With the way the previous session ended, I’ve got the team split up into three groups scattered across Port Said, Egypt. They are:
- Adam Vega (ASIS Wheelman) in a car outside a storefront that the guy he was Shadowing has entered. He can hear sirens on rapid approach.
- Naritpal Mahoney (MI5 CBRNE) in one of the soccer stadiums, having used Lip Reading (by default, even!) to eavesdrop on the POI the team is here to recon and a guy that joined him. Armed guys in suits (Egyptian NSA operatives) have broken cover and are converging on the two.
- Ilan Baum (Mossad Assassin (sniper)) and Raymond Hurt (US Delta Force) are in the POI’s hotel, having just broken into his room and bugged it.
As I stated in my previous post, I missed a golden opportunity to have more Egyptian NSA operatives showing up in the hotel, so I’m going to likely start with that. Baum & Hurt are at the elevator and it opens, revealing cops (Egyptian National Police) and NSA operatives … including the guy that Hurt choked out earlier! At the moment, Baum is wearing nothing but a towel & carrying a bucket of ice, while Hurt is dressed normally; the LEOs push by the PCs brusquely, although the Choked Out guy will do a double-take at Hurt (who has, I’m presuming, changed his appearance somewhat.) This guy will lag behind the others and keep looking at Hurt as he’s trying to determine if this is actually the guy who attacked him & killed his partner. I’m not intending on there being an action scene here, but the PCs may (again) surprise me by attacking instead of retreating into the elevator.
With Vega, he will see the local police arrive and flood into the storefront … which promptly EXPLODES! Yeah. The guy he was Shadowing made him (I rolled really, really good on that contest). Said POI – who we’ve classified as C/S: BRAGI – will have ducked out of the storefront via a side entrance after making a quick change (his Disguise-14 is pretty good) and makes good his escape. Vega could theoretically identify him again in which case he could shadow him again. If that’s the case, we have another Shadowing contest – this is definitely a contest because BRAGI knows that Vega was following him; since he’s on foot, BRAGI will use his Stealth-11 … which is terrible, so he’s likely going to have to find an alternate means of shaking pursuit; conveniently, Port Said has a lot of mosques, so ducking into one of them and pretending to be one of the faithful followed by a suspicious Westerner is a perfect out. If he thinks he’s shaken Vega but hasn’t, he’s going to proceed toward the same stadium that Mahoney is at.
Speaking of Mahoney, unless he intervenes somehow, he’s mostly going to be a bystander as the guys talking to the POI – C/S: BALDR – sees the approaching NSA operatives & overreacts. He pulls a mini-Uzi from a bag, sprays at the NSA guys and bolts … which naturally causes chaos. The route he takes is past from Mahoney, I think, so the PC could theoretically involve himself in some way (like tripping him or something.) If the PC doesn’t involve himself, BALDR will manage to escape, having dropped a smoke grenade to further the confusion. Meanwhile, the POI – C/S: HEIMDALL – will not resist and allow the NSA operatives to take him into custody; if followed, PC may see HEIMDALL put into the back of a non-police car that has the Russian colonel the PCs photographed in Syria (calling him C/S: TYR.) Presuming BALDR escapes, he will be picked up by BRAGI in a different car, who drives to the same hotel that Vega stole his car from.
In the wake of the three big events that have happened within a day – one NSA agent killed, another choked out; shoot-out at the Al Masry Club Stadium with multiple casualties; a bombing that claimed even more lives – Port Said will be locked down for some time. Military forces flood into the city and are stationed at all of the access roads leaving in & out of the city. The Egyptian Coast Guard tries to blockade the coast and use patrol boats to board craft trying to leave. This will last for about 72 hours during which time the PCs really have two options here:
- Sit it out. As stated, this lockdown lasts about 72 hours, during which time the resort hotels are “shaken down” by police forces in their attempt to find the terrorists. This means the PCs will need to try and dodge this dragnet in some way. The hotel that Baum and Hurt were in will be the center of focus for some investigation due to the Choked Out guy (I need to name him, I think) and his suspicions that he did see his attacker there.
- Run the blockade. Each road leaving the city has two Hummvees, six soldiers and two guard dogs. I’ve got stats for all of those should the PCs try to force it. I doubt that will happen, though, and expect if they try to get out of Port Said, they’re more likely to try something stealthy – an unguarded strip that lets them sneak out undetected, perhaps, or maybe Baum will remember he’s got Patron (Mossad, 9 or less) and he’ll activate that, in which case the Institute will smuggle them out somehow.
This takes me into “Scene 4,” which is where the plot really starts to kick off.
- Back in Israel. PCs report their “findings” & Agent Quinn reaches out to them for a debrief, revealing he’s in Jerusalem for an inter-agency conference. He’ll identify C/S: TYR for them (having been digging into that since they first reported it), then react to some of the info gleaned by this op, specifically the use of “Operation Pablo Jimenez” which was used by C/S: BALDR and C/S: HEIMDALL. “Pablo Jimenez” is an old cover identity of Quinn’s. He will also establish that he’s drained HEIMDALL’s accounts and has information in his briefcase that is essential for the guy to regain access to them (think Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and those accounts.)
- And then, there’s an explosion that kills the connection.
- At this point, I need to push the PCs toward rushing to Jerusalem for the next plot point. The smart play is probably to have them realize that Quinn was probably the target all along! And that intel in the briefcase is key…
- They’ll find Jerusalem in the expected chaos in the wake of the new US Embassy having been bombed. Locating Quinn requires appropriate checks/actions and points them to a specific hospital that is now crawling with IDF and US soldiers.
- Hurt will note/receive info from a former PC who is present to meet discreetly (without the other PCs present)…and then, Reilly (the former PC) will hit Hurt with an animal taser (HT90) which should take him down.
- Meanwhile, some of the PCs will observe HEIMDALL exiting the hospital with some bodyguard types … and HEIMDALL is carrying Quinn’s briefcase! Depending on how the PCs are arrayed, this could lead to a firefight between them and the bodyguards (made worse by the relatively close presence of many IDF & US Marines who will respond rather quickly); HEIMDALL will flee to a waiting car … which should lead to a Chase (Action 2) which gives Vega (the Australian Wheelman) an opportunity to shine. The bodyguards will use Spetsnaz stats (which is a tie-in to C/S: TYR whom Mahoney may have observed with HEIMDALL earlier.
Spetsnaz
ST 11; DX 12; IQ 12; HT 11.
Damage 1d-1/1d+1; BL 24 lbs; HP 11; Will 12; Per 12; FP 11.
Basic Speed 6.00; Basic Move 6; Dodge 10; Parry 9.
5’11”; 200 lbs
Advantages/Disadvantages: Bloodlust (12); Callous; Combat Reflexes; Duty (Russian Army, 15, Extremely Hazardous); Fit; Military Rank 2; Overconfidence (12); Sense of Duty (Team)
Languages: Russian (Native)
Skills: Administration-12; Armoury (Small Arms)-12; Artillery (Guided Missile)-11; Axe/Mace-12; Boating (Large Powerboat)-11; Boating (Unpowered)-11; Brawling-12; Camouflage-13; Climbing-12; Driving (Automobile)-12; Driving (Heavy Wheeled)-11; Electronics Operations (Communications)-11; Engineer (Combat)-11; Escape-10; Explosives (Demolition)-12; Explosives (EOD)-12; Explosives (Underwater Demolition)-11; First Aid-12; Forward Observer-11; Gunner (Machine Gun)-13; Guns (Grenade Launcher)-13; Guns (Light Anti-Armor Weapon)-13; Guns (LMG)-14; Guns (Pistol)-14; Guns (Rifle)-15; Hiking-11; Intelligence Analysis-11; Interrogation-11; Jumping-12; Knife-12; Leadership-12; Mechanic (Diesel Engine)-12; Navigation (Land)-13; NBC Suit-14; Parachuting-12; Savoir-Faire (Military)-12; Scrounging-12; Scuba-12; Soldier-12; Spear-12; Survival (Desert)-14; Survival (Mountain)-14; Swimming-12; Tactics-12; Traps-14
Equipment: GSh-18 9x19mm pistol; concealable vest
- Back to Hurt. He’ll wake up, naked & tied to a chair ala Bond in Casino Royale. Reilly is nearby, also sitting on a chair but dozing. When woken, Reilly is visibly confused about what’s going on, but when he starts to help, BALDR (or BRAGI, depending on which is most appropriate here) will enter the scene and then hit Reilly with the Compliance whammy from Agents of SHIELD. I expect Hurt’s player to react to that. Reilly is sent off to “tumble down the walls of Jericho” which is obviously some sort of code that he understands. For Hurt, Escape from his bonds is doable (and frankly a fait accompli), but will happen at the cinematically appropriate moment during the interrogation, which should lead to a fight. There’s no way for BALDR (or BRAGI) survives this fight; even if KO’ed, when he wakes, he will use his Compliance stuff to trigger a stroke that kills him. Because suicide teeth are so passé.
- And the chase … I want it to end dramatically, which inevitably suggests a failed Stunt that then culminates in HEIMDALL’s car getting hit by a truck (aka the favorite tactic of Reese on Person of Interest.
And that’s sort of what I’m thinking at the moment…