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

[Tecumseh]

Mato helps up Cunningham as requested.

"I believe what you saw," he tells Cunningham. "Katya has killed Lt. Fines. But if I might offer some dispassionate counsel, let us examine the late Lieutenant's body first. Magically as well as mundane. I've arranged for a Courier."

<<Jawsey, Trouble, whomever, let's get eyes on the body ASAP. I want to know if there was magical interference before it gets scrubbed.>>

"Continuing my observations, there is a suspicious pattern of unexplained compulsion affecting the household over the last 24 hours. The MET2K merc, the removal of the Blue Admiral from the safe, and now this shot. It seems that someone or something is going to great lengths to not only distract the household but also to actively tear it apart. If so, I do not wish to fall into the same trap out of undue haste."

Expecting an objection, he holds up his hands. "Allow me a few moments to inspect Lt. Fines. We know where Katya will be."

[Beta]

When the announcement came that Cunningham had been shot Jawsey had wasted a few critical seconds considering all the possibilities. Changet he commands to his spirit? But what could it actually do now, when it had already missed the critical instant? Race out there astrally to check on Cunningham? But Mato was close and could actually do something to help. Go check everyone's auras on the astral? Possibly informative, but at this point everyone should look stressed or scared or whatever, almost anything could be explained by the shot. And there was already a large spirit of man out there who could be watching for that sort of thing.

But whoever was behind all that was going on, they had been devious so far, from what they understood. Could this be one of those moments where more than one thing would be happening? That was worth checking. Jawsey quickly lay down, opened up his sword cane, then went astral with his focus in hand. He raced down to the vicinity of the main gate and checked to see if there was anyone unexpected there. Then he manifested in front of the guards and told them "emergency situation, could you please inform your team to keep the grounds locked down for the next bit, nobody in or out."

He doesn't stay to argue with the Met2k soldier, and instead astrally zooms across the grounds to the vicinity of the hunt, taking a moment to check the auras for familiarity and then spiralling a bit wider to look for anyone farther away.

Then Trouble catches up to him to relay the request to inspect Lt. Fines, who has apparently been killed. Jawsey suspects that Ana's ally could have done a fair job of that on its own, but he does as requested while also asking Trouble to ask Ana for permission to perform its own inspection.

[ Spoiler ]

Depending on how quick you consider short range astral travel to be, I think this is as little as ten turns, but could be much more depending on travel time
astral perception on Lt. Fines: 11d6t5 2
astral perception around the gates: 11d6t5 3
quick and dirty astral perception around the hunt: 11d6t5 4

[Gilga]

After sending trouble to help AM feels the panic in her veins, Cunnigham is the one paying the true bill. If he goes where else would their employment be documented. She imagines the implications of not getting paid as things get from worse to a disaster.
>> I am not sure what happened there, Looking through the trix.


She uses the time to hack the comlink of the recently deceased knowing it will be unprotected. She is not such a brilliant hacker, but without a person to look at a possible error message, hacking is easier, and she wants to know what is going on. She also checks if the gun has a smartlink, and thus a camera if it actually fired a shot at Cunnigham. Or at least, the time of the last discharge, a number of bullets, and statistics of the shooter. If someone else hacked it to remove safety constraints.

[ Spoiler ]

logic: 2#10d6t5 2 2

Hacking: 15d6t5 4
last messages (computer?): 15d6t5 3
would try again if necessary.

[Jack_Spade]

Cunningham agreed, still weak and chalk white. "I'll just take a little breather by this tree until the paramedics arrive. Make sure Sir Pike and the Duchess are save meanwhile."

The gates looked fine - no magical tampering and the MET2K were all at their posts. The mercenary had barely managed an "Aye, but what..." before Jawsey was gone again.

The guests looked all distraught and excited in the astral, still no-one seemed to have been exposed to magic.

Jawsey was at the location of Lt. Fines body in the blink of an eye. The spot could hardly be missed: The violent death had tainted the astral quite noticeable. Unfortunately this also meant that Jawsey was unable to make out anything that would indicate a magic compulsion.

AM meanwhile had more success: The gun had been tampered with. Seconds before the shot had been delivered, someone had hacked the security feature preventing anyone from targeting friendlies. The signature looked familiar - again the Agent Program? It would take a detailed look to be sure, but AM had a gut feeling that this was the same MO that had been responsible for the hack in the library.
Even more disturbing, the shot had been triggered remotely as well. Looking closer she noticed three MARKs on the weapon - no particularl iconography, only a string of alphanumeric characters.
Just as AM had finished her assessment, she noticed something going on with the weapon. It started to reboot.

[Gilga]

AM tries to pinpoint the hacker, but there is only a brief second before it is gone. She is too slow to pinpoint the signal.

She texts her team>> The gun was hacked and rebooted, the shooter was likely innocent. I was not fast enough to pinpoint the decker, it feels like the same Russian agent - and now I am really suspicious of Katya for eliminating the bread crumb. She was also there when Invictus was offed. It feels too obvious to be true but - she feels so guilty it is not funny.

[Beta]

Jawsey flied back to his body in disgust. Once again they'd not anticipated the foe well enough, and were left combing through the aftermath in hopes of a useful clue. Once he got back to his body he caught up on his AR messages and muttered a couple of curses in Russian -- they just felt most appropriate to the occasion. He let the team know <<All I could pick up on the corpse was the violence of his death. Did Trouble have any better luck?>>

Then he sends a brief summary to McElroy -- who is most likely astral at the moment, and so not receiving, but it will be there for him when he gets back. Jawsey finishes by asking <<I don't suppose that your spirit caught anything of the signature of whoever might have briefly controlled the Lieutenant?>>

After a moment of thought, he messages the others <<Do either of you have access to data that would let us know who from the hunt would have had line of site on the late Lieutenant Fines and on Cunningham? It is possible that it was a lurking spirit of man or something, but I think it would have had to have been someone in the hunt to be able to set up the whole situation, and not everyone would have had a view on them, so maybe we can thin the numbers down a little bit more? We can already rule out anybody who was not on the hunt, except those with matrix or magical abilities I suppose.>>

[Jack_Spade]

Trouble replied to AM: "I didn't find any magic on the dead man either - just his violent death. And that was so not magical."

Mato had seen the scene - with the trees inbetween it was hard to tell who would have had line of sight to Fines at any given moment. Certain was only the fact that he had been still in shouting distance with intermittend glimpses to everyone in the hunting party. And obviously, Cunningham would have had line of sight to him at the moment of the shooting.

AM was frustrated with her search: She had been so close to following the trail back when the reboot had completed. But she was certain that it had to be within 100m of the rifle and that the hacker was now running silent. Which meant the Agent was no longer situated in the library terminal. So there had to be someone or something out there in the woods.

[Gilga]

She responds to Trouble "try and see if anyone is hidden within a close distance of the gun. Perhaps with a small device at hand."

"Fake decker" she hears the inner doubts scream, but AM does not lose her resolve just yet. "Iktomi, I could use some help to trick this trickster." She whispered and formed the channeling pattern for Iktomi's inspiration in her mind. While doing so she continued to search for the silently running decker that she just felt HAD to be close to the crime scene.

[ Spoiler ]

had 6 hits in matrix perception in OOC

[Jack_Spade]

AM immediately was able to notice the hidden signal. It belonged to a flying drone and was within 1000m radius. More important, it carried the Agent.

Trouble replied: "There is no-one here that I can see or sense. Yet I still feel like I am watched."

[Tecumseh]

Mato updates Jawsey and AM.

<<Cunningham saw the gun lurch in his direction. Lt. Fines wasn't even looking at him when someone wrenched his rifle in toward Cunningham and fired. He thinks Katya did it.>>

Mato is disappointed that the magical investigation didn't reveal anything. Not surprised, but disappointed.

<<I think it's almost too obvious, like someone is setting Katya up. She might be insane but she seems too methodical to be so obvious, to leave such a clear trail of clues. It's possible someone is playing her, knowing how she'll react.>>

Mato declines to leave Cunningham, reasoning that he may still be a target.

<<Does anyone have a sense if Katya herself can be hacked, or controlled? Either magically or through her extensive cybernetics?>>

[Beta]

<<I've seen no signs that she would be more easily controlled than anyone else; if anything with her force of personality maybe less.>>

Then Jawsey goes on another astral jaunt, to determine where McElroy's spirit is now, and if McElroy himself is astrally in the field. Jawsey would like to re-assign his spirit to another task, but for the moment keeping the duchess untouched seems a higher priority.

[Jack_Spade]

Jawsey met McElroy halfway as he was watching over Pike and the Dutchess: "Ah, good to see you. This is a real mess. But at least - as far as I or my spirit could make out - it doesn't look like there is an active magical threat involved. I assensed everyone on guard and of the guests outside. Now we have to get everyone inside and keep them there. The Doc Waggon Trauma team has reached the perimeter. They'll pick up Cunningham any minute now."

Indeed, a VTOL hovered over the woods and a three person team abseiled with a valkyrie capsule next to Cunningham and Mato.

Cunningham replied: "Thank you gentlemen, I'm already better again as my biomonitor should tell you. No need to make a fuss."

One of the DocWaggon members replied: "Sir, with all due respect, you've suffered debilitating trauma. You need to be checked before you go walking around - magic healing can only do so much, you are still in danger."

Cunningham sighed and turned to Mato: "I'll be back as soon as possible. Aprehend Katya. I'll deal with the fallout."

[Gilga]

AM texts >> Agent is on a flying drone - getting far from here, I'll try to follow it.
she makes a hacking attempt to be able to trace it/identify its owner.

[ Spoiler ]

Hacking: 13d6t5 4

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

I am very sorry for this very unlikely roll: resist: 12d6t5 8

AM thought she had made good progress - until suddenly a warning message blinked on her screen, telling her that her attempt to hack had backfired and that the enemy agent had now a MARK on her.

[Gilga]

"Dammit -- This Agent is like a real-life decker", she says and adds a few delicious swear words in Salish. AM does not give up so early, commanding the drone to land may be a bit out of her league considering the owner already knows of the attempt -- but she can do the same trick with the gun to find up who has marks on the drone, and where that icon may be. Hopefully, she'll finish before something bad happens to her deck, or she is forced to reboot.

[ Spoiler ]

I try the same thing I did on the gun if it is alright (assuming some entity does has marks on the drone.
Matrix perception: 17d6t5 7
Matrix perception: 16d6t5 7

[Jack_Spade]

AM noticed there were four MARKs - a clear sign of ownership - on the drone. Following the datatrail was pretty straight forward. It led to a modified stealth tag, turned into a kind of secret commlink.

[ Spoiler ]

The Agent tries to gain MARKs on you through Hack on the Fly
Hacking: 12d6t5 3
Hacking: 12d6t5 3


Stealth tag has A-S3D3F3

[Gilga]

Iktomi's blessing made AM super intuitive, and despite her meager firewall, she manually inspected the feeds of the anticipated attack and blocked them - the agent had one mark on her that was a problem, but she now held two marks on the agent gained by the credentials of the agent.

She needed a mark on the stealth tag, to catch the drone. Informing the team she texts
>> I am trying to land the attacking drone next to you. Be quick to disable/capture it, my control may be momentary.

[ Spoiler ]

She blocks both attacks:
Int + Firewall#2: 12d6t5 4
Int + Firewall#2: 12d6t5 5

if she has a mark on the tag she tries to spoof command to land the drone.
spoof: 17d6t5 2
in that case she'll use the last point of edge.
reroll failures: 15d6t5 4

6 successes, no edge left.

If she does not already has a mark on the stealth tag:
She'll first gain the mark, and then try to physically capture the drone before the matrix tides change.
hacking: 13d6t5 4
defense (stealth tag): 6d6t5 3
Mark gained.

next, she'll try the spoof command.
spoof command: 17d6t5 7
7 hits and she keeps the edge.

[Jack_Spade]

This time AM was successful. There didn't seem to be a persona online on the tag at the moment, so its defenses were relatively low.

Mato suddenly heard the low hum of a flying drone getting closer. Barely visible through adaptive camouflage, the tiny rotor drone came into view. The double barreled semi automatic handgun was professionally integrated into its frame while the whole thing wasn't much larger than the original gun itself. A masterwork of engineering. The thing had barely touched ground as it began to spin up again, ready to lift off.

[Tecumseh]

Mato nods to Cunningham, not so much because he agrees with the plan - the verdict is still out on that - but more to set Cunningham's mind at ease so that he'll be willing to go with the DocWagon paramedics.

"Yes, sir!" Mato agrees, even though he's reasonably sure that Katya isn't going anywhere. Apprehending her in 10 minutes or in 10 hours or in 10 days seems largely irrelevant. As long as they know where the Duchess is, they know where Katya will be. And as long as they know where Sir Pike is, they'll know where the Duchess is.

Once Cunningham has been lifted into the VTOL - a classy way to be medevac'd, Mato has to admit - then it's time to find the drone that AM mentioned. Knowing little of hacking, he's privately impressed that she found it at all.

He boosts all his sensors to max even though he knows that it will be a tough search. His olfactory boosters will be of little use against a drone. His radar sensors are powerful but the forest is so 'noisy' with obstructions that it could take too long to sift through all the incoming data. His millimeter wave detection system might find it, but its range is so limited that at that point (15 meters) Mato would hope that he would see or hear the drone anyway.

In the end, it's his earbuds - not even his cyberware! - that picks up on it.

<<I see it!>> he comms excitedly as he takes off at a sprint. He sees it spinning up again, getting ready to lift off. His intention is to tackle it - out of midair if necessary. To that end he spools up his hydraulic jacks in case he needs to make a giant leap. His goal will be to deactivate it - preferably with the gun pointing away from him - so that it can be used later for evidence. If he can't manhandle it for some reason, he'll disable it with his shock hand, but that's only a backup plan.

[Gilga]

Once the drone touches down, AM tries to spoof another order --> to shut down.

[ Spoiler ]

spoof: 17d6t5 3

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

Defense: 12d6t5 5

AM's attempt to shut down the drone failed, but Mato was close enough to grab onto the drone, keeping the muzzle away from himself. Quite desperately the drone began to move back and forth to escape, but Mato's literal iron grip could not be escaped. It took Mato only a moment to find the power button to take the drone offline the soft way.
Now that he saw it without its active stealth he had to admire the sleak design. Hardware like this must have cost easily 20k - not to mention the high end software running on it which likely pushed its worth into 50k territory. The smell of propellant as well as a manual check of the magazines revealed that the dual magazines carried both blight rounds as well as APDS.

[Tecumseh]

Mato is so excited that he momentarily reverts to some of the Aztlaner Spanish that he's been learning.

<<¡Yo lo tengo!>> he exclaims before switching back to Cityspeak. <<I have it!>>

He flexes as it tries to escape, pleased to have a practical application for his expensive arms beyond his own vanity and personal insecurities. There's a moment of relief when he sees that it has a power button to easily deactivate it.

He immediately snaps a photo of it and distributes it to AM and Jawsey.

Then, a thought occurs to him. He checks the magazines to get a count on the APDS rounds, then sniffs the chamber to see if it smells hot. Was it really Lt. Fines' weapon that downed Cunningham, or was that a wild shot - triggered by a hacker or an agent - to cover for the drone's true strike?

<<Anybody know what I should be looking for? Any clues that might point to the owner or the one providing instructions?>>

He goes to Lt. Fines' body to make sure it's been retrieved, or is being retrieved. He'd be disgusted if a Fenrir wolf claimed it. Then it's time to head back to Pike Hall

[Gilga]

AM texts >> Way to go Mato! I am working on locating the master device don't do anything stupid with the drone. She was brief, and begun working on tracing the stealth stage without any victory celebration.

[Jack_Spade]

Tracing the stealth tag was pretty straight forward. It was on the premises and therefore close enough to get video from the location - which AM promptly did.

There were Pike, the Duchess and Katya entering Pike Hall through the back entrance.

Fines' body still was were they had left it. The blood had stopped flowing and was in the process of drying. Mato thought that Fines had died with a surprised look on his face. The spur had entered very neatly just below the man's ear and gone straight into the brain.

The magazines were both missing one round each - which could mean that they were not fully loaded to not fatigue the spring - or that both a blight and an APDS round had been fired since the last time the drone had been close to its master.

[Gilga]

AM texts surprised >> The stealth tag that controls the drone is in Pike hall along with the Duchess, Katya, and Pike. We need to make a move now - this is the only lead we have. She sends Trouble to verify that there is not a fourth aura in the room, and makes her way toward confrontation.

Just to make sure she texts >> I am going in there to confront them. I'd be happy for some backup in case Katya turns into a murder monster. She heads to Pike hall without delay eagerly awaiting feedback from Trouble.