AD5524-359, Campinas Downport, “Iceburg” - Camptown Racers Recording Studio.
As Perdix distracts the driver, Freydis simply strolls up in all his weapons and armour, plants himself in the middle of the yard, and says “Security”, flexing his muscles and hefting his mighty sledgehammer, glaring at everyone as if daring them to challenge him.
Freydis uses the distraction from Perdix to get +1. He doesn’t have Persuasion so he uses Melee(-2)+STR(+2)+Assist(+1) to browbeat the workers. 2d6+1 = 7, Success but “Rival”. Rival is Human or Bot (50-50).
A few of the workers are looking at the delayed forklift, but one with a clipboard says “This is a lot of security for a simple job”, pointing at another large, armed (d2=) man approaching the main gate. The eyes of the two big men narrow as they size each other up, and the crowd starts to talk in hushed anticipation of a duel. Syar takes the opportunity and slips round the back of the forklift, then uses parked vehicles as cover to approach the building.
Syar takes the assist from Freydis and rolls Stealth(0)+DEX(+1)+Assist(+1), 2d6+2 = 10, Success. All eyes are on the big men, and she quietly slips through the door and enters the studio. The plug-in from the Patron, Faraz, detailed the layout, door codes etc so the “investigation” in scene 2 will be how to discover and disable the Vocaloid effectively, quietly etc.
While Syar creeps through the building, and Perdix has resigned to spend the next half hour talking about horoscopes, Freydis is squaring up to the newcomer. “Push off, soft lad, or I’ll crack your head like a walnut”.
This is another intimidate attempt. He uses Melee(-2)+STR(+2), 2d6+0 = 7, Success but “choice of 2 evils”. An obvious ‘evil’ is that someone is about to run into the studio, risking the plan. The other ‘evil’ is that Freydis might bring more attention down on himself.
“Alright mate, clearly some mix up, no harm done” the burly newcomer says, backing away hands up. Freydis nods, but then hears one of the workers say “the boss needs to know about this” and starts heading towards the studio doors … Freydis thinks quickly: “Oi, get back here, nerd! Nobody’s going in there until we get to the bottom of this mess.”
Yet another intimidate, but this time with Language/CHA as he is not in the face of the guy who wants to head indoors. Language(-2)+CHA(+1), 2d6-1 = 10, Success.
“Alright, alright!” The worker sheepishly comes back to the crowd, and everyone fully accepts his authority - so Freydis makes a point of checking everyone’s names, badges, astrological signs …
Meanwhile, Syar hustles through the studio looking for the Camptown Racers section. She passes down identical-looking steel hallways, past soundproofed doors and rooms until she spots the right one, punches the code and sidles through the door. The window is opaque, so Syar breathes a sigh of relief and switches on the lights. The recording studio is split into 2 sections, the entrance being into a control room with computers, sound-boards, control panels and speakers. A transparent and soundproofed room is accessed via another door, which contains stools, chairs, microphones, screens, cupboards and more computer banks. Syar looks around scratching her head, then enters the soundproof room and opens the largest cupboard - inside is the vocaloid, a simple, featureless humanoid robot which can have any image holo-projected onto it. A nice piece of kit, but the holo-input port and the audio-input-port are both open and the motherboards - which are the real prize - are missing.
Syar decides to do a trivial sabotage of the Robot - she has many applicable skills so it’s easy to snip a few wires and de-magnetise some important components. She then searches the area for any sign of the motherboards. She again has all sorts of relevant skills, so chooses Observation(0)+WIS(0), 2d6+0 = 8, Success but finds 1 thing only. 50-50 (Soundboard/Holoboard). Is it protected in some other way? 50-50. Results below:
Syar rifles through the cupboards, finding nothing of interest - she bends down to pick up a pair of dropped headphones when her eye catches sight of a magnetic box sealed to the underside of the recording deck. She raises an eyebrow and removes it - there is only a simple latch, with no lock or other security and when she opens it, she sees the soundboard! Syar pockets it, and leaves their “calling card” which is an AI picture of Laudius hanging by a noose, with the words “keep music human”. She leaves another in the port of the damaged vocaloid, and scratches its face, tying a noose around its neck for good measure. Nodding to herself, she retraces her steps back to the main door, seeing Freydis has the crowd fully under his control, she sneaks away.
Syar uses Stealth(0)+DEX(+1), 2d6+1 = 11, Success. Syar escapes, Freydis moves over to yell at the forklift operator, finally giving Perdix the opportunity to get away from her admirer. The PCs retrieve their stashed equipment and head back to their hostel, with a short detour to the apartment of Laudius to slip another calling card under his door ...
