Damn it interns, why don't you git gud already?

Because they're babby mages who aren't thrown into life or death situations every 30 seconds. :(

That is no excuse for noobness. You can't become the hardcore with that attitude.
Stopping now

Well most people are not crazy enough to routinely throw themselves into danger at the drop of a hat. That's something only PCs do. The XP is reality going "oh god stop bothering me."
 
Okay.

Well. That's a thing which just happened.

The Mysterious Voice is probably right when it says that the standard evac protocols are compromised. Ms Clock is - just like Jamelia - efficient to the level that it can even seem slightly lazy, and that kind of "use the vampires to beat them out via standard evac, take them, then kill the vampires and put the newly reprogrammed interns back in place" plan is incredibly elegant, efficient, and Jamelian. She will know all the standard protocols, so to win we can't do what's expected of us.

(Jamelia Bot has probably told the interns about the dangers of doing what's expected when you're caught in an RD trap, and she's probably been training them because she's suffering depression from the loss of Enlightenment and how she feels so stupid and useless. As they say, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach". :p)

However, I severely doubt that holding the facility will go anywhere near as well as is hoped. I'm going to assume it's nighttime here, because nice things don't happen to us and vampires are not fools. Or, rather, the ways that they're foolish are not issues of basic competency. If I was a vampire prince acting to remove a serious threat to the Camarilla (and thus look really good in the eyes of the elders who run it, and especially if I'm LaCroix who has to work to solidify respect from the elders), quite apart from the high tech and valuable ghouls, I wouldn't half-arse it.

So. Mortal pawns and ghouls up front, to trip the defences and tell me what I'm dealing with. Leave the assault planning up to blood-bonded mortals - this is the kind of thing they know how to deal with. For an assault like this, I might even employ the kind of foolishness vampires are actually prone to and essentially do a Camarilla Shovelhead Op where I mass embrace SWAT people who were probably going to die anyway, with the expectation that most of them die and thus I don't get shouted at by the rest of the Camarilla.

(The fact that this produces a bunch of Vampire SWAT PCs for stereotypical fightain characters for Masquerade games is just an additional bonus)

But then comes the other side. Which is to say, Blade time. Which is to say, vampire ninjas in black catsuits with Obfuscate and Celerity (warning, vampire ninjas may in fact not be sexy and may in fact be Nosferatu). In nWoD I'd use Mekhet for this, but presumably there's a similar skillset in oWoD. Basically, I'm saying there's a pretty good chance that invisible vampire ninjas may have already infiltrated the facility and at least by some readings, Obfuscate can force you to ignore alarm warnings raised by the invisible ninjas. If we had the senior command staff here, I'd just tell Henriette to turn on the sunlights and giggle, but that's not an option here.

Moreover, if we assume the Bloodlines game is at least quasi-canon, there's a fairly influential Tremere chantry in LA, so that means they'll have essentially blood-fuelled linear sorcerer RD vampires on side. Since I'm not very familiar with Tremere, I'm going to assume that means they have linear sorcerers on side, which means they do probably have some kind of stealth warding and other things which our primary casters could probably punch through, but which our interns probably can't.

So, basically, there's a good chance the facility is already compromised thanks to invisible ninjas. And that there are probably Vampire SWAT, newly dead, preparing to VIGOR SMASH their way in.

URGH. So, basically, there's a good chance all the options are traps. The Standard Evac Protocols one is the trappiest-trap, and that makes me suspect that whoever the Mysterious Voice is, they're not Ms Clock. Which doesn't mean that they're not Threat Null, of course. But while Threat Null is self-sabotaging, I don't think they're so self-sabotaging as to tell the targets of their own op that the way which reliably would have caught them is a trap. So either this is Earthside Technocracy, Traditionalist interference (possibly for a 'try to save them from their brainwashing' ploy), or possibly even something like a Singulatarian INFORMATION HAS TO BE FREE thing where they're compelled to tell people things.

Welp. So, let's look at them in terms of narrative fun. "Ms Clock Just Wins" isn't fun at all because it means everything goes just as planned for her. And it's also OOC, because as a fork of Jazmin Blade it should be IC that nothing ever seems to go just as planned for her. Anyway, the fun of Illiyeenish minds is watching them try to juggle fifty knives and pretend this is all part of their plan and they meant to do this all along. The "Suddenly Vampire Ninjas"... well, we already had that in Alice's interlude. I mean, not with vampire ninjas, but getting out maneuvered and torn apart so quickly isn't something new.

So I guess I'm going to vote for Mysterious Voice, because who the Voice is might well be interesting and because trying to evade vampire ninjas in our own construct trying to get out and going up against the Sleeper SWAT is Internly Fun. It'll be good for their XP, although possibly bad for their health.

[X] (0.5x) Follow the instructions of the shady voice and attempt to break out to the designated evac point.
 
So I guess I'm going to vote for Mysterious Voice, because who the Voice is might well be interesting and because trying to evade vampire ninjas in our own construct trying to get out and going up against the Sleeper SWAT is Internly Fun. It'll be good for their XP, although possibly bad for their health.
I'm guessing they could be one of the following:

- Special Agent Tinker
- Christos Barberis
- IBM
- Subjugation Corps

If it's Subjugation Corps, we get an impromptu XCOM mission. If it's Tinker, then we get ourselves a Matrix boss battle. These probably aren't the only possibilities, though.

But the risk of infiltrators or some other form of sabotage within our Construct... yeah, it seems very likely. After all, Ms Clock has probably prepared a plan for the scenario in which the interns hole up in the Construct.

Because, when you think about it from her point of view, the two most likely courses of action she'd expect the amalgam members to take in the event of an attack are 1) burn everything and evac via standard routes or 2) hole up in the Construct and try to defend against the assault.

So, changing vote back to:

[X] (0.5x) Follow the instructions of the shady voice and attempt to break out to the designated evac point.
 
We are in a heavily fortified position, dug in and reinforced to the specifications of one of the most paranoid mother fuckers ever. Why are we running, when we can hold out fo reinforcements that isn't panopticon?
 
We are in a heavily fortified position, dug in and reinforced to the specifications of one of the most paranoid mother fuckers ever. Why are we running, when we can hold out fo reinforcements that isn't panopticon?

Because holding out is what Ms Clock would expect us to do? I mean, she's probably had quite a lot of time to plan out and lay the groundwork for this operation, so she'll have planned for the most likely scenarios.

Our best bet is to do something she hasn't planned for--basically, do something unexpected.
 
Last edited:
We are in a heavily fortified position, dug in and reinforced to the specifications of one of the most paranoid mother fuckers ever. Why are we running, when we can hold out fo reinforcements that isn't panopticon?
Because that Moscow construct was even more heavily fortified and a double team of mages/crats took it down? I mean yeah, construct is awesome base. But we don't have the mojo for the really good defenses cuz those are procedures that just happen to use "built in automated defenses" as a focus. With only 2nd level spheres, we're not going to be able to run most of those.
 
Last edited:
We are in a heavily fortified position, dug in and reinforced to the specifications of one of the most paranoid mother fuckers ever. Why are we running, when we can hold out fo reinforcements that isn't panopticon?

No, we are not in a heavily fortified position. We had the chance to take defence upgrades and we didn't. We're in a relatively light Construct, lacking all of the senior command staff who'd really turn it into a killing field (remember Molotek? It would have been way easier if it hadn't been full of the ghoul-mages spamming effects at us) and we don't have very impressive forces. Like, seriously, it'd probably be legitimately harder to attack Yellowfields right now, which is a heavily protected facility which is also hidden underground and only accessible via a secret lift with smart ID systems.

And what reinforcements which aren't Panopticon? Someone's jamming all the calls such that the Mysterious Voice could barely punch through. It's a fairly simple Corr + Forces ward to stop any message getting out - or intercept them such that any reinforcements sent are Panopticon.

Ms Clock is Jamelia + Sufficient Assets - The Few Qualms of Conscience She's Developed. She isn't going to set up a plan which doesn't account for the obvious behavioural choices - and as I said, don't underestimate vampires, either. The Camarilla is a peer competitor to the Technocracy and is run by vampire ubermenchen with superhuman attributes. And the capacity to make new vampires by spending 1wp and finding a victim who's susceptible to their charms and the offer of immortality [1]. Much, much cheaper for them to replace losses than the Technocracy.

[1] They don't tell potential recruits that on average they'd live longer if they stayed mortal, and they're joining at the bottom of a giant pyramid scheme.
 
Hmm... exfiltrating via a nonstandard route and meeting up with the mysterious voice also means that Ms Clock will waste time and (admittedly disposable) assets against the automated defences and Sleeper personnel of the Construct, only to find out too late that the interns have already snuck out and scattered.

This is assuming that the interns don't get spotted while trying to sneak out, and that the mysterious voice is actually here to help us.
 
Thing is, it's totally a thing to offer someone a way out when you talk about siege and encirclement, so that your opposition doesn't fight to the death because they have nothing left to lose.

It's part of the in death's ground quote.
 
Thing is, it's totally a thing to offer someone a way out when you talk about siege and encirclement, so that your opposition doesn't fight to the death because they have nothing left to lose.

It's part of the in death's ground quote.

There are already ways out of the Construct--the standard escape plans and the Mat-Trans. Why would Ms Clock need to offer an additional way out when there's already one provided, especially when the method of doing so means that her targets will be less likely to trust the conventional escape routes?
 
Thing is, it's totally a thing to offer someone a way out when you talk about siege and encirclement, so that your opposition doesn't fight to the death because they have nothing left to lose.

It's part of the in death's ground quote.

... so the points I raised about "Yeah, so, the Mysterious Voice probably isn't Ms Clock because as far as she's concerned, they should just follow standard protocols and evac through the TransMat or via the standard evac points and she can pick them up easily following standard protocols with no fuss" are things you'll ignore?

It doesn't make sense for Ms Clock to alert them that the standard evac routes are compromised, because it's the most expedient route for her if they take the standard evac routes.
 
... so the points I raised about "Yeah, so, the Mysterious Voice probably isn't Ms Clock because as far as she's concerned, they should just follow standard protocols and evac through the TransMat or via the standard evac points and she can pick them up easily following standard protocols with no fuss" are things you'll ignore?

It doesn't make sense for Ms Clock to alert them that the standard evac routes are compromised, because it's the most expedient route for her if they take the standard evac routes.
It's bait and to make the mysterious voice more legitimate. It has to offer something to gain their trust after all. And it's a really obvious thing, given how its a full on assualt, the exits are probably trapped anyway.

If they believe that it's trapped, good for Clock. Because they will either

1. Choose not to believe her and make a run for it. Oh hey look the place is trapped.

Or

2. They stay and the vampire assualt takes place. Opps.

If they choose to believe the voice. Welp. If it's clock doing it. She probably wins.

The most likely course of action anyone would take would be to run, either way. So Clock probably wants to limit their routes to the ones she knows.
 
Last edited:
It's bait and to make the mysterious voice more legitimate. It has to offer something to gain their trust after all. And it's a really obvious thing, given how its a full on assualt, the exits are probably trapped anyway.

If they believe that it's trapped, good for Clock. Because they will either

1. Choose not to believe her and make a run for it. Oh hey look the place is trapped.

Or

2. They stay and the vampire assualt takes place. Opps.

If they choose to believe the voice. Welp. If it's clock doing it. She probably wins.

There is reasoning to support the idea that the standard evac routes and holding out in the construct are both trap choices. If we assume the mysterious voice is also a trap choice, that leaves us with nothing but trap choices, unless someone can come up with a viable write in.

Too much paranoia can be a bad thing.
 
Last edited:
There is reasoning to support the idea that the standard evac routes and holding out in the construct are both trap choices. If we assume the mysterious voice is also a trap choice, that leaves us with nothing but trap choices, unless someone can come up with a viable write in.

Too much paranoia can be a bad thing.
It is most likely all the options are traps.

What I'm thinking of is the fact that which choice is more trapped or compromised. In my opinion, we are more likely to succeed in holding out than running away.
 
It's bait and to make the mysterious voice more legitimate. It has to offer something to gain their trust after all. And it's a really obvious thing, given how its a full on assualt, the exits are probably trapped anyway.

If they believe that it's trapped, good for Clock. Because they will either

1. Choose not to believe her and make a run for it. Oh hey look the place is trapped.

Or

2. They stay and the vampire assualt takes place. Opps.

If they choose to believe the voice. Welp. If it's clock doing it. She probably wins.

The most likely course of action anyone would take would be to run, either way. So Clock probably wants to limit their routes to the ones she knows.
Okay. With that in mind:

1) Using the MatTrans and standard evac routes is certainly a trap that leads to an effective party kill.
2) Trying to hold the construct without backup (which will never arrive because we're being jammed) is a trap that leads to an effective party wipe. We cannot hold the place against a Camarilla attack backed by Ms Clock's covert buffs/debuffs. And we can't get a cry for help out through the jamming. If we stay, we die.
3) Mysterious Voice may or may not be a trap. If it is a trap, it may or may not be Clock - this third choice (Trap+Ms Clock's) leads to an effective party wipe, the other two don't (not a trap) and might not (someone else's trap).

Given two certain traps and a maybe-trap, what would you suggest we do? Because unless you can come up with a fourth option, I'm gonna go with...

[X] (0.5x) Follow the instructions of the shady voice and attempt to break out to the designated evac point.
->[X] But be on guard for betrayal.
It is most likely all the options are traps.

What I'm thinking of is the fact that which choice is more trapped or compromised. In my opinion, we are more likely to succeed in holding out than running away.
No. We can't. I'm sorry, but this is a full-scale Camarilla attack backed up by Panopticon subtly buffing them and debuffing us, plus whatever HITMarks and resources Ms Clock assigns to attack us directly once the vampires are finished, against a lightly defended Construct with two combat mages and no Spheres above 3. We cannot hold out. We cannot defend. If we stay, we die. We are in a worse position - a far worse position - than the Construct we attacked back in Moscow. They had more defences, more advance warning and fewer forces attacking them. And we slaughtered them with relative ease. This is a Jamelia plan, us staying and fighting is the second most obvious choice, she does not do things by half measures, she has planned for this. If we stay here, we will all die.
 
Last edited:
We probably won't be able to hold, let's face it--if we hold off the Camarilla and SWAT teams, then we have to contend with multiple TENNOs, a spidertank, and whatever other goodies Ms Clock has to deploy--and in case you've forgotten, she's also got her Enlightened personnel. Like the ATLAS cyborg, and the human wrecking ball Progenitor, and that Computer fanatic who is probably also a high end combat enhancile.

One of Panopticon's chief advantages is basically their nigh unlimited material assets. Ms Clock isn't going to be lacking for firepower, while the Construct is quite short on it.
 
Last edited:
Edit: Intern Questions for MJ12: What's the paradigms/casting methods for each of our interns? Can you go more into detail on their mundane skills and their augments as well?

The paradigms of the interns are all pretty much standard for their Conventions and Methodologies.

Brakowski's focus is his training and high-tech spy gadgets (although his are significantly more Splinter Cell than 007).
Hughes uses her cybernetics and high-tech weaponry.
Williams has her keen observational senses, media equipment, and electronic aids.
Patel uses surgical and engineering equipment. He does have implants and can use them but they're a secondary paradigm, as it were.
And finally, you have Vega whose paradigm involves his oratory, his research skills, and his broad knowledge base.

Mundane skills are approximately what you'd expect given what they do, although Vega is a fair shot and Williams knows some martial arts.
 
[X] Hold the Construct at all costsagainst the vampires and whatever allies they might have.

In death's ground. Fight.
Except this is not death ground. This is enclosed (or hemmed-in, depending on the translation) ground, where the best option is to "resort to stratagem", aka figure how to avoid fighting at a severe disadvantage. Barring a brilliant write-in the best way to achieve that seems to be

[X](0.5x) Follow the instructions of the shady voice and attempt to breakout to the designated evac point.
->[X] But be on guard for betrayal.

It seems to me that the voice said something like "The rest of your Construct's personnel are- of no consequence to- ." So maybe bring a few hitmarks as backup? We should also bring Jamelia!bot, because they might be expecting her, and because we don't want the vamps to get their hands on her/ realize that Jamelia was never at the construct to begin with.
 
[X] (0.5x) Follow the instructions of the shady voice and attempt to break out to the designated evac point.
->[X] But be on guard for betrayal.

This does seem like the best option at the moment. Plus, since other people have already made a fairly convincing case that it's likely not Ms Clock, that makes me pretty curious about who it is.
 
Rose is going to go absolutely ballistic when she finds out about Serafina. And I doubt Clock has the physical capabilities of a Paradox Spirit. Shame about that Mind 5 (Self-Destruction) with convenient Technocratic Construct focus...
(Is 'being really fucking angry' a possible focus for a Mind shield effect, or would that be actively counterproductive compared to carefully controlling your state of mind via artificial hormones? Or does it all depend on the dice roll?)

On the actual issue here, I agree with the reasoning that the Construct is presently off-guard, lightly-defended, under-staffed, and overmatched. That the vampires were able to get into position without the Technocracy's usual spyware and contacts catching wind of it implies that they're spending serious influence and bringing a lot of force. Considering every single member of the senior personnel roster is absent, barring Bossbot who doesn't have Genius anyway, I'm skeptical of our ability to hold out until not-Panopticon reinforcements arrive. And our interns' ability to recognise Panopticon reinforcements as subtly-hostile, or survive doing so.

And evac along the standard routes... yeah, that's a trap. Even without the OOC knowledge of Clock, IC awareness that the Camarilla have suborned virtually the entire city police department, somebody's very effectively jamming all communications, and their early warning systems have been compromised, all point to something being seriously wrong.

[x] (0.5x) Follow the instructions of the shady voice and attempt to break out to the designated evac point.
->[x] But be on guard for betrayal.
 
The paradigms of the interns are all pretty much standard for their Conventions and Methodologies.

Brakowski's focus is his training and high-tech spy gadgets (although his are significantly more Splinter Cell than 007).
Hughes uses her cybernetics and high-tech weaponry.
Williams has her keen observational senses, media equipment, and electronic aids.
Patel uses surgical and engineering equipment. He does have implants and can use them but they're a secondary paradigm, as it were.
And finally, you have Vega whose paradigm involves his oratory, his research skills, and his broad knowledge base.

Mundane skills are approximately what you'd expect given what they do, although Vega is a fair shot and Williams knows some martial arts.

Vega won't be able to use his research skills as an entropy focus on the run, but we should be able to make up for that with his broad knowledge base foci. Vega's ability to shoot people only reinforces my decision to put him up near the front line with Jessica- he can actually shoot squishy targets like humans.

Rachel's martial arts are rather less relevant; they mean she won't die instantly against normal people, but any supernatural combatant- or even a high level normal combatant- would be a match for her.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top