Jody Sapphire sits in her room, the glow of her Z-watch painting blue light over walls crowded with trophies, masks, photos, and mission souvenirs. The diagnostic scrolls upward clean and steady, then stutters.
A sharp unauthorized ping snaps from the watch, too fast, too precise. The signal is not coming from outside. It is coming from somewhere inside her own home network.
Jody Sapphire
That source is on the local network.
The room’s smart speaker wakes with a click, its ring light pulsing once. A woman’s voice filters out, calm and clipped, like she is already inside the system.
The Hooded Courier
Jody Sapphire, do not move. I am not here to fight you. I need ten seconds before your watch locks my trace.
On the Z-watch display, a hidden access request blooms in red. The hack is active, and it is reaching deeper by the second.
The Hooded Courier
If you want Smith Corp. off your trail, answer now, and keep me connected.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify and neutralize the intruder in the home network
“Can I use the Z-watch to lock the intruder out of my network?”
YES, BUT (Even, rolled 47)
Jody Sapphire taps the override command on her Z-watch, but the interface flickers and freezes in a loop of static. The intruder's code is already too deeply embedded to be purged by a simple lockout.
“I ask the Hooded Courier who she is”
SUCCESS (Good Persuasion, rolled +1)
Jody Sapphire asks who she is, and the smart speaker answers first with a soft burst of static, like someone leaning closer to the line.
The Hooded Courier
I am the Hooded Courier. And yes, Jody Sapphire, I am the one keeping watch in your network right now.
The Hooded Courier
I trust you enough to say it plainly, Smith Corp. put a mirror device on your home mesh. Give me the channel, and I cut it out.
Jody Sapphire
She knows my name.
The red code on the Z-watch tightens into a narrow thread, no longer flooding the whole display. The bedroom goes strangely still around the speaker’s faint crackle.
The Hooded Courier
Your system is listening to me now, not them. If you want it clean, I need your permission to finish the sever.
The threat is identified, and the line is open. One answer decides whether the intrusion dies here, or keeps its grip on Jody Sapphire’s home network.
“I give the Hooded Courier permission to sever it”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Technology, rolled +0)
Jody Sapphire
Do it. Sever the connection.
The smart speaker answers with a hard click, and the red thread on Jody Sapphire’s Z-watch snaps cleanly in two. The display clears to blue diagnostics for a single heartbeat.
The Hooded Courier
Channel cut. The mirror device is identified, and it is off your mesh now.
A sharp burst of feedback spits from the speaker, then silence. On the watch, a trace route flashes once, tagged to a device node inside the home network before it collapses into a dead gray line.
The Hooded Courier
They know someone inside their net just lost them. Pull the plug on anything talking to the house for a minute, and they miss the handoff.
Jody Sapphire
The trace is local.
The bedroom settles, but not cleanly. The speaker’s indicator stays solid, and the watch now shows a second alert, a dormant packet waiting for Jody Sapphire’s next move.
Quest Complete
Identify and neutralize the intruder in the home network
Skill Upgrade: Persuasion Good→Great