Thanks. I'll adjust. By the way, I'm totally diggin' the russian.

Galen

Google translate is our friend

-EDIT-
I got my reaction prepped (in my mind at least). Anyone of you ever watched the comedy "Allo Allo"?

Meh, I had been trying to get back to discussing the mission before, err rather when I interrupted I guess. Felix was expecting Kliko's entrance to be more of a signal to discuss the mission, because as far as Felix knows, all Ludmilla is aware of are the basics that were on her psec.

I had been trying to steer the conversation back to the mission, although thats now looking lost with Mr Juans post.

The problem with grabbing Morningstar during a service is the computer. Unless he has the data on him (pretty unlikely) we would still need to break into his office or room and grab the data.

@ntwi: You're right, but I just can't resist some character development

Feel free to discuss planning in the OC. Besides, I guess our J pays for some level of discreteness. Did Jamie discover what type of server-system the temple has and if its accesible from the outside?

It would easiest if we could just get Morningstars personal telecom and take it with us or alternatively have Jamie deck their system from the outside.

Jamie hasn't hacked the system from outside yet.

Major GM Hint:

I already suggested hacking his cellphone account from the telephone company. I suspect Jamie can't actually do that. The only evidence they have is an overhead phone call. Perhaps we just need his call log. If they can identify all the numbers in the call log, they might be able to rule out betrayal. We might consider his cellphone a tertiary target.

Galen

@galenbd: Agree.

May also need a hig def camera to take pictures of documents (is there something like a portable scaner in SR?) . I believe Ludi had (cyber)eye camera's?

Yep! Aint' a spook for nothing!

BOO!


@Bastard, loved the IC... "Brother Bubba"

Well I am trying to catch-up and there are a lot of posts and a lot of scattered information. I am under the impression that "Morningstar" may be a high level adept. If that was mentioned somewhere already, sorry I missed it. My reasoning is his build, picture, and we don’t know if he is a mage or shaman.

Anyhow, a possible strategy would be to have half the team infiltrate the building while Morningstar is giving a sermon. This part of the team could gather the information to prove a traitor or not a traitor. Once they have the information the other half of the team sitting in on the sermon can create a false fire, pop some smoke, hit the fire alarm, maybe there is a sprinkler system? Anyhow it could be used to get Morningstar outside or allow us to knock him out in all the disarray and stuff him in the van out the back door? Felix could even turn him invisible once he is knocked out. He would be an easy carry for Bubba -slinging an invisible body over his shoulder. Anyway, this is my 2 cents.

Are there any exterior fire escapes since it is a three level building?

Also Juan, your posts are always so visually enabling. Have you started writing a book yet?

I will try to get an IC post together this evening.

Felix is pretty sure he can pull the information straight from Morningstar's mind if he needs to. 14 dice for a Force 4 mindprobe with a point of karma to reroll failures can get information out of almost anyone. This is where the -2 Willpower from Gamma Scopolamine makes it alot easier. The results of the spell are not admissable in a court type environment, and it most jurisdictions it is considered mind-rape, but when you need the information (bank codes, logins and passwords and such) it can be a great tool.

Mr J seemed to need evidence he could produce for others as well, so this route alone probably won't work. However, if we grab him first, I should be able to pull his login/password information, and the location of his computer files from his head. If Jamie can then deck in and bypass their security with the valid account, it may make things much easier for him.



@Bubba - What we've got on Morningstar seems to indicate mage or shaman. The multiple levels of initiation comes from Felix being aware of the Divination metamagics and thinking that the "spirit visits" revealed the Ghostwalker=Great Dragon Spirit were from this metamagic. Mr J and the public information has not told us if he is initiated or not. Adepts cannot use the divination metamagic, and so Felix doesn't think that angle is as likely.

For some reason, I really like this plan! You've got my vote



I haven't, but it is something I plan on doing in the near future. I'm just not quite sure about what yet
And thanks a lot for saying that! You can't imagine how happy you just made me!

@Sneaky: Looks like a solid plan. No evidence, no nab. Puts some time pressure on Jamie and Ludi. Everybody gets to play a part in the spot light.

I like it (also from a meta-game perspective)

@Juan: I have some ideas for a story, but I'm no good as a writer.

Do we have a silenced weapon for the infil team if they need to tranq the secretary/guard/whoever outside the office/bedroom? (I don't know what weapons people brought, so I'm making sure we have something silenced)


If Jamie is going to be online running overwatch he might be able to cut power, trigger fire alarm and sprinklers and such. If he's infilling with Ludi we'll figure a different way (viral code on a timer?, someone physically pulling it?).

EDIT: I was expecting the dart pistol to be used on Morningstar


First thing might be for Jamie to attempt to deck their system from the outside. If he is stupid enough to leave private files on their main server, well you know what they say about a fool and his money. It would certainly simplify the run to just an extraction.

Isn't a dart pistol nearly silenced?

We could cut the power...

Good planning all! After completed, can somebody write it up in the IC (once the team is recollected of course - and feel free to NPC Corsair as Klink seems to be out of service) either when your finished or as we go along. If no one has time or desire to do so, I can do it once I am given the "go-ahead" (or when things seem to bog way down again ).

When you all have questions, try to include a roll associated with them to expedite things. If you don't have the time or ability (ie, you are at work on mphone or droid ) to make rolls, just state, GM Roll (and a please would be nice, jerks! )

Sneaky and Kliko make Perception Test rolls. Corsair is on GM roll.

Is there a English to Russian translate that uses western letters instead of Russian characters? Google Trans used to do it, and it makes it easier for us idiots who only know one language (save a few curse words in French, Spanish, German and Japanese). I find the IC more visualizing with the phonetics of the western spellings, because all those Russian characters are gobbily gook to me!

One of my concerns was us failing to capture Morningstar and Jamie having to deck under fire. I like the idea of going in before the grab. If Jamie is in the office she should be able to overwatch if needed, including setting off fire alarms. With lots of people on the street, our getaway might be too noticable.

Jamie brought a silencer.

Galen

I don't expect there to be lots of people on the street until after we're out of there. Felix is expecting the chapel to have the following going on within 3-6 seconds as we make our grab.

Power/Lights out
Fire Alarm going
Smoke/CS Gas grenades
Mass Blindness spell sustained
Confusion Spirit power (Hearth Spirit)

With this combination of everything going on, I'm not expecting anything other than a group of confused, panicked blind people. The person to watch out for may be the worker in the office by the entrance.

While this is going on, our getaway vehicle has two other spirits (City and Air) continuing their last command, to "Conceal the vehicle and it's occupants" and to "Confuse those trying to follow the vehicle". Add to that my guess of Photovoltaic Paint and Morphing License Plates on the vehicle, and it should be a clean getaway.

@Bastard: Will using the concealment power on the vehicle cause problems with other cars on the road? with regards to the movement power, just how good of a driver is Corsair?

EDIT: I had intended to verify that he was a wheelman, working mostly with wheeled vehicles, rather than vector thrust or rotor wing like some of the riggers I've known.

Quite a plan!

Concealment on the vehicle would cause a lot of problems with other cars on the road, as they will not be able to see your vehicle, thus unable to navigate around you.

As for Corsair, you can assume he is a good driver, since he is a rigger.

I prefer that even in the OoC not giving out charaters skills and attributes, to limit meta gaming a bit. You have to rely on each others characters confidence and/or honesty with team about their abilities. Like when Bubba says he is "mad sneakies" referring to his stealth.

Perception:



I would also like to know if Bubba noticed any security cameras inside and outside the building?

If we decide to go through with this I think we need to setup some smoke in several places on the main floor. Kitchen/ dining room, from the stairs, and of course in the main hall. We would want to funnel people out if possible. They would naturally avoid the smoke.

Roll please.

I did, or do I need to make another perception test? My first roll is in my post just above this one, but in case you need another:

Perception:

Perception-check:

-EDIT-
Google translations of the phonetic Russian is much worse. The phonetic Russian does appeal more to me too.

-EDIT#2-
Kliko has a silencer for his Browning as well (but no gel-rounds, only APDS for this backup gun)

Just give Bubba an extendable baton and all will be silenced! Disclosure: A severe headache upon wake up may result.

That's in the pipeline, so don't worry.

So, just so we're all the same page: we're pretty much going for Sneaky's plan, correct?

And so, unless I'm mistaken, we're looking at something like this:
-Grab Team: Bubba, Felix, Kliko
-Office Team: Ludi, Jamie
With Corsair playing getaway driver / doing the outside overwatch

So far so good?

Looks good to me!

I can hardly imagine cracking skulls/bones as 'silent'

I think we want to look into the security procedures they have at the temple in case of fire, but I believe Jamie has some IC-knowledge on this (in other words the actual knowledge skill)?

I think the plan looks something like this:

1) Drop the cleric (is her/his counter behind plexiglass) with a dart?
2) Simulate a fire in the lobby by popping a smoke grenade there
3) If they stay put -> Have Bubba pop a gas grenade in the worship hall, and negate the effects on himself by using a stim-patch.
If they evacuate the building -> Put a dart (or better two) in Morningstar in the smokey lobby and
4) Extract Morningstar through the Canteen and out through the side door or through the kitchen, storage-area and out the back.

We might consider getting another smoke grenade... (or better yet, improvise something:-D)

-Double post-

Why dont we attend a sermon to see how it goes and what is in place at that time? We have an "in" with the missionaries.

Good plan.

We'll have Bubba attend a few sermons

Well I am concerned that he may have a hypnotic influence on his listeners/followers... but that should make the mission all the more fun! May want to have Felix attend also so he can get the magic experience or at least be watching on the astral plane.

If there is a sprinkler system that should help!

We need to also consider his armed guards. They are not likely to leave without Morningstar.

We don't know if he has armed guards attending him inside. In case there are armed guards, the smoke, panic, confusion and flash-paks should provide sufficient distraction and cover to deal with those. I figure if worse comes to worst and Bubba aims for their legs/knees with that extendable baton of his, we should have a fair chance to make a clean get away.

Mrs. Johnson will provide gel rounds for you at no cost.

Bubba noticed camera bubbles inside the entrance way, the cafeteria, the foyer, the hallways, but he does not recall seeing any in the worship hall. Outside there is an outdated camera pointing right at the canteen exit, two more up to date cameras on the front door, and a few bubbles in the loading area.




He's a traitor! (Allegedly)

Blind panicked people who think they're in a fire might be a problem. I think people might get hurt. This level of mayhem might be too much for our Johnson. I'd really prefer a covert op.

Galen

Ah, if we did the grab during a sermon, I was intending the chaos to cover our exit. The mass blindness would be mostly limited to the people on stage and the first row or so. I didn't expect the collateral damage to be more than just a few bruises and the teary eyes from CS gas. I had presumed that level of damage to be reasonable. I agree with you about preferring a covert style to the frontal escape method, but I have no problem with going and buying myself a neon green mohawk if needed.

I would generally prefer the quiet stealthy approach as well. If nothing else I don't have to worry about disguising myself for the cameras (Or having Jamie deck back in to delete the images)(although he might be able to implant a data bomb into the video files when he grabs the Morningstar data if he needs to)

@Bastard - How would the "movement" spirit power effect climbing? Multiply their climbing rate by its force? Lower their climbing TN?

EDIT


I wasn't sure because it says "movement rate" and I wasn't sure how that would interact with the climbing test.

What does it do to your normal movement? It will do the same to climb.

Do you all want me to bump up to the regroup and meets?

I have no problem with that. Jamie is taking a break and waiting to talk to Kliko.

Galen

Sure thing.

And on a whole other note, I think we need to come to some sort of decision. As far as I can see, we have 3 options in front of us.
1- Go in at night, grab Morningstar in his bedroom, search for "the evidence" in his office.
2- Go in at day, search for "the evidence" in his office, grab Morningstar during his sermon.
3- Go in at night, search the offie. The next day, go in during the sermon, grab Morningstar.

I know option 3 hasn't really been discussed, but I believe we should consider it. Yes, breaking up the job in two parts complicates things and gives us twice as much exposure. The main reason why I thought it would be good to point out is that, from a purely character point of view, I can say that Ludi would rather infiltrate the place covertly, on the cover of darkness. I believe that galenbd has also expressed that opinion, and so, I take it for granted that Jamie would feel the same way.

If we do it during broad daylight, I was wondering if anyone had any idea how Jamie and Ludi would gain access to Morningstar's office. Since it'll be during the day, even if they do make it to the office, they'll be much more likely to be discovered than at night (just for the fact that there will probably be more people roaming around). If they come in through the window, like we had originally planned, under the cover of an invisibility spell, I'm sure we can manage. Once the mayhem starts, they can make their exit during the panic. That is not something I am worried about. What does worry me will be the amount of casting drain we'll be putting Felix under. If our only magical assets ends up with a ton of drain, grabbing Morningstar might become a lot harder then expected.

Splitting the op in two would allow us to carry out both plans, and give Felix time to rest. Contrary to my character, I believe we absolutely need magic to pull this job off without a hitch. The only problem is, we are relying so bad, if something does happen to Felix, we'll be pretty much dead in the water.

From a metagaming perspective, which is something I hate doing, I totaly understand why option 2 might tingle us all a bit more. It has more action, it'll probably be more fun (which I'm all for as a player ) and everyone gets to shine. If I was the one to call the shot, I would say let's do it. Unfortunately, I'm just the writer Ludmila's the character, and so, if I was to put myself in HER shoes (boy, would that be awkward!) option 2 seems wayyyyyyy too risky.

So yea, that was my 2 cents. Whatever concensus we come up with, I'll be more than happy to go along with. Ludi might grumble a bit, but I won't mind Whatever keeps me writing, I'm good with!

So, what do y'all think?

I'm all for option 3.

But I think we/Jamie should first try and do a matrix-run from the outside and see what she finds out this way.

My reasoning is:

a) Kliko's character is rather risk averse as far as planning is concerned (all kinds of crazy shit usually happens when bullets start flying around) and thereofre he likes simple plans
b) this option takes us further with each little step, carefull, nice and easy
c) each character gets some time in the spotlight (yeah, I know its metagaming, but I'm all pro-fun gaming)

Here is my take, the covert op is likely the most "Metagaming" and proefessional way to do this, but I get bored... lol. So the idea I suggested is more interesting to me and since this is a fantasy game I like to play for fun. One side benefit is we have eyes on security, morningstar, and most of the staff if we watch the sermon. This gives us some good information while Ludi and Jamie are upstairs. The trick would be to get them past the cameras and office clerk, but that doesn’t seem too hard. They likely have a 1 hour window.

We still haven’t found out about fire escapes and sprinkler systems. That could help the decision making process...

Either way I am cool with whatever the team decides.

No fire escapes, no sprinklers. It is an old warehouse that is in the industrial district, and it is probably not up to code.

Posted an IC, but I have to keep bumping it forward. Will finish it up later, or if you have responses now, add to. If I brought your character out of character, let me know and I can go back and edit.

I am also working on the matrix stuff for Jamie.

By the way, here is the wall gun safe at the safe house.

This is sort of where I'm mostly drawing a blank.
I know this might not make a whole lot of sense, because I have no idea what I'm about to type. Let's just say I'm "talking out loud" Helps the gears turn in my head, and hopefully, it'll end up making some sense (if not to me, to someone at least). So, yea. First and foremost, everything that follows concerns only Jamie and Ludi's part of the job.

So, there are two ways to get to an objective: overtly, or covertly.
Overt: We go in hard, blast our way through.
Covert: We sneak our way through, making our presence as unknown as possible.
For the sake of survivability, overt, in the case that concerns us, is impractical, not to say impossible. So, by default, we have to go covert.

Now, we can go covert, once again, in two ways:
1-Physical infiltration; sneaking all the way and avoiding all security measures
2-Social infiltration: conning our way in

First, let us consider the objective in and of itself: gathering evidence that Morningstar is a traitor. We've all come to the conclusion that said evidence will best be gotten from his office. We can get into said office by two ways: through the door, through a window. The window would require scaling a wall, or rappelling down from the roof and getting the window open. The door would require coming in on the first floor, taking the stairs one flight up, going through the secretary's office and then into Morningstar's office. Going in through the door means passing through 3 hallways, 1 staircase and 1 room. It also means crossing a total of 8 doors (each door leading to a room where people could be and see us pass by). Not counting anyone walking around the hallways, since this will take place during "business hours", it means a hell of a lot of sneaking and way too much luck. So, doing a physical infiltration, and coming in through the door of the office is, in my opinion, not an option that should be considered.

So, to summarize, what we have are two options:
Option A: Physical Infiltration through the window
Option B: Social Infiltration through the door

Something we also have to take into account is that we cannot be in Morningstar's office while there is a chance of him walking in on us. We have to be sure he is somewhere else. This means:
-at a sermon
-in some sort of meeting elsewhere
-occupied for at least 1 hours elsewhere

Option A is pretty much self explanatory. We've already planned for this, since it was part of the original night plan we had going on at first.

Option B is possible, but will require some sort of cover story to at least get us on the 2nd floor, which is, unless I'm mistaken, not open to non members. And no matter what happens, once we are in the secretary's office, we will have to take her out of the picture somehow, since I do not see her, or him, letting us into Morningstar's office. All we can do to her is tranq her and drag her into Morningstar's office.

The problem this might cause is that her absence might be noticed, and so, the alarm raised.

I might also be wrong, but I am under the impression that members of the temple aren't THAT numerous... as in, we cant bet on totaly blending in through anonimity, unlike lets say, infiltrating a large corporation with thousands of employee to impersonate. And there is also the issue of gear. Jamie and Ludi will have a few items they'll need to bring along with them. They'll need a minimum of 4 things: a way of being in touch with the team, the narcojet pistol, Jamie's cyberdeck and at least one zip tie. Keep in mind, this is the BARE minimum. Without an electronic toolkit, they won't be able to bypass anything they come across. Just getting those item pass whatever security there is might be hard. If things do turn sour, they'll also be pretty light firepower wise.

I know this is starting to get pretty long, and I'm sorry I'm almost done!

So, taking into account all of this, I think our highest chances of success concerning the evidence gathering part of the run is to go with a Physical Infiltration, through the window. Every other option I can think of is, to put it lightly, ridiculously risky.

@Bastard
What do the windows to Morningstar's office look out to? A street? An alley? What other places (building around) can see Morningstar's office windows? What are the buildings around, how high are they, etc... The main thing is I'm wondering who could see us climbing up the wall, and who could see us if we were, lets say, on the roof. Also, I'm curious as to the surrounding buildings and their height.... because we might be able to jump from a higher building unto the roof.

I'd prefer Option 1, but I might like to reverse order. Have us go after the computer first, then Morningstar. My target is less likely to fight back, so we don't risk blowing the op from the outset.

Galen

@Bastard. Did you intend to move us forward to Monday morning, or Tuesday morning. I thought we were mostly through Monday.

Galen

@galenbd
Out of curiosity, about how much would you say Jamie weight? I'm mainly asking because I want to be sure Ludi can either boost her up the wall, or lower her down from the roof.

Oops. Supposed to be Tuesday morning. I will correct that tomorrow.

Don't have my map in front of me, but I believe i stated in either the IC with Bubba going into the church, or the associated OoC, which direction the doors were all facing exactly, but I believe the main doors are on the west side, canteen north side, and rollups east, in the yard. Morningstars has on office on the second floor and quarters on the third on the same side as the loading yard.

Felix prefers plan 1 (covert at night), while part of me (the player) wants to pull on a fiberoptic mohawk and roll in with mojo and gel rounds flying.

@ Whoever feels up to the IC planning write-up: Felix will offer up the following ideas/abilities for magical support: Up to 4 sustained spells, two of which at higher force (improved invis, levitate, physical mask), an air spirit and a city spirit for (concealment, movement, confusion @ astral watchers, magical backup if something goes down) and a big chunk of spell defense to keep the infil team safe.

I'd start writing it up myself, but I need some sleep.