Play@YSDC

OOC:   Getting there
By Plane
Tirana International Airport (also known as Mother Teresa airport) is located 25 km north-west of Tirana. However, Al Italia, Austrian, British Airways, Lufthansa, Olympic (Greece), KLM (Holland) as well as the flag carriers of Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia all have flights to Albania. Taxis can take you to and from the airport. An hourly bus service (6am-6pm) runs between the Airport and the centre of Tirana.
By Car
It is possible to drive into Albania from Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia or Greece. You will need all the proper documentation, insurance and possibly a visa though regulations have become more relaxed.
By Bus
Bus services link Tirana to Tetovo (Macedonia), Prishtina (Kosovo), Athens (Greece), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Istanbul (Turkey). Prishtina, is 10 hours away, Sofia 17, the coaches vary in quality, but are generally OK.
By Boat
Those who prefer to travel by sea will find regular ferry crossings link Italy and the Greek island of Corfu with Albania, these ferries travel to and from Durrës, Vlora, Shen Gjini on a daily basis. In addition there are daily hydrofoils between Corfu and Saranda in Albania.  

OOC:   Unless there are strenuous objections I'm going to narrate the journey to Albania rather than RP it, but I would like to know your preferred method of getting there.  

OOC:   Albert has created new id's and credit cards so we should be able to fly there quite easily  

OOC:   I'd opt for flying direct, or flying to Italy and getting a ferry over.  

OOC:   agree, either fly there, or fly and ferry.  

OOC:   CASH, immediate travel costs aside, both Albert and Greg point out that drawing or paying for items with credit cards abroad is risky and can result in the cards being blocked (I speak from bitter experience) The easiest thing might be to draw the maximum amount of cash using the cards however this involves risk as well as drawing large quantities of cash may also be flagged as unusual and thus resulting in the cards being blocked.

Albert and Greg suggest the best way to draw cash on the cards would be to draw the maximum amount of cash at 10 to Midnight and then as soon as the new day starts to repeat the process this would give you a working lump of cash of roughly £5000, you can try for more, but risk losing one or more cards.  

OOC:   If you ring him what are you going to tell him?  

OOC:   Things to consider:

We should be as 'up front' as possible... let him know that Gossham is dead (murdered) and we have his research and need to find Demanchi (sp?) - We can elaborate later (the investigation, etc.) I don't think we should keep up with the 'tv crew' angle - we'd be expected to get permits (or ask about them). We ought to try and keep things as simple as possible... With that in mind we should also have in mind some 'goals' that we want to achieve....

1) Get help from the fixer
2) Find Demanchi
3) .... Get more info about Gosshams research/findings in Albania and .... 'defeat the Verbetoi'?  

OOC:   We're going to need some more prep and planning... I hope Greg got a few more handsets and spare sim cards.
I'd suggest that we kind of split up into 3 groups... Liz and Jacob... Albert and Greg ... Andy and Clay - if we book into a hotel then it's 2 single rooms for the first pairing - and then each other group tries to get a 'twin room' on the same floor... in any case - everyone will bunk down in the twin rooms in case of unwelcome visitors.

A meeting with Avlonyali could be handled as per a spy movie.... Liz and Jacob in the hotel lobby, one other pair in there also with the other pair on 'overwatch' outside - would be easier to manage if we knew what Avlonyali looked like.

I'm not suggesting we split up the party... just that we operate as 3 pairings till we get a better feel of things.

Anyone else?  

OOC:   Royya remember, if you role play the conversation you may get bonuses to any persuade rolls or may negate the need for persuade rolls altogether. However, say the wrong thing and I wont care what you've rolled. If your worried about role playing it, that then just give me a rough idea of what Jacob is going to say and let the die fall where they will.  

OOC:   Consider phones and rooms acquired in a reasonable waterfront hotel. If you want to meet Alex Avlonyali in person you need to tell him where and when.  

OOC:   So... assuming we have a few hours to get prepared. The 'smart' thing to do is to arrange to meet at a different hotel... but we probably wouldn't have had time to sort that.

Jacob and Liz will set up in the lobby, grab a table and order 'tea and cakes' - I reckon they ought to do this 30 minutes before the agreed time.

We need to agree who will be covering the lobby and they need to be in position before this time - the 'outside team' can do 'sweeps' of the lobby before this just to get a feel of the place - Looking out for others hanging about etc.

The 'outside team need to be in a position to be looking for anyone else arriving as or after the meeting starts. Signalling that anything was suspicions by using the 'burner phones'.

We also ought to have an escape route planned... the 4 inside making their way out via a fire escape, to a hire car (which we'd need to get). The 2 outside hanging about for a few mins to see what happens then all heading to an agreed point.

Anything else?