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

[Jack_Spade]

"Not exactly. The only one you can call from the outside is Robert. You should have his commlink number since you got into his comm to get in here."

After paying for your drinks and sending your list, Schorsch vanishes behind the management door and comes back a few minutes later with sealed packages. After that payment is done as well, you are free to go.

[Volker]

On the way out, bnc says. "Do you need anything else from here or can we move to the site of crime? I believe, if we want to set an ambush, we should spy out the area."

[Luckace]

"Aye, but how about we grab dinner on the go, so we can eat in the car?"

[Gilga]

Anna asks "Do we have time... it seems like we were going to do so kind of like right now."

[ Spoiler ]

She'll buy 6 stun grenades.

[Volker]

"You just ate. Let's just finish the job, da? This is not the time."

bnc hops into their new van, double-checks that all her gear and James are still inside, waits for the others, and drives away.

[Thanee]

"I will use the time we have to rest up a bit. Standing in combat gas and having grenades explode at my feet tires me out a little," Nova said as she settled into the van and tried to get some rest.

[Gilga]

Anna replies "You are such a badass for keeping your position, I just bolt when I spot a grenade. "

[Volker]

"I will use the time we have to rest up a bit. Standing in combat gas and having grenades explode at my feet tires me out a little," Nova said as she settled into the van and tried to get some rest.

"Then don't."
bnc sighs. "As long as you're back on your feet when the action arises, make yourself comfortable."

bnc herself kept herself busy. While the van drove on its own, she analyzed the video streams given by the Abdecker. She searches online map material of the area and, if possible, the site itself. She searches - and hacks, if need be - sites that give her intel about energy consumption, additional entrances (canalization, ventilation, etc.) or any other anomalies that can be exploited (e.g. the presence or absence of magical and/or wifi isolation, information on how much traffic leads to and from and passes by the warehouse). She roams through the Crusaders forums to find any mention of the warehouse. She'll visit the place online (and running silent) and searches for any icons she can find there. In short: She gathers as much information on the place as she can.

[ Spoiler ]

No need to tell me all the details. Summing up the anomalities will absolutely be sufficient.

[Jack_Spade]

bnc does take in the situation, but can't find much more than what Abdecker told you in his info packet - unsurprisingly, since the decker spent two days on the task. The building is relatively new and sadly lacks any kind of tunnels leading in or out of it. The count of the smartguns is correct though there are nine commlinks in total with 100m of the site most of them are R4, and only one is R5.

The Crusader forums don't have anything on the warehouse. This information is strictly above the grunt level, it seems.

The search for an ambush point is successful: Just half a kilometer away from the warehouse, there is a sharp turn followed by a very straight piece of road. Any car with the handling of a GMC will have to slow down considerably when taking the bend and afterwards there is a safe stretch of road to disable the engine without causing a crash.

[Gilga]

Anna asks "Do you want to risk an astral scout of the place?".

[Volker]

"I'd say, a powerful spirit with the power to Conceal itself or, even better, a sneaky mage Concealed by a powerful spirit, definitely. We might want to use magic ourselves, and we definitely want to be aware of enemies doing so."

[Thanee]

"The Crusaders are not supposed to be big on magic, right? Though, this seems to be a place, that is a bit higher up the ladder, so who knows. I think a little scouting can't hurt, just be careful."

Another thought came to Nova's mind.

"Another thing. Those Zapper rounds. Shotguns are loud. No silencer. That should be more of a backup plan. Or do we have a silenced assault rifle?"

[Gilga]

Anna says "Let's not steal the truck. We can just tail it discreetly, and if we find a place they stop on the way we can seize an opportunity and plant stun grenades beneath the truck. Then we can trigger these at our convenient, knock off the drivers and whoever deals with them and storms the place. If the truck does not stop, and we see no opportunity, we will think of a better plan tomorrow - and in the meantime, we learned the path of the truck today, so we made progress. "

[Volker]

"I think, seizing the truck would be a great opportunity. That way, we can easily bypass most of the guards. Once we're in, we're in a much better position to fight, if need be, or might even be able to avoid it altogether. There's another opportunity, however. If we manage to halt the van - we might, for instance, drop a deed deer on the road or something like that - a spirit could Materialize inside the car and force the drivers to hand the keys over."

[SquirrelDude]

"Taking the Van gives us an easy opportunity to get through security without exposing ourselves to any unseen drones or other surveillance.

Probably a good thing with a man with gills and a chrome woman."

[Gilga]

Anna replies " If we just needed to fetch plans I agree, but it seems like we need to extract someone or mind probe one of the senior employees... So I do not see much hope for the sneaky approach, perhaps tactical to get into a better position. I also feel that we are rushing it again and that it is more reasonable to first learn the path of the car, and see if we get an opportunity. Do they stop for snacks on the way? If we do not have an opportunity to ambush it, then we know its path - and can execute a good ambush tomorrow.

I can't believe that I say it, as I admire chaos and contradictions, but we are all eager beavers. Acting first and thinking later. In this case, we are swimming with the big fish - so we need to act more professional than that, more careful and calculated. We just charged into combat with very dangerous people without the element of surprise, and without a coherent plan. I don't want it to happen again."

[Thanee]

"To be honest, waiting a day won't give us much more information than we already have. He observed the place for two days, already. But it might tighten our time frame for the next steps considerably. I think, this is the time to act fast, and the next one is the one where we should spend more time on preparation," Nova said.

[Luckace]

"I agree with Nova", Wraith added after a short moment of hesitation. "I'm normally against doing things without a proper plan, but in this case the benefits outweigh waiting a whole day. Kerstins's life is on the line, after all. If we can't deal with two goons without knowing their every move first, we're not up for Nacl's task anyway."

"We have almost 40 minutes left, is that right? Now, for scouting... I can ask a spirit to help hide us, like bnc suggested. I could also change my body - or anyone's here - into... let's say an eagle? Might be less suspicious than a drone, unless they have astrally perceiving security."

[Volker]

bnc's face brightens. "Could you cast the spell on someone else as well?

We won't be able to get in and out without raising attention. But we might get past their defensive positions before we pull some teeth."

[Luckace]

"Yeah, that would work. As long as you don't resist."

[Gilga]

Anna says "The hellhounds will see through that disguise, and they may have more magical security. The van may have a spirit escort, despite being wifi dark. Then again, spirit escort will be an attention magnet or perhaps not.
If nobody objects, I'll take a quiet look at the place now." she says.

Anna casts the improve intuition spell to help her astral form be more stealthy, and then gets on the way.

[Luckace]

"Good point with those hellhounds. I will ask a spirit to help conceal you, better safe than sorry."
Wraith walked two steps away from the group to focus on the summoning. He put his hands together like in prayer, murmured a few words, and the same spectacle as in the graveyard occured with a winged, misty entity appearing at his side.

[ Spoiler ]

Summoning f6 spirit of air: 16d6t5 8
Spirit resist: 6d6t5 0
Resist Dean w prayer: 12d6t5 6 lol, it's supposed to read drain of course (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) autocorrect ^^

First task: conceal Anna when she departs - if she wants.
Optional powers: fear, elemental attack

[Thanee]

"Those hellhounds, by the way, might hint at a limited magical security," Nova figured. "I think, that is the usual reason for using paracritters."

"Not a given, of course, and you should always expect a worst case scenario, but maybe they are using them as cheap magic detectors, so to say."


<< As for a plan, I think we should hijack the van. bnc found a decent spot where it has to slow down considerably. That seems perfect. We can use our own wheels to block the street, make it look like the driver lost control. It's heavy winter, after all. The location is fairly close to the warehouse, so noisy shooting should be avoided, if at all possible. The Zapper rounds, unfortunately, will do a lot of noise. But if you can work your magic, maybe with some spirits that easily get inside the van, to make the drivers want to get out, we should be able to overwhelm them without too much trouble. My sidearm has a silencer and stick-n-shock rounds. Do we have any means to stop them from using their comms to call for help, though? bnc? Anything you can do about that? Or do we have a jammer? >>

[Volker]

If nobody objects, I'll take a quiet look at the place now."[/color] she says.

"Please do"

Her face is shining when Raph answers yes. "You can? You ... you could transform me into a bird? And I would still be me? Really?"

[ Spoiler ]

I assume that the different aspects of the conversation kind of happen one after another, despite our writing answers to different topics in the same post. So, bnc is not switching from professional to girl and back and forth and back and forth.

To Nova she responds "Leave them to me, I'll have them covered."

[Jack_Spade]

Scouting out the facility from the astral was easy: Three large hellhounds and a lone watcher as well as a ward around the building comprised the magic security outside. The watcher was a relatively half assed affair of mediocre force as many magical security service providers sold to their customers. The ward was likewise of middling power, but still prevented easy penetration.

[ Spoiler ]

F4 Watcher, F6 Ward

If you want to avoid dogs and watcher noticing you, make an Intuition+Sneak roll Threshold 3 for each time you try to slip throught he ward.