CapnJim's Post-Apoc Stuff: Zone Run #8 Report Complete...Pg 12...08 Mar 24

[CapnJim]

And here is the last part of our Encounter Report.

Part 3 of 3:  We're Havin' a Heat Wave.  Again...

Over with the Cold Bloods, a couple wounded Cold Bloods got themselves going (they had to DIY, as their medic had already split), so they could take on that frog.  A couple more made their way to the woodline at the north-south road.  One of them ate a grenade from the SCP guy in their Bearcat.



And, with an annoying frequency, another heat wave hit.  The 3rd, if you're counting.  And SAE and SCP men went down.  Again.  And, now, both of those giant crabs were at the fence, eyeing a couple SAE men rather hungrily.



Sensing an opportunity, 2 Cold Bloods decided to cross the road, and try to get into the compound at the NW corner.  One made it.  One didn't, thanks to the SCP grenadier's last grenade.  The grenadier dropped down into the Bearcat, and swapped his grenade launcher for an M4.  The rest of the crews either went about searching the compound, or trying to recover from the heat wave.



The crabs sliced through the fence with their claws, and attacked.   Accurate fire from 2 M4s (and Malloy's AK) sent the crabs scuttling back through the fence.  It was obvious these were hard-shell crabs, as some of those shots should have been kill shots.  The recovery from the heat wave continued, still slowly for the unacclimated SCP crew.



The SAE boys were all back in the fight now (thanks to sterling work by DeSoto, their medic - have I mentioned he's good at what he does?).  After shooing the frog away, 2 Cold Bloods were now cowering behind their pick-up on that side road.  3 SAE men began to head their way to take care of them.



An SCP man worked frantically on their medic and officer, who were out from the heat.



The search of the compound continued.  An SCP man was at the last building to be searched, while the SAE boss was dumpster-diving.



The 2 men at SAE's van shot up the crabs, finally killing one, and running the other off.  2 more deer showed up from the south, took one look at the situation, and promptly left.  The 2 Cold Bloods behind their pickup weighed their options, and decided to get into the truck and back the heck up on out of there.  Well, they managed to get in the truck. at least.  SAE's medic, DeSoto, shot the driver dead with a double-tap to the head. The other Cold Blood got out of the truck, and made a run for it.  2 other SAE men shot him, but he managed to limp away.



The Cold Blood who tried to get into the NW corner of the compound did so.  Taking shelter behind a building, he tried to collect his wits.  His partner that had been wounded by the SCP grenades bled out, so he collected his wits just enough to run away, heading north over the river and through the woods.  But I don't think he was going to grandmother's house...

At this point all the tangos and critters were either down or gone.  The SCP had managed to find 2 more artifacts in that last building, without triggering them.  And in a last anti-climactic event, the SAE boss (Carter) found an artifact in the dumpster as well.  But, he triggered it, freaking him out a bit but not injuring him.  The heat blast from triggering the artifact did blow trash up into his face, so now Carter reeked of old trash...

The final artifact tally?  SCP 5, SAE 3.  With their missions accomplished, the crews headed back to their vehicles.  All of SAE30's men were fully recovered from the heat, but 4 of the SCP ERT were still hurting.  The crews got into their vehicles and left, with the SCP crew heading back to Camp Perry, and SAE30 heading back to Chambers "Hardware" Store.  SAE30 would later find out that one of the SCP guys went into cardiac arrest on their way back to Perry and ultimately died, and their officer required medical attention for a few days.





And there you have it.  Ted's SCP ERT won the artifact-finding contest, but at the price of one of his crewmembers.  He has other crew members who did not participate in the fight, and one of them is a Sergeant, so even though his Lieutenant has to sit the next fight out, he'll still have a leader and plenty of crewmembers he can use.

As for the Cold Bloods, they ain't worth shit.  They are d10, have body armor and AKs, have leaders, and in this fight, had a medic.  None of that did them any good (the medic left on his first recovery roll).  Their luck is consistently bad.  For example:

1.  Their body armor usually doesn't work.  Take this fight, for example.  They failed every one of their body armor rolls.  Except 2.  The 2 hits that last guy running from the pickup took in his back.  He made those saves...

2.  The have a tendency to be in the wrong place in the wrong time.  In this fight, the chances of them showing up in the same place and time through which the National Guard would be leaving was actually quite limited.  Yet, there they were.         

3.  And 2 out of the 3 times we rolled to see what they would do, they rolled the least best option (which also had the least chance for success on the die roll). And paid for it.

4.  And all this has been pretty consistent in all 9 encounters so far.

I think the process that mutated their cardio-vascular systems to withstand excessive heat must have also affected their mental capacities (and their luck).  And by now, with as many men and women as they have lost, they gotta be runnin' low on personnel. 

But fear not.  These heat waves with increasing frequency must be a harbinger of goings-on in the Hard Area of the PEZ.  I suspect there will be other baddies, that have yet to be encountered...  

   
   

[mikedemana]

Great stuff, Jim! I'm very proud of both you and Ted in "playing nice" with each other... 

Hope you guys are having fun. Look forward to reading more of the adventures of the two groups.

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

Thanks, Mike. 

But it'll be a while before there's another encounter.  I'll be down in Florida visiting me brother the last 2 weeks of March....

[Doug ex-em4]

Well flippin’ ‘eck - that was all action. An interesting summary of the Cold Bloods’ campaign to date - they seem to be taking the rôle of the Germans in the war films of the sixties and seventies; basically, they’re targets. But the critturs gave you plenty of things to worry about and the heat waves appear to be the most threatening thing of all, they certainly can throw all your calculations up in the air for a while which makes for an interesting game situation.

I love the photo of the giant frog. It was just so unexpected. It was like a variation of Raymond Chandler’s advice on how to move a plot along - have a giant frog suddenly appear on the scene. To the characters, that frog would be the most terrifying of all the weird animals that have appeared so far.

The prize for the most sensible participants must surely go to the deer: "two more deer showed up for the south, took one look at the situation and promptly left"

Once again, a most enjoyable AAR. Thanks.

Doug

[CapnJim]

Yeah, the Cold Blood have definitely been punching well below their weight.

And thanks for your comments.  Appreciate them...