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GM: Shoeshine
Players: Lacy, Victoria
Synopsis: In a classic nod to Mafia-style movies, the runners are hired to 'send a message' by leaving a (fake) horse's head in the bed of someone sleeping. They get some clues that something strange is going on but don't exactly follow up ahead of time. It's okay because they pull off the whole hiding and secrecy thing without waking up the two people inside (where there was supposed to be one). It turns out that the target once purchased a force-grown clone from DocWagon but they didn't lobotomize it correctly so it ended up eighteen years old as a baby, prognosis unknown. It's unethical to murder it but it's also a perfect organ donor clone for the target. Ad the 'boy' grows up he allows the man to appear to be in two places at once, and to our Shadowrunners, he makes for someone they could run into by accident. Alas, our runners make all their sneaky rolls and don't run into a fully grown baby dwarf clone or the athletic clone prime.
Date: November 5, 2073
Shoeshine , that wacky dwarf who always trundles around with a shoeshining kit and has indeed been known to do shines both in high-end and low-end areas alike, has let it be known that he's trolling for runners who can be careful and moral for a little job. Failing that, he'll see what he can do with whomever shows up. He uses a rent-an-office place in a medical building, and for those of you who have been on some of his other missions, it is not the same office. It's down the hall, with two dental and one podiatrist's office in between. It's room 317 on the third floor in a B-C security area in the CAS, and he'll be waiting there for you.
Victoria arrived, with clockwork precision, as always, fifteen minuites early, and dressed in a suit. Everything as always about her perfectly sharp and professional. Even if it was Shoe calling, and even if her employer was by no means known as a white hat.
Lacy arrives as summoned as well. The petite elf nodding to Victoria as she does. A blank expression on her face for the moment beyond that. "So what's the skinny? Seems like I'm following up with you?" She wonders.
"It is Shoeshine, mademoiselle. I know him, he can be trusted, assuming her is not being fed bad info. He is not the…brightest." Victoria shook her head as she reached out to open the door for Lacy to head in. "And I have no idea what he is up to at the moment."
Shoeshine 's rental 'office' is kind of bare. The furniture has the incredibly cheap look of being scavenged from thrift stores by building maintenance services (or maybe just acquired from people vacating offices and not wanting to bring it along and so 'donating' it to the building). Shoeshine will happily usher you in through the receptionist-less front room to the little hallway and a clean medical room with empty cabinets and a little conference table. On the countertop he has a crate.
"All right! I am looking for someone who can perform a delivery. Needless to say, the target won't want what's delivered. " He pulls over the crate, opens up the box, and inside is a severed, bleeding horse's head…. which, after about three seconds of looking, is made of advanced rubber, fake fur, cheezed up gooey 'blood' and other 'organs.
Lacy covers her mouth at the sight, but then she just nods to that. Her lips then pursing more thoughtfully as she begins to consider it. "Where's the delivery go to?" She inquires, looking back to Shoeshine in the process.
Victoria looked for a moment to the Box, a long moment, then a shake of her head. Shoe would be shoe, and Lacy had already taken the lead like planned. Vicky flipped out her pocsec, tapping into it as she listened.
Shoeshine says, "I'm not supposed to tell you exactly until you agree, or at least give me a clue that this won't be morally abhorrent to you. But that's a waste of time for something like this. His name is Reeve Martek, and he is a political precinct captain in the CAS, and I believe his activities have annoyed someone who wants to send him a message. He is dwarven, by the by, if the name didn't tip you off."
"Well, gotta make a living somehow. But 'spose that's true too. She looks over towards Victoria then to the others. "Any clue what sort of security?" Lacy taps her chin. "I mean, I'm used to getting things out of places. But don't reckon putting them in would be much different."
Victoria nodded to Lacy, simply offering a small smile of encouragement.
Shoeshinesays, "He lives in a B security zone, has his own house, with many houses nearby. I'd expect cameras and maglocks, and you need to be careful of the other buildings. And, of course, make no noise."
Lacy nods to that, "Well, not being seen or heard is something I'm very good at." Then, considering further. "And how soon is it needed?" She asks further. "Is there time to case it out for a night or two before hand? Or is it needed right away?"
Shoeshine shakes his head. "No rush. Just before the next set of elections, which are a little bit away. "
"And the pay, Monsieur Shoe?" Victoria finally added.
Lacy nods further, seeming a bit intrigued. Then looks to Victoria and grins. "That was my next question."
Shoeshine says, "A traditional twenty thousand per."
Victoria smiled softly, before hmming. "I will of course contact my employer, he will be ready for an observational role."
Lacy nods to that. "Sounds good to me." She ends up saying finally. "Anything else we should know about it? Just want to be certain I know everything I need to."
Shoeshine tilts his head in a slightly doglike way, smiling. "As your Johnson I am contracturally required to withhold a critical piece of information until such time as you actually agree to take the mission and are honor bound to do it. Then I can reveal the information, but it has to be just enough to annoy you, while being not so much that you feel cheated and quit the mission. So. I have a piece of information that I can't tell you until you accept, and it will be annoying… actually in this case it is confusing. But it won't be so annoying that it makes you quit the mission."
"Monsieur, we are in, out with it, no?" Victoria shook her head slightly.
"Aye." Lacy says, agreeing with Victoria.
Shoeshine , now that he's gotten that off his chest, goes on. "Okay. I have heard that he went to the Himalayas and underwent the 'Ritual of Chod.' It is supposed to grant him the seven league stride and special ability of bilocation. That is the 'word on the street.' In the real world, he is a rated amateur rock climber and he has traveled overseas, and some people swear that they have seen him in two different places at once."
Victoria smiled again, before nodding. "I see, thank you monsieur." Victoria then nodded again, before taking up the box and stepping outside to wait for Lacy. Shoe was a good man, but there was work to be done.
"Well, that sounds fun." Lacy quips, a devilish grin accompanying it. She does sound like she means it. "Might need to look into that ritual myself." She flashes a grin. "Thanks. We'll get this done."
Shoeshine gives you some contact information if you need to get ahold of him. "Good luck!"
"Well then Mademoiselle Lacy, I will be honest no?" Victoria pulled her lips into a grin. "This is a test for you, my employer only wishes to observe, and if need be, pull you from the fire, so, do you have a plan?"
Lacy nods again, "Thanks." Then, leaving as Victoria speaks to her she says, "Case it out. First. The mag locks are a bit concerning. I don't have a mag lock scrambler or passkey. So that's my real concern." She says as they are preparing to leave. "One of those things I always intended to save for. But for the time being, that's the case. Might be another way. Second floor window left open, for instance. Once I figure out the locks, the rest should be easy enough."
Victoria hmmed, and winked. "I suppose better than what I would have suggested."
"Even better, if he's got any servants. They probably have a key. And likely worse security. Really easy to grab one of those, do the job, and be done with it." Lacy is definitely thinking right now. "This should be interesting. Never had to drop something off before." She laughs.
"Then you are confident?" Victoria smiled, eyes looking over Lacy.
Lacy nods to that. "Yeah. I am." She says. "Better be. I mean, I expect it won't be easy, but gotta be on my guard. Glad I've got some time for it, if I had to tonight, might be a bit more worried. But that's the rub. So yes, I think I can do this."
"Then I will try my best to not dress you up in the cutest delivery girl outfit I can find and delay you several hours no?" Victoria tilted her head, and gazed upwards with an almost longing expression. "And let you get to your casing no? When you are ready to move, call me."
Lacy laughs at that one. "Wow. So… yeah. I suppose that's an even easier way. Guess I was overthinking it a bit. But now that you mention it, nothing said it had to be in private." She rubs her forehead.
"Mon cheri, just be aware, that if I dress you up, I am taking it off later, no?" There was a small tilt of Vicky's head, then a wide smirk. "Now get to work, and call me no?"
"I think a better message is delivered if it is in the middle of the night." Lacy winks back then. "And he did say I shouldn't be seen." A quick shrug. "So… casing it is…" And with that she slips to the side. "I'll contact you soon."
Victoria nodded, giving Lacy a small wave, before bowing out to await her call.
«Plot» Lacy begins to case the place.
Lacy heads back to an isolated place where she sits down and begins to pray, calling on a spirit to come to her aid from the city…
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Conjuring + 2 vs TN 4 for "F3 spirit, +1 background count, +2 dice for city spirits":
2 2 2 2 3 10 = 1 Success
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Charisma vs TN 4 for "against 3l drain for a f3 spirit":
1 1 2 2 3 3 4 11 = 2 Successes
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "No drain. So you have an F3 city spirit with 1 service that you order to Conceal you as you case the joint. Proceed to pose!"
The prayer is completed as the assorted detritus assembles around Lacy and she speaks to the spirit. "Guide me, oh spirit. Conceal me from the eyes of those who would see me. Help me to hide from all I see." She asks. "That is all I ask." Her head inclining. And once that is done she is on the move, sticking to the shadows as she approaches the location, passing by to scout it. Seeing everything she can at a glance, sticking to the shadows the whole time.
So to call it 'shadows' is a bit of a misnomer. It's the suburbs. Tight little one-family residential suburbs. 'Sticking to the shadows' might mean dashing between people's buildings and going onto their lawns to hide between the houses, which are pretty close together and have small but extant yards. That would be ludicrous. In this case, the city spirit just erects the Somebody Else's Problem field - encouraging any who might look at her that her walk-by is totally innocuous, that any length of time she spends gazing at one particular house is of no consequence. That, and not standing right underneath a working streetlamp long enough to people to get a good look at your face.
By walking a pleasant way around the subdivision, you can find out where the house is, how to get there, and that he has neighbors on each side as well as one behind him; and you can scope out his house from the back way, ie, if you run out his back door and hop his back fence into the next guys' yard, where you end up.
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "Int check for perception."
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Intelligence:
1 2 3 4 5 11
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "The house is two stories, small; probably a three bedroom two-bath. It has two corner cameras in front with lights; one on the corner with the garage, one on the corner closest to the little porch and front door (which has a peekhole). Similar cameras on the back, one at each corner; and on the three houses left right and back. Their make and model suggests that they record motion; if they don't see any motion they aren't recording, and that lets them take more 'film' so that the server either inside the house, or maybe at a remote site, can have a day or a week of motion-capture data to look at after some kind of break-in.
The lock on the front door is a maglock of rating 4-6, and you can arrange to catch him driving up to his house at about 6:15 after work - he has an automatic garage door opener, a cluttered garage, and a door leading into the house from there.
The building has two stories, the windows on the second floor are all closed and locked like normal windows are locked, from the inside.
He probably does not have servants, given the middle class nature of the building. At best, he may have a bonded maid service that comes in every so often.
Lacy uses this time to see if any servants emerge. Or if any windows are left open at night. Anything of that sort that might give her an inkling to the thing. But still. She seems to have found something. And so, heads home. Calling Victoria. "I found my way in." She says. "It's going to be tight. But I can get in and probably won't be seen. I'm going to be tired though.
Victoria answered the phone with her clockwork percision. "Stay safe mademoiselle, I will get you a drink and a massage afterwards no? My employer will be in posistion within the hour. If you have a radio, the code will be XXXXXX"
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "I await your plan, and any more long-term casing you might wish to engage in."
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "You can also roll me stealth to amuse me."
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Stealth:
1 2 2 2 2 4
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Stealth: kp 1
2 3 3 5 5 10
«Auto-Judge[]» Shoeshine (#844) rolls 3 vs TN 13 for "neighborhood busybodies, base tn is 10 +3 for concealment but the actual difficulty is worse than what I have listed.":
1 4 17 = 1 Success
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "You don't know it, but a neighborhood busybody has noted your appearance (to the tune of one success) as someone who doesn't usually walk around and is therefore 'new'. Perhaps her dog barked at you through the window."
"Roger." Lacy says. Then it is another day… a good night's sleep. The item procured. 6:15? That's what she's working with. No spirit this time, no, this time it is getting in close and using a different spell to sneak in as the car arrives! And laying low until night in the garage. But first? As she awaits the car? She starts to cast a spell. Calling upon the spirits to make her invisible to everything.
«OOC» Lacy says, "Damn dogs, bane of Cat Shamans. :p"
«Plot» Victoria says, "Vicky, for Shoe's reference, is going to roll into the neighborhood, find an incredibly awesome place to hide that still has sight lines, change into her alter ego and watch."
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "So you are positioning yourself in a peaceful little suburb for sniper action?"
«Plot» Victoria says, "More of spotter action, but yes. I do not expect to get involved at all unless shit really hits the fan."
«Plot» Victoria says, "This is just Le Tem observing Lacy."
«Auto-Judge[]» Victoria (#12432) rolls Stealth:
2 3 3 3 4 5
«Auto-Judge[]» Victoria (#12432) rolls Stealth for "KP 1/14":
2 3 3 3 4 5
«Auto-Judge[]» Victoria (#12432) rolls Stealth for "KP 3/14":
1 1 1 3 4 17
«Auto-Judge[]» Shoeshine (#844) rolls 3 vs TN 17 for "Is that pesky dog going to sniff up on Le Tem when she is changing in the light woods of a nearby park?":
3 4 5 = 0 Successes
Victoria was casual, rented car, a scan of the neighborhood on a drive by, and then a spot of some protected wetlands mainly protected for the ambiance of a middle class neighborhood. It would do. The car was parked, and then she changed, trunks were made for a reason, cloak over it all and she disappeared into the light woods, underbrush was a friend.
«Plot» Lacy says, "OK, Improved Invisibility to sneak in with the car and hide in a corner until late at night to deliver the package."
«Plot After The Fact» We go over various options as to exactly how to cast Improved Invisibility in terms of force, dice, drain, shaman bonus dice, desired quantity of successes, and so on.
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Sorcery + Sorcery Pool: 4 + 1 vs TN 5 for "F5 Improved Invis, tn 4 +1 bg, maxed out at 4 dice of spell pool and using 1 of 2 totem dice":
3 3 3 3 4 5 5 5 11 = 4 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Willpower + Sorcery Pool: 1 + 1 vs TN 4 for "F5 divided by 2, round up is 3, +1 is 4M drain. Background count of 1 is not enough to add. +1 additional die is the other Totem die. Need 4 successes to take no drain.":
1 2 2 3 3 5 5 = 2 Successes
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "right now you are taking Light stun, which will be a +1 penalty to anything you do."
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Willpower + Sorcery Pool: 1 + 1 - 2 vs TN 4 for "kp 2/2 reroll":
2 4 5 7 10 = 4 Successes
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "Well done. No drain."
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "So, as an example, it will take someone with at least a 4 Int to see you, and they will have to roll four fives to do it. So, for example:"
«Auto-Judge[]» Shoeshine (#844) rolls 4 vs TN 5 for "This is the smartest, nosiest neighbor who can possibly see you as you move into position to dart into the garage as he parks.":
1 1 3 4 = 0 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Shoeshine (#844) rolls 5 vs TN 5 for "This is Reeve himself, who might see you as he drives up, or perhaps in his mirrors as he hits the button, waits for the mechanical door to rise, drives in, and buttons it to fall.":
2 2 2 4 5 = 1 Success
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "He also fails. So you can pose moving up to the building at an appropriate time, waiting for him (he gets home a little late tonight) and then slipping into the garage. Also: do you enter the interior door right with him? Or do you just keep quiet in the garage?"
Lacy prays again, prays to Cat to conceal her from view. And then, 6:15 comes. A car. And she is right behind it, staying low. Staying behind the car as close as she can. Then just stays low…
Lacy literally waits for the car, and then goes in as close as she can - she could touch the car if she wanted, and just slips in with it. It's a quick motion, very simple. But as soon as the car stops she slips under it - still invisible with her spell. Staying quiet as she can…
Reeve chunks his way out of the car, sliding his butt off the seat a little to put his office shoes to the smooth concrete of his own cluttered garage. (His car is dwarf-modded so he can use the pedals but there's only so far the seat can be moved, must be rough on the elderly.) Interesting, there are kids toys here, but he's supposed to be divorced and have no kids. He closes the car door, bip-boops all four doors locked, and then unlocks the interior door with - get this - a key. How old-school. Then again, it is an interior door and why put a maglock on that? He closes the door and locks it behind him, because it's still his garage door, and he's just not a person that forgets to lock doors behind him.
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "Funny fact: You can't read with astral sight. Invisibility doesn't let you see yourself. But Lacy has Astral Sight so she always knows where she is. But she can't read her own watch or pocsec for the time."
And then begins the waiting game. Lacy DOES slip out from under the car to hide in a corner of the garage. But she did not become a thief without having a sense of patience. Now it is time that matters. Waiting for night. For when decent folk are asleep. It's boring for sure. But for 20,000 nuyen? You're darned right she can be patient. So for now she just… waits.
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "So, you are holding up a spell for +2 sustaining penalties. So, apropos of nothing, since you're in the man's garage, make an Int roll, hearing based. You don't have to type anything, and I know you don't have any karma rerolls left, and understand that you have a -2 to this roll and you're listening through an interior wall."
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Intelligence:
2 5 5 8 11 16
It's hard to tell at first. Right when Reeve Martek gets home, he's bustling about, making himself dinner, turning on the trideo, all kinds of noises and talking and so on. It's as the hours go on and hearing, inside the quiet garage, becomes hyperattenuated with the strain of holding up the spell that other noises come into play. Other voices. Other motions. Is someone running in there? Maybe he has a treadmill and is exercising? He's a rock climber, does he have a climbing wall? This house is.. kinda too small for that, I mean, it would have to be one of those treadmill rotating climbing walls in the basement specially sized for dwarves? No, as the hours rock on, it becomes more and more clear, especially at about nine PM when the words, "Bath time," distinctly come through and you hear the water run and talking and splashing…
There's two people in there.
Buy Lacy continues to wait. She needs to have a good time to make an exit too, tired though she may be. A time to slip in, to place the package. And to bug the heck out! Still, this does seem a touch unnerving to her!
By somewhere between 11:30 pm and midnight, whatever strange rambunctiousness going on inside has died down. Visible lights are down low, though in the modern household, there are little LEDs hither and yon polluting the lightspace so that elves can walk in the dark.
«Plot After The Fact» Lacy wants to leave the horse's head on the kitchen table initially, in character. Shoeshine didn't specifically say 'in the bed' but Lacy also in-character knows it's supposed to go in the bed. So we discuss what might happen if it goes on the table.
And it is waiting a bit longer… an hour or so, give or take. Lacy isn't sure of the time, that's the nature of this after all! But she wants them to be asleep before she slips in and plants the head, somewhere obvious, right on the kitchen table! And presuming she can at this point, it is to a window to slip out.
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "You can wait another hour until zero dark thirty. All is quiet. leaving the question - how do you open that door?"
Now that things are quieted down. Lacy gets to work. So many people like to leave a hidden key in case they mess up and lock themselves out. A garage is safe for most people! So somewhere… Lacy starts to search for it.
«Auto-Judge[]» Shoeshine (#844) rolls 5 vs TN 10 for "Is he stupid enough to keep a key in here?":
1 2 4 4 7 = 0 Successes
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "You search, but there doesn't appear to be a key here in the garage."
«Plot After The Fact» We go into the various means of opening a mechanical key-locked door. The knowledge skill 'Lockpicking' is the most correct, and Lacy's knowledge skill 'Security Systems' is the best option for it. Lacy also has a Mini-Toolkit, which is just perfect for something like this. The TN is base 4, +2 defaulting, +2 sustaining, for TN 8.
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Security Systems vs TN 8:
4 5 7 = 0 Successes
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "You work on it for a minute, You aren't forcing it. Give me a stealth."
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Stealth:
1 1 2 5 5 7
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "So what we have here is you working with your tools on the lock, sweating, holding the spell, trying to do it without waking up anyone, because you're trapped in this garage if someone opens that door. You have to hit a TN 9 before I hit a TN 16."
«Auto-Judge[]» Shoeshine (#844) rolls 5 vs TN 17 for "tn 7, -2 sustaining, +4 asleep, +10 through walls":
1 3 4 11 11 = 0 Successes
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "Each attempt is a minute. Unless you have a different or a better plan."
Lacy stops as she fails to pick the lock, closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths to try and calm herself. And then? It is back to trying again…
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Security Systems vs TN 8:
1 1 2 = 0 Successes
«OOC» Shoeshine whistles.
«OOC» Lacy says, "Oyl…"
«Auto-Judge[]» Shoeshine (#844) rolls 5 vs TN 17:
1 2 3 4 11 = 0 Successes
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "Two minutes. (It took 59 minutes on Mythbusters to do it with a light bulb filament.)"
Still no luck, more careful, doing all she can. The stress getting to her, but not giving up yet…
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Security Systems vs TN 8:
2 4 4 = 0 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Shoeshine (#844) rolls 5 vs TN 17:
1 3 4 5 10 = 0 Successes
More time, always careful, but not giving up…
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Security Systems vs TN 8:
3 8 9 = 2 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Shoeshine (#844) rolls 5 vs TN 17:
1 1 2 4 4 = 0 Successes
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "It seems like a long time, but finally you catch purchase on the inside of the lock and lever it open enough to slip. You've had to hold back to not make noise throughout."
Lacy… obviously breathes a sigh of relief at that. But then it is back to what she does best. Slipping the door open and into the house. Package in tow. Time to take in the lay of the land…
Even in the darkness - it's a bachelor pad. With a kid. if you were to run, you'd run into toy-based clutter and clothes on the ground (He probably doesn't use a maid service.) Everything is dwarf-sized, which means it's all crazy-sized for you; the table is strangely low, the desk is weird, the counters are strangely low, and so on.
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "The kitchen does have an exit to the back yard, and the family room has a sliding glass door to the back yard as well. Of course, it's easy enough to unlock these doors from the inside, and with the spell up, no cameras can see you. No cameras inside, either."
And that's where Lacy gets a bit of sympathy of sorts, wincing a bit. But still, it is something she is being paid to do. And so it is what she must. To the counter she goes, laying the package there, taking it out of course. But no more. It is laid where she hopes the kid won't be the first to see it. But if so? Well, life sucks. Hopefully the message will make the kid's life a lot safer in the long run. Package placed. Then to that sliding door. And just enough opened to slip out, then closed again. Then it is time to just as carefully make an exit… over the fence and out of the neighborhood….
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "Okay. One last thing. You know from your knowledges that the horse's head is traditionally put on a pillow. But Shoeshine didn't make that painfully clear. 'Fault' is inconsequential - Shoeshine might not get paid and be unable to pay you and this could spiral into one of those ugly stories about revenge and so forth. If you are leaving the fake horse's head, unwrapped, gooey and oozing, on the kitchen table and calling that good, just say so in plot."
«OOC» Lacy says, "Fair enough then."
Once she is in the house, it is time to go on… She has made sure she can exit. And so on. Now it is time to take a different road. She moves to get the horse head and start to find her way towards the room. Ever so quiet.
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "So then: It is a three bedroom two bath house. Simply by having been in such houses, it is not difficult to figure out which is which just from ever so quietly walking down the hall. So which door do you open? The Master bedroom, the first bedroom, or the second bedroom?"
The first one Lacy goes towards in the Master Bedroom. The one most likely to be such at least, these sort of houses are all alike after all…
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "Stealth!"
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Stealth:
1 1 3 4 4 5
«Auto-Judge[]» Shoeshine (#844) rolls 5 vs TN 7 for "tn 5 -2 penalties +4 sleep +hidden bonuses/penalties":
1 2 4 5 5 = 0 Successes
The Master bedroom's door is a little heavier than you'd expect an interior door to be in a house like this. And when the door is open for the slipping in, there's a nightlight going for… the kid. He doesn't move, and it's clear that this is a 'child's room' except that the child is a full grown dwarf. It's probably the largest size of crib that they sell, although the child inside is big enough to climb out over it. In the dim light the place has toys, a trideo, bright posters, stuffed animals - if it were a kid's room for real, the toys and accoutrements would make the kid maybe six. But the dwarf inside the crib looks like a full grown dwarf… and to first glance, at least in this light, his face is exactly the same as the face of Reeve. Maybe more relaxed, so blissfully asleep.
One more thing: This door is lockable from the outside, not the inside - it opened fine for you, but if you were to let it close behind you, and it was set to lock, it would lock and stick. (It doesn't look to be set to lock.)
Lacy is… shocked by that, but as easily as she opened, it, and noticed the lock, she is closing it again. She does seem to think it best to lock the door once more. Locks are there for a reason. So now it is on to another room…
Bedroom number one - a study, or a den. A man cave. Comfy dwarf chair, computer, jacktrodes, trideo, locked bar. Bedroom number two - the smallest of the three bedrooms, and where there's another Reeve Martek. He doesn't have a nightlight. His room is clearly an adult's room, with an armoire for his suits, a chest of drawers, and so forth. The Master bedroom had the largest bathroom, for the 'child', and the smallest bedroom has a smaller bath and shower combination, looks like.
«OOC» Shoeshine says, "If you wish to be amused, you can now make an Int roll."
«Auto-Judge[]» Lacy (#8329) rolls Intelligence:
2 2 3 5 8 13
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "Same person. Same size. This Reeve Martek is in his forties. The one in the kid's room, maybe twenty, with an unlined, relaxed face."
It is to this one that Lacy starts to move to lay down the head. 40? Seems about right for a political boss! Now all the more careful, time to get this done right and leave so she can get a check.
«Plot» Shoeshine says, "You have already made your stealth check for this, so it is written, so it is done.
Lacy heads out the back door. The sliding door making the least obvious profile for her to open and slip out should any cameras be trained on it. Even less if there's some sort of curtain. Out. Over the fence. And a careful, easy walk, still invisible, down the street. After all, only the guilty run…
All of course, after leaving the head on the pillow.
And so the witness, such an apt name for the night finally moved upon seeing the back door open and close. Back to the car, it could change later, there was no need to now, no borders to cross, and the ever present mirrored windows of the anti-mage future. Le Temoin followed the traffic laws to the letter, cruising down the street to pick up Lacy.
Into the car when she gets there, and when the door closed? She breaks into a giddy laugh. "That place was messed up." She exclaims with the same laughter. "Seriously drekking messed up!" She runs a hand through her hair. "I'll need to come back this way again for a few weeks. If anyone saw me, might be suspicious. I keep being around, jogging or walking or whatever. No one will even think twice."
Le Temoin slipped it's head towards Lacy, or at least the face plate moved that direction. There was a momentary squelch as something tuned itself, and then the stephen hawking like monotone of a generated voice. "You will find, Miss Lacy, that the world is full of things stranger than you. I assume the job is done then?"
"Done and wiz." Lacy says with a grin. "Package in place. No one the wiser. Wasn't seen." She leans back in the chair, looking a bit weary despite her giddiness. "What a rush."
Le Temoin nodded, hands keeping to the wheel as it moved away from the target site. "I will take you to Dogface then. I assume Miss Victoria will be happy to hear you did well."
Shoeshine , when you get to him and the place is secure, will ask nattering questions about stuff like gloves and fingerprints and cameras, all of which can be answered in the appropriate. But do you tell him about the kid's room?
During the call, Lacy says a certain cat kept her from view. The rest though, she asks something else. "How much extra for some information?" She wonders. "Because what I got is pretty interesting. Might just solve a certain mystery."
Shoeshine says, "I am not the interested party, so I don't know how much it's worth. If you want to play a waiting game, I can ask and start a dickering process. Or you can just tell me, and I'm going to guess you will each get a tip that is more than 2k and less than 5k if it is good."
"Sounds spiffy to me." Lacy says with a grin. "So, you know the duplicate? It's like our dwarven friend has a twin… A creepy, younger one. There's toys all over, and he's locked up inside the master bedroom at night, nightlight and all. One of the more messed up things I've ever seen."
Shoeshine huhs. "So it's not magical bilocation. It's.."
«Auto-Judge[]» Shoeshine (#844) rolls Biotech:
1 1 2 3 4 5
«Auto-Judge[]» Shoeshine (#844) rolls Medicine:
1 2 2 3
Shoeshine shakes his head. "Okay. I'm sure that's worth something. Well done, and the payment will arrive appropriately.
By the time that Lacy returned from her call. Le Temoin was gone, disappearing to wherever it came from, and leaving the new runner to bask in her earned glory.
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