Salted Wounds [IC], a Deep Black Sea game Options

[Luckace]

Aquaman can't control himself? Oh wiz. First the graveyard, now this. This is just going great.
Wraith had followed the discussion with a concerned look, but his eyes were stern and determined, when he said to Sharkboy:
"If everything else fails, and you threaten our lifes or the mission, I can - and will - use magic to calm you. You saw how I can puppeteer people. If I use that spell on you, I should be able to make you calm down for a few minutes. Gives us time to drug you or get clear or whatever."

He looked at the coordinates and the surroundings - obviously not pleased by the mass of hiding-spots. This is a perfect place for an ambush...
"Yeah, the background count sucks. I'm not actually prepared fo an area where my mojo might not work. When we pass Upper Austria, I'll leave you chummers for a moment, I gotta arm myself. I'll take my bike, quickly grab my stuff from Linz and catch up to you before we reach Vienna."

He planned a route where he could easily take his much faster bike to Linz to get his gun and other equipment and meet the van on the way to Vienna without them loosing time.

[SquirrelDude]

Sharkboy sighed, sounding relieved. "Thanks Nova. Thanks Wraith." He handed Nova the syringe. He then tried to engage in the conversation about scouting the graveyard. He wasn't looking forward to the background count.

"So the background count is going to be a problem. Do we have any drones that would be effective at scouting the area and possibly trigger booby-traps. I expect you don't want to use the fancy massage robot but do we have anything else?"

[Thanee]

"If Magic won't help us much there, we will have to rely on our eyes and ears, I guess. I'm pretty good at that, so I could just physically scout the area," Nova offered.

"Also, what I am wondering... why would anyone lay an ambush on a cemetary? Unless they know of the hiding place, of course, and expect people to show up there."

[Jack_Spade]

Eliza replied: "The cover of this hideout was blown when Kerstin fled - she had an active commlink with her when she left the shielded area inside. We can't be sure, but it is very likely that at this time her link was compromised as only minute later drones began to swarm her. That's when she got rid of her link and we lost contact.
We don't know if they are still keeping watch there, but then it is standard procedure to keep eyes on any known locals where a fugitive has been before."

[Thanee]

"Okay, that makes sense," Nova replied. "So we should keep in mind, that the area will likely be watched at the very least. Good thing that bnc can alter her appearence enough to not be mistaken for her sister right away. Do they know anyone else from the team that they would reckognize them immediately? Also, is the hideout in a public place, where visitors just walk around during the day?"

[Volker]

[ Spoiler ]

So if I want to, say, post in one user's name, I'll hack his persona and then issue the Send Message action, right? Do they have to be online for this?
Or else, is it possible to hack the host itself and edit the forum's database in order to create, edit or delete specific messages and/or user accounts?

bnc explains to Nova: "Sure. Viennese are the native people of Vienna. But as basically anything of importance in Austria is located in Vienna, people from all of Austria come to the place to stay there at least for a while. That's why, for every Viennese you'll find two proper Austrians in Vienna.
You'll recognize Viennese by the disgusted face I'll make when I hear their lousy accent.

To Sharkboy: [color="red"]"You couldn't, but I can. If you'll ever get one, I can do the programming. I'm quite twasse'ensix in programming, medicine and the likes. Trust me, I managed way more difficult tasks when it comes to man-machine interfaces. She winks to Anna conspiciously.
"About this sixth sense you have ... as we've got plenty of time, would you mind telling me what's that about? It doesn't sound like infrared sight or sonar nor radar or x rays. It's apparently nothing Astral either ... so, what is it?

Do you have an injector-gun or something like that? I think we could even improvise an auto-injector. I could apply a peipheral venous catheter and remote-control it over a small electro engine addressed via a stealth RFID chip. It's cheap, I can pick up the materials somewhere on the way, and it's quite safe, especially in urban areas. And it could save us some serious trouble. You in? Trust me, it'll do nothing you don't want.

As for the drones. Unfortunately, for a rigger I'm poorly equipped. Partly because I'm mainly not a rigger. I do have the rotodrone you already saw, however, and a couple of Noizquitos. They would work well as spy drones, though they won't trigger any traps.
Also, in an urban area there would be a hell of a lot of drones: package service drones, cleaning drones, repair drones and the like. I can easily take over one of those and use it to scout and trigger traps."

It seems, the tasks ahead help bnc to compose herself for the moment. She's talking business and those who knew her can literally see her mind racing. This is mainly on the surface, though, and a hell of a lot is buried not so deep inside, waiting to break the surface again. She doesn't allow herself a seconds worth of a break: As soon as the conversation starts to trickle, she'll go online and bury herself in the forums, taking in all the information she can about the organization, culture and rules of those people who are after her sister.

[SquirrelDude]

Sharkboy wasn't able to give a satisfying answer. "Hmm, how to explain it. It showed up around the same time as the gills did and I didn't learn about it in primary school. I had a doctor explain what it might be a few years ago, but I don't really remember what it's called. It has something to do with electricity. The basics are that I have a sense of where people are and can tell that your masseuse is a robot and not a person. It's like any your smell or hearing where one big sensation can make it hard to notice other things, the way rotten eggs can mask lighter smells."

[ Spoiler ]

Con: 10d6t5 2 - Sharkboy is being a bit coy about it.

[Volker]

bnc seems to be genuinely interested. She hasn't got any personal experience whatsoever with Surgelings, but magic, sensor system - be they biological or technological - enhancements and medicine in a broad sense absolutely got her on the hook. Well, almost anything can get her on the hook, but Sharkboy definitely did.

"So it is something that came up through SURGE? So you do feel, what, electromagnet waves? Can you feel drones passing by? What about water streams? Can you feel them, too? What's the sensation like? Is it, like, well, feeling things or is it entirely different?

And what about the makeshift auto-injector I could craft from a venflon and a stealth tag? I think, wait...
I even have a stealth tag in my pocket and there should be a venflon - a peripheral venous catheter - in the medkit. I think I could craft the fragging thing with the stuff I have with me. Would you wear it? You'd only use it in case of emergency, of course."

[ Spoiler ]

Opposed roll: 6d6t5 3
That just made her more eager to dig deep (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Unfortunately, she's got neither the patience nor the empathy to try it more carefully...

[SquirrelDude]

Sharkboy frowns, not really prepared to answer this many questions, but he does his best. "Still a 'hard no' on having someone I met 5 minutes ago asking to build an auto-injector for me. When this is over, I'll call up my physician and see if she can get one set up for me the next time I'm in New York. Soka?"

"What does my surge sense feel like? What does smelling smell like? What does hearing sound like? It's new, but I still can't really describe what the feeling feels like. I just focus on it, and things seem more clear. I know where things are. To answer your specific questions. I notice drones, but they could be a flying soykaf machine for all I know. Water streams don't feel any different than grass. The fish in them usually stand out, though. "

[Volker]

"Uhm, if it makes you more comfortable, we could wait another two hours, then you first met me two hours and 5 minutes ago."
She greens, then sighs as she accepts the no for a no.

"I was afraid of that answer. Still, it's awesome. What range do you have?" Her enthusiams seems to be fading off. The last question comes only half-heartedly. Her span of attention seems to correlate with her general patience.

[SquirrelDude]

"The range? It's shrank over time. It used to be longer before I got the datajack in my neck and the muscle toner in my everywhere else."

[Luckace]

Wraith followed their conversation with curious smile. This shark is full of surprises... He was glad that bnc had a distraction.

"The way I see it, there are two options for entering the hideout: first, disguised as tourists. Admire some graves, talk about the statues. Potential scouts shouldn't get too weary if a random tourist gets close to that grave, and at the right moment, when nobody's looking, he slips in. If the place is not too crowded, that is.

Second, les complicated: We go by night, when the graveyard is closed. Anna, how confident are you that you can keep up the invisibility despite the background count? Sharkboy's sixth sense might come in handy as well... Does one of you have some kind of heat-detector?
The downside: if they spot us, they know immediatly what's going on."

Not knowing much about th graveyard, Wraith starts to search for information on visitor-numbers etc. They do have a lovely church... Might help me against the background count.

[Volker]

"Third: send in 3C-PO first"

[Thanee]

Nova followed the conversation with one ear. "So, you can see electricity, basically," Nova asked. "That seems pretty useful. If I ever want to drill a hole into my wall and not hit any power lines, I surely will ask you. Are you handy with a hammer, too?" She grinned, obviously not being very serious here. Also, why would you drill a hole and then use a hammer, but that's a different question entirely.

Turning to bnc again. "Very well, that works for me. I will watch out for your disgusted look then, and try to figure things out from there..."

And finally turning to Wraith. "We could also go at night, make a picnic, gothic-style. Something like that. Probably more convincing, if only two go, though."

[Gilga]

Anna listened intently and then commented "I am by the way, professional with disguises, cosmetics and everything. Given enough preparation, I can make bnc look like Chubbaka. If we are not in a hurry I can disguise whomever need it."

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

So if I want to, say, post in one user's name, I'll hack his persona and then issue the Send Message action, right? Do they have to be online for this?
Or else, is it possible to hack the host itself and edit the forum's database in order to create, edit or delete specific messages and/or user accounts?

[ Spoiler ]

Yes, either hack the persona or hack the database

Eliza replied to Wraith's question: "The cemetary is open to the public, but it is so vast that there certainly aren't crowds around - except during funerals and even then only very localized.
The hideout is in a very old part of the cemetary, so only random joggers or strollers will come by and even that rather seldomly as its location is not along a main road."

[Gilga]

Anna said "Seems like a good safehouse, what are we looking for in there? Kerstain would not go back there knowing it would be another ambush. So are we looking for the comlink she might drop? Something else?"

[Volker]

[ Spoiler ]

Okay, that sounds good. Then let's start! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Marking the host: Hacking on the Fly: 19d6t5 5
I assume Firewall 8, as you usually maximize the hosts' firewall rating: Opposed roll: 13d6t5 3
Activate silent mode.
Enter Host.
Find the database: Matrix Search: 13d6t5 4
Mark it: Hacking on the Fly: 17d6t5 7
Edit File: 15d6t5 4
Opposed rolls: 2#13d6t5 5 6
So, edit file failed. Retry:
retry edit file: 13d6t5 5Opposed roll: 13d6t5 2

Okay, this time it works.
What she does is, she identifies middle-rank posters with some credibility who post in an irregular pattern. I'm especially looking for people I believe are a bit sloppy, i.e. don't care for grammar, miss questions they were asked, and so forth, to minimize the risk of them getting aware of the fake posts from their account. I then try to find subforums they use rather infrequently. I.e. if the subforums are split up by region, I'll find a region where they posted once or twice only. Again, to make it more difficult for them to find out. There I place false sightings, trying to imitate their style.
I'm note sure whether you'll want some rolls for that, so I'll just roll what I think makes sense:
Psychology: 11d6t5 3
Computer: 17d6t5 5
Con: 6d6t5 4

All in all I should be able to make some pretty decent false leads. I don't know how many leads are posted in what time, but I'll try to not overdo it.

"Picknick sounds like an amazing idea to me. Do we have two good actors? Anna will definitely be the girl. She's a good actor. You must see her playing dumb. It's so convincing. She can also do the silly blonde barbie doll just amazing.
I guess, Nova, Gilly and I won't do as her boyfriend. That leaves Wraith ... or James, but I don't think that's a good idea.
Downside: If Anna and Raph go, we have two mages down there, mostly incapable of doing anything sensible.
I would keep two Noizquitos to watch the scene. Maybe we can hide the rotodrone somewhere nearby. And the rest of the group should not be too far.
By the way, how far is the shortest distance from the hideout to a point where we can park the van outside the cemetary?"

bnc tries to keep the eye-rolling to a minimum when she turns to Anna. "Everything and anything and nothing in particular. We'll see what we find, hoping that there's anything inside that could give us a lead. It's really grasping for straws but it's all we have. I don't believe that the commlink will still be here."

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

You left out an important step: The file is both encrypted and databomb protected.
Also, you spend a minute searching while running silent. That will get you on the radar of a Patrol IC
Matrix Perception: 11d6t5 1
Matrix Perception: 11d6t5 2
Matrix Perception: 11d6t5 2

But you are in luck and it's pretty crappy at its job - I'll assume you just buy hits to stay undetected

Once you notice the encryption, you'll likely make a perception test to find the databomb (it's R4)
The bomb buys two hits as well to resist disarming

As per the agreed houserule: The cracking does not alert the whole host but leaves an entry in a log file that you'll have to scrub seperately if you don't want to leave any traces

Eliza replied: "The official parking lot is 900m away - linear distance. The closest other lot on the southern part is about 700m away. Driving on the ways is possible, but only allowed for hearses."

[Volker]

[ Spoiler ]

Jeez, how can I play a decker for several years and keep forgetting about encryption and databombs? In my mind, this is always something you can do with files that are not used every minute, the way you can't encrypt a file in RL if you use it frequently.

So, first the data bomb:
Disarm Data Bomb: 13d6t5 3

Now cracking the encryption:
Crack File: 15d6t5 5
Opposed roll: 13d6t5 5
retry:
Crack File: 15d6t5 6
Crack File: 13d6t5 6
oh come on! 6 hits with 13 dice? :-/
retry:
Crack File: 15d6t5 4Opposed roll: 13d6t5 2

I'm not sure whether or not I also suffer the -2 dice pool penalty if I retry after a draw. In thise case, however, it wouldn't have made a difference.

Also, I think I'll have to do some more edit file actions. As the effect of a failed action is limited, and I have way more dice, I guess that's not that important, is it?

Two questions, anyway:
1) Will the databomb log file again be protected by a databomb which then will be noted in another file with another databomb and so on?
2) The databomb is not circumvented but deleted. They will notice eventually, no matter what I do, won't they? Is it possible to just "find out the passphrase"? Can I create my own databomb and make it look like the old one and accept the same passphrase as before?

"So-ka. Well, 700 is quite a bit when the shit hits the fan, but if that's what we have to work with, we'll hide in the southern parking lot, prepared to help you guys any time. Or do you guys have a better idea? Hiding could cause attention."

[Luckace]

"Sounds solid.", Wraith comments. "As long as we don't know whether there's a mage laying low there, I'm against someone hiding in the area. Wait until we've checked for potential assensers."

"I see there's a church in the area. That give's us an edge against magical adversaries: My mojo is usually stronger in such a holy place. Or let's say... clearer. Makes it easier for me to connect with the source of my powers. And I think the fuzzyness coming from the background won't affect me there. I'd suggest when we head for the grave, we stroll past the church. Helps me assense, if necessary, and we shouldn't take the straightest way to the bunker anyways."

"bnc, you'll check for any surveillance, right?"

[ Spoiler ]

@Jack_Spade: I can't see where exactly the grave is, but it seems like the church in the old area (Katholische Dr.-Karl-Lueger-Gedächtniskirche) wouldn't be too far away from the grave, right?

[Volker]

"Sure. In an area with as little icons as there, I think I can even spot silently running icons without a problem. I'll also have my drones flying about."

[ Spoiler ]

@Luckace
bnc has no capital letters in her name, no matter where in the sentence the word is. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Thanee]

"Looks like we are getting somewhere with a plan. Not sure how important acting skills will be, it's not like you need to be a method actor to walk around in a park, or cemetary for that matter, carrying a picnic basket and a bottle of red. We might need some of Anna's cosmetic skills, though, and probably some different clothes. It will be night, after all, normal people don't do that, hence the idea with the gothic theme. Also, I'm not sure how brilliant it is to send both our mages in there, if that background ... stuff ... hinders your mojo, like you say. Maybe better if I go in? That way we would have someone in the vincinity, if things go sideways for some reason. Contingency planning is the most important part of a plan, if you ask me. If I understand it right, anyone with that magic gaze can figure out that any of us are not exactly the regular type of people. So there is that risk at least. Or the more covert types could at least stay reasonably close, so we do not have hundreds of meters to cross in case of an emergency. Of course, I could also do overwatch. Distance won't be an issue, but with all the trees it might be difficult to find a decent spot with a good line of sight."

Nova points to the black case, she had fetched from her flat.

"That baby in there will punch right through gravestones, front armor and rear armor, making a mess of anything that is in between. So, if we can find a decent spot, that would be an option we have. It's also reasonably silent."

[Volker]

"I disagree. You do have to be quite an actor to put on the body language of some gothic freak having dinner convincingly. The people we want to fool will grow suspicious if they see anyone loafing about near the hideout. The wrong look, the wrong pose, the wrong gesture can betray us.

Is there anything wrong with two girls doing the gothic picknick? I'm still not sure how this is in the Americas, but in Austria, no one so much as raises an eyebrow at a lesbian couple in the seventies. Or the fifties, for that matter. Also, if you're not into kissing - no, Anna, I'm adressing Nova, we all know you wouldn't mind actually fucking her on the graveyard just to keep up the disgusie - you can also be some freaky friends. I'd love to see the make-up, though.", she adds with a smile.

She taps her Nissan rotodrone (which has landed in the car in the meanwhile and is being recharged) fondly. "This little bugger is stealthy as fuck. It's being used by pretty much anyone. It's legal, it's not expensive and it's bastante awesome. The sniper rifle is hidden, so people won't see it. Hardly anyone would find it suspicious. Also, I can sniper anyone from a 1,000 metres through it. What's that thing in the suitcase."

[ Spoiler ]

By the way: If I remember correctly, we got this during one of the runs. I can't remember buying it myself. Can I assume that it is equipped with proper night-sight sensors and image magnification?

"You raise an important point. What actually are your capabilities? Are you a fighter? A face? Both? Nothing?
We might also consider putting James somewhere near. He's quite athletic when I steer him."

[Luckace]

Wraith's look had changed to concern and disagreement. While Nova and bnc are talking, he opens his third eye to quickly assense first Nova and then Anna for any suspicious augmentations and implants. He reacts visibly surprised after discovering Nova's vast augmentations.
"I'm actually not a fan of neither James nor Nova going near the grave until someone can make sure there's no mage there. I fear that your..." he gestures towards her arms and legs "implants will blow your disguise. Such vast augmentations tell anyone assensing you, that you're up to something. I mean, half your body is... made of steel, or something. Just one look from my third eye tells me that your presence means trouble, and I'm not even exceptionally good at this.
Whereas, when I look at Anna - or me - I... see only a mage. Gifted, but nothing mind-blowing. Two students from a local academy perhaps, having a romantic picknick. Nothing that would alert me as much as seeing a full-blown cyborg. Meaning no offense!
If someone first assenses the area from afar and gives green light, I see no problem with two girls doing the picnick. But only then."

Towards bnc: "Same goes for ol' massagebot over here. Your aircraft could be anything, but seeing a human without an aura just tips a mage off."

[ Spoiler ]

Assensing: 2#10d6t5 6 6
@ Volker: of course the guy wo can't even use my alias ("Downside: If Anna and Raph go, ...") is the one complaining about capital letters... -_-
Not being serious, of course :* I'll edit it and (maybe) remember it for the future (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)