Previously, on The Dracula Dossier: The team break contact with Dracula’s submarine and make their way to Tel Aviv to heal and regroup. Dracula is on his way to Argentina, and if they catch a plane, they can be there 1-2 weeks ahead of him; but where exactly is he going, and how can they find out?
Catamarca Province, Argentina, March 2014
Through a combination of traffic analysis by Hopkins and telepathic interrogation by Lilith, the team discover that Dracula is heading towards Londres in northwest Argentina, a small tourist town in Catamarca Province. This is 1,100 metres above sea level in the foothills of the Chilean Andes, has a population of some 2,100, and is on Ruta Nacional 40, which runs broadly north-south along the edge of the mountains. The ruins of the Shincal de Quimivil are located 5 kilometres away; 30 hectares of archaeological park with reconstructions of parts of an urban settlement inhabited by the indigenous population in the 15th and 16th centuries.
It’s a 20 hour flight from Tel Aviv to Buenos Aires, then a 14 hour drive to Londres by the shortest route (several others are possible), in what starts as a rental and quickly turns into a beat-up second-hand car. They can be there in three days, allowing some time to cover their tracks, so they expect to arrive at least four days ahead of Dracula. They approach from the southwest; there are several areas of natural beauty near the town, and ample accommodation.
Since Londres is a tourist town, it’s easy to get into, they won’t stand out, and they need no explanation of why they’re there beyond “tourism”. This is the tail end of the local summer, with temperatures of 18 degrees at night to 31 degrees at noon.
The attached Sayaret Aluka fireteam, military-grade body armour, and fully-loaded automatic weapons in their car boots are, of course, mere courtesy details. As Lilith observes, this one is for all the marbles, so there’s no need to be parsimonious. Cartwright pauses long enough to McGyver a rearward-facing claymore mine in the boot of one of the cars, and attach a bomb to the team’s long-suffering camera drone; it’s not likely they’ll need it much longer, and it may as well go out with a bang.
Londres, March 2014
The team and their attached SA operators stagger their arrival, posing as tourist couples. Lonely struggles against his lecherousness, knowing that Lilith will conduct telepathic debriefs of both himself and the SA team; Vincent does not, claiming “eet ees called method acting, no?”.
On their first day in Londres, they check out the town, and Hopkins checks out Argentine airports, and so they learn that Dracula (under a transparent cover ID) will arrive four days after them, having booked sufficient hotel rooms for his entourage and rented a helicopter from Catamarca airport. They also discover the town is stiff with Renfields and werewolves, and quickly realise that since their werewolf can detect Dracula’s ones, they can detect her; they find themselves at the centre of a floating box wherever they go. Finally, they see that the ruins are partially closed off “for renovation”, specifically the Eastern Ceremonial Mound is off limits.
Emilia picks up a stray dog by the simple expedient of feeding it. So now they have a dog.
They become concerned they might be poisoned, and take great care to avoid anything not out of a bottle or can purchased from a random local shop.
Las Ruinas de El Shincal, March 2014
They know Dracula’s minions are there, and the minions know they’re there, and each knows that the others know, so apart from taking care not to frighten the locals there’s no need for too much tradecraft.
The second day is spent checking out the ruins of El Shincal, with special attention to the Eastern Ceremonial Mound. They notice this is easily big and flat enough for a helicopter to land on, and there is a cave mouth halfway down the south face of the mound.
They convince themselves that Dracula’s men will try to kill them the next day, as it’s the day before Dracula arrives, and decide to thin out his numbers by getting their retribution in first.
Luring the squad following them into an ambush, they destroy one of its vehicles and kill several; when they rest withdraw, they follow up and kill a few more, but three escape to spread the word. Our Heroes decide to take to the bush and… well, they’ve run out of plan now, but at least they’ve broken contact with Dracula’s minions. For now.
We dolly back and fade to black as they grab their weapons, armour, and supplies and jog off into the foothills of the Chilean Andes.
To be continued…
GM Notes
Of the options suggested since the last session, I went with the Inca site. A bit of internet research turned up some photos and details of a suitable site, then I grabbed some Loke Battlemats (a town and a jungle temple) and a Lazy DM map (to be revealed later). Naturally, the PCs went somewhere else entirely and I had to improvise. However, one of the things I love about this campaign is the ability to use the internet on the fly to provide maps and supporting information; Lonely’s player had Google Maps running in another window and quickly pulled up an actual map of the ambush site.
With multiple werewolves and a stray dog about, the game was characterised by truly awful canine puns, which garnered the players Bennies, but which I feel it is more considerate not to repeat.
We were all out of ideas by the second half of the session, which is a sign that it’s time to close out the campaign; so, I adjusted the pacing by running the ambush as a detailed combat; it should’ve been a Dangerous Quick Encounter really, since it wasn’t important to the plot. Again, we see that a combat with multiple Legendary Wild Cards on each side slows to a crawl; the game runs fast and smooth with the PCs opposed by a Wild Card and a bunch of Extras, but if everyone has Wounds, Bennies and Wild Dice, it does not.
Also, I’m still out of practice with detailed combat. Need to do something about that; either practice until I have it down pat, or change game system.
Halfway Station 3.0 
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