Amy will continue to perceive the astral as she's talking. Let me know if she notices any active spells/foci/etc.

Heehee, this should be fun.

I'm quite intrigued by his questions AND interested by the information he might be holding.

Seems like a win-win to me, depending on his questions.

I'd like to assense the spell just to see if I can confirm what he says it is.

Your Assensing test did not gain enough successes to determine the type of spell.

@Chrome,

Does Amy believe her last statement to be true?

@Overkill and Grease,

Stingray will need your answer to this as well - and I will need to know if they are telling the truth.

Yeah, she knows he's watching for truthfulness and there's no hiding anything. She's being honest.

I will post ic first thing tomorrow.

Thanks
Drz

Edit: sorry if I held things up! Too much going on these days.

Wait wait wait.. did the first spell come down? I understand he used magic to levitate something to himslef, but the truth seeing spell, is it gone?

Sagebrush Park in Aurora?

@Chrome
Sorry - I should have been clearer on that.

He dropped the analyze truth spell after everyone answered his questions.

@Jack,

Yes

Map has been updated with all information up to this point. New ARO for Sagebrush Park (right by the Motel 6 where we met Ramirez). I haven't added any other AROs yet, but if you want me to add something else (Stingray's Shop, for instace), just update the locations file.

I think it would be nice to have an address for his shop.

No problem - will update at some point later today, along with adding him to the NPCs list.

All right, what does Amy know about the Tigers or the Wakenda? Here's a few possibly relevant knowledge skills, with rolls:

Area Knowledge: Warrens
8d6.hits(5)=4

Denver Street Gangs
7d6.hits(5)=1

Street Drugs
6d6.hits(5)=3

There is some information on the Yakuza in general and the Wakenda specifically in the Dropbox.

Your Area knowledge test tells you that the area around Sagebrush is in fact Wakenda territory
Your Denver Street Gangs test tells you that the Tigers are the soldiers that the Wakenda use in any turf battles - numerous, but not well trained.
The Street Drug test does not give you any information.

For those wondering, here's what I found

The Yakuza
The yakuza currently control approximately half of the Free Zone distribution channels for illegal chip. Various Triads and independent operators control the res. The yaks also maintain a tight hold on the illegal drug trade, a market they largely developed.

The yakuza act as a central "service provider" for extortion, sabotage, and assassination, hiring out their assets to anyone willing to pay the tab. Shadow traders and t-bird jammers determined to eliminate their competitors frequently use the services of the yaks. Their excellent reputation for successfully discharging such contracts puts them in high demand, but the relatively high costs of their services serve to limit the use of this resource.

The two factions of Yakuza currently in the Free Zone are the Yamato and the Wakenda gumi's - both of which dislike each other intensely.

IIRC: the Wakendas are also supposedly linked to the Rising Sun Casino that Grease and I went to and we may have seen a few of their Tigers the other night hanging outside the convenience store across the street from the Motel 6 when we met with Ramirez.

What about the Los Mags, is there a link between them and the Yaks?

Yakuza being the go-to "hired assassins" fits with the overall conspiracy theory.
-DrZ

Not that we have uncovered, from what I recall. The LMs were over in the Aztlan territory a long time ago, bu thier current turf is pretty far removed from the Wakanda Yaks.

ETA: What might be interesting is whether Lynx and crew have a connection to the Yaks.

I'm sort of leaning towards Stingray's interpretation.

Not all the crimes have to be related anyway. One or two of the murders might be unrelated to the conspiracy. But I wouldn't assume it until we have proof, because they all seem to have been largely ignored by LS.

The cynical part of me feels obligated to point out we only need to connect 2 of the murders to prove a conspiracy and get paid

Plus, if we find out who was responsible for those two murders, we can probably beat out of them all the other ones they were involved in.

-DrZ

I suppose all it takes for the Yaks and Los Mags to hook up is a comm-link and a customer, working with gangs you aren't fighting for turf over can be profitable.

Could also be likely that once the Yak crew got wiped out the conspirators might have changed vendors for their hits, fearing their Yakuza connection may have been compromised.

Drave is going to have some interesting research to do this evening.

Do you have any other questions for Stingray? Grease is a bit tapped out on what to ask (although we've gotten some great information thus far).
-DrZ

I have been trying to think of a question to add for the last hour & a half and I am drawing a blank.

I think you guys covered it well, I will just ask if he got their names so I don't look like a manikin behind you guys

ETA: Is everyone else done with questioning? I can post our exit if you want

I'm done- I"d say we should leave it open for more questions if we think of any later, though. I'm cool with you writing my exit out at least.
-DrZ

We could ask what he knows of her professional life, or if she was stressed lately, although there's probably nothing to add given the previous answer.

And I guess we might want to ask what kind of investigation Lone Star has done, if he was questioned and so on. But I'm not sure that would help us anyway.

So yeah, I guess I'm out of ideas as well.

Sounds like my Doberman is going to have some digging to do tonight.
-DrZ

Just an FYI - I added Stingray's to the locations document, and Stingray himself to the NPC document.

I think we know what our next destination is. Back to the Warrens!

Unless you think there's something else for us to do around here right away?

We'll need to find where she lived also, so that we can maybe track down some relatives, including possibly that Cynthia.

I am gonna need to hack those street cams before we go, but if you want to keep things moving along I can roll the hacking tomorrow and just move past it

Turning in early tonight, see you guys tomorrow.

Oh yeah, those cameras come first. Can't wait to read that tomorrow morning.

Ok - so if you are going to hack the cameras before you go - just give me a list of your actions, deck stats and programs, etc. Just an FYI, the Host for the city's cameras will not be as easy to hack as that of the previous couple...

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

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

Full VR, Hack onto the local grid, find the host, find the file, make sure file is not databombed, get the file, GTFO...

Overkill can also do his hacking in my car, if he needs to.
-DrZ

Ok, so I assume you get into Grease's cab, and go VR.

Next up is hack on the local grid

18d6.hits(5)=5

It resists

4d6.hits(5)=0

OS=0

Ok, the host itself is not running silent, so you can see it hovering above the Matrix.

Now attempt to Hack on the Fly to put a Mark on the Host.

18d6.hits(5)=7 (Great roll - and a good thing you had Stealth as your program, otherwise your limit would have reduced your successes to 6 and you would have failed)

The Host Resists
19d6.hits(5)=6

OS=6

Matrix Search

Computer +Intuition

10d6.hits (5)=3

So it takes about 10 seconds to find the file

Matrix Perception to find data bomb

10d6.hits (5)=3

The file is not data bombed

Hack on the fly to put a mark on the file so you can crack it

18d6.hits(5)=3

Use Edge or not?

I am close to what I need and have the time, so I will save Edge and try again.

By my guess, you're facing a Rating 8 Host here, this might not be particularly easy. Luckily, we don't really need the footage.

Ok - so host resists:

19d6.hits(5)=6

OS=12

So, with a failed sleaze action, the Host now has a mark on you, and is alerted to your presence.

So intiative

Overkill
4d6+8=26

IC
4d6+16=32

Patrol IC
4d6+16=31

So

IP 1
New IC 32
Patrol IC 31
Overkill 26

New IC spends its first complex action forming
Patrol IC doesn't do anything since the Host can see you.
You attempt to Hack on the fly again

16d6.hits(5)=5 (only 16 dice since this is the 2nd attempt)

Host resists

19d6.hits(5)=3

Success!

IP 2

New IC 22
Patrol IC 21
Overkill 16

New IC attacks
16d6.hits(5)=3

You dodge (Logic+Firewall)

13d6.hits(5)=2

Any response? Full Defense or Edge?

Should I use my Edge? Rating 8 seems pretty high, probably has some mean IC.

Seems like I only need to mark it, copy it, and GTFO at this point.

Too late... NM

Swap Browse for Sneak, and Baby Monitor for Encryption.

Any recommendations for ASDF setting swap?

Other recommendations also welcome.

Just to be clear, you have to mark it, then crack it, and then copy it.

You've successfully marked it at this point. Now you have to crack it still.

Ok let's assume you swapped Browse for Sneak before you attempted it the first time, since Browse only helps you in Matrix Searches, and once you'd found it, there was no need to keep in loaded.

In IP 1, you have 1 free action. You could use that to swap Baby Monitor for Encryption, OR you could use that to swap one set of settings, i.e. you could swap A for F or S for D, but not both.

Well... considering the defense roll, you're looking at one of two pretty nasty types of IC. I think I remember your Willpower wasn't particularly spectacular, but if you think you can eek out one more hit, you might want to consider going Full Matrix Defense. It would mean you're done for this CT though which is problematic as Lobo uses the previously defended penalty for matrix combat.

Also, the very first program you would probably want to swap out is Vitrual Machine. Having that running with hostile IC in the area is a bad idea.

You could swap out Virtual Machine for Encryption. With Virtual Machine gone, this would require you to drop one more program, which would be Baby Monitor, I imagine.

I suppose them Tracing User wouldn't be that bad as we can just drive off...

So Dropping Virtual Machine for Encryption, which means Baby Monitor is gone, forget about Sneak. Swap Sleaze and Firewall, Full Matrix Defense... (this is gonna hurt, next time I am gonna remember to use that Edge when it would have mattered.)

Either of the possible IC you are facing are nastier than that. Given that this was the "first response" IC, I'm pretty sure I know which one it is and you might want to consider GTFO ASAP.

Ok, so you only have 1 free action before the IC attacks you. That could be to either:

1) drop Virtual Machine and Baby Monitor for Encryption

OR

2) Swap Sleaze and Firewall

Which would you rather do?

Personally I would go with the former, since both give you an effective bonus of +1 Firewall, but the #1 also prevents the IC doing extra damage to you - should it be the type that does damage.