Wow, great post MK.

I guess, writing into my Signature,

'I´m so gay, cuz I love Hitting Bottom!'

might give me some cuer looks, but I really enjoy this game, thanks to all participants

Just quickly - getting sicker and sicker - maybe mono - will post when I have energy, but it may be a while. Sorry.

Ouch! Please get better first and worry about the game second (or third or last even). Hope you get feeling better ASAP

For the sake of being official.

Casting Fashion (F5, Shirt):
Magic (5) + Spellcasting (5) = 10 dice
2 2 [5] [5] 4 [6] [6] 2 [5] [6] Hits:6

Casting Fashion (F5, Pants):
Magic (5) + Spellcasting (5) = 10 dice
2 4 1 [6] [5] 1 4 1 1 [5] Hits:3

Drain Resist (Shirt):
Willpower (4) + Charisma (5) = 9 dice
[5] 4 4 2 2 [5] 1 [5] [5] Hits:4
No Drain

Drain Resist (Pants):
Willpower (4) + Charisma (5) = 9 dice
[5] 1 3 [6] [5] 3 [6] [6] 1 Hits:5
No Drain

Sorry to hear about your illness, Adamu.

Sorry to hear you are under the weather adamu.

I have been crazy busy over this weekend and unable to check in. I am sorry if I've held anything up.

From Vegas' post when she made clothes for Jack

"She started to ask a question but stopped herself short, realizing there wasn’t any point in asking the Troll..."

Not to put to fine a point on it, since I'm sure all trogs look alike to elves, but Jack is an ork not a troll.

In deed, Adamu, concentrate on your Healing Rolls, least you Glitch and the GM retaliates horribly!

Jack: There is a difference between orks and trolls?

Sorry that was my personal brain fart taking place. I thought somewhere it had been written he was a Troll, but I couldn't find a quick reference anywhere. Changing that now.. she'd know the difference..

Your damn right there is. Orks don't have to pay extra for oversized equipment. And they're prettier, well, except for Jack.

@Vegas. Honest mistake. I just have to defend my poor little tusker. In some ways it would be cool if he was a Troll.

We could all chip in for faux-horns

Only if Jack gets the Troll poser negative quality and the 15 BP that go with it.

Wow. It's sure been fun talking about how Jack is not a troll, but as I recall our alter egos are engaged in a shadowrun.

Now you thinking types just point good ole Jack in the right direction and he'll do his share to get the job done.

I'm under the impression that our mysterious benefactor would like us to get a move on, so let's oblige him.

The way I see it we should be either getting more goods on Kenichi or scoping out the Big Black cube building where they make dental drills (like wouldn't they have laser dentistry in 2070?).

I know adamu is sickly right now, but there is nothing to stop us from doing some planning IC.

I agree that the next step is to go after Kenichi, but we don't know what to plan until we have some idea of where he is.

We could take an IC stroll down to the Matsuko Precision Equipment Glass Cube o' Death, but we won't learn anything new without adamu.

Not that I mean to press you at all, adamu. I'm just explaining why I haven't been posting much lately.

@BR I am feeling like a bit of a POS right now, pushing everyone else to be more active on the IC and then not checking in over my own weekend.

We have a new puppy and he is taking up a lot of my time.

Still you are right we can talk all we want, but nothing tangible will be learned until our illustrious gamemaster gets over his current malady and begins to post again.

Adamu hope you feel better soon. We will wait steadfast, till you have time to post on

(Hopeful bump.)

Will Carla come back in eventually? Because I still have questions for her

I know I owe you guys a post, life is beyond crazy around here right now and I have time for OOC stuff but not a lot of IC at the moment.

If you want to move Carla back inside, post something to the effect that Etain stays quiet and doesn't really answer or look much at Carla or her brother for the time being.

Again, I'm sorry guys.

Okay, I added a bit to my last IC post and brought Carla inside to talk to Krait.

Be aware, I am checking every day I can. And I'm ready to move as soon as our illustrious gm recovers from his hideous medical plight.

I'm trying to keep up.. I kind of only have some limited time per day to get administrative stuff done, maybe a short post too. I'll try to put up a post when I can.. lots of family crap happening right now so life is a little messy.

May I suggest to keep things moving forward (as much as we can with Adamu still out sick ) that we break the IC planning and move to OOC planning... too many games bog down, especially forum games, when we try to stick to planning in IC. We can always post an IC strategy session, but it might behoove us all to plan this out OOC for a bit.

Just a thought Hope to be back with you guys full-strength as soon as possible.

Hope Adam is hanging in there! Feel better dude, the mom in me is worried we haven't heard from you in a LONG time.

Indeed, not a single word. I hope it's not too serious.

As for OOC planning, it seems that our basic plan so far is to:

(1) Locate Kenichi (which Krait it working on)
(2) Contact/capture him and get whatever information we can about Esmeralda and Matsuko Precision Equipment (assuming they're involved.)

And if it turns out that Esmeralda's being held in the big glass cube, then we'll have to plan a break-in for that as well.

Unfortunately, it'll be hard to fill in the details of capturing Kenichi with zero information as to where he is.

So, do we want to ambush Kenichi or lure him into a trap?

Adamu, dude, hope you feel better and are just freaking bussy!

Given the known talents of the team, I'm all for luring him into some kind of trap than a full on ambush, given what's connected to him; firepower and what's been evidenced with Esmerelda alone... With only 2 solid fighters and then the backup the rest of us could provide... I think we'd be asking for trouble in an ambush if things didn't go according to plan. But something inbetween might work, if we could divert and seclude Kenichi away from the majority of any backup/muscle he might have we might stand a better shot at living through it

But that's just my $0.02.

I'll have to agree with Vegas.; our little (damn, I had written "wee" instead of little...) team does seem to lack the ability to pull off a decent ambush. We can augment our firepower with spirits, if given the chance to summon/bind some, but even then, if Kenichi has a remotely decent security outfit with him, I'd rather bet in their favor

So, yes, I think that a "con" might actually work better than a flat out brute ambush. We have two very good "face" on the team, and I'm pretty sure that between the both of them, they could pretty much lure him anywhere. Next comes the issue of actually "subduing" the man. I can tell you all right off the bat that Conall isn't well suited for subduing work

Greetings everyone.
I am most sorry for my long absence.
To be brief, I somehow contracted a rare sub-strain of mono. And mono not good for the middle-aged, no not good at all.
Was virtually incapacitated for about three weeks. Emerged from that hell for about ten days of extraordinary weakness (something about my immune system needing that long to stand down from red alert, and also a natural effect of three weeks of no eating or really sleeping). That done, I now feel totally fine, but I face a full month of neglected chores at work, home and church.

I am going to really try to make time tomorrow to catch things up GM-wise. If I don't make it tomorrow, look for Thursday.

And by the way, appreciate the well-wishes and also that you guys kept the thread going without me. Major kudos for that.

Wow, it's been three weeks? It certainly felt like a while, but that was much longer than I thought. Anyway, take all the time you need, adamu.

Regarding Kenichi, I agree that luring him in beats ambushing. It would be good to learn what kind of business he does, aside from kidnappings of course.

Hey, all good mate! I know how being dying sick feels like I've been dragging myself a nasty bit of cold for about 40 days now, and I've started to wonder if I should aim at the world record for longest cold ever All in all, you take the time you need to get back on your two feet.

Funny story; every time theres a really long pause in Hitting Bottom, I seem to get a new girl friend! I still can't figure if thats a good, or a bad thing....

If Kenichi has decent protection, and I'm sure he does, a straight up ambush is sure to fail. We need to find a way to lure him into a setting that works to our advantage.

Jack has the skills but not the proficiency to quickly subdue an opponent, unless the opponent is a flat out weenie.

My question is, are there any spirit powers available to Conall's spirits that could be useful in subduing Kenichi?

Also, what about drugs? Getting one of the fighters close enough to Kenichi to just hit him might be all we need.

Altought Conjuring is more Etain's area of expertise, Conall could probably whip out a decent Beast Spirit. Top of my head, what could be useful in subduing Kenichi would be powers like Confusion or Fear. With a Force 6 spirit, he could even simply manifest and overpower Kenichi. Now, if Kenichi is awakened, or has magical support, this could be a whole other ball game. Quite frankly, Conall's entire fighting style is built around dealing massive amount of physical damage (read: I believe he can do more damage than a anti-personel rocket...), very fast, before his opponents even have a chance to strike.

Gamma Scopolamin...

Unless Naguel misslabled his drugs, we have 2 or 3 doses - now I have to revisit the rules at home, to check if the compound´s paralysis effect is reliable enough to trust (hoping that Kenichi does not have excessive filter-ware).

Otherwise we can use shock-weapons, gel-rounds and pepperpunch-capsules to knock him out.

If we are going to box him in, we better look for some anti-wifi tin-foile as well, though.

EDIT: Oh yea, good to hear you are recuperating, Adamu! Take all the time you need - see we have all been lazy and just start the planing now

Conall does have some shock gloves. Also, he is now equipped with a chameleon suit, which could prove in quite handy.... that and he also has spells to conceal himself, plus services spirits could grant him... makes for one sneaky SOB.

We used Gamma Scopalomine to great effect in our old Folding Circle table top campaign, which adamu used to GM. Provided we found a suitable entry vector and Kenichi isn't riddled with filterware this might prove the best choice.

We used to "administer" it by firing paintballs containing the drug mixed with DMSO. We could also use a dart gun or just inject him in melee combat. A properly loaded Ares Supersquirt might be a good option as well.

Depending on Kenichi's resistance we would also get the benefits of the truth serum aspect of the drug.

It sounds like Conall has a big edge on Jack in the stealth department. Also a big edge in the quick kill department. That's what I get for creating a combat generalist, instead of a specialized killing machine.

I'm knee deep in a poetry project right now and I've got two artists waiting on me for assignments. Otherwise I'd crack open the rulebook and start studying spirit powers to see what I think might be most helpful. I kind of figure the shamans should already know that stuff, so I'll leave it to the twins.

I really need to go back and read up what (if anything) we actually know on Kenichi. *sheepish grin* I've barely been able to keep up with DSF as of late.. which means skimming posts at best for a while now But hey, the truth is out of the closet and has been set free.

I think we have a great chance of some subterfuge and the like with the small team we have, it'll just depend on how much dirt we can dig up on Kenichi.

Etain can make herself look like just about anyone (as evidenced in the past) and can make anyone "look the part" if clothes aren't handy. I have something brewing in my head perhaps, but like I said I need to catch up on what we know IC'ly and go from there. Or if we don't have the info I think I need to craft this plan, Etain can always ask for it IC

If we go with drugging him, Carla might be able to concoct something between the Gamma Scopolamin and any medications that might be lying around the clinic.

Got R 10 Tranque Patches as well, so downing him in close combat shouldn´t be the problem.

The problem with Gamma is, that Paralysis does only block physical actions. Our guest could still use an implanted comlink, i.e.

MK always naysaying

Guess we (meaning Krait no doubt) will have to find out what implants Kenichi san is sporting. Maybe Carla could turn up some info from the medical world?

Maybe I should look over my own equipment list and see what else Jack has to offer.

Ok, so I went back a few pages and I'm still in the dark about Kenichi. Is that because I didn't go far enough back (give me post #'s if you have them, pages won't help) or because we're still in the dark IC'ly and wating on Adamu/IC interaction and fact finding?

Thanks!

I´m sorry to say, that the later is true. We don´t know that much about him. I´m not compleatly sure if Vanity provided a picture (but she did, IIRC), but she was also said that he was probably disguised.

So all we know is this:

My goodness. How many Kenichi's can there be in a Metroplex crawling with Japanese salarymen?

Time to start making inquiries.

If nobody minds, Jack could call his fixer and see what he can turn up.

Everyone - most abject apologies.

Just to be clear for those that at this point may be wondering - I am not flaking out on purpose and have no immediate plans to bag this game.

Just a I start to get healthy, my Internet connection died for a few days last week, and when that finally came back, my computer itself went all soft and stupid.

I will be back as soon as possible.

Sorry about the enforced hiatus.

Fraggin' technology!

The world would be better off without it.

What were the lyrics to that one song on Hee Haw: "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all...."

Don't worry adamu, things will start looking up soon.

Haha, yeah, damn internet always gets in the way of our PbP game

[Imagin this kind of game running via conventional, oldfassioned mail - we´d probably not be out of our characters old lifes by now ]

Well, any ideas how to lure Kenichi into a trap? Should we pose as V & EJ or as Naguel?

Problem with the 1st is, that any contact of his to the real runner team will botch our plan and we can´t possibly cover all lines of communication they may have.

Problem with the 2nd is, same as above, plus we don´t even know if the two ever had any direct dealings between each other.

That and who could afford the postage?

Jack can pose as Vanity and Carla would make an awesome Evil Jones.

Theoretically this guy's a Johnson. Maybe we could find out if he is hiring runners, disguise ourselves a bit, and show up for the meet. He'd be guarded up the wazoo for something like that, forget I mentioned it. (I'm just typing out loud here)

He must want something.... If we can pass ourselves off as the team that has that something, perhaps we can arrange a meet on our terms.

We flat out have to know more about this guy before we can bag him. Where does he live, work, like to eat? How does he get around town? How does he contact his operatives? Where do his children, if any, go to school? Does he have some weakness we can exploit? The guy's only human, probably, there must be some way to get to him.

Yap, never skip your payment to the postal service - they have SWAT-Teams! You don´t want to mess with a Postal SWAT-Team

As for Kenichi: As stated I don´t want to access his com right away, because with my mediocre Stealth Utility it´s allways a gamble, not to trip an alert on such a high rating com. But since I can track his location (within 50m), we can shadow him a bit. Once we have his real looks (plus places he hangs around), a datasearch might yield some info. This will of course take some time - at least a day.

Now we're talking.

How is Krait with surveillance drones? What about stealth skills? Be nice to get some footage

Better yet, how are the twins with levitation, invisibility and stealth? Both on themselves and on others.

What about Carla's skills in any of these areas?

As you might guess, Jack is about as stealthy as a stampeding herd of Bison. Not much need for stealth when your goal is to step in front of harms way for somebody else and look intimidating in the meantime.

In a perfect world we would want to shadow Kenichi for a week to really get a feel for his routine, but we probably don't have that kind of time. Also, in real time that would probably take us well into 2011

Until tomorrow.

This twin can create damned believeable physical illusions, make herself invisible (now improved!) and then she's kinda good with the whole fashion/makeover bit as well. Add in a dash of healing + other useful spells and you've got yourself a pretty, drugged-up Elven shaman.

Levitation sadly, is out of her realm of possiblities

If we can get close enough to visually tail him, and even make out just which of the posse is actually Kenichi, depending on the "gentleman's" habits and security I'm sure we could devise a much more sinister (and effective!) plot to get closer to him... of course this will rely on Adamu's triumphant return to the digital world.

Resonably good with oldfashioned Shadowing (DP 9 & Blandness + high perception, unobstrusive recording).

To my knowledge, we don´t have any survilance drones, but on the open metroplex street, it´s not too hard to get some make-shift surveilance with a bit of hacking.