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

[Haywire]

#158

"You are right. Sometimes I lose focus. Let's try to find our commlink."

[ Spoiler ]

Using the roll on Matrix perception from three posts ago I'd like to try and locate the Icon of Lebrun's commlink.

[Romain Pelisse]

Waywalker gave an other look into the matrix to see if Lebrun has brought back his commlink online. However, as he was afraid, once he formatted the device and shut it down, he probably got ride of it. Looking at the information about him, he searched his the man had a public commlink he could join him. He quickly found a commcode, but a quick look at the icon told him it was a fix commline tied to the Mount Saint Michel's host. Waywalker expected this line to be either an advanced answering machine or simply connect to his secretary rather the man itself. He expected people in the French Catholic Church to be old fashion enough to have actual, breathing and living secretary.

He was about to gave up, and prepare himself to hack the host, when some movement on the van's sensor caught his (virtual) eyes. Their vehicle was park quite away from the Mount StMichel entrance, but still within sensor range. And during the night, the place was closed to tourist, so any activity in front of the main gate was doomed to be noticed by them. Waywalker saw then a very fancy Phaeton Roll Royce taking the road crossing the beach leading to the main gate.

A quick matrix look told him this was a rental from a fancy cab service and that the vehicle was on its way for a pick up...

[Jack_Spade]

<<Do you think what I am thinking? An ideal opportunity to hijack the driver>>
Rex said while he already went about calling his Kami for help

[ Spoiler ]

using remaining service of spirit of man to use Influence and Invisiblity to manifest in the car and make the chauffeur stop and help us out with our hijacking)

Just in case Waywalker agrees:

Invisibility: 12d6t5 6
Influence: 10d6t5 4

Resist with Will+Log

[Haywire]

#159

"I was hoping you'll say that! I will only inspect it to see if it's a drone or a manned car."
Waywalker was ready to move the van to get into the hijacked car.

[ Spoiler ]

agent teamwork (deck): 12d6t5 3
matrix perception: 21d6t5 4

[Romain Pelisse]

Before Rex waste his mojo on an automated car, Waywaylker took a look and quickly confirmed the presence of a driver in the car. Luckily enough, the driver was actually using the wheel rather than being jumped into the vehicle. Waywalker assumed, given the pricey-ness of the service, that customer expected a polite, well-dressed human being to great them.

After he told his partner about the driver, Rex asked his kami to perform to one more task. A few instants after he mentally ordered him, the Kami replied to him.

"My Lord, I did you biding and I'm in the moving metal box, unseen by the mortal being in there. I feel his mind is amendable to my suggestions. How do you wish him to help your ploy?"

[Jack_Spade]

"He is to stop, meet with us and follow our instructions because we are action on behalf of his superiors."

Rex transmitted the message with a rough description where the car should stop for a moment. He guessed, the driver couldn't stop for longer than a minute before his real boss would notice something, so they would have to be quick.
<<Get us there. The driver is now believing that we come from his company and have special orders for him. I don't want to get him into trouble, so I think it would be best if we ask him where he brings his passenger and arrange for us to be there waiting for him. We can choose a spot for a discret mugging - or if you are a good pick pocket an even discreeter lift of his commlink.>>

[Haywire]

#160

Waywalker smiled as Rex's mojo was set in motion. "Maybe I should learn that too...
I was planning to impersonate the driver, but I like your plan more."

[Romain Pelisse]

As predicted by the Kami, when Rex called the driver on the phone, using a line secured by Waywalker, and pretended to be one of his boss, the driver made no trouble. He immediately acknowledge that, once his customer picked up, he will go through a nearby abandoned village, and stop there, which will allow Waywalker and Rex to be waiting for him. The car then reached the door of the Mount Saint Michel and stop in front of it.

A couple of minutes later, Waywalker and Rex could see the customer coming out. It was maybe their lucky day, because it was indeed the man they wished to talk to - Dominique Lebrun. However, it was maybe not their lucky day because he was accompanied by a large troll, sporting a catholic priest outfit, up to the famous roman collar, but also carrying a large sword on his hip. Both of them quickly entered in the fancy car, unaware it was going to led them to an ambush...

[ Spoiler ]

Let me know if you want to do anything before the car arrived to where you want it. And remember, if you want to do some aura reading that people do feels when one read their aura (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) - it may tip them off...

[ Spoiler ]

[Haywire]

#161

Waywalker set the coordinates on his RCC to get the van going to their choice point of ambush.
"I've got an idea: the little drone will receive them, and we will ask for the priest's commlink (having the rotodrones point guns at him). I think we can manage to get enough juice out of it before it's compromised; when we are near I would like you to make the driver invite 3 MARKS on his commlink so I can shut it down for good.
Do you think we should ask about the book?"

[ Spoiler ]

driving the van: 11d6t5 4

[Jack_Spade]

<<If at all, we have to do this very quickly and not give them a chance to react. That man is a powerful mage and I bet this priest with him is at least an adept - No I didn't read his aura, too big a chance to tip them off, but call it an educated guess.
No, if you have it this would be the time to load gel rounds into your drone and knock out the mage directly if we can't make a discreet lift of his commlink. If the mage is down, I can levitate the brute out of harms way. Any chance they get to talk, the old man gets a chance to call some powerful spirit - I bet he has one bound and ready. Get your jammer ready to block any outgoing calls as well. And have your car ready for a quick getaway. Just in case I'll have a Kami assemle a little critter army, should we need a distraction.
Also, don't hesitate to call the driver - he still thinks that you are his boss. I'm not that fit with that technology stuff.>>

Rex had already begun to call another servant of the Beast King.

[ Spoiler ]

Summon F6 Spirit of Beast

Summon F6 Spirit of Beast: 20d6t5 7
F6 Spirit of Beast Resist: 6d6t5 1
Drain resist: 21d6t5 8

Optional Powers:
Concealment, Noxious Breath

Command it to collect small animals like rats, weasels, owls etc. and have them ready to distract. Also on my command it should use its Noxious Breath attack on both targets.

[Haywire]

#162

"How would you make them exit the car? I'll replace the rounds with gel, but it's gonna be though to shoot them i side the car."

[Jack_Spade]

<<Easy: The Kami emits a noxious gas into the vents. They'll get out or suffocate.>>
Rex replied.

[Haywire]

#163

"Fine, seems a good enough plan to me."
While the RCC drove them to the ambush location Waywalker swapped regular rounds for gel rounds on his rotodrones.

[Jack_Spade]

Rex got off and hid in the scrubs with a clear view of the ambush site while his dog aura was hopefully concealed by the living vegetation.

[Romain Pelisse]

With their plan set and in motion, the two runners just had to wait. After a few minutes, the black, fancy car arrived in the village and stopped. A brief, and heated discussion arises with the driver, but soon the two people inside stepped out only to be welcome by Waywalker's drone - or rather the speaker of the drone, telling them, in the most robotic voice possible, to open their commlink to discuss. The human and the large troll looked at each other, clearly suspicious and on their guard. However, they quickly, and silently, arrives to a decision and the christian mage pulls out a commlink and boot it. A few seconds after, the icon of the commlink, not running silent, appears in Waywlaker's augmented reality...

[Haywire]

#164

Waywalker opened the communication with a burner phone: "We do not wish to harm you. what we want is just to have a little chat."
While distracting them, he quickly tried to get Matrix access on the commlink.

[ Spoiler ]

agent teamwork (deck): 12d6t5 3
Hacking on the fly: 22d6t5 9

[Jack_Spade]

This didn't go exactly to plan, but less violence certainly wasn't something Rex would complain about.

Instead he kept himself ready to take out the bodyguard.

[Romain Pelisse]

The two clergymen looks at the drone, in silence, before the human replies simply:

"I am listening..."

In the meantime, Waywalker hacks the commlink but he soon disappointed to get access only to an empty, freshly formatted burner phone...

[Jack_Spade]

Seeing that Waywalker needed more time to work his special magic, Rex used the opportunity to get some answers:

<<We are very sorry for this inconvenience to you and your associate. But you are a man that is hard to reach and even harder to take one serious.
We know that you and your clergy are after Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. We would like to know why. If you give us an honest answer - and I mean honest and not just true - we'll answer you honestly in turn.>>

[Haywire]

#165

To:Rex "We have to do this the hard and slow way. That phone is a burner one. I think we need to actually talk to them..."
Waywalker kept the Matrix traffic of the commlink under monitoring to find out if they called help or did something fishy.

[ Spoiler ]

snoop: 17d6t5 7

[Romain Pelisse]

[ Spoiler ]

@JackSpace: I'm not sure what you meant there:

"...even harder to take one serious."

Do you mean "even harder to take seriously", which would be rather insulting to him, or did you meant something else?

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

No, I meant it's not easy to be taken serious by someone like the Priest and therefore we needed to force a meeting to get a chance to speak to him.

[Romain Pelisse]

[ Spoiler ]

@Jack Spade, Ah, OK, of course, now it makes completely sense...

The priest looked at Rex's message and replied to it out loud, fully aware that the drone would be recording his answer.

"Let me start by sparring you the usual rhetoric about how dangerous it is to pick a fight with an organization as powerful as ours. You are obviously skilled and experienced Shadowrunners. I will assume you know what you are doing."

The tone of the priest was indeed not threatening. He then carried on:

"I'm obviously not at the liberty to disclose private matters of the Church, especially under duress, like this, but, as a token of appreciation for your.... let's peaceful "approach", I will tell you that much: Yes, I am aware of a long lost work, an original edition of a two hundred years old french, esoteric book, called the Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. This book was written by Alphonse Louis Constant who is generally refers to by his "nom de plum", Elivas Levy. I am aware of this book because it is part the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Or rather it was before this index was abolished in 1966. A misguided idea, but I guess, even for the Pope, back then, it was difficult to foreseen such a drastic event as the return of Mana on Earth."

The priest makes a brief, to look at his brother, the large troll who has yet to mutter a word. The man was clearly, silently asking him a question. The troll nodded in approval and thus the priest carried on:

"I think it would be no surprise for so-called 'deniable assets' such as you are to learn that the Order of St Sylvester has taken upon itself to research any items mentioned in Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Indeed, if many of those books were ... Let's just say 'in poor taste', back in the Fifth World, some of them may now contain... dangerous knowledge."

Again, he made a pause, but this time, for dramatic effect:

"I do realize that calling upon Shadowrunners sense of moral is, at best, grasping at straws, but I would like to do so anyway. I don't know who or what your client is. But whoever he or she (if those pronouns does apply) is, you should question his or her true motivation. Ours is crystal clear: we want to retrieve this book to protect the secret it contains. Or rather protect the world from those. Are you sure your employer will be as careful as us with this nefarious artefact?"

[Jack_Spade]

Rex replied carefully:
<<No, we can't be sure. That is the main reason we have taken the risk to contact you directly. We have to pay the bills, but we certainly don't want to be the reason that Cthulu wakes up. But to be entirely honest with you: This isn't just between you and us. There is a third party involved - and while we can't vouch a 100% for our employer, we have very concrete reason to believe that the Fey Professor is as dangerous as he is unscrupulous. You can be sure that he will use the book for every bit of power he can get - and if it means keeping the world hostage to the apocalypse.

But there is one thing I'd like to know - and truthful at that: You didn't say you'd destroy the book but keep the world save from it. That indicates motives a lot less pure than you profess. So what is it that you'd really do if we were to hand the book over to your organization - and what would you be willing to spend?>>

Rex hoped his implications would be enough to get the Priest interested, despite Rex being not the least bit interested in betraying the trust of their Johnson.

[Haywire]

#166

To:Rex: "I applaud your wording. I would not talk now, before they answer, to not give the impression that we are not agreeing between each other, but I think we should ask them how they knew our whereabouts."