Night's Black Agents: Countdown (demo encounter)

[Piratecat]

"Carrrrrdifffff!" A bloody, grasping hand claws for Persephone's blond hair as she exits through the roof, but by then she's gone. A quick leap for the service ladder and off the descending car, and for just a second she can see Eschenko's one insane eye staring up at her in hunger and confusion, the detonator still slightly sticking out of the side of his head. He howls with need. "Carrrrrdifffff!"

By the time the explosion comes, and the rush of fire and shrapnel blow through the ceiling of the elevator, Persephone is nowhere in the vicinity.

SCENE CUT: FACILITY LOBBY

The elevator *bings* open. The hardened mercenary thug left to guard to lobby turns to idly see who it is. We don't see into the elevator, other than the faintest glimpse of red; the camera lingers on the merc's face as his eyes bug and his face turns gray with revulsion. He staggers backward.

CUT TO

Persephone, reaching her previous floor on the service ladder, a grim little smile on her face.

 

[Kaodi]

Mace sees that he is out of time. He banks and suddenly he is cutting through the air. The spy smashes into Elena, spinning her around as one arm snakes around her waist and the other grasps for the phone. In the midst of grappling for a brief moment they find themselves face to face, the camera zooming in for a close up.

Time seems to slow down as they stare into each others eyes. And Mace says, focusing his powers of extraordinary handsomeness and plot-perfect timing, "My favourite dance goes just like this. Do you not think it would be better to put all this behind us and just go dancing on the Riviera? I cannot think of a more perfect way to take advantage of such a beautiful day as this and the companionship of such a beautiful woman as yourself."

Meanwhile, when the camera zooms back out and time seems to resume, Mace Hunter has Elena's cloned phone in hand.

OOC: Spending both of my 2 points of Flirt to get whatever effect I can, 3 points of Filch: 1d6+3=8, and 2 points of Hand to Hand: 1d6+2=4 if it is necessary to set up the face to face situation during the grapple. Completely forgot the Trust placed in me until after I rolled, :\ .

 

[Piratecat]

"5... 4... 3..." Hung-Ke is typing as fast as he knows how, his fingers flying over the keyboard as his hacking algorithms break through the slightly antiquated security around the Russian missile launch. He probably wouldn't be able to do it so quickly, normally, but he wrote this code himself as a teenager.

Lights on the control panel are blinking furiously. A warning klaxon goes off.

"2... 1..." Hung-Ke types in the last number of the abort code and smacks "Enter," and waits expectantly.

"Zero. MISSILE IGNITION..."

Hung-Ke frowns, rolls his eyes, and smacks the keyboard again, this time hammering his index finger down on the blood-sticky Enter button.

"...ABORTED. LAUNCH ABORTED. LAUNCH ABORTED. LAUNCH ABORTED."

And as Persephone strides back into the control room, smelling of smoke and blood and cordite, and as Ashcan Quinn zip-ties any living thugs, Hung-Ke Lee leans back and looks up at the horrible equipment he had to deal with. He smiles.

CUT TO: OVER MONACO

Dr. DuBois is parachuting down, considering his extraction plan. Gabriella Castellanos is reaching for her rip cord before the ground makes it no longer necessary. And Mace Hunter is arm-in-arm with the mysterious Elena, whirling through the air. Her body feels far too thin beneath her clothing, but oh my, Mace, her eyes... they're astounding. She kisses you, hard, as you both continue to plummet through wisps of cloud. A bird squawks past as you feel her hand in your hair.

"I've missed you," she whispers into your ear over the rush of the wind. "I'll dress to impress. Shall we say 10 o'clock in front of the casino? If anything changes I'll call you." She pulls back a little and grins, a wicked and friendly smile of triumph. "After all," she purrs, "I know my own phone number." Then her hand moves and your chute deploys, ripping you upwards and away from her. You look down at the purloined phone in your hand and realize that somehow she switched them; you aren't holding the data record of the phone she cloned, you're holding Elena's own personal cell phone. Damn.

Elena disappears through a cloud beneath you, a trill of silvery and delighted laughter trailing behind her. You see her chute deploy just before she hits the water of Monaco's bay, enough to slow her down before she cuts the parachute cords and knifes deep into the azure waves. Her chute drifts idly away, twisting in the wind. The camera follows her down, through the bubbles, and the theme music swells.

OOC: Elena uses her MOS of Filch to steal back the cloned phone and substitute it with a different cell. Then she blows her remaining points of Filch to pull your rip cord (6+6=12). In a game, you could probably cut your own chute and go after her, at the risk of some serious harm while landing -- but more likely I'd say "nah," and call the scene there, with you having both a date and some important clues. Well done, people. That's what a Night's Black Agents game is like. Any last actions / attacks / maneuvers / comments / roleplaying before the opening credit sequence rolls?

 

[71gamer]

OOC: No, but that was awesome--how many times have you run this? And is it different usually? Thank you!!!

 

[Kaodi]

Mace Hunter looks at the phone in his hand blankly for a moment. But then he smiles wryly and puts it in a zip-able pocket in his suit. Apart from the date, perhaps Persephone will be able to mine it for clues. He glances over to make sure Gabriella and DuBois are okay before his gaze drifts back towards Elena. The camera snaps back to his face for a moment as he quietly says, "Now there is a woman who knows how to get your blood running..." and then it pans out, going further and further, circling the spy as he guides his parachute down towards the water of the bay.

OOC: I would like to thank you as well, PirateCat, effusively. You may remember that I had been following the Story Hours of Sagiro and yourself since the early days, and as I am not able to go to conventions I had not thought I would ever have the privilege of playing in any sort of game you DMed. I am also grateful to get to play with Hypersmurf, another real EN World stalwart. Gabriella's commentary on Mace was great . Thank you, mudbunny, for getting all of this started, and everyone who did a great job with their character.

 

[Hypersmurf]

OOC: Elena uses her MOS of Filch to steal back the cloned phone and substitute it with a different cell.

OOC: Bwahaha awesome.

OOC: Well done, people. That's what a Night's Black Agents game is like.

OOC: I've said it before, but one of the things I like most is the Assumption of Hypercompetence - the fact that in most cases, when you think "Hey, you know what the coolest thing that could possibly happen right now would be?", the mechanics actively support that being exactly what happens, rather than saying "Well, yeah, but given that your odds of pulling it off are about 1 in 40, you're probably better off punching him again".

 

[Piratecat]

OOC: This was absurd amounts of fun. Thank you, everyone. I couldn't ask for better or more responsive players; it's tough to run through one of these things quickly. I'm glad we did. Hell, I'd see this movie. [MENTION=88980]71gamer[/MENTION], I've run this adventure maybe 2-3 times. I'd say this is the best opening scene I've seen. I certainly don't run any other GUMSHOE game like a movie, but one of the things I like about the game system is that it does a good job of modeling certain genres. If you're talking spies, I think looking at it with cinematic language is a lot of fun. Gratuitous plug: I'm working on TimeWatch right now, a time travel GUMSHOE game. Keep an eye out for playtesting in a few months!

 

[Hypersmurf]

OOC: It's tough to run through one of these things quickly. I'd say this is the best opening scene I've seen.

OOC: The two big disadvantages of PbP tend to be the pacing, and the dropoff rate. Both of which are almost always minimised as problems in the 'honeymoon phase' - the first little while after it kicks off, when everyone's super-enthused - so for a short-duration showcase like this, they don't pop up as issues. The biggest advantage of PbP (discounting the ability to bring together a group who can't arrange a face-to-face game) is that people have time to think and to edit before committing to what they present... you don't have to have the brilliant idea right now, you can take five minutes or half an hour to craft something spectacular. It gives more opportunity for evocative imagery, and makes it easier for us mere mortals to portray the witty superagents who always have the perfect quip on the tip of their tongue, and always react with the optimal response to the situation - we might not come up with that quip in a real-time conversation, but give us some time to think, and the PC will. So I'm not surprised we pulled together a fun, adrenaline-packed cinematic experience - like all good secret agents, we cheated

 

[Hypersmurf]

He glances over to make sure Gabriella and DuBois are okay before his gaze drifts back towards Elena. The camera snaps back to his face for a moment as he quietly says, "Now there is a woman who knows how to get your blood running..." and then it pans out, going further and further, circling the spy as he guides his parachute down towards the water of the bay.

Hanging from her own chute, Gabriella closes her eyes briefly as the harsh Russian syllables of LAUNCH ABORTED blare tinnily through her earbud.

When she opens them, the Predictive Caret of her target lock is highlighting Mace Hunter and the blossoming canopy of his parachute below her. Mace did his part of the job - the world isn't going to end today.

Gabriella makes a pistol with thumb and forefinger and aims carefully. "¡Praca!" she whispers.

Next time, she's bringing a gun.

 

[Committed Hero]

OOC: Thanks all around, it was a blast.