As promised (threatened?), this is the second part of my game prep stuffs for session 2×05. We left off with the Riggs follow-up followed by my “tempted to have Spetsnaz kick in the door” commentary.
Since then, however, I’ve rethought that and, rather than have the PC location be raided after they’ve interrogated a captured guy (which I did previously in 2×03 that removed Hurt from the board), I’m instead going to have Riggs break off his commentary and tell them to get out. They’ve been burned. He was just CC’ed on a sanction request approval from higher up the chain-of-command – the PCs are being blamed for the Embassy bombing (even though they weren’t even in-country when it happened!) and shooters are being sent. Riggs tells them to get clear of Israel, then reach out to him using Quinn’s phone.
At this point, HEIMDALL is (probably) still alive so it’s wholly up to the PCs to determine what they do with him. Considering BAUM has Callous and has already displayed this rather effectively in a previous session, I fully expect HEIMDALL to take a bullet to the head … although, it might be interesting if I can sort of convinced them to keep him around for the time being? (Related to both of these, it would be amusing if they threw him out of their plane over the Med later on, but I digress.)
Presuming the PCs do bail in a timely manner, they will managed to evade any team sent after them. If they (stupidly) drag their feet, well, then we’re going to have a shoot-out with US Navy SEALs and IDF Sayeret Mat’kal on our hands and I’m not going to pull any punches. I don’t anticipate this to be the case, though, and conveniently, they not only have new covers but also should be aware of transport out of Israel via a plane at the Haifa airport. At the airport, during the pilot check-in (I really should do research into this), PC(s) will see IDF personnel chatting with the crew from the jet that ferried the characters around during the previous GM’s run. The captain of that crew is played by Bruce Campbell and since he’s awesome, he’ll go immediately into the Burn Notice BS mode and direct the IDF people in the opposite direction, thus freeing up the PCs to get out.
Once aboard the plane, the PCs can go through the hoops of getting clear of Israel then, likely setting course for Cairo, Egypt, so they can start digging into the intel about BRAGI who has escaped. However, PCs were made aware during session … 2, I think, that something was happening in and around Kuwait, so they may opt to head in that direction instead (in which case, the GM will need to scramble like mad). Presuming that the PCs do head for Cairo, once there, some Tradecraft should allow them to identify where BRAGI is held up. This is a high-end hotel which PCs could theoretically storm, though that’s probably a bad idea.
Instead, what I think I’m going to do here is expect the PCs to stake it out so they can locate and identify BRAGI – VEGA will be an issue here since he was previously made during Shadowing of the guy in Port Said, not to mention he has that Mistaken Identity (Russell Crowe) thing going on. Rather than have the PCs actually nab him, I’m going to gradually have the PCs become aware that they’re not the only ones staking out the hotel and … when BRAGI emerges, he promptly gets jumped by some dudes who hustle him into a car and speed off. Unless, of course, the PCs intervene in which case … shoot-out in the Cairo streets!
In the event they opt for a pursuit instead (and don’t start shooting), this will
begin as a Shadowing contest. Currently, VEGA has a Shadowing-15, which will be
reduced down to -13 in a car, and the HOSTILES have a PER-12, so there’s a good
chance that the PCs can trail them to their hideout without being detected. In
the event they are noted, then another Chase is probable, though I’m definitely going to end up throwing in some Cairo police on motorcycles as appropriate. In the event of a Chase, the HOSTILES will intentionally deviate away from where they were planning on going and, if they end up wrecking, I’ll probably go directly into a tactical combat encounter (albeit with the bad guys likely messed up due to the Wreck.) While not my intent, it would be kind of amusing if session 5 ends exactly the same way as session 4, with a Chase followed by the PCs exfiltrating with a prisoner they intend to interrogate.
Should the PCs not be detected (and thus, no Chase), they can trail the HOSTILES to their hideout, which will be a nice, secluded warehouse. HOTILES will be patrolling and how the PCs proceed here will be up to them – stealthy or frontal assault. If we actually get this far in the session, I’ll honestly be surprised since the group seems to hesitate a bit more than I’d like.
Presuming, the PCs should reacquire BRAGI, he will use the Compliance stuff (from Agents of SHIELD) against REILLY with the instructions to kill him (BRAGI), then kill everyone else. Ideally, that’d be a great way to end the session, with REILLY shooting BRAGI then turning the gun on the other PCs…