[Beta]

Good luck with your classes, Lorebane! 

And to clarify the IC:  Jawsey's body is in the car, his astral form is out scouting.  After seeing the cat situation he returns to his body to let others know, then he goes back to the astral, finding Bobby and then scouting the flanking units.

[Tecumseh]

I'm ready to IC post but I'm hoping to get some additional details before doing so:

1)   Does Mato have to interact with anyone on his way up to the fourth floor balcony?
2)   How many people are on the fourth floor balcony?
2b) Is anyone reacting to Bobby being there?
3)   What type of lock is on the door the unit?
4)   What are the walls made out of?

For #3, Mato is willing to try the door handle before picking it, reasoning that they might not bother locking it because everyone knows better than to enter a unit with a hellhound in it.

For #4, Mato has an R4 Radar Sensor in his cyberleg, a nifty piece of tech from Chrome Flesh which basically lets him see through walls, "if in a vague, blocky manner." Here's the relevant passage:

The radio pulses are able to pass through most solid matter, allowing the user to “look” through walls, clothes, and similar obstructions to see the outlines of what lies beyond. While individuals cannot be recognized at the resolution of the processing, shapes can give some suggestion of what items might be... The radar sensor uses the same Visibility modifiers as ultrasound but can penetrate a cumulative Structure Rating equal to its own Rating x 5. Thus, a Rating 2 radar sensor can penetrate two Rating 5 walls, or a single Rating 10 wall, or three Rating 3 walls, etc.

I'm guessing the walls are around Rating 10 (brick, plascrete) which means that I should be able to see through them and perhaps some internal walls (Rating 2, drywall, plaster) on the other side. Range is 20 meters.

In conjunction with Jawsey's scouting, that might provide us with a view of what's in the neighboring units, as well as confirming the suspected contents of the middle unit.

[Tecumseh]

Thanks for the IC, Lorebane.

Let's see if Mato can pick the lock.

Step 1, remove the casing: Locksmith + Agility [Physical] (Maglock Rating x 2, 1 Combat Turn)
Step 2, check for anti-tamper system, and disable if necessary:  Locksmith + Agility [Physical] (anti-tamper system rating)
Step 3, rewiring the circuit: Locksmith + Agility [Physical] (Maglock Rating x 2, 1 Combat Turn)

Step 1: Agility 10 + Locksmith 5 + Maglocks specialization 2: 17d6t5 7 hits, beats the required 6 hits so that's done in 3 seconds
Step 2: if necessary, Agility 10 + Locksmith 5 + Maglocks specialization 2: 17d6t5 5 hits, exceeds the maximum anti-tamper rating of 4, so that's defeated, if applicable
Step 3: Agility 10 + Locksmith 5 + Maglocks specialization 2: 17d6t5 4 hits, luck gives out so this needs a second test, Agility 10 + Locksmith 5 + Maglocks specialization 2 - Second Test 1: 16d6t5 7 hits

I'm a little disappointed at step 3 but it's certainly not the worst treatment that the roller has given us. Sounds like I've got the door unlocked in 10-15 seconds.

Next steps
- Put on ballistic mask
- Toss Salisbury steak inside, take cover and evaluate the hellhound's interest
- If the hellhound eats the steak, then try to slip past as quickly as possible
- If the hellhound doesn't take the bait, signal a countdown to Jawsey
- I'll probably lead with a flash-bang, as the chained dog can't escape it, and it should soften it up nicely for Jawsey

[gilga]

Nice find on the radar sensor! Seems really useful.

P.S Another approach is to simply hack the lock and command it to open, perhaps a bit less messy/drawing attention. You do as if you swing a card in there and we'll open it remotely.  Since AM is not there, just ping her if you are interested.

PPS: Grandes on the hound is a bit loud - perhaps something more subtle if Steak fails?

[Beta]

agreed on the grenade front -- noisy, and I'm not sure how safe our target would be?

I'm happy for Jawsey to go in and see how it goes (which may result in hell hound noises but those probably happen sometimes anyway?)  If nothing else perhaps he weakens the hound enough that it could be finished off with something stealthier/safer to the target?

@lorebane: to speed things up, if there are not additional surprises you can let us know if this is a normal hell hound, or its stats, and we can roll both sides of the combat (or as many passes as you want us to go).

[Tecumseh]

Honestly, I can think of several different ways to do this. That's a good thing.

Since the maglock is wireless, AM can hack it remotely if gilga wants to make those rolls.

I wasn't worried about keeping it subtle. I figured if we had to drop the hell hound then that was going to be a noisy process one way or another. I'm guessing that hell hounds are loud while you KO them. And, even if they aren't, Bobby was talking about being a gorilla at some point. That's a good distraction, and a way to draw attention away from the prisoner walking out the front door, but it's not exactly low-key.

I was thinking that the metal cubicle walls (which are evidently enough to keep magical flames at bay) would contain the blast from the flash-bang. If the GM plays things tight then maybe there's some rebound off the ceiling, but flash-bangs don't play well with the chunky salsa rules since, by RAW, their effect does not diminish with distance. (I personally house rule that, but that's a separate conversation.) If we are playing with chunky salsa rules, then a flash-bang in an enclosed space should waste the hell hound promptly.

I can think of several other possibilities too but I'm trying to keep things on track rather than getting derailed onto tangents.

So, next steps?

1) AM hacks
2) Mato throws a soy steak
3) proceed based on the results of #2

[Jack_Spade]

Personally, I'm for a smash and grab should the hacking not work out.
I can take the gorilla form in case we need the distraction.

[gilga]

Well, I think that I need the control device action, but I skimped on Electronic warfare due to a design flaw.
(Matrix is a bit confusing when you try to figure out exactly what you need. I usually get everything and never get to use some of these skills.)

I was under the impression that I only needed computers/hacking for the sleaze path (no data spiking and such),
(control device is not in my cheat sheet even).  In any case, I'll buy a few points with karma when but we don't have a hacking option right now.

[Jack_Spade]

You can trace the owner marks, get a MARK on them and just spoof the lock
(or you can try the new reckless hacking action and take a 5 dice penalty to do it without first finding the owner and spoof it directly)

[gilga]

Well if that work let's try it:
Spoof Command (-5): 9d6t5 1 Common! Evil dice let's not alert them right away.  Edge it. 
Spoof Command (-5): 8d6t5 4

Open Sesame!

[Beta]

@Jack_Spade: I'm waiting on how the fake-steak works with the hell-hound .... but you know what?  I can probably write up an IC that allows for either reaction, and did you really want to count on the HH staying passified while bringing the boy out? 

It will be a few hours before I'm around my books to look up the hell hound stats again, but then I'll just state my assumptions and make my rolls and post something.

[Jack_Spade]

I actually thought the steak would be the distraction you need to attack from the astral with a surprise attack. If the hound doesn't go down with one strike, Bobby can go for a subdual attack (effectively choke the dog out)

Stats for hellhounds are:

B A R S W L I C E ESS M
6 4 5 6 4 2 4 3 3 6 5
Initiative 10 + 3D6
Movement x2/x6/+4
Condition Monitor 11/10
Limits Physical 8, Mental 4, Social 6
Armor 2
Skills Exotic Ranged Weapon 4, Intimidation 3,
Perception 3, Running 4, Sneaking 5, Tracking 5,
Unarmed Combat 3
Powers Armor 2, Dual Natured, Elemental Attack (Fire),
Enhanced Senses (Hearing, Low-Light Vision,
Smell), Fear, Immunity to Fire, Natural Weapon
(Bite: DV (STR+1)P, AP –1)

They aren't that impressive in a one on one fight - especially if you are in close combat with them.

[Beta]

thanks for the stats.  I'll still not post that for a while, sorry -- will wait until I'm home from work.

[Lorebane24]

What was that die rolling app you guys were using again?  I'll probably need it pretty soon.

[Tecumseh]

The steak only needs to buy a few seconds for Mato to get around the corner and into cover. Then, there's a second steak for the way out. This is the approach that the Halloweeners use to tend to the kid.

Using the steak to alpha strike the hell hound is also fine. If that's what we do then it's probably safer for Mato to stick-n-shock the dog since 1) Mato is armored, and 2) Bobby is not. Plus we don't have to worry about friendly fire since Jawsey will be hammering from the astral while we work on the physical.

Damn, hell hounds have good initiative.

@Lorebane We use orokos.com