DreadStormers [IC]

[GnomesofZurich]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Saturday at lunch entire thirds of sections are called up to the vehicle deck on level three. Here, entire sections of the ship are called up and given a lecture by Captain Zonor Thuto.

"Before, we had set out to go to war. Last night, the war came to us! Three fires, all nearby the food stores. This is without a doubt sabotage! and not only sabotage, but dreadstormer sabotage! In our midst, quite possibly among you, is an agenta of the Quinta! The Quinta thrive on division and deception. They claim they are not fighting, then send their most prized assets right into our heart. They are strongest in the shadows, when we are bending the rules, when we are relaxing for person pleasure instead of doing our duty! "

"I say this not to strike terror into your hearts, but to make you wary. Someone will die at the hands of these dreadstormers. He who takes a psionic sneak with him, even just be identifying him, has won the battle. If the Quinta cannot take this ship from us, their calculations will be off, and we will have won our war. The fate of the Zorbani Union lies in your ability to discipline yourselves."

At the end of the speech, you are formed into a line and each soldier in turn is given a pill and is watched while it is swallowed.

This is sounding difficult to avoid. How tricky would it be to place it under your tongue, pretend to swallow and spit it out later? How many people are gathered at once and how many people are watching as each soldier swallows the pill?

Originally Posted by ericthered

What day is he looking to do that? What time of day? where will Pothi be? what part of the ship do you want to try this in? Do you want to target officers or security (I think you said security)? Earlier we talked about types of weapons. Are you aiming for a personal weapon, an issued weapon, or a spare weapon (that is checked for missing periodically?)

On second thought, what would be needed to break into the armoury? I have lockpicking, possibly with electrician as a complimentary skill (since I'm guessing these aren't mechanical locks).

[TGLS]

What kind of holdout penalty would we be looking at?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by TGLS

What kind of holdout penalty would we be looking at?

in order to accomplish which task? I'm confused here. I'm guessing you're talking about getting the ingredients to make the fake pills, but you don't have those yet, nor do you know exactly where they are. You know that one of your roommates is using them regularly, and she has to have a large stash of the base ingredients somewhere.

Originally Posted by GnomesofZurich

This is sounding difficult to avoid. How tricky would it be to place it under your tongue, pretend to swallow and spit it out later? How many people are gathered at once and how many people are watching as each soldier swallows the pill?

Its everyone in your shift of the motive section, so that's 60 spacers, plus another 15 or security personel and officers. So 75 people are present. I'd say that two of your fellow motive section spacers will watch as you swallow, along with 4 security and two officers, for a total of 10. 10 individuals is a +4 to any quick contest between all of them and you. Though at least one of the 10 individuals is Pothi, who won't actually be watching. If you can arrange for one more individual to not really watch, that will knock the bonus down to +3. The roll is probably Filtch, and at a -2 penalty for using your tongue and having the timing and setup determined by your audience.

On second thought, what would be needed to break into the armoury? I have lockpicking, possibly with electrician as a complimentary skill (since I'm guessing these aren't mechanical locks).

Yes, they're electronic, for the most part. see post 60:

If a weapon is noticed missing, it will probably trigger a search, but exact circumstances vary. The other thing it can do is put the ship on high alert for dreadstormers.
There are three kinds of weapons to think about:

• Those that are assigned to security. These are used every day.
• Those that are part of the general armory. These are inventoried once a shift, but there are around 2,000 of them, so its a quick check. They are arranged in racks of 10, so if you can make a rack look full when its not, you may be able to keep the theft a secret
• The Personal backup weapons of officers and security. These are kept by individuals, usually in rooms or lockers, and some are not be checked for a long time. These are more difficult to identify though, and some are used on a daily basis.

The assigned weapons and general armory are kept in three locations, each in a locked room immediately adjacent to either the officers quarters (1 room) or the security quarters (2 rooms). The locks on these are fairly boring locks, and actually designed to fail and turn on an alarm if tampered with rather than holding: In case of a general showdown on the ship, they want more people to have weapons rather than fewer, as dreadstormers are generally badly outnumbered. More difficult than the locks is being next to the area where the officers and security hang out and being around that door. And making sure your theft is not noticed (though that may be less important now).

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

in order to accomplish which task? I'm confused here. I'm guessing you're talking about getting the ingredients to make the fake pills, but you don't have those yet, nor do you know exactly where they are. You know that one of your roommates is using them regularly, and she has to have a large stash of the base ingredients somewhere.

Oh sorry, that was badly formed. Was in response to:

Originally Posted by ericthered

At the end of the speech, you are formed into a line and each soldier in turn is given a pill and is watched while it is swallowed

I thought it would have been holdout. Anyway, with those penalties I'll just write off the (maybe) four hours.

--

Hm... Could I try befriending her and use observation to find where she's keeping her medicine?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by TGLS

I thought it would have been holdout. Anyway, with those penalties I'll just write off the (maybe) four hours.

holdout could be used as well, I suppose. though for you it doesn't matter because you are planning on eating lunch, and your lunch (as opposed to Daymar's) is contaminated. The good news is that dinner will be cooked out of the food stores again.

Hm... Could I try befriending her and use observation to find where she's keeping her medicine?

Yes. Though you don't want her medicine per se, you want the ingredients. She keeps the medicine in her locker, and you know where that is. Somewhere else is a big bag of powder that can be used to make pills, and what you need is that. You don't know if that is also in her locker, or if its in morale with the medical personnel. Or even stowed in some weird corner of the Nightfall.



How would you propose to go about befriending her? Its still probably a good way to figure out the location of the stuff.

[GnomesofZurich]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Its everyone in your shift of the motive section, so that's 60 spacers, plus another 15 or security personel and officers. So 75 people are present. I'd say that two of your fellow motive section spacers will watch as you swallow, along with 4 security and two officers, for a total of 10. 10 individuals is a +4 to any quick contest between all of them and you. Though at least one of the 10 individuals is Pothi, who won't actually be watching. If you can arrange for one more individual to not really watch, that will knock the bonus down to +3. The roll is probably Filtch, and at a -2 penalty for using your tongue and having the timing and setup determined by your audience.

Day hasn't used Luck since post 120, so I'll give this a shot, using Holdout if that's okay (since my skill level is 1 better). OOC: If I knew then what I know now, I would have allocated my skills quite differently - dropping some that I've never used and boosting Filch, Holdout, Acting, etc.

He will target the nearest non-Pothi motive section spacer with Suggest, and then try to use Holdout to conceal the pill without swallowing it.

[109] 20-10-09 19:10:58 CEST

Suggestion to re-direct the attention of another spacer

3d6 <= 16
2 + 1 + 2 = 5 ... success - Critical success!

[110] 20-10-09 19:11:53 CEST

Holdout-2 to conceal pill without swallowing

3d6 <= 12
1 + 3 + 1 = 5 ... success by 7! That's pretty good, the odds of Luck improving on that are slim, so I'll let it stand.

I've got to get back to work, so will figure out whether and how Day will obtain a weapon until later.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

How would you propose to go about befriending her? Its still probably a good way to figure out the location of the stuff.

Well, how about I find out what she's interested in and try to connect with her that way? Research, observation, Savoir Faire?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Well, how about I find out what she's interested in and try to connect with her that way? Research, observation, Savoir Faire?

Savoir Faire or Diplomacy is probably the most polite, but observation or fast talk would work as well.

Originally Posted by GnomesofZurich

Day hasn't used Luck since post 120, so I'll give this a shot, using Holdout if that's okay (since my skill level is 1 better).

He will target the nearest non-Pothi motive section spacer with Suggest, and then try to use Holdout to conceal the pill without swallowing it.

3d6 <= 12
1 + 3 + 1 = 5 ... success by 7! That's pretty good, the odds of Luck improving on that are slim, so I'll let it stand.

And the onlookers roll a 12 vs. their effective skill of 14. Daymar eludes their attempt to make him swallow!

*******************************************

The officers post a list of "debriefings" where each spacer will be interrogated about their whereabouts at the time of the fire and generally checked for suspicious behavior. Daymar will be debriefed sunday afternoon (tomorrow),a and Hua monday morning (two days from now)

The rest of saturday work shift is spent working hard. Daymar and Pothi work hard on the damaged plasma emmiter, cleaning it out, analyzing if parts need to be replaced or just cleaned in chemical baths, and acting accordingly. (its been properly sealed earlier)

Hua and Botha are in one of the food storage rooms most the day with a few dozen other transportation techs, trying to see how much of the food can be salvaged, and cleaning it off. The work is dull, and with all the ash everywhere, and leaves them filthy afterwards.

Chuvi Teezor, the roommate with the pills, will be working in the same room separating ashes and food.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Savoir Faire or Diplomacy is probably the most polite, but observation or fast talk would work as well.

Alright, SF it is:

[112] 20-10-11 04:14:24 CEST
Savoir-Faire
3d6 <= 14 : 6 + 1 + 1 = 8 ... success

[ericthered]

Chuvi Teezor is very fond of sports, especially Puvivo (which is something between field hockey and soccer), though she isn't picky. She both plays and follows the sport. She's also politically active, and not shy about talking about it (which means she actively supports one of the factions in the ruling military junta, and seems to have personal ties to them in at least some fashion... probably because of the civil war). She also likes to talk about the civil war on her home planet Jeetu, especially underhanded tactics the rebels take.