August 3-4
Thursday, August 3, 2000 (roll +3 on SET)
At about noon, Grease, on sentry duty in the copse on the west end of town, radios in a sighting. Two vehicles - a Humvee mounting a Dishka HMG, and a military van of some sort- are approaching Skarydzew from the west. Both sporting Soviet Army tactical symbols (a “Z” perhaps?).
The Diamonds and the hamlet’s tiny militia have discussed what to do in this sort of situation. The Diamonds lay low (but ready to fight or run at a pinch), while the locals do the talking, sticking to a “this is just a sleepy little village; there’s nothing to see here” narrative. The vehicle-mounted Soviet patrol is met by one of the hamlet militia on the edge of the settlement. After a brief conversation (hidden Diamonds watch the exchange, but can’t hear what’s said), the two vehicles pass through town at a leisurely pace and continue on their way, heading east. Once the patrol is well out of sight, the militiaman reports that it was operating out of Grabow nad Prosna / Palaty, searching for NATO raiders believed to be running amok in the area (most likely, this refers to the Diamonds or the escaped American POWs). The Russians apparently bought the militiaman’s claim that no one in the hamlet has seen or heard of any Americans in the area.
NOTES:
To decide which Diamond was on sentry duty at the western OP, I rolled a D8- Grease got the job. I rolled opposed Recon and he won, so the patrol didn’t see him lurking in the trees. I treated the conversation between the militia and the Soviet patrol as a Social Conflict and rolled for Persuasion (opposed), with both parties rolling a single D8 (EMP C). The militiaman won, so he successfully bluffed the patrol, which went on its way, none-the-wiser, without searching the ville.
Friday, August 4, 2000
Arm around Deacon’s shoulders, PR is up on his feet and walking (shambling, more like it). His legs are weak and wobbly, but he’s regained a lot of strength in his upper body, and his fine motor skills are improving rapidly (probably thanks to Street Fighter II).
Later that afternoon, the militia “captures” a Soviet soldier on the northern approaches of the village. He’s in bad shape- bloody and delirious, barely able to walk or speak, and when he does talk, he doesn’t make much sense. His uniform is torn and dirty; his only weapon is a crude shop-built hand grenade of some sort.
Deacon fixes up the Soviet soldier as best he can, using supplies provided by the village. The Diamonds suggest that the villagers take the injured Soldier to the nearest Soviet garrison (Grabow) in order to earn some good will. The Americans offer to take the bandit EPW with them when they leave, dropping him off several kilometers away.
The Diamonds spend the rest of the day preparing to leave Skarydzew early the next morning. The villagers load the Americans up with as much alcohol fuel as they can carry, as well as a couple of days’ worth of food and fresh water- all that they can spare. It’s going to be tight until the next harvesters, but the villagers don’t begrudge upholding their end of the arrangement. They know it would have been much worse had their guests not eliminated the rapacious ex-Red Army marauders.
NOTES:
During the Diamonds’ stay in Skarydzew, I’d rolled all but one of the encounters on the Stationary Encounters table. The remaining encounter is Large Force, but I couldn’t think of a way to wedge that into the story, given that the village militia successfully bluffed the small patrol (the Scouts encounter) on Day +3. I don’t want to burn through the random encounter deck either so, for day five, instead of rolling for a fourth time on the SEC (adding +4 to the roll), I decided to see what kind of encounter I could create by drawing cards on the Further Elements Table. The results were 4 (Tired Soldier), 6 (Decayed), King (Bleeding), and 5 (IED). I was going to interpret Decayed as a case of gangrene, but since the next result was Bleeding, I decided that Decayed refers to the tired soldier’s state of mind.
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