DAY 12 – APRIL 29th 2000
NORTH-EAST of DOBRODZIEN, POLAND – DAY
ROUND 00
The group waits patiently for the armed men to reach the kill zone they set; grey clouds fill the sky filtering the April sunlight and creating a gloomy atmosphere. A light breeze gently curves the knee-high grass while the trees all around appear to be unperturbed, immobile against the apparently still backdrop of the clouds.
Once again LED checks his left and right: he knows ALEX and DONNA are in position, yet he can’t see them in the thick foliage. Helmet in his hands, he peeks over a narrow space between the rocks in front of him.
He can see a single armed man advancing towards his position, and three more figures not far behind him, with the prisoners among them. He retreats to cover not risking exposing himself, and figure the fifth man to be behind the main body of the column.
He has spent the past minutes mentally rehearsing what to say, and how to say it, trying to decide how much bluffing and how much intimidation to employ. But he knows these things are mostly thought and acted in the moment itself, right in the split seconds between a question and an answer.
Another quick peek: they’re closing in on the X spot. LED mentally calculates the seconds before he has to show himself, puts on his helmet and starts counting. If nobody gets spotted, when he reaches zero it’s going to be showtime.
DETECTING the AMBUSH [click to expand]
ENEMY 1 is acting as the scout for the group of armed men, so he rolls RECON for the entire group.
The first to be potentially spotted is DONNA, who had 3 SUCCESSES on her RECON roll; ENEMY 1 has INT C and RECON C so he would roll [D8+D8], meaning at best he can have 2 SUCCESSES -> DONNA’s presence goes unnoticed.
Second is NASCAR who had 3 SUCCESSES as well on his RECON roll. Again, ENEMY 1 cannot match them and therefore cannot spot him.
And last is ALEX who had 2 SUCCESSES on his RECON roll. ENEMY 1 could match them with his own roll (when rolling for Infiltration vs Detection, a draw results in Detection):
- ENEMY 1 rolls RECON [D8+D8] = 1 SUCCESS (rolled 8 and 1)
The armed group reaches the middle of the kill zone.
LED makes sure the bandages on his left forearm don’t stick out of the sleeve, takes a deep breath, stiffens his jaw and reaches zero in his mental countdown. Straight to the point, no discussion, exploit surprise as much as possible.
He steps out of his cover, the M16A1 trained at the ground.
“Stop. Right. There” his voice resonates.
Roughly 20 meters in front of him, ENEMY 1 raises his rifle. LED doesn’t flinch, but his finger moves fractionally closer to the trigger. Past the scout, the rest of the group halts its march, weapons at the ready.
“Kim jesteś?” asks the scout.
LED’s gaze quickly scans the rest of the group: full attendance, including the PRISONER. “Anybody speaks English?” he asks clearly.
The armed men in the center exchange a somewhat nervous look. The woman has tilted her head and is now trying to look over one of the men’s shoulders directly at LED.
“Kim jesteś?” repeats the scout, a hint of anxiety in his voice “odpowiedz mi!”
LED sees the man in the brown jacket looking around while the others keep their eyes on him; the man has one hand slightly up, as if he is about to issue a command. The other hand holds a Soviet PM pistol, and an AK-74 is slinged on his back.
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
LED has the Intelligence specialty, I didn’t bother with a RECON roll as he can clearly see everyone.
“We don’t want to harm you” says LED staring at the man in the brown jacket “we just want the woman”. As soon as the man looks directly at him, he adds “do you understand?”
The scout briefly turns towards the man, then quickly back to LED.
“We want the woman, nothing more, then you can go”
On the right side of the group, LED sees the man with the RPK taking a couple of steps forward while saying “on odin, davay pristrelim yego”
The man in the brown jacket raises his hand “zhdat’, zhdat’” he says.
The soldier with the RPK stops.
“Davayte sokhranyat’ spokoystviye” says LED calmly. [Russian: let’s stay calm]
The man in the brown jacket looks at him “you speak Russian”
“And you speak English” LED points at the prisoner “the woman, she stays, you can all go. Nice and easy”
“Not so fast American” replies the man in the brown jacket “why do you want the woman?”
“That’s not important”
“Oh, but it is important, you see, she is very… valuable to us. What value does she have to you?”
“The woman, she stays and you all go home” reiterates LED “or we both know what the alternative is”
“Okay American, how about you come closer and we can discuss this?” says the man in his best friendly tone.
“No” is LED’s dry reply. “Plus” he points at the ground between himself and the scout “this is mined”
He sees the scout looking at the ground in front of him nervously.
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
LED is bluffing here, but I’ll bundle all in what I believe to be an upcoming PERSUASION roll.
The man in the brown jacket turns to a more serious tone “what if we shoot you and we keep the woman, is it… nice and easy?”
LED curves his lips in a smile and stares at the man “team 1 ready?” he yells.
“Ready!” comes ALEX’s voice.
“Team 3 ready?” asks LED loudly, his eyes still fixated on the enemy’s LEADER.
“Team 3 ready!” shouts DONNA from his right.
The armed men all look around nervously.
Finally LED whistles and in a few seconds NASCAR’s whistle is heard in response. The three men in the central group all turn trying to see where it came from. The scout turns to its LEADER and quickly back, his rifle still pointed at LED.
LED’s eyes haven’t moved, still fixated on the enemy LEADER. “Time’s up” he says “last chance to go home”
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE – PERSUASION [click to expand]
Time for an opposite PERSUASION roll.
LED played it as I saw it more fit to the situation: exploiting every element of surprise so that they would all pile up without giving the enemy the possibility to react to each individually.
Here are the modifiers at play (ref. Player’s Manual, page 61 + house-ruled items):
- -1 for LED for asking for something valuable
- -1 for LED for not being in the same hex as the enemy LEADER
- +1 for LED for the looming threat of the ambush (house-ruled)
I won’t consider any modifier for who has more people on his side: on one hand LED is creating the appearance of having multiple teams on his side; on the other hand, the enemy LEADER actually has more men but doesn’t know it.
- LED rolls PERSUASION [D10+D8] = 1 SUCCESS (rolled 8 and 1) [cannot be pushed]
- Enemy LEADER rolls PERSUASION [D10+D6] = 2 SUCCESSES (rolled 10 and 4)
The enemy LEADER can tell something is not right, and doesn’t budge.
The enemy LEADER has kept his eyes on LED, only slightly rotating his head as the voices of the others laying in ambush made themselves heard. His mental calculations done, he briefly looks at his pistol, then slowly shakes his head.
“No American, we will not be bullied into giving you what does not belong to you. I see yours are empty threats, you did not shoot us when we arrived here, and you will not shoot us when we leave. Now move out of our way”
LED knows what is coming “you picked the wrong alternative, tovarishch”
“So did you, comrade” replies the man.
Everyone is at the edge of their patience now, ready to be nudged into a violent reaction by the smallest of triggers. LED sees the tension in the armed men’s muscles as he feels it in his own. In a split second his heightened senses offer a mix of sensations: the light breeze caressing his hair, the smooth blend of metal and plastic in his hands, the bandages tightened around his wounded forearm.
LED shakes his head and looks at the ground “believe me, if it was up to me, I wouldn’t even be here. You know where I would be?”
“Where?”
“Under the sun… on a beach…” LED raises his eyes “…in Mexico”
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE – INITIATIVE [click to expand]
Once again, it’s time for Plan B.
An initiative order needs to be established, and I need to decide whether ambush conditions still apply after the players have revealed themselves. For this particular fight, I’m trying to limit my rolls and make things flow more according to my own creativeness (less rolls, more house-ruling).
In the interest of engaging the players (which is the Referee’s job), and not killing them (which is a combined effort by players and dice) I’ll keep the ambush advantage the players have worked for. Specifically:
- LED is now initiating the firefight and will automatically go first in the initiative order
- ALEX and DONNA have both announced their presence by confirming their readiness, but it was a brief shout by each and they didn’t reveal their actual position. Aside from that, they have just heard the code word, and are therefore one step ahead of the (now) enemies. They take second and third place in the initiative order respectively
- NASCAR’s attack will follow his teammates’ as per planning (fourth place for him)
- I’ll draw a card for each individual enemy and one for the prisoner
Simple enough, ‘elegant’ enough. But is it fair enough? I’m house-ruling it is…
Final initiative order is:
- LED
- ALEX
- DONNA
- NASCAR
- The ENEMY LEADER (for whom I drew the initiative card #1)
- The PRISONER (for whom I drew the initiative card #2)
- ENEMY 4 (for whom I drew the initiative card #3)
- ENEMY 3 (for whom I drew the initiative card #4)
- ENEMY 2 (for whom I drew the initiative card #5)
- ENEMY 1 (for whom I drew the initiative card #10)
