AP (FC) - The Gurlitt Heist Part II

I played my second session of Fate last Thursday, where we wrapped up the Gurlitt Heist story.

Unfortunately, we didn't have all of the original players, but we did have Sabine's player, Gunther's player, myself (who played Alana), and a new player who took over for Bloody Dimitry. Sir Mordred and Shadow were still with the group in-game, but they were NPCs.

As much as I wanted to play Night Witches or a Fallout-themed Apocalypse World game, I was more excited to finish the Fate story. I mean, it was time for the actual heist! Plus, I didn't want to see all that planning go to waste.

If you're just tuning in, click here for Part I (includes premise and cast).

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The Gurlitt Heist

Part II

Source: http://tinyurl.com/pevhgvg; Credit: Cheryl Carlin
Image used without permission.

The Heist

It was Friday, the 12th, middle of the day. Sabine pulled the delivery van into the parking lot of the Justizpalast, and no one seemed to suspect anything. 

Alana and Bloody Dimitry wore police uniforms to disguise themselves and entered the building with the fake paperwork that Shadow drew up for them.

Inside, they saw a horde of officers and mug shots of wanted criminals plastered over the wall. Dimitry's indistinguishable face was among them.

Alana tried to rip it off without anyone noticing. Fortunately, the officers got a call for an assault in progress and left the building. Even though Dimitry was an obvious suspect, they didn't stare at him long enough to piece two and two together. Even if they had, clearly there was someone else assaulting police officers all around Munich.

Outside, Sabine noticed a man across the street. He was casing the building but wasn't being very subtle about. She pulled out her phone to, "check her email," and took a photo of him. She went over to the gate guard and offered him a cigarette while telling him that a sketchy man had been surveilling the building for the past twenty minutes. The officer thanked her, and Sabine walked back to the van.

Inside, on the third floor, Alana met the same officer who Sir Mordred spoke to during their reconnaissance visit. She handed him the paperwork, and he began to check it but then stopped. 

"It seems there's a problem," he said, "Someone must have been playing a practical joke on you." 

Alana felt uneasy but kept her cool and asked what the problem was. The police officer read the name of the recipient on the paper which featured a horrible obscenity. Shadow's compulsive anarchism had gone too far, and Alana was seething, ready to kill him.

"There must be some mistake," she said and then faked a laugh, "Oh, they got me good!  Clearly, one of the officers is just getting back at me. Look, can we just collect the crate we're here to pick up? We have orders, and this is time sensitive." Alana managed to talk her way out of it in her accented German, and the officer buzzed her and Dimitry in. 

"Remind me to kill Shadow when we get back," Alana whispered.

Inside the evidence room, a man wearing civilian clothes sat at the desk. He was looking through a magnifying glass and staring intently at a painting by Max Ernst. His name tag read, Herr Dr. Professor Leprick of the University of Munich. Earnst was one of Alana's favorite artists, and she couldn't resist chatting the professor up about the piece.

Meanwhile, Dimitry was getting increasingly nervous. He wanted to get on with the job and poked Alana. She waved him over to a crate but was so distracted with the conversation that she accidentally pointed to the wrong one. It was one of the original crates the artwork was stored in, not the one she consolidated everything into. 

At this point in our game, Gunther's player arrived, so we brought him into the scene.

Gunther, who was in the van the whole time, grew restless and wanted to go inside. Sabine didn't think that was a good idea and tried to stop him, but he ended up convincing her otherwise. Gunther talked his way up to the third floor somehow and happily greeted Alana and Dimitry once he found them. Alana was shocked.

Dimitry noticed Nazi symbolism on the crate he was examining and the labels, "SS," and "Property of Ahnenerbe." Gunther noticed it as well and was pleasantly surprised. He began exclaiming how thrilling it was to find such a rare find and wanted to examine the crate himself. 

Alana finally realized what time it was and knew they needed to get on with the job. She grabbed the container she marked and placed it on a dolly.


We've Got Trouble

As she started wheeling the dolly out, Alana noticed a masked man with an automatic rifle in the hallway. She quickly elbowed Dimitry to warn him, while the masked man knocked out the guard stationed outside of the room. He stepped inside, raised his rifle, and told everyone to get down on the ground in horrible German with a thick, American accent.

Dimitry punched the guy in the face and broke his jaw. Alana snagged a small portrait off the ground, as she wheeled the dolly into the hallway as fast as possible. She never left any art behind if she could help. Gunther tackled the man to the ground and knocked him out. He then noticed the man had a bag with C4 explosives, all written in English.


Fleeing the Terrorists

Many more masked men were coming up the stairs and yelling in horrible German with distinct, American accents. Alana pushed the dolly so that it rolled downward, and Dimitry shoved the men out of the way to make room. Gunther drew his gun and shot the sprinklers to set them off.

Alana continued rolling the dolly down, gaining distance between her and the terrorists who were chasing them. The terrorists were advancing, but several police officers came through, and Dimitry called them up the stairs to help stop the men. 

With the terrorists distracted, Alana, Dimitry, and Gunther were able to get outside and load the crate into the van. Sabine, who saw smoke bombs go off and heard gunshots, already had the vehicle running and high tailed it out of there after everyone got in.

Looking back in her rear view mirror, she noticed a van following them. The man who she saw surveilling the building earlier was behind the wheel. Sabine stepped on it and made a series of sharp turns to lose him.


The Drop Off

The team dropped the forgeries off at the evidence warehouse without a problem and went on to their other, temporary warehouse to switch vehicles and load up the real artwork.

Alana and Sabine thoroughly cleaned all the noticeable evidence, and Dimitry suggested throwing a last minute rave to help mask any remaining evidence. Gunther made a quick call to one of his contacts and managed to organize a rave for that same night.

Before they left, Alana opened the violin case (one of the suspicious works that they stole) and took a quick peak at its contents. She saw an ordinary violin made out of a strange material and a bow made out of some sort of dark wood. She also noticed sheet music but didn't have enough time to take a thorough look.


En Route to Stockholm

The plan was to drive all the way to make the delivery. The team would spend a night in Denmark before heading to Sweden.

Fortunately, Gunther had a wealthy contact in Copenhagen named Alexander Barren Zeeland who had a palatial estate for the entire team to stay in. He even had extra dinner reservations at the Noma since his guests didn't show up, and the team celebrated their victorious heist in the world's best restaurant. 

Source: http://tinyurl.com/p9ztteq.
Images used without permission.

Once they returned to the palatial estate, Gunther examined the violin, bow, and sheet music with greater detail. Alana noticed identifying marks on the violin that read, "E. Zann." The sheet music was labeled #23 and #27 with a modernist composition that made no sense.

Gunther felt compelled to tune the violin and play it. As he did, it emitted a horrible, shrieking sound, and every electrical device inside the estate suddenly turned on.

A news report on the TV showed the Justizpalast on fire with half of the building missing. At least two were reported dead as a result of the terrorist attack, and the masked men were shown as prime suspects.

Gunther continued to play nonstop, obsessed with reproducing hi-fi sounds like an audiophile. Sabine became paranoid and thought they were all being watched. Alana ended up worse than everyone after nearly being blinded by the lights when they turned on. She saw globs forming in the sky, through the roof, and witnessed frightening, dark forms in the corners of her eyes. The hallucinations grew worse, and she ran around in circles, freaking out that they were being followed. Dimitry was unaffected; he just couldn't stand the awful noise, so he snatched the violin away from Gunther, and most of the strangeness subsided.


An Abandoned Amusement Park

Sabine drove the team to Stockholm, and they had a free night before their delivery date to recuperate and scope out the Gröna Lund.

Alana still felt lingering effects of the hallucinations/paranoia but took the lead in investigating the amusement park. She found out it had been shut down for at least a year. A few security guards still lingered there for some reason, but Alana avoided them and found a perfect place to sneak a car in.

Through his contacts, Gunther found out that the Gröna Lund was bought out a few years ago.

Sabine planned various escape routes by driving around and prepared a car in the spot Alana found for their getaway, once they delivered the artwork, in case there was trouble.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/prlzmne; Credit: Daniel Scholten.
Image used without permission.

Rendezvous With Monsieur Blanc

The next day, the team ventured to the abandoned, amusement park together and met up with Monsieur Blanc who was waiting for them.

As he led them into the House of Mirrors, he asked what happened at the Justizpalast, and they answered him honestly, describing all the details.


The Delivery

Inside the House of Mirrors, Monsieur Blanc led the team to a strange room with a banquet table, a stove, and a propane tank (similar to a Hibachi grill). A morbidly obese man in his seventies, wearing a gray suit, sat at the table, eating, while a pretty woman with long sleeves stood and prepared his food.

The obese man spoke to Sabine and asks for the details of the heist, but she refused. It was safer for both parties to leave the details out of it. He was disappointed with the lack of subtly, referring to the terrorist attack, but Sabine said it was actually better for them - less heat and all that. She asked to see the money, and the man waved a hand for Blanc to fetch it.

Gunther didn't recognize the obese man. He had a slight American accent but spoke perfect, fluid German.

Blanc returned with a briefcase of money, and Sabine took it all out and dropped it into a duffel bag that she brought. She then handed over the crate.

The obese man glanced at the artwork and looked satisfied. He opened the violin case, checked its contents, and looked even more pleased. He drew the violin, licked its strings, and continued eating from his plate. By that point, everyone noticed he wasn't actually eating food but chewing on tiny pieces of cooked, Degas canvas plucked with toothpicks. As they gave each other horrified looks, he calmly drew his watch and said that the police would be there in roughly forty-four seconds.

Still somewhat hallucinating, Alana saw eldritch forms rise from the man and nearly had a heart attack after seeing him devour a cut-up Degas. Her rage overtook her fear, and she slapped him across the face. The man smiled, nodded politely, and slowly got up to leave after bidding everyone adieu. 

A mirror door opened up, revealing a man with a machine gun. Fate was on Alana's side, for she vanished from sight using the mirrors and hid herself well. Gunther ran and managed to escape in time. Dimitry nearly stumbled but escaped as well. Sabine grabbed the duffel bag and followed suit.

While officers and federal agents stormed the House of Mirrors, Alana masterfully led her team outside in a covert fashion. They got into their vehicle with plenty of time to spare, and Sabine quietly drove off to safety.

No one ever really knew what that strange violin was made out of or why the morbidly obese man wanted such a damned thing, but they didn't care. The job was done, everyone was alive, no one got caught, and they were paid in full. The 20,000,000 € was split six-way, and everyone got their cut before going their separate ways.

Monsieur Blanc was right after all; this truly was their greatest heist.


Epilogue

Sabine filled out an official report on the morbidly obese man and handed it to her superiors after returning to her office at the precinct. It turned out she was an undercover cop the entire time.

Dimitry used his share of the money to open up a strip club.

Alana spent several months vacationing with Gunther and selling one of her Picassos to him. After a while, she grew bored and began planning another heist to steal some art from his collection. 

Shadow probably used his cut to update his equipment and/or create even more chaos in the world as usual.

No one knows what happened to Sir Mordred except that he was even wealthier than before. Truth be told, it probably wasn't the last time they would see him. 

Why, he could be in the process of contacting them again right now.

Fin

AP (FC) - The Gurlitt Heist Part I

Two Thursdays ago, while all the cool kids were at Dreamation, I stopped by the FLGS for game night. I knew many people were going to be away for the con and wasn't sure if game night was going to happen. Surprisingly, there were seven of us in attendance, so we unanimously decided to play a Fate heist game that someone pitched. I was extremely excited, because I had only played FAE once before and hadn't tried Fate Core yet. Finally, I had my chance.

We played through most of the planning stages of the heist, but the actual job took place the next session (last Thursday). The story was a lot of fun, and I knew from the get-go that I'd thoroughly enjoy the system. Fate is one more game I can add to my #51in15 list and falls under #10 of my Gamer's Resolutions for this year. I also got the opportunity to use my fudge dice in a live game for once, so that was really exciting as well.

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Premise

Cornelius Gurlitt, son of the Nazi-era art dealer, Hildebrand Gurlitt, had been selling his father's collection of artwork from Switzerland for many years. Cornelius Gurlitt claimed his father had obtained the artwork legally, many of which were seized from Jewish owners during the Nazi-era, though at least 240 of the 1,280 works are now known to have been stolen or looted. Many more works were discovered at a Munich flat owned by Cornelius Gurlitt and had since been relocated. They were being logged as evidence and kept at the Justizpalast in Munich. Many of the original owners died in Auschwitz, and a significant number of paintings were to be handed over to the Museum of Fine Arts Bern in Switzerland, who Gurlitt named as his sole heir. He recently passed away.

Our characters assembled to take on a high-paying job stealing some of those stolen artwork for an unknown client. They didn't know what the job was going to be, where it was taking place, or how much they were getting paid, but they were told it was going to be their biggest score yet. 

The Face sent out messages to assemble the team. The Thief spotted a clandestine message behind a stolen painting during her last heist. The Driver received an encrypted phone call. The Hacker saw the message as it displayed across digital billboards all over Times Square. The Hitter was approached by a group of men while drinking at a bar. He was about to beat them up but stopped once he heard their message. 

Once the team was assembled, they made plans to meet their employer in a cafe in Paris. The last member of the team, the Expert, joined them a little bit later in the story.

This article serves as the inspiration for the story.

Cast

Sir Mordred, the Face

Alana Corvid, the Thief (played by me)

Sabine Becker, the Driver

Shadow Sa7an, the Hacker

Bloody Dimitry Mandelov, the Hitter

Gunther Wagner, the Expert

Source: http://tinyurl.com/lvlk7rn. Credit: Leonid Afremov
Image used without permission.

The Gurlitt Heist

Part I

Taking On the Job

2015. It was a cold, dreary day in Paris, France. The clouds were dark, the skies were gray and there was a torrential downpour, as every member of the team made their way to the designated cafe to meet Monsieur Blanc, their employer.

Sir Mordred was a tall, handsome, middle-aged man of status, refinement, and wealth. He wore an expensive suit and carried an umbrella, as he walked from his nearby, five-star hotel to the restaurant.

Alana Corvid was a petite, lithe brunette in her late twenties with brown eyes and curled hair bound back in a pony tail. She wore tight jeans, knee-high boots, and a light gray raincoat, as she got out of a taxi which pulled up next to the cafe.

Sabine Becker was a slightly older, taller, athletic woman with light brown hair that was also pulled back in a ponytail. She wore jeans, boots, and a different colored raincoat. She had her own transportation and parked her vehicle next to the cafe before getting out.

Shadow Sa7an and Bloody Dimitry Mandelov both took the subway, though not necessarily together. Shadow was a nondescript individual who often wore anarchist shirts, while Dimitry was tall, bulky, and sported many tattoos with a recognizable mug that was wanted by Interpol. 

Monsieur Blanc was the only person in the cafe sitting outside in the pouring rain, sans umbrella. He calmly drank from his glass, as the rain splashed onto his plate and dripped down his face and suit.

The team met up around him, and Sir Mordred scoffed and said he would get them a table inside like a civilized person. Alana was eager to join him. Bloody Dimitry was wary about insulting their employer and made a comment, but everyone, including Monsieur Blanc, agreed to migrate inside where they found a quiet table far enough from any prying ears.

"So what is this job?" Sir Mordred asked.

Monsieur Blanc explained that his client had requested certain pieces from the Gurlitt collection that were being held as evidence at the Justizpalast in Munich. He said a lot of people have been coming into the Justizpalast, claiming that the art belonged to them and feeling guilty about what happened. Blanc also explained that his employer wanted them to steal the exact pieces he requested, no more no less, so as not to cause any suspicion. The job would pay an upward of up to twenty million Euros if carried out as requested. A percentage would be deducted for any work they were not able to retrieve and if they aroused suspicion.

Alana, who was a greedy, art thief and immensely interested from the start, asked which pieces the client wanted, but Blanc said he'd only tell them if they accepted the job. He assured them that the sum they would be paid was a whole lot more than what the works were worth if sold.

The group quietly talked it over and came to a consensus. They accepted the job. 

Monsieur Blanc nodded and gave them a list of the artwork which included paintings, etchings, statuettes, and a violin case. Once again, Blanc stressed the importance of delivering all the artwork, no more no less, and that all the contents in the violin case had to be there. Sir Mordred noticed Blanc particularly stressed that last part.

Alana asked what other valuable pieces were being held at the Justizpalast, and Blanc casually mentioned a couple of Picassos that were extremely valuable, amongst other catalogued and uncatalogued pieces.

He gave them an address to go to once they had their plan set. It was the residence of someone named Monsieur Lindback. They were to go there and place a call to Blanc, where they would further work out details on where they'd deliver the works after completing the heist.


Onward to Munich

At this point, a sixth player joined us and created a character that we naturally fit into the story.

Sir Mordred wanted to fly to Munich, and Alana was more than willing to take a plane instead of drive. Shadow decided to fly with them as well and used his hacking skills to procure them plane tickets.

Sir Mordred also mentioned that he had a contact in Munich named Gunther Wagner who was an art collector and entrepreneur. Sir Mordred placed a call to Gunther, using code words to hint at the fact that they were getting ready to do a job, and asked if he could meet them in Munich.

Sabine drove her car, and Bloody Dimitry went with her. He wanted to guzzle a bottle of vodka whilst in the car, but Sabine wouldn't let him. She said he could keep the bottle in the trunk and drink as much as he wanted to when they'd stop for gas, but Dimitry couldn't drink while they were driving. Dimitry was disappointed but obliged, and the two of them drove from Paris to Munich.

Sir Mordred, Alana, and Shadow were the first to arrive. Gunther met them at the airport and was instantly struck by Alana's beauty. He invited them all to his restaurant, where Sir Mordred filled him in on the details of the job.

Gunther called one of his contacts at the Justizpalast and learned that the art pieces were being held in evidence lockers on the third floor. Furthermore, there was an offsite warehouse that the Munich police also used to hold evidence. Sir Mordred, Alana, Shadow, and Gunther started talking about a plan to get the target art pieces into a delivery van and steal it. Gunther suggested using a terrorist threat which would put the police on high alert and force them to move all the artwork from the Justizpalast to the offsite warehouse. Then, they'd hijack one of the vehicles with Sabine as its driver and drive off with the stolen works. There'd be no suspicion, because all the artwork would be moved out of the Justizpalast, and one of the vehicles would simply, "become lost," in all of the chaos. However, there were major flaws with the plan which Sabine would later point out.

She and Bloody Dimitry were still en route to Munich.


Hijinks at the Horse Races and a Gallery Date

Given that they had some downtime, Gunther invited his guests to go visit the horserace tracks, after Sir Mordred brought it up. He had quite a bit of a gambling problem and wanted to go for personal reasons, but he thought he would use the opportunity to gather any rumors he could from the wealthy patrons there. Gunther knew some of those people and gave Sir Mordred a list of their names and descriptions. Sir Mordred invited Shadow along as well, hoping the hacker could work his magic to rig the races. He invited Alana too, but she declined and said she'd rather spend the evening with Gunther having dinner and taking a private tour of his art gallery.

At the race track, Sir Mordred gambled on horses and collected whatever information he could find. Shadow focused on his hacking, but instead of rigging the races, he changed all the horses' names to obscenities and reference to neo-Nazis and mongrels. Shadow was a compulsive anarchist at heart and couldn't help himself. He had to generate chaos. 

Meanwhile, Sabine and Dimitry finally arrived in Munich, and the entire team met up the next day to begin planning the heist.


The Plan

After hearing Gunther's plan about using a terrorist threat to force the police to move the artwork out of the Justizpalast, Sabine pointed several, key flaws: they didn't know which evidence lockers the works they were to steal were being kept, there wasn't a 100% guarantee that all those works would end up in the same delivery van, and a terrorist threat would actually raise more red flags and cause more suspicion.

Instead, Sabine suggested a much subtler plan. They could forge papers to request a transfer of evidence from the Justizpalast to the offsite warehouse. They would need to figure out where the evidence lockers were on the third floor, which locker(s) the artwork was being kept in, store all the artwork together in a separate container, make forgeries of the pieces to transfer to the warehouse, disguise themselves as police officers and go in during office hours to carry out the transfer, drive to the warehouse and deliver the forgeries, take the real artwork to a separate warehouse and switch vehicles, deliver the pieces to their client upon setting up a time/place for the final drop off, collect their cash, and complete the job.

Source: Wikipedia. Credit: Nino Barbieri
Image used without permission.

Preparations (1/2)

Wearing civilian attire, Sir Mordred and Alana visited the third floor of the Justizpalast as though they had claims on some of the artwork being held there or were bringing the police information about other, uncatalogued works.

While Sir Mordred talked to one of the guards, Alana saw another guard entering the evidence locker after being buzzed in. Inside, she saw a third guard sitting at a desk, going over paperwork, which evidently had to do with a plethora of uncatalogued pieces they were trying to log into the system.

Meanwhile, back at Gunther's estate, Shadow gained server access to the Justizpalast to be able to control the cameras and assist with the reconnaissance work. The artwork they were after hadn't officially been logged yet, but they were definitely being held somewhere in the evidence room. Shadow also set up a tracking device for Alana to plant onto one of the pieces the second time around at Sabine's behest.

Outside, Dimitry took a lonely stroll through the streets of Munich and decided to cause chaos of his own to rile up the local police. He spray painted all sorts of obscenities and Nazi symbols in order to get police to notice him (despite being wanted by Interpol). When they pulled up to stop and arrest him, Dimitry assaulted them all and ran off.


Preparations (2/2)

Now that they knew where the artwork was, they still needed to figure out which evidence locker(s) they were being kept in. Ideally, they wanted to consolidate the artwork into one container to make the transfer easier and even less suspicious. 

Gunther acquired police uniforms, and Sir Mordred and Alana revisited the third floor of the Justizpalast, disguised as officers, to enter the evidence room and perform the necessary tasks.

Sir Mordred brought fake paperwork with him to distract the guard outside as well as the desk clerk inside, while Alana snuck into the room and began searching through the files that the clerk had been mulling over. After a bit of time searching, Alana found the art pieces they were looking for and the two Picassos she had her heart set on; they were scattered between three, different crates. She gathered up all the pieces, including the Picassos, and moved them to a different container before the desk clerk came back. Alana made sure to mark the container, and she also placed the tracking device Shadow gave her onto one of the pieces.

Gunther took some time researching Monsieur Blanc and found out quite a few interesting things. Blanc had recently been seen at Action for Deutschland meetings and was previously in Kiev talking to the Organizatsiya. He was a well-connected man and mainly operated out of Sweden. Many in the team became highly suspicious of him, especially Sir Mordred.

Sabine was tasked with acquiring forgeries of the artwork (she knew people who could create them for her), including the two Picassos which Alana specifically requested. After finding out what Gunther learned about Monsieur Blanc, Sir Mordred wanted Sabine to get two sets of forgeries. After dropping the first set off at the warehouse, he wanted to con their employer with the other set and keep the real artwork. Sabine was against it. Sir Mordred didn't trust Blanc's client and urged her to change her mind, but Sabine didn't give in and flat-out refused. Sir Mordred then tried to figure out why she was so adamant about going through with the original plan, but he couldn't get a read on Sabine.


Making the Call

Sir Mordred, Alana, Shadow, and Gunther all stayed back, while Sabine drove Bloody Dimitry to Monsieur Lindback's apartment - the address where they were to place the call from to Monsieur Blanc.

The first thing Dimitry noticed after getting out was a dumpster filled with heaps of newspapers that were missing the financial sections. When he got to the apartment itself, there was police tape plastered in front. He informed the rest of the team but decided to proceed anyway.

Back at Gunther's, Shadow quickly searched for information and found out that Monsieur Lindback was recently murdered via a home invasion.

Inside the apartment, Dimitry discovered decades of financial journalism with blood stains all over the place and an antique, rotary phone with a random, direct line leading out of the building.

Dimitry picked up the phone, and it automatically dialed in. He heard three dial tones followed by Monsieur Blanc's voice who asked if they had a date set for the job. Dimitry said, "Friday the 12th," and Blanc told him that they were to deliver the artwork Sunday the 14th at the Gröna Lund in Stockholm.

The call ended, and Dimitry hung up. He and the rest of the team weren't sure if they were being set up or not, but they had officially committed to the job and had no choice but to go through with it.

End of Part I