Congo- The Treasure of Makoko Mbe

Last Saturday after our CoC game Graham set up a Studio Tomahawk Congo game. This is number 6 scenario from the ruleset.

Premise

Deep in the Congo in the small village of Mbe, near which is supposedly buried the treasure of Makoko Mbe, the last chief of the Teke. Legend says that the treasure is buried beneath an idol guarded by 4 Fanatical Warriors. Professor Gustaaf van den Gheyn has discovered this legend and is leading a column of explorers to discover if the legend is true. Unfortunately the infamous Arabic trader Fayçal al Mutawi has heard word of this expedition and is leading his Zanzibari's there.

The Game

P-Y played the Zanzibari's for the first half of the game, but had to leave so Graham took over. I played the White Man Expeditions. There were 4 totems to pick up on as well as the treasure in the centre of the table guarded by the 4 fanatical warriors. I only took a couple of photos unfortunately.

I send forward my Warriors, to take on the Fanatical Warriors. They had some success.

The Zanzibari's advanced bit I was able to dig up the treasure, and run with it. My Warriors ended up dropping it but my Ruga Ruga were able to pick it up and make it to the table edge.

It was a good game again, the command decisions are certainly challenging and that makes it a good game. I believe I will always enjoy playing this game.

I am on a work week starting tomorrow (I still work one week out of the month), and am in the US for the week following sorting various personal issues (like figuring out my taxes for the year) so no gaming until the beginning of March. The good news is that I already have some games set up.

Chain of Command: Attack and Defend

We had a game of Chain of Command at the Abyss yesterday. It was a one off game, which is always strange to play. Graham has only played one game of Chain of Command in the past but is painting up some 20mm AB Germans and Brits to play the game, he has been researching the ruleset for some time and actually had bought some 28mm figures but after an introductory game at my apartment 3-4 months ago he switch over to 20mm. I believe 20mm is the sweet spot for CoC as you can see what the figures are carrying over 15mm. I would have like to have played in 28mm (my choice for all the other skirmish game I play), but when I saw the size of the vehicles on a 6x4 table, I just felt they were too big. My friend P-Y plays in 28mm but he has a larger table.

As previously noted, the Abyss is a great place but there is very little historical gaming there. We have gathered a lot of interest with our Napoleonic games, and have a handful of dedicated players. Aside from myself and P-Y as far as I know there are no other CoC players here, aside from Graham who is just starting My friend Luis and a few others play Battlegroup which I thought was a pretty good game but CoC will remain my WWII ruleset.

I was joined by Graham and P-Y, so I acted as the games-master with a plan to help Graham. P-Y has played a lot of CoC, but as it turned out Graham needed little help. We did not have a lot of walk by interest, maybe 3-4 people stopped by. I did set up next to a wall which had the only historical war-game figures in the whole place. There were maybe 6-10 boxes of Warlord Games WWII vehicles and figures.

I picked the Attack and Defend scenario from the rulebook, we diced for who would be the Attacker and Defender as well who would play what force. As it ended up Graham played the Attacking Germans while P-Y played the Defending Canadiens. The table is below.

The Germans are attacking from the right, while the Canadiens are defending from the left. 

For the defenders, I made a strong point with two houses enclosed in a stone wall, hard cover as well as a medium obstacle. The forest patches were dense, while the low hedges were soft cover and a minor obstacle. The fields were decoration, all house were hard cover. 

The Patrol Phase

As you can see the flank was completely turned by the Defenders with them  controlling their right side of the table, with attackers pushed to their left flank. I felt there was one tricky bit though and that was the isolated Canadien JOP in the small forest.

The Forces

Canadiens

Standard British 1944 rifle platoon

Sniper

Germans

Standard German Rifle Platoon

Pregame Barrage

IG 18

The Game

So we started the game, and I have to say for the first several and I mean several, Graham had the most incredible luck with multiple double phases with associated excellent Command Dice. As usual I forgot to take photos, but here are 3.

Because of the multiple attacker double phases, the Germans were able to capture the  isolated JOP. They split off one of their LMG teams. The Canadiens were slow to respond because of the Pregame Barrage so really had no way to defend. By now the Germans had another squad on the table as well as their IG. All the Canadiens had on the table  was their 2" Mortar which really did a good job of taking out the IG team. 

The Germans ended the turn capturing the JOP forcing the first morale loss. But now the PGB was over . Because of the threat to the strongpoint, there was no JOP there, P-Y used his first full CoC dice to move one of his JOP's there. I felt this was an excellent move. By now the defenders had got a unit in the house in the right centre of the table and were able to fire at the attackers behind the hedge. But more importantly  they were able to put a sniper in the same house and using the TT Mods, he was able to kill the lone Germ SL. what a turn of events, as the attackers were now leaderless, as they had also lost one of their JL's. FM was dropping on both sides rapidly.

The defenders continued to place smoke but in between turns (there were 4-5 in this short game) the attackers were able to take out another section of Canadiens behind the hedge in front of the house.

I had put a limit of 2.5 hours on the game, we might have been able to get in one more phase but at this point it was clear to the three of us that the Canadien morale was about to drop below 3, thus giving the game to the Germans. It was an excellent game and exciting game and although it looked like the Germans were going to overrun the Canadiens, this did not happen and when I called the game, the FM was 4 for Graham and 3 for P-Y.  So a marginal German victory. 

I will look forward to putting on another CoC game at the Abyss, and hopefully we can draw in more players.

SAGA-AoV

 

I had my first game of SAGA in 18 months last night at the Abyss with my friend Luis. We decided to play Age of Vikings and I knew that Luis expected me to bring my Skraelings. I decided to play the Anglo-Saxons, a warband that I believed I have never played. As usual we went with 6 point war bands.

Game Set-up (BoB Chaos)

Scenery-Uplands

Deployment-Meeting Encounter

Special Rule-A Good day to Die

Victory Conditions-Target

Game Length-Pitched Battle

Anglo-Saxons (6 SAGA Dice)

Alfred

2 Hearthguard

2 Spear-armed Levy 
1 Bow-armed Levy

Vikings (6 SAGA Dice)

Warlord

3 Hearthguard

2 Warriors

1 Bow-armed Levy 

It took a bit of time to set-up, but once we got going the game went quite quickly. There is a few photos below, but generally Luis's initial set up favoured his left flank, so rather than opposing him I decided to set up on my left flank. There was a large central hill, that blocked Line of Sight. As noted above, I never played Anglo-Saxon before and I wanted to get a sense of them before I got too aggressive. I also wanted to get my bowmen into the forest on my left flank. I put another group of Levy there, while keeping Alfred and his Hearthguard behind the hill, with my 3rd group of Levy on my right flank (see first photo). Alfred has a L range "We Obey" ability.

Luis sent his group of 12 Warriors to his right as well as a group of 6 Hearthguard. He had put his Levy bowmen in the rocky ground, while sending his another 6 man Hearthguard to his left with his Warlord. He kept back a small group of 4 Warriors.

Luis then sent in his 12 man Warrior unit, they were taken down by the levy (see photo 2)

I continued to hold back until Luis sent in his Hearthguard to take out my 2 units of levy on my left flank. I carefully prepared my Battleboard at the start of turn 4. I fired with my bowmen and then charged with my levy, and although I ended up with more dice and was able to remove several of Luis's attack dice. I failed to cause significant damage (Luis had some incredible dicing saving almost every hit).

On to turn 4, by now as you can see below (photo 3), Luis was able to crush my left flank my throwing back my levy as well as taking down my bowmen to 2 men after a very successful double set of charges. We now had quite a few loses on each side and it appeared to be quite close in massacre points.

Now on to Turn 5, I had made a mistake in turn 4 by not moving by 8 man Hearthguard to my left flank to take on the the 3 man Viking Hearthguard unit. I was too far away to do even double charge, so I decide to move back my remaining troops, so they were out of range of the Vikings in their last turn.

We tallied up the Victory points and I did manage to eke out a very marginal victory (11 vs 10), but I believe that Luis managed his troops and battleboard better than I did. So a game well played.

Initial Setup with Vikings to the right

The beauty of the Anglo-Saxon warband, here we have a a group of Levy taking on the Viking Warriors and crushing them with their Saga abilities, I had weakened them first with my bowmen.

Around Turn 3, with me having lost the functionality of 2 groups of Levy (but still 5 Saga dice), Luis was also down to 5 Saga dice after his large group of Warriors was taken down.

Awesome Viking painted by Graham.

I have to say that I miss playing SAGA, it is a lot of fun. There are a few SAGA players in Montreal so hopefully more games to get in soon, but Luis is always a challenge! One thing is for sure though, I really enjoyed playing the Anglo-Saxons and I am sure they will see the table again.

Pulp Alley China Station-The House of Lau

This Monday, we had our third game in our China Station campaign. We had one a game each so far, so this was an important game, it was also our real first chance to dice to build up our investigation points so we can discover what is Code 3-2-7. I am not sure if I pointed this out earlier but the campaign is in two phases: The Investigation and The Hunt. To get to The Hunt, you need to accumulate 5 Investigation Points.

As usual PY had set up an excellent table, each gets better than the last. 

The scenario was a bit odd, as there was no shooting or brawling, only really opposed rolls using your Might, Finesse or Cunning dice. Draws did not count and if a character lost they had to roll a simple health check and if failing they took a marker. I am using my Baker Street League in this campaign led by Sherlock Holmes. The rules allow you to recruit different minor characters to your league but you have to keep the same Leader and you can not change the Leader's abilities. I am also presuming once you develop any character you can not change their abilities, so I had to proceed with some caution. As previously mentioned, I am using figure from Westwind's Empire of the Dead line. 

Holmes decided to leave the bumbling Watson home for this scenario and recruit his brother Mycroft. You will also see that he decided to bring the bosses in from the Hell Division rather than the Bobbies. I am sure some of you will recognise the fictional basis for the new characters.

PY kept with his same characters, I suppose he could change to his Sidekicks, but when I look at them they look quite flexible for most types of scenarios.

Here are some photos from the game, I will annotate with what details I remember. 

I believe this is around turn 2-3, PY was almost immediately turn DI  Reid to the Cultists, so that was one of my characters immediately lost. DS Drake went to try to convince Reid to re-join the good guys. As you can see in the fairground, two of the cultists almost immediately encountered two of the minor plot points in order to capture them. Captain Jackson also headed that way, Dr Koo has yet to make an appearance (he shows up on turn 4). In the right middle you can see Holmes heading east to encounter Dr Zhikov who is trying to get a minor plot point.

Turn 5. It looks like Dr Zirkov has been knocked down to the east by Mycroft Holmes. Captain Jackson is now challenging one of the cultists over one of the minor plot points. But most importantly, we can see that Sherlock Holmes has encountered Dr Koo, thus gaining the Major Plot Point, the Baker Street league just has to survive one my turn too win the game.

Turn 6-7. Difficult to see but Holmes has made it past the turncoat DI Reid to the SW corner of the terrain thus winning the game. 

It was a nice victory for me, but I did put some prep time into this scenario before we started. If I remember correctly our dicing was about equal, PY captured 3 minor Plot Points, while I only got one. I was able to get the Major Plot Point which gave me the victory. I think I was a little luckier than PY in drawing the scenario cards when capturing plot points. I have to say it was a little aggravating that the Fortune cards were of little value in this game, but so it goes.

We each got 3 League Rewards in this game. We both roll 3 of our rewards, needing a 4+ to get an investigation point, we get one each. 

Baker Street

6+ Reputation

League rewards: +6 (-3)=3

Investigation Points= 1

Followers of the Eye

3+ Reputation

League Rewards: 3+ (-3)=0

Investigation Points=1

 

GdA Talavera: Battle for the Redoubt

This Saturday we all met at the Abyss in Montreal for another GdA demonstration game. Learning from my experience from the the Mt St Jean scenario, I cut back the size of the game. Having 4 brigades per side worked much better than 6 brigades and with 4 players the turns went much quicker and I believe we got in 10 turns of a 12 player game. This is pretty good as 1 player had played 3 previous games, another 2 previous games, another just 1 previous game and the last had never played before.

I took the scenario from one of the GdB scenarios books which centred on the French left flank of the Battle of Talavera in July of 1809 (as an aside, this battle is featured at the end of Sharpe's Eagle; easily my favourite Sharpe novel). Here we see a French Division (actually almost all Germans) being ordered to take a redoubt occupied by both Spanish and British foot artillery. On the French right flank are the British while the left flank is protected by the Spanish. Note should be made of the fact that this is the first time my Spanish had seen the table!

I felt the scenario worked quite well and in this game we got through all the mechanics in the rulebook. The Spanish cavalry made many charges, albeit unsuccessful. I did screw up a few of the rules as usual, but I believe they had little effect on the game. It was quite a close run thing, I believe the French could have taken the redoubt (the victory condition for the French). 

You will note a lot of substitutions from the historical OB according to what is available in my collection.

Here are some photos I took of the players and the game. I have to say it was really a good natured group and the game ran very smoothly.

French Players to the Left

The French are attacking from the left

View from the other flank

The Spanish were particularly vigorous

The Allied left flank was a little slow to develop

Positions around Turn7-8

A lot of discussion by the French

The allies appear to be more sanguine

The French on their left flank are closing to victory but we called the game was called at turn 12

Next Saturday, I will be hosting a game of Chain of Command at the Abyss, it will probably be just two of us playing but I have never seen a WWII game there, so I am hoping it will generate some interest.

This War of Mine-Day 6

Start from the bottom!

DAY 6

NIGHT AT THE HOUSE

The weather is getting colder, you still have several unboarded cracks somewhere in your house and a cold wind is blowing around the house.

you counteract the increase of cold and eliminate 1 COLD TOKEN from the existing ones, there are now 5 left.

At one point, you can hear slow footsteps outside... someone is moving slowly around outside your window. You take a peek, trying to adjust your eyesight to see into the darkness... there is indeed something... ha - it is your neighbor! he is dragging a small sack... moving toward the  hulk of a burned carwreck standing in your yard... why is he creeping around in your side of the fence? you wonder... 

you keep silent and observe what your neighbor is doing.

your naighbor opens the trunk of the car wreck… you come to think you had an idea at some point to make that trunk into a vegetable garden, but did not get around to it yet because of the snipers… he rummages around the trunk, then lifts up his sack and pours the contents into the trunk… something there clanks against the metal body of the car, he freezes immobile, apparently listening to if anyone caught the noise… after a while, when no reaction appears, he ocntinues and seems to arrange the items in the trunk.

He gets up, takes a look around… listens quietly for few seconds and seems to satisfied with his results… slowly and quietly closes the trunk lid as low as it goes… then takes the empty sack and disappears back behind the crumbling stone wall into the neighboring house, which he shares with another family.

you get the impression he has something he does not want to share with the others in his household… adn he has notice you have not been using the car wreck for anything se… he must be convinced he found a good hiding place.

whatever could it be that he hid in the trunk of that car… ?

EMILIA:

I believe nothing is going to change in the next 24 hours, we can consider checking it out the next night or we can use our military man during the day who seems to be able to dodge bullets.

Emilia will stay put.

Night continues… some time later you can hear loud knocking on the door,a nd female voice crying in a hoarse voice: “please… can you help us…”

Peeking through a crack you can see 2 mend and 1 woman, not much oyu can see as the night is dark but they do look worn out adn tattered

woman stands forward closest to the door, one man to her side and another behind them with one hand behind his back.

first thing you notice is the smell... they smell.

like 3 weeks old smell of booze floating about...

"please, we have not eaten for 5 days... please give us something to eat..." 

the woman draws your attention with her raspy voice tinted with hidden aggression...

the man behind the others keeps looking left and right and behind...

EMILIA slams the door shut, feels the visitors bumping against it...

roll d10, success on 1-3 = EMILIA rolls 2 and

so manages to get the door shut and bar it, at the same time the visitors tru to bump agains it but no luck for them.

"WE WILL GET YOU YET, BITCH !"

they bang the door and shout and make noice... but eventually have to give up and go away.

Night is quiet again.

No more knocking at your door, rest of the night stays quiet.

Then the scavenging party returns home, with all their loot.

OPEN MARKET 

Direct trade on open market:

you give away 3 CIGARETTES and 2 JEWELRY, and for that you get:

1 Vegetable 5 creds

3 Bandages 30 creds, 10 creds for each 

1 Sawblade 5 creds

1 Lockpick 5 creds

3 Filters, 1 cred for each

FINDINGS PILE TOTAL:

BARTERING for the chess set:

BARTERING PAGE

… end result of BARTERING was that KATIA did not get what she was asking for the chess set, so no trade fro the extra bandage. Current MARKET VALUE for chess set was settled at 9 CREDS which gave you in trade: 1 BROKEN GUITAR and 6 COFFEES.

TOTAL WEIGHT of your final FINDINGS PILE looks like this:

= WEIGHT 0

= WEIGHT 0

= WEIGHT 3

= WEIGHT 0

= WEIGHT 0

= WEIGHT 1

= WEIGHT 0

= WEIGHT 1

You hurry back home the same way you came.

Which means you need to rush across the sniper’s field of fire again…

that makes for 2 sprints: first one from building to cover of the car, second from car out of the area.

TO make long story short… there is a sniper in position looking for potential targets, and when he spots your group sprinting across the open are he will fire on both occasions, first before you reach the car, then after you go out from the cover of the car.

No matter if he hits or not, you have ROMAN who offers group skill to avoid 2 “backstabbing” events when you are leaving any area, and this applies to anyone in the group. SO no matter who might get hit, you avoid 2 shots on your way out - which means you are safely out of SNIPER JUNCTION, and on your way back home.

MEANWHILE, back at the house…

DUSK

time for WATER & FOOD.

You have enough water so I assume KATIA, EMILIA and PAVLE will all drink?

you have 3 VEGE which would keep everyone also properly fed for the time being, so I assume you do that?

EVENING

Everyone is quote rested so no need to considering sleeping, I think?

Questions to consider:

• who goes out SCAVENGING?

• who stays GUARDING the house?

• how to distribute / use SHOVEL, KNIFE and HATCHET?

• should SCVENGER take something along for trading? you might want to consider te ARMY DEALS effect on prices (upgraded prices in STORAGE) 

• whoever goes out SCAVENGING, remember you also have EXTRA KNIFE card which can be used at the end of scavenging.

Your OPTIONS for SCAVENGING are as follows:

CLOSE LOCATION  - 14 TURNS

MEDIUM SIZE GARAGE

MIDDLE LOCATION  - 12 TURNS

LARGE SIZE MILITARY OUTPOST

DISTANT LOCATION  - 10 TURNS

MEDIUM SIZE SNIPER JUNCTION

KATIA, ROMAN and PAVLE head out together to SNIPER JUNCTION.

They take with them stuff for trading purposes, for TOTAL VALUE = 48 + ?? CREDITS

CIGARETTE

-

1  +5 cred

3

JEWELRY

-

10 +5 creds

2

CHESS travel set value is decided  when trading

-

??

1

and ROMAN carries the HATCHET:

HATCHET

1w

12 creds

1

SNIPER JUNCTION

Famous place, the domain of death. You have arrived to the edge of a large clearing, peeking out from the cover of a corner of a ruined house. On you way here, you found a letter nailed to the wall of this house, it read:

“they are paying 250 euros for each kill, civilians too. This bastard in tall tower building earned more today than I would have done in few months of work before war. he shot 2 old laides, girl on bike, and four men. when he sees people running scared across street, does he imagine what he will buy with their life? tonight I will try to visit him with my boys, if I am not back let this letter be proof of what we are dealing with…”

Front of you: large open clearing… even without military training you can see why snipers choose this as their playground. not too many places to hide from being shot. 

off to your left, maybe 10-12 meters away from you, right in the open… a lone tree, bare with no leaves and something hanging from the one branch remaining… a big piece of ham, you estimate that to be almost 1 kilogram of meat, fairly fresh as you do not see too much flies buzzing around it. Hanging from the treebranch with a thick rope, at the height of 2 meters.

off to your right, maybe 15 meters away is a burnt out car wreck, seems to be at least one body visible underneath. Further away from the car, a big bomb crater.

further on straight ahead, promenade with many previoius cafes, was until recently sniper’s paradise. but one night time raid on enemy positions changed situation somewhat. Bombs left deep craters in asphalt and tore off several floors of office building the killers used as nests. You remember there was famous restaurant with well stocked kitchen on second floor of that office building. maybe it is safe now? worth taking a look? You have heard from several people that there is a private trading market in the inner courtyard of that building.

Distance to the restaurant street door is perhaps 40 meters, past the car wreck and the big bomb crater.

YOU HAVE 10 TURNS TO USE.

TO START TRADING YOU NEED TO HAVE 6 TURNS REMAINING.

PAVLE, KATIA and ROMAN take their collective chances and burst into a run across the open, toward the burnt out car wreck…

SHOT rings out from the tall towers further ahead to one side… 

on d6 roll, KATIA = 1-3, PAVLE = 4-5, and ROMAN = 6.

bullet seems to have the name of

... KATIA written on it, and with 1-3 it will be a HIT…

... but NO, sniper must have been somewhat preoccupied and unprepared, so the shot barely misses KATIA as it whizzes by her head…

whole group reaches the cover of the car wreck just in time, with your lives intact.

Take a breath.

Relax.

Next…

ROMAN bnags the side of the car body with a lound CLANG as he explodes into action and start a zigzagging run toward the building, hoping to draw fire…

KATIA and PAVLE burst out into run just few seconds behinds him…

SHOT rings out, aimed at…

… ROMAN, he was indeed successful in drawing sniper’s attention…

...this time not so lucky, the bullet is really heading toward ROMAN who however uses one of hese PROWESS RE-ROLLS…

...nope, still coming at him… but ROMAN uses another of his PROWESS RE-ROLLS…

... and manages to bend just a little lower just in time, he can feel the hot metal drawing a few drops of blood as it draws a superficial scratch onto the skin of his neck, but nothing more serious…

whole group has now made it alive and well to the cover of the building front doors.

PAVLE still has 1 REROLL to use, ROMAN still has 1 REROLL to use.

( return back home is automatic action so it does NOT use a turn; it will still involve sprinting across the open back the way you came and this is where ROMAN’s “avoid backstab” skill comes into use )

you have 8 TURNS remaining, 6 TURNS required to do trading.

Since that was so easy, you decide to take a look at the restaurant.

Too wonderful to be true, really…  restaurant seems to have escaped raid almost undamaged. Tables and chairs look like theater decorations. Bar has been looted for alcohol for sure, but you search through storage room for something valuable still remaining… just like this abandoned potato. Put it in your backpack. You notice more of them around the floor among clutter … add +2 VEGE to FINDINGS.

Suddenly you hear footsteps. 

Coming down the stairs in a corridoor.

you are not alone…

you can either

• leave quickly with what you have

• stay quiet and try to remain hidden ( use 1 TURN )

8 TURNS REMAINING ( need 6 to trade )

YOU HAVE ALREADY IN YOUR FINDINGS PILE:

Trading it is, then.

You hurry out the way you came, through the front door, taking care to stay in cover of the building to avoid the sniper, and you move through the archway onto the courtyard… where you discover the trading post market.

Since KATIA has skill in trading, she negotiates first so you avoid paying the starting commission. Everything you have can be used for trading.

Your stuff is TOTAL VALUE = 48 + ?? CREDITS

CIGARETTE

-

1  +5 cred

3

JEWELRY

-

10 +5 creds

2

CHESS travel set value is decided  when trading

-

??

1

Here you can see what you can get from the market (everything on white):

TRADING MARKET SUPPLY

without commission, you give same value what you want to take; or if the values do not match, you must give at least the value of what you want to take.

ROMAN whispers to KATIA and PAVLE, indicating a man at the far corner of the market: “I know that man, he was in same regiment as I was… he used to always trade for whatever we needed… he is also a deserter, we escaped at same time but I did not get along with him so we quarreled. I am sure he has some special under-the-counter stuff which does not show on the market supply list, but I am also sure it will be more expensive.”

How do you wish to proceed?

you have 7 TURNS remaining after your episode in the restaurant.

you need 6 TURNS to trade in the open market.

Approaching him and asking him for "sneak peek" into his secret trade catalogue is FREE TURN - but he might charge you something for giving a "preview" of what he might be offering.

IF you then decide to start trading under-the-counter stuff with the man, that will use 1 TURN.

you need to consider what you wish to do, and in which order also.

also remeber to keep in mind your collective INVENTORY count: KATIA 3, PAVLE 4, ROMAN 3 minus 1 for the HATCHET that ROMAN is carrying.

So the total weight of things you can take back home with you = 9, plus of course any items which have no weight-

DAY 6 - MORNING

You might wish to review your current CHAPTER OBJECTIVE (top of JOURNAL page),

do you wish to do something about that?

WEATHER gets worse, adding +3 to COLD, see THINGS TO REMEMBER in JOURNAL. TOTAL COLD is now 6. at certain point, if COLD - BOARDUP = 5 or more, it will start influencing ILLNESS status of characters. COLD can be reduced by burning WOOD in the HEATER.

EVENT:

Army is making trading deals in the area. value of following items is raised by +5:

• Cigarettes

• Moonshine

• Alcohol

• Jewelry.

DAY 6 - DAY ACTIVITIES

Next you can decide who will be doing what actions during the day.

Based on BLACK DOTS, characters can perform thus:

KATIA - 2 actions = 1 rubble clearing 1 taking a nap

EMILIA - 2 actions = 1 rest 1 search

PAVLE - 1 action = 1 rubble clearing

You need to decide where you want put MARIN’s body; you have not yet access to garden so proper burial is not possible. You can of course move his body up to the roof and drop it off to garden if you wish… (would take 2 characters using 2 actions)

You have now dilled over half of your required quota for water delivery (see JOURNAL)

1.ACTION: 

KATIA and PAVLE work together to clear the rubble… they find 2 pieces of WOOD underneath - and behind the rubble they discover a closed DOOR (see HOUSE).

since EMILIA has no place she can search yet, she takes her NAP now.

She does have a choice here… to either ELIMINATE all her fatigue dice OR ROLL them and if success then eliminate 1 BLACK DOT - BUT since rolling 6 dice most likely would give failure and add another black dot, I assume she just clears her dice count… so now she is more rested.

ROMAN is still out of the house, helping the neighbor, so nothing happens with him.

NOW - you have no LOCKPICK for opening the door, and you have no SAWBLADE for cutting through the bars - so you still cannot get to heaps to do any searching.

For their 2.ACTION both EMILIA and KATIA take a nap.

EMILIA is now fully rested with no black dots on fatigue.

KATIA eliminates her fatigue dice.

DAY 5

EVENING

EMILIA sleep on the floor,

ROMAN is on guard duty (his advantage is his special skill: Military Training, as you can read on his  image)

MARIN will continue to suffer in silence,

PAVEL rests on the floor as well, sleeping his flu off.

and KATIA goes out scavenging....

KATIA takes KNIFE with her as protection, and chooses to go to

MIDDLE LOCATION - 12 TURNS: Quiet House, small

KATIA goes quietly around the area, looking at places and scouting the neighborhood. This seems a housing estate almost untouched, quiet area of little houses with porches and gardens, many houses look like still inhabited with people trying to lead normal lives. To get so stuff worth taking you might have to steal…

You notice one house which looks more quiet and not so inhabited. Getting closer… you dont notice any signs of alarm. Door is not locked so… go right ahead and step inside. You notice a heap of stuff gathered in the hallway, quick shifting of rags reveals 4 PIECES OF WOOD and 1 COMPONENT.

FINDINGS PILE:

Move on… you come to a room which is clearly a bedroom, or used to be… bullet holes in the wall, covered with plastic, and photos pinned onto them. This room seems cleaner than rest of the house… just like someone decided to play house here… table and chairs in right places, bed is made with piece of torn folded blanket…

but then you notice the place is not abandonded.

A woman comes into the room from the hallway, moving slowly and quietly humming some tune… she moves her arms as if she was holding a broom, sweeping the floor, but your eyes must be failing because you cannot see anything in her hands. You notice a photo of her as younger woman on the wall, clearly she was beautiful, now she looks more lika an old hag… and immersed in her own delusions. Still sweeping the room and looking at the floor she speaks “Did my Ratko send you? He would be gone 90 days in the army, that is what they said, and sent him to Ukraine. Then he comes back and we will go to vacation in Venice, he promised me, and I have suitcase ready and packed and waiting…” She smiles at you and sits on the bed… but slowly the shine in her eyes fades away like a candle burning out. “Say something… he must have sent you…” woman reaches out to you but stops halfway when she notices the expression on your face… maybe she is not totally crazy? You back you of the room slowly,a nd notice several rows of crossed out lines drawn onto the wall… you can easily see 90 days has passed long time ago.

NOISE 2

TURNS REMAIN 6

 

KATIA goes to investigate the second floor.

Moving cautiously up the stairs, you hear like a door closing somewhere upstairs. Slide toward the sound… carefully… the air stinks a bit like mold… on second floor, a corridor and 3 doorways, 2 of them are open and one door is shut… on the door you see someone scribbled letters with chalk, with child-like style of writing, it reads “I AM LIGHTNING FAST”.

Stop and listen… you can hear muffled sobbing from behind the closed door.

KATIA sneaks up to the door. Door is not locked, KATIA steps into room of few square meters… in middle of room old deflated ball… goalposts drawn with chalk on opposite walls. Crowd of missshaped figures scrawled over the walls serve as audience. You have entered imaginary soccer stadium. 

Kid crouching in corner, maybe 10 years max, terribly skinny, pair of running shoes hanging around his neck by their tied laces. Boy looks like living skeleton, he looks at you and says in whisper “they told me to hide in this cell, where are are they? papa always said I have to train hard or he would leave me… but where is mama?”. Sad desperate eyes stare into yours for few seconds - THEN boy suddenly dashes out through doorway and you hear fading running steps down the stairs. 

IF you wish to take something here, there is a deflated football and 0,5 liter glass bottle, cork screwed on and almost full of almost clear liquid.

KATIA rushes after the boy…

boy has disappeared.

KATIA comes to another open door. Voice of child coming from the room. KATIA goes in… empty room, window with no glass and cold wind blowing in, door to another room. Well, not quite empty room. Even in harsh times children can turn anything into fun. Small black haired girl, maybe 5-6 years of age, tilts bucket filled with maybe 2 desiliters of water, tilts the water from left to right, making small waves back and forth. She sits on the floor on couple of pillows, wearing an adult size parka coat. Wide smile appears on her cute face when she sees you, she says. “this is sea… when I am big we go to sea with my brother and mother and father, over there you have skis… we go to mountains too…” cross country skis hang on the wall… in different district they would have been used for firewood long time ago. Their owner must be sentimental about them. or maybe just hopeful. You ask child where her parents are. “dont you know? they are sunbathing !” she points to the window. You look out, a garden - you can see a man and woman lying on straw mats in the dark moonlit night. They have very little clothes and with sunglasses on. They must be waiting for the sun to rise in the morning.

In this room, on side table, a ragdoll, half loaf of bread which seems to have more mold than bread, and unopened CANNED FOOD.

…search the house a bit more, take the girl with, then check the parents, and if they are alive, leave the girl? If so, Katia will take the canned food for the girl. 

KATIA asks the girl to come along. Girls sets down the bucket with water and grabs KATIA’s hand with her cold little fingers.

Then with her puppy dog eyes, she looks at you and says “I know where there is lots more food to eat !”

Girl leads KATIA by hand hand out of the house, across the street and into another house. While you get ot onto the street, you hear approaching engine noise in the sky… 3 planes fly over head toward the other end of the town… you pause carefully for a moment, no threat to you, and continue crossing the street. Byt the time you reach the gate of the other house, you can hear anti-aircraft bire erupting in tehd istance… then several loud explosions… you scamper up the garden pathway making sure the little girl is with you.

Up a few steps onto the door… it is not locked… you open door and step in behind the girl.

this is one of those things…

house is semi-dark… candle burning in a room further up… girl leads you forward by the hand… you almost reach door to room when from your left, along the corridor, and old man with hunched shoulders steps toward you and tries to sohut with hoarse weak voice “please no, go away… do not take anything, we need it… no, dont go there…”

Girl forcefully draws you with her to the room, candle burning on a table… you can see someone sitting at the back of the room… in a wheelchair - old woman with a thick blanket covering her shoulders and lap… too dark to see clearly but you see her shape in the wheelchair and clearly her face shows elderly age. She sits still - but her eyes stare at you intensively.

You hear man coming to doorway behind you saying “please go out, we need it, do not take…”

Then you notice a cupboard on the sidewall, and in the light of the candle you can see plenty of supplies… 5-6 canned food, paper bag with some vegetables protruding out, bucket full of potatoes, packet of coffee and 4 bottles of water.

( yes not, KATIA is only carrying the knife )

Little girl looks at you and points to the cupboard “see? they have plenty…”

This must be one of those times when one thing just leads to another…

Woman in wheelchair looks at little girl pointing at the cupboard shelves of supplies… seems to hear something about what you are saying… while the old man pushes through the door into the room to your side shouting with hoarse voice “no please do not take any stuff…”

KATIA rolls dice…

woman in wheelchair throws aside her blanket, underneath she has a sawed off shotgun, pointing in your direction, holding it in her slightly trembling hands…

BANG - the shotgun goes off … you can hear the little girl scream loud … you feel tearing pain in your arm and you fall backwards out the door… you also hear big THUD like someone hitting the floor hard… and barely register feet flashing by you…

you feel almost numb and wonder why no pain if you were shot… you sit up and hear old woman screaming and shouting “you killed him, you killed him…” and you see her fumbling with shotgun, trying to reload it with trembling hands and dropping a shell to the floor

KATIA rushes forward and manages to grab hold of the shotgun barrell before woman gets it reloaded… tugging back and forth… 

KATIA rolls dice, higher the better…

woman manages to jerk the weapon out of KATIAS hands… but she also tips back in her wheelchair and falls backward into the corner with the gun.

Your arm is bleeding, you have 1 WOUND (black dot).

Old man lies dead on the floor, he took the shotgun blast mostly into his midbody. 

Little girl is nowhere to be seen.

2 TURNS REMAINING

NOISE LEVEL 7 (out of 10)

KATIA rushes out and on the way grabs what she can.

You gain potential access to half of what is in the room, but you did not neutralize the woman so her shotgun is not possible.

KATIA chooses number 25 - so with d100 roll of 25 or less, she manages to pick the item.

2 CANNED FOOD = 77 and 46	and
1 VEGETABLE = 05
2 WATER = 14 and 49	and
1 AMMO = 52

so KATIA manages to grab 1 VEGE and 1 WATER on her way out.

So far, her FINDINGS PILE looks like this:

No sight of the little girl. You notice small trail of blood on floor of the corridoor, leading deeper into the dark part of the house.

NOISE LEVEL 7

1 TURN REMAINING

You check for the little girl but she has disappeared.

This is your total stuff at this point, including the KNIFE you had with you.

TOTAL WEIGHT of all stuff = 6.

You also have the SPECIAL CARD which gives you another KNIFE to add to your findings.  

KATIA heads back home, choosing to carry:

KATIA also gains 1 FATIGUE DICE for all the efforts,

and 2 MISERY DICE for having lost both children...

MEANWHILE… back at the house:

ROMAN is on guard duty… after the bombing incident has evaporated, and since the night continues to be quiet, to keep himself awake and also to forget about his rumbling stomach, ROMAN goes about wandering around the house… checks out that everyone else is sound asleep… and out of curiosity climbs down to the lowest cellar level where he sees se BARS that block the way from further exploration… he grabs one of the bars and briefly remembers his own time in military jail beore he and a fellow sergeant managed to escape… and suddenly ROMAN realizes the bar is not quite as solid as it looks - he starts yanking it with both hands, and sure enough, the bars are rusty and corroded from the damp cold air here in the cellar, mortar breaks at the bottom and the bar comes off… he tries another one now, yanking it with the help of the first bar and sure enough, it also comes loose. 

At tleast 2 bars come off, but the other ones seem to still sit solidly despite of the rust… but no matter, enough to push himself partly forward between the bars… there seems to be a heap there and ROMAN wonders what goodies it might contain… toob ad he cannot quite reach it - but then his fingers probing in the dark latch onto something, he grabs it and pulls, it is stuck underneath some rubble but comes loos, he pulls more and finds himself holding a handle… and at the other end of the handle he discovers - a hatchet.

ROMAN takes +1 FATIGUE DICE for his efforts in working the bars.

Half an hour later, ROMAN is sitting by the front door with the hatchet.

There is a cautious knock on the door, and a hesitant voice that sounds like an elderly woman: “Hello, is anyone awake?”

ROMAN peeks out… he sees a 2-man military patrol walking down the street disappearing around the corner - and just the elderly woman knocking at the door, he opens the door a bit and says hello, she replies:. “hello neighbors, we live several blocks from here, we saw you have taken refuge in this house and now we are neighbors, I decided to pay you visit and say hello, I brought you some vegetables from ur garden, enjoy!”

  ( storage updated )

Then she continues “we are making shelter in our cellar and decided to reinforce it, we have everything prepared but need extra pair of hands to get it up, can you come help us?”

ROMAN goes to wake up EMILIA, telling her he is going over to help the neighbor woman, ROMAN gives hatchet to EMILIA who starts guarding the house BUT will not get sleep benefits.

ROMAN takes off with the woman.

Rest of the night is non-eventful.

DAWN

PAVLE wakes up, having had a restful sleep, he looses his fatigue dice and black dot on FATIGUE.

EMILIA rolls her 6 fatigue dice

get matches and gains +1 BLACK DOT on FATIGUE.

KATIA comes back home with her loot:

STORAGE updated

NEXT: WOUNDED & UN-BANDAGED characters…

PAVLE is WOUNDED with 1 BLACK DOT and no bandage, he must roll his dice:

match with 4s, PAVLE accumulates +1 BLACK DOT on WOUND, he now has 2.

MARIN has 3 BLACK DOTS on WOUND… no bandage, he escalates to next level.

MARIN’s calloused hands will never again be able to make anything right. Not for himself, or for anyone else. He has drawn his last breath. MARIN is dead.

This hits on all characters in the house, they have to roll less than their EMPATHY or raise their MISERY:

KATIA rolls

which is not less than her EMPATHY, so she needst o roll her MISERY DICE

KATIA has already max, she must roll her 5 dice

and gets 1 BLACK DOT on MISERY

EMILIA rolls

which is more than ther EMPATHY so 

EMILIA has max already, so must roll her 4 dice… avoids taking black dot

PAVLE has already max, so must roll his 6 dice

he picks up matches so his MISERY escalates but not yet black dot

ROMAN is not present at the house so he skips this step.

ROMAN does now lose his bandage as used.

NEXT we need to resolve SPIRIT OPTION A on all characters.

KATIA and EMILIA would need 1 COFFEE each to avoid taking repercussions,

PAVLE has no habit a, MARIN is dead and ROMAN is away from the house so he skips this step.

You have NO coffee in storage, so both KATIA and EMILIA pick up +1 DICE on their MISERY.