Bay 12 Games Forum

I find it odd to assume that a better roll would go below 200. To get from 25 to 0 from a 7 to 1 would about 3.5 per point... plausible... I might even go to 5 per point with a bonus five for reaching one, then we could get down to 185... if we rolled a 1... ... ... an inversion to a 4 would only get us to 210...

Bear in mind that the proposal was for something extremely expensive. We did not design a spell, we designed a wizard. They can apply cold to snuff fires or heat to purge infestations. They can cook and preserve, produce water-vapour, freeze a chemical trap... Of course, it is not particularly optimised for combat, they would be more of a combat engineer than a telearsonist, but there is massive versatility there and that is what is being paid for. No amount of good rolls will stop an expensive design from being expensive, it'll just change it from suffocating to oppressive... Likewise I wouldn't expect the safety margin to be safe in close quarters, always leave a pristine corpse, and be light enough to use as a sidearm, but it currently has legitimate problems and probably shouldn't be in the field as is considering that there is a constant risk of converting a whole team and their gear into a vapour if it gets punctured by a stray's claw.

The cost is painful because it is a general purpose magic book, with loads-and-loads of runes, that probably need to be assembled slowly, rather than a focused spell that can be cast quickly and cheaply. Not that such is a bad thing, but the flaws are inherent. The safety margin will always blow things up, but there is no reason for it to explode if it gets shot, collateral damage can be mitigated to a point where severely damaged remains can be recovered and processed for materials(a patchwork dragon-hide trenchcoat may not be pretty, but so long as dragon-hide thread was used it will still be fire-resistant. Well, unless it is one of those dragons that seems more like a snake covered with poisonous spines, really, "dragon" can apply to most anything... but the point remains that you can blow up a big critter and still recover bits, or even hit it with a H.E.A.T. round and have a relatively small entry-wound...) and clearly the weight can be reduced to increase the gear that can accompany it. There is a huge difference between the logical expression of the consequences of a heavy weapon when a 10 is rolled compared to most anything else. Meanwhile I can't see us getting J.E.D.I.I. to go below 200R... Massive cost is inherent to the design, and a 7 is not a terrible roll.

Visual Interface for Sensory Overlay and Regulation

An armoured helmet and backpack that features a "heads-up display" and attitude sensors to dynamically print a Brighteyes' sensor output onto the wearer's vision. The brighteyes will e dirstibruted over the helmet, shoulders, and backpack, to maintain its prior functions with minimal obstruction and no need to be carried in hand. The backpack should contain a the power and processing components, while also functioning as a standard backpack, albeit with less free space. Including a transmitter to broadcast mission data to mission control, and a recording device to assist in debriefings with respect to alien threats, would be beneficial. Additionally, implementing systems to reduce glare and protect against freak optical, audio, and chemical input would be a wise precaution.

Tell the others.

For long-term plans... We're gonna need a bigger spiders...

We also need serious reserves. Like, massive massive forces that are completely concealed from prying eyes. The sort of thing where, right as we are about to reach the throne room, suddenly our forces triple in numbers, size, and ferocity... And then reveal themselves to be filled with blessed high-explosives.

But we also need to maintain "the game" which means sending out strike forces across the terrain. Spiders striking and fading, with deliberate patterns just to lure counter-forces into ambuiushes, carefully times strikes to create diversions and broadcast false versions of our objectives... And that is just the smokescreen while we are primarily gathering forces. Both through abductionfor deprogramming and seeking out other monster nests.

Maybe we can teach some of the baby spiders? If they are conditioned to communicate and operate puzzles, then they might develop into somethign that can act as a field commander for other spiders...

Those unwilling to learn the minds of heretics and traitors will never become inquisitors.
Frankly, any Interrogator which doesn’t leap at the opportunity to join the class in throwing the enemies of humanity against eachother in bouts of rival theorycrafting is best off giving up now before they perish, or worse, endanger the imperium further.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

DON't LOOK AT THE EYES! I am inclined to just let Queen handle this. We should maintain our own awareness though and work full-time on mind-control countermeasures while Queen is busy with the stabbing and sucking. The spiders are too far away considering how fast the vampire is, but maybe we can distract it by smashing a blood vial at its face? Meanwhile, vampires ought to be vulnerable to vampirism, it is sort of the opposite of how they keep themselves alive, and we are resistant to corruption and have our own share of infections fighting for a place in our life, so hopefully vampire blood wouldn't be too much of a problem so long as we take it in through the proper blood-sucking stomach... And, of course, pedipalps are about knee-height, and it is very difficult to fight when your knees are hollow...

Alternatively... alternate interpretations?
Cast Resurrekt Humanoid on vampire?
Use Stich on Vampire's mouth? Combine with Oral Fixation? It never says that Oral Fixation only works with the Oral Fixation spells...
Remove a limb and use the vampire as a replacement limb with Graft?
Use Corpse Cutting!

Then again, throw Spiderbait everywhere and make a run for it? For all we know this is a possessed body and is very much inferior to the original model. It might already be completely disabled and is just standing up in a very expensive display of dramatics with the vampire basically using long-range sympathetic telekinetic possession...

Breath out blinding smoke and then stick our fingers where they eyes were when we last saw them? If mental domination is vision-based then smoke would really be better for us, especially if we start laying detection threads, even if vampy does have ridiculous sensory skills.

+1
But Cowsea is not impressed.

But of course she would be impressed. She must just "love..." that enthusiasm. And all that innocent optimism will be just "wonderful..." on her quest to, umm, get more cheesemakers around here? No doubt when they see this divine cheese the cooks will praise it and treat it with all the delicacy and respect that it deserves...

Help out allies with their preparation.

It would be really nice to get some sort of smoke, given that spiders can't hold their breath, and there are lots of them...
Some means of protecting a spider from smoke would also be nice, perhaps some loose cloth or something? It could also cover lung-access-ports for people who need those things.

They don't like fire, so fire would be good, but we don't want to burn down the whole cavern.
 Also breathing could be a problem? Although again, spiders can't hold their breath...
 Some way to stop the fire spreading, either a fire suppressant or a web-remover.
 Actually, just simple mud would mess up webs fairly well, there are good reasons to keep one's webs clean... And collapsing the whole roof's webbing would be effective so long as none of us are underneath it. It is not as though spiders are completely immune to webs, they are just beings of superior talent in that department.

Yunikki seems to be getting stressed, maybe a mild phobia is involved? Small spaces or creepy crawlies? Regardless, we should probably try to keep her role fairly simple. She seems to be functioning well so long as she doesn't suddenly have to resolve a high-stakes paradox.
Eveline doesn't have so many hit points, so...
Sucy... should be reminded that we need the queen alive, or at least mostly-intact and well-preserved. Harvesting some chemicals might be enough to tame the swarm long enough for our purposes?
Meandra is, well, really, caves are poor places for plants.

I am tempted to say...
Sucy and Meandra work together to block off the tunnels against reinforcements, using plant obstructions and chemical/thermal deterrents. Then support and defend once the passages seem to be temporarily blocked. Or they just do that latter thing if there di not seem to be any reinforcements coming in.
Yunikki and ourself work to cut down the defenders and corner the queen.
Eveline plays oversight, coordinating us and Yunikki. With a focus on protecting herself. We could consider giving her a ride, maybe even giving her an armoured cage to hide in, or we could give her a zombie to ride?

you can't think of enough bear puns to kill it with.
The food is takes out of the packs, and the firewood is placed on the ground.

Both these lines seem to contain errors. The second line uses "takes" where "taken" would better appeal to my sensibilities. The first line is taking reverse-psychology far too far, and overloads me with dread at what may occur as a result.