LogDead Drop Vienna-Jason-11

Game log for the 2020-11-01 session of Dead Drop: Vienna, as taken by Jason

Winston starts researching our next target, Dr. Bruno Augenstein. Unfortunately, many things about him turn out to be classified. He was born in 1923, entered Brown early and graduated in 1943, finished CalTech two years later, and that's it. We can see he was stateside during the war, but not what he was working on.

Maribelle sets up surveillance on his place of business in Menlo Park, posing as someone looking for office space. Dr A gets picked up by a car service at 6:15am, whisked away, works a day, and leaves work at 5:30pm, every single day.

Wilmer digs into Augenstein's financials and finds that he founded Spectravision in 1971. It's a consulting firm for satellite intelligence and commercial imagery. Investors for the company seem to be a web of shell companies, as we've come to expect from this conspiracy. A few of those companies, like a Lebanese import/export bank, have come up before. He also finds that one of the projects they're working on, somewhat as a byproduct of other research, is an X-ray resistant cloth. Hey, that could enable us to carry more stuff without it being detected!

Ditch tries to show up at Spectravision posing as a CIA spook who wants to look into that material for classified purposes. Gwendolyn, their marketing person, is pleased to inform him that Dr Augenstein himself has agreed to make time to talk to him. The Doc is in his fifties but doesn't look a day over 40. He demonstrates a holster made of their fancy fabric that lets him take a .38 right through a metal detector. Ditch makes him repeat the test with the gun out of the holster, just to be sure, and Augenstein proves that the holster makes the difference. When Augenstein tries to suss out why the CIA wants the stuff, Ditch makes references to work in South America. The doctor also makes some references to "the team" which Ditch realizes are not references to the government of the United States.

Angel finds an acquaintance who lives in that area and schmoozes with her to get more detail on the area.

Our engagement role is a full success.

We decide to go in as window cleaners, then come in from the top. Security is busy watching the game and just waves us through. We have no trouble gaining roof access, then rapelling down and getting access to the fifth floor. We almost immediately notice that there are cameras we have to work around, and Wilmer (who's disguised himself with some jowl-broadening putty and a handlebar mustache) almost has a coronary trying to yank Maribelle back before she steps into one's field of view.

Getting into the lab means getting through some safety glass. Ditch comes up with a way to rig a charge to blow quietly, with tamper muffling the blast. Unfortunately he realizes that the flash and shrapnel will be visible on camera and aborts the blast. We're going to need a better idea. Maribelle takes a stroll around the office to see if anyone left a passkey in their desk. She can only search cubicles on one side due to camera position, and unfortunately, she doesn't find anything.

After a little failed brainstorming, Ditch borrows a wrecking bar from Maribelle and he just yanks the door right off its hinges. At this point we assume we're triggered an alarm and go into speed mode. We find cloth in an upright locker, which we steal, and then swarm into a room that had a light on. When Ditch rounds a corner, there's someone sitting in a chair in a dark room, maybe ten feet away.

Ditch tries to leap on the guy, but the target's insanely quick. Before he gets there, Dr Augenstein's standing up, grabbing Ditch by the neck, and mocking him a little. Maribelle tries to hit with the crowbar, but Augenstein uses Ditch as a human shield. Wilmer comes through the door next and shoots the Doc with a silver bullet. Augenstein flings Ditch across the room, hisses, and charges Wilmer. Winston tries to take a shot but misses. As Wilmer tries to back up out of the vampire's way, he bumps into Winston, which makes it hard to dodge, and he takes some damage. Angel moves in and gets between Wilmer and Winston.

Ditch goes after Augenstein from behind with his machete, and hits him square on, but the wound doesn't seem to be proportionally severe. Augenstein grabs Wilmer by the neck, and though Wilmer shoots him with another couple pistol rounds, that just seems to make the vampire angrier. Maribelle shoots him in a back, at which point he lets go of Wilmer and charges right through one of the glass walls. Winston shoots him as he runs and Augenstein goes down. Winston runs over and shoots him a couple more times. Ditch comes over and starts hacking through Augenstein's neck. He notices that the bullet holes are bleeding whereas the machete wounds heal quick. Winston comes over to hold the Doctor down so that Ditch will have an easier time of it. Ditch swings again and takes the vampire's head off. The resulting fountain of smoking gore is... memorable.

Maribelle unloads the fabric we need and rushes it to the window. She's just barely able to point out that we some of the ropes have gotten tangled in time to avoid a calamity. Angel directs people to their ropes and in minutes, we've all gotten to the van. A rent-a-cop opens fire on the van. Angel takes a bullet but her armor means it's not a big deal.

As we talk on the way out, Ditch remembers that Augenstein specifically said, "So, Mr Moore, it was you who stole my fabric." That's weird.

When we get back, Father Thomas reports, through our secure channels, being nervous about the number of large Russian men in the Vatican lately.

Some of the papers we stole have the RAND Corporation letterhead on them, enough so to lead us to conclude that RAND is involved in the conspiracy.

During downtime, Ditch comes to Rome and helps out with that burly Russian problem that Father Thomas had discussed. Gitch also calls Grace to help treat Wilmer's crushed hyoid bone. Wilmer's recovery looks likely to take a little while - but then we find time and resources to keep him in treatment, and he bounces right back.