Pulse of the Imperium

The first blind spot in Hawat's network was about an hour slide down from the Eyrie.

They were all moving on skis picked up from the ruined monastery.

[Athletics or Coordination to check if you got the hang of it quickly, or struggle. Success means Boost and Failure means Setback on future mobility-related rolls until the next time slot when learning curve can be checked again. Difficulty is Average with 1 Challenge.]

The panorama was eerily pristine, indeterminate. They found themselves in a world without definitions, a blank slate. Staring too much into the snow was making their eyes hurt. Literally. Only the silhouettes of comrades and the swooshing of skis was telling them that their awareness had not been somehow reset. And the unease because of the fact that they were naked before any aerial observation.

Efren’s natural athleticism benefited him greatly as they made their way through the alabaster landscape.

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D1 Skiing, Athletics: 2eP+2eA+2eB+1eC+1eD 1 success, 1 advantage

Cutting through the snow on skis visually reminded Ambrose of gliding a thopter effortlessly through clouds. Momentarily letting go of control and allowing air currents to guide the thopter, blinded to the rest of the world. But physically, the feeling was more akin to one of the few trips he'd taken out to sea and faced choppy waters, beaten relentlessly by the waves. The resistance he faced felt unnatural compared to the ease he found in flying and was counterintuitive for him.

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"Excess Brings Success."
D1, EotB, Athletics, Statement: 2eP+1eA+1eC+1eD 1 failure, 3 advantage


I pizza'd when I should've French fry'd.

Kova seems to move with a practiced ease while taking his time and picking a path, but his explanation was only really helpful in showing a path to their destination. He has a hard time articulating how to move with skis because he's been doing it since he could walk.

D1 Skiing, Athletics, "Patience and focus reveal openings.": 2eP+1eA+1eC+1eD 1 success, 1 advantage

They were nearing the approximate location of the eye. Given the seamlessness of the landscape, it had likely been snowed in too deep to transmit. It should still vaguely respond to their tracker. Alternatively, they could also triangulate by reference to the chart in their possession.

[Survival or Computation at Average.]

Ambrose attempted to triangulate where the eye would be based on the charts and relative locations of local landmarks, only the local landmarks were just blankets of snow as far as he could make out.

After some further attempts, he turned to the others, "I can't seem to locate it. Has anyone else had any better luck?"

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D1, EotB, Computation, Eye Spy: 4eA+2eD 0 successes, 1 advantage

Bern had actually had gone skiing once. Friends took him to the mountains and he attempted it. He didn't fall flat on his face too many times, and the people who were with him gave him a few pointers that, thankfully, still stuck with him. It was a bit unstable as he went down the slopes, but he managed to pick it back up towards the end, almost to the point of a rank armature would have done.

Maybe he could go back to the mountains again when the trip was over. That bottle was still being stored and he didn't necessarily have to drink it at the vineyard, after all..

~~
"He French-fried when he should've pizza'd." -- Athletics Check. Invoking Statement" I think back to home to keep me stable"

Net Successes: 2; Net Advantages: -1

Efren had endured many seek and destroy training exercises in his years in the special ops program and used that to his advantage… though the terrain was different and unknown threats undoubtedly awaited.

“I believe I found something…”

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D1 Eye, Survival, Roots, 4 adv for boost: 2eP+1eA+2eB+2eD 3 successes, 2 threat


Player Pool: 2 advantage
GM Pool: 3 threat

Efren did indeed pinpoint the tracker signal without flaw. Once some layers of snow were removed, the signal became stronger, indicating that the eye was still very much functional. Ixian tech proved reliable once again.

It was probably enough for Thufir to start retrieving its overdue data packets. But their tracking device allowed for it too, at least in terms of mapping and time-stamping movement in the area if they didn't feel like risking communication with the mentat in space.

[Easy Mechanics with a Challenge, and a Setback from 2 Threat - numb fingers.]

"Excellent work." Ambrose praised as Efren uncovered the eye. After which, he did set to work with the tracker to retrieve information from the eye. There might be immediately actionable information contained within and they couldn't rely on Hawat for every step along the way.

Ambrose was most notably interested in what had caused the interruptions in communication. Was it a heavy snowfall, or perhaps an engineered avalanche to make the anamoly appear mundane in nature. Perhaps there was evidence of the eye's existence being discovered in its records.

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D1, EotB, Mechanics, more than meets the eye: 2eP+2eA+1eC+1eS 1 success, 3 advantage

The eye did not bear any signs of tampering, either on the outside or in its recorded data. It looks like the weather here just made such clever tools of espionage have expiry dates measured in centimetres of snowfall.

From the data gathered until the eye could only record whiteness, it looked like there were regular ornithopter flights across this area on some east-west transit zone, likely from the Slaughterhouse to some western destination and back. The craft usually appeared twice in five days, though it was taking it only a day to reemerge from the east, westbound.

“We should see what the other data shows… it might lead us to where the Harkonnen’s are hiding their stores.” Efren replied.

It seemed like a good start but still not enough data for them to have to reach out to the mentat just yet.

Something may likely be computed feom what they have just got, since there is a pattern.

[Average Computation, Boost if you are a pilot, another if you try to crack it yourselves. Remember to use the map from Premise. You are now somewhat south of the Eyrie.]

Ambrose pored over the eye's data and reviewed their navigation charts, occasionally muttering his thought process aloud, "Thopter flights East and West... one day layover at the Slaughterhouse... four day clear window, when in the pattern are we now?

Due West ice sheets and more Buddhislamic sites... or could be avoiding flights over open water, following coast to Mt Rabban... maybe the graveyards."

How far back did the eye's coverage go, how long had this pattern persisted. What could the Harkonnens be doing out there four out of five days? They'd be loathe to spend time away from their ferrocrete fortresses.

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(OOC)
Assuming on the map we're South of Bifrost Eyrie and West of Abulurd's Village aka the Slaughterhouse? Not sure the scale of things, since we skied here in a fairly short span of time through rough terrain. A short thopter flight?
Is the "Stockpiles Iceberg" already marked on our charts as likely location aka future nuketown?

D1, EotB, Computation, Flight Plans: 4eA+2eB+2eD 1 success, 3 advantage

Ambrose ran some numbers that came intuitively to any pilot. Engine capacity by type of craft and payload over a distance. Making some hard and fast assumptions, they were observing a small shuttle whose westernmost destination was way farther than the easternmost one. That westerly point might overlap with the glacier vault. But unless special accommodations were made, less likely for a payload-focused craft, the shuttle had to be making at least one midflight landing on each stretch somewhere west of them, before it would progress to each endpoint. And once it would depart from there westbound, there was a few-days window before anyone would expect its return at the Slaughterhouse or near it. Based on the eye recording, it had been going on for weeks before input was cut off.

Looking up from the data, Ambrose shared what he surmised, "Given the interval between sightings and the range of these thopters, they likely have a midpoint layover, two days of travel to their western destination before another two days back and a day spent in the capital. Being that far out into the ice sheets, they're very serious about keeping it a secret."

“About how far could a thopter travel in a day?” Efren asked.

“It’s well further than we could expect to travel without one of our own on the time frame we have, no?”

"Indeed, we would need to comendere a thopter or two for any secondary mission objectives."

Ambrose turned to Kova, "Our main objective is close by, likely hidden away. But, if there's something they want to keep hidden even further away from prying eyes, that seems like a good target of opportunity if we can manage. Something that would hurt them deeply."

Kova had been quietly listening and observing, picking up what he could and trying to keep it all in perspective of what he knew about the local area. Putting landmarks in mind and villages that could be used for staging as he got a better grasp of the area they were operating in. He tries to glean what he can from their conversation and calculations to give a direction, but there is a lot of empty space too, where nobody goes, including him.

He mulls it over in his head before looking at the maps himself and trying to overlay them with his understanding of the terrain.