This is Zach Flash with KSAF, your last bastion of free and independent news in Seattle.
Click with us, jammers, as we bring you the breaking news of a run-a-war at an Auburn
stuffershack that left a local woman in shock after a trope.
I repeat, a troll used her baby as a meat shield against gunfire.
Can you imagine?
What is our beloved Metroplex coming to when criminals can run a muck on our streets?
Zach Flash!
Signing off with the latest from Concrete Dreams.
Joy, Ome!
Welcome to episode one of the Hard Knock Sorority podcast, the Shadowrun 4th edition actual
play podcast.
My name is Paul and I am your host, N'Giun.
The player characters are given voice and agency by Veronica, playing Cecile, aka College
Girl, a literal college girl who finds herself abruptly entangled with the sixth world's
shadows.
Elizabeth, playing Grace, aka Nightingale, a literal pony on a quixotic self-imposed
research expedition to the sixth world.
Valerie, playing Ollie, aka Boxer, ex-merk and literal catwoman who now applies the shadows
in search of redemption.
And finally, Kat, playing Deandra, an elven ex-cop who is in search of her brother in
Seattle and is literally prettier than an elf has any right to be.
Alright so this is chapter one, which I am calling Revenge and Redemption.
So reasons which will become clear.
And like all good modern computer games, we're going to start with an opening cutscene that
you can't skip.
Beautiful.
This is the way.
Alright, the dark and snowy night.
A single yellow sodium bulb is shining over an old wooden pier, creating a bright circle
of light and plunging all else into darkness.
Flurries blow through the cone of light.
The white flakes glow brightly against the almost black water.
The sound of a diesel engine drifts out of the darkness and then a small fishing boat
pulls into the light.
It swings smartly into the pier and a figure in worn and dirty foul weather gear, a heavy
sweater and a wool cap, secures the boat with practiced motions.
On the aft deck, a dark stain is spread across the dirty white surface.
At its center lies a creature.
This torso and legs are that of a man, but its head is that of a shark.
The black shaft of a massive harpoon protrudes from the chest of the creature.
The diesel cuts off and the figure steps off of the gun wall onto the dock.
As it does, the glow of a cigarette, sprite ember, glows in the darkness outside of the
bulb circle of light.
The fisherman hesitates, almost imperceptible.
And he says, you must be doing well for yourself if you can afford that natural leaf.
It's more of a statement than a question.
The cigarette flicks through the cone of light into the black water.
A man in a heavy black overcoat steps into the light.
And he never did shake the habit, he says, in a slightly accented voice.
The collar of the coat is pulled up around the thin, long face of a human male.
In spite of the weather, his head is uncovered and his black hair is blowing into his dark
blue eyes.
He glances at the corpse in the boat and grimaces.
The fisherman seems to be of the same age, with the face worn by exposure to the elements
and bearing unusual blue tattoos in the shape of spirals on his cheeks and forehead.
His pale blue eyes gleam in the light, as he asks.
You're not here to exchange pleasantries.
Say what you have to say, slight pause, or do what you have to do.
The man in the black coat shakes his head.
He's not like that.
He never was.
I've always regretted what happened.
I didn't see you running for your life.
Your friend's dead and the price on your head and the fisherman responds.
That's how the shadows work, Ice.
You know that.
As well as anyone the man in black replies, think, I have known where you are for at least
10 years.
If I can find you, they know where you are.
The fact that you are still alive means that anyone who did the gear is gone or moved on.
Now, can we get inside and talk like adults?
Ice pauses for a moment, then shrugs.
I can't think of anything we need to talk about Procop.
That's the thing about you, Ice.
You never did see the long game.
I wouldn't be always the way out here if I didn't have something to meet it to you.
He steps towards Ice for the first time, saying, Ateem, I work with God's hands on a piece
of paid data unrelated to the runs they were on.
This image was part of it.
Procop hands what appears to be a hard copy image to Ice, who reluctantly takes it.
It's a grainy, somewhat blurred image.
Ice looks at it for several long seconds.
Then he spits demonstratively into the black water and says, Well, there's a wood stove,
pot of chowder and a bottle of whiskey in the cabin.
I'm going to need a drink.
And then you're going to tell me where this fragging piece of dreck is so I can finally
do what should have been done back then.
That's the end of the cutscene.
Summer sweeps out up into deep dark space, pans around and focuses on a bright light
on the west coast of the North American continent.
Zooms in and we're back in Seattle.
It's an unpleasant February morning on a Tuesday.
It's miserably cold and damp.
The sky is overcast and gray and trying to make up its mind whether it wants to rain
or sleep.
It seems to be settling for both.
That might improve the air quality as it reduces the particulate matter in the air.
But the dreck has to go summer and that means on you.
Veronica, please give us a description of Cecile, where she is and what she's doing
right now.
What time is it?
It's Tuesday morning, say 9.30.
10.
Cecile is probably sat down at a table on the University Washington campus going through
records.
She looks very focused on her work.
It's not a good day out, but you know, she figures that no one will bother her if she's
outside.
Which seems to have been true so far.
She's currently wearing a white blouse with like a tan Bolero cardigan over with a pleated
skirt, some tan tights and some normal flats.
She's very well made up today as she is every day.
She has a short bob with bangs and a headband attached and she's, you know, idly flicking
with her arm through things.
Did you see she's outside?
Yes, at least for the moment.
So I take it she's in like a pavilion or a cupboard is to stay out of the rain.
Yeah, no, she's not going to let the shit rain on her hair.
Yeah, I didn't imagine.
Plus, you know, the rain and the sleet is basically filtering the soot and ash and other
pollutants out of the air.
And so your clothes wouldn't last very.
She has her bag near her, like all packed up and ready to go.
She looks basically like she has a class in an hour and she's just killing time.
All right, Val, what's Ollie doing?
All right, 10 in the morning on Tuesday.
It is a shitty day to be outside, but then there's always shit to be dealt with.
What's a little rain?
Footsteps are heavy through the rain and what little mud or whatever it is rests upon the
ground.
The splashes she leaves in her wake are soul marking of her passing.
It's not even anything she's just watching where are we in the street as if she's vaguely
expecting something to happen.
There's no one to empty would want to be out now.
Her eyes violet and growing gently in the light show over a rebreather, a nice one,
surprisingly nice for that area.
And it says though she had some particular interest in keeping herself healthy, safe
from the pollutants.
But she doesn't seem to have any particular destination.
She's just wandering.
What does Ollie look like?
At the moment, it's hard to make out many features.
She's covered in a poncho.
It's opaque.
Can't make out much of her figure, clothes.
All that's really visible is her head and some of her clothing.
What is beneath is, well, it would be pretty easily confused with being male even, but
there are tales.
If one were to look closely enough at the poncho, one would see the faintest outline
of a tail long and thick.
If they were to scrutinize with extra care from a particular angle under the hood of
the poncho, they would see the hint of ears beneath another hood, this one that of a hoodie.
And they would see, actually wait, how expressive are cyber eyes?
They can be as expressive as you want them to be.
They're pretty easily customizable.
Okay, that's good.
And hard eyes, kind of eyes that you'd expect of someone who's seen a bit more than someone
who's trudging about the street at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday morning as they have nothing
better to do.
So she must have something better to do, watching.
All right, Liz, do you want to introduce Grace?
Yes.
The weather outside is utterly frightful.
Grace, she's not going to take country roads into Seattle, even if she had something to
be doing on that day.
I imagine at some point she very exasperatedly as it kept up and it just kept getting harder,
mumbled to herself in Pona, something about, oh, she finally gets it.
It makes so much, sorry, hold on, give me a second.
Yeah, he misses the weather bureau.
He'd always get a little frustrated with them whenever they bring in rains that would get
in the way of her schedule, but having nature decide its own timetables a little less.
It's even more inconvenient.
The weather bureau being the Pegasi who control weather in a question.
With nothing better to do her day and no service owed to the community and no functions going
in the community in pines.
I imagine she would have in a oversized windbreaker with some warmer, hailer clothes underneath
it go out into the rain, perhaps with an umbrella and some tools.
She spurred whenever she saw the first worm wriggling on the grass trying to escape suffocation
and she's probably now taken up a place beneath the shade of a tree and is gathering worms
up as they come with her magic and looking at them, maybe taking to, with her calm link,
nestled in a pocket, taking verbal notes in Polish.
She probably hasn't seen worms until now I'm reckoning because well there's thick grasses
and perhaps it's not that she hasn't seen them, it's that she didn't bother with them
before but they're interesting little creatures.
She's probably kind of concerned that they don't have any features at all externally
as far as she can tell.
How do they eat?
Because they're obviously animals.
Obviously.
Or perhaps they're a kind of mobile plant, she hasn't heard about anything like that
to Google or what would the search engine be?
It probably depends on the local net that you're on, what corporation sponsoring it
or if it's-
It would, you have a browse program so it would really depend on the browse program
that you have or the OS that you're running.
Well you'd probably go and search that up now, do plants move, question mark, question
mark and go on a short tangent there as she looks it up and then just back to effectively
playing in the mud and with the worms.
Taking herself very seriously as she does so.
Awesome.
All right well Cecile your calm suddenly lights up and it's an incoming text from your not
friend Kirsten and it's labeled with a high priority, Nova hot, call me ASAP kind of
priority level.
Cecile just like text back the equivalent of like what I imagine Cecile has gotten one
of these calls before that wasn't nearly as important as Kirsten thought.
Yeah, you know you probably think that this is probably, you know that you've got an exam
coming up in a little bit and she's probably going to try to readle your class notes again
at something that just irritates you about her is that she doesn't come to class and
she doesn't take notes but then she expects that you're just going to give her access
to your notes that you've you know studiously taking.
Yeah Cecile is not happy about those kind of wasters.
No, she texts back immediately.
Meet me off campus at the soy bucks right now.
Cecile quickly sends back.
I have a class in like an hour I can't.
It comes she comes right back.
You have to it's very important.
I need to talk to you right away.
It's filled with her usual type of half words abbreviations and emojis.
So Cecile probably puts it down for a second and just like I Italy goes back to what she's
doing thinking about how to respond to that.
Your calm lights up again and it's at this point it's not it's not Kirsten.
It's the lab manager.
You call him Dr. L.
But his actual name is Peter Lafontaine.
He's not a real doctor that you know the students just call him doctor to you know out of respect.
Yeah respect and or you know respect.
He's an older orc and he just sort of manages the lab.
He's you know he's an evil so you know he's more he's a cross between the lab manager
and and quite frankly is sort of the custodial staff.
He unlocks the those other things that just keeps the lab running and you get a text from
him and then it's basically just asking you whether you're going to be in the lab soon.
Cecile text back heading there now was just finishing finishing up some archival work.
OK thanks.
Cecile starts heading for the lab and text back to Kirsten Kirsten essentially.
Yeah I'm going to the lab they need me there.
I can if you want to talk you'll have to meet me on my way there.
All right no response at that point.
Cecile brushes it off.
Yeah you head for the lab.
It's the lab is was sponsored and built with the money from Evo Corp.
It's a Evo Washington University collaboration program.
It's a big building.
It's very modern.
Lots of windows light and airy you know obviously some attention has gone into making it very
open and friendly and accessible to all.
So we're going to cut from there.
We're going to cut to Boxer as she's seems to be meandering amiously down the streets
of Auburn.
Boxer your calm lights up with a text message from a contact that you have entered as quote
unquote downtown barista.
And you don't remember immediately who this is but you obviously took the time to save
them and the message is labeled Nova hot and says hey Boxer this is Kirsten remember
me you said I could call you if I ever got into trouble again please call me as soon
as you and you can make a memory test at this point to see this.
All right.
That is a three.
All right so you do remember this girl that you met it's a couple of months ago.
It was downtown.
It was near near the university campus.
You were doing a job you remember the job more than you remember the girl you were tailing
somebody.
You remember right there was a woman had called you and asked you to follow her husband.
She had some suspicions about him.
You he's basically hanging out at the around the campus wherever students were going like
the soy soy and trying to pick people which you know didn't bother you so much you were
there for the money and you were taking pictures of him but when you saw him assaulting a young
woman in the alley behind the soy blacks you interviewed you remember you did exchange
calm numbers basically.
You're Samaritan you're good Samaritan complex or your vigilante complex kicked in and you
did tell her that you know if she ever got in trouble again she could call you so apparently
she's calling that favor.
That's who's calling.
She answers promptly.
Sorry she answers promptly.
You hear the sort of breathless voice of a young woman on the other end of the line and
she says box her I'm so glad you called me back.
Is it is it okay that I'm calling you.
I know you said that I could call you if I got into trouble and I need somebody's help
somebody take yourself.
This is my work phone and by competence well I do assume that you are aware of my area
of competence.
You hear a sort of a nervous laugh but yeah maybe a nervous laugh on the other end and
she says I remember how you handled that creep so I owe you one but I need your help again
it's actually not for me a good friend of mine is in trouble I can't I can't get through
to her and I was hoping you could come down here and help.
And I assume your suspicions as to the reason for her lack of contact.
You hear a sigh on the other end she's like well I think it's just personal but I know
she's in big trouble.
Yeah I do I owe her she's helped me out a lot so I know she's in trouble and you're the
only person I could turn to.
Is there any chance that you can meet me here at the university at this sort of box where
you were we first met.
Outside of it I know how they are inside about people who look the way I do.
She sighs yeah right maybe meet me behind back in the alleyway first met and if you have
any other friends that that work that do the kind of work that you do that would probably
be really helpful.
Yeah all right you get there all right I'll be over at room play.
You have a vehicle right.
I do.
Because I think if my friend Cecil's in trouble the way I think she's in trouble we're gonna
need to get her out of downtown and she she signs off.
And she quickly texts.
Sorry I'm having a dirt right now.
She quickly attempts texts Vicente can't finish my rounds.
May need to cover the gap emergency situation come up.
You get a prompt text back saying I'm on it.
But this is better be worth it.
And she sets off towards home to her bike and well her other tools or her trade.
But as she walks or briskly jogged as it is her thoughts asked about the people she
knows someone she knows.
She has gotten a sense for the sort of things that are helpful in finding people getting
people out especially that kind of location.
Well she is uncomfortably aware of what she lacks magic.
So when finding someone and needing magic well who better than someone who could track
her down.
She she still has the contact of that strange pony that called her up to interview her and
well the pony seems like she needed work and didn't seem like she had anything more important
to do.
So she gives her a call.
No wait she sent her text.
Let's see.
Hey you interview chick.
You up for perhaps some work in the line of what we discussed and she had sent grace.
You're out and about in the pines enjoying the fog that is rolling down on the cities.
You're pretty sure that Miss Magnum Lightfoot is out as well.
She really enjoys a good fog bath when she can get one and your calm lights up.
Urgently at you.
I imagine she like drops the worm she had been holding in her psychokinesis.
She had been observing how it's a it's muscles worked on its body to try and escape her grasp.
She glances down she tugs aside the the collar of the windbreaker she was wearing and proceeded
to fish out the calm with her her magic and it takes her a moment longer to find the stylus
she typically uses for it and she the ringing is very incessant so she doesn't even bother
and after a moment she just bonks her nose against the accept call button.
And there's rain.
It was a call right?
That was what I understood.
It was a text.
Sorry I I flip flopped.
Oh okay.
She pulled it up and she she gives a look at it.
She swans and then she proceeds to actually find the stylus.
It was in the bottom of the pocket where she probably wouldn't have been able to actually
see it.
And she can you repeat the text for me please?
It was in effect.
Hey you, person I vaguely know, are you perhaps interested in work that is in line with what
we discuss and well I'm sure you can infer what was discussed.
The text back, all question mark question mark with a question mark emoji.
And she gets a call promptly.
Grace, Grace picks up.
I imagine the the sound of rain is already cacophonously apparent.
And she's like, Hi.
Hi.
Your name is boxer right?
Hi.
I'm a what's what's going on exactly?
Where where is this going on the work question mark?
Are you familiar with the also don't shout.
It's not good for a profession.
Anyhow, it is the story box if you're familiar outside of the Washington College.
I said it's a Washington College.
Are you familiar?
Am I kidding?
You've maps use the maps.
Can you send me an address?
Also do you is this is this now?
Do I have to come out now?
This is as soon as you can manage.
So the roads are like drowning.
I am tall enough to not drown.
So are you up for it or not?
Okay, I'm tall enough to not drown, but my car is my car isn't.
Um, uh, what's going on exactly?
What do you need me to do?
There's a job.
Someone's friend is apparently in trouble.
You're getting paid to check it out.
How much are we getting paid?
That is something we will have to figure out later.
Okay.
Um, were you really going to do anything else with your morning?
He proceeds to pick up another worm from the grass and she says, I was doing some very
important research zoology.
You see, right?
Like the last time when you were testing what a paper was edible.
Come on.
Fine.
I'll, uh, I'll come over once I finish up and then she curses, well, not curses, but
she, she, she says some expletive in a language that boxers never heard is the worm wriggles
out of her grasp again.
And she says, I'll, I'll just send her the address so she can put in the navigator thing.
And she does so.
She said that.
All right.
I think we're going to cut back over to Cecile as a boxer and nightingale make their seal.
You're heading into the lab.
And as you enter the lab where you've been working on, um, what were the studies that
you were working on again?
Ceil is currently, uh, for her internship or for her university studies.
For her internship.
Okay.
So she's been working on digitizing some arcane texts and then also she's basically
doing the arcane equivalent of like large data algorithmic work.
What would the lab look like for that?
Do you think?
Oh, it, it would basically look like an office.
It wouldn't be like, it would be like, uh, a library, but very much for pages very full
of themselves, lots of wood.
Okay.
So what things?
Natural materials, art on the walls.
Um, probably not lit too brightly, right?
Probably not too brightly.
Comfortable furniture, cubicles for when you really need to put your head down and work.
You know most of the people who work there, right?
So you, you know, you've been in the program for how many months now?
Oh, she probably would only have been in this internship for a month or two.
Um, yeah.
Okay.
Since, since she's only been past like one semester and she probably didn't get the internship
immediately.
So it's a pretty recent job.
As you enter the lab, um, looking around at the, at the familiar faces and, you know,
trying to remember everybody's name so that if they do come up and talk to you, you're
ready off in the background, you see Dr. L talking to some other, um, students and staff
members, interns and staff members.
And, uh, you get the, you suddenly have a feeling of, of unease.
Um, it's similar to the feeling that you sometimes have when you're on a particularly challenging
data trail, a slight tingling along your spine, sort of a, almost a soft, soft, soft
lithering sound.
Sometimes when you're like, when you're really into the data and you're following some trail,
you hear you, you know, you get this sort of sensation about you as if, you know, you're
on the hunt.
Um, and you get that feeling now, but it's not quite the same.
It doesn't have quite the same exhilarating thrill as when you're, when you're deep in
the data and you're starting to see patterns and, you know, some of the, uh, information
is revealing itself.
This is more of a, something's, you feel almost like something's wrong and, uh, you can make
a perception check if you,
Oh gosh.
Okay.
Uh, what's perception again?
Oh, right.
I just roll perception because the skill never understood by the always half perception
of the skill.
Uh, that's four guys.
I need a little, uh, oh geez.
Okay.
That's four hits.
Nice.
Yeah.
I think something's different about the lab today.
There's far fewer people in here than normal and, and quite a bit less noise.
And, um, the old work, um, Dr. L, um, seems a little nervous.
He seems to be, he's sweating and he's, uh, you know, he's just, uh, something about
the lab.
There's a tension in the lab that you, you know, isn't abnormal to you.
You can't put your finger on what's going on.
Nothing seems to be a mission.
But you definitely get a sense of tension and, and, uh, you know, it's, it's to you,
it's almost palpable.
You get that sort of slithering feeling that something's not.
Cecil's suspicions have been considerably raised and you said she was going to walk
up to Mr. L. I mean, Professor L.
Uh, you can.
Yeah.
If you want, or you could just go for, go to your cube and start working.
He did.
He had asked you, he had sent you that text asking whether you.
Cecil doesn't really move and kind of starts shuffling back towards the exit and sends
a very quick text to, uh, Kirsten saying, did you involve me in something?
Um, it feels like backing up towards the entrance and kind of going, starting to get
on the matrix.
Look at some cameras or something because her, her mystery instincts have started to
kick in.
She's like, I know this scene.
I've written this scene.
Yeah.
You don't get a text, uh, you don't get a text message back from Kirsten immediately.
So if you wanted to go into, uh, AR at this point and take a look around.
Yeah.
Cecil would do that.
You see, you know, most of the normal icons that you see, um, obviously all the terminals
in the lab are on and the various personal access, uh, networks of the people in the
lab.
Um, you see the, uh, there are, there are plenty of cameras in the lab.
They're, they're not new.
You've seen these, um, and, uh, that's, uh, from a matrix AR perspective, um, you're
not seeing anything that's triggering any alarm bells to you.
So right now you can't, you're not, nothing seems to be wrong.
You're just a feeling that you got walking into that room that there was a, uh, a heightened
level of anxiety.
At that point, uh, Dr. Al notices you and, and looks a little bit relieved and starts
motioning you over to him, you know, sort of raising his hand up over the cubes going,
you know, come over here, come over here.
What does the look on his face say?
It's relieved.
Um, you could do, uh, judge intentions role.
That would be charisma plus intuition.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
You can just clicky on your, oh, I'm gonna look at my sheet.
Like judge intentions.
All right.
With two hits, you definitely get the feeling that he is feeling a sense of relief at seeing
you.
Um, you do not get any, uh, sense of malice or ill will towards you.
The seal, once she realizes she's been noticed, very quickly like snaps into that smiling.
Yeah.
So, you know, he's getting his fine kind of look and starts walking over.
So Dr. El is standing by a, by a terminal and, uh, he, uh, the, the two, uh, lab assistants
and interns that are with him, he, he sort of motions them to, to go away.
And when you get to him, he, uh, he greets you for, rather formally.
Uh, good morning, Cecil.
Um, how are you?
Oh, I just finished up some archival work.
Is something wrong?
He looks, uh, for a moment, a brief flicker of concern crosses his face and he, he says,
no, I was wondering if you could tell me of something.
Um, no, it's, sorry.
I thought I noticed something.
Uh, probably going to spend a couple hours in the lab today, just going over some of
the texts that I was finishing up with last time.
Well, uh, the reason I ask is, uh, Dean Petrov has, uh, requested that I escort you to his
office.
You're not in any trouble.
Are you?
I certainly hope not.
I do my utmost not to be.
Um, Dean, Dean Petrov is the, the head of the, the Evo Washington University collaboration
program.
He's in charge of the, uh, the entire Evo facility.
Um, you've met him at some social functions.
Um, very briefly, you know, he's introduced himself in the lab once or twice, sort of
a stern Russian, older Russian man, quite tall, uh, you remember, but he's also very,
uh, you also remember that what you've heard of him and what you've seen on him, he's a
not just a, an administrator, you know, involves himself heavily in the day to day abs and
is quite competent with the lab work.
So, but you've never, you know, said more than, you know, introduction and, you know,
maybe some superficial sentences to the man.
And Cecil looks relieved at this and says, well, I can only hope that this means that
it's good news.
Maybe he's taken note of my work.
You wouldn't happen to have overheard anything about the reason why.
Did you?
He didn't tell me anything.
Yes.
I mean, you have been doing exceptional work.
Oh, you're such a flatterer.
I hope I don't know why I thought something was wrong.
That was just so unusual for him to, uh, text me directly like that, but he did request
that I bring you up as soon as I saw you.
So, um, if you wouldn't mind following me.
Certainly.
All right.
You head out.
I should say Cecil, um, is never one to walk into a conversation unprepared.
She is, uh, now in AR via like D and I, like, because she's wearing her headband with the
trouts on it, um, she is searching the matrix as hard as she can for something about what
is going on.
She needs to know how to present herself walking in.
Okay.
Um, curious how deep you'd have to go.
How long does the walk over?
Uh, it'll be probably a good close to 10 minutes.
You're going to have to go up a couple of, uh, you're going to have to go up a couple
of floors by elevator to get to the administrative level where the dean has his offices.
Cecil could probably make a fair number of like data search checks.
Um, are you going to attempt to crack or hack into any of the more confidential file systems
for the university or Evo?
Oh, that's a good question.
I'd say that for the moment, she's only going to be searching for like anything surface
level just to start.
He doesn't want to, like if this is a promotion, she doesn't want the first thing she does
to be like break into the systems of the place she's getting promoted.
That might be bad.
Um, let's see.
What are the, what are the kind of keywords that you're going to search for?
Oh, she'll definitely be searching for her own name, Petrov, um, possibly she'll start
with those.
She wants to know everything about her, everything about this man.
Even if it's just like getting a little bit of background on the guy, she needs to know.
Okay.
So that would be a, let's see, a response.
Let me pull off the rules quickly for, for the matrix stuff.
Uh, data search, browse or other, um, data search plus browse.
Okay.
That's a lot of dice.
Um, so that's a 13 dice I would, I'll be rolling.
Give yourself a minus two because you're walking and Dr. L is chattering nervously at you.
That's 11 D six.
I'll be rolling out who not her best work.
No, you've got two hits on 11 dice.
You did not glitch, although you've got a couple of ones there.
Um, but with two hits, you know, you're, you're getting the, you're getting the data that
a lot of it you've already found because if I knows the seals character, she's already
at some point, you know, done a search on just about every staff member that she's come
in contact with.
Oh, absolutely.
Um, so a lot of what you're getting back on, on Dean Petrov is, uh, you know, the promotional
stuff from the university and from Evo.
Um, you know, the, the man is a, a brilliant, um, um, magical researcher.
Um, he's had some, you know, exceptional breakthroughs for obviously a rising star with
Evo and, uh, he is, he's originally from, from Eastern Russia, um, speaks a lot of languages.
I should note that this is an extended test.
The rules are slightly different for four E.
Okay.
Um, you have to remember the rules for extended tests off the top of your head.
Uh, you can roll again.
Every hour.
I know.
I'm sorry.
I'm thinking of something else.
I'm thinking of a frame for Sturches.
Yeah.
She's probably, okay.
So the interval for the entire matrix is a minute.
Um, and that there's a little table here for general knowledge versus limited versus
hidden and it goes six, 12, 24.
Um, so she could probably like get through the node.
She's on easy, um, or signal area.
Let's say she's only searching the signal area.
She doesn't need to find like things all across the internet.
So she's going to be making like what in 40, let's see, in 30 seconds, she'll be making
10 rolls.
Well, let's, let's abbreviate that slightly and let's just go ahead and make five roles.
Okay.
Uh, that should give you enough spread that you can get.
I'll still take the minus two on each of those.
So that's 55 D six.
Uh, that might be difficult to count.
Uh, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,
19, 21.
Nice.
Yeah.
So you know pretty much everything that is available in the public domain.
So what was it?
Six was public 24 was hidden.
So, so if she had like a couple more seconds, she would be getting to hidden or to leave
erased, but only within a signal area or the node.
Yeah.
So I think what happened really was, uh, once you guys entered the elevator, um, there was
just enough interference signal interference there that for the most of the elevator ride,
you, you didn't get very far and you basically just started listening and responding to Dr.
L's, you know, in name chatter.
But you know, you know that Dr. Petrov or Dean Petrov is on site.
Um, you know, cameras have picked him up.
So that information was out there.
You know, everything about his persona, uh, you know, that he lives in Seattle, that he's
been in Seattle since Evo built the, built the facility here.
You've got your own files that you were able to pull up your, um, your student records
and, uh, nothing there is, um, and you're searching your name and Dean's name.
Yeah.
Just any kind of connection between the two or for either of those.
Okay.
Um, I don't know if you're going to get a whole lot more, um, out of that, but you do get
a sense, let's put it this way, you do get a sense that both your files and, uh, Dr.
L's have been, shall we say you get a sense that they've been clean.
Oh, like they may not be the original files.
They may be facsimiles that somebody has placed around to make it look like everything is
okay.
This sentence alarm bells ringing in Cecil's mind because she is a mystery author.
So she's, she's not quite as gullible as the rest of the population, or at least she doesn't
think so.
Yes.
There is something, there's certainly something afoot.
Um, either the files have been tampered with or they've been replaced in such a way as
to obscure something.
Okay.
So Cecil is now going to exit the restroom.
Um, does she see anything amiss when she comes out?
Uh, Petra or, um, no, Dr. L is, uh, awkwardly leaning on the counter, uh, make trying to
make small talk with the blonde receptionist.
Um, and her demeanor is basically turning his hot soy calf into ice.
So, uh, he's quite relieved to see you come back, um, because he's getting frostbite next
to her.
And, uh, you also get the sense that she is relieved, not relieved to see you, but,
um, you know, it puts things back in the right order for her at least.
And she says, go right on in.
They're expecting.
And she does say they are expecting.
And while they're walking, Cecil is going to, as subtly as she can, like go up next
to L and like whisper in his ear, they're going to fire you.
He drops his coffee.
What?
What are you talking about?
You stopped.
I didn't say anything.
It's like, who me to try to communicate with the look like play it cool.
All right.
And he's, he's sweating profusely and he's fumbling about trying to pick up his coffee
and you know, he's looking at you suspiciously and he's like, just a moment, I'll be right
back and he shuffles back to the receptionist area.
And the woman behind the reception desk is looking at him quite annoyed at this point
and she's like, good grief, Mr. Lafontaine, pull yourself together, get rid of that cup
and then get, get into the Dean's office.
He's not going to be happy with your performance here.
And he throws away the cup and he comes back to you looking a little bit like a beaten
dog.
Okay.
Seal like.
Go ahead.
No, you first.
The two security officers have just been standing there watching you and they sort of glance
at each other at this whole scene and then smirk.
Cecil is impeccably cool right now.
She, I just want to say to an outside observer, she would look fine.
All right.
Make a composure test.
Oh, a composure test.
I shall.
Composure seven.
Nice.
Let's hope she's holding it together.
Two.
Well, she's not falling apart.
Let's put it that way.
She may feel like she's the ice queen, but maybe the outside of to an outside observer,
some telltale signs that she is a little bit nervous at this point.
She's imagining herself as the heroine in one of her novels.
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