Scene Planning: Restaurant Ghoul Ambush

Planning for my Dresden Files GURPS game continues. Since I know that Jack’s “Enemy of the Week” popped and I’ve decided that this will be a hit on him by a Ghoul, I figured I better figure more out on that.

Setting: Outside Johnnie’s Charcoal Broiler.

Characters: 

• Jack, of course.
• 1 Ghoul Scout (Monster Hunters) with the Operative Lens.
  • ST 17; DX 17; IQ 11; HT 15.
    Damage 1d+2/3d-1; BL 58 lbs.; HP 26; Will 11; Per 13; FP 15.
    Basic Speed 9.5; Basic Move 9; Dodge 13. DR: 16/5*
    5’11”, 190 lbs.
    Advantages/Disadvantages: Acute Taste and Smell 5; Appearance (Monstrous, when Elastic Skin is off); Claws (Sharp); Combat Reflexes; Damage Resistance 4 (vs Piercing); Elastic Skin; Luck; Night Vision 5; Resistant to Disease/Poison (+8); Silence 2; Teeth (Sharp)
    Skills: Area Knowledge (City)-11; Brawling-18; Camouflage-15; Climbing-20; Disguise (Human)-15; Fast-Draw (Pistol)-18; Guns (Pistol, SMG)-18; Jumping-18; Shadowing-14; Stealth-22; Tracking-13; Wrestling-17
    Equipment: Assault Vest (DR 12/5*); H&K MP5A3 (sk: 18, 3d-1 pi); H&K USP (sk: 18, 2d+2 pi+)

Sequence:

• Jack’s character has a Quirk that he likes this particular restaurant, so it stands to reason (to me, anyway) that he’s going to visit it fairly frequently (ala me and “Slim Chickens”.) Therefore, the hitter will have identified this as a likely spot to strike and will do so.
• This particular location is actually rather close to a spot where homeless panhandle for change, so clearly the Hunter is going to initially pose as such a person.
• Since Jack has Danger Sense, GM rolls against his PER (12 – man, he really needs to improve that!). I rolled an 8, so he gets enough of a warning to act. I’ll probably use the ghoul’s Bad Smell as the alert and then Jack realizes the ‘homeless guy’ is drawing a SMG on him!
• Something else occurs to me: about a quarter of the time I pass by this particular Johnnies, there’s a cop car either there or two restaurants away from it at the Rib Crib, so I’m going to have Jack make a “Universe Reaction Roll” to determine whether there is back-up available. I’m thinking a Good reaction (13 to 15) means a cop is at Rib Crib and will respond to shots fired (so 45 seconds to more than a minute), a Very Good Reaction (16 to 18) means the cop was also at Johnnies, and an Excellent reaction (19 or better) means the cop was not only a Johnnies but is leaving alongside Jack. A Poor reaction or worse likely puts civilians in harm’s way.
• The Hunter will initially engage in Short Range (6 to 20 yards, -3) at RoF 13 (+3) with his MP5. With his skill of 18, this means that unless Jack goes for full cover, he might get tagged a couple of times. If nothing else, there’s going to be a lot of glass shattering.
  • Should Jack make it to cover, the low penetrating power of the MP5 round isn’t going to do much of anything to the cars. Presuming a sedan, we’re looking at DR 5 straight away which immediately drops average damage down to 3. Apply the Injury Tolerance (Unliving) and this drops down to a single HP of damage applied to the car’s total HP of 46. That’s going to take a lot of rounds to get through…
  • If Jack makes it into his car, though, the shooter intentionally shift fire to the tires (-4) to first disable it, because the MP5 rounds will never do enough damage to threaten Occupant Damage. Even if I do max damage (3d-1 pi is 17), the final result is only 4 and the rules call for “five full points of penetrating damage.”
• The Hunter only has an IQ 11, but that’s above average so he will know to bug out should it look like this isn’t going his way and with a Move of 9, he can seriously book it. I know the area well enough to make something up for how he manages to make good his escape … so he can show back up to plague Jack again!
• If captured, well … good luck in interrogating the creature that only speaks Ancient Sumerian! Fricking Nevernever inhabitants…

What I’m unclear on is how to get across to the player that this is due to him digging into things he shouldn’t be. The smart thing is probably to have him be here to meet a potential contact and that contact be the ghoul’s first target. Yeah. That works nicely…especially since it ensures that Jack won’t get shot in the head and die straight away. Which would be bad.