We begin with our agents planning how to rescue Arkady Shevlenko. His granddaughter has already been whisked to safety but the vampire Simon Thronradel is not going to let the old spy escape so easily...
Blood Opera
We start by dealing with the Heat. It currently sits at Difficulty 6 due to the bodies in the river and the drugs found in Nasir’s hotel room. They decide to point the police in the direction of the van’s “owners”. Using Digital Intrusion, they lay down a fake trail to the Lisky Bratva’s doorstep. Scarlet rolls, spending 3 points, and succeeds with a 9.Also Scarlet spends 3 points of Medic to patch up John from last session when he got sniped.
Next I set a timer. They have 5 minutes to plan their extraction. They succeed and I give them a 6 point pool to spend on the operation.
The plan is to build and install a mist machine to disperse antibiotics throughout the opera house. Guy will take care of this. Nasir will then slip in as an usher and sabotage the special effects at the end of the show to create a fire (Art History gives them the idea). Robin will use Forgery and Bureaucracy to insert John and Lynne, the CIA survivor, into Shevlenko’s security detail at the last-minute. From her history with the FSB and a Tradecraft spend, she knows this will tie up the lead handler, Volkov. Once the fire begins, they will steer Shevlenko to a side exit and escape in confusion. As a backup their escape van will have a second mist machine installed. Hopefully this will stop any vampire interference.
The team sets up a fake ownership trail for the van that ended in the Danube two nights ago hoping the authorities follow it to their enemies instead of them. Guy meanwhile checks out an old cache site only to discover that the CIA cleaned it out months ago.
As John sleeps off the bruises from the day’s excitement, Guy busies himself building a modified humidifier to disperse antibiotics through the Vienna State Opera building. Scarlet comes back as he finishes up loaded with supplies taken from a local hospital. Guy fills the device up with the stolen antibiotics and heads for the opera. In the dark hours of the night he installs it in the ventilation system.
Guy fails a Preparedness roll to establish a catch so Scarlet uses her Cover to get the antibiotics. It takes all of the remaining points in Alice White, her doctor without borders.
The construction project is a Mechanics roll to build the machine plus a second roll to install it most effectively. Guy makes the first plus the Infiltration roll to get in but fails the second. That means the block is only Difficulty 6. I decide Simon still isn’t willing to cross it and then sit in a theater for 4 hours.
The next day, Nasir slips in as an usher and makes his way backstage. As he nears the pyrotechnics, a security guard accosts him. The guard asks for his badge. The spy pats his jacket before explains he left it at home and quickly concocts a story about what he is doing back here. The guard, mollified, lets him finish his business. Alone at last, Nasir compromises the pyrotechnics and immediately vacates the building.
Nasir fails his Disguise roll plus a Preparedness roll to have a stolen badge on him. Luckily a Reassurance spend and second Disguise roll gets him past that trouble. His Explosive Devices roll yields a 7 so the fire will be quite large while not obviously sabotage. Finally Scarlet uses Digital Intrusion to get the security camera feeds. Guy uses the Driving cherry to get a new van.
As the opera house opens, Scarlet clicks through the security feeds at the team’s hotel room. Nasir and Guy wait in a freshly lifted van a few blocks from the venue. Inside Volkov receives forged orders to include John and Feinberg in the security detail. She storms off to talk to Moscow about this intrusion into her domain, leaving Popov in charge of Shevlenko. He stations the new bodyguards outside the Russian delegation’s box along with the towering Kaminski. Shevlenko simply gives them a knowing look.
Scarlet spies the vampire, Simon, attempting to enter the opera house. He sniffs the air and quickly steps back out. He calls someone and a half hour later Bratva thugs have the place surrounded. They wait and watch.
There is not much Robin action here. My son was sick and needy. This has been happening more and more (the needy part). After some discussion it looks like she will absent herself from the game for the foreseeable future.
Eventually the opera reaches its climax. After failing to obtain the required sacrifices, the villain of the piece is struck by lightning...which lights a third of the stage on fire. Luckily no one is injured but the audience quickly make their way to the exits. Scarlet helps guide the team through a tight passage where they peel off the giant bodyguard Kaminski.
Scarlet spends a point of Architecture for this effect.
As they near the exit, John turns, grabs the nerdish Popov and hurls him into Shevlenko’s nurse. Feinberg leads Arkady outside with John right behind them. Guy pulls up in front just as Popov comes sprinting out of the theater. On the street four stocky men race towards them.
John spends 2 Hand-to-Hand to Throw Popov. He succeeds.
John leans out with a machine gun and lays down suppressive fire on the goons. They scatter or fall behind as Guy drives off. A solid thump however announces that Popov managed to jumps on board.
I give Guy a Driving roll to ensure that the bodyguards will have no chance to close on them. He fails. The goons were alerted by the nurse pushing the panic button to the conspiracy. John creates a line of suppressive fire with an automatic weapon stashed in the van. It dissuades two of them, the others beat his Shooting roll with their Athletics roll. My dice were on fire that night.
Then we start the chase with the people on foot rolling Athletics to grab on. Popov also makes his Athletics roll against Guy’s second Driving roll. The goons (both on foot and in cars) fail.
As he shoots through the tight streets of Vienna, Guy glances at his mirrors. Two cheap cars race after him plus something on foot far faster than than any mortal. Ahead the road swings past the river and a flock of geese. He swerves into them, sending a swarm of feathery bodies upward to distract his pursuers.
Guy’s lead is 6 after his getaway. He has two cars behind him full of eight goons, a Russian bodyguard on the back and a vampire blurring towards him. He sees a flock of geese and decides to use them to raise everyone’s difficulties.
As bullets ping off the back of the van, Nasir and John unload their guns into the side door. Their work is rewarded with the sound of Popov falling off onto the hard cobblestone steps. Then both tires are punctured by automatic fire.
Nasir and John do a teamwork Shooting roll to dislodge Popov. Their total is an 11. Adding in the difficulty from the birds, Popov needs to make an Athletics roll of 12 to hold on. He fails and falls off van, taking 6 damage.
Then the thugs fire for tires. Despite the Hit Threshold of 7, two of them succeed! I kindly give Guy a Difficulty 6 Driving to control the crash. He succeeds. I still roll 2 damage for the group. Luckily everyone was wearing a seatbelt so only Arkady takes any damage (and only from the stress).
Guy tightens his grip on the wheel and drifts the van into a controlled collision with some metal posts. Glancing back he checks that everyone is unharmed. Arkady breathes heavily as the Bratva forces pull up behind them. Then something lands on the roof.
With a squeal of tearing metal, the side door goes flying away from the vehicle. Simon dives down and pounces into the van.
Simon beats the block difficulty of 8 and takes 5 damage from the antibiotic mist.
His face contorts with pain and anger as thin smoke wafts from his orifices and skin. In a blur, he reaches out, grabs Feinberg and hurls her thirty feet onto a muddy patch of ground. He slams John into the roof of the van before tossing him outside as well. Arkady slinks back into his seat as the monster moves forward.
Simon does a Throw on Feinberg, spending 2 Hand-to-Hand on top of his attack. Miraculously I roll minimum damage as she lands on some soft grass. He then hits John for 2 damage with his free extra attack and spends 2 Abberance to make a third attack. He does another throw but John makes an Athletics roll (difficulty 5) to hold onto the door frame.
John manages to grab the van on his way out and lands just outside. Spotting a half-dozen thugs approaching he liberally sprays the area with bullets. As they retreat to the safety of their vehicles, Nasir and Guy sneak over to a nearby jeep and hot wire it.
John uses suppressive fire again. With the vampire in action, none of the thugs decide to be a hero. Guy uses the Grand Theft Auto cherry.
As Simon reaches for the old man, Feinberg shouts “stop!” as she presses her gun against the back of the head. The vampire grabs Arkady’s sleeve.
She fires, spraying the black innards of the vampire across the interior of the van. They sizzle in squirm in the mist.
Simon takes 1 damage. He doesn’t really need his brains.
He twists around, a violent exit wound streaming dark goo down his face. He roars at her, a gory tentacle shooting from his mouth. She ducks, the black mass passing through where her head was a split second ago. As she recovers the tentacle loops down around her neck and lifts her from the ground, choking her.
Simon spends 2 Abberance to get three attacks again. I forgot to ask for Stability rolls here but when we handled them later Nasir failed and lost 6 Stability in total! The vampire fails on his first attack, hits for 1 damage on the second (but grapples her) and then deals some moderate damage with the third.
John turns and targets one of their prepared canisters of compressed gas mixed with antibiotics. A blast of medical mist shoots out, scorching the tendril. Simon hisses but holds on.
Then the car hits him.
The canisters were something discussed earlier. I gave John a Difficulty 6 Shooting test to direct a blast at the vampire. Unfortunately Simon makes his roll against the block. He holds on and takes 5 more damage.
Then Guy collides with him in the jeep. He fails a Driving roll to avoid clipping Feinberg. She drops to -5 Health. Miraculously she makes her Consciousness roll. The vampire takes another 3 damage as he is run over.
Next Guy makes a Preparedness roll to have some smoke bombs to cover their escape. Nasir deploys them.
The jeep rolls over the vampire and knocks Feinberg free. Holding in her ribs she crawls to the vehicle as Arkady slips out of the van and into the jeep. Nasir drops some smoke grenades covering the extraction. The thugs fire wildly in their direction as John gets on board. In the thick mist the bullets somehow miss everyone.
The goons do not make any lucky rolls this time. Then I remember Popov.
Suddenly shots ring out from behind the thugs as a bloody and disheveled Popov stalks up the road. As Guy throws the jeep into the gear, the surviving Bratva goons unload into the bodyguard. The agents don’t stop to save him.
Guy smashes through a fence hoping to dislodge anyone hanging on. But a few minutes later, the sound of tearing metal alerts them to trouble. Nasir unloads one of the mist canisters into the jeep. A single bloody hand claws out of the floor and grabs Nasir before a second blast sends it and Simon tumbling onto the streets.
Simon holds on, spends Abberance to rip open the floor and then grabs Nasir, dealing 3 damage. Nasir uses the last canister to drive him off (and deal 5 more damage, plus more for the fall). Simon has run out of Abberance at this point and so let's them go.
Looking back they see the battered vampire picks himself off street. He looks in their direction and then walks off.
Wincing as she props herself up, Feinberg makes the call to the embassy. Guy pulls the jeep discretely through the Vienna streets. Nasir and John breathe a little easier.
Arkady gasps and clutches his chest. As the team moves to help him, he waves them off. “No I must tell you what you need to know. What They are after.”
- Harry Philby
I get through the info dump. Scarlet then leads the team remotely (+2 difficulty) in an attempt to save Arkady’s life. Somehow she makes the Difficulty 12 Medic roll.
Scarlet breaks in over the comms and starts ordering John through the steps to save Shevlenko’s life. Fifteen minutes later, the team drops Feinberg and the weak but breathing defector off at the embassy before vanishing into the morning fog.
I award them some free Network contacts (Arkady and Feinberg) for that.
A day later they assemble at the coordinates Arkady gave them. A small group of Sassafras trees sit there. Amid their roots, they find a metal box with documents detailing Arkady’s Middle East work. Clues point to the Iraqi National Museum as well as a possible asset in Beirut.
Next we spend some time putting the group’s notes together, bringing everyone up to speed, and prodding Nasir to come clean.
Robin listens to the operation details and then asks the difficult question. “Nasir where did the item Shevlenko said was in the vault go? The vial filled with the activating agent?”
The Pakistani spy pauses for a moment before explaining that he has hidden it. Under pressure he says he’ll give a sample to Scarlet for analysis. Somewhat mollified, the team makes arrangements to return to Germany.
On the way, Scarlet takes a look at the sample. It seems to be a culture medium tweaked for some variety of bacteria. She tests it against samples of the black goo they obtained in Serbia. While those bacteria grow well, it is clearly not a match.
Basically using Diagnosis. Also at this point everyone’s pools refresh.
Once in Germany, they check surveillance on the castle. Everything seems the same. John contacts Colonel Drake to see what developments have occurred with Dr. Gomez. Drake says that the body they sent opened up some new insights. He invites them over to the base where he has hidden medical lab set up for her and Quist’s corpse.
Robin and Nasir opt to sit this one out, leaving John and Scarlet to conduct the meeting. The Colonel leads them into a darkened warehouse, where a single lamp illuminates a makeshift lab. A body lies beneath a white sheet. Confused about where Gomez is, Drake invites them to look at the lab while he hunts her down.
Scarlet approaches the table, a growing dread building within her. The body is female. Pulling back the sheet, she finds a very dead Dr. Gomez. Growls comes from the darkness around them as Drake’s voice echoes over the intercom.
“Sorry. You know how it is,” he explains. “I have kids.”
“No I don’t!” John shouts as the growls grow closer and yellow eyes glint in the dark.
So the conspiracy flipped Drake as they close in on the agents.
Scarlet digs in her bag, pulling out a grapple gun. As she shoots it near a high window, John moves to intercept the werewolves.
They blur out of the darkness but he weaves between them as Scarlet slowly rises upward. He stays below her warding them away as they circle him. One claws his arm while the other pounces on his leg as he is distracted. He kicks it off and grabs Scarlet. Pulling himself to safety, he begins to swing the line. Below the monsters jump and snap at them. Then the two spies smash through the high window to safety.
Scarlet makes a Preparedness check to have a grapple gun in her pack. She uses Shooting to latch it and doesn’t mess up horribly. John spends 4 Athletics to boost his Hit Threshold by 2. That helps ward off both werewolf attacks that round. The next round he boosts it by 1 but the werewolves use pack tactics to lower his Hit Threshold. They hit for 3 and 0 damage. He makes an Athletics test to climb out of reach and succeeds.
That’s it for now. Next time they storm the castle (I think).
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