Shadowrun 5th Edition (Inactive)

Game Master psionichamster

The sanctuary is a large rectangle, while the "back rooms" behind the altar area are basically a smaller one attached to the western wall of the main building. The stairway leads from that area down to a basement level.

Hawatari moves into the building behind Kerrah, pistol in hand.

Hmmm... that's weird. He stopped playing

Al momentarily switches back to AR.

"Oh."

Reboot Device: 10d6 ⇒ (6, 4, 4, 1, 5, 1, 4, 2, 4, 4) = 35 (2 hits)

The device reboots, sparking and sputtering briefly before dying down as it attempts to come back online.

The glow from the basement dies as the commlink shuts down for good.

Al rounds out his digital sleuthing by exiting VR and rebooting his deck. Drawing his shocker, Al brings up the rear on the danger train.

If I haven't mentioned it already, I'll slave the other teams devices to my Comm (3 I believe?). Plenty of room left.

Sneak: 10d6 ⇒ (5, 5, 6, 6, 3, 1, 3, 5, 1, 3) = 38 (5 hits)

Al, Kerrah, and Hawatari all stealthily move up the door at the top of the stairs. Down below, all is dark.

Listening closely, Kerrah and Cavan (through his spell) can faintly hear the susurrus of sleeping people.

Kerrah, remember you saw that small "AA battery sized object" in the top right corner of the room downstairs with your 5 hit perception roll earlier.

Kerrah, satisfied that everyone is on the same plan, pulls out her Thermo flashlight to light the way.

She indicates by comm to Al, Saw a sensor located in the top right corner of the basement room we will be headed into.

She will wait for Al to deactivate it and give the all clear.

Activating VR in Hot-Sim, Al checks around for the sensor's signal.

Not quite sure the disparity, if any, between proximity in normal space and positioning in the matrix. I'll look specifically for that object - if it means sorting through those other silent icons from earlier as well.

I'll use 1 point of edge to Push the Limit
Matrix Perception: 12d6 ⇒ (3, 5, 6, 1, 2, 1, 2, 6, 2, 3, 5, 1) = 37
reroll: 2d6 ⇒ (5, 3) = 8

(4 hits total)

Al: you determine the presence of the icon rapidly, it was in fact one of the silent ones from earlier. It is quite clearly a sensor, most likely a multi-function camera.

There is also an HK 227, a set of glasses, and some earbuds in the room.

I'll go for a mark on the senor.

Hack on the Fly: 11d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 6, 1, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 2) = 30 (1 hit)

4d6 ⇒ (3, 4, 5, 6) = 18 defense 1 net hit, Al the sensor has 1 mark on your persona.

Al tries to slip some subtle code against the firewall of the store-bought device, but the standard defense algorithms turn it around, leaving a familiar A stamped on your icon. (Seems this device is an Aztechnology branded micro-camera of some sort.)

"Maybe I could rip it off the wall? I have a spell for that."

Magic fingers, great spell.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Al shuts down and resets to wipe the mark.

Over his comm "Go with the spell. If I try anything more the decker will probably get more suspicious than if a camera was nudged out of position."

"So this camera, how is it mounted? Swivel mount, directly to the wall, what is looking at us in this particular situation? If I can't move it, maybe I can cover it with something. Does anybody have anything sticky? I do, but I'm not wasting explosives on a camera."

If duct tape exists in the future I'm pretty sure I would have bought some, but I haven't seen any pricing for such a mundane thing.

Cavan: best guess, a simple sticky or. Elcro mount on the wall. It's positioned in the corner of the room, just inside the doorway and facing generally into the center of the room.

Duct tape is fine, consider it on hand so long as you have at least a Low lifestyle.

Kerrah will offer some cloth from her shirt.

Alright, I have a low lifestyle, so duct tape it is.

Cavan waves a hand to Bobbi to let her know to not worry about the duct cloth.

"A little bit of tape alone should cover the camera lense. Let's see here."

Magic Fingers Force 4: 12d6 ⇒ (5, 1, 3, 4, 4, 1, 3, 1, 5, 2, 3, 6) = 38
Edge to reroll failed dice: 9d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 6, 4, 1, 4, 1, 1, 2) = 23
Drain 10d6: 10d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 3, 6, 4, 6, 3, 3, 2, 5) = 37

Okay so I hit my limit, but I wanted that str/agility of 4 so I can stealth a piece of duct tape like it was debris. Two different actions, I'm using two points of edge to make this work.

Stealth Tape 5d6: 11d6 ⇒ (1, 3, 5, 1, 2, 6, 1, 6, 3, 2, 5) = 35 Would stealthing a sustained spell incur the -2 dice pool penalty? If so remove 1 success for a total of 3. 4 if stealthing the duct tape would not incur the penalty.

Cavan pulls out a roll of duct tape, pulls off a few strips, sticks them together to make a small patch of tape. He then waves his hands a bit, and like magic, the tape floats along the wall in the shadows near the floor to underneath the camera, then up the wall, and finally resting itself snuggly around the camera like a darkmantle

The duct tape easily sticks to the camera lens. Best guess, if someone was actively watching, their vision just went suddenly dark.

You do not detect any further action from the room beyond the doorway.

With gun out, thermo flashlight in hand, Kerrah will head down the stairs into the basement with the dead guard.

She will stop at the entry and listen:

Perc: 9d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 3, 2) = 23 1 hit
and
Sneak: 13d6 ⇒ (2, 4, 1, 1, 6, 3, 5, 3, 1, 5, 2, 6, 1) = 40 4 hits

She will peek in to see where the rest of the gang is at and the layout of the basement.

Silent and smooth in the dark, Kerrah spots the downed guy and his knocked over chair near the back wall.

Several stacks of black plasteel crates fill the perimeter except for the back wall. Each box has a white stencil on the top, labeling them MERF, along with small touch screens along the edge. The room itself is about 8m x 8m, roughly square, with a door at either end.

The terminal you saw the guy sitting at earlier sits on a crappy, makeshift table along the eastern wall. Its screen remains dark.

You cannot make out anything past the far door for the moment.

Sneak: 11d6 ⇒ (4, 1, 6, 1, 5, 1, 6, 5, 2, 3, 3) = 37 (4 hits)

Perception: 7d6 ⇒ (1, 3, 2, 6, 2, 4, 5) = 23 (2 hits)

Assuming I don't spot anyone besides the body, I'll move in and examine the terminal for a hard-line port.

Al: the device seems to be a cobbled-together desktop commterminal. Imagine someone tore out the guts of a couple of commlinks, patched them together in a suitcase-sized case, and added a display and input tablet.

There is, in fact, a standard data-connection port on one side.

No-one seems to have noticed your entrance to the basement, nor the "sentry's" rather unpleasant exit.

Kerrah will quietly move into the room. She notes the crates labeled MERF as she passes by to headed to the far door.

Does MERF mean anything to us, or would our PCs know what it is referring to?

Kerrah will take up a covered position near the far door, while Al is at the computer console.

She will try to listen/look for anything coming from through the far door.
Perc: 9d6 ⇒ (1, 5, 5, 5, 1, 4, 3, 3, 1) = 28 (3 hits)

Does Kerrah have any Seattle Knowledge or similar skills?

Hawatari & Al know exactly what these things are, of course.

Kerrah: Through the far door, there is a short hallway with two doorways branching off immediately past the one you stand against, they are obviously toilets and long since defunct. Directly opposite you a wooden door stands closed. This is an obviously newly installed feature, you spot sawdust in the corners and the gleam of steel on the fasteners.

You hear faint movement through the closed door, but cannot make out what it is, exactly.

Hawatari pauses, 'pie'-ing the basement room as she enters; the silencer-equipped heavy pistol does not lift away when the barrel passes by 'Bobbi'; considering the shot she made earlier, one might consider her to always have the weapon under control. (Or, if you're paranoid, which you should be, that may well be the problem ...) Finding it (relatively) empty, she brings her weapon back in line on the far door, shifting it to her left hand after which her right draws the sword on her left hip. She too listens for movement.

With a thought, she sends a message around: "Bobbi, can you kick it in?" If the other woman can, Hawatari will follow up immediately.

Seeing the laddies not wasting any time, Al jacks into the terminal and makes sure the setup is interposed between him and Shooty McShootface.

Alright, gimme something juicy, unprotected, and worth tomorrow's headache.

Cavan reaches into his pocket and pulls out something and waves it towards Hawatari.

"Hey, I've got some explosives if we need to go loud, although I have a pretty strong spell going right now. I can help bust down the door."

Kerrah reads her comm and smiles.

She checks to see if everyone is ready and hearing Cavan's suggestion, she waves it off silently.

With elf like grace and skill, Kerrah books to the other door and puts her full weight into a kick, attempting to break through the door.

I assume you want a Strength(3) + Unarmed Strike(-1) + Agility(9) in hits to add to damage against the door/barrier rating? If not, tell me what you want and I can reroll.

Kerrah will use edge to Second Chance rerolls and another edge to Push the Limit edge to blow pass physical limits

Edge 1
Breaking through door: 11d6 ⇒ (6, 1, 4, 2, 6, 5, 2, 4, 1, 2, 6) = 39 (4 hits)

Edge 2
Rerolls 8 misses + 3 exploding 6s: 11d6 ⇒ (6, 5, 5, 6, 6, 4, 5, 6, 5, 1, 4) = 53 (+8 hits, total of 12 hits added to DV)

What do we see inside?

To "attack" the door: Agility + Unarmed Combat (unless using a weapon like a club or blade - if so use that skill).

Damage is based on the weapon + Strength of the user.

Also, can only use Edge on a roll once, so if you Push the Limit, you can't then use Second Chance.

Al: roll a matrix perception check please.

You immediately see a series of file cabinets and desks, stretching down a seemingly infinite hallway. The iconography calls back to old film noir flatvids, reminiscent of a fictional Chicago circa 1927. No countermeasures immediately show up, at least so far as you can tell.

Rerolling:

Agility (9) + Unarmed Combat (-1) + Edge (5) to break the door and DV of Str (3) Using Edge to Push the Limits

Breaking through door: 8d6 ⇒ (5, 2, 1, 4, 4, 6, 6, 4) = 32
Edge: 5d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 1, 2, 4) = 18
Rerolling Edge 6s: 1d6 ⇒ 4 (5 total hits added to DV of 3Str)

What do we see inside?

Kerrah leans back and lands a solid boot against the newly installed door handle. Weakened wood and poorly installed hardware is far from secure against the kick.

Inside, you see another small room, perhaps 4m × 4m. A nylon folding camp chair sits in the corner next to a flimsy looking table. A bowl of instant noodles sits unattended, chopsticks stuck in the top.

Where the previous room was a meeting area or classroom of sorts, this was clearly intended for storage. The most remarkable feature has to be the 2m wide hole in the far wall, where the cinder blocks have been smashed and removed. The area beyond is dark, but you can quite clearly hear movement going away from you.

Are those voices? More movement? It's hard to tell, but there's definitely something going on.

Matrix Perception: 7d6 ⇒ (6, 3, 1, 2, 4, 6, 5) = 27 (3 hits)

Al: First thing you notice is the log of the last files active. They seem to be a data-file of some kind. They are encrypted.

Second thing you notice is a complete lack of matrix activity here. This terminal is a stand-alone device, and is completely unconnected to any grid or host.

You may ask three questions related to this terminal or the files thereon.

1. What file has the most recent edit date?

2. What is that file's defense rating?

3. Is there a data bomb attached?

Last file edited was earlier this evening. It seems to be an inventory of some kind.

The encryption rating is 3.

There is a data bomb attached.

Licking his digital lips, Al tries to safely clear the trap after rearranging his deck programs. (6A/3S/5D/5F)

Using 1 Edge to Push the Limit.
Disarm Data Bomb: 12d6 ⇒ (1, 6, 1, 5, 5, 4, 5, 2, 4, 6, 2, 3) = 44

reroll: 2d6 ⇒ (5, 3) = 8 (6 hits total)

6d6 ⇒ (5, 4, 6, 1, 4, 6) = 26 Databomb resistance, Al has 3 net hits, databomb has been disarmed.

You will still need to decrypt the files to make any sense of them, however.

It's been a while since we were up top scouting, but can you remind us how many people we saw in the basement when scouting earlier tonight?
Also, If there are no other doors into the room where Al is jacked into the console, then Kerrah will chase after whom ever is making sounds through the opening in the cinder block wall.
If there is another door, Kerrah will want to check that out first.

Kerrah signals she's heading in then moves strategically through the small room.

I assume there is no one else in the room or no place to hide?

She approaches the hole from the side and waits for her partners to follow. While waiting, she peeks in with her thermo flashlight and quickly pulls her head back.

Perception: 9d6 ⇒ (3, 6, 1, 6, 2, 4, 5, 4, 5) = 36 (4 hits)

From up top, you saw one guy sitting at the terminal Al is working on now, in addition to at least 6 other men. Those were the fellows moving and stacking the crates now placed against the terminal room.

There are 2 doors through the terminal room, the one you entered through and the one you just exited to find the toilet hallway. Beyond the door you kicked open is the small storage room with its abandoned noodle bowl and nowhere to hide, except for through the hole in the wall.

Through the hole in the wall, you see what is obviously a recently unearthed tunnel, with dirt walls and lots of grey stone and cinderblock rubble on the floor. The tunnel continues for approximately 5 or 6 meters before terminating, where a simple wooden ladder seems to be propped against the wall.

You can now hear quiet voices coming from the hallway, unable to make out the speech itself, but it definitely sounds excited and getting louder.

Yea, there could be bullets flying now.

Yea, this could be done in a safer place.

Yea, it's not our top priority.

Still...

Crack File: 11d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 3, 5, 1, 5, 2, 1, 5, 6, 2) = 41 (6 hits)

6d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 2, 5, 1, 5) = 20 file defense, Al has 3 net hits.

Easily bypassing the stock file decryption, Al's persona tears through the file cabinets. Reams and reams of paper fly out, covering the room in a blizzard of hand typed pages.

The chaos subsides quickly, leaving stacks of paper on the desk. They are all decrypted and accessible.

The primary datafiles are a list of names with commcodes, the aforementioned inventory/spreadsheet file, and a dated journal. They are all write in Spanish.

PS, what does Al's persona & programs look like? How about his marks?"

PS, what does Al's persona & programs look like? How about his marks?"

His persona looks like a plain cartoonish office bureaucrat. Almost stick figure-like with a reversed color palette (white tie, black shirt, etc). His marks are left by a stamp shaped as the public domain mark. Programs look like old-school office equipment: typewriters, fax machines, floppy disks.

Kerrah will inform the others what she hears. "The gangers are coming back around from the hallway. This tunnel leads up to the church above so they must have looped around. Get ready for them to bust through."

Kerrah will take cover behind what ever will fit her frame. She will ready to shoot any ganger coming in from the hallway.

Cavan taps Bobbi on the arm before finding cover among the broken pews.

Combat Sense Force 2 12d6: 12d6 ⇒ (3, 3, 2, 5, 5, 4, 2, 3, 4, 6, 4, 6) = 47
Drain: 10d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 4, 3, 3, 1, 3, 2, 2, 2) = 25 [ooc]Ow, botched that roll, I take 2 mental drain, but KVD gets the benefits of Combat Sense at 2 successes since that's my limit.[/dice]

The elf holds his head as if he has a headache but whispers to Bobbi as he passes.

"Go fast and hard, I can't keep this up forever."

Thanks! I can add 2 dice to my Combat Sense.

Those in the tunnel can hear voices getting louder and more agitated, at least a few different people, all male, talking in Spanish.

Spanish:

No-one comes down the tunnel ladder for at least 30 seconds, assuming you wait that long. Other than the voices and movement down the tunnel and up above, you don't hear or see anything else.

Church people: you don't notice anything untoward, the night is still quiet & dark.

Al: You have lots and lots of data, all in Spanish. What do you do?

Without the linguistics software to sate his curiosity, Al is forced to jack out with the data.

He takes stock of the situation as his senses adjust to the impending meat grinder (which end he's on is debatable).

Al moves up to the elves and stops short of the corner. Angling for line of sight down the tunnel he sets up his directional jammer (rating 6) and wirelessly excludes his co-workers devices.

So just so I understand the situation. We have voices coming from the hallway where we first entered nearest to Al and the terminal? Currently, we hear more voices through the tunnel and above us in the church where we first broke in that has the broken pews?
Is this a correct read? If not, can you explain which direction from which the voices are coming.

Voices are coming from the newly discovered tunnel.

Room where Al was working on the terminal had 1 dude, who is currently bleeding from a GSW to the head. No other people, but a bunch of plasteeel crates & a jury-rigged matrix-blind terminal.

Kerrah kicked a door in beyond the bathroom corridor, revealing a smaller storage room where someone obviously recently vacated & a recently excavated tunnel.

The voices talking in Spanish are coming from the end of that 5-6 meter long tunnel. Best guess, they are NOT up in the church. Possibly in another building altogether, just from the distance and angle of the tunnel.

In that case, Kerrah would have been facing towards the tunnel and let Al know we had company coming from my direction, not the hallway we came from which we came in.

Kerrah stands ready with pistol and light facing down the tunnel. Her rush of adrenaline wears off after the short wait and she feels calmy and nervous, still expectant of danger. This is not good, she thinks.

To her new mates, she whispers, That's a turkey shoot up there indicating the newly excavated tunnel.
We need a new plan. I say we head back up, out of the church and catch them in the next building over. They may have a vehicle ready for them next door.