Thanks guys!  ;)

So uh, things are still happening, right? I don't need to PM bear to see if she/he is okay or anything, do I?

Time is passing :) Right now, the only one who has posted they are taking actions is Noruas (in the hacking thread). If you're ready to roll or planning to call the Johnson, you need to explicitly say you do it. You may want to wait a tick until Noruas is done hitting the party location on the matrix, but I don't expect him to find anything that will seriously impact your early-party decisions.

(If you're going to the party, go ahead and jump to the party thread.)

I posted that I was calling the Johnson last Thursday, haven't gotten a response yet.

In that case you just need to poke me :P

Noruas, have you been finding out some good information?  Anything Caduceus should know before calling up his contacts?  Locations?  Guest lists?  Purpose of the party?  Supplies we might want to track down?

Yeah, just found out I'm being tracked by a camera.  Trying to deal with it as we speak.  I've found out that there are camera, phone line, and security feeds.  But I haven't been able to bust in on it just yet.

Awesome!  Sounds cool.

White Duck - presume you're going to ask follow-up questions for some specifics around the alterations of behavior, the types of skills we should be preparing for (including for the 3rd unnamed chip), as well as whether there's any particular process for unslotting a chip.)  Plus giving a heads up about the fact that Junior's now no longer a factor?

Good questions, and I planned on asking more, just had a busy weekend. Will post in today when I get a window.

No worries.  I took last week off.  I was just double-checking :>

Don't think I'd want to tie us to Junior's disappearance if we don't have to though. We got away with that, no sense in poking the bees nest to see if any of them want to sting us.

My take is that the Johnson will find out or strongly suspect that it was us eventually.  Giving them a heads up that "we have information that suggests that Junior will no longer be taking a significant interest in these chips or anything else" doesn't claim any responsibility - we could have been witnesses or heard 2nd hand, but may give the J some opportunity for damage control or to take other actions to their advantage.  Just seems more professional than letting them be blind-sided.

No less professional than knowing fully well what's on the chips and refusing to let us know prior to us accepting the job, or not even knowing it's the CEO's son that's caused your product to go missing, or allowing one's security on a top-secret project get lax enough to have it stolen.

Calling Tee-Hee next.

We don't expect the Johnson to tell us everything.  That's not how they work.  Plus, if the chips hadn't been slotted, there was no need for us to know those sorts of details.  And the J. didn't know it was the CEO's son at the time we were commissioned.

We're trying to build rep, so doing things that make the J's life easier is a good thing if it doesn't cost us anything.  How you delivered it works for me.

Do we have Tee Hee's contact info?

Also, you haven't asked if there's any magic to unslotting the chips or otherwise disabling them (which would make sense for a research prototype).  You could press to talk to a technical person if she doesn't have the info.

Duck was given a card for how to contact Hendrix, who would at least know where Tee Hee is. Good idea for a question, but I think it might be better asked of Tee Hee too.

Tee Hee wasn't working in the chips, he just had sufficient access to steal them.  He already said he didn't know anything about them.  If we're going to get info on the chips, it's either from the J or someone she gives us access to.

Duck, will you prompt her to get more details on the chips - what sort of skill enhancements/personality changes we can expect and how to deactivate/remove them if slotted?

Papa - she had no reaction to the possibility that Junior might not be in the picture anymore?

Whatever her thoughts are on Junior (and his abrupt exit), she's keeping them to herself.

Given the quality of the invitations, who this person supposedly is, the industry we're dealing with and that someone at Junior's level was invited, I think it's a safe bet that we're talking quite upscale.  Probably black-tie equivalent.

Seems a pretty good idea. Probably also plan to leave the hardware at home.

Looks like my fly-size drones were mentally carried over from a different character (in a different game and rules setting - they don't even exist in the Shadowrun universe).  So the smallest thing I've got is the Scorpion.  It's got a signature of 12, and is about 7 inches long.  With the aid of a spirit to conceal it, I could possibly slip in and do some poking around, but it's not terribly fast - only 2 meters/turn.  If someone steps on it or shoots at it, it's toast.  However, undetected, it can jab a single dose of narcojet into the back of someone's heel.

I've got a couple of micro camcorder and an activate-on-demand tracker you guys can take in if you want.  The former will give Noruas or I non-mobile eyes and ears wherever you wish (for example, to watch over a hall or to listen in on a conversation when you can't be in proximity (though Caduceus' fancy ears may make that unnecessary).  The tracker might be helpful if you do find Val if we decide that security is too high to do an extract on-site, we could track her for when she departs to a secondary location and try to intecept her on route, though if she's traveling in AAA neighborhoods only, there probably won't ever be an "easy" time to grab her.

Beyond that, I've got a couple of drones that can climb up airshafts and carry a bit of weaponry, and I've got decent B&E skills, plus the requisite toys, so if we become aware of a place that's worth breaking into, I can probably do that too.

Well, aside from computers and hacking, I too can do some B&E (minor league compared to Copperhead) if we ever need to.  But aside from that, I'm actually not very useful in the field unless you are counting on minor support from someone who can use mounted weapons on vehicles.

Would security notice/care if Caduceus brought his expendable spell focuses with him to the party?