Category Archives: Campaign and Session Logs

Post Tagging Updates

Because I’m always in search of a better taxonomy, the cluttering of my post tag cloud in the right sidebar has become an annoyance. Accordingly, I’ve gone through the post histories for both of my currently-documented campaigns, Kaserne on the Borderlands and Somewhere West of Light, and removed, respectively, the Twilight: 2000/Twilight: 2000 4e and Shadowdark tags from most of them. Going forward, campaign log posts will only be tagged with the game system in question if the post:

  • is an initial post for setting up that campaign; or
  • contains mechanics or other general content that readers may find useful at their own tables.

My vague hope is that this change will make the blog incrementally more usable for readers who come here in search of material for a specific game line and don’t want to have to sift through the (currently) 106 Kaserne posts trying to find my NM-116 writeup or something like that.

Behind the Screen: Blurred Lines

Before continuing with the narrative of Kaserne on the Borderlands, a GM interjection is in order here, because many upcoming story elements are buried in previous posts or haven’t actually shown up in the blog.

In 2018, I ran a previous incarnation of this setting for the players who are now behind Pettimore/Alexei, Betsy/Magda (Dr. Ellie Wright), Ellis/Arkadi (Agent Broadstreet), Octavia/Zenobia (Gintaré Vilkiene), and Cowboy/Red (James Smith). Pettimore is the only PC from that campaign to reappear in this one. The catch is that for Pettimore, he and his original team were with the 5th Infantry Division until a couple of days before its last stand at Kalisz. That group subsequently made their way to Krakow via Czestochowa, encountering many of the plot beats of The Black Madonna along the way. Once in Krakow, they became embroiled in the covert conflict between the DIA, CIA, KGB, and local authorities, as well as delving deeper into the paranormal manifestations they’d seen along the way. That campaign ended in what was, for Pettimore, October 2000.

This campaign began up in May 2000. Subjectively, Pettimore remembers the events of the last campaign – but after that, he has a period of missing time and foggy memories of wandering into Ponikla sometime in the spring, before the other PCs arrived there. For the first few months of the game, he believed the year was 2001. It wasn’t until a conversation with Ellis in mid-July that the group started to realize that Pettimore’s timeline wasn’t in sync with theirs.

Among Pettimore’s belongings when he arrived in Ponikla was a thick packet of documents, which the current group references as the Broadstreet Dossier. Its apparent author is one of Ellis’ fellow CIA operatives, who was part of Pettimore’s previous group. It details the political situations in Silesia and Krakow, as well as the paranormal manifestations that the character had observed – including those surrounding that team’s first encounter with Florian Filipowicz of The Black Madonna fame.

When the first PC team left Czestochowa, they left the titular Black Madonna stashed in the depths of an abandoned copper mine. One of the current team’s ongoing long-term goals – particularly for Pettimore and Ellis – has been to reach that site. Their expectation is that what they find there will confirm or negate Pettimore’s memories and at least some of the contents of the Broadstreet Dossier…

A Hot Lead (22-23 October 2000)

The salvagers’ camp is a pentagonal shipping container compound built around some rich Pole’s hunting lodge. Each corner has a sandbagged watchtower with a GPMG or HMG. Parked inside are a warty-looking BRDM-2 with its engine compartment propped open (a BRDM-2RKh, for the gearfondlers playing along at home), a HMMWV, a Zil-131, two trailers of decontamination gear, a 1000-liter water trailer with siphon pump, and the military forklift the salvagers used to move the conexes. Cleared lanes of fire extend at least 200 meters in every direction. An array of containers inside the perimeter holds various items of salvage. The compound is set up with a decontamination lane, a laundry and shower setup, a still, and a separate kitchen.

The place appears to be home to about fifteen to twenty people, with ample room for visitors to park – it’s clearly intended to function as a caravanserai. Guards on the towers track the team’s approach, but they raise their muzzles when Ryba waves a signal flag in what’s clearly a prearranged signal. As the UAZ noses through the gates, a marshaller with two rags tied to sticks trots forward to direct them into a parking location.

A sharp-featured woman with intense eyes and inelegantly-hacked short auburn hair comes forward to check on her wounded. Once she’s sure they’re in no immediate danger, she turns, greets Ryba enthusiastically, then introduces herself to the PCs as Raissa Kavaliova.

Cat is practically vibrating with her need to ask questions. For weeks, she’s had a growing sense of dread/hope that she and Hernandez may not be the last survivors of Task Force Cobalt. Finding gear in Dobrodzien from one of her friends in that unit is what led them here. Hernandez is a calming presence at her shoulder, but he, too, is leaning forward with anticipation.

Kavaliova’s crew is accustomed to hosting Ryba and his team. Eleven extra people (and one dog who thinks he’s people) are a bit of a strain, but they can accommodate. The merchants pitch in to get dinner going while the PCs (less those pulling maintenance and security) follow Kavaliova into the lodge for a drink and a serious discussion.

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The Road to Czestochowa (21-22 October 2000)

The team pulls out of Dobrodzien on the morning of October 21, under a leaden sky that’s spitting the year’s first serious snowfall. Erick, Betsy, and Hernandez, running point in the UAZ-469, are quite thankful of their newly-acquired cold-weather gear. Comms takes rear guard, and Industrial Light and Mayhem slots into the middle of the merchant wagons. Moving at the pace of burdened oxen, progress is much slower than the team is accustomed to seeing from their usual mechanized pace.

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Dobrodzien Downtime (19-20 October 2000)

The team spends a couple of days in Dobrodzien, enjoying such marvels as hot showers and food they didn’t have to cook themselves. They also barter for a few things in the market: various items of cold-weather apparel, a set of EOD tools upon which Betsy seizes with unholy glee, a partial box of .45 ACP ammo for Pettimore’s MEU(SOC), and a handful of blank Betamax tapes.

Meanwhile, Cowboy takes point on the heavier negotiations…

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Cards on the Table (18 October 2000)

Continuing the lightly-edited chat log transcript from the last post…

Ellis glances up from his notebook and offers the Captain a wan smile. “Captain, if I could have a word in private? And, apologies… I haven’t properly introduced myself. Case Officer Ellis, CIA oversight for what’s left of this region.”

Warren gives Dern an indecipherable look. Dern cracks a faint smile, fishes a notebook and pencil stub of his pen out of his breast pocket, and makes a short entry.

Warren stands and wordlessly gestures Ellis toward the door, then leads him outside and around to the shadows in the back of the house. “This is as private as it gets when the dinner setting is in my office. What’s on your mind, Case Officer ‘Ellis?’”

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A Night Out in Dobrodzien (18 October 2000)

Getting caught up after far too long away from this. The following is a lightly-edited – and long – transcript of a scene played out on our Discord server after the last session.

Recap of previous play not blogged:

After lunch, Octavia and Erick check out the local school. It’s small but functional. Cowboy, Miko, Betsy, and Cat retrun to the team’s encampment to start working on Lazarus. While there, they receive a visit from Sergeant Francisco Lopez (no relation to Cowboy), who runs the maintenance/support section for Bravo Troop. He expresses very strong interest in taking Lazarus off the team’s hands for the right price. Bravo Troop has two light tanks, seven other light combat vehicles, and a collection of HMMWVs/equivalents, but no recovery vehicle. So any time anything breaks down, another combat vehicle has to be the one to tow it home.

Shortly after that, Betsy overheard one of the radios in Comms receiving a transmission. Bell had left it on while he went into town for downtime. The conversation was in Russian – one party clearly in a firefight, the other party not. With no one present who spoke Russian, Erick and Betsy grabbed the team’s tape recorder and got most of it for later analysis. Cat did recognize the candence and repetition of one part of the transmission as a call for artillery support – indicating someone out there speaks Russian and has access to artillery. Comms’ direction-finding gear pointed south-southwest as the source of the transmission. Cowboy’s supposition, based on that, was that the Soviet 129th Motor Rifle Division is getting into it with the Army of Silesia.

Picking up the in-character thread:

The team (Betsy, Cat, Cowboy, Erick, Ellis, Pettimore, and NPC Hernandez) heads down to Bravo Troop’s encampment for their dinner engagement with Captain Warren. Along the way, the group passes the town’s medical clinic – closed for the evening, but with the glow of an electric light visible through the windows. Hearing no generator, Betsy infers battery power.

Bravo Troop’s encampment is in a former lumber yard. There’s a sign on the gate making it obvious who the new tenants are:

B Troop
1st Squadron
116th Armored Cavalry Regiment
Idaho National Guard

Two gate guards are on duty – uniformed, armed, geared up, alert. One of them escorts the team to the building that used to be the lumberyard office, now the HQ building and CO’s residence. The front half is still in use as a cramped office. First Sergeant John Wheeler (previously encountered) is at one of the desks. He stands, closes the notebook he’s writing, in, greets the PCs, and escorts them into the back.

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Chapter V: Return to the Flooded Crypt of the Necromancer

This should have been subtitled Vengeance for Vraazox. Following their narrow escape, Tulk and Hazel swore vengeance on the ghostly necromancer who’d slain their friend. They went back with reinforcements:

  • Tulk: marked half-orc, ranger 3
  • Hazel Ravenvale: outcast halfling, thief 2
  • Nubbin Stump: drawn halfling, fighter 2
  • Ylva Fekyue: outcast halfling, bard 3
  • Mirena the Outcast: outcast human, priest of Freya 1 (reserve PC for Vraazox’s player)

… this crew sure does seem to attract a lot of halflings and outcasts for some reason.

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Chapter IV: The Flooded Crypt of the Necromancer

I’ve been trying to run Somewhere West of Light in a West March-ish, if not purely West Marches, style. Part of this is giving the players a log of available quests/delves in our Foundry server so they can choose where to go next. The players decided to pursue the following:

Hajnal, the ancient elven witch who lives in Plainwood’s slums, has sought you out. Something or someone is killing any practitioners of her art who enter the lost province. She’s so far managed to remain safe by staying in Plainwood – the responsible parties don’t seem to be able or willing to enter the town. But she would very much like this matter laid to rest.

Her divinations, though hampered by the proximity of so many destinies, have shown her the location of someone who may be able to provide information about these killings. She’s unable to provide more information than that, but she has given you a location: a former holy place of Gede, long abandoned.

The crew consisted of:

  • Tulk: marked half-orc, ranger 3
  • Vraazox da Pryist: wolfchild goblin, priest of Memnon 3
  • Hazel Ravenvale: outcast halfling, thief 2

They entered the delve site expecting a level 1 adventure, and the completion of the first milestone of the quest chain that will unlock the witch class (Cursed Scroll #1) for PC use. The GM should not have taken the module author’s word at face value…

[Spoilers follow for Flooded Crypt of the Necromancer, which appears in Shots in the Dark #1.]

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Chapter III: The Blackbridge Labyrinth

I felt like running Shadowdark tonight. Pop-up dungeon!

Hired by a young boy to locate his missing brother, the crawlers traveled to the tiny (and oddly underpopulated) village of Blackbridge. Tonight’s crew consisted of:

  • Tulk: marked half-orc, ranger 3
  • Vraazox da Pryist: wolfchild goblin, priest of Memnon 3
  • Ylva Fekyue: outcast halfling, bard 2
  • Yuri Völvason: witchborn human, priest of Ord 2

[Spoilers follow for The Blackbridge Labyrinth, which appears in Shots in the Dark #1.]

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