This series of posts spans one session of planning, two and a half sessions of gameplay, and some asynchronous private chat conversations, all focused on concluding one story arc. In play, both groups were active simultaneously, with focus shifting between the two every 15 to 30 minutes of realtime or every one to three rounds of combat. For narrative purposes, Parts One through Four of this series will alternate focus somewhat asynchronously.
Combat in this session was run using the CQB rules for Urban Operations, with a fairly abstract map.
The infiltration element – Ellis, Miko, Cat, Pettimore, and Erick – caches the PTS-M and splits off from the ambush element. They don’t have as far to go, but they’re traveling on foot now, and there’s no way to avoid the cold, heavy rain. Cat plots a course that circles to the north of the target. They settle into a soggy wooded area and scan the museum. From here, it’s clear that the museum proper is the eastern side of the complex, and a series of additions has been built paralleling it. A narrow alley, barely wide enough for a service vehicle, runs between the two halves.
The marauders’ BMP-3 is parked at the turn-out from the alley with its bow pointed east, toward the street, and its turret cocked northwest for some reason. Its engine isn’t running and neither light nor movement is visible from it.
[In the following screen shot, the red oval encompasses the whole museum complex. Blue indicates doors – roll-up doors for the large boxes, ordinary personnel doors for the small boxes, and a revolving door at the circle at the museum’s main entrance.]
Miko takes point. Creeping past the BMP, he finds that the museum’s north face has a set of large glass windows that open outward, hinged at the top. On the inside of the glass, some sort of large vehicle is parked amidst displays of unfamiliar gear. Miko wedges his lucky crowbar into the one that looks the most promising and is rewarded with a soft tink of failing metal as the latch gives way.
The rest of the infiltration element moves up and finds themselves in a reconstructed engine bay from a 1950s fire station. It seems the building’s original use is still being memorialized. In the west wall, a discreet door leads to fire stairs heading up. For the moment, the team ignores that, moving to the double doors in the south to continue clearing the ground floor.
The next area was once a welcoming place, but the attenuated moonlight coming through the large street-side windows now falls on ranks of barren shelves. It was a branch library once, but someone’s stripped it of its contents. There’s still no evidence of recent activity or habitation here.
The team keeps moving. They find themselves in the first actual museum gallery: a display of local arts and crafts. Radomsko was a center of furniture and home goods production before the war, and this area tells the story of those industries. Several displays are arranged to depict local homes from different periods, and there is some evidence that this is now being used as a bunkroom. None of the inhabitants are present, though.
As Miko takes point through an open hallway leading south to the lobby, he catches something just on the edge of his hearing. Diverting down a side hallway, he finds the double doors that attracted his attention. He eases one open to find a conference room now repurposed as a bunkroom, with two marauders asleep on cots. Easing the door closed, he signals an interrogative to Ellis, who shakes his head and signs negation. Murder now is tempting, but the case officer isn’t sure the team can pull it off without noise. He turns to Pettimore and pantomimes something. The sniper nods agreement and steals back through the museum to the firefighting display, returning a couple of minutes later with a pike pole. Cat, Pettimore, and Miko carefully slide the pole through the door handles.
At the other end of the hallway, the lobby is an open expanse of tile. Large windows overlook a rain-sodden intersection. A broad staircase sweeps upward to a second-floor landing, presumably leading to more exhibits, and a door in the west wall is marked Official Use Only. No one likes the exposed sensation this space brings.
The team proceeds up the stairs, guns up and ready for trouble. The second-floor landing is another open area, empty display cases offering little cover or concealment. Skylights provide a fraction more light here, as well as on the gallery to the west, where the team can make out… animal shapes? Pettimore checks it out and discovers an exhibit on local farming in the 19th century. Inside the replica farmhouse, two more marauders have made themselves at home. The sniper wedges a rake under the rickety wooden door’s handle and withdraws.
There’s a brief discussion about how to handle the accessway to the turret on the museum’s southeast corner. In the team’s previous reconnaissance, the marauders had a sniper/observer post in there, and there’s a chance of a guard being posted up there even on a night like this. Miko volunteers to climb up machete-first; Pettimore suggests swiping another tool from the farming gallery and jamming the roof access hatch shut. In the end, the team settles for leaving well enough alone – but Erick and Cat will double up on rear guard.
Moving back north along the museum’s long axis, the next gallery focuses on archaeological findings from the area’s prehistory. Pettimore pauses here and sweeps his gaze along the walls. He points to several empty spaces. Sun-faded paint and wood and defaced plaques indicate that several weapons are missing from the exhibits.
Miko moves up to the entryway to the next gallery and freezes. Two shadowy figures are visible beyond, apparently engaged in conversation. The young Pole strains to overhear, but the constant surf-roar of the rain drowns out anything else. It takes him a few minutes of observation to realize he’s looking at mannequins dressed in 19th-century attire. Perhaps it’s his relief that leads him to assume the gallery is clear. As he advances, a tiny scrape of metal on wood is all the warning he has before the back corner erupts in gunfire. He throws himself flat as Ellis and Pettimore leap to the doorway and pour shotgun fire back at the marauders who’ve popped up from behind a display cabinet.
The team is briefly pinned between two marauder elements as the Kazakhs who were asleep in the replica farmhouse waste no time kicking down the wedged door to join the fray. It’s machetes, shotguns, and carbines against Kalashnikovs, knives, and SMGs. The fight is over quickly but any pretense of stealth is now gone. The infiltration element is left with speed and violence.
Miko and Pettimore swiftly clear the last remaining galleries, finding no further opposition. Cat and Erick hold rear guard while Ellis checks the bodies for intelligence. The CIA operative scoops up a Skorpion whose former owner won’t be needing it any more and motions toward the stairs, adding a “watch for ambush” hand signal.
Miko takes point again, heading downstairs. He’s just stepped off the staircase when a deafening shotgun blast rings out from the Official Use Only door. The shot pattern barely misses Miko, whose immediate instinct is to charge machete-first toward the source of the fire. Only his speed saves him as, from up the hall to the north, a machine gun cuts loose, raking the lobby with fire.
Caught on the staircase, the rest of the team has limited options for maneuvering. As they try to push forward to support Miko, an RDG-5 comes spinning out of the hallway. The explosion is shattering in the enclosed space of the lobby. Ellis and Erick reel aside with shrapnel wounds. Pettimore and Cat press forward, taking up firing positions at either side of the doorway and exchanging fire with the machine gunner. Pettimore goes down with a round to the arm, recovers, and drives a return round off the gunner’s helmet. Cat pivots, steps to the other doorway, and hammers rounds from her M4 into the shotgunner who’s sparring with Miko.
A shotgun blast to the helmet from Ellis convinces the machine gunner to pull back. With a rattle, pop, and hiss, a smoke grenade blossoms in the hallway, cutting off all visibility.
The team collects themselves and binds their wounds. Miko scoops up the shotgunner’s unfamiliar weapon, examines it, and starts giggling.
Checking the museum’s administrative area yields few clues but two options. Two doors along the north wall lead, respectively, to the annex… and to stairs down to the museum’s boiler room.
This fight would have been a lot nastier for the PCs if not for Ellis’ four successes on his Battle Planner roll during the prep session. Rerolls were expended for a good bit of ass-saving.
The ambush in the lobby was the two guys in the conference room. As soon as they heard the gunfight erupt upstairs, they tried to join in. The pike pole wasn’t much of a match for anti-vehicular slugs from the KS-23.
The flare that the ambush element saw was launched by the sniper/lookout, who was indeed up in the turret. He declined to join the gunfight inside the museum, but if anyone had tried to go up after him, they would have been met with an overwatch action and a full magazine of 7.62x25mm to the face from his Tokarev.