"Look for a plug you say...." Liam said, looking over the array of cables. "Hmmm. Lets try... this one."

22:17, Today: Liam O'Farrell botched using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 4,1,4.  Int + Computers.

The bottom desk drawer contained an intimidating array of tangled cables. He settled for the one that looked most like his charging cable on one end and the fat rectangular mouthy thing on the other.

The phone end plugged in without much of a fuss. The other end was a different story. All the holes on the machine looked the same. He tried one. It didn't fit. He tried another.

What he thought was a plug port was actually a fan vent. The plug was ripped out of his fingers, and the cord was rapidly pulled inside of the mainframe. The small end popped out of the phone and disappeared into the bowels of the machine. There was a horrible grinding noise, and a lot of sparks. Then the mighty computer went dark.

"You gotta be f------ kidding."

"Well." Liam stood over the smoking wreckage and rubbed his chin. "That certainly could have gone better."

"So I assume we're not getting that online tonight. Or. Ever."

With the computer itself no longer a viable prospect, Liam turned his attention to the desk drawers in the off chance something physical could help direct their next course of action. Otherwise...

"You know, I could just get into the conduit and see where it leads," he suggested.

"The hallways are a maze. The cords presumably run in very deliberate paths."

"Hey, I'm n-- ---- upset," Pockets said. "That was ----- --pressive. Now I know who to send against a ti---- ----sday clock."

The desk contents were, in Liam's estimation, typical of a large server's IT setup. A wide array of screwdrivers, loose storage media, cords and dongles filled each drawer. The only thing that didn't immediately intimidate Liam was a small brass key in the paperclip tray of the top drawer. It was not immediately evident what it opened.

Although the server was dead and gone, there appeared to be no damage to the smaller computer to the left of the monitors. It had not powered on when the breaker was tripped.

Pockets leapt at the suggestion of using the conduit. "Clever clogs," she said. "I bet they d---- --ink of that."

Liam picked up the key and looked it over, then slipped it into his pocket. "Do you want me to try this other computer first?" he asked. "Or have I done enough damage with my Midas's touch?"

He looked for an on button.

"Nah, let's see what I can salvage from it," Pockets said. "And more good news, you didn't dogfuck the routers too. Maybe plug me in before you let this one rip?"

The drawer contained another cable like the one Liam had used to fell a supercomputer. It only took a moment of frantic digging to find it.

[Same roll, DC6]

"Well don't you like to live dangerously," Liam remarked as he held up another prospective cord. "Okay. Here goes nothing."

18:26, Today: Liam O'Farrell rolled 2 successes using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 with rolls of 4,6,6.  Int + Computers.

If Liam could sweat, he'd be sweating. Once again, the cord plugged into the phone without a hassle. He fumbled with the rectangular end in the slot at the front of the computer. It didn't fit. So he turned it around. Again, the plug would not seat properly in the outlet.

His mind raced. He mustered all his knowledge of computers and technology. He remembered a technical diagram Pockets had shared with him once. He didn't understand it at the time. In a stroke of genius, he flipped it over again. The cable slotted in effortlessly.

At last, he turned on the computer. Incomprehensible words filled the screen for a moment, and then it went white.

"All right, let's see here," Pockets said. "Looks like the machine you fried was the security mainframe. I guess that means I won't be able to help you with any electronic locks. But hey, you won't need to worry about any automated security, either. Unless it's got a local subcontroller, in which case you've broken the only thing that can turn them off."

She hummed to herself a little as the machine booted up. Liam could hear a device inside clicking away.

"Well, this here is the surveillance hub. I'll see what I can salvage from the cameras. Maybe piece together what happened, and who might still be kicking. You're gonna have to leave this phone plugged in, though. One sec."

Her voice continued from Liam's pocket. "All right, let's roll."

"We'll pretend I did it on purpose," Liam remarked. "Alright, I'll get into the conduit but I won't be able to check in with you again until I get out somewhere. If there's a junction, I'll follow the mainline until it dumps me out somewhere. I presume the thickest bundle of cords will be going to the most important nodes."

"See you on the other side."

If there was space enough to do so, Liam was prepared to back trace the cords in rodent form. Otherwise he was going to discorporate entirely.

Even a mouse would have had trouble squeezing through the tight conduit, so it was back to a gaseous form for Liam. Floating through the narrow passageway was slow, but he was making much better progress. The conduits did indeed run directly to their respective destinations. It also bypassed all the security systems, booby traps, and locked doors in his way.

The thickest bundle of wires ran to another room with an even more intimidating server. The breaker had evidently stirred the ancient beast to life. This one stood in the middle of an alcove, exposed on all sides. A network of cables, wires, and even pipes of clear fluid ran into and out of the box on all three of the walls. It made Liam queasy to look at.

This room was far more spacious. The only door in and out was at the far end of the room was a fortified vault, sealed from the inside. Whatever this machine did, it had been set up to accommodate a live-in caretaker. A corner of the room was cordoned off by a heavy black curtain, which was partially drawn. There was a dresser and cabinet inside. Though both of them had locks, they had both been left unlocked with doors and drawers ajar. The occupant had not been expecting company. A shrunken Nosferatu lay in the fetal position on a small Murphy bunk.

"Alright, I'm back," Liam said upon regaining his usual guise. "I'm in some sort of vault. There's a big server bank here. Or maybe its an HVAC machine. Its plumbed in to something."

"And it looks like I'm not alone. There's a caretaker in here. Poor fellow looks dry as a husk."

"I'll give you a look around."

Liam lifted out his phone and set it in the place of honour in his breast pocket.

"Tell me if its someone you recognise."

"Cooling," Pockets said, in regards to the plumbing. "Whatever this thing is, it's powerful. If you're in a vault, it's probably their central mainframe. This'd be what controls all those routers. Along with the network and whatever daemons they had working to administrate it. I'm not gonna lie, I'm super turned on right now."

As he stepped past the curtain, a shotgun blast caught him from the side. The sensation was disorienting to say the least, but he was otherwise unharmed. A trapped shotgun sat atop an end table, wired to a motion detector from the security system in the tunnels by way of a large battery. The device did not appear capable of racking the shotgun for another blast. A large "FUCK YOU" was scrawled on the side of the table.

Liam had to confess it was difficult to tell Nosferatu apart at the best of time. It boiled down to memorizing their own particular brand of ugly. Whatever vitae had once flowed through this poor creature's body had long since gone. They were withered and practically mummified. The flesh on their face clung tightly against their skull. Without removing their clothes, Liam couldn't even tell if they were a man or woman.

Nosferatu didn't get out much, and rarely carried identification with them. This one was no different. There was nothing in their pockets but a folding multitool and a few slim copper wires.

"SON OF A BITCH!" Liam cried out in surprise as the buckshot folded against his skin and ricocheted wide. "That smarts." He rubbed his flank but was pleased to see that apart from needing a new shirt he'd come out relatively unscathed. "You still with me?"

Liam gently removed the shotgun and pointed it away from him, just to be sure. "How much you want to bet there's a mousetrap with a derringer rigged to it in the dresser drawer?"

"Going to transform quick and make sure there's at least no mills grenade with the pin on a string before I open them."

"Maybe they thought to scrawl a last will and testament just in case someone found them."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:24, Fri 18 June 2021.

"Yeah," Pockets said. "I wasn't using that ear anyway." She whistled as Liam dismantled the shotgun. "Jury-rigged with a motion sensor and some kinda servo. Smart cookie. Can't believe that battery held out."

Liam's gaseous inspection of the cabinet and dresser uncovered no traps. Judging by the underwear in the drawer, the occupant was most likely a woman. She kept no journal, unless there was one on the tablet in the locker. The battery was long dead, and in order to charge it he'd need to find and grapple with another cable.

The occupant's left hand was tucked out of view between her skeletal thighs. In her right was a crumpled note.

"You left me to die. Tear your fucking throat out fucker. Chicken shit piece of shit fuck. Eat your face. Suck out your eyes and fuck the holes." It went on for paragraphs.

Starvation is not a dignified process, and vampires are no exception. This poor soul had gone mad from hunger by the time that note had been written.

"Hey, uh, I'm kinda asking for it here," Pockets said. "But would you mind plugging me into the mainframe?"

"She's a she," Liam said, with some surprise. Obviously there were female Nosferatu, but the only one's he'd ever known in Verdants Falls had all been male. Which meant he did not know the one curled up on the mattress before him.

He picked up the tablet and carried it with him back to the mainframe.

"You want me to try plugging you in again, do you?" he asked sceptically. "Let me see what I can do."

"Were there any ladies in the warrens before Keisinger brought along his own Nos? Or do you not know either?"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:26, Mon 21 June 2021.

"I mean, yeah," Pockets said. "But the Nosferatu as a clan are kind of a sausagefest. Especially the hackery subset - which the local Nos definitely were. But a girl Nos they'd trust to run the admin room? Nah, I'd have heard of her. So she's either one of theirs, or she was just scrappy enough to hole up in here on her own when the shit went down. Which, uh, coulda happened. Just by looking at the last hour of footage, it kind of went Purgey down here when the Cam sealed 'em in." Liam would not have gotten the reference, but understood from the context all too well.

The tablet was one of those infernal white-corded devices. Being a decade old, the plug port was quite large and none of the cables in the desk drawers seemed to fit. However, he found a few of the cables designed to fit the cheap surplus phones which Pockets handed out like candies. He'd done this twice before already, and once he even managed to not blow up the computer.

The server was daunting to say the least. Pockets guided him through the maze of cables and pipes.

"Now, you're going to have to jack me in where the interface terminal normally goes," she said. "What that means is you're going to have to unplug that cable there, and plug this one in its place. Can you handle that?"

[It'd be int + computers DC 5 plus a temp WP to avoid panicking]

"Can I handle that?" Liam scoffed. "Pfft." He had no idea.

"I definitely know what an interface terminal is and where it goes."

"Its... this one." Liam closed his eyes and prayed to God he didn't blow up this one too.

Spent the WP not to panic. 2 success including the WP.
15:23, Today: Liam O'Farrell rolled 1 success using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 5,5,1.  Int + Computers + WP.

After a moment, when nothing exploded he cautiously opened one again and then the other.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:25, Mon 21 June 2021.

Nothing exploded, but Liam was hoping for something a little more dramatic. Nothing at all happened.

"I'm gonna have to leave you for a few minutes, here," Pockets said. "Talk amongst yourselves." The phone went dark, and restarted itself. She had no other handset to jump into, save for Liam's satphone, which Liam doubted was sophisticated enough to handle the procedure. He was alone with the room's desiccated occupant.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:47, Mon 21 June 2021.

"Well. I guess its just you and me then," he said after a moment. Leaving the phone to do whatever it was that it was doing, Liam went back to the Nos's personal alcove and rubbed his chin. If he made the decision to wake her, and that was still a rather large 'if', favourable or otherwise she was going to wake up swinging. And Nos could be quite strong. That she had a petite and largely emaciated frame was if anything instilling him with a false sense of security.

"Lets see what else you left behind."

Second look through her belongings. Liam assumes the power cord for the tablet is with her as its a personal belonging, not with the server bank. He'll also look for anything that could be used as a restraint as she comes around. I don't know if he checked under the bed before, but he will now.

Apart from the computer and her private space was there anything else in the room?

Liam's searches yielded a power cord already plugged into a wall outlet beside the head of the murphy bed. Underneath the bed, hidden beneath a pile of empty bloodbags, Liam found a mostly-empty box of shells. There were six left. The empty shotgun would hold them all with room to spare.

There wasn't much he could use to restrain her. Clothing could be torn into strips and tied, but a frenzied vampire would make short work of that. The heavy straps that anchored the single bunk's far end to the wall might hold, but that would require dismantling the bed. There was scant material to be had, and making knots with the stiff material would be difficult.

The room also held an absolute trove of technojunk. Shelves of boxes held naked computer parts and peripherals that made Liam queasy to think about. One of the boxes contained a few long extension cords, which might actually serve to restrain the individual.

"Now, we're talking," Liam muttered. He reached for the free end of the plug and powered up the tablet. Presuming the battery was dead cold, it was going to take a few minutes before it responded even with the cord in place. Next he reached for the box of rounds and racked the shotgun, before setting it down well out of reach. Finally he came back with the box of cords and considered how best to bind the poor Nos. The zipties at the bottom of the box though handily addressed that question.

All of this had taken some time, and Pockets had asked for a few minutes so prior to proceeding any further he went to check back on her progress.

He took the shotgun... just in case.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:05, Mon 21 June 2021.

Pockets was unresponsive. The earpiece did not have the range to penetrate this far underground, and her remote hacking seemed to have required the dedicated use of their last lifeline to one another. Even though it was a decade old, Liam presumed the security on this particular machine would be formidable.

No sooner had he turned his attention back to the room's occupant than Pockets' voice came booming down from the rafters like the voice of God.

"Guess who's in the intercom, motherfuckers?" Pockets said. "Mwa ha ha, n'all that."

Liam glanced up at the ceiling involuntarily. "Is it rigged with microphones too?" he inquired.

"We've been making some headway in here. I found the powercord for her tablet. Its charging," he said, before taking a peek to see how it was coming along. "I've also found a box of zipties. I was going to truss our friend up before I woke her."

"Somehow I don't see her being immediately grateful."

"No, some of the cameras are, though," Pockets said after a small delay. "I've got those running off the phone you left in the other room. Which makes this kind of a slow procedure. Don't expect me to shout out in time if someone is right behind you, and shit."

"If she's any kind of admin, that thing will be locked with an alphanumeric password," she continued. "There's not much I can do to help you unlock it from here, but it's probably small enough you can smoke back out with it.

"And yeah, that's a good idea," Pockets said on the topic of zipties. "They all kinda went bugshit down here. Even if she wakes up, and gets over her inevitable feeding frenzy, she might have gone over to the Beast already."

"So, speaking of smoking your way outta here," she added. "What's your plan for her? Cause Liam, if you ever wake me up in a place I starved to death trapped inside, and you don't have a plan to get me out, I'd want to kill you too. And I really like you."

[Roll per+alert DC 9]

[Presuming an auto on that check unless prohibited]

"We'd have to go out through the wall. It'd be easy enough to tear down. The only reason I didn't on the way in was because I didn't want the Tremere knowing I'd found this place until I was done with it. Once it comes down, there's no coming back here so we'd better make sure we have everything - and anyone we may want."

"That still leaves the sewer wards though. I don't know how to get her by them without tripping them. In all likelihood we'd be coming out hot and I'd make a bee line for the Iron Graveyard."

"The other option is I do nothing, I just leave you plugged in. I've conveniently broken the security mainframe so the doors are sealed. I close the other door as well and these tunnels belong to you for however long it takes before they notice the power draw and cut the electricity off at the main."

"What time is it anyway? And what are the other cameras showing? Anywhere else I ought to be checking?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 12:05, Tue 22 June 2021.