The Found Arcana - Chapter 11 [IC] Options

[Tecumseh]

<<Saturday Early Afternoon - 13:30 - April 8, 2079 - Snohomish>>

Bobby transforms and casts his spell.

The bad news is that as soon as he gets a glimpse of the roof, he spies two large (F6) bound spirits on the astral. One is a spirit of man and the other a guardian spirit; they are very clearly there for security purposes. They look aggressive, like they're looking for a fight. Bobby quickly takes cover before the spirits spot him. If Bobby wants to approach, he's going to have to put his masking to the test.

The good news is that Bobby's spell works from a quarter kilometer away. Even with just a few seconds he can find what he's looking for: a unit that's been completely warded from wall to wall. It's the only one so it's quite obvious which it is. (Third floor, west side, facing the courtyard in the center of the complex.) Bobby is confident he can identify the right unit in the building.

He must be careful though; Spatial Sense is a passive spell, but once an opposing spellcaster (or guardian spirit) realizes there is an active sustained spell, they can can try dispelling it... or tracking down its source.

It looks like Sheila wasn't kidding when she said that Knight-Errant is taking Ms. Potter's security pretty seriously since her old boss got geeked.

~~~

Meanwhile, Tamarind notices that there are several drones on patrol around the building.

Up high, there is a Cyberspace Designs Dalmatian circling the building and keeping watch.

Closer to the roof, there are at least four MCT-Nissan Roto-Drones on patrol. These are what Knight-Errant uses to intercept and shoo away drones that drift too closely to the No Fly Zone.

On the ground, there's a GM-Nissan Doberman on patrol. It seems to be focused on the building's courtyard rather than the sidewalk around the building's perimeter.

Tamarind is smart enough to know that this is just the visible security, what they want to be seen as a way of saying "frag off". Surely there would be invisible layers that aren't immediately obvious, counterintelligence resources meant to defeat exactly what Tamarind is trying to attempt.

~~~

<<Saturday Sunset - 19:50 - April 8, 2079 - University of Washington>>

AM returns. Raven keeps overwatch while AM disappears from both sight and sound.

With the spells in place, AM has no difficulty is slipping around to the rear entrance of a quiet classroom building. Because it's a weekend, and late in the evening, there's little traffic. Nobody should be entering or exiting the building.

AM finds the maglock for the back door. From there, it's easy to establish a direct connection.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby first returned to the car to create a map and note down what he had learned - one of the disadvantages of the spell was that he couldn't retain the knowledge unless he wrote it down or otherwise created a map. So he shared the information with the team.

<<So that's where I have to go. I'll have to turn extremely small so I'm not noticed by the spirits. It would be helpful if something in the astral could distract them...>>

[Tecumseh]

Bobby's drawing include a basement for the building. It doesn't look like there are basement apartments down there. Instead it looks like mechanical and electrical equipment (including HVAC, electrical panels, and shared water heaters), storage space, laundry facilities, and security equipment.

It's hard to imagine a candidate for governor living in a building where she doesn't have a water heater to herself, but maybe that's the image she wants to project to the voters. It certainly does set her apart from Nikola Taul, who lives in a luxurious condo in a glamorous high-rise downtown.

[Gilga]

I quickly hack the maglock to gain a mark on the host and with it, the permission to look for alumni. I improve my mental capacities to increase my chances of success, while Trouble is sustaining my safety net of invisibility and silence.

[Beta]

Tamarind briefly mourns the "sewer snake" drone that she used to get to use. The things were incredibly all-purpose between their aquatic and climbing abilities, and she wonders if one would be able to follow utilities through the building to get in while avoiding most security. Technically a Kanmushi could do something similar, and more easily, but the little bug drones lack the power and mass to push through any sort of barrier so were more likely to get stymied but half decent workmanship. She really does need to do some proper budgeting and then plan on what new friends she can obtain. But that isn't going to help right now.

She asks Bobby "How do you feel about being closed up in a box? Be it a delivery drone or a literal food delivery box, we could use an enclosure to block you from the spirits until you aren't in their line of sight. I don't know if the spirits would even react to drones? It would probably be sacrificial of the drone, not much chance of dropping you off and getting it away from security. Which in turn suggests trying to hack a food delivery drone. They are probably watching out for such tricks, including the exact sort of drone delivering a drone trick that I'd been thinking about."

[Tecumseh]

AM spends a few minutes querying the alumni system.

What becomes quickly apparent is that there are almost no records of Corinne Potter.

That said, the records prior to 2064 are very spotty due to Crash 2.0. It seems that the digital records were irretrievably lost. Over the last 14.5 years there has been some effort to recreate records from offline resources, but even then the alumni office's internal estimates are that half of the pre-Crash alumni are missing, and those who are present have woefully incomplete profiles.

So there is no historical record of Corinne Potter being a student, but there is an interview with her that was conducted just a couple months ago in early February right before the primary. Right before that interview was conducted, there was some discussion among the alumni staff about Corinne's credentials:

>>>>>(I looked through our records for Corinne Potter but couldn't find anything. Admittedly she falls squarely in the middle of our degraded period, where data integrity is lowest.)<<<<< --Taylor Marmor, Membership

>>>>>(Who cares? She's a candidate for governor. We don't have anything that proves she not an alumna.)<<<<< --Virginia Baker, Director, Alumni & Constituent Engagement

>>>>>(But don't we want to preserve the integrity of the institution? If just anyone can say they graduated, doesn't that devalue those who have actual degrees? We don't know anything about her; she could tarnish the institution by association.)<<<<< --Taylor Marmor, Membership

>>>>>(What have we checked?)<<<<< --Virginia Baker, Director, Alumni & Constituent Engagement

>>>>>(Student newspapers were digital and are gone. Yearbooks were digital and were lost. Senior theses were printed out and stored in the library as part of an old tradition, but in the Political Science department those were only required for those who were pursuing an Honors program, which was only 15-20% of the class each year. I looked but didn't find one for Potter.)<<<<< --Taylor Marmor, Membership

>>>>>(Are there any other options?)<<<<< --Virginia Baker, Director, Alumni & Constituent Engagement

>>>>>(I heard that the Print Services department might have old records of diplomas that were printed for graduation ceremonies. Evidently some of their systems were offline at the time of the Crash. Their systems are archaic so we haven't taken the time to dive deeply into what's available.)<<<<< --Taylor Marmor, Membership

>>>>>(Let's not waste any more time on this. We have finite resources and must prioritize accordingly. We'll take Corinne Potter at her word. The opportunity to have an alumna as Governor is too big to pass up. She'll almost certainly funnel grants in our direction, and will likely speak at commencement and graduation ceremonies. In my judgement, the risks are acceptable, and are fully counterbalanced by the potential rewards.)<<<<< --Pauline White, Vice President, Alumni & Stakeholder Engagement and Executive Director, UW Alumni Association

>>>>>(Yes, boss. Understood.)<<<<< --Taylor Marmor, Membership

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby thought for a moment about the proposal:

"Doable, but we would have to make sure, the box gets in and isn't kept in a post room until the receiver shows up. Can you keep track of delivery drones? How many actually have shown up and gotten into the building so far? I could turn into a locust and pose as pizza topping - that should fool any scanners.

Though I'd prefer to be free to move. If one of our matrix wizzes can take a look at the closest pizza joint and see if there are any orders for this building, that would be a good step to confirm the viability of this plan.

But my guess is, that most of those orders come in the evening when people are home again. And I'd like to get in now while most people are out."

[Tecumseh]

Tamarind observes a delivery drone approaching the apartment building. It uses a very specific route that takes it directly to the manager's office, which is front and center like it would be in a motel. (In fact, it is very easy to imagine the apartment building as a repurposed motel.)

It is met at the door by an obese human woman whose jowls are so thick that she appears to have no neck. She has a funny beehive hairdo that might have been in fashion a hundred years ago. (Or, as fashions cycle, every 30 years since.) The woman accepts the delivery and then takes it back to the reception desk, where she runs a handheld scanner over it. From a distance, it is not possible to determine what sort of scanner it is, or if it is a handheld housing with multiple scanners. It does look fancy, far fancier than what you'd expect an apartment building to provide to its staff.

Satisfied with the results, she takes the package and places it on a shelf behind the desk. She then says something out loud, perhaps leaving a message for someone to pick up the package at their convenience.

[Gilga]

>> Looks like the print services are our next go. The university does not know if Potter is one of their students or not. No records, but they didn't want to check too deep because well, it is in their best interest to have a governor alumni. I was thinking of coming back during work hours.

[Beta]

<<Good call on looking at the incoming drones. I think we have have found the weak point. The drones get to pass through security, then what they deliver is scanned -- the full drone is not scanned before passing through security. The trick then is getting you sufficiently through security, but not be sitting in the box when it is scanned. How small can you go? Could you manage something like a bee or wasp? Either cling to the outside of the drone, or get inside but not in the box. Fly to some concealed place quickly then change to a rodent, or whatever?>>

[Jack_Spade]

"I prefer a larger cockroach. Technically, I could go to the size of a flea, but that has quite a lot of limitations and risks that I'm not quite willing to take. It's a very disorienting experience.

The main problem is the open structure of this building. The spirits can see right to the front doors of the appartments. My prefered way in would be through the ventilation of the neighboring appartment.

Ok, new idea: I have still a few reagents on me. Do you have an expendable drone, that I could salt? It would have to draw the attention of the spirits in the astral, so I can fly in and get in the ventilation."

Bobby replied.

[Beta]

Tamarind took a calming breath before replying. Best to keep it practical as best as she could. "Drones are expensive, and my Flying Eyes are all modified with tasers so are even harder to replace and would cause more upset when found. The little Kanmushi crawlers are the cheapest and I haven't modified them, much as I wish I could protect them better the reality is that they are the most often sacrificed both because of price and because they can't get out of the way quickly. Sending one of those in might be OK, but they also can only move so quickly, would they get caught too quickly? Flip side I suppose is that if you often have an insect form it might be more confusing? What if we dropped one of those off the delivery drone to excite the spirits, then delivered you while they were distracted? Although that risk my delivery drone having to be sacrificed, too, and they cost four grand a piece."

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby shrugged: "I understand if you don't want to risk a drone like that. Though long-term you will lose a drone in this line of work. You can't save them all.

And no, I certainly won't hide in the distraction.

Anyway, hacking a legitimate delivery drone and dosing it with reagents seems to be the next best option. Just spoof a command to land for a minute and resume flight again would be the best option. I can take care of the rest."

[Beta]

Tamarind takes her time to choose the cheapest excuse for a drone she could find, something with a pretty basic pilot. Then she patted Beauty for luck, then reached out to try to make a classic hack on the thing, just like she'd been studying to do. She'd used electronic warfare tricks in the past, but hadn't ever hacked something other than known devices for practice.

To her amazement it worked, and in mere seconds she had the basic AR controls for the thing hovering in front of her in AR. She told Bobby where she would bring it down, a couple of blocks away -- a location not right where they were parked.

Once Bobby had applied the reagents she waited for him to get into position, then sent it along a sneaking route to hopefully avoid spirit notice, then popped it up and turned on its limited speed as she raced in towards where all the other deliveries were going, hoping to draw the attention of human attendant as welll as the spirits all in one action.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby examined the drone. It was one of the many take away delivery drones employed by large chain restaurants with the slightly creepy, cheerfully grinning mascot staring unblinking from it's small interface.

A small message told him, that the drone thought that stong winds had made it take a temporary landing break. It didn't look alarmed that a large crow was coming closer and examine it. Bobby hated what he would have to do next. Hopping on the drone, he stuck his beak between his feet and popped the small balloon filled with powdered reagents, water and bird drek he had collected in the last half hour, that he had concealed among his feathers. He had to experiment a bit to get the mixture right - a sticky goo that shone like crazy on the astral. With any luck, an inspection would show that a crow had likely eaten someone's preparation and shat it out on the poor little food drone.

No harm, now foul... well quite a bit of foul and fowl.

That disgusting task done, he flew off, pecking once against the roof of the car to signal Tamarind that the winds had calmed down, and began circling high above the appartment building, waiting for the spirits to get distracted.

[ Spoiler ]

All that for a simple stealth check, made with INT for the more timing based approach

Stealth + Int: 12d6t5 4

Extended Masking active - Assensing is opposed by 9 Magic + 3 Initiate
Masking: 12d6t5 6

[Tecumseh]

The first part of the plan goes as expected. Tamarind has the drone approach the office as she had previously observed. The office manager stands and goes to retrieve it.

The spirit of man takes the bait. It zips down to intercept the package. The office manager yelps at its appearance and quickly retreats back behind her desk, using it as a shield. Clearly she is uncomfortable with the spirit. It is aggressive; perhaps there had been an incident in the past.

The guardian spirit, however, does not take the bait. It maintains its vigilance from the rooftop. If Bobby wants to proceed, he'll have to put his sneaking and/or his masking to the test.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby proceeded anyway, confident in his ability to look the part of a curious bird.

[Tecumseh]

Bobby times his incursion well. The spirit has a lot of real estate to cover. Bobby the bird slips by while the guardian spirit is checking the opposite perimeter.

Bobby knows his distraction won't last forever, or maybe even very long given the limited number of reagents he was able to, ah, store. Then there will be a second pair of astral eyeballs he'll need to avoid.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby swooped down and went immediately for cover behind the railing. Once there, he turned into a large cockroach and inspected the door frame to the warded appartment. If the door allowed it, he would squeeze through, carefully weaving through the ward.

If there was no immediate access visible, he would move toward a ventilation opening and go forward from there with his mapping ability.

[ Spoiler ]

Body Boost: 10d6t5 2
Shapechange F5: 17d6t5 3
Drain Resist: 9d6t5 3
No drain

3 Points go into Body

No climbing check due to wall walking

Press through Mana Barrier (CHA+MAG) with one active spell (Threshold 2)

Press Through: 13d6t5 2
Press Through: 13d6t5 5

Takes likely two complex actions to get through

[Tecumseh]

There is definitely no gap around the door frame that a large cockroach could fit through.

Navigating a bit - perhaps more challenging than usual given a rubber band around his thorax - Bobby does find one possible insertion point: what looks like the exhaust for a dryer vent. The problem is that it is covered with a grated hood which is there specifically as a bird and rodent guard. (Most likely against birds, as it is 2.5m off the ground.) The hood is held in place by a duct/hose clamp, a thin stainless steel ring that can be tightened to hold the hood in place via compression. It would be easy to remove it as a human, but more challenging in cockroach form. The hood itself is some sort of basic plastic.

Bobby hears something, a noise coming from within the vent. Looking through the grate of the vent's hood, he sees (and hears) high-power UV-A lighting just inside the dryer vent. From his knowledge of security procedures, he knows that these are deterrents for vampires and banshees trying to slip past defenses in mist form. He takes it to mean that this is a recognized point of entry and that there may be additional countermeasures beyond just the ward. However, it's possible those countermeasures are designed for the Infected rather than shapechangers.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby's form had no particularly strength to disconnect the panel - so he decided zu just burn through. For just a moment, he gave himself over to the element of air, creating immense currents flowing along his aura. With his magic reserves it was overkill, but his size limited the damage. Nevertheless, a little glowing hole appeared where his legs had touched and melted the grate to slag.

[ Spoiler ]

Activating elemental strike (electricity) for -5 AP

Elemental Strike: 11d6t5 3

vs. Average Material (Plastiboard, ballistic glass) 4 Structure 6 Armor (reduced to 1 for electricity)
Wall resist: 5d6t5 3
0 damage

Elemental Strike: 11d6t5 4
Resist: 5d6t5 1

3 damage

Elemental Strike: 11d6t5 6
Resist: 5d6t5 2

4 damage - should be enough to break through

In less than 5 seconds, Bobby went through the roach sized hole.

He crossed quickly through the UV light - though the high radiation tolerance of cockroaches was likely enough to get him through. For good measure, he had invested into a especially hardy form with high damage resistance.

Carefully, he looked around for any other traps.

[ Spoiler ]

Perception: 13d6t5 2

[Tecumseh]

Bobby melts the passes through the UV-A light, which doesn't seem to affect him at all.

Bobby doesn't find monowire or pressure plates or anything like that. He does find that all the surfaces are covered in sawdust. This might be another layer of protection against vampires and banshees passing through in mist form, in case the UV lights were bypassed. It is curious though... if this vent were in active use, wouldn't the sawdust be blown away? Either this vent is not in regular use, or the sawdust is replaced frequently.

Bobby finally arrives at the ward. It's a strong, serviceable ward but with patience and time he can work his way through.

Crawling far enough, Bobby eventually finds himself inside a clothes dryer. He is currently blocked from proceeding further by the lint filter. The filter is too big to move in Bobby's current form. He could potentially burn his way through like he did to the vent hood outside, but this one represents a different risk: it is absolutely covered in sawdust. The sawdust is caked on and any sparks or heat represent a significant risk of conflagration in a confined space.

[Jack_Spade]

Now that he had more room to work, with, Bobby changed shape again, this time into a rat. With strong teeth, it was no problem to gnaw a hole into the filter. That done, he changed back to roach form, so he could squeeze into the inside of the dryer.
Only then did he change form again: As a lynx he was small enough to fit inside but also strong enough to get the door open.

[Tecumseh]

Bobby chews through the sawdust-caked filter, although it is a dusty and unpleasant experience. His mouth is now dry and he could really go for something to drink.

Slipping back into a cockroach form, he crawls through the hole and enters the drum of a clothes dryer.

He notices that the front door of the drum is actually a transparent plastic window, presumably so people can see what's going on inside. In this case, it allows him see out. Currently the lights are off so things are quite dark in the laundry room. There's a bit of ambient light making its way through the front windows and seeping back through the apartment toward the laundry room, but it's not much.

Bobby detects some movement. Watching, he sees a small wheeled drone rolls into the laundry room. It has a flashlight, which it uses to sweep the room. Bobby recognizes it as a Ferret, a small patrol drone that's used as a cheap alternative to security guards.

After conducting its sweep, the drone rolls out of the laundry room. Bobby can occasionally see its flashlight beam swinging around the hallway.

Opening the door of the dryer does not appear difficult - a modest degree of pressure should suffice - but doing so might be audible.

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

I'll use the focused concern power to negate the background count - all my shapechange spells are cast at least at F3

Focused Concentration takes care of sustaining one spell at F3

So on to the shapechanges made sind entering the astral barrier

Body Boost: 10d6t5 3
Shapechange Rat: 17d6t5 8
Push body to 5 total
Resist Drain: 11d6t5 2
No drain

Turn back into a cockroach
Shapechange cockroach: 17d6t5 4
Push body to 5 total
Resist Drain: 11d6t5 2
No drain

Turn into a bobcat if room for lynx is too small
Shapechange Lynx: 17d6t5 12
Push body to 5, strength to 3
Drain Resist: 11d6t5 4
No drain

Observe in Detail
Observe in Detail: 13d6t5 2

Open door carefully and slowly
Sleight of hand: 10d6t5 4

Assense environment
Assensing: 10d6t5 4 (-2 from background count included - if there are no auras, it would be reduced further by two dice, but that won't change the result)

Bobby had missjudged the size of the dryer and decided midspell to turn into a bobcat instead. Once that was done, he used his sharp senses and adept powered low light and thermographic sight to check his surroundings. Only when he was sure that there wasn't another drone moving about in the room he opened very slowly and carefully the dryer door a bit more to take a look around on the astral.