So I think AM doing it is the safest thing at least I think she is better than an agent. Jack what rolls do I need?

Rolls may depend on what we want to do?
1) download the data (see what else, besides us, they picked up) -- presumably a) get a mark, b) matrix perception to check for encryption/data bomb, then c) edit file (I think do this for sure)

2) delete the data of SIS searching the house (especially the part where we found things) -- just another edit file roll, assuming that 1 was done first. (I think also do this for sure)

3) Put a tracer program in that alerts us when the repository is accessed (could it also tell us by who? I'm not sure). To insert it would once again be edit file (operating program instead of the memory), but up to Jack if something like a software+logic roll is needed to create the tracer in the first place. (I think this is worthwhile, as we probably don't want to wait around to see who else accesses it, but if Tamarind puts up some aerial drones in the area and the tracer sends them an alert, then they could start looking for signs of who might be doing it. (I think this is a good plan, but not a 'must do')

As posted in the IP:

If you want to mark the files you can try your hand on a Software+Logic [Sleaze] 20 (10 Minutes) test to create a program that sends a message to you from the device they are copied to, identifying the device/persona
This is a modified Data Bomb, so all rules and programs pertaining to the Set Data Bomb action are available.

Otherwise, yes, what Beta wrote.

I hope I am getting it right:

1. Buying 4 hits for F4 magic finger,
https://orokos.com/roll/1045729: 11d6t5 3
no drain connect the cable.
She stops sustaining after cable is connected.
2. logic intuition augmented Trouble sustains one of them - buying 4 hits for the spell rolling just drain.
https://orokos.com/roll/1045731: 2#11d6t5 2 7

Trouble sustains one spell, AM the other - (logic)

Hacking:
she has 20 dice so buy 5 hits. (22 dice)
Matrix perception: buy 5 hits (20 dice total)(hot sim)
if no protection edit file: buy 5 hits (22 dice total). copy the data,
if there is protection buy 5 hits on cracking the file.
-- if there is a data bomb let me know I'll roll because its an important roll.
databomb + magic + hot sim: 17d6t5 8 not entirely sure about the limit it is at least 6.

buy 5 hits for edit file to delete our own data from the apartment.
Trouble stop sustaining AM sustain her logic spell while coding.

Then put a tracer program.
making the software takes 50 minutes.
1. extended coding: 17d6t5 4
2. extended coding 2: 16d6t5 5
3. extended coding 2: 15d6t5 5
4. extended coding 2: 14d6t5 3
5. Buy 3 hits - to reach 20 successes.

I didn't have time to go look for what programs I want to use, if there is anyone making is shorter feel free to smack me with the rule book.

AM's astral perception: astral perception: 13d6t5 4
not good enough sadly.

AM is busy programming anyway - though you could roll for trouble

In case that becomes relevant at some point...

I just realized that I missed 2 dice on the spellcasting test for Manascape (just rolled those 2 dice and added it to the original post here in OOC, which added one more hit to the total).

Bye
Thanee

OH! Trouble saves the day!
https://orokos.com/roll/1045763: 10d6t5 6

Nice job Trouble!

But that aura description is certainly sounds like (lower case 't') trouble. (or possibly something in the monad range? Hopefully time will tell!)

Maybe something like those Spirit-Sprite amalgamations, that were mentioned?

Bye
Thanee

A cooperate recruiter impressed by AM's coding skills ?

So, anything you want to do, otherwise I'll continue with their action

Maybe a spirit-sprite amalgamations, but I don't know if Trouble would interpret that as cyberware. Although the rolling pattern of the lights changing would either indicate a strong connection to the Matrix and/or remote Matrix overwatch support.

I wonder if a strong concentration of nanites would have that sort of effect on an aura, as they constantly move through the bloodstream. Yes, like a Monad, now that Beta mentions it.

Edit: we could see if they respond to Trouble on the astral, or Rachel's friends.

Miss a day and miss a lot of posts sometimes! Tamarind's actions finally posted (out of sequence with the conversation)

The billboard is completely dead - not just matrix damage dead, but cut wires dead

@Jack: AM presumably grabbed the data and did the edits before spending time on the tracker? So I'd expect that we have whatever data was stored there. (maybe doesn't show much besides SIS searching the apartment, but we'll certainly check if there is anything else interesting) Let us know if that isn't how you see the timing.

@Everyone else: What is your vote on trying to be stealthy and lose any monitoring, vs just going fast? (or some third option?)

Yeah, you managed to edit yourself out of the data before it was collected - not that they need it now since they face IDd you directly.

The data didn't show anything else of interest? (we expect that the crew we just met were the ones who were in there earlier, but multiple groups is not impossible -- so just checking that it didn't catch the period that was edited out of the camera at the house)

I think, stealthy is good. We would need fake IDs and different appearance, though, otherwise there is no point.

Bye
Thanee

I'm a bit lost. Stealth for what? Fake IDs for what?

The Arcology seems to require stealth. Trying to race through seems like sure-fire recipe for failure.

What are the fake IDs for? Shopping?

Rachel and AM both have Physical Mask, and AM has Vehicle Mask. Granted they couldn't be sustained forever, but they'd probably get us through a shopping montage. They could also be useful if we need to sneak past security at some point.

Yes. Tamarind suggested, that we leave the car in a camera-dead zone somewhere close to the Mall, and then have it drive around on auto-pilot, while we head to the Mall on foot.

Rachel commented, that this would only be successful, if they cannot spot our regular commlinks/SINs or faces on any cameras.

And, yes, Physical Mask would be my idea of changing our appearance for the shopping trip, potentially matching any Fake IDs we got (assuming, everyone got one).

We also shouldn't go in one group, probably. Maybe two can go together, and the other two should go there alone, once we leave the car.

Bye
Thanee

Just spelling out my thinking behind the stealth vs speed question

Why stealth instead of a direct approach?

• We were just warned off by the Synchronized Bikers, and they have the matrix resources to likely track what we do next if we do it openly.
• Presumably they will not be happy if we drive to the Archology and start following the path we have found, and may either interfere directly or inflict other consequences on us (note that they headed off towards Bellevue, for all we know they are getting ready to trash our house)
• If we evade their surveillance, they may not be certain if we have heeded their warning, and if they don't know about the route that we'll be following they may not notice us following it. They may not be able to interfere (or not as quickly and effectively), and depending on what happens in the Arcology they may or may not know that we ignored their warning.
• Note that stealth can take many forms, from sneaking around to disguise to misdirection

Why speed instead of stealth?

• We were just warned off by the Synchronized Bikers and we don't know how good their surveillance abilities are. Trying to sneak around and getting tracked anyway is a good tip off that we are ignoring the warning, but also slows us down enough for them to potentially set up interference effectively
• Just moving fast may allow us to get ahead of them, or at least make them scramble to interfere.
• Given the PbP format, it may be easier and more interesting

Of course there are a lot of ways we can approach either or even combine to some degree. I gave two poles just to get a feel for what people preferred, so we were not pulling in different directions. (FWIW, Tamarind's professional experience is mostly about not being noticed, so she leans that way but is open to other approaches)

On second thought, when using the stealth approach to get to the Mall, we might actually want to do that a bit farther out and then just take a taxi or probably rather two there.

If they see four people "appear" on cameras that have not been there before, they might also get suspicious. And this is a whole lot more likely around the ex-Arcology.

Bye
Thanee

Just to add some information your characters have:

The elf in the trenchcoat was not among the bikers. So he is likely a different part of the operation

You hung out for nearly three quarters of an hour at the billboard - and the riders apparently didn't expect to meet you there. They only identified those of you they could see outside the car. You have no indication that they were aware of Tamarind at all.

Getting unnoticed to the Arcology is likely as simple as switching to a different car while staying offline. Once you are inside is a different story, but since they obviously used facial recognition a physical illusion would likely be enough

My thoughts about this...



Yeah, was already wondering how he figures into that. There might very well be multiple parties involved even.



I got that impression, actually. I think there were going there to retrieve the data, not because they spotted us.

What I am wondering mostly is why the break from online there. Maybe they just want to seperate the trail there, just in case.

And the billboard going dark was likely a precaution that was in place, already, and triggered, once they realized that they cannot get to the data anymore.



I mean, that is more or less what I was proposing. Maybe a little more paranoid.

We have to assume at this point, that they can follow us (the car) as long as there is any online camera nearby.

There is probably some Otaku or even an AI behind this, so some very serious Matrix power. At least, that is my current assumption.

Bye
Thanee

Wait, what elf in a trenchcoat? A quick scan of posts lined up with my memory but probably I missed something. What I have is:
- We arrived at the sign and parked nearby while AM did her work
- after abotu 45 minutes the the bikers appeared (before AM put in place a tracer, but after she'd downloaded a copy of the data and edited us out of the recording
- Mato, AM, and Rachel went out to talk with the bikers, the latter told us to stop interfering, then eventually left
- Everyone got back in the van

Where in there does the elf show up? (I'll go back and read that part again!)

The elf was mentioned by our client (Felicitas) quite in the beginning. It was about the apartment.

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?s=&a...t&p=1370591



Bye
Thanee

Ah, thank you -- I'd forgotten about that bit.

There's also the possibility of not retracing Diego's steps precisely. (I know Mato argued for it earlier.)

We could potentially get in through the Ork Underground. Felicitas said she could introduce us to Charlie, who runs a bike modding shop. That might be a possible insertion where surveillance isn't a concern.

I like that -- let's move that plan into the IC.

Of course, Rachel (and Tamarind) had been planning on doing some shopping in the Mall ... well that can be addressed too.

I've updated my last IC post to propose all of that IC.

I am struggling to follow I was thinking to just go to the mall like nothing happened perhaps with invisibility if we're careful.

That was me being bored during a virtual meeting and letting idle thoughts flow through my fingers -- it is 100% fine to point out that it doesn't make sense

(my intent was to reduce the number of mask spells needed, if we were taking the 'stealthy' option. As I posted above I'm totally open to just going fast and hoping they don't react fast enough to interfere.)

I think it totally makes sense. We have the means to be more careful, so why not use them?

Bye
Thanee

Because getting caught with half the team may be very dangerous. Given the possible nature of the opposition... and they already know we might drop by.

I don't think the idea is to go all the way while seperated. Just some part in the beginning to make us harder to track.

Obviously, we need to be reunited by the time we actually go into the restricted parts.

Also, we do not have to take things as far as actually going through the Underground with part of the group. Just splitting up to arrive at the Mall and do our stuff there should be sufficient.

Bye
Thanee

If you want, someone can roll knowledge on security procedures or a similar skill to estimate the risk and the safest path forward

I have a relevant skill and a reasonable dice pool! But not much luck with the roller:

Logic 5 + Security Design 3 + Mnemonic Enhancer 3: 11d6t5 2 hits

Alright, you know that the lower levels have relaxed security compared to the habitation complex

That means mostly just cameras in a local security host. Basic measures to foil facial recognition combined with offline or fake SIN of R2 or higher should suffice

We seem to have a split on priorities, so let me try another suggestion: skip the mall, but maybe pick up certain needed items in the Underground? And then see if we can find enough dead zones in the underground to lose any virtual tail, and then enter the arcology in an area where we don't have to show ID, and are not passing around cameras, so that they would have a harder time picking us up.

sounds good to me. I thought the mall was for entering the arcology in the first place. I didn't imagine we wanted to go shopping.

Rachel has a shopping list.

Bye
Thanee

Is anyone else getting an "IPS Driver Error" regularly? It happens at least 50% of the time when I try to do something on the site.

Not recently.

Bye
Thanee

Yeah, the forum had some hiccups, but seems to be stable again

I'm glad others aren't having issues. It's been driving me nuts for days. It's not uncommon to load a page 2 or 3 times before it works. Multiply that across every pageview during a visit and it's a hassle.

That is different from the error that I get sporadically (it used to be about every second page load, but seems to be down to about 20% lately. Thankfully -- as you say, a hassle, and a risk for losing posts too).

I haven't had any issues today, but yesterday and over the weekend it was giving me fits.

Skraacha colors are grey and brown. Not sure if Gruff's red and black is an oversight or if it's a clue that he's not who we thought. If he's Bot’Kham then we could have an issue, as they are both predatory and oppose outsiders.

Would Mato even know that though? Dice say...

Intuition 6 + Underworld 1 + Mnemonic Enhancer 3: 10d6t5 4 hits

Yes, probably.

Sorry, that's a mix up on my part - will edit.

I edited my previous post about sending the van on the way and what drones she had, as we didn't head off quite as quickly as I'd expected and I'd forgotten to mention a couple of drones. Then added a new post where she accepts Mato's offer of the armoured jacket (thank you, @Tecumseh! Hopefully the few more soak dice never come into play, but they may become very appreciated.)

To make it clearer about drones, she is bringing:

Beauty (Chrome Pigeon)
- vision sensor 6, handling -1, pop up taser(pulsar))) [H3, Sp --, Ac 1, B 1(1), Ar:0 P:2, Sn3]
- AS: Pilot Pigeon R2
- Yamaha Pulsar w/internal smart link (Acc5(7), DV7S, AP-5, Mode SA, am:4(m)

Aunties1, 2, 3 and Uncle (Flying Eye with handling reduced by 1, pop up taser (pulsar))
- [H3, sp:1P, acc:2, B:1, Ar:0, P:3, Sn:3], Uncle has Ultrasound sensor 6
- AS pilot flying eye R3
- Yamaha Pulsar w/internal smart link (Acc5(7), DV7S, AP-5, Mode SA, am:4(m)

Harriets 1-4 (Kanmushi aka bugs)
- [H4, Sp2, Ac1, B0, A0, Pi3, Sn3]
- AS Kanmushi pilot 3, Kanmushi stealth 5

Kaa (Festo Sewer Snake), pilot upgraded to 4, sensors to 3
- AS Sewer Snake pilot 4

Agency Drone (from Pike Manor) Lockheed Optic-X2, heavily modified
- [H:5, SP:5, Acc:2, B:2, Ar:0, P:6, Sn:4]
- AS Optic-X2 Pilot 6, Electronic Warfare 6
- Savalette Guardian ACC:5, DV:8P AP:–1 Mode:SA/BF RC:2 Ammo 12©, Mods: Additional clip (side), Electronic firing (barrel), Trigger removal (-), Extended clip 2 (only 18 shots due to additional clip)
- attack dongle 5 plus modifications to give matrix attributes: A5, S2, D6, F6 (2 permanent matrix damage)
- Agent R6 and matrix programs: Smoke & Mirrors, Smartsoft, Wrapper, Stealth, Sneak, Browse, Edit, Encryption, Signal Scrub, Toolbox, Decryption, Defuse, Exploit.