Unless, of course, some adept hacker decides to take a look at the admin access logs and sees that the ID has been changed. But I don't think our GM would be that much of a dick to you.

Speaking of which - has anyone heard from Slacker? I know he got married (sucker!), but I didn't think he'd be out this long?

Ok, I am alive and back at work. Don't have much time for posting just yet, but wanted to check in real quick.

I talked to Dak/Mr. White briefly this morning and he told me you guys got a lot accomplished while I was off on the honeymoon...you killed Nazaire, Nuked the Renraku Arcologoy, got a cranial bomb in Harlequin while leaving it where he owes you a few favors, and Lofwyr is now dead too.

Seems like I missed a lot, lol.

Joking aside, we'll be picking up where we left off which was sadly in the middle of a meeting with Nazaire.

We said head bomb, not cranial. Small but critical difference.

I see they forgot to mention that we have also ascended to be the heads of a few respective major corporations, including Horizon. We've pinned the crap at the dinner on some other runners, while at the same time clearing up and accomplishing everything in Dunk's will.

Did I cover everything?

You left out the multiple Thor shots on Ares headquarters after pointing out the giant amount of Raid they kept ordering in.

No, the Hardware test is physically changing the hardwired access ID of the comm. Not to mention that some "adept hacker taking a look at the admin access logs" would have to somehow have known the new access ID of the commlink just to hack access to the comm, let alone access the logs. That's like saying that you need to worry about someone finding directions to your house in your home-office desk drawer. As I said, having your comm hacked once does not mean you need to outright throw it away...





I believe our meeting was at a sort of impasse between us and Acson about whether or not we were going to let him discuss things with Nazaire. To be blunt, we are kind of embarrassing ourselves not having this worked out ahead of time.

Gardner is slightly uncomfortable about effectively treating Acson as nothing more than a commodity to be bargained over, but he won't interfere with what the team is doing. (At this point, Acson's own actions have basically put him in this position)

It doesn't matter if you change access ids. If it was hacked once, it can be hacked again. Think about it: If your commlink is hacked, do you think the hacker knew your access id the first time? Probably not. They probably did what Needle has been doing - hacking on the fly. Or, brute-forcing her way into systems. Changing an access id doesn't keep a hacker from trying to brute-force their way in a second (or third, or fourth, or whateverth) time.

Key word ther is "can" be hacked. Every system can be hacked, and we don't even know if anyone's was... all I was saying that if you are worried about your comm being traced by Horizon, you don't need to throw it out. I'm talking stopping a trace not making a system hack proof, which is damn near impossible with a skilled hacker and enough time/luck.

Ok, so we should all be back from vacations and such, and the holiday weekend is over. When are we picking this up again?

Apologies. I'm swamped at work and still settling in with my new wife at home. So I haven't had much time to post.

Right now, we are still in the Nikko Hotel with Nazaire. Mr. White and the team were not wanting to let Acson leave their sight and was suggesting you all leave. I just posted up that Nazaire is perfectly willing to work out something to let you guys keep watch. He simply would like to discuss the inner workings of the Foundation and Acson's future place in it privately.

If you still want to leave before he talks to Acson, he will have no further objections, but you guys will be dragging Acson out. He's upset with himself over not pinning Moreau down on details and is extremely eager to hear Nazaire out.

You have to set priorities early on in the relationship mate ... let her know who's boss and that "You will post on the gawd damned internet any damn time you want!"

then when she lets you out of the closet/basement/dungeon etc. ... let us know what's goin down

Haha, it's more that we are still in the honeymoon phase of the marriage.

That, and combining the households of two adults takes more organization than either of us naturally has.

Besides, I get most of my forum gaming done while at work any. However, when I left for two weeks of vacation I was caught up on work. When I got back, I found about 3 months worth of work that all want done immediately. So, I'm a little pressed for time at the moment.

next time, bury it deeper ... and give it concrete boots ... or delegate it

anyways, Silas is ready for whatever, whenever, clown face off, Game face on !

So, I believe this meeting is adjourned. What are you guys wanting to do next? Going to force Acson to take the offer at the Draco Foundation? Going to try for a meeting with either of the representatives of the two Great Dragons that have contacted you? Going to just kill Acson for being such a pain in the ass?

clone him and sell all of his clones into slavery at ALL of the above,

in fact. keep 2 or 3 clones for our own personal stress relief and assassination technique practice.

***EDIT***

okay, fine, my real vote is to take the offer from whoever we have the best relationship with, any discrepancy from 10,000 each needs to be negotiated with Acson for his continued wellbeing

So there was zero matrix activity surrounding the building the entire time the meeting was taking place? Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing going on?

How much of a rep hit are we willing to take here, folks? 'Cause selling Ascon to the highest bidder is going to incur a Notoriety penalty, even if it makes the most financial sense to us. Also, which Foundation do we want mad at us less? We already worked our way onto the "untrustworthy" list with the Atlanteans after the last Mission, dangling the Thaijun Cordex in front of them and then going "ha ha, the Dracos really get it" is just going to make them madder.

TW would like nothing better than to shoot this little fucker in the head and sell his corpse to the ghouls, but there's got to be some kind of financial/professional gain out of all of this.

For my part (my character's part), this is all pure business. We have something to sell, and if a corporation wants it, they should make a good offer. We'll sell to whomever makes the best offer.

I'm interested in reaching out to other parties that might be interested in doing business with us.

This is all still pretty much business, I can't imagine a corp would feel particularly ousted over not being picked in this sort of situation. True, the Atlantean Foundation might not be particularly happy, but it won't be something to level where they send a hit squad or something.

Gardner will hand the business card he got to White and suggest that there is at least one more party that seems interested...

There were hundreds of different nodes(active, passive, and hidden), thousands of signals in the area(many being encrypted), millions of bits being transferred(porn, business documents, phone calls, etc.). How much of it were you planning to look at/hack/whatever?

Basically, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary that you casually noticed in Laurent's apartment, there were certainly some hidden security nodes (though being inside the building they would like be setup as wired systems rather than wireless) and Nazaire had a commlink in hidden mode if you wanted to try to hack it.

Gardner is right. For the Foundations at least and likely the Great Dragon's as well (though simply dropping contact with the first agent to contact you immediately after an offer of some money might have at least annoyed that dragon's representative).

The only hit squads that are likely to come after you currently would be from Horizon.

Was more concerned that you didn't mention anything regarding Needle watching the matrix than anything else. I'm not going to be a dick and try hacking anything during the meet, but keeping an eye open for anything that seems odd is more what I was doing. As long as everything seemed kosher as christmas...

...jews don't celebrate christmas, tom...

...then we're good.

That's what I figured. You didn't notice Acson or Laurent sending off any covert messages or hidden nodes of spy drones floating outside the closest windows.

So everybody leaving Nazaire's suite and heading downstairs to meetup with Needle in the van?

Then calling the number on the card Gardner received?

Actually, that gives me an idea. I'm going to do a data search on that phone number to see if anything comes up on it. ANYTHING.

Search 1: 19d6.hits(5) = 7
Search 2: 18d6.hits(5) = 4
Search 3: 17d6.hits(5) = 6
Search 4: 16d6.hits(5) = 5

22 hits in 4 minutes should be enough. If I can't find anything at all to even do another search, then this is beyond me.

You already did a data search on Simon Andrews, the person who's number it is and got all the information you could. Doing a separate search on the number itself isn't going to get you anything:

Yeah, I know I searched on Simon Andrews. But the search on the phone number itself is different than searching on Andrews. Like...numbers it's calling to. And being called from. And who is legally registered to the number.

I would think you would need to either hack the phone itself or hack the telephone company to get that kind of information. Doing a general search on the Matrix would only get you who the number is registered to and any websites listing it under contact info and the like. Which only leads you back to Simon Andrews.

You're not going to get info on who he's calling or who's calling him.

So, is Mr. White going to make the call to Simon Andrews to see what he wants?

It was worth a shot. Oh well!

Sure, let's do it. *dialing*

How about we recycle those rolls into getting us a free Dial-a-pizza delivered "Yes, that's right .. delivery to the Clown Van, in the carpark opposite the Nikko hotel ... hello? .... HELLO!?" Silas is hungry ... again

I guess Silas should have gone upstairs for the 7 course meal instead of staying in the van.

So, how are you guys wanting to handle the Alabaster Maiden? It's roughly 3 miles away from your current location. Though with busy downtown traffic, that'll take you 15 minutes or so to drive there.

Just a thought, but I could hack the city's traffic system and give us greens the whole way. Might cu down on some traffic...

I was gonna suggest that we drive there.

maybe time for some new wheels ? did you say this was a "Secure" carpark Slacker ? or is there a chance to get a new panel van or transit

This is a rich section of downtown Seattle. So, it's a AAA security area. The parking garage may not have armed guards walking up and down it, but there is certainly a plethora of cameras recording everything. You guys could maybe be stealthy enough to snag another vehicle without somebody noticing. But once the theft is discovered, it will be pretty easy to review footage and connect you guys to it. It would also be easy for the stolen vehicle to be tracked down to its present location. That would be really bad if you guys take a while to talk to Simon Andrews and walk out to a few Knight Errants patrols looking to arrest you.

And yes, Needle could hack her way into the traffic system to give you green lights all the way, and hack her way into the parking garage's security system to delete all evidence of you, and hack the vehicle's transponder to stop its broadcasting of location. But every time she hacks, especially in a high security area like this, is a risk of somebody noticing and it takes less than a minute for first response from KE around here.

I would think a 15 minute drive to a meeting that isn't time sensitive at all isn't worth the bother.

just checkin don't want to overcomplicate this run any more than it already.... oh wait ..

Would you guys like me to just jump ahead to the Alabaster Maiden? If so, who's going in? Who's staying outside? Who's getting drunk? Who
's taking a nap? etc.

That's fine with me, unless there's anything we need to sort out in character.

White will certainly be going in.

Knowledge: Bars & Clubs "Alabaster Maiden"
(9d6.hits(5)=4)

if Any of the following holds true, then Silas will speak up and will NOT be going inside

You've certainly heard of the Alabaster Maiden and its famous/infamous "statue" out in front. You've heard so many conflicting rumors about the history of the statue that you don't know what to think about it. Many say the whole petrified wizard in defending against go-gangers is strictly urban legend bullshit, while others claim evidence that she comes to life some nights. You've even heard claims that she will grant wishes for those she sees worthy. Regardless of the truth, many visitors will touch the statue for good luck.

Perhaps at one time the club had a strictly awakened entry policy, but currently the owner is known to be a mundane (though its been said her cat has an interesting aura). The place does retain a slant towards the mystic with the occasional magical entertainment group performing there. But its not exclusive.

Besides, Simon Andrews did tell you he'd get all your names on the VIP list. So anybody that wants inside can get inside without fuss.

Needle once again stays put in the van and monitors digital airspace for anything out of the ordinary. She's already pissed at Acson for setting them up, and her presence in the club might not be very welcome. She's also highly uncouth and would most definitely say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Best to let the faces do the talking, right?

Good point. I'll go in ... sans heavy weapons

So far, that's two plus Acson going in and one staying outside. How about the rest of the team?

I suppose I'll go inside. Particularly since I was the one who was handed the business card. Plus I want to keep an eye on Acson, partly to make sure the rest of the group doesn't make a gut reaction to kill him

If TW is ok with it, since Needle is staying outside, I would suggest he stay back to watch her back just in case something starts to go down outside...

Is Eclipse going inside or staying outside too?

Ok. No resposnse from TundraWolf or Eclipse yet. So, I'm going to assume they are staying outside to watch for trouble and guard Needle.

Mr. White, Gardner, Silas, and Parker Acson will all be heading inside.

Needle can you describe for me how you are going to be handling your Matrix activity. This is a pretty busy club where most people will have commlinks in Active mode to be able to flirt with each other from across the room and such. So, lots of signals will be flying around inside. Are you planning to again ride in on somebody's commlink on the inside? Or focus more on checking for signals on the outside?

Needle is welcome to use mine for the purposes