Nothing's Free in the Free Zone (OOC), Adventure 2: A Dish Best Served Cold Options

[Jack VII]

Anything particular that it is looking for?

How long are you all staying and watching?

The drone is going to use its sensor suite to attempt to perceive any cameras/sensors/locks at the two entrances. It will also record what it is seeing. Following that, I would like it to attempt to use the laser microphone on any windows to rooms that have lights turned on to try to pick up any conversations.

I don't want to be onsite for longer than 30 minutes.

[Lobo0705]

@Jack,

Ok:

1) The guards maintain a fairly standard pattern over the time you are there.

2) The drone sent to the carport shows a camera above the door, and then another camera over the east entrance to the house, but no sensor suite that you can detect.

[Jack VII]

1) The guards maintain a fairly standard pattern over the time you are there.

2) The drone sent to the carport shows a camera above the door, and then another camera over the east entrance to the house, but no sensor suite that you can detect.

1) Are they moving around or mostly static? How far out are they patrolling? Staying by the house or are they covering all of the estate?

2) Cool, good place to start. Is there anyway to cross-reference the list of slaved devices Mel pulled up to try to figure out what's what?

[Lobo0705]

1) Are they moving around or mostly static? How far out are they patrolling? Staying by the house or are they covering all of the estate?

2) Cool, good place to start. Is there anyway to cross-reference the list of slaved devices Mel pulled up to try to figure out what's what?

1) Two of the teams are mobile, maintaining a sweeping pattern, one on the west side of the house, one on the east side. The third team is relatively stationary, near the house, no more than 20-25 meters from it - acting as a bridge between the two other teams. At most, the moving teams (at least in the time you watch) never travel more than 300 meters from the house.

2) She can probably narrow it down to 4 or 5 cameras, of which 2 of them are the actual ones. It would then require Marking and Snooping to verify which is which.

[DrZaius]

@lobo: I am not haggling over price. 5 hours seems like a long time to wait for something as trivial as a hardened case, especially since it isn't illegal. I suppose we have the advantage of not running our SIN (fake or otherwise) on a purchase in the CAS zone, in particular for this type of item. Stone won't be replacing Chapel anytime soon!

@lobo2: as long as I'm paying for it, could I also get low-light on the drones cameras?

Finally- is there anything else you need from me? Ill check in periodically tonight to see if you'd like to post in response. Did I end up learning anything from my networking I could share with the group (Or is that something that is going to take a few more hours?)

-DrZ

[DrZaius]

So Grease's agenda: to gather more intel, make the deal with Stone, analyze the floor plan that the team is providing for weak spots for drone entry, dissiminate any intel gathered to the rest of the team, and meet up with the team after he's got the cases from Stone. I can either post these types of things IC tonight; or I don't have a problem with Lobo posting the gist of them during the day to keep the plot moving along.

Thanks!
-DrZ

[Lobo0705]

First off, let me apologize for not posting last night - bunch of stuff going on at home, and my son had a basketball game. I realized this morning that I left my computer on with me logged in to this website, so it appeared I was logged in the whole time (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif)

Anyway:


@Dr. Z

1) You are correct - the delay indicates him having to get a couple of stolen cases - you could walk up and try and buy one, but then that would potentially be an issue with your Fake SINS.

2) No problem adding lowlight, that brings your cost up to 1,000 per drone (so 2,000 in total). This will only be for the Fly Spies, so any other drones are out of luck (and you are almost out of money - this will bring you down to 890 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif)

3) If you go to Post #349 in the OOC thread, you have learned the first piece of information (marked as "a)") for all three topics. You can share those, but the rest will take you a little while to find out.

@Chrome

Ok your spirit attempts to pass through the barrier:

8d6.hits(5)=4

The barrier resists and succeeds (I am not going to post the roll because otherwise that lets you know the force of the barrier)

The spirit leaves, having failed its remote service.

Ok:

Chrome, do you want to summon another spirit and have it try again?

Mel, any other Matrix Actions?

I assume that Grease communicates what he has learned, to save you having to go back and find it, this is what he says:

1) The Triads:

a) There is a dispute between the Golden Triangle and the White Lotus, and the violence is continuing to escalate.

2) The Target (the guy, not the stuff)

a) Chen Huiquing? Never heard of him.


3) Any Street Rumors in the CAS, goings on, etc.

a) Getting harder and harder to find a Tin Man on the take with the new Sector Manager Bianca Cuthbertson.

I can post something to that effect IC if you wish.

[Melpomene]

Mel, any other Matrix Actions?

I was holding off, waiting to see if Jack or Snap wanted to say anything, but let's just jump forward.

Jack back in on Hot Sim...ASDF still at 3,6,5,5. Let try to identify those two cameras that we're looking for.

[Lobo0705]

I was holding off, waiting to see if Jack or Snap wanted to say anything, but let's just jump forward.

Jack back in on Hot Sim...ASDF still at 3,6,5,5. Let try to identify those two cameras that we're looking for.

Ok - so you'll go back in, enter the Host

Hack a mark on Camera 1
18d6.hits(5)=7

It resists
6d6.hits(5)=3

Snoop that camera footage
14d6.hits(5)=4

It resists
6d6.hits(5)=1

Not the camera you were looking for


Hack a mark on Camera 2
18d6.hits(5)=4

It resists
6d6.hits(5)=3

Snoop that camera footage
14d6.hits(5)=3

It resists
6d6.hits(5)=2


This is the camera over the east door to the house.


Hack a mark on Camera 3
18d6.hits(5)=3

It resists
6d6.hits(5)=0

Snoop that camera footage
14d6.hits(5)=3

It resists
6d6.hits(5)=2


This is the camera by the garage.

[Lobo0705]

@Mel,

One thing - not a tremendous deal, but I am pretty sure that once you jack out, the feeds would immediately stop, because at that point all your Marks disappear, and you can't Snoop the cameras without a Mark on them.

So you may want to wait a minute just in case Jack or Snap want to ask you a question, or at least realize that if you do Jack out and they want to see that footage again, you'll have to do that all over again.

Jack, Snap - do you have any more info you need from Mel before she jacks out?

[Jack VII]

I think the main thing I was shooting for was trying to identify which devices go where so that Mel can hopefully spot and hack them more easily when we actually make the attempt. Jack would use the feeds to update the floor layouts with the likely location of the cameras based on viewing angle. That way, in case we get burned during the recon, we may be able to put together a route that would let Mel get a direct connect on the camera without being seen.

[Melpomene]

Copy that...adjusted IC.

[Chrome Head]

@Chrome

Ok your spirit attempts to pass through the barrier:

8d6.hits(5)=4

The barrier resists and succeeds (I am not going to post the roll because otherwise that lets you know the force of the barrier)

The spirit leaves, having failed its remote service.

Ok:

Chrome, do you want to summon another spirit and have it try again?

No, this was informative in itself, and there's a limit to the number of spirits I'm willing to summon in sequence for remote services. I would do it only if it was really important, and this isn't. The drones will give us better recon anyway (hopefully). I'm just paying the cost of not being able to project like a full mage, and I accept that.

I'll post IC at some point today, to let the team know of what Snap found out.

[Lobo0705]

Ok then - is there anything else I can help with?

[Jack VII]

I don't think so. It's challenging trying to think of everything we need to account for...

I guess once the drone finishes doing the laser microphone check of windows of rooms with lights on, I'd like to try to have it trace a route out to the closest fence line with a direct path to the east entry, using the Radio Signal Scanner to try to detect devices running silently along the path.

[Lobo0705]

I don't think so. It's challenging trying to think of everything we need to account for...

I guess once the drone finishes doing the laser microphone check of windows of rooms with lights on, I'd like to try to have it trace a route out to the closest fence line with a direct path to the east entry, using the Radio Signal Scanner to try to detect devices running silently along the path.

Understandable - look on the bright side, you have days to think about it in this format, as opposed to PnP where you would have to do it effectively on the fly (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Ok - I made some Perception tests, and you have the following information:

Ground Floor:
Lights are on in basically every room.

Laser Microphone reveals
Living room - sounds like someone is watching a trid show

2nd Floor
Again, the lights are basically on in every room (the guy can afford to pay the electric bill I guess (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Laser Microphone reveals
Bedroom immediately east of the Gallery Walkway - classical music playing
West Corner bedroom - someone speaking in Mandarin, voice sounds male, but young.

As far as tracing a path with the other one - I just want to point out that the range on the Bug Scanner (or Radio Signal Scanner whichever you want to call it) is 20 meters, and the range of a motion sensor is 25. So you would theoretically set off motion sensors if you pass near one (and you might not even be able to detect it).

Still want to do so?

[Jack VII]

As far as tracing a path with the other one - I just want to point out that the range on the Bug Scanner (or Radio Signal Scanner whichever you want to call it) is 20 meters, and the range of a motion sensor is 25. So you would theoretically set off motion sensors if you pass near one (and you might not even be able to detect it).

Still want to do so?

Depends. I've always figured a Fly-Spy is probably supposed to be about the length of a forearm (it's a minidrone rather than a microdrone). Would motion sensors be calibrated to pick up something the size of a pigeon? I would think it wouldn't be so sensitive. Then again, I'm not living in the 2070s where drones are ubiquitous.

What do you think?

[Lobo0705]

I think that due to the ubiquitous nature of drones, I don't see that it being calibrated that sensitive would be that unusual.

Especially if you think about the increase in the dog brain of relevant systems.

A sensor suite with a motion sensor and camera picks up movement and then trains the camera on it, snapping infrared/lowlight video - sending that back to a spider or guard's commlink to review.

This one I'm less sure about, but I wouldn't be too surprised if advances in computer technology would allow some form of image recognition to filter out squirrels or other small animals.

Remember, it isn't a done deal - even if there is such a sensor suite, it doesn't automatically detect the drone - I just don't want you to be caught unaware of something you probably would know.

[Chrome Head]

This one I'm less sure about, but I wouldn't be too surprised if advances in computer technology would allow some form of image recognition to filter out squirrels or other small animals.

That's not how we should typically go about it. It should be about how we want the game and setting to be like. A number of existing or almost-existing technology is absent from Shadowrun. What you describe about the squirrels is a good example of that.

In the game, I think Agents can do some of that stuff though.

ETA: How are we ever going to manage our B&E? This is a very well protected target we're going against.

[DrZaius]

Great. Timing wise- how long do I need to stick around the bar until our gear arrives? 5 hours from the conversation I just had? Would it be fruitful to continue talking with people there, or does it make sense to have Grease try some new places to dig up intel? I don't really know the zone, so I'm not sure how helpful that would be. I'll take my answer off the air, so to speak (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif) if you wanted to post the 3 pieces of info in keeping with moving the plot along tonight/tomorrow that's fine by me- otherwise, I may be on later to post to that effect.

-DrZ

[Lobo0705]

That's not how we should typically go about it. It should be about how we want the game and setting to be like. A number of existing or almost-existing technology is absent from Shadowrun. What you describe about the squirrels is a good example of that.

In the game, I think Agents can do some of that stuff though.

I'm with you - I just think that a security system that wasn't designed to detect something as cheap and omnipresent as drones would fall into disuse pretty rapidly.

ETA: How are we ever going to manage our B&E? This is a very well protected target we're going against.

I have faith you guys will find a way. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Lobo0705]

Great. Timing wise- how long do I need to stick around the bar until our gear arrives? 5 hours from the conversation I just had? Would it be fruitful to continue talking with people there, or does it make sense to have Grease try some new places to dig up intel? I don't really know the zone, so I'm not sure how helpful that would be. I'll take my answer off the air, so to speak (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif) if you wanted to post the 3 pieces of info in keeping with moving the plot along tonight/tomorrow that's fine by me- otherwise, I may be on later to post to that effect.

-DrZ

The equipment isn't getting there until the full time has elapsed - which is 4 hours from Jack's conversation for his stuff, and 5 hours for the stuff you ordered. You've still got about an hour to go before you get the rest of the info I listed.

I'm not sure if Jack's plan is to head back to O'Roarkes or to go somewhere else first.

As far as going somewhere else, I think one issue is exactly what you said - Grease doesn't know the zone, so you may have to get creative unless you want to randomly pick somewhere and start asking people what they know about the Chinese Mafia (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Jack VII]

As far as tracing a path with the other one - I just want to point out that the range on the Bug Scanner (or Radio Signal Scanner whichever you want to call it) is 20 meters, and the range of a motion sensor is 25. So you would theoretically set off motion sensors if you pass near one (and you might not even be able to detect it).

Since the FlySpys also have ultrasound, they can set them to passive to pick up Motion Detectors if they move slowly. They would need to get within 5 meters of the ultrasound field generated by the motion sensor but could stop and then attempt to spot the location of the device. It would at least indicate "hot zones" we would need to be aware of...

With that said, I'm not sure if Jack would really know all of that... it seems like we're basically going to have to go in mostly blind and hope Mel can hack all of the security devices we might encounter.

[Chrome Head]

Since the FlySpys also have ultrasound, they can set them to passive to pick up Motion Detectors if they move slowly. They would need to get within 5 meters of the ultrasound field generated by the motion sensor but could stop and then attempt to spot the location of the device. It would at least indicate "hot zones" we would need to be aware of...

With that said, I'm not sure if Jack would really know all of that... it seems like we're basically going to have to go in mostly blind and hope Mel can hack all of the security devices we might encounter.

I also think it's all about the hacking on this one. If she can turn off sensors, open/close doors as we need and so on, it's really not too bad, but it's a lot to ask for. I think creating a diversion (or be prepared to create one) might be very useful.

Does anyone have the locksmith skill?

[Jack VII]

Does anyone have the locksmith skill?

Unless Mel has it, we do not. We identified this as a potential problem last run, but I didn't want to spend 10K nuyen for a R1 ActiveSoft. We toyed with picking up an autopicker, but that would only help on old school locks. We're basically relying on Mel being able to hack them.