CapnJim's Post-Apoc Stuff: Zone Run #8 Report Complete...Pg 12...08 Mar 24

[CapnJim]

And on with Part 3....

Part 3 of 3:  And Then It Was Hot and Dry.  But Really Hot.

Malloy, Newkirk, and Mrs. Chambers were firing away at the last crab.  But it was still coming and getting just too damn close.  Pyle was out of the Post Office now, crossing the street heading toward the crabs, but ran his SAW dry.  But I guess if you throw enough bullets at something, some'll hit it.  And that's what happened.  As the last crab was about to charge at them from the parking lot, the combined weight of fire from Malloy, Newkirk, and Mrs. Chambers finally dropped that last crab.



Over at the tobacco shop, the last of the 6 Cold Bloods hurried out the back door, and lay in wait for Jethro and Goober to come out after him.  But he was clearly not happy - some of Goober's BFR rounds had come way too close for comfort.



While all of that was going on, DeSoto got to Jethro, and brought him back around.  "Jethro, you are one hard mother f****r" he told him.



With the crabs down, Newkirk decided it was time to check out the Hot Spot several feet in front of him.  Then, out of nowhere, another one popped up, right next to the first one.  As he approached them, a large lizard crept out from under that stack of crates and debris in the parking lot the snakes had originally come out of.  He quickly and carefully worked his way around the Hot Spot (thank God there wasn't an anomaly!), and found $500 and a pair of binos.



Goober carefully approached the back door of the tobacco shop.  Then he had an idea.  He took out his cell phone, discovered it had service today, and called Chambers.  "I think there's still one of those chumps out behind the tobacco shop.  Come in from the alley, and maybe we can trap him".  "Good idea" came back Mr. Chambers. "Just gimme a few minutes."



Mr. Chambers grabbed Mrs. Chambers (not like that...), and headed for the alley between his place and the old tire store. 



Newkirk backed up to the cover of the SUV, and Pyle came up by the taxi.  DeSoto had come up on the far side of the downed tree in the street.  They shot at the lizard while Malloy checked out the other Hot Spot.  No heat blast and no anomaly there, either.  And $350 and a med-kit. 



And them it hit them.  The rains stopped, but a big ol' heat wave rolled through.  The Cold Blood in the alley shrugged it off, and Goober and Jethro were inside a building.  Mr. and Mrs. Chambers were not so lucky - they both got woozy and had to sit down in that alley for a minute.  And what of SAE30?  Pyle, DeSoto, and Malloy just got a bit uncomfortable.  But Newkirk hit the pavement, out cold (out hot, maybe?).

When the heat wave passed, Jethro joined Goober at the back door of the tobacco shop, ignoring his gunshot wound.  That Cold Blood was still outside, waiting for them.



Mrs. Chambers felt better first.  As a retired nurse, she knew what to do, and she went over to her husband and checked on him.  Together, they got back on their feet, and headed through the alley, toward their prey.  Mr. Chambers went first, and saw the 2 bodies already there.  And he drew a bead on that Cold Blood with his trusty shotgun, loaded with a slug and 3 buck shot (in the old days, they would have called that "buck and ball"...).



Out in the street, Pyle and Malloy shot down that lizard, as DeSoto rushed over to see about Newkirk.



Pyle and Malloy kept watch over things as DeSoto worked on Newkirk.  He was able to stabilize him.  DeSoto was good at what he does.



And in that alley, Mr. Chambers' shotgun blast dropped the Cold Blood.  As he staggered back to his feet, Jethro and Goober stepped outside, and Marilyn came up to cover the situation with her FAL.  It was now 4 on 1.  The Cold Blood did his math - 2 and 2 came up to 4 (in this case, literally).  While he briefly considered trying to make a run for it, discretion overcame valor.  He dropped his AK to the pavement and raised his arms in the universal sign of surrender.



And then it was over.  the shooting stopped.  No more Cold Bloods came around, and no more critters came a-callin'.  And it was then everyone heard the sirens.  It was time to sort things out now...

And there you have it.  As I said, it was quite the scrum.  All kinds of things happened.  Jethro's gonna hurt for awhile, and Malloys gonna have a headache.  And Newkirk (remember, he's their scrounger) is gonna take a while to recover from his heat exhaustion - he's gonna miss the next job.

[Doug ex-em4]

As always, a great AAR to read and enjoy. Your solo games always read well. I’m interested in the weather effects. It made for extra interest having the weather changing and the wave of heat had obvious repercussions. How about the rain? You mentioned it affected visibility but I don’t recall any mention of any character being penalised by it.

Are those Cold Bloods likely to inflict any serious damage? They were outnumbered this time - I was beginning to feel sorry for them

Thanks for sharing - very entertaining.

Doug

[Spinal Tap]

Great pictures, miniatures, terrain and story.

As usual.

[CapnJim]

As always, a great AAR to read and enjoy. Your solo games always read well. I’m interested in the weather effects. It made for extra interest having the weather changing and the wave of heat had obvious repercussions. How about the rain? You mentioned it affected visibility but I don’t recall any mention of any character being penalised by it.

Are those Cold Bloods likely to inflict any serious damage? They were outnumbered this time - I was beginning to feel sorry for them

Thanks for sharing - very entertaining.

Doug

Thanks, Doug!  I appreciate that...

I use the Environmental Hazards Chart in Zona Alfa.  I roll at the beginning of the game, and then again if that random event is rolled.  Rain cuts weapons ranges in half - and that was one reason why those crabs were hard to put down when they decided to go after the humans.

As for the Cold Bloods, the die rolls drive the narrative.  They are even with the SAE30 crew in terms of weapons , armor, and experience (absent the lack of red-dot sights).  And the Chambers', Jethro, and Goober did not have armor, and had inferior weapons to the Cold Bloods (well, except for Marilyn's FAL...).  Even though they were outnumbered, it ought to have been a more even fight.  But, I'm noticing some trends in these games...

1.  SAE30 guys generally make their armor rolls, while the Cold Bloods generally do not.
2.  SAE30 has a medic (DeSoto), and he makes almost all of his medic rolls.  The Cold Bloods do not have medics.  Maybe they need some! 
3.  In this game, the critters ended up being busy with each other.  But had they come on at other spawn points, the humans could have had very different experiences....

And, with 3 rolls on the Zone Hostiles Chart (2 Hot Spots and a random event), there could have been 6 more Cold Bloods come on....

So, don't feel too sorry for the Cold Bloods.  The dice gods will swing their pendulum one of these games, and SAE30 will take it in the shorts...

Great pictures, miniatures, terrain and story.

As usual.

Thanks! Appreciate that.

[Bullshott]

Excellent stuff as usual. I hope one of the crew had the sense to recover the AK from the captured cold blood

[CapnJim]

Excellent stuff as usual. I hope one of the crew had the sense to recover the AK from the captured cold blood

Thanks.  And funny you should ask that.  My younger brother asked that very same question when I regaled him with my crew's tales of daring-do...and, yes, they did.  And Malloy was quick to scoop up all the 7.62x39 ammo he could get his hands on.

And, as it turns out, between the attache case the SCP ERT grabbed 2 reports ago, and the captured Cold Blood from this report, some good intel may just have been obtained.  Tomorrow (Thursday), I plan to do the lead-in for this Friday's game, in which my SAE30 crew and Ted's SCP ERT pay a visit to a Cold Bloods base camp in the Medium Area of the PEZ...details to follow...

[CapnJim]

After the local PD came and went, which happened after SAE30 and Co. had policed up the Cold Blood weapons and ammo, the crew got down to business with Mr. Chambers.  Between the ammo they scrounged off the Cold Bloods, and what Mr. Chambers had in stock, they now had plenty of ammo.  Unfortunately, Mr. Chambers was running a bit low on the other things for which SAE30 was looking.   After conducting said business, the crew got the ammo (no hot load ammo, though), 5 med-kits (including the one they found at the Hot Spot), a set of NVDs, and one serving of Energy Juice.  They also had scrounged off the Hot Spot a pair of binos.  Mr. Chambers also couldn't sell them a spare detector, as he didn't have any in stock.  The crew did OK, but not as good as they were hoping.

Pyle then reported in to Dr. Smith, who had interesting news.  "First", he said "Carter's getting out of the hospital tomorrow.  I'll bring him back to your base, where he can link up with the other guys.  They should have the van good good to go by then, so they'll head into the PEZ to meet you guys at Chambers' place.  You stay put there until Carter and the boys get there.  Ask Marilyn to look after Newkirk until he recovers from his heat stroke."

"OKay", replied Pyle.  "What's second?"

"May have another job for you guys.  I going to meet with the feds, the military, local authorities, and the Regional Director of the SCP tomorrow morning.  Try to sort a few things out.  I'll be in touch afterwards".  At which point Dr. Smith hung up.   

The next day, about noon, Dr. Smith called again.  The cell phones had service again...

"First, with the information they got from an attache case the SCP ERT snatched, and from that Cold Blood you guys grabbed, they think they know where at least one of the Cold Bloods' bases is.  Just inside the Medium Area, in some old abandoned industrial place.  A platoon from the 1st of the 148th is gonna hit it at dawn in the morning.  Those Guard guys don't want anything to do with any artifacts, so you guys, except for Newkirk of course, and the SCP ERT are gonna go in after the Guard secures the place to do an artifact sweep of the whole facility.  They are gonna leave a squad there until you guys show up"

"Really?" said Pyle, a bit incredulously.  "Us and SCP?  Together?  Yer kiddin', right?"

"No, I'm totally serious - and play nice.  And I think I might have things sorted out with the military, at least for now, but that Guard squad is going to leave as soon as you and the SCP show up.  Be extra nice to them.  i don't want any more, um, incidents."

"Fine" said Pyle  "We'll try to be nice".

"You better.  Carter and the rest of the crew should be there about suppertime tonight.  Rest up.  Do well tomorrow."

So there you have it.  An easy sweep job after the Army National Guard guys secure the site.  Piece of cake...   

Ted and I play tomorrow.  Here is my crew's cheat sheet.  I don't have one for Ted's crew yet - he has it.  I'll fill him in on the mission tomorrow morning.



And here is the Random Encounter Chart and the Zone Hostiles Chart.  Use instructions are on them.  Each Zone Hostile card may only be drawn once.



Here's a map of our Cold Blood base camp, post raid with our Army Guard squad keeping an eye on the place.  There are 6 Cold Blood bodies lying about the place.



Here are a few closer-up shots of the place.







SAE30 and the SCP ERT should show up at the same time.  Once they link up with the Army Guard squad leader, they Guard boys will mount up and pull out.  Even if Zone Hostiles are sighted and/or attacking.  They have been ordered to play nice, too, but they heard about SAE30...

There are 10 possible locations for artifacts.  The gray pick-up, the dumpster, the shipping container, the shack by the gate, and the 2 floors each of the 3 2-story buildings.  A figure from a crew must spend an action at each location to search, and pass a Hard Task Roll to find an artifact.  If they find one, they have to pass a Medium Task Roll to avoid triggering an anomaly.  The anomalies do not produce any additional artifacts, but each crew may then search (as an additional action) the artifact location once, by rolling on the TL2 Salvage chart in Zona Alfa).  Each crew gets 2 Renown Points for each artifact they find (even if it triggers an anomaly), and that they get off the board.  And they get to do all this, while likely having to fight off Zone Hostiles.  The crew with the most artifacts after both have left the board "wins".

Of course, I'll do an AAR after we play tomorrow...

[Doug ex-em4]

Of course, I'll do an AAR after we play tomorrow..

You’d better…..! Anticipating.

Doug

[CapnJim]

You’d better…..! Anticipating.

Doug

So let it be written, so let it be done.  In due time, of course...

[mikedemana]

Jim and Ted. Playing nice together. Hmm...what are the chances gunfire doesn't break out between those two? 

Have fun in your game! I will be heading down to CincyCon 2024 tomorrow to run my Mean Streets gang warfare game. An AAR and pics will be over on the Pulp board, when I get around to it. Which means after I grade more than a hundred student tests...

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

We did in fact play this Friday past.  My plan is to start working on the AAR later today.  It'll likely be a multi-parter, again, as I took another bunch of photos.  I don't want to ruin the suspense, but the Cold Bloods suck.....

Stay tuned...

[CapnJim]

Plumbrook Exclusion Zone Encounter #8 (9 if you count the one by Ted's ERT...).

Before we get to our Encounter Report, an administrative announcement:

1.  We decided that if a searching figure rolled a "1" on the artifact search roll.  There just wasn't an artifact in that location.  A failed roll other than a "1" meant the figure could try further searches.

Part 1 of 3:  Relief in Place.

The dawn broke bright and sunny.  And hot.  The SAE30 crew approached the Cold Blood base from the north road.  But the SCP ERT came in from the south, and got to the Cold Bloods' base first.  Carter could see the SCP Bearcat pull into the drive to the base camp as they crossed the bridge over the creek.  "Crap", he said, to no one in particular.  "They beat us in."  And them it started raining.

And then it stopped raining and the sun came back out.  The SAE30 guys could see the Guard Humvee out by the road, with 2 dismounts near it, and a guy manning the 50-cal.  As they pulled up to one of the dismounts, MacGuyver flashed their papers, and the Guardsman just said "F*** off!", waved them in, and gave them the universal American hand signal matching that stated sentiment.  As the pulled in the drive, they could see the Guard sergeant approach the SCP Bearcat by the gate to the Cold Blood's base.  The gate had been busted down.  Then they heard the 50-cal on the Humvee by the road go off.  That got their attention, and they could clearly see a giant 2-headed snake slithering in the road they had just driven in on.  Carter thought to himself "Oh well, so much for this being a that piece of cake..."



The SCP crew started exiting their Bearcat, keeping one man in the cupola, with a grenade launcher, to keep an eye on things.  SAE30 backed their van up next to the gate, so the Guard Humvee could get out.  Once the SCP crew made contact with the Guard sergeant, the Guard sergeant signalled for his men to mount up, and go.  They mounted up, just as a pickup truck come in the road from the west.  What the Guard, SAE30, and the SCP ERT didn't yet know, was that the truck had several Cold Bloods in it, and that several more dismounted Cold Bloods were moving up through the woodlot just west of the main road on foot.  As it turned out, the Guard would be leaving down that west side road, so things were about to get very interesting.



The 50-cal gunner in the Humvee by the road dispatched that giant snake, as the Sergeant's Humvee left the compound.



As SAE30 began getting out of the van, 2 men from the SCP crew searched the pick-up truck in the compound, and found an artifact.  Score one for the SCP.



As the Sergeant's Humvee proceeded out the compound drive, several men jumped of that pick-up on the side road  Cold Bloods!  Both 50-cal gunners opened up, and dropped 2 Cold Bloods.



By now, SCP men had gone into the 2-story building by the pickup they had just searched.  There, they would find 2 more artifacts (one on each floor).  The SAE crew were now out of their van, and Carter headed for the shack by the gate.  Robinson deployed Robot the Drone.  Carter had told him to get Robot up, and recon the woodlots the Cold Blood were by.

 

A few SCP men were providing cover, while the rest continued searching the place.  One moved to the shipping container.  Carter searched the gate shack, and didn't find anything.  That's because there wasn't anything of value there.
 
The Guard moved toward the road, engaging the Cold Bloods, dropping their leader, who promptly crawled into the woods.  The Cold Bloods' medic ran over to see about rendering first aid.  And Robinson reported over comms that Robot could see several Cold Bloods in the woods, slowly moving east. 





And then it hit.  A heat wave.  And it hit hard.  The Cold Bloods and the Guardsmen fared OK, but the SAE30 and SCP boys didn't. 4 of the SCP guys, and 3 from SAE30, went down, a couple hard.  And Carter had just come back out from the gate shack...





And the Guard left the compound, continuing to drop a couple more Cold Bloods, including their medic (the ensuing investigation would conclude that, as the Cold Blood medic wore no identifying signs, he was therefore a legitimate target).  The last Cold Blood in the pick up was the driver, and he had the bright idea to ram the lead Humvee.  He did, but it didn't really damage either vehicle.  The other Guard Humvee pulled up alongside the one that was just rammed.  The Cold Blood driver, now staring at 2 pissed off 50-cal gunners, NOW decided it was time to un-ass his truck.  He did so, right into a hail of 50-cal bullets.  Getting out of his truck was the last thing he ever did...meanwhile, our crews began recovering from the heat wave.  Robinson kept Robot up and over the scene of that fight.  Video footage from Robot would be used as exculpatory evidence in that afore-mentioned investigation.



I'll leave it there for now.  Stay tuned for Part 2 of 3...and thanks for reading so far.

[mikedemana]

Sounds like fun! Were both of you controlling the Cold Bloods and Guard? Or were you randomizing their movement and actions?

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

We were running the Guard, Cold Bloods, and critters by committee.  When it was obvious what one of them would do, we just had them do that.  It they might have done 1 thing out of 2 or 3 options, we assigned a % chance to each option and rolled a d10.  For example, when that dumbass rammed the Guard Humvee, we decided he had a 50% chance to just get out of the truck and run (1-5 on a d10), a 30% chance to back the truck up (6-8 on a d10), and a 20% chance to ram the Humvee (9-10 on a d10).  He, of course, rolled a 10...it is becoming readily apparent that the Cold Bloods are not the brightest bulbs on the string.  I'll address that in my epilogue to this encounter...

[CapnJim]

And, now, for...

Part 2 of 3:  We're Havin' a Heat Wave...

The SCP crew hadn't been in the PEZ long enough to acclimate themselves to the heat, so they didn't recover from that heat wave as fast as the SEA crew did.  But even so, the SAE guys didn't all recover straightaway.





And while all that was going on, 2 deer had wandered into the compound, and ended up between the shipping container and the adjacent building.  Scared the crap out of both the deer and the SCP guy working the doors to that container.     The heat didn't seem to bother the deer much, though.  And those deer weren't the only critters dropping by for a visit.  We already saw the giant 2-headed snake, and 2 large snakes had slithered their way into the compound between the gate shack and an adjacent building.  However, the SCP boys had made short work of them.  More ominously, 2 giant crabs scuttled up to the SE woodline, wondering which one of these humans looked the tastiest.



Meanwhile, the National Guardsmen, in the comfort of their air-conditioned Humvees, headed down the western side road.  In doing so, they snapped a utility pole to get around the now-unoccupied Cold Blood pickup, and ran over the body of the Cold Blood the 50-cal gunners had hosed down.  If he wasn't already dead, he was now...



While our crews sorted themselves out after the heat wave, one of the crabs made its way into the compound, still undecided about who (whom?) to go after.  The other crab was more hesitant.





Just as the crews were getting moving again, another heat wave struck, laying low more crew members.  This time, those deer were not so lucky.  By now, the SCP crew had found 3 artifacts (1 in the pickup, and 2 on the building by that pickup).  They had also discovered that the shipping was empty.  The SAE crew had found nothing in the gate shack, but had found 2 artifacts in the building next to the gate shack.  Luckily, none had been set off.  Not yet, anyway.  It was 3-2, SCP.



Over in those west woodlots, while the Cold Bloods had pretty much shrugged off the heat waves, they were otherwise not faring well.  A couple were taken out by the Guardsmen, and a couple more had run off (including their medic).  And, just as their leader had staggered back to his feet after being shot, he heard a crashing sound in the woods behind him, turned around, and had just enough time to say "Oh, sh-" when a 200-pound (90.7185 kilograms, to you folks on the metric system) landed on him.  And took him out of the fight.



Things, once again, were not looking good for our baddies.



The SCP and SAE crews now had to recover from the 2nd heat wave.  And the crabs (the other one had scuttled its way into the compound, following its friend) made up their mind about their prey.  They decided to go after the SAE men by their van.  But they had to get through the barbed wire fence to do so.



More of our crewmembers got back going.  Carter from the SAE started to head for the last un-searched building, but an SCP guy beat him there.  Apparently it was now time to go dumpster-diving for Carter.  Artifact-wise, it was still 3-2, SCP.



That'll do it for now.   I'll post Part 3 of 3 soon, I promise.  In it, we'll answer these questions:

1.  Will the hapless Cold Bloods actually do anything useful?

2.  What will become of the frog and the crabs?

3.  Which crew will win the artifact contest?

4.  Could there possible be a third heat wave?

As the late American commentator Paul Harvey used to say, "Stand By For News"...