Kamiensk Downtime and Radomsko Reconnaissance (02-05 October 2000)

We’re at another point in the campaign where some extended recon is necessary to plan the team’s next move. The sneakier PCs will head back down to Radomsko to see if they can learn a bit more about Shotkin’s marauders. The rest of the team will stay in Kamiensk to pull maintenance, work on improving local conditions, and provide additional security in case anything untoward happens.


For the Kamiensk element, I’ll handle downtime according to the usual rules. My players have given me general agendas, which I’ll resolve offscreen. For the Radomsko recon team, I’ll use the same abstract system I used for the activities before the Battle of Radom, with some tweaks to account for lessons learned:

The marauders have an Alert stat ranging from 0 to 5, representing how aggressively they are hunting suspected infiltrators/saboteurs. 0 is absolute complacency; 5 is full counterinsurgency. They’re currently at a 3 because of their awareness of imminent conflict with the 124th Motor Rifle Division.

Each shift of reconnaissance first involves a Recon check for the team to avoid notice, using the worst stealth-focused Recon in the team (Infiltrator applies; equipment applies at the lowest effective bonus across the team). This is opposed by a Recon roll for the enemy forces. If the PCs have more net successes, Alert stays the same. If the PCs and enemies have equal successes, Alert stays the same but each PC takes 1 Stress from a close call. If the enemies have more net successes, Alert increases by 1 per success and one randomly-selected PC receives one long-range attack as they’re spotted. If Alert reaches 5, the enemy mobilizes to hunt down the recon team and the PCs are forced to withdraw.

The PCs’ stealth also gets a -1 penalty on clear, sunny days; a +1 bonus on rainy days (+2 for exceptionally heavy precipitation); and a +2 bonus at night.

After seeing if the team is detected, I’ll then make a second skill check to determine what the team learns from that shift’s observation. I’ll randomly select a PC who’s participating in the mission, then roll one of their skills that’s appropriate to the narrative (defaulting to Recon if nothing else applies). Each success will give them one of the following effects:

  • general information on the contents of a new city hex
  • a key detail of the marauder’s strength, equipment, or activities
  • the location or a key detail of a major landmark in the city
  • useful and relevant salvage

PCs do not recover Stress (upper-case) during a recon operation because of the constant stress (lower-case) of conducting close reconnaissance in enemy territory.

PC capabilities relevant to this op are:

Ellis

Recon A+C (fatigues; forensics kit; Investigator)
Command B+B (Tactician)
Persuasion B+B (Interrogator, Linguist)

Miko

Recon A+C (fatigues; ghillie suit; Infiltrator; Scout)
Survival A+B (Scrounger)

Cat

Recon A+B (fatigues; ghillie suit; Infiltrator; Scout)
Survival A+C (Navigator)

Pettimore

Recon B+C (fatigues; ghillie suit; Scout)
Survival B+C (Hunter)


October 2

Weather: cloudy

Alert: 3

The recon team spends the day resting up and preparing for their operation. Miko makes a ghillie suit for Ellis. Cat makes one for Ortiz, who will be going along to stay at the forward camp with the UAZ-469 and serve as the team’s getaway driver.

Pettimore and Erick take a couple of the younger, fitter Kamiensk residents and go hunting. They return with a half-dozen game birds and two small deer. The Marine spends the rest of his evening cleaning his gear and helping with weapon maintenance, while the chaplain’s assistant helps out Father Miroslav with evening lessons for the village’s children.

Ellis spends the day documenting his observations so far, going back over the video he shot in Radomsko, and interviewing select residents to see if he can extract any more useful intel.

Octavia, Betsy, and Cowboy set up an impromptu armorer’s workshop and try to deal with the accelerated entropy that affected some people’s equipment. Most of a day’s work takes care of everything that the recon element will be bringing with them. Octavia tags out to check on the baby she delivered yesterday and the kid’s mother, while Betsy and Cowboy continue working on their own equipment. [By the end of this process, they’ll collectively have enough Tech successes to bring everyone’s equipment up to full Reliability.]


October 3

Weather: partly cloudy

Alert: 3

The recon team leaves before dawn, taking their time getting into position outside Radomsko. Ellis identified a few good hide sites on his last trip, and the group gives the marauders’ defensive line a wide berth [a full shift for undetected travel; with this group and some good planning, navigation and stealth are easy]. They set up their base camp in an abandoned garage south of the city, pulling the UAZ-469 into one of the bays. Once that’s done, Ortiz keeps watch while the four PCs catch some rest and collect local vegetation for their ghillie suits.

After sunset, Ellis, Pettimore, Cat, and Miko sneak into Radomsko’s outskirts. They’re fresh and most of the marauders are still sitting on a defensive line on the other side of the city, so there’s little chance of detection. In a long probe of the city’s outskirts, they’re able to get a general survey of four hexes:

  • Hex 19 is undeveloped. Radomsko was expanding in that direction before the war, but the terrain was in the process of being cleared. Vegetation is now reclaiming the torn-up earth and half-poured foundations. Heavy construction equipment stands abandoned and rusting, and some of it shows signs that tank crews used it for gunnery practice.
  • Hex 16 was residential. The homes here are larger than in the city center, spaced more widely and still surrounded by forest that, to Pettimore’s eye, shows signs of deliberate reforestation in the prewar years. This was where Radomsko’s upper crust – Party officials and their business associates – lived. Now it’s mostly uninhabited, save for a couple of farm collectives around a cluster of orchards.
  • Hex 12 was, and remains, farmland. Several of the aforementioned collectives are here. The team does observe a marauder patrol moving through the area, but they appear to be checking on harvest progress and aren’t particularly alert for PC-type trouble.
  • Hex 7 was the city’s public works complex: water treatment plant, coal-fired power plant, telephone exchange, landfill, and a few other industrial facilities all were located here. All of the utilities are heavily damaged, probably beyond restoration with local resources.

Meanwhile, in Kamiensk, the whole team pitches in for a shift of assisting with the harvest. Once that’s done, Cowboy and Betsy pull maintenance on Industrial Light and Mayhem (the team’s MAN KAT1 8×8 heavy truck), Comms (the BTR-70K), and Thing One (the BMW K75S touring motorcycle). They then turn their attention to the recently-recovered PTS-M, bringing it up to what they consider acceptable condition. Octavia and Erick spend the balance of their time on medical aid and teaching.

[For each day that the team averages one shift per person on agriculture, they will be able to share in Kamiensk’s harvest. Mechanically, this will give them a food share sufficient to feed themselves without consuming any of the rations they brought with them.]


October 4

Weather: partly cloudy

Alert: 3

In Kamiensk, the team continues assisting with the harvest. Around that work, Cowboy and Octavia crank up the still and start feeding it the inedible material for fuel production. After a while, Octavia leaves Cowboy to it. One of the village teenagers, Sylwia Bosko, demonstrated some medical aptitude yesterday, and Octavia is determined to train up a midwife for the impending baby boom.

Betsy and Erick grab a work crew from those who can be spared from the fields. It’s past time to build some reinforced fighting positions to cover the key approaches to the village. They start on the south side.

In Radomsko, Ellis wants another look at the city center. He, Pettimore, Miko, and Cat carefully ease in toward the government complex. Their ingress is uncontested. As they near the city center, they observe a large group of marauders breaking up and moving out in different directions. Ellis reasons that Shotkin pulled in his defensive line when the expected punitive attack from the 124th MRD didn’t materialize, and now the mutineers are dispersing back to their territories.

Pettimore catches sight of a UAZ pulling away, heading northeast at a leisurely pace. The scout-sniper takes point, leading the recon team along the edge of the government center and into Hex 14. This area was once Radomsko’s entertainment and cultural district. The team trails the vehicle past the opera house, the shattered remains of the cinema, the hockey arena, and the nightclub district before it pulls into the rear loading dock area of the Regional Museum.

Cat points to a shattered church a couple hundred meters to the north. “Betcha no one’s going in there these days.” Her intuition is correct. The building’s interior condition is only slightly better than its exterior appearance, but as far as the team can tell without Betsy’s practiced eye, it should hold together. More importantly, its south-facing upper sections provide an excellent view of the museum.

After a day’s worth of observation, it’s evident that the Regional Museum is Shotkin’s headquarters and residence. He makes several appearances, receiving and dispatching messengers and checking in with his men. About fifteen marauders seem to be based at the compound. In addition to the UAZ, which is fitted with a heavy machine gun, there’s also a BMP-3 parked in the courtyard. It’s likely that this is the “tank” which was reported in the marauders’ hands – not truly an MBT, but a potentially lethal problem (though one that’s within the team’s capabilities to deal with if they plan their fight well).

A few hours after sunset, Big Rasputin makes an appearance. He eases out onto the museum’s front steps, pauses between the sconces in which torches flicker, and again sniffs the air. Through Thoughts and Prayers‘ scope, Pettimore can see the moment when the man’s fire-lit expression changes from disinterest to curiousity to suspicion. Shotkin’s hatchetman gathers up a fireteam of marauders with a gesture and begins loping north toward the church. “We’re leaving. Now,” Pettimore states. The team exits the building and moves another hundred meters away, into the remains of a collection of upscale shops. From their new location, they can see Big Rasputin and his troops investigating their former hiding spot [-1 Stress to all team members].


October 5

Weather: cloudy

Alert: 3

In Kamiensk, the harvest goes on. Octavia and Cowboy continue fuel production. Cowboy takes some time off to forage around the village’s outskirts and comes back with an armful of wild roses, which she sets out to dry in a corner of the warehouse that the team is using as a temporary base. Octavia continues her tutelage of Sylwia.

At Father Miroslav’s request, Erick spends the afternoon putting his social work degree to use. There are several simmering issues in the village, and not all of them are suited to the priest’s temperament or position of authority. As an outsider – and a much younger outsider, at that – Erick is a source of guidance that some people will heed even if they weren’t listening to Father Miroslav.

With construction under way on fighting positions, Betsy digs into the team’s small stock of office supplies. She spends the day surveying and sketching, doing math, and occasionally chuckling in a way that would be disturbing if anyone overheard her. At dinner, she presents Father Miroslav and the village’s elders with a set of plans for defensive improvements that should be within the local workforce’s capabilities.

Cat, Ellis, Miko, and Pettimore know they need to be cautious, but they also have the proverbial scent of their enemy. They back off, looking for other observation points from which to keep tabs on Shotkin. To the southeast of the cultural district, Hex 18 is a nature preserve. Unmaintained since the bombs fell, it’s now a wild tangle – a good environment for hunters like Pettimore and Cat. The team spends some time scouting ambush sites and fallback routes before moving back into the city proper.

Miko finds another hiding spot about 300 meters south of the museum. The team settles in to observe. Having done his job, the young Pole takes a few minutes to poke around in the abandoned townhouses and comes up with a trio of bootleg VHS tapes. According to the crooked labels, he’s found Polish-subtitled copies of Working Girl, Akira, and Die Hard!

Any celebration is short-lived. Shortly before dusk, Cat spots a fireteam of marauders walking toward the museum with a trio of prisoners: two boys and a girl, all about Miko’s age. They’re dressed raggedly for travel, and one of the marauders is carrying three half-empty rucksacks.

“Glad I didn’t push my luck with the traveling trader routine,” Ellis comments.

“Nah,” Pettimore growls. “They ain’t visiting. They tried to run away.”

As the team watches, Shotkin emerges from the museum, Big Rasputin at his shoulder. The warlord has forsaken his usual mixed military and civilian attire for a dark purple caftan with silver embroidery. Rings bedeck his hands and gold chains weigh down his neck. He smiles broadly at the capture team, spreads his hands in benediction, then turns to the prisoners. As his gaze falls upon him, they sink to their knees in unison. Through their scopes and binoculars, the team can see the teenagers are shivering in the evening chill but devoid of expression.

Shotkin leans down to each prisoner in turn, cups their face in his hands, and whispers something to them. He steps back and glances at Big Rasputin, who pulls one of the boys to his feet and marches him into the museum. Shotkin throws a dismissive gesture to his household troops, who haul the other two teenagers away toward the wing of the museum that serves as their barracks. The patrol who brought in the prisoners glances at one another and leaves, probably returning to their territory.

A half hour passes without further activity. The sun sinks below the broken-toothed western skyline and a moist autumn chill sets in. Ellis shivers, then goes still as something just below the level of conscious awareness touches his instincts. He brings his G3 to his shoulder and leans out the window. The flicker of motion on the ground below registers, and he throws himself back. The broadhead arrow that would have taken him in the neck slashes across his left bicep instead before burying itself in the opposite wall [Alert +1, all PCs -1 Stress, Ellis -2 Hits!]. Through the gloaming, the agent can see more shapes dashing forward.

The team grabs their gear and starts moving. Pettimore pauses on the way out of the room to shove a field dressing into Ellis’ hands. “Don’t leave a blood trail for him,” he spits. Ellis hands the scout-sniper his rifle and begins winding the dressing around his arm as he moves toward the exit. Pettimore gives the arrow a thoughtful look and yanks it out of the plaster, dropping it into his own quiver.

The recon team dashes through the darkened streets. They can hear their pursuers’ footfalls, catch occasional glimpses of them moving from cover to cover. With a flash of insight, Ellis realizes the marauders aren’t holding fire because they can’t see him and his teammates – they’re holding fire because they want captures. Worse, he also realizes what he’s not hearing: any form of spoken communication. [Ellis -1 Stress from a 1 on a pushed Command/Tactician roll].

The pursuit seems to let up as the team pushes into a thicket that marks the boundary of the old nature preserve. They keep moving for another fifteen minutes before pausing to tend to Ellis’ wound. Pettimore and Cat spread out to pull security while Miko helps Ellis clean and re-bind the laceration.

Pettimore shifts uneasily. Something’s nagging at him. He begins spiraling out, crouching every few meters to examine his surroundings. He risks a hand-shielded flicker of a red-lensed flashlight “Son of a bitch,” he breathes.

Cat ghosts over and makes a soft interrogative sound.

Pettimore points to the ground along the game trail that was going to be their egress route. In the soft earth is a set of heavy footprints: immense, four-toed, spread wider than a human’s. The tracks are recent, within the hour, heading into the city. With a greater level of detail than moisture on stair treads, Pettimore and Cat can make out the imprints of short, curved claws.


At this point, everyone’s taken some Stress and Ellis is hurting. More critically, the marauders are at Alert 4. Another bad stealth roll will see them mobilize to hunt down the recon team. The team confers and decides they’re pushed their luck enough. They’ve gotten a good look at Shotkin’s headquarters, including exterior defenses and the garrison’s patterns of life. It’s time to pull back to Kamiensk, share the take with the rest of their associates, and decide on their next move.


TL;DR Intelligence Summary

Shotkin’s HQ is in Hex 14, in the Regional Museum. His “household troops” are Big Rasputin and roughly 15 marauders with a UAZ-469 (mounted heavy machine gun) and a BMP-C. The building appears lightly fortified, with a few vehicle barriers in the street and a sandbagged sniper/machine gun nest in the clock tower on the southeast corner. Both vehicles are parked in the rear of the museum, next to its loading dock. The marauders don’t appear to have sentry posts, but they casually wander around the museum complex.

After dark, candles and oil lamps provide interior illumination, with torches lit on the outside of the building and on the vehicle barriers. Other than weapons and vehicles, there’s no evidence of complex technology in use. Shotkin appears to communicate with his subordinate gangs by way of messenger; there’s also a signal flag halyard atop the the clock tower.

Unlike the bank, there’s no evidence that civilian laborers are employed here. The only non-marauders seen were the three prisoners.

The museum’s immediate surroundings are an overgrown park to the north, abandoned townhouses to the east (the church across the street is a burned-out ruin), a toppled monument to the south, and abandoned shops to the west.