The Mansion II [on hiatus]

[Montmorency]

We should take all the corpses out and see if that helps climb the back wall.

I don't see the connection.

[Golden1Knight]

We need to check if the wall is not electrified or something like that.

[Winston Hughes]

There are a couple of ways we might get the laptop working without the charger. The simplest method is just to warm the battery up, but that would only buy us a very short period - likely nowhere near enough for me to hack any security features. Better would be to find (or build) another battery with enough charge. The best, though, would be to jerry-rig a mains transformer - quite possible, and very quickly done, if we had the right materials. When I was backpacking in India, I saw guys put them together in under ten minutes, using only very basic tools.

(OOC: Credit to my friend Rainbow Joe - a brilliant sound engineer and hardware hacker - for the tech knowledge, including the India story. If there's a way to make this work, he can tell me what my character's brain would already know.)

@Zain

What electrical items have we seen around the house? (Ideally, I'm looking for something like a TV, a radio or a sound system.)

Do we have any lemons among our assorted food stocks?

[El Barto]

Yes, although the facilities left something to be desired

We are meant to throw urine bombs at the monsters, I can tell you.

I don't see the connection.

We have to get them out anyway. Might as well use them to climb the wall.

Well, maybe not out, as the GM did hint about the sun.

What electrical items have we seen around the house? (Ideally, I'm looking for something like a TV, a radio or a sound system.)

Do we have any lemons among our assorted food stocks?

Remember we have wristwatches but not much else.

Do you intend to use lemon juice as an electrolyte, or is the food here that bland?

[Ironside]

We have to get them out anyway. Might as well use them to climb the wall.

Well, maybe not out, as the GM did hint about the sun.

I think furniture are better for climbing on than corpses.

[Montmorency]

When we get around to leaving, climbing an 8-foot fence and walking around the house will accomplish nothing that just leaving through the front would not.

I think the best we have for electronics is the light fixtures around the house. Are there any desk laps? Maybe even common small batteries? Definitely something to keep in mind while searching the basement. Worst case, create a direct connection between the household electricity and the charging terminals (i.e. battery taken out first), but that would be liable to destroy the thing very quickly. I'm sure legit chargers have features to manage power intake in a way that the hardware can withstand.

[Myrddraal]

Worst case, create a direct connection between the household electricity and the charging terminals (i.e. battery taken out first), but that would be liable to destroy the thing very quickly.

Wouldn't that melt the battery?

Laptops and PCs run on DC power, at 12V iirc.
US mains power provides AC power at 120V.

What Winston said makes sense though. Radios, TVs, Halogen lights, all these things run on DC, and should have transformers in them. If we can find one with the right output we're in business, and even one with the wrong output (but still DC) would give us options.

Heating the battery sounds a very interesting idea... After all, we may only need a very short period of power to find out the information we need.

EDIT: Also... car batteries are usually 12 volts. Humvee?

[Winston Hughes]

As I say (OOC: thanks Joe!), a transformer is easy enough to build if you've got a few basic components. We'd have to improvise a soldering iron, but that's just a bit of copper wire, some kind of insulator for the grip, and a source of heat. The biggest obstacle could turn out to be the lack of appropriate screwdrivers to open both the laptop and the source of our components. Cutlery from the kitchen could probably be worked into what we need, but that's going to slow the whole thing right down. If, on the other hand, we had a half-decent tool kit plus something like a stereo amplifier for the components, I could whip up a suitable transformer in no time.

Edit: Of course, we might just find a charger next phase, rendering all of this macgyvering entirely unnecessary.

[El Barto]

And what's ever been more fun in an RPG than doing unnecessary stuff?

I think furniture are better for climbing on than corpses.

Are there any chairs or tables whose legs we haven't ripped off to burn in the upstairs fire or to use as blunt weapons?

(btw, we need firebombs, that'd clear the way to the Humvees.)


Now, these Humvees… is it possible that the CIA or other agency found out about this infection, tried to put a stop to it, but were overpowered somehow? Also, there's still electricity so the world's not over.

[Myrddraal]

I can't help but come back to wondering what the motives of our captor are. The mansion isn't locked, the bodies of these people have obviously been left here for us to find, and the humvees left within reaching distance. It's not as if we are particularly trapped. It comes back to what I was saying before - we either play the game or play our captor, and right now I'm struggling to see how we can play our captor when his motives are so unclear.

[GeneralHankerchief]

I can't help but come back to wondering what the motives of our captor are. The mansion isn't locked, the bodies of these people have obviously been left here for us to find, and the humvees left within reaching distance. It's not as if we are particularly trapped. It comes back to what I was saying before - we either play the game or play our captor, and right now I'm struggling to see how we can play our captor when his motives are so unclear.

Considering the state of the outside world, maybe he realized his mistake and we're somehow connected to making it better?

[El Barto]

Leaving the philosophy for later, what do we do now?

[Myrddraal]

Spend one more turn exploring the house and garden I think, before making any move on the humvees.

We need to:
- Search the crates in the cellar
- Search the whole mansion for transformers, heat the battery and try to get that laptop booting
- Search the garden shed for electronics (batteries would be ideal, even a torch battery would be good)
- There were half a dozen bodies in the yard, we should search these.
- Prepare weapons for a breakout attempt to reach the humvees? Maybe more torches to burn?

[Ironside]

I agree on searching. I'll go down in the basement and see if I can find anything to get some use of my mechanical skills.

We could also see if we can create a diversion on the backyard. Luring some or all of the monsters away makes things much easier. Even having them scattered about would help as we're ok when taking them down in a 2+2+2+2 matter, while 8 on the same time is too much.

We should still search the billiard room and the bedrooms on the main floor.

[El Barto]

OK, so we assemble groups… I'd search the bodies and the shed.

[El Barto]

Maybe we can dig somewhere with the hoe and shovel.

[El Barto]

@Ironside: can you search the billiards room and the main floor bedrooms? Take any inactives, I'm searching the shed and the corpses.

[GeneralHankerchief]

I'll be sending in orders after I wake up tomorrow (hopefully won't sleep in!) to do support duty once again.

[Choxorn]

I'll join team basement and help search the crates.

[Ironside]

Orders in, 2 hours to go. I followed the advice of El Barto.

[Zain]

Deadline passed half an hour ago, and only 3 orders have been received.

Deadline extended for a few hours. If orders are not received, WOG's will be swift.

[GeneralHankerchief]

I was one of the three! I didn't oversleep!

[Winston Hughes]

Oops, thought we had longer. Sending orders now.

ps. I'll be away from Monday to Friday this week, and will not be able to post at all during that time.

[El Barto]

I was one of the three! I didn't oversleep!

So @Choxorn didn't send in anything?

[Ironside]

Deadline passed half an hour ago, and only 3 orders have been received.

Deadline extended for a few hours. If orders are not received, WOG's will be swift.

A 24 hour reminder is quite useful when you have a long period before a deadline.

[Myrddraal]

I was away yesterday, but I've submitted orders now to search the whole mansion for transformers and batteries.

[Beskar]

I was away yesterday, but I've submitted orders now to search the whole mansion for transformers and batteries.

Congratulations, you could found Optimus Prime!

[Winston Hughes]

Congratulations, you could found Optimus Prime!

Want.

[El Barto]

Given how much of a crapshoot these grey fellers are, I shudder to think how aggressive such a war robot would be.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Zain? You around, buddy?