I probably will not be able to post tomorrow;

Grease is up for anything; includin goin to go visit the widow manuel. If we wanted to go up until that point, I can try to contribute when I get back (but it's unlikely I'll be able to).

Just wanted to let everyone know my availability. Jack, sorry you got stuck with the lame pbp'er for a few days!

-DrZ

Going to try and get on later tonight. Wife and I are about to go grab dinner and my computer is all jacked up. I keep getting booted from my wireless.

So just going over the comms we have exchanged today, and seeing all what Overkill has to do (which is usually a lot).

1) Track the Lawyer's commcode and put a bug on it.
2) Find Ms. Sanders commcode and put a bug on it, too, (helping facilitate a tail by one of Grease's drones)
3) Begin searches for the suspect Lynx and his team, and the ex-military assassin at the Stuffer Shack (does anyone on Lynx's team fit the image we have of Jackson's shooter at the Stuffer Shack.)

Anything else you guys asked me I missed?

Risk assessment: Placing the bug; seems like putting a Mark on their commlinks would be relatively easy and pretty low risk, but are there nuances to the actions involved that I need to watch out for? (Another fun learning experience.)

Jack - what (if anything) did you want to do while waiting for Dr. Zaius to get back?

So to put a bug on it would be a Matrix Perception to find it, then a Hack on the Fly (at least once to put a mark on it, possibly twice if you wanted to jump onto their grid), then a Snoop Action.

You can monitor their communication as long as you have the mark on the commcode - just remember that every 15 minutes you are on-line (from the moment you do your first illegal action), you are building OS, so you can't spy on them forever without having to shut down, and then go through the whole process again.

I honestly don't really have any plans. DrZ had something specific he wanted to try with Manuel, so I don't really want to preempt his plans. With that said, Grease and I are still 30ish minutes ahead of Amy and Overkill at the moment (an hour if you tack on travel time from the Hub to the UCAS sector since that's about an extra 30 minutes). For now, I'm content to observe again.

Another quick note: I'll pretty much be entirely out of play after work today. Not only is it Valentine's Day, but it's our 10-year Anniversary. Should be back on Saturday, but please recall that my Jury Duty also starts next week. I should get a better feel for how that is going to go on Tuesday.

Ok - so a little slowdown for you guys - no worries, we'll get you both back into the swing of things soon

I'm assuming that you are going to catch the 1:30 shuttle back to the UCAS Zone proper, which will have you touching down around 1:40 or so - with then 20-30 minutes left before you can get to the Manuel house.

Without knowing Grease's plan with regards to the Manuel house, I don't want to fast forward too much, in case he wants to call her.

That being said, for Amy and Overkill there is a bunch of time for them to try their hand at checking something else out - on the other hand, neither of them have eaten lunch - depends on what you guys want to do.

I think Amy and Overkill should grab lunch somewhere (Stuffer Shack? That's as good as what Amy would get). Overkill can start looking for info, until he gets the message from jack and grease at which point he has hacking to do.

From the point when Jack and Grease are back, the whole team should stick together, for the most part. Spells and hacking can come in handy, and so can drones/driving/social and physical prowess, regardless of the objective. Whatever we attempt, we'll be much more efficient as a whole team.

As long as its a different Stuffer Shack than the one we just left, preferably something between here and the Warrens.

Locating their commcodes should be simple Matrix Perception I can take care of in AR while we eat. When I Hack their comms, how would I get things like the commlogs off them?

You would have to do a Matrix Search of the commlink's files, then put a mark on the file, and then one of two things:

1) It is not protected, in which case you can just copy it.

2) It is protected, then you have to crack it (which, btw, is going to alert the owner that someone hacked his files) and then copy the file.

Once he is alerted, he is going to more than likely shut down his commlink, which wipes all your marks away from him.

@Overkill: Just a timeline correction. You won't get the message from Grease about Sanders and the Lawyer for another 20 minutes or so. But if you moved it to the end of the post, you could say you and she had grabbed something to eat at a Shack and were hanging out at your bike in the parking lot when the message came through. Just a suggestion.

A-3, S-6, D-5, F-5

Programs: Signal Scrub, Browse, Virtual Machine: Baby Monitor, Stealth

K, when we arrive at the stuffer shack I will do Matrix Perception checks to find the commcodes for Ms. Sander and Mr. Dekak (I will wait to MARK them when I am ready.)

I am not sure if I should do the searches on Lynx and Officer Jackson's shooter until I can go full VR and get max dice for the rolls, (I guess I am apprehensive to botch these ones as they could be very critical to our progress.)

oops, I will have to switch that up. thanks for the catch.

Overkill,

Are you going to hack the local grid to do the search first?

Yeah, I will hop on the local grid first.

Ok - you hack the local grid
14d6.hits(5)=5

4d6.hits(5)=0

OS=0

Now the Matrix search for Dakak's commlink

We'll call this Not Publicized so threshold of 3 - normal time 30 minutes, cut to 15 due to Browse

8d6.hits(5)=2

So - after 15 minutes of searching, you are unable to find his commlink's icon

2d6=3 and you build up an OS of 4

Want to use Edge? Want to try again at a -2 penalty? If not, do you want to jack out (and thus reset your OS) before you try for Emily Sanders commlink?

Retrying at any point would reduce my roll to 6d6 with a threshold of 3? or would I only need on more hit in addition to the 2 I got on the first roll?

I guess commcode isn't transmitted with a message? I kind of figured we already had a commcode for the lawyer given that he sent Grease a message. I thought Overkill could just use that to roll a matrix perception check to spot the icon.

That's what he was doing - using the commcode to find the commlink icon. The fact that you have the commcode is the only reason I'm even allowing the search for a silent icon over 100 meters.


@Overkill,

If you search again, you take a 2 dice pool penalty (so you would roll 6d6) and still have to get 3 successes.

If you used Edge, you would reroll your missed dice (in this case 6 misses) and only need 1 more hit (since you already got 2).

What about if I tried later tonight? Is the -2 penalty still applied?

This seems like such a painfully mundane roll to have to use my Edge on, with so many more important rolls to come.

Good question - the rules say that if you take a "sufficient break" then you can try again without the -2 penalty.

I'm thinking that 6 hours should be considered a "sufficient break" for something like this.

Does this seem reasonable?

Perfectly reasonable for me. I can wait until then and do it from home.

So I am going to jack out and restart my OS before rolling my search for Emily Sanders

Ok - hacking the local grid

14d6.hits(5)=5

4d6.hits(5)=1

OS =1

Searching for her commlink - threshold 3

8d6.hits(5)=4

You are successful.

15 minutes on the grid =2d6=9

OS=10

So - that is going to take you to around 1:25 or so.

Off topic, but what does it cost to raise your Edge score? Is it the same cost as raising an attribute? The book is a little vague on it.

Yes - exactly the same as raising an attribute.

How long would it take me to find her call log, mark it, and copy it?

Is my OS too high already?

Your OS is 10, you will not be discovered by GOD until it hits 40.

To find the file, mark it, and (assuming it isn't encrypted) copy it - assuming you are successful in all three rolls should take a matter of a minute or 2 at most.

You OS would only increase when you attempt to mark it. (if it is encrypted, it would also increase when you attempted to crack the file).

If that is all you are planning on doing, the OS should not be a problem.

Remember that if you log off to restart your OS, you will have lost track of her commlink icons location, and would have to roll top acquire it again.

Sorry, I was under the impression that, in the case where the commcode was known, this would all be resolved using Matrix Perception rather than Matrix Search which would be an opposed test. I agree the rules are a little flaky on this...

It also takes no time, so you can raise it whenever you want (technically).

K, then I will make the attempt to find, mark, and copy the comm-log

Ok - so Matrix search for the file - base time 1 minute, - 2 for noise (normally -5, but you've negated 3)

6d6.hits(5)=3

So you found the file in 20 seconds.

Next, Hack on the Fly

Normally 16 dice, -2 for noise

14d6.hits(5)=5

She resists

7d6.hits(5)=3

OS=13

It is not encrypted, so you can simply copy it

13d6 -2 for noise

11d6.hits(5)=4

She resists

7d6.hits(5)=2

OS=15

You now have the file.

Once you are all done with your Matrix actions, I'll put up an IC post to cover it.

Anything else you wish to do?

I'm back! I may post IC later this evening.

Edge, btw, is one of the few things you can raise instantly with karma. Everything else requires some time for training.

Edit: I'm cool if Jack needs to take a backseat next week, I appreciate everyone working around my schedule this week.

I agree chrome, getting all together makes sense. It will be easier now that most of our hub stuff is done.

That works. Plus, given my role, it's pretty easy to autopilot me. Other than random business esoterica, he shoots and stabs stuff.

Sorry for the sudden drop off, internet connection was giving us hell last night.

Since Sanders still doesn't know I am messing with her link, I will keep it that way and jack out with her comm-logs in hand. (Don't want her to put her defenses up.)

Gonna be doing some work with a friend today, might be able to check in while there.

Otherwise I will be back later today.

Ok - forgot that you should have been taking penalties for hacking cross grids - you can't access the CAS grid since you aren't physically in the CAS sector.

However, going back, it turns out even with the extra -2 dice, it would not have made a difference.

When Overkill sends the text, I imagine Jack and Grease are on line to board the 1:30 shuttle.

I don't have anything to add IC. We can fast-forward to the Rusty as far as Amy's concerned.

Likewise

I presume it's trivially easy to find the real estate listing for the house and set up an appointment?

-DrZ

Yes - even if it weren't, remember that Overkill and Amy have been there, and so Overkill would have the commcode for the real estate agent recorded in his cybereyes.

I don't think we need to IC describing in detail all the stuff each of us can do, but somehow I feel like you need to know what kind of spell Amy has, and what kind of powers the spirits she can summon can provide.

This includes the Search power, which I think could come in handy with finding the shooters, if we know what we want to do once we find their location.

I think it's a good idea. There are so many spells, knowing Amy is a "mage" doesn't really do us a lot of good. I think Grease has pretty much laid out his abilities in his post-Ramirez "bulldrek artist" speech.

-DrZ

Just keeping you guys in the loop - feel free to RP as much as you would like - always good for the group to have a firm grip on each others' talents

If you need anything from me, just let me know.

I'm down for whatever, just note that I'm probably going to need to be on autopilot during the day for the next few days due to Jury Duty. If that changes, I will certainly let you know. If y'all progress quickly, just note that Jack is going to bow out from activities at whatever point in time would give him enough time to get back to Nic's, change into more casual clothes, and get to his meeting at 5PM.

@DrZ: I just realized how ridiculously useful it will be for my character to have a place (your car) where he can go and hack in full VR and not worry about finding a place where he could look as though he is passed out and not draw so much attention.

I probably should have bought a car instead of a motorcycle, but I was thinking cost and easy to conceal at chargen.

I am sure both he and I will be thanking you countless times in the future for having a safe place to do my decking. So Drave says Danke in advance.

Ok - so it seems you have reached a consensus - but there are two slightly differing plans that you are all agreeing to.

I just need to know which so I can put up the next transition.

Plan A

All four of you head to the Manuel house, and Overkill and Amy hang out in the car, while Jack and Grease go inside. Then, when Jack leaves for his meeting with Honeypot, the three of you check out the Wright murder, meeting up with him when he is done.

OR

Plan B

Just Jack and Grease go to the Manuel house, and Overkill and Amy head to the Wright murder, and I'm honestly not sure what the plan is to meet up later.

Are you guys going with Plan A, Plan B, or did I misinterpret it, and you are doing something completely different

P.S. It was Moltke, not Guderian who coined the phrase "no plan survives contact with the enemy".

I would vote for Plan B, just because it makes the most logistical sense. Plus, we don't want them to be snooping around if the kids happen to see them again. Basically, we need to come off as home buyers, not detectives

@Overkill: you're welcome in advance! I'm sure it'll work out fine.

An alternative would be plan C: Jack and I take the BMW, Amy and Overkill take the Cab. I was planning on loaning the cab to Jack so he can go to his other meet.

As an aside, I'm ok fast forwarding to whatever we want. If Overkill wants to do some hacking in the meantime he's more than welcome to chill in one of my cars. Who knew buying two cars would be so handy! The Face/Rigger seems to be working out well so far as a concept.

-DrZ

I was thinking B: Jack & Grease to Manuel and Amy & Overkill to the Wright location (if we can actually determine where it happened). Jack heads to his meet after Manuels, and Grease meets up with Amy & Overkill at Wright's or Hawthorne. Jack meets up with the crew wherever they are after his meeting.

My understanding is that Amy was gunning for A, and everyone eventually agreed on B (her included).

You are right, gorramit...


now how did I mix that up? Stupid brain meats