1) I don't see anything in the rules which says that Increase Reflexes doesn't stack with VR initiative bonuses. That said, it doesn't benefit hot-sim VR because the user already has the maximum initiative dice (5d6). It would benefit cold-sim VR, which would allow Doc to go matrixing without cooking his brain, but he would have to be willing to give up his +2 hot-sim dice pool bonus.
Katsina is the only one who would benefit from Increase Reflexes. That said, she already knows the preparation for it. (Tangent: she's known the spell since the beginning of the game. She "remembered" it when she saw Ohanzee casting it months ago. It just now occurs to me that I never added it to her PC sheet. I'll do that. End tangent.) Not one to let others sacrifice anything for her, even karma, she'd just cast and quicken it on herself. I was partially avoiding this for OOC reasons (trying not to let NPC have more actions than everyone else) but ICly she would, so I should do it. Using the "Quickening must purchase hits" rule - which is a bit awkward with preparations, since technically the preparation casts the spell - her 15 dice turn into 3 hits (which is what I did for the group Combat Sense casting, see below).
2) Zweiblumen is right: I did the Combat Sense + Quickening two months ago. How time flies. Ohanzee, Chino, and Doc all have
Combat Sense @ F3 w/ 3 hits (so +3 dice to defend and on Surprise rolls) if they want it. If you don't want it, please speak up so that I can refund Katsina's karma. Sam was NOT included in the casting/quickening because Katsina was uncertain (and still is) if he would accept a foreign, quickened spell.
I'll use that crappy 2-hit drain roll for her Increase Reflexes casting/soaking, since it looks like that's not needed to soak Combat Sense. If she's casting at F6 then she needs to soak 7 Drain (due to the Contact trigger for the preparation adding 1). She is now at
5S, if we're erasing the previous drain (since we already did the Combat Sense casting/quickening/drain soaking back in June).
3) APB discovered evidence of the cult during her aborted run on the complex. In the timeline, this is the run that caused APB to underground for a few weeks, then triggered Ace to go looking for her. Ace's datalock includes the evidence that APB found, which is all electronic (versus physical or astral) evidence. Here's a refresher of what was in Ace's datalock:
January 25th
- On January 25th, APB triggers her distress signal. She is immediately recovered by Ace and Illeana.
- APB explains that her exploratory run against the ruins went sideways. During the run, she uncovered evidence that the Atlantean Foundation research team had been infiltrated by religious cultists.
- APB retreated to Aspen (thinking that security and/or the cultists would look for her in Boulder, the nearest city) to lay low. She went to a bar, picked up the toughest looking guy, and shacked up with him for a few weeks while waiting for things to cool off.
- APB provides the results of her aborted hack. She says that the Atlantean Foundation has uncovered an ancient obelisk at an archaeological dig. Its value is inestimable and would surely be worth a significant commendation from Ares were they to successfully bring it in. Ace agrees.
January 26th through 30th
- Red Team lays the groundwork for their run on the ruins. They conduct physical, astral, and Matrix reconnaissance. The details of this are included in the file, including the location of the ruins. The location ties out with the photographs that Katsina has on her comm.
- The Atlantean Foundation is referring to the artifact as the Blank Slate. They are actively conducting research on the obelisk in situ, but with mixed results. A couple volunteers were rendered into mindless husks after "reading" the "writing" on the obelisk. The obelisk somehow robbed them of their minds, leaving only an empty shell of a body behind. These shells are still alive and can perform involuntary functions (breathing, blinking, heartbeat, etc.) on their own, but seem to be devoid of higher thinking.
- The cult appears to desire the obelisk to worship it. Their religion seems to be based off indigenous beliefs dating back to the Fourth World.
- Illeana is nervous about the power of the artifact and who else might be looking for it. She is more comfortable with the notion of Ares having it than her coven, which is actively being manipulated by forces she does not trust, or religious fanatics, whom she also does not trust. Illeana agrees to help retrieve the artifact for Ares, but warns that the group that manipulated her coven will surely hire runners of their own to do the same. (Illeana was not instructed to recover the artifact, only to interfere with Ace. She feels certain there must be another team actively pursuing the artifact.)
The nature of the cult - Lawful Good, Chaotic Evil, something in-between - is unclear. Do they want to put it in the basement and surround it with candles and incense, like Ohanzee suggested? Or is it something less benevolent? Given what it does, Katsina is quite concerned about it being in the wrong hands. She wasn't willing to take the chance of letting the cultists have it.
