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

[Gilga]

[ Spoiler ]

Wow! but didn't he receive -5 for concealability? not that it would make a difference in the roll, just to see if I understood the rules.

"Oh, crap... I forgot I had it." Defeated she smiled at the camera and moved on gracefully as if nothing happened.

[Volker]

bnc simply moves on, once Anna is free to go. A moment she considers ignoring the CCC people but then the curiosity gets the better of her.

What the heck are they doing here..?", she wonders. Inmidst of so many icons, she can take the risk of booting her deck, too. Running silently, she analyzes the modded icon, hoping to find out where it belongs.

[ Spoiler ]

Matrix Perception: 15d6t5 3
I rolled 15 because I can roll on Matrix Perception with my Fairlight Caliban, which doesn't need to run silent. Not that it was particularly helpful.

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

He did, or rather he did receive half the mod since he is using tactile perception.

"If you’re being physically patted down, the searcher
can use Agility and his Physical limit instead of Intuition
and the Mental limit. Additionally, any negative Con-
cealability modifier is cut in half, and any positive Con-
cealability modifier is doubled."

But that isn't nearly as relevant as the fact that the Milimeter Wave Sensor in his hand nullified the concealment completely.

Defense against Matrix Perception
Stealth: 17d6t5 4

Anna is let in while bnc still tries to get a grip on the CCC guys' gear - but with no trace what or where the cyber deck is hidden. In any case, they both don't trigger a reaction from the ork, who waves them on - meaning the two aren't carrying weapons, drones or other forbidden items.

[Volker]

[ Spoiler ]

Looking for hidden icons here doesn't make any sense at all. I can mark it, however, and thus find its master.
I hope, I don't mess this up...
Hacking on the Fly: 17d6t5 4
If that's not enough (which I guess with this other bad roll), I'll use edge:
Edge: 13d6t5 3
7 scores with 30 hits is not exactly brilliant, but it might do.

EDGE: 3/4 left

A challenge at last.
"Something's off. Assense the dude I'm indicating with an ARrOw.", she whispers to Anna, before she attempts something risky. She focusses, inhales, and then tries to MARK the spottet icon, hoping to beat the skilled hacker underneath.

[SquirrelDude]

Sharkboy slung his archery case over his shoulder, walked up to the men with a put-on swagger and accent, and announced his presence "Órale vato, ¡wassápenin! Mi nombre es Sharkboy" The Spanish was clearly not his first language, and the terrible accent was more a caricature than an impression. He waited for a response from either man to form and then cut them off mid sentence.

"Alright, here are the ground rules.

"One. The mask doesn't come off.
"Two. These gills are real. If you can't deal with a changeling, then that's your glitch.
"Three. Don't stand, don't stand so, don't stand so close to me.
"Four. The Mask doesn't come off." Sharkboy punctuated the last one by bringing his face very close to the visibly younger man's.

"Follow the rules and we'll all get along just fine, wiz?" Sharkboy gave the man two rather firm pats on the shoulder and headed over towards the bench.

[Jack_Spade]

Having spotted a stealth tag disguised as a commlink with a wrapper program, bnc tried to hack the tag so she would hopefully gain a MARK on it's master

[ Spoiler ]

Firewall+Int: 6d6t5 4

But to her dismay no second MARK appears - the tag doesn't seem to be slaved. Instead she sees a single file on the tag, titled: "These are not the droids you are looking for.txt"

[Volker]

Grumbling, bnc first checks, then (if it's safe) opens the file, not really expecting something worthful.

[ Spoiler ]

The embarassing thing is that I didn't manage to beat 6 dice with 17.
If you'd allow: If bnc does somehow realize that the defense is not strong, but she just looked for the wrong spot, she'd just retry as a tie doesn't do any damage.
Hacking on the Fly: 15d6t5 7
That, 6 dice can't top (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
Just tell me if I should subtract the edge or not.

For the moment, bnc has to give in. Searching for silently running personas in this chaos is just plain stupid.
The thing is a bit different for her agent, however. She commands the agent to randomyl check all hidden icons close to the two guys and alert me if it finds a cyberdeck.
Then she tries to keep an eye on the two - or a drone if that proves difficult in this mass of people, and attempts to find the lift.

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

No edge needed.
The file isn't secured or anything

Your Agent though won't find the deck since it can't buy more successes than the deck's defense

The file contains a bit of asci art followed by text:
"You are pretty nosy, aren't you? Black Hat beware, you are messing with the Schockwellenreiter. Turn back before it's too late."

[Luckace]

Just as Raph was about to respond and introduce himself, Sharkboy interrupted him with his rules. He sighed. Why do I always get the swaggers? No beef in front of the Schmidt, just ignore it for now. Skip the smalltalk and get right to it.

"I'm Wraith, and my Spanish doesn't go beyond tequila. So I hope that's no habit of yours.", , he replies in a cold voice. The proximity of Sharkboy's face obviously makes him uncomfortable, but he ignores it and doesn't break eye-contact. He nods as a greeting.


He takes a look around the lake and then nods approvingly towards Mister Silver Fox: "Picked a lovely spot. But... to the matter at hand?"

[ Spoiler ]

Before coming close, Raph assenses the man waiting on the bench from the distance: Assensing Silver Fox: 10d6t5 5 and also checks for magical anomalities.

[Volker]

bnc just rolls her eyes, keeps a flying eye on the hackers and proceeds to get to level 4.

[SquirrelDude]

[ Spoiler ]

Assensing Test Results

Sharkboy appears to be a generally healthy (besides a mild chemical dependency, likely dopadrine) adept with lower magic and essence than Wraith. It's more than you expect considering the amount of augmentations. There are just two pieces of cyberwear, both in his head, but his body is filled with bioware. His arms are basically great black holes from all that's packed in there. and his entire body seems to be covered in something that's removed essence. The gills are definitely real, though.

His mood is a mix of anxiety and confidence, different than what he was projecting moments before.

"You can stare as long as you want, Wraith. Just let me know if you find out anything interesting that you couldn't get from a picture with my signature on it."

He then turned to the man with grey hair. "Yeah, why exactly did my old boss storm into my hotel room to let me know I needed to be here this morning?"

[Gilga]

Anna refuses without much explaining "No need" being outed as a smuggler was bad enough, she did not intend to also flag herself as awakened. She follows bnc a bit puzzled as to what she wanted of that place.

[Jack_Spade]

At Lake Starnberg:

The man on the bench got up and moved closer, nodding his head: "Thank you for joining me here. You can call me Herr Nacl.
As you might have already guessed, this is a rather urgent job, that needs both brain and brawn to have any chance of success. There is a third member that I requested earlier - a hacker to be precise that I sent as an advance to this mission to gather information.
But first things first: This job is about finding, protecting and bringing back a girl. She is in grave danger, as two independent groups are after her. You see, she carries unknowingly some proprietary technology in her. One group wants to get that tech back - no matter the state of the girl. The other group just wants to destroy her - I'm not entirely clear if it's out of revenge or to send a message."

Nacl took out a piece of paper from his coat: "That's her. We can't be sure if she still looks exactly like this, but note the prosthetic eyes and the malnourished appearance. These two details won't be easily changed. The girl herself is a capable operative - technologically fit as well as highly intelligent. She tends to change identities a lot, so for the moment let's call her by her code name BEAN SI.

And before you ask: No, I do not want to harm her - on the contrary. I want to help her survive this mess."

The assensing showed that Herr Nacl has a considerate ammount of bioware in his body - augmented muscles, spine and to some extend his brain, although the impact on his holistic aura is minimal, indicating very, very advanced techniques. Likewise there is a minimal invasive implant in one of his eyes.


At the BMW museum:

For a commercial show there are quite a lot of small and in part pretty amateurish stands around, showing self developed gadgets as well as very interesting looking - and potentially illegal code. But with extra territoriality in play this is likely not that big of a problem, but explains the rather draconic security precautions. Upon entering, Anna finds herself accompanied by a small drone sphere, following her around - likely a result of the failed smuggling attempt.

Instead of visiting the stalls bnc went straight for the elevators. The crowded ride isn't made better by one half of the crowd being rather unwashed, while the other has used so much make-up and styling products that alone through the proximity new organic chemicals are synthesized, that smell worse than each individually.

Maybe it was just the crowds, but bnc felt pretty anxious all of a sudden

[ Spoiler ]

Perception check please (visual)

[Volker]

[ Spoiler ]

Dude, you're a scary GM. I love you.
Perception: 15d6t5 10
As my mental limit is 10, I can use every single hit. This might just have been the best roll I've ever made or will ever make. That doesn't make me any less uneasy...

How far is my home from here?

[Jack_Spade]

At the BMW museum:

Upon entering the fourth floor, bnc noted a few things: For one, there were no surveillance drones in sight any more. But more important, there were three men who just didn't fit into the crowd: Two were large and muscular. They had made an effort to blend in with the other people here, but their outfit looked too much bought than chosen. They kept looking around and had the unmistakable eye movement of someone comparing reality to an AR image. The third one fit better with the crowd but was wearing - as bnc realized - a so called shaman tuxedo, fitting to the tradition of the Dr. Singer Schule - a style of magic only found in Austria.

Much more worrisome was the fourth person: A genuine techno-hacker styled guy with obvious signs of a BTL addiction. He looked at her and was smiling like a cat that has spotted the open door to the canary cage...

[Gilga]

[ Spoiler ]

Perception (visual): 15d6t5 4

Anna quickly assenses the people in the room but stays silent, instinctively feeling that things may turn worse.

[ Spoiler ]

She'll also set herself and bnc as spell defense targets, if it gets to it.
Let's do the rolls according to the order of description:
Assensing: 4#12d6t5 2 5 5 4
She'll be interested in their mental states qualities and physical attributes.

[Luckace]

Wraith did his best at hiding his anxiousness: He knew that girl! This meeting with strangers had suddenly become way too personal...
He let Herr Nacl finish without interrupting him and sorted his thoughts in the meantime. What drek've you gotten yourself into, lass? And since when do you have a Samaritan caring about you? Or... pretending to care?
He eyed the silver fox carefully as the man insisted on his good intentions.

"What kind of groups are we talking about? Street gangs or more like wetwork-teams?", he asked and tried to hide his now personal interest in the job. Play it cool. Professional distance.

[ Spoiler ]

Judge Intentions (Herr Nacl): 10d6t5 3

[Volker]

[ Spoiler ]

Initiative: 1d6 6 that's init 16 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Vanish in the crowd: 6d6t5 1
The physical realm is just not the right one for her.

How far is my home (i.e. my drone) from here? It's quite versatile and with Speed 4 should be able to run at 60 km/h

"Get out of here! Spell Defence now!"
bnc hates oversimplification but it's a rather bad time for explicing the Austrian Dritte Weg. bnc turns around and dives into the mass, breaking eye contact to the Singerian. With a short mental command, she actives the auto-injector, sending a blood-vectored derivant of Golden Mirror into her system. Quickly, she grabs Anna by the hand and leads her to the stairs. In the lift, they would be trapped.

They could be here for something else entirely, bnc.
So? Just lean back and wait?
No fragging way

With another mental command, she activates James and orders the autopilot to don his armor and come here at maximum speed. A last command sends her agent to check all of her gear for marks.

[Gilga]

Anna does not understand what all the fuss is about, but as bnc is grabbing her hand and running she uses the physical contact to augment her speed. Naturally, Anna is much faster than bnc and with a dash of magic, they are roughly the same speed.

[ Spoiler ]

Improve agility F4 (bnc): 17d6t5 6
drain: 11d6t5 5

[Jack_Spade]

At Lake Starnberg:

Herr Nacl seemed honest enough - though Raph had to admit that he likely also had biotech pheromone glands that made his words extra convincing.
The "silver fox" smiled sadly: "Both. The group - let's call them Harvester for now - that wants what's inside her are high tech and well funded. The other group - let's call them Crusaders - have contacts in various subcultures. They have lower tech and magic, but can recruit more easily and from a larger pool of expendables.
I hope you understand that this is a race against time. My hacker contact has gotten a tipp, that a girl, fitting the description, was seen in Munich recently. You have the advantage that you possess a recent picture. The others have to work with a description.
I want you to go to Munich and find her before the others can do. I'll pay each of you 10.000€ now and 10.000€ after you deliver her safe and sound to me. Here is my contact number and the number of the hacker. Considering that you have to transport her, I also have a van ready for your use. It has a clean ID, is reasonably armored and all amenities necessary to stay away for a time from civilization if necessary."
By now a slight Vienna accent had stolen itself into the man's speech, betraying real worry and agitation.

At the BMW museum:

As could be expected, the elevator had gone already and would take a while before it returned.
Anna could see the multitudes of auras - some more damaged than others - but focused quickly on the group that bnc had indicated: The two broadshouldered guys were healthy, mundane and packed a bit of low invasive cyber or bioware. Likely improved reflexes and muscles. The mage - and nothing else could he be with such a strong, vibrant aura - was actively assensing and seemed to be on par with Anna as far as raw magic potential was concerned. As soon as she had become dual natured, the other mage had noticed her too, as they were the only once in this state around here. The emotions of the tree could be described as bored and tense.

The fourth guy, that had begun to close in on bnc, was a wreck: Drug abuse was clearly visible in his aura, bad health and cheap implants around his head and hands made him look like a wanna-be cyber zombie. Still, his aura indicated happiness and desire.

bnc had fallen back a little. Her drone gave her an estimated time of arrival of 25 minutes - an eternity in a situation like this. But at least they didn't have guns in here - right? What could they do? Grab a girl and pull her with them? In broad daylight? Her eyes found the Isetta where her package was waiting for her - it was less than 15 m from her position away...

[Gilga]

Anna enjoys the physical exercise but is not overly concerned, and is fun to stretch her legs a bit. Grinning she says "...So there is an awakened, a mage perhaps comparable to myself. Two lightly augmented muscle and a BTL addict, their emotional state is like they were waiting for you. So an ambush perhaps, the BTL addict that is after us is different from the rest. He seems happy... We are defended by top-notch spell defense, nobody here seems to be armed and I am well... you know what I can do. Why are we running again?"

[SquirrelDude]

Sharkboy didn't recognize the girl. Looked pleasant enough. "Sounds sounds like this girl is very lucky to have you. Isn't just anybody who can afford that much to save one girl. So there are the Harvesters and the Crusaders, and which unnamed group do you represent? The Guardian Angels?

"And what are these Guardian Angels rules of engagement. Don't tell me they want us to place nice while protecting her from some street gangers and some Koroshi-ya?"

[Volker]

"It's serious. I'll explain later. If you've drawn attention anyway, summon a spirit.", bnc snaps quickly. Her expression is serious and strained, she looks troubled.
She glances at the ARO that shows her the feed of the Noizquito that observes the CCC hackers. There's no logical link yet between her assaulters and the hackers, but in a situation lilke this, anomalities should be kept in mind, just in case. They might even be allies if done well.

While moving quickly towards the chiphead (that is, away from the three and towards the lower floors), she loads her AR console and attempts to get a grip on the chiphead's drone.

[ Spoiler ]

Initiative: 3d6 7
With the effects of the drug, I have an init of 20 with that roll.
If either a cyberdeck, an RCC or the drone is visible, I'll try to mark either of them: Hacking on the Fly: 17d6t5 7

[Jack_Spade]

At Lake Starnberg:

"Guardian is an apt enough name, though I'm not a group.
I won't tell you how to handle this, but of course I don't want the authorities getting interested in the whole situation. The less fuss the better. Do what you have to, but no more."

At the BMW museum:

The chip head only has a cheap R3 commlink active and no drones as far as bnc can see. His face is marred by acne scars, his hair shaved to a thin buzz cut, lips, eyebrows and ears are pierced with enough metal to trigger any metal detector. The prominent ports of his two datajacks look like horns on his head. He does have cyber hands - obvious cyber hands - that he keeps opening and closing as if in anticipation.

The MARK on his commlink tells her that his name is Peter Koch and that he is a delivery boy for Aldi Pizza Service. The most recent opened file on his link is an image file.

[SquirrelDude]

"Send us your commcode so we can get in contact when things go tits up later. I'd love to stay and chat, but we should probably leave before god wills that she gets harvested."

Sharkboy looked over to Wraith. "Unless you've got something more to say, get in the car and buckle up, buttercup."