This is a summary of last week's Night's Black Agents game with pertinent information to serve as a reminder for players. Spoiler alert: we are playing the adventure 'Blood Coda' which is in the Edom Files adventure supplement from Pelgrane Press. Don't read this if you think you might be in danger of playing in it in the future.
The setting is London, November 1971. The agents are part of a scratch team put together by an MI6 agent called Renton (played by Stephen Fry if they ever make the BBC mini-series).
Main characters: the players in our esoteric drama
- Muller: a former East German spy who has now defected to the West and is having trouble finding his legs on 'civvie street'; more interested in the occasional work he does for MI6 [Ash]
- Quentin: a doctor and pathologist who works for MI6 and is usually employed when there are medical problems that can't be brought to the attention of normal doctors (i.e. those who have not signed the Official Secrets Act) [Kel]
- Varoutte: a Swiss-French art dealer and smuggler who has developed a nice line in moving black market antiquities across borders, now being blackmailed to assist the British [Stef]
- Henley: an ex-British Army bomb disposal and demolitions expert who has spent more than his fair share of time in various global trouble spots in the 1960s [Manoj]
Our story begins in a seedy West End cafe in the autumn of 1971. The team has been assembled by RENTON their usual MI6 handler, although they have not previously worked together. They have crossed each other's paths over the years, but this will be the first time they will be working as a unit. With Renton is WILLIS, introduced as another MI6 man, but a stranger to the agents.
The mission is to surveil and check out the BALLET BRAZOV, a Romanian ballet company that has defected a couple of weeks earlier through Istanbul. MI5 has carried out routine screening of the company, which includes 25 dancers and around 18 support personnel. The company is led by a talented ballerina, ILLEANA DRAGOI. She is rated as one of Romania's top ballet dancers. The defection of the company was managed and sponsored by the arts and culture secretary. MI6 believes MI5 has not done its job properly - intelligence received from their sources in Romania indicates there may be one or more spies from Romania's secret police (Securitate) in the company somewhere.
Dragoi is the daughter of another famous pre-war ballerina, Mihaela Cristescu, who danced for the national company before joining the anti-fascist resistance in the country during WW2. She disappeared in 1942 and is assumed to have been captured and killed by Romanian fascists. Her daughter is first heard of in 1959.
Renton stresses that this operation is unofficial: MI6 does not have the authority or the sanction to be conducting this enquiry, so the agents need to be circumspect.
Willis provided the agents with dossiers on the ballet company. This includes information on the four principal dancers, DARIA IVANOVNA, MARTIN PETRESCU, STELA LAHOVARY and DENIS BAICU. Of particular interest is that Ivanovna is the daughter of a minor Soviet liaison officer stationed in Romania in the 1960s. Lahovary is the newest addition to the key team of principal dancers. Also accompanying the ballet dancers is OLGA LUPAN who is their Russian-born doctor.
The dance company is staying at a somewhat down market hotel in Covent Garden, but rehearses at the Royal Opera House. Dancers travel on foot between the two locations, which are only a few hundred metres apart. Note that in 1971 Covent Garden still functions as a working fruit, veg and flower market serving London's hotels and restaurants. It is not the twee shopping district it became in the 1980s.
Contact with MI6 is to be maintained via a phone call to a front operation called the Red Van Company. Daily contact is required. The agents have rented short term accommodation in Knightsbridge. Varoutte has booked a room for himself in the ballet company's hotel, using his alias Matthieu Fabienne (level 2 Cover).
There was some discussion about using some Soviet surveillance equipment to bug the ballet dancers' rooms, but this has not yet been actioned. There was also discussion about leveraging Network to create a cleaner asset at the hotel but I don't believe that was actioned.
A plan was hatched to create a fake interview scenario for a British newspaper using a cover ID from a specialist ballet magazine. Quentin (IIRC) contacted a journalist called BARNABY SMYTHE at the Sunday Times to see if he could use fake Times credentials to secure the interview. Smythe told him that the Times had been invited to a reception at a location (the Flower Hall) next to the opera house that very evening which would feature a preview of the company's upcoming production of The Strigoi. This is an original ballet based on an old Romanian vampire legend created by Dragoi herself. It is due to go on stage in 48 hours. Smythe lets the team use legitimate Times press credentials to get access to the event.
Quentin and Henley go along to the reception as a Times journalist and his photographer. Varoutte procures an invite through High Society skill (arriving under a level 2 Cover as James Knight IIRC). Muller uses his Disguise to get in as a waiter. At the reception Henley and Quentin meet QUENTIN WATSON, a Conservative party activist and formerly an aid to rising Tory star Margaret Thatcher, now Education Secretary under PM Edward Heath. Watson is organising the event for the ballet company and claims to have assisted in their defection from Istanbul. He also claims to be a big ballet fan, but Agent Quentin reckons otherwise (Bullshit Detector).
The reception is being attended by journalists, high flyers, the rich, the famous, and some minor MPs. Muller notices that there are MI5 agents in the room, but there is no sign of Eastern bloc spies as far as his trained eye can tell. A couple of short dances are staged by Russian ballerina Ivanovna, firstly with Petrescu and then with Baicu. Quentin marvels at the athleticism of Petrescu, given the man must be in his mid to late 30s, very old for a ballet principal. More disturbingly, at the climax of dance with Baicu, he seems to bite and feed off Ivanovna. While it looks like part of the dance, Quentin reckons otherwise and that real blood is involved. Henley notices that the dancers seem to have a mesmeric effect on the audience and even on himself, and that while he can tear his attention away, it is hard. Muller is totally mesmerised by the performance, but drops his tray of champagne glasses, bringing him out of the trance.
After the dances the four principals enter, including Dragoi. Muller (IIRC) notices that Ivanovna beckons Dragoi to enter the building and that the Russian is wearing a scarf around her neck. Dragoi speaks with Watson who then introduces her to Varoutte. The Swiss spy finds her completely mesmerising and while he is able to resist, finds it difficult to recall what they actually speak about. He consoles himself by moving on to Ivanovna whom he finds responsive to his Genevois charms and they arrange to meet for dinner the following evening, at the reception of her hotel.
Muller uses his polished tray to look at the principals and realises that Dragoi's reflection does not show up. He shows Quentin and Henley. The soldier decides to take some photos of Dragoi at a distance and is quickly intercepted by Baicu who asks for his camera. Henley refuses, but Baicu snatches it out of his hands with super human speed and exposes the film. Henley gets cross, but Baicu simply hands him his camera back and orders him to leave the reception. Henley finds it impossible to resist and walks out of the building. Quentin goes after him. The reception begins to wind down soon after and Muller slips away, leaving the louche Varoutte to dawdle with the gorgeous Ivanovna for some minutes more.
Back at the safe house, Henley uses a Photography spend to recover his film, and the agents can see that Dragoi does not turn up in any photos. Quentin reports in to the Red Van Company, including his suspicions that one or more members of the company may be vampires. The response from Willis is that they want any alleged vampires taken 'alive' so to speak. There is surprisingly little scepticism about the existence of the undead on the streets of London.
The following day Henley uses his Network to create a former Army buddy, HARVEY COLE, a door manager at the opera house. He goes to see Cole for a couple of morning (!) beers (it is 1971 after all). Cole tells him that the ballet dancers rehearse at the opera house. They always arrive on foot from the hotel. He cannot recall seeing Dragoi arrive by the front entrance however although the other principals do. He confirms that there is no natural daylight in the main auditorium. He tells Henley that the company stores some of its scenery and costumes off site at a warehouse near Holborn (a five minute walk away) but that they also have a dedicated room in the basement of the opera house assigned to them for R&R and for seamstresses to work on costume repairs. Cole is usually on duty at the opera house from 16.30 until it closes.
Quentin goes to the British Library to do some background reading - he swots up on the Romanian legend of the Strigoi. He discovers that the Ballet Brazov traveled by sea from Turkey to the UK, bringing their stage equipment with them. On the topic of Watson, he discovers from 1970 newspapers that he was a rising star in the Conservative party and partly credited with helping to mobilise the Conservative youth wing in helping Edward Heath to his election victory. He has even been photographed with the PM. But it does seem that since then his career has become somewhat muted, indicating that he has fallen out of favour. He has been an adviser to Thatcher at the Department of Education, but now seems less involved.
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