The Found Arcana [IC]
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The Found Arcana [IC]
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“Good, the more the merrier and I always like it when people don’t just have me to shoot at.”
Bobby nodded to the others: “So we are in agreement: We wack them after they bought the card and concentrate on their vehicle as ambush point. Unless Mato can pick pocket the card, although I’d put that damn thing into a locked brief case, chained to my arm. But you never know, people have done dumber things after all…” -
Jawsey nodded along with the comment about people doing stupid things, and seemed lost in thought for a moment. Then he said “ I guess I’d better try to see where he puts the bloody thing then, and let you all know. My first choice will be to send an ARO – trodes keeps that silent. I have a microtransceiver, if the matrix is somehow jammed or spammed up, but sub-vocalization may get noticed. Or I could ask my spirit to go tell you the news, but that may well be all that I can ask of it. I guess the first two don’t help Bobby much, but he may not be where the spirit can appear safely, either. Well, if Mato can grab the card, maybe he can skate away, so it is probably most key that he knows.”
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“First priority is who has it. Second priority is where they put it.
“Worst case scenario, I hit someone over the head and sprint off with the goods. Well, I guess if they think like Bobby then I could be chopping off someone’s hand, but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Mato imagines Ginsburg casting a spell to silence a man’s scream as he stares at the bloody stump of his wrist. On the street, in downtown Seattle, at rush hour. Maybe Ginsburg could mask it to look like something completely different, like the man on his knees, proposing to Mato with a giant ring. (“It’s beautiful, but my parents would kill me for marrying a Triad,” Mato imagines himself responding. Joke’s on them! My parents are already dead.)
“Alright, let’s get into position. I’m wearing a suit so I should be fine to loiter in public without getting hassled.” Mato loads his better fake SIN for good measure.
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Taco Temple – 17:50 PM
As the evening approaches, many workers fill the street after an honest day’s labor. The atmosphere is lovely with a bunch of street kids playing various instruments. Usually, the copper drives away, but this bunch seems dressed enough to fool a casual inspection. There is a handsome teenage boy playing the guitar and an orc girl that sings cover-ups for famous songs. The street is a big traffic jam, so many people just leave their cars on autopilot and walk. It is cold outside, but the citizens are used to this weather, and it is foggy. Taco temple is very crowded, apparently, they have a discount which means that there is a line to enter for nonregistered guests, with waiting times of about 30 minutes to get a table.The buyer, whom you suspect to be the triad member Cheng Mu Chou, arrives through traffic with his Suzuki Mirage alone, and without bodyguards. He drops off infront of Taco-Temple and sends the bike to the parking lot on autopilot. He is wearing a business suit, that seems a bit old fashioned.
Spoiler: -
Jawsey spent a bit of time leaning on his cane — the good one, that had his wwapon focus on the hidden blade — while enjoying the musicians. They weren’t bad — nothing that was apt to get booked in anywhere of note, but he wondered if they could find some gigs in touristville. Then again, they might make more money busking like this. Then he went dual-natured to enjoy the play of emotions from the performers and passers-by — there was a good reason that free spirits often congregated at clubs, the emotions of music, musicians, and audience, could really be quite enjoyable on the astral.
A good while before the time of the meet he joined the line-up to get into Taco Temple, pinging the team <<In the line-up at TT. Besides ordering enough to hold a table for a while, want me to place some take-out orders while I’m here?>>
Spoiler: -
Mato uses the street musicians for cover as to why he’s loitering on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. He hopes that he doesn’t come across as a corper pervert who is skeeving on the ork girl who is singing.
<<Who knew Taco Temple was so popular?>> he comms. <<Jawsey, did you get a table? Any my carnitas burrito? I’m not sure how we’re going to run tight surveillance with this much interference.>>
<<Target acquired! He’s by himself on a Suzuki Mirage. Ew, did he borrow his dad’s suit for the meet? That suit’s so old it makes Mortimer of London look futuristic.>> Mato tsks the Triad and shakes his head, pitying the man.
<<Is he Awakened, or does he have astral cover? Can we just magically ‘suggest’ that he step into the alleyway – or exit the restaurant via the kitchen – where we can empty his pockets in private? Maybe toss up an illusion over the alley entrance?>>
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Bobby replied: <<I’ll go for the bike and hide on it. Follow it and at an appropriate opportunity I’ll cause it to stall.>>
Bobby took the shape of a small bird and followed the bike to the parking lot. There it was just a matter of turning into a roach and find a nice cozy spot to wait. All he had to do now was to use his skill with elemental electricity to make the bike fail at an opportune moment.Spoiler: -
@Bobby Finding the bike is easy, in autopilot it does not try to slip through traffic. It takes about five minutes, but it arrives at the parking lot, there is nobody there to notice a bird turning into an insect, and finding a nice spot in the bike is also not a problem. Unlike real insects, Bobby understands which places are safer than others.
@Jawsi Jawsi finds that there are surprisingly five spirits around the street musicians, none of these seems to be following Mr. Chou though. Perhaps they are listening to music? The sheer volume of people creates a weak background count (BGC =1), which is mitigated around the musicians as their music reduces the stress in that street.
Spoiler:@Mato The suit is indeed old, and not tailored especially for him, him wearing his father’s suit would explain. The musicians are quite good, and there is a bit of crowed that gathers around them to listen. People drop coins in their guitar bag, not much though. Nobody pays much attention to you.
@All Mr. Chou enters Taco table and heads toward a reserved table. He skips the line Jawsi is waiting at as he has a private booth.
Spoiler: -
The good thing about standing in line is that it is normal to look a little unfocused. Those around Jawsey are probably all in AR, but Jawsey has plenty of time to scan the astral and gather as much information as he can. Not that he was able to get a good read on the spirits, with all the auras of the bystanders blurring his view.
It is only after their target — Mr. Chou — has pushed past the line and into the restaurant that Jawsey snaps fully back into meatspace, so that he can take a moment to take a careful look at the man. He’d gotten a fantastic look at his aura, but even the best aura reading could miss things that were dead obvious with normal eyesight.
Sadly neither asensing nor normal eyesight would let him see through the back of the booth into which Mr. Chou slid himself. Jawsey cursed inside his skull, realizing that he’d not be able to see where the target put the card, or even if he received it. He needed to get eyes on what was going on.
He quickly called up his oldest spirit friend, Red-Jacket-Boy. The spirit wasn’t especially clever or strong, but it was generally loyal. Although in this case it didn’t much like the jostle of all the auras in the restaurant, and wanted to go listen to the music. Patiently Jawsey told it that it just needed to do one thing for him first — astrally hover above that booth over there, where you can well see the man with the bright hunter aura, and tell me about everything he puts on or in himself. Just tell me all of it.
After that he switched back to watching in both the astral and the physical worlds.
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@Jawsi You learn very little about the spirit outside, you spot five of them, and that’s it. You are not even sure what kind of spirits they are, or what their force is.
Mr. Chou is awakened, with a magical rate similar to AM… nope a bit stronger than her, (Magic rating of 6). He is generally healthy, but is nervous and is upset, though it does not affect his physical mannerism.
The spirit reports “I identify an item with an aura that turned dual natured as the person touched it. I can verify that the item is on his body, but I am uncertain where. ”
@Mato your cyberware scanner shows that there are two heavily cybered people in the vicinity. One inside Taco temple near the private booth where Mr. Chau is currently is, while the other is in the line a bit behind Jawsi.
Having been alerted by the cyberware scanner you spot the man, behind Jawsi he wears a large coat that covers everything, but your scanner does show an implemented gun in a synthetic cyberarm. His other augmentations include a data jack, titanium bones, and augmented reflexes. The man inside has an implemented smartlink, augmented reflexes, and a control rig.
Using radar is sufficient to get the gist of the meeting, you identify three people in this meeting, a large male – perhaps an orc, a small woman (human or elf?) and a third person which appears to be Mr. Chau. They appear to be talking, and the woman is the one that does the talking. The card itself is invisible to the radar, but there is a small object that Mr. Chau places on the table and the large man picks up.
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Mato relays his information to the rest of the team.
<<We have two hard lads inside. Could be bodyguards; could be corper thugs out for dinner. Jawsey, the one behind you is wearing a large coat. He has a cybergun in a synthetic arm, so watch out for surprises. Looks like he can take a punch too. The guy near the private booth has a smartlink and a control rig, so keep an eye open for drones.>>
<<Let’s not do anything now: we don’t know who they’re affiliated with, the seller or the buyer. We’ll wait and see. Looks like Chau just put something on the table. A credstick? I couldn’t make it out. Jawsey, do you have eyes on it?>>
Mato swears that he’s going to invest in some microdrones one of these days.
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Ginsburg stood on the mall side and covered that exit. He used the Clairvoyance spell to get an eye on the situation. He says “I cannot hear what they are saying, but there is a skinny elf lady along with a bodyguard perhaps. She spoke for a minute or two and then handed him something that looks like the card in exchange for a credstick. Mr. Chau is now leaving Taco Temple, through the mall’s exit, I am looking for him with the spell, and will have a visual soon.
Mato’s radar indeed confirms that MR. Chau leaves toward the mall, he’ll need to improve his position to continue following. Bobby can feel that the bike is moving again, but from his location, he cannot say where to. Bobby can see the bike slowly moving through traffic, but it does not stop at Taco temple but circles the mall. Mato sees that the elf woman and the rigger stand up and begin making their way through Taco temple to the outside.
#OOC: Sorry, I forgot about Ginsburg, he has a spell for surveillance seems strange that he won’t use it. I placed him inside the mall because none of the others wanted to cover that angle. I’ll edit if you want him somewhere else.
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Mato moves to enter the mall, submitting himself and his SIN for a security inspection.
<<Target is on the move, exiting the restaurant via the mall. Ginsburg, do you have eyes on him? Let’s go into bounding overwatch: track him until I overtake you.>>
<<Jawsey, can you see if he has a tail? Are any of those hard boys on his rear? Do you have my burrito yet or are you still in line?>>
<<Bobby, what’s the motorcycle doing? Bobby, are you there? Are you a bee? Bobby must be a bee.>>
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Ginsburg says “The man sure acts paranoid, looking over his shoulder and walks in a manner that attracts unwanted attention. If security here was reasonable, they’d stop him for questioning. I actually follow him and he did not notice me, I can’t see anyone else following him. It is difficult to do so without being obvious, the man almost runs, and he is much faster than me.”
Jawsi can see that the guy in the black coat loses interest in the line and moves outside of Taco temple to the street, in the same direction as the bike.
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Mato tries to pick up the pace without looking similarly suspicious. He is, after all, an ork, and might not receive as much leeway as Chou does, even if Mato is wearing a ¥2,000 custom fit suit. He mentally swipes through ARO after ARO of spam, looking for a map of the mall that could be used to predict where Chou might be headed to meet his bike.
<<Ginsburg, can you run interference? Can you report a suspicious person to security so that they can intercept him? Or maybe an illusion to slow him down?>>
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@Mato – the only other exit is on the parallel street, it seems to be where the man is heading. Ginsburg was reluctant to cast spells in such a crowded place but tried a low power influence to slow down the man. He was surprised that it worked. “I convinced him that he has to pee, find him in the toilets.” He replies. Going to the toilets slows down their mark, and Mato has no problem to keep up.
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<<Ginsburg, Mato’s idea is good. Maybe an illusiong of the seller rushing up to him, then maybe pausing a distance away.>>
<<Team, sorry, no tacos, I’m going to get moving to where I can do something>>
Jawsey mutters something about ‘not worth the wait’ and steps out of line, exiting back on the street side. As he goes he checks out what the two heavies he’d been warned about are doing, and casts a quick dual natures eye on the musicians and spirits to see if they are all still in place.
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Mato swears internally about the lack of tacos. Well, if they pulled off this job then they’d have enough nuyen to celebrate.
He shares the map of the mall with Ginsburg and the others.
<<Ginsburg, I know you move a little more slowly. See if you can get to that other exit to pass off the surveillance. I’ll follow him into the bathroom. If I get lucky and catch him alone, maybe I can pickpocket him. I’d taze him but there’s enough surveillance to potentially identify me. I’m running an expensive SIN right now and I don’t want to burn it. It would be nice to have AM on camera overwatch right about now.>>
<<Anyone heard from Bobby? Anyone know if they make trodes for insects?>>
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@Mato the toilets currently contain four people besides Chau. He will take a leak and then continue to the exit. One benefit of your plan is that the toilets do not have cameras inside, the drawback is that there are possible witnesses (Etiquette + charisma (threshold 3 to discreetly follow him, and you should have a chance to pickpocket him while he is waiting for his turn.
@Jawsi there are now three spirits listening to the musicians. The rigger Mato spotted is now nowhere to be seen, and the other one is still waiting for Tacos. Jawsi can see the bike slowly making its way through traffic as he walks out.
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Bobby had taken position under the flap of the faux leather cover of the socius seat. As the bike started to move, he got ready to take care of Chung…
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