LogDead Drop Vienna-Jason-1

Game log for the 2020-08-09 session of Dead Drop: Vienna, as taken by Jason

Maribelle once came across a site in Algeria where the bodies of many exsanguinated children were found. The children had been in the care of the Catholic Church and then gone missing, though nobody could figure out precisely how that happened. The guy responsible was Father Umberto Cardonini. She tried to follow up on it, but her superiors were not real interested.

Our group has been freelancing in Vienna for a while, making ends meet, occasionally doing a little work for SCECE. Maribelle's reading the paper and sees that there's an upcoming Franciscan conclave in town. One of visiting VIPs will be Father Umberto Cardonini, from Trieste, Italy. It's happening at an old estate that's now a Catholic facility, often used as a VIP retreat.

She tries to find more information about this gathering, but doesn't come up with anything. Her usual contacts don't pay attention to this sort of thing. Winston's study of available information discovers that this conclave is the brainchild of an Austrian bishop named Werner Heisen. The site has been in the possession of the Church for a very long time, and it's up in the foothills about 45 minutes away from our hideout. He also finds out that the Fransiscans in Trieste seem very well funded. Wilmer goes and looks into the financials surrounding the estate. This attracts some attention, but he successfully claims that it's relating to international trade and some suspicious about subsidies contrary to trade agreements. There's a catering company frequently contracted for events in the area, which just happens to be owned by a prominent local Catholic family. This company /family, Gutschmecker, may deliver catering services in kind as a tithe. Ditch asks his underworld contacts about the church in Trieste, to see if anyone there shouldn't ought to be there, and finds that a suspicious number of Yugoslavian girls end up in the Church school run by this organization. There's some Russian mafia involvement there. There's some blowback from asking questions, but Ditch worked through cutouts. His cutout ends up dead. Easy come, easy go! The appearance of the dead body does not suggest interrogation, so Ditch thinks he's OK. Betts studies to see if anything else anomalous is going on. She surveils Father Umberto as he arrives, and follows him to St Stephen's Church. He enters the confessional booth, stays in there a while, and when the door opens, someone else exits, in a leather jacket with a butterfly collar. Then a priest goes in, and then Father Cardonini comes out. Clearly he met with someone, and she gets pictures. She loses the trail after that, though.

Wilmer and Winston want to bug the convocation. Ditch agrees, and the rest of the team falls in line. We decide to break in in the dead of night, meaning it's the stealth plan on the estate, with medium loads. Lisa gets a full success, meaning we enter in a controlled position. This is an old villa, kind of neo-Classical, in very scenic location in the foothills. There's a main chalet, and some outbuildings connected by a cloistered courtyard, with grounds and a surrounding wall. We're able to get over the wall and get to the outbuildings without any sigh of security. We can see the main drive up from the road, town cars parked out front, a fountain, and a couple guards smoking. We know from the timing that not all guests have arrived yet. The building we've arrived at seems to be the kitche, and it's dead quiet.

Wilmer searches the kitchen to see what food has been brought in. It all looks normal, just fancy food to make a nice meal for a lot of VIPs. We also see that Umberto doesn't eat fish. Maribelle takes photos of that information. The rest of the team infiltrate deeper into the compound, with a critical success and great effect. It turns out that the security devices used to keep us from tampering with the alarm are American, and Ditch knows that design inside and out. We basically have freedom of movement throughout. We bug the lounge / meeting room, dining room, terrace, and men's bathroom. Wilmer notices that there's a basement fallout shelter, but it's locked. Betts tries to pick the lock, but can't figure it out, until Maribelle gives her a couple pointers. With a little help, Betts gets through, exposing a spiral staircase leading down.

The door at the end of the passage is like unto an airtight door. We enter and there are a dozen cots and other typical accountrements. There's a second door leading out, though, which is not so usual. It's airtight but not locked and the two doors are not interlinked. When Maribelle opens it, there's a long hallway that slopes down. When she turns on the lights outside the door, she sees that the passage runs straight for at least a quarter of a mile. It smells dank, unlike the shelter itself. She goes in and heads for the other end, which has another door. This door is wired, but Betts and Mirabelle can bypass it without showing evidence of their handiwork.

They open the door without tripping anything, and they're in a shallow cave, and they can see that the outside of the hatch is made to blend into the rock. It's a hidden escape. Winston ponders and figures the exit would be about 50 yards from the road. This is deep enough underground that no transmitter would reach out, so we plant recording devices set to voice activation. We exit through that secret hatch so that we won't be discovered, and hike to the car. We're gone by 3:30am.