Umbrae Europae [IC] (part 3) - Mist of Nycthemeron, A third installment of the Umbrae Europae Campaing (started elsewhere) Options

[Jack_Spade]

Rex didn't dare use any magical abilities while the little watcher construct was around, so he focused instead on the virtual documents that Waywalker was sharing with him. Even with the translation programs it was tedious work to sift through the material, looking for a mention of the book.
Consequently he (dis)missed the bug drone until he noticed Waywalker looking in in it's direction and frowning.
<<What's going on? Have you found something?>>

#35

[Haywire]

#30

"That bug is a drone, but I'll cover it in malicious code until it crashes. Let's hope it didn't record our faces to the owner..."

[Jack_Spade]

<<Shit. Thank god we went to the trouble to find a student who looked a bit like you. Be careful though - this might be one of the other parties we suspected might turn up. Let's scan the stuff in as fast as possible and get out of here. We can do the research in the hideout. Just to be sure there isn't something magic hidden in there, I'll take a look in the astral.>>

[ Spoiler ]

Assensing: 9d6t5 3

[Romain Pelisse]

As Waywalker shifts his perception to AR, he founds out, not surprisingly, that the little drone is running silent. While he can perfectly spot it in the real world, his icon remains hidden to him...

[ Spoiler ]

Fly Spy running silent, tries to escape Waywalker Matrix Perception: 3d6t5 1

Certainly not enough to beat Waywalker's 5 hits...

... But the meek defense of the drone is nothing for Waywalker wiz skill in the Matrix. He quickly founds the icon, and aims all the power of his cyberdeck attack program to it !

[ Spoiler ]

Fly Spy desperately raises his firewalls: 3d6t5 2
Matrix Damage: 14
Fly Spy soaks matrix damage: 6d6t5 1
<insert-robot-voice-here>Ouch...</insert-robot-voice-here>

Almost immediately, the tiny drone icon disappear in a (small) burst of broken codes, and the robot itself falls, silently, on the runners table. The corpse of the little device is blackened like charcoal. Fortunately, nobody is the room, whether or not in AR, noticed the incident. In the meantime, his partner quickly gaze into the Astral. Nothing has changed since he took a brief look, but the small, and discreet, watcher spirit is still hovering around, observing the room in silence.

[ Spoiler ]

@Rex, technically looking in the astral is a Perception test - you can even have a specialty in the Perception skills for that. Assessing is to specifically read auras. For the sake of moving forward, I'll assume you made as much hits with a perception test. In case you meant to read the watcher spirit's aura, we can reuse this results for that. I'll move forward to the results of your hours of work on the document, but we can "flashback" to any action you want to take about either the watcher or the drone - I'm not railroading you, guys, just trying to move the story forward.

Once that matter is settled, the runners have no excuses anymore to postpone a tedious investigation of the document. He takes already a couple of hours, to sort the numerous document of the Contos Archive. There is almost everything attached to this label: official paper, private (hand written!) mails, old note books, and a few dozens, indeed, first prints of a lot of books of the 19th century. Of course, the runners checks those first, as they are delivered by the drone, but none appears to be the first book mentioned by their particular employer: "Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie".

However, many books are badly damage, apparently a note mentioned an arson, which led the library where the books were stored, to be flooded by firemen, just days before the donation happened. So it takes a while to actually rule out the most damaged items as potential matches. Finally, as the day comes closer to an end, it appears clear to the runners, that they are far from done with their researches. Indeed, there is so many other items - listing, mails, document, in the Contos Archive, they need to pass through a fine-tooth comb, if they want to get a lead on the manuscript...

[ Spoiler ]

If you have no action to do during the evening, we can most forward to the second day of research.

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

I meant looking at the books and documents to see if there is an aura that would fit the book we are searching for or any other document that shows significance in the astral - for example if someone else had read it and called out "Heureka" because it was the one document he needed to find the book we are after (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Otherwise, no, except for sleeping and eating Rex hasn't any other plans than combing through the archive.

Rex kept sitting on his chair like a good dog and used AR to read through the translations.
<<If we don't find anything here, we might have to take a direct look at the estate where this stuff came from. Maybe during the book wasn't even donated but instead sits still there somewhere. If I'm close enough I can call a Kami to use its powers to locate it.>>

[Romain Pelisse]

As the duo leaves the room, after what turned out to be an exhausting day of research work, Rex tries to sum up what they found in his head, but can't beyond his early disappointment, when the drones brought the the last batch of documents ties to the Contos Archive and it looked at the aura of all the item, searching for a magical signature in Astral.

Sadly, if the documents, due to their age and somewhat historical signification, have certainly a rich and colourful auras, none of them appears to have any kind of magical capacity, neither to have been used in conjunction of (recent) magical practises. Despite the power of the hidden knowledge most likely hidden within them, the stacks of documents are for sure as mundane as it comes.

[Jack_Spade]

<<Careful now. If that bug was indeed part of an enemy operation, we might find ourselves targeted after we leave - or followed. Better we don't go home straight away. I'll have a Kami conceal us at an opportune moment and we can wait a bit, if someone shows up looking for us.>>
Rex had a bad feeling about that bug - which certainly wasn't helped by the rather oppressing environment around them.

[Romain Pelisse]

[ Spoiler ]

@Waywalker, I don't want to railroad you, but I think you will agree to Rex's plan, so...moving forward.

Trying to act as casual as they, the two runners leaves the building. As they get closer to the exit - the same arch they went below earlier in the day, they start paying even more attention to their surroundings, looking for somebody - or something, that could be waiting for them outside. Passing in front of the clearly disinterest Knight Errant officers, they step outside, under a heavy rain. The smell of (bad) water is poignant that even their filter can't really removes of the stench.

Despite this unbearable smell, both runners keeps their head in the game - as Rex starts silently invoking a Kami, Waywalker (as discreetly as possible), starts looking for a potential tail, both in the physical world and in the matrix.

[ Spoiler ]

@Rex,@Waywalker please roll: Cha + Con [Social] (to act natural, I don't expect miracle from you guys, but I do need to have an idea on how bad - or good, your character are at hiding their intention. Also please both roll Perception + Intuition [Mental].

@Rex as you will also check on the Astral side, please roll Perception + Intuition.
@Waywalker and for you Matrix Perception

[Haywire]

#31

The little bugger was gone in a matter of seconds. What was very painful was to sift throught the depth of the documents looking for a clue.
"Well, Rex, we did not waste our day...we found plenty of books that were not our target!"
Smiling under the gas mask was curtailed by Rex's worrying.
"Yeah, let's be extra careful - does not hurt."
With regard to the last message, Waywalker let his Fly-Spy loose to get a glimpse of the surroundings.

[ Spoiler ]

Teamwork test from Deck: 12d6t5 5
matrix perception: 21d6t5 8
ew through the sensors: 17d6t5 2
cha + con: 3d6t5 1
Etiquette (Street): 9d6t5 2

[Romain Pelisse]

When he passes in front of the Knight Errant guards, Waywalker opts to act as he belongs, rather than trying to pass for a "regular" student. He has no idea how to do that, and, anyway, with a service dog along him, there is no way to pass for a "regular student". So confident, and focusing on the ARO popping up to sign off of the archive for the day, Waywalker and Rex walks through the gate without any problem.

Once outside, under the gloomy weather, he deploys his Fly Spy, and thanks the god that, at least, with the archive closing a little bit before 17:00 (because people working there wants to be done at 17:00 exactly) there is still enough natural light coming out of the reddish clouds hovering over the city to give him a decent visibility. The drone silently flies away from him, and the Italian rigger starts paying attention at his surroundings - through the lens of the tiny drone video feeds.

As Waywalker moves slowly away from the public building, he quickly realizes that if somebody is observing or tailing them since they left, they must be quite good, because he can not spot any suspicious activity around them. Or they are just at avoid his sensor, he is honestly not to sure if it is not the later.

On the matrix side of things, he however got things covered quite efficiently. He quickly tagged every icon out there when he went out, on top of of searching for a list of running silent one. He did find a couple of those, as they are always bound, especially in a large city, to find some of those, but could not spot any that could relate to them. Helped by his agent, he checked out all the remaining icon, quickly classifying them by type and activity, and none come out as being, potentially, "unwanted attention".

If whoever they are facing has indeed sent a tail to the archive, it is for sure not a drone or man holding a camera. Their AR surroundings are clean.

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

Con: 13d6t5 3

Perception (Astral): 15d6t5 5
Perception Mundane: 15d6t5 4

Rex kept his eyes and his nose open and even took another peek into the astral to look around. The bad feeling was still there.
But he would have to wait calling on the Kami until they were somewhere unobserved.

[Haywire]

#32

"In the shadows, the more paranoic you are, the better. Either we're clear or we have very good pursuers."
Waywalker then proceeded to type another message with his thoughts:
" Why don't we get in the van and divert our would be chasers?"

[Jack_Spade]

<<Fine by me. That gives me a chance to call on the Kami>>
Rex dismissed the illusion he had held on Waywalker and hurried towards the parking garage.

[Haywire]

#33

While walking with the gas mask on, Waywalker's thoughts formed a message: "To:Rex: The simple fact that there was a drone in the Archive to begin with is an evidence that other parts are interested. I don't know if the drone was there to look at the documents or to have a look on us. I hope for the former. Tomorrow we may need a little disguise on the document room."

[Jack_Spade]

<<I concur. For now I can imagine three scenarios:
1) The drone was a guardian left behind by whoever scanned the docs before us and who was interested who else would come looking
2) It was in the process of scanning the documents and probably had a few siblings inside where ever they keep those materials
3) It was a deliberately placed spying device targeting both of us specifically

1 is the most likely, 3 the least.

Wait a second. I really need to boost my ability to compute all this.>>
They had reached the car and Rex quickly went inside, so he could cast without being observed. Once again the shadow form of his mentor fell over him

[ Spoiler ]

F3 Increase LOG
Spell Casting: 20d6t5 5
Drain:
Drain resist: 21d6t5 7
No Drain

New LOG at 2(5)

<<Much better. As I was saying it's most likely a post-operation measure.
Our opponent could have left it behind to get a clue to their competition, or they might have failed at locating the necessary data and instead want to wait for someone else to do the boring work and then swoop in to capture the prize.
At least that's what I'd do in a case like this.

Now to our options:
The most obvious is "Giving Up". I think neither me nor you are considering that one.
The next is: Do what they are doing: Smuggle a bug into the stacks and play the same game. But that is a reactive move, taking away our initiative and it relies on the unproven assumption that there is another side seeking the book.
The third is "carry on and be ready for an attack". That's what we'd have done regardless of finding the bug and it's still valid.
The fourth is "lose our tails and visit the mansion where the books were stored originally". This one has the benefit of being combinable with two and three.
The fifth is "Lay a trap for the opposition, lure them into a premature attack by faking a find." We capture them and find out what they know. Provided of course that they know anything relevant in the first place. That option is high risk and despite both of us being able to multiply our force through drones and summons we know to little for this to be a valid choice at this junction.

Do you have any other ideas that I missed?
I just wished I could remember anything from my previous life - I'm certain that this isn't the first time I had to outfox pursuers...>>

[Romain Pelisse]

The duo has now left the building behind them, and start walking down the street. As Rex awaits for Waywalker to reply on his proposition and theorizing, he briefly switches to astral, to ensure "nothing" there is tailing them. At first glance, the mage does not spot anything out of the ordinary, but suddenly, his attention is drawn to a "presence" emerging not far away from them. The mage is unsure what it is, but there is definitely "something" in the astral trying to follow them...

[Jack_Spade]

Rex pulled back his head from the window.
<<Alright, seems like we are dealing with magic surveillance now.
We have two options: I call a Kami to deal with it - revealing that we do have considerable mojo - or we try to throw them off our trail by driving to the address where that student lives whose identity you are using.
I'm up for both.>>

[Haywire]

#34

Waywalker took a couple of minutes to process all the messages from Rex.
"To:Rex: I too think the option 1 is the most likely, but we should take extra precautions. As usual, I suppose.
Carry on and be ready sounds like a good enough plan to me."
Waywalker noted Rex being uneasy. Then received his message.
"To:Rex: I'd say our first option should be throw them off, but you can decide either way. Do as you see fit, I trust you in mojo matters."

[Jack_Spade]

<<I just thought of a third option. I'll call a Kami to discreetly follow the astral connection between whatever follows us back to its source. When that's done the Kami can take care of our shadow. Until then we have to drive around. Just take care that we aren't going somewhere where we can be ambushed easily>>

[ Spoiler ]

Summon F8 Spirit of Man
Summon Spirit F8 Man: 22d6t5 4
Spirit F8 Man resist: 8d6t5 2
Drain resist: 21d6t5 8

Order: Follow the connection of the astral entity back to it's source without being noticed. Once there use Influence to convince the controller to release the entity and stop the surveillance.

The Spirit has Concealment (-8 dice to spot him),
assenses for the connection
Assensing: 16d6t5 3

Once there, materializing (hopefully somewhere unseen) and use Influence
Influence: 16d6t5 7 vs. Wil + Log

Rex concentrated and chanted in his mind: 'Oh Ishiru, son of the Night Court, come and help me find my enemy.'
He felt that his chant had been successful - barely - as the blue glad figure of a Japanese peasant appeared. Albeit one wearing a face mask and carrying Sai daggers.
'You called, Mortal'
'I thank you for your time Ishiru. We are tailed by something in the astral. I ask you to move unseen following it's trail back to its master. Report what you find and if possible use your guile to convince him or her to drop this endeavor and dismiss their servant.'

Without so much as a nod, the Kami vanished.

[Romain Pelisse]

[ Spoiler ]

@Jack_Spade astral tracking is an extended action and your spirit have not yet reached the threshold (that I keep secret to not reveal to much information on your target). Can you roll (each time minus one more dice) the Spirit Assessing as much as you feel confortable to do (ie until you get to a point where you either can't roll anymore or getting afraid of glitching) ?

Also, as it takes one hour by test, your characters may want to "stroll around" to keep up the charade

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

Yeah, expected this to take longer. But instead of strolling we are driving around, so our auras aren't quite as visible on the astral.

Following Astral Trail, roll 2: 15d6t5 4
Following Astral Trail, roll 3: 14d6t5 5
Following Astral Trail, roll 4: 13d6t5 6
Following Astral Trail, roll 5: 12d6t5 8
Following Astral Trail, roll 6: 11d6t5 4
Following Astral Trail, roll 7: 10d6t5 6
Following Astral Trail, roll 8: 9d6t5 3

After about 8 hours the sun is likely to come up again and the Kami of the Night will vanish anyway
But 39 successes should lead to some success (unless of course it was 40 successes it needed (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) )

[Romain Pelisse]

It took over four hours for Rex's spirit to follow up the trail, during which Waywalker and Rex took a little tour in Paris, and finally opted to have a bite in a restaurant. Certainly, the best way to act casual. At regular interval, Rex could spot that their "astral tail" was still on them, but could not really report anything suspicious. It is circling 9pm when the Kami invoked by Rex calls him through the astral:

"I have located the kami's master, but he or she is protected by a strong astral barrier... Do you want me to attempt to penetrate it ?"

With the message, the Kami shares a mental image of the physical location it has reached: a medieval village, fortified and surrounded by water... Whoever has invoked the spirit, is currently inside the famous Mont St Michel...

[Jack_Spade]

'You have done well. I thank you for your help, there is no need to seek confrontation just yet. Consider our bargain fulfilled '

<<Guess what: Our tail's master sits in Le Mont-Saint-Michel. The Kami couldn't see them through their barrier, but we can expect some serious mojo to be on our case here. In any case, we need to lose this observer and once I get to our place, I need to strengthen our barriers.>>
Rex thought for a moment.
<<Alright, I have an idea how we can subtly lose our shadow. We need the entrance to the sewers once again and take a little walk there. Sorry.>>

[ Spoiler ]

Alright, new plan:
Once Rex and Waywalker are underground, Rex calls up a Beast Spirit and tasks it to collect as many devil rats as it can with his animal control ability and have those as a swarm attack our tail. Success or fail is irrelevant as long as the dual natured critters can stop it long enough from following us.

We leave without tipping off the controller about our real abilities.

Summon F6 Beast Spirit: 20d6t5 6
Spirit resist: 6d6t5 3
Drain resist: 21d6t5 4 [21d6t5=2, 4, 1, 4, 4, 3, 4, 1, 1, 6, 6, 2, 5, 1, 2, 4, 1, 3, 2, 6, 3]
Rex takes two stun.

ANIMAL CONTROL Type: M Action: Complex Range: LOS Duration: Sustained
Some critters can manipulate other critters, particularly (but not always) mundane ones. This power lets the critters control the behavior of an animal or a group of animals. It has to be a normal behavior for the target animal. A flock of birds, for instance, couldn’t steal a motorcycle or fire a pistol, but they could attack someone, follow someone else, or simply be made to fly away. If the target critter leaves the controlling critter’s line of sight, it can’t be commanded any longer, but it will continue to follow any orders they had already been given for the critter’s Charisma in minutes. The critter may control a number of small animals (cats, rats, etc.) equal to its Charisma x 5, or a number of larger animals (wolves, lions, bears, etc.) equal to its Charisma. This power may not be used on any critter with the Sapience power.

DEVIL RAT
The devil rat is completely hairless and measures approximately a meter in length, including its tail. They weigh in somewhere between three and four kilograms. Devil rats are nocturnal pack hunters; it’s not unusual for hunting packs of thirty or more mature individuals to make their way through the alleys and sewers they call home. Larger packs have been observed. They are fearless and vicious; some say they’re actively evil. Typically seeking out small animals to feed on, they are not afraid to take on a metahuman if they sense weakness. They breed prolifically, and combined with their natural immunity to most poisons, this makes them all but impossible to exterminate.


So a swarm of 30 Devil Rats, led by a Rat King spirit is hopefully going to be swarmed.

With the "Friends in melee" modifier that is a straight +29 dice pool to their base of 10 to their 30 attacks. With only a physical limit of 3 it's likely that an F6 spirit on full defense could endure the first 10 attacks without getting hit. After the second 10 he is out of defense dice, the last 10 can do about 5 damage each - soaked only with body.
And that's before the beast spirit attacks...

Once we are out of there, I'll have the spirit use the rats to attack other rats and hopefully dent their population a little bit.

[Romain Pelisse]

Just one hour afterward, Rex could not believed how much his plan has worked. First of all, he had no issue invoking the Kami, and it quickly understood his plans. He also pointed out they did not actually need to go into the sewer. There is already a lot of devil rats, just beneath the street, if you get closer to the Seine. Having the sudden rush of those critters happening while the duo were, apparently, strolling through town, also increase the impression that maybe the spirit tailing them was not really spot by them, but simply end up, unluckily, attracting some attention to itself. In any case, this happens very smoothly, and it is now barely 10pm, and the duo are - free of any magical entity on their trail, on their way back to their safe house.

The two shadowrunners have managed to leave Paris without being followed, but what their next move ?

[ Spoiler ]

Because some cool, creative idea, deserve to succeed without being hindered by dice rolls... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Is your next move to go back to the archive the day after, or ?

[Jack_Spade]

<<Success.>> Rex had gotten only glimpses of the carnage through is connection with the Kami, but the Rat King had shown his resourcefulness: Just as they had walked under one of the Seine bridges their tail had found itself suddenly surrounded by a swarm of devil rats.
Waywalker and Rex had walked on as if nothing had happened.
Half an hour later they were back at their hideout.
<<Since we are going back to our research tomorrow, we'll need another plan to shake our tail - unless we find what we are looking for. In that case I can just destroy it.
Meanwhile it would be good if you could find out through the matrix who has holed up on that island.>>

Rex had dismissed the Kami and instead called up his trusted guardian so it could keep up the shapechange spell on him while he slept. This time he made sure that it would also project a strong mana barrier around him and Waywalker, so any search for them would be just that little bit difficult. As the saying went: What you can think off, the enemy can think off too...