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