Hunting Party - Part 1
The client sat across from Fletcher at his usual table in the Winchester. They shook hands on the deal and downed their pints. His name was MacKay. Ex-military, rich, Scottish and a big game hunter. He had come to the Zone for trophies to add to his collection. Fletcher's crew was to get him into the Zone, to somewhere where he could bag some mutants. No rats, dogs or zombies, but proper mutants would get Fletcher five hundred quid for lesser types and a grand for anything really nasty or unusual.
The area Fletcher had in mind was the abandoned village of Grimford in the Yellow Zone. The area had been well looted by other stalkers so wasn't frequented much. As no one went there the area had been effectively taken over by the creatures of the Zone. There probably wouldn't be much salvage. However, on the plus side, they should certainly get the chance for some good kills and probably wouldn't get any trouble from bandits or other stalkers.
McLaren and Bunny Warren were still working for Grouty and Heslop had to visit his ailing mother. That meant a crew of four to provide security; Fletcher, the ever reliable Lukewarm, young Godber and Ingrid.
Fletcher smiled and signalled over to the bar "Two large ones of your best malt please Dave. He's paying".
I ran this game at TL2 with a game length of 9 turns (to get out of the Zone by nightfall).
MacKay's stats:
2 Actions, Move 6", CA 5, Armour 5, Will 5
Marksman Rifle (Range 48", Firepower 1, Damage 2, aimed shots gain +2 bonus instead of the usual +1)
Machete
Scope, Med-Kit
Board layout
Inspection.of the cottage revealed a pack of hobgoblins feeding on something. MacKay rushed his shot and missed. However, Lukewarm took out two with his SLR and Ingrid moved up to killed another two with her SMG.
The two surviving Hobgoblins charged Fletcher, but only one could reach him. Both the Hobgoblin and Fletcher (despite having 4 attacks) missed. In the following turn Fletcher killed the Hobgoblin facing him (it missed him again). MacKay now had a clear shot and got his kill.
While MacKay took his kill's head with his machete, Lukewarm successfully inspected the ruined house over the road. Unfortunately it turned out to be covered with shimmering 'cobwebs'. A pity as, in addition to there being no salvage, this prevented Fletcher from placing Godber in to provide them with some cover.
Meanwhile, Ingrid moved into the ruined cottage to search the Hobgoblins' lair, finding 500 quid worth of salvage.
Just as the mist closed in and reduced visibility, Lukewarm spied a group of revenants in the trees by the riverbank.
The crew poured fire into the revenants. Lukewarm got a couple of hits with his SLR but only got one kill. Ingrid opened up with her SMG to get two hits before it jammed (critical miss). Unfortunately her standard 9mm ammunition had no effect. Fletcher then opened up with his SMG for 4 hits including a critical. His hot load ammunition tore through the revenants, leaving just one standing. With his final action Fletcher encouraged Ingrid to pull herself together and sort out her SMG.
The surviving revenant couldn't reach any of the crew and Fletcher hosed it down with more 9mm hot load in the following turn.
Encouraged by her search of the cottage, Ingrid had a look at what was left of the revenants, to be rewarded with another 500 quid worth of salvage, plus an intact med-kit and a working flashlight
Time to inspect the houses over the river. A nest of vermin to be avoided in the house on the left.
And even more revenants in the house on the right. Fortunately the occupants of neither house seemed interested in the stalkers
Inspecting the area around the wrecked van revealed the whole junction to be covered with the sticky green goo known as Witches' Brew.
The stalkers were running out of time so moved towards an abandoned camp fire in a patch of trees, which was the nearest unchecked point of interest to their exit point. With no hostiles being visible Lukewarm went closer to the camp fire and noticed some gear hidden under a tarp. A check of the gear revealed a bag of 40mm grenade launcher ammunition (heavy weapon reload) and a satchel charge.
With their time run out the stalkers made their way home with their client and his trophy.
Epilogue:
As Zone runs go, it wasn't a bad run. Five hundred quid from the client for his trophy, a grand worth of salvage, a couple of bits of kit plus a bag of 40mm grenade launcher ammunition that Fletcher could sell on for a good price. All in all, not a bad haul, despite having a close call with the hobgoblins.
The haul from this run nicely covered additional kit for the crew, in the form of chest rigs for Godber and Ingrid and hot loads for Fletcher and Ingrid's SMGs. Also, young Godber finally seemed to have found his feet (promotion to Hardened experience level) and both Godber and Ingrid sorted out improvement to their armour (using 20 advance points gained for this run).
Unfortunately for the client, he only got to bag a hobgoblin. However, he also came away with a taste for the Zone and was now asking Fletcher when they could return.