.) manually.

Also, don't hit the Preview button: it won't work. If you do hit the Preview button, click the Back button on your browser, then scroll down and click Quick Reply again. Your post should still be there.

Here is the pretty version of the table Zweiblumen posted, which he didn't have access to since he couldn't quote my PM.

Element	Price per KG	Estimated KG	Value
Iron	¥0.1	71.8	7
Mercury	¥4.0	54.2	217
Silicon	¥2.5	7.7	19
Gold	¥26,000.0	53.7	1396160
Silver	¥290.0	44.7	12963
Copper	¥5.0	28.1	140
Osmium	¥12,860.0	63.8	820645

I hadn't thought of a threshold for the Hardware test but I wouldn't make it longer than 30 minutes. It doesn't matter ICly whether its 30 minutes or 60.

Next
two Demolitions tests (threshold 1) for Sam
IC discussion about Doc's findings
Chino chopping up the obelisk??

[Tecumseh]

I need posts. Posts - IC and OOC - are the lifeblood of a PbP and we're not getting them.

I'm going to quote Jack_Spade because he said it well and because rednblack publicly agreed with him:

One thing that should not be forgotten: If you play a game, it's your responsibility to keep it alive, no matter if you are PC or GM.
That means: Engage with other players and NPCs so there is something they can react to. If nothing happens and yours isn't the last post, you should try to post something that will bring the story forwards.

We are at a juncture where we need player input to move forward. Without input, the default course of action is to wait out in the forest until something kills you. Might be man, might be beast, might be hunger.

This game will reach a conclusion. I will be dissatisfied if it is a TPK but that is a valid option. Ryo gave me a ton of craziness that I haven't even unboxed yet. I won't be happy if it's just me GMing the final confrontation by myself, playing all the PCs as NPCs, but I will do it.

The half-baked plan currently on the table is to break up the base of the artifact, sell it off, and do whatever with the tablets. Maybe Ace takes them back to Ares, maybe they get donated to Jäger, maybe they get left buried in the ground for future generations of arcanoarchaeologists.

The current vote is two in favor of destroying the base (Ohanzee, Chino) and one neutral but nervous (Katsina).

I need votes/input from the following people on the following topics:

@rednblack
Ace: chop up base Y/N
Ace: what to do with the tablets
Chino: what do do with the tablets

@Zweiblumen
Doc: chop up base Y/N
Doc: what to do with the tablets

@Poindexter
Sam: chop up base Y/N
Sam: what do do with the tablets
Sam: two Demolition tests (threshold 1)

@Malevolence
Ohanzee: what to do with the tablets

Assuming that we get another Yes vote on chopping up the base, Chino needs to actually do it and then you need to hawk the pieces (after we roll to see if doing so ends the world).

[Zweiblumen]

I'll get an IC post up in the morning.  Doc will vote chop yes donate yes.  The damn thing is too much trouble, and if they've got 2 mil in metals. They can expect about 1-1.5.  Not great, but better than freezing. Maybe with the donate, try for some good will, maybe new identities to get them out of the wilderness?