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***Worm London***

WORM LONDON RPG​

Welcome to London, 2009. The city, heart and home of the UK, is beset on all sides by the cruel, the heartless and the wicked. None of these more so than the villainous capes that lurk in the shadows and strike at the unwary. The Invokers, the Gooners, the Knights of the Apocalypse. Each of these and more are ready and willing to fight for greater and greater power, chipping away at every weakness the city has.

But never fear! There are those that stand against the villains both powered and not. The Suits, whose ranks stretch across the nation, stand strong and proud against these criminals. They are not the only ones, though they are the most numerable. Vigilantes have taken up the cause of the just as the villains claim the lands and people of the city of London, protecting those who cannot protect themselves.

The city triumphs over all. Endbringers have made their mark on it. S-Class threats have come and gone. The villains have won and lost. The heroes have weakened and been rejuvenated. The city still stands.

You are capes newly introduced to the city, your name not yet written in the history of this land. Whether you become known as a saint or a sinner, it is up to you to leave your mark on the streets of London Town.

***Worm London***​

You all stand around a table in your hideout; a small house in the East End of London. On it is a blueprint detailing the layout of the Thinker's Theatre Casino. It is a small, but exclusive place ran by a man called Armando Giolitti that caters to those with a desire for high stakes gambling in a secure environment.

With a little charisma and a lot of money you have been able to acquire the plans for the building, including those that lead down to the vault. It is well known that the Thinker's Theatre has a large vault with top of the line security guarding it. You've chosen to crack it for precisely this reason.

Casino Map

It's up to you to decide how you want to do this. Your planning session starts now.

 

Good news everybody, my contact finally sent me the floor plans that we hadn't already mapped, and well, it's pretty much what we were expecting. Fucktons of cameras and other alarms, as well as some other fun surprises. As such, I've been able to come up with a basic plan for what we should do. The way I see it, we should play to our strengths, specifically, the fact that we can just bypass most of the defences that this place has using just Fissure and myself.

We set up inside a building a block or so away from the casino and then all we have to do is have Fissure tunnel downwards and to the vault. I know that you can't effect metals, and as such, they'll be my responsibility. It shouldn't take us long to make our way to the vault floor, and that's where thing get interesting. Odds are they've got pressure sensors on the floors or some other bullshit, so we can't just blast our way through. buuuuuut if we make a tiny hole for me to slip through, then I can empty the vault through it.

Thing is though, nothing in life is ever easy, so odds are shit will go wrong, and that's why we'll have Zephyr and Dynamo ready to intercept any capes that they send after us if we set off an alarm. At the same time we'll have Rosetta setting up another distraction, it shouldn't be too hard for you to goad The Gooners into starting a riot or something.

Anything you guys want to add?

 

Getting in the front door isn't the problem. More than half of us have the abilities to do that. It's doing it without being detected that I forsee being a problem.

Think about this place. It's high stakes, and the higher stakes things are, the more likely people are to try and cheat. However sneaky our Mover abilities are, I doubt they're going to be wowed by them.

For instance, Wisp is invisible to the naked eye in gaseous form, sure. But does he have a heat signature? If they don't have IR cameras, it's only because they have something even better. And that's assuming they won't notice the large, coordinated movement of air somehow, which, with a name like the Thinker's Theatre, I'm not about to write off.

Our powers aren't going to make this easy. They're going to make this possible. It's important we don't get cocky.

That said and done, let's talk about the path of least resistance, and the goal. The vault.

The Path: The vault is in the basement. Any possible way we can bypass the main floor and the ordeal of finding a plausible way into the lift behind the cashier is ideal. Since we have Wisp, that's any sort of ventilation the basement has. Air conditioning, heating, etcetera. If they have any sort of countermeasures against gas attacks, we can use those against them, since portable oxygen containers need recharging from somewhere, and has to be resupplied sometime.

From there, as soon as we get anyone on the basement level, we want to take the security center. The exact security of the vault and entire premises is the biggest unknown factor here, and the most likely to fuck us. This is a high class establishment, and we should expect them to spare no expense. Other capes on the casino's payroll isn't just possible - it should be considered a certainty. With the security center in our hands, at least, we should have a bird's eye glimpse of what they have.

Unless they have countermeasures against molecular light, I can teleport in once you get me a definitive rally point. I can also teleport the rest of the team a shorter distance, but I'd rather save that sort of charge for the vault, since I can also use the short teleport to transport any loot out with a tracker on it. The problem is the vault.

The Vault: The scariest thing isn't how to get in. It's what sort of countermeasures they might have on the inside. After all, we know it can be entered. It's what might be waiting on the inside that I'd say might be our biggest risk factor. Containment foam, tinker creations, even a close quarters cape isn't off the table. Focus should be on getting whatever knowledge we can about what the vault holds, and then on how we go about getting in.

I'm open to suggestions on that front. Don't count on security, staff or any of the managers being especially interrogable or bribable - if I were Giolitti, the bonuses for reporting that sort of thing would be exponential to the offered amount at minimum, and information is bound to be compartmentalized.

 

I agree that the biggest problem is to try to delay being found as long as possible, and that's why I think we need to think outside the casino and go in from underneath. Although targeting the security centre first is actually a pretty interesting idea, odds are they wont be watching the watchers, and if we detour by there first, we may be able to disable some nasty surprises. And as for any other defences in the vault, unless they plan to set it on fire, it's not going to bother me.

To be fair though, they COULD have some sort of sensors monitoring an underground approach, but Fissure should be able to detect them from a distance and we should be able to work around them, worst come to worst though, I'll just continue the tunnel by myself but make it so thin they wont be able to feel me coming.

 

I agree with the plan about tunneling in from a nearby location. I know the area - I can even think of a great starting point where pipes don't intersect too tightly. It's easy enough to create a stable tunnel to collapse behind ourselves. In fact, I'd actually propose that I spend a day or in the casino to scout the area and map out patrol routes and sensors. I doubt the whole guard unit spends their time in full metal suits without a scrap of cloth on them, and that their sensors are all tinker-made solid metal.

For the actual heist, Rosetta should be in the casino itself. He should make a killing at the poker tables, anyway. Watch the guards, and if you see them go on alert, make your excuses and give us warning. The riot idea might work, but I doubt we really want the Gooners hitting the front - Construct could probably break into the vault in less than a minute. Worst case scenario, we hold them off from entering the vault until I can seal off the entrance with concrete. In fact...

I have another idea - We try the tunneling plan but to the security office a week or so before, and send Wisp in to examine the plans. I doubt the security office is walled with metal, so the two of us can pull this off by ourselves. The office itself is likely to be the most poorly guarded area, especially for sensors, so we can sneak in and examine their security plans, patrols, so on. It's right next to the Manager's office, so if we do this at the right time, we can get in there and check their employment records - See if there're any capes on their roster.

If we do it stealthily enough, we won't give them any indication that we're going to hit them.

 

I actually thought about sending in Rosetta by himself, but here's the thing though right, these guys are used to dealing with Thinkers, and having somebody suspicious turn up at the same time that they get robbed is probably going to set off alarms. The way I see it, we're better off having him set up a distraction, not only because of the fact that it'll distract the Suits, but if we're able to get them close the casino, it may distract them as well. Plus it'll make it easier for us to shift the blame over to them.

Also, as for doing this in multiple goes, odds are something will go wrong. It's a simple fact of life that shit goes wrong, and well, tunnelling may work once, but I wont guarantee that it'll work a second time. There's also the fact that if we go in once to look over their patrol info and security shit, we'll leave proof that we were there, so they'll change shit up and increase security. So instead of going in with no information, we'll be going in with wrong information against security that knows we're coming and that we have a way around their normal shit.

 

True. I still think I should go in with Rosetta a few days before to scout out the area. He can play the card shark, with me being the hopeless-at-cards friend he's trying to teach. How's that part of the plan sound?

 

I might go in instead of Rosetta actually, I've uh... Got a bit of an eye for noticing details that might help with this, lets just say it's from years of practice and leave it at that kay? Also, like I said before, we don't want to draw attention to ourselves by sending in a Thinker, that shit sets off warning bells and all that. In all honesty I don't really need to case the place, but well, having extra information is never a bad thing and it can't hurt to get a look at the security. There's also the fact that Dynamo and Zephyr will probably end up having to fight around the place, so if I can scout it out for anything useful then it couldn't hurt.

And as for how we'll act in there, we don't need to draw attention to ourselves like that, we can just be two normal guys who just want to fuck around and waste some money. I for one intend to spend most of my time at the bar, to blend in and shit.

 

I concur, places like this are bound to have some sort of protection against Thinkers, maybe their own Thinker or Tinker creation to detect any one by cheating the system using any kind of powers. If they weren't, we wouldn't have to take this seriously.

It is important that whoever enters that place, shouldn't draw any attention to themselves. So, winning large stacks of money is not exactly a good way to do that. Similarly, trying way too hard to not be noticed at all can be just as suspicious, so, I guess there has to be a solid middle ground.

I can ask around a bit, I did have clients who frequented places like this, gambling is a language that is spoken in almost any culture, so, I could try to get some more information about this. Of course, one of us going in themselves is more valuable.

What kind of distraction were you guys thinking? Depending on what we find out, we could try to set the suits on this place and try to get away while they are busy with the casino, but I don't have to say how risky that would be.

 

Well, what I was thinking is that you try to start something between The Gooners and The Suits, if you're lucky you may even be able to set things of on The Invokers side of town, just to make things even crazier if they get involved. The idea isn't to bring them near the casino, but to force everybody to pay attention to the fuckery on the other side of the city, meaning that they wont send the big names after us if we get noticed.

None of this extra planning is needed, it's just that if I have to choose between having too much info and going in blind, I know what I'm picking.

 

Don't think that is a good idea, to be honest. While it is not impossible, the risk of getting on everybody's shitlist for inciting a battle royal among most of the big powers in the city for a diversion that would only do us any good if it turned into a battle spanning blocks doesn't seem to be a risk worth taking.

I would rather have a distraction nearby to make the security of the casino more lax. A cape battle between the big names on the other side of the town isn't going to do much on that front. Casualties would be high as well, making us that much more hated if it comes out that we did this.

Seems a lot of risk for a relatively uncertain gain.

 

Ehhh, thing is though, The Gooners do this kind of shit all the time, it's kinda their thing to start shit on a regular basis without a reason, and we don't really need a big cape fight, just something that keeps the Suits distracted, hell, odds are it'll just be a few drunks causing shit with one or two capes turning up with them. And well, if you do your job right, nobody will even be able to trace it to you, although it probably wouldn't matter all that much if they did, because like I said, all you'll be doing is making sure that they cause shit on a specific say instead of a different one.

And as for having a distraction near the casino... That's kinda the exact opposite of what we want to do, since it'll put casino security on high alert for them and they might occidentally notice our job, and the Suits might send some capes our way, which is what we're trying to avoid.

 

Inciting a fight would be great if we could actually utilize it, but I honestly think that if we get detected, our best bet is to withdraw as fast as possible with whatever we have, not to fight for more. I don't think the Suits would react fast enough, and they have enough teams in London right now handle multiple fights.

 

That's the thing, the whole point of this is to reduce the chances of us needing to fight in the first place. For every cape that's busy dealing with the fight, that's one less that can be sent after us, and like I said, I don't plan on us doing any fighting unless something goes really wrong. But if it does, Zephyr, Dynamo and you will be able to delay them whilst I grab the loot from the vault, and once I get it into the tunnel, you can move it somewhere safe.

Because here's the key part to all of this, based on what I know about the Suits, the only one that can actually get to us whilst we're underground MIGHT be the King of Coins, and in all honesty I don't know enough about the details about his powers, but I trust that you'll be able to stop most of what he sends at us.

 

Fissure, if you get in range, can you tell me what the composition of the connecting hallway to the vault is, as well as scan the vault itself for what parts of it aren't metal? I have a few ideas, and scanning the vault and basement should give us some idea of the kind of static defenses we're up against without revealing ourselves.

 

We might want to get into the security center first. I would guess that we'd be able to disable any defences in the Vault, with "proper" authorization first. Odds are, it doesn't have quite the same array of defences as the vault itself as well.

On a similar note, I'm a teleporter. Getting into or out of any of those rooms isn't a problem, and I can take things with me, like, say, an empty bag that somehow ends up filled with money. Or a person. Or all of you, one by one.

As far as distractions go, as long as they don't come back to bite us too hard in the future, I'm all for it. Inciting a knock-down, drag-out brawl will have unpredictable results, so it'll have to be done carefully.

 

Fissure should be able to do the scan from outside the building, even from a respectable distance away. I was proposing having him focus his senses on the basement and vault to see what he can discern, as well as pick up anything hidden - the rubber and plastic of any wires in the wall, whether the walls of the basement are concrete or plaster, and how thick.

If his senses are able to penetrate the presumably metal walls of the vault, it could also tell us what exactly we're talking about in terms of a haul - cash, precious gems; if he can't sense it, we're talking precious metals, likely gold. All important knowledge to know if we're thinking about transport.

What I'm proposing is a little opening recon. Get Fissure within range and have him do a more in-depth look at the basement and vault from the outside. If he's comfortable with doing it in plainclothes or disguise, we can do it right out in the street. We have multiple teleporters who can be there instantly if anyone somehow detects him.

Remember, all we have right now is the rough building plan. Let's get a little more intel before formulating a plan of attack.

On the subject of plans of attack, if we do start some sort of commotion, civilian non-capes stay out of it. That's non-negotiable. Private security are paid to do it, gangers generally choose their own lot and capes sign up for it when they put on a costume, but I won't support any operation that incorporates purposefully injuring innocent bystanders. I'm not a terrorist, and I won't be party to anyone who is. That's a short road to a kind of legal heat I don't want following me.

 

Of course I can tell the composition of whatever is in the vault. I can do it from inside the casino, from the street - It's certainly not so far down I can't sense it.

 

Dynamo, I've got no problems with leaving civilians alone, hell, that's one of the main benefits of going in from underneath, we completely bypass them and go straight for the loot, and if we do it right, there's no risk to them at all. And as for getting the loot out, like I said, I'm the best suited for that because well, quick quiz guys.

Who here has the ability to turn invisible? Who here has the ability to not only make their way through the smallest of openings into a secure space, but the ability to break their way through any substance AND also fix it on the way out, leaving fuck all evidence? Who here has the ability to carry a fuckton of weight, and then also move it through the previously mentioned small opening? Who here has the ability to be immune to pretty much all forms of attack, and in the event that there's something that can effect them, heal at an enhanced rate?

And to top it all off, who here has the ability to do all of those things, and also has experience with shit like that? Hint, it's me.

Now, I don't mean to say that you guys will be useless for this, fuck no, there's a reason why I not only went out of my way to make this team, but the fact that I didn't try to do it by myself. Because the most important part of this heist isn't actually getting to the loot, it's getting away afterwards. And that's where you guys come in.

Rosetta, by making a distraction, either by tricking them or just by bribing them, you'll reduce the Suit's response to us, both by reducing the number of capes that they can send after us, and by increasing their response time. Fissure, you're the one that'll be providing the detailed info that we need about the Casino, plus there's the fact that once I get the loot out of the vault and into the tunnel, it's your job to move it somewhere safe. I have a limit to how much I can carry, whilst you can just make the ground under the loot move it for us. Plus there's the fact that you'll be providing vital support to Zephyr and Dynamo in the event of capes turning up.

Speaking of which, Dynamo, firstly I'll be needing your help to go over the info that Fissure will be giving us about the Vault and other security shit. I'm pretty awesome at noticing normal security bullshit, but well, odds are they've got some sort of tinker fuckery going on and you'll recognise that shit better than I will. Plus there's the fact that you're simply better suited for combat against any capes that they send after us, you've got more than a few tricks prepared.

And as for Zephyr, you'll be working with Dynamo on defence, you've worked with the Suits before, so you should have a rough idea on what they can do, plus there's the fact that they'll be more likely to want to talk instead of fighting if you're lucky. Plus there's the simple fact that well, you're stupidly mobile and you can keep them distracted for as long as we need to get the loot out.

There's also the fact that both of you have the ability to get out of the fight quickly once we've got the loot secured, which is pretty important since we kinda don't want to lead them back here.

 

Well, Wisp has a point, I suppose. I spend a few days scouting with him - we figure out their patrol routes, sensors, everything. Anyone not in a standard uniform inside the Security Office I think I can presume to be a cape and/or management, though any capes may pass their time in the rec. room. We get our intel, and maybe modify our plan from there. Our basic strategy, however, should be to set up a distraction across town, tunnel in from that designated-for-demolition apartment block I mentioned earlier, and stick to the plan where Wisp steals all the loot for us. If there's anything we need to modify after our surveillance, we can do it then. No point going through the theory right now when we can have some solid data on our hands in a few days.