[SFS] GM Bigrin's Table 1 - The Commencement #4 (Inactive)

Game Master bigrin42

sounds like a good idea

With your copies of the collectible in hand, Ziggy's copy for Historia-7 and one that you purchased for him, you make your way back to the Lorespire complex to deliver the disc to the Dataphiles leader. Historia-7 gave you a long, unreadable stare as you presented her with the music album on behalf of Zigvigix. She turned it over in her hands a few times, no expression on her face, before saying "Thank you for bringing this to me. I shall enter it into the archives."

"Now, as for your task, I discovered someone recently hacked into Bluerise Tower’s computer systems and stole a large amount of sensitive data from the resident corporations. I wish to be privy to this information. I managed to trace the hacker’s location through many proxies and erased the trail so that station and corporate security should be delayed in their pursuit. This deception will not fool them for long, so you must move quickly to retrieve the data before they can recover it. I will leave you to decide what to do with the hacker afterward, but should it be feasible, I believe that person would be an asset to the Society. My request requires both discretion and speed. Do not accept it if you feel incapable of working within these parameters.”

Adrien looks at the party to try to gauge them before he answers
we will try to handle it tactfully ma-am

Freen's timidity seemingly returned, "..o-okay..."

Rin nods to Professor Core and to the others. "Speed and stealth, I think we can handle that."

Okay next task Gelub will get a short rest if he can, or he would have done that if he could before standing in that line.

He turns to the others and nods before heading to the door.

Kat mentally inputs the hacker's address into her exocortex's gps, and turns to follow the Professor.

Seren nods

We must be swift then, in order to beat station security. No time to waste let’s go!

She moves off with the team.

Did you guy want to check in with Ziggy first to let him know you finished his tasks? Or jump straight into the Dataphiles task?

I think it wouldn’t take long to do so Seren will suggest we swing by to talk to Zig on our way to the next mission

^ +1

Seems like this mission is time sensitive. Is there some way we can reach Zig on our comm units to communicate that we finished the goal and will drop off his album later? (did we end up buying him one?) Would be a shame to let security forces reach him first because we were delivering the latest party Rock anthem.

I agree with Kat.

Nodding to his companions, Rin smiles "Lead on Kat, we can't let the amateurs get there before us. We have a reputation to make."

Agreeing that Historia-7's task seemed time-sensitive, you all decided to head for the last known location of the hacker, then hit up Zigzivix afterwards. The shirren anticipated this decision, though, as a small delivery robot hovered up to you as you were leaving the Lorespire complex. It deposited a small crate on the ground in front of you and a flatscreen popped up.

On the screen was a shirren face, one that you had last seen a few hours ago. In the background, you can see the warehouse you had cleared, and a team of movers industriously rearranging furniture and moving in heavy lab equipment.

"Historia-7 has just informed me that you completed my other task faithfully. You will go far in the Society, I just know it. And I will be there to say 'I knew them where'. That is the expression, isn't it? I knew them where? Seems odd. Sometimes common seems like a language created specifically to cause confusion rather than ease it. At any rate, I have a gift for you in return. We found this crate when moving out some of the old stuff, and the Station Security people said we could have it. It is yours. Use it well, but be careful with the grenades. I'd hate to see you get blown up - I like you!"

Inside the crate was a charge cloak, a set of iridishell armor, and a pair of grenades. There was also a credstick.

---------------

The address given by Historia-7 points you to an apartment block that resembles a cement cube in the midst of a collection of more cement cubes. On Absalom Station, the only place lower on the social scale might be underground in the sewers. Still, the unit you were sent to looks well-kept. The porch has several tomato plants in plastic containers, and not much else. On the porch was a young human man, barely out of childhood, hand-pollinating the tomato plants. The door to the flat was open, revealing a living room packed with bags of potting soil, fertilizer, gardening tools, and various knickknacks.

Adrien looks at the child, trying to figure if he is a student at the school he teaches
caulture: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22

The teenager is of human stock, but Adrion does not recognize his features.

On the way to the address, Freen suggests the group take some back alleys that would add a minimal amount of time but keep the group out of main thoroughfares. Upon stepping around the corner of the first alley Freen reaches a hand to the collar of his mechanic jumpsuit and gives it a small tweak. As soon as he does this a wave of mini nanobots ripples across the surface of his clothing, changing the jumpsuit to a business suit as it goes. While this wave is occurring, Freen swings his jingly pack from around his shoulder and reaches into it, retrieving a large briefcase. While he is walking and these other things are happening, his deep red tinted skin that identified him as a native of Akiton slowly changes to a fair peach color and his hair changes to a sandy brown. After about ten more minutes of walking he is wearing a full business suit, he has put his backpack into the briefcase, and his skin and hair have changed to completely different colors.

He straightens his new tie and speaks in a deeper, more powerful and conficent voice, "Well then, now that that is done, we can address this hacking issue." He gives the group a smile and a wink and continues on as if what he had just done was quite normal.

Freen confidently walks up to the porch and addresses the young man, "Boy, is this this address?" As he asks he shows the young man his datapad screen which only has the address Historia had give them displayed on it. "If so, who lives here?"

Before leaving the Lorespire Complex, Kat peers into the crate.
"You guys help yourselves, I'll just take my share of the creds"

On route to the address, she watched Freen curiously, her circuits glowing around her eye as she monitors his change. Fascinating

On their arrival at the address, she looks at the young man and studies him. Having spent some time in areas like this, she tries to recall knowledge about this area and it's inhabitants, and tries to discern if this young man is a posted lookout or a legitimate gardener.

Culture: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18

Seren nods in acquiescence as the group decides to move quickly and attend to Zig later, then breaks out in a grin as the courier delivers Zig's message.

Same as Kat, creds but no gear

She raises an eyebrow at Freen's wardrobe change, but says nothing, instead putting her energies to use looking over the building for anything out of place.

perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

Annoyed by Freem's lack of tact, he allowed him to continue.

The young man looked taken aback by Freen's manner, and edged towards the door.

"Th...th...that's th...th...this address, s...s...sure. Wh...wh...what do y...y...you w...w...want?" The boy's stammer made his words hard to distinguish, initially.

Looking at him, and at some of the surrounding tenements, Kat5e was sure that this was just normal behavior around here. Many of the balconies and stoops had small gardens growing on them.

Adrion steps foreword
young lad, we have some business we need to take care of on behalf of the Starfinder Society. he says gently, kneeling down to get a better eye level. if you would like to join us, I'm sure your guardian wont mind. he says Are they home by any chance? he asks kindly.

Freen pinches the bridge of his nose in clear annoyance with the hand not holding the briefcase. He exhales loudly but does not say anything more, clearly awaiting the boy's response.

The young man looked creeped out by your demeanor and quickly moved inside the flat, closing the door behind him. You heard the sound of a bolt being thrown, and then a muffled "G-g-g-gran! There's some w-w-w-weird p-p-p-people outside. They sc-sc-sc-scare me."

Freen looks at Adrion with an irritated expression, "'If you'd like to join, I'm sure your guardian won't mind'? Really? Look Professor, I'm sure you are good at lecturing, that is not exactly our goal here." He then looks to the others, "Hey all. I need at least a couple of you to cover out here. If our person of interest is here, let's not get surprised by others that have come looking." Freen once again looks to Adrion, "Professor, please allow me to take lead in here, this is not my first rodeo."

Freen then walks up to the, now closed door and 'rings the doorbell'. "Excuse me, I am looking for an individual at this residence. There may be danger headed this way, so I am in a bit of a hurry for safety's sake."

Adrion puts his hand of Freen's shoulder and says in a low voice fine, but I'll still tag along if you don't mind, I do have experience with people, maybe more than you do in this setting. he has a look of some bitterness on his face you have no idea what I have gone through and what I had to tell those parents. he lets out a breath and regains his composure.
I can step back and allow you to take the lead for now, but I will speak up if it needs for sensitivity

Kat watches the two men go back and forth with a smirk. With one hand on the baton at her waist, she keeps her eyes open down the side of the house in case the hacker tries to sneak out the back now that they've made their intentions known.

"Sensitivity?! Professor, we are not telling someone that a relative is dead. Someone hacked and we're the nicest people looking. And we don't know how much time we have. So you'll excuse me if I tend toward the less time consuming tactics."

you should also consider the possible situation at hand, they may have been forced. and when I saw sensitivity, I do not always mean death. he says with some heat, I have been in many social situations of inquiry as well. he looks to the door and puts on a cool strait face are we going to be out here all day bickering like children or are we going to continue with our job?

"I was going to await permission to enter, unless your sensitivity proposes something else?"

with a calmer tone he replies with a small smirk I did not mean to barge in, but more as to act more professional and get more oriented to the task at hand and worry about proving ourselves latter

Seren rolls her eyes

Will the pair of you just knock it off, you both have a valid point, let's just see what the occupants have to say...

She knocks on the door and walks in

Hello? I'm sorry about this, we didn't mean to scare you, we seriously just need to have quick word before anyone else arrives and has... less quick words...

She smiles sincerely.

Bluff: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

Adrion shrugs off the disagreement and steps in as kindly as possible.

just got a say. Best character interaction I have had in a while XD

Freen and Adrion were interrupted as the door opened again, and a cranky voice called out.

"What do you want? And why are you scaring the boy like that? What's wrong with you people? He's just a kid!"

The speaker was an older woman, someone easily of an appropriate age to be called 'gran'.

Adrion holds up his hands in front of him
my apologies ma-am, we are here on behalf of the starfinder society in some urgent business. we, in no means, meant to scare the boy.

"Yes, well we are in a bit of a time crunch. You see," Freen then leans in a little closer, "we have reliable information that someone from here hacked into...something they shouldn't have. We are not looking for the information as much as the individual, as they are in danger from the group they hacked. We are offering protection."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26

The old woman looked uncertain, but said, "I am sure I don't know what you are talking about, but please, come inside for some tea. Maybe you can explain things better if you aren't having to shout them through a closed door...and get that woman away from my grandson's tomatoes, please."

The woman looked distant for a moment, then stepped back and motioned for you all to come inside. The living area was completely filled with gardening supplies, making it difficult to find any place to sit.

"I'm still not sure what this has to do with either of us, but go on. Jubair, why don't you make us some tea?"

Adrion looks over at Freen, trying to give him a bit of a lets work together look.
you see, madam, we have traced the hack from this location, and we are looking for the person responsible for there protection.

he lightly scans the room for anything that might aid in hacking and tries to gauge her reaction.
perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20
sense motive: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Kat will wait outside. She tries.to stay within earshot of the group, but keeps closer to the road/walkway to keep and eye out for security forces.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20

Juggling the new grenades he snagged from the container for entertainment, Rin stays outside with Kat and watches the street. ”I have to say, I like this new Freen. Got a little more zip in the engines.”

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Kat nods. "A curious transformation. He seemed so meek before. Also seems full of surprises. I may keep an eye on him until I figure him out a little more."

She watches a grenade fly up and return to Rin's hand, and tries to listen in on the conversation inside. "Are they having tea in there?"

'That woman'!? Pah, I don't even like tomato plants...

Seren eyes the potted fruits suspiciously before darting inside with the Professor and Freen.

She mostly nods as they speak, projecting an air of calm and competency to assist with the discussions.

Subtly she scans the area for any computers that would have been capable of the hack.

perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15

Professor Core scans the room, noting that it really contained not much else beyond the piles of gardening equipment. Outside, Rin and Kat5e maintain a guard on the flat, being on the lookout for any signs of trouble.

"Hacking? Oh dear, oh dear."

The woman's eyes assumed the thousand-yard stare that is common with someone accessing an internal memory bank. For a moment, she said nothing, then her shoulders slumped.

"I...there's some files in my short-term storage. I have no recollection of how they got there. It's happening again, isn't it? I'm...I'm sorry. I must seem like such a freak right now. My name is Ceren, but in my younger days I was known among hacker circles as C3r3x. I was quite a good data slicer. A dozen years or so back, I was diagnosed with an incurable degenerative brain disease, which forced me into retirement. I moved in with my daughter and her husband, and gained guardianship of Jubair when they were killed in a flyer accident. Sorry, my mind wanders sometimes. Anyways, I have some gray market augmentations that have halted the damage and keep me functional, but I occasionally have blackouts and sometimes slip into a younger mindset. One that is a little freer with other peoples' information than is wise...or legal. I'm guessing that's what happened here. Do you know whose files I have? I don't want to access them in this state, for fear of activating sniffers."

We can discuss this information at another time. But you are already being tracked as we speak, I'm afraid. he trys to say in a calm tone.

how long has these black out been occurring? he asks there might be someone who might be able to help.

We are led to believe it was the Bluerise Tower, and that station security is already chasing down leads. I am sorry but as the professor has said, there isn't much time

Seren gestures at Jubair

Is there somewhere else we can escort you to where you can be safe?

Adrion sighs for that somewhat small breach of information that he felt was unnecessary, but he lets it slide.

He does send a telepathic message to Rin, with a slight look of small concentration.
The person of interest is here and cooperative, she may need an escort to safety. do you feel you can take care of it when the destination is picked? he asks

Got it Professor, we can keep the goons of the team. How fast til we can move?

Turning to Kat, Rin gestures back at the flat "I think they are making headway. The Professor wants us ready to move out soon."

Unsure, there might need to be some preparations made, we are not sure what move we will make if at all. he gives the telepathic reply.