I should have been more clear.

You all have an opportunity to interrupt if you'd like. Many of these roads are winding and poorly watched. If you would like to ambush, go for it. You'll need to outperform a speedster, but I believe in you.

No point having the conversation IC given that the destination's already been posted.

Do we want to waylay them before they get wherever they're going (given that we wouldn't know for sure where that would be)?

If we were to do so, I'd suggest the following:
1. I scout ahead on the back road to figure out a place where them crashing wouldn't be fatal, there isn't any nearby cover to run to and where we can hide the van nearby
2. We pass the vehicle with the van and park it near the ambush spot.  (Will need to be far enough ahead that their driver won't notice the van having pulled off.)
3. Caduceus summons a decent rating (5-6) spirit to conceal both the van and my drone (only need one service, so can focus most of your pool on drain)
4. Caduceus summons a second decent rating spirit, again only needing one service with instructions to slow/confuse anyone in the target vehicle or who leaves it.  (Technically the spirit can't do anything to those inside until we blow out a window, but that'll probably happen pretty quickly.)
5. I position the drone such that with some aiming, I can get my TN down to 2 for a called shot to the engine block and fill it full of AP rounds.  If the target's surprised, they won't even get to dodge.  Unless the vehicle's armored like a tank, that should be enough to stage the damage to deadly, crashing the vehicle.  At the same time I fire, I turn on the jammer to avoid emergency response/docwagon
6. We then have the spirit, the LMG, the spell caster and the van's weapons (which Noruas can jack into) to keep anyone who leaves the vehicle occupied.  We take out the windows and chuck a gas grenade in for good measure and White Duck can approach to subdue anyone who isn't already out cold who I can't hit with the rifle
7. We grab our targets and anything of value, disable the vehicle's "request assistance" signal and take off.

We can then pop the chip and let Noruas hack their phones for intel before we wake them up to grab any additional info, then drop them somewhere or keep them on ice depending on what makes the most sense.  (I presume that Caduceus can extract enough info from Pengrave - passwords and stuff that Noruas can grab paydata/blackmail material sufficient to encourage letting bygones be bygones.)

The real question is whether we're happy to make that much noise and potentially draw the wrath of a big-wig.  Waiting until they get to their final destination means we're playing on their turf, the potential for additional targets and harder to control the environment - easier for one or both to get away or cause damage.  On the other hand, in theory it provides for doing things more quietly and possibly even with some cooperation.

Copperhead would probably prefer the ambush because it plays to her strengths and keeps her safely ensconsed in her vehicle.  But there are risks.  It may take 2 shots to disable the vehicle.  There could be others around who could interfere.  The vehicle might have ungodly armor I can't get through.  The crash could be catostrophic and kill one or more of the targets or (worse) make the vehicle blow up or catch fire, which would interfere with retrieval of the chip.  (My called shot can make it unlikely to cause fire/explosion or injury to occupants, but can't do too much about a subsequent crash.)  The occupants could blow smoke, resist the spirit and make it to cover such that we can't find them.  And there may be other risks I haven't thought about.

So what do you guys want to do?  I suspect White Duck would like being in a position of roughing up Pengrave asap.  Noruas might enjoy the chance to do some more decking, though we can probably arrange for that either way.  Not sure what Caducius's preferences are.  As a player, I'm happy to go either way.

I would be fine with trying something on the road.  Caduceus can get a spirit to help provide Movement too, if Copperhead wants to catch up to them even faster.  Caduceus should have time to rest up and recover from his light stun along the way, right? It will take him 15 minutes to recuperate. (60 minutes / 4 successes = 15 minutes)

14:13, Today: Caduceus rolled 4 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 with rolls of 4,1,(6+6+2)14,1,4,(6+3)9.  Willpower vs stun

Movement could be useful if I decide to go cross-country to get in front of them, or better yet guard to move those pesky logs out of the way and to ensure that the streams are crossable.  I think movement would be a problem if I stick to the highway.  They might notice if an RV passes their sportscar going twice their speed :)  Using movement to slow them down might be useful though.  Debris on the road may not trigger any red flags.

In terms of time, there'd be the time to figure out they were traveling into an area where an ambush might be possible, to do that, then to get into position.  Probably reasonable to presume that'd take more than 15 minutes, particularly given that the description is that we're moving to more & more remote roads.

Noruas - how are your driving and gunnery skills?  (I'm guessing no-one else has a jack?)

Unless Copperhead takes the slow way, the ride won't be too restful.

I think at this point we need to retrieve the chip, as our timeline is getting shorter by the minute and we still have two more to fetch after this one. I think maybe a smash and grab, then a drive to a more dangerous neighborhood where pursuit is unlikely would help. Hell, you can T-bone them right when they leave the parking lot, gas em, then have duck run in to retrieve, we may be able to pull off in a few seconds what we've been trying to do all night.

I'm not for letting them get castled in though. I think we need to intercept, one way or another.

Don't want to do anything too close to the condo - security is too tight.  But I'll take that as a second vote for intercept.  Noruas, do you have any objections?

Intercepting on the road is fine by me.  And if you've got an LMG attached to the van, I can finally put my gunnery skills to good use.  I don't have your madz drivin' skillz, though.

No LMG on the van - that's on the drone, which I'd probably be flying.  But the van has a pair of smartlinked rifles plus a couple of grenade launchers.  I doubt "mad" driving would be required, just enough to move the van out of its hidey-hole to get a decent view of wherever the sedan ends up and/or to get WD in close safely.  I just want to make sure you're likely to be able to keep the van on the road :>  And possibly to use one or both of the rifles to blow out a window (ideally without hitting anyone) so you can toss in a gas grenade.  If you can do that while I'm directly linked into the drone, ready to pepper anyone who exits the van with stun rounds, that dramatically reduces the chances of our targets getting away.

Based on this vote, I'm going to change my last post (and BB can decide whether he wants to edit his preceding one).

Update made

Caduceus, do you have the ability to create a barrier?  If so, putting one along the driver's side of the vehicle to keep them from getting out that side will make it much easier to box them in.  It means there'd only be one door to cover.

Also, I'm wondering if it'd be wise/useful for Noruas to lay on the horn of the van as it's approaching from behind just as the car is coming up to the drone.  A bit of a distraction to keep them from noticing as it swivels to make final adjustments before firing would be useful.  Only question is whether hearing a loud honking from 200+ meters behind would stop them from being surprised by the drone they're driving towards 75 meters ahead.

Can't create a barrier, but I could have a mountain spirit materialize right there.  Or create some form of illusion.  That's probably about as close as I can get to that effect.

As for the horn idea, it may actually make them more alert than no horn at all.  It may distract them, or it could make them pay even more attention to their sensors.

White Duck, would you like Caduceus to use some spirit Concealment or Guard abilities on you?



Edit: Got us a Force 6 Mist Spirit, but now I get +2 to all my rolls.  :-/  I'll wait on conjuring the next spirit until we come to consensus for what we want it to do, but the next one probably won't be as powerful.  Drain hurts...
This message was last edited by the player at 00:08, Sat 17 Dec 2016.

I say we hold off on Caduceus summoning or casting unless we really need it.  If we throw everything we have at them in just that one moment and miss, then we probably won't get another chance since we'll be down a member as well.

Yeah, I know it could go either way.  It really depends on what the GM thinks is reasonable and that can be hard to predict.  So:


Do I think that honking just as they approach the drone (1 phase before I fire) will make it more or less likely they'll be surprised?

EDIT: never mind.  With my stealth roll, I don't think I'm going to risk any attention at all.

Agree w/ Noruas that we shouldn't push you any further.  Additional magic would just be "nice to have".  If you think you can summon something that would still be useful with no risk of further injury to yourself, then go ahead.  But definitely don't do anything likely to incur more drain.

Most useful would be guard on the vehicle and/or slow on the occupants of the vehicle.  Neither are essentials.

White Duck, when you're in position to negotiate (assuming you choose to talk rather than just kicking their respective hoops), you might take advantage of our insights into Pengrave's addiction to Cleo by positioning cooperating with us as increasing his likelihood of remaining in close proximity to her.  You could also play us as hired by someone planning to mess up his deal with Global or something to minimize fear that we might take the chip and thus "Cleo".

I could stick to conjuring spirits of Force 3 or lower.  Even if I fail the drain test, then one more tick of light stun won't increase my roll penalty at least.

Would putting Guard on Pengrave's vehicle help protect him from our own drone bullets though?  As in, it would help them avoid the accident of their own tire being shot out from under them?

I was thinking, what do you think about Caduceus conjuring a Force 3 Mountain spirit (Body and Strength of 7) and then going astral?  He could go out to the crash site with the spirit and give it instructions in real time in case anyone needs to get pulled quickly from a fiery wreck.

You don't want another tick of stun as that's another 30+ minutes before you can rest off your existing stun - and we're going to need your skills for other things at some point.  So only summon if you're quite certain you can avoid stunning entirely.  Even force 2 will help a bit.

I don't think Guard can be used to prevent attacks, only accidents, but better safe than sorry.  With the appropriate wording, we should definitely be fine.  Something like "the vehicle ahead is going to have a problem.  After it does, help to keep it from catching on fire or leaving the road"

In terms of doing the astral thing with a spirit, sure - if you're pretty sure you can avoid stun.

A Force 2 spirit would require me to roll at least two 4s on my drain test.  There is a 50/50 chance that any given dice would be at least a 4 or higher.  So with 4 dice allotted to drain, on average I could expect to pass the drain test.  I would double that to 8 dice to be on the safe side, which would leave me 4 dice to use for trying to obtain services.  I could expect to get about 2 services for what I would consider to be a low risk of extra stun damage.  I think the potential benefits outweigh the potential risks in this case.  An extra pair of strong hands on the scene could be handy.

Works for me.  And they would have the Guard and Movement powers.  If you don't get enough successes on your first summoning, you could command for those services, then re-summon to be able to do other things.  Only challenge I can see is that it'll have Quickness and Reaction of 0 - not sure what that means in terms of ability to act . . .

That is a good point.  Is there a minimum for Quickness/Reaction?  I will wait until Papa Bear chimes in before I conjure one then.

Presumably you could still use the guard and slow capabilities, but not sure what the ramifications would be if it manifested.

All attributes have a minimum of 1.

A quick comment on the guard/bullets question--nature spirits are your friends, so will intentionally try to make their powers work to your benefit. But they're also less dependable--some may not have all the powers you expect. Some may have more. Some may be belligerent, etc. They do what they do because they like you, and what they do only goes as far as their liking you takes it.

Elementals are slaves compelled by the summoner to act, regardless of their desires (if they even have any). They come up every time the same way, with the same abilities, and follow their orders exactly. But don't expect them to do much to save your hoop if you can't utter the command words.

I don't think this has come up before, but in general you can assume nature spirits will take their requests contextually, and elementals will take their orders literally.

And elementals will interpret your commands with malevolent intent towards the caster.  Spirits in accordance with their personality and nature - which in general will be favorable towards the caster, but reflective of their own interpretations of the caster's needs/intentions - which may not always be accurate.

So, should I alter my last post?

Totally up to you. If you're going in guns firing, I will alter appropriately to fit what ammunition is available. Otherwise, I assume you're going to try to gas the car and knock down Pengrave.