Ritual Day-of Briefing


Groups:

   Gateway: 
	Hegemon: Katya (PC)
	PC: Ciernan, Akito, Mirris, Max
	Drew-PC: Cass? Murdoch? 
	Ship NPC: Martan, Dierdre, Ruthie? [Akito's problem to stop her :) ]
	Named NPC: Eon& Ella, Elmer's Captain?, Vela/Stormbreaker,
Clelarius?, Kattan Quintero? 
	Bulk NPC: Creek/Outworlders, Vertaki; including 1 NPC healer,
1 NPC buff-er(?)

   Craterrock 1:
	Hegemon: Donella
	PC: Ace, Sophia, Hippocrates, Kye
	Drew-PC: Murdoch? ESM?
	Ship NPC: Twig?
	Named NPC: Elmer Triconian, Gerard, Tiercel?
	Bulk NPC: Donella's NPCs, Creek/Outworlders, [IPX & Stannis
Law & Belle's PrePsi recruits, if we're not sending them with Jayla
after all]; including 1 NPC healer.  Some IPX guys, with some
rabbits. Tiercel's students?

   Craterrock 2:
	Hegemon: First Frost of Autumn
	PC: Sharra (Attendant), Kith (Attendant), Ruehan (Attendant), Jim
	Drew-PC: Cass? Elegant Simplicity of Motion?
	Ship NPC: Night Bloowming Wisteria, Moment Before Dawn
	Named NPC: Spruinz (Attendant), Perfect Description (Attendant), 
	Bulk NPC: Tinoori

   (Juice: Jayla and her followers, including Janzur and Corwin.  She
assures us it will not be high-energy and she can handle it without
us, so we're not sending PCs there.)




NPCs still to assign: Vircan Blades, Chain (covert ops), Glass.
		     Smeerp Patrol
		     Tiercel and students.
		     Possible Hive people?
		     Cassandra (?)
		     Twig
		     [dogs]  

-------------------
The Ritual (broken up by physical location: look for your name/group location)


Note to all: if you are in doubt about what to do, ask Jim,
Hippocrates, or Ciernan.  (Katya is also clueful about the
ritual/what's going on, but she's not so good at giving info in combat
time, nor at tactics.)


Part 1 (Everyone, on Gateway):

	Everyone assembles in the Bowl (which is on).
	Kith and Jayla between them buff Jayla + Attendants
	Jayla, Sharra, Kith, Ruehan, Spruinz, and Perfect Description
roll: PrePsi with Psi Theory for 11s (buffing should lower this to
9s), each individual needs 5 successes.
	Katya, Jayla, and Donella do a Gathering to do something to
the Star (probably Katya runs this Gathering, depending what sort of
Gather the others actually turn out to have).
	Katya, Jayla, and Donella do a Gathering that does something
to First Frost of Autumn.
	The Craterrock and Juice contingents depart, while the Gateway
contingent remains (in the Bowl).  

Tactical Notes: If an Attendant blows a roll, we can shut down the
ritual and start the Attendant rolls over.


Tactical Notes for all three groups: Coming up short on the PP buffs
is not an on/off thing, but it's pretty Bad.  It will both put holes
in the protective umbrella, and make that Hegemon less useful in the
Hegemony bits of the ritual.
	Having non-anointed people touching the magic widgets is also
pretty Bad, and in the extreme case could explode the widget and kill
us all.  This is the thing-going-wrong that is most dangerous.
	Group PP rolls are made simultaenously, but this means "on
your next available combat action" not "all in the same combat
action."
	The only people who are not 'expendable' are the Hegmons;
anyone else, after they've made their required rolls, is not
*ritually* necessary.



Craterrock (pre-split, both Craterrock groups)

	The two Craterrock contingents arrive and proceed to the
location where First Frost and his contingent are to stay.
	Donella does a Gathering with everyone *except* First Frost
and Hippocrates, to make them Preservers.  From this moment, only
Preservers may touch the Star.
	Donella does a Gathering with First Frost.
	Kith buffs whoever she can.
	Donella and all humans present roll: Fortune with Power
Projection (you may add Fortune to your Fortune on this roll!) for 11s
(lower for anyone who's buffed).  *Among them*, they need at least 50
successes; it doesn't matter what any given individual gets.
	Simultaneously, First Frost of Autumn and all Tinoor present
roll: Perception with Power Projection for 11s (lower for anyone who's
buffed). *Among them*, they need at least 50 successes; it doesn't
matter what any given individual gets.
	Donella uses the Star to 'phone' Jayla and Katya.  First Frost
starts the countdown.
	Craterrock 1 group (Donella's) leaves at this point and goes
to their site.



Craterrock 1:

	(Don't let anyone not a Preserver touch the Star.)
	Hold the fort.  Have the combat.  Do whatever pops up and
needs doing.  Your objectives: protect Donella, hold your position
with respect to FFA and Gateway (don't get chased away too much).
Help the other group/protect the Star if you can, but they're probably
too far away.
	At some point, the Last Bit happens: Donella has to make a
roll every post-10.  Make sure she's able to do so!



Craterock 2:

	First Frost and Star are positioned: First Frost must from now
on stay between the Star and Gateway.  And not touch the Star, of
course.
	Don't let anyone not a Preserver touch the Star.
	Hold the fort.  Have the combat.  Do whatever pops up and
needs doing.  Your objectives: hold FFA/Star positions, protect FFA,
don't let anyone touch the star.
	At some point, the Last Bit happens: Every post-10 of combat
time, the other 3 Hegemons will be attempting to not thwack First
Frost, but he may get thwacked.  Keep him standing!

	Protect-the-star primary duty: (???)
	Dedicated-First-Frost-healing duty: Kith

Tacctical Notes: a *minimal* amount of movement of the Star is
probably OK; moving it fast will be Trouble to people nearby, moving
it far will be Trouble farther away.  Having the whole group slowly
walk a mile away carrying the star wouldbe "very very disruptive" and
this is the max the ritual can possibly tolerate.  Someone holding the
Star and dodging would be a mild local disruption.
	FFA going unconscious is not in itself disastrous, as long as
he doesn't die.  On the other hand, if he's unconscious when it's time
for him to make a roll, he'll take a pile of damage for failing the roll.


Gateway:
	Wait about for several days.  Protect the Bowl if necessary
(though it's not yet Doomful if people touch it).  Protect Katya.
Katya may need to do psionic tweaking if anything unforseen happens.
	Katya will get the 'phone call' and countdown from Donella.
	Katya does a Gathering with everyone, to make them Defenders.
	From this point on, no one but Defenders may enter/touch the
Bowl.
	NPC buffer buffs who she can.
	Defenders roll: StrPsi with Power Projection (no adding
fortune!) for 11s (less for those buffed). *Among them*, they need at
least 50 successes; it doesn't matter what any given individual gets.
	At some point, the Last Bit happens: Katya has to make a roll
every post-10 (StrPsi/Energy Sheild, for 11s, for 5 successes).  Make
sure she's able to do so!

	Shield-the-bowl-from-entry duty: Ciernan, Eon&Ella, possibly
Stormbreaker?, possibly Katya but she may not be able to.  We have a
couple of NPCs who can do terrain-changing, fire-making, and stuff
like go-to-sleep; we have no unnamed steadfasts.
	Keep-the-bowl-from-falling-apart duty: Martan
	Keep-the-ritual-from-exploding duty: Katya
	Keep-Katya-from-falling-down/get-her-back-up duty: ??

	Tactical notes: too much big psi flying about risks disrupting
the ritual.  In particular: psi-across-the-bowl is worse than
psi-at-the-edge; "loud" effects are worse than "quiet" ones; Str is
worse than Pre (never did get a ruling on For); affecting the Hegemon
is bad; affecting the general area isbad.
	Damage to the bowl is disruptive, and there's a real risk of
that happening.
	Non-Preservers touching the bowl is disruptive on a scale;
some disruption can be tolerated.
	We probably can't have psi sheilds: the tekes are likely to
need their dice elsewhere, and sheilds cast in the middle of the bowl
are problematic (physical sheilds block air, energy sheilds block
light and neutrino radios).  On the other hand, Katya's end-of-10 roll
is going to be energy shields.
	**If Katya is wearing the matrix-armor, someone needs to be
keeping an eye out for breaking her out of it if she goes down.

-------
Resources:
	drugs
	grenades
	armour
	sheild belts


Expected hostiles:
	Stone & Terrans
	Terran agents/sleepers among the people on our side
	???

Expected hostiles with possibly unexpected motives
	Cain (& Caliban & Human-oori)
	Dylanna
	Memento Mori
	???