Not only in the building under construction but in the very room where Kerstin and bnc lived.
I guess he'd have looked for hairs or something like that and is now trying to trace her physical location. RIght?

Magic theory: 13d6t5 6

Is there any good reason why I could not just kill the mage with a flying sniper drone? Like, it's an ordinary flat, so...? Bang? Simple as that? It never is, is it?

@Jack: Before I have Wraith do anything that would not fit his character:

What's the janitor's reaction to all of this? Does he show signs of anger, hostilitiy or blaming us for the army of drones swooping in? Does he appear to be in crucial pain (beyond well, being under shock, literally and figuratively) and in need for a healing spell?

And: Does he show signs of wanting to call law inforcement, or even ranting us out?


Judge Intentions (janitor): 10d6t5 5

Wow, you got all that from what Jack wrote:) I feel so thick... still we are months after, why is he there right now? He could have done whatever ritual he wishes 10 times already.

Can I see where the camera feed goes without hacking the RCC?

To which camera feed are you refering? The one of the drone? That one is definitely offline now. But you can guess it went to the RCC.

Darn. But even so, as you said, it's almost impossible to spot spy drones.
Well, done... But but well done.
Dudes, we're a bunch of well paid amateurs...

Uhm, by the way, something you might consider for next time: A grazing hit with a taser doesn't do any damage. This is only for touch-only weapons (or spells) like shock gloves. But a taser who grazes the victim, doesn't do damage. The needle has to stick. It's not the electricity that makes shock gloves deal damage, but the fact that it is transmitted by touch (which is different for tasers). Or so I'd think.

"A wide variety of nonlethal weapons are designed to incapacitate targets with electrical shock attacks, including stun batons, tasers, cyberware shock hands, and similar electrically charged weapons. These weapons rely on a contact discharge of electricity rather than kinetic energy."

"If the result of the Opposed Test is a tie, the attack is considered a grazing hit. A grazing hit does not do any damage, but the attacker makes contact."

I'm happy to say that quite a lot of those discussions I already had at my home table

Jack: 23 24
Volker: 1

I'll keep on trying

Nova does not plan to go there alone.

We have Sharkboy also, and James was climbing the wall on the outside, I believe.

I do have no idea how this place looks and how we could approach them in a useful fashion, however.

Bye
Thanee

Fair enough:

http://i68.tinypic.com/11aizus.png

They are really small flats of 4 by 5 meters

Two people stand left and right of the front door.

@Jack

May I assume that the big room is something like a living room, and that there's a window in the sleeping room?

@Squirrel

Where's Sharkboy?

Only a virtual window - and yes the big space is where a couch/desktop/second bed would be placed.

It's a really small flat with thin walls

Okay, then the rotodrone is at the living room window and James at the kitchen window.

I guess we would enter the corridor through that door on the left side?

Bye
Thanee

Yes, that one leads to the stair case

@Jack: The guards are in front of the door, right? In the corridore.

That is correct.
There are two ways to access the corridor: Through the staircase door in the west and through the corridor window to the east (there is scaffolding around the whole building and currently no drones working up there.

Could the scaffolding be scaled and someone go into the building and then get to the corridor through a different route?

Yes you could do that: you'd have to break into another flat on the same level and open that flat's door from the inside - and without making a lot of noise.

Wont the construction noise mask us? or did the construction stopped once we were attacked?

As mentioned, half the drones went to charge and the other half now is out of action. Not much construction going on after that

What self-respecting wrestler can't quickly scale tall objects or sneak up on an unsuspecting opponent before a match?

Gymnastics, Scaling Scaffolding: 17d6t5 5
Sneaking, Doing it quietly: 13d6t5 6

Anna would follow to the best of her ability... She'll pick up a different apartment, to split the guards in case she is detected.

Improve Agility: 17d6t5 5
drain: 15d6t5 4
Improve intuition sustained with focused concentration, improve agility with focus.

Gymnastic(default): 9d6t5 3
Sneak: 16d6t5 3

Perception(visual/audio): 19d6t5 8
1 less hit for not visual/auditory.

When we are ready to go...

Use the Autoinjector with a dose of Jazz (Duration 60 minutes)

Initiative 24

Bye
Thanee

I thought we were ready to go?
I assumed that bnc would not initiate a countdown before everyone's in position.

I'm just waiting for Jack's response and to see whether they notice us and attack us before we attack them.

Initiative: 3d6+11 17

Well, last thing was people climbing up walls... that does not sound like being in position but rather like getting into position to me.

Bye
Thanee

Allright, time for a fight:

Merc 1
Ini: 16+3d6 27
Merc 2
Ini: 15+2d6 23


What bnc can detect with her Matrix scan:
Merc 1 has an assault shotgun with smartlink active, as well as an R7 commlink. Those are his only two perceptible wireless active devices.
Merc 2 has an expandable riot shield an R6 commlink and two flyspy drones with him as owner. He also carries a Ruger Super Warhawk w/smartlink.
The weapons are all slaved to an external persona that you can't find on the matrix and therefore likely is inside a host right now.

You also find five other small spy drones active outside the building, so there is a high chance your approach has been noted.

There are also two active smart weapon plattforms with smartsoft running that both are equipped with AK 97.

A third commlink - most likely belonging to the mage - is R6. All three commlinks have active personae formed on them.

Your last matrix perception scan detects radar signals.


@Luckace
Do you still want to deploy your spirit when bnc tells you about all this information?

Some questions:
- If the master is inside a host, will it still offer protection to a device that isn't?
- Can we guess where the smart platforms are? That is, have our drones or eyes seen anything that looks like a mean bullet belcher?
- my last matrix perception roll had 5 hits. Can you give me more details about the radar signals?
- what defense rolls to the smart weapon platforms have?


And just for clarifications: online auto-firing smart weapon platforms fall under the "If no suspicious icons draw her attention" exception ^^ so I'd like to deal with them before I count from three (but after everyone's in position).

- Afaik there is nothing stopping you from staying a master while being inside a host.
- Either inside the flat or in the corridor. They certainly aren't outside. But you can also use the TAG action to get a sense where they are
- The radar signal most likely comes from one of the mercs
- The smart weapon plattforms don't have defense tests - they aren't mobile (those are actually from core p. 433
Yeah, that's why I asked Luckace if he wants to retract his stated action

Don't they have to sneak against our perception in order to spy on us? i.e. isn't there a chance to spot them, if they do?

Or is it practically impossible to see them?

Bye
Thanee

Normally yes, but you all didn't actually take the time to do much recon before Wraith went ino the building and had no time when shit hit the fan. (i.e. you only took a look from the van about 50 m away from the target)
Now you certainly are allowed to take a look - at -7 from concealment.

ad 1: mean -.-
ad 2: Okay, thanks.
ad 3: So we're talking about an ordinary sensor.
ad 4: I meant matrix defense.

They are also slaved to the same decker

That's the core of the question. Do we only get a chance to spot someone, when we actively look around for one?

In general, I consider being alert and using perception to be something that happens more or less automatically.

I understand that, while running towards the building, you won't see many fine details like that. But after the janitor's flat, when we were looking for ways into the building, we might have had that chance to spot something like a spy drone hiding or even flying around somewhere?

Essentially, what would we have to do (have done), in order to get a perception roll to spot something that is hidden in the vincinity?

Bye
Thanee

Okay, I made my first (and not so lucky) roll IC. Let's see what this dude can do.

Oh! In that case, I'd like to cancel that action for now. Wraith will wait with any actions until bnc reports success/failure of her bricking attempts.
Thanks for that opportunity.

i'll put the IC-message in spoilers for now.

Where are we now (initiative-order-wise)?

I believe, we have this order, currently...

28 bnc (jumped into James) -- outside at the kitchen window of the appartement (bnc is in the van)
27 (E3) Anna -- in a neighbouring appartement
27 (E?) Merc 1 (Assault Shotgun) -- in front of appartement
25 Weapon Platform 1 -- location unknown
24 (E7) Nova -- in the staircase
24 (E-) Weapon Platform 2 -- location unknown
23 Merc 2 (Ruger Super Warhawk, Riot Shield) -- in front of appartement
22 Aeraziel (Wraith's Spirit) -- in astral space
17 Sharkboy -- in a neighbouring appartement
15 bnc's Rotodrone -- outside at the lving room window of the appartement
13 Wraith -- location?

?? Ritual Mage -- in the appartement (assumed)

Bye
Thanee

Perception (visual) 6 hits

Bye
Thanee

Initiative: 18+2d6 27

So far I think that's right. As the combat has not yet began, I haven't rolled for ini. We're still waiting outside and they haven't decided to come for us. As long as I can do damage (or better yet prepare for the battle) from the outside, I can see no reason to roll for ini.

Wow, that's quite a success: Nova's sharp eyes spot two fly spies around the back of the building - one hovering above the entrance to the janitors door, while the other hovers about 20m above the ground and 20m away from the building.
Looking around she notices two others on the west and east side sitting at the same relative position on the walls of the neighboring buildings.

A look towards the street to the south spots one sitting on top of a street lamp overlooking the front of the building.

The weapon platforms use standard rules:
Ini:
Ini: 2#6+4d6 24 25

Just for clarification. The way I see it, bnc attacks the weapon platforms before the combat begins as nobody yet realized there was an attack (except, of course, for one smart platform ^^). So, from my understanding, the Data Spike was the last thing that happened on combat round 0 and we start now with combat round 1, right?

If so, we have:

28 bnc (jumped into James) -- outside at the kitchen window of the appartement (bnc is in the van)
27 (E3) Anna -- in a neighbouring appartement
27 (E?) Merc 1 (Assault Shotgun) -- in front of appartement
25 Weapon Platform 1 -- location unknown
24 (E7) Nova -- in the staircase
24 (E-) Weapon Platform 2 -- location unknown
23 Merc 2 (Ruger Super Warhawk, Riot Shield) -- in front of appartement
22 Aeraziel (Wraith's Spirit) -- in astral space
17 Sharkboy -- in a neighbouring appartement
Initiative: 4d6+6 15 bnc's Rotodrone -- outside at the lving room window of the appartement

?? Wraith -- location?

?? Ritual Mage -- in the appartement (assumed)

Both mercenaries' arms are online, right?

I currently can't roll Wraith's initiative, as my mobile broke down and my place currently doesn't have working internet as well (yeah, both at the same time sucks^^).
So currently I'm using the internet at university, but for some reason the firewall there blocks dice-rollers.
If anyone could roll 9+1d6 for Wraith's initiative, I'd be much obliged!
I already talked to tech support there, so it shouldn't take too long for that to get fixed.

But for now, I think his initiative doesn't matter too much anyways, as the command was issued before initiating combat (timed at bnc's countdown), the spirit's initiative is rolled the earliest possible turn for Wraith is 15, thus not in the current pass.

if jack approves, the earlier command sticks, just delayed according to bnc's preparations and then the final countdown.

Initiative for Wraith: 1d6+9 13

Initiative Order

28 bnc (jumped into James) -- outside at the kitchen window of the appartement (bnc is in the van)
27 (E3R8) Merc 1 (Assault Shotgun) -- in front of appartement
27 (E3R6) Anna -- in a neighbouring appartement
25 Weapon Platform 1 -- location unknown
24 (E7) Nova -- in the staircase
24 (E-) Weapon Platform 2 -- location unknown
23 Merc 2 (Ruger Super Warhawk, Riot Shield) -- in front of appartement
22 Aeraziel (Wraith's Spirit) -- in astral space
17 Sharkboy -- in a neighbouring appartement
15 bnc's Rotodrone -- outside at the lving room window of the appartement
13 Wraith -- in the janitor's flat

?? Ritual Mage -- in the appartement (assumed)

Bye
Thanee

Hi Jack, do we see the mage, have access to his apartment or do we need to fight the guards?

If Anna can see the mage from a place she can get to without passing wards she'll shoot him. Otherwise, she'll assault the guards, and use the door/wall as cover, possibly breaking LOS with them hoping to get them after her.

We cannot see anything inside the appartement. Door is closed and windows are shut with heavy curtains.

From where you are, there is just wall between you and the appartement.

You also cannot see the guards at the moment, since you would have to come out of the neighbour appartement and into the corridor, where they are.

Bye
Thanee

@gilga
No, you do not see the mage. To be precise you haven't even ascertained that the mage is there at all. There is an F10 Ward around the flat and the door is closed, as are the curtains.

28 bnc (jumped into James) -- outside at the kitchen window of the appartement (bnc is in the van): Fried the Warhawk of the second Merc.
27 (E3R8) Merc 1 (Assault Shotgun) -- in front of appartement: Shoots through wall at Anna
27 (E3) Anna -- in a neighbouring appartement
24 (E7) Nova -- in the staircase
23 Merc 2 (Ruger Super Warhawk, Riot Shield) -- in front of appartement
22 Aeraziel (Wraith's Spirit) -- in astral space
17 Sharkboy -- in a neighbouring appartement
15 bnc's Rotodrone -- outside at the lving room window of the appartement
13 Wraith -- location?

?? Ritual Mage -- in the appartement (assumed)

Merc 1
Ini 27: Free Action: Switch off Wireless
Simple action: Perception: 18d6t5 9
Simple action: Shot at Anna1 or Sharkboy2: 1d2 1
Shoot Anna through wall and door: 18d6t5 7

DV 13P AP-6, passing through wall, leaves this at DV 12P +7 AP-6
Unless you have a way to see through walls, you can't really evade this shot.