MK Ultra

Yes, make up whatever boring and mundane details you want about these guys.

And to answer your earlier question, yes, your high lifestyle covers cabs within reason. I was just reminding BR since Carla is maintaining Low lifestyle (if I recall correctly).

Adamu

What's it going to take to replace the front door on the church? I recall that the door was shattered to pieces, so I guess they'll need to buy/build a new one.

BlueRondo

Looks like I cross posted you. I edited the beginning of my post to match yours.

The door is a role-playing thing. No need for it to be a huge problem. If you were frantically building fortifications to hold off an army of zombies, THEN we can start rolling Carpentry tests.

For now, let's say the priests have some tools and lumber, and with a morning of sweaty work, Paddy can have the doors repaired.

Everyone

As we know, Mister Juan is quite busy starting his own business. I am certain he will be back with us soon, but until then, he has agreed that I should play Paddy as needed to keep things moving.

Mostly, though, if you want to conduct reasonable actions, just assume he cooperates - no need to wait on me every time you want to move the action forward.

Well, just when we make arrangements to handle Mister Juan's absence, he shows back up!
Very very pleasing.

Mister Juan, shall we wait for your posts as usual, or was that a happy moment of free time but you will still be mostly out of it for a while?

In any case, as noted earlier, the door is just roleplaying fluff.

The ball is fully in y'all's court. Do whatever roleplaying you feel inclined to, or proceed with actions as you will.

Adamu

Here's a Spanish test for Carla.

Spanish (2) + Latin (4/2) + Intuition (4) = 8: 1: 3, 6, 5, 1, 6, 2, 4, 5 = 4 hits.

Spanish good. Door good. All good.

Let me know if there is anything anyone needs from me.

No problem.

If you guys have RP things you want to get done, no worries. Most anything you do that does not involve game-related benefits or key NPC interactions, I will mostly sit back and let you write your stories.

So if I don't contribute much in the RP fluff category, it's not cuz I'm not interested or disapproving. I just don't want to interfere. And I hope you will let me know if you need anything.

At the same time, just post away IC or OOC any time you want to pursue "shadowrunny" stuff, and we will be all over that as well.

Just letting you know I'm around while you all do your individual things.

I just know that "The clock is ticking" to find Esmerelda now... so I was hesitant to run off doing too much fluffy stuff and effectively take myself back out of the "group"

But hey, if it's gonna take Conall and Carla a little while to fix the door...
About how long is that supposed to take?

As I have mentioned above at least twice, it is done when they IC it is done. It is not an issue. Finished by noon, I think I said.

Vegas - if you go off and do RP with Tuesday, cool. It is totally easy for you to just write an IC line like, "they did some Bliss and then Etain left" and poof, you are a cab ride away from the group.

I had arranged to sort of run Paddy sometimes when needed to move things along, but in the role of GM temporarily playing PC it is much more appropriate to be follower than leader. But then MJ posted, so I am confused as to whether he is "back" or not, so not sure if I should post for him still or not.

But yes, the game-time clock is ticking. That said, you are all free to do both what you feel is in your characters' nature and also what you feel is the best course toward achieving your goals.

Just wanted to say, that I don´t know when I can do my IC... had rpg sessions yesterday and the other day and today,work hit me like an avalanche. Still I´m positive that I´ll find the time to at least do a short summerizing IC some time this week.

Adamu

Why go to the mountain when you can bring the mountain to you?

Figured spoiled as she once was, she'd rather see if Tuesday would come to her and bring her things instead of going there....

Adamu, First Wave

Just to let you know, Carla's plans for the rest of the day are working her day job at the clinic. She will be leaving the bulk of the investigating up to the elves. That said, I won't have anything significant to post IC unless one of the other characters contacts Carla (or if Adamu has a surprise encounter in store for her.)

Well, you never know when the surprises will come - that's the neat thing about surprises.

But the name of the game these days is player proactivity. Can't keep forcing you along forever - can be more exciting, but eventually you wake up and realize you're not running your character, you're just reacting to the GM.

So the phase you guys are in right now, it's all about you guys' actions. Nothing about that will stop me from tossing a curveball in whenever the outline or preset parameters call for it. And it gives you the freedom to try solving your problems using any approach you wish.
Plus, it gives you the option to emphasize RP or more hardcore shadowrunning depending on your preference (although the way I see it, there is plenty of opportunity for the former in the latter anyway, but not always vice versa).

Anyway, this is my wordy way of saying it is really all on you guys right now. And the clock is ticking.

Vegas

Just realized I had forgotten to respond to your last OOC post. Sometimes I answer questions in my head at work and then my mental organizer scratches them off my list of things to do. And then I got home and was way too caught up in the new White Stripes album to think clearly.

I intended to do a more elaborate IC and initiate some more activeties, but time is still scarce and my bro occupied my pc for half the evening, so I just posted what I prepaired this weekend... more to come, as soon as I get around to do it.

Okay - looks as though you guys have basically decided to check out Ground Zero tonight.

So do whatever RP you feel you need (Vegas, Tuesday will show up whenever - you have your parameters), and also feel very free to accelerate time up to the evening or whenever you want to do this.

Feel free to coordinate OOC (all I would need is a brief IC mention that "planning" or "commcalls" took place). Even feel free to appoint one player the "caller" who will announce the actions of the whole party just up to getting everyone to the club.
Whatever.

But I will tell you, there is no reason for just coordinating all of your arrivals to be a huge, week-long logistical nightmare.

And RP-wise, I will tell you that Paddy is tired of all this mucking about and eager to go chase down some leads!

MK Ultra - the data searches you mentioned IC - they will get you the information on those gangs from the Down in the Gutter wiki. And if you do more data searches, you can get whatever else you want from that wiki - it is all information that is available in chat rooms and so forth.

Hey all,

I'm out of pocket the next couple of days. Might have access to read (depending on cell coverage) but little to no ability to post (I'm not typing out a huge post on my cellphone)

I'll try to get a comprehensive time-passes post for Etain to work in all the "filler" downtime when I get back on Friday.

If anyone pushes forward, assume Etain goes along to the club.

Vegas - thank you so much for the heads up.

You heard her, folks, let's not let her brief absence hold up getting to Ground Zero. In fact, one less person in the mix should make it easier.

What I am thinking is that about 24 hours from now you all should at least be physically en route to the club. That gives anyone that wants time to IC for the daytime, and then work out transport.

Unless otherwise stated, I will assume the twins take the bike.

Except for Krait, we already know Carla wants to leave the church at 8:30 (dark in August Seattle around nine, so it will definitely be dark by the time anyone gets to Redmond).

One small problem is that it will be very difficult to get a cab to take you from the edge of Touristville to the Ground Zero location (everyone should access the map on the In the Gutter wiki (there are lots of links to it in the Down in the Gutten thread, or just go to Up from the Bottom OOC and click on Fool's wiki under Abbandon's sig...OR be a smart person and just find out the address...way beyond my capabilities, though).

Anyway, all this boring transportation stuff can almost be hand-waved. Let's get through the tedious stuff and get there, then we can have fun playing things step by step.

I will help speed things along by telling you now that Paddy will find absolutely no spell signatures in Esmeralda's apartment.

Map of Kingsgate Area

Detailed Map of Ground Zero Area

Interior of Ground Zero


That should help everyone involved

Slightly more efficient than my method.

Hey, it's wicked early. I don't want to be up and I have a 2.5 h drive ahead of me here in a bit.

At least now I know I can sleep in till 3-3:30 tomorrow Ugh.

I should have just stayed up there overnight and saved myself a 2.5 hour drive tonight and tomorrow. But something about sleeping in my own bed and having internet access (if I'm alive) made it sound worth while.

As posted IC, John has his Agent run datasearches for everything somehow related to Ground Zero for most of the night

Carla & Conall will get all the results send to their Marry Jane abd Snakebane accounts on ApeScape respectively, plus a short message to their coms that they can find the data there.

I assumed that I´d get the stuff on the wiki, and since you confirmed this, Everyone feel free to use all the wiki information ad libitum!

One question I´d still have is, how much a Heartbraker-escort costs for one night. Dosn´t have to be a body-guard and not even that high profile, but should be an actual gang-member with colors. Could this be handled by lifestyle (got luxury level entertainment )?

Unless I allready own them, I´d also like to by the Wolverine-Guy´s favourit online game (probably not Miracle Shooter, since they are working for an Ares competitor) or two, so I can start playing with them. If that won´t be covered by lifestyle, I´d have to safe some mony first, though.

After hanging around at the E-Shop, I´ll get another cozy coffin and do some matrix action.

1st, I want to analyse the Ground Zero node (or nodes if I found more then one address). Buying successes should be fine, to get System & Firewall Ratings and check for Databombs.

2nd, I also want to analyse Zaphyr´s com (using the comcode from Esmeralda´s list), to get the same info about her com.

3rd, I want to probe the Ground Zero node to find a admin-level backdoor, but I won´t use it imediately, once I found it. Using VR with the Agent loaded into my persona as usual, not running free on it´s own. Buying hits, this should take 9 hours at the very most, if they have the best gear available. If there is more then one node, I might hurry things, to probe both - cutting the time in half (I´ll make rolls -with increased glitch risk- if that´s the case).
While doing this, I´ll spoof Zaphyr´s com-ID, in case that helps (let me know if I need to spoof it all the while, when I do the probing, or just when I finally want to use the exploit) - see roll below, 4 hits.
Depending on the number of nodes and system ratings, I might also opt, to probe Zaphyr´s com as well, for later intrusion.

4th, depending on how much time the probing takes, I might spend some time left, to start cracking the copy-protection of my cool new Spoof utility - Maybe Multitasking to get some work done over the day, even if there´s little time left.

Spoof-Roll


EDIT: Even if nobody asks him, to come alon, John was planing to check out the place anyway and would ask the team if they are going, too.

I'll have IC post up tomorrow.
Conall will, against his own wishes, give Krayt a quick heads up that he'll be heading to Ground Zero, and that if he could, he should go to the church to pick up Miss J... since he can only carry another person on his bike.

Once you all get on your way, do you have a particular meeting point in Redmond?

The programs I´ll be running while probing the node Ground Zero (won´t be probing Zaphyr´s com, yet) are as follows.
I´ll have to think about what´s my standard setting, though. If I understood the FAQ correctly, the response-reduction from program-overload is only relevant for Matrix-Initiative and any rolls using Response directly, it dos not reduce the System-Rating. Is that your understanding as well?

Analyze 6
Browse 5
Command 5
Edit 6
Encrypt 5
Exploit 3
Decrypt 3
Sniffer 3 (or Scan 5, see below)
Spoove 3
Stealth 3
Agent 6

That´ll reduce my Response to 5 (I don´t know how Hackers get along without SOTA Comlinks). That´s basically all of my utilities, except Scan.
The Probing will take 8 hours, buying 2 hits per hour with Agent6+Exploit3.
I´ll Spoof my Com-ID on an irregular basis every 5 to 15 minutes (I only wanted impersonate Zaphyr, when (if) I finally enter the node, unless my Agent or PC experiance (read you) advised that another rout would be more practicle). Note however, that my com is modifyed to provide a bogus-ID any time I log on, anyway. The TH for Spoofing the datatrail is 2, so buying hits with Agent6+Spoof3 should suffice.

Do I spot any securety hackers, IC or other suspicious stuff while I´m hangng around? Agent 6+Analyze6 would buy 3 hits.

I want to use Multitasking to start Cracking. So far, we handled it to give an aditional 50% of worktime, so that´d be 4 hours worth of crunching. Buying 2 hits per hour with Logic+Software+(Copyprotection/2). I´ll start working on Sniffer 3 (TH should be 17). If it´s a problem to have the utility running while I try to copy it, I´ll have Scan 5 running instead of Sniffer 3, so I can work on that one.

I´d say, I started around 1000, so I´d be finished around 1800 and will have enough time to dress up and pick up Carla.
I planed to ride a cab till Touriville and have us meet my escort there (as well as Conall & Etain as it seems), which should guide us to Ground Zero.

Wow... I get to be left behind

I'll try to write a post later... been up for a zillion hours and put a zillion miles on my car the past couple of days and I can barely read threads coherently let alone write up a decent post.

Vegas

Friend, I will admit I have had to reread your last couple of OOC posts a couple of times - and I still only 90% sure I caught your meaning.

Get some rest!

As for being "left behind," I am pretty sure MJ expected (I know I did) for Conall's plea for you not to come to fall on totally deaf ears.
My assumption was that you would be going with him on the bike to Touristville, hook up with the other two, and then on to GZ.

If I am wrong, please let me know, cuz I am trying to expedite all this boring travel stuff.

I´m cool to procede to the meeting, so when you others arrive in TV, you can have me be there, too.

Okay - MJ or Vegas, whoever has time first, please post IC to Touristville, including exactly where you are meeting the others - bar, park, cafe, diner, parking lot, wherever.

MJ - Next time you IC, please include just one line about stopping by Esmeralda's/Carla's apartment and looking for signs of magic use but finding none.

Once the twins are in Touristville, then either

A) If MK beats me online, then please post you and Carla arriving (MK note that you are supposed to meet Carla at 20:30, not 19:30).

OR

B) If I am online first, I will post your arrival by cab.

Then I will post the escort arriving and you all can go from there.

Fashion, Force 5
Magic (5) + Spellcasting (5) = 10 dice
[5] 4 4 2 2 [5] 1 [5] [5] [5] Hits:5

Drain, 5/2 = 2
Charisma (5) + Willpower (4) = 9 dice
1 3 [6] [5] 3 [6] [6] 1 [6] Hits:5
No Drain

Crap, I'll edit in something about arriving in Touristville into my last post.

I'm guesstimating time/distance (still not 100% clear on where the church/apartment is exactly, or I just can't remember). I'll edit as necessary when it's clarified

Vegas

So I take it from your IC post that you have not yet had your hit of Bliss for today?
Just want to clarify.

I am going to throw up the IC of all four of you meeting now, and then all this fast-forward logistics stuff will be over and the four of you can RP things forward at whatever pace you prefer.

Adamu

Figured she would do some earlier in the day when Tuesday showed up (didn't have the brain capacity to write it all up) with the intention of trying to keep her "promise" for that evening of staying clean (dream on, right)

No problem. That will mean it's worn off by now, and you are done with your addiction-required once-a-day. That leaves further indulgence up to you as a role-playing choice, UNLESS you are offered a strong temptation or undergo a major stressor.

Right right. so noted.

Okay - we are there. If you guys want to all adjust your timestamps forward just a tiny bit for me.
As noted earlier, the Carla pick-up was at 8:30. From there it is at least an hour out to Redmond considering end-of-the-day traffic out of the city center, which means that the twins should probably get there a bit after nine, with the others arriving as I have shown in my IC post.

MK - assume you have prepaid for the escort. For free you get her for four hours. If you need her past that it'll be out of pocket.

Very cool.

About the pick-up time. I was looking at Conall´s message, which says 'half aight' which probably should have meant half past aight or it is some kind of phrase that me euro-trash just didn´t comprehend.

In any case, if it´s ok (haven´d cought up on IC yet), I´d actually have John be there at 1930 and wait at Meg´s when Carla says she needs another hour. I´d like to use that hour to do a bit more cracking on my Sniffer.

If that´s ok, I´ll put a little flashback about it into my next IC (which hopefully won´t be before tomorrow, because otherwise that´d mean I won´t see my chummer who´s going overseas in two weeks).

No worries - yeah, half eight means 7:30 (a very confusing expression that I had a hell of a time figuring out as a child - never could figure out if it meant before or after the hour), whereas Carla did say 8:30. Confusion understandable.

Vegas and everyone

I think I figured out why Ground Zero's location on the map seems so off to me but in its proper place to you....I think it is just that you switched (3) the Bazaar and (4) Ground Zero. If you reverse them the addresses are right on.

So everyone, please note the Ground Zero is actually location 3 on the map.

Heh, 1 mistake out of what, 77 map pieces isn't too bad

(fixed it btw, nice catch)

9 hits (without any mods aplyed) to check out the girl. 3 hits to keep an eye on the surrounding while we go.

Internet connection crapped out.... trying to get a new one tomorrow.
I'm not sure how long it will take me to fix this whole situation, so until I say "Hey! I'm back" consider me out of working order

Okay, it is really only about a six or seven minute walk to the club from where you are. Didn't post all the way there cuz never know what'll happen, and also because I wanted to give people a chance to do RP or actions they wanted without railroading you straight to the location.

I'll give it about 20 hours and then post again if no one else needs to.

Just a quick reminder, it's the 4th down here, and I'm off to work now and probably won't be back on till tomorrow. So no need to wait on me, and with MJ's crappy connection I don't know you'll hear anything from him in the next 20 either, but he may surprise us all

Well, at least he doesn't have the 4th to worry about.