DAY 5 – APRIL 22nd 2000
PRASZKA, POLAND – NIGHT
ROUND 01
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
From now on I will employ fog of war while the players are moving in the building: black represents areas not explored by the players and grey represents areas the players already moved through that are no longer in their field of view.
LED and NASCAR arrive at the top landing: the door on their left has been boarded up, while the other door is already slightly open. They push it fully open, peek inside to make sure it’s clear and enter it: they are in a living room/kitchen that has suffered some damage, possibly from an explosive of some kind. There’s a broken table surrounded by what remains of some chairs and a hole in the far wall providing an opening to the next room. Past the rubble they can see a beacon of red light projected by a red flare possibly coming from an adjacent room. The sound of gunfire is still coming from the street.
They enter the room and take position at the breach in the wall, where they can see a corridor and another room past an open door. The light appears to be coming from that room. A burst from the machinegun echoes in the building.
End of Round 01
ROUND 02
LED and NASCAR enter the next room and line up at the hole in the wall leading to a corridor and then another room. The apartment door leading to the stairs landing has been blocked with heavy furniture. They can see the opposite side of the building where on a small balcony a red flare is burning, its light illuminating the entire room with a dark shade of crimson, revealing a kitchen with a rectangular wooden table still in its place. The perimetral wall has a row of smashed window and a light breeze makes the air in the building more easily breathable. Part of the wall has been destroyed creating a large opening.
They can now hear the machinegun firing somewhere to the right of the opening. In between bursts some faint voices can be heard as well.
They wait for a moment, trying to figure out how many voices they can hear. The sound of projectiles impacting the walls interrupts the brief silence. LED touches his ear and then points in the direction of the sound.
NASCAR nods “that’s incoming” he whispers.
The town defenders are punching back.
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
I established a 3 minutes life-span for the flare, with 1 minute left by the time the players have entered the first apartment. So far, they’ve spent roughly 30 seconds carefully moving through the various rooms, meaning there’s about 30 more seconds left.
End of Round 02
ROUND 03
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
I decided that the ongoing battle is loud enough to cover the sound of the players’ movement up until the room they’re now entering. All previous movements were executed slowly and cautiously but needed no rolls as no enemy was present in the rooms the players traversed.
LED peeks inside the room, there’s gunfire coming from the street below and again voices from somewhere on the right. Looking that direction, he can see a boarded-up door and to its left a wide opening in the wall revealing a tiled room, its floor littered with rubble.
LED and NASCAR look at each other, then nod and move through the red-lit room to the opening. They stack up and wait for a moment. As they hear the machinegun firing, LED peeks inside the room.
OPPOSITE RECON ROLL [click to expand]
This is an opposite RECON roll as there is an enemy that could potentially spot the players.
LED and NASCAR are moving together, and therefore the player with the lowest skill is the one rolling: NASCAR gets a +1 for waiting for the machinegun to fire, but a -1 because LED’s head peeking will project its shadow in the room right next to the enemy. The ENEMY SOLDIER, marked on the map with the number 2, gets a -1 for the distraction caused by his current engagement, but a +1 for the aforementioned shadow. The enemy soldier won’t get any help in the roll as he is the only one who can spot the players.
NASCAR rolls[D8+D6] = 1 SUCCESS
ENEMY SOLDIER rolls[D8+D6] = 0 SUCCESSES
They players get a glimpse of what’s behind the hole in the wall without drawing attention.
From his position LED can see another destroyed wall leading to another tiled, small room and past that through an open door a larger room with a single enemy partially visible in the slice of the room lit in red.
Back in cover, LED turns to NASCAR, he taps his eye with a finger and then raises a single digit. NASCAR raises his machinegun and frowns his braws. LED shakes his head: the guy he saw is not the machine-gunner.
LED’S RECON ROLL [click to expand]
LED has the Intelligence specialty: he can gather further intel about someone with a successful RECON roll, so I had him roll to see if that’s the case with a -1 for having only a couple of seconds to look:
LED rolls [D8+D8] = 1 SUCCESS
LED sees more than what meets the eye.
[In hindsight, I should have used the success from the previous RECON roll]
LED brings to mind the image of the enemy he just saw and tries to analyze it: the man was holding a hunting rifle, had civilian clothes and was hunched down next to a wooden credenza. His hands were clutching the rifle with an iron grip and his head was buried in his shoulders, like he was taking cover because of fear rather than to wait for the right moment to return fire.
LED gets closer to NASCAR, his lips almost touching his buddy’s ear “next burst we move, past the hole you go right” he whispers. NASCAR nods, ready to move.
A few long seconds go by, there’s shots and bursts coming from street level, but the duo’s ears are waiting for the RPK to bark.
[roughly 15 more seconds have passed]
End of Round 03
FINAL COMMENTS
As per usual, I’ll save my comments for the final part of the fight.
If you want to know more about the dice mechanics of TW2K, check this page.