I think we're waiting on WD to follow up?

Things that would be reasonable to ask include:
- what warehouse? (seeing as WD didn't mention it)
- who's 'they'?
- how much nuyen they're being paid to defend said warehouse and not put holes in the nearby enemy gangers?
- are they expecting to be at this long?

In the end, we only really care about the answer to the last one, but the others are reasonable to ask and the answer to the third one might give us a clue about how the gangs are being manipulated/controlled.

Oh, and ask if they would like any help.

It's been a while with no response, so I'm going to assume WD asks these questions, to keep things moving...

You missed Noruas' question

I am going on my vacation today and won't be back until the 8th.  I probably won't be able to make posts for most of that time (especially in-character posts), so feel free to NPC Caduceus as much as you want in the meantime.  Try not to get him killed though :P  I can probably answer any questions you have if they are asked before noon tomorrow though.

He has a Force 3 City Spirit with 3 services remaining. Unless flying over the warehouse caused him to leave its domain, in which case he would conjure another one when he returns to his body.  Caduceus likes to have a spirit available when there is a possibility of things taking a turn for the worse.  He is also wearing a secure longcoat.

He gets a bonus to conjuring hearth spirits.  He also gets bonuses for health, detection, and illusion spells.  He gets a penalty while casting in combat and has no offensive skills, so he usually sticks to dodging and commanding spirits in battle.  Although he does have a knife, Colt American in a concealable holster, and some smoke and concussion grenades for emergencies.

Along with being good at conjuring and Sorcery, Caduceus is good at Aura Reading (Auras), Etiquette, and Negotiate (Bargain), but he usually lets White Duck handle the talking since Duck is even better at it.  Also notable is that he can drive motorcycles, if that ever comes up.  He is also especially knowledgeable in Symbolism, Seattle Back-ways, Building Schematics, Magical Background, Conjured Entities, and Seattle High-Society.


Here is his spell list again, for reference:

Mindlink - 2
Mind Probe - 6
Clairvoyance - 3

Healthy Glow – 2 (Exclusive, lowered cost)
Heal – 6
Stabilize – 4 (Exclusive, lowered cost)
Resist Pain - 2 (Exclusive, lowered cost)
Antidote - 2 (Exclusive, lowered cost)
Cure Disease - 2 (Exclusive, lowered cost)

Physical Mask – 6
Trid Phantasm – 6 (Exclusive, lowered force)
Stealth - 4

Influence – 6 (Exclusive, lowered force)
Levitate – 4
Magic Fingers – 2

For Emergencies:
Expendable spell Focus 2(Illusion)
Expendable spell Focus 2(Manipulation)
Expendable spell Focus 2(Health)
This message was last edited by the player at 16:17, Sat 25 Feb 2017.

My leaning is to head to the apartment for now.  While I have a few ideas on how to break up/soften up the gangs, I don't know we could get the lieutenants to leave the house and who knows what sort of firepower they have.  So to me it makes sense to pursue other angles first

Nice build Caduceus!

@Copperhead: How about we wait for Caduceus' to get back to his body before we move out?  We don't want him to find out his body is missing once he gets back from recon.

Oh, I wasn't planning to pull out just yet.  Need to give Duck time to get back into the van too.  I'm just accelerating the planning phase by throwing my thoughts on the table.

Given the level of physical security, I'd be astounded if our target left the aspect of astral or even matrix security unaccounted for.  But it's certainly worth Caduceus taking the time to verify.  (Not sure there's a convenient matrix place for Noruas to jack in nearby and, in princple, he could try that from anywhere - if this warehouse is even connected.)

I'm guessing it's Cooperman at the warehouse with the "strategist" chip slotted, leaving Griffin with the "melee" specialist.  Which probably ties into "Jack" as well as the reports about women getting sliced up pretty good.

My leaning is to have White Duck slip his contact a bit of cred and convince him to call when something new happens, on the grounds that something this significant is likely worth having a heads up about.  If we want to be sure, we can have Caduceus use his "influence" to ensure the phone call gets made regardless of higher-up instructions.

Then we go check out Griffin's appartment and see what we learn there.  Assuming we get a lead, we can then chase down chip number 2.  Once we've got 2 chips, we can look into getting our initial payment while we see if circumstances change at the warehouse.  (It also wouldn't hurt to confirm that the promised nuyen is for real before we go through the effort of trying to wade through all of those bikers to try to get to the third chip - plus we might need some of the cash for extra resources to make a successful play if the situation at the warehouse doesn't change.)

Sure you don't want me to try and get in?

BTW, sorry I've been out. got diagnosed with major depressive disorder (not sure if I told you guys) and adjusting to meds is affecting my memory a bit :/

No problem, WD. At the end of the day, it's just a game. Health first.

Go ahead and decide how you are proceeding (or just drive away, I guess) and we'll move it along.

We can explore that in the future, but your contact seemed resistant and also to believe he didn't have the right to actually go into the warehouse.  Plus the magical security seems pretty tight.  Even if you did get in, you wouldn't have much in the way of backup or a way of
getting out.

Given that we have a thread that's (hopefully) easier to pull on right now, it seems wisest to do that.  If we come up dry there and the situation here hasn't evolved, then we can brainstorm approaches to getting in.  I'm hoping that things will evolve in a direction that makes things a bit easier - as they did with the party.  It's hard for me to imagine that this situation of so many enemy gangs in close proximity can be sustained for long, no matter how convincing our target is.


Understand re: meds.  Hopefully you can find a good fit and the right dosage.  Gets easier once your system adusts too.  Rooting for you.

The plus about RPOL is that if you forget, you can always scroll back.  (I find myself needing to do that regularly and I'm not any meds :>)

I'd actually like to try to talk my way in, at least get some interior recon done.

Ok.  Respond IC and I'll edit my post accordingly.  The worst that can happen is they say "no".

(Well, actually the worst that can happen is they shoot you and toss grenades under the van and we all have to create new characters - but that outcome has lower probability. :>)

Boss, are only ork gangs present here?

No, it's a mix. Probably a dozen different gangs in total, all independent, mostly go-gangs (i.e., on bikes or vehicles). A few have links to organized crime (at least, if the rumor mill is true). You're guessing their mafia and Yak bosses might not be happy about this when they find out.

It's hard for me to picture any of us getting in (let alone getting back out with the chip) in the current circumstances.  I've got 3 ideas to disperse the crowd:

- I can take the DocWagon bracelet we snipped off Pengrave and make a few modifications that'll let us trigger it at will and make it look like Pengrave is slowly bleeding out.  Then we find a way to get it close to the warehouse and let DocWagon (and their backup) make a bit of a dent - or at least a big distraction

- We plant a rumor that the whole thing is a Lonestar set-up.  Caduceus can implant a few suggestions and/or throw up a couple of phantasms suggesting plain-clothes cops, White Duck can lay some of his own ground-work.  Copperhead can let her drone be a bit more obvious.  If they don't clear out, Copperhead can start laying down some suppressive fire

- We plant some grenades, trigger them and let the bikers decide it's a double-cross.  If White Duck wishes, he can let his contact know that things are about to go south, so if he wants to position his buddies to take best advantage of the situation, he's got about 60 seconds to do so.

Of course, there are a couple of other options:
- wait and see what happens
- ditch this place, go to the apartment and come back later

CH, Just to give you a bit of info on my guy, he's got a bit of history in the Underground, particularly with the Ork community. It's possible I can use those ties to get an escort. Going to play a few more angles up here if I need to, but I'm hoping this at least gets me in.

I want to try something. This guy is probably Cooperman, right? Well, what if I convinced these gangers of the truth, and that truth spread? That truth being that the guy who's charismatically gathered them all, just like "Cleo", is just some chipped-out whackjob whose brain got overwritten?

The problem with sharing the truth is how to make sure some enterprising individual doesn't pop the chip before we can get to it.  It would also increase the chances that Cooperman gets the heads up of what our actual target is.  Doesn't mean it can't work, but it has risks.

I personally rally like Copperhead's doc wagon bracelet idea.  It would be pretty easy to have a drone drop it from a mile up into some bushes.  I vote for that if Duck's angle doesn't pan out.

My leaning is to actually walk it in on the scorpion.  If we don't position it carefully, DocWagon's sensors will figure out there's no body and they won't even bother to come in for a landing or calling for backup.  Plus, dropping anything with accuracy from 1000m up is hard and if we mished the bushes, it'd probably break.  (The base wristband might be pretty robust, but my additions/customizations probably wouldn't be.)

The scorpion's base signature is 12.  With a spirit hiding it, moving in the dark (it's currently around midnight) and with the drone overhead able to monitor where the bikers are and where they're looking, I shouldn't have any trouble getting in close without being detected.  Ideally I can skitter through a broken window or something and plant the device directly inside the warehouse.  (Having eyes-on wouldn't be a bad thing either.)  Once it's inside, I can trigger the signal remotely.  If White Duck plants rumors that prime some of the bikers to run when the heat arrives, that'll help.  If some of them take off, herd instinct will hopefully get the others to do the same.

Just out of curiosity, what exactly are we planning/going to do now?  I am unsure since everyone is kinda doing their own thing and it feels like the team is being pulled in all directions.

Well, right now Duck is trying to get himself into the warehouse for recon. His play is to "offer his services" to Cooperman or whoever else is in there and in charge in order to get more info about what's going on. With this many gangers in one place, Duck is in crisis response mode and is sort of having to play things by ear. Hardly trying to go rogue though.

My instincts were to head somewhere else where the odds weren't so overwhelming.

If this gets into a shooting fight, we're in deep trouble.  We're heavily outnumbered and outgunned.  They've got the weapons to take out my drone or my van.   We can try to get these guys shooting each other or try to get DocWagon or LoneStar to thin the herd, but that could put the Tuskers at risk, and I get the impression that WD would rather that not happen.

It's not clear there's much to deck here - or any safe location to jack in, so Noruas is sort of twiddling his thumbs.  He can help me shoot, but we're not at the point where we're ready to do that or where it'd be a good idea.  I can play overwatch and try to sneak something in.  Given how quickly the local mages squished Caduceus' spirit, he has limited options too.  Given the density of gangers in the 1-block radius and the magical support, our chances of sneaking something in other than one of my mini-drones seems low.  I'm not sure how well it'll climb with something on its back either.  But that's my plan for now.

I'm fine with White Duck heading in on his own, but to a large extent you're on a tightrope without much of a net.  And I'm not sure what you're going to do once you're inside.  Obviously this guy is pretty persuasive or we wouldn't have this many gangs in close proximity working well together.  So going head-to-head trying to convince the other gangers to abandon this dude seems dicey.  The best outcome I can see is just getting in position so you're ready to act when the drek hits the fan - and then having the rest of the team trigger some of said drek if it doesn't happen spontaneously.  (With a powderkeg like this, it seems unlikely that *someone* isn't going to light a fuse at some point.)

I'll sneak in the DocWagon bracelet.  Caduceus can maybe magic-hands a few remote-triggered grenades into place or create the illusion of a LoneStar sniper or two and/or influence someone into thinking this is a trap.  I'm open to ideas from Noruas as to what he wants to do (or indications from Papa as to whether there's anything here to deck and a location to do it from).

Ok, thanks for the update guys.

As to how I would approach this situation....I was thinking that we sit back and wait for the fireworks to start going off before we enter this fiasco.  It probably won't be long before SOMETHING happens.  What that 'something' might be, I have no idea.  I guess we'll just have to be on the lookout until then.  But in the mean time, I've got mixed feelings about WD working his way into the site.  Like Copperhead said, he's not gonna be able to get back up from us, unless the Tuskers and other gangs are willing to give him some sort of reinforcement.  But it would be nice if we somehow got eyes inside to tell us what the hell is going on.

Regarding Noruas being on standby, I'm happy manning the guns and waiting it out until we need my skills again.  I'm in no rush, nor do I wish to rush anyone.

Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained, one might say. Duck has a decent enough stealth skill and can easily fade into a crowd with the hair/skin color changing thing. I know it's without you guys being able to protect me, but if we need to sneak in later, which is most likely, we need eyes on the inside.

That AND Duck is actively trying to prevent a gang war from breaking out. Of course, it'd only be NPC casualties if Duck got out now, but his conscience is drawing him closer to the hornet's nest to investigate. I *did* design him for covert infiltration/spy stuff, after all.