Fletcher was not happy. Being summoned by the genial Harry Grout never resulted in anything good.
"Now Fletcher," said Grouty, "I've got a little job for you. Last week the army did a sweep around Bleakstone to take out the scum who've been causing grief to everyone. They overstepped their mark when they shot up some government scientists and the army gave them their just deserts. Anyway, good riddance to them, they were upsetting the natural order of things" (meaning that not only were they encroaching on the profitability of the bandits in Grouty's pay, but they had managed to bring the level of bandit activity in the Zone to the attention of the military).
On the face of it, the job seemed simple. The bandits had been based at Bleakridge Farm overlooking the Bleakstone road. Go to the farm and recover anything that the bandits had stashed. Grouty gets to keep half of the value of any salvage or artifacts. Any gear Fletcher finds are is his to do with as he wants (subject to the normal fee for anything he sells).
Simple? Not a chance. Bandits have a habit of boobytrapping their stashes. Also, army sweeps take prisoners away with them but leave the bodies behind. With the bandits gone, the Zone's creatures will have quickly moved back into the area to feast. With Grouty taking half the loot, Fletcher would need to salvage everything of worth at the farm to make the trip worthwhile.
Game setup. On the nearest side of the board, 2 vehicles and the ruined cottage are POIs. On the far side of the board, the remaining 2 vehicles and the 4 buildings are POIs.
A string of bad bolt toss/inspection rolls from Fletcher (leader) and Bunny (scrounger) succeeded in alerting a pack of feral dogs. Worse still, the dogs deployed within move distance of McLaren. McLaren sensibly used his Alert action to dive over the wall and open up to the distance between him and the dogs. Meanwhile Lukewarm (medic) used his Alert action to give one dog a 7.62mm surprise. in the following turn the group made short work of the remaining dogs.
There was nothing to salvage at the car, so the stalkers advanced towards the farm.
Bunny got lucky. A successful bolt toss/inspect roll revealed a group of bandits lying in ambush without activating them (must have been sleeping or otherwise distracted)
The stalkers didn't use their Alert actions. Instead they waited until the following turn so that they could all get the jump on the bandits. All successfully took out their targets, although Fletcher had to expend 2 actions (8 shots) before one of his SMG rounds hit true.
While Bunny quickly searched the bandits' hut for salvage. the others looked around the farm for potential locations that might hold salvage.
The Bedford van looked tempting. A successful bolt toss/inspect roll revealed another pack of dogs. Lukewarm was on Alert, so took gave two dogs a 7.62mm surprise. Unfortunately I had forgotten how fast dogs move and they closed in on Fletcher and Lukewarm. Fletcher killed his dog, taking a wound in the process (good thing he was loaded up with med-kits), while Lukewarm took out his dog without any problems.
While the team redeployed, Bunny raced over to search the van for salvage. Meanwhile McLaren checked out the farmhouse, finding a dead bandit. In addition to a bit of gear, he found a marked-up map of the Northmoor area on the bandit.
Inspecting the large barn revealed an anomaly pulsing within the barn's shadows.
Trusting to his luck (stupidity?), Bunny decided to search the anomaly. He managed to avoid triggering it and came out with an artifact
In the penultimate turn Bunny the scrounger discovered a supply cache in the small barn, pulling out a couple of useful items in the final turn.
Meanwhile McLaren discovered an old lady who told him that, of the remaining two POIs in the fields, one contained nothing of interest and there was a mutant sniffing round the other
With no time left to check out the mutant (the stalkers needed to make themselves scarce before a patrol turned up) Fletcher decided it was time to head home.
Epilogue:
Fletcher was pleased and mulled over their success as they downed celebratory beers at the Winchester. The trip had gone far better than he could have anticipated (even if one of the dogs had bitten him). They had netted a reasonable haul of salvage and Bunny had excelled himself in beating an anomaly. Grouty would be very pleased. Even with Grouty's 50% cut for this trip, Fletcher would still walk away with over three grand. Against his better nature, Fletcher decided that Bunny deserved a reward, so he would buy him one of the new-fangled Quatermass anomaly detectors from Camp Tony* and a set of modified 58-pattern webbing to carry it on. Hopefully this investment would pay off in future Zone runs.
* Camp Tony is Fletcher's chosen supplier of weapons and equipment for zone runs.
This game was run with a 10k team in TL1. I had a couple of close calls, as I had forgotten how fast feral dogs move (my leader took one wound). Other than some bad initial bolt toss rolls and Fletcher's poor rolls shooting at the bandits, the team fared well. The two weakest (regular) members, 'Bunny' Warren and Lukewarm, both did well.
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