I'm working on a mission where the players will have to infiltrate an apartment that is now a crime scene.

Basically a guy was killed in the apartment. The body has been taken away but the apartment is still a crime scene. So my question is, what kind of security do you think Knight Errant would have on the apartment?

I'm thinking a drone in the apartment that will alert KE when/if someone comes into the apartment. RFIDs on the door letting people know it's a crime scene (new age version of the yellow police tape) but what else would seem appropriate? A watcher spirit? That seems extreme to me, but what do you think?

Watcher spirits are cheap and easy to produce, on the other hand they are easily to bypass for anyone serious and work best in combination wih mundane security so I cannot really see them being used for remote monitoring of crime scenes. Depending on the level of sophistication of the apartment's node an agent might also be loaded on the apartment's home node or that of the building to monitor the windows and doors or any lights going on etc. etc.

That depends on how much KE cares about the crime scene. If a whole team is getting payed to get into it and mess with stuff, chances are that KE is going to care alot. They'll likely have a couple of watcher type drones to alert an intrusion, a combat drone to deter casual miscreants, a watcher spirit patrolling the area and perhaps another one sitting in the middle of the room keeping an eye on things. Perhaps a higher grade spirit on standby to pop in if needed (Being cautioned to use only mana spells so as not to damage any evidence). There might even be a couple of guards on duty. The spirit is perhaps the least likely due to the cost of binding a spirit. They might have thrown up a low grade ward though. Not enough to keep someone out from astral, but they'd have to break it and alert them.

I'm curious why they would care? By the time the body is gone and the homicide scene team has left the photos are taken, samples are collected, the mages and the astral cameras have come and gone, obvious and not-so obvious interesting stuff would have been picked up.

There really isn't likely to be anything particularly useful or interesting left there. What are the PCs supposed to do?

The body might be gone but the persons possessions are probably still there. Say the person was a collector and had a rare McGuffin. The pcs could be hired to find and bring back said object. Or they could be hired to find out what happened themselves so they need access to the crime scene and related files.

That's why I asked. Because if it's the house of James the Art collector the site gets secured a lot differently that if it was Joe the mugger and small-time crack dealer's apartment.

Well, the level of effort KE allocates to a case, like Lone Star before them, depends heavily on how much they have to gain from solving it and how likely they are to solve it at all. Remember, Knight Errant is a business and a subsidiary of Ares so that's two reasons why they always look at bottom-line when allocating resources for anything.

Observation of the scene, if it doesn't directly require it, is usually for deterrence and not to alert them of tampering as the damage will already have been done. Usually more observation is in line with a larger crime-scene

Physical guard is usually proportional to how high they rate the case. Low-rated cases don't merit too much, just minor deterrence for easily-intimidated honest citizens to total lockdown for high-profile cases. I doubt guard-drones will be employed but I'd think the dog-brain wouldn't be too practical considering its lack of context in the matter unless the pilot has some specialized drone-pilot autosofts to create specific contexts it can follow (like having the RFID tags restricting gunfire towards them).

Astral security isn't really practical most of the time considering the fleeting nature of an astral signature and the rarity of magicians employed by KE. Now if they had reason to believe there was a good chance of astral bodies tampering in some way with the scene and the case was high-profile enough then there would be a good cause to keep the scene under astral watch/guard.

Rule of thumb for KE is that nuyen, equipment, and manpower is in proportional allocation to the degree as solving the case will net glory for them (in the form of bonuses and PR).



As far as the case you've described goes, there isn't enough data on WHERE the apartment is and WHO was killed to make an appropriate guess. An apartment in Bellevue or Downtown would get far more action than one around Auburn or Tacoma. A random wageslave isn't going to really attract much attention either unless it's linked with a more high-profile thing (one victim in a string of inventive serial killings, a rash of spontaneously combusting Seattlites, etc) or he was somebody famous or important.

Also keep in mind that the average home is already equipped for basic interior surveillance via the CHN and it's maintenance drones.

6 hours after the crime, any lingering astral signatures will be gone. Whether or not magical forensics have been called in, there's not much an astral mage can do, so I don't know they'd put any special protections there at all. The astral protection should be commensurate with the apartment the guy is living in (so if it was an important guy, there will already be significant astral protection, and if it's a Joe Slum, there will be little or none).

Physically, again, the apartment already has security, and anything important has been taken. What sort of security do the police put on a cold crime scene now? After six or so hours, the doors will be locked and rekeyed, the cameras set to alert someone of ANY motion, and all the peripherals unplugged frmo the matrix. Quick, cheap, effective.

Really, this should be a cakewalk for runners. Any protections are more there for color than as a real hindrance.

Would it be reasonable to have them put a minidrone (an iBall?) in the apartment? Say they're hoping the guy's girlfriend comes back to the apartment so they can talk to her, as she's a person of interest?

I'd go with yes, but then again, I wouldn't say that would be standard. If it's a shared apartment, sure, why not? If it isn't...sort of questionable.

Regarding magic, don't a lot of forensic mages learn Cleansing metamagic? I remember it being used as an old SR2-3 example, but I'd imagine it'd be used after forensics has collected evidence.

Don

No two crime scenes are really alike so the procedures are going to vary. The main reason to preserve a crime scene after a CSI team has finished collecting the evidence is that there is a possibility that they may have to go back looking for more evidence. If a team of runners is being hired to go in there...then odds are something important is believed to remain behind.

Ultimately, the case priority is going to be the determining factor. High profile cases will get more assets allocated to them.

An officer at the door or outside in a patrol car, is a significant asset. A drone and a few alarm sensors (covering entry points) are far less significant and probably more effective ultimately.