Project Werewolf: the Bride

Continuing my description of Project Werewolf, the villanous force within the middle tiers of my Night's Black Agents game, I present Madison Smith, a.k.a. the Bride.

In my game she was the one behind the PCs' mission to steal Lennart's laptop in the beginning scenario (S)Entries. Ambitious and treacherous, her double cross of the Conspiracy cost her dearly.

The Bride (Madison Smith)

A dead woman with cobra fangs

Description: Mousy face, jogger's physique, gloved hands, prosthetic calves

Defining Quirks: adrenaline addict (track marks, dilated pupils, too fast speech) (using a Pharmacy or Diagnosis spend), slurs speech, expressionless

Madison once was an operative for U.S. military intelligence. While stationed in Afghanistan she encountered an IED and supposedly died from her injuries while en route to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

In truth Project Werewolf whisked her away where the mysterious Dr. Gerhaldt rebuilt her body. The process granted her superhuman strength and speed as well as a hunger for human flesh.

As part of the Stage Two project, she was further "enhanced" with xenotransplanted cobra fangs and venom sacs, granting her a paralytic bite.

Her condition requires regular doses of artificial adrenaline to survive and stave off her hungers. She discovered a way to source this herself thanks to her work in Europe's illegal organ trade and a brilliant if unscrupulous doctor. This alternative supply has loosened her leash to Project Werewolf.

She adopted her code name less to obfuscate her identity and more as a reflection about how she feels about herself. Resentful of what has been done to her, she is looking for a way to strike back at her creators. In her mind, her employers turned her into a patchwork monster, hence the reference to the Bride of Frankenstein.

Recently she's turned her attention to discovering who her true masters are, those that pull the strings of Project Werewolf. She suspects that they have even more dark and alien motives. To this end she’s arranged through her criminal contacts to retrieve whatever research she can on vampires and similar supernatural creatures. Brigadier-General Malcolm Lennart’s research is a prime example of what she is after.

Operations

Illegal Organ Trade: from black market sellers to illegal operations on the desperate to thieves who leave people in bathtubs after stealing their kidneys, the Bride is wired into it all. While she doesn’t control the trade, she spends enough money and knows enough of the right people to influence who gets targeted and what is acquired.

Nasa Stvar: Through a mixture of money, contacts and physical intimidation, she controls the Serbian mafia. Her main contact is Danilo Brigovic.

Clues & Lead Outs

Her cell phone includes contact information for other operatives. A Digital Intrusion roll (difficulty 6) is needed to break the encryption without triggering an alert back to Project Werewolf. Tradecraft recognizes the security software as CIA make.

Most of the contacts are refered to by code names:

• Control (Special Agent Lynch at Project Werewolf headquarters)
• Kessler
• Quist
• Talbot
• The Doctor (Dr. Gerhardt)
• Amjad (an ex-ISIL terrorist based in Beirut)
• El-Mofty (also in Beirut)
• Extraction (organ thieves operating in and around Sofiamed hospital)
• DanilloBirgovic
• Other Serbian mobsters and organ traders as needed

Traffic Analysis shows that she was in frequent contact with contacts in Lebanon, Bulgaria and Belgrade. Text messages suggest she organized organ and people trafficking. Her next most frequent contacts were Control, Quist, and the Doctor in that order. Most of the organs she gathered were delivered to the Doctor and Control but she also skimmed off the top. Based on chitchat with Quist, it seems she found a way to supplement her injections from the Doctor.

Criminology and analysis of her emails suggests she resents her condition, thinking of herself as a Frankenstein monster and looking for a way to rise through the ranks. She likely ordered the theft for her own advancement, without orders from her own people and against other parts of the organization.

Attributes

Investigative Abilities: Bureaucracy 1, Human Terrain 1, Intimidation 1, Languages 2, Occult Studies 1, Streetwise 2, Tradecraft 1
General Abilities: Aberrance 16, Driving 5, Hand to Hand 12, Health 12, Network 10, Shooting 12, Weapons 10

Hit Threshold: 4
Alertness Modifier: +2
Stealth Modifier: +1
Damage Modifier: - 1 (inhuman strength), Combat knife +0, Jericho 941 +1, Tavor (assault rifle) +0

Armor: -1 (kevlar)

Free Powers: Infravision, Regeneration (all Health refreshes the next day), Unfeeling
Other Powers: Inhuman Strength (spend 2 for impressive actions or to add +1 to damage), Inhuman Speed (spend 2 to gain +1 Hit Threshold for a scene or to Jump in), Toxic Bite (spend 2 to inflict a Difficulty 6 Health check on a successful Hand-to-Hand attack)

Banes: Nickel Allergy (+ 2 damage), Beta-blockers (instant; Health difficulty 5 test, Minor: -5 Aberrance, Hurt, lasts until the werewolf's next injection; Severe: -10 Aberrance, +2 damage; -2 Aberrance and -1 Health every hour until treated)

Compulsions: Daily drug regime (otherwise devour freshly killed humans)

Backup

Through her connections the Bride can draw on an endless supply of criminal thugs. She also keeps several Feral Werewolves which she can transport throughout Europe and the Middle East with a couple of days notice.

She has also kept in touch with her old military contacts. She can call them in for special jobs. Treat them as Special Forces (NBA p.70).

Review: Chronicles of Darkness

Now we have a second edition of the new World of Darkness Chronicles of Darkness corebook. Not just a rehash of the God-Machine Chronicle plus the missing rules to building characters, it includes new merits and mechanics as well as new tools for storytellers all in one substantial volume.

Chronicles of Darkness

The journey to a second edition for Onyx Path was tortuous, complicated by the fact that the rights to the game were in the hands of a software company with its own priorities. Initially they provided the God-Machine Chronicle which included rules revisions (reviewed here) and sample adventures and adventure paths that pitted mortal characters against the alien horror of the God-Machine. For those who just wanted the new rules, they could get the free rules supplement. But it wasn’t a proper 2nd edition, lacking basic rules for things like attributes and skills. Eventually CCP, the company owning the rights at the time, relented and allowed Onyx Path to create a second edition of the new World of Darkness corebook. I suspect that CCP began to realize that their World of Darkness MMO wasn’t going to happen and the foot-dragging wasn’t helping anyone. When CCP sold the rights to World of Darkness, old and new, to Paradox, things again became complicated as they too had plans for the ‘one’ World of Darkness. In the end the situation concluded happily with the “new World of Darkness” being rebranded as Chronicles of Darkness. Then finally this book could be released.

So what is in the book? Well it does include a large amount of material from the God-Machine Chronicle. It also adds the familiar attributes and skills from the original core book. But Chronicles of Darkness also describes new new merits, a system for dealing with mysteries, another for chases, an equipment building system, and lots of new material for storytellers.

Highlights

Most of the big changes of second edition are familiar to anyone who has read the God-Machine Chronicle or the free supplement. Combat is bloodier, with weapons dealing automatic damage (on top of successes) upon a successful hit. Defense are higher to compensate for the danger. Morality has been replaced with Integrity which measures how well you manage at keeping your sanity. Experience comes from pushing the fiction forward with interesting failures (Dramatic failures and Conditions) and achieving goals (Aspirations). Experience costs are flat, eliminating distortions between character creation and play.

But the new interesting items include rules for running an investigation, a new chase system, and an equipment building mechanic.

The investigation system shows influences from other games, particularly GUMSHOE. The designers have clearly realized that the interesting question in a mystery is not whether or not the investigators find the clue (have you ever enjoyed a story where they didn’t solve the mystery) but what they can do with that clue. The system guides a storyteller to set a number of clues, usually quite small, that are needed to solve a mystery (i.e. a question like who is the murderer, what is the beast’s weakness, or where does the vampire lair). The player characters then explore scenes looking for clues. The storyteller is encouraged to be flexible in what skills can be used to uncover clues. Investigation is not the only option. Science could be used to examine evidence, Streetwise to scrutinize graffiti, Firearms to work out the circumstances of a gunshot. Also whatever the roll for a scene, a clue is uncovered. Failure means the clue is compromised, gaining negative “tags”, like Conditions that limit their effectiveness in getting a solid solution to the mystery. Clues also come with a number of Elements, basically one time bonuses to be leveraged on future rolls, that depend on the Skills and Merits of the Investigator.

The new chase system might be the first that I’ve really enjoyed. Granted I’ve only tried it once and in an abstract fashion but it seems to resolve many of the problems I’ve found with such systems in the past. The system sticks with the traditional series of simultaneous rolls but allows the participant with the Edge (a game term for the character who has the current advantage in the chase) to pick the dice pool used. The other characters involved can choose to use another combination of stats (if it makes sense) but suffer a penalty. What makes it interesting is a betting mechanic where each participant guesses how many successes they will achieve on their roll. If they are right, they seize the Edge and can dictate the dice pool of the chase (presumably to their benefit). Also the number of successes needed for a chase (either to catch the quarry or escape) is kept low (usually 5 or less) and tallies are recorded separately so that eventually someone will reach their total. Failed rolls result in a significant downsides for the character which helps eliminate long strings of uninteresting results.

The final interesting system involves equipment. In addition to rules for building or repairing objects, the book includes a system for putting together short-term equipment for a specific scene. This includes more than jury rigged weapons or tweaked vehicles. It also covers plans, organizations, and other “constructs” that could provide a bonus to rolls. In general you roll to create the desired bonus with failure resulting equipment that works (it provides the bonus) but which will likely fail interestingly when used (it may be Flawed or result in Explosive results). It looks fun and in my limited playtesting seems to work well (for plans at least).

Chapter by Chapter

As normal for Onyx Path, the book and each chapter has a piece of opening fiction, hinting at some horror within the world of the Chronicles of Darkness. The writing is nice and creepy, featuring things like attacks by people in mirrors and fairy tales come to life.

The Introduction includes the normal stuff: an introduction to roleplaying, lists of inspirational media, some related products that would be helpful for a game focused on mortals and/or the God-Machine, and a lexicon of game terms. The material is handy though I would appreciate it more for the supernatural game lines. I hope the designers use a similar format for future second edition books like Mage: the Awakening or Promethean: the Created.

Character creation appropriately enough fills Chapter 1. A few interesting pieces pop up here. Anchors appears to be the new term for Virtue and Vice. These have different forms in other games so I guess having a term for it helps. Vampire: the Requiem for instance uses Mask and Dirge. A chart detailing what Size means also sits near the beginning of the chapter.

Attributes are explained and Skills detailed. Interestingly 2 dots in a Skill is now defined as enough to make a living. 3 dots is now for seasoned professionals. That makes it a bit easier to create a competent police detective for instance. The book provides a lot of sample actions to guide Storytellers. Merits are collected in one place with only one example hidden elsewhere in the book (Esoteric Armory).

A lot of material is carried over from the God-Machine Chronicle: Integrity and custom breaking points, Athletics adding to Defense, Aspirations, and flexibility in choices for Vice and Virtue.

Chapter 2 details the rules of the game including dice pools and their permutations, the important increments of time for the game, and many examples of common actions with potential consequences for failure. This chapter also covers Conditions (which are just temporary bonuses or penalties tied to a fictional trigger) and provides guidelines for improvising them.

In addition to the items I highlighted above, the book also provides the Social Maneuvering mechanic from the God-Machine Chronicle. Briefly, when convincing someone to do something involved or which they don’t want to do, you need to open Doors based on their Resolve and Composure, modified by Merits and what is being asked of them. Each interaction can wear down their resistance opening a Door at a time until they willing to agree to your request. It works well for difficult tasks where a character can slowly convince the target. The system also works well for hard leverage where a character burns some bridges to force the target to agree to do what they want. In that case those Doors become the penalty to the skill roll to convince them.

The book provides guidance on running fights. In particular it points out that with higher Defense values, spending Willpower is very important. Several options are covered for combat: Quick and Dirty combat where one roll decides it all and Beaten Down where no one really wants to fight to the death. The important thing the book stresses is to establish the stakes of the conflict. Also in this section are specific effects (or Tilts) from targeted attacks to limbs or head. NPCs are directed not to spend much Willpower in combat so that they (who don’t have to survive scene to scene and greatly outnumber the player characters) don’t stomp on the player characters.

Chronicles of Darkness devotes Chapters 3 and 4 to the Storyteller. There is a lot of advice here from dividing up responsibilities to adding horror. It even includes a way to run the game without a Storyteller. The end of Chapter 3 includes an interesting chronicle opening system where the group details a missing person and then uses that character to define and connect locations and characters in the game. I might give that a try soon.

Chapter 4 focuses on antagonists. In addition to a rehash of the ephemeral being rules (for ghosts, spirits and angels), it also provides a sample of simplified NPCs, both mortal and supernatural. Their breakdown for those characters sits halfway between a rough sketch and a full sheet, something I might copy in the future. The chapter features a “Horror” (as in monster) building system reminiscent of Hunter: the Vigil with very simplified rules for building monsters and their minions. Of the worked examples, I really loved the zombies (which treated a zombie swarm as a combat Tilt) and the evil house.

Next up is the chronicle part of the God-Machine Chronicle. Separated from the rest of the book by the fiction piece about the Pain Prophet, the tale that started the whole God-Machine project, the remaining chapters detail the God-Machine, its possible projects, and servants.

Chapter 5 defines the God-Machine in broad strokes, leaving the truth vague enough for individual storytellers to fill in what they want and strange enough to be unsettling. The God-Machine, a universe spanning system of machinery and occult matrices, provides a much-needed new twist on the Lovecraftian notion of the unknowable horror, using gears in place of tentacles. The book details the various types of Infrastructure and delves into occult matrices and how they operate. These ritualistic arrangements of machinery, people and substances use preternatural science to create seemingly magical effects that the God-Machine uses to further its purposes, often to create yet more complicated or advanced occult matrices. Each however has a linchpin, a weak point that can be attacked.

Next the book explores different types of adventures that could be run against the God-Machine, dividing them according to themes and tiers. Tiers, a concept introduced in Hunter: the Vigil, describes the scope of the game ranging from the lives of the characters and their close associates (Tier 1) to affecting regions (Tiers 2 and 3) to interacting with the building blocks of the universe (Tier 4). While sample adventures are presented in Chapter 7, it is in Chapter 6 that the book outlines how to stitch them together into a chronicle. The ideas here are interesting and compelling, though I would make different choices for the adventures to include in each sample Chronicle.

In terms of sample stories, Chapter 7 provides 20 adventure outlines, five per Tier. Each includes a rough plot, how to hook the player characters in, advice on useful Skills and Merits for the story, how they might resolve the problem and how the situation might escalate should they fail. The topics range from encounters with parallel realities to resurrections of the dead to fighting a murderous regime to making a cosmic choice for humanity between heaven and hell.

Then in the Chronicles of Darkness’s final chapter, we get all of the angels and mortal antagonists for the preceding adventures as well as a couple of extras. Even if you don’t run any of the adventures provided there is plenty here to mine for your own stories.

The Appendices in this book are quite helpful, collecting all of the Equipment, Tilts, and Conditions into easily found and searched locations. The pdf of the book also included interactive sheets. This is part of a useful new trend with Onyx Path’s game lines.

Conclusion

Even if you already have the God-Machine Chronicle, I would recommend at least buying the PDF of this book. The new systems are great and the text makes a very useful reference document. For anyone considering getting into the second edition of Chronicles of Darkness this is the book to pick up. It combines the streamlined system of the new World of Darkness with over a decade of development and improvements as well as including several clear default campaigns to run complete with antagonists.

Project Werewolf: the Werewolves

This week I've got a foe from my Night's Black Agents game, String Theory: Werewolves.

Project Werewolf has created modern-day monsters through a combination of drug treatments, surgical alterations and brain washing. Those whose minds break become the Conspiracy's attack dogs.

Feral Werewolves

Maybe they were just wolves. Maybe they were the result of disease and surgery. Maybe they were men, crazed men with long hair. Maybe.

A product of Nazi science, Soviet research and ruthless American spies, the Werewolf program has spent seven decades mutilating soldiers in the pursuit of creating the perfect soldier. First for Operation Werwolf, then under the Soviet biowarfare program and finally in an illegal CIA operation. Only in the last case have they succeeded and still only for 1 subject in 6.

The failures suffer psychotic breaks and turn into rapid animals as their bodies are pushed beyond human limits.

The kindest thing would be to kill them.

Instead they have been conditioned into attack dogs.

Altered Biology

The main component of the process is a treatment of synthetic adrenaline. This changes the subject's biochemistry causing greatly increased strength and speed at the cost of blind rage.

Moreover the treatment causes their bodies to stop producing natural adrenaline naturally as their adrenal glands overload. Regular doses are needed for them to survive. Normally this is done with injections but in extreme cases they can subsist on the flesh of terrorized humans.

Further doses of synthetic adrenaline renders them docile for a time, aiding in training them to obey commands (like “Stop” “Kill” “Away”). These commands are typically in German (the native language of their creator) and are how Project Werewolf control them in the field.

Many have other surgical enhancements like claws, enlarged canines, quadrupedal locomotion and stranger alterations.

The process does give the subjects several vulnerabilities beyond a blind rage.

They suffer an enhanced sensitivity to nickel, causing a painful allergic reaction. Since many silver alloys contains nickel, it may cause some agents to mistake silver as a useful weapon when cheaper options are available.

They also suffer some light sensitivity as part of their conditioning. Typically this only affects them during the day or when under intense light.

The synthetic adrenaline is another vulnerability. If suppressed, the creatures' strength and speed decrease. At high doses it can even cause a heart attack.

Abilities

General Abilities: Aberrance 9, Hand-to-Hand 9, Health 9
Hit Threshold: 4
Alertness Modifier: + 2 (enhanced smell)
Stealth Modifier: + 1
Damage Modifier: + 1 (claws), + 0 (bite; extended canines) and worrying (see below)
Armor: -1 (tough skin)
Free Powers: Infravision, Regeneration (all Health refreshes the next day), Unfeeling
Other Powers: Extra Attacks (first extra attack is free, further attacks in a round cost 2 Aberrance or Hand-to-Hand points each), Shapeshifting (move to quadruped movement, +2 to Chase rolls), Spider Climb, Inhuman Strength (2 Aberrance per feat), Inhuman Speed (+1 Hit Threshold per 2 Aberrance spent)
Banes: Nickel Allergy (+ 2 damage), Beta-blockers (instant; Health difficulty 5 test, Minor: -5 Aberrance, Hurt, lasts until the werewolf's next injection; Severe: -10 Aberrance, +2 damage; -2 Aberrance and -1 Health every hour until treated)
Dread: bright light
Compulsions: Obey conditioned commands (in German), devour freshly killed humans

Pack attack: Up to three werewolves can attack a single target in one round. The foe’s Hit Threshold drops by 1 against the third werewolf.

Worrying bite: If two bites in a row succeed against the same target, the werewolf is worrying the target in its jaws. The second attack thus does double damage. The werewolf need not roll to hit that target thereafter, but will continue to do normal damage to him each round until killed or driven off. The werewolf’s Hit Threshold is only 3 against a foe clamped in its jaws.

String Theory Recap: the Escape

For my ninth session of my Night's Black Agents game, String Theory, we completed the Zalozhniy Quartet adventure The Boxmen, had a little interlude and then jump straight into Out of the House of Ashes. Nasir was the late one this time, arrive just in time for a narratively important moment (namely realizing he had been pickpocketed).

We begin with the agents fleeing Zurich and the authorities...

The Escape

The team begins with Hot Lead 3 and a local Heat of 5 for their bank heist (plus the Conspiracy dumping everything they can on them).

We do a quick retcon to have Scarlet spoof the video feeds of the bank to include some fake footage (with a Digital Intrusion roll difficulty 6). The Conspiracy may be spreading their descriptions around (thanks to their zombie crow spy network) but this will give the authorities some other (false) faces to look at.

Also Scarlet chooses to use Medic to bring Keith back to positive Health (2 to be specific). So he’s mobile if wobbly.

As for the Heat roll they add some points of Disguise and beat the difficulty. So no immediate trouble.

Guy pulls into the small alpine village as the sun begins to hit the snowy mountain tops. Lawson sits up stiffly while Scarlet examines the bandages. The inside of the van smells of blood and old money. In the back lies “Smith”, the deceased werewolf, now wrapped in several layers of sheets. A quick look at his phone tells the agents he was really Quist, another of the CIA’s agents.

Nasir helps the team with their disguises and they head into town to buy some skis and hiking gear for the next leg of their exit from Switzerland. Italy and possible safety lies only a few miles away.

The team makes a Hot Lead test (Difficulty 4) and fails.

The ski shop is open early, full of just what they need to get across the snowy forests and slopes. As they finish picking out gear, the TV above the counter reports on the recent theft and the incident at the hotel. A series of grainy security footage, faked by Scarlet, fills the screen. Then it flips to several much more accurate sketches. A sleepy police officer in the men’s clothing section scrutinizes the team. Guy heads for the counter and distracts the pretty young clerk with some compliments on their selection while Scarlet and Robin conspicuously sneak into the back. As the officer heads to investigate, John materializes behind him and knocks him out with a single deft strike.

The team quickly comes up with a good plan. Guy uses Flattery to distract the clerk; Scarlet Reassures the cop into following them (as a more pressing threat and more important than radioing this in), then John uses Infiltration to sneak up behind him. The cop’s Hit Threshold is only 3 and he’s a mook so any hit will KO him. John spends enough Hand-to-Hand points.

Hot Lead 4 and my planned town encounter is aborted.

The three drag him into the back room and take his radio. They regroup with the others outside the store and head for the wilderness. Guy builds a makeshift sled for the corpse and they head for the border.

I chose to treat this as a new area so Hot Lead 5. Of course they fail the Hot Lead roll and the chase is on. Because of their earlier work I decide to start the Lead at 7. The goal is 10.

As they push through the snowy forest, the radio crackles to life. The police found Officer Hall and based on their purchases have an idea where they are headed. The agents and thieves pick up the pace. Sliding down a steep slope, they come to a partially frozen river. They cross quickly hoping to disguise their trail along the way.

Using the radio they monitor the police’s slow progress. Guy sets up a false trail in the woods as well as some snares and then leads the team to an Italian village across the border where he has another truck handy.

Guy leads the group and makes the first couple rolls easily as do the police. They use Outdoor Survival to up their pursuers difficulties with hidden and false trails. Mechanics creates some traps to up the police officers difficulty. The PCs expand their lead quickly but then fail a couple rolls. Eventually however they squeak across the border.

Preparedness gives them a new vehicle. Hot Lead now is 7 (+1 for eluding the police and another for reaching Italy). They are safe.

Guy drives them to a smuggler friend of his. There they make a arrangements to deliver the corpse to Germany and Doctor Gomez. After splitting the loot roughly with Menena and Lawson, they thank them. Keith let’s Robin know he owes her one for pulling him out of that ambush. After Menena leaves, Nasir slips the vial she stole from him at the bank back into his pocket.

Guy creates a Network contact for his smuggler buddy. Nasir realizes he lost the vial from Philby’s box. He spends a point of Notice to pinpoint when he lost the vial. Thus he knows Menena must have it. He then Filches it back. I award +2 Network points to Keith since they saved him and helped him with his mission. He owes them. He now is a 5 point Network contact.

Next the team decides to lay low. Scanning news reports on bird die offs, the team evades any zombie crow surveillance as they slip into Croatia. There they spend a week on the beach while the news outlets move on to the next story.

A Vampirology spend and a teamwork Surveillance roll evades the Conspiracy’s supernatural intelligence gathering while some Cover tests get them to someplace nobody is looking for them.

They refresh all Investigative and General skills (though not Stability). Everyone is at full Health. With a week of downtime Heat levels drop.

The agents also put out feelers through the black market for someone that can liquidate their stolen goods. They get the name of Hans Schmidt. The quiet man offers them 10% to take it off their hands. They decide to wait on the money until they need it.

John checks his voicemail and receives a disturbing message. His apartment in D.C. is being fumigated due to an infestation of rats infected with the plague. He realizes with dread that the conspiracy knows who he is.

Some Streetwise spends finds them a reliable fence but they decide they can wait for now.

John then has his Sanctuary threatened. I give him a Stability test which he fails. He loses 2 Stability.

Their vacation complete, the team heads to Germany for a surveillance operation on the CIA site. Watching the the ruined castle, they count over a dozen men, mostly green agents, at the base. A small medical staff supports Dr. Gerhardt. A supply truck visits a couple times a week. They manage to grab a list of goods being delivered. Based on that they suspect a dozen large “animals” (or more likely surgically modified soldiers) are held there.

The team does a Surveillance roll to evade the crows and then a second one to watch the castle from a distance.

The upper level appears to be prefab structures with narrow halls and electronic locks. The subterranean levels remain a mystery but seem substantial. They identify three entrances: the front door, an electronically locked grill just outside the walls, and, based on historical maps, a secret tunnel that exits into some woods two miles away.

Scarlet spends a point of Research and Architecture to get that last bit of information.

They spot Gerhardt smoking outside several times a day. Guy suggests delivering a poisoned supply of his favorite brand.

As they consider that possibility they review the contents of Philby’s box. They suspect the Kipling’s novel might be a book cipher but without more information it is worthless. The letters suggest Kim Philby was looking for something in Iraq. An analysis of the photos suggests Philby and his son were tracking spies. All of them are now dead except for one: Arkady Shevlenko. That name matches some of the chatter they intercepted from the Black Sea Bank’s “security”. They decide to look deeper into him.

Robin complains none of this material worth the effort the Conspiracy put into obtaining the box. Nasir deflects that criticism and pushes the team to investigate Shevlenko.

Nasir is holding back on the vial and I wasn’t sure how to handle PC vs. PC secrets. I think this works out best narratively and at least Robin’s player isn’t too upset about it.

Digging deeper into his background suggests that if anyone alive knows what the Philby’s were up to it would be him. The suspicious death of his son, signs in the Lennart’s files that Shevlenko might be leaking intelligence to the CIA, and the possible poisoning that led to his heart condition lend weight that there is more to learn here. Plus he is in Vienna right now for a trade conference.

The agents head for Vienna. Guy watches his staff and picks out his security detail: the secretary, the pretty nurse, the overworked assistant, and the obvious bodyguard. Robin recognizes the secretary, Volkov, from an earlier career. She knows Volkov appreciates professionalism. Guy also snaps a picture of an amulet that Shevlenko always wears. Scarlet identifies it as of Levantian craftsmanship and that it is several centuries old.

Guy uses a lot of Investigative spends to gather this intel. Scarlet uses some Art History and Robin just defaults to her background.

Nasir meanwhile pulls strings through his mining executive cover to get an invite to the conference. He snags Shevlenko’s schedule in the process, planning to intercept him at the reception at Hotel Europa. Before the reception he takes in the old spy’s talk, picking up clues in the talk that Shevlenko knows about vampires as well. He also notices that Shevlenko’s handlers don’t know Arabic, unlike the old man.

Nasir makes a hard Cover test and uses High Society and Languages to finesse the rest.

Also from here out I was mostly ad-libbing. I read this part of the adventure months ago and hadn’t looked at it since.

At the hotel, John poses as Nasir’s bodyguard while Robin works as arm candy. Outside Scarlet mans the communications with Guy waiting as an escape driver.

Nasir manages to engage Shevlenko in a conversation, plying him with drinks. The old man seems barely interested but perks up when Nasir enquires about the amulet and hints about vampires. They arrange a meeting and then Shevlenko leaves to get some air.

As the party spills into the gardens, Robin spots a Dracula wanna-be in the crowd. She snaps a picture and Scarlet identifies him as Sergei Rachov, a member of the Lisky Bratva. But she sees something else in the photo, a sickly youth who she suspects is a vampire.

Robin decides to check and also test one of the weapons they’ve devised on him. Slipping next to a waiter, she slips a syringe of antibiotics from under her dress and doses the champagne glasses. Then with a little flirting she sends the servant in the direction of the supposed monster. He takes a drink but as he sips, he begins to retch, hurling the glass away. He lurches off to the barn at the far side of the gardens, hacking all the way.

Vampirology hints at the real vampire in their midst. Robin uses Preparedness to have her antibiotics ready. A Filch roll doctors the drinks without anyone noticing (like the army of bodyguards). Flirting sends it his way.

My vampires are based on plague bacteria so this stuff works like acid on them. Which he just drank. Even diluted he takes 12 Health damage over the next few minutes.

The team trails Shevlenko. As the old man sends one of his handlers back to the hotel, a strange static intrudes on their communications. Scarlet notices cell signals being distorted as well. It has CIA fingerprints on it. Shevlenko looking tired and weak sits down. Another handler hurries to get some paramedics, leaving the nurse and bodyguard. As the old man clutches his chest, four suspicious seeming paramedics quickly arrive. Outside, Guy notices the first handler occupied by the valet. Just as John and Robin realize this is a CIA extraction team, the vampire strikes. In seconds the four agents are reduced to bloody messes as Shevlenko looks on in horror. The nurse shields the bodyguard from intervening.

The monster grabs the bodies while the agents make themselves scarce. Loading them into the “ambulance”, he rides off into the night.

Review: Vampire: the Requiem, Second Edition

SexMurder and Blood and Smoke: the Strix Chronicles, the 2nd Edition of Vampire: the Requiem has gone through a few names since it was conceived. It has only been in the past few months that I’ve actually gotten to play it. But I like what I've seen and want to share my review. I still haven’t read the gamemaster section in detail so this review will be mostly from a player’s perspective.

Vampire: the Requiem, Second Edition

Highlights

The second edition of the game contains a lot of changes. Requiem is its own game now, establishing itself apart from Vampire: the Masquerade. The fat has been trimmed, troublesome rules simplified, and more mystery and customization injected.

A notable change is the removal of the Fog of Ages. Vampires still sometimes emerge from torpor addled and amnesic but that is the exception rather than the rule. History remains murky but more due to the insanity and lies of elder vampires than due to knowledge lost.

Also significantly changed is Predator’s Taint. Where once this caused vampires to Frenzy with alarming regularity when encountering one of their kind, it is now something they are always aware of but only rises to the surface when one Kindred uses it to lash out at another.

Second edition also tweaks the weaknesses of vampires. Prolonged exposure to sunlight has become survivable for vampires with high enough Humanity and low enough Blood Potency. Clan banes only come into effect once Humanity drops to 6 or lower. Humanity is now more about how separate from mortals a character has become and can be modified much like in Hunter: the Vigil, by taking on new banes to ignore risks to Humanity in certain cases.

Disciplines got a power up, with relatively weak levels removed and replaced. In general the powers are much more flexible. Even the physical disciplines now do more than boost Strength or Health. The two forms of blood magic, Theban Sorcery and Cruac, now mirror each other, one requiring Humanity while the other antithetical to it. The Odro Dracul's Coils have been updated as well with new features called Scales to purchase. These allow specific effects using the Coils, sort of like Devotions. Devotions in general are promoted, especially over the creation of bloodline disciplines.

As for Merits, the book contains many, many options from Covenant specific merits and abilities to enhancing Clan strengths to focusing on the heightened senses and the Beast. New vampiric combat styles are included as well as a new social style.

Revenants have become reenvisioned and brought into the main book. These flawed or accidental embraces have many of the same abilities as Kindred but lack the ability to hold onto Vitae night to night.

Also interesting is the inclusion of lost clans and covenants, showing that Kindred society is not as static as one might expect. While some of these comes from earlier books there are also a few new groups and organizations.

Overall the game has a very political focus while still retaining the feel of personal horror as your character find themselves torn between the roles of monster and man.

Humanity seems easy to maintain but remains a slippery slope especially for the Mehket who suffer the banes of torpor and sunlight more extremely. If you happen to lose enough Humanity that you lose connection to your final Touchstone (5 unless you have the Touchstone Merit), then you risk either torpor (and possibly another Humanity roll) or the loss of a second Humanity dot. Since you start with 7 Humanity this isn’t too much of a problem but as the game progresses, you will want to work to maintain a high Humanity or buy up the Touchstone Merit to avoid extra unpleasantness when you do lose Humanity.

The change to sunlight damage also has oddities. A vampire with low Blood Potency can survive in the sun for tens of minutes but at certain level of Humanity damage switches from Lethal to Aggravated making survival much harder (you can at least heal Lethal quickly, Aggravated damage still takes nights). The odd part is that you go from taking 3 Lethal per time period to 1 Aggravated. I think it works but can feel odd like you are taking less damage all of a sudden. But like a I said Lethal is healable (1 for a point of vitae).

Chapter by Chapter

Per the course, Onyx Path begins each section with intro fiction. I usually enjoy these but if I’m only going to skim the gamemaster section I’m also going to skip the pure fluff.

The actual introduction outlines the book and gives the reader an overview of the major themes of the game. It also includes an overview of roleplaying in general which is something I see less and less these days.

Chapter 1 is where we hit the first material of real substance: the clans and covenants. Each clan gets a description, why they are awesome and why they are scary. Several possible origins are sketched out as well as their general history and place in Kindred society. Three lost clans are included: the Roman Julii, the Babylonian Akhud, and the bizarre Pijavica. The only thing I wish was that some more detail was available on their abilities, especially the Pijavica. Perhaps in a future supplement.

The covenants are given similar treatment: selling you on them, briefing the reader on their history and philosophy, and detailing how they act when in power or on the ropes. The VII show up as an alternate covenant, offering several new possible truths about them. We also get a few “dead” covenants: the Legion (the Camarilla’s militant arm), the Gallows Post (a post Camarilla transport network), the Children’s Crusade (a horrid covenant of child sized monsters) and the Tenth Choir (who ate angels). The Children’s Crusade in particular looks ripe for “resurrection” plot.

Chapter 2 details what life as a vampire is like from the three traditions, feeding, the lies, the need to survive and move up, and so on. It is a solid chapter that gives a good sense of what the game is supposed to be like, not just the lies vampires tell themselves. As a bonus we get a lexicon, with some handy pronunciation guides.

Character Creation is covered in Chapter 3, everything from Humanity and banes to new Merits to Blood Sorcery. Like the God-Machine Chronicle and the new Chronicle of Darkness book (soon to be reviewed), it shares the system of static experience costs, Conditions and Beats.

Every covenant has some form of magic. The Circle of the Crone and the Lancea et Sanctum have their blood sorceries. The Ordo Dracul possesses Coils to remove the weakness of the Damned. Invictus have mystic oaths while Carthians treat the very laws of the domain like magic of a sort.

In terms of merits, there are a multitude. Even with a starting 10 merit dots there is not enough points.

Selling down humanity is gone, though thanks to flat experience costs it is much easier to raise. Losing Humanity comes from losing connection to what it means to be mortal: outliving family, surviving mortal injuries, torpor, mind control and the old standby of murder. The option to gain banes, or mystical weaknesses, to ignore some of these is nice, allowing your vampire to commit manslaughter at the cost of being lost at crossroads or having to sleep in grave earth. It adds back in the folklore.

Vice and Virtue become Mask and Dirge, how you hide yourself from mortals and others and what truly gets you up each evening. I feels much like Nature and Demeanor from Masquerade but with more mechanical weight.

The addition of touchstones, mortal connections that tie vampires to Humanity, is cool, adding a useful NPC connection and a potential vulnerability to each character.

Vampires are now more dangerous. Blood potency allows more Vitae to be spent than before and Kindred take Bashing from almost everything except fire and the sun. Their senses are heightened, with most being able to see well in the dark (and the rest working fine in pitch blackness).

The book presents the core rules in Chapter 4 from the basics like Attributes and Skills to dice pools and combat to “new” things like Social Maneuvering and Down and Dirty Combat. I like that all the rules I need are in one book and that lots of examples for equipment bonuses are available.

As to the later chapters, I haven’t read them in as much detail as they concern game master material. But they seem, if anything, more revolutionary than the earlier sections.

Chapter 5 details the Strix, the owl shadow beings who torment Kindred and might be their creators. We’ve seen versions of them in Requiem for Rome and Night Horrors: the Wicked Dead. Here they are presented in a similar but altered fashion. The truth of their past remains vague but they hate and envy vampires, craving their physicality and despising their humanity. On their own Strix can only drink breath and exist as smoke and shadow. But they can possess the dead and living (as well as vampires), turning them into puppets for their own amusement. The book provides a very modular system for constructing Strix as well as many example characters to drop into your game.

Chapter 6 turns the focus to cities, presenting eight distinct settings and helping to show how much diversity exists for the structure of Kindred society. I haven’t read it in detail but the settings seem quite distinctive and interesting.

Chapter 7 is the storyteller section. It picks apart many of the core rules of the game: masks and dirges, aspirations, blood potency, health, and so forth. It offers ways to focus on those aspects of the game and alternative rules for handling them. Of particular interest to me was the character & world building system at the very end, which encourages PCs to develop connecting characters and history for a chronicle. I need to give it a try someday.

Then we end with a couple of Appendices. The second simply collects the various Conditions for the game. More interesting is the first, detailing the mortals and ghouls who get caught up in Kindred affairs. The book provides some advice on crafting stories about mortals and how ghouls view Kindred society and vice versa. Also provided are rules for building ghoul characters and merits for ghouls and mortal alike. Plenty of good material here from how a clan affects a ghoul to rules for ghouls as representatives of reclusive Kindred.

Conclusion

Overall Vampire the Requiem is a great improvement on the original, smoothing away many of the problematic parts of the game and continuing to make the setting distinctive from Masquerade. While the rules seem unbalanced in a few places it appears to be a matter of perception or failing to appreciate one of the themes of the game. I very much recommend this book to anyone interested in the previous version of the game, the Chronicles of Darkness in general, and roleplaying vampires, from either a personal horror or political intrigue perspective.

Sample Character: Witch Preacher

Reading Chronicles of Darkness and Demon: the Descent has made me want to create some new characters, both to explore the rules and how those rules might be exploited.

This week I present someone cursed (or blessed) supernatural abilities who has turned his back on the darkness and dedicated himself to serving the light.

Witch Preacher

Father Michael

Former Sinner, Not Quite a Saint

The concept for this character was a monster hunter, specifically a member of the Malleus Maleficarum (from Hunter: the Vigil). I wanted him to have a dark past which worked well with my desire to play around with the Supernatural Merits.

Father Michael is a former "witch" (or at least a psychic who dressed up his powers in superstition) who after an encounter with true darkness, dedicated himself to God and destroying monsters.

He is an experienced hunter so I gave him 10 Experience to work with.

Father Michael smiles easily, his dark eyes lively and enchanting The grey creeping into his dark beard reveals his age, despite his youthful dark complexion.

Concept: Outspoken Convert
Conspiracy: Malleus Maleficarum
Virtue: Insightful Vice: Blunt

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 2, Resolve 4
Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3
Social Attributes: Presence 3, Manipulation 1, Composure 2

Mental Skills: Academics 2 (9 agains), Crafts (traps) 3, Investigation 2, Occult (witchcraft) 4 (9 agains)
Physical Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 1, Stealth 1, Weaponry 1
Social Skills: Expression 2, Intimidation 1, Persuasion 2, Streetwise (gangs) 2, Subterfuge 1

Merits: Aura Reading 3, Benedictions 2, Contacts (local priests, church laity), Professional Training (Priest: Academics, Occult) 2, Psychokinesis (Shadows) 3, Safe Place (Church) 2, Status (Malleus Maleficarum) 3, Status (Catholic Church) 2

I use Status (Malleus Maleficarum) to get 2 free dots of Status (Catholic Church) (following the rules in Mortal Remains).

I also use abuse Professional Training to gain 9 agains on Occult (which I use for reading auras and Psychokinesis).

Benedictions: Armor of St. Martin, Blessed Protection of St. Aggrippa

Willpower 6  Integrity 7 Health 8
Defense 3      Initiative 4 Speed 9

One big downside I've seen from this build is both his Benedictions and magical powers rely on Willpower. He likely will need to risk Willpower a lot to avoid being cut off from his abilities. Without his shadow manipulation, he's not much of a combatant.

Background

Once Father Michael went by the name of Miguel Santos. As a teenager, he discovered he possessed unnatural powers, powers to sense people's emotional states, to animate shadows, to move objects with something that seemed like congealed darkness. For years he studied various forms of magic, attempting to broaden and expand his magical talents.

When he turned 30 and his attempts to push his powers became more extreme, he discovered others like him. They too possessed alien powers but on a grander and more terrifying scale. They also lacked even his relaxed morals. To them he was just another toy.

He managed to slip away from this twisted coven after several months. Shaken, he turned to the solace he had neglected since his childhood: the Church. There he came across others who had also experienced supernatural evil. They took him in, taught him to fight the darkness, to use his knowledge to uncover monsters, and use his abilities for the forces of light.

Now a Catholic priest, Father Michael has returned home. His mission is to prepare the way for group of specialists. Together they will cleanse this city of evil.

Aspirations:

• Ready the local church as a forward base for his Conspiracy’s initiative to clear the city of monsters.
• Test his cover as a mundane priest.
• Recruit the Reds (a street gang) as cannon fodder.

My first take on his second Aspiration was "to maintain his cover as a mundane priest." I adjusted it to be more active and to signal (to a hypothetical game master) that I want him to be challenge and (hopefully) succeed.

Breaking Points:

Now time to answer questions to define what the limits of Father Michael's Integrity are:

• What is the worst thing your character has ever done? Michael crippled a man with his powers before he was a priest.
• What is the worst thing your character can imagine himself doing? Michael can easily imagine killing someone, perhaps accidentally, with his powers or while on the hunt.
• What is the worst thing your character can imagine someone else doing? Killing a child is the worst thing Michael can imagine.
• What has your character forgotten? Michael has seen much: vampires, shapeshifters, the possessed. Individually and in packs. But always as individuals and as things he could rationalize.
• What is the most traumatic thing that has ever happened to your character? Michael was once captured by vampires and tortured for three days before his brothers saved him.

I sort of altered the fourth question, since as a hunter, Father Michael has seen a lot of craziness and isn't easily traumatized by the supernatural.

String Theory Recap: The Heist

For my eighth session of my Night's Black Agents game, String Theory, we worked through the main action of the Zalozhniy Quartet adventure The Boxmen. We had lots of good roleplaying action, a bank robbery, a fight, and a car chase. The whole team joined this time, though John arrived quite late (but at the perfect time for the calvary).

The Heist

I start by correcting my recent lack of refreshes for the agents. The team makes their Heat roll (difficulty 3 from the foot chase and Conspiracy surviellance) using some Disguise. With the team pumped back up, we launch into some last minute info dumps.

Having traced the supernatural sniper that shot at Robin to the Black Sea Bank's security team, the agents tap their phones. Their security expert, Marko Shwetz, has a series of calls from a number located in Vienna. Aside from cryptic comments along the lines of "Shevlenko is in hand", they also learn that the bank and therefore the Lisky Bratva seek a specific box from the vault, one that belongs to someone called "Philby."

Core clue drop.

Outside the game, I also informed Nasir that he's heard that the Saudis are worried about something tied to Philby. He's determined it must deal with Harry St. John Philby. Who had an account with Koernersbank, the bank they intend to rob. Since Nasir hopes to come in from the cold, a deal with Saudis would help get the ISI (Pakistani Intelligence) on his side.

Scarlet gets a call from her old college friend Pamela Stacy, who is now an airline analyst. They reminisce about old times but Scarlet detects an undercurrent of fear in her friend's voice. Pamela reveals she's been followed for the past week by Russian thugs. Also a sick homeless man keeps appearing whereever she goes. Scarlet makes plans to meet her in Italy once her work in Switzerland is done.

Vampyramid action! Pamela is Scarlet's Solace and clearly under threat.

Robin then reaches out to Keith Lawson, the man she saw with Menena Chakroun. He's obviously part of this rival band of thieves. But Robin has worked with him before. He's Mossad.

She makes him a 4 point Network contact and spends 1 point for some clues.

Keith hints at his mission: to collect files and records dealing with Nazi war criminals from the bank. He has no problem splitting the cash. He also lets her know about the rest of the team. Massimo Florin, the master safe cracker, is in it for the money. Menena says she is as well, but he suspects she has another angle.

Via Keith, they arrange a meet with the thieves in the backroom of a restaurant. After a sweep for bugs, Menena lays out her plan and how Mr. Smith, the thief who died, was supposed to help. Robin and Nasir point out that they have already completed those steps. The two groups decide to combine their resources and plans. Robin mentions Philby. Most of the thieves know nothing about it, but she can't get a read on Menena.

A couple of days later as the bank shuts down for the day, Nasir bumps into Jean Montavan as he leaves the office. Keycard in hand he joins the others as they wait for nightfall.

Nasir Filches but fails the roll by one. Thanks to the Filch cherry however he is able to retroactively raise that to a success.

Once only the night watchmen are left, the thieves as well as Robin, Nasir, and Scarlet zipline onto the roof. John and Guy wait outside in the getaway vehicle. Massimo cracks the door and they slip in.

I let them piggyback off Menena and use Massimo to crack the door. I'm not entirely happy with splitting the team. It left Guy without much to do (John still hadn't joined the game).

Robin and Scarlet sneak past the security cameras to the server room. Once there, Scarlet hacks the computers and makes the cameras work for them. For the next few hours the guards only see looped footage.

Robin makes an easy Infiltration roll with Scarlet piggybacking. I probably should have asked for a Military Science spend for the guard patrol patterns but it wouldn't have mattered, they are experts in that. I did give a hard Digital Intrusion roll to Scarlet but she dropped most of her points into that roll.

With relatively free rein, Nasir, Menena and Massimo head to the manager's office to grab the keys. Massimo cracks safe and Nasir spots an alarm on the key carasol. If more than one box key is taken at a time, the alarm will sound. Nasir disables it and they bag the hundreds of keys.

Nasir uses his Infiltration MOS to disable the alarm.

Nasir heads to the records room. He finds Lawson finishing up his own research. Nasir tracks down Philby's box as well as a few other boxes from the same era.

The team then heads for the basement. They use Jean's keycard plus the code Nasir saw earlier to access the basement, don heat suits to bypass the heat sensors and then use the vault key and the code Nasir spied to unlock the vault door.

Once inside Menena slowly disables the motion sensors. Then they start looting.

During the session I glossed over any potential troubles in the interest of excitement.

First to be packed away are the millions in diamonds and cash from the Black Sea Bank. They also snag some internal papers but choose to ignore the sealed cooler box. Nasir unlocks the Philby box and unloads its contents including a strange vial of red liquid. The others puzzle over some art and other valuables. Nasir finds lists of German names and addresses in one box which he lets Keith take after checking with Robin that he's a Nazi hunter. In another box, Keith unloads a suitcase of Nazi gold. As a final odd piece of loot, Nasir grabs an antique pistol loaded with silver bullets.

The team uses Art History to grab the valuable Rembrandts.

I also have Nasir roll Sense Trouble on the way out to notice Menena pickpocketing the vial he found in Philby's box. Unfortunately he fails.

Suitably laidened, the thieves and agents escape out the side door and into the night.

They head for the safe house at the airport hotel without any trouble. Just as they reach their room however, Robin spots a soft glow under the door. "No one but us know about this room," Menena says.

Robin makes a Notice spend to get some forewarning of the next set of trouble.

Leaving the others, she pops open the door to the adjacent room, swings onto the balcony. Inside she observes someone fiddling with a phone in the dark while seated at a desk. She relays this to the others and slips inside.

Robin uses her Infiltration cherry to break into the room. I decide against an Athletics test. She beats the intruder's impressive Alertness modifier with her Infiltration roll.

The others knock at the door. The surprised man types something on the phone and calls them in. In the light of the hallway, they see Mr. Smith, the supposedly deceased pickpocket. He laughs about being dead and demands the vial. Nasir plays dumb while Robin tries to slip behind Smith.

"Boring," he replies as he turns to swing at Robin with inhuman speed.

Robin fails a second Infiltration roll to get a surprise round on "Smith".

Order of action is Smith using superhuman speed, a sniper with Shooting 12, Robin, Guy, then the other PCs, Keith and Menena. Finally there are four goons charging in from the hall and poor poor Massimo.

Robin dodges back. Smith leaves a fist sized hole in the wall. As they tussle, a sniper round cracks the glass balcony door. Massimo drops to the ground, dead.

Smith hits but deals 0 damage so I go from a more informative description. I roll a die for the sniper and Massimo is the unlucky sap. With only 4 Health he dies instantly.

Realizing she's up against something like a werewolf, Robin pulls a beta blocker syringe and jabs it into him. Smith cries out in pain as his face melts into some other person's.

My werewolves work on artificial adrenaline. The beta blockers thus work like a poison. Robin makes her Preparedness roll to have the syringe ready and a Hand-To-Hand roll to inject him. Then Smith makes a Health roll (Difficulty 5). He succeeds but loses 5 Abberance and is Hurt (+1 Difficulties).

Guy hears approaching footsteps from the door and fires at the first goon to come through the door. As the thug topples back into the hall, Nasir unloads the antique pistol into Smith. The silver bullet digs into his flesh which breaks out in hives.

Guy gets a good damage roll after his successful Shooting roll.

And the team learns werewolves are allergic to silver (well there's more to it than that but it does do extra damage).

Scarlet and Menena fire at the remaining goons while Keith grabs one and dents him into a wall. One of the thugs tosses a gas grenade into the room but Nasir dives for it and hurls it out the now broken balcony doorway.

I let Nasir jump in (spending 4 Athletics) to remove the grenade before the team has to deal with tear gas.

Somewhere in this next session Scarlet started having technical difficulties and so I'm not sure if I lost a round of combat or not.

Smith moves like a blur, smashing Robin into a wall and then that scratching his finger tips across her skin. As venom burns through her flesh, a second sniper round takes Keith in the leg. He grunts and falls to his knees, choking the life out of one of the goons before the other thugs pepper him with bullets.

A little out of order for drama's sake. Robin takes 4 damage and then suffers Smith's xenotransplanted jelly fish stingers. She fails her Health test (and is down 2 more Health) and is now Hurt from the pain. Keith absorbs all the other attacks this turn.

As Keith bleeds out on the floor, Robin pulls the curtains closed to thwart further shots and keeps her distance from Smith. Guy pulls out a dart gun of beta blockers and shoots the inhuman Smith. Smith begins to sweat as the second dose cripples his system.

While everyone else shoots ineffectually, Guy makes a Preparedness roll to pull the dart gun and uses Shooting to deliver another dose. Smith makes his roll again but loses more Abberance.

Robin spends 2 Athletics to boost her Hit Threshold by one.

Smith swings at Robin again but she deftly dodges out of the way. As he curses at her, Guy puts a second dart into him. Suddenly he grabs his heart as he crumples to the ground. Nasir strides up and puts a silver slug in his brain.

The high hit threshold pays off. Guy dumps more build points into Shooting and fires again. This time Smith fails his Health roll, takes 6 damage from a minor heart attack and loses all of his remaining Abberance. Then Nasir shoots him dead (-12 Health).

Menena shoots and drops another thug, leaving only one in the doorway. As the survivor scrambles back into the hall, he spots John racing to the rescue. He screams into his walkie talkie for backup as he retreats away from the team.

John arrives with the last goon fleeing. Of course there are about to be 6 more goons coming up the stairs.

John smashes open the door to the stairs. Footfalls echo up from below. He pulls the pin on a grenade and hurls it at the first goon to come into sight.

John makes his Difficulty 5 Preparedness roll (as I comment "it sure would be nice if we had some grenades") and then an easy Athletics puts the thugs within the annihilation range.

The hotel shakes as the reinforcements meet their makers.

The ex-soldier emerges back in the hall as the rest of team dumps Smith's corpse in a laundry cart. Scarlet stabilizes Keith and she and Nasir manuever him into the servant’s elevator. Taking the cart and their loot with them, the agents plus Menena grab Guy's prepared van and flee before the authorities arrive.

Scarlet uses Medic to keep Keith alive and patches up Robin as well. Guy uses Preparedness to have several vehicles ready for easy switching out.

At this point the Lisky Bratva drop tons of heat on the team. They must flee Switzerland.

As they hit the winding roads outside Zurich, three police cars race to intercept them. Guy guns the surprisingly powerful engine and drifts the van around corners to opens up a gap. John takes pot shots at the tires of the pursuers, puncturing one.

Another chase! Guy spends more Preparedness to have this van be souped up (+1 to chase rolls) and ups the difficulty in the hopes of losing the police.

The police car crashes into a guard rail on a switchback before they hit a relatively straight path down the mountain. Guy avoids some early morning bicyclists and a slow truck, allowing the remaining cars to regain some ground.

The police fail one roll (and thus a car) but beat the team on the next couple rolls (since they drove safely).

Guy skirts a truck loaded with chickens hoping to get it to crash and block the road. The driver resists his intimidation, clipping the van before being rear ended by a police car.

Guy fails the chase roll but not as badly as the police.

With one car in pursuit, Guy spins the van around and waits until the police is almost on top of them until tearing off in another direction. Before the cops can recover, they disappear into the hills.

Guy earns a refresh from some description and uses it to win the chase. Their current Heat is 5 (1 base +1 for the heist +3 from the Conspiracy). Hot Lead after the chase is 3 (7 base - Heat +1 for escaping the cops).