The Found Arcana [IC]
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The Found Arcana [IC]
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Bobby replied to Mato: “Woh, woh, woh, rocks are a bit to advanced for me.
But I can do a decent stake-out at Taco Temple. Same method as with the Halloweener base. Bring my gear and a can of beer on top of the car so I can find you.”
To Ginsburg he said
“Did some time, did ya? What where you in for?” -
“Botched run in the SCIRE. When the Matrix crashed we lost our decker, and all the corners the local government had been cutting on redeveloping it ended up working out for them that day – they weren’t as reliant on the Matrix as our team was. Guess I’m lucky it was a government property or I’d probably still be rotting in a cell on some corporate black site.”
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“Rough break — I hope that your luck has turned now. And one thing you don’t have to worry about, there won’t be any decker to lose on this job.” He winks and lets that thought sink in.
“Anyway, I’ll start a basic search on the picture of this guy, but my current link is one step up from a rock. It is secure and hard to hack; that is, it is hard to hack something that barely talks to anything around it and spends most of its processing power on enforcing triple-redundancy or some drek like that.””
A few minutes late Jawsey has his face under control, after realizing that he’d been so frustrated with this link that he’d never taken the time to figure out how to make it do image searches. He tried, but he wasn’t sure that it was actually running the search. He suspected not, but all that he was sure of was that it wasn’t giving him any information.
“I’m checking into a new link, but on this one I had no luck. I’m also going to check if AM has some cycles to look into it for us.”
<<AM [Jawsey] Could you make a few minutes to look up the picture attached? It is the competition on a job that the rest of us just agreed to. By the way, part of the payment is 2k in lodge materials, assuming we spend at least 1k ourselves. We do that and I think we’ll have a pretty solid lodge we can both benefit from>>
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AM texts >> Sure I’ll have a look at the picture. A The lodge should be fine… I sort of neglected my studies since I left Sioux, too poor for that. Iktomi would be satisfied if I continued my studies. [
It takes AM about an hour to research the picture, and then she texts back.
>> Jawsey, either I messed up or the guy is bad news, security images are only 84% confidence and there are multiple possible matches due to image quality. I narrowed the search to criminals in Seattle because I assume that you need it to make some money rather than have a background check your sister’s new boyfriend… do you have brothers and sisters by the way? Anyhow, he might be Cheng Mu Chou. If he is, he legitimately owns a nightclub in Tacoma named Opium Club.
Now, researching the club, it is a nice nightclub, not worth the trip to Tacoma to hang out though. Strange thing, it is rumored to be Octagon business, as in Triads. Some of the other gangs in the area casually referred to it as such in public postings. Anyhow, I am doing a quick follow up research about the Octagon.
It is difficult to find a lot about them, most of the stuff I find is about a war with another Triad fraction named the Yellow Lotus where they were nearly all wiped out, they are now limited to Tacoma and rarely interfere in the affairs of Seattle. They sell guns, and drugs at the darknet. Also, in many of the old war stories they are conceived as a clan of adepts that believes in kinds of magic that are considered superstition by hermetics.
Feng shuei, fortune, karma and such. It is not much I know, and most of this info is decade old, but well they don’t exactly keep a website with their illicit activities.I hope it helps, sure is more fun than what I should be doing right now .”
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“Oh great, Triads. Tell you what: If we hadn’t already decided to make the guy vanish now I’d insist on it: A dead Triad is trouble, but a living one that thinks you have wronged him is all kinds of trouble +1.
Jawsey or AM, can you find out what car the guy drives? Taking them out en route is likely the savest way to deal with him and his bodyguards.”
Bobby replied. -
Jawsey groaned when he saw AM’s message. <<AM [Jawsey] Thanks for the horrifying news. Forewarned is forearmed and all that.>>
By this time they were all in the car, on the way to Taco Temple to scout out the location. At least this made discussion easy. “I already wanted to know what the background count is like. Now, I don’t know if I want one or not. Negative background hurts all of us but Mato, but it also penalizes him and any magical guards that he may have. Ginsburg, I’m thinking that your illusions could be key here — these are not the sort of people that are apt to be easy to just knock over the head and take out. Let’s finish scouting out the site, then we can start with more plans.”
Jawsey stays in his body on the way there, just tasting the background. Once they get a chance to stop he does a more thorough astral inspection of the area.
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AM texts >> Bobby public records show that he owns two cars and a bike. An SUV, and a sports car as well as a Suzuki Mirage.
Downtown is teeming with activity as many people have lunch. Most of the surrounding has no background count, with a few spots of low (1) background count. Two streets from Taco-Temple there is a church with a background count of (3) aspected toward Christian Theurgy.
There are hundreds of people within a radius of 100meters from Taco temple, and the place will be just as public during the evening. -
Despite the unpleasant astral in the church, Jawsey does a fly through to see how busy the building is. In such a busy area, privacy may be hard to find and they might have to accept what they can find.
As for doing violence in a church, Jawsey has read the history of the ‘residential schools’ used to try and remove the culture from the native peoples in Canada, and prominent role that the church played in running many of them. He feels no real concern about exploiting the church to his advantage.
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The Church is currently near empty, except for a single priest. If you physically visit the place then there is a sign on the door saying that it closes at 18:00. Luckily, the background count surrounds the building with about a ten meters radius.
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Bobby replied:
<<Thanks for the effort, seems like I’ll have to stake out the club to see which vehicle he’ll take. With Seattle traffic being what it is, an osprey should be able to beat him to Taco Temple – even if he is on a Mirage.>>
With that, Bobby transformed once again and took off to find a nice perch overlooking the club and it’s garage, waiting for Chou to make his appearance. -
The club is closed during the daytime, but there is some activity. Bobby can see a few cars in the back, including the SUV that AM pointed out. Some people are unloading creates from a track, and there are few inconspicuous cars in the nearby parking, perhaps of people that work in the club.
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Since Bobby had nothing better to do, he began to study the auras of all the people working at the club, looking especially for magical active bodyguards but also sick or addicted people
Spoiler: -
After putting on his suit and loading up his good fake SIN – Dirk Magnum, at your service – Mato gets behind the wheel of the Ford Americar and waits for Jawsey and Ginsburg to join him.
Mato isn’t the most practiced driver but his reactions are excellent. The Ford Americar adds a level of anonymity, but the High amenities inside also make it passable as a respectable vehicle should Mato get stopped by K-E for Driving While Ork. With luck Mato just looks like a well-attired bodyguard for his betters, namely the charismatic Jawsey and the elder Ginsburg.
When the get near the Taco Temple, Mato starts scanning the area for security, either K-E or private. Are there drones, are there cameras? Is parking easy or a challenge? Once he’s parked, he sets a can on the car roof per Bobby’s instructions, even though Bobby is busy doing recon of his own.
“I’m hungry,” Mato says to Jawsey and Ginsburg. “Let’s get a taco.”
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Mato, with the invention of autopilots urban design has significantly changed. There is no parking right at Taco temple, but a parking lot several hundred meters down the road. People get picked up and dropped, and then most cars go to park automatically. If you want to legally park in the vicinity, the parking lot is the closest option. It has a single guard and costs a little bit per hour. You can park in the open air, but it would be much further about a kilometer. Nothing that any of you would not do on foot and downtown is safer than the Barrens, but most people would not go that far.
Bobby, there is not much traffic outside of the club. No guards currently, and when you assense the people unloading the track, they are both mundane and in good health.
# How long will Bobby stay at the club?Taco temple seats in a modernized shopping mall. It is accessible from the street as well as from the inside of the mall. The mall has basic security, unprofessional and unalert average-joes in uniforms that scan people for weapons, as well as a metal detector. Accessing Taco temple from the street, on the other hand, is possible with only a digital SIN scan, and this is a security loophole as you can just enter the mall through the business. The street in question has multiple other eateries such as the Krill and Chill, and Staffer Shak, as well as clothing and electronic stores, all accessible from the street.
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Bobby got bored after a while. It didn’t seem like the boss was in and although he could have infiltrated as a cockroach, he was hesitant to do so. After all the boss could also start the day from his home address and arrive at Taco Temple from another direction.
So he took flight and made a slow circle over the nightclub – just in case they needed to come here later – and memorized all the entraces, including the potential roof access.
That done he flew directly back, searching for the car with the beer can on top. -
Ginsburg waits for Mato to park and leans forward from the back seat.
“So before we head in, are we planning on staking it out and heading back, or do we want to go in wearing illusions? If I can persuade a spirit to help me out, I should be able to sustain a mask on the three of us, but if they’ve got any sort of astral overwatch in the mall, we may want to save it for when we need it.”
He scratches the back of his neck. “So this may be a little thin until we know the lay of the land a little better, but my go-to has always been grifts over smash and grabs, and I had a thought I figured I float by you. The Fuchi-Two-For-One is an oldy but a goodie. Usually used for scamming someone out of corporate scrip, but I think it could be applicable here. Basically, we got a credstick with the cash on it – we’d need to grab ourselves a second that looks the same – I figure that should be easy to pick up in a mall – and load it with, say, enough nuyen for someone to buy lunch. When the exchange goes down, we’d have to make sure we’re all sitting. We pass them the real stick, let them scan it to make sure it checks out, but insist we have the card in hand before it goes into their pocket. Once everything is on the table, someone spills a drink, and a in the hustle to mop it up, a little sleight of hand puts the real stick back with us and the fake on the table.”
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@Bobby, finding the car with the beer can is not difficult. It is parked with an open-air parking lot about a kilometer from your destination. The streets are far from empty but not crowded.
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Bobby landed, pecked a bit on the window until it was rolled down and he could get in to transform back. Once he had told the occupant about what the situation at the club looked like, he agreed that going in to look around was a good idea.
“But I have to go undercover – I’ve got only my real SIN right now, so I’d prefer going in animal style. What do you prefer: Having a support dog on a leash with you or carrying a little snake up your sleave?” -
“Let’s skip the magic for now,” Mato recommends. “No need drawing attention to ourselves.”
He looks to Ginsburg. “What you’re describing is a grift against the seller. My understanding is that we’re not ripping off the seller – Gao wants to keep that relationship intact – we’re trying to rip off the guy who is trying to elbow Gao aside. This Triad-looking motherfragger. I don’t think there’s going to be a situation where we’re going to have a chance to socially scam this guy, but maybe you’re better at creating opportunities than I am.”
The team has enough time to scout the outside of the restaurant and return to the car before Bobby returns.
“They have metal detectors on the mall side. I’m going to set that off like a rocket but I should get a pass. I don’t need weapons inside but I have smuggling compartments in my legs for those that do.
“The street side requires a SIN, so there will be a record of entry. I can’t imagine that it’s a strong scan but that still might mean the SIN gets burnt.
“As for Bobby, I was thinking a mouse in the pocket, but a snake up the sleeve works just as well. Maybe Ginsburg’s enough of an actor to pretend to need a service dog but that’s beyond my range .
“If we do things right, then nothing untoward happens in the Temple. If we knock off Tony Triad, that should happen long before he gets inside the Temple. If, for some reason, we can’t intercept him in advance then I suggest Jawsey meet with the seller. Ginsburg can guard the door to the mall and I can guard the door to the street. Bobby can pick his perch.”
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Approaching Taco Temple the team can look it in more detail, one thing they cannot miss is the new Taco temple logo. The old one has 8 rectangles that appear to be cards on the background. In the new one, the 8 rectangles all have images smiling children, in certain positions, they almost look like tarot cards.
Back to the physical security, entering the mall requires passing a metal detector, while entering from the street requires an R2 SIN scan. Mato attracts quite a bit of attention with his cyber limbs and many people stop to look and stare at the man. On the plus side, being augmented to that degree seems to surpass the fact that he is an orc, he feels rich. Now that you notice it, there are not many orcs int he streets at all.
#Ginsburg needs an etiquette test to not attract attention with prison mannerisms.
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