[rednblack]

1 block wouldn't affect Abbey's security's roll to such a degree that they would not see the other van.  3-5 blocks would, but at that point you're looking at being roughly between 180-300 meters out.  If you guys are fine with that distance -- and more importantly the CTs necessary to close it -- good enough.  I'll redact that portion of my last IC.

So, next stop is a drive by at Kreutz's place?  Who's going, and what's the plan?  Kreutz's house is on a cul de sac that terminates in a roundabout.  If you check out the address on google maps: https://www.google.com/maps/place/4504+145th+Pl+SE,+Bellevue,+WA+98006/@47.5629384,-122.147485,136m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x54906eb588cbc71f:0xe7d9049917115732!8m2!3d47.5629801!4d-122.147436
his is the one with all the trees around it.  Two stories, with a two car garage which faces the street, and the walkway to the door is mostly obscured through the foliage. 

[Tecumseh]

I've been calling Kreutz's neighborhood Newcastle but it's actually Somerset. In canon, this is halfway between Newport (security rating A/B) and Eastgate (security rating C). Of course, I don't think those security ratings have been updated since 1E and a lot can change in 25 years. I guess part of the recon will be to see what local security is like and what response times we might be able to expect.

As for the actual drive-by, Achak will be thinking that Jaeger can cruise by with his nifty Spatial Sense trick that Achak is impressed by / jealous of. That, plus Astral Clairvoyance (which I'm not sure Achak is aware of ICly) might give a decent indication of what's inside. If we decide that we don't want to risk a trip down the cul-de-sac for fear that it might be overly suspicious then the range of Spatial Sense (Extended) is far enough that there would still be coverage if we drive by on SE 45th or 46th.

ICly I don't think Achak knows about Jaeger's Divination yet, but there might be enough time for a ritual or two before bed. If they require reagents, Achak can pay for them out of the operation funds (which he will mention in his next IC post).

[Herr Brackhaus]

Sorry again, catching up on all the OOC business took longer than expected with the site being stubborn. Let's leave the timeline as is, we can fit Divination in later.

As for reconnoitering Kreutz' place, Jaeger will definitely be up to that. The plan from my end would be to summon a low-ish force spirit to go first and check if there are any wards, because that would severely limit my ability to scope the place from the astral. If wars are not present or at least intermittent, then I'd want to approach by parking near this house to the south-west of the target building, more than close enough for low-force spells to be effective. Detect Life, followed by Spatial Sense, followed by Astral Clairvoyance. Shouldn't take more than a couple of combat turns to be effective enough to determine what we need to know, and I wouldn't even need to go if the Spirit finds that the house is covered by wards.

So, without further ado, I'll roll up a Spirit summoning and some spells so we can work off of that. If the building is covered in wards, discard the spells, obviously.

Since the building is surrounded by trees, and Jaeger is of the Norse tradition where Detection is covered by Spirits of Earth, he'll summon something out of the ground. As he'll be sending the spirit off on a remote service, and spotting wards should be relatively straight forward, I'll do a meager Force 2 summon. Summoning 6 + Magic 6 + Power Focus 2 is 14 dice, Willpower 6 + Logic 4 for 10 dice on resistance (which I for some reason rolled as 9... but it doesn't matter).

Summon Force 2 Air Spirit [Astral 6]; Force 3 Spirit Resistance; Drain Resistance: 14d6t5 6 3d6t5 1 9d6t5 5
6-1 = 5 net hits for total overkill given the remote task, 1 hit for the spirit means a Drain Value of 2, which is fully resisted by 5 hits on Drain Resistance test.

Next up, spells. Spellcasting (Divination) 6 (+2) + Magic 6 + Power Focus 2 for a total of 16 dice. Each spell will only be sustained long enough to get a good sense of the area, so 2-3 Combat Turns each unless you feel more time is necessary, rednblack.

Casting Force 4 Detect Life [Force 4]; Resist 3 Drain: 16d6t5 6 10d6t5 3
Casting Force 64 Spatial Sense [Force 64]; Resist 3 Drain: 16d6t5 6 10d6t5 4
Casting Force 6 Astral Clairvoyance [Force 6]; Resist 3 Drain: 16d6t5 4 10d6t5 3

Wow, those are some lucky rolls right there.

All Drain resisted for all spells.

As extended range spells, both of the first two have a range of Force * Magic * 10, for a total of 4*6*10 = 240 meters. In terms of resisting these, Detect Life is an Active spell that is opposed by Willpower + Logic if anyone is present, and the number of net hits determines level of detail. Spatial Sense on the other hand is a Passive sense, and so objects wouldn't even get an Object Resistance roll.

Astral Clairvoyance is an odd one, by the way; it doesn't seem to really need any net hits as Force just dictates how far I can move my perception, which is Force * Magic meters, or 36 meters in Jaegers case, which should be more than enough to go from my intended loiter spot. Note that this spell doesn't actually involve leaving the caster's body behind, as one is not actually projecting. The caster does lose any other senses when using Astral Clairvoyance so walking around could be challenging, but there is no rag-dolling, which could be important at some point.

I'm working on an IC post, but I'll wait for Mercer and Achak to come out from Duncan's office first.

ETA:
I was editing my character sheet to include spell stats so I wouldn't need to look them up every time when I realized I goofed on Spatial Sense; both of my Extended Spells are F-1 drain, so I would cast at Force 4 for 3 drain, not Force 6. Means I only get to keep 4 hits on both of those spells.

[Tecumseh]

Achak is outside after my last IC post.

Given Kreutz's status as a preferred customer client, plus the basis of Pachis' threats to him, we should assume that Kreutz is dual-natured. As such, we should be cautious with spirits doing recon, as we don't want to tip him off nor give him an astral signature to work with. I would think that it might be safer just to do the driveby and gave the spells tell us if the house is warded rather than using a spirit to potentially save us some time, since we have plenty of time to spare at the moment.

Does Jaeger already have a spirit bound? If he is skipping Divination then does he want to bind another?

[rednblack]

@Herr, nice call on parking a block over.  A little extra layer of subterfuge never hurt anybody, but I'm sure it's saved a few hoops.  Let me make sure I'm getting Astral Clairvoyance correctly: you see things as though you're Astrally Projecting but without the dangers of actually Astrally Projecting, correct?  Do hits count as though Jaeger was Assensing, or would he still make an Assensing test if he wanted to give something a closer look, perhaps with Force as the Limit?  Unfortunately, 36 meters will get Jaeger just about to the backyard of Kreutz's house, according to google maps.  There isn't currently anyone in the house you tagged as your parking spot, though, -- or at least no one was picked up by Detect Life -- if you want to try to get a little closer and cast from there.

So, let's talk about what Jaeger "sees."  I know you're not focused on the surrounding houses, but your detection spells cover them, and someone mentioned that Kreutz may have others on the block in his employ/thrall, so we'll start there.  Most of the houses in the area seem to be occupied by single families, and the one on the corner of 144th Place E and Highland Drive is the only one with more than 2 adults, as it has six total.  When that data is overlaid with Jaeger's Spatial Sense, it appears as though 5 of the metas are centered around a trideo set, with the fifth in the kitchen.  Probably just some comfortable corp drones watching a little basketball or something on a Saturday afternoon.  The house that you parked at, the one directly across from Kreutz's, and 4501 145th Place SE are empty. 

Ok, now the meat: there is one living being in Kreutz's house and no wards.  The front door leads into a small foyer with an office to the right, and a great room up ahead.  The kitchen, laundry room, and dining room are to the left (southwest-ish) from the great room, and there are two small bedrooms to the right (northeast-ish), with a bathroom separating them.  The great room also has a set of stairs that lead up to the master bedroom, which has a very extensive master bathroom attached, which is where the living being is.  The majority of this room is over the two car garage, which does seem to have two vehicles parked inside.  As for the living being, he is human and sleeping.  You got 3 Net Hits, so if there's some absent information that you think you should have, let me know.

Also, let me know if you want to take a closer look with Astral Clairvoyance.

Flickr will want to go with Jaeger for the scope out, but will defer if Mercer really puts his foot down. 

ETA: is the plan for Jaeger's Spirit to go inside Kreutz's house?

[Herr Brackhaus]

Tecumseh
I agree in principle, but in this case all I'm concerned about with the spirit is for it to report on active astral signatures and auras; if it were to find the house encircled by wards, that would tell me any further recon would most likely be pointless. It would also be able to report on any active spirits, which would alert me to the fact that I'd need to be cautious. I don't think that's particularly dangerous as the Astral is supposed to be quite alive, and with trees and shrubbery around there should be enough ambient life to make it harder for the spirit to stand out, especially since it's a Spirit of Earth.


rednblack
Damn, those are some large houses! And this just goes to show why Astral Clairvoyance doesn't hold a candle to true Astral Projection; while perfect for looking around corners and popping into rooms around you, the range limitation can be a pretty significant limiting factor.

All right, looks like I'll have to take a drive into the cul-de-sac of the target building after all, but let's take things one step at a time.

Re: hits on Astral Clairvoyance. The rules for Passive detection spell does indeed state that hits become the limit for any perception tests while the spell is sustained, which makes a lot of sense. Specifically:

While the spell is sustained, Perception Tests using this sense have a limit equal to the net successes from casting of the spell instead of the subject’s Mental limit.

That is much clearer, and explains why you would ever need any more than a single hit on the spell. So any Assensing I'm doing is done with 4 as a limit instead of my Astral limit (presumably, since Mental limit doesn't apply to assensing). And no, it is not like Projecting at all; think of it as moving your point of "view" from one place to another, like if you were looking through a camera instead of your real eyes. In this case, it's Astral Perception, however, so the normal caveats about "sight" remains, and any ward stops me dead in the water as I have no means around them. I also don't get any other benefits of Projection such as being able to move halfway across the world in an instant, but no drawbacks like losing track of my body and having an aura at the point of perception that can be targeted with Mana spells either.

Loving the detail on Detect Life and Spatial Sense! Gives me a good sense of the place and it's surrounding neighbours, so I'll add this to the writeup. No further questions on the sleeping human, that seems like it would be appropriate for Detect Life; I will want to know more, of course, but that's what Assensing is for, which in this case means ordering the car to drive around the cul-de-sac in front of the house so I can get my astral self into the master bed room. Even with these large houses it looks like I'll be able to do so from the opposite side while the car drives slowly past the front driveway.

And the Spirit will not be going inside; well, actually, I guess that's for you to decide because I forgot to specify that, and I can image Jaeger being a little forgetful about minor details like that; as per the above, he will have asked it to report on any astral signatures and auras in the target location. Let me know if it sets off a masked alarm ward by doing so, however, as that changes the following part quite dramatically

Assuming the spirit doesn't set off any alarms, it would return and report back what it found as per the above, and then Jaeger would go there in person and do everything above. The only thing left is Assensing the house and the human being; as per our previous discussions on this, I'll roll once for the house and once for the living being, as one is a place and the other is an actual aura. I'd like to get a sense of both, so if I wanted a spirit to do that I'd count that as two of the Force auras it could assense in one service. Sound fair?

Assensing (Aura Reading) 6 (+2) + Intuition 4 - 2 for sustaining Astral Clairvoyance for a total of 10 dice, with a limit of 4 hits from Astral Clairvoyance.
Assensing house [4]; Assensing human [4]: 10d6t5 5 10d6t5 5

Heh, well, that went better than expected. I can only keep 4 hits in either case, but that should give me about as much information as I can expect, unless the individual is actually Awakened and has any number of metamagics like Masking or whatever that allows him to resist. Do you want me to roll a memory test to commit the aura to memory? I might need it later for the purposes of using Astral Doppleganger if this turns out to be a person of interest.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to find some sort of clue as to who this person is; i.e. does the aura remind me of the one described by the spirit the other night (i.e. is it Kreutz himself), does it have similar augmentations, etc.

[Tecumseh]

Given that I have a knowledge skill for this exact situation, I am going to roll it before I forget:

What security measures might Kreutz have at home? Logic 2 + Security Design 4 + Homes spec 2: 8d6t5 4 hits

Mental limit is 5 so I can keep all the hits.

I don't know if Jaeger is giving a play-by-play but if he is then Achak's paranoia will be on full alert. He will want to do a quick search to see if there is a major sporting event that a few guys might be reasonably be watching right now. If not, he'll be concerned that these folks are Sunrise security keeping watch on Kreutz's house. He would ask Jaeger if the men would have LOS on Kreutz's house from their location.

Achak will be keeping his eyes and ears open for signs of trouble and/or evidence of local security.

Base Perception: Intuition 6 + Perception 6: 12d6t5 3 hits
+ Visual modifiers: Vision Enhancement 3: 3d6t5 1 hit, for 4 hits total
+ Hearing modifers: Audio Enhancement 3 + Hearing spec 2: 5d6t5 4 hits, for 7 hits total, limit is 8 when gear is taken into account

Got that high-frequency hearing working on overdrive right now. Next, put some other adept powers to work:

Magic Sense: Intuition 6 + Perception 6: 12d6t5 6 hits

This power functions the same as the Detect Magic spell. It is active out to 60 meters, which is just shy of 200 feet. That should provide a pretty good reach without getting too close to the house. It will "detect the presence of all foci, spells, wards, magical lodges, alchemical preparations, active rituals, and spirits within range of the sense. It does not detect Awakened characters or critters..." Spirits and magical objects resist with Force x 2, which I still think is strange because it makes high-Force objects harder to detect than low-Force objects. To me this is backwards - that the R1 qi foci is easier to detect than an ancient obelisk from the Fourth World, that the F12 blood spirit monstrosity is harder to find than the F1 spirit of man picking its nose - but I'll leave the secret rolling and the results to the GM.

[rednblack]

Is Achak on the scene? I thought he was with the rest of the group back at the safe house or something. Let me know as this potentially changes things.

[Tecumseh]

The plan, as I understood it, was to reverse the roles:

On the visit to Duncan's office, Achak and Mercer were in the lead while the others were in the trailing vehicle to provide support if necessary.

On the visit to Kreutz's house, the reverse is true. Achak and Mercer will trail to provide backup while SpitFire and Jaeger do the recon. For this portion, Achak wants Flickr to transfer to the Roadmaster to join the trailing team. The logic is:
1) to keep Flickr from doing something rash in the event that he sees Kreutz in passing;
2) to keep Kreutz from seeing Flickr in passing; and,
3) to share magical defense between the two vehicles, especially Counterspelling.

Achak does NOT want to go down the cul-de-sac where Kreutz lives, but he might be willing to use the roundabout on the street to the west (144th Pl SE), which is what I think Jaeger is doing. Achak especially likes this approach because any potential pursuing ground vehicle that originates at or near Kreutz's house will not have a particularly direct route to the location of the recon vehicles. (For the record, I'm still not 100% sure which house is Kreutz's. I see a house surrounded by trees but the address appears to be 451_ instead of 4504. I don't know how literal to take the address in terms of Google Maps.)

Achak is aware that there might be Detection spells looking out for him, Mercer, or Flickr. That's part of why he wants Flickr along: to counterspell any Detection spells. For good measure, Achak has activated his Qi Focus for the Cloak power, which gives 1 extra die to oppose Detection spells.

Flickr's connection to the team is through Mercer, not Achak, so this approach may be dependent on Mercer ordering Flickr to join the Roadmaster. (Achak could potentially order Flickr but Mercer's dice pool will be significantly better.) If Mercer declines to do so or if Flickr continues to refuse, then Achak would ask Jaeger to have a guardian spirit provide Counterspelling for the Roadmaster. If Jaeger declines, then Achak will have to rethink his approach.

If this outline does not match someone else's understanding of the situation, or if you see holes in the logic or potential room for improvement, please say so. By no means is it final; it's just what I thought we were doing and the reasoning for it.

[Zweiblumen]

Do we want to do the astral and drone surveillance at the same time or do we want to have Jaeger do his thing, then have Patsy and SF do theirs?

[Herr Brackhaus]

Sorry, forgot to mention that Jaeger will hop into his own car for the Astral recon. Presumably, SpitFire can do his recon without having to actually get close to the house, drone ranges being what they are and all.

I've got the following in the IC post that I'm finalizing now.

TL;DR
1. Jaeger sends a spirit to Kreutz' house to check if it's warded and/or has any magical watchers when Achak and Mercer returns from Duncan's.
2. He then transfers to his own car and drives to Kreutz' house, parking in the cul-de-sac just south-west of the target
3. Casts Detect Life and Spatial Sense, sustains for enough time to get a good read of the target (couple of combat turns?)
4. Casts Astral Clairvoyance and discovers he can't get into the house from current position; orders pilot to do a drive-by of the house
5. Assenses Kreutz' house and then the sleeping human as the car passes through the cul-de-sac Kreutz' house is located in

For the record, I'm under the impression that this is Kreutz' house (it's the one that's the most surrounded by trees, but Tecumseh has a point in that most of them have a ton of trees around them ).

[Tecumseh]

I called SpitFire's van an Endurance when it's actually a GMC Universe. I'll update that.

Herr can correct me if I'm wrong, but Jaeger's logic for taking his FunOne seems to be that it's more inconspicuous than a GMC Universe. Achak would be skeptical that an inexpensive subcompact would blend in better than a work van but probably wouldn't push the point. He'd be more concerned about the breakdown of the buddy system. Again, he's not going to push it too far since Jaeger is a relatively new addition and hasn't been involved in any ops targeting Sunrise, but it will still be a source of anxiety for him. The same will be true if/when Jaeger insists on sleeping at home tonight. After the warehouse op, the team may have to arrange for accommodations that satisfy all parties. The Caston sounds nice but won't be available until Tuesday. (It is currently Friday.)

Ultimately, how close Achak gets to Kreutz's house depends on Mercer, since he's driving. Achak would prefer for the team to stay together but won't throw a tantrum about it.

[rednblack]

Ok, so we're not going to retcon the last bit, as I like the write up and don't want to derail things too much, but when Achak is within distance for his Magic Sense it pings off pretty hard.  He's sensing a rather High Force Spirit -- 6+ -- which is attentive and inside the house.  He gets a sickly feeling, as it's putting off vibes not unlike the blood spirit did at Sunrise HQ the other night.  He'll also get a number of Quickened spells on an individual inside, as well as Foci.  The guy's lit up so much it's a bit difficult to get a bead on everything.

Re: Resisting Magic Sense, I thought that we had a discussion about this back in the Sunt chapter, but I've been unable to find the exchange.  I think at the end we decided to run it kind of like the Perceiving Magic section of the CRB where items, spells, etc. would resist with 6 - Force X 2 or something like that.  Let me know what your thoughts are.

Achak is able to find a basketball game which Horizon has purchased exclusive rights to air.

Perception-wise, Achak isn't able to see anything really out of the ordinary.  You're in a B security rated area, so the cameras are probably in working order, but there aren't as many of them in residential areas; they mostly cover intersections and the entrances to the neighborhood proper.  Given the cloudy, rainy, dreary day, the cost of the houses, and the general apprehension about mages, most of the windows are either tinted or have the shades drawn.  This doesn't look like the kind of place where people get in one another's business.  Achak's crazy good roll on auditory Perception allow him to hear a drone overhead, which is keeping a regular circular pattern.  If it's not centered over Kreutz's house, it's centered somewhere very close. 

@Herr, you are correct.  That's the house.  I got my addresses from Zillow, and I guess they were a bit off.

A drive by on 145th Place E will be close enough for Astal Clairvoyance to get him inside the house.  4 hits is pretty darn good on Assensing, even if you lose out on the ability to tell if Kreutz is a technomancer   Unfortunately, while Jaeger is able to find some boobytraps, it appears as though Kreutz's Masking techniques are quite strong, at least in this instance.  He appears as a healthy, mundane human with a datajack, sleep regulator, and Tailored Pheromones, maybe?  Or maybe that's not Kreutz at all.  The figure is no longer asleep when they show up, which may necessitate an edit to the last IC.  Ignore that.  It doesn't make any sense.  The figure is sleeping.

As for the house and spirit, Jaeger finds a Combat Preparation -- Force 6 -- attached to the front door and back sliding patio door, and another sitting at the base of the staircase.  The Spirit is a Force 7 Blood Spirit, which looks like a 2.5 meter tall rag doll stuffed with maggots and rotting hay.  It wears a round baby's face, purple and expressionless, tufts of hair which look perpetually wet and matted against its skull and red eyes which weep trickles of thick coagulated blood.  Ya know, like they do.

Let me know if I missed anything.

[Tecumseh]

We had a discussion about resisting Magic Sense. I believe it was at the beginning of this chapter when Achak was trying to find Flickr's spirit and foci. I couldn't remember what we decided but I like using the Perceiving Magic rules.

Achak won't be surprised by the quickened spells since Pachis already alluded to them when threatening Kreutz. The foci could imply that Kreutz isn't a pushover. The blood spirit is even less encouraging.



Let's see how well Achak is holding up. I'll roll Composure but with a reasonably low threshold since Achak has gone up against a blood spirit recently and came out okay, plus he probably has a religious conviction to destroy it.

Composure: Willpower 3 + Charisma 4 + Guts 2: 9d6t5 2 hits

He's not thrilled but he's holding together for now.

[rednblack]

Is recon complete?  Anything else y'all are planning to do at Kreutz's before leaving and finishing with preparations for the assault on the warehouse?