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).
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