What part of "packet of rolling papers" is not clear?

~lol~ thanks

Guess not.

huh?

I have a response I'd like Kreskin to try before the dwarf walks away, but I don't want to ruin the con if it looks like he might be buying what Riot is saying, so when JP posts next, maybe he could give me a hint (I'll make a sense motive check) and if it looks like he's not having any of it, I can try my approach instead.

Sense Motive test:
12d6.hits(5) = 3 hits

Your test shows you that he's uncertain, off his footing.

@BH - Give your idea a shot.

Its not much of a plan, but I figured we should try to keep him from walking away, at least. At the very least, if he bites, we might be able to buy his silence until tomorrow.

I think we need to press him if he comes back to the table.

Damn, Klink beat me to it. :-/

Looks pretty good, though. Gave out more details than probably wise, but not a bad effort at saving our lives.

You get the next one. He might be reluctant to help.

I've got a master plan brewing...if this pans out the way I want it too.

Dunno if we need a master plan, we've already got a meet arranged.

Just make sure to pass the ball to me, IC, otherwise Kreskin is inclined to just let you handle the rest of this meet, since you're doing well, and nobody else even thought this lead was worth tracking down.

Kind of sad that the last two times we went to talk to someone, the "Face" got to stand around and let other people do the talking, but, in both cases, it probably worked out better than if he had done things his way.

Hes the master plan, its a good one:

Assuming we can find the safe house before 730, we hit the house en mass, but don't go to blows with them. They're likely to be down 1 or 2 members, since they'll be thinking that they're meeting us, leaving them unstaffed at the safehouse. Outnumbered 5 to 2, they'll probably just hand him over. We pick up Belenkiy and peace out, no worse for wear.

Kim didn't think it was worth tracking down. I thought it was dangerous. One of us was right.

I still think we shouldn't have gone here... it's lame.
Kim is going to be happy with the divine intervention, but will still think everyone is stupid.

Still think that now? We have their safehouse. Now that my suspicion is confirmed that he's got mob ties, I'm still unsure of the motivations behind the kidnapping. Still bothered by why the grab went down and then the hack came in a few hours later.

@JP: Did the thugs come out of the back, stand around, and then go back into the back? or did they come out, and then leave the diner altogether (in which case, I might wonder where they are off to)?

It may have worked out for us, but it was still a bad call. It was a hunch, not backed up by anything substantial, and it was just as likely to have gone the other way and gotten us all killed, or tipped off the people who took B. You basically showed up, and told the mob the whole story, which may still turn out to be a bad thing, even if it helps us find B a little bit faster.

Also, as far as the master plan, I think that its close, but needs a little work. For one, if the Black Cats can be reasoned with, we should just do that. If we lured them out of hiding in good faith, and then hit their safehouse and ruin their run, they're gonna hold a grudge. I would suggest we split up, though. some of us meeting the BCs some of us in wait near the safehouse. Then, if negotiations with the black cats go bad, we can signal the other team and they can move in before the BCs who met with us can get back home.

Otherwise, we'er just going to piss a lot of people off.

Riot tends to have a shock and awe style...he is a thunderbiker....

Anyway, mint cigs were a substantial clue in my eyes. They're brought up like 4 times during the room search scene. I never thought the mob was behind the kidnapping, even if you all did. There was no motivation. He was dirty and working with them. Likely picked up the mint cigs habit from his friend, the dwarf. Anyway, the mob would hire runners for a gig like this anyway. And, or they wouldn't have then hacked into the compound 2 hours later and demanded a ransom. If they were going to kidnap him, it would most likely be to murder his ass for cutting ties with them. No other logical explanation for why the mafia would be behind it.

I never advocated violent diplomacy. Just gun point diplomacy. I don't want to hurt them, just make them see the error of their ways. They're not going to give us him unless we come up with $250k...which we don't have. We hit them while they're split up, grab B and finish the run.

You must be joking. The whole relation with the mob because of a cigarette smell is just ridiculous.

The master plan, I see it as the highest probability for the best outcome we could possible achieve.

Anyone else have general thoughts about this plan?

I just disagree. I see that as the highest probability of a successful job, with a whole lotta fallout that we don't want.

Busting into places with guns drawn and making demands is rarely ever the smart thing to do. Then again, the same goes for showing up at dangerous places on a hunch and spilling your guts, but that turned out pretty good.

Thrillseeker man, just RPing Riot. Never said he did things the smart way.

Anyway, we can send you to the meet with the BC and if the negotiations don't work out well, we can bust down on them. I've got 9 successes on my next Probe in VR with edge, so I should to the commlink, whether it catches me or not, different story. But if I do, that will place us at ~7, I can pin point his location using the RFID chip from this commlink. We can pin point which storage unit they're using as a safehouse and we can bust down on them. Also, outwitting a "superior" runner team is going to do loads for our street cred and reputation. Riot would say that's worth whatever the cost.

@JP - How long would it take to get from teh DIY Storage to the Park where the Black Cats want to meet us?

Driving from Marcel's to the meeting point is maybe 35 minutes. From Marcel's to the DIY place that was mentioned, 25 minutes. From the DIY place to the meet is 20 minutes.

So we have plenty of time to get some food, agree on a plan, and optionally drop people off at either location

Well we're running up to a pretty close deadline if we try and do a multidrop. I'm going to say there's a Stuffer Shack, 10 min away. I'll stamp us at 6:05 having just gotten our food and we can start with the planning discussion and driving up in to a central area between the DIY and the Park.

Hah!

Send Kreskin to the meet solo (or with one of my drones). Everyone else is in position in the van by the DIY Storage. If the meeting doesn't yield anything useful we make a grab on Mr. B?

Kreskin won't agree to meet them alone and Wolf won't let him, or agree to be party to a raid before the meet.

If you read my post, we would raid after the meet if no valuable info or deals could come out of it. And we'll need our firepower to make the raid if we don't get any play from them. Thus one of my drones could provide sufficent protection.

I did read it. What I meant was, Wolf isn't going to agree to a raid period until after the meet.

Kreskin saw how the Sioux reacted to a pinkskin, I'm damn sure he's not going to meet the Black Cat's without Wolf and even if he was, Wolf would go anyway.

Kim is for checking if B is being held against his will in the safehouse of the BCs and if he is kill the BCs.

I can't keep up to get a word in edgewise IC. Everytiem I preview my post, you guys moved the conversation along.

~lol~ I stopped trying

we'll one of you needs to stop this mess

stop initiating combat, and we'll see what we can do.

ಠ_ಠ

I think you'll have to change this part....

I'm not sure what option you're giving Wolf to stay part of the team.

I'm not initiating anything. Wolf just asked him to stop the van and talk normally as he's sick of this AR messaging crap.

I agree. You asked for something reasonable, and he said you could jump out of a moving van, and then aimed multiple guns at you. I don't see how this goes except to initative where you two race to see who kills the other first. Unless he immediately deactivates the drones, and even then... its bad.

I'm hacking the commlink...and I've spent edge, so I'm not backing out. And you're last sentence made it sounds like you wanted to step outside. I mis intreprated his meaning. I'll revise.

The one thing that NEVER ends well, is pointing a gun at a Shadowrunner.

Could still have stopped, without activating the drones. Wolf is done.

Hold up, hold up.

I read Wolf's response as "get out of VR, stop the van, and lets settle this" Now thats not the case. Chill out. I'll revise my post, and we can move from there.

well, it makes sense that Riot might have read it that way... pointing guns at someone is still not a good way to handle it.