The Quatermass Run: Part 7 - Hunted
The crew did their best to stay warm and dry overnight. Blanco found some not too damp wood and got a smoky fire going, onto which he stuck his mess tin. Godber produced some tea bags, so they got a brew on. McLaren topped up their tea from a flask of Bells he had secreted in his pack. To finish their repast, Bunny Warren produced a handful of Mars Bars he had brought along 'just in case'.
Fletcher ordered McLaren and Bunny to rest and allow their wounds to heal. The others took turns in pairs to go on watch. To their surprise, they had a quiet night. In the morning the crew had a quick brew then started off to get out of the Red Zone. If they had no trouble they should get completely out of the Zone by the evening.
It was only a couple of miles to the edge of the Red Zone. If they could get into the Yellow Zone quickly Fletcher would be a lot happier. Then the keen-eyed McLaren noticed figures on the horizon behind them. They were being followed. Fortunately the moorland provided plenty of dead ground and cover from gullies, stone walls, rocks and the like. Using this cover they should be able to hide from anyone looking for them.
Looking at the map, McLaren pointed out that if they headed North for a couple of hours they would come to Grouty's base in Yellow Zone, that he and Bunny had been guarding. If they could get there they would be safe. The quickest way to the base was to head through a valley, which the map showed to be partially wooded with some clusters of buildings.
Although they saw armed groups on the horizon, none saw the crew as they approached the valley. As they crossed the last rise the valley came into sight and the crew were taken aback by what they saw. It was a vision of Hell. The valley must have been hit hard by one of the early emissions. The road, now long since washed away, was littered with rusted vehicles that had been trying to escape the area. The trees looked to have died instantly from a massive dose of radiation and were now just bare orange trunks, with the ground littered with orange pine needles and dead shrubs, although poking up through the muddy ground and orange needles in places were new growths of green. As for the buildings, they were long deserted ruins that would provide little to no cover. At various points in the valley they could see the tell-tale flickering of anomalies. "Keep an eye on your Geiger counters as we cross that" said Fletcher.
McLaren went ahead of the crew to see if any of their adversaries had got in front of them. Even with his size and recent injury he moved silently as he went down the wooded slope into the valley. After a while he came back looking visibly shaken. Fletcher joked that he looked white, but McLaren ignored him. "They got here first, but they're not going to bother us." said the big Scot "I think we've got a bigger problem".
The path led through a gulley surrounded by the orange trees. In clearing ahead they saw what had shaken McLaren. None of them had been prepared for this and both Godber and Ingrid brought up the contents of their stomachs. Scattered around the clearing were the fresh remains of several men. They couldn't tell how many, as the bodies had been ripped apart by something in a feeding frenzy, with pieces scattered around the area. The undergrowth in the clearing had been completely crushed and some of the smaller tree trunks had been snapped. Fragments of gore-stained robes showed these men to have probably been from the same group that had been following them. Maybe this was an ambush party that had been surprised by something. Something very big.
McLaren and Bunny nervously scanned the woods while Fletcher sorted out Godber and Ingrid. The only crew member not phased by the sights in the clearing was Blanco, who whistled as he went through the remains of broken equipment and bodies, cleaning and pocketing Kalashnikov magazines and the occasional valuable.
Meanwhile Bunny looked around in the woods beyond the clearing. He found a wide trail from something big that had moved through the woods, possibly circling the clearing before going in for the kill. There were no discernable footprints, just crushed undergrowth like the trail from whatever had circled their camp a couple of nights ago. It was time to move on, fast.
This scenario is loosely based on the final mission in the Zone Ravens campaign in the Kontraband rules. The game was run at TL3 with an 8 turns limit. The sodden ground means that all movement is reduced by 1".
Game Setup
The first obstacle to be passed was the abandoned Morris Traveller. The crew moved into position to cover this point of interst, going into Alert (overwatch) mode. Fletcher then took a good look at the car (Bolt Toss and Inspect actions), confirming no movement in the area. However the back doors were ajar and it looked like there was some gear in the back of the car. Ingrid moved up and found a large metal box with a badly rusted lock (Damaged Container). Using her Wrench skill with her tool kit made short work of the lock and she discovered the chest was mainly filled with army webbing. A quick rummage through the webbing produced a serviceable chest rig and load bearing harness, as well as 750 quid worth of other salvage.
Next up, Fletcher tossed a large stone into the ruined cottage on their left. The stone overshot and clattered off the back wall, disturbing a mutant from whatever it was doing. None of the crew could get a clear shot, so they had to wait for it to come into view. Sure enough, the mutant exited the ruin in search of fresh meat, charging straight towards Fletcher. The mutant went down hard, taking a total of four hits from the combined firepower covering the ruin.
While the rest of the crew moved up the road, Bunny Warren checked out the mutant's lair. Using his Scrounger skill he amassed a detector, another chest rig and 2,750 quid worth of other salvage.
Exiting the ruined cottage, Bunny decided to try his luck at the Anomaly in the road. He tossed a piece of rock in the direction of the anomaly, but couldn't ascertain what type it was (failed Bolt Toss). A second rock produced the desired effect, as he observed the rock to be displaced several yards from the anomaly. A Teleport anomaly! Annoying, but not usually lethal (unless it teleported you inside a wall or somesuch).
Bunny approached the anomaly and pulled out a medium value artifact worth three and a half grand. Trusting to his luck and his Scrounger skill, Bunny reached towards the anomaly again. Unfortunately this time he triggered the anomaly (Critical Failure rolled), which bounced him around several times until he was finally thrown over a wall and out of its area of effect. A somewhat disorientated Bunny ended up lying stunned on the ground (Pinned after Critical Failure roll).
While Bunny tried to recover his senses, the rest of the crew moved up to cover the ruined farmhouse over the road from the anomaly.
Bunny scurried back over the wall (well away from the anomaly) as Fletcher checked out the ruined farmhouse. Unfortunately Fletcher couldn't get a clear view inside, so all his Bolt Toss did was to wake up a pack of hobgoblins lurking inside. It was at this point when things were about to go wrong for the crew.
As the hobgoblins surged out of the farmhouse the crew opened fire. Always reliable, McLaren killed the pair nearest him. Blanco only got one hit, which his target shrugged off. The same happened for Godber, but his SLR also jammed (Pinned). That left Bunny facing three greenskins intent on carving pieces off him. Slam-firing his trusty shotgun he took all three opponents out, although the last one managed to catch him with a blade just before its head disappeared in a green mist.
To add to the crew's woes, they heard something large approaching from beyond the anomaly (something nasty that will appear at the start of the next turn). Bunny was injured and Ingrid with her Bone Doc skill was nowhere to be seen (she had wandered off up the road), so Bunny applied one of his med-kits and slowly sorted himself out (recovered the two Pins for self-applying a med-kit). Leaving the remaining greenskin to McLaren to dispose of, he snuck behind it towards the farmhouse. McLaren then croseed the road towards the farmhouse and went inside. The rest of the crew took up positions to wait for whatever was approaching.
The creature that was approching was huge and hideous. Its long sinuous body had elements reminiscent of both a snake and a centipede, but it was far removed from both species. This must surely be the creature that had been stalking them, the Great Wyrm of Northmoor. On seeing the terrifying creature both Bunny and Godber froze (the Wyrm is Terrifying: TWO Will checks required per stalker seeing it for the first time, one Pin for each failure).
McLaren climbed to the remains of the farmhouse's first floor in order to get a shot. When he saw the beast he too froze. He used the rest of his turn to shake off his two Pins. Bunny shook off his two pins, then letting rip with his shotgun. However only one shot found its way through the creature's armour and his gun also jammed (Pinned). Godber shook off his Pin and opened-up with his SLR, getting another good hit on the beast. So far the Wyrm had taken two hits and was still coming towards them!
The Wyrm lunged at its nearest target, the pinned Bunny (desperately trying to unjam his shotgun). Bunny dodged a lunge from its slavering jaws, but was caught by a heavy blow from its tail, that smashed him against the stone ruins. Seeing another target (Fletcher) close by, the Wyrm ignored the wounded Bunny and surged forward to engage him in rather one-sided combat.
[Game Note: The Great Wyrm used the Alpha Predator stats from the Kontraband supplement, but with 4 Wounds]
With Fletcher now in danger of being eaten by the Wyrm, Godber opened fire on it, with one of his hits getting through its armour. Blanco moved into position to get a shot, only to freeze when he saw the terrifying creature. Following Blanco, cool-headed Ingrid moved up, saw the hideous creature, swore at it in a distinctly un-ladylike way and let loose a burst from her Sterling. Somehow one of her 9mm rounds found its mark and got past the creature's armour. The Wyrm reared-up, thrashed around and fell motionless to the ground.
The crew had spent too long in the area (exceeding the game's 8-turn limit), so needed to press on and escape the area before anything else came to seek them out. Still, that wouldn't stop them from taking advantage of any salvage opportunities on their way out of the area.
While Bunny applied another med-kit (he was sure he had a couple of cracked ribs for starters), Fletcher darted into the farmhouse to check out the hobgoblins' lair with his Scrounger skills. He was rewarded with yet another chest rig and detector, a scope sight, a box of 9mm hot loads (which he pocketed for his Sterling) and 1750 quid worth of other salvage.
With Fletcher and Bunny pre-occupied, Ingrid and the others had a look at the crashed lorry blocking their way along the road. A careful check revealed a large mutated pig snuffling around the lorry, although none of the stalkers could get a decent shot on it. Trusting her companions to cover her, Ingrid moved into the road to get sight of the beast. A burst from her Sterling sealed its fate.
With the rest of the crew making their way out of the area along the road, Ingrid checked out the crashed lorry, only to find nothing worth salvaging.
Epilogue:
The stalkers were running behind time and wouldn't now make it to the safety of Grouty's base before sunset. There was now the real danger that the time lost fighting the Wyrm and the sound of their gunfire would have their pursuers on top of them. To make matters worse, movement was going to be slow on the sodden ground and Bunny wasn't in a good way. Ingrid had done her best to treat his wounds from the greenskin's blade and the hammering he took from the Wyrm, but he certainly was going to be far from being on top form for a while.
Overrunning the game turn limit must have consequences. In this case it means the crew will have to fight another action trying to escape their pursuers before getting out to safety. With the crew having used up most of their grenades and eaten their way into their med-kits, the next game is going to be a challenge.
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July 15, 2010, 09:33:44 PM