Aslan Route 17: Ferro Mansion Heist

I know something about opening windows and doors
I know how to move quietly to creep across creaky wooden floors
I know where to find precious things in all your cupboards and drawers
- Peter Gabriel, Intruder

Cordan, 1105 Week 51

Previously, on the Aslan Route: Prasad calls Mazun to a meeting, where they look at surveillance footage of Baron Ferro's guards and agree that they look Zhodani trained. Prasad asks Mazun to get his team to burgle Ferro's mansion and look for evidence of Zhodani connections. "Make it look like a robbery," he says.

In real-world time, this happened after episode 16 for scheduling reasons, but in game time it happens before episode 16; think of it as a flashback.

Planning

Mazun has told the rest of the crew that this is a score planned by a local criminal gang who have been arrested, and he has taken over at the last minute. Pre-mission research has gained the team a copy of the plans and the following information:

1. There’s a keypad lock on the outer gate.
2. There is an escape tunnel. A flyby of the area finds a suspicious ruin with a tunnel and extra large cellar, but no electronic signatures.
3. There’s a fire drill every month – one in a couple of days. Everyone leaves the house and meets at a rally point. The fire brigade are local service, not part of Baron’s household; semi-serfs, beholden to him but lack status, only go inside if the headcount shows someone is missing.
4. There are motion trackers.
5. The Baron has a bodyguard who looks competent.
6. What they’re looking for is probably in the Baron’s private office. This is at the centre of the layers of security.
7. The mansion has several dozen staff, probably no more than half a dozen armed at any one time (probably with ACRs).

Execution

Mazun uses all of Rex’s remaining money to bribe the starport guards so that Rex can take his laser SMGs with him. Vila has a stun gun. Everyone takes care to anonymise the ship’s air/raft, and they sneak to the abandoned ruins by night. Examining the concealed door reveals it is rigged somehow, so they park the air/raft in a nearby copse, throw a camo net over it, and wait for the fire alarm next day; the theory is that while that is going off, no-one will notice the door alarm for the time it takes them to cut the wires.

As they force the door open, they trip the alarm, but Vila has the wires snipped in seconds and they don’t think anyone heard it over the noise of the fire alarm and evacuation. Moving quietly but purposefully, they follow the escape tunnel to an outbuilding on the main estate, and sneak past the courtyard where the staff are mustering to be counted. The external door takes only seconds to bypass, and then they’re inside, moving quickly towards Baron Ferro’s office; as they have the architect’s plans for the building, they know exactly where they’re going. As Vila and Mazun turn a corner about 10 metres into the building, they see a trio of armed and masked men coming the other way, and Vila recognises kindred spirits; there is a second group of would-be burglars in the mansion.

Calming gestures are misinterpreted, and the thieves draw their guns – locally manufactured rifles. However, they are clearly not very good, as two of them manage to shoot each other before they can line up on the Macavity’s crew, and the third one misses his mark in the excitement.

While the burglars are swearing and bleeding, Rex steps around the corner and guns them down with his laser SMGs.

The elements of surprise and stealth have been lost, so the crew speed up and run for the office, with the noise of the fire alarm only partly masking shouts and the thud of boots on expensive marble flooring from the south. Mazun and Vila pause to snatch up a couple of rifles as they pass the bodies, while Dr Mataranga – who thoughtfully prepared several thermite bombs before the mission – stuffs one into a laser hole in one wall.

Rex moves on ahead, gets to the corner of the office and peers around it into the corridor. Clattering up the corridor towards him are a pair of medical staff with first aid bags, clearly aiming for the Baron’s office.

Rex can hear several things of interest – people in the office are shouting to be heard over the noise. First, what sounds like a group of guards call in by radio that they have found three incapacitated intruders, hit by a mixture of rifle and laser fire. Second, Dr Matauranga’s improvised thermite bomb goes off. Third, someone inside the office calls “Get the Principal out, now!”

The rest of the team form up on Rex around the corner, with Vila bringing up the rear as he is sweeping everything valuable he can fit into his haversack as he goes.

Sticking the smallest possible part of his snout around the corner, Rex watches as the Baron, his guards, and his medics leave via the rear door. Then, he waves the others forward and crouches on overwatch, checking back the way the team came since the radio message makes it clear there is a group of guards in that direction.

Rex notices that the head bodyguard looks like a Zhodani.

Dr Matauranga flicks a 3D scanner drone into the air and it begins recording a 3D image of the room for later investigation. Meanwhile, Vila takes the safe, and Mazun takes the Baron’s PC, which fortunately he forgot to log out of in the excitement.

Everything that can be grabbed having been grabbed, Dr Matauranga lobs a couple of thermite bombs into the room as the others scuttle out with their prizes. 

The crew decide to head back the way they came in, and begin sneaking back that way. By this time one member of the guard patrol is cautiously sticking his head around a corner, and Rex blows it off with his lasers while Vila, Mazun and the good Doctor make good their escape, aiming to circle around behind the surviving guards.

Mazun is the first to reach the door behind the guards, and leans out to shoot one with his borrowed rifle. The guard notices him, and is equally quick on the draw, so they fire simultaneously; Mazun misses, and the guard shoots his buddy in the back by mistake. The subsequent review of the bodycam footage is not going to be fun for anyone. However, before the last surviving guard can worry about that, Rex moves up behind him and blasts him with a laser SMG.

The team leaves the building.

Debrief

While Vila stops off at the local representative of the Shugaka Family, Mr Laarbak, to buy an extremely expensive fake ID proving once and for all that he is definitely NOT Vila Restal, Mazun goes to a slightly awkward debriefing where he is asked to explain shooting half a dozen people and setting fire to the Baron’s mansion.

“I wanted to make it look like the work of an amateur local group,” he explains.

It’s clear from what has been recovered that Baron Ferro is being subsidised by the Zhodani Consulate, and his guards trained by them. In exchange, he owes them a favour, which someday they will call in. The records also make it clear that while not psionic, the Baron’s head guard is a member of an elite Zhodani unit.

None of this is illegal, but the Imperium is not pleased all the same.

GM Notes

Only one of the players really likes fights, but all of them seem to enjoy heists, so I wanted to run a heist this time. I started with the idea that Mazun's handler might have noticed one of the barons had Zhodani-trained guards, and that he would then want to check out said baron's mansion for evidence, making it look like a robbery. The Macavity's crew are good for that, as unlike anyone he has on hand at the starport, they can skip town without arousing suspicion.

I used The Scheme Pyramid for the overall structure of the heist, and Modern Traps and Obstacles for the outer layer of sensors, guards and whatnot. I didn't use Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master this time, nor did we actually stick to The Scheme Pyramid scenario once they got inside the mansion. So long as a fun time is had by all, it doesn't much matter how you come up with the adventure.

Since they had full plans of the building, there was no fog of war; the opposition was therefore represented by PEFs, an idea I picked up from Two Hour Wargames. PEFS are little markers which move around the map according to dice rolls, and once a PC got line of sight on them, I rolled an event meaning in Mythic to determine who the PEF was and what they were up to. That worked very well.

As to the 3D scanner drone, I can't be bothered with long lists of equipment, so the players tell me what they want, and if I think it will be fun, they can have it. If I'm dubious but they really want it, they can spend a Benny to have one. It would be possible for players to abuse that, but this group doesn't.

Actual play was characterised by NPC thugs and guards repeatedly rolling 1s on their skill dice and so shooting innocent bystanders, usually each other. Rex did that a lot too, but people are wise to this now and stand well back, which means he usually shoots actual enemies, just not necessarily the ones he was aiming at.

The next adventure starts on Sink, so I'll fast forward play to 1106 week 07, when they arrive there.