Eye of the Beholder [Afternoon 1]

[Kannon]

It came down to whether they could forecast where the mid-point landing side could be. In the glacial landscape under constant environmental challenge from winds and snowfall, surely this could be limited...

[Survival, Warfare or Ecology at Hard. Kova's lay of the land provides a Boost.]

[Efren Lanville]

Efren tried his best to figure where it could be, but the lack of knowledge of his surroundings threatened to stunt his success….


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D1 Where’s Thop-do, Survival, 4 adv for boost: 2eP+1eA+3eB+3eD 1 failure, 1 Triumph


Player pool:4

Not sure what to do with the Triumph. Maybe make someone’s future success more valuable?

[Kova]

As he works through the layout in his head, looking over the map, he starts to piece together the direction they need to be headed to get to the thopter they'll need to "borrow" for their completely reasonable purposes. "Based on the information you have, and the maps, out on the ice sheets, in this spot here..." he indicates on the map with a confident sense of direction "...is probably where we need to focus. The hub cannot only be accessible to thopters, otherwise they couldn't have built the infrastructure to support the number of thopter's were talking about."

Survival, Lay of the Land: 2eP+1eB+3eD 2 successes, 1 threat, 1 Triumph


I'd probably want to use the triumph for some story useful helpful hint that only a local might know to help the mission?

[Ambrose Pantazis]

Ambrose contributed his own knowledge of what areas would have ideal conditions for a thopter flight route, the topography needed for relatively safe landing and take off, etc...

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D1, EotB, Ecology, Ice Ice Baby, Kova boost: 2eP+2eA+1eB+3eD 1 success, 4 advantage

[Kannon]

[Efren's Triumph could be used to expedite getting there as he can figure out an efficient skiing path westward.]

Between Kova's local insights and Ambrose's environmental ones, the most likely spot for the assumed distance emerged - a caldera. There were several pock marks of past volcanic activity across Aarnikotka, but for this one Kova could give some specifics. It was called Spiracle by the locals for similarity with the whale blowhole. The similarity went further - it was semi-active, spurting water and mud from a crack in its midst. There had been attempts to settle it but any such settlement periodically failed, either being caught up in a bigger wave of hot mud ejecta or a particularly wild snowstorm filling the caldera up like a bowl until the geysers would melt it. But infrastructure was possible there, intermittently, without a daily threat of everything getting snowed in, and it was likely isolated from non-aerial observation.

[Kova's Triumph consumed.]
[Please recalculate Pools.]

[Efren Lanville]

Efren nodded and thought on these things…

——————

Player Pool: 8
GM Pool: 1

[Kova]

"So we have a location and a path. What kind of equipment do you have for camouflage? Spiracle is in the middle of a pretty open area. other calderas and hills will probably provide some cover when we're miles out, and approaching during the day will probably be better because snow glare, but once we're within eyesight range it'll be really easy to spot us. It would take time to make something or acquire something if we don't have it already," Kova points out. He's trying to think about it from the perspective of a hunter now.

[Ambrose Pantazis]

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. As far as we know, our primary objective is still in Slaughterhouse... We should get somewhere more secure to discuss our options." Ambrose looked around and above them ever wary of prying eyes and ears, even out here.

[Kova]

Kova nods and starts looking for somewhere more secure. But they've talked about so much already, if anyone was listening, they already have enough to end this mission anyway by his estimation. They would know their next target position after all. "I'll try to find somewhere," the local says.

[Kannon]

That would be hard. They were in the midst of the great white as far as their sight could reach. Either the Spiracle or the Slaughterhouse were at least hours away from their location. There were further eyes to check in either direction, according to their tracker, though moving eastward would likely mean thicker Harkonnen presence.

[Efren Lanville]

“The other eyes might give us more information about what we should do next. We still need to know a lot more about the Slaughterhouse and its defense patterns…” Efren offered.

“Once we have all the information we can reasonably muster, then it might be best to head somewhere safe enough to plan our next moves.”

[Ambrose Pantazis]

"Well put. We can not stop at the first answer or input we receive. A complete picture is needed. There is plenty more we need to learn before we can move to action." There was a mission of utmost importance to accomplish and Ambrose wouldn't allow distractions or overeagerness to undermine them. No matter how hard it was to hold back.

[Kova]

"There aren't a whole lot of places I know than where I have been staying that are safe from prying eyes, honestly. Could go out and make a shelter in the snow, hide inside that, but that takes time," Kova admits. "Up to you. Anything else you want to investigate and look into in this area?"

[Efren Lanville]

“Let’s move on to the next eye. Best way to maintain operational security is to keep moving.” Efren replied.

[Kova]

"To the next eye then," Kova replies with a nod.

[Kannon]

The next eye would be to the east, just north of the Slaughterhouse. Kova would know that going there the risk of detection would increase, even as they could find an efficient skiing pathway forward.

[Describe precautions, if any.]

[Efren Lanville]

“Kova, are there any methods of your people when hunting larger game as a group?” Efren asked.

“It might be best to approach in a manner that their data could mistake as regular local activity…”

[Kova]

"Not particularly. Most of the game hunted from land are birds and smaller game. The whales are our large game around here," he replies. "If we want to try to go unnoticed on land by the birds, generally we wear white and wait without moving near where we know they nest. Camouflage is about our only option, especially with the relatively flat area we'll be moving through. But they have no compunctions about taking random shots at locals either even if we were dressed like the locals, if they notice us and feel like it." He tries to think of potential means of traveling without being noticed.

[Efren Lanville]

“I see. Well… let’s do the best we can to not look like total strangers.” Efren replied.

“No need to overcomplicate the process.”

[Ambrose Pantazis]

"Very true. In my limited experience, I've found acting naturally and like you belonged there avoided detection more than skulking about. A bit of camouflage from the animals if that's the way around here sounds reasonable."

The way he said animals made it clear Ambrose wasn't speaking of birds or small game.