New Exclusion Zone Campaign (pic heavy)

[Spinal Tap]

Great to see all these zone stories progressing.

Your tables and photography are wonderful and really make it 'real'.

[CapnJim]

Well, I suppose I should jump on the proverbial bandwagon, and see what all the fuss is about with Five Parsecs...

[Dan55]

New Campaign, Week five - The Twin Cabins



It was late afternoon on an overcast day when we finally found them.  It had taken quite awhile with many false starts, but there they were, just as described.  The first thing the Kid said was "look at that car".  There was an old abandoned demolition derby car parked next to one of the cabins.  The first thing I noticed was the strange mutated white vegetation surrounding the shed behind the cabins.  We didn't know what to expect here, but it was time to find out.



I told Dalila and the Kid to move up and investigate the cabin on the left while Max and I investigated the one on the right.  I told Artur to place himself in the rocks in the center and cover us.



Dalila and the Kid moved up and Artur positioned himself without any problems or signs of opposition.



Max and I moved up as well.  The cabin looked completely empty and we were about to move towards it when I spotted movement near the stone wall.  Firebugs, again.  They caused enough trouble the last time we met them.  At least now we know how to deal with them.  I put a shot into them to make them move.



And move they did.  They took off and swarmed towards us.  Artur and I opened fire, but it was Max and his shotgun that did the most damage.  The swarm scattered.



Meanwhile, Dalila spotted another swarm by the car that hadn't moved when the first one did.  I gestured to take a shot at them, the Kid did.



This group swarmed even faster than the first one did.  In a flash the Kid was buried by stinging biting bugs.  Dalila tried to fire into them as they moved forward but had no effect before they'd attacked the Kid.  He started kicking and slapping and eventually used his rifle as some kind of make shift bug swatter.  He did manage to drive them off but his rifle was no longer usable, and the Kid's face and arms were covered in bites and patches of blood.



When we saw that the Kid was no longer in danger Max and I returned to checking out the cabin.  It was completely empty.  I thought I heard a noise coming from beside the cabin and I took a look.



Oh my!  It appears that firebugs come in small, medium and LARGE.  I opened fire but my surprise was so complete that I only managed to hit once, and it bounced off.  That armour was going to be a problem.



I backed up firing, and my shouts brought everyone else into the fight.  Max's shotgun wasn't doing much harm, but between Dalila's and my assault rifles it was obvious we were inflicting some damage.



The creature kept crawling forward in spite of our firepower and actually managed to cross the road and come within a couple of feet of us before it stopped moving.  I gave it a couple extra shots just to be sure.  Predictably, they bounced off.



Dalila and I moved towards the shed, Max started looking through the junk between the cabins and the Kid went straight to the car.  "This is so cool" he shouted.  "I think I can salvage some expensive parts from this thing".  I noticed that the mutated vegetation around the shed extended off to the left, something that seemed unusual.



Suddenly Artur began shouting and firing.  We turned about and discovered that the dead bug was once again crawling towards us.  It seemed to have chosen the Kid as its main target, because of his bloody condition I hoped.  It didn't bear thinking that it choose the Kid because his rifle was out of action.



The Kid tried to defend himself with his pistol.  As it closed in, Max leaned forward, placed his shotgun against its head, and gave it both barrels.  It stopped moving for good.



We closed in on the shed, with the Kid commenting on the trail of vegetation leading off to the left.  That's when it struck me - the anomaly was MOBILE.  From the shape of the vegetation left behind it had long ago slowly moved off to the north.  With Dalila and the Kid covering me I carefully creaked open the door of the shed.  There was nothing inside but more of the weird vegetation. 



I went in.  Dalila held open the door, the Kid and Max went back to looting, and Artur checked out the second empty cabin.  Searching about I discovered an hour-glass shaped object that changed shape as you looked at it from different angles.  I recognized it.  It was a known type of artifact, although they usually came in groups of 4 or 5.  Someone had already been here, but had missed this one item.  Dalila suddenly started shooting.



A group of these bugs were coming down from the north.  Dalila, Artur and the Kid were firing into them but didn't seem to be doing much damage.



I joined in.  The bugs were not moving excessively fast, about equal to a fast walk for humans.  The small swarms were not yet attacking but were instead flying around the large ones.



The small ones swarmed, targeting Dalila who fled.  Landing on the roof of the car they came face to face with Max's double barreled bug swatter which did significant damage to them.  I kept firing and gave an order I never thought I'd give.



RUN! 

Fortunately the bugs could not keep up with a human fast run speed.

[has.been]

Fun stuff.
Where did you get the BIG bugs from?

[Grumpy Gnome]

Looks and sounds fun!

[Bullshott]

Excellent stuff. More please!

[Cordvane]

Wow, these Bugs are nasty. Hope you were able to secure the artifact.

[CapnJim]

Sounds like they need to bring a bid BIG can of Raid! next time...

[mikedemana]

^^ Or a grenade! I wonder if there's a way to tip them over and see if the big ones have a soft underbelly...?

Mike Demana

[Dan55]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Has.been - the big bugs are from a weird war Vietnam range called Black Sun.  They're actually the SMALL bugs.  This range also has the wonderful "deep ones" with AK47s.
https://www.cruciblecrush.com/store/range/19/28mm_Weird_War_Nam/

Cordvane - one of the things that made the decision easy for Zola was that Max had already looted the junkpile, the Kid had looted the car, and he had the artifact firmly in his hands.

Mike - when cooked they taste like lobster.

[has.been]

Thanks for that, I'll have to give them a look.

[Doug ex-em4]

As always, I like your table and the establishing shot at the beginning looks great. Incidentally, what size table are you using? You seem to get a lot of action in what looks like quite a small area.

A very interesting game and not a human enemy in sight - I do like those bugs. Loving your campaigns.

Doug

[Mr. White]

Agreed with the others, this game looks amazing. Great job!

[Vagabond]

Run is always a good tactical choice when the odds aren't to your liking.

Another cracking tale, scenery as always looks good. I see you've gone back to the photoshopped background, it makes a real difference, well done. I only have a rudimentary knowledge of photoshop, you mentioned a black background in the past, are you erasing this and adding a second picture layer with the countryside scenery on it?

The bugs look good I'm surprised you eat them though. 
Cheers

[Dan55]

Doug - I'm using a 3 ft x 3 ft mat on a kitchen table.
Vagabond - pretty much as you described it.  I'm setting up black foam-core sheets along 3 sides of the mat, leaving 1 side to shoot the pictures from.  I then remove the black "walls" from the picture and place the result on top of a countryside scene.  I didn't use it for the "night" game on purpose.  I may have increased the big bugs armour rating a bit too much, but you don't think it's wise to eat giant bugs from an unearthly paranormal environment?  hmmmm ...

============================================

We got back to camp with enough loot to make the trip worth while (once we sold the artifact) or so we thought.  The next day we discovered that some department of the government had investigated our bank account and decided we owed more taxes.  Dalila & I argued about which of our two rivals had enough pull with the government to get them to harass us.  (actually it was a campaign random event but fit with events nicely)

Our encounter with the bugs demonstrated a failing in our mix of weapons.  While we had plenty of mid-power rifles, we were lacking in any really powerful ones.  We'd need to fix this soon.  The Kid replaced his damaged rifle with a slightly less powerful one from our collection.  As soon as we had the time we would repair his regular one.

The Kid, and to some extent Max, were scratched and bitten enough to need a couple days of rest.  So we decided to take it easy for a bit.  A quick trip into town and then we'd be off on the track of that strange vegetation and find out where it led.  King had improved and was ready for the next mission.  That doc had been right, the stims had worked wonders.  So it will be "all hands on deck".

New Campaign, Week Six - Oh! It Figures

Dalila and I went into town to try and find out who we were dealing with.  Neither of us had any luck.  King, the Kid and Max were resting and Artur visited our friend the unemployed farmer and came back excited.  He had found some new gossip about a new anomaly in the yellow zone near, but north of, the twin cabins.  In his opinion this was what we were looking for.

We discussed it and voted.  Our three resting members all said they were fine and ready to go.  We collected what we thought we'd need and set out.