I have been having this problem now continuously...Has there been any mention of it in other threads you guys are posting? Is there someupgrade/revamping going on or did the forums just fill up with players and posts?

It was a series of mishaps explained in Downtime thread.

Wang Chi contact :Lumbering Jack Jewel, dwaef paramedic, played by Tzaz

This dwarf is replacing BaronKen. I believe.

Welcome to the group Tzaz. Feel free to post IC to Cold-Dragon's character, Celia, who is standing next to you at the Talsimonger's shop.

@ALL: As Tzaz posted, the character Lumbering Jack is replacing the character BaronKen was to bring in. Since so far there has only been interaction between that character and Cold-Dragon's I don't forsee and problems with this.
Now that we are once more a complete group, let's get moving along once more.

@Tzaz: For the record, I very much doubt that commlinks broadcast their user's GPS location to every caller. Shadowrunners would certainly disable such an insane feature shortly after obtaining a new commlink.
However, to move the story along and because you were a close contact of Wang's, I'll say he had you set up on his buddy list, for which he allowed the commlink to send that sort of information.

@Cold-Dragon: Are you sure you aren't naked? Did I forget to mention that it was a nudist talismonger shop?
Hehe, kidding of course.

@Cold-Dragon and Tzaz: I don't believe either of you have a vehicle so how do you plan on getting there?

that was not my problem at the time. My whippersnapper is willing to take a bus or walk. I can't read minds yet, so no way of me having known that.

ALso, my person is not a car person, per se, so that was another reasoning for me lacking a vehicle. Maybe a Taxi of some sort?

I figured as much, I was just wanting to know your preference for when I type something up about the ride over there and what greets you once you get there.

Lumbering Jack has work boots, Black Jeans, Stuart hunting tartan shirt[plaid], belt, suspenders, a hard hat and a all purpose unzipped winter jacket. Duffle bag at his feet [3'x 2'x 18"].

Lumbering Jack is a tall Dwarf at 44" high and 3' across the shoulders. A weathered ruddy complexection like he is part Irish and likes to drink. He is also sporting a jade wristband inlaid withh red, blue, white, ebony rocks.

The first short joke gets their foot stepped on. The 2nd joke gets a kneecap. The 3rd joke I will reAch up and hit below the belt. Any questions. I will work for beer.

@Cold-Dragon and Tzaz: Go ahead and give me a Perception roll if you want any more details. Also, is there anything in particular your character's would be looking for at the scene.

*decides real dice might serve better than a dice roller, and gives it a shot*
I have a spec'd perception, but I don't know if it really relates, so I'll leave the two extra dice out for now.

5 dice: 1, 2, 2, 3, 6

meh...ah well, can't win'em all, hehe. As far as what to look for....in this chaos, probably too general to pick something special short of it somehow involving my own investigation. And news of Wanh Chi of course.

@Cold-Dragon: Actually, go ahead and add +3 dice because you are actively looking for clues as to what happened here. So far you have basically just noticed what I mentioned in the IC post. While looking for signs of Wang, you also caught one reporter saying something about a "caped crusader" and another saying "vigilantes led by a troll in pink".
You also notice a fat kid with puffy red eyes being interviewed by yet another report. Despite the recent grief apparent in his eyes, his voice and actions are that of an excited kid. With everything else going on its hard to follow his erratic description of events about all you can make out is something about "evil shadowrunners" attacking a "righteous ninja-samurai."

I notice reporters. Are they identifable for a given station. If so get their station on the commlink. Ie cbs reporter, get the cbs station for a live report. Save the data.
Standard emergency procedure is a officer in charge. He has a PR man handling the press. A man keeping the crowd out and off the scene, a man in charge or handling hurt, wounded and dead, an a man handling the forenscics to determine what happened.

I identify the man handfling the wounded ( either that or the Lone Staar officer in charge. I tell them i am an off duty paramedic and do they need help with the injured?

If yes get in and start helping. Identify the dead and how they got killed. The groups can be broken down into the attackers(chillers), the defenders(shadowrunners), and the terrain(store employes, customers)

@Tzaz: Give me a Perception roll to see just how much of that you notice in the chaos. Also, I don't have your character with me at work and don't remember it off the top of my head, but if you have Police Procedures or the like you would need to roll that to see if your character actually knows all of that about how a crime scene is handled.
With a quick glance you don't notice any national news coverage among the reports, looks pretty much all local. You try a couple stations that you recognize, but nothing is on air about this currently. So you'd imagine that at least those two are just recording footage for the normal news hour rather than cutting into regular scheduled programs.
Depending on what you roll on your Perception test, you may be able to hear what they are saying and/or identify one that is doing a live broadcast vs. just taping something for later.
There are two or three beat cops manning the standard yellow tape line between the gawkers and the crime scene. For the most part, the reporters are also behind the line with the gawkers, but the one interviewing the kid is beyond it.
Also, not sure how well you will be able to pass yourself off as an off-duty paramedic, with the hardhat on and carrying your duffle back you'd look more like a day laborer or construction worker.

+3 dice then: 1, 5, 6.

3 successes total then. ^-^ I feel better, hehe.

Ok:
Since I have no idea of the modifiers, I rooled 16 die each starting on left,I f i need more you can roll, if i need less then delete from the right.

When the policeman looks at me like right, I pull out my medkit and ask him where the officer in charge of the medics?

I have Emergency ResponseTraining[ERT] Tactics(3]+ Logic[5]=
4,1,1,3,4,5,4,5,3,4,4,3,5,6,1,1
I have Perception Visual 8(10)=5,2,5,2,1,5,4,5,3,3,6,5,4,5,2,3
I have Perception Audio 8[13]=5,3,2,2,1,2,6,5,1,6,4,1,2,5,5,6

note in oregon the ERT teams ware hard hats because of the increase in violence. The paramedics in ambulances/house calls do not. The wilderness crews do. Crews at violence do ware hard hats..fires, shootouts, etc.

@Cold-Dragon: Ok, the extra successes are enough for you to notice a marker that has been place beside something small on the ground near the entrance of the Stuffer Shack. It's actually not too far from the wreckage of a motorcycle that must have crashed into the entrance.
Looking a bit closer at it, you think it might be the remains of a damaged commlink, though it's hard to tell as a what you suspect is a piece of the demolished motorcycle must have impacted and now lays amongst the components.

@Tzaz: Sorry, but I don't think your ERT would include how the crime scene is handled in a standard situation (i.e. non-emergency). You'd know how the police interact with the ERT team but nothing about the rest of what they are doing.
You can certainly pass yourself off as one with that roll though.
That means you will be defaulting to Logic to try to determine who is in charge. Because I don't see it as making much of a difference, I'll roll it. Logic[5]- 1 for default = 1,3,3,5. One hit means that you think the most obvious authority figure to be in charge. It just happens to be the person handling the press and ordering around the beat cops handling crowd control.
I'd like to go ahead and role-play your conversation IC, so start out by describing how you approach him.
About your Perception rolls, didn't notice this before, but your character sheet is wrong about the total dice you have. You have Perception[3] + Intuition[4] which equals 7 not 8, on visual Perception tests you get a +2 from you contacts and on audio perception you get +3 from your earbuds. So without situational modifiers you roll 9 dice for visual and 10 for audio.
Right now, i am not even bothering with situation modifiers for the rain and lighting, not to mention the conflicting sounds of multiple reports. But I am giving you a +3 for actively trying to observe. That gives you 6 hits on visual and 4 on audio.
You notice the logos every news crew there, and like i said earlier it all seems local, though you don't recognize one of them (they have the poorest quality equipment). You spot several details that Celia failed to notice, like a body covered with a tarp next to a parked motorcycle, you can see inside well enough to spot another one by the counter top, you also notice that while DocWagon is on site you don't actually see anybody being treated by them. Oh and you too notice the broken commlink near where the motorcycle ran into the side of the building.
As far as audio goes, you notice that no two news crews are doing the same story. One is calling it a fight between two gangs over turf and some free stuffers. Another is calling it a robbery gone bad thanks to some "heroic citizens". Yet another is saying that it was a gang initiation that went out of control and left several members dead. The poorly equipped reporter is calling it a Run against a secret Aztech facility beneath the store.
The basic facts you can gather are that there was a fight in the store between two groups of armed combatants. The store is a mess of splattered food stuffs as the shelves were "riddled with bullets." Two store employees and a kid were the only survivors still on the scene the Lone Star arrived.

A damaged commlink you say? Hmmm, Some of those things I can do something about... First things first though, my character will (presumably) find a nice, out of the way spot where few are watching to summon up...a Spirit of Man.

Level 4 should be just fine...Do I just do the summon roll or do I throw out the spirit's resistance roll too?

Summoning roll, 8 dice, plus edge because I don't wanna flop, lol:
4 6 3 2 1 5 2 5
( 2 1 2 5)
1 (reroll from the 6, blah)

4 successes

*waits to determine if doing spirits rolls as well or not*

@Cold-Dragon: It came close, it rolled 3,6,6,6. So you need to roll to resist 6 Drain. And it owes you 1 service.

I hate it when they do that, lol...good thing i used some edge *ticks it off*

Drain resistance, 8 dice:
3,6,6,5,3,4,3,6

4 successes, thus 2 point stun

Going to go do post now then. ^-^

Okay, the spirit has the psychokinesis power, thanks to me and a force 4, so I need a check for it to make a decent pair of hands...

8 dice from the spirit:
6,4,1,5,1,2,6,6

4 successes.

That spirit is dangerous, it rolls halfway decent, lol...

Also, since I'm specific in what I want, would it make sense for a spirit to mix a pair of powers to accomplish the task, even on one service? Technically the service requested was retrieving the commlink.

@Cold-Dragon: A spirit can go about accomplishing a task however it wants to (unless of course the caster saids specifically how they want it accomplished). So sure the spirit can mix a pair of powers to complete a service. I suspect you are wanting it to use the Concealment power while retrieving the broken commlink for you, so I will go ahead and say that it is successful and brings your the commlink without anybody noticing.
However, even a spirit of man doesn't know all the components of a commlink, so there may be a few pieces that had broken away left behind amongst the other debris. Actually some small parts may have already been washed away in the storm.

Oh that's quite fine; now that you say it that makes plenty of sense. Celia probably wouldn't have thought of that either, lol. For now, we got the main component. I'll deal with the rest of things once another post or two goes in besides me.

Although I'll probably summon a watcher spirit once 'Duncan' leaves. At least it's less painful.

well, I'll add that watcher spirit summoning bit in. Since it's such a minor spirit, I'll take a small initiative to roll its resistance too. If I fail this...well, let's just hope I don't, lol.

Another summoning check (after Duncan fades away of course), 8 dice like last time:
well crap...kid woke up on me and mae me lose my dice check. O_o I had 3 successes, but I think I had several ones too. I don't know now! >.< *sighs* rolling again...

1, 1, 5, 6, 6, 2, 4, 2
3 successes

Rolling the one die for the spirit now:
5

punk got a success, lol...doing drain, also 8 dice like last time:

6, 1, 2, 4, 1, 6, 5, 3
3 successes

yeah. I think I came through just fine in this one.

Sorry, don't have time to post anything significant right now, but I wanted to go ahead and mention that my postings will be slowed down, because my office has started blocking dumpshock again.

So I can only post on nights and weekends. Would have posted something this past weekend, but was just too busy.

I'll try to give you something tonight.

I had originally wanted to do all of this through a series of in-character exchanges, but without having access at work, that would seriously slow things down. Especially, considering that this is just some simple introduction of new characters.

Oh well, life moves on, I just posted some new stuff to the IC thread.

@Cold-Dragon: Watcher spirits don't actually have a link with their summoner. When you send them to Shadow/eavesdropping somebody. That can listen and report back to you when they are finished or you call them back.
So your watcher spirit went and listened to the conversation between the kid and the reporter.
Since, you've been doing such a great job of making IC posts for your spirits, I am just going to give you the basics here and you can type them up however you want in an IC post of your own: The spirit got there well into the conversation and from the way the spirit relays the reporters words and what you could see from a distance yourself, he was already at his wits end with the kid. Even in the part the spirit caught, the kid changed his story several times, each time it became more ridiculous, and he was just jumping all over the place as far as timeline goes. In the end, the reporter just tosses his mic at one of the assistants and says "I'm done with this. See if you can clean it up into some semblance of a story before airtime." The whole time he was ignoring the kids earnest cries of "Oh come on it was so cool. You gotta listen to the rest of it. Guns were going off left and right and then this dragon...yeah...it was a dragon that stuck its head in the front door and smashed it all to pieces......"
And so on.
The reporter finally gets tired of it and yells at the kid, "Look you little snot nosed brat, your mother died in there. Don't you feel a god damn thing for her? Or is all you care about freaking Shadowrunners and Dragons?"
This brought up the kid short and he started bawling. The callous report finally just through up his hands and stormed off. The cameraman and assistance glanced back and forth between the kid and the reporter, but couldn't decide what to do.

no link with watcher spirits? erk. I thought there was always a link with any spirits summoned. I'll have to double check that myself too. O_o. I could have missed a line that said otherwise of course (no discredit to you Slacker, just like noting the spots).

and thank you for the compliments on my spirit-talk, lol.

I just realized I did watcher summons wrong, fortunately, the time scale of this is so minor it doesn't matter. ^-^;

-- later

they do have the mental link Slacker, check page 181 if you'd like. ^-^

...okay. tricky crazy crap for the new gal. heheh...

I think I want to slide my way in and try to calm the kid down. For one, it gets me my info of what happened (I hope) and in a way, gets the reporters crew something too.

So, what do you suggest chief? Charisma most definitely, maybe leadership for leading on the idea...or perhaps a subtle intimidation of what the crew would look like for having a bawling kid on their network...? *shrugs*

and then there's the kid...heh...

@Cold-Dragon: I just sent you a PM answering the one you sent me and I went ahead and put some stuff for your current actions in there too.

@Tzaz: I'd prefer it if you used simple quotation marks to designate that your character is speaking rather than the [quote] tags, which are for desginating a particular part of text you are responding to.
Oh and it is a little bit onorthodox compared to canon Shadowrun, but I always run it that healthcare is completely privatized and in a similar fashion to how Lone Star has the contract for policing the greater Seattle area, DocWagon has the general contract for basic emergency healthcare (and they own/operate several of the hospitals within Seattle). This basic care is nothing like even the Basic DocWagon contract an individual can purchase (similar to the way Lone Star policing is handled different than when a company hires them for round the clock security of a facility). I went ahead and had the officer explain this IC though.

Thanks for the explanation. Going back to Celia. In the setup doc. When I met Tempty at the bar where Wang Chi and I were discussing Business, was that a normal hangout for Tempty and Wang Chi?

Understood of course (in regards to PM info).

I think I will try some intimidation, albeit in a not-quite-so threatening manner.

Naturally, my coaxing will be to, besides get through, to remind whichever figure I get (probably the Lt like Jack got) that a bawling kid was bad biz, if not embarassing at the very least. There's all to gain and just about little to lose if he were to let me at least try to calm the kid down until a professional could do something with him, unless he liked Lone Star having the image child abuse on their shiny badge?

And, in the good spirit of feminine stereotypes and humor, add in some comments of bad reporters and like news crew with about as much paternal sense as a rock, or something like that. lol.

I'll throw in my default dice for now...you'll have to tell/roll any extra/deductions dependant.

Intimidation to get through (with mental spec), 8 dice:
2,3,1,4,5,4,4,1

-_- Well, there are worse rolls, heh. That might be pushing the line.
Leadership probably wouldn't help any except with the news crew, but I presume that can be RP'd to a light extent rather than rolling, as far as calming the kid down (if I get that far)...

Etiquette check, trying to assure kid I'm safe to cry on and whatnot, no worries about the stupid man with the microphone....I'll worry about getting a story if I calm him down. 6 dice:
4,4,1,3,2,1

-_- double drat....another edge for reroll effect (now down to 2, heh).
1,5,5,5,1,1

Gah....well...I think I succeeded, with a twist....

@Cold-Dragon: The LT is still busy when you go to comfort/question the kid, so he is distracted and you will try to get past one of the patrolmen. As you walk up he switches from scanning the crowd to scanning you from top to bottom as a smirk crosses his face (I’ll let you add the +2 dice modifier for the subject being attracted to you, which I went ahead and rolled for you can you got another success). Thanks to that extra success, you are able to get past him with only minor difficulties.
And thanks to your Edge, you are able to calm Louis down and get a bit of information from him. He still interjects occasional flights of fancy (like the dragon having smashed in the front doors of the store), but for the most part you get some tidbits that you think are fairly factual:
1) gangers attacked the store
2) “evil” shadowrunners that picked on him were shooting the place up (he doesn’t say if they were joining in the looting or trying to take down the
gangers)
3) a “ninja-samurai guy” came out of nowhere and tried to stop the “evil” runners
4) none of the descriptions Louis gives you come anywhere close to resembling Wang Chi
5) when/if you relay all this info to Jack, he'll notice that one of the “evil” shadowrunners seems vaguely like what he remember's of Tempty, though it’s hard to tell seeing as how he only met her once a few months ago and the kid wasn’t paying all that much attention to memorizing facial features
6) there was some automatic gunfire, but he doesn’t know the difference between a burst-firing pistol, an smg, or a panther cannon (which you are well aware is not an automatic weapon, and yet he claims that is what one of the gangers was using).
7) he was sorely disappointed with the lack of spells flying, but otherwise it was a fun night
and…oh yeah…his mother died (this fact still has yet to hit him fully, he is just too excited about finally having the chance to see a real live gun
battle)
You can either go ahead and post something IC for getting that info, or wait until i have some time to work up a post (maybe tonight, maybe not).

In fact perhaps that would be a good way to get Tempty & Mark involved too as I am currently struggling to think of what else my char would do non-related to this mission...So we could all meet at the bar?

I have no problems at all with the rest of the group (or at least some part of it including Tempty happening to be meeting in the same bar/club as Jack and Celia.
So rather than take up some more time where only part of the team really has anything to do let's just do that, unless somebody objects for some reason.

Can I assume I was able to modify my pistol by the time we are meeting in the club?

@Shalimar: Sure that'll be no problem.

certainly no objections out of me, lol....I'll make me one post, and I suppose as everyone starts getting together it'll flow more smoothly.

Do you want me to just show up at the club? Actually, it wouldn't be so much showing up as it would be just coming downstairs from the loft above it then she and Garland are "shacked up" in. Its good to date the fixer.

@Shalimar: You can go ahead and describe your plans for the evening in the club. Possibly even going into a few details before the new players enter the place and spot the rest of you.

What is the dress code? Weapons at the ready or tuxes?

Clubs make you check your weapons at the door, at least this one does. Thats why I made the point about knives. By disarming the clients, any fight that goes on will be much more contained, and the bouncers will be in a much better position to deal with it.

*whistles until he has a chance to post something relevant*

I might just come up with whatever Taku is doing during this downtime. I'm reading what you guys are doing in the meantime. Good stuff.

sanity check

So Hammer knows Tempty from before as they did the ran right before WangChi dissppeared and the rest of the group (Taku and others) were joinned by DarHar in wrecking the Stuffer Shack...Right?

So as far as I am concerned Jackis just a dwarf dressed a bit wierd trying to make some idle chat? Or do I know him and Celia from before?

Hey, does hammer have a commlink? I'd assume he does, but I want to make sure. Since I need to send him a message.

The Message is: be ready to off the Halfer, he Knows about the Stuffer Shack, he knows a lot about it, so we don't know if he knows about the run, but we have to assume yes.

@Shalimar: I did mention to you in the spoiler a while ago that you had met Wang Chi's contact (originally it was to be BaronKen's new character, but since he had to drop out its become Tzaz's character). So you have met the dwarf however briefly a few months back.
Of course, you may not remember him all that well. It was just a brief introduction. And I take it from your post that is how you are playing it.

@Tzaz: It is never a good idea to just jump into a conversation with somebody you hardly know, especially when that someone is shadowrunner and you are saying things in public that should not be discussed in public. You may want to try a different tactic here.