{"id":389,"date":"2023-05-09T05:16:27","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T11:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/?p=389"},"modified":"2025-09-11T07:09:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T12:09:21","slug":"provocations-and-responses-17-august-2000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/?p=389","title":{"rendered":"Provocations and Responses (17 August 2000)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s time to get back to work. Red organizes Zenobia, Magda, Minka, Miko, and Leks for another trip east. With the recently-obtained intel about presumed American prisoners headed into Radom, two hostile contacts with the Radom ZOMO, the presence of a recoverable hydroelectric power plant, and recent overtures to the forces who hold that site (Von Bahr and his Ossis<\/em>), the team’s strategic focus is shifting in that direction. Today’s op is reconnaissance in the vicinity of Radom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drive out to the dam is uneventful. The team has radioed ahead to let the East Germans know they’re coming, and they’re waved inside the perimeter once their identities are confirmed. Von Bahr, Adler, and a couple of other former NCOs are waiting to meet them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Von Bahr informs the team that the Radom ZOMO is definitely patrolling more in his direction. His own patrols have sighted them several times along the river. They haven’t shown up at the power plant yet (as far as he knows). Yesterday, though, a cavalry squad approached Bialobrzegi, the village just east of his compound (and under his protection – or “protection,” it’s hard to tell with him). The squad of East Germans who were in the town exchanged inconclusive fire at long range, with neither side taking casualties. The East Germans’ impression is that the ZOMO was testing their vigilance and probing their defenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The captured BTR-60 is up and running but Von Bahr’s people haven’t yet ramped up fuel production, and they’re still working on putting the recovered BMP-1 and T-72 back into service. Their BTR-70 isn’t good for much more than a parts donor, but they’ve towed the hulk back to their compound to prevent anyone else from scavenging it. Von Bahr promises to have the -60 prepped and a QRF<\/a> on standby if he hears a gunfight, but since the PCs’ only radio is in their own BTR-70K, they won’t be calling for help from beyond audible range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With that, the PCs head south on foot, leaving the deuce and a half under guard. They decide to move toward Radom more-or-less parallel to the main highway, but off it a hundred meters or so in case they need to seek cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of kilometers in, Miko, on point, spots a dirt road joining the paved highway. At the intersection sits a long-since-burned-out structure, some sort of shop. Around it are scattered bodies and a dead horse. Miko calls a halt and carefully probes the scene before calling in the rest of the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four bodies are all military-aged men dressed in scraps of civilian attire and three different nations’ uniforms – one Soviet, two Poles, and one Hungarian, if the clothing actually matches the owners. All were killed by gunfire one to two days ago and subsequently stripped of all equipment (including, in two cases, their boots). The Soviet and Hungarian both bear prison tattoos. A search of the area turns up a number of spent shell casings in 7.62x39mm and 7.62x54mm, as well as a damaged segment of PK machinegun belt<\/a>. The team’s conclusion is that these guys did something to piss off the Radom ZOMO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[This was a bit of world flavor seeded from my random encounter generator<\/a> and adapted to fit the plot. The original was:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The characters arrive at the scene of a recent firefight.<\/em><\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bodies of 1 slain horses are strewn around the battlefield.<\/em><\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A total of 4 fallen combatants remain at the scene. Evidence on the bodies and in the vicinity suggests the combat occurred between marauders and marauders. The body\/bodies have been stripped of any usable or valuable equipment.<\/em><\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Careful searching will reveal a total of 128 spent shell casings and 50 disintegrating links for belted ammo.<\/em><\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combatants have left behind a small amount of sheet and billet metal.<\/em><\/code>]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The team decides to see where the intersecting dirt road goes. They move out, now heading west. The better part of an hour’s worth of careful movement brings them in sight of a village. Most of the place looks abandoned, with maybe two-thirds of the buildings burned or shattered by combat. However, nearer the PCs is a small roadside park, carefully tended. The flowerbeds are blooming, the grass is trimmed, and there’s some sort of recently-cleaned bronze statue on a stone plinth. Near the treeline sits a small travel trailer, its tires flat but its surroundings clean and showing signs of occupancy. Beyond the trailer, on the far slope of the small rise on which the park sits, the top of a large pile of brush and tree limbs is visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not <\/em>what the team expected. They settle in to observe for a bit. After a few minutes, the trailer’s door opens and a middle-aged man emerges. His hair looks like a bunch of cats taped together, and he’s wearing work-stained blue coveralls and carrying a pair of gardening shears. He walks over to one of the flowerbeds, kneels, and begins weeding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s too bizarre to be a trap. The team decides that Magda and Minka have the best combination of “non-threatening” and “well-socialized.” [They’re female, they’re native Poles, and they didn’t take Empathy as a dump stat.]<\/em> With the other four remaining on overwatch, the ambassadors move forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The caretaker doesn’t notice the women until they’re standing over him. He blinks, smiles, and introduces himself as Albert Pokorny. He used to be the village’s handyman, he explains, until everyone else left [or “left”]<\/em>. When he was alone, he couldn’t take care of the entire village, but he decided to keep up his favorite place, the park. He moved the trailer in here and has been living on his own ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Magda and Minka talk to Albert, it becomes increasingly clear that he’s not entirely sane. He’s lucid, coherent, and polite, but he appears to simply have decided to ignore most of the world and events beyond his park. His only regular contact is with the Radom ZOMO, who apparently check on him during their patrols to make sure he’s okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zenobia, scanning the surrounding area in case it really is <\/em>a trap, spots a large angular shape in or beyond the brush pile. She tells Red, Miko, and Leks and eels out of the team’s hide. While the conversation continues, she works her way around to the back side of the park, undetected. Yep, something is definitely concealed under the brush pile. I ping Zenobia’s player with a private message:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referee<\/strong>: http:\/\/www.military-today.com\/engineering\/biber.htm<\/a><\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referee<\/strong>: Worn-out, lots of superficial damage, but intact.<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zenobia<\/strong>: F ME<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Magda and Minka move with their host to a set of folding lawn chairs under an awning by the trailer. Albert offers them tea, but their caution prevents them from accepting. He doesn’t seem too put out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minka realizes that she’s feeling a sense of presence and safety that she’s not accustomed to experiencing outside Ponikla. Looking around a bit more closely, notices a large number of carved wooden statuettes around the park’s perimeter. A few more are under and around the trailer. Looking closer, they fit a description that’s all too familiar to her<\/a>. She asks Albert about them; he’s happy to explain that they’re his “friends.” He carves them himself as a way to stay occupied on rainy days. They usually help keep him safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, yes. Yesterday, four men showed up at the park. Mostly, this type of wanderer doesn’t bother him because he doesn’t anything to steal, but these guys beat him up and took his tools. (At this, Minka and Magda realize that there are fresh bruises and minor cuts under Albert’s layers of grime.) The Radom ZOMO visited a couple of hours after that incident and, upon learning what had happened, rode off in pursuit. They came back a while later to return his belongings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Don’t look at me in that tone of voice. The ZOMO are the opposition, and probably under heavy Soviet influence, but they aren’t total monsters. Albert is a totally non-threatening and inoffensive civilian in their AO, clearly too insane to be useful as forced labor, and it doesn’t cost them anything to check up on him, so he’s under their protection (not even with ironic airquotes). If someone messes with him, of course they’re gonna exercise their authority – and chase down obvious marauders in their patrol area.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magda and Minka eventually say their goodbyes and head back to the rest of the team. Minka is carrying a carved statuette that Albert gifted to her. She takes a moment to check the plaque on the bronze statue: it’s “Saint” Urszula Pokorny, a mid-19th-century local folk heroine. She was a midwife and herbalist responsible for saving a large number of lives when plague struck the local area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minka smiles and observes sotto voce<\/em> to Magda that that’s about as close as a Catholic country will ever come to publicly honoring a witch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team links back up and syncs their intel. There’s some discussion of whether Albert has any idea of the value of that Biber or whether he knows it’s possible to restore it to operational status. That’s a tomorrow problem, though. The team sets off again, skirting the village and noting in passing the large number of headstones in the cemetery with dates between autumn ’97 and summer ’98.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[This also spun out of a random encounter roll:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The characters arrive at a prewar monument which memorializes a local folk hero. During the war, it was kept up by a dedicated and quixotic caretaker. It now serves as trading ground for local civilians and traveling merchants.<\/code><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A derelict but salvageable armored vehicle-launched bridge (Wear 8) is parked here amid mud and weeds.<\/code><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any other Twilight: 2000 party would be looking for a way to recover that Biber chassis and make it into an improvised AFV. My players are looking for a way to recover it and actually use it as a bridgelayer.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

With Miko on point and Magda navigating, the team makes a large counter-clockwise loop through the sector [hex]<\/em>. As they’re heading back east toward the highway, the dirt track passes through a small valley which contains a crossroads and a small, shattered cinder-block building. An old radio tower occupies the bluff north of the road. Miko sees movement through the trees at the valley’s east end. A moment later, it resolves into mounted men in ZOMO uniforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team begins setting up for a hasty ambush. Miko decides to dart across the road – and tumbles as a bullet slams into his body armor. The crack<\/em> of the shot arrives a moment later. That didn’t come from the men on horseback, though, but rather from the vicinity of the radio tower! Miko staggers to his feet and dashes for cover as an RPK<\/a> opens up, flailing the landscape around him.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
The map at the beginning of the fight. Blue is the PCs’ location, with Miko hanging out in the open. Red is the cavalry team that Miko initially sighted. Yellow is the patrol’s second <\/em>team, which Miko didn’t<\/em> spot, set up in overwatch with one man back holding their horses.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Leks moves forward as the cavalrymen bunch up. He unleashes a burst that injures three of them, but they keep their saddles and their heads. They begin pulling back while the sniper and RPK gunner keep up their fire. Leks tosses out a smoke grenade to screen the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zenobia takes a round as she attempts to duel with the sniper, but he’s dug in too well for her return fire to deter him. Red, Leks, and Magda start maneuvering north, using the bluff for cover, while Magda and Zenobia continue returning fire. Miko regains his feet and moves forward in the trees on the southern hill. He’s trying to maintain visual contact with the cavalrymen, but when he regains sight of them, he sees one man holding the reins of five horses.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"
What Miko didn’t see, but correctly inferred, was that the rest of this dude’s fire team had moved back into the woods and was moving up under cover and concealment to take the PCs under fire if they attempted to pursue – or to press an assault on the element on the bluff.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Minka and Zenobia see Miko suddenly dash out of the trees on the south side of the road. He’s screaming something they can’t hear, but the sight of Miko running away from <\/em>a fight is an immediate indication that it’s time to leave. They displace north, joining up with Red, Leks, and Magda under cover of the bluff… just as a mortar round lands by the building toward which they were about to move up.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
The spotter failed his Recon check, so deviation was automatic here. I wouldn’t have done serious injury to any of the PCs with this if they had pushed east as they intended, but suppression and automatically being knocked prone could have been ugly, especially with the RPK gunner still in play.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That’s enough to convince them to break contact. They withdraw west. The cavalry don’t seem interested in pursuing. [After all, they do have three men with severe (albeit not critical) injuries from Leks’ initial volley.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Once they’re reasonably sure they aren’t being followed, the team circles up in good cover. Red dresses Miko and Zenobia’s injuries. Everyone is interested in the radio tower – is it still in use, and if so, for what? With Miko and Zenobia injured, Magda will scout the area. Despite her wounds, Zenobia volunteers to back her up, counting on her ghillie suit, her M21’s range, and her general sneakiness to avoid further insult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some careful maneuvering leads the team back to the area of the fight. The tower is structurally intact but doesn’t appear to be in use. It seems to just have been a convenient nav and lookout point for the ZOMO. However, the horse tracks are easy to follow… and with the limited range of a mortar, the team suspects there’s something <\/em>else out here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very <\/em>cautious movement is called for. The team creeps east. As they approach the highway again, they spot a small travel plaza with bustling activity. The scouts advance. Some careful reconnaissance reveals a contingent of 20 to 30 ZOMO troops with a BTR, a UAZ-469 with a DShK, and a technical mounting a SPG-9 recoilless rifle, as well as about a dozen horses. A dug-in and sandbagged mortar pit is in the center of the camp, and several spools of razor wire are ready to be strung. Magda also spots three uniforms that aren’t <\/em>ZOMO: Soviet officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This session likely marks a turning point in the campaign. The players were interested in clearing out the marauders in Tomaszow, but Ellis has been doing long-term recon in that area and they’ve been avoiding confrontation. The Radom ZOMO are more of an immediate concern, especially if the now have direct support from Soviet forces – possibly even Reserve Front HQ in Lublin. The next set of downtimes will see Ellis recalled from his spook activities as the team starts really building a regional coalition to target Radom.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world map is getting complicated…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s time to get back to work. Red organizes Zenobia, Magda, Minka, Miko, and Leks for another trip east. With the recently-obtained intel about presumed American prisoners headed into Radom, two hostile contacts with the Radom ZOMO, the presence of a recoverable hydroelectric power plant, and recent overtures to the forces who hold that site […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kaserne-on-the-borderlands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=389"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389\/revisions\/414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}