Infiltration Challenge, Examining situation variables Options

[Crusher Bob]

I think some commentary from Galina would help things along. As long as she can look at us and not say, "My God, what is that?" we'll move on to figuring out what to do next.

[Shanshu Freeman]

[Slacker]

Sounds good to me.

[Shanshu Freeman]

Bizzump for posterity.

[pragma]

Talia, I think its your ball.

Galina's response to Juliana's quarantine would be welcome as would Juliana's responses to Solitaire's (admittedly somewhat poorly informed) interrogation regarding the strange effects witnessed, odd behavior exhibited and the wacky thing stuck in her aura (assuming Solitaire actually knows about said wacky thing).

[Talia Invierno]

Oops, sorry, been a scrambling for rent kind of week; and additionally for a few weeks now Dumpshock once again has started kicking me out literally at the point of log-in: I had to log in four times before I could get the reply screen, and twice more before I could get this single message posted -- make that three times, now -- no, four (grr) -- and then the quiet moment of slight panic when the post didn't initially appear, had to repost twice: and this kind of thing has been typical for me on Dumpshock for some time now. (We already know the log-in issue is due to the old server, so it's just a matter of dealing until the server can be properly replaced with a working server.)

In any case, I'll try to get something more substantial up a bit later today: took all the time I had just now just to try to get temp-logged in!

[Talia Invierno]

Okay, back, and accessible, and the server hasn't kicked me out today (yet). So let's tackle this 8)

First, Trogdor's still awol. The team wouldn't know what's up, but since we OOC sort of do, he'd be trying to get loose in every way possible before he has to resort to the disruption. That means that at the moment, he's still digging and hoping. He's got a few more hours yet before disruption becomes the only option. That means that for all intents and purposes, he's out of the immediate picture.

[pragma]

After Diamond is stabilized and healed I think that bringing Juliana into the safehouse and taking her into a warded room would be wise (assuming the anchoring 'thing' or her potential dual nature doesn't prevent such a course of action). It would also be good to inform Galina that there is some sort of harmful magical effect which has been emanating from the extractee in order to justify her renewed incarceration.

Come to think of it, it would probably be good if Solitaire told Juliana that she was going to be put into a warded room to try to stop the pulses from hurting her or anyone else. Also attempting to clarify what was going on in the building and what the pulses are could be beneficial. However, if Juliana ever seems to get too excited it would be worth laying off of the questions for a while to prevent another pulse.

[Talia Invierno]

[Slacker]

Since Galina is still gather energy for healing, i'd say have Solitaire or somebody tell her something along the lines of "While you take care of Diamond, we're going to settle Juliana in a room wiht a ward, for her protection as well as our own. We'll explain in more detail once you're finished with Diamond." And then usher Juliana into a warded room.

I don't see any point in hiding Juliana from Galina, especially since we were planning on getting Galina's help with whatever is causing the pulses.

[Shanshu Freeman]

I've got a bad feeling about Galina re: The Package. Her behavior worries me. If we don't have to advertise J's presence, lets not. I worry she went straight to Diamond not just out of professionalism and loyalty, but because she already knows what will become of The Package, good or bad, for J or us. We might just end up being bystanders caught in a crossfire rather than just pawns, which is somethig we're used to.

[Shanshu Freeman]

It seems to me that the Hand of Fate has gone the extra mile to protect us from ourselves. Let's accept the gift.
-We were able to question The Package en route.
- Galina hasn't necessarily seen The Package.
-Galina hasn't casted her healing spell *yet.*

I trust Galina to the extent that she's a healer, and she's Diamond's contact. Aside from that, she's an unknown quantity, and won't necessarily be interested in helping us collect our paycheck. On top of that, our safe house location may be comprimised by forces beyond our control.

What if Galina casting anything, healing for instance, while The Package is on site has an influence on the mojo around J's neck? What if Galina doing a heal spell is the signal for the Black Hats to show up and take away our only bargaining chip? What if the Package can and is being traced by her magic collar? What if the collar goes off and hurts Galina while she's working?

One of the first rules of war, and make no mistake surviving the mean streets of SR Seattle is a war, is to stay moving when your enemy knows where you are. It seems to me that the solution to this dilemma is to separate the team. The wounded will be more or less as safe with Galina as they would be otherwise, and if not, we can trade the Package for them and our paycheck. The logistics of it are not insurmountable either. Assuming Talia lets us get a little revisionist because we didn't flesh all this out earlier <3 At worst, the war wagon drops them off, at best we split up before the hide out, by meeting up with a contact who can give them a lift, or putting them in an unregistered taxi cab. As long as it doesn't jeapardise the health or safety of the Package, I think it's something to consider.

Then again, I may just be barking at the moon.

EB, CB, what do you make of all this?

[pragma]

I agree that trusting Galina is a large risk and that, in the shape we are in, having her become hostile based on some action with Juliana would be a very bad thing. However, I am hesitant to leave the comfort of wards just in case Juliana is ritually tracked or targeted. Also, Galina may have a better idea than we do of how to remove the death neclace.

I think Juliana should be far away when the healing spells are cast to prevent any unwanted feedback adn the should be moved into the wards. Advent is largely uninjured and could remain outside to monitor the Star, keep pursuers in check and provide a small army's worth of fire support should Galina turn hostile.

I propose that Solitaire should smuggle Juliana through a back door when the spell is done. Ghost can keep as watchful an eye as possible on diamond during that period of time.

Additionally, futher interrogation of Juliana seems likely to be profitable.

[Shanshu Freeman]

[Talia Invierno]

Not passive, not in the slightest! but also not aggressive toward you currently. Juliana seems to understand the generalities of what is going on, and she obviously realises that she's inadvertently majorly screwed you over. You're getting the strong impression off her that it wasn't intentional, not at all; and that once she'd realised what was happening, she'd been trying to work with you.

Trouble is, you're also getting the sense that in "working with you" -- well, she's already come across as a very "take charge" person. So right now, since you're thinking about it, you might have the sense that for now she's "letting" you do your own thing.

In parallel, she hasn't asked you any questions; apart from her major goal of "Get this thing off me!"

[Crusher Bob]

Gah.

The 'defensive' type of wards can easily be seen with astral preception. However, you must be able to 'see' the warded area normally to notice. So, for example, a hermetic summoning something inside of a building (hermetic circles act as wards) would not be 'obvious', since you can't see through the building. Also, wards are not legally controlled, so plenty of people have then, there is nothing too special about having a warded house or building.

Next, magical tracking is a form of ritual magic, or more accurately, usually a side effect of ritual magic. However, if the target is inside a warded area (and you don't manage to blast through the wards, which is pretty hard IIRC) the ritual just fails. You have no idea where the person is, just that the magic fialed (most likely due to: death of the target or the target being in a warded area or manawarp). So keeping the package in a warded area will prevent magical tracking, if whoever is magically tracking you manages to break the wards, the creators would know about it instantly. As both our magically active guys are out right now, it dosen't help much, but nver mind.

Next worry is some sort of technological detection (radio tracking, etc). You solve this by putting the package in a Faraday cage which blocks electromagnetic radiation (cell phones, microwaves, radio, etc). This way, no tracking devices that happened to be stuck on the package will be useful. (Well, in any realistic circumstances anyway).

[Talia Invierno]

Re wards: what Crusher Bob said. (That will teach me to post when I've had less than four hours of sleep.)

[Eyeless Blond]

I'm a little curious how Galina could *not* notice Juliana if she did notice Diamond--weren't they in the same van at this point, or did we retcon Ghost and Juliana into the Westwind? If the former, then there's really no point in trying to conceal her from Galina's view. She'll probably even be helpful, seeing as how no matter what we're going to do with her it's better than being chainned to a wall in solitary confinement, with a magical feedback collar attached to her throat.

If the later... maybe we can get away with concealment. I was going to say that Ghost could even set up a masking ward around the van and wait it out elsewhere; neither of them are physically injured, right? You need astral perception to do it though, and she doesn't have it. So, seeing as how our only ward-makers are unconscious and/or elsewhere for now, I propose that trusting Galina is alot less risky than trusting that noone will try to track Juliana through the collar. We can't deliver her if she's dead, and Galina's certainly showing more interest in her continued health and well-being than the guys who locked her up did.

At the worst, even troll mages must bow before the might of an attack-rigger on the warpath. :)

On further consideration, I do like Shanshu Freeman's idea of rerouting Juliana to a secondary safehouse, also (masking) warded, as any smart initiate would do for his house, and have Ghost and Juliana recover there, away from the very delicate Diamond. Do we have extra safehouses/lifestyles mapped out yet, for anyone? We might even mention this to Galina, that we took her somewhere else for Diamond's and the rest of the team's safety (though of course that wouldn't be the primary reason for doing so it's at least something that she will believe and accept, which is better for us.)

[Talia Invierno]

[Shanshu Freeman]

[pragma]

I'm much more worried about magical tracking or ritual murder than I am about technological tracking. If anyone has invested in a jammer then we're more or less set as far a tracking beacons go, and if not I'm certain that our electronics warfare specialist who is armed to the teeth with advanced RF and assorted other telecommunications equipment is more than up to the challenge of jamming the package senseless.

As for magical cover, unless the second safehouse materializes staying with the wards and Galina is our best bet. Ritual tracking or spellcasting takes a few hous (if I recall correctly) which means that we're safe for a little while. But if we aren't warded fairly soon, I suspect that trouble will ensue.

If the general concensus is to disturst both Juliana and Galina then moving Juliiana to a second safehouse and dumping her on Kay as quickly as possible is in order. Trogdor and a fairly impresive shamanic lodge tucked away somewhere, but his current state make it somewhat impractical to move there. He also knows a talismonger we may be able to take advantage of by swiping the cell phone from his body. No one else seems to have promising contacts or boltholes (unless Advent is willing to give up his real lifestyle).

Trusting Galina still seems like a good idea to me. We get the benefit of being able to use the well warded team safehouse and apparently compentent magical assistance to clean up the feedback loop and any health problems that arise as a result. However, Juliana should be far away from the healing spell to minimize the chance of a pulse.

[Eyeless Blond]

[Shanshu Freeman]

Options. We need options.

Far as I can tell, we've heard from most of the key players... Any ideas, Westiex, Garland, Crusher Bob?

[Talia Invierno]

I can't take you guys forward if you don't decide on what you're doing! :) (The current proposals include two completely opposed sets of actions.)

[Shanshu Freeman]