Aeon A-Team S01E03 – We Are Everywhere

The PCs have been busy over the last three months. They’ve incorporated Theia Dynamics as a cover company for their satellite launch. The techies have finished building it and it’s been launched with a massive success (Critical successes on financing, concept, building, and launching it). Sentry has been keeping a somewhat low profile (still tagging some crime scenes), but doing things other than stopping crime: they’ve helped with fires, accidents, and even natural disasters. In short, they have been heroes. 

They’ve spent the last three months busily tracking down the flow of narcotics in New York City (and the East Coast in general) and more specifically heroin. Heroin use has gotten bad in the last year and it’s getting even worse. The PCs know that the Chinese Triads have been importing and distributing it at below market value, but they don’t know why. Moreover, in the last week their operations have disappeared off the map.

Java Man With Java Plan
Aysella, Hobs, Roth, and Jacob
A 24 Hour Internet Cafe, 66°F, Clear skies
Wednesday, July 16th, 2003, 8:00pm
119 Knickerbocker Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237

Once at the docks they quickly spot the party boat that Tian Dingxiang owns and spy on it for a while. Inside are several Triad “bodyguards”, wait staff, models, and of course, the diplomatic attache. Marionette gets suspicious and attempts to contact Li, who surprises the team with having cracked their comms channel, tells them he lied about his boyfriend being kidnapped. Instead Bao Li makes them a deal: retrieve a small cubic device from Tian Dingxiang for the information. Li also tells them that Dingxiang keeps a notebook in a safe filled with useful incriminating information. This jives with what they learned last time and uneasily the team agrees to stop both Dingxiang and exchange the device for proof on Dingxiang’s actions with the Triads. After another quick scouting mission they decide to let Red Zone muck with the onboard computer systems to simulate a breech in the hull (reversing the polarity of the bilge pumps FTW). That done the Alchemist, Marionette, Shaman, and Sue sneak onboard, kidnap the ambassador and ransack his office. They find a suitcase under the bed that’s got a biometric lock. Shaman cracks the luck with a little luck and finds a strange orb of some metallic substance inside. The Alchemist uses his abilities to determine what it is (some kind of new element) and then produces a clone of it (made to look like it, but not be it). They find the cube device they are looking for along with a safe that the Alchemist phases his hands through to unlock.

Inside are bearer bonds, cash in numerous denominations and types, passports, and a leather book filled with every sort of black deed and criminal act you could think of. Names, bank info, the works. The Alchemist duplicates everything and takes it all (even with his ability to create gold Sentry can always use currency and it’s all likely from ill-gotten gains). He sets the safe back to normal and they leave with Dingxiang.

Heading back to the shore they question Dingxiang with the help of a plant that Shaman whips up on the spot (something that inflicts Ecstasy, Gullibility, and Truthfulness on anyone that inhales its spores). Dingxiang answers everything they ask him and after gathering enough incriminating evidence have him call the FBI and tell them about his dastardly plans (even though he’s drugged, it’ll leave his system longer before the FBI arrive). The PCs leave and head back to fulfill their end to Li. Red Zone explains that might be bad (the cube is a hard-coded decryption device that can break just about any encryption on the planet by using a quantum filtering method), so the Alchemist creates another duplicate of the device (including the code on the chips!), but makes it so it gets a single use and then self-destructs in a believable way.

Just Here and Then Gone
Aysella, Hobs, Roth, and Jacob
A 24 Hour Internet Cafe, 66°F, Clear skies
Wednesday, July 16th, 2003, 12:00am

Back at the coffee shop, Marionette (still acting as Sentry’s face) gives Li the cube in exchange for the times, dates, and locations of the Triad’s next months worth of shipments. Suspicious of the thumb drive he gives her, she asks him to show her on his machine. Laughing he throws the thumb drive behind him and brings out the “real thumb drive.” He shows her the information on it and then hands it over. Still suspicious and giving Li a steely glare, Marionette asks if it’ll destroy the computer it’s used on/erase itself. Laughing again, he throws that thumb drive behind his other shoulder and motions to the huge goon behind his shoulder who hands him another thumb drive. This time he puts the thumb drive in his computer and prints out a hard copy of the information as a show of “good faith.”

What follows is an amusing conversation between Li and his brutish looking bodyguard:

“Ugh. Hard Copy.”
“Hit F10, boss. It’s F10.”
“I know that Gunther. I told you that.”
“Okay, Boss. Just saying. You know Reynard has problems with printing too…”
“Hush, you technoweenie.”

The PCs head back to their base after that and begin examining the spherical object they found as well as the quantum decoder (which is totally not stolen from Sneakers – totally).

The NYPD (specifically Det. Malik and his “new” partner Det.  Heade) get a dump of information on the Triads. The NYPD sets up a taskforce and puts Malik in charge of taking down the Triad’s drug trade in the city. Since this is what Sentry wanted anyways, they keep helping to prop up their “blue” “beards,” all the while continuing their work within the city.

After Action Report/Rules Notes
My brother missed another game session, but again, he was occupied and not just blowing us off. The players spent a lot of time discussing their characters and how they fit together and in the game world and what sorts of things they wanted to do. I had a nasty glucose imbalance (and I’d been up way late the night before) and had to take a 2 hour nap – which succcckkkkked. That said, the game went by at a great pace and a (good) predictable way. The players had fun and I had more fun setting up some NPCs from another game in the past (C-Team encounter both Gunther and Reynard at one point).

I decided that unless some wonky happened, Season 1 was going to end next game so we could bump up another few years. My goal is to get all the teams at one point in time so I can begin to execute my master plan.

Yes, I have one. It spans my wall like some obsessed conspiracy theorist or serial killer. Eventually, I’ll get it digitized with my mindmapping software (Scapple for the win), but till then, it’s fine where it is.

Session Soundtrack
“Eminence Front” – The Who (Especially during the boat scenes with the A-Team sneaking aboard)
“Love Song of Kangding” – Traditional Chinese Love Song