Night's Black Agents: Countdown (demo encounter)

[Committed Hero]

"Where would you've shot me if I wasn't on the team, 'Seph?" Hung-Ke grimaces as he pulls the wrecked monitor from its place on the worktable.

OOC: 2 more Athletics to spend smashing Sergei with it - I am hoping his condition results in a lower Hit Threshold.

 

[Kaodi]

The camera snaps to a close-in of Mace, already grimacing from the pain, and you can see his eyes bulge slightly. But it not the grenade that has momentarily surprised him. "THAT'S THE SAME THING YOU SAID IN MARSEILLE!"

FLASHBACK

INTERIOR, HOTEL BAR

Mace steps into the frame, close up, dressed in a classic black tuxedo. His handlers are taking care of a few details before sending him in to spy on what is allegedly an IRA cell, so he has been sent to Southern France on an errand before the main event gets underway. He glances in both directions and then the camera pulls away slowly as he walks towards the bar.

There are several people at various tables and stools even though the evening is still a little young for drinking. But Mace does not intend to let that stop him. He walks up to the bar and orders a rye on the rocks. The camera flips to behind the bar, looking out. Mace looks again to his right. The camera pans to the left and there at the end of the bar in a stylish black dress is a gorgeous woman with deep brown eyes and high cheekbones. She is a little on the skinny side, but that would be unsurprising if she were a model. She is easily good looking enough to be a model.

"Get the lady a drink, will you?" says Mace to the bar tender.

The camera does dark for a split second and when the picture re-appears Mace and the woman are sitting at one of the tables and both are smiling. "I would love to stay and chat," says the woman apologetically as she gets up from her seat, voice like warm honey. "But I have places to be. I don't think we'll meet again."

END FLASHBACK

Mace's eyes narrow and he curses himself for not recognizing the woman sooner. There is no time to worry about that now though, just another opportunity missed. Suddenly he fades out of focus as the camera quickly zooms out to the live grenade hanging in the air. Mace's hand shoots out to grab it and with arm out he spins around and launches it like a rocket right at the woman. "Shortstop! All-American, babe!"

OOC: I do not know if this really works but I am guessing I can use Connected Cover to create an identity known to woman. How many points you need for that I am not sure (use 6?), but Mace has a tonne of them. As for throwing the grenade, I use all 5 remaining Athletics points: 1d6+5=10 .

 

[Piratecat]

OOC: Hung-Ke, those should be Weapons points instead of Athletics points (with the three relevant pools being Weapons, Hand-to-Hand, and Shooting.) You have Weapons points left, right? Mace, I'll give you a 3-point refresh in one pool (ie you add 3 spent points back to a pool of your choice) if you agree to the following changes in your flashback: 1. It's no wonder you didn't immediately recognize her, because she wasn't skinny then. She was in superb shape, curvy, and fashion-model leggy; there was no hint of this gaunt look that she's now trying to hide. She had told you her name was Elena, no-last-name-given, and she spoke fluent French with a South American accent. She said she was a Parisian fashion model on holiday. You believed her, as it made a great cover story, but even then you could tell she had training. She's better now, much better. You've never been quite sure if it was she who so badly complicated that errand for you or not. 2. The camera doesn't fade back in with the two of you at a table. It fades back in with her sliding out of your hotel bed. The conversation you had remains identical. Work for you?

 

[Committed Hero]

OOC: Weapons is what I meant, leaving me with 3 points left. Thanks!

 

[Kaodi]

OOC: Hell yes. I believe I will refresh Athletics. That should be eminently more useful at this point, especially when it comes to avoiding Death By Sudden Stop.

 

[Hypersmurf]

One immediately clutches his throat as crimson sprays outward, and his previously controlled free-fall becomes awkward and wild. His pistol slides from his hand and falls into the air. Droplets of blood spatter against Gabriella.

Thankful for the stylish Louis Vuitton sunglasses keeping blood out of her eyes, Gabriella takes a split-second to consider the pistol - as, apparently, the only passenger on Flight 383 who didn't smuggle a firearm past airport security, she could use one.

But more pressing concerns abound.

The camera quickly zooms out to the live grenade hanging in the air. Mace's hand shoots out to grab it and with arm out he spins around and launches it like a rocket right at the woman. "Shortstop! All-American, babe!"

Gabriella rolls her eyes. "Showing off is so unappealing."

Meanwhile, the angle of her free-fall has brought her into proximity with the more-unfortunate of duBois' two victims. Her fists clamp tightly onto his lapels, drawing her close to the corpse with her heels hooked behind his thighs. The two rotate about their mutual centre of gravity - once, twice, three times - and then Gabriella plants the soles of her feet in the man's belly and straightens convulsively, launching them in opposite trajectories.

He tumbles bonelessly towards his remaining compatriot... while Gabriella uses the momentum to begin a chase after the glittering cellphone.

... only now, she's wearing the dead man's parachute...

OOC: Primarily, the intent of this action is another Filch check to swipe a chute off the body. Secondary goals are to pick up some ground on the cellphone, and to interfere with the last goon's shot by tangling him up with a corpse. If I chuck in four Athletics points (the cost of the Jump In action) and wind up with a good Filch total, is it possible to make any progress towards a secondary goal, or is the round basically taken up by the chute acquisition with everything else flavour text pointing toward future intent? (Possibly bearing in mind the prior Investigative Spend having primed her for the likelihood of having to pursue a falling phone.)

 

[Hypersmurf]

OOC: I do not know if this really works but I am guessing I can use Connected Cover to create an identity known to woman. How many points you need for that I am not sure (use 6?), but Mace has a tonne of them.

OOC: Non-critical in an Encounter format, but in a Campaign, it's worth keeping in mind that unlike most of your General skills, your Cover pool never Refreshes. The only way to replenish it is to pay XP into it, basically. So while it can be super-useful, it's also not something to blithely drain the way you can with Disguise or Shooting, say. Since this isn't a campaign game, this is more in the nature of a trivia note than anything else!

 

[Piratecat]

Hung-Ke hefts the shattered monitor. Luckily it's a CRT, not a LCD flat-panel. Hanging onto the power cord and spinning, wincing in pain from Persephone's gunshot, he slams the monitor down directly on the gravity knife he has still stuck into Sergei's shoulder. The monitor acts as a hammer, jabbing the razor-sharp blade deeper into the huge Russian. Sergei screams and takes two steps backward, staggers, and topples directly onto a live wire exposed by his compatriots' wild gunshots. His scream is cut mercifully short by a lethal arc of sparking electricity, and the smoking corpse topples to the filthy floor.

Outside the room, Eschenko rolls his eyes. "Do you have any idea how long I had to hunt to find someone like him, Cardiff? Now you're interfering with my choice of personnel." Standing back, he gestures to his thugs. "Men? Open that wall. $50,000 American dollars to whoever kills the nerd. Another $50,000 to whoever kills the woman." He smiles slowly. "Go on. Impress me."

The two blinded thugs inside the room blink rapidly, clearing their vision.

Hung-Ke's phone interrupts cheerily. "30 seconds."

Meanwhile, in the air, Gabriella -- and how did she manage to fasten those buckles so quickly, anyways? -- soars downwards towards the tumbling cell phone. The ground is rising disturbingly quickly. The corpse she kicked off of slams into the one surviving bodyguard. That man grasps his dead friend, wrestling him in place as an impromptu shield as he takes shaky aim at the incoming Dr. DuBois. You can see his mouth moving, uttering prayers in Spanish as he tries to kill his assailants and save his own life.

All of you are momentarily rocked as the grenade goes off. Showing off exceptionally well, Mace was able to throw it far enough to keep you out of the blast radius, but was he able to catch the mysterious woman? He squints through the dissipating smoke and flame, zooming in with his glasses to gain a close-up on the woman's lovely face. She's stunned, bloody and injured from the blast, but still conscious as she tries to regain control of her fall. The look she shoots Mace is pure vitriol, hatred and grudging respect and unanticipated lust inextricably mixed, and she wipes blood from her brow.

She checks; she still has the device. One hand rises towards her parachute's ripcord.

OOC: Dr. DuBois, Persephone Cardiff, Ashcan Quinn -- Actions?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Meanwhile, in the air, Gabriella -- and how did she manage to fasten those buckles so quickly, anyways?

OOC: It's the escape artist training. She's an absolute whiz with buckles, straps, and restraints of all descriptions...

 

[mudbunny]

Quinn starts as he hears the start of an explosion through his earpiece until the noise filter cuts it off.

"Gabriella!! Are you all right? What happened?" he yells in panic as the filters disengage. He presses the earpiece harder against his ear as if that will help him hear her response better until a spark from one of the recent gunshots burns his hand, bringing him back to the here and now.

Quinn takes a quick look around to asses the situation.

"Let's see, big dude is down, as is one of the thugs in here. The other one is fine for the moment. On the other side of that glass, on the other hand, there seems to be a bunch of people who are decidedly unhappy with us. Not sure why..."

Pulling his pistol out of his pants, Quinn builds up a head of steam and dives across the entrance to the control room, focusing on the head of the goon closest to the entrance. I aced the TRA training courses for accuracy, lets see if I still have it

OOC: Spend of 4 shooting, 1 stability to double-tap the Eschenko in the chest assuming the first attack hits, which is a requirement to use my Extra shooting attack cherry. I also want to use the Called shot aiming for his head. First shot (spend of 2 shooting)- 1d6+2 result = 7; Damage 1d6+2 (Called shot) = 3 Success (I assume a 7 overcomes the +3 hit threshold for the chest) Second shot 1d6+4 (required spend for doubletap) = 6; Damage 1d6+2 (called shot) = 7 Note that i am not sure if I can use extra hot AND called shot at the same time. If I cannot, I will just go for a called shot for Eschenko's head with a spend of 3 shooting)

Quinn dives across the doorway, all of his focus on the pistol at the end of his arm. He remembers what Brady, his shooting instructor back during the time of troubles, said to him. "The good shooters, the one for whom it requires no thought...to them, the gun is just a part of their body, like a finger or a toe. When you can do that, stop thinking about the gun as a gun, then you will find shooting requires little or no effort." The panic in his mind at a lack of response from Gabrielle makes it difficult to enter that space, but he just manages.

His focus narrows and he can no longer feel the pistol. It is just there, like the hair on his arms is. To say that he brought the pistol up would be to diminish what happened. Looking back, Quinn would not be able to say that he saw the target in his sights. He simply brought his hands up and the sights of the pistol simply moved to occupy the line between his eyes and Eschenko as if they were belonged there. His finger caressed the trigger, applying the minimum pressure required to overcome the 2 lb trigger pull weight and send his round down the hallway.