DAY 4 – APRIL 21st 2000
N of PRASZKA, POLAND – EVENING
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
I’m skipping straight to the evening shift of the day because it is the most interesting part of day 4.
Yet the morning shift saw a firefight, albeit one-sided: I drew an encounter card and got 3♠ BEAR’S DEN: The PCs stumble into the territory of a very hungry bear that has turned to attack humans. If the PCs are on foot, it will attack them for food. It’s heavily irradiated, so any attack from it that causes damage will also inflict 1 rad on the victim. Eating the bear’s meat will also give 1 rad per ration.
ALEX was keeping watch for the shift and got a success on his RECON roll, so he spotted the bear at a distance of (open terrain) 2D10x4 = 72 hexes (720 meters). He alerted the others and then waited for the bear to get to less than 400m (which is long range for ALEX’s hunting rifle). He then opened fire in four consecutive rounds, scoring a single success on his last RANGED COMBAT roll, hitting the bear for 3 base damage points (a bear has 6 hit points).
He then waited for the bear to get into short range (10 hexes = 100 meters) and fired once with 2 successes on his RANGED COMBAT roll, inflicting 3+1 damage points and killing the bear.
The group decided to move on as they had enough raw meat already.
I think I got too enthusiast at the possibility of having a player finally using his RANGED COMBAT skill (other than to kill a rabbit), so I had ALEX open fire at long distance, with a -2 penalty on the roll (there’s a -1 penalty for a moving target, but I figured the bear is running straight at the players in open terrain, and house-ruled it didn’t apply). As a result, he wasted 4 rounds scoring a single hit. Having learned the lesson, I then waited for the bear to get to short range (no penalty) and a single shot finished it. In essence, I had ALEX waste one reload for his hunting rifle.
At least I didn’t have him open fire at extreme range: that’s a -3 penalty…
Also, in the morning shift LED cooked the moose meat but didn’t get any successes on his SURVIVAL roll, so the players now have 5 rations of partially cooked meat and will risk food poisoning if they eat it.
In the day shift the group marched South and reached the outskirts of the town of Praszka.
APPROACHING PRASZKA
The group approaches the town of Praska form the North, stopping about half a click (500m) from the main settlement as they hear sporadic gunfire coming from the S-SW.
They stop at what used to be a school complex: the main building is now a pile of greyish rubble and looks like it was bombed with some heavy weaponry, possibly with artillery or something airborne, since there’s little if no sign of small arms fire. The building was probably used as barracks to house soldiers or as a command post and treated consequently once discovered.
On the other side of the road is a sporting arena which appears to be in relatively good shape: the glass windows are all smashed, the walls’ color has faded and the structure presents numerous cracks running in all directions; also nature has steadily reclaimed the narrow walkway that follows the perimeter and some plants are starting to climb the walls. But the structure itself doesn’t seem to be on the verge of collapsing at any second, so for the standard of quality one may expect from a post WWIII building, it passes the visual inspection. The main door is busted open and there’s nobody in sight.
LED and NASCAR enter the building to inspect it while DONNA and ALEX check the perimeter and keep watch. The building is empty and at first glance there’s nothing salvageable inside since the place seems to have been stripped down to its skeleton a long time ago. The main court is broken and there’s holes in the wooden floor which is covered by glass shards blanketed in dust, the volleyball net is missing and both baskets supports have collapsed. The lights and cables have been removed and with them much of the support structure, the snack area has been stripped of anything valuable and same goes for the vending machines. All the sporting equipment is missing, and someone carefully removed all the faucets from the bathrooms’ sinks.
The maintenance catwalk leading to the roof is still usable so LED and NASCAR head for the roof.
LED is scouting the town using his binoculars, trying to figure out where the potshots are coming from and who’s being engaged. His line of sight is partially obscured by the trees so it takes him a while to gather some intel on what appears to be an ongoing low-intensity skirmish.
NASCAR walks the perimeter of the roof, keeping watch for any unexpected guest.
ALEX finds himself a comfortable enough corner in the empty weights room and catches some sleep.
DONNA tries to sleep but she’s woken up every time a shot is fired, so she spends some time walking around the building, looking for anything salvageable that might have been left behind.
During the evening, they consume one ration each of the moose meat LED cooked in the morning.
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
I didn’t bother with a RECON roll for LED, as I already knew what I wanted him to see and not to see.
DONNA rolls for SURVIVAL to see if she can find anything: according to the manual ruins give a +2 for such rolls, but the place has already been picked clean, so I house-ruled she rolls with no modifiers.
- DONNA rolls SURVIVAL [D8] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 4)
She doesn’t push the roll. [I forgot DONNA has the Scrounger specialty and should have rolled with a +1]
Everyone eat meat that has not been properly cooked, so they each have to make a STAMINA roll modified by the diseases’ virulence which is +2:
– LED rolls[D12+D10] = 2 SUCCESSES -> he won’t contract food poisoning
– NASCAR rolls[D12+D12] = 4 SUCCESSES (!!!!) -> he won’t contract food poisoning
– DONNA rolls[D10+D10] = 2 SUCCESSES -> she won’t contract food poisoning
– ALEX rolls[D10+D10] = 2 SUCCESSES -> he won’t contract food poisoning
Luckiest rolls in the campaign so far and I’ve spent them on fighting food poisoning…
OPTIONS
By the end of the shift LED has figured out that one group is firing from inside the town and that they have set an observation post in one of the church’s twin belltowers, where they have hung a drape depicting what appears to be a coat of arms, possibly the town’s flag. The town’s people are firing from a building near a small river to another building across a collapsed bridge to the North.
Trading shots with them is the second group of fighters on the North side of the river who’s not showing any flags, though its soldiers (some in fatigues, some in civilian clothes) appear to all have an armband with some symbol on it, but it’s too small to make out the details of. The sound of an engine can be heard in the distance, and at times LED manages to spot a technical that is always manned but never fires. (He concludes that either the weapon doesn’t work, or they’re saving its ammo for the right moment).
The two factions appear to be conserving ammunition, only targeting enemies caught in the open when moving from a building to another, or firing for deterring enemy movements altogether.
By sunset LED shows ALEX the situation: ALEX confirms the flag on the belltower is the town’s flag and guesses the town is probably independently run and being attack by whoever is on the other side of the river.
“You may think I’m biased because of my nationality…”
“Go on” says LED, his eyes still pressed against the binoculars.
“I think we should get there and see if the townspeople need help. I think it’s an opportunity to help someone and make some friends in the process”
LED turns to ALEX “and how do we know the town is the right faction to pick in this fight?”
ALEX imperceptibly shakes his head, his eyes on the town “I wouldn’t be able to tell you” he then turns to LED “I… I just know”
“We could trade with them, but I don’t know about finding friends; friends are a rare commodity in today’s world”
“I’m sure if we approach them, they won’t attack us” ALEX stops briefly “I’m sure”
“Are you willing to bet our lives on it?” asks LED.
ALEX wonders for a moment, his eyes trained on the twin belltowers, then he nods “I am”
“Good, because you’re going to do the talking”
After a brief discussion the group decides to approach the town while there’s still some daylight left (approaching at night could be met by strong suspicions in the form of gunfire) and see if they can trade or maybe lend a helping hand (provided they’ve interpreted what’s going on correctly).
They move South along the main road up to a roundabout, where peeking behind the corner of a building they can see a roadblock up ahead, about 200 meters from them. Not far behind it are the church’s belltowers.
“I’ll go alone” says ALEX scouting the roadblock.
“And keep all the fun to yourself?” asks LED trying to mask his concern.
“I’m a Pole and this is still my country; that should be enough not to get shot. Not right away at least”
“What if they have decided their country now ends at the city limit?”
ALEX ponders his thoughts for a moment, “I guess I’ll have an opportunity to broaden their horizon”
“Well, hopefully the Almighty hasn’t abandoned mankind for good, so He can be there with you”
“If I wave my arms then it’s all good and you can come, but if I yell – no matter what I say – you guys get the hell out of here”
“What if you yell ‘I can’t wave my arms’?” asks NASCAR.
“Shut up” says DONNA shaking her head.
ALEX leaves his hunting rifle and extra mag to LED, he then nods and turns the corner.
LED nods in return, but in his mind, he has already decided that if ALEX is captured, they’re going to rescue him.
FINAL COMMENTS
The players have reached Praszka and decided to approach it. So far, they have concluded that the town is defending itself against an unidentified aggressor. They’ll soon find out how close they got to the truth.
In the travel map, I have represented the city of Praszka with its real coat of arms and the aggressors with a generic spades symbol.
At this point in day 4, we are entering the night shift: everyone has consumed one ration of food and one of water, but only NASCAR and ALEX have spent a shift sleeping.