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

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

So, how much are we going to spend on the parts?

Rex can support you with a Leadership test, but your maximum bonus from teamwork is limited by your actual skill. Your current dice pool is

Logic 9 + Skill 1 + Teamwork Drone 1 + Analyze Device 8 + Plans 1 =20 dice

The test has a threshold of 5 and an interval of 1 day (if we forgo some of the parts)

We can pretty safely work with only 2 parts (-12 penalty) and just buy hits:
8: 2
7: 1
6: 1
5: 1

This will take us four days

We could of course spend edge on the initial throw and cut this down to 1 part and luck, but that's risky as hell.

[Romain Pelisse]

After almost a week, Waywalker dropped by a second time to Miss Dupont junkyard. She had prepared a AR list and tag all the numerous pieces he could pick up here. She also prepared a bill. Waywalker could not prevent himself for gulping at the price being displayed. A little over 100 000€. Miss Dupont immediately read his expression and commented

"A bit over your price's range, neh ?"

She made a pause and waved him to get away from the noisy junkyard where drones are shuffling around piece of metal and shattering them with welder. Waywalker enters in the tiny office. It smelled like sweat, oil and cheap parfum. Immediately, Waywalker noticed a quiet buzz starting up. Miss Dupont had clearly just fired a white noise generator. She shuffled some papers out of the way on her desk and offered the rigger to have a sit on the sticky stool on the other side of it.

"Ecoute, mec" - french for "listen, dude", as Waywalker had learned shortly after arriving in France. "I can see that you are not too happy about the amount of money you'll have to pay for the parts. I can also feel you are certainly the most ... law-encumbered of people, right?" (she winked). "If you are willing to, let's say 'walk outside the system', I may have a way for you to get your parts for almost nothing. And help me at the same time... Would you be interested to know more?"

[Haywire]

#86

Waywalker smiled at miss Dupont offer. "I am all ears..."

[Romain Pelisse]

As Waywalker replied, her face immediately lighted up and the small woman started smiling. The rigger realized then that, under the dirt and the used clothes, there was a cute woman.

"OK, mon petit rital, parlons affaire !"

It took a milliseconds for the commlink to translate the first part - a derogatory term for Italian that she somehow made sound like a cute nickname. The second part got translated without any delay - "Let's talk business".

The woman gestured a map of the local airport, Charles de Gaulle, appeared.

"I've heard from some connection at the airport that a GMC Banshee, in perfect state, has been placed in a remote hangar of the airport." As she was talking, the AR plan zoomed to the farthest outskirts of the airport.ave.

"It's been stored there under the order of the local authority for several days and it does not seems anyone will came to retrieve anytime soon. If you can get to into the hangar and disable the security there, you might be able to remove from it most of the parts you need. For the one you won't be able to, or missing from this model, I'll give you the one I have... In exchange of course of the autopilot unit of the Banshee. Given the list you gave me, I don't think you'll need it - and I have a gut feeling you will be tech savvy enough to remove it safely."

The woman paused still smiling and look straight at Waywalker, who then realized that the french woman, despite her apparent lack of care of her appearance, still knew how to use her charm to skew a negotiation her way...

In the meantime, Rex's commlink blips and when the dog shaped mage picks up he hears a deep and very formal voice addressing him

"Good day to you, Sir Rex. My name is Antoine de Saint Prieux. I'm working with the legal firm Saint Prieux & Pardoux, and I'm calling on behalf of my customer, Julius Corbitt. As far as we understand, you are currently doing some, err, investigation for our customer. He is sadly otherwise occupied, but he would like us to meet, to discuss your progress and of course deliver the first part of your payment." - the way the lawyer told that made it clear that the payment will follow the report, not the other way around.

"If we were to meet in Paris, tonight, at the Jules Verne... Exactly, you are right, this is the restaurant on the second floor of the Effeil Tower. Would you be able to make it - with your partner, of course ? The meal, obviously, will be on us. We perfectly realize that such a public place might be... less than ideal for you and your partner, but it does offer a very confidential settings for a private discussion. Do you think you and your partner can accommodate us, and join us tonight ?"

Rex did not remembered the ghoul telling them he would use a lawyer firm to reach out, but it was indeed time to report according to the parameter of their deal. And, of course, a down payment might certainly nice to have.

[Jack_Spade]

Rex cc-ed Waywalker before he answered: <<We can do that. As per our employers wishes we'll only deliver an oral report on our progress. Until then.>>
Interrupting the flirting between Waywalker and the junkyard madame, he sent to his partner: <<That might be kosher or it might be a trap, we'd do well to be prepared for both. To that end I'll attend the meeting only manifested. That way no-one can record what I say - and I can quickly intervene from the outside should things go sideways. I'll try and organize a real dog for you to take to the meeting. Should be a nice curve ball in case this is a trap.>>

[Haywire]

#87

Waywalker listened to miss Dupont and nodded. "Well, I think we have a deal. Do you have a secure line we can send you a message to when we're done?"
"To:Rex: I have a bad feeling about it. the ghoul never mentioned a law firm. Maybe we could ping a call on his secure commlink, just to be sure?"

[Jack_Spade]

<<Oh right, we got that one. Yeah, do that. This is very much a situation where we should measure twice to cut once.>>
Rex replied.

[Romain Pelisse]

A few hours passed before their employer came back to us.

>>> Yes, I've set up this meeting. Take it.

His commlink just went up to reply and went back offline in the following seconds.

In the meantime, Waywalker kept discussing with Miss Dupont:

"Oh you don't need a secure line. Just come back with the piece here and we will do the trade. However, I can not provides you that much information on the target. I just know that the Banshee is sitting there, for some reason, that could learn. A friend of mine works at the airport air control unit and told me this Banshee is not schedule to depart any time soon. So you may have several days to case the place and figure out a plan to break in."

"But do remember that dismantling what you need will take time and you will need to carry around 100kg of spare parts at the end of it. Also, stealing the all thing is not really an option. You can't flying around Paris with a stolen Banshee. You'll get shot down by rocket in a matter of seconds."

In the meantime, Rex went out in the woods surrounding their safe house. He already spot some stray dog in the previous days, and he was hoping that befriend one would not too difficult.

[ Spoiler ]

@Jack_Spade, Cha + Animal Handling[Social] ?

[Haywire]

#88

Waywalker was happy to know the meeting was not a trap. "The meeting is kosher, but paranoia is never too much."
He listened to miss Dupont's speech with interest. "Thank you for the informations, miss Dupont. You will hear nees from us soon."
While departing from the place he instructed the van to go near the airport, to do some legwork.

[ Spoiler ]

I will search information on what company has the privileges to use that hangar, and if they have mechanics that could come.
Pilot + Reaction (van): 10d6t5 4
agent teamwork (deck): 12d6t5 1
agent teamwork: 6d6t5 1
matrix search: 18d6t5 8

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

Animal Handling: 11d6t5 4

It took no time at all to befriend a stray dog. Rex could have just ask a beast Kami to help him, but this way, he didn't have to rely on magic.
Once it was time to bathing and grooming the double, Rex did call on a Kami to help him.

This done, he waited for Waywalker to get ready for the meeting. He'd maintain a simple mana barrier inside the car, so he'd be warned if someone monkeyed around with his body while he was away.

Hearing about the transport he sent to Waywalker: <<100kg will be no problem to move. But I really need to learn the invisibility spell now.>>

[Romain Pelisse]

Waywalker search on the hangar came up with quickly with a lot of information on the location and surroundings of the hangar. Not quite directly though - actual building layout plan were obviously not realized on the matrix, but with some much traffic around, the matrix was nevertheless filled with a lot of images and even video feeds featuring the building. Miss Dupont did not lie about the remoteness of it. The small building - or rather structure, as it had most likely no internal wall, was indeed at very end of landing track. The landing track itself, given the aerial drone footage Waywalker, was in pretty bad shaped and rarely used.

The hangar was also quite close to the fence surrounding the all airport. The fence was about three meter and most likely electrify. However, Waywalker could barely some camera around the building and the fence nearby. It was harder to assess, using "public" images and feeds, who protected was the entrance of the hangar. Given the most precise image he could find, he did fell like a maglock key was used to ensure the main hangar door where closed. Sadly enough, there was not back entrance to be seen from. So entering the hangar meant opening the main, very large door. And thus somehow get ride off the maglock on it.

This was already quite a lot of information, but Waywalker knew a sort of canvassing was also required. Rex won't be able to assess any magical threats from afar, and himself needed to spot and analyze local icons to confirms the intel gathered from the matrix. But this will have to wait, because his partner and him had apparently fancy diner plan now. So he joined Rex in the car, and few moments later they were both at the bottom of the Effeil Tower, following AROs - provided by the restaurant, to find the right spot for guess to come in.

Contrary to the "masse" (the poor), Waywalker and Rex got to use the special, separate, with no queue, elevator taking them directly to the second floor of the ancient tower. However, the elitist corridor of ribbons finished in front of, as expected the elevator cabin, but also a state of art weapon and cyberware detector...

[ Spoiler ]

Time to let us know what kind of illegal item you are trying to sneak in (or not)

[Jack_Spade]

Rex stayed back in the car, while Waywalker had Spot, Rex' new stunt double with him on a leash. The Beast Kami had ensured that Spot would behave despite lacking conventional training.
Now he laid down inside the car and projected himself into the astral, while the Kami watched over his unconscious body.
The old tower had a significant presence in the astral, but Rex withstood the urge to explore it and instead stayed with Waywalker, watching out for astral threats.

[Haywire]

#89

Waywalker was quite pleased with the results of his search.
"We'll need to do some recon but this seems better than throwing money at the problem."
He appreciated the fancy enviromenr and dressed appropiately, but did bring Rex's double.

[ Spoiler ]

I only have my deck inside the cyberhand (that is obvious), and it's running silent with Sleaze 7

[Romain Pelisse]

The large troll, wearing some sort of dark blue police or security outfit - Waywalker was not sure, looked at him with dead eyes. The guy was clearly bored. With a pinch of his finger into some ARO that Waywalker could not see, he triggered his weapon scanner...

[ Spoiler ]

Border security guard scan Waywalker and his dog: 7d6t5 1

Barely looking at the resulting ARO, the troll waives to Waywalker to pass through and get into the lift.

The security checkpoint passed, Waywalker, and his new animal companion, gets into the lift. He shared the ride with an old french, couple - clearly as french as rich, that frowned upon the presence of his furry critter. The old woman spoke in English, on purpose, to her husband:

"Darling, I had no idea the restaurant accepted animal now.... How modern of them..."

The husband, clearly understanding his wife was about to do a tantrum opted to remained silent.

In the meantime, Rex's plan hit a snag: as he was flying around the almost transparent echo of the lift in the astral, he soon realized that the second floor has been shielded by a mana barrier. Clearly some customer appears to value their astral privacy enough for the restaurant to warrant such protection.

[Haywire]

#90

Waywalker passed the bored guard, grateful for his protocol of paranoia. He entered the lift where the was an old couple. They smelled of old and rich, and the woman bickered aboutthe dog. Waywalker decided to have some fun pranking them.
Acting as if he was blind, he said: "Is there someone? I am sorry, I did not notice you!"

[ Spoiler ]

Etiquette: 7d6t5 1

[Jack_Spade]

Rex concentrated on the barrier and used his prodigious emphatic senses to harmonize his aura to that of the barrier, so he might slip through without disturbing it

[ Spoiler ]

Using Press through from core p.316

Magic + Charisma [Astral] v. barrier’s Force x 2 Opposed Test

Press through Barrier: 26d6t5 10

[Romain Pelisse]

[ Spoiler ]

@Waywalker, I think Con will be more appropriate than Etiquette, but anyway, it does not matter that much here...

Realizing her "faux pas", the old lady face suddenly turned to panic mode. It took all of Waywalker composure to keeps his own face straight as her were flushed, become redder than a tomato. She turned to her husband for the support, but the old man, grinning slightly, fainted to look somewhere else, with a stern expression on his face clearly stating to her - "this is a mess of your own making. Deal with it."

"Ohh, I'm so sorry, sir...We ... We should have mention we were, here... We should have, right, Henri ?"

The old man, still grinning, did not even gave his wife a sentence, but just a nod. Still quite embarrassed, the old lady then bend toward dog, to pet it, trying to rewrite the history of her snarky comment.

"Ohh, what a lovely and good doggy..."

As her nose got closed to the dog, the smell suddenly struck her. Rex did spent time cleaning up the dog, but there a physical limit on how much one can clean or remove when an animal has lived in the wild for weeks. Just to say that the dog, while looking cleaned up, had still a certain ... stench to it, if you got to close to it.

The old lady, feeling suddenly nauseous, straight herself back, and stopped talking - clearly afraid of puking. Henri her husband looked toward Waywalker and winked at him. The old man had not bought Waywalker's bullshit, but obviously appreciated it. Waywalker turned his face away from her, as he too, could not refrain to smile.

In the meantime, in the nearby astral space, Rex's projected self rushed toward the astral barrier surrounding the fancy restaurant and attempt to push through it...

[ Spoiler ]

Effeil Tower's Astral Barrier resists Rex's pushing through: 20d6t5 9

... and that was a close call! Rex felt, for an instant, that the barrier was going to push him back, but fortunately, he managed to pass his entire astral form before this happens. Shaking his (astral) head, he paused for a moment, before noticing the dark, almost invisible shape of the elevator cage moving in front of him. He flied right back into it, to rejoin the familiar astral form of his partner.

The elevator cabin arrived at a restaurant barely seconds after Waywalker pulled his little stun on the old woman. A very fancy "maitre d'" was waiting at the door to place them. The old couple were obviously used to come here often as he said right way: "Ah, Monsieur and Madame de la Rochefoucauld! C'est un plaisir de vous revoir". Waiving to Waywalker, quite rudely, to stay there, he placed them first before coming back, with a stern expression on his face.

"Well, Sir, do you happen to have a reservation ? And I hope you know, we don't service pet here..." - the maitre d' was clearly dubious that Waywalker belonged here. However, the minute he mentioned the lawyer's name, he is all body expression to warmness and deference.

"Oh, but, of course my good Sir. Let me take you there right away". Gesturing to a young, but very well dressed, waitress, he said:

"Giselle, go fetch some water for the poor creature here. And maybe some leftover."

Apparently, Rex's stunt double status has been upgraded to "guest of honor". Corbitt's lawyer had some pull around here.

Following the waiter, Waywalker arrived at the very end of the restaurant, a nice little table, just next to the window, with an unforgettable view on Paris skyline. The rigger has never seen so perfectly the city of light's Aztechnology pyramid. The lawyer was already at the table reading a printed newspaper and wearing a very nice, but some what old fashioned. Waywalker knew there was still some people getting newspapers in their printed format, but he never had seen one, so the most surprising thing to him was the noise it made when the man fold it and put it away.

The lawyer, a french man in his early 60's, looked perfectly the part. A tall, slim man, with receding hairline, and a (too much) honest face. As the rigger arrived at the table, the man stood up to greet him.

"Ah, Monsieur Waywalker I assume ? What a pleasure to finally meet you. Please, please, be seated. Is you partner on the way ?" - looking at the dog, he continued, " or should I assume he is already here ?"

After Waywalker replied and got seated, the man jump straight into it.

"I took the liberty to order my favor dish for you to try, so we can directly jump into it. What did you learn and where are you in Mr Corbitt mysterious investigation?"

[Jack_Spade]

Rex could feel his heart pounding back in his body. That barrier had packed a wallop. Good thing very few mages used spirit zapper barriers yet. He could only guess what the lawyer was saying, but that was ok. With a thought he commanded the spirit to command the dog to lay down and sleep, before he manifested himself as the transparent, malnourished elf that represented his true self.
"Good evening. Thank you very much for the invitation. The scenery is really breath taking.

If you don't mind, I'll answer your questions, as in my current state no-one can record or electronically listen in on my words.

Concerning the investigation, we have made prodigious progress. We followed some clues found in the original estate to a small hard to access village, where we supposedly found the final resting place for the object in question. This resting place is even harder to access than the village. Luckily we do have a contact that can bring us there. The contact in question is in turn interested in certain goods and services that we need to organize, as otherwise we would incur a disproportionate amount of expenses to pay for their service.
For matters of operational security, I'm afraid I can't go into much more detail.
But if all pans out as we expect, your employer should receive the object in question within the next seven to nine days.

We are aware that we have to content with various opposing organizations. The Order of St. Sylvester for one had a presence at our first location of investigation, likely searching for the same object. At the small village we contended briefly with a state sanctioned expedition - possibly from a larger NGO. We don't know what they wanted there, but we can't rule out that they too are after the object."
Rex stopped. Being this precise yet vague was exhausting.

[Romain Pelisse]

The lawyer, Antoine de Saint Prieux, listened carefully to Rex. The mage could see that, contrary to many M.Johnson or shadow-like people, often more busy to look behind them and try to read you to see if you were going to betray them, the lawyer was very much focused on the information he was giving him. It was refreshing but also a tiny bit destabilizing. He was not used to have people pay so much attention at what he was saying, making the exercise of being both precise and vague even more hard.

The lawyer stepped back and said:

"My good sirs, this is indeed impressive works. Our common friend was confident you were the right people for the job - he did took his time to find the appropriate contractors, but still, it remains pretty impressive. You are completely right, the less I know about operational details, the better for everyone involved. That being said, it is quite encouraging that your report intersects with the intel Mr Corbitt wanted me to bring you."

At this point the waiter brings to the table both the food and the wine ordered by Saint Prieux earlier. To avoid the staff being able to hear anything they wished to keep secret, the discussion stopped until he went away.

"As you may imagine, Mr Corbitt have kept his ears open since he sent you on this personal quest of his. And he also wanted me to use the opportunity to transmit you back the information. In this public, but actually quite private location. So let me help you, maybe, understand the bigger picture here. So first, you are right, in your wake of stirs awake at least two powerful, non governmental organization. The first one is obviously the Draco Foundation. Your breaking and entering in their, albeit forgotten, location in the south of France, have - pardon me the joke, woke the dragon. As far as we can tell, they do not, however, appears to have understand what you are were doing there. They know some unidentified runners broke in, stole an unidentified piece of their inventory. And now they are looking for both the runners - you, and whatever they think you have stolen."

The lawyer pauses for instant, and take a sip of wine. He also use the opportunity to, very discreetly, pull out a small credistick that he put on the table, just beneath Waywalker's napkins, before going on:

"But, sadly, they are not the only ones. As you have correctly supposed, the Order of St Sylvester has somehow joins the game. It seems that they have also their contact inside the Draco Foundation, and that, on the contrary to the latter, they have managed to guess your next move. But those are mere suppositions. We have no contact, nor sources inside the church organization..."

The lawyer then took his eyes off Rex's astral form to turn to Waywalker.

"... but we do know we would find answer in the host running their facility of Saint Michel. Mr Corbitt made it clear to me that going after the Order is not part of the mission, but he agreed to let me tell this information. You may decide for yourself, if it is worth taking the risk, or not, to attempt learn more about their intentions. Mr Corbitt did not want to share this information, at first, because he was afraid it might distract you for the main goals, but I did convince him that let you decide what that. After all, he did not pick some...."

[ Spoiler ]

Please roll Perception + Intuition and Reaction + Intuition (as Surprise test)

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

Perception: 15d6t5 5

Since I'm in astral form, I'll use Int+Int (as that's also the defense/ini stat) +3 (from the successful Perception check)

Int+Int: 21d6t5 10

[Haywire]

#91

Waywalker listened pretty closely to the lawyer's speech. But something was off...

[ Spoiler ]

perception (ew) + int: 17d6t5 7
reaction + int: 14d6t5 4

[Romain Pelisse]

Being in the astral, even manifested, gave a weird representation of what happened to Rex. On the contrary of his partner, who clearly heard the deafening of a sniper rifle shot, Rex just saw huge of color on the surrounding astral space. The sudden change was so intense that it overwhelmed it manifestation and the new color bleed directly into his eye's sight. Regardless of their perception, they could both the result of the attack. A few meters behind them, Henri de la Rochefoucauld, with whom Waywalker had shared an elevator ride, has his head laying on his table, which dripping with blood. The old woman who complained about Waywalker's dog was screaming like hell, and every other customer were already ducking for cover.

Luckily for the runners, Antoine de Saint Prieux had picked a table placed just behind of the Effeil Tower's large pylon. The runners were thus shielded from any sniper shot...

[ Spoiler ]

... but how are they reacting to this is the question ? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Jack_Spade]

"This meeting is over. Waywalker, let's go. The last thing we need is getting questioned by police."
With a mental commmand he told the Kami: 'Quick fly and find the shooter, call every last vermin, bird or rat in the vicinity to block his vision.'
while also mentally estimating where the shot originated from. There were enough pigeons around to make a screen. The question was if that would be effective enough.

Meanwhile he moved back to his real body, contending with the barrier on his way out again. In his haste he needed two attempts to pass through

[ Spoiler ]

Press through Barrier: 26d6t5 7
Barrier resist: 20d6t5 7

Try again:
Press through Barrier: 24d6t5 11
Barrier resist: 20d6t5 5

Once he had his commlink again he sent to Waywalker: <<I can have the spirit fetch you from up there - or you can use the stairs - whatever you think is better>>

[Haywire]

#92

Waywalker took the dog (the fake Rex) and said to the lawyer: "The meeting is compromised. Please, s'il vous plait, we should reschedule the meeting at another location in 2-3 hours. I'll leave you my phone number to contact me and my partner. If you shall continue the meal, bon appetit."
Then he quickly waded through the crowd to exit the tour Eiffel through the stairs. "The crowd will cover me - hopefully we're not the target, but you cannot be too sure."

[Romain Pelisse]

The lawyer, Antoine Saint-Prieux, was already ducked under his table when Waywalker talked to him. He agreed with a nod and added:

"No need to meet again. We can't risk it, and you have all the intel. But please do leave the premises quickly."

In the Astral space, Rex could feel that his Kami has obeyed his order and went on searching for the sniper. It's unclear yet if he had found it, but you could feel the Kami has certainly found trouble and was fighting an astral entity.

[ Spoiler ]

Unless you want to join or help your spirit, we can ignore this part - just know that for now, your spirit is busy.

Waywalker, and Rex's stunt double, was rushing toward the elevator, but sadly the sniper had fired a couple more shot - taking down Henri's poor wife and shooting through the arm of an other innocent bystanders. This had created a chaos and people were rushing, pushing and even brawling to get to the elevator doors...

From down below, Waywalker could already hear the police sirens and a quick glance over Paris night sky confirms to him that some security helicopter along some flying drones were being diverted to the scene. It was pretty clear to the rigger that he needed to bolt. And soon.