I think you should poke him...wake him up.

Let sleeping mages lie...

lol, fair dues

@OnTheBoat
I don't see the captains threat as too big a problem

Plan A
To the best of my knowledge since 2006 container ships have been required to have free fall life boats which should just work. The 30 knots won't cause much hassle other than maybe some nasty bruises (but that's what the straps are for).

Plan B
I carry him down the ladder, use spirit power guard/movement and swim into our waiting boat.

Plan C
I get a spirit to posses him and otherwise it's the same as plan B. I can fly off the boat. That leaves Robert and Silk to get off.

Plan D
That's up to you techy types.

In either event we get the captain moving. If he comes quietly that's good if not I will "sparky" him

@Seth, with my perception tests did I find any lingering resonance or matrix signature on those edited logs or too cold?

@OnlyGhostDancesWhenDrunk
You didn't find any resonance traces. IIRC it takes a number of hours equal to the level of resonance to fade. You can check the time lines, but your traces would still have been visible, so if they are a technomancer, they are weaker than you

As far as security logs went, if someone edited them, then they left no traces (but you wouldn't have either).

kk thats what I wanted to make sure of tyvm. Time to take a peek at the Hardcore matrix presence. Should I roll a data search for their node or can I assume I autofind it?

@ IOAB

Yes, they do have free fall life boats. This one has 4 clustered around the stern/superstructure area. They are equipped with all the normal functions of a mid-length survival life boat, to include a low power inboard engine, and are completely enclosed. I should also point out they most likely have a very comprehensive SAR contract.

@OnTheBoat
Cool
Lets get the captain to a lifeboat.

I cann't speak at the moment...so can you kick this off Silk or Robert?

@I'm On A Boat
I'll go ahead and put the idea forward, with an extra dose of Influence Power to coax the captain out of his smug little shell.

Magic + Willpower to Influence the captain (11d6.hits(5)=4)
The captain gets willpower ALONE to resist. Less than four hits, and "just come quietly" sounds like a very good idea to him.

Hmm lets see so data searching for the Hardcore node(s). Time to look for the buggers.

threading up a browse CF

soft 4 + res 4 + am 2 + HG:bionode 2 + vr 2 = 14d6

14d6.hits(5) → [1,3,5,6,1,6,1,2,6,4,3,1,6,3] = (5)

using 4 hits for the cf

fading 4s:

will 6 + res 4 = 10d6

10d6.hits(5) → [6,3,6,1,1,5,3,1,5,1] = (4)

ooh thats close almost a glitch 0.o.

no fading

Data Searching:

threaded browse 4 + data search 4 + am 2 + vr 2 = 12d6 (the vr bonus applies to all matrix actions right?)

12d6.hits(5) → [2,5,3,1,3,4,4,6,5,1,5,3] = (4)
11d6.hits(5) → [3,2,4,2,1,3,1,6,6,1,4] = (2)
10d6.hits(5) → [4,5,3,5,4,4,6,1,1,6] = (4)
9d6.hits(5) → [1,6,3,2,5,1,4,3,5] = (3)
8d6.hits(5) → [4,1,5,5,3,1,6,4] = (3)
7d6.hits(5) → [6,2,2,3,5,6,4] = (3)
6d6.hits(5) → [4,6,5,2,4,1] = (2)


so 21 successes on searching for the Hardcore home nodes etc etc. Takes me about 7 mins to get that far, unless you rule that its not searching the entire matrix but rather something more limited.

Hardcore deploy well trained staff, but don't do much in the magical security area. They provide basic wards on request. Mostly they are for the people that think they can do a better job of the magical security than a hired firm.

• They pay poorly but train their staff well, and provide nice standard of living.
• They use dogs a lot, and paranormal animals for special clients.
• They deploy in squads of 8, with a leader type for each group of 8
• In any deployment there will be 5 groups. 3 groups provide 24 hour cover, 1 group is on holiday and 1 group is training
• The leaders are mostly ex "serious military"
• Their dogs have often been cybered
• Normally Hardcore deal with minor threats themselves
• In the event of a serious attack, they get the client (and themselves) into panic rooms and wait for backup
• Backup is by Helicoptor gunships, and they promise "within 10 minutes" delivery, or they won't take you as a client
• Vashon Sounds (where Teague lives) is about 15 miles from the Seattle Hardcorp compound
• The matrix security around the Seattle Hardcore compound is severe: you can try hacking it if you want, but it will take time you suspect

Answers in Red


Hope that helps…keep em coming!

@I'm on a Boat:

Surely the Captain is stalling? There's bound to be more than one door off the bridge isn't there?!? Silk will pull up the map soft and plot us a route to the lifeboats...if the only way is through that door then she'll boost her strength again and help the Capn while Robert watches the other crew for signs of interference...

so lets see:

1. do all personel live on base?
1a. do any dependents live on base?
2. How are they kitted?
3. Who supplies the kit?
4. Do they do all their maintenance in house?
5. Who trains/ preps their animals?
5a. Are all the members of each group trained to interface with the dogs etc?
6. Whats the protocol for substituting relief in case of sick/injured etc?
7. How many areas are they employed to protect in Seattle?
8. So there is just one big node that Im going to have to hack/probe or ?
9. Is seattle their HQ?
9a. If not where is the HQ or if it is, where are their satellite compounds?
10. What does hardcore consider minor and also are the helis based at the seattle compound or are they third party, who does their maintenance/resupply etc etc?

Hoping that info was covered in my large number of successes as well.

@OnlyGhostDancesWhenDrunk
1: all personel live on base?

at any one time 3/5 to 4/5 do

1a. do any dependents live on base?

No

2. How are they kitted?

The best! or so it says

3. Who supplies the kit?

Ares

4. Do they do all their maintenance in house?

You found no hints

5. Who trains/ preps their animals?

They do

5a. Are all the members of each group trained to interface with the dogs etc?

No. They have dog handlers

6. Whats the protocol for substituting relief in case of sick/injured etc?

call base. The details you would have to hack the site to find out

7. How many areas are they employed to protect in Seattle?

50

8. So there is just one big node that Im going to have to hack/probe or ?

It's never just one big node.

9. Is seattle their HQ?

No

9a. If not where is the HQ or if it is, where are their satellite compounds?

I haven't decided. Lets say "all over the place"

10. What does hardcore consider minor

At their discretion

10a. and also are the helis based at the seattle compound

Yes

who does their maintenance/resupply etc etc?

They do

This made me laugh.

lol hmmm I was angling more for trying to find their affiliate locations and spoofing info from one to another guess that's a GM no . Another thing then seth, if thats the case, what nodes/ how many have I found? Also, are they allowed dependents or is that a strict must be single only policy?

Also got a few questions about Teague's place... I see Vashon mentioned as the location in several IC posts.
All sourced from page 105 on in runner havens:

- Vashon Island today is now Outremer in game. Its barely policed by KE so thats something we can use but also (I'll mention this IC since I brought it up) is waterlocked erego we need to use the public and scanty ferries for infil exfil or hire ourselves a smuggler etc etc.

- run by the United corporate Council.... LS has jurisdiction (though that may have changed with KE taking over so assume KE) but not very heavily policed. Corp enclaves do their own shit so no go on MCT Jacob is not infiltrating a zero zone.

- theres a huge ghoul colony on vashon island (page 95 runner quote RH)

- I will IC alot of my issues but before I did I wanted to be certain that is where Teague's is located as its not on our map for the game world yet.


About teagues forces:

he has 3 teams deployed correct? I heard 24 tossed around there so thats 3 teams, does that mean there are actually 9 teams doing coverage of his place for a 24 hr zone (ie 3 deployments)? Or does he have most of hardcore covering his location? Thats fairly interesting load of security.

It would be a 4-6M a year contract for 72 guys, depending on what the other CLINs are...

As for Jacob and zero zones: Novatech is an MCT shell company, and Teague's place is under AAA nationality, hence why he can refuse a KE search warrant unless his bosses let them on (also presumably why helicopter gunships can go free fire mode without say, Brackhaven being in the decision loop). By extension, there are other AAA held patches of nationality scattered around Vashon. Since we're already either pissing off MCT, or making Teague's boss very happy, we might as well limit the potential fallout.

Mostly I am running from a published scenario: although we are fairly off-piste by now. Vashon Island is what it says in there!
Apparently it overlooks Puget Sound. There is a high speed hydroplane/ferry terminal 1 kilometer away from his compound. The other end of the ferry is just south of Lincoln Park on the mainland
The huge ghoul colony I didn't know about.
I suspect who it's run by is irrelevant as everyone wants you.

About teagues forces: He has 3 teams deployed, but pays for 5. One team is on leave, another is training. So of the 24 guards, on an ordinary day, 8 would be guarding, 8 sleeping, and 8 doing whatever they do when they aren't guarding or sleeping. According to his contract he can invoke "double the guards" for a short time if he feels he has need,

Yes it's a lot of security: but he's worth it. Or so the person paying the bill thinks.

Actually, under the assumption "doesn't pay well" = "low lifestyle, with a nice margin on top for the company to cover gear, ware, training, other overhead and a decent profit" its probably less than 2.5-3M annually (assuming that the pair of gunships handles all the Seattle area...attack helicopter operating budgets are obscene for SOTA stuff. Trust me) If novatech is a major entertainment group its pretty possible than a Senior VP (with shiny, shiny stock options) who is busily eating into Horizon marketshare is more than willing to shell out of pocket, or maybe buff up an existing MCT agreement with Hard Core if the company has a cost sharing plan (Its not like MCT is going to hire KE after all - thought the loyalty of the troops between the VP and the company would always be in question, but good sararimen are the company, right?)

bwahahahahaha just had the most inventive yet fairly sadistic idea for breaching security ever cant wait to suggest it in IC

@Hunters Pursuit

Alright, for the ladies who are playing Hunters Pursuit, the first post of the campaign is up. I took a little creative liberty with some of your characters Just a little humor in the intro. Also, you can add two contacts to your character sheets.

Dave - Barkeep at Perrigans Golds C2 L4
Mr. Belvedere - Bounty Contract Johnson C5 L3
-A note about Mr. Belvedere, you probably will never be able to get a hold of him. In most cases he will contact you and yes, he just about knows everything about you. If you stick around, you might find out why

So guys and dolls! How do you like my addition to the plan? Its fairly easy to implement few types of explosives, some emp nades (perhaps the hardest to aquire), some jammers and then a few personafix mods either hacked or bought, dont probably even need to buy the links with sim mods as im certain there are a ton of chipheads we can "collect". My character doesnt like it but his moral schema is all over the place due to his current life.

Here's Stringer's info for Hunter's Pursuit:

Stringer AKA Nuyen Ji---Physical Adept follower of the Wu-Tang way

Description

Background

Stats

Contacts

@OnlyGhost
The consequences of the distraction are "Maximum alert, call the helicopters, wake everyone up and shoot anything that moves." The chip heads would last maybe 1 combat round (that is to say 3 seconds). They may well do some damage, but not very much (they would be lucky to have 6 die in their die pools: the guards have a tacnet and are trained so are running at 10 or more).

If we look at the logistics of the plan:
1: get chip heads
2: clean up and arm chip heads
3: program the persona chips (the default ones don't come with 'and invade this location at this time')
4: get lunatic insane chip heads near to the location
5: time everything so it all happens together

It's a very complex plan. Planting 3 thermal smoke grenades at three locations would have the similar consequences and have easier logistics

hmm not how I imagined it, I remember the way they worked from reading the fluff as assuming new personalities. Id be basically conning them into thinking I was mission control and doing a type of jihad thing, mainly against teague and the base more than his fortress. The jammers and EMP would be armed via panic button (or by slaving to my bionode). I was concerned more about getting jamming and emp in the right areas because if we toss them over the fence they will never ever hit the house or bunker (they only have a small range even at r6).

Also if we use foam explosives on some of the more suicidal ones we dont have to get them that close to base etc and its not so much dice rolling as hey there BOOM!


The way I envisioned it:


1. Buy the "Derek Wilson: 007" Personafix chip.
2. Slot it onto x amount of passed out btl fiends that look decently tough (for chipheads ofc).
3. Once they wake up in new personality, order them via their links as mission control to their spots.
4. Give them my laes cigs to make them forget who gave them the personafix.
5. Wait for the RAS override to kick off.
6. Give them the mission.
7. BOOM!

all but the first and last takes about 20mins to an hour... could easily have them in place at a squeeze in 4 hrs but def at the night op time.

1. Buy the "Derek Wilson: 007" Personafix chip. <---------easy
2. Slot it onto x amount of passed out btl fiends that look decently tough (for chipheads ofc). <-- few hours to get. Requires a van, transport
3. Once they wake up in new personality, order them via their links as mission control to their spots. <---- Requires reprogramming of Derek Wilson persona fix. Approx 6 months
4. Give them my laes cigs to make them forget who gave them the personafix. <--- 5 mins
5. Wait for the RAS override to kick off. <---- easy
6. Give them the mission.
7. BOOM!

And you need to test it while programming, so you would probably need dozens of wireheads to test it on
....

Basically if it was easy the world would be a different place. Every gang would be mugging people and turning them into clones themselves. Every mega corp would be guarded by loyal troops that are persona fixed. That's ignoring the civil unrest and social upheaval.

If it was easy we would be playing a game in which this was the single most important invention, as it would dominate all aspects of play

@Suicide Kings:
I suggest just to use the spirit to open the wall to the premises and the house. Dealer and Copper go in under concealment power with decker/techno locking down and intercepting any traffic to blow the place or calls for help. Ember provides astral cover. Add some disposable jammers along the way to further disrupt signals. Get the paydata and out under cover of thermal smoke and Demon on sniper rifle. If we keep it quiet and if the spirit can close up the walls after it could even be a while before anyone notices the data is missing.

Copper isn't smart enough to come up with this on her own and wouldn't like the idea of using chipheads as disposable assets

I like that plan, I bet Mama Snake would give it to her protege if you don't think Copper is capable of laying down the plan. (It's what I have to do IC with Zerone in Deep Vengeance half of the time---if Follower wasn't there, he'd just be a nervous wreck in every run)

@Hunter's Pursuit

Okay, so here is some of the details on the contents of the file Mr. Belvedere gave you

The Hit List
-Sacho Pavera "Escarcha"
Leader of Terror de Invierno
Usually sticks to the compound
"Related" to Maria Rafiero, a high ranking official in the Cartel

Credillo Montenegra "Plague"
Top ranking advisor to Pavera
Oversees Novacoke distribution and manufacturing

Palto Ferrera "Ghost"
Right hand man
Responsible for wet work and other assorted violent operations
Sadist

Terro Ralta "Daddy"
Prostitution Manager
Manages prostitution business
Responsible for kidnapping local girls and impressing them into the sex trade

Gredera Paltraso "Grin"
Head of Enforcement
Runs the protection racket

The Operations
Drugs - There is a major factory that is responsible for the majority of their drug operation, if that is destroyed their distribution and profits will be crippled.
Prostitution - There are several brothels owned by the gang around the Barrens, but they are not doing as well as the Mafia owned brothels situated all across the barrens.
Protection Racket - Protection money gets collected once a week, three groups of collectors go out and get the money from the locals

Compound
Not much is known about the compound other than it used to be an old auto factory. It has been heavily modified to suit the gangs needs and is basically a fortress. The area around the compound is what the locals call "No Man's Land". The buildings around it are all abandoned due to the proximity to the gang. Other than that, not much is known. You will have to find out for yourself how to topple this "castle"

Any pattern of life on the marks beyond that?

Unfortunately not. As Belvedere said, his contact was caught before he was able to deliver a full report, all Belvedere has is the preliminary findings. Maybe B's contact backed up his files somewhere

@Hunters/Friendbot: Do we have a time of year / date for this event? Just to get a feel for weather (probably wet) temperature etc...everyone else is in April but there's no need to be at the same time as long as timestamps are clear

Thanks

Thanks for the idea. See how Mama Snake makes her thoughts on how the plan should be carried out known.

@SuicideKings
I am thinking we have had a couple of weeks to plan this, and I am tempted to move time on to the start. In the real world this would take hours/days of intensive planning, but in a play by forum if we do that it will be 6 months before we get there.

I propose that by end of play tomorrow (Tuesday) we get you to Vashon Sounds. I am not worried how you get there (disguising yourselves with nanopaste and going over on the nearly deserted high speed ferry works just fine, and we have had a couple of shopping trips for picking it up).

In the meantime, I'd like agreement on the only really difficult question which is "what time stamp do I IC the ferry crossing for?"

@OnTheBoat
Someone pick the captain up and throw him threw the hole. I'd do it, but I am all sparky at the moment. I have ICed move to him twice... so one of you will need to do it

@DysfunctionalFamily
My bad not posting sooner. I'll post this evening with the answer to the kids questions. Do any of the rest of you want to ask anything

@Hunters pursuit
Firstly appolgies for my bad accented Rasta. Ever since I saw Herbal Thought on Dark Angel, I wanted to try playing a character like that. It's surprisingly difficult, and if this was table top I suspect it would be impossible.

My plan for scouting:
1: go there astrally. If I don't have enough information as to where 'there' is, then I'll have a chat with the others who have electronic maps and stuff
2: scout astrally.
3: If they have pets (small/large viscous dogs perhaps?) possess one of them and scout physically. If that's impractical, I'll go with possessing a rat.

I have 'realistic form', so my pet/rat doesn't look like a spirit possessed rat

Nice start Friendbot!

Gee, I didn't think about that actually. For simplicities sake we will just say that it is April meaning wet weather. I will be sure to add the date in the timestamps.

@Seth
Haha I totally love Herbal T. He cracks me up XD Mr. B. gave you the location of the compound so it would be no biggie to go in there astrally.

@ Seth & Suicide Kings: I'm cool with fast forwarding. I'll put up an IC post of Demon picking up the equipment. Thank goodness vending machines sell clothes in the 21st century... ;-p

@ Notsoevildm: No problem, nice IC post for it. Very cool.

@IOAB: He's through the hole. he simply, fell on the other side. He's not so incompetent as to be unable to get through a hole like a normal human.

@Suicide Kings

Mechanik question (remember I am not that magic rule savvy) Concealment only works by clouding organic brain perceptions, right? So all those motion sensors and laser bits will still trip, as will shotgun mikes, stuff like that?

Table talk - we definitely want to ward check the place before we go with that plan...finding out the wall is warded would be a bad day.

World Question - is fiber-wire security common to Seattle 2072 (the process of lacing glass windows or other vulnerable structural materials with fiber trip wires so an alarm will go off when breached)

@ Suicide Kings:

Jacob will go with the plan but wont like it and only cause Hansai is going to owe him one big time. Going to try and buy an active soft from a pirate site methinks... 1 r3 infiltration, 1 r3 automatics should do the trick.

This is going to be interesting, and very much out of his forte for the techno lol.

@Applied Cheese
I am glad you asked. Your inquisitiveness shall be rewarded

Oops, I made a mistake on Stringer. I improved gymnastics and spent an extra 4BP because I forgot about my athletics skill group. I'm going to use the 4BP to bump pistols up from 2 to 3. Sorry about that. x_x

Jacob has an idea and is going to do some research on the barge companies that refuel vashon area:


Threading my browse:

Res 4 + Software 4 + am 2 + HG bionode 2 + 2 vr = 14d6

14d6.hits(5) → [6,6,3,6,5,2,6,4,2,6,4,1,2,4] = (6)

using 4 hits

fading 4s:

will 6 + res 4 = 10d6

10d6.hits(5) → [2,1,1,2,2,6,6,6,6,2] = (4)


no fading

Data Searching for information about what companies service that area for refueling, garbage/sewer etc via water.
6d6.hits(5) → [2,5,6,5,2,2] = (3)

Data Search 4 + Browse CF 4 + am 2 + vr 2 = 12d6 -2 sustaining threading = 10d6

10d6.hits(5) → [6,1,5,2,4,5,6,6,2,4] = (5)
9d6.hits(5) → [2,3,4,6,1,6,1,4,1] = (2)
8d6.hits(5) → [5,1,1,6,4,5,2,4] = (3)
7d6.hits(5) → [3,4,6,3,1,4,3] = (1)
6d6.hits(5) → [3,6,3,2,3,4] = (1)
5d6.hits(5) → [2,3,6,3,3] = (1)

13 successes what did I find out? Looking for basic nodes and publicity info plus maybe any scandals or rumors about less than legit behavior etc. If I find intersting nodes my goal is to hack them and figure out who on the crews is dodgy enough to be bribed etc.

I've been Away from Keyboard for a couple of days. Work is extremely hectic (18 hour days) from now until the weekend. I had forgotten how hard starting a "start up" can be! I'll still be posting, but I won't be able to put a lot of love into the posts.

@Suicide Kings
I'm hoping to get a bit of hand: I was going to IC the move from you to ferry. Can I get one or more of you lot to just do an IC of the ferry crossing. Move the time on until (say) 10 minutes before you are ready to go.

@Dysfunctional Family
Again I am dodging the posting: I've asked Alyena to do the kids Q&A.

@Friendbot/Hunter's Pursuit
OK heading for the compound. I'd IC it, but I am not sure what it looks like. My plan is simple: scout astral, then possess a pet or a rat and scout physically.

@OnTheBoat
If I remember correctly we have mapsofts of the boat. Currently I cannot use those map softs, could one of you check that we are going in the correct direction? AppliedCheese: is there any reason that there will be a problem launching the boats. I've seen these things being launched from oil rigs so I think the speed of hitting the water isn't a big deal (brusing and painful, but ok if you are strapped in). My most appropriate knowledge is Pirating: 3 successes

@Answers to questions:
Concealment works on perception tests. If a person is using the perception skill, concealment would work. There are I think three modes of operation for perception through cameras:
Totally computer/drone: Sensor + Clearsight. Not affected by concealment.
Jumped in: Sensor + Perception: Affected by concealment
Remote controlled (i.e. looking through a camera...): Sensor + Perception. Affected by concealment.

PIrated autosofts: no problem. As I told Pixel, given an hour to check them for backdoors/trojan's etc, you are good enough to safely use them. Spend an hour, roll a d6 and if there result is a 1, the autosoft has a backdoor that will take you some time to fix (It's not a skill roll, it's a luck roll).

Barge companies: Good idea. You can either go by a barge, or use the nanopaste disguise and go on the ferry.

Ingram's barges (no relationship to the gun) is run by a dad and two sons. They have all been held for drunk and disorderly behavior. At the moment the youngest is being held as the family doesn't have enough for a bail bond... (I hope I have the crazy American legal system correct there...sounds mad to me) The oldest son spent two years in a penitentiary for BTL smuggling. Their boat is currently in a good position to help you.

@Friendbot2000



Lol

@Friendbot2000

Where do we do dice rolls? Invisible Castle, I presume, but what is the Campaign name? "Hunter's Pursuit? "2072"?

I'll do an Assensing of the ambient aura around the gang stronghold once I know where to do it.

Yeah, Invisible Castle is good and I am not sure about how to start a campaign on there. I havent toyed around with the system...

Just name the Campaign the first time you use it (in fact any of us can do this) and it will stay. In fact, let me do it now. I'll call it Hunter's Pursuit.

Assensing 2 + INT 4 = 6 dice (don't know whether I can use the +3 for looking for something specific)

==> 3 HITS

Now anybody can log on and select their character (just name her/him the first time) and Hunter's Pursuit as the Campaign, roll and link.