E4 c5

E4 c5
Date 2086-02-09 GM Villiers Location Seattle Status Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Major Corp
Samael Red Ribbon Gulliver Delver Dango	Character1 Character2

Summary

• 2/9: 5.5 Hours
• 2/22: 3 Hours

Background

"An urgent matter has come up and I need a special group of people to resolve it. It is a family matter rather than a Family Matter so I need outsiders. My sister and her co-host have been kidnapped. I want them returned safely. Have your fixer get in touch if you fancy a Mediterranean vacation. I'll meet interested parties at Maison du Soleil Levant tomorrow at 2100. Francesco di Gangi"

The Meet

• The team meets up at the House of the Rising Sun, most of them opting to arrive early to scope out the place given the Finnegan johnson.
• Ribbon arrives in a drone, Sam arrives as someone else via False Face, and the others begin to filter in.
• Francesco wants his baby sister and her two friends returned safely. Unknown kidnappers,
• Presumed that kidnappees are the sister, the chef, and Naomi Fisk. 
  • Maria di Gangi
  • Naomi Fisk, boss
  • Luca Bratzi, local chef
• Sister is a former opera singer in Seattle. Recently retired. Been running a local cooking show called Tastes of Sicily
• Chef is part of the Ferreti family. * Kidnapped about 18 hours ago from a local farm in Sicily. Grabbed between the town and farm. 
• No ransom has been offered yet. Client authorized up to 100k for ransom payment. 
• Pay is 20k Nuyen 

Divinations

• Crystal Ball
  • Six images: Plate of food, sawed off shotgun, rather plain bedroom with two beds, rocky castle, Sinister Man with a Fedora, Poorly Dressed Troll
• Tarot Cards
  • Three Card spread
    • Situation: Queen of Swords, Reversed (lack of emotional balance, harsh and bitter, spiteful, cruel. Someone outside of a relationship attempting to interfere)
    • Obstacle: The Emperor (authority, control, stability. Organization and fatherhood. Honor and discipline)
    • Advice: King of Swords (Reason, morality, objective, truth and sticking to the facts. Approach by intellect. Be sharp and observant)

The Plan

Current Theory:

• Maria DiTomaso wanted to get Luca Brasi, but accidentally got Maria di Gangi and Naomi Fisk as well.
• Likely being held at Sperlinga Castle, in the Church of Mercy

The Run

Legwork

• Ribbon contacts Garuda to see about smuggling her car over to Italy.
• Gulliver "secures" the 100k credstick somewhere hairy. And sensitive. The Writer of this AAR doesn't want to elaborate.
• Dango does some deep matrix searches on the cooking show and learns there is a flame war between the residents of the municipality of Gangi where the cooking show is and the neighboring area of Sperlinga about the promotion of each of their townships unique regional dish:

Tastes of Sicily

Aubergine Caponata

Arguably Sicily’s most famous culinary export, caponata is now seen on menus across Europe. But it’s the perfect example of external influences over the island’s cuisine. The recipe can change from household to household, but it must always contain aubergines, pine nuts, raisins and plenty of vinegar. Served at room temperature, usually as an antipasto, the fried aubergine is turned into a stew with celery, onion and tomatoes, before being flavoured with capers, olives, pine nuts and raisins. The sweetened vinegar finishes it off with a lovely tang.

Sarde a beccafico – Sicilian stuffed sardines

Sicily is famous for its sardines, with big, fat specimens caught off its shores every day. They're prepared in all sorts of ways, but one of the most popular is a beccafico, which sees them stuffed with pine nuts, raisins and breadcrumbs before being baked.

Cassata Siciliana

Cassata Siciliana is an Italian cake originating in the Sicily region. It is typically composed of a round sponge cake moistened with fruit juices or liqueur and layered with ricotta cheese and candied fruit (a filling also used with cannoli). It has a shell of marzipan, pink and green colored icing, and decorative designs.

Sperlinga

1 - Sperlinga Sicily is at about 750 m above sea level, on a hill on the southern slopes of the Nebrodi mountains. It has a number of troglodyte dwellings. The village is dominated by a large mediaeval castle, dating from late Norman times. Sperlinga is a village with many cave dwellings, including a castle built into the rock. The name Sperlinga comes from the Greek word spelonca, which means "cave".

3 - The charming village carved in the wall, has 50 caves accessible by stairs and connected by small streets digged into the rock. Every cave was used as a small house, with one or two rooms, and lately, some of them have been bought by the Municipality and turned into an ethnographical museum.

Cave dwellings

• Aggrottato: A group of 50 manmade caves that were once home to people. Some of these caves have been turned into a museum with artifacts found during excavations.
• Borgo Rupestre: A neighborhood with ancient cave houses.
• Rock-carved houses: Many houses in Sperlinga are carved into the soft rock.
• Castle
• Sperlinga Castle: A Norman castle built in 1133. The castle has rooms, staircases, and stables carved into the rock.
• Church of Mercy: The first church in Sperlinga, located beneath the castle.
• Mother Church: A church with a single nave built in the 1600s.
• S. Anna: A church built in the second half of the 1600s.

Other attractions

• Park of the Duke: A park with Mediterranean plants, including aromatic and medicinal plants
• Sagra del Torrone: A festival where the village is transformed into a medieval town
• Via Francigena: A hiking trail that passes through Sperlinga
• Church of Mercy, located beneath the castle has been closed for several days with no explanation

Antonio DiTomaso

• 1 - Sperlinga Address and commcodes. Don of Sperlinga Municipality.
• 3 - Distrust and tension between Sperlinga and Gangi is multi-faceted and goes back more than a century. One longstanding disagreement, revolves around alleged information given to Mussolini during the 20th century crackdown on the mafia.
  • Both belong to I Borghi più belli d'Italia (The most beautiful villages in Italy) and the Dons vigorously promote their villages.
• 5/6 - The most recent and bitter conclict is culinary. The traditional dish of Sperlinga is the frascatela, a polenta of durum wheat or grass pea flour, with lard and broccoli. That of Gangi is Aubergine Caponata, aubergines, pine nuts, raisins and plenty of sweetened vinegar. Don DiMataso is a chef and connoisseur. He's very unhappy about the recent promotion of Gangi's caponata and the exclusion Sperlinga's frascatela.

Verona

Franco Draghi

• 1 - Addresses, Commcodes. Franco Draghi is a younger and extremely ambitious Don of the Italian Mafia from Verona . He aspires to take over Don Feretti's legacy as Capo di tutti i Capi and to replace the Sicilians led by Feretti's old consigliere Spinelli at the head of the Alta Commissione .
• 3 - By 2083 he has already begun to secure the support of some of the high-ranking Dons and Capi represented in the Commissione . However, since the Feretti family is unlikely to give up its top position without a fight, a new internal power struggle is looming between the leading syndicates in Italy's underworld.
• 5/6 - Several recent trips to central Sicily, looking to purchase a vineyard and an olive grove.

Vincenzo Draghi

• 1 - Verona Addresses, Commcodes. Nephew of Franco Draghi.
• 3 - Ambitious Draghi soldato. Has spent most of the past 6 months in central Sicily traveling and looking for investments.
• 5/6 - Vincenzo knows the importance of rispetto. In every village, he brings small gifts for the local mafioso and parish priests. He's met all of the power brokers in central Sicily. Most recently Don DiMataso of Sperlinga Municipality.

Scouting Fisk and di Gangi's office

• Sam slips into the building, attempting to blend in
• Uses maglock passkey to slip into the office
• Finds menu information
• Finds information on the chef, Luca Brasi, below
• Finds information for Antonio diTomaso, above
• Finds information about Maria DiTomaso, below

Luca Brasi

• 1 - Addresses, Commcodes. The troll chef of Trattoria Sant'Anna
• 3 - Not only can he help you connect to the other Ferettis, but he offers truly memorable meals.

Maria DiTomaso

• 1 - Sperlinga Address and commcode. Nonna of the DiTomaso family
• 3 - The matriarch of the family rules the household with an iron fist. Her stern countenance is usually sufficient to obtain what she wants but she will wield her sharp tongue if necessary. The rumors about a lupara in her wardrobe are probably not true.
• 5/6 - Her bitterness towards the Feretti's stems from a romance gone awry in her youth.
• Possibly the Queen of Swords, reversed
• Possibly matches the image of the shotgun from the divination

Trattoria Sant'Anna

• 1 - Address, Comcode, Menu
• 3 - Trattoria Sant'Anna is the only - for now! - restaurant in Gangi, but a fine if acceptably affordable one. Supplied by the local farmers and the abbey, it boasts all the traditional dishes and is a main employer to many. Predictably, the profitable business is all in the grasp of the mafia. There's live music provided by the duet of Cecilio Cieco on vocals and Bruno Angelo on the guitar, both made men. Luca Brasi rules in the kitchen, Christiano Gio heads the service and Michaela Mugnaio's firm provides security for the restaurant (as well as to the lion's share of other village businesses). If you're a tourist visiting Gangi, it's almost a given you will end up eating there - all the better for the mob to keep tabs on who's coming for dinner.
• The decor is unpretentious and authentic. The food has soul. There's live music every evening. The abbey and farmers like Calogero Oso supply the best products to cook with. And Luca, a retired consigliere and a terror in his youth, really fragging knows how to cook. You don't take marks to Trattoria Sant'Anna just because it's the only restaurant in Gangi - you do due to the atmosphere and service. Excellent distraction, especially when you can pay the server to discreetly swipe a commlink, have a hacker friend copy the contents and then return it with the mark none the wiser.
• 5/6 - Bella Feretti herself owns it.

Trattoria Al Vecchio Mulino

• Via Umberto I, 97. Sperlinga, Italy
• Come and discover Trattoria Al Vecchio Mulino in Sperlinga, a culinary jewel among the most beautiful villages in Italy. We offer dishes with fresh and 0 Km ingredients. Our welcoming environment will make you feel at home while you enjoy a unique experience. Book your table now and let yourself be transported on an unforgettable gastronomic journey.

Landed in Sicily

• While waiting for Ribbon's car to arrive, the team does some scouting about the local area, the politics of Italy, etc.
• The team travels north of Gangi, looking to explore the site of the attack.
  • Blood splatters around the location
  • No obvious tire tracks
• Dango cracks one of the agri drones nearby to check cameras but the drones memory systems only go back 24 hours and so aren't super useful.
• They move to traffic cameras but consider getting the information from the local families instead.
• Gulliver speaks with Antonio Toni Caruso, mayor of Gangi, about getting police reports and traffic cameras
  • No apparent blood from the victims - only from the driver and bodyguard.
  • He thinks chef was the target and Fisk and di Gangi were collateral damage.
  • When asked about Maria DiTomaso, Antonio gets a 'swallowed a bug' face and goes to clam up. He describes her as an unpleasant person - if it was only the chef, she'd be perfectly delighted by this happening.
• Camera information:
  • Vehicle with hostages leaves Gangi, comes back on a truck
  • No Northbound traffic during the ambush.
  • One vehicle 45 minutes before the ambush, an Italian version of an Americar.
  • We have an anomaly of a car with the mismatched plate.
  • Managed to get a eye on the truck in question, tarp in the back - equipment and/or the hostages
  • Truck is parked at the edge of the village in Sperlinga
  • Sam gets a stealth tag and data tap on the truck for Dango to hack the onboard.
  • We have the route that the truck took, confirming that it was the ambushed vehicle
  • Truck was stolen from Antonio DiPalermo 6 hours before ambush, but wasn't reported stolen until after.
• A phone call to Mr. di Gangi.
  • In the call is our Jm di Gangi, Vincenzo and Franco Draghi, and Antonion di Tomaso.
  • Di Gangi asks us to come to Sperlinga castle, with the credstick, and geared for a fight.

Hostage Negotiations

• The team goes to get armored up while Dango tries to matrix search who might be the black magician in the opfor, but the timing doesn't work out.
• Dango slips some tiny spider drones into Sam's gear access pouches.
• As the team arrives, the Draghi's are leaving. We check the room for explosives on matrix and meat, but do not find anything.
• Di Gangi says they've negotiated the release of the prisoners, in exchange for killing the kidnappers but not harming Maria di Tomaso
• Once Don di Tomaso leaves, Di Gangi asks us to kill her too, and the ransom payment will be given to Don di Tomaso as blood money.
  • We get faces of the black magic circle that Vincenzo originally hired but who screwed him over and went to work for Maria di Tomaso

The Plan:

• Sam leads a Dynamic Entry SUT
• Ribbon and Dango scouts the location of the kidnappers.
  • 3 in library, rest in bedrooms
• Dango takes control of the cameras on the angle of our dynamic entry
• Dango sends in two spider drones with narcojet to get the Seer and the Black Magician
  • Black Magician and Seer in library.
• Thunder opens the play with a window sniper shot
• Combatants do dynamic entry through the large side window and sweeps the place for the opfor

The Run:

• Dango gets ahold of the cameras on the entry route
• Gulliver leads in with a sniper shot and knocks out one of the people in the library.
• The drones narcojet the Seer and Black Magician, knocking them both out
• The the team begins their approach to the house, entering through the damaged window. Sam coup-de-grace's the two unconscious folks with his silenced pistol.
• While Delver and Gulliver covers the kitchen, Sam slips upstairs and sneaks into the three bedrooms to coup-de-grace the three sleeping people.
• With overwhelming numbers, the team breaches the kitchen and makes short work of the biosam and Maria di Tomaso

Aftermath

• The runners report in and make their way out of Italy and towards home
• Di Gangi offers the ransom money to Don di Tomaso as blood money for Maria di Tamaso going missing
• A new grave under an olive tree far from the site of the house appears

Rewards

Deadly TL 20 RVP x 1.5 -- 30 RVP

20,000 Nuyen - (10 RVP)

15 Karma - (15 RVP)

10 CDP - (5 RVP)

2 CDP - (Base)

+5 Finnigan Family reputation

Optional: All - Gear @ 50% cost up to availability 18. Francesco di Gangi C5L1 (-5 RVP)

Dango -

Delver -

Gulliver -

Red Ribbon -

Samael - Blandness @ chargen rate

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Samael

- Clean run all around. I worried about navigating the strange inter-mixed family problems of the Mafia, and we've managed to thread the needle of accomplishing the job without earning any vendettas against us. All while taking what should've been a very dangerous opfor by surprise and gaining the iniative. Their lack of matrix awareness was absolutely their undoing. I try not to... revel... in this sort of thing - but it is hard to not feel a sense of pride at an operation accomplished smoothly with as many moving parts as we had.

Gulliver

"Amazing team with exceptional surgical precission to gather intel and strike. Happy to have had the opportunity to help Francesco di Gangi, his great younger sister, and Naomi escape from between a rock and a hard place.
I wonder if Francesco would let me protect his twin in a more permanent manner?
She seems like a caring person with her heart in the right spot, an excellent cook, and a way out of poverty. Maybe even an accelerated way into "hands-on-politics" through her family ties. Maybe Naoimi would make an introduction? She seemed like a networking kind of lady when we met at the dance contest. I still have her com-code, but it's probably more effective to drop by her office to discuss in person."

At the dinner with Bella Feretti and Mayor Toni Carus, Gulliver is flirtatious in a non-conquering way in order to gain sympathy from both Bella and Toni, but not to conquer anyone's heart in a romantic way. He offers his services as a negotiator in high stakes situations which demand discretion, slides over a cred-stick with 10 000.- Nuyen for the mayor's next political campaign or good cause in the Mayor's name and choice. He also mentions his interest in becoming a part of the Seattle branch of the di Gangi family and asks for Toni to recommend him to join as an assistant on Francesco's future trips to Sicily, especially if Maria is going to accompany Francesco on the trip.

Delver

"Always good to work with pros. A bit sad our ambush worked so well, but eh, it beats getting shanked by some adept."