The Frequency
Romanet Patrick
A few weeks ago, I GM a 3 hours sessions (we play in real time) of
urban high-tech espionage inspired by shows like Watch Dogs, Person of
Interest, Gotham and Batman, 24… We posted a few months ago a debrief
for a Cyberpunk game that we played (using also covert ops system
modified).
Here is the debrief and sorry if my English is not correct.
I decided to use Covert Ops system (d00Lite) that I like very much. It is easy to pick up for new players, character creation is fast and it is of course really appropriate for urban espionage.
However, I wanted something even more fluid for a real-time adventure. I decided to use some Apocalypse World concepts with that purpose in mind.
First, I do not throw any dice anymore. Everything is done by the players.
Then, I redefined the degrees of success/failure based on AW ideas : Rates of partial success is around 40% no matter the characteristic bonus. So, I decided that no matter what, characters have always 40% to partially succeed (meaning, you succeed at a cost like when Kaylee forgets her cell phone while stealing the mask). Thus, if somebody has 50% in his skill, I consider that between 30 and 70%, he partially succeed. Below 30% it is a total success. Above 70% it is a failure. Critical success and critical failure apply (based on 50% score).
There is no difficulty level, the failure depends on the situation. Difficult situations bring hard failure.
With this also, I got rid of throwing the dice for damages. Partial success inflicts half damage, total success inflicts half damage + something else (another half damage, or opponent looses weapons, or don’t get hurt by opponent…). In fact, I kept the basic mechanism in AW that says Partial success to hold 1, total success you hold 2 (and critical hold 4).
It means also, that when characters fight, if they just have a partial success they might get hurt.
I applied it also for other actions, like Thief (hold 1 : I enter the place without being noticed, hold 2 : I enter the place without being noticed and I manage to prepare my escape route).
I have to make short lists of commonly used skills like in AW to let the players decide the outcome of their actions.
Regarding the Hacking skill I went for something really simple (allowed also by the system I used) :
If I want to hack a car, I use the Pilot skill.
If I want to hack the video surveillance to infiltrate a place, I use the Thief skill.
If I want to hack the video surveillance to look for clues, I use the Detective skill.
…
So, there is no dedicated Hacker, all Player Characters are Hackers. However, a character like Kaylee who has Programming can go further and put virus, and do more complex things, but other characters, like in Watchdogs, are considered to have the right tools to hack the things that are related to their field of expertise.
And since, in this game, the character are in constant contact with Spider 0, the Hacker, I replaced the Bones by Hack Point. In short, it works quite the same way, but every time they use it, it means that Spider 0 did something remotely to help them (provoke a blackout, fry the phone…).
We just started to play, so I did not take time to go deep into the custom rules. But it worked very well.
Now, here is the pitch :
Chicago, the near future.
You are high-tech thieves. The best in your field. However, for a
reason known only to you, you ended up asking a favour from Chicago
Crime Boss : Leroi. Maybe you need money to pay for the medical care of
your husband. Or, you need somebody out of a bad situation. Whatever the
reason, your only way out is this one last bank heist.
Leroy’s team gave you all the information you need to rob the main bank
of Chicago. You planned your heist for weeks. You hacked in the bank
security system, learned all their routine. You know everything about
the employees. Now, your getaway car is parked in a back alley. The
driver waiting for you. You are ready to enter the bank before it is
about to close.
Your objective, get the daily code from the bank manager, open the
vault, get the money and get out. You have 30 minutes before anybody
suspect anything. No killing (employees or customers) of course.
Two characters :
Kaylee : Thief / Technician
Will : Detective / Medic
Chicago Bank, 6pm :
The scenario starts when Will get in the Bank with their two associates :
Salem and Rios (Muscles). The Bank is located in Chicago’s business
district.
Kaylee is already in.
They all wear masks. They received them in the morning (by mail),
except maybe for Salem and Rios who seem to have their own masks. Dive,
their driver and point of contact with Leroi (both PC never met Leroi)
is waiting for them in a back alley.
Not many customers, the bank is about to close. Salem fires a few gun shots in the roof and everyone is on the ground.
Will put all the guards to sleep (using chloroform) making sure that no one wants to play hero.
The bank is secure (from their point of view), the mission can really starts.
Kaylee goes upstairs to look for the bank manager, Brenner. She tries to bluff him out of his office, but it does not work. She gets in. He does not seem to be there. But she is sure she heard some noise (Brenner tried to call the police but the phones are dead). She suspects he is hiding under his desk but she is taking some time, pour some whiskey in a glass and starts drinking. He takes this opportunity to try to flee, but she makes a warning shot that stops him halfway to the door.
Will, who was wondering what was happening upstairs, shows up. A few minutes ago, he had to scowl Rios who was beginning to be a little bit to excited (and violent with the hostages).
Will and Kaylee are about to bring Brenner back downstairs when Rios (who went down to the vault in the meantime) calls them. ‘Somebody is in the vault ! Dying !’.
Everybody rushes to discover, thanks to the video camera, that
indeed, an old guy, who was using the private safe in the vault,
collapsed on the floor, his hand pressed on his heart (heart attack).
Will want to intervene but the door to the vault is closed !
At that moment, Will phone rings : his wife. Will take the call. His
wife explains that a FBI agent named Walker is there. His wife does not
know that Walker is the person who forced Will to get back into the
criminal world. Walker wants Will inside Leroi organization.
Walker ask his wife to pass Walker to him. The conversation is brief and
tensed. Will learned from Walker that no operation is planned from
Leroi tonight. So why are they here ?
Will end the conversation (after all there is a guy dying in the vault). Kaylee and Will ask Brenner to open the vault door but he refuses (bank policy). So they threaten him, and finally he agrees. But it is too late, Will cannot manage to save the guy.
So they focus on stealing the money now that they are inside the vault. Kaylee, Will and Rios start putting money in the sport bags they brought with them.
A few minutes later, Kaylee is interrupted by a call from Salem.
Something is happening on the ground floor. The phones of all the
hostages are ringing at the same time !
Kaylee comes up and, after trying to understand how somebody managed to
get a signal thought the barrier she set up, she decides to pick up.
“Are you in charge ?’Says a distorted voice on the phone.
Kaylee says yes. The voice, a Hacker, explains that their operation is
interfering with his/her operation. Indeed, the Hacker planned to use
Brenner for a mission tonight. Brenner is supposed to participate in an
auction, a slave auction. With the Heist, he won’t go since the police
will ask him questions and all. But the Hacker really needs someone to
go to this auction and extract somebody. The PC seem good at their job.
The Hacker offers to help them (money, information…) if they do that for
him/her.
Will and Kaylee hesitate. Kaylee gives the Hacker a test to see whether he is that good (hack into a military centre). Kayla will discover later that the Hacker planted a phone on the first floor and set up a bluetooth network that allowed him/her to call the other phones.
The Hacker accepts the challenge.
Time is running out, Will, Kaylee, Rios and Salem decide to leave with
the money. Kayla stays a little bit longer. Indeed, she needs the
invitation for the auction. It is in Brenner’s pocket (they chloroformed
him). It’s a punchcard made from gold !
Not seeing Kaylee following him makes Will impatient. He goes back inside the bank to get her.
Then, both of them get out to discover that Salem and Rios are not there
anymore. The car is still there, the money too, in the boot, but Dive
is dead, a bullet in his head.
Kaylee and Will decide to leave anyway, avoiding the cops. The night is falling (6:45pm), it is heavy raining.
Will decides to dump Dive’s body in the river, under a bridge. Kaylee
tries to trace the Hacker location but fries her computer in the
process.
The Hacker calls them back. He completed his challenge. Kayla and
Will accepts after agreeing on him helping them with their own problems :
Will wants the FBI agent off his back. Kayla wants her brother back. He
is detained by Leroi who used him to force Kaylee to participate in the
bank robbery.
For Will, the situation is strange because according to Walker, the FBI agent, there is no operation from Leroi tonight.
Once all agree on the terms of the arrangement (the Hacker can help them but not solve their problem in their place), they need to stop by a safe house to get rid of the weapons they used, and get a new computer.
That’s what they will do for the next 30 minutes. First at Will safe
house then at an abandoned safe house located in a container.
This will be time for them to assess the situation : The person they
need to extract is named Sun. She seems to be a friend of the Hacker.
The person who run the slave ring is Elena. Not much is known about her
except a short story of a guy who tried to cross her in the past found
himself imprisonned and put on a slave boat to a middle east country.
Her right hand is named Lado.
The auction takes place in the Wards, an old district of Chicago full of abandoned factories. One of them hides Elena’s business. This is a low tech environment, based on trust. If you have the card, you can enter.
Before the characters reaches the factory, Kaylee receives a phone call from Leroi. He wants her to participate in a mission tonight. She tries to explain that she already finished the heist, which seems to make Leroi angry (‘Do I look like a guy who robs bank ?’). Kaylee and Will explain that they have information that can help him. Eventually, Leroy wants to meet them in one hour to clarify the situation, which gives them half an hour to extract Sun and half an hour to reach the rendez-vous point.
The characters reach the factory around 7:30pm. The parking is full
of luxury cars. They present their cards and Will is addressed as M
Brenner. Kayla will play his assistant.
The factory has been transformed into a VIP lounge / Night Club. Yachts
are on display here and there, and on the far end of the place, a stage
displays the slaves. A huge screen shows what are the bids on each of
them.
Kaylee hacks into the cell phones of the guests. She creates confusion by stopping the bids.
The confusion brings Elena forward, and Lado to… and Leroi who seem to be a VIP here.
It also interrupts the ‘Carlisle Brothers’ from bidding on Sun (among others).
Kaylee and Will decide to act quickly, go backstage and get Sun. They
have to knock a guard down quietly, but when they find themselves
backstage, they realise that a few guards are there too !
Fortunately for them, a men enters from a service door and start shooting the guards !
Kaylee and Will don’t take long to act and get out of there. Will uses
an adrenaline shot on Sun to make sure she can follow them.
Once they are out, Sun, still groggy tell them ‘to get the Mask’.The
evidence are there !’. Kaylee and Will do not understand, but it seems
to be really important to Sun.
Unfortunately, the mask is in Elena’s office upstairs, next to the VIP room !
They decide to go back anyway and at that moment, they also decide to double cross Leroi and Elena.
Their plan : To pretend that the Hacker used them to rob the bank and infiltrate them into the auction (against their will).
But since they are talented, they managed to find out where the Hacker
is located and they can give this information to Leroi and Elena.
Once inside the ‘factory’, Kaylee keeps putting viruses into the
auction system to make sure that Elena is still under pressure. Indeed,
when they reach Leroi in the VIP room, they can see her in her office
scowling a guy who looks like his IT security expert.
Next to them, the Mask is placed on the desk !
Kaylee and Will explain the situation to Leroi. It seems that Leroi believe their lie, at least part of it, and enough to talk to Elena about it.
Kaylee decides to provoke a black out (use her Hack Point) in the
district. Once everything is dark she gets into the office, and steal
the mask. However she forgets her own cell phone on the desk !
Light comes back, Kaylee is back with Leroi and Will. She sees her cell
phone ! But Will uses his own Hack point to ask the Hacker to fry the
phone.
Then, Leroi takes them to Elena. She is willing to listen to their story and she too seems to believe them. Lado, on the contrary do not trust them. Anyway, Will and Kaylee propose to show the safe house where they believe the Hacker is.
In exchange, Kaylee asks Leroi to release her brother. He accepts, but it does not mean she won’t do the assignment he planned (that is supposed to take place later this night).
Will, Kaylee, Lado and 2 of Lado’s men drive to the hacker’s safe
house. They can see the computers, the getaway car, but except from a
few footprints (Will’s and Kaylee’s from earlier), nobody seems to have
stayed there for quite some time (a lot of dust on everything).
Lado does not trust the characters, but he is called back by Elena who want to move forward and conclude the auction ASAP.
The characters are left to themselves. Kayla gets her brother back, and the 3 of them leave the factory and the auction. They gave Sun a cell phone and let her get back to wherever she is supposed to go.
The Hacker thanks them. She (because it is a she) will help them
anyway she can. There a lot of wrongs to right is this city, and this is
her mission. Her code name is ‘Spider 0’.
Will and Kaylee already imagine how they can contribute to her network of vigilantes, the Frequency.
It is 9pm. The night has just started, the characters managed to buy some time but they are not out of the woods yet.
Already, the Carlisle brother are preparing to drive a group of slaves to the airport, where they will be sent to NY.
Leroi will summon Kaylee in a few hours for an assignment.
Walker will want some explanation from Will on the heist job.
And who was this guy who shot the guards earlier ? He is dead now,
killed by Lado’s men, but Kaylee and Will believe he is related to some
kids in the auction.
Finally, what was so important in Sun mask (that look terribly alike the character’s masks from the beginning of the scenario) ?
And where the hell are Salem and Rios ?
Romanet Patrick
Two players :
Will (Kai) : Detective/Medic
Blaze (Dawn) : Thief/Martial Artist/Grifter
9pm
Will is on the way to his house. He needs some time to cope with all that happened earlier. Some time, and some help too. Will always has some pills to deal with this kind of stress.
While he is hesitating on the pill to take, we discover another character : Blaze.
Blaze is a wealthy socialite with skills in martial artist and thief. She lives in the loop, the centre of Chicago.
Blaze knows Spider 0, but make a point to never ‘work’ in Chicago, her city.
It is the beginning of the evening, and Blaze is ready for a full night of rest watching TV.
Until she receives a phone call from Julia.
Julia cannot be considered to be a close friend. She hang out with Blaze and the rest of her girlfriends when they go for sport or shopping. Julia has a tough time. Last year, her 2 kids disappeared. The investigation is still going on. This situation also had an impact on her marriage.
She divorced a few months back.
Julia is in the lobby of Blaze’s building.
Blaze is a little bit suspicious. Why Julia, that she barely knows, would want to see her at that time of the day ?
Julia explains that something happened to Gareth. His body has been found in the river, near the Ward a few minutes ago. Julia explains that Gareth never stop looking for his children (even so the investigation was under way). And he thought that their were kidnaped into a human trafficking network that operates in Chicago.
The police, and the FBI did not believe his theories. Gareth kept investigating on this side. He lost his job, then Julia could not handle with what he had become and they separated. He came to their house once in a while to get things from their kids (pictures, toys…).
Last night, he showed up at their house. He looked like a homeless guy, tired, hungry, desperate. She wanted him to come inside to get some food, but he said he had a serious lead and he had to hurry. There was something happening the next evening and he had to prepare. He said he would save his kids. Julia noticed he bought a gun.
He left in a hurry.
Julia is desperate. Despite what happened with her husband, it was better for her to know that somebody else was looking for their kids. But now he is dead. What if he was right ?
Julia knows that Blaze has connections. She asks for her help.
Blaze agrees to help her and contact Spider 0 to see if there is any information on the grid about Gareth and human trafficking. She also let Julia stay in her apartment
In the meantime, Will talked to Walker, the FBI agent who wants Will to infiltrate Leroi’s organization. Walker wants to meet to clarify what happened earlier (the ‘fake’ heist).
Will asks to meet in the 7-Eleven near his home later.
Once home, Will try not to be seen by his kids and wife. He just want to get some pills before meeting with Walker.
However, his wife was waiting for him…
They have a tensed conversation until his wife reveals that she called her father, Carl, to stay with them. Carl is an ex-sheriff from a small city far from Chicago. Will is not pleased to have him around. It makes things more complicated.
This is the moment that Carl shows up at the door, and ‘forces’ Will to sit in the living room to ‘talk’.
Downton Chicago, Blaze gets some information from Spider 0. Indeed, there was a slave auction earlier. And Boths kids were there (as merchandise). Gareth is the guy who opened fire on the guards when Will and Kaylee were extracting Sun.
Spider 0 put Blaze and Will (who takes this opportunity to leave his house) in contact.
Will explains that the kids have been bought by the Carlisle Brothers. They were about to be transferred to their private plane in Chicago Airport. The Carlisle Brothers come from New York.
Blaze remembers vaguely dating one the them. She does not have good memories of those guys.
They can still be saved. Will agrees to help. Sun too.
The three of them decide to meet on the way to the airport.
Before that, Will stops at the 7-Eleven but Walker is not there. The cashier confirms though that he was here earlier but seems to be on the lookout.
Will gets Walker on the phone later, and indeed Walker explains that he thinks he is followed. Will give him another location to meet (but does not have any intention of showing up, leaving Walker to his fate).
On the way, Blaze and Will devise a strategy to save the slaves. The Carlisle plane is located in a private area of the airport. Getting in is not difficult. Blaze uses her money and connection to bribe the guards.
Then, Blaze wants to have the Carlisle brother leave the place while they extracts the kids. She remembers that the Carlisle brothers fear Leroi. So, using a voice changer device, she calls them and, posing as Leroi, summons them to a meeting pretending that they screwed something up (big time !).
The Carlisle Brothers, who already arrived at the place, leave immediately with two of their guards.
Eventually, apart from the pilot, a hostess and 10 slaves, only 2 guards are left.
The second part of the plan consists of cutting the electricity in the plane to get the guards to step out. Blaze uses once again bribery to get one of the maintenance employee to do that. However, the time, the maintenance supervisor notices that something is wrong and decide to come to the plane to get some explanations.
Will uses all his actor talents to keep the supervisor busy while Blaze and Sun attack the place and get rid of the guards. The tension rises when sirens from the airport security can be heard in the distance. But for Blaze and Sun, two guards is nothing to worry about, and quickly they manage to free all the slaves. They leave with Julia and Gareth’s kids, letting the others slave to escape by themselves.
It is almost 11pm when Will and Blaze separates. Blaze takes the kids back to their mother. Who knows what will be their next move (talk to the media ? the police ?).
Will, thinks that the evening is finally over when he receives a call from Leroi. Leroi’s men tried to reach Kaylee but she does not pick up. Leroi is a little bit angry because she is supposed to do a job for him. That is why he calls Will personally. He needs somebody for the job. In the absence of Kaylee, Will has to do it.
First Will refuses.
But Leroi explains that Elena found out about Sun (‘The missing slave’). She discovered that the person who made the last bid on her (and who is supposed to have ‘won’ her), is Brenner, the bank manager. Leroy knows that Kaylee and Will used Brenner pass to get into the auction.
Elena will not take long before figuring out that they extracted Sun.
Leroi can help… or let them deal with Elena and Lado directly.
11pm
Blaze is taking the kids back to their mother (who is staying in Blaze’s apartment). The girl wants to know what is next. Will they call the police ? Blaze explains that most likely, the police knew about it and did not do anything anyway. She explains that she will give them new identities and that they should leave town. The girl is not really convinced…
In the meantime, Will asks Leroi more information about the mission. Leroy explains that he needs someone to be assassinated, a guy called Nilsson. He is staying at a high class hotel in Chicago.
Will does some research on this guy. He is danish and has a company that trades carbon credits. He seems to own lands and forests in different part of the world (south america, south east asia…). He sells the carbon credit of the lands he owns to big companies.
Will refuses to do the mission. It goes against his principles and the hippocratic oath he took when he became a doctor. He knows that this decision will not make his life easier. First, this makes Leroi quite angry (he is not used of facing people saying ‘no’ to him), second, he looses a way to escape Elena’s wrath.
Will is on his way to his home. He knows that he and his family will have to move from Chicago.
On the way, he explains to Spider 0 his situation. She may have a way to buy him some time…
Blaze is at home when she receives a call from Spider 0 (the kids are reuniting with their mother). Spider 0 needs her skills to help Will. She explains the missions that Will was supposed to do. Spider 0 wants Blaze to kidnap Nilsson. Then, get some information from him (like why somebody would want him dead).
The hotel is not far from Blaze’s place. It is located on the waterfront.
Blaze agrees to help, as much because she is bored than because she likes the idea of Spider 0 owing her a favour.
Her plan is to pretend to be an escort girl who accidentally bumps into Nilsson (she checked his preference in that field).
In the meantime Will reaches home. As soon as he gets there, he asks his wife and father in law to pack their things. Spider 0 provides a safe house in another suburb, they can move there right now until Will gets organized.
Of course, his wife is worried but Will does not have much time to explain the situation. He just tells about the ‘FBI agent’ who may be corrupted.
(As a reminder, Will and his family are under witness protection and Walker, the FBI agent is supposed to be their liaison with the FBI).
On their way out, Will notices that Carl, his father in law, keeps trying to call somebody. Questioned about this, Carl explains that when his daughter called, he asked an old friend of his, Jack, a PI, to come watch the house. But, he is nowhere to be seen and does not pick up his phone.
Will urges Carl to come anyway, the PI may answer his phone later.
However, Will ask Spider 0 if she can trace Jack’s phone in the meantime.
12am
Blaze is ready. She reaches the hotel and choose a point of entry. The front door will do.
She manages to bluff her way to the elevator then to Nilsson door.
Sun is watching from another building in case something comes up.
And something comes up !
A black SUV arrives and 2 guys with masks (Will will recognize Salem and Rios later) get into the hotel from a back door (it seems that somebody let them in).
Blaze asks Sun to create a diversion on the upper floor. Then she rushes to Nilsson door, pretends to fall on the door (broken eel) and start engaging the conversation when he opens the door.
He seemed to be working while watching TV.
Blaze manages to convince him to take her to the hospital (broken ankle !), but using the back door (because she does not want the hotel management to know her).
Nilsson reluctantly agrees.
Will, on his side, reached his new temporary home. A fully furnished suburban house. Carl has not managed to reach his friend. Spider 0 found the location of the cell phone. It is in an alley facing Will’s apartment.
Will agrees to take Carl back there.
On the way, Will and Carl have ‘a talk’. Carl is worried about his daughter and expect Will to take care of her. Then Carl reveals that he has been diagnosed with cancer and that he may only have a few months left to leave. He does not want to leave without being sure that his daughter is safe.
Tough conversation for Will.
Once they arrive, Carl find his friend cellphone under a garbage bin. Jack is not here. But Carl discovers that a picture has just been taken. A black SUV with a person in it. However, the face of the man in the SUV is not clear. This will need some picture enhancement magic from Spider 0.
Blaze is on her way out with Nilsson (who does not suspect anything). In one of the corridors, Nilsson stops a few second to look at a man that he seems to have recognised.
Once they get out of the hotel, from a backdoor, Blaze knocks Nilsson out and push him to the back seat of the car. At that moment, the 2 guys with the masks get out from the hotel too and start shooting at her.
A chase starts in the streets of Chicago. Soon the police gets involved.
But Blaze manages to escape them by taking control of the bridge that crosses the river.
Then, she drives Nilsson to a deserted office building in the Ward (that still suffers from the blackout caused by Will and Kaylee earlier). A lot of people are out in the ward, upset that the power is still not back yet.
Once in the building, Blaze interrogates Nilsson.
Basically, Blaze understands that Nilsson is a grifter, like her. But another kind of grifter. He buys lands in remote place from indigenous people who have no clue that what he promises (money) comes with a price (not being able to hunt on these lands).
Then, he pretends to create a company on these lands, and since this company is not producing CO2, he can cell the carbon credits to big polluting companies.
The person Nilsson saw in the hotel corridor earlier is Flores. He used to be chief of a village in Peru. He has been tricked by Nilsson. He may be one of the people who want to hurt Nilsson.
But what would be the connection between Flores and Leroi ?
Then, what to do with Nilsson ?
Sun suggest that he could be given to Leroi. Then, it may help Will’s situation.
But Will does not want this option because it means for sure Nilsson’s death. He may be a big SOB, but he does not deserve to die.
Eventually, after some debates, they decide to rip him off all his assets and send him back to Denmark.
Then, for Will, it is time to face Leroi. For him, there is no choice. They have to take him out.
Leroi is powerfull, he is a major player in Chicago. Spider 0 did not expect to come after him so soon (especially since most of her previous team got killed by a mysterious enemy), but she agrees to help (for her own reasons).
Blaze and Sun are in too.
1am : The night is still young…
Poh Tun Kai
Poh Tun Kai
Romanet Patrick
1 am :
Following the decision to go after Leroi, Spider 0 points the characters towards Derak, one of Leroy’s Lieutenant.
It seems that Derak is a weak spot in Leroy’s organization. Spider 0 planned to use him (when the time was right) to get information on Leroi.
Derak takes care of a piece of territory in one of Chicago’s poor district. With his contact, Will manage to get 1 useful piece of information on Derak : He likes to see desperate people fight for their survival.
His base of operation is located below some commercial buildings.
The characters take some time to regroup and form a plan.
Kaylee hacks the security system to discover that Derak created a fighting ring where ex-executives, soccer moms and victims of the economic crisis fight for money.
Kaylee hacks then Derak laptop, located on his desk, and fake some messages from Leroi. Those messages put pressure on Derak by increasing the percentage that Leroi takes on his business.
In order to make it more true, Blaze shows up in Derek’s pit and pretends to be coming from Leroi to check whether Derak ‘got the message’.
All their action seem to put Derak in motion. He contacts somebody from outside and ask to meet them in a small stadium not far. The character think that he did not call Leroi but somebody else. This is confirmed when they managed to trace a rough location of the other person : The Ward, the place where the auction took place. They immediately think of Elena.
The characters decide to follow him (with Blaze’s luxury car).
They drive a few minutes with no incident, but Will (who is driving) does not see the cars coming from another street and crashing into their car (that fortunately has all the airbags and protection needed). The characters have just enough time to regain consciousness to escape or fight the people after them : Lado and his henchmen !
Kaylee hides in the shop where their car crashed. She is threaten by the owner who soon after get shot by one of Lado’s henchmen. She also manages to shoot one of the henchmen.
Will get to the henchmen’s car (while dodging bullets) that seems to be still functional (but is not). Then, goes to save the shop owners (Will is a doctor).
Blaze use her martial artist to fight back Lado. Both of them are good. Lado is hurt but manages to escape when he realises that the odds are against him.
And just after that the cops show up.
3am : Surrounded by Cops cars, Kaylee, Blaze and Will are living the longest night of their life.
Poh Tun Kai
Romanet Patrick
Patrick
Romanet Patrick
At the same time, the cop cars surrounds the place. One of them, a detective, is moving fast towards the PC car. She is alone.
Kaylee, using the shop keys, escape from behind and decides to go after Lado.
Will and Blaze, still in the shop, behind the crashed car, let the detective come in.
She is Detective Deena, and she knows Spider 0. Spider 0 contacted her when she heard about the shoot out.
She can help them, they will have to pretend that she arrested them.
Will and Blaze agree. Will even put out some show (‘You can’t do that, I have rights!’). Detective Deena takes them to her car and drive them out of the perimeter after explaining to the other cops that she brings them to the police district.
In the meantime, Kaylee manage to locate Lado. He is a couple of blocks away. Trying to get a phone from people passing by (shady people since it is 3am). Indeed, he lost his phone in the fight earlier.
Kaylee surprises him and manages to knock him out quickly. Then, she drags him in a nearby alley to interrogate him.
Will and Blaze ask Detective Deena to take them to the stadium where Derak is supposed to meet someone (probably Elena).
On the way they will pick Kaylee up.
Kaylee manages to get some useful information from Lado. Derak knew that they were onto him. So when he received the strange messages from Leroi and decided to contact Elena (she also put a contract on their head since she realised that they were behind the disappearance of Sun during the auction (and most likely behind the blackout too)).
Derak is on his way to meet Elena. He was expecting the PC to follow him, so he gave his itinerary to Elena and Lado (not difficult to spot the PC car since they where using Blaze high luxury car at 3am in the middle of a poor district).
Derak made a deal with Elena. The PC location for some files about Leroi (it seems that Elena has file on many people, some of the slaves she sells are in fact moles).
Once reunited (and after they put Lado in Deena’s car), they all go to the stadium.
4am : There, Kaylee hack the stadium security system and tinker a long distance microphone to hear the conversation.
They can see (and partially hear) Derak (with one of this bodyguard) and Elena (with one of her bodyguard). Elena is concerned, she has not received news from Lado for quite some time.
Blaze decides to send a picture of Lado to Elena in order to pressure her. It works, Elena leaves the stadium (without giving anything to Derak, who is mildly disappointed by that). Blaze could perceive anger on Elena’s face, not concerns for Lado’s fate, anger to be vulnerable.
Elena drives back to her ‘lair’ in the Ward.
Kaylee and Blaze decide to act now, before she is unreachable. They crash her car, Blaze take the driver out, and point a gun at Elena.
This is the final act, a negotiation between the PC and Elena.
In short, they negotiate Leroy’s files (that Derak wanted) for the release of Lado. Elena agrees. Chicago is not her territory, she ‘set up shop’ here a few weeks ago only for the auction. She feels that the city is changing. She heard that a new player is in town (maybe the one who went after Spider 0 previous team) and she knows that the city will be the prey for people like Derak (smart and insane). Time to move on for her.
Blaze discerns an intensity in her. She is on a personal crusade. A crusade that is not limited to Chicago, or even the US.
She removes her contract on the PC.
It is 5 am, and the PC sends the files on Leroi to the media and hope to see the end of their troubles… for now.
6 am :
The morning news reveal scandals involving Leroi. He will be forced to leave the country. He may be back, but for now the PC are safe.
Who will be the new king of Chicago ?
Lado’s body is found in the river. Not long after a private plane takes Elena to South America.
Salem and Rios are still in Chicago.Probably up to no good.
Will gets back to his family. Will’s father in law friend, the private investigator, is still missing.
Walker, the FBI agent too.
Blaze gets back to her extravagant lifestyle.
But they are still in contact with Spider 0. Their new life has just started. New stories, new threats, new adventures.
Starting with Leroy’s secret underground network that Kaylee’s brother discovered while he was Leroy’s hostage…
End of the season !
Thank you for my player for keeping up.