[Malevolence]

I'm not sure what they were using for their "detection match". We didn't see them ping us on the astral so they must have identified a matrix device or something, though the "matrix contact" didn't come until later. It might have been handy to have the commlinks from Johnson 1 and 2 to see who THEY were communicating with, but oh well.


The folks in the chopper likely belong to whoever we stole this from. The folks that just attacked us were likely affiliated with Katsina, or from some third organization that opposed her. She'd have to check in with Dalia to be sure one way or another. Multiple people want this artifact, no doubt. Those we took it from want it back, those we took it for obviously want it, and those that sent Katsina to waylay us are also interested. Them referring to it as an "idol" and Katsina's comment about destroying it destroying the world means we have religious significance applied to it. The Nately's appearing to be part of some secret organization makes me think we've landed ourselves in some secret cult turf war over the item, though it may be utterly unrelated. But something is niggling the back of my mind and making me think they aren't.


Gloria worked for the Altantean Foundation, so that might be another avenue to explore for info. Heck, breaking in to her files at the Aspen IT&T might prove useful though I suspect they probably have a pretty good host, so it was probably something we should have attempted while in Aspen where we could have gained physical access.


The nanites add a third player - between cults and secret organizations, we also have inscrutable machines with their own unknown agenda. Probably should have taken the time to do an Assensing check on our attackers to see if any of them harbored the infection. Probably not if they were all contractors.


Rereading the communication sequence I think the entire conversation depicted was before the engagement. I had read "spirits out" to coincide with them appearing in the RV, but I think this was all prep before they attacked. Which means the matrix contact is ... no, still confusing. Them detecting our hidden icons? Detecting Ohanzee flipping his gear out of running silent? Either way, I suppose it makes more sense than before.

[Zweiblumen]

Well, they knew about the artifact, so that means that they were hired by someone who knew we had it... KE probably wouldn't hire runners to come after us, that's kinda their thing... Which leaves the people we stole it from, and the people who hired us to steal it.  The MO is interesting here in that there are obviously two groups comming together, which is the same as Kat/Ace/APB and Ohanzee/Sam/Chino/Doc.  Might be barking up a tree here, but lets see what Doc thinks about those theories:

Corporate Security 2 + log 9 = 11: 11d6t5 3
Defaulting on runner tactics log -1 = 8: 8d6t5 1

Well, defaulting didn't work out so well, but better than nothing!
Still working on my IC post.

And looks like you guys have figured more out while I was in transit.  I'll leave this as is anyway.

[Poindexter]

I feel like if they had been after Katsina, they'd have come heavier.

Geez, man, how much heavier do you want? Okay, next time it'll be 8 fire spirits instead of 4.

I'm officially shutting up about the level of our opposition from now on.

[Malevolence]

Thing is they knew Kat, but didn't expect the rest of us. Kat was planted before the artifact was stolen (she might have met up with us after it was stolen, but she was tasked with finding us before we started our run, while it was still in the planning phases). My guess is that they work for the same group she does, and that she failed to check in and they assumed she went rogue and took the artifact for herself. It's also possible that they found out about her mission to interfere with our mission and planned to steal it from her after she stole it form us, but that makes my brain hurt more, so I'm sticking with the first guess.

[Poindexter]

Kat was planted before the artifact was stolen

I doubt it. Nobody on Sam's team had any contact record with her during the planning phase of this job. Everyone elses goes back for months.

[Zweiblumen]

@Poindexter: I'm leaving an opening for Sam to get treated in my IC.  I'll leave it open ended so you can let Sam get treated or not.  Feel free to have Doc react either way to your response.  If you rebuff him again, he'll respond with something along the lines of "your loss chummer, believe it or not, I'm just here to help."  If you accept, he respond with something along the lines of "good, a healthy you leads a better chance of a healthy me."

[Poindexter]

@Poindexter: I'm leaving an opening for Sam to get treated in my IC.  I'll leave it open ended so you can let Sam get treated or not.  Feel free to have Doc react either way to your response.  If you rebuff him again, he'll respond with something along the lines of "your loss chummer, believe it or not, I'm just here to help."  If you accept, he respond with something along the lines of "good, a healthy you leads a better chance of a healthy me."

If you mean you're having Doc ask again if Sam needs medical attention, Just have Sam answer "Are we not working with limited supplies? I tell you friend, I'm not hit."

Am i OOC correct that we're working with limited medical supplies?

[Zweiblumen]

AFAIK we've got plenty of supplies.  Not infinit, but definitely enough to take care of the damage you've taken.  That said, you can ignore it and if you can get to sleep before we have another encounter you'll probably heal it all off tonight.

[Poindexter]

ok, well scratch that then. If we've actually got more than enough to go around AND enough to take care of 3-4 seriously injured amnesiacs after the next fight, then Sam will agree to the medkit. He still wants a nap though.

[Zweiblumen]

Naps are good... Doc wants one too

[Poindexter]

I'll get a short response posted up soon.

[Zweiblumen]

And honestly, if you think Tec is gonna let us get to sleep, you'll recover over night (especially if I do a medicine roll for folks before going to sleep).  If we are gonna have to fight our way to a place to sleep, then not so much

[Zweiblumen]

And he's gonna start repairing his deck based on this:

If you have a device with Matrix damage, you can re- pair it with a toolkit, an hour of work, and a Hardware + Logic [Mental] test. Every hit you get can be used to either remove one box of Matrix damage or cut the time required in half; the first die spent toward time re- duces the time to half an hour, the second to 15 min- utes, and so on, to a minimum of one Combat Turn (3 seconds). Bricked or not, the device is off-line and un- usable during the repair process.

Repairing deck (Hardware 5 + Logic 9 = 14): 14d6t5 4
2 hits to reduce the time, and 2 hits to repair.  Taking me down to 8 points of damage.

It doesn't state in the rules if once an item is bricked if it needs to be fully repaired before it's useable again, just that wether it was bricked or not, when you are repairing it's off line.  I'd argue that it does need to be fully repaired except for Matrix Damage section where it states:

Unlike other forms of damage, there is no penalty for having Matrix damage until your Matrix Condition Mon- itor is completely filled.

BUT, it doesn't say anything about once it's completely filled how much you have to repair to get it functional again
Either, way I've repaired 2 boxes of damage.  If I can use it, awesome, if I can't cool.  I'll roll another repair ruoll when I know I'll have more time to devote to fixing it again

[Malevolence]

Kat was planted before the artifact was stolen

I doubt it. Nobody on Sam's team had any contact record with her during the planning phase of this job. Everyone elses goes back for months.

My wording may have been awkward, but I was saying that she was on to our plan and tasked to intercept us even before we stole the artifact (from her conversation with Daria - all OOC knowledge for us, of course). When we actually met her for the first time is an open question. She may have joined us on the job, intercepted us during the job, or hijacked us after (the exfil footage we have supports this), but she was in Aspen and recruiting in preparation of interacting with us prior to Jan 31.


Another option presents itself that she may have been completely unaware of us and simply ran in to us in a cosmic coincidence where we were trying to steal the same object at the same time. In this case, there would have likely been some window of opportunity in obtaining the artifact that we both exploited.


I'm really pretty bummed that APB is gone because she might have provided us with more pieces to the puzzle.

[rednblack]

@Mal, I just need to say that I think your analysis of the info that we've got has been really good.  Good thinking, man. 

Other than that, I have nothing to add at this time.  Let's just not forget to have Doc check out that pic.