Picking up where we left off, with the Ponikla PCs in Opoczno…
It’s midafternoon when the team wraps up their negotiations with Opoczno’s mayor and town council. They still have a few other pieces of business to transact, and at least one more item has arisen during their visit.
Alexei’s PC is out for this session, so the East German teenager slides offscreen with Ludwig. The radiologist allegedly knows the location of a cache of vinyl records.
Minka and Zenobia have heard there’s a machinist in town who’s selling higher-end tools in addition to his fabrication services. It’s not hard to get directions, and within twenty minutes, the team is standing in front of a former laundromat. A 10kw portable generator is emplaced on cinder blocks around the back of the building, plumbed to run off a 200-liter drum of methanol. Zenobia nods approvingly at the heavy-duty muffler that’s been fabricated for what would otherwise be a cacophonous small engine.
The interior of the place has been stripped down to the studs, except for one restroom and a tiny office cubicle with attached service counter. The front half of the space is full of display shelves and pegboard. It’s mostly hand tools and spare parts, with one shelving unit containing basic power tools. Little is factory new, but everything is clean, freshly sharpened or tightened, and otherwise in good condition.
The building’s back half is, as advertised, a machine shop. It’s a little better equipped than what Minka’s been able to piece together, though it lacks her smithy and a couple of other items. In the middle of the floor, an immense heavily-tattooed, red-bearded man sits in the center of an oil-spotted bedsheet, surrounded by the stripped parts of a drill press. He’s painstakingly cleaning and examining each small part. At Minka’s greeting, he holds up a finger, finishes the operation in his hands, and returns the part to its place on the sheet before hoisting himself up. As he stands, it becomes apparent that he’s missing one leg below the knee. He carefully removes his bifocal safety glasses and tucks them into a shirt pocket before extending a hand in greeting.
The machinist introduces himself as Albert Niemczyk. He’s heard about Ponikla and quickly connects Minka and Zenobia with the rumors that have started to permeate through Opoczno. Minka grins and produces her list. The women begin negotiating.
Miko, wandering unsupervised, finds an endcap display with an assortment of cutlery. There’s some trash – U.S. Cavalry replica katanas, switchblades fit for a pimp – but two pieces catch his attention. The first is a Russian-made replica of a Fairbairn-Sykes commando dagger. The second is a bit more ornate: gilt brass, bone, and an enameled shield in the same colors that Leks wears on his shoulder. Miko makes excited noises and pulls Minka away from her bartering to beg her to add the blades to the deal.
Eventually, Minka and Red close a deal with Niemczyk. Minka will bring her welding rig down and repair a few structural issues that Niemczyk hasn’t been able to address with his available resources. Following up on that, Red and Niemczyk will put their heads together on a design for a prosthetic leg (Red mildly scolding himself for not seeing this as a widespread need until now). In exchange, the team will receive a selection of equipment that Minka has been needing for her own shop upgrades, bringing that progress clock to 5/8 ticks.
Zenobia notes a working cuckoo clock on a shelf above the counter and asks about its price. Niemczyk grins. “It’s not for sale. My ex-wife hated it… which is why I kept it.” Zenobia cackles.
The team bids Niemczyk a warm farewell and moves on to the market square. Leks and Red head to the gunsmith’s shop. Leks comes up dry on a request for 7.62mm NATO ammo – he’s always in the market for rounds for his voracious MG3.
Red notices a small stack of cardboard boxes with English printing and asks about them. The smith is only too happy to open one for inspection: it’s a complete internal parts rebuild kit for an M16-series rifle. Red makes the man’s day with, “I’ll take all six.”
Janek is in the market for something a bit more concealable than the PM-84 that’s currently in a militia checkpoint storage locker. The pistol selection is slim, but a vz.70 fits the smuggler’s needs.
Miko spots a couple of the Russians in the market. His immediate suspicion is that the team is being surveilled, but it quickly becomes evident that the men are doing some shopping of their own. They barter for socks and long underwear, then move on to one of the food vendors, where one of them is ambushed by a sample of pickled horseradish sauce. As he turns purple, his buddy laughs and negotiates for three jars of the stuff.
Red waits for them to close their deal, then approaches. They’re standoffish but not immediately hostile, and introduce themselves as Boris and Yevgeniy. Red extends an offer: he wants to parley with their boss to ensure he and his people aren’t going to have an inadvertent conflict with her and her people. Yevgeniy indicates he’ll take the offer back to her and checks his watch. “If she wants to talk to you, we’ll meet you at the taphouse at 17:30.”
Red agrees and watches the Russians depart. Zenobia sidles up. “He has a watch,” she observes.
“Yeah.” Red nods. “They’re keeping time, which means they definitely aren’t fogged.”
Miko and Minka find a moment to pull Leks aside and present him with the dagger. Leks stares at it and makes amazed and appreciative noises. It’s a piece of Estonian history he’s only seen once, in a hidden private collection, a relic of the few decades of Estonian independence before the Soviet takeover. Most were melted down in the Soviet purges of Baltic cultural artifacts.
The team has about an hour before their provisionally-scheduled meet. Red, Leks, and Minka all know the place, as they’ve visited on previous trade trips to Opoczno. It generally has safe food, good beer, and the best selection of prewar liquor. The team has cut a few trade deals for the latter, and for Maceij Jaros’ regionally-legendary mead.
Leks is operating at his usual level of suspicion where Russians are concerned, but no one foresees any particular treachery, so they close out their respective bartering and, at the appointed hour, head in that direction.
Dusk is gathering but the taphouse is only about a quarter full when the team arrives. Those who’ve been here before notice a new acquisition: a jukebox rigged to run off a pair of truck batteries. There’s general consensus that they’ll need to keep an eye on Alexei to keep him from trying to loot it. They claim seats in the back, near the billiards table, and set up to wait.
As it turns out, the wait isn’t long. The Russians arrive about the same time as the beers. Two of the men peel off to take seats at the bar, where they can watch each other’s backs while ostensibly chatting. The other two stick close to the woman, who surveys the group before taking a seat at a table with Red. Her glance at Leks before she sits down says she knows what she’s doing when she puts her back to him.
[ Morgan Freeman narrator: Leks tried not to grin ferally. Despite his best effort, Leks was grinning ferally. ]
There’s a round of introductions. The woman is Arisha Fedorov. The two covering Fedorov are Taras and Boris, the latter of whom was one of the pair at the market square. The two at the bar are Yevgeniy, also encountered before, and Other Boris.
Red opens negotiations with a few probes about maps, clocks, and libraries. Fedorov smiles thinly and reciprocates. She’s clearly playing the same game that Red is: determining if the other party is brain-fogged. With that out of the way, she’s cordial but cagey, unwilling to reveal exactly where she and her men are from. She’s in town to negotiate trade. The messenger bag she’s keeping close at hand, she says, is full of documentation on what her people have and what they’re looking for.
Red is briefly distracted by the arrival of two Opoczno militiamen. It’s Mieszko and Franek, the guards on the western checkpoint who gave him and Miko the all-important tip on Ludwig’s location. He excuses himself briefly to chat and to buy them the drinks he promised.
Boris seems to decide that the team isn’t about to erupt in unexpected betrayal. He approaches Zenobia and asks if she can teach him to play pool. She obliges. Minka and Janek exchange a glance: Boris already knows damn well how to play pool.
Red returns to his seat and resumes the conversation with Fedorov. He’s the only one with a line of sight to front door, so only he (and Boris and Yevgeniy) can see when two more militiamen enter. These appear to still be on duty, wearing the woolen cloaks that the militia issues for foul weather. They scan the room, clearly looking for something or someone, and start heading toward the bar.
Two more militiamen enter from the side door leading to the storeroom (which has an outside delivery entrance). Mieszko and Franek exchange frowns. “Who are those guys?” Red hears Mieszkio ask.
Red gives the new arrivals a closer look. All of them have eerily similar facial features.
“Shit. Get down!” he snaps to Fedorov as he kicks back from the table and flips it for cover. Over his shoulder to Leks: “MIBs!”
The two militiamen in the bar area whip their cloaks aside, producing a Steyr AUG and a SPAS-12. They open fire on Yevgeniy and Other Boris. Yevgeniy catches a charge of buckshot, but he’s still able to fumble a Makarov out and start returning fire.
The two new arrivals near the storeroom pull submachine guns: a MAC-10 and an FN P90. Their initial spray catches Mieszko and Franek, both of whom drop behind their corner of the bar for cover. A round from the P90 punches through Red’s table to crease Fedorov.
The team’s weapons come out and they start returning fire. Most of them, anyway. Miko shoves his way through the surging crowd and attempts to disarm the attacker with the shotgun. He catches a point-blank shot for his troubles. The impact knocks him off his feet.
Red, Leks, and Zenobia are carrying Glock 18s acquired after the last fight against similar assailants. As soon as they have clear fields of fire, they open up. All three machine pistols jam.
Minka cuts sideways, then flips another table and charges the two men by the storeroom. They’re unable to stop her before she hits with all the force of a pocket bulldozer, pinning both of them to the bar. Leks joins her, putting his shoulder into the maneuver. Red abandons his jammed Glock in favor of his axe, nearly severing one of the attackers’ arms. Not to be outdone, Leks pulls his newly-acquired dagger and cuts the man’s throat.
The Russians recover from their initial shock. Makarovs come out and they start returning fire as well. Despite his grievous injury, Yevgeniy lands a well-placed round on the shotgunner, who drops. Miko recovers his wits enough to go for a ground fight, but the attacker with the AUG has other plans, firing a point-blank burst that leaves Miko unconscious and bleeding on the floor. It’s enough of an opening for the shotgunner to regain his feet and fire another round into Yevgeniy, who drops. Other Boris yells in rage and empties his Makarov, rounds flattening against the man’s body armor.
The shutters of the window behind Minka blow open from a shotgun blast. From outside the building, another attacker, this one carrying a Saiga-12, pops up in position to backshoot Leks, Minka, and Red. Zenobia, who’s been waiting for an opening since the initial volley, levels her Glock and rips half of her magazine into the man’s face.
Janek scuttles behind the pool table and goes for the kitchen, herding patrons and kitchen staff out the door. There’s a sudden outcry among the exodus as another Saiga-armed attacker forces his way into the kitchen. Janek grabs the pot containing the special of the night – a truly excellent cheese, potato, mushroom, and sausage stew – and plants it squarely in the man’s face, putting him on his ass. Janek’s follow-up attack is less successful. A full magazine from the vz.70 is completely ineffective against the man’s armor. From the floor, he lines up his shotgun and puts a blast into Janek’s head.
[ This was an instant incapacitation and a brain hemorrhage critical effect. My wife had just retired Magda in favor of Janek, and there was a brief derail regarding the length of my stay on the couch after this set of rolls. ]
The guy with the P90 is still immobilized by Minka’s table. Red takes his head off with a swing of his axe that he knows he’ll pay for in the morning. “Watch where that head goes,” he spits.
Fedorov, Taras, and Boris push toward the bar to relieve Other Boris. They’re not quick enough to keep their comrade from catching a burst from the AUG, but their return fire drops him. They close in on the shotgunner. There’s a flurry of kicks and stabs. From somewhere in the melee, a Makarov barks once, delivering yet another 9mm retirement plan.
Leks, Zenobia, and Red converge on the shotgunner in the kitchen and finish him. Red leaves his axe buried in the man’s chest, picks up Janek, and drops the young smuggler on the pool table to begin emergency surgery.
I didn’t get great notes on the fight because it’s hard for me to run a fight scene and document it simultaneously. We used the CQB rules from Urban Operations, which make ranged combat about as hard as it should be in circumstances like this. Lots of rounds were fired to relatively little effect.
We’re currently resolving the aftermath via Discord chat. Next session in a week, writeup to follow as I have time.