Night's Black Agents: The Electrifying Conclusion

Yesterday we finished our long-running Night's Black Agents game. By "long-running" I mean it started back in January 2013, here. We had a long hiatus due to health problems from one of the players (who ultimately had to drop out), added another player, lost them, added another player, and finally stabilized.

Ultimately, I think it was a good run. Gumshoe games ask a lot from the players and the GM, and I think that the mix of players we ended with probably wasn't the best suited for Gumshoe, but it worked out fine. I like the game a lot, and there's actually quite a bit of replay value because there's not a single "truth" to it. My vampires were alien creatures created (or at least unleashed) by Nikola Tesla, but yours might be traditional "stake 'em and bake 'em" style creatures. I might consider running this again some day, but not for a while.

Anyway! Last time, the agents destroyed Ioan Koltay, and learned that Tesla himself was hiding in Belgrade, but about to flee to the US.

The agents head to Belgrade and start digging. Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport has twice-daily flights to New York, so they worry that Tesla may already have left. Applying what they know about Tesla, they figure he wouldn't leave without his gear and research, so Firinci tracks cargo that's been shipped from the airport recently and Carlsson calls up a buddy in the States who works for customs and asks about it. Said buddy confirms that it was shipped in the name of a "Dane Mandic", but it hasn't cleared customs yet. Carlsson asks him to hold it up.

Firinci digs into "Mandic" a little, and learns that it's a cover ID, and it's pretty flimsy. It's sturdy enough to get someone on a plane, f'rex, but any sustained investigation would reveal it to be fake. The agents consider their options. They could easily cause this ID to collapse, but then Tesla might flee the city and with most of his network destroyed, they have no idea where he'd go. He'd be in the wind.

They look up Bugarcic, the fellow who ran the Tesla Museum, and find that he's living in Belgrade. MacAteer and Hanover go to visit him and (after pushing into his house) interrogate him. He has nothing of interest to tell them, though; Tesla came to see him a couple of nights ago to say goodbye, and he doesn't know where Tesla is or how to contact him. The agents leave (half expecting the house to explode, but it doesn't) and start planning.

They consider leapfrogging Tesla and going to the States to lay a trap, but Parker points out that doing that would be a big outlay of resources and would require dealing with the American intelligence community, which isn't what they're used to. Instead, she suggests calling upon a friend of hers who works customs at Belgrade Airport - she can have him pull Tesla aside when he checks in to his flight, and "questioning." She can bring the other agents in as her team (except Firinci, who will be under cover separately as a tech, which will allow him to shut off cameras in strategic places), and hit Tesla in the interrogation room. Yes, this is dangerous, and yes, the agents might be caught afterwards, but they're all in to finish this.

Firinci leaves a duffel bag with gear (including a machete, since edged weapons seem more effective than bullets against vampires) near the room, and the other folks pull out covers that they can use to get in (MacAteer goes as himself, working with Parker).

They watch as Tesla enters the airport, with some security, but they leave him at the door. He's carrying a stainless steel briefcase. It goes through the metal detector, but the agents can't figure out what's in it - tubes? Glass? The case looks like the kind of thing that one would carry a disassembled gun in, but it's no gun the agents have ever seen.

At the gate, two customs agents stop him and take him into a hallway toward the interrogation room...

...but as soon as the door closes behind them, Tesla falls and clutches his chest. The agents go to catch him, and he grabs them and breaks their necks. The agents spring into action (except Firinci, who watches on the monitors). Tesla opens his case and starts putting something together. "He's armed," says Firinci.

Hanover and Parker approach from the front, while MacAteer and Carlsson go to the door that Tesla just came through. Parker tells Hanover to shoot the gun Tesla is carrying, since none of them really want to find out what that does. Hanover pops up and takes the shot (his MOS, remember)...but Tesla is impossibly fast and fires as well.

The gun cracks and fizzles, but Hanover falls dead with a cauterized hole in his throat. He collapses, and Firinci sends medics. Parker charges in and hacks at Tesla with her machete, and MacAteer and Carlsson burst in the door. Carlsson shoots him, and MacAteer delivers a one-two punch that staggers him and puts him against the wall.

Parker draws back, and cleanly slices his head off with her machete. His body crumples to the floor, his tentacles limply slithering out of his neck.

MacAteer, Carlsson, and Firinci fade away. Parker stays to see it through, and she, Tesla's body, and Hanover's body disappear shortly thereafter. The British government manages to exfiltrate her later. Officially, of course, the snafu at the airport was just a big misunderstanding when the wrong man was pulled aside. The conspiracy, as far as the agents know, is dead.

FIN

Night's Black Agents: The Endgame

Yesterday was Night's Black Agents, and normally I'd be running Blades in the Dark about now, but illness laid one of my players low, so we're dark this week, alas.

Anyway, last time, the characters took out Vilmos Hajnal, probably the most powerful crime boss in Europe. This time, as they hide out in their safe house in Munich, they monitor the fallout - and it's considerable.

Known criminals all over the continent are being arrested or killed as police call in old debts and favors and generally cover their asses. Nikita Utkin, the head of Rus-Bel Air (the Belarus-based airline that Hajnal and the conspiracy used), is assassinated barely 12 hours after news of Hajnal's death breaks. The conspiracy's criminal end is breaking down as the characters watch...and that means they need to act fast, because the last two remaining vampires are probably going to go to ground.

The IFEA's website has been scrubbed, and someone (the characters determine with a bit of hacking) has been gradually emptying their accounts. Since there's no known connection between Hajnal's organization and the IFEA, those assets aren't frozen, but the withdrawals are large enough to raise eyebrows. A bit more hacking, and the characters confirm it's Ioan Koltay who's been pulling out the cash, in Budapest.

Doing a bit of investigation and a bit of social engineering, the agents determine which of the bank branches Koltay is going to visit next. Carlsson has a buddy who runs security for this bank, and calls him up for a favor. If Koltay comes into the bank, he's to delay him.

The agents head to Budapest and stake out the bank. Koltay enters, and is delayed long enough for the characters to get there. Parker, watching from a nearby bus stop, notes two SUVs in the parking lot and some goons waiting outside the bank - Koltay has a bit of hired muscle.

Unfortunately, money talks, and Firinci has some handy. He does some quick digging and finds that these guys answer to Ormos Valka, a local mid-level gangster, and buys off the goons. He has them just act normal for now. Koltay gets his money, gets in the SUV, and they all head back to a parking garage, whereupon he tells one of the goons to go to his flat, grab his bags, and come back down. Apparently Koltay is leaving town.

Firinci has the goons wait until Koltay is in the SUV, and then try to subdue him (this lets the agents get in place, too). When they make their move, though, the SUV shakes a moment, and the Koltay kicks out the back down and runs, covered in blood.

Parker shoots him in the back of the knee, staggering him, and MacAteer tackles him. Koltay, predictably, unleashes his tentacles and stabs MacAteer twice, draining a lot of blood, but Carlsson runs up and swings and ax at him. Koltay lashes out and knocks Carlsson away. The other goons see this and most of them panic and run, but one shoots at Koltay, as do Parker and Firinci.

Carlsson drags MacAteer back and he passes out, and Parker hits Koltay in the spine with an ax. He falls, and the agents shoot him some more, and then take off his leg. He's not going anywhere.

But the police are on their way! The agents split up, taking Koltay with them, and drive off. The police pursue, but the agents escape, and Firinci calls Valka for a safe location for interrogation. He sends them to a meat parking house. Firinci apologizes for the men who died and offers to make restitution, and Valka (who, while he might not know about the conspiracy, knows that everything is in flux and he's best off not making too many waves) accepts this.

They string Koltay up by his feet (well, foot), and Parker questions him. Koltay reveals that Tesla is in Belgrade, but scheduled to fly out to the US soon. He was meant to meet Tesla with the money. He also reveals that all of this is "apotheosis," and apotheosis has stages - Tesla was one, the vampires like Koltay and Sas were another, the vampires like Kingsilver were a third...and MacAteer is the newest. He reveals that MacAteer is changing, but even he doesn't know into what...though he'd like to find out.

Parker asks why Koltay betrayed Sedillo, and he responds that he didn't, one of the agents did (that was Gambone, you'll recall). Parker acknowledges this, and asks Koltay if he'd like to go fast or slow. Koltay says "fast," and Parker shoots him in the head.

The agents know where they're going, and they have one final vampire to go. Of course, that vampire is the original, and they don't know what to expect.

Night's Black Agents: Chaos in the Underworld!

Over the weekend, we finally played Night's Black Agents (it had been a while). The agents scored a major victory. They are, perhaps, in the endgame now. We shall see.

Last time, the agents developed a projective model to figure out where Vilmos Hajnal might show up next. They narrowed it to Prague or Bratislava, and sent out feelers to await any word.

Parker returns from her trip to London, MacAteer continues to run tests on his blood. He discovers that if he introduces the serum that he created to his own blood, the cells mutate and explode, but if he introduces it to a sample of Parker or Hanover's blood, their blood becomes like his. This is...worrisome. He doesn't trust Carlsson (too paranoid) or Firinci (too new to this and too reactionary) with this information yet, though.

The data comes back - Prague is the most likely place. Firinci sends Berger on ahead to set up a safe house and scout a few things out, and then the agents do a little prep. They put their scientific samples and data, as well as personal effects and weapons, in stashes around Innsbruck, and shut down operations in their house. They argue a lot about the next step.

Hajnal is going to touch down at the airport in a flight on Rus-Bel air that probably contains a lot of his guys. Is it all his guys? They could RPG the plane as it lands, sure, but that would probably kill a lot of people, make for a lot of noise, and they couldn't be 100% sure that Hajnal wouldn't survive it. They ultimately agreed to have Firinci hack into the airport's systems and steer the plane to the runway they wanted, have Hanover and MacAteer in a baggage train to nail Hajnal with a dart, and then have Parker and Carlsson outside the airport in a field ready to snipe. The biggest hitch, here, of course, is getting out once the shit goes down.

The agents take their positions as the plane begins to land. Hajnal steps out onto the tarmac, and Hanover nails him with a dart (Shooting MOS). Hajnal yanks the dart out of his chest and collapses, and then starts to twitch. The folks around him start to go into crisis mode, but then Carlsson shoots him and folks scatter. Carlsson then shoots him twice more, and then hands the rifle over to Parker.

Hajnal, meanwhile, is shaking and convulsing, and then raises up a bit...just in time for Parker to shoot him in the back of the neck. He collapses, bleeding blue, and the agents bug out.

MacAteer and Hanover head towards the terminal in the baggage thing (which, unfortunately, Hajnal's guards have already noticed). They get out and split up, dipping into the crowd. Firinci, in the van, tries to put the airport's security systems into "AAAAAH" mode, but he's getting locked out, so he goes in and pulls the fire alarm instead. All of the agents fall back; Parker uses Preparedness to have a car stowed at this airport, and they all head back to Innsbruck rather than even bothering with their safe house here.

Which, as it turns out, is a good thing. As they're watching the coverage later ("Notorious Crimelord Assassinated at Prague Airport!") they discover that their safehouse exploded around the same time as their attack. No bodies were found, just one head...Lazlo Berger.

The agents have some questions, here. Who blew up the house? If the conspiracy knew about them, why didn't it stop their assault on Hajnal? The criminal underworld in Europe is in absolute chaos, so it doesn't look like they were decoyed, it looks like the really killed him.

In any case, by their calculations, that leaves only two known vampires - Ioan Koltay and Tesla himself. They have no idea where Tesla is, but they figure they can find Koltay easily enough. That's the next op.

Night's Black Agents: Plans and Near Misses

Saturday was Night's Black Agents. Here we go!

Last session was quite while ago, but was pretty important - they took out another of the vampires in the conspiracy.

This time, Firinci is in Berlin, doing his business stuff when he realizes he's being followed. The folks following him look white-nationalist-ish, so that's not great. He runs, leading them on a chase into the subway and back up, and sets off a door alarm to summon the police, and then runs to the Turkish embassy. He evades his pursuers, but contacts his friend Lazlo Berger (whose operation was exposed in Budapest) and the other agents - they've apparently been made.

Berger travels to Vienna and Hanover (in disguise) picks him up and transport him to a safe house. Firinci arrives shortly thereafter, and notes a car outside the townhouse that has evidence of someone on a stakeout (though the stakeout-er isn't there). He tells the others, and they bug out, falling back to a chalet in Innsbruck.

Parker is off in London (her player wasn't feeling well), so the four agents talk about their options. They've apparently been exposed, though to what degree they aren't sure. They know that Vilmos Hajnal, Nikita Utkin, and Ioan Koltay are their best remaining targets (well, Tesla, but they still aren't sure where to find him). They know that the IFEA is going to have a conference in a few months in Minsk, so they know where Koltay will be, and they could in theory infiltrate it. But that's a while, and they want to have something to do in the interim.

Firinci and Hanover start looking at finances, trying to track Hajnal's movements and come up with some kind of predictive model. They realize that it doesn't look like Hajnal is picking the movements, it looks like someone else is doing it for him. So is Hajnal just a puppet? Either way, taking him out would create a power vacuum and a real mess in the European underworld (but maybe that's good?).

Working the model a bit more, they figure that Prague or Bratislava might be the next city Hajnal goes to, and either of them are within an easy drive of where they are presently. They put out feelers to both cities and wait...

Night's Black Agents: One-Session Op

Yesterday was Night's Black Agents. Some very interesting developments. Read on for tentacly fun!

So! Recall that the agents were heading for Budapest to check out (and probably take out) Dr. Janos Sas, prison doc and vampire (as established here). They arrive in Budapest and find Sas' house - a very modern affair with a gate - and set up shop up the street. Firinci makes use of a contact he knows in Budapest, Lazlo Berger, and manages to get some folks on Berger's payroll into Sas' security rotation. Parker builds a new cover (really they all do), and rents a house in the area. That's more work than she was expecting - there are background checks and hoops to jump through, and she has to take it slow because she doesn't want to tip their hand. But eventually she gets moved in.

MacAteer builds a connected cover to an underboss in the area, and learns that Sas used to be a normal, corrupt-as-hell doctor (that's how he afforded that house!). But then a few years ago, he stopped being interested in money. Now, he offers favors and good reports if you agree to..."experiments" at the prison. It's kind of an underworld ghost story, but no one really knows the truth.

A couple of nights later, a guy with a flashlight comes over to peek in the windows (fortunately MacAteer, Firinci, and Hanover are offsite in a suite that Firinci has procured). Parker "surprises" him taking her trash out, and they have a halting conversation about him looking for a lost cat (he speaks only Hungarian, which Parker doesn't, but they manage to communicate a little). He's clearly lying, but he buys Parker as a legit resident rather than a spy, so that's the important thing.

Sas behaves like a lot of the other "cold" vampires they've seen - he's a creature of habit. He works long hours, rarely eats, and has minimal contact with others. They note that guards' habits, though, and realize that the guards work in four-hour shifts and change up their routines. That means if they go in, they'll have a maximum of just under four hours before more folks show up.

The agents hack into the house security and get control of the cameras, and note that there's a panic room. They can probably rig it so it doesn't open (it's got a biometric lock), and Firinci also wants to make sure the gate stays open so they can retreat if they need to.

Firinci works it so two guards in their pocket are on shift. They sneak onto the grounds and take out the third one, and then creep into the house. The two guards on shift stay out of the way (they need to have a plausible reason why they didn't interfere, after all), and the agents sneak upstairs to Sas' room.

MacAteer sneaks in and takes aim with the dart gun - the dart, recall, contains a new serum he devised to attack the alien DNA directly. He shoots Sas in the neck with it, and Sas immediately wakes up and starts screaming. He flops over and his tentacles emerge, but then split into a bunch of little tentacles. His eyes melt. His bones start to crack. He jumps forward onto MacAteer and tackles him, driving his tentacles into his chest.

MacAteer rips one tentacle out at the root, and Parker and Hanover shoot this monster with their darts. Now with a massive dose of the serum in its system, the changes get worse - Sas' rib cage splits and spreads, and his organs fall out onto MacAteer. But worse, MacAteer feels something getting injected into his chest from the tentacles. They push the creature off and Hanover shoots it in the base of the neck, severing the spine, while Parker gets to work treating MacAteer. Some of his wounds are bleeding freely...but some are oozing some blue stuff. She opens them and tries to get them clean as best she can, but who knows?

The agents search the place, grab his laptop, a bunch of files from his desk, and open the panic room. Nothing in there but weapons, food, and a phone. The fall back and burn the place (letting the guards go, obviously), and then go through the data.

The laptop holds patient reports - everything is above board. The files, though, are the real story, and show that Sas was working on a more efficient way to turn people into vampires. Nothing about Hajnal or Tesla, though, and the agents get the feeling that this is just the most recent set of notes. There's probably more at the prison, but the agents don't want to risk it. They bug out and head for Vienna, ending the op.

Firinci goes to Berlin to line up some work, but a few days in, he gets a call from Berger. Seems the guards who were on shift at Sas' place have vanished...and now Firinci feels like he's being followed.

Night's Black Agents: Another One Bites the Dust

(Now it's in your head.)

Saturday we played Night's Black Agents. Last time, you'll recall, the agents rescued Samir Firinci's bodyguard and assistant, from a tricky and vampire-laden situation. This time, they debrief him.

Back at Firinci's rented flat in a private hotel, Samir tells them that some men came into Mujic's house, and tore out the throats of his guards with their teeth. One of them tossed Samir against a wall and then seemingly forgot about him, and so he was able to send the text message and alert Firinci. Everything else, the agents (well, Carlsson and Firinci) had seen.

Samir goes to the bathroom to throw up, and the agents try to figure what to do. They talk to Parker and Hanover over coms to try and regroup...and then the coms go out. Firinci turns on a police scanner, and realizes that there is something going on outside the building. They look out and realize that the place is being evacuated and the cops are getting ready to go in. MacAteer, who speaks Serbian, listens to the exchange and applies Cop Talk, and realizes that the cops are planning to storm the flat and shoot them all. Probably they've been paid off. They need to go.

The four of them (MacAteer, Carlsson, Firinci, and Samir) head down the stairs...but then Firinci notices red dots on the walls and realizes they were blown. He tells Samir to put his hands up, figuring to buy their way out later...and the cops open fire.

Samir goes down with several bullets in his chest, and Carlsson takes a round to the shoulder, but Firinci manages to avoid harm entirely. They grab Samir's body and lug it through the building to the service elevator, which Firinci rewires to come to them, and they head down into a tunnel that leads across the street to an office building. Moving quickly, they avoid further police entanglement, get to a parking lot, and grab a car, which MacAteer deftly rams through a police roadblock.

Meanwhile, Parker and Hanover have figured out where they are and head over. Coms come back on, and Parker tells them to get three streets over and she'll collect them. They manage to lose the police tailing them (this is what MacAteer does, baby), switch into Parker's car, and head back to Konjic.

Firinci makes arrangements to take Samir to a mosque to have the appropriate burial rites performed, and finds his cell phone. That's how they got tracked. Hanover calls back to Parker and tells her the bank is blown, so they go to their backup safe house and arrange to get Klobucar the hell out of the country before this gets any worse. Once he's safely on a plane, they regroup and consider their options.

Firinci believes them now, and asks what he can do. The agents are back to their original issue - they can maybe make a poison or a serum, but they need more biological samples from a vampire. The only ones they know about and have a solid location on are Sas, Koltay, and Kornai. Firinci argues for getting hell out of Bosnia, but the others figure that Kornai is probably the safest bet - they have a way to bait him (Klobucar) that doesn't involve exposing the agents and doesn't compromise Firinci (who's not on the conspiracy's radar, necessarily). There's an amusing exchange where Firinci tries to mansplain this whole procedure and the risks of attachment to Parker, who's been on the run from these vampires for years and is a career spy, but at the end of the day, they decide that they'll bait Kornai to the bank and kill him.

They rig up an electric net to drop at the flip of a switch, hoping that strong current will at least slow down a vampire. MacAteer disguises himself as Klobucar and goes out for coffee, and it doesn't take long for some lowlife to spot him and report it. Two SUVs pull up, and Kornai, two brutes, and four dudes with guns get out.

A brute goes in and sniffs around, but Carlsson, MacAteer, and Firinci are hiding well. Kornai, a shooter, and the other brute go in...and Firinci drops the net.

Outside, Parker and Hanover gun down the three guards. Inside, MacAteer and Carlsson shoot at the brutes to weaken them, and the fourth guard runs, but Parker shoots him before he gets too far. They hack the brutes' heads off, take blood samples from Kornai, and then extract his tentacles before burning the whole damn place (electrical fire).

They head to a resort town in Croatia to regroup, and spend a couple of months recuperating (Carlsson, in particular, was injured, and some of the group need some time to heal mentally - lot of killing and death). Firinci makes arrangements to move his family if need be, and MacAteer eventually comes up with a serum that attacks the alien DNA directly...but of course they won't know for sure until they test it.

It's time, they decide, to go back to Budapest and take out Dr. Sas. That'll be the next op.

Night's Black Agents: Holy Shit! There Are Vampires!

I mean, we've known that for a while, but one of the characters just figured it out today. More or less.

So! Last time, the agents decided they'd extract Klobucar and then swing back and deal with Kornai. The four agents that are in the know (that is, Hanover, Parker, MacAteer, and Carlsson) decided to move without Firinci; he was new to the group and doesn't believe in vampires (and his player was late).

MacAteer and Carlsson went to Konjic and got a safe house together in an old, abandoned bank. Parker and Hanover, meanwhile, set up the meet with Mujic - Klobucar met them ("them" here meaning MacAteer and Carlsson) at the airport, and they swept him for bugs and then took him to the bank.

At this point, Parker revealed herself, but Hanover did not (he's committed to remaining dead). They interrogated Klobucar, and he revealed a few things of interest.

First, he'd run because the conspiracy had wanted to turn him, but he wasn't interested in becoming that kind of monster. They'd wanted Hanover, but since he was dead, they'd decided to "upgraded" Klobucar, and he'd dropped off the grid.

Klobucar knew that Hajnal's organization had been part of the conspiracy at least since the fall of the Berlin Wall, but he wasn't sure when exactly Hajnal had been turned. He knew that Hajnal, Tesla, Sas, and Koltay were all vampires, and he knew that converting someone into a vampire was an operation that took a dedicated space and some time. He told them that there was a new process for converting someone that left more of their personality and memory intact, that Thibault, Kingsilver, and "the American" (Jones) had been subjected to. The conspiracy had stopped using that, though, since the agents had used serum to make them explode, and the conspiracy seemed to feel that human emotion and experience was a weakness.

Parker asked if there were other weaknesses, but Klobucar wasn't sure - he knew they burned just fine, and that they didn't like heat, but it didn't melt them or anything. He did mention that vampires weren't great at lateral thinking, and they didn't always guess well what other people knew.

They ran down a list of people that they'd worked with and asked if they were turned or watched, but Klobucar couldn't tell them anything they didn't already know. They asked where he wanted to go, and he said Canada, so Hanover got to work on his documents.

Meanwhile, though, Firinci, back in Sarajevo, got a text message from Samir - "help." He immediately contacted the agents and asked for help, and zeroed in on Samir's location from his last text. The location was a big house with a fence around it. Firinci got there just as MacAteer and Carlsson did (Parker and Hanover stayed at the bank to keep cover intact and keep an eye on Klobucar).

The door to the house had been smashed in. The agents crept up to the door and saw two SUVs outside; MacAteer recognized them as the ones outside Kornai's apartments. As they looked around, they heard a gunshot, and that spurred them into action. They moved around the side of the house, picked the lock on the patio door, and went in (MacAteer hotwired one of the SUVs and disabled the other, and stayed out to act as getaway).

Firinci peeked into the living room, and saw Samir on the ground, bleeding, but alive. Two other guards were dead, four men with guns covered the room, and Mujic was flanked by two men with blanked expressions and blood on their faces. They were speaking in Hungarian, which Firinci doesn't speak, but it was obviously not a good situation. Firinci reported the numbers to Carlsson, but didn't mention the blank expressions or the blood, which turned out to be important.

They moved through the house to the other entrance to that room, grabbed some liquor bottles on the way to make Molotovs. They got to the door, and Firinci threw a Molotov into the center of the room. Carlsson, seeing the brutes, hurled one toward them, but the brute dodged, moving entirely too fast. Firinci grabbed Samir, and Kornai yelled "shoot them!"

Carlsson shot him right in the head, and they ran. They managed to get to the window by the cars and Carlsson (on coms) yelled to MacAteer to shoot it, and they jumped out. The brutes were on their heels, still moving too fast to be real. They got in the car and MacAteer floored it, but the brutes were chasing...and keeping pace. And then Firinci noticed Kornai running across the lawn. That would be the guy that Carlsson had just shot in the forehead.

They started heading back to Sarajevo. Next time we get to see what Samir saw, and how Firinci is going to deal with this.

Night's Black Agents: Slouching Towards Konjic

Well, I should be running Alas for the Awful Sea today, but Michelle was feeling sick, so we postponed, and so instead I shall listen to Chopin and do the write-up for the Night's Black game in between World Cup matches.

(My life is somewhat strange.)

Last time, the agents headed to Sarajevo to see if they could find out what had become of Davor Klobucar, the paymaster who'd set up this job to the begin with.

The agents arrive in Sarajevo and do a little digging through the criminal underworld (though not as much as they could, as Hanover is reluctant to hack computer systems as this always seems to get them caught). They learn that there's a Hungarian gangster named Attila Kornai in town, and that Kornai works for Hajnal's organization (though there are a lot of layers between the two). He's rolling deep, he's here for a specific reason, and local color has been advised to stay out of his way.

Firinci, who's basically in the same line of work as Klobucar, takes a meeting with one Ibro Mujic, an arms dealer who's a longtime friend and cohort of Klobucar. He takes Carlsson along in cover as a German underworld-type figure to act as a buyer; Carlsson gives Mujic the list of stuff he wants and then they all have dinner like civilized people. Mujic chats with them, and asks if the folks they're representing are the Hungarians in town. Leaping on this opportunity, they don't confirm that suspicion, but play along, and Mujic asks if there's anything he can do to bring their business to a close quickly "before more violence happens." They arrange to meet tomorrow to buy the gear, and the agents meet back up to do more digging.

Looking into local events, the agents learn that a couple of people have turned up dead in dumpsters, and that is a turn of events they've seen before - it means there are probably vampires in town. MacAteer and Hanover, in disguise with forged papers, go to the morgue and examine the bodies, and indeed, there are big throat wounds and extensive blood loss. This smacks of "brutes" feeding. They locate the burned-out tenement where Kornai and company are staying, and MacAteer goes in disguise to surveil a little. He makes Kornai and four other toughs, but none of them are brutes (Kornai, however, is cold and barely speaks, which leads the agents to believe that he's a "cold" master, to use the late Dr. Sedillo's terminology).

This is exciting for the agents - vampires in the city means, potentially, tissue samples that they can use to synthesize more toxins. The problem is that they need to be very careful about tipping their hand, and of course Firinci doesn't believe that these "vampires" are actually a thing at all. The agents decide to hit the tenement the next day, maybe set up some traps or case the place. They wait until Kornai leaves, and lo and behold, he leaves with the four guys and two more guys that MacAteer didn't see - brutes.

They wait a bit, and then roll up but discover that there are three more guys in the room (taking the total to six human gangsters, two brutes, and a master). Carlsson sneaks in (his MOS is Infiltration) and notes that there's a room with a couple of window air units - that's where they must be keeping the brutes. The agents decide that jumping these guys wouldn't help them, so they back off and reconsider.

The next day, Firinci and Carlsson make the buy, so now they're supplied, at least. Firinci sends his associate Samir to work for Mujic a bit, and a bit later Samir calls with a report that he heard Mujic mention Klobcuar on the phone (but didn't understand the rest of the conversation). Firinci reaches out to Mujic again, turning the conversation to Klobucar, and saying that Carlsson (rather, Carlsson's alias) had worked with Klobucar before. Hanover whips up a forged document to send along to support this, and lo and behold, Hanover gets a note in a long-disused dead drop email from his old buddy Janos Kurchef, saying that Klobucar reached out to him looking for help. Janos says in the note that he isn't sure if Hanover is really dead, but will give it 8 hours before responds, just in case.

Hanover, for his part, isn't willing to compromise his "I'm dead" advantage, but it's good to know that Klobucar is reaching out. The agents arrange with Mujic to meet with Klobucar, who requests an extraction strategy be in place. The agents decide that they'll meet and then drop back to the nearby city of Konjic with him, hopefully able to interrogate him and get back to Sarajevo before Kornai and company leave.

All in all, caution seems to be suiting them.

Game Prep: Staggering Through Summer

Always surprises me how much my work day wipes me out. Like, I know I can't complain (my job is actually pretty cushy, all things considered), but home at the end of the day and I can't focus, which makes writing and gamestuff hard.

Anyway, with that in mind, I'm running Night's Black Agents and Alas for the Awful Sea this weekend, neither of which I have prepared for, so I figure I better do that.

Night's Black Agents: New Op, New Agents

Saturday we played Night's Black Agents. Two days later the footage was found.

Last time, of course, we lost two agents and the survivors holed up in Sweden with a conspiracy theorist/ex analyst for Swedish intelligence. This time, the agents call in Firinci, asset handler and fixer, to try and help them out. They immediately run up against a kind of hitch: they're being pursued by a conspiracy spanning multiple countries and involving vampires, and Firinci doesn't have any reason to believe any of that.

What he does believe, however, is that these yo-yos will pay him, so he meets with them to discuss their needs. The agents need lab space and privacy, and (thanks to a Preparedness roll) they need a hard drive stored in Florence to be recovered and shipped to them. Said drive has their data up until they went to Belgrade the second time, and it wasn't accessible by Sedillo or Koltay, so it should be undisturbed.

Firinci makes some arrangements with a friend of his and gets some space at Stockholm University for the agents to use, and gets someone to ship the drive. He turns it over and the package also contains a thumb drive, which makes the agents understandably nervous. They check it out under controlled conditions (to make sure it's not gonna summon vampires), but it's a video recording from Gambone. He tells them that also included here are account numbers for offshore accounts, and he wants half the money to go to a girl named Maria Romencio, and half to be used to bring these fuckers down.

("They know her name," Ava said back in London.)

The agents get to work. MacAteer starts trying to synthesize the anti-vampire poison, but he can't actually do it without a sample from a "master" - the data he's working with is incomplete, and Sedillo isn't around anymore to help. The other agents start looking through media reports, and learn that Sedillo was found dead in London shortly before they were captured - self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Parker wonders if it was "suicide," but then realizes that Sedillo would have shot herself rather than being taken by the conspiracy. Koltay, it seems, either lacked that courage or didn't get the chance, since he's now a "cold" vampire.

They start looking for conspiracy-related stuff, and boy, they find it. Human and drug traffic out of Budapest has picked up, and it looks like Hajnal's organization is trying to restart the operations that the agents (well, Hanover and the original team) closed down in Paris. The IFEA is back in business and planning a big conference in Minsk in six months, and the head of the IFEA is now...Ioan Koltay, living in Budapest. Janos Sas, the head doctor at Budapest prison, was off the grid for a while but he's back now. And Davor Klobucar, the paymaster who started this whole damn thing, has disappeared.

The agents have Firinci look into that last one a bit (he's basically in the same business and he can look into it without as much risk). Firinci realizes that Klobucar "disappeared" like someone going dark, not "disappeared" like "shot and left in the river". He also learns that Hajnal's organization was looking for a money launderer, and that's something Klobucar could do - but that would be a promotion, so why would Klobucar run? The agents can't learn anything else from Sweden, so they decide to head to Sarajevo to look into where Klobucar might have gone. Firinci and Carlsson are taking point once there, because the conspiracy doesn't know them (and the conspiracy thinks the others are dead and that's an advantage they're not willing to squander).

So now we know the next op: Find Klobucar and see why he's running.

Game Prep: Promethean, Blades, maybe NBA?

I am now done with school for the year and I can focus on what's really important: To wit, gaming.

As always, players stay out, all others pay cash, or something.

Night's Black Agents: End of an Op (among other things)

Yesterday we ended an op in Night's Black Agents, but you know that because you read the title of this post and you're a smart person who can...know things.

(I'm tired and my ankle hurts and I'm running Chill in a few hours bear with me.)

Anyway! Last time the agents had taken over the prison transport plane that they were on. Now they're headed over the Faroe Islands, and they realize that they have just enough fuel to get to the mainland, but the pilots dumped a bunch before the agents breached the cockpit. And, of course, they're being tracked.

Gambone disables the transponder with Parker's help, and the agents talk about their options. They could do a water landing, but that leaves several hostages and of course the emergency rafts don't have oars and do have trackers. They could try and fly somewhere else and land on a highway or an open field, but the second they enter a country's airspace they're going to get noticed and probably followed.

Parker digs up their personal effects so that everything has their Symbol back (Stability was gettin' kinda low, there), and then wonders if the agents' stuff has been tagged or bugged - it's happened before. She and Hanover rig up a sweeper and check the stuff, and find that it's not bugged...but the transponder is still sending a signal. She checks the box and finds that the wires have been jiggered with, but it's still transmitting. She calls Gambone out, who protests that he just made a mistake, but she uses Bullshit Detector and, well, smells bullshit. She also remembers him tackling Hanover at the docks before they all got captured, and then figures it - he's sold them out.

Ess draws down on Gambone and they lock him into a seat. They question him a bit and he reveals that the conspiracy made him a deal - they just want Hanover and they'll let the rest of the group walk. Ess smacks him on the head, but the exertion opens his wounds and Ess passes out. This leaves MacAteer (flying the plane), Parker, and Hanover to discuss their options. They decide that Gambone is too much of a liability to leave alive - if they do, the conspiracy will turn him. Gambone opines that Hanover might be able to shoot him, but it would be too much for Parker's "British sensibilities."

Parker laughs. She used to do wetwork for MI5.

They decide, though, that Hanover is going to shoot him, but Gambone gets the drop on him (opening his bonds and snitching Ess' gun) and shoots Hanover's gun out of his hand, and then tackling him. Hanover grabs for his piece (if Hanover can get a gun, this is over because Shooting is his MOS), but then Parker comes up behind him and shoots him. Gambone is dead. Parker loses a great deal of Stability for killing a teammate; flying the plane is now pretty much up to MacAteer and Hanover, and they have about 3 points in Pilot left between them.

The group decides to cross into Sweden and find a nice farm to land on, but the second they cross into Norwegian airspace they get a jet behind them. MacAteer, fortunately, speaks Norwegian and tells the pilot that due to a mechanical error they've lost fuel pressure and need to land. The Norwegians obligingly direct them to a nearby airport and agree to help talk them down. That's no good; the second they land, they're back in custody.

They decide to do something risky - crash-land into the ocean. MacAteer puts the plane down in the surf. The pilot and co-pilot survive, as does one of the conspiracy guards, Parker, Hanover, and MacAteer. The other "clean" guard, one of the conspiracy guards, and Ess...do not. (Ess is already wounded, and the crash does just enough damage to kill him.)

They inflate the raft and grab Ess' body, and give the other raft to the pilots, but let the conspiracy guard sink. They quickly pull off the tracker and throw it into the surf, and then cover the raft with fire blankets to mask the color. They rig together oars and start paddling like crazy for Norway.

They hit the fjords a few hours later, blend into the countryside (they have their clothes, fortunately, so they don't have to wander around in prison garb), steal a car, and head for Sweden. They find a little tiny town and Parker contacts Sigge Carlsson, a friend of hers formerly of Swedish intelligence who's now a bit of conspiracy theorist and who can hook them up with a place to stay. She also puts in a call to a fixer and asset handler from Turkey name Polat Firinci - the agents are going to need help and the three survivors have tapped their assets pretty thoroughly.

The conspiracy thinks they're dead (their Hot Lead hit 10 when they crossed into Sweden), but they've lost two members, their science backup, all of their gear, and most of their intel. They need a plan...but that's next op.

Game Prep A-Go-Go

This is my last day of spring break. I had wanted to do a character a day, but then I got hit with some really shitty news on Tuesday and lost basically all of Tuesday and most of Wednesday to depression and suicidal ideation (hey, you read my blog, you take your chances). I'm much better now (I mean, I'm still depressed, I basically have been nonstop since fall), but that doesn't change the fact that I planned on making like seven characters this week and I'm gonna wind up doing four if I do one today.

But, on the other hand, I really wanted to get caught up so I could continue doing one a week all year, and as of right now I am (13 weeks into 2018, 13 characters done). So that's nice.

Anyway, today I'm doing game prep. I'm finding it's useful to do a game prep post once a month-ish. Since most of the games I run are monthly, that works out nicely (the ones that aren't are bi-weekly, which might require an additional Blades in the Dark or Promethean post on occasion, but I don't suppose that's a problem).

Right, so, the point is, if you're one of my players, maybe don't click the thing here.

Night's Black Agents: Agents on a Plane

Last time was a long time ago.

So! The agents pull into Reykjavik, dock their boat, and disembark...and immediately get lights in their faces and loud admonitions to drop their bags and put their hands up. They do, and the police approach to cuff them, and they decide they can get back on the boat and book it. Ess shoves a cop and runs, Parker and MacAteer get onto the deck, but Gambone trips and tackles Hanover and the two of them can't quite make it to the boat. Ess runs for it and gets shot, but still manages to make it to the boat. MacAteer pulls away from the dock (leaving Hanover and Gambone behind, but he doesn't know that; too many lights in his eyes), but police boats are already closing in. The agents have been captured.

They're in jail in Iceland for a little while, and then (once Ess has healed up enough to travel), they're put on a plane to be extradited to Budapest. They're marched onto a prison plane, shackled, and Parker notes that two of the guards are INTERPOL, but two of them aren't - probably conspiracy. She snags a key from one of the guards (Filch is her MOS), and the five of them are put into the plane.

She waits until they're out over the ocean to unlock herself; meanwhile, Hanover chats up the two INTERPOL folks (he speaks Hungarian). He learns, through judicious use of Cop Talk, that the two other guards were shuffled into the rotation last-minute, and that the guards are all carrying live ammunition - usually against protocol. The agents start to figure that they're all screwed if they make it to Hungary.

Ess twists himself and pops his stitches, and starts to bleed, luring the two conspiracy guards over to him, and he takes the opportunity to steal a key. Parker sneaks out of her seat and unlocks Gambone, and then rushes one of the INTERPOL guards, disarming him. The other guard hits the alarm. Gambone grabs the first guy's gun and points it at Hanover, telling the other guards (the conspiracy ones) that if they don't comply, he'll blow Hanover's head off.

The guard responds by shooting the other INTERPOL guard. Ess unlocks himself and grabs one of the conspiracy guards, but he shakes Ess loose and shoots at Gambone (missing). Parker and Gambone subdue the other conspiracy guard, and then draw down on the last guy, who surrenders. They chain up the guards and talk to the surviving INTERPOL guy, who's obviously a bit freaked out. He doesn't know anything of substance, though - the guards aren't told the code to get into the cockpit, for exactly this reason.

The agents, however, aren't unprepared for this. They pop the panel off the lock and do electronics to the wires (see how much I know about this shit), and take control of the plane. They shackle the pilot and co-pilot up with the other guards, and then consider their predicament.

They're over the ocean between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The pilots have undoubtedly already radioed in, so the plane is being tracked and wherever they land, there will be a heavy police or military presence waiting for them, at best. At worst, well, it's not impossible that someone with Hajnal's resources could find a way to blow them out of the sky. They could do a water landing, but that would put them on a raft in the middle of the damn ocean (and obviously every emergency bit of gear on this plane is tagged and tracked), not to mention that they have five prisoners, at least three of whom are just doing their jobs. And, they only have two members who can fly the plane at all, and neither of them have a lot of points in Pilot left to spend.

All in all, it's not a pretty picture.

Happy President's Day! Game Prep!

Those things are unrelated, except inasmuch as I'm off work today due to the holiday so I have time to do game prep. I'm gonna let Blades go, though, as I don't have spoons to finish.

You know the drill, if you're a player, don't read. I don't actually think any of my players read my blog except maybe Michelle, anyway, so.

Night's Black Agents: Narrow Escapes

Thanks to Finding Nemo, I will never again read the word "escape" any other way than "ess-ka-pay".

Anyway! Last time the agents learned that the vampire-in-charge, the first vampire, was Nikola Tesla. Then they got the hell out of Belgrade. This session, we start off with them disembarking their cruise into Marseille, and deciding what to do next.

After some debate, they figured they'd go to England and make contact with Sedillo and Koltay. They traveled via train through Spain to Gibraltar, and then took a flight to Manchester, and then made contact. Koltay answered and they arranged a meet. The agents figured they'd meet him someplace public, just to be on the safe side. They chose the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Parker made contact with Koltay - he was sitting at the cafe alone. He said that Sedillo had disappeared, just left one night and not come back. This set Parker's mental alarms off immediately, and Ess used a filter on his camera to check whether Koltay had a normal body temp.

He didn't - he was dead. The agents scattered. MacAteer slipped into the bathroom and disguised himself (Disguise is his MOS). Parker stole a staff member's pass and took Gambone through a staff exit. Ess and Hanover left through the front and the backer, respectively, but were both made.

Hanover found himself confronted by tough-looking individuals, and he ran. Through a series of really impressive Athletics rolls, he escaped. Ess wasn't quite so lucky.

He found himself, across the street, confronted by a woman drawing a gun (Sense Trouble is his MOS, and a good thing, too!). He ran, but took a bullet in the shoulder for his trouble. The woman pursued him, much faster than he could run, but they crossed in front of the Nando's where Parker and Gambone were biding time. Gambone recognized the woman - Kingsilver.

He left the restaurant and shot her with a dart, but she just turned and confronted him. "They just want Hanover," she said. "You give us him, and you can walk away." She leaned in closer. "They know her name, Mike."

"Give me some time," said Gambone, perhaps to stall. "I can't just-"

But he didn't need to finish, because Ess doubled back and shot her in the neck with a "hot" dart. She swell and burst, and the agents lit out.

They met back up and got the hell out of London, heading up into Edinburgh and then to the coast. Ess was wounded, everyone was stressed (and losing Stability), and then decided to get the hell out of the UK, keep moving, and try to lose their pursuers. Through Hanover's contacts, they arranged to get a boat, and head across the sea to Iceland...where an unpleasant surprise is waiting for them.

Game Prep: All The Things

I have a little time, so I'm gonna try and take some notes for the games I'm running. You've been warned, people.

Night's Black Agents: The Truth

Last night, Night's Black Agents ended an op (but by no means the game as a whole). Let's watch.

Last session, the characters broke into the Tesla Museum in Belgrade, cracked the secret vault, and stole a bunch of shit. This session, having retreated to their safe house, they watch the news and learn that the museum's first floor was heavily damaged using explosives (which was much more damage than they did). The conspiracy, it seems, is quite will to blow up the place and kill some of the security in order to increase the heat on the agents. The government is involved now, as well as Hajnal's people. They're going to have a problem getting the hell out of Belgrade.

They decide to give it a few days and look over their data. The notebooks are written in a combination of Russian, Serbian, and English (all of which Hanover reads) and a made-up code language. He and Parker get to work cracking it, and meanwhile, the agents watch some of the videos.

The notes in the notebooks appear to be experiment records corresponding to the videos, which is handy because there's no sound. In the first one, a man in a mask brings a dead body into the lab, puts it on the table, pumps some blood out with a machine that resembles a dialysis machine, and then pumps some blood back in. The body twitches and spits up a lot of blood, but then ceases to move. The notes record this as a failure.

The next few entries and videos are more of the same - failures and differing dosages and methods - but then the masked man gets it right. He moves his mask (facing away from the camera) and tentacles snap out and strike a living body, kill it, and then the blood infusion. This, based on the notes, creates what the agents have been calling a "brute." Success.

These experiments continue for a while, and then the video that really brings it home: Vilmos Hajnal enters the shot, following by the masked man...but without the mask. The man grabs Hajnal from behind and chokes him out, and then straps him to the table and sets up the machine. The machine gives Hajnal an infusion from a bottle, clearly biological but not blood. When it's done, the man unstraps Hajnal and inspects his mouth, helping him unfurl his tentacles.

The man is unquestionably Nikola Tesla. The agents have found the first vampire.

They all make some Stability rolls, and Hanover and MacAteer lose the most. The agents decide to back off a little and try and get out of town. They've digitized all of the notebooks and sent the data to Sedillo, but digitizing the VHS tapes has to happen in real time. They figure that maybe that oughta happen in not-Belgrade.

They do some checking around and find a trucking depot. They figure they'll steal a truck, pack the people into the back of it, drive to Montenegro and catch a cruise liner out of Kotor. Traveling as tourists might keep them under the radar. They leave the house severally - MacAteer first, in disguise, carrying the videotapes (Disguise is his MOS, so he's safe). Then Gambone and Ess, and finally Hanover and Parker.

MacAteer enters the depot, disguised, and makes a Bureaucracy spend to get a truck without hassle. The others meet him at a truck stop and start unloading enough cargo to get into the back.

And then another truck pulls by them, turns and blocks the exit ramp. Two guys get out, holding assault rifles. Two SUVs pull into the stop. The agents are made.

They pile into the truck - Parker, Gambone, and Ess in the back, MacAteer driving, Hanover riding shotgun. MacAteer, eschewing subtlety for survival, guns it and smashes into the back end of the truck blocking them. He knocks it out of the way and keeps going, but hears metal grinding metal - this truck isn't long for the world. The SUVs are in pursuit, of course.

Hanover leans out the window and shoots the driver of one SUV, sending it off the road. MacAteer leans out the window on the other side and shoots at the other, dropping it back behind them. The agents in the back, banged up from getting jostled when the truck collided with the other truck, open the back. Parker dumps debris, forcing the SUV to swerve, and Ess shoots the driver, crashing the car. The agents are away...for now.

They pull off the highway, ditch the truck, and steal a lorry. They head for Montenegro, keeping off the main roads. It takes a while, and the stress takes a toll on their Stability, but they eventually make it to the border. Parker, using a cover, rents a car so they don't try and cross the border in a stolen vehicle, and they book passage (using their covers) on a cruise liner bound for Marseille. They leave Kotor apparently ahead of the conspiracy, but still being pursued both by Interpol and Hajnal's people. (We're also now using the extended chase mechanic, which is much less forgiving, but I think it's a good point in the game to make use of it.)

Next time, they'll watch the rest of the tapes and learn of their most recent setback. It's kind of a doozy.

Night's Black Agents: Without a Hitch

So, when running games that hinge on planning and execution (which is any game that focus on spying, heists, capers, but really a lot of RPGs wind up requiring players to make and execute a plan), there's a temptation as the GM to throw a wrench into the works during the execution stage. Blades in the Dark actually takes this out of the GM's hands, more or less, by gliding right over planning and having the score start in medias res, with the trouble taken as read when things get going.

I'm of two minds. I like Blades because that kind of conflict is baked into the system, but what about more traditional set-ups where the players make and execute the plan? If the plan is solid, if it's not missing some key information that would make it untenable, shouldn't it work, all else equal? Particularly in games like Night's Black Agents where competence is assumed?

For my part, as a player, I don't mind when something goes pear-shaped because someone blew a roll (particularly if it's really a gamble, rather than something my character should really be good at), and I don't mind if things go sideways because there was information that we didn't have and missed. But I don't like it when GMs make things hard just to avoid them being easy, especially if the characters have used time and resources planning things out.

So in Night's Black Agents, my players do tend to plan things out, but they burn a lot of General Abilities and Investigative spends setting themselves up, and it seems wrong to alter things without giving them a clue or a roll or something.

All of this to say: Yesterday's game went pretty well for the players. Check it out.

The agents are in Belgrade again (last session is here). They're lying low, but they want to investigate the Tesla Museum again. They split up and hit the municipal records and the libraries (all except Ess, who goes around planting cameras to get street views of those buildings and the museum). The agents learn a few things.

First, they learn that security in all of these places has been increased, and the security folks are rough-looking individuals - not military, more like gangs. The tattoos on their hands and arms mark them as Hungarian mob...probably working for Vilmos Hajnal. The agents make liberal use of Disguise and manage to avoid their notice, and in the process, learn that there's a vault in the museum that was added in the 60s. Gambone figures he can crack it, given time, but he also doesn't know if it's been upgraded since (that's a long time, after all).

MacAteer puts on a disguise (his MOS) and scouts the museum. He sees that there's a central office that houses a staircase leading to the vault door, but it's right in the middle of the museum and requires a key-card (easy enough to spoof or steal). He also notes a new acting museum director - Mina Subotic. A quick photo with a thermal filter indicates she's not a vampire, but she's armed and capable, which makes them nervous.

Gambone contacts an old friend of his named Jonathan Waverly, a spy from MI6 back in the Cold War days, and asks about the vault. Waverly gets back to him the next day and says that based on his information, yes, the vault has indeed been updated every few years, and probably has a digital lock as well as the rather formidable mechanical security, and it's rigged with a chemical bomb to incinerate anything in it if tampered with. Gambone thanks him, and wonders if he's just gotten this guy killed.

Ess goes back to the museum (also in disguise) and finds the server room on the second floor, but has no Digital Intrusion so can't hack in. All he can do is get some data. From that, the agents learn that if the computer security is compromised, if a lock is forced, or if a key-card is spoofed, the place goes into lockdown.

The agents watch the museum for a few days, and note that none of the new security are vampires or brutes. They also note that, at night, only a half-dozen are on duty at any given time. That gives them a window. Parker goes to a diner where the men eat lunch and lifts a key-card, substituting it for a dummy (figuring it's better that one guy has a card that just doesn't work than trying to spoof or clone one). That night, after the day shifts leaves, they go in.

They enter through the employee entrance, MacAteer dressed in a uniform to give them an advance scout (the disguise won't hold up under scrutiny but it'll buy them a few seconds). They find four of the guards in the center room playing poker, but aren't sure where the last two are. They spread out around the room, hiding in the shadows, then rush the guys and hit them with tasers. They bind and gag them and stick them in the employee break room, and then find the last guy upstairs patrolling and take him out as well.

One guy left; the agents figure he's downstairs by the vault door. They open the door and immediately hear him say something in Serbian - a code phrase. Hanover, who speaks Serbian, responds correctly (it's a proverb; this is what Languages spends are for!), and they talk they guy into coming up to join the game...then zap him and bind him with the others.

And then down to the vault. Parker finds an access port for the computer lock, and Hanover hacks through it. Gambone gets to work (he's saved all of his Infiltration for this) and gets through. Inside the vault, the agents find a dusty old medical table, a combination TV/VCR, some video tapes, and some notebooks. They pack all of it up and get the hell out. Gambone leaves behind a timed charged; it'll set off the fire-chemicals in the room, but give them time to get clear.

They head back to the safe house...and next time, we'll find out what the stole, and what the response is going to be.

NBA Notes: New Op, Old Locale

Running Night's Black Agents later, and it's been a while both since I've run a game generally and since I've run this particular game. As such, probably it's a good idea if I take some notes. If you're a player (and let's face it, that's a pretty remote possibility) don't read further. If you're not, feel free to take this glimpse into my mind as I plan a game session (or, like, click the "gming" tag and take hundreds of such glimpses; I make these posts a lot).