The Found Arcana – Chapter 6 [IC], Continuation of https://www.rpgplayroom.net/forums/topic/the-found-arc Options

[Jack_Spade]

"What the hell are you talking about? Who do you think you are to be speaking to me like this? I'll have a word with Cunningham about your impertinence, that you can be sure about."
Her face grew red in anger as she spoke

Meanwhile, AM was able to get a good look at the transmissions. Apparently the bonnets of the maids contained a sensor tag, allowing the head of housekeeping to peer in whenever she liked to see what her subordinades were doing at any given time.

[ Spoiler ]

Intimidation, Persuation or Negotiation to get information from Nassau

[Gilga]

Before approaching AM and Trouble ask for Iktomi's blessing for charisma. She listens to Ms. Nassau and then takes a negotiation approach.

[ Spoiler ]

drain: 12d6t5 4
Improve charisma: 15d6t5 2

Look, Ms. Nassau, there is a problem. You can verify with Cunningham, and he would ask you to cooperate with us fully. We are investigating a crime, one that may have consequences for the workers here. One of your maids have apparently poisoned Mr. van der Bloom last night, and as he was disabled things got stolen. Now, I know that you have access to what they see - and we need to know who did the crime. There is some infiltration to this household, and some of the workers may be double agents. We are not blaming you, but you have at least some administrative responsibility for this whole event, so we were hoping that you can help us find out which maid was it. Cooperate with us, and we'll throw a good word for Cunnigham about your effectiveness. If we get that theft back due to your help, that word would give you a lot of mileage."

[ Spoiler ]

Negotiation: 11d6t5 3
She'll be happy for teamwork considering Jawsey is there.

[Jack_Spade]

"Poisoned? Stolen? My maids? I think not. Who are you accusing of what here exactly?" Nassau's eyes had become hard as flint.
"Are you talking about that drunken baffoon of an IT administrator? The girl told me about what you accused her off. There's no way she could have put something in the food or drink - or stolen something. Her hands were in clear view of the sensor at all times.
And what on earth would this... Spirit have to do with that?"

[Gilga]

AM responds calmly "I do not accuse anyone of anything, I am trying to prevent our employer from an epic financial and reputation loss. Please, Ms. Nassau, this aggression does us little service as we all want the same thing. Somebody did put something in Kurt's food, and while he was unconscious -- a very well-executed theft happened. Someone on the inside is likely a double agent, and you have access to video feeds from all your ladies. Let us examine these and do our work, we are not looking to accuse anyone of anything we're looking to figure out what happened and recover the theft."

[Jack_Spade]

"I'll clear this with Cunningham. I can't just give out those files - both for the sake of the girls as well as the guests."

She tilted her head to one side, obviously making a call in AR. Then she frowned and her face redened.

"Well, it seems I have no choice, but to supply you with this data. Here."

AM received a large file transfer - hours and hours of video/audio from the five maids.

"Is that all?"

[ Spoiler ]

Looking over this material without any specific search will be a Threshold of 3 [1 hour] with a target of 20 successes
If you narrow your search down to specifics - individuals you want to take a closer interest in, the Threshold drops to 1 [15 Minutes] with a target of 15 successes

[Tecumseh]

Mato doesn't open his mouth fast enough and quickly finds the conversation somewhat derailed from the direction he had been intending to go. AM came as Nassau harder than he expected; in truth, there's quite a bit of hardness in AM that often surprises Mato. Is it her size? Or are there some female/female dynamics that elude him? Mato often feels that women are more prone to fireworks and (verbal) knife fights with other women than they are with men.

Once AM's storm has passed, Mato has an opportunity to play the good cop, as it were.

"Yes," he says calmly, maybe even with the hint of a smile. He switches to first-person pronouns - 'I' instead of 'we' - to move Nassau's focus away from AM and toward him. "I am told that you are very well informed about everything going on in and around your sphere of influence. I was hoping to tap into some of that expertise."

The language is mildly suggestive. Mato remembers that Nassau had been the subject of a rather unsavory allegation during her last posting in Europe. Mato does cut a dashing figure in his uniform, but who knows if she likes orks.

That boy suffered an overdose before things could come to trial... he remembers. A parallel with van der Bloom? Especially since she doesn't think highly of him, given the 'drunken buffoon' comment?

"I was hoping to learn more about Invictus. If you haven't heard, the spirit was disrupted last night." The intention here is to bait her with a piece of interesting information. If she really is the spider in the middle of a web, she'll hunger for more.

"Who was the spirit friendly with? Whom did Invictus trust? I thought you would know better than anybody."

Flattery, good, that's good. Paint a contrast with AM.

He continues to run his Thermal Mood Reading and Vocal Tension software to gauge her reaction. The thought had occurred to him that Nassau could be Invictus' friend and that she might feel cornered right now, friendly language aside. She quickly jumped to the conclusion that she was being accused, and calling Invictus 'spirit' after a pause could be her way of trying to paint some distance between them.

[Jack_Spade]

Nassau smiled thinly at Mato, but took the offered option to focus on the ork and ignore AM for the moment:

"I hadn't heard that. What does disrupted mean? Is he dead? Or would he come back again. And what does he have to do with this supposed theft?
In any case, I wouldn't know what he does. The room we have prepared for him has never been used to my knowledge. But he did regularly frighten my girls by appearing from nowhere.
Hm. I think he spent quite a bit of time on the grounds shooting skeet with this Russian. I think he speaks the language. Other than that, he likes to force women to give him attention. I think he is a chauvinist that doesn't take women serious. Whyever I cannot say. His inappropriate behavior only extended to lewd language and gestures, but was never physical as far as I can tell."

[Beta]

<<Do we leave her to go chase this next link in the chain? Or does anyone have additional questions?>>

While he let his companions think on that question, Jawsey tried one more question of his own. "Did he ever bother you directly? Or was it just maids while they were doing their jobs? Or more broadly, as far as you know did her harass anyone with any real authority, or only the lowest standing staff? We don't know that his disruption has anything to do with the theft, but the coincidence of the timing has to be looked into, and it would be good to know what range of people might have had a more direct grudge against him."

Jawsey doesn't really think the answer matters much, but in this crazy investigation who is to say what would end up being important? And confirming that they recognize Nasau as a person of authority couldn't hurt in any future dealings with her.

[Jack_Spade]

"Young women. At least as far as I know - he didn't show exactly respect to the other servants, but he usually only outright harrassed young women - like a prepubecent schoolboy that only knows to pull a girl's hair to get her attention."
Nassau replied with a sour smile.

[Tecumseh]

Mato defers to his friends to say whether Invictus is 'dead', as he's a bit unclear on disruption himself.

"The Russian, thank you," Mato nods affirmatively.

Mato can't imagine that a spirit could be physically gratified physically by a human but, again, this was outside of his area of expertise.

<<Let's go to the next link on the chain>> he confirms to Jawsey. Before AM opens her mouth and starts breathing fire again.

"Thank you for your assistance, Ms. Nassau," he says. "We appreciate your time. Please let us know if you notice anything noteworthy."

<<Igor Kaminzky>> he reminds Jawsey and AM. <<Son of a Russian banking magnate. Also went to Eton and is a personal friend of Sir Pike since their earliest study days. He likes drinking and chasing skirts. Maybe Igor and Invictus bonded over their chauvinism.>>

<<Igor has contacts to the Vory and the Russian military. That could give him access to the expertise to knock out the perimeter defenses. Enthusiastic hunter.>>

<<There's a rumor that he killed his former, pregnant mistress by pushing her out of a window. That could be a precedent for what happened to Invictus: friends/lovers one moment, a loose end the next. Alternatively, another theory is that his father had his mistress killed as he didn’t approve of their relationship.>>

Mato gives a formal bow to Ms. Nassau and readies to leave.

[Gilga]

AM shrugs... >> I want to go over the feeds, do you need me with the Russian - I don't want to be in the same room as him. He is creepy

[ Spoiler ]

Jack is that the pool creep? Or should I edit?

[Tecumseh]

<<Two options>> Mato responds to AM.

<<One, you can start the search. Two, you can come with us and the Russian can associate you with me, and him touching you with me touching him. Might make your life easier for the rest of the week.>>

<<Either way.>>

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

Yes, that's the Russian guy you saw - and who currently still sleeps off last nights boozing, as far as you know.

[Beta]

<<OK, sounds like we are done here? Mato and I now go and hammer on this chuvak's door? Or do the perks of either of your jobs include pass-keys to guest rooms? I can always detox him once we are inside, maybe that would put him in a better mood?>>

[Tecumseh]

<<Done here. Let's check the spa first. It was only a few hours ago so maybe nobody hauled him out. AM, do you have camera feeds to confirm?>>

<<But if he was that blitzed, I'm not sure how he could be behind all this. But maybe he was playing possum, or has a clue. Let's keep pulling on threads until the sweater unravels.>>

[Jack_Spade]

There were no cameras in the spa, but the team had no trouble confirming that the Russian was still there - sprawled over a deckchair with two empty vodka bottles next to him, Kaminsky was snoring, covered only with a very tiny speedo. His abundant body hair likely ensured that he wasn't feeling cold any time soon.

AM noticed that the AR projection had the same trouble again as yesterday.

[Tecumseh]

Mato sighs at the sight. The man doesn't exactly look like a criminal mastermind. Unless the drunkness was a chemical alibi.

<<Was that sabotaged?>> Mato asks when AM points out that the AR projection had the same trouble as yesterday. <<Bait to lure you?>>

Before disturbing the man, Mato goes to work with his scanners and sensors. He uses his cyberware scanner to look over the Russian, then tries to confirm the hairy brute's intoxication with his olfactory sensors. He cross-references this input with his Pheromone Detection software, not really expecting to find anything but curious to see if anything turns up.

He readies some towels to drape over the man in an act of discretion that can also be passed off as customer care.

[Beta]

Jawsey uses his own senses to inspect the man, or at least his astral sense as it is far more acute than his meat senses.

[ Spoiler ]

aura reading on 'the russian': 13d6t5 4

And he quietly suggests "Why don't we wake him up as is. I can offer the detox spell to help him feel better, if we need to bribe him to be cooperative. But perhaps he'll reveal more in this state? And at that we can play it straight, or we can run a quick con on him. I wake him up like things are a panic and say 'Invictus messed it all up, he told me that if that happened I had to find you, you'd know what to do next and that you should go collect the payment.' Pretty basic stuff but just might work for someone waking up out of a hangover. If he knows nothing then I laugh, give him the detox spell, and say I couldn't resist playing a joke when we found him here."

[Tecumseh]

Mato nods thoughtfully at Jawsey's cunning.

<<I like it. Let's confirm his condition first. And let's zoom out: don't get into details we can't confirm. Maybe just 'Invictus trusted you', and some language that could either be complimentary or interrogative. Try to play it both ways so that it can be interpreted that the Russians is the good guy or the bad guy. His reaction can fill in the rest.>>

[Jack_Spade]

The aura showed the results of severe intoxication but an otherwise quite healthy man with slight augmentations to his brain. Nothing showed magic influence.
The chem sniffer could detect only the metabolic waste that the digestion of large amounts of high quality alcohol produced.
Igor was quite clearly just dead drunk. Or had been, since the various scans showed that his blood alcohol was now much closer to sober than to dead drunk.

[ Spoiler ]

Con-test. +3 bonus from his current state

[Gilga]

AM ignores the man and tries to figure out what caused the glitch again, and when it happened. Figuring out that it is probably nothing important, but perhaps it is important. She ignored Igor which made her feel a bit uncomfortable.

[ Spoiler ]

Anything I should roll?

[Jack_Spade]

A quick diagnostic showed that the newly installed AR tag had burned out just like it's predecessor, indicating that there had been some kind of surge or maybe matrix damage to the display system. Though the only thing that could cause matrix damage were either admins, drone pilots or agents.

[Gilga]

AM spends some time browsing the matrix for icons that could have burned the matrix display. She channels Iktomi's help to observe more details.

[ Spoiler ]

Improve intuition drain: 2#10d6t5 4 2
Matrix perception (hot): 16d6t5 6

Next, she observe the surrounding for some physical evidence of nearby devices that could have caused the damage

[ Spoiler ]

perception: 14d6t5 8

Finally, she'll try to pinpoint when the damage was done.

[Beta]

Jawsey carefully pulls a way away from the man, then hurries up to him, letting himself arrive slightly out of breath. He stops about an arm length away and reaches out to shake the man's shoulder, saying "Igor. Igor! You need to wake up, it's all a mess, but Invictus put his trust in you. What should you be doing now?"

He'd peeled words away while they were planning, per Mato's advice. No coherent sentences that could be questioned, just fragments that hit the key points: wake up, there is a mess, he is trusted, the need to take action. Then he tried to put emphasis on key words, much like emoting in the astral. Hopefully it would cause the man to start reacting before thinking.

[ Spoiler ]

con+3 on Igor Kaminsky: 17d6t5 6 (Jawsey is good at manipulating people -- better than I have that skill to write in detail, hence the minimalist approach)

[Jack_Spade]

AM had to look hard, but finally found the connection: There was a link to the library system, providing the imagery for the spa environment directly from the files there. The faulty AR tag happened to be the numerically first system connected to the system. Something had targeted a file system in the library - and something had glitched. Now whenever someone made an alteration to the file in the library, the AR tag was altered too, breaking it.

Following that data trail showed her, that the file in question had been a password protected file, but the protection was now broken, allowing her to access its contents:
A classified document about the Blue Cardinal and its history, looted along with the stone from the dragon hoard. As far as AM could make out on a quick skim, the stone was a power focus, but could also act as a vessel for a spirit or soul. More important, there was a list of people who had in their time shown interest in purchasing the gem. Among the more prominent ones, was a free spirit from Yakut "Winter Storm". Conveniently, the file also contained its contact information.
The second alteration, that had fried the AR tag today had been made to delete a section of the original file.

Igor came slowly to his senses and mumbled in heavily Russian accented English:
"Should never have allowed the bitch into his house. Can't trust her..."
Then he started awake, saw Jawsey and clamped his mouth shut: "What's going on here, what is this about."