Once again, the characters are point guns at
someone who returns in kind. The persuasion roll went bad and
produced the exact opposite reaction.
[
The
dismount team gripped their weapons a little tighter and prepared to
drop prone at the first sign of a hostile move. Klasha heard Harris
and Potato shift in the bed of the truck as the brought the L7s to
bear. Things had definitely gotten a little tense.
]
Now would be a good time for the major to enter
before someone gets hurt.
[
“STAND
DOWN!” bellows a voice in Russian from behind the barrier. A heads
turn to see an overweight, balding Russian major approaching the
barrier from the city. Being overweight these days is a feat that
borders on a miracle.
Weapons
are lowered and safeties click back into place. The major passes the
barricade and moves to stand between both groups before addressing
the LT: “Femerov, report my location to the headquarters”. The LT
gives a deadly stare to Klasha before abruptly turning on his heel
and stomping off behind the barricade.
]
Time to update our lists. We now know the LT to be
called Femerov. We should also keep the grudge he has against Klasha
in the back of our minds. There is a possible plot line here and we
will add it as a thread.
Side note: of course you can do everything without
the scene descriptions but they do make things more interesting. If
you were playing face-to-face, the GM would add the descriptions too
so there is no reason to skimp because you are playing solo. Now,
back to the Major. First a rule roll:
Rule
Roll: {Communicate
in a given language (Difficult x1) against an average of the language
skills – Klasha 14, Major
14, average 14.5, rounded to 15. Roll: 8 - Pass}
The two will have no problems communicating.
[
“I
am Major R. B. Bologov, commander of the glorious Soviet forces
defending this bastion of freedom against Western aggression. I
understand that you would like to journey through the town. It is my
duty to protect the innocent people of this town and my men. You may
pass, but you will not pass for free.”
A
small smirk crossed Klasha’s face while a short laugh bubbled out
of Potato’s throat. “Just what exactly, are you expecting in
return, Major? We are traveling light and do not have a lot of trade
goods.”
“The
people of the town require food. Give them food and I am sure they
will agree to let you use their street.” The major spoke in a
business like manner, all the while eyeing Potato.
]
The characters have food but are unwilling to
trade it, as they need it themselves. Maybe the Major would be
interested in something else.
[
“We
have no food to trade, but we can trade weapons and ammunition. We
have some extras”, Klasha offers with her best poker face.
]
The persuasion roll will be set at formidable
since the major really wants something else.
Rule
Roll: {Persuade
the Major
to trade
for weapons
(Formidable
x1/2)
against
Persuasion 8. Roll: 20 – Catastrophic Failure}
Again, things worked out spectacularly opposite of
how they should have.
[
“Food
or you will not pass!”. The Major raises his hand and the familiar
sound of safeties fills the air again. He stands there for a few
seconds, before slowly lowering his arm again. “I do know where
food is. If you can recover it, you may pass. My men are too wide
spread to recover the food and the people here are desperate”.
]
Here is the hook. The characters can choose or
refuse the offer. Being an experienced player, I know the discussion
would start and very likely end with the characters coming to the
conclusion that they may be able to keep part of the recovered food
for themselves. The characters would then accept the mission/offer.
The characters here will also accept the mission.
[
“Keep
talking, you have our attention”, Klasha motions for the major to
continue as the others relax a bit.
]
The hook is set, we can continue. We can make the
assumption that the Major explains the details, such as location,
opposition, etc. This is not really important at the moment. It is
important that we have the hook and a general goal for this thread.
In our list, we will add a new thread “Travelling
to the Convoy”, as that is the next logical step in the adventure.
We can close the thread “Entering Sieradz”, which we used to
start the adventure. We have another NPC (Major R. B. Bologov) for
our list.
The characters blew two rolls rather badly. We
cannot really say that they had the scene under control, so we will
increase the Chaos Rank to 6.
As as side note: we have put a lot of effort into
Lt. Femerov and with his aversion to Klasha, it would be worth the
additional effort to create a detailed NPC record for both him and
the major. The record should contain not only the stats, equipment
and motivation, but also what the characters know about the NPC and
when and where the characters have seen the NPC. You never know when
we may see the good lieutenant again.
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