[Tecumseh]

You have ski masks. I don't have any record of people acquiring ballistic masks. Ohanzee canceled his order. Hmm, it's possible I didn't refund that in the nuyen available number I provided.

[Malevolence]

Ohanzee ended up settling for a balaclava and a helmet, which also provides +2 armor but has less capacity and doesn't look as cool. It also has a lower availability.


As for locations, if there is a park or other public outdoor area that the spirit could visit unobtrusively, Ohanzee would be all for that.

[Tecumseh]

DIMR headquarters are about three blocks from Sand Creek. The creek has a long park/greenway "wilderness in the city" running alongside it that stretches 20 kilometers with only occasional border interruption.

DIMR is also relatively close to Broncomania Stadium. After the Treaty of Denver, Mile High Stadium fell into the hands of the Ute Sector. Since the NFL was still considered American (and the Utes wouldn't let any Anglos into their sector anyway), the owners quickly started plans to build the new Broncomania Stadium, which was completed in 2025 on top of the old Sand Creek Landfill.

[rednblack]

SecureTech PPPs may not be a bad call either.

While I'm on this particular kick, we also need to think about keeping Katsina fed.  Did she take Ace up on his offer two or so night's ago?  How much longer until she starts to feel the effects of not having blood? 

Should we start planning a trip into town somewhere?

[Tecumseh]

I'm going to assume that I did not credit your accounts for the mask returns. As such, your new total is ¥3,865.

While I'm on this particular kick, we also need to think about keeping Katsina fed.  Did she take Ace up on his offer two or so night's ago?  How much longer until she starts to feel the effects of not having blood? 

Ace brought this up at the end of Chapter III and I neglected to respond because it got lost in Sam's transition. Katsina managed to feed while trying to suck the Infection out of Sam.

The game is not very strict on matters of hunger. I think it gives you 7 days before you feel the effects, and maybe four weeks before you really have to start worrying about it.

Runner's Companion said, "Studies suggest that HMHVV-positive individuals must consume at least 1 percent of their body weight of appropriate biomaterial each week or begin to suffer the effects of malnutrition." I'm wondering if I misread this at some point because I think I've been acting as if Katsina needed 1 percent each day.

Katsina is fine for now. If we resolve this scenario relatively soon, Sam and Katsina's hunger will be more for RP than for crunch.

As for a trip into town, yes. You could head into Rifle fairly easily, and it should have everything you've discussed.

I presume Ohanzee will be in charge of crafting the message when contacting DIMR. Doc will be in charge of matrix security and making sure the connection and communications are secure. You could try to do an astral meet but there's a risk that they could track you. Of course, if you're having them come to you anyway (because Sam likes the boobytrapped valley) then maybe that's an acceptable risk.

[Zweiblumen]

I honestly think that a Matrix meet is the safest.  Do folks have sim modules on their phones?  There are some things in DT that make it possible for two people to ride a single device, but don't think we have the time/opportunity to do that.  Easier to just buy sim modules in Rifle if we want to go that route.  But again, issue there is if they want to assense the artefact.  Just an idea for an initial meet.

[Tecumseh]

In theory the quicksilver photograph helps alleviate that need. However, they could be concerned that the photograph or the artifact are elaborate forgeries. (This is theoretically possible, see. p. 215 of Street Grimoire.)

Chino's commlink has a sim module. I think his is the only one.

@rednblack, you're about to leave on vacation, correct?

[rednblack]

That is correct. I leave tomorrow morning.

[Tecumseh]

New IC post is up, with Katsina's best understanding of the plan. Feel free to correct and revise.

If everyone is ready, let's get the ball rolling on the spirit courier and the trip into town. I will drive Chino while rednblack is out.

Questions? Did I miss anything?

[Zweiblumen]

I failed at sleep last night, I'll get an IC up tomorrow.  Your post looks good, and Doc going into town will just make life easier.  I'm pretty sure he can do everything he needs to do from out here with the uplink, but being in town reduces complexity.

[Poindexter]

Life turned to shit.
No posting for me just yet.
Couple days.
Shit will work out.

Sorry, yall.

[Malevolence]

I think you've got it. Rather than  hash the message out in IC, let's hash it out here and I can post a simple "after some back and forth, the group agreed on the following message" type IC.


To whom it may concern,

Attached to this message you will find some images of an ancient artifact of unknown providence. This was discovered near [location] by archaeologists working for the Atlantean Foundation. While I believe that the organization as a whole may be true of purpose, the researchers assigned to this artifact were corrupted by unknown outside parties. I, along with some others, came to be employed by one of these parties to steal the artifact for their own nefarious purposes. Unbeknownst to us, Ares had its own designs on the obelisk, and through a series of events that I shall not recount, we have joined together and decided that the largest amount of good could come from neither of our previous employers obtaining the item.

After some consideration, we have decided that your organization would provide the safest and most productive home for the item, and so offer you first right of refusal. The attached photos should pique your interest, but images can be forged. To that end, we have also taken a spectral photograph of the object. The material content alone is worth millions, but the raw magical power of the item apparent in the quicksilver image makes the item priceless.

The quicksilver plate is at [location]. The location is public so as to ensure this is not a trap and to reduce the risk to both parties - it costs you little to verify my claim. Once you have been satisfied that my offer is legitimate, please forward this message and the plate to [person] and have her contact this commlink. We will only deal with her. We will arrange a time and location for the exchange as well as the terms. As the item is wanted by a number of powerful organizations, you can understand our need for caution and urgency, and we are prepared to make a very attractive offer to achieve those ends.

If we do not hear from [person] by [deadline], we will be forced to assume a lack of interest and we will shop our offer elsewhere.


Once we have the message finalized, Ohanzee will summon Torchbearer and have him deliver it to our selected location, as well as escort him from the astral just in case anything goes awry. He will hang back so it is not apparent from casual observation that they are travelling together and he will remain at a distance when the item is placed so that his aura is unlikely to be observed. He will likely do this from town just so that his location can't be traced back top the camp should it come to that.

[Tecumseh]

Katsina would scrap the following, arguing that it is not pertinent and may put Ace at risk should he ever return to the fold:

I, along with some others, came to be employed by one of these parties to steal the artifact for their own nefarious purposes. Unbeknownst to us, Ares had its own designs on the obelisk, and through a series of events that I shall not recount, we have joined together and decided that the largest amount of good could come from neither of our previous employers obtaining the item.

Leaving it out also opens the possibility (however false) that we stole it more for altruistic purposes (to remove the obelisk from corrupted outside parties) than for personal gain.

Katsina also thinks that Ohanzee means "provenance" instead of "providence".

@Zweiblumen, remind me, did Doc get Jäger's direct commcode? If so, the message might be addressed to her (and phrased as such) rather that to a subordinate.

Katsina thinks it's a bit strange that "we are prepared to make a very attractive offer." She would ask, shouldn't DIMR be making an offer to us? Probably just a matter of phrasing.

If Ohanzee stays within 600 meters of Torchbearer during the flight, it won't count as a remote service. That said, Ohanzee will be able to move much much faster than a materialized Torchbearer, so the simple act of following him all the way there (for hours) would be conspicuous, regardless of the distance between the two. 600 meters is pretty visible when you're flying along at 3,000 meters without any cover.

[Zweiblumen]

That mirrors a lot of my own thoughts as well.  Maybe instead of "we are prepared to make a very attractive offer," to "we are prepared to accept a mutually attractive offer."  That implies something of a discount but we aren't chumps.

Yes, Doc got Jäger's direct commcode, however you mentioned that it was possible she didn't actually monitor it.  That confused me a bit, and probably why Mal wrote it up the way he did.  That said, I still think we should address it directly to Jägger and leave out the part about getting the message to her.  Change that to something along the lines of "we will only deal directly with you" but less blunt.  /me fails at subtlety.

[Malevolence]

Updated:

Jäger,

Attached to this message you will find some images of an ancient artifact of unknown provenance. This was discovered near Ogllala Peak by archaeologists working for the Atlantean Foundation. While I believe that the organization as a whole may be true of purpose, the researchers assigned to this artifact were corrupted by unknown outside parties.

After some consideration, we have decided that your organization would provide the safest and most productive home for the item, and so offer you first right of refusal. The attached photos should pique your interest, but images can be forged. To that end, we have also taken a spectral photograph of the object. The material content alone is worth millions, but the raw magical power of the item apparent in the quicksilver image makes the item priceless.

The quicksilver plate is at Sand Creek park, in [specific hidden cache]. The location is public so as to ensure this is not a trap and to reduce the risk to both parties - it costs you little to verify my claim. Once you have been satisfied that my offer is legitimate, please contact this commlink. Please respond personally as we will not deal via proxy. We will arrange a time and location for the exchange as well as the terms. As the item is wanted by a number of powerful organizations, you can understand our need for caution and urgency, and we are prepared to negotiate an offer to achieve those ends.

If we do not hear from you by [deadline], we will be forced to assume a lack of interest and we will shop our offer elsewhere.

Ohanzee is not concerned with staying within 600m of Torchbearer - he's perfectly happy to have this be a remote service. He doesn't need to constantly be tailing him as he would be notified immediately if the spirit encountered a problem. He could just scout the area ahead astrally and occasionally pop in for a teamwork perception test or something. The more important point really is that he would be within a combat turn of arriving on scene if something were to happen.