[Kontact]

The drones I picked up should be decent assets once the TI system isn't an issue anymore.

If Walks can get in and put the tapper bug near any of their hard lines, it should be able to automatically create a wireless access point into their system.  Then B.B. would have about 30 seconds to hack their system and edit the offending signals out of their security.  From there, the digital work should be taken care of and we should be able to monitor guard movements and open security doors.  At that point the flying eye and the blob should be able to access most anywhere.

[inca1980]

@Kontact:
The only problem is that from outside the bulwark BB isn't detecting any wireless from inside and that means the compound is definitely wifi shielded.  So even if a tapper bug was inside tapped into the hardwired system, the wireless shielding would block it's signal.  Just from buying hits on his Security Procedures Knowledge Skill he knows that the bulwark being basically a wall which is a building in and of itself and has to have at least hardwired connectivity to the central node for its functionality to be integrated with the central node.  Any wifi he created inside the bulwark or on the inside of it's perimeter would be blocked by the walls but perhaps be detectible whenever the gates open allowing some signal through.  This would give you only a few seconds of wifi...10 seconds max maybe as the gate opens and closes if he wanted to get in the system from the outside. 

BB does see a maglock keypad for the gate and hardwiring into this could also get him into the system albeit very far out on the peripherals of the system and would require far more nodes to be hacked through.  The other problem with that the guards and the spirit Mercedes told you about are right in front of it and it's in broad daylight. 

One question though, just wondering where and when you got that tapper bug, I can't find it so if you could link it that would be great.

[Kontact]

Couldn't I fly the flying eye above the bullwark to complete the circuit?

The tapper bug (from Unwired) should have been a piece of gear taken from area 39.

[inca1980]

@BB:

You find it highly unlikely that there is a wifi connection anywhere outside of the buildings.  The bulwark is one "building"/wall which surrounds the perimeter of the detention center grounds.  Then the other buildings are the towers.  Any wifi would most likely be confined to the interior of buildings. 

[Kontact]

Ah, so it's part of the structure, rather than a surrounding wall.  cool.

[inca1980]

@Kontact:

Well it's more like a surrounding wall that's thick enough to have an interior to it and a has floors.  People would patrol on the inside of it looking out. 

So whatever building the tapper gets into it can try to find a fiberoptic line and do an optical tap.  It says it's a crawler drone though, so getting into the actual towers seems hard, but getting it into the bulwark doesn't seem too hard.  It's got a pilot of 3 so i'll use that for rolls.  I'll do an extended test for finding an optical line, and i'll then do an intercept traffic roll.  I'll say the tapper bug has a sniffer program running and an autosoft to use it running each rating 3.  The hits on this determine the threshold for the nearest node in the connection to detect the tapping.  If the tapper is in hidden mode it will be subject to being detected by the TI system. 

[Walks Through Walls]

Inca,

Before we make a go of this I have a couple of quick questions to make sure that we interpret certain rules the same way before it becomes an oh no moment for She Who Walks Through Walls.

1) I can use infiltration to sneak past the elemental though it would have major bonuses since it is guarding and watching astrally for auras.

2) If I summon a watcher will there be an astral link between it and me?

3) You can burn edge to get a critical success. This is possible in an opposed test as well correct?

4) Would it be possible for me to hide in the astral shadow of Mercedes?

5) If She Who Walks Through Walls were to use Deepweed since she is magically active she would then have astral perception locked in or would it not affect her since she normally cannot astrally perceive?

Thanks

[inca1980]

@Walks:
Thanks for the questions!  It's this type of question asking that i'm more than willing to answer and really want you to do to push the story along! 

1.)  In terms of sneaking into the door when it's open, you could, but it would be a serious long-shot since it's quite out in the open and there's not much cover in astral or physical plane.  The other problem is that you can't see the spirit so you can't even really see where it's "gaze" is.   In terms of dice....I would give you a -4 to infiltration....then another -2 for being awakened.  If you succeed in a masking test then you'd only get the -4.  Your infil roll would have to beat an assensing test by the spirit and a perception roll by the two guards.  It would also have to beat the perception test by any surveillance but getting perceived by surveillance would take a little longer to cause a response. 

2.)  Yes, just like with any spirit you summon.  Remember, they have Force 1 and really low stats.

3.)  Yes, you can burn Edge to get 4 net hits (critical success) on 1 test...be it against a threshold or an opposed test.  So for example, if you had to sneak past two people, even though you'd make only 1 infil roll, you could only burn edge on one opposed test...i.e. against 1 person you get 4 net hits and against the other person it would just depend on what their perception test was.

I have the final word to say if you can burn edge on a given test or not though depending on its feasibility or just if I feel its too crucial a test to just give it away....i.e. "I do a data search for Olivier Sanon's current location....and i'm burning edge on it."  is not gonna happen, understand? 

4.)  Well, remember, only non-living things cast an "astral shadow", but you could conceivably hide behind Mercedes astral brightness.  I'll say only an awakened person or creature of similar or bigger size to you would be bright enough to help with this.  I'll give you a +2 to infil for this.

5.) Deepweed would give you astral perception, but would give you the standard -2 to all non-astral/magical actions.  The one problem is that for someone who doesn't have an Assenssing skill, astral space looks like a very very confusing jumble of "lights" "colors" and feelings.  Notice one cannot default on assensing.... but in cases like these I'll allow you to default to Intuition - 1 in lieu of a perception test while seeing astrally... .but you can't read auras and get information about any aura.

@Everyone:
Since I wanna push the story along I'm gonna start giving out Karma for posts, IC or OOC that I deem push the plot along or flesh out your plans well.  I think some Karma might lubricate the wheels a little get people more proactive about planning/legwork type phases  

So I'll start off with giving Walks 1 point of Karma.  Who else wants some?

[Kontact]

Ok, so the bullwark is a wall, but it's a huge wall, like one of the rings of the pentagon?

Any way we could go over it?

[Walks Through Walls]

OK one followup question now.

With the watcher I knew it was traceable back to me I guess my real question is would it be visible on the astral plane for all to see or would someone have to search for it?

[FastJack]

Just so you know, I'm paying attention to all this. But since most of the infiltration stuff doesn't concern Mercedes directly, I'm letting them ask all the questions.

[inca1980]

@Kontact:

Like any structure it is climbable but the trick is climbing it unseen.  There are guards patrolling on the different floors of the bulwark looking out the windows and also along the top of the bulwark.  It also seems to you that there are probably some KE administrative offices which reside inside the bulwark.  There also is the spirits which you can only infiltrate against if you're astrally perceiving. 

The thing is about 10 stories high.  So about 40 m high.  In terms of rolls, I would make it a normal climbing extended test, but every 2 climbing rolls you'd make an infiltration test and the electronic surveillance system would get a roll against your infil, but this takes a little while to respond if it spots you.  The spirits would also get  a roll against your infil.  You'd need to get more information about the security system for me to tell you what kind of dicepool the electronic surveillance system would have. 

@Mercedes: 

I also forget to tell you that from your 5 hits on your assensing test, the spirits are force 5 air elementals (spirits).

@Walks:
Just like with any astral signature, the person assensing would have to be projecting and do an astral tracking to follow a link back to you.  The interval for this extended test is 1hr., so it's not like they could see a watcher and trace it back to you right away if that's what you're asking.  It's more of an investigative type thing.  Watch out though, if the spirits see a watcher spirit, just as if some hacker saw an agent or a sprite trying scoping out a node, they'll definitely go on a hightened level of alert.  Watcher's don't just randomly show up places of their own accord, a mage has to summon them and then send them out on an errand.  So even if they can't trace it back to you, that doesn't mean it getting seen or caught isn't a bad thing.

@Everyone:

Just edited a little of my second to last IC post.

[Walks Through Walls]

OK two more questions now.

1) Did Mercedes see any type of ward or astral barrier on the building?
2) Is there any astral traffic around the area?

I know there are more questions but I forget them at the moment.

[inca1980]

@Walks:

--Mercedes didn't report seeing any astral barriers.  One point I wanna make which is also to clear up something from past posts:  Astral barriers usually tend to be used to enclose very specific things since making big wards is hard.  If the max volume of a ward is 50xMagic cubic meters....imagine a dome.  Say two mages each with Magic 5 make a ward....that's 500 cubic meters.   The volume of a dome is 2/3*pi*radius^3.  To make 500 cubic meters that's a radius of just about only 6 meters!  So to make anything really big you'd need a butt-ton of powerful mages which would cost a fortune for even a AAA.  Now, back in RRI i did put a huge ward around the Visteon Enclave, but that's cuz I hadn't read the rules well lol.  So just imagine that the ward in RRI that you had to pass through was more localized.   But from now on i'm paying attention to the limits on ward volumes.  That's why things like awakened ivy or FABII are around....cuz you can make much bigger astral barriers with them. 

...So by the way Mercedes didn't detect other awakened barriers of this nature either, but then again, people usually place them embedded in solid wall which covers their signature up with its astral shadow.

--w.r.t. astral traffic:  Astral traffic is something that in general I feel to be something rather active.  Places with higher bg count are gonna attract more astral entities....but on average, there is still once in a while a few astral forms which will traverse a given area on its way to some other part of the globe or even on its transit between meta-planes.  Here in the place you are now, i'd compare the amount of astral traffic to about the amount of shooting starts you'd see on a night in august in the northern hemisphere....So somewhat sporadic.  Maybe once every 5 minutes or so something pops through on its transit to some other place.  These things are most often free spirits....but also the occasional projecting mage, watcher spirit, and very very occasionally even a dragon might pass through in it's astral form.....usually heavily masked. 

Keep the questions coming if you got'em!

[Walks Through Walls]

So is the spirit at the door paying any attention to the spirits and astral traffic as it goes by?

You said that only an awakened or magically active creature would have an astral brightness. My understanding was that in astral space everyone has an aura so wouldn't it be possible to hide my aura behind Mercedes' aura? Or with a successful masking would it be possible to make our auras the same or very similar to confuse the spirit to what it was seeing so it thought it was the same aura not two separate ones if I stayed close?

I understand about some tests being too important to be able to burn edge to succeed. If I were to try and infiltrate past the spirit and it noticed me and no one else did would you allow me to burn edge at that point to get by it or not? (if this isn't too metagame of a question to answer)