[IP] Panzerknacker Options

[Volker]

[ Spoiler ]

This is pretty much bnc's field of expertise. Once Anna (hopefully) tells her, can she make something of it?

Medicine: 10d6t5 4
Magical Theory: 13d6t5 3

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

Hard to say from second hand, but since bnc has the benefit of being able to consult online archives about the topic, she can conclude that the spider most likely has sworn a Blood Oath that enhances some skill of his while he pursues a defined goal - willfully breaking that oath would cause severe damage to the decker and likely kill him.
Details: Forbidden Arcana p.130

[Gilga]

Anna returns to her body and reports the findings to the group. ">>>No magic security, plenty of physical security - perhaps we can use spirits to incapacitate him. There was this strange magic in his blood, Flatline thinks it is blood line tradition...

Does anyone know about Blood magic to try and figure out what they did? I afraid that Blood magic was always a taboo in the university. I've heard a few whispers and rumors nothing more. "

"[/color]. She allowed Flatline to explain how the cuts were made and so forth.

[Volker]

"Hmmm. I'm no practitioner but I read a book about blood magic once. A Blood Oath does not only bind him to fulfill his duty, but also would boost his skills. The spider might have sworn such an Oath in order to ensure his loyalty. Breaking it would likely mean his death.
If that is so, it is even more necessary to make sure he can't go online."

[Gilga]

Anna texted >> You have an odd taste in books! Though it is great that you read that book. Thanks for the info I did not know such things. Blood magic is sort of a slippery road for practitioners. Very addictive, or so they say. Anything practical we want to do with that intel? Let's make sure that the spider jacks in from home and if so, we can subdue him with spirits. He'll be out cold before he can do anything.

[SquirrelDude]

@bnc@mike>>Either of you guys got the two primo guard's room numbers, and does anyone mind providing some astral overwatch before I go full bull-in-china shop on the wards?

Also a medkit for when I trigger a flechette mine again.

[Gilga]

Anna texted "Perhaps some physical overwatch as well? We are in the same hotel and these elites seem quite dangerous."
She did not wait for a reply, instead she projected toward the room Slobber was about to b&e trying to figure out if it was unoccupied/magically protected.

[ Spoiler ]

Assensing: 11d6t5 3

[Jack_Spade]

Finding the room numbers wasn't hard. Unsurprisingly the two bodyguards lodged on different levels.
Ramirez' room was closest and also a corner room. Looking inside, Anna found no magical protection but a suspicious looking mirror. bnc only needed a simple matrix check to recognize it as an R4 Sensor Array. Curiously, it was only slaved to the adept's own commlink. Otherwise there weren't any protections visible - likely because room service didn't like to be blown up making the beds.
Peaking her astral head through the small wall safe told Anna that it was filled with some documents. It was an old model with a simple number pad without matrix connection.
Learning from her previous look around, Anna also checked the bathroom. There were no bloody bandages in the waste basket, but a lingering aura told her that something really bad had been disposed inside not long ago. It felt a little bit like what the spider had had, but much, much worse. The only thing she could remotely associate with it was the one time at Uni when their professor had encouraged them to look at the aura of a ghoul...

Kynos room didn't even have a sensor array, but besides some nutribar wrappers the main room was clear - not even the safe was occupied. The waste basket did contain bloody bandages, but those had no blood magic aura at all. They showed barely any living essence at all.

[ Spoiler ]

Open room door requires either a MARK on the hotel host and a quick control device action (13 dice resist each)
Or a Lockpicking+AGI test with a Threshold of 2

Taking care of the Sensor Array needs a MARK on it and through slaved connection on Ramirez' commlink (11 dice resist) followed by an extended Edit File Action
No Data Bombs

The safe is a Lockpicking+AGI test with a Threshold of 1 (yeah, stellar hotel security)

[Gilga]

Anna poked around into the pipes, seeing if something evil was desposed there. Then she returned to her body and reported.

Anna texted >> All clear astrally, both rooms are empty. Something is very off in the adept's room. I have no idea what they were doing there but it affects me so much stronger than the Spider that it might as well be a human sacrifice. I have never sensed something so negative so I might be exaggerating... but it felt terrible"

With that in mind, Anna projected again and followed the robo maid and assense her waste busket. She hoped to find some evidence of the recently removed element that caused her strong reaction.

[Jack_Spade]

Digging astrally through a heap of hotel waste was a lot less fun than Anna had expected. Beside the usual refuse like used condoms and pads/tampons, a surprising amount of needles, drugs (both legal and illegal), endless bouts of paper and even more plastic wrappers, soycaf filters and so on made the undertaking less than promising.
Still, the astral resonance was not too bad and she could at least try to find something.

[ Spoiler ]

Make an unmodified Edge Roll if there is anything left.

[Volker]

<@Anna <i do have a taste for evrythg thats addictive. we have to consider he might get magical support when we take him out. guess well be faster though>>
<@all <does anyone of you go in?. i doubt they will dispose of a whole corpse in the waste so i dont think it was a full sacrifice but it sure was a nasty piece of blood magic. maybe a small animal sacrificed or blood drawn for a blood spirit or something like that.
u need me to open the door and remove the sensor array? im not sure whether knowing what the creepy bastard did in there will do us any good.

[Jack_Spade]

Mike chimed in: <<Well, for one thing if we can prove that the guy is a Blood Adept we can legally abduct him and get the bounty from the DIMR. It's a bit under a million these days. Better yet, if we leak that to this other mercenary, he might decide to go for the money himself.>>

[Gilga]

Whatever was in the garbage heap, it felt too faint now or perhaps Anna assensed the wrong heap. She found no evidence in the heap. Perhaps they need to be patient and routinely assense garbage heaps. As much as that behavior was repulsive, just like the physical version of the task.

[ Spoiler ]

Edge: 2d6t5 0 no luck...

Anna texted "@Mike >> how much of a proof does DIMIR needs? Do we need reasonable doubt like we have now or a smoking gun? Can they verify such claim about a person?

@bnc >> About Spider, will it be reasonable to eliminate digital evidence once the spirits are done?

[Jack_Spade]

Anna had traversed the heap but besides two aggressive devil rats, busily devouring the cadaver of a third she found no trace of the magic.


Mike replied: <<The Dunkelzahn Institute of Magical Research will do their own verification, but for normal law enforcement it would be very wise to have some documentation on hand - but of course that is a minor issue if we manage it quietly.
The problems begin if we are mistaken and it wasn't Ramirez who used blood magic. So all in all, better get some real evidence.>>

[Gilga]

She texted >> DIMR, right... I'll keep an eye open. Sadly, I can do so from the safe house as well but without the facilities. Then she raised up from the bed and asked Flatline "Are your spirits any good at knocking people out without killing them? I won't just murder someone unprovoked."

[Jack_Spade]

Flatline shrugged:
"Probably as good as yours. A spirit of man should be able to subdue without killing - especially if we can give it some equipment. What we'd really need is a Guardian spirit. Those are especially adapt for such specialized work."

[SquirrelDude]

"Welp, once more into the unknown"

@BNC@Anna>> If someone could unlock this door and come with an autopick for the safe, it would be appreciate. Also, turning off that mirror or any other sensors would be nice.

[ Spoiler ]

That last part is unnecessary if I forgot slob has B&E tools on him, but I think I explicitly stated he didn't.

[Gilga]

Anna said "I never used them to hurt someone before, I kind of hate to leave such a delicate nature to a spirit. perhaps a spirit of the earth for physical violence or a spirit of man for discrete stun bolt kind of activity."

To Slobber she texted ">> Safe cracking...? I have no equipment for that, then again hotel safes are kind of basic. I can augment your natural ability if that helps - and provide you with some pins. Though perhaps you can just guess the code.

[Jack_Spade]

Flatline chimed in: <<Kite packed some of that stuff into my bag. I think there's a little spiderdrone with an autopicker in it. No idea how this thing works, though.>>

[Gilga]

Anna giggled when she read Flatline's text. >> Delivery service coming... Flatline take the astral to make sure the rooms stay empty. She said and packed the auto-picker within a small bag. She walked passed Slobber, dropped the bag without forming an eye contact with slobber and continued to a vending machine to buy two bottles of diet cola.

She placed one bottle in her purse and casually drunk the other near the elevator - so that she could warn Slobber and perhaps delay the occupant of the room.

[SquirrelDude]

Slobber added said nothing to the strange lady dropping things next to his feet.

@bnc>Is the magic passphrase "open sesame... and also disable the sensors?"

[Gilga]

Anna idly browsed an advertisement of a music concert near the elevator and drunk her coke. She had a spare one in case it would take longer.

[Jack_Spade]

bnc replied:
<<The door is open and the sensor is on a loop. Better hurry, that's not something I can sustain indefinitely.>>

Indeed the light on the door had turned green and the handle allowed slobber to disengage the lock.

Inside he saw a quite tidy hotel room that had been in use for quite some time. Personal items lay around and one corner had been turned into a combination of meditation and close combat area, with a soft matt on the ground and a dummy that showed definite signs of knife abuse.

The spider moved on it's own accord towards the safe and it took the little drone only seconds to open the small strong box.

[ Spoiler ]

In Volker's absence I'll allow myself to just buy hits on the tests for bnc.

Two perception tests please: One visual and one search

[SquirrelDude]

<<@bnc Danke>>

Slobber pulled out his Ruger and applied the suppressor as he passed through the door into the bodyguards room and began to search. He focused himself and checked for movement again.

[ Spoiler ]

Physical Limit 9. Mental Limit 5

Visual Perception: 14d6t5 6
Search Perception: 11d6t5 7

Motion Sense [5]: 12d6t5 3

[Jack_Spade]

Slobber took a look around the living- and bathroom. He could smell faint traces of blood and something he had smelled all to often in his childhood: The pungent stink of Devil Rat urine. There seemed to be no infestation here - he couldn't find any gnaw holes or other openings the aggressive vermin could have come from. Next he went to the small safe, taking care to memorize the order in which the items lay inside before he took them out to examine.
There was a small box filled with certified credsticks - each around 1000 Nuyen worth, in total 26 sticks.
A small bible that turned out to be written in Spanish and as far as he could make out with his cheap translator soft contained an awe-full lot of blood references.
A collection of ID cards with RFID transponders all with different Spanish sounding names.

Slobber was almost putting them back when he noticed that inside the safe was a small, cut to fit rubber matt. Beneath it he found a very curious item:
A hand written piece of paper. This too was written in Spanish, but the kursive writing was too much for the translator soft to recognize.
All he could make out was that it was addressed to Ramirez and signed by "Z".

Anna meanwhile noticed the owner of the room had just ended his discussion with the hotel staff and was now moving straight towards the elevator. As with their previous experiences, Slobber would have about 30 seconds before the man could reach his room...