I'm repeating these, because for simplicity's sake ("too late") I'll assume somewhere in there Ghost has something like a radiation detector (at least, in retrospect I can't see why it wouldn't be close to standard shadowrunning monitoring equipment). Obviously it wouldn't work on clicks when she's in stealth mode But she picks up only standard background radiation.

Straight down the hall, then, and past the (closed) door leading to the kennel. I'm assuming she's not going to explore there, but through the drone/Advent she'll know that the elf there is still going to be busy for a few minutes feeding the dogs. (The hellhounds are still edgy about your drone in the ceiling, but after that initial puzzlement, the elf seems to be singularly uncurious.) After he's done, of course, there's only two directions he can take away from the kennel: toward the elevator, or away from it. Other doors ahead to left and to right, all closed. She can hear the rumble of ventilation equipment behind one of the closed doors she passes (where the fan had reversed earlier, but is now stopped). To visual examination, all doors seem to be sealed. No other people nearby.

I'll assume Trogdor quickly sticks his head in each door since they're not warded - in an appropriately stealthy way - they're most of them temp-shelved (the kind that aren't built in) and otherwise empty. Two, however, have multiple floor-to-ceiling panels running on parallel tracks, each panel divided into about a hundred or so small hardware-style drawer-slots: think small-item storage on a large scale - the tracks allow the panels to move behind each other, increasing the effective storage space. From a quick glimpse some of the items appear to be astrally active, but unless someone suggests otherwise, I'll assume he's not sticking around to examine them in detail. (Trogdor is really having trouble with the current now - it's beginning to affect his perception as well.) One other room has very new tracks of the same kind built into the floor and ceiling, and a couple of the panels to go in them are resting on an angle against a side wall. Finally, one of the rooms looks as though it might be a kind of infirmary, it's got that sterile stainless steel look that's really washing out against the astral gray, and he can identify refrigeration and heating units ... and a cage. Those and the kennels are the only rooms which are exceptional in any way along this hall.

No other people and no active sign of people besides the one in the kennels and the one in a small pile on the other side of the lifts ... yet.

The hall opens up into a large central room. From Ghost's still-safe distance, it looks as though other hallways may star out from that room. She thinks she hears footsteps somewhere ahead, but they could still be some distance away: this place alternately echoes and deadens sound.

The second gang is due to arrive in maybe 5-10 minutes. The first wants action!, and seems to have found wire cutters for the fence. Security hasn't made an exterior appearance yet, but the security cameras are pointed in that direction and recording - or would be, if Solitaire hadn't twinged the system. The security guard at the kitty corner building is pacing nervously (but not stepping out into the open again), glancing at his watch every now and then.

Time check: 2045 (five minutes after the last full update - p.4 - and maybe two or three after the "dusting", depending upon how much time Trogdor and Ghost took about that).

Sounds like we're gonna get caught in one of those scenes where we're stuck in between two people at either end of a long hallway, both headed towards us. Let's keep an eye open for good hiding spots. Someplace that's not likely to be a destination of either our feeder or the unknown up ahead.

Also, who's taking bets on the contents of those little bin thingys on the shelves? My money's on metahuman parts. Probably the physical manifestations of their magic. ie: a seer's eyes, etc... But with the opportunity to expand their storage and such a methodical system for filing these items, one has to wonder how big a scale this project is.

</Captain Obvious>

I can't remember for sure, did Talia go over the "Night Watch" comings and goings, or was that corp greys and the cleaning crew?

If not, are we safe in assuming they come and go by conventional means? I'm rather wary of this "Night Watch," I don't want to underestimate them.

the way this is worded makes me wonder if our Johnson just wants us to be careful about evidence, or if the Johnson works for/is involved with this company as well. especially the line about "If anyone here is harmed... gives me pause.

Then again, I suppose it doesn't really matter at the moment. Ours is not to question or wonder why, ours is but to do or die.

Basically, it was everyone except the security details. You had been trying to infiltrate their ranks or at least find out everything you could, and the best that could be done was to get all the information known by the company which had the contract before. (Previous thread.)

Maglocks to open, when and if she's trying it. Her card should work (not the one from the cleaners/previous security company presumably, but the standard breaker). No suspended ceiling or floor grates - the rooms look sealed.

We're on the home stretch! Afterwards, I'll open up a "post mortem" thread (no, this doesn't mean Ghost is going to die): since you've brainstormed your way through this, it would be useful to see how things could have been done differently, what additional preparations made, what troubleshooting could have been done - but also what went exactly according to plan.

Maybe as an absolute last resort.

I'm starting to wonder more about the night shift security... Now I really wanna know how they show up.

"Obviously" is tricky. Someone actively looking for it might notice that a door was unsealed, but that would also leave the door a bit open. (These kinds of doors would tend to re-lock as they close.)

He can summon a city spirit though, and use it's concealment power.

Definitely IMO, and also before the guard in the other building panics, or someone else calls the Star using a landline.

Providing Ghost and the girl can escape undetected the drones aren't a worry, as I posted earlier Advent's deck has a long enough range that we can retrieve the drones later in the night from a safe distance using the "transporter" condor.

I'm hoping that this is all we'll need.

About the doors, I had assumed the Solitaire would be able to lock or unlock all the doors if we need to make a run for it.

In an emergency I'd say Ghost should try to go straight through the lift, into the car parking area, while Solitaire opens the garage door to let in the Westwind and the rotodrones.

Once Ghost is through the lift Solitaire would hopefully be able to send all the lifts up to the top floor, this will partially seal off the car park area and also act as a diversion as it should appear that Ghost is using the lift and making for the roof.

Hopefully the rotodrones will be able to keep any bad guys/things pinned down while Ghost and the girl escape in the car.

Did the Johnson provide a medical profile?

That's a good idea, though I think we'd be better off trying for a security level account rather than a superuser account. The control rating would only be modified by +2 trying for a security account, it's +6 for a superuser account. A security level account would probably be good enough for us anyway, as it should give free access to maglocks, elevators, cameras, etc.

I think we need to know from Talia exactly what Solitaire has found out about the systems ratings before trying though, if the control or security rating is low enough we could go for a super user account.

I actually think we should have used validate much earlier, ie. during Solitaire's recon run on the host, but that's something to discuss in the wash-up thread. (If we survive).

Astrally reading the labels isn't going to happen. Maybe you'll be happy to know that the items aren't source-recognisable on sight. Many of them seem to be more like powders or filings.

Fairly standard distraction-level decker interventions. Solitaire wouldn't have much problem with them, she doesn't think ... only at the moment her attention is on the building system (such as it is).

By way of those assumptions mentioned earlier, I'll be a bit more explicit: you weren't able to find out when they come and go ... or even if they come and go.

I do know the Johnson's personal motivations in this respect. There was a bit more information you could have gotten in the pre-run, but the focus then seemed more technicalities of run than information about either the J or the target (beyond what she looks like). This is a brainstorming session though, so if there's questions you want to back-test (in an alternate reality where they were asked ), go for it. I can't guarantee you'll get answers to all of them though. Some would have been deflected.

She's elvish. She's 23 years old. She's extremely allergic to unalloyed iron. Other than that, she's deplorably healthy, and she's had broad-spectrum immunisation.

Apart from the allergy, not until you asked. The letterhead is that of the trid station Seattle Spy, but some of the information has been copied from somewhere else.

Works to the naked eye. However, if these were connected to a centralised system (which they're not), an interrupted circuit like that would probably set off an alarm.

Uhm, wasn't Diamond a mage? (not a shaman)? But he does have elementals on-call. Doesn't help with the concealment powers, though.

So far, so good.

Understood and re-noted.

The maglocks shouldn't prove difficult to Ghost's tools.

Those areas are all centralised - Solitaire can control them.

I'd say that would probably be even more suspicious. It's a service industry, after all

Damn, I got mixed up, I was thinking that Diamond was the Dragon Slayer Shaman.

Ever order a pizza and have the pizza shop call you back and tell you the delivery boy is running behind? No? Me neither....

:lol: yeah, you're right. Can we keep an eye on him to make sure we attempt to intercept any followup calls on his part if he freaks out? Would that divide our attention too much?

I was nervous even thinking about checking that room out...

hmm. Does the powder in storage resemble the powder from our dusted elf?

exactly, that's one of the things at the back of my mind. maybe the night crew is something heinous kept onsite.
I dunno, I just have some feeling like we're missing something.

Echo that! I'm not contributing much but I've been avidly following and I couldn't agree more. Maybe this weekend I'll pour over the ENTIRE thread and try to piece it together. i'm thinking we/you/everyone has been focusing on the small, intricate steps involved in pulling this thing off--as a good shadowrunner should do.

I'm also a fan of parsimony/Occum's Razor so I think its right there, starring back at us.

Here's what I got from memory (damn mnemonic enhancer on the fritz):
1) a elf girl held against her will
2) a corp thats in the "import/export" business
3) has its roots in eastern Europe
4) backgroud count in the basement
5) assorted wierd drek going on

So, they're doing some digging in the basement and catagorizing the samples. That means they're looking for "something". The something could be the gateway to an acient evil or it could be pottery from the early natives or some combo of the two. There was that whole landbridge thing...

And possibly the two aren't related. The corp could run a slavery racket and that might account for the background count. Maybe the elf chica is just some dataslave who "...saw something she shouldn't have" and the J is boyfriend/uncle/dad/whatever or working for that person and happens to work for the corp. Thus, the "don't hurt anybody"/"no traces" clause.

I dunno. I do spend a fair amount of time pondering the multiple options. So, what do you think?

Maybe me and the other lurkers on this thread could help w/ brainstorming support.

Lurkers unite! Be not afraid, for we on the path to knowledge (and glory and and all that jazz...)

Thanks for the support!

I don't think we know if our elf lady is willing or not. She *was* kidnapped which implies at one point she was against it, but all things considered she may be "turned" at this point.


@ Talia, as per your offer for background info-> Did we think to ask if she has any important contacts/relatives/etc?

Are we upsetting anybody other than her takers by retrieving her?

You mean that isn't SOP? Hell, I leave databombs when I go to the Stuffer Shack for cigarettes.

Perhaps. Then again, our survival may depend on our ability to piece together the puzzle.


In a race against time.


Against unbeatable odds.


Fighting an unseen enemy.


<insert movie preview cliche here>

Well, if we want to do that, we want to do more digging into what this whole mess means -- as Shanshu pointed out, the more we know about the puzzle the better our chance of skewing the odds in our favor.

-Siege

The rigger could probably cover that angle without too much difficulty.

Are you checking the room out, then? So far, I will mention that there seem to be several different types of powders - at least they "feel" different astrally. A couple of them seem similar, but you can't tell if they are the same or not without some rigorous analysis.

Works and will respond in kind within a day. I'll begin with going through your list of "what we know", just by way of confirmation. (Hope that's all right with you.)

Yes, to the best of your knowledge. Shanshu Freeman reminds correctly that I did specify "kidnapped".

That's what the computer files you've "liberated" strongly seem to suggest, as well as employee names and accents.

Background count probably sourced in the basement, but also "leaking" somewhat to the site as a whole.

Then you get into some speculation and general brainstorming which I can't yet go confirming or denying, but in part of which I'll tell you that you're getting warm.

You don't know about her current state of willingness. According to your fixer, the J had emphasised that time was an issue. (It was one of the reasons you had so very little scoping time for the run.)

You hadn't, but we're rewriting anyway, so I'll give you initially what's publicly available (say off the official bio plus fan sites), and I'll give more based on how you would have gone about getting it and whether you could have pulled it off in the limited time available. (I'm bearing in mind that Matrix knowbot research can be extensive and fast.) It will be heavier on "tone" than straight facts: most of this is from the fansites, and there don't seem to be all that many facts. (Maybe if you can figure out the right questions to ask ...?)

Her birth certificate name is Juliana d'Erethiel, but it's listed on all her other documents as just "Juliana". She's 23 years old. (There's no day of birth listed. According to the fanbase, she uses May 1 as an "official" birthday, but she doesn't actually know when it is, and she'd never learned about celebrating birthdays until she got to Seattle, so she still doesn't for herself, only for others.) She was born in Tir Tairngire, and looks like everything glamorous and other-worldly that the rags have ever associated with that place - only there seems to be nothing elitist about her. (I forget - anyone in this team who knows anything of Tir customs?) She's Good Looking And Knows It, but she also seems to genuinely like other people, of all races. No one's been able to link her in with a troll yet, but the fanbase feels it's only a matter of time.

She has a general arts degree from the University of London (England). She's obviously travelled, although she's not been back to Tir Tairngire for a few years now (as far as visas/the fanbase know). There's few traceable details (although roughly two-thirds of her university credits are British), but she talks about NYC like she knows it (and always with a secret smile) - she has an NYC Giants and an Islanders banner hanging in her bedroom, along with the Dodgers banner. She also comes up sometimes with the oddest pieces of trivia all along the west coast. The fanbase loves to endlessly analyse her comments ("See! She's been to Denver." "Has not! She could have picked that up from when she was in the Mojave." "That's never been proven." ...)

She works the late night Seattle Spy newscast, along with two co-anchors: Jim Dial, a father-figure older male human, and Tiffany, another piece of eye-candy (although they do both seem more intelligent than the average bimbo, to watch the clips). Her name and Tiffany's are listed on birth records, Jim uses a professional name and has had it changed legally. She has famous and frequently loud fights with the show's producer (Ernie Dundas) all the time - the whole office knows about them - but they seem to get along well for all that.

She goes out on the town every night. It's like it's part of her work, but she also loves it. Regular at the Penumbra, semi-regular virtually everywhere else in Seattle. She's even been seen in the seediest of strip clubs, and the fans are still Matrixing around the pictures that were taken when she spontaneously decided to turn one of the pole dances into a double act for the night. (The fans keep trying to number-crunch what her expense account must be. Although she dates the upper strata of Seattle quite regularly - think minor Hollywood celebrity entertainment section pictures - she's also been known to take complete Joe Averages out for a whirl around the town, and she genuinely seems to like them (and people generally). She's been seen with people as assorted as the governor of Seattle, a [human] plainsclothes (former beat) cop, a Mafia [ork] boss (she's known to have a permanent "on the house" tab at a restaurant he owns), and a [dwarf] cityworks accountant (who exemplifies Blandness). She also has ties with at least one yakuza oyabun. And she has had an exclusive with the UCAS president - just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

Basically, if she wants to do a thing, she seems to be able to find a way. And yet she's never been known to do anything like pulling rank. Others seem to do that for her, and quite regularly.

She definitely has people who don't care for her, and she may have some active enemies. There's a famous (among the fanbase) rivalry with Tiffany, although the elfgirl seems, well, not completely unaware of it, but somewhat puzzled by it. There's the screaming fights with Ernie Dundas. There's quite regular semi-threats from Humanis. Oddly enough, she also seems to have a source somewhere inside Humanis.

There was a strange incident on the news one night - you'll be able to get the clip - where suddenly it seemed like a huge burning bird half-manifested out of astral space behind her and was about to seize her. At one point it almost seemed like it was part of her. She seemed half in a daze, but then she screamed and fainted. And then the cameras cut to a "Please Stand By" signal, although a pirated version of her, dishevelled and recovering, seems to be making the rounds. The current popular interpretation is that someone tried to attack her magically.

After that incident and the concurrent break-in into her apartment, her company upgraded her accommodations and hired a pair of Knight Errant bodyguards to protect her. She seems to have spent most of her time trying to ditch them. (She seems to have been rather pissed off over the break-in - she reported it no less than three separate times on the same newscast.)

Almost immediately afterward there was a hostage situation with families trapped in a church: the demand was that she be sent in to cover it. She went in with her camera, but the picture went black and sound went dead almost immediately. (The camera had been physically destroyed.) What's known is that two gunshots were heard almost immediately - it was found out afterwards that two of the hostages had been executed by the hostage-takers - and then most of the people escaped quietly through the side doors. The SWAT teams didn't even immediately see them until they were clear of the building - and then they seized the opportunity and stormed the place, killing the hyper-wired [human] shadowrunner, but not before he managed to shoot a third time, he'd been holding a gun to the head of another hostage. (The film clips from the immediate storming show her horrified and shell-shocked. Only one runner was seen in the confused footage and he was killed, but there's a huge fan debate about whether she initially said "hostage takers". A few of the hostages seem to suggest there was more than one, but nothing more is known.) She still donates regularly to a fund she created to support the orphaned children of those who died.

That's the overview. More, you'll have to ask the questions.

A-OK by me. Of course I did not manage to do it....more supposition to follow.

....etc.

Holy drek!! We didn't ask about this before!? Shame on me.

Its too late now but we should have done a little diggin on the SR team that nabbed her.

Update:
6) has been the target of assassination attempt before. Or at least hostile action.

7) KE is probably also looking for her (should've checked their database)

8. [foiled by the smiley gods] The amount of effort involved in obtaining her is beyond that of jilted lover

9) Has connections w/ organized crime (should've made use of that)

10) She's probably awakened or at least a latent

Time for some "stretching"--hey, its brainstorming, right? Think of me as the kid that was reading the "Neverending Story"

1) Julianna is part of/integral to some nasty ritual (a la "Ivy&Chrome" or "Cast a Deadly Spell")
2) Julianna found out about the slave trade (this requires that my earlier supposition is also correct--unlikely, but not impossible)
3)(the BIG one) any connection w/ Snowdinai--whatever, the place where orichalcum occurs naturally, run by that Rhianion chica....

Oh, I'd like to thank all the other Lurkers for flocking to my banner.

(kidding, I know your all waiting for the right moment)

and I just noticed: I've been upgraded to "Moving Target"!! SWEET!

(Of course if its been there for a while, I'll have to take that "Perceptive" edge of my "You as a Shadowrunner" post...)

Ooops.

12 pages to go!

Isn't that always the case?

I'm around for another hour or so today and most of tomorrow, so I'll definitely get to any and all questions by then. (And then I might actually be able to begin reading other threads!)

Which to me means something is being hidden in plain sight.

Which public databases? Any other parameters for searching? Thus far I've given you the public areas of Seattle Spy and the fanbase. It won't have taken long at all in this search for Solitaire to run across mention (or maybe she's previously heard) of another decker who calls themself "The Juliana". (The on-line icon is a digital representation of Juliana, always in different clothing.)

I think most of the rest of your post was speculation, Siege, rather than requests for information from me?

Except in parenting, chemistry, physics, Shadowrun NPCs, and number theory

Your Magic Theory experts think not. At least they've never heard of such a thing.

Juliana's really more an anchor for the last couple of years than a story-chaser, so I'll have to give you a bit more information than you asked for in order to answer you. She began with Seattle Spy straight out of college as a society/fashion/entertainment reporter, held that for about a year before she was planted in the anchor desk a year and a half ago. There's fan rumours that she'd tried a couple of serious stories before that, but it's debatable, and there's no existing footage on the fan sites. (Pre-empting: or in the Seattle Spy database, so far as Solitaire could have discovered.)

As an anchor, she has had maybe four significant stories of her own (other than the fluff pieces she still occasionally does - think Bruce Almighty), and most of those seemed to be the result of pure luck rather than digging: right place right time, but on the spot for entirely different (if sometimes related) reasons. (There's speculation that she has a couple of well-placed sources who feed her the major stories.) The exclusive mentioned earlier (second-last in your list) falls under this category, but it was over a year ago.

Then came the hostage incident. She visibly pulled herself together to report on it herself, it's a famous tear-jerker among the fanbase and was short-listed for presentation and style in last year's media awards. That was the last story she worked on individually, partly because very shortly afterward she ended up taking nearly half a year extended and unscheduled paid leave: Bryan [elf] (she had said his name upon seeing him, no one had ever seen him before) had come into the media office, picked her up, and said that he was taking her home to family for a while, and the producer agreed with relief. (Solitaire has found the deluge of hate mail aimed at Ernie Dundas, since the cameras couldn't hide her emotional condition.) He walked out of the office with her in his arms (she's not resisting at all), and the two of them vanished from the public ken for about six months. (Not "vanished" literally. It's the SR world, it's necessary to specify.) But no one seems to know where they were - or, for that matter, who "Bryan" is. He hadn't been seen before with her, no one on the fanbase has been able to place him, and he's only ever been seen with her once since, a couple of weeks ago, they'd had dinner in the mafioso's restaurant. (His is one of the more reasonably-priced places that serves real food.)

Then she returned one night just on time to take her anchor shift, apparently completely recovered. She hasn't taken what would be considered a serious story since then. There's even rumours that she's getting ready to leave Seattle Spy.

Yes, your Magic Theory types would definitely know that such is possible and has happened in the past, but each case seems to be a unique thing. Where it's not simply a matter of adequate mana level = Awakening, many seem to additionally require the equivalent of decades if not centuries of research/knowledge.

Did I miss anything asked?

I was arm-chair quarterbacking for the most part -- had I asked about a name and a personal profile, I could have contracted a decker for a rush job on querying all available records for mention of "Juliana" and any video hits on a picture recognition program, as well as any relevant keywords (key wards?)

Since we didn't ask, it doesn't seem fair to ask for a do-over since we failed to ask some integral questions.

Realizing that she might be a shapeshifter or perhaps host to a Spirit of some sort would severely complicate our ability to procure her against her wishes which means the whole thing can explode in our faces PDF.

Unless you want Int checks to recognize the face from a glanced screamsheet cover, which would make our spook even more cautious.

-Siege

Not really any current rampant speculation regarding her on Shadowland - she's generally dismissed as "that media slitch". There's two earlier spikes of interest: the attack (as noted above) and something from about three years back by "the Adder", warning against her. She'd apparently screwed over a shadowrunning team she'd hired by airing their faces as part of a story she was covering. When Solitaire checks out "the Adder", she discovers that he was a street samurai, extremely wired and half-psycho (her assessment based on his text, shared by most of the Shadowland commentators who knew him). He ran with a team of two others. He also was the one killed in the hostage incident. (That didn't quite make a third spike of interest - most commentators who knew him figured it was inevitable.)

"The Juliana" does not conduct business on-Matrix, and does not seem to have an agent - but does frequently buzz fan sites, sometimes in outfits before Juliana is seen publicly in them. No one, on Shadowland or off, seems to know "The Juliana" outside the Matrix.

That's what I'm back-assuming Solitaire & company were up to. After all, you were trying to track every lead you could get.

goes double for me

Let's be sure to announce we're here to "help" when we find her.

So we have to find her before "they" "change" her.
</muse>

Verification: Are you asking if they Terminally Disintigrate? Or is it maybe possible for a shapeshifter to voluntarily or under co-ersian (sp?) appear as dust?

Also, might bugs have a use for a shapshifter? Can they merge?

That's the catch --> we don't know what relationship our target has to our employer.

It's possible she's being abducted against her will, which means tipping her off is going to cost us the element of surprise and terminally frag with the "no evidence" clause if she can and does put up a fight.

-Siege

SL? Don't know the term.

Not hard to find, on Shadowland. They still run as a team: Galina and Bob. One is an electronics/computer expert, the other is a street shaman. They specialise in on-site data extraction, but have been known to do other types of jobs.

According to your Magic Theory experts:
Terminally Disintegrate: no.
Voluntarily or under coercion appear as dust: not that they've heard. As far as is known, the shapes must at least be living.
Bugs having a use for a shapeshifter: who knows what bugs want?
Can they merge? I don't see why it shouldn't be possible. (Edit: there is some debate on my side whether already dual-natured beings would be vulnerable to bug infestation.)

(Edit: no post on Shadowland suggests that Juliana was dual-natured at any point.)

We can't pop in and say "We're here to help you, this is for your own good." as we stun her somehow?

Hmm You're right, maybe that's not so practical.




Alrighty, so the whole smuggling analogy-> Theory: Metahuman employees = smuggled donkeys, hence the high turnover rate.

A reasonable guess. That leaves the questions: Was the dataslave excited because his work was done for the day or because his indentured servitude was over or because the ritual to return the Old Gods to thier former glory is almost complete?

-and-

Whats with the dust? (the samples and the dual elf)

On a personal note: Did I piss anyone off by asking all theses questions and getting the currant action stalled? Should I have waited for the Post Mortem Thread? It doesn't seem that way but I didn't want to step on anyones's toes.