Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Play-by-Post => Topic started by: biotech66 on <09-22-15/2250:21>
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Here is the start to our time in Chicago. Good luck!
What frager in their right mind would be ringing you at this ungodly hour, don’t they know Shadowruners work at night in the Shadows not 10 AM on a Monday morning. Looking down at the com code shows the prefix of the Star, the day just keeps getting better and better. Answering your link you see on the other end is a grizzled looking man who’s five o’clock shadow could pass for a billow pad and eyes so blood shot red you swear you saw less blood at the last brawl match.
Sorry to disturb your beauty sleep; but I have need of your services some of you may know me, for those of you who do not I am Detective Nick Ryder. I have an off the books job that should be right up your alley. Meet me at the Red Door bar off of Damen Ave in two hours. We're set up for a conference call here, so say hi quick, then get your hoops in gear!
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"Uh, hi, I guess. You can call me Alf -- or Alpha if you'd like, but most people just call me Alf. I guess I'm here to provide magical support and" the spinning visuals and 'thunk' make it clear that a commlink has been dropped on the floor. A moment later Alf's slightly rodent-like face re-appears, peering into the commlink from excessively short range and moving about in a slightly dizzying fashion. "Sorry about that, but yah, I'll see you at the bar."
OOC
- Alf will also cast boost intuition five and sustain it with focused concentration (11 dice, limit 5, but augmented limit is +4, drain of 2 resisted with ten dice)
- Then he'll attempt to bring up a force three fire spirit, and will leave it with instructions to guard his shoddy little apartment against any intrusions. (9 dice vs 4 from the spirit, limit 4, drain = 2x spirit successes resisted with 10+ however much his Int is up)
- He'll wear his armored jacket, because he's classy like that. He'll pack his pockets with 25 reagents, two shuriken, mage goggles, and his portable first aid kit. "The Drekmobile" -- his janky micro-compact ride-- contains his tool kit, including lubricant and adhesive.
So far with unseen servant I've only gotten it to give me the total of a die role, not the individual results. I'll take another look at it this evening, but if anyone has a die rolling site that they know works, I'l be happy to use it. So not providing rolls for the above actions yet.
Character sheet attached in pdf form, hopefully readable. Because these things aren't obvious from the final sheet, 50 karma spent as follows:
- 20 to focused concentration 5
- 19 to buying skills (including one skill group)
- 10 to buying spells
- 1 to extra nuyen
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Jumping a bit in her bed as the comlink rang, Spitfire fumbled for it, cursing how loud she had left its ringer on. After a few more rings and a precious few seconds to clear her vision she answered, waiting for Nick and Alf to finish before speaking. "I'm Spitfire, Decker" She gave a half hearted smile and waited for the others to introduce themselves.
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Bastian was already up when the call came in; he didn't sleep much these days. He picked up the commlink and gave his most vicious, gap-toothed smile into the video pick-up. His bright orange-red mohawk and facial hair -- "man-scaped" into what had been called a Burnside beard in earlier times -- combined with the angry leer and a not-insignificant number of scars to present a wholly unforgettable sight.
"Well hey. Name's Bastian. They call me a street samurai, though my official title is 'serial corp-slave murderer for hire,'" he said, adding a ridiculous eyebrow-waggle for emphasis.
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---ooc---poke to the top. More people coming, and the game starting tomorrow.---ooc---
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Derren wiped the muck off his hands and onto his coveralls as he tightened up the rear differential on his van.
Nothing was particularly wrong with it, but it'd been ages since he'd peered into it and made sure it was all working well. He shut down the AR how-to terminal and quickly reviewed the footage before uploading the footage and slid out from underneath the van.
The message popped into a private AR terminal and he called it forth mentally, reading the offer of work happily.
Morning all, Dezzie's the name. I'll bring the wheels and drones. Anyone need a lift to the meet?
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The fixer looks of the avatars of the team, humphs, and then says Get moving! Time is money for all of us. Go meet Ryder and Dr. Martin at the Red Door pronto!
You all drop out of the matrix, and hitch a ride as you can to the crappy part of Chicago, and that's saying something. The pungent odor of cheap Tobacco and stale synthahol accost your senses, even before you open the cracked door faded to the color of rust. Adjusting your vision to the fog of smoke you can’t help but notice a patchwork bar that looks like a good sneeze could send it tumbling. Still you appraise the value of the bar only slightly better than that of the liquor stock behind it. There you see your Mr. Johnson Detective Nick Ryder and a dark skinned individual If the runners have Dr. Martin Tate as a contact they will recognize him; Nick looks up, and motions for you to follow him to the back room. The room looks like it once housed a pool table but now all that remains if a cracked and crumbling slate surface. “Look I will make this simple; we have a problem, and since that problem is in the zone the brass don’t care much. We want to hire you to investigate the rash of missing persons and report back to us on your findings. We are prepared to offer you 6,000 ¥ each for a little old fashion gum shoe detective work. Let’s face it; the street is going to be more open to you asking questions then me and the boys, what say you?”
Ryder's "friend" enters the conversation “While you ponder that let me sweeten the deal my college here in his zeal to get to the bottom of this issue lost his manners. For those of you who do not know me; I am Dr. Martin Tate, I run several clinics in the zone backed by Truman Technologies. One of my post op recovery houses was recently the target of these random acts, about 8 hours ago to be precise. If you can recover my patient, I can arrange for some of my stock to become available at a drastically discounted price. What say you to a little nip tuck in the form of one item Delta grade ware at standard ware prices installed by me of course?”
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Ash is pretty happy with the cash on offer, being that he is pretty much broke. He'd like to get an advance but is shy about challenging the offer. And finally, he doesn't want to appear too much the amateur. So he settles for "Hmmm, could be interesting -- what do you guys think?"
Then, after squirming for a couple of seconds he can't resist adding "Look, I'm a mage, I'm not big on the cyberwear. But I have some experience in health care myself -- perhaps I could arrange something else instead, like medkit supplies or training?"
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The good doctor look at Ryder who shrugs. Dr. Tate then says, "Tell you what, I'll trade your surgery for a good Crash Cart medical kit? Is that fair?" --ooc--That will be a rating four med kit---ooc---
Ryder looks at the rest of you and says, "Now that that's done, how about the rest of you. You taking this or what?"
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sounds decent to me. Depends of course on what questions we're asking and who we have to ask? 6k a head means they're either awkward questions or nasty folk. Or both. Which is it?
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The good doctor look at Ryder who shrugs. Dr. Tate then says, "Tell you what, I'll trade your surgery for a good Crash Cart medical kit? Is that fair?" --ooc--That will be a rating four med kit---ooc---
Ash bobs his head in acceptance
--ooc-- he already has a rating 3 and rating 6 kit, but more medi-kits never seem to be a bad thing! Unrelated to this, I did just read the updated missions FAQ and if it is OK I'll do a minor character update to make use of one of the existing contact names (the Talismonger). Also I think I bought the wrong adhesive (meant to take the one from the main book think I got the one from Run&Gun)--ooc--
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Looking to her cyberarm and thinking an upgrade would do nicely she returns her attention to Ryder and Tate. I could use some more chrome as always, I would love to get my hands on some delta grade. Count me in, but Ryder you know were going into the zone right? six thousand a piece just covers hazard pay there has got to be more you can spare for expenses.
Rolling 7d6
( 6 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 6 + 2 + 6 ) = 27 Charisma 5 Negotion 2 3 hits not terrible not great, maybe we can get more cash :P
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Well. Now that is tempting. . . the chrome that is. Though I have to agree with my compatriot here that six grand is a little low. . .
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Ryder thinks about your offer for a moment, pounds down his drink, and say How about this, I'll throw 1000Y at the problem. That seems fair.
[8d6s5] = 2 (http://www.unseenservant.com/default.asp?do=showone&id=70092&macid=0)
Now that it is settled the most recent disappearance came from a multi-family unit located at corner of West Diversey Ave & N. Milwaukee Ave. The two families that reside there have not been seen for over 24 hours. The Baretsons and the Stanishs where scheduled to attend a community block watch Sunday morning, they never showed up. We do not have a lot of information on them what we do have is here. “ Ryder then throws you an ARO full of data for you to look over at your convenience. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/odhpzlqsmknc1n6/AAB5QFst4HtmLYkjZhDcLZI6a?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/odhpzlqsmknc1n6/AAB5QFst4HtmLYkjZhDcLZI6a?dl=0)
Dr. Tate chimes in The patient you are looking for his name is Tom Cosek he just recently came on staff and as such had not settled in yet. You can access my clinic facilities with this pass key located at the corner of North Kimball Ave & W Fullerton Ave. Dr. Tate invites you to make a host so you can assess the location via AR.
Ryder then looks at you all and says Ok, anything else or are you read to roll?
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Ryder then looks at you all and says Ok, anything else or are you read to roll?
"Ready to roll si .... chummer." Alf doesn't even care if anyone noticed he was about to say 'sir,' he is too excited to have a job to do.
To his new team mates he adds "Let's get close, then I can check the places out astrally -- just in case it was magic, and anyone was sloppy and left evidence." Turning back to Dr. Tate he adds "errr, that is, if me checking your clinic out is allowable? If it is, anything I need to watch out for?"
-- ooc --
Did anyone ever find a good dice rolling solution online, that shows individual die rolls? If not, Biotech, could you just roll for the things Alf did before coming to the meeting and let me know how they come out? They were:
- Alf will also cast boost intuition five and sustain it with focused concentration (11 dice, limit 5, but augmented limit is +4, drain of 2 resisted with ten dice)
- Then he'll attempt to bring up a force three fire spirit, and will leave it with instructions to guard his shoddy little apartment against any intrusions. (9 dice vs 4 from the spirit, limit 4, drain = 2x spirit successes resisted with 10+ however much his Int is up)
A quick note that Alf is willing to put boost initiative on others when the opportunity is good (like when we are looking for clues) when it makes sense. Feel free to ask.
And finally, Biotech, did you have any particular spot you want character sheets? I did post a link to Alf, but can mail it, put it elsewhere, etc.
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Spitfire smiles at the extra 1000 nuyen and nods, "I think that's all the info I need." Turning to the rest of the group, "I think we should check out the house first and see whats up there, then the clinic." She turned to Alf as he spoke, "It would be nice to have some magic support for once."
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Derren nodded in agreement with Spitfire and stood to leave, smiling his thanks at the gents.
After accepting the ARO and save-linking it to his Avalon work 'link, he opened an AR terminal in his image link and mentally dictated a series of search terms for each of the named parties on the document.
He didn't expect to find anything new, but it didn't hurt to try.
Search software running, limit of 6:
one search for each named person inc kids starting from top left of doc. (10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=5, 10d6.hits(5)=4, 10d6.hits(5)=1, 10d6.hits(5)=2)
Trawling public stuff, social media, business pages etc (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4881587/)
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Thanks for the link to InvisibleCastle.com, Csjarrat! Using that tool, dealing with Alf's prep spell and baby spirit summons from earlier
-Alf's increased intuition spell on himself, 11 dice, two hits: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4881593/ Then sustained with focused concentration 5
-Drain for the spell: 10 dice, 3 hits vs drain 2, resulting in no drain http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4881594/
-Force 3 fire spirit: 5 successes, limit is 3, so base 3 successes (opposed by spirits F=3 dice) http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4881595/
-Drain for spirit: 12 dice, 5 successes http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4881596/
amount of drain to resist depends on the Spirit's successes -- will you role that biotech, or should I?
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Bastian likewise rose from his seat, content with the extra cash on promise. He pads himself down to make sure his knives and guns are all still safely strapped into place, then stomps over to Spitfire. "Sounds like a plan. Glad I brought the artillery with me."
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Getting up and patting her collapsed and well hidden sniper rifle she smiles, "It never hurts to bring a little boom to any situation." Thinking it might be a good idea to get some more info on the folks as well spitfire did a matrix search using her more shadowy sources to see if she could find anything juicy on them, or relevant information about there places of residence.
Limit is 9
Rolling 12d6
( 5 + 6 + 5 + 5 + 4 + 5 + 5 + 1 + 2 + 5 + 1 + 1 ) = 7
Rolling 12d6
( 1 + 5 + 3 + 5 + 6 + 1 + 1 + 3 + 6 + 4 + 5 + 2 ) = 5
Rolling 12d6
( 2 + 2 + 6 + 1 + 5 + 4 + 4 + 2 + 6 + 1 + 1 + 3 ) = 3
Rolling 12d6
( 2 + 2 + 1 + 6 + 5 + 3 + 2 + 6 + 4 + 5 + 2 + 5 ) = 5
Rolling 12d6
( 5 + 6 + 2 + 5 + 5 + 2 + 1 + 3 + 4 + 3 + 3 + 3 ) = 4
Rolling 12d6
( 6 + 4 + 3 + 1 + 6 + 5 + 3 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 4 + 2 ) = 3
Gonna roll for there places of work and for more info on the clinic.
Rolling 12d6
( 1 + 4 + 3 + 3 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 1 ) = 3
Rolling 12d6
( 3 + 6 + 2 + 2 + 6 + 6 + 5 + 3 + 4 + 2 + 2 + 6 ) = 5
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---ooc---
Here is the deal with 99.9% of the fiddly-I don't care. I care about the story of the game, but when it comes to where character sheets are, It's not an issue. Apposed rolls on a summon/bind test? You can roll them. I just don't want people taking advantage of the situation. Try to keep things legal. Try to be nice. Try to not be a pain, and enjoy your character and the story. Honestly, if people roll at home and reported their results I wouldn't care. I just want to tell a good story.
---ooc---
Matrix search
You look across the matrix, and you find nothing and everything. Everyone of these people have a full matrix life full of web posts, friend pages, IM's, and all the garbage of a life in Chicago. the only tie among all of them is their location. You do find have their home matrix host and know the houses physical location.
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Ready to head out, or would you like to make more preparations/legwork?
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Once they are outside, Alf asks those with the computer savvy “What about this guy’s clinics, can you find anything about them? How legit is he? And that ‘block association’ the others were supposed to go to a meeting for, that sounds like something we might need to check out, do they have any profile or contact info?
--ooc-- Thanks Biotech—having some idea of how you like to run your ‘table’ is helpful, at least to me.
- Rolled resistance for the spirit from earlier: it critical glitched its resistance to being summoned http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4882135/ (not sure if that has any real impact) Also that means the minimum 2 points drain, which the resistance roll covered.
- Alf mostly knows first-aid, but he knows a little bit about medicine – can he team-work with Spitfire to try and figure out how legit/shady the Doctor’s clinics are? If so: 6 dice, rolls three successes http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4882136/
--/ooc—
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The spirit is unable to resist your force of will, and you gain one additional service
--ooc--How you see your spirit based on your tradition? Also, how do you get spirits? Are you an ass and it's "DO!" or do you ask nice? You own this spirit till sun up regardless, but it's more to understand your character.---ooc---
What you know about the good Dr. Tate
He runs some street clinics around the Zone. He knows how to patch you up without asking too many questions. For the right fee, he’ll never turn a patient away .
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The spirit is unable to resist your force of will, and you gain one additional service
--ooc--How you see your spirit based on your tradition? Also, how do you get spirits? Are you an ass and it's "DO!" or do you ask nice? You own this spirit till sun up regardless, but it's more to understand your character.---ooc---
--ooc-- Alf is from the Sioux tradition (although his native blood is pretty thin he is a Sioux citizen, and had most of his magic training in the medical corp of their military). As I understand it they have a very high reverence for the spirit world, and Alf has certainly absorbed that. Overlayed on top of it is that spirits kind of scare him. He’s called enough large ones to realize how smart (and charismatic) they can be, and is always worried about making powerful spiritual entities resentful of him. He mostly sticks to not-too-big spirits (3-4), and he will be sacrificing some reagents to them occasionally (as an in game representation of thanking them for their help).
In the Sioux tradition Fire is the healing spirit, so he’s actually most comfortable with the fire spirits, having occasionally had one bound to help with health magics. (although he doesn’t have a specialization at the moment. Darned karma never stretches far enough!). Calling one up to guard his apartment leaves him feeling a little guilty, but he’s living a low lifestyle, and he has thousands of nuyen of reagents and lodge materials in there … He'd view it somewhat like asking a paramedic to watch over a van full of valuable drugs; not its job, but someone needs to do it.
--ooc--
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Grabbing her things satisfied with what information she could gather, Spitfire stands up and gets with the rest of the team, "Well when your all good and ready lets get this show on the road." She smiles shifting her gear into a more comfortable position. "My bike only has room for one more, anybody need a ride?" She asks looking around to everyone.
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Grabbing her things satisfied with what information she could gather, Spitfire stands up and gets with the rest of the team, "Well when your all good and ready lets get this show on the road." She smiles shifting her gear into a more comfortable position. "My bike only has room for one more, anybody need a ride?" She asks looking around to everyone.
Alf adds: "I'm good, I've got my own wheels. if anyone needs a ride you'll probably get there faster on Spitfire's bike, but The Drekmobile will get there eventually and has space for one more -- if they aren't too big." He eyes Derren as he says that last part. "I've got some stuff that's, errr, stuffed in the back, so I want to drive it there anyway."
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Bastian gave Spitfire a wide, toothy grin as he tossed the keys to his Harley in the air and caught them on the way down. "Wanna race?
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Alf adds: "I'm good, I've got my own wheels. if anyone needs a ride you'll probably get there faster on Spitfire's bike, but The Drekmobile will get there eventually and has space for one more -- if they aren't too big." He eyes Derren as he says that last part. "I've got some stuff that's, errr, stuffed in the back, so I want to drive it there anyway."
--ooc—I thought I’d edited this last night, but must have not hit the right button afterward. Since it has been up for a while now I’ll just do a follow-on rather than a change. Basically if Derren has space for a passenger and some stuff (large medkit, tool kit, etc.) then Alf will move his stuff over and direct his runabout to go home on its own. –ooc—
Alf looks at Spitfire and Bastien a little jealously, then turns to Derren. “Wait, you asked earlier if anyone needed a ride—does that mean you have a bigger vehicle? Might make sense to move my drek over and ride with you, if nothing else then I don’t have to find a parking spot in order to go astral.” He doesn’t add that he’ll be less worried about being hassled by gangs or dumb punk corp-cops if he’s riding with the troll, instead of on his own in a cheap runabout.
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Assuming everyone plays nice after the meet, you all pile into various vehicles and drive across town to the family home. Driving through the neighborhood towards the home of the missing family’s reveals a rather striking contrast to the rest of the zone; the first thing you notice is the distinctive lack of ruble and refuse on the street, the pot holes common to Chicago are filled in, the homes are maintained, the lawns are greenish, there is a distinctive lack of trash about, and finally just below every street sign is a white sign with large black eye in the middle. The two story brick home sits in the middle of three lots surrounded by a rather impressive if not Frankenstein looking steal fence topped with constantan wire. A trench four meters deep and two meters wide has been carved around the fence line save for a two meter wide path to the front gate. An attached two car garage sits facing the ally out back with what looks like a modified garage door lowered to serve as a draw bridge. The garage is completely empty save for a closed heavy steel door leading into the house. The lot to the left looks to host a vegetable garden, the lot to the right of the house has a shed about the size of a single car garage. The garden is surrounded by a three meter tall chain link cage; the stand alone garage on the other side of the property has a most foul smell and is surrounded by a one meter tall chain link fence. Large spotlights cover the peak of the roof situated in such a way to easily illuminate the entire yard and possible the entire block. The first floor windows look to have retractable metal shutters currently open of each of them, the second floor windows are covered in bars and the porch has been fashioned to give the appearance of castle wall.
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Alf lets out a low whistle and comments “Certainly NOT targets of opportunity! Someone brought their can-opener to take people out of this militia-fort. Who knows what damn-fool booby-traps the families might have hidden around, so please be careful where you walk—I hate pulling rusty nails out of people. One of the women was a magician, so there could still be magical dangers as well, and I really don’t want to deal with drowning or burns or whatever. I guess you all know your jobs, so I’ll stop nagging, and go do mine – checking for signs of life and astral sweep. I’ll let you know what I find.”
--ooc-- I assume that before heading off, the team set up a communications channel --ooc--
First off Alf will astrally project and do a check of the lot and of the two car garage (where we may want to park). Wards, spirits, background count….?
Assensing 3 + Intuitiong (currently 7, unless a background count has knocked out his sustained spell?) = 10 dice. Get 4 successes http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4882922/
Barring dangers found in the Astral overview, or visible wards that would make the following pointless, Alf will then want to cast detect life twice: first covering the stinking, detached, garage, and second from wherever he can best cover the house itself. I’m going to give you the rolls now while I have time (yay for lunch break!), but ignore this whole section if the astral overview gives something remarkable, or if there is a background count (background count changes all the rolls)
Spell 1: force 5, 11 dice: 5 hits http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4882925/
Drain: 12 dice vs drain of 3: 5 hits http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4882926/ (no drain)
Spell 2: force 6 (for more area), 11 dice: 6 hits http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4882928/
Drain: 12 dice vs drain of 4: 5 hits http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4882931/ (no drain)
(I’m getting worried about all the good rolls ImaginaryCastle is throwing my way, always makes me nervous when I get good roles on the less critical stuff …. #gamerdicesuperstitions )
Those successes should give a pretty detailed summary of life forms in those areas, but I don’t have the book in front of me to list the level of detail those success levels would show. Alf will pass along what he learns to the rest of the team.
ETA: I just rr-read detect life, and detection spells in general, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't using it right ... But I'm also pretty sure I don't really understand how it works. It seems to be focused on Alf, and can move with him, so should only need one cast. And it looks like anything in the area resists with willpower plus logic but exactly how that matches up with the chart on page 286 I'm not sure about (maybe the NPC all rolled the same?). It seemed like a logical spell for paramedic-ish character, but I've not seen it used before.
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Derren stares at the house for a second, admiring all the security features before gipping at the smell of the garage as he walked over to it, unclipping the microskimmer from its belt pouch. He slipped it through the gap under the garage door and powered it up on his Commlink, grabbing the AR controls and taking a look around via the Sensor feed
Perception test using ewar and sensor suite on drone (limit 3) using the olfactory sensor for picking up scents 9d6.hits(5)=3 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4883097/)
Has low light and image enhancement on camera, separate roll for visual check due to higher dicepool and limit (4): 10d6.hits(5)=4 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4883098/)
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Spitfire pulled out her cyberdeck and ran a sweep seeing if there were any nodes inside the house.
Matrix Perception
Rolling 12d6
( 2 + 6 + 4 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 6 + 3 + 4 ) = 52 - 6 successes not bad!
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Bastian considered grabbing his Ares Alpha, but that kind of firepower in the middle of the day and in a neighborhood like this seemed. . . well, suffice to say, he didn't want to see the Star getting called. So he left that gecko-gripped to his Scorpion and instead settled for the Ingram Smartgun nestled under his arm. He dismounted the bike and followed Derren up to the garage, wrinkling his nose a bit but otherwise just keeping a close eye out on the house for threats, mentally cycling his cybereyes through thermographic and normal vis just in case.
8d6=30 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4883927/)
Rolled on: Oct. 8, 2015, 7:53 p.m.
8d6 → [1,5,1,2,6,4,6,5] = (30)
Four hits. Not bad out of eight.
Edit: Forgot to edit the base settings for the die roller. It's been a while.
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Casing the joint, a play in four acts...
matrix
This place has all the trappings of a usual house via the matrix. Except, you see that the houses (plural) have only one host that looks like a house with all the devices hidden by the collective firewall. Want to play with it?
Physical and magical
You don't see much beyond a house. What you do notice is a group of gangers going door to door. Down the block you spot four women all wearing green and black leather jackets the tell tail colors of the Desolation Angels. The group consists of an ork, a troll, and elf and a human there has to be the makings of a joke in there somewhere but given the situation it might be best to not search to hard.
Physical
You see two houses the mirror each other. Nothing strange there, except that the yards both have security cameras, good ones too. Both houses have a monofiliment tripwire right above stones in the walks, and the roofs both have murder holes in them. This place is not stock off the builder lot.
Astral
Something happened in the garage. You're magic sight shows you death of may sorts. The house is clean. Something big, scary, and infected with HMVV was here by the hole it's left in the either here. You've stared at some bad juju..
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Spitfire decides going into the node would be worth it, popping into VR she takes a stab at getting some marks.
Rolling 12d6
( 3 + 5 + 2 + 1 + 6 + 6 + 1 + 6 + 6 + 4 + 4 + 5 ) = 49
Six in total, if I get a mark ill log in a see what I can find, let me know what I see!
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Alf slams back into his body where he can gag properly, then tells the rest of the team about the desecration in the small garage.
"I don't really want to, but we'd better look inside there. If Spitfire can sweet talk us in that is great, otherwise I can put up a silence and fire up the chainsaw. Either way I'm thinking we might want to get inside before those gangers get down here."
Then Alf takes a careful look and what locks need to get bypassed to get into the small garage.
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You look over the garage, and see it's a pretty simple maglock (lvl 3) that's most likely linked to the host. Care to play with it?
Matrix
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4886577/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4886577/) It get's 2 successes, and you easily mark the rating 6 host. You drift into the host and find yourself inside a medieval castle.
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Matrix
Spitfire will approach and attempt to enter the castle with modicum of stealth. And try and find out what options she has in system, mostly security, camera's, and anything on storage relating to there disappearance.
For marks/questions for the host.
Rolling 12d6
( 4 + 4 + 5 + 1 + 4 + 4 + 6 + 2 + 5 + 2 + 5 + 1 ) = 43 Four Hits, limit is 6 btw for her deck.
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OOC
i assume there wasn't a big enough gap around the garage door for me to slot the microdrone through? (the skimmer i put in is only the size of a can lid so should fit unless its been made airtight/weathertight
Seeing the gangers going door-to-door raised an eyebrow. The places round here were pretty secure and its not like gangers were renowned for their friendly customer-service.
Derren unpacked the X2 from his backpack and unfolded its wings before placing it at the doors of the garage facing back towards the street. Thankfully, it only needed a very short runway and he eased it up into the air swiftly before gunning the throttle and gaining altitude.
He directed the directional mic at the gangers and set the audio feed to record and playback through his earbuds, doing his best to hear what it was they were saying
Piloting from AR; test to takeoff and get into holding pattern above street:
pilot (AR)takeoff (12d6.hits(5)=8) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4887450/)
lol, think that'd do it! Limit is 5 so 3 hits wasted.
Audio percpetion test:audio perception: ewar 5(sensor array) + int 4 +1 cyber (10d6.hits(5)=5) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4887451/) limit is 4, hits the limit.
-
Alf dances from foot to foot for a bit while waiting to see if Spitfire can get the garage door open. After a few seconds of that he's had enough waiting, but notices Berren getting a drone ready. "Right, watch our perimeter and stuff." He quickly sits down against the wheels of Berren's ride, and pops into the Astral plane. With a thought he flies to roof height, then does a fly-by of the gangers to scope them out.
int 5+2, Asensing 3 = 10 dice. 3 successes http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4887542/
Should be enough for checking if any are awakened and most cyberware
-
Matrix
You easily walk into the castle. It's a simple tower with archers lazing on the towers (attack ice isn't activated). As you walk in a Page looks you over, but decides you belong here (patrol, it's active but you blow past it). In the castle, you find a library with a large log book set on a table, a room with several handles all clearly marked as doors in the houses, and another room with several books on the walls. Where would you like to investigate?
Astral
You walk through the garage wall, and enter an area akin to a slaughterhouse with out the notion of food at the end. The background count spikes to 3 as this place is a place of death. No humans died here, but this place feels like if a mentally disturbed teen beat kittens with a hammer for fun. The place is full of a dozen rotting dead chickens that have had their heads ripped off, but it was done one by one so each chicken got to see what was coming next. This is not a nice place where some very bad things were done.
Physical
---ooc--- you can send your drone into the garage or into the yard. Sorry if I didn't catch that.--ooc--
It's clear that the Angels are doing reconnaissance. They are definitely looking for someone or something. They are not the nicest group out there, but they are also not breaking any laws or any heads. They seem to be moving generally in your direction with an intent. They haven caused any problems and seem quite peaceable.
-
Deciding cracking the locks was the best course of action first, she steeped over and took a look. After that she would check the large book at the center of the library and finally the books on the shelf.
Ill just roll for each one, and if something happens ill react, using sleaze naturally, don't want to set off the ice, limit is six.
Rolling 12d6
( 6 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 4 + 2 + 5 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 5 + 1 ) = 37 - 4 Successes
Rolling 12d6
( 4 + 6 + 6 + 4 + 6 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 4 + 2 + 1 ) = 43 - 3 Successes
Rolling 12d6
( 4 + 4 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 3 + 4 + 6 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 ) = 37 - 1 Success
Not to terrible, hopefully I don't alert the ice!
"lets see what we can find." she said to herself and approached the first door.
-
Matrix
You enter the room with several handles. They all look like exagerated handles for a simple matrix game of Dungeoncraft. You pull the one marked Garage and the one marked yard. You also see a program dressed like a guard monitoring a window the looks out over the traps in the front yard. The patrol program/guard looks you over and
[10d6s5] = 5 and [2d6s5] = 0 (http://www.unseenservant.com/default.asp?do=showone&id=70751&macid=0)
The guard begins to get agitated and calls for an archer. --ooc--you are spotted! roll init when you hop in---ooc---
Physical
As you're standing around outside, the garage and the gate both buzz and the lights on them both change from red to bright green indicating they are open.
-
Derren synced the Sensor feed from the SB-Microskimmer to the team's comms channel, broadcasting it for them to see.
Guys, check your AR feed, got a drone in there, should be able to see whats in without setting off any door alarms. Those gangers are looking for something, someone. Might be after the same thing as us and we don't have much time before they'll be asking questions. Anyone got any thoughts?
He wheeled and banked the X2 back around and put it down on the driveway gracefully before packing it away in his backpack again.
i wanted the skimmer inside the garage to check the smell. it has an olfactory sensor and low light mod for the camera so should be able to tell what the smell is and deal with poor lighting in there. i did a perception test in the earlier post, i'll do a fresh one if needed.
Pilot check for landing the X2: 12d6.hits(5)=2 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4888303/) 2 hits, no problems.
-
physical, the freestanding garage via the drone-from before-on a live feed
The done is able to enter the garage no problem via a few small cracks. Its a garage like you'd see in any middle to upscale neighboorhood with one exception. There is a chikcen coop in here. And here is where the horror show takes place. Each individual house's wires are ripped open and all the chickens are ripped apart. An animal did not do this as whole chickens are here, just ripped to pieces. Blood, feathers, and fat maggots all cover the floor.
Physical, the attacked garages
When the lights went green on the other items, it also went green here. It looks like you can enter the houses via the garages.
Matrix
--ooc-- I forgot about the attached garage. Those are open as well by your hand as well---ooc--
-
Alf returns to his body in time to see the drone feed of the chicken coops. "Matches what I saw in astral, and I got a feeling of something like deliberate torture of them."
Seeing that the doors have gone green, Alf enthuses "Nice job, Spitfire!" before remembering that she's deep in the matrix so probably not hearing him. Turning his enthusiasm to a new topic he suggests over the voice link "Let's get under cover, not give those gangers a target to start anything with." Alf has long experience in tough looking types thinking he looks like a good target to push around.
As soon as they are in the house Alf offers "Who is good at noticing details? I could probably hit you up with an intuition boost to make you even better at it."
-ooc-
Due to a glitch in character building, Alf doesn't have the perception skill. Will fix that as soon as we get karma. His sustained Increase Intuition spell would have fallen off, I think, when he astrally went into the garage -- background count of 3 would have lowered the force to 2, less than his Intuition, and since the spell force has to at least equal the stat it is increasing ... poof, by my understanding.
Since he will be re-casting anyway might as well boost whoever has the highest perception. Alf himself defaults to 4, I'm assuming others can beat that.
And Biotech, could you maybe shift future 'magic' results text to have a little more orange in it, or something? The yellow text on the pale grey background I just can't make out--I find that to read it I have to highlight it, And highlighting on my phone is a pain. I think it just needs to be a little bit darker and I'll be able to make it out without tricks.
-
Matrix
---------ooc
Rolling 5d6 + 9
( 6 + 6 + 6 + 5 + 2 ) + 9 = 34 That's pretty good!
----------------
-
Derren opened the heavy garage door and gagged at the smell, pocketing his drone and replacing it in it's belt pouch. Letting the others in, he swung the door down heavily before the gangers arrived and asked awkward questions.
<<I know this is obvious, but make sure the cameras are clean eh? We don't know who's keeping an eye on this place>>
He drew his pistol and toggled his flashlight on before entering the house, cautious for noises
-
Matrix
The host revs up [2d6+12] = 11+12 = 23 (http://www.unseenservant.com/default.asp?do=showone&id=71084&macid=0) You easily beat it. What would you like to do?
Physical
It's quite in the house. You see no signs of anyone here. You think you are not being followed by the gangers down the street.
-
Derren motioned to the others and stepped into the house quietly, his attention co-processor pinging objects as he did his best to scrutinise the rooms as he walked through them, looking for anything significant.
perception for physical world; perception (http://orokos.com/roll/335991): 9d6t5 3 3 hits
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"You look like you know what you are doing, with this looking around stuff" Alf shrugs and admits "I get too impatient to be a good searcher. So if you don't mind, let me put this spell on you to help things along. I just need to touch you for a moment"
--ooc-- Assuming Derren is OK with this, of course-- don't know if he has any issues with magic being put on him? I don't know Derren's intuition, but so long as it is 5 or less this should work. And I think we are now in the house itself, not the small garage (which has a background count)?
Assuming my assumptions are all good ....
Casting increase intuition at force 5, rolling 11 dice = 4 successes http://orokos.com/roll/336178
Drain of 2 resisted with 10 dice = 6 successes, no drain http://orokos.com/roll/336181
and InvisibleCastle seems to be MIA, so moving over to orokos as a dice roller
So give Derren +4 intuition, and sustain it with focused concentration.
-
Noticing the program draw on her she quickly decided to try and crash his program giving her time to exit or try and gain control of the system.
Gonna try and Crash Program.
Rolling 12d6
( 4 + 6 + 4 + 4 + 1 + 5 + 5 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 5 + 4 ) = 42 four successes, Hope it works!
Forgive me if I try anything I cant, matrix actions are still kinda new to me.
-
OOC
Sorry I've been away. Life has gotten a bit crazy out here, and I haven't been feeling well. I'm back, and at least doped up enough to run! Let's snort some Novacoke!
Matrix
The patrol program tries to dodge your attack. [10d6s4] = 3+[2d6s4] = 1 (http://www.unseenservant.com/default.asp?do=showone&id=71506&macid=0) You get close, but the program manages to survive. The patrol man raises a trumpet to it's lips and sounds a digitized alarm, which sounds strange coming from a harold's trumpet. Outside, you see the sky flash red and back to blue repeatedly.
Physical
You look over the house carefully. The house you entered isn't anything out of the ordinary aside from being clean and well kept. Upstairs, you see the attic hatches leads to a steeple roof with crawl space that looks to have been re-enforced some with murder holes in the fascia on all four sides of the home making the yard a possible kill zone. From this vantage point, faintly warn away sports bike tracks near the chicken coop on the street side of the moat.
[4d6s4] = 3 (http://www.unseenservant.com/default.asp?do=showone&id=71507&macid=0) You were hit with a spell to increase your intuition, so I'm rolling and adding to your result.
With 6 hits, you also find a hidden passage behind a shelf of what looks to be canned beans next to the washing machine. The hidden room contains a table and four chairs on the table is a map of Chicago; the map has been cordoned off into what looks to be a search grid pattern with many of the sections crossed out. There is a description of a boy that looks like it was reconstructed by several people’s memories; the boy is described as 1.75 meters tall, weight 50 kg, a blue spiked Mohawk, teen aged white human next to the drawing is the words Melisa and the date 8/24/2055 circled.
It looks like you've got a good grasp of this place, but you're not quite sure what you stumbled into....
-
--ooc-- there has been a nasty bug going around my area, haven't been feeling great either. Glad you are on the way to recovery!
-
"This place gives me the serious creeps." Alf twitches and adds "I don't know what story it is telling, but I'm sure it isn't a happy one. Let me do a last astral sweep inside, then I'm for getting out of here soon as it looks clear." Alf finds a solid looking chair to sit down in, then goes astral and does a sweep of the house. One of the women was a registered mage so he's particularly looking for a lodge or spell traces.
Asensing (int 5 + asensing 3 =) 8 dice, roll 3 hits (in a rush so just rolled, rather than using an on-line roller)
-
Matrix
Sighing Spitfire tries to crash program trying to avoid dataspiking and subsequently bricking the whole system.
Rolling 12d6
( 1 + 5 + 5 + 4 + 6 + 6 + 2 + 4 + 2 + 5 + 4 + 5 ) = 49
There we go! Six! Next target would be the herald.
Rolling 12d6
( 4 + 1 + 5 + 2 + 5 + 1 + 6 + 4 + 6 + 3 + 5 + 6 ) = 48
And another six! not to shabby!
-
Astral
You look around the house quickly. This place feels like home, but has a strange air of business to it. Like if you live in an arcology. Nothing pops out at you aside form the lingering astral stink of something big and bad moving through here.
Matrix
The new icon of the fighter attempts to dodge your attack. [10d6s5] = 3+[2d6s5] = 0 (http://www.unseenservant.com/default.asp?do=showone&id=71706&macid=0) It fails and you quickly dispatch it. The trubadore is still playing the trumpet, and the host will most likely launch another attack program.
ooc-A host can launch as programs as its rating, one each turn. You might just have to run from the host-ooc
You've explored the home and found all you think you can find. What would you like to do next?
-
"What next -- talk to the gangers outside, talk to the neighbors, or go to the clinic?"
-
All
Checking in. I'm here, and waiting to see what you decide to do.
-
Derren mentally creates a new folder on his comm and stores the footage from his cyber-eye camera in it for future reference, taking some high quality stills of the table, the description of the mohawked lad and the view from the roof.
That track needs looking at for sure, I bet that gives enough cover for a sneaky exit without the neighbours seeing. This kid was clearly important to whoever used this room. We need to find this kid, get some answers and he certainly looks more like those gangers than well-to-do homeowners around here. I say we speak to the gangers, see if they can shed some light on this. I'd scout the track from the air if you guys want to go for a chat?
-
Alf is relieved that someone else is giving orders---he k ows things are seriously fragged up if it ends up being him doing that.
"Sounds good to me. Let me give an astral buzz to the rangers, see if I can pick up their mood-- and how enhanced they are.
I'm on my phone, which makes die rolling sites harder, but I did have a physical die in my backpack. 3 successes on 8 dice for asensing
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Astral
You look over the gangers and see they don't have much if any cyber to speak of aside from a cyberlimb among the trio. The mood is questioning. They are not spoiling for a fight, but trying to understand something.
ooc for action
Check the tire tracks or talk to the gangers?
-
"The gangers don't look like too much trouble, and maybe they'd know something. Someone should talk to them. You know, somebody who is any good at talking to people like that. Somebody who isn't me in other words ...."
-
Alright then,
Lets go see what these guys are up to. Be ready in case this goes to shit, I'm no pro at this.
He begrudgingly headed back down the stairs, clipping the pistol back into his arm slide and syncing it back up ready for action if needed. He pinged his van from an AR terminal, issuing it the command to start the engine in case they needed to scoot.
Heading back out the way they came in, he messaged the team from AR;
Guys, how clean are those camera feeds?
The fresh air was nice, the stuffy secret room was pretty warm with all those bodies in it and a breeze removed the perspiration from his brow as it formed; he was pretty worried how this might pan out.
With the team behind him, Derren lengthened his stride and caught the gangers attention:
Yo, 'sup? yous look like you're looking for someone yeah?
Fuck it, here goes. anyone wants to jump in with a teamwork test or "improve charisma" spell i'm all ears lol!!
Etiquette (street) test:
phew, that could have gone worse! etiquette (http://orokos.com/roll/339870): 6d6t5 2 2 hits
-
---ooc-- sorry, no boost charisma spell, and rocking a big three dice in etiquette+charisma-- hadn't really thought about trying to do teamwork with that. Looks like this group may not be great at the whole 'making nice' thing.
-
The gangers all hop up to attention as you step in front of them. They look you up and down, and then say A little out of your element eh, what can we do for you? On second thought it does not matter, you should go talk to Becky 99 you can find her at the corner of N. Milwaukee Ave & W. Fullerton Ave. Our boss needs help, and you seem like you're already involved
-
"All right, we have a lead! Or something. I think we are about done with the house, other than that track Derren spotted. Derren, do you think you could follow the track with a drone? I need to take a moment to clear up a spell trace, but otherwise I say we lock the place back down and go see their boss."
-
ooc
Anyone want to do anything else or do you want to follow the new lead?
-
What kind of help does your boss need? What is it you think we're involved in? I just wanna make sure we're all on the same page here..
No, i wanna check out that trail before we leave too, either on foot or doing an aerial recce with my drone
-
The women all look over at you, then each other, and the orc say, Not really sure bud. We're just the friendly pick up team. They didn't even send muscle to get you! You must be special!
The trail-if you want to look for more, roll for it and let's see where it goes.
-
ooc
Poke to top
-
I'm still here. Alf is waiting on Derren's inspection of that faint trail -- he figures it will be most apparent from the air, using the drones.
But it does seem like Alf and Derren might be the only ones not taking a nap?
-
OOC
well poop! Let's give this a few more days. I hope they come back, but I'd still like to continue this adventure.
-
Derren nodded, not liking where this conversation was headed at all.
Right. well, we'll head down there then.
He shot the guys a glance and headed back up the road to the house, grabbing the X-2 out of his backpack and unfolding it's wings before setting it down and sitting against the fence.
Opening a control terminal in VR, he slipped into the warm embrace of the rig and smiled as it connected his motor cortex to the flight controls. He opened the throttle and pushed it into the air, scanning the trail with the sensor suite as if it were his own eyes and ears
(http://orokos.com/roll/345325): 15d6t5 7 7 hits
-
Looking at the bike tracks, they quickly hit the street. You can follow the wet tire tracks for a bit, however they die out after a bit. They were headed deeper into town.
-
With respect to the map we were given earlier, which way is 'deeper into town'? (I don't know that it really matters, but nice to know)
-
Derren followed the tracks as far as he could as they hit the street, quickly starting to scan the buildings nearby the junction of the tracks and the main road for cameras
Looking for any cameras from nearby buildings that would cover the junction or anywhere "downstream" by a block or two: (http://orokos.com/roll/345553): 15d6t5 8
8 hits, limit 8
-
You look around for a bit and find enough cameras. It will take a bit, but working hard, decking harder, and doing some good old fashion detective work, you might be able to track the bike.
-
"Nice work, Derren! But man, we have too man leads -- the bike, the ganngers' leader, and we still haven't visited the clinic ... Do we take them one at a time, or split up?"
Of course, since only two of us seem to be posting at the moment, splitting Derren and Alf up could be a little ridiculous. But I was thinking it could be an IC justification for the others not being involved at the moment; Derren and Alf go down some path, and if we can lure others back they can pick up on another one of them.
-
Tell me about it. Looks like we're not getting much sleep tonight.
Cameras will still be there in the morning but i'm not liking the sound of this "muscle" that they gangers didn't have to "send out".
Lets head over and keep them quiet, then hit the clinic. I'll scout the cameras out from VR as we drive, see what they're hooked up to.
With any luck I can get into them and pull up some recordings tomorrow. Come on, hop in. Lets go see what these gangers have got to say for themselves.
Thankfully derren also has a basic deck and some hacking skills!!
Matrix perception on the cameras en-route. Derren has enough noise reduction to deal with most city-wide noise but feel free to dock dice as needs be.
Rolled enough to check up to 10 cameras, looking for what they're attached to (hosts etc) and what their ratings are. (done from hostim as the van drives to the meet via gridguide so only takes a few tens of seconds of real-time at most)
hot-sim matrix perception on cameras (http://orokos.com/roll/346907): 10#13d6t5 4 4 5 4 1 4 3 3 3 8
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ooc
sounds good. They will go off and talk to the Angels.
It takes you a bit, it's not pretty, and it does take most of the night but you see a figure drive through the town and end up at an old flower shop called Mushnik’s Flower shop. The single story brick building with bar covered windows, a security door, and a delivery bay in the back. The front windows show wilted and weathered flowers behind the bared glass. The lights are out and yet the front door is unlocked, the flowers on display in the window are all wilted and shriveled up. The massive bay door out back looks large enough to drive a panel van in, and is locked. The lights are out and there is nothing but the hum of the chilling unit used to keep the flowers fresh longer.
-
Just to be clear, this is at N. Milwaukee Ave & W. Fullerton Ave. , where we were to meet the gangers' boss?
"Looks like a good place to check out astrally first. Gimme a minute." With that Alf makes sure that his seat belt is firmly in place, then pops his consciousness out of his body.
He does a quick astral circle of the building, looking for any magical security. Assuming there isn't anything obvious of that sort, he pokes his head down through the roof to take a peak into the back part of the flower store (the area not visible from the street).
Asensing: 8 dice pool / limit 7: Asense the flower shop (http://orokos.com/roll/347574): 8d6t5 3
3 hits, should get a pretty decent look around, if magical defenses don't interfere.
-
Following the person
[suspicious]This is where you followed the cameras too. It took a bit, but you didn't go to the boss, you followed the biker to the flowershop. You know it's one person, but you didn't get a good look at the face.[/suspicious]
Assensing
You see something horrible has happened here. Bad things....very bad things that have left a stain on the surface of reality. There is also a fake wall of illusion that is at the back of the store you can see through the window.
-
Poke
-
Sorry about that, I'd forgotten that you'd given us a response.
Once back in his body, Alf relays what he learned, then adds "I want to try and take down that illusion, but I don't want to do it from the astral, just to be safe. I'm no Astral Samurai!"
He calls the spirit that had been guarding his apartment to come to him, then asks it the favor of watching for any approaching purely astral beings and letting Alf know about them.
That in place, he looks through the windows to where the illusion spell is, and attempts to dispel it.
I’m not positive on the dispelling rules, and am not near my rules right now. So rolling his dice pool, but there will be a follow-up drain roll. Also if there is a background count then I think that hurts his dispelling roll? If so, can re-roll it.
Attempting to dispel the illusion: dispel illusion spell (http://orokos.com/roll/349481): 9d6t5 1
Ugh, just one success. He might be making another attempt shortly.
-
Derren hopped out of the van and unclipped the flyspy from its protective case on his belt.
Opening up an AR display, he synced it the drone's controls and took a quick spin around the exterior of the shop, getting a feel for the roofspace and the access to the rear of the building.
Reclaiming the drone and reholstering it, he switched the AR terminal to his deck and checked out the security on the shop
-
The barrier holds firm to the astral assault. YOu can try again however.
Looking over the building. It's a worn down Chicago building. Nothing is built around it, onto it, or through it. When you search the matrix, you don't see any wired security. On AR it looks like an abandon building.
-
Poke
-
Derren went round the back, checking the door handles. He nodded at the team and summoned his pistol into his hand with a mental command before pushing on to make an entrance
-
OK, dispelling drain is equal to the drain of the spell. So not sure what Alf is in for....I'll roll the dice, you tell me what the drain is!
Intuition boost is still on Derren, so Alf just has his basic 10 dice for drain resist.
drain resist (http://orokos.com/roll/349975): 10d6t5 6
Wow, great roll -- if that isn't enough to handle the drain, I'm scared of whoever cast that illusion.
Also -- any background count here?
Alf speaks into his throat mike
"Illusion back there isn't going down easily, we'll have to deal with going in blind. I can silence us for more surprise value if you want, but then communication isn't that great. Why not let me come around the back and I'll come in with you."
-
You huff, you puff, and you blow away the illusion. As the illusion leaves you see a hole in the floor leading to the sewers for all to see.
With the illusion gone, you begin to see the stink of death on the area background count 2
-
Color me confused. Alf did not try to dispell the illusion a second time, instead Derren and Alf were getting ready to enter the building. Granted, they may have eventually gotten around to taking the spell down, but there seems to be a jump there? That said, I'll roll with it
Alf looks at the dark and foul smelling hole. "You know, I think I know what to do with places like that: not go down them. At least, not without a troll in full military armor, carrying a mini-gun, to lead the way. But I guess that doesn't mean I can't take an astral look see. I don't know how well you could talk to your drones down there, but might be worth it to try, for the ability to record? But no matter what we see, I'm suddenly feeling guilty for not checking out the clinic, I think they are expecting us?" His final sentence is said in a tone of self-mockery for his lack of bravery, but by his nervous tugging at his collar it is clear that his nervousness about the hole is real.
He adds "Now might be a good time to remind you that I'm better at supporting heroes and patching them up than I am at being[/b] the hero!"
-
Magic
1-oops! I thought the second roll was for the dispel. I see it was just the drain. So free dispel for you!
2-Want to go astral and walk in?
-
Derren laughed. I ain't going in there without knowing what i'm looking at anymore than you would mate. Unless you've got some invisibility mojo and something to deal with the stench, It'll be drones first.
Any chance you can use your mojo to get a message to those gangers? I don't really wanna see the "muscle" they referred to. Yeah, I know. but there's too many fucking places we need to be. We needed to find the kid and we're on a really hot lead. I think this needs to be our priority. We can always call them after here and reschedule for later or some shit like that.
He unbuckled the Fly-Spy from his belt puch and synced it to his AR feed and set the wings buzzing before commiting it to the sewers.
He toggled the sensor feed to Low-light and parsed the Sensor feed through to Alf's commlink so he could view it as well.
Ain't no heroes here mate. I just wanna find the kid, get paid.
-
Alf looks at the hole a moment longer, sighs, and says "Can't help with invis or the smell. Silence I can do, but not invis, and I don't know anything that would block that smell! What I can do is some astral scouting. Umm, I'll want to get back inside the vehicle because my body is going to be the next thing to dead meat, and I'd like it to stay 'next' not actual. I guess I'm not looking for anything too subtle, so I'll leave you with the intuition boost instead of recasting it on myself. I'll only go so far, then come back and report."
I don't know if assensing is needed for this first leg or not, but I guess it didn't hurt to look carefully. Astral form down the sewer hole, check about 25 metres in each direction that tunnels go, taking time to assense.
Assensing (http://orokos.com/roll/350937): 8d6t5 1
Ugh, maybe I should have taken the intuition back after all! Well, still, people and spells in the open should still be apparent, I just won't know a lot about them.
-
Both ways
You both send out your feelers-one magic and one tech. Going down the hole is like descending into hell. First there is darkness, earth, and cold. Then you enter the sewers and then logic leaves. What you both see is horror, impure and simple. The place you find is at the intersection of a few sewers, in a non-wet patch of filth. It's as if someone decorated the place with people. You find a small table covered in...pieces. The walls quite literally painted red. Twisted garland hands from pipes that ends in organs. If either of you were in meat, you're not sure you wouldn't have puked on your shoes. As you both take in the scene that will never leave you, someone is coming.
Tech-Roll stealth
Magic-Roll edge
-
Is that raw edge, or a luck roll (edge + intuition)?
-
Honestly, I've always just rolled edge for luck, but intuition sounds good enough to add. Go for it!
-
The view popping up on Derren's AR feed was enough to give him nightmares. He did his best to concentrate and get his game-face on, but the sensor feed recording to his Comm wasn't going to make for easy viewing back.
The motion detector on the sensor suite pinged up incoming motion and Derren piloted the little drone into what appeared to be a dark crevice
(http://orokos.com/roll/352960): 9d6t5 3. Its a micro drone so will impose a -2 modifier on anyone looking for it on top of other mods iirc
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Honestly, I've always just rolled edge for luck, but intuition sounds good enough to add. Go for it!
That is actually the "luck roll" as defined in the SR5 core rules .... somewhere. (I don't have the book in front of me, but quite confident I read that before using it the game I run)
Luck roll (http://orokos.com/roll/352966): 7d6t5 3
Three successes on 7 dice[/spoiler]
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Both of you see a mist enter the room, astral it's a magical being with a dark stink to it. After it enters the room, the mist coalesces into a solid form it's still a magical being, but in the physical it's an extremely pale human with stained, grimed clothing. You've never seen this person before, at least not looking like this. It looks a home in the abattoir like sewer room.
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Derren double checked that the recording was saving to his commlink and thought through his options....
He could fire up the Bumblebee and unleash holyhellfire on the damned thing, but flying it in the tight confines would easily open him up to issues.
He had no confidence in taking it on on his own however. He was a reasonable shot, but that scene in front of him looked hideous.
Given the drone was in place already, he killed the drive motors and left the sensor feed running on record, minimising the AR feed into the top right corner of his display.
He looked over at his colleague, body slumped as its consciousness had vacated it.
He realised just how vulnerable they were here, a powerful and twisted awakened force used this route as a thoroughfare and they were poking about in its lair, relatively unarmed and not geared for a fight. Setting the drone to alarm on any changes in the presence of the new target, he grabbed the meat-sack body and dragged it back to the van, hauling him up into the back seats as best he could.
Sweating with the effort, he wiped his brow and checked the AR feed from the drone as he released the Bumblebee from the storage racks in his van for protection.
The large calibre machinegun was potent, but he didn't want to pick an active fight, not here anyway.
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Alf froze at first site of the apparition -- a rabbit at the site of a wolf. Eventually it hits him "I'm astral, he's meat -- get out of here while I can!"
He races up the sewer entrance, only to find both Derren and his body misses. He feels like he'd throw up from panic if he was only in his body, but he wasn't, that was the whole problem. His training finally kicks in, and he starts going through possibilities -- the most likely is that Derren and his body are together. They both could have been taken, but if Derren chose where to go, it was probably to his vehicle.
In the blink of a thought he's raced through the wall, into the vehicle, and -- praise the great spirits -- into his body. He opens his mouth to babble about what he saw, shuts it to hold back his rising bile, and by the time he can safely talk he has looked at Derren's eyes and simply says "You saw."
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Both of you are upstairs in the quiet street. Nothing coming as far as you know.
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"Errrr, time to check out the clinic now? Or do we try nicely ask Mr. Vampire if he recently ate young man?"
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He nodded. Yeah, I saw. You ok bud?
After what seemed like an eternity, he re-stowed the bumblebee and helped Alf to his feet.
Think we're ok. Well, its not gonna hurt to look there and see what they say. Its looking pretty frickin obvious here. I think the gangers are best call next though. I ain't up for fighting my way through a pissed off squad, I'd rather deal with a stroppy clinic receptionist any day. I'll drive, you call them and say we'll be late to the clinic.
He shut the door and set the Fly-spy to record only, not daring to move it now it was in position in the lair. It'd give some interesting data on whatever the fuck that thing was and what it was up to. Well, it would for as long as the battery lasted anyway.
I'm just gonna leave the drone in position passively recording its sensor feed to my 'link. I figure moving it now is only gonna alert whatever it is and i think we're outgunned magically and in the meat, ive only got the bumblebee that's kitted for combat. Gangers next priority for me as think resisting them will trigger a fight and we're currently down a strret sam lol
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Leaving the street behind, you drive to the Becky who is waiting for you at the rubble choked main address of the Desolation Angels a few blocks away. Upon seeing you, Becky’s eyes brighten then instantly drop back to a mournful look. What did you find did you find my sisters, and the children?
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Sorry for the slow response -- holidays! And Happy New Year to you all (or at the moment I suppose that would be: you both)
Alf shuffles his feet, opens his mouth to speak then shuts it as he shudders at the memory of how it looked on the Astral plane, then finally turns to Derren and suggests "Show her the footage."
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Derren stepped down from the van and looked around, checking for observers before returning an answer to her question.
Look, We're not sure what the fuck we've found and who exactly is who in this whole shebang. You got somewhere quiet we can go and talk?
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The women looks you both in the eyes, then says I've been expecting you. Step into my office. She gestures to a stall in the market place as two hulking women, one troll and one dwarf, take up opposite sides of the market stall and lower a tarp. Stepping inside, she looks at you and says Ok, let's cut the crap. I want to know who did this; I want to extract my pound of flesh out of those that would prey on innocent children, most importantly I will have revenge for my sisters. I'm offering 4k Y per person if you tell me who we kill and where!
Negotiation spoiler[10d6s5] = 3[3d6s5] = 2 (http://www.unseenservant.com/default.asp?do=showone&id=76483&macid=0)
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OOC I feel like I'm forgetting or missing something? Did we even know the gangers were missing anyone?
Anyway, Alf has no hesitation to send the gangers after the (presumed) vampire, and if they get paid as well, awesome!
IC Alf throws a panicky look at Derren, before remembering to use his trodes to send a message >>Derren [Alf] If I try to negotiate we'll end up paying them! You any better? Or do we just take their offer?<<
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Lets not try and bullshit anyone. Unless they take a serious force down there, that thing will probably tear them up long before any of us get a pay-packet.
Look, what we found wasn't pretty. It certainly wasn't your average saturday-night-bar-fight-gone-wrong. If we're talking about the same people here, which I assume we are, they were taken by this...thing.
Derren hit the Trid projector and showed the assorted crowd the footage from the Fly-spy, pausing at the dripping blood from the mangled and melded flesh ornaments the beast had ornately crafted from its victims.
We ain't gonna take that out with pistols and bad attitude and 4k aint gonna be enough to convince me to commit suicide to take it on. We got a better plan? Maybe one that involves more people and more guns?
He looked at Alf for his support as he felt increasingly out of his depth
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"Look mostly I'm a medic. I can patch people up real well, and buff them a bit to help them avoid needing patching up. I'm not a great fighter, and there isn't anything I can do with that sort of desecration of the flesh. And let me tell you, I saw that thing in the astral, and if possible it looked worse there. Nothing I've seen before, but I've not seen a lot of non-metahuman nasties, but this is nasty for sure."
Alf's words may have poured out smoothly enough, but one look at his pale face makes it clear that he is frightened right down to his boots. Still functioning, but truly scared.
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She watches the video with interest, then looks at the two of you. She thinks for a second, nods, then says Ok boys, this goes one of two ways. One-You give me the address real nice, you take 3k a piece in untraceable cred sticks, and my girls and I level that sewer, its occupant, and pour enough napalm down that hole to be sure. Two-You bring me it's head, and I up the offer to 6k a piece. What do you say?
Out of GameHere is where the majority of the game could end or go on a bit longer. What do you say?
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Derren wouldn't realistically go hunting that thing without proper support and is dependent on his one drone that would cost far more than 6k to replace if it got nuked in a fight. He'd take the cash and run in all honesty
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“Could you give us just a minute please?”
>>Derren [Alf]I don’t want to fight that thing! But they’ll never kill it without us. It won’t be home, or will go smoky and get out of there before it takes much damage. They need the feed from your drone to know it is there, and they probably need me to provide an elemental to be able to hit it on the astral side even if it is doing the smoke thing, make it hard for it to get away, you know? And if we don’t want to have to worry about fighting it some time in the future in this city, maybe we should help? Not take the job of killing it--I don’t need the money that bad! But help them find it, you get your drone out during the attack, I try to corral it astrally … what do you think?<<
OOC: Yah, Alf was an experiment with making a support character rather than a front liner--which is a bit of an issue when the front-liners mostly drop out of the game! I thought we had two Sammies. Ah well.
Honestly if Alf goes in astrally to back up a spirit, he stands a strong chance of taking a fair bit of damage--but he's naive enough to take the chance. If Derren just wants to yank his drone out, Alf will go along with it -- but that does seem like a fairly low karma option ;-)
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Honestly guys, here's the deal. At this point the story can end, you take your pay, and I send you sheets via email. I won't hit you for a karma penalty since half the group dropped. It's up to you. You can try or you can leave it up to the gangers. Either is cool. If you're done, that's cool and you get first dibs on the next game. I learned a bit here on how to do better in the next game and I might roll a few of your dice for you in the next game to speed things up. Small learning steps!
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"Then again, really not our fight ... " "
Alf turns to the gang leader and gives a detailed description of all he had noted about the beast, finally adding " If you are doing this right away, I have a small fire elemental I'll ask to go attack once you start your inferno, and if you want I'll put an intuition boost spell on you, help you notice things, that I'll keep up until tonight. And spirits be with you on this."
Sure, we can wrap this up.
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Derren bowed his his head in apologies, showing the GPS co-ords for the ruined shop to the ganger and zapping over a copy of the video file.
I'll wait till you're attacking until I retrieve my drone. I don't want to give it any prior warning it's been rumbled. Good luck.
Derren would put up his optic-X2 to observ e the area until they struck and then make an attempt to retrieve his fly-spy from the lair before the gangers napalm it!
Cool, look forward to the next one!
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With that, the Desolation Angel herself gives you a curt nod, and asks you two sit tight. You see her grab a few other heavier looking gangers, and they pile into a beat to hell bulldog. The two gangers at the door look at you then say, Why don't you two sit here until they come back? with no hint of request in their voice. Sitting tight, on your video feed you see two female gangers, dwarf and troll, on strings wearing biker helmets quickly enter the tunnels and make a hell of a racket quickly followed by the mist coalescing into a pale humanoid. The mist gets some good swings on the troll before the dwarf hits it with some sort of spell and grabs the thing hard around the waist. Then the dwarf is pulled hard up through via the harness on her back. The troll slaps on some patches to stop the bleeding then begins to throw several blinking packages like new years confetty. The last thing she does is roughly grab you bot and stuff it in her pocket whispering You can go home later.
About a minute after all this, you feel the jolt through the ground and hear the roar of the explosives. The two guards enter the room and hand you two credsticks saying The boss compliments you. It didn't end pretty, but it done. She'll keep in touch.
After another minute, you both get an AR message from a blood spattered, but not beaten Becky 99 We'll see what he knows. Take the money, stay in touch, and I may need you later. I need people who get work done. Go check in with Nick. I feed him some lines, but he's good enough.
As soon as you finish reading that last line, you both get an winded Detective Nick Ryder calling you WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!. As soon as you tell him enough, he looks sad and despondent, but agrees you got the job done. It's never nice, but even this makes me sick...I'll be in touch.
And with that, you're both left outside the market, many cred richer, and having fewer answers then you did before....
Shoot me an email at throatpunchgames@hotmail.com, I'll set send you links with your paperwork for the game. Thanks for playing guys!
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Just checking if you ever got my email contact? I never saw a response, which could simply be that you’ve been busy, but it could be that my mail vanished into your spam filter or something.
And I also feel I was missing a final post – thank you for seeing this through even after most of the players vanished, and thanks also to CSJarrat for sticking it out.
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Hey mate, no never saw any emails, kept an eye out. Unless it went to spam?
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Nope! Ed's a loser and it apparently takes three weeks to scan! I GuDS at internet! Sorry about that. Email sent!
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Awesome sauce, received
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Got it too -- thanks!