The Case of the German Moles

[Alfrik]

Two Commission Agents are dispatched to infiltrate an Auxiliary Headquarters of the GEE to secure documents and flight model and bring them back to the Commissions base in France. This is a cooperative mission. Research leads the Commission to believe that the German GEE agent and his hired Archeologist are new to the GEE from Austria and should be possible to use their identities to infiltrate a small GEE headquarters in southern Germany. Team Leader from MIS and Sidekick from OS are issued false papers clothing and uniforms and assume the GEE Team sent to Brazil.

Arrival at the GEE Headquarters South.

Being a covert mission they are limited to one pistol for the German GEE Agent "Franz" while Specialist in Archeology and native languages "Jorge" has but a pocket knife. Neither of which does them any good as both are Secured upon their arrival in the Commandants office.


The office has 2 safes, one for weapons from visitors and the other with classified documents, which is how Franz manages to secure the first plot point by stating he has Secret Papers for the commandant , who is not present due to "car trouble" and insists that their escort allow him to place them into the safe. (Cunning check passed) Safe is opened and some slight of hand, a notebook is lifted from the safe while the Secret Documents are left!

The Escort chatters away about the facility while taking them on a tour, when Franz indicates that he has heard Doctor Eric is working at this facility.. "why yes he is"... "could I stop by to say hello, as he is a friend of mine?" (Cunning  check passed) "Of course I will take you to his lab."



Top center room is Doctor Erics lab...a Commission Contact agent in the GEE. Upon arrival at the lab the Doctor of Gravitational Studies, engages in some conversation with Franz while Jorge inspects various machines and worktables (passes a finesse check...barely) where upon he adds a blueprint to the inside of his shirt. (second plot point secured) Doctor Eric offers to join the inspection tour to which the Escort defers.

As they travel to the west wing main lab, they are stopped along the way and their identify passes checked by the guards in the hall ways, all is clear.



At the west wing main lab, Franz asks about the Gravitational flight research, as nothing in the lab seems associated with it? Doctor Eric tells him, Nein, this is the X-3 project room.  ?  Where volunteers are injected with a special serum to improve their muscle tone and reflexs.... Volunteer 11 should arrive in the next hour, but on to the Lower Lab. He leads them to a vault door, opens it, steps in and drops out of sight.... slowly. Everyone follows, at the bottom the good doctor tells them that it is the first application of their new gravity control, a replacement for an elevator! He's quiet proud of it.

At the Basement Lab


Here they again tour about, asking Doctor Eric about this and that technical questions, lulling their official escort to boredom. "I understand you have a model of the test vehicle?"  "Yes yes, let me show you..." and leads them down the corridor where a guard stares hard at Jorge's identity paper and seems.... concerned, but waves them on (Jorge failed a 1 success finesse check and got 2 suspicion points) At the end of the hall they enter the lab with the model on display. Franz looks it over carefully and draws Doctor Eric over  to exclaim "someone has tampered with this model!!! See here and here?"  "ah Yes it does seem to have been altered"  "Escort, have this model secured in the commandants safe until his return and a full investigation can be convened into who is trying to sabotage this research!!!"   (passes a 3 success Cunning check!) The escort summons a pair of guards to take the model to the upstairs Commandants safe. As they exit the room one of the GEEs She Wolf Guards cries "Halt, Papers" and looks at Franz after checking his pass....seeming to search her memory as she seems to recall having met the real Franz... but waves him on (failed a 2 pass Finesse check and Franz picks up to suspicion points, the team now has 4 suspicion points and collectively lose 1 Finesse and 1 cunning die for the remainder of the mission)

"It seems we should make sure the Bases Most Secure site is indeed secure" says Franz
"It is indeed secure as the Commandant has Volunteer 8 guarding it" states the Escort.
"I must return to my work" and Doctor Eric leaves.
"I insist you show us this most secure site"  (Franz plays a card and manages to pass a 2 Finesse check)

"follow me... but I must warn you there is some danger to inspect the safe!"  the escort informs them.

They return down the hall to a door with a guard to either side of it, whereupon the escort motions the guards aside after giving a pass word and opens the door inwards after work a large keyed locking device.



Franz and Jorge are taken aback by the presence of Volunteer 8!  The carefully enter the room and spot that V8 as they regard him is chained by each wrist to the walls, such that he can block anyone trying to get past him but not get out the door.

"Hurry it up, his feeding time is near and he is very unpredictable and violent with out notice!"
Jorge makes as if to inspect the chain on one side and uses his secreted Gadget X to sever the chain which falls with the clanking sound of chain on concrete! which also triggers a base wide Alarm!!! The Escort says "what have you done!" and advances on Jorge, pulling his sidearm... which sends the V8 into a screaming charge at the sight of the weapon!



The Escort gets off a shot that further enrages the beast, who rains blows down on the escort...seizing the opportunity to improvise a weapon from the Escort.... his Leg!

Jorge goes to the Safe and can only roll 3 finesse dice of the 4 required to open the safe but passes all 3. In the following turn he uses the time gained while V8 pounds the Escort into a blood splattering mess.. the Door guards fail their reaction test and just stand there stunned.
Seconds later Jorge gets the Safe open, pulls out one of 4 identical bundles of passes and shuts the safe door. His attempt to slide around the room and get out the door becomes a body flight as V8 slams him forward with his "club".  Franz hastily follows Jorge out the door, Screaming for the Guards to "Stop Him!!" The Guards open fire! V8 seems very annoyed with them, snapping the other restraining chain and charge the guards in the hall.

As Franz and Jorge leave the hall they spin another guard around and tell him to open fire on the beast "before he gets to you also!"  (Cunning check passed) The guard opens fire with his SMG burst template and hits everyone But the Beast !!!! (A might check passed) Franz shoves the guard into the hallway and slams the door shut. The rest of the room is already nearly empty as the scientists have bolted at the sound of the alarms!  Franz and Jorge follow the rush up to the next floor, where splattered with the Escorts blood they direct the guards rushing into the room to the Gravity chute with cries of Schnell!!

They stop at the commandants office, empty of guards, (2 pass Cunning check) Jorge opens the safe, grabs the Flight Model, covering it with a cloth and they exit the building with the rest of the scientists..... get in their vehicle and make their departure!

((Players Secured all minor and the major plot point. Failed ID checks reduced their Finesse and Cunning dice as they moved along through the base. The use of several cards saved them till the end checks. Overall the mission went well, considering they never fired a shot and had to provide fast answers to questions and offer good bluffs to problems the guards presented them with.))

[FramFramson]

Wow, entirely combat-free (barring the hapless guards who were eaten)! What a neat AAR.

[Wolf Girl]

Awesome! I love this kind of scenario. 

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

I was wondering how you could do a game like this and now you have shown us, thanks. Very clever, that use of Suspicion Points to reduce the character's dice rolls when challenged. I enjoyed your report immensely.

[d phipps]

Fantastic scenario, Alfrik! What a great idea.

THANKS for sharing! 

[Vagabond]

Brilliant  loved the report, edge of the seat job all the way. Really like the story telling that the game generated.
Well done

[magokiron]

An AMAZING AAR, with some fresh ideas.

Truly enjoyed reading it.

Thanks for sharing.

[Prof. Dinglebat. Phd.]

Tushay on the as yet unheard\unseen of perspective. Perhaps all those following along the same lines, should be from here on known as, an Alfrik Scenario. 

[Alfrik]

The OIS player submitted to me this AAR report, which I copied and am posting here:


To:   Central Control Commision
CC:   O.I.S. Over Sight Committee   
From:   Robert Howard Chief Investigator for the O.I.S.
Date:   3/31/2014

Re:   German Research Facility

   •   Documents and Papers provided were acceptable and did not cause question by facility guards.
   •   Intel on site was on point with a few minor exceptions which I will detail later in this report. 
   •   Mission Objectives were successful with 1 minor concern.
   
         o          S unit of female guards, that they referred to as the "She Wolfs" are very well trained in security work plus very suspicious and appeared to recognize me. I believe that we may have a mole in the agency. More intel. on the She Wolf Organization will be needed if we are to have further contact with them. They seem to be the primary security for the inner circle and the scientist’s working on special projects.
   •   We were able to retrieve the proto type model, blue prints, and some minor papers which are currently under analysis in research.
    •   The credential package for the test site has been secured and we are currently prepping the inside team.     
 
Special Interests:

X-3 project
We came across an active surviving test subject of the X-3 project which appears to be an attempt to augment the human body through the use of radiation. Test Subject 8 was beyond description. I believe that the subject was fully human and not a further attempt by Doctor Mengala to create a super being through genetic manipulation and cross breeding of species.  Test Subject 8 displayed the following traits
   1.   Over developed muscular structure
   2.   Animalistic drive (Primal in nature)
   3.   Malformed skeletal structure to cope with the new muscle mass 
   4.   Uncontrollable rage targeted at nearest threat or person in absence of threat.
These subjects are rapid healing and display strength beyond that of a normal man. If they are developing more of these creatures will need access to the special weapons vault to ensure we do not loose entire teams in the field. I would suggest informing the military to give a higher priority to special weapons research and development. If war does breakout we are currently unprepared for what we might face. 

[Amalric]

Wonderful AAR!
Very inspirational.

What rules did you use?

Thanks for posting.

[Alfrik]

I use the Pulp Alley rule set. I improvised the Suspicion points to make the players sweat over their oop's adding more suspicion points as they went along, all the while, needing to  carry off the mission with out gun fire drawing a truck load of guards with SMGs down on them! Both players said they had an awesome time. We role played through the entire episode.

[FramFramson]

I think most of have more-or-less figured out the way suspicion points work from your AAR, but what is the exact rules text that you're using?

[d phipps]

I think most of have more-or-less figured out the way suspicion points work from your AAR, but what is the exact rules text that you're using?

If I understand your question, I'm guessing he's using the basic action sequence from page 22...

Action Summary
Most actions, plot points, and perils may easily be resolved in three simple steps —
> Skill — Determine the dice to roll.
> Roll — Each 4+ counts as one success.
> Results — Compare the number of successes to the challenge # to determine pass/fail.

This can be used to resolve just about any sort of action that's important enough to roll for.

I hope that helps.



HAVE FUN

[FramFramson]

That was what I'd assumed too. I guess suspicion points simply accumulate in the case of failure?

[Alfrik]

How Im working suspicion points:

Anytime an ID check is made the character has to pass a 2 Success Finesse check. Fail equals 2 suspicion points
Anytime a Guard is passed a "simple" 1 pass Finesse check is made. Fail equals 1 suspicion point.

Each 4 points failed reduces the teams finesse and cunning dice total by 1 for the rest of the scenario as the guards start to "smell something rotten.... or not right" about the team. So, passing more checks gets harder.

If the characters total dice have been temporarily reduced to less than a check requires, so that they cannot hope to pass the check,  the guards start shouting and hit alarms. These checks cannot be combined with multiple characters, they have to "talk their way out" as it were. They can use skills, abilities or cards (they start with 3 cards as each scenario starts with)  to modify their rolls. The Suspicious checks are not actual perils, as there are no traps or health checks connected to them so an ability to pass the first peril in a round does not apply.

Once the alarm sounds, players switch to regular turn action, with Initative, card being dealt etc. Sometimes I will grant an extra die to their check roll if they give a really good ad lib role play line to the guards etc.

Minor characters typically cannot pass a 2 success check so their going along on such undercover operations will usually lead to disaster!