Ferrum Impressions OOC 2

[Artemciy]

10x!

You can postpone the laboratory (which needs at least one more night) and use the next night's free time to decipher the manuscript instead. Actually, you can do both by tasking Anthony with the lab. (cf. the background missions). What will you do?

[Danteric]

Seeing as Anthony isn't doing much else, I'll task him with finishing the lab, waste not want not :p

[Muenster Man]

The gist of Francis' contributions to the negotiations would be that he'd introduce who he is and he'd describe their encounter with Mr. Wolf and the underground horrors they'd fought. He wouldn't outright mention that he's either part of the Camarilla or an Anarch, but it would be clear that he holds no love for the Sabbat, if those factions actually mean anything to the werewolves.

As to his actual alliances, his end goal is to try to get the Anarchs on the top of London, but that still seems tricky. I like giving the Camarilla enough ammunition to defeat the Sabbat. But even if the two are close to evenly matched and wear each other down, I doubt the Anarchs have the manpower to take it from either of them. As a solution, I'm thinking of trying to convince Arthur to switch sides; he's an influential figure who's already good friends with the Anarchs. And if Francis can get all of the Nosferatu over to the Anarchs as well by forming alliances with them, all the better.

[Artemciy]

“Why do you never wear two monocles at the same time?
Because then they'd be Bionicles.”

Seeing as Anthony isn't doing much else, I'll task him with finishing the lab, waste not want not :p

Got it! You'll need a guinea pig, who would you ask?
(Tanaka's excited about new magic; Anthony's ready to help with analyzing the text but he might want to test the power on you as well; Nathaniel's curious about your "scientific experiment"; Robbi's condescending but secretly intrigued by what you "the nailed stones" can do; you can also find someone on the outside or try convincing Anthony to experiment on his patients).

The gist of Francis' contributions to the negotiations would be that he'd introduce who he is and he'd describe their encounter with Mr. Wolf and the underground horrors they'd fought.

It was refreshing to hear the story told from a different angle. Farayah nodded and Fo grumbled mistrustfully.

When Tanaka mentioned that the Black Spiral Dancers were felt in the bunker by her teacher in the Arts, Farayah admitted loosing men recently to the BSD skirmishes. He enquires about the numbers to which Tanaka can only reply that they leave a significant magical presence, such as a the Were's place would if it weren't so well masked.

Wyrm Foe proposed a full-out attack while Theurge suggested sending a few scouts instead.

"Your... master's magical ability is very impressive. Will you be a good scout?" the elder bargained to use the coterie for that. "That sounds interesting." Tanaka admitted, Maris was certainly keen about that threat. "She's wet behind the ears, can't you see?!" Clara clamoured. "I'll go, whether you want it or not" Tanaka decided then. "You can go. The question is whether our scouts can. If the abominations will sniff our presence they'll be prepared for an attack" Farrayah cynically explained. "I'll go alone and you'll owe me" T gone all in. "All right" Farrayah reluctantly agreed. "Let me go at least!" Clara pleaded. Fo was doubtful but didn't object. "Clara, surprise might be important!" the elder opposes.

As a solution, I'm thinking of trying to convince Arthur to switch sides; he's an influential figure who's already good friends with the Anarchs.

Bold move, given how many of his friends have probably tried. But then again, the situation changed and being the last stone...
His counter-argument would be that he's serving his Anarch friends best in the Camarilla, they had a rather decent piece of the city thanks to him and he might continue to portray them as a useful asset to the cammies. If he go, though, it will be the opposite situation politically, instead of a pet peeve Anarchs will be seen as stealing the assets from under the Camarilla.

And if Francis can get all of the Nosferatu over to the Anarchs as well by forming alliances with them, all the better.

That's some serious plot stuff! I'd be excited to see how that turns out.

P.S. Oh, and naturally, Francis got his goggles back.

[Muenster Man]

During the debate about whether or not Clara should go, Francis would say "If you want to go, I'm not going to stop you. But if you've already lost scouts to them before, there's a good chance you'll end up like them."

[Danteric]

I'll ask Tanaka to give me a hand with learning the new magic, given her fascination with Magic and the like. Though Robbi might not be too bad of idea, she might have ideas on how to control that "Dark" Obtenebration, since shes from the same realm. As for a post, i've been really busy with work, so its hard for me to get a post in, i'll try to get one in if I can, but feel free to continue without me until my days off.

[Muenster Man]

Unless the werewolves have some other plan for us, come next night, Francis is going to contact Bonny.

I'm not going to have too much time to post this week, but I'll try to get in at least a short post a day.

[Artemciy]

NP, Danteric, thanks for the heads up. Will John
- go with Francis to look for the nosferatu,
- insist on coming with Tanaka and be her backup (hopefully he'll just have to wait around, unless a wondering pack of abberations shows up),
- look for the traces of Setites in the city,
- wait for another IC mission (I hope soon),
- or do something else?

Muenster Man, I hope to start a conversation with Bonny soon.

[Danteric]

I'd say John (Until I have more free time) will stay at the Haven, trying to decipher the books and studying the other ones he has, along with getting a new pair of goggles, since his last pair was broken.

[Artemciy]

Even with only time 3 you managed to do something similar to temporis level 9, something only a 4th gen could do.

She can do some cool things now. Still no time travel though.
(BTW, somewhat surprisingly I've found that in oWoD the Time magic is more powerful than in nWoD).

I can only imagine what a Mage with 5 in all the spheres could do.

I'd like it to be somewhat like this: http://store.steampowered.com/app/319250/

[Danteric]

That's really cool, the Discipline of Temporis is really neat aswell, even though not quite as potent as time magic. The level 4 is rather neat, considering that a building is about to fall on you and you can freeze it in time for you to move out of the way, or stop a hail of bullets, and possibly many other things. It's a discipline I wouldn't mind learning some time, but its very rare sadly, guess its a good thing we got Tanaka and her time magic!

[Artemciy]

The level 4 is rather neat, considering that a building is about to fall on you and you can freeze it in time for you to move out of the way

That's interesting, considering that while she used the "Time Stop" magic (hey, my favorite spell in Neverwinter Nights) to scout the bunker (specs), no way she could do that "on the spot" like when the building's falling. She had to make nine extending casting attempts to get the spell right (luckily the Botch rolls were harmless).
(On the other hand, I guess "slowmo" would've been much easier than a "Time Stop" and quite as good for escape).

[Danteric]

Yeah, and i'm not quite sure how combining Disciplines and Magic would work, but if it could, Temporis and Time magic could produce some fairly over powered effects. Temporis 4 could've stopped the explosion that first sent Anthony into Torpor if the person had Auspex. I've personally always liked Temporis, and in most VTM games i've played I would try to be a Trujah, but most GM's wont let players play them, so no luck for me. Maybe if John ever dies off, i'll get to try one

[Artemciy]

or stop a hail of bullets

That would accrue a Paradox backlash if seen by Sleepers.
So there are some cocky "coincidental" "rotes", like this one.

BTW, I'm accustomed to backlash in the form it takes in one of Nick Perumov's worlds. Unfortunately I seem to build Tanaka to her strengths, e.g. avoiding the vulgar magics that would accrue any backlash, but it would be interesting to try something fancy one day and see if I could compare my backlash descriptions to the feeling I've got from reading Perumov... (Just blabbering here).

Yeah, and i'm not quite sure how combining Disciplines and Magic would work,

Basically like any abilities, we'd need to find a good combo.

I've personally always liked Temporis, and in most VTM games i've played I would try to be a Trujah, but most GM's wont let players play them, so no luck for me.

I heard most GMs dislike the Time Mages because of how disruptive they can get (so I've figured it's a perfect GMPC Sphere ), but in Temporis I don't even see the problems associated with the Time Mage (like making everybody repeat a turn becase it was rewound or play a turn that would never happen in order to answer the Mage's scrying, I don't know). Not until the eiths level. Anyway, in this game you and your character can pursue whatever goals of personal development you like.

[Danteric]

I do like the freedom we have to pursue whatever we wanted, which is kinda why I left John studying and decrypting the book he got pictures of, as I want him to learn more Thaumaturgy/Magic (Btw anything come from that, or will that take awhile?), but as much as i'd like to get Temporis, I doubt a True Brujah is gonna stroll by and teach me that discipline, but I suppose you never know.

[Artemciy]

I doubt a True Brujah is gonna stroll by and teach me that discipline

He certainly wouldn't, but it's a matter of logistics in the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTgiPmG7OLE

[Danteric]

Now that you mentioned obfuscate, would it be possible to use my 3 exp to attempt to learn the discipline?

[Muenster Man]

Wouldn't you need a teacher for that?

[Danteric]

Diablerizing Monty let me learn up to level 5 as if I had a teacher didn't it? unless I read it wrong.

[Artemciy]

Yup. John got a lot of learning bonuses when he wolfed Coven.

(3d10)[1][4][9](14) vs 6.

He feels he has it in him to do the trick now, but he didn't manage to get it under control yet.

[Danteric]

Awh, bad luck on that roll. Also I've got abit more free time now to post if there's anything I can do besides studying on the airship, if you want.

[Artemciy]

Figured that much,
I'm thinking on the next move now.

Francis is picking some Nosferatu friends
(look at his contacts at the bottom of the missions doc).

[Artemciy]

"Alright, I think i'm ready to give this a try..Are you ready?" He asked Tanaka

Sorry, does it happen before the tested power worked or after it worked?

[Danteric]

I was assuming before the test, and expected it to not work at all (Considering I didnt spend the EXP and the like), but was just trying to add fluff with experimenting with it to rationalize learning it. Unless you have another idea, I can edit it.

[Artemciy]

Well, something did happen, didn't it? Seeing how my IC post ends.
I was kind of expecting to see a reaction.
I can simply continue the scene of course, just making sure we're clear on what's going on.

[Danteric]

I was kinda confused to what had happened, the end of the post didn't tell me exactly what had happened other then a squeal, I thought it might've been an affect of the spell, but wasn't quite sure. If you can explain to me what happened, i'll happily fix up the post.

[Artemciy]

That is what happened. You were casting a spell, for the ninth time, and then suddenly Tanaka squels and jumps and freezes trying to remember something. So what was John's reaction, did he thought it unrelated and continued to test the invocation?

[Muenster Man]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the diablerie giving you that potential.

As for Francis' next move, I'm still debating on whether to go through with getting the stragglers out of the city or forming that Anarch alliance. The second is much more favorable but also trickier. I'd like to do it without tipping his hand too much that he's with the Anarchs, but that may be nearly impossible.

Getting that alliance together is what I'm aiming for right now, and I might further delay improving Brawl in lieu of trying to increase a social stat to help with that. Expression seems like a good choice, but I can't remember rolling it for him too much. He's used Manipulation in combination with Subterfuge a little more frequently, but that might be less useful in this scenario.

I might take a little while to decide everything, I'll try having something up in less than an hour.

[Danteric]

Oh I see now, sorry for the confusion. John would stop the test and see what happened, If only to stop from damaging Tanaka and to see the results of what had happened.

[Artemciy]

As for Francis' next move, I'm still debating on whether to go through with getting the stragglers out of the city or forming that Anarch alliance. The second is much more favorable but also trickier. I'd like to do it without tipping his hand too much that he's with the Anarchs, but that may be nearly impossible.

I encourage you to try the Anarch's angle.

Getting that alliance together is what I'm aiming for right now, and I might further delay improving Brawl in lieu of trying to increase a social stat to help with that. Expression seems like a good choice, but I can't remember rolling it for him too much. He's used Manipulation in combination with Subterfuge a little more frequently, but that might be less useful in this scenario.

As Arthur's protege you have a trainer in Charisma and Leadership. I'm not sure whether it should be the usual -2 DC or a -1 DC since Francis isn't directly working with Arthur right now, but some of it has certainly rubbed off. I'd say both stats are excellent social leverages.

I might take a little while to decide everything, I'll try having something up in less than an hour.

Since we're planning, I'll bring that one a bit earlier: The Weres are going into a big assault on the Black Spiral Dancers the other night and are asking whether vampires will participate. (Tanaka gets the message closer to the morning). Will Francis suggest to join? As a coterie or maybe he'll try to pull Anarchs in? Tanaka might sway the Smiling Jack towards the alliance with the shifters (she've been in contact with him behind the scenes, recreation-like) if Francis would support the notion.

The other option is to skip that mission, then there will be something else.