Monday, January 7, 2019

0046 - Zloczew and Beyond

Having successfully crossed the Warta, the characters have made their decision to continue on to Krakow. From a travelling merchant they have heard of the free city and are determined that is their best possibility for a reprieve from the war. They intend to stay in the relavtive safety of the city before planning their next steps.

Two main roads lead south (over Weilun) and south-west (through Kepno) from Zloczew. The team are interested in the conditions in both and ask the town council if anyone has travelled from there recently.

[GME: Has anyone arrived from Weilun recently - Chaos Rank 5 - Somewhat Likely (65%), Weilun is nearby and has a good road. There is probably a lot of merchant travel - 66% - No]

Unfortunately, no one has arrived from Weilun in the last week. Although that would normally be a rather odd occurrence, the recent hostilities may be to blame.

The question remains if anyone has travelled from Kepno recently.

[GME: Has anyone arrived from Kepno recently - Chaos Rank 5 - Somewhat Likely (65%), Kepno is also nearby and has a good road. There is probably a lot of merchant travel - 32% - Yes]

The town council points the characters to a old transport company that has, in the recent years, started transporting goods through the war zone. Time to find out how  Marshall saw it:

Through the dust and grime, you could just barely see the signs that the place used to be a transport company. There were pictures of tractor trailers, forklifts and pictures of naked women in the garage (one of things I am not going to miss). Now, the tractor trailers sit disused in a corner of the lot, gathering dust and a skirt of leaves. They had been replaced by a couple of used 5-tons, one American and the other Polish. Both sported heavy machineguns and improvised armor plating. They were dirty but seemed serviceable.

As we approached, two guards barred our way. They held their submachineguns, a pair of Sterlings, with practiced ease and they kept the barrels pointed in our direction, even if they had not raised them yet. Klasha explained to them what we wanted, to talk to the boss, in Polish. They seemed to be OK with that and one keyed his radio and apparently relayed the information to someone else. Then we stood there a bit, everyone pretending that they were not ready to gun down the other side at the drop of a hat.

After an eternity or two, the radio squawked, informing everyone that we could enter. The guards let us through and directed us to an open vehicle bay containing a box van that had seen better days. You could not miss the bullet holes or the blood stains under the door. Someone had obviously had a bad day. An older man with a cane and a noticeable limp was directing the repairs so we assumed that was the boss. Klasha called out and he turned our way, revealing his wrinkled face with quick eyes under bushy gray eyebrows.

The man is Antonin Majkowski, the owner of the transport company. It would be important to learn about his motivation in order to determine if he would be willing to help the characters.

  • Motivation:
  • =====================
  • Generous: The character is generous to a fault and will gladly give away anything he has to someone in need, even if this leaves him with nothing. In less extreme cases, he will be inclined to make very generous trades and will always refuse payment for help with a task other than one directly related to his normal livelihood.
  • Moderately ambitious: The NPC will wish to be in a position of real responsibility in an organization.

Antonin is willing to help the characters. He can tell them of a small detachment of Soviet military police in the town and an extremely poorly motivated militia. All in all, it should not be a problem with the characters, seeing as how they handled themselves against the stragglers. However, if the characters are going that way, Antonin has a business proposal, He has a shipment of foodstuffs bound for Weilun. A recent trip, however, resulted in a good portion of his crew ending up on sick leave. Would the characters consider letting his truck tag along as far as Kepno?

The characters agree.

The Plan
The HMMWV Jerry will lead the way, followed by the 5-tons and the 3/4-ton Bud as tail end charlie. The separation will be 50m. Jerry will have the TOW mounted and both L7s are deployed on the 3/4-ton. Both vehicles will also have RPGs prepared, just in case. In case of contact, the closed guard vehicle will engage and dismount the passengers. The other vehicle will attempt to flank any aggressors.

The plan is rated as Solid but Dangerous. The mission is simple and the characters are equipped well for the mission, however, something can always go wrong. The characters receive +2 (they have both the assets and skill for the roll).

Resolving the Plan
The roll to successfully execute the plan is 8+ on 2D6. The characters receive a +2 bonus and the roll is 14 (12+2). That is a success. Now to check the consequences. The consequences have the same success roll as the plan (8+ on 2D6). The roll is a 7, resulting in a negative consequence. We can think up a negative consequence or roll one randomly. I decide to roll (2D6) and the roll has a modifier of +2 because the mission was a success. The result is 8 (6+2), resulting in "Part of the mission was failed or incriminating evidence left behind". The most obvious interpretation is that some of the cargo was destroyed in an encounter on the way to Kepno. The trucks were probably not destroyed, as the mission was an outstanding success. This may have on effect on our relations with Antonin later. We need to make a note of that.

Wrapping it up, we add Antonin to our NPCs list and make note of the damage to his cargo on our watch. The characters have now arrived at Kepno.



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