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

[Jack_Spade]

Rex had finished building the shrine inside the hut. Just stepping inside it's boundaries relieved the pressure he felt from his surroundings.
It was hard to tell, but Waywalker appeared to be very content - at least his aura indicated such.
Carefully, not to disturb his concentration he sent a message:
<<Do we have a fitting candidate? If necessary I can have a Kami pay him a visit to ensure that he doesn't interfere>>

[Romain Pelisse]

Waywalker already did a fair job at forging an ARO to access the physical site of the National Archive, but now it is time to get into the host. Jumping into the public grid of Paris, the decker quickly flies over the "romantic" rendition of the City of Light in AR. Being himself in the actual city, and looking at all the magnificent building, under a perfect night for a stroll with one's lover, Waywalker is very aware of the large difference between the two. Nonetheless, his persona flies toward the La Fontaine host or rather the access to it, a sort of "magical" looking portal floating on top of the AR rendition of the building. As his persona gets closer, a solemn voice of an old man - address him:

"Don't you want to explore the secret of the universe, you man ? Come ! Come ! Join us in a limitless quest for knowledge !"

Waywalker ignored the cheesiness of the AR ad, and start scanning the host for vulnerabilities from which to craft a MARK from...

[ Spoiler ]

@Waywalker as you had 5 hits on your Matrix Perception on the hosts, I'll give the host rating and the associated attributes array:

H7 A7,S8,D10,F9

La Fontaine resist Waywalker's hacking: 16d6t5 4
Baby Monitor: OS is now 4.

As you have 3 net hits, you can also get an extra piece of information from the host (see below)

It takes but a milliseconds to find a way in for the Italian runner. Barely noticed by the host, and GOD, Waywalker gets a MARK on the host - loosely akin to the one the host will have granted to their con's victim, Fabien Lesèque. As Waywalker steps in the host, he also checks the activity logs of Fabien, during it lasts interaction to the host, and happily discover that the student has often requested some research material from the National Archive in Paris. So now, Waywalker knows exactly where to go inside the host.

Once the "Magical portal" to the host crossed, Waywalker's persona has been literally beamed into a huge castle, where he is now flying between rotating stairs and ever moving doors and platform. Despite the ongoing madness, which actually remind the decker of old story he loved as a kid, about a little wizard in magic school in England, Waywalker manages to find quickly an access to the building library. As he steps inside, shifting through wall of stones, he arrives in a gigantic rooms, where shelves of books extends high into the ceiling, which is hidden behind a strange purple mist hoovering a dozen meters above him. The room is almost empty but for a couple of Persona, flying between the shelf or levitating while reading some book they took out of the shelves.

A ghost-like icon of a severe library staffer is levitating next to the "entrance" (the wall Waywalker went thru) and the womanish,creepy icon turns to him to shush him ( no surprise). Waywalker having access Fabien last activity, he knows better than to lose his time trying to search for a book. He already knows he needs to add a request to access research material at the National Archive on the large book, or rather "grimoire looking file" sitting on a pedestal nearby the entrance...

[ Spoiler ]

@Waywalker adding a request will allow "Fabien" to on site, at the National Archive, and do some research. The "grimoire" looks like a normal Matrix File, but feel free to inspect it before attempting to MARK it and edit it.

[Haywire]

#23

"To:Rex: our candidate is Fabien Lesèque, and he has already asked for permission to see the national archives. We have a bit of luck on our side."
The Matrix iconography of Paris left him stunned. "Too bad it's only a Matrix render..."
Once inside the host, Waywalker tried to act naturally, to pass unnoticed by the Personas in the library.
He took a moment to appreciate the architecture. "This look like the castle in those books I loved as a kid..."
But only for a brief moment. "Damn, not on the job. One distraction could get me killed or worse. I need to focus."
The "grimoire" was easy to find, and he flipped through some pages before tampering it.

[ Spoiler ]

matrix perception on the file: 18d6t5 3
I'm specifically looking for data bombs or such protections.
If there aren't, I'm MARKing it
hack on the fly on the file: 15d6t5 4
If succesful I configure the deck to Data Processing 7/ Sleaze 3 as a free action
edit file: 14d6t5 8 (limit 7)
Last in the turn I rearrange attributes to A 2/S 7/D 3/F 4

[Romain Pelisse]

Waywalker is lucky today, the "grimoire" appears to have no protection (nor databomb, but for such public host, it was to be expected).... but sadly his luck ends her. The minute he attempts to add his MARK to the file, he fails, got a MARK from the Host and triggers an ICe !

[ Spoiler ]

La Fontaine resist Waywalker marking the "Grimoire": 16d6t5 6
Baby Monitor: OS is now 10

Please roll initiative, the IC will not act on the first pass, as it is still being launched.

[Haywire]

[ Spoiler ]

I'll use post-Edge to reroll failures:
hack on the fly on the file: 11d6t5 3
4+3=7, I've MARKed it, and we could proceed with the edit.

[Romain Pelisse]

... or so it seems - but Waywalker is not going to give up ! Adding some last minute changes to his code, he manages to add his MARK to the file, and prevent the host to MARK him. But the ICe is still coming...

[ Spoiler ]

As the ICe is appearing the first pass of combat, thus doing nothing, we will go ahead with the edit file action:

The Grimoire jiggles and resist being edited: 16d6t5 4
Baby Monitor: OS is still 10 (legal action)

... so Waywalker edit the file as quick as he can. As the Probe ICs starts trying to add MARK on his Persona, for further inspection, Waywalker leaves the host, before gracefully leaving the matrix and reboot his deck. The request for the physical access have been added, the French National Archive expects Fabien Lesèque to show up in the coming days, and none is the wiser. For now, everything is going according to plan.

[Haywire]

#24

Waywalker emerged from the VR with a smile.
"Rex, we have our authorization! Now, could you mojo him into staying at home for the next couple days?"

[Jack_Spade]

<<I think so. Do you have a fix on his position? Also, please show me a picture of the man. I'll make sure he takes a break from his studies and does something for his health for the next two days or so.>>

Rex went into his lodge, so he could work without feeling the pressure of the woods around him.

[ Spoiler ]

Summoning Spirit of Man R6 w/powerfocus

Summoning R6 Spirit: 22d6t5 9 Limit 6
Spirit Resist: 6d6t5 2
Drain Resist: 21d6t5 4
Barely, but no drain
4+1 services - which is irrelevant since this will be a remote service

Spirit has the manascape spell and the mana barrier power

Ordering spirit to use concealment power to camouflage himself, travel to the students place, materialize unseen and use the Influence Power on him to implant the idea that the student should recharge himself, disconnect from the matrix and do some wholesome exercises for a few days.

Influence: 12d6t5 6
vs. Log+Wil

[Romain Pelisse]

It takes only instant for Rex's Kami to locate the student. Then, closing on him in the astral, the Kami starts meddling with Fabien's thoughts

[ Spoiler ]

Fabien Lesèque tries to resist Influence Spell from Rex's Spirit: 7d6t5 2

Eating at his parent's table, the young man suddenly raises his head and tell his parents:

"Vous savez quoi ? Rien ne me force à rentrer à Paris demain, je vais rester quelques jours de plus... Je travaille bien ici."

As the Kami departs the surrounding, he quickly glances at the Fabien parent's aura - they seem happy of the sudden declaration of their kid.

[Jack_Spade]

As the Kami departed, Rex felt the confirmation of it's success.
<<The student is out of the way. Let's go for a walk around the university, so we can get a feeling for what those students are wearing. You'll want to fit in when we go to the archive. Hopefully, we'll get a reply from your hack soon. In the meantime I could go for a steak tartar somewhere nice.>>

#30

[Haywire]

#25

Waywalker stretched from the VR session.
"Great news! Yes, I think getting some intel on the university could be nice."
He leashed Rex for the walk and drove the van to the university.
After having his Fly-Spy confirm the zone was safe, the strange couple walked for a bit, observing the students and looking for a shop, physical or online, to get clothes that matched their outfit.

[ Spoiler ]

driving the van: 15d6t5 7
ew through the sensors: 21d6t5 7 (limit 5)
Etiquette (Street): 9d6t5 2
teamwork test from sekretar: 6d6t5 0
Teamwork test from Deck: 12d6t5 2
matrix search on the clothes shop: 16d6t5 4
[\spoiler]

[Romain Pelisse]

Deploying his drone to go have at look at the university is no challenge to Waywalker. However, the decker expected some sort of campus, where students roam free, like American trid show have so much accustomed people too. But Paris ancient design and narrow streets does not allow for such space. The Université de la Fontaine is a mostly a series of Haussman-style building retrofitted into a series of classroom. However, between the student wandering around the buildings, and the open windows, it is enough for him to quickly have a good idea of what a student look likes.

Moving to the next part of his plan, Waywalker starts shopping online, first parsing the famous Louis Vuitton host - but quickly moving to far less expensive brand of clothes, as most students at La Fontaine does not seems to like fancy clothes. Waywalker is pretty sure that many of those young people are coming from wealthy family, unlike Fabien, but even those assume the look of the "struggling student", if nothing for the sake of "class integration".

Once the right of clothes picked up, Waywalker orders them to be tailored immediately and delivered by drone. Only a couple of hours later, a drone flies to the van, now parked again just outside their safe house in the Bois de Vincennes, where an other drone - this one piloted by Waywaker, grabs the delivery and brings it to the runner's cabin. The clothes are - no surprise there, a perfect fit. Sadly, it is already the end of the day, and the two runners realized that the National Archive have already closes his doors. Well, not without sending, just a few minutes closing, the authorization of access - starting today, for two days, that Waywalker was expecting...

[ Spoiler ]

@Waywalker buying clothes is part of your lifestyle (unless you are a squatter) and feel free to describe what the clothes look likes (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) !

[Jack_Spade]

<<Nice outfit, you totally nailed the starving poet look. Speaking of which: It's late and we really pushed our luck today - maybe a nice dinner and some rest would be in order. There must be a nice little tavern around here - I can smell their cooking up to here.
And tomorrow we find that book, steal it and are gone before anyone's the wiser...

Yeah, no, I don't believe that either - but it's a nice motivating fantasy. I'm betting there is more going on with that book and as soon as we remove it from it's lead coffin it triggers some sort of arcane alert and we have to fight off half a dozen fractions who want to get their grubby fingers on it.

So, all the more reason to stuff up on calories now and get some proper rest.>>

Rex took the leash in stride and went out with Waywalker, staying in character.

[Haywire]

#26

It does not take long before the clothes arrive: jeans, a pair of fancy shoes, a button-down-shirt. A perfect fit.
To:Rex:"What do you think, Rex? Should I present myself as Fancy Derek?"
Waywalker smiled after packing the new outfit and looking for a nice place to eat.
"Yes, I think you're right; let's have a proper dinner and some rest before going tomorrow to the Archives."

[Romain Pelisse]

11th March 2076

The night went smoothly for the two runners, safely stored in their safehouse. In the middle of it, it suddenly starts raining, turning the improved roof into a high pitched drum circle, but the noise did not really prevent either Rex or Waywalker to sleep. In the morning, a sort of better weather is back, with a gray ceiling of clouds hovering on top of the city.

The trip to the "Archives National" building, well within Paris, is an other half hour, but Waywalker then needs the same amount of time to locate a place to park. And he finally needs to resigned to park over ten minutes walk away from their target. But finally, around 10:00 am, the decker and his "dog" arrives at the entrance of the government building. No surprise there, security is a though, but certainly not up to corporate standards.

On top of a state of the art scanner - building into an arch above the entrance, the runners immediately notices a couple of Knight Errant officers. Apparently, Ares has won this public contract, despite the known distaste of French authority for "american" companies. Both soldiers are wearing light armor and safely staying behind a bulletproof glass, inside a guarding post, left of the entrance.

Weaving, in AR, is fake SIN, Waywalker approaches the door, and more importantly, the security scanner arch above it...

[ Spoiler ]

@Waywalker what kind of gear did you take - if any, that could be spot by the scanner ?

Please both roll Edge (just the dice pool of the Attribute) to see if you get lucky... or not (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Haywire]

#27

Waywalker took a breath and went through the scanner, hoping that his luck did not abandon him.

[ Spoiler ]

I have the cyberdeck in the cyberhand, running silent
EDGE TEST: 4d6t5 1
[\spoiler]

[Jack_Spade]

Rex had removed most of his gear in the car, keeping only the trodes and the service dog label. He casted a quick Manascape spell on Waywalker to keep the permanent spells on him discreet and making him look like a low level mage according to the identity he was now carrying. He transformed into a really harmless looking Golden Retriever before walking obediently with Waywalker through the security station

[ Spoiler ]

Manascape R6: 20d6t5 6
drain resist: 21d6t5 4
no Drain
Shapechange R3: 20d6t5 6 Dog Form
drain resist: 21d6t5 5
No Drain

Edge: 1d6t5 1[1d6t5=6]
Success!

[ Spoiler ]

[Romain Pelisse]

Waywalker and his "service dog" gets closer to the control arch, trying to act as casual as they could. Both are not expert at looking casual, and the decker looks clearly nervous to the guards, who start paying a bit more attention to him. At the same time, picking discreetly in the astral, Rex can spot a small watcher spirit, hovering just in front of the guards cabin. Now is going to be the time to see if his Manascaping spell perform as well as he hoped.

[ Spoiler ]

For simplicity, I'm ruling that the SIN check and other stuff pass, the only issue is the cyberdeck running silent. One of the guard is trying to spot hidden icon, and may be able to notice it:

Guard looking for devices running silent: 9d6t5 3

@Waywalker: can you roll Logic + Sleaze ?

Watcher spirits gazes into Manascaped Astral form of Waywalker and Rex: 8d6t5 3

As the Watcher spirit does not see through the illusion it does not raise any alarm on his side.

[Haywire]

[ Spoiler ]

logic + sleaze: 14d6t5 1
Time to use the second Edge
logic + sleaze: 13d6t5 5
Total 6

[Jack_Spade]

Moving through the post without triggering an alarm was the first part of the plan. Rex felt his heart pounding while he tried to look like a good dog and thought innocent doggy thoughts.

Than they had stepped through and no sirens blared or spirits manifested. Keeping close to Waywalker's side, Rex kept his head down and tried to take in everything around him that might be a potential threat to them.

[ Spoiler ]

Just in case it is needed (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Perception: 15d6t5 3

[Romain Pelisse]

Waywalker and Rex are nervous. The scanner seems to analyzing them as slowly as possible and one of the guard behind the glass window is clearly focusing on the AR output of his commlink, while is coworking is casually, but not distractedly checking the output of the scanner. They have no weapon on them, so don't have any probable cause to arrest them or open fire on them, but still, if they don't pass the check in, and need to explain themselves to the guards, they won't have a lot of margin...

Fortunately, the scan suddenly stops and one of the guard nods at them to go in. With relief, the two runners slips into the Archives building - trying to act as much as possible as they belong to the place. As they start following the AR indication to get them to the right section of the archives, Waywalker and Rex quickly realizes that the old building, with all his charms, and state of art security refurbishing, is certainly large enough to contain all the document the Paris section of the National Archive, they are supposed to shelter. So it is no surprise, when they arrive to an elevator - already preconfigured to get them to the right, underground level: Level 11.

They are alone in the elevator and, as soon as it starts moving, its lights suddenly dims a little - probably to already accommodate them to the light settings of the level they are going to. The ride is a slow one, but a large number of ARO, and audio message, are being blasted to their commlink, to remind them of the, numerous, rules of the National Archives. And of course, also to point out both the quality and uniqueness of its content, but also the draconian level of security the institution provides.

The runners can not refrain a little smile at the last statement, as they clearly have managed to slips through this so called impenetrable security undetected. That being said, they are also happy that they don't have to actually stole anything yet, but rather just do some gold, old fashioned research in the paper of the "Conros Estate".

The slow elevator decelerates and finally comes to a full stop. With a "oosh" typical of old Sci Fi trids, the doors opens revealing a rather simple room. Both runners had expected something a bit more fancy than a set of large table, plus some bad quality chairs - they can already know their backs are going to complains if they are forced to work hours on those, and a series of transparent, but secure, glass doors, letting the shelves of the numerous items of this level of the archive being seen from the room. At first, the runners are a bit surprise of how dark the alley of books and items is but soon, as they saw a small rotor-drone coming out through a sort of cathole close to the ceiling, carrying a tray of papers and books, they realize no human, or metahuman is supposed to access the items of the archives directly, just request whatever they want, using AROs conveniently displayed on the table themselves.

Trying to act casual, but also on the edge, Waywalker sits at a table, pulling a chair to allow Rex to jump on it and stands next to him, but also above the table so that he can see the documents when they arrive. Waywalker starts manipulating the AROs to locate the Conros Estate documents. Of course, he soon founds out that the items have been spread part and indexed in a way that probably make sense only to the fetishist librarian who did the organization of the level... Gosh, wouldn't he rather have something or someone to shoot at right now !

[ Spoiler ]

@Rex, Waywalker I assume your characters are both very aware of their environment and trying to spot any tell that either security might be onto them or anything "strange" or "out of the place" as long as they are - can you roll Perception in both the Physical, Astral and Matrix ? This roll will act as bases for the duration of your stay.

@Waywalker, I'll spare you Computer roll or whatnot for the Archive system - you will get the job down, only with a potent hatred of the freaking sadist who managed to design a search system that make you fell you shuffling your hands into an urtica bushes... (as in our current world, bad UI should be considered a crime against humanity or at least work abuse).

[Jack_Spade]

Rex only glanced at the texts - it wouldn't do to give the impression that the dog could read. Instead he risked taking a peek at the astral now and then, checking out the magic security. Large scale wards were impractical when you had different mages supplying watchers and spirits for guard duty. Being under the earth and keeping watch at the elevator shafts was much more practical.
He was confident in the quality of his illusion, but nonetheless he didn't want to tax it too much and refrained from analysing the computer system.

[ Spoiler ]

Astral Perception: 13d6t5 5
Assensing: 9d6t5 4

[Haywire]

#28

Phew... I was lucky again!"
Waywalker almost sighed in relief when the scanner gave the "clear" signal. The journey throught the depths of the Archives was simple, but the rigger could not stop thinking how if they lost the way they could wander for their entire life in the complex and still don't get out.
The working room was very spartan, but the user interface was a nightmare.
"I'd rather share my bed with a smelly troll than touch this system another time!"
In the while he was on the edge looking for any signs of trouble through the deck and his Fly-Spy hidden under his coat...

[ Spoiler ]

matrix perception: 16d6t5 7 (limit 5)
ew through the sensors: 17d6t5 9 (limit 5)

[Romain Pelisse]

After spending some minutes figuring out how to order the document to his desk - yes, there is still no numeric version of the Contos archive, or it got lost in the crashes, Waywalker and Rex were are waiting for the drone to bring them the document. Rex uses the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the astral space. While being sort of SOTA,the archive room is also part of the ancient building and thus have a strong aura to it, so it takes him a little while to accommodate to the astral tissue around him. The other people all have a bright aura, so no much cyberware and in good health, but also very focus on their own research. Nothing surprising here.

Looking around, the dog shaped mage now try to see if some other astral entity are here with them. Given the depth of the room, and the amount of biological material in the dirt around them, the room is already quite protected against astral intruder. The mage also expects to have some kind of ward or mana barrier around the structure, so he is not surprised to not see any spirit patrolling at first. The structure is large, so he waits for a "whooshing" form to drop by, but no, no spirit patrol. However, he notices, after a little while, a small spirit, often nicknamed watcher, somehow hiding being within the astral waves of colors emitted by the shelves carrying old and even ancients documents. The presence of the sneaky watchers does puzzle the mage.

In the meantime in the physical world, Waywalker barely had the time to deploy his tiny drone, before a first stack of paper got delivered by the library drone. The Italian rigger can hold a sight, as he realizes that this already impressive stack is just the first one of a long series. And all are in french from the last century, often with a lot, if not only, hand writing. Fortunately for the runners, the archive provides all kind of way to both scan the document, deciphers the handwriting, and even offer some sort of translation. Sharing the resulting AROs with his canine partner, Waywalker starts doing a first attempt at organizing and navigate through the data. He only started this when a pair of drone drop two new stacks on the desk...

As he is shuffling papers around, Waywalker also pays attention to the video feed from his drone flying around him. While the second stacks of papers arrives, he notices something odd. A little bug leaves the stack to fly away from the table. Waywalker immediately recognize it for what it is - a tiny drone like his, was hiding in the papers !

[Haywire]

#29

Waywalker was on the edge. His sixth sense kept tingling, until a drone came out of the documents. Whoever was the owner, should have known better...

[ Spoiler ]

matrix perception: 16d6t5 5 (info on the drone: last matrix action, who is the owner and so on)
data spike teamwork: 12d6t5 4
data spike on the drone: 17d6t5 9 (damage is 7 + net hits)