Winter looks over the commcodes without much hope. "Nope, I got nothing. Anything else in his commlink that could clue us in on what the weasel is looking for? Or where he has been looking for it?"

OOC: I guess we can start with the closest building and go from there? Go for the entrance and see if anyone's home?
This message was last edited by the player at 18:52, Sat 31 Dec 2022.

Brannigan listened to Reyna and then gave a shrug. He shook his head. "Unless everyone's good at bein' stealthy, I saw we just pick a door, an' walk in like we own the place." He gave a shrug and a wide grin.

Then he headed towards the closest entrance.

As you step up to the door of the nearest entrance, you can hear screeches that sound vaguely melodious, but very loud. The entrance doors were glass which has long since been broken in. The entrance way is clear, but there is ash streaking the floor, blown in from the surrounding area and debris from the slow collapse of the structure. The floors seem solid here, but the two story ceiling is falling in.

Stepping through the entrance, this area was obviously a lobby of sorts. It's two stories with a large amount of glass broken in various piles on the floor. There were a few gardening beds along the walls over grown with a couple of trees covered with vines. The source of the loud screeching are half a dozen medium sized birds flying in the upper story and calling noisily.

Across from the door, is a splintered pile of some sort of furniture. It seems to have collapsed under it's own weight. There is a smear of brownish color on the floor curving around from behind it. Further behind this pile is a doorway leading to a darkened corridor

Looking deeper into the rooms, there are some wide steps down to left leading to an open area. There are two doorways out of the larger area, though you can't see what those lead to. Toward the inner wall, there is a hobo campsite with a couple of ratty tents and a campfire. It does not appear to be currently occupied.

Brannigan frowned when he heard the noises. He paused and glanced at the others, quietly asking, "What is that? Anyone recognize that sound?"

He eyed the campsite at first, just giving it a once-over. Then he stepped towards the darkened corridor.

OOC: Is there a check to recognize the noise?

Whooooo that was close to a Glitch. Forgot to record each die so copied this instead:
12:49, Today: Brannigan rolled 1 success using 10d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 ((4,1,1,4,4,1,2,2,1,6))

Winter flicks on a low-light flashlight to get a better look at the lobby. "Looks like it's just birds. Ugh, what a mess."

She tries to determine how likely it is for the crumbling ceiling to come down on their heads.

I'm assuming there's no power and it's dark in there. Looking at my knowledge skills, would Architecture help with figuring out if this place is a lost cause or not?
20:55, Today: Winter rolled 3 successes using 7d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 5,5,3,3,6,4,1.  Architecture.

Reyna carefully makes her way through the glass before finding her eyes drawn to the brown smear. She pauses for a moment as she asks hesitantly, "Is... Is that blood?" She reaches into her coat as she exchanges her AR gloves for shock gloves while her eyes dart around the matrix checking for any devices that might indicate the presence of people.

OOC: Should she make a matrix perception and a regular perception check to detect things?

Everyone seems to be roaming around the large open space. The ceiling seems stable to Winter. Whatever glass that was up there is already down. The floor is less sure. There are softer spots in the floor that flex underfoot.

As Brannigan steps past the collapsed pile of furnitature toward the darkened corridor past it, he hears some hissing from the pile. Turning to look back he sees two pair of read eyes peeking out of the gaps in the pile. Clearly a couple of Devil Rats have taken up residence.

OOC: Is everyone following Brannigan?

Reyna trails after Brannigan as she watches the matrix. She is content to let him take point and encounter whatever nasties are waiting for them in the building.

Fortunately, Winter can easily walk over even the flimsiest surfaces, so she is not worried about falling through. Unfortunately, the rest of the team probably can't. "Careful where you step. Floor is in a bad shape."

Following after Brannigan, she turns her flashlight at the noise coming from the pile. A revolver slides smoothly from the sleeve of her coat and into her hand, though she hopes she will not have to use it. Gunfire might draw unwanted attention to them, even here in the middle of nowhere.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:16, Sat 07 Jan 2023.

Nothing comes lunging out of the debris pile as you skirt it. You move further down the darkened corridor. After three meters, it opens into a wider space. There's still space down the center, but piles of furniture line each of the walls.

Thirty meters away, you see a column off to the right of the central passageway. There's a strange triangle shape attached to it. The triangle is long and points down with several thin sticks pointing up above it.

Further than the odd column the passageway opens to a much larger area. There are some shelves you can see in the distance both to the right and left.

Brannigan wasn't too worried about the rats. Unless they were of unusually large size. He did keep his machine pistol in hand, however. Just as a safety precaution, of course. He didn't plan on shooting anyone. Actually, he rarely planned on it, but sometimes it happened anyway.

He frowned at the triangle for a moment. He didn't know what that meant or signified. Which he didn't like. But he kept moving. He slowly stepped just slightly out in to the larger area, just enough to look both ways quickly.

Once Brannigan gets closer to it, it becomes more obvious what it is....a devil rat head. Tied to this column with some rough cord is this desiccated devil rat head with it's nose pointed down. Embedded into the back of it's skull are several thin sticks painted in various ways. There are no other real symbols displayed, but one of the sticks has the dried remains of an eyeball skewed on it.

The larger area used to be a large work area as denoted by the piles of furniture. Nothing is functional at this point being twisted and bent. You could melt down the metal and process the recyclable synthetics for raw material.

There are several paths through the debris. The one off to the left is most clear. Looking up, it leads through the wall to a corridor that seems to have fabric of some sort draped on it's walls. The other two curve off to the right. The more central one only deviates slightly as it wends past a pile where the ceiling collapsed. In the distance, you can feel moving air and see it lighten suggesting the central path leads to an open window. The furthermost to the right seems to go into a more complicated warren of furniture piles. You don't have a good line of sight in that direction.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:24, Sat 14 Jan 2023.

Winter follows after Brannigan to get a better look at the symbol. She squints at devil rat head, trying to figure out why anyone would make such a... Totem? Fetish? She opens her mystical perception to assense what she is looking at.

This looks vaguely magical to me. Maybe a toxic shaman has made his lair here? Or something? Not really all that well versed in Shadowrun lore, I'm afraid. I'll try assensing the symbol and the room we are in, maybe we can get something more that way.

21:56, Today: Winter rolled 8 successes using 9d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 5,6,6,6,5,5,6,4,6.  Assensing.

Ok, I think this is the best roll I ever made in Shadowrun, and it actually runs against my astral limit of 7. But whether it actually does anything is up to the GM. As for knowledge skills, Winter has Magical Theory, Magical Threats and Spirits. Would any of these help here? If yes, GM can roll for her, all of them have 7 dice.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:16, Tue 10 Jan 2023.

Reyna gives a small shudder as the devil rat head comes into view. Creepy things in creepy places were never good news. However, she wasn't going to be the first to say that they should turn back, so she kept following Brannigan into the larger area. Once they were there, she whispered, "So, there's an unusual amount of devil rats around here and that was a devil rat head we just passed. Does that mean anything?"

Brannigan slowed to a stop and then backed up a bit as the other two became interested in the devil rats and the symbol. He shook his head slowly and shrugged his shoulders. "Not...that I know of. I mean, it could be a small or new gang's symbol? It could be some whacked out rat shaman gone crazy? Something else entirely, dunno."

He turned back to watch the way he had been walking, listening and making sure he didn't see anyone coming. He waited for the others to be ready to keep moving forward or suggest something else.

Reyna shrugs as she moves to follow Brannigan into the next room. One of the magical folks would know something, or she would find out when rats tried to kill them. Either way, there wasn't much that she could do in the moment. She beckoned the others forward with her hand as she waited.

Winter is looking at the rat head, but does not understand what it is. It has no magical signature. In fact, this whole area has very little magic activity. There is a sense of loss or abandonment. The totem itself emanates possession or opposition, but that could just be the emotions of creatures that have perceived it.

Brannigan catches movement out of the corner of his eye toward the right, but when he looks, it seems to be a scrap of shredded plastic ruffling in the wind...in an area away from the window.

Reyna is keeping aware of the local Matrix area and she gets brief signal that vanishes in the blink of an eye.


OOC: I made a mistake with the previous description. Two of the passages curve off to the right. I will edit the text of my previous post to be more clear. Nice roll Winter, Unfortunately, none of your current skills will help you with this display.

How are y'all handling the dim light inside this interior area? There is daylight back the way you came and from the window in front, but much of that is blocked by the debris.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:27, Sat 14 Jan 2023.

Winter shakes her head and reports on what she perceived. "I half expected this thing to be magical. But nothing. Maybe it's just a warning sign to scare people away?"

OOC: Where to next? Following that movement Brannigan noticed?

Also, it's daytime? For some reason I assumed it's night, probably because it's always night in cyberpunk. Anyway, Winter has low-light vision and (when that's not enough) a low-light flashlight.

Brannigan's head was moving slowly back and forth as he looked down each hallway open to them. He had switched his goggles to lowlight as available, and to thermal if needs be. He stopped suddenly, and his head tilted a bit. That...was that out of place or was he being paranoid? He immediately his decision - if he was paranoid, then so be it. But if he wasn't, he wouldn't be caught off-guard.

"movement." he said very quietly.

Then he turned towards that...bag or whatever, in that direction and started looking around more carefully, taking only one step towards it and then stopping.

Reyna quietly mumbles out, "Someone had a device on in here, but they turned it off really quick. It didn't stick around in the matrix long enough for me to get anything off of it." She tenses and untenses her shock-glove wearing hands in the darkness. She hadn't thought to prepare herself in case she needed to go somewhere dark, so she did her best to keep track of the person in front of her and listen for anything that might be around her. She was planning to pretend to faint dead away and work from the matrix if she thought she could get away with it safely; however, animals wouldn't fall for such a complicated trick.

Everyone pauses at Brannigan's warning, whispering or just keeping still, listening and looking every direction. Inside the structure is quiet. There are occasional moans as the wind finds openings in the walls. But no unusual noises occurs and you see any movement.

5 seconds pass still and quiet while the three paths in front of you silently beckon.

Chop had been keeping mostly his own counsel during the whole trip.  He did nod to Brannigan's question of if he would be considered muscle, but largely it was just going to places and checking them out, so he figured he didn't need to pipe up... too much.  "I'm.... not sure about this place,"" he admitted.  It wasn't a sense of fear, just that this place was strange.  He hadn't heard of any Rat shamans setting up shop or anything of the sort, so he mostly just took his hands out of his pockets and tensed up, keeping his eyes peeled for any sort of weird drek to pop out while he let Brannigan take the lead on where they'd go next.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:01, Wed 18 Jan 2023.

Reyna quietly adds, "We might as well follow whatever you saw, Brannigan. It's probably a little better than us wandering blindly through the factory." She shifts from foot to foot as she waits for him to lead them deeper into the building.

Brannigan hesitated a moment, staying still, then almost jumped as both Chop Chop and then Reyna spoke up while he was being quiet and focused. He stumbled one step forward, stifled a curse and shook his head once.

After a moment, he gave a nod and stepped forward towards where he'd seen movement. Might as well check it out.

"+Wait a moment.+" Winter uses trodes to send a message to others over her comlink. She focuses for a moment and her form fades into the gloom of the place. "+Maybe it would be better if I go first? Slightly less chance of me getting a slug in my head than the rest of you, I think.+"

If nobody stops her, she takes point and silently moves in the direction of the movement.

Casting Improved Invisibility. I propose that Winter goes first, with the rest following her. Hopefully if she spots something she can give a warning in time. Didn't note this in my rolls, but I casted the spell at force 4, so only 4 hits. No drain though.

08:15, Today: Winter rolled 5 successes using 12d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 1,5,4,6,2,2,2,6,2,6, 6,3.  Improved Invisibility.
08:16, Today: Winter rolled 3 successes using 10d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 3,6,3,3,3,3,4,5,6,1.  Drain (3).

And sneaking. Traceless Walk also gives a -4 dice penalty on anyone trying to detect her by hearing.

08:28, Today: Winter rolled 4 successes using 8d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 1,5,6,4,5,2,3,5.  Sneaking.