0105 – The Great Escape – Part VI – Passing through Sieradz

 0630 08 AUG 2000, Sieradz, Poland

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"We tried to bluff. Just like in poker, sometimes it goes well, sometimes not. This time it went bad and we found ourselves staring down a 125mm barrel. We helped them last time, which is probably the reason we were not on the receiving end of a HE round. It is also possible they wanted to save ammunition and not waste it on us but I am a glass half full kind or person.

Them Russians recognized Robinson apparently. We debated about it before approaching the town but we thought it would appear strange if the driver was buttoned up when approaching the barrier. Long story short, we went for a morning swim and crossed the Warta anyway."

For those of you who may have been following the journey, the characters have previously also passed through Sieradz. At the time, they made a deal to recover some food trucks in order to be allowed to trade in the town. After that, the characters were partially kidnapped (the girls) and the rest were placed on an island in the middle of a flooded river to die. Although the characters escaped, the did lose a lot of equipment that was sold off by 'Grandma' Maryn Topolski. They still hold a grudge.

The Soviet commander gave them the distinct impression that this was a one-time thing and that they should not come back, but the threat is probably just that, as the major did not have a lot of firepower to begin with. Still, you never know. Passing through town may get interesting. Let us get started and see how it goes. 

Scene 6 – Passing through Sieradz (CR 5)

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Scene Setup

Since Wally is the only member of the team that was not yet in Sieradz, he will change places with Potato in the turret. Potato's size makes him too distinctive to risk staying in the turret. Robinson will drive with his head out and his googles on, hunkered down in the hatch to reduce the chance of him being recognized.

Approaching the barrier, Wally will present the fake orders the group has recieved and insist on being let through. Once the team is let through, they will hurriedly drive through the town like they were on a very important mission.

The scene roll is a 2, which is less than the Chaos Rank of 5, meaning the scene is interrupted (because the die roll was even). Oh dear. Not good.

We roll for a random action (73 - propose) and a random subject (60 - misfortune). Going to need to think about that one.

I am going to need a bit more information, so we will need to ask some questions of the GME.

[GME: Are the guards at the checkpoint hostile - Chaos Rank 5 - Unlikely (A Polish OT-64 commanded by a Polish "officer" - 35%) - 02% - Exceptional yes]

[GME: Do the guards recognize Robinson - Chaos Rank 5 - Unlikely (Fake uniform and limiting his exposure - 35%)  - 21% - Yes]

So the game is up. At least now we know where the problem is.

Scene Resolution

The guards wave down the characters as they approach the barrier. They are not well armed but seem to carry the arms they have with ease. These are professionals. 

Wally speaks to the sergeant, telling them to let them pass while waving the orders around. The sergeant approaches, ready to read the orders when he recognizes Robinson beneath his goggles. A shouted order later and the weapons are drawn and leveled. Worse, the turret of the damaged T-80 behind the barrier rotates, centering on the OT-64.

The sergeant is short and gruff: "Not welcome here, move on!".

The group reverses down the road before detouring around the city. Since the OT-64 is amphibious, they spend the rest of the period searching for a crossing point before floating over the Warta.

That went poorly. Now the Soviets know there is an OT-64 with an American driver claiming to have orders from a Soviet general. Although almost all forces have multi-national troops now, the cover is probably blown and the characters may be subject to more scrutiny later. 

The Chaos Rank is increased to 6. 

0104 – The Great Escape – Part V – Arriving at Zloczew

 1115 07 AUG 2000, Zloczew, Poland

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We were back again. We had been there before and a few things had changed. The militia manned their checkpoints, weapons at ready. They gave us a few waves of recognition before turning to scan the horizon again. It seems there are determined to keep their independence.

Arriving at the central market, stalls had been set up and business seemed to be good. A few merchants were in town, bartering and haranguing as best they could. Now to find someone headed south.

The characters arrive at Zloczew after a short, uneventful drive. The militia is back in force and stops them at the first checkpoint. Recognizing Potato and Robinson, the group is waved through and continues on into the town proper, finally arriving at the market.

Referee’s note: as the characters did well in the last few encounters, the Chaos Rank will be reduced to 5. In addition, this “side quest” is taking a lot more time from the original story-line than I wanted. Therefore, by the power vested in me as both GM and Players, I am going to assume that we can contact the council and arrange for both the medications and the wounded citizen to be transported back to Weilun. Plot line closed. We will, however, be keeping the generator and refrigerator. Something tells me we will be needing it.

The team will take a break to rest and replenish. First on the list is medical care. Assuming we are here for 24 hours, which is reasonable, the characters can heal their scratch wounds. The little boo-boos are then removed from the character sheets.

That leaves us with the real wounds. The majority of the wounds were suffered during the drive-thru of the ambush in Praszka. We have the following wounds:

• Marshall – Head (Serious), Right Arm (Slight)

• Klasha – Head (Serious), Left Arm (Serious)

Logan had performed first aid before so the team members are out of danger, but they will need rest. Driving around in the back of an OT-64 will not be considered adequate rest.

The second issue is ammunition. The ammunition can be resupplied from the ammunition carried onboard of the OT-64 or from the personal stores, so that is not a problem.

Third on the list if fuel. The team has approximately 80km or a little bit less than half a period of travel, which we can round up to half as there were a couple of detours off-road. This means that Can-Can just swallowed 40×3 (consumption modifier for ethanol) = 120l of ethanol. We should probably get that replaced.

Since the group is in town, they could probably grab some local food for the day, meaning we can add 18kg of domestic food to the shopping list.

The last item on the list is tricky: the coax was damaged during the ambush in we need replacement parts. Add on PK to the list and we should keep an eye out for more ammunition for both the PK and KPV. That being said, off to the market.

I will be using the house rules I posted before, in case anyone is wondering how I came to the result that I have. I am not going to reiterate them here but you can find them in the post archives.

The shopping list contains the following:

Item	Amount Needed	Availability	Base Price
Ethanol	120l	C/C	$15
Domestic Food	18kg	C/C	$5
PK Machinegun	1	R/S	$2000
7.62mm L	As much as possible, if we get a PK	S/C	$70
14.5mm B	As much as possible	S/C	$30

Zloczew is a town, so we will use the availability ratings for a town. First of all, to find a merchant willing to sell fuel (C, meaning 10 or less on a D10). The merchant is a coward (Jack of Diamonds) and moderately greedy (5 of Diamonds), raising all base price rolls by +10% for selling and -10% for buying. Griffin and Potato will go shopping with Wally as a translator. The highest Persuasion asset is 5, from Griffin.

For the fuel, the merchant is asking 120% (including the +10%) for the fuel. This would bring the total price to 120x15x1.2 or $2160. Wow, that is a lot. Maybe Griff can get him to lower the price a bit.

[Convince the merchant to lower the price for the fuel – Asset Level 5 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 5 – Roll(s): 4] – Success.

The price is lowered by 10%, bringing it down to 110%. Griff can try again at one level more of difficulty.

[Convince the merchant to lower the price for the fuel – Asset Level 5 – Formidable (x1/2) – Target Number 2 – Roll(s): 8] – Failure.

So that is final offer. The total price will be 120x15x1.1 = $1980. Still a lot of money.

Thankfully we have some medical equipment from Weilun to trade 160 Units of strong sedative ($5 each base price) and two Doctor's Medical Kits ($1000 each base price).

The merchant is willing to give us 80% of the base value for the sedatives but only 30% for the doctor’s medical kit. Strange but something we don’t want to probe into too deeply at the moment.

Maybe Griff can convince him to up his offer.

[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the sedatives – Asset Level 5 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 5 – Roll(s): 10] – Griff cannot change his mind on the sedatives.

We can try to bump the price on the medical kits, as 30% of their value is not a lot, to be honest.

[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the medical kits – Asset Level 5 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 5 – Roll(s): 4] – Griff gets him to up the price by 10%.

We definitely need to try raise the price yet again, although there is little chance of that succeeding.

[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the medical kits again – Asset Level 5 – Formidable (x1/2) – Target Number 2 – Roll(s): 3] – Almost but not quite

After all this haggling, we can bring to the table the sedatives (160x5x0.8 = $640) and the medical kits (2000x0.4 = $800), totaling $1440, much less than the characters wanted.

At this stage, we can continue to throw things on the pile or try doing something a character would do. Potato will use his bulk to convince the merchant. Potato brings 96kg (212 lbs) of fighting prowess to the table and attempts to pressure the merchant into accepting the medical supplies in exchange for the fuel.

Potato is large and we know the merchant is a coward at heart, so there is some chance of success. If the attempt fails then the deal is off. If it is an exceptional no, then violence will ensue with the merchant and his guards. We can ask the GME to determine the result.

[GME: Can Potato convince the merchant to accept the price by threats? - Chaos Rank 5 – Somewhat Likely (65%) - 42% - Yes]

Although the merchant is not happy about the exchange, he grabs up the medical supplies, questions the characters lineage and gives them the fuel.

This is a good example of using the GME to cover holes in the rules. Of course I could have just made say a difficult roll against Potato’s strength for intimidation purposes, but I find this solution better and a good use of the solo engine.

Next on the list is food. The needed amount of food (18kg) has a base price of 18x5 = $90. Food is commonly available in town, so we can skip the roll. I assume we will have to take our business somewhere else so we can draw the motivation of the next merchant (Queen of Diamonds – Lustful and Seven of Clubs – Moderately Violent). This could get interesting.

The merchant is asking (90x120%) $108 for the food. That is a lot but we do have a lot of mouths to feed. Maybe could trade in the Soviet Field Rations we have. No one really likes them anyways. The merchant is willing to give us 80% of the value for the field rations. Time to haggle.

[Convince the merchant to lower his price for the domestic food – Asset Level 5 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 5 – Roll(s): 20] – Catastrophic failure. The price even manages to go up by 15% to $124.

Maybe we could get a better price for the rations.

[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the field rations – Asset Level 5 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 5 – Roll(s): 13] – The merchant is sticking to his price

Looking back, it might have been worth our wild to take a bit more food with use, but space is limited and we need place for the prisoners.

We can just drop the deal and continue on. Looks like MREs and such tonight.

Next on the list is the PK. The item is scarce but one is available for sale. The price is 2000x80% or $1600. The merchant is not particularly greedy, so that helps a lot. That seems like a fair price and we will let is stand.

We do not have enough chemical defense suits for everyone anyway, so we can probably spare 2. The merchant will offer us 2000x90% = $1800. Of course the characters would try to up the offer.

[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the chemical defense suits – Asset Level 5 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 5 – Roll(s): 3] – The merchant raises the price by 10%

We get full price for the defense suits and I am not going to risk blowing that. The difference is $400. The merchant has ammo for the PK and offers to cover the difference in ammunition. The ammo is worth $70x1.2=$84 per 100-round belt (7 belts available) to him. He also has 14.5mm B available for $30x1.1=$33 per 100-round belt (3 belts available).

The group will then trade for 3 belts of 14.5mm B ($99 value) and 3.5 belts of 7.62mm L. Good trade and the equipment is added to the list on the vehicle sheet.

Wally can repair the PK (yes, I know it is probably not that easy but it is a game, after all) with a successful roll.

[Repair the PK Coax – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 2] – Success. The PK is back in action.

The team also gains 1 skill point and 1 initiative point for their trials and tribulations up to now. Now time for some rest.