Ayyyy, welcome back 1! It looks like we're up to 4/5. I tried one last thing to get in touch with Atlas but I did kind of want to run down what I'm gonna do here for the campaign before I got to it.
1. I'm pretty much just gonna fast forward us to the next step of this situation. We left off with you guys in the middle of combat--tracking combat is already a bit of a pain over Paizo and I don't have a few of the statblocks I need (the creature involved in this chase scene was homebrew and I no longer have access to the hard drive where I was keeping those files, live and learn). 1dr0meda had a spoofed key that would get you in the elevator and everybody made the correct decision to beeline it into the elevators from what I recall and what I'm seeing. It would have turned into a chase scene per Savage Worlds, but barring some astonishingly terrible rolls on your part you would have made it with time to spare. I'd rather not kick the campaign back off with what's basically homework, so we're just gonna fast forward and let it ride.
2. Assuming I can't get in touch with Atlas, I'll have Alanna on autopilot for the next few scenes and then put her on a bus at the appropriate time.
3. If anybody has any confusion owing to the half-year+ of downtime on this campaign, I'm working on a recap for myself to remember what has and hasn't happened, and I'll post that (minus some spoilery stuff I'm tracking on the backend) over here in the discussion thread. Barring shenanigans I should have a post up in Gameplay over the weekend and I'll try to get the campaign summary up around that time too.
So Paizo looks a little different since the last time I was around. I am really sorry about my absence and leaving you guys hanging. I nursed some serious depression over the last half a year or so.
I'm not sure if dead campaigns fall off of your tracker naturally, or if they come back when there's a fresh message in one of their threads. I'm gonna give this a shot first, and if there's no response I'll send out a round of PMs.
Who's still here/interested?
If anybody's still around, I'm probably going to kill the current session and start fresh since I've kind of lost track of everything in my absence (plus, handling maps as large as I was trying to in Roll20 is a nightmare).
The Oni have wireless interfaces. Not proper TAPs since they're not sentient, but they are hackable. I'm very open to any creative use of hacking for alternate attacks, or in the case of robots, harming their fine motor control, etc. Bear in mind however that you do still need to hack past their firewall, which is a regular action. That seems to be the way Gunmetal Games balances hacking against physical combat.
Now that I have more experience with Shadowrun deckers, I... Don't fully agree, but it's a pretty easy compromise in exchange for a lot of potential power.
Creating an engram on-the-fly is a Knowledge: Programming roll which I don't believe Syzygy has. However, if 1dr0meda creates an engram on-the-fly she could easily pass it to Syzygy for use. I'm also assuming you can hack collaboratively (as long as you are both in range) and a firewall breach from one will allow attacks from the other. An area-of-affect attack engram is not a bad option right now as you get to the north hallway in a couple of actions and the bots will likely have to cluster once you do so. It also hits automatically once you breach their firewall, unlike most other engrams.
Alanna, you're up as well. I'm assuming you're going to be running with everyone, but you do already have your weapon out and could fire on any of the Oni.
Woops! Sorry 1dr0meda. I know I pulled a card for you I just must not have pasted you into the order. My apologies.
For the sake of keeping track of things without a map (*stern fist shake towards r20*) I'll take your average, assuming everybody runs and nobody's making any heroic last stands. :) That means the party moves
10 pace per round.
Also, to be fair, you're very effective against almost all targets with the big guns. It's just that this particular critter is obnoxiously large... And this security has been customized to counter professional corpsec. :)
Round 3 Combat Card Draw:
Black Joker: Kitsune
Sleeved Card: N30N
King of Diamonds: Syzygy 1.0
Jack of Diamonds: Alanna
Ten of Spades: Renraku Oni (Southwest)
Nine of Clubs: Renraku Oni (Northeast)
Eight of Diamonds: 1dr0meda
Seven of Clubs: Renraku Oni (Southeast)
Five of Spades: Ghiv
Five of Diamonds: Genemod Beastie
Four of Hearts: Renraku Oni (Northwest)
As the party runs north to the elevators, the tromping noises continue as the lights illuminate the northeast and northwest hallways. Two more Oni stomp towards the northmost hallway, trying to cut you off.
Dealing in N30N on a sleeve since she took no action last round. 1dr0meda, I'll let you know how close the nearest Oni is once their actions have passed, but unless she runs towards them, they will be out of Syzygy's range on her action. Kitsune, N30N, Syzygy and Alanna are up.
They don't have any pictures of the Renraku Oni in the books, 1dr0meda, but I'm pretty sure that was exactly what they had in mind :)
Kitsune: At 9-10 as your average, you could reach it in five rounds. 1dr0meda has nine rounds (including this one) until the key expires. The elevators are to the north, the bots you've seen so far are to the southeast and southwest. It sounds like more may be coming from the northwest and northeast, though.
The bots are big and have long legs. Their base pace is faster than yours, but they don't get a run die. :)
On the King of Diamonds and Nine of Clubs:
The security bots pause temporarily, looking at each other, and one of them scanning down over Kitsune. <"Kitsune Yukosawa, scanning..."> It waits for a moment, then dings as the scan completes. <"Profile not found. Fifty percent genetic match, Keiko Yukosawa."> It snaps its baton back down, turning the stun field back on, as they resume movement.
Count it as a temporary stun. They lose their action to the scan this round, but it won't work a second time. They're about five pace out from the bulk of the group now.
It definitely does still bring me happiness. I love this campaign, everybody's characters, and how everyone's beginning to really form up as a team. If it was solely obligation, I wouldn't be raring to restart the game.
Figured I'd just make a new post since it will put us conveniently with a combat card draw at the top of the new page. Ghiv enters the first round of combat shaken. There is a mild darkness penalty (-1) assuming you're not some sort of cool kid with night-vision cybereyes
The curtain shreds under a hail of gunfire from Alanna's 616. The gigantic, lizard-like genemod beneath it lets out a teeth-chattering screech, and a few of the bullets seem to find genuine marks, but most seem to clatter against the integrated kevlar coating that cover up the weakspots in its scales. Its claws tear off the remaining scraps of curtain and you can see unpleasantly sinewy muscles beneath its thick scales. Its head twitches from one side to the other as its claws dig in and it shakes off the initial burst of fire. The thing has the scars of untidily-performed cyberware augmentation in a couple of places, notably its entire left forearm and its eyes, which lock onto you with cruel, reptilian hate.
Alanna please give me a spirit check at -2. On a failure, you think it would be a really good idea to leave the second floor immediately. The Genemod comes into combat shaken.
On the first floor, the statue stops mid-loop, then begins to play, in alternating Japanese and English, <"THERE IS NOW AN ACTIVE SHOOTER SITUATION. GET DOWN ON THE GROUND AND AWAIT THE ARRIVAL OF YUKOSAWA CORPORATE SECURITY."> The tromping continues, and out of the two nearest hallways, you can see large security bots--what look to be custom modified Ravenlocke Oni models, which have a reputation for borderline-excessive armor plating and outright excessive combat protocols. Every bit as large as the regular models, they stand close to ten feet tall, their armor plating overlapping in a manner reminiscent of old-old-old-school samurai. Though they lack the mounted light gatling of the standard models, they draw and power on six-foot stun tetsubo and step forward, soon picking up speed and running.
Combat Card Draw
Red Joker: Genemod Beastie
Black Joker: Kitsune
King of Diamonds :Ravenlocke Oni [Southwest Hallway]
Nine of Clubs: Ravenlocke Oni [Southeast Hallway]
Five of Hearts: Alanna
Four of Spades: Syzygy 1.0
Three of Spades: N30N
Three of Diamonds: Ghiv
On the Red Joker: The genemod beast screeches again, muscles tensing...
No Shaken Throne:1d4 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5 Run die:1d8 ⇒ 6
And then it charges at a disgustingly fast pace for its size. Though it can't quite clear the room to reach Alanna, it's scrabbling claws dig in and pull with every motion, bringing it closer and closer until it's only a few meters away.
The Genemod is unshaken and 6 pace away from Alanna. Tough break that it got the Joker to unshake...
Kitsune is up next. 1dr0meda, you have nine combat rounds before the spoofed key expires. The north elevator is 45 pace away from your current location and about 50 pace for everyone else. I'll see if I can get the map to cooperate, otherwise I'll get a google doc set up or we'll just wing it as per usual.
1dr0meda's key spoofs the elevator towards the north, as long as Kitsune is there at the same time to provide the genetic code. Once inside you could choose to go up to the penthouse, which looks to be running some of the security subroutines, or down to the basement, which is an active network with at least one TAP inside. :)
I lost a friend earlier this month that was one of the first people I played tabletop games with. It left kind of a bad taste in my mouth surrounding gaming and use of time. At the same time I went home for training, then went back to my regular job, then to funerals and a wedding and it amounted to me not actually having a day off at home since August. I also have terrible avoidance issues with things I feel conflicted about, so rather than at least letting you guys know I just continued to not update. That's a bad scene.
I do really love this campaign and these characters, so I'm going to continue to update to the best of my ability. I know it sucks waiting on the GM to update. To that end I'm bowing out of most of my other PBPs on Paizo, leaving only the ones that I actually run and one other that's already very slow paced. That should leave me with a better amount of freetime to actually run these games. It may still be slow going (shooting for updating 2-4 times a week. I know the Paizo gold standard is every day, but that rarely seems to last long) but it should be more consistent.
Thanks for playing guys. I don't want this campaign to die.
Discussion post about what's going on inc. In the meantime, here is the update. Ghiv is shaken, I will let you know if he has enough time to unshake once we make it to the next update. As always,
talking is a free action even if you're shaken. :)
1dr0meda:
You receive another TAP message from Roomy. "We're going back, somebody out there is going loud. If you can get out, come back and help us clean up."
Ghiv:
Behind the curtain is a huge genemod, maybe ten feet long, but more if you included the tail. It looks much like the massive reptile corpse that was outside, but there are pieces of cyberware sticking out, and one of the forelimbs has been replaced entirely. What looks like a control unit, an untidy mess of cabling and chrome, is mounted on the back of its head and blinking a red light at inconvenient intervals. Its eyes are locked onto Alana through the curtain. It clearly knows she's here, and it twitches multiple times as she sneezes.
As Ghiv stares into the abyss for an uncomfortably long period of time, the movement behind the curtain grows more agitated. From the hallways around, particularly to the east, you can hear mechanical noises, and what sound like heavy, ponderous footfalls. 1dr0meda is able to spoof the key, which will be good for approximately sixty seconds. <"Welcome to the Yukosawa Zaibatsu..."> Loops the speaker under the statue.
Ghiv is free to let everyone in on what he's seen. Alana is free to light up the curtain if she wishes, or crawl back down. 1dr0meda and Syzygy both have access to the spoofed key for ~60 seconds. If combat initiates, I'll let you know how many rounds you have until you need to spoof the key a second time.
Apologies for the extra s#%+ty delays. I hope everybody's still on board, but if not I understand. Shoot me a PM if you'd like me to write you out. Hopefully this is not the death of the campaign, but that was definitely our longest break ever I think.
Getting on the map of any sort is kind of a pain in the ass from my computer setups right now. I can swap us over to a google doc over the weekend if everyone's attached to mapping, but for right now I'm going to just storytell everything and spitball distances.
1dr0meda:
The building is mostly quiet on your TAP. It looks like most of the server rooms are dead, or running hardwires that you'd need to actually jack into. Far up above, in the penthouse, you can see what looks like a high tech eye-of-Sauron watching down, mirroring the eye you saw outside. You'd guess that's the control center for the building's security. Lines from it run all the way down to the basement, which is actually buzzing with activity. There's a high-grade network down there, not quite milware, but close. It's hard to tell from the outside, the network presenting itself as a literal shoji castle, but if you had to guess based on data, someone's running a lot of simulations down there.
Your TAP signature and Syzygy's are the only ones on inside your floor of the building. You think you can see one in the basement, but it's obscured by the constant activity on that network. On the outside, Cosmo and Roomy are on. You get a message after a minute, from Roomy, "There's something going on back towards our home base," it says, "If it keeps up, I'm gonna run back with Serpico."
Kitsune:
Like any good AA corp gunning for the top 100, the Yukosawa zaibatsu had its fingers in a lot of pies. Some mesh providing, caching/cloud services, gambling, cyberware, but the crown jewel of your parents' company has long been genemodding. Hybrids usually aren't the stereotypical uppercrust in North America, but your genes are a testament to the high quality of Yukosawa modding.
Based on the corpse outside, you can bet that part of the high tech security system is going to include genemod "guard dogs". The specifics of what exactly is behind Alanna's mystery curtain are up in the air, but it's probably going to be big, and fast. Genemods are used for their shock and awe factor in addition to their comparative cheapness relative to expensive, precise, but no less lethal robotics defenses.
Upstairs, the breathing intensifies and the curtain starts to stir, but whatever's behind it has yet to reveal itself. You can faintly hear some scritching and scratching noises, even down on the first level. The lights around the edge of the central room start to flicker, giving you vague views of the rest of the paths off the center. It looks like elevators and stairs up are to the north, for those of you who can't climb walls and ceilings. The statue of Masahiro gives out a loud creaking noise, and there's a second of microphone feedback from some archaic speaker beneath it. <"Welcome to the Yukosawa Zaibatsu,"> it says, in ponderously slow, formal Japanese. "Please wait for the arrival of security."
Yeah, resolution of that took a lot longer than I initially planned and I'm not thrilled but I'm out of state for some work stuff and I'm safe. I'm sorry you were in such close proximity to Charlottesville, 1. Hopefully everything has calmed down there a bit now.
I'll be updating today and most likely going to forego the map for a minute as it's not worth the time/effort investment commensurate to what we get out of it.
So I did find one serious fault in Roll20--I don't have any way of easily showing two different floors at the same time.
Also, general apologies are in order yet again. Working mids and lowkey wanting to sleep for 18 hours every moment I'm awake. :)
1dr0meda:
It looks like the programmer was trying to spoof a key for something in the building. From the looks of it, there's a door in the building that has two-factor authentication--one factor is the Yukosawa genetic code you've already dealt with. The second is the type of encryption hash usually generated by a hand-carried fob that changes every minute or so. The programmer appears to have had one hash from a set time--on May 5th, you notice, the day of the Mess. They were trying to fake one to match the door so it would let them through.
You're not completely sure which door this is for. But assuming they haven't changed the hash the system is connecting to, you would be able to do the same trick for a Programming roll at -2. Once you've got a key, it will only be good for a short period of time, however, and you'll also need Kitsune to provide the genetic code first.
Alanna (and Syzygy if she climbs):
The hole through the roof leads directly to an open atrium on the second floor. The seats scattered around give you the impression that it's an extra large conference room or auditorium. The seats however have been overturned, a couple large desks and tables have as well. To one side you can see a large stage set up for speeches or corporate command calls.
Behind a large curtain on the stage, there is the very faint movement and noise of something breathing. Whatever it is, it's quite large.
Everything is quiet for a few moments as Alanna climbs through the hole in the ceiling and 1dr0meda takes a closer look at the little makeshift camp. A few more of the recessed lights flick on as she traverses the ceiling, but nothing seems to light up above once she gets through to the second floor.
There's a long pause, and then the front doors begin to grind shut. "S*#+!" Says Roomy, glancing at you before throwing himself toward the outside.
Ghiv, Kitsune and Neon you are close enough to the doors that you can make it to the outside before they shut with an agility check. However, Alanna and 1dr0meda are simply too far.
I would say that a pace is a pace for the purposes of SW. I'm hard-pressed to think of a situation where the exact amount of feet has been particularly important (though it is kind of weird they went with 6 feet per pace instead of 5...).
1dr0meda, I believe you have Japanese as one of your languages from character creation. No worries if you would rather have another engram slotted instead of Babylon. :)
Ghiv:
When you attempt to view, a flicker crosses your mind. Much like when you read Maji--you can feel something vast near this place, and its tendrils extend here.
1dr0meda and Syzygy approach the little makeshift camp, without detecting much of anything in the way of traps. The computer towers have a few notes pinned to them in untidy Japanese. With your Babylon engram installed you get some rough translations. "Corporation has yet to breach the front door, but need to prepare for when they do," reads one. "1. Crack door code 2. Power on 3. Genemods/Droids?" Says another. There are a few more scattered around. It looks like whoever was camped in here was initially stuck without power.
The main lights flicker when Kitsune flips the switch, but after a moment, they turn back off. Faintly, you can hear a voice from somewhere above: "Minimal power in effect due to backup generator. Please refrain from using power-inefficient lighting." However, as 1dr0meda walks forward, another set of emergency lights come on. Similarly, as Wraith clings to the wall and crawls around the first corner, a recessed dim-light switches on above her. The corner looks clear, and soon splits off into a hallway that runs diagonal to the entrance.
Notice at -2:
Faintly, from the direction the power announcement came from, you can see that there's a hole in the ceiling situated a little ways above and behind the statue of Masahiro. It looks roughly made and you can see some exposed pieces of rebar, but it's also well-worn enough that there are no loose pieces.
Ah, yes, Interludes. Let's go with it. It looks like you already grabbed your benny, but if I'm forgetting getting you to five, take another one. :)
Kitsune you don't recognize the voice. It's pretty clearly male, but the distortion is too strong for you to tell exactly who it is. You presume it's a relative of some sort from the message.
There's a long, drawn-out release of musty air as the security doors of the Yukosawa building crank open. They scrape the tile unpleasantly, uprooting some of it as they go, and you get the impression these security doors were a genuine last resort. You stack up on the empty door as Alanna tells her story. Quietly, off to the side, Cosmo mutters to Neon "Probably because Plant's been trying to break in here ever since the mess. Not sure what's going on up in here, but apparently it's a big deal."
"Borak? In Phoenix?" Roomy asks quietly. You can see him go clammy and he puts two fingers up to his temple. "Oh, s#%+." Up ahead, lights flicker slightly as some sort of low, emergency lighting activates in the entranceway. It only gives you vision a little ways into the building. As you take your first steps inside, a second set of them lights up, illuminating your way a little further. You're able to see what looks like a fairly standard lobby area for a business this size. The landmarks that stick out are a little makeshift tent someone set up, with a couple of small computer decks and a dead generator, and a large, dried-up fountain. Roomy signals for Cosmo and Serpico to cover the entrance. "The bot girl is keeping her TAP on," he says to them. "You see any CorpSec and you pop yours on and send her an SOS."
For Kitsune, the interior is largely unchanged. Even the tiles are the same as they were when you were a child. The upholstery on the lobby chairs is identical to how you remember it. Your parents' building, the bottom floor set up in spokes to loosely resemble the eightfold path, but at the center, the fountain you remember from your youth is dry now, cracked, and adorned with a new, towering gold-plated statue. An inscription at the base (and a scrolling, marquee holotag if your TAP is on) reads in both English and Japanese "In Loving Memory of Masahiro "Fox" Yukosawa. The world is darker, and less clever by half for your absence." Your father's hybrid face regards you with a passive smile from the statue.
Kitsune, except for the statue and the tent, the lobby looks unchanged. Elevators and stairs are straight forward. Power supply, conference rooms and storage spaces are off to the sides.
Cool. Everybody who's logged in, I've got you set up with permissions for your character token--Alanna and Neon, your tokens are set so anyone can move them, so you can go ahead and adjust/post your actions once you log in, and I'll ratchet the permissions down when they're available. I don't have any of that fancy DYNAMIC LIGHTIN' like other GMs but I'll reveal pretty wide swathes as they become relevant.
May adjust this map slightly, but the floor plan shouldn't change. It's just that Roll20's map editor is lowkey ass for building a map this size tile-by-tile and the tiles not lining up to the grid like they should is driving me bonkers. :')
Go ahead and sign into the Roll20 campaign when you can. I'll get everybody hooked up with their tokens and tabbed over to the map once we're in.
Ghiv, I can't reach google-much-of-anything from work computers. It kind of mystifies me that Paizo/Roll20 is okay, but if I stay really quiet, maybe the firewall techs won't notice. :')
Serpico and Cosmo move up closer, flanking the door as Kitsune steps forward. The interior of the torii shimmers slightly with hyper reality as Kitsune crosses the threshold. The eye of the holotag fixates on her, staring down. There is enough time for everyone watching to draw in one long breath before a sound system booms "Genetic match established. Lockdown sequence cancelled."
The holotag of the eye switches off with a motion like a powered-off CRT screen. The shimmering wall across the gate fades as well a moment later. As the rest of you file into the courtyard, there is a long moment of silence as double doors, heavy and armor-plated, slide open at the front of the building. Even thirty or forty feet away, you can taste the sealed and musty air. The entrance is completely dark with almost no interior lighting.
With a crackle, the sound system activates again. "So, Plant," says a voice, it's heavy distortion not entirely managing to obscure a thick Japanese accent. "You have finally breached my defenses, either through your own deviousness or by finding a true blood Yukosawa." A holotag with a kanji ("狸") appears where the eye was moments ago. "However, I have had time to plan and prepare. You will find more than simply standard defenses." There is another pause.
<"If there is a blood relative of mine, I apologize.>" The voice continues formally in Japanese. <"The defenses that await you inside are a matter of survival, not only mine, but of Yukosawa consolidated. I regret any harm that comes to you, but I am forced to defend myself and my legacy.">
It looks like I can't get a hold of Google Drawings from work computers either. I could also just look into doing one of those ASCII maps at the bottom of my updates... >_>
1. I'm going to be out of town for the next five days getting drunk and talking like a pirate. Yarrr. I'm bringing my tiny little laptop and my phone can tether, but I'm not sure what the reception is going to be like at the camp site. Posts may be sparing yet again, but they'll level out once I get back on Tuesday morning.
2. How do we feel about roll20 for maps? I do a lot of my posting from work, but I can't access Google docs from these computers (bizarrely, r20 is okay).
From a distance, you can barely pick up more than anything you've already seen. The interior of the courtyard has scattered bodies and detritus. What looks like corporate muscle with Nexxon or subsidiary uniforms are mulched and scattered across the yard, sometimes in multiple pieces.
You do notice an important detail--none of the carnage inside the courtyard ever went past the torii that marks the front entrance. You can't see anything out of the ordinary about it aside from it's jet-black paintjob, but it marks a clear boundary between what went on inside and what the outside looks like.
As Syzygy rolls up the exterior wall of the courtyard, she gives you a clearer view. The interior courtyard is full of bodies, and one dead genemod--the dried-out and decaying corpse of some sort of reptile. The interior of the courtyard is well-landscaped, though what looks like a manmade river has long since gone drier than the genemod's corpse. The grass as well has wilted, and most of the zen patterns laid into the gravel have also been blown apart by wind. Above it all, a looming holotag of an eye in a pyramid scans across the grounds, tracing a line around the perimeter, it never goes past the torii.
Roomy shakes his head to Neon. "No, no, he's talking to the pricks up at Arcosanti," he says. "Lotta good it'll do. F!$%ing bubbletown's sealed itself off ever since the Mess." Leaning in a little closer, he says quietly, "He didn't wanna talk to his ex. It might prompt, uh, Cosmo, what'd you call it?"
The gene-perfect girl glances over, drawing her pistols before she looks back to the courtyard and the bodies inside. "A f~+&-or-fight response?"
"Yeah," Roomy says. "It'd be gross for everyone involved either way." He makes a gagging noise, pointing his finger to his throat. "For everyone. And that includes us."
The rules seem to imply you can do it with a -2 penalty, but... That seems strange and dumb the more I think about it. Let's say you can't with androids/AI but you can with bioroids/simulacra with a -2 penalty.
Sure, we'll say you can trade out the Simpet for an eyeborg with Kayla. I'll doublecheck the rules, but I believe there's nothing special you need to know. The Eyeborg will keep Syzygy's Spirit/Smarts dice and use its own Agility/Strength/Vigor.
Roomy's eyes glaze over as Alanna starts talking, but he finishes her statement for her. "...Plus c'est la meme chose? Yeah, you're one of Derrick's old runners alright." He coughs. "You're gonna have to update me on some of that chatter though. You dealt with the Coyote leader, there was a second one... Bravo, delta what?" He gives a half shrug and a surprisingly bright smile. "Well, good enough for me. Cosmo, Serpica," he says nodding to two runners who flank him abruptly--a real pretty 2.0 girl with what looks like a cheap, gutterware knockoff of a Gunslinger bodymod package, and a hulking snake hybrid with a K-tana that's long and sharp in precisely the way his nose isn't. "You're still good on transportation, right?" he asks as the hybrid hands him a cheap, cobbled-together little jumpboard.
Assuming no objections, he takes point, his runners flank the car, and they keep an eye on you as you head east and a little bit north. "Fuel's getting a little low," Cruiser remarks on the way over. "I'll siphon off something, while you're doing whatever you're doing." Those of you who came in with Plant realize that you're nearing the Nexxon building until Roomy gestures and takes you on a detour through a couple of alleyways that bring you into a set of mid-rise buildings almost literally in Nexxon's shadow.
The buildings form a rough ring, dotted with alleyways, but clearly leading to the largest of them. Roomy holds up a fist for you to stop and pulls his jump board up to the window of the car. "That's the building up ahead," he says, gesturing. The courtyard of the largest building is encircled by a large, heavy fence. A sign on one side is adorned with the kanji for Yukosawa Consolidated--the other side warns you that the property is guarded by genemods. Still a little ways off, you can see deep scratches and signs of struggle in the courtyard, but right now it seems still and silent. "The gate lets you in," Roomy says. "But the building itself is locked up tight."
For Kitsune, the place looks like she left it many years ago, with the addition of months of built-up grime and dirt. The surrounding buildings have gotten bigger and more numerous, and the streets themselves are a little unfamiliar, but the property is very much the same, right down to the torii that marks the entrance.
Kayla returns 1dr0meda's thumbs-up. "Diagnostics all okay? Good. Go git 'em tiger," she says, giving you a hug. "Thanks for letting me practice on you too." Monkey gives another awkward wave and nods along with her. They return your bow, though Monkey takes it notably more seriously.
Outside, Cruiser smokes a wood-tip cigar while Alanna sobers up. Once she's finished, he grounds out the stub on the ground. "We're here for you," he says to Alanna. "Whatever this guy's like."
The drive over is relatively uneventful. A few scrounging genemod animals bray at you in the area around the zoo. On the streets, you feel like a few of the cars have moved position, but it's hard to tell for sure. Occasionally, in high-rise windows or behind smashed-up storefronts, you think you might see stragglers eking out a living on their own, far from any of the major camps, but it's hard to know for sure.
The capitol building looms large, the barbed wire that runs along the marble fence rustling slightly in the wind, seeming to almost tense at your arrival. The sun beams down over head, and the makeshift camp in the courtyard is busy. The runners camped out outside are divided into little cliques, trading around ammo pieces and equipment--looking like they're getting decked out for something intense. A few of them stand guard at the edge of the courtyard, holding up your car, and up on the roof, you can see a little lean-to with the glint of a longarm. "Hey, it's the folks Derrick sent out for the Coyotes," one of the guards says, after tersely squinting through the windshield and recognizing Ghiv, Kitsune and Neon. "Somebody get Roomy."
Roomy is a homely, heroin-thin blasian boy with wire-bristle hair that sticks straight up in total defiance of gravity. "Hey," he says, his UrbanSoldier thredz swishing loosely around his body. You have an intuitive understanding of his name. "Derrick asked me to ask you about the Coyotes, and take you over to the Yukosawa place if you like. He's out doing some business." Roomy's eyes slide over to Alanna. "He said it would be better that way, for everyone."
Yes, 1dr0meda is now jumpchair compatible. I can send you all the rules with regards to it if you don't have a copy of the Phoenix book. If you'd like to have an avatar on hand in case you end up ghosting at some point, you create it exactly like you make a normal Mesh avatar in the core book. :)
Yeah, I figure it will come up a lot due to the nature of SW's rules (Ye olde Faste! Furiose! Funne!™) but there are a lot of story elements in IZ2.0 in particular that seem like they should get something in the rules and just... Don't.
I'm also willing to hear people out if one of my rules or things I come up with on the fly is confusing or a problem. See again: I kind of suck at homebrew. :)
A spoiler in which your GM rambles into the ether about Interface Zero Problems:
Rant: So the Terrible Valley of Static book has a bunch of rad s#+$, a bunch of terrible s+%+, and basically is in serious need of a spitshine.
I've already done some reimagining for some of the things I didn't like. My Moses and Kayla Kortex are a little different from the Moses and Kayla Kortex in the book, as are some of the other NPCs. That's par for the course with most RPGs, and I usually shift stuff around to fit my campaign as needed, nbd. What's more frustrating is that things that get mentioned explicitly in the story then aren't really statted or expanded on in any way.
To whit: the story included with the Terrible Valley of Static explicitly mentions that a second TAP helps you to deal with ghosts and hyper combat with ghosts, then helpfully doesn't stat a second TAP. They do have stats for a Data Spike Receiver Module that allows you to ghost, which is also mentioned in the story, and explicitly states that it needs a second TAP to activate and... Argh. They explicitly mention that Ghosts can't attack you when you have your TAP off. Neat! So once you know that, why would you ever turn your TAP back on?? Sure, being unplugged is a hindrance in a major city, but in Phoenix, you're not going to get harassed by mall cops for having your TAP off, nobody's going to give you guff for pushing open doors, the city's full of ghosts and the Deep wants to kill you. Most of the features of a TAP (that are actually explained, natch) don't even work right inside the Valley! There's some implications there about what technology can and can't be used without turning on your TAP, but that's never clarified either. Where do I draw the line? Can people with cyberlimbs still use their arms without having a TAP on?* Can you drive a car? Can you use your gun? What if it's a smartgun? What if you have cyberorgans? If any of that stuff was impossible without a TAP, you'd think they'd mention it explicitly since that seems like the sort of thing that would really matter. What does a TAP even look like?! It's an implant in your CNS, that's about as far as the book goes. And I've tried digging up clarification on the Gunmetal Games forums. Billy Black-Eyes' helpful response to f~@@ing everything is that it's up to the GM. Rad! But I don't want to homebrew my own game, because I suck at doing that. I want to play yours, Bill! I paid money to play yours!!
This is swiftly becoming my personal pet peeve with a bunch of SW licenses. They establish some cool stuff but don't apply any critical thinking to it, and they don't marry the cool stuff in any meaningful way to the statistics. It's like the gameplay and story are sitting in different cubicles and they don't like each other, and if you put them in a room, they get into an argument. The GM goes "guys, guys! can't we all just get along?" And they go "yeah right buddy, what do you think this is, Deadlands Classic?" I could rant for a f$~%ing hour about how badly the Siphoning gets managed in Hellfrost statistically when you compare it to the effect that it's supposed to have in the story. but that's way off topic.
I guess what I'm saying here is if it seems like I'm making stuff up as I go along, that's because I totally am, because half the stuff in the book isn't explained or makes no sense when you consider the implications for longer than thirty seconds. /Rant
*to be fair, that one got clarified on the forums. All your cyber works with or without a TAP. That includes stuff like smartgun targeting systems which really seem like they should break when you turn your TAP off, but whatever
With the rant over, here's rules clarification for the stuff Kayla just did and explained.
DATA SPIKE RECEIVER MODULE
A Data Spike Receiver Module (DSRM) digitizes a character’s
avatar into a free-form Hyper Object and downloads it to a Jump
Chair. Must be installed over a secondary TAP (already included in the strain cost) which balances the neural load required to ghost. As a handy secondary function, this also helps to mitigate damage, counting as an additional 2 points of neural toughness.
• Strain: 2
DOHS Attack
A Denial-of-Hyper-Service attack is just like an old school DDOS. It's pretty easy for an enterprising hacker can set up a simple set of commands to launch a few thousand requests at a target. Conversely, it's pretty easy for another hacker or a SysOp to detect and react to. Treat this as a trick roll between the hacker's smarts and the target's smarts. If the hacker wins, the target's firewall is reduced by 2 until their next action. If the hacker wins with a raise, the target's firewall is reduced by 2 until their next action, and they are shaken.
"Oh Jesus," mutters Cruiser. "She's a hugger." Fishing a piece of broken glass off the ground, with the label still attached, he says "Christ, it was strong too." He makes another shrugging gesture towards her, and seems to be willing to babysit for the time being if any of you want to accompany 1dr0meda.
Kayla is waiting in the reptile exhibit, having apparently been tipped off in advance. Along with her is a new face, a tall, but chubby ganger with a leather vest identifying him as one of the Grim Riders. "Monkey," he says, giving a wave by way of introduction. His fingers split as he waves, then fan out into an array of tools. Kayla Kortex--a not-quite-naturally curvy girl with a head of bouncy blond curls--introduces herself in a bubbly manner, giving hugs that faintly smell like tequila to anyone who came along for the ride.
"Hey you!" Kayla says to 1dr0meda, smiling, then seeming a little disappointed. "Where's your cyborg friend?" She shrugs it off and listens through 1dr0meda's requests. "For now, let's just say you owe me a favor, and we'll leave it at that. I'm just happy knowing there will be somebody besides me who can help with ghosts." She gestures to a table set up next to her jump chair. "Plus, Monkey's going to show me how to operate on androids--gynoid?--whatever." She steeples her fingers. "Point is, I'm gonna get all up in your headspace, chica."
Peeling open the back of 1dr0meda's neck is fairly easy. Monkey quietly points out a couple of trouble spots to Kayla, but otherwise installing the secondary TAP is quite straightforward and plug and play. They seal up the back of her neck after cleaning out some debris and loose contacts left over from her wounds, but otherwise she's already been fixed up fairly well. "For the sprite, I'm not as sure," she says. "I guess if you can, just have her spam a s~&!load of requests at a ghost. They're still programs. They deal with most of it automatically, but it might be good enough to slow them down."
Next update, if you don't have any further questions for Kayla, we'll move along to the capitol building. Rules clarifications for the second TAP/Syzygy helping in combat + a huge rant about rules stuff in Interface Zero in the discussion thread
Woo, I appreciate the patience. I've done schedule roulette from Swings to Days to Swings this week, and my brain is fried even though my bloodstream is 50% caffeine by volume. I should level out soon. :)
You can almost see Moses making a mental checklist of everything you're telling him. It seems like a way for him to keep track of everything. As the man with all the irons in the fire, you can see him turning them over, rotating them, and deciding what he should and shouldn't trust you with. He withdraws the map from Neon for a moment, unfolding it and marking another spot on the map with a circle and a kanji inside. "Yukosawa place is here," Moses says. "From what I remember, nobody's been able to open up the building since the Mess, so the inside should be pretty pristine. Hard part's getting through the front door." He sighs, holding up two fingers and signalling for one of the Bloods to follow Alanna outside with 1dr0meda. "If you can, ask your 'droid friend for info on her "family". We might could dredge something up. NAC contractors used to run half of Luke AFB before the Mess."
"You do look a little like her," he says to Neon. "Give or take the hockey pucks in her ears. I don't know how much you know, but..." He leans in quietly. "People like you got a vulnerability. EMP waves, same as it is for bots. If I get you into Reggie's place in a couple days, they might be able to give you something so you can even the playing field 'tween you and her." He shakes his head to your question. "Reggie's not exactly a friend. I might have an in, but don't just roll over there." He looks to the side. "They uh, usually shell anybody they're not expecting."
"I ain't exactly gonna plan an itinerary for you," he says. "If your bot friend still wants her second TAP, have her check in with Kayla before you go. Then visit Derrick. Maybe put Wraith on a leash first." He smiles a little. "I don't know about the Yukosawa place, but it sounds like your friend already did a run on Nexxon and didn't bite it, so he knows more than anybody else at this point." His smile fades back into a grimace again. "I'm not gonna give you a contract, but you can promise Derrick whatever he needs for the sake of info on Nexxon. We'll hammer out the details later."
If you don't have any more questions for him, Moses retires to his back room. Bigrig and one of the Crips flank you out and keep an eye on you after you retrieve your weapons from the guard. Back at the car, Cruiser watches with mild frustration as Alanna pours an entire bottle down her throat and silently makes a gesture of almost fatherly concern as the rest of you approach.
Kitsune, 1dr0meda, take a benny each for getting in on the backstory reveals and cementing the team together. :)
As your GM, I am loving this extended "Everybody lays their motivations on the table and comes together as a team for the greater good" moment we're having. :')
Moses hesitates, looking back from the doorway, then turning and striding back across the room, he takes the papers from Neon's hands. His eyes flit between giving her a hard stare and scanning rapidly across the pages as he reads. He gives Ghiv another hard, long look, rubbing the back of his head and processing it all as Alanna runs through some of her background. He nods his head to Bigrig, who scoffs, but snatches the bandana off of one of the Crips guarding the room and extends it up to Alanna.
Moses sits and thinks for a while, with another pull on the hookah, and then he quietly giggles to himself. His laugh grows in bass and timbre until it seems to shake the room. He sets down Neon's sheaf of papers and leans forward. "This all comes down to f%*+ing Nexxon. Again." He scratches at the roots of his hair underneath the braids. "They were running this place before the Mess, whether anyone wanted to admit it or not." He rustles through the papers. "And they're mass-producing zeeks by now if this is right. No wonder they're still trying to lock down the financial district. That's a hell of an investment to protect."
"Johnny Po's the first threat to me and mine. Discordia's the second. But if we don't clear Nexxon out of Phoenix, I'm talking permanently, then people like you, and me, and especially--" he looks to Ghiv. "--Zeeks like him aren't gonna be any better off when the power comes back on." He nods to Bigrig again and she reaches just between Alanna's ankles and grabs a rolled-up map, spreading it on the table in front of Moses.
"Right now we got Solidarity here," he says, marking the Phoenix Zoo on the map. "Your boy at the Capitol building. The Coyotes." He checks them off. "And on the other hand, we got Nexxon, the Sheriff, Discordia, the Queen of Scotsdale and Johnny F*#~ing Po." He sniffs, looking over the map. "I need you to extend an olive branch to Derrick--whoever the f%*~ he is--and make sure we can count on him for whatever he can bring to the table. I got foot soldiers, but it sounds like he's got runners and experience. We're gonna need that." He marks off a few more places on the map. "Arcosanti up to the northeast--they probably won't leave their bubble to help out, but it's worth a shot. Reggie's place, old Luke Air Force Base, they got heavy ordnance, I'll see if I can get someone an in to talk to 'em." He massages the bridge of his nose for a minute. "If we're gonna take back the city, we need to get as many people together as possible." He sniffs again, then rolls up the map and offers it across the table to whichever one of you will take it.
"Can I count on you? All five of you?" He asks. "I need people who aren't gangers to take care of diplomacy for me. And get us the supplies we need." He looks up at Alanna, then back across at each of you, his eyes lit up by the embers of the hookah as they settle on Kitsune. "After that, we go to war."
Ghiv take a benny for the longstanding reveal, Neon, take a benny for saving my plot rails. :)
As Alanna's hand gravitates to her safety, Moses reaches behind his back, putting his other hand out in front of him. Bigrig's hand snaps down, and a blade slides from somewhere inside the mess of cybertech on her arm. When Alanna calms down, they seem to, although Moses' hand stays on whatever he's holding. "Ohhhhkay," Moses breathes out. "Let's all calm the f~#! down." That statement is immediately punctuated by a crumpling canister outside and Neon's scream.
Moses stands again, bringing a heavy pistol into a low ready. He seems to pointedly ignore Alanna's jab about professionalism, though he and Bigrig both share a long moment of eye contact. As Neon enters, four of the guards from outside follow her, a step behind her powerstride, coming to a stop as she meets 1dr0meda a few feet from the door."Hello muscle," Moses calls. "I'm Joseph Your Truth Moses Marshall, pleased to make your acquaintance." He looks up at Alanna where she's sitting at the top of his shelf. "And I don't lie, or b~$@$*+&. I check my facts. Truth is in my name. If this is how you act when they bring him up, then maybe your friends weren't being a hundred percent with you, Wraith." He lets that hang in the air for a moment as he casts his sight over the rest of you one by one.
"I've had a real long night," he says, with an air of finality. "You have my gratitude for dealing with the Coyotes. Nobody will hurt you if you need to crash in my camp. If you're after Discordia, feel free to swap info with Kayla Kortex. You come back in a couple days when you calm down and work out whatever your drama is, and I'm happy to talk trade or offer you some more work." The guards click off their safeties and beckon for you to leave. "Next time, the guards will take all of your weapons before you come in," Moses says, and heads to a door at the rear of the room.
Alanna, take a benny. The Derrick obsession definitely just hindered you. :P
Ghiv, okay, that checks out. I think I misunderstood your range increment the first time I read it (I thought you were looking at 160 yards instead of feet. Woops)
Moses takes a moment to reflect on 1dr0meda's breakdown. "Must have been my guys then, but those definitely weren't any orders I gave." He says. "How are things like on the outside? It sounds like nobody on the outside has any idea what's going on." He shakes his head again, his braids bouncing as he contemplates. "Maybe Discordia got a hold over some of Johnny Po's gangers on the outside. Same thing she did to my guys."
"I don't know much about Po," he says to Alanna. "But he doesn't seem like the kind of guy to give up his death grip on anything, so I imagine if he knows about Discordia, he don't like her." He shakes his head again. "It took a supercomputer to get the Crips and Bloods to work together," he muses. "Johnny Po was even more resistant to being a team player than the gangers with a hundred year blood feud."
"Kayla f&##ing wishes," says Bigrig. Their voice is strained and distorted from some bodymod lanced into their throat, but has a heavy hispanic accent. It doesn't really clear up the gender issue. "She a script kiddy and she good with the ghost s$%#. She don't do anything else better than me, 'specially since she doesn't have a mainline to MeshHub to downlo--"
"Bigrig's another lieutenant," Moses says, cutting off the irate ganger. "Who's got some data we might find useful if you're willing to entertain the idea of doing some more work for me." He takes a pull on the hookah, then hands it off to Bigrig, who plugs it into a tube jutting out of their chest that looks like it spikes right into the lungs. "But first off, my thanks for taking care of our little Coyote issue. A promise is a promise. This Derrick boy you were after--he's the only one I know of around town. Spells it kind of weird, too. He's been getting together teams of runners, organizing at the Capitol building. Seems like he's been taking care of kids, the elderly, people who've been headf%&#ed by ghosts..." He glances at Bigrig as she lets out a stream of hookah smoke from what you're reasonably sure are her ears. "Your boy sounds like a real saint."
"He don't get in my way, and his folks seem like they're just scraping by," he says. "Hasn't been real worthwhile for me to talk to him. I think Kayla's said hi to him over ham radio before." He shrugs. "If there's a big ol' fat Derrick, this is the first I heard of him." His eyes slide over to Ghiv, who seems to be spacing out on one end of your couch. "He alright?"
I'm gonna give you this one since it's basically just storytelling right now, but I think there's an extra penalty for casting with no power points that we haven't been including. I'm going to doublecheck my books once I get home and let you know so we can track it from here on. Also, are you looking for anything in particular, or just practicing with the new power?
Expanding your consciousness out, you're able to get a low-level read of the surrounding area. It's beyond strange, being half-aware of your body in a seat inside the lion's den while the rest of your senses stand next to Neon outside as she reads some Nexxon file she must have taken before your escape. Pushing past her, you can see into one of the tents set up in the "plains" area outside and watch for a moment as a handful of gangers play craps, their hands twitchily reaching for weapons on bad rolls, stopping short as they glance up at a poster with the "Rules of Moses" on it, their eyes stopping on one reading "Nobody Dies Without a Sitdown."
As you let your focus wander from place to place, the rules seem constant, as a reminder to make sure people don't let their old grudges come to bear. It seems to work, for the most part, but you notice several people on edge just from being around each other. Making Crips and Bloods work together has to be a delicate balance at best.
"Discordia." Moses says, flatly, as 1dr0meda pauses. He holds up a hand. "Go watch the door, kids. Except you, Bigrig, you can stay." The Crip and the Blood give you all a long hard stare, but walk past you. The Catorce ganger covered in cyberware and tech stays. "So first off, I don't work with Johnny Po. He made it real clear that me, mine, and anyone who looks or smells like us should stay out of his way. Works for me, triads always gave me the g$*$$!n creeps anyway." He scratches his nose, checks his watch, and takes another pull on the hookah. "I don't know any Royce, either."
"Now, I'm puttin' some extra faith in all y'all letting you in on this," he says. "But seeing as your water shipment is a big load off my mind, and I'm hoping to deepen this relationship..." He still seems to hesitate, but his eyes glance over at Alanna and he takes a breath in. "Before the Mess, all the gangs in Phoenix started getting messages. Stuff that helped them out, let them dodge the cops, land big scores. They started trusting them, even though the only name tag was Five-Five-Five--except the Triads, I guess. They only follow whoever's at the top. Then the rest of us started getting orders. Steal this, cause a distraction here. Before long, the gangs weren't hardly fighting each other any more, they were fighting the cops. Organized, with a strategy, like a real war." He pulls on the hookah again, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Then came 5 PM on May 5th. Five-Five-Five, right? Somebody got orders to blow the Phoenix reservoir wall while the rest were rioting, fighting the cops. Pow, all the water's gone, the cops are tied up in a gang war, and then someone cuts all the power lines and all the private mesh connections in Phoenix."
"Chaos," says Moses. "Lotta people died, omae. Nobody was getting orders from the Five-Five-Five anymore, and the first ghosts started showing up. Somebody had to take charge. So I said it was me. A lot of the gangers picked up on it pretty quick, but they was used to taking orders by that point, and I have a good head on my shoulders. I took charge. Rebranded us into Solidarity." He glances out to the door and beyond. "I sent people out right at the start, trying to find a way out the city, more supplies... Anybody I send too far outta downtown doesn't come back. I thought they were just getting axed by the cops, but Kayla and Bigrig think otherwise. There's one ghost that's not like the others, some big blue thing that mercs people at weird times." He looks up, tossing his hair back over his shoulders. "We've heard that name a couple times, too. Discordia. We think she was the one behind the Five-Five-Five." He shakes his head again. "And it sounds like she was giving my people orders once they got past city limits. Sneaky c!%&."
Woo, the expodump is real. I'll pick up with the second half of 1dr0meda's post on the next go around, this seemed like more than enough for one update.
For those of you who haven't met him, YT Moses cuts a figure like an old school comic book character. His suitjacket is lying across a table in the far corner of his setup, and his tie is draped undone around his neck. The rest of his wardrobe still gives the impression of a businessman, but the waterfall of blonde box braids, toothy expression and muscle tone gives you the impression of a lion. He checks his watch as you enter, taking a long pull from the hookah in the center of the room, nods approvingly, and stands to greet you. "Welcome back, Wraith, 'dr0meda," he says to Alanna and 1dr0meda, then briefly grasps Kitsune's hand. "Ooh, Foxy Lady," and he gives Ghiv a firm handshake. "And great value Ben Affleck. Good to meet y'all." He gestures for you to have a seat.
The three guards he has around the room--a Crip, a Blood, and a Latinx bristling with so much cyberware that you can barely tell if they're a man or a woman--stay standing.
"It's been a long night for me," Moses says, picking up a glass of amber liquid and washing down two pills. His eyes water for a second and he blinks it off. He takes another pull on the hookah before continuing. "Tell me you got good news for me, baby," he says as he lets out a mouthful of smoke, distorting his already deep voice even further.
Neon:
The documents, wrapped around the chip marked N32N, look technical as all get out. There are a lot of high-level terms you don't know off the top of your head, and you can't exactly dive onto Meshpedia from Phoenix. But there are a couple of less-technical e-mails included in the files for archival purposes. The name of the sender catches your eye...
FROM: ./MITCHELL ROYCE wrote:
Mr. Plant, et. al (CC'ing most of the senior researchers for their situational awareness),
Pleased to say that we've had total success over in R&D. The cloned material from N30N and N29K has been holding up quite well. A lot of great achievements have been borne from complete accidents--this looks to be one of them.
The dual-synth dub that N30N bears is no good for our original purposes here. Original memories from the donor, neural pathways, emotional attachments--this method lets you keep them all. The upshot is that the procedure can be used to dub new bioroids losslessly. There's no chance of a brain aneurysm during transfer, and no memory loss. The first commercial execution of dual-synth dubbing has been completed, and we're pleased to say that Mr. Po has paid handsomely for the procedure. His NDA is attached.
However, I would like to turn your attention to another potential use of this technique. Since it's utterly lossless, at our current theoretical understanding of Type-Zeta brainwaves, we would be able to replicate the emergent phenomenon. In layman's terms: I believe we can use this technique to print zeeks. My budget proposal for acquiring subjects and experimentation is attached for your review...
The rest of the message goes into technical terms again, but there are rendered pictures as well. As near as you can tell, Royce goes on to describe the exact method by which he'd experiment on zeeks--mostly teenagers. There are procedures for restraining, sedation, surgeries, autopsies, and preservation of the brain and spinal column. The final procedure is marked "Replication of the Zeta Brainwave - MASS PRODUCTION".
"Oh thank god," Jimmy says, taking the solo cup and downing half of it in a few swallows. The guards regard him with a mixture of amusement and vague annoyance. "See, Johnny Po--that's the Triad gangboss--he got heavy ordnance now, omae." He takes another drink. "Sheriff's always been the best armed one in town since the Mess, but now Po has a Golemmech. Full size, like, military s*&$, not the kind you see on Midnight Cyber Deathmatch for funsies, and he's got some white chick with like, thirty-twelve piercings piloting it." Jack glances around. "Rumor is she's some corporate blackops, but nobody knows s!@~ about her for real."
"So the Sheriff's licking his wounds, right? 'Cause even when you have good guns, you can't get through mil-grade shielding, so the cops took a beating." Then, more quietly, he adds, "Moses is pissed, bee-tee-dubs. Triads never fell in with Solidarity, but they left us alone most times, 'cause we're big enough it wouldn't-a been worth it. But if they can just walk in and kick down the gates..." He trails off, nervous at the prospect, and finishes the water.
Ghiv:
Jimmy's mind is a damn mess. His sense of self is distorted at best--he genuinely doesn't seem to notice when he switches names, even mid-sentence. But the gossip he's trading is good as near as you can tell. Though he didn't actually see the events in passing, a lot of people around camp have been talking about it, and there's a picture somebody who did has been passing around of the Golemmech pilot--she looks a bit like Neon, with a lot of body mods.
It's not a long walk up the hill to the Big Cats exhibit, where Moses has set up shop. You're patted down for weapons by another set of guards outside the exhibit, but they seem content to leave you with your sidearms. The only ones they hem and haw about are Neon's BK-616 and Kitsune's K-Tana. "You can leave 'em out here and we'll give 'em back," says one of the guards, before coughing briefly and spitting on the ground. "Or you can wait out here with us."
It looks like a 3/2 split, so we're going to put you guys on the road to Moses first.
The night isn't entirely unpleasant. You can still hear the kids runnning around and being rowdy, but there's a definite subdued edge. They call it quits by midnight, which is early even for city kids, let alone wasteland wild children. Waking in the morning, you find Jasper has placed Maji and the boy on a table not far from the building and covered them in blankets. A few of the kids crowd around, but the group is small. The rest of them are likely sleeping off their hangovers.
"Well," Jasper croaks. "Wish I could say it's been fun. Least it's been productive." He coughs and extends a hand to each of you in turn, and gives 1dr0meda a hug. "<Good luck and safe travels. As long as I'm here, you have a home.>" He also pulls Ghiv briefly to the side. "If you're planning on going after those kids at Nexxon," he says, "I want in. That's my fault. Let me know."
Cruiser starts up the Toyota and sets a course for Moses. "I'm gonna need someone to run interference for me on the hippie chick this time," he says, taking a slow path around the stopped cars on the Phoenix streets. He deliberately avoids the Coyote ambush route. Though there's no sound of gunfire, you can see a couple of columns of smoke rising to the North--well beyond Derrick's encampment at the Capitol building.
The guards at the gate seem more on edge this morning. It might just be the Phoenix sun beating down, but they insist on giving you a rough patdown and checking the trailer--whistling at the weaponry, even though it was theirs not too long ago, before they let you pass the gate. Cruiser parks and breathes a sigh of relief that Moon Unit is nowhere to be found. But Jimmy is. He almost immediately cozies up to the window. "You're back!" He says, and smiles. The skinny ganger shakes Ghiv, Kitsune and Neon's hands in turn. "Jimmy, John, Jack," he says, by way of introduction, to each of them. Then he licks his lips.
"Spare some water for some fresh, hot news?" He says, hopefully, to Alanna.
Yeah I'm having difficulty accessing my books right now (my laptop is broken and I haven't stripped out the hard drive to get all my files yet). Let's go with that for Syzygy's advance and I'll resume moving the plot along. :)
At the moment, the main question is whether you guys are going to go to Derrick or Moses first. Derrick promised you an escort to the Yukosawa building and any information they had on it in exchange for making peace with/stopping the Coyotes. Moses promised further trade info and everything he knew about Derrick in exchange for the same.
There's no reason you can't collect from both, so it's mostly a matter of which one gets resolved first. I'm also assuming you want to get 1dr0meda patched up before going to the Yukosawa building. You do know that Kayla Kortex at Solidarity (Moses' camp) has a street doc who's capable of installing a secondary TAP and a DSRM (the thing what lets you ghost), and the same street doc might be able to repair her, but that's uncertain.
There's plot in either direction. ;) Right now it looks like 1dr0meda and Kitsune are leaning towards Derrick, and Alanna is ironically leaning towards Moses. Ghiv and Neon, where do you stand?
You can still increase smarts, as you're now at 20 XP, which makes this your first advance as a Seasoned character.
There are a couple of ways for Syzygy to rank up-- the book presents some of them, and then pretty much shrugs about which one is best. I'll take a look when I'm at home with access to my book. She'll gain experience at the same rate as the player characters, though, so she should have her first advance. The only question is whether I'll be handling it or you will.
Excellent question on contacts. Another thing I'll check when I get home.
Occupations get a little fuzzy inside Phoenix. It's another thing the splatbooks are (I'm starting to detect a pattern here) kind of vague on. I would say keep track of what you should be earning for an advance and I'll let you know when you actually have money or goods to spend equivalent to it. Bear in mind that you've only actually been in Phoenix for a day and a half. :)
"I'm not sure," says Jasper says to Ghiv, rubbing his head and wincing. "At least four or five that I remember, but there could be more." He curses again, quietly, a stream of consonant-heavy Navajo. "Head hurts," he says, before steadying his gaze back to Ghiv. "That sounds personal. You got some skin in the game on that one?"
He nods to Alanna. Before leaving he puts a hand on 1dr0meda's shoulder. <"This isn't how any of this should have gone, and I have done poorly stewarding our people,"> he says in Navajo. <"If you make it back out of the city, please tell Asheén-assún I'm sorry.">
Assuming no objections, we can keep the roleplay train going for another round of posts, and then I'll move you onto the morning and point you back towards Derrick/Moses, your choice.
Yeah I would say for the moment, unless you get new tools or insight related to your damage, you'll have to live with the wounds or get outside help.
Jasper sets down the hand-mirror he was holding up for 1dr0meda, having pulled the five of you aside into one of the lowrise apartments. He shakes his head and clicks his tongue, looking at the panel through the bathroom mirror behind her. "Ain't got much of a head for circuitry," he says. "That looks a little rough in there, though." He helps her button up the back of her head and offers her a hand up from the toilet before sitting her down at a milkcrate around a table with the rest of you. "I can grab you a second TAP, but I don't know anybody who could install it right off hand. One of your friend's bosses might be able to help."
"I don't know any zeeks around here except Maji, and, well... You saw how that went." He tilts his head, wincing and holding his neck. His eye twitches sporadically, and he sucks in a couple of shallow breaths. "Maji was making me do stuff. Then she'd make me forget about it. Some of it's coming back now. There were zeek kids--she was trying to track them down. She had me take some of them to the Nexxon plaza, but I don't know what happened from there."
"I think I can handle the kids for now," he says to Alanna. "They're still scared of me. What I'm worried about is once we've gone a week or two without supplies proper. If Moses is willing to trade, I can offer drugs, booze and muscle, but..." He licks his lips, then curses quietly. "S$@#. I gotta go check those kids at the ambush point." He waves around to the apartment--it's a little sparse, but there are two beds and a couch. "You can crash here. Most of the kids are going to be asleep."
Everybody can take Three Experience and refresh your bennies. :)
"You tossed a flashbang at my head in there," Jasper says amicably. "Remember how empty it looked with your TAP off?" He coughs, looking down at Maji before kneeling, crossing what's left of her arms over her chest. "She's been lying about the stores. I'm not sure where all the food went."
"Jannaharo, you alright? You're looking a little rough," he asks. He puts a hand on 1dr0meda's shoulder. Quieter, "We'll have to have a talk in a little while."
Yeah, I would have her apply the difficulty penalty for the repair, but she doesn't have to stack it with her own wound penalties, because she's a Construct.
The ghost shudders, but your VR blade glances off almost ineffectually, though it seems to recoil from you and skitters to join Maji before she's unpleasantly detonated. The ghosts seem to be at a loss for who to fixate on with most of your TAPs off.
"No hard feelings," confirms Jasper. He tilts his hat back, revealing some singes around the edge of his face, and an unpleasant-looking bump on the head. "Figure you owe me an eyebrow pencil 'til mine grow back in, otherwise we're all square." He pats Ghiv on the shoulder as he walks past. "Having someone else in your head ain't no fun, friend. Give it a minute, it'll pass."
"Well, Maji's dead," he says, looking down at the mangled corpse. "Least two, three times over, I reckon." He turns to the teen Neon dropped a few seconds ago, and checks his vitals before shaking his head. "Him too. Good shot."
1dr0meda:
Once you turn your TAP back on, you can see the massive blue hand, taking up most of your vision, the index finger still pressed on Maji's corpse. It lifts a few feet, hesitates for a millisecond, and then lifts back into the sky. As it goes, it points to Alanna.
The two spider ghosts dive for Alanna, though her TAP is still off. They skitter their legs harmlessly along her surface. One turns to you as it notices you observing again, the other curls its legs over her back, around her arm, as if trying to move it.
Hacking:1d8 ⇒ 7
The spider coming towards you stops short. Up above, the hand is fading into the sky, and the floating men are drifting apart and fading. Hissing, it moves, squidlike, into the air, following the hand as it disappears. The other, it's appendages still wrapped around Alanna, seems to simply fade from view.
Alanna:
For a few seconds, you experience a minor, lancing headache behind your eyes, through your back, and into your arm. It passes quickly. Probably just haven't had enough to drink today.
"Well, we're going to bury our dead," says Jasper, loudly, gesturing at Maji and the kid. "These folks are friends," he says to the teenagers, who are murmuring. "You saw what she--" Maji, "--Was. We're not gonna do the stuff she did. No more turf war, we've got enough to worry about. Party's over. Turn your TAP off and go look at the store room if you don't believe me." The kids still murmur, but the closest ones scramble away from Jasper, and others still stare with revulsion down at Maji's corpse. A few walk off to check the storeroom.
Quietly, he beckons for you all to come in a little closer. "I'll reign in the kids as much as I can, but I'm guessing they'll get ornery without fun mom around giving them drugs and mind-f!*$ing everyone." He coughs, wincing and clutching his ribs. "You can tell Derrick and Moses they don't have much to worry about for now."
You push into Maji's mind, and you feel a familiar sensation of staring into something deep, and vast. This time you're able to read it a little clearer--the hundreds of strands of thoughts crossing over each other, making each other imperceptible. From somewhere, deep inside it, you feel one of those massive strands of thought take notice of you, and grab you. Unable to sever the connection, you dive deep, landing somewhere else in Phoenix. You can feel dry eyes that are wired open, and a constant pain through the neck that this mind has long since dulled to. "Oh god," you feel their mouth move as if it were your own, dusty and parched and long since hoarse from screaming. "Somebody's reading me. Hey! Hey you! For the love of god, help us, plea--"
You jolt back to reality, into the Coyote camp, your feet feeling heavy and rooted, as the shockwave from an explosion ruffles your hair. Whatever you were reading in Maji's corpse, it isn't there anymore.
Kitsune's aim is dead on target. "I'm almost disappointed," You hear the thing say before the shuriken detonates on impact with her face. A cloud of dust and smoke rises, and for a moment you can't hear anything over the ringing in your ears. Then, impossibly, Maji steps forward, one arm gone, half her face seared to the bone. You can smell burnt flesh and see one of her tendons twitching, exposed on her neck.
On her second step, she crumples, with a series of unpleasant cracks, her face impacts the dirt and asphalt with no attempt to break her fall. A little ways off, you hear a creak as Jasper pushes open the warehouse door, then whistles as he limps toward you. "I was gonna say shoot her in the TAP," he says, his mouth twisting into a pained smile. "But that works too."
