The day is clear, sunny, and promising to be hot. It’s perfect harvest weather – which may be why only Magda, Zenobia, Red, and Minka are aboard the UAZ-469 when it rolls out of Ponikla early in the morning. They’re headed east, moving downriver along the Pilica’s south bank to survey and map more of the territory between their home base and the hydroelectric power plant whose location Minka recently obtained.
The team stops at Mysiakowiec, the village only a kilometer downriver from Ponikla with the bridge that’s only safe for pedestrians, horses, and motorcycles. There’s evidence of more refugee movement through the area, southbound across the bridge, with at least one group having overnighted in the ruins. Presumably, whatever is happening around Warsaw is still driving people away.
There’s no contact to be made, so the team presses on, using the unpaved service roads that roughly parallel the river. About an hour in, Magda sights a complex of half-intact, skeletal buildings – and beyond them, two vehicles. The team halts and Zenobia carefully moves in to get a better look.
The site is long abandoned. Before the war, someone was building a large hog farm. Four long, low barns have frames and partial roofs, and poured foundations show where service buildings and workers’ quarters would have gone if the war hadn’t interrupted construction. The vehicles were once medium-sized cargo trucks, 5-tonners or thereabouts, but they’ve burned so thoroughly that it’s hard to tell model or origin. Other signs of a firefight at least a year ago speaks of something having gone down here, but scant evidence has endured this long.
The construction materials scattered around the site are in better shape. There’s a large amount of corrugated sheet tin roofing material, two pallets of concrete mix, and two pallets of treated lumber. Additionally, the team turns up five glass bottles of Coca-Cola, apparently bottled in West Germany, and a single 152mm HE artillery shell.
The UAZ-469 lacks the cargo space for the building materials and no one wants to be seatmates with fifty kilos of TNT and shrapnel, so the team takes the Coke and leaves the rest for later retrieval.
Battle at the Boneyard
The service road gradually fades out as the terrain slopes down toward the river’s floodplain. The team is driving along a spit of land between two creeks when they hear the sound of a larger and more poorly-tuned engine from somewhere ahead. Pulling over, they park the UAZ behind a hill and move forward to investigate, Zenobia on point.
As Zenobia reaches the hill’s crest, she sees a fair amount of metal. About sixty meters away, a scattering of trees and shrouds of tattered camouflage netting conceal four vehicles: a pair of BTRs, a BMP-1, and a T-72. A GAZ-66 light truck is parked in the open. Around it are nine men in piecemeal attire – civilian garb and Soviet and Polish fatigues – and NATO-style helmets. They’re armed with the assortment of Warsaw Pact weaponry that’s common in the area, and they’re in the process of taking up defensive positions facing east.
The threat they’re aligning towards is a slightly-larger force that’s just come into view. A pair of four-man rifle teams are maneuvering up either side of the spit of land, with a machine gun team anchoring the line in the center. Along the southern of the two creeks, another BTR is snorting its way down into the water. As it turns, Zenobia can make out its ZOMO markings.
The leader of the group nearer the PCs is snapping commands in German, which Red speaks. There’s no clue as to the group’s origin, though.
As the PCs watch, a gunfight begins. The presumed-Germans, lacking heavy weapons, quickly take the worst of it. Two of them go down and their comrades pull them behind cover. The ZOMO forces close in, supported by judiciously-placed short bursts from the BTR’s 14.5mm heavy MG.
There’s a quick debate about what to do. The team definitely doesn’t want to help the ZOMO squad, assuming they’re part of the Radom garrison that is becoming more of a concern with every new piece of intel. On the other hand, they have no idea who the Germans are.
The ZOMO’s superior numbers and fire support establish a clear advantage. Between the MG team and the BTR, the Germans are pinned down. Their leader calls to his men to get the wounded aboard their truck. A well-timed frag grenade arcs out, suppressing one of the ZOMO rifle teams and giving the Germans the opening they need to start their breakout.
On the hill, a quick vote shows two in favor of helping the Germans, one opposed, and one undecided. The PCs are as yet unnoticed, so they have options. The biggest problem is the BTR. Without Leks, they’re limited in heavy firepower – but Red, who can march for days with a much heavier burden than his build suggests [Load Carrier specialty], digs a HEAT rifle grenade out of his ruck. He’s been carrying it for a while in case such an occasion presented itself.
Of the three who are not the team’s sniper, Magda is the best shot. Red hands the rifle grenade to her and they sprint southeast, followed by Minka. Zenobia pulls her ghillie suit over her head, eases forward, and blows the head off the distant machinegunner.
There’s a flurry of gunfire as the ZOMO troops react to this new intrusion. Red takes a flesh wound and reciprocates by dropping one of the ZOMO riflemen. Zenobia kills the assistant gunner before he can recover from his shock and take over the PK. Magda takes careful aim and launches a rifle grenade for the first time since her initial military training.
The warhead sails downrange and slams into the BTR’s turret. A spray of fire and gore blasts out the far side [penetrating hit, gunner, critical]. The big KPV swings skyward and falls silent.
The PCs’ entrance turns the tide immediately. A few of the Germans take blast and frag injuries from an RPG round, but under Zenobia’s precision fire and the massed counterattack of Red, Minka, Magda, and the Germans, the ZOMO troops fall. The sole survivor is the BTR’s driver, who surrenders after failing to restart his stalled vehicle [seriously, three failed Driving checks in a row].
The Germans are reloading and eyeing the new arrivals nervously. Red takes the lead in the negotiations. The German commander introduces himself as Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel) Boris Von Bahr, formerly the field-promoted XO of the 28th Panzergrenadier Division’s armor component. Red recognizes the unit designation: the 28th PzGren was formerly the East German 8th Motor Rifle Division, one of the units that threw in with NATO when the war began.
Von Bahr’s Story
Von Bahr doesn’t attempt to throw around his rank, but it’s clear that he’s conscious of Red’s relatively junior pay grade (whatever that means these days). However, he explains that he and his troops recently arrived in the area. The 28th PzGren took part in the Operation Advent Crown offensive through Poland in 1997, making it nearly to the Soviet border before the desperate Russians unbottled the nuclear genie. Von Bahr and his troops were subsequently captured around Lodz during the NATO retreat. The Soviets shipped them east to a prison camp near Brest, where they were interned for two and a half years.
In April, the guard force on the camp was halved. A prisoner uprising was partially successful. Von Bahr gathered as many former East German prisoners as he could and organized a force which managed to break out. Stealing weapons and transport, they headed west.
As they traveled, it became clear that the camp’s guard force had been reduced to allocate soldiers to a major Soviet and Polish operation. The escapees were moving west in the wake of a massive troop movement. Realizing they were still far behind enemy lines, they temporarily set aside their goal of returning home. Instead, they found an ungoverned village with a nearby defensible industrial site and settled in, establishing themselves as local protectors (read: warlords). They’re still undecided if this is a temporary arrangement or if they intend to settle here.
The vehicles? Ah, there’s another tale. During the NATO withdrawal in the autumn of 1997, retreating forces had to abandon a large amount of equipment that wasn’t capable of keeping up. The 28th PzGren has been this way before, and Von Bahr recognized a couple of landmarks in the area. He and his men were on an initial survey to see if anything was still here and recoverable.
Boneyard Report
While this conversation is happening, Zenobia and Minka are inspecting the vehicles alongside Von Bahr’s troops. Their assessment is:
- One BTR-70 is better used as a parts donor. It took a large-caliber gun hit in the engine compartment and it’s surprising that it didn’t burn where it stood.
- The second BTR is actually a BTR-70K, the command vehicle variant of the basic design. Its troop compartment is holed and the radios don’t look so good, but it’s mechanically recoverable.
- The BMP-1 also took a heavy hit to the troop compartment, straight through the rear doors. The fuel tanks must have been nearly empty because it didn’t explode and burn, but there’s shock damage throughout the vehicle and the troop compartment is not a place anyone will want to sit.
- The T-72’s engine appears to have eaten itself. Zenobia counts at least three separate issues of poor quality control at the factory – arguably, it’s impressive that the thing made it this far. Its main gun is also a wreck, as someone set a small demolition charge on the breech before abandoning it.
- Finally, the ZOMO BTR-60 is intact other than a ragged hole through the turret and a fresh coat of gunner on much of the interior.
Von Bahr listens to Zenobia’s (translated by Red) survey report, which aligns with that of his own mechanics. His troops are gathering up the ZOMO weapons and equipment, but he acknowledges – a trifle grudgingly, Red thinks – that he’d be in a lot worse place right now if not for the PCs. Since his original intent here was salvage, he offers them a choice of the BMP-1 or one of the BTR-70s, provided they can repair and fuel it. After some discussion, the team opts to claim the BTR-70K, hoping they can get some of its radios working.
[The player behind Ellis and Arkadi, who wasn’t able to make this session, has been the driving force behind a lot of the team’s intel operations. There was some discussion of taking the BMP-1 just to hear his reaction upon learning that the team passed up a command vehicle. Strategic planning prevailed over the hunger for a bigger gun, though.
At this point, the party actually has a ridiculously large motor pool: two motorcycles, a UAZ-469 with mounted PK, a technical with mounted M2HB, an OT-64, an M35 deuce and a half, a farm tractor, a small bulldozer, five horses, and now a recoverable BTR-70K. Plus the Black Volga, around which no one but Arkadi seems comfortable…]
Von Bahr’s troops bundle up their dead and load them into the GAZ-66. They’ll come back with parts and tools, but for now, they’ve done all they can here. Von Bahr invites the PCs to partake of what hospitality he can offer. They accept; his description of his base makes it pretty clear that he’s taken over the hydroelectric plant that was their eventual objective, so yes, they will take the opportunity for a tour.
Cognitohazards
The team mounts up and rolls east behind the GAZ. Eventually, the power plant comes into sight. It’s an unlovely complex of heavy industrial architecture squatting behind a high chain-link fence along the diversion channel that once fed the turbines. Von Bahr halts and gives what’s evidently a duress/all-clear sign to the sentries on duty, and the party proceeds into the compound.
Inside, the compound is clearly showing signs of long disuse followed by recent cleanup. The Germans are setting up for a long stay, but they’ve only been here a couple of weeks. There are the beginnings of garden plots but no crops or livestock. A second GAZ-66 is parked next to a former machine shop and there’s a sandbagged machine gun emplacement atop one of the sturdier buildings.
Von Bahr’s total force appears to be 19 troops (after subtracting the two casualties he just took), about a third of whom are female and seem to be on equal footing (allowing for residual rank) with the men. Four civilian women are also present, two of whom are visibly pregnant. When queried, Von Bahr explains that the latter are war brides. One of them is the unit’s only medical support, a former POW camp nurse with a public health background.
Magda spots a town a few kilometers to the east, sitting at the junction of two major highways. According to Von Bahr, that’s Bialobrzegi. Formerly home to a small shipyard and a large commercial garage, as well as the housing and support facilities for the power plant, it’s now home to a few hundred subsistence farmers. The place was ungoverned when his force arrived and it’s now under their protection. Red and Magda don’t quite get a “marauder protection racket” vibe, but Von Bahr’s attitude does seem to be somewhere between dismissive of civilians and outright warlord.
While Red and Magda continue to trade information with Von Bahr, Zenobia and Minka are more interested in the machinery on site. Von Bahr is dismissively fine with them inspecting the turbines and the rest of the plant, though he does insist they have an escort. His apparent XO is Oberfahnrich (Senior Warrant Officer) Thekla Adler, a snub-nosed, shaven-headed woman with the emaciated greyhound build of a distance runner who’s spent a couple of years on short rations. She’s a bit standoffish, which is a good match for Zenobia’s usual demeanor, but isn’t unwelcoming. She admits that the East Germans hadn’t really considered the possibility that the power plant might be restored to operation. To them, it’s just a defensible position close to water and a population center.
About thirty minutes of mechanical inspection seems to indicate that the turbines and other worky bits are aged (the place was built in the 1950s) and haven’t seen maintenance for a few years, but it should be possible for a good engineering crew to put them back into operation. The broader question is getting the local grid back up – if they can’t transmit the power anywhere, the plant is of little use. Zenobia asks about seeing the control room. Adler has to think about this for a moment – for some reason, that’s another thing that it never occurred to any of the East Germans to check out when they moved into the compound.
The control room [because I have an unlimited budget for special effects and set design] is a spacious room on the facility’s top level with the archetypal slanted glass wall overlooking the turbine floor. It’s dusty but appears to have been shut down in good order. No problems here.
Minka spins around in one of the swivel chairs and freezes. On the back wall, unnoticed when the trio came in, is a map of the regional power grid. She points it out to Zenobia, who starts making strangled joyous sounds. While the PCs did find a vintage map of Polish mineral resources in the museum, this is the first no-shit usable technical map they’ve encountered. Minka and Zenobia manage to avoid drawing Adler’s attention to the map just yet – they remain wary of whatever brain-fog seems to be affecting damn near everyone they meet.
Zenobia notices a door off to one side, with a small plaque next to it: Superintendent. “Can we take a look in there?” she asks. Unsurprisingly by this point, it’s another room Adler hasn’t noticed before. It’s locked… for all of fifteen seconds, before Zenobia (who is an actual locksmith by prewar trade) has her way with it.
The door swings open. Inside is a massive desk, nearly empty – only a telephone, a blotter, and a face-down framed picture. Behind the desk is an equally-massive leather chair containing the desiccated remains of a man. Judging from the forensic evidence on the wall behind him and the floor under the chair, he shot himself in the head with an old Nagant revolver.
Against the wall, flanking the desk, are two large bookshelves crammed full of technical documentation on the plant and the regional power grid, as well as a fair amount of electrical engineering textbooks.
Adler starts seizing and drops like her spine has been removed.
“Oh, gods, we killed her with books,” says Minka.
This is a worse manifestation than the team has seen before. Adler stops breathing. Minka goes to work on her and tells Zenobia to get Red now.
Zenobia dashes outside and alerts Red, Magda, and Von Bahr of the emergency. She manages to somewhat-obliquely convey to Red and Magda that Adler is having an extreme version of the apparent brain malfunction they’ve previously observed in others. Von Bahr grabs a nearby soldier and sends him to fetch the camp’s nurse, grabs two more for escorts and follows Zenobia as she drags Red and Magda along in her wake.
Zenobia gets back to the control room, realizes she needs to keep anyone from seeing the map, and manages to position a wheeled chalkboard more-or-less in front of it. She pulls the office door shut just in time to prevent an unfortunate episode.
Red realizes he has perfectly good anticonvulsants in his pharmaceutical stash back in Ponikla. He hits Adler with a shot of epinephrine instead. This seems to get her through the worst of whatever’s going on; at any rate, her breathing stabilizes, although now her heart rate is well north of 120.
Von Bahr is watching the proceedings. The two soldiers who tagged along have posted up on either side of the door, ostentatiously not fondling their slung rifles.
Red gets up from the floor and explains that yes, he has seen this before.
Von Bahr would like an explanation.
Red: “Hmm. You might want to have one of your men cover his ears so you don’t all experience the effects at once.”
Von Bahr gives him a look but orders one of his troops to put in earplugs.
Red: “Maps.”
Von Bahr and the other soldier both glaze over and lock up in the lower-grade seizure that’s more familiar to the team. As Von Bahr comes out of it, Red explains that the team has been seeing this for a while. There seems to be a general, unspecified effect that’s suppressing awareness of any form of recorded knowledge.
Von Bahr: “What you’re talking about is suppressing any attempt to salvage civilization.”
Red: “Pretty much, yeah.”
Red further unpacks the team’s observations to date, including the apparent acclimation period that seems to vary based on exposure. His working theory about Adler’s incapacitation is that she saw… something… in the office (he avoids saying “huge honkin’ bookshelves”) that generated a more direct and severe conflict with the effect than any the team has seen before.
Von Bahr asks what else they’re not telling him.
Red glances over his shoulder at Zenobia, who mouths, “map” and points behind the chalkboard.
Red asks Von Bahr to have his troops step out so their brains don’t explode, and has Minka swivel Adler’s chair around to avoid a similar fate. Then Zenobia slides the chalkboard aside.
Von Bahr looks at the map, slides out of his chair onto his knees, pulls in a nearby wastebasket without looking at it, and empties his stomach.
Once Von Bahr recovers, this is more than enough proof for him – especially once Adler confirms her own experience and, eventually, has her own look at the map. There’s some further discussion about whatever the effect is, but Red has already shared all of what the team has assembled to date.
Conversation turns to other items of mutual interest. Von Bahr’s offer of one of the derelict vehicles stands, and he’s on board with trying to get the power plant back online. Although he outranks Red by a considerable margin (even leaving aside the fact that Red is technically a Staff Corps officer, not a combat commander), he’s not so foolish as to imagine he can place Red or the other PCs under his command. He is quite interested in the regional defense coalition that the PCs seem to be assembling with the farmers to the north, the White Eagle Battalion, and possibly Opoczno, and he sees whatever’s happening in Radom as the most immediate threat facing that alliance.
The team lingers another couple of hours, but the substantial part of the negotiations is pretty much over. Red meets with the East Germans’ nurse, shepherds her through her own brain-rewiring, and briefs her on how to get the rest of Von Bahr’s followers through the process with a safety margin. With that, the team heads back to Ponikla.
A lot happened in this session. I had originally intended Von Bahr to be less cooperative and more of a frenemy, an ongoing variable in the regional calculus. I hadn’t counted on the team hitting him with the reality check. That had some effects on his mindset and strategic thinking that made him much more willing to negotiate with Red as a social peer and military near-peer.
There was a fair amount of out-of-character discussion on how to weaponize the effect. There may be an initiative to paint maps on the sides of the OT-64 and BTR-70K and drive through enemy formations to induce seizures…
