[Zweiblumen]

I hope everyone enjoys thier holiday.  I'm not going anywhere so will be as available as anyone needs

[rednblack]

To my knowledge Ace doesn't have any ¥

Dice rolls for town:

Etiquette in town (no corp specialty): 8d6t5 3

Perception (Looking for Tail): 10d6t5 3

I imagine that this trip will be a pretty quick in and out.  Ace will request the driver's expertise on good places to go, and will give him a 20% tip when they get back to the house.  Ace will be running the Josh Adams SIN.  I'm tempted to check in to a hotel or clinic in town with the James Anderson SIN to see if that draws any baddies but it's probably best to wait to do that until we're close to being ready to leave. 

@Tecumseh, I'm not sure what you have planned for town, so should I just RP the whole thing and get us back to the house, or are you wanting to provide a certain feel/locations/etc. for town and I should hold off or just get us to town proper?

[Tecumseh]

@rednblack, have your IC post get us into town and maybe to our first destination. Maybe point out a car for Doc to hack. Finding a good candidate won't be hard. Also, please note what you are carrying into town with you (weapons, gear, etc.).

@Zweiblumen, go ahead and hack if you like. You can also post what you learned from your research if you so choose. The results I sent you would come up before the end of the 12-hour threshold.

@8-bit and Poindexter can work on the coded messages to and from "Mom".

@Malevolence, I see you're checking things off your list. Nice. The location history of your commlink doesn't reveal anything. Perhaps you had that functionality turned off or were actively deleting it prior to your crash. You can investigate Gloria's body ICly via the astral, if you want. Let me know what other locations you might want to visit.

[8-bit]

You know, I don't think Chino ever did look at his commlink. I seem to remember it was a burner from somewhere, but maybe it will have some information. Looking through previous IC and OOC just to make sure.

Edit: Found it.

As you plug your commlink into DNI and check the contents, you quickly notice that you have no SIN. You suspect this is a burner, as there are no contacts or accounts or anything on it. You see a lot of phone calls to and from the device, but the recipients are just commcodes without names attached.

I'm curious if any of the phone calls or messages, if there are any, seem similar to Uncle Sam's messages with "Mom". Might give us more fuel to figure out this code.

[Tecumseh]

Chino's commlink looks like it is about a month old. Cross-referencing the commcode numbers, you find that they are for Sam, Ohanzee, and Doc. Breaking down the call frequency, you'd say that it's 60% to/from Doc, 30% Sam, and 10% Ohanzee.

You're not sure why their names aren't listed as contacts, although perhaps it was for operational security since the Renraku Sensei is not a terribly secure device. Maybe you just recognized their commcodes.

You don't show any calls to or from Ace/APB/Katsina. Nor do you have any calls to/from Mom. If Doc and Ohanzee check they'll see that they don't have any direct contact with Mom either. Looks like it all goes through Sam. You do note that there usually seems to be a quick conference call with the team shortly shortly before Sam messages Mom.

[Zweiblumen]

Do I have anything to reference this?  If so, I'll want to do some more digging on that device!

[Tecumseh]

What's the question? You want to dig around on Chino's commlink? If you want to read the messages to and from Mom then Sam already shared those. You can follow the link in my last OOC post to the relevant IC post.

[Zweiblumen]

You said over the past month he's contacted me ~60% of the time.  Was this on my old deck or some commlink?  Also, you said when we (chino/ohanzee/sam/doc) check, the only one with a 'mom' contact is sam.  What did I check to see that on?

[Tecumseh]

Doc is on a new deck so he doesn't have any record of those calls with Chino on his side (since his old deck was shot up). But Chino and Doc will recognize his Doc's old commcode, even if it's not in use anymore.

Doc doesn't have any records of contact Mom on his new cyberdeck, which is hardly a surprise.

Doc's knowledge of this assumes that Chino shares his call records with Doc, which I presumed he would but is technically up to 8-bit.

[rednblack]

Can Ace and Katsina duck into the apartment building, or are there locks on the front door?  Also, what can you tell me about said apartment building?  I'm just looking for general income bracket, security measure in place, etc. kind of info.  Using the specifically looking bonus on perception test to check for security measures.

Perception Test Apartment building: 10d6t5 5

Wasting my good dice on a throw-away roll.  Such is life.

In other news, it was nice knowing you chummers.  Please write while Ace is in lockup. 

[8-bit]

Damn, I knew Chino should have gone with you.

And yeah, Chino is sharing with Doc. It's a burner anyways, and we're all working together, so there's nothing to hide.

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how to start the IC talk, and I'm in the middle of writing a paper, so I haven't started trying to puzzle out the code.

[Tecumseh]

In any other city, the apartment building would look solidly Middle lifestyle. In Aspen, it's definitely on the low end of the scale and you're mildly surprised it hasn't been blown up to be replaced by luxury condominiums. But for now it exists.

Ace, with his eagle vision, spies a maglock on the front door. There's a security camera in the lobby. Given that the man said that he's seen Ace go in and out of the building, it's possible that Ace has access without knowing it.

The men look like they are in construction. Strong, tough guys, but not necessarily fighters.

The men are close enough (say 20-25 meters) that it might be a race if you try to run for the front door. Ace, with his hydraulic jacks, is going to smoke anyone in a foot race. Katsina, however, will be left in Ace's dust, but for the moment they seem more interested in Ace than Katsina.

[Malevolence]

Once I have arranged for the mask, I will visit Gloria's house and her body, as well as keep tabs on Ace and Kat.


Which means I'll be checking in to the meat world frequently to catch up on text messages and send my own. Or I might just Manifest or chat with Katsina/Chino since presumably they can communicate with me from the Astral.


As an aside, the roll to find the ballistic mask included finding black market dealers, right? Or do I need to roll separately for that? I obviously don't want this linked to me, even on a burner SIN, and I don't want to put my contacts at risk by openly communicating with them (especially as they might be under surveillance if they were known associates).


Also, if anyone else wants stuff with availability, submit the list to Ohanzee and he'll see what he can do. Make sure you have the funds to cover it or can  borrow from another teammate. Again, I suggest something to hide your face and a micro-transceiver. This assumes that Tecumseh is okay with Ohanzee doing this for the team - I remember reading somewhere (maybe Missions play?) that some GMs did not like the Face shopping for the entire party in order to encourage contact use or something, but considering our circumstances with regards to contacts this might not apply.


Here's a couple Assensing rolls for Gloria and her home:
Sneaking Astrally [Sneaking 3 + Agility 5 - Wounds 1]: 7d6t5 4
Assensing Gloria's House [Intuition 4 + Assensing 4 - Wounds 1]: 7d6t5 2
Assensing Gloria's Body [Intuition 4 + Assensing 4 - Wounds 1]: 7d6t5 2
Astral Overwatch (Ace & Katsina) [Intuition 4 + Assensing 4 - Wounds 1]: 7d6t5 2


The first roll was amazing, the other three fairly average. Though I don't know if I should be using Logic in place of Agility for Astral Stealth. If so, drop dice as you see fit (two dice difference).


I'll do an IC with the purchasing, location history search, and the astral looking around once I have the info I need.


Also, depending on time frames, Ohanzee might be available to participate in the potential fight. If needed he can drop the Air spirit and summon something more appropriate, but he would be loathe to unless absolutely necessary - it was a tough summon and he doesn't want to give up the cover. So chances are he'd just watch from astral until things are dire before jumping in with more than a Manifestation and a "Boo!". I could try Con from the astral - "I have an army of spirits ready to unleash if you don't move along", but again, it all depends on whether I am party to this engagement or not.

[rednblack]

Alright, let's see if Ace is scary.  I took +1 for being intimidating looking, as I figure he's there, but low on the scale.

Intimidation: CHA 4 +INT 1 + (Physically Imposing) 1 +(Character wielding weapon) 2: 8d6t5 5

[Tecumseh]

@Malevolence
No problems with Ohanzee doing the shopping / Availability rolling, even remotely. However, you won't be tapping into the black markets without contacts, like Vinny the Bear. The actual purchase of the mask can be done by Katsina acting as "Ivana", since her SIN is already at risk and since she might be the one actually picking up the mask. People in Aspen have their assistants pick up things all the time so the discrepancy between who calls and who picks it up is not noteworthy. It might be for Restricted gear, but everything you've ordered is legal and not tracked any more extensively than your average can of BUZZ!BLITZ soda.

Since you already successfully rolled for the Availability 6 ballistic mask I'll let you piggyback on that roll to get anything else you want Availability 6 or lower as long as it isn't R or F. Restricted items are not necessarily off-limits but will definitely require a SIN check.

Logic probably makes more sense for Astral stealth than Agility.

Ohanzee can communicate with Ace if he manifests. Ohanzee and Katsina can also communicate on the astral. If Ohanzee is tailing them now, Katsina would (mentally) wave him off, say things are under control, and tell him to keep an eye on the obelisk or go investigate Gloria. But if you continue tracking them let me know so I can account for it.

I'll tackle the rest of your stuff later tonight.

@rednblack
The goons outnumber you and they are physically imposing themselves so that costs you 4 dice. Remarkably that only costs you 1 hit so you're still left with 4. Nice rolling.

Charisma 3 + Willpower 2 + Liquid Courage 2 = 7 dice = 2 hits