23 Sep 2000 - Morning Shift (0600-1200) Weather: light rain, 62ºF Terrain: wooded (speed modifier x0.5, Driving -1) Order of March: UAZ-469 (Erick driver, Betsy gunner/lookout), Industrial Light and Mayhem (Ortiz driver, Miko gunner), Comms (Bell driver, Cowboy gunner)
With an advance team from Ponikla on site, the train wreck is secured. The expedition team breaks camp. With Betsy keeping an eye on the bridge and ground-guiding each driver in turn, they cross the Pilica without incident. They’re in unknown territory now – they have a map, but the map is not the terrain.
The team advances cautiously west. Intelligence gathered from the prisoners taken at Radom indicates that the shattered remains of the Soviet 124th Motor Rifle Division have moved into Piotrków Trybunalski, so they have little interest in getting too close to that city. Their intent is to pick up the main highway at Kamiensk, roll south to the Warta River, find a safe place to cross it, and make their way to the area of Czestochowa.
As the lead vehicle breaks out of the treeline into the late-morning sun, Betsy spots two people on the far side of the large clearing, a few hundred meters away. They also sight the vehicles and go to ground, but not before Betsy is able to glass them with her binoculars. They’re in civilian attire, and armed, but that’s all she can make out at this distance.
This is a band of 2 hunters. They are Experienced NPCs with civilian firearms. They are moving by foot. Leader motivations: very sociable (heart 10), stubborn (club queen)
The team decides to try to make contact. Erick and Miko dismount (with Hernandez and Cat, respectively, taking over their crew positions). The initial communication is shaky, but Erick gradually draws out the elder of the pair. He introduces himself as Dawid Pasternack. Dawid is a weathered Pole in his 60s, carrying a hunting shotgun, and from his speech patterns, he’s probably as close as central Poland gets to an Appalachian redneck. This is a guy for whom the apocalypse was a step sideways, not down. He refers to Erick and Miko as “Minnesota” and “Warsaw” throughout the conversation – though he’s not too sure what Minnesota is, and asks if it’s anywhere near New York City.
Dawid advises them that the area in which they’re traveling is infested with Soviet deserters. He’s aware that a more organized force has occupied Piotrków Trybunalski, though he doesn’t know enough about military matters to identify specific units. He also informs them that several small groups of American survivors came through the area about a month ago, apparently fleeing some big battle up north.
Dawid has news of the team’s planned route, too. The town of Kamiensk was occupied by a large group of deserters, but they fled the town when the more organized Soviet force moved into the area. In their absence, Kamiensk is trying to put itself back together. The community’s de facto leader is Father Miroslav Kasprzak, a Catholic priest.
Erick sends Miko back to ILM to retrieve a bottle of good prewar liquor as thanks for the information. Dawid is suitably impressed by the team’s generosity and bids them a warm farewell as they resume their journey.
With the information Dawid provided, the team definitely wants to check out conditions in Kamiensk. Knowing that the area is full of potential marauders, though, they proceed a bit more cautiously, ready for a gunfight. They’ve made another twelve klicks or so when everyone on board Comms is subjected to a sudden inarticulate shout from Bell as he slams on the brakes. There’s an almost-unnoticed thump from under the vehicle. “Aw, man,” Bell sighs. “I think I hit something.”
Ellis keys up the radio to halt the rest of the column while several people dismount to investigate. A young feral pig apparently picked the wrong moment to bolt from cover. There’s not much left. At least the BTR-70K is undamaged. [Behind the screen, Bell failed his Driving roll for this hex of movement, and I rolled a “roadkill” result on the mishap table. The team did get one ration of wild food out of the deal.]
With the possibility of the piglet’s mother being in the area and angry, there’s not much reason to linger. Everyone remounts. The convoy is about to begin rolling when Betsy, who’s been watching the team’s flanks, returns her gaze to the road and spots something about forty meters ahead of the UAZ. There’s an odd depression stretched across the dirt track, almost like the ground has subsided over a small buried pipe – and a few meters off the trail, nestled into a dead bush, she sees a squat tripod topped with a stubby tube.
“Ready to roll?” Erick asks at this moment.
“No. Oh, hell, no. Hold up.”
The characters' line of movement crosses the trigger of an off-route anti-tank mine. Time has taken its toll on the mine's concealment. Noticing the mine is an Average: Observation or Combat Engineer task for a character on foot or horseback, Difficult for a character riding in a vehicle, or Formidable for a character viewing the scenery through an AFV's vision blocks. A walking character will not set off the mine. A bicycle, motorcycle, or horse has a 50% chance of triggering it. The first vehicle to cross the trigger automatically detonates it.
Hernandez takes over the UAZ’s M2HB while Betsy moves up to investigate. Her suspicion is confirmed – it’s an off-route antitank mine with a pressure tube trigger. By the accumulation of rust and bird droppings, it’s been there at least a year, probably longer. Miko and Pettimore check the surrounding area and find a squad’s worth of fighting positions, also abandoned for quite a while.
There’s a brief debate on what to do about it. Betsy thinks she could defuse it and has a decent chance of recovering it safely, but there’s no telling how reliable it is at this point. It would be easy for the team to drive around it, but that would leave a problem for the next people to use this route. Ultimately, the team takes Betsy up on her offer to just detonate it in place. She cranks the launch tube around 90 degrees, then walks up, giggles to herself, and drops a full ammo can on the pressure tube. There’s a satisfying kaboom as the mine vents its fury on a stand of trees.
23 Sep 2000 - Day Shift (1200-1800) Weather: light rain, 73ºF Terrain: open (speed modifier x1, Driving +1) Order of March: UAZ-469 (Erick driver, Betsy gunner/lookout), Industrial Light and Mayhem (Ortiz driver, Miko gunner), Comms (Bell driver, Cowboy gunner)
The rest of the drive to Kamiensk passes without incident. The team finds a deserted commercial building about two kilometers short of the town where they can leave the vehicles in a tabor. Leaving Pettimore, Hernandez, Bell, Ortiz, and Comrade on guard, the rest of the group heads into town on foot. They’ve adopted a cover story as traveling traders – Ellis and Erick are the actual “merchants,” the rest of the group are caravan guards.
Before the war, Kamiensk had about 2,500 inhabitants now. It’s down to 190, and they’re struggling. As the team approaches, they can see that the community is barely managing to commit agriculture, and the half-dozen dairy cattle appear unhealthy (Octavia suspects parasitic infestation).
They’re only a few hundred meters outside the populated part of Kamiensk when the church bell starts ringing an alarm. The people in the fields drop their tools and run for shelter. There’s an awkward pause of a couple of minutes before the church’s door opens and a tall, white-haired man steps out. He’s carrying an AKM; a clerical collar is visible beneath the neckline of Soviet-issue flak jacket.
“I was expecting the village priest, not the village paladin,” Erick mutters.
Father Miroslav is suspicious at first, but he warms to the team once Erick name-drops Dawid and deploys some Church Latin. The community doesn’t have anything noteworthy to offer to traveling traders, and their capacity for hospitality is limited at best, but they’re welcome to spend the night under a roof.
The team settles into a warehouse on the east side of town, near the highway. It’s long since been stripped bare, but it’s good concealment for the vehicles and the service catwalks offer elevated observation and firing positions for defenders.
Ellis “directs” the setup, but his real motive for not doing a lot of hands-on work is to make some observations of the townsfolk. Demographics here are pretty typical – a general lack of military-aged men. The locals are warily assessing the team, too. There’s a general skittishness born from serious recent trauma. Ellis sees attitudes shifting a bit toward cautiously curious as Cat, Betsy, and Ortiz make themselves (and their personal autonomy and armament) visible.
Erick sets up a “hearts and minds” clinic. Octavia tags in with him – although she’s not too eager to draw attention to herself, being still somewhat skittish from her experiences in the last village she inhabited. Comrade, sensing his human’s mood, flops down nearby to keep an eye on the proceedings, and Cat also wanders over to provide security.
The medical team doesn’t have any urgent lifesaving work, but there’s a steady trickle of patients throughout the afternoon. Minor malnutrition and dietary deficiencies are nigh-universal. A number of the villagers are sporting half-healed blunt trauma injuries consistent with severe beatings; several have broken bones that have been inexpertly set, a couple of which are likely to result in permanent impairment without surgery that the expedition isn’t equipped to provide.
It’s also evident that Kamiensk is about to experience a baby boom. A majority of the women of childbrearing age are pregnant, between two and six months along. They’re also avoiding care from Erick, gravitating toward Octavia’s side of the makeshift clinic. Octavia and Cat exchange some dark looks as the pattern becomes evident.
Miko is gathering materials to feed the team’s fuel still when he gets the crawly “I’m being watched” sensation that’s becoming all too familiar to him. He looks around to see a small mob of pre-teen kids staring intently at him. After some whispering and nudging, the group pushes a spokes-urchin forward.
“What did you do to get them to let you carry that?” the child asks, pointing at Miko’s AK-74.
Miko shrugs. “Killed a Russian,” he says matter-of-factly.
There’s a faint screeching noise as several small paradigms undergo sudden, radical adjustment.
“Where are you from?”
“Um. Warsaw.”
“We heard Warsaw was all burned up.”
“It mostly is.”
There’s some more whispering and an awkward silence before the kids scurry off.
23 Sep 2000 - Evening Shift (1800-0000) Weather: cloudy, scattered showers, 65ºF Actions: Pettimore and Comrade on watch; Hernandez brewing fuel; Bell and Ortiz gathering materials for fuel
Father Miroslav shows up as the team is starting dinner prep. He seems quietly relieved that these eleven outsiders and one giant murderdog won’t be consuming the community’s paltry food stores. He invites them to join him in the church after they’ve eaten – he can offer tea, which is the one luxury he has in abundance.
Once they’ve eaten, the PCs take him up on that offer. Night is falling and the village is mostly dark as they make their way to the church. Outside, the building shows the scars of conflict, with several windows boarded over and a few bullet holes in the wood.
Inside, it’s a different story. The wood is polished, the floor is swept, and the place is clean and in good repair. The glow of candlelight fills the sanctuary. At one side of the altar, the glow of an oil lamp flickers through the cracks in a door. That door opens and Father Miroslav emerges bearing a tray which contains a dozen mismatched teacups. He sets it down, goes back into his study, and returns with a large kettle and a small jar of honey.
Once pleasantries have been exchanged, the team asks about the village’s status. Father Miroslav confirms what they’ve pieced together so far and fills in some of the blanks. The deserters came to town about six months ago. In the process of taking over, they killed most of the local militia (which also reduced the community’s workforce and farming capacity by a measurable amount). The band originally numbered close to 50, but attrition and infighting reduced that somewhat. They fled about three weeks ago, after a couple of close encounters with patrols from the Soviets in Piotrków Trybunalski put the fear of capture and a field trial into them. There was some more infighting around that decision, which is how the village acquired the handful of weapons it currently possesses. He believes the marauders have split up into three bands, each with about a dozen men.
Octavia diplomatically approaches the subject of the pregnancies. The priest’s expression darkens and he confirms their suspicions. When the deserters took over, they took a number of “war brides.” He takes some pains to point out that he did not sanctify those “marriages.”
Father Miroslav also has some intel on the nearby city of Radomsko. Formerly home to some 44,000 people, it’s now down to about 4,000 – a quarter of those in the city, the rest scattered around its environs in farming collectives. It’s under the rule of a larger band of deserters (from which Kamiensk’s former occupiers were a splinter group). Radomsko’s current rulers number about 70 troops under the leadership of a man named Shotkin. The priest says they have something that looks like a tank, but which he’s told isn’t actually a tank – he’s not a military man.
Where is Radomsko? It’s about 16 kilometers south-southwest of Kamiensk. “I can show you if you have a map,” Father Miroslav offers.
record scratch
The team looks at one another in astonishment before pulling at that thread a little. Yep – thanks to Father Miroslav, Kamiensk is largely free of what the players and their characters have dubbed “the brain-fog.” He’s preserved his small church library and has been running elementary education sessions for the younger children, and his weekly church services and other outreach seem to be keeping it at bay for the adults. He’s seen the effects in smaller surrounding communities, as well as in Radomsko – to the point of seeing the light almost come back into someone’s eyes before some outside force flips a switch and makes them forget again.
If the team was leaning toward helping out Kamiensk before, they’re thoroughly committed now. In the long term, there may be a relocation effort – but for now, they need to find a way to help this place preserve itself and get through the winter before they move on. The obvious question, though – why haven’t they asked the 124th MRD for assistance in dealing with the deserters? Easy enough – they’re afraid that there’ll be a price for Soviet assistance, and the least-bad case is that the soldiers will take “payment” from the village’s food reserves.
The local harvest is struggling but Kamiensk will probably avoid starvation if nothing else goes wrong – and if no one else shows up looking for a share of those reserves. Beyond those basics, their greatest needs are defense and medical aid. There are only six firearms in the village, all of those seized in haste as the marauders cleared out, and precious few people know how to use them. Those marauders are likely to come back sooner or later, and as things currently stand, they’ll be able to walk right in and pick up where they left off.
On the medical aid front – well, the team does have a large supply of certain pharmaceuticals, including chewable children’s vitamins. Leaving a cut of those, with instructions to prioritize the pregnant women, will help with the worst of the dietary deficiencies until they can diversify their agriculture a bit more. There’s some other advice Octavia can leave – especially now that they’ve confirmed that the written word isn’t forbidden here.
As far as defensive measures, Ellis and Betsy have some thoughts. The community has ample building supplies free for stripping from the abandoned buildings. Moving everyone into a defensible core, hardening it, and making the rest of the town difficult terrain will be a force multiplier. If the marauders have split up into small groups, a few days of hunting them down and defeating them in detail will yield a good haul of weapons on which Pettimore can start training people.
With that, the team bids Father Miroslav good night and heads back to their bivouac to relieve the watchstanders, continue brewing fuel, and get some rest.
Overall, this session was the first real workout for the core rules’ hexcrawl mechanics. I used my own encounter generator rather than the 4e card draws, but still got plenty of emergent story from the randomization. Generator results are embedded in the narrative above.
As we’re in sandbox mode, resolution of the local marauder problem was entirely in the players’ hands. They’re interested in ensuring local security, so the next session or two will focus on that project.
The situation in Kamiensk and Radomsko – indeed, the entire regional infestation of ex-9th TD marauders – is drawn from the first edition boxed set’s Escape from Kalisz material. I have plenty of notes in case the PCs decide to tangle with Shotkin’s force down in Radomsko – or if he decides to mess with them first…