Worse Than the Disease IC

[Volthawk]

Richard sighs at the prisoners playing dumb. "Look, he's serious about this. We can't keep you prisoner indefinitely, Sean's not the type to spend our resources on people who aren't cooperating, and we're not letting you go without you cooperating first - if we do that, all we're doing is making sure there's more enemies for us in the future and getting nothing from it. So...cooperate. It's your only shot at getting out of this alive. If not...well, like I told the first lot we found, we won't waste the bullet. Less expensive ways of doing the job - probably worse for you, but like I said, that's not exactly the priority if you don't help us. Last time we were at a friendly base, so we would've had to have killed them ourselves if they didn't cooperate, but this time I suppose we'd just leave you out shackled out in the wilderness somewhere, maybe break something first. Let nature - cold, starvation, thirst, maybe even the wildlife - do the job for us. It's better than you treated your prisoners, so it seems fair enough to me if there isn't a reason to be merciful." He shrugs. "Your choice. Stay quiet, and there's no way this is ending well for you. Cooperate, and you'll get food and water and be free to walk away as you are." He leaves for a short while, but he's back several times over the next couple of hours, reinforcing his points and seeing if they have anything to say.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The bad guys do not bite.

Every one of the five slavers simply stays quiet and glares coldly at Sean and Richard.

Time passes...

[GnomesofZurich2]

In the meantime, Tariq can get to work repairing the truck, somewhat ironically thankful that he did not manage to do more damage with his beloved explosives. The town merchants would certainly like a fixed-up pickup, but they may have problems getting a payment for it. Would the exiles like to trade it for draft animals? They have some good quality horses and hunting dogs...

The sunset is three and a half hours away...

Tariq gets to work on that, doing what he can with the truck.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean and Richard keep going, grilling the slavers some more for another 2 hours.

Tariq, meanwhile, fixes up the truck as best as he can, but it is a little slow going...

As the sun goes down, one of the them cracks - the guy with the two dice tattoo gives up the slaving operation's basic plan; any patrolling or encamped raiders that happen to capture wastelanders on a mission or during ordinary routines take them to the slave camp for holding, until he or one of his fellow Snake Eyes gang members pick them up in a truck to take them to a work camp. The work camp is in the north-west of the state, the captive labor works the mines and oil drills there. He does not know where the extracted resources go, but they probably refuel raider gangs or support an army.

[u-b]

Sean is back from finalizing the deal about when Tariq is done repairing the car and Richard got something out of the prisoners. The information turns out not to be that much, but at least it was better then nothing.

"Well, gentlemen, no one will die today, I would say it's good news. We have a lot more to discuss, but we'll do that later."

Spoiler

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I propose we drive to the radar base while the sky is still somewhat bright. We can use the headlights for the final part of the trip and Sean in the leading car should have no major problems with the illumination.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The slavers give up the location of the big work camp exactly.

The radar base is 20 miles away from the small town the exiles are at currently.

The merchants of the town show the exiles this and that goods for sale.

[Shoot Da Moon]

After making a deal with the merchants and loading up their new gear, the exiles set out for the radar base. The journey would ordinarily take just one hour and 45 minutes, but Sean fails to read the map properly, and the road is alien enough to make getting on track difficult. The exiles take a wrong turn, and end up on an out-of-the-way and nearly ruined road...where they find a broken down and abandoned big yellow bus with black lettering on the side. They know enough about the Old World language to decipher it; "SCHOOL BUS".

Sean accidentally drives a little too fast, and lightly crashes into the large vehicle's fat bumper, hurting him a little.
(OC: Sean takes 1 point of injury.)

[u-b]

Sean concludes his luck with the car is no better than his luck in general, but still gets out to take a quick look at the bus. It should be close enough to the radar base so maybe it'd be possible to salvage some spare parts. He hands someone a flashlight to hold for him and proceeds to examine the vehicle.

Spoiler

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Then we continue on.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean takes a good look inside the ruined bus and spots some interesting stuff in the back, under the last row of seats.
First, a simple mechanical relay is hooked up to fire a zip gun at anyone who grabs and opens a hidden lockbox it appears to be guarding.

(OC: Sean, make an IQ-based Traps roll to disarm the trap and take the loaded slam fire pistol. Otherwise, you can't get to the lockbox.)

[u-b]

Having found the trap, Sean defers to a professional to actually disarm it. "Tariq, there's a gun trap under the last row of seats, guarding some lockbox. Will you take a look?"

[GnomesofZurich2]

Having found the trap, Sean defers to a professional to actually disarm it. "Tariq, there's a gun trap under the last row of seats, guarding some lockbox. Will you take a look?"

"Okay, I'll give it a go." Tariq approaches the trap, eyeing it up carefully, before reaching in to disarm it.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Tariq simply cuts the wire in the right place, and it goes loose, leaving the improvised pistol harmless.
(OC: The pistol stats; damage 1d+1 pi-, Acc 0, Range 70/800, Weight 0.5 lbs., RoF 1, Shots 1(10i), Bulk -1, Rcl 2, Malf 12, critical failure explodes for 1d cr ex to user.)

The lockbox is locked, of course, and very heavy.
(OC: -2 Lockpicking to open, weighs 57 pounds in total.)

[u-b]

Sean chooses not to waste more time here and instead just stows the "pistol" and the lockbox in the trunk and tries to make the group reach the radar base while it's still today.

[Shoot Da Moon]

25 minutes later, the exiles have arrived at the radar base, their home in the wastes. The cold night envelopes the surrounding area, but the base itself is well-lit and warm.

In the absence of the exiles, the guards and radio men have tidied up and secured the place. They welcome the men back with open arms. Over dinner, they discuss what happened on their end.

(OC: Mark off meals eaten if you haven't already. I think that's meal number three for dinner.)

[u-b]

The returning group has quite a lot of news and is not hesitant to tell them after the prisoners are securely stowed. The only exception Sean does is for any and all new intelligence, which he does not mention at all. Sean introduces the new guy Bart and starts with the details of the last operation and its aftermath. Then he recaps the previous two, in as much as the personnel here has not already learned over the radio. ​Now, speaking about the radio... any news, messages or rumors that would be relevant?

Mentioning that the team's got good loot, Sean tells that he'll leave at the base the extra car the team does not exactly need at the moment. He'll also leave the keys so it could be moved or used if it would be necessary. Also, in case the team gets more good loot, it would be prudent to arrange a sort of wish list for the garrison. The process of determining what does and what does not the garrison needs will likely take some time. Sean is willing to chat for the rest of the evening and good part of the night, but the others probably want to have some sleep.

Spoiler

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(OC: Mark off meals eaten if you haven't already. I think that's meal number three for dinner.)

Done.

[Shoot Da Moon]

​Now, speaking about the radio... any news, messages or rumors that would be relevant?
[...]Also, in case the team gets more good loot, it would be prudent to arrange a sort of wish list for the garrison.

The prisoners are locked in a makeshift cell, with a guard assigned to keep an eye on them.

Bart the hunter immediately hits it off with the other base occupants.

While the exiles were gone, the radio room guys have this to report from the airwaves scuttlebutt;
Someone wants some kind of creemee (soft serve) machine salvaged from the town of Springfield, and is willing to pay in rare goods and heaps of bullets for it.
There’s a whole bunch of computers in The Gutter. Maybe a network or database can be found there? A certain settlement always needs more information...
If you wanna visit a Shelter, there is one in Glastenbury Mountain, located in Bennington County, Vermont, in the Green Mountain National Forest.
A regional militia wants help stopping drug dealers travelling across the state.
A caravan of survivors want to travel to a small hydro power plant and fix it up for power, but they need help and asking mercenaries for support.
There is a bandit gang operating out of Fort Ticonderoga, an old revolutionary war fort right on the border.
You can find weird cult hippy communes in the deep woods.
The Bread Basket settlers are really a bunch of secret mutants!
The virus was actually a magical curse!
There are a whole bunch of cultists doing some kind of pilgrimage up and down the Long Trail.

The base guards would like better armor and fortifications for the base. An actual wall instead of just a fence, Kevlar vests, guard towers, metal shutters for the windows, ballistic helmets, and binoculars. They would also like more medical supplies and food stocks. They have already set up water-collecting devices.

[u-b]

Sean is impressed by the amount of news that have arrived in such a shot time. It's good enough to have more, so he's not complaining. He then proceeds to clarify some stuff. He does not mind sending some requests over the radio if the local guys do not already have the answers.
1. He tries to find the exact location of Fort Ticonderoga in his atlas. If he finds it, that's fine. If he does not, he'll ask.
2. He asks who's reporting on those Fort Ticonderoga bandits and what is known about them. Like, neck tattoos or absence thereof, what those guys are known to generally do, their gear, their number and such. Also, what's known about the fort in general and its current state in particular.
3. About those would-be hydro power plant fixers: where they want to start and end their travel and how long do they expect it to take? Do they expect to need continued help after they are on site? How many of them there is? What they expect to actually do with the hydro power plant? Open some local production facility? Transport the energy elsewhere by some surviving or newly-constructed means?
4. Is Glastenbury Mountain Shelter known to be inhabited and/or hidden? Anything else known about it or its inhabitants?

As for the local business...
5. Sean is not so sure about the wall and guard towers. The wall without towers seems like it would be counterproductive. With towers it might be some good, but manning the towers would require like 4 men per tower at 1/4 duty cycle and the wall is a lot of construction work. Sean does not mind if the guys get started, with the towers specifically, not with the wall, but he won't be of much help in this regard, except financially. Do we hire some construction workers or what? A quicker to build and easier to man perimeter would be double wire fence with concretina wire ontop and tanglefoot wire in between. Maybe Sean will be able to buy some of that stuff. It could be shot through (both ways), but not walked through and not really driven through. What would they say about that? Also, what Tariq and Richard would say on the matter? Fortifying the windows is approved. Sean'll need them counted.
6. We have a pair of binoculars and can hand them over. How many more do they need and/or want?
7. Ballistic helmets and Kevlar are declined for the moment, based on their availability and cost. We can procure the next best thing, which is full-body quality steel. The garrison does not seem like they would be hiking around, so should be good enough, hm?
8. Medical supplies approved. Sean'll need a list.
9. Food approved. Sean can hand them 600 rations right away.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean looks through his maps, and finds where the Fort is without a problem. According to the radio room, the reports on Fort Ticonderoga came from vagabonds that militias pay to be informers. No details on the bandits' affiliation were included in the reports. The bandits of the Fort have mostly just robbed people travelling over state borders. They have steel armour, guns, motorcycles, and lots of valuable treasures like drugs and booze. There is apparently twenty of them. The Fort is an Old World ruin, but the bandits have turned into a well-defended base with excellent area security (like booby traps).

The fixers are currently at the Waffle House, and their target hydro plant is 29 miles north of there. Getting the power plant on-line is expected to take a month of work. Once they make it to the plant, all the help they might need from hired guns is simply securing the place and setting area defences. The Waffle House will send more guards to maintain a long term defence after a week or so. The fixer team is 20 men strong. Once the power plant is up and running, the surrounding settlements can get power and the bigger cities might also pay them for electricity.

According to the report, the Glastenbury Mountain Shelter is locked down, empty of occupants, and full of treasure. The original inhabitants all died out, leaving the bounty of Old World tech and knowledge for whoever dares to brave the depths. Getting in would probably require special knowledge or something.

The Waffle House men can get in contact with their superiors, and get some workers on the base. They agree that Sean's plan of wire is a good one. There are 10 windows they need fortified. They've already barricaded doors.

One pair of binoculars per lookout is enough. They have four lookouts on duty during the day, covering a compass direction each.

The guards approve of steel plates.

Crash kits and antibiotics are top of the medical supplies list. Bandages are taken care of, surgery instruments are welcome but not urgent (yet), vitamins are unnecessary.

The extra food is stored in the proper places, they will last.

[GnomesofZurich2]

Tariq takes some time to modify his other grenades for the grenade launcher for quicker arming time. He's able to modify all remaining grenades in a bit over half an hour.

[u-b]

In the morning, while Richard gets some supervised practice in operating the radio, Sean takes time to practice with the lockpicks and open the lockbox he's found in the school bus. After that, he teams with Richard to ask a few more questions of the prisoners. Namely:
1. Was this base the only base of the slaving operations or are there more bases elsewhere?
2. Who was that dead man's hand guy with their lot and why was he there?
3. Can they point at any other camp of any gang in the region?
4. Where are they are from and how does the recruting into the gangs happen in practice?

After the lunch, Sean tells the radio people to establish contact with The Snowbunnies and ask if they have any news. He then gets ready to leave.

Spoiler

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I wonder if Tariq can make some explosive bolts for the garrison. It's certainly impossible to cram much of explisives on a bolt, but there is such a thing as explosive 12G shotgun round in HT, so maybe something is possible. The proposed stats might be like follows: base price $40, base damage when shot from a crossbow is crushing, thr+1(?) with armor divisor of (0.5), the bolt explodes on 2+ base damage dealing 1d [1d] cr ex. Also, the ranges will be probably reduced.

[GnomesofZurich2]

Spoiler

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I wonder if Tariq can make some explosive bolts for the garrison. It's certainly impossible to cram much of explisives on a bolt, but there is such a thing as explosive 12G shotgun round in HT, so maybe something is possible. The proposed stats might be like follows: base price $40, base damage when shot from a crossbow is crushing, thr+1(?) with armor divisor of (0.5), the bolt explodes on 2+ base damage dealing 1d [1d] cr ex. Also, the ranges will be probably reduced.

Spoiler

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Tariq would likely have to partner with someone with Armoury (Missile Weapons) to do so, but he could prepare the explosive charges. I'll wait on the GM's call on the proposed stats and what TL it could qualify as (6, 7?).

[Shoot Da Moon]

DAY 48

The exiles sleep well in familiar beds.
Sean gets the hang of the radio.
Sean opens the lockbox, and finds a stash of quality metal spare parts and useful chemicals. It weighs 55 pounds in all.

(OOC: The spare parts are basically "junk plus" worth $550 - they weigh less per $ than usual junk, but are otherwise just as useful in crafting and repairs.)

The prisoners do not know of any other bases for the slaving operation...but they are hardly told much by their superiors. The guy with the dead man's hand tattoo was meant to drive the trucks with the slaves, taking them to the mines. The gangs answer to the same superiors at the highest levels, but are compartmentalised. People with different tattoos mostly work other parts of Vermont and rarely encounter each other, and never really work together. The gang recruits mostly get jumped in from outside Vermont or from some hidden settlement. All the prisoners claim they grew up in a "proving ground" that's 80 miles south of the state border. At 16, they "graduated" into gang work.

The Snowbunnies report that the situation is calm on their end. They've been cleaning and rebuilding without incident.

Tariq gets one of the Waffle House regulars to help him with making explosive bolts...

[u-b]

The story of a "proving ground" and dozens of years of planning to have the contingent stretches the boundaries of plausibility in Sean's opinion. Still, he could not point a specific part of the story that would be actually impossible, so he lets it be and just makes a mental note for later. He puts the prisoners back in the cell, with no bonds or handcuffs, telling them they will have to wait while their infos are checked and acted upon.

After Tariq is done making explosive bolts, Sean drives the lead car to Red Brick and parks it somewhere outside the mandatory red mark area.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The journey to Red Brick goes smoothly, taking 2 hours of driving across a less cold countryside than what the exiles are used to. The sun shines warmly.

The Red Brick gate is guarded by a different gang than from before. These men are far less well-mannered and welcoming. But the red tattoo of citizenship on the stomachs of the exiles is enough to gain entrance, same as before.

In the earlier hours, the city of Red Brick is far less shady and loud, no doubt nursing a hangover. The streets even seem a little barren and lonely.

The Lonesome Road bar at this hour is open, but way less populated. Only serious alcoholics and friends of the batman are cooling their heels in the dive in the morning...and the Ninth World gang, of course.

The same street thugs from the last meeting are sitting at the same table, drinking water and eating breakfast. They wave over the exiles as they pull up and enter, ready to discuss business...

[u-b]

"Good day to you." Sean sits down at the table. "So, any news from Major Chalmers? What's his response?"

[Shoot Da Moon]

The gangers nod. "You're in. The Major wants to see you, but we need to make sure no spies are onto us. We'll be meeting in a secret hideout, with lots of security."
The thug shows you a piece of paper with a street address and room number. He tells you to stay alert for anyone following you.
Then they give the exiles another paper, with the password for the meeting on it, and instruct the exiles to memorize the password and then destroy the paper completely.

The exiles follow the instructions fine. They make their way to a seedy apartment block, and go to an out-of-the-way room guarded by Ninth World soldiers. They ask for the password, the exiles give it, and they are ushered into a dark room where the windows are boarded up and everyone is checked for trackers or wires.

It is a full five minutes before Major Chalmers shows up, with guns at the ready and thugs at his side. He is not wearing the uniform of his allegiance, but he present his tattoos as proof of his identity. He is a middle-aged but very fit fighter, his black hair starting to gray at the sides, sporting a bushy mustache, and his green eyes have a sharp edge to them. His skin is rough and sometimes scarred in areas.

"Hello, boys. Let's discuss this Shelter you found." He greets the exiles, talking in a low, deep voice. His friendliness feels vaguely insincere or forced. This is not a man used to interpersonal warmth.

[u-b]

Sean nods, thinking a handshake might be less then appropriate given the level of security involved. "Good day, Major Chalmers. Yes, Shelter 43, if we are to believe a writing next to open vault door. At the time we have visited it, it was by all signs used by ace of spades tattoed gang. We did not go inside to check. We were told Vermont Rangers would want to do something about it, so we are here to provide the info and maybe some more direct aid. We also have related info, some of which you have seen, but that is unchecked at the moment."

[Volthawk]

Richard nods as Sean mentions the other information. "In our past encounters with the Gamblers, we've come across a good amount of intelligence - some was written down, their orders and internal documents and such, I've got that here," He taps one of his pockets. "And the rest, the unverified stuff, is what we've gotten out of the prisoners we've taken. Some of it seems to check out, some of it has Sean a little doubtful, but you might still be interested. But yes, our main reason for coming was 43. It seems to be one of their safehouses, somewhere they went to hole up for a little while after their latest mission. We blew up their cars, so they would've been delayed in leaving - presumably they have a way of communicating in there, so they'd have to wait until some of the others could come to get them - so there's a good chance they're still there, and in any case crossing off one of their safe havens feels productive to me."

[GnomesofZurich2]

Tariq pipes up, "and if we need to blast our way in, I'm your man! It'd be fun to see how much force is needed to blow a hole in one of those bunkers!" He smiles dreamily, and disturbingly, thinking about it.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Major Chalmers listens well and looks over what the exiles show him.
"Alright, I'm convinced." He says, looking up. "I can organise a squad of men in two days. More than that, it'll take a week. I assume we have your full co-operation on this matter?"