[Tecumseh]

I tried attending language classes while working full-time and even that didn't work. Maybe if I didn't have a desk job where I'm using my brain, but after a day of work the last thing I want to do is homework, or to concentrate on something intellectually demanding. My friends who worked their way through their Master's degrees said that they gave 70% to school and 70% to work, which meant that they were 40% overtaxed and getting the most out of neither. Never seemed like a good trade to me.
Back to some of the questions that I asked previously:

- What's the half-oval at the bottom of the drawing? Is that the camera?
- What's the circle and squiggles toward the top? I presume the circle is the bucket and the squiggles are the small pile of nutrisoy packs and the bottle water on the floor
- What's the rectangle? I presume this is the cot with the severely-bruised Yin
- Do the cubicle walls go to the ceiling?
- Where do we think the hellhound is? Chained behind the cubicle walls to the west (up in the newest drawing) so that it can flame the two east-west (up/down) corridors?
- So we're assuming that Yin doesn't step out the door to the southeast (bottom-left) to escape because the hellhound will barbecue him from the southwest (upper-left)?

[Lorebane24]

Yes, the little oval is the camera.

Good question on the cubicle walls.  They do NOT go to the ceiling.  The ceiling here is about 10 feet up, and these are about 8 feet high.  They seem pretty sturdy for cubicles, each being designed to stand on its own, non-reliant of its "wall"s connecting to others.

You can make out some shadows and the occasional flame spouting up from the cubicle.  Based on where they appear, you would guess the hound is chained up to the left of the door that opens onto the walkway.  The camera is perched directly over the other door, so you can't see the state of it, but since the kid hasn't just walked out you would guess that it's kept locked or barricaded.

[Beta]

I think we have plan now?  If I grasped everything (and I may not have) plan A looks like this:
1-   Bobby turns into something that flies and flies onto the roof of the tenement
2-   Mato(?) goes into Stuffer Shack, buys some crap and sees if there is anything that might distract a normal cat, and if there is he goes in between the storage containers and the ‘abandoned’ squat and tosses it on the ground.
3-   Mato goes and buys a hit a from the dealers under the gazebo
4-   Mato takes the hit and the junk he bought at Stuffer Shack and heads to the tenement apartments (probably going up the fire escape on the north side?), and heads up like he’s meeting someone.
5-   AM/Jawsey open up the smuggling compartment (I presume it is the classic ‘under the back seat’?)
6-   Jawsey summons a spirit of man
7-   AM casts and sustains increased intuition on Jawsey (and maybe also on his spirit?)  Jawsey maybe also pops a dose of Psyche, then goes astral and keeps an eye on Mato’s progress.
8-   When Mato is on to the fourth floor walkway, Jawsey astrally enters the apartment and attacks the hellhound, hopefully killing it but at the least weakening it. 
   -If kills it and has time before Mato comes in, manifests and tells the kid that help is coming.
  -If he is too hurt and can’t finish it, will manifest and warn Mato/Bobby
9-   Mato hurries to the door, and opens it (picks the lock, mini-welder, kicks it in … whatever works). 
10-   Bobby turns into a gorilla or something else good at climbing/carrying, and quickly drops down to the fourth floor walkway.
11-   Mato and Bobby enter the apartment, finishing off the hellhound if necessary.  At this point Jawsey returns to his body, tells AM she can drop her spells, and she drives the car closer (near the tenement offic?)
12-   Mato and Bobby deal with the situation in the apartment, taking care of any other issues and freeing the boy if he is chained or whatever.  Then they get the boy out, either under his own power or carried by Bobby.  They signal if they’ll need a levitate or have it under control.
13-   Exit A is down to the roof of the tenement office (Bobby can probably jump down far (~six metres?) and catch the boy if Bobby dangles and drops him?  Then they can repeat to the ground beside the car.  Else they call for the slower levitate option on the boy or one or more of them.  AM stays sharp on where she may need to move the car, depending if they have to take a different exit (along the walkway, up and over the roof, etc).  She also gets ready to provide counter spells if their sorcerer shows up.
14-   If no levitate was needed, Jawsey crawls into the smuggling compartment while the others come down the building, to clear a seat for faster loading of the car.  If levitate is needed Bobby changes shape again maybe, either to something small that can squeeze in or something that can fly and get out of here on his own.
15-   AM guns it and gets away from the area
16-   Profit.

Questions:
a)   I forget what features the car had besides a smuggling compartment, I think a license spoofer?  I presume we are running that already?
b)   Is there a better extraction point than right beside the office (which is also near the gazebo), where extra forces may be quick to respond? What are the trade-offs?
c)   If Mato is intercepted on his approach, does he turn back, or fight his way through?
d)   Do we have a way to scrub the whole operation if things start going sideways for one of us?
e)     Are we worried about the one person with the fancy matrix persona?  Could be a decker/'mancer on the 'Weeners side?

[Beta]

And looking forward, I'd love for us to find a way to break into the Father's apartment and get a look at his notes on the walls.  Stealing his (probable) card would be too obvious, but copying information is potentially unnoticed.

[Jack_Spade]

Works for me.

a) changing license plates and spoof chip
b) we can extract him over the roof and down the north side. There shouldn't be a direct line of sight from the parking lot if we keep close to the wall.
c) I think Mato can subdue anyone with just one hit silently - I'm for the fight option
d) Nope, we'll just have to fight our way through and rely on Edge
e) The worst that can happen is that he notices the camera spoof. By the time we need it, he won't have enough time to do anything about it.

[Beta]

Just to get rolls out of the way while I have a moment

Try 1, calling Red Jacket Boy, force 2
summon spirit of man (bgc 1): 4d6t5 0
spirit resist: 2d6t5 1
drain resist vs 2: 13d6t5 6
he won't show, but no drain

Try 2, calling Sam, force 3 (due to typo while putting in roll data)
summon spirit (bgc1): 4d6t5 1
sp resist: 3d6t5 1
drain resist vs 2: 13d6t5 4
same

OK, four dice isn't cutting it, will edge summon roll, and also go for force 3 again (oversummon)
Try 3, Calling TheHunchedLadyWithIronTeeth
edged summon (bcg1): 8d6h5 6
spirit resits: 3d6t5 2
drain resist: 13d6t5 3
Four services, but one point of physical damage. (isn't it the way of drain rolls to be excellent when you don't need them to be good, and below average when you need them?)

Force 3 spirit of man (optional power=levitate spell), four services. 

ETA: I'd forgotten the house rules about spirits; she'll only use 'manipulation' like processes, not actually fight :-/   So I won't be getting the friend in combat bonus.  May get used just for manipulations spells, we'll see.

stun: 0, phys: 1, edge 2/4.

[Tecumseh]

A pretty solid plan; thank you for typing it all up. Some comments and possible revisions:

1 - Maybe Bobby flies to the west side of the fourth floor balcony. I'm not sure going to the roof benefits us at all. If we think we can slip away covertly, and if we don't need him to carry anything, then he could either fly away or he could transform into a dog or something else that won't generate as much attention as a gorilla.

3 & 4 - I don't recognize steps 3 and 4. Part of me wonders if it's better to not be seen by any Halloweener, whatever the context, so that if they do a debriefing later of where their prisoner went they won't remember my orky visage as an unfamiliar face. Given that there's no visual connection between the gazebo and the fire escape, it's not like anyone watching would really infer what I was doing by buying drugs then walking to the fire escape. That said, I could buy drugs to use as a bribe in case there are residents that need to be distracted. Or Bobby could use Intimidation to get them to mind their own business.

5 - The location of the smuggling compartment is not currently defined. I presumed it was in the trunk but that's no more or less valid then under the backseat.

14 - That said, why are we bothering with the smuggling compartment at all? If we need extra space, one of us can ride in the trunk.

8 & 9 - I would recommend reversing 8 and 9, or executing them simultaneously. Ideally Mato could unlock the door but not open it while Jawsey goes to town on the hell hound. If that's not feasible then let's start at the same time. If Jawsey gets into trouble on the astral, Mato can intercede in the physical realm. We just have to decide whether we want Jawsey to do Stun or Physical damage astrally. Physical takes care of the dog permanently, in case the Halloweeners come after us, but Stun maybe helps remove some emotion from the Halloweeners' revenge calculation in case the pup is near and dear to them.

13 - I would think that Exit A would be to the west. That keeps us out-of-view of the bar and the parking lot. The northern road (that runs E-W) would be our way out and where we'd get picked up.

a) What Jack said.
b) Why would we bother with the roof? Let's see how much attention we generate and what shape the prisoner is in. We might be able just to walk out to the west.
c) Once the ball is rolling it should stay rolling. If I can't go around someone then I'll go through them.
d) What Jack said. Jawsey should retreat if injured; there are plenty of ways to deal with the hellhound, and - between his armor, worn and cyber - Mato is fire resistant. Even if the hellhound is doing 10P -5AP (more with net hits), Mato is soaking with 27 dice and has plenty of Edge in reserve.
e) I'm more worried about the cats than a hacker. They could be a red herring, or they might be damnably inconvenient.

[gilga]

IMO the car would be kept manual, so no decking the car. (It is the Barren's I doubt the autopilot can drive there anyhow).  So the impact of a decker is not that great, we should probably turn off all electronic equipment once we are all in the car (or leave on just comlinks If we leave someone behind, but that risks deckers. In any case, don't have anything important online. I am thinking that having Mato leaving by foot is the most confusing as he is the one most visible out of the team.  He sports these cyberlimbs an is a trog - so the obvious suspect once they discover.

[Jack_Spade]

@Tecumseh
I wasn't sure if there are exits to the west or north. If there is a way to go out there without trouble, sure let's take that one.

Bobby will take again Osprey form:
F7 Shapechange: 14d6t5 1
Resist Drain: 11d6t5 7

This dice roller is weird. But nevermind. It's enough for flying up their and sitting on the window sill.

[Beta]

OK, 3 and 4 were me channeling Jawsey, and trying to provide a plausible reason for approach rather than just going fast.  Definitely optional.  (If we go with them, Jawsey can apply some degree of disguise to Mato -- combine with keeping limbs covered and he might not be entirely identifiable?  But he is pretty distinctive and has limited social skills, so maybe better to ignore all of that).

"Exit A" was me forgetting and using my mental short hand that I'd not explained yet.  I see five exits routes, and called "Quickest possible exit" A. 

I think the exit possibilities are:
A: East door, straight down to office roof, then to the ground to the south of the office.  Can jump/drop without magic most likely.  Quick but very visible.
B: East door, along the walkway to the fire escape, down that and to the street on the north side.  Can walk it, but opportunities to be intercepted, or shot/spelled at from the ground near the club/gazebo.
C: West door, then straight down to the ground.  Have to open a second door, likely would need levitate for the distance, or else go down a floor first.
D:  West door, the along the walkway ....(I forget, does the west side walkway also connect to the fire escape?)  Have to open another door, opportunities to be intercepted. (forget how you get down from there)
E: Out either east or west door, then up to the roof, then down north (or possibly south?) side, using levitate.  Takes time to get to the fifth floor then the roof, visible while doing that, but then well hidden.  Risk of getting sieged up there, but also opponents don't know what we're doing or all our options.

[Tecumseh]

@Beta
Great IC post. I love the spirit names.

@Jack
In the fluff, the miniwelder is described as an arc welder. As such, I usually rule that it only works on metals, but that's up to the GM. If we're up against glass then I'm just going to put a cyberfist through it.

I've never played with Shapechange or Critter Form before. What's the advantage of casting at a higher Force, other than being harder to dispel? Don't forget the background count.

@gilga
Yes, I presumed that AM would want the car controls on manual, both for security and for personal preference. As the driver, that's fully up to you.

@All
IC is up. I took a lot of my products and aisle locations from the SR4 Quick Start Rules, which featured Food Fight in a Stuffer Shack. Some of the prices, like the disposable items, come from Run Faster. I normally wouldn't presume that a Stuffer Shack in Redmond would have steaks, but the GM's early posts make it clear that he sees real food as more available than it is commonly represented in the Sixth World. If the GM wants to nix that then I'm cool editing it out.

Mato is prepared to spend up to ¥200 on items not covered by the shared lifestyle costs. Run Faster says the steaks would be ¥50 each, but again I'm not sure how the GM's Sixth World-view potentially affects the prices. I'll leave it up to the GM to decide what's was actually available in terms of catnip and cat food, the stinkier the better.

I think I'm ready to go.

[Lorebane24]

Not sure if how RAW this is, but my assumption on cars is that they would habe tjwir steering all in manual cause no grod guide, but they could still have other systems like lights, alarms, and locks hacked.

[Tecumseh]

GridLink Override and Manual Control Override are separate things. Luckily our car has both. As for hacking, it might be possible to slap some MARKs on us but in theory they won't do anything since the car will ignore them in favor of manual commands. Here's the descriptions from Rigger 5:

MANUAL CONTROL OVERRIDE
For runners that are extra paranoid about the Matrix
security on their vehicle (or just unwilling to pay for
it), they can install a manual control override system.
Nearly every modern vehicle made in the 2070s has
the ability to be piloted remotely or purely through
its electronic controls as well as its manual/mechanical
controls. If a rigger is really nervous about those
electronic controls being taken over, they can install
a switch so that the manual controls will always take
priority over the electronic ones. In order to prevent
the switch from being remotely deactivated, it is always
mechanical in nature with the physical pressing of the
button making or breaking connections to ensure the
precedence of the manual controls. In game terms,
when manual control override is activated, piloting a
vehicle via AR or VR is not possible. The system can
only be activated by someone physically in the vehicle,
within reach of the switch (usually the driver’s seat),
and by using a Free Action.

[Jack_Spade]

@Jack
In the fluff, the miniwelder is described as an arc welder. As such, I usually rule that it only works on metals, but that's up to the GM. If we're up against glass then I'm just going to put a cyberfist through it.

I've never played with Shapechange or Critter Form before. What's the advantage of casting at a higher Force, other than being harder to dispel? Don't forget the background count.

It's best not to think to much about this device: If it was a classic arc welder you'd have to provide an inert gas and some form of stock as filler material. Also you'd have to connect an electrode to the object you are trying to cut through/weld on.
That's why I always imagined this device as a plasma arc torch (which would also explain why an electric welder has a fuel canister).

As for the Force: I had hoped for a good role so I could use six successes without spending reagents, but Orocos thinks it's funny...

[gilga]

Hellhounds are expensive, so I suggest stun damage unless it complicates things.
@Tecumseh Driving is manual so nobody can crush us, but marks can still be used for other things (trace icon comes naturally to mind), which I think is in line with what LoreBane is saying. Though, as shadowrunners we should customize a completely wifi dark car - to prevent this possibility.

Not sure if our current car is like that - and at any case it is enough that one of us keeps wireless to make us traceable through the matrix.