Tag name:rpg

Character Back Histories

First published 18th November 2024 (Last Modified 19th November 2024)

Timeline of character histories

Events in the most recent term

During 1102 Chase and Cyndariel were, as part of their scout duties, assigned to a mission to a systems just beyond the edge of the Third Imperium. One of worlds visited was Gollere (Egyrn 0505), a regressed settlement which was well on its way to recovering space travel (it is at TL 7). During the visit some starships from a nearby system, Belgard. arrived to trade for agricultural supplies. The Belgardians are xenophobic, particularly when it comes to other starfarers and Chase and Cyndariel managed to raise the hackles of the Belgardian (mainly by boasting about their past discoveries in the Egryn subsector).

The Belgardians responded by launching a full scale invasion of Gollere and kidnapping both Chase and Cyndariel.

The Imperial Scout Service doesn't take kindly to this (particularly as both Chase and Cyndariel are serving members of the Scout Service with excellent service records) and organises a counter invasion to both return the inhabitants of Gollere to their previous government (a collaboration between specialised clans) and to free Chase and Cyndariel.

Since the scout don't have significant military forces of their own, a significant military operation is required, partially organised by Tharbin (safely back in the Spinward Marches). The naval assets included the hiring of the Leviathan Class Merchant Cruiser Nicholas de Nicolay who crew complement included Masuyi who was able to earn the cruiser significant additional funds as it travelled to Gollere.

Since this is a military operation several naval and marine personnel was seconded to crew of the Nicholas de Nicolay including Earl Dumarest (of the scouts and acting as the main liaison between the scouts, the navy and the marines), Fiorana of the Navy and assigned as the lieutenant in charge of the Armament of the Nicolas de Nicolay and Junebug as a corporal in the Marine section assigned to the rescue operation.

The rescue operation was a great success with Fiorana in particular gaining the Navy Lifesaving Medal for rescuing the gunners under her command when the Nicolas de Nicolay was rammed by a Belgardian escort vessel (its pilot having lost control during an attempt to deliver a close range broadside to the Nicolas de Nicolay).

On the ground Junebug took over leading the rescue operation when her sergeant was incapacited during the assault. Her actions resulted in her promotion to Sergeant.

Earl's success in managing to keep the tensions between the merchant owners of the Nicolas de Nicolay, the naval officers in charge of the naval personnel, the marine commander and his superiors in the Scout Service (who were funding the operation) was recognised by the Scout Service after the completion of the mission.

At the end of the term it is 'suggested' to Chase and Cyndariel that maybe they could better progress their lifes outside of the Scout Service!


Change History
19th November 2024
Add events in the most recent term and even out the columns in the table

Cyberpunk Session 10

First published 28th October 2024

(Played on 27th October 2024)

From Tremen's notes

After a short break to clean up and have a short nap we return to Section 9's offices and discuss the latest findings. More importantly though there are have been another 5 masher-style murders overnight while we were in the sewers. The murders all occured between midnight and 1am and were spread out around the city night with no obvious pattern and clearly physically impossible for a single person to do (and clearly not Masher as we were all in the sewers at the time).

After an extensive search of the net Wakiya discovers that the symbol crops up more than once, although it is slightly different each time the basics remain the same. The top search results are a Mercenary company in South America called "Isqun Umayuq Mach’aqway", a publishing company in South Africa called "Inyoka yamakhanda ayisishiyagalolunye" and an antiques company called "Neuf mères". Of these only Neuf mères has any presents in Newport City, a small warehouse on the waterfront in the port at Dejima.

In fact the team discovers (with Ricky having the best memory) that the nine pointed star was used as an emblem by the thugs we encountered just a couple of days ago. In fact it rapidly becomes apparent that the Neuf mères warehouse was one and the same warehouse where we found the body of Hoga Itami. Pulling up the survelliance camera for that area shows that the area is now relatively clean and tidy (there is still the wreck of a burned out car, but that's actually about it for the debris from the fight scene. The camera just about shows one of the outside edges of the Neuf mères warehouse. Pulling the maps and plans for the area shows no obvious overlook for the warehouse, which has several windows on the upper storey, a main loading roller door and a couple of double doors on side walls.

After discussing equipment options and requistioning a Tachikoma as backup we head to the warehouse.

The warehouse is strangely clean, tidy and, despite having many boxes and even shipping containers, remarkably empty (the boxes and shipping containers are empty). After some considerable searching we find a grate in what should be a bathroom (it only has a washbasin apart from the grate). We lift the grate and it reveals a shaft and ladder about one person wide leading downwards.
We head down the ladder - it is a long way down (well below the water level of the adjacent harbour!). In fact our ears pop as we descend and eventually arrive at a small 8x8 metre room with a corridor leading onwards.

Heading down the corridor there is a long window on the left hand side of the corridor which shows outer space as far as we can see. We seem to be in some sort of asteroid or microsatellite!
Despite that worrying view we continue to the end of the corridor where there is a similar 8x8 metre room with a shaft and ladder leading up. At this point Tharbinsan realises that perhaps we should left the Tachikoma know where we are and heads back.

The rest of the team climbs the ladder into a cave! The scene that greets us as we exit the cave is unnerving to say the least. We are stood on an outcropping jutting out from an escarpment
that stretches of east and west. From this vantage point you look out over a vast forest that extends beyond what our eyes can see. Everything is bathed in a harsh green light, the air is breathable but there is a slight musty taste to it.

As we watch there is subtle movement out over the forest and a slowly building hum. The hum builds and builds and then there is a blinding flash and a view of a beam of light launching itself into the sky. There is also the appearance of a pressure wave heading our way and we rapidly retreat back into the cave and down the shaft and back to the warehouse.

A beam of light projecting vartiaclly in the distance. The viewpoint is on a rocky outcrop overlooking a vast forest with the beam of light in the distance.

Alien world?

As we emerge back into the warehouse there are several rumbles and crashes and then a fountain of seawater erupts from the grate and subsides. Shocked and bemused (and, in Tremen's case at least, worried about our sanity) we return to Thatbinsan and the Tachikoma (Tharbinsan is unable to find any evidence of hallucinogenics).

Mongoose Traveller V2 Character Creator Plugin Details

First published 6th October 2024 (Last Modified 7th October 2024)

Description

This plugin adds a shortcode to add a sandpit for character creation experimentation. This allows for a new character to be created. The characters are saved locally in the browser (only) and can be exported in a format importable into Fantasy Grounds Unity.
[mongooseTravellerV2CharacterCreator /]

The following (minor) rules interpretations, clarifications and modifications have been made by this plugin:

  • Three of the initial stat rolls are made with a boon (i.e., roll 3D6 and take the best two).
  • Mishap 2 is always severely injured.
  • Skill specialisations are chosen at the end of character creation (rather than as you acquire level one in the base skill). This was to avoid overwhelming the player with options. However that does mean where you should be awarded a specialisation in a skill you, initially, get a level in the base skill instead. Also those skills which can be specialised are allowed to go above four until you reach that specialisation step.
  • In a few places where the official rules allow you to choose a skill in the skill tables these has been replaced by providing an entry for each skill in that table (making it have seven rows and a 1D7 roll).
  • The 'Any talent' entry in the Psion service skill table has been omitted (making that table have five rows and hence a 1D5 roll).
  • Connections do not allow the choice of any psionic talent.
  • Version: 3.278.0
  • Author: David Vines
  • Last Updated: 2 weeks ago
  • Requires WordPress Version: 4.0 or higher
  • Tested up to: 6.7
  • License: Contains materials from Mongoose which are used by following the Mongoose fair use policy. The code elements were written solely by myself.

    The Traveller game in all forms is owned by Mongoose Publishing. Copyright 1977 - 2024 Mongoose Publishing. Traveller is a registered trademark of Mongoose Publishing. Mongoose Publishing permits web sites and fanzines for this game, provided it contains this notice, that Mongoose Publishing is notified, and subject to a withdrawal of permission on 90 days notice. The contents of this site are for personal, non-commercial use only. Any use of Mongoose Publishing’s copyrighted material or trademarks anywhere on this web site and its files should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks. In addition, any program/articles/file on this site cannot be republished or distributed without the consent of the author who contributed it.

    The images were generated using Microsoft's copilot AI Image generator. As such Microsoft, its affiliated companies and third-party partners are granted permission to use the Prompts, Creations, customisations (including GPTs) and related content in connection with the operation of its businesses (including, without limitation, all Microsoft Services), including, without limitation, the licence rights to: copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate and reformat the Prompts, Creations and other content that were provided to create the image; and the right to sublicense such rights to any supplier of the Online Services.

    In particular note that this page explicitly does not grant consent to republish or distribute this plugin.

Change Log

3.278.0 - 18 November 2024

Bug fix - Adjust scout mishap3's contact and enemy counts. Provide enemy text on Scout event 3, Fix Typo's, Stop several events overwriting career event

3.277.0 - 18 November 2024

Fix typo. Add full life event list to the Notes of the FGU export

3.276.0 - 15 November 2024

Lock skills in the FGU file, Wording fixes, Bug fixes (citizen mishap4 and event3)

3.275.0 - 10 November 2024

Typo and small bug fixes. Rework the display of advancement options

3.274.0 - 08 November 2024

Added ability to embed text in the initial page (between the notes and the copyright notice)

3.273.0 - 08 November 2024

PDF Generation added

3.272.0 - 03 November 2024

Add Psionics

3.271.0 - 30 October 2024

Bug fixes

3.270.0 - 28 October 2024

Reword mishaps and events so that mishaps caused by events do not imply you leave the career is almost all cases. Add Anagathics

3.269.0 - 25 October 2024

Allow medical bills for injuries

3.268.0 - 25 October 2024

Add save and view options, add a free format field

3.267.0 - 24 October 2024

Fix multiple specialisations!

3.266.0 - 21 October 2024

Allow for multiple specialisations

3.265.0 - 18 October 2024

Added the remaining careers (apart from Psion) and the draft

3.264.0 - 12 October 2024

Add the army career

3.263.0 - 06 October 2024

Bug fixes

3.262.0 - 06 October 2024

Add more careers

3.261.0 - 27 September 2024

Add mustering out, export of characters, bug fixes

3.259.0 - 23 September 2024

Initial Version - pre-alpha (no mustering out, connections, end of character or export. Only pre-careers and rogues implements so far


The information on this page was retrieved by Plugin Information Version 3.263.0.

Mongoose Traveller 2e Character Creator

First published 8th September 2024 (Last Modified 8th November 2024)

Enter the traveller's name in the box below and then press Next

Notes

  1. This generator runs entirely in your browser - no data about the character is stored on the web server
  2. At the end of the generation you have the option to print the character or to generate the XML file that can be used to import the character to Fantasy Grounds Unity.
  3. Many of the buttons have hover text to provide additional information about your choices.
  4. Travellers can still attempt skill rolls even when they do not have the relevant skill. However they suffer a penalty of three to that dice roll. If the traveller has a skill at level zero that penalty is not applied. If the skill level is one or more the traveller gets that skill level as a bonus to the dice roll.
  5. The creator applies all the applicable dice modifications from your characteristics, species and skills to the relevant dice rolls. When it presents the dice roll needed to make a particular roll those modifiers have been taken into account.
  6. Note that during character creation skills cannot go above level four. The total of your skill levels is limited to a maximum of three times your combined intelligence and education. Any skill increases above these limits are silently lost.
  7. Some skills have specialities. You will asked to assign those specialities at the end of the character generation.

Recent Changes

3.278.0 - 18 November 2024

Bug fix - Adjust scout mishap3's contact and enemy counts. Provide enemy text on Scout event 3, Fix Typo's, Stop several events overwriting career event

3.277.0 - 18 November 2024

Fix typo. Add full life event list to the Notes of the FGU export

Copyright

The Traveller game in all forms is owned by Mongoose Publishing. Copyright 1977 - 2024 Mongoose Publishing. For more details see the Version History of this creator. The code elements of this creator are © David Vines 2024.

Name:
Freda
Species:
Gender:
Homeworld:
Age:
18
Cash:
Cr
Benefits
Associates
  • Contacts: 0
    • Allies: 0
      • Rivals: 0
        • Enemies: 0
          • Patrons: 0
            STR DEX END INT EDU SOC
            Score
            Bonus

            Skills

            Life Events

            BUG: A javascript exception has occurred:

            
            
            

            DJV's Mongoose Traveller V2 Character Creator Plugin Version 3.278.1

            Setup for joining us on Fantasy Grounds

            First published 3rd September 2024

            We use a couple of bits of software to allow us to play roleplaying via a virtual tabletop:


            Discord

            A partial screen capture of the main discord app with the icon for User Settingshighlighted

            The location of the settings icon

            To allow voice communication we use discord. The desktop version can be downloaded for free from here. You do not need to pay anything to download, setup and use discord1. Once installed and you've registered yourself as a user contact myself or Neil to get an invite to what Discord calls our "server" (a collection of text, voice and even video channels).
            There are a few settings we require and/or recommend. You can get to the settings page via the cog icon at the bottom left hand corner of discord's window:

            A view of the discord voice & video settings

            My Voice & video settings

            Once there select Voice & Video and check (and if necessary change) the following settings (note you can click on the image to see at full size):

            INPUT DEVICE
            Which microphone do you want to use. If you have only one microphone you can probably leave this at the default2.
            OUTPUT DEVICE
            Which speakers do you want to use. If you have only one of set of speakers you can probably leave this at the default. If, however, you have both a set of speakers AND a headset you need to either change the default in Windows to send sound to your headset or choose which one discord should use here3.
            INPUT VOLUME
            Leave at the default of 100% unless everyone complains you're too loud. If you find someone else is too loud you can adjust just their volume as explained below.
            OUTPUT VOLUME
            If you're finding everyone else is too loud or too quiet you can change the global volume here.
            INPUT MODE
            Select Push-to-talk4.
            SHORTCUT
            Choose which key to press when you want to speak. I use the left control button on the keyboard5 but Neil uses one of his mouse buttons, You can choose almost any key for this.
            PUSH-TO-TALK RELEASE DELAY
            Move the slider to increase the time between when you release the push-to-talk key and the time your microphone becomes muted. Note that the default is 0 milliseconds and typically your fingers are ahead of your mouth and hence your final word gets either cut in half or muted completely. Mine is set to around 500ms which seems to work.

            There's also a section of settings for Notifications that includes a PTT Activate and a PTT Deactivate notification sounds. Note, however, that the notification sounds are NOT sent to the output device you chose in Voice & Video but just sent as audio to windows. So if your default windows output device are your speakers you'll need to go to your windows settings6, select System then Sound followed by App volume and device preferences and then, With the discord app running, manually choose the devices to be used for sound for the Discord application7.

            If you find that one person's voice is too loud or too quiet you can manually how loud they are by right-clicking their name in the voice chat channel and then moving the slider to increase or decrease their individual volume.

            Discord will check if it needs updates as part of its startup process and will do an update if necessary

            There are also mobile versions of the application for both Android and Apple available in their respective app stores. I do not recommend using a mobile for voice8 but I do recommend it as a way of seeing (and getting notifications about) the text channels.

            I strongly recommend going through the setup for discord well before the first game session since, inevitably, it takes a while to get the setup working exactly the way you want it to9


            Fantasy Grounds Unity main page screenshot

            Fantasy Grounds Unity main page

            Fantasy Grounds Unity

            You'll be glad to learn that there's less setup needed for Fantasy Grounds Unity. You can download it from their home page. You only need the Free Demo vesrion since both myself and Neil have Ultimate Licenses which allow us to host games for those with the free demo versiom. If you ever wanted to run a game you'd need to get the ultimate version since we have players with only the free demo version.

            The free demo version has, for players, all the features of the core license or ultimate versions.

            When the time comes we will lead you through how to join a game10. I do recommend that before every game session you fire up Fantasy Grounds Unity and look to see if it needs any updates. Our game sessions are widely enough spread out that there's usually some updates that have been made between our game sessions.


            Footnotes

            1. Discord does have a premium currency called Nitro to allow the purchase of additional features. We've not found the need to purchase anything. ↩
            2. I do have two microphones potentially connected so I do set the device here. ↩
            3. Similarly I do have both speakers and a headset so have to set the output device. ↩
            4. This keeps the channel quiet except when someone wants to talk and hence avoids unneccessary distractions. ↩
            5. Note that when I press the left control key to push-to-talk it still acts as a control key so I do have to be aware of that should I try to use any other key (for example to do something in Fantasy Grounds Unity). ↩
            6. These instructions assume you're using Windows 10. ↩
            7. Note that this is a real pain since whenever discord updates its main application the windows settings treats it as a new application and you'll have to go in and change these settings again - I haven't found a better way to do this so far. ↩
            8. It does work but getting push-to-talk to work is not as straightforward. ↩
            9. Don't get me wrong, it is good software but as seen above it can require a fair bit of setting up to get everything the way you want it to be. ↩
            10. Assuming, of course, you have successfully set up Discord and joined the voice chat channel. ↩

            Cyberpunk Session 8

            First published 3rd September 2024 (Last Modified 21st October 2024)

            (Played on 18th August and 1st September 2024)

            From Tremen's notes1

            Section Nine

            Tharbinsan gets a report emailed from the US Military about Sgt. Malory. Having been alerted to the possibility by our questions they confirm that the Brain Case currently in their possession is actually a very good copy of the original brain case. They believe that the swap of Sgt. Malory's brain case must have occured during autopsy of Sgt. Malory. The autopsy was conducted by a civilian contractor who they are now investigating. Tharbinsan requests to be kept informed of the investigation, though Tharbinsan is not convinced that he will be kept in the loop.

            We are then called to Section 9's chief office ASAP to meet with the Chief himself. He informs us that a Kenbishi tank undergoing testing has gone rogue and as the pilot of the tank has an ID card identifying him as Kendo Ita it's obviously related in some way with our case. The chief informs us that the tank killed seven members of the ground crew involved in prepping the tank and we are to head out to the Kenbishi Proving Grounds immediately.

            Kenbishi Proving Ground

            A six-legged crab-like tank standing outside of a garage. The tank sports a cannon and two machine guns and stands about three meters tall with a ground footprint of about four meters square (the body of the tank is significantly smaller than the overall footprint

            The tank as seen by the CCTV shortly before the incident

            On arrival we are met by Rochard Komashi, director of development for the tank project and we split into two teams. Myself and Spooky head to the Admin Wing while Tharbinsan, Ricky and Wakiya head to the proving ground where the tank has been covered in high performance riot foam to ensure its immobility. Only the bodies of the ground crew have been recovered before our arrival allowing Tharbinsan to do a closer examination of the undisturbed2cockpit. The pilot was slumped over the control hardware and Tharbinsan quickly determines that the cause of death was the burning, from the inside, of the pilot brain. In fact the burning was more of an explosion with the eyes having been destroyed and significant damage to the pilot's jackplugs. The evidence suggests that some kind of major electrical pulse was responsible.

            Meanwhile myself and Spooky check into the background of the ground crew and the pilot. There's no sign of anything untoward in the ground crew's record and while the ID card says Kendo Ita that's not who the pilot was. Kendo Ita was, however, employed by Kenbishi but the security systems do not show any entries or exits from Kenbishi facilities since his disappearance and Spooky confirms that there is no sign of any security or cyber intrusion into Kenbishi's systems or facilities in the last seven days3.

            Wakiya manages to calm one of the techs at the scene enough to ascertain that the tech has no idea how the accident occured: the tank walked out of its garage after being prepped and then turned and gunned down the ground crew. In fact when Tharbinsan reviews the data feeds about the health of the pilot there's no sign of anything unusual up to the death of the pilot. Ricky examines the locker of the pilot and confirms that the mystery continues as there nothing unusual there either.

            Kendo was responsible for the failsafe programs that are part of the tank's software. All the evidence (both physical and the survelliance records) show that these failsafe programs functioned perfectly on the death of the pilot and as the tank is controlled by a virtual reality setup4 we meet up at the scene and ask Spooky to take a closer examination of the cockpit.

            Spooky does so but is spooked when she gets both a feeling of being watched and a twitch from the body of the pilot. After some reassurance5 and the removal of the pilot's body Spooky re-examines the cockpit. She realises that (a) the tank is under the control of the tank's AI and its safety protocols, (b) there doesn't seem to be any malware in the tank's system, (c) that a remote network could be connected to the tank and (d) that remote network could still be connected. Spooky insulates herself from the tank's systems via a dummy barrier and then attempt to do a backtrace on any such remote network.

            She gets enough information to show that there is such a signal and manages to track it as far as a Saizeniya restaurant on Rokko Island. By road that's about two hours but, after some persuasion, Kenbishi agrees to take most of the team6 via VTOL to the location.

            Rokko Island

            A google earth image that shows a busy city view. There is an above ground metro station in the centre of the image with its metro line running vertically through the image. There are large complexes to the left and right of the metro station. The restaurant is on the southwestern corner of the right hand complex.

            The Saizeriya restaurant identified by the backtrace of the network connection to the tank

            On arrival at the general area of the restuarant there are workers and tourists going about their normal business. The still faint signal is actually coming from below ground and the team finds the nearest manhole cover and head down in the claustrophobic sewers below.

            Marching Order

            Tharbinsan has dropped his bag of medical supplies down the manhole

            Ricky
            Carrying a torch and pistol
            Tharbinsan
            Carrying a pistol
            Spooky
            Carrying her equipment in front of her (so initially no torch nor pistol)
            Wakiya
            Carrying a torch (on belt) and Pistol

            On arrival at the bottom of the manhole is a small space and a door in the north of the space.

            Footnotes

            1. Again supplemented by Dawn's notes which, as is usual, are more comprehensive than mine! ↩
            2. Undisturbed if you ignore the fine blood splatter from the pilot and the vomit of the team who initially went to rescue the pilot and discovered the scene. ↩
            3. Spooky wisely decides not to try to do so herself! ↩
            4. i.e., the pilot is connected to the tank and its sensor suite via a direct input to pilot's visual cortex ↩
            5. Probably less than she would have liked ↩
            6. Tremen decides to drive our van back to Section 9 - though I suspect that plan might need to change while he's en route ↩

            Cyberpunk Session 7b

            First published 20th August 2024 (Last Modified 21st October 2024)

            (Played on 14th July 2024)

            Tremen's Log

            View of a prone body on a small wharf (the viewpoint is from the water). At the back of the image the small wharf connects to a small two storey warehouse.

            Hoga's body as captured by Spooky's drone

            On arrival at the entrance to the alleyway (as described in the last session) we discover that alley leads to an array of warehouses.

            We cautiously (if somewhat independently) made our way past a small firefight between some yazuka and a small gang down the street (some of us using the alleyways) to the end of the street where there is a gate leading to the driveway of a warehouse. The warehouse itself is to the right of the driveway while the driveway itself leads to a small wharf. There are dim lights on the corners of the warehouse illuminating the outside of the building but the dim light together with the rain makes visibility quite low.

            A lizard-like form shown jumping into the water from a wharf

            Artist's impression from Tremen's description of the lizard full body conversion.

            Tremen is the first to arrive at the compound and (with difficulty but only opposed by a malfunctioning mechanism) opens the gate and proceeds inside. On the driveway is a small pickup style van which is unoccupied and empty. The warehouse itself is closed and locked. Tremen, followed up by Wakiya, cautiously heads around the corner of the building and sees Hoga Itami on the ground propped up on his right arm.

            Even in the dim light he sees a large pool of blood. Over Hoga stands a full body conversion1 of a borg Lizard which is just pulling the rippers of its right hand out of Hoga's face. The borg Lizard jumps into the water and, even though Tremen manages to squeeze off a shot (and Tremen believes he wounded the borg Lizard) the borg Lizard swims off into the estuary.

            Spooky reports that there is no comms chatter in the local area despite the presence of us, the body and the firefight in the street.

            Hoga's body is well mangled. There is a small handgun towards to the boxes against the wall. The gun has been fired once. Hoga is wearing a tatty business suit and we have several observations to make:

            1. Wakiya suggests that Hoga was herded to this location
            2. Tharbinsan's gut feeling is that there was more than one group involved in the situation2
            3. Tremen's gut feeling is that the attack on Hoga was one of focused anger more than anything else.

            Footnotes

            1. Full body conversion aren't too difficult in terms of the hardware required. However the medical work needed is significant and requires a decent lab and doctor - neither of which will come cheap ↩
            2. The firefight is continuing back in the street and alleys as we investigate ↩

            Cyberpunk Session 7a

            First published 21st July 2024 (Last Modified 21st October 2024)

            (Played on 9th June 2024)

            Maria Estoban

            CCTV Image of Maria Estoban

            From Tremen's Notes1

            Follow up on Hayato Kita's contact

            As described in the second set of notes, Hayato Kita had a note in his appointment book for a meeting in Shinchuko station with a Maria at 12:30 tomorrow. Maria would apparently be wearing a pink carnation. Spooky examined the CCTV footage which showed there was indeed a lady waiting in Shinchuko station at the relevant. She stayed for about 15 minutes and then walked out with an annoyed and disgusted expression. Checking with facial recognition reveals she is Maria Estoban, the daughter of a Mexican businessman who is a executive for Pemex. She has since returned with her father to South America. Spooky then made a phone with Maria and confirmed that the meeting was set up for her to meet with Hayato Kita and to be shown a good time but was stood up.

            Kuroi tsuki

            The Underground braindance studio is actually not all that underground. It's actually well known in the right circles (Celebrities, Politicos etc). and I decided to pay the club a visit during the morning. The building is relatively small and somewhat more upbeat and presentable than the surrounding buildings. Ground floor has no windows with a door next to its car park (with about 15 parking spaces) and while the upper two floors do have windows, the first floor windows have been blocked off on the inside. The windows on the top floor are also blacked out. After using the intercom I'm ushered in and taken to the manager. Overall impression is of a business that is legitimate if sailing somewhat close to the wind. The club is being tidied up from the previous night's activities. The manager is somewhat relieved when the topic of conversation is revealed to be about Kendo Ita whereabouts2. The manager and staff doesn't recognise him but are able to confirm that no bodies have been found at the club for a while.

            Hoga Itami

            Tharbinsan follows up on Hoga Itami's rap sheet which showed arrests for GBH and robbery for which he served some time in jail. His current whereabouts are unknown. Tharbinsan arranges for a facial recognition scan and alert to be made for Hoga - initially indications are that he is still in the city but no specific immediate trace of his location is available.

            Kendo Ito

            Wakiya looks for more information on Kendo Ita. He worked for an arms manufacturer as a programmer of emergency protocols for vehicle operation. The company's records show that he was staying at the Negoya Hotel (the hotel used by the company when staff are in the city).

            View down a street showing a car with smoking engine on the right hand side of the street and debris on the road.

            The best image I could persuade the image generator to come up with.

            Later in the evening

            After taking a short rest we are alerted that there has been another body found with the MO of Sergeant Masher. The body is in the Dajima district and we head over there. As we cross the bridge into the district there is an emergency call from the team tracking Hoga. He has been seen in the company of two women and we are given the rough location (only a rough location as the CCTV coverage in that area is somewhat patchy). Hoga walks out of a bar with a woman on each arm. One of the woman's heads explodes and Hoga takes a couple of seconds to react, dropping the body of the dead woman. As he does so the stomach of the other woman explodes and Hoga dives into the shocked crowd and disappears into an alley after three more civilians are butchered. Several people are bumped as if by an invisible person and we head to the location of the alley.

            On location, just beyond the alley, there are two ground cars (the nearest merely has a smoking engine, the further one is a wreck!).


            Footnotes

            1. Thanks for Dawn for her comprehensive notes - way better than mine own! ↩
            2. Presumably there are illegimate activities ongoing at the club but as those are, probably, irrelevant, I didn't follow up on this - there's no need to cause unnecessary trouble and should trouble prove to be necessary we can always come back! ↩

            Cyberpunk Session 6

            First published 12th June 2024 (Last Modified 21st October 2024)

            (Played on 12th May 2024)

            Tremen's notes

            After completing our part of the investigation at Mr. Sato's apartment (and handing over Mr. Sato and his daughter to the medical teams and his apartment to the forensics team), we reconvened in our office to discuss the investigation points so far and to try to decide on next steps. Apart noting that the daughter (once sufficient recovered) needs to be debriefed to get any information might have, several points were discussed and noted:

            • Discussion Points

              • Mr.Sato and his apartment

                • Layout

                  The layout of Mr. Sato's apartment. At the top is a rooftop balcony that includes a swimming pool and lounging area. This is accessed via patio doors from the dining room which occupies the middle of the map. To the west of that is the master bedroom (with adjoining ensuite facilities) accessed from a connecting passageway to the south of the master bedroom. Also connected to that passageway and to the south of it are two smaller bedrooms (which have access to a small balcony). To the east of those rooms is a kitchen (and continuing eastwards) and small bedroom for a maid and some storage rooms. To the west of the dining room (and from north to south) is an office, another bedroom and greenhouse/conservatory used to grow vegetables.

                  The layout of Mr. Sato's apartment

                • Mr.Sato's Input Jack

                  Definitely been forced, most probably as the result of something being forced into it.

                  • Cyberprogram

                    Delayed action programs are possible and relatively easy to create if the programmer has some time (say 1 week to create a reasonable one that is also relatively undetectable)

                • Cameras

                  The Security cameras for the apartment building (and surrounding street cameras) do not show anything unusual and do not show signs of being tampered with.

                  • Invisibility Tech

                    is possible and is in use by Section 9. However its use is not 100% perfect and what's on the CCTV does NOT show the telltale signs of its use that would be present if it was being used.

                • Computer

                  Mr. Sato's computer was burned out from the inside-out, i.e., a burn program was used (which, once loaded onto the computer, would only need a few seconds to do the job)

                • Greenhouse

                  In the greenhouse of the apartment the forensics team

                  • Maid

                    Adjacent to the maid's bedroom

                    • Missing

                      The maid has gone missing

                    • Struggle

                      In the maid's room are the signs of a violent struggle

                  • Small neat hole

                    • 5mm in size
                    • Angled at 45° vertically, i.e. a shot from outside and above the penthouse apartment
                  • Small container (about 5mm in diameter) found in the soil. Sent to forensics for further investigation
              • Hayato Kita

                • Movements

                  Section Nine's investigation branch has reconstructed Hayato Kita last 6 months movement and has been able to pin down all bar one of the contacts in his little black book. The missing person is Kenda Ito, from the report it appears that Kita met Ito at a public bath house in Nehama and then went to an underground Brain dance studio called Kuroi tsuki in the refugee district. Kita can be followed back to his apartment but there was no sign of Ito leaving.

                • Autopsy

                  Official cause of death will be listed as due to a loss of blood caused by a gunshot wound to the back. The report also lists that several finger prints were lifted from the brain case housing. These have been identfied as belonging to one Hoga Itami, a small time thug and body guard for hire.

                • Brain Case

                  Only the brain case (and not its contents) was found either on the body or at Hayato Kita's apartment

              • Serial Killer?

                Three bodies were found in the port district last night, cause of death, crushed skulls. There is no link between the victims and no motive has been established as all had their personaly items and money still on them.

                • In the news

                  News of the three bodies is all over the net already (not an easy case to keep quiet!)

                • Sergeant Masher

                  The MO matches that of Sergeant Masher

                  • Brain Case

                    His brain case was the one found in Hayato Kita's apartment (see above).

                  • Nickname

                    His nickname was gained from his MO (see Session 5)

                  • Dead

                    Sergeant Masher is dead, but his ghost line probably isn't1

                • Victims

                  The three bodies not found together and not within easy walking distance either (but within easy motorbike or even pushbike distance).

                  • Victim 1

                    Office Worker

                  • Victim 2

                    Convenience Store Worker

                  • Victim 3

                    Housewife


            Wakiya's notes

            Note that you can click on the image to get a larger version of the image.

            Footnotes

            1. Note that ghost lines have to be transferred, they can't be copied. ↩