[rednblack]

Let's call the roll for Smuggling Routes. Achak thinks that Dash Point is in yak territory and a few kilometers out from where things start to get disputed.

[Malevolence]

My condolences for your loss. We lost our dog in February way before her time, so I sympathize. Take whatever time you need, or immerse yourself in work/posts, whatever works for you. I know it took me a couple days just to get over the shock and begin properly mourning, so feel free to change it up if you need to.


Mercer's game for some in-person surveillance over the next hour or so as Tec suggested - we'll drive to somewhere a few blocks away and send in drones and astral mage to get a lay of the land and then if it looks clear (or urgent) follow up with the fleshy folk. About what time is it now in game?


Seth Ridge sounds like a dead end. What about an S. Ethridge?


And I think we'll start with Ms. Pachis's aliases, in the order listed: Stacie Pachis (2036), Stacey Collias (2048). She's used the last name Pachis twice, so that might be her natural family name, so some info on the Pachis clan could also be useful. In particular, the manner of the alias' demise and if possible dispensation of their estate might give us some idea of what to look for when attempting to identify other potential immortal Infected.

[rednblack]

Mercer's game for some in-person surveillance over the next hour or so as Tec suggested - we'll drive to somewhere a few blocks away and send in drones and astral mage to get a lay of the land and then if it looks clear (or urgent) follow up with the fleshy folk. About what time is it now in game?

Let's call it about midnight at this point.  Anybody feeling the vibe should feel free to put in an IC and get us to Westfield.  I'll also take a suite of whatever rolls you guys feel like making for perception, etc.

Seth Ridge sounds like a dead end. What about an S. Ethridge?

That'll work.  A quick check will pull up papers on long-term stasis by a Dr. Samantha Ethridge, an employee of Ares.  Anything deeper, and I'll need a Computer Search test.

And I think we'll start with Ms. Pachis's aliases, in the order listed: Stacie Pachis (2036), Stacey Collias (2048). She's used the last name Pachis twice, so that might be her natural family name, so some info on the Pachis clan could also be useful. In particular, the manner of the alias' demise and if possible dispensation of their estate might give us some idea of what to look for when attempting to identify other potential immortal Infected.

Ditto for searches on that.  Also, there was some mention of contacting Nori Koizumi about some of this intel.  If you're interested in farming out some of the research, she probably is dealing with bigger dice pools than y'all are, depending on how much you trust her.  Of more timely import, it's now been over 24 hours since the hit on Sunrise, of which she was an accomplice.  If you don't want that story hitting the scream sheets, you should probably let her know soon.

Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and condolences. 

[Malevolence]

Also, Malevolence has been forgetting to check in on the location of the tracker round Mercer put in Ms. Pachis's ride, but I'm assuming that Mercer would not be so remiss. If we can get an accounting of where it might have gone in the interim assuming he's been checking in on it every few hours.


As for rolls going in to Tacoma, I think we'll take Spitfire's ride just in case they have a description of Mercer's Roadmaster. It is pretty non-descript, but better safe than sorry. Mercer will look for the usual - suspicious behavior, familiar people/vehicles, tactical features of the terrain that might be used by the enemy (natural choke points, potential sniper's nests, and so on). I suspect that similar to Puyallup, the Yak's have a number of eyes all over reporting anyone that enters or leaves that does not belong. As such, spotting the spotters might allow the team to find an unobserved location to deploy drones. Here's the perception roll:
Perception [INT 5 + Perception 6 + Visual Spec 2 + Vision Enhancement 3]: 16d6t5 4


Yay, I basically just bought hits.


Matrix Search for Samantha, Stacie, Stacey, and the Pachis's, here's the rolls. It's up to the others if these should be a first pass search or a teamwork assist for someone with an actual dice pool:
Matrix search [Intuition 5 + Computer 1]: 4#6d6t5 2 3 2 3
Wow, actually not too bad...


As for Nori, I'll let others chime in before waving her off.

[Tecumseh]

IC post is up. I kept it light on the Dash Point details so that rednblack could fill them in. The history about Tacoma and the Yakuza is canon, although Dash Point has not been explicitly mentioned in the books up to this point.

Here are my contributions to the Matrix Search teamwork tests: Intuition 6 + Computer 1: 4#7d6t5 2 2 0 2

Achak's base Perception check: Intuition 6 + Perception 6 + Novacoke 1: 13d6t5 6 hits, aww yiss
plus Visual mods: Glasses 3: 3d6t5 1 more hit
plus Audio mods, even if they don't seem particularly applicable: Earbuds 3 + Specialization 2: 5d6t5 2 more hits

In the off-chance that they apply, Achak's adept powers include high-frequency hearing and bloodhound scent.

His Magic Sense is only effective out to 60 meters so I'll let our magical overwatch cover that responsibility for now.

[Zweiblumen]

I'm getting an IC post up.  Thanks everyone for keeping SF in the loop, he appreciates it

He's gonna send Patsy ahead on recon, once we are there he'll do electronic surveillance while jumped in.  The +2 to limit from the rig will help, but he still really needs to upgrade the sensors on those damn thing.  Something to do with any money they get in the immediate future.

Here's rolls for Patsy and SF:

Perception: (Clearsight 5 + Pilot 5 = 10): 10d6t5 4  Nice, that hits her limit.  kinda what she's supposed to do
Perception: (INT 5 + EW 6 + VR 2 = 13): 13d6t5 7 And blew that limit of 4 right outta the water.
BTW, I'm assuming that he's using all of the sensors on a swarm of drones (the flying eyes, and the van specifically).  Swarm means that he's using the worst of the bunch, but they all have a sensor rating of 2 and the rig gives him +2 for a limit of 4.
Hrm... in looking at the rules for the Control Rig I don't see where the Rig increases sensor tests.  Just adding the dice pool to vehicle tests (I don't think sensors/ew/perception count as "vehicle" tests do they?), increasing the speed and handling rating, and reducing the threshold of any tests.
RnB can you give me a ruling on using sensors while jumped in as perception?  If that counts as a "vehicle test" then I get two more (useless) dice and the limit is just 2, but the threshold to beat will be reduced by 2 (for what that's worth).  YAY ambiguous wording!

Anyway, I'll have the IC post getting us into the vehicle and heading towards Tacoma.

[rednblack]

bangbang is officially out of the game. 

Nice IC posts everyone.  I guess I need to toss up some Assensing and Astral Perception tests for Flickr.  I don't know what his wound mods are now, but let's see how he does on his Soak.

Soak: 3d6t5 0
Not great.  That's 4 additional P damage on top of the S he's already suffered.  I'm just going to call it -3 and run with it. 

Let's do an Assensing test to see what there is to see.

Assensing: 12d6t5 1
Not great.  He's going to Edge.
Edge Re-roll: 11d6t5 6
Much better.  Astral Limit is 6.

Next IC will include:
1. At least some results from the Computer tests on Samantha, Stacey, Stacie, Pachis.  Realistically, we can probably get 1 result in the drive to Westfield.  If y'all want to keep up the searching while you're staking the place out that's cool, but at any given time 1 hunter will need to be immersed in that and unable to contribute on Perception tests.

2. Results for Achak's, Spitfire's, and Flickr's various Perception tests.  @Zwei, we'll call the Limit 4 until I think further on this point.  @Tec, Achak's effective Limit for Perception is boosted to 8 for Visual and Auditory, correct?  So, he doesn't lose any hits there? 

3. Results from Mercer's tracker round.

4. General lay of the land.

@Zwei, can I get another REA + Sneaking roll for your approach, and a traditional Sneaking test for finding a suitable place to park?  The latter test can be Teamworked, as everyone could probably chime in here.

Flickr will try, at least, even though he isn't feeling too well.
Sneaking Assist: 7d6t5 3
The young'n's got some good ideas.  That's +3 dice, +1 Limit.

Also, Zwei, Spitfire doesn't recognize the name, but when they get to the scene he remembers that he's delivered something to this location before, maybe 6 months to a year back.  What was it, and why would he be hesitant to tell the rest of the group?

IC will be up today, but it may take a bit.

[Zweiblumen]

2. Results for Achak's, Spitfire's, and Flickr's various Perception tests.  @Zwei, we'll call the Limit 4 until I think further on this point.  @Tec, Achak's effective Limit for Perception is boosted to 8 for Visual and Auditory, correct?  So, he doesn't lose any hits there? 

4 works for me

4. General lay of the land.

@Zwei, can I get another REA + Sneaking roll for your approach, and a traditional Sneaking test for finding a suitable place to park?  The latter test can be Teamworked, as everyone could probably chime in here.

REA + Sneak
Sneaking Defaulting (REA 10 - 1 Default = 9): 9d6t5 5

Standard: (I can't get any help as I have no skill in it, I'm defaulting)
Edging Sneaking Defaulting (Agi 2 + Edge 3 - default 1 = 4): 4d6t5 1
And damn near a glitch *whew*  Guessing I'm not gonna be able to sneak into a parking spot.  Thinking about how important this would have been to his basic char I probably should have had at least a little sneak skill.  Just got spread *really* thin when I was adding the hacking stuff to the char.  Also, I never thought of the applications of using the active skill as a knowledge skill (ie, how to find a hidden parking spot).

Also, Zwei, Spitfire doesn't recognize the name, but when they get to the scene he remembers that he's delivered something to this location before, maybe 6 months to a year back.  What was it, and why would he be hesitant to tell the rest of the group?

He would not talk about the details with the group.  Snitches get stitches.

[Tecumseh]

Zwei, good IC post. That said, Spitfire is an ork, not a dwarf.

Moving on to new magical support, did Herr accept the invitation? If so, are we waiting for Herr to come up with an outline and a background and then figure out how to incorporate him (or her), or are we doing it the other way around?

A traditional Sneaking test (involving Agility) seems curious for finding a parking spot while driving. Intuition seems more likely, but GM's call. Here's Achak's:

Traditional sneaking: Agility 5 + Sneaking 6 + Spec 2 + Catlike 2: 15d6t5 1 hit, there's some 1st percentile rolling
Rerolling 1 hit as a teamwork test: Teamwork Reroll 1: 1d6t5 0 hits

Achak is no help.

Achak's mental limit is 5, which is adjusted to 8 with the audio and vision enhancements, so he can keep his Perception hits.

Let's not have anyone on Matrix Searches while we're staking out the place. We need all hands on deck.

[Zweiblumen]

Zwei, good IC post. That said, Spitfire is an ork, not a dwarf.

Wow, talk about dumb... wtf?  Fixing post.

[rednblack]

IC is finally in.  Sorry for the wait.

@Zwei, if you want to try piloting a drone inside I'll need 2 piloting tests.  The first is Threshold 4 to get through the grate.  That'll be difficult, but if you fail there's a fairly large chance that no one will notice -- big penalties for Perception on those inside.  Afterward, I need a Threshold 2 test to navigate the air ducts.  Failure here is likely to be heard inside, depending on how loud it is.

@Tec, if you want to translate I need a Language test for Spanish.  Your Speaking spec will count here.

@Mal, Mercer knows of a mystic adept, also a vampire hunter, who can disguise auras.  If you want to put astral eyes inside the warehouse, he might be a good one to tap for this.  He goes by Jaeger.

@All, Herr Brackhaus has accepted the invitation and has a char sheet ready.  I need to do some reading and ok it, but he's good to go.  In fact, @Herr, if you want to post it here for everyone to see, that's fine by me.  Also, on the sneaking test for a parking spot, INT is a much better fit.  I think that's what I was going for and mistyped.  That'll give Spitfire 4 more dice. 

INT dice: 4d6t5 1
1 more hit for a total of 2.

[Tecumseh]

Oo, Spanish! "¡Yo hablo escargot!" I'm bilateral.

Achak translating: Intuition 6 + Spanish 1 + Spec 2: 9d6t5 4 hits, happy with that

Is SpitFire's threshold 4 before or after applying his Control Rig? Either way, Achak will encourage him to do it. If SpitFire complains about sensors ICly, Achak would not be opposed to dipping into the team's operational funds to finance an upgrade.

As Achak is hopped up on goofballs right now, he'll be in favor of hitting hard and fast à la Auburn. Achak sneaks into position, Flickr hits the spirit, Mercer snipes someone, SpitFire hacks or uses drones.

GM interpretation: How do car locks work in the future? Can Spitfire hack the troll's Bulldog and lock him in, or are there manual overrides? I'm guessing the troll could shoot out the windshield and crawl out, but that would be cumbersome.

Looking forward to seeing Herr's sheet.

[rednblack]

4 hits is plenty.  This will be covered in the next IC post.

The 4 Threshold is before the Control Rig is taken into account.

I'd imagine that there was a manual override for car locks.  Freaky technomancers aside, there's also kidnapping and stuff to consider. 

[Zweiblumen]

One problem with PbP, I made some odd decisions on where to allocate resources forever ago and I don't remember why.  IE, I've got a Hovers (one of the Mitsuhama Seven) with a pilot of 4?!?  but only a sensors speed upgraded to a 2?  I'm sure I did that for a reason, but wtf?

Also, I need to remember to read more... my flying drone army has sensors of 3 not 2.  dunno wtf I was thinking before.  *sigh*

SO with all of that, I don't see a reason to take any risks and use a larger drone for recon.  Lets take one of the 'zquitos out of the swarm.  SF will jump into one of the little buggers and in he goes.

While jumped in: (numbers in parens are limits not hard values)
Speed: 3 (5)
Handling: 4 (6)
Acceleration: 2 (4)
Sensor: 3 (5 based on previous ruling, subject to change)

His rig is going to be set to Programs (1) NR (4), current program running is Swarm.  Rest is going to NR.  His DJ gives him 1 for a total NR of 5 right now.

Pilot tests:
First test
Zquito into the building (Rea 10 + Pilot Aircraft 6 + VR 2 + CR 2 + CRO 1 + Spec 2 = 23): 23d6t5 7 Limit of 6, looses a die.  Threshold of 4 - 2 (CR) = 2.
Second test
Zquito into the building (Rea 10 + Pilot Aircraft 6 + VR 2 + CR 2 + CRO 1 + Spec 2 = 23): 23d6t5 11
Limit of 6, looses 5 dice.  Threshold of 2 - 2 (CR) = 1 (min)

Kid can drive.  Might not be able to sneak worth a damn, but he can FLY!

Oo, Spanish! "¡Yo hablo escargot!" I'm bilateral.

Achak translating: Intuition 6 + Spanish 1 + Spec 2: 9d6t5 4 hits, happy with that

Is SpitFire's threshold 4 before or after applying his Control Rig? Either way, Achak will encourage him to do it. If SpitFire complains about sensors ICly, Achak would not be opposed to dipping into the team's operational funds to finance an upgrade.

Looking forward to seeing Herr's sheet.

SF will bring it up in the conversation of who sees what.  FWIW, I forgot to add VR dice to his EW (perception) checks.

I'd like to do his IC in two parts.  First one the conversation that happens as they roll up and decide what to do, and then after the discussion I'll post up his amazing flyboy acrobatics.

[Zweiblumen]

BTW, we are pretty well settled here in Berlin now.  Sunsets from our flat ain't so bad: