[Tecumseh]

As far as the drone's position mattering more than its perception abilities, that could be based off SpitFire's skills, or what SpitFire programmed it to do. SpitFire's Intuition + Sneaking, perhaps, not that SpitFire is any good at Sneaking. (Might be a good purchase if Z has any karma for it.) That dice pool might be slim, so perhaps we augment it with a Teamwork test with advice from Achak, or a Leadership test from Mercer.

I don't think we have the dice pools for the iron shavings grenades so we'll probably have to stick with high explosives. If Achak uses Leadership on Mercer it might work but might be more trouble than it is worth.

Innate Spell on a Spirit of Man basically turns it into a mini-spellcaster, not unlike Adept Spell. It will cast and sustain (at a -2 penalty) until it's disrupted or its service ends at sunrise/sunset. Spirits of Man are one of the most popular/powerful spirits for this reason.

Combat Sense won't be too unbalanced on an F3 spirit because it will only be rolling 6 dice for its first casting and 4 dice for its second casting due to the sustaining penalty from the first. We could try to have it roll for a third casting but the odds aren't good for it being productive. In the meantime, the spirit won't be able to do much more than chill out on the astral while eating a sustaining penalty that basically wipes out its dice pool to do anything else. Maybe we ask it to use Guard first, before it is catatonic, since Guard is just as effective from low-Force spirits as from high-Force spirits. If we take this approach, we do need to keep some services in reserve, as Guard burns them up each time the power is triggered.

Other powers to possibly get from higher-Force spirits (either from Flickr or Jaeger) include Concealment, Movement, and Magical Guard.

I pinged Herr but haven't heard back. There seems to be something of a curse affecting players running spellcasters in this game. We're 3-for-3 in having them disappear or drop. Hopefully Herr makes it back.

[Zweiblumen]

SF took 1 point of sneak and 1 point of perception with the last round of karma so he's not defaulting on those anymore.  His Perception pool isn't bad all things considered (6 dice without any gear), Sneaking is only 3 outside of a drone.  Dunno how it works *in* drones, but I went with the Software roll because he wasn't jumped into the drone when it was doing it's thing.

[rednblack]

In the past few days I've gone from fighting allergies to a sinus infection to an ear infection to a ruptured eardrum. Sorry about my spotty posting, especially considering last week as well. I'm trying to get in an see a doc, but of that doesn't happen early or if my suspicions are correct and I just need to rest this out and keep up with my current treatments, I may not e posting until next week.

I'll try to stop in and maybe give some results or answer questions but I can't promise much right now.

[Tecumseh]

The worst physical pain of my life was an ear infection, which I remember vividly even though it was almost 30 years ago. I can certainly sympathize.

Obviously the priority is to get well soon. Given that Mal is busy and Herr is MIA for the moment, it seems wise to take the weekend off and not push things forward until next week.

[Zweiblumen]

+1 to Tec's sentiments.  Get better soon mate.  We'll be here when you get back.

[rednblack]

I'm back!  I do have a ruptured eardrum, which is still draining all sorts of nastiness, but the only treatment is to keep up with a veritable drekload of allergy meds, some ibuprofen, and the occasional hot compress.  My hearing is expected to come back as well in the next month or so.  Good thoughts sent my way are always appreciated

Let's get an IC in from Zwei, and a message to "3L1" before moving forward on what the drone sees overnight.  Also, what is the sleeping schedule?  I'm going to guess that SpitFire will allow the rest of the team to monitor the drone's data packs while SpitFire's sleeping?

I like the idea of the Perception being a Software check.  At least there's no Glitches, and you got at least 1 hit per roll.  That's something.

Not looking good on the Herr Brackhaus front.  He hasn't posted now in 12 days.  I hope everything is ok with him. 

[Zweiblumen]

I'll get an IC up today or tomorrow.  As mentioned in another thread, I'm traveling the 22nd-28th.  I'll try and post in that time, but it'll be hit or miss.  Of course, I could end up with boat loads of free time in there and be posting like crazy, but I doubt it.

[Tecumseh]

Glad you're feeling better.

As far as Zweiblumen's post, I don't know if he wants to set up a meet with Nico. It's probably not an urgent priority; it could happen tomorrow since we don't necessarily need the drones for the morning.

I'll throw out a sleeping schedule just to get the discussion started.

Jaeger
8pm: drives home
9pm to midnight: bind a F3 guardian spirit
12am: summon an F6 guardian spirit
12am to 5am: sleep
5:30am: drive back to Dash Point

Puyallup Warehouse
Achak's mind will be too busy to sleep early, so he'll take first watch. After sunset (19:45ish), Flickr can summon a spirit to help keep watch. Between that and SpitFire's drones, we should have good coverage. Flickr needs time to heal, so he should sleep. Plus that might keep him from running off and doing something rash.

20:00 to 22:59: Achak on watch
23:00 to 01:59: Mercer on watch
02:00 to 04:59: SpitFire on watch
05:00 to 05:59: everyone up, getting breakfast, checking equipment, going over last night's intel
06:00 to 06:30: drive to Dash Point
06:30 to 06:44: final prep and perception checks
06:45 to 07:00: showtime

Not that people fall asleep and wake up instantaneously, but that gives everyone 6 hours of downtime.

I'm not sure what to do about Herr. Obviously I'd prefer not to give up yet, but it's not encouraging. @Zweiblumen, did you have any off-forum contact with Herr when you were planning some gaming in Germany? Do you have any way to reach out to him and see how he's doing?

If Herr doesn't make it back, I'm not sure the best way forward. As a GM I wouldn't want to the responsibility to NPC two former PCs (especially given IC/OOC transference), but maybe rednblack feels up to it. I suppose the ideal would be to recruit someone to take over Flickr, but not everyone likes playing another person's character. (Personally, I kind of like the challenge, but other people have described it to me as "wearing someone else's underwear.") That could free up rednblack to drive Jaeger while we're keeping keeping watch for Herr.

Alternatively, if Zweiblumen is out for a week and Mal is hit-or-miss for another four weeks then we could pause and recruit someone from scratch. Maybe Flickr drops dead in the middle of the night, or ducks the guy on watch while the watchman is in the bathroom and slips out on his own, leading the team to reach out to Rose and hire someone at the last minute. I'd obviously like Flickr to go out in a blaze of glory rather than having a stroke on the warehouse floor, but sometimes IC realism wins out over OOC preferences.

[Zweiblumen]

That schedule works for me (ZB).  One thing to remember is that Patsy has a rating 5 pilot program (speaking of things to spend large-ish amounts of cash on, as many rating 6 pilot programs as they can get their hands on, but I digress).  She can (and will) keep watch the entire time.  She's honestly better at keeping watch than SF is unless he's actively jumped into a drone and doing patrols, and then he's better off using Swarms to do that, as they are *still* better than he is thanks to the swarm bonuses. 

SF will take his turn because that's the right thing to do, and he knows folks don't trust drones as much as Metas because... well, he's not figured that one out yet, but he knows it's true.  But he would argue to reduce the # of hours everyone is on watch and that everyone get 8-10 hours of downtime rather than 6 because being well rested is key to being effective in his opinion (and he really likes to sleep).

[Tecumseh]

Achak doesn't have the best grasp of what drones can and cannot do. If SpitFire makes the case that Patsy has the hardware and software to be a better pair of eyes than a metahuman, then he's open to the possibility of having only a spirit and a drone on watch.

Given the magnitude of the day's events, I don't think Achak will be falling asleep very quickly. He'll be awake until at least 11pm. He's knows that he'll probably pop some stims in the morning - psyche, for example - so he's not too worried about waking up, or being sleepy during the festivities.

If any drones need upgraded software to significantly improve their performance then Achak would agree that it is a good use of the team's operational funds.

[Tecumseh]

I just wanted to do a quick roll call. At this point it probably doesn't make sense to resume before Mal's big move next weekend.

Zweiblumen hasn't been online in a week, but his games have been largely inactive during that time so I'm hoping he just had as much of a reason to sign on. Z, if you're reading this, let us know you're alive and paying attention.

Herr's been out a month, so I wanted to ask rednblack what he wanted to do. NPCing one magician is one thing but NPCing two might be too much of a burden, especially given the prospect of a magic-intensive fight in the future, plus spirits. Recruiting is a pain but it might be easier now than later. Red's call, though.

[rednblack]

Alright, I've decided to open up recruitment to get another magic user, and potentially another rigger/decker char in the mix.  That said, we won't be doing so for some time OOCly and at least within the next day or so ICly.  When Mal has returned from his craziness, I'd like to move through the initial stages of the assault on the wendigo in a "narrative" style.  In exchange, I need buy-in from you guys that you're going with the "bomb the Lodge" part of the plan as well.  Then I've got an idea that I think could have some wings.

@Mal, can you remind me when you will be back with some regularity?

[Tecumseh]

I'm fine going narrative for the assault if it's just the three of us.

I don't know what "bomb the Lodge" means though.

[rednblack]

The Lodge that the wendigo need to go to, presumably to "recharge" is the Lodge in question.  I believe Herr Brackhaus had the plan of disrupting the Lodge by disrupting its physical components, thus cutting them off, maybe making them weaker, and stopping them from . . . whatever.  We talked about using explosives to accomplish this.

[Tecumseh]

Achak don't have any objections to that, but none of us have the Demolitions skill. We'll have to use HE grenades from our Ares Alphas. Achak has 4, Flickr has 6, and I think that's it.