Not actually familiar with this drone. I assume its a crappy version of the "Entertainment Systems Falcon". Does it have a lifelike appearance? or is it plastic or metal?

It's pretty life-like, from what I remember of the blurb on it in the Sprawl Survival Guide.

Alright, I'll edit the last bit of my IC. I don't suppose the guy left his commlink logged in?

Nope.

Pooh. Well, I'll see if Glyph has any other ideas. Otherwise, I'll post something in the morning when I've had a bit to think about it.

About all I could think of was grabbing them, since they both have memory, and either one of them could have some actual footage of the battle, or some other clue.

Tasha's not much of a thinker, and often acts rashly, but she does have both energy and a dogged stubbornness in her favor.

Whoops, hadn't seen that Zee had already picked up the cat.

Thanks for just running with it.

NP. I figured Zee would have an affinity for something built to emulate living things, even if its old and obsolete, and doesn't do it well - but since neither of us can really use it at the moment, I don't really care who rides out of here with it.

Assuming that in the future, flame-resistant walls are pretty common in 2070 - but that a low-end place like this might not have them. Also, the fire will obviously leave most of a body behind - so it won't erase the fact that someone died here, but it will make it a lot harder for anyone to figure out what took place (destroying gel rounds, spilt blood, Tasha's DNA evidence, etc), and by the time they can ID the corpse, we will hopefully have a head start to finding Peyton.

Just a pragmatic suggestion from your robotic sidekick. Feel free to turn it down.

So, unless I am missing something... there isn't a way to get into someone else's commlink without at least an exploit program (which I don't have).

Writing one is sort of out of the question due to how long it takes. Buying one is my suggestion. Might have to buy a decryption program too. Using Zee's contacts to try to get the hook-up.

According to unwired, hiring a hacker to hack a passcode costs as much, if not more, than just buying your own exploit program. Assuming Peyton's comm isn't top-of-the-line, Zee should be able to get in with a mediocre (rating 3 or so) program. If its really shit, we might just want to go with a rating 1 program.

Up to Krayola how much we can tell about the OS/Firewall without being logged in.

The commlink model is a Transys Avalon. Extrapolate from that what you will.

Tasha's arms dealers street knowledge skill:

5d6.hits(5) → [1,1,2,4,4] = (0)

At least (barely) not a glitch or critical glitch.
Looks like she'll have to see if her armorer contact has a heavy pistol lying around. Tasha will be looking for a common-model heavy pistol, relatively concealable, no smartlink, laser sight maybe, and some regular rounds of ammo for it. Something like a Colt Manhunter, Remington Roomsweeper, or Browning Ultra-Power.

Rounds? We never promised them bullets...

We could have gotten some gel rounds for free...

But Tasha tends to think of the lowlifes that she deals with as budding contacts, or at least people that she doesn't want pissed off at her. Mind you, she's not going to give them a belt of 100, just a clip or two.

We could give them each one bullet, if you know what I mean...

Actually, I like what you're doing with the budding contact thing. If they have even a shitty hacker, we're solid (if he sucks, Zee can always drive his program).

Keep in mind that we probably want the information in the commlink, too - and hacking the commlink will give us access to the drone.

But, it looks like hacking the drone will be easier than hacking the commlink.

So... its a tradeoff. On the plus side, we don't really care if the node goes on alert (unless it has IC).

Again, your call. I IC'd my suggestion, but it is more a matter of travel-logistics than anything else. I figure Tasha might be reluctant to give out her contact's address, or send someone she doesn't know that well ahead of her... so I won't be offended if she has a different plan.

I also thought it made sense to have the face go and be the one negotiating for favors with new contacts.

Etiquette test to soothe Nicky's nervousness.

Charisma/skill/kinesics +1 vocal range enhancer, +2 first impression, and +2 for biosculpting.

The roll:
20d6.hits(5) → [4,3,5,5,2,2,1,1,5,5,1,4,2,4,4,1,2,4,4,2] = (4)

Mad work today. Big Ass GM Post™ coming tomorrow!

With 4 hits, Tasha gets a new stalker!

Well, she needed someone to replace Josh.

Rolling Gang ID for Tasha (for the punks who abducted Peyton):

6d6.hits(5) → [6,4,5,6,2,1] = (3)

Very cool post! I'm glad we're making some progress.

You can't identify exactly which gang they belong to, but you can tell from the way they're dressed that they're probably one of the Redmond gangs.

Also, I'm impressed you guys figured out to take the cat. The commlink was supposed to be the easy clue, the cat slightly harder. So good job!

I wish I had remembered that the cat was old-school tech. Might have been "hackable" with an electronics kit - which would have been doable all on our own.

Okay, new Data Search. This time, (rather than looking up data on Quicksilver Electronics), Zee will look for information on "Thomas Osborn". Specifically, she is looking for some way to find him - if he has a home address, or listed office location, listed personal commcode, etc. If he's powerful, and secretive, this might be a dead-end, but I figure most legitimate people have data like this all over the Matrix.

#D=5 : 63562 n1=0 n6=2 nHit=3
#D=5 : 15542 n1=1 n6=0 nHit=2
#D=5 : 23561 n1=1 n6=1 nHit=2
#D=5 : 23123 n1=1 n6=0 nHit=0
#D=5 : 31454 n1=1 n6=0 nHit=1

He has an apartment on Broad St in the Downtown district, and the main office of Quicksilver is nearby on Harrison. Tasha got his commcode from the foreman earlier.

Oh yeah, forgot about that.

In case it ends up mattering (don't spend too much time figuring out minutia of NPCs gear).

Scan of Italians for weapons/cyber
#D=4 : 2335 n1=0 n6=0 nHit=1

Scan of Sabot for weapons/cyber
#D=4 : 3213 n1=1 n6=0 nHit=0
(Guessing I don't notice anything, anyway)

Scan of storefront, for a quick inventory of the number and types of weapons on stock
#D=4 : 1513 n1=2 n6=0 nHit=1 (One hit, but also a glitch)

Not sure what a glitch on a radar scan entails, or if its worth spending edge to avoid.
Would you like us to have to declare the use of edge to negate glitches before or after we find out what goes wrong?

Regarding glitches: before, because I hate editing IC posts. It's like pressing the rewind button on time.

The Italians each have a side arm on them, Sabot has a shotgun right on top of the work station next to him, and there are no other weapons on the ground level of his workshop. There are just tools and machinery. Most of the good stuff is probably locked away downstairs in the basement.

Okay, good to know, because throwing 4 dice around, I am bound to glitch a lot, on this sort of thing.

For now, lets say, I'll let the glitch go un-countered (mostly to see what happens). It wasn't a critical glitch, so hopefully my node doesn't crash.

You guys can RP the scene with the gangers however you want, since it really isn't plot crucial and I have stuff to work on today. If no post comes by tomorrow, I'll fast forward the story.

I'll let Glyph take dibs on this scene, since its her contacts and she's the one doing the firearm training. Feel free to have Zee help out, as you like (once she arrives late). Otherwise, I'll get something for her up after your post - if you're busy tonight, too, and want me to put something together regarding the gangers, say the word - but I'm assuming this is something you'll want to do.

I should get something up in the IC thread tonight. Here's the crunch part of it. She's giving them more of a basic introduction to pistols than any full-fledged instruction, but I rolled to give myself a general idea of how good/effective she would be at showing them how to use the gun, and giving them some general advice.

Instruction test, defaulting (only vocal range enhancer and kinesics added):

11d6.hits(5) → [3,4,5,4,5,2,3,5,4,3,6] = (4)

The thought just dawned on me this morning. We originally questioned the kids, because they were hanging around outside the building, and so we thought they probably saw people coming and going - but we only asked them about Peyton.

Once we learned that these Redmond gangers were involved, you checked with the hacker (and he was no help), but we never asked these kids about them. Maybe they know them, know the gang, or remember seeing them coming or going.

Worth a shot before we leave, I figure.

Yeah. By the way, I forgot to put it in the IC, but Tasha would have given them the cat when she got back, too.

Since you mentioned the cat - did you leave the commlink with the troll as a tip?

Took some liberties IC (as I saw the scene in my head). Hope no one minds.

Program loadout:
- Clearsight
- Defense
- Exotic Weapon: Whip
- Disguise
- Pistols
- Unarmed Combat

Slight of hand, to palm her monofilament whip, as she approaches.

Handling (1) + Response (9) + Defaulting (-1) = 9 dice
#D=9 : 521415216 n1=3 n6=1 nHit=3

So, they need 3 hits on a perception test, modified by concealability (-4 modifier) to notice the whip.
I'm hoping to catch them by surprise.

I surprise test might be in order too - depending on how they respond.

Response (9) + Intuition (5) = 14 dice
#D=14 : 53166522321413 n1=3 n6=2 nHit=4

Zee gets another 3 dice to her roll, (215=+1 hit) from being alerted to her own plan to attack, if she is the only one planning anything violent. If she the roll includes seeing if she is surprised by anything the other people do, the roll stands as-is.

I love it when people take liberties IC.

This sounds better than my previous plan - especially since they didn't set me up for the wonderful line I had ready.

Well, if you really really want to, you can still fight them just for kicks.

A little bit I do, but I probably won't. Working on an IC response, but my boss popped in and distracted me. It might be a little bit.

Good. I took a little more, then. I figure, a bunch of homeless burn-outs and junkies are going to be more worried about getting cash for their next fix than keeping their head out of some other guy's ass. The gangers are still people, but squatters would probably shank you for your underpants - and that just the ones still capable of understanding cause and effect.

I'm also up for trying to "handle" that situation, similarly to how I was going to handle the gangers, if Tasha brings it up - but Zee will be less worried about it given our other two options.

9 dice for a new palming test:
#D=9 : 451264164 n1=2 n6=2 nHit=3 (just as smooth )

As far as I could tell, Tasha doesn't have an audio-link to her commlink (no earbuds, or cyberears, or anything) but if I'm mistaken, she can feel free to have an active connection to Zee's ears, as well. Mostly assuming we can communicate by having Tasha speak into a her subvocal mic, and read responses in her contacts.

Also, again, as far as I could tell, short of pulling out her commlink, and waving the camera and mic around, she doesn't have a real good way to show Zee what's going on, around her - so she'll have to subvocalize whatever she wants Zee to know about.

Initiative:

Zee: 22
Connor: 11

Zee's move.

Two posts incoming. If I'm lucky, the fight will be over before you finish that sentence. If not, it might be a moment or two.

So, first thing. Free action, for a called shot to the man's throat (taking a -4 dice pool penalty to raise the DV of her unarmed attack by 4). Complex action to attack before her does, with a swift kick (hopefully taking him down).

Response (9) + Handling (1) + Unarmed Combat (4) + Optimized Limbs (4) + Called Shot (-4) = 14 dice
#D=14 : 56432546611342 n1=2 n6=3 nHit=5

Base DV = 3P+4 from called shot = 7P + whatever hits that guy doesn't negate with his opposed roll.

Also, FYI, I just finished Firefly today. So now we can get karma, right?