[Tecumseh]

There are a few options. It's unclear which is best:

1) Chino manually;
2) Sam's explosives; or
3) Melting with a fire spirit

Chino wouldn't really be stripping the exterior so much as he'd be chiseling it off. He'd break it off chunk by chunk until he gets to the base metals in the middle.

Sam could theoretically do something similar with explosives but it's going to be less precise than Chino using his hands.

The fire spirit is an unknown. In the exterior, the real value is about evenly split between the gold and the osmium. A fire spirit can likely heat the gold to its melting point (1,064 C) but the osmium (3,027 C) might be hotter than a fire spirit can manage, unless you really oversummon. That also leaves you with molten metal, which presents challenges of its own (i.e. for collection, etc.).

[rednblack]

Is Chino still the go to guy if we're trying to only strip the valuable metals off the surface rather than break it in to parts?

He seems to think he is at least. Tec said he can do the kind of damage with his kicks that would do it, but it's certainly not the light touch.

As a team it seems we have a lot of uncertainty about what to do next. Chino def wants to destroy it. Ace is unconvinced. Personally and OOC I think trying to unload the thing on Cannon is the most interesting and fun choice to play, though it's hard to argue with the IC logic of selling the obelisk for spare parts.

Whatever we do we need to make the call and do it. Once we have some forward momentum we'll have more posts and more for our chars to add to the story. I say we OOC vote, tie it up with a couple IC posts, and get whatever the plan is in motion.

I vote Cannon.

[Zweiblumen]

Doc wants to chop it up and sell for parts, but I think Cannon would be more interesting.

Scre it, I'll vote Cannon also.

[Tecumseh]

Katsina is loathe to break up an ancient artifact simply for the value of the precious metals but she also realizes the precariousness of our situation. The fact that the Atlantean Foundation thoroughly documented the artifact helps assuage some of her guilt on the matter, meaning she won't actively try to stop the group from breaking up the base.

For the record, it's not necessarily an either/or decision between breaking up the the artifact and selling it to Cannon. You can break off the precious metals in the mundane base and sell the Awakened remainder (including the magical tablets) to Cannon. That just makes it a two-buyer process rather than a single-buyer solution.

Overall, the question isn't so much "what is the obelisk worth?" because the clear answer is that it's priceless. The real question is "what is the obelisk worth to people that we have access to and who are willing to deal with us?"

If we had a Connection 10-11 fixer we'd obviously be approaching this much differently and would be having conversations with elite clients. Instead, we're working with Connection 4 fixers and talismongers and we're cold-calling mid-level executives of foundations, which limits the value that we can capture.

It wasn't explicitly stated earlier but Doc's research came up with a commcode for Cannon. It appears to be the one he uses for work (as opposed to his personal communications).

Katsina's vote is to sell the whole thing to Cannon, but she'll understand if the group wants to try to capture an additional ¥900k (minus middlemen fees) by breaking up the base. She'll be the first to admit that ¥150k each is a life-changing amount of money, and could really help them with their new lives.

[rednblack]

If we weren't hard-pressed for irl time, I would recommend breaking up the base and using the nuyen from that to get the hell out of the PCC and to somewhere in the CAS or UCAS, and build connections there, with the obelisk stashed somewhere safe.  I don't think that's an option, though.

Tec, do you feel comfortable making a vote?  We won't hold you responsible for anything bad that happens 

[Tecumseh]

What's "making a vote"?

If we separate the issue into two parts, here's what I'm hearing so far:

PC	Break/Sell Base	Cannon
Ace	cautiously indifferent	Yes
Chino	Yes	who cares
Doc	No	Yes
Sam	?	?
Ohanzee	Yes	Yes
Katsina	No	Yes

It sounds like approaching Cannon is a go. Whether to break up the base or not needs some more input.

Plans B, C, and D include going to Ares, approaching Sam's original Johnson, or throwing Sam's explosive device on the obelisk and dropping it off at DIMR HQ.

[Zweiblumen]

Doc is going to flip-flop and follow Zweiblumen's lead despite his earlier dedication to chopping it up.
No on the break/sell, yes on Cannon.  I'll RP it that he was really intrigued by the dossier he gathered on Cannon and thinks this is a good mark^H^H^H^Hcandidate for dumping^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hselling the millstone^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hpriceless artifact to.

[Tecumseh]

I updated the table with Doc's vote and will continue to do so as votes come in or change.

I will say that breaking up the base is the default option since Chino is actively looking to do so. Unless someone is willing to stop him, or unless there's a pretty good consensus to the contrary, he'll want to break it up.

Rednblack, does Ace have a position on breaking up the base?

[rednblack]

Ace is worried about ending the world. Since that concern is mostly moot he's indifferent.

[Tecumseh]

The concern about ending the world isn't entirely moot. Breaking down  the exterior of the base poses less risk than breaking up the entire base, but it's not 0% risk.

And, to be fair, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Just the end of the world as you know it.

I'll give Sam and Ohanzee a day to add their thoughts and/or votes. If things stand as they are now, Chino will break down the exterior.

[Zweiblumen]

I don't remember, did we actually find any info on the cults activities?

FWIW, I didn't really consider the sexual preference angle due to the emphasis in SR about how unimportant that is these days.  However where there any metas in the images or was it all human?

[Tecumseh]

ICly, what you know about the cult has been summarized as "During the run, [APB] uncovered evidence that the Atlantean Foundation research team had been infiltrated by religious cultists."

The intentions of the cultists are uncertain. It's clear that they want the artifact, but not what they want it for. "Shove it in their secret underground lair and surround it with incense and candles so they can chant at it all day" was one possibility raised by Ohanzee. Katsina is more fearful about their intentions, but doesn't have any evidence to back that up.

You are complete correct that sexuality is a non-issue in-canon (in Cannon, hurr hurr). Perhaps it wouldn't fly at a conservative Japanese corporation (the ones that are still distrustful of metahumans after 60+ years), but most of the rest of the world won't care unless it's illegal (underage) or truly depraved. That's why Katsina was undermining her own argument.

Jäger is an elf. Her husband is human. Cannon is human, as were his dates. The head of the Atlantean Foundation is either a human-looking ork or a very large human female. She's not smiling so you can't see if she has tusks or not.

[rednblack]

FWIW, I didn't really consider the sexual preference angle due to the emphasis in SR about how unimportant that is these days.  However where there any metas in the images or was it all human?

I agree that the blackmail angle is unworkable, but Katsina's assumption about sexual preference does provide a new way to analyze the look Cannon was giving in Jager's direction, and it opens up social engineering potential. 

As for the cult, I just want to verify that we don't have any hard evidence, correct?  We have information that APB uncovered something, but we don't have that something, right?

[Tecumseh]

Oops, I lied! There is some evidence about what the cult wants to do with the artifact. See the bolded segment below:

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.

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 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.

So, to clarify, during her initial (solo) foray, APB found evidence of the cult but not what they were up to.

During the second round of recon (involving APB, Ace, and Illeana), more evidence was found. This evidence points to the obelisk as an object of worship. What exactly the cult's worship involves (bread and wine? incense and chanting? bloody human sacrifices?) is unclear.

The evidence you have around the cult is all electronic. It's enough to convince anyone who also believes in the authenticity of your records. In other words, someone could argue that the evidence is an elaborate electronic forgery, which is hard to disprove, but anyone who trusts the authenticity of the evidence will agree that there is a religious cult who infiltrated this archaeological dig.


Regarding the obelisk, the default decision (Chino smash) requires some assistance. I believe we agreed to bury the obelisk underground. Having done so (using one of Ohanzee's spirits), the easiest way to extract it would be for Ohanzee to levitate it. It would also be possible for Chino to lift it out with some significant help from Sam, Ace, and Katsina. Katsina isn't willing to help, which means that Ohanzee has some veto power over the situation.

I haven't heard from Poindexter or Malevolence yet but I'm still assuming the Ohanzee will assist Chino. I'll roll out the consequences during lunch.

[Tecumseh]

Alright, moving forward. Chino hits the obelisk:

Does Chino end the world??? No!

Phew! Nothing bad happens. I'll get an IC post up.