Night's Black Agents Tournament 2013

Night's Black Agents Tournament, 6 July 2013, 10am

The Night's Black Agents tournament was in two parts, the first a larp, the second a tabletop, both run by John Adamus.

I had an 8 hour block marked for this one, 10 am - 6 pm, but things only ran half as long, which worked well for me, but possibly not so well for others. I don't know if the larp was always intended to be two hours, but I know that I'm not the only one who assumed that it would run for four hours. I suspect that four hours was allotted for the game, but things ran faster than anticipated.

Each of the players chose a character based on nationality and stats / skills. We also received a random envelop with material inside letting us know if we were an agent, as we appeared to be, or a mole, or something else. I don't recall what all of the categories were. I chose to be a Russian, Bella Jaye, I think specializing in social skills (**need to find my character sheet to know for sure), and my envelope informed me that, in this run of the game, Bella was a mole.

This meant that Bella had been compromised by the vampires and those who worked for them. She needed to:

1. Kill / Bring about the death of an agent
2. Wake the Vampire Queen

Failure meant that she, her entire family, and many strangers would be killed by the conspiracy. Success meant that she might be allowed to become a vampire.

Meanwhile, agents of various nationalities were meeting in Turkey, right near the Turkish-Syrian border. My notes say:

• British -- One of their agents had been kidnapped. They wanted to secure the agent's release.
• Turkish -- The meeting was taking place on their land (Turkish-Syrian border).
• Americans -- What you'd think.
• Germans -- They want people to play nice.
• Russians -- Us.

The GM came up to me and the man playing my fellow Russian agent and informed us that Russia had been the one to kidnap the British agent. This was good to know.

Bella's fellow agent, Mina (it was fine to rename and regender the agents as desired), was played by Mike, a man who told me that he wasn't much good at the talking, but was a sneaky bastard. As I'd chosen a character who could talk to people and am not great at strategy and tactics, this worked out reasonably well. He'd point me at people and tell me what to ask; I'd go, make nice with people, and report back with information.

One of the things he had me find out, from the GM, was: Just why _did_ Russia take the British agent?

It's a very good question, and one that never actually occurred to me until he asked it. It turns out that Russia was paid by Syrian rebels to take the agent. Or, at least, Russia was paid by people claiming to be Syrian rebels.

There was a group of Syrian rebels massing outside the building everyone was in, with guards, presumably Turkish, on the other side of the building. And then, things got progressively more chaotic.

Every time Bella returned to Mina, he had just done or was about to do something that destabilized the situation even more. This boggled Bella (and me), but she went along with everything, as it didn't jeopardize her secret goals. You'd think I'd have figured out what was going on, but I didn't.

Bella talked to people, made nice, spread any information she had no reason to hide, and quietly saw about arranging to stay in Turkey, if it became necessary. This wasn't an attempt to hide from the vampires, which would have been futile, but to look more useful to the Turkish and to get a way out if she needed to part ways with her fellow agent.

Meanwhile, I think Mina arranged to have the motor pool set on fire -- my notes are somewhat contradictory on what and whether anything was on fire. There were some inhumanly strong people who attacked some of the agents, though not Bella and Mina, and I think wanted to take one somewhere. I'm not really clear on that, though.

Then, there was an empty crater by the gate, and the base was under heavy attack by Syrian or "Syrian" troops. Mina arranged for two uniforms, Syrian, I think, so that Mina and Bella could open the gate to the Syrians, then take cover outside the base. This they did, looking through field glasses at the chaos.

Someone, probably Mina, said "slaughter whomever you like", and one of the Russians, I forget which, took a headshot at one of the Germans, killing him. Bella had a back up plan for goal #1, which was killing herself, as she was technically an agent, but was just as glad not to need it. And, raising the vampire queen was clearly for part two.

As part one ended, was were told that survivors

1. Heal completely and Refresh everything
2. Give chips back (I think the chips were the dice equivalent)
3. Meet back at noon for the tabletop which was part two

The larp, part one, went about an hour and forty-five minutes. It was fun, if chaotic, but there were a couple of issues.

1. Anyone who had signed up for part two only -- and folks could sign up for either or both parts -- pretty much missed the tournament. After all, with an 8 hour slot and no further explanation, the logical assumption is that part two starts at 2 pm. Actually, it started at noon, and ended at about 2 pm. I think one person showed up for the tabletop alone, and what happened was that they ran a session for him and anyone with the time and inclination to get more NBA in.

2. It wasn't clear that even if one's character died in the larp, one could still play in the tabletop. I think only one person whose character died in part one showed up for part two, but I'm not sure whether he was the only one who understood that he could or whether everyone else had other things to do.

The folks playing the Turkish agents "elected to leave the base as they have other commitments".

Noon: Part 2, Night's Black Agents

• GM: John Adamus
• Mike: Mina, Russian
• Me: Bella Jaye, Russian
• Jonathan Bagelman: Simon Temple, British
• Darren: Tony Norris, I forget the nationality. British?
• Mike C: Chuck, British
• Niko: Glenn Clarke, USA

My notes say something about a Queenside weak opening, Castling Queenside, Sarayossan, and chess moves. I have no idea what I meant.

There were some things the group knew.

1. Clearly the "Syrian Rebels" were not, in fact, Syrian
2. The USA organized a drone strike that blew up the motor pool et cetera. I had thought that was us (i.e., the Russians).
3. There were unearthed Hittite artifacts, from a dig at a site a quarter of a mile away
4. The Turks didn't like any of the group, but they left.
5. There were only a few scant survivors, i.e., the PCs, I think.

The group had or knew that the dig had uncovered an item that looked like an Obsidian football. Everyone was in the building's cafeteria.

I think Mina opened up some kind of magical gate beneath the cafeteria.

Mina: Here they come!

Someone else: Cease and desist!

Someone else: DO NOT OPEN ANY MORE GATES!

Understandably, folks were not happy with Mina, but when threatened, the Russian agent revealed that he was wearing a vest of explosives with a timer counting down. Everyone, including Bella, who still had no idea why Mina was doing any of this, ran out the door and got a helicopter to airlift them to the dig site.

Meanwhile, inside the cafeteria, the clock counted down.

3... 2... 1... Boom.

That is, the display read "Boom." Mina had not planned to go up in a blaze of glory.

Bella protested her ignorance, truthfully, and Mina rejoined the group. I forget the details of the how. As for why the group allowed this, I'm not really sure. I think everyone had the philosophy expressed by Mike C. that it was a "dick move" to kill off a fellow PC unless it was absolutely necessary. Certainly, folks bent over backwards not to do this, despite their PCs having some reason to do it.

The helicopter flew to the GPS coordinates for the dig site. There was a huge excavated pit and a large well maintained empty parking lot. My notes say:

1. British say Hittite archaeological dig based in runes of Carcemish
2. Digging most recently stopped, 6 months, because they found something and didn't know what to do with it

Found in the lower strata of the dig: Lots of Hittite art on the wall. The largest piece was headless. There was a series of images of an unknown couple offering sacrifices to a being on a throne. The couple, the being, or both were green with webbed hands and feet.

I think someone made a 2 point Archaeology spend to learn that the being on the throne was likely a Really Bad Thing. My notes mention a dragon, a Hittite Sea Deity.

Someone: Sunday School for Dragon -- that's awesome!

And there was an image showing either the dragon or someone bipedal kneeling before the smaller woman on throne. Impaled peoples were all around, adorning stakes.

My notes say "Lilith", which I'm guessing was the name of the being depicted on the throne, the vampire queen. The group decided to go down. There were at least a couple of elevators that could take people down. The level folks started on had lights, generators, and office and storage rooms.

While folks were going down, Tony rigged the place to blow up at his signal. We all knew this OOC, but none of us knew it IC, and we were all good at sticking to that. I think we appreciated the irony of it. My notes indicate six charges and say "No breeze -- something brushed past him".

Meanwhile, Mina and Chuck were in the same elevator, and I'm a little vague now on what happened, but I think it involved Mina pulling a weapon, Chuck getting the other hand, and Mike C. bending very far backwards to convince himself / help the other Mike / Mina convince him that he didn't need to kill off a fellow PC.

My notes say "The Whiskey Slap" and have the following exchange whose context I forget:

Are you sure you're not a Russian? I am not a Russian -- I am pragmatic.

Eventually, everyone met up below. The digging had been halted at 302 meters. My notes indicate that the group found the throne in the wall painting, although it wasn't currently occupied, and that someone used Digital Intrusion to do something.

I forget the context, but I wrote down the following exchange:

One of the British: People complain about the -English- sense of humor!

Someone else: That involves -tea-, not -bombs-!

I forget the context of this:

Simon -- you do know this is a fucking bad idea.

I'm guessing it's what the GM said to Simon / Simon's player, but I utterly forget the context. In any case, the area was generally thought to be abandoned for millennia. It was often used to hide and store nuclear waste by the Turkish. My notes mention a Geiger counter, but even if it were ticking, that was really the least of everyone's warnings.

My notes mention something about Linear B, and how a restoration of a city required the sphere. The sphere was almost certainly the obsidian football. I think the city was all around the characters, underground. There was a requirement for a willing sacrifice, I believe.

There was a picture of a cityscape on the north wall and of an ocean cape and a few people at the shoreline with their back to the city on the south wall. There were also two stamped Nazi gold bars. Mind, this was not that remarkable, as the room had, at a rough estimate, 21.2 tons of gold.

There were also, if I read my notes correctly, two pairs of doors. I think Chuck and Mina went through one, while the others looked at some kind of protective circle of warding. Possibly one of the others did some kind of blood magic. I know that Bella tried to use her own blood to mess that up.

Someone: She got blood in our blood collection.

Meanwhile, Chuck and Mina were struggling over the obsidian sphere.

Someone: Sphere fight!

There was a female form, I think lying on a table, and there was a place for the sphere to go. Mina managed, despite Chuck's best efforts, to put the sphere in its place.

Mina: My Queen!

Mina was a willing sacrifice for the vampire queen, for that was who the figure was. And now, I understood why Mina had been acting so oddly -- like Bella, Mina was a mole. The player had gotten the same material I had, had decided Mina didn't care about family or innocents, but very much wanted to aid the vampires. I'm still not sure why Mina did some of the more outrageous things, like openly appearing to open a gate and pretending to be rigged to blow.

I'm not sure if the player assumed I was or was not a mole. Josh noted, when I gave him a summary of what happened, that Mina's actions made it harder for Bella to help, as, quite understandably, the rest of the characters were now suspicious of both Russians. And, they were correct.

The vampire queen had arisen, and I believe she killed Chuck. I think a UV lamp was capable of keeping her at bay.

Everyone except for Tony died in short order. I forget who killed Bella, but it was one of the other PCs, and it was absolutely the right course of action. The moment she heard Mina in the next room loudly welcoming the queen back, Bella shed all pretense of being on anyone's side except for the vampire's.

My notes say "BOOM! In the elevator!" I'm assuming this meant there was some kind of explosion intended to take out, or at least slow down, the vampire queen. I'm not sure whether it worked, but Tony was able to set off the charges he'd rigged and to escape. His quick thinking saved the area, if not the world, from the rise of the vampire queen.

The player also figured out what the conspiracy's full plan was. The idea was that the vampire queen could use blood magic to control Dagon or Cthulhu, depending on which mythos one followed. If she had been able to remain awake, she would have raised the underground city and conquered the world. This had happed more than once before. I think it was how civilizations like Carthage had been destroyed. Also, the hoard of gold and artworks was her personal stash of stuff from previous ages when she'd ruled the world.

Now, technically, if you were to ask me who won the tournament, I'd have said Darren, as his PC both survived and triumphed. But, Ken Hite said that there would be five winners, as there were five prizes. This worked out well: There were six players, but Mike C. noted that he was staff. The prize was a free membership to the 2013 Metatopia and the 2014 Dreamation and DexCon. The way he got such memberships was that he would call Vinnie to say he was coming to the convention. He puts in more than enough hours volunteering. So, he recused himself. This left five players and five prizes, something no one objected to.