Spectral sentinel

Blades in the Dark
#1

Hullo Blades,

recently one of my players (a whisper) has come up with the idea. He would like to create a network of spectral sentinels and disseminate them around the city in order to spy on relevant factions (in our case mostly the Church of Ecstasy of the Flesh).
He suggested he could “coalesce some electroplasm into a demiconscious sentinel”(so not quite a proper ghost) that could gather information or patrol a specific area. He could then retrieve the information stored via attuning.

I quite liked the idea but am experiencing some difficulty concerning the mechanics to implement. I am in pure brainstorming phase here: maybe he could create a ritual that summon those sentinels that could “function” like deathseeker crows? Or create a specific sensor to be placed around the city. I even thought such creation could involve acquiring a specific claim (perhaps the cultists’ “Ancient tower”?).
But then again, what would the result be? a “mere” +1d on gather informations? or maybe actual piece of information concerning the clocks of surveilled factions?

So: what would you do in this case?
Any suggestions or ideas would be welcome!

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#2

I would become gleeful about the possibility that these sentinels might gradually self-organize into a distributed consciousness / superorganism.

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#3

Ha!
That’s actually a good idea in the long run: might make a good clock! Thanks!

#4

A short answer might be to extend / mark the boundaries of the crew’s Hunting Grounds using the markers.

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#5

that is also interesting, thanks!
I was considering suggesting my player to create a simpler (and cheaper) version of a “Sensorium”, which is a requirement for the Hull (p. 227) and is after all a quite similar concept: “a crystalline orb suspended in electroplasm within a metal frame, which allows the hull to see and hear”. Creating three orbs (say: IV-arcane) and displacing three orbs within an area would allow the Whisper/gang to make attunement checks for “monitoring” the area, acquiring precious informations. I wonder if that could work for the player.

Still not so versatile, though…

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#6

A simple approach could be creating a claim similar to the Shadows’ Ingormants that gives +1 Effect for gather information rolls. This way covers the idea of attunning for the information and all the narrative will be covered during the score to take/establish the claim.

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#7

Yeah a permanent +1 bonus maybe (so long as the sentinels are up), that could work. thanx for the tip!