New Exclusion Zone Campaign (pic heavy)

[CapnJim]

Alrighty then.  Looks like we get to look forward to another report on their shananig..., er, I mean, activities...

Which reminds me, my SAE 30 crew has been quiet lately too...hmmm...

[Dan55]

I gave Artur the job of scout.  In our last encounter he showed just how fast he was when he needed to be.  King volunteered to be our new sniper.  He was already a good shot and this was an opportunity for him to show off.  After a couple days of travel into the zone we began to spot seriously strange critters.  Fortunately they didn't bother us so we didn't bother them.



We were following a dirt road through some hilly terrain when we came upon an abandoned roadside diner.   The Kid spotted some of the mutated vegetation that we were searching for in the parking lot.  We moved towards it.



Suddenly a small mob exploded out of the picnic area.  Were they just passing through or did we intrude on their camp?  And were they hostile?  They were carrying plenty of weapons.



I told King to set up the sniper rifle and support us.  The Kid was to assist.  We moved off to the left with Artur in the lead and Max, Dalila, and I following.



This strange group started shooting into the air.  Dalila and I went for nearby cover, even though none of their shots even came close to us.  Either they were just warning us off, or they were the worst shots imaginable.



Suddenly they poured out of the picnic area, shouting and shooting.  Hostile they were.  We fired back.  I noticed they were avoiding the parking lot.



And they just kept coming, not even trying to make use of the available cover.  They were shooting in every direction now, Max was hit and went down.  Artur was hit but was only grazed.



King got the woman in the yellow shirt with the sniper rifle, Dalila hit the woman in green who went down, and I hit the man with no shirt twice.  He just kept coming.  About this time I noticed that the man all in green had run off.



Screaming and foaming at the mouth the two men charged me and Dalila.  I hit the lead man but he didn't even slow down.  I thought to myself, this isn't happening.



Over on the flank Artur was also fighting for his life.  He and his opponent each scored hits.  They both managed to stay up.  How tough were these crazies?  (random battle event - opponents are tougher than expected)



Again Artur hit his opponent, who stayed up and then knocked Artur to the ground.  I managed to club the man who had charged me, taking him out.



The two opponents on my left charged me.  My shooting was rushed and I missed them both.  King and the Kid rushed up to help us.



Dalila was charged, and I was fighting two opponents.  I was hit twice, but managed to stay up.  The tough guy I was fighting finally went down. 



Dalila was hit and went down.  The two crazies left standing saw King and the Kid moving up, and fled.

We administered our last two med kits to Dalila and Max and patched up Artur the best we could and placed him on a scratch built stretcher.  Then we moved to check out the parking lot.



The Kid shouted, "Don't come any closer".  There was a body and a suitcase covered in mutated vegetation lying in the parking lot.  Above them was some kind of distortion in the air.  "It wasn't there until I began to approach it.  I feel as if I weight a thousand pounds and I'm afraid I'll fall over if I lift even one of my feet".  King and I slowly moved towards him from behind.  He was right, we got exponentially heavier with each step - we were face to face with a very rare gravitational anomaly.  We reached the Kid, propped him up and we all slowly moved back until we were free of the effect.  Now what do we do?



The Kid answered "No problem, someone get a rope".  We fastened a hook to it, threw it at the suitcase (it took several tries and I got to use a rarely used stat for it) and dragged it away.  Then we dragged out the body of the dead stalker and buried him.  We decided not to hang around.  We would open the case when we got back to base.

[Spinal Tap]

Great report, really enjoyed that.

[CapnJim]

Good report.  Hope Artur is OK. 

But where were the cops who's car was in the diner parking lot? 

[mikedemana]

Nice terrain and figs! I enjoyed the report...keep 'em coming.

Mike Demana

[Dan55]

Thanks for the support everyone, it's really appreciated.  CaptJim, if you look at a close up of the car you can see that it is a wreck.

Post Battle Sequence

We checked out the diner and only found odds and ends, mostly canned food.  The cans looked safe so we took what we found back with us.  On the battlefield we found an automatic pistol in good condition and a carbine and a machine pistol, both damaged.  I claimed the machine pistol, I would repair it when I had time.

We made good time on the way back.  Artur, who was resting comfortably on the stretcher, woke up after about half an hour.  From that point forward he gave us a running commentary on our journey as we carried him.  After a bit Dalila got tired of it and asked him just how badly he was hurt.  He admitted that other than a bump on the head, he felt fine, but was enjoying the ride.  (rolled a 93 - "knocked out only").  Dalila dumped the stretcher and Artur walked the rest of the way alongside the rest of us.  He credited his lucky charm for saving him.

When we reached the base camp everyone gathered around for the opening of the suitcase.  We took every precaution and were rewarded when the rest of the missing hour glasses came to light (this counts as the first successful artifact find).  They brought a good reward and were quickly sold.

Afterwards, we discussed the battle and came to the conclusion that all of us need to get in a bunch of shooting practice.  While we were doing this a stranger wandered by in a truck (random campaign event) and said that he was checking out the area and wanted to know if we had anything we wanted to trade.  We dumped a bunch of junk on him including most of our damaged weapons.  He was happy with the weapons and we received a crate of fresh cans of food, really good stuff, plus some booze.  Dalila thought he was a shady looking character.  He left and we went back to practicing.

I checked out my trinket and wondered about just how lucky Artur had been and I wondered if his good luck would hold out.  (random character event, +1 luck.  Artur got it of course, can you believe it?)

[Vagabond]

Another lovely looking table, the loose stones look like a new addition and work well with the existing rocck formations.

I've been on the lookout for some convincing bark to copy your rocks and finally found some in a forest area. Unfortunately I  was on holiday and we were cycling at the time so couldn't carry them.  Mrs V was quite pleased but I was gutted, they were thicker than the usual bark and would have been ideal.

Great AAR, it's been a long time coming  but worth the wait. Hope to read more soon.
Cheers

[Dan55]

Vagabond, thanks - I had to shift the stones around a bit to make them look natural but I think they worked nicely.  As to the cedar chips I believe they were purchased from a outdoor garden store.

New Campaign, Week eight - Invasion

Notes from a Stalker's diary

Well, now that we'd tracked down and recovered the only artifacts we knew about, we were back to hiring ourselves out again until we could gain enough clues to put us on the trail of the next one.  Dalila and I went into town to catch up on the gossip, and do a little trading.  Max and Artur visited the neighbours and The Kid and King guarded the base.

Dalila and I found the town in a bit of an uproar, people hurriedly doing last minute shopping and closing up stores and houses.  We visited one of our more friendly contacts and discovered that military convoys had been spotted heading towards the town and no-one knew why.  We traded for what we could get - a frag vest and shotgun (random trade items) and beat it back to the base as fast as we could.

Max and Artur visited our friendly not-farmer friend and received the same warning.  They were given a number of very nice repair devices for our collection (random explore items) and heading home.  We all arrived at about the same time, and we weren't the only ones.

Both groups received "hot tip".

[Vagabond]

The plot thickens. 

[CapnJim]

Hmm.  The military, eh?  I'm sure it's just a routine patrol....