SHELTER:Main Page

Cast

/nil, as Damian Wechsler, FBI social engineer

Deacon Blues, as Bill Kaczmarek, CIA handler

Jason Panella, as Carter Postma, NSA cryptographer

Phantom Stranger, as Simon Jordan, NSA/MI6 analyst

Retired

Illegible Smudge, as Charlotte Devereux, CIA field op

The Story So Far

The mission team operating under the codename SHELTER met at the NSA headquarters building in Fort Meade, Maryland. They were introduced to one of their three administrators, codenamed Y, a highly ranked NSA official. Y told them of the theft of a secret encryption system known as WAVER, taken from a NSA front company in Baltimore. He identified the thief as a professional corporate spy named Rebecca Van Lewton, and the team was given the task of locating Van Lewton and recovering WAVER. Upon their arrival in Baltimore, however, they found that Van Lewton had been shot and killed during a Project Pitfall raid on her apartment.

Pitfall claimed to have targeted Van Lewton as an agent of the terrorist group Banshee Net, but the team found no proof to back this up. Investigating Van Lewton's associates, they learned that she had been hired to steal WAVER through a criminal contact named Sonny Charlton. Negotiating with Charlton, they discovered that he had in turn been hired by Avery Mitchell, husband of Senator Gwen Lockheart and a highly ranked agent of Project Pitfall. Tailing Mitchell and doing surveillance on his home, the team was able to learn that he was selling classified intelligence secrets to a group known as the Peace Cartel. The team gathered evidence of Mitchell's treason and encountered operatives of the Peace Cartel, including a former associate of Simon's named Johnathan Roberts. Carter came into contact with an encryption expert on the internet, learning what he could about WAVER. He discovered, among other things, that the code related to one he'd personally come across from a suspicious website. Grabbing WAVER before Mitchell could exchange it with the criminal organization's representatives, they foiled the Cartel's plans. Y then used the evidence of Mitchell's secret activities to blackmail him into providing SHELTER with information on Pitfall activities as well as reducing Pitfall interference in future SHELTER operations.

The team's next mission, given by a CIA supervisor codenamed 'X', involved a branch of the Franchise known as The Apothecary, a drug organization that was trading in biochemical agents on the black market. The team was to meet Apothecary operative Nelson Grakos, an amoral and hedonistic drug designer, and try to learn the location of an illegal hot lab used in creating lethal toxins. Arriving in New York City, they adopted the guises of an Albanian smuggler and his entourage, and managed to get an invitation to one of Grakos' infamous parties in his downtown penthouse. As part of the arrangement, however, they were tasked with killing a former associate of Grakos named Tommy Laredo. Laredo was an accountant for his operation who had become a security risk through heroin addiction. Locating Laredo in the vicinity of Coney Island, they captured him. Planning to escort Laredo to an agency safehouse, they were interrupted by the arrival of crooked NYPD Narcotics Detective Larry Bloch. Bloch tried to negotiate for a piece of the action, but he eventually gave up, warning the team to watch their backs.

After some surveillance of the heavily secured penthouse, the team attended the weekend party Grakos was throwing. During the party they saw Grakos meet with representatives of an Indonesian terrorist group known as True Faith. Damian recognized Grakos' live-in girlfriend, Katja, as being connected with a Russian organized crime figure he had investigated while with the FBI. Katja in turn revealed to Bill that she recognized him as a friend of a friend, a KGB operative Bill had encountered during his time in Serbia. Katja stated that she and this mutual acquaintance were actually with the Krypt, and that she was under orders to make sure nothing untoward happened to Grakos or his organization. She also hinted that Bill's agency was not all that it seemed. Meanwhile, Charlotte and Damian accessed Grakos' office and his personal computer. After downloading encrypted files on the hot lab and the deal The Apothecary was making with the Indonesian terrorists, the team quietly left the party.

Finding that the hot lab was hidden within an apparently abandoned hospital in the Bronx, the team identified the security and power set up for the facility. After Simon had a close call with a guard, Damian sabotaged the power to the hot lab and the team surrounded its exits, threatening to set it on fire if the Apothecary guards inside did not surrender. After the agent lit one door, the Apothecary operatives attempted to flee, and the SHELTER team was able to subdue three of them and kill a fourth. A fifth one was wounded but escaped from the scene. The team quickly sabotaged the equipment in the laboratory, destroy the more dangerous samples inside, and set the entire facility on fire. The team reported their mission success to X and were told to await further orders. Charlotte was redeployed to a different cell.

In the period between missions, Carter receives an email from the username "BigNothing", a contact he made during his investigation into WAVER...

Premise

These PCs will be the agents of a secret espionage cell within the National Security Agency, codenamed SHELTER. They will become entangled in the intrigue and conspiracies of the World on Fire, combating threats such as the Franchise and working for and against other factions of the setting. Victories in this shadow war come at a high price, and trust is hard to come by. With hard work and a little luck, however, the agents of SHELTER may not only survive but also help bring the world back from the brink of self-destruction.

Themes

The main theme of this game will be Suspense. The PCs will be parties to misdirection, manipulation, and other machinations behind the scenes of the world stage. Enemy and rival operatives will have their own shadowy methods and motives, often putting the PCs in life-threatening situations. They will have to negotiate this dangerous and often deadly landscape while maintaining secrecy and plausible deniability.

A corollary of the main theme is Paranoia. While they will have reasons to trust their teammates, the PCs will encounter many individuals with shifting loyalties and purposes. Someone who was an asset in one mission may turn out to be an antagonist in the next, and vice versa. It will be up to the players to decide who they put their faith in, and they should make contingency plans just in case.

Mood

This game will focus on the grittier end of the espionage spectrum, emphasizing brains over brawn and skill over gadgets. The tone will not be unremittingly bleak, but it will also not be especially light-hearted. What humor there is will come from the characters rather than the absurdity of the world they find themselves in. The more bizarre and outlandish elements of the World on Fire setting will not be used; no Alliance of Evil Geniuses or supernatural beings pulling the strings. While there will be moments of violence, it's my intention to downplay gun battles and other mayhem in this particular game.

Campaign Qualities

I've decided to apply the following Campaign Qualities to the first Season of this game:

Clandestine (+0 XP)

Faction (+0 XP)

Gritty (+100 XP)

Paranoid (+0 XP)

Clandestine allows PCs to select a Covert feat when they receive a non-Covert feat choice. Faction means that the PCs will be working for an agency, in this case SHELTER. Gritty increases the danger of critical injury as a result of combat or other threats. Paranoid gives all special and player characters a +4 morale bonus with Blend/Stealth and Sneak/Hide checks to determine who benefits from a surprise round and also applies a -4 morale penalty to skill checks made to shift a target's disposition or convince a target to do something.

The Agency

The group known as SHELTER was formed in the Winter of 2006 by elements of the American intelligence community, primarily as a response to the operational and bureaucratic morass caused by Project Pitfall and the ever-expanding War On Terror. Seeking to reclaim territory and assets lost in the shadow of the massive international counter-terrorism force, several administrators of the CIA, FBI, and NSA agreed to pool their remaining resources and form a distinct, unique unit of their own creation. This unit would operate in advance of and separate from the joint task forces of the National Security Council and their Pitfall affiliates. Its primary task would be to conduct counter-terrorist and intelligence operations both within the United States and abroad, protecting American interests and offering its creators an alternative perspective on the current global crisis. A trio of trusted executives from the three originating agencies were tasked with overseeing the formation of SHELTER, operating under the cover of an NSA task force. Seeking prospective agents from government intelligence agencies, law enforcement departments, and the military, the "Big Three" selected personnel based on their proficiency, discretion, and ideals.

In the period since its inception, SHELTER has seen only modest growth, seeking to operate below the radar of parent and sister agencies. This is in keeping with the original vision of the organization; a fallback unit which its creators could rely upon for discreet information and operation cycles. Thus far, very few people in the NSA or the American intelligence community are aware of the group's existence. There have been several close calls, primarily due to SHELTER teams crossing paths with Pitfall personnel while pursuing data or sabotaging terrorist cells. These encounters have always resulted in the SHELTER ops covering their tracks and backing down from direct confrontation. It is feared that some form of collision with Pitfall is inevitable, but the agency has managed to stave it off for the time being.

The primary focus of SHELTER is dealing with the terrorist organization known as the Franchise. A vast, sprawling collection of criminal and extremist cells with limited but resilient networking support, the Franchise is a daunting and deadly antagonist. Every SHELTER operative lost in the field thus far met their end at the hands of this conspiracy in one form or another, and this has only intensified the focus of the surviving ops. The struggle is difficult for numerous reasons, not the least of which is the Franchise's ability to replace lost cells within weeks or even days. SHELTER holds out hope that it will somehow find a way to break this cycle and finally land a crippling blow. Only time will tell.

Goals: 3 (Meddling, Protection, Secrecy)

History: 3 (Allies, Enemies, Rivals)

Image: 5 (Secretive goals, Mysterious methods, Secretive leaders, Secretive members, On record sites)

Sites: 5 (Classroom, COMSEC Center, Hospital, Records Office, Satellite Network)

Tools: 6 (E-IV, G-II, R-IV, S-IV, T-V, V-III, W-IV)

Mission

Campaign Qualities:

Caliber:

Known Objectives:

Reputation Award:

Known Exposure Penalties: The following occurrences generate exposure:

Recommended Gear Picks:

Mission Bundle:

Gear Restrictions: None

Action Dice

Bill: 3

Carter: 3

Damian: 3

Simon: 3

GC: ?

Mission Gear

Damian:

Bill:

Carter:

Simon:

Spending Cash Pool: