The Coalition States should consider wiping out the Dolphins

[Axelmania]

Back in 105PA per Underseas 74 "the CS doesn't know or care about dolphins and whales", but that could change...

It's sad, but the Proseks, if properly educated about these creatures, will know what has to be done. These creatures have a propensity to stay near ley lines so if they encounter a threat, can become MDC creatures via Ley Line Charging (pg 80 of Rifts Underseas, ability 1).

That alone is fine. The CS is tolerant of innate magical abilities like these (they use Psi-Stalkers who also become MDC near ley lines) and even learned ones (their own Rifts Study scientists can use Ley Line Rejuvenation too!)

The danger is that these creatures can also, with at most 1 minute of prep, create a micro-Rift for a paltry 10 PPE.

Given that all dolphins are inherent spellcasters of Dolphin Magic (the nature of which seems ambiguous enough for the CS to ignore it, probably hard to tell apart from natural psionics) Dolphins can draw on 10 PPE in a melee round from ley lines (as of RUE) to fuel this, not even exhausting their personal reserves.

Unfortunately, when they do this, the rifts will release A FEW Poltergeists (Dark Conversions 76 to 77) ALMOST EVERY TIME.

This is a negligible threat to Dolphins: Poltergeists move at spd 44 and dolphins have a minimum speed of 47, which is 94 on ley lines via their free 'speed doubler' ability and 376 using Ride Ley Lines (mere 10 to activate, lasts indefinitely like Line Charged). They can always out-swim them if they get annoying, and annoyance is pretty much all a Poltergeist can do to a dolphin anyway (sapping their PPE, levitating them, splashing them with telekinesis).

This is not the case for humans. Humans are vulnerable creatures (much less SDC than dolphins, can't double healing on ley lines or turn MDC) and can't outrun them without expensive vehicles. Humans live alongside objects which are dangerous in the hands of poltergeists: knives, guns, propane tanks.

One would hope those entities stick to ley lines as a plentiful food source, but their empathy obsession causes them to seek out humans as playthings, and they will inevitably look for "playmates" they can keep up with who are easy to frighten: humans.

This great danger is being set upon the world by the sloth of dolphins and their casual creation of micro-Rifts, possibly dozens every single hour. This pollutes the oceans with poltergeists making crossing them by boat more treacherous than it needs to be. Spreading out looking for FUN, the poltergeists will inevitably anchor themselves to passing aircraft, making intercontinental trade limited to hypersonic vehicles.

One would hope these supernatural foes would be attracted to mages and their high PPE (normally spellcasters can't have their PPE stolen by other spellcasters, but poltergeists function differently) but mages have a variety of abilities that make keeping poltergeists away pretty easy, such as (RUE 218) putting simple protection circles everywhere (24 hrs protection per 4 PPE is 6 hours per PPE, easy to maintain) which mages who know the 9th level spell can do anyd ANYONE can activate.

Also "Amulets of Protection against the supernatural will send them scurrying away" likely referencing RUE 223's "Protection against the Supernatural" amulet that normally only gives a bonus vs HF and possession. Mages who know this 12th level spell can give out Poltergeist-repelling tokens to their allies for times they can't be protected by an established Protection Circle, while those not beholden to mages remain vulnerable.

The range of that isn't clear, though for comparison the range on the "Sense the Presence of Spirits" amulet is 60ft and probably a good guideline.

Sanctum (RUE 224) also indefinitely requires a save vs magic to approach, keeping them back for times when a Protection Circle is not active and you don't have dozens of Amulets to encircle your place with.

With all these countermeasures, poltergeists are easily driven away from magical communities (the very sort responsible for bringing these menaces to Earth) and toward non-magical population hubs such as the Coalition States' cities, preying upon the vulnerable who live in close proximity with nowhere to run, attacking them in their beds, on their toilets, at their stoves. Mobiles dropped upon the heads of innocent babies, litter boxes of guardian kittens overturned, glass shattered underfoot, fridges opened to spoil food, sleep spoiled by midnight vacuums...

Psi-Net does its best to defend the cities against these encroaching menaces, but they lack the numbers needed to deal with the droves these illegal immigrants who are invading from other dimensions, and the Dolphin coyotes smuggling them into our dimension cannot be viewed as blameless. Dolphins must be forbid from using their ley line rifting under direct authority of the CS Navy, and must be wiped out if they refuse to cooperate.

Only dolphins who are psionically conditioned by Psi-Bat to absolutely avoid opening Rifts at ANY cost (perhaps Mind-Wiped to prevent them using the ability) and who dedicate themselves to using their Ley Line Energy Blasts to KILL ALL POLTERGEISTS they've polluted the seas with, can be tolerated to exist.

However, given the amount of work that would take, and how dolphins would likely resist it, the easier approach that would likely be taken is to take out a kill-on-sight order for all dolphins, porpoises and orcas ("killer whales") once the Navy observes these creatures' casual ability to open micro-Rifts. By now Psi-Bat and RCSG scientists must know that all rifts almost always release a few poltergeists and any means of creating Rifts into our world must be eliminated. LLH is too dangerous.

[Shark_Force]

is there any particular reason the dolphins would actually be using those abilities on any sort of remotely regular basis? legitimate question, underseas was a friend's book, not mine. i rather suspect that they generally don't make these micro-rifts though. in the event that they do, are the rifts even large enough to allow poltergeists through? they're the size of soccer balls, and the only information regarding the size of "micro-rift" is in the shifter description, which indicates no larger than a grapefruit. soccer balls are larger than grapefruits, so these would be an exception if that is the case. furthermore, that text in dark conversions talks about dimensional portals and natural rifts... dimensional portal is both an actual spell and a shifter ability. even beyond that, dark conversions mentions this when opening a dimensional portal or natural rift on a nexus (not a ley line). given a nexus is far more dangerous than a ley line, i doubt the dolphins are hanging around them all that much.

additionally, while poltergeists don't exclusively stay on ley lines, there is a strong tendency to do so. for the most part, the CS will not be building communities on ley lines. and the poltergeists only stay in one place indefinitely when they are both on a ley line and have found a place they like there... otherwise, no, they aren't particularly likely to stick around.

thirdly, poltergeists are explicitly more vulnerable than usual to psychic exorcism, a minor healing power, and can be driven away from an area using that power... and the CS has a lot of people, with around 1/4 of them having some amount of psychic ability. the odds are quite good that even in a community as small as 100 people, at least one of them can exorcise poltergeists.

fourthly, around 4% of all dogboys are actually physical psychics, and can have super psionic abilities (flavourwise, probably slanted towards physical oriented super psionic abilities, which will slant things rather heavily towards attacks). i'm not convinced the CS are going to have that many problems. there is no need to call on psi-bat specifically, their regular dog packs and other special forces can probably handle things just fine.

there is also some room for debate as to whether minor telekinesis attack powers and/or ectoplasm would deal MD to a poltergeist, given all psionic attacks are specifically mentioned as something they're vulnerable to... but we've already had that discussion elsewhere, and probably shouldn't bring it here. in any event, it likely isn't necessary for the above reasons.

[The Beast]

I'm pretty sure the CotR took care of Miami long before the CS came to be. No need for the CS to worry about a NFL team.

[taalismn]

I can just see a Dogboy going through cans of tuna, looking for the ones with dolphin in them.

[Nekira Sudacne]

Axelmania is on some kind of mission to take the note in the dimensional portal spell of a few entities ente[color=#FF0000[/color]ring every time a rift opens into some kind of major problem the setting needs to worry about.

I seriously doubt the CS or anyone else loses sleep over it or factors it into plans beyond any other random nuisance.

The poltergeist entry says that empathy and telepathy can be used to shop them away, so a huge number of dog boys and psi stalkers can just shoo them away.

[Axelmania]

One interesting thing about dolphin micro-rifts is they have no listed duration. There's no indication they close after 30 seconds/level like a dimensional portal does, for example. There's actually no indication they close at all, except perhaps that people would find that convenient as needing to fathom oceans littered with millions of micro-rifts along ley lines might be disconcerting to boaters.

If we look at the types on RUE 193, my guess is they probably aren't meant to be constant though. They certain are not periodic. They aren't the "completely random" transient Rifts, but most likely the "fourth type" which are "created at the whim of the mage".

RUE 196 specifies that the "random" table includes "brought about by mystical means" which covers their line-hopping ability closest.

Only the Dying/Misting rifts are guaranteed to be stable, the other six types (Shrunken/Pulsating/Swelling/Consuming/Transparent/Exploding) all have chances of switching to other dimensions to let nasty stuff in.

is there any particular reason the dolphins would actually be using those abilities on any sort of remotely regular basis? legitimate question, underseas was a friend's book, not mine. i rather suspect that they generally don't make these micro-rifts though.

CJ wrote them before RUE buffed ley line PPE to 10/melee so originally they probably would've been more conservative in their use to keep their PPE for other purposes.

At 10 PPE they can travel 1mile/level so long as the origin/destination are both on ley lines (they can be same or different line) which is incredibly useful. Dolphin minimum speed is 32mph, line doubler allows them to double that to 64 (though note they would need to stay on a line to use that, can't hop across non-ley inter-line space and keep speed up) and going 64mph does allow them to travel over 1 mile per minute, so it doesn't exactly (at 1st level, anyway) let them go faster on the SAME line, but the ability to switch lines can't be underestimated.

If they switch lines without using these rifts, going off the ley line means losing their "Line Charged" ability to turn MDC, making them vulnerable. They can't reactivate it for an entire hour after it turns off. If they simply rift to another line, they can keep it on. So if they need to switch to different lines (perhaps that's where the fish are) Line Hopping has undeniable advantages.

in the event that they do, are the rifts even large enough to allow poltergeists through? they're the size of soccer balls, and the only information regarding the size of "micro-rift" is in the shifter description, which indicates no larger than a grapefruit.

There are different levels of "micro". Obviously this is a dolphin-sized micro-rift (or orca-sized in the case of killer whales, who can also do it) or they wouldn't be able to fit through. A dolphin is at least 4 soccer balls.

I also don't think there's actually any size requirements for the entities, because they are intangible creatures, and because they aren't necessarily from wherever a rift leads to, but more likely the area in-between.

that text in dark conversions talks about dimensional portals and natural rifts... dimensional portal is both an actual spell and a shifter ability.

If it said "Dimensional Portal" I would agree, but it is lowercased and I believe used informally.

You can see this for example on RUE 193:
The odds of a dimensional portal opening up and tearing a "Rift" in space and time to another world or dimension has to do with a vast number of influences, chance and the cosmic balance.

even beyond that, dark conversions mentions this when opening a dimensional portal or natural rift on a nexus (not a ley line). given a nexus is far more dangerous than a ley line, i doubt the dolphins are hanging around them all that much.

I read it as:

almost every time
a dimensional portal is opened
or
a natural dimensional Rift occurs at a ley line nexus

Nexi were the only place where natural rifts occurred, originally. RMB163 "Periods of increased energy at a nexus point" is where the 30/40 % chance of rifts during equinox/solstice.

RUE193 broadened the random opening of rifts to lines too, which should also bring in poltergeists.

The following line about shifters, for example, doesn't require any ley lines at all.

additionally, while poltergeists don't exclusively stay on ley lines, there is a strong tendency to do so.

Only if there is someone interesting there to play with. Otherwise they will get bored and wander around, perhaps not straying far from a food source, but soon as they do find food sources they can follow them further away.

poltergeists only stay in one place indefinitely when they are both on a ley line and have found a place they like there... otherwise, no, they aren't particularly likely to stick around.

Reread the initial paragraph: they're "especially" at lines and nexuses, but they "abound" in Rifts Earth in general. You may as well call it Poltergeist Earth.

"once such a place is found" for the "long haul" refers to "a good source of PPE". That does not need to involve ley energy. If all you need is a max of 4 PPE per day, a single being who sleeps for 1 hour per day can provide that to you.

thirdly, poltergeists are explicitly more vulnerable than usual to psychic exorcism, a minor healing power, and can be driven away from an area using that power...

Weird, RUE 165 still only describes doing that to possessed people. I agree that you can do this (DC77 still has the note for both magic and psionic exorcisms) but it seems strange they wouldn't update the descriptions in the main book to acknowledge the more varied use of the power.

That said: it has an 8ft range and at least 36 minutes to do. How are you going to keep it busy (and not just escaping) during the 144 required melee rounds?

These merely "send them scurrying away" or "convince them to vacate", so you're just pushing the trouble onto your neighbor. Bored poltergeists are probably going to be hopping house to house already, so you're not adding something not already being done.

and the CS has a lot of people, with around 1/4 of them having some amount of psychic ability. the odds are quite good that even in a community as small as 100 people, at least one of them can exorcise poltergeists.

In the time it takes to respond/diagnose/treat the problem, a poltergeist could already have caused lots of damage, and possibly killed someone.

The "Commune with Spirits" sensitive psi is actually the superior option here since it costs less ISP (6 instead of 10) and doesn't require any prep time (it can be used immediately). All exorcism basically does it allow communication with these things, it's primary purpose is forcing Possessing Entities out of bodies. Telepathy (4 ISP) is even better, only downside being it doesn't give you a 30ft sensing radius.

around 4% of all dogboys are actually physical psychics, and can have super psionic abilities (flavourwise, probably slanted towards physical oriented super psionic abilities, which will slant things rather heavily towards attacks).

I assume you're referring to the Optional Character Tables on RUE 148, with 149 listing a new option of 1 super / 3 phys instead of 7 phys.

Thanks for pointing this out, as I hadn't actually noticed it before I think maybe RUE introduced this? I don't remember it from previous dog boy reprints.

That certainly is a gamechanger, though which powers do you think they would favor using? I don't know if psi-sword would be an option since they presumably select this at 1st and you can't select that until 3rd. Doing MD with a mind bolt is pretty expensive, and I'm not entirely certain how pyrokinesis would interact with entities.

i'm not convinced the CS are going to have that many problems. there is no need to call on psi-bat specifically, their regular dog packs and other special forces can probably handle things just fine.

Psi-Net does inside-city patrolling, Psi-Bat is the army branch for outside-city engagements. Psi-Bat would engage with intercepting hordes of entities on their way to a city, while Psi-Net would engage those who got in.

Although regular dog packs get mixed in with standard police/military I think they would probably count as transfers who answer to either Psi-Net police or Psi-Bat army, and the Psi-Stalkers in charge of the dogs would probably network with them for problem-solving.

there is also some room for debate as to whether minor telekinesis attack powers and/or ectoplasm would deal MD to a poltergeist, given all psionic attacks are specifically mentioned as something they're vulnerable to... but we've already had that discussion elsewhere, and probably shouldn't bring it here. in any event, it likely isn't necessary for the above reasons.

Keep in mind if you can't see the invisible you're -10 to hit a poltergeist, so they're going to need to activate that to target properly...

Dog boys with physical psi won't have sensitive power options to select STI with.

So you'd need 1 dog boy with STI to shout out the entity's location while the other one fires blindly at it. That could get tricky, don't know how combat like that would work.

Killing them is pretty necessary, since otherwise all you can do is RP with them. Psionic exorcism is described comparatively to empathy / empathic transfer as a "convincing" tool.

That empathy bit always threw me: that's for sensing how others feel. Does that mean you read the emotion of the poltergeist to help RP convinging them?

Their only skill is Land Navigation (no languages) so convincing would basically be like trying to coerce an animal to do something.

So like.. are you thinking if Hydrokinesis throws boiling water at a poltergeist it will do 2D4 MD to it or something? That and TK just seem like using psi to manipulate existing things, I don't really know if that assaults them directly... even a TK Acceleration Attack doing MD seems a bit iffy.

I didn't originally think that non-Burster pyro had a chance of hurting them, but that does MD as of RUE now so it's sort of a moot point.

49-50 of Monsters+Animals 2nd ed has some elaborations which clarify some interesting things about them which CB/DC doesn't:

They are also intangible which means they can pass through solid matter but not through energy (fire. magic seal.
Annor of Jthan. force field. etc.).


The Rifts versions' "Naturla Abiltiies" only mentions "not through energy" but doesn't actually give examples. Knowing that simple fire will stop them (where a wall won't) is pretty cool, and might explain how people might contain them, but creating a ring of fire around them to stop their movement. Then the poltergeist would need to use their TK to try and smother the fire somehow to get past it.

Poltergeists are vulnerable to all magic and psychic attacks. but they are impervious to physical and energy attacks

The "but" is relevant here: there are magic/psychic attacks which are physical or energy in nature.

It's confusing since "all but" isn't all, and energy/physical is a BIG as it includes most obvious attacks as we think of them. It's the "roleplay" attacks (for example, Empathic Transmission is an attack, but it is neither energy or physical) which are effective.

I probably would think you can't hurt them with something until explicitly told it can harm entities.

For some reason this includes Dessicate the Supernatural as of Dark Conversions even though that saps water... all I can figure is they must be made of something like ectoplasm which has water in it. Water which can travel through walls because it's partly anchored in some foreign dimension, in flux like a Psi-Ghost who also is mostly water.

Madhaven 109 relates:
The Entity is impervious to physical and energy attacks in both its energy form and ghostly visage. Magic, psionics and trickery are usu­ally the only weapons effective against an Entity

Vulnerabilities 111 for Gluttonous as example:

1 . Spell Magic:
Control/Enslave Entity,
Banishment,
Constrain Being,
Commune with Spirits,
Summon and Con­trol Entity,
Exorcism, and
protection circles,
spells
or
magic items that hold Entities at bay.
Likewise, magic attacks do their full, normal damage.

That last note of relevance: nothing about psychic attacks. Plus "normal" damage means if it's not MD, it's not MD.

Compare 116's Madness Ghost:

2. Psionics:
Mind Block will help protect one from the Madness Ghost,
as well as a psionic P.P.E. Shield.
Psionic Exorcism wiII dispel the fiend without fail.
They are also vul­nerable to various other psionic attacks,
including Empathic Transmission.

Note there's no mention at all of DAMAGING psionics. Instead it moves to Empathic Transmission. If stuff like Mind Bolts / Psi Swords work the really should emphasize that somewhere.

Axelmania is on some kind of mission to take the note in the dimensional portal spell of a few entities ente[color=#FF0000[/color]ring every time a rift opens into some kind of major problem the setting needs to worry about.

They "abound" on Rifts Earth according to Dark Conversions. That seems to mean something like "exists in large numbers". It's all about the degree to which you interpret that.

I seriously doubt the CS or anyone else loses sleep over it or factors it into plans beyond any other random nuisance.

Or: it helps to explain the state of danger/death/paranoia which shapes the CS.

The poltergeist entry says that empathy and telepathy can be used to shop them away, so a huge number of dog boys and psi stalkers can just shoo them away.

Telepathy isn't an "I win" button, they don't just automatically run off when you do it. The powers work like they always do: they help you understand how the thing thinks. Then you still need to RP to "convince them to leave somehow, like perhaps you find some captured mage with lots of PPE and beckon the entities to follow them.

Since they love intense emotions, probably the way to RP it would be to have it be boring (low-emotion) where you want them to leave. Strangely the best thing you could do, rather than evacuate scared civilians, is to use "Suppress Fear" on them so their fear will stop interesting the entities.

Although note mentioned, "Group Mind Block" is probably also really effective, since that should prevent their empathy from sensing the emotions of protected targets, so they'll try to move to find unblocked targets to excite them.

The only real "attack" against them from the listed psionic examples is Empathic Transmission, if you can make them feel despair/sorrow they'll "leave without a battle". Fear also gives a 66% chance they will run (since there is no roll v HF their usual +10 apparently won't help).

Love/Peacefulness also mentions "leave without being overtly cruel or destructive" without a %. "Trust" is basically pointless since they can't understand what you say to them.

[Shark_Force]

so i'm just gonna point out: if the mini-rifts are FROM rifts earth TO rifts earth, it doesn't matter how many poltergeists come through. you aren't increasing the number at all, just moving them from one place to another, in the worst case, provided we even assume the dolphins use those powers frequently at all (for the most part, i doubt the dolphins are in a terrible rush to be at any given location).

also, the telekinetic attack powers aren't entirely physical. TK punch and TK push can both be used with absolutely zero physical contact of any form from the psychic. no physical objects required. TK jump allows a kick that doesn't seem to be based on physical capabilities at all, either, implying it is pure telekinetic power as well. they're certainly looking at least no more physical than psi-sword or mind bolt.

[dreicunan]

Everyone with whom I've played always ignored the text from Dessicate the Supernatural about it working by rapidly dehydrating and just had it do the same damage to all supernatural beings (sometimes renamed to "Devastate the Supernatural").

[Nekira Sudacne]

Or: it helps to explain the state of danger/death/paranoia which shapes the CS.

Given we're at several points in the books timeline given a list of the CS's concerns and objectives and exactly none of them mention entities, it's more likely not and you are just pushing it because you personally find it facinating. Which is fine if you wanna run a game with poltergeists around every corner just don't try to convince me it's cannon or is going to effect CS policy in any game but your house rules.

[Sureshot]

I just cannot see the CS wasting time and effort to exterminate dolphins imo.

Possibly if they defeat the more powerful major and minor supernatural menaces that are on Rifts Earth currently.

Now when they have a vampire infested country on their doorstep seems well like a waste.

Even then given that Dolphins and Whales are native to Rifts Earth and generally good and helpful I could see the CS have a leave alone and let live attitude.

I could see Nemo and the New Navy, Tritonia, Whale Singers, Lemurian, Ocean Singers all rushing to help Dolphins. Making the CS more enemies.

[Axelmania]

Noticed something interesting in RUE as well. Page 191 (Surface Ley Line Storms)

Ley Line Storms often precede the opening of a dimensional Rift, particularly Random Rifts

The dolphins' Rifts certainly aren't "random", but while "particularly" emphasizes they happen more often before random rifts, this implies they also precede NON-random rifts, which is pretty interesting too...

That raises a lot of question about what non-random Rifts this refers to. Can Rifts Earth somehow sense when someone is going to intentionally open a dimension portal?

Ley Line Storms, interestingly enough (pg 192 number 6) close existing portals, so if dolphin portals did end up being left open indefinitely, this would be one means of the planet correcting that.

On the other hand, it also creates a 20% chance of a dimension rift opening, and that may be to somewhere other than a mile or two away on Rifts Earth's ocean.

so i'm just gonna point out: if the mini-rifts are FROM rifts earth TO rifts earth, it doesn't matter how many poltergeists come through. you aren't increasing the number at all, just moving them from one place to another

There has never been any requirement that poltergeists actually be at the destination point of where your rift opens to for them to enter in through it.

You're thinking of a rift two-dimensionally, to get a sense for their added dimension, read about the Dimensional Maelstrom on page 20 of Dimension Book 7: there is a space which exists BETWEEN dimensions. Pg 21 describes it as the "black void".

Pg 26-27 (Displacement Storms) also talk about it: "a long dark tunnel" ... "the blackness" .. "creatures trapped between the dimensions which attack on site".

in the worst case, provided we even assume the dolphins use those powers frequently at all (for the most part, i doubt the dolphins are in a terrible rush to be at any given location).

There could be a lot of dangerous predators with supernatural endurance who they might be able to outpace in the short-term, but who they need to avoid being tracked by (dolphins will eventually get tired swimming full-speed, presumably) so leaping miles would be useful in that.

It's also not only about time, but about keeping on a ley line to stay MDC, which would be very important to avoid getting turned into instant giblets by some random mutant pirahna with a 1MD bite (pg 40 Ley Line Mutations, happens 15% of the time)

also, the telekinetic attack powers aren't entirely physical. TK punch and TK push can both be used with absolutely zero physical contact of any form from the psychic. no physical objects required. TK jump allows a kick that doesn't seem to be based on physical capabilities at all, either, implying it is pure telekinetic power as well. they're certainly looking at least no more physical than psi-sword or mind bolt.

Psyscape 38 / RUE 170 does say "touch or" for range, which I thought might simply be referring to a maximum thickness of gauntlets/boots. TK Punch accompanies a normal attack that can be parried, and it mentions potential damage to the body from the strain.

The real name is that it says "punch or kick-like force". I think that's basically intended to be "punch-like or kick-like" which wouldn't been clearer phrasing. All I can guess is the strange comes from needing to channel it through the limbs, and since the TK force follows the path of the limbs this would explain why parries would presumably make them miss. This is probably also why PS damage bonuses get added, they somehow synergize their PS with their TK.

Since it accompanies "a normal, physical attack" I guess maybe you would roll the usual damage for that separately? That could still incentivize people who can naturally punch at 3D6 to use this power, if it is additive and not replacing.

Do you recall reading somewhere about TK Punch being able to harm entities though? A kick doing a max of 24+PS means you need a bonus of 76 (PS 91) to actually get to 100 SDC which is what is needed to harm an MDC being, unless they had something which converts standard damage into mega. Should work for Sea Inquisitors.

we're at several points in the books timeline given a list of the CS's concerns and objectives
exactly none of them mention entities

Does it ever mention "supernatural beings"? Or those who summon them?

Possibly if they defeat the more powerful major and minor supernatural menaces that are on Rifts Earth currently. Now when they have a vampire infested country on their doorstep seems well like a waste.

There are certainly a lot more imminent threats, but that doesn't mean there might not be some recommendation put out for the navy to engage them on sight if their rift-making powers are discovered (big if, for all I know another century might go by without the CS learning of this)

Dolphins and Whales are native to Rifts Earth and generally good and helpful I could see the CS have a leave alone and let live attitude.

It's not that the CS would view them as malicious or anything, just possibly careless. It's possible most wouldn't realize the risk to humans they create by opening those things. After all, it's going to take a long while for the entities to make their way from the deep oceans to the mainlands. It might even take a decade, as they only have Land Navigation, not Sea Navigation. It's entirely random. Maybe the vast majority keep to the oceans and only rarely spill on to land... so far.

It's sort of like pollution. It seems like such a non-problem in small amounts in the short term, but it builds up an endangers future generations.

The only way I could see around it would be to implant dolphins with GPS bombs that explode and kill them if they approach ley lines, which would prevent them from opening rifts on those ley lines. Dolphins can sense the lines just like LLW so they could stay away if instructed, and implants would guarantee they obey.

I could see Nemo and the New Navy, Tritonia, Whale Singers, Lemurian, Ocean Singers all rushing to help Dolphins. Making the CS more enemies.

At the point the CS realizes dolphins are doing this they may well have defeated more imment threads and see a need to engage Tritonia (they embrace Naut'Yll into their population!) and ocean mages.

Captain Nemo is very suspicious of D-Bees, if he learns dolphins are responsible for bringing them to Rifts Earth, his opinions on them may change. He might be a good go-between to negotiate with dolphins to get them to stop using ley lines.

I could see him arguing for the tolerant approach of mind-wiping them of their rift-making powers and installing GPS devices which will detonate if they go near ley lines, in case their abilities were not properly wiped or they could somehow re-learn them.

[Grell]

I just cannot see the CS wasting time and effort to exterminate dolphins imo.

Just wait until they discover how tasty they are...

[Mack]

thirdly, poltergeists are explicitly more vulnerable than usual to psychic exorcism, a minor healing power, and can be driven away from an area using that power... and the CS has a lot of people, with around 1/4 of them having some amount of psychic ability. the odds are quite good that even in a community as small as 100 people, at least one of them can exorcise poltergeists.

Random tangent ahead!

This piqued my curiosity, so I played around with the math a bit. I was bit surprised by the end of it to find that out of 100 people, ~2.16 of them ought to have Exorcism. I expected it to be less than that.

[Shark_Force]

thirdly, poltergeists are explicitly more vulnerable than usual to psychic exorcism, a minor healing power, and can be driven away from an area using that power... and the CS has a lot of people, with around 1/4 of them having some amount of psychic ability. the odds are quite good that even in a community as small as 100 people, at least one of them can exorcise poltergeists.

Random tangent ahead!

This piqued my curiosity, so I played around with the math a bit. I was bit surprised by the end of it to find that out of 100 people, ~2.16 of them ought to have Exorcism. I expected it to be less than that.

yeah, there aren't a ton of healing powers to randomly get, so it's higher than you'd expect if you were checking for a random sensitive or physical power

[Axelmania]

thirdly, poltergeists are explicitly more vulnerable than usual to psychic exorcism, a minor healing power, and can be driven away from an area using that power... and the CS has a lot of people, with around 1/4 of them having some amount of psychic ability. the odds are quite good that even in a community as small as 100 people, at least one of them can exorcise poltergeists.

Random tangent ahead!

This piqued my curiosity, so I played around with the math a bit. I was bit surprised by the end of it to find that out of 100 people, ~2.16 of them ought to have Exorcism. I expected it to be less than that.

There is no such math, perhaps you are relying on an assumption that there's an equal % chance of having any particular lesser power, but I don't believe that was ever established. Summon Inner Strength might well be 10x more common than Telekinesis, for example, even though both are lesser physical powers. Or even vice versa.

Kind of a moot point though: psionic exorcism just lets you RP communicating with poltergeists in some fashion to try convincing a non-verbal entity to do something. There haven't been any mechanics I've seen for exorcism doing anythng other than anti-possession.

[Mack]

thirdly, poltergeists are explicitly more vulnerable than usual to psychic exorcism, a minor healing power, and can be driven away from an area using that power... and the CS has a lot of people, with around 1/4 of them having some amount of psychic ability. the odds are quite good that even in a community as small as 100 people, at least one of them can exorcise poltergeists.

Random tangent ahead!

This piqued my curiosity, so I played around with the math a bit. I was bit surprised by the end of it to find that out of 100 people, ~2.16 of them ought to have Exorcism. I expected it to be less than that.

There is no such math, perhaps you are relying on an assumption that there's an equal % chance of having any particular lesser power, but I don't believe that was ever established. Summon Inner Strength might well be 10x more common than Telekinesis, for example, even though both are lesser physical powers. Or even vice versa.

If you can produce a canon reference, I'll consider it. Until then, it's unfounded speculation.

[kaid]

Or: it helps to explain the state of danger/death/paranoia which shapes the CS.

Given we're at several points in the books timeline given a list of the CS's concerns and objectives and exactly none of them mention entities, it's more likely not and you are just pushing it because you personally find it facinating. Which is fine if you wanna run a game with poltergeists around every corner just don't try to convince me it's cannon or is going to effect CS policy in any game but your house rules.

Given the sheer amount of manufactured psychic sensitives and psi stalkers the CS has I would assume a lot of what psi squads do is either destroying or forcing entities to go elsewhere. What the CS lacks in magic ability they are pretty well stocked in the types of psychics needed to detect and exorcise entities.

[Axelmania]

If you can produce a canon reference, I'll consider it. Until then, it's unfounded speculation.

The idea that we know the distribution of any powers (whether 1:1 or 1:10 ratios) is unfounded, I merely gave examples I consider to be equivalently supported as an 'equal distribution' idea.

What we do know for sure is stuff like fixed starting powers and any numbers given for character classes which have them. We know all Nega-Psychics can do psionic Exorcism, being the only example I know of.

Given the sheer amount of manufactured psychic sensitives and psi stalkers the CS has I would assume a lot of what psi squads do is either destroying or forcing entities to go elsewhere. What the CS lacks in magic ability they are pretty well stocked in the types of psychics needed to detect and exorcise entities.

Psi-Stalkers (like most Psi-Hounds, optional mutants excepted) only have sensitive powers though. Great at detecting, but you need other troops to carry out the harrying.

Zappers seem like a good option (I remember electricity harmed those from HU with Intangibility, it fits better conceptually IMO) since there's probably less risk of setting communities aflame than with a Burster.P

Psi-Slayers seem like an especially good option since there might be more of them who know Psi-Dagger than Mind Melters who know Psi-Sword, and it's a cheaper quicker-to-make weapon and there's the added incentive of giving them a free meal. If they chose TK Air Walk as their 2nd power it would also give them a lot more options chasing entities across rooftops inside cities that a Mind Melter couldn't match.