not really...i have an ettiquette of one....hehe...they no want to talk at hooter



I can roleplay it out though...call them all at 3 am! haha!

Wormwood is going to stake out the building once he finishes talking to his contacts and sharing their info with the rest of the group. He will wait their until he hears back from the rest of the group.

If possible, can Boo set up some way for Wormwood to view whatever the drone saw overnight? Particularly, he'd be looking for any cleaning crews coming/going and the what the security guards are doing, how many of them come in for the nightshift and at what time.

That depends, does the drone have some method to record it's sensor/visual readings?

I would imagine that boo could see more plugged into the computer than I can on the screen of a pocket secretary.

Also, what kind of digital zoom can he do on the image? This is definitely something we will want to look into.

While waiting to meet with everybody else and show them the tape, Wormwood will look at the rest of it. Does he see that group leave or any other groups coming in?

hmm, digital zoom, theres a rule for that...somewhere, i'll do some digging...

as for the group, nope, they all stay inside.

Hey Aku, I had a side question:

Are you allowing karma-for-cash rules? We're getting 10k for this run, and well, that covers Mason's rent, but he will need some spending money...

is that in the BBB? if so i'll take a look at it if not well, i donno heh.. plus i was hoping this job won't take a month, and you'll find a second one to make up some other costs...

oops, sorry. Not in the BBB.

Oh BTW, where are we right now? The team met up again but where?

I think going in and taking a look is a good idea, if boo wants to print up some fake directions or whatnot that's just great.

Actually, we never said where we were meeting. If nobody else had any suggestions for a place to meet, Wormwood would have just named some random, out of the way bar that doesn't see much traffic during the day, which was when we were meeting.

Boo: Rolls his Etiquette skill to find an appropriate meet site -


We'll meet, umm, there. It's a hole-in-the-wall place, but it has seating for trolls.

Wormwood thinks about empty day bars in pittsburgh.... Bar...empty... Pittsburgh... oh wait, with all these retired and laid of blue collared workers, you realize that doesnt happen...

Good thing that wasn't an IC thought wormwood..

Boo, you remember seeing "Bar 222" on the northside, across from the PNC park, parking lot. It's empty (enough) and definately a hole in a wall.

Not that it really matterrs, but....

No matter what the unemployment rate or retired rate of a community is, there are always at least a few bars that has very little business, especially during the day.

First thing that comes into my mind was the bar in the movie "Big Trouble" from 2002. It was set in Miami, so definitely an area with lots of retirees. The bar was in a bad section of town, where I would imagine there is high unemployment.

Its daily activity consisted of about 3-4 people, total. Sure, it was a front for a couple of russian armsdealers. And it was just a movie. But the concept is still valid.

What business they did have were bums from the street and the occasional person there to buy guns. People that don't make it a point to nose into other people's business.

In other words, such a place would be ideal for our purposes.

Also, I didn't say the place had to be empty, just that I would suggest a place that didn't see much traffic during the day.

At the bar, Boo gives his teammates copies of the information he found on the Matrix Searches, with a bit of discussion.

Just thought of something. Does Mason know the levitate spell? If he could just levitate us up to the roof from a nearby building we could save ourselves the money of hiring a rigger.

Heh, I thought I'd taken it, but then I remembered I wanted to create a mage without the same old spells. I had already thought about that (because I usually take it). I looked at my sheet and went "doh!"

Oh well.

So what are we going to be doing now?

Boo, are you planning any in depth Matrix searches?

I would suggest we go ahead and have somebody go in with fake directions/cover story so we get a bit more information on the internal layout. It can be Mason or Wormwood. The rest of the group should be ready to back him up, just in case.

I would take it from the lack of response to the question about rigger contacts that nobody has one? If so, Wormwood will volunteer to talk to his fixer about hiring a rigger.

Hey Aku, can Boo see any more details of the group that came during the night when he is jacked into his system? Or did you ever find the rules on digital zoom? I remember reading them somewhere, but I can't for the life of me find just where it was.

No, i didnt find the rules for it, and i still can't remember where it was, i even remember parts of the example, something about being able to see more if you're rigging it live as opposed to looking at a recording of it.

Yeah the example was of some reporter who hired a rigger to do some spying for him. If the person had been there to tell the rigger to optically zoom in on something, he would have been able to see an account number or a sum of money or something like that on the guys pocket secretary.
Digital zoom couldn't do that because it was so small.

It is really amazing that I remember that story that well seeing as how it was probably over 2 years ago that I read it and it is not something that has ever come up before in my regular games.

Ok. Finally found where it talks about digital zoom. It's on pg135 of the BBB, where it talks about sensors.

It says that recorded footage may be enlarged up to Sensor Rating x 20 magnificationbefore the chip image loses image quality.

So what's the sensor rating on your blimp Boo? We should be able to get a close look at that group and maybe even find something you can do a Matrix search on.

Wormwood would have watched the copy of the recording Boo gave him on his home Telecom. Since a telecom functions as everything from tv/trideo to telephone to personal computer, I would imagine that he could have done at least a basic zooming in on the footage. And with the Perception roll, I think he probably notice anything if there was anything to be seen.

Perception Test

Wormwood will give the best of the facial shots to Boo to do Matrix searches on them.

So how long does it take Boo to make up the fake letter/documents.

Well I guess once Boo prints that out Mason will be going in to the building to have a looksee, with the rest of us waiting as backup just in case. Is that correct?

Or did Boo want to drop us off there while he goes and does more Matrix searches?

ok, any finishings on what you're doing?

ok, so everyone pony up on what you're doing, covering for mason on the outside of the building, or whatever else might be happening, i'm taking it boo is making a few calls right?

is it still the first night?

im hanging with everyone else i guess

no, this is the second day now.

Since it's been a while since we did anything significant I thought I would post a synopsis of what has happened thus far.

Sept. 1 2061
11am Each of us call a call from different contacts about a job, with the meet at Primanti's at 5pm
Around 5pm Each of us arrives before 5pm by varying amounts. We meet the Johnson and accept a job to steal the plans for the new prototype and any parts already produce, destroying those that are too large to destroy.
After 6pmThe meet being over we go to the Hunts building to look it over. Mason checks over the place Astrally, but the Hunts floors seem protected. Boo sends out the blimp. It doesn't see much, but we leave it there to watch any comings and goings, while we split up for the night.
Sept. 2
We each do our own legwork, with varying success.
Wormwood also gets a copy of the blimps tape from overnight and watches it to see what happened. At 1:15am Security came out carrying LMGs. A group of unknowns arrived shortly afterwards and had not left by the end of the tape.
Seeing this Wormwood calls everyone so we could meet and discuss this. We meet at Bar 222. We can't really figure out what this means. But Wormwood gives a few 3/4 face shots he was about to copy from the tape to Boo to see if he could find anything out.
Boo types up some dummy letter as a cover for Mason to walk in and investigate on his own.
Boo drops "us" off at the building.

I am not sure just how many "us" is. I do know Mason is planning to be the one to go in. Wormwood will definitely want to be there as backup. I believe Hooter is also tagging along for backup. Boo is planning to go take care of his Matrix searches while we investigate the building.

Just thought of something else, if Boo could give me a copy of the blimps video from when the last one ended to the present time. Wormwood will be looking over it using his Pocket Secretary while Mason is inside.

Perception Test (if needed)

Alright, lets get this show on the road. Mason is going to go in and take a look around. He is looking for visible security measures and specifically a directory that can tell him what other companies are active in this building. After taking a look around the lobby and hopefully getting a good look at a directory, he is going to try and get in the elevator and "accidentally" check out the 21st floor.

He'll be using a physical mask spell to cover up his identity, and unfortunately be having to sustain it.

Force 5 Physical Mask using 6 Sorcery, no spell pool. 4 successes.


Resisting drain using Willpower and remaining 5 spell pool. 8 successes, no drain yet.


Perception Test. Crap!

Mason, are you armed at all?

Nope, and not armored either!

hooter says, "uh-oh"

Ok, Mason is going to puruse the boutiques on the 1st, 2nd and third floors and then if he doesn't find anything of use, will try to enter the corporate facilities. He won't bother checking with the receptionist, but will just go ahead and snoop around, trying his best to not look like he is snooping around =)

Perception

not going to check the directory next to the receoptionist?

Ummm, I didn't realize there was one...I'll do that.

erm, ignore that comment, you havent been in that room yet, so you don't know theres a directory, sorry, so much crap on my mind at the moment trying to start a business...

Boo, are you doing more searches, or contacting..contacts or what? and whatever it is can i get relavent rolls?

whats the plan again?

Mason is inside, wandering around like a lost courier

and the rest of us are outside hanging out?

yes, and i thought boo was either going to do some more matrix searches, or contact some people in regards to the photos.

And the plan was for mason to get upstairs, with a peice of paper with the name of someone you dont even knif if he exists to come visit the office...

(i woulda thunk it woulda made more sense to try and get a REAL name, but hey, you're the runners)

he does have a name

Mr. Holister

i know he has a name, but you don't know if "Mr. Holister" really works there...

The note is only in case he is stopped and questioned. It was not meant to get him past any real security effort. I even said make it for an address of some other building on the same street that just had a similar number. Meaning that if security questioned him, Mason could pull it out and then 'discover' that he had the wrong address. An easy mistake that shouldn't draw too much attention to him.

The plan is for Mason to bluff his way as far into the building as possible. Just to get a look at the basic physical security.

Here's my reasoning why it should be easy to get past initial security:

To have multiple companies to go through high security at the front end and lesser security beyond would be foolhardy. Since main security is not part of the company there would be a heck of a lot of information that would have to be given to outsiders about the comings and goings of a company's employees (aka more likelyhood of a security leak). Also, there is the whole problem of another company in the building having personnel that can get past the entrance security and then more easily get into your company's section.

To have high secuirty at the main entrance plus high secuirty in individual sections would be too costly for most companies. Also, a company would still have to share a lot of information about their personnel to the security company that is not controlled by them.

The more typical way to do it is to have basic security that looks for people doing overt acts, that is all. Unless they are specifically called in to handle something else. So as long as you look like you belong and don't do anything stupid you can just walk past the front desk, which normally only is there to intimidate minor threats and direct people if the need it.

Then if a company within the building needs additional security, they have in-house security that they can trust at the begining of their section; or at the very least a smaller group of security that is held to different standards and have more thorough background checks to ensure no leaks of propietary information. That would be the whole point of the reception area on the first of the laboratory's levels.

Now, whether or not this buidling is operated that way remains to be seen.

The only places I have ever encountered in real life that require you to check in at the a front desk are ones owned by a single company with only their people in the building. That and some federal buildings.

Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to make sure my ideas were clear since there seemed to be some confusion about why I had suggested this ploy.

Noted.

And that's sort of the route i'm taking, as you saw, the front security didnt really do much, as they're more of a "emergancy control" they're most likely the ones to be running BACK towards trouble within the shopping area, as opposed to dealing with a threat immediately infront of them, which really wouldnt happen.

so whats your current action mason? are you going to look at the panel (that you do now know is there?) or are you going to go straight for the elevator?

Well, his last statement was