Copperheed--

I don't think Rikik can do it. I bounced some ideas around with Buddha and laying the false datatrail would be an Extended Forgery test. Rikik doesn't have Forgery, so I can't make the test. If someone else has it (Widget, Fuzbun, devious criminal shadowrunner?) then it'd be a go.

Another option would be to get a Skillsoft for it if someone has Skillwires, or if Widget is the right stream, she can compile a Tutor sprite and give it Forgery. (I don't have those sprites) I've also been looking at getting Biowires (echo) but buying it now just to emulate the skillsoft feels really cheesy.

TL;DR--It's doable, but not Rikik's spotlight.

Gruesome idea of the day: Fake the team's death.

Gather up barrens rats that are the same metatype and gender as the team, shoot them and toss them in the back of the van. Add everyone's commlinks with their IDs on Active/Passive and toss in a satchel full of grenades.

Send the van on a one way trip down I-5. At the first sign of trouble or when it reaches Olympia, blow it to kingdom come.

The autopsies will probably come back with the truth but it buys the team a few days while everyone thinks you're dead. During that time, it's "run silent, run deep" time and either tearing the Yakuza apart or finding a bigger target to shift their deadly ire towards.

This idea would never come from Rikik, but Fleet or Eklipse both feel like they could come up with something similar.

OOC I have no problem with that idea. IC, Zero would not think of it, and would most likely never agree to it. Maybe with already dead bodies, but not going out and killing people specifically with that in mind.

Also, several of us have distinctive features - like Eklipse. I don't think we can find a barrens rat with blue fur. Fat Man would also be ethically opposed to that one.

Bishop: if you're going to take an Echo to deal with it, Sprite Link: Tutor.

Eklipse has no issue with taking out criminals like the yaks but he would be unwilling to kill some random punks / squatters to fake his death.
Also he is blue and furry - not many night elves around Seattle.

Umaro-- I took Sprite link to get Machine Sprites, before I dive down that path again, I want to get Biowires and a few advanced ones that let me move my meat faster.

Team--sounds like the gruesome idea is a no-go. It's all good.

NotSoEvil--the data packet included the info about the temple's role in case Eklipse wants to look into it.

@ Buddha: I had a quick question about the data packet Widget sent to Zero. Is it unedited?

Widget would be squeamish about the that idea but would get behind it - its us vs them time and she is all behind team us. The Yaks are just going to kill her if she's lucky otherwise its torture and who knows what else. She works with professional criminals so she is fully aware of the deep dark shit they keep in their heads and she wants no part of that experience. If that means a bum dies sooner than so be it.

JxJxA it is not edited.

BishopMcQ talking with Widget you find out she doesn't have Forgery but she does have biowires.

Charisma 7 + Negotiations 6 (13d6.hits(5)=4) for the Red Queen. I didn't apply any modifiers Up or Down (Street Cred, Desired Result, Lack of Background etc)

Howdy all!

Going to post this afternoon - got all the kids are home (2 on vacation and one sick) so going to wait for another parent to get home before sneaking away into the office to do so. Karma total is updated as usual.

Hi Guys,
Wanted to give you a heads up, im going to pull out of PbP for a bit. I am not posting as much as I'd like. Though I hope to come back in the future..

so..
no shooting Jon on the way out

Thanks for letting me play with you guys, I've enjoyed it a lot.

I'll miss ya Lain and I'll mark you as on hiatus. Let me know when and if you feel like jumping back in.

It's a good time to bail, IC, I think. It makes sense to everyone that people would be looking to try their hand at going dark on their own. Must be easier to find a group then a single person. I'm all for massing firepower, though.

Buddha: back when we assensed that mage, were we able to get a reading on her Magic score?

UmaroVI Her magic score was an 8.

It's probably safe to say 8 +/- her Initiate Grade. That high means she had to initiate, and Masking seems to be a pretty popular option. Did anyone remember getting 2 signatures? Though this could be another sign of my rampant space paranoia...

Before we go running off on Zuzane, what level of SINs did people want, and who is buying? That way I can finish vetting stuff with the Red Queen.

Zero will pay credits, and I'd prefer something as high as possible (Rtg 6 if that's doable). I have enough for it, and would prefer that over finding himself faced with a request he cannot fulfill.

I don't remember how many signatures we picked up on the astral, but I do remember EGL having a "cat" that seemed to be more than it just appeared. I'd guess that it's her ally spirit.

Masking lets you fake your aura to whatever you want, but if Fat Man had the wrong aura he'd have known when he used Masking to fool her ward.

Was it a standard ward that would block you, or one of the alarm wards that laughed at people?

Alarm, but Buddha ruled Fat Man would know if he lost the opposed check and could stay out.

Umaro -- Cool.

Can everyone else swing a Rating 6 Fake SIN like Zero wants? If so, that's what I'll ask for and we can see what the Red Queen can put together.

Buddha -- Since a SIN has to have biometrics which match the individual (or risk getting blown the first time you put your thumb on a scanner), how do you want to handle the problem that Emilio tossed out? I'd assume that until the new ID gets flagged and recorded by Law Enforcement, it won't pop up with the biometric data from a burned ID. Yes/no?

Okay, time for some casting. I'm running on the assumption that A) Fat Man has continued to neutralize Rikik's BGC, or B) Zero is staying outside of it.

Casting Force 4 Increase Willpower
Magic(7) + Sepll(4) + Focus(3) = 14d6 for 4 hits. Letting it drop.
Drain: (4/2) - 2 = 0, so 1S
Will(4) + Cha(5) + Cent(1) = 10d6 for 4 hits, no drain.
Magic(7) + Spell(4) + Focus(3) = 14d6 for 3 hits. Letting it drop.
Drain: (4/2) - 2 = 0, so 1S
Will(4) + Cha(5) + Cent(1) = 10d6 for 2 hits, no drain---forgot to change the dice total, so knocking off the last 4 dice.
[It's about this time when I remembered that it's hits, not net hits that matter. Grumble, grumble, grumble]
Magic(7) + Sepll(4) + Focus(3) = 14d6 for 5 hits, only 4 count and I should have kept the first one. Popping it into my sustaining focus.
Drain: (4/2) - 2 = 0, so 1S
Will(4) + Cha(5) + Cent(1) = 10d6 for 4 hits, no drain.

Casting Force 7 Increase Charisma
Magic(7) + Sepll(4) + Focus(3) = 14d6 for 4 hits. I'll keep it, given that IC loves the number 4 today.
Drain: (7/2) - 2 = 1S
Will(8) + Cha(5) + Cent(1) = 14d6 for 9 hits.

Summoning Force 5 Fire Spirit
Magic(7) + Conj(3) + Focus(3) + Mentor(2) - Sustain(2) = 13d6 for 3 hits. I'll spend Edge to reroll misses because I don't feel like going through this again for 2 more hits. 5 hits total.
Opposed roll: 5d6 for 2 hits. 3 services total.
Drain: 2(2) = 4S
Will(8) + Cha(9) + Cent(1) = 18d6 for 8 hits. No drain.

Hey All!

I am resurfacing - been busy with a sick child and is often way in these things then getting sick myself but I am back and on the mend. Loving the RP going on but still feeling like things are a little stalled out. What can I do to move things along? Let me know.

Quick question: How much downtime are we actually taking? Fat Man would like to pick up a new spell or two - preferably before we hit the warehouse again, so that he can use them there.

At least three days, probably a fourth for Rikik to do a slow probe and hack of the mage's link.

Correct three days have gone by.

Sorry for the delay on that, I've been busy and I wanted to keep the RP flowing before the bookkeeping.

Fat Man would like the formulae for Mana Static and Shattershield. Those are 8R and 8F, and 1500 and 2000 nuyen, respectively. I'm assuming James can sell the formulae to Fat Man and I'm going to go ahead and roll for the learning time, but let me know if not.

Intuition (6)+Spellcasting(6)+Spec(2)+Mentor(2) =16d6 for Shattershield: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3990793/ 2 days to get the hits
Intuition (6) + Spellcasting (6) = 12d6 for Mana Static: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3990796/ 3/5 hits, not done yet.

If we can take another day, Fat Man would like to have that ready for the run.

Otherwise: I think we need to decide:

1) Do we want to kill, disable, or distract that magician?

2) Are we all in fact on board with this plan?

3) Anyone not want to cough up for the r6 Fake SIN?

I don't like the Distract plan, because magicians are very fast on the astral, and she can distribute bound spirits to check and report back if we try to overload her with a lot of ward alarms. It might delay things, but I think she's still very likely to show up and force a kung-fu fight. I think we should research her a bit more and either try to assassinate her and hope nobody else holds a grudge, or just disable her and hope she doesn't hold a grudge.

I'm on board with the plan.

I will pay for a rating 6 fake SIN.

Eklipse will pony up for new R6 fake SIN and ideally another disposable R3 one for runs. If I remember right that 36k and 9k base price?

I am also planning to update char sheet with some significant karma spend which will likely including self initiation as well as leadership, perception and assorted combat skills.

It's Rating x 1000, not Rating^2 * 1000.

Emilio will cough up for a Rating 6 and a Rating 3.

I think distract is the best course of action w/ the Magician. While I am concerned about going back after Zuzana, I am more concerned about having no $$ to fight off the storm we're in now.

IC I don't think Zero would be up for assassinating someone, even the mage. Of course, if she tries to fight us that's a different matter.

Happy Monday All!

I updated the post for the new karma total and I'm happy to see some ideas being tossed around about what to do next in the thread. Speaking of the thread I have received word that both Strangeglove & Copperheed will be dropping from the thread which brings us down to 6 players - which still feels like plenty to keep going with. I will give them till Wednesday then I will write them out of the current story. I would like to bump the thread along as well to what ever you all are going to do next. In the meantime let me know if you have any questions you need answered.

Thanks!

So the current team stands as:
Eklipse
Fat Man
Zero
Fleet
Rikik
Emilio

By my understanding, only Fat Man has to deal with the wards. Eklipse and Zero could go in on the quiet side with the mundanes and walk straight through everything.

If that's the case, why don't we remove the mage from the equation. Have the team stealth in and install the data taps, while Fat Man guards Rikik outside (or if Fleet is better at kicking down doors have him do it). Sweep in, gel round the guards, grab what we need and go. Small, high cost objects would probably be better than emptying the entire warehouse. Take what we need to outfit the team basically.

Alternately, kill the power to the building--if the drones use the tracks, they probably draw power from the tracks. Jam transmissions so the security can't call out, and we do the "room sweep and advance" strategy.

Option C -- Walk away from Zuzane and hit Temple or find a Yak safehouse where we can get a car, some guns and cash. Hit them squarely below the belt before they have a chance to come after us.

I think that is a viable option, but I do have a reservation here.

Because of the alarm/trap wards, Eklipse and Zero would have to be very careful - if you aren't Astrally Perceiving (or if you fail the relatively hard check) you don't see the ward. That would mean no running around with active foci (since there's no easy way to know where the wards are and aren't on the inside of the building) or spirits. Still, that might be preferable.

My major concern: that magician saw us. If we rob the warehouse, it's a fair bet they'll figure out the same group of people did it...and that means the mage can hunt us down with Search, since she's seen our auras. We can, to a limited extent, hide behind Wards and Concealment (as we're doing with the Yakuza) but I think it means putting an extra enemy on our trail, and we'd have to deal with her sooner or later anyways.

So, rather than add more enemies, why not tackle the ones we have? Zuzane and the mage believe we hit them for the kids and aren't hunting us. Let's leave it there. The reason we were hitting Zuzane was gear and money, the Yaks have it. They have money, guns, body armor, and cars--all the stuff we need. Let's stop trying to figure out how to get past a level of magic security that we can't handle and a mage that some folks feel is on the edge of our abilities.

My understanding is that every character in the thread has a strong tie to smashing in the Yakuza and few moral compunctions about breaking their toys and leaving them unconscious in an alleyway. Let's do that, play to our strengths and motivations, and deal with the problems we already have, instead of stirring up a batch of new trouble.

If we have the resources to take out Zuzane and the mage, we should have the resources to knock over a safehouse. If not, we need to aim smaller either way.

Yes, I also think hitting the Yakuza directly is reasonable if we have a lead on where to hit.

I will wait until after the exit strategies for Copperheed and Strangeglove to close the deal with the Red Queen. It sounds like folks are willing to pay cash, and some people would like a backup ID if she is willing to do that.

Then, digging into the Yakuza. Is there anything in the Data Packet that could point at shell companies Takayasu or other Yakuza used? Hoping that could point towards an address, otherwise, I'm not sure how much info is going to be on the Matrix. I can't imagine a list of current safehouses and weapon caches being posted somewhere for the world to see.

Do people have any Knowledge skills that might come into play here? Yakuza operations, Criminal Safehouses, etc. Otherwise, if we can get the names of a few of the hot blooded lieutenants Q turned up, tracking them could lead us to a safehouse and be a kick in the teeth to folks who intend to earn glory through the corpses of our team.

Alternatively: can we find someone who would know where safehouses/weapons caches are, and better yet how they are guarded? If we can grab a Yakuza lieutenant who would know some locations and Mind Probe him/her, that would be one way to get a location to hit, and Fat Man won't feel bad about mind probing Yakuza higher-ups.

Emilio has Hangouts (Safehouses) at 4, looking for places for us to hit:

Intuition (3) + Hangouts (4) = 7d6 = 7d6.hits(5)=3

Actually, why don't we hit Zuzana w/o the mages? Am I right in understanding that the non-magicals can just walk in w/o tripping things? Could Zero cast any spells inside the ward w/o tripping it?

I like the idea of going after Yaks, but Fleet has a point. We hit Zuzana's originally for the higher-end gear. We need said gear now. I don't think we'll get high-end gear off the Yaks we can hit now.

I get the idea of not bringing the Magician after us. But can't we hit the place w/o alerting her?

Emilio--if none of Zero's spells pass through the ward, they should be fine. It's like shooting a gun in the room without a bullet touching the walls. He will be walking in without any sustained spells or spirits, and will need to take actions to astrally perceive, find the ward, cast without hitting it, then stop astrally perceiving. Alternately, if we presume that each wall has a ward, move into a room, use single target spells only, and never cast through doorways.

Is there specific gear that people need to get from Zuzane? My understanding was that she had lots of expensive stuff for us to fence and some weapons/armor to use. At this point, I think the fencing part is out the window, since we won't have time with everyone trying to kill the team and many contacts are just as likely to betray us as help us.

If we hit the warehouse, I think we should have some specific goals in mind. What do we need and how are we moving it?

If we just need generic gear and cash (2 new assault rifles, a couple hundred rounds of ammo, certified cred, and a fast car), I think the Yaks can provide that.

My main push is to get the thread moving again, whether that is to the warehouse or somewhere else is fairly trivial to me.

My only really major concern with the warehouse is the issue with the magician knowing what we look like and thus being able to Search us down. Even if she's not alerted when we actually hit the warehouse they'd have to be seriously dumb to not suspect us of having come back. If someone can allay my concerns there, I'm onboard with Fat Man doing rearguard and Zero and Eklipse being very careful.

So, it sounds like Fat Man doesn't want to go because the Mage will come roflstomp us later. Zero isn't comfortable eliminating the Mage. The warehouse (after confirming with Buddha) has high end and costly gear, which met the needs of the original team going after it.

The yakuza will be a lower payout, but probably lower risk and there aren't the moral qualms about retribution and proactive elimination.

I think we need a decision from our fearless leader on where we are going.

I'm cool with the warehouse if we are either willing to kill the mage, or come up with some other means of preventing her from hunting us down, but I don't have ideas that don't involve killing her to stop her from coming for us later.

Sorry, I probably should have thought of this issue earlier, but I didn't put this particular issue together and I do think it's a big problem.

I am perfectly happy with the hit the Yakuza plan. Even if they have less money, it does at least kill two birds with one stone.

OK I have walked the other two off the stage so now everyone here is the players for now. So all what are you doing? I think we need the leader to please pick a course of action and set everyone on their tasks. Having played the leader type many times please let me know Notsoevildm if you would rather someone else call the shots but if you still do then start calling them so we can get bumping along again.

Thanks!

I think the warehouse is going to be more trouble then it's worth, now. Umaro has a valid point about the mage and her tracking ability, and even if she and her ally spirit were only scanning one person each, she'd have a couple of us to track down, and I believe this was post-grenade supernova. Emilio's got a valid point about not tripping off the mage, but astral tracking is stackable, i.e., she could summon a stable of the right kind of spirits and dump a crap load of pain on us with relatively no risk to herself. Even if she never actually attacked, can you imagine being 'Accident'ed all the time?

I feel like I'm the one that keeps dragging us back around to this idea, and I don't want to seem like I'm flipping now, but I do want to get the thread moving again (sorry Emilio!). So, let's drop the warehouse thing.

So, order that I've heard new actions is:

1.) Find a new safehouse since Not-Zero is busy framing us and this location for some heinous crime.
2.) Find a Yakuza to pump for info - maybe head of a local bunch of street corner thugs?
3.) Work our way up the line, collecting cash and gear and heads, until we kill enough people that nobody left knows enough to come after us.

NotSoEvilDM - Now's when Eklipse needs to say, "Make it so!" or something.

Fenris, I do think that it wasn't a bad idea aside from that detail - it took me a while before I connected the dots on that issue.

I like that priority list and am on board. For #2, maybe one of the more hotheaded people who might have been coming after us?

Given that I only have a meager understanding of part of the Shadowrun rules (and, hence, only an inkling of whatever bullshit can be tossed our way), I'm more comfortable listening to options than offering them. I'm more than happy to contribute in whatever way I can, though. Part of the Christian Theurge tradition gives us guidance spirits, which have the divining power. It gives us a chance to plan for the future (if the dice are with us).

I could have Zero ask a spirit divine the future of one of you all, or someone else if we have a material link to them.

JxJxA--If you figure that anything we can do, they can do. Divination is a metamagic technique, as well as the spirit power so the mage could (presuming she has that metamagic) take a reading every morning--Will I be in danger today, for example--to see someone coming to kill her, so she activates her spirit posse and walks around with her body armor and active counterspelling, maybe a power focus.

They could load IC into the system to wail on anything that moves, encrypt the access logs to make it hard to tamper with, and use a pass-code system for people masquerading as guards. Set the system to scan the area for hidden nodes, if any are found, immediately trigger an alert. If Passive or Active nodes approach and reamin in the area for more than 60 seconds during non-business hours, trigger an alert.

If security wears a gas mask, they could pipe the warehouse with neurostun to eliminate any intruders. Use the demolitions rules to create a Stun version of a claymore mine with gel rounds instead of ball bearings so the facility isn't damaged...

I can keep going, just let me know which area of the horrible things they can do to us you'd like to focus on.

See, if you used that creativity to help us (as opposed to *cough* give the GM ideas *cough*deathsatchel*cough*), we'd be golden.