awesome ... I wish we had decent conventions in the UK

have fun !

No problem boss. Have fun at the convention

aye, welcome .. before you even have a chance to post

Artemis is a special and unique snowflake ! .. .. but yes, we could have melted his oversized head

First post is made, looking forward to an interesting campaign, and thanks for the hearty welcome!

Starting dosh - 3d6 → [3,4,1] = ( 8 ) x 50 = 400 nuyen. Somewhat below average, but oh well.

And yeah, I figured Artemis already had the "wise-guy" angle covered for this, so I'm trying something a little different. Although with names like Slick and Nick, some might argue not different enough...

~Umi

Nice first post. I made a mistake on the time of your introduction. Please note that i changed the time to one hour earlier. This takes place just a few minutes after where we are in the scene with Artemis. Basically i assumed Egg notified Burn-out just before the security guard came to the front of the car. This gives him about 5 minutes to contact you and get to where you are now and gives them enough time to resolve the current situation.

Welcome aboard. Its nice having a cerebral group of players who so far have done a wonderful job keeping the story thumping right along.

So, trying to talk this guard into covering his ass and saving his job.

if he can keep any other witnesses at bay while we ... christ .. I have no idea what we are gonna do! the Jackrabbit is legit, I need to scrub it.

I need to call someone and get it collected and scorched so there's no come back on me .. aaaarggghllllrrraaar !

above all , I need some time !

You had some great ideas with your contacts about getting rid of bodies and such. I'm sure it won't cost you much as long as they have a decent loyalty rating

I've been trying to get some artwork together, but as I'm not an artist myself and I can't find reference photos that work for Nick's particular look, I'm just gonna post the description of his appearance that I wrote up for my background.


~Umi

Nice work. Great recovery.

Its around 20:06:00 when Nick contacts you. Before you get off the line with Jimmy he tells you it will be about 5-6 minutes before the truck gets there. There are two dead bodies hanging out of the passenger windows of the BMW and two unconscious yet alive people in the driver side of the vehicle. What do you plan on doing in the next 5-6 minutes while you wait on the flatbed to pick up the Jackrabbit. Keep in mind since you are friends with Autowired you probably know the truth behind the place he works... well perhaps part of the truth anyway. Doubtful they could do much in the way of the bodies but a BMW would be worth more in parts than it would be whole

So, searching for "Scrawny teen Brunette" got me into all sorts of trouble !! .. so thanks for that ... but here, try this ?

Cheers, was hoping I wouldn't have to rely on dice for this one

gotcha

what's LS response time round here ? if you say 8-10 minutes, I'll love you forever, in a very manly kind of way.. no tongues !

okay, this part I need to discuss with my associate Jules.. Lobo.. my thoughts will be :

1) "Arrest" the unconscious guys/girls and resstrain them somehow, liberate weaponry and throw it in the trunk
2) do a better job of spoofing this transponder and try and trace the hack, make sure it was this guy and not a remote job
3) get the corpses back in the BMW and exit stage left with Lobo driving it to a secure location, a scrapyard or something in the barrens ?
4) scorch any of my data from the jackrabbit (not that there should be much, given it's been my car for a while) and get it loaded up on the truck
5) take truck to meet BMW in remote location
6) dispose of bodies and Jackrabbit, then take a cleaned up BMW to @Autowireds place (once we've informed him of the situation of course)
7) use "flashy Thing" to mindwipe the survivors and any witnesses ? ... at this point I'm lost .. there's no way I want to kill them, too messy, BUT ... need something to keep them out of our way
....
9) profit Survive

@phlapjack:

IC updated for you. If you have specific inquiries within this sub-directory go ahead and list them in OOC along with a Data Search + Browse extended test to see if you find anything about it.

That's the younger brother kid from Supernatural

Ok good news and bad news for this. In a panic Artemis does a quick data search for Lone Star operational facilities and finds that there is an "Investigations Unit" located just over half a klick south from your current location on International Drive. That is the BAD news. The good news is that looking around you don't see anyone standing around outside or even paying attention through the windows of the buildings around you. As far as you know that security guard was the only witness and he made it pretty clear he didn't want to get involved.



1) Restraining the survivors shouldn't be that hard, they are unconscious after all. Not to mention it just happens that Lobo has two plasteel restraints. What do you want to do with the survivors? Leave them or take them with you?

2) you already have an active connection to the BMW so you can do a Software + Spoof test to spoof the access ID. As for tracing the hack, it becomes fairly obvious once you open the door and pull the kid out of the back seat of the BMW that his commlink was the one that hacked your car and was inside the BMW system as well.

3) See below

4) The system is friend on the Jackrabbit so other than physical inspection there is no way to identify the vehicle provided you remove the plates.

When The Wolf gets to your location in the flat bed truck you can tell this is a man who handles problems and not just broken down cars.

"So let me get this straight. You want this little matchbox to disappear (pointing to the jackrabbit) and you want those two items to go away as well (pointing to the bodies)? That I can do. The only problem I foresee is can you afford the fee or more appropriately can you afford the favor? Jimmy has you covered on this but you are going to owe him pretty big."

awesome post Umi!

Look at you, been here 5 minutes and already making us look bad
With your liveried van ...

So. On timing, will nick be able to pick lobo and egg up?
Then Artemis can dispose of the BMW while you guys do some more stealthy surveillance ..

And what are we gonna do with the unconscious ones?

According to google, it's a 25 minute drive, so...

By the way, the vehicular livery didn't come cheap, so try not to get blood, bullets, or incendiaries on it, yeah?

(Oh, and I hope the slang isn't too obscure or obfuscating. It's all 100% canon, though!)

~Umi

I was gonna ask if you or Nick, are from Yorkshire ? the language is quite unique

Artemis' perception is literally none existant,
so is probably better off elsewhere with the BMW for the time being, leaving Nick and Lobo to scout the place out
and do what you need to do ... ALSO .. meaning that things don't get so overly dramatic from the get-go.

I'm back

As far as I can tell, Artemis has not let Lobo know any part of the plan (or about Nick) - so he is waiting for Artemis's lead (God help us)

see above, wanted to chat ooc about it first before we IC it up .. we have 6 minutes


really need your input pal, I'm getting lost in my own plans and plots

Ok so just brain storming here before I respond IC

There are a bunch of things going through my/Lobo's mind right now:

1) Who are these guys?
2) Did they attack us specifically, or were they just going to attack a random car?
3) If they did attack us specifically, how did they know to be set up there?

I think the idea that they just happened to be here, and just happened to attack our car - i.e. they were going to attack some random car, and not just ours seems far too coincidental to be believed - especially given the fact that the car you drive isn't very flashy. It isn't as if we were in a hundred thousand nuyen sports car.

Even though it definitely feels OOC that this could be a random encounter thrown at us by the GM, IC there is no way Lobo is going to be convinced that this was a random car-jacking where the car jackers were packing automatic weapons and stun grenades.

So, for Lobo, he is going to want to find the answers to those questions before he does anything else - #3 being the primary one.

This may be of great concern to Autowired and Burnout, since they were the only ones that Lobo is aware of who knew about the job and where we could/would be and could have warned the guys in the car to be on the lookout for us.

So for Lobo, the thought would be interrogate, and then hold, at least until the job is done, and then probably let them go.

me too

I'm 100% with you, WHY us ?

My only thought is I glitched the spoof ID on my little car,
that they were waiting for someone else and it's mistaken identity, got us instead of the mark thinking it was them!

that's all OOC

IC, I'm as paranoid as turkey at thanksgiving ! there's no WAY on this planet that this kind of coincidence happens !!!.
but now we have their gear, I intend to find out, from the technology.
not sure if you want to get them in the back of the van and do some "meat" interrogation ??

This is one instance that playing pbp has its massive advantage for the GM. The players have little to no experience with my style so if it were a random encounter or planned... nobody knows

So with Lobo searching the unconscious gangers over he finds that the driver, the hacker in the back seat and the front passenger all had Red Devil tattoos on their neck. The one in the back (Frankie) that fired the HK MP5 at your car only has an outline of the devil face, the color has yet to be done. Unfortunately the two of you have no knowledge skills pertaining to gangs in the area.

All of the Red-Devils have custom commlinks of hacker quality
(4) Armored vests
(2) HK MP5 with 3 full clips and 1 clip 4 rounds remaining.
(2) Colt 2066 6 clips of regular ammo
(4) Stylized mirrored shades with enhancements.
(1) tweaked BMW 550eco

EDIT: I'm going to give you guys some time to decide what you want to do before the flatbed gets there to pick up the car. Its roughly 6 minutes of game time. Basically whatever you guys decided provided it doesn't take an excessive amount of game time, Nick is going to arrive on the scene moments after the guy gets the jackrabbit on the truck and strapped down.

Agree it is a bonus that we don't know your style - however in this case it doesn't really matter.

Given Lobo's background, he has no choice but to assume that somehow the mission is compromised - regardless of whether or not OOC I think this is a random encounter.

I would imagine that there is almost no time left at all before the truck gets there - if they were 5-6 minutes away when Artemis made the call, and in the meantime Lobo has had time to pull all of the bodies out, secure the live ones, search all 4 of them, and then search the car.

For me, there isn't much Lobo is going to do in character between then and now. I'll still throw an IC post up soon to present his overall mood, but I don't think there is much more for him to do before the van and Nick gets here. Lobo's next step is to ask the survivors some rather pointed questions...

and for Artemis, it's

lockdown the jackrabbit, remove personal items if any ( doubtful )
secure the BMW ... make it "my own" for now... make sure there's no backdoors or traces
Lockdown / powerdown the 4 comm-links and make sure they don't pose a threat .. until I have time to do some data search and get contact details and other pay-data from them.
again, making sure there's no active trace

and lastly heft the weaponry and stuff into the BMW, and once Nick arrives and we've had some intro time.. I'll pull away and contact @AutoWired for permission to use garage for cleanup

may as well use the wheels for the time being till I can trade it in for a new vehicle, I guess Jimmy will accept most of it as payment,

I'll IC that at a later date.. we're getting far too side-tracked

Artemis had some specific ideas which could be easily addressed while the physical work of pulling bodies and restraining them is done. I'll happily skip ahead to the truck man getting there but i want to make sure you guys have a plan since there is a time window you guys can communicate. As it stands i believe the plan is as follows:

1) "Arrest" the unconscious guys/girls and resstrain them somehow, liberate weaponry and throw it in the trunk

Which has been done.

2) do a better job of spoofing this transponder and try and trace the hack, make sure it was this guy and not a remote job

Spoofing the transponder on the Jackrabbit or the BMW? It would be possible to search through the unconscious rear seat guy's commlink to confirm that it was his link that did the hacking but currently its impossible to trace the connection to the Jackrabbit because the system is down and there is current connection.

3) get the corpses back in the BMW and exit stage left with Lobo driving it to a secure location, a scrapyard or something in the barrens ?
4) scorch any of my data from the jackrabbit (not that there should be much, given it's been my car for a while) and get it loaded up on the truck
5) take truck to meet BMW in remote location
6) dispose of bodies and Jackrabbit, then take a cleaned up BMW to @Autowireds place (once we've informed him of the situation of course)

This is the part i don't understand. You are planning on scrapping the jackrabbit instead of seeing if it can be fixed or if it can be stripped down for parts? Are you planning on keeping the BMW or seeing if the guys at GEAR (Autowired's workplace) want to strip it? What do you plan on doing with the living unconscious guys. They are going to be out for a while, much longer than 5-6 minutes so if you are going to question them it will require drugs to wake them up.

@Lobo:

As you roll Frankie over to look at him, something looks vaguely familiar about him. You close his eyes pondering to yourself where you know him from. Logic + Willpower test please.

Go ahead and make a Data Search + Browse test for knowledge on the Red-Devil face in relations to gang activity.

Hah, no, not specifically.

I'm something of an omniglot, although my linguistic skills are more breadth-based than depth-based in some areas beyond the borders of English and her closest relatives and companions. I have a strong tendency to make use of words sheerly because I enjoy them. I also tend to use whatever words I can think of that best convey my particular meaning, feeling, or style at a given moment.

So, for example, in everyday speech I'll usually refer to "money" for practical and serious usages, but when I'm feeling a bit more playful and want to emphasize more of the concept of spending-money or pocket change that is expected to be spent soon, I'll sometimes slip out "dosh" for a turn or two. Similarly, on rainy days I'll remind my loved ones to carry an "umbrella", but if I'm being playful about things I'll substitute "bumbershoot" instead. Basically, the more playful (or conversely more exact in meaning) I'm being, the more diverse my vocabulary becomes.

As for Nick? He's a mutt. His family has a long history in the CAS, but much of it has been muddled and forgotten. His speech patterns are chiefly a product of his personality and his environment growing up in dystopian Atlanta, with some strange influences I'm not consciously aware of that I'll attribute to his family life, neighbors, and other early influences.

~Umi

Me and Lobo are happy to skip ahead once the following conditions have been met, if possible

spoof the BMW so it is not going to attract attention "on the grid" as long as there's "no connection" then we continue on.

this is where there is a change in the plan, and again, needs some IC,

Mister Wolf is according to his text (when he arrives) taking the JackRabbit AND the corpses, to an as yet undisclosed location for disposal
I was assuming that meant my little car was going to be crushed beyond recognition,
META - I have NO idea how much vehicle repairs cost since 3rd Ed. where it was damage boxes * 15% of the total cost of the vehicle or something like,
thus rendering it impossible to repair bullet riddled cars

I'm happy for either it to die a valiant death - as long as stripping the BMW pays for a reasonable replacement AND the remainder goes to Jimmy for reparations ?
or for it to be repaired ...

I'm hoping to negotiate a position where I am ahead of the game in resources but not fiscally, as we aer runners and NOT car thieves / fences.. don't wanna ruin the game.

see above for clarification, Mister Wolf was not exactly clear on his definitions of Disposal and Artemis is NOT asking!
you need to help me out a little here so that it becomes a bit clearer where I stand vehicularly

I'm fairly sure the BMW has taken no damage as Lobo has been firing and hitting with single shots, so I'm going to be using it as a "Rental" after some deep cleaning
until I get a replacement and we can sort out it's worth with Jimmy,
@Autowireds place is the only place Artemis would trust to go for a cleanup ... I've not had that conversation yet, so it's still up in the air

Frag knows! ... Frag cares! ... Artemis is not an interrogator, that is far too brutal for his sensibilities.

I'd be happy to provide some incriminating evidence and dump them on the steps to the police station !!!

@Mach_Ten:

The OOC scene with Mister Wolf isn't set in stone. I was just trying to get a feel for what you wanted to do. You are well within your rights to do what you just described... crushing the jackrabbit and "renting" the BMW until you find a replacement. So if we are going with this scenario i will post an IC and finalize it. Let me know if you want to make any changes. Basically when the guy gets there he is going to have you and Lobo load the dead bodies in the trunk of the Jackrabbit then load the car onto the flatbed. He is also going to have you guys clean the little bit of blood splatter off the outside driver side window from Lobo killed the gangers. From there he will drive off into the sunset and your car will never be seen from or heard from again.

From there you guys can take over What you plan on doing with the unconscious ones and the BMW. Sound good?

Okey dokey

Logic + Willpower

5d6.hits(5)=3

Data Search + Browse

5d6.hits(5)=1

Sounds good!

IC up. The gang scene is completed. Feel free to handle IC character introductions as Nick pulls up in the van. The only thing i ask is that somewhere you IC taking Egg home so we can officially remove her from the story. Other than that you have plenty of time to kill as Matt probes the ABER node. You guys can continue to scope out the building if you want... its all you... the story is yours

@Lobo: As for the Data Search you don't find out much. There are a couple references to companies in the Industrial Park that filed complaints with Lone Star about being hassled by gang members calling themselves Red-Devils. The complaints revolve mostly around damages caused by Hacking and vandalism.

Poor Frankie and his girlfriend - you are evil

I missed the most recent GM post while writing one of my own because it rolled over to a new page, so I added a second to keep things moving.

I vote we have everyone pile in the van and make introductions on the road. Or if you'd rather chat in the street, that works too - Nick hasn't closed the driver-side door yet, so feel free to harangue him a bit. Just because he wants to scram right away doesn't mean the team has to do so.

To our glorious leader, I direct a mechanical query - are the gangers' tattoos immediately obvious from a distance? Just curious if between my Perception (Intuition 3 + Skill 4 + Visual Enhancement 3 = 10 +/- Modifiers) and my Knowledge: Gangs (Intuition 3 + Skill 3 = 6) I would notice and recognize their iconography without looking at them more closely.

~Umi

A further question - maybe I've missed it.

1) Are the unconscious gangers going in the van or the BMW?
2) Are we all going in the van and having the BMW follow on autopilot, or am I driving (I sort of thought that was the plan, but then Nick opened the door and seems to think Lobo is getting in.

Just want to make sure so I can post in IC correctly.

Nick doesn't care. He just knows that not everyone can fit up front in the van, and he kinda assumes the BMW doesn't run, given he was told that you "REALLY need wheels".

Slot people where ever.

~Umi

MY suggestion would be

Nick driving the van, Lobo as passenger,

two restrained and unconscious guys in the rear.

Artemis in the BMW, to take Egg Home

then for an auto-valet somewhere without security.. or back to my place.
-------

From here we can continue surveillance if Lobo wants to,
we can do some questioning so Artemis doesn't have to witness it

or we can move this Nova-Wiz-Fun-Party to somewhere more discreet ?

Ok, while in this subdirectory he'll try to pull data about the companies receiving the large orders (the drone manufacturers)

Data Search + Browse extended test:
7d6.hits(5) → [5,2,1,2,1,5,5] = (3)
7d6.hits(5) → [3,2,5,3,4,5,3] = (2)
7d6.hits(5) → [5,4,6,6,1,3,3] = (3)
7d6.hits(5) → [3,5,6,3,5,6,6] = (5) !!!
7d6.hits(5) → [2,3,3,3,3,5,5] = (2)
7d6.hits(5) → [4,1,2,5,3,4,4] = (1)
7d6.hits(5) → [1,1,3,4,1,5,3] = (1)
7d6.hits(5) → [3,3,1,1,6,3,4] = (1)
7d6.hits(5) → [4,2,5,1,1,3,3] = (1)
7d6.hits(5) → [4,2,4,5,1,6,6] = (3)

Once he's done that, he'll back out and go into the next subdirectory, Research & Development

He's saving as much data as is possible to a datachip - never know if this data will be useful later

The larger of the two drone manufacturers is ATI Allcav (2020 Ashcraft Ave, Monroe, NC) the other is Bobcat (1711 Morgan Mill Road, Monroe, NC) Both appear to get a package bundle of Signal and Response chips as well as large quantity of generic data storage chips. (Nothing really out of the ordinary for a company that produces drones). It only takes about 5 combat rounds for you to exhaust your searching when you come across a small piece of data that you find interesting. There is one company that has placed an order for one thousand Triple Crown response chips. The current invoice has a listed price of 1 which is extremely odd. The name associated with the Invoice is Mach 3 located at 1940 Kyle Court, Gastonia, NC.

Yeah, he has that effect on people, at least he's not crammed into the back of a JackRabbit with them pointy knees digging into your spleen !

Makes a person drive erratically... having knees in ur spleen !!

Although I know better, having checked out your character sheet, Nick's still trying to figure Lobo out.

Not slimy enough to be organized crime, not uptight enough to be a cop or soldier, not fake enough to be corporate (or at least the sort of corporate Nick has had exposure to), but plenty big and imposing and looks like he's seen more than just a thing or two. If he had to guess, Nick would hazard DDI or DSI, which is part of what's got him spooked.

~Umi

OMG ROFL... that is funny

Well he's this older, imposing ork with an air of confidence and a keen eye, and Nick doesn't exactly have exposure to high society or upper-level Corporate types, so the only thing that makes any sense to his trideo-educated mind is some kind of government agent in plainclothes.

To be fair, Burn-out seems like the type who would have a fair amount of dirt that the feds could use as leverage to get him and his unwitting associates to work for them.

~Umi

Been googling Images for Nick again ... and YES I have been watching Arrow

Like your 20 Q's .. I might have to do mine soon, gonna collapse tonite though ,, knackered

I wasn't laughing at your description of Lobo, rather the connection to government agencies... make this all cloak and dagger

I actually just finally settled on a pretty close set of images for Nick, went ahead and uploaded them. The jumpsuit is supposed to have faded gold geometric accents, but I wasn't about to spend more than a minute to try and 'shoop it in, and it's subtle anyways, so ya'll can just imaginate.

As for the questions, I really have to give a shout-out to Aria for supplying me with the original format. I find it really helps me tie together the finer details of a character concept once I get rolling.


Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get ya!

~Umi

So, my thought is to contact my Saeder Krupp exec and see if he can provide me with a safehouse to bring these two to.

Do you need me to make any rolls or just post it IC?

You can just IC it up. Its not too extreme of a favor... provided you are not asking to hold up there for an extended period of time.

I'll update the map and give a location of the safe house when I go to lunch today. About 4 hours from now. You guys have done great work in IC

Oi.! your 4 hours are up ... FEEED my RP Craving ! Dammit !