Fletcher was worried. The next potential bandit stash was in the Chapel of Saint Ninian on the Moors. As well as being on the edge of Northmoor it was also just inside the Yellow Zone. Most of his team were still fairly inexperienced, with young Godber even more so. Were they biting off more than they could chew? However, if they left the chapel for another day there was a good chance that someone else would get to the stash first. It was now or never. He hoped they didn't run into any bandits or tough mutants.
This game was run at TL2 with an 11K team (now including the rookie Godber). The game was limited to 8 turns, by which time the team needed to be back at their entry point in order to make their way to a safe place to hole-up overnight.
Board setup
Things started badly. In order to perform a Bolt Toss and Inspect action, Fletcher had to move to where he could see under the bridge. This ate up available time and was exacerbated when the Geiger counter started clicking wildly (reducing the game duration to 7 turns). To add insult to injury, there was quite obviously nothing under the bridge.
Moving on to the church, the only way the team were going to find out what was inside was going to be to kick the doors in. Fletcher knew just the man and McEwan's size 10 boot revealed a group of four bandits skulking inside (fortunately the team hadn't needed to shoot at anything previously, so the bandits were taken by surprise). The Scot opened up with his SLR, killing two and pinning another. The fourth bandit was also hit but the shot was blocked by his flak jacket and he shrugged it off. Fortunately one of the shots was a critical hit, so the Scot fired again for one kill and a miss. Bunny then leveled his shotgun, killing the pinned bandit before he entered the church to see what he could salvage.
With the church dealt with and not much time remaining, Fletcher turned his attention to the AA phone box. An old lady poked her head out of the door and asked him if he had any ciggies.
In return for half a pack of Rothmans, the old lady said that there were mutants near the car by the river and revenants at the ruined cottage. The team didn't have time to clear both, so Fletcher opted for the mutants, being the nearest target and also closest to the team's exit point.
Godber missed with his shot at the mutants, but McEwan was on a roll and 7.62mm bullets tore through the old Austin. One mutant died immediately and the other was pinned, so the Scot fired again. This was not a good time for the surviving mutant to fluff it's armour saves.
Fletcher immediatly put his scrounger skills to use, finding two low level items of salvage.
Meanwhile Bunny Warren found two decent items of salvage and several useful items of basic gear.
The team made it out with no time to spare.
Epilogue:
The haul uncovered by Bunny Warren more than compensated for the low pickings found between the other locations they looked at. McLaren was the man of the match, dealing effectively with most of the hostiles. Young Godber certainly needed some more target practice and to get into shape to have any chance of keeping up.
Luck was certainly against the team with the high radiation level reducing their time available. Even without that, they would have been pushed to search maybe one more area. Fletcher therefore decided they needed another pair of hands. It would reduce everyone's split of the spoils, but would allow them to split into two teams and cover a greater area. Heslop had been working security at the Winchester. He wasn't the sharpest knife in the draw, but had been on a number of zone runs before and was very handy in brawl. Fletcher would see if he was interested in joining the team.
Post-game salvage and advances:
After deductions and selling on surplus gear (three sets of binoculars) the team had a stash of 7,533 quid. With no new gear required they could afford 2,500 to hire and equip Heslop (Regular, Hard, armed with shotgun and machete).
With 27 points in hand to cover experience advances, the team could afford a couple of stat line bonuses. Godber was made to do some serious exercise (+1" move to get him up to 6") and McLaren rearranged his gear stowage to give himself an extra equipment slot for a gas mask (increase from 3 to 4 equipment slots).
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