ETA Boxes: 8, 7, 6, 9, 10 (I'm about to post IC for Grease to text me if the Realtor starts heading downstairs.

Ok - you will get through boxes 8,7 and 6 before Brandy winds down and tells Grease that she has to get downstairs to check on you.

Box 8: This box includes various Lone Star paraphernalia, including pens, cups, and other junk Manuel would have picked up from the office.

Box 7: Includes the hard copies of his paperwork. There is a lot, several folders worth, a quick scan shows they are personal notes, not official case files, as well as some paperwork for insurance, pay stubs, etc. Too much to read through in the limited time you have.

Box 6: It seems that Manuel must have been quite the baseball player, picking up several trophies - one each year for the last 5 years. All of them have a list of teammates, and all are labelled "Lone Star Intra-Departmental Baseball Champs:Border Patrol"

Ok - hate to leave you guys in the middle of it, but I am off to run my PnP Denver Shadowrun group tonight

Will be back on late,late tonight and then again tomorrow morning.

Any of the folders in Box 7 that appear recently dated? Any of the team members names on the trophies in Box ring a bell? Otherwise, this seems to have been a bust. Probably should have checked Misc... any windows in the basement?

ETA: Hmmm... that's odd though. We have Manuel working Robbery Investigation in Green Valley Ranch rather than Border Patrol operations as the trophies would seem to indicate.

EATA: Added Browse and Signal Scrub to my Hermes Ikon & adjusted character sheet and the expense report.

Undercover? Reassignment?
-Nick

Or maybe someone falsified his record before Ramirez looked it up?

1) The folders are all at least 2 months old.
2) In addition to Manuel, you also see Samantha Jackson and Vic Hawthorne.
3) No, there are no windows in the basement.

ROFLMAO

What volume are we talking about here? Not something I could tuck in my pants and hide underneath my jacket?

Going to throw up an IC post and may edit it based on the response.

Each folder contains standard 8x11 pieces of paper and is several inches thick. There are 8 folders in the box.

You can grab some of the papers, yes - you might even be able to shove one folder in - definitely not two of them.

Sure, why not. I'm going to randomly grab a folder and tuck it in my pants behind my jacket. If that would require a skill I don't have (like Palming), I'll default and use a point of Edge to hopefully up my chances.

Ok, you grab a folder, and try to hide it.

Palming test, so Agility -1 die, + Edge=9d6, (IC is still down, time to break out the old d6s) - yields 3 hits.

Her perception test= 6d6 - yields 2 hits.

Go ahead and edit your post

Just wanted to remind you that rule of 6 is in play if you didn't factor that in

ETA: Post is edited.

Thanks for the reminder (although I did remember it ) - you only got one 6, and when I rerolled that, I got a 4.

Per Jack: Yeah, I was just implying the basement might be dirty, not bugged

Also, my other plan was to knock the Realtor unconscious down here; your plan seems like a more appropriate move!

-DrZ

Ok, so I did a Con check for Jack, adding a positive 3 dice pool adjustment for a combination of plausibility/mood of Brandy - yielding 5 hits (dropped back down to 4 for your social limit).

Brandy rolled, and either she is REALLY desperate for a sale, or just terrible saying no to someone, because she rolled 10 dice and got 1 hit.

IC post in a minute or two.

@DrZ: LOL, I had another intention, but not having the capability to easily send a text back prevents me from elaborating.

@Lobo: If we do get the go-ahead to talk to Mrs. Manuel, Jack is going to make an excuse for heading out to the car first in order to drop off the folder.

ETA: I feel bad for Brandy. If we do go in on a team lifestyle, we should hire her to broker our deal. Heck, maybe she could become Brandy Simmons, Realtor for the Shadows!

What is it with this group and poor officer Manuel? Bad enough he gets shot in his own living room, now you not only want to mind-rape his widow, break his neighbor's kid's electronics, and now assault his (or more properly I suppose, his wife's) realtor?

Have you no shame?

I feel compelled to note that one member of the team has not been party to any of the above suggested actions.

Thought crimes! I haven't done anything... yet.

OK, so putting Manuel into the "Smuggling Interdiction" category with Mitchell, Hawthorne, and Jackson means that all of the officers working Smuggling Interdiction and Gang Control appear to have been assassinated, rather than killed randomly in the line of duty. We have yet to investigate the two officers killed on patrol duty (Wright and Taylor). We still need to look into Thomas as well, but given that he was killed with magic in his own apartment, I would say assassination is a pretty safe guess.

Next time we get separated from Brandy, I'll drop one of my fly spies and hide it under some furniture.

Just a heads up for timeline's sake. Overkill sent a message to Jack and Grease 5 minutes before Jack takes the time to do whatever at the car in IC.

Thanks, I saw it, but noted that it was sent earlier in our timeline, but I probably should acknowledge it now. Thanks!

ETA: I edited my IC post to respond to Overkill.

Im good to go with moving the scene forward, Lobo.

-DrZ

Are you signing the contract, and if so, what SIN are you using?

Lol, look at those motherf'ing gangsters signing real estate agency contracts and shit, so badass!

LOL, I just realized that Grease's police contact is Robocop.

Waiting to hear about which SIN Grease is using, then I can advance the scene.

If Grease chooses to share the contract, Jack will review it with his Negotiation/Contracts specialization to make sure it's on the up-and-up.

ETA: Not wanting to speak for DrZ, but I would assume if he is going to sign it, it would be with the Moss ID as I believe he set up the meeting with that one. Hmm... actually it doesn't seem to be specified. I must be thinking of the lawyer.

What do you guys gain by signing that contract? I'm just not seeing it, but maybe I'm missing something.

An interview with Mrs. Manuel. Sounds like Brandy wants a client in the event she burns herself with Manuel for convincing her to speak with us. I like Brandy, she's shrewd. I think she would have a great career as a real-estate fixer for shadowy-types like us. Hopefully we can corrupt her enough that she pursues that line of work.

Thanks for the explanation. I had actually misread the IC post from Lobo. Yeah that makes perfect sense. I feel like there would be .. criminal.. ways to do this but, that works too.

Well yeah, I mean, I can always pop a handblade through Brandy's throat and then go threaten to eviscerate Mrs. Manuel's guts and/or child and we might learn something that way, but why play the heel?

All right, if that's what you want we can go for the old ultra-violence.

Judging by my character build, I don't have a whole lot of other options. I guess I could look at her bank account statements to see if she's cheating on her taxes and blackmail her with that...

Negotiation with Brandy:

Charisma 6 + Negotiation 5 + Tailored Pheromones 1 = 12 dice, vs a Social Limit of 7. Modifiers (as always!) at your discretion.

I'll need you to roll it since Invisible Castle is still down. If you think Etiquette is more appropriate the dice pool is the same.

-DrZ

EDIT: "IC" is a bad abbreviation for Invisible Castle, considering we are in an IC/OOC board..

Headed over to my brothers; I will be back on later this evening

@Overkill - have fun

@Grease

Ok - I took 2 dice away from you since it is disadvantageous to her - your 10d6 yielded 3 hits.

@Jack - while I agree that Brandy is savvy, you may want to reconsider working with her - 10d6 and again only got 1 hit!

IC post up in a moment.

We can work with her on this.

ETA: I assume Grease is going to release that Fly-Spy while Brandy heads upstairs? I know that Jack is going to break character and check out her legs.

EDIT: Good idea. Lobo, you can feel free to include that in your IC response.

-DrZ

Well, you said you were going to release one of them the next time we had separation from her. Figured that would be when she was walking upstairs.

ETA: Is it an irrational fear when you post something right before you guess the GM is leaving work to head home and has ample time to scheme horrible consequences of your post?

Jack admiring her legs, or you launching the drone?

I decided to include both

If it makes you feel better, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I work from home - so there is no commute time

However usually right after work I play with my son and daughter, plus there is time with the wife, etc - so it is a good simulation of commute time

Well rats, I was hoping for a bit more of a reaction. DrZ, you're up!

Etiquette pool: 12, limit 7.
Performance pool: 12, limit 7.
-DrZ
EDIT: Grease wears his heart on his sleeve!.... When it suits him.

FYI: IC is back up last time I checked.

Ok - so Grease's Etiquette test - taking the social modifier penalty

10d6.hits(5)=5

Maria resists

7d6.hits(5)=2

Now his performance (with no penalty because of his successful Etiquette test)

12d6.hits(5)=2

She resists

7d6.hits(5)=3

IC post up in a few

Just so you guys know, this is quite the scene to watch. If his rolling holds out, Grease could be up for a Daytime Emmy.

I hope someone has their simrig running; Drave would love to watch Jack's, I mean Jo-Jo's, expressions throughout the tour.