I'm a little confused over numbers.  Four guards arrived, how many left?  And how many were manning the front desk?

How close is the tree line to the emergency exits?

Would it be a bad idea to call the Johnson directly and have her set up a way to give/receive warning from the second team?  Assuming there is a second team and they are actually planning a second run, it would be in her best interest to have the warning system in place.  Right?

Doesn't hurt to ask, though if I were her, I'd insist that the communication flow through me - avoids any possible leakage about the respective targets.

I don't think communication with the other group would be necessary anyway, just so long as we have a way for them to signal us if their run goes bad, or vice versa.  Even if they signal the Johnson and she signals us, it would be better than nothing.

So is looking into the supply lists part of that 1000 dollars?  Did she know anything about the gangers?  St. V will be sharing his info with the others when they get back.  Will meeting Blake be something we are supposed to bring Eve along for?  If so, we can ask about the signal arrangements when we call her to set up a meet.

Yes, greasing palm counts as an equipment expense. Just don't abuse it.

Yes, Eve expects to be invited to meet Blake. This isn't part of your contact network, so that exception does not apply.

Sorry, yes, Rose has followed up on the gangers. They are part of a mid-sized street gang called King's Crimson. They run under a guy named Alan Corliss.

Just out of curiosity, how many 'bots does Copperhead have?  And are any of them remote control car-sized or smaller?

Smallest couple are about a cubic foot, though a bit larger when armed.  Total count is 4 (or 5 if you count the van).

The small ones could probably be strapped to St. V's chest and/or back if we were going in hot.  (They'd be a bit hard to explain if he was posing as a janitor though.  Particularly the grenade launcher or shot-gun pointed out the front.)

Would have done some more chattering w/ St. V and Toombs, but figure I should move things along.

Well, once I find out about the logs, do you think you would be able to pilot a bot under a vehicle heading into the facility?  That might allow us to better view the facility inside.  But this can only happen under these conditions:

1) The security doesn't check under vehicles at the entrance. (I'm sure a conceal or invisibility spell might cover this one.)
2) The loading dock area has a ramp to allow access into the facility.  If its stairs, we're screwed and have wasted a bot.
3) The bot does not make too much noise when moving.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:53, Fri 03 Apr 2015.

I think #1 is unlikely.  #2 is fine - my bot can do stairs.  #3 is a problem - the one that would be a candidate for that mission explicitly says it's a little noisy

A few other concerns:
- My drone has to be able to move as fast as the vehicle it's trying to drive under (that might be possible if I really push the drone and the inbound vehicles are moving slowly, but it'd be dicy)
- Range of control would be pretty poor once the drone started moving into the hill.  250m under good conditions in an urban environment, but inside a hill doesn't exactly qualify as "good" conditions.
- The invisibility spell we have access to is pretty poor right now.  Anyone is rolling 2s to see it.  Sneaking it past one or two dim-bulbs might be possible, but getting it past more than that will be tough.  (and even the first couple isn't guaranteed)
- Once I'm inside, I'd be sitting in a hall with no way to open doors or to get out - meaning the drone would be discovered eventually and I wouldn't be able to explore much.

All told, I'd say the risk/reward ratio isn't good enough.  If we're going to probe the inside, I think we do it astrally (and very cautiously).  I do intend to get the drones close enough to get a really good look at the back doors so we can see whether opening them is a possibility (e.g. drill a couple of small holes and feed a wire around the inside release bar to open from the inside).  Obviously we'll need control over the inside alarms for that to work.  So a lot of what's practical will depend on what you learn about physical and matrix security once we get you a jack-point.

Well while I have the benefit of +6 Concealment, do you want me to buzz through and see what can be seen? I don't know that it'll be too useful aside from getting a head count, since I can't see much in the way of tech or emplacements (including cameras).
Otherwise I was willing to wait until day 2 where I can summon the spirit from the comfort of my own hovel and buzz through then. Our best bet for cameras et al is Decking, which I think Copperhead should try to use a drone for the Dataline Tap idea. If we lose it, I'm sure we can chip in the cost of a replacement.

You'll lose your +6 as soon as you enter the building.  But I still think sticking your head in is worth while.  Objective would be to discover what they've got in the way of magical security (so as slow and careful as you can - we want to detect, not trigger :>)  If it turns out they've got none, then you can also find out what the layout of the place is, guard patrol patterns, etc.

Don't understand what you mean by use a drone for the data tap.  Can't install a data tap with a drone (they don't have the fine manipulation required to hook up the wiring).

My expectation was to go in and hook up the tap myself, then let Noruas figure out what he can see in terms of sensors and use that knowledge to let me bring a drone in close to the emergency doors and anything else that's worth snooping more closely.

Ah, I always run with the assumption that one drone has a pair of arms.

If we wait until I'm back at my place, I should be able to summon a city spirit (or hearth, since it's unclear which would apply) and get the concealment bonus while I'm inside the facility. I'm also not a fan of how much stun damage I have right now.

I suppose attaching a cyber-arm to a drone with an appropriate size frame might work.  Would probably take the place of a weapon mount though.

Spirits don't work the way you think they do :(

But think about it this way Copper, if you mount a cyberarm on your drones then you can flip people off from dozens of different directions at your convenience!

Copperhead's pretty talented at that without using her drones at all . . . :>  Plus, flipping someone off with a grenade is so much more expressive . . .

Spirits are really handy in that they're free and you never have to worry about running out of them.  But they suck in that you almost always have to summon them exactly when and where you need them - with whatever modifiers you've got then and there.  As soon as you physically or mentally leave a given domain, you can't command any spirit you summoned in that domain.  And they won't follow you from place to place.  A city spirit isn't a spirit of the whole city, it's a specific spirit tied to a particular place in the city.  So if we want a city spirit inside the complex, you can't summon it until we're inside the complex.  And if you have a forest spirit waiting outside, you'll have to have provided all of your commands before you went in.  Because you lose all remaining services as soon as you step inside the facility.

On the plus side, spirits are less likely to hate your guts and try to screw you over, though they have personalities and opinions and respond better to requests for agreeable favors than demands.  So, for example, promising that we're going to try not to hurt anyone in the complex and that it'll be a lot easier if no-one knows we're there will go over better than "hide me" as you're trying to pump the locals full of lead.

What should our next step be?

Well far as I see it, we have 3 major things that need to be done. Noruas is cracking his knuckles and breezing his way through deadly security whilst engaging in hijinks. Toombs needs to buzz the facility now that he knows there are (probably) no astral alarms.
Now, what we really need to know is which of their points of vulnerability we can exploit the most. We know the security company, the cleaners, and the delivery crews. I figure as far as price/payoff, our best bet would be to infiltrate the cleaners and see if maybe we can score some uniforms, make some fake IDs, and get Noruas to forge credentials for the night. Unfortunately the only choice we have that actually takes place during the narrow FOV of the run is the security company itself, but that would be the hardest of the three.
Failing all else, the contact said they aren't very thorough. Noruas can just crack their security, fake some info, and we can wander around with one-night sec passes.

In any case, St. V and Copperhead (and Toombs, once he's done sobering up and flying) can case the secondary sites and figure out which one we should make our move on.

I welcome input.

I want to check out the emergency exits.  That might be the easiest way to get someone in without having to deal with security at all.  Presuming Noruas can pwn the cameras, I'm going go get a really close look at those doors and see how hard they'd be to open from the outside.  They're prepared for people to go out them, but not to come in them.  Other challenge is we're not allowed to enter the building until 2am.  That makes going in as *anyone* challenging.  The security staff, cleaning staff, etc. have their shift change earlier.  So we would have to break the parameters of the mission to do that.  Coming in as the "waste collectors" could be a bit easier.  Our truck could have an "issue" that leads to a late arrival (right about 2am).  So I see us as having two options - break in through the emergency doors or commandeer the waste truck in a manner that will ensure that no-one discovers that until late the following day or, ideally, never.  (The latter would likely involve a payoff.)

We do have in our contract, palms greased.
Also, if you think waste reclamation is our best bet, then sounds smart to me. My only issue is we're definitely going to be under surveillance if we go in that route. So it may be easier to ghost it instead of smiling and waving.

Another possibility is to grease the palms of one of them to leave the door unlatched when they go in and to wear a sub-vocal so we can keep track of where they (and their escort) are.  Saves having to break in and reduces the chance of encountering anyone in the halls.  Could even produce a distraction.  ("Sorry mate.  Didn't mean to accidentally spill that vat of used organs on ya.  Here, let me use a tissue")

Is there anything St. V could or should be doing besides getting some sleep before the run?  I've been having a hard time thinking of anything that hasn't already been covered.

Chime in on the tactical debates, especially if you have ideas we haven't used. I'm pretty tapped out on this, since I've said all I can think of.

Well you have a fair bit of information. Have you settled on your preferred method of entry?

I'm back.

If we take out the truck staff, we should plan to incapacitate and somehow convince them that it's in their best interest to keep quiet about the whole incident.  Probably a combination of threats and payment.  I think the joy-girls or a variant would be as (or even more) effective than triggering any alarms.  It likely won't raise any flags but will certainly distract.

If we're going to go in as waste collectors, we need to get a good look at their uniforms and badges so we can create our own that will fit and look like us.  One possible plan is to plan two have two of our team pretend to be collectors and the other two slip in afterwards through the door that's left open.  If we wish, they could even "accidentally" splash their escort with something unpleasant.  We'll have 2 at the front door plus the one in the basement all likely distracted by our show.  And we'll have the remaining guard escorting the waste collectors.  That leaves our janitor.  They actually worry me the most - they don't have a radio and could wander pretty much wherever.  All we can really hope for is that they'll start at one end of the complex and make their way to the other end.

Copperhead can help with getting a close look at uniforms and badges if we know somewhere else where this particular company is working, but I'm not clear on whether we have that information or not.