"I do not recognize the man, but I believe I recognize what he represents. The man himself is inconsequential. His employer may be a threat."

He listens patiently to Duck's assessment of the situation, before offering a correction. "The chips are worth nothing to us destroyed. We require them, and the only copy of them, returned. You are correct, it is an IP concern. However, they are a threat, like I said. Should they be destroyed, I would extend you a minor fee, as a courtesy only."

The two negotiate back and forth. Manes maintains his poker face. It seems Duck's offer was well chosen, and the two do the dance of bargaining, eventually settling on $124,000 per chip recovered, and three chips.

And he will add some additional conditions.

"As I said, I am willing to pay a small token for each chip removed from circulation, but not returned intact. $1,000. And I can extend you $8,000 in advance, to help in covering expenses."

"He don't know we's seen 'im yet.  An 'e might not do nothin.  I kin take 'im out 'ere if  I gotta.  Might be good if you 'as in da main part o da bar.  If 'e breaks in true da back, I kin lettcha know an you can tell da bartender an da door guy.  If e's jus watchin, then we kin return da favor and trail 'im when e' leaves.  Or mebe pick im up fer a chat.  'Sides, we dunno if he's on our team.  Mebe jus a bodyguard."

The dwarf sighs, and holsters his weapon.

He puts on his earpiece and says, Update me if anything changes.  I'll try and go warn the others.

And with that, Noruas hops out the van and enters the bar.

"Comm check.

Don' rupt em yet.  He may jus sit an watch.  Or mebe e's frienly.  If 'e starts messin wit da door, I'll letcha know an ya can tell da bartenner.  If 'e stays put, we kin see what da udders say when dey comes out.  Mebe catch em when dey comes outta da back room an chat 'fore ya comes outside.  I'm gonna see if I kin move da van ta get a better line on im.  Van shoots less noisy.  Don come out da front til I's gotcha covered.  Or 'less everythins already gone cluster-frag."

Once the dwarf was safely through the front door, Copperhead scouted for an alternate location for the camper.  One with a line of sight to the shadowy gentleman in the back and far enough away it wass unlikely to be noticed, but where there was a relatively quick path back to the front of the bar for when she needs to pick up her teammates.  The task was made easier by her aerial drone.  Nothing like scouting for a path to a good high-ground location when you're already a kilometer up.

She remained in captains chair mode, driving the van via remote instruction to the auto-pilot and keeping a close eye on both the shadowy figure and the surrounding area.  If he was calling in back-up, she didn't want to miss their arrival.  And if he started picking the lock on the back of the building, she was going to be ready to drop him with a small barrage of stun rounds.

Once she's in position with line of sight to the guy in the back, if the location is appropriate, she'll drop the rear door and let out the Doberman, get it to a concealed firing position and then drive back around to the front.  She's looking for somewhere that's  just within the 750m range limit of her rifles, gives her a good line on the back of the place and where she's unlikely to be noticed.  If no such position exists, she'll stay where she is.

Duck nods, considers a moment, then smiles.

"I believe this arrangement is to our mutual benefit, and we can agree to these terms."

Duck glances to Cadeuces for a moment to ensure his assent, then nods himself, rising to shake hands with Manes.

The dwarf walked past the bouncer without much trouble as he had nothing to declare.  Once inside the bar, he orders another purple soda and takes it to a seat in a dark corner of the room with line of sight of both the front and back entrances.

Caduceus nodded his approval of the deal to White Duck.  The terms seemed satisfactory to the shaman so long as no other major curve balls were thrown their way.  There was at least one major variable that could qualify as a curve ball though, and it prompted Caduceus to speak up for the first time.

"The deal as it stands sounds reasonable," Caduceus admitted without sounding overly pleased. "Assuming that you have a way for us to identify what we are looking for, that is.  Point us in the right direction with the tools to know that we've found what we are looking for, and you will have your chips by 9 a.m. Friday as promised."  Even before he had enough information to use as a jumping off point, Caduceus was already mentally going through his list of usual contacts and figuring out what sorts of calls he might need to make.

Noruas walks into the bar. The bartender gives him the hairy eyeball, but otherwise he's left undisturbed to enjoy the music. There's no sign of White Duck, Caduceus, or their contacts. They may as well have disappeared into thin air from what Noruas can see. But he does have a nice view of both the entrance, and the secret exit the rest of the team used.

Hearing White Duck accept, Manes nods.

"I am glad we can come to an arrangement. Due to pressing concerns, r will not be able to devote the attention necessary to this project. I am, therefore, giving complete control of the operation to Roxanne. Deal with her as you would deal with me. Do we understand one another?

"There was a run made against my corporation only a few days ago. It was carefully orchestrated, with inside assistance. Four thieves accessed our offices, destroyed our development servers, and made away with three prototype chips.

"It pains me to say your search must begin with a young man named Tee Hee. He is a Matrix runner with my company. A very bright boy, but for reasons unknown, he helped the thieves. I assume he left with them. An exhaustive search of his apartment was fruitless, as was an examination of his office. I fear he has gone underground. Roxanne will give you any additional information you need on the boy.

"Let me stress two points to you before you start. First, and most importantly, do not attempt to use the chips once you find them. They are prototypes, and they have not been sufficiently tested. Their use could result in severe permanent neural
damage. Second, these chips are unique. There are no backups because the thieves trashed the datastore that led to their development. They should not be damaged unless absolutely necessary. I remind you that your payment for damaged goods is rather small."


Outside, Copperhead's sensors pick up a vehicle approaching the bar at a high rate of speed. It skids to a stop by the front door; a Cadillac SUV with all the perks from reinforcement to spinning rims. Three orks in finely cut suits and dress capes pile out and head to the entrance. There are no visible weapons.

"Orc slumm'rs inbound.  Could be a d'straction mebe."

The rigger continues to monitor the man at the back.  It could have been another running team, though the meta-homogeneity made it unlikely, as did the ostentatious display of wealth.  And she couldn't imagine a corporate team being that creative.  Just another night in the fraggin' barrens.

Am I able to get the van (and the Doberman) into a good overwatch position?  What's the shadowy dude up to?

Got it. replied Noruas.

Yes, you can get a reasonable shot without making yourself too obvious.

The shadowy dude has put away his phone and is creeping back into a back alley.

Copperhead re-positioned her drone to have good coverage of the alley, looking for a vehicle or other obvious destination.  Seeing as the man seems to be less of an immediate threat, she didn't bother unloading the Doberman.  While unloading could be fairly quick, loading it back up again was a pain in the hoop - especially if she had to wash off the wheels.


What sort of line-of-sight does the shadowy guy have from his position by the alley-way to the rest of the building?  Does she detect anyone else in the alley?  After disgorging its caped occupants, does the limo move to park itself somewhere or does it remain right in front of the front doors?

<orange>

quote:

08:59, Today: Copperhead rolled 4 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 4,4,2,1,4,5.  Scanning alley.
09:00, Today: Copperhead rolled 1 success using 5d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 1,5,3,3,2.  Sensor sweep of alley.

If she feels she has time, she'll move her van to a concealed location near the other end of the alleyway.  If the man's going to drive away or has a parked vehicle, she'd like to be positioned to put a tracker on his vehicle.</orange>

Caduceus nodded his understanding.  Don't try the chip, don't break the chip, and Tee Hee might be a good lead to follow.  But he did still have one more question.  "Is there an easy way to know that we have found the correct chip and not a decoy or dummy chip?  It'd be a shame if we went through all this trouble and ended up bringing you back someone's guilty pleasures song list."  Caduceus nonchalantly examined his own fingernails as he awaited a reply, playing it cool.

As a note, there's a lot going on, but the PCs don't *have* to act. Rather than to go line-by-line, I'll do a quick dump and you guys can say "I jump in at XX point". Otherwise, I'll assume you act at the end of the post. If you choose not to do anything, that would be helpful to know too, since once I get four people saying they're holding back, I can post more.

Outside, the limo keeps its position by the door. The shadowy figure around the back moves further away. He can probably see the front of the bar--barely. But he's mostly sticking to the dark shadows, out of the way.

Inside, the three orks in capes pass by the security check and into the bar itself. They don't even glance at Noruas, or any of the other patrons. Instead, they take positions around the secret door and draw weapons.

The group meeting in the secret room are rudely interrupted by the door getting kicked off its hinges. Urlan stands and straightens his vest. Meanwhile, the crawler in White Duck's pocket wiggles as it establishes a (very weak) connection back to Copperhead.

Two Orks step through the doorway. Both are dressed in three-piece suits with walking capes thrown over their shoulders. Each sports an Ares Slivergun, resting the weapon in crossed arms. The room is dark, but both wear mirror shades. They move to flank the door as a third Ork enters the room. Dressed like the front two. the third Ork is easily six and one-half feet tall. Built like a linebacker, his muscles bulge beneath his suit. Uglier then most Orks, he has made no attempt to hide his grim features. A pencil-sized toothpick is lodged in the side of his mouth.

"Junior." Urlan attempts to cut the large Ork off, but Junior is already in the room, heading for the couch.

Ok, just to clarify:

Door from front bar has troll bouncer beside it and leads to "private bar" and there's a door to the meeting room somewhere within that back-room bar.  So they'd have to cow or disable the bouncer, break through the one door, then find and open/break through the second door.  Presuming there's only one private room and the Orks know the site, that's reasonable, but if they've got a brain, they won't have all 3 of them coming into the inner room.  In any event, there'd presumably be a round to react to the breaking of the outer door before the door to the room get's opened.

As well, the orks are really confident or really stupid if they leave the two bouncers and 2 bartenders (minimum) uncovered as they come into the room, as I presume their first move would be to grab some firepower and cover the "meeting room".  Is it accurate that none of the 3 orcs is trying to cover the area?  Is the local staff doing anything?

Oh, and Noruas, you probably want to move your post to this thread :>

So the Shadowy Figure is just hanging out and watching?  No vehicle visible in the alley?Can the Bison get into position so that it can easily block the exit to the alley?

As soon as she received the signal from her scorpion, Copperhead immediately had the little drone climb the inside of the pocket to see and better hear what's going on.  She avoided the temptation to jump into the drone.  With a signal this tenuous, the chances of loosing connection and getting dumped was too high.

She also resisted any temptation to start shooting things.  This looked like a business conversation, albeit an unfriendly one.  Otherwise the shooting would already have started.

If she thinks she can do so without being noticed by the goons - i.e. if White Duck is sitting and the table covers most of the view between her drone and the two body-guards, she'll slip out of the pocket and down the man's leg so that she can move to a position with a better view - and potentially where she can "sting" one of the guards, or even the big man himself.  She'll warn him over the radio first though so he can lean forward or something to better cover her movement and also so he doesn't freak out at having a drone skittering across his body . . . :>

Well, if there's 2 bouncers and 2 bartenders who presumably all have the ability to get access to heavier weapons and they're not bothering and the weapons the orc's are wielding would likely give the participants a bad paper-cut, it seems like hearing things out is most appropriate.  If Copperhead can't be relatively sure of retaining the connection and not being noticed, she'll stay put.

Do any of the orcs move like they're wired?  Any visible cyberware?

"Shadowy dude from b'fore waz dialin' 'fore these ones showed up.  He's watchin' from an alley.  Dunno if they's related.  Noruas's in da main bar if ya need backup.  Or I kin give da place a new skylight wit yer new frens underneat . . .

Noruas, what's happenin round you?  Dees guys make a mess on da way in?

Yer call if ya wanna go hot."

The Bison moved into a position where it could easily cover (and move to block) the other entrance to the alley, without being visible from it.  She did her best to arrive quietly so as not to alarm the shadowy figure.  The Lonestar drone adjusted its station slightly, moving to be able to cover the limo, the shadowy figure and the roof of the building

Noruas puts his glass of purple soda back on the table while he gingerly fiddles with his Ares Predator underneath the table.

I don't think they're going to cause trouble.  If they were, there'd be a lot of dead people, right about now.  But the fact that they know Caduceus, Duck, and the J are in the meeting room means trouble might not be far behind.  He pauses then asks, In the case that I have to take out these gorillas, would you guys like them to be alive, or missing body parts?

He slides out the gel round clip and readies his EX-Explosive clip.

The radios have a connection again too, right?  If not I'll edit my post.

Caduceus was surprised by the interruption to say the least.  He jumped back in surprise and his hand was about ready to snap to the concealed holster under the back of his jacket, but the folded arms of the orks who entered convinced him that it wasn't time for weapons.  Yet.  Instead he absorbed the fresh chatter coming in from the reconnected communications and subtly muttered new instructions to his spirit pal.  "If these guys try to cause us meeting-goers any significant harm, make sure they all stay bathed in a fog of Confusion."

Caduceus then went about the business of examining the new arrivals' astral signatures for signs any of them might be awakened before he started conjuring more aid, all whilst trying to remain a silent observer of the scene.  The scene was tense, but he hoped it wouldn't come to blows.  Fights were almost always best if avoided.

Not sure what Caduceus will have time for, so here is a list of actions in order of priority.  If something comes up that you think may alter Caduceus' task queue, he'll make adjustments to his plan accordingly.
1. Assense Junior (mainly looking for if he is awakened, but let me know if there is anything else noteworthy as well I guess.)
2. Assense the two members of Junior's entourage.
3. Conjure a force 3 hearth spirit, if he can do it subtly.

"If da help ain't bringin out d'artillary, gotta 'sume dat makin a mess'd be a bad idea.  Der gettup an fancy wheels mean dey's got resouces.  An if dis one's "Jun'r", gotta spect dat "Sen'r" ken pull a dreckload o' strings.

Less dey plan on greasin da J, I'd say keep quiet 'less peacemakin's needed.  We dunno da players or da histry."

Narrowing his eyes slightly at the trio of orks, Duck seems to relax when Manes identifies one of them. He turns to 'junior,' clearly recognizing the individual's importance, but not seeming to appreciate the interruption very much.

"Sir, this is a private meeting, and considering my team ID'd you from outside, we could have neutralized you and your bodyguards before you came in and decided to make a big show of sitting on that couch. We pinned your tail too, who did a very poor job covering his tracks. I would advise you to be more cautious in the future with both who you hire and how you act, considering you were one impulse decision away from being a set of stains on the pavement outside. You got lucky, considering that none of us were feeling that impulse." Duck crosses his arms, his posture seeming easy, but his expression alert. His voice was more that of a disappointed parent scolding bad children than that of someone in a room full of guns. This Ork was probably an important suit, but if he'd have tried to pull something similar in the underground, he would probably get his ass kicked ten ways to next Sunday if he tried to barge into a meeting like that. Before he acts, he turns to Manes, the ire on his expression clear, as this individual seemed to represent some of the qualities Duck himself came to dislike. He'd heard Copperhead's warning over the comms, but if this ork was supposed to be at this meeting, he'd have arrived earlier and probably not hired a tail.

"Mr. Manes, I would like to apologize for this pretty grievous breach of protocol on his part. This one's clearly not one of ours." he looks to 'Junior"

"Unless you are *trying* to get yourself geeked, omae, then by all means go right ahead and woosh your silly-lookin' capes around some more." Duck looks up, trying very hard not to roll his eyes at this fellow. People who wore capes around tended to be too important to realize how absurd they looked, and this guy was no exception. Duck knew a few ways to kill the ork with the toothpick he was gnawing on, and a few more just from closing range. "Junior" here would probably prove to be a real annoyance to the team, but as far as threats go, the ones that you saw coming, literally from miles away if you counted the tail, tended to be red herrings.

"Maybe you can tell us why you're here and what you want. Seems like it'd be in all of our best interests to find this out."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:25, Thu 05 Nov 2015.

Caduceus opens his third eye at the trio. He can tell right away none of them are awakened, and they're all sporting cyberware. Junior specifically is wired to the max. Just outrageous levels of chrome covering his signature.

Junior seems to have a serious and personal grudge against Urlan. Right now he's feeling self-confident, self-assured, and even attempting to be wily. And in response to White Duck's provocations? Fiery red.

"Urlan," Junior hisses, "your hired dogs bark too much." You can feel your skin crawl as junior extends a hand toward your Mr. Johnson. "They will, no doubt, prove as efficient and loyal as your pet, Tee Hee." Junior stands as Urlan reddens. "Too bad about the street trash. If you need my assistance, well, you know where to find me." Urlan glances at Roxanne and then glares at the departing Ork.

"Of course, Junior. I will be in touch." Junior bumps into White Duck's shoulder as he exits. The guards retreat slowly, closing the door behind them.

Roxanne barely waits for the door to close behind Urlan. "Gentlemen, if we could get started? I have all of the information we were able to acquire on Tee Hee."

"He started with Global about two years ago, straight out of the University of Seattle. He has been a valuable member of our design team, leading the way to several breakthroughs in the areas of skillsofts and simsense. Although a talented decker, he seems somewhat lost when not jacked in to the Matrix. He is very naive and forgets things constantly. Like how to get to the store. I must admit, I'm surprised he has lived as long as he has.

"We sent a team to his apartment first thing this morning. Seems he forgot to pay his rent and was kicked out about two weeks ago. Our personnel entered the apartment and found that it had not been entered in at least several days. No thermal. Thick dust. The works. An extensive search revealed nothing. We have no idea where he has been sleeping for the past two weeks.

"His office was a little more interesting. I had the entire contents of his desk brought here. You can make of it what you will. Good Luck." Roxanne reaches behind the couch and pulls out a three-foot plastic cube. Inside are the contents of Tee Hee's desk. She sets it on the table with a thump. "If you have any more questions, let me know. Here is my private number. You can reach me here day or night. This room is rented for another. .. (she looks at her watch) ... 23 minutes. You can stay if you want.

"Keep in touch. If you don't have some sort of results within three days, go home. There won't be any point in continuing."

On that dark note, your new contact hands White Duck a plastic business card with her picture on the front and the number 567-3272 on the back. She then turns to leave.

Because we're moving to 'investigation phase', which can be quite slow, I'm happy to answer questions out of order. However, it's going to be tough for me to track everything if we get a lot. So keeping a single list of questions, including ones you asked before and are waiting on responses for, will help me a lot.

"I'm guessin dey don wants me ta give Jun'r a headache on da way out.  But mebe ya can fin out who da frag he is.  An da shadow dude.  I'm wonnerin if I should lay 'im out fer a chat when yer done wit da box."

We never got an answer to the question about how to recognize the chips and confirm they're genuine without slotting them either.

A flood of tension left Caduceus' body as the gang of tough guys headed for the door.  Crisis avoided.  "That Junior is quite the character," Caduceus commented with faux flatery after the orks closed the door again (cutting off signals once more).  "I believe he may be more machine than man though.  Compensating perhaps?"

He left the question rhetorical and took a quick peek inside the box Roxanne produced for them.  The shaman scanned the objects for any astral impressions that may have been left behind.  It could be a potential clue that would only fade more and more the longer he waited.  He also kept an eye out for any objects that looked particularly unusual or out of place that they may want to ask about before Roxanne left.  He would otherwise wait until later to delve into the items, when the entire group could do their snooping together.

"So how did you say we were supposed to authenticate the chips when we find them?" he asked as he scanned the objects, not bothering to look up.  "That is an important detail that you have not yet shared with us."

"Each chip is silver with a distinct logo. If there's any question, bring it to me. But I expect these items will be treated as valued treasure. It should be hard to miss."

The box contains a breadboard, two cyberdeck circuit boards, a miniature tool kit, an electronic toy that does the twist when activated, a few resistors, tickets to last week's urban brawl game at the King-dome, a disposable lighter, a stack of data chips, a simsense player with eight disks, a holocube, and a package of herb tea.

A few objects still have faint residues of a man's signature. They're old enough it's hard to put anything together, but Caduceus has hints of what the man's signature should look like.

Otherwise, all of the devices are mundane. Most of them are technical, and therefore don't give off much. However, the tea Caduceus notices is especially pure and free from artificial interference.

Caduceus looks through the items curiously, already contemplating a few potential leads.  He does notice that one type of common desk item is absent though.  Pictures.  "Do you have a picture of this guy?" he asks Roxanne unceremoniously.