Worse Than the Disease 2 IC

[Shoot Da Moon]

The exiles welcome the cool night and go to sleep after a satisfying dinner.

DAY 71

The exiles wake up to a quiet and cold morning.

[u-b]

Sean leaves Tariq with his toys and takes the rest of the party to the rest of the raiders' campsites...

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Mark off the meals eaten.

Done.

[GnomesofZurich2]

Tariq spends the day crafting, producing 22 HEDP TL8 rounds, 8 IR illumination flares, a Glock 17, and an upgraded Milkor with 12-shot cylinder in a bit over 6 hours.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Tariq makes excellent progress, surrounded on all side by spare metal and tools for hours on end. He loves the feel of mechanical weaponry in his fingers.

Sean drives 20 miles from the base to the marked area on the map. The road gets increasingly rough as the trip goes on.

When Sean and his companions get near the site, they leave the car, camouflage it, and start sneaking.

What they find further ahead is a fortified cabin in the middle of a clearing. No sign of an outside campfire, or hanging corpses...

Through the scope, Sean spies two cars - sedans, just his own - parked around the back of the cabin. Both of them look pretty weathered. 6 armed raiders are living in the cabin, casually eating breakfast and carrying guns (zip gun pistols, 2 H&R Model 8 shotguns, and one Winchester Model 92 rifle). There is an bell on a pole next to the cabin, an alarm to be rung by the raiders in case of...well, him.

They're not on alert, but they know enough about guarding that they may spot Sean and his comrades...
(OC: Stealth vs Observation contest tied.)
Indeed, one of the wandering raiders pauses a little, suddenly looking in Sean's direction!
(OC: think fast, Sean, either get your gun out quickly and shoot, or duck and hide NOW. You have not been fully busted yet, but you're in the danger zone.)

[u-b]

Being crouched, preferably behind some cover and with the rifle in hand, Sean tries to bear the rifle to do real business as fast as he can...

"Got contact. Release the bastards."*

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*Might be only Richard hears that, depending on the range between Sean and them (which depends on the amount of cover and concealment available).

Will use extra effort on any active defenses. Not this round as it was an all-out attack.

[Shoot Da Moon]

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*Might be only Richard hears that, depending on the range between Sean and them (which depends on the amount of cover and concealment available).

Will use extra effort on any active defenses.

(OC: Got a throat mike or comms headset equipped? Roll Electronics Operation skill. Alternatively, roll Gestures. -6 Range is correct, as that is the distance you chose for your position.)

Sean breaks the silence with rapid fire. He hits only once. The range, awkward posture and inadvertent cover that some raiders in the cabin have causing the scout to mostly miss.
The man Sean bulls-eyes drops dead without a prayer. The rest are shaken from their morning routine by the hostile action.

(OC: combat time starts. Richard acts next.)

[Volthawk]

Between the shooting and Sean over the comms, Richard has a pretty good idea what's going on, so he indicates to Bart to follow and let the dogs off the leash as he starts heading to Sean's position.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Bart the Hunter nods, and drops the leashes while making the command whistles for his dogs.
The dogs receive his crying havoc with gusto, and charges forth towards the enemies.

Speaking of the five raiders, they are surprised and freeze up, but the adrenaline kicks in for all but one. Soon, they will start fighting back.

TURN 2

Sean catches his breath as his rifle steadies from the kick of the last second's burst-fire...

[u-b]

Sean shoots another burst at the men then reloads in an instant.

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No active defense this turn, but with distance, cover and crouching, Sean expects they'll have to spend time to aim.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean nails two of his targets in his lead spraying, both in the belly rather than the heart. One falls down dead, the other is merely dealt an extreme wound...and falls down, out of the fight.

The dogs rush over to Sean's position, eager to help their friend.

(OC: Richard, you can't see the enemy yet?)

[Volthawk]

Richard keeps moving towards Sean, trying to get eyes on the enemy.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Bart the Hunter follows Richard's lead, moving with him, gun in hand.

The raiders get the hint and move out of Sean's line of sight, ducking down or running away, into cover. The lone raider still out in the open does not snap out of it. He is left to be picked off by his fellow scum...

TURN 3

On that note, Sean has only one target available...

[u-b]

Overtaken by the dogs on their way to the the raiders, Sean joins the movement, taking a bit to the side from Richard's and Bart's lines of fire, and makes a short burst on the go. He misses, but the bullets fly all around the stunned raider.

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Move a total of 7 yards, of those 5 are forward. The dogs should have overtaken Sean some time about now, but then Sean also moves. If attacked, will dodge with extra effort.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The dogs keep barking and charging as Sean lets loose. The lone exposed raider trembles some more as the bullets fly past him.

(OC: Richard, your turn. Players, do you have orders for Bart the Hunter or the dogs?)

[Volthawk]

Richard holds his fire as he keeps advancing, instead shouting out "Surrender! You know you can't win here!"

[Shoot Da Moon]

One bad guy breaks, throwing down his gun and raising his hands. He shouts pleas to not hurt him.
Another raider screams and spits, refusing to yield.
The stunned raider drops his gun, falls to his knees and starts crying.

Bart the Hunter takes aim as his dogs get closer to the enemy positions.

TURN 4

Sean sees the un-surrendering raider is in good cover 15 yards away.

[u-b]

"You two will live." says Sean as he shoots another burst at another guy, while still on the move.

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Sean moves up to 7 feet (forward and/or to otherwise have a better shot at the fighter) at the cost of another FP. Will use extra effort and drop if he is to dodge.

Bart will watch fot the crying guy to shoot if he does anything inconsistent with surrender. He has been aiming last turn, so that will be aimed shot, if it comes to that. He will call back the dogs if and when we are done with the actual fighting.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean's gunfire hits home and shreds the target. The last hostile crumples over, dead.

The dogs bark and growl at the surrendering enemies, keeping them under control.

(OC: combat over.)

The place looks secure now that the raiders are either subdued or given up.

[u-b]

Sean makes sure the surrendered guys are disarmed and searched, then leads them outside to be guarded by Bart and the dogs. He has a few questions to the prisoners:
1. If we got all the men stationed here or some are currently away.
2. Why haven't they left after their boss got taken out.
3. Did they hook up to a new commander or otherwise what was their plan for future operations.
4. Whether they have received any instructions at all, from anyone on the radio or in person.
5. If they can say anything about the states of any other teams.

While Richard does the interrogations, Sean searches the rest of the bodies and the site for any valuables, especially the weapons, the car keys, the radio and the supplies, but also for anything else. This will take at least four hours.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The raiders allow themselves to be corralled. But they may not respond well to Richard's interrogation...

The raiders are disarmed and searched, the exiles and Bart find a total of four small knives, 12 black powder paper cartridges, five zip guns, six sets of leather gloves, 2 H&R Model 8 shotguns, 7 shotgun shells, 13 trail rations, six sets of leather torso armor, 20 rifle bullets, one loaded flare gun, six sets of boots, the car keys, and one Winchester Model 92 rifle between all six of them.

There is a small and no-frills radio set up in the cabin, turned off. The cabin is a rather pathetic living space, mostly given over to cramped improvise beds with one private bathroom off to the side. Everything else is in the same space, a chaotic mix of domestic drudgery and planning for violence. The cars are all in bad shape, and packed with a few supplies for the road.

The cars and cabin (in all) have 2 road maps, 20 gallons of fuel in jerry cans, 48 trail rations, 3 whistles, 8 blankets, 2 first aid kits, a stack of firewood, a fishing rod, 4 buckets full of water, cooking instruments, an axe, group basics for camping, 20 full plastic bottles of water, 2 sets of binoculars, 20 black powder paper cartridges, 8 shotgun shells, 10 rifle bullets, and 12 human skulls stripped of flesh and put on display in the cabin's main room.

[u-b]

Unless Richard's interrogations uncover something funny, Sean proposes we get the cars, the loot and the prisoner back to base, then visit the last site, approaching it the usual way.

[Shoot Da Moon]

For the first hour of interrogation, things go poorly. The newly captured raiders simply zone out with tears in their eyes or scream foul language at Richard.

Then Richard makes a breakthrough.

The raiders confess that there are no other men stationed here, just the people the exiles found here. They didn't leave because they were running on food and water, they needed to restock before they could make the journey. No new commander has contacted them yet, they assume chaos has overtaken the chain of command for now, so they decided to regroup at a fall back point across the southern border. No instructions from other raiders have been received since Stone got hit. They suspect the other gangs were killed or captured or simply deserted. They do not care, they were wastes anyway.

The prisoners - the ones who still live - are tied up and are easily escorted back to the exiles' base along with the rest of the spoils. The last X on the map is 25 miles away from the Waffle House.

[Shoot Da Moon]

After settling the aftermath of the camp encounter, Sean and his comrades drive to the last camp they've heard of, and make excellent time.

Just like the last times, the exiles get out a decent distance away, camouflage their car, and send Sean ahead to scout.

Sean screws up, however. He bumbles into a small flock of birds resting on a nearby fallen log, disturbing them into flying away and squawking loudly. From a small distance away, Sean hears some men shout to each other that something is up here. They are walking towards his position.

In the tiny clearing ahead, Sean spies just under twenty alert raiders, trying to both corral 3 bunches of prisoners (9 people in total) and search caravans full of stuff. He can see 4 people with ready guns (revolvers) coming to investigate the noise he made.

[u-b]

Sean whispers "Contact. Incoming. Incoming are yours." then aims at the largest group of raiders not coming after him and, eventually, shoots a long burst.

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Sean would be crouching, but not necessarily behind cover.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The sudden outburst of gunfire fills the air as Sean unleashes his wrath upon the raiders ahead.
He hits 8 of his targets, spending 13 bullets in a big spray.
The assault leaves 5 bad guys dead and 3 enemies knocked out by the severe wounds.
10 are still standing, ready to fight...

(OC: Combat time starts. Richard, it is your turn...)

[Volthawk]

When Sean alerts him to incoming raiders, Richard tells Bart the situation before gets moving towards Sean's position but off a little to one side, trying to get a line on the advancing group before they find Sean.

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Moving up - I suppose the time Sean took to aim and this move, and the fact that they were also moving closer, means Richard might be be able to see the investigating group now? Not sure.

[Shoot Da Moon]

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Moving up - I suppose the time Sean took to aim and this move, and the fact that they were also moving closer, means Richard might be be able to see the investigating group now? Not sure.

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Yes, Richard can see the group moving towards him. There is four of them. They're all 15 yards away from Sean, -5 Range. The rest of the raiders are further away, -8 Range penalty.

Bart the Hunter keeps up with Richard, the dogs stay close.

The raiders react with vicious violence. The four that are closer open fire - all of them shooting at Sean. Fortunately, at that distance, none of them have the skill to land a shot on the scout. Instead, Sean feels a few bullets whizz by him.

The 6 remaining enemies at the camp site, by the caravans, get nasty. Three fire their guns at prisoners, but only one hits his helpless target, brutally wounding the captive in a potentially lethal manner. The captives scream in horror as their friend goes unconscious and bleeds like a lamb.
The other three reach for grenades in their pockets.

TURN 2

Sean is relatively exposed, but he has the range advantage...

[u-b]

Sean shoots another long burst at the far group of raiders and quickly reloads his rifle preparing for more action.

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There is four of them. They're all 15 yards away from Sean, -5 Range.

4 bad guys shooting;
skill 13 -8 Range +1 AoA
(3d6)[8]
(3d6)[7]
(3d6)[7]
(3d6)[10]

I notice some range discrepancy here, even above and beyond the difference between "-5" and "-8". Suppose the main group is some 50 yards away from Sean (in fact, 31+ yards away). Suppose they started towards Sean (1 move), Sean aims and warns Richard, who also takes 1 move, then Sean shoots, then Richard takes another 1 move, then the raiders shoot. This scenario does not bring them in 15 yards from Sean. Any scenario that does bring them in 15 yards from Sean would have given Richard considerably more time (at least two more rounds or so). Anyway, if they have been AoAing from 15 yards from Sean (and how many yards from Richard?), those sevens would hit even a crouching target and the question becomes whether they have been targeting the torso... Their guns do some solid pi+ damage, and Sean's armor is concealed, so they might as well try not to waste it on the limbs. I'm writing Sean's attacks with this assumption.

Extra effort to reload instantly. Sean will defend himself also using some extra effort (and also drop from what seems to be the last attack from this group of four).

[Shoot Da Moon]

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I notice some range discrepancy here, even above and beyond the difference between "-5" and "-8". Suppose the main group is some 50 yards away from Sean (in fact, 31+ yards away). Suppose they started towards Sean (1 move), Sean aims and warns Richard, who also takes 1 move, then Sean shoots, then Richard takes another 1 move, then the raiders shoot. This scenario does not bring them in 15 yards from Sean. Any scenario that does bring them in 15 yards from Sean would have given Richard considerably more time (at least two more rounds or so). Anyway, if they have been AoAing from 15 yards from Sean (and how many yards from Richard?), those sevens would hit even a crouching target and the question becomes whether they have been targeting the torso... Their guns do some solid pi+ damage, and Sean's armor is concealed, so they might as well try not to waste it on the limbs. I'm writing Sean's attacks with this assumption.

Extra effort to reload instantly. Sean will defend himself also using some extra effort (and also drop from what seems to be the last attack from this group of four).

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Yeah, you're in the right here. I'm comfortable with still saying the shooters all miss. The reason the group of 4 are closer to Sean (Richard is probably less than 5 yards from Sean, correct? So the Range penalty is only one step worse, I guess.) is because they were patrolling the perimeter when you guys showed up. They were also full Move for multiple turns when alerted. The shooters would be shooting at your torso. I also note you basically chose the Range penalty and distance when Sean first made his attacks (your post specifically said "-8?" Range), I assumed that was you telling me how far from the bad guys Sean would be sneaking. Richard's Move would put him within 10 yards, I assume, when Sean is sneaking and scouting ahead. Although I guess we should work these specifics out when Sean declares he's scouting, in the future.

The raiders in the distance hit the dirt as Sean fires at them. Three of them manage to avoid the bullets coming their way, but two take it in the heart. One is knocked out and the second dies. All six of the raiders further away are now face down on the ground.

[Volthawk]

Needless to say, Richard is not happy at the sight of prisoners being executed, and a not small part of him wants to ignore Sean's plan and put more bullets towards the raiders at the camp, make sure they're dead and can't harm the innocents any more, but he keeps his cool and takes on the closer group, firing a burst at them as he keeps advancing,