Charm City [IC] Options

[Thanee]

With a quick glance towards Bongo Slade, Selina replies: "Yeah, I got that covered. Maybe you can find some clothes, that are approximately the size needed, ideally something you do not like anymore."

She then turns to Angel.

"It's been five days, take your time. A few hours won't make any difference. Getting that information without setting off any alarms, however, might. The club is closed until tonight, anyways."

[Koekepan]

Paul looks up, loathe to interrupt, but quietly adds: "Yeah, I can help. You don't want me doing heart surgery if you already have a cardiologist, but I'm better'n nothing. I can do some preliminary scouting to help, if you like."

[pbangarth]

Seeing as there might be some downtime as the matrix whizzes look for info, Bongo picks through the clothes he brought and settles on an old suit he hasn't worn in a while. He puts it on and goes back to Selina.

"Here's something I don't mind turning into a period costume. Let's see what you can do."

[Seth]

"I'll be a while then" Angel said and headed to her room


I will be five hours at least. Perhaps six. So let me know when I can join in again

[ Spoiler ]

I can't beleive how many die rolls that took...

• OK so I threaded a +3 to explot givine hacking 4 + explot 5 threaded +3 => 12 die. That didn't cost any fade
• Then I got a force three crack sprite. It had a net two services, and didn't cost any fade.
• With two services it helped the first two rolls.

This gave the following die rolls

• 12 + 3 from the team work test => 2
• 11 + 2 from the team work test => 3
• 10 =>2
• 9 => 6
• 8 =>4
• Total so far = 17

That should be enough for an admin account. If not I'll spend another hour

[ Spoiler ]

20:53, Today: Angel 316 rolled 4 successes using 8d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 3,5,4,3,5,6,1,6. exploit 5th go.
20:53, Today: Angel 316 rolled 6 successes using 9d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 5,6,5,1,2,3,5,5,6. exploit 4 th go.
20:52, Today: Angel 316 rolled 2 successes using 10d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 2,6,6,4,2,4,3,2,1,2. exploit 3rd go.
20:51, Today: Angel 316 rolled 3 successes using 13d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 1,1,1,1,5,3,4,5,2,1,6,1,2. second exploit test.
20:50, Today: Angel 316 rolled 2 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 2,3,5,6,2,2. second crack spirit team work.
20:50, Today: Angel 316 rolled 2 successes using 15d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 1,2,4,1,4,6,4,3,1,1,3,4,1,5,3. probe.
20:49, Today: Angel 316 rolled 3 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 6,2,5,5,3,2. team work test from crack sprite.
20:49, Today: Angel 316 rolled 2 successes using 10d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 2,1,5,3,1,3,2,5,2,2. resist fading.
20:48, Today: Angel 316 rolled 1 success using 3d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 3,2,6. force spirit resit.
20:48, Today: Angel 316 rolled 3 successes using 11d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 4,2,6,5,3,4,3,4,5,3,4. Compiling crack spirit force 3.
21:27, Yesterday: Angel 316 rolled 3 successes using 11d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 6,3,2,2,2,1,1,6,3,5,1. resist fading from threading .
21:26, Yesterday: Angel 316 rolled 3 successes using 9d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 6,6,6,3,3,4,3,4,3. threading force 2 exploit.

[sunnyside]

[OOC: You moved on fast. I'll finish up Brewsters end of the call here]

Replying to Bongo he laughs. "I generally pride myself on knowing how to get anything in the city, but off the top of my head I don't know where you'd get a flapper dress or a gold pinstripe suit outside of a costume store, but I have a high confidence in your ability to manage."

To Selena's question he replies. "No, I'm afraid I negotiated on your behalf for this one. I hope you'll concede the rate is above par yes? Normally of course I do enjoy a bit of negotiation, and I have a feeling you'll do quite well in meetings with a Mr. Johnson yourself. Perhaps events will transpire for you to have an opportunity this time before all is said and done."

[OOC: With her boosted Charisma, and resulting rolls, Selina notices some oddities in in his subtle actions and inflections. She's pretty confident he's being truthful in those statements, even about enjoying negotiation. But something else is bothering him about just this particular exchange. Something seemingly unrelated to this particular job since it doesn't seem to otherwise manifest. Selina will be paying attention in future interactions to see if she can figure out a pattern.]

Seeing that the team was getting on with things Brewster continues "I really should shift over to a call with Willie and Flatline. But since you're new I want to stress something about the area the club is in. With Ares everywhere overhead and many places going down to ground level they're very very sensitive about bullets and spells. They'll have Knight Errant on the ground, drones in the air, and spirits on patrol in the astral very much focused on those things. However it's a jurisdictional mess with them and the Baltimore Police Union there. They will often just stare at each other across a street while obvious crimes of other sorts are going on between them, even assault. But if someone pulls a gun or some mojo to try and get the upper hand.... Do try and not get killed just walking down the street hmm? Also turf wise the area is used as a neutral space, in particular the east side and west side ork gangs, but also organized and unorganized crime, and even downtown and uptown. To an extent that makes moving around easier, but it also makes it hard to be safe by being in good stead with the locals."

He makes a gesture and a slight bow. "I hope you enjoy the city and find our joint efforts profitable. There is much to do if we can get to know each other. You can leave me a message if you find you need anything elsee. Goodby"

At that he hangs up.

---------------------------------------

After four hours Angel is into the public facing node for the club with admin access. An alert does not seem to have triggered. The financials do not seem to be here or connected to the public facing node, which is hosted on a commerical nexi. Mostly it has calendars of events and information about the club. While it doesn't exactly have blueprints, there's enough there for Angel to get a pretty good idea of the layout of the place. With a hallway to pay and a main dance floor on the first floor, tables and VIP areas on the second, supplies and a kitchen in the basement, and adult entertainment and offices on the third.

There is also a list of pre-approved guests. None of the four individuals at the table seem to be in the list. But you could add yourselves, which should also keep them from running your SINS.

[Thanee]

To Brewster: "Of course, sounds great. And you went above and beyond here, already, which is much appreciated. Just trying to get a hang of how things are run around here."

* * * * *

After the call, Selina will help everyone with their dresses. She will do some more research, and make use of her Fashion spell, in order to create outfits that would allow them to blend in with the club's crowd. She also takes some time to practice the dancing, even though that will still be a bit clumsy with only a few hours of preparation.

[Seth]

Angel sighed at the end. That had taken forever. Perhaps one day she would get good at this: it was only a club website after all. What would she do if it was a serious website?

Still it was done now. She added invitations for each of them. Then looked back over any records that existed of previous nights. Could she find anything about the time that the picture had been taken? Any records about who those people had been?


OOC Please feel free to roll any suitable die rolls if you feel it's worth rolling die for this

[sunnyside]

[OOC: With Admin access and no security alert Angel is able to operate quite freely in the system. They could even do things like lock out the actual club owners from their own public matix site, or set the dormant IC in the node to attack them or something. It's essentially your system unless or until a spider or other user happens to notice something is off. Note that for most functions user access is plenty and makes for either much faster probing or safer hacking on the fly. However with higher access it can be fun to just tell security IC to shut down instead of fighting it.

The issue is that while you're able to find the promotional materials for that night, and you could find information on the club owners who have access to this node, none of that pertains to the four individuals at the table.

Actually this might be a spot to RP with some of the others due to Angels disadvantage. Angel isn't so used to the idea of the physical world. However even without particularly specialized knowledge of matrix security, the others would know that the business has to be doing money transactions, and probably has some cameras set up. It isn't that Angel is having a problem, it's just probably all handled by a system on site.

The question for Angel is if they want to leave themselves a logon they could use to get into this public node anytime, or if they'd rather try to eliminate all trace anyone was doing anything in the system (aside from being added to the pre approved guest list). ]

[Koekepan]

Paul starts by sitting down for a good think.

It's a club, under the Ares arcology. It either abuts other construction, or stands free. If it stands free, there has to be framing around it to help support the arcology's foundation above - this gives an ideal entry for the quieter drones. All he needs to do is to get up into the scaffolding somewhere vaguely nearby, and that's easy with his ladders and a little patience. Then his drones can quietly infiltrate, without so much as a matrix signature, by running on cables rather than wireless. In combination with drones running through sewer and drain lines beneath, he should be able to get a good set of additional views from beneath in under an hour, especially with a prospect of looking for hidden cells for captives or other activities. OK, time to make his pitch to the group. He goes to find Selina.

"Excuse me, ma'am? I don't know what the plan is, yet, but I have a read on how I can get a lot of structural and technical data on the club if we want it, without raising alarms. No magic, no wireless activity, no damage, no explosions. If you want me to, I can get to work on that, especially if people have questions that they'd like answered. For example, are there cells for keeping personafixed prostitutes under the club?"

[Thanee]

Selina smiles. "You talk to me, like I'm your boss or something. We are all equals here. That being said, while I am not particularly interested in that specific piece of information, anything we can figure out, especially without causing any suspicion, seems like a good idea to me. If we head there later tonight, we might need to find out more from the inside, and maybe you can dig something up, that could help us with that."

[Koekepan]

Paul raises a hand to scratch under the band of his cap. "I'm a contractor, ma'am. I try to treat my fellow contractors with respect too. But if this is the idea, then the sooner I get started, the sooner I'll have data."

[Seth]

"Well I am afraid that was mostly a waste of time" Angel said sadly "There's nothing there of interest that I could find. There are no cameras or anything. Still we have invites to get in"

[pbangarth]

"Looks to me like we have some scouting to do. Angel is hooked into the system from here and it's probably best that she keep a watch over things from in here. Tubesnake has a plan to suss out the innards of the building with his pets and can get them to be more proactive if necessary. Willie and our yet-to-be-met teammate Flatline (that name worries me a bit) are off on their own thing. So, Selina, how about you and I go for dinner there dressed appropriately and reconnoitre from the inside? "

Bongo smiles radiantly at the magician. "We can get to know each other better. Skills and beliefs and such."

Nothing would ever develop in a professional relationship such as this, but ... dinner with a beautiful woman? Come on. And his presence would keep most of the predators away.

"Angel, do you know what the club's policy is on weapons? Wouldn't want to ruffle any feathers."

[Thanee]

"We should definitely go. It's the only lead we got at the moment. There is little to watch from the outside for Angel, as it looks. If we want to get the information we are looking for from their system, we need her inside. Of course, that is where things start to get a little more complicated. We need to figure out where she can access the system, and then give her the opportunity to do so."

[Koekepan]

Paul nods and hauls his goodies back to the van, before unlocking it from his crude security measures, and firing it up. He sets the autopilot to stop about a block away from the target area, and while he does so, he sets up his drones to get active in the back of the van. This includes coils of signal cable, full batteries, and other health checks.

Once he reaches his destination, he puts on a helmet plastered with a couple of IBEW stickers, a high visibility vest, and goggles, then opens the top hatch, scrambles out, and hoists a ladder to hook onto the scaffolding above. He uses the console inside his van for direct control of a couple of shankworms, and has them head into the scaffolding, pulling a cable along the way to make vertical movement easy. While they do this, he pops out of the back of the van to put down traffic cones. Legit union worker getting busy, that's the look.

[Seth]

"There's nothing in here about the clubs policy on weapons" Angel said sadly. She was obviously not feeling as though she was contributing very much to this

[Thanee]

"Angel, darling, don't despair, just because there wasn't anything to find on the first layer. It usually takes a bit more determination to get things done. Are you okay with getting into the club with us? If we can find a way for you to access the inner system, that is where you should be able to find everything we are looking for. Do you want your clothes to look like what the ladies are wearing in the picture? As far as I can tell, that is not a necessity."

[sunnyside]

[OOC: Assuming around 5 pm so everyone is caught up together. ]

Tubesnake rolls up to find the immediate area relatively quiet. Both Gatsby's and Trip's next door aren't open yet. Though not far away new clubs and bars that replaced the old houses are going.

Tubesnake finds himself getting some friendly looks and waves from folks he doesn't know from the other side of Charles street. That's a little confusing for a moment but then an ARO from across the street pops up indicating the UNITE HERE Local 7 is still located in the building, which is the union for hospitality workers in the area. Tubesnake notes the old Walbert building is now hosting a fancy restaurant going by the Walbert. That might be some drama if they don't pay well.

The scaffolding around the Gatsby club is free of the elevators and the like the safehouse building has. Just heavy structural elements. Some open lots and parking lots have afforded Ares places to put in proper pylons and the occasional proper lobby should employees wish to come down here.

Even in a short while Tubesnake would notice that the crowds are starting to build.

[pbangarth]

Seeing as there is a bit of time before they head out to the club, Bongo does a little research. Just in case he gets a chance to go on stage. Now or some time in the future. One never knows!

He looks for popular songs of the 20's and some of the main singers, committing to memory vocal nuances, lyrics, maybe mannerisms if he can find visuals. And, of course, rhythms .

Yet again, he congratulates himself on channelling Magic into his ability to memorize.

The rhythms are easy, as they continue through music across generations. He works on voices of a few classic singers of the period, practising his Voice to emulate them. Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, Gene Austin, Nick Lucas, Cliff Edwards. He even works on "Whispering' Jack Smith, a baritone.

Tunes like "Margie", "Ain't Misbehavin'", "Makin' Whoopee", "Swanee", "My Blue Heaven", "Singin' In The Rain", "Blue Skies", "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue" and "Me and My Shadow" provide a range of moods to present.

Oh, what the Hell. Why not "I Wanna Be Loved By You" sung by Helen Kane, surely the model for the cartoon character Betty Boop. Nobody would expect him to emulate that voice.

[Koekepan]

Tubesnake's drones wander along the scaffolding, establishing first a very clear exterior plan of the structure. He takes detailed notes on the environment around, with the intention of handing this tactical information to the rest of the team. While he does this, he does tap off his AR glove long enough to return the waves and touch the peak of his helmet to the union brethren and friends. Solidarity!

The absence of direct connection to the uptown area is clearly useful information, but also means that his drones can easily render a yet better view of what's up. What the hell, while he's there he sees whether there's a dead floodlight or something that he can fix so that his cover is even more plausible. Maybe even just rewire an old segment that got damaged.

But back to business. While he does official-looking busywork, he gets a simple loop on a pulley running from the upper scaffolding down to the roof of the club building itself. Once he identifies plausible entrypoints to the building itself, he can set up a signal cable and send down drones to infiltrate.

While so doing, keeps half an eye open to see whether any teammates show up.

[sunnyside]

The Ares floodlights are high and over the streets. They seem to be kept in good repair. It also seems like the external cameras around here are mostly theirs due to being placed on the "ceiling" above or scaffolding. The occasional patrol drone has a KE logo. These don't pay any attention to Tubesnake. As far as he can tell they don't take a particular interest in anything, just flying patterns.

The structure is fairly basic, most noteworthy perhaps for its lack of windows on the lower floors and basement. Just the occasional vent. The top floor has four windows on the front and side. Tubesnake notices the downspouts seem to be clogged, which is odd considering it wouldn't have rained here since the Arch-ology went up.

Having a drone look around some Jauchekafer (Sewage bugs) have moved into the area between the uptown and downtown structure, and have been producing the "rain" clogging the downspouts. The grates on the main vents up here seem to have kept them out so far. Looks like they've been here a while, and probably haven't caused anyone much trouble as they're generally just going to try to sneak out and get their foot long antler like jaws on some garbage, which seems to be in fair supply in the ally next to the building.

Still, four kilos of big stinky black venomous bug doesn't endear itself to people.

Their habits seem like they might have trashed patches of the RF blocking paint up here.

(OOC: I figure that's about the level of info Tubesnake might know without a particular skill, but having been mucking around in Baltimore a while and having some browsing skill).

[Seth]

Angel didn't really look happy at the 'next level'. There wasn't a 'next level'. Not with any connection. So no one could do anything with it. What was the point of that?

"They won't let me in the club" Angel pointed out "And I don't do well with crowds. No I'll wait out here. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help." she didn't sound very optimistic "It seems to have air gaps that will cripple it's ability to do anything. I've only heard of R&D centers and places like that having such insanely powerful defences because normally people want to actually get jobs done and you can't do anything through an airgap. So maybe the club has some secret or something?"

[Thanee]

"Everybody has secrets," Selina comments mysteriously with a sly wink.

"It's an easy and very effective precaution, if they do not need the information outside of the club, I guess."

"Anyways, if you are not coming inside, we need to get a wireless signal to you, that allows you to connect to the inside system, right? Not sure, how we can do that right now, though."

"But why do you think they wouldn't let you in? Too young? If you are on the list, they won't check your SIN, right? You can keep that hidden."

"That reminds me, I should probably check in advance how their magical security is like, if there is any."

[Koekepan]

All righty. This here is paydirt. Windows as possible entrypoints, ditto vents with some finagling. Roof damage may afford additional wireless connectivity - interesting. He sets up his Fly-Spy to fly a simple route; up, along a line of scaffolding, a loop over the roof and then back the way it came. On the way, it will have its wireless link turned off, turn it on during the loop, then turn it off before returning, and simply record a catalogue of detected nodes. This should provide some useful data for later probing.

The Jauchekaefer are excellent cover for his activities, so he sets up a couple of flatworker drones with cleaning brushes to clean trash and mess left on the scaffolding, conduits and all the rest of it. At the same time he sends up a couple of shankworms as security, in case some of the bugs get cute and want to get aggressive. Nothing like a steel spike to change their operational context, should it get that far. However, everything so far is still run on physical cables aside from the brief Fly-Spy fly-by.

[sunnyside]

(OOC: The trouble with being rusty in something as cruncy as shadowrun is having to go through a bunch of rules to figure things out. So in order to detect hidden nodes you'd need an electronic warfare autosoft, or have someone with the skill piloting the thing. Detecting active and passive nodes is automatic, though passive nodes tell you very little except that they exist and this sort of capture doesn't have any sense of direction. Sifting through the result is a data search, and generally that's an extended test starting at 7 dice for Tubesnake. The data set would be fairly limited.]

The paint, or maybe even more, around Ares is keeping signals out, and the cheap wifi inhibiting paint on most of Gatsby's is also blocking most signals.

There are still a handful of signals picked up by the spy. Maybe drones. Something with an angle or high enough signal to punch through. Tubesnake can't really tell about the passive nodes in the list. However connecting to an espresso machine in active mode up there is awfully suspicious.

(presuming you have mercy on those around and have a drone set up a garbage bag, the others could start pushing waste out of the jammed downspout.)