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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Golden Bee" data-source="post: 9716414" data-attributes="member: 7041055">Rafe’s Revenge!A Lamb, caught by a Nazi Wolf!During the nuptials of Semya Ivanova and JP Diamond, the perfect heist was perpetrated right underneath the noses of the ZSS!The experimental aircraft Grandel’s Mother, its mysterious power source “borrowed” from Devika’s Alan Irani, and the lovely Lillian Lamb have all been whisked away to Germany by the mysterious Abwehr agent known as Krystal Wolf. This has set Rafe Lancaster’s blood to boiling and his mind fixed to one and only one course of action: Get them all back. Through a lot of digging and calling in favors, Rafe has made contact with someone he believes to be an Abwehr double agent calling themselves “Nightjar”. If they can make contact in Berlin, they could provide all the information needed to mount a rescue.However, moving a team of ZSS operatives through Germany in September 1935 will be no easy task. Acquiring false papers that would fool the Zollgrenzshutz (customs border guards) or even the Gestapo would be expensive, but fairly straight-forward. But fooling anyone within the Abwehr itself would be nigh impossible, as the daughter of a famous general, an internationally wanted smuggler, a Soviet captain with a trail of Nazi blood, and especially their American industrialist mark, are all known quantities. (That’s Zelda, Ivo, Semya Ivanova filling out the team.) However, Rafe has an idea for how to get around that. A way to get in, get out, and liberate who and what was stolen from him. But it’s out there…***In a frosty Norwegian taiga, the party seems to be traveling in circles, swearing that they have been re-treading the same ground, looking for a centuries-old looking barn, built at the epicenter of several runestones forming a spiraling triquetra. Upon entering, they find dozens of life-sized unpainted wooden humanoid figures, leering at them motionless with blank faces. Suddenly, they find whom they are looking for:Stig Brynhildjarson (from Cold Vengeance and Haute Cuisine).  He’s accompanied by a blonde woman with striking amber eyes named Gyllen Gnitaheath, bedecked with stylish gemstone-laden jewelry. And as a semi-mystical creature, his contract is extraordinary. And extortionary.As a student of folklore, Ivan “Ivo” Kochev takes a run at the contract. Unfortunately, Stieg is also a master deceiver, putting in intricate clauses the smuggler can’t crack.The captain tries another method. She makes fun of Gyllen, chiding and teasing her. Nothing out of bounds, but thoroughly annoying. Rafe, who is scared of the woman himself, tells Gyllen that the captain will leave once there’s a fair deal.As a business magnate, Lancaster marshals his money indirectly. Annuities instead of cash, payments in kind, investments… He pays, but at a fair rate. Stig hands over four of his “Loki” coins. The mystic guarantees that they will mask their appearance to all who view them (and let them speak unaccented German), but warns that the powers of Loki are fickle. Breaking the coins will be a signal for their extraction, which the mystic pair will ‘assist’ with.Getting into the country is still a problem though. Kochev’s pals charge exorbitantly to get him to Berlin, even more than it cost to get into wartime Spain. Due to mandatory conscription and the Nuremberg laws, the entire country is on alert.When they arrive, the Captain goes to work, reaching out to the Soviet spy network. The group score is a dead drop from Nightjar:Easy enough. Kochev alters a duty roster to get Zelda hired as a janitor. Despite some unwanted flirting and paranoid guards, she swept up the office and photographed the necessary files. She also found correspondence from an informant in Czechoslovakia named Oskar Schindler. The rest of the files would take some time to dig into…The Nazis weren’t sitting on their hands. Their counterintelligence was seeking out mysterious groups of two women and two men, as well as trying to get the continental location of Rafe Lancaster. He had his Roman office send off phony correspondence, begging Berlin to take a meeting. Oddly, the captain gave the help of her network to protect the mega capitalist. He asked why.The industrialist had no reply.***Back in the party offices, Zelda Saeki discovered the existence of Projekt Edelstein aka “Project Gemstone,” which apparently was started in 1920 at the founding of the Abwehr. Canaris ordered it disbanded when he assumed command in 1935, but Hitler personally overruled him.More files revealed a Project Gemstone agent, “Black Diamond,” had recently completed a mission in the US that was delivered to some kind of black site. They get coordinates that seem to correspond to somewhere in the middle of the Pfälzerwald, a forest seven hours away.Zelda received undue questioning when leaving the office. Despite leaving it spotless, the suspicious soldiers pointed and yelled. A man identified as Hauptmann Cristoph Unger backed up her story, whisking her away… and identifying himself as Nightjar! The group is happy to leave Berlin for the hinterlands.On the road, Unger provided the party with any info that he can, namely that the black site is a skunkworks called “Der Becher” or “The Tumbler” (a play on both rock polishing and locks). It is officially run by Der Wehrmacht, but Abwehr projects, mainly Project Gemstone, operate out of it. He doesn’t know to what extent, or what awaits them there. The group apologized to him for the incident involving his older brothers: the first was killed while trying to steal Excalibur, and the latter was electrocuted, humiliated, and jailed after an incident on the Orient Express. (They left out the part where they also hit him with a tampon.) Unger forgave them, saying that he also didn’t like his Nazi older brothers.Suddenly, a black Volkswagen Beetle began tailgating the group, flashing its headlights and honking its horn. The driver was… Hauptmann Cristoph Unger?!The false Unger, Agent Emerald, fought for the wheel. The ZSS played the numbers game, with driver Ivo stopping the lorry and letting the real Unger join the fight!Agent Emerald was tough, but the group was a hardened fighting machine. Except for Rafe (who conceded early on to get an extra Fate Point). Still, the captain’s insults and Zelda’s gunplay left the impostor reeling and shot-to-death. While the group theorized that he had a Loki coin of his own, it was actually an advanced scientific mask. The agent wasn’t a true believer… but a brainwashed super soldier!Unger agreed to take care of the body and the bloody lorry. He gave them his car, and directed them to a Red Orchestra safe house. The car was stolen however, and at two in the morning, SS officers decided to come knocking.Now, the secret police were experts at ferreting out lies. What they weren’t good at was standing up to a screaming ‘German’ woman with hair curlers. Instead of taking any conspirators in for questioning, they left the house ashamed (and ended up confiscating the Volkswagen). The organizers of the safe house were astounded, and were excited to hear about what gave the Captain such strength: the unity of communism. She had pamphlets.The next day, the group made their way to the secret facility. It was mostly overland travel, which the captain excelled at. With her expertise and Kochev’s smuggling skill, they breached the perimeter ahead of schedule. One thing they didn’t expect: an archer in full ghillie suit disguise! Knowing he was brainwashed, the group first tried a non-lethal solution: shooting his bow. Zelda succeeded, but he pulled out a crossbow. Then, the captain appealed to his humanity, running through emotional appeals and code phrases she learned from the Soviet network. The soldier, agent Ruby, fled into the underbrush.Unfortunately, the gunfire alerted the guards. Patrols swept the forest. The base was a major one, with tanks and an airfield. The structure itself was built into the side of a mountain. It took all of Ivo’s expertise to sneak the group to an access tunnel, where he and Lancaster pried open a grate and got the group into the Tumbler.Once inside, they witnessed a scene between SS Brigadeführer Lutz Stroman and his entourage, and an Abwehr agent Kurtzman, who reported that the “Agarthan Sphere” was missing from the base. Stroman asked if Kurtzman was on duty when it was stolen. He was. Stroman replied that he was responsible for its security, and promptly shot him in the head.This was a shocking development amongst the enlisted men, but the Brigadeführer simply shrugged and commanded the soldiers to clean up the mess.The group grabbed janitorial disguises and began searching.One of the downsides of a well-staffed facility is that you need signs. The quartet had a few false starts (the facility was designed in the shape of a swastika, which meant getting from one end to the other was unnecessarily difficult,) but soon they were at the holding cells, where they convinced the guards that a Nazi civil war was brewing and they had better get to the armory.The first room they checked had a dead redheaded woman and two Nazis. Zelda reported this, and Rafe was… unmoved. (We checked his character sheet, and the former villain had no aspects that actually implied he cared about other people, meaning the GM couldn’t compel him!)The group dealt with the guards, and went on to the next room… Which didn’t just contain Lillian, but an entire Romani family! Rafe, still disguised by the Loki coin, got slapped when embracing his beau. The captain chided Lillian for leaving her wedding without saying goodbye.The group’s luck ran out when they got to the hallway. There was a wall of Nazi soldiers, led by the archer from before. He had a strange new arrow nocked…The Captain grabbed the Romani child. Everyone was shocked at her use of a human shield… Until she explained that the archer was brainwashed, and that this was clearly his son. No one moved… until the archer leaped behind a crate, firing his arrow at the Reichsmen! Turns out it was an explosive one, and brownshirt blood rained from the ceiling. Zelda and Rafe used their weapons to clean up the rest, although clean is probably the exact wrong word.Lillian, after regaining her composure, filled the group in. Brigadeführer Lutz Stroman had stolen the Agarthan Sphere and framed Kurtzman. She, it, and Rafe’s plane Grendel’s Mother, were most likely in Cairo!Being a devout Communist, Ivanova had only one plan for the building. First, she evacuated the non-Nazi scientists and remaining prisoners. Then, with the help of scientific genius Rafe, she set off a series of timed explosions.The group broke their coins, ending the charade. But between them and the exit was a gauntlet of German army soldiers.Now, Captain Ivanova solves most of her problems verbally. She’s reduced men to tears with only the promise of violence.But also exemplifies the New Soviet Woman. So when the bullets started flying… She sprinted through, and dove through a second-story window, landing in a three-point pose. No explanation, no apologies. And it would’ve been the most impressive thing of the day…Except for the Norwegian extraction plan. Now, it might’ve been an experimental gas leak, a bomber plane, and fertile imaginations. Or Stig, wowed by the group's hard-nosed negotiating style, had sent in a dragon the size of Notre Dame Cathedral.The Germans manned the tanks, got in their planes… It didn’t matter. Once the base started exploding, there was nothing that could stop the ZSS.Back in New York, Rafe and the Captain clinked glasses. The “welcome back, Lillian” party was a hit, a truly decadent affair; Zelda and Ivo were guests of honor. The inspirational Russian might have disdained Rafe, still, but he had earned her respect. No one else had filled nearly as many graveyards of the Third Reich.</blockquote>

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