“Seneth, when you attack people while invisible, do you turn visible?”
I do have to concentrate to maintain my invisibility. Casting other spells would make that difficult. Also, with Chaggo being an adept, he may be able to sense me. My experience has also taught me that my invisibility leaves some traces on the astral plane, so there is that complication as well.
Can the group confirm whether I have the correct idea about how you guys want to proceed? The plan as I understand it is the following:
Take Fortnight prisoner, until the issue with Chaggo is resolved,
Goethe will wait for Chaggo at the train station terminal, while the rest of the team stays close by, but out of sight,
When Chaggo arrives, Goethe will attempt to Shadow him, to find his hideout
Am I missing anything? Is someone using one of their contacts for somewhere to stash Fortnight until Chaggo is dealt with? I think someone mentioned asking McManus to watch him. Is the group agreed?
The meeting Fortnight had with Chaggo was supposed to be in approximately 14 hours, plenty of time for the group to rest up and recover from their injuries. Are any characters doing anything else prior to Goethe’s shadowing attempt?
If Kirk has enough time to register both a machine and fault sprite, she will. If not, she’ll just register a fault sprite.
If you attempt to compile a sprite in your current state, the sprite will be less powerful due to negative modifiers for your compiling test, from your unhealed stun damage.
If you rest long enough to heal your stun damage, you will not suffer any negative modifiers for your compiling test, but compiling the sprite will cause Fading, which could affect your attempt to register the sprite.
Registering sprites is complicated and typically takes a long time. For this reason, I prefer to limit registering sprites and binding spirits to the “downtime” in between jobs, unless it is not a particularly powerful spirit or sprite. If you’d like register a sprite now, I’ll limit its rating to 3. This weaker rating will make it much easier for you to resist Fading during the compiling test, too.
There are no such restrictions on using unregistered sprites. You may compile a sprite pretty much instantly, as long as you don’t intend to register it. The downside is that you’re limited to a single unregistered sprite under your control at a time.
Would you like to attempt to compile a fault sprite with a max rating of 3, and then register it? Afterward, you can compile a machine sprite, leaving it unregistered.
**I’m not sure what Senneth is doing on this part of the quest.
-
Using clairaudience to listen in?
-
turning invisible and staying nearby?
Anything I’m missing?
Are there any useful spirits I could summon?**
As I understand it, the plan as of now is nothing more than suggestions. OOC, I know we should keep things moving. IC, Nail is willing to go along with the Goethe shadowing idea, except for one significant wrinkle.
“You’re the sneakiest ork I know, Goethe. Sadly, this won’t be your everyday tiptoe through the tulips. With Fortnight not showing up, Chaggo will know something is wrong. Are you sure you’re up for it?”
Nail continues on. "It’s a shame we can’t disable him stealthily at the station. If he dropped without a clear aggressor, we could pretend to be doctors and take him somewhere without too much effort. We don’t have a sniper rifle, do we?
Nail throws up his hands. “Aaah, all this thinking is making my head hurt.” He walks a few paces off, breaks out a deck of cards, and starts playing solitaire.
Hmm, if it’s weak I’d prefer to register a weak machine sprite instead- it’s safer having a weaker sprite drive one of our combat drones than relying on it for my safety in the matrix.
Unless anyone has an objection, I’ll be forwarding time a few hours in my next post in order to give injured characters a chance to heal and prepare for the Chaggo situation. After resting, there will still be plenty of game-time for everyone to hammer out the details of the plan. Also, if you guys need any more info about the meeting area before you prepare, I can pass along anything that would normally be public knowledge, such as the train schedules, station geography and layout, visible/obvious security measures, the reputation/professionalism of the security company, or other details you might want. Just ask!
There are a couple of options for where the group can rest. McManus hasn’t been formally introduced yet, but Goethe’s relationship with him is good enough that he would be willing to give the group a place to wait for the meeting, and even babysit Fortnight for you (if the price is right). Other characters might want to appeal to their own contacts for help, instead of McManus.
Other options for dealing with Fortnight (which wouldn’t cost any credits) could include anything from restraining Fortnight somewhere and leaving him alone (with the associated risk of him escaping), killing him outright, or leaving a character behind to watch him.
Finally, some very basic info about the train station -
Fortnight informs the group that the meeting with Chaggo was meant to be right outside the station entrance, where foot traffic is thick. There is no parking available close by, which means Chaggo must either 1) arrive on the train that stops at the station at 11:55 am, or 2) arrive on foot.
Security at the station is provided by Lone Star Security, LLC. Lone Star is the biggest security company on the planet, and their cops range in ability from incompetent to barely adequate. For contracts like the train station, where a security officer’s job description doesn’t go much beyond keeping vagrants and prostitutes away, it’s not likely the officers will be particularly dangerous in a fight, except for the rare lieutenant.
Evocorp headquarters is very close to the station, although their jurisdiction doesn’t overlap with the Transportation Authority at the station. This could cause problems, because there will inevitably be some extremely competent Evocorp agents near the station, arriving at work and going home.
Fortnight doesn’t know if Chaggo will arrive alone, or with a crew. Fortnight only knows that he was informed to come alone, himself.
This information is being sent via PM. Check your box in about 3 minutes!
Seneth to the group:
"I suppose I can stay behind and watch Fortnight if you all wish, my children. However, if any kind of action occurs on our little meeting with Chaggo, you would probably want me with you. I am no great stealth artist, but I have many powers that can be useful if we come into direct confrontation.
What are we thinking about this poor fool called Fortnight? Are we killing him? Is that the safest plan?"
Am I sure? Well, I’m never sure about anything. Especially since we don’t know how he’s going to arrive and if he’s going to be alone. If it’s just him things will be much easier. If not, well, you probably want to make sure you have your commlink on. Plus, if he came by train, tailing him by train is going to be really difficult. It’s going to be a bit suspicious if I’m getting on and off at the same spots he does. And if he’s even half as paranoid as I am about this shit, he’s going to take a very circuitous route to get back to where he needs to be, so that it can both be easier to make and lose any tail he has.
And if he comes in via a vehicle, well vehicle tailing isn’t much easier, and my skills in driving a vehicle are pretty much only good enough to escape in a pinch. I would unlikely be able to reliably tail someone that way. We’d be better to toss a tracking beacon on the vehicle instead.
Really, it’d probably be better if we could somehow apprehend him before he leaves the station, and try to interrogate him or mind drain him, or whatever to get the location out. Then once we confirm the location is good, we can kill him, since we’re under contract to do so.
Don’t believe so. I’m not much good with one. And if we miss, it’s pretty much all over. We’re going to hit an innocent which will alert everyone.
Probably what we need to do is have someone put up a distraction which should draw everyone’s attention away from Chaggo, then one of us can take out Chaggo when noone’s looking. At close range there should be enough time to get two shots from a narcoject pistol or some similar method before Chaggo or anyone else gets a clue. Plus, narcoject is usually silent and leaves no blood trail. Chaggo goes down, we drag him out of there as if he’s drunk.
That’s assuming he comes alone, if he comes with a group, well…ummm…I’m working on that.
Don’t stay back with Fortnight. We don’t know what we’re going into and we’re going to want everyone around for support. And everyone should have a commlink they can subvocalize into. We need to be able to communicate what’s going on.
And I don’t want Fortnight dead, even if it is the safest plan. He gave us what we needed to know; I will not get a reputation as a ruthless killer. We’ll have McManus babysit him if the rest of you don’t have any better ideas. We’ll make sure he’s secured so that McManus doesn’t have to worry too much, plus he might cut us a break on the price. But we don’t want to just tie him up and leave him somewhere. There’s way too much chance of him escaping, and while I think we put the fear of gods in him enough that he’s unlikely to double-cross us, I’d rather not add any additional risks to this mission when they’re wholly unnecessary. We have enough things that are out of our direct control here. Let’s at least try to secure the ones we do have control over.
But I think our discussion here is pretty much over. We need to collect our things and Fortnight. One of us will need to take Fornight’s bike. I’ll ride mine. I assume Kirk is fine to ride hers now. I can take you to a place we’re we can meet with McManus.
Oh, and if any of you have any first aid skills, there’s a mook in the main building who’s in pretty bad shape. I handed them my medkit to see if would help them, and left Donovan to watch them, but I lack any training in that stuff beyond band aids and tourniquets. We should probably get the rest of the stuff and clear out. It’s only a matter of time before people start nosing around here.
“I’ve picked up a thing or two here and there. I’ll go take a look.” Nail picks up his cards and heads towards the main room. Peeking his head back in the room after he leaves, he says, “Oh, and dibs on the bike.”
Seneth to the group:
I can definitely see us capturing Chaggo if we plan properly. How can we do this without ending up in a massive battle?
Seneth to Goethe:
I have no idea what a commlink is. Subvocalize? Meaning what?
Also, can I try those skinlinked glasses soon?
When Nail enters the congregation area of the building, he finds the injured ganger being supported by the other two unhurt Two Weeks Truce members. The TWT lackeys have used some hemorrhage retardant chemicals from the medkit to stop the bleeding, but it’s clear the man needs professional care beyond Nail’s expertise.
Donovan is watching over the gang with cold indifference. The human hostage Nail previously knocked out has regained consciousness, and together the 3 relatively unhurt gangers are watching over their friend.
The unhurt ork stands as Nail enters the room. “Let us carry him out of here,” the ork says. “We’ll get him away from here and call for a Doc Wagon* to help him. Nobody will know you’re here, I swear.”
Negative modifiers for the severity of the TWT member’s injury have reduced Nail’s first aid dice pool to zero. He can attempt to heal the man using Edge, but it wouldn’t be likely to succeed. It’s likely the ganger will die.
*Doc Wagon is a company that provides a service that is the equivalent of ambulances in the New World. Shadowrunners and gang members have prepaid Doc Wagon contracts which entitle them to emergency medical care in the (very likely) event of serious injury. This injured human apparently has a Doc Wagon contract.
Nail glances over at Donovan and then back to the ork. “Alright.” He begins walking back towards the others. “Sorry about your friend,” he adds in a low voice.
Now back in the main room, he says, “I think it’s time we hit the road.” Nail walks over to Fortnight’s bike and turns the key. Turning to Fortnight, he says in a much brighter voice, “Don’t worry. I’m just borrowing this.”
Once the gangers have left, Donovan will take his lucky assault rifle and make the trek to the company car. He’ll follow to the meet with McManus.
Unless any group members object, I will introduce McManus and his Shadowrunner safehouse later this afternoon, at approximately 4pm PST. If anyone wants to wrap anything up in the Zion building before the next scene, you’ll have the next 8 hours or so to post it. Approximately 25 minutes of in-game time will pass, simulating travel time to McManus’ place.
Goethe to Senneth:
"Subvocalize. Pretty much most commlinks can pick up your voice at a low volume. So rather than announcing to the world what you’re saying, only those immediately by you will have any clue, and that’s only if they really care to listen. We all need to be able to be in constant comm with each other if we’re going to pull this off. Commlinks are easy enough to get; McManus probably has a few lying around if you guys lack them. The drawback is, they’re not all that difficult to hack, but it still takes some effort, the first of which is figuring out which channel you’re broadcasting on, and then you still have to crack the encryption, which is usually rotating. Unless someone is actively surveilling us, they’re unlikely to intercept our communications.
"Jamming them, on the other hand, is considerably easier, but typically that’s just brute force. Anyone jamming all comms in the area is going to be searched out by security very quickly. And if our comms are being jammed, well, we know something more than a typical runner recruiting meeting is going down.
“As far as my glasses, sure, try them on now.”
To the group:
“I’m going to pick up my pistol dropped back there and grab the extra guns and ammo. I figure McManus can get us a few cred for the salvaged firearms. I’ll be on my bike, the rest of you can follow me to the safehouse. Fortnight will ride in Donovan’s car bound up so he doesn’t try anything funny. McManus probably won’t be all that happy about having to rotate a safehouse out this early, once we take Fortnight there, but he changes these things up pretty frequently anyway. It’s a pretty economical deal. A bunch of us runner customers of his throw some extra nuyen his way and he gets us essentially squatters rights to bare-bones accommodations. It sure beats leading people to your own home. And while it’s far from the Ritz, you’ll at least get a decent enough night’s sleep to lick your wounds. And there’s typically a few permanent squatters there–at least as permanent as the safehouse itself is is operation, so there’s usually some form of protective measures taken against the outside, at least enough that you won’t be bagged in your sleep.”
The salvaged items from the Zion building battle aren’t exactly a treasure trove, but they might be worth something.
In total, there are four light pistols, two machine pistols, two low-quality assault rifles, and a couple of cheap department-store style commlinks. They might be worth 200 credits altogether if the group attempts to fence the items. Carrying the assault rifles could be dangerous, as obvious weapons are frowned upon in “civilized” public places like Corp District. They can be stored in Donovan’s car without much risk though.
When Goethe hands Seneth his high-tech skinlink glasses, a concerning “pop” is heard from the within the circuitry. There’s no obvious damage though, and they still seem to be in working order.
When Seneth puts the glasses on, his senses are overwhelmed by stimulus and he immediately suffers severe vertigo. Seneth falls to the ground vomiting, and suffers 1 stun damage from the ordeal. Goethe takes the glasses back, and notices a tiny switch on the glasses is flipped in between the “on” and “off” position, which causes the ultraviolet detection ability to flicker in and out, with nauseating results.
The switch seems to be stuck in the awkward position, but maybe Kirk can repair the issue after she gets some rest?
Seneth rolled a critical glitch while attempting to use the glasses.
The group arrives at an old storage facility on 96th and Bothell, where McManus is running a temporary safehouse. Two mean-looking cyborgs, a dwarf and an elf, stand next to a sign that reads “Sherlock.” Crude graffiti under the word reads “no shit?” at the bottom of the sign. The area is fenced off with a wrought-iron gate, with only a single entrance.
Nobody in the group recognizes the cyborgs. When the elf stops you and speaks, his voice sounds hollow and almost far-away. “We’re closed,” he says. He turns, obviously deliberately displaying a chromed heavy pistol with state of the art smartlink system in a quick-draw holster.
“Unless you got an appointment,” the elf adds.