Is there even another exit, other than the elevator?

Bye
Thanee

Elevator and stairs, unless you want to try the AC vents leading to the roof.

Definitely think we should try to keep our presence hidden (i.e. use stealth). Maybe they do not know that someone is/was actually in here, yet.

Which probably means going for the stairs, right?

The only question is... do we need to actually run there, to make it, or should we hide and then get there silently.

Since movement speed is based off Agility, Nova is quite fast, really.

Bye
Thanee

Rule-wise, James counts as a vehicle, so he might actually be even faster ^^ also, with the simrig and stuff, bnc can pull off amazing feats with him (which is why she poured thousands and thousands and thousands nuyen in him). So I'm not sure we can't actually do BOTH. If we have to decide, I'd go for speed, though: If they see us, we're at least in a better position.

Sure, that works.

Bye
Thanee

.

This is the OOC thread.

Bye
Thanee

Ops--- coppied to IC.

Do we know how they shut the doors? After all, we just opened them.
What are they made of?

Are they slaved to the host? If I remember correctly, I should still have a MARK, but I'm not sure whether or not I had to reboot to evade the enemy patrol IC. If bnc knows, what dicepool would I fight?

Technically, you do not even know if they shut the doors, you just know that someone (male) said to do it. There is no automatic mechanism to shut (or open) the doors, just a magnetic lock once the door is closed. The order is more likely - verify that the doors are locked. The Doors are made from some metal and are relatively sturdy but not much more than a slowdown for superhumans and robots. Their main function is to contain fires.

I'd imagine that bnc rebooted once she failed the hack on the robot because you did not send me an erase mark action, and it is unlikely she'll allow some stranger to have a mark on her. If you want her not to reboot to keep the mark on the host this is fine too.

Defense dice-pool would be either 12 or a bit more depending on circumstances. Devices 12, and personas are all alert to the possibility of a hacker and use full matrix defense.

Since Nova has dismantled one of the locks, can she figure what Rating it was? She also has some Ranks in the Knowledge Skill Security Systems.

That might give us an idea how long it would take to get the door open without breaking it.

Bye
Thanee

Yah, you're right. I think I even stated that she reboot. I just forgot about the drone for an instant.

Does anyone know whether she can freely hack while Jumped In? Or is it kinda like operating in AR then?

I don't know about hacking while jumping in. My intuition in that manner would be that VR hacking would probably prevent you from controlling James in the same way as it prevents you from using your body. Now, not using your body while in VR is a safety mechanism because there is some deck that I read about that allows you to move your body with a serious penalty to skill checks.

So if you leave it up to me, I'd say that while jumped in James is your body for all physical actions, and you can control him while VR hacking but if you take physical actions in parallel it is a serious penalty. If there is a rule about it - I don't mind just going with whatever rule - and you can pilot James/hack from AR without much of a penalty for each of them. Or I'd say perhaps better for the situation is to hack in VR and control James in autopilot while hacking. It would give you more actions per round (less dice pool though - (but you can always jump in with a complex action when you are done hacking).

I totally agree. If there's a rule regarding this, I missed it, but it makes total sense for me to consider James to be my body and thus not get the +2 hot-sim bonus for other things. Just wanted to make sure we are on the same page.

Is there something heavy on the roof that we could move onto the hatch?

I was thinking more along the lines of bnc hacking the lock so it does not accept any of the keycards.

Bye
Thanee

Nope the roof is a very well kept place, I'll describe it.

Here is the thing, if you wait near the building until the guards leave (which it seems like they'll do eventually) there are ground-based drones patrolling the area and you will have to continuously evade them. Since stealth, covers moving silently and here you are going to stay put for a relatively long time on the same position - I'll need disguise roll for both. Basically, you need to find a place or a way to hide, and consider that drones rely on multiple sensors - namely infra red (which is a slight problem for Nova).

We could just climb back on the roof, or get to the car and wait in there.

Bye
Thanee

Yes, it is all up to you. Just a friendly remainder that there are drones patrolling the perimeter that's all.

Threshold 3 climbing to get up. (or if you can jump 10 meters up you'll be on the roof - but it would necessarily be stealthy).

Do you have any damping for thermal sensors? It may be difficult not to be identified without them. Despite the heavy negative to perception due to weather and lighting, you are visible so one hit is required to identify you. (they have 4 dice after regular modifiers and only need a single hit, James may be a bit harder to detect because he is a drone rather than a metahuman and they are less suspicious of drones with all the drones roaming around).


You can use disguise to find a hiding place quickly (drop to the floor/hide behind something etc). Then when the drone passes, you can climb (threshold 3) for a more stable hiding position. Likely will make it until the next patrol unless your climbing speed sucks.

You can also, use stealth to move away from the drone. In that case, I'll also ask you to roll edge to see if you manage to find a path that keeps you undetected (I am asking for edge because you do not fully understand the drone's patrol patterns, so you are guessing.).

If you climb right now the drone would get close enough to see you in 3 seconds. Unless you can be on the roof within a single combat round which means a single move action. You can jump 5 meters and find something to hold at that height with a gymnastic role (also threshold 3) (complex action) Threshold is due to visibility and rain, and wet surface. (but you need the ability to jump 5m up to use this path. ). bnc can substitute gymnastics with the pilot walker skill, and the control rig reduces the threshold by its rating.

Can't bnc just spoof the nearby drone? That should be the easiest, right?

Other than that, I guess using Stealth seems like the best bet... Disguise is not something Nova is skilled in and climbing will probably be too slow, because the wall is wet (otherwise it would be okay).

Bye
Thanee

Yes she can spoof a command to the drone with a mark on the host.

Feel free to narrate getting into the car; you are off the hook.

Sheesh
Sometimes I believe bnc just doesn't want people to treat her nicely...

I assumed that Nova would wait for James to join her in the elevator. (the guards are outside the elevator).

So if you want me to take Nova down the rabbit hole while James is bullying Travis just say so. The elevator itself would not wait for James.

I am asuming, once it arrives, we will both enter. It hasn't opened, yet, or is it always there standing open?

In the latter case, of course, she will wait.

Bye
Thanee

It was open, so once Nova activates it it should go down regardless of the conversation between James/Travis but being an async game, I interpreted as Nova waiting.

Yeah, I was thinking, that Nova is standing in front of the entrance, waiting for it to open.

Bye
Thanee

Can you help me out what he's talking about here? I read the paragraph six times or so but I can't quite peace together how these sentences relate to each other. What dangerous weapon, wielded by whom, are we talking about here?

Fox told you that they spread some form of programmable FAB bacteria that removes magic causing the mana void in a large radius around the facility, and slowly killing the awakened.

Yeah, that I know but why is that related to the facility and why is he saying "we had this capability"? I hope this wasn't a fauxpas and Fox is secretly working for the horrors... :-O

The FAB is to protect the facility from the horrors, keep the mana levels outside the facility too low for them to approach the sleeping hackers. It removes mana from the area but then new mana flows to the area so it removes those two reaching some equilibrium where the mana levels within a certain radius from the facility are considerably lower than outside. Having it activated during a time of lower than normal mana due to the storm, and decades too early creates a makeshift mana void.

I meant that Fox is not knowledgeable about the FAB's operation because it is high-level arcana to design a machine like that. He knows the layman's explanation - and seeing that there is a mana void he sort of guesstimates that the FABs have to be involved. I did not mean to imply that he wanted it to happen or that he is secretly working for the Horrors.

All right. And he doesn't know how they maintain an extremely high mana level to sustain the ritual while at the same time eating all the mana that would reach it.


Does she actually feel some sort of change in her psyche? If so, please tell me in detail how it feels, what it does, and so on.

They have their very own dragon line underground, which is why the facility was built on that particular place so they get plenty of mana from elsewhere.

Okay, and the other (way more important) question?
Does bnc really feel all Buddha and "can now stop feeling the pain of existence in this world"? If some effect is changing the way bnc perceives the world, feels, etc., I need to know in order to roleplay her. Receiving the equivalent of a lifetime of meditation in a heartbeat is something that would change a personality forever, that's nothing I can ignore.

The words I meant to put in Fox is that by splitting consciousness people become all Buddha in this world and feel the joy of working out or cleaning the toilet being all stoic about everything, but they still feel anxious, depressed, and generally the pain of existence in the simulation. Thus he made a comment, that they achieved enlightenment only to be miserable in another world. He is sort of bitter about that part of the experience.

As for bnc, there is something affecting her - but as she is not in the simulation and is very much aware of this world with both parts of her consciousness - she feels sort of normal. A mild positive improvement of mood which she can either attribute to being safe underground or to a magic spell without any empirical measure to tell which explanation is correct.

Okay, thank you for the explanation!

No problem.

What checks would you ask for to remove the deck?
I'm not even sure where it would be. Under the skull? Instead of parts of the skull? Over the skull? Since you have to remove it every single time you get matrix damage, I assume it is something like a drive you can access more or less easily. In my understanding, basic skills in medicine should do. What does the GM say?

I imagine it kind of like a socket, so bnc has an empty socket. I guess they figured it out in SR universe but
Let's say a Medicine test threshold 3? Or cybertech 2 (as it is a more specific skill).

Nova can buy 2 hits on Cybertechnology.

Bye
Thanee

First scene with brain surgery for me. Feel free to move along these lines.

Unfortunately, Nova will not get the chance to shine
bnc is quite a surgeon herself (she has a DP of 10 on medicine herself, and with Singularity also gets 10 for cybertech) and has done this a couple times. I don't know if that's worth anything rulewise, but she'll know exactly where to cut, how to slide it in etc. She also repaired her matrix damage herself and learned it the hard way.

OoC thanks for the offer, though

Whew, I'm glad the login procedure takes so long IC. Whoom's sideeffects are that all thresholds are raised by 1. That could suck quite a bit in dangerous situations

Did Fox skip the "How can I recognize exits" question on intent ("I'm with you anyway") or did you just miss it?

He says that he is with you, possibly showing you from within.

I'm going to be able to post another one within the next 12 hours. If Fox and/or Nova do not or cannot react to bnc, I'll just proceed on my own. I just wanted to give you gives the chance to react to her problem IC without stalling the story further.

Without having rolled, I just saw fit that she as a programmer who spent her entire life in simulations can't easily accept a simulation as reality, no matter what. Though in my character sheet I only listed those drugs that are ruled in the books, I hope it's safe to assume that bnc would always carry weaker or (normally) less useful drugs with her. She would take something like THC or psilocybin that would make it way easier for her to accept whatever is around her as reality.

If that has an effect on the roll, let me no. Also, of course, I'm in for side-effect. She's also still in for another two hours or so of Whoom: -1 Reaction, -1 Strength, +1 to all thresholds, -1 to all Limits

I actually intended to have Fox offering her a drug to make the process easier, but just don't worry too much you are not breaking the game or anything. Let her be herself. I tried to reflect how difficult it is by setting it a threshold of 4 in a roll where bnc has 7 dice total. So sort of unlikely, and by considering that I had to come up with alternative solutions that do not break the game. You can fluff it as much as you want how difficult it is - and the game can take it if you fail the roll or even if you choose not to roll at all.

Cool.
Could you please roll for me, I'm not on my pc.
Also, with Whoom, the hallucinogens, and the black room, the threshold might be different

I rolled two hits which is not enough but considering all you did to succeed I'll give it a partial success meaning she is aware that this feed exist and would reduce future attempts to threshold 3.