So, are we abandoning the boat idea in favor of the surprise truck delivery?

Eh, I'm inclined to. The whole idea of burning the boat is the hope that it'll be a distraction and perhaps draw some of the gang out of the warehouse. Going the truck route is a little more guaranteed in my mind. They could simply ignore the burning boat - if they even know that its on fire. They'll damn sure know that someone drove a truck into their front door.

I think we're kinda grasping at straws. We're down to 3 of us, and not really in a good position to be storming a pet store, much less a criminal's warehouse.

If you recall, you're all underground and much of the way here you had to travel on foot. Large vehicles have no use down here. Most of the smugglers use modified trikes or atvs to haul cargo around. Definitely won't be finding much more than an old beat up pickup truck and that might take you some time.

That had occurred to me, as well. The difficulty we're up against, I mean.

I tend to agree. One reason why I was hoping for a sneakier entrance was that it helps us get the drop on our opposition. It lets us get into place before they can really do anything. Particularly to keep them from doing something to our primary objective (Fiona).

Damn.

Not to say it can't work. The front door is a wooden door and a pickup truck could certainly crash through it with enough speed. The question is how much speed you can get going on the fairly narrow streets.

Yeah... at this point I'm really wishing I had all the advancements my character has earned since we started this months ago. Like I said before, this character is one I've played at conventions and earned other Missions rewards with. I've played at a convention since and earned enough to buy myself a Power Focus (and learned a spell or two). The bit of extra power would be useful. But that's a bit more retcon than I'd care to deal with, and it's easier to just go with what I started with.

/end pointless mumblings...

Plus how much it will hurt us (inside the truck) to do that...

There is that.

Hmmm..well, perhaps we should consider the boat angle again. How do we guarantee that some of his people come and at least take a look? Play three sides to the con? One side to fuck with it, one side tipped off to it that can let Jack know, and Jack to respond? Or are we getting too complex for a quick con at that point?

The more complicated a plan, the more likely its failure.

There's also the question of how do we plan to get back out of the underground, possibly with Jack all trussed up?

Only way I can think of, offhand...is with the damned boat. Dragging his ass back out the way we came would be excessively difficult if he's unconscious, practically impossible is he's not.

I still feel like we've got no /good/ plan here. But maybe I'm missing something.

Does Gardner have anything that will open the door?

Does Tundra Wolf happen to have a shape charge on him? There was some mention earlier of trying to procure some explosives. That's an option of course, but eats up additional time. And money.

We can wait and see if people go out for food and then try to attack.

We can just say fuck it and knock on the door and try to wing it.

We can try to burn the boat and hope that helps our case some, but then that eliminates a possible avenue of escape.

There was some mention of boosting someone up to climb in a 2nd floor window. At the moment this looks like a descent idea, though I've no idea what one runner (Tundra Wolf maybe?) would do once in there all by himself.

Nope, left the damned grenades at home. Rather stupid of me, in hindsight. If we knock again, we deserve the bullet between the eyes we get; this isn't Mr. Bean. As for what I could do in there by myself, it depends. Do we have a distraction elsewhere? With an assault rifle, surprise, and the drone downstairs I could do quite a bit of damage. Though that makes keeping Jack alive a little more problematic. Better if we could get Gardner up there, he could multi-stunbolt whoever's in the room plus still be able to handle the elemental if it gets brought back up.

Not a lot of good options here.

I don't have any gear that will mess with the door, and except for a really powerful spirit my magic can't affect the door from the outside.
I would be ok with trying to climb up through the window, but I'm not sure what could give me the boost up... so it might work best if I help you guys up and then I come in by way of a tied off rope or some such.
We could try to find some cheap explosives for a breach, but I would rather err on the sneaky side if we can.

Any chance for a hint from the gm on something that maybe our characters feel is plausible? We've brainstormed a lot and are having some trouble with the loss of some of our expertise in the group...

Offhand, the truck into the front door sounds like a good distraction for the other two to try to sneak in while everybody is busy. Though whoever drives the truck will be in some serious danger.

Burning Jack's boat could either at most get 1 or 2 of his men to go see what the problem is and report back. With how paranoid and frazzled he is. He's not likely to leave the significant defenses he has at his place. Of course, waiting around may get you that same result if he ever sends somebody out for food.

Shaped or other explosive charge may be useful. it would certainly get you in through a point they aren't expecting.

Btw, do you guys recall that the building to the right of Jack's is a one story building and the building to the left is a 3 story building? For reference the living room Mr. White talked to Jack in is on the left side of his building and his bedroom/possible location of Fiona is on the right side.

Another possibility would be tossing a grenade at the front door, then having TundraWolf using suppressive fire to keep all the downstairs defences occupied while Gardner and Mr. White do something.

Basically, I tend to think the distraction + sneaking/breaking in is your best bet.

Metagaming I'll say Jack is not likely to allow anybody to leave the warehouse for a few hours after Mr. White left due to paranoia, possibly not until morning (though that might mean they are tired and hungry enough to suffer penalties if you want to try for that). If you are worried about something more happening to Fiona, you may not want to wait.

I had forgotten about the nearby buildings actually. I would say that we should try to make a distraction happen out front while we sneak in through the back window (which from the sound of things might be where Fiona is being held). The question is, can we make a distraction that is noticeable to get there attention but not so much that it makes them overly wary. I would say we try to convince somebody local to cause a commotion across the street. Might not even take any momey if Mr. White is convincing enough. Tell them that someone is trying to cheat them or sfeal from them: and voila.

That seem good?

(I apologize for any possible bad editing, I only have my smart phone to post from right now)

On the back there is only one window and it opens into the living room where Mr. White talked to Jack. On the front. There are two windows, one that opens into the living room and one that opens to a different room.

Ah, I see where I got confused, I was thinking right on the picture you gave us, not right as we looked at the building from the street, derp. Does that one story building but up against the warehouse? I'm not looking now but I recall the picture showing another rectangle right up against the one representing the one for Jack's warehouse.

Yes, both buildings on either side of Jack's warehouse are right up against his. They each share a wall with his warehouse.

Alright, so I'm thinking we climb onto the right side building, then up onto the roof, then rappel down to the window. Shouldn't be too difficult (easier than lifting someone up to mess with the window)... just need the distraction to make sure we have an easier time avoiding notice.

So, talk to some locals and try to convince some people to make a big commotion near Jack's place? That's right down Mr. White's alley me thinks.

We could certainly do that - or we could try to get our hands on some shaped explosives and blow a hole in the roof over the room where we believe Fiona is.

Instant skylight. We drop in, secure the room, secure Fiona, and then we can see about getting Jack and that stone.

Are you trained in Demolitions? Because I really only want try to use explosives (over the person were trying to save!) if we have someone actually trained in using them...

I think Tundra Wolf does.

Uhhh, no. In fact, he has Incompetence: Demolitions. It's why he has a cybernetic torso and arm.

...No he doesn't

So I think we risk it without the explosives over Fiona's head...

...So let's make some rolls for finding a proper patsy--I mean distraction.

Damn. I forgot that.

Can we lay siege to the place?


Alright, so a distraction. How about if I tell some local folks that one of the adjacent warehouses has.... a huge supply of weapons? BTL? Electronics? Just waiting for someone ballsy enough to grab it and profit.

Weapons would be my bait. Nothin' like a cache of stolen AK-97s to get the local meatheads all lathered up.

Ok. Describe to me who you're approaching to start this rumor and give me a Con roll so we can get this moving along.

IC post incoming.

I was afraid that if I told that there was X stuff in a warehouse, that when they busted into it and discovered otherwise, we'd have a tough time getting out of there afterward.

That's the best con you could come up with? Sigh. Guess I'll roll with it anyway. They are too drunk to remember that is the paranoid and very violent Jack Turner's place (also they glitched their roll). You've convince 3 orks to go charging off down the street after some free loot.

What are you doing now?

Note the highlight regarding which warehouse in my IC post.

Sorry about that. So, what exactly are you trying to do. Smugglers don't exactly stick their necks out for each other. At most you are going to get Jack to look out a window and/or have his orks open the door momentarily to see what's going on and then ready their weapons in case the trouble moves to their building.

I'm hoping for a distraction.

We kicked around a few ideas to try to lure people out of the warehouse, but we all agreed that short of waiting for someone to go out for food, its unlikely that they'll just all decide to go for a nice stroll.

No, I'm not expecting any of them to come try to stop any looting. I'm hoping that Jack and his goons are paranoid enough that anything will panic them (like a well dressed fellow coming around asking to purchase stuff) All they need to do is keep an eye on what's happening across the street, and maybe we can sneak in. Or not, and we'll all die. Limited resources, limited options.

Ok, you've managed to get all the orks on guard with weapons ready. You can see movement at one of the windows upstairs, the one from Jack's bedroom. So maybe he's watching the comotion.

Now what?

Oh and one of the watcher spirits went through the ward when it started happening, but will return after a minute or so.

Now would be a good time to get the spirit to hit us with the Concealment power, and Gardner or I go up the 1-story building next to Jack's warehouse then onto the roof. At that point, tie off the rope and Errol Flynn through the open window. If it's her in the room, we get her out as best as possible. If it's Jack, maybe he values his life enough that being told to call off his dogs at the point of an assault rifle will work. If not..well, TW always knew he wasn't dying in bed at an old age and there's one less smuggler for KE to deal with.

Lets assume the Concealment is done. Give me a climbing check for anybody climbing up to the roof and then tell me which window you are trying to crash through. There is one window on the back of the Jack's building that leads into the living room where Mr. White talked to Jack.
The front of the building has two windows, one that leads into that same living room where Mr. White has seen already, and the other leaves to Jack's bedroom(this is the window where you could see the curtains move.
None of the windows are open.

Go in the bedroom window, guys!

Mr. White is going to hurry around to the back and bang on the security door a few times once the ruckus starts. Maybe distract at least one of the orks inside from what's going on upstairs.

Chaos from all fronts, nice. And yes, I vote bedroom window as well.

In preparation of this, I do have climbing gear, including gloves, which would normally give us a +2 on climbing. With that in mind (let me know if I'm incorrect), I will aid Tundra Wolf getting up and then follow myself. I figure my height should let me make it pretty darn easy for him to get up. I'm also being careful to skirt the edges of the roof, putting my weight on the wall and no the weaker areas in the center of the roof (I don't need explosives to make a skylight, I can just jump up and down!! >.<).

Climb: 3 hits

If we can get in without breaking the window (i.e. just opening it) then I'd say we go for that. Otherwise we might have to swing down and try to smash through...

Waiting on confirm from Slacker before I make my roll, since it's going to be a default roll for me.

Sure, go ahead with the climbing roll with the bonus dice.

Since the bedroom window is the one that had activity at it prior to you starting to climb, you may want to skip checking to see if it can be opened and just crash through it. Since somebody could very well be standing at it right now with their gun ready.

Climbing 0 + Strength 6 - Defaulting 1 + Assisted 2 = 4 hits.

That was...unexpected. 15 dice earlier with 2 hits, 7 dice this time with 4 hits. Guess it all balances out, neh?

So, up to the roof, let Garder set the ropes since he apparently knows what he's doing, hit the mental "reflexes ACTIVE" switch, and then through the window feet first. Hopefully whoever is standing there likes the taste of combat boot.

Give me a gymnastics roll for trying to seeing down and crash through the window. No bonuses or penalties.

Righto.

Gymnatics 0 + Agility 7 - Defaulting 1 = 4 hits.

Wow. Almost a critical success.

Quite Impressive there. As Gardner finishes tying off the line and further bracing it with his own bulk. You run and leap off the building perfectly timing your swing on the rope to crash squarely into the window with your boots.

Jack was lucky and caught a glimpse of movement since he was already looking out the window and successfully dodged to the side shouting "What the FUCK!?!"

Time for initiative rolls everybody.

I will say that TundraWolf had time to notice Fiona tied to a chair in the middle of the room. She doesn't appear to be conscious enough to respond to your dramatic entrance, but you don't immediately notice any gaping wounds on her.