Good Morning Folks,

today i have an unusual question about an Assassine-NPC i want to use and want to ask for your help about the functioning of the Nanoinfectors.

The NPC is something of a social Assassine. She talks her way in (Dryad with high charisma and social skills), pick her target (Specialisation in Seduction) and went straight to bed with her victim. She has an Nanohive installed which supports Nanoinfector-Nanites as a body fluid system. The Nanoinfectors carries Carcerand-Plus nanites filled with Nova Scorpion Venom causing death long after the char is gone. Since she have Genewipe no DNA-Samples is left which could be used to track her down. This is the concept so far.

My question is now: In which ways could the nanoinfectors be assigned? Is it possible to transfere them by kissing also as by having "real" Sex with her? On how many body possitions are the nanites present? Must i choose one during installation? As they are in the body fluid system i think they are present in the whole body and such one system may be enough to be transfered regardless of the sexual preferences of her victim, right? Have i got the functioning of this things right or do i miss something here? The discription in Augmentation is vague about how they function.

Also must the NPC use some special protection against her own Nanoinfectores to be save or does she poissen herself in using the system?

I hope, you could help me here and can bring some light in the darkness. Thank you.

Best wishes,
Meschler

P.S.: I hope i do not break any forum rules because i have started this topic.

sex allways was able to kill you . . if it wasn't for STD's, then it was for the homicidal boyfriend or father or brother of the girl *snickers*
and i think those things swim around in the blood stream and nowhere else O.o
there simply IS no such system as the body fluid system . . none of the fluids in your body are suposed to mix on most occassions . .
which is why spitting blood usually means something has gone wrong somewhere . .
you could simply get the bio-ware version and have that be spit vector. that's the most conveniant.
and with the bio version, you do get am immunization against your own kind of toxicity too

Since they are "afloat" in the characters body you should be able to relay commands to them as to where they should cluster and be ready for transportation to the target.

If the character cannot communicate with the nanites then I have a feeling that his/her social life could be really crappy when he/she accidentally kills a few of her dates.

I would think that you need a rather large amount of nanites to accomodate a dose of posion so smaller doses/deliveries might be safer unless a perception test might make the target notice the nanites (odd taste, texture etc)

Well, with a nanohive you could simply have the nanites sleep when you wanted a more...lethal coupling, though I imagine a sex assassin....a sexassin if you will would see sex as a profession act and derive little pleasure from it...unless they are seriously mentally ill. Then again, no one said everyone in shadowrun is chemically balanced.

@Stahlseele

Good Morning Landsmann and thank you for your help.



Since the above text is from the discription of the Nanoinfectors i think my concept might be possible. I am not sure how it worked exactely and thats the cause i am asking. I want to install a Nanoinfectors rating 6 system and i am not sure, if thats enough to cover the whole body.

Thank you again and best wishes,
Meschler

I wonder if a DMSO/carcerand lipstick wouldn't be better, use those tech-skin nanites to on your face to avoid absorbing it; have her geneteched to make her immune to the poison. Same effect with much lower essence cost. Than you could have her be a mystic adept, wonderfull social skills + influence + alter memory/laes, if you play her smart she can arrange the demise very effectively, without tech that might incriminate her and without making her a complete fuckup for your PC.

I doubt that sex could be considered a safe way to kill someone. Till you are where you want to be, you leave lots of traces: body hair, skin under the nails, danders, exchanged bodyfluids, fingerprints all over the body.

@Uli

No DNA due to genewipe and only the fingerprints she wants to left behind (thanks to the dynamic handprints nanoware)

Best wishes,
Meschler

My main gripe with the concept would be its integration with the rest of the group. The concept is a loner, which isn't too useful in a team based game, so you should make sure not to disrupt the game with it.

I agree. Assassins are great at assassination. Most shadowrunning isn't assassination though. It's a lot more useful to seduce someone, get their knowledge (like passcodes, security procedures, and such) than it is to kill them. But I assume the above character would have no problem doing that...

The assassin is a NPC and not a player character.

It's an NPC, as the OP explained.

(Edit: KCKitsune was faster)

You can use a metabolized poison which the assassin is immune to. There are a large amount of enzymes made by the body that break down quite quickly making identification difficult. Even small amounts of an enzyme can be lethal.

If you wish to retain the preying mantis of killer than these poisons can be applied through contact with the body or in the form of various liquids or gels used in sex play.

Some traditional aphrodesiacs such as atropine are also deadly in large enough doses.

Oh really? I hope your PCs aren't all guys, because that NPC will assassinate all of them I mean, they might be suspicious of the GM making some chick come onto them and suspect a trap, but a deadly nanoinfecting toxin isn't really something they can notice and avoid with a perception check...

It'd be able to make this assassin a guy and have the nanohive somewhere, ah, 'special', attached to a penile implant that'd inject the nanites during intercourse.

And, upon my original reading of this thread, I wondered for about 4 seconds what S E X was an acronym for...

You met her at your local night club. She says she was stood up by her boyfriend. She smiled and laughed at your stories. She ordered champagne and said that she got drunk off the bubbles. She got closer and rested her head on your chest, her perfect nails running along your upper body.

You find yourself in a taxi grinning like a school boy, kissing her in the back seat as you between breaths take her out to the fanciest five star hotel you can think of.

She sways against and giggles in the lobby, playfully asking you to continue on a different club. She kisses you and asks the concierge to bring up a bottle of champagne as she pulls you into the elevator. Her hands are already down in your pants, her tongue pressed against yours as you reach your floor. You grab her and carry her giggling over your shoulder into the hotel room and throw her on the bed.

Her skin is ever so smooth and silky as you caress her and she caresses your forearms. The only thing that stops is the knock on the door fo the suite as the champagne is brought in. She winks at you and asks for you to pour her a drink as she freshens up for a moment.

She comes back in something you have only seen in lingerie pictures, she complains she is sobering up and drains her glass and asks for another playfully inviting you into a drinking competition which leads to you chugging straight from the bottle. Each drink seems to get harder, your throat constricting. You drop the bottle on the floor and it splashes its yellow fluid along the floor. Your body now feels like it is in a vice, sweat is coming out of every pore. You want to say something but your tongue seems to have swollen to twice its size. You make some gurgling noises as you slump on the floor, your body finally twitching in near unconciousness and then you go black.

The woman shrugs and puts on her clothes and leaves you be. In ten minutes your heart will finally stop and that expensive biomonitor you have got will inform Doc Wagon that you are in cardiac arrest. By the time they arrive you have been already dead for two to four minutes. Enough time for her to send a message to her two handlers to come and pick her up.

Somehow I think that if you were my GM Chrysalis, I wouldn't be all that mad at you railroading my character into sleeping with the toxic wench, because you paint such a vivid picture of it

Seriously. Chrysalis do you have room in your game?

I am afraid all positions have been filled, but try again later.

Fixed that for ya.

Oh too bad, that would have been pretty.
Yet disposing a PC in that way is plainly wrong and unfun for the player. It's not impossible make a perfect PC-killing machine (or hooker if you want), but making it in a way that is satifying is very hard.
Also why do this girl do that? What are hers reasons, she can dispose easily madium class and lower target, she can give a good shot to high class too, but lets face why it, would Mr.J. hire her for such targets, a few good marks and peoples high enough will take notice and hers effectiveness will be seriously reduced; at AA and AAA where real target are control will be much more accurate, not to mention servants (who are on call and be there in a less than a minute) will have some training in first aid (also biomonitors control the chemicals in the blood stream) and there will be enough medical suplyes to make a little clinic envious, not to mention a small army of bodyguards allerted immidiatly that would probably disagreed with the chica leaving the place.
From an economic point of view she doesn't have enough market, very expensive implant and procedures to go after low targets? Unless the target is someone well connected or the murder happens to be broadcasted the Lone Star won't be too pressed to find the killer, after a week and they will have given up, so an ordinary assassin can do the same with much lower expenses; also what happens if the target doesn't let her near? Hers tactic is based completely on the target playing along, but sooner or later sha will become notorious (she attract the attenction with her beauty and sex appeal, and the men she sleep with die shortly after, no wonder if people call her "the black widow") and someone could take an interest in her and make some inopportune checks (also if you read Sprawl Survival Guide, full service hotels p.15-16, corps tend to cover that angle for valuable or sensible assets).
The concept of the femme fatale (letteraly here) is an appealing one but realisticaly speaking it's unrealistic it being applied for common assassination, this tactic has been used for specific targets for espionage, abduction and murder at the time of the cold war, but the operative were prepared for specific tasks, minly seduce the target to marry the him and send information or seduce the target and bring to a certain place (to be apprended or disposed); the questions are "did the runners do something that deserves a such investment?" and "could the same thing be done more effectively/cheaply in other ways?", the answer is that if the runners pissed of someone with enough clout to deploy a such bitch this individual(s) can just put a contract on their heads, or if the individual(s) is(are) not concerned about time he/she(they) can just wait to have some property to dispose (with any incriminating proof) have him/her(them) hire the team to do the job, at esecution time things will differ from the plan (at least the one proposed to runners) and the damage will be done with the team dieing in the process, after that the operation of removal of the wreckage will cancel the last traces of whatever had to be hidden and the individuals will be able to ask for damage being covered by insurance (I suppose that terroristical attacks are covered in 2070).
Now a completely different scenario is if the girl's target is someone else and the runners have the chance of interacting with her, maybe they are hired to help her, maybe they are hired as bodyguards of the target. An interesting possibility is that the girl is a slave prepared for a suicide hit (bought, mentaly conditioned and augmented) that broke (mostly) free from the brainwashing and escaped trying to save her life, her "emploier" wants to silence her and she obviously can't ask for assistence to the Star, while she trying to hide she stumbles on the runners dragging them into the mess; it becomes especialy interesting if the mental conditioning actes up and she tries to carry out hers mission on a runner until she regain control.
To conclude the post I'll suggest to make her a complete character in hers own right, she's not grunt, she's the femme fatale, not just another opponent, lets say she has 8 cha + glamour + (probably) tailored feromones + 6 on influence group with specialization in seduction for a total of 22 dices (assuming she's not a pornomancer), she's going to be noticed and leav hers mark on the story, give her the chance to be developed, instead of just being kill her or fuck her and die, let har have the depth she deserves.

A bit of a tangent here, but a good read is:

Evil Sisters: The Threat of Female Sexuality and the Cult of Manhood, by Bram Dijkstra.

Peter

All the more reason to get a nanohive in a cyberlimb and load up on Universal Nanidotes, Nanosymbiotes, and universal nanite hunters. I mean honestly, with crazy ladies like her running around is it really paranoia? =^.^=

@ Chrysalis

You got my plan

@ all

The NPC is not send out to kill the players. She is a member of a very special team which work for a AAA concern. Her targets are other high personalities which would be dangerous for her employers.

The players would be hired from an underground boss to find her and bring her to him. He will be take revenge on her for killing his brother (the former boss). In the long run the girl should be a ressourcefull contact to the players (if they try it right and didnt go over board and try to kill her). Thats the plan so far......i think, this could be a very interessting adventure

Her cyber-/bio-loadout so far is:

- falsfront 4 (to change apperance and kill in many different "forms")
- chemical gland to produce signal drug for falsfront
- vocal range enhancer
- muscle augmentation
- DNA Masking: genewipe
- DNA Masking: masque
- Dynamic Handprints nanocybernetics
- 2 Nanohives Rating 4 with nanotattoos, 0-cells, universal nantidods, universal nanitehunters, symbiotes, trauma control system, nanoinfectors (touch system build into her lips; carcerand-plus filled with narcoject) and nanoinfectors (fluid system build into her private parts for transfere during sex; carcerand-flus filled with nova scorpion venom)
- cyber breasts with cybergland (filled also with narcoject)
- cyber eyes
- cyber ears

and some other minor things. I know essence wise it would be better to build the hives in an cyberarm or cyberleg but i want to go for an all natural look since her targets are in the high society.

She is also capable of martial arts, sillent infiltration, hacking and so on.......

I am interested how she "works" and develops in the long run and that my players didnt go overboad and try to kill her by al means.

By the way.......she rolls 22 maybe 24 dice (charisma 8 + 2 due to the optional operation rule + 3 for glamour + 3 for pheromones + 5 influence skill group + 1 vocal range enhancer and maybe +2 for first impression). I think, thats high enough no one can ressist her

I hope this make things clearer and i want realy develop her to a full character with great impact to the story.

Best wishes,
Meschler

did anyone point out this method has kind of a short life, as you're leaving DNA at the scene, and the same method every time?

Except this little Black Widow has Genewipe gene mod... NO DNA, nothing to track back to this psycho bitch. If the lady had the Erased (10 pt) Positive quality, she would be a ghost.

What a nice girl!
I still think that corps have cheaper ways to dispose inconvenient personalities and the ammount of money required for producing a such lady is not justified, also as I've said above after a few succesfull hits higher ups will start be paranoid (and they tend to be it to bagin with to reach certain levels), implementing a number of countermisures and all that ware would at once could cause peoples raise an eyebrow. Much different thing if (less augmented) the girl was sent to seduce a major shareholder of a corp, marry him and use hers influence (did I say influence? Mystic adept, mystic adept baby), to well influence the corp in a way that suites hers employers (think Willelmina Dontremembethesurname, the one who created S-K before Lofwyr stomped in, she was an executive assistant, or if you prefer an high class call girl); controlling a rival corp is much better reason for a such investment than disposing someone, it also would allow your player to be involved: she riskes to be discovered and needs to hire shadowtalent to cover up and backstab the opposition (standard fare in a corp), if the runners discover what it is all about they have her in their power, but if they don't play well she (and hers employer who standes to lose ALOT from this mess) will become a deadly enemy, on the other hand if they keep the secret and act as allies they become highly valuable assets which makes her a contact and an employer (Want some delta-grade ware? You need the right connections), not to mention what plus could come from it if the lady is actualy dissatified by hers housband .
Than Who the hell am I to tell you how to handle your games, realism in fiction is costantly trown out of the windows to let fun have its space, arguing about it.......... but if in all my ranting I managed to be usefull it's a good thing; discussion is good anyway .

I think that I have pointed the modus operandi flaw somewhere in the sea of words of my first post

She has DNA-Masking: Genewipe which leaves her DNA-samples worthless after 5 minutes.

And indead.......she has the erased quality

but also the records on files negative quality.

Thank you all for your imput. Keep it going. There are great possibilyties to improve her as a character.

Best wishes,
Meschler

Happy to be usefull.
Just a thought about those nanohives:
You could give the girl a Wildcard Nano Prototype (Augmentaions p.20-21) in place of nanosymbiotes; nanosymbiontes are soft nanites system with 1-3 rating range, the Wildcard nanites have a fixed (but degrading without a nanohive) rating of three and can be reprogrammed to act as any system, now if this means that they direguard the distinction betwen hard and soft nanites I don't know (I would say NO), but even if they don't rating 3 Wildcard soft nanites can act as nanosymbiotes, non universal nanoantidotes (total immunity), nanomedic (might come handy with hers implants), carcerand plus (don't know for what but if the need arises), Oxirush and (VERY nifty) Neural Amplifiers. Weren't nanotattoos hard only (easily houseruled IMO) I would suggest to switch them too, I would suggest to do it anyway for the sake of adaptability.
And if two Wildcards are 60 bp ........ who cares she HAS acces to said technology and as an NPC she would be (to be at those level) at very least Superior, probably Superhuman.
I still think she's wasted as an assasin; not to mention that unless she has to kill someone she's not going to be able to have sexual life at all, she won't be able to kiss without knoking out the kissed, I don't know if she can have children, but for sure those cyberbreasts will give problems with lactation (I don't find them usefull for the matter, they don't add much and increas the chance of detection), making hers body a weapon strippes her of some of most basical aspects of what being (meta)human is, than if you want to portrait her with alot of psychological issues...........

Actually, hard nanites are the ones that can be reprogrammed, so the Wildcard nanites can act as any system that is available as hard nanites.

Of course, there is a much nastier implant for the modern assassin: The orthoskin shock upgrade...

@AllTheNothing

Your input is most welcome. I see great possibilyties for her

Hmmm.....i have read about the Wildcard Nano Prototype and these would be nice to have. But i could only justify to give it to her after chargene. The 35 BP's for positive qualitys are allready axpended for other things. And i am not sure, if i can spare the Karma points to buy the quality after chargene. And yes.....she is somekind of "Superhuman" if you look at her Karmalevel.

Thank you again and best wishes,
Meschler

The thing is swallows (as the KGB at the time liked to call them) also known as honey pots (a term the CIA continued to use after WWII) in real life often involve a supporting structure. Most of them involve being injected into the routine of the person and then a social rapport was built.

While some of them were trained in poisons, most were used as a way to blackmail the target for the intelligence agency to do with what they wished. Intelligence agencies did note after the 50s that staged executions have the problem of raising questions. The Czech extension of the KGB was very good at character, social and political assassinations. Driving the subject to suicide or utilising methods that could through forensics be conducive to suicide are more reasonable methods.

However, going back to player characters (in the sense that characters are extensions of the player). I really doubt that they will once the blood starts to flow they will stop and think "why is this wonderful woman talking to me?" Everyone secretly wants to live the James Bond lifestyle. Why else would players play Shadowrun? And having a Bond girl in a Shadowrun world would be considered part of the trope and not as a poisoned chalice.

The flaw in the character is not who she is, but rather that she is too effective. Think that with my short description which I wrote in the early morning I had two individuals in this thread basically asked to join a game where their characters would be killed in the manner described. Now, I have to admit that I can lead a man by the cock and I do so quite easily, nonetheless I think this is indicatory of a state of mind of the player.

I guess my argument really is that reality gives us quite good indicators on what is possible. It also gives us information on what is possible without the target knowing. However in a game these undetectable methods could be considered by players as being underhanded methods of GM behaviour.

Unless of course the players use the same methods. Also, on topic, is there anything to mask her intentions on the astral? Some mood chip or even personality chip so she appears genuinely interested in the target to an astral observer?
If not, a casual scan of her aura during her come-on would probably give her away to an astrally active bodyguard or target.

The real problem with an assassination method that requires you have unprotected sex with your target is that fluid transfer is a two-way street.

There is nothing quite as annoying as having a -5 penalty to all of your tests due to a herpes flareup.

Get O-Cells and never even become infected.

Honestly, the whole idea of 'uncurable' diseases is ridiculous given SR4 tech-level (soft nanites made from bacteria/virii and nanite hunters that destroy them) - especially those diseases that are a localized infection. Got lungs eaten away by Tuberculosis? Cut them out and get new ones from the jar.

Well being superior and up prime runners not constrained in skills and gear (and Wildcard nanites can be considered gear) I would say it's not a problem, she standes reason to have them so go on and make her as she has to be the chargen rules are for balancing PC and your girl is a very atipical subject so general rules don't apply.

Let me know the how the character turnes out.

I can't find the page where it says that only hard wildcard nanites can be reprogrammed (I will grant you that it makes more sense that not, but with 2070s technology is completely possible to have reprogrammable soft nanites) could you give me some directions.
Also orthoskin shock upgrade does only stun damage............. yet a stun-vagina at work is (probably) a quite fearsome sight to behold

Actually, that's not what I said.

But, anyway, the wildcard description refers to the reprogramming rules and those are only available for hard systems - both the system that is reprogrammed and the system that is mimiked.

By the way chemical glands can produce only one type of compound each, wich means only one falsefront diguise, get rid of it and use DMSO/signal drug laced cosmetics for it. Or again have her be an adept, a infiltrator/pornomancer, and avoid to disfigure her. Than why using poison? maybe she is used to colloct tissue semples to be used in ritual sorcery, an influence spell on an enemy can be much more produttive than killing him.

TBH, if your assassin has gotten her mark into a situation where she can have sex, she really isn't going to need all that 'ware to kill them. Perhaps a skin pocket with a vial of some touch vector toxin. While your attention is elsewhere she could easily apply it to some suitable area.

Frankly, any target worth the effort will have 'ware scanners, so the less you try to take in with you, the better. Similarly, your assassin will need to avoid magical security measures too, which would likely detect her motives, if not her 'ware.

That's why I suggested to use her to collect tissue samples for ritual sorcery, just put a nanocoating in the vagina to store the sperm, let him have his fun and return to the base, when the need arises use ritual sorcery (influence) to have him do what you want.
Seriously there are some unwritten rules by which corporations play the shadows (for more info read Corporate Download, Chromed Accountant p.17) and at certein levels murder will raise a such mess that hers employers will NOT like, but if the thing is kept subtle you can cause your own enemies do the job for you, set different enemies of your to ech other throats, have them make mistakes and take advantage of them; a corp is a big thing, killing one person will hurt them but won't cripple them (and a such modus operandi will make alot of people nervous, sooner or later day will band together to geek you) while subtle manipulation can destroy thir future.
Safer, cleaner, cheaper, potentialy more profittable.

@ AllTheNothing

Its true that the chemical gland only produce one compound but i think the outcome from the false front is different each time it is used



The above is copied direct from augmentation and as far as my english lets translate it, false front is something of "1001" faces (us it as often as you want and you didnt look the same twice).

Also what is this "pornomancer" thing?

Thank you and best wishes,
Meschler

Actually, hacker nanites would be the way to go, I would think....

Ah the Pornomancer... well it's an "Dump Shock Grade" optimized social adept specialized in seduction.
I'll search a link.

Sorry I can't find it (I don't want to check every single post of every thread containing the word).
If anyone can post a link to a post RC version of the pornomancer.........

Depend on what you want to do.
They realy can frag heavily cybered dudes.

The disease is incurable because it is a retrovirus - basically, it rewrites your DNA, & uses your DNA to reproduce. That being said, it should be incurable by traditional means - nontraditional (drug) means are viable. Genetic restoration can & will remove retroviruses. Further, I personally see no reason they could not create an engineered retrovirus (for a cost) that "rewrites" the subjects genetics back to their original - basically immunization to all retroviruses, without any more Essence cost than gaining those viruses in the first place.

Have found hte pornomancer

Pornomancer

Wow thats scary. 51 dice to roll is pretty good. Some of the used otions are not so good for a runner (e. g. global fame) but i have completely forgotten about the emotion software. I think, that thing will be perfect for her cybereys for 6 dice more

I go back to paperwork and see if i change her in some aspects. Maybe i replace the nanoinfector nanites with orthoskin and the electroshock upgrade to deliver an unexpected electroshock to her victim and try to knock them out with martial arts (bonelacing and the sweep maneuver comes to mind; i think i can get her to 10 DV which isnt bad imho)

Do you have some suggestions about this changes?

Thank you again for your help.

Meschler

What is she going from black widow to female terminator (what was it called? T-X?)?
That pretty much kills the concept, also it's not going to be subtle at all (yet I have to admit that orthoskin never hurts).
And for delivering the nanites you could use a ring or other piece of jewelry to carry aruond the payload and use Altskin (Augmentations, p.113) to protect her (keep those nanoantidotes running anyway), in this way you wouldn't have the problems caused by the noninfectors; or she could have hers full body covered in altskin (to protect her from the contact nanites) with Armor (+3/1 is good, doesn't states if that counts toward encumbrance), Newprint (Dynamic Handprint essence free, by the way has its rating range been errata-ed in?), Sealant (to help to avoid living stains, not very likely but better safe than sorry), Shade and Shifter (disguise without falsefront), on that layer the payload in form of tattos to act on contact and/or ingestion (I can't go in dettail on the way she can deliver, but I'll quote a thread around this forum: those brown nipples; much better than cyberbreasts). In this way she would still be able to have a "normal" sexual life (how many peoples does she have to kill? I realy dubt enough to prevent her to needing some out of biz) and still be able to cary out hers duty (spare essence is a nice plus too).

Sorry but my suggetion is DON'T DO IT (the terminator change)............ than who am I to tell you what to do in your game?

My 0.02