- Location
- USA
Up to three. *stares at options* Wow, talk about decision paralysis. 
[x] Sternberg's office
[x] Map room
[x] Yes
[x] Sternberg's office
[x] Map room
[x] Yes
World On Fire: Shadow Ops [a Fantasy WWII Quest]
- Thread starter Zoosmell
- Start date
- Mature Fantasy Alt. History
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Briefing room (Command)
[X] Map room
[X] Sternberg's office
[X] [Gold]'s office
Change Perspective to Armory Team?
[X] Yes
[X] Map room
[X] Sternberg's office
[X] [Gold]'s office
Change Perspective to Armory Team?
[X] Yes
- Location
- Pittsburgh PA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan: Be Very, Very Quiet, We're Hunting Plans
-[X] Briefing room (Command)
-[X] Map room
-[X] Sternberg's office
[X] No
-[X] Briefing room (Command)
-[X] Map room
-[X] Sternberg's office
[X] No
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Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
When sneaking, always use the stairs.
Well, that's one way to flaunt your wealth.
*gasp* Shizuka!
[X] Plan: Be Very, Very Quiet, We're Hunting Plans
-[X] Briefing room (Command)
-[X] Map room
-[X] Sternberg's office
[X] No
@silentorphan @Brainarius @tygerbright
You should probably but your votes in plan-format, otherwise it is not possible to tell how many places people actually want to investigate.
- Location
- United States
[X] Plan: Be Very, Very Quiet, We're Hunting Plans
-[X] Briefing room (Command)
-[X] Map room
-[X] Sternberg's office
[X] No
-[X] Briefing room (Command)
-[X] Map room
-[X] Sternberg's office
[X] No
Vote closed
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
It seems to have separated them weirdly, between singular votes and plan-votes.
The Last Khagan Pt. VIII
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
[><] The Autotally Is Being Weird
You're a bit spoiled for options, here, but only theoretically. There are a few obvious choices to go with here.
The obvious place to look is the briefing room. This, initially, does not seem to produce much. There are documents, but it's all in code, and you can't make heads or tails of it. You figure you probably couldn't even if it was in English, which it isn't - it's in Mongolian, and in the old vertical alphabet. Which has been pretty thoroughly scrambled.
You pocket it all the same, and after rummaging through a few more drawers in the briefing room you come upon what appears to be some sort of translation key. Not bad!
The map room likewise does not at first glance appear to produce much in the way of results. The walls clearly have places for maps, but they've been folded up and removed. You quickly find cabinets large enough to store them, but they're locked. No matter - the locks are extremely simple (and new), and Roy easily deals with them.
This plan of his, from what you can tell, is fairly straightforward. At least once he gets out of Mongolia - that part he seems to have given little thought to, and believes he'll take it with little effort. You would never claim such confidence if you were standing on the steps of the Reichstag, but if he has as many supernaturals under his sway as he implies...
Once he does control Mongolia, in the shadows so as not to arouse too much suspicion, he'll sweep north in a three-pronged assault. The main target is Irtusk, Lake Baikal, and the railway surrounding it, but Ulan-Ude and Chita both receive ample attention. Once that assault commences, his contacts in the Manchuko Army will hit Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, tying down the Soviets' Far Eastern divisions, while also launching smaller assaults all along its border towards the Trans-Siberian Railway. It's an obvious target, but also an important one, and relatively close to the Manchuko border. He expects many, many non-Mongolian footsoldiers to die (most of the Mongolians will be mounted in some way according to his notes), but it's a sacrifice he's clearly willing to make.
After all that succeeds? He seems to have definite plans to take his army as far as Krasnoyarsk, and possibly as far as Novosibirsk, but even his ambition deserts him beyond that for now. The only thing he really needs is an opportunity to enact it, and the irony of it is that it requires waiting for the Soviets to start pushing out of their own borders.
In his own office, you find outlines for plans to take in most of Central Asia after the "fall of the Bolshevik menace", as well as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. Perhaps as war reparations? It isn't clear, and you don't have time to look. As you're reading over a plan to build a proper public mausoleum for Genghis Khan, you feel a tap on your shoulder.
You spin around, pistol raised, only to see it's Indra. You quickly lower your gun, then stop as you recognize the frown on his face isn't going away.
"There is a problem in the armory," he whispers, then pauses as if that's all the explanation needed.
You motion for him to continue, and he does. "This 'Blue' was indeed not awake and not present, but there are... some other things. Mechanical automatons of some sort patrolling it. They haven't raised the alarm - at least, we have not been caught - but they have increased their patrols to the point that escape will be difficult on our own without making a great deal of noise."
Floor 2
Floor 1
There is enough of a gap between Floor 1 and Floor 2 that the 'Firearms' section, where the rest of Doris's team is, has a roof. Indra escaped via the stairs and through Floor 2's exit. Patrols are solely on the first floor, but since the Firearms section is a building-within-a-building, that's all that's really needed, since they surround it. The security stairs are unguarded, but there is an alarm clearly wired to the doors. At present there are 3 'security automatons' patrolling the first floor in a loop around the Firearms building.
[ ] Golly There Are A Lot Of Plan Votes Lately Aren't There
You're a bit spoiled for options, here, but only theoretically. There are a few obvious choices to go with here.
The obvious place to look is the briefing room. This, initially, does not seem to produce much. There are documents, but it's all in code, and you can't make heads or tails of it. You figure you probably couldn't even if it was in English, which it isn't - it's in Mongolian, and in the old vertical alphabet. Which has been pretty thoroughly scrambled.
You pocket it all the same, and after rummaging through a few more drawers in the briefing room you come upon what appears to be some sort of translation key. Not bad!
The map room likewise does not at first glance appear to produce much in the way of results. The walls clearly have places for maps, but they've been folded up and removed. You quickly find cabinets large enough to store them, but they're locked. No matter - the locks are extremely simple (and new), and Roy easily deals with them.
This plan of his, from what you can tell, is fairly straightforward. At least once he gets out of Mongolia - that part he seems to have given little thought to, and believes he'll take it with little effort. You would never claim such confidence if you were standing on the steps of the Reichstag, but if he has as many supernaturals under his sway as he implies...
Once he does control Mongolia, in the shadows so as not to arouse too much suspicion, he'll sweep north in a three-pronged assault. The main target is Irtusk, Lake Baikal, and the railway surrounding it, but Ulan-Ude and Chita both receive ample attention. Once that assault commences, his contacts in the Manchuko Army will hit Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, tying down the Soviets' Far Eastern divisions, while also launching smaller assaults all along its border towards the Trans-Siberian Railway. It's an obvious target, but also an important one, and relatively close to the Manchuko border. He expects many, many non-Mongolian footsoldiers to die (most of the Mongolians will be mounted in some way according to his notes), but it's a sacrifice he's clearly willing to make.
After all that succeeds? He seems to have definite plans to take his army as far as Krasnoyarsk, and possibly as far as Novosibirsk, but even his ambition deserts him beyond that for now. The only thing he really needs is an opportunity to enact it, and the irony of it is that it requires waiting for the Soviets to start pushing out of their own borders.
In his own office, you find outlines for plans to take in most of Central Asia after the "fall of the Bolshevik menace", as well as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. Perhaps as war reparations? It isn't clear, and you don't have time to look. As you're reading over a plan to build a proper public mausoleum for Genghis Khan, you feel a tap on your shoulder.
You spin around, pistol raised, only to see it's Indra. You quickly lower your gun, then stop as you recognize the frown on his face isn't going away.
"There is a problem in the armory," he whispers, then pauses as if that's all the explanation needed.
You motion for him to continue, and he does. "This 'Blue' was indeed not awake and not present, but there are... some other things. Mechanical automatons of some sort patrolling it. They haven't raised the alarm - at least, we have not been caught - but they have increased their patrols to the point that escape will be difficult on our own without making a great deal of noise."
Floor 2
Floor 1
There is enough of a gap between Floor 1 and Floor 2 that the 'Firearms' section, where the rest of Doris's team is, has a roof. Indra escaped via the stairs and through Floor 2's exit. Patrols are solely on the first floor, but since the Firearms section is a building-within-a-building, that's all that's really needed, since they surround it. The security stairs are unguarded, but there is an alarm clearly wired to the doors. At present there are 3 'security automatons' patrolling the first floor in a loop around the Firearms building.
[ ] Golly There Are A Lot Of Plan Votes Lately Aren't There
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
Lucky!
Makes sense, Red Army far away and busy fighting the Axis will not be able to oppose him.
"I will build my own Soviet Union, with golden statues of Genghis Khan and me!"
Oh dear, that's an issue.
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
What kind of alarm? Mechanical, magical, and would anyone in our team know how to disable it?
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
The alarm, Indra tells you, is both mechanical and magical. Looking over it though, you can tell that whoever did the magical part of it... didn't do a very good job. You could easily disable that part of it. (Careful roll against a -2)
The mechanical part is a different story. Ethel would almost certainly know how to disable the mechanical part, but she's obviously not an option here. Roy says he could probably disable it (Careful roll against a 2). Disabling it may do nothing, or it may set it off (Critfail (more than half 4d6 negative) sets it off).
You could mute it yourself (Forceful roll against a 1). Muting the alarm wouldn't be too hard, but the alarm part itself is both a big pneumatic siren and a pair of bells. Something that noisy will require your constant attention, which means you will have to stay here. Afterwards, you'll either have to smash it (Another Forceful roll against a 1), or just run like hell to the dungeons (-3 on all Sneaky rolls for the rest of the chapter).
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Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
What about the automatons, does it seem like we could take them out quickly and quietly, or are they possible types that send out an alarm when taken offline?
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
Indra shrugs, but states that the automatons could be taken out quietly enough, if we manage to do so without any one being in line-of-sight of the other (Careful roll against -1)
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
[X] Plan: Avoid Alerts
-[X] With the security automatons busy on Floor 1, use that chance to get to the second floor through the security stairs by disabling the alarm. Be ready to instantly silence it in case disabling the mechanical part fails. After that, go through the second floor to find your stuff, then cause a distraction to draw the automatons to the second floor so that you can go through the first floor then and save rest of the Indra's team. If you can't lure all of the automatons to the second floor, then disable them after they've spread out.
-[X] With the security automatons busy on Floor 1, use that chance to get to the second floor through the security stairs by disabling the alarm. Be ready to instantly silence it in case disabling the mechanical part fails. After that, go through the second floor to find your stuff, then cause a distraction to draw the automatons to the second floor so that you can go through the first floor then and save rest of the Indra's team. If you can't lure all of the automatons to the second floor, then disable them after they've spread out.
- Location
- USA
Personally, I just suck at free-form write-in plans, so while I'm still following the story, I haven't been voting. 
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
Personally, I just suck at free-form write-in plans, so while I'm still following the story, I haven't been voting.
Understandable. I tend to use them when I don't have any specific idea of what I want the players to do next, or if I feel for one reason or another there are a lot of options.
...that and I've never actually DM'd an actual RPG before.
Vote closed
The Last Khagan Pt. IX
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
[><] I Really Have To Make Charsheets For Your Team Now Don't I
(1+3 vs -2, Success)
(1+1 vs 2, Tie - alarm is disabled but only temporarily)
(0+2 vs 0, Success)
You quickly set up a plan, thankful for the fact that the drones seem to only be on the ground level. Getting to the second floor and the security access stairwell is easy.
Disabling the magical part of the alarm? Super easy. It doesn't take you more than ten seconds to manage that with a 'pop' of magical energy you feel in the back of your skull rather than hear, like a change in the air pressure.
Disabling the physical part of the alarm, though?
You don't know much about how alarms work other than that they do. Ironic since you know quite a bit about how airplanes work, but there it is - but Roy seems to know a fair amount, and after three minutes of gently tinkering with the device, he sighs, wipes his brow, and looks up.
"It won't go off for now," he says, "but it will. I'd say we have ten minutes at most to grab our gear and get the hell out of here."
You resist the urge to groan at the concept of a time limit for searching an armory in a base under a mountain. You had hoped to nab a few things of the baron's for the trouble of being handed one of the worst recruitment pitches you've ever heard, but it looks like you'll have to stick with what you can carry without weighing yourself down.
Even with the alarm's silence being temporary, you think you have enough time to get in and out of the armory. You exit the stairs and watch from a corner at the automatons for a moment, before Indra taps you on the shoulder.
"I noted their patrol pattern before I left," he whispers to you. "You have about thirty seconds to get to the door... now."
Before he even finishes the vowel, you're running, and make it across in time. The rest of your team present follow suit, though it takes two minutes. Simon glides across and over in a mist, and you mentally wish he could carry people along like that, but as far as you know he could only carry other vampires. Or ghouls.
Give me a Careful check (against a 1) based on Shizuko's bonus to determine how much of your own stuff you find. A Success With Style results in you getting everything plus a few things of the baron's. You don't have to keep what you got from Silver.
Prioritize:
[ ] Long guns
[ ] Handguns and SMGs
[ ] Magical items
[ ] Melee weapons
(1+3 vs -2, Success)
(1+1 vs 2, Tie - alarm is disabled but only temporarily)
(0+2 vs 0, Success)
You quickly set up a plan, thankful for the fact that the drones seem to only be on the ground level. Getting to the second floor and the security access stairwell is easy.
Disabling the magical part of the alarm? Super easy. It doesn't take you more than ten seconds to manage that with a 'pop' of magical energy you feel in the back of your skull rather than hear, like a change in the air pressure.
Disabling the physical part of the alarm, though?
You don't know much about how alarms work other than that they do. Ironic since you know quite a bit about how airplanes work, but there it is - but Roy seems to know a fair amount, and after three minutes of gently tinkering with the device, he sighs, wipes his brow, and looks up.
"It won't go off for now," he says, "but it will. I'd say we have ten minutes at most to grab our gear and get the hell out of here."
You resist the urge to groan at the concept of a time limit for searching an armory in a base under a mountain. You had hoped to nab a few things of the baron's for the trouble of being handed one of the worst recruitment pitches you've ever heard, but it looks like you'll have to stick with what you can carry without weighing yourself down.
Even with the alarm's silence being temporary, you think you have enough time to get in and out of the armory. You exit the stairs and watch from a corner at the automatons for a moment, before Indra taps you on the shoulder.
"I noted their patrol pattern before I left," he whispers to you. "You have about thirty seconds to get to the door... now."
Before he even finishes the vowel, you're running, and make it across in time. The rest of your team present follow suit, though it takes two minutes. Simon glides across and over in a mist, and you mentally wish he could carry people along like that, but as far as you know he could only carry other vampires. Or ghouls.
Give me a Careful check (against a 1) based on Shizuko's bonus to determine how much of your own stuff you find. A Success With Style results in you getting everything plus a few things of the baron's. You don't have to keep what you got from Silver.
Prioritize:
[ ] Long guns
[ ] Handguns and SMGs
[ ] Magical items
[ ] Melee weapons
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
Ok, not a full success, but this will work.
Also, Zoosmell, if you want us to do any of the rolling regarding the winning vote, it would be best to mention it in the Vote Closed post.
Better hurry up, then!
Hopefully we'll at least find our own stuff.
[X] Melee weapons
We need to find our magic sword.
Edit.
So, final value is 3, which beats 1 with more than one, making this a Success with Style.
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Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
I should have but I forgor💀, mostly due to juggling a few other writing projects now.
Something I should edit for the Mechanics - apparently FAE has Success With Style when you beat a roll by 3 or more, not 2 or more. I'll allow it this time of course, though, because we were both wrong about it.
- Location
- USA
[x] Magical items