[Koval]

130km west... hang on, let me go away and do some trig for you.

EDIT: Derp, it doesn't even need bloody trig. I was trying to work out if being that far west of Coveton would let Iota and Semplice be able to radio each other again, and apparently the answer is yes.

EDIT EDIT: while I was at work today, my ideas for my next post proceeded to slip backwards. I may be a while.

[Koval]

double

Depending on how bad my headache is when I get in tonight, I'll put up a post either today or tomorrow.

EDIT: nothing hugely profound (well, okay, there's a couple of lines that kind of are) but it's certainly something that moves the plot along slightly and gives Semplice food for thought. I dare say he'll be phoning his daughter when the bombers leave and demanding to know exactly who the bald adept with a skull-shunt implant actually is.

[Dolnikan]

He probably will, this has been very informative for him.

[MarcoSkoll]

As my body is weird, and thus decided that 10 hours of hard stage rigging yesterday meant I was so tired that I would be fine to wake up at two o'clock this morning*, I found the time to finally fix two of the problems I wanted to solve, namely that I couldn't get it out of my head that the Inquisitors would have made it into the city, and that I had some characters who had been practically ignored thus far.

*Not sure why, but the approximate rule is that if I go to bed at about 11 o'clock or earlier, I WILL wake up at somewhere between one and three in the morning. Otherwise, I'll normally sleep through to my alarm (and quite possibly after...)

In any case, the "breaking" things I referred to before was if supplying the Inquisitors with an Arvus caused problems. If it does, then it can be assumed it takes damage during the escape and becomes out of commission in some fashion. (Although preferably not another crash landing!)

[Koval]

It doesn't break anything, and I must say that's a pretty cool way to resolve the threefold problem of Chain's non-presence, the Coveton bombing, and transport, although it means I'll have to go down a slightly different route with Andreas (which basically means that whatever I'd planned for him will have to involve Iota, Nogal and Pantariste rather than the Inquisitors. For once, Andreas is probably rather less than delirious at being surrounded by women and servitors.)

Out of interest, who's this "he" that Ekkehardt is referring to? Is it Haines, Barkley, Zagan, or none of the above?


EDIT: My own reasons for nothing substantial this weekend involve a threefold combination of Skyrim, tiredness, and building yet more tanks for my Guard army. I have only myself to blame for #1 and #3.

[MarcoSkoll]

Well, if no problems are caused and a few are solved, then we're doing well.
There are of course still a questions or two it does raise, like "How the hell did they find her", but those are (probably) to be addressed in my next post.

Your plans for Andreas are perhaps not dead yet, as I can imagine that the Inquisitors will return to try and find Andreas after the carnage has settled. He's a useful asset and has what they believe to be a number of potentially useful leads with him. Your choice.

Imperial Armour 4 tells me an Arvus has a 22,000 km range (a little excessive, as this would be enough to circumnavigate Terra with room to spare), so they're unlikely to rule it out for lack of fuel, in any case.
(Funnily enough though, IA 4 doesn't list the Arvus as having VTOL capability, but other sources do - I went with it, because it made more sense, it was more convenient - and just cool.)

On the note of my choice of craft, Riley is of course the kind of person who would have an Aquila or similar, but there's two reasons I didn't include one - a) it's far too big and ostentatious for a quick and inconspicuous extraction in potentially unknown terrain, and b) I imagine she would have taken hers to the Asculum, so I don't imagine it's particularly flyable any more.

And Ekkehardt* is referring to Barkley. I've rephrased it slightly to clear up the confusion.

*He knows Haines from the journey in to Sigma, but wouldn't have been the first person Riley kept appraised of who her meeting aboard the Asculum was with. He's not exactly possessed of the social graces required to attend, and Riley didn't want him to have motivation to insist upon it. (He would have lost that argument, but she didn't want to have it at all). He's probably not going to be entirely impressed to be told.

[Koval]

Oh, my plans for Andreas are still alive and well, it's just that they'll involve two combatants and Nogal rather than one-and-a-half* and Barkley.

Re. Aquila vs. Arvus -- being as both are capable of transporting goods and personnel between one place and another, and are capable of limited space travel, it's not a huge deal either way. The Aquila looks more ostentatious (as you point out) and has better armament, and the Arvus is more common and utilitarian with a bigger hold. Of minor note is that the only one of my characters to favour an Aquila is Eliesa Schwertwald (because once you're stuck in a giant tank-chair, subtlety is a joke you tell your friends) -- you're far more likely to see my characters use an Arvus. Haines would generally favour an Arvus if he had to choose, because it's presumably big enough for him to stand up in without hitting a light fixture.


*I can't be entirely sure whether Riley's combat skills are still overly affected by the concussion. I gather Barkley's patched her up a fair bit, but as far as I can tell so far, that just means she's moving without having to hang onto someone to stop her falling over.

[MarcoSkoll]

I can't be entirely sure whether Riley's combat skills are still overly affected by the concussion. I gather Barkley's patched her up a fair bit, but as far as I can tell so far, that just means she's moving without having to hang onto someone to stop her falling over.

There are no specific concussion treatments at present, so even if there are in the 41st millennium, I would imagine that with the equipment at hand, Barkley's not going to have done much for it.

I think there are only really three ways that are going to fix the concussion - time, quite a lot of hi-tech medical treatment or the friendly neighbourhood biomancer.

Time is going to be days and weeks, so not exactly practical here; The treatment is probably not a great rush either, and likely not too available on a war-torn world (maybe on the Integrity though); So, to be honest, I think she's probably going to be suffering from it to some degree until Steren finally catches up with her.

As such, probably very towards the shaky end of things at present, yes.

[Koval]

...At least Barkley knows his way around a lasgun? :X

Somehow I'm imagining what I have planned for Andreas working much better with Iota & co. than with the Inquisitors, although I want to see where the Semplice/Ravion thing goes before I really take that anywhere though. Main reasons it'll work better can be summed up below:


MADOC HAINES
-mother trucking THUNDER HAMMER that I have yet to do anything with
-still has his plasma pistol, bringing his gun count to three
-built like a fridge

RILEY HALLONA
-concussed...

AMBROSE BARKLEY
-can at least hold a lasgun the right way round, even if he'd likely prefer not to fire it
-has medical training

V

IOTA TETTARES/IONA TETHRAS
-very rationally minded
-well-armed
-also good at unarmed combat
-highly agile
-escaped a trigger-happy Dreadnought while both were in a wide open space...

HAJAD NOGAL/DOVIN
-is Mechanicus
-highly intelligent
-has medical training
-low combat ability

PANTARISTE/PELAGIA TANIS
-has military training
-is carrying a pretty chunky lasgun


I think Andreas' chances are better with Team Blue...

[MarcoSkoll]

That depends a bit on whether Ekkehardt and Chain count as part of Red Team now. Ekkehardt is a big bulky enforcer and Chain is the best shot amongst my characters.

But yes, Riley is fairly useless right now. In her defence, she would be good were she not dealing with a head injury.

Mind you, I doubt all three of them together and on top form could add up to Steren in a fight - what with her being able to ignore most small arms short of bolters and rip armour open with her bare hands. Fortunately for those three though, they do have other strengths!
(I really shouldn't be allowed to bring psykers to an RP, because they always turn out terrifyingly powerful.)

[Koval]

Somehow I'd forgotten about Chain being a good shot. Oops.

Steren's power level doesn't bug me at all. I think you're the only person worried about how powerful she is, as in the grand scheme of things, there are more powerful things than Steren in this RP. I've given sixteen Arbitrators to Dolnikan, for a start, and, moreover, dumped Agares on you (granted, that means the World Eater contingent went from five entities -- Agares, Goruvich, the Ancient, Zagan, and Zagan's ship -- to four, but they'll probably be a more serious threat as a result when we see them again)

will probably expand later tonight and/or make an update

[Dolnikan]

As soon as the bombers are gone Semplice will contact Tettares again and make his way to the arbitrators.

I completely forgot to add in Nogal. She basically is Karnak's apprentice, her first name is Hajad and she is quite talented with biological work and medicine. She isn't very good with weapons, she can use simple weapons but won't hit much. She was raised by the mechanicus which explains her attitudes towards emotions and the like.

[MarcoSkoll]

in the grand scheme of things, there are more powerful things than Steren in this RP.

True, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't aim to be more conservative in future.

She's got the boosted physique, she can potentially change her appearance as she likes (either to simply hide her identity, but potentially up to almost indistinguishable resemblance), has a general array of psychic senses (including mind reading) and can make psychic suggestions.
All in all, I think don't think too much short of our Astartes antagonists or being heavily outnumbered* is going to faze her.

*And by that, I do mean pretty heavily outnumbered. She's already curbstomped a five to one fight that she was deliberately hamming up for a mix of intimidation, non-lethality and as a deliberate distraction from the squishier people nearby.

[Koval]

As soon as the bombers are gone Semplice will contact Tettares again and make his way to the arbitrators.

I may PM you about that, actually, as I had an idea while I was at work today that I think would work better if you acted on it (largely because you have more of a handle on what Nogal and Pantariste are capable of than I do, whereas we both know that the only things Andreas can't do are piloting, acrobatics, and cooking)

I completely forgot to add in Nogal. She basically is Karnak's apprentice, her first name is Hajad and she is quite talented with biological work and medicine. She isn't very good with weapons, she can use simple weapons but won't hit much. She was raised by the mechanicus which explains her attitudes towards emotions and the like.

The fact that Hajad sounds vaguely Turkish/Arabic kinda kills the image I had of Nogal being a hot blonde. I have no idea why I keep imagining people's characters as hot blondes even when A) I prefer gingers B) I have no reason to even assume that a character is blonde*. Although I'm now imagining her as Team Blue's version of Ambrose Barkley.

Does her alias have a first name, by the way? Or will Andreas have to invent something should the group later be questioned?

in the grand scheme of things, there are more powerful things than Steren in this RP.

True, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't aim to be more conservative in future.

As long as it can be justified and done sensibly, I wouldn't have a huge problem with it. My own character Eliesa Schwertwald springs to mind:
"Why is she in a tank-chair?"
"She was paralysed from the waist down when a rogue psyker fried her with Bio-Lightning. She decided a normal wheelchair didn't cut it."
"And she's an old lady, so how is she still alive after that?"
"Her background as an Arbiter meant she ended up on the front lines rather a lot, even after becoming an Inquisitor, so she's been in her fair share of scrapes."
"And what's with the multilaser?"
"Personal defence weapon."

I realise that's a poor example, not least because Eliesa is arguably the most powerful Inquisitor I've written by a long way, but it's still an example of a ridiculous character that ended up working within the confines of what I was trying to do with her. My philosophy when GMing a RP has always been that it's as much a given player's story as it is mine, so there's always room for something weird as long as all involved are fine.

She's got the boosted physique, she can potentially change her appearance as she likes (either to simply hide her identity, but potentially up to almost indistinguishable resemblance), has a general array of psychic senses (including mind reading) and can make psychic suggestions.
All in all, I think don't think too much short of our Astartes antagonists or being heavily outnumbered* is going to faze her.

Prime Inquisitor material? If Haines meets her, and survives**, he's probably going to recommend her appointment to Interrogator...

*And by that, I do mean pretty heavily outnumbered. She's already curbstomped a five to one fight that she was deliberately hamming up for a mix of intimidation, non-lethality and as a deliberate distraction from the squishier people nearby.

Right, so she'll probably curbstomp Narl plus fifteen Arbitrators if she puts some welly into it. Good to know.

I almost want to take that to its logical extreme with Steren V Ancient if they should ever come face-to-face...


*Thankfully, Riley is a hot blonde, although Haines was too chivalrous/embarrassed to comment.

**I'm not trying to imply that Haines won't survive the event of meeting Steren, but there's a strong possibility that at least one of my characters will be leaving Sathvairg in a coffin depending on who ends up where, when.[/quote]

[MarcoSkoll]

If Haines meets her, and survives, he's probably going to recommend her appointment to Interrogator...

One would imagine they've already become somewhat acquainted from the trip in, although I can't imagine that he received a demonstration of her talents.

In any case, Riley is aware of Steren's potential value - she just wants to be VERY sure about her first.
A normal Inquisitor can cause enough trouble if they go off the rails. Now imagine if the same Inquisitor can become immune to gunfire and almost infinitely disguise their appearance.

Right, so she'll probably curbstomp Narl plus fifteen Arbitrators if she puts some welly into it. Good to know.

I wouldn't exactly put it beyond her, but I can imagine that Arbitrators are better trained than your typical everyday Enforcers. So it would depend on whether the circumstances worked to her advantage.

I almost want to take that to its logical extreme with Steren V Ancient if they should ever come face-to-face...

I've been wondering how that might turn out. Obviously the Ancient has the more powerful offence and defence, but Steren definitely has the agility advantage.