Hi guys, I'm new to the quest but I wanted to pitch in my two cents on what we should be planning for. The entire purpose for us being in Great Britain is to re-establish diplomatic ties with the British MoM, protect American interests in the region, and act as a staging point for magical forces in Europe. We've also picked up a position as a refuge/asylum location.
Another team to pick up would be a diplomatic team to officially establish relations with the British magical population. Our cafe front could possibly have the "embassy" attached to it allowing our agents in the shop to pick up more information from passing Ministry workers.
Good to meet you, Alfa, and I'm glad you're comfortable pitching in. That said, the amount of diplomacy you can do is highly limited due to the strained state of affairs between the Ministry of Magic and the American magical government. Some posts with a few reasons why are as follows.
Huh, so definitely more of a forward operating base than garrison post or diplomatic support center. We'll probably need to get moving on building up infrastructure on base as the other four factions are definitely going to be hostile. Off the top of my head, making the base Unplottable would definitely be useful, as would installing concrete retaining walls around the base, and putting a kind of magical metal detector that can tell you what a person is carrying and why they really came to the base. Making the base Unplottable would make bringing people in problematic as Unplottability would seriously screw with traditional land navigation. The T-wall installation will take some time, but they are tough enough that being within 100 ft of a 500 lb bomb on the T-wall side isn't instantly fatal, definitely going to ruin your day, but not fatal. The downside is that as a mundane object is that they can be easily circumvented using magic to just transfigure a door through them. Lastly, the Magic Field Scanner would probably take some research to create and build. Too bad the tech to build a biometrics database isn't really available at a practical level because that would be a great thing to incorporate into the base defenses to at least stop infiltration attempts. (Note to self: attempt to rationalize the creation of a magical blue force tracker)
Also, if this is supposed to be a quiet operation we will need local help. Someone that can essentially be our proxy and that can publicly claim our actions. The Order wouldn't work, but if we could offer a third option for those dissatisfied with the Ministry and aren't buying what Voldie is selling we might just get the proxy faction. Of course that likely wouldn't help stability, so maybe we fill some paperwork with the Mundane British government to the effect of "we would like to have some of our War Mages hunt down factions in Great Britain that have harmed Americans abroad. We promise to play by your rules and pass on what we learn about the British magical world."
If the British government is game at least we won't need to worry too much about the mundane end of things. We would probably get their help against the Cultists at a minimum and may even get support against the Nazi Werewolves (!) and Voldie. If we dig up enough on the Ministry of Magic they might decide to take action at which point we would very well be obligated to help.
For threat priority, I'm going to say Cultists -> Voldie -> Nazi Werewolves. The Cultists know where we live, simple as that. They need to go if we want to maintain OpSec and having a Call of Cthulhu faction running around is never a good thing. Next is Voldie because he knows we exist, but as long as we can play keep away about our location and provide sufficient top cover for the kids while they're at school we should be okay. Security through obscurity. Lastly are the Nazi Werewolves, they don't know we exist but we don't have much information on them. That may need to change soon to at least see how likely they are to become a direct threat, but if they don't attack us or single us out in particular then we probably shouldn't open a new front until either the Cultists or Voldie are handled thoroughly.
Speaking of kids, are the girls in school/reading textbooks or are they just kind of there doing whatever? Because if they aren't doing regular schooling we might want to look into fixing that along with giving them practical self-defense and first-aid classes. Nothing fancy, just the core subjects for schooling and enough skill to escape/hold out until help arrives and get the injured into the hands of an experienced medic. That these skills aren't meant for a full fight should be heavily stressed.
Speaking of kids, are the girls in school/reading textbooks or are they just kind of there doing whatever? Because if they aren't doing regular schooling we might want to look into fixing that along with giving them practical self-defense and first-aid classes. Nothing fancy, just the core subjects for schooling and enough skill to escape/hold out until help arrives and get the injured into the hands of an experienced medic. That these skills aren't meant for a full fight should be heavily stressed.
Hmm... the refugees we received were the ones deemed 'undesirable,' but then again coming from the Japanese that could mean a lot of things. Do you think getting them Japanese and/or English textbooks along with translation dictionaries as a stopgap would work?
Hmm... the refugees we received were the ones deemed 'undesirable,' but then again coming from the Japanese that could mean a lot of things. Do you think getting them Japanese and/or English textbooks along with translation dictionaries as a stopgap would work?
There was supposed to be a "large quantity of transitional materials" delivered with the girls. This material never arrived, though, and the why will be explained soon.
As for your other wall-o-theory, props on the deapth you were willing to consider. That said, a small number of things.
-magical BluFor tracker is not an option soon. Too much theory (cough cough Sympathetic Equipment cough cough) behind it.
-Unplotable may run into... Issues...
-Nazi Werewolves is a redundancy, as the Werewolves were designed to be the branch of the SS responsible for hindering the occupation effort.
-The girls have a plan. Be afraid.
Army Team x2: 2d100= 74, 65 +20 (Common)
Marine Team x2: 2d100= 66, 85 +20 (Common)
Infiltration Team: 1d100= 83 +10
Gopher Team: 1d100= 35 +30 (Surplus)
Getting yourself together after the attack, you started filling out paperwork with a vengeance. This month, though, it seemed like you had a blank check from Lady Luck to get cracking on filling up your base. After putting in for a short platoon of motorized infantry, you got a call from one of your few friends who rode more desks than cars. One of the Super-Secret-Squirrel bases near Ironbottom Sound was getting closed up, and they had a fire-sale like rush to dispense their personal back into the world. What was important, though, was that this was in southeast Asia- in other words, primo Marine territory. Adding in the fact they'd probably rotate through the big installation in Yokosuka, there was a fairly good chance that if they didn't speak Japanese fluently they'd at least be able to muddle through some of it.
Or, you know, go full stereotypical Amerikaiju (you had to thank Blackstone for teaching you that little portmanteau…) and wreak havoc, but you were willing to play the odds on this one.
On other business items, there was the business of getting a professional Infiltration team to run the op in the Ministry of Magic was discussed, discarded, re-acquired, and finally requisitioned. If things didn't pan out with the Ministry op, then they could probably be used to hunt out the Cultists or maybe put an ear in on the Death Eaters. Either way, you were damned tired of flailing around blind here. It was time to pony up, bite the bullet, and get your spy on.
This was also probably helped by Carl From Accounting thinking you might not have ordered that gopher squad and sent you another, but hey. He wasn't invincible.
You hoped.
(All Units listed above arriving in -5 Months)
Teach Magical Girl Team (1): 1d10=6
It was a chill morning with the dew thick on the ground, but you just threw on your winter coat and got moving. Today was a big day, and even through the fog of sadness that overcast you had, you still pulled on a smile. After getting into the barracks building you needed, a quick move up the stairs got you to the room you were looking for.
Back when the girls had been shipped out of Japan, they had been divided into penny-packet units of ten for ease of handling. For the better part of a year, the girls had lived, ate, and worked together, connected at the hips by administrative convenience and later the bonds of an adoptive family. You knew exactly how strong that sort of thing was, and how much it mattered.
When you opened the door and saw eight drawn faces, your good mood vanished.
"Blackstone." One said, her imperfect English betraying its foreign nature to her. "It's time for the exam, yes?"
"It must be." Another added, rubbing her mon gently. You still disliked the design, although you had at least talked them into putting on the red poppies versus the other flower. Some parallels didn't need to be made, especially some rather… outlandish… ones the more fervent girls made.
"Yes and no." you hedged, before continuing. "Today is a test of sorts, but they're only going to consign you as fluent in English after signing off on the written tests in Headquarters."
The leader smiled at this, and stepped closer to you. "Alright, then. Although, I heard from one of the other fluent girls that the best way to practice is to gossip in English."
"Yes, Chikai, that is a good-"
Now another girl came up from behind you, draping her arms around your neck. "Well, then, I have something to share. I heard that a certain friend of the girls happened to be working on a project-"
You smiled nervously. Something was telling you that there were lions in this den.
"-that just happens to involve some replacements for our, ah, less-than-stellar equipment from the last fight." Another finished, curling around your arm and pressing it between her proportionate (and therefore rather small) breasts.
"Funny, I heard he'd be teaching us something rather more useful than just talking." The fourth one said, smiling with all too many teeth.
"Something like fighting~" the youngest said, perched on your feet stiffly.
"Or tracking~"
"Or hunting." Chikai said, her smile gone. "Instead, we are forced to learn this goddamned barbarian language that feels like I'll bite my tongue off every other word!"
The switch back into Japanese didn't really surprise you, but it did show how stressed the nominal leader of the girls was.
"What do you expect?" you asked back, trying to stay calm. "That I'll lead you all merrily across the English Countryside following a set of week-old ruts in the mud to a concrete road where surprise, where I can't do shit?"
"It would be better than sitting here, watching clouds drift by." The second in command said from her position behind you.
"The rest of us who fought there have not felt right since then. The honor of the base was besmirched. Our honor as fighters now is besmirched by our failing to pursue and hunt them to the ground."
"Well, what do you expect me to do?"
"Lead us. Lead us to vengeance for our honor and for our fallen."
(Magical Girl Team (1) is now fluent in English, and has the ESL trait removed. Once per month, d4 are rolled, with that number of Teams losing the ESL trait and the dice pool consisting of squads that are fluent in English)
Magical Dueling: 1d8=5+2
Dancing through the torrent of spellfire, you pushed off against the floor and rolled artfully. The barrage was nothing, less than nothing as you weaved through it.
"The most dangerous thing to a wizard is a saturation attack," your tutor had said, tapping her foot angrily as you drew the pain out of your arms into a small charm your brother had given you, collecting the black tears it emitted. "It ended the might of the Adventurers in the Great War, either through artillery or the machine-guns delivering hell. The Huns were masters of it, pushing defenses to the utmost stress. Point-counter enchantment spells were exhausted in moments, shields in seconds."
Of course, you had a few advantages that the old adventurers had lacked. Starting with decent fitness. Christ, just looking at the fat bastards in their medal-encrusted uniforms made you want to hurl. Laughing and joking in those old pictures and portraits, a slice of life removed from their messy end.
"Most Wizard Duels are either about the storm, the lightning, or the thunder. Lightning and thunder you're incredibly good with- I've rarely seen someone able to brace against inbound fire and shrug off stunners and binds. That said, though, everyone needs practice against the storm. Sheer weight of spells will often do the trick where specific ones won't, which is why two wizards are four times as deadly as one. Unfortunately, it's hard to get a good barrage out, between wand movements and incantations. With nonverbal spells and point-spells, most wizards can manage a sustained high rate of casting at fourteen spells a minute. Most of these spells won't do much more than blind or stagger, but they do widen cracks in a defense to sink a heavier shot through."
As the last spell slid past your cloak, you grinned quietly and warmed up a whirlwind spell. Renares was absolutely brilliant with theory- that much was true. However, she still had certain… unfortunate… reflexes. Such as when her robes and skirt flew up, her first reaction was an ear-piercing shriek. Said shriek was then caught by the Amplification Charm you had cast earlier, deafening her and to a lesser extent you. The follow-up Full Body Bind was more of a formality rather than anything else.
After that, you and Renares jointly decided on a trip to the baths. The girl's bath off the Transfiguration classroom was usually empty, so you both went in and got to the business of cleaning off. Despite the paper-thin privacy curtains, you could see everything, and for a jealous moment hoped you'd hurry up and just grow soon. Still, you also hoped you'd do better than your peer.
"Hey, Susan, I've got a question…" Renares said, cautiously.
"Yeah?"
"Do you keep track of job listings? I've noticed, you don't have such good selection of robes."
"No, I'm fine."
"Oh." Your tutor said, before she pursed her lips. "It was just… well, I got a summer job lined up, and they need a broom ferry. I was wondering if you might want in- your family doesn't seem well off."
You try and chuckle. "Oh?"
"No spending money- and don't tell me underclassmen can't spend money like water- no presents, no nothing except terse little letters on that bulky old owl that looks like he could deliver freight, and a prompt reply from you that probably is freight. Are you on scholarship, or are things just tight with your family?"
"Well," you say, falling back on the Big Fat Cover Story like Dad told you to. "After Mom died, thing got kind of tight…"
"Government job?"
Shit! "You could say that. Me and my family have enough to get by, though, and that's what matters."
"Oh. Well, if you do need something, go to Diagon Alley and head for the offices of Nostramos & Sons. I'll put in a good word for you."
"Thanks, Renares."
Japanese Ethnic Magic Study: 1d75=21+10+20 (Synergy)
Danger Roll: 1d10=8+1
Given the absolute hash the Science Team had initially made with the Magical Girls and their sensibilities, you quickly sicc'd the Research Team on the issue of Japanese Magic and hoped for the best.
Things were not near their best this month, though. After getting their hands on the readily available information and comparing it to the few Magical Girls you had on file with pre-existant magical training, you came up with major discrepancies. Thankfully, the Science Team had some answers, mostly by pointing out the fact their sister organization was using books published back in the sixties. Not the 1960s, though. The 1860s. The very turbulent 1860s, with some of the "better" sources coming up closer to the 1900s. After many round of head-on-desk, you politely said that if they needed, you could tap the petty cash reserves so they didn't need to rely on stuff published during and after the Meiji Restoration.
Once this got through, progress picked up immensely.
With the first half of the job finished, your Research Team got to work with a furor. Now that they were working with information, and not people, things progressed a lot more smoothly, as well as pulling up a disturbing connection.
After conferring with the Research Teams, the lab boys discovered a very dangerous common thread- a Japanese pest creature called an Incubator. Normally, these white demi-felines just sat on ley lines, looking for untrained magic-users to offer a "Contract" which would massively stunt their magical growth in exchange for a demonically twisted wish. Thankfully, they were fairly easy to kill, but they bred like rabbits in a cabbage patch. Some smarter sages, back in the Warring States period, had figured out how to make shrine-traps for them, keeping their population down to a manageable number. Buried in the pile of junk paper you received with the girls, though, was a damage report, showing that eight shrine-traps had been compromised, including the Mt. Hiei trap that kept the majority of three prefectures clean. This, in turn, realized the potential of a couple thousand girls of "marginal talent" who would otherwise not be able to practice…
Suddenly, you had a feeling you knew where your girls were from, and why they had been sent halfway around the world from their home.
(125/100)
(Action unlocked for Blackstone: [] Reflect)
(Research Item Discovered []: Enchantment Modification and Transferal)
{Note on Research Item Discovered: This is any Tier 5+ Research Item that you know exists, but have not completed the preceding research for. It may be selected for research, however, at stiff penalties to progress and danger rolls.}
Passive Intel: 1d20=16
After going through the newspaper, you headed down to the pit where the home Intel Teams had set up a joint shop. Cat5e cables, Ethernet lines, and what you were fairly sure was a mess of warding runes daisy-chained together around a pneumatic message pipe aimed at the Research and Science labs.
"Alright, guys, time for you to earn your paycheck." You said jovially, before you caught a binder full of reports aimed at your chest. "What gives?!"
"This is for locking us up in the damn air control tower and not giving us anything to do except catch air-drops!"
After some vigorus portests and a well-timed dodge against yet more airborne paperwork, you retreated to your office sanctum and got to reading. The news was good and bad, plotted over a map for the last eight months. The raid at Dunwich, a robbery in Inverness, two mugging victims in Lincoln, a whole mess of reported attacks in London and Surrey, and the utter void on the map that was Wales and Ireland.
Honestly, you needed a few days to stew over this much data.
(Item Gained: Map of the Attacks (Grants +10 to all attempts to infiltrate Death Eaters))
Active Intel: 1d20=12+4+1
Mole Roll: 1d5=3+1
Down in the guts of the Ministry of Magic, an untold number of janitors worked. Every department had trash, recycle, and magical waste that needed to be disposed of, plus paperwork to be ferried and items to be fetched. Equipment had to be fixed, spells rerouted and patched.
As your newest mole put it, things down there were a fucking mess. The size of the mess let people like Magnus do whatever they damn well please, though, and when one of those things was collect intel…
The phone call came in on the second of the month. "Catherine, you're gonna want to hear about this."
"What is it?"
"I found something. Something big."
"And…"
"One of the younger Aurors was put to work doing an apprentice project revolving around pinpointing a Muggle group in a position to break the Statute of Secrecy. Most of the time, when this sort of dick-waving comes up, the junior Auror chooses a think tank or something to glare at and falsify evidence at."
"So?"
"So I've got three dossiers on the Cult of the Yellow Sign sitting here. Operations maps, potential and actual observed safe houses, Wizard Pictures of three training camps and armories, and a rough M/O on their organization. Most of their shit is in the Welsh hills, but there's a kicker- a proto-branch started getting rolling around Leeds last year, but then went dark. This kid managed to put a bee in some reporters bonnet, who traveled with the cultists getting all the information she could, before publishing her piece about several dozen Muggles found shot to death in a farmer's field."
You damn near dropped the phone, you were moving so fast to get this written down.
"Magnus, we're pulling you back to base tonight. James needs to see this."
(Cult of the Yellow Sign Dossier acquired!)
Event 1
Sitting in your office, you startled as your phone rang.
"Hello?"
"James, it's me." Your boss said, sighing heavily. "We need to talk."
"Now?"
As your door opened and you saw a silouhette in a belted longcoat holding a portable handset, the same voice talked to you in a distorted stereo. "Yes. Now."
Jumping to your feet, you tried to salute after drpping your handset. "Boss!"
As the man stumped over, you rushed to help him out of his coat. Underneath was a stocky man, lightly grizzled and in plain travelling clothes, flannel and denim. His work belt was well-worn, slots for tomahawk, spell pouch, rod, and other tools all dug hard into the tooled leather. The heavy salt-and pepper beard and mustache along with longer, matted and braided hair lied about his age well- most mages didn't suffer alopecia until their mid-hundreds at the earliest. As he sat down without preamble, you bustled around for a cup of coffee.
"Really, James? Are you still going to try and play the humble host game?"
You snorted, and made sure there was a bottle of Maker's Mark and a pouch of tobacco on the table the same time the coffee pot landed. Your boss added a healthy splash of the former to his drink, and pulled out his pipe for use of the later.
"I hope you still stock the good stuff."
"What, and buy from Turkey?" you snort, mock-offended. "You of all people know I get Virginia and Tennessee leaf."
"I'd believe you if I hadn't seen the piles of cigarette butts in the ashtray by the door."
"The guys have no taste." You grumped, before sitting yourself down and pouring yourself a cup of straight coffee.
"Especially in lipstick."
You decided at that point to start tapping from the whiskey yourself. A year off in the wilds had made you forget that your boss had picked up his eye for detail with the FBI back in the day, and his wit from the OSS.
"So, what's the point of this visit?" you asked, digging up your own pipe from the desk's multitude of drawers.
"A couple of things. You want the good, the bad, or the ugly?"
"Good news, please. I need some, considering that my one intel op just threw me a mound of data to get sorted."
"Blutcher finally got his sorry ass killed."
Your jaw dropped. Harrison "Hellhound" Blutcher had seventy years of active service, had run a base for twenty of it, and had earned his nickname when he entered a live wildfire zone in California to finish off killing a Skinwalker. If something managed to kill him, it must have been damn big- maybe even big enough to get you recalled for a hunt!
"So, how'd he go?"
"That's the bad news."
Oh, this was going to be bad…
"Hit me" you said, filling up your mug with more coffee.
"Dogpiled by Magical Girls."
You switched over to the whiskey again. At this point your cup was more alcohol than caffeine, but this needed it.
"Forensic evidence and interviews with the thirty-seven surviving personnel on the base paints a grim picture."
Laying out the documents he had pulled out of his pocket, your boss frowned and continued.
"Apparently, Blutcher's fascination with girls had grown worse between his psych evaluations, and he hid it somehow. After his base camp reported a record high in Magical Girl suicides, an investigation was launched. The White Gloves wanted him gone the second they finished in there, but Blutcher loved to play politics. The New Hampshire governor got involved and a few too many senators got sniffing about the affair. They had to back down, and the plan was to pull his base commission at the three-year renewal coming up in August."
"The minute the White Hats left, Blutcher had a panic attack or something, and went off the deep end. This is where we switch to forensics, because nobody has a clue what happened, by the way. What it looks like is that Blutcher took a Magical Girl into his quarters, proceeded to rape her, and she somehow did a magical call for help. Her buddies tried, but by the time they had figured out how to get to Blutcher's quarters the deed was done. There's a bit of a blank spot in the record here, but we think the girl that was raped went off the deep end and fired up everything she had at him in revenge. This barely pinged his wards, but it was enough to set him off. The first unit of magical girls found them then, and opened up on Blutcher, shoot to kill, while one went to get backup."
Boss finished his coffee, and just grabbed the bottle.
"When the reinforcments, which translated to literally every Magical Girl on base, got there, the description from one of the survivors was "The most horrifying thing I had ever seen." At which point the reinforcements attacked."
Now, he took a long gulp and growled.
"The better part of five thousand Magical Girls died like frogs in a blender to kill him. Magical forensic analysis was a mess, but the end result was that they eventually got him by application of an anti-magic bubble to bring down his wards, then a kinetic strike with a magically-accelerated object. The magical fallout is that New Hampshire Regional Command is now contaminated worse than Three Mile Island, there are several Accords signatories breathing down our neck, and things in the refugee camps are going to hell in a handbasket. On the legal side, we've delivered retaliatory bitch-slaps to half the Senate and three quarters of the House via proxy, scared the Department of War senseless, and just blew a massive chunk of funding out of the water due to needing to mark the old New Hampshire regional command as a dead zone and build a new one."
After noting the fact the bottle was empty, you proceeded to get out the better moonshine some of the guys had made, and started drinking heavily.
"Damn. So what's my part in this?"
"We need to do some major rebasing. Seeing as you have the lowest fatalities per capita of base population-"
"Really?"
"-yes, really, James. You did always have a gift for keeping people alive. Anyway, blah blah blah, you're good at this, blah blah blah… here we go. Central Command, along with Geographic Command and the Refugee Commission have offered to expand your basing to include a separate refugee camp under your authority. The general idea is that it's someplace to stick a thousand Magical Girls plus support staff plus adequate guards under your general overview. If you accept, then it's a self-funding institution under your command, with all you do is writing in directions to them and helping with any major problems. The bonus line is that it'll be a major bonus to the prestige of the England Desk. I know you recently had an encounter with Carl, and got stuck with some planes for it, and I'm sorry to say that Nixon's listening to those damn whiz-kids more than us these days."
"So… I just got attacked, and you want to give me more girls?! Did someone upstairs drink an antifreeze margarita or something?"
"You've had, on average, one-point-five percent losses in your refugee population. The best group in the States is four percent due to suicide, intra-girl conflicts spiraling out of control, attacks by Thin Men and other spooky shit I don't deal with, and escapees. They started adopting the girls out wholesale in parts of California with large Nisei populations just to keep them stable. Whatever you're doing here works, James. The Refugee Commission actually tried to get you redeployed Stateside, even."
"Wow…"
"Yeah. You've got a while to think about it, maybe make some advance plans or something, but keep in mind that if you say no a lot of people are going to try and dump them on you by hook or crook. I'm afraid this may very well be your baptism of fire for intra-department politics. Good luck."
(Event Vote Added: Accept Refugee Camp. Should you accept, an offshoot Refugee Camp will be built close to your Base, under your control. Decisions regarding the camp will be made in their own vote column, and events there will be handled by a d20 roll with appropriate modifiers. Should you accept, the following will be housed at the camp, which will be constructed at no cost to you by the Refugee Command as a turnkey facility.
100x Magical Girl Team
4x Gopher Team
1x Management Team
10x Army Team
You can modify this manning table as you so choose either in regards to Heroes or regular units via write-in.
Should you accept, certain Departments in the Bureau of Magic will gain a positive attitude towards you, which may reflect itself as bonuses to certain rolls, such as requisitions. Should you decline, the same departments will take a negative opinion, and may hinder rolls instead, such as funding.)
VOTES
James Greaves
[] Improve front for gathering Intelligence
[] Upgrade your base
[] Upgrade your units
[] Hire New Units
[] Teach Children
[] Plan Strike on Cult of the Yellow Sign
[] Write-in? (Subject to Author Aproval)
Catherine Fuchs
[] Stay on intelligence operation with Magnum
[] Teach Children
[] Train Magical Girls (May cancel Blackstone Action)
[] Plan Strike on Cult of the Yellow Sign
[] Write-in? (Subject to Author Approval)
Blackstone Greaves
[] Teach Magical Girls
-[] Which group? (Write in number between 1 and 40)
[] Develop an innovation
[] Train Magical Girls
-[] Which group? (Write in number between 1 and 40)
[] Write-in? (Subject to Author Approval)
Susan Greaves
[] Atempt to enter the Magical Dueling brackets
[] Resume compition in the Melee and Mixed brackets
[] Search for other activities
Research
[] Continue Project
[] Abort (write-in new item to study)
Science
[] Heavy Infantry Armor
[] Heavy Vehicle Armor
[] SIGNIT I
[] Material Applications I
[] Material Sciences II
[] Integrate magic and machines
[] Perform experiments on magical plants and animals
Operation: MoM Watch
[] Continue operations as normal
[] Launch a strike
[] Withdraw task element
Staff Hiring
[] Expedite Transport of unit (X) by (Y) months
[] Standard Transport
Finances
+10 from Salary
+20 from Base Subsidiary
+400 from Magical Girl Reimbursement
-3 from Hogwarts Tuition
-80 from Additional Food Purchases
-15 from Postage to Japan
-7 from Long-Distance Telephone Calls to Japan
-4 for R&D costs
-100 for Operation: MoM Watch
-20 for Aircraft Matinence
-265 for Unit Expidition
Total: 952 Money
Supplies
+5 from Deployment
+10 from Unit Subsidiary
+10 from Secret Airport
+120 from Magical Girl Reimbursement
-5 for Practice Materials
-25 for Magical Girl Cabin Fever Prevention
-10 for Blackstone's Project
-2o for Shrine
-40 for Aircraft Matinence
-90 for Unit Expidition
Total: 145 Supply
Army Team x2: 2d100= 74, 65 +20 (Common)
Marine Team x2: 2d100= 66, 85 +20 (Common)
Infiltration Team: 1d100= 83 +10
Gopher Team: 1d100= 35 +30 (Surplus)
Getting yourself together after the attack, you started filling out paperwork with a vengeance. This month, though, it seemed like you had a blank check from Lady Luck to get cracking on filling up your base. After putting in for a short platoon of motorized infantry, you got a call from one of your few friends who rode more desks than cars. One of the Super-Secret-Squirrel bases near Ironbottom Sound was getting closed up, and they had a fire-sale like rush to dispense their personal back into the world. What was important, though, was that this was in southeast Asia- in other words, primo Marine territory. Adding in the fact they'd probably rotate through the big installation in Yokosuka, there was a fairly good chance that if they didn't speak Japanese fluently they'd at least be able to muddle through some of it.
Or, you know, go full stereotypical Amerikaiju (you had to thank Blackstone for teaching you that little portmanteau…) and wreak havoc, but you were willing to play the odds on this one.
On other business items, there was the business of getting a professional Infiltration team to run the op in the Ministry of Magic was discussed, discarded, re-acquired, and finally requisitioned. If things didn't pan out with the Ministry op, then they could probably be used to hunt out the Cultists or maybe put an ear in on the Death Eaters. Either way, you were damned tired of flailing around blind here. It was time to pony up, bite the bullet, and get your spy on.
This was also probably helped by Carl From Accounting thinking you might not have ordered that gopher squad and sent you another, but hey. He wasn't invincible.
So, question: did these units arrive immediately? Or is there a delay of arival for a one or more turns?
Teach Magical Girl Team (1): 1d10=6
It was a chill morning with the dew thick on the ground, but you just threw on your winter coat and got moving. Today was a big day, and even through the fog of sadness that overcast you had, you still pulled on a smile. After getting into the barracks building you needed, a quick move up the stairs got you to the room you were looking for.
Back when the girls had been shipped out of Japan, they had been divided into penny-packet units of ten for ease of handling. For the better part of a year, the girls had lived, ate, and worked together, connected at the hips by administrative convenience and later the bonds of an adoptive family. You knew exactly how strong that sort of thing was, and how much it mattered.
When you opened the door and saw eight drawn faces, your good mood vanished.
"Blackstone." One said, her imperfect English betraying its foreign nature to her. "It's time for the exam, yes?"
"It must be." Another added, rubbing her mon gently. You still disliked the design, although you had at least talked them into putting on the red poppies versus the other flower. Some parallels didn't need to be made, especially some rather… outlandish… ones the more fervent girls made.
"Yes and no." you hedged, before continuing. "Today is a test of sorts, but they're only going to consign you as fluent in English after signing off on the written tests in Headquarters."
The leader smiled at this, and stepped closer to you. "Alright, then. Although, I heard from one of the other fluent girls that the best way to practice is to gossip in English."
"Yes, Chikai, that is a good-"
Now another girl came up from behind you, draping her arms around your neck. "Well, then, I have something to share. I heard that a certain friend of the girls happened to be working on a project-"
You smiled nervously. Something was telling you that there were lions in this den.
"-that just happens to involve some replacements for our, ah, less-than-stellar equipment from the last fight." Another finished, curling around your arm and pressing it between her proportionate (and therefore rather small) breasts.
"Funny, I heard he'd be teaching us something rather more useful than just talking." The fourth one said, smiling with all too many teeth.
"Something like fighting~" the youngest said, perched on your feet stiffly.
"Or tracking~"
"Or hunting." Chikai said, her smile gone. "Instead, we are forced to learn this goddamned barbarian language that feels like I'll bite my tongue off every other word!"
The switch back into Japanese didn't really surprise you, but it did show how stressed the nominal leader of the girls was.
"What do you expect?" you asked back, trying to stay calm. "That I'll lead you all merrily across the English Countryside following a set of week-old ruts in the mud to a concrete road where surprise, where I can't do shit?"
"It would be better than sitting here, watching clouds drift by." The second in command said from her position behind you.
"The rest of us who fought there have not felt right since then. The honor of the base was besmirched. Our honor as fighters now is besmirched by our failing to pursue and hunt them to the ground."
"Well, what do you expect me to do?"
"Lead us. Lead us to vengeance for our honor and for our fallen."
(Magical Girl Team (1) is now fluent in English, and has the ESL trait removed. Once per month, d4 are rolled, with that number of Teams losing the ESL trait and the dice pool consisting of squads that are fluent in English)
On one hand, we now are starting to remove the ESL traits from the girls. It will be slow going, but at least we will be able to communicate more easily in the future.
On the other hand... the girls really want revenge. Not entirely sure we should give it to them or not.
Magical Dueling: 1d8=5+2
Dancing through the torrent of spellfire, you pushed off against the floor and rolled artfully. The barrage was nothing, less than nothing as you weaved through it.
"The most dangerous thing to a wizard is a saturation attack," your tutor had said, tapping her foot angrily as you drew the pain out of your arms into a small charm your brother had given you, collecting the black tears it emitted. "It ended the might of the Adventurers in the Great War, either through artillery or the machine-guns delivering hell. The Huns were masters of it, pushing defenses to the utmost stress. Point-counter enchantment spells were exhausted in moments, shields in seconds."
Of course, you had a few advantages that the old adventurers had lacked. Starting with decent fitness. Christ, just looking at the fat bastards in their medal-encrusted uniforms made you want to hurl. Laughing and joking in those old pictures and portraits, a slice of life removed from their messy end.
"Most Wizard Duels are either about the storm, the lightning, or the thunder. Lightning and thunder you're incredibly good with- I've rarely seen someone able to brace against inbound fire and shrug off stunners and binds. That said, though, everyone needs practice against the storm. Sheer weight of spells will often do the trick where specific ones won't, which is why two wizards are four times as deadly as one. Unfortunately, it's hard to get a good barrage out, between wand movements and incantations. With nonverbal spells and point-spells, most wizards can manage a sustained high rate of casting at fourteen spells a minute. Most of these spells won't do much more than blind or stagger, but they do widen cracks in a defense to sink a heavier shot through."
As the last spell slid past your cloak, you grinned quietly and warmed up a whirlwind spell. Renares was absolutely brilliant with theory- that much was true. However, she still had certain… unfortunate… reflexes. Such as when her robes and skirt flew up, her first reaction was an ear-piercing shriek. Said shriek was then caught by the Amplification Charm you had cast earlier, deafening her and to a lesser extent you. The follow-up Full Body Bind was more of a formality rather than anything else.
After that, you and Renares jointly decided on a trip to the baths. The girl's bath off the Transfiguration classroom was usually empty, so you both went in and got to the business of cleaning off. Despite the paper-thin privacy curtains, you could see everything, and for a jealous moment hoped you'd hurry up and just grow soon. Still, you also hoped you'd do better than your peer.
"Hey, Susan, I've got a question…" Renares said, cautiously.
"Yeah?"
"Do you keep track of job listings? I've noticed, you don't have such good selection of robes."
"No, I'm fine."
"Oh." Your tutor said, before she pursed her lips. "It was just… well, I got a summer job lined up, and they need a broom ferry. I was wondering if you might want in- your family doesn't seem well off."
You try and chuckle. "Oh?"
"No spending money- and don't tell me underclassmen can't spend money like water- no presents, no nothing except terse little letters on that bulky old owl that looks like he could deliver freight, and a prompt reply from you that probably is freight. Are you on scholarship, or are things just tight with your family?"
"Well," you say, falling back on the Big Fat Cover Story like Dad told you to. "After Mom died, thing got kind of tight…"
"Government job?"
Shit! "You could say that. Me and my family have enough to get by, though, and that's what matters."
"Oh. Well, if you do need something, go to Diagon Alley and head for the offices of Nostramos & Sons. I'll put in a good word for you."
Starting to get attention. We may need ideas for what to do with Susan.
Japanese Ethnic Magic Study: 1d75=21+10+20 (Synergy)
Danger Roll: 1d10=8+1
Given the absolute hash the Science Team had initially made with the Magical Girls and their sensibilities, you quickly sicc'd the Research Team on the issue of Japanese Magic and hoped for the best.
Things were not near their best this month, though. After getting their hands on the readily available information and comparing it to the few Magical Girls you had on file with pre-existant magical training, you came up with major discrepancies. Thankfully, the Science Team had some answers, mostly by pointing out the fact their sister organization was using books published back in the sixties. Not the 1960s, though. The 1860s. The very turbulent 1860s, with some of the "better" sources coming up closer to the 1900s. After many round of head-on-desk, you politely said that if they needed, you could tap the petty cash reserves so they didn't need to rely on stuff published during and after the Meiji Restoration.
Once this got through, progress picked up immensely.
Synergy Bonus. Nice, but we'll lose access to it next month, since the other side of the synergy was completed.
Research is half-done here. If we get to keep the +10, we'll only need to roll a 39 or better on the d75 to complete it next month. At any rate, it won't take more than two months.
With the first half of the job finished, your Research Team got to work with a furor. Now that they were working with information, and not people, things progressed a lot more smoothly, as well as pulling up a disturbing connection.
After conferring with the Research Teams, the lab boys discovered a very dangerous common thread- a Japanese pest creature called an Incubator. Normally, these white demi-felines just sat on ley lines, looking for untrained magic-users to offer a "Contract" which would massively stunt their magical growth in exchange for a demonically twisted wish. Thankfully, they were fairly easy to kill, but they bred like rabbits in a cabbage patch. Some smarter sages, back in the Warring States period, had figured out how to make shrine-traps for them, keeping their population down to a manageable number. Buried in the pile of junk paper you received with the girls, though, was a damage report, showing that eight shrine-traps had been compromised, including the Mt. Hiei trap that kept the majority of three prefectures clean. This, in turn, realized the potential of a couple thousand girls of "marginal talent" who would otherwise not be able to practice…
Suddenly, you had a feeling you knew where your girls were from, and why they had been sent halfway around the world from their home.
(125/100)
(Action unlocked for Blackstone: [] Reflect)
(Research Item Discovered []: Enchantment Modification and Transferal)
{Note on Research Item Discovered: This is any Tier 5+ Research Item that you know exists, but have not completed the preceding research for. It may be selected for research, however, at stiff penalties to progress and danger rolls.}
I hope that these 'Incubators' aren't as nasty as those that my Avatar comes from.
New research discovered, and new action discovered. May be useful.
What is [] Reflect supposed to do, though?
Passive Intel: 1d20=16
After going through the newspaper, you headed down to the pit where the home Intel Teams had set up a joint shop. Cat5e cables, Ethernet lines, and what you were fairly sure was a mess of warding runes daisy-chained together around a pneumatic message pipe aimed at the Research and Science labs.
"Alright, guys, time for you to earn your paycheck." You said jovially, before you caught a binder full of reports aimed at your chest. "What gives?!"
"This is for locking us up in the damn air control tower and not giving us anything to do except catch air-drops!"
After some vigorus portests and a well-timed dodge against yet more airborne paperwork, you retreated to your office sanctum and got to reading. The news was good and bad, plotted over a map for the last eight months. The raid at Dunwich, a robbery in Inverness, two mugging victims in Lincoln, a whole mess of reported attacks in London and Surrey, and the utter void on the map that was Wales and Ireland.
Honestly, you needed a few days to stew over this much data.
(Item Gained: Map of the Attacks (Grants +10 to all attempts to infiltrate Death Eaters))
Well, we can now infiltrate the Death Eaters more easily. Sad to say, they're somewhere down the line; we've got the cultists to worry about.
Active Intel: 1d20=12+4+1
Mole Roll: 1d5=3+1
Down in the guts of the Ministry of Magic, an untold number of janitors worked. Every department had trash, recycle, and magical waste that needed to be disposed of, plus paperwork to be ferried and items to be fetched. Equipment had to be fixed, spells rerouted and patched.
As your newest mole put it, things down there were a fucking mess. The size of the mess let people like Magnus do whatever they damn well please, though, and when one of those things was collect intel…
The phone call came in on the second of the month. "Catherine, you're gonna want to hear about this."
"What is it?"
"I found something. Something big."
"And…"
"One of the younger Aurors was put to work doing an apprentice project revolving around pinpointing a Muggle group in a position to break the Statute of Secrecy. Most of the time, when this sort of dick-waving comes up, the junior Auror chooses a think tank or something to glare at and falsify evidence at."
"So?"
"So I've got three dossiers on the Cult of the Yellow Sign sitting here. Operations maps, potential and actual observed safe houses, Wizard Pictures of three training camps and armories, and a rough M/O on their organization. Most of their shit is in the Welsh hills, but there's a kicker- a proto-branch started getting rolling around Leeds last year, but then went dark. This kid managed to put a bee in some reporters bonnet, who traveled with the cultists getting all the information she could, before publishing her piece about several dozen Muggles found shot to death in a farmer's field."
You damn near dropped the phone, you were moving so fast to get this written down.
"Magnus, we're pulling you back to base tonight. James needs to see this."
Oh my... James struck the first strike, and we got information about our attackers.
We're going to need to step up information gathering in that direction to locate their main base.
Event 1
Sitting in your office, you startled as your phone rang.
"Hello?"
"James, it's me." Your boss said, sighing heavily. "We need to talk."
"Now?"
As your door opened and you saw a silouhette in a belted longcoat holding a portable handset, the same voice talked to you in a distorted stereo. "Yes. Now."
Jumping to your feet, you tried to salute after drpping your handset. "Boss!"
As the man stumped over, you rushed to help him out of his coat. Underneath was a stocky man, lightly grizzled and in plain travelling clothes, flannel and denim. His work belt was well-worn, slots for tomahawk, spell pouch, rod, and other tools all dug hard into the tooled leather. The heavy salt-and pepper beard and mustache along with longer, matted and braided hair lied about his age well- most mages didn't suffer alopecia until their mid-hundreds at the earliest. As he sat down without preamble, you bustled around for a cup of coffee.
"Really, James? Are you still going to try and play the humble host game?"
You snorted, and made sure there was a bottle of Maker's Mark and a pouch of tobacco on the table the same time the coffee pot landed. Your boss added a healthy splash of the former to his drink, and pulled out his pipe for use of the later.
"I hope you still stock the good stuff."
"What, and buy from Turkey?" you snort, mock-offended. "You of all people know I get Virginia and Tennessee leaf."
"I'd believe you if I hadn't seen the piles of cigarette butts in the ashtray by the door."
"The guys have no taste." You grumped, before sitting yourself down and pouring yourself a cup of straight coffee.
"Especially in lipstick."
You decided at that point to start tapping from the whiskey yourself. A year off in the wilds had made you forget that your boss had picked up his eye for detail with the FBI back in the day, and his wit from the OSS.
"So, what's the point of this visit?" you asked, digging up your own pipe from the desk's multitude of drawers.
"A couple of things. You want the good, the bad, or the ugly?"
"Good news, please. I need some, considering that my one intel op just threw me a mound of data to get sorted."
"Blutcher finally got his sorry ass killed."
Your jaw dropped. Harrison "Hellhound" Blutcher had seventy years of active service, had run a base for twenty of it, and had earned his nickname when he entered a live wildfire zone in California to finish off killing a Skinwalker. If something managed to kill him, it must have been damn big- maybe even big enough to get you recalled for a hunt!
"So, how'd he go?"
"That's the bad news."
Oh, this was going to be bad…
"Hit me" you said, filling up your mug with more coffee.
"Dogpiled by Magical Girls."
You switched over to the whiskey again. At this point your cup was more alcohol than caffeine, but this needed it.
"Forensic evidence and interviews with the thirty-seven surviving personnel on the base paints a grim picture."
Laying out the documents he had pulled out of his pocket, your boss frowned and continued.
"Apparently, Blutcher's fascination with girls had grown worse between his psych evaluations, and he hid it somehow. After his base camp reported a record high in Magical Girl suicides, an investigation was launched. The White Gloves wanted him gone the second they finished in there, but Blutcher loved to play politics. The New Hampshire governor got involved and a few too many senators got sniffing about the affair. They had to back down, and the plan was to pull his base commission at the three-year renewal coming up in August."
"The minute the White Hats left, Blutcher had a panic attack or something, and went off the deep end. This is where we switch to forensics, because nobody has a clue what happened, by the way. What it looks like is that Blutcher took a Magical Girl into his quarters, proceeded to rape her, and she somehow did a magical call for help. Her buddies tried, but by the time they had figured out how to get to Blutcher's quarters the deed was done. There's a bit of a blank spot in the record here, but we think the girl that was raped went off the deep end and fired up everything she had at him in revenge. This barely pinged his wards, but it was enough to set him off. The first unit of magical girls found them then, and opened up on Blutcher, shoot to kill, while one went to get backup."
Boss finished his coffee, and just grabbed the bottle.
"When the reinforcments, which translated to literally every Magical Girl on base, got there, the description from one of the survivors was "The most horrifying thing I had ever seen." At which point the reinforcements attacked."
Now, he took a long gulp and growled.
"The better part of five thousand Magical Girls died like frogs in a blender to kill him. Magical forensic analysis was a mess, but the end result was that they eventually got him by application of an anti-magic bubble to bring down his wards, then a kinetic strike with a magically-accelerated object. The magical fallout is that New Hampshire Regional Command is now contaminated worse than Three Mile Island, there are several Accords signatories breathing down our neck, and things in the refugee camps are going to hell in a handbasket. On the legal side, we've delivered retaliatory bitch-slaps to half the Senate and three quarters of the House via proxy, scared the Department of War senseless, and just blew a massive chunk of funding out of the water due to needing to mark the old New Hampshire regional command as a dead zone and build a new one."
After noting the fact the bottle was empty, you proceeded to get out the better moonshine some of the guys had made, and started drinking heavily.
"Damn. So what's my part in this?"
"We need to do some major rebasing. Seeing as you have the lowest fatalities per capita of base population-"
"Really?"
"-yes, really, James. You did always have a gift for keeping people alive. Anyway, blah blah blah, you're good at this, blah blah blah… here we go. Central Command, along with Geographic Command and the Refugee Commission have offered to expand your basing to include a separate refugee camp under your authority. The general idea is that it's someplace to stick a thousand Magical Girls plus support staff plus adequate guards under your general overview. If you accept, then it's a self-funding institution under your command, with all you do is writing in directions to them and helping with any major problems. The bonus line is that it'll be a major bonus to the prestige of the England Desk. I know you recently had an encounter with Carl, and got stuck with some planes for it, and I'm sorry to say that Nixon's listening to those damn whiz-kids more than us these days."
"So… I just got attacked, and you want to give me more girls?! Did someone upstairs drink an antifreeze margarita or something?"
"You've had, on average, one-point-five percent losses in your refugee population. The best group in the States is four percent due to suicide, intra-girl conflicts spiraling out of control, attacks by Thin Men and other spooky shit I don't deal with, and escapees. They started adopting the girls out wholesale in parts of California with large Nisei populations just to keep them stable. Whatever you're doing here works, James. The Refugee Commission actually tried to get you redeployed Stateside, even."
"Wow…"
"Yeah. You've got a while to think about it, maybe make some advance plans or something, but keep in mind that if you say no a lot of people are going to try and dump them on you by hook or crook. I'm afraid this may very well be your baptism of fire for intra-department politics. Good luck."
(Event Vote Added: Accept Refugee Camp. Should you accept, an offshoot Refugee Camp will be built close to your Base, under your control. Decisions regarding the camp will be made in their own vote column, and events there will be handled by a d20 roll with appropriate modifiers. Should you accept, the following will be housed at the camp.
100x Magical Girl Team
4x Gopher Team
1x Management Team
10x Army Team
You can modify this manning table as you so choose either in regards to Heroes or regular units via write-in.
Should you accept, certain Departments in the Bureau of Magic will gain a positive attitude towards you, which may reflect itself as bonuses to certain rolls, such as requisitions. Should you decline, the same departments will take a negative opinion, and may hinder rolls instead, such as funding.)
I'm thinking we'll have to take these girls in for political reasons.
Let me see... All the teams combined lead to 115 Population. That's 23 Barracks, 2 Mess Halls, at least one Fortifications...
We're going to need a few more Mage Trainers on top of that...
VOTES
James Greaves
[] Improve front for gathering Intelligence
[] Upgrade your base
[] Upgrade your units
[] Hire New Units
[] Teach Children
[] Plan Strike on Cult of the Yellow Sign
[] Write-in? (Subject to Author Aproval)
Catherine Fuchs
[] Stay on intelligence operation with Magnum
[] Teach Children
[] Train Magical Girls (May cancel Blackstone Action)
[] Plan Strike on Cult of the Yellow Sign
[] Write-in? (Subject to Author Approval)
Blackstone Greaves
[] Teach Magical Girls
-[] Which group? (Write in number between 1 and 40)
[] Develop an innovation
[] Train Magical Girls
-[] Which group? (Write in number between 1 and 40)
[] Write-in? (Subject to Author Approval)
Susan Greaves
[] Atempt to enter the Magical Dueling brackets
[] Resume compition in the Melee and Mixed brackets
[] Search for other activities
Research
[] Continue Project
[] Abort (write-in new item to study)
Science
[] Heavy Infantry Armor
[] Heavy Vehicle Armor
[] SIGNIT I
[] Material Applications I
[] Material Sciences II
[] Integrate magic and machines
[] Perform experiments on magical plants and animals
Operation: MoM Watch
[] Continue operations as normal
[] Launch a strike
[] Withdraw task element
Staff Hiring
[] Expedite Transport of unit (X) by (Y) months
[] Standard Transport
Finances
+10 from Salary
+20 from Base Subsidiary
+400 from Magical Girl Reimbursement
-3 from Hogwarts Tuition
-80 from Additional Food Purchases
-15 from Postage to Japan
-7 from Long-Distance Telephone Calls to Japan
-4 for R&D costs
-100 for Operation: MoM Watch
-20 for Aircraft Matinence
-265 for Unit Expidition
Total: 952 Money
Supplies
+5 from Deployment
+10 from Unit Subsidiary
+10 from Secret Airport
+120 from Magical Girl Reimbursement
-5 for Practice Materials
-25 for Magical Girl Cabin Fever Prevention
-10 for Blackstone's Project
-2o for Shrine
-40 for Aircraft Matinence
-90 for Unit Expidition
Total: 145 Supply
So... which units have arrived this turn? Which units are still incoming? And how many more turns will it take for those units to arrive?
Preliminary Plan:
James Greaves
[] Upgrade your base
-[] Turn 6 Zemlyankas into Storage Buildings
-[] Turn the last Zemlyanka into a Memorial (get the input of a few girls and Blackstone)
-[] Make 1 Fortifications
What James gets up to may be up to how many assistants are avaliable. We need to figure out a way to get more supplies, because we've got to improve two bases to defensibility now.
Catherine Fuchs
[] Stay on intelligence operation with Magnum
Until further notice, like us getting an infiltration squad so she can get out of there without as much loss. We're getting so much useful information from the Ministry of Magic...
1) That needs to get put in. One unit arrived this turn.
2) Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe...
3) There's an item I forgot to put in, AGAIN. Arg. Due to the nature of the Refugee Camp as a seprate area, construction for it is getting handled by Refugee Command, as a turnkey facility. You walk in, flip the switch, and she's good to go.
I'll be honest, I'm not quite sure where to go from here because I'm not up on what our housing and current staff is like.
As it stands, I'd support the refugee camp going through and I'd generally like to have Greaves building additional barracks, defenses, and utility buildings in that order. We're getting a solid mundane combat/defense element soon, so picking up something like an Armory or Motor Pool to up-gun those elements for future use in a strike, like on the Cultists, would be useful.
I'm not quite clear on how much Greaves can build, order built, or have enchanted in one go though, so there's also that.
So...general priorities:
- Expedite the arrival of all Army and Marine Combat Teams, maximum priority.
- Build enough housing to appropriately barracks all incoming staff.
- Approve the Refugee Camp project.
- Build a minimum of defenses to prevent another attack, and consider expanding defenses to better defend the Refugee Camp as well.
- Step-up or continue the Magical Girl teaching and training, possibly focusing on training with their rapidly improving language skills.
- Invest in additional utility buildings.
- Start preparing for offensive action of our own.
- Continue Materials Research? Research combat applications?
- Recruit additional combat personnel, mundane or magical?
I'll be honest, I'm not quite sure where to go from here because I'm not up on what our housing and current staff is like.
As it stands, I'd support the refugee camp going through and I'd generally like to have Greaves building additional barracks, defenses, and utility buildings in that order. We're getting a solid mundane combat/defense element soon, so picking up something like an Armory or Motor Pool to up-gun those elements for future use in a strike, like on the Cultists, would be useful.
I'm not quite clear on how much Greaves can build, order built, or have enchanted in one go though, so there's also that.
So...general priorities:
- Expedite the arrival of all Army and Marine Combat Teams, maximum priority.
- Build enough housing to appropriately barracks all incoming staff.
- Approve the Refugee Camp project.
- Build a minimum of defenses to prevent another attack, and consider expanding defenses to better defend the Refugee Camp as well.
- Step-up or continue the Magical Girl teaching and training, possibly focusing on training with their rapidly improving language skills.
- Invest in additional utility buildings.
- Start preparing for offensive action of our own.
- Continue Materials Research? Research combat applications?
- Recruit additional combat personnel, mundane or magical?
Your mission, once the weasel words were removed, was simple. Protect any American citizens, magical or not, if shit went down. Stop Voldemort from forcibly overturning the Ministry of Magic if things started looking bad. Support any anti-Voldemort groups if you could find them. Create a magical military presence in England capable of holding it's own in case shit in Europe went tits-up.
So local recruitment and diplomacy should be somewhere high up our list. We are supposed to turn England into something useful against the communists and the fascists.
We're already sorta working on that, though, with the information networks. We have a solid chance of getting forewarning for anything being directed at US citizens bigger than casual crimes perpetrated by bored DEs and the like. But in tandem with that, our objectives were never to actually go in and put down Voldie and the Mordettes, or any of the other problems Britain has going on.
Personally, I'd prefer to keep tabs on the DEs and seriously work at stomping out the Cultists first, but that's partially because they're the most active threat to us.
Wow, holy shit. That's whole new level of fuck-up on the part of the state-side refugee facilities. And that's before we even get into the whole micro-genocide thing with Blutcher. Our only casualties were caused by hostile enemy action, most of the causes for the other refugee camps were internally caused.
The fact that we made an effort to welcome the girls ("You built those houses for us?"), the acceptance we've shown them (We treat them as we would a bunch of children, without any of the 'lesser stock' or 'filthy foreigners' shit they get elsewhere), and with how Blackstone has basically become their family/co-leader, seems to have made all the difference.
I do recommend that we accept the refugees, but I think we really do need to have oversight in building their camp. Otherwise I expect they're gonna get put into crappy tents with shit-tier food and hygiene facilities. I want them hosted in Zemlyankas (equipped with hygiene facilities) with proper Mess Halls. That's probably gonna take the full attention of our Gophers, and possibly Catherine and/or James' efforts as well, to get done. But seriously, considering what they've apparently been going through, I can't in good conscience accept us doing anything less for them.
On that note, are we even using the Zemlyankas for our current people anymore, or did we get them all hosted in Barracks finally?
By the last estimate I made, we had fully moved out of the Zemlyanka's and had something like 1-5 empty spaces in proper housing. I'm not sure how much of that is left, but I do know that we should have enough housing of the first round of incoming staff and we will need to build more to accommodate the incoming military units (although they apparently suffer no penalties from bunking in temporary housing).
We're already sorta working on that, though, with the information networks. We have a solid chance of getting forewarning for anything being directed at US citizens bigger than casual crimes perpetrated by bored DEs and the like. But in tandem with that, our objectives were never to actually go in and put down Voldie and the Mordettes, or any of the other problems Britain has going on.
Personally, I'd prefer to keep tabs on the DEs and seriously work at stomping out the Cultists first, but that's partially because they're the most active threat to us.
While the intel work is good we haven't really been making much if any progress on the following points:
-Support any anti-Voldemort groups if you could find them.
-Create a magical military presence in England capable of holding it's own in case shit in Europe went tits-up.
While stopping random crimes would be nice and all those aren't really a strategic threat to the US. The big picture is to have a useful and reliable ally in Magical Britain in a geopolitical sense. Fighting all their battles would to no small degree defeat the point there.
Voldemort is a problem because he might take over and if he does Magical Britain could end up joining our enemies and possibly even spread further problems out into Europe in a time the US can ill afford it. He might even follow up conquering the magical side of Britain with taking over the muggle side of things behind the scenes costing the US even that ally. While defeating Voldemort is not crucial preventing him from winning kinda is.
Wow, holy shit. That's whole new level of fuck-up on the part of the state-side refugee facilities. And that's before we even get into the whole micro-genocide thing with Blutcher. Our only casualties were caused by hostile enemy action, most of the causes for the other refugee camps were internally caused.
On that note, are we even using the Zemlyankas for our current people anymore, or did we get them all hosted in Barracks finally?
As said before, the Pilots and Ground Crew are in a zemlyankas until you free them from Carl's cold, slimy, paperwork-infused grasp. On the topic of Blutcher, don't think micro-genocide, please. One, it is horribly inaccurate, and this bugs my minor in English. Two, it was an open engagement, not some cold-blooded slaughter. This is an incredibly important point that may get touched on later if anyone ever chooses the Reflect option for Blackstone. Of course, considering that option is as much of a stealth benefit as the Hogan is, I doubt it will ever get picked.
With Black Magic and it's inherent issues, there's no real difference between destroying him root and branch and preventing him from winning. Black Magic is incredibly corruptive, polluting all it touches with its fetid might. The longer you wait, the stronger he gets. Equally important, he had a soft power cap in the books he doesn't have here. You yourself, alone, could have killed the Death Eaters in the first six months. It would have meant going to Delta Green levels, but you could have done it.
Now, though, it has gotten harder. There's things that stand in your way. You have friends and enemies. And you have seen- to a degree, you are, the light in the black. You stand against the darkness.
And as you grow brighter, the dark grows blacker. Cultists emerge, believing in twisted rituals and hellish monstrosities as their saviors. The last unbroken remains of the Third Reich immigrate and set up shop, ready to take on last stab at glory or to let the corpse of an empire be brought down by the last breath of a madman's dream. Voldermort constructs Horrorcuxes, dark artifacts that give him a grasp on life in exchange for sundering what remains of his greasy soul- and his minions pursue him into depths of depravity and madness as his demagogue's voice and cruel wit draw more and more of the disenfranchised and destitute into the arms of his Death Eaters, those who embrace the greatest moments of their history and discard the rest. A slothful watcher rests on its faded laurels, stained by the shit they have left in their avarice and lust to absorb what is left of the power in their minuscule feeding pen, flying into wroth at the mere thought they have not done their duty.
Who are you, to stand against this? You are one with hope, and the might of a great caregiver behind you. All history shapes all magical tradition, and the American one is marked by intense love and hate in equal parts. Which paths do you travel? How do you solve your problems? When do you know you are done?
When all this blackness, this pain is scoured from the land like the filth it is, maybe then you'll know.
Genocide may have been hyperbole, but no, any engagement which results in the deaths of 5000 children is cold-blooded slaughter. That is beyond contest, completely regardless of how open the engagement was.
Genocide may have been hyperbole, but no, any engagement which results in the deaths of 5000 children is cold-blooded slaughter. That is beyond contest, completely regardless of how open the engagement was.
Please don't argue this. Were they kids, yes. Did an absurd number of them die, yes. Did they go into this of their own free will recognising the possible results which included them dying en masse?
Yes.
Was this utterly despicable and a horrendous tragedy, yes. Incidentally, I completely agree with you in that it was a slaughter. What I'm more than a little pissed about is saying that it was in cold blood. That implies deliberation, planning, and execution of a course of action with little to no emotional attachment. Blutcher was out of anything resembling a right mind. The girls knew they could die, but fought a magical giant that hunted the fragmented shadow of an evil god through a tornado of fire anyway.
If I want to really be particular, I could say it is really a matter of consent. Your way implies the girls never consented that their fate and lives were in their own hands. I've been very careful to make sure that I'm saying the opposite.
Please don't argue this. Were they kids, yes. Did an absurd number of them die, yes. Did they go into this of their own free will recognising the possible results which included them dying en masse?
Yes.
Was this utterly despicable and a horrendous tragedy, yes. Incidentally, I completely agree with you in that it was a slaughter. What I'm more than a little pissed about is saying that it was in cold blood. That implies deliberation, planning, and execution of a course of action with little to no emotional attachment. Blutcher was out of anything resembling a right mind. The girls knew they could die, but fought a magical giant that hunted the fragmented shadow of an evil god through a tornado of fire anyway.
If I want to really be particular, I could say it is really a matter of consent. Your way implies the girls never consented that their fate and lives were in their own hands. I've been very careful to make sure that I'm saying the opposite.
The problem lies in the fact that for children "consent" and "own free will" mean a lot less than it would for adults in such a situation. Because they should not and cannot be responsible for these things. Children are not considered capable of making these kinds of decisions, that is WHY they are children and not small adults. There is no excuse for failing to keep children safe on a scale like this, regardless whether or not they wanted to be kept safe or not.
The problem lies in the fact that for children "consent" and "own free will" mean a lot less than it would for adults in such a situation. Because they should not and cannot be responsible for these things.
In these respects, you are absolutely correct. That said, they might have only have been given a part of their own ability to give informed consent. An ounce, rather than a full adult's pound.
Five thousand ounces is still a hell of a lot of consent, though. Discount what you will for youth and group mentality and the fact they never saw a fight worse than a schoolyard scrap, but there was still a hell of a lot of courage and martial virtue displayed buy them.
I think part of the problem here is that I, as the writer, have a very different attachment to the characters, and as such may more easily divorce the tragedy of the massacre and the glory of so many selflessly devoting themselves to the aid of others. Just a thought.
I think part of the problem here is that I, as the writer, have a very different attachment to the characters, and as such may more easily divorce the tragedy of the massacre and the glory of so many selflessly devoting themselves to the aid of others. Just a thought.
As far as I'm concerned there is no glory to be had here, just tragedy.
Quite frankly I hear this story and I have to wonder where all the other personnel was... They should have put this nutjob down far before things came to anything like this.
An American Mage In Wizarding Britain Base Sheet: May 1973
Property: RAF base
Buildings, in order of establishment
Base Housing (Population +6)
Runway Restoration (Opens up Runway building tree)
Magic Laboratory (Allows for Magical Research)
Science Laboratory (Allows for Scientific Development)
Mess Hall (Allows temp. housing, moral boost)
Barracks I (Population +5 Units per Barracks)
Barracks I+ enc. I x 4 (Population + 10 Units per Barracks)
Zemlyanka I x 7 (Population +5, Temporary Housing, Base Defense -1)
Total Base Bonuses
Population Max: +51
Moral: +10 Base Defense: -7
Research Bonus: +5
Science Bonus: +5
Upgrade Bonus: +4 WARNING: Base Defense is negative, and as such is an active hindrance to open combat in the base proper.
Other Notes: Many buildings can be upgraded. No bonuses are above activation thresholds.
Staff
James Greaves/White Feathers: Leader of the Base, Main Player Character
Catherine Fuchs: Adjutant to Greaves, Secondary Player Character
Susan Greaves: Adopted daughter of Greaves, Secondary Player Character
Blackstone Greaves: Adopted son of Greaves, Secondary Player Character
Copperfield Greaves: Adopted son of Greaves, Named NPC
Molly Greaves: Adopted daughter of Greaves, Named NPC
"Magnum": Intelligence agent working in the front operation to gather info on the Wizarding World. Named NPC
Units (47/51) (0/35 Temporary Housing Used)
Greaves' Retinue (Combat: 5 Magic: 5 Infiltration: 2 Intel: 2 Science: 1 Research: 1 Wounds: 6) (Paper Unit, Hero)
Greaves' family and close staff. Only calculated as a unit for Base Defenses and Population.
Magical Girls x38 (Combat: 1 Magic: 1 Infiltration: 1 Wounds: 10) (Noncombatant, Potential, ESL, Untrained)
Magical Girl refugees from Japan. Probably shouldn't be in England without visas, but oh well.
English-Speaking Magical Girls (Combat: 1 Magic: 1 Infiltration: 1 Wounds: 10) (Noncombatant, Potential, Untrained)
Magical Girl refugees from Japan who have been taught to speak English. Probably shouldn't be in England without visas, but oh well. Will teach other Magical Girls English over time.
Mage Commandos (Combat: 6 Magic: 4 Infiltration: 4 Wounds: 7) (Stealth, Light Weapons, Lesser Magics+)
America's answer to mixed conventional-magical warfare. Often used as stealth guards and saboteurs.
Intel Team (Intel: 7 Science: 3 Research: 3) (Noncombatant, Operative, Headquarters)
The intel screwballs. Letting them out of their caves may result in sudden burning or turning into stone despite being neither Vampire nor Troll.
Science Team (Science: 7 Intel: 3 Research: 3) (Noncombatant, Headquarters, R&D)
The guys you poached from NASA. They have a handful of jobs, all of which boil down to make more dakka.
Research Team (Research: 7 Intel: 3 Science: 3) (Noncombatant, Headquarters, R&D)
The masters of arcane might responsible for teaching and arming your magical troops. Many bear a striking resemblance to one Dr. Faust
Pilot (Wounds: 4) (Pilot Expertise)
(UNKNOWN INFORMATION)
Gopher Team (None)
The little busybodies who take care of the base. You don't need them, but their mere presence makes everything run easier.
Population Bonuses
Intel +15
Research +14
Science +14
Combat +11
Magic +9
Infiltration +5
Equipment:
P-61 Black Widow x4 (Flight, Has Radar)
Notes: The second set of parentheses shows the unit descriptor tags.
Incoming Units: (8/4, -> 4/4 and 4/35 Temporary Housing) (Warning: Some incoming units are being directed to temporary shelter.)
Mage Training Squad (Magic: 12 Research: 3) (ETA: 1 Month/Turn)
The teachers and mentors responsible for honing a mage into a war machine.
Intel Team 2 (Intel: 7 Science: 3 Research: 3) (Noncombatant, Operative, Headquarters) (ETA: 1 Month/Turn)
The intel screwballs. Letting them out of their caves may result in sudden burning or turning into stone despite being neither Vampire or Norwegian Troll.
American Army Team x2 (Combat: 7 Infiltration: 1 Wounds: 8) (ETA: 5 Month/Turn)
Tough, dedicated, and smart. These men can wreck havoc, and in a pinch can fulfill any Base task.
American Marine Team x2 (Combat: 9 Infiltration: -1 Wounds: 7) (ETA: 5 Month/Turn)
Incredibly ferocious and deadly. This unit can automatically use any Mechanized Warfare upgrades produced.
Infiltration Team (Infiltration: 8 Magic: 1 Intel: 5) (ETA: 5 Month/Turn)
When you must get a man in, send only the best.
Gopher Team (None) (ETA: 5 Month/Turn)
The little busybodies who take care of the base. You don't need them, but their mere presence makes everything run easier.
Tags
Noncombatant: Does not engage in combat maneuvers unless directly attacked, and does not count for combat bonuses.
R&D: Can conduct a Science/Research Action
Headquarters: Only acts as a full unit during a Base Assaults.
Operative: May be deployed on noncombat missions.
Light Weapons: May carry sidearms, but does not have support weapons
Lesser Magics+: May know one Greater Magic spell and any Lesser Magic spells.
Stealth: A unit not under Hero control will not automatically engage an enemy or be detected.
ESL: English Second Language. Implies a lack of fluidity in English. May cause debuffs
Potential: Does not contribute to bonuses until trained.
Untrained: Needs to be trained.
Pilot Expertise: Can Pilot various aircraft.
Repair Expertise: Can repair various aircraft.
Quite frankly I hear this story and I have to wonder where all the other personnel was... They should have put this nutjob down far before things came to anything like this.
For starters, Blutcher was a State Commander, same as your boss. He was I charge of an entire state's worth of magical resources and civilians, plus a handful of magical militarily assets left over from the War of 1812. At this level, he also has the ability to play a good game of politics, which he did.
Unfortunately, I keep my stories fairly believable in some ways, and one of them is politics. Specifically, the Beaureu of Magic has a very limited amount of political capitol to burn due to their secrecy, and the existing plan would have worked fine.
As for those thirty seven survivors? Let me put it this way- State Commands average three thousand assorted personnel to eight thousand assorted. Not all are magical, or even most.
That thirty seven survivors, by the way? That was for the whole base, with added magical girls. Yeah- I think we all here can say the words collateral damage.
Also @Random Tale the specs for the plane aren't listed because they probably don't need to be. For all effective purposes, think goes kinda fast, climbs like a homesick angel, rolls like a square log, turns like a Mac truck, and can load three gun shows worth of armaments.
...Looking at the base statistics, we are in serious trouble.
Base Defense is in the red, and while population is currently stable, if we don't work to increase it, in five months the population will be in the red as well. To make matters worse, we all completely forgot about the pilots and the groundcrew that came with the planes. Even with the reduced population due to the effective death of a complete unit of Magical Girls (19 dead, so that's a unit and 9/10ths of another), we're going to face a population crisis shortly.
Is it possible for James to complete my suggested building queue in one turn? Or is that too much for him and a few of the Gophers (along with Blackstone and the Girls for the Memorial) to handle? Because I'd like to get the base defense into the positives this turn.
If it isn't possible, perhaps it would be a good idea for James to personally direct the incoming base...
