Smite

GM: Muse
Players: Muse, Mr. Terrific
Synopsis: Muse contacts Mr. Terrific to be the man on site to burn out an enemy decker in a punitive but non-killing fashion. A light night's work.
Date: DATE HERE, remember to add 60 years to the year to get the timing right :)


It's late at night when Mr. Terrific gets the message. A job is available for a small sum of five kay. A grocery run of sorts. The message comes from someone that the man is very likely not familiar with. The Johnson's name is Muse. No contact information or reply address is supplied with the SMS message, and any attempt to reply back would simply result in a "Address not found" error from the trix. The message itself merely states to meet at a hotel in the UCAS sector downtown area.

Mr.Terrific drops a line to a fixer to make sure that there is some knowledge of a fixer/Johnson named 'Muse' and he is not known to have killed a dozen runners. Assuming that checks out, he goes to scope the area, looking for black helicopters and surveillance vans, and then finally goes to the hotel to make the meet. He has 'brung his shit' although illegal crap is hidden in his Land Rover's secret chemsealed compartment.

Everyone has a secret chemsealed compartment in their vehicle. Unless of course you ride a motorcycle. Usually that one is hidden beneath the seat. The hotel listed is a swanky affair, marble floors and faux pillars made of some kind of spray on concrete. The lobby is expansive, if a bit empty, aside from the bell clerk and a woman sitting in a guest bench by the opposite side of the room. When Mr. T arrives, she gives him a friendly wave.

Mr.Terrific will be wearing his fine suit, although the Merlin cloak is left in the car due to anti-magician sentiment. He waves indeed. He didn't expect a woman, unless he was so informed, but he goes over. "And a fine evening to you, ma'am," he says, likely because he has been recognized.

Muse is wearing a rather nice suit herself, though it's evident from her hands that a suit of form-fitting body armor is beneath that. Others much just consider it a fashion statement. "Bonjour, comment ca va?" she replies, motioning for Mr.T to take a seat beside of her. "I hope you are well. I see you got my message?"

Mr.Terrific smiles. "Yes, yes, I did - but alas, I speak no french. Yes, I'm quite well, although terrible catastrophes seem to have recently hit places I frequent while I wasn't present. In any case, I am happy to be of help."

Muse smiles in return, "Fantastic. I've heard wonderful things about your work. Rather that you are indeed an agent of destruction, but I suppose you wouldn't be as renowned as you are if you didn't have a delicate touch." The woman in the suit now known as Muse reaches into her suit pocket to remove an envelope with a wax seal on it. "I found some information regarding an old associate of mine. He's been working for a research team working towards a goal I don't agree with it. I know how to take down his defenses, all I need for you is to go into his house and wreck his stuff."

Mr.Terrific looks wry. "I am honored, I suppose. It's not what I'm usually called upon for, but I would be happy to do the deed. Will he be home at the time?"

Muse shrugs, "I'm actually not completely sure to be honest. We've been out of touch for a while, so that's something you'll have to find out. Because I know him, I don't actually want to be on site, either, so I'll support you from a remote location using my deck. Enclosed in this envelope is his address. It shouldn't be too hard, so I'll offer five thousand nuyen." The envelope is offered to Mr.T.

Mr.Terrific accepts the envelope, although he does look around to see if he's being recorded, et al. It's a touch open. But then, if he's being recorded, it would be Muse doing the recording. "Will do. Does the envelope have contact information to coordinate times and the like for when I am ready to go in?"

Muse smiles, "Yep. Inside is a 'trix address which will be valid for.." She looks down to check her PDA, "Thirty eight more hours. That'll be your line of contact." Amusingly, the cameras about seem to have a single blindspot. It's this bench, being that it's so far from anything that really even remotely matters.

Mr.Terrific says, "Wonderful. Then I shall bid you adieu, and be in touch." And with a nod and a bow, he rises, backs away a bit, and departs. To ensconce himself in his vehicle, with the tinted windows because all vehicles have tinted windows because of evil wizards like himself, and checks where the address is on a map.

Muse smiles and waves a bit, "Adieu. Thank you so much, and have a wonderful day." Then there she remains for at least another five minutes before also leaving the lobby of the building to travel in another direction.
The address is rural in nature, at least rural for UCAS. Presiding in the Northernmost part of the sector, the house is a dingy little cabin with at least fourty metres between it and another house. The windows have all been barred with steel, and the door is a decorated metal door.

Mr.Terrific checks the security level on his map, in his car, to see what the likely police response times are going to be. It looks like it's in-country a ways. He uses the map to get his bearings for the nearest intersection where he's actually been, so he can astrally-fast-travel there, and ZOOM! But after the ZOOM there's some floating as he looks for the place, to scope it out astrally, and see if it is 1. Warded or 2. has Elemental/Spirit Guards. He wasn't told (unless it's in the envelope) whether it was a wizard or what there.

Unfortunately, there appears to be two hearth spirits in the form of canines guarding the property. Both are just inside, patrolling the hallways between the bathroom and the kitchen. However, there is a startling lack of any dog shamans or any awakened in the area. There's no mention of this in the envelope. Other than that, it seems that the response time for police is very low.

Mr.Terrific is just taking a sail-by outside - not going into the house, peering through the windows from a distance. This is actually important. Hearth spirits can be very bad news. So he does his best to not attract attention. Just an astral wizard, floating by. Did you know that you can't read street signs from the astral? It's freaking rough finding your way! Floating wizards wander by all the time! But enough of that. No Ward is important, two spirits, important. He ZOOMs back to his body, and drives out to that general area. He looks for a no-cameras place to put his car 1-2 miles away - he will be going in on foot and leaving on foot, thanks. And he will wait until 12:38 am, a bit after midnight. Then he will have his Ally Spirit speed him up and turn him Invisible.

«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls 9 + Sorcery Pool: 4 vs TN 7 for "Ally spirit Neglect casts Increase Reflexes 6, TN is Reaction, so 6, +1 bg":
2 2 2 2 3 4 4 4 5 5 7 10 11 = 3 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls 6 + Sorcery Pool: 2 vs TN 4 for "Drain is 4D on the increase reflexes,":
1 3 3 4 5 5 8 9 = 5 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls 6 + Sorcery Pool: 2 - 5 vs TN 4 for "Drain is 4D on the increase reflexes, kp 1":
3 4 8 = 2 Successes
«Plot» Mr.Terrific says, "Mr. Terrific gets +3d6 init, Neglect takes Light stun drain and is sustaining for +2."
«Plot» Muse says, "Looks right!"
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls 9 + Sorcery Pool: 6 vs TN 8 for "Neglect casts Improved Invis F6, base tn 4, +2 sustain, +1 light stun, +1 bg is 8":
1 2 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 7 8 10 = 2 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls 9 + Sorcery Pool: 6 - 2 vs TN 8 for "Neglect casts Improved Invis F6, base tn 4, +2 sustain, +1 light stun, +1 bg is 8 kp2":
1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 7 8 8 10 11 = 4 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls 6 vs TN 7 for "base drain is 4m, +2 sustaining, +1 light wounds is 6":
2 2 2 3 4 5 = 0 Successes
«Plot» Mr.Terrific says, "Mr. T is under a 6 success Imp Invis F6, no visual systems record him, Neglect takes M stun and is at 4 boxes and is sustaining 2 spells."

The lights to the building are all off. It is dark, and the neighborhood is silent. The sounds of insects can be heard in the distant, chirping and trying to find applicable mates.

Mr.Terrific will surveil the place for a half an hour with his binoculars. Make sure nothing is odd, nothing is out of place. Then he moves in, calling forth his F5 Earth Elementals (Char and Broil) and his F5 Fire Elementals (Magnetite and Hematite). He orders them: Accompany me, and crush the Hearth spirits quietly when we engage. Then he sneaks up to the house.
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls Stealth:
3 10 11 17
«Plot» Mr.Terrific is NINJA

As sneaky as Mr.Terrific is, he faces the greatest obstacle one mage could ever experience. The front door to this house is maglocked. A card reader is set aside by the door.

Mr.Terrific learned his stealth skills playing soldier and hide and go seek in the wilds of Texas, actually. He knows he can be heard, but somehow his boots are silent. And yea verily, that is when he directs his text to the trix account - "Undo the security, kill the alarms, don't let them call the fire department, and tell me if you can or cannot unlock that door. If you can't, I can open it, but I need the alarms off."

Not even a split second passes before Muse replies, "You're there already? Getting the security." It seems that she's already hooked into the matrix, thus the only way she could reply that fast.
«Plot» Muse says, "Host is a Green-6/10/10/8/10/8, doing quick rules."
«Auto-Judge[]» Muse (#1921) rolls Computers (Decking) + Hacking Pool: 7 vs TN 6 for "Hacking home security. Threshold 2.":
1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 10 14 15 23 = 4 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Muse (#1921) rolls Computers (Decking) + Hacking Pool: 7 - 4 vs TN 6 for "Hacking home security. Threshold 2. KP 1":
1 3 4 4 5 5 5 7 8 9 = 3 Successes
«Plot» Muse says, "Deactivating Home Security (There is none), Disconnecting Trix Line, Opening Locks (2), Shutting down system.

Muse replies a few seconds later after the magnetic lock to the front door disengages, "All done! Tell me I'm amazing later."

Mr.Terrific , using his amazing wizardly willpower, manages not to text back, "You're amazing later." But now it is time to open the door and beard those spirits in their den. He is fast, he is ready, he is applying his spell defense to himself, and his ally spirit, in the shape of a small rattlesnake, is applying its spell defense to him as well. Not that that matters for Hearth Spirits. (Now, normally a mage can only summon one spirit in any one domain, so a single wizard can't have two hearth spirits out. However, if one has had karma spent on it to make it a permanent guard, that could explain him having two. Or hell, both could be permanent guards or there could be two magically active summoners here. So he's ready for anything when he silently pulls that door and is ready to 1. blast them and 2. have his minions crush them astrally.

«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls Initiative with a result of 6.
«Auto-Judge[]» Muse (#1921) rolls 1 for "+16 Technoorganic robot dog one":
3
«Auto-Judge[]» Muse (#1921) rolls 1 for "+16 Technoorganic robot dog two":
3
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls 3 for "Mr. T's +3d6, these do not explode":
5 7 11
«Plot» Mr.Terrific says, "Mr. T's init is 23"
«Plot» Muse says, "Mr.T at 23, Dog one, Dog two."
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls 1 for "Fire elementals +25 astral":
5
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls 1 for "earth elementals +24 astral":
4
«Plot» Mr.Terrific says, "And the fire elementals go at 30 and the earth at 28 although they will wait for me. Can the dog 1 and the dog 2 be seen?"
«Plot» Muse says, "Yes. They're on opposite sides of the hallway in this house, approximately 2 metres from you on each side."
«Plot» Muse says, "Sorry, more like 5 metres."
«Plot» Mr.Terrific says, "Yea verily, I will stunball them mercilessly, with my 13 meter radius stunball."
«Plot» Muse says, "Their willpower each is 5 against your stunball."
«Plot» Mr.Terrific says, "Now, before you are disgusted, let me mention that the lower a spirit's force is, the more successes the shaman probably got on the summoning. Critically, the number of successes the shaman got on the summoning sets the karma pool for the creature. As an example, when Mr. T summons a F5 elemental, he commonly gets 10-11 successes, so it is totally rational for these guys to have 10-11 karma pool with which to defend by buying extra dice one-for-one and by rerolling for 1-2-3."

«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls Centering vs TN 2 for "Centering against penalties to reduce background count cost - tn 5 +1 bg is 6 - initgrade 4 is 2, every 2 successes reduces penalties by 1":
3 4 5 5 5 = 5 Successes
«Plot» Mr.Terrific has negated background count.
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls Sorcery + Sorcery Pool: 6 vs TN 5 for "F6 Serious Stunball against willpower 5":
1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 10 = 2 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls Sorcery + Sorcery Pool: 6 - 2 vs TN 5 for "kp 14 (Mr. T starts at 14 kp for this mission because he's at 13 kp in a queue)":
1 2 3 5 5 5 5 5 5 9 11 11 16 = 10 Successes
«Plot» Mr.Terrific says, "I will stand on 12 successes. :)"

«Auto-Judge[]» Muse (#1921) rolls 5 + Sorcery Pool: 5 + 5 for "Trading 5 karma for 5 dice. Soak dog one.":
1 2 2 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 7 11 13 16
«Auto-Judge[]» Muse (#1921) rolls 5 + Sorcery Pool: 5 + 5 - 4 vs TN 6 for "Trading 5 karma for 5 dice. Soak dog one. KP 1":
1 1 1 2 3 4 4 5 5 11 11 = 2 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Muse (#1921) rolls 5 + Sorcery Pool: 5 + 5 - 6 vs TN 6 for "Trading 5 karma for 5 dice. Soak dog one. KP 3":
1 1 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 = 0 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Muse (#1921) rolls 5 + Sorcery Pool: 5 + 5 - 6 vs TN 6 for "Trading 5 karma for 5 dice. Soak dog one. KP 6":
1 2 2 2 3 4 4 5 7 = 1 Success
«Plot» Muse says, "Dog one is gone. 7 successes is not enough."
«Auto-Judge[]» Muse (#1921) rolls 5 + Sorcery Pool: 5 + 5 vs TN 6 for "Trading 5 karma for 5 dice. Soak dog two.":
2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 5 5 5 5 7 9 = 2 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Muse (#1921) rolls 5 + Sorcery Pool: 5 + 5 - 2 vs TN 6 for "Trading 5 karma for 5 dice. Soak dog two. KP 1":
1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 4 5 7 7 9 = 3 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Muse (#1921) rolls 5 + Sorcery Pool: 5 + 5 - 5 vs TN 6 for "Trading 5 karma for 5 dice. Soak dog two. KP 3":
1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 5 5 = 0 Successes
«Auto-Judge[]» Muse (#1921) rolls 5 + Sorcery Pool: 5 + 5 - 5 vs TN 6 for "Trading 5 karma for 5 dice. Soak dog two. KP 5":
2 3 3 3 4 4 5 5 7 8 = 2 Successes
«Plot» Muse says, "Dog two is gone, 8 successes is not enough either. Combat is over. :O"

Mr.Terrific is tight, is tense, he knows he's facing spirits. He knows just how pumped HIS spirits would be if he did this, and he knows if they get the drop on him they will Confuse him and his spells will be worthless, which is why he has his minions here to crush. He knows he did in fact make noise, speaking the spell. Hopefully no recorders. At least nothing has transmitted, says Muse, with the 'trix disconnected, because this place is going to be destroyed. He moves now through the house, his gloved hands up and ready, flanked by his invisible spirits.

Two technoorganic dogs vanish in a wisp of mana, their pattern completely disrupted on the material plane. Now what remains is a dark hallway, a kitchen hard left at the end of the corridor. The right leading to a series of rooms. Two doors on the left.

Mr.Terrific checks doors, rooms, basement, upper floor, his internal mapping skills good, his astral sight on to pick out people, other surprises. He returns to quiet. Goes right first, but is certainly listening. His magic goes back on Spell Defense.

The faint glow of someone's aura comes from a room at the end of the hallway on the right, last room. There the figure is hunched over against the corner, black drek filling his body. Obviously a decker of some sort. He's not moving much.
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) rolls Intelligence vs TN 8:
1 1 3 4 5 9 = 1 Success
«Plot» Muse says, "You hear a faint beeping from the same room that the aura presides in."
«Plot» Muse says, "Three beeps then a silence. Three beeps and then a silence. It repeats."

Mr.Terrific ut ohs. He's heard about this. Playing with the black ice. He pulls his pistol, switches the load to gel, looks in. Why do they always look? He's dumb that way.

The door opens easy, the magnetic lock disengaged. Immediately Mr.T is greeted with the sound of hurricanes. The sound of the mainframe fans are deafening in this room, and even worse, it's hot. Lights flash in enigmatic patterns on the rather large computer, and the beeping is coming from that. It's obviously suffering from some kind of boot up error, the work of Muse. This is what she needed Mr. Terrific to do. To destroy the evidence of her tampering around inside of that server just now. And now it's time. The decker stuck in the corner of the room is dumpshocked, he doesn't move and a bit of blood is dripping out from his nose. He was hit pretty hard, but is still alive.

Mr.Terrific finishes circuiting the place - and actually begins searching now. He doesn't disconnect the decker, yet. He is looking for loot. Data chips. Backups. He knows the guy has them. And of course, there's a deck here somewhere - but actually maybe not, because the guy has a mainframe and so he doesn't need to deck, so to speak, not when he's here. Only use gloves to touch, mental clock says less than three minutes search - bedroom, closets, under clothes, between fake books, behind pictures and so forth. And when that's done he orders 1. Earth elementals - crush that mainframe and all associated components into a kneaded ball and then 2. Fire elementals - burn this place from the inside out beginning with melting the crushed ball. While that is proceeding, he will disconnect the decker, put him on his belly, and move his limbs to mimick him dragging himself out on the front stoop.

Loot is found indeed, some medkits are the first thing that are immediately visible. A rating 6 sleaze program, always nice. An energy rifle battery clip for a toy laser pistol. And finally a camo jacket.

THe server is crushed with ease, given easily enough time for the elementals to do their work.

Mr.Terrific bags them in plastic, and drags the fellow out just as the burnination gets going. The fire elementals turn on their Flame Auras and their Flamethrowers. To be honest, Char and Broil are attitudinous bastards and while they can be entertained by fighting, this is the kind of crap they live for. The specifics of the house, the distance from the other houses, means that the fire won't spread and it will likely be a bit before the neighbors spot the flames through the windows and their neighbor on the lawn. Will he think he dragged himself to safety? Has Black Ice now developed the HCF (Halt and Catch Fire) command? Who can say>? But if he had any security cams and such, they should be burned to the ground as well.
Mr.Terrific sneaks his way out, his invisible see-through body backlit by rising flames. He has to stay within 220 meters until the housefire is really going well, then he can tell the elementals to stop.

«Auto-Judge[]» Muse (#1921) rolls 2:
1 2
«Auto-Judge[]» Muse (#1921) rolls 6:
1 3 4 4 10 11

The neighbors fail to notice the house on fire until it's too late. Even when the fire department is called, it takes them an astounding amount of time to come. Perhaps they thought it a joke, or the firetruck remained in traffic. Regardless, Mr.T is long gone from the scene by the time people take notice. Later, the man can only recall having been doing normal research…
And then nothing. The next thing he remembers is waking up on the porch of his house. Police reports are vague. The run is a success.

Expendation: one service for a combat order for a combat that wasn't needed and one service for destruction.
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) uses 2 of item 1: F5 Fire Elemental Services (Char) from Elementals (#7668).
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) uses 2 of item 2: F5 Fire Elemental Services (Broil) from Elementals (#7668).
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) uses 2 of item 3: F5 Earth Elemental 'Magnetite' from Elementals (#7668).
«Auto-Judge[]» Mr.Terrific (#7242) uses 2 of item 4: F5 Earth Elemental 'Hematite' from Elementals (#7668).

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