"Unless we'll need my motorcycle, I think I'm good to go," Caduceus responded, sipping on his water.  He was enjoying the down time while he still could.  Even so, his mind was grinding over ways to deal with potential astral intervention.  "I'll check out the astral situation once we get parked somewhere.  Hopefully his safe-house isn't heavily warded."

White Duck, how many of Caduceus's grenades did you end up using?  I need to mark how many smokes and how many concussions he still has.

Duck finishes off the last of his "bacon" double cheeseburger and fries, drinks down his soda with an impolite belch, and looks around.

"How many of us do we want onsite for the infil? I'm good scoping the place out solo."

Dunno, ask Bear about that one, since he used em during the FF.

"When we gets close, I kin do a fly-o'er an scan.  Den we kin figgur if der's a place fer Noruas ta jack in.  Den we kin figgur 'oo does da phys'cal stuff.  Dat work?  We ready ta go?"

Duck nods and grins.

Noruas shrugs and nods.

Caduceus took another sip of water, then nodded as well.

Only the one grenade.

Are you moving to the apartment then?

I think we are all ready to go, yeah.

Copperhead chugged the remainder of her second "Xtra-kik!!" soycaf and set the RV in motion.  Her drone stirred up debris in the alley as it followed suit then quickly outpaced the van.  She beamed the zoomed low-light scans of the apartment and surrounding area onto the high-res screen in the back as she parked at the side street with a good view of their target.

quote:

11:13, Today: Copperhead rolled 4 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 3,3,5,(6+1)7,(6+2)8,(6+6+6+1)19.  Perception.

Looking for security measures, entrances, occupancy of the target room (if we have a clue which one that is) and anything unusual/out of place.

If there's anything interesting to see, that should hopefully do it...

"I'll go take a cursory look at the local astral defenses.  I'll take a more in-depth look if we can figure out which apartment is his, and so long as I won't get quashed by territorial spirits or something.  I'll be back in a flash."  Caduceus's body slumped in his chair as his astral form left his body.

It's close to dawn; that hour when the night is the deepest, and the heavy Seattle night swallows up the sound of the distant highway.The apartment complex you find is half vacant, and far enough from the main drag it doesn't attract too much trouble (outside of the varmint variety). Despite the low occupancy, the building itself looks to be in rather good repair. It appears to be a pre-crash luxury condo complex. The pool has been turned into a zen garden, but otherwise the white walls are still white, and the power is still working, so that's nice.

The parking lot is entirely outdoors and marked with 'residents only' signs, with a line of storage sheds on the far side of it, almost certainly for residents. The lot only has half a dozen cars parked, for the twenty four units serviced. Most of the vehicles are higher end; BMWs and Mercedes. Not so nice as to turn heads, but these people aren't suffering either. The van is conspicuous by comparison, and without a lot of side streets with LOS, camouflage is tough.

The information you have gives you the floor (assuming the first floor is ground, like most American buildings) but you won't be able to pinpoint the room without getting in to see numbers on doors.

The building appears to mostly rely on automated defenses; cameras are visible, as well as a small 'doghouse' for a security drone by the door.

Caduceus departs to scope out the area. Someone did invest in low-level warding around  the populated floors of the building. Caduceus can probably push through, but it'll take time and risks detection. If he can get through the front door, it would be easier. The top two floors are unwarded. The top floor appears to be machinery and facilities, including laundry, and a small rec room. It's mostly empty though, with most of the rooms closed up and locked. The next floor down has been converted into a small garden space (again with plenty of abandoned and locked up rooms). Overall it's quite pleasant, if a little empty.

Copperhead scanned the area for any nearby utility accesses.  The cameras, dones and locks wouldn't matter too much if they could get Noruas in position to turn them off.

I was looking for this earlier, so I presume we go by my previous perception roll

Just show me the way, Copperhead.

Caduceus sat up in his seat, groggy, after returning to his body.  "The top two floors are unwarded," He reported.  "And we may want to wait until after dawn before I conjure any spirits.  They tend to disappear at dusk and dawn."

The shaman contemplated their situation for a few more moments before offering a few more possible strategic options.  "I could also try disguising this rig as something less conspicuous, Copperhead.  And if we catch a glimpse of a few residents, we could disguise ourselves as them as we head inside.  Illusions can be extremely useful in the right circumstances."

Most likely the primary utility connection is inside the building itself.

Copperhead's drones spread out, searching the area. Soon enough they locate a light green utility box. No high voltage signs--that's probably your utility box if you want to tap in.

Copperhead only has one aerial drone.  And this probably isn't the appropriate neighborhood to release the Doberman in - at least not yet :>

The van pulled up alongside the grey/green box, positioned to conceal it from view of the street as best she could
"Noruas, ya wanna check ta see how tough da fron' door is?

Caduceus, if ya wanna d'vert any pryin' eyes, dat'd be good"

While he was playing, Copperhead did her best to figure out the minimum number of cameras she'd need to take out with her rifle to provide an approach path to one of the doors that would allow her team to bypass the most likely locations for additional sensors - i.e. walking through a gate, not going over a fense.

Noruas gets to work on the lock (if there is one) on the utility box.  He quickly opens the metal cover and begins looking over the wires.  Once he finds the right wires to connect to, fixes his wireless tap in place and snaps them on before closing the box again.

I'm gonna try and access the system, please watch over my meat.

And with that said, he slumps over in the van.

"Hope a moving truck is alright by you," he said to Copperhead, then began concentrating on his spell.  He stayed seated, but put a hand out against the inside wall of the vehicle and closed his eyes.  He knew this target's shape.  Its appearance.  Its aura.  It needed to shed all of those old skins and rebirth itself into something new.  Caduceus began humming quietly to himself, which soon morphed into rhythmic hissing.  At the height of his casting one could even claim they heard the sound of rattling.  He channeled the power of Snake into the vehicle and put a Physical Mask around it, making it look like an appropriately sized moving truck that was just the right amount of up-scale to be in this neighborhood.  It took him longer than expected, but Caduceus wasn't really surprised.  It was a big target with a lot to change, and not a lot of astral aspects to work with considering it was a lifeless machine.

When his work was finally done, Caduceus crossed his arms and smiled.  "Your sensors should now be picking up the fact that you are now the proud owner of a Safe Co. moving truck."  Some of Caduceus's favorite touches were the ones he added on the inside.  He took the liberty of making his seat look much more plush and comfortable than it really was, and plastered the Safe Co. logo above the door.  He really liked how he made the cursive font in the logo resemble a snake if knew just how to look at it.  And the two mover mascots looked suspiciously similar to Noruas and Copperhead if you squinted.

Casting Force 5 Physical Mask on Copperhead's RV
Rolling 6 Sorcery Dice for casting.  Target Number is 4.
13:20, Today: Caduceus failed (no successes) using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 2,2,1,3,3,2.  Force 5 Physical Mask.
Failure.

Drain Target = 3 (Force 5 divided by 2, rounded down, +1)
For Drain I'm rolling 6 willpower dice, 6 Spell pool Dice, and 2 Snake totem dice (need 4 successes)
13:21, Today: Caduceus rolled 11 successes using 14d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 with rolls of (6+3)9,1,2,1,5,3,4,(6+3)9,4,5,5,3,3,(6+1)7.  Drain Test.
No Drain.

Trying Again.

Sorcery:
13:22, Today: Caduceus rolled 3 1 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 4 with rolls of 2,1,3,1,3,(6+1)7.  Force 5 Physical Mask.
Success!

Drain:
13:23, Today: Caduceus rolled 10 successes using 14d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 with rolls of 3,5,1,4,(6+2)8,(6+2)8,3,(6+5)11,5,2,1,3,1,(6+6+4)16.  Drain Test.
Still Good.

The van appears to be big, blocky, and dull. From sensors, it matches two other ugly box trucks in the area. Not bad!


Noruas connects into the Matrix. Quickly his world is flaring of bright colors, as data follows the trunk off to distant servers and hosts. Navigating real geography by the Matrix is always discombobulating, but in this case its easy to recognize the source of the newest packets flying by, and track them back to the building's host. The host has a small demo room built in VR open to anyone to investigate, while a buxom blonde narrates amenities. Outside of the room itself is a small access door, password protected, that certainly leads to anything more interesting than this ikea show room of a house.

Copperhead's voice came over the van's speakers.  "Dat gonna go 'way when da sun comes up?"

It wasn't immediately obvious whether her tone indicated concern or hope...

"No," Caduceus said with a slight chuckle.  "This here is totem magic.  It'll stay around until I decide otherwise.  On an unrelated note, I think you were about to make a generous donation to the Caduceus rainy-day fund, weren't you?"  He chuckled again, then added more seriously.  "But no, I can keep this illusion up as long as needed.  It will be harder to cast other spells while I do, however.  Or do anything complex, really.  And I won't be able to conjure spirits, astrally project, or use certain spells at all."  It wasn't ideal, that was for sure, but right now concealing their presence was important enough that veiling the vehicle was probably worth the drawbacks.

There was a slight pause, then the rigger's voice crackled over the radio again.  "'K"

A message comes over the comms; "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness me opening the front door for you all.  Please hurry up and find the apartment that our tango is in.  Feel free to message me the number once you find it.  I'll unlock the door for you then."

Presumably you can now enter the front door without using the fire axe method.

"Is da drone an da cameras fixed?"

Right then, it seemed it was time to move.  "Shall we?" he said to White Duck as he got up to leave.  He exited the RV/moving truck and strolled casually down the sidewalk.  After a short distance he feigned interest in a notice posted on a power pole and leaned against it, "reading."  Into the comms he said, "I'm going to need my mojo for this.  I'm dropping the veil and conjuring your RV some alternative protection."

The moment his spell dropped, Caduceus was calling forth a spirit of the city.  His knuckles turned white against the power pole as he reached out and called for one.  Luckily there was a spirit eager to help him out.  "Hey buddy, I need you to help me Conceal and Guard that RV, myself, and my friend White Duck whenever we are in your domain today, okay?  And if anyone happens to attack us, fill them with Fear and Confusion." Caduceus gave the spirit a mischievous smile, then continued the trek toward their destination.


13:22, Today: Caduceus rolled 4 successes using 4d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 with rolls of 4,3,4,5.  Conjure Force 3 City Spirit.
4 services, all are used.

13:22, Today: Caduceus rolled 4 successes using 8d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 with rolls of 4,3,1,3,(6+1)7,2,1,1.  Drain Test.
No Drain.