Milk Run - Intro Heist Operation

[Joey aka: Fat Joey]

Location: Chi-town / Level 4

Joey nods at the others while he moves to the side. ”My size makes it hard to huddle like this. Gah!! I need a beer.” He just leans up against the wall while the other talk. He takes the time to try and memorize scents.

[Harris LaVode]

While the group converses, Nurse Maurice and Temperance manages to get Skip up and talking again. The "knitter" robots flowing in his blood system helping increase his healing time by a factor of a hundred while the painkillers speed up his mouth by a factor of a thousand, "Oh man, glad you guys got me out of there. They jacked me just after you left for the gallery and set everything up at the warehouse, as you can see i didn't have much choice in the matter. But I knew you guys had the goods to get me out of there. Well, pretty sure.

Wilport is bad news...his boss is even worse. Works for CS intelligence. Although I have no idea why he wants the book, the Coalition hates reading, and why send in his black ops team when he could just pinch us to the I.S.S.?" He muses that last part more to himself than the others, "I probably don't want to know. I hate to burn a buyer, but what do you guys think about trying to sell it to Wilport to get him and his godfather off our backs? we may need to take a haircut on the price, since they can just keep trying to kill us and take it anyway. We'll also make an enemy of the people in Lazlo I got lined up for this thing, but sometimes you gotta choose between the greater of two evils right?"

Relieved to see his friend up and about Harris listens to the fixer's info. "I'd not heard of Lyboc being a collector of books, either he wants it to leverage it against someone else or there's something about the book. Digi, do you have the gear here to photo scan the pages and maybe check it out in other ways? If we know what makes the book so valuable it'll help us get paid what it's worth. Motioning to the crew, "We were discussing that idea ourselves. Knowing your buyer is all the way in Lazlo makes this a no brainer. We sell to Wilport, if he'll do it for a decant price, and tell the Lazlo party the acquisition failed. If he won't buy it and looks to hunt us, we sell to Lazlo. That and some other ideas I have will give us the funds to try and weather his wrath. But, uh.." The detective looks around the clinic emphatically and settles his gaze on Maurice. "We already know this fine fellow does business with Wilport so perhaps we wait to discuss details. Harris turns to the grackle, putting his charm into it, We'd not want to put you in the middle more than you already are. Thank you for your work. <back to Skip> Skip, if you have you got an actual safe house we can head to, lets pay the man and get rolling."

persuasion on Maurice to improve his view of the team (8 total)

Persuasion [dice:kbvri7zf]48746:0[/dice:kbvri7zf]
Wild [dice:kbvri7zf]48746:1[/dice:kbvri7zf]

[Joey aka: Fat Joey]

Location: Chi-town / Level 4 / Shop Docs

Notice [dice:3vbfo185]48820:0[/dice:3vbfo185] -
Optics Package (1) +2 / Investigator (N1): +2 / Keen Sense of Smell (Racial): +2 / Psychic Sense (Racial): +2 - detect the presence and location of psychic or magic energies
Wild - [dice:3vbfo185]48820:1[/dice:3vbfo185]

Optics Package (1) - Right eye is replaced
+2 all sight-based Notice checks;
thermal imaging and night vision - look for hidden writing
20× macro lens for up-close detail - close up detail
provides the ability to record still/moving images and store them for later viewing
Switching modes is a free action

Joey slowly moves his head side to side as if looking around. In realiity he is using his cyber eye and his nose to id everyone in the room, as well as the book. ”i ned to know who is who. My memory aint shit since i got hit, so i will use my eye to help.” He will then use his eye camera to take a still of each person as he takes in their scent. ’This way i can put a face to a scent later, if need be.”

When his eyes hit the book, he asks ”Excuse me? May i try sumting?” He moves closer to the book. As he does, he opens all his senses and cyber to take in as much info as he can about the book.

[Edwin Fisk]

Fisk nods. "I'm starting to think this thing's gonna burn us the longer we hold on to it anyway. Yeah. Maybe Lazlo isn't happy about it, but are they gonna send kill squads after us for not delivering?" He shakes his head. "Still...I hate not delivering on a contract. It's bad business."

[Kincaid]

Joey called a place and got them, theoretically, a place for the wounded to get patched up. Harris tried to intimidate the mercenary to little verbal effect, but the psychic effect was apparently pretty good and netted the name Kyle Wilport. Sounded like a real piece of shit.

Kincaid definitely passed on a bit that he knew about the name Lyboc. "Colonel Lyboc, to be exact. CS Intelligence. Dirty and liked to color outside the lines. Big stink during the Juicer Uprising - but surprisingly he's still alive and still in the CS military so..." He gave a shrug. "Not the kind of guy you want to deal with, but not the kind of guy you wanna piss off either."

He hung back when they got to the Shop Docs. Magnus looked like he could handle things if they got rough inside, and Kincaid was more worried about what - or more importantly, who - might be coming for them outside. But he listened on in over coms to the conversation inside. He gave a small snort as Skip babbled a bit and shot a deal potential in to the air that might help them but also might get them killed. He shook his head.

He spoke over the coms to the team but nobody in particular. "Either way we get potentially screwed, but better the devil you know, right?"

Notice

If needed (+2 to total, plus he has Danger Sense just in case).
Notice die [dice:3qijw4rh]48875:0[/dice:3qijw4rh], Wild die [dice:3qijw4rh]48875:1[/dice:3qijw4rh].

[Zeke Walker]

Chi-Town/Level 4/Waste Management District/Shop Docs
Night
Round 0

Zeke flushed with embarrassment. He didn’t want to seem a novice, but in reality he was.

“If I were that powerful, don’t you think some dog boy would have sniffed me out by now and a Coalition patrol would have put me out of their misery?”

Zeke straightened up as Skp spoke up. “Lazlo likely won’t kill us, no. This Wilport guy has already tried. We can see if Lazlo will accept pictures of the book. For a reduced price. Could I see the book? If there is magic on it, I can detect it.”

Exalted Detect Magic 12

+1 shotgun
Spellcasting [dice:15qqnehv]48879:0[/dice:15qqnehv]
Ace [dice:15qqnehv]48879:2[/dice:15qqnehv]
Wild [dice:15qqnehv]48879:1[/dice:15qqnehv]

[Venatus Vinco]

Examining the Book

Technological and magical examinations reveal the book to be a book. It's very old and we'll preserved, especially since it passed through a cataclysm, dark age, and CS anti-literacy purges.

[Temperance]

Temperance listens to the conversation taking it in.

"The trouble with this outfit is there are too many generals and not enough troopers", she thought to herself.

"For what it's worth, I vote we stick to the original plan. Even if we get Wilport off our back by offering him the book, there's nothing to say he won't just turn round and off us when he gets it. Even if he doesn't, we'll be dead on the streets, nobody will touch any of us again. However if we stick with the original plan, turn the book over to Lazlo, we get paid. Our rep rises. We become people who get things done, even when the going gets tough." "Wilport at that point has no reason to continue to go after us. We won't have the book, Lazlo will, and we've already proven trying to take us out is gonna be expensive. Where's the profit in it for him? If he is feeling belligerent, then at least we'll know which direction to watch".

Her brow furrows as she concentrates. Something was off about this whole situation. Collectors she understood, wanting things nobody else had, but this seemed an inordinate amount of trouble over something that while rare, was not unique.

"Why this book? What's special about it? What are so many people willing to kill for it?" She looks expectantly around the room, trying to provoke them into examining the alternatives.

"So it's not just that it's a copy of Catcher in the Rye. It's not even that it is a signed copy. It's something about this copy in particular. Something that nobody is talking about, but everyone else in the game apart from us knows".

[Magnus]

When it comes to who will get the book, Magnus shrugs.

"Don't particularly care where the credstick comes from, long as it spends. Though there's something to be said about earning some rep along with the cash. And this Wilport guy and his pack of chum-lickers are starting to get on my nerves."

[Harris LaVode]

Temperance listens to the conversation taking it in.

"The trouble with this outfit is there are too many generals and not enough troopers", she thought to herself.

"For what it's worth, I vote we stick to the original plan. Even if we get Wilport off our back by offering him the book, there's nothing to say he won't just turn round and off us when he gets it. Even if he doesn't, we'll be dead on the streets, nobody will touch any of us again. However if we stick with the original plan, turn the book over to Lazlo, we get paid. Our rep rises. We become people who get things done, even when the going gets tough." "Wilport at that point has no reason to continue to go after us. We won't have the book, Lazlo will, and we've already proven trying to take us out is gonna be expensive. Where's the profit in it for him? If he is feeling belligerent, then at least we'll know which direction to watch".

Her brow furrows as she concentrates. Something was off about this whole situation. Collectors she understood, wanting things nobody else had, but this seemed an inordinate amount of trouble over something that while rare, was not unique.

"Why this book? What's special about it? What are so many people willing to kill for it?" She looks expectantly around the room, trying to provoke them into examining the alternatives.

"So it's not just that it's a copy of Catcher in the Rye. It's not even that it is a signed copy. It's something about this copy in particular. Something that nobody is talking about, but everyone else in the game apart from us knows".

Harris looks at Temperance mildly annoyed to hear his words on the books importance repeated "You make some good points about how to proceed but, like I just said... We should continue this elsewhere. And since we already have Digi, Zeke, and Joey looking over the book, we're kinda on that track."

[Venatus Vinco]

Agreeing that they need to move on Skip suggests the group gather at the Cobalt Nightclub. The owner mins her own business and lets Skip and his customers use the backroom from time to time. Maurice agrees to let the unconscious mercenary sleep it off in the clinic and send him back to Wilport, with a bill for his concussion treatment.

Somewhat safe for the moment, talk turns to the nature of the book and what to do with it. For his part Skip doesn't want to burn his buyer, it's bad for business but he's a pragmatic guy, "If I have to choose problems in Lazlo or problems on Level 4, then I choose Lazlo. A lot of this depends on why Wilport - or his boss - want the book. If they want it for their illegal collection we're screwed, if it contains some kind of secret code or something then maybe we can give a copy - satisfy both parties. Whatever we do let's set it up and get it done before both sides start looking for us."

Efforts to reveal anything special or peculiar about the book continue to remain fruitless. Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover.

[Harris LaVode]

Agreeing that they need to move on Skip suggests the group gather at the Cobalt Nightclub. The owner mins her own business and lets Skip and his customers use the backroom from time to time. Maurice agrees to let the unconscious mercenary sleep it off in the clinic and send him back to Wilport, with a bill for his concussion treatment.

Somewhat safe for the moment, talk turns to the nature of the book and what to do with it. For his part Skip doesn't want to burn his buyer, it's bad for business but he's a pragmatic guy, "If I have to choose problems in Lazlo or problems on Level 4, then I choose Lazlo. A lot of this depends on why Wilport - or his boss - want the book. If they want it for their illegal collection we're screwed, if it contains some kind of secret code or something then maybe we can give a copy - satisfy both parties. Whatever we do let's set it up and get it done before both sides start looking for us."

Efforts to reveal anything special or peculiar about the book continue to remain fruitless. Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover.

As they pull away from the street docs office, "I've got a trick I can try on the book since nothing looks unusual about it otherwise, but I'm starting to think it's not significant." Laying a hand on it Harris attunes himself to the psionic imprints left by previous owners and circumstances, looking for some clue from the past of any additional significance. His eyes roll up into his head for a second.

Psionics Success, get scenes from the last 5 years

Spend 4 ISP for +2 to roll, 2 for object read
Psionics [dice:yptthexz]49018:0[/dice:yptthexz]
Wild [dice:yptthexz]49018:1[/dice:yptthexz]

[Zeke Walker]

Chi-Town/Level 4/Cobalt Nightclub
Night
Round 0

“I’m not getting anything from the book magically,” Zeke said, shaking his head. He settled back in his chair in the Cobalt and sipped his soda. When Harris was done with his reading of it, Zeke took the book and opened it. Maybe if he actually read it and found out what was in it they could figure out why it was important. “Keeping our word is rather important,” he had to agree with Temperance about their Lazlo Johnson.

OOC Comments

Zeke is going to actually read the book.

[Joey aka: Fat Joey]

Location: Chi-town / Level 4 / Shop Docs

Finding nothing with the book, joey goes back to his spot on the wall. ’i am out of ideas. I got nothing from the book.” He pulls his massive pistol and checks the load. ” That was a waste of our time. Just decide what to do, and tell me who to punch. I am that easy.”

[Magnus]

"So the book's a book. If there's nothing else special going on with it, what does Wilport want it for? Anybody got a guy on the street that could put an ear to the ground, maybe find out something?"

Not all that concerned with the answer, Magnus leaves the debating and cogitating to the more cerebral members of the group and makes his way to the Cobalt's main room, where his favorite saloon girl is tending bar.

"Josie!" he says, putting on the big smile. Josie gives him a look that at first shows she's unimpressed, but starts to melt -- just a little -- around the edges.

"You know I had to pay your tab last time you were in here? After you started that fight with the gorilla-man? Cho-Cho tried to make me pay for the table, too, but Tice spoke up for me."

"Hey now, settle. I didn't start the fight -- that furry bastard pulled a knife on me. And I came back the next night to pay for it but they wouldn't let me in. Anyway, I'm working on a big score right now -- lemme make it up to you. How about dinner at Frank's?"

[Venatus Vinco]

Object Read

The book doesn't have many impressions over the past five years, it seems it was undiscovered until recently. Most impressions run over the past eighteen months and highlight the book's discovery by an ISS raid, its seizure by a CS General (who appears to have read it), then more time on a shelf until it was picked up by some sort of thief and sold to the Back Alley Gallery.

A General owning and reading a book isn't very scandalous, the CS elite can read. But owning a pre-Rifts artifact could be considered political blackmail material.

After some furious phone calls on a variety of burners Skip comes back with an offer, "Okay guys. Wilport will back off if we send him high res images of the book. Then I can deliver it to my buyer's from Lazlo. If it all goes smooth we get paid in a couple of days. I'll throw in an extra 10 large each for the unforseen trouble."

The offer is fair, especially on top of the 20,000 each the job was going to pay initially. Copies of the book don't jive with using it as blackmail, but if everyone gets paid what the hell right?

[Harris LaVode]

Object Read

The book doesn't have many impressions over the past five years, it seems it was undiscovered until recently. Most impressions run over the past eighteen months and highlight the book's discovery by an ISS raid, its seizure by a CS General (who appears to have read it), then more time on a shelf until it was picked up by some sort of thief and sold to the Back Alley Gallery.

A General owning and reading a book isn't very scandalous, the CS elite can read. But owning a pre-Rifts artifact could be considered political blackmail material.

After some furious phone calls on a variety of burners Skip comes back with an offer, "Okay guys. Wilport will back off if we send him high res images of the book. Then I can deliver it to my buyer's from Lazlo. If it all goes smooth we get paid in a couple of days. I'll throw in an extra 10 large each for the unforseen trouble."

The offer is fair, especially on top of the 20,000 each the job was going to pay initially. Copies of the book don't jive with using it as blackmail, but if everyone gets paid what the hell right?

After a few minuets "under" Harris comes out of his trance. "Nothing happened to it in the last 5 years to indicate it's anything more important that a really old book. It was discovered not quite two years ago, seized by a general who read it and kept it until it was stolen and sold to the gallery. If we can make both parties happy and get paid that gets my vote."

[Zeke Walker]

Chi-Town/Level 4/Cobalt Nightclub
Night
Round 0

“Sounds like a good idea,” Zeke agreed. “Where do we find a high-res scanner on Level 4?” he asked. “And did Wilport give an address to send it to? I’m not too keen on trusting him with another meet up. Let’s keep this one at a distance.”

[Magnus]

"$30k and don't have to keep teaching the same lessons to this Wilport dude and his goons? Sounds like a deal to me," Magnus says, starting to do the math to figure out how much he can safely keep and how much needs to go to pay off Black Benny.

"Might be smart keeping a copy, though. You said some general had it until a couple of years ago? You think maybe he was using it for codes or some shit? I mean, I'm sure there's some outside chance Wilport just has a hard-on to read this book for the plot, or something. But it'd be dumb not to look for some other motivation. Just gaming out what it might be."

[Edwin Fisk]

Fisk shakes his head at Magnus' musings. "This whole thing has already gone sideways and in a hurry. I think we're getting out with a steal at 30k and high res scans. I don't even want to know what they do with it." He pauses a second, doing some mental math. "But you're right. Maybe we keep a scan for ourselves." He nods. "Yeah. Better have some insurance. For a brawler, you're damn slick, Magnus." He winks at the fighter. "First round's on me, Red."

[Harris LaVode]

"Might be smart keeping a copy, though. You said some general had it until a couple of years ago? You think maybe he was using it for codes or some shit? I mean, I'm sure there's some outside chance Wilport just has a hard-on to read this book for the plot, or something. But it'd be dumb not to look for some other motivation. Just gaming out what it might be."

Fisk shakes his head at Magnus' musings. "This whole thing has already gone sideways and in a hurry. I think we're getting out with a steal at 30k and high res scans. I don't even want to know what they do with it." He pauses a second, doing some mental math. "But you're right. Maybe we keep a scan for ourselves." He nods. "Yeah. Better have some insurance. For a brawler, you're damn slick, Magnus." He winks at the fighter. "First round's on me, Red."

Nodding at Magnus' suggestion, "While I didn't see anything that looked like he was using it for a code, and I did think to watch, I agree that having a copy is a good idea. The general could have cyber eyes or an eidetic memory."

[Venatus Vinco]

Getting Paid
With a compromise in place Skip takes care of the details arranging for Digit to meet with a computer expert to scan the text without damaging it then handle the delivery. The rest of the crew is handed black, untraceable, credit sticks with a clean 30,000 on them. The sticks will work in CS stores but are also acceptable forms of payment for black market goods.

Everyone agrees to go their separate ways until the heat dies down but meet-up in a couple of weeks to hear Skip pitch on another job he's got brewing.

Interlude and Advance

Okay rather than a bunch of shopping posts type an interlude of what you do for the next couple of weeks and list any purchases you want to make with a Streetwise roll in an ooc tag at the bottom. The quality of the interlude and the roll result will dictate what mark-up/discount I apply to your purchases.

Take an advance as part of this interlude too.

Digit is unavailable for gadgets at the moment as he is running an errand for Skip.

We'll reconvene for the next job after interludes.

[Harris LaVode]

A couple of days after the teams victory and ensuing celebration Harris decides to spend a bit of his hard earned cash on some gear for future jobs. Instead of just going thru Skip or seeing if Temperance knew anyone able to help him, the former detective decided to try and work some of his old contacts. Most had taken him losing his job to be some kind of undercover work and had only recently started to warm back up to him, hopefully the rep boost from the book heist would help break the ice a bit more.

It took a couple of days, a lot of drinks, and a fake fortunetelling but he finally tracked down the guy he was looking for, a slicer named BluSkreen. Blu was willing to help Harris put together a pretty sharp field computer and even helped bring the ex-cop up to date on the latest in hacks and counter measures. With Digi stepping away from the active work it looked like he would be filling in for computer work unless the team found a splicer that seemed reliable.

Streetwise roll for shopping

Streetwise [dice:1b648ees]49658:0[/dice:1b648ees]
Wild [dice:1b648ees]49658:1[/dice:1b648ees]

His advance was to raise computer and persuasion by a die type and he is looking to buy a field comp 3 (12,000), and if possible the armored clothes I asked about. If those are a go I'll add a bit of narration for that.

[Zeke Walker]

Streetwise 4

Streetwise [dice:2knn631i]49677:0[/dice:2knn631i]
Wild [dice:2knn631i]49677:1[/dice:2knn631i]

Advance

Spellcasting d12, Fighting d8

Chi-Town/Level 4
Night
Round 0

Zeke spent the next couple weeks studying his father’s spellbook and practicing some more. He went out on his night patrols as well, beating up the gangbangers, expanding the territory he protected, if he could. He wasn’t sure what to do with the money he had earned. He kept it safe in case his mother needed it.

And, of course, Zeke worked at his job in the shop. He actually couldn’t wait for Skip to contact him again about the new job. Despite the complication, it had been exhilarating.

[Magnus]

Advance

+1d Vigor

Streetwise 8 + Purchases

Streetwise [dice:1w8fmdi1]49698:0[/dice:1w8fmdi1]
Wild [dice:1w8fmdi1]49698:1[/dice:1w8fmdi1]
Benny for Extra Effort [dice:1w8fmdi1]49698:2[/dice:1w8fmdi1]

Magnus gets some cyber installed: A Subject Matter Expert Port ($3k) with a +2d Kn: Battle skill chip ($5k); and a Wired Skill Port ($5k) with a +2d Stealth skill chip ($7.5k)

Another $5k goes to pay his monthly debt to Black Benny (Hindrance), and he pockets the remaining $4.5k for later.

Magnus sticks around for a couple of hours drinking with Fisk and some of the other crew, then decides to call it a night -- at least the drinking part -- when Josie's shift ends and more interesting entertainment options are presented.

He lays low for the next several days, waiting for his cut to come in, but something Fisk said is stuck in head.

"For a brawler, you're damn slick, Magnus."

Thing was, there a couple of times during that last run where he didn't feel so slick. Sure, smashing the problems that presented themselves had proved successful enough, but he'd felt a step or two behind at key points, wishing he'd had better ideas for how to handle things. So when the $30,000 shows up on his credstick, he transfers $5,000 to Black Benny, then heads to see the second-most competent cyber-doc he knows.

A couple hours later, Magnus has a monster headache and a couple of new chip-ports hiding under the hair on the back of his head. One's patched directly into his brain, the other's wired into his central nervous system via his existing reflex-enhancers. He picks up a couple of chips from a Softwarez Shak -- nothing too fancy, just a copy of Interactive Art of War and a Shinobi, Snow Dancer program that promises to make him skip through the shadows like an ectoplasmic cat.

[Edwin Fisk]

Fisk, true to his word, buys Magnus (and the rest of the crew) the first round of drinks. "For an absolute flustercluck of a performance, that was a damn smooth job. I don't work with crews, but I'd be happy to work with this crew again."
As the party breaks up and heads to their respective safe houses, Fisk tucks his black credstick into his coat pocket. Where most would light it on fire with how quick they spend their newfound wealth, he has some other goals in mind, both for his ride and for his creds. He refrains from major expenditures, and spends the next few weeks at Jaina Sutley's, laying low and working on his Quick Draw movements. By the end of the group's mini-hiatus, he's developed quite the twitchy draw.

OOC Comments

No money spent. Taking Quick Draw for his advance.

[Joey aka: Fat Joey]

Streetwise + Purchases
Streetwise [dice:2aqzlwz6]49972:0[/dice:2aqzlwz6]
Wild [dice:2aqzlwz6]49972:1[/dice:2aqzlwz6]
Benny for Extra Effort [dice:2aqzlwz6]49972:2[/dice:2aqzlwz6]

Shopping list -
Targeting eye - 12k
Ammo for launcher - 10 hi explosive grenades @ 750 each….$7500
Ammo for Ng pistol - 4 speed loaders - 24 rds + 4 loaders = 5k
Total: 24.5k

Joey opens his eyes and looks around. Seeing the place dark and quiet, he sits up . ”What the fuck?? I paseed out?! I need to get gone fast.” he gives the place a minute to stop spinning then he wobbles to the bar. To noone in particular ”I am so sorry. I will leave 100 credits for the problem. Again. My bad.” Then he heads out after leaving the creds on the bar.

He then decides to go get some ammo and improve his eyes.

Advances -
Novice 2 Advance: fighting +1d
Novice 3 Advance: agility +1d
Seasoned 1 Advance: Intimidation d4
Seasoned 2 Advance: edge - tricky fighter
Seasoned 3 Advance: first strike