It's actually not about the money (which is quite a lot, really), but rather about the lack of detail before agreeing to do it.

Bye
Thanee

Yeah, that was more about Seth's IC question about difficulty vs. payment. It's easier to handle generalized expectations OOC to get everyone in the same place though, especially since it'll give you an idea of where I'm coming from in any future negotiations as well .

As far as your question, I hope the IC response got closer to what you're looking for. It's a bit of a balancing act for the Johnson, trying to decide what's 'enough' information without giving away too much to people that haven't committed to anything. By all means, keep pressing if you feel it's not enough. (Maybe you can even get him to inadvertently give something away, or maybe not .)

Cool - thanks. Dante will record some images to do some searching later on this logo.


To me as a player, the money sounds great! But as a character, Dante feels like there ALWAYS has to be some negotiation, ya know? Otherwise, they'll think they paid too much

I'll try not to bog the game down with negotiation-bickering tho'

Whoops! I forgot about the troll bodyguard in the room. Perception test on him too, please. Looking for corp / triad affiliations, recording images of notable things etc.

5 hits

I'm going to assume that everyone is 'in' at this point and put up the details, since I think everyone but Mickle has posted acceptance (though not all of them were verbal). If you really meant to say no, just let me know and I can go back and edit.

Here's an image that'll help with what I'm trying to describe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bonsai_f...a_Yunyan_Ta.jpg
You'll have to wait until tonight for a layout drawing, since I'm still at work .

sabs: You can make data search rolls for the troll, but you'll need to make a visual perception roll to notice the tie pin (threshhold 5), if you make that, go ahead and do the data search for it as well.

phlapjack: Aside from being a muscular troll dressed in a plain black suit, you don't notice anything special about the bodyguard. He's obviously scanning over the room, keeping track of any sudden movements and all the other things you'd expect of a professional bodyguard.

rolls:
Perception Visual: 15d6 1 1 6 5 6 1 5 1 5 5 4 6 3 1 1 (7) hits. (if you want invisible castle, i'll have to roll tonight when I get home)

Data search: 13d6 1 4 3 1 2 1 6 5 1 5 1 6 3 (4) hits Troll
Data Search: 13d6 4 3 5 5 2 4 3 6 1 3 2 2 3 (3) hits Pin.

Very nice picture. OK got it.

I'm not very experienced with these pnp games. Most games I have been in stopped before we got this far: thanks Edana for running this.

So normally in pnp game, we'd spend about 2 or 3 hours coming up with plans. But the plan would probably look like this

• Sneak up close.
• Get control of the matrix.
• Use a spirit to conceal us from the watchers.
• Use another to act as a diversion for the watcher.
• Either have our scout, or a drone sneak in and turn the plant

A second plan:

• Any techy could probably whip up a widget that would confuse the plates that the plants are on, and cause it turn (I think I could in real life)
• A dragon fly or two might be able to sneak it in

A third plan

• Bribe a guard
• Pretend to be a guest
• Bribe a guest

A fourth plan

• I have magic fingers. Magic fingers is line of sight (can you say you say telescope and helicopter anyone0, and we might be able to get a dragonfly up close to help

Worries:

• Is there an alarm on the plant base
• Is there a program on the computer monitoring the cameras that look to see if the plant has moved

Things we need to know:

• What sort of sensors are monitoring the garden (camera, sonar, millimeter radar...)
• This is probably some Feng Shui stuff, so we need to talk to a Feng Shui expert and see what Mr Lee is actually up to

3rd Plan:

1) We make the Gardener call out/send a replacement gardener(s).
2) New Gardener(s) come in well over the 48 hour mark. Does the changes/gardening, and changes the plants in the way required, all while the guards nod and smile.
3) profit
4) get the bonus

alternatively we put the gardener on ice/kill him/send him on a vacation to Macao,what ever, and then we have one of us disguised as said gardener.

things we need to know:
1) Who else, besides the Gardener is likely to notice the changes to the plants.
2) Who is the Gardener
3) Is there anything special about him
4) What's the matrix security like in the place.

I like your thinking sabs. What we need is someone with high medical skills to cause observe one of the existing gardeners has a bad stomach upset.

No problem, it's been fun for me so far, and now we're getting towards the meat of the first mission, so it will be interesting to see how you guys work it out. You're probably going to want to do the bulk of planning IC though.

Not going to comment on the plans put out so far for what should be obvious reasons .

(sabs, it's going to take several minutes for your data search to return, so I'll put that up once the time advances a bit.)

3 spells:
improved invisibility
trid phantasm
influence

we win. ^_^

except with Watchers, if we show up like that.. it's ugly unless you have Masking? and can pretend to be the Mage who summoned the Watchers.

no masking yet (unless our most generous GM feels an urge to grant us karma that we can use to initiate right away... ^_^), but I have to wonder: are watchers susceptible to the influence spell?

Hehe, no such luck on the karma .

As far as Influence vs. watchers, I think they're susceptible, but they're not exactly very bright, so a suggestion that fits within their mindset isn't going to have a lot of leeway. Not to mention you have to have LOS to cast, which very likely means they have LOS to you and can basically instantly report that due to their link to summoner. Not insurmountable, but something to think about.

The watchers are not hard to deal with:
Influence might work
Concealment will just hide us from them (unless we are not RAW)
If concealment isn't an auto success, then we can still use it, and distract them: not enough to get them to call their mage. Don't forget they have the IQ of a dog, and they are not hard to distract

The other thing about watchers is that they won't really notice drones or anything like that

Don't forget though that we need to make sure that there are not technological system checking over the plants. At airports today we can spot things that don't move, things that move etc. So if the plant moves, the tech systems will say "that plant has moved". I think we have to hack that system and check / edit it.

Concealment isn't an auto-success, since the watcher house rule means they have more than the RAW 2 dice. It's still very useful, and could potentially get you past undetected, especially if it's from a higher force spirit.

Just an observation: if they call their mage...well that mage IS susceptible to influence

lol. Am I going to end up in an influence war with a corpsec mage? that's gonna suck. Or be epic. Either or.

I like blackmail better.


I agree, but most important could be how anyone will notice the changes.
If it's an astral space changing feng shui thing even some guests might notice.

hmm...

what if we cause a situation that results in a 2-day evacuation of the facility? technically, nobody could spot the changes if nobody's there... ^_^

Good questions - hopefully the Johnson has some detailed info on this


Another good idea, but we'll have to make the question vague enough that it wouldn't be eventually traced to our job


I like this plan - impersonate the gardener. But I would imagine the "replacement" gardener would face some pretty intense scrutiny - we need to dig up a lot of information on this master gardener.


Blackmail could work too, we'll need as much and more info on the gardener as above. The astral space question is good, we def. need to consult a Feng Shui expert.


I wouldn't think this is a good idea, as it kind of gives a "something happened" vibe to the whole affair. I think we want almost nothing out of the ordinary to happen to the facility, up until the end of the appointed time.

Maybe we should look into getting some skillsofts / knowsofts on Feng Shui and gardening? If we go the impersonator route...

Just noticed - the timing of the "replacement" gardener idea wouldn't get us the 48 hour bonus.

Gardener is scheduled on the 22, from 7am - 1pm.
Change needs to last until the 23, until 6pm.

This would give us at max, ~ 35 hours.

As per the description by Mr. Lee, maybe a plan could be to slip in during the celebrations of the New Year, which would be tomorrow, the 19th. Pretty tight timing. Then we'd have to blackmail or otherwise have some effect on the gardener to not spot the changes.

Unless we get the gardener to show up 'early'
Tomorrow is way too tight timing i think.

was it 48 hours before the minimum, 48 hours after the minimum, or 48 hours total, regardless of when it starts and stops?

that's a good question - I think it's 48 hours ending at 6pm on the 23rd...so to get the 48 hour bonus, we would at least need to do the changes by 6pm on the 21st.

quoting the Johnson:
"We need the alterations to be in effect no later than 4am on the 23rd and remain undetected until 6pm"

I think the important thing is they need the changes to be there at least by 4am on the 23rd, and the changes HAVE to still be there at 6pm on the 23rd

The simplest solutions are often the best. In any plan we do we have to hack the computer system to disable any monitoring, and ensure that the gardeners don't interfere. For purposes of planning my personal view is that I would rather we ensured the main objective first, and if our solution gives us the bonus then hurrah! In order of simplicity the plans I think are easy look like this.

• Hack the computer systems
• Get a dragon fly to drop a widget that confuses the magnetically powered pointing device
• Ensure that the gardeners come down with food poisoning or influence them or something to just keep them away for a couple of days

• Hack the computer systems
• Bribe a gardener
• Ensure that the gardeners come down with food poisoning or influence them or something to just keep them away for a couple of days

• Hack the computer systems
• Replace a guest
• Ensure that the gardeners come down with food poisoning or influence them or something to just keep them away for a couple of days

• Hack the computer systems
• Get a dragon fly to provide an up close image of the plant
• Get it so the mark 1.0 eyeballs of Dr Yang can see the plant. I don't have mage goggles, but we can buy some. A periscope is really cheap
• Use magic fingers to move it
• Ensure that the gardeners come down with food poisoning or influence them or something to just keep them away for a couple of days

The plans that appeal to me the most are bribing someone to move the plant or posing as / replacing a guest.

The idea of a physical insertion is also possible, but I think much more likely to go wrong: there are guests there are guards and there are dogs.

Nah, I think you got that part wrong.

It is 48h starting at "4am on the 23rd". So longer than the required "6pm".

"We need the alterations to be in effect no later than 4am on the 23rd and remain undetected until 6pm, the longer the period the better though."


Generally, I think we should start after the gardener has left, so on the 22nd afternoon/evening (more likely the evening).

What we need is a way to tamper with the various security systems/watchdogs without it being noticed.

Bye
Thanee

yeah, I think you're right - Edana, is this correct?

should we be having our planning sessions somewhat IC? just askin'

If you want clarifications or info from Mr. Lee, you'll have to ask IC . I don't mind if you do some planning OOC, some concepts are easier to explain that way, but you'll probably be better served by doing a fair amount IC as well.

Aha, ok. So it's the other way around (from what I thought ). Well, that makes it a bit trickier, I guess, as it involved dealing with the gardener.

Bye
Thanee

So although we need a plan, I think there are at least three things that need doing no matter what we are going to end up doing:

• Hack the area's system
• Astrally scout the area
• Physically scout the area

I'm not optimal for any of these tasks, so I suggest I hold your coat tails while you lot do it

Hehe, can't be giving you a bonus without it taking some effort .

Anyhow, updated IC, the envelope contains 6 certified credsticks with 4,500 each, plus the commlink he mentioned. The two credsticks pulled from his pocket were 1,000 and 2,000 .

If I forgot anything, just let me know and I'll edit it in.

You still owe me my data searches.

Also, I want to do a scan for listening devices, etc etc.
I really hate the idea of planning something illegal in a room I have no control over.

The ninjas? Ah, I see, that was on purpose!

Bye
Thanee

P.S. @sabs: We do not have to stay there.

I hope everyone agrees that we should make the changes during the New Year’s celebrations.

Added the data search info. If you still want to scan the room even though you're leaving, you'll need to roll EW+Scan. If you don't care about that because you're leaving, that's fine too.



Drat! You weren't supposed to notice them until later .


Mickle: Max is in danger of getting hit by a bus on the way to the new location .

got 3 days, don't I? I'll try to get something written up tomorrow. School's been busy.

I'm still learning everyone's capabilities. My thoughts on the immediate future are that we meet to plan, and my starter is that we need more information:

• Fractal: I guess you are our best hacker, so what help can we give you to Hack the target's security systems. I suggest I stand on medical overwatch in case of unpleasant IC and stuff. and we probably want a body guard in case of "trace and SWAT".
• Hope/TingTing and Max you all look pretty sneaky, can I suggest that one or all of you drive by the place and give it the once over?
• I guess we all need to hit any relevant contacts and find out what we can about the target and especially our head gardener

I don't see much downside to doing the "hack the system" now. Almost certainly there will be cameras that we can look through, and we can work out if there are any software systems watching the plants. We may even find out where people live.

My contacts: Shen Li L3C3 Red Pole Triad, and Han Hung Fixer who runs a dodgy establishment / pit fighting Etiquette + Charisma + C = 9 die.
Wow. Shen Li is the man. Dragon by name and knowledgeable dragon by nature: 7 successes. We'll skip over Han's "huh. what. do you know what day it is...I'm busy"

We're definitely going to need some good Matrix hacking of the facility - I think Fractal will earn his pay on this run

The sooner we start probing the system, the better I think - long, slow hacks work better than on-the-fly hacks.

Even though we don't have a real plan yet, it seems like the "big 2" areas of concern are the security system, and the gardener. These could be broken down into smaller chunks as well.

Oh, and we should try to figure out who this garden belongs to - there's a house right next to the garden, isnt' there? or is that the guard outhouse?

1. Security System
a. Guards (in a small outbuilding...about 50 meters from the entrance of the garden...always at least 2 guards on active duty...3rd guard maintaining overwatch at all times)
b. Dogs
c. Drones (4 active at any time, spares available on-site)
d. Matrix (cameras, alarms, monitored circuits on plant bases)
e. Magic (typically 2 watchers patrolling the astral space around the retreat, and a mage is probably kept on-call)
f. "area you will be operating in is owned by a local corporation with no known ties to any of the double or triple-A's"

2. Gardener
a. Li Shen Chang
b. spent a considerable amount of time in a monastery during his youth
c. seems to have some magical talent
d. "next scheduled visit is on the 22nd from 7am to 1pm"
e. Where does he live?
f. How can we influence him?
g. Is there a backup protocol if he doesn't make his rounds?

a. I think we can only use stealth or they'll know something happened.
b. We could drug them for a few minutes, anything longer and the guards will know something happened.
c+d. Hacking seems the only way to me.
e. Distraction?

laes?

A leash to hold the dogs won't stop them from barking, but if they're only there to attack intruders and not to alert the guards it would be enough.

I think he means the drug Laes which can erase memories, though it's not exactly easy to get.

Ah, Leäl would work too, but the problem with using drugs on the guards is that they'll know something has happened.

Good point. Best way to deal with that is to be in a warded place IMHO and we aren't in "our" warded place...So this is a second best that should offer some security:
Summoning Rank 4 fire elemental: no drain and 2 services


(I didn't post an OOC for the watchers because they are trivial to summon, and I will just use the 4:1 rule)

I wasn't trying to imply anything, really - just that Dante heard them talking about "watchers" and sorta saw Dr. Yang doing something magical, and figured he must be doing something security-wise. Funny how these things work out

It really was a good point. If we stay together as a group though I suggest we make a safe meeting place: You computer types can deal with bugs and stuff and we magical types can do some serious warding. Thats for next mission though I suspect

Can I get an idea of the location surrounding the target garden? Specificially looking for tall buildings and such that we could look out over the garden. Trying to use my map-softs to help out with this.

I think you should call me Yuki, Hope or Kondo.