A very anticipated update
((GM Notes are in double parentheses))
[Mechanical notes are in braces]
((This is a long update - sorry for the delay, but because this game covers not just tabletop play, but also email and google chats, there's a lot of information to disseminate.))
It all started with a wrong number. Rossini was at home, doing dishes and laundry, when the phone rang, and a panicked woman, crying and obviously scared, began pleading for her life and a rescue, not necessarily in that order. The phone call clicked off just after Rossini heard the cutting buzz of a power tool in the background.
Rossini called Anna who had a friend at the phone company [2 point Network spend] who traced the call to a building downtown, near Nick's apartment. Rossini gave Anna a description of what he heard, and they both agreed that they should involve Nick.
Nick wasn't at home when they arrived, he was out with Mike ((who has begun referring to his character as Mike-Smith, to distinguish from all the 'Mike' NPCs)), at the gym, engaged in a rather vigorous workout/stare-at-the-pilates-class combo. But the four agents reconnected quickly and after debating just how armed they should be ((recent events left them feeling very under-prepared, so I take that as a sign I was doing things right)), the team settled on just handguns for now, and extreme caution.
The building Anna's contact gave was an office building under renovation. It seemed to Rossini to be entirely possible that power tools could be found here, the agents found dozens of toolboxes, extension cords and construction materials littering the place. With a little thinking [2 point Infiltration spend] they traced the phone lines up two floors.
But they didn't find the girl. They didn't even find the corpse of a girl. All they found were fifteen phones arrayed in a bank and all wired to different laptops, all running software that re-routed calls. [this was confirmed by a 1 point Digital Intrusion spend]
Not wanting the sit and watch Alice hack through all the phones, Mike-Smith did what seemed normal - he pressed redial on one of them.
Imagine his surprise when someone answered. It was an embassy office fifteen blocks away. The Peruvian embassy in fact. And the voice on the other end belonged to a very haggard clerk who had spent the last 30 hours preparing for a reception of the South American Antiquities Committee ((which immediately was called SACK by the players)) who were unveiling a series of new books and tablets thought to be proto-Mayan.
Desdemona stepped in and unleashed a volley of feminine wiles [4 point Flirting spend, 3-point Cover spend, 2-point Disguise spend by Mike-Smith ((who was shocked that he had 2 points in Disguise at all))] and secured seats at the party and unveiling for the Lady Dagmar, Baroness of Furvustajd "it's a private island, like Iceland, but without all the banking trouble" and her party (A driver (Rossini), a bodyguard (Mike-Smith), and a publicist (Nick))
Anna elected to go as a journalist [3 point Cover] for Famous Old Things Monthly "it's a 'zine, you've probably never heard of it." and would meet the party there once she talked to Mace.
SIDE BAR -- While the others strategized and speculated, Mace and Anna met at headquarters because Anna had previously heard of SACK [2-point Research spend] and knew them to be a cover for person-smuggling, and figured that was what could have happened to her sister. ((Mace hasn't told her the truth yet)).
Mace did some additional digging [2 point Research spend, 3 point Network spend] to reveal that SACK was also loosely affiliated to the jewel thief of past adventures [CORE CLUE] and could reveal critical intel on Project Blue Book.
more shortly.....
