Oh, I'm well aware that it isn't easy. Just jaded from being dicked by GM's before, so I always expect the worst.

As far as the sniper...yeah, I'm going to sit and monitor for his commlink signal, waiting until it's within range again. But it's not his commlink I was hoping for. I was hoping for a node on his weapon, but that's my bad for not being specific. I can get to that later.

If Mr. White is bent on going in the front door I won't stop him. I can throw on a spell to boost his charisma to help him talk his way through if he thinks it will help. Or if someone wants to go with him or something. Assuming the rope will hold his weight, Gardner will stay with the larger portion of the group.

I will also summon up a force 7 plant spirit to aid us in this little endeavour... unless of course the sun hasn't set yet. If it's about to set I will have to wait until the sun is gone or else risk losing the spirit in only a few minutes.

Spellcasting: 5 hits
Drain: 2 hits (no damage)

Summoning (assuming it matters): 5 hits

The spirit scored 3 hits. So it owes you 2 services and you need to resist 6 drain.

The version of Gardner's character sheet I have doesn't show him having Improve Attribute (Charisma). Is that something you've picked up since the last Mission?

To be able to connect to a device your commlink and that device must be within signal range of each other. Cyberware such as smartlinks have a Signal rating of 0 effectively making them only accessable to the PAN of the individual that owns them since the Signal at most goes 3m.

If you were to hack the guys commlink, you could then use it's connection to his smartlink and other cyberware to hack the smartlink/'ware, but you can just access them directly without being within that 3m range of their signal.

Also, please give me the benefit of the doubt here. If I was really the type of GM that got off on dicking over his players, 1) I doubt the players from the previous mission would still be wanting to play in another game under me, and 2) Each step of the way I've been giving you a way out when something does go wrong...when Silas started the wingsuit shenanigans, I tossed in the duffle bag with exactly what you needed and gave an explanation of why a general alarm wasn't sounded, and when you triggered an alarm i allowed you to back off quietly without taking damage or being locked into combat with the Black IC that technically would have automatically locked your connection into place until it could kill you and then trace your exact location.

I am want this game to be fun for everybody, but I'm not going to toss out legitimate rolls, especially when rerolling it three more times only got me effectively the same results. The average number of hits on 16 dice is 5.33. The node only needed 6 hits to detect you considering the Stealth program you have running.

Yup Slacker is a top man (as far as I have read in previous missions and in our other game)

Silas on the other hand, well ... he's just hungry .. and twitchy .. the Suprathyroid is killing him for a proper meal and the wired reflexes are buzzing with energy.

On top of that, there's Drekkin' cat fur all ovva da place ! and it's driving him crazy.

Let me see if we have this straight :

Sun has already set
Sniper on roof (floor 51)
we are 50M away on floor 31
no direct line of sight
A grapple shot to the 51st or to the balcony on 28th is going to be noticed in the same way almost as a kamikaze ork missile
especially as the 28th is also in visual range of the wait staff

with a frontal social approach:
Gardner is huge and I'm ugly and dressed to kill, literally. so only I think three of us can go in the front doors
but only one legit ticket and a well dressed Con-man risky at best

other possible entrances : roof top if we can disable the sniper ..
just aware that if we disable his gear he may notice and raise the manual alarm if he sees us before we make it accross

is there a balcony on the 49th floor perhaps that we can grapple to ?
I have a relatively high climb and gecko gloves I can get up and neutralize him if so?

My plan is to get as close to the target as possible without having to negotiate 20+ floors in either direction. too much can happen in that tower that we could try and avoid.

Yeah, my reaction wasn't exactly the greatest, and I'll be the first to admit that. However, I ask that you see this from my perspective as well.

There are a lot of SR GMs that either don't know the matrix rules altogether OR they have the barest knowledge of them. And these GMs get out of dealing with them by slamming the door shut on any attempt made by any hackers to do anything, which thereby eliminates hacking in their games. And these GMs don't wait until several dice rolls are made - they do it on the first one. (Side note - this is why I, as a GM in any system, have decided to post all my rolls, but that's neither here nor there at the moment.)

Now, I understand the laws of probability, and the average number of hits based on the number of dice rolled. And I'm well aware that my Stealth is only a 6 AND that it's a Horizon building. But when you come back with 7 hits on the first roll, my first thought it "Well, here we go again". And yes, most GMs would just say "Well, you set off the alarm and now the whole building is on alert". Again, because they don't understand the matrix rules OR they intend on making things really hard for their players.

Couple all of this with the fact that you and I have never played together before, and...well, I got jumpy. When I shouldn't have. Que sera, sera, I guess. I'll have to learn to give you a little more slack on this as you have proven you aren't the kind of gm to dick players. And for assuming otherwise, I apologize.

On the topic of nodes on the sniper: Yeah, I was hoping that any cyberware he may/may not have, or even his weapon, might have a node with a range other than 0. It's impossible, but it is improbable. The fact that he doesn't isn't a show-stopper. I'll just have to wait til he gets in range, commandeer his commlink, and screw with him through that (as I'll be able to use the signal on his commlink - at least until he moves out of range again - to mess with his weapon and any potential cyberware).

It's all good. For now, Needle is waiting until that juicy commlink gets back into signal range.

dang these spirits and rolling decently well on their summoning resistance >.<

Somehow, my dice roller got 7 hits on my Drain Resistance test, which even I find unbelievable. I can't access invisible castle from where I work, so I just use a roller app on my phone...


Also, a comment on the Allergy:
I imagine Silas's reaction from the stray hair that Gardner is inadvertently carrying would only cause a Mild reaction (-2 distraction penatly). And only when Silas was nearby or, like you said, downwind. If Silas can manage to communicate his issue to Gardner, I'm sure we could even resolve the issue almost entirely. Although I do know from experience that cat hair is surprisingly hard to remove (entirely) from clothing...

Meta: Remember when Bilbo finds that ring, and its like the key to the rest of the story? I think the duffel bag of grappling gear is our gold ring.

I'm not trying to run over anybody, but I think that the story/GM has handed us the keys to the place. I feel like we ought to use them.

I agree. I think our plan is such:

• Needle disables the sniper (my suggestion would be to make his gear glitch or something to distract him from looking down at the rooftops. This would keep him from raising an alarm.)
• Mr. White goes into the party as a guest, tags our target, and makes contact.
• The rest of the team moves in, and quickly gets the target out.

I have a fairly powerful spirit, I should be able to have it use Concealment on the group, keeping most from noticing us until it is too late.

Any other thoughts, comments, plans?

I'm hoping to disable the sniper entirely - prevent him from not only using his weapon, but potentially prevent him from contacting people in the building to let them know what's up. From there, assuming I'm successful, I plan on providing any cover hacking support that might be needed, disabling any security guards in much the same way.

From that point, once you guys give some sort of signal, I'll head downstairs and grab the bus (yes, she drives the Conestoga Vista) and meet you at the exit of your choice where we can all pile in with our package and make like hell out of there. Granted, the bus doesn't move very fast, but unless someone else has a faster vehicle that will support all of us AND you want to give Needle the keys, it's our only option.

Thoughts?

Sounds good to me.

Our exit and get away plan is terrifyingly loose and uncoordinated, but I don't see any other way about it. We'll just have to manage as best we can.

I understand completely and it's ok to overreact a little. That was a hard hit to have the first roll slam down like that. I just don't want it to spoil you for the rest of the Mission. You are certainly going to be effective in other ways and the sniper thing is a good idea. Really the only reason I don't just have you hack into him right now is I didn't want to distract the rest of the group from planning with their limited time.
You can certainly try hacking the commlink of anybody on the balcony if you want. Unless they are security personell, there wouldn't be any reason for them to be connected to the security system at large for the assumed Horizon security rigger to be doing overwatch on. In fact, if they are security just brought in for this event, the may still be considered outside the rigger's overwatch. So hacking either the suited guy or the blue dragon isn't likely to be noticed.

the plan is sound given the constraints.

once the sniper is distracted we setup a series of zip lines above the balcony above the 28th floor and the target.

(I'd suggest given the security Needle has already encountered that we have a Physical backup ready to neutralize him if it goes awry)

then, once Mr. White has presented our target, he can lure him into the open outside

we drop onto the balcony, attach our young heros and tow them with alacrity across the chasm, White included.

then extract .. via the slowest freight elevator in the world ... Hmmm oh well, cross that bridge when we get there ?

I really think rappelling down the shaft is our best bet. If we take the elevator they can track our progress, watch us on cameras, and possibly vent Seven-7 or something in there out of spite. I left my gas mask and epi-pens of anti-nerve agent at home. If anyone has a spare grapel that'll cover the ~300 feet of shaft to the bottom, where we use the tensioned carabiners from the climbing kits to go as quickly as possible. From there, we can steal a car or exit via sewer... or even hold out with magic until dawn so we can make an escape without spirits on our butts.

I believe I can have the spirit use it's Concealment power on the Rope, The Grapple, and the 5 of us that will be trying to go across to the Horizon building.

That means all of us can see the gear, but anyone else will be taking a -7 on their Perception to notice it (or us for that matter). Talk about Stealth Rope.

Or we just use the rope that we have to get across, to repel down the building straight from the balcony. It's only 50 meters across, but we have 300 meters of rope.

I think I han an Orc-crush on Gardner right now ... if it wasn't for the damn cat

Slacker .. are there Balconies or ledges that we can easily get Grapples onto that are above the 28th level ?



if we are quick enough this might be an option but we will be sitting ducks for any security on the ground that is alerted

Ding.

I'm giving the sniper a few moments to come back to the ledge. I'm going to guess that he has access to the security system - he's a sniper, for Horizon, on the roof during a major event. That's just a guess, but even if I only end up disabling him at least he can't call for back up and/or shoot at our friends as they are flying across the street.

And if he does have access through his commlink to the security system...well, I can just re-purpose his commlink (and its access code) to get me into the system to try and disable portions of the building.

As far as the people on the balcony...Needle is a little shy of trying that after seeing the alert get sounded right away. At the very least she wants to let that area settle down before she tries again.

As it stands now:
Horizon Roof = 1 sniper spotted (unknown if there is other security there or not)
Balcony = 1 suited man, 1 human with physical mask of a blue dragon on himself, couple of waitstaff
Front door = dozen guards
Back door = unknown forces, assumed to be less than the front door, but still likely will require noise and escalating response

Assets:
Gardner has summoned a sizeable spirit that can provide concealment and/or magical backup
Mr. White has obtained a ticket and can just walk on in, espciallly with his boosted charisma from the giant's spell
A bag of gear that can get you across to the other side and down the Horizon building via rappelling. There's enough noise around the city and with the entertainment setup on the balcony that the grapple hitting near there wouldn't likely be noticed (unless you glitch the shot). Zip lining down to the balcony will only require Climbing + Strength (2) test. Failure of that does does not mean you fall, you're strapped into a harness and can't fall. All it means is that you have to resist 4S damage with Body + Impact.
Rappelling down would require the same test with similar consequences. Oh and you can still fire a gun while doing this, you just suffer a -2 to both your shooting test and your Climbing test.
Needle is confident she can hand the sniper on the roof for a time, and maybe others depending on what shows up at the start of the fight.

Were you to try firing the grapple gun up to the roof an anchoring it the roof you are already on (thus avoiding having to all grab onto the line at once and then let yourselves across the gap at once, slamming into the building, and then trying to climb up). You would have a hefty threshold of roughly 100 before you could climb your way up. Even the athletically inclined are likely to take a long time to reach that roof.

The grapple gun in the bag has one grapple in it designed to embed itself into a flat wall like a harpoon. You don't need to worry about hooking it onto a ledge or anything.
Still, to answer your question, this is the only balcony on this side of the Horizon building.


That will certainly be ideal.

Slacker, I can throw in an IC post if needed. I'd like to make sure that White's contact is at least a little bit isolated from blowback on this. Can he sell the ticket through a third party (laundering it, basically) to White, instead of directly? (Put it on ebay with a buy-now option. White clicks 'buy now'. Done)

you could try the con first .. "sorry guys I had my ticket a moment ago but can't find it .. I'm late yada yada .. let me in?""

if that fails then .. "oh wait .. here it is .. found it after all"

Slacker I'm emailing you some amazing artwork of the attempted setup !

can you upload it for me ?

ta

You know what? He's going to tell you not to worry about that, he's got it covered. You can go ahead and post something IC for that conversation. He will only chuckle if you push him for what he means about having it covered, and smiles as he tells you to have fun with whatever you're going to do there. Then when you get off the line, you take a look at the file he sends over as the invite is purely digital. You notice that it has a different name on it all together. It's the name of another Horizon manager you vaguely remember your contact complaining about being a thorn in his side.

I'm scared to even ask what it looks like, but sure. i will upload it for you.

What is Mr. White carrying on him? Is he trying to conceal any weapons and get them past security?

Just his panther autocannon.

Nah. He carries a firearm in a shoulder holster, but he'll pass it to another runner, if someone can chuck it in a backpack or something. If no one's got any room, then he'll just have to come retrieve it later.

edit: in an odd way, he's safer without a gun.

it can be air dropped onto the balcony for use (no, that does not mean I'm going to throw it from here ! .. that would be Silly ! )

Gardner will take it for him. He'll double-check the safety is on, and then drop it into one of the pockets of his coat.

I think I might need to spend some karma on climbing for TW. He's certainly going to have the necessary experience over the last couple weeks to justify learning 1 level of the skill.

Yeah, that's fine. You have enough karma for that from the first mission.

Yeah, adjusting character sheet now. Sorry about being so quiet during the planning, guys. Work's been busy so I'm not getting to make the flurry of posts I was able to in the last mission. TW will open the briefcase he's got, take out the Smartgun and sync it to his PAN along with the earbuds and the subvocal mic. He will take out the flashbangs and drop them in the outside pockets of his suit coat. When the time comes he will hitch up to the rappelling line towards the front and hook the sling for the submachine gun over his torso.

Apologies for the crude maps, been swamped at work this week and unable to do more than this right now:
Cityscape
Horizon Floor 28
I'll try to update them later if i can find the time. For now all you guys see is what's on the balcony. The balcony itself is approximately 50m wide.

Is anybody doing anything while Mr. White makes his way down the Yojirushi building, past the front door security station, then up to the banquet hall?
I know Needle is keeping an eye out for the commlink signal of the sniper.
Gardner has summoned up his spirit to use Conceal on the group going for the balcony.
And I believe Silas was readying the grapple gun, correct?
I'll try to post something up IC for Mr. White tonight, though it may end up being tomorrow before I can get to it.
Just want to make sure everybody is on board with the plan as it stands now: Mr. White will head inside with his ticket, he will attempt to locate the target, while the rest of the group tries to time it that they arrive on the balcony as Mr White is shaking hands with the target. The target is then grabbed and taken over the balcony's ledge to reach safety via rappelling gear, with Needle waiting with getaway transport.

Did we ever get any infos at all about the target? I'd be interested in know whether he's awakened and so forth.

yup, I can do that !

I''ll aim to make a perfectly level or slightly down angled zip line for ease of traversing
(aiming for the 30th or 29th floors but looking for a solid stanchion for the best grip on this grapple.)

we then secure it at this side and can have plenty time hanging above the balcony until Mr. White is ready

prepare for AWESOME artwork

Also diving into a climbing harness either provided or my own system in my combat webbing.

Needle was able to find that Parker Acson is a recent graduate of MIT&T's School of Thaumturgy. So it's pretty obvious that yes, he is indeed Awakened.

I've been envisioning the zipline angled more down, so that you are using the gravity to slide down the line you're strapped to. Thus no extended test to traverse the 50m, you just have to worry about stopping at the other end (thus the skill check to only resist 4S damage at the end).

That would also put you closer to the balcony so you don't have to worry about dropping (or tying off another line on that end for you to climb down) the 8-10m from where your line ends to the floor of the balcony if you were to aim for closer to the 30th floor.

But it's up to you guys. I just want to make sure we are all envisioning the same thing here.

yup exactly that. considering each floor is only about 4M high and we're on the 31st (Roof) if we try and get between the 29th / 30th .. there's an agle down of at least 4M with a 4M drop to the floor

AND the bonus is our legs and gear will not be dangling in line of sight of any security or sensors that happen to be on the occupied floor while we hang around while White eats all the Caviar !!

Oi. We'll need to render him unconscious, then. Gardner has his Stunbolts and maybe the spirit can do something, I can SnS him as necessary, anyone else got something to add here?

Some further planning upon when we hit the balcony, though this is unlikely to survive encounter with sec forces. White shakes his hand, we land and knock him out, and as we're fleeing I'll toss a flashbang behind us to maybe mess with any shooters from the balcony as we descend to the street. Your spirit's a wild card here, Kiir, want to add anything I'm missing that it could help with?

The only problem I can foresee is Needle actually getting to the ground fast enough.

Is the getaway vehicle rigger adapted? You could have it ready faster that way...

As for dealing with things. Yes, I'll probably have to hit him with a stunbolt and stun ammo would help too. Hopefully the concealment will help. We'll deal with anything else when it comes up I guess.

While I could potentially "jump in", piloting things remotely is far from my strong suit. I may end up rappelling 31 stories. Or taking the stairs really fast.

And why are we talking about using combat spells on the guy we're supposed to extract?

The Scion (your digital pharoah of a Johnson) said "The job is an extraction, hostile, and you must begin in exactly fifteen minutes.” I believe they are worried that the recent graduate of the elite school of magic might know a few spells and thus possibly hostile himself towards you guys taking him away from the big leagues of working for Horizon.

Do keep in mind, The Scion also said "You may negotiate for more after his acquisition depending on his ‘condition’. "

Because this is a hostile extraction. Since he's Awakened, his ability to resist is a lot more than your average kidnapping victim. So, we knock him out to avoid that problem. I don't want to have to deal with anything the mark pulls out of his magical ass while potentially avoiding incoming fire while we rappel down 28 stories, and I'd imagine the rest of the team feels the same.

edit: Of course I'm ninja'd by the GM.

Heh, he might have a couple scorch marks or a Giant's handprint over his entire face, but I think we'll get him there in good condition.

Having said that, I really want to see Gardner palm someone's face like a basketball at some point.

I believe your vehicle has a pilot rating, so it could likely follow a simple command to drive itself to beneath the balcony and stop. Then you or somebody else could take the wheel from there once whoever gets to it.
Oh and there is enough rope/rappelling gear for you to also rappel down this building while the others are attacking the balcony and getting down themselves.

As I detailed above, with the added remembering to active the Wired Reflexes. Forgetting that once was enough, and thankfully Taek's character didn't become gator chow because of that lapse.

And let a bunch of people I've never met before take off with my vehicle, leaving me with no way out?