Frankie Dragon
08 November 2009 @ 11:38 am
From Russia With Love: Session 3  

14 September 1982 (Sunday)
Preparations
Bond and Salinen prepare to infiltrate the Soviet consulate, steal the SPECKTOR decoder and rescue Tatiana. Their plan is to sneak onto the consulate ground at around midnight; incapacitate two of the Russian guards during the change of shift and steal their uniforms; wait for Kerim Bey's men to pull off a citywide power cut shortly after midnight; then sneak into the basement area of the consulate during the confusion. They will overcome any resistance they encounter, rescue Tatiana and steal the SPECKTOR. Once they are out of the consulate grounds and clear, Kerim will order one of his men to detonate the naval mine beneath the consulate,destroying the basement and erasing any evidence that the agents were ever there and covering their theft of the SPECKTOR. Once out, the agents plan to take the next Orient Express out of Istanbul.

Examining the location of the consulate grounds, the agents decide to gain entry by scaling down the walls of the two neighbouring buildings. Salinen decides to climb down the apartment block bordering the northern side while Bond decides to climb down the mosque on the eastern side. Kerim Bey provides the agents with rope and climbing equipment, and is even able to provide Salinen with a pair of nightvision goggles to aid the infiltration of the basement.

Action Stations
At 11:30, Kerim's son Taksim drives Kerim and the agents to the city block where the consulate is located. The agents tell him to stay a hundred metres down the road, and to be ready for them at any time after the planned power cut at 12:15. Salinen and Bond split up, Salinen going to the apartment block and Bond to the neraby mosque.

The agents get the rooves of their respective buildings without much trouble. From the rooftops, they can see three Russian guards standing in front of the entracne to the consulate and a fourth conducting a perimeter sweep around the consulate grounds. Shortly after 11:45, the agents abseil down the sides of their buildings and into the consulate grounds; Bond dropping in behind the perimeter guard and Salinen in front of the guard. Salinen hides behind one of the prefab accomodation buildings and waits.

The guard walks headway into Salinen's ambush, but Salinen's attempts to swiftly knock him out are unsuccessful. Caught in a brawl with an intruder, the guard shouts out to his colleagues. Salinen eventually overcomes the guard by brutally (and repeatedly) bludgeoning him on the head with his pistol butt. Bond joins Salinen, but by this stage the other guards are alerted to the disturbance and come to investigate.

Bond takes out two of the three remaining guards with his silenced pistol while Salinen strips the unconscious perimeter guard and changes into his uniform. The final guard is tricked into coming to Salinen's aid when Salinen pretends to be an injured guard, and Bond shoots him. Bond then dons one of the guards' uniforms and the two agents break into the consulate building itself.

15 September 1982 (Monday)
The Basement
The two agents wait in the darkness for Kerim's power cut. While waiting, they hear someone enter the consulate building and head down the stairs. Shortly afterwards, the blackout happens. The agents spring into action, weaving their way through the offices of the consulate, and descending the stairway leading down to the basement area.

The basement area is plunged in darkness and confusion. Salinen leads the way, wearing his nightvision goggles, while Bond follows, clutching Salinen's belt. Salinen quickly dispatches the first guard they encounter when the sound of his rifle being cocked gives away the fact that he's hiding behind the corner of the first entranceway of the basement area. Salinen and Bond make their way towards the Signals Room, where the SPECKTOR is kept, but first need to get past its Security Room antechamber. They quickly shoot and kill the guard manning that room, just before the emergency generator kicks in and the lights are restored.

Salinen activates a fire alarm to add to the confusion, then sets off to find Tatiana, first shooting and then executing a KGB interrogator along the way. Eventually he finds her, stretched out on a gurney in the Interrogations Room, stripped to her underwear, insensible from a cocktail of interrogation drugs. Salinen tries to wake her, with little success. He then finds a notepad full of handwritten notes in Cyrillic, which he pockets, before he starts to get Tatiana back into her clothes.

Bond, meanwhile, makes his way inside the Signals Room, where he quickly finds the SPECKTOR, sitting on a bench alongside half a dozen other cryptographic devices. He is suddenly interrupted by Boris Krilencu, escaped from his gypsy captors, who springs into the room from an adjacent vault. A firefight erupts; Bond tips over the bench to use it as cover, while Krilencu hides behind the desks used by the cryptographic clerks. The firefight ends when Krilencu charges Bond in desperation and Bond shoots Krilencu in the chest, killing the KGB flunkie. Bond takes the SPECKTOR, rejoins Salinen and the still unconscious Tatiana, and the three climb the stairway out of the basement.

A Brief Respite
Salinen and Bond walk past a confused group of consulate office workers who live within the consulate grounds, milling outside, wondering about the kerfuffle within. Bond and Salinen ignore their questions (they can't speak Russian anyway) and drag-pull Tatiana out of the front gates and into Taksim's waiting car, a hundred metres down the road. Kerim Bey is waiting for them in the front passenger's seat; he explains that they have another hour before the next Orient Express is due to leave Istanbul's Sirkeci train station. The agents ask if they can go somewhere to get changed out of their Russian uniforms and Bey agrees to take them back to their safe house for a quick rest. As they drive away, Kerim speaks to another of his sons on a walkie-talkie. There is a deep, resounding 'crump' and the consulate building implodes upon itself as the mine beneath it explodes.

At the safe house, the agents change clothes and dispose of their Russian uniforms. Bey gives the agents false passports and travel documents; Salinen is to travel under the name Somerset and Bond under the name Smith. Salinen gives the handwritten notes he collected from the interrogation room to Bey and asks him to get a translation. Bey arranges for the notes to be sent to an acquaintance of his who can translate them; te translation will be returned to one of his sons.

Into the West
The agents, the still-unconscious Tatiana and Bey make it to Sirceki station just in time to ctach the 2 a.m. departure of the Orient Express. The agents are exhausted as they have been on the move since well before dawn of the previous day, and barely have a chance to enjoy the luxurious decadence of the train. The train is set to pass through Sofia, Bulgaria; Belgrade, Yugoslavia; enter Italy and stop in Venice and Milan; pass through Switzerland, stopping at Lausanne; and finally terminate in Paris.

Bey has booked two cabins aboard the Express, next door to one another. Salinen and Tatiana take one cabin, Bey and Bond the other. Once the agents and Tatiana are settled in, Bey excuses himself to make a call to M.I.6. He returns 15 minutes later with a sombre face, and asks Salinen to join him and Bond in their cabin, leaving the sleeping Tatiana alone.

Bey explains that M.I.6 has intercepted Soviet communiques which state that there is a KGB agent aboard the Express. A number of Bulgarian agents are set to board the train at Sofia. Whether this is because the Soviets are aware of the agents and the SPECKTOR's presence aboard the train, or whether this is simply an example of KGB thoroughness is unsure. M's orders are for the agents to stay aboard the train and make contact with an M.I.6 agent who will board the train at Belgrade. The agent has been working in Yugoslavia for the last ten years and knows the Balkans region like the back of his hand. He will have an escape plan to get the agents and the SPECKTOR safely off the train and into Western Europe.

Bey has further news regarding Tatiana. The handwritten notes that Salinen recovered have been translated and forwarded to M.I.6. They were the notes of Tatiana's KGB interrogator. They state that during Tatiana's interrogation she insisted that she was acting under the orders of Colonel Klebb of Department V. Bond recognises the name as belonging to Rosa Klebb, one of the most senior officers in Department V of the KGB, formerly known as SMERSH, the KGB's feared assassination section. Kerim goes on to say that the notes mentioned that Klebb herself had defected from the Soviet Union 6 months ago - something of which Tatiana seemed unaware. Bey questions whether Tatiana can be trusted. Salinen defends her, pointing out that the notes mention nothing about him or the plan to steal the SPECKTOR.

Aware that their mission is far from over, the agents agree to remain in their cabins and not to draw any undue attention to themselves. They will take all their meals in their cabins and identify themselves to each other by a special door knock. They will lie low until the Belgrade agent makes contact with them and shares his escape plan.

It is now well after 3 a.m. Salinen returns to the cabin he shares with Tatiana and falls into a well-deserved sleep. Bey has a long discussion with the conductor and bribes him handsomely to hand over the passenger manifest. He finds a name he recognises - Benz - amongst the passengers. If it is the same Benz he knows, he is an associate of Krilencu and a KGB agent. Bey briefly contemplates taking the initiative and paying Benz a visit, but is convinced otherwise by Bond, who believes they should continue to lie low.

Murder on the Orient Express
The Express stops at Sofia in the morning, and continues on its way westward. The agents remain in their cabins, the tension steadily building as they know the train is now swarming with enemy agents. Tatiana finally awakes from her drug-induced stupor, firstly disoriented and confused, then terrified as memories of the last 24 hours come flooding back. Salinen comforts her and reasures her that they're on their way to western Europe and freedom.

Later that day, as the Express draws closer to Belgrade, Bond notices a suspicious looking man hovering about in the passageway outside the agents' cabins. He draws Bey's attention to the man, an Bey identifies him as Benz. Thinking quickly, Bond apprehends the man, forcing him at gunpoint into the cabin he shares with Bey. Bey gags Benz and ties him up, and commences an interrogation. In the meantime, Bond slips next door to discuss developments with Salinen.

While the two M.I.6 agents discuss their options, they hear gunshots coming from the Bond's cabin. Bond rushes back and discovers Bey and Benz both dead, having apparently shot each other - Benz had a pistol contraption hidden underneath his shirtsleeve. Bond disposes of Benz's body, shoving it through the cabin's window. Unwilling to dispose of Bey's body int he same way, he wraps him in a sheet and leaves him on his bed.

Salinen is shocked and distraught at the news of Bey's death. The agents decide to take no further chances. Bond transfers the SPECKTOR to Salinen and Tatiana's cabin, and the three hunker down as the Express draws into Belgrade station and wait for M's agent to make contact.

Malcolm Nash
15 minutes after the Express pulls away from Belgrade, there is a knock on the agents' cabin door. A tall, broad-shouldered blonde man with a healthy tan enters and introduces himself as Captain Malcolm Nash. He uses the codephrase 'azure,' meaning he comes with orders directly from M. The agents welcome him in.

Nash explains that he's been ordered to help the agents escape the train and get back to Britain with a vital piece of equipment, but aside from that he knows nothing else. Herding the agents to a corner of the cabin, away from Tatiana, Nash explains his escape plan to them. As the Express approaches the Italian border, it will pass over a hill. The gradient of the hill is such that the train must slow to a near-walking pace. Nash and the agents will jump from the train at that point and meet Nash's associate, who will drive them to a boat. It will then be a simple matter of boaing across the Adriatic into Venice, and making contact with the local station house. There's one catch with his plan, though: the girl isn't coming. Bond and Salinen object to this, arguing that Tatiana constitutes a greater security risk if she is left aboard the train than if she is taken back to Britain. Nash points out that she's connected with Colonel Klebb but Bond and Salinen are adamant. There's a further argument as the agents first try to convince Nash to bring Bey's body with them, and then to dump Bey's body in a place where they can collect it for a proper funeral later. Nash, bewildered by the agents' demands, reluctantly accedes.

As the Express is still several hours away from the Italian border, the agents order a meal to their cabin. Nash pours champagne for everyone and toasts the success of their mission. The meal is delicious, and Tatiana drifts off to sleep shortly afterwards. However, Bond and Salinen also feel decidedly drowsy and Bond realises that their champagne was drugged, probably with sodium amytal. Before they can take action, however, they both fall unconscious.

The Web Revealed
Some time later, Salinen is awoken by a kick in the ribs from 'Nash.' Nash is holding Bond's gun and explains that Salinen has fallen hook, line and sinker into a trap laid by his most powerful enemy - TAROT. Salinen has made too many enemies, with killing Doctor No in Jamaica the previous year and interrupting their business in the Bahamas earlier this year. TAROT decided to take action. Not only will they kill Salinen, Bond and Tatiana, making it look like a three-way love affair gone wrong, they'll also steal the SPECKTOR and sell i to the hightest bidder, thus turning in a tidy profit for the scheme. Nash produces a roll of film from his jacket, which he claims was taken when Salinen and Tatiana were making love in his hotel in Istanbul.

'Nash' then reveals his nasty side, promising to torture Salinen and not kill him until he crawls along the floor and kisses Nash's boot. Salinen glances at Bond, lying unconscious on the floor to Nash's right, and cries out, "Bond!" The distraction this causes Nash is tiny, but enough. Salinen launches himself at Nash, who immediately fires, catching Salinen in the arm, but Salinen knocks the pistol away and it slides under Tatiana's bed.

A vicious, desperate brawl breaks out between Salinen and Nash. Nash takes advantage of Salinen's wound and begins to choke him with a garotte contraption built into his watch, but the commotion serves only to drag Bond out of his drugged state. Bond is able to pull himself out of his torpor to attack Nash; the distraction is enough to help Salinen force his way out of Nash's garotte. A three-way brawl ensues between Nash, Salinen and Bond which sees the plates and knives from their dinner used as improvised weapons. Bond draws both commando knives from his and Salinen's attache cases but, despite the two-on-one disadvantage, Nash proves to be a resourceful, tenacious fighter who repulses everything the M.I.6 agents throw at him. He is only overcome when Salinen, having used an attache case to shield himself from Nash's knife attacks, opens it in his face and activates the tear gas cannister inside. Nash is incapacitated by the gas, and Salinen slits his throat to finish him off. Nash's body is unceremoniously dumped out of the window.

Escape to Venice
The agents wake the groggy Tatiana and decide to utilise Nash's escape plan. They gather the SPECKTOR, wait for the train to decelerate, then, when it is travelling at no more than walking pace, jump off the train.

The agents quickly find Nash's waiting contact; a Yugoslavian farmer driving a beaten-up flatbed truck. Bond bribes him with gold sovereigns from his attache case to take the three of them to Nash's waiting escape boat. The farmer willingly agrees, driving the agents and Tatiana to the coast, where a speedboat awaits them. The three board the boat and cast off, heading west for the Italy.

Shortly into their journey, the agents notice they are being followed by three speedboats flying the TAROT banner. One of the drivers of the pursuing boats hails the agents, demanding that they slow to a stop. The agents responding by loosing the barrels of petrol strapped to their boat into the water, and detonating them with shots from Bond's pistol. The resulting explosion and conflagration sets the pursuing boats alight.  Bond, Salinen and Tatiana are free to pilot the boat into Italian waters.

The agents arrive in Venice and check in with headquarters.  M orders them to contact the local station house, who will arrange for the SPECKTOR to be returned to Britain in the diplomatic bag.  Arrangements are made for Tatiana to be debriefed and to take up a new identity in Britain, and the agents are awarded two weeks leave before they are required to return to their duties in London.

NPC Checklist
Rosa Klebb:  Major Villain.  Former KGB officer, now defected to TAROT.  At large.
"Malcolm Nash":  Privileged Henchman.  Executed by David Salinen after being knocked out in a fight aboard the Orient Express.
Boris Krilencu:  Henchman.  Killed by Shane Bond during a gunfight at the Soviet Consulate in Istanbul.

Kerim Bey:  Head of M.I.6's Station T Turkey.  Killed by KGB agent Benz aboard the Orient Express.
Tatiana Romanova:  Fully debriefed by M.I.6, who have facilitated her defection to the United Kingdom.

Experience and Fame Points
Each character receives 2000 experience points (500 for sessions 1 and 2 and 1000 for session 3).
David Salinen receives 28 fame points (3 for completing the mission, 10 for killing 'Malcolm Nash,' 15 for killing three people).
Shane Bond receives 8 fame points (3 for completing the mission, 5 for killing Boris Krilencu).
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Frankie Dragon
25 October 2009 @ 10:34 am
From Russia With Love: Session 2  

13 September 1982 (Saturday)

The Gypsies
Following the bomb attack on Bey's office, Bey takes David Salinen and Shane Bond to a safehouse on the outskirts of Istanbul. Firooz, one of Bey's sons, collects their luggage and equipment from the Hotel Intercontinental. After discussing a number of plans to get the SPECKTOR and Tatiana out of the Russian Consulate, the agents retire for the night.

Over breakfast in the morning, Bey tells the agents that he feels Istanbul has become too dangerous. The unofficial truce that had held between his men and the Soviets has been shattered with yesterday's murder of the Bulgarian and the attempt on Bey's life. Bey tells the agents they should leave the city for a day - he will take them to a camp of gypsies with whom he is friendly. The gypsies are also some of his best informants, and Bey wants to know where Krilencu is based. Bey's son Taksim will collect the map of the lower floor of the Russian Consulate from Tatiana, as arranged.

Bey sends one of his sons westwards in his Rolls Royce with people dressed in Bey's and the agents' clothes as a decoy, while Bey himself drives the agents eastwards to the gypsy camp in a Citroen. The journey takes an hour and a half; when the agents arrive they find themselves in an old, dilapadated fort which now houses about a hundred gypsies. Their leader, a large man called Vavra, is an old friend of Bey and welcomes them warmly.

The gypsies are preparing a large feast for that night and the agents are invited to stay. There is a warning, though: two of the gypsy girls have a blood feud that is to be settled that night. They each love the chief's son, and will fight to the death for him after the feast.

By mid afternoon, Bey's son Taksim arrives at the gypsy camp with Tatiana's plan of the lower level of the Russian Consulate. He also has a handwritten note from Tatiana: She will be at the Saint Sophia Mosque at 11:00 o'clock tomorrow.

A Fight to the Death
That evening, after a sumptuous meal, the two feuding gypsy girls, Zora and Vida, are brought out from their respective wagons.  The girls can barely restrain their hatred for one another, and at a word from their chief, they attack each other in a brutal, no-holds-barred brawl.

Having been warned by Bey not to interfere, Bond and Salinen can only watch on in fascinated dread as first one girl gains the advantage, and then the other.  Just when it seems Zora is about to deal the final blow, however, a huge lorry bursts in through the gates of the compiundm sending the gypsies scattering.  Armed men - the Bulgarians, led by Krilencu - pour from the back of the lorry and attack the gypsies. 

A brief firefight ensues, followed by vicious hand-to-hand fighting between the Bulgars and the gypsies.  Krilencu, shooting from a vantage point atop the lorry, shoots Bey in the arm.  Salinen and Bond join the fray, only to see Krilencu and his men climb into the lorry and drive away.  Salinen and Bond leap into Bey's Citroen and give chase.

The agents pursue the Bulgarians along the winding roads that lead from the gypsy camp.  After a brutal firefight, the Bulgars' lorry is forced off the road and the agents' Citoren is rendered virtually undriveable.  Bond and Salinen storm the lorry and Salinen shoots and kills one of Krilencu's men.  The three rmeaining Bulgars surrender without a fight, but Krilencu himself escapes into the surrounding forest.  The agents tie up the Bulgars, carry out running repairs to the Citroen, and return to the gypsy camp.

The agents return to a hearty welcome from Vavra, who declares them to be "true gypsies."  While Salinen's wounds are tended by Zora and Vida, the feuding girls, Bond attempts to interrogate the Bulgarian prisoners.  When he makes no headway, he hands them over to the less-than-tender attentions of Vavra's gypsies.  Bond and Salinen then retire for the night.

14 September 1982 (Sunday)

Krilencu
Bey wakes the agents at around 4 in the morning.  The gypsies have been able to get some answers out of the Bulgars - the target of their attack on the gypsy camp was Bey himself, in retaliation for the murder of the Bulgarian on Friday.  Also, the gypsies have reported that they have been unable to find Krilencu in the forest - he has stolen a farmer's car and returned to Istanbul.  They do know, however, where he is currently hiding - an apartment in a building only a few blocks away from the Russian Consulate.  The agents decide that they should go and pay him a visit. 

By the time the agents and Bey return to Istanbul it is just before dawn.  Bey brings the agents to the apartment building in which Krilencu is holed up; one side of the building is covered in a giant movie poster for the film Body Heat, dominated by Kathleen Turner's sultry visage.  Bey explains that he will bribe a police officer to knock on Krilencu's door and demand entry.  Krilencu will probably try to flee; he and the agents can intercept him when he does.

The plan goes perfectly.  When the officer disturbs Krilencu, he escapes from his apartment using a trap door, which opens between Kathleen Turner's lips on the poster.  He clmbers down a rope ladder to the footpath below, only to be met by a waiting Bond and Salinen.  They handcuff Krilencu and return him to Bey's car, where Bey can barely disguise his desire to kill the Bulgarian assassin there and then.

After a brief discussion, the agents decide that Bey and Bond will take Krilencu back to the gypsy camp where they can carry out a thorough interrogation.  Meanwhile Salinen will remain in the city to make his rendezvous with Tatiana at the Saint Sophia Mosque.  They agree to meet back at Bey's safe house in the afternoon.

Interrogation
It is mid-morning by the time Bey and Bond arrive back at the gypsy camp with their prisoner.  Bond immediately sets about interrogating Krilencu, telling him that Bey and the agents had nothing to do with the murder of the Bulgarian on Friday.  Krilencu believes none of it.  Bond then demands to know everything that Krilencu knows about the lower level of the Russian Consulate, particularly in respect of security.  Krilencu is initially obstinate, but caves in when Bond threatens him with torture at the hands of the gypsies.  He tells Bond about the various video cameras, motion detectors and guard details of the KGB station house.  He also tells Bond that he hides his Consulate pass, which gives him access to the Consulate signals room, in an old tea tin in his apartment.  When Bond questions him specifically about the SPECKTOR device, it becomes clear to Krilencu what the agents' real target is.

When Bond discusses the intelligence garnered from Krilencu with Bey, Bey notes that whatever happens, Krilencu knows too much and cannot be allowed to live.  Bey suggests that after 24 hours, if no further information can be gotten out of Krilencu, that he be executed.  Bond reluctantly agrees.

Saint Sophia Mosque
Meanwhile, Salinen arrives at the grand Saint Sophia Mosque at 11.00 am.  It takes him a few minutes to find Tatiana, standing alone in the solemn silence of the museum.  He sidles alongside her and the two conduct a hushed conversation. 

Salinen thanks Tatiana for providing them with a map.  He then confides in her about several possible plans to get her and the SPECKTOR out of the Russian Consulate.  If a maintenance problem could be manufactured, either he or Bond could penetrate the lower level posing as servicemen.  Tatiana points out that the problem would need to be localised to the signals room, since that is where the SPECKTOR is kept - and the KGB would never allow anyone into the room without proper vetting.  Salinen then mentions the possibility of Tatiana faking a heart attack or some kind of seizure, so that he could pose as a paramedic - a suggestion to which Tatiana reacts with horror, protesting that she is a cypher clerk, not an actress.  Besides, if she was to suffer such a collapse, the Consulate staff would immediately take her to the ground level floor.

Tatiana eventually suggests that it is not enough for the SPECKTOR to merely be taken; the Soviets must not even realise it has been taken.  She suggests that the whole signals room must be destroyed to cover their tracks.  Salinen asks Tatiana to get as much information as she can about security on the lower level of the Consulate, such as how often the guards are rotated, the total number of officers, and, in case they need to smuggle the SPECKTOR away covertly, where the dumb waiter is on that level.  The two agree to meet at the Mosque again the next day at the same time.

Escape Plan
Salinen returns to the Bey's safe house, where Bey and Bond return a few hours later.  Bey raises the question of how the agents intend to get Tatiana and the SPECKTOR out of Turkey and back to Britain - he believes flying will be too risky since the Russians will be keeping a tight watch on the airport, and travelling by road too slow.  Bey recommends a less predictable escape route, something that would not occur to his "unimaginative Russian friends:"  leaving Istanbul either by the Orient Express or by boat.  Bond and Salinen agree that the Orient Express is the less predictable, and therefore the favoured, choice.

Best Laid Plans
By late afternoon, Abdul, one of Bey's sons, arrives at the safe house in an exciteable rush.  He has been monitoring the lower level of the Consulate via his father's underground periscope and has seen that Tatiana has been pulled in by the KGB for questioning.  She is to undergo interrogation.  Bey surmises that her Soviet employers must have seen something to make them suspicious; he wonders whether she was spotted talking to Salinen at Saint Sophia Mosque. 

Tatiana's capture forces the agents to take action sooner than they would have liked.  They reason that Tatiana will not be able to withstand an interrogation or torture at the hands of the KGB and they must take action immediately.  They plan to infiltrate the Consulate grounds that night by impersonating Soviet soldiers.  Bey will arrange for a power cut to the Consulate premises.  In the confusion, the agents will head to the lower levels, incapacitating anyone who stands in their way.  They will rescue Tatiana, recover the SPECKTOR, then set off the Consulate's fire alarm.  Hopefully that will give anyone remaining in the building a chance to get away - before Kerim detonates the naval mine he has installed in the catacombs beneath the building.  The resulting explosion, the agents hope, will be sufficient to destroy the whole building and cover up the disappearance of the SPECKTOR.

Grimly, the agents prepare for a night of violence...
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Frankie Dragon
04 October 2009 @ 03:27 pm
From Russia With Love: Session 1  

10 September 1982 (Wednesday)

The Love Letter
Three months have passed since the events of Operation Thunderball. Since then, the M.I.6 team comprising of David Salinen, Simon Montrose and Sean Lochlain has split up. Montrose has resigned his position and returned to a role in Military Intelligence, assisting in the aftermath of the Falklands War. Sean Lochlain has been reassigned to another, top secret, assignment. Of the original team, David Salinen is the only one who has returned to the offices in the building overlooking Regents Park that houses the British Secret Intelligence Service. In the intervening months Salinen has been assigned a new partner: Shane Bond, a laconic former police officer (and one-time aspiring cricketer) from New Zealand.

It is a cool autumn morning when Salinen and Bond receive Miss Moneypenny's summons to M's office. When they arrive, M asks Salinen what he knows about a Tatiana Romanova. When Salinen equivocates, M pushes further, asking whether she's one of his contacts, an informant, or someone he's previously 'fraternised' with.

When Salinen concludes that he doesn't recognise the name, M tells the agents that M.I.6 has received a letter apparently sent from Tatiana Romanova, a Russian citizen working as a cryptographic clerk for the Soviet consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The contents of the letter are both bizzarre and incredible: Tatiana claims to have fallen in love with Salinen based on his file photograph; she wants Salinen to come to Turkey to help her defect to the West. She also offers to bring with her a SPECKTOR decoding device - the Soviet Union's most advanced cryptological equipment. M hands the agents Tatiana's letter, together with a photograph of herself that she sent with it - Tatiana is undoubtedly a beautiful young woman.

While M has obvious suspicions that the whole situation is some sort of trap, he feels that the bait of a SPECKTOR is simply too tempting to pass up. If M.I.6 can obtain a SPECKTOR without the Soviets' knowledge, their entire communications network would be compromised. Besides, he reasons, Salinen and Bond will have the advantage of knowing in all probability that it's a trap. They are to go to Istanbul, make contact with Romanova, and do whatever it takes to bring the SPECKTOR back to the United Kingdom. If Romanova is genuine, and if the opportunity presents itself, they should also bring her back as her knowledge as a Soviet cryptographic clerk may be valuable. The agents are to liaise with Kerim Bey, the head of M.I.6's station house in Istanbul. M wishes them luck, warns them to watch their backs, and sends them to Q Branch.

Salinen and Bond then visit Q Branch, where an irate Q issues them with their latest piece of equipment: An attache case with hidden compartments containing 50 gold sovereigns, a knife, an assemblable survival rifle, and a cartridge of tear gas that will explode if the case is opened improperly.

11 September 1982 (Thursday) 

Arrival in Istanbul
Salinen and Bond touch down at Ataturk International Airport at 2:30 pm local time. They are met at the airport by Taksim Bey, Kerim Bey's eldest son. Taksim explains that Kerim uses all of his sons as his agents. As Taksim drives Salinen and Bond to Kerim Bey's station house through the chaotic streets of Istanbul, the agents notice that they are being tailed by a swarthy, mustachioed man in a black Citroen. Taksim laughs this off, explaining that the tail is one of the Bulgarians the Soviets use as their agents - the two sides tail each other as a matter of course in Istanbul, and there is an uneasy truce between them.

Taksim delivers the agents to Kerim Bey's station house, which is disguised as a carpet emporium in the middle of the bustling Kapali Carsi bazaar. Salinen and Bond enter Kerim Bey's office, where they interrupt Bey bidding farewell to a beautiful woman to whom he has obviously just made love.

Once Bey's lady friend leaves, Bey welcomes the agents to Istanbul. Kerim Bey is a large, jovial, exuberant man with a wealth of experience and a weight of influence in Istanbul. Bey shares M's suspicions that all is not as it seems in respect of Tatiana's offer to defect with the SPECKTOR. He tells the agents that security at the Soviet Consulate is "tighter than a new boot," and it will not be easy, even if Tatiana is genuine, to spirit the SPECKTOR away.

Bond and Salinen ask Bey about the Soviet consulate and the KGB's activities in the area. Bey explains that the Soviet consul, Vladimir Spassky, is a greasy opportunist who was 'banished' to Istanbul after some kind of minor scandal in Moscow. He takes every opportunity to ingratiate himself with anyone of influence, and to this end the consulate holds a black-tie ball every Friday. The agents ask Bey whether he can use his contacts to get them invitations to the ball. Bey says it will be difficult, but he will do his best.

Bey further explains that the KGB's Bulgarian heavies are led by a man called Krilencu, a ruthless killer who is responsible for the murder of two of Bey's sons.

The agents ask Bey what he knows about Tatiana. Bey confesses that he doesn't recognise the name, but he certainly recognises her when shown her photo. Bey confides that several years ago he was able to have a periscope installed underneath the Soviet consulate. The periscope grants him a view into the conference room of the KGB station house located in the consulate's basement. He offers to show them the periscope, and Bond and Salinen readily accept.

The Catacombs
Taksim drives Bey, Bond and Salinen to a sewer entrance a few blocks away from the consulate. Bey produces the key to unlock the padlock to the entrance and leads the agents into the pitch-black catacombs below the streets of Istanbul. Bey navigates the agents through the labyrinthine catacombs until they eventually reach their destination: a World War II-era periscope that leads up into the ceiling and into the basement of the consulate above. Salinen also notices an ancient World War II-era naval mine attached to the vaulted ceiling; Bey explains that he has left orders with his sons that if he is killed by the Soviets or their Bulgarian agents they are to detonate the mine in response.

The agents look through the periscope and observe the consul, Spassky, in discussion with a pair of uniformed Soviet officers. After a while, Salinen sees Tatiana enter the room: She is tall, beautiful, and walks with the grace of a dancer. She takes a memo from Spassky and leaves the room with it, presumably to encode and send it as a message. The agents also catch a glimpse of Krilencu, a tall, balding man with a Hitler-esque moustache, when he comes into the room to discuss a matter with Spassky.

Having seen everything they need to see, the agents and Bey leave the catacombs. Taksim drives the agents to their hotel, The Intercontinental, where they check in. Bey arranges to pick them up at 8 o'clock for dinner.

Tatiana
The evening passes uneventfully. Bey takes the agents to dinner at one of his favourite restaurants, where they have a delicious meal of steak tartare. The agents are returned to their hotel at around 11:30.

Upon returning to his room, Salinen discovers his door unlocked and ajar. He proceeds inside and sees that the light in his bedroom is on. He asks "who's there?" and is answered by a girl's coquettish giggle. He enters and finds Tatiana lying on his bed, naked aside from a single thin black choker around her neck. Tatiana comments that he's even more handsome in person than he is in his photo, and begins to try to make love to him. Despite Tatiana's obvious beauty, apparent compliance, and his orders to do "whatever it takes to get the SPECKTOR," Salinen stops her and questions her about her motives. Tatiana is confused by Salinen's reluctance and insists that she loves him and that her desire to defect is genuine. She does tell him, though, that getting the SPECKTOR out of the consulate will be dangerous and will require careful planning. When Salinen questions whether living under Soviet rule is so bad, she becomes frustrated and petulantly asks him whether he is an idiot. Despite this, Salinen eventually caves in and responds to Tatiana's insistent advances.

After they have made love, Tatiana dresses and tells Salinen that she must return to her apartment before the consulate security services notice she is missing. Salinen wants her to stay to discuss the SPECKTOR and how they can get it out. Tatiana tells him that they will need a special pass to access the lower levels of the consulate. Salinen asks her to get one; she says she will try, but if she is caught, it might jeopardise the whole plan.

12 September 1982 (Friday) 

Murder in Istanbul
Salinen meets Bond for breakfast in the hotel restaurant, and Salinen relates his encounter with Tatiana.  The two agents go to Kerim Bey's station house, where Kerim has good news for them:  He has been able to secure invitations for them to the Soviet consular ball that evening.  The agents then ask Kerim to return them to the catacombs where they can monitor the KGB conference room via Kerim's periscope.  Kerim obliges and Taksim drives them all to the sewer entrance.

After several boring hours of inactivity, the agents see the KGB station house thrown into an uproar.  Curious, they return to the surface where Taksim confirms that something has just happened at the consulate.  Driving the short distance to the Soviet consulate, the agents see that an area on the street in front of the consulate has been cordoned off by Turkish police and a crowd of curious onlookers have gathered around the scene.  Kerim and Taksim speak to the locals and report that a short time ago, an unmarked car pulled up, dumped a body in front of the consulate, and drove off.  The Russian staff of the consulate quickly gathered up the body and took it inside, but not before eyewitnesses saw it:  It was the Bulgarian who had tailed the agents from the airport yesterday.

A shocked Kerim leads the agents away from the consulate and takes them to lunch at a cafe overlooking the Bosphorous.  Kerim insists that he gave no order to any of his sons to kill the Bulgar; even if he had, dumping the body in front of the consulate like that would be a brazen act of provocation certain to end the uneasy truce between his side and the Russians.  Salinen and Bond speculate that perhaps a third party is in play, or perhaps the Bulgar's murder is completely unrelated and is merely an unfortunate coincidence.  Either way, Kerim muses, Krilencu and his men will be looking for swift revenge.

The Consular Ball
Bond and Salinen arrive at the Soviet Consulate just after 7 pm, resplendent in their tuxedoes.  They are ushered inside by Soviet guards armed with automatic rifles - security has no doubt been tightened following the morning's events.

Entering the ballroom, the agents are greeted by the consul himself, Vladimir Spassky.  Spassky bids them welcome and accepts a few choice compliments from Bond, before they move on.  The agents notice Krilencu in th corner of the ballroom, looking uncomfortable and sweaty in an ill-fitting suit.  Krilencu, however, doesn't seem to notice them.

Bond and Salinen split up and begin snooping around the consulate, fast-talking their ways out of tight situations whenever the consulate guards turn up.  Bond goes through one of the offices and finds and pockets for himself a blue-coloured consulate pass, as does Salinen.  Salinen does a poor job of trying to pick the locks to various locked rooms leading deeper inside the consulate, several times having his improvised lockpicking equipment snap and break off in the lock.  At one point Salinen sees one of Krilencu's men whisper something into his ear, and the two of them leave the consular building and leave the grounds in a black Citroen.  Nevertheless, the two agents spend several hours snooping around the consulate, discovering a dumb waiter from the kitchen that serves both the dining room on the upper level of the building and the basement level, and a set of stairs leading down into the basement level.  The agents contemplate ditching Tatiana from their plans and making a move to capture the SPECKTOR by themselves, but when they see a pair of security cameras monitoring the stairs, however, they decide to fall back until they have a firm plan in mind.

Just as the two agents are leaving the consulate building, Bond decides to investigate the prefabricated accomodation units located on the consular grounds.  Salinen distracts the guards posted at the consulate building while Bond darts across to the poorly-lit prefabs.  Peering through the window of the first prefab, Bond finds the lovely Tatiana, apparently confined to quarters.  Bond taps on the window to get Tatiana's attention; despite her initial shock she readily opens the window when Bond motions for her to do so.  Bond sees that it only opens an inch or so; Tatiana appears to be a virtual prisoner in the apartment.  Bond tells her that he's a friend of Salinen's.  Tatiana explains that the consulate security services discovered that she didn't get home to her apartment until after midnight last night.  After the incident with the Bulgar's body this morning, she has been ordered to stay on the consulate grounds until further notice - "for her own security."

Tatiana tells Bond that he and Salinen will need consular passes to access the basement level of the consulate.  Bond says that they have already found consular passes, but Tatiana tells him that there are two levels of clearance, one for the upper levels of the consulate and one for the basement.  He will almost certainly only have the upper level pass.  Tatiana then tells him that she is drawing a diagram of the basement for Salinen, but now that she is confined to the consular grounds she doesn't know how to get it to him.  Bond tells her that tomorrow they will arrange for a distraction to occur precisely at 1 pm, while she is on her lunch break; she can throw the plan over the fence and Bond will arrange for someone to collect it.  Tatiana agrees to this plan.

An Unpleasant End to the Evening
It is approaching midnight when Bond and Salinen return to the station house to check in with Kerim Bey.  As they enter the Kapali Carsi bazaar Bond sees Krilencu's black Citroen leaving the bazaar, coming from the direction of Bey's office.  Their suspicions immediately aroused, Salinen grabs a nearby bicycle to tail the Citroen while Bond runs to Bey's office.

Bond bursts into the station house only to find that he has walked in on Bey making love to his mistress.  Bond quickly exits, and Bey, after making himself decent, lets him in again.  Just as Bond relays his concern that Krilencu may be nearby, a bomb explodes on the outer wall of Bey's office.  Both Bey and Bond are thrown against the wall by the blast and showered in broken glass; Bond escpaes serious injury but Bey is knocked unconscious.  Bey's mistress, Johara, becomes hysterical.  As Bond regathers his wits, he realises that the bomb was planted to destroy the corner of the office where Bey's desk is located - where he would normally be if he hadn't been entertaining Johara.

Salinen, having lost track of the Citroen, returns to the office to find it half-destroyed.  There is no trace of Krilencu or any of his men.  Bond tries to tell the onlookers who have gathered outside to call for an ambulance.  Bey comes to, and immediately dismisses any suggestion that he should get an ambulance.  Taksim arrives to check on his father and survey the damage.  An ambulance arrives and Johara is sedated and taken to hospital.

Bey, worried that this escalation in violence with the Bulgarians will threaten not only his safety but those of his sons, neighbours and associates, tells the agents that they must leave Istanbul.  Not only will this give a chance for tensions to dissipate, it will also give them time to formulate a plan of action against Krilencu.  Bond points out that someone will need to collect Tatiana's plan of the basement of the consulate - Kerim says that he will arrange for one of his sons to carry out the operation.

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Frankie Dragon
27 January 2009 @ 05:14 pm
World Events: June to August 1982  
June
6:  Israel invades Lebanon in what its military calls “Operation Peace for the Galilee.”  The United Nations Security Council demands that Israel withdraw its troops immediately, while condemning aggression on both sides. Israel ignores the demand.
8:  In the Falklands conflict, the British ship RFA Sir Galahad is sunk, killing 48.
12:  A rally against nuclear weapons draws 750,000 to Central Park in New York.
13:  The 1982 Football World Cup kicks off in Spain.
14:  The Falklands War ends as United Kingdom forces capture Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands.
18:  Leopoldo Galtieri, military dictator of Argentina, resigns in the wake of the Falklands War.
21:  The United Kingdom celebrates as Princess Diana gives birth to Prince William.

July
3:  Train drivers across the United Kingdom go on strike over work hours.
4:  Four Iranian diplomats are kidnapped during the Israeli invasion in Lebanon.
9:  An intruder named Michael Fagan breaks into Buckingham Palace, evades security, and enters Queen Elizabeth II’s bedroom, waking the sleeping Queen. Despite being unable to contact police on her bedroom telephone, Her Majesty chats calmly with Fagan for about ten minutes before he is discovered.
11:  Italy beats West Germany 3-1 to win the 1982 Football World Cup.
15:  Geoffrey Prime, an employee of the Government Communications Headquarters, is arrested for both espionage and for sexual offences against children. He is found to have been spying for the Soviet Union and is convicted on all charges. He is sentenced to 38 years in prison.
18:  British train drivers resume work after their strike.
19:  The Queen’s bodyguard resigns after his relationship with a male prostitute is discovered.
20:  Two bombs are detonated in Central London, killing 8 soldiers, wounding 47, and killing 7 horses. The Provisional IRA claims responsibility.

August
4:  The United Nations Security Council censures Israel over its continuing invasion of Lebanon.
17:  The first Compact Discs go on sale, in Germany.
20:  Amidst the ongoing war between Israel and Lebanon, a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the PLO’s withdrawal from Lebanon.
21:  Billionaire industrialist Sir Hugo Drax wins a multi-million pound contract to provide equipment and materiel to NASA for the construction of its next-generation space shuttles Challenger, Discovery and Atlantis.
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Frankie Dragon
26 January 2009 @ 02:27 pm
Thunderball: Session 4  

25 May 1982

The Disused Well
Following their unsuccessful search of the Disco Volante for the missing warheads, David Salinen, Simon Montrose and Sean Lochlain stole an underwater sled and searching for an opening in the rock wall of the bay that will lead up into the disused well in Palmyra.

It is after midnight and pitch black underwater. Nevertheless the agents find an opening in the rock wall after only ten minutes of searching. The openin is too narrow to take the underwater sled through, so the agents abandon it on the floor of the bay and swim through the opening.

The agents surface in a pool at the bottom of the supposedly disused well in Palmyra. They find diving equipment stashed here, confirming Domino's suspicions that Giovanni Di Fortelli and his men have been using the well to secretly access the bay. The agents climb to the top of the well, only to discover that they are surrounded by Di Fortelli's men. Di Fortelli steps forward with a distraught Domino - it is clear that Domino has given the agents away - and, to the agents' surprise, the very alive Francois Derval. Salinen is confused by this turn of events, as he discovered Derval's dog tags around the neck of the corpse he discovered in the cockpit of the F-117 the previous day. He is further confused when Derval castigates the agents in front of Domino as being Soviet spies, one of which - he pointedly stares at Montrose - has had the temerity to try to seduce her to compromise Derval and Di Fortelli's mission.

Di Fortelli orders that the agents are disarmed. They are tied up and marched aboard the Disco Volante, where they are imprisoned in the brig. The Disco Volante heads out to open sea.

The Pirates' Atoll
After several hours, Di Fortelli and Derval come to the brig to gloat over the agents. Di Fortelli tells them that Paula Caplan, their MI6 colleague whom Vargas had kidnapped the previous evening, is now dead - she killed herself with cyanide rather than face TAROT interrogators. Di Fortelli goes on to explain that their actions have forced him to accelerate his schedule. He will collect the warheads and attack TAROT's targets now rather than this evening, as he feels that the agents' actions constitute a repudiation by NATO of the terms of the ransom.

Eventually, shortly after sunrise, the Disco Volante weighs anchor close to a small, rocky atoll in the middle of the ocean. The characters are brought up onto deck and ferried across to the atoll via dinghy. Di Fortelli and Derval follow closely behind. The characters are forced into a cave on the atoll, and down a trapdoor which has been built into the cave floor. The trapdoor drops into a small cavern with a rapidly rising pool of water. Di Fortelli explains that the atoll was used in the 17th and 18th centuries by smugglers and pirates (drawing the retort from Lochlain, "it still is!") to hide booty and contraband from the Crown. Derval departs with a final remark that "the warheads are safe and sound, hidden in a castle at the bottom of the sea!" The trapdoor is then locked shut, and the agents are left to their fates.

Montrose uses the miniature rebreather given to him by Q, and dives into the pool, searching for an underwater exit from the cavern. He eventually finds one, and leads the way for the other agents through the narrow, twisting, turning, jagged passage. The journey is a slow and painful one - the agents' rebreathers fail just as the end is within sight - but Montrose, the strongest swimmer amongst the agents, is able to reach the surface, replenish his lungs with his fresh air, then dive again to help pull the others through.

Exhausted and oxygen-weak, the agents swim back to the atoll. The Disco Volante is now little more than a shadow on the horizon. Montrose realises that Derval's parting words were a reference to the wreck of the SS Yarmouth Castle, a cruise ship which caught fire and sunk en route to Nassau in the mid-1960s, and that Di Fortelli must have hidden the warheads there. Salinen swallows his pill-sized homing device, hoping that Felix Leiter will be able to pick up on the signal. The agents start a makeshift fire to act as a beacon.

The Battle of the Yarmouth Castle
After a couple of hours, the agents see a Bahamian Coast Guard helicopter on the horizon. Sure enough, the helicopter has been commandeered by Felix, and the helicopter drops a rope ladder for the agents to clamber aboard.

Montrose tells Felix and the pilot that they suspect that the Disco Volante is heading to the wreck of the Yarmouth Castle to collect the warheads. They further suspect that Di Fortelli's first target is Miami, as that is the closest large American city. The agents change into fresh wetsuits and arm themselves with knives and spearguns en route to the wreck. Salinen takes Leiter's revolver, in case they need a firearm aboard the Disco Volante.

The agents' instincts prove correct; when the helicopter comes within range of the wreck, they see the Disco Volante anchored practically atop the wreck site. A lengthy discussion takes place among the agents, as Salinen proposes that they try to fly the helicopter into the side of the Disco Volante with the intention of disabling the yacht until the Coast Guard can arrive. Eventually cooler heads prevail and the agents dive into the sea to confront the TAROT divers underwater.

The agents see that a team of TAROT divers has already retrieved the warheads and are returning them to the Disco Volante with an underwater sled. Half a dozen TAROT frogmen intercept the agents and a brutal underwater fight begins. Spears fly to and fro as the agents battle the frogmen in fierce knife-to-knife combat, eventually overcoming them. Collecting the frogmen's underwater scooters, the agents make a beeline for the Disco Volante and the warheads. They are only just able grab onto rigging trailin off the back end of the boat and haul themselves onto the aft deck as the Disco Volante powers up and speeds off, raising itself onto hydrofoils and picking up incredible speed for such a large ship.

Confrontation Aboard the Disco Volante
After catching their breaths, the agents head belowdecks, searching for a means to disable the ship. They come across a computer room manned by three TAROT sailors; they take the sailors by surprise and Salinen holds them by gunpoint. One sailor tries to make a run for it; Lochlain shoots him through the leg with his speargun. The ruckus brings three more sailors into the room. Salinen quickly destrys the computer terminal with the butt of his pistol. Lochlain pulls his spear out of the wounded sailor's leg, dives behind a couch, and reloads his speargun. Salinen and Montrose enter a bloody, vicious brawl with the sailors, slashing and hacking their way through a brutal melee. Lochlain eventually finishes reloading, charges into the brawl, and shoots one of the sailors in the chest at point blank range.

Once the dust clears, Salinen strips out of his torn, bloody wetsuit and changes into a slightly-less-bloody sailor's uniform. The agents move on to the next room for'ard, where they easily overpower a couple of TAROT sailors. They peek into the equipment room which they visited on their earlier raid on the Disco Volante, and see that it is staffed mainly by technicians.

The agents take stock and re-evaluate the situation, eventually deciding that their best course of action is to try and take the bridge. They return to the aft deck, and discover that while they were belowdecks, a missile launcher has emerged from one of the upper decks. The agents realise that Di Fortelli must be preparing to launch one of the nuclear-armed tomahawk missiles shortly.

Evading TAROT sailors, the agents make their way to the bridge on the upper deck. Peeking into the bridge from a hidden position, Lochlain sees Derval at the helm, with Vargas and three other TAROT sailors nearby. Taking Leiter's revolver from Salinen, Lochlain takes careful aim at Derval and shoots twice. derval is saved by the first shot when one of the sailors inadvertently steps forward and takes the bullet in the temple. Derval dives away, saving himself from the second shot.

Pandemonium breaks out on the bridge. Derval flees out the other side of the bridge, while Vargas and the sailors take the agents on in hand-to-hand combat. Salinen deals Vargas a savage slash across the chest, then sets off in pursuit of Derval. He chases him onto the starboard gangway and throws his knife at him. The knife grazes Derval's arm, but doesn't stop Derval shooting at Salinen. Salinen retreats back into the bridge and rejoins the fray.

Lochlain deals with the two sailors, while Montrose confronts Vargas in a knife-fight thats savagery is matched only by its brevity. Montrose finishes Vargas by plunging his knife deep into his chest. Vargas dies choking on his own blood.

Having secured the bridge, the agents' relief is short-lived. Firstly, an alarm warns them that the missiles will be fired in a matter of minutes as the Disco Volante approaches the Florida coast. Secondly, as Salinen brings the Disco Volante to a full stop, Derval returns and opens fire on the bridge, forcing the agents to take cover. Derval announces that he has Domino hostage, and taunts Montrose that he will kill her if the agents don't surrender.

Montrose takes Leiter's revolver from Lochlain. It has only two bullets left. Montrose takes a quick peek and sees that Derval is using Domino as a human shield, holding his gun to her head. Montrose takes a deep breath, then leaps to his feet and shoots at Derval's head. He hits, and Derval dies before he even hits the floor. Montrose runs to comfort the obviously traumatised Domino.

Once she has regathered her senses, Domino tells the agents that Di Fortelli is no longer aboard the Disco Volante. Another ship rendezvoused with the Disco Volante shortly after they left the agents on the Pirates Atoll, and Di Fortelli left Derval in command of the Disco Volante. Lochlain takes the dead Derval's gun, while Salinen asks Domino where the control room for the missiles might be; she directs them to a room on the main deck. The agents burst inside and discover two technicians; Lochlain shoots one of them dead while Salinen demands that the other shut down the launch sequence. The technician quickly complies.

Aftermath
An American destroyer arrives, docks with the Disco Volante, and a detachment of marines comes aboard an mops up the final few TAROT sailors left aboard. Felix Leiter confirms the identities of the agents and the agents (together with Domino) are taken aboard the destroyer and enjoy a leisurely cruise to Miami.

NPC Checklist
Giovanni Di Fortelli:  Major Villain.  Head of TAROT's Blackmail division.  At large.
Francois Derval:  Privileged Henchman.  Killed by Simon Montrose with a shot to the head.
Vargas:  Henchman.  Killed by Simon Montrose in a knife-fight.
Fiona Volpe:  Privileged Henchwoman.  Escaped detection and remains at large.

Anya Amasova:  KGB agent.  Leader of the KGB team sent to retrieve the Stealth Bomber.  Escaped detection and presumed to have returned to the Soviet Union.

Paul Caplan:  MI6 agent.  Took her own life after being captured by TAROT.

Experience and Fame Points
Each character receives 2500 experience points (500 for each of sessions one to three and 1000 for session four).
Simon Montrose receives 23 fame points (3 for completing the mission, 10 for killing two people, 10 for killing Francois Derval).
Sean Lochlain receives 18 fame points (3 for completing the mission, 15 for killing three people).
David Salinen receives 3 fame points (3 for completing the mission).


 


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Frankie Dragon
22 January 2009 @ 04:07 pm
Thunderball: Session 3  


24 May 1982

The Bomber
By late afternoon, David Salinen and Felix Leiter have returned to the site of the F-117A with underwater explosives, intending to scuttle the bomber. However, from a mile away they see a salvage vessel already at the site. As they draw closer they see that the boat has a crew of five: three aboard the boat and two divers, who appear to be working with acetylene torches on the bomber on the bottom of the shallow waters.

Salinen hails the other crew. He and Leiter pretend to be shark enthusiasts, searching for good waters to indulge their hobby. The skipper of the salvage boat tells them to look elsewhere; he claims he and his men are salvaging a wreck here and it could be dangerous to swim too closely to their work. Salinen and Felix withdraw to about 500 yards away.

Salinen decides to get a closer look at the bomber and see what the divers are doing. He pulls on a wetsuit, gets Leiter to lower him into the water, then swims towards the salvage crew and the bomber. He gets halfway before turning around and re-boarding Felix's boat; he has changed his mind and now wants to attack and board the salvagers.

Leiter first puts a radio call through to the Bahamian Coast Guard, giving them the co-ordinates of the bomber and telling them that they have discovered what appears to be a downed aircraft on the bottom of the sea. Leiter and Salinen then drive their boat directly towards the salvage boat. They ignore the salvage boat crew's attempts to hail them, and when they are 30 yards away Salinen opens fire on the salvage crew. The salvage crew return fire with automatic weapons, yelling orders to one another in Russian; the firefight is fierce, but Salinen and Leiter have the advantage of surprise and the salvage crew are overrun. Salinen discovers communication equipment in the cabin clearly of Russian origin, fuelling his suspicion that the salvage crew is actually a KGB team sent to recover or otherwise cannibalise the top secret bomber.

The divers in the water surrender to Leiter and Salinen. Salinen ties the Russians up, and after discussing their situation with Leiter, they abandon the Russians' boat on a nearby atoll and return to port with the wounded Russians prisoner.

Q
Meanwhile, Simon Montrose, Sean Lochlain, and their acquaintance Tanya Grigorivich return to the Paradise Island Resort Hotel after their lunch with Giovanni Di Fortelli. Montrose and Lochlain have promised to chaperone Domino to the Junkanoo that night; she will be dropped off at the hotel in three hours. Montrose and Lochlain return to their rooms to change, where they are met by Paula Caplan and Q, who has flown in from the UK to equip them.

Q provides the agents with miniature underwater rebreathers, pill-sized radioactive homing devices (which activated upon swallowing), and miniature geiger counters disguised as wristwatches (the sweephand shows the level of radioactivity - 3 o'clock indicates the level where an average man would become ill; 6 o'clock life-threatening levels of radioactivity; and 9 o'clock fatal levels of radioactivity). Montrose and Lochlain then persuade Q to spend some time gambling with them in the Hotel Casino before he has to leave.

Junkanoo and a Kidnapping
Vargas delivers Domino to the agents' hotel on the dot at 6 o'clock; Montrose enthusiastically greets her with her favoured drink. Domino wants to take Montrose to Cafe breeze, her favourite cafe / bar in the centre of Nassau; it has a balcony from where they can watch the Junkanoo. Montrose, eager to continue his romantic pursuit, readily agrees; Lochlain opts to remain behind at the Hotel to wait for news from Leiter and Salinen.

About half an hour after Montrose and Domino leave, Lochlain notices Vargas return to the hotel and walk past reception to the lift lobby. Lochlain follows, taking the stairs up to the floor where he and his fellow agents are staying. Waiting outside his room, he hears a muffled scream coming from Paula Caplan's room. Lochlain draws his gun and bursts into the room -

- to find Paula grappling with three armed men. Lochlain charges into the room, gun blazing, and takes one of them out while taking a shot to the arm himself. However, he fails to notice Vargas waiting behind the door; Vargas knocks Lochlain out.

When Lochlain comes around, Paula and the men are all gone. He does his best to patch himself up using first aid, then phones MI6 and speaks to M. He fills M in on what he and the others have discovered so far, and mentions that Paula has been kidnapped. M urges Lochlain to take action, and to seal any security breaches as quickly as possible. Lochlain then takes a rental car to Cafe Breeze to catch up with Montrose and Domino.

Meanwhile, Leiter and Salinen have returned to Nassau with the captured Russians. The port is quiet and Leiter and Salinen are able to bundle the wounded Russians into the back of a rented van without much difficulty. They drive to the Nassau MI6 Station House and lock the Russians in the House's holding cells. Salinen leaves Leiter to watch over them while he returns to the hotel to rendezvous with the other agents.

Salinen reaches the hotel and reception tells him that Montrose and Lochlain have gone to Cafe Breeze. There is also a handwritten message for Salinen written in a feminine script: "Come meet me in Room 217." Ignoring the note, Salinen immediately heads to Cafe Breeze.

An Evening Interrupted
Montrose and Domino are enjoying the Junkanoo from the Cafe Breeze balcony when first Lochlain, then Salinen arrive. When Domino is out of earshot, Lochlain and Salinen share their news. After a hurried discussion, the agents agree that Paula has probably been taken to either Palmyra or the Disco Volante. Lochlain and Salinen agree to investigate Palmyra while Montrose agrees to go to the Station House and interrogate the KGB agents with Leiter.

Domino returns to the table and Montrose makes one last ditch effort to take her to bed that night. Domino regretfully says that she can't - Di Fortelli is expecting her back that evening - but before she leaves she gives Montrose a tourist bochure (advertising, amongst other things, the wreck of the SS Yarmouth Castle) on which she has scrawled a note asking him to meet her at Pink Beach tomorrow morning.

Interrogation
Montrose arrives at the Station House and sets about interrogating the wounded Russians. They quickly admit that they are a KGB team, sent to the Bahamas to pay a large sum of mony o an unknown organisation in exchange for the location of the missing F-117A bomber. They paid the money to a man called Vargas this morning and were in the process of cannibalising the bomber when they were interrupted by Salinen and Leiter. The agents also admit that there is one other agent in their team: their commanding officer, Anya Amasova, code name XXX, operating under the cover name of Tanya Grigorivich.
Assault on the Disco Volante
Reckoning that Paula is inside Palmyra, Salinen and Lochlain decide to bluff their way in.  Lochlain has Salinen drive him to the front gate and demands to see Di Fortelli, reminding the guard that he had been to Palmyra for lunch.  The guard communicates with the house for a few minutes before Salinen and Lochlain are granted entry.  Di Fortelli emerges from the house wiping his hands on a towel and meets Lochlain in the driveway.  Resuming the guise of a collector of Irish antiquities, Lochlain says that he has sourced an old gold-engraved cross that he thinks Di Fortelli would be most interested in.  Di Fortelli apologises profusely and says that he is in the middle of some urgent business, but he would be more than happy to discuss the matter in, say, three days' time.  Unable to think of another way through, Salinen and Lochlain drive off.

Montrose and Leiter, fresh from interrogating the KGB agents, rejoin with Salinen and Lochlain.  Acting on a hunch that the warheads are aboard the Disco Volante, the agents decide to create a diversion using the underwater explosives that Salinen and Leiter acquired to scuttle the bomber, and then board the Disco Volante and search for the warheads.  Salinen is particularly suspicious about the modifications that have been made to the yacht, and suspects that the warheads may be concealed between the bulkheads aboard the ship.  The agents collect the explosives from their boat across town, pile it into their rental car, and Montrose jury-rigs the explosives to detonate on a short fuse.  Leiter is then left to jury-rig the car to drive through the front gate of Palmyra and then explode, while Salinen, Lochlain and Montrose board the Disco Volante from the rear using their own boat's dinghy.

The British agents wait for the explosion in the dinghy in the harbour; it goes off exactly according to plan at 11:45.  They board the Disco Volante and sweep for'ard through the luxurious yacht, checking their geiger counter wristwatches with every room and knocking out any unfortunate crewmembers they happen across.

The agents quickly barge in on a room from where the captain of the yacht and Domino, still in her evening dress, are watching the crew's efforts to extinguish the fire that the agents created on the land.  The captin is quickly knocked out and Domino, surprised by the agents' appearance, lets loose a loud scream before Montrose restores her to relative calm.  Montrose quickly tells her that they are British agents, and that they suspect that Di Fortelli is responsible for the murder of her brother Francois - Salinen shows Francois's dog tags as proof.  Domino seems shaken and confused, but seems to accept what they say. 

Still unable to find any trace of the warheads, the agents take Domino with them and head belowdecks.  They soon find a chamber that contains a several large underwater sleds, spear guns, computer equipment, and a wet lock allowing entry and egress from the ship.  The agents' geiger counter watches show a minute level of radioactivity, but not enough to indicate the presence of the warheads. 

Believing that they've searched as much of the Disco Volante as they can before they are discovered, the agents pull on westuits and prepare one of the underwater skis for a quick escape.  Before they leave, Domino tells Montrose something she thinks may be important:  there is an old disused well on the grounds of Palmyra.  Di Fortelli doesn't know that she knows, but one night she saw him and his men climb down into the well in wetsuits - the well obviously leads somewhere, but whether it is an outlet into the bay or to some subterranean chamber, she doesn't know.  Montrose kisses Domino goodbye, and tells her to meet him on Pink Beach in the morning, as she promised.

The agents ride the underwater sled out of the bottom of the Disco Volante and hug the rocky edge of the bay, searching for the possible outlet that might lead up the disused well...
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Frankie Dragon
27 September 2008 @ 03:19 pm
Thunderball: Session 2  

23 May 1982

Paradise Island Resort, Nassau
Salinen, Montrose and Lochlain wake up early and discuss their plans with Paula Caplan and Felix Leiter over breakfast. The team agrees that their only lead so far is Dominique "Domino" Derval and her 'patron,' the obscenely wealthy Giovanni Di Fortelli. Salinen, Lochlain and Leiter decide to visit Di Fortelli's private island residence, Palmyra, and investigate his yacht, the Disco Volante. Meanwhile, Montrose and Paula plan to contrive a meeting with Domino while she is at the beach on her customary morning swim.

Investigating the Disco Volante
Salinen, Lochlain and Leiter rent a car and drive across Nassau to Sandy Port, where the Disco Volante is moored. They hire a dinghy and get as close to the superyacht as they can. Salinen notices that the Disco Volante has undergone substantial aftermarket modifications, and that someone has spent a fortune adapting the superyacht for their own needs. Shortly thereafter, the secret agents are shooed away from the Disco Volante by one of the superyacht's crewmembers.

Salinen and Leiter decide to return to the bay under cover of darkness that night and undertake an underwater investigation of the Disco Volante's hull. Lochlain, meanwhile, returns to the Paradise Island Resort to report to Montrose.

Meeting Domino
While the others are investigating the Disco Volante, Montrose and Paula rent a speedboat and visit Pink Beach, where Domino is known to take her morning snorkelling excursions. Montrose swims over to Domino and introduces himself, posing as a wealthy art investor. Domino welcomes his initial advances, and when Montrose helps her after she injures herself on some coral, they decide to have lunch together at Montrose's hotel.

During lunch, Domino tells Montrose about her life. She and her older brother Francois were orphaned ten years ago. With no one else left in their family, she and her brother are very close - in fact, she says it was Francois who introduced her to her 'patron,' Giovanni Di Fortelli. Her acting career is just beginning to take off, and she clearly thinks the world of her brother. She seems somewhat more ambivalent towards Di Fortelli, however, and readily flirts with Montrose throughout their conversation.  Domino brings their encounter to an end by promising to see Montrose that night - Di Fortelli often comes to the Paradise Island Casino to gamble. She then returns to Palmyra.  Shortly after she leaves, Montrose notices that a thin, bald man dressed in black who had been watching them both throughout lunch follows her.

Night Swimming
Night falls on the Bahamas.  Salinen and Leiter head out onto Sandy Port in a rubber dinghy to further investigate the Disco Volante.  Salinen dons a wetsuit and scuba gear and swims underneath the superyacht, while Leiter remains on the dinghy in case of emergency.  Salinen has only just begun his investigation of the hull when he is surprised by one of Di Fortelli's crewmen.  A brief underwater struggle ensues; the crewmen is the superior swimmer, but Salinen badly wounds him with his knife and fights him off.  Leiter tries to retrieve Salinen in the dinghy, but is seen off by automatic fire and grenades from the deck of the Disco Volante.  Salinen is quickly captured by the crew of the Disco Volante, and beaten to unconsciousness.

Salinen later regains consciousness as he is being taken out to secluded beach on a dinghy by two of the Disco Volante's crew.  They warn him to stay away from the ship and again beat him into unconsciousness. 

Evening at the Paradise Island Casino
While waiting in the casino bar for Di Fortelli's arrival, Lochlain meets Tanya Gregorivich, a beautiful businesswoman from Germany who is holidaying in Nassau.  The two strike a rapport and Tanya seems interested to have met an interesting man on her holiday.

Eventually Di Fortelli arrives at the casino with Domino on his arm.  He is a well-dressed middle-aged man with silver hair and dark eyes.  He immediately heads to the baccarat table, where he enjoys a good run of luck.  After a short while, Lochlain, posing as a shady businessman dealing in the transfer of antiquities from the Republic of Ireland to private European collectors, challenges Di Fortelli to several rounds of baccarat.  Although Di Fortelli comfortably bests Lochlain, he is sufficiently impressed by him (and by Tanya's beauty) that he invites the two of them to lunch at Palmyra the next day.

While Di Fortelli duels with Lochlain over the baccarat table, Montrose arranges a meeting with Domino beside the resort pool.  Montrose continues his seduction and it seems the two are just about to kiss when they are interrupted by the same thin, bald man Montrose saw earlier, who summons Domino back to Di Fortelli's table.  Domino explains that the man's name is Vargas; he is one of Di Fortelli's most trusted men.  He doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, and appears totally ambivalent towards women.  He makes Domino nervous.  With a promise to visit Montrose's hotel room later that night if she can, Domino returns to the baccarat table.

Meanwhile, Lochlain and Montrose agree to pose as business partners at the lunch at Palmyra the next day.  Lochlain makes arrangements to meet Tanya at noon, then bids her good night.

Fiona
Salinen is brought round on the sands of the secluded beach where he was left by a vivacious redheaded woman called Fiona.  Salinen has clearly been beaten to a pulp.  Concerned for this stranger, Fiona takes Salinen to the nearest hospital in her sporty Maserati Biturbo convertible, where he is able to receive treatment for his injuries.  She then contacts Montrose and Lochlain at the Paradise Island Resort to let them know where Salinen is.  She departs shortly after Montrose, Lochlain, and a relieved Leiter arrive to collect him, leaving him with her phone number scrawled onto a scrap of paper.  Leiter then returns Montrose, Lochlain and the injured Salinen to their hotel, and the trio retire to their hotel rooms.

Nightcap
Montrose, anticipating a late nigh visit from Domino, collects a bottle of champagne before returning to his room.  There, he discover the lights on and the shower running in the bathroom.  Assuming it's Domino, he eagerly enters the bathroom - only to be surprised by a hired thug.  A brief-but-vicious brawl ensues which ends when Montrose knocks the thug out.  Montrose quickly searches the thug, finding only a wallet containing five hundred pounds and a small bag of marijuana and a cheap Rolex knock-off on the man's wrist.

Montrose and Lochlain tie up the intruder and interrogate him.  He quickly reveals that he was paid five hundred pounds by a thin, tall bald man - presumably Vargas - to beat up Montrose and warn him to stay away from Domino.  Montrose and Lochlain, satisfied that he is telling the truth, let him go but not before Montrose confiscates four hundred of his five hundred pounds. 

24 May 1982

Morning
Montrose, Lochlain, and a battered Salinen convene with Leiter and Paula over breakfast.  Montrose and Lochlain plan to proceed with their lunch date at Palmyra with Di Fortelli.  Concerned that Salinen will be recognised by the crew of the Disco Volante, he and Felix agree to spend the day searching for the missing F-117A bomber via helicopter. 

The Search for the Bomber
Salinen and Leiter take a helicopter and search the nearby islands of the Bahamas for signs of the missing bomber.  After checking all the possible airfields in the region, Salinen glimpses a a large, arrowhead-shaped shadow sitting on the seabed in the shallow waters between two outlying islands.  Leiter sets the chopper down on the water for a closer look; they determine that further inspection is required, but the presence of sharks in the water deters them from entering the water without a shark cage.  They decide to return to the mainland to charter a boat and return for a closer look.

Lunch at Palmyra
Montrose and Lochlain meet with Tanya Gregorivich in the Paradise Resort lobby before heading across to Palmyra.  Di Fortelli greets them on the steps of his grand palatial residence.  He takes them for a brief tour before offering them a delicious lunch beside his massive swimming pool, at which they are quickly joined by Domino.  Vargas remains ever-present in the background.

Di Fortelli divides his time between quizzing Lochlain and Montrose on their purported antiquity-and-fine-arts trading business, and openly flirting with Tanya.  Once lunch is finished, he shows his enormous swimming pool to his guests.  With the flick of a switch, five massive sharks enter the pool via an underwater gate.  Montrose detects something glinting in the sun on the bottom of the pool.  He fishes it out with a pool net; it is a cheap knock-off imitation Rolex. 

Di Fortelli then offers to take Lochlain and Tanya on a tour of the Disco Volante.  Vargas leaves with them, while Montrose and Domino stay behind, taking the opportunity to share a kiss.

Aboard the Disco Volante, Lochlain notices something amiss - the internal geometry of the ship seems all wrong; there is far more space between the bulkheads than there needs to be.  He raises the question with Di Fortelli, who pleads ignorance - he bought the yacht from a "gauche American" several years ago, and has no idea what he had done with it. 

The tour ended, Di Fortelli returns Lochlain and Tanya to Palmyra, where they reunite with a (slightly disheveled) Montrose.  Di Fortelli beds his guests farewell, but asks a favour of Lochlain and Montrose:  he needs to attend to some urgent business tonight, and unfortunately cannot accompany Domino to the Junkanoo, a sort of Bahamian mardi gras carnival that is being held in the city tonight.  He asks Lochlain and Montrose if they would be good enough to chaperone her in his absence.  Montrose readily agrees, and Di Fortelli says that he will have Domino delivered to the Paradise Island resort at 6 that evening.  Lochlain, Montrose and Tanya return to the resort.

The Stealth Bomber
Meanwhile, Leiter and Salinen return to Nassau in the helicopter and charter a boat with a shark cage and winch.  It is late afternoon by the time they return to the location of the large shadowy shape on the seabed.  Salinen dons a wetsuit and scuba gear, enters the shark cage, and is lowered beneath the surface.

He discovers that the large shape is hidden beneath a huge tarpaulin, the corners of which have been anchored to the seabed.  Salinen cuts a hole through the tarpaulin and discovers that it does in fact conceal the missing stealth bomber.  He leaves the safety of the shark cage, swims underneath the tarpaulin and aboard the bomber.  There he discovers the partially decomposed corpse of the pilot; its dog tags identify it as Francois Derval.  Salinen takes the dog tags with him and checks the Bomber's bomb bays.  As feared, the nuclear missiles have been taken.

Salinen returns to the boat and reports this to Leiter, who suggests that they return with explosives and scuttle the Stealth Bomber on the seabed to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.
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Frankie Dragon
13 August 2007 @ 09:13 pm
Thunderball: Session 1  

21 May 1982

Briefing
Simon Montrose, David Salinen and Sean Lochlain are summoned to M's office at 9 o'clock.  MI6 has intercepted a telephone conversation in which a number of known TAROT code words were used, including "Hanged Man," "Emperor," and the phrase "Plan Omega."  The call was traced to a health retreat in Washington, Sussex, called Shrublands.  M orders the agents to travel to Shrublands and apprehend the TAROT agent for questioning.  The only clue they have as to the agent's identity is that he (or she) claimed in the intercepted conversation to have a red tattoo. 

Shrublands 
The agents drive to Shrublands in the Aston Martin DBV and, arriving at noon, immediately check themselves in.  They set about prowling the various amenities offered by Shrublands, including the indoor pool, sauna, and massage rooms, trying to identify anybody with a red tattoo.  Eventually, Montrose meets a tall, good looking playboy by the name of Count Lippe, who wears an expensive gold bracelet - even during a rugged tramp through the countryside.  Meanwhile, Salinen poses as a private investigator sent by a suspicious wife to check on her husband, and is told by Rose, one of the Shrublands receptionists, that Lippe has a red tattoo on his wrist which he is loathe to show anyone.  The agents, confident that they have identified their man, plan his capture.

Kidnapping Lippe
On the pretense of taking Rose out to dinner, Salinen follows Lippe and his date (masseuse Patricia Fearing) to the local pub.  Meanwhile, Lochlain breaks into Lippe's room, where he finds a gun and a ticket for a flight to Nassau leaving the next morning.  Lochlain unloads Lippe's gun, takes the ticket and Lippe's passport, and leaves the room as he found it.

22 May 1982
Lippe returns from the pub and goes to sleep in his room.  The agents wait until 2 am before bursting into Lippe's room, knocking him out, gagging him, and spiriting him away to London in the DBV. 

Second Briefing
The agents return to MI6 headquarters in the early hours of 22 May, where Lippe is taken away for interrogation.  The agents report to M, let him know that Lippe was bound for Nassau, and inquire whether one of them should impersonate him on the flight.  M defers until they manage to get any information out of Lippe.

At 7 am, however, all active MI6 agents are summoned to an urgent meeting in the Conference Room.  There, a tense-looking M and the Minister of Defence reveal that an experimental American F-117A "Stealth Bomber" has gone missing somewhere over the Atlantic early that morning.  TAROT has claimed responsibility for the missing plane, and claim to have taken possession of the bomber's two nuclear missiles.  TAROT threatens to destroy two cities in either the United Kingdom or the United States unless it is paid a ransom of US$500 million within 5 days.

The F-117A was piloted by a French Armee de l'Air Captain, Francois Derval.  Derval has a younger sister, Dominique (aka 'Domino'), who is currently in the Bahamas.  Coupled with the information Montrose, Salinen and Lochlain obtained from Lippe, M sends the trio to Nassau to begin their hunt for the missing warheads.

Arrival in Nassau
The agents land in Nassau at 8 pm local time on 22 May.  They are welcomed by their friend and ally, CIA agent Felix Leiter, and Paula Caplan, the beautiful local MI6 operative.  Leiter has spent the day finding out about Domino, and tells the agents that she is an aspiring actress and model, staying in Nassau with her 'patron', Giovanni Di Fortelli, aboard his superyacht the Disco Volante.  Domino spends her days swimming and diving amongst the corals in the bay, and her evenings with Di Fortelli in the Paradise Hotel Casino. 

While Lochlain and Salinen check into their hotel rooms, Montrose takes Caplan to the Paradise Hotel Casino for a nightcap.  Unable to find either Domino or Di Fortelli, Montrose decides to play some chemin de fer.  In between losing money at the tables and charming Paula, he notices a beautiful, glamorous woman in the crowd staring at him - but when he points her out to Paula, she has melted back into the crowd.

 
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Frankie Dragon
28 January 2007 @ 10:23 pm
Goldfinger: Session 4  

Wednesday 9 April 1982

Gstaad
Montrose awakens on the couch of his hotel room, Tilly in the bed.  Montrose orders them breakfast, which they eat while they discuss where they think they should follow Goldfinger next.  However, their food has been drugged; Tilly quickly falls unconscious while Montrose barely has time to phone Salinen and Lochlain before he succumbs.

Salinen and Lochlain race to Montrose's hotel.  They are followed by some of Goldfinger's men en route, whom they shake off in a high-speed chase.  They arrive at Montrose's hotel only to discover Tilly dead in the hotel room.  Of Montrose there is no trace, although one of the receptionists mentions that a guest was taken away in an ambulance only minutes ago.

Salinen and Lochlain return to Auric Enterprises, but surmise that Montrose was not taken there.  Attempting to infiltrate Goldfinger's organisation they brazenly walk up to the front door of Auric Enterprises and ask to see Goldfinger himself.  They are quickly recognised and shot with knockout darts.  Just before losing consciousness, Lochlain recognises their captor as Dr Sung Hi Ling, one of Communist China's foremost nuclear weapons experts.

The laser
Montrose awakens strapped to a metal table, surrounded by Goldfinger and his henchmen.  Goldfinger informs him that he has been identified as a British agent and demands to know what he has learnt.  When Montrose refuses to answer, Goldfinger activates a laser beam that slowly cuts its way up the table between Montrose's legs, threatening to eviscerate him.  Montrose desperately warns Goldfinger that his government knows about his possession of radioactive material.  Goldfinger is unimpressed by this, but his Chinese advisors are sufficiently concerned to convince Goldfinger to change his mind.  The laser is switched off and Montrose survives, but he too is shot by a dart gun and falls unconscious.

Pussy Galore
Salinen and Lochlain awaken on a Lear jet flying across the continental United States.  They are welcomed by the pilot, a stunning woman called Pussy Galore.  Pussy informs them that they are en route to Kentucky.  Lochlain and Salinen surmise that Goldfinger must be after the United States's gold reserves in Fort Knox.

Auric Stud
Pussy's plane lands at a private airfield at Goldfinger's Kentucky stud farm.  Salinen and Lochlain are taken to the main house where Goldfinger greets them before ordering that they be incarcerated inside.  
The agents are thrown into cells in the basement of the house, where they are reunited with Montrose.  Salinen tells Montrose that Goldfinger had Tilly killed, and Montrose swears revenge.
The three agents fashion crude lockpicks out of the mattress springs of their cots and break out of their cells.  Searching for a way out, they stumble into a room from which they can hear Goldfinger address a meeting of his fellow conspirators.  They learn that Goldfinger has sunk fake mine shafts in over 100 gold-producing areas around the world.  He intends to detonate nuclear weapons in each of the mines so that practically the world's entire goldfields will be irradiated and rendered unworkable.  The value of Goldfinger's own gold will skyrocket, albeit at the cost of millions of innocent lives.
The agents are discovered eavesdropping by Pussy Galore and a number of guards.  Despite Montrose's outrageous flirtatious advances, the agents are marched out of the house, and discover that Goldfinger has had his associates, to whom he had been talking to only minutes earlier, all killed.  Goldfinger was not willing to share the profits of his enterprise with them.
The agents are returned to their cells, but not before Montrose steals a daring kiss from Pussy.

The Final Confrontation
Goldfinger summons the agents to his control centre to witness his final triumph.  His team of technicians have arranged for all of the nuclear devices to detonate in twenty minutes.  Goldfinger has the ability to abort the countdown, but has no intention of doing so.  He locks a mesh guard over the abort button and hands the key to Oddjob for safe keeping.  Eight long minutes pass before Salinen, in desperation, attacks one of the many armed guards.  He wrenches the guard's gun off him, kills him, and begins shooting at the other guards.  Montrose and Lochlain follow Salinen's lead and lanch attacks of their own.  Simultaneously, Auric Stud is attacked from the outside by a combined FBI / CIA strike team, who have been tracking the homing device the agents planted in Goldfinger's golf bag back in England.  Alarmed at the sudden turn in events, Goldfinger accelerates the countdown until there is only one minute remaining before escaping through a secret hatch in the floor.  
Most of the guards are drawn away by the battle outside.  While Pussy Galore cowers in the corner of the control room, the agents overpower the remaining guards. It is Oddjob, however, who holds the key to aborting the countdown.  Oddjob incapacitates Salinen, then sets about brutally beating Montrose, who was attempting to manually halt the countdown.  Oddjob is finally brought down by gunfire from Lochlain, who then finishes off the Korean man-mountain with a bullet to the head.  Montrose retrieves the key and stops the countdown wih a mere 25 seconds left.

Aftermath
The agents are met by Felix Leiter, who has led the FBI / CIA assault on Auric Stud.  Goldfinger's men have been crushed and the plot has been foiled.  Goldfinger himself, however, has escaped to menace the free world again.

NPC Checklist
Auric Goldfinger:  Major Villain.  At large.
Oddjob:  Privileged Henchman.  Killed by Sean Lochlain.
Pussy Galore:  Henchwoman.  Arrested by American authorities, but released after Simon Montrose claims that she assisted them during the final battle.  After a brief affair with Montrose, returns to running a commercial private air carrier.
Dr Sung Hi Ling:  Henchman.  Escaped the American authorities at Auric Stud.  At large.  Presumed to have returned behind the Bamboo Curtain.

Tilly Masterton:  Killed on Goldfinger's orders.

Experience and Fame Points
Each character receives 2500 experience points (500 for each of sessions 1 to 3 and 1000 for session 4).
Sean Lochlain receives 18 fame points (3 for completing the mission, 5 for killing 1 person, 10 for killing Oddjob).
Simon Montrose receives 13 fame points (3 for completing the mission, 10 for killing 2 people).
David Salinen receives 13 fame points (3 for completing the mission, 10 for killing 2 people).
 
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Frankie Dragon
28 January 2007 @ 09:49 pm
Goldfinger: Session 3  

Tuesday 8 April 1982

Gstaad
Salinen, Montrose and Lochlain arrive in Gstaad and quickly discover that it is where Goldfinger keeps the headquarters of the administrative branch of his empire, Auric Enterprises.  The agents pick up the Aston Martin DBV (which they had arranged to have shipped to Gstaad), check into a hotel, then drive to Auric Enterprises.  

Auric Enterprises
On the face of it, Auric Enterprises looks like an innocent factory facility.  The compound is situated in a horseshoe-shaped valley, and the agents surveil the facility from the hillside.  After dark, while Montrose keeps guard, Salinen and Lochlain sneak into the compound.  Climbing onto the roof of one of the warehouses, the pair discover that barrels of radioactive waste are being stored inside.  They also happen upon a garage, where they find Goldfinger's Rolls Royce - stripped down to a bare chassis.  The agents surmise that Goldfinger has been smuggling gold in and out of the United Kingdom by using gold as the Rolls's bodywork.

Salinen and Lochlain give Montrose a prearranged signal, and Montrose blows up the factory fuel pump.  Salinen and Lochlain attempt to escape the compund in the ensuing chaos, but instead come across Oddjob.  After a brief but inconclusive fight, the pair get through the fence and head up the hill back towards the DBV.

Tilly Masterton
Montrose, meanwhile, has found a gunman waiting on the hill, armed with a rifle.  Taking the gunman by surprise, Montrose is surprised to discover it is in fact a pretty young woman - Tilly Masterton, the sister of Jill Masterton.  Tilly believes Goldfinger is responsible for Jill's murder, and has sworn to kill him.  

Korean guards from Goldfinger's factory are now swarming through the hills.  Montrose, Tilly, Salinen and Lochlain engage in a pitched chase and gun battle with the guards, and are forced to split up.  Montrose and Tilly make for Tilly's car, while Salinen and Lochlain try to get back to the Aston Martin.  Lochlain is badly wounded and he and Salinen are captured.  Montrose and Tilly, on the other hand, successfully escape.  

Salinen is ordered to drive the DBV into the compound.  Initially he complies, but just before entering the compound he uses the car's ejector seat to dispose of his armed escort before engineering a daring escape.  Not knowing whether Montrose and Tilly are safe, they return to their hotel.

Montrose, fearing that he and his colleagues will be tracked down by Goldfinger's men, checks himself and Tilly into a new hotel.  Montrose finds himself attracted to Tilly and discovers that the attraction is mutual.  However, Tilly stops things before they consumate their attraction, citing that she doesn't want anything coming between her and her pursuit of Goldfinger.
 
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Frankie Dragon
08 July 2006 @ 01:48 pm
Goldfinger: Session 2  

Monday 7 April 1982


Infiltrating Auric Mining
The agents determine that they must investigate Auric Mining further. They return to the mine and follow a fleet of dumptrucks, loaded up with gravel from the mine, to a quarry. At the quarry, Montrose and Lochlain overpower the driver of one of the trucks and take his place. Picking Salinen up on the way, the agents rejoin the dumptruck convoy and return to Auric Mining.

The Fake Refinery
Once inside the mine compound, the agents begin their investigations in earnest. While one of the two refineries appears to be genuine, the other is a fake - the building is merely a shell, with lights and an audio tape played on loop to simulate the noises of an operating refinery, with, curiously, a smelter in place of refinery equipment.

Intrigued, the agents overpower a group of Goldfinger's Korean workers and take their uniforms. So disguised, they venture into the mine itself. They discover that Goldfinger has sunk three mineshafts. Curiously, though, the miners appear to have deliberately bypassed several veins of gold within the rock.

The agents return to the surface, whereupon they overhear Goldfinger in discussion with the mine foreman. Goldfinger instructs the foreman to "mix the gold with the impurities and send it to the Rand refinery." He also tells the foreman to expect a shipment of equipment in about 2 days, and once it arrives, to place the equipment and leave the site immediately afterwards. Goldfinger also mentions that he is heading to Gstaad, Switzerland to ensure that everything is in order.

The Rest of the Facility
The agents continue their investigations, and accidentally stumble upon four guards in the mine's security headquarters. A brief struggle ensues in which the agents quickly overpower the guards and steal their dart guns.

The agents proceed to Goldfinger's cottage, which they discover that Goldfinger has already left. Lochlain searches the bedrooms and discovers that Goldfinger has left nothing behind; he clearly does not anticipate returning in the near future. Montrose meanwhile discovers an exchange of letters between Goldfinger and the South African Chamber of Mines. The Chamber of Mines has threatened to revoke Goldfinger's mining licence unless they are allowed access to his mine. Goldfinger's response is that he will continue to refuse entry to the Chamber and if the Chamber choose to revoke his licence he will move his business and the associated benefits elsewhere. Goldfinger finishes off by instructing the Chamber that he may be contacted at Gstaad over the next couple of days.

Escape
The agents decide to make their escape, just as an intruder alarm sounds around the mine complex. The agents go to the mine's garage, where they overpower a group of workers, steal a jeep and disable the other remaining jeep. Salinen drives the jeep through the automatic fire of the mine's guards, narrowly avoids the dumptrucks the workers have positioned as a barrier, then through the exit.

After making their escape, the agents regroup and head for Gstaad.
 
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Frankie Dragon
06 June 2006 @ 09:53 pm
Goldfinger: Session 1  

Friday 4 April 1982


Briefing
In the 6 months since their assignment in Jamaica, David Salinen, Simon Montrose and Sean Lochlain have spent most of their time on mundane intelligence collection. In the last few weeks, their attention has been concentrated on developments on the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic, a British dependency which on 19 March was invaded by Argentine forces.

Abruptly, on the morning of 4 April, Miss Moneypenny passes on an order from M that the agents are to delegate their current intelligence projects and meet him for dinner at the home of Colonel Martin Smithers (retired), one of the directors of the Bank of England. At the dinner, the characters are briefed about a suspected gold smuggler: Auric Goldfinger. Colonel Smithers and his department have been suspicious of Goldfinger for some time; he owns gold bullion worth around $60 million in various cities around the world and the Bank of England has no idea of how he got it there. M has more reason to be suspicious of Goldfinger. Halliwell, an off-duty Scotland Yard officer, was asked as a favour by Smithers to investigate Goldfinger while he was in Miami. Halliwell met and began an affair with Goldfinger's personal secretary, a girl called Jill Masterson, and sent a cable to Smithers advising that he agreed with Smithers's suspicions.

This morning Halliwell was found in his hotel room, dead from a broken neck. The girl was also found dead, covered from head to toe in gold paint - killed from skin suffocation. M suspects Goldfinger is behind the murders, and that there is more to him than some simple gold
smuggling.

M tells the agents that Goldfinger is in London for a golfing holiday. He will be playing at the Royal St Georges club tomorrow - the same club to which David Salinen belongs. M wants the agents to find out whether and how Goldfinger is smuggling gold out of the country and what, if anything, else he is up to. Colonel Smithers provides the agents with a bar of Nazi gold with which they might use as bait for Goldfinger.

Later that evening the agents report to Q for their special equipment. Q issues them with gas sprayers (disguised as breath fresheners), miniature radio receiver / tranceivers (disguised as pens), a pair of "big brother / little brother" homing devices, and an Aston-Martin DB-V modified with tire slashers, machine guns, oil slicks, smoke screens, and even a passenger ejector seat.

Saturday 5 April 1982


The Royal St Georges
The agents arrive at the Royal St Georges golf course first thing in the morning. Salinen greets the club professional, Alfred Blacking, and asks him to arrange a match between him and Goldfinger. Goldfinger arrives shortly in a 1937 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost driven by his butler, a tall, powerfully built mute Korean whom Goldfinger calls 'Oddjob.' Blacking makes introductions between Salinen and Goldfinger, who readily agrees to the match.

Lochlain accompanies Salinen onto the course as his caddy, while Oddjob acts as Goldfinger's. Montrose stays behind at the clubhouse, and when the golfers are out of sight he goes to the carpark to investigate Goldfinger's Rolls. He discovers that the car has heavy-duty suspension, as if it were far heavier than it appeared. He then attaches the large homing device to the undercarriage of the Rolls.

Meanwhile, on the fairway, Lochlain slips the smaller homing device into Goldfinger's golf bag while Salinen and Goldfinger exchange small talk. Goldfinger says he is only in London for one more night; he will fly to Johannesburg tomorrow to oversee his new mine. Salinen tries to garner an invitation to Goldfinger's mine in South Africa, but Goldfinger states that he is using a brand new process at his Johannesburg mine and his stakeholders wouldn't tolerate someone 'snooping around.' Salinen then hints that he is a black marketeer specialising in arms, but he has recently come across a bar of Nazi gold that he wishes to sell. Goldfinger is interested, and asks Salinen to show it to him. Salinen sends Lochlain back to the clubhouses to retrieve it. Goldfinger is enchanted by the bar, and proposes a wager: Whoever wins the better of the final 9 holes will take home the bar. Goldfinger will happily stake the bar's worth of 21,500 pounds. Salinen accepts.

Salinen wins the first two holes handily, but Goldfinger claws back the lead to make it all square. Every time Salinen looks like taking a lead, Goldfinger stays in the match through what Salinen suspects is cheating. Eventually, on the final hole, Goldfinger plays a terrible
drive off the tee, can't recover and loses the match. Disgusted, he throws his club to the ground and storms off towards the clubhouse.

Salinen and Lochlain attempt to soothe Goldfginger's ego by offering to buy him a drink. Goldfinger, in high dudgeon, declines. Salinen suggests that he and his associates have more of the Nazi bars. Goldfinger refuses to believe them, telling them that of the 600 bars
that were smelted he has personally accounted for over 400 of them. He changes clothes then ventures out to his car, declining an invitation from Salinen and Lochlain for a drink. Salinen hurries after Goldfinger and threatens to tell the club about his cheating. Goldfinger is unimpressed by this attempt at intimidation. He responds by ordering Oddjob to throw his bowler hat at one of the statues that line the Royal St Georges driveway. Oddjob does so; the rim of the bowler hat neatly decapitates the statue. On this note, Oddjob and Goldfinger drive away.

The agents pile into the DB-V and follow Goldfinger to London using the car's tracking device. They follow him checking into the Ritz, then dining alone, before he retires for the night.

Sunday 6 April 1982


Johannesburg
The agents follow Goldfingeron his flight to Johannesburg. En route, the agents discover a newspaper article written by a South African journalist, Ridgley Watson. Watson's article reports that the South African Chamber of Mines has given Goldfinger a one month deadline to allow them to investigate his mines. Goldfinger is resisting, claiming his new process is proprietary and that he cannot risk any leaks.

The agents arrive in Johannesburg, check into a local hotel, and drive out to Goldfinger's mine.

Observing from the hills that frame Auric mining, the agents discover that Auric Mining is staffed entirely by Koreans. They also observe armed guards patrolling the perimeter of the mine, and watch a change of shifts. But perhaps most curious of all is a quaint stereotypical English cottage that has been built in the middle of a seemingly functional mine. The agents wait until sundown, then return to their hotel.

Lochlain telephones Ridgley Watson and, posing as a journalist from Zimbabwe, asks him about Goldfinger's mine. Watson shares his suspicion that there is more to the mine than meets the eye. He says the Chamber of Mines is frustrated because it is worried that Goldfinger's purported new mining technique may be dangerous.

Monday 7 April 1982


The following morning Lochlain telephones the Chamber of Mines itself, again posing as a Zimbabwean journalist, and speaks to one of its directors, Lord Justley. Lord Justley reiterates the Chamber's concerns that Goldfinger's new process may be dangerous, and mentions a funny phenomenon he's noticed: Whenever Goldfinger arrives in Johannesburg, the mine's return seems to spike, almost as if he's bringing the gold with him on the plane.
 
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Frankie Dragon
29 May 2006 @ 10:29 pm
World Events  
1981

16: Sugar Ray Leonard defeats Thomas Hearns by knockout in round 14 to unify boxing's world Welterweight title.
18: France abolishes capital punishment.
21: Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, president of Haiti, is overthrown in a popular uprising led by Dr Emman Kananga. Kananga installs himself as president and institutes widespread reforms, including the elevation of Voodoo alongside Roman Catholicism as the state religions.

October
6: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is assassinated during a parade by army members who are part of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organisation and opposed his negotiations with Israel.
14: Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected President of Egypt.
21: Andreas Papandreou becomes Prime Minister of Greece.

November
1: Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom.
25-26: A group of mercenaries led by Mike Hoare take over Mahe airport in the Seychelles in a coup attempt. Most of the mercenaries escape by a commandeered Air India passenger jet. Six are later arrested.
30: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe.

December
4: South Africa grants "homeland" Ciskei independence. This independence is not recognised outside of South Africa.
11: In El Mozote, El Salvador, army units kill 900 civilians.
13: Wojciech Jarulezski declares a state of martial law in Poland to prevent the dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity.
15: A car bomb destroys the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 61 people. Syrian intelligence is blamed.
28: The first American test tube baby is born.

1982

January
11: Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, disappears in the Sahara during the Paris – Dakar rally. He is rescued on January 14.
13: Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90 crashes into Washington DC's 14th Street bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78.
28: James L Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces after 42 days of captivity under the Red Brigades.

February
2: The Hama Massacre. In Syria, between 10,000 and 25,000 civilians are killed when government forces besiege the town of Hama, which they believe has fallen into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood.

March
10: The United States places an embargo on Libyan oil imports, alleging Libyan support of terrorist groups.
19: Argentine forces land on South Georgia Island in the South Sandwich Islands, which are under British rule.

April
2: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands. The Falklands War begins.
4: The British Falkland Islands government surrenders, placing the islands in Argentinean control.
 
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Frankie Dragon
28 May 2006 @ 09:35 am
Dr No: Session 3  
For session 1 of this mission, click here.
For session 2, click here.

Sunday 16 September 1981


Plan of Action

8.00 AM. David Salinen, Simon Montrose and Sean Lochlain hold Colonel Percival Potter and the unconscious Liat Lee Wong captive on Col. Potter's sugar plantation. The agents agree that their investigations point toward Grand Island and the mysterious Doctor No. Salinen takes their car back to the hotel and collects supplies from Kingston while Montrose, Lochlain, and the now co-operative Potter take Wong and go to Kingston Harbour on Potter's boat.

The agents rendezvous in Kingston harbour, where they meet with Quarrel and Felix Leiter. Leiter and Quarrel are about to take their investigations to North Island, another island in the Anansi chain 40 miles southeast of Grand Island. Both parties agree to maintain radio contact with one another during their respective investigations.

Journey to Grand Island

En route to Grand Island, the agents attempt to interrogate Wong again. Wong tells them nothing other than that Dr No will kill them slowly and painfully.

Potter tells the agents that there is some kind of fortress built into the side of the rocky outcrop on the western side of the island. When he and Wong take supplies to Dr No, Wong gives a pre-arranged radio signal and a hidden door in the side of the western cliff-face opens. Potter then drives the boat into a dock within, where armed guards are always on watch.

It is almost dusk when Potter's boat approaches Grand Island. The agents decide to take the boat around the east coast of the island and approach on Potter's dinghy from the north. The agents make landfall safely, and disguise the dinghy among reeds and grass, but they are immediately surprised by an armoured personnel carrier made up to look like a giant spider and are surrounded by armed guards. The agents surrender and are loaded into the carrier.

Doctor No's Complex

Onboard the carrier, the agents find a beautiful blonde woman who has also been captured by the guards. She introduces herself as Honey Ryder, and explains that she comes to grand Island to collect shells, which she sells on the mainland. She was captured by the guards earlier that day.

The agents and Honey are taken to the rocky part of the island, where they are pulled from the carrier and take a hidden elevator deep down into the bowels of Grand Island. When they emerge from the elevator they find themselves in a huge underground complex. The guards take them to a bizarre reception area, staffed by two stunning half-Chinese twin girls - Rose and Mary, Potter's kidnapped daughters. However, the twins don't recognise their father's name, and seem to be enamoured of Doctor No. The twins take the agents and Honey to plush guest rooms, and urge them to shower and have a change of clothes for dinner with 'the good doctor.'

Dinner with Doctor No

The agents and Honey, showered and refreshed, are taken to Doctor No's dining room. It is a vast, elaborately furnished room seemingly hewn from rock. Doctor No has several portraits of Napoleon and a window on the wall of the room looks directly out into the ocean. Doctor No arrives, accompanied by several armed guards, and introduces himself to the agents. No, the agents, and Honey enjoy a splendid meal, after which Doctor No gives the agents his life's story.

No explains that he was formerly an accountant for the Tong. He was discovered to be embezzling money, however, and had to flee to America, where he became an expert in nuclear physics. There he was recruited by a woman called Nakahara into an organisation called TAROT - short for Technological Accession, Revenge, and Organised Terrorism. TAROT financed the construction of this complex and all of No's operations.

Doctor No has created a machine through which he can alter the path of cruise missiles in mid flight. He intends to divert the American missiles being fired from Florida during Monday morning's test. He will divert one missile to Anguilla, where the British Prime Minister is currently visiting, and the other to Havana. Amidst the confusion, TAROT will invade Cuba and install Doctor No as its new head of state. TAROT will then truly have a power base from which to expand.

Lochlain mocks Doctor No's speech in an attempt to provoke a reaction from him. Doctor No responds by telling Lochlain that everything they have done and seen on Jamaica, everything they have seen on Grand Island, and everything they have seen within the complex are controlled by the use of two words: Julius No.

Before he leaves the dining room, Doctor No tells the agents that Honey will be taken away for his guards' amusement, and the agents themselves will be subjected to brutal torture before they die. The guards grab honey and drag her, kicking and screaming, away to meet her fate. Salinen springs into action, and the agents attack the guards. The fight is quick and brutal, and the agents are overcome.

Monday 17 September 1981


The Torture Course

An undeterminable time later, Montrose awakes in a jail cell. Hearing the ocean and smelling the sea through an air vent near the ceiling of his cell, Montrose pulls the grille covering the air vent loose. He receives an electric shock, but eventually manages to wrench it free and crawls into the air vent.

A little while later, Lochlain awakes in the same cell. after an abortive attempt at picking the lock of his jail cell, he also removes the grille - receiving the same electric shock - before following Montrose down the tunnel.

Later, Salinen wakes up in the same cell. He does the same and follows Montrose and Lochlain into the tunnels.

The three agents regroup and negotiate Doctor No's demented endurance course. They withstand exhausting climbs, extreme temperatures, the danger of drowning, and a tortuous spiralling climb that becomes steeper the further they progress. Eventually, the agents discover Strangways's body on the final diabolical segment of the course - a passageway where they are assailed by electronically activated spinning blades. Using their resourcefulness, the agents safely negotiate this and reach the end of the course.

Confronting Doctor No

The tunnel opens out onto the cliff face on the western shore of Grand Island, fifty feet above the ocean. Lochlain sees another opening in the cliff face, fifty feet to the south. The agents jump into the water, then scale the cliff face to the new opening.

Crawling down the new tunnel, they discover that it is a ventilation shaft that services the main control room of Doctor No's complex. Leaping down from the shaft, the unarmed agents take Doctor No's guards by surprise. A firefight erupts. Montrose engages Doctor No in hand to hand combat and the Doctor knocks Montrose out. Lochlain wounds No, and Salinen shoots him in the head, killing him.

While Lochlain dispatches the remaining guards, Salinen tries to destroy No's missile guidance computers. Realising that destroying the computers may not prevent No's plan, Salinen attempts to abort the operation using No's personal console. Salinen deduces that No's password is "Julius No", and uses No's computer to abort the Doctor's plan with less than a minute to spare.

Escaping Grand Island

The damage Salinen has done to the complex's computers has caused its life support systems to fail. Lochlain picks up Montrose and the trio search the complex for Honey and Potter's daughters. Mary and Rose are found easily enough; they have remained at their stations while everyone else has fled the island. They are confused as to why everyone is evacuating; Salinen tells them that Doctor No is waiting for them on the mainland and convinces them to come with the agents.

Honey is found, unharmed, in her 'guest cell.' The party flees to the complex's dock, where, to their surprise, they discover Potter's boat but without Potter or Wong aboard. They climb aboard and return to Jamaica.

Aftermath

The cruise missiles splashed harmlessly into the atlantic ocean and are recovered by US Navy divers. The agents' intervention prevented harm to the Prime Minister, while Fidel Castro and the Cuban government also escaped unscathed. The US government declares the test a 'one-off failure due to mechanical fault.'

The agents' report to MI6 has alerted the British government to the presence of TAROT, and TAROT's plan to take over Cuba was foiled.

Colonel Potter escaped to Cuba and is eventually returned to Jamaica, where he is reunited with his daughters. Mary and Rose undergo substantial psychological treatment and are eventually freed from the effects of Doctor No's brainwashing.

Liat Lee Wong remains at large. According to Potter, she disappeared once the refugees from Grand Island landed in Cuba.

NPC Checklist

Doctor Julius No: Major Villain. Killed by David Salinen.
Liat Lee Wong: Privileged Henchwoman. At large.
Professor Jonathan Dent: Henchman. Arrested by Jamaican authorities.
Cassoleah Jones: Henchman. Committed suicide after being captured.
Unknown Chinese girl: Henchwoman. Escaped after photographing the agents at Norman Manley International Airport. At large.

Colonel Percival Potter: Questioned by authorities after his return to Jamaica, but exonerated by testimony from MI6 for his role in the operation.
Mary and Rose Potter: Restored to full mental health.
Felix Leiter: Commended for the efficiency of his role in destroying a drug smuggling network that was operating out of North Island.
Quarrel: Congratulated by the US government for his assistance to Felix Leiter in the North Island operation.
Honey Ryder: After a brief dalliance with Simon Montrose, returns to her life on Jamaica.

Experience Points and Fame Points

Each character receives 2000 experience points - 500 for session 1, 500 for session 2, 1000 for session 3.
Sean Lochlain receives 8 fame points (3 for completing the mission, 5 for killing 1 person).
Simon Montrose receives 3 fame points (for completing the mission).
David Salinen receives 23 fame points (3 for completing the mission, 5 for killing 1 person, 15 for killing Doctor No).
 
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Frankie Dragon
10 May 2006 @ 08:16 pm
Dr No: Session 2  

Saturday 15 September 1981


For a summary of the first session of this mission, click here.

Potter's Plantation I

4:30 PM. David Salinen, Simon Montrose and Sean Lochlain rendezvous at Kings House after Lochlain's bridge game with High Commissioner Pleydell-Smith, Professor Jonathan Dent and Colonel Percival Potter. The agents decide to investigate Col. Potter's sugar plantation that
night.

After sunset, the agents sneak onto Potter's property. They find that aside from Potter's house, there is also a smaller house off to one side. Before they can commence their investigation proper, however, a pack of guard dogs attacks them. After a brief struggle, during which Montrose is bitten on the leg, the agents shoot and kill all four dogs.

The fracas has alerted the inhabitants of the plantation. The agents are forced to hide as Potter and a beautiful Chinese woman (presumed to be Ms Wong) investigate and discover the dead dogs. The agents withdraw, regroup, and decide to instead go around the coastline and approach the plantation from the beach.

Potter's Plantation II

It takes the trio several hours to reach the beach and traverse the shoreline undetected. Eventually they realise they have arrived at the plantation when they come across a large cabin cruiser moored to a jetty in the harbour. It is the Mary-Rose, Potter's boat. Lochlain and Montrose go aboard to investigate; Lochlain discovers a nautical chart of Grand Island on the bridge.

Proceeding towards the plantation, the agents break into two storage barns only to find that they are storing nothing more contraband than molasses. The agents then break into the Chinese woman's house. Their entry awakens her, and she pulls a gun on them. The agents overpower her and tie her up. They demand to know why Potter hired her; she says the plantation was failing because Potter knows little about runnign a business and needed someone who could communicate easily with the Chinese workers. The agents then demand to know what happens when she and Potter go to Grand Island; she simply says that he fishes and she gets bored.

Sunday 16 September 1981



Potter's House

Not satisfied with Wong's answers, Salinen and Lochlain break into Potter's house and search his study. They discover a photograph of Potter, flanked by two lovely young half-Chinese woman - his daughters, Mary and Rose. They also discover a filing cabinet, and within, a file marked "Dr No." Inside the file is a series of suspicious memoes, each signed by this Dr No - "Need perfloric acid" - "Send two replacement male wrokers" - and most suspiciopus of all, "Get Strangways file from Potter. Need soon, or else the girls go on bread and water." Salinen and Lochlain take this file and, careful not to awaken Potter, return to Wong's house.

Kidnapping Wong

Deciding that they need to interrogate Wong thoroughly, the agents gag her and carry her to their car. They then drive to a secluded area and interrogate her until dawn, but learn nothing more from her.

At daybreak, the agents realise they are making no headway with Wong and return to Potter's plantation. Salinen and Montrose wake Potter up and force their way into his house. The two agents then alternate between promising to help Potter and his daughters and demanding the truth from Potter at gunpoint. Potter demands that they leave immediately, and insists that his daughters are safe and well and are in Singapore. When Salinen and Montrose present Potter with the file on Dr No that was found in his filing cabinet, Potter denies having seen it before, denies ever having heard of a Dr No, and accuses the agents of forging the notes to terrify him.

A Change of Tack

Lochlain brings Wong, gagged and bound, into Potter's house, but the agents fail to get the pair to confess to anything. The trio try a change of tack. Montrose takes Wong into the bathroom and tortures her by drowning her in the bath. Lochlain meanwhile begins trashing Potter's house, demanding the truth from him. Wong eventually passes out from her treatment, but the miserable Potter finally cracks. He tells the agents that Wong kidnapped his daughters and took them to Dr No. Since then, Potter has been forced to periodically take supplies to Grand Island aboard his boat. He confesses that he gave information about Strangways to Wong, but only after Strangways had already disappeared. Potter claims not to know exactly what happened to Strangways - only that Strangways was curious about Grand Island despite, or perhaps because of, Potter's discouragement.

Revelation

While these revelations are sinking in for the agents, Potter attempts to commit suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule. Lochlain notices this attempt, wrestles Potter to the floor, and forces him to spit out the capsule. Potter tells the agents that Dr No's agents are everywhere - they're bound to know that the agents are on to Wong and him, and now all their lives are forfeit.

Realising they may be short on time, the agents agree to steal Potter's cabin cruiser and head directly to Grand Island. They plan to take Wong and Potter with them - Wong for further interrogation, and Potter to ensure he doesn't attempt suicide again.
 
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Frankie Dragon
19 April 2006 @ 08:55 am
Dr No: Session 1  

Friday 14 September 1981


Briefing
It's 1 AM, early Friday morning. Sean Lochlain and Simon Montrose are gambling at Le Cercle, a fashionable London casino, when they receive an urgent summons from M. Lochlain returns to MI6 headquarters immediately while Montrose spends some time flirting with a woman called Sylvia Trench before returning.

At headquarters, Lochlain meets his partner, David Salinen. There is an atmosphere of tension around MI6 HQ. They are joined 45 minutes later by Montrose. Moneypenny ushers the three agents into M’s office.

M informs the trio that Major John Strangways, the head of MI6’s station house in Kingston, Jamaica, has disappeared. Strangways failed to sign in for his daily radio report the previous evening and did not respond to any of MI6’s emergency follow-up calls. Strangways was investigating rumours of drug smuggling on the islands around Jamaica, and was being assisted by CIA agent Felix Leiter. The British High Commissioner in Kingston, Jeremy Pleydell-Smith, believes Strangways may have eloped with a woman, but M finds the allegation hard to believe. M orders the agents to fly to Jamaica under cover of investigating Strangways’s disappearance as employees of Universal Exports. They’re to find out what has happened to Strangways and ensure that MI6’s security has not been breached.

Norman Manley Airport
The agents leave London at 11 am and arrive at Norman Manly Airport in Kingston at 4:30 PM local time. At the airport terminal Salinen recognises Felix Leiter. While the British agents introduce themselves to Leiter, Lochlain notices a beautiful part-Chinese woman taking a flash photograph of them. Lochlain approaches her, but the woman flees. Lochlain pursues, but collides with a luggage trolley and injures himself. The woman escapes.

The British agents regroup and are met by a chauffeur, who says he has been sent to collect them from the offices of the Governor-General, King’s House. Salinen, Lochlain and Montrose pile into the chauffeur’s car, while Leiter follows in his own rented car.

Shortly into the journey Lochlain realises the driver is not taking them in the direction of King’s House. He and Salinen quiz the driver, who becomes evasive. Salinen draws his gun on the driver, who responds by flooring the accelerator. A brief struggle inside the cramped confines of the car ensues. Montrose intervenes by knocking the driver out, by the agents cannot regain control of the car and it careens off the road, flipping several times before coming to rest. The agents escape with only minor injuries

The agents and Leiter, who had been following, rescue the unconscious driver from the wreckage of the car and place him into the boot of Leiter’s car.

King’s House
Arriving at King’s House, the agents and Leiter are met by High Commissioner Jeremy Pleydell-Smith. Pleydell-Smith is surprised the chauffeur he sent didn’t pick them up. Salinen and Montrose deduce that their ‘driver’ must have been an impostor. Leiter and Lochlain park Leiter’s car in one of the King’s House garages. When they open the boot, they discover that the impostor driver has poisoned himself with a cyanide capsule hidden in a cigarette. Leiter drives away with the body, telling the agents that if they need to contact him he has been working with a fisherman down at the Harbour by the name of Quarrel.

Pleydell-Smith tells the agents that Strangways was part of a bridge foursome that played every day at 1 o’clock. The other members of the foursome were Pleydell-Smith himself, a retired army officer called Percival Potter, and a university professor called Jonathan Dent. Pleydell-Smith gives them the address of Strangways’s house and invites them to investigate on their own accord.

Strangways’s House
The agents break into Strangways’s house and discover documents on Strangways’s computer that implicate Potter and Dent. They also discover a few documents that Strangways had taken from Potter’s sugar plantation: A diary entry mentioning ‘Anansi’ and a plan that will commence on Monday, and a couple of fuel receipts.

That night, Montrose asks a young man hanging around outside the agents’ hotel about the woman Lochlain saw at the airport. The young man knows nothing about her, and offers to sell marijuana to Montrose. Montrose declines.

Saturday 15 September 1981


Kingston Harbour
In the morning the agents rendezvous with Quarrel at Kingston Harbour. Quarrel explains that ‘Anansi’ is the name of a group of islands about a hundred miles north of Jamaica. Anansi is also the name of a spider-god that apparently inhabits those islands. Quarrel, who is superstitious, refuses to go to the islands ever since a number of fishermen went missing in that area a few years ago.

Quarrel helps the agents find the dock worker who signed the fuel receipts. The man tells them that the fuel was bought by Percival Potter and Miss Wong, the woman who manages Potter’s sugar plantation, for Potter’s boat, the Mary-Rose (named after Potter’s twin daughters). The dockworker estimates that he bought enough fuel for a 250-mile journey.

Lochlain meets Pleydell-Smith at King’s House to take Strangways’s place in the bridge foursome, while Salinen and Montrose rendezvous with Leiter and Quarrel and compare notes.

Lunch with Felix and Quarrel
Quarrel tells Salinen and Montrose that Potter owns a sugar plantation on the east coast of Jamaica. Four years ago, Potter hired a Chinese woman by the name of Wong to manage the plantation for him. This came as a surprise to many, since the plantation was doing well at the time and didn’t seem to require a manager. Quarrel also mentions that Dent is a professor of computerology at the University of the West Indies.

Salinen and Montrose ask whether anything significant is happening on Monday. Leiter mentions that there is a cruise missile test at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida scheduled for Monday morning.

Bridge at King’s House
Lochlain and Pleydell-Smith lose the bridge game to Dent and Potter. Lochlain quizzes Dent and Potter about the Anansi Islands and Strangways. Dent says he never liked or trusted Strangways, and denies ever having gone to the Anansi Islands. Potter, who has drunk heavily through the afternoon, claims to have visited the Islands once or twice on fishing expeditions. Pleydell-Smith says that there are rumours that the Anansi cult is based on either Grand Island or North Island, and that it is recruiting from the Rastafarian, Chinese and half-Chinese population of Jamaica. Dent dismisses the rumours as "local mumbo-jumbo."

Lochlain also asks Potter about Miss Wong. Potter claims that the plantation was losing money, and Miss Wong’s management has helped turn it around.

The University of the West Indies
After their lunch with Leiter and Quarrel, Salinen and Montrose drive to the University of the West Indies campus at Mona. There, they break into Dent’s office. Searching the office for clues, Montrose discovers a slip of paper in Dent’s wastepaper basket with the letters “d Is”.

Salinen and Montrose return to King’s House and rendezvous with Lochlain.
 
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Frankie Dragon
18 April 2006 @ 06:23 pm
Character biography - Sean Lochlain  
Born: 13 February 1949, Dublin, Republic of Ireland.

Lochlain was born Sean Connolly, the second child of Catherine Connolly. Catherine worked at the local industrial laundry, until she had an accident with a steam iron when Sean was still a child. She is now an invalid and is dependent on welfare. Sean's older sister Aileen is married to a teacher and still lives in Dublin. Much of her income goes towards supporting her mother. Catherine either does not know, or does not wish to tell, the identity of either of Aileen's or Sean's father.

Early life: Sean was not a poor student at school, merely a lazy one. He put in the minimum effort required to satisfy his teachers, satisfy his mother, pass his exams, and move on. His mother, usually exhausted by her job, seldom spent time with him and had no energy to control him. That gave him enough time to go out and become, for a few hours at least, the "man" he thought he saw himself to be. Sean spent most of his outside of school in the company of older boys, wandering around the backstreets of Dublin, focussing their anger against all things English.

One day, when Sean was 14, he and his mates were approached by a low-rent criminal with an offer to make some easy cash. Stealing cars and robbing stores was easy enough for Sean, and before long he gained the attention of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

Tension rose beytween Sean and Aileen when he started going out at nights. She knew nothing good would come of it and tried to talk him out of it. The father of Aileen's English boyfriend, Garrett, offered Sean a legitimate job in a packing house. By this stage, however, Sean had already begun to believe the anti-English rhetoric of his new 'friends' and saw Aileen's relationship to Garrett as proof that she would never understand his struggle. Eventually, frustration and angst won over and Aileen distanced herself from her brother. The last correspondence Sean received from his sister was an invitation to her wedding to Garrett. Sean instead spent the month at an IRA training camp. When he returned, he moved to Belfast.

Association with the IRA: Sean's training was oriented towards providing financial support to the Republican Army - i.e. Robbery and armed theft. This kept Sean busy for 5 years (1969 to 1974) while another team of low-key players fenced the loot. Sean's natural agility and street sense brought him to the attention of more senior IRA members, and there were whispers that Sean could quickly become a major figure in the Army. Eager to make a good impression, Sean took to every assignment with relish. He was happy to be useful and he enjoyed what he was doing. However, Sean's superiors mistook his breathless enthusiasm for simplicity, and he was quickly relegated to the role of hired muscle.

Betrayal and Capture: Sean's naivete was to be his undoing. Having underestimated his capabilities, Sean's superiors believed him to b quite expendable. When a patsy was required to be held responsible for the assassination of two British army officers in Northern Ireland, Sean found himself betrayed by his superiors and framed for the killings. Sean was arrested by the British authorities, convicted of the murders, and received a life sentence in the infamous Maze Prison.

Sean adjusted quickly to prison life. He realised that the only alternative was a quick and bloody death, at the hands of either the prison guards or his fellow inmates. For 5 long years he re-evaluated his life and his values. For 5 long years he received not a single letter from either his mother or his sister, both of who were convinced he was a heartless killer. Then, in 1979, Sean Connolly made a decision that would change his life. He turned supergrass.

Recruitment: Sean had been privy to some major meetings amongst the IRA hierachy during his time. His superiors, underestimating his intelligence, never considered him to be a security risk. When Sean started speaking to the British authorities, his information immediately led to the arrest of several major figures in both the IRA and the Irish criminal underworld.

Impressed, the British authorities offered Sean an early release from prison and a new identity in return for his co-operation in a sting operation intended to capture Bill Wilson - the IRA assassin who had betrayed Sean 5 years earlier. Sean accepted and co-operated fully with the authorities. When the sting operation turned sour and devolved into gunplay Sean exceeded expectations. He killed or incapacitated Wilson's bodyguard and singlehandedly apprehended Wilson.

Sean's heroics did not go unnoticed, and he was offered a position within the Investigations and Enforcements department of MI6. The British Government stayed good to its word and offered Sean a new identity. Officially, Sean Connolly was shifted from Maze Prison to a medium security prison on 14 January 1980 - the same date that Sean Lochlain began his training with MI6. Sean's mother Catherine and his sister Aileen think he's in jail for a million years and that it's better that way.

Political and Religious Beliefs: Sean's self-reflection in Maze Prison has softened his views. Sean has seen what extreme religious beliefs do to people, and how religion can be used as an excuse for the most violent acts. As a result, Sean has rejected his Catholic upbringing, although this is more a rejection of organised religion than a complete denial of the philosophy behind it. His ideals now rely on the power of humankind to control its own destiny - for better or for worse.

Sean is still a staunch Republican. However, he no longer believes that the IRA or Sinn Fein offer viable solutions to the Troubles. Politically, Sean tends towards the left, but he does not feel that socialism is the answer to all questions.

Personality: Sean is very down-to-earth and keeps his feet on the ground when the going gets tough. Staying true to his working class roots, he enjoys football and arguing precisely why George Best is the greatest winger ever at the pub.

Sean is a patriot - but for Ireland, not England. He simply cannot convince himself that he is a subject of the Queen of England. While he may work for Her Majesty's Secret Service, he thinks of himself as no more than an employee of MI6. His loyalty extends no further than that.

Sean has a gambling problem, which he does not like to admit. He will never refuse an invitation to visit a casino.
 
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Frankie Dragon
06 April 2006 @ 08:30 pm
Character biography - David Salinen  
Born: 12 May 1949, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England.

First and only son of Timo Salinen, a Physics teacher from Tampere, Finland who migrated to England in the late 1930s, and Gloria Shepherd, a hand and foot model from Surrey.

Schooling: Attended Portsmouth Grammar School until 1966. Was awarded an athletics scholarship to attend Southbank University, London, graduating in 1970 with an engineering degree.

Career: David started off racing go-karts in 1961 at the local track, prompted by his father who always loved motor racing but never lived the dream. David led the 'Portsmouth Pistons' karting squad to 2 district championships in 1963 and 1964. March 1965 saw him race in his first 1800cc touring car meet (in a Ford Escort), where he played catch up from the 2nd to last row of the grid to finish in 3rd place. In October 1965 he was invited to join the 'Hampshire Hellcats' development squad, a 6-man team, along side a young Nigel Mansell, however pressure from his parents to attend Southbank University forced him to leave the team after two races. This caused a rift between David and his Mother in particular, who insisted that David's education was the ultimate priority (perhaps due to her own lack thereof). She often cited the many years she had spent encouraging David in his athletics training, and the hours of 'meetings' with his high school athletics coach as the reason for his successful scholarship application. David never let his time at university sway him from his ambition to drive, however, and joined the local car club to keep his skill honed. During the summer months, working at numerous engineering firms as part of the professional experience portion of his degree, he spent hours networking and making enquiries into potential sponsors to launch his professional driving career.

Upon graduating, he immediately abandoned engineering and signed a personal sponsorship deal with BP, using the cash advance to buy an MG BGT touring car which he raced for 2 years in the Hampshire GT Touring Car Series, placing 6th in the 1970 season, 8th in 1971, and 2nd in 1972. He was awarded most improved driver for this season. Halfway through his 1973 season (at which time he had an 8 point lead in the championship), he was offered a drive with the Castrol BMW team in the European Gran Turismo series. He immediately jumped at the chance, starting what would become 4 of the most thrilling, and frustrating years of his life. The team was plagued by inconsistent car performance and poor performance from their tyre manufacturer. David perservered until 1977, achieving a total 10 podium finishes, but at 28 years old, he felt he had been on the scene long enough without achieving his goals and started making noises about retiring.

James Candlehurst, the team manager ran a tight operation and wouldn't allow David's waning interest to affect the team. He severed his contract mid season 1977, but being an old acquaintance of David's mother, pulled some strings and found an opening for David with a private security firm as a limousine driver for visiting foreign dignitries.

Recruitment: David worked for the security firm for just over a year but quickly earned a reputation as their number one driver, having been persuaded to take evasive action on behalf of his passenger on two notable occasions.

The second of these incidents involved an attempted assassination of his passenger wherein David guided his car (and passenger) off the London docks into the Thames as a means of escape. He rescued his passenger from the sinking car, and taking air from the car tyres for the two of them, saved his life. Unbeknownst to David, his passenger was Ali Hassan Salameh, the chief of operations for the terrorist cell Black September, and he had just foiled an assassination attempt by overzealous agents of Mossad, who had overstepped their orders. However, information garnered from David by MI5 after the incident was leaked to Mossad. The assassins were able to predict Salameh's movements and completed their assignment two weeks later, killing Salameh via a car bomb in Beirut.

David was offered a position at MI6 the following month (February, 1979). He embraced his new career and advanced quickly, becoming skilled at fire combat, and of course advancing his piloting skills in aircraft, watercraft as well as technical driving. He now believes he drives better than he ever did as a professional driver, and is thrilled to have left the frustrating world of motorsport to become a government operative on Her Majesty's Secret Service.
 
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Frankie Dragon
02 April 2006 @ 03:08 pm
World Events in 1981  
January
1: Greece enters the European Community.
18: Historic Ottawa Wine Tasting of 1981 confirms that superior wines could be made outside of France.
20: President-elect Ronald Reagan succeeds Jimmy Carter as President of the United States of America. Minutes after Reagan becomes president, Iran releases 52 American hostages who had been held hostage after 14 months of captivity in the US embassy in Tehran.

February
4: Gro Harlem Brundtland becomes Prime Minister of Norway.
9: Polish Prime Minister Jozef Pinkowski resigns and is replaced by General Wojciech Jaruzelski.
23: Antonio Tejero, together with members of the Guardia Civil, enters the Spanish Congress of Deputies and prevents Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo from being named president of the government. The attempted coup ultimately fails as a result of the intervention of King Juan Carlos.

March
7: Colombian guerrillas execute US bible translator Chester Allen Bitterman on suspicion of being a CIA agent.
11: Chilean president Augusto Pinochet sworn in for an 8-year term as president.
19: Three workers are killed and five are injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia. American officials suspect Soviet sabotage, but can prove nothing.
30: President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington DC hotel by John Hinckley Jr, whose family have connections with vice president Bush.
31: The first Soviet space shuttle, Potemkin, is launched successfully.

April
11: Riot in Brixton, South London – rioters throw petrol bombs, attack police and loot shops.
12: The first successful launch of the American space shuttle Columbia.

May
10: Francois Mitterrand defeats Valery Giscard d'Estaing in the French presidential elections.
13: Pope John Paul II is shot and nearly killed by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish gunman, as he enters St Peter's Square in Rome to address a general audience. Ali Agca himself claims he was hired by members of the Communist Bulgarian secret service. However, other sources claim that the far-right Turkish terrorist organisation Ali Agca has links to, the Grey Wolves, were funded by the CIA. Still other sources claim that Ali Agca was working alone.
21: Francois Mitterrand is sworn in as French President.
26: The government of Italy resigns over its links to the fascistic Masonic cell P-2.
30: Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman is assassinated by army officials in Chaittagong.

June
5: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States report that five homosexual men in Los Angeles have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems.
7: Israel, suspecting Iraq of attempting to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons, sends its Air Force to destroy Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor.
13: At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, teenager Marcus Sargeant fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.
22: Hamas attacks a travel agency in Greece, leaving two dead.
22: In Iran, a coup led by the Ayatollah Khomeini deposes President Abolhassan Banisadr. The Ayatollah himself signs the impeachment and Banisadr's supporters are purged. Banisadr flees to France.

July
17: Israeli bombers destroy the headquarters of the PLO in Beirut.
29: Lady Diana Spencer marries Charles, Prince of Wales.

August
1: MTV is launched in the United States.
5: President Reagan fires 11,359 striking air traffic controllers who ignored his order to return to work.
19: Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi sends two Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets to intercept two US fighters over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets destroy the Libyan fighters.
19: President Reagan appoints the first female US Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor.
28: South Africa invades Angola.
31: A bomb explodes at the US army base in Ramstein, West Germany, injuring 20 people. A NATO investigation suspects Soviet involvement.

September
10: Picasso's Guernica is moved from New York to Madrid.
 
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Frankie Dragon
02 April 2006 @ 11:41 am
(no subject)  
Hi,

Welcome to my Livejournal. I'll be using this as a kind of noticeboard for the players involved in my James Bond roleplaying campaign.

The campaign will be set in the 1980s (beginning in 1981) and will use the classic James Bond 007 roleplaying system published by Victory Games.

I plan to post brief bios of the player characters, summaries of then-current world events, a campaign log, and various other clues, red herrings, pieces of information (and disinformation) for my players about the game world. I'm hoping my players will check and comment regularly.

Hope you enjoy.
 
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