Harrowed Halls

GM: Evil Mike, Cruel, Silver Tongued Devil
Samuel Smythe (Steve): Occult Branch, Polish National, the Healer & the Shooter
Balthazar Magnusson (Owen): Operations Branch, Swedish, The Lindquist/Forger & our Team Leader
Cyrus Lowenstein (Ben): Operations Branch, American, The Ladies Man & Tech Op
Nick Harmon (Mike): Occult Branch, American, (phony?) Combat Psychic & Thief

Over the last several weeks we’ve been witling down our list of need-to-do covert operations. This week it was finally time to begin the infiltration of the bio-weapons facility at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. Our mission was two-fold; steal a 3’ x 8’ box weighing around 220 pounds from an underground laboratory and “pollute” the facility’s research data by whatever means possible. (Lowenstein brought gasoline and baking soda.) As with all our missions we first started off with some information gathering.

Ben played an adventure card that gave us the lowdown on the facility and the surrounding area. Apparently the area was still highly radioactive and with rumors of mutated creatures wandering around. There was also a check point we had to pass through to get into Chernobyl. We spent a huge amount of time coming up with a plan to infiltrate the facility. Should we try to be official visitors? Should we try a high altitude midnight drop? Should Lowenstein be allowed to carry around a bunch of flammable liquid? All these questions and many others where asked and answered. In the end we went for the straight forward approach.

Using Lowenstein’s Tech Ops ability we obtained the name of the company regularly delivering supplies to the facility. Then Harmon, our thief, broke into the company and stole papers that Magnusson could forge so we could get pass the check point. He also stole a sizable amount of cash. I should mention that Harmon was a ghost during this assignment. I think he got a raise on just about every roll. He and Lowenstein also stole a truck from the company yard. They cut the lock to the fenced and drove the truck out into the night. When asked why they didn’t just break down the fence with the truck, Magnusson, our leader, was quoted as saying: “You want to know why? Because we’re professionals, that’s why!”

Magnusson’s forgeries were of the highest quality I’d ever seen. (And I saw the rolls to prove it.) Unfortunately the checkpoint guard was bored. Upon seeing my papers, he got suspicious and asked for further ID. My ID and a wad of stolen cash got me through the checkpoint just fine.

Magnusson managed to hit something on our way to facility. That something turned out to be a giant mutated Ukrainian snail—with acid slime. The slime was eating its way through our truck as we fired round after round into it. Magnusson tried to back away from it only to bump into its friend; a giant centipede. The battle was fierce, but we managed to kill both creatures and not ruin our truck.

Next time, we’ll be infiltrating the facility. That should go as smoothly as our other jobs. Why? Because we’re professionals.

Agent Smythe