I'm back now. Ready to roll!

Awesome, we're just waiting for you to take it up again.

OK. Blue has sat back and has left his body. Now he is looking around to make sure he isn't attacked by astral horrors, then checking out the remains of the house. If he enters the remains astrally and his city spirit disappears, then there is still hope for him to find a way to keep Madel ... alive?

If the city spirit remains, then Blue will assume the domain has disappeared, along with Madel.

Blue knows this is a long shot.

The city spirit checks out when he crosses into the ruins, astrally. However, Madel isn't ostensibly in evidence.

Perhaps she is greatly diminished, or somehow dormant.

Posted here an IC post in error.

Any big follow-up plans in there with Blue, or ...?

I want to be sure Karmakaze is OK with entering the building and pilfering a piece if Blue can ascertain what is needed. If KK is OK, then Blue will reenter his body and go in with KK and try to summon Madel.

Sorry for the delay. I was waiting on pbangarth and missed his post right before we went on a impromptu weekend getaway.

Well, there goes Blue, indulging his soft spot for Madel. Or maybe his burgeoning sense that spirits may be the closest thing he has to friends.

Hmmm. Blue had come and gone from Hopalong's safehouse a number of times. Job meet at the Oppidum, forays to investigate Petsonal, etc. If the front door had a lock, he must have had a key. And his last return to the safehouse saw the building get blown.

So ... he should still have a key for the front door in his possession, no?

No, because of being let in and out - but there was a key inside a drainpipe embedded in the old concrete steps. Technically, it was vertically under the mat, but not where a passer-by might easily fish it out.

Still, theoretically accessible given some means of fishing it out, and the steps are still pretty much intact.

Going up to the cottage today, till Friday. Same spotty coverage. Will check in periodically.

I'll roll here for a Magic Fingers spell in case we can detect something in the pipe worth fishing out. Feel free to post IC for me, either of you, to keep the flow going.

Magic Fingers F3 : Sorcery 5 + Spell Pool 5 + Owl 2 = 12 dice, Target 6: 1 success

Yeah, well, it's only a key in a tight spot, no?

Drain resistance Target 5(M), WIL 12 + Owl 2 = 14 dice: 4 successes

No Drain.

Sorry for absence. Wife is down with the sickness and my kid and I have been semi ill, so I am trying to do distance learning with him, maintain quarantine, and work from home. I keep planning on posting every night after I am done with my work, but fail every day. For shame.


EDIT

Just caught up on the IC. I don't really have anything to add there.

No problem.

Given Blue's absence, I'll let you roll in the following information as you choose: whoever made their escape made it down through a tunnel connected to a basement, so digging through the rubble would be the only way, unless you can think of a way to get to a transit tunnel to which that supposedly connected. i.e. prospects here are low.

The trunk of Karmakaze's car would contain sufficient tools to yank the lock off the wrecked door.

He knows who perpetrated the attack (Mitsuhama) and has a variety of ideas as to why (corporate prestige, competition over relevant technologies) but aside from having seen their uniforms can't really prove much of anything, let alone the bigger details. As far as his personal safety would be involved, the nearer term question would be the goons (presumably) from HuangBilt, what they want, who sent them, and whether more would be coming.

Poor Karmakaze. Blue hasn't explained his situation very well, has he? Yeah, it's blue's fault. Yeah.

You bastard!

Not you, Bastard, but you bastard, Koekepan! Trying to get Blue's teammate to turn him in.

Nasty.

I didn't do it.

I was somewhere else. Doing something else. And I have the recordings to prove it.

Off to the cottage again till Sunday. I'm taking character sheets. There is a tree by the Seniors' Centre in the village under which I can get two, sometimes three bars on my cell phone (weather permitting). I will try to keep up.

That's OK, I'll continue to keep Karmakaze company while she makes intelligent, data-driven decisions.

Yeah, I hope that data-driven deciding doesn't include calculating how much the bounty on Blue's head could buy.

Soon I am going to want to do some legwork on HuangBilt and Chin-Ho, and also tell my contacts to keep me informed if anyone is looking for me.

Not sure if you want additional rolls for each item. If so, I am making 3 rolls for each, if not, just take the top result... or my best!!!

Also going to look for a decker from Jaxx, via text since my character cant stand talking to him.

When ready I will add my calls and results into the IC, but wanted to get it prepared.


Legwork / Etiquette 6

Bradshaw, PI, Level 2 contact
HuangBilt: [6d6=2, 3, 6, 1, 1, 1] https://orokos.com/roll/913301 With Exploding Sixes [1]: [6d6=2, 3, 7, 1, 1, 1]
Chin-Ho: [6d6=1, 4, 2, 6, 6, 2] https://orokos.com/roll/913302 With Exploding Sixes [3, 4]: [6d6=1, 4, 2, 9, 10, 2]
Lookout: [6d6=3, 4, 1, 3, 6, 4] https://orokos.com/roll/913303 With Exploding Sixes [3]: [6d6=3, 4, 1, 3, 9, 4]

Lt Booker, LS Detective, Level 1 contact
HuangBilt: [6d6=3, 3, 5, 3, 1, 5] https://orokos.com/roll/913304 no sixes
Chin-Ho: [6d6=5, 3, 6, 2, 4, 4] https://orokos.com/roll/913305 With Exploding Sixes [6]: [6d6=5, 3, 12, 2, 4, 4]
Lookout: [6d6=1, 4, 3, 4, 5, 2] https://orokos.com/roll/913306 no sixes *mislabeled title on orokos as Bradshaw

Jaxx, Annoying Fixer, Level 1 contact
Decker contact: [6d6=1, 1, 6, 5, 4, 2] https://orokos.com/roll/913307 With Exploding Sixes [1]: [6d6=1, 1, 7, 5, 4, 2]



Karmakaze's own knowledge of Criminal Organizations (2), with a specialization in Seattle (4) on the two subjects as well. Since I didn't think of this before, maybe I will have to add this in later, when she gets to a computer and something refreshes her mind, assuming I get any good results.

Seattle Criminal Organizations / Knowledge 4
HuangBilt: [4d6=4, 6, 6, 5] https://orokos.com/roll/913308 With Exploding Sixes [1, 2]: [4d6=4, 7, 8, 5]
Chin-Ho: [4d6=3, 6, 1, 6] https://orokos.com/roll/913309 With Exploding Sixes [5, 6]: [4d6=3, 11, 1, 12]



One big roll for all the exploding sixes, so they are there if needed, and I will distribute in order of the orokos roll:

Exploding Sixes (x10): [10d6=1, 3, 4, 3, 6, 1, 1, 2, 5, 6] https://orokos.com/roll/913312

OK, taking your rolls as you sent them, I'll top you up on data as it comes up.

But here's the first line of insights.

Based on her own knowledge, HuangBilt isn't actually, technically a criminal organisation. It's a legitimate, licensed business doing construction work all over the enclave. Not on the level of new arcologies, but everything from houses to commercial buildings. There have been any number of investigations into it, because it's owned by Chin-Ho, but aside from employing an unusual percentage of felons there's nothing to justify describing it as a criminal organisation as such. Taxes paid; code obeyed. The shadier parts are exactly how it gets contracts, and exactly how those jobs came up in the first place. HuangBilt does a lot of work on the fringes of various Barrens areas, and it often is the kind of urban renewal that follows in the wake of gang battles.

Chin-Ho himself is a much more clearly shady character. He's been implicated in all sorts of street-level racketeering and back room negotiations in the enclave's underworld. His past is shrouded in doubt, but as far as Booker can tell her he does not seem to be affiliated with any big players. Not mafia, not tongs, not triads, definitely not yakuza, probably not vory. As far as his history is known, he got his start doing shady work for various shady characters. In particular, he got an uncle to help him buy a scrapyard, in which he made a particular practice of making evidence disappear. He was good at it, and didn't care who brought him anything as long as the cash was good. This earned him both trust and independence, which he parlayed into an expanding personal empire. Booker reckons that any numberr of the buildings he has constructed have skeletons under them. What this does for hauntings, he hesitates to speculate.

Neither Booker nor Bradshaw are particularly aware of anyone looking out for Karmakaze at this point, but of course that can change.

Jaxx is very happy to provide Karmakaze with the go-to on a decker, if he can do a little favour for her. There's someone being stubborn about a deal, and he needs that person persuaded that it would be in everybody's best interests to stick to a deal.

What the ^##^! Is everybody in this town strong-arming someone over a deal?

I figured Blue should be able to find new development ads easily, but if you want a roll, Koekepan, let me know.

It's just a favour for a friend, y'know?

A favour. You do favours for your friends, don't you?

This should be fun. Head into a relatively wealthy area, break into a new house ( surveillance?), and install Madel's old-style lock somewhere. Hopefully, once the developer/new owner notices and replaces it, Madel will be infused into the general infrastructure of the house.

I'll have to study what spirit can help us be less detectable.

Hmmm. Either an interesting introduction to a new character, or a misplaced post. If the former, welcome, Beta! If the latter, then thanks for dropping by, Beta!

Ah. Turns out, the latter. I wouldn't put it past Koekepan to throw some kind of weird curve ball like that, though.

I thought he was playing Madel

Got pulled away. Ba k Monday.

Oh, well. I sorta hoped it was someone new jumping in.

Love the new icon and title, Bastard.

Thanks! Been waiting on it for a while.

Once Blue moved into the building, the city spirit disappeared. So, Karmakaze has no concealment from it anymore. Blue will have to come out of the building to make something happen in the open.

Well... Karma doesn't know that.

Yeah. Blue shoulda told her. Sorry.

Assuming that you intend to hide from the drone, or at a minimum obscure your identities, I'd like to see appropriate stealth rolls.

Stealth of 1 (!), Open test: 5

This might be modified by the F4 spirit's Concealment power.

Yikes!

Karma isn't very stealthy tonight. Maybe she can act like she belongs using perform???

Hopefully Blue's spirit's Concealment will help.

I'll take the perform option - give me a roll for that, along with your plausible story.

I will just hope on the concealment for now. However, if the drone appears to be following us, I will start slowing down and looking at houses here and there, like we are house shopping.

Alright! We could pretend to be newlyweds!

OK, then give me the performance roll pre-emptively.

If this is for me, I don't know what Attribute Performance falls under, though I suspect it is CHA?

CHA 4: 11, 1, 8, 3

Performance

Is the drone coming straight toward the front of the vehicle, or the back of the vehicle?

How far away is it? Basically is it close enough that flipping a bitch and leaving will be obvious?

The drone is presently headed toward the back of the vehicle down a gently curving subdivision road. The road is not a dead end. The distance is presently around 100m, closing at a walking pace.

This is awesome. At least three plot lines under way, and NPCs in each of them are mad at Blue. Woohoo!

I think that if shadowrunners aren't paranoid, I haven't been doing my job.

Paranoia is when the runner thinks there is some Hand guiding the affairs of metahumans.

Wait ....

We are not at the casino. We are at one of the hotels nearby. I just parked at the casino so my car wasnt in the hotel parking lot. Harder to find for someone to be watching it.



I knew the casino wouldn't allow me to bring guns in.