OOC Hive Attack Planning Session (June 2, 1996)

Highway 51(#4080RFJ)
THE BIRD!
Contents:
Eamon
Megan
Brian

Diana has arrived.
Megan thinks we're OOC.
Anne oh.
Megan sketches quickly. "Hanford's 50 miles from here. Which means if we're 
  going to be smart, we're leaving tomorrow morning in vehicles. If we're 
  smarter, we'll try to scout out the area during the day, and *find* a good 
  place to do this scheme."
Diana nods.
Megan . o O ( Especially since it might be nice if we can ask Slick about it 
  before hand. :) )
Anne is certainly _assuming_ we leave early in the morning. Gives us time to 
  rest up and, as you say, scout a little.
Anne says "Anne's seen the place once, but doesn't know the area around it at 
  all."
Megan nods. "Right. I know the area is mountainous, and there's a waterfall 
  somewhere nearby, and a lake outside the hive. Ideally, if we could lure
  them into a box canyon and get in behind them, it'd be ideal, except I don't
  know how we could do that and get Anne out. What other kind of terrain
  would we look for?"
Anne says "Rocky hill, maybe? Preferably one that's easily defensible, but can 
  be escaped too if need be."
Eamon says "Well, I've never seen it, but I've heard of the Hanford site. It's 
  inside a big lava flow. Lots of black rocks. The land os probably pretty
  high and flat. I think it's next to the Columbia River."
Diana nods at the hill idea maybe. "Get me some nice arrows, and I can play 
  sharpshoter, too, if we find a hill."
Megan says "The hive itself has been described to be in some 
  mountains...that's what I'm going on."
Anne thinks. "There's the river to use, too, although that might not be useful 
  enough - but it's a thought. Have it along one side of our fighting-ground, 
  maybe, or try to draw them there and push them into it.
Anne says "If it's close to the river. There's that waterfall, so there has to 
  be _some_ water flow some direction."
Megan's getting images of a nice big prepared rockslide.
Anne says "Is NoBrandHeroes going to be with us?"
Brian says "I'm not counting on them."
Anne says "Prepared rockslide is good from the hill if we can manage it."
Diana giggles. "Btw, anyone know where I can get some nice arrows that Spirals 
  wont 'be too fond of?"
Anne thinks they'd have to be talen-arrows. Hmmm.
Eamon says "Silver arrows, or bane arrows maybe."
Megan says "They prolly would've needed to have been prepared before now, but 
  if they were talens."
Anne says "Or silver, yeah."
Eamon says "Soren found an obsidian arrowhead, but I don't know that ICly. :)"
Anne says "Silver-tipped arrows might be good, especially if they weren't
  simple leafheads - if they were the kind that's hard to remove. :)"
Megan wonders how disohonorable it'd be to sit back and shoot silver bullets 
  at them.
Diana nods. "Di still has like, oh, two bane arrow talens. She could prolly 
  get silver ones done, didn't someone bring some silver knives to her shop 
  once? She could got Joanna to melt them into arrowheads for her."
Megan says "Screw dishonorable. We're outnumbered over 3 to 1."
Megan did!
Eamon heh.
Megan says "Oh, hey, I *do* have silver bullets. I'd forgotten that."
Eamon says "How many?"
Anne waves her hand at Brian. Ask him. :) _Anne_ has no problems with that. :) 
  Or even regular ones, since lots of silver bullets are gonna be hard to get 
  hold of. Regular bullets could slow them down a little, enough to break them 
  up into two waves or something.
Megan says "Three pistols worth. I got them out of an ONS last summer."
Eamon says "Do they have fomori too, or just dancers and Salamander?"
Megan hasn't heard of any Fomori.
Anne says "As far as we know, just Dancers and Salamander."
Anne says "Anne is probably gonna use Flames of Hestia anyway. It's no use 
  against Dancers, as I read the desc, but it might slow them down too (do you 
  _really_ want to approach someone with glowing claws when you know they have 
  weird Gifts?), and if there _are_ fomori there..."
Megan considers. "High, Rocky hill. Hey,w e should make those anti-cavalry 
  stakes to slwo them down. Silver missile weapons for as long as we can; hand 
  to hand after a while. Try to prepare some sort of rockslide or major 
  catastrophe?"
Megan says "And a way out."
Diana nods. "Will nab those arrows. I figure the 2 or three knives someoen 
  brought to my shop should be good to 'dip' a few hunting arrows into, 
  right,... when melted?"
Megan thinks that's going to be the hard part of this.
Megan says "4, Diana, and I'd bet so."
Diana says "Four? there were four knives?"
Megan says "I think so. 3 or 4. It's been a while."
Anne says "Another thought - if we can find a place on the path between their 
  hive and our ground that I can put a Curse of Aeolus into, maybe...it should 
  still have enough left of the fog even with a little bit of time between
  that they could run into trees, rocks, boulders, something like that."
Anne is big on this 'confuse and slow' thing. We're gonna need it as much as 
  possible.
Eamon says "Maybe we could just harry them a lot. :)"
Megan says "We need a Strider Gallirad with CotW. They could just run around 
  out of reach the whole time."
Eamon says "Horus is dead. :)"
Anne could always fly in the air above them, if you want.
Diana grins.
Anne makes a list. Call of the Wyrm. Flames of Hestia. Potentially, Wings of 
  Pegasus and Curse of Aeolus.
Eamon doesnt' have super combat gifts.
Diana has Razor Claws. ;) Remind me to sharpen them?
Anne says "Those'll help."
Eamon gotta go, seeya!
Eamon has disconnected.
Brian says "Howl of the Banshee. Inspiration. Faerie Kin. Woadling."
Anne says "Ooooooh."
Megan says "Not the first one."
Megan doesn't want them running away from us. :)
Anne says "Brian's got some nice tricks up his sleeve. Not the first one? No - 
  yes."
Diana says "Inspiration could be helpful, yes. :)"
Diana oh goodies.
Anne says "Megan, how's this for way out: we have a way out, that we're 
  basically defending. We get too snowed under, Brian lets loose with Howl of 
  the Banshee. We go out our way out, which hopefully is up a hill some more, 
  with more prepared rockfall."
Megan has Resist Pain. I doubt Sense Wyrm or Truth of Gaia or Scent of the 
  True Form or Persuasion is going to help much. :)
Anne says "Even if we haven't got any traps on it, we have Howl of the Banshee 
to give us some time."
Brian says "Howl of the Banshee is the escape plan."
Megan says "Howl with Curse of Aelous between us and them."
Diana nods. "Yeah, cos all I have is Sense Wyrm, Razor Claws, and Scent of 
  Man, and I don't think Scent of Man will help any."
Anne says "Okay. We have an escape plan that should work, even if nothing else 
  does. :)"
Megan says "Still need to think of good territory. I like the idea of Anne 
  flying around...it'd free us up to hit and run."
Megan says "And we could still do the escape plan, no matter where. The 
  problem with defeninding a hill is being surrounded."
Anne says "Yeah. I was thinking more a place partway up a hill, not at the
  top. Or up a slope that goes up into the mountains and more hills or such."
Anne says "Top is bad, partway might be improbable."
Anne won't be able to do anything _but_ CotW and Curse of Aeolus if she's 
  flying, since she has to be in hispo (dumb rule, bleah).
Brian says "Fighting from highground has plusses and minuses. Usually, though, 
  the attack needs to be massed in order to drive you off a hill, which means 
  that you have escape routes."
Megan says "Only if it would be impossible for them to get around us, Anne, 
  but. // Well, they could simply surround us and charge forward, Brian.
  There's only going to be around 12 of us. Not exactly a batallion."
Megan says "She could dive bomb and claw, Anne?"
Anne says "Weren't for that, I could do some archery. Not _great_ with the
  bow, but not all that horrible. Oh - one thing to take into consideration. I
  wouldn't be surprised if, in this kind of situation, they stop responding to 
  CotW eventually. One of those 'senses numbed' sort of thing."
Megan says "By that time, we'll be engaged with them.Maybe we can but No Brand 
  Heroes (if they all do come) somewhere behind as backup, and come in when
  CotW starts wearing off."
Anne says "Backup we should definitely have, even if it's only three people."
Anne says "And we ought to have a healer on our escape route if at all
  possible."
Megan says "Brian. Next. :)"
Megan says "Oh, hey, wait. Shea."
Anne says "Ooooh. Did Brian learn Ceridwen's Blood?"
Brian says "He did."
Anne says "Cooooool."
Megan says "And more likely to be upright than me."
Megan says "So, hit and run, or should we defend a hill?"
Anne hmmmms. I don't even think Anne knows it exists, despite having Fianna at 
  her old caern.
Diana remembers when Oaken did Ceridwen's Blood on her. *shudder*
Megan says "Nice bbpost."
Brian says "I think we ought to start with the latter, Megan, but be ready to 
  adapt to the former if it becomes necessary."
Anne has Cristoph theoretically with her, unless he's with Mercy.
Megan says "Why would he be with Mercy?"
Anne says "The other benefit to Anne being in the air might be scouting."
Megan says "Should we set up a hill, or just grab the first one handy?"
Diana says "Yeah, we should have Cristoph with us, I should think."
Anne says "We need a good hill, relatively near the hive. CotW isn't gonna
  work if we go too far away."
Anne hrms. I wonder if there are any owls in the area to use as scouts? Prolly 
  not. Or at least, prolly not useful enough.
Megan says "No, I meant when we decide to set down and fight fromt he hill, 
  are we just going to find one, or can we prepare one and aim our strategy to 
  get to that hill about the same time we decide to plant?"
Anne says "Pick out a hill. I thought we were starting from hill, then doing 
  hit-and-run if need be. Was it t'other way around?"
Anne says "Pick one out before, I mean."
Brian says "Find some high ground, or, failing that, some relatively broken 
  ground. Like forest."
Brian says "Set up defense in there."
Megan was reversed, not you, Anne. Hill first. Then hit and run.
Diana says "What time is this thing supposedly starting, btw?>"
Megan says "9-9:30 p.m. EDT."
Megan says "Eamon said he might be late."
Megan prolly won't be on before 9:30.
Megan says "Anne, see if Cristoph's going with us or Mercy?"
Megan is thinking about sending +mail to Slick telling him about what we're 
  planning on doing. Anyone object?
Anne says "No problems here. Just cc us. :)"
Diana grins. Yup.
Megan will. I was going to emit it before I actually put it in the +mail. :>
Diana grins.
Diana whrs! As she finally sees a clock. Almost 1am. Meep. I need to go. I 
  have to go to work in the morning.
Megan snugs. "See ya tomorrow night, Di. :)"
Brian hugs Di.
Anne says "Cristoph will be with us."
Megan says "Brian, are you okay with the idea of using a gun at first, or 
  would Brian oppose?"
Diana snugs good night to all. "See ya'll tommorrow night, then."
Anne says "He can summon water, he says; if we draw any firepeople, that would 
  be useful."
Megan nodnods.
Diana goes home.
Diana has left.
Brian says "He would not oppose. He will be unthrilled by the idea (last time 
  someone was shooting a gun over his shoulder, it was Arjun, and he got
  shot), and will not himself use a gun."
Megan says "We'll shoot in front of you, then? :)"
Anne snickers. Oh yes. Arjun with his flamethrowers and automatics against the 
  Ice King.
Megan puts Brian in the back, singing badly but being inspiring anyway, 
  sending his Woads out, and playing General and watching.
Megan smacks.
Anne says "Oh god. Brian singing would probably drive Anne insane."
Megan says "But it'd be inspiring."
Anne | Anne howls, ~Someone stuff a klaive into his throat before I do it 
  myself!~
Brian says "He sings fine!"
Brian says "Just off key."
Anne says "Yes, that's the problem. :)"
Megan -The plans: The entire group would leave first thing tomorrow morning, 
  in cars, driving to Hanford. Mercy's drawn us at least a crude map, so we'd 
  try to make our way towards the Hive without falling in or being found out. 
  First plan is to get our own look around, to get a feel of the terrain and 
  with the ultimate goal of finding a rocky, defensible hill on which to base 
  our stand, nearish the Hive, but not *too* close. Barring that, we'd look for 
  a forested area, again, nearish the Hive but not too close.

  Preperations: peeled small trees sharpened on the end and stuck into the 
  ground, do slow down any charges to a crawl (otherwise, they'll have nice
  long stakes going through them). We're also specifically going to have an
  escape route mapped out.

  Blackwatch and Cristoph will be behind the statkes at first. If No Brand 
  Heroes goes, or we get enough stragglers to form a second pack, we want them 
  to hide out and wait, as a second-string. Anne will use Wings of Pegasus to
  go airborne. At the start of the fight, Anne will let go with Call of the
  Wyrm, to call the BSDs to us. When they're still off a bit is when we'll
  start attacking. Megan and Eamon (<>) will be armed with pistols and have a
  single clip of silver bullets (leftover from an ONS I had last summer).
  Diana will be plinking away with silver-covered-headed arrows. Brian at this
  point will probably be doing Inspiration, Woadling, and whatever other
  tricks he has. 

  We'll do this for as long as possible, and hold the place for as long as 
  possible. At a signal, maybe a howl from Brian, our second-string will come
  in as well.

  If/when our holding the ground becomes untenable, we'll fall back to a 
  hit-and-run style. If/when that becomes impossible, our ultimate escape
  route is to have Brian use Howl of the Banshee and Anne to use Curse of
  Aeolus between us and them, and run like hell back to a point we've chosen
  beforehand far from the battleground.

Anne says "One change, Megan?"
Megan says "You finished reading it already? Sure. :)"
Anne says "Anne has, like I said, been there. What Mercy's pose involved had
  no meaning to me, but Anne probably understood it a little better. So that
  should help us avoid getting into the Hive too far (re your first
  paragraph)."
Megan nods. Okay.
Megan asks Cristoph if he'd use a gun, for the <> part of the +mail. I'm 
  waiting on an answer.
Brian says "Reminder: every piece of silver you carry reduces your Gnosis by 
  one. You can only use a number of gifts in a scene equal to your Gnosis 
  rating. Also,. every five silver items carried by a pack reduces
  *everybody's* effective Gnosis by one."
Anne grimaces.
Megan gahs.
Megan says "Are you going to say that one silver bullet is going to be one 
  item?"
Anne says "What happens when all the silver is gone?"
Megan says "It takes a day for the 'effects' to war off."
Megan er, wear.
Anne aaaah. Okay.
Anne has never had a character who carried silver, so she never looked at it. 
  :)
Megan sends Anne the latter portion of the Clotho fight log. Here. Knock 
  yourself out. :P
Megan says "Cristoph has silver arrows, too. *scribble*"
Brian says "How many silver articles are we toting around, roughly?"
Megan says "Two clips worth. Your klaive. However many Di comes up with. 
  Crisoph's half dozen."
Anne says "Does Cristoph's silver affect you guys?"
Megan says "I.e. Lots"
Megan says "It's vicinity."
You say "Okay."
Brian considers. Thirty plus one plus six plus probably another six. Gah.
Anne counts those up, divides by six, and wails.
Megan counts a clip as one.
Anne er, by five.
Megan says "It's smaller than Brian's Klaive, why should it count as 15?"
Brian says "Um."
Megan applies logic to White Wolf. I know, the horror.
Anne hee!