Hello, and welcome to the game!

As discussed, we're starting this a bit in media res, so right now you've all already qualified yourself as PCs by surviving a big fucking mess going down in New Delhi. Who you are, what you came there to do, and what that mess is, exactly...we'll get there. For now, assuming you've all for one reason or another followed the strange woman named "Operations" onto her spy-plane, feel free to announce yourselves in the IC thread and we'll take it from there.

Mike, I apparently get a good hint of what our new French friend did or does. We looking at Foreign Legion, GIGN, or DGSE?

Luc started in the Foreign Legion, then did stints first in the DGSE and then the CIA. He now freelances and often acts as go-between for intelligence agencies.

Alright, the gang's all here.

I've shared a CharGen doc with you all. There's more good stuff at the NBA website that I'll be reviewing for possible use by us. I think Gumshoe 101 in particular is an essential read if the stuff I've slapped together makes no sense to you out of context.

For reference, there are somewhat different accounts of what a civilian-spec Dornier 328 does for speed, but Wikipedia mentions 620 km/h cruising, and God knows what a milspec airframe with the throttle all the way forward does, but I'm basically handwaving it to somewhere in the 900 km/h ballpark, which is probably as fast as anything turboprop can go - the Russians claim 925 km/h on their Tu-95 "Bear" and derivates, but I don't think there's an official speed record for that.

So the Wolfhound is not quite "twice as fast", but for something with props, it's roaring.

Updated everyone's Trust in the wiki. Also updated the Trust section in the CharGen doc with more info about what Trust does.

Alright, we're about ready to move on to the first proper mission. To speed up things, we'll make judicious use of two cinematic conventions: montage, and flashback. In-story, you now have about eleven hours to sift through CIA data, ask questions, make phonecalls and maybe get a little rest in. We're not gonna play that out. Instead, I would like for each of you to ask two questions (and name a corresponding investigative ability), and I will then write up what you find out along that line of inquiry. I will also let you designate a single contact with your Network ability for you to tap, if you so wish. If it turns out later on that you have a research question that you didn't ask here but which could reasonably have been answered here, we'll do a quick flashback and you can research the info that way. "Oh, right, actually I looked into that, here's what I found out..." The goal is to not let the intel gathering scudwork get in the way of you guys doing your thing.

I already have two questions each for Mason and Luc.

Mason asked: How is security at Varajev's apartment? via Tradecraft, and What sticks out about his activities in the last six months? with Notice, which - appropriately enough for Mason - turned into more of a Flirting question as he got into Varajev's relationship to some high-priced escorts.

Luc asked: What is Brahmvir Singh's connection to the various terrorist groups in play? via Interrogation, and What is the criminal landscape around Varajev in Amsterdam like? via Streetwise. Luc also spent a point of Streetwise to set up a friendly meeting with Pierre Niemans, a local...associate of the Unione Corse. Note that Pierre has not (yet) become a contact in Luc's Network, so there won't be any favors being done here - this is strictly quid pro quo, so make sure you bring your wallet. (And before you ask, you have a "reasonable" amount of Euros for "expenses".)

Tim, Blake, standing by for your questions!

For Blake:

What other places in Amsterdam does Varajev frequent, besides his apartment? (Streetwise)

What is Varajev planning to do next? (Electronic Surveillance, spending my solitary point here)

Okay.

Where can we get our on-site procurement on? (Streetwise, probably?)

Where can we go afterwards to throw off any heat (Urban Survival)?

I'm liking houseboats, guys.

I'm liking the plural there, though I'm hoping we don't need more than one. I vote houseboat regardless.

Anyway, I have a question for my fellow players: our only explicit objective so far is grab the briefcase. Do we want to add Varajev to that checklist? And if so, capture or croak?

Houseboat sounds cool.

Varajev: maybe grabbing him should be a secondary, and croaking a tertiary goal? I think he'd have some value alive.

Please note that Mason is supposed to be speaking Chechen, for which there is no Google Translate support yet. So I'm using Russian to fill in.

Real Chechen is actually nothing like Russian. Many Chechens do speak Russian, but the languages are otherwise not related. Sadly, Google Translate does not support any other members of the Northeastern Caucasus language family, either, so we're not even getting in the right ballpark. Now, GT does support Georgian, and arguably Georgian as a South Caucasus language might be closer, but at the end of the day it wouldn't be right either and I'm going with what I assume is better language support (and therefore better Russian) rather than a spottier Georgian translation that wouldn't be accurate to actual Chechen either.

My apologies to any native Chechen speakers who may stumble across this. No cultural imperialism intended.

In order to forestall lengthy "How do we do this"...if anyone already has an awesome plan to deal with Visser and the stuff in the warehouse, go ahead and propose it, otherwise I'm just gonna move on to the meeting with Luc and Blake up front, Mason and Tim on overwatch, and if anything goes down where Leverage would flash back to the blue-tinted "actual plan" scene, we do a Preparedness roll. It's more expedient for me and it means your characters can be played like they anticipated things no matter what curveballs your mean GM throws at you.

Mason's all for the "find it and burn the motherfucker down" plan. We don't have time to play patty-cake with the local mob when we have a nuclear war to avoid - if this can't be wrapped up tonight, he's all for breaking hearts and getting the mission done.

I like this, but I'd prefer to hear what the cargo is first, just in case there's a nasty surprise.

Speaking of which, anyone else looking at the van idling in the parking lot here and thinking 'Trojan Horse?'

I'm spending a Preparedness point to have us have previously set up a one-button "distress call" function on our burners - mash it, and Tim and I start making our way to you and securing an exit.

So when it comes to getting an ambush in, as Robert has mentioned in-thread, the usual go-tos for an ambush are Athletics, Conceal, and Infiltration, but these are the easy routes. You can do it with (almost) every other general ability. All it takes is a little creativity. Some actions could be utilized by multiple skills, too; Example:

Robert Müller
HtH: They handcuffed you, but they left the safety strap on their holster off. You grab the gun in a flash and start shooting.
Ross Castaneda
Ehh, that could be a Filch.
Robert Müller
True.
But I'd let it pass as HtH.

Robert came up with some examples in chat last night, and I'll provide some of them here with additions of my own that I think could pass muster.

Digital Intrusion: Reprogram the security system to close the shutters after the second person trips the sensors, then wait for the thief to enter before stepping in yourself. (Robert: you plugged a PWN Plug into the smart home hub as you came in. You tap your smartphone and bam, lights go out.)

Disguise: Use a disguise to get close, get their guard down, or just through the damn door. (Robert: "You know, we weren't expecting your visit, Major." "I know." *silenced gunshot*)

Driving/Piloting: Putting both here because, far as I can tell, the only way this qualifies is if the active vehicle is used to get closer to the target. This goes beyond a simple drive-by shooting, I think - Robert gave an example of ramping a boat into the wall of a drug lord's seaside home (something I hope we can actually do at some point) - so I figure riding a powered scooter through a restaurant to leave a little pineapple behind for a 'friend' and get out in a hurry could work just the same as crashing through a chainlink fence on a motorbike just in time to decapitate a street punk with a katana.

Explosive Devices: Turn someone's moonshine still into an IED. "Where...WHERE HAS RUM GONE?" (Robert: Who left that teddybear lying here? or, better question, who rigged it with a flashbang that goes off when the guard pokes it?)

Filch: Slip a live grenade into someone's pants? https://youtu.be/VDOu1983j-8?t=21m21s (Robert: Hey, my cell phone's ringing, give me a sec. Wait a minute, that's not *my* phone...)

Gambling: Trick them into a high-stakes card game, then shooting them from beneath the table. (Robert: uh...Bangkok rules? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue8TvvYik74)

HtH: Are you trying to mug me? With that stance? No no no, look, spread the feet apart a little more. More. Okay, good. *kick to the wide-open groin*

Mechanics: Hey buddy, could you look in there and see what's jamming the thresher? Yeah, just step right here...(Robert: Sabotage the ambassador's car so it stalls out when the driver turns off the ignition at the next signal.)

Medic: Fake a medical emergency well enough someone enters your cell to check up on you. (Robert: Hey, do you smell that? Smells like someone mixed up tear gas and put it in the A/C.)

Preparedness: Set off a bomb you surgically planted into a masked minion the day before.(Robert:...why am I standing on an X?)

Sense Trouble: Robert: that dude was totally tensing up to draw. Well, too slow, buddy!

Shooting: You haven't even taken the safety off, rookie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl8QrADdJfs

Shrink: Psychoanalyze the weak link into pointing the gun at his 'ally.' Bonus points if he actually shoots them. (Robert: Sure, they had you cornered - until you suckered one of them to get close and try to throttle you. Hello, human shield, and *hello*, loaded gun.)

Surveillance: the old "hey look a distraction" trick.

Weapons: Hey, want to see me juggle these knives? Oops! Seems I dropped one into your aorta. (Robert: hey, I know that a katana is not made for stabbing - but the shoji this guy was standing in front of doesn't know that.)

Feel free to come up with your own! Better yet, show them off in the thread. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find a good, sturdy but light speedboat I can launch into a crime lord's bedroom.

So if Tim wanted to sneak up on the van outside and break the window - and the driver - with a brick or something, that'd still basically be Infiltration?