Sorry again for delays. Life has found a way to bring me more bad karma recently. I will try to get a post up. Sorry for being so unreliable.

I lost my notes from a few weeks ago of equipment, so I had to restart from scratch.

I don't have a price for pepper balls; Capsule rounds are 10y for 10, and Gel rounds are 30y for 10. I placed the price at 30y for 10.
Not sure where the price is on the SmartLink 2, or if that is a different edition. If needed, I will add that cost on as well.


Karma will be contacting Jaxx for this gear.


1,400y Walther PB-120 light pistol ( Cost = 700 base x 2 street index, page 278 CR ) - 6 conceal, 10 ©, SA, 6L
1,400y Built in Smartlink ( Cost = 100% of weapon, page 281 CR )
1,000y Silencer ( Cost = 500 base x 0.75 street index, page 281 CR )
75y Concealable holster ( Cost = 100 base x street index, page 281 CR )
3,875y Subtotal for Walther PB-120


450y Gel rounds x 150 ( Cost = 30 base x 15 x 1 street index, page 281 CR ) - 3 x 10 clips for Walther - 2 x 12 clips for Savalette - 3 x 32 clips for Ingram
390y Capsule (pepper ball) rounds x 130 ( Cost = 30 base x 1 street index x 15 each, page 38 CC ) - 3 x 10 clips for Walther - 3 x 12 clips for Savalette - 2 x 32 clips for Ingram
100y Replacement of uncounted ammo during run
75y Spare clips ( 5 base x 1 street index x 15 each, page 281 CR ) - Assuming first one is free on the Walther
2,400y Superflash grenades x 10 ( Cost = 80 base x 3 street index x 10 each, page 41 CC )
3,415y Subtotal for ammunition

+
3,875y Subtotal for Walther PB-120
7,290y Subtotal Walther & ammo


4,500y Bug scanner rating 6 ( Cost = 500 base x 6 rating x 1.5 street index, page 292 CR )
9,000y Jammer rating 6 ( Cost = 1000 base x 6 rating x 1.5 street index, page 292 CR )
13,500y Subtotal for surveillance countermeasures

+
7,290y Subtotal Walther & ammo

20,790y Subtotal before negotiations


Plus, Karma wants to check on the availability of getting a Maglock passkey.

I can roll however many negotiations you want.

It strikes me that Karmakaze has an awesome CHA at 8, but Blue has a spell that bumps up CHA. So, if we are going into a tricky negotiation, all she has to do is ask. With a target of 8, Blue is unlikely to get the maximum of 4 hits, but 2 are not unlikely, and a CHA of 10 would still be something. Blue now also has a CHA of 8 because of his Sustaining Focus, so the two of them make a stunning pair.

I can see the two of them strutting down the avenue, Stayin' Alive from Saturday Night Fever being sung by three manifested watcher spirits following them, doing some of John Travolta's best dance moves.

It would be amazing!

That's perfectly reasonable. They're non-lethal, I'll simply handwave availability. Buy as many as you want.



Karma will be contacting Jaxx for this gear. In 3rd Ed, your typical choice is Alphaware.




No problem. Do check the availability on the silencer, but the pistol and holster are no problem.



Approved.



I'll want availability rolls for those, given that you want them at rating 6. They're not everyday items.



Depends on rating, but Jaxx knows people who know people. Give me a roll on this one too, please.

Silencer availability is 4/48 according to SR3eCR page 282



Bug Scanner Rating 6 Availability 6/48 hours -
Rolling for Etiquette : [6d6=4, 2, 6, 3, 4, 3] = 1 Success?
Rolling for Negotiation : [3d6=5, 5, 1] = 2 Successes?

Jammer Rating 6 Availability 6/72 hours -
Rolling for Etiquette : [6d6=5, 5, 2, 1, 1, 3] = 0 Successes?
Rolling for Negotiation : [3d6=5, 1, 3] = 1 Success?

These items are not too important, and Karma is willing to wait for them to arrive.



Maglock Passkeys Availability (Rating x 2)/10 days -
Roll for Etiquette : [6d6=4, 4, 5, 4, 4, 2] = 0 Successes? = Maybe a level 2 is available? Lame.

Karma cannot afford this right now, but basically wanted Jaxx to know she will be looking for one in the future.



3,875y for Walther PB-120
Roll for Negotiation : [3d6=2, 4, 5] = 1 Success?


1,015y for ammunition
Roll for Negotiation : [3d6=3, 4, 1] = 0 Successes?


2,400y for Superflash grenades
Roll for https://orokos.com/roll/1036232: [3d6=1, 4, 3] = 0 Successes?

OK, a couple of weeks of waiting for the scanner and jammer. No big deal; they're available, just Jaxx has to put in some legwork to get them.

The maglock passkey: he can do you a level 3, but level 6 is just not available unless ... you could do him a little favour?

You're fine on the pistol and nonlethal munitions.

Groovy!



Definitely can do favors. No work at the moment. Though I won't have the money for that item for quite a while. Are there payment plans?

Whoa! I was going to say you could hit up your buddy for the cash. Then I saw the price! Blue doesn't have that much.

Well, he has about 15,000 nuyen, but with that street index of 3, I don't think that would help you.

He doesn't do payment plans, so a favour would be it.

Ah, the ubiquitous "favour".

He's a fixer. He needs to get things done. Karmakaze has a particular skillset. Synergy is natural, not so?

OK, assuming that there are no modifications to the plan, Jaxx just wants a very simple question answered: Why exactly has MaChef's stock price been falling when they've been expanding? They're all over the entire region, and parking themselves in other regions too, and yet somehow, mysteriously, their stock price is at 30% of its peak.

He suspects that there's something funny about the finances, but he has no smoking gun. Nor even any clear non-smoking guns.

Dreadful dragons, this is the first time that I've been able to connect in nearly a week...

Ah! So I wasn't the only one.

Is there a way to connect outside of DS so we are not shut down? I fear DS has been doing this more and more often and that one day it will be permanent.

We need to pay Redjack more. I think that is the problem.

------

I will have to make some rolls for legwork with my contacts later.

Also Karma is going to do some matrix searches on the company to find out basic information from the company website and their linkedin and social medias, also from outside opinion from news and finance sources, as well as from what the public thinks, social media, linkedin, glassdoor, and of course the good ole google machine.

I think we need to wait till Karmakaze gets some of that info?

Karma's legwork

"""What do you know about MaChef's and their falling stock prices?""" -
Bradshaw, PI (Level 2) - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1 ]
Lt. Booker, Detective - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3 ]
Badger, Bounty Hunter - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 4, 4, 3, 2, 2 ]
Melinda Christel, Esq., Contract Attorney (Level 0) - Roll: 6d6 = [ 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 1 ]


"""What do you know about VGI and can you get me a list of their clients?""" -
Bradshaw, PI (Level 2) - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 5, 5, 3, 3, 1 ]
Lt. Booker, Detective - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 6, 5, 4, 4, 2 ]
Badger, Bounty Hunter - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 5, 5, 5, 4, 1 ]
Melinda Christel, Esq., Contract Attorney (Level 0) - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 6, 5, 4, 2, 1 ]


Computer search ( Intelligence 5 ) -
Machef's computer search ( Intelligence 5 ) - Roll: 5d6 = [ 5, 5, 5, 3, 1 ]
VGI - Roll: 5d6 = [ 6, 4, 2, 1, 1 ]

Bradshaw on MaChef

"""Huh. Stock down? Don't think I have any of that in my portfolio. Thanks for the tip."""

Bradshaw on VGI

"""Awright, you gotta be slick here. See, there are their obvious, public investment clients, but there are plenty who kinda hide behind layers of anonymity and it's OK if they're just some S-Corp based out of Dallas, but if they're some paper-and-handshake thing out of what used to be Turkmenistan, that's a lotta legwork."""

Booker on MaChef

"""Shit, I'm surprised they're still around. They've had a run of trouble. Started with the urban legends about their rice containing plastic (it didn't), carcinogens in their teriyaki sauce (kinda true, but it all kinda is), and then there were the vandals tossing grenades down their chimneys - and finally a bunch of people trying to get their automatic kitchens towed when they were fully approved. We gotta bunch of the vandals and tow truck artists arrested, and I never got to hear the real skinny behind it but the vandals were paid off, and given the explosives. I could try to look up where those cases went for you."""

Booker on VGI

"""Whoa, way above my paygrade here. Huh, hang on, isn't the mayor one?"""

Badger on MaChef

"""They actually hired me. Yup, I brought in some of the little dreks dat wuz bombing 'em. MaChef didn't want no rough stuff, but I'd have snapped their necks for MaChef coupons and called it a public service."""

Badger on VGI

"""Whoo boy, high finance, huh? OK, clients in Seattle. Yeah, you can find that out. The public ones are public knowledge, and nobody cares. Gotta be half-a-dozen rich hoops drekking wads of cash to get richer, and invetsus are a way to do dat. The ones who wanna stay secret - they're hard to weasel out. I guess I'd start by tapping their comms and finding out where their notices go, then working backwards from that."""

Melinda on MaChef

"""I - can't tell you anything privileged. But I can tell you this: if you want to find out who wants their share price to go down, take a hard look in the market at who would like to buy a piece of their action."""

Melinda on VGI

"""I do know several of the principals, and ... does the name 'Voltsev' mean anything to you?"""

Matrix on MaChef

The matrix fully endorses the fact that MaChef is reselling industrial toxins as food and needs to be haled to every court that will hear the case - and also that they're a hazard to traffic and should have their horrible little robotic kitchens towed and impounded at any opportunity. It's what savvy investors call a "reputational problem" but the reality is that the guys building the warehouses and arcologies of the world will keep shoving that food down.

Matrix on VGI

It's an invetsu! Have you heard about how they're going to make so much money?

Followup legwork:
Legwork followup - Lt. Booker - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 6, 5, 3, 2, 1 ]
Legwork followup - Badger - Roll: 6d6 = [ 4, 4, 4, 2, 2, 1 ]
Legwork followup - Melinda - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 6, 5, 1, 1, 1 ]

Followup matrix:
Matrix followup - Court and Police records / dates ( Intelligence ) - Roll: 5d6 = [ 5, 5, 4, 4, 3 ]
Matrix followup - What is a VGI??? (Intelligence) - Roll: 5d6 = [ 5, 4, 3, 3, 1 ]

What is a VGI?

VGI is the name of an invetsu.

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...t&p=1349745

There, and in related posts, you'll get the skinny on Voltsev, Invetsus and VGI.

Booker and Badger tell a pretty similar story: in the last six months a harrassment campaign started to hit MaChef. Neither of them had cause to really probe deeply enough to know who, or what, was driving it, but they both guess that it was commercial competition. All the earmarks are there: reputation destruction, distributed imposition of expenses, and an absence of court action except for street vandals being dragged in by their ears.

Karma's legwork on Volstev:


Bradshaw, PI (Level 2) - Roll: 6d6 = [ 5, 4, 3, 3, 3, 1 ]
Lt. Booker, Detective - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 5, 5, 5, 3, 2 ]
Badger, Bounty Hunter - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 6, 4, 4, 2. 2 ]
Melinda, Contract Attorney (Level 0) - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 5, 3, 3, 2, 2 ]
Jaxx, Fixxer - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 2 ]


Computer search ( Intelligence 5 ) - Roll: 5d6 = 6, 6, 2, 2, 1 ]

Bradshaw on Genady Voltsev:

Rich old fragger. Never met him in person, but I know of him. Quiet, doesn't make waves, doesn't bring me business, but I keep finding his name, or his companies, owning chunks of wherever I'm headed.

Booker on Genady Voltsev:

Oh boy. He's not political. He doesn't make a social splash. He keeps to himself a lot, but he's one of the biggest names out there. He doesn't do majority ownership of nearly anything except his own trusts, but he owns a little bit of everything. I wouldn't care so much, but I get very interested when an old gangster gets rich. I'm sure he still knows a lot of very influential, very bad people up in Vladivostok.

Badger on Genday Voltsev:

Honestly? Nada. I mean, I know who he is. But he doesn't contract me, or anybody like me. I've never crossed paths with his people, and nobody has ever, ever asked me to go after him. I mean, I get the occasional contract on russkiy gangsters, but never him.

Melinda on Genady Voltsev:

As far as I know, he's turned over a new leaf and stayed on the straight and narrow. There are no court records implicating him in anything, if you don't count the establishment of a few corporate identities, all of which are above-board, and apparently investment-related. Mind you, if he ever pulls his money out of his holdings, the whole enclave will catch cold.

Jaxx on Genady Voltsev:

Karmaschwarma, he's a tricky one. Clean on the outside, but somehow things that he's involved in seem to end up giving me business. A lot of business. May be coincidence, may be not. But make no mistake; he's connected, very closely, with some very scary individuals. Also, most of 'em are human. Just so you know.

Computer search on Genady Voltsev:

His old court records are clear. He was arrested, tried and convicted of conspiracy to distribute chemical contraband, spent five years in prison, came out a reformed man. Went through probation, started a business a couple of years later - which ended up being a holding company for investments. It just grew from there. His address is listed as a very expensive, exclusive private pier on Lake Washington, but whether or not he actually resides there isn't clear.

awesome legwork for Karmakaze, Bastard! Blue has little chance figuring any of this out.

Continuing legwork:

Bradshaw (Level 2) - Volstev & MaChef's - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2 ]
Lt. Booker - Volstev & MaChef's - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 6, 4, 3, 3, 2 ]
Melinda (Level 0) - Volstev & MaChef's - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 4, 2, 2, 2, 1 ]

Lt. Booker - Contact investigator - Roll: 6d6 = [ 5, 5, 4, 3, 3, 3 ]
Badger - Contact gangster - Roll: 6d6 = [ 4, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1 ]

Jaxx - Volstev & Polidemos - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 4, 4, 2, 2, 1 ]


Online search: Volstev + Investments ( Intel 5 ) - Roll: 5d6 = [ 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ]
Online search: Volstev + MaChef's ( Intel 5 ) - Roll: 5d6 = [ 6, 6, 5, 4, 3 ]
Online search: Volstev + Polidemos ( Intel 5 ) - Roll: 5d6 = [ 6, 6, 4, 4, 4 ]

Volstev records ( Knowledge: Criminal Justice System ) - Roll: 4d6 = [ 5, 3, 3, 2 ]
Volstev criminal connections ( Knowledge: Criminal Organizations / Seattle ) - Roll: 4d6 = [ 6, 5, 3, 1 ]
Volstev + Polidemos (business) ties ( Knowledge: Criminal Organizations / Seattle ) - Roll: 4d6 = [ 6, 6, 5, 3 ]

Thanks!

Knowing I had all these rolls pending, plus a busy schedule, is what delayed my posting. I am working 60 hours this week and next, then plan on using a sick day the following week.

Bradshaw on Genady Voltsev and MaChef:

"""Uuuh ... maybe? I mean, I guess? I don't have a list of his investments, but I suppose you could dig through the stock ownership? Probably has a piece of it through some fund."""

Booker on Voltsev and MaChef:

"""The fuss with MaChef started back, oh, last Summer. It escalated on a slow burn, week over week, and the explosions happened over the Winter. I don't know for a fact, but I do know that he owns at least a small stake in nearly any publically-traded entity in Seattle, so the answer is most probably yes. However, does he own enough of it to care very much if he has another reason for them to go down? Bear in mind that a stockholding can look like plausible deniability, and for a guy like him to lose twenty kiloyen as a sunk cost in a plan is nothing. But yeah, I can put you in touch. Uh, you might remember the chief investigator, inspector Hogan. I'll give you his digits."""

Melinda on Voltsev and MaChef:

"""Whoo, that's a big one. Honestly? He might be involved, but I doubt it. Ever since he left prison, as far as I know he's kept himself cleaner than polished chrome. Of course, that's just as far as I know. As far as ties to MaChef? Probably no more nor less than any other of his web of investments. Even if he does, I doubt that it means much."""

Badger on a gangster:

"""Uh, you're gonna hafta be a lot more detailed here. What and how and why? These ain't nice folks."""

Jaxx:

"""Not a chance, Karmalance. PoliDemos hates him, and people like him. I can tell you that for free without even giving them a call. To them, he's the thin end of every wedge."""

Online research leads mostly to a dead end on Voltsev's investments. Sure, she finds a few holding companies that everybody knows about, but after that the trail leads into a twisty maze of little spreadsheets, all similar.

Genady Voltsev does not have direct ownership of any MaChef stock that Karmakaze can identify.

Genady Voltsev has no visible links with PoliDemos that Karmakaze can identify.

Voltsev's records are basic, standard public records with nothing fancy or exciting to them. Drug possession with intent to distribute, welcome to the Greybar Hotel. Clang.

Genady Voltsev is a known past associate of the Vory. After his release from prison, they definitely paid him a wad of thank-you cash for keeping his mouth shut, taking the fall, and shielding his superiors. For most, that's just a ticket to a fast life and a messy death - or a fast slide back into Vory footsoldier status. For him, it was seed money for investment.

But there's no hint of him having anything whatsoever to do with PoliDemos.

Continuing legwork:

Bradshaw (Level 2) - The Vory - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 2 ]
Booker - The Vory - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 4, 4, 2, 2, 1 ]
Badger - The Vory - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 ]
Jaxx - The Vory - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 4, 2, 1, 1, 1 ]


Online search: The Vory ( Intel 5 ) - Roll: 5d6 = [ 4, 3, 2, 2, 1 ]
Online search: PoliDemos + MaChef's ( Intel 5 ) - Roll: 5d6 = [ 4, 4, 2, 2, 1 ]

Bradshaw on the Vory:

"""Well, the Vory are the russian answer to the mafia. Dunno how much history you want, or care about, but their background basically goes to the bad old days of the USSR, and various people stuck in Siberia. 'swhy their homeland is Vladivostok, the capital, pretty much of Russia's eastern seaboard. Of course from there it's a hop, skip and jump to the Aleutians, and so they had plenty of play in the old USA, and later they kept those links through to the formation of the UCAS. They run their show with typical russian charm. A warm smile below cold fish eyes, the smell of cheap cologne and expensive vodka, powered by the kind of thugs who would discuss fetching a meter to figure out just how loud you screamed before they started shoving your foot into a blender. Nice folks. If you really, really wanna meet them, well, I can name a couple. But you didn't hear it from me, got it?"""

Booker on the Vory:

"""The iron fist wearing through the velvet glove. The velvet is fake plush from a cheap old TriD set, and the iron is rusty soviet leftovers. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that they don't have a very effective code of silence - getting convictions on them is hell, because they would rather get a bullet from me than the kind of slow death that they'd get from their bosses. Subtle, they're not."""

Badger on the Vory:

"""Y'know, I'd rather run a snatch-and-grab on the Vory than on the Yaks. Not because the Vory are easy, but because they are more inclined to view their men as disposable. One got taken? Nul persp. He won't say drek. They'll just wait until he turns up dead, or turns up in prison, or gets turned out. They don't really hold it against me - much. The usual disclaimers apply, of course."""

Jaxx on the Vory:

"""Y're starting to scare me here, Karmakraze. You don't see me asking where I can cuddle half-a-dozen black mambas, do you? I don't want to. See, I have a strict no-black-mambas policy in my bed. In fact, they can stay where they come from. Africa, right? Africa's lovely this time of year for the black mambas. I love that for them. They can be happy there, living laughing and loving. Assuming that laughter and loving are in their way of life, which I honestly don't know. I do know that I've never seen a Vory man laugh except one time, and that was a bad time for someone else."""

The Matrix is happy to show Karmakaze scores of TriDs about the Vory, each one competing to be trashier than the last.

PoliDemos and MaChef:

It's not clear what's going on here, but apparently PoliDemos regards MaChef as a model corporate citizen. Maybe they know someone, or someone has embarrassing evidence on someone, or they actually just love each other, but PoliDemos has a scoresheet for businesses that they recommend and MaChef is right in there. For whatever that's worth.

Yeah, the reclusive magician/philosopher will not be able to add much to all that Karmakaze has learned. (Etiquette 3!)

So, good work Bastard!

One thing that jumps out at me is that MacChef is allegedly a darling of PoliDemos. Hmm. Who has it out for The Karens, other than we two, enough so to actually want to do damage, if only indirectly?

Sorry for taking up so much time and space. Just every questions begets two questions!


Bradshaw (Level 2) - PoliDemos & MaChef's - Roll: 6d6 = [ 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2 ]
Booker - PoliDemos & MaChef's - Roll: 6d6 = [ 5, 4, 4, 2, 2, 1 ]
Badger - PoliDemos & MaChef's - Roll: 6d6 = [ 5, 4, 4, 4, 2, 1 ]
Jaxx - PoliDemos & MaChef's - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3 ]
Melinda - PoliDemos & MaChef's (relation and ownerships) - Roll: 6d6 = [ 6, 5, 5, 4, 2, 1 ]

Online search: PoliDemos leadership (Intel 5) - Roll: 5d6 = [ 6, 5, 3, 1, 2 ]
Online search: MaChef's ownership (Intel 5) - Roll: 5d6 = [ 6, 5, 5, 4, 3 ]

Hell, no. Keep it going. This is a good read.

Bradshaw on PoliDemos and MaChef:

"""Huh, no drek? Whaddyaknow."""

Booker on PoliDemos and MaChef:

"""Oh yeah. That figures. Could be a tie, but I think that it's all a lot simpler: MaChef plays by the rules and provides a quality product. In other words, good citizens that play by the rules. PoliDemos loves that."""

Badger on PoliDemos and MaChef:

"""Beats me. Maybe one of the PoliDemos high honchos gets her plumbing regularly cleaned by one of the MaChef maintainers."""

Jaxx on PoliDemos and MaChef:

"""PoliDemos doesn't like Voltsev because he's the wrong kind of people for them. They'll never like the gangster stank - at least from anybody but themselves. MaChef don't have that problem. They pay their dues. In fact, I don't know this but if you wanna Karmawriggle your way into their accounts maybe you'll find MaChef is paying dues to PoliDemos to keep 'em sweet."""

Melinda on PoliDemos and MaChef:

"""I doubt it. PoliDemos are sort of homegrown in the Green Lake, Shoreline areas. MaChef came from out of town, so their origins are different. Doesn't mean that they don't find common ground, but I don't think that there's an original link there."""

PoliDemos's leadership: There's a lovely TriD page showcasing beautiful people who look like solid sararimen and glamorous homemakers working for a better, more democratic future.

MaChef's ownership is a classic franchise system. There's the original ownership structure which designs, updates and maintains the automated cooking and vending systems, and then there are franchise owners, who get one or more systems from the parent company, and then run, maintain, stock and place the cookers. Sometimes it's one slot running one machine - not a bad living if he finds good locations - and sometimes it's one guy with a dozen, and four maintainers working for him. In the big picture, MaChef has a strong reputation maintenance code, so that any franchise holder determined to be detrimental to the brand has a forced buy-back and loses his franchise. This is a consequence of some earlier scandals decades ago where franchise holders were found dealing drugs or BTLs or illegal gambling or otherwise being stupid. They play it clean. At least as far as lifestyle is concerned.

Set up meet with Detective Hogan - Roll: 6d6 = [ 5, 5, 5, 4, 1, 1 ]

Down to one etiquette roll.

NOTE TO SELF: Legwork to do.

Koekepan, Blue is the first PC I've played in a long time who can summon spirits. So, I'm getting around to asking about something a player did years and years ago in the old Virtual Seattle RPGA games with his mage.

It has to do with watcher spirits. He would summon a bunch and do a "face mob" in combat situations. Watchers can't materialize, but they can manifest, and he would have them all in the face of an opponent, obscuring vision and making all kinds of noise, with the intent of causing negative modifiers to the opponents combat rolls. I don't know whether this would be akin to "friends in melee", but surely it would be distracting.

I don't recall what GMs at the time adjudicated, and wonder whether this tactic would work in this campaign. I envision a bunch of little owlets all flapping their wings and screeching at the NPC. Would this have any effect, like vision modifiers and such?

Yes, but you'd have to dedicate time to summoning watchers. They don't last, they're ineffectual except for searches and distractions and other low-level stuff, and they won't affect things like targeting software or AR interfaces.

Oh, yeah, I know. But at one Combat Round per summoning, Blue could get 8 of the little buggers in less than half a minute. It would require time in advance, but with that proviso it could be fun.

Always looking for fun!