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…
Bravo Troop’s maintenance troops are very interested in getting their hands on Lazarus, the team’s recently-recovered FV434. Having an armored recovery vehicle, even a light one like the former British Army ride, would substantially support their efforts to remain a functional armored cavalry unit. Cowboy cracks her knuckles and sits down with Lieutenant Dern.
After some negotiation, the team hands over Lazarus to Bravo Troop, along with the M249 formerly on Industrial Light and Mayhem’s gun ring. Octavia grabs her gear out of the ARV and returns to her previous position aboard Comms. In return, the team nets:
- full fuel tanks for their remaining vehicles
- 120 person-days of rations (10 days at current staffing levels)
- an M16A2 with six magazines, enabling Erick to replace his AK-74
- a PKM for Comms and a quantity of belted 7.62x54mm for it
- 100 rounds each of 7.62x25mm Tokarev and .32 ACP for the team’s secondary weapons
- a handful of HE rounds and one HEAT warhead for the SPG-9
- 4 single-shot RPG-27s
- 160 rounds of 14.5mm for Comms’ KPV
Cowboy’s next task is to hash out the terms and conditions of an escort quest. Straight from negotiations with Dern, she heads to a lunch appointment with Tymon Ryba, the leader of the Zolw (“Tortoise”) Mercantile Collective.
(The Tortoises’ current contingent is 29 personnel in eight wagons, drawn by a mix of horses and oxen. That head count includes nine drivers, one wainwright, one cook, six laborers/guards (all former Polish soldiers, but none equal to the PCs), seven merchants, and five dependent spouses and teenagers. Their Czestochowa-bound cargo is primarily charcoal and root vegetables, with some higher-value mead, brandy, and miscellaneous trade goods mixed in. They’re also carrying a West German Lutheran minister, Pastor Cornelius Hofler. Hofler originally came to the area last year to check on members of his extended family who used to live here, but they’re all dead, so he’s now hanging with the Tortoises as something of a circuit rider. He admits he’s not much use in Dobrodzien, as they still have a priest of their own.)
After some heavy debate, the terms of the contract are as follows:
- The PCs will provide armed escort for the Tortoise Mercantile Collective at all times during the trip from Dobrodzien to Krakow, departing on the morning of October 21. During this time, they will contribute an equitable share to all travel and camp labor. In the event of attack, they will make a good-faith effort to defend the convoy against all hostile parties. In the event of theft, they will make a good-faith effort to investigate the occurrence and to recover all stolen property, so long as such action does not compromise the convoy’s safety.
- The PCs will not impose delays on the trip that are not tactically necessary.
- The PCs will make their medical providers and supplies available to the Collective for the duration of the trip.
- The Collective will arrange introductions to their salvager contacts outside Czestochowa and will accommodate a one-day layover at that location.
- The Collective will provide food for 11 people and 1 dog, served communally, for the trip’s duration.
- Upon reaching Krakow, the Collective will fully refuel of all PCs’ vehicles and reserve containers, and will reimburse them for 50% of ammo and medical supplies expended during the trip.
- Upon reaching Krakow, the Collective will provide the PCs with one medium still, assembled and tested; 11 sets of locally-produced civilian winter apparel; and 11 seven-day merchants’ passes for entry into Krakow.
Cowboy has a final couple of deals to broker at the clinic and florists’ shop. GM notes:
Daniel Nowicki – dentist – young, overwhelmed, on the edge of a breakdown
Liliana Biskup – oncology nurse – forties, chain smoker, profoundly cynical
Berta Kasprazk – midwife – eighties, talks to herself
Between the three of them, they can handle moderate trauma and minor illnesses. They have a very limited supply of antibiotics. No total anesthesia, so no surgery capacity beyond what someone can handle with alcohol or unconsciousness. They can transfuse and have a stack of blood typing cards and a list of donors in the community. Their biggest fear is an outbreak of cholera or plague.
Borys and Justyna Jedynak – married, refugees from Czestochowa. They do actually grow flowers, but their primary function in the community is cultivation of herbs for the clinic (and the table). Justyna was a florist and Borys is a trained mycology professor. Between the two of them, they have a steady supply of everything the Herbal Medicine specialty can produce. They also serve some excellent herbal teas with honey Borys gathers himself.
Cowboy brokers a one-for-one trade, acquiring 6 units of antibiotics in exchange for some of the team’s local anesthetic surplus.
Her final stop is the florists. She’s in luck – they have marigolds, which she wants for some upcoming personal observations…