Scum and Villainy in-character (IC) thread.

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Nobby-W

Not an axe murderer
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This is the thread for in-character postings on the Scum and Villany game.
 
In Media Res

You are the captain and crew of the ZU class transport Tranquility, sometime traders, smugglers, adveturers and general scum and villany.

The factor met you in the Arabel Bar on Freeside station as the message promised. He introduced himself as Voltan Surawera, a factor representing Lar Correia, an archeologist on Rhaquos, and he has an interesting proposal for you.

Only two people know the location of this find, Correia and his partner Okon Derryl. It's a nearly intact Amarantin temple or some other structure, hidden in an underground cave system deep within the Rampart mountains. The Holos of Lar Correia standing next to the alien statues appear to be genuine, even with deep forgery analysis. This is either the real deal or a very clever fake. Someone really seems to have found Elgin's temple.

They want you to help smuggle the statues offworld and out of the clutches of 'Those thieving bastards at the ministry.' A conservative estimate places the value of the collection well prograde of 100 million credits to the right collector.

You've flown to Rhaquos and landed the ship at the starport just outside Meridani. A few hours drive in the rover takes you to Acheron, a market town on the edge of the Meridani wastes, and the main trading centre for salvaged artefacts. A bit of searching found the Hotel Cambria, just up from the Pesar Ikonia Market, once (and to some extent) the major trading point in the town.

Your contacts for Lar Correia were a comm address, which went to voice mail, his office in the Drava Buildings on Rue Fortalezza were closed with nobody answering. Now, you stand outside his home at Rue Faucon du Millenaire 14.

Correia's house is a detached house in the outer suburbs of Laumer, located on Rue Faucon du Millenaire The house has a sign on low wall surrounding the garden saying 'Correia'. It has a garden of approximately 0.1 hectares and a single story. The house is made out of printed concrete like most houses in the region. It is double walled.

The garden is mature and somewhat well kept, consisting mainly of succulents and arid weather plants. Several scrubby trees grow in the garden, providing shade - perhaps with some artifical irrigation. A small gazebo can be seen in the garden.


RueFauconDuMillenaire.png
 
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Eyeing the building and up and down the street, Kal looks to how busy the place is for this time of day.

Sucking in breath as he assesses the building, Kal speaks to the others. "I could maybe find some way to shimmy my way in and open the door from the inside? Seems weird that he's ghosting us."
 
“He’ll be lucky if its just weird. We should make this quick. I don’t like this.”
 
"Any reason not to just knock on the door?" Twitch asks.
 
"Any reason not to just knock on the door?" Twitch asks.
OOC: I misread the post but I am rolling with it now.

"Well, the first two points of contact for this guy are duds. Seems like something fishy is goin' on. I could at least try and get a peek inside, see if he's in trouble. We don't want to be walking into a trap, do we?"
 
"Look around for a box. I'll go up as a third rate delivery dude." Twitch says.
 
"I'll sneak through the garden and have a look through the back windows"
 
Lar Correia's house, Rue Faucon du Millenaire 14
CorreiaHouse.png

Eyeing the building and up and down the street, Kal looks to how busy the place is for this time of day.

Sucking in breath as he assesses the building, Kal speaks to the others. "I could maybe find some way to shimmy my way in and open the door from the inside? Seems weird that he's ghosting us."
Much of the house faces directly on the street and the outward facing windows are covered with mesh; the panes look to be toughened glass. It's obvious that this town or area has its share of crime. The building is L-shaped, and you can see a patio inside the yard. A driveway has obviously had a vehicle parked in it but the gates are closed and the driveway is empty.

Surrounding the yard there is a wall. Low at the front, high at the side, and low at the back, where the gazebo has a view across the city (Rue Faucon du Millenaire is on a hillside). There is also a gate in the wall, and you can see a porch on the side of the house just inside the gate.

You also notice a nerve induction field system (a security device that works in much the same way as a stunner) on the wall. It appears to be inactive. The gate is slightly open.
"Any reason not to just knock on the door?" Twitch asks.
The gate is open, and you could walk in.
"Look around for a box. I'll go up as a third rate delivery dude." Twitch says.
You have the vehicle's toolkit, which is in a box, but you note that a party of 5 people has just piled out of the vehicle and is standing on the street outside the house.
"I'll sneak through the garden and have a look through the back windows"
You can't see the patio from the street but could if you enter through the gate.
 
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Twitch shrugs and says "Fuck it. I'm knocking on the door. You guys can check the sides or cover me or whatever. Personally I think I'm going to find a body and we need to get outta here quick."
He lets that sink in a second and then slowly but casually approaches the door.
 
Twitch shrugs and says "Fuck it. I'm knocking on the door. You guys can check the sides or cover me or whatever. Personally I think I'm going to find a body and we need to get outta here quick."
He lets that sink in a second and then slowly but casually approaches the door.
The gate is open and the door is a few metres in from the gate under a porch. You are now standing in front of the door. No security systems appear to have tripped when you enter.
 
Twitch looks back to see if anyone else is moving to cover him, head over to the other side of the building or whatever those lazy bastards are gonna do. If they start moving he'll let them finish before knocking. Otherwise he knocks and says "Landshark"
 
Ida will head through the gate quietly to take a look through the patio windows. She'll go prone along the grass.
 
Ida will head through the gate quietly to take a look through the patio windows. She'll go prone along the grass.
The patio has three french doors leading off it. They are closed, but one looks damaged like maybe it's been forced.
Twitch looks back to see if anyone else is moving to cover him, head over to the other side of the building or whatever those lazy bastards are gonna do. If they start moving he'll let them finish before knocking. Otherwise he knocks and says "Landshark"
You knock on the door. There is no reply and no sounds from inside.

[OOC] I'm off to bed now. I have a cold and I'm pretty shagged. Will check in tomorrow morning so feel free to post.
 
The patio has three french doors leading off it. They are closed, but one looks damaged like maybe it's been forced.
Ida heads up to the forced door and tries to have a look inside through any gaps or shattered sections of the glass. If all seems clear she will try the handle to open the door.
 
Steevo follows Ida and scans the area. He is also looking for a security system to go along with the induction field. "If he has security cameras, maybe I can patch in and see if anything bad went down. If it did, at least we weren't directly involved."
 
Clocks4-1.png Nosy Neighbours

Two of you are currently still milling about outside Correia's place next to your rover.

Ida heads up to the forced door and tries to have a look inside through any gaps or shattered sections of the glass. If all seems clear she will try the handle to open the door.
The lock has been broken by a fairly crude forced entry - it looks like it's just been jimmied open. You open the door and see a reception room inside. It looks like the room has been turned over rather hurriedly. Two couches have been crudely slashed open, and a sideboard has been emptied and pulled out from the wall. It has fallen over. You can see an open-plan kitchen and several doorways. Some are closed, some are left ajar.
HouseFloorPlan1.png
This is what you can see.


Steevo follows Ida and scans the area. He is also looking for a security system to go along with the induction field. "If he has security cameras, maybe I can patch in and see if anything bad went down. If it did, at least we weren't directly involved."
You spot a couple of concealed security cameras and motion sensors, plus an outdoor control box and siren for an alarm system. The alarm appears to be inactive.
 
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I head inside and start looking over the environment. The broken door, the deactivated security system. It’s not subtle work, but they may have left some tell tale clue behind. I put on gloves and start going through papers, looking under furniture, checking the space and how things lay, putting everything back where I found it.

Study (Push for an extra die, 2d6)
Rolls 2,4
 
I head inside and start looking over the environment. The broken door, the deactivated security system. It’s not subtle work, but they may have left some tell tale clue behind. I put on gloves and start going through papers, looking under furniture, checking the space and how things lay, putting everything back where I found it.

Study (Push for an extra die, 2d6)
Rolls 2,4

This is RISKY with STANDARD effect.

Clock4-2.png Nosy Neighbours

4 = Success with complications - You make a bit more thumping and bumping than you would really prefer. You could propose another complication or take a devil's bargain if you care to suggest one.

CorreiaGroundFloor.png

You find that the house has been searched rather crudely and hurriedly. Some salient discoveries include:

The living room has a security control panel that seems to be in working order. It has a warning indicator on the status for the induction field and the alarm indicator indicates on, but there is no indicator showing it has tripped. This suggests that alarm is malfunctioning for some reason, although the cause is not obvious.

There is a framed holo knocked off the wall. On examination, it's a picture of Lar Correia at a much younger age with someone standing next to him. The frame bears a plaque saying 'Lar Correia and Okon Derryl, Dobachan, 2713.'

The hallway contains a large display cabinet with a collection of mostly Amarantin artifacts, apparently Lar Correia's personal collection. You do not have the skills to appraise it, but the contents are almost certainly valuable. The cabinet is made from dura-steel with a wooden veneer and laminated sapphire glass fronting. An indicator light implies that an alarm is active. The cabinet has not been touched.

There is a stairway down into a cellar, which appears to contain a workshop for cleaning and restoring artifacts.

The office appears to contain most of the paperwork. This has been rifled through. You notice some expense claim forms signed by Okon Derryl.

Also in the office are some cables in a niche in a cabinet on the wall. They look like the video feed cables for security cameras. There is also a safe in the office. It is open (apparently not closed properly rather than forced) and contains some papers including title deeds to the house and various other items of a personal nature. It also has a case for a Sparin blaster, but no gun is in the case.

You have not yet searched the cellar.
 
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Twitch hears the searching begin and comes in the front door.
Assuming he sees the same things as above and assuming he has the equivalent to a smartphone he'll snap a photo of the room as he found it, photo with caption, deed, expense reports, and display cabinet contents. Then he exits the building and gets in the vehicles driver seat. He's ready to leave if the situation calls for it.
 
Steevo is tempted by things. "If this guy's dead, we can take his stuff right? I guess we should see if he's dead first. Right?"

Steevo finds the security panel and pulls out his hand comp and hacking tools to try to figure out why it didn't trigger anything.

(Hack, 2 dice: 3,4)

If that doesn't take too long, he thing proceeds to check out the security camera footage.

(DM roll if the 2nd action has time to happen and needs a 2nd roll)
 
View attachment 13447 Nosy Neighbours

Two of you are currently still milling about outside Correia's place next to your rover.


The lock has been broken by a fairly crude forced entry - it looks like it's just been jimmied open. You open the door and see a reception room inside. It looks like the room has been turned over rather hurriedly. Two couches have been crudely slashed open, and a sideboard has been emptied and pulled out from the wall. It has fallen over. You can see an open-plan kitchen and several doorways. Some are closed, some are left ajar.
Ida checks the coaches and sideboard in the Lounge carefully. She'll then check the toilet and cloak room before heading on.
 
Steevo is tempted by things. "If this guy's dead, we can take his stuff right? I guess we should see if he's dead first. Right?"

Steevo finds the security panel and pulls out his hand comp and hacking tools to try to figure out why it didn't trigger anything.

(Hack, 2 dice: 3,4)

If that doesn't take too long, he thing proceeds to check out the security camera footage.

(DM roll if the 2nd action has time to happen and needs a 2nd roll)
This is RISKY with STANDARD effect.

4 = Success with reduced effect - There is some cabling in the office that looks like video feeds for a recorder, but the recorder is not present, possibly taken by the intruders. However, you do get a network ping from another device that fingerprints as an Ono-Hentai multi-channel recorder. It looks like a backup recorder may be concealed somewhere.

About 90% of the time these are left with default passwords. You may also be able to connect to it over the network.

Ida checks the coaches and sideboard in the Lounge carefully. She'll then check the toilet and cloak room before heading on.
There are some outdoor clothes - loose desert gear - in the cloak room. The sideboard appears to have contained personal effects - ornaments, small items like duct tape and tools, domestic items, a few credits in cash. Most of this is scattered on the floor. If anything was concealed in the couches it is no longer present.
 
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Satisfied Ida heads to the door for the room left of the toilet. She takes her staff from her back as she does, pausing after every step for a quick listen.
 
Satisfied Ida heads to the door for the room left of the toilet. She takes her staff from her back as she does, pausing after every step for a quick listen.
The doorway leads to a set of stairs going down into a cellar. There does not appear to be anybody present.

The cellar is brightly lit. It contains a work area with some sophisticated scientific equipment. You recognise a scanning electron microscope, a a small desktop X-Ray CT scanning device in a shielded compartment with a yellow glass front, plus a workbench with various instruments and tools. There are cabinets and shelving with a lot of junk of one sort or another.

Are you going to search the room or do any further investigation?
 
Will rounds to the cellar, talks loud enough for his voice to carry. “I don’t think he’s dead. It looks like our contact left in a hurry. He took a blaster from the safe. Doesn’t seem likely he pulled a gun and left without someone taking a shot. So the broken frame probably happen after he left, so our guy has good instincts. Maybe we should check in with this Okon Derryl.”

What pronouns would my character assume for Okon based on the holo?
Does it look like a second person lives here?
 
Will rounds to the cellar, talks loud enough for his voice to carry. “I don’t think he’s dead. It looks like our contact left in a hurry. He took a blaster from the safe. Doesn’t seem likely he pulled a gun and left without someone taking a shot. So the broken frame probably happen after he left, so our guy has good instincts. Maybe we should check in with this Okon Derryl.”

What pronouns would my character assume for Okon based on the holo?
Does it look like a second person lives here?
Okon Derryl is male. There is a small guest suite and a spare bedroom. Neither look like they are in regular use. The master bedroom does not appear to have items owned by another party either.
 
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Whistling outside as he smokes a space-cig, Kal looks to see which group is watching. If he spots someone, he will put out the cigarette and approach them.

OOC: I want to approach any bystanders and tell them we are private security investigating the safety of our client.
 
Whistling outside as he smokes a space-cig, Kal looks to see which group is watching. If he spots someone, he will put out the cigarette and approach them.

OOC: I want to approach any bystanders and tell them we are private security investigating the safety of our client.
Sounds like a FORTUNE roll.

+2 dice (Affluent, curtain-twitchy neighbourhood)
-1 die (Lar Correia is known to have all sorts of odd bods turning up)

Rolls 3

3 = bad result (for the curtain twitchers)
- nobody is on the street or otherwise paying attention to you. It's short street in an affluent neighbourhood (or what passes for such in Acheron) and nobody is out and about at the moment. There are a few ground cars parked here and there.

Vaping tech is alive and well, although your character might have a penchant for traditional cigars, much to the annoyance of the techs who have to flush and clean the Tranquility's life support system.
 
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About 90% of the time these are left with default passwords. You may also be able to connect to it over the network.

Steevo tries connecting, starting with default an common passwords.
 
Steevo tries connecting, starting with default an common passwords.
You find that the default 'admin' login is protected with the terribly imaginative password 'P@ssword123'. This security is fairly typical of small home networks. 8 centuries and you'd have thought they would learn something.

A bit of poking around finds the directories where the video footage is archived. There are 8 cameras (patio, outside, street, lounge, office, collection, master bedroom, guest suite). From the size of the files downloading the archived footage to your hand comp will take about 15-20 minutes.

You can take a DEVIL'S BARGAIN and download the footage at the expense of advancing the Nosy Neighbours clock.
 
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You can take a DEVIL'S BARGAIN and download the footage at the expense of advancing the Nosy Neighbours clock.

"Hey guys, I'm gonna download all the security footage so we know who did what and stuff. It'll probably take 5-10 minutes. Is that cool?"
 
"Hey guys, I'm gonna download all the security footage so we know who did what and stuff. It'll probably take 5-10 minutes. Is that cool?"
“Whatever we’re doing, we should hurry up. This isn’t the kind of neighborhood you can work in without drawing attention.”
 
Clock4-3.png Nosy Neighbours

Steevo is frigging with his handcomp and downloading the video. What are the rest of you doing in the meantime?
 
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The doorway leads to a set of stairs going down into a cellar. There does not appear to be anybody present.

The cellar is brightly lit. It contains a work area with some sophisticated scientific equipment. You recognise a scanning electron microscope, a a small desktop X-Ray CT scanning device in a shielded compartment with a yellow glass front, plus a workbench with various instruments and tools. There are cabinets and shelving with a lot of junk of one sort or another.

Are you going to search the room or do any further investigation?
Ida will have a look through the electron microscope, if it is a model that stores previous images she'll search the database.

Otherwise she'll give the shelves a look over before heading back up to rejoin Will.
 
Ida will have a look through the electron microscope, if it is a model that stores previous images she'll search the database.

Otherwise she'll give the shelves a look over before heading back up to rejoin Will.
The microscope is not turned on and the stage appears to be empty. As it's open, you surmise it's not being used at the moment.[1] There are two data connector slots under a cover. One has a data stick in it.

The shelves have a mixture of boxed and labelled artefacts and items that look like they came from archeological digs, plus bits of equipment and other items.
_________________
1 - The stage of a scanning electron microscope is in a vacuum chamber that has to be closed and evacuated with a vacuum pump for it to work. Some materials (mostly organic materials) need to be gold plated in a vapour deposition gizmo for a SEM to work. Fun fact: Tardigrades have been known to survive this process.
 
Stan Stan - Steevo notices that six of the eight cameras were turned off around two days ago. The ones covering the display cabinet and cellar are still running.
 
Twitch sits in the driver's seat, doors unlocked, motor(electric?) ready to go. He keeps an eye out for anyone looking at them or acting unusual.
 
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