Ok, you didn't answer the question of how much of all of this running around happens while I'm hacking into his node. I feel like I'm falling behind when in reality I'm probably done with the commlink before anything starts happening.

And I don't understand your answer to my first Perception question. Done? Or do you mean there are no devices slaved to his commlink?

Daft question, are the keys in the van?

Are we going yet,

And being the new guy, have you chummers done jobs for this scion fellah before? Who the frag is he /she /it ?

Dead fucking meat if TW has his way.

Sorry, busy with work and somehow I read it as you wanted to slave his commlink to yours. Nothing at all is slaved to his commlink currently. Seems he doesn't even have any earbuds or anything to view AR.

And you took care of all of that while Silas and Eclipser were at the StufferShack.

The Scion is not known to anybody in the group. I can't remember, did anybody try doing any legwork looking for info on the Scion?

Oh and there aren't keys in the van, but I'm just rolling with somebody in the group having enough skill to hotwire it. I'm not going to require a roll to do so.

Nope, we were busy dangling from a rope

Could Needle backtrace the last message or summat maybe? Dunno techy stuff.. Directory enquiries?

"Bullshit. Something's not right with this fracking guy. A commlink that has zero information on it? What is this - Horizon's idea of a joke?"

Yeah, being a hacker I'm looking specifically in his direction, searching for hidden nodes.

17d6.hits(5) = 8 hits

Anything on him that is broadcasting that might be of interest?

@Mach_Ten: As soon as I'm done with Acson here that was my next move. When his commlink turned up that it hadn't even barely been used - which is HIGHLY unlikely for someone who was recruited by Horizon - I decided to focus on him next. Back-tracing the call from The Scion is next on the list of to-dos. Assuming we can get in the clown car and boogie nights.

Perhaps if the device that sent it were still turned on, yes. Any attempt to track it down currently would be a dead end since the Scion turned it off immediately after sending the message.
Off the top of my head I don't know of a way that she could information about it without it being active. It was an unlisted number and so wouldn't be in any directories.

At what point were you searching for hidden nodes? Immediately on finding nothing on his commlink?
Actually with that many hits all give it to you. You managed to be scanning Acson just after the message from the Scion was sent to the group and you noticed a hidden node as it was shutting off it's wireless connection.

I'll assume that means it is no longer broadcasting, meaning I can't get to it. But that does give me some leverage at the moment. I'm going to have Analyze run while I'm no longer in the Matrix, letting me know if/when that node pops up again.

For the rest of the drek...IC post coming.

Yeah. The device is not broadcasting any kind of wireless signal at all now. I'll tell you if your Analyze program catches it coming back on any time in the future.

Huh. So is Acson the Scion? Could he be sending the orders himself?

edit: severus snape beat me to the punch.

Yes indeed. His secret is out and he will be breaking down momentarily. I just got a ton of shit dumped on me at work and can't post up an IC post just yet. I'll try to get one up this evening once I get home.

Rofl, so he needs to do some serious negotiations as to the fee concerning the overall condition of " the package " prior to delivery..

Do we get bonus karma for making Ascon wet himself when he breaks?

It had a smartlink on it, didn't it?
I'm pretty sure we do.

With the big reveal, Eclipse is going to... reach for his phone and realize that he did not, in fact, pay for any programs to give him the ability to google anything. "It makes calls! Hurray!" So, instead, he'll take a second to go back through what he remembers of rumor and oooold conversations to see if he can remember anything about The Scion ever coming up before.

Knowledge: Shadow Community (3 ranks, 4 logic) [2,4,6,3,6,3,5] = 3 successes
Memory Test, if applicable: (Logic 4, Willpower 3) [4,3,1,5,1,2,6] = 2 successes

He's also going to make a mental note that a weaponized dumb phone is cool and all, but he should probably shell out the ~500 for at least basic browsing functionality.

The LMG does have smartlink.
And you have never heard of anybody in the Shadows calling themselves the Scion or heard of anybody described as a reptilian pharoah as the Scion appeared to you previously.

It's looking like the Scion is just a persona that Acson made to get a group of Shadowrunners to extract him from Horizon.

We have some info to get out of him at this point, but it might not be a bad idea to get out of here and find a bit more secure of a safehouse anyway...

the truck is running and Silas is revving the engine .... subtly

What about the bus? I can't just leave it behind. It's Needle's home, not to mention primary place of employment. And the cost of the thing.

the idea was to leave it here safely ready to repair "post adventures" and meanwhile WE are moving, as bait so as to not leave a trail directly to your home!

Currently Horizon could very well be en-route ... BUT ... that message is from the smug arse fragger sat in the corner, so it is only my deeply ingrained paranoia
AND my suprathyroid, that are making me want to move !

**EDIT** I'm now even MORE paranoid as the thought occured to me, if he can message us discretely while sat right there, without us noticing .. he can call in our location to Horizon or worse,

"Get in the Fraggin' truck or I'm leavin'!"

**EDIT TWO**

"And some one pass me a Sammich!"

**EDIT THREE**

"Needles, Trust me ! .. I's a Profeshernul !!"

If you haven't figured it out yet, Acson/the Scion completely made up the story of a Horizon Strike team heading towards Renton. He had no way of having any information you guys don't already have. It was just an attempt to buy some time. Your bus will be safe in this warehouse as long as you guys leave before a strike team does actually manage to find you.

"Don't worry, baby - I'll be back. I promise. And when I can afford it, I swear I'll get you some better armor. I promise.

"Can we get out of here and deal with this prick now? Please? And someone hand me a sharp object so I can try to surgically remove his commlink if he don't start talking in...3...2...1..."

I've posted IC. What more do you want him to talk about?

LOL. Well, currently Needle is running analyze to detect any wireless activity coming from him. If he switches it on to try making any kind of call she will know.

we can start wiv how he thinks he's worth money to us ! and how he intends to get it, but priorities ... gedinthavan!

He swears up and down that Draco Foundation and Atlantean foundation would want him. You could have an auction with reps from them to get the best price. It should be more than enough to pay for you extracting him.

Frag that! and have more than one corp chasing our asses for B&E and abduction... ??

let's just sell him back to Horizon and have them take the funds out of his pay .. for the rest ov his natural born !

-------

this is not out loud, just Silas muttering to himself audibly in the front of the truck, Uncle Danny (my only contact)
would probably murder me himself if I asked him to broker a WageMageSlave thingummy between corps .. we need a half decent fixer,

Although I think it would be fraggin' hilarious if we just rocked up at the Draco foundation front door in the "Clown Van" and demanded to see the boss !

Actually, Mr. White and I have this covered. We have a contact in the Draco Foundation, and we at least have the contact number for a rep at the Atlantean Foundation.

The only question is who do we want to meet with first?

I'm making an IC post to relay this information, but we can start deciding what we want to do...

....in the van. I don't believe I said that yet

Agreed, see IC post...

I'll let you guys play the two organizations off of one another. I posted IC a rather logical (considering Needle's LOG of 5) question for Acson. Based on the secret commlink and him being the Scion and trying to scare us with a strike team - which is working, by the way - I think he's hiding more here. He's got something. Something rather important, if my guess is right.

I'd roll for intimidation, but I've got like 1 die in the skill (CHA 2 - Defaulting 1). I'm trying to scare him a little, but I'm no professional at it. But he did witness me performing triage on people, so he should know I'm a decent medic.

Again, I'll let those of you with contacts at the orgs deal with them. Probably better than me trying to call them up and ask if they want some random guy we just pulled from Horizon.

Which reminds me - anybody want to try talking to Horizon about this guy? Maybe apologize for what happened, explain we were set up, and maybe try to use Horizon as a bargaining chip with the other 2 companies?

...Yes, absolutely. I mean, I can't do it... but I think it's something we should do if we have the capability.
"Hey Horizon.. sorry... wanna buy your dude back? PS if you ever need an extraction team... gimme a call?"

...we should do that one through a third party.

Alright, while Needle (and probably Mr. White) interrogates Acson a bit more, I will call up Moreau.


As for dealing with Horizon, I'm not particularly fond of the idea. I can't imagine they would do anything other than shoot at us. Even if we call them first, there's nothing worse than a corp scorned. The best we could probably get away with is dropping him back off at a Horizon building and get the hell out of dodge... I would much rather find a way to get paid for our troubles.

Very clever of you to have figured out he stole something from Horizon. You'll get an extra Karma for that once the mission is over. (well if you survive you will).

Oh and if anybody does actually suggest talking to Horizon, Acson will chime in with, “They’ll kill you for sure as an example and broadcast their success on the nightly news. Don’t trash this opportunity!”

The lack of negative media coverage at all on this certainly seems like Horizon wants to keep this whole thing quiet, but a story about them slaughtering the terrorists that tried something at their Splendor building might make it...

Post something IC on how you are approaching the phone call with Moreau.

Can do, but not right now. First, 2 hits on a Magical Theory Knowledge Test to know about the Thaljun Cordex? I'm pretty sure that was my most applicable skill...

I think the funniest thing here is the most non-intimidating party member (Needle) is playing bad cop while one of the ones who should be intimidating (Eclipse) is playing good cop.

Because you're scaring the shit out of him by out-thinking him, not threatening his well-being. "They'll never guess I – FUCK. Well, they won't even think to ask – OHMYGODIMSODEADmommyhelpmeeeee...."

With only 2 hits you recall references to it but never got enough context to have a clue what it is.

Eclipse: Sadly, Acson has nothing else to offer. He is flat broke and his only hope been to sell off the Cordex for big money to one of the Foundations.

BTW. Are you guys heading directly to the safehouse or did we still want to swing by Eclipse's place for some ammo/gear or otherwise obtain additional ammo/gear?

Well, since we're not (apparently) being traced by Horizon strike teams we should probably take the time to gear up. Ghost knows our last encounter with the Foundations led to some copious amounts of gunfire. That's my vote, at least. Anyone else?

edit: Is it Cordex or Codex? Cordex makes me think we're sitting on a magical bomb. Also, I posted a question IC to our little PITA.

What's this Thaljun Cordex thing-a-ma-bob? Maybe I ought to dive into the Matrix - I'll go AR instead of VR at this point. Yeah, I'm losing 2 dice for the search by being in AR. But I want to be able to keep at least 1 eye on Acson.

Prick...

I wish I knew why IC isn't working on my laptop now. Still getting the 503 error.

17d6.hits(5) = 3 hits
16d6.hits(5) = 6 hits
15d6.hits(5) = 6 hits

If that doesn't return any data, nothing short of hitting 17/17 hits will do it.

The fun bus is going wherever the fun is, and more ammo sounds FUN!

Slacker, I'm making a Judge Intentions roll. Yeah, I know, TW's about as perceptive as a brick when it comes to social situations, but it feels like the right thing to do. Have to use rolz.org since IC's shot again.

Charisma 2 + Intuition 4 => [ 2; 2; 5; 1; 5; 5; => 3 success(es) against 5 ] = 3. Apparently the shocks tripped something in his brain to pay attention.

Keep in mind legwork via data search generally requires many more hits than trying to get information out of a contact due to having to sift through so much jumbled data online, and in most cases the highest level of information possible is not available through data search.

For instance, researching the Thaljun Cordex, 4 hits from a contact would get you "It’s a collection of arcane tomes the last copy of which is rumored to be held by Horizon." The same information would take you 18 hits from a data search test. And no amount of successes would let you find the next step up of knowledge about it.

So, you'd need to roll at least one more test to find out that bit of fluff that you already know considering it was stolen by Acson from Horizon. But please do tell me if Needle got frustrated after the first 3 minutes of not finding anything concrete or if she continued in her searching. It matters for something else.............. <evil GM laughter echoes across the internets>>

What exactly are you wanting to know? Acson seems to be telling the truth that he saw an opportunity to get a jumpstart in his career without having to pay Horizon back for the schooling at MIT&T they provided and the Scholastic Lifestyle Fund to go with it for the last 2 years.