DAY 3 – APRIL 20th 2000
N of PRASZKA, POLAND – MORNING
“Nice job Leonard, no, really. What’s the point in having a compass and a map?” says LED to himself while taking a knee next to a thick tree trunk protruding from the ground at an angle. He turns and signals the others to remain low and join him.
Partially hidden in the knee-high grass, he is at the edge of a forest, looking towards an open area. A four-lane highway stretches from his left to his right less than a hundred meters from his position; the asphalt partially reclaimed by nature, cracked and riddled with pot-holes, with a few rusty husks of cars and lorries scattered around, and the wreck of a bus that has been pushed to the side and then flipped on to the grassy ground. The baggage side compartment, now on the top, has been opened, indicating someone already went through it in search of anything useful.
On the other side of the highway the vegetation has all been consumed by fire for a large stretch. The ground is dark with ashes and the trees reduced to black stumps protruding from a sterile terrain. The sky has turned cloudy in the morning and LED has a moment to contemplate the scene before the rest of the group joins him.
“I thought we were avoiding the main roads” comments DONNA.
“We are, or at least we were until I decided to put myself in charge of navigating the countryside” says LED exhaling in frustration.
“You mean…”
“Yeah”
“So, we’re lost” says NASCAR.
“No, I know where we are. We’re just… we’re going the wrong way”
“Hold on, I thought you had my map” says ALEX with surprise.
“I do have your map, It’s just…”
“And you have a compass LT” interrupts NASCAR trying to scratch the side of his head under the helmet.
“I know” raises his voice LED “I f**ed up” he adds calmly.
“We’ve been walking for three hours… could have been worse” considers ALEX.
“We need to correct course and walk three more hours” says LED with his eyes on the ground in front of him.
“Okay, do we know where to go now?” asks DONNA.
LED raises his arm and moves it to his right.
“Good, I will take point” says ALEX moving away from the tree line.
“Please”
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
Wrong way: LED failed his SURVIVAL roll for navigation despite +1 for having a map and another +1 for having a compass; then he pushed the roll and failed again while also rolling a 1, so he gets 1 stress point.
The players went the wrong way in their first hex of movement. For their second hex, LED had 1 success on his roll, and they moved South along the Prosna river, as intended.
DAY 3 – APRIL 20th 2000
N of PRASZKA, POLAND – EVENING
LED screws the cap back on the last filled canteen and puts them away in the backpack he borrowed from DONNA. He immerges his hands into the cold water and splashes it on his face with pleasure.
When he moves for the camp, the sun is low in the western sky and the horizon is tinted with a layer of crimson. The morning clouds have dissipated and the sky has turned to a darker shade of blue.
LED stops by a rock formation when something catches his eye: there’s something – or someone – in the distance by a line of tall alders. He instinctively crouches by the closest mossy rock, takes a moment to look around and make sure everything is clear in all other directions, then takes his binoculars.
About 650 meters away are three men: two appear to be working on the carcass of a large animal while the third is sitting a few feet from them. LED observes the trio for a few minutes: judging by clothes and weapons he concludes they are civilians, and seen that they are hard at work, he concludes they are not expecting anybody else and want to be on their way by sunset. Also, the man sitting by himself seem to be coughing every now and then; he keeps his arms crossed on his chest and mostly stays hunched down, as if he is trying to conserve heath.
LED thinks briefly, then decides to risk approaching the hunters and, hopefully, barter for some meat from their large prey.
He moves towards the trio remaining in the open with his pistol holstered, and when he’s sure he’s been spotted he raises his hands showing he’s not a threat and slows his stride. The hunters let him get to about 20m before ordering him not to get any closer, just enough for LED to see their prey is a moose, and it is a plentiful bounty.
All three men are alerted: one is pointing a hunting rifle at him, the seconds still holds the bloody knife he was carving the carcass with, and the third is still seated, but has stretched one arm holding a pistol.
LED breaths, “czy mόwisz po angielsku?” he asks in his best Polish, hoping not to be butchering the words too much.
Two hunters turn to the one holding the knife. He steps in between LED and the carcass “yes”
Okay, it’s sink or swim time
LED tries to barter with the hunters offering the location of the stream he just found, where they can get water, and pointing out that boiling water and putting some pine needles in it can yield a helpful herbal tea for the sick man. He then ups the offer telling he can fill their water reserve with the water he has (he can just go back to the stream later to fill the party’s water canteens again). In exchange he asks for enough meat for 5 men, stating it will be enough for his group’s daily need (implying there’s four more with him).
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
The three hunters LED found are taken directly from the encounter card I drew for the evening shift (8♣ MY MEAT, MY KILL): the card states the hunters are very protective of their meat and will attack the players if cornered. Also, one of them has pneumonia and can infect the players.
The encounter can occur both when the players are camping and when they are moving off-road, but I thought it would make more sense for LED to stumble into the hunters while foraging for water, rather than the group finding there’s hunters near the camp they made in the previous shift.
I figured LED approaching them alone wouldn’t be perceived as an immediate threat, allowing for an opportunity to bargain. Also, a moose yields 2D6x4 = 40 rations of raw food, meaning there’s enough for both the hunters and the players.
LED has succeeded in his RECON roll, spotting the hunters from (open terrain) 2D10x4 = 64 hexes (640 meters). The details he gathered while observing the group are thanks to his Intelligence specialty (he gets stats of someone he is observing on a successful RECON roll).
Time for an opposite PERSUASION roll. Let’s see what the relevant modifiers I can apply are.
LED gets:
- +1 for his herbal tea tip, the implication there’s others who would search for him if he’s missing or that he can come back with others and take everything they have, and the offer of water (I bundled all of them together as I though the hunters might already know about the herbal tea and where the stream is)
- +1 for his Psy Ops specialty (+1 on rolls for changing somebody’s mind)
- -1 for being outnumbered
The HUNTERS’ LEADER (EMP D, no PERSUASION skill level) gets:
- +1 for having more people on his side
LED rolls PERSUASION [D10+D12] = 1 SUCCESS
HUNTERS’ LEADER rolls PERSUASION [D8] = 0 SUCCESSES
They conclude the bargain.
Tense minutes go by with LED forced to do most of the talking as the hunters seem suspicious of every word and every gesture. He repeats himself enough for being sure the men are understanding, yet not so much they are offended by him treating them like kids.
After what feels like hours of silence LED’s patience cracks a little “guys, you have to say something now”
The HUNTERS’ LEADER turns to his companion and nods towards the carcass muttering something in Polish, unintelligible by LED. Then he turns to the American “Okay, okay. We trade. Stay there”
LED fills the canteens the hunters are carrying with his group’s water bottles and calmly waits for the hunter to stack pieces of raw meat on a cloth he produced from his backpack, then he packs everything. “Dziękuję” he says receiving a nod in return.
He quickly goes back to the stream, refills the water bottles, and makes his way to the camp. As he is contemplating the solar disc touching the horizon to the West, he thinks today I have lost my way, but found some meat.
FINAL COMMENTS
By the end of day 3, the players have moved further South along the Prosna river. Everybody has consumed a ration of food and one of water, and they have all spent one shift sleeping (LED recovers his stress point, and NASCAR his hit point).
At this point I decided I had the bases of surviving in the countryside. Over the past three in-game days I had the players use all the skills covered by SURVIVAL: navigation, making camp, hunting, foraging, cooking; they also employed RECON, DRIVING and STAMINA on occasions and had a few – mostly safe – encounters. They have experienced one of TW2K core mechanics: surviving while keep moving.
Now I feel I can use a change of pace and move the story towards something more interesting.