Sunday Afternoon Game Report - The Troubleshooters RPG, Session 4
Yesterday afternoon, the Sunday afternoon gaming group came out and continued play in their The Troubleshooters RPG campaign. With the Omicron COVID-19 variant still being very prevalent and case counts of the virus up, the group practiced a level of distancing and protection as deemed necessary by the group. You can read about the previous session of the game by following the link. This post is somewhat long, so I've put it behind a cut so that folks who don't want to read any detailed rpg posts don't have to.
CHARACTERS:
Félix Travert (SteveR) - Wilderness Photographer
Yvette Zay (Tammy) - Security Consultant
Margareta Rosenqvist (GM NPC) - Air Stewardess
Friday, April 14th, 1963
Félix Travert decides to go to one of the restaurants in Reims from the list he was given that was one of the places that had some of the missing wines, Le Fatima de Boeuf. He asks to see the manager, stating that he has a matter of importance to discuss with him or her. The manager, Sylvain Boisvert, a younger man with slicked back hair, comes to talk to him, and F´lix talks quietly to him for a moment about the matter of the missing bottles of wines that showed up at Le Fatima. Boisvert acknowledges him, and take Félix back to his office, while asking the nearest serving girl to have the sommelier join them there shortly. Félix tells the manager that he's working for the Vincoeurs, and has been sent to inquire about a faulty shipment of wine that was mislabelled. Boisvert is somewhat suspicious but Félix's affadavit from the Vincoeurs works in his favour. They talk a bit, and eventually Boisvert calls for the sommelier. The sommelier, Régine Montclair, enters the office. When Boisvert introduces her and explains Feacute;lix's purpose for being there, Régine tells him that she identified the supposed Vincoeur wine as being actually an average white wine from one of their competitors, the Italian Alberto Remini winery. Félix manages to convince Boisvert to give him access to the wine records for the wine shipments in question [he spends 2 Story Points to gain a clue]. He finds that there were four (4) faulty shipments in various orders received between January and early March (January 9th, January 18th, February 17th, and March 3rd). With Boisvert's permission, Félix uses his camera to take pictures of these shipment records. Félix sees Boisvert signed for the four shipments in question as the receiver, and the shipper's signature is that of Natalie Vincoeur for the Vincoeur winery. He looks over the other receipts and invoices and sees they are signed by Natalie [Vincoeur] from the winery for the most part, other than three (3) that are signed for by Remy Vincoeur and one by Claude Arcand. [He rolls a 99 on this Humanities check, since his Red Tape is only the default, failing with Bad Karma, but immediately spends 2 Story Points to succeed with a clue and gets the proper answers.] Félix thanks Boisvert for his time, and leaves the restaurant. He goes to his car, and starts the hour-and-a-half drive back to Loisier.
Back at the Vincoeur winery, Margareta Rosenqvist comes out of the Inventory file office, looks around the reception and tasting area, but there is no sign of Yves Fournier. She does see one of the fake mechanics from the Paris airport, now dressed as a typical tourist type come to taste some wine. [She rolls an 11 for Good Karma on her Alertness check, and gains a Story Point.] The man notices her looking at him, and continues his tasting of a sample white wine. Margareta makes her way over to him, and the two engage in some banter, and the not mechanic buys a couple of the bottles he's been tasting. He puts the money down, and then Margareta sees his name is Thomas Hauptmann when he signs the paperwork, which she spots [she spends 2 Story Points to modify the plot so that she can get his name]. Talking about the vintages to her, Margareta learns that he likes "roses, French women, and wine" (muttered somewhat in German, which she catches). They continue to talk while Margareta engages in a wine tasting of two samples, but decides not to buy anything at this time. Hauptmann politely bids her farewell, and leaves.
Margareta looks around, but there's still no sign of Fournier. She sees Alain Vincoeur has wandered into the area; he smiles at her, but moves off. She goes to intercept him, and they greet each other. She asks if she can get permission to look through the shipping & receiving records, but Alain says she'd have to ask Natalie about that. Margareta asks him to clarify the organisational structure of the Vignoble Vincoeur. He tells her the following: Jacques Vincoeur is the owner of the winery, and oversees the business as the CEO. His (third) wife, Francine, was one of the chief researchers, a chemist and master wine-maker, but she's retired due to age. Alain says that he is head of Research & Development, and that his wife, Chloe, is in charge of Finance & Accounting, though several other people work under her, including Annette [Robert]. Remy, his brother, handles the Marketing department, and his wife, Natalie, is the chief executive for the Shipping & Receiving department. The Personnel department is handled by Guy Allemand, though he's not responsible for handling the occupational personnel for the specific departments. Claude Arcand is in charge of the Inventory department and the main Liasion to the import and export firms. The Security division isn't high priority, and is handled by Luc Mazarin, but it fall under the Personnel purview. There is also, of course, the Winery Manager, François Marchaud, who handles the day-to-day business of the winery. She asks him about how they handle faulty wines, but Alain says that such matters would fall primarily under Inventory's management, but would depend on the reason for the wine being faulty. In the case of foul-tasting or other such problems, it would fall under the Research & Development. She asks if iodine is used in the wine-making process, and he tells her that a specialized formulation for iodine (among other cleaning methods) is used for cleaning and sterilising bottles. It was actually Chloe's idea to modify the cleaning process with a method that saves on costs. Before Chloe's method was implemented they used a standardised cleaning process, but he can't remember how long ago it was. When Margareta asks him about their labels, Alain says the labels are done in house, but are printed up by an outside facility for cost and trademark reasons, as they are proprietary.
Margareta head down to Shipping & Receiving, and finds that it's very busy. There is lots of work being done to wrap up the end of day, and three trucks are waiting at the loading dock. She waits until Natalie Vincoeur, who's at the centre of it all, is free, and when Natalie finally heads for her office Margareta goes to join her. Once inside the office, Margareta asks Natalie for permission to go through the shipping records to compare them to the Inventory ones. Natalie gives her permission, but warns her that the records in Shipping are very complete. Natalie leads her to a massive storage/file room that contains two to three times the number of records that she'd seen in Inventory. Margareta tells her that she's looking for the records specific to the period starting in October, 1962, to see if she can find where the problem lies. [She fails to see a worried look cross Natalie's face, not succeeding at her roll.] Margareta begins her search through the files, after Natalie leaves. After a couple of hours, Margareta finds major discrepancies in the records between Inventory and those of Shipping & Receiving. The missing wines are recorded in the Inventory files, but are not listed as having been shipped in the orders for the last six months. [She fails her initial Red Tape roll, but spends 2 Story Points to get the information by advancing the plot.] However, in the most recent records for today, April 14th, 1963, there is a record for having received a case of faulty wine that was returned by Yves Fournier some three hours ago. [She spends 3 Story Points for the major clue.] Noted in the record is the following:
"Reason for Return: Wine was doctored with sour substance. Client said 'Tastes very bad.'... #342913'"
She realises the order of the wine in question has an Inventory listing in the main records, but no records of this wine having been shipped at all. She questions whether the number noted above is that of the Inventory record number, a Batch number, or the actual Shipping & Receiving record number. Before she can do any more work, Natalie comes into the file room and tells her that it's quitting time. Natalie asks if she requires more help, and when she says she doesn't, Natalie lets her finish her notes and then the two leave the file room and S&R office, and Natalie locks the doors. Natalie escorts her out of Shipping & Receiving and back into the main reception and wine-tasting area, where she sees that the current wine-tasting is winding down. She doesn't see Annette or Alain, but does see Claude Arcand.
Claude takes Margareta back into the Inventory records, telling her they have a good coding system for the records. Checking the number that she gives him, he leads her to the records from February of this year, and finds the proper record that she's looking for. Claude tells her he'll be out in the tasting area, and when she's finished he'll come and get her and lock up the Inventory offices again. She sees the record is dated February 17th of this year, the wine in question was of average quality and that the case of six bottles was supposed to be a Vincoeur Blanc of 1961, that was going to a restaurant called Le Fatima de Boeuf, and this case was going to Paris - supposedly. Margareta realises that it somehow ended up in Reims.
Margareta hears the voices and other noises coming from the tasting area and the sounds typical of a quiet file room, when she hears a sudden "RAP!" As she looks up, and then at the door, her peripheral vision catches the filing cabinets on the wall by the windows starting to fall towards her. She is barely able to grab the notes she's taken and dodge out of the way as the shelving comes crashing down. [She spends 3 Story Points to succeed at the task.] Five seconds later, Claude comes into the room, worried about her, and she is trapped under a piece of shelving [she takes 1 point of Vitality damage]. She hears the sound of one of the windows creaking. Claude frees her, and she sees the windows above, one of them flapping in the breeze, and when she asks Claude he tells her that it's one of the side portions near the patio, used primarily for the gardening. Claude helps her up, and helps her out of the Inventory file room.
Back in Loisier, Yvette makes her way to the wine bar called Le Clione close to 3:00pm, and sees there's quite a long line-up of people waiting to get in. She gets into the wine bar eventually, and is surprised to see that it's a bit more upscale than some she's seen in Paris, even though it is one of the oldest wine bars in Loisier. She wanders through the wine bar, looking around at the people and various items of interest. She encounters a boy-toy type of fellow who introduces himself as Johan [Werner]. He invites her to join him for a drink, and as they head for one of the main bars in the place, sees various dancing facilities including poles and cages. The wine list has a good selection of Vincoeur wines. She samples a drink or two, trying not to get tipsy, and keeps her eyes open. Johan attempts to flirt with her over the course of some half an hour, but she's resistant. After a while, an attractive red-haired woman comes in and sits on Yvette's other side. Yvette recognises her as having seen her around the town while she's been wandering around [she succeeds at her Alertness check, despite the -2 pips modifier for the drinking]. The woman orders a scotch and decides to live dangerously and asks for a drop of absinthe in it. She then looks around and sizes up the crowd. Three-quarters of an hour later, Johan gets bored with Yvette and her lack of attention to him, and walks off without another word. Yvette notices that the red-haired woman is nursing her drink as well, after having taken that first slug of the scotch and absinthe mix.
The woman introduces herself as Annabelle, and offers Yvette her hand. Yvette introduces herself, but the woman says she knows who she is. Annabelle admits that she's been following Yvette, and the two flirt momentarily. Annabelle tells her she's looking into something that she really doesn't want to continue investigating. Yvette feigns ignorance, and Annabelle pointedly warns her to cease her investigation, telling her to stop playing the ignorant fool. Yvette may not be the only one to pay, as accidents can happen in chateaus and wineries. She asks Yvette how business is at the security company, as "they" could bring this matter home to roost. Yvette tells her that the more she warns her off, the more she'll dig in her heels. Annabelle tells her she's been warned, and says that Yvette should be careful what she drinks. She drains her scotch and absinthe, and walks away with her red hair swinging confidently. In defiance and in her overconfidence, Yvette drains her glass of wine [she gains 3 Story Points for activating her Complication]. Several other people immediately occupy the seats that are vacant at the bar. Yvette looks at the wine listings once more, and makes a few mental notes about them. She starts to feel a bit dizzy and her vision becomes a bit fuzzy. She gets to her feet, and a couple of male patrons swing her around to the music she's only just noticed, and she sits back down and asks the waiter for some water. She finds that she's a bit susceptible to ideas and all, and very nearly gives away information about things to the bartender, but he doesn't pursue matters further. Half an hour later, Yvette decides she's had enough at Le Clione, and heads out of the club.
Félix is finally heading back to Loisier from Reims, travelling down a country road that is a highway equivalent of an M6. The roadway is partially canopied with trees at times, open spaces, somewhat hilly in places, and very...French. At some point, Félix realises that he is being followed along the roadway [he rolls a 33 on his Alertness for a Good Karma roll and gains *2* Story Points]. He sees that the pursuing vehicle is a dark tan coloured Peugot, one of the French tank-like cars. The pursuing Peugot speeds up, and Félix matches him [spending 2 Story Points to flip a roll of 83 to a 38, a success] speed-wise. The Peugot goes faster, trying to catch him up, and manages it this time [though Felix fails the roll, and gains a Story Point on Bad Karma]. Félix feels a hard rap from behind, as the Peugot hits the rental car from behind! Felix attempts to accelerate to get away from the Peugot, and also tries swerving to not allow the Peugot to get on his side. The Peugot speeds up as well, and the passenger fires a pistol at him, barely missing the mirror on the driver's side. The chase continues, neither Félix nor the Peugot driver giving any ground. The two men in the Peugot get tired of the chase, and as the two vehicles get closer, the Peugot passenger shoots out one of the rental car's tires! Félix's vehicle starts to swerve uncontrollably, and the vehicle plunges over the side of the road and slams into the ditch at the edge of the road [he fails the Willpower roll, though gaining 2 Story Points, and then succeeds at an Endurance roll, and only suffers 2 points of Vitality and the Stunned condition]. Félix loses consciousness. The two men from the Peugot walk over to where the rental car is smoking, the front being smashed up pretty badly. In a fit of pique, one of them fires at the driver-side mirror smashing it, after he gloats.
Back in Loisier, around 5:00pm, Yvette is somewhat concerned that Félix hasn't returned to pick her up. She calls the chateau, but is told that there's no sign of Félix and the rental vehicle isn't in the parking lot. After learning her options for getting back to the Vincoeur chateau, Yvette decides to take the 20-minute walk back, and sets off.
At the winery itself, Margareta tells Claude what she remembers happening in the file room. Claude has two of the winery staff go and fix the shelving in the Inventory filing room. Claude leads her outside to the area near the windows. She sees that the area beneath the windows is clearly trampled and there are several sets of adult-sized [boot] footprints. Margareta sees a small, crumpled card lying on the earthen ground. She picks it up, and flipping it over sees a stylized black octopus on a purple background. The card is on typical paper stock associated with business cards. She notices that the octopus image only has seven tentacles, not eight. She shows the card to Claude and asks him if he's seen it or knows it. He says that he doesn't recognise it. Looking at the cantilever window, she realises that the window is low enough for someone to have gotten just inside and been able to strike the filing cabinets and boxes, bringing them down on her inside the filing room. She notices that there are definite scuff marks on the window edging and the sill itself. They are interrupted by the arrival of one of the security guards, Henri, and Claude explains what has recently happened. He tells the security guard to look into it, but they decide not to call the police into it, and he orders the guard to keep it quiet and let Luc Mazerin know what's happened. Margareta tells Claude that she'll be joining the family for dinner that night, and he tells her that perhaps they should return to the chateau.
Félix wakes in the wrecked rental car, and gathers his senses. He fumbles around in the dark (as there are no overhead lights on the road at this time), and recovers his camera as his eyes eventually adjust. He extricates himself from the car, and clambors up to the road again. He sees several sets of lights of nearby houses, and heads in the direction of one of them.
Yvette arrives at the chateau, and sees no sign of the rental car in the parking lot. The butler says he trusts she had a good walk, and that most of the family is getting ready for dinner. He tells her that Félix has not returned. Margareta comes down the stairs, dressed for dinner, limping a bit [though Yvette doesn't see the bandage on her ankle], and the two women greet each other. Margareta tells her that Félix has not returned, but tells Yvette that someone tried to dump an entire file room on her earlier, and asks Yvette if she's been drinking. Yvette says that's something else she needs to talk to the others. The two go to dinner together with the Vincoeurs.
Around 10:00pm, Margareta and Yvette are in one of the common rooms, and one of the servants informs them that their friend, Félix, has returned. Félix has shown up on a horse-driven wagon with one of the farmers driving, his head bandaged. Margareta and Yvette descend the stairs, and see the worse-for-wear Félix climbing up the stairs. Félix tells them that he was run off the road and shot at, at least the tires on his vehicle! They decide to meet after Félix has cleaned up, and arrange for some cheese, biscuits, and coffee to be sent to the room where she just found them. And Margareta insists on oranges as well, since she just loves oranges.
Some time after Félix cleans up, the player characters and Margareta meet in the small conference chamber, and discuss the relevant points of what's occurred to them since they split up that morning. It is a weary set of characters that go to bed late that night at the chateau.
Sunday afternoon's game session of The Troubleshooters RPG campaign was pretty good, and somewhat more successful than the last one. I combined the audio recording with taking a few bullet point notes this time out, and that made things a lot easier; I also got more comfortable transcribing the notes and just using the relevant points. The players had a pretty good game session, their characters learning a good deal about what's going on (even if I'm not sure whether they've started to fit the clues together), and there was an action sequence and a car chase scene that ended badly for SteveR's Fé;lix. But it could have been worse! The players told me they both had a terrific time of it in the session and rather enjoyed themselves, though SteveR continues to get frustrated at times, not knowing what to do in specific circumstances.
Overall, the session of The Troubleshooters went pretty well this Sunday, and I was pleased with it. Can't wait to see how the players and their characters proceed at the next session of the game. Looking forward to it. :)
CHARACTERS:
Félix Travert (SteveR) - Wilderness Photographer
Yvette Zay (Tammy) - Security Consultant
Margareta Rosenqvist (GM NPC) - Air Stewardess
Friday, April 14th, 1963
Félix Travert decides to go to one of the restaurants in Reims from the list he was given that was one of the places that had some of the missing wines, Le Fatima de Boeuf. He asks to see the manager, stating that he has a matter of importance to discuss with him or her. The manager, Sylvain Boisvert, a younger man with slicked back hair, comes to talk to him, and F´lix talks quietly to him for a moment about the matter of the missing bottles of wines that showed up at Le Fatima. Boisvert acknowledges him, and take Félix back to his office, while asking the nearest serving girl to have the sommelier join them there shortly. Félix tells the manager that he's working for the Vincoeurs, and has been sent to inquire about a faulty shipment of wine that was mislabelled. Boisvert is somewhat suspicious but Félix's affadavit from the Vincoeurs works in his favour. They talk a bit, and eventually Boisvert calls for the sommelier. The sommelier, Régine Montclair, enters the office. When Boisvert introduces her and explains Feacute;lix's purpose for being there, Régine tells him that she identified the supposed Vincoeur wine as being actually an average white wine from one of their competitors, the Italian Alberto Remini winery. Félix manages to convince Boisvert to give him access to the wine records for the wine shipments in question [he spends 2 Story Points to gain a clue]. He finds that there were four (4) faulty shipments in various orders received between January and early March (January 9th, January 18th, February 17th, and March 3rd). With Boisvert's permission, Félix uses his camera to take pictures of these shipment records. Félix sees Boisvert signed for the four shipments in question as the receiver, and the shipper's signature is that of Natalie Vincoeur for the Vincoeur winery. He looks over the other receipts and invoices and sees they are signed by Natalie [Vincoeur] from the winery for the most part, other than three (3) that are signed for by Remy Vincoeur and one by Claude Arcand. [He rolls a 99 on this Humanities check, since his Red Tape is only the default, failing with Bad Karma, but immediately spends 2 Story Points to succeed with a clue and gets the proper answers.] Félix thanks Boisvert for his time, and leaves the restaurant. He goes to his car, and starts the hour-and-a-half drive back to Loisier.
Back at the Vincoeur winery, Margareta Rosenqvist comes out of the Inventory file office, looks around the reception and tasting area, but there is no sign of Yves Fournier. She does see one of the fake mechanics from the Paris airport, now dressed as a typical tourist type come to taste some wine. [She rolls an 11 for Good Karma on her Alertness check, and gains a Story Point.] The man notices her looking at him, and continues his tasting of a sample white wine. Margareta makes her way over to him, and the two engage in some banter, and the not mechanic buys a couple of the bottles he's been tasting. He puts the money down, and then Margareta sees his name is Thomas Hauptmann when he signs the paperwork, which she spots [she spends 2 Story Points to modify the plot so that she can get his name]. Talking about the vintages to her, Margareta learns that he likes "roses, French women, and wine" (muttered somewhat in German, which she catches). They continue to talk while Margareta engages in a wine tasting of two samples, but decides not to buy anything at this time. Hauptmann politely bids her farewell, and leaves.
Margareta looks around, but there's still no sign of Fournier. She sees Alain Vincoeur has wandered into the area; he smiles at her, but moves off. She goes to intercept him, and they greet each other. She asks if she can get permission to look through the shipping & receiving records, but Alain says she'd have to ask Natalie about that. Margareta asks him to clarify the organisational structure of the Vignoble Vincoeur. He tells her the following: Jacques Vincoeur is the owner of the winery, and oversees the business as the CEO. His (third) wife, Francine, was one of the chief researchers, a chemist and master wine-maker, but she's retired due to age. Alain says that he is head of Research & Development, and that his wife, Chloe, is in charge of Finance & Accounting, though several other people work under her, including Annette [Robert]. Remy, his brother, handles the Marketing department, and his wife, Natalie, is the chief executive for the Shipping & Receiving department. The Personnel department is handled by Guy Allemand, though he's not responsible for handling the occupational personnel for the specific departments. Claude Arcand is in charge of the Inventory department and the main Liasion to the import and export firms. The Security division isn't high priority, and is handled by Luc Mazarin, but it fall under the Personnel purview. There is also, of course, the Winery Manager, François Marchaud, who handles the day-to-day business of the winery. She asks him about how they handle faulty wines, but Alain says that such matters would fall primarily under Inventory's management, but would depend on the reason for the wine being faulty. In the case of foul-tasting or other such problems, it would fall under the Research & Development. She asks if iodine is used in the wine-making process, and he tells her that a specialized formulation for iodine (among other cleaning methods) is used for cleaning and sterilising bottles. It was actually Chloe's idea to modify the cleaning process with a method that saves on costs. Before Chloe's method was implemented they used a standardised cleaning process, but he can't remember how long ago it was. When Margareta asks him about their labels, Alain says the labels are done in house, but are printed up by an outside facility for cost and trademark reasons, as they are proprietary.
Margareta head down to Shipping & Receiving, and finds that it's very busy. There is lots of work being done to wrap up the end of day, and three trucks are waiting at the loading dock. She waits until Natalie Vincoeur, who's at the centre of it all, is free, and when Natalie finally heads for her office Margareta goes to join her. Once inside the office, Margareta asks Natalie for permission to go through the shipping records to compare them to the Inventory ones. Natalie gives her permission, but warns her that the records in Shipping are very complete. Natalie leads her to a massive storage/file room that contains two to three times the number of records that she'd seen in Inventory. Margareta tells her that she's looking for the records specific to the period starting in October, 1962, to see if she can find where the problem lies. [She fails to see a worried look cross Natalie's face, not succeeding at her roll.] Margareta begins her search through the files, after Natalie leaves. After a couple of hours, Margareta finds major discrepancies in the records between Inventory and those of Shipping & Receiving. The missing wines are recorded in the Inventory files, but are not listed as having been shipped in the orders for the last six months. [She fails her initial Red Tape roll, but spends 2 Story Points to get the information by advancing the plot.] However, in the most recent records for today, April 14th, 1963, there is a record for having received a case of faulty wine that was returned by Yves Fournier some three hours ago. [She spends 3 Story Points for the major clue.] Noted in the record is the following:
"Reason for Return: Wine was doctored with sour substance. Client said 'Tastes very bad.'... #342913'"
She realises the order of the wine in question has an Inventory listing in the main records, but no records of this wine having been shipped at all. She questions whether the number noted above is that of the Inventory record number, a Batch number, or the actual Shipping & Receiving record number. Before she can do any more work, Natalie comes into the file room and tells her that it's quitting time. Natalie asks if she requires more help, and when she says she doesn't, Natalie lets her finish her notes and then the two leave the file room and S&R office, and Natalie locks the doors. Natalie escorts her out of Shipping & Receiving and back into the main reception and wine-tasting area, where she sees that the current wine-tasting is winding down. She doesn't see Annette or Alain, but does see Claude Arcand.
Claude takes Margareta back into the Inventory records, telling her they have a good coding system for the records. Checking the number that she gives him, he leads her to the records from February of this year, and finds the proper record that she's looking for. Claude tells her he'll be out in the tasting area, and when she's finished he'll come and get her and lock up the Inventory offices again. She sees the record is dated February 17th of this year, the wine in question was of average quality and that the case of six bottles was supposed to be a Vincoeur Blanc of 1961, that was going to a restaurant called Le Fatima de Boeuf, and this case was going to Paris - supposedly. Margareta realises that it somehow ended up in Reims.
Margareta hears the voices and other noises coming from the tasting area and the sounds typical of a quiet file room, when she hears a sudden "RAP!" As she looks up, and then at the door, her peripheral vision catches the filing cabinets on the wall by the windows starting to fall towards her. She is barely able to grab the notes she's taken and dodge out of the way as the shelving comes crashing down. [She spends 3 Story Points to succeed at the task.] Five seconds later, Claude comes into the room, worried about her, and she is trapped under a piece of shelving [she takes 1 point of Vitality damage]. She hears the sound of one of the windows creaking. Claude frees her, and she sees the windows above, one of them flapping in the breeze, and when she asks Claude he tells her that it's one of the side portions near the patio, used primarily for the gardening. Claude helps her up, and helps her out of the Inventory file room.
Back in Loisier, Yvette makes her way to the wine bar called Le Clione close to 3:00pm, and sees there's quite a long line-up of people waiting to get in. She gets into the wine bar eventually, and is surprised to see that it's a bit more upscale than some she's seen in Paris, even though it is one of the oldest wine bars in Loisier. She wanders through the wine bar, looking around at the people and various items of interest. She encounters a boy-toy type of fellow who introduces himself as Johan [Werner]. He invites her to join him for a drink, and as they head for one of the main bars in the place, sees various dancing facilities including poles and cages. The wine list has a good selection of Vincoeur wines. She samples a drink or two, trying not to get tipsy, and keeps her eyes open. Johan attempts to flirt with her over the course of some half an hour, but she's resistant. After a while, an attractive red-haired woman comes in and sits on Yvette's other side. Yvette recognises her as having seen her around the town while she's been wandering around [she succeeds at her Alertness check, despite the -2 pips modifier for the drinking]. The woman orders a scotch and decides to live dangerously and asks for a drop of absinthe in it. She then looks around and sizes up the crowd. Three-quarters of an hour later, Johan gets bored with Yvette and her lack of attention to him, and walks off without another word. Yvette notices that the red-haired woman is nursing her drink as well, after having taken that first slug of the scotch and absinthe mix.
The woman introduces herself as Annabelle, and offers Yvette her hand. Yvette introduces herself, but the woman says she knows who she is. Annabelle admits that she's been following Yvette, and the two flirt momentarily. Annabelle tells her she's looking into something that she really doesn't want to continue investigating. Yvette feigns ignorance, and Annabelle pointedly warns her to cease her investigation, telling her to stop playing the ignorant fool. Yvette may not be the only one to pay, as accidents can happen in chateaus and wineries. She asks Yvette how business is at the security company, as "they" could bring this matter home to roost. Yvette tells her that the more she warns her off, the more she'll dig in her heels. Annabelle tells her she's been warned, and says that Yvette should be careful what she drinks. She drains her scotch and absinthe, and walks away with her red hair swinging confidently. In defiance and in her overconfidence, Yvette drains her glass of wine [she gains 3 Story Points for activating her Complication]. Several other people immediately occupy the seats that are vacant at the bar. Yvette looks at the wine listings once more, and makes a few mental notes about them. She starts to feel a bit dizzy and her vision becomes a bit fuzzy. She gets to her feet, and a couple of male patrons swing her around to the music she's only just noticed, and she sits back down and asks the waiter for some water. She finds that she's a bit susceptible to ideas and all, and very nearly gives away information about things to the bartender, but he doesn't pursue matters further. Half an hour later, Yvette decides she's had enough at Le Clione, and heads out of the club.
Félix is finally heading back to Loisier from Reims, travelling down a country road that is a highway equivalent of an M6. The roadway is partially canopied with trees at times, open spaces, somewhat hilly in places, and very...French. At some point, Félix realises that he is being followed along the roadway [he rolls a 33 on his Alertness for a Good Karma roll and gains *2* Story Points]. He sees that the pursuing vehicle is a dark tan coloured Peugot, one of the French tank-like cars. The pursuing Peugot speeds up, and Félix matches him [spending 2 Story Points to flip a roll of 83 to a 38, a success] speed-wise. The Peugot goes faster, trying to catch him up, and manages it this time [though Felix fails the roll, and gains a Story Point on Bad Karma]. Félix feels a hard rap from behind, as the Peugot hits the rental car from behind! Felix attempts to accelerate to get away from the Peugot, and also tries swerving to not allow the Peugot to get on his side. The Peugot speeds up as well, and the passenger fires a pistol at him, barely missing the mirror on the driver's side. The chase continues, neither Félix nor the Peugot driver giving any ground. The two men in the Peugot get tired of the chase, and as the two vehicles get closer, the Peugot passenger shoots out one of the rental car's tires! Félix's vehicle starts to swerve uncontrollably, and the vehicle plunges over the side of the road and slams into the ditch at the edge of the road [he fails the Willpower roll, though gaining 2 Story Points, and then succeeds at an Endurance roll, and only suffers 2 points of Vitality and the Stunned condition]. Félix loses consciousness. The two men from the Peugot walk over to where the rental car is smoking, the front being smashed up pretty badly. In a fit of pique, one of them fires at the driver-side mirror smashing it, after he gloats.
Back in Loisier, around 5:00pm, Yvette is somewhat concerned that Félix hasn't returned to pick her up. She calls the chateau, but is told that there's no sign of Félix and the rental vehicle isn't in the parking lot. After learning her options for getting back to the Vincoeur chateau, Yvette decides to take the 20-minute walk back, and sets off.
At the winery itself, Margareta tells Claude what she remembers happening in the file room. Claude has two of the winery staff go and fix the shelving in the Inventory filing room. Claude leads her outside to the area near the windows. She sees that the area beneath the windows is clearly trampled and there are several sets of adult-sized [boot] footprints. Margareta sees a small, crumpled card lying on the earthen ground. She picks it up, and flipping it over sees a stylized black octopus on a purple background. The card is on typical paper stock associated with business cards. She notices that the octopus image only has seven tentacles, not eight. She shows the card to Claude and asks him if he's seen it or knows it. He says that he doesn't recognise it. Looking at the cantilever window, she realises that the window is low enough for someone to have gotten just inside and been able to strike the filing cabinets and boxes, bringing them down on her inside the filing room. She notices that there are definite scuff marks on the window edging and the sill itself. They are interrupted by the arrival of one of the security guards, Henri, and Claude explains what has recently happened. He tells the security guard to look into it, but they decide not to call the police into it, and he orders the guard to keep it quiet and let Luc Mazerin know what's happened. Margareta tells Claude that she'll be joining the family for dinner that night, and he tells her that perhaps they should return to the chateau.
Félix wakes in the wrecked rental car, and gathers his senses. He fumbles around in the dark (as there are no overhead lights on the road at this time), and recovers his camera as his eyes eventually adjust. He extricates himself from the car, and clambors up to the road again. He sees several sets of lights of nearby houses, and heads in the direction of one of them.
Yvette arrives at the chateau, and sees no sign of the rental car in the parking lot. The butler says he trusts she had a good walk, and that most of the family is getting ready for dinner. He tells her that Félix has not returned. Margareta comes down the stairs, dressed for dinner, limping a bit [though Yvette doesn't see the bandage on her ankle], and the two women greet each other. Margareta tells her that Félix has not returned, but tells Yvette that someone tried to dump an entire file room on her earlier, and asks Yvette if she's been drinking. Yvette says that's something else she needs to talk to the others. The two go to dinner together with the Vincoeurs.
Around 10:00pm, Margareta and Yvette are in one of the common rooms, and one of the servants informs them that their friend, Félix, has returned. Félix has shown up on a horse-driven wagon with one of the farmers driving, his head bandaged. Margareta and Yvette descend the stairs, and see the worse-for-wear Félix climbing up the stairs. Félix tells them that he was run off the road and shot at, at least the tires on his vehicle! They decide to meet after Félix has cleaned up, and arrange for some cheese, biscuits, and coffee to be sent to the room where she just found them. And Margareta insists on oranges as well, since she just loves oranges.
Some time after Félix cleans up, the player characters and Margareta meet in the small conference chamber, and discuss the relevant points of what's occurred to them since they split up that morning. It is a weary set of characters that go to bed late that night at the chateau.
Sunday afternoon's game session of The Troubleshooters RPG campaign was pretty good, and somewhat more successful than the last one. I combined the audio recording with taking a few bullet point notes this time out, and that made things a lot easier; I also got more comfortable transcribing the notes and just using the relevant points. The players had a pretty good game session, their characters learning a good deal about what's going on (even if I'm not sure whether they've started to fit the clues together), and there was an action sequence and a car chase scene that ended badly for SteveR's Fé;lix. But it could have been worse! The players told me they both had a terrific time of it in the session and rather enjoyed themselves, though SteveR continues to get frustrated at times, not knowing what to do in specific circumstances.
Overall, the session of The Troubleshooters went pretty well this Sunday, and I was pleased with it. Can't wait to see how the players and their characters proceed at the next session of the game. Looking forward to it. :)