Searching for the Raiders' Camp

Characters: Joe, Arthur, Darrurz
NPC: Mazun, Thaedznou, Aerrak, Rongon
Location: The ruined city of Oegzuzerrghgurrgoksa
System: Akofitsidano

1202.23.5 - 14:57 IST, 16:10 Local Time (21 hour, 16 minute day)

The group has agreed to assist Dhoknan's pack in their conflicts with their neighbors. Rather than battling them directly, it will the group's mission to take out their benefactors, the raiders.

A good chunk of the day has been spent looking over Dhoknan's map of the city, both inside and outside of the wall. Although the group will have two scouts with them, everyone feels that it would be wise to get at least some familiarity with the city.

During some downtime, Mazun helped the locals with some water pumps that had seen better days.

As the day waned, the group joined in a meal and then prepared to head out.

Rongon wished the group good hunting, bid his thanks to Dhoknan, and departed with his guards for their den to gather his warriors.

The scouts are a pair of teens, boy and girl. The vargr in the group sniff the air to gauge the pair and seem satisfied. Mazun protests their age, but Dhoknan praises their knowledge of the city and their stealth. "They've been scampering all over the place since they were pups. They know the dangerous areas and the refuges to take shelter. You're in good paws."

The group sets out at dusk to avoid being spotted by sentries for the rival packs. They make their way south, darting in and out of buildings, avoiding well lit areas, and making use of underground connections where safe and convenient.

Eventually, they come within a block of the city wall. This area seems more industrial than where they've been. The pair lead them into some sort of chemical manufacturing plant, large open reactor tanks fill an enormous space. There's still a faint chemical odor that the vargr can pick up, but the humans don't notice it. The scouts lead them up a set of metal stairs along the far well and then outside along a steel fire escape. The night breeze cleans out the olfactory glands. The wall lies three meters away. The ground is fifteen meters down.

"Ok, now what?" Mazun asks.

Egz and Oez tell the group to wait here. They climb up a ladder to the roof and disappear over the edge. Shortly thereafter, a pair of wooden planks, held together with numerous thick pieces of wood nailed underneath, appears over the edge. Thaedznou and Aerrak lend a hand getting it down. Egz directs them where to set the board. Once in place, Oez attaches a metallic strap over the end to secure it to the deck. There's now a bridge, almost half a meter wide spanning the chasm.

Mazun says, "We're supposed to go across that?"

Oez replies, "I'll go across first and secure the other side. Then you follow, one at a time."

"That's going to hold us?"

Thaedznou says to Mazun, "It'll be fine. Quit your whining."

Oez nimbly crosses the bridge and secures the far side. She then waves the next person to come over. Thaedznou goes first, followed by Aerrak. There's a little bowing as they're weighed down with gear, but nothing to alarm anyone. Arthur goes next. Joe coaxes Mazun into going and then follows him across. Egz unstraps the far side of the bridge, crosses it, and then unstraps the near side. The bridge is then placed on the city wall.

"Why don't you leave it in place?" Aerrak asks.

"It might draw attention," Oez answers.

Egz adds, "And if someone didn't like it, they could drop it to the ground. The other ways across and down aren't so safe."

"I'd like to know what's less safe than walking across a board fifteen meters up," Mazun mutters.

Egz and Oez lead the group east along the wall until Darrurz tells them to stop. "We're back in line with the signal we received. The raiders should be somewhere over there." He points along a line running south by southeast.

Aerrak keeps watch with the scouts for anyone on the inside of the wall while the rest of the group gets comfortable along the battlements, scanning outside the wall for signs of activity.

About an hour later, some vehicle lights are spotted in the distance. They go in and out amongst the buildings, but the group never loses sight of them. Eventually, they come close enough that their engines can be heard. As Dhoknan indicated, there are several buildings that are tall enough to get a signal over the wall. At the foot of them is a broad, low building that could be a warehouse.

The vehicles, four in all, come to a stop on the far side of the warehouse out of sight. Their lights are still on, giving away their position. While no one in the group could get more than a glimpse of them, all seemed to be regular wheeled vehicles. No tanks.

"Well, we found it," Mazun says. "Now what?"

Thaedznou replies, "We're going to need a closer look."

Spying on the Raiders

Characters: Joe, Arthur, Darrurz
NPC: Thaedznou, Mazun, Aerrak, two scouts (Egz and Oez)
Location: The ruined city of Oegzuzerrghgurrgoksa
System: Akofitsidano

1202.23.5 - 17:17 IST, 18:30 Local Time (21 hour, 16 minute day)

While Joe, Egz, and Thaedznou creep towards the raiders' camp, Darrurz and Oez make their way along the city wall to Darrurz's preferred sniper post.

Oez directs Darrurz to help lay the plank down across the gap that separates the wall from the building. Oez goes first and secures the far side to a balcony outside a corner office. Once inside, they reel in the plank and lean it against a desk. They exit the room and make a quick turn to a stairwell and proceed up four flights to the roof. Darrurz looks around for a suitable spot.

Meanwhile, Joe, Egz, and Thaedznou have stealthily made their way across the road and approach the back of the warehouse. Egz finds them an attached ladder which brings them up to the roof. Egz leads them around what appear to be weak spots and holes in the roof and towards the front of the building.

Peeking over the wall, they see the four vehicles with their engines off. There's an open jeep, two delivery trucks (lorries), and a pickup truck. Only the last one is armed, with what appears to be a light machine gun mounted on the back. The lights are all still on.

Two guards are outside, leaning against one of the delivery trucks. Both are armed with SMGs. Neither appears to be armored.

The trio listens in on some vargr chatter.

Vargr male #1: "Do ya know how long this stop is gonna be?"

Vargr male #2: "A while. Boss wants to get these packs pumped up for the big push on the holdouts."

VM1: "I don't know why we couldn't just roll over 'em and bring them to (inaudible)."

VM2: "They've got recruit potential. We can use them to bully over the little packs. But they have to take out Dhoknan's pack first. Too well organized. Real charisma there. Might be able to put up some resistance."

VM1: "Bah. He's got nuttin'."

Third vargr male, unseen: "Alright, bring in the trucks. We're gonna lock down for the night. Kae spotted a pack of uerroksafuekhskuez coming in from the south."

Both vargr acknowledge the order, then climb in the vehicles and start them up. They back the delivery trucks up until they disappear inside the building. Then they follow suit with the other two vehicles. The sound of garage doors closing can be heard.

Joe turns to Egz. "Let's see if we can find any air vents or skylights where we can listen at to get an idea about what's going on inside."

There are plenty of skylights that fit what Joe's looking for. They're evenly spaced all across the roof and are pyramid-shaped with square bases. Lights from inside the warehouse act as beacons, revealing where the raiders are. Looking down through them, the trio can see all four vehicles. Several raiders are unloading the two trucks of crates of varying shapes and sizes. Unfortunately, sound isn't reaching them. Even the vargr can't make out anything.

Thaedznou says, "Crates? Simple scavengers wouldn't bother with crates. That implies some level of organization."

Joe replies, "Indeed. I doubt they just found a fresh cache untouched for the last century. Time to go back before those Uerrso-fuck-shitz arrive."

Egz tilts his head in confusion, then realizes what Joe means, and clamps a paw over his muzzle to stifle his laughter.

The trio make their way back to the group on the wall and relay their findings that weren't directly related over the comm.

Joe asks, "So do we take these guys out now, or wait and see if their big boss arrives in the morning?"

"I say we take them out now," Aerrak says eagerly.

"I agree," Thaedznou concurs. "We have the element of surprise. Who knows what their alpha is armed with. Their combined forces might outmatch ours."

Mazun asks, "What about the uerroksa-whatevers?"

"We can outrun them," Thaedznou replies. "Since they can't climb, we'll have Egz and Oez be our lookouts on the warehouse roof. Maybe even a sniper if we have any volunteers."

Joe starts planning out loud. "Darrurz and his laser are probably best as lookouts up on the tower he was in before. Oez should stay with him to help guide him back to the camp if we get split up.

"For the rest of us," Joe adds, "I've got two of these." He holds up two sleep gas grenades. "Mazun, do you think you and Egz could find a way to drop these in on the bandits? I didn't see them with any filter masks handy."

"Well, I—"

"Yes!" Egz replies enthusiastically.

Joe resumes. "For the rest of us, we assault the ground floor entrances and take out any remaining resistance.

"Any other thoughts?"

Thaedznou shakes his head, then replies, "Kill anyone who resists, interrogate those smart enough to surrender. Good plan for me.

Assault on the Warehouse

Characters: Joe, Arthur, Darrurz
NPC: Thaedznou, Mazun, Aerrak, two scouts (Egz and Oez)
Location: The ruined city of Oegzuzerrghgurrgoksa
System: Akofitsidano

1202.23.5 - 19:47 IST, 21:00 Local Time (21 hour, 16 minute day)

Oez and Darrurz have returned to their lookout post while the others have returned to the warehouse. Egz takes the sleep gas grenades from Joe and climbs up to the roof with Mazun. Meanwhile, Joe, Thaedznou, Arthur, and Aerrak make their way around to the front of the building, looking for an entrance.

The large doors that the trucks drove through are locked from the inside. Ditto the four person-sized doors, one of each face of the building. The one in front is glass with plywood on the inside. The side and back doors are steel doors.

While the ground team is searching the base of the building to determine the proper entrance, Oez and Darrurz are keeping watch for any uerroksafuekhskuez. Darrurz is relying on the electronic sight on the electronic sight on his laser rifle. Oez is borrowing his image converting binoculars after he demonstrated their proper usage.

Oez tugs on Darrurz's arm.

"What is it?" he asks.

"I thought I saw a light in the building across the street from the warehouse. The western-most room, eight stories up."

Darrurz trains his scope on the aforementioned room. There's no light, but with nightvision engaged on his scope, he spots a vargr scanning the cityscape. Sometimes with binoculars, sometimes without. Darrurz doesn't know if he's spotted the ground team yet.

In whisper-mode, Darrurz reports on the comm, "Got a lookout. Be ready to go."

The ground team freezes.

To Oez, Darrurz says, "Keep eyes on the scout."

Darrurz lines him up, takes his time, and when he feels the moment is right, takes the shot. The target is hit in the head and drops out of sight.

"Target hit. All clear."

Meanwhile, Joe suggests that they enter through the west facing door. "Opening the vehicle doors would be noisy and lengthy. I anticipate that the glass door enters into some sort of office separate from the main warehouse. I'd prefer to enter the main warehouse as it is where the vehicles are and the best chance of capturing any loot. Darrurz in his sniper position should have a clear view of the north and east facing doors. Stragglers running away is an acceptable cost, plus the main road is where the uerroksa-things are likely to approach from."

Thaedznou nods in agreement. "Let's get the door unlocked and then Egz can drop the sleep grenades in on them."

Aerrak steps up to the door, examining it for any trip wires. He does see an old alarm wire. He says, "What are the odds this thing is still powered?"

Thaedznou answers, "About as likely as me sprouting wings."

Aerrak chuckles and gets to work picking the lock. It doesn't take him long. "Ok, ready."

Thaedznou comms Mazun, "Ok, drop the grenades."

"Acknowledged."

Mazun breaks a panel of glass with the butt of his rifle. Someone barks inside. Egz drops the grenades. More shouting is heard, followed by coughing, and then silence.

After a minute, Mazun comms, "I think they're out."

"Go!" Thaedznou barks.

Aerrak yanks open the door. Thaedznou, Joe, and Aerrak rush in first in case there's any lingering gas while Arthur keeps watch at the door. They quickly tie up the raiders. After five minutes, Arthur joins them to help finish the job. There's nine in all.

While the raiders are still asleep, the group has a look around. There are numerous crates holding assault rifles, ammunition, grenades, med kits, simple communicators, and rations. A look inside the lorries reveals more of the same. The weapons all look new, but the tech level appears to be about 8.

Joe is pretty amazed at the haul. He performs a visual scan as he walks around the warehouse and the lorries and asks Ed to estimate the following:

Once Joe finishes his list of questions, Ed does some calculations and then replies, "Assuming one assault rifle per sentient, a force of 80 could be outfitted. On foot, it would take 100 porters two hours to carry all of the gear back to Dhoknan's camp under ideal conditions. If the vehicles are utilized, they could get all of the gear back in two trips. If only one trip is desired, 86% of the gear could be carried, although this would require the two non-lorry vehicles to be utilized.

"The explosion would depend on the number of grenades and ammunition left behind. Said explosion could be small enough to be contained within the building or large enough to collapse the building.

"As for the unconscious vargr, individual tolerance will determine when they regain consciousness. Past data indicate anywhere from 30-60 minutes with a statistical median of 40 minutes."


While Joe is having this conversation, he's standing still with his eyes closed, eyeballs moving back and forth under his eyelids.

Upon seeing Joe, Egz asks Thaedznou, "Is he ok?"

"Oh yeah, he's just thinking."

A moment later, Joe opens his eyes, looks around for Egz, and after spotting him, asks, "How best to drive these vehicles back to your den? Could we get two trips in tonight?"

Egz is briefly startled by Joe's sudden change, then starts thinking about an answer. "Uh, we'd have to drive through one of the city's gates. The closest one is the south gate. That's Daerksagvoets territory. They typically extract a toll from anyone that wants to go through. They make their living as scavengers, but they trade what they find for food.

"The next closest gate is on the east wall. It's blocked off from the inside as the vargr over there are cannibals. Back when my pack got along with everyone, it was mutually agreed upon to just seal it off.

"There are a couple other gates further out along both walls, but I don't know much about them.

"The south gate would be the easiest, but it would probably be dawn by the time we got a second trip through."

"Thanks," Joe says, "Can you do me a favor and find the spent grenades we threw in. Let's not leave that evidence behind."

"Yeah, easy hunt," Egz replies with a wag of his tail.

To the rest, Joe says, "Ok, I think that went pretty smoothly. Now I see three options: we stay here and hold this cache against the inevitable counterattack, we clear it out tonight in multiple trips in the dark, or we take what we can and leave in one load."

Joe adds, "Also what do we want to do with the prisoners? If we leave now they have no idea what hit them. If we wait to interrogate them then we can't leave them, unless we want to reveal our involvement. Or we could let them go and see where they lead us! One thing is certain we can't let anyone know about us off-worlders yet."

While debating the above, Joe examines the haul in more detail, looking at the crates, rifles, and other equipment, looking for any distinguishing marks that Ed might be able to identify and give an idea of where these originated off-world.

Thaedznou sniffs the air and answers, "I like the idea of tracking them back to their den. Maybe put something inside one of their comms. Could you do that, Mazun?"

"Yes," Mazun eagerly replies.

Thaedznou continues, "Maybe we blindfold them while we finish up here."

Egz volunteers for that job.

Thaedznou asks, "There's a lot of gear here, scrounging it up and bringing it back to Dhoknan would be a big ol' marrow bone. It would certainly turn the tide of battle in his favor. Can we even get it all on one lorry trip?"

"We can get most of it," Joe replies, then relates the substance of Ed's report.

"What if we prioritized weapons over everything else?"

Joe closes his eyes for a few seconds. "If we leave the rations behind, we can do it in one trip."

"Then I say that's what we do." He looks down at the sleeping vargr. "Let's see if we can find a room to lock our sleeping beauties in before they wake up. We don't have nearly enough time to load up before then."

Packing Up and Moving Out

Characters: Joe, Arthur, Darrurz
NPC: Thaedznou, Mazun, Aerrak, two scouts (Egz and Oez)
Location: The ruined city of Oegzuzerrghgurrgoksa
System: Akofitsidano

1202.23.5 - 20:18 IST, 00:15 Local Time (21 hour, 16 minute day)

With a plan agreed upon, the group gets to work on their assigned tasks.

Mazun places a tracking chip inside three of the comms. They'll transmit whenever they're turned on and have a range of 10 km.

Egz blindfolds the slumbering raiders, then gathers up the spent grenades and places them in his backpack. He then gets to work loading up the lorries.

The rest of the group drags the raiders to a storeroom in the back and, though it opens inward, blocks the door by dragging empty metallic shelf units over to the door, lying them down on their sides, and wedging them into the corridor with scrap lumber. The total stack is only two meters high. By the time they're done, some of the raiders have woken up and can be heard rustling around in the room.

The group works quickly to load the lorries and other vehicles. As they're nearing the end, the door to the storeroom is heard to open via a squeaky hinge. A muttered curse is heard, then one of the raiders barks, "You're fukhin' with the wrong wolves, whoever you are." They then attempt to move the shelving units, though it is clear that it's going to be a struggle.

Joe curses under his breath. "I was hoping not to use more of these..." He tosses two sleep grenades, one at a time, to Egz. "Here, just toss them in the room like before. Put the timer on three seconds."

Egz stealthily trots over to the end of their barrier, sets the timers, and tosses the grenades one immediately after the other into the room.

More shouting and swearing is heard for about twenty seconds, but it gives way to coughing and gentle thumping of bodies hitting the floor.

The rest of the loading process goes by without incident.

Thaedznou lets Darrurz and Oez know that they're headed for the south gate and suggests that a sniper on the wall might be useful when negotiating with the gatekeepers.

Darrurz acknowledges the suggestion and will get moving once the caravan is on the move.

Just as they're about to leave, the group realizes that they don't have enough drivers. Thaedznou and Aerrak know how to drive wheeled vehicles, and Joe remembers having some experience somewhere at sometime, but Arthur, Mazun, and Egz don't.

Arthur tells Mazun that he's driving since he really can't shoot for shit. Mazun is about to complain, but realizes that Arthur has a point. Thaedznou promises to coach Mazun. They take the open jeep. Egz rides with Joe in the pickup truck and take the lead, while Thaedznou and Aerrak drive the lorries.

They're about to start up the engines, open the loading dock doors, and leave when Darrurz announces. "I'm picking up several large, four-legged animals in the street near your location."

Egz whispers, "Uerroksafuekhskhuez."

Thaedznou curses, but doesn't hesitate. "Ok, Aerrak and I will throw open the bay doors. Once we're back inside our vehicles, we'll all turn our engines at once and make a run for it. But if the uerros charge into here, just book it. Egz, how fast are these things?"

"They prefer to creep up on their prey and catch them unawares. They tire of the chase fairly quickly, but if they're hungry, they'll persist."

"How keen are their noses?"

"Pretty good. Unless you've got something to mask your scent, they'll find you."

Thaedznou gestures towards the garage doors. "Can they smell us through that?"

"No."

Thaedznou chews his lip. "Hmmmm, maybe we leave them something to snack on."

Aerrak nods. "The rations."

"Yes, let's open a bunch of them down here in the bay."

Egz protests, "But that will lure them in!"

"I'm counting on it," Thaedznou replies with confidence.

Egz mulls it over. "A diversion."

Thaedznou smiles. "That's a good pup."

The group opens dozens of cans of various sizes, focusing on the ones with meat in them. Once they feel they have enough, Thaedznou and Aerrak move to the doors while everyone else climbs into their respective vehicles. When everyone is ready, Thaedznou and Aerrak pull on the chains that open the doors. The first opened are for the guys already in their vehicles, then they open the ones in front of theirs. The uerroksafuekhskhuez don't seem to notice.

"Fire it up!" Thaedznou shouts.

All four vehicles start with ease. As planned, Joe and Egz take the lead in the pickup truck followed by Thaedznou in a lorry. Aerrak drives the other lorry with Mazun bringing up the rear in the jeep with Arthur ready to shoot the uerroksafuekhskhuez if they get too close.

The reptiles are to the right when they pull out of the warehouse. The headlights and engine noise immediately get their attention. They start trotting towards the group.

Egz barks, "Go left. We'll circle back the other way."

Joe does as told with Ed guiding his actions with the vehicle's controls.

Weighted down with all the gear, the vehicles are sluggish, enabling the uerroksafuekhskhuez to close the gap.

"Make a left at the intersection!" Egz instructs.

As Joe does so, he looks over his left arm to see the lead uerroksafuekhskhuez come dangerously close to the jeep. Mazun is struggling with the controls. Arthur decides that they need some breathing room. Based on the range and size of the animal, he thinks his LAG PDW (loaded with HEAP) would be best.

He takes aim, but just before he pulls the trigger Mazun jerks the steering wheel in an effort to avoid some debris in the street. Arthur's shot just misses.

"Damn it, Mazun. Keep it steady."

"I'm trying not to crash!"

The second shot is successful, hitting the uerroksafuekhskhuez in the left foreleg. The beast stumbles and falls. The gap between hunter and hunted quickly widens. The other uerroksafuekhskhuezes catch up to the fastest one of the group and begin barking and hissing at it. Satisfied, Arthur radios to the rest of the team that they're no longer being pursued.

As such Thaedznou instructs the group to slow down to a more reasonable speed to prevent mishap.

Next: The South Gate