...Sorry, I somehow missed the several posts just prior to the last one I made...

I will try to be extremely careful even when I observe from afar.

(For the record, you can usually see through objects while astrally perceiving, but you also take a penalty on Astral Perception equal to the rating of any barrier. Not to mention that unless they are specifically hidden, barriers/wards are visible on the Astral as well.)

I will back the play of anyone, but we might spook them if we go up all together. But at the same time, if something goes bad, having only one or just a few people up there could be equally dangerous.

I feel like going up and asking about Fiona might push him to do something drastic, so we may want to be ready to "storm the castle" so to speak...

So far the only suggestion is Mr. White knocking on the door with one or more people backing him up and the rest of the team preparing for an assault when if something goes wrong.

If you guys want to run with that, who's going to be with Mr. White at the door?
Also, which door are you going to? The 'front' of the building only has a large wooden sliding door like you'd see on a loading dock. The back has a small heavy metal security door that opens into an alley rather than a road.
And where exactly are the rest of you planning to be?

If somebody has another idea, please do speak up.

Let's think about it for a moment.

We know he's looked up the Morel Stone. We know Fiona came to see him. We know he's been holed up in his warehouse for a day or two. We know he's got spirit guards/watchers of some sort.

What's our goal here? Clearly, get the Morel stone (if he's got it - or find out where it is), and find out where Fiona is (as well as possibly rescue her, if she's in the warehouse)


Knocking on the door and having Mr. White chat with him would hopefully get us some additional information- is Jack in there? how many folks are in there? Is Fiona in there? etc.

However, since he's seemingly in lock-down mode, it could also get us an almost immediate fight.

I would //love// to get more info about what is inside the warehouse. Anyone got any further electronic/sneaky/magic means of checking it out? The best Mr. White can do is knock on the door.


Failing that, we only have two options: knock on the door, or go in hot.

Gardner can safely assume that his Spirit did in fact confirm that Fiona is within the confines of the magical ward.

I did mention that Quixote could probably detect a commlink in hidden mode if he were to give me a scan rolll. Even without rolling I will say that he won't detect any other wireless signals inside.

Astrally, the place has two watcher spirits who would be able to see Gardner if he tried to Astrally Project. That being said, if he wanted to ignore those watchers he could try pushing his way through the ward with an opposed test of Magic + Charisma vs 2xForce of the ward.
Or he could summon one or more spirits to try to do that for him.

I'm not too concerned about "surprise" - I don't think we'll catch people sleeping or on the commode. Still, I don't want to walk /right/ into a trap, and I'd rather we have a plan of attack based on what's inside.

It'd be nice to get his number and just call him up on the phone and say "Hey, we're looking for Fiona and the Stone. Can we work something out?" If he says to piss off, then at least we've exhausted that avenue.

If Quixote wants to try and hack the warehouse, I'm willing to wait for him to get results (yay or nay). But out of character, I think we've waited long enough. It's about time we move things forward and at least do something about getting into this place.

Gardner is willing to walk up with Mr. White if/when he goes up to knock on the door, but that might not be the best option. Being a Giant is noticeable and most people assume a big guy like a troll is more of a threat...

Another option is to try and have someone sneak up try to open the way for us. Sneak up, unlock the door, we rush in... I can watch the spirits as they patrol and give them a bonus to avoid their notice. While there isn't a non-magical way to conceal yourself astrally (and I don't have the metamagic that does that anyway) it is still possible to sneak past them. Watcher spirits aren't exactly the brightest and most observant creatures, they have only 2 dice (at most) to do pretty much anything. Being Force 1 has its disadvantages, even if they are easy to summon and last a long time.

Any other ideas how to approach?

Someone hack some interior security cameras or something

To save time, ill tell you that there aren't any wireless cameras in the building tobe hacked. The only think that Quixotemight be able to find is Jack's commlink that is currently operating in hidden mod and not connected to any other device.

Input from TundraWolf and Quixote?

Apologies for the radio silence, it was my b-day last Friday...which turned into an entire weekend of merriment.

Hrrrm. Well, TW's decent at the sneaky-sneaky, but I'll wager Quixote's better. There's the possibility of getting more info by getting onto the roof of the single story warehouse next door and looking through the window.

Well, Happy Birthday to you!

As far as the game goes, Quixote is generally better at sneaking, but his mundane skills aren't exactly that useful against watcher spirits that he can't see, who can see through walls and ignore his chameleon suit since it only protects again sight and not astral perception.

I said sneaking up might be an option, not necessarily a good one...

I'm not sure the Watchers would be able to see through the barrier. They provide a penalty to Astral Perception equal to their Force, so for instance, I can't see through it. Even if they can see through it, they are still subject to being avoided. I can try to aid sneaking, as I said before, plus there is the bonus of them being dumb as rocks.

Still, we may want to simply go up and try to pass off as non-threatening while being ready to retaliate if met with resistance.

Also, something I thought up. I could summon up a few of my own Watcher Spirits to go up and distract the Watchers around the warehouse. It would probably only alert them that intruders are incoming, but I might be able to make them think the intruders are coming from a different direction.

I could also have my Watchers attack the Watchers around the Warehouse, possibly performing the same task (The Watchers run away to Jack saying "we're under attack from the back of the Warehouse!" because that is where I have the Watchers attack from, while we start storming the warehouse from the front). But also possibly destroying the Watchers, blinding Jack magically...

It was said that there were 2 Watchers, I could summon up 3 and possibly out gun them, maybe pop one and confuse the heck out of the other?

I don't know, I'm sort of rambling. We just need to decide on a course of action and start on it, we've been dragging our feet for long enough.

PS. Happy Birthday btw

So, talk our way in, or shoot our way in, 'cause two little bits of astral fluff say we ain't sneakin' in. My vote is for talking first, shooting second.

For brevity's sake, Seconded.

Who wants to walk up with Mr. White? I'm not sure it would be best to have all of us go (seems threatening). Might want to have the rest close, but not within immediate sight of the door.

I'll go. This would probably be a good time for Gardner to establish some spell defense for the team, as either Jack has some Awakened support of his own or he's a spellslinger himself. Two of us up at the door, with Quixote providing covering fire with the Alpha and Gardner playing free safety.

edit: Apparently I can't type today.

Well, we can either wait until Quixote has a chance to post in which case I am fairly confident he can identify Jack's commlink and thus give Mr. White the chance to just call Jack up to have the talk.

Or I'm perfectly fine with rolling as is with TundraWolf actnig as bodyguard as Mr. White knocks on the door to try having a face to face talk. Then Gardner and Quixote would be backup read to spring into action.

For expedience sake, let's just go knock and see what happens. Maybe it'll give us an idea of what's inside the place. I'm slightly worried that we'll end up being answered by a shotgun blast through the door, but shadowrunning is risky, right?

Fair enough. Which door are you going to? Large wooden sliding bay door at the front or the heavy metal security door at the back?

person size door - I guess the security door in the back.

Hm, this security door is around back, and in an alley? Eh, on second though, we'll go bang on the great big front door.

Yeah, the security door in in the alley around back. Here's a very quick map of the area: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7gb9zdqo12h1jhl/warehouse.png

The dumpsters and a bunch of random junk can be found back there that I didn't have time to add in on the image.

Ok. So you bang on the front door to get somebody's attention. You very distinctly catch the sound of multiple guns being ready and a gutteral voice (sounding more orkish than human like you'd expect from Jack Turner) calls out "Go away. We ain't buying nothing today.

Totally META conversation:

The thing that always bugs me about missions like this in Shadowrun (and in any other game featuring similar missions) is the economics of it.

Getting things done /costs/ money. If we're hired to find someone, we'll inevitably have to pay for a few things along the way. Gas for the car. Toll for the road. Bribe money for the cops, hush money for the local mob, a few rounds of drinks at a bar to get some info. Suddenly the money that we're paid for the job starts becoming smaller and smaller. If we're not careful, suddenly it's /costing/ us money to do this job. Wait - let me interrupt you - I know that its on us to keep our costs down, but there /are/ costs. We could haggle over each little cost: "Well, I'll need you to pay for the bullets I use on this mission, and the gas to get there. Also, do we get a per diem for food?" but that of course borders on the silly.

Now, we're being paid for one of two reasons, probably. 1) The employer doesn't want to do it. They're too busy, or they don't want to be associated. Or 2) They want us to use a certain special set of skills to do it. I started to use a silly example of shadowrunners being hired to go get a 2013 Mustang Convertible. Clearly if the employer was willing to purchase the car, he or she would just go purchase the car. The person might want us just to be a proxy, if so - great, they'll give us the cash for the car and some additional money as payment to us. But if we're talking about criminality, they probably don't want to just pay for the car.

So it gets tricky in situations like the one we're in now. Theoretically, Jack might take a huge sum of money and just hand over the stone and Fiona. But then we're operating at a loss when we deliver them to our employer, who will likely be entirely unsympathetic when we present him with a bill. So it forces us to use more, ah, active means of procurement.

Just musing. And no, Slacker, I did not mention this to the Orks at the door.

<META>Dak,

The other side of that is that we Shadowrunners might also be cheaper to hire than a possible ransom. But first, note that Fiona had not been kidnapped, and a ransom asked for. Otherwise I'm sure such information would have been given to us. I think that says something about Jack's long-term plans for Ms. Craig.

But to answer your musing, yes. Generally hiring Shadowrunners means you expect things might get "active". Our Johnson is already hiring us to find Fiona, I don't expect him to want to pay more to the kidnapper. Plus, I don't think we have the money to pay Jack anyway. I forget now if we got up front pay, but even if we did, that plus any starting cash people have probably isn't enough, considering the protection he's got going right now...
</META>


On a tactical note, I am seriously considering summoning up a couple of Watchers to go in and beat down that Watcher that was left behind. But that could still possibly alert Jack. We didn't know for certain he isn't a mage right? I thought we heard mention that he doesn't have that kind of power, but he's got a fair amount of magical backup here. If it's hired talent (which may or may not be present), then it would at least be a slight delay before he notices it pop...

But still, it might be too risky to do something like that with three guns in White's face... have any of them lowered their guns during this conversation?

Do do do do do do do...

Sorry for the delay folks. Work has just been too busy for me to be able to write up an IC post.

To answer Gardner's questions. You can certainly summon your own spirits to attack the ones guarding the building (the one that had passed through the ward has since returned and so both spirits are watching for the approach of others). And no, the orks have not lowered their guns during the conversation. They are still pointed right at Mr. White and TundraWolf.

More on that in just a moment at I post up something IC.

Make a Perception check if you want to try noticing anything more about Jack. He looks tired, but his voice is strong and confident as he talks to you.

I will reiterate to Mr. White that he just says the word, and we rush in.

And I will go ahead and summon up three Watchers. I can easily buy enough hits on both the summoning and the drain tests to have 'em stick around for an hour (it only takes one hit per hour, and you can voluntarily reduce the time to reduce the drain).

Does Mr. White have a video feed on him? Will we be able to get a better look at what's around inside?

In this situation, I can't help but think we might have been better off just storming in... >.<

'Fraid not.

And yeah, perhaps. Best laid plans of mice and men, and all that.

You at least have your commlink on and a subvocal mic so you can call for help, right?

Do you have vision mods linked to the commlink? If so, those can be used to get video feed too...

Totally.



Hm, I didn't pick anything like that up in chargen, but I'll have a look at it.

Go ahead and roll for the watcher spirits you want to summon so that we know how many hours of service they each have in case somebody tries banishing them.

Is Mr. White's commlink keyed into the subvocal mic which will mean his friends can only hear his side of the conversation? Or is it keyed to the commlink's general mic which would allow them to hear everything, but also prevent Mr. White from subvocalizing to them?

I voluntarily reduce their duration to 2 hours to reduce possible drain. I got at least 2 hits on all of the drain tests.

And just so I'm sure we're all on the same page, Watcher spirits can really only perform one task at a time, right?

I'm trying to think of a way to distract the Watchers without them just going in and reporting... But at the same time, disrupting them would ping their creator too.

I'm not doing anything yet, I don't want something that happens outside to instantly alert Jack and get Mr. White killed...

Can't have both plugged in?

General.

Ok that's fine. And yeah watchers can only do one thing at a time. From their behavior, you can tell these are just watch dog watchers. All they do is watch and report. If something attacks them, they are just going to leave the combat to go report it.

Haven't you ever had two microphones close to each other and heard what that gets you? A big headache. Mr. White doesn't have any special software running so I'm ruling that he has to have one or the other turned on. There's a switch on his commlink to change which one is active, but seeing as how he is completely mundane with no cyberware, it's going to be a physical switch. And reaching into his jacket to flip a switch on his commlink might not be a good idea with a pair of twitchy orks behind him and a paranoid smuggler in front of him.

Give me an etiquette or negotiations test with a -5 modifier due various penalties of the situation.

I'm going to spend a point of edge here. (2nd time this session)


11D6E5 => [ 2; 2; 2; 6; 6; 3; 2; 4; 4; 3; 5; => 3 success(es) against 5 ] = 3

plus those two sixes reroll:

2D6E5 => [ 6; 1; => 1 success(es) against 5 ] = 1

Do sixes continue to explode?

If so:

1D6E5 => [ 5; => 1 success(es) against 5 ] = 1

That's 4 or 5 successes, depending.

Yes, 6s continue to explode. And moreover you handedly trounce his meager 1 success. So the truth of your words cuts through his insomnia and paranoia.

This may work out after all. We'll just call it 'friendly scouting'.

Slacker, for 5 successes does he hand over the stone and Fiona (or whatever is left of her)?

Hahaha. No. But he'll let you live. That's something.

If you want to count it as a negotiation for that, we can say he'll settle for only 40,000 nuyen to give you Fiona and the Stone instead of 50k.

You can assume that Fiona or what is left of her is in the other room upstairs, Jack's bedroom.

Slacker, mind if we do a quick roll call? I'm always getting forum names and character names confused :/



Forces in Motion/Legs (Rigger) - lost before going into the underground
ChromeZephyr/TundraWolf (Russian melee dude I think) - still with us
Kiirnodel/Gardner (Troll mage) - still with us
taeksosin/Quixote (hacker) - been a couple of days since he's posted
Dak/Mr. White (face) - *handraise*

That is an excellent idea. Everybody that is still in, please do post something so that we can plan out how you'll handle Jack's place. I've already reduced his defenses significantly because of the lack of Legs and any recent posts from Quixote.

I'll get something up as soon as I can.

I'm still here. Much relieved at Jack's show of mundane'ness. We might be able to get a bit more of a jump on him if I can knock out the two Watcher spirits. I could send in my three spirits to pounce one of them while I use a stunbolt to disrupt the other. It may not work though...

But beyond that, I'm definitely pushing to make our move quickly, before Jack does something to Fiona if he hasn't already...

I can give us magical support, but I need to be on the other side of that ward first...

Show of mundaneness? He recalled a fire elemental. Dude can swing the mojo stick.

Working on a an IC post right now. Thought I could do it Friday, work said otherwise.