# GUMSHOE: Night's Black Agents - Tinker Tailor Vampire Die



## writernextdoor

For those that do not know, Night's Black Agents is Pelgrane Press' newest game, a combination spy thriller, eldritch horror, vampire suspense tale. 

I adore this game and would bear it's RP-babies if it would let me. Mechanically, GUMSHOE is pretty clean and easy for new and experienced hands alike to pick up, allowing for the focus to be on the particular story. 

For those that do not know me, I'm John. I...do stuff. One of those things is gaming. And this is my game, a slightly hacked version of a Mirror-version of Night's Black Agents called "Tinker Tailor Vampire Die". 

_*Some setup first: *_

This is a world where organizations like Mission Impossible's IMF also happen to have a need now to do things like "kill cultists, save the world, defeat arcane and terrible horrors that have for years (centuries?) attempted to control/enslave/eliminate mankind". You know, a typical Tuesday at the office. 

_*The characters:*_

The leader of this team is _*Mace Hunter*_, epic superspy extraordinaire, who has climbed the ranks of authority and espionage usually by dumb luck, and he now sits behind a desk and conducts this "symphony of insanity", while still managing to go out and have a date with a beautiful lady/his secretary/the wife of someone important. He misses field work, and wants back in, but the team needs a home base leader now more than ever.

His Point Man is _*Nick Darter*_, and he's everything Mace was ten years ago, only more vegan and less casual. Nick specializes in small arms, cold drinks and looking really good in a tuxedo. Everyone assumes Nick will succeed and exceed Mace one of these days.

_*Anna Latwanna*_ is the British hacker, working for Nick after he promised her he'd find out what happened to her sister Lucy (more on that in a minute). She does two things well, one with clothes on (there's not a system she can't get into) and one without (and she's desperate for Nick to try).

_*Mike Smith*_ (not his real last name) blows things and people up. He's a trifle deaf now, but this lapsed Catholic priest is second to none with fuses and detonators.
*
Rossini * (also not his real name) is most likely an escaped convict. No one is really sure. He's got no fingerprints, and depending on who you ask he's either a former Secret Service Agent or a birthday clown. He lives to drive and fly. There's a rumor he once turned an ice cream truck into a submersible to pilot the canals of Venice.

_*Desdemona Briggetti *_(probably not her real name) has a history. She'll have your history, if you're not careful. Desdemona has been a princess, an oil baroness, several different men and a leper. That was last week. This week she's whoever the job needs her to be.

This adventure has three prequels, explained below.


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## writernextdoor

The prequels occur anywhere from 1 year to 6 weeks prior to the start of the campaign. While these prequels are happening, the PCs are working at their previous jobs, getting burnt and disavowed and being recruited by Mace to a new team. 

*Prequel I: There's something about Lucy*
Lucy Latwanna was a school teacher, who enjoyed her job, even if it was in the middle of nowhere, teaching kids who would be lucky if they got out with a grade school education. The town lived and died because of the mines and mill, not because some kid knew who Chaucer was. 

On the second evening of Parent-Teacher conferences Hector and Evgeny showed up. Now Lucy was not one to quibble over a student having two daddies, she knew it was possible and it didn't bother her the way it bothered some of the other faculty. 

Lucy didn't come back to school the next morning. Two days later, her bank accounts were empty, her apartment was cleaned out and all that was left was a note on a thumb drive. 

A pair of couriers (two disposable characters I created for the players to learn the rules/mechanics) had to get the thumb drive to Mace, who was doing background checks on recently available agents. He offered the couriers fifty thousand dollars each to get him the drive in three days. All they had to do was drive eighty miles. 

It should have been an easy job: go to the house, get the package, drive it, get paid. The couriers though, didn't expect a team of burglars searching the house when they arrived. Or that they'd get shot at. 

_Side note - couriers are surprisingly well-trained._

After getting the truck shot at, after one of them cracking some ribs from a fall off a fire escape, they got the drive, and did t heir best to put distance between them and the situation.

And all was well, until the situation had grenades. And one of the burglars tried to peel the skin off the second courier in her dreams. By using his teeth and an egg beater. 

The truck didn't survive. The couriers did though, along with the drive, and got it to Mace at the airport, two hours before the deadline. 

*Prequel II: Mace on A Plane*
Thumb drive in hand, Mace got on the plane and settled into his first class seat, ready to hear the words of his boss in his ears. "Good evening Mister Hunter, we have some more work to do, if you're interested..." He was used to it. Time for another drink. Time for eight hours of sleep. 

Except what he heard was this:

"_Good evening, Mister Hunter. We have some more work to do, and the job starts now. There's a problem with your plane, and in all likelihood, should you fail, I'll be sending fishing trawlers to find pieces of you all next month. We have reason to believe that on your flight is an old woman - someone old enough to have seen the first plane, and probably old enough to see the first printing press. Protect the drive and the plane Mace. Do all that's necessary. Nick is on the plane with you, he'll meet you in the lounge_."

So Mace and Nick, having heard the same information, had to figure out who the old woman was. Which didn't take too long, since they found her in coach, knitting at Mach 2 with three rows of adoring fans staring at her. There was something about her, she just...got in your head Nick felt and if he didn't stick to the plan, he would have put the plane into the ocean himself. 

But with careful use of salt, a bathroom and a drink cart, the old lady wasn't a problem... 

_(GM Note - I homebrewed an excel chart of vampire-construction, if you're interested let me know)_

She was however rather adamant that even if Mace and Nick stopped her, there would be others. And that they knew where Nick's mother lived. And they knew about Mace's summer cottage. And weren't afraid to pay visits. Somehow though, she was gone after Nick locked her in the bathroom.

The plane arrived in Munich, no one much the wiser. Most passengers thought it had something to do with oxygen on the plane or the altitude or the champagne. 

*Prequel III: The Munich Auditions*
Mace and Nick were sent to Munich to assist some rather not-good guys in doing something not-good but for the greater-good. Nick always found himself in that position; Mace only got there after two or three drinks, if you blew in his ear just right. 

They were posing as two hitters, button-men-for-hire, a pair of Americans who only trusted each other. It was not a hard role to play. Surrounded by angry German neo-nazi militants, their target was easy - level a building, run up a body count, maybe blow a safe or two inside and walk away.

Except this building was the house where Mace had previously loved Rebecca. Not just 'loved' Rebecca, but LOVED her, a long time ago before the job show its true colors and before he showed his. He left her via a single rose and an empty ring box.

But now she ran a day care. A day care for the children of diplomats and celebrities. And she was married now. With kids of her own. 

The job was in two days. That was plenty of time for he and Nick to extract her and the kids, right? 

Grudges run deep. Rebecca didn't patch that hole in her heart the way Mace did. She didn't drink for a week and sleep with any woman who smiled at him. 

When he broke into her house, and found her at the breakfast table, the first slap hurt. The second and third may as well have been foreplay. She still kissed just like before. He had to get her out. 

Nick however, met the leadership of this bomb brigade when they tried to tear his arms off and lick his heart clean. The meeting didn't go well. 

So, Mace and Nick, against the nazis, against whatever was leading them, in Munich, armed with whatever they could scrounge up in about a day. 

For any lesser man, running would be the only option. For Mace Hunter, running is not an option. Unless it's running headfirst into action.

The bombs went off, the building went down. The kids cheered. The nazis....not so much. Nothing could have survived that explosion, right? 

Rebecca was supposed to meet him at the airport. To join him. 

All he got was a single rose and an empty box. 

They didn't go home for two months. Nick needed a rest. They went to Monaco. Mace introduced himself to several stewardesses and hotel employees. It helped him get over the pain. 


The campaign starts about five weeks after that.....


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## writernextdoor

*Tinker Tailor Vampire Die, Campaign part 1*

Tinker Tailor Vampire Die (hereafter TTVD) hinges on a few key items. I'll lay them out first.



Several elements are of my own design: specifically the build-a-vampire chart, the burnbox (supplies available at campaign start), the chart on how they got burnt, and the number of points available for creation.
I also handle the 'Trust' component differently, and before they created the characters, I sat the players down and had them pick someone at the table who they trusted the most, and who they trusted the least. It's a large group (sometimes up to 7 players), so it worked out that no one got excluded in some capacity. Later, as characters were developing, I asked the players to justify their earlier selections through backstory.
During prequel gaming, I discovered that I needed to pad the Stability of the players a little, so I threw in a +1 to the pool to keep them from becoming gibbering idiots too quickly.
I re-instituted my AD&D house rule of "If you can explain it, I'll go with it", to keep the game from stalling into long silent down times.
Campaign Start​
Mace has returned from Monaco (see prequels) and has set himself up a headquarters in New York City at "Undisclosed Midtown Office" with a cover ID of being "Special Liaising Assistant to the Assistant Under-Secretary of the National Department of Commerce". From here he can dispatch the team globally while working on his own private mission.

PRIVATELY....Mace has been overhearing chatter about a large and potentially dangerous conspiracy with fingers reaching everywhere there's an authority figure or financial opportunity. Of course, he's been hearing about this by sleeping with people's wives and drinking a little heavier than normal. He's called this conspiracy "The Blue Book", tracking it off-the-record and not even trusting Nick with the details. Yet. 

So the campaign is built with two different, occasionally overlapping adventures, hooks and arcs. There are the missions that Mace gets from "The Man" and there are the missions that Mace and team discover/fall into trying to discover for Blue Book. 

Here's what Mace, to date, knows about "The Man" (so you at home can play along):


He's a high-ranking government official
He is NOT the President or Vice President of the United States
He is NOT the head of the CIA or FBI
He is not a ranked military officer, but he does have military experience
He is older than Mace (Mace figures he's at least 50)
He is or has been married to someone named "Julia"
He smokes foreign-brand (often Turkish) cigarettes
He drinks, preferring hard liquors and wines to beer
He does not own an iPhone.
He owns a home in New York, one in LA, one in Rome, one in New Zealand...all were bought in cash from a different realtor each time.
He prefers to communicate through buffers: often leaving voice mails, mp3s, or multimedia messages for Mace.
He has been inside Mace's home, when Mace may or may not have been awake.
He has killed before, and has no hesitation about doing it again.
He speaks at least 5 languages (Spanish, Mandarin, Italian, Russian and German).
He was educated overseas, likely Oxford
He has a soft spot for children, and will often make saving or protecting children a priority in missions
He does not use CIA or NSA chartered flights to ferry himself around the globe, but it is unlikely he flies commercially.
Here's what "The Man" knows about Mace Hunter:


Every damn thing.
Every affair, every disciplinary hearing, every part-time job Mace had since being in high school
He knows 10 of Mace's Cover IDs intimately, including the falsified credit histories and cover stories.


Mace is currently trying ascertain whether "The Man" knows about Rebecca's current location, Mace's hidden safehouses or Mace's slush funds (GM Note: He doesn't. Nor, to date, is he looking.)


Up Next: "The Asia Gambit" where the agents learn elevators are not their friends.


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## Piratecat

Loving this. I will probably move it over to the Story Hour forum, since it's more about plot and less about mechanics. Wishing I was in this game.


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## writernextdoor

Move it wherever you think it best belongs, of course. 

If you'd prefer I speak more crunchy, I'm happy to do so.


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## writernextdoor

*The Asia Gambit*

Mace assembled the team at a Starbucks down by Wall Street, by telling each of them the meeting location via homeless people paid to hold certain signs. (Rather elaborate, but worth it...you'll see why shortly)

Once gathered, Mace paid the staff to use their back room (free lattes!) and briefed the party.

A jewel thief is out of retirement, having been blackmailed to break into the Swedish embassy, needs to escape, and is willing to give up the names of former employers to get out.

Here's the wrinkle - he's not sure where he is. He was kidnapped, blindfolded, beaten and drugged. And he knows he was brought somewhere, a hotel suite across the street from the embassy, but in the middle of the night, something came in the room and...took care of his captors.

He was left alone though. That was 41 hours ago. He's since gotten free, and has some what free reign over the suite, but he's 60 stories up, he's not sure what is waiting for him in the hallway and he was only able to get access to the phone for 90 seconds to call the American Embassy and declare himself a "hostage of an unknown power". 

Mace got called at 4 this morning, and told to get the information the thief has. Optionally, save the man. But the data is the priority.

So when Nick's original plan was to pose as Hotel Staff was going to take too long, Mace turned to Rossini, who had a brilliant plan. 

Helicopter to the tall building NEXT to the hotel, break in and exfiltrate. 

Yes, it was so crazy it had to work. Right?

Getting the helicopter was no trouble (once I explained that you can make a Contact DO something rather than only HAVE something), and getting there was great. Even the landing was okay.

Just that they never asked how far apart the buildings were. And didn't have a plan for how to cross them. 

And they had no idea what to do about the Guatemalan Death squad on the hotel roof. 

The firefight was long, and slow (not mechanically, but tactically), since the Death Squad couldn't hit the broad side of the barn and the players were conserving ammo not bothering to shoot at the riflemen. 

Anna found the way across. Grapnel guns homebrewed from helicopter parts. (She's resourceful and prepared). This also was good, since the helicopter was eating bullets left and right. 

Guns built, the team rappelled/tightrope walked across the street. Eventually. In between firefight volleys. Once on the roof, the fight got personal and Mike introduced them to gravity. 

They didn't know what hit them after that. The party I mean. Some THING came up the rooftop access stairs and nearly knocked Desdemona off the edge (where she was hanging to gauge the distance to the possible open window). It was big. It had teeth. It smelled like old baby diapers. 

Nick's shotgun just annoyed it. Mike's grenade slowed it. The tear gas though, that helped. It was huge, and filthy and mean and oh man did it beat the snot out of the team. Eventually, they lured it to the edge and shoved it off, because even dogs of the devil can't fly. But they limped into the hotel, and found an empty suite. And bled everywhere. 

It was then they remembered the clock was ticking and the old jewel thief had info. Recuperating was no longer the priority and after trashing the bathroom (shower curtain bandages and bath mat sling), the party tried to track down the thief. Via the webtv in the room. 

After a horrific mistake where everyone on the third floor got free adult movies for 12 hours, the thief was located. To the elevator! declared Rossini

When the elevator came, there was one man in the car. One man with a lot of guns. The players, rather craftily, crammed into the elevator and shot out the light. 

Close quarters combat in the dark, in an elevator. Eventually they reached the floor, and wedged the elevator open with the guy's corpse.

The hallway was clear. Bone chillingly cold. Cold enough to see breath. But clear. The door though, when they got it, was torn off its hinges. 

The old thief was inside, safe, rested even showered and shaved. But he wouldn't talk. He just wanted to leave. So into the elevator they led him, and Nick just turned his eyes away for a second....

when he was pulled up through the elevator access panel, screaming and babbling as something large and spider climbed up the elevator shaft WITHOUT using the ladder. 

The team gave chase via the ladder. Rossini though realized the elevator worked so he rode up. And he was fine until the cable was snapped and he plummeted down. He didn't die, but only just. 

Back on the roof, the spidery thing spoke sweet words. And the old thief cried before the thing tore him to pieces. One word. "Grolliniere" And then his head left his neck and his spine left his back. 

The fight lasted maybe five minutes. They practically leveled the whole helipad to stop that thing. Nick almost lost an eye. Mike broke his leg, discovering he could still pray.

But they could go home...successful?

"Grolliniere" he said. The name of a French banker who only works with drug cartels and arms dealers. 

The team was going to Paris....as soon as they healed.

Next time.....Mace Hunter meets Devico.


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## Walker N. Waistz

Just a note to say this looks great, and that Night's Black Agents looks great too. I don't have my bloody hands on it yet, but that game has every appearance yet of being the best design yet from one of the 21st Century's best game designers.


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## writernextdoor

GM Note - One of the things I like to do with the characters of any campaign I'm involved in is to show them doing more than just the particular plot. Yes, it's all nice and well and good that the paladin is up early praying for guidance, but it's also good to see the paladin relaxing at the tavern cheering on the bard or seeing the spymaster doing normal-person tasks, giving them a chance to be a real character in a three-dimensional world. 

Mace Hunter, the spy who can do any/everything (allegedly) had to go grocery shopping last night. Living alone at headquarters is pretty easy when you've had some supplies shipped to the door, but eventually you need milk and bread and coffee. So to the store he went. 

While standing in the dairy aisle, and thanks to an inadvertent slip of the tongue ("I'm ready for anything, anytime."), who should he run into but Devico, who also had to go to the store. 

Devico is a bad man. He's bad because to him, it's still the 1960s and he's the baddest cat in Harlem. Except it's not the 1960s, and he's a white guy from Kansas. Devico is an information broker, able to connect people for a fee and not above blackmailing them when they don't stay connected. He calls himself, "Like AT&T, but with more gunplay."

Devico knows a thing or two about Grolliniere and he may know something about The Man (no, he's not The Man, the players worked that out in about ten seconds). And while waiting at the checkout line, he made Mace a deal.

"I know this store is about to be robbed in a minute. If, during the robbery, you can get your team together and send them to an address I give you, without calling the cops here, I'll tell you what I know about Grolliniere."

Mace never send out text messages faster.

Thankfully the team wasn't too far away and were able to hack into the grocery store security feeds to keep an eye on the robbery in progress. Through a series of blinks, Morse code taps on a stapler, and a clever use of brand names in a sales flyer, Mace sent the team to Devico's requested address.

Naturally it was an abandoned house on a block of slowly withering trees in a run-down poor suburb in residential New Jersey. And naturally, the place was beyond decrepit. 

At least on the outside. 

Swift work with prybars got them entry into a house that had its own power supply, phone system and military grade air system. Basically this house was a bunker. 

Or, as Nick believed, there was a bunker and someone put a ghetto on top of it. 

The house was deserted, dark and the lack of bulbs in the fixtures frequently gave pause and had the team tying rope to one another and sticking close to the walls. Which was great, until the landmines.

No, not a mine field, just a pair of landmines rigged to pressure plates in the wall, so that when the players leaned against the wall to get around the puddle of possible goo/acid/really-just-diluted-pudding-with-glitter-in-it) they went BOOM. 

Anna didn't know what hit her. She did however, find both pressure plates, after caroming off one onto the other. So I guess you could say the walls and ceiling hit her. Repeatedly. She survived, but mainly because Mike dragged her into the car and left her in the backseat. 

The rest of the team went through the bunker, and found a rather disturbingly sterile, recently used medical room, and they toyed with bringing Anna in there, until something came off the ceiling and tried to turn their brains into milkshakes and pulp.

Little known fact - If you put enough bullets into a thing before it can put its claws through your face, you win. 

The party also noted two things:
1. They tend to get beat up A LOT, and should probably consider finding a medic for a team position.
2. Going to a strange address given by a man in a grocery store is not exactly part of the job description.

But onward they ventured, and down into the bunker they went. Past rows and rows of empty rooms: barracks, cubicles, bathrooms and storage closets. Past old computers and reel-to-reel machines thick with dust. Past a kitchen with thirty years of canned food.

They reached what they believed was the lowest floor (it isn't, but they've not found the passage yet) and ran into a very fat creature, like a shaved chimpanzee with gout, who was busy sucking the marrow out of a skeleton. A skeleton that had a briefcase handcuffed to its wrist. A badly dented metal briefcase. With a USSR flag stenciled on it. 

Did I mention that the party also learned the value of casual ammunition and supply checks? Defeating this...thing took duct tape, three road flares, an office chair, some canned peaches and half a bottle of floor wax. 

GM Note - I may have to ratchet up the intensity on creatures now.

But they got the case (after using it to bludgeon the creature's head into applesauce) and got it open. 

Grollineire's real name is Markov. Piotr Markov. And he's got some Swiss bank accounts the team is now very interested in. Especially because that particular Swiss Bank is only accessible in person, with three forms of ID verification. 

Escaping the house/bunker was easy, almost fun. Not as much fun as calling the police that some terrorists had invaded a supermarket and had a chemical weapon hidden in the bread aisle, creating enough of a media frenzy for Mace (and his groceries) to make it back to headquarters, but pretty damn fun.

The team heads to Switzerland later this week.


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## writernextdoor

Upcoming TTVD post(s):

2 items of note here:

1. Expect something posted likely Thursday morning before I head to Dreamation. It will have the party in Switzerland.

2. There will also be a post-Dreamation report of the one-shot adventure...which I need to be writing now, actually.


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## Pelgrane

I'm watching this with interest. I've run four sessions so far, and they've just met a proper vamp.


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## writernextdoor

The team, Mace included, flew to Switzerland, hot on the trail of Piotr Markov (formerly called Grolliniere) and his Swiss accounts. 

There was some confusion, or rather deception about which bank(s) Markov used, and the team was not feeling very confident that they could simultaneously hack into every bank in Switzerland, so Rossini proposed a new idea:

Go find Markov in person. 

Markov was visiting family and attending a charity golf event on the shores of Lake Geneva ((NOTE - In our Cthulhu campaign, this site was a sanitarium, I just repurposed it)) and it wouldn't be too hard for the team to infiltrate the golf event, right?

Well, it shouldn't be hard. Some quick cover identities and some money exchanging hands helped to get the team in play. Mace was the announcer, Nick and Mike the caddies, the ladies the players and Rossini the escape plan/wheelman. 

The plan was shockingly simple - play some golf, talk to Markov, get the details, sneak off after losing on Day 2 of the event. 

The first problem - The ladies did not want to lose. They refused to lose. ((NOTE - And they rolled INCREDIBLY WELL)), so they kept winning, kept raising money for "The Society to Prevent Aggressive Seedy Machinations". Team SPASM finally got slotted into a foursome with Markov and his wife, and after almost organizing an orgy ((Foreign languages can be tough)), the quartet made fast friends.

Rossini, meanwhile was tracking down whether or the "elderly grandma" of Markov was actually elderly or a grandma. She was in fact a grandmother, but she was far more spry than he accounted for. So spry in fact, that she almost broke his arm when they wrestled for the gun after he took the Lord's name in vain and she recoiled from it. ((NOTE - New kind of Vamp tried out, REALLY worked well). 

((NOTE - The nursing home proved very problematic. The elderly, many listed as terminal or invalid, had slowly been becoming healthier, more youthful and more aggressive. The nursing staff thought that maybe it was a miracle. It wasn't))

Grandma apparently spent time in Brazil, as her jiu-jitsu was amazing. Rossini though, also spent time in Brazil, because his machete-jitsu was equally amazing. Snicker-snack went the blade and grandma lost a few fingers in the escape. 

His cover blown, Rossini improvised Plan B, break into Markov's apartment, locate the bank records, and get the team out quick. The apartment was nice, and Rossini even had time to raid the fridge. But there was a problem - Rossini was bleeding. Not terribly, but enough that he needed to empty a first aid kit and use a bottle of whiskey to clean himself up. 

But blood is blood, and grandma wanted blood. So to the apartment she trailed him, leaping from rooftop to rooftop Batman/Assassin's Creed-style until she met up with Rossini while he was picking the lock on Markov's desk.

They fought ((NOTE - Rossini found a way to spend EVERY point on his sheet, except his 2 in Bureaucracy - was BRILLIANT)) and eventually Rossini stole a car, and made his way to the golf course. He ended up sleeping in the parking lot. 

Because the rest of the party had been invited to a sunset champagne cocktail party to celebrate the close of Day 1. 

The party was good, Desdemona was smooth, and it didn't take more than a few hours of flirting to find out where the vault was and that Mace is going to have to assemble a special team for that job. ((NOTE - THE BANK JOB WILL BE RUN AT DREAMATION)). Markov's mistress, Tatianna was very happy to share details like that after seven drinks and some flirting. Markov though had some trouble....

Nick and Mace found him in the bathroom, where he may have "accidentally slipped when backing up from the urinal, performed a cartwheel, caromed off the sink, slid his head against the mirror and 'done a barrel roll' onto the floor" ((NOTE - Nick forgot the house rule of 'if you say it, the character says it' and a fight broke out.)). Markov was stuffed into a stall using some handcuffs (Mace brought them in case the party was "that" kind of party) and gagged with Nick's socks.

But they had the information, and judging by the mention of "more pieces on the board", Mace was going to have to assemble a larger team for the Op.

Time to go, right? Just give the exit strategy, everyone to the rendezvous point and it's over yes?

Nope. The sun set. Rossini was still in the parking lot. Asleep. At night. In the open.

Grandma found him and peeled the roof off the car like it was a Pez dispenser.  Fortunately, the team was on the patio and was able to help Rossini out. Grandma ended up staked on the 6th hole. 

Mission accomplished. Rossini got medical attention and the party went to the American Embassy in Geneva to prepare for The Bank Job.

Next time, A super team goes after Markov's bank.


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## Pelgrane

Any system/player stuff in brackets or footnotes read gratefully.


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## Piratecat

Agreed. System stuff, and hints you pick up while running, will be eagerly devoured.

(ahem) In a manner of speaking.


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## writernextdoor

I have some time tomorrow morning for a few observations to-date. I'll update then.


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## writernextdoor

Some observations:

Game Prep
------------

1. The adventures work best when there's a thin skeleton of linear action (basically a list of scenes/major beats) but bazillions of hooks and ways to move from scene to scene. For example, here's one beat from Saturday's game:

** The party (at least 2 members) should be on the second floor of the bank, and moved into NPC's office. ** ((NOTE - the numbers are the max spends))

Sense Trouble (2) - Was that a tripwire?
Bureaucracy (1) - Far more paperwork than would be expected...
Digital Intrusion/Infiltration (#) - Password is "carrots" (on underside of box of tissues)

GOAL - Find computer files GOAL 2 - Encounter sniper from window once seated at desk

Gone are the days of lengthy text, the system lends itself to improvised tension.

2. The players will tend to play 'short' (conserving points for what is perceived to be an end-moment) or 'burn' (constantly daisy-chaining refresh opportunities. Both should be capitalized on with staggered tensions, climaxes and spending-for-clue moments.

3. To get quiet or hesitant players involved, I've found it useful to suggest possible spends (not their amounts though) when they stall in a scene or feel pressured by the table.

Scene Operation
----------------
1. Not all scenes have the same weight. The expectation is that combat scenes are time and attention heavy, but here, one guy can drop a mook or two pretty easily. Also, given the GUMSHOE nature of play, the expectation is that discovery/investigation scenes are heavy. Mixing the nature of the two (short combats, long clues, long combat, short clues) keeps the whole game moving.

2. (Personal note) I found it a lot easier to reduce the importance of combat. It still happens, but it's not just combat-to-defeat-the-boss-monster. Combat-as-an-option-for-obstacle-resolution is a great way to make combat happen without signifying it as a red flag to players. (You can always punch your way out of here....)

3. It's not hard to offer refresh. I invented a few new cherries ('Dammit Jim I'm a Doctor' comes to mind as the new Medic refresh) that focus more on "using SKILL-gibberish to get involved at the table. So far, it's a great way to let the player(s) be creative and incite its continuation. Also, offering refresh regularly encourages them to spend points. 

Vampires
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1. It's not that I was disappointed with the vampires as-printed, I just thought it would be a shame NOT to make full use of the crunch and depth suggested. It's an excel chart. Not quite roll-and-build, but pretty close.

2. They should be tougher than the players. And that's a tough balance, very table-dependent, but I've found a base +1 or +2 to rolls to be a good incentive to spend in a fight. After all, if they were weaker, they wouldn't have such a big conspiracy, right?

3. It's nice having homebrewed vamps (at most I have 2 types), as players aren't sure which to prep for, so they intensify the role-play efforts.

Type 1: Stereotypic - Death by sunlight, stake, fire. Summons bats, wolves, rats, turns into mist. Mesmerizes the weak-minded. Invades dreams. 

Type 2: Religious/Evil/Damned - Death by sunlight, holy things (Water, tools), paralyzed by stake to heart, trapped by salt.

Treating them as breeds (though both are technically "Damned") keeps the players from always sharpening stakes and waiting for sunrise.

Players
---------
1. I'm still working on a way to incent players to do more than always spend 2 points. I think I just need to ratchet up difficulties.

2. I'm still working on getting people OUT of the roll-a-d20-skill-heavy-work-off-the-paper mindset, and that comes usually by spelling out the game which I do with this equation:

Mission Impossible + spy novels + Jason Bourne + Vampires + Cthulhu

At some point, everyone hooks to a part of that line.  

3. Because the mechanics are so easy and don't change, I find they actually DON'T hook players as easily as I thought. The setting/theme hooks them, the mechanics KEEP them. And the scenes have to reinforce that. 

There will be more later tonight, after Day 2 of Dreamation


----------



## Pelgrane

This is great- thank you! Have youi players been taking advantage of tactical fact finding benefits, tag team benefits, Cover and Network? Are they getting their extra pools for creating their org charts?


----------



## writernextdoor

They're HUGE fans of Network. And they're coming around on tag team benefits (due to other games, we're all little used to an odd sort of me-first or better-than-you competition). 

The org chart is starting to come together, I think some players have understood it more quickly than others (Mace's player and Anna's player both are familiar with the theme, so it was an easy sell -- the others are slowly coming on board as they get more into the vibe of play over time.

Regretably, I have to confess that GM Error is to blame for them not making more use of Cover - I didn't initially understand it, and when I first presented it, I did a poor and vague job of describing its uses. I've since caught my mistakes (mostly just not accounting for it as an option), and have been correcting the players' mistakes when it comes up, but I do think had I not started off with a misunderstanding I could have made more use of it. 

I will, going forward, point out more of the mechanical side of things. Sorry I didn't do that sooner.


----------



## Pelgrane

writernextdoor said:


> Regretably, I have to confess that GM Error is to blame for them not making more use of Cover - I didn't initially understand it, and when I first presented it, I did a poor and vague job of describing its uses. I've since caught my mistakes (mostly just not accounting for it as an option), and have been correcting the players' mistakes when it comes up, but I do think had I not started off with a misunderstanding I could have made more use of it.
> 
> I will, going forward, point out more of the mechanical side of things. Sorry I didn't do that sooner.




Network is the player-facing glue which attaches PCs to the setting.

I've just worked out how useful cover is, too. It was a failed cover roll which led to the players first unpleasant encounter with a Type II. I asked Ken about it before they'd really used it:




> I’m slightly concerned about the build points currency – why would you buy Cover or Network, when you can get reusable Disguise and other interpersonal abilities?
> 
> Because Cover and Network work better in their specific areas. You can't buy a specific Cover even with Disguise; Forgery burns out if it's cross-checked. Network is a real savings because it's essentially "wild" points: the same pool can be Investigative, string-pulling, or equipment-getting.
> 
> Plus, from a game play perspective, that's why you get the big pile of free Cover and Network points up front. You get used to using those, so you don't try to rewire the skills system on the fly.
> 
> Ken


----------



## writernextdoor

Dreamation Report

[Mechanical Notes are in braces]
((GM Notes are in double parentheses))

The adventure for Dreamation was a modified scenario, incredibly hacked for time and audience. ((I had 2 hours to run through a session, not 4, and therefore chopped out a lot of the second and third acts to accomodate playing. Also, because this specific scenario is still currently viable, what I'm presenting here is the barest of skeletons.))

The party ((Of the 45 characters pregenerated they took Mace Hunter, Nick Darter, Rossini, Chip Chesteron [sniper], Carter Byers [medic], Amelia Stewart [analyst], Anna Latwanna, Alice (no last name given))) was in Switzerland to rob a bank to retrieve the Macguffin.

Of course, trying to stop this from happening were the following facts:

1. The Bank was being sold to the Russian Mob.
2.  There was a team of terrorists trying to invade Switzerland
3. There was a robbery already in progress. 

Rossini thought it was prudent move to Forge [3 point spend] the bank's sales documents which were being couriered to the Bank. Amelia was Prepared [2 point spend] and worked with Chip and Nick [1 point Traffic Analysis, they tag teamed brilliantly] to discover the best route of Rufi, the Nigerian courier who was tasked with delivering the briefcase. 

Originally, they were just going to bribe him [via Amelia's preparedness] , impersonate him [via Mace or Nick's Disguise] and then forge the documents [Rossini's forgery]. 

And then the party realized Rufi was expendable, and thought perhaps he'd put up a fight, since the briefcase was chained to his wrist. 

There was a small fight, but an untrained, alcoholic Nigerian is no match for Nick Darter's krav maga [Nick's Hand-to-Hand 1 point]. 

They didn't kill him, they just broke his arm, and gave him some "career advice". ((Rufi will return later as a cab driver or something blue collar in a subsequent episode)).

So, Rossini bought the bank. And fired the security staff - replacing it with the rest of the team. 

And then they went into the cage of safe deposit boxes and the vault, only to find down there, they were not alone. A large relatively "not-alive" man was standing stock still, staring at the safe deposit box in question. 

Carter and Amelia went in for a closer look - and everything was okay, until Amelia had the bright idea to put a money bag over his head. Previously they put one in the guy's gut. He didn't bleed. He didn't even stagger. He just stood there and took it, like he was made of marble. 

But when they bagged him, the fight was pretty intense, but the agents were agile [both did some almost lucha-libre athletics to avoid the rather pot roast-sized fists, again, great tag teaming] and they managed to lock BagGuy in the cage, where eventually he just 'reset' back to staring at the safe deposit box.

Nick later went back down to open the box with the master key from Rossini's new office (where Anna and Alice camped out to handle the [Electronic Surveillance that they mysteriously found to be wiped out and static-y long before the party even arrived in Zurich].

Once the box was opened, and found to be empty ((There was HUGE confusion over whether or not the safe deposit box was an actual box, or just the door in a wall or something like a high school locker - this was due to the fact that party was way bigger than I thought and people just were NOT listening to each other)) save for a cross scratched into the sheet metal of the rear wall big a fingernail. A fingernail as it happened, that had to be attached to an arm that was likely 5 or 6 feet long.

Strange things were afoot at the Bank. Upon the discovery of the crucifix, the fire alarms went off, and the party scattered. ((Bad move on my part, I let the group fragment into thirds, and should have kept it linear))

Chip went to the roof to scout an escape plan, assuming that the Op was hosed. He encountered another sniper, and they exchanged a volley of fire. 

Amelia went outside with Nick to calm the bank tellers, and Nick ended up getting details on some of the strange goings-on in and around the bank lately [2 point Flirting spend] from Julie, the chain-smoking bank teller. Julie was able to describe one of four "suspicious people", and Amelia went downstairs to confirm that BagGuy was or was not one of them.

While down there, she managed to search the safe deposit box more carefully, and found the "drachetod", the germanic cult how-to guide and pass it off to Anna, who had a strange compulsion NOT to destroy it (As Mace wanted) but rather thought she could make use of it ((This was where the wheels came off - I'd like to run this whole scenario over with a smaller and more organized party)).

Rossini, now driving Rufi's armored car picked up the party, and the book and headed for the airport, ending the adventure as several mortars were lobbed into Zurich's busy city centers.


GM Notes:

1. TOO MANY PLAYERS - I expected 4, I wanted 6, I got 8. The room was large and they were too spread out to be a coherent group.

2. Not enough prep/setup on my part - I absolutely think I dropped the ball several times - Mechanically, this was probably my best run, but storywise it was a nightmare. The party broke into two groups - those around the table, acting more or less as a unit and then the people were on the room's fringes, who I think expected more out of a 2-hour session I had planned. 

To cut down on hassles (this version of the story took 1 hour, 51 minutes) I took out the whole second Act, both car chases, both ambushes, and the vampire reveal. I regret it. 

3. The favorite spends here were Preparedness, Athletics and Traffic Analysis. I was really happy to see people actually making use of ALL the pools available. 

I'm going to arrange my regular group run the same episode on Monday morning, and will compare results.


----------



## writernextdoor

((GM Notes are in double parentheses))
[Mechanical notes are in braces]

((The Dreamation adventure was re-run with a smaller group of five agents and was a HUGE success. The key seems to be party size and economy, so my Dreamation observations were accurate))

Having gotten the contents of the safety deposit box, the team (Mace Hunter, Nick Darter, Carter Byers, Anna the Hacker and Rossini) headed to the airport, to make good their escape. Everyone thought this would be a good and quick escape. No one thought twice about checking the airport in advance.

They should have.

The Russian mob, (the guys who also wanted the contents of the newly robbed safe deposit box), were swarming the airport. Thirty guys. Thirty guns, about two hundred hostages. News cameras. The army was getting called in. The airport was a no-go. 

The team needed medical attention, so Dr Byers took them to a medical safehouse [2-point Preparedness, 2-point Network spends] and gave everyone care and rest. ((We walked through the effects of [shrink] here, and found it useful to describe what exactly players did with the memories of what they dealt with - this gave everyone a heal and a refresh))

The airport standoff was still...stood off. The mob was making demands and as a result the number of trains being sent into and out of Zurich was restricted. 

Nick made some phone calls [3-points of Network, 3-points Cover] and got the team tickets on the first train to Zurich.

Why Zurich? Because The Man left a message for Mace saying that a critical asset (Natalie Endott, the German Minister of Commerce) could possibly be assassinated just after she gives a speech announcing a new plan to convert historical sites into interactive museums. The reward for safely protecting her and getting the speech broadcast? Access to a South African informant that knows something about a missing code-breaking machine. 

On the train ((I found it useful to provide them with actual pictures and layouts of train interiors here)), the team got settled, set up crude surveillance and secured the perimeter ((which is code for Nick-sat-by-the-door-with-a-gun).

The team was thorough. The communications between them were secure [Thanks to the Intrusion Cherry] and the car was basically a killbox [thanks to the weapons cherry]. Each team member checked a particular car on the train, and they felt very confident that they should have an easy time getting from Point A to Point B. 

However, not all searches are conducted the same way. Alice was tasked with checking the baggage car, and her search 'looked like it was okay'. ((She had a string of rolled 3's without spends)). The long boxes were probably just shipping containers for six-foot-long skis right? Sure. Absolutely.

An hour into the ride, as the team was busy planning for Munich ((the initial plan was to disguise as the asset, and give the speech)), the first problem happened. Power was lost in the middle of the train. People were sent back to their bunks/cars/rooms/whatevers. The train was still moving, they could still reach their destination, just that the food, bar and internet cafe cars were out of service until the electrician could re-route some powerlines. 

Carter ran into the electrician on the way to the washroom. He never saw an an electrician with so many tattoos or a silenced pistol in his toolbox [2-point Sense Trouble spend]. He brought this to the team's attention, and they all thought it a good idea to tail the gunner to the electrical conduit box in the baggage car. Alice, due to her previous poor search and a glare from Mace, was left behind to cover the door and try and corral communications as best she could.

The team found the electrician. His arm by the toolbox. A leg dripping against some suitcases. The delightful sound of a chest being cracked open and the blood being slurped out by something leathery, hunched and gaunt. 

((The team rolled pretty well here on the Stability check. I think they all spent 1 or 2 and rolled 5s and 6s)).

In close quarters, it's hard to argue with Rossini and a sawed off shotgun. The gun belched smoke and shot, and the creature skittered back, its leg reduced to ribbons. Out a window it fell, a long stretch of blood against the exterior of the car. 

Other large boxes were checked, and only one had a passenger. Another gaunt spindly creature, who was staked and beheaded, the head tossed out the window of the train's bathroom. 

((more of this to come, I can't read the player notes))


----------



## Piratecat

That string of 3s? One more reason why sometimes a 2 point spend just isn't enough. Ouch.


----------



## writernextdoor

<<notes resume>>

Hour two of the train ride started off easy. The train had power, the passengers were safe and the team didn't even have to fight. This looked like cake. 

And then the train slowed down. 

Normally, trains do that. It's expected. You can't go zipping across curves, everyone knows that. But here, on this flat stretch of land before a tunnel, there's no reason to slow down.

Everything slowed down. The train. The people. Time. ((I've been experimenting with the 'time dilation bubble' mentioned in the book - I'm not happy with it yet, but getting more comfortable))

The bubble passed, but the team knew something wasn't right. So they, in good agent fashion, split up. Mace went as far forward as he could. Nick went as far back. The rest of the team scattered among the passengers. 

Nick didn't find anything. Mace did.

The engineer was face down at the controls, his body weight pinning the deadman's switch down so the train kept running. His head though was spun completely around the wrong way, his face frozen in shock. Mace went in for a closer look and...

the creature, large and gaunt and stinking of sulphur, old baby food and wet mulch was on top of him.

[Mace then began a good series of spends. I'm listing them here: Filch 2, Sense Trouble 1, Athletics 2, Athletics 2, Parkour Refresh, Shooting 3, Athletics 2, Human Terrain 1, Sense Trouble 2, Athletics 3, Driving 1 + Athletics 1, Parkour Refresh]

This is how the fight went down:


The creature took a swing at Mace
Mace grabbed the small fire extinguisher
The two of them tussled. The creature although stronger, was hampered by the small room.
Mace avoided a few attacks and used the weight of the extinguisher to push it back.
The creature backed up in order to charge
Mace jumped and spun OVER the creature
The creature was....confused ((So was the GM))
Mace discharged the fire extinguisher at the creature
The creature, although not one to breathe, had trouble adjusting to the foam. ((We called this a visibility penalty))
Realizing that if the train kept up at this speed, it would hurtle down the cliff and into a small town, Mace slid under the creature and put his back to the controls. 
The creature dug its fingers into Mace's face, and nearly plucked out his eye.
Mace, pinched by the creature, used the time and the weight of the corpse to drive the train slowly through the bend
Mace then smashed the extinguisher into the creature's teeth and lept out the cabin's door.

Eye bleeding [Down to 2 Health], he grabbed salt from the bar car and sealed the cabin. He limped back to the team for medical attention [Byers: 7 point Medic spend, Medical refresh, 2 point additional spend - not technically in the rules, but Mace's player said, 'If you let Mace live, you can do anything you want'] ((This is the moment where I took 2 pages of outline and tore it up, in front of the players. The gloves were off -- this is also where 3 players made plans to buy the book AND/OR sign up for more games I'll run))

Hour three: Mace recovered under Byers' care and the team did a collective [6-point Research and Occult Studies] session to discover that the creatures on the trains were NOT the vampires they've previously encountered but some sort of summoned creatures, evil beasties that take orders from someone...someone who has to be with 900 feet of them. 

That meant the train was in double danger. On board were not only the beasts, but their master. 

Surveillance picked up some communications between the train and the local police, there were reports of a stalled bus on the tracks ahead, and that they should slow to a halt just after the next local switchover. Mace was in no shape for a second fight, so he stayed back with Alice to keep tabs on things. Nick took over with a two part mission 
Slow the train to avoid catastrophe
Get rid of the beasts and their summoner.

Part 1 was easy. They had no opposition getting to the engine and finding the car empty - no corpse, no beast. Just the engineer's hand torn off at the wrist, bent and broken like a vise to keep the train moving. 

Rossini ((after a pause to consider trains)) slowed [Piloting, 5-point spend] the train to a halt, and in his best faux German accent informed the passengers of the problem. 

Predictably, the passengers looked out the windows. 

The bus was a school bus, packed with kids, all of them beating against the glass. The outside of the bus was dressed in sigils, runes and symbols, like it drove through a slaughterhouse carwash. 

No one knew what to make of this. Mace did.

Drive the train into the bus, turn the whole mass transit system into your accomplice. The ritual was going to sacrifice the kids inside to accomplish whatever the summoner intended. Bastard. 

The bus looked disabled. The train was about 80 yards from it. Nick had a plan. Send the team out to free the kids. It would draw out the beasts and the summoner. Nick (and Mace) could stop the summoner. Everyone else was on save-the-kid, kill-the-beast patrol. 

Rossini made it to the bus and found the bus chained to the rails, the engine drilled into and the doors locked from the outside. The windows though, still worked. He pulled two or three kids out through an open window and then [Notice 3 point spend] found the bomb wired to the axle. 

This had the makings of a disaster. 

He made a phone call to [13-point Network spend] a local news reporter that he occasionally dabbled intimately with ((Valerie Kansas-Jones, Global News Channel)) and she was able to get him a van and another bus ((okay, it was a party bus full of bachelorettes, but this was short notice and Rossini IS insane)) but the kids came off and everything was good, right?

Well except that the kids were rigged with dynamite. 

[Complete draining of the Explosives pool] and now is it okay?

Well, no, because the creatures came out from UNDER the train. But Rossini had all the explosives from the kids. And a bus. And a head start. 

This fight was HUGE. Here's the breakdown:

The first monster jumped from the train to the bus roof. Rossini managed to avoid making eye contact and went into the bus.
Rossini used the bus CB to alert the local police and fire department that terrorists had hijacked some prototype military robots and were "getting all Terminator up in here". 
The second monster slipped from shadow to shadow and appeared IN the bus, and charged Rossini
Rossini kicked out the windshield and broke off the bus steering wheel to hold the creature back.
The first beast smashed its way inside and now it was 2 on 1.
Rossini began tossing dynamite (lit) at the monsters and then climbed onto the roof of the bus.
The dynamite was impressive, blowing apart one of the creatures and stunning the other.
Rossini slipped UNDER the bus, jammed dynamite into and against the frame, and made sure to smudge any sigils he saw.
The second monster responded by catching up to Rossini and threw him headfirst back against the train. 
Rossini, somehow ((he needed a 6 and got it)) [6-point Athletic spend] rolled on top of the train and prayed for death. 
Anna, who had been watching this whole affair from the engine room, [complete exhaustion of her Preparedness pool] had one shot with her sniper rifle. 
AND MISSED.
But her errant shot sent the creatures away from Rossini who...
who pulled the track switch and collapsed unconscious into some bushes. Dr Byers dragged him back on board

((I'm glad she missed. She needed a little humble-pie, honestly, and it made the rest of this scene better))

Nick needed to herd the passengers to safety. Nothing says safety like fleeing an armed gunman. He put two slugs into the roof of the bar car and drove most everyone away behind locked doors.

Everyone that is, except the fat little man with a greasy mullet, chanting as he stared out the window. 

This fight was far less big. Nick and the cultist wrestled. Nick's gun went off twice. The first time into the cultist, the second time into a stick of dynamite Rossini left outside. The explosion was small, but lit a fuse Dr Byers' laid (5-point Preparedness spend] that went back the bus. 

The bus went up in a bloom of heat and cherry red smoke.

The monster, freed now by the death of its summoner, sailed off towards the horizon on invisible wings. 

In the ensuing chaos, the emergency vehicles, the news crews and all that, the agents slipped away in a party van of bachelorettes, off to Munich.

It was time for Mace to leave a message for The Man.


----------



## Pelgrane

This sounds very exciting - did the system support the combat? Did they use the thriller combat rules such as jumping in? 

[13-point Network spend] Is this a typo?


----------



## writernextdoor

Pelgrane said:


> This sounds very exciting - did the system support the combat? Did they use the thriller combat rules such as jumping in?




The system ABSOLUTELY supports combat, even across a large group, often with simultaneous actions. For a group like mine where it's very D&D, and very go-around-the-table-one-at-a-time, this is a beautifully fluid combat system - I'm probably not even getting all the details in bullet points. (Might try numbers next time)



> [13-point Network spend] Is this a typo?



Yes, that's a typo. Sorry. Should be "1 3-point Network"

Oh, and as for "jumping in"....they do without realizing it. Not that the rules don't support it, but after we went through it in the first session and I explained it, they all liked it, understood it, and now it's pretty much a given. I will start tagging the [Jump-In]s as well.


----------



## Walker N. Waistz

Just posting again to say how great this campaign sounds, and what an interesting read it has been. I already own the GUMSHOE rules in a few different formats, but this is convincing me that perhaps I need Night's Black Agents as well.

P.S. Not a big deal if you don't, but for people like myself who own GUMSHOE but have yet to really create together adventures with it, is there any way you might see fit to identify "Core Clues" in your scenario? I am still trying totally wrap my head around the process of planning a game.


----------



## writernextdoor

Walker N. Waistz said:


> Not a big deal if you don't, but for people like myself who own GUMSHOE but have yet to really create together adventures with it, is there any way you might see fit to identify "Core Clues" in your scenario? I am still trying totally wrap my head around the process of planning a game.




Sure, I'd be happy to. (I should point out that there's a rather lengthy update coming tomorrow, as we're playing tonight). Also, because some of my players read this thread now, I'm going to only list the Core Clues and Conspyramid details the players have uncovered to date. 

Also, for the sake of disclosure, I'm going to admit I may not be running Clues and Conspyramid "correctly", but I'm happy with my variation since it puts an emphasis on keeping play moving, rewarding my players for working together and creating a narrative thread through the campaign rather than just what-we-do-several-times-a-month. 

I started with a Core Plot, and even went so far as to offer the Plot to the players before character creation. The Plot is as follows:

If you've been burnt as a spy, and you're not trusted by anyone, and you cannot trust anyone, what do you do when you realize you're still able to help do the right thing?

By not anchoring my plot to specific details (there's no single country and no single motivation present -- 'do the right thing' is incredibly subjective), I'm able to pose this question to each player so that they can create/shape characters in relation to their responses. Here, I found Drives, Symbols and Solaces to be a really great development tool because I had players creating characters ranging from black-ops leg breakers to criminally insane wheel men to variable takes on existing characters like Jim Phelps, Ethan Hunt and Lisbeth Salander.

From there, I built a Conspyramid. I know I wanted a really rich and deep concept, and wanted to stretch it across a wide swath of my own knowledge. I thought first of my major action 'beats', the sort of scenes I wanted to have the players experience: car chases, train robberies, bank heists, kidnapping, complete short cons, staking a vampire in a boardroom, Bourne series close-quarter fights...and looked for any connections I could draw.

I found two - 1. There's always a personal risk involved 2. The events are as much reaction to player-created consequences as they are independent occurences. 

So I started with a simple act my players had seen in loads of other games - a wealthy man assembled a team and sent them on a particular errand. (This is the modern take on 'You all meet at the tavern and sign up to adventure').

And then I thought about what I liked and didn't like about 'wealthy benefactors' as game components. My players almost universally thought them untouchable or wanted bigger rewards and intense experiences (it wasn't enough to save the farm, they had to defeat the dragon AND the undead AND do it with a magic carrot).

But what if we took the Wealthy Man and couldn't trust him? Or immediately contact him. The wealthy patron became The Man. And immediately trust was no longer an assumed component of play. 

Trust gone, I only had to create a starting adventure and whatever the players did (or didn't do), shaped the first blocks of the Conspyramid. Initially I considered playing it like a deck of cards, with all the villains being in series and progressively larger and more evil up the badguy-food-chain. But then my players DIDN'T kill the villain when they had a chance, and thought that they could use him as a mole to give them intel.

That's the moment they were hooked, and I changed the Conspyramid to more fluid (about 60% fluid) model where I have some key pieces, but a lot of open real estate to play with. 

The Core Clues became "keys" to those favorite beats I wanted to get into. There are a total of 400 I've put together, and I don't expect them to find 100 total. (I should point out that I'm a writer and editor by trade, so creating plot elements is not foreign to me). 

Core Clues Found So Far (From my players' email list)

The list of safe deposit boxes from allegedly random banks in small towns throughout the US and Europe. The numbers are all divisible by 6, and all were purchased sometime prior to 1929.
If an agent has only 1 surviving parent, that parent received a large check from the 'Acme-Arkham Trust Fund and Library' in an amount equal to the birthdate of the agent (year month day) -- So 197604.11 for one agent.
The agents' former handlers have all received obituaries for at least two of each agent's Cover IDs. The cause of death has always been something biblical or historic (crucifixion, stoning, exsanguination, poisoning)
The deed for the abandoned house (one of the events listed here) is in the name of the kidnapped jewel thief (also described in this thread)
Each agent has found at least 1 bug in their homes, even if their home is a rented motel room they paid cash for.
When the agents need to travel somewhere, they will often find extra tickets or luggage along with their reservations (they'll book 4 seats and find that they've been given 6)

My Core Clues are bridges from the plot to the action. I go further to divide my Core Clues into two types - Local and Greater. Local Clues are the ones that help THAT night - the informant's name, the time a meeting is to occur - the elements that keep my session going forward for the 4+ hours we play. The Greater Clues connect the sessions to the overall conspiracy and global plot. And usually I cluster this information into three facts:


The name of someone either parallel to the person giving information.
The name of someone higher up the food chain, often talked about in panicked whispers.
Items or materials that can be used to by the agents to discover more of the plot.

I don't mean items like "the golden hand of Doug", as that would render my game too much like a Zelda-clone. I mean here "cocaine, that they can hijack from a shipment leaving the docks at 0245 this morning, if they hurry and get there before Alan can switch container lablels" (From this info, they know the plot has to do with drugs, shipping things, late night meetings at the dock and some badguy named Alan)

I hope that helps. If you're still stuck, this is the formula I use, and you can plug in elements:


Pick an element from one character's backstory.
Make something bad happen because of that element.
Add to that bad thing between 1 and 3 also on-going bad things that are related to it (if the bad thing is that a mentor dies, then add to it assassins or suspicious circumstances, etc)
From that expansion, make an NPC responsible.
Take the responsible NPC and give them a job.
Take that NPC's job and make it intersect with the Agents needs (Alan is a hacker, he's trying to out-hack the agents).
If that's still too linear, consider creating a third party (another NPC, another job, another bad event) and making it happen BECAUSE the first one is happening -- (The party is going to meet Alan because he's hacking credit cards? Well then the Triads will also want to talk to Alan, and they're going to think the players are Interpol).


----------



## Piratecat

I was really intimidated by core clues and adventure building when I started. They turn out to be much easier than I'd thought, because we've all seen a jillion spy movies and they work the same way. Here's how I put together my last one-shot; please don't read if you plan on playing in my game at next weekend's Boston game day.

[sblock]
I decided I wanted something that starts with action and involves Colombian drug lords. I also want it to involve vampires but seem for most of the game as if it doesn't. I didn't want it to start and end in South America, though, so I decided to start in media res in some eastern European city. Bucharest? No, after glancing at a map I think Krakow looks cooler. 

Okay, a gunfight in a warehouse? No, more cinematic. A car chase? Hell yes. So we start with a car chase in Krakow, the PCs trying to catch someone. Who? A known terrorist, but a minor one who has something they want and who leads them to a big guy. Hmm, let's say a Russian mobster. What do Russian terrorists have? Suitcase-sized nukes!

So I start off with the PCs chasing a Russian terrorist who they think has stolen nukes. I have my maguffin. If they catch him, he'll immediately spill what he knows about his boss [CORE CLUE], who has clearly taken the nukes and flown off somewhere to sell them.

In play, I treat the car chase as the beginning sequence to a James Bond movie. I treat the interrogation as something that happens behind the movie's title sequence -- glossed over quickly in montage, then cutting to the punk spilling what he knows. 

Okay, where to next? I know and love Cartagena Colombia, so let's make it there. That suggests drug cartels. Why would a drug cartel want to buy nukes? Damned if I know. Wait -- what if one of the cartels is run by a vampire who is going insane and wants to drive up the value of his drugs? Pulling a Goldfinger and nuking a rival's coca fields will certainly do that. But that still doesn't ring true. Okay, we make the vampire a camazotz (a man-bat) who was created by a pre-Columbian tribe that worshiped bats. They worshiped at an idol of him that later disappeared into the jungle, forgotten by all but the vampire, and which is now found and owned by another cartel. Having it in the hands of an enemy is literally driving the vampire crazy, making him make irrational decisions (like thinking that nuking a rival is an entirely reasonable plan). So we have a cartel leader who can use nukes to both raise the value of his crops and to punish a rival who is withholding the most important thing in the world to him? Okay, that'll work!

That suggests a couple of clues. 

1. The Medellin cartel has a huge drug shipment in the US that still hasn't hit the streets several weeks later. 
2. In Cartagena, where the Russian terrorist has flown with the bombs, the annual gathering of the three big drug cartels is happening at neutral ground (a resort hotel).
3. While the Cali and Cartagena cartels are sending their best men, as always, the Medellin cartel is sending mostly mediocre lieutenants. [CORE CLUE - it suggests that Medellin doesn't want to kill their best people.]
4. There's tension brewing, with Medellin and Cali fighting. Apparently the head of the Cali cartel has an archeological find (a statue) that the head of the Medellin cartel wants
5. That statue is a bat-winged totem with a face that actually resembles the Medellin drug lord's. Huh. Wacky coincidence.

The plan, of course, is that the insane vampire is going to take one bomb away with him (to irradiate his rival's fields) and use the other one to blow up the hotel in Cartagena, wiping out all of his rivals in one fell swoop and destroying the evidence. 

Into this come the PCs. I encourage them to infiltrate the hotel and parking garage and party, to meet the Russian (in disguise!) and the cartel heads, and to gradually figure out that the Medellin head is a vampire. They have the opportunity to disarm the one nuclear bomb just in the nick of time, and hopefully they stop the vampire from escaping with the second. Then they have to take down the vampire before it can get to a place of safety with the warhead.

I've run this five times now, and it's gone well every time. I keep the beginning much more scripted than the end. I know what the mind-controlling bad guy is going to do -- get the bomb, send the terrorist back to blow up the second bomb, try to escape. It's up to the PCs to figure out how to stop him. 
[/sblock]


----------



## writernextdoor

I should point out that your one-shot was the galvanizing force behind my making this campaign happen. 

So, thank you.


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## writernextdoor

((GM Notes are in double parentheses)
[Mechanics are in braces]

((There is a rule I'm particularly fond of, and have been since I first discovered it -- (I'm paraphrasing here) 'If you get captured, you'll be given a chance to escape AND you'll find out information along the way'. This has always led me to wonder about how critical capture scenes are. We've all seen those bad tv-shows and awful movies where capture involves really corny and derivative scenes with spinning chairs and lights and implied threats. I didn't want to do that. But I did want to see what the party would do if confronted with it.))

After the most recent escapade, we decided to give the team two-weeks 'vacation' ((Our campaign follows more or less an actual calendar)) and this gave many of the injured and exhausted a chance to rest. It also gave the agents opportunities to do things other than the main plot ((all they had to do was email/text me details of what the character would do)). 

Nick recuperated.
Rossini healed.
Anna brushed up on her reading [gained 1 point in Occult Studies]
Mike visited his wife's grave [Symbol].
Desdemona bought a small condo in a suburb [Solace].

Mace, well Mace wanted to track down The Man. And he fully planned to, asking Alice The Hacker to trace a possible lead [CORE CLUE] of a high-end business conference downtown in a hotel. Alice found Mace a room, but there wasn't enough time to build a strong enough cover to get him into the conference. He'd had to skulk/stalk the lobby and local bars to see what he could find. 

Day 1 Mace collected "critical intel", which we mortals may recognize as the phone numbers of every waitress from the surrounding three bars. No one saw or heard any discussion of the conference at the hotel.

Night 1 Mace, after sleeping with Marigold (waitress #5 if you're keeping track), found out that she's supposed to pop out of a cake at the end of the conference - there's a birthday party planned for the Foreign Minister of Myanmar. 

Night 1 Mace, on his way home from Marigold's place noticed he picked up a tail. He did his best to shake it [[attempted a car-versus-foot chase....Athletics and Human Terrain spends versus Driving spends until one side or the other reached a total of 10, or the scene warranted it - the driver never really stood a chance once Mace had a Lead greater than 2.] ((I need to revisit these mechanics, there was GREAT tension here, but mechanically and narratively all Mace needed was a corner and a traffic light to make this less a game-bit and more a story-element))

Night 1 In order to avoid the chase, Mace found Cynthia (waitress #2 from bar #2) and [without a Flirting spend ((she rolled a 1, he a 6))] and they got comfortable.

Day 2 Mace returned to his hotel room, showered, ordered breakfast.

And that's when it happened.

Room service doesn't come armed, right? And they don't normally kick in the door, do they?

Three men versus Mace. After hurling a bottle of holy water at them (something no man should be without), he figured at least 2 of them were human. The third, he had no idea, but that wasn't his fault - the third guy had the taser. 

Mace dropped one [some very lucky rolls, no-spends] and then the other two were on him, and the tazer was as well.

He woke up in a shed, full of cheese and home-brewery gear. And every three hours for the next four days, he woke up when the lights went on, when the train rolled past and when they threw soup at him.

Warm and cold. With and without noodles.

[Mechanically, this was a 1 and 2 point reduction, then a 1 or 2 point refresh. And then genius struck -- An interrogation is a chase between the will of the captive and the needs of the interrogator. So it took some figuring out and tinkering with Stability and Healthy, but it was a smooth game play]

Mace didn't break. Not after the poison. Not after the countless episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba played on a loop. Not after some woman threatened to suck his blood out through his toes. 

But he did see his chance to escape. About ten minutes before they would douse him in soup or rainwater, the doors unlock, as if by remote key toggle. If he timed it right, he could rush the door and escape on foot, or at least to some place he could manage help.

The guard didn't know what hit him [3-point Athletic spend + 2 point Hand-to-Hand + 1 point Diagnosis] and Mace managed to acquire a pair of shoes and an overcoat to make good his escape. 

Turns out he was in a maintanence shed on the very back edge of an old high school. It wasn't abandoned, but very clearly run down. He slipped [Infiltration] into the cafeteria, then the library, and sent an email out to the team to alert them where they could meet him. 

He managed to elude his pursuers long enough to shower, shave and hit on a few cheerleaders. ((Because when in doubt, Mace Hunter does everything)).

He rendezvous'd with Nick just as school let out. They returned to the scene of his capture, armed and ready for war. 

But there was no war. Nick put a bullet in the guard before any alarms were raised or phone calls made. Mace scoured the room outside his cell for [CORE CLUEs] and found a list of local churches circled on a map, their locations connected by a red sharpie crucifix. The search also found a name "Dr Karen Elmont, Sisters of Mercy Hospital" along with equipment to duplicate her ID. 

The team felt that this was a good time for Mace to...get checked out by a physician, and what better place than a hospital?

Next time....murdER in the ER.


----------



## Pelgrane

[MENTION=6689303]writernextdoor[/MENTION] We are looking for "DVD notes" for Night's Black Agents - if you have any tips for players of GMs you'd like to share, please email me off list simon@dyingearth.com.


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## writernextdoor

My apologies for the delay in updating this thread - it's been a busy campaign, and I'm behind on organizing the notes. I look to correct that later tonight and tomorrow. 

[MENTION=40502]Pelgrane[/MENTION], I will definitely be sending you an email tomorrow with some DVD notes and ideas.


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## Pelgrane

writernextdoor said:


> My apologies for the delay in updating this thread - it's been a busy campaign, and I'm behind on organizing the notes. I look to correct that later tonight and tomorrow.
> 
> [MENTION=40502]Pelgrane[/MENTION], I will definitely be sending you an email tomorrow with some DVD notes and ideas.




Great - I look forward to it. I've been running the game myself and I found that they loved, loved safe houses and caches, usually combining them. We decided lip reading was a language slot and that the game needs a refresh summary sheet. They also decided that their safe meeting point, by coincidence, was the bad guys' HQ in Madrid. That was very funny.


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## Salad Shooter

I have to say, after reading this thread and playing in PirateCat's Boston GameDay game, I need to buy this game. We picked up most of the rules presented pretty quickly in the game, though I believe that there was a bunch held back just for ease of shoving us through a complete game in 4 hours.

Now, to line up the funds to buy the book...


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## Piratecat

I've now run the same one-shot six or seven times, enough for me to get a feel of how different players handle the same situation. It's been surprisingly consistent, with some people being more tactically savvy than others. My favorite recent moment: the agent who used his MOS to disarm the nuclear bomb. As I counted down the seconds, he just nattered on, chatting to the other PCs who were busy panicking. Then, with one second left, he flips it off. Pure unadulterated style.

Also fun: stopping a car chase by hacking into the other car's On*Star.


----------



## Salad Shooter

Piratecat said:


> I've now run the same one-shot six or seven times, enough for me to get a feel of how different players handle the same situation. It's been surprisingly consistent, with some people being more tactically savvy than others. My favorite recent moment: the agent who used his MOS to disarm the nuclear bomb. As I counted down the seconds, he just nattered on, chatting to the other PCs who were busy panicking. Then, with one second left, he flips it off. Pure unadulterated style.
> 
> Also fun: stopping a car chase by hacking into the other car's On*Star.




I couldn't very well allow the bomb to go be stopped at 30 seconds, could I? I mean...who saves the day with that much time left? 

That game was just full of awesome moments. We had a couple big points burns, I think I did an 8pt Digital Intrusion spend, at some point.

I think we tried to stop the car chase with on-star, but since it had already been decided the other guy was driving a Yugo...so we had to opt for the "shoot out the back window and have an agent leap off the roof of our car and in through the window as the vehicles pass each other" approach. Complete with just barely shooting the tires out in time to prevent the car from crushing a bunch of school kids. 

I enjoy how the system allows you to do cool things as a matter of course.


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## Piratecat

Salad Shooter said:


> I enjoy how the system allows you to do cool things as a matter of course.




Me too - or rather, I like how the game lets you decide when what you do is awesome. It takes some getting used to, though. You saw that when [MENTION=88534]WalkingCorpse[/MENTION] tried to shoot out the car tires twice in a row and missed both times because he was 1 point short. It takes a leap of faith to err on the side of awesome.


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## writernextdoor

What consistently impresses me is how the system is not mechanically-limited. In other systems, engines and games, I'm in some ways restrained by what dice I've rolled, because when I rolled a 14 three months ago, that means now I only have a +1 to persuade to this guy to do what I want, even though I totally know what just to say. 

Luck is still a factor for sure, but I can create more opportunities for myself and for the story (something talked about in today's blog post) when I know I'm not limited by own creation (the low roll from months past) and instead can operate within a range of success (the spends) PLUS the easy mechanics so that in the heat of the scene, I'm not reaching-across-the-table-to-get-the-red-lucky-die-and-not-put-my-finger-in-the-salsa. The emphasis goes on the scene, not John-playing-a-part-in-the-scene. 

Awesome should breed awesome, and should encourage challenge so that best route of success is more awesome (which breeds awesome, and it all cycles around.)


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## Salad Shooter

Piratecat said:


> Me too - or rather, I like how the game lets you decide when what you do is awesome. It takes some getting used to, though. You saw that when [MENTION=88534]WalkingCorpse[/MENTION] tried to shoot out the car tires twice in a row and missed both times because he was 1 point short. It takes a leap of faith to err on the side of awesome.




I think we spent points more freely as the game progressed. It might be different in a campaign that is ongoing, rather than a 4 hour power-through. We knew time was limited, and that this was going to not be an ongoing thing, so we had no qualms about burning through points faster than we were refreshing. It was also rather apparent that we had reached the end, and so we pretty much all burned our MOS within a 5 minute span. (and, after all, we did have a guy who was weeks from retirement...)


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## Pelgrane

Salad Shooter said:


> I think we spent points more freely as the game progressed. It might be different in a campaign that is ongoing, rather than a 4 hour power-through. We knew time was limited, and that this was going to not be an ongoing thing, so we had no qualms about burning through points faster than we were refreshing. It was also rather apparent that we had reached the end, and so we pretty much all burned our MOS within a 5 minute span. (and, after all, we did have a guy who was weeks from retirement...)




What I've found happens in a longer term game is that characters are very careful with their points until the action kicks off, then they splurge. Usually they are in deep trouble at that point, and then it's a race to safety - usually a safe house and a cache, using Preparedness - so that they can refresh General abilities. In a game based on the Conspyramid backdrops, plus Vampyramid reactions, it's quite hard to decide what the end of an operation is - the time when they refresh all their investigative pools. With so many leads, even core clues at the strategic level become less defined - but finding important stuff in a room, they are still essential.


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## writernextdoor

*A very anticipated update*

((GM Notes are in double parentheses))
[Mechanical notes are in braces]

((This is a long update - sorry for the delay, but because this game covers not just tabletop play, but also email and google chats, there's a lot of information to disseminate.))

It all started with a wrong number. Rossini was at home, doing dishes and laundry, when the phone rang, and a panicked woman, crying and obviously scared, began pleading for her life and a rescue, not necessarily in that order. The phone call clicked off just after Rossini heard the cutting buzz of a power tool in the background.

Rossini called Anna who had a friend at the phone company [2 point Network spend] who traced the call to a building downtown, near Nick's apartment. Rossini gave Anna a description of what he heard, and they both agreed that they should involve Nick. 

Nick wasn't at home when they arrived, he was out with Mike ((who has begun referring to his character as Mike-Smith, to distinguish from all the 'Mike' NPCs)), at the gym, engaged in a rather vigorous workout/stare-at-the-pilates-class combo. But the four agents reconnected quickly and after debating just how armed they should be ((recent events left them feeling very under-prepared, so I take that as a sign I was doing things right)), the team settled on just handguns for now, and extreme caution.

The building Anna's contact gave was an office building under renovation. It seemed to Rossini to be entirely possible that power tools could be found here, the agents found dozens of toolboxes, extension cords and construction materials littering the place. With a little thinking [2 point Infiltration spend] they traced the phone lines up two floors. 

But they didn't find the girl. They didn't even find the corpse of a girl. All they found were fifteen phones arrayed in a bank and all wired to different laptops, all running software that re-routed calls. [this was confirmed by a 1 point Digital Intrusion spend] 

Not wanting the sit and watch Alice hack through all the phones, Mike-Smith did what seemed normal - he pressed redial on one of them. 

Imagine his surprise when someone answered. It was an embassy office fifteen blocks away. The Peruvian embassy in fact. And the voice on the other end belonged to a very haggard clerk who had spent the last 30 hours preparing for a reception of the South American Antiquities Committee ((which immediately was called SACK by the players))  who were unveiling a series of new books and tablets thought to be proto-Mayan. 

Desdemona stepped in and unleashed a volley of feminine wiles [4 point Flirting spend, 3-point Cover spend, 2-point Disguise spend by Mike-Smith ((who was shocked that he had 2 points in Disguise at all))] and secured seats at the party and unveiling for the Lady Dagmar, Baroness of Furvustajd  "it's a private island, like Iceland, but without all the banking trouble" and her party (A driver (Rossini), a bodyguard (Mike-Smith), and a publicist (Nick)) 

Anna elected to go as a journalist [3 point Cover] for Famous Old Things Monthly "it's a 'zine, you've probably never heard of it." and would meet the party there once she talked to Mace.

SIDE BAR -- While the others strategized and speculated, Mace and Anna met at headquarters because Anna had previously heard of SACK [2-point Research spend] and knew them to be a cover for person-smuggling, and figured that was what could have happened to her sister. ((Mace hasn't told her the truth yet)). 

Mace did some additional digging [2 point Research spend, 3 point Network spend] to reveal that SACK was also loosely affiliated to the jewel thief of past adventures [CORE CLUE] and could reveal critical intel on Project Blue Book.


more shortly.....


----------



## writernextdoor

(resumed)

The SACK event had top-notch security. Metal detectors, motion sensors, even bug sweeps. SACK didn't mess around ((The agents ridiculously high Digital Intrusion score made this a non-issue, but it was nice to see them take an interest)). 

Anna, being press, arrived early, snapping dozens of photos. She would have about an hour or so before the rest of the team arrived, and she elected to use this time to recon the whole building. She took photos of all the entrances and exits she could find, and uploaded the information to Mace, who, the team found out, was red-flagged by SACK for reasons unknown.

SIDEBAR--------------------------------
Even trying to hack together [Digital Intrusion, Forgery] an invitation or get his name on the guest list threw up huge red flags digitally. Twice when Alice tried to tag any of Mace's Cover IDs, there was an immediate check on his financials, address, tax returns and back story. Someone didn't want Mace Hunter at this party. He contented himself with staying at Headquarters, and orchestrating the job.
----------------------------------------

Of note were three people: two guests of honor came up on on two separate terror watch lists. The third wasn't on any watch lists, but did come up as being connected to one of the churches on this list Mace recovered after his capture. 

Imran Juda al-Salah is the seventh most wanted man globally, wanted for the slaughter of three hundred of his family members after his daughter was married. He is an active terrorist with numerous anti-West interests. 

Iskandar Hamid, relatively speaking is less known globally, but is wanted all the same for the destruction of grain shipments in Africa and the taking of hostages on European cruises circumnavigating the globe. 

Aaron Laston is a member on the Board of Trustees for The Sisters of the Sacred Tree, a donor to several youth organizations one each coast and is a celebrated mountain climber, who just recently raised three million dollars while free-climbing Machu Picchu. 

Larston glad-handed nearly everyone he could and frequently asked for his photo to be taken. Anna was happy to oblige. Hamid and al-Salah avoided most cameras and sat with their backs to the wall, in a corner, the furthest from people's notice. 

The team needed to make an entrance. Rossini had a contact [2 point Network spend] who loaned him a helicopter, so he was able to fly the team in and get everyone to rappel down to the patio...everyone except Desdemona. The Baroness of Furvusstajd doesn't rappel anywhere, so she came off the copter with all the ease of royalty. Mike-Smith was particularly intimidating security, insisting on "showing these rookies how it's done".

What really happened was that Mike planted metal tokens in the pockets of the people behind him, [2 point Filch spend] and kicked out one of the plugs for a power-strip. 

((Interesting to note here is that the game came to a quiet lull, and when I asked what the delay was, I was told "I'm looking to see what I can spend to unplug something."))

The team came through security and met up with Anna for photographs and debriefing. They all sat together, Desdemona at the head of the table, Nick on her right, Mike-Smith to her left. Rossini came in late, but sat across from her. Anna took a seat two tables over, with a team of German photographers who seemed more interested in the food being served than in snapping shots. 

The first dish served was fruit salad served bone china...literally out of bones. Larston laughed this off, saying it was a bit of joke, what with SACK's recent discovery of old tombs in Paraguay. Everyone snickered a little, and ate their melon balls, giving sidelong glances at the kitchen doors to see what was coming next.

What happened next though was not a course of food, but a course of toasts. A table at a time, someone rose up to toast SACK and their foreign guests. Thankfully the team didn't have to go first. 

Mace warned Desdemona not to get too flashy.
Nick warned Desdemona not to get too flashy.
Anna told Rossini and Mike-Smith that things might get ugly. 

Desdemona rose and delivered a rousing toast and blessing in Arabic, citing three different proverbs as well as a children's poem about herding your camels before the grass is dry. [1 point Languages spend, 2 point Preparedness spend] 

Rossini was ready to shoot his way out. Anna was ready to go through the window if she had to. Mace, at Headquarters, poured himself another drink.

The whole room erupted into giant cheers. Desdemona took it too far, and kept toasting, moving from table to table, working the room [4 1 point Filch spends to pick up business cards, billfolds and phones as she moved]. She was greeted by more cheers. 

Which was good, because she liked the applause. And it was good for the sniper too, no one heard the gunshots.

Well not the first one, anyway.

The priest from the Vatican, a minor official, basically a clerk, took a shot through the chest. He had no idea that mid-clap would be his final moment. 

One of the German photographers took a round in the leg and rolled under the table. The applause gave way to screams, and chaos ensued. 

But the doors were locked. And the terrorists were nowhere to be found. Wanting to give the team some room to operate, Mace called his friend at the FBI [2 point Network spend] to stall the arrival of officers and police for at long as possible. 

He bought his team thirty minutes. 

Minute 1 Nick had a plan: Get out of the ballroom-turned-shooting-gallery, and if possible find out what SACK had to do with phone call, and then either launch a counter-offensive or escape. The team liked this plan. 

Minute 2 - 5 The team split up. Nick and Desdemona went to the second floor - offices. Rossini and Mike-Smith decided to track the terrorists. Anna was going to get the people out. 

Minute 6 Rossini found the cooking staff. Three of them were huddled over by the dishwasher, terrified of the fourth, a tall woman who was sucking on the neck of a server, but not in a fun way. ((I had to specify this)) Mike-Smith ushered the staff out, and tried to keep the kitchen closed.

Minute 7-20 Anna, with the help of Larston, (help as in [2 point Intimidation spend]) found out that there is a series of tunnels that lead to a parking garage a quarter mile away. Anna used the same tunnels to ferry out the rest of the room. 

Minute 7-25 Nick and Desdemona found [CORE CLUE] that Dr Karen Elmont ((also in this thread)) was definitely in danger. 

Minute 7 - 29 Rossini and Mike-Smith went toe-to-toe [Hand-to-Hand] with a rather gymnastic blonde woman who at one point skittered along the ceiling and slid under the oven to hide from them. 

((This fight was entirely one of move and countermove, and while I was pleased with it, I think it frustrated the players, who wanted faster resolution. )) 

She did eventually meet a grisly ((greasy?)) end thanks to the Fry-O-lator. 

Minute 29 The FBI arrived to a ballroom of empty tables and a pile of dust in the kitchen.

Minute 30 The agents were in the tunnels, arguing with each other about how Anna could let them get 30 minutes away and what they could do about it.

They never saw the trip wire. 

And that's where we leave the party for now: concussed, injured, and possibly trapped in an underground tunnel while SACK gets away, and the morning's phone call goes unsolved. 

((more later this week))


----------



## writernextdoor

The MurdER in the ER

((GM Notes are in double parentheses))
[Mechanical notes are in braces]

((Here now is the harrowing tale of Dr Karen Elmont, presented in full detail.))

It started with an email. It came at 2:59, about thirteen minutes after Karen Elmont, the third surgeon of the ER at Sisters of Mercy hospital, had climbed into bed. Twelve minutes of somewhat dark and blissful sleep had gone by, and then the email notification sound chirped up:

"Bwang!" 

She rose, and leaned over the keyboard. She didn't bother with the robe. The email was short and direct.

"I'm watching you right now. Did you enjoy the shower?"

Karen chose this apartment because of the windows. Two long windows in all her favorite rooms (bedroom, kitchen/dining area, living room) But there are no windows in the bathroom. She liked that. She didn't even have a skylight. 

She deleted the email, thinking it a prank or really crafty spam, and went back to bed. 

She slept through three more "Bwang!" announcements but read them over coffee when she woke up at 11. 

"Karen, this isn't a joke."
"You need to buy milk."
The third email was indecipherable gibberish, some strange font that her laptop couldn't make sense of, like maybe Japanese and Chinese had dirty sex with Russian and cuneiform. 

But what bothered her was that she did need to buy milk. The empty container was in her trash, and you can't see into the fridge or the trash from the window. 

She figured it was a lucky guess. Lots of people probably need milk all the time. Hit the delete key a few times, and head off to work.

The Sisters of Mercy Hospital is a CRAZY place. It sits just past the freeway, and serves both a wealthy suburb and two impoverished parts of the city. The ER is as much a traffic accident-turned-gunfight-cum-bar brawl as the incidents it cleans up. And Karen is at home in the blood and bodies and screaming and needles.

Rare is the time she gets a chance to sit at her little desk and have a coffee. But she got a moment today, and went through the roster of potential problems.

In the morgue, five new bodies came in, something about a "battle" at an Embassy downtown. 

In the ER, a schoolbus herd of kids had come in for stitches and bandages when the bus stopped short to avoid a collision in a car chase.

And the abortion picketing had started up again, now that the weather was getting warm. 

Fun.

Her phone rang, and she answered it. Through the tremendous static, all she could make out was "milk". Okay, that was weird. She slammed the phone and decided to walk the halls.

She turned the corner out of her office and ran into a doctor, a really good-looking doctor. [Nick, with a 3 point Disguise and 2 point Cover spend] They chatted, and he said he was new, and a little turned around, and could she point him in the direction of the administration offices, he had paperwork to sign or something. She gave him directions, and watched him walk away. 

Her walk continued, and she helped an old couple into the elevator [Mace and Desdemona with 2 point Disguise and 1 point Cover spends, tag-teamed] ((Getting them as two old, slightly crotchety characters was hilarious and I hope they use the cover again)).

She came back to her office, and found a stack of paperwork waiting for her. Seems like the mailguy [Rossini with a 1 point Cover spend] dumped two whole shifts of paperwork on her desk. So, she started filling things out. 

Name. Birthdate. Medical license number. All the usual bland forms for insurance. 

So why did one form ask if she had gotten any unusual emails or phone calls in the last two days? 

And why did one form ask her to confirm the number of windows her apartment had?

((This was a rather sharp collaboration between Rossini and Desdemona, with MikeSmith advising)) [That's a 2 point Forgery spend, a 2 point Vampirology spend, and a 1 point Traffic Analysis spend, all tag-teamed]

The cute doctor came back to her office door, how did he find her, and offered her a cup of coffee. [1 point Flirting spend, then 1 point Shrink spend] They talked for at least thirty minutes. And no one seemed to care. It was nice to have the downtime at work. Especially with downtime where a guy actually was into her. 

((It was at this point that one of the players actually statted up Karen Elmont as a possible PC for later)).

During the chat, she looked down the hallway and saw...that old couple from the elevator...were they picking a lock? No, couldn't be. That was an old doctor's office, now it was storage.

[1 point Infiltration spend, although Mace wanted to argue that Desdemona's nagging should have been a Stability spend]

The cute doctor offered to help her carry the forms down to the admin office, and she was ready to take off the rest of the day and play doctor with him back at the apartment.

They walked and talked, and they passed the morgue. They took the long way, but it seemed like that cute doctor knew this route pretty well....

When the guy came up off the morgue slab, she spilled the paperwork all over the floor. And the cute doctor started talking to himself.

"Mace. Get down here. Where's Rossini?" 

And then he ran into the morgue and fought, yes FOUGHT dead guy. 

[2 point Hand-to-Hand spend]

She felt dizzy and nauseous and really confused and wanted to sit down. Good thing that old couple was somehow right behind her, with water and a wheelchair to collapse into. Then they, like the cute doctor, ran into the morgue to fight the corpse.

At least the old lady closed the door. But Karen still heard the spurt of blood wash up against the back of the door. She shuddered, and then the mail guy came back to wheel her "to safety". 

Ten minutes later, Karen is sitting in her office telling another doctor she's never seen before (Agent Carter Byers) how crazy and strange the whole day was. He laughed at her jokes, he smiled and he really listened [4 point shrink spend].

Then in came the cute doctor, the mail guy, the old couple and....the church chaplain (MikeSmith, who's been toying with finding Faith again). She didn't know what to make of it. 

---PAUSE HERE---


----------



## writernextdoor

---RESUME---

((GM NOTES are in double parentheses))
[Mechanical notes are in braces]

With the team (Mace, Nick, Desdemona, Rossini, MikeSmith, Carter Byers) all in Karen's office, and three of them covered in gore, it was time to explain what was going on.

Mace had the unenviable task of explaining how they found her. And what was up with the corpses in the morgue, and just how big a deal this all was.

He explained everything, like this:

((Taken verbatim from play))
"Karen, we are not doctors, patients or clerks. He (MikeSmith) is actually sort of a chaplain, but that's not important right now. What matters is that we're here because you're in danger. I don't want to alarm you, but those corpses in the morgue were sent after you. Why would anyone want to hurt you?"

Karen drew a long stare at the floor and shrugged a lot, before spouting denials. So, Nick got her more coffee and while she sat there and looked confused, the team searched her office. 

[tag-teamed Infiltration, Digital Infiltration, Research and Shrink spends. all between 1 and 3 points] ((I forgot to write down the values))

What the team turned up was [CORE CLUE] that Karen sits on several committees having to do with organ donation, transplantation and community outreach programs like blood donation, immunizations and distribution of drugs to shut-ins and the poor.

The committees liaise with the local churches to house meetings and coordinate distribution, and Karen's seat on these committees, although obligatory for her, is critical in decision making regarding who gets what organ, blood, drugs or assistance. 

Naturally, the Conspiracy wants sway over that seat. 

Combined with the previous [CORE CLUE] of the material to duplicate her ID, and Karen Elmont becomes a very valuable asset. And a very high profile target.

She was in the middle of making arrangements to leave work for the day, citing an immediate family emergency (hence why she'd be talking to the chaplain), but when she went to call someone to say so, the phone was dead. Then her computer went out. 

The team threw some salt down as they locked up. She'd have to go AWOL. 

When the team reached the hallway, the lights were flickering. She'd have to go out through the ER. 

Through the crowded, busy, packed-with-potential-victims, ER. 

The good news is that the ER was pretty quiet. A couple stitches, a broken arm. Everyone was able to make it to the lobby.

Oh, the lobby. Feet from the front door, that's when all hell broke loose. Six stretchers of injured people, the results of a massive car crash.  All hands on deck. Karen couldn't leave these people unaided. Carter Byers offered to stay behind with her to help and keep an eye on her. 

And then even more hell broke loose. 

The injured? Not injured. Stage blood. Really convincing special effects. All courtesy the bad guys. 

The first wave of attack took hostages. And Mace was decisive. When in doubt, send the insane in to fight. Rossini lit a bathroom stall on fire, and in the confusion, people ran out, under the torrent of sprinklers.

MikeSmith began blessing the sprinklers as they kicked on. ((I've been toying with Faith as a ruleset, treating it as ammo for weapons or free-spends as combat rolls)), the damage was slight and temporary, but at least it got the hostages out. 

Byers hid Karen in the church chapel, arming himself with a hold out pistol, a flare gun and one flashbang. 

Nick and Desdemona tried to put barricades and obstacles in the way. Not like a gurney means a lot to a creature who drinks blood by the gallon, but every second counts in a fight. 

Mace and MikeSmith just started opening fire, "John Woo style". 

There's a lot of fragile things in a hospital. Glass jars, windows, shelves, various tanks of oxygen and machinery...lots of bullet-soaking objects. 

The fight was messy and the hospital was wrecked. But in the end, the body count was this:

Dead were two vampires and four servitors, blood-fueled crazies that were basically extensions of the vampires' will and strength ((meat puppets!)). Ruined were several thousands of dollars in property.

The good news is that Mace could leave a business card and let the clean-up be The Man's issue. 

Rather than deal with securing Karen's apartment, they arranged for her to stay with Desdemona across town. 

((Karen Elmont being alive represents a significant blow to the Conspiracy's immediate plans - it will be interesting Wednesday to see how the Conspiracy responds, or if Karen becomes a team member.))


----------



## writernextdoor

A pause here for an announcement --

After a challenge from one of the players, I've been asked to take Night's Black Agents and see if we can do it in different time periods. 

I've started with the Victorian Era, and it doesn't take many changes to get there:

1. Skills (X -> Y)
BS Detector --- Lie Detector
Criminology  --- Forensics (a more early-tech version)
Cryptography --- Ciphers (removing the tech)
Data Recovery --- Data Composition (it's still analytical, but smaller scale)
Electronic Surveilance -- Telegraphy (It's not technically surveillance, but it is useful)
Pharmacy -- Apothecary (there are few drugs on the market)
Piloting -- Navigating (fewer vehicles)

2. Remove the Following Outright
Digital Intrusion -- There's nothing to hack
Backgrounds as stated in-game - ((for now)) What I will likely do is incorporate material from Cthulhu by Gaslight into more period Backgrounds, but essentially, the characters are most often Inquiry Agents or Consulting Detectives and Specialists. 

It needs more work, and I do need to flesh it out, but there's enough meat left on the bones for the game to operate (within similar plot frames of Conspiracy and intrigue and danger), just re-skinning the skills and equipment.


----------



## Piratecat

I might dump telegraphy entirely. Other than that, it seems like an easy hack. Interestingly, you can keep shooting the same but require a much longer reload time. That makes hand-to-hand and weapons much more important.

It's shocking how excited I am about the idea of a Victorian NBA.


----------



## writernextdoor

After giving it a rough test tonight, yes, I'm dumping telegraphy entirely, it didn't come up nearly as much as I thought. 

Shooting didn't occur as much as I thought it would either, I guess because people had the understanding it would be a longer action. 

This hack was pretty successful, which I take as a sign I can push it further.

Later in the week I'll update the TTVD thread with the events of tonight....


----------



## writernextdoor

This is a long-awaited update. 

I want to take a moment, before I talk about last week's adventure to describe some of the other things the TTVD campaign offers:

1. Cloud Agents - To help develop the Conspiracy, and offer something for my out-of-town players (I have players deployed overseas, and others living in different cities who want to contribute), I created the role of Cloud Agent...someone who takes orders from the spymaster (Mace Hunter), and who operates solo (usually via e-mail) to do more of the narrative hunting-and-uncovering, not so much the action set-pieces.

2. The email-only action break - Sometimes my group doesn't meet on a consistent schedule, either because of work or scheduling or because we can't get a whole group together. When this happens, I go straight to email and pose a problem to the whole group and give them a deadline to tell me what they're going to do. (Usually the end of the respective week). This frees them up to do something with the character but not on-the-spot. 

I like these additions to play in the campaign, it gives them a sense of immersion that I think makes the world more intense.


----------



## Piratecat

How much have you had Stability figure into your game? I tend to think I don't use it enough.


----------



## writernextdoor

Stability hasn't yet so run down that my players are basketcases, but it's been a factor tangentially, that the players are hesitant to take too many risks when dealing with the supernatural. 

Later today, when I post the week's update, there's a good example of this. Stability is proving to be the element of game play and mechanics that breaks my players of their D&D-kill-the-monsters-we're-stronger-than-they-are mentality. 

I'm not making it paramount though to play, preferring to keep the players moving into the Conspiracy and plot, but at the later (higher) levels, their sanity will no doubt be tested when they run into the next tier of awesome/awful that awaits them. (Three words: dream-invading rottweilers)


----------



## writernextdoor

((GM Notes in double parentheses))
[Mechanical notes in braces]

This is the adventure of the 'C' team, a set of characters made to test out the 'Dust' style of play. The players (usual players) were looking for a change and didn't want to up-end the main campaign plot, we spent two sessions exploring this side avenue. 

The C Team
------------
Dr Albert von Schluss [The Shrink]
Cornelius Jackson [The Gun]
Ai Hao [The Hand To Hand]
Diego Forte [The Academic]

Notice the lack of [Infiltration], [Digital Intrusion] or [Explosives]: The party just didn't allocate the points into them, and the story was happy to make them pay for it. 

We start our story in Baghdad, as all tales of horror could, with the Team receiving a message from Mace Hunter, who was busy off the Aruba coast working on his tan. (And chasing down a lead for next week's game)

"Check out Midnight Securities in Baghdad, Investigate and Stop if possible"

Now Dr von Schluss had an old family friend back home [4 point Network spend] who pulled some strings to get the team a tour and an interview, all the team had to do was stay out of trouble once inside. 

Right.

The team was introduced to Lieutenant Colonel Stewart ((I wanted him to be a Brigadier, but didn't have time to promote him)) who the intrepid doctor realized was under some great duress [2 point Shrink spend] and with a little persuading ((Initially they were going to shoot him in the knee to make him talk, but decided on just closing the door and being patient)), Stewart revealed that within the company there was a problem, and they could discuss it later that night, if they met him at a bar downtown. The team agreed and went off on their tour.

During the tour, the team took notice [Sense Trouble] that the guards on the second floor ((the offices) were official and military while the heavily armed men walking the warehouse floor were not - and in fact they resembled convicts, criminals and thugs. 

Cornelius Jackson, Man of Action ((no seriously, that's what he introduced himself as)), talked shop [Gun gibberish] with one of the guards, while Ai Hao did her best "investigation walk" around the room. 

In one corner, away from the other supplies but near the trucks, some local Iraqis were hired and paid cash to load unlabeled cargo onto and off of trucks.  [CORE CLUE] They were pleased to be working, and told they always received cash from their manager, a man named Mohammed. 

Mohammed was a local contractor hired by Midnight to liaise and retain native people for simple and domestic work, so as to avoid the idea that another crazy company was coming into Iraq and taking over. Mohammed got his orders from the Lt Colonel [CORE CLUE] but didn't want to talk about where he got the cash to pay for things.

The team then decided to investigate the trucks, and by investigate, they meant "steal after neutralizing a few guards" They were able to find one of the trucks, and see that the crates were antiquities, and the trucks were coming in from dig sites all around Baghdad and coming to Midnight for either transport or fencing. [CORE CLUE]

Mohammed was only slightly freaked out by the team taking an interest in their activities and offered to cut them into the deal so long as he wasn't fired or killed or "left to fend for himself". 

He agreed to tell the team everything, if they went back to his house with him, because it wasn't safe anywhere else. 

So the team did so, and along the way ran into their first sign of trouble. Ol' Mohammed was getting tailed 24/7 and whoever was tailing him wasn't afraid to get their hands dirty, say by trying to kill Mohammed or anyone with them.

The car chase ((which is AWESOME to do when no one has any points in Driving)) was a slow crawl in evening rush hour to Mohammed's small house. The party entered and immediately took note of the religious iconography, satellite maps and old books [Research, Military Science, and Occult Studies spends]. 

Mohammed has been ordered by the Lt Colonel to dig up the desert for a particular hiding spot for a particular book. The problem is, that the desert is huge and this book, a personal diary of a monk from the 13th century, is small. [CORE CLUE]

It was at this moment the team noticed [Traffic Analysis] the tail from before coming back...and in force. Eight men, six of them armed were surrounding the building. 

Diego encouraged Mohammed to talk more ((Again, first wanting to dangle him out a window) but instead suggested that if the team knew more they could help. Mohammed revealed that he had a lead on the book, and did for many weeks, he was just afraid that revealing the lead would end the flow of cash and more possibly, his life ((The players I guess felt sorry for Mohammed here, and gave him a gun)).

The team left the apartment to meet the tail, and the fight was short and decisive. The team dumped the bodies into a dumpster down the block and took one of the tail-cars to the address Mohammed gave them about the lead. 

The address was an old storage facility, with a unit loaded floor to ceiling with papers and receipts and tax forms and all kinds of customs-forgery props [CORE CLUE]. 

But the team was not alone. The creature had tracked them from all the way back at Midnight and was after the book. Killing them would just be a bonus. 

((The team did not fare well against the creature. A lot of [Stability] was lost and the injuries were high. It didn't kill anyone, but it certainly knocked the stuffing out of them))

The doctor decided to use the car against the creature and damn near killed himself in that wreck. But the party delighted in beheading the beastie and celebrating finding Mohammed's lead just before the unit caught fire ((caused by errant use of a flare gun)). 

Mohammed's lead [CORE CLUE] brought them a cell phone number that when dialed, the person on the other end would only respond with a single word "Green", and then would hang up if the party said anything. Clearly, a codeword. 

After some hounding of Diego's contacts [3 point Network spend], the team made their way to a hotel bar where a lot of illegal trafficking went down ((mostly kids and drugs)), and found that the cell phone number rang the phone behind the bar. 

By way of  a little discussion [Intimidation] with the bartender ((where the party did get to break his hand)), they found out that a buyer of antiquities was going to be at the Museum tonight to receive a shipment [CORE CLUE]- and that intercepting that deal would be a good idea.

Problem #1 was that the team lacked an Infiltrator. Problem #2 was that they lacked any Hacker or Surveillance people. Problem #3 was that all they had was guns.

The team raced to the museum, finding it fairly locked up and somewhat secure (dogs and security personnel) but the parking lot was interesting.

In the lot, actually right next to where they parked was the Lt Colonel's car. [CORE CLUE]. Of course, it was under a lamppost in an otherwise empty lot. 

((There was a moment here where the players didn't realize that it was now near midnight, and they were in the open, under a light....))

The museum guards opened fire and the volleys were ferocious. 

((I thought here I lost the whole party. They were totally near death, and absolutely wounded badly, and unconscious.))

The party came to somewhere bright. And hot. And hours later.

They awoke to find themselves in a cemetery, being dragged in front of a tomb under renovation. They had been given somewhat passable medical attention....from the medical staff at Midnight [CORE CLUE] because when they all came around, the Lt Colonel was ordering them at gun point into the tomb. 

Mohammed's dead body was tossed at their feet, and suddenly it all became clear -- the Colonel wasn't under duress, he was the mastermind of the whole event, and now the book would be his...if the team went into the tomb and retrieved it, because the locals who excavated it wouldn't go near it [CORE CLUE]

So, into the tomb they went. And Cornelius was happy to point out the explosives wired into the lighting system [CORE CLUE].

The team penetrated deep beneath the Baghdad city structure, all the way down to a crypt of an unknown age ((Every player failed their respective rolls at Archaeology, Occult Studies, and History)).

At the end of ths tour, where they were marched in and had the tomb locked behind them, they found the book. 

It was a pillow for a sleeping creature. Pale, nearly alabaster, and dessicated, it slumbered pretty deeply. That is until Ai Hao crossed the threshold of its room.

The creature at first just studied the team, and the team kept its distance. It moved left, they went right. All the way around the circle until the creature blocked the door, but the team had the book. 

It occurred to Diego and the doctor that the only thing to do now was to sacrifice an agent to escape....and Cornelius had flipped through the book and started reading [2 point Occult Studies spend]....and oddly enough the rather interesting ritual required a human sacrifice. 

((The tension here was delicious. The party knew they weren't getting out alive, but didn't want to devolve into killing each other. Great moment))

Eventually, the creature went to attack Cornelius, since he had the book. As the beast ran, he started reading and then ((did something that absolutely amazed me as a GM))...killed himself so that the blood stained the pages.

The rest of the team ran for the door, while the ritual gained power fueled by Cornelius' sacrifice. 

Up from the graves arose quite a few half-dead things, things in all stages of rot, an arm here, half a woman there....and while the team ran away from the creature and the tomb, the risen remnants descended upon the Midnight staff.

The team reached ground level just as the Lt Colonel was being torn apart by ghouls. 

The only thing to do was to blow up the tomb. They did, sinking the whole cemetery infrastructure down about 3 meters and causing a citywide panic, but the book was destroyed ((or was it?)) and Cornelius didn't entirely die in vain ((or did he?)).

((This was one of the more fun adventures I ran....later this week, I'm going to test out the Victorian setting)).


----------



## Committed Hero

This is a fantastically entertaining read, I can picture the action on a screen.

Is it possible to get the vamp creation spreadsheet?


----------



## writernextdoor

My apologies for the lack of updates - My group is currently on vacation. You'd think this would give me a chance to catch up on the FIVE episodes I owe this thread, but work has been particularly busy. I will get one episode up tonight. 

@Commited Hero - Yes, I'll get you a copy of the spreadsheet.


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## Salad Shooter

writernextdoor said:


> I will get one episode up tonight.




eeeeexcellent


----------



## writernextdoor

The Aruba Connection, also called "Crossing The ArubaCon"

[Mechanics are in braces]
((GM Comments are in double parentheses))

The Team For This Episode
--------------------------
Mace Hunter
Desdemona
Rossini
Father John Iago ((brand new character, testing out a new Pool I'm calling "Faith"))

(([Faith, will, if this works, operate similar to Stability, and in the face of the Damned may act as a floating spend-pool to draw upon to turn back the tide of evil. To reduce the mechanical advantage I passed 2 House Rules:

1. Faith will be called upon only in direct confrontation with evil or its consequences - you can't just summon it up when you're in line at the post office
2. Usages of Faith have to be completely acted out, with full descriptions.]))

Desdemona met Father John before he was Father John, when he was pro-golfer John Iago, who was a very strong twelfth-ranked golfer in the world, making a good push for the top ten. However, their love affair ((which I have players trying to produce as a web-comic)) wrecked his swing ((Desdemona was more interested in his....putter)) and he left the circuit to pursue her. He found Faith along the way.

For months now The Man had been telling Mace that a lot of Conspiracy activity was coming through tourist destinations [CORE CLUE], playing a sort of loose three-card monte game with resort properties. Mace did some digging [2 point Research spend] and found the following. 

((The following are ALL [CORE CLUES]))


A condo company called Absalom Properties has offered vacations to newlyweds and parents of children born in the last year.
Six couples who took the offer all disappeared within months of each other (first one adult, then the other), and within weeks of taking this vacation.
The children, all under 2 years of age, were sent into foster care programs, and were all adopted within 30 days, a statistical improbability.
The court records are all sealed and Mace did not have the immediate resources to dig deeper, but he could assign a Cloud Agent to the task. Sifting through dossiers, he selected Ezra Corvus, a Czech data analyst (with combat experience, in case field work was needed). Ezra would get briefed shortly ((Look for that update soon)).


But Absalom Properties was offering another vacation package, this time in Aruba, and Mace needed [Drive - Atonement] to stop this from happening again. But he didn't fit the profile, and since he had already been captured, he reasoned it was likely he'd get spotted. 



Other agents would have to be put into play. Desdemona was an obvious choice. She'd want to work with Nick, but Nick was unavailable, and as much as he regretted it, Rossini was a better choice. He had Contacts in the area and more familiarity with escapes if things got dicey.


So with a quick bit of work [2 point Forgery and 2 point Digital Intrusion spends], Desdemona and Rossini became Mr and Mrs Julia and Oscar Wild, an engaged couple, looking to get married in Absalom's newest package "The Isle Getaway Extravaganza" -- all he needed was a priest.


The coincidence was delicious. Desdemona would run smack into her past AND help him out along the way. Perfect.


Father John greeted them at the airport, and Rossini even offered to drive so the good Father and Desdemona could talk.


It's hard to talk when Rossini drives. Either because the man is deranged and experiences paranoid delusions or because he's the absolute best driver when you need to get away from a tail. 



No one was sure which was the case as they left the airport, but [4 point Driving Spend] Rossini shook 2 tails on the way over to the resort. 



Mace, thanks to a phone call to Margie [3 point Network spend], could spend the entire episode on a yacht, suntanning and tracking the field work. Oh, and getting to know Margie. 



Father John was equal parts happy and angry with Desdemona, and she was equal parts shocked he remembered her and shocked that she still had feelings for him. At the condo, after an intense discussion ((I should point out that the players BOTH INSISTED on acting it out, even though both players were male and not dating each other)), Desdemona gave Father John the hard news....


((I prepared for a very cagey, slightly comedic lie, but Desdemona's player didn't))


"John, there's something bigger than the both of us going on here. You're a member of the Church now, surely you've heard about it. What's the worst case scenario they prepared for in Seminary? Now the truth is a thousand times worse."


And that's how Father John was told about the Conspiracy. And after a quick phone call to the yacht, how he was quickly brought in as a temporary Agent. 



Absalom Properties arranged for a wedding out by one of the resort pools, under a moonlit sky and candle light. The agenda called for everything to happen on Night 2, meaning the team had time to prepare. 



((This is a full list of what they did))


Father John dropped a clear lucite rosary into the pool, and blessed it [2 point Faith spend, 1 point Preparedness spend] "I consecrate this pool, that it might be a liquid vessel for His greatness and allow us security against what's coming."
Rossini faxed bogus invitations / encoded messages to Mace [1 point Cryptography spend]
Desdemona bought a dress and stitched a pocket into it, putting a small vial of holy water inside. [1 point Preparedness spend -- because I couldn't think of what else to call it))]
Father John rigged the windows and doorways in the condo with silver bells and crosses [2 point Faith spend] "Beyond this threshold, let only His Grace and Goodness enter, all else be repelled."
All through Night 1, the team stayed indoors, communicating only with Mace on the yacht. They ordered Room Service and waited for problems to happen.


((It occurs to me now that I could have poisoned the food or rigged the cart to blow up or something, but this was just....an NPC with food))


The first problem was around 3am, when Rossini heard something scratching at the condo's patio door. The patio was on the second floor, and overlooked a sheer cliff to the ocean. He threw on the light and found two dozen rats scampering around the patio, and going up the walls. They didn't enter, just roamed the perimeter. Testing it. 



The second problem came at 9am, when Desdemona opened the door to pick up her wedding dress, and the hotel attendant tried to claw out her eyes. A Renfield, a bloodmonkey, a human on their way to Corruption. Father John kept the girl in an ice bath for most of Day 2 before realizing there was no saving her. Rossini put a bullet in her and dumped her off the patio just before sunset. 



Night 2 came and the wedding began. Desdemona looked great in her dress, Rossini looked...decent in a tux jacket and shorts. But he also had a holster with two machine pistols ready to go. And Father John stuffed a flashbang into his pocket. [2 points Preparedness] 



To put it mildly, this was a trap. It was a private ceremony, with several guests of the resort coming out to welcome the new wedding. But it didn't take a genius or even a lot of [Sense Trouble] to realize that for a beach resort, these guests were not tan. At all. 



The odds were not in the agents' favor - 2 trained Agents and 1 Priest against 2 dozen Vamps? 



((The players at this point began talking of replacement characters))


But Faith is a tricky thing. And just before the first invoking prayer, the attack came. And Father John might as well have been called "Wall John" because Faith kept the creatures back.


(([I treated this as a roll-off, and ticked off the difference in points against John's Faith pool, treating this more like a force field or barrier.]))


And when his Faith waivered in a moment of exhaustion, John pulled one of the creatures into the pool.


The blessed pool. 



And then Desdemona and Rossini jumped in, making huge splashes. 



From within the center of the pool, they destroyed two-thirds of the "wedding". A few of the more crafty ones realized they couldn't stay in the pool forever.


((The scene is written here as it was delivered))


Vamp: Poor mortals. Are you going to live there? You have to come out some time, and when you do --
Father John: I pray for our souls, and offer the creature a chance to repent --

Rossini: I empty the machine pistol into the Vamp. I'll spend [4 points in Shooting]. 
Father John looks at him, in disbelief. 

Desdemona: If he runs out of bullets, I'll lay down more fire after him [3 points of Shooting worth].




It got messy, Eventually, the Agents outnumbered the Vamps and they could make it back to the Condo for round 2 of the fight. 



((Which didn't happen, because the egg timer on the table buzzed, meaning it was sunrise)).


The sun did a far better cleaning up the scene than the Agents ever could. 



The agents met Mace on the beach for breakfast and Father John was inducted in as a full-time Agent.


((In our next thrilling episode, learn about what happened to Nick....))


----------



## Pelgrane

I'm enjoying this, and would love to hear an actual play recording. I too would like a vampire creation sheet!


----------



## Committed Hero

writernextdoor said:


> Father John dropped a clear lucite rosary into the pool, and blessed it [2 point Faith spend, 1 point Preparedness spend] "I consecrate this pool, that it might be a liquid vessel for His greatness and allow us security against what's coming."




Too cool. The synergy of a good GM, compelling ideas and invested players cannot be surpassed in any other media.


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## writernextdoor

Committed Hero said:


> Too cool. The synergy of a good GM, compelling ideas and invested players cannot be surpassed in any other media.




Thanks, that means a lot.


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## writernextdoor

Just wanted to let everyone know, I'm getting caught up on all the campaign notes, expect a post later today or tomorrow.


----------



## writernextdoor

((GM Notes are in double parentheses))
[Mechanical notes are in braces]

Episode: So What Happened To Nick?

((The episode was played out with a smaller-than-usual group, so this is truncated version built around one mechanical conceit - [What if another player was in charge of your spends?]))

Nick is a proud vegan. Not one of those convert-anyone-he-meets-types, but definitely someone not shy about extolling the virtues of good diet and clean living. 

[Research 2] He was spending what was more or less a day off doing some digging around a city zoning meeting where the local journalists reported some strange goings-on. The lights flickered, they had a funny sense of time and the recording devices didn't always function properly. So...

[Disguise 1] He went down to the records office to watch the footage. It was static-y, it looked years degraded despite being a brand-new recording. He took notes and made himself a copy of the tape [CLUE].

On the tape, there were two items on the agenda worth noting:

1. There was a vote to re-zone a whole area by the waterfront into an industrial park. [CORE CLUE]
2. When he cranked up the volume to hear the conversations better, he heard a raspy voice speaking just off-camera, whispering his name. His name, Mace's name, and the name of that nice Doctor they rescued from the Hospital. [CLUE] The words were just floated out there, with just that right sense of menace to crawl under your skin and wriggle into your ear. 

He had to do something. But what? Mace had gone down to Aruba. He'd have to go back to his apartment and put together a plan.

[Driving 1] He took side streets and short cuts.
[Traffic Analysis, Streetwise 1] He made it to his apartment parking garage in record time.

2 things happened.

First, the explosion. ((This was the largest dice roll I've made in the game to-date)), The blast was huge, the pillar of fire tremendous. The building shook and shuddered. Gone were the top 3 floors. ((That's a 31d6 explosives roll if you're mechanically curious...that's Explosive Devices + Enemy MOS + gas lines + Preparedness + demolitions training + high quality explosives))

Second, the tazer. It caught Nick just above the kidney, and he barely felt the black silk bag slip over his head....

Next episode - NICK, KIDNAPPED.


----------



## writernextdoor

((GM Notes are in parentheses)
[Mechanical Notes are in braces]

((NOTE - This is our Season 1 TTVD Finale episode, after this session, we'll be switching things up for a few weeks with a different game (Call of Cthulhu) and a different GM))

Nick was in an out of consciousness for the better part of the four hours. He didn't know if they drugged him, but he wouldn't be surprised. In one of the longer stretches of semi-wakefulness, he took stock of his situation.

He was somewhere at sea, and the window of the room he was in was either on a boat or a shoreline. He could hear waves. But the room didn't sway or rock, so this couldn't be a boat, could it?

No one answered any of his calls, screams, or rude statements about people's mothers. In fact, he didn't hear any sound past that of the ocean and his own voice. 

And he still had most of this things with him. He was dressed. He had his wallet. He had his watch. His shoes had shoelaces. His belt was still fastened. Gone was his phone (he expected that) and gone was the twenty dollar bill he had in his back pocket. (Not expected, but reasonable).

Two hours passed, his cell was large, and the sink and toilet were in working order. He walked the space, counting twelve by sixteen tiles on the floor. And he waited. At some point, a rubber ball was tossed into his cell from a slot in the door. Yes, he checked the door. It was heavy, likely magnetized and he didn't have the strength to loose it. 

But he had a ball. And he knew a variety of games. Like catch-with-your-left-hand, and catch-with-your-right. 

He took off his watch. Later, well not really later, more like at some point in the future, he'd smash it with his shoe and try to start escaping. 

There wasn't a bed in the room, but he had taken to stretching out in the far corner under the window. If he turned his head, he could see out the window in the door, and he could, if he stayed awake, figure out who guarded him and what their schedule was. 

Interrupting this plan was the door sliding open and two people joining him. Desdemona and Rossini were tossed into the room. The first thing Nick noticed was that Rossini was missing a finger. The second thing Nick noticed was the Desdemona was barely breathing.

Rossini explained that he heard from another agent (Chip Chesterton IV, now dead) that Nick was gone, and it was only thanks to Carter Byers' [3-point Preparedness spend] expert surgery that every Agent has a GPS stashed into their hip. Mace, who was also missing now, sent Desdemona and Rossini to retrieve Nick.

And they found him, on an abandoned off-shore oil drilling platform, owned by a subsidiary of MertCo Oil and Gas [CORE CLUE], a major financial backer of the Absalom Properties [previous CORE CLUE]. And they were surrounded just by ocean in every direction for about 30 miles. Rossini "borrowed" [2 point Network spend] a small boat from a fishing buddy and Desdemona was quick to sign on. The rescue mission was supposed to be this - find Nick, escape, keep the fighting to a minimum.

Well, they found Nick alright. They found him about four hours into Nick's captivity, but someone else also found them.

The boat reached platform pretty easily, the rock of the waves drew it right in. But no sooner had they moored that someone joined them on the boat.

This someone they recognized from Aruba. One of the hotel staff, a young guy, Ted or something. He still had on his uniform. It was stained pink with blood, and Ted looked pretty pale right now, but Ted still had on his uniform.

Rossini wasn't fast enough. Even with a neat tuck and roll [2 point Athletics spend], Ted was faster. And Desdemona didn't stand a chance. Ted bit her. 

Ted then did something odd. He hocked a big fat lugie at Rossini. Hit him square in the arm. And everything got sort of fuzzy, Rossini swears. Fuzzy like he just chugged a bottle of vodka. Fuzzy like he was looking at the world through goggles filled with sea water. 

((Although Ted still wasn't a full-on vamp he was 2/3rds the way through his transformation. He couldn't yet turn others, but his saliva was most certainly narcotic -- see Vampire Spreadsheet))

Rossini fainted [1 point Stability loss] and he came too with a searing hot pain in his hand. An older man, someone practically desiccated, lopped off Rossini's ring finger with red hot pruning shears, then cauterized the wound with a Zippo and a piece of metal. Rossini, in pain, was strapped down to a tilt-table and got to watch two things:

1. This old man shuffling around the room 
2. Desdemona being bled out through a weird machine that he was sure he'd seen on TV. 

The old man hovered over Desdemona, watching her blood filter out, watching her basically die, and then would take a sharp thing (scissors, a file, a coat hanger, whatever was handy) and jab it into Rossini. 

((By this time, each was down to about half their [Health] and half their [Stability].))

Rossini was only asked two questions:
1. Why doesn't he just surrender?
2. Where is Mace Hunter?

He didn't have answers for either, and eventually they were dragged up a flight of stairs and into Nick's cell. 

Nick took off his shirt and did what he could for Desdemona [1 point Medic spend], but for the most part, she was a goner. But once Rossini better described the machine, Nick knew what had happened. 

She was turned. Her blood pumped out, new blood, vamp serum, pumped in. He also knew [2 point Vampirology spend] that in order to make the changes stick, Desdemona would have to feed. And who better to snack on than the two guys she's held captive with?

MEANWHILE....

Mace had just returned to New York, and was eager to activate as many agents as possible and really put the squeeze on everything. 

Just as he was pouring the first afternoon Bloody Mary, his phone rang. MikeSmith on the other end said he was downstairs, and that he had just returned home to find his home in flames and his family dead [Solace lost, Security Lost], and he needed a place to go. Also, there were fifteen packages being dropped off.

Packages? Mace wasn't expecting anything. But he and MikeSmith worked to bring them all upstairs and eventually, after some tears and some drinks, opened them. Each box was addressed differently, to a different cover ID either for Mace, Nick or some other team member.

Inside each box was a head. 

Some were Agents. Chip Chesterton IV, Samuel Foster, Ashywa Tarwilligar. Some were Nick's cousins. Mary and Judith.
One was even the girl Mace had a crush on in the eighth grade, Karen.

There was also a smaller package, an envelope, and inside a leather strap with what looked like a smartphone holstered to it. The note was addressed to Mace, from "your biggest fan", and written by someone who's handwriting duplicated Mace's exactly. 

((Note - this is the link between this campaign and our Ashen Stars campaign, one of the things we'll be doing in the near future. This is Mace's "out", because I want to keep the character running through all our stories))

Under Karen's head (she didn't age well, Mace noted), was an mp3 player.

It had one track on it. Mace played it. The Voice was not The Man's.

"Good afternoon Mister Hunter. Hopefully with this message you've received our little gifts to you. Perhaps in the future, you'll be more thorough with your background checks of the cleaning company you hire to do your floors. It's a very nice office you have there, but tell me, do all the ladies know the truth? Which Mace Hunter do they know? The suave charmer? Or the haunted spy? It's not fair that you have the ability to pick and choose who you are when people like us have only the one face to show the world....albeit at night. So, Mister Hunter..."

Here the Voice transformed into the Man's.

"...we're going to make you choose. This message is ninety seconds long, leaving you about....twenty seconds to escape. Nineteen. Eighteen."

Mace and MikeSmith ran for the elevator, but not before Mace grabbed the Blue Notebook.

Seventeen. The elevator wasn't coming.
Sixteen. To the stairs they ran. 
Fifteen. Mace left his phone upstairs.
Fourteen. All Mike could remember was the way his house burned.
Thirteen. Down the stairs, faster, faster.
Twelve. MikeSmith tapped out a quick 911 text to all Agents.
Eleven. Why the hell did Mace have to live so high up?
Ten. Where the hell was Nick?
Nine. Carter called Mike, saying he was being fired from the Hospital.
Seven. Mace didn't even finish his drink.
Six. Mike couldn't get the stink of gasoline out of his nose.
Five. Poor Karen. Her eyes glazed over.
Four. The first floor, finally.
Three. Screaming through the lobby, "Everyone get out!"
Two. Street level.
One. Mace looked skyward as the sun began to set.

BOOM.

Night fell slower than the building did. The explosion was huge, and shook the entire block. The building didn't collapse, it was built American strong, but the top crumbled and spit out across the street below in every direction. 

All Mace had was whatever was on him and the blue notebook. Damn the Man. Where was the team?

RE-MEANWHILE....

Nick looked out the window at the last licks of sunlight, and then back to Desdemona, she was moaning now, these oddly seductive moans that were at once arousing and frightening. She didn't speak much, but when she did she only said, 

"Hungry."

((This concludes Season 1 of Tinker Tailor Vampire Die...we'll be switching to Ashen Stars (another great Pelgrane product) and Call of Cthulhu for a few weeks (I'm running Ashen Stars, Craig (who played MikeSmith) is running Cthulhu))

((I should also point out that if you like this thread, and like this game, you should come out to DexCon this July and participate in the $1,000 Night's Black Agents tournament, which I'm very excited to have a role in.))

((Season 2 will begin in June, more or less. I have some work to do throughout May, which is why I'm playing rather than running as busy a schedule))


----------



## writernextdoor

Due to player demand, we're starting Season 2 tonight...as in any-second-now.


----------



## writernextdoor

When we last left our team, things weren't looking so good. Most of the team was missing, unreachable or dead. 

Before we talk about the adventure of tonight, here's an update on who we know is alive and kicking.

Mace Hunter & MikeSmith - sitting on the curb watching Headquarters burn
Dr Carter Byers - at home, having just been fired from the hospital

Nick Darter, Rossini - captured, sitting on a second floor cell of a disused oil derrick just off the coast.

Desdemona - also captured, also in the cell with Nick and Rossini, but also about halfway into the transformation to take her from mortal spy to immortal bloodsucker. 

So that's where things stand. We begin Season 2: Tinker Tailor Vampire Die in the cell with Nick and Rossini.....

As always GM comments are in double parentheses and mechanics are in braces. 

Nick didn't have much on him, but there was always the stake. [1 point Preparedness spend]. And sitting there in the cell, watching his would be executioner hunger and prepare to reach such an animalistic point that she'd 

likely fly across the room faster than he could blink and tear out his throat, he remembered a conversation he had with Mace. 

"Always keep a stake."
"In what?"
"No. I mean keep one close. It will mean the difference between life and death."

And that stake he kept in a dive knife sheath against his left calf, under a sock. 

It was that stake, he knew, he'd have to drive into Desdemona's heart to keep her from killing him or Rossini. 

Or both. 

(([Staking a vampire won't kill them, it simply paralyzes them. Beheading, dissection or exposure to other material will destroy them. Staking a vampire is like pressing Pause. Removing the stake at any time depresses Pause.]))

Rossini held her down. It wasn't hard, she was in and out of consciousness at this point, so it was more a matter of just keeping away from her mouth. And Nick drove the stake into her. She squealed, a sick orgasmic sound he didn't want to have echoing in the cold room for very long. She twitched and sputtered, locking her face into a rictus somewhere between pleasure and terror. But she held, frozen, muscles tense, the buds of fangs just starting to break through the gumline. 

(([Killing a teammate cost them each HALF their Stability]))

But it wasn't enough to leave her staked. If they slept, a guard, anyone could easily come in, remove the stake and they'd be toast. So, with a nod, they knew what had to be done. 

There was a plate of food the guards had brought Nick earlier. He didn't eat it, but he kept the plate. He shattered it against the wall and gave Rossini a crescent sliver. 

"You can't be serious." said the lunatic.
Nick sighed. "Either cut her or cut your wrists. Your choice. But I know what I'm doing."

Were this an op, they'd call Carter and have him talk them through dissection. Or they'd ship the body off to whatever lab he sequestered and leave him to his power tools and splatter shield and apron. But it was just them, and all they had was a broken plate for a knife. 

The blood didn't splatter. Rossini thought it would, but the stake must have paused everything, so instead it was like cutting through flesh-with-a-gelatin-core. Messy. Smelly. Unbelievably intimate. 

Desdemona died, though Rossini and Nick agreed that she likely died the moment she was infected, and all they were doing now was disposing of another fanged corpse. Part of Rossini, part not claimed by insanity, faux 
insanity or some other part of his hardened criminal mind, wasn't sure if she died from the stake or when he took her head off. He hoped she didn't feel or remember it. He didn't want to think about it. 

In a crude game of basketball, they lobbed the parts out the window, just in time for sunrise. They heard a few chunks catch fire like old logs in winter fireplaces as they tumbled out to the ocean. They wept as the sun rose. 

MEANWHILE ((this is where we took a break and ate food))....

Mace and MikeSmith picked themselves up off the curb before the fire trucks arrived. Mace boosted a car [1 point Filch spend] and the two of them drove as far as they could on whatever gas was in the tank. Turns out, counting 
the cash MikeSmith had in his pocket, they got all the way out of the state. They reached a small town in Vermont and found a truck stop. 

Step one would be to contact the agents. At least that's what Tradecraft said. But Mace counted on the fact that everything he was doing was monitored, so it was time to cheat the system. 

When your enemies know all your moves, the only smart thing to do is do everything they don't think you capable of. 

So, from the counter of a greasy truck stop, Mace Hunter and MikeSmith launched a new operation - Operation Cuckoo. 

Cuckoo would turn them from agents to criminals, from prey to predators and from food to hunters. 

Mace gave the order to Mike to get them a new vehicle, by any means necessary. Mike "found" a set of truck keys in a guy's pocket when he went to the bathroom [1 point Filch spend]. They didn't even pay the tab on three cups of coffee and a piece of apple pie. 

Via CB Mace left a message for Carter's ex-wife, who was a radio enthusiast and would get Carter a message without raising too many eyebrows. He told her to get Carter to Burlington Vermont, a place Mace chose because he once drove through there and hated it. 

MikeSmith knew a church that would grant them a little leeway and asylum there. [3 point Network spend]. It wasn't much, but it had beds, showers and supplies. They were able to get cleaned up and even changed into new clothes before Carter arrived.

But Carter didn't come empty-handed. Although he had been fired from the Hospital on charges that he was smuggling drugs to local kids, he was able to walk out with boxes full of material from his desk. Boxes that security guards didn't really look too closely at. A trio of handguns, some flares, some silver ingots and a whole gallon of holy water all made Operation Cuckoo a little more comfortable.

They armed themselves, and honestly, didn't know what to do. They'd need money. They'd need resources. Mace's notebook laid out some possible targets - a church in Mexico, a shipping company in Seattle and this Adoption 
agency all looked like good started points. Carter checked them out on the laptop and they started planning. [a 2 point Research spend] A route existed, and they could, if they planned to hit the Adoption Agency in California, could drive right down the coast and take them all out. 

That's when the beeping started. Carter had GPS trackers running constantly on Agents, he used them to give data to Mace or Nick, whoever was running the Op. Each agent's tracker was pretty high-end, and Desdemona's flickered 
on for just a second. The trackers run off body heat and pulse, but are built to give one last great burst of info when they go offline. And hers just went offline. 

They'd need a boat. 

Carter and MikeSmith became Tom Jacques and Jerry Cousteau, [2 point Cover and Disguise spends] two fisherman looking for the next big catch. Mace became Stephen Strange their navigator.

((Mace has ZERO navigation or piloting ability, so of course, he's going to set the course and steer it))

They left Vermont just after midnight and found a small Connecticut town with a boat for sale. Well, it wasn't so much for sale as it was poorly secured. [1 point Filch spend, 1 point Traffic Analysis spend, 1 point Preparedness spend] 

And with the last of their cash they picked up two shotguns, sandwiches, a case of beer and a bottle of rum - all the things a good pirate needs. ((Arr.))

Carter's computer logged Desdemona's GPS tracker to an oil rig off the coast of NJ. 

((Yeah I made it up, deal with it))

They stowed the boat and boarded the rig without so much as an "Avast" or "Ahoy there". The sun was rising at this point. 

RE-MEANWHILE...

Nick and Rossini were frantically trying to wash the blood off their hands when they heard the engines of a boat approaching. Rossini was even certain he heard the racking of a shotgun. It was either a rescue or a death squad, and either way, they were ready to die.

RE-RE-MEANWHILE...one guard, half-asleep, staggered on deck to see what the ruckus was. Mace, without thinking, shot him. Yeah, Operation Cuckoo was now serious. 

Shooting one guard invariably brings more. So MikeSmith put down another two while Carter got off the boat and began looking for a map or a sign [1 point Traffic Analysis spend, just to make sure]

Carter figured they'd keep prisoners in one of the storage rooms near the sickbay [1 point Human Terrain spend], so the team headed that way. All the while making pirate jokes. 

They found Nick and Rossini. And MikeSmith took the door off its hinges. 

It was good to see Nick again, thought Mace, but there was little time for reunion or satisfaction. The plan was 

now to escape. Rossini explained to Carter all about the torture, and Mace explained to Nick what happened at home. No one talked about Desdemona. 

Then genius fell on MikeSmith. Surrounded by sea water, baked in sunlight, what this party needed was fire. It wasn't hard to re-route the kitchen gas lines through the fire sprinklers [Mechanics 2 point spend, Explosive Devices 1 point spend] and fill the whole rig with a going away present. 

The team boarded the boat and Mace let Nick fire the flare into the window of the cell that kept him. 

The explosion and shockwave rocked the boat, and even as they sped off into the now noon-day sunny waters, they could see the flames and smoke as a sad tombstone for their fallen teammate. 

Operation Cuckoo has the following team members:

Mace Hunter
Nick Darter
Rossini
Dr Carter Byers
MikeSmith

They also have nothing to lose.


----------



## Pelgrane

How are you and your players balancing Preparedness with pre-planning?


----------



## writernextdoor

Initially, they didn't make enough use of it, and after word spread throughout the playerbase that Preparedness was useful, everyone lobbied for huge Pools of it. 

And then the story picked up momentum, and the players were okay NOT being Prepared for the sake of the story. 

It's interesting to overhear them talk about how much they think 1 point is worth. Before I even have to step in and adjudicate, they've narrowed their plans down considerably - deciding for themselves that 2 points of Preparedness is not the be-all, end-all of Master Plans. 

Here's to hoping they continue


----------



## Salad Shooter

Man...it's been like...a month...


----------



## writernextdoor

Sorry for the delays. I promise the update(S) are coming. I've just returned from a week-long conference in Anaheim, and am neck deep in preparations for the DexCon tournament next week. But I give you my word you'll get an update from me in the VERY near future (like as soon as I weed through my inbox and eat some lunch).


----------



## writernextdoor

Update coming. I've got player notes to go through first.


----------



## writernextdoor

For the curious, I'm co-running the DexCon Night's Black Agents Tournament with Ken Hite tomorrow afternoon.

I just wanted to lay a little teaser out there for the interested. 

1. There's a new kind of monster, called a "Spider-Zotz". 
2. There are 6 preliminary scenarios....they are named:
   a) Doctors Without Border OR SAVIORS
   b) The Ship of Souls
   c) Die Hard In A Hotel With Vampires
   d) The Long Night At the Clinic
   e) Weekend At Byron's
   f) The Ghost Train

3. This Conspiracy is tournament specific, although players in my 2 scenarios (Die Hard in a Hotel and The Ghost Train) may meet characters from TTVD.

4. There are no car chases in any scenario (because I'm still not comfortable adjudicating them, and they eat up precious time).

If you want updates on the event, check me out on twitter (awesome_john).


----------



## writernextdoor

[Mechanics are in braces]
((GM Notes are in double parentheses)

In his dreams, Rossini was often either the center of attention -- everyone in his dream would stare at him, no matter what he did -- or he was a helpless observer to bad things: a school burning down, a monster eating kittens, a war breaks out. 

He never told anyone about these dreams, because, well, who would listen to the dreams of a lunatic? 

But one morning, as the team was figuring out how best to send a group of men into an adoption agency, Nick spoke to Mace about a nightmare:

"I was in Rossini's dream."

This simple sentence started a two-hour conversation about how dreams are doors for things to enter. 

They'd have to find a way to keep some doors closed.


----------



## writernextdoor

[Mechanical notes are in braces]
((GM Notes are in double parentheses))

While the team worked at keeping the "doors of their minds" closed, they were treated to this scene - revealed to them as a shared dream experience...((meaning they were all observers within this one particular dream-state))

The food was cold. Again. And Billy Thompkiss was tired of cold food. He was glad to be off the streets, sure, but everything he ate here was cold. Not cold like it was frozen, not even cold like it wasn't done thawing, just cold like everything got cooked and then sat in a big fridge for ten minutes before it got handed out.

He looked around the cafeteria, and saw all the kids eating, oblivious to the fact that the food was cold and it shouldn't be. He consoled himself with the thought that most of these kids were used to starving, so they didn't look a gift cheeseburger in the mouth. 

But Billy wasn't used to starving. He was a good kid, at least by his own standards and he was used to food being warm when it was supposed to be, cold when it should be, or no food at all. Your cheeseburger shouldn't be this chewy, and he knew it.

((After this scene, I explained that Billy had a VERY low-powered character sheet, so I'll include the spends when we get to them.))

He ate and chewed and watched. Billy loved to watch. He wasn't social like Katie or really good during sports period like Chris, but Billy excelled at watching. 

Now he didn't know much about orphanages, but since he came into the Ephraim Adoption Agency For Lost Youth four months ago (he traded two sticks of gum for a pocket calendar), he realized that within the walls of the building, the kids were pretty much free to do whatever. 

----------------
A morning bell rang at 8:30 to wake everyone up.
They were given thirty minutes to pick out clothes, brush their teeth and get dressed.
At 9, another bell rang and they were lead from their rooms to the cafeteria, where food was served from 9 until 10. 
At 10, another bell rang and you could either have a play period, a reading period or a sports period. The periods lasted 2 hours.
At 12, the lunch bell rang, and lunch was served for an hour.
At 1, and then again at 3, you could have another play, reading or sports period.
Dinner was served from 5 to 6
Dessert was served from 6 to 7. It was also during Dessert that kids routinely went to the nurse or the clinician for interviews and check-ups, especially if they were due to be adopted or visited by possible parents.
From 7 to 8:30, you could do whatever. Most kids used this time to clean their rooms, hang out with friends or watch TV.
Between 8:30 and 10, you had the option of taking a shower or bath. 
At 10, the double bell rang, and that meant you had to be in your room, lights out. There was a bedcheck at 11:30. 
The whole process repeated every day. Except Sundays. On Sundays, the food was warm and constantly served. And there wasn't a bedcheck or a nurse visit. Billy wasn't even sure that more than 5 adults were in the building on Sundays. 
------------

Billy knew the names of the adults who were around to help him. Mrs Washington, his assigned nurse. Mr Jefferson, the sports period teacher. Mrs Madison the reading period librarian, Mrs Jackson, the play period supervisor. 

A lot of other kids envied Billy for being assigned to "Стадо N" which Mrs Madison said meant "Herd N" and that Herd was another word for "group of Orphans" but Billy knew she was lying. [BS  Detector 1 point spend]

Herd N wasn't so bad. They had the laxest rules of all the Herds, and really the only time Billy even got in trouble was the night he wasn't feeling well and couldn't sleep. See, the rule was you had to be in bed and before midnight at the absolute latest, but Billy's tummy hurt, so he was coming back from the bathroom (he didn't like the one in his room, he liked the one at the end of the hall, because he liked hearing the people talking that strange language on the other side of the air vent)

He had been sneaking out to the hear the conversation ever since he was in the bathroom just before dinner and heard someone scream "Mace Hunter!" which Billy thought was like the coolest name ever, and he thought maybe it was like a television show (but he could never find it) or like an Internet thing (but Mrs Madison was always watching him when he went online), but if it was a person, it had to be a cool person because every time the name was said, people reacted. 

So today, after his cold burger and soggy fries (Billy was starting to think that the people who made the food had a magic power to suck all the heat out), he told his lunchroom advisor Mrs Coolidge that he was going to a play period.

At play, Mrs Jackson asked him what he would like to play, and Billy said, "Today, I'm going to be Mace Hunter."

And then something happened. Mrs Jackson, who was already sort of pale, the way someone is when they sit under the umbrella all the time at the beach or the way someone is when you spill flour on them, got paler, and she hissed. She hissed like someone was letting the air out of her. And then she had to go lie down and left Billy and all the kids alone. 

She left her laptop and her purse there though. 

It didn't take very long to get the laptop turned on, and to find the password she kept in her wallet [Digital Intrusion 1, Filch 1], and Billy fired up Google and went looking for Mace Hunter.

He found news clippings of a building fire in New York, and old photos of a man who was always drinking with pretty ladies. And he found a nice French lady's blog who mentioned him in kind of sappy sweet ways, the ways Billy thought adults in love talked about each other. So he wrote her an email.

"Dear Lady, My Name Is Billy And I Am Looking For Mace Hunter. I Live At The Ephraim Adoption Agency in Bartlett Tennesse. I would like to Meet Mace, I Think He Is Very Cool. Can You Have Him Come Meet Me? Billy"

Billy felt this was a particularly mature email, and sent it from one of the free email sites he read about in the newspaper.

About an hour later, just as play period was starting to wrap up, and Billy didn't see any adults, he checked the email to see if he got any responses.

He got one - a phone number - and he quickly wrote it down. Then he got offline and started deleting things off the computer the way Mrs Madison taught him. He deleted the Internet Browser, the folder labeled "Email" (Because he wrote one and didn't want anyone to read it, duh) and then because he used the computer, he deleted it too. It took a few times of figuring out what to delete, but he thought "Format" sounded a lot like "Laundromat" and that's where clothes go to be cleaned, so Format had to be what you do to a computer to keep it clean. 

He formatted the computer, wiped it all down with a tissue and was in line to leave play period when the 3 o'clock bell rang.

------------------------DREAM ENDS HERE-------------

It was around 9pm when Mace finally sat down on the small recliner of the motel room and poured himself a watery whiskey. He had emptied his pockets on the nightstand, and was waiting for Nick to come back with a few books on dream theory and psychology when the phone rang.

"Hello?"
"Mace?"
The voice was young, eager, male and innocent.
"Who is this?"
"My name is Billy Thompkiss..."
"Hello Billy. How did you get this number?"
"I'm at the Ephraim Adoption Agency."

There was a pause.
"Where, Billy, where are you?"
"Bartlett Tennessee."
"Billy, I'm on my way. You need to stay out of trouble and keep this phone number handy. Can you do that?"
"Yes sir."
"You'll have to be brave, and you'll need somewhere to hide. Billy, is there a church nearby?"
"Um...yeah, But tomorrow's Sunday."
"Okay, Billy, listen to me, can you make one more call for me? I need you to call Father Craig in Memphis [3 point Network spend] and tell him exactly this sentence 'I think it's time for dinner.' Can you do that? Promise me you'll be careful, call Father Craig and get to that church ASAP. I'll meet you there and I'll have friends with me, okay?"
"Mace?"
"Yeah Billy?"
"You really are the coolest."

Mace's drink never tasted better.


----------



## writernextdoor

[Mechanical spends are in braces]
((GM Notes are in parentheses))

Father Craig was midway through Paul's second letter to the Corinthians when the phone rang and that sad little boy called. Craig knew he was sad, the tone was so clear, but it lay buried under excitement. 

"I think it's time for dinner." the boy said so clearly, and Craig agreed, asked one more time for the address, and then told the boy to make his way to the church and to sit in the first pew until Mace showed up.

The phone call ended and Craig went to his closet. He pushed the suits to one side and drew the sheet back on the large gun safe. He tapped in the code

11-17-  his daughter's birthday.
05       the year that monster tore off his daughter's head and threw it through their living room window during Thanksgiving. 

For the last seven years Father Craig did two things every night before going to sleep - he prayed for strength and he cleaned his guns.

Joanna wasn’t coming home for Thanksgiving. Too much snow on the ground and too many hours of work at the hospital. She had a new job, and she thrived in it. Her absence hurt Craig and Linda, who had planned a great holiday of togetherness and delicious food. 

When Craig and Joanna talked that morning, she made him promise not to tell Linda she was coming to surprise her for dessert. So Craig kept the promise, ending the call as always with “I love you, be safe, be blessed.”

Craig and Linda tucked into dinner and ate slowly, talking about the snow and the Miller twins who spent all day shoveling walks in exchange for cocoa and pocket money, and of the lack of reasonably priced produce. Craig checked his watch discretely, never letting on that there was anything worth expecting.

You see because at this time Craig was sort of a believer. He attended church on holidays and on random Sundays when it wasn’t too hot or too cold or when they had a special fuss – he liked special fusses because they always brought doughnuts and coffee. 

But his faith was far from perfect. At least until the phone call.

The phone rang just before he tucked into his third helping of stuffing. It sounded like someone was playing a skipping record while riding a roller coaster, the background noise of yells and breaking glass mixing into panic and the tiny voice on the phone.

Joanna.
“Daddy…” 

He could hear his little girl, scared and hurt.

And then the phone cut out.

Right there on the kitchen floor, Craig fell to his knees and prayed. He prayed for strength. He prayed for Joanna. He prayed for forgiveness for every Sunday he slept in and for every cheek he didn’t turn. Linda found him on the floor and with one teary-eyed look, they prayed together until dinner was as cold as dessert. 

The waiting was interminable. Linda packed up dinner. Craig did all the dishes. And they tried to watch TV, but everything sounded like Joanna screaming. 

When it happened, they didn’t expect it, because the doorbell rang first. Linda went to the door, and saw a man she didn’t recognize standing on her front lawn. He was thin, short, and she thought maybe he was a junkie or a homeless person. She read about them last week in Today magazine as being a problem. He asked to be let in. He even knew her name.

But Linda didn’t trust him, so she told him to go away. 

The man, this junkie, this animal, didn’t go away though. Instead he backed up to the middle of the lawn and lobbed a box, one of those boxes you pack papers in when you move, through the front window.

The mess was terrible, but fixable. And when Craig looked out over his lawn, the man was gone. But Craig opened the box.

Joanna. In pieces. Tucked neatly into a box.

Linda screamed for five straight minutes, until neighbors came over to see what was wrong. Craig fainted. 

Five months later, Craig bought his first gun, a shotgun, and thanks to a video on the Internet, sawed off the barrel. Linda started taking ill after that, and it wasn’t long before she passed. The doctors all say it was a weak valve. Craig knew though that it was a broken heart. 

He went back to school the day after Linda’s funeral, and within 3 years was in Seminary. He took vows and found Faith, with a capital F. And when he asked questions about the horrors of the world, his teachers told him only not of the sins of man, but also of the monsters that probe the darkness. The beasts with fangs. The tentacles. The hideous eyes. All of it. 

Craig came out of Seminary reforged. He committed himself to a Navy SEAL regimen of training. He mastered the parang, the kukri, the machete. He became an expert in ammunition-smithing and all the wards and banes he could find across a multitude of culture.

Father Craig became a one man army. 

His goal tonight was to get Billy out of the orphanage. He didn’t really like the setup: too many innocent bystanders and the building was likely a killbox. So rather than go for the heavy guns – the AR-15, the shotguns - he grabbed two sawed-offs, a big tin of salt, some spray paint, the combat knife, the machete and a few silver chain garrotes. 

There were no adults involved in this, he told himself. Just monsters and children. 

Craig loaded up his car, filled up at the gas station down the street (including the spare tank he kept in the trunk in case things went south) and took the twenty-minute drive to Bartlett. He kissed the pictures of Joanna and Linda that he kept his wallet before going to war.

The Ephraim Adoption Agency didn’t have a lot of external security. [Notice 2] Sure there were cameras over the door and bars on the windows, but roof access was a matter of squeezing past a bush and climbing a ladder on the far north side. 

On the roof, Craig’s objective was easy. The large sprinkler water tank had no lock on it, just a spring hinge. With a little muscle he popped it free and dropped in one of the rosaries he kept in his pocket. A few quick prayers and the rosary flickered blue as it sank into the water. 

Back on ground level, he walked up to the exterior camera, gave it a dousing with spray paint and entered the building, making a beeline for the office. 

One security guard was standing in the room, waiting for him.

“Good evening sir.” The guard said. 

Craig was praying when war broke out.

_Our Father, who art in Heaven_. The sawed-off shotgun burped fire and the blast took the guard off his feet. The stink was intense.

_Hallowed be Thy Name_. Craig walked into the hallway, found it empty and began laying salt in thick lines across all the doorways. 

Back in the office, he found the public address speaker and cranked it on. His voice was soothing and mellow.

“Kids. My name is Father Craig. I’m a priest. The fire alarm is about to go off. Stay in your rooms. Do not, I swear, do not leave your rooms. I am here to kill the monsters.”

He left the mic hot as he left the room.

_Thy Kingdom Come_. He pulled the fire alarm. No doors opened. Good kids. But coming down the hallway came three women, moving faster than Craig thought they should be. Out came the machete and [Hand to Hand 3] he carved them up finer than the Thanksgiving dinner they took from him. 

_Your Will Be Done_. The sprinklers hissed and popped to life, and he heard the excited shrieks of children. 

And then the smell started rolling towards him. It came in waves. A burning fatty smell, like frying something in a pan that’s too wet. This was followed by howls that silenced the kids down. Animal howls, both literal and figurative echoed down the halls. 

_On Earth As It Is In Heaven_. He strode down the halls, and reached the Church’s doors when three wolves came at him. He dropped the first one via shotgun [Shooting 1], and the second with the machete [Hand to Hand 1]. The third bit and tore at him, but nothing a visit to an ER couldn’t patch up. Eventually it too met the business end of a machete. 

The door presented no resistance to a size-11 combat boot. And there Craig was, in Church. He checked his watch.

He even made it to Church on a Sunday.

“Billy!” His voice caromed off every surface. “I’m Father Craig!”

Billy Thompkiss was curled up in the fetal position in the first pew. He ran to the Father, and the two embraced.

Craig handed him a crucifix and gave him instructions. “If anything that isn’t you or me come at us, I want you to hold up that crucifix, can you do that? It’ll be scary, but we’ll be brave together, okay?”

Billy nodded. The crucifix was solid metal, and the lower stalk was round. It felt natural and easy to hold. 

The duo marched down the hall and back to the office. Craig found a phone, and made himself sound panicky.

“Hello, 911, please you have to help, I’m the night security guard at the Ephraim Adoption Agency, please, hurry, there’s a mad man here with a shotgun. Oh….”

He then put another blast into the already dead guard and let the phone clatter to the ground. 

Billy and Craig walked out into the cold night air, then into Craig’s car, where they drove to a small convenience store. Billy polished off two roast beef sandwiches and was into a third when a Jeep pulled up. A man Billy didn’t recognize came up to Craig, handed him a gym bag, and came over to Billy. He knelt down.

“I’m Mace Hunter, Billy, how about we get out of here?”


----------



## Piratecat

Two things:

1. This is a fantastic update.
2. This should probably be in the story hour forum, so I'm going to slide it over.

Great stuff!


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## writernextdoor

Billy was a special kid afterall. But it wasn't discovered at first. It took Carter three different batteries of tests [Medic 2 point] to figure out Billy hadn't been drugged, chemically altered or implanted with any devices. He was a healthy kid. 

His special talent came up after the tests were done and the team was sitting around the safehouse eating lunch. They were amusing Billy with stories about the exotic cities they worked in. That's when it kicked in -- anytime someone mentioned a city, Billy rattled off its population as well as three landmarks [CORE CLUE].

"New York City, 8.2 million. Grand Central Station, Penn Station, Central Park"
"Los Angeles, 12.8 million, LAX airport, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Griffith Park"
"New Delhi, 17 million, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Secretariat Building, Laximinarayan Temple"

He didn't enter a trance to rattle off these facts, they were said casually. When Mace named smaller cities, the details were just as clear.

"Pocatello Idaho, 56, 813 people, Pocatello High School, Idaho State University, Heinz Factory"
"Orleans France, 116490 people, Orleans Tram, George V bridge, Park Floral de la Source"

When pressed, Billy explained somewhat emphatically that he didn't know how it happened - he was just a normal kid. He didn't read these facts in any school programs, he didn't read them in a book. He just woke up every morning with these new facts in his head. 

It took some digging but after a few trips to a few libraries [Research 3, Occult Studies 1 Shrink 1] the team was able to figure out that these facts were seeping into Billy's mind either in dreams or through the television. Billy remembered the one day a boy Charlie got angry and threw the remote through the TV, and how Mr Fillmore and Mr Johnson immediately went out and replaced it, so he guessed it was more a matter of sleep.

Nick found [CORE CLUE] an obscure pyschology text book from the 1920s - Dreams and Education: Pairing of Two Sciences which had several passages about using mesmeric abilities on sleeping patients to induce a last recall -- in short, programming their sleep with teaching. 

Things were starting to come together. 

And then lunch was served. Billy had a case of giggles when Rossini served hamburgers, as Billy said he only ate hamburgers on the days when someone turned 16...everyone just sort of assumed that when you turned 16, the staff at Ephraim ground you up into food. 

The team would have to go back to Ephraim to find out.


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## writernextdoor

[Mechanical notes are in braces]
((GM Notes are in double parentheses))

Time to break out the usual war chest. Stakes, grenades, flashbangs, sharp blades and lots of ammunition. Thanks to Mace's friend [3 point Network spend] at the local police supply depot, they had access to body armor, but only 3 sets. It went to Nick, Rossini and MikeSmith. Mace would coordinate intelligence from a truck in the parking lot - a truck ringed in salt.

At least that was the plan until they arrived on scene. 

The bastards had called the police and the press, citing "an unknown gun toting vigilante who wanted to kidnap perfectly defenseless children". The press came from three counties to cover the story. Mace knew immediately that many of them wouldn't be coming home. At least not in the same shape they arrived. 

So the strike force was called off. Regroup, redistribute chess pieces on the board, right?

Wrong.

It was time for their side to move, and it came out of the trees as the team circled around the building and started to drive away. 

At first it was a light thud, something like a pine cone hitting metal. Then a second, then a third and then, hundreds. Rats. Rats of all sizes, but all with ruby red eyes poured over the truck as if coming out of a faucet. The rats swarmed and began scratching and tearing at the truck.

It didn't matter that Rossini floored it and the tires bit into the asphalt and the truck plowed over rat after rat, they seemed endless. So endless in fact they scuttled down the truck and were all over the tires, dozens of hungry evil teeth chewing at rubber. The truck didn't have a prayer. 

The people inside though, had a prayer. And ammunition. And a plan. [3 point Mechanics spend + Mechanics cherry] Sticky bombs made out of road flares, rock salt, socks and tire-sealant adhesive came sailing out of the truck's windows. Rats squealed and cried as the fire and salt took a few of their number. 

But the team had no plan for the Voice. The keening screech of nails on a chalkboard brought everyone to their knees and the truck to a halt. The rats writhed and snaked around the fire bombs, and began, like an evil Voltron, to merge into one creature - about man-sized, but covered in pelts that seemed to wiggle as he moved [1 point Stability loss]

"I know your secret." it rasped, sounding simultaneously far away and right next to each man. "And soon you will know the truth."

Then Rossini's foot "slipped" and before the creature spoke again, Rossini put a truck in its midsection.

A surprising thing happens when a truck, even at low speeds, hits a stationary object. The creature took a spill, knocking back some fifteen or so feet, getting good distance on its arc. The truck gave a tremendous groan and sagged, the axle cracking under the strain. They'd have to fight.

((Mace Hunter + Nick Darter + MikeSmith + Rossini vs The Creature))

The fight was ferocious, and messy. Not even combined could the foursome match the beast's raw strength or speed, but they could out maneuver it, leaving it victim to tactics and strategies. 

Ultimately it was [2 point Preparedness spend] that gave Mace a silver dagger to pin the creature's foot to the ground so that the guns could be brought more fully to bear. [3 successive 3-point Shooting spends + the Bigger Bang cherry] reduced the creature to a husk of ash just before the police arrived to check out the "strange flares and gun shots". 

Citing engine trouble and a few dead rats, the team did their best to play off all the noise and confusion as happenstance, but the police weren't buying any of what even the mighty Mace Hunter was selling. 

Into the back of the squad cars the team went. Mace was able to [1 point Preparedness spend] tap out a text message to Father Craig to retrieve the dumped weapons caches, but the team was taken into custody.

Nick noticed it first, at a stoplight.
MikeSmith noticed it at the second stoplight.

None of the police had reflections in the rearview mirror.


----------



## writernextdoor

[Mechanical Notes are in braces]
((Director Notes are in double parentheses))

((This is what happens when the players ask about how far reaching the Conspiracy can be))

They didn't go to a police station. They didn't even stay within the city limits. The team was all [captured] and taken to a warehouse just near the old abandoned airport. 

They were tied and chained to chairs, with only cubicle dividers between them. They couldn't see each other, but could hear each other fine.

Which is just what the badguys wanted.

They came to Rossini first, in the form of Desdemona, offering him sex and an ease of his mental burdens [a 4-point Stability test that he spent his way past]. He turned them down just before they began breaking his fingers and beating him with a baseball in a sock. 

To Nick, they said nothing, pouring dirty water all over him and hooking a car battery to the chair. [a 2-point Stability test but a 6 point Health loss].

To Mace, they threatened, and tried to get him drunk. When he resisted ((quipping all the way)), they broke his arm with a pipe wrench. 

MikeSmith was untouched. At least not physically. For MikeSmith they brought out the most devious of tricks - projections into his mind, perversions of his very thoughts, so that he would slowly unhinge. [a 3 point Stability test HE FAILED]

((This set of experiences repeated twice))

With only hours until sunrise, the team was split up, and locked in separate "rooms" -- small square cells where the walls didn't reach the ceiling. More isolation, though still able to hear the screams. 

Most of the team was left alone to hear each other sob, ache and attempt to verbally fight back.

But it was to MikeSmith they came, with about three hours until sunrise. 

One of them, he called himself "Wally", sat down in a chair next to MikeSmith and said, "You can make this all stop. Or don't, and we'll shoot you just before sunrise." Then came the screams.

They weren't real screams, but rather recordings of the earlier screams played back. But MikeSmith couldn't tell the difference. Or maybe he didn't want to. He was starting not to know. 

They made the offer again, only this time they added a secret -- "It's not about the children, not really, they're just food." And they played the screams again.

[Another 3 point Stability loss, and MikeSmith broke]

((I have a "breaking rule" -- whenever you drop below 4 Stability or lose more than 6 Stability in a single night, you "break" and need at least night's rest and urgent care from a Solace or Symbol or Stability]

He begged them to release the team. He even said the magic phrase, "I'll do anything." 

And what they whispered in his ear next....oh, it was unbelievable. But MikeSmith, begging to make the pain stop, believed, and agreed to it.

And so, the team was taken to the ER of the local hospital and left there to navigate everything. 

Only MikeSmith knew the real reason. He had to live with it.


----------



## writernextdoor

I've had some requests for the Vampire spreadsheet. It's attached below. I hope fellow Directors find it useful.


----------



## writernextdoor

Garrett's bar is a quiet neighborhood's worst nightmare. It's grimy, dingy, poorly lit and looks like it should be condemned. Garrett was a war vet, though no one was sure which war. 

MikeSmith liked the place. It was quiet. There was always something to watch on TV, and for eight bucks he could get two pitchers of beer and onion rings. And then he could unwind, maybe telling Garrett how his day was, or whether or not he was getting "too old for this nonsense". 

On this particular night, the onion rings and beer weren't cutting it. He couldn't bring himself to lift the cup. He broke Mace's one rule - Bend, but never break. He did break, and he was sure that everyone knew. 

From day one the rule was: Break, and you're out. Either the other side will kill you, or you should just shoot yourself, because a broken agent is no agent at all. MikeSmith knew this, he knew all the risks and there was a pistol in the glovebox of the truck waiting for him. Calling to him. He'd finish his beer and take care of business. Let someone else clean up the mess and sort out the pieces. There was a cover ID [Forgery 2 point spend, Cover 1 point spend] for people to find - Mike Smith, electrician, dead at the age of 39. He knew his cover obit well. 

MikeSmith sat with his thoughts.

"It's not about the kids."
"The adoption agency."
"Kids with target information."
"Bend, but don't break."
"They're just food."

So, on a bar napkin, he began to draw one of Mace's diagrams. Mace was always drawing pyramids and string charts, the man was obsessive after all, and now in what Mike thought were his final minutes, he was doing it too. 

'Why train kids if they're only food?' he wrote on a napkin when Garrett handed him a banana.

"You don't look so good." The old bartender gruffed, "You gotta eat better. You are what you eat, afterall."

And that was it. That's the plan. 

You are what you eat. 

Mike used the last minutes of his burner cell phone to call Mace and explain the theory. Mace told him to get to the nearest safehouse immediately. He was calling a meeting.


----------



## writernextdoor

The team assembled in the safehouse. Mace was holding court. MikeSmith's theory was a good one, and Mace knew it. In the time it took the team to assemble, he did some digging around [2 point Occult Studies, 2 point Research, 1 point Vampirology spends] and it was possible. 

But first he had to sell the team on it. He ordered pizzas. 

"Okay, we're used to fighting one type of enemy. It has fangs, it's fast and strong and it's a crafty bastard. We know they have chains of command, hierarchies and plans. But until now, we've always assumed that they're the only problem we'll have to deal with."

"Isn't that enough?" Nick said. Rossini nodded. 

"But," Mace continued, "if their structure is like our structure, then all we've done is knock pawns off the chessboard. We've dealt with agents, not handlers, until now. And I think, and Mike thinks, we found a new tier, which we're calling Knights and Rooks. They have a few pawns underneath them, which we've dispatched, so now they're free to move."

Everyone was still in the room. 

"So they're going to hit us, and hard. The Ephraim Agency issue is a food source for them. And we showed them it wasn't safe."

"Food source? None of the kids are marked." Rossini's question was a good one.

MikeSmith answered, "Because they're feeding psychically. A kid's brain is a data sponge, full of chemicals and brain waves. Load a kid up with info, which they absorb easily, then feast on the resulting thoughts. "

"What tools work against a psychic eater?" Nick asked.

This was the tricky part. Mace wasn't sure, and said so. "We're assuming that the usual ones still apply, but I've got a call into Father Craig for whatever he can offer, we're going to need protection and a lot of it for what we're going to do."

"Which is what?"

"We're going to capture one. Mike thinks he can build a cage out of iron, cypress and black candle wax. "

"And then what do we do with?"
"And how do we capture one?"

These were questions Mace didn't have answers to.


----------



## writernextdoor

It took Mace a few days to work out a plan. But when he came to it, it seemed so obvious. He'd contact The Man. 

[2 point Tradecraft spend] set up a time and place for the phone call to happen. And between now and then, Mace went to church, washed himself in holy water and set the phone in a circle of white candles and salt....just to be sure. 

Father Craig was called in to observe the phone call, as well as keep an eye on the door. 

The phone call happened 5 minutes after sunset.

"Good evening Mr Hunter."
"Dispense with the pleasantries and the fake voice, I know what you sound like."
There then came a keening screech that made Mace wince and shudder, almost dropping the phone. It was as though a million crickets chirped while nails dragged against glass.
"That is what I sound like, and since it would turn your brain to paste, I use this form to communicate to you."
"I need to set up a meeting. I know all about the adoption agency-"
"We are aware of what you know Hunter. Why should we meet?"
"We'll give you back the boy, and not bother your food supply."
"You surrender to us?"
"That isn't what I said. I said we won't bother your food supply and you can have the boy back."
"I do not care for the boy now, he is polluted. Give me your word, Mace Hunter, that you won't interfere with the food."
"You have my word."
"Then we'll meet tonight, 3AM, beneath the Exit 8 underpass of the old highway. And you will confirm our deal in blood."

The phone went dead. 

Father Craig uttered a quick prayer, then pulled up the maps for the old highway. Exit 8 dumped off to the south, and was far away from the river - a good spot for a bloodsucker to hold meetings. 

The cage was ready. MikeSmith would call some construction buddies [2 point Network spend] to hoist it up under the bridge so it could drop down on The Man, or whatever its name was.  

Rossini and Nick cleaned and loaded every gun with silver bullets. 

It was go time.


----------



## writernextdoor

The Man appeared under the overpass exactly at 3 in the morning. Mace was already there. Rossini kept the car hidden and running. Nick was flanking a hundred yards downwind. Mike Smith was ready with the cage.

The Man arrived holding a small wooden crate, cradling it the way one would cradle an infant. 

"You are ready to make a deal Mace Hunter?" The Man's voice was warm syrup.
"I am. First tell me what's in the box."
"You no doubt brought your team here with you. The young one downwind. The lunatic in the vehicle. The broken one nearby. I brought my team with me too." He let out of a laugh that shamed a donkey's bray, sounding forced and alien.

"How do we do this?" Mace asked.
"Where I come from, we each step forward, then you will cut your palm and place the open wound against the box. This will seal our pact."
"I don't sign anything?" Mace smirked.
"Penmanship is outdated in this digital age. We have...adapted. "
"Okay, let's do this."

They each took one step forward. Mace never broke eye contact with The Man, but The Man did look up to see the Cage hanging over head.

"Did you mean to cage me? Do you think a puny construct can hold me?"

Mace smiled. "It would be an insult to your intelligence. I didn't ask for a puny construct. I asked for a big one." 

And with that he fanned his arms out, inviting The Man to look at his surroundings. It was a construction site. Stacks of rebar, bags of concrete, pieces of metal. 

But The Man couldn't move. He just stood there, holding the box. 

"This pentacle isn't puny. It's ancient. And you're in the center of it. I don't need a cage to trap you."

The Man dropped the box, and with a smash the wood gave way. An obsidian almond-shaped stone dented the ground. It lashed against invisible walls and scratched at them, its fingers scraping at nothing. 

"Sunrise is in 3 hours. Let's have a chat." said Mace.


----------



## writernextdoor

"I have eaten better men than you."

Mace smiled. "I'm not the one trapped like a rat." He checked his watch. "Sunrise is in two hours and fifty-eight minutes. First question: What do we call you?"

The creature stirred, cocking its head to one side the way a poodle might. Then its mouth split open in a bad smile. 

"Call me Gary."
"You're a centuries old creature named Gary?"
"I am not so dumb as to give people my real name."

Mace shrugged. "Okay Gary, what are you doing with the kids?"
Gary was silent. 

"Mike, what's he doing with the kids?" Mace spoke aloud. The new communicator [Digital Intrusion Cherry] had better work.

"The kids are window dressing. An experiment, to see if groups of people can be controlled through properties."
"Properties how?"
"Like real estate. People are tied to locations. They're exploiting that."

"Gary, third question - Why hasn't your team attacked us? Torn us to shreds? Fed us our organs?"
 Gary paced his confinement. 
"I believe this witchcraft cage you have me in has cut me off from communicating with them."
"Thank the lunatic. He found it in an old church text book."
Gary nodded slowly.

"And what does the mighty Mace Hunter intend to do? Burn me to ash in the morning sun?"
"Gary, last question - who do you answer to?"
"I'm answering your questions."
"No. Who's your superior? Who's the boss?"
"You cannot fathom the depths of your own ignorance Mace Hunter. The 'boss' is something so truly horrific I dare not speak its name."

Rossini chimed in, "I told you Voldemort is real."

"Okay," Mace continued, "then if you're a pawn on the chessboard, tell me about the rooks or knights."
The creature spit green and brown spittle on the ground. 

"I've not been a pawn since before this country was founded. On the board I am a Knight."
"Queen or King?"
"Queen."
[BS Detection 1] "Forgive me Gary, I find it hard to believe you take orders from a woman."
"The Queen, in this metaphor, is beyond gender."

An hour passed, the two just watching each other. 

"So Gary, the stone on the ground, you've not made eye contact with it. Why?"
"It sleeps."
"And you don't want to wake it?"
Gary said nothing.


----------



## writernextdoor

It didn't take long for everyone to see what the problem was. In the waning moments of the darkest hour of night, the stone almond began to smoke. It gave off no additional light, it just began to put off an inky, oily smoke. The kind you get when you burn old plastic.  It swirled around Gary's feet like a coiling python. Gary did not look pleased.

Mace watched the smoke rise from the almond and cloud the edges of the cage. The smoke wasn't malicious, it didn't smite Gary, it didn't really seem to interact with Gary at all, it just poured out of the almond from a crack or opening no one saw. 

When the smoke was thick enough to cover Gary's feet, Gary began to laugh his sickly bray again. 

"Mace Hunter, we should speak."
"I'm listening."
"These very well could be my final moments, but I want you to know something. I want you to know that whatever happens in the next six hours - It. Is. Not. My. Fault."

They stared at each other until the sun rose and Gary died shrieking. 

Six hours. Plenty of time for a patented Mace Hunter plan. Except...there wasn't one. Mace just leaned against his car for a moment and craved a drink. 

The team poured holy water on what remained of Gary (it looked like coffee grinds and smelt like old chalk) and stood there waiting for orders.

But Mace had none to give. The great Mace Hunter, master tactician and architect of genius plans to rid the world of evils was bone dry in the idea well. So he gave the only order he could.

"Everyone go to holy ground, wait there for seven hours. Then we'll talk."

The team scattered.

Mace found himself at the Order of the Sacred Sisters, a Catholic cement bunker downtown near the sushi place Rossini raved about. 

Nick found himself at a Buddhist temple on Cicada Lane, out in farm country. 

MikeSmith found a quiet Lutheran church where he could read a book or two.

Rossini found a Baptist church where they were preparing for a wedding. He took a nap in the rearmost pew.

Time passed.


----------



## writernextdoor

One minute into the seventh hour, an older man in vestments tapped Mace on the shoulder.

"Are you here for confession?"
"No, Father, I'm just here for the atmosphere. Soaking up the culture, as it were."
"Are you sure, a little confession might be good for you."
"I'm okay really. Just a visitor."
"Mace Hunter, now a visitor of churches?"

Mace did a double take. 

"You know me?"
"It would be hard not to recognize the mastermind behind one of the greatest freelance teams in the world. Especially when he picks your church for a visit."

The old man pointed out the cameras [Electronic Surveillance]. Mace was so busy, so in his own head, he didn't bother checking. Foolish.

"So, Mace, I think it's time we make you an offer."
"I've had enough offers today, thanks."
"We can provide finances. Safehouses. We can help."
"Who's the we?"
"The Ordo Agnum. Come to my office, we can speak more privately there.".


----------

