SDMB Shadowrun campaign, New World Orders - players only!

Donovan to the group:
"No, nah uh, nope. I’m not sitting on the sidelines while you all rush in and make a botch out of this. Not when it’s my job on the line. If we go in, I go in as well. And whether we go in at night or during the day, I think you’ll all see I carry my own weight.

"I’d suggest scouting the building a little better for an alternate means of getting in and out. Maybe roof access or something. And we should make sure that we’re all in sync regarding escape if things turn to shit.

“Speaking of scouting, do we even have an idea of who is there? Why not spend a day or two on stakeout from a nearby building or rooftop and try to figure the movement beforehand? And not to piss in anyone’s breakfast, but we don’t even know who Fortnight is, or what he looks like. I think we need some more information before we go in swinging dicks. We’re liable to wreck the wrong guy.”

Thanks, I’m sure Seneth gets it. I didn’t. Disregard any confusing comments about that from him.

Geothe:

Simply disabling them is fine with me. Heck, maybe we can combine the various ideas of plans. We disable the two guards and jam the comms of the rest, and we likely can negotiate with them. I’ve got both stick-n-shock rounds and EX explosive rounds. I can go in loaded with either, and I’ll likely take both types of ammo with me. But I figure I’ll probably start with the stick-n-shock.

Heck, if we get the jump on them, we might not even need to take out the troll. A pistol at point blank to the back of the head is enough to make most people surrender, even a troll. Because they might survive the shot, but they’re going to be feeling it for a long time if they do.

As far as Donovan’s suggestions, I think we should take them into consideration. No more than three of us should approach the guards, so Donovan, you’re welcome to be the third. Heck, with you and nail both playing this up you might just be able to annoy the guards enough to let their guard down. When you’re ready, just give me the signal and I’ll stick the barrel of my Predator right at the base of his neck, angled upward, and tell him that he so much as twitches and he dies. We alert Kirk over the comm, and she takes out their communication. We get them to surrender, and then they get Fortnight to come out to us.

And I think doing a stakeout is fine, but we got to find someplace that’s close enough to see, but hidden enough that we don’t draw suspicion. After all, this isn’t our neighborhood. Any of these gangers catch so much as a whiff of our presence, and this could turn ugly real fast. I’m not afraid of a bunch of gangers, but we get stuck engaging them, and any element of suprise we could have had with the hacker group disappears.

The stakeout isn’t a good idea, because your team is on a time-sensitive mission involving a hostage and a fugitive. If Fortnight knows anything about Chaggo’s location, that information becomes less accurate the more time passes.

The plan as I understand it will proceed in about an hour, at approximately 12:00 noon, PST. I’ll spell it out here, and characters can correct me if I have any details wrong.

-Goethe, Nail, and Donny will approach the guards, pretending to be cultists spreading their message. They will attempt to disable the guards in a surprise attack when they get close.
-Meanwhile, Seneth and Kirk will stay close by, out of sight. Seneth will watch over Kirk, as she monitors the team electronically (Kirk can “see” through the devices you are carrying). As soon as the guards are engaged, Kirk will disable the drones, and attempt to shut down the Two Weeks Truce network
-When the network and guards are disabled, the group will enter the building, eliminate any resistance, and take Fortnight into custody, after which-
-Seneth will interrogate Fortnight about the whereabouts of Chaggo.

Once Kirk spends a few seconds in the TWT network, she will be able to communicate to the team which person inside is Fortnight, through Goethe’s comlink. This should minimize the chance that you accidentally shoot him.

Am I missing anything? This is the last chance for modifications to the plan. If Omi no Kami doesn’t post in the next hour or so, I’ll just pass along the info Goethe requested from her about local cults, out of character.

Plan looks good to me, Mosier. Goethe will go have stick-n-shock rounds loaded into his pistol to begin with, and will have it concealed in his arm slide. His shock gloves will be concealed in his waistband. The SMG and assault rifle will be left behind.

Yes, Seneth’s role sounds right to me. I’m ready.

*The group will be impersonating members of the “Horizon Monitors” cult. The cult believes that through studying ancient religious texts, they have deciphered an apocalypse prophecy, which will come to pass in the near future. According to the Monitors, the apocalypse will spare those who learn to properly pronounce a specific Sumerian phrase of warding. They wear common clothes, and attempt to spread knowledge of the Phrase through whatever means they have at their disposal.

Kirk has provided a small tablet computer with a recording of the phrase installed. The phrase will appear as printed words on the screen. As someone touches a word, the recording will play the appropriate pronunciation, and analyze the user’s pronunciation to determine if it is correct.*

The group approaches the building marked “Zion” after parking their vehicles in the lot on 18th street, approximately half a kilometer from the building. Seneth and Kirk remain behind, inside Donovan’s vehicle, with Kirk’s heavily modified motorcycle and and Goethe’s Mirage motorcycle parked at either flank. The vehicles are mostly out of sight of casual observers.

Kirk successfully gains access to the TWT network, although it was much more difficult than she thought. The automated network security programs are suspicious of an intruder, but have not yet located her, or alerted the network operators. The network AI has organized the security Intrusion Countermeasures (ICe) programs into a “search party,” to determine if anyone has gained unauthorized access to the system.

As Goethe, Donny, and Nail approach the building, the troll grunts menacingly. “Hands up where I can see them, mutts!” he orders. His firearm is ready, but not aimed, and he is suspicious of the trio approaching them.

The human seems much more relaxed as he examines the sign Goethe is holding, which reads “Monitor your salvation.”

The human nods to the troll. “I’ve heard of these guys,” he says, unable to hide the curiosity in his voice. “Let 'em say their piece.”

The troll remains suspicious, and gruffly acknowledges the group. “You can talk from there,” he says. “No closer, 'less you can dodge bullets.”

Kirk has successfully infiltrated the TWT system, but the ICe programs are suspicious of an intruder. She will need to make a new Hacking + Stealth (complex form) roll every minute, with increasing penalties each time. If the ICe finds her, she will either need to jump out of the system, or engage in cybercombat which will alert the human program administrators (TWT hackers). As soon as Kirk attempts to destroy the drone reception signals, she will alert the ICe to her presence. The con group must make their move relatively quickly, before Kirk is discovered!

One player in the con group will attempt to deceive the two guards, tricking them into allowing them to come closer. If multiple players in the con group make a post in which they speak to the guards, each of them must make a separate con roll, giving the group more chances to fail. One person should “take charge” and lead the con attempt.

On the car ride over, Nail rehearses the plan one more time. “So, the go-word is ‘fourty.’ When I say, ‘fourty,’ we strike. Kirk, that’s when you should cut their com links. Everyone got it? Again, my plan is to get one of the guards engaged in reading this holy book with me.” Nail holds up a book. (It would be great if Nail had been able to get a hold of a real Horizon Monitors book or pamphlet. If not, the book is plain-looking.) When the guards drop their…guard, that’s when I’ll say ‘fourty.’ But keep your wits about you. Cons can be a real wild and crazy ride."

Having arrived, Nail strolls confidently up to the guards. Goethe stands to his right holding the sign, withDonovan to the right of Goethe. Once stopped by the troll, Nail assumes a preacher’s posture. Taking a deep breath, he begins crying out, “The end is nigh! The end is nigh! The Sumerian prophecy is coming to pass.” Turning to the human, Nail lowers his voice and adds an air of tension to his voice. “Brother, are you aware we are entering the end of days?”

Nail will use a point of edge for these con roll(s).

With Nail’s distraction (assuming it works), Goethe will try to ease his way into a position (using infiltration if necessary) where he can approach one of the guards from the back (whichever one he thinks is going to be the easiest to intimidate into dropping his weapon when a gun is stuck into the base of the skull). Once in position, upon the word from Nail, Geothe will use a free action to relase the pistol from it’s hidden slide, and then place it at the back of the skull of the guard. Then using intimidate and adding edge to his dice pool (and probably getting some positive modifiers from having a gun sticking into the base of the guard’s skull) he will say:

“Either of you make any sudden moves or call for help and you die. Our job is not to kill you or anyone else here, but we will if you don’t cooperate. Now, hand your guns over, nice and slow.”

Assuming they cooperate, the conversation will continue, if they make a sound or sudden movement, whomever has the gun to the base of the skull will take a point blank shot of stick-n-shock to their head.

Nail now has 1 point of used Edge, after making his con test.

The troll visibly relaxes, and the human seems spooked by Nail’s words.

“What prophecy?” the human squeaks. He clears his throat, and repeats more deeply, “What prophecy?”

Nail has been wildly successful with his con attempt. He can feel the human wrapped around his finger, and even the Troll seems eager to hear what he has to say.

*The con group is in full view of the two guards. Infiltration attempts will automatically fail at this point. *

Once Nail gives the word, I’ll process Goethe’s surprise combat round. We’ll use the next couple of posts to determine how the group approaches, and get combat instructions from the other two members of the con group.

Okay. Well Goethe will just try to somehow get into a flanking position then depending on how Nail and Donovan decide to handle the closer approach. I wasn’t sure if stealth would apply with distraction or not. But otherwise, when Goethe is in position, he’ll give a slight eyebrow quirk Nail’s way.

“The Sumerian prophecy!” Nail exclaims. Lowering his voice again, “Written of many ages ago, Sumerian religious texts speak of an upcoming apocalypse.” With an air of dread importance, Nail slowly takes out his e-tablet and reads from it. As it is written, “When magic comes back in the world, and money is king over kings, then shall the Age of Horrors return, and woe will be upon them.” Lowering his book, Nail takes just one step closer to the guards and stoops over a bit in an air of intimacy. He asks the human, “Brother, where are you from?”

The human replies, “I dunno, here I guess. Mom’s Native. Dad’s gone. One too many runs. Fortnight pays the bills, though. Just gotta point this gun at strangers that come too close.” He seems interested in the tablet Nail is holding. “What’s that, like an ancient scroll translation or something?”

Gesturing to the human’s gun, “Guns won’t save you when the Horrors come, my friend.” In a smooth, practiced gesture, Nail then raises his book in his hand. Looking at the guard he says, “You are very astute!” Nail turns his attention back to the book. “Yes, this is an ancient scroll translation, and it is the one hope we have against the coming trials. For written in this book is a Sumerian phrase of warding. Those who master this phrase, they and they alone will be safe.” Nail slowly lowers the book and opens it, holding it in two hands.

“Brothers, permit us to gather in. Gather, and we shall teach you this phrase of warding, so that you and all you cherish will be safe.” Nail walks forward.

Assuming the dupes are still pliant, Nail will begin walking forward. He will hold the book forward and stand in such a way that the human and troll can see, but that they will have to bend down a bit to do so. It is Nail’s hope that Donovan and Goethe will also gather in close at this time. The trap is almost set.

Donovan will advance in pace with Nail, doing his best to appear nonchalant and attentive to Nail, and try to get into melee range with the troll.

Seneth will do his best to look like he is a believer, too, but will not advance towards the guards. His thoughts are focused, though, and he is even beginning to think about his Armor spell, in case it is needed soon.

Goethe will move forward at Nail’s pace, staying a step back from him in “deference”.

Seneth is watching over Kirk, and is not with the Con group.

Kirk is discovered by TWT ICe programs after failing a stealth roll against the system’s AI. An alert has been automatically and silently sent to the group via Goethe’s comlink. The con group is aware that they have less than five seconds to act before the guards are alerted to the system intrusion and the con is over.

There are two simultaneous combats occurring here. The con group is engaged in a surprise attack on the guards, and Kirk is currently engaged with a low level ICe program. The ICe has already used its first initiative pass to send an alert to the TWT administrators.

The con group
I will accept orders for the first round of combat from the surprise group now. Due to surprise, the guards will not be able to take actions. Goethe will spend a free action to QuickDraw his pistol, he has two simple actions (firing shots) or a single complex action (attempting to intimidate) in this phase. Donny and Nail each have a free action (saying one or two words) and two simple actions (drawing a weapon without QuickDraw holster, firing a shot) or one complex action (melee attack, or intimidate). Be aware the gadgets inside are aware of your presence and will be preparing for attack.

Seneth can choose to stay with Kirk, attempt to ride a motorcycle to the fight and be there in 5 combat rounds, or let Darwin plug in to control Kirk’s motorcycle with AI piloting skill while Seneth is just along for the ride (with Kirk’s permission, of course).

Kirk can issue a simple command to one of her drones, and either attack the ICe program, attempt to escape the ICe, or summon a sprite. The ICe will take no further actions this round. Beware! More ICe are certainly on the way!

Seneth to Kirk:

“Oh, my dear child Kirsikka, I think you better either let Darwin pilot that bike device with me over to their fight or…if you prefer, let me drive myself. I’m not too much of a driver, though, but I leave it to you.”

Saying “forty” as his pistol slips from the slide into his hand and aimed at the closest guard, Goethe uses intimidate with added edge on the guards to try to get them to surrender (saying the words I mentioned above).