So, since we're almost done updating characters and getting the rules sorted out, I think its time to start discussing starting the game. :)

Has everyone caught up with the recent summaries of what happened?  Is it clear where we are and what is going on?

Mostly, are we still in Mozambique or are we in southern Tanzania now? Just want to gauge how far from the Phoenix Empire we are, and how far those demon slavers had to travel. Not sure how or where exactly we ended following the encounter with the demon slaver group.

Otherwise, we believe we're fairly close to Famine due to all the starving people we've encountered and blighted food/water. Meanwhile we have little intel on Famine itself, in terms of its capabilities.

The other concern is intervention of the Phoenix Empire forces during the fight since they seem to know that we're causing problems for the Horsemen. And with their varied magical abilities it will be difficult to detect during scouting.

You're definitely in northern Tanzania now.  You're only 200-300 miles from the southern border of the Phoenix Empire.

To help, I uploading two maps of Africa to the Game Map.  The main one is just the countries.  The second one (go to the bottom to select it) has topography, but is badly pieced together fromn 3 parts.

Also remember that you've been in Africa for 2-3 months now at least.

I am caught up, having not played through most of what has been mentioned since war I am going to stick to what the summaries say.  If there is need for me to know more feel free to rMail me Erik.

As a side note, talking with Mike and Erik I safely am assuming that Sophes would have a good idea that Vrrryl is a chiang-ku dragon.  This way there won't be any weird awkwardness.  THat being said I am fine with Sophes roleplaying it with Vrryl and finding out in actual fact in game.

As for what we should do, Sophes is smart enough to think that going into the Phoenix empire is a bad idea.  We are better served to do a recce and find out a trail to pestilence.  If it leads into the empire then we make a lightning fast strike in and out to deal with it.  I doubt it will though as it seems like they would rather the demon infect lands outside themselves.

Does the group have a mass cloaking ability?  Would allow us to move as one unit and stay under the radar as it were.

No, it doesn't. I do not believe such a spell exists in Palladium. Our best option would be to have a small recce team with superior invisibility and fast flight find Pestilence, relay that back to the team and have them teleport in. But even teleport superior is limited somewhat (1000lbs/level), so we'd likely need a couple of casters for the spell and be on a leyline to get the 50% boost. That's a good chunk of PPE gone though.

I'm not sure how much interference we'll get from the Phoenix Empire guys once we actually engage Pestilence, since Pestilence likely will not distinguish between us and them and just seek to wipe out everything. I'd expect us to be harried along the way though, and that could be a real time sink since they have a lot of demons with a lot of MDC to chew through.

At any rate we have to find Pestilence first, and that shouldn't prove too difficult. And then we have to ascertain what kind of attacks it can dish out.

Another possibility would be to have a second team run a distraction while the primary team engages pestilence.  This way we might mitigate the presence the Phoenix empire can throw at us.

I don't think the use of teleport as a combat function is a wise use of our resources.  Cool looking yes, but I have a feeling we will need all the PPE we can use for surprises the empire will throw at us.  What are the chances of an air drop/insertion?  Or is that not feasible?
This message was last edited by the player at 19:57, Fri 23 Oct 2015.

As an aside, given enough time, the PPE myself and the magic team can pool together would be sufficient to teleport our army on top of Famine. While I coordinate the ritual involved and the PPE pooling, we could launch a series of high speed, low vis recce teams to do the searching. Once located, we track his movements until the army is ready to strike. We drop on his position in a surprise attack.

And ya, I'm ok with Sophes finding out. I'd actually totally forgotten you weren't with us during that bit of epic reveal, so would have played it up like you already knew. Would be a fun little side RP if we need =)
This message was last edited by the player at 11:10, Sat 24 Oct 2015.

As a minor interjection, remember that you currently have no idea where Famine might be.  You last saw Death east of your current location, though that was not recent.  Mika was previously able to sense Death from only about 1 mile away and the other Horsemen from about 1/2 a mile away.

Teleport Superior, if used by Vrryl, can only move 9000 lbs per casting.

Hmmmmm, looks like a frontal assault is what we have on deck.  Unless we can have someone track famine (lol, thought it was pestilence) and keep tabs on him while we get a larger strike force together, we are going to have to strike almost as we find him.  Or risk losing where the demon is and start from scratch.

Actually these Horsemen are not too big on avoiding people and being stealthy; they pretty much go wherever they want and kill as many as they can. The only problem with finding them was that they were scattered all over Africa versus say Rhode Island.

Our group is fair sized, but not army-sized. Lots of mass though, especially with Victor's Ultimax (2.5tons), which make teleporting not very feasible. A more controlled approach will also allow us to develop an attack plan appropriate to the battlefield. Tracking down Famine will also give us a chance to gauge the response from the Phoenix Empire.

Makes sense with the demons.  I would say lets split up and scout for famine in the most likely of spots.  Then all meet back up and decide how to hit the mutha from there.  Perhaps we can have those peeps that aren't good at scouting doing research (if that is possible) on the best way to combat the monster.

What do you all think?

Once Famine is found, we'll have to keep eyes on him... otherwise we risk losing him again, and having to start from scratch. We can pull rest of the recce teams back, to detail out the specifics of an attack plan.

Vrryl could port 9000lbs, which is actually quite a shit tonne. I mean, if average weight is 200lbs + 100lbs gear... that's 30 people. We could send a small squad of fast flyers over to engage at distance... so that removes them from the teleport.

How many people do we have in our company? And is Vrryl the only one who can teleport?

I'll assume Famine's main forms of attack will be curses and magic.
I'll also expect crops and food to have spoiled and gone bad around him. If this has left long trails behind him, it'll be easier to find.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:45, Mon 26 Oct 2015.

What about the 5000lbs UltiMax power armor and people's mounts?

I'll let Erik answer, but I think we should have closer to 50-ish people by now since we've been accumulating some along the way.

I reckon Katrina Sun could also cast Teleport: Superior, but I'm not certain.

lol, yeah we will.  Sorry, I just assumed that was given.  Once found I have a feeling keeping tabs on famine won't be difficult.  For that we would send out small teams instead of individuals.  That way we can keep one person at the location famine is found and keep in contact with that person while marshalling our forces to destroy the demon.  Our short range radios may not be powerful enough, but I am sure Jessica can whip up a few long range ones and each team could take one long range radio with them to keep base camp informed.  Scouting parties that don't find famine can report back in in a set time and all converge on the location famine has been located.  We can keep a team in reserve to run counter to anything the Phoenix empire decides to throw at us.  I am thinking about three scouting groups made up of 2 or 3 members.  My suggestion is that we split the "players" and have one in each scouting party, with one back at base camp helping coordinate our efforts and prep weapons and a battle plan for when famine is found.

What do you guys think?  We could sent the scouting parties out to cover a 100 km radius circle around where the most powerful evidence of famine has been located.  Split the circle into equal pieces of pie and sent a scouting party to cover each "piece".  With flight speeds of 60 km/h at the minimum we could give a time frame of about 3 hours and then meet up with 15 minute radio check ins with base camp.

Regarding party weight - don't forget that many of the people in the group also have vehicles of their own that weigh a decent amount: horses, bionic horses, hovercraft.  That doesn't include gear either.

We may be able to probe the Phoenix Empire's intention too as we locate the trail of Famine and move on it. I suspect if they're in the neighbourhood they may engage us prior to us meeting up with Famine. Not sure the kind of numbers they could mobilize quickly though. At the end of the day we're still a couple thousand miles from the center of Egypt (assuming we're near Nairobi), and with an entire desert in between us.

Some of us could use the Magic Pigeon spell to facilitate long range comms (30mph speed).

If possible it would be good to scout for a leyline as well. Mika can make a few of those Fire Globes again (40ppe each) and they'll last for 9 weeks, so we'd be in good shape if we had a dozen or more for fly-by bombings.

I do kind of like the idea of having a team hidden in reserve somewhere in case some other force shows up to cause problems. That would be the ideal team to have them suddenly teleport in behind the new attacking force, especially if the Ultimax was involved along with some melee/ranged skirmishers for defense. And if no one else shows up to the party, we can call them in to help finish things off.

Then let's hold off thinking much more about strategy until we find where Famine is. It could be either the Phoenix Empire is in range, or not... and would alter our thinking considerably. The terrain and any other random factor as well.

I'll have Vrryl remain behind to coordinate, and build up PPE resources for the upcoming fight. Teams of 4 is optimum, so if any split is needed, no one is left alone. A circle could work, with 4 teams taking a quarter each. Or think of it as a square instead, and use a grid method similar to how search and rescue work. Fly back and forth across each grid column/row, until all squares have been explored. Then extend out. The teams of 4 can subdivide into 2's, one doing rows while the other flies columns.

I'd also like to know still if Vrryl is the only one that can teleport. I do think a lot of our gear can remain behind. We hardly need tents and toothpaste for a surprise assault.

We also need to identify who can move quickly and by what method? Teams of 4 sounds good to me; 2~3 teams moving forward ahead of the group. I believe we're simply headed north at this stage, but I'm not sure if there are any natural barriers (mountains, lakes, etc) in our vicinity to narrow our focus.

To answer Brett's question, Katrina has some teleportation magics, but only Mystic portal (shorter range, but only limited by time to pass through) and Rift Teleportation (only works between nexus points). No one else has mass teleportation abilities.

I'm not sure what Brett means about the Phoenix Empire being in range?  The last game we played, you collectively fought off slavers from the Phoenix Empire not too far from the Empire's southern border. (You're currently 200-300 miles south of it)

You currently are not sure where either of the remaining horsemen might be.  As a note, the land claimed by the Phoenix empire is pretty much all of northeast Africa.  1000 miles by 1500 miles.  There is also other parts of Africa.

Anyway, does everyone feel ready enough regarding the previous game occurrences?  Rules? etc.?  If so, I may just get an IC forum started and officially kick things off. :)

Let's do this!

I am totally down to start this thang!

Let's kick ass and chew some bubble gum!

It has begun again.

Some helpful information from previously:

The Phoenix Empire is a large area of land claimed by a demon- and monster-ruled populace and ruled by the evil Rama-Set.  They enslave and torture weaker life forms.  It is thought that the demons aim to congregate in Egypt (the magical and political centre) in order to join together.

You are currently 200-300 miles from the southern border of the empire.

You don't have many people capable of flight in the group.  Of the ones that are not on foot, the rest typically have horses (bionic or normal) or hover vehicles.  Previously, the player characters were the core of long-range scouting. (with the players casting flight on accompanying party members)

It is uncertain how you would detect a fake Vrryl or Erin Tarn.

Make no mistake, 2 demons joined together will still destroy all life on the planet - it will just take longer.

Cool, I was being dramatic in my narrative =)

For the flying thing, we'll see what get and go from there. If only a few people, then that's what we get. The plan is still sound, it'll just take longer.

From the summary I thought it was apparent that we knew of them.  If it isn't then strike that part.

Note the part that says the group suspecting they could be one person. ;)

Indeed; it is very likely in our character's brains that the impersonator of all these characters is the same entity. We would have to just narrow down the possibilities of things that could shape-shift effectively into those forms (Death's being the most bizarre). And then maybe create a plan for if/when we encounter it next to conduct some read aura and similar investigations to narrow down the possibilities.

So I'm thinking that we can split those with flight capabilities up to provide aerial reconnaissance for each team, and then compose the rest of the group with people who have bionic mounts or smaller hover vehicles, like hovercycles. The hover vehicles may have a decently powerful radio as well, which would help.

Depending on the numbers I imagine Jessica, Mika, Sophes and Vrryl could each be a part of one unit, and that way one of us is also with the main group in case something happens.

People that definitely have flight:
  Sir Galahad (Undead Slayer)
  Katrina Sun (Ley Line Walker)

Those with horses/hovercycles:
  Erin Tarn
  Sir Thorpe
  various 'mercenaries'
  knights from England

There is also Victor Lazlo and his Ulti-max, but that didn't seem appropriate for you current need.

Additionally, the player characters previously found some potions that they could not identify at the time (from the battle with the Hydra in the Asgardian realm with elves).  Lets assume you can identify them now or have identified them.

3 potions in a small 6"x4" case
  Swim as a Fish: Minor level 5
  Might of the Palladium: +1 attack, +2 s/p/d +2 damage, 10 minutes
  Negate Magical Potions, 65% negating potion but causes nausea for 1d6 hours)

1 black potion in a small jar
  causes Minor Curse of Nausea at 5th level, p. 122 Rifts Magic

small bag of powder
  Wormwood powder: blocks goblins and Worms of Taut

Feel free to divide them up or re-assign them to the companies stores.  Just let me know so I can record it.

With Gabe not chiming in yet I would suggest we keep Jessica back.  With Vrryl, Sophes and Mika acting as aerial scouting for the others.

Do we know if there is a nexus near by?  Perhaps even a ley line.   Might be worth noting in case we find Famine and draw the demon to one for our benefit.

With regards to Jessica, I'd rather Vrryl hang back, coordinate, and work on spell/PPE prep. Sir Galahad can take 4th group. Katrina can stay back with Vrryl to help that side of the preparations.

Victor Lazlo keeping the UltiMax with the main group for beefie fire power is definitely best.

Sample set up:

Team 1: Jessica - Sir Thorpe, Merc, Knight

Team 2: Mika - Merc, Merc, Knight

Team 3: Sophes - Merc, Merc, Knight

Team 4: Sir Galahad - Merc, Merc, Knight

One question about the horse riding folks, are these regular horses or bionic ones? Just asking on account of the average cruising speed. Mika will use the most convenient spell to match the speed of the group (Ie. Fly < Fly as Eagle < Winged Flight).

Mika will take the left vector search, Sophes on the right and Jessica & Thorpe up the centre?

Most of them have bionic horses, so lets say they are bionic.

I'll need clarification on what is left, right, and center.

I think that is a good plan Mike.  I say we just transfer that over to to IC and run with it.

Left would be west segment, centre would be heading north, and right would be east.

re those supplies to divvy up Erik, just put in general stores for now. Vrryl isn't after anything, unless someone else speaks up for something.

Ok, I took care of the supplies.

Any general plans for the scouting?  Engaging things vs not engaging?  Keep in mind that help will be up to 2 hours away.

What kinds of things are you looking for?
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:11, Sat 14 Nov 2015.

I think the scouts will engage only a party of enemies 3-5 strong if needed.  As scouts are priority will not be combat, but to find our target and report back.  That is a recce doctrine, works just as well here.

As for what we are looking for, I would say we are going to look for evidence of famine.  Starving animals or humanoids, rotting or rotten food on trees and fouled water supplies such as lakes or reservoirs.  If those aren't evident, perhaps signs of increased phoenix empire activity and presence.

I think outside of an ambush, it would be better to pull back if heavy resistance is encountered.  It does us no good if all scouts perish with important information just to fight.

Yep, in total agreement. No reason for them to engage any hostiles unless necessary, and even then I think the course of action would be to slow down or similarly hinder the opposition to allow the team to escape back towards the main group.

If Mika's team encounters any obviously rotted food or putrefied water source she'll attempt an Object Read on it to get a possible clue as to when/if Famine passed that way. Similarly, in the off chance that they encounter a ley line she'll try to read that and see if any clues are present.

IF a abandoned or seemingly destroyed village, or something like that, is encountered Mika will attempt Commune with Spirits, and see if a) there are any around and b) if they know anything about Famine.

Lastly, if nothing is found by the end of the day she'll try the Oracle spell that night and see if any insights can be gleamed.

Sorry, been sick.

I'm ready to post what occurred during the day with the scouts, though I need to resolve what Vrryl did during the day (what exactly was done to prepare during the day).  Perhaps we should resolve this in the OOC room and then post it to the IC afterwards.

As an important note, the only "casters" are the PC's and Katrina.  The other arguable magic users are Lo Fung, Fang Lo, and Sir Galahad.  And Erin Tarn, Victor Lazlo, and Thorpe understand magic stuff too (and possibly the Crocodilians).  Shall I assume you meant this group of named characters as opposed to spell casters?

Pretty much. The idea was anyone with a high understanding of magic... ie cast it, or Erin Tarn level of knowledge. While the scouting is busy, I think it would be good to go devise a spell strategy.... offence and defence.... to deal with Famine.

I mean, we could just chat about it here in practicality, but I'm just adding RP value to the IC channel.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:24, Sat 21 Nov 2015.

Since the IC conversation would be between just Vrryl and the GM pretending to be a bunch of people, why don't we do it OOC. ;)

I guess the first part of the discussion is what do we think he can do? From there we can discuss counter-magic strategy. The other part is do we expect it to have minions or allies (ie. Phoenix Empire) and what can we do to mitigate them?

It's probably safe to assume it has some sort of drain attack that would sap you of strength, and/or the opposite where it makes you crazy hungry and you go into zombie-rage mode and try to kill/eat everything. The later would be pretty bad if it affected one of the main PCs or NPCs.

Should probably consider balancing offensive spells and healing/defence spells. Stuff like Repel Demons may be handy to deal with smaller minions. Any sort of purification spells should also be kept in the back pocket for the aftermath to clean up all the stuff it could spoil.

We know that Millennium Tree weapons are awesome, we know blessed weapons are good and we know that magical fire worked quite well against Pestilence. Mika could make a few of those Fire Globes once more; they're pretty PPE heavy (40 each), but are awesome weapons 5D6 + 5D6/melee for 1D4 mins, and each lasts 9 weeks or until used. She could probably prepare 2~3/day.

I wonder how the spell Sustain would work as a sort defensive/armour spell; cast it on people before the encounter and they'll have no need for food/water for a day. May not be effective against such a powerful being as Famine though.

The question might be, would we be better removing/stunting magic from the battlefield? Anti Magic cloud up, and rely on weapons to wear him down? Famine in theory sounds very magic oriented.

Could be, the other question would be are his abilities/powers affected by Anti-Magic Cloud or are they more innate? Demons are supernatural creatures versus creatures of magic, so their abilities may not fall under the category of 'magic'.

Having said that, we've established that we have relatively few casters in the group that would be hindered by such a spell, and magic and rune weapons are not affected by it, so our weapons would still be effective.

It could be a strategy that we a) try at first; hitting it with the A-M Cloud and then bombarding it from range and trying to keep it contained, or b) a tactic to be employed after the initiation of the battle if we think spells are working against us.

Even at level 11 it'll only take Vrryl half a melee round or so to cast, so we're good time-wise, and it's more a concern about PPE conservation.

As a note, an anti-magic cloud would likely affect some magic weapons, it would depend on the weapon.  (for example, TW weapons are likely affected - others I would have to investigate)

Just a note, Sophes would definitely not be as potent with an A-M cloud up.  While his flaming sword would still probably work, it only does 6d6 MD.  I am assuming that none of his tattoos would function limiting how much he could do in such a fight.  Especially since he doesn't presently have any energy firearms.

If some magic item that would grant him supernatural strength was loaned to him that would be a different story.  But I think no invulnerability tattoo either with A-M cloud.

On the other hand if Sophes was given a good energy firearm he would gladly use that instead if this is the best option.

Flaming Swords would not work; neither would any item that grants strength.  Only runes/rune weapons, and permanently-powered magic weapons (like holy weapons, old school Palladium magic weapons) would work.

-----------------------------

note: we did determine that Sophes's flaming sword is a permanent magical item and not the TW item.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:49, Sun 20 Dec 2015.

The flaming sword that Sophes has is one of the permanently enchanted weapons listed in palladium fantasy.

I know it would stunt us... but the question is to consider who it would be more detrimental to, us or him? I'm somewhat leaning towards him, as most of our npcs seem non-magic, and all our characters have ways of getting around not being able to use magic.

Even if he gets off magic, it'll be at half everything... which could still prove vital in surviving him.

Another question to ask is how quickly Famine could move out of the cloud? It would take about two melee rounds for Mika to run out of a 1000' radius cloud. Which is certainly a fair amount of time/attacks.

If the Phoenix Empire guys intervene it may be effective in slowing them down as well. May be a good idea to engage first and see how it plays out in that first 8~24 seconds, then we can determine whether or not to fire off the Anti-Magic Cloud for maximum effect.

Sure, I'll see about getting a scroll set up as part of our Famine package.

I'm a bit more concerned about the possible intervention of Pheonix Empire forces once we engage Famine; an additional 20~30 hostiles could be a serious pain to deal with. But the AM Cloud may hinder their movements in or out if they were planning on teleporting or using TW items.

On the plus side I don't think Famine takes sides, so I imagine it would just as likely attack the Pheonix Empire guys if we could put them in its way.

That would make things interesting... we bug out, putting Famine between us and the Phoenix group.... or other way around.

What kind of non magical firepower can we bring as a group?  It might be better to drop the A-M bomb first and then just unload on the sumbich.  Although I do like the idea of it being our smoke bomb.

The giant robot, plus a bunch of guns, grenades, millennium sticks...

Not all that many grenades or millenium sticks. ;)

Let's bring this back to what is going on during the current day.  Brett, what are you specifically up to during the day otherwise?
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:19, Mon 07 Dec 2015.

During the days, I'll be grabbing PPE as I can, and getting it stored away. Prepare scrolls for the upcoming battle. I'll coordinate with other casters as well, to do this work... those who can. If we can camp near enough a ley line, that would certainly be optimum. Otherwise, until our Recce teams report back, not much use us moving around very much.

We should also have the usual sentry/patrol teams out, to protect our camp.

How many do we have in this army btw?

Another question is how quickly can the Gathering of Heroes move? If the main group is totally stationary as the recce parties are out we'll need to split up our day accordingly to allow the main group to move out an appropriate distance or we'll just be covering the same ground over and over.

I think it would be safe to assume that most of the recon groups would travel at least 50~60mph, so it would take them about 4hrs to do a full sweep and return. Depending on the basic travel speed of the group it would be 4+ hrs for them to travel to the target area. So that's pretty much a full day assuming setting up and breaking camp each day.

If we find some clue of which direction to go of course we can move out earlier and focus the recce, so I imagine we could move around 100~200km per day. A lot depends on the general group speed.

Bueller? Bueller?

Lol, I would suggest we do two recces a day based on the ideas that Mike presented.  The initial one with the main body moving up to the extent of the recce and then the recce party moves out again to do more recce for the remainder of the day.  In the morning we can rinse and repeat.  Once we have a trail we can just have the main body move along about ~15-30 minutes behind the recce elements.  Remembering of course that the recce elements are not to engage with the enemy and just scout.  Once Famine is found we haul back and then move as a group to engage.

In the evening, everyone takes stock - Jessica and Thorpe (the reconnaissance group that went north) found and destroyed a raised-dead monstrosity that looked like a giant gorilla skeleton with an elephant head.

No one found any ley lines.

Vrryl gets 4 hours of PPE recovery.

Does Mika still do an Oracle spell?  If so, give me a percentile roll in the dice roller Mike.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:07, Sun 20 Dec 2015.

Did any of the other parties find any other signs of Famine's passing or presence? Or was there nothing found?

Plus, Sophes will use his supernatural vision tattoo along with his flight tattoo while scouting to aid in him locating things.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:30, Mon 21 Dec 2015.

You can check the logs; rolled 55 for my Oracle spell, for the end of the day.

Could you let us know how many sorties we did as recon and for how long, for PPE consumption purposes? Secondly, I'm going to assume that we'll be resting 8hrs per day, if that's not the case let me know.

Lastly, if there is anything worthy of killing for PPE, like a supernatural monster, while in recon Mika will take the opportunity to kill it to feed her magic PPE so she doesn't have to leech off of Jessica and Vrryl.

Nope, there were no signs of anything like that.


A private message has been sent.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:57, Thu 14 Jan 2016.

Once Sophes has been pointed in the correct direction he will use his supernatural vision tattoo to investigate the area.  He will concentrate on what the see aura portion can tell him about the people in the area as well as all the inorganic material exhibiting evidence of Famine.  He will also keep up vigilance to ensure no invisible enemies lying in wait can cause him troubles.  Once he has gained all information he can from the area he will meditate to gain back his lost PPE from the day.

No one has actually seen evidence of Famine in the area.  War was in the Congo and Pestilence was in Southern Africa.  The group decided that those regions were broadly eliminated so they traveled back north to where they are now to begin the search.  Death was in eastern Africa previously, but that was a while ago.

So the scouting groups didn't cover a ton of ground relative to the size of Africa.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:23, Fri 15 Jan 2016.

I thought that there was evidence of spoilage in the area?  From what was posted from the last session you guys played before the hiatus that is mentioned.  That is the biggest reason we are doing a recce of the area as that pointed to Famine's presence to us.  If not then we need to really rethink our plan of attack.

I was under the assumption we had no idea, other than he might be nearish the Phoenix Empire. Possibly. Maybe. Hence the recce to locate evidence of his whereabouts.

If there is no sign of any evidence in the area then how we are going about if is all wrong.  We are assuming we can cover a relatively small are and find what we are looking for.  If we have no idea where the enemy is, then we must look at a larger picture, kind of using satellite over a recce patrol.

This is Rifts Earth.... there are no satellites. We are using the traditional method for tracking anything... find evidence, and follow. We are coordinating a pattern of recce which can sweep over areas. Famine isn't exactly subtle, and he's been active a while. His trail should be long, and foul, and easy to follow once found. Villages may have rumours. Seek out villages encountered, and ask for rumours that may give direction. But this still requires the sweeps we're doing.

Farm lands that have gone unexpectedly rotten, pasture animals that have mysteriously died off, community starvation... these are the crumbs we can follow.

Kind of slow and sucks, totally agree, but at least it's a plan.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:26, Sat 16 Jan 2016.

We are covering around a 300 mile radius per day in our recce sweeps, that's pretty good. We could probably kick that up a notch if we sent out smaller, faster scouting teams, but that may put them in danger due to our relative proximity to the Phoenix Empire. For example, Mika can fly over 100mph, and could cast that spell (winged flight) on another strong person like Sophes (Spd = PSx5, 180mins) to do longer range probes if we want.

Erik, relative to modern Africa, where are we roughly? In my head I'm picturing that we're in northern Tanzania, or are we further along than that?

Do we have access to any kind of scrying magic?  I do know that satellites as we know don't exist in rifts anymore, but we could be wasting time just doing recces as we have been doing.  Eventually we will find some evidence, but we could be moving in the wrong direction and not even know it.  I truly did think we had some evidence of famine in the area, and that is why I helped with the original plan.  If we have nothing like that to go off of right now we are wasting resources choosing this as a starting point.

With scrying or something like it we can get a good idea of areas without putting ourselves in as much danger and find the general area to start the real recce work.  If we don't have magic like that then I suggest we go off of Mika's vision and perhaps look at the lake in northern Tanzania.  Perhaps we can find more information about Famine in that area.

You're in northern Tanzania now.  You're only 200-300 miles from the southern border of the Phoenix Empire.

Today, your groups pretty much investigated all of the regions around Tanzania, much of Uganda, western Kenya, etc.  You would have investigated relatively close to the Phoenix Empire.

Mika's Oracle spell is probably the best/most powerful scrying magic we have, especially considering we do not have any possessions or pieces of our quarry. Palladium is short on that stuff because it can seriously unbalance a campaign if you can just cast a spell and know where something is.

One alternative would be to travel in the Astral Plane, but I'm not sure how the 4 Horsemen show up there, and it could be somewhat dangerous.

As for evidence of his passing we did encounter a place where they were without food and such, and suspected that Famine was the cause behind it. So we're in relatively the correct area.

One thing would may want to consider is that Famine is deliberately being elusive, or someone is making it so. Considering we've already vanquished two the of Horsemen it would be prudent to avoid direct confrontation if possible, as surely the demons would be aware that their numbers have been reduced by 50% at this time.

Sophes is going to use Lore:Demons/Monsters and his Lore:Faeries/creatures of magic to see if he can recall any specific being that fits the shape-changers description. I will have the two rolls in the log to show my success. Whelp that was useless, lol!  I guess Sophes will just be clueless!

Sophes will also search out any in the larger group that might know of all major bodies of water in the area.  He will then have them talk with Mika if she is willing to see if we can pinpoint something.

It has to be a fairly impressive shape changing ability too, beyond Changelings and similar creatures. Metamorph Superior spell could do it, and probably the metamoprh abilities of dragons, not too sure how well versed Mika's knowledge of dragom transformations is though.

She could also attest to any number of Gods that can transform into anything... but hopefully we're not dealing with that... again.

Given our scouting missions I would imagine we'd have at least a basic idea of any decent sized lakes in our area. Could focus on some of them the following day. I'm going to assume we know about Lake Victoria at this stage since it's the 2nd biggest lake in the world; would take some time to properly scout the shore of it though.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:34, Tue 19 Jan 2016.

As an important note, Lake Victoria is already within the area your scouts surveyed today.  You are in fact quite close to it.

Yep, I figured as much... but it's a damn big lake so I don't think we'd be able to thoroughly scout it all out.

At any rate I've updated my description of the lake in Mika's vision as there was some info missing.

I imagine we could come up with a fairly conclusive way to determine our identities without having to RP the entire conversation. Aside from questioning I thought about using scent, as metamorph only changes appearances, but the only person that could possibly do that may be Daniel with is advanced smell capabilities.

Should have had Jessica come up with a TW DNA scanner.

Once we confirm our own identities and conclude a simple method of field identification Mika will retire for the night to meditate.

Is there a spell or psionic ability that detects metamorphosis?  If not perhaps we could wear an object that is hard or impossible to duplicate by a shape changer.

No, not really. There are a lot of abilities in the game mask the presence of abilities, and that's what makes it difficult. For example, Mika could steal someone's aura, mask both her psionic and magical abilities (even from Psi-Stalkers) and change appearance to whoever she wants, and with Mind Block you won't be invading her mind either.

Given she's a bit of an extreme case, but we're dealing with some potentially extreme guys.

The only aspect I do not believe you can mask is your status as a Supernatural or Magical creature. So if something can sense the presence of a supernatural or magical creature then there's no real way to hide that. Hence why Mika can make herself look like anyone but Dog Boys and Psi-Stalkers would still identify her as supernatural. Plus we're all, besides Jess, supernatural so takes us back to stage one.

A simple metamorph spell does not convey a different voice, you speak in your normal one, but I think there may be spells around that. Plus our shape changing nemesis has already proven that it can mimic other's voices.

The idea of imprinting an object/item to a person would be a cool idea, if we had the time and know-how to do it. Say something specifically designed to react in a particular way when it encounters another with a similar device, sort of like the Witcher amulets or the Highlander sense. There's pitfalls with the idea of a magical IFF system, but it could be quick and subtle enough to avoid being stolen or reverse engineered, at least until we've left Africa I should hope.

Ahhh, well I am operating from a D&D mindset!  It is so cool to see the big differences in how the magic/psionic systems differ.  In D&D scrying and detecting things are bread and butter and are expected with high level groups.  It is interesting that Kevin went a different direction.

As for an item, would perhaps a stick from the millenium tree?  Would a supernatural evil being be able to touch it?  If not maybe we can carry those to show who we are.  Otherwise perhaps Vrryl could whip up something small and useful in the short term.  Like a chime when like items are near each other.  So if someone tries to copy the item as a cosmetic thing it wouldn't be able to do that.

Well there are lots of detection magics/psionics in Palladium, but I think the big difference is that Palladium also has abilities that mask you from those detection abilities.  They are rare, but they do exist.

Millenium Tree items do not automatically hurt the supernatural or evil beings, they are not like Rune swords.  In fact evil creatures regularly try to harvest pieces from the trees.

So am I right in that the current discussion is just between your characters?

I mean, the NPCs for the most part don't know that Vrryl has magic tattoos and they wouldn't really know about Atlanteans and their inability to be transformed either (and neither are things they run around talking about).

Correct, it's just between Sophes, Vrryl and Mika at this point, or that's what I thought.

I would assume the NPCs know that Vrryl has tattoos... he's not shy about them. And his backstory includes their integration. For the Atlantean thing, totally depends on the NPC... I'm sure some of them would, they're a pretty serious group of characters in our midst.

But ya, right now, it's just between the 3 of us chatting, or seems to be in this scene.

What tattoos does Sophes have on his arms?
This message was last edited by the player at 10:18, Sun 31 Jan 2016.

Just remember, showing one or two fits in to Vrryl's backstory, but having more than 6 would reveal more, since only the originators of tattoo magic can actually have that number and still use other magic.

Not my character, but considering the frequency of use of the Yll Tree Climber I would imagine that's one of the tattoos people know about. Especially since summoning spell magic of that calibre is pretty rare.

Sophes in my minds eye doesn't wear a covering for the most part, maybe a loose vest like covering at most.  He wants to have access to all tattoos at any time so he leaves them all pretty much obvious so he can get to them.  Once he hits level 7 he can do things differently, but right now that isn't the case.  If I need to be specific that will take some consideration and then I would get back to you.

The funny thing is that I was willing to retcon out the Millenium Tree jumps.  I guess it really happened then. ;)

Those were the best parts of his character! ;-)

Indeed; body-hardening exercises for supernatural beings. Happens in the comics all the time, might as well in Rifts too.

Just to move the IC conversation along, do we want to create a pass phrase to ID each other while we try to figure out a more foolproof method? I don't think there is an easy spell combination that would act as an IFF device, though I was thinking we could possibly make a TW device that acted like one using something like the Locate spell.

Essentially it would use a piece of hair or a fingernail from the individual in question to lock in that person's magical signature. Then the device would vibrate or glow or something when that person is near. I imagine Jessica could make it work, but we're far from her TW lab, so we'll likely have to go with more old-school methods.

To be on the safer side we could communicate the phrase telepathically to minimize the chance that someone would overhear it.

One thing I thought of that could be of use to Mika in identifying everyone else, though of no help to others, would be her use of the Locate Mark psionic ability. She just needs a hair or something of each person, then she can activate the ability at will and determine where, within 20', the person is... assuming the person is within 11 miles of her location. Stays active until the person leaves the 11 mile range too.

Again use for her, but not for anyone else really.

I am fine with moving things along.  We aren't getting anywhere fast with the way things are going now.

I think a mundane thing like a question should work well as long as we can use mind block.  Of course Sophes will be at a disadvantage there because he can't use mind block, but he is also hard to copy due to his Atlantean heritage.

What we should discuss is where we want to go to find Famine.

I suggest we find some locals that may recognize landmarks from Mika's vision and locate an area based on that.

Simplest and mundane I can think of, if we want to question someone's identity... just make a fist and hold a thumb out, like a hitchhike. Can be casual, by the side, something subtle. The next sentence of the person being questioned must have a colour in it.

ex:
Vrryl: Hey guys, I'm back from being awesome.
Sophes: That's stupendous! I just got back from being awesome, too! <casually taps his thigh with a stuck out thumb>
Vrryl: Dude, that's so bodacious, it'd make yellow snow turn white.

<Vrryl verified>

Sounds good; make a pass-phrase exchange like Brett said.

I agree with finding some locals, but first we may also want to questions the recce parties if they've seen a lake/village combination like the one Mika saw. This whole discussion has only been between the 3 PCs thus far. Once that's been determined we can fan out and look for some people and inquire as to the lake.

After deciding on the catch phrase/gesture sequence Mika will call it for the night, and leave the next day's search parameters to the morning.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:13, Wed 03 Feb 2016.

Sophes doesn't have telepathy does he? Doesn't really matter in this case as long as he can listen and nod in understanding.

From there it's straight on to morning;
1) Ask around the recce teams if anyone feels that they saw the village-lake area in the vision, and if so whereabouts. If there's a lead there we'll follow that.

2) Search out some local communities that may have better knowledge of the area and a lakeside settlement

Any other plans for the morning?

No Sophes does not have telepathy.  I think at the time I decided against the roll for psionics simply because of the huge draw back to skills.  Now with RUE I would have tried as there is no drawback to having them.

Sophes would be savvy enough to know about telepathy though, especially from being in the company of Mika and Vrryl for as long as he has.  So he would indicate he understands, he just couldn't do more expect with hand gestures.

On that note, I think the idea Brett has about the testing for the real us's is a great one.

I think Mike's ideas for what we should do in the morning is also bang on, and Sophes will support it 100%.

So there were some villages identified around the large lake that is immediately (relatively) north of your current location.  However, no one saw anything resembling mountains near the settlement, so no one saw a village resembling the one from your Oracle spell.

Additionally, in Mika's vision, the opposite shore of the lake was visible and there was a defensive wall around the settlement.  The large lake north of your position would not have the opposite shore visible and none of the villages around it had a defensive wall.

Does that change your strategy somewhat?
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:58, Sun 07 Feb 2016.

Yeah, we want to identify the mountains in the background of the vision; that'd be the easiest landmark to find for sure. Even if finding the particular lake is difficult we'd at least be in the right general location.

Furthermore, I don't think we really need teams of guys flying around looking for mountains; we could probably dedicate a single, small and very fast team to do that survey. Once they've found the correct mountain(s) then we can move in that direction and re-focus the recce teams to find the lake in question, as well as to scout for possible Phoenix Empire forces.

One question, the defensive wall in the vision, what what it made of? The material may provide some clues as to where we should look as well.

It was very makeshift - probably a combination of cobbled together pieces of town along with whatever stone/wood/etc. could be added to it.

I concur with Mike's assessment and idea.

Send a small team that can fly and look for the particular mountain range.  Then narrow the search to lakes and townships that fit the vision.

Sorry for delay, lots of flu in our house this week and we lost our dayhome to the flu for most of the week too.  Been a bit busy.

Ok, so you have like 6 people who can fly, 4 of which are leading the teams (which meant 3 were at camp before).

So who will be the small team?  I assume this will mean you will have different groups for tomorrow to assess and question the local villages?

Mika will be in the flying team since she's fairly fast and is the one most able to identify the mountains on sight. I would guess Jessica would also come since she's got the flight with the mystic power armor. I'll let Brett and Rob speak for themselves.

For the interview team it would be ideal if at least someone in that group had the Tongues spell just in case there's a language barrier.

Sophes would gladly come.  He can fly, I just don't know if he can fly as fast as Mika and Vrryl.  If not he does have the ability to understand all languages and can do that task if need be too.

Sorry to hear, Erik... hope everyone is on the mend!

Vrryl would support Sophes going... a good powerhouse team with the 3 of you. Vrryl's busy with some tasks, anyways.

Brett, is there anything specific/different that Vrryl planned on doing that day?  If so, I will edit it in if necessary.

Nothing outside of what I'd messaged you. He'd rather keep PPE expenditure to a minimum, and stockpile for coming conflicts... he's got a funny feeling things are going to get heavy.

Ok

If you are going to make any scrolls like you previously said, you may want to decide which. ;)

Otherwise, you have some new information.  Mike will be away until Monday I believe.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:49, Sun 21 Feb 2016.

I am just trying to make sure I understand Erik. From the days recce, we flew around the mountains in Northern Kenya.  We didn't find a village near a lake like we are looking for, correct?  We did see more mountains to the NE while scouting the mountains in Northern Kenya, right?  Plus, those interviewing the nearby villages about the lake and down we came up dry.  Is this all correct?

I'm back.

From what I read, that sounds about right Rob. Sounds like we need to head NE and into former Ethiopia for the mountains we seek. Best to continue a similar pattern with the flying recce team moving far out to update the path of the main group. We'll also need some small point teams around the main group to possibly detect any ambushes or identify potential hostiles enroute. The closer we get to the edge of the Phoenix Empire the more likely we are to run into resistance I imagine.

I agree Mike.  I think in this case perhaps we should leave one of us 'active' players with the point teams should anything arise.  I will gladly volunteer Sophes for that as I think Mika will be better served looking for what fits her vision she received.

If Brett and Mike think otherwise I am fine with going with Mika too.

As a minor clarification, the other villages also mentioned the mountains far to the northeast in Ethiopia.  They pretty much confirmed what else the recon teams saw.

Makes sense with Sophes, as his mobility is a little more limited. So having him tucked in closer, while those with greater flight stretch out... keeps us layered better.

Hey everyone, I'm trying very hard to get back on here for some real posts.  Life has just been crazy lately.

Ok, I'm caught up but I have some questions for you guys.  Before I dropped off, I was actually waiting for the recent conversation to finish ;)  though its totally my fault for not prodding.

So, to prod...  What will be the actual strategy at this point?

Will you be hanging around this area for a bit first to question locals about the Pheonix Empire or will the group be traveling right away?

You want to be discrete in your travels, not allow people out alone, and generally keep the group together.  Will the entire group be traveling in a specific direction?  Or will the group stay somewhere while scouting goes on.

Will there be multiple scouting groups like before?  Or since you wanted to have Mika/Jessica/Sophes together will there be one main scouting group?

Finally, for Brett, what specifically will Vrryl be doing while hanging back.  Scrolls?  Other scouting?  something else?

It's been so long I honestly don't remember. I'd have to go back and read up on what we were doing and such. I'll try to do that this evening.

So I think the plan was to move towards the Ethiopian Highlands with the main group travelling as one. Then there would be two or three point groups scouting just ahead of the main group, but still within relatively close proximity. The one far scouting group would consist of the PCs (minus Vrryl I guess).

Then we would possibly change that plan depending on what we found as we neared the highlands. Of prime interest for the advanced team would be to find the landmarks Mika saw in the vision, and they'll be keeping high and moving as fast as practicality permits. The main group will be in charge of questioning any locals they may come across for assistance in finding said place

I do think the conversation was mostly just moving in circles by this point.

I agree with what Mike said for the plan and look forward to it moving forward.

So you guys are starting to look through the Ethiopian highlands.  It is a really large area to look through.  From the map, How are you undertaking this search?  Are there specific strategies?  From that, I will modify my post.

Mike, does Mika have a spell she can implant a memory of hers into someone else?

Yes, the easiest method would be for her to cast Instill Knowledge (level 5 spell); with it she could implant a specific memory/vision/skill in a single target for 4.5 hours (at her level).

So yeah, we could broaden our search teams via this method.

If you cast it on Vrryl, and I'll have him paint a mosaic of the image you saw so people know what to look for. And can use it with locals. Art 90%... gotta make use of those domestic skills!!
This message was last edited by the player at 15:16, Sun 29 May 2016.

Good call; that should certainly help.

So Mika will cast Instill Knowledge on Vrryl with the intent of giving him the vision of the lake with the mountain(s) in the background.

During these recon missions Mika will also be looking for monsters/creatures to kill for PPE nourishment; nothing major since she's going out each day, unless the opportunity presents itself.

Don't forget, Mika can also project her memories into something like a holographic movie. ;)

Using a TW device I believe. Having hard copies would be nice too though, especially if we're showing it to any locals we encounter.

Oh that's right, I forgot that it was a device.

Brett - who or what is Galileo in your post?

Could all 3 of you each give me 3 d20 rolls each one accompanied by a Demon and Monster skill roll?  (so 3 of each in pairs)

Go ahead and continue your roleplaying. :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:34, Wed 01 June 2016.

Name of my cyber horse. Name popped in my head just to push some rp.

Also, Mike, Vrryl was trying to do the 'Is it really you?' check with that last question. Won't bother with it all the time, but seemed appropriate to keep it in our minds.


Rolls: (Demon/Monster Lore = 90%)

11 and 20%
2 and 33%
17 and 95%
This message was last edited by the player at 14:25, Wed 01 June 2016.

Hey folks.  Been really busy with family and health since I returned from Calgary.  So I am sorry I haven't been as on my game as I usually am with regards to PbP games.

My rolls:
19 (d20), 43 (d100)
8, 80
5, 57

Gotcha; makes sense for a question in that regard. I did find it a bit odd, hence Mika's somewhat perplexed response. But seems to have worked out well.

Rolls (d20 / %)
17 / 57
11 / 88
11 / 44

Guess I could have just used the in-forum dice roller... oh well.

I also amended my IC response to Vrryl's fist-thumb test. Had forgotten about that since it was buried in OOC.

So you guys were looking for information on the Phoenix Empire.

As a reminder, in an older session you guys encountered slavers associated with the Phoenix Empire which included various demons, specifically Alu (huamoind wolf-like lesser demons), Tautons (evil supernatural humanoid crocodilians known as the minions of Set), Dybbuk (Demon Ghouls - corpse eaters with 4 arms that can physically inhabit the recently deceased) and Hell Hounds.  With them you also encountered an evil Erin Tarn, whom you have hypothesized may have been the same individual that impersonated many of the PCs, NPCs and Vrryl.

I have sent PM's to each of you regarding other information you gathered.  Feel free to ask questions about any of these in PM or OCC and feel free to roleplay it out.

I'm also going to say, there is no reason Sophes could not be there (for when Rob gets to update).  He was out on recon with Mika.

I'd like to clarify, which vision did Mika show?  The whole thing or part of it?
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:23, Tue 21 June 2016.

Just to let everyone know, we are moving to Ontario next week.  On Monday our container arrives for our stuff, on Wednesday we fly to Ontario and stay at Sarah's house for a couple weeks.  I shouldn't be internet absent for too long during this time.

The parts where there is a clear-ish view of the mountain, lake and the village. Trying to convey landmarks more than anything.

So just for the sake of clarification, the Ethiopian highlands are to the north of our position, and are the rocky, rough terrain you mentioned in IC, and then there is a desert region south of that composed of various Death cults and demons, right?

Just trying to ascertain in which direction we'd best focus our attention while looking for the vision location; a desert seems like the opposite of a place Famine would want to go as there isn't much there to starve versus more abundant terrain. Though I'm not sure if it is up for climbing up the mountains either. May be worth doing some recon on the foothills as we draw near.

Also, to focus our efforts in question locals I imagine we should ask if they've heard of villages or homesteads being affected by unusually poor crops or loss of livestock. And likewise scout teams should be on the lookout for any animals or persons that have seemingly died of exposure or starvation, as opposed to violence.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:38, Sat 09 July 2016.

If you look at the game map (the one with topography), your group is in eastern Uganda, north of the large lake.  You are traveling towards Ethiopia, which is almost entirely mountains.

Everything north of Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia is the Phoenix Empire.  The capital city of the Phoenix Empire is in Egypt near the Mediterranean at a ley line nexus.

Also, Chad, Sudan, Libya, Egypt, are almost entirely Sahara desert.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:26, Tue 12 July 2016.

Are we waiting on anything in particular to move on?  I was just waiting for the IC to indicate you guys were ready.

I'm good. I think Mike is pre occupied with a move, so may not hear much from him in the mean time.

I think you can move on.

In my experiences with PbP games there are going to be lots of times that the GM just has to move the story along during lulls. In the other one I am currently a part of the GM has to do this probably at least once a week to keep the game moving along. To much RPing in every situation tends to bog down the flow of the story and stall things in a PbP game. In a game where everyone is playing at the same time it rarely if ever happens, but in this medium it is almost a must.

I put forth the question because I was worried one or more people might have been away. :)  And I confirmed it.

As an update for me, we are still trying to get our house livable and are still in the process of "moving".  Hopefully Mike will let us know soon when he's available again.

I'm going to be all over the place for the next month as I slowly move to Houston. I'm flying there tomorrow morning for a 1.5 weeks, then back in Calgary for a wedding on the weekend of the 13th. After that I'm hoping to make the final move to Houston near the end of August; driving my stuff down. That plan's schedule is tentative at the moment though.

My internet at my apartment in Houston should be hooked up come Wednesday, so I should be connected while there... internet before a bed or seats or cookware, priorities.

And yeah, I had nothing more to contribute to the conversation.

I'm dealing with a lot of crazy myself right now.  We got our stuff brought to the house only to find that both of our containers had been flooded with over an inch of water.

So we basically lost nearly all of our furniture and are dealing with damages to a bunch of other stuff as well.  In the meantime, I also had to unload two shipping containers in one day and we are now trying to unpack everything into the house in a totally disorganized and hectic fashion.  So... still moving.

Anyway, I will be trying to continue this as I can, but moving like this has been difficult to say the least.

I totally understand Erik. Once you are settled we can move the game forward.

So I know we were kind of moving to start this up again, is that plan delayed now?

I was waiting to hear from Brett.  I will pm him.

Hahaha!


I was just going to ask this same question! I look forward to moving things along!

I imagine he didn't notice that this game is active again.

Yep, but I'm noticing now. Vrryl is back in business.

So after reading through the posts from July, the 4 person recon team would be Sophes, Vrryl, Jessica and Mika, correct? Would be easy enough to change that up to just the 3 of us since Gabe's not around though.

I agree.

I have no issues with the character tagging around in the background, but I dunno if you want that headache Erik.

Marco?

Rubio?

Or Polo?

Polo preferably. Ok.

Good start Mike.

Anyone else have preparations to make?

Okay.  I want to get this going again and finish Africa off as we do so.  Can you guys review stuff and let me know if you have or don't have an idea of what's going on?  Happy to discuss here too. :)

So Mika had a vision from the Oracle spell with a bunch of components.  Currently, the group has been focusing on a settlement by a lake with mountains in the distance and Vrryl painted a picture of it by communicating mentally with Mika.

You were planning a recon with Mika, Sophes, Vrryl, and Jessica.

You are currently in eastern Uganda north of the big lake.

Yeah, definitely going to need some time to read through our posts to get caught up =D

Yep, I'm catching up on this stuff... going to need a full re-read of the house rules. I'm sort of familiar with Mika since I was adopting various Palladium Rifts stuff to Savage Rifts for a while and Demigods are top-tier difficult to translate due to their unbalancing nature.

Will be funny going back to Palladium Rifts though with all the massive attack numbers, bonuses and damages; like going from 5th Edition D&D to Pathfinder.

What time of year is it in game? I do not remember the month we're in. Not that it plays a big deal being we're pretty much on the equator but good to know.

Okay.  This took some work as I don't have notes on that.  I also can't find one of my books with some timeline info.  But....

I believe that you were recruited to go to Africa in latest 103PA and you went there in earliest 104 PA.

Three months to get to the Congo and defeat War, another month traveling south and east to Tanzania, another 2+ months to travel through Zambia into Botswana, 4 months traveling through Mozambique and into northern Uganda where you are now.

So... it is currently late 104 PA.
This message was last updated by the GM at 13:18, Sat 02 July 2022.

So for next steps:

We need to find Sophes in here if we can.

And you guys need to pick methods of travel and directions for travel.  Jessica's power armor travels at 50mph.

All four of us can fly, and flying is the quickest method of travel, so... Vrryl flies at pretty silly speeds, I assume Sophes can as well, using Fly tattoo. Is Jess the slowest at 50mph? What's Mika's flight speed?

Yeah, we all have flight spells/capabilities. Mika's max speed with Winged Flight is 116mph and she can maintain that spell for 3 hours per cast. Alternatively she can cast Fly as an Eagle as well, 50mph for 3 hours, which uses up less PPE if we don't need the speed.

Also fairly certain Sophes has the flight tattoo as well.

Let's fly to Jess' speed, then.... 50mph. We can fly in a line, 1 mile spread between each other. Sophes and Vrryl on the outside wings, Jess and Mika flying on the inside. That way if anything happens to any of us, we have the best chance of getting everyone on site to help.

We can fly in large flower petal shape... so fly north for a day, rest, loop around (a few miles shifted from our previous path) and return to camp on the second day, so the path looks a bit like a flower petal with our camp at the centre. Fly out, rest, loop and return... rinse and repeat.

With our general direction having been north-eastwards, we can make our loops from straight north, clockwise. Flying 12 hour days... 4 shifts, 3 hours each, with rest/breaks 12 hours... covers 600 miles out from base camp.

Does that make sense?

Yes, Sophes has the flight tatoo. I can fly for 3 hours at a max speed of 110 mph at Sophes's current level.

I agree we should keep things as equal as possible regarding speeds.

I find it odd that someone in powered armor (or robot) has a max flying speed of 50 mph.... shouldin't it be like 500 mph?

Its TW armor.  Uses Fly as the Eagle.

Does that 12 hours include the breaks/rest? Otherwise it may be a bit much; we’ll need to eat at some point… and for Mika that means hunting something down.

Do we want to head out as far as possible or circle back in a pattern to cover a wide fan-like swath of territory in front of the main force?

Example:
For flight 1 we go out for 3 hours northeast in a wide search pattern 150miles from base, then stops for a rest.
On flight 2 we circle back (east or west) to cover the adjacent territories and end up back at base. Stop for a rest
Flight 3 repeat of 1 but at on a different trajectory
FLight 4 as per 2 but relative to the trajectory of flight 3

Example 2:
Flight 1 head NE for 3 hours then rest
Flight 2 change trajectory ENE or WNW and continue for 3 hours
Flight 3 Change trajectory again to begin circling back towards camp
Flight 4 head back towards camp

One question; how quickly does the Company of Heroes move? I do not remember how much ground the entire force could cover in a day. That may impact how far out we wish to recce at one time.

So from the Oracle spell, you guys are looking for a specific lake settlement in the mountainous region to the northeast. You believe Abkii is located there and under threat.  The indication is that this is related to or relevant to finding Famine.  Your previous plan was to try and find it relatively quickly.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:07, Fri 15 July 2022.

From what I understand, we have been running recons... 4 teams, 3 out, 1 in. And so far haven't found anything. Which suggests that we aren't going out far enough.

The idea is to keep the camp stationary for now, gather supplies/ allies/ ppe/ weapons/ short range recon/ whatever from local area, while the 4 of us go and do deep recon, using the images from Mika's vision. 12 Hours on, 12 hours rest... 12 hours gives us 600 miles of out range. Keeping the army stationary keeps it from wasting time drifting aimlessly, especially with the phoenix empire nearby, and puts only us 4 in danger, instead, rather than our whole army. But that's why it's us 4 doing it.

Once we find the horseman/evidence/the lake, we then have a direction to move in with the army.

At least, that's how I understood what was happening, and why I was making the suggested plan.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:16, Tue 19 July 2022.

To help things - on Map for Group 0, you are just below the 'D' in Uganda.  The mountainous region you are interested in starts about 300 miles to the Northeast and is about 600 miles across (basically most of Ethiopia).

I agree with Brett. Keep the group that isn't us stationary and we can do the recon. Seeing as we have a large area to cover could we keep Jessica back and fly at 110 mph?

Ok, I thought we were originally closer to Lake Victoria, but we're closer to modern-day Mbale, right?

I also forgot we sort of had a direction to search in, so yeah, going the long recces to the NE makes the most sense. I was originally thinking we had to look all over.

As per Rob I think leaving Jessica with the base camp makes more sense, from an IC and OOC standpoint. We can travel faster and not have to worry about an NPC. PPE cost difference for Mika is only 10 to go from 50mph (25PPE) to 116mph (35PPE), so going for speed is better. We could travel to the zone of interest in a single jaunt, and if we can see/find a leyline that could be even better/furhter.

In my head, I thought Gabe was still going to be playing, but that's right... Jessica is basically an npc. I totally agree then, leave her behind to do stuff, and the 3 of us will do the job. Much faster pace, too.

To Erik: I imagine we have not detected any ley lines or such near us/base camp area?

Mika can sense ley lines out to 90miles at this point, and Rifts up to 450miles.

Plus my flight on Sophes costs the same if I go min or max speed.

Yeah, same with Mika and her winged flight so better to go 100mph. We can really cover some ground then in a day. Since we're looking for a lake-side town by flying at a good altitude we should be able to see lakes easily enough. I'm not sure if their is an altitude limit on any of your spells, none for winged-flight.

I edited my last reply for the increased flight speed we're thinking of now.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:19, Tue 26 July 2022.

You would get a speed increase from a ley line if you fly on it.  Being within 2 miles increases range and duration 50%, on the ley line increases range, duration, and speed 100%.

Ley lines are typically 100-200 feet high.

You can sense ley line(s) at that range.  Is there a direction sense associated with that?

Yeah, there's a chance to locate. With Mika it is 74% at present; rolled in the log.

You can sense some ley line activity to the east.

As a reminder, you guys did set up protocols for detecting intruders.

I remember we set up protocols to confirm we are who we say we are... hand gesture with the thumb and working colour into the first sentence spoken, but this was just for the 3 of us. This is much harder for a wider army to maintain the same level of checks other than being vigilant and reporting anything suspicious.

For RP sake, I was just going to ignore emoting these things in to move things along (plus I'll forget with my not ridiculously high Vrryl-level IQ).

Yeah, agreed. Will take up a lot of time emoting the secret handshake, plus I don't even remember what it was lol.

I thought you set it up for more than just the 3 of you, but I am trying to remember how far you went.

I think it was just the 3 of us (+Jess). Doesn't make sense having the whole army doing it, it would eventually get slipped up and I'd rather know 100% that Mika is Mika, than random-knight01 is random-knight01. But it is important for the army to know that there is/are imposters trying to cause dissension and chaos, so they can report anything weird. I guess we could bring Erin into it, maybe one or two other key characters. But the smaller the group doing the finger/colour code thing, the better it will work. My thoughts on it, at least.

I thought it was something based on unknown information about the people involved, the whole revealed secrets thing.  Its totally up to you guys of course.  Though the conversation of setting it up did take place with others (Erin, Fang Lo, Thorpe, Katrina, Prrcival)

Yeah, I think it we had it amongst the core leadership of the group only.

I am cool with that. Keeps the dangerous people in the know.

Okay, so what's the exact methodology you have chosen for travel?

Head East by Northeast guided by the sense of where the ley line is at max speed. Once at the ley line Mika can do a quick sense to determine if there are any major events long its path and in which direction it goes. If it is heading in the right direction we can just follow along, otherwise I suppose we would follow it as long as possible before going directly NE.

Would be flying 2-mile spread formation with Mika in the middle; her typical position in a three-way :P

I imagine we would maintain a fairly high altitude to maximize our perspective, around 750ft. Aside from the usual visual and audio searching, Mika will be keeping an eye out for magic sources and such, her range is 1000ft on that.

Just to confirm how quickly can we fly? Mika can go about 116mph.

Sophes can do 110 mph

Did you guys convert from kph to mph? My notes show 208 kph. I guess that's 128 mph after converstion.

I am just basing it off the tattoo in the Atlantis book. It is in mph.

Good question in part; Mika's flight spell is PS and speed attribute based (spd = 5*PS). I guess we need to define if actual speed is Spd * 20 yards OR meters. In typical American fashion they think meters and yards are the same in the rules, but it would certainly result in different values.

I think I've been using meters for ease of scaling, but up to Erik on which one he wants to use.

For example, Mika's flight speed is 155, which would be either 3100yard or 3100meters per minute, which then converts to 105.7mph (169kph) or 186kph (116.25mph)

Ahh, the book has both mph and kph, I simply wrote down the kph part. So yeah, 130 mph according to the book's mph calculator.

Well I guess it is safe to say we can fly at around 100mph East-by-Northeast until we find this ley line.

Agreed. I mean we could push it to 110 mph my maximum. Sophes does have supernatural PE afterall.

I generally stick to the yards conversion to keep things consistent (just because the books are all based in imperial), so let's just call it 105 mph.

What's Mika's max flying height? The Fly tattoo is 4000 ft if I remember right.

I do not think the Winged Flight spell has an altitude limit, do not have the books with me right now to verify though.

I'm back in Houston.

Mika's plan is to swoop down and use the Read Ley Line ability on the nearest one below.

From this distance can we make out any structures, persons, or creatures along the water body?

Secondly, size-wise is this body of water more of a lake or a pond?

Lake, thin, 150 miles long.  What could be settlements visible on the western side.

Any vibes of recognition of the lake from this distance?

Also where is the ley line relative to the lake? Is it at the foot of the mountain, going through the lake, or on the landside of the lake opposite the mountains?

The ley line mostly goes through the middle of the lake, though to the northwest end of the lake it is more on the southwest side.

And no, you don't see anything familiar.

So what now?
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:14, Wed 28 Sept 2022.

Return to our original flight plan?

So now you're at the southwest end of a high elevation, expansive set of mountainous highlands, just past the long lake you're by.  The edges of the highlands appear to be north and east of you, with everything in between being highlands.

So this second ley line runs NW as well or does it track the mountain range NE?

We could proceed considerably faster in/along the ley line.

I think Erik said it ran parallel with the first one... so nw by se. I think we wanted to aim north/north-east..?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well but sought to clarify. Would just be convenient to use the leyline to head North for a way at speed.

For the type of recce we are doing it won't work well. If we needed to do a more in depth search from the NW to NE it would help speed things up in the future though.

As an aside if two ley lines that run in the same direction touch is it still a nexus?

Yes, it would be a nexus point by definition. But Erik said this leyline only runs another 50 miles NW and does not meet at a nexus point.

Since we're at a ley line is there any spell or something we want to do to help the search? Unlimited power source after all.

Good spot to recast a flight spell..?

I don't remember how affected by ley lines our tattoos would be.

At the very least recover some PPE and enough to recast. I'm honestly not sure how ley lines effect tattoo magic though I don't see a reason why it would be any different than other kinds of magic, like some boost to duration/range/damage.

I tried looking in Atlantis but of course could not find anything about ley line influence in the tattoo magic section; probably hiding in some other corner of the book.

All the details of ley line effects on magic and PPE recovery are in the "Other Game Rules" section in this site.  While on a ley line, you can have increased affects like on other magic, but those boosts are gone when you leave the influence of the line.

Right; much better place to keep it.

So for example if you cast a flight spell with a duration of 60 minutes, for each minute you are within 2miles of a ley line you actually get 90 seconds of flight instead of 60 (50% boost). As soon as you move beyond the 2 mile range you revert back to each minute of the spell giving you 1 minute of flight.

If nothing else we can go down to the ley line to recast the flight spells and replenish PPE back up to full, then continue heading N by NE.

Yeah, good to have a full tank of gas.

Hm, is our flight height... above mean sea level (msl) or above ground level (agl)?
If it's above msl, yeah... bit of a problem. Above ground level... the height stays at 2000ft above whatever ground is below it... less of a problem. I'm not even sure if books clarify this..?

Even if it is agl 2000 ft won't be enough, probably better to skim the foothills and see what can be seen.

I agree with replenishing ppe before moving on.

I'd have to say flight height is above ground level, otherwise every GM would be pulling their hair out calculating the difference from ground to sea level.

I any case we much lower than those mountains, and while our characters are pretty hardy flying at heights near the peaks would probably fairly uncomfortable.

Also a secondary objective in this would be to find a potential passage for the rest of the team back at camp.

AGL means... whatever the ground is below, you are above it at that height. So... 2000 ft AGL means... if the mountains are 12,000 ft high, you will be flying at 2,000 ft above them.... so 14,000 ft above MSL. AGL is flying height above the ground below you.

And yeah, this would make it easier for a GM because they don't have to take your flying height and subtract land elevation to calculate your actual height above the ground. You'll just always be flying above the ground at whatever your flight height is.

I'm not sure why there is an altitude max on magical flying anyways, not like it uses regular propulsion that may depend on air pressure, etc. I think the biggest concern would be cold and lack of oxygen.

As you say I think we would be able to fly over the mountains with little effort if needed, 2000ft above the top of the mountains.

Erik, do we see any valleys or passes from our current position?

With all of us having supernatural PE I doubt oxygen being an issue.

As a side note, the Ethiopia highlands are where coffee is from and the Kaffa kingdom in southern Ethiopia exported it to the middle east, which is where the name derives from. :D

Shall we follow the river valley? Seems to be heading in generally right direction and would likely be an ideal place to traverse the mountain range.

Sweet bit of coffee trivia!

Sure, let's scoot the valley.

I think this is a good idea. Gives us a chance to perhaps run into someone with more information that we need too.

So did you guys have a specific plan for traveling/scouting?  Or are we just zipping up the valley?

I suppose that may partially depend on how wide the valley is; whether it is better to fly abreast or in single formation.  I imagine we'd keep about the same altitude as before relative to the ground.

Otherwise I think we're just flying ahead to see a way through the mountain range.

Yeah, let the terrain dicate if we need to adjust our flight, but generally flying in the north-by-north-east'ish

The valley is 50km wide at the southern end.  It appears to go that way at least twice that distance in front of you.

OK, so plenty side for us to fly 3 abreast and a couple thousand feet up. I suppose we would centre our formation on the valley floor; guessing there's a river/steam/etc. that runs through it, or maybe the remnants of one?

A river that feeds into the lake you came from flows up the valley.

Cool, makes sense. I would suggest using that as the center line and flying up the valley 3 abreast to scan the area as we go.

Yep, easy reference point to follow.

I am in agreement.

Mika will use Land Navigation (even though she's flying) to ascertain an optimum route for the larger group to traverse. Rolled in the system; Mika's Land Nav is 69... because of course it is.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:34, Sat 24 Dec 2022.

Nice.

Did we notice any particularly dangerous looking creatures while travelling up the valley, or evidence of any natural hazards like floods/forest fires/rock slides/etc.?

From your high vantage point, you do see some evidence of occasional slides on the slopes, some looking newer than others.  You haven't really gotten a good look at creatures, you are very high up.  You probably spotted some things that look like predators and prey down below and some hawks from your height.

Keep this up until night fall, then break for camp? Provided we don't encounter anything needing our attention.

Yeah, that is a good plan.

Sorry, still trying to transfer some stuff from my old PC to my new PC, some of it is internet files for this game.

All good, dude.