[rednblack]

He'll put the comms under about 7cm of snow.  That should keep Noise penalties to a minimum.  Comms will be purchased.  Cheap MetaLinks should do.

[Zweiblumen]

Making a(nother) change to my matrix loadout:

Attack: 4 Sleaze: 5 Data Prcoessing: 6 Firewall: 7(8 )
Encryption, Signal Scrub, Configurator, Wrapper
Configurator:
Attack: 7 (8 ) Sleaze: 5(6) Data Processing: 4 Firewall: 6
Decryption, Stealth, Hammer, Agent

If Sat-Links don't obviate static-zones that makes them pretty useless.  I'd argue that it actually would limit the noise due to Static Zone being -5 given the Spam and Static Zone chart on CRB p. 231.  He'd still have the distance noise modifier of going from GJ to the camp site (guessing thats in the -5 part of the distance situation).  And if he's in GJ then he's not in a Static zone anyway, so would just be dealing with the distance, unless we add the targets modifiers to the sources modifiers in which case... ugh.  The implications there are really complicated.
I think either way, we've come to the -5 *should* be the right modifier here, and he's got 3 points of noise cancelation with the data jack and signal scrub.  So, -2 on his rolls.  Not too shabby.  How do you want to modify the Matrix Perception roll... also, do you get to do "Specifically Looking" with MP rolls like you do for normal Perception rolls?  I don't see anything in the rules about it so I'm guessing "no."

[Tecumseh]

@rednblack Noted. Is the goal simply to distract the opposition with comms running silently?

¥2,800 remaining.

Matrix Perception is going to be a bit goofy since we're going into such a long exposition sequence that Doc (and his agent) would have hundreds of opportunities to run Matrix Perception, so he can pretty much find out whatever he wants. And, given the number of opportunities, he's eventually going to win a perception test against anyone running silently; it's only a matter of how long it would take. Since I don't want to time the coming speeches, I'll probably give Doc the benefit of the doubt in most cases.

As for the "specifically looking for it" bonus, I've gone back and forth over the years about how to apply this. I'm going to say it does apply to both regular Perception and Astral Perception, but not Matrix Perception. Then the question becomes "what does someone have to do to earn the bonus?" That's the threshold that moves around on me. Do they simply have to be actively looking (like searching a room for anything out of the ordinary) or does the player have to identify for what (or where) they are specifically looking? Does a person walking down the street get a straight Perception roll, or do they get the Distracted penalty from all the stuff going on around them? What's the "immediate vicinity", or does the definition change based on the landscape? 100 meters is huge in a dense city, but in an open field it's nothing.

As usual, I will make something up, act confident about it, and move forward.

[Zweiblumen]

As usual, I will make something up, act confident about it, and move forward.

This!  Thanks for being an awesome GM Tec!  I'm gonna miss this game once we've finished it.

[Poindexter]

Sam Loadout:

Holding the Pioneer 60, loaded up with the flachettes as that's all he's got.
He'll have the Xm30 slung under his shoulder, with all 24 remaining APDS rounds loaded up. The nade launcher is loaded with flashbangs.
He's wearing the vest underneath the jacket and has all the grenades stuffed into his pants pockets. lethal in the left, non-lethal in the right.
Wearing goggles, running his original Avalon on silent.
Burner comm in jacket pocket.
Subvocal mic on.

Perception raw (Int 3 + Per 3): 6d6t5 2

hearing/sight spec (2): 2d6t5 1

He's face down prone in the snow, on the opposite side from Ace and approximately the same distance. He's covered himself with as much snow as he can without making it difficult to get up quickly.

[Tecumseh]

Yeah, this has been a good one. I'm hardly going to know what to do with myself when it is over. I'll probably take a break over the holidays and figure out what the next undertaking is.

Chino knowledge skill check: Logic 4 + Vehicles 2: 6d6t5 1 hit

Chino knowledge skill check: Firearms knowledge skill: 6d6t5 3 hits

Ace knowledge skill check: Firearms knowledge skill: 6d6t5 3 hits

Ace running Wireless Off creates some potential IC/OOC mismatches in information. The team can communicate via micro-transceiver but it requires whispering. Whispering, of course, is not as stealthy as DNI texting. Ace's communication over micro-transceiver can't be picked up by Doc since the range is 1km when the wireless is off. Presume that spoken text is transmitted via micro-transceiver (so everyone can hear it).

Ohanzee astral perception: Intuition 2 + Assensing 4 + Spec 2: 10d6t5 3 hits

Chino astral perception: Intuition 4 + Assensing 3 + Spec 2: 9d6t5 4 hits

Conditions
Visibility: Clear
Light: Dim (-6, although everyone has thermo or low-light to reduce it)
Wind: None

Ending on a bit of a cliffhanger, mostly because I'm out of time at the moment. Feel free to post initial reactions but know that there is much more exposition coming later tonight.

[Malevolence]

Good start.


I hadn't explicitly mentioned it before, but everyone with Ohanzee should be inside his lodge (which I think has a radius in meters equal to its force, which is 6, but the book is unclear on this as well as how powerful a lodge one can make, which I assume is limited by one's Magic rating), thus gaining the benefit of the dual-natured mana barrier. He has allowed them to move and see unimpeded through it per the quote below. The book is unclear if this includes casting, so that's a GM call.

Mana barriers do not affect their creators, who can see through them or pass through them at will and allow others to do so as well.

[Tecumseh]

Alright, second half is up.

For the record, this is straight out of Ryo's original campaign notes. There were other possible outcomes depending on which way you went with things, but this is where we ended up.

To put it in OOC terms, there are four free spirits plus some assorted muscle and drones. Here's the table for convenience:

PC	Spirit	Notes
Sam	Rozkhi	Inhabiting a troll, now dual-natured
Chino	B13	free spirit of beast
Ohanzee	still Ohanzee	free spirit of man
Doc	Doc Hack	free spirit of fire

The free spirits, other than Rozhki, are manifested but not materialized. They have an astral presence but not a physical one. Sam should realize that his vision of his other self staring at him in disgust was this free spirit visiting camp and looking at him prior to the Inhabitation of its new body. (OOCly: The new troll looks like Sam because the inhabitation was a True Form merge. In other words, not much is left of the vessel Rozhki is inhabiting. What's left looks like the spirit, and the spirit looks like Sam.)

I hadn't seen Mal's latest post before I wrote the second half of the IC reveal so we'll have to shoe-horn it in a bit. Mana barriers reduce visibility but I'm going to say it isn't completely opaque on the astral because the way I wrote the IC post requires the free spirits to be able to see Ohanzee, Chino, and Katsina. I'll say they can all fit inside the lodge but it will make them a pretty tight cluster for any grenades that get sent in their direction.

Nobody has a really great knowledge skill relating to free spirits. It's likely that Chino has some understanding of them, given his build a spirit-hunter, as would Ohanzee as a conjurer. I'll leave it up to you and your understanding of your characters to determine how much they would know about free spirits and the Inhabitation power. (Doc's Logic is high enough he might be able to default into some knowledge too.)

Katsina knows... Logic 5 + Magical Theory 3: 8d6t5 3 hits. A bit. 3 hits is okay but Magical Theory is pretty high-level to cover something like this. I'll wait for some IC discussion before she shares anything though. I've posted enough for the moment.

There's probably lots more that I'm forgetting. I have a busy day at the office tomorrow so I probably won't be able to post ICly until the late afternoon. If it comes to blows (or if the opposition gets impatient and decides to KO you instead) then we can roll initiative. If it comes to that, I'll work on a crude map of the scene.

Next
IC responses from the PCs!

[rednblack]

@rednblack Noted. Is the goal simply to distract the opposition with comms running silently?

Couple of goals.  Cannon and company will probably expect some extra security on the wings.  The comms are to give them the impression that they have located said security.  I figure that any ambushes, or initial volleys of attack stand a fair chance of being directed at the location of the comms. 

For our present situation, I want to make sure I have the numbers right.

We have 2 trolls on snow mobiles, with 2 humans/elves riding behind, which Ace knows about but can't see.

We have 1 True Form Sam spirit, inhabiting a troll body.

We have Materialized Spirits of Doc, Ohanzee, and B13.

We have an unknown number of people in the Bulldog, 1 of which is assumed to be the opposing team's hacker.

We have 2 Rotodrones armed with Alphas in the skies.

The only thing Ace would not be aware of is the armaments on the little guy closest to real Sam.  Is the above correct according to everyone else?

Now, I guess, the question is: How badly does Sam want those memories back?

With Chino's Assensing roll, can we get the Force and Magic of the spirits?  Also, how about any cyber/bio on the snow mobilers? 

[Zweiblumen]

Doc will want to do a Matrix Perception specifically trying to determine the # of people in bulldog.  Also checking to see if there's a decker *and* a rigger or if someone is pulling double duty.

Of course he's also looking for silently running icons (specifically personae but the rules are fuzzy on that).  I'll get a post up with his reaction to the comments with along with the results of the MPs.  You said given the time here he'd eventually get all the data he's looking for, but lemme know if you want rolls.

[Tecumseh]

rednblack's summary is largely correct with one exception: everyone can see the two humans/elves in chameleon suits but via different methods. See below:

Ace: yes, via thermographics, scored enough hits on Perception test
Chino: only with Astral Perception
Doc: yes, via personae (which are running silent)
Katsina: yes, via both astral perception and thermographic vision
Ohanzee: yes, via both astral perception and thermographic vision
Sam: only with Astral Perception

Only Chino has a penalty to target them, as he would have to use Astral Perception. (Sam does not have a penalty since he is now dual-natured.) The men are not actively trying to be sneaky. They're not tiptoeing around or trying to flank you. They're just trying to be hard to see/target.

Chino did have a good assensing roll. Ohanzee can probably conclude much the same between his own test and what his spirit sees.

B13: F6
Doc Hack: F4
Spirit Ohanzee: F6

Doc detects three (3) personae in the van. One is running silently, the other two are not. The two that are not are the decker and the rigger.

I have a big deadline this afternoon so I'm going to be grinding away on that. I'll get some more information up this afternoon regarding the Matrix Perception tests. Until then, Doc can see that almost everything is slaved to a Shiawase Cyber-5 (Device Rating 5, attributes coming later). The exception is the rigger, who is running a MCT Drone Web (Device Rating 6, attributes coming later).

[rednblack]

@Tec, understood.  Hope you knock the shit out of that deadline.

OOCly, I wonder if the spirit Force is affected by the Essence of the individual, potentially capped at 6.  What about Sam's doppelganger's Force and Essence?   Does his True Form nature interfere with Assensing?  Also, since Magic wasn't listed separately, I'm assuming that it's as listed in book.  Is that correct?

This is . . . interesting.

[Poindexter]

This is amazing. I'm just floored. I never imagined the end would be ANYTHING like this.

Also, I'm bout to be out of town on vacation from tomorrow night until monday night, but I'll be near a PC and I'll keep up with things while I'm away. I promise not to slow down the action.

[Tecumseh]

Yeah, Ryo had a lot of rabbits in the hat. I'm not even sure this is the craziest one.

Alright, it looks like I misspoke earlier. Rozkhi isn't a True Form but rather a Hybrid Form. (For all the years I've been reading about spirits, I've never been able to keep true/hybrid/flesh straight in my head.) A True Form spirit doesn't actually keep the vessel's body. That body is destroyed and the spirit gets the Materialization power, which replaces its previous Inhabitation power. A hybrid form keeps the new body but makes it look like the spirit. With a more dramatic spirit, like a bug spirit, the hybrid form can be pretty ... distinct. In this case - the spirit of a troll merging into another troll - the effect is less dramatic. The end product still looks like the original Sam due to the spirit's inhabitation.

Rozkhi is Force 2. It's unclear from the rules whether you would see the spirit's Force, or the vessel's Essence, or the vessel's Magic, if any. I'll err on the side of transparency and say that the vessel itself is Essence 6, Magic 6. One might reasonably conclude that a heavily cybered troll creates a diminished free spirit. A clever runner might then guess that Rozkhi didn't particularly like being such a small spirit, which accelerated his desire for a new body ASAP.

Now, on to Matrix Perception:

Hacker
Shiawase Cyber-5
Device Rating 5
Attack: 5
Sleaze: 8
Data Processing: 7
Firewall: 6 (7)
Programs running: Agent, Encryption, Exploit, Lockdown, Signal Scrub, Track, Virtual Machine

Rigger
MCT Drone Web
Device Rating 6
Data Processing: 7 ( 8 )
Firewall: 6 (7)
Programs running: Armor, Biofeedback Filter, Encryption, Shell, Signal Scrub, Toolbox

[Poindexter]

Yeah, Ryo had a lot of rabbits in the hat. I'm not even sure this is the craziest one.

I can't wait to hear all the other ways this coulda gone.