Herr Brackhaus, I promise I'm not trying to screw you with the you surveilling the buildings by driving around them thing, just trying to move things along. Your character is smart enough to keep out of sight, and this place is a drekhole but not deserted, and sees people flying through it on vehicles all the time.
Also feel free to go nuts with Perception checks and Knowledge checks and stuff. You can approach the department store first if you really want, though that would require Sneaking or Etiquette rolls or something at the very least. Let me know if I've overlooked anything else, guys.
No problemo, that works for me!
Just to make sure I understand the layout, does the attached look about right? Any windows or entrances I've missed on the target building?
Possible means of ingress into the burned-out tenement: a blockaded entrance on the west and east, a maglock-equipped entrance on the south, and three separate double-doors into what's obviously a foyer-type area from the north (facing the street). The three front doors are old school mechanical locks, using the Locksmith skill. Maglock requires hardware to remove the outer casing, followed by Locksmith, or some type of gadget or gizmo to get you through.The surface is weathered enough that simply scaling it would be possible if you just wanted roof access, but it would be a difficult Threshold.
A few clarifications here: Locksmith only uses the Hardware skill when dealing with transponder enabled key locks, reference page 359 of SR5. Everything else is a straight up Locksmith skill test.
For scaling walls it's not so much a threshold as it is a continous success test; effectively, you take your climbing dice pool plus/minus modifiers and roll; the number of hits determine distance for that roll. If you don't mind I'd prefer to buy hits here; I've got Climbing 1 and Strength 4 for a total of 5 dice, plus 2 with Gecko Tape Gloves for a total of 7. Based on your description I'd say the wall either counts as broken (loose stone wall) or flat (brick wall, side of old building); in the latter case the negative dice pool modifier is 3, which means I've got 4 dice, enough to buy a single hit per complex action taken to climb. That translates into 1 meter per complex action, or roughly 2-3 meters per combat turn on average. Since I've got plenty of time I don't see a need to rush it, so buying hits here makes sense to me.
Here's what Fenris will do; park the bike a block away from the burned out tenement building then sneak up to it while looking out for potential traps and other dangers (i.e. critters):
Sneaking 5 + Urban 2 + Agility 7 + Catlike 2 [Physical 8 (10)]:
16d6t5 5 [6, 5, 2, 2, 5, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 5, 6, 3, 1, 1, 1]
Perception 5 + Visual 2 + Intuition 5 + Specifically Looking [Mental 6]:
15d6t5 5 [5, 4, 1, 1, 5, 5, 1, 2, 4, 5, 4, 6, 4, 1, 3]
Note: keep in mind the -4 to hear and -2 to smell the character because of Traceless Walk. He's also not dual-natured nor does he have any foci, so he'd look just like a normal mundane on the Astral; I'm assuming you'd allow using the Sneaking skill as normal to avoid Astral Detection (i.e. hiding behind structures that block astral visibility)? I probably won't get any tests against non-materialized Spirits as I can't actually see those, but I should be able to sneak past dual-natured beings like Ghouls as normal.
When he reaches the first floor of the burned out building across the road he'll carefully observe the inside, using the endoscope to gain a better view if necessary. Looking for the presence of living creatures and any potential security features.
Perception 5 + Visual 2 + Intuition 5 + Specifically Looking [Mental 6]:
15d6t5 7 6 [2, 4, 6, 1, 6, 5, 3, 6, 3, 1, 4, 6, 3, 5, 5]
Hit my limit.
If he doesn't see any living metahumans (or dangerous critters), he'll move to unlock one of the doors closest to an interior staircase preferring the south, then east, then west if he can't easily spot an interior staircase. He's essentially looking for a way into the building that'll let Hawkeye move in and set up a blind without having to scale the walls. If he doesn't see any way into the building that doesn't involve avoiding disturbing metahumans and/or critters, he'll climb the wall as per the above instead, using the south side if possible.
South door maglock casing:
Locksmith 4 + Maglocks 2 + Agility 7 + Nimble Fingers 1 [Physical 8] (Lock Rating x2, 1 CT):
14d6t5 3 [3, 1, 2, 1, 3, 3, 5, 3, 3, 4, 5, 4, 1, 6]
Locksmith 4 + Maglocks 2 + Agility 7 + Nimble Fingers 1 - Extended Test 1 [Physical 8] (Lock Rating x2, 1 CT):
13d6t5 5 [5, 2, 5, 2, 6, 5, 4, 1, 5, 4, 2, 3, 1]
Locksmith 4 + Maglocks 2 + Agility 7 + Nimble Fingers 1 - Extended Test 2 [Physical 8] (Lock Rating, 1 CT):
12d6t5 6 [2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 2, 5, 4, 6, 5, 4]
South door maglock internals:
Locksmith 4 + Maglocks 2 + Agility 7 + Nimble Fingers 1[Physical 8]:
14d6t5 5 [5, 3, 5, 4, 2, 5, 2, 2, 2, 4, 5, 2, 5, 3]
Locksmith 4 + Agility 7 + Nimble Fingers 1 - Extended Test 1 [Physical 8]:
13d6t5 5 [5, 2, 6, 5, 4, 1, 1, 5, 3, 3, 2, 5, 3]
Locksmith 4 + Agility 7 + Nimble Fingers 1 - Extended Test 2 [Physical 8]:
12d6t5 7 [2, 5, 5, 1, 6, 1, 3, 5, 5, 6, 5, 1]
East/west door mechanical lock (only if the south entrance isn't feasible):
Locksmith 4 + Agility 7 + Nimble Fingers 1 [Physical 8] (Lock Rating, 1 CT):
12d6t5 5 [4, 6, 4, 1, 3, 6, 1, 5, 5, 6, 1, 1]
Note: That'll take care of a Rating 5 physical lock. Let me know if that isn't enough
That'll take care of opening the case and rewiring the internals on a Maglock up to rating 6. Let me know if there are any anti-tamper circuits, as that's a separate roll of Locksmith + Agility with a threshold of the anti-tamper system.
Finally, scoping out the target building from within the tenement building. Looking for activity on the second floor (number of people, coming and going), as well as patrol patterns.
Perception 5 + Visual 2 + Intuition 5 + Specifically Looking [Mental 6]:
15d6t5 4 [5, 6, 1, 1, 4, 2, 5, 2, 4, 5, 4, 1, 4, 3, 3]
With knowledge of physical security systems design, maybe I know a thing or two about how this building security is set up:
Security Design 1 + Physical 2 + Intuition 5 [Mental 6]:
8d6t5 3 [2, 4, 5, 2, 4, 1, 5, 6]
I'll pause here to give others a chance to post, and then move to infiltrate the roof of the actual target building after observing it for roughly an hour.
Oh, and if I've missed any negative modifiers, feel free to just remove dice from the end of my rolls, adjusting the number of hits as necessary. That's how I'm used to doing it, anyway, and means I don't have to reroll for you to move the action ahead. I'll go ahead and post a short in-character description of my intended actions, and modify as necessary if any of the rolls don't pan out.
