Desert Rock VI
This too shall pass.
Newkirk understood all too well. Everyone who had any sort of relevant experience pre-war had become drawn into that grand project, just as he was now being drawn to this one. Any successful continuing insight into the enemy's strategic decision-making would have to be safeguarded as a matter of utmost importance.
The two men peered at the cluster of figures, crowded around the hangar as they were crowded around the table. Newkirk leaned in a little and indicated two of them with a spectral hand. His real hands remained in his pockets.
"Are these Moritz and... Yorck?"
Ellesmere looked at one of the women, who nodded. Newkirk shook his head and moved the figures aside.
"Impossible. Whoever launched the attack had an elemental. Those two don't have that capability, even together. It can't have been Südkreuz. She is over... in New York. Yes, she is, Westlake was nearly killed by her yesterday. That means it was Charlottenburg, Bernauer, or both."
Activity around the table immediately rose to fever pitch.
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Comments (4 so far!)
HSAR
Neutralising spells before they are cast is very difficult, so a combat between wizards is likely to result in severe injuries to both parties (at the very least) as soon each becomes known. The conditions and nature of the encounter between Südkreuz and Westlake are not stated.
Newkirk seems to have very good intelligence on how powerful the enemy spellcasters are. How and why is not stated.
Desert Rock was a series of military exercises carried out in conjuction with the atomic tests mentioned so far. The sixth Desert Rock exercise ran parallel to Operation Teapot, which followed Operation Castle and began in February 1955.
- #3871 Posted 6 years ago
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Robert Quick
I imagine that if you run in the same circles that the knowledge of who's who gets around and that's before the addition of spells to get information or to contact extra-planar entities. I'm curious on why the footnote on Neutralising spells ends up here. There was no direct or indirect mention of such an act. And while I'm only passing familiar with Counterspell in D&D, it doesn't seem that difficult, but then again the people I play with are a little power game-y (which the game actively encourages so I don't blame them fully) so maybe they were abusing an exploit.
- #3878 Posted 6 years ago
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HSAR
@Robert: Ah, that's in the context of "if you can't defend, you'll just all-out attack the other person". So there's very little chance of escaping completely without injury.
- #3879 Posted 6 years ago
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Inspired by (sequel to):
The wizard was shaken out of his reverie by Ellesmere, who led them into a large room filled with te…
Castle Bravo- Published 6 years ago.
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HSAR
Newkirk must have avoided being part of Ultra by the smallest of margins, given his evident power. How and why is not stated.
The spell used here, the same used in "Helen of Bikini" (41641) is Mage Hand, a handy utility spell that does precisely what is observed. It is a spell of such trivialily low power that Newkirk is clearly happy with using it for incredibly ordinary purposes - such as to avoid having to lean over a large map table. I imagine everyone else has to make do with plotting rods or croupier's rakes.
Moritzplatz, Yorckstraße, Südkreuz, Charlottenburg and Bernauer are all stations on the Berlin fast transit network. West Lake is a station on the equivalent system in Atlanta. For convenience, brevity and dramatic effect I have not always used the original station names.