The Wolf's Head (Night's Black Agents)

Money Heist trailer Antena 3

This week’s post is loosely based on this Guardian news article about museum robberies and a recent EUROPOL report. The report is timely; Friday that same week there was another article about a museum robbery in which a diamond necklace belonging to Egyptian royalty was snatched.

“Additionally, some thieves apprehended in recent cases appear to coordinate their efforts on an ad hoc basis, often recruited locally through social media and instant communication channels, without prior connections to each other. This differs from the usual structure of criminal networks involved in cultural goods trafficking, which typically operate in a core group organised around a leader.” EUROPOL report

The full report can be had here. It's not long. Broadly speaking, the papers published the bits everyone will be interested in. 

All of which made me think of Night’s Black Agents and the recruitment process. 

Night’s Black Agents’ central conceit says espionage assets brought in by the vampire Conspiracy are used, abused, abandoned, and now find themselves on the run from their former employers. In a Bourne-style world, what is it like when Treadstone (or the equivalent) is a supernatural horror show? 

One of the recurring issues in a setting such as this is how to bring the characters on board. What was the inciting incident?  

In another post I speculated a potential infection vector: the Kill Team.  

Thanks to EURPOL, there’s another way in: the Heist. 

The protagonists are all recruited to carry out a museum robbery. The target: Dacian artefacts held in a museum in Ghent. Once they complete the task they’re supposed to take the stolen items across the border to France, where they’re to hand off the artefacts to their paymaster in exchange for large bags full of cash. 

Why Dacians? From Wikipedia: 

Dacians: The German linguist Paul Kretschmer linked daos to wolves via the root dhau, meaning to press, to gather, or to strangle – i.e. it was believed that wolves would often use a neck bite to kill their prey. 

Done and done.  

The characters are brought in by an unknown third party who reached out via, say, Telegram. Their job is to break in and steal a particular thing, but they are encouraged to steal other things to make it look like a ‘normal’ robbery. Plus, anything extra they steal is a bonus to their pay packet. 

Ghent: a historic medieval port town in Belgium, once big on textiles, now big on tourism and shipping. Very significant architecturally, practically car-free in the old town center. Infested with religious architecture and churches, which may be significant to any supernatural element that dislikes religion or has religious Banes.   

Museum of Antiquity and Harmony (Double Tap Establishing Shot):

Statuary, paintings, and the wonders of antiquity surround you on every side.  You move along with other tourists, past bored museum guards and sophisticated alarm systems you could easily hack. The museum has high ceilings, a maze of large rooms filled with the detritus of history, and enough museum visitors to make action somewhat problematic.

extras and cameos: Knowledgeable historian, pretentious art student, clump of foreign tourists; Ex-con Forger, Hacker, Occult Bookstore Owner, Second-Story Man.

clues: Mysterious carved tablet recently put on display; obscure 17th century portrait that looks identical to a well-known billionaire; ancient weapon thick with legends.

rules effects: Spending a point of Art History allows the agent to befriend a museum administrator or art historian, giving them inside information about how the museum is run. Alarm systems range from Difficulty 2 to 6 against Infiltration tests, depending on the museum and the exhibit. Cinematic jewels or the main prize of the operation, of course, have multiple layers of security and a final, laser filled Difficulty 8 chamber.

in a fight: Ancient weapons and armor can still be used in combat; priceless statues too easily toppled; poles with velvet ropes still attached, used as crude bludgeons.in a chase: Dive through interactive exhibits of video and holograms; lift disguises from the museum gift shop; slow and mingle with the crowd as a maze of room displays blend into one another. 

Museum Backstory (core clue): this place has a peculiar reputation. It's privately owned and those guards aren't your standard retired cop looking for an easy gig.

Museum Backstory (point spend): This museum is privately funded by the Catholic Church. Certain dignitaries and experts are often seen here. Director's choice as to who that is. but it should be someone fairly significant, eg. Dracula Dossier's Mysterious Monsignor. The guards are former members of the Vatican's Rapid Intervention Group (GIR). Occult Studies will notice vampiric Banes in strategic locations.

The Meet Cute (Opening Scene)

The protagonists gather in a location assigned to them by their employer, probably a shady low-class hotel somewhere close to the Port of Ghent. It's the kind of place beloved by truck drivers and other transients who aren't here for tourism. This may be the first time any of them have met, though they may know each other's professional reputation. 

Whatever equipment they might need, including a vehicle, is supplied by their employer and can be found on site. A regular car, most likely, though if any of the agents have cherry level Mechanics they can specify that the car is souped-up or has a modification of their choice. Protagonists with specific equipment needs (the Hacker, the Wire Rat) can also have those supplied now.

The job is to hit the museum, grab a particular item (the McGuffin, assumed to be some kind of Dacian artefact of interest to the Conspiracy) as well as any other item(s) they see fit, and get across the border to France where the hand-off will take place in a warehouse not far from Lille.

Surprise Pregnancy (The Heist)

The agents hit the museum however they wish. 

On their way in they find themselves face-to-face with a significant, nemesis-level NPC. Perhaps it's the Mysterious Monsignor or someone of equivalent campaign importance. It might even be an Edom dignitary. The obvious one is Pearl, who was brought in by the Vatican to give his professional opinion regarding museum security. Whoever it may be, their mere presence in the scene ups Heat by 3 as alarm bells go off all across the continent, and this increases by a further 2 if that NPC is significantly injured (or, God forbid, killed) in the ensuing mayhem.

Additional complication: there is a Very Valuable Item, say, a diamond necklace, easily stolen. However, if the protagonists take it they incur the wrath of the owners, who lent it to the museum. The owners aren't the Conspiracy but they have access to considerable resources of their own, not all of them human. They launch a parallel chase, trying not to attract the attention of the authorities (or Edom or the Vatican) but they really want their McGuffin back and aren't fussy about the casualty rate. While this does complicate the protagonists' lives it opens up a Yojimbo option.

Why Choose? (The Hand-Off) 

Assuming the protagonists get away with it and get to that warehouse near Lille, they discover their mysterious employer mysteriously dead. At any rate, there's a corpse on the ground (possibly several) and their Telegram messages are going unanswered. Turns out there is a Third Party in the mix, the Conspiracy. The Conspiracy didn't want the heist, didn't need the headache it caused, but, well ... there is that McGuffin, all valuable and shiny ... gosh, it would be a shame to let it go back to that musty old museum ... you know what, let's just make lemonade out of these here lemons. In fact, if these resourceful little suns-of-guns want it, there's a job opportunity waiting for them in Lille. Of course, the benefits aren't great, but life itself is a benefit, don't you think?

The protagonists must make a choice. Do they want to work for the Conspiracy? If not, they'd better be prepared to go on the run, as of right this minute. 

In fact, not only will they be on the run from the Conspiracy, they'll also be on the run from the Vatican and whoever that other party was they unexpectedly ran into at the museum. If they carried out that Very Valuable Item robbery, well, that's another powerful enemy to worry about. Perils of greed, honestly.

For that matter, they still don't know who their mysterious employer was, or whether there's someone out there in the darkness connected with their mysterious employer who would really like to know what happened at that museum in Lille. So that's yet another complication to think about. 

Then of course there are the authorities. You know, EUROPOL. Who would like to arrest them. For crimes.

Gosh darn it all. If only the protagonists had some friends! 

That's it for this week Enjoy! 

The Legend (Night's Black Agents)

This week’s post is based on a recent article about a Russian spy who attempted to infiltrate the international criminal court (ICC) in the Netherlands, using the false identity of a Brazilian citizen that he had built up over more than a decade. 

A legend is basically exactly that. It’s the backstory, the plotline, the history that anyone who encounters the spy is meant to believe. The more elaborate the legend, the more believable it’s going to be – in theory, anyway. Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, the spy at the heart of this particular narrative, had a fairly elaborate backstory that covers everything from his dislike of fish to the crush he had on his high school teacher. Unfortunately, he wrote it all down. 

In a physical document. 

Which is now in the hands of the authorities.  

Oops. 

Probably the most famous legend of them all is the one used in 1943’s Operation Mincemeat. There the British went to great lengths to make it look as if the corpse they carefully planted for the Germans to find was in fact Captain (Acting Major) William Martin of the Royal Marines, assigned to Combined Operations Headquarters. They even went so far as to have someone else wear Martin’s uniform for several weeks, to give it that lived-in look, and made sure that love letters, a receipt for an engagement ring, and irate letters from his bank manager were all found on the corpse in addition to the fake military documents intended to foozle the Germans. 

There the intent was to make one man appear, in all ways, to be another. The most useful thing about this version of a legend is the subject doesn’t have to be alive to pull it off, though Operation Mincemeat’s planners were concerned that the body they used didn’t quite look fit enough to be a Marine nor did they have the luxury of time; they had to keep the body on ice but not frozen, and if they waited too long then decomposition would have given the game away. In the absolute ideal the stomach contents would also have matched the legend; the actual Martin died after eating bread crusts laced with rat poison. 

In Night’s Black Agents a legend is represented by the Cover ability. While this is usually shorthand for passports and driver’s licenses, in practice it’s everything from the subject’s pocket trash to their social media profile. Everything has to match and be plausible. Gone are the days when a prospective Jackal could steal a few passports and fake an identity using a dead man’s birth certificate. Now you have to really get creative, if you’re going to get close enough to take a shot at the head of state. 

I can spot an obvious use for Cover: an Achievement, as described in Double Tap. If you need reminding, an Achievement Refresh works like this:

1. when an agent meets the criteria for an achievement
2. and the player provides a colorful bit of roleplaying or hot-dogging
3. the agent gets a 3-point refresh of whichever General ability seems most appropriate.

In this instance:

Mincemeat. The agent makes it look as if their current Cover identity died, and the corpse stands up under forensic investigation.

Of course, it’s a little different for the Conspiracy. If the vampires have access to mesmerism, necromancy or similar then they don’t have to fake being, say, ASM Gordon of the Green Jackets; they can actually be ASM Gordon, assuming such a person exists.   

However, any advantage gained through supernatural means can be countered by supernatural means. If the agents can deploy a block or blow someone’s cover by seeing what they look like in a mirror’s reflection, that’s a problem. 

So for the Conspiracy attempting to penetrate an enemy agency or some neutral organization with useful intel hidden away, it may be better to fake it with a legend than try to brute force it with a zombie.  

With all that in mind: 

Dead Man Walking 

The agents are alerted by a Network contact that an agent of [a foreign power – pick the one you like] has been caught trying to infiltrate the International Criminal Court. Though the authorities are convinced this is a relatively ordinary espionage attempt, there is evidence to suggest that the infiltrator is a Conspiracy operative.  

There are two questions to answer. First, is this person really a spy (time for a Thrilling Interrogation scene), and second, if they are, does this mean they work for the Conspiracy or someone else? Of course, there’s the added challenge of trying to find all this out while at the same time keeping out of a Dutch jail; after all, the agents are spies themselves and it wouldn’t do to get caught. 

• Option One: yes, they are a spy, but no, they aren’t a Conspiracy asset. In fact, the whole point behind getting into the ICC is to make a play for a Conspiracy asset already embedded with the ICC. This asset knows what’s going on but is reluctant to make any overt play, since this might reveal their identity. From the Conspiracy asset’s perspective, the best outcome would be if the spy died and the agents were blamed for it. 
• Option Two: yes, they are a spy, and yes, they are a Conspiracy asset. The Conspiracy realizes it’s all gone a bit Pete Tong and want to tie up loose ends. That means a heavy squad is on their way to deal with the situation. The spy thinks the heavy squad is there for a rescue attempt; there’s a chance to flip the spy once it becomes obvious that the heavy squad is there to kill them. 
• Option Three: no, they aren’t a spy. They’re a corpse. The intent is to lure the agents out of hiding and feed them false intel, and it's up to the Director who's behind it. It could be the Conspiracy or another anti-vampire agency. Funny thing about that corpse; everything up to and including the pocket trash and stomach contents indicate the deceased is a Dutch journalist living in London. Except, if the agents dig a little deeper and check Forensic Pathology, they notice that judging by some background radiation information he spent his early years in Russia, probably Novosibirsk. How does a Dutch journalist manage that?

That’s it for this week. Enjoy!