“It’s a deal,” Sallah told Miyagi. “Let’s finalize over coffee- at the police headquarters of course.”
Miyagi finally earned the merchant’s trust (and the plot point) with his sheer cunning. Tsubaki continued to lay down covering fire on Oolong, who easily avoided her shots.
She gritted her teeth in frustration.
While Natsuko and Natsuho (probably no relation) had their girl talk, Yuri was busy clotheslining another mook. He took it to the face and came down hard but swung at her legs with the rifle’s blade. She hopped back just out of reach with a dancer’s grace. He was down but not out!
Bosun charged past the sailor and came in faster than Tsubaki could do whatever she was trying to do with her hands. The bespectacled balanced-play belligerent nearly lost her good shooting finger, pulling back and blocking the scything sword of Bosun; she tried for a leg sweep that was rebuffed. Bosun’s pommel met skull with a sickening crunch that sent Tsubaki spinning.
“Get away from him!” Oolong ordered Sallah; he used the opening his boss created to take out Miyagi. For the first time in his decade of service, the police saber was drawn in anger and used against another. The martial artist couldn’t find an opening in his defenses; every time he moved the sword licked by too close for comfort.
“I can’t!” Sallah replied, “I’m giving him a good deal on guns!”
“What about our deal for the rescue?!”
“I am altering the deal,
habib. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”
The fight was fast and furious but Capt. Jack and Jae-joon took out both sailors with fisticuffs and firearms.
“Capt. Jackson,” Mr. Greenfield addressed him. “Are you The Ringleader of this little rescue?”
Jack gestured with the barrel of his gun.”I’ll take the credit, now let’s get to gettin’.”
Cricket made a distraction play, firing on a sailor to get him off Bosun and Oolong. His piddly die hit the mark, but so did all three of the sailors. He’s a small guy though and passed his health check rolls with ease. Still, that’s pretty wild with only a d6.
Unable to shoot Capt. Jack fleeing with his mark, and not foolish enough to face such a monster in melee, Eiichiro Kawaguchi made the smart decision to put down the man mountain Jae-joon. He did so handily as the guy can’t dodge and all three shots struck home.
“They got your crewmate!” Greenfield.
“I’ll burn incense at his memorial, move!”
Jack and Greenfield ignored the casualty and fled. There was no use to any of this if they didn’t get away with at least one objective.
The last unengaged sailor traded shots with Bosun, both missing and standing their ground. Pulling away from their assailants, Sallah and Miyagi escaped from the city center and let them continue dealing with the increasing number of troops in the area. Yuri put her foot down, in the abdomen no less, of the sailor who tried to get back up, ensuring Natsuko and Natsuho could make good their escape.
“WHOOMP!” Oolong shouted, throwing himself at Tetsu Nishikigi. The hit landed but was deflected off the rifle stock; Oolong barely missed being nicked by the sword-like bayonet.
Nishikigi had his eyes on the pair combating him, but couldn’t help be aware of the fleeing pair nearby.
“There it is…” He thought. As the combat drew to a close, two sailors departed with Neko and the drunk. Nishikigi may have earned some valuable battlefield experience, but he had a feeling Ikeda and Saito would be getting promotions recognition for today.
It wasn’t really in her nature, but Yuri did Capt. Jack and Greenfield a kindness, drawing the fire of another sailor that came behind them. Taking his eyes off the prize in response to what he thought was a silenced gunshot whizzing by, Kawaguchi turned and took shots at Yuri. The girl tossed him a salute and fled down the street as futile shots missed her receding back. She was giddy in the moment, she hasn’t had this much fun since, well, about 24 hours ago really. Yuri is likes life.
As she disappeared out of bounds, so did Capt. Jack and Mr. Greenfield, running the opposite way down Meiji-dori Street. Even the discombobulated Tsubaki used the opportunity to slink away and try to shake off what may be a concussion. By the time Cmdr. Hara arrives with his naval landing force, everyone has fled.
EPILOGUE“Yamaguchi, report.” Hara barked. They stood in the middle of a deserted street as his sailors tore through home and businesses, continuing their search.
“Ikeda and Saito apprehended Neko-san and that damn cook of ours; they’re being brought back to Tsuruyama as we speak.”
“I would say good work, for the poisoner, but you had a squad and couldn’t bring in five civilians?” Hara said sternly.
“There was interference; it appears a gang of pirates and the local police aided in the escapes.”
“Oh? One of them has a spine,” Hara mused. “What about the brat?”
Yamaguchi nodded. “We saw her. She was reported her using…” He fumbled for words to describe what was reported without sounding mad. If he hadn’t seen it, he wouldn’t have believed it either.
“…a very small caliber pistol.” Let him discover for himself. Hara was a practical man. He’d understand once he saw whatever it was she was doing with her hands.
Hara tapped the tip of Yamaguchi’s bayonet. “Tread lightly then, petty officer. Many a man has been put down by small caliber pistols. Stay sober.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Inform the men that until all five have been captured, all drinking is secured. Now I’ll leave you to it.” He said and walked off with a breezy gait.
That game wrapped up in five rounds, which is the shortest game I’ve played. The biggest surprise was Miyagi actually getting a plot point (Sallah) as he only has one die to roll so it took two turns with good rolls. I put the two “player” sides where they were so they would have at least one plot point to clash over. Since Natsuko and Yuri went for Natsuho, it left Greenfield wide open but with two sailors in his vicinity he didn’t seem worth the effort. Cricket was pretty useless and it shows one of the weaknesses of Wolf’s Crew; it has a lot of character but Cricket and Jae-joon are low-level and struggle with plot points. I used Capt. Jack instead of Wolf so that when pitted against the girls, it’s two sidekick leagues fighting it out. Capt. Jack uses Bosun’s stats, which make both of them a force to be reckoned with in combat. Of the Hanamuras and Natsuko, only Yuri is a pure melee fighter with Tsubaki more balanced in ranged and melee, and Natsuko being built for beating perils more than anything else.
In retrospect, I could have thrown the entire team at just Sallah and they would have taken out both Miyagi and Tsubaki, then they could have likely come back around to get Greenfield before he moved off the board. I thought they had enough force to split and take two, which if wasn’t for the sailors repeatedly spawning right on top of Bosun and Oolong, would have likely been the case.
ERRATAThe standard issue Type 38 rifle used 6.5 x 50mm Arisaka rounds which were smaller and weaker than its contemporaries, the .30-06 and .303. Weird side note, the British used 150,000 Arisaka rifles early in World War I. Most of these well-used Russo-Japanese War veterans were used for training, but the Royal Navy took position of a third of them, and some also found their way into the hands of T.E. Lawrence’s Arab compatriots. Later these rifles would end up in Finland and even Russia, arming the same Czarist Russians they were used against in 1905.
I named all of my Japanese Sailors went painting them for literally this exact situation. In Pulp Alley, even the antagonist can be the hero of their own story. Just ask Minerva. Most of the names are from a list of the most popular family names in Nagasaki, Saga and Fukuoka Prefectures, this is because their ship would have been homeported within the Sasebo Chinjufu area of responsibility and its personnel would have been drawn from sailors who enlisted on Kyushu and Okinawa. Also, I live in Nagasaki Prefecture. Nagasaki represent!
Japanese police officers were not issued side arms until after World War II. On the other hand, some postal workers had been issued revolvers since the 1870s to protect the mail. That was before the first military order for revolvers in 1878.
The police forces in Japan are organized on the prefectural (state) level; so all officers belong to the prefecture as a whole and are stationed in certain cities or areas.
Sakura Beer was established in 1913 (Taisho 2) in Moji, Fukuoka Prefecture and before World War II was Japan's third favorite beer.
Until a few years ago, 20 was the age of adulthood in Japan.
March 04, 2009, 06:18:26 PM
