Overview

Sorry for my unresponsiveness again, I haven't had the energy to do much of anything but go to work for the past few weeks. I'll respond soon.

I think you are the one that can provide some impetus here, please ?

While Logan was casing the warehouse, Wolf had been investigating the nearby paths leading from the security panel. Keeping well away from the Mastiff, she found several more nodes with similar idioms and data imps to the camera into which she was linked. A padlocked trapdoor underneath the statue's legs blocked her from accessing whatever node lay underneath; experience tells her that this most likely leads to the server where the Red Sun's most secure data lies. There are no other node connections from this panel beyond the cameras and the barrier. One other observation Logan was able to make was that the rollup door on the northwestern side, where Wolf and Corvus were holed up, seemed to be connected via a standard mechanical linkage to a small control box (with obligatory big red button) near the bathroom cubicle. Most small shops the size of this operation would not connect this box to the network.

"Arm" As Logan crept back from his vent and brough him up to speed, Arm grunted and looked down, wishing he could see through the ceiling of the warehouse to guess how many people there were below. One ? two ? three ? and how far could the reinforcements be ? "We have done half the job. We need some Wolf's input before we do more though, I reckon." And he texted the group the key intel from Logan's succesful reconnoissance. "FR presence confirmed. Two guards at least confirmed."

Logan Malone Logan awkwardly crawls backwards through the vent to regroup with Arm. "Agh. Now I know what a TV dinner feels like. Anyways, Arm, The Rain's in there. Er, I think. Might be in more'n one piece, but that's a problem we'll have to work out once we get it secured. Far as I could see, there's two guards: one on a catwalk that the door opens up to, and one of them on the shitter on the first floor. I'm thinkin', if that door ain't locked, I could maybe take the one on the catwalk by surprise while you trade me places and shoot the other one from the vent, but if we do that, it's gonna be the point of no return; whoever's in the main building is gonna come in to see what's goin' on, maybe even call in reinforcements if they've got 'em. That don't mean it's off the table, but the whole team aughta be on the same page before we do it if we do."

Corvath Edmuns hangs back and watches for activity, waiting for the intel.

apologies for inactivity again, will try 2 respond soon :P

"Arm" While Logan didn't have far to go inside the duct, it would probably take some time to crawl in, sneak a peek, and crawl out while trying to keep as silent as possible. Arm kept crouched low, his ears open, his eyes peeled, and waited until the bleached blond man reported back or something odd happened.

Not only that, you literally caught one with his pants down 😁

Logan raises his head and takes a long look through the fan, skillfully blending in with the rattling, whirling fan to scope out the entire warehouse. Or at least, what used to be a warehouse; as far as he can tell, almost half of it has been converted over to an auto shop, where what appears to be the Rain sits in the throes of an automotive makeover. A rickety catwalk hangs mid-wall, running from the northern wall to the eastern, underneath his vantage point, and apparently continues on to the southern wall, where a set of stairs connects the two levels. A single bored guard wearing the insignia of the Red Sun company can be seen patrolling the catwalk, occasionally stopping to look around and take a drag on a cigarette. A second guard can be seen taking a slightly more personal break in the northwestern corner where a small toilet and sink are incompletely walled off directly underneath the catwalk. No cameras can be seen from his current vantage point. The guards appear to be carrying a single heavy pistol and standard rent-a-cop coveralls, with no apparent body armor. Warehouse map Logan is where the duct adjoins the wall near the southeastern side of the warehouse. He probably wouldn't be able to see the entire floor from his vantage point, but he can see enough of the catwalk and stairs that he'd be able to surmise the existence of the rest. The red circle is the guard on the catwalk, the pink one the guard underneath. The tank underneath the red guard has a large label on it warning of volatiles, the type which would probably make a pretty explosion if ruptured. As Logan surveilles the warehouse, Wolf notices the crab re-emerge from the statue and wander around the perimeter of the settlement.

i am the ninja

Logan Malone Logan, as quietly as he can, takes a deep breath in and out. Alright, riskin' it for the biscuit. He pops his head up to get a better look inside the warehouse through the fan. DEX/Sneak plus situational bonus

Corvath Edmuns can't really do much else right now anyway - no real tech skills

No worries, hope you get back on your virtual feet soon. Corvus and Wolf are going to stick to where they currently are, acting as mostly-passive observers.

Wolf keeps an eye on the crustaceous monstrosity as it slowly meanders towards the statue, then disappears between the legs. Confident that the program didn't detect her presence in the node, her avatar sniffs around the scurrying data imps until it picks up the scent of audiovisual data from a particularly scrawny clutch of imps forming trails to five other nodes, including the node whence she had come. Outside, Arm nods to Logan and takes up a guard position near the vent, keeping an eye on the rooftop doorway and the ductwork. Logan enters the sheet-metal tube and works his way westwards towards the warehouse wall, where a bright light is clearly visible through a large exit fan, also roughly a meter and a half in diameter. Keeping his head down, he crawls close enough to the fan to see that it's an old, rickety unit mounted high up in a large, empty room, near where the roof adjoins the wall. No guards are immediately visible, but his position in the duct precludes him from seeing anything below the level of the exit, and the racket of the spinning blades prevents him from hearing anything quieter than a shout. Mechanics My interpretation of the rules is that any Demon or avatar only gets one opportunity for detection per invocation of Ghost, even if it re-encounters the ghosted avatar in a different node, so Wolf will be able to hang around or follow the Mastiff without worry. The camera packets appear to be unencrypted, but I think actually intercepting them and seeing the visuals will require a Sense Camera action, which would break Ghost. I will need a Sneak/Dex check from Logan (+2 bonus for being in the duct) if he wants to pop up his head to see more of the warehouse, since there may be guards or cameras with LOS to the fan (so an opposed check). A failure doesn't necessarily mean he is detected, but that some disruption to the normal appearance of the fan is visible, which might prompt someone to check more closely. The fan looks like it could easily be detached from its mount with a swift kick or ballistic encouragement.

Logan Malone Logan pulls Arm up to the rooftop after hearing he found the Free Rain's plates in the trash. "Ey, good man!" He looks over to the air ducts. He leans over and whispers to Arm, "Hey, Arm, I'm gonna go n' take a peek inside. You keep watch 'til I get back." He kneels down by the grate on the air duct. He unscrews it with a coin from his pocket, slides it to the side, and crawls in. He would only crawl in to see where it opens into the building, and maybe even try to get a glimpse of the inside of the warehouse, but would stay in the air duct and awkwardly climb back out backwards after getting the information he wanted.

I have been attempting to fix my computer for the better part of two weeks and have had little time out energy for gaming. I don't want to hold up the game so if you are comfortable running Wolf, I was going to find internal cameras and let the team know where everyone is. This does run the risk of dropping here ghost program.

, did you decide what to do with your program loadout?

No problem. Thanks for the heads up.

For your information, I will be away from 31-07 to 18-08. Please NPC as needed in the meantime of course. Sorry for the inconvenience.

"Arm" Since he had been joined on the eastern side by Logan, Arm didn't go all the way back, and instead played the team game. He shared on the team's message system a simple "I found the plates of the FR in the dumpster. It's definitly been here." and then got more or less hauled on the rooftop where he knew his eyesight and sure shot would do wonders if needed. He definitly wasn't so keen on sneaking inside the warehouse through the air duct though. Probably best to wait until Wolf had done her magic...

You are sooo correct, sorry. So yes, Arm will "broadcast" to the team his success in finding proof. And go to the roof as well, where his marksmanship can probably be used to the best effect.

I'm fine if you want to rewicker your program list again, since the Machine subject would come up pretty often in this line of work. Edit: As an alternative, I think Sense Camera would work to identify which data imps contain camera information, some snippets of what the cameras are seeing, and which node exits lead to any connected cameras. However, it would not let you identify any other sensors, servers or databases connected to this node.

What do I do if I don't have Machine? Or should I do another reevaluation of my programs?

Wolf will need to use Sense Machine to analyze the traffic flow.