Rob, the point was that I can get them from 'leaving the building' to 'arrested' just fine; the question was how to get them all out of the building. The answer is below.
BA, this is one of the Syndicate's Perfectly Legitimate Businesses (read: money-laundering vector and supplementary funding source). It's full of innocent employees and white-collar criminals, in roughly equal proportions. That's why none of them detect as combat mages- this is a low-profile, low-heat operation... for them.
Reading my mind again, Jorlem? Actually pulling the fire alarm lacks a certain something, though- I went with the fun/classy option.
CD, you're right about the location- I really should've made that more clear. For current reference, the building is in a corporate office development area- much like similar places on Earth, except more spread out. It's for medium-sized businesses that a) want some grounds for themselves, and/or b) want a bit of privacy, and is on the edge of its settlement. TSAB presence in said settlement is mostly concentrated 'downtown', and emergency response time suffers a bit because of it.
As for (simulated) earthquakes, nope. I could develop the spell, sure. Probably even cast it, eventually. The problem is that I don't have the experience to reliably shake the building without collapsing it, and would need a good bit of architectural engineering/demolitions expertise on top of that. Still, an option for the future.
Running a false flag op like that... could work. If I'd thought of it, I'd've been worried about the possibility of people calling for backup. Or worse- legal representation.
**********
That figured out, I started by pulling up my spell design system, and doing a bit of tinkering. ...reverse the values here, give it a new name, and save! Good- onto Phase Two.Phase Two, put simply, was casting the spell I'd just created. I just ducked behind a nearby building, cast it (and let me tell you, that one took some effort, even for me), and walked back out to where I was. Can't see it yet. Good. It should kick in when somebody leaves the building... curses. Now I can't just walk up to the place. How do I start Phase Three?
SMACK...duh, I can fly. Really deserved a smack upside the head for that one.Wincing at my own stupidity, I fired up an Air Comet, and flew up and away from my target building. Once I was high enough- is anybody likely to look this high up? Nah- I positioned myself directly over the building, and lowered myself back down, onto the roof.Now to Phase Three.
I opened the roof access, and walked into the building. Left, forward two meters, right, forward 2.3 more meters, and another right. There's the elevator. Apply a bit of gravity there and there... and now the shaft is open.
[Mal, anybody in the elevator, or within a meter of it?]
[ONE AUGMENTED HUMAN, AND A HIGHLY ADVANCED DEVICE.]
[Very droll, Malleus.]
That settled, I hovered into the elevator shaft, pointed Mal straight down, and brought up one of my experimental spells.
Gift of Forethought, warm our thoughts and kindle our spirits! Pyropotamos!WHOOSH...
Is that what a flamethrower really looks like? I think that that's what a flamethrower really looks like.The Flame River wasn't quite what I'd come to expect. Instead of a billowing cloud of short-ranged flames, the way all the video games tended to portray flamethrowers, what I got was a bar of incandescence shooting out of my magic circle. Potent fire, plus tight control, plus overpowered propulsion, equals heat beam. Maybe I should back it down a bit later?I took a look down the shaft. Sure burned through that elevator well enough, but it's not really catching anything on fire. Version 2 needs less power behind it, and a good bit more spread. Ah, well. Have to work with what I've got. Maybe shoot it out the doors?
I moved my casting arm, causing the spell to track sluggishly across the top of the elevator... and the bottom of the elevator... and the concrete-like floor of the shaft. Carefully... CAREFULLY... THERE WE GO! That melted door should do nicely. Now I just cut the power, move my aim up a level, and...
...and...
...okay, V2 also needs to cast faster. That delay was just silly. ANYWAY, burn this elevator door out, and move up again.By the time I got to the fifth floor, I could hear alarms going off across the building. FINALLY. Wondered how much fire it'd take. Just track up to the seventh floor for a bit, very carefully, and... good! [How's the evacuation, Mal?]
[ALL OCCUPANTS MOVING. PROGRESS LIMITED BY STAIR CAPACITY-]
-Whoa, dizzy. High mana drain. Trap?-[-EIGHTEEN OCCUPANTS. ALL CANNOT MOVE. TWELVE ARE UNCONSCIOUS.]
Yep. Trap. Note to self: Gaea's Love doesn't scale up well as it is. Time to move out.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
BA, this is one of the Syndicate's Perfectly Legitimate Businesses (read: money-laundering vector and supplementary funding source). It's full of innocent employees and white-collar criminals, in roughly equal proportions. That's why none of them detect as combat mages- this is a low-profile, low-heat operation... for them.
Reading my mind again, Jorlem? Actually pulling the fire alarm lacks a certain something, though- I went with the fun/classy option.
CD, you're right about the location- I really should've made that more clear. For current reference, the building is in a corporate office development area- much like similar places on Earth, except more spread out. It's for medium-sized businesses that a) want some grounds for themselves, and/or b) want a bit of privacy, and is on the edge of its settlement. TSAB presence in said settlement is mostly concentrated 'downtown', and emergency response time suffers a bit because of it.
As for (simulated) earthquakes, nope. I could develop the spell, sure. Probably even cast it, eventually. The problem is that I don't have the experience to reliably shake the building without collapsing it, and would need a good bit of architectural engineering/demolitions expertise on top of that. Still, an option for the future.
Running a false flag op like that... could work. If I'd thought of it, I'd've been worried about the possibility of people calling for backup. Or worse- legal representation.
**********
That figured out, I started by pulling up my spell design system, and doing a bit of tinkering. ...reverse the values here, give it a new name, and save! Good- onto Phase Two.Phase Two, put simply, was casting the spell I'd just created. I just ducked behind a nearby building, cast it (and let me tell you, that one took some effort, even for me), and walked back out to where I was. Can't see it yet. Good. It should kick in when somebody leaves the building... curses. Now I can't just walk up to the place. How do I start Phase Three?
SMACK...duh, I can fly. Really deserved a smack upside the head for that one.Wincing at my own stupidity, I fired up an Air Comet, and flew up and away from my target building. Once I was high enough- is anybody likely to look this high up? Nah- I positioned myself directly over the building, and lowered myself back down, onto the roof.Now to Phase Three.
I opened the roof access, and walked into the building. Left, forward two meters, right, forward 2.3 more meters, and another right. There's the elevator. Apply a bit of gravity there and there... and now the shaft is open.
[Mal, anybody in the elevator, or within a meter of it?]
[ONE AUGMENTED HUMAN, AND A HIGHLY ADVANCED DEVICE.]
[Very droll, Malleus.]
That settled, I hovered into the elevator shaft, pointed Mal straight down, and brought up one of my experimental spells.
Gift of Forethought, warm our thoughts and kindle our spirits! Pyropotamos!WHOOSH...
Is that what a flamethrower really looks like? I think that that's what a flamethrower really looks like.The Flame River wasn't quite what I'd come to expect. Instead of a billowing cloud of short-ranged flames, the way all the video games tended to portray flamethrowers, what I got was a bar of incandescence shooting out of my magic circle. Potent fire, plus tight control, plus overpowered propulsion, equals heat beam. Maybe I should back it down a bit later?I took a look down the shaft. Sure burned through that elevator well enough, but it's not really catching anything on fire. Version 2 needs less power behind it, and a good bit more spread. Ah, well. Have to work with what I've got. Maybe shoot it out the doors?
I moved my casting arm, causing the spell to track sluggishly across the top of the elevator... and the bottom of the elevator... and the concrete-like floor of the shaft. Carefully... CAREFULLY... THERE WE GO! That melted door should do nicely. Now I just cut the power, move my aim up a level, and...
...and...
...okay, V2 also needs to cast faster. That delay was just silly. ANYWAY, burn this elevator door out, and move up again.By the time I got to the fifth floor, I could hear alarms going off across the building. FINALLY. Wondered how much fire it'd take. Just track up to the seventh floor for a bit, very carefully, and... good! [How's the evacuation, Mal?]
[ALL OCCUPANTS MOVING. PROGRESS LIMITED BY STAIR CAPACITY-]
-Whoa, dizzy. High mana drain. Trap?-[-EIGHTEEN OCCUPANTS. ALL CANNOT MOVE. TWELVE ARE UNCONSCIOUS.]
Yep. Trap. Note to self: Gaea's Love doesn't scale up well as it is. Time to move out.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.