PRP: DYLF: Philip's Sanctum

**ReubanBrightwood** · Mar 16th, 2024 06:27 AM

the e-ail reads thus --- Ronald. Get to reception asap we have a Mr. F. Reggie here for an unscheduled appointment to see the ashes of the Indian girl. --- Sent from a generic reception e-mail account for the crematorium.

Buying the data is easy and takes no time, no hacking roll is needed to log into her socials because you have the info you need now., she is not a company or agency that maintains a hacker worthy protection plan.

Sorry to waste the roll, when changing tasks post what you are doing and see what roll I want if any

, take the time spent on the hacking back, you can use it elsewhere

Her e-mails are full of spam, a few messages for mourners and friends. Some tearful heart felt messages from her mum who seems to be using this as a way to try and grieve. The latest reads, --- We are coming to take you home. We will see you soon. -- Philip is able to deduce from this message and the kick starter page to fund their trip when and where her parents are due to arrive and if he wants to meet them during their time in the city he would be able to do so.

But in terms of activity from Mothisa it's dead nothing sent, nothing replied to. Nothing checked as seen since her death until Philip clicks on it.

However as he searches through the mass of data his own cyber security pings *Malicious attack detected*

Someone does something 1 success

We are moving into moment by moment so one roll per post until this threat is handled

**Philip Crosen** · Mar 16th, 2024 05:56 PM

After much less time than he expected, he was able to access Mothisa`s e-mail easily with the passwords he got on the dark web. It was only 1:30 PM. Philip was careful he didn`t click on any mails as he browsed the timestamps on the mail in Mothisa`s inbox since her death, so as to set off as few alarms as possible. After all, he wanted to see if she, or anyone else had accessed them since and clicking on them wouldn`t help him there. It was soon clear there`d been no activity since her death. He minded his business as much as possible on her account though, and didn`t pry too far into any of the likely mundane correspondence from before and after her death. While he was able to see her parents were coming and he was able to deduce when and where from the kickstarter, he didn`t see any point in meeting them. He wanted as little direct association as possible to make identifying him harder. So he briefly looked at the other titles of the most recent mail and, not seeing anything of note or interest, decided this lead wasn`t worth investigating any further.

Then, he briefly turned his thoughts back to Mr. Hemmingway`s e-mail. The one problematic document, still with his forged name, would have to be deleted from the server and this must be made to look inconspicuous to the guide and secretary, he figured.

But then, he was caught off-guard and he wasn`t able to even think more than one second of his ideas, as he caught the red *malicious attack detected* ping on his computer.
Darn, someone saw caught me. I really am a master at that. But no one will get into my system so easily! I think not! he thought, scoffing loudly to himself.
He knew that as a last resort he could always turn off his computer and buy a new one if absolutely needed. He knew that in that case, whatever data that would be on his computer at such a time would be a pain to recover.

So, with a chip on his shoulder and particular determination, he summoned all his willpower, knowledge and wit and went all out to try to prevent this foreign intrusion, and keep it out. And ideally find out which IP adress was doing the intruding, if he got really lucky that is.

4 successes

Second willpower used for him in DYLF: Philip`s Sanctum in total.

**ReubanBrightwood** · Mar 16th, 2024 06:06 PM

As Philip moves to add new passwords, change old ones, scramble data, lock ports and all in all prevent the attack his system continues to alert him to the threat, although so far his efforts are proving successful. Nothing breached, nothing compromised nothing accessed. Yet the question remains, why? who? is it related Mothisa? has he been rumbled? did he miss a trick with his security? his research? his own hacking?

2 successes

Extended and contest Philip vs Hacker --- Philip has rolled 1/4 times and has 4 suxx, Hacker has rolled 2/? times and has 3 suxx (I'll track stuff just to keep the progression of the contest clearly up to date

**Philip Crosen** · Mar 17th, 2024 04:26 AM

Philip settled into a rhythm. He didn`t even notice the first half hour fly by as he continued doing what was necessary to stop or mitigate the intrusion into his systems. But after that first half hour, his frantic pace slowed slightly and he gave himself time for a single stray thought.
I bet it`s one of my dark net vendors, or a counter-hack. If it is someone from the crematorium, though, that would be very interesting. he thought, frowning to himself, before continuing.

1 success

**ReubanBrightwood** · Mar 17th, 2024 04:38 AM

The game is afoot Cat and mouse chase each other round the world of code and systems each trying to gain an upper hand. One on the attack trying to find their way in, the other resolute in holding the line trusting in skills and technology to keep them out.

The intruder must sense Philips hesitation, notice slower responses, something because they come on at a blistering rate, no sooner seen off one trick then onto the next a relentless barrage pushing Philip onto the back foot as the contest progresses warning alerts popping up faster and faster the balance shifting away from Philip.

Continue the Hack 6 successes

Extended contest Philip has rolled 2/4 times and has 5 suxx. The Hacker has rolled 3/? times and has 9 suxx

**Philip Crosen** · Mar 17th, 2024 06:33 AM

The fleeting thought had been just that, fleeting. But it had distracted him significantly longer than he thought and expected. Because as he daddled around, his adversary was not messing around. And it didn`t take him long to get swamped by the alerts. His adversary was winning and he knew it. This made him angry, and so after another half hour, he looked at his clock and decided he`d had enough. He would not let some nobody defeat him so easily.

So he got out his phone-slash-order tool and decided he would need enlightened will to assist him with his endeavour. He would need Superlative Luck to get out of this one. He cast his wish out into the arcadian streams and hoped fate would answer his call. His nimbus flared, almost bathing his room in green and sharply accentuating all green objects in his room and giving them glow-in-the dark properties while all wavelengths in his room were shifted to the middle making everything appear closer to green. He knew fate was fickle so he`d used his order tool as he frequently did, but in his hubris he hadn`t thought to contain the spell should anything go wrong. And sure enough, Murphy`s law applied and it was not enough and he felt his magic go out of control, fueled by his rage at his adversary. Fate would have his way with him today as it did on so many days and he cursed under his breath. After all, this was the first time in a long time he`d screwed up as badly as he had with his magic. He`d heard stories from others but thought he was above such nonsense. It turned out that had been his arrogance, too.
Really! I`m at home, and someone is breaking in and fate wants to play tricks with me! he scoffed, deeply frustrated as this was turning into one lousy day.

1 success

4 successes

Nevertheless, he tried the best he could to steer fate in the direction he wanted despite his hubris and mitigating the damage done with his enlightened wisdom.

1 success

With that said and done, he turned his attention back to the hack, hoping against hope that fate would be merciful with him, immersing himself in his hacking and sinking back into his rhythm, hoping fate would show him mercy.

4 successes

earlier WP use and Superlative Luck, not `Superlative Fate`

**ReubanBrightwood** · Mar 17th, 2024 06:47 AM

Philip awakened to the watchtower of the lunargent thorn calls forth what is his, truth to cast back this few and as his nimbus washes forth into his sanctum the green luminesce altering reality around him to reflect his inner most soul if only brief Arcadia responds the blue glyph blazes into being in his pattern Supernal truth made real in the lie filling him with ... nausea, terrible gut wrenching nausea, every pout every cell revolting against the perversion, the intrusion as from behind the glyph? within the glyph? around the glyph? strands of nothing coil through his will working and wrench it free casting it beyond him. Still in his spell control but beyond his ability to affect directly anymore something or someone else is about to have a really lucky day.

As is ever the downfall of mages, get to caught in the lie of the fallen world for the briefest moment forget what waits restless and unseen and it will find a foothold, break down the truth piece by piece fragment by fragment, spell by spell.

However his skill holds strong, Philip is not after all reliant on Arcadia alone.

3 of the 4 suxx on resist hacking still count

Yet for all he is worth his foe gains ground pushing harder and harder finding the smallest holes a masterful effort on their part clearly. And Philip is running out of time to hold them off.

continue the hack 5 successes

Extended contest Philip has rolled 3/4 times and has 8 Suxx. The hacker has rolled 4/? times and has 14 suxx

**Philip Crosen** · Mar 17th, 2024 10:54 AM

Philip knew his adversary was winning, and this irked him. He also knew that if fate didn`t will it, there wasn`t anything he could do about it. So he took his failure in stride, while pushing all he could one last time to try to defeat his adversary anyway. This was all or nothing now, his last serious try at hacking. After all he`d already kept this up for one and a half hours and his endurance was reaching his limit. Hopefully fate would still reward him, or at least take away the pain of potentially compromised files. He knew that if this didn`t work, his last hurra was shutting down his computer for good, which would be a significant setback for him. But such was his lot.

6 successes

**ReubanBrightwood** · Mar 17th, 2024 01:41 PM

All suxx rom the roll count. Extended contest Philip has rolled 4/4 and has 14 suxx, Hacker has rolled ?/4 and has 14 suxx --- ties go to the defender.

Philip gives a last heroic effort as the attack seems to slow no new alerts anyway if only he can stabilise and handle the problems before him he should .Be. Fine. ... and he does by the skin of teeth in the face of unknown assailants and the abyss' vile attention Philip perseveres through making the safety he craves a reality. Unfortunately it took all of his focus to hold the attack and bay and he was unable to glean anything about the attacker in question.

But with threat handled he can breath for a moment, it had been close but he had done it. -- Now what does Philip want to do?

**Philip Crosen** · Mar 18th, 2024 08:22 AM

To say the intrusion attempt affected him was an understatement, and quite a large one. As he felt the alerts cease and he was reasonably sure his adversary had failed to glean anything from him, he breathed a long sigh of relief as he sat back in his office chair as he countered the last alerts and stabilized the situation and himself. Just. Barely. He knew he had dodged a bullet, several in fact. The abyss clearly had an interest in his mission. That was clear to him beyond any doubt now. And as always, it had wanted him to fail. He had come quite close to having to shut down his computer for good, which would have cost him possibly up to several months of data he had stored nowhere else if his adversary had broken through. He`d been careless with his spell, too. Nobody needs to know how badly I screwed up and almost screwed up. he thought, reassuring himself.
After a long beat, he forced himself to think. He had no idea who tried hacking him. Somehow someone has taken an interest in me and knows enough about me to try to hack me. How did they obtain this information? Mr. Vize? Or someone from the dark web?were two of his biggest guesses at the moment. I don`t think it was Mr. Hemmingway, but I dunno. he thought about his former guide, who seemed to just have nothing he could find that might hint at arcane secrets, although he`d been surprised before. But he knew he`d just have to wait for his adversary to try again. Only this time, he`d be ready for them, he assured himself.

Another lesson for him was that he knew he had to be even more vigilant with his digital activites, and activities in general now. That meant no more hacking for the time being, almost. This also included the e-mail in the servers of the crematorium. It, and the alias it contained, had to be deleted and just completely gone from the databanks in such a way as to be inconspicuous and almost impossible to reconstruct in order for it to get lost to the sands of time. Such that it was no longer accessible to sleepers at the very least, and ideally at least some abyssal threats either.

2 successes

With that done as well as he could, he turned his internet off on his computer. No more hacking for the time being. While on the one hand he was very interested in where the intruder had come from and who he was, he still had lots of other things to think about and he wanted to seal his win for the time being. All of his data currently on his computer would have to be backed up, just in case this happened again. So he plugged his 4 TB SSD into his computer and made a full local offline backup. As the download continued for hours, he looked through the files he`d collected on Mothisa and her known and unknown associates so far, once again. Philip was planning ahead, laying his options before him. One option that struck him was the gold ring with the Ohm symbol on Darren Greenfield`s finger after her death, and on Mothisa`s both before and after her death.

The ring is a connection, perhaps? he thought. And if Mr. Darren Greenfield has the same ring as Mothisa, but first after her death, he might be some sort of clue. After all, Philip already had the works, aka an almost full dossier, about him, which he spent a good twenty minutes combing over, trying to see any detail in the things he`d already saved that he might have missed earlier, while familiarizing himself with his personality, mannerisms and habits. Well, as much as he`d saved from his earlier research anyway, as there was no way he`s turning internet on right now. He got an idea from this. I know where he hangs out at. Don`t want to confront him directly, but I should be able to find out something about his interactions with some Postcognitive investigation techniques. He knew he wasn`t that strong physically, but more importantly he believed that direct personal interaction was out of the question for a different reason: There must be as little as possible that connects my person to this investigation. he thought. And he knew arcadian truth would be needed to make that into reality.

A couple hours later, it was 5:30 PM when all was said and done. The backup and associated downloads having just taken that long, despite his elite computer setup. Philip wasn`t ready to abandon his hacking quite yet, but turning his internet on to bait his hacker into attacking him again would have to wait until the following day.

Can he use pattern scouring again in the same scene, since two days have bassed since his last scouring? And can he again reduce his muscle mass for this, or would have to scour his health for this, this time?

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2024-03-16 06:04:33	Someone rolls 6 to Rolls to something (10 Again)	6, 7, 10, 2, 4, 7, 5	1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2024-03-16 17:48:09	Philip Crosen rolls 11 to Hacking (Int. 3+ Computer 1 + 3 Desktop-replacement laptop +1 internet) (10 Again, WillPower)	3, 8, 9, 5, 9, 10, 6, 7, 7, 4, 3, 7	4 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2024-03-16 18:03:09	Someone rolls 6 to continue the hack (10 Again)	8, 8, 3, 7, 5, 5	2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2024-03-17 04:25:39	Philip Crosen rolls 8 to continuing the counter-hacking (Int. 3+ Computer 1 + 3 Desktop-replacement laptop +1 internet) (10 Again)	3, 7, 2, 2, 2, 8, 6, 2	1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2024-03-17 04:32:44	Someone rolls 9 to continue the hack (10 Again, WillPower)	5, 10, 10, 7, 9, 4, 8, 9, 5, 4, 9	6 successes

PRP: DYLF: Philip's Sanctum

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