Heroica RPG 2.0 - Mission #0: Last Of Its Kind

[Yzalirk]

13 hours ago, samurai-turtle said:

/// That was interesting, if not very effective... Recommend distribution of items, 10 credit(s) to everyone; Enson = Energy Cell; Igaz, Dunola, Tester-Three = Plasma Potion; Kleeck, Yelana = Nanite Philter. 

"Sounds good to me."

Igaz begins to wipe the Oozeling entrails and paste from him.

"Good work guys but we may have to deal with worse later."

He continues to dust himself off and turns to Faeja.

"Sorry about the mess Faeja.  I agree with Dunola, if you have any helpful information you should tell us in private."

[Endgame]

19 hours ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

Got it - Just had to adjust the targeting system to compensate for its movement! 
 

Well. . . That sounds extreme, but OK - Glad we could help. 

That’s the plan - right now, anyway, so if you have any information, we want to hear it. By the way, you still seem nervous - It’s clearly not because of the Oozlings, so would you prefer to talk somewhere more private?

"Oh, well, just a figure of speech. I'd probably get fired though, and that's no good. No longer a concern, though!" says the woman, finally smiling.

"As for why I seem nervous, there are rumors swirling around that the Cydonians have invisible cloaked soldiers roaming around Gnorra. We know that they have at least one dreadnought still cloaked in atmosphere, but, well, yeah. If they are listening, they would've probably already done something?"

8 hours ago, Kintobor said:

"Looks like we've purged this ship of those vermin." Dunola holsters her flamethrower. "I'm fine with taking ten credits and that potion. A job well done, everyone!"

"Now then, miss, why don't we step into the ship a little bit so we can discuss matters in private, eh?" 

"Good idea..."

The group takes a few paces and steps into the now Oozeling free cargo hold of Faeja's ship, the woman hopping up and sitting on a pile of sturdy looking crates. The odd smell of rubber still clung to the walls and the insulation, but thankfully, the Oozeling menace was put down before it could become a widespread issue.

7 hours ago, Goliath said:

"Sorry about the mess Faeja.  I agree with Dunola, if you have any helpful information you should tell us in private."

"Don't worry about the mess... I was going to get this thing washed soon anyway, it'll all come off. I hope. Anyway, here's the deal. The Cydonians have the spaceport on lockdown, and they have boosted security around the perimeter here a little bit, but the usual system of getting access to your own ship here is still the same as the one we had before the occupation. That is to say... It's kinda shoddy.

I learned this trick when my boss had me go grab something from his ship, but didn't have his ID card on him. You can spoof an ID and fake out those red Shipyard droids into giving you ship access. Our ID cards have a custom chip inside that lets us in and out of the shiplot, but since spots are reassigned so often, the Shipyard droids are trained to just recognize a generic pattern printed on the IDs. Their eyesight is so bad, even pen and paper can fool them, sometimes..."

Faeja holds out her ID card, displaying a 4x4 grid of white and black squares.

~~~

FORGING ACCESS

You are tasked with fabricating the correct 4x4 grid of black and white squares. You may submit answers in the form of an image, or simply in the form of four lines (representing the whole 4 by 4 grid), as long as you state which character represents black, and which one white. For an example submission:

AAAA
BBBB
AAAA
AAAA

Here, A is white and B is black.

Upon submitting a pattern, you will get told how many of your squares were the correct color - between 0 and 16. If you get all 16 right, you will have successfully gained access to Jek's ship. That being said, the shipyard Droids are not totally incompetent, and will sound alarms after 10 attempts. However, someone who is savvy with technology, engineering, or perhaps even able to convince the droid of relaxing security measures might be able to squeeze out a few more allowed attempts... with the right proficiency check.

Please post any submitted guess to this thread, so that your fellow party members may see the result of your guess and build off of it.

~~~

"If anyone asks, you didn't hear this from me."

Edited January 22, 2020 by Endgame

[Classic_Spaceman]

4 hours ago, Endgame said:

"As for why I seem nervous, there are rumors swirling around that the Cydonians have invisible cloaked soldiers roaming around Gnorra. We know that they have at least one dreadnought still cloaked in atmosphere, but, well, yeah. If they are listening, they would've probably already done something?"

"Good idea..."

The group takes a few paces and steps into the now Oozeling free cargo hold of Faeja's ship, the woman hopping up and sitting on a pile of sturdy looking crates. The odd smell of rubber still clung to the walls and the insulation, but thankfully, the Oozeling menace was put down before it could become a widespread issue.

"Don't worry about the mess... I was going to get this thing washed soon anyway, it'll all come off. I hope. Anyway, here's the deal. The Cydonians have the spaceport on lockdown, and they have boosted security around the perimeter here a little bit, but the usual system of getting access to your own ship here is still the same as the one we had before the occupation. That is to say... It's kinda shoddy.

OK. . . I'm getting some mixed messages, here. First, you say that the Cydonians have cloaked soldiers, then you say that they haven't updated the shiplot's security measures? Do you know that these soldiers exist - Have you seen any evidence, or just heard stories? If it's the latter, they could just be a myth spread by the Cydonians to keep the Gnorrans in check. 
As for the dreadnought - It's in atmosphere? Wouldn't it be extremely easy to find there? All you'd need to do is monitor upper-level wind-currents and look for disruptions in standard airflow patterns - Something that large is going to have an impact. 
 

[Endgame]

6 minutes ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

OK. . . I'm getting some mixed messages, here. First, you say that the Cydonians have cloaked soldiers, then you say that they haven't updated the shiplot's security measures? Do you know that these soldiers exist - Have you seen any evidence, or just heard stories? If it's the latter, they could just be a myth spread by the Cydonians to keep the Gnorrans in check. 
As for the dreadnought - It's in atmosphere? Wouldn't it be extremely easy to find there? All you'd need to do is monitor upper-level wind-currents and look for disruptions in standard airflow patterns - Something that large is going to have an impact. 
 

"Well, I haven't seen them do a bit of construction work or renovations in this place since they got here. They'd have to tear everything up to replace the old system And all the droids are the same, so shiplot security is almost certainly still the way it was before the Cydonians got here - shoddy as ever. The cloaked soldiers are a total rumor, and to be honest, I think you may be right that they're just meant to spook us.

Yelana, I'm a merchandiser who transports cargo crates." she says, rapping her knuckles against one of the boxes she was sitting on, as if to prove her point. "I don't know the first thing about detecting a cloaked ship. So I can't help you there. I just hope that my info on how to get through the security here is enough to help you on whatever mission you're on. Really, I can't thank you enough for getting rid of those Oozelings."

Edited January 22, 2020 by Endgame

[Classic_Spaceman]

10 minutes ago, Endgame said:

"Yelana, I'm a merchandiser who transports cargo crates." she says, rapping her knuckles against one of the boxes she was sitting on, as if to prove her point. "I don't know the first thing about detecting a cloaked ship. I hope that my info on how to get through the security here is enough to help you on whatever mission you're on. Really, I can't thank you enough for getting rid of those Oozelings."

Oh, please. Breaking cloaks is easy. You ever push your hand through water, like in a sink or a tub? Air works the same way - You move something through it, and it leaves a wake. You find the wake, and you've found your cloaked ship. I'd think a pilot would know that. 
I wonder. . . What's the weather usually like, here on Gnorra? Do you have control systems, or is it natural? 
 

Edited January 22, 2020 by Classic_Spaceman

[Endgame]

Just now, Classic_Spaceman said:

Oh, please. Breaking cloaks is easy. You ever push your hand through water, like in a sink or a tub? Air works the same way - You move something through it, and it leaves a wake. You find the wake, and you've found your cloaked ship. I'd think a pilot would know that. I wonder. . . What's the weather usually like, here on Gnorra? Do you have control systems, or is it natural? 
 

"Control systems? That's usually reserved for those high-class ritzy city satellites, where politicians and holo-stars spend their summers. If it rains, it rains, if it doesn't, it doesn't." The woman shrugs.

"Does your mission have anything to do with taking down a dreadnought, or are you just curious? Because honestly... you may be a match for a lot of things on this planet, Oozelings included, but I dunno if anything is a match for a Cydonian dreadnought. But maybe I'm just a pessimist."

[Classic_Spaceman]

5 minutes ago, Endgame said:

"Control systems? That's usually reserved for those high-class ritzy city satellites, where politicians and holo-stars spend their summers. If it rains, it rains, if it doesn't, it doesn't." The woman shrugs.

"Does your mission have anything to do with taking down a dreadnought, or are you just curious? Because honestly... you may be a match for a lot of things on this planet, Oozelings included, but I dunno if anything is a match for a Cydonian dreadnought. But maybe I'm just a pessimist."

Whatever kind of cloak these hypothetical Cydonian soldiers are using is likely to operate on the same principle as the cloak on the dreadnought. If we know how to track that, we know how to track the solders - If we need to. 
We may not need to, though, if you're right about the rain. If the weather's unpredictable, the Cydonians will have fewer opportunities to deploy their cloaked troops. 
 

Edited January 22, 2020 by Classic_Spaceman

[Yzalirk]

Igaz rolls his eyes.  Wait, does he even have any..?  Hypothetical eyes maybe?

"Yelana, settle down.  We should stick to the task at hand."

"Faeja,are these ID print patterns completely random or are they assigned with a reason in mind?  Maybe a way to represent the owner's job or status?  We can be here all day playing the Guessing Game and hope we're right... unless..."

 

Spoiler

Exactly what color is the gore color left by the Oozelings?  If it is blue maybe Igaz or someone else can disguise themselves to look like Jek and fool the droid.  Just an alternate idea. 

 

[Endgame]

"They're almost fully random... for whatever reason I don't think there is ever any more than three black squares in any row or column on the grid. Something about IDs of with full black lines being made obsolete or something? Never quite got all the info on that one."

The Oozeling dregs are scattered outside Faeja's ship... their outer carapaces had started fading to a sickly gray, but their bright red red and blue goo remained fairly vibrant...

MM Note: You're lucky I decided to color the Oozelings in an arbitrary way!

Edited January 22, 2020 by Endgame

[Classic_Spaceman]

11 minutes ago, Goliath said:

Igaz rolls his eyes.  Wait, does he even have any..?  Hypothetical eyes maybe?

"Yelana, settle down.  We should stick to the task at hand."

Igaz: That's exactly what I'm doing. This isn't my first run-in with cloaking tech, but I want to know precisely what the Cydonians are using. Ideally, we don't come into conflict with them, but if we do, we need to know what we're facing.
Also, understanding Cydonian tech and tactics gives us insight into their culture and overall strategies. 
 

[samurai-turtle]

 

20 minutes ago, Endgame said:

"They're almost fully random... for whatever reason I don't think there is ever any more than three black squares in any row or column on the grid. Something about IDs of with full black lines being made obsolete or something? Never quite got all the info on that one."

Quote

Black is b (B) 

White is w (W) 

Wbbb

Bbww

Bwbw

Bwwb 

Hearing this new information adjusted the basic arrow it made.

/// What? Now I have to make a new pattern. 

/// I will attempt to make some adjustments to the "red droid" ...Have this new security pass been updated into you systems yet. 

17 minutes ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

Igaz: That's exactly what I'm doing. This isn't my first run-in with cloaking tech, but I want to know precisely what the Cydonians are using. Ideally, we don't come into conflict with them, but if we do, we need to know what we're facing.
Also, understanding Cydonian tech and tactics gives us insight into their culture and overall strategies. 
 

/// Are you looking for a new ship? Besides a cloaked ship probably would not be in the lower atmosphere, it probably be hiding in the planet's magnetic fields. And not needing to have an cloaking device active to hide. Plus this planet's defenses seem minimal at best. 

[Endgame]

Just now, samurai-turtle said:

 

Hearing this new information adjusted the basic arrow it made.

/// What? Now I have to make a new pattern. 

/// I will attempt to make some adjustments to the "red droid" ...Have this new security pass been updated into you systems yet.

The war bot's first pattern seems to do pretty well for a first go - 10 of the 16 squares were correct, right off the bat. 9 attempts remained.

And then, using his prowess with technology, the war bot makes some adjustments to the red droid and peek into its data banks. Would it take the Simple option through a backdoor, netting the party another attempt, or would it take the Skilled route, giving them further intel on the nature of the passcode? Failure at a given check would result in an attempt being removed...

[Yzalirk]

Noticing that the Oozelings left behind some red and blue goo, Igaz decides to play arts and crafts where he cannot be seen.  He scoops up some of the blue goo and begins to paint his face, helmet, and visor with it.  He then scoops up some of the red goo and paints eyes to imitate those of Fangrear's on his visor.

"My name's Jek."  Igaz chuckles to himself.  "You guys can try to fake an ID, I'll pretend to be Jek."

Igaz waits for Tester-Three to finish interacting with the red droid to avoid suspicion.

[Endgame]

Just now, Goliath said:

Noticing that the Oozelings left behind some red and blue goo, Igaz decides to play arts and crafts where he cannot be seen.  He scoops up some of the blue goo and begins to paint his face, helmet, and visor with it.  He then scoops up some of the red goo and paints eyes to imitate those of Fangrear's on his visor.

"My name's Jek."  Igaz chuckles to himself.  "You guys can try to fake an ID, I'll pretend to be Jek."

Igaz waits for Tester-Three to finish interacting with the red droid to avoid suspicion.

Faeja looks on in horrified silence, her face going just a bit green.

"Igaz, you... You just... Eurgh, some of that looks like it's still burning a little bit! G-guess you're not afraid to get your hands dirty, huh?"

[Kintobor]

“I wouldn’t say I’m an expert on machines,” Dunola comments to Tester Three, trying to inquisitively peer over his bulk to see the hardwiring in action, “but I wouldn’t say I’m a newbie, either. If you want a hand, let me know.”

 

Just now, Goliath said:

Noticing that the Oozelings left behind some red and blue goo, Igaz decides to play arts and crafts where he cannot be seen.  He scoops up some of the blue goo and begins to paint his face, helmet, and visor with it.  He then scoops up some of the red goo and paints eyes to imitate those of Fangrear's on his visor.

"My name's Jek."  Igaz chuckles to himself.  "You guys can try to fake an ID, I'll pretend to be Jek."

Igaz waits for Tester-Three to finish interacting with the red droid to avoid suspicion.

Dunola stares at Igaz wide-eyed.

”What’s on your face, Igaz?”

[Yzalirk]

Just now, Endgame said:

Faeja looks on in horrified silence, her face going just a bit green.

"Igaz, you... You just... Eurgh, some of that looks like it's still burning a little bit! G-guess you're not afraid to get your hands dirty, huh?"

"Nope!  I'm undead so this is perfectly cool by me."

Just now, Kintobor said:

Dunola stares at Igaz wide-eyed.

”What’s on your face, Igaz?”

"Just some gore left behind by those Oozelings.  Aren't I pretty?"  Igaz says jokingly.

 

Spoiler

I cannot stop laughing, this is too funny.  This is easily the most amusing thing I have ever done in a roleplay.

 

[samurai-turtle]

8 minutes ago, Kintobor said:

“I wouldn’t say I’m an expert on machines,” Dunola comments to Tester Three, trying to inquisitively peer over his bulk to see the hardwiring in action, “but I wouldn’t say I’m a newbie, either. If you want a hand, let me know.” 

/// You have any ideas try them, I seemed to get 10 out of 16 correct. 

/// Should I attempted to get more tries or some more information, failure could active security protocol. 

[KotZ]

9 hours ago, Endgame said:

"As for why I seem nervous, there are rumors swirling around that the Cydonians have invisible cloaked soldiers roaming around Gnorra. We know that they have at least one dreadnought still cloaked in atmosphere, but, well, yeah. If they are listening, they would've probably already done something?"

"Cloaking devices? Fascinating. Are they common out in this area? Getting my hands on one has always been a goal of mine."

14 minutes ago, Goliath said:

"Just some gore left behind by those Oozelings.  Aren't I pretty?"  Igaz says jokingly.

 

  Hide contents

I cannot stop laughing, this is too funny.  This is easily the most amusing thing I have ever done in a roleplay.

 

"Well," Kleeck grimaced, "that is just... wonderful, Igaz. Truly. I'm not sure what culture would approve of this, but I don't think it's one in our galaxy."

[Yzalirk]

3 minutes ago, KotZ said:

"Well," Kleeck grimaced, "that is just... wonderful, Igaz. Truly. I'm not sure what culture would approve of this, but I don't think it's one in our galaxy."

"I'm sure there are people who do this more often than I.  But if it helps us get to Jek's ship, I will gladly do it again.  Maybe we should find you some pink goo, Kleeck, and turn you into a flamingo."  Igaz says sarcastically while cracking a rather gross smile.

[Classic_Spaceman]

40 minutes ago, samurai-turtle said:

/// Are you looking for a new ship? Besides a cloaked ship probably would not be in the lower atmosphere, it probably be hiding in the planet's magnetic fields. And not needing to have an cloaking device active to hide. Plus this planet's defenses seem minimal at best. 

I wouldn’t pass one up, but more to the point, if the dreadnought isn’t in the lower atmosphere, how do people know it’s there? Unlike the cloaked soldiers, this thing seems real. 
 

36 minutes ago, Endgame said:

The war bot's first pattern seems to do pretty well for a first go - 10 of the 16 squares were correct, right off the bat. 9 attempts remained.

Nicely done. 
 

37 minutes ago, Endgame said:

And then, using his prowess with technology, the war bot makes some adjustments to the red droid and peek into its data banks. Would it take the Simple option through a backdoor, netting the party another attempt, or would it take the Skilled route, giving them further intel on the nature of the passcode? Failure at a given check would result in an attempt being removed...

Uh, phrasing. Anyway, I’d suggest going for the intel - We have nine tries left, and you already got the code almost right. 
 

36 minutes ago, Goliath said:

Noticing that the Oozelings left behind some red and blue goo, Igaz decides to play arts and crafts where he cannot be seen.  He scoops up some of the blue goo and begins to paint his face, helmet, and visor with it.  He then scoops up some of the red goo and paints eyes to imitate those of Fangrear's on his visor.

"My name's Jek."  Igaz chuckles to himself.  "You guys can try to fake an ID, I'll pretend to be Jek."

22 minutes ago, Goliath said:

"Nope!  I'm undead so this is perfectly cool by me."

"Just some gore left behind by those Oozelings.  Aren't I pretty?"  Igaz says jokingly.

I. . . You know what, I’m not even going there. Not even. Yeah, I. . . Yeah. 
 

5 minutes ago, KotZ said:

"Cloaking devices? Fascinating. Are they common out in this area?"

Good question - I have some theories, but I’d like confirmation. 
 

[Endgame]

1 minute ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

I wouldn’t pass one up, but more to the point, if the dreadnought isn’t in the lower atmosphere, how do people know it’s there? Unlike the cloaked soldiers, this thing seems real.

Good question - I have some theories, but I’d like confirmation. 
 

"The dreadnought is definitely real. We even know its name. It's the Epigraph. It showed up in atmosphere alongside some other pieces of Cydonia's fleet - we saw it enter out atmosphere, but we never saw it leave, unlike some of the others. Plus, apparently it might have even fired a few days ago? I don't know how true that is."

16 minutes ago, KotZ said:

"Cloaking devices? Fascinating. Are they common out in this area? Getting my hands on one has always been a goal of mine."

"Hm, not that I know of. A few years back I saw listings for cloaking devices that obscured you on digital recordings, but not to the naked eye - even those still ran you a couple hundred credits. If the real deal is floating around on Gnorra, I've never seen it and I wouldn't know where to find it. Then again, if the real deal was right in front of my face I still probably wouldn't see it."

[KotZ]

20 minutes ago, Goliath said:

"I'm sure there are people who do this more often than I.  But if it helps us get to Jek's ship, I will gladly do it again.  Maybe we should find you some pink goo, Kleeck, and turn you into a flamingo."  Igaz says sarcastically while cracking a rather gross smile.

"A flamiiingo?" Kleeck repeated. "Well, maybe, but I do not believe my beak would look right for a flamingo."

20 minutes ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

Good question - I have some theories, but I’d like confirmation.

10 minutes ago, Endgame said:

"Hm, not that I know of. A few years back I saw listings for cloaking devices that obscured you on digital recordings, but not to the naked eye - even those still ran you a couple hundred credits. If the real deal is floating around on Gnorra, I've never seen it and I wouldn't know where to find it. Then again, if the real deal was right in front of my face I still probably wouldn't see it."

"Well, a functioning one, of course, would be difficult to spot." Kleeck cleared his throat and shook his feathers. "Would you know anyone who may have come in contact with one?"

[Classic_Spaceman]

5 minutes ago, Endgame said:

"The dreadnought is definitely real. We even know its name. It's the Epigraph. It showed up in atmosphere alongside some other pieces of Cydonia's fleet - we saw it enter out atmosphere, but we never saw it leave, unlike some of the others."

Kind of the point of a cloaking device, but I digress. 
What does the Epigraph look like? Do you have a holo of it? What did the rest of the Cydonian fleet look like, and how large was it? 

 

7 minutes ago, Endgame said:

"Hm, not that I know of. A few years back I saw listings for cloaking devices that obscured you on digital recordings, but not to the naked eye - even those still ran you a couple hundred credits."

That’s what I thought. 
 

8 minutes ago, Endgame said:

"If the real deal is floating around on Gnorra, I've never seen it and I wouldn't know where to find it."

Wouldn’t you? What do you know about the “Umbra Auction”? I’ve heard that it’s something of a Gnorran tradition. 
 

[samurai-turtle]

13 hours ago, Endgame said:

The war bot's first pattern seems to do pretty well for a first go - 10 of the 16 squares were correct, right off the bat. 9 attempts remained.

And then, using his prowess with technology, the war bot makes some adjustments to the red droid and peek into its data banks. Would it take the Simple option through a backdoor, netting the party another attempt, or would it take the Skilled route, giving them further intel on the nature of the passcode? Failure at a given check would result in an attempt being removed...

/// I will try to get more attempts out of the "Red Droid". 

To the "Red Droid" 

/// I am your friend. I am not trying to hurt you. I am updating your "security protocols"...

/// I recommend a basic checkered test pattern to try out.  This one has 9 similar squares from my last try, a reverse pattern only has 7 similar squares from my last try.  

Quote

The nine similar square pattern (B,b= black ; W,w=white) 

Bwbw

Wbwb

Bwbw

Wbwb

 

Edited January 22, 2020 by samurai-turtle

[Endgame]

Tester-Three works his cybernetic magic. His proficiency test is a success, and the party earns back a try - his next submission will not count. (That being said, it's hard to imagine that trick working on the droid a second time...)

"Security protocols... updated?"

The new pattern submitted has nine correct squares. Nine attempts remain.

Would the party submit more guesses, or resort to more (perhaps Oozeling remnant based) deception?