Worse Than the Disease 2 IC

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean does contact some other radio operators in the state. They are not too active in the evening but there has at least been plenty of time for gossip and news to be collected and checked for accuracy.

(OC: did you mark off the food and water consumed for today and yesterday? Sean can try a reaction roll.)

What does Sean wish to discuss? General regional events?

[u-b]

Sean asks the stations contacted that he's looking to investigate cross-border threats to inhabitants of Vermont. He probably does not get anything useful and tries to contact the stations further away. If any operator outside of the state is contacted, Sean wants to chat about the general life conditions of the parties on both ends of the comm:
1. Who they are (we are Radar Base Guys).
2. What's troubling them, if anything (we have a number of problems, of which organized Slavers/Raiders, unnatural mutated animals and potentially rogue Shelters are the most prominent at the moment).
3. Any major local powers (we mostly have regional gangs, but the Slavers and rogue shelters are potentially cross-border, also, we've heard of "The Sacred Snakes", but don't know who they are).
4. Anything they want to discuss.

Spoiler

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See HT38 sidebar and B38 about short-wave communications, if we have them. If not, the range to a medium TL8 radio with an extensive antenna would be up to 210 + N*10% miles by voice or 3..10 times that by code, where N would be the operator's margin of success. Less fancy stations would be more difficult to reach, but still posible when talking by code (most likely Morse for TL7 or less).

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean has no luck with the nearby radio stations, but the boosted signal out to the further operators yields results.

The radio men stationed out on the eastern border, in particular, report incidents of attacks by a paramilitary calling themselves "The Sacred Snakes." According to certain accounts, the invaders seem to answer to a single leader, a mysterious "Witch Queen." They think the invaders are coming from New York state.

Pushing further out, Sean contacts some radio operators living out there. They claim to have encountered The Sacred Snakes on the regular, as they are the top warlord's army in New York. While their leader is never seen or heard from, the army itself is quite active, running an extortion racket within New York and occasionally raiding across state borders. The Sacred Snakes are evil to the core, their crimes are extensive and diverse. Torture is one of their favorite past-times.

Mutants are not much of a problem in New York, although reports of combat robots gone amuck are common.

The biggest regional power in the state is The Union, a Shelter-based miniature nation based in New York City. It rarely extends its power beyond the islands, so it does not come to blows with The Sacred Snakes (who mostly claim the outer edges of the state as their turf) much. From time to time, The Sacred Snakes try to raid the NYC and get driven back by the city-dwellers.
The Sacred Snakes are the second biggest player.
Everyone else is a minor figure.

The radiomen in New York are curious about Vermont's Shelters. They heard that all of them had some kind of trouble or sabotage just as the Old World fell? Some act of treason or madness?

[u-b]

Sean explains that there indeed seem to have been both treason and sabotage of the local Shelters at about that time, but the details seem murky to those not involved in it. That said, we have Shelters still locked up complete with human population, Shelters opened up to establish some notable cities, Shelters plundered out with no one left alive... so this varies. Not every Shelter got successfully sabotaged, some of which maybe because they were on the other end of the deal. Shall Sean assume it went the better way around in New York? Sean thanks the operator for the information and asks if he can have the frequency and callsign of some outer relations and/or secutiry branch of The Union? Or actually, any major station of theirs that can be reached, Sean is not picky. Sean also roughly describes the local Gutter and asks if New York features something of the sort.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The New York radioman explains that the Shelter in NYC is very large by the standards of the project, of course. It opened up to the New World 30 years ago. Nothing particularly bad happened to it before or since (although it has come under (unsuccessful) attack more than once). No-one else he knows is aware first hand of any other Shelter, in New York state or any other.

The radioman can't really give out information about other operators without security measures. If Sean has encryption, that's mostly fine, but he warns him to be careful about what he says on the air. There are spies everywhere. He shares only a few contact frequencies that are publicly known and somewhat safe. The Union does not have many outposts outside of NYC.

There is The Gutter in New York. The parts of it under NYC are the most well-known and explored by far.

[u-b]

Sean records all the callsigns and frequencies, including those of the radio man he has just talked to, thanks the radio man again and says goodbye. He has no other plans for the rest of the night and goes to his room for a nap.

Assuming nothing untoward happens before the morning, Sean's plan would be to...
1. Tell Richard about the conversation with the man in New York.
2. Suggests that Richard investigates some or all of the following, at his option:
2.1 The prisoner.
2.2 The Sacred Snakes via Funny Platoon.
2.3 The Sacred Snakes and The Union via The Union (we maybe can do some business with the later, especially if they do import stuff from abroad). We have the encryption and can use either of the following ways at The Union's option:
2.3.1 Large radio station, voice mode, accessible to Waffle House men.
2.3.2 Medium radio station, text mode, accessible only to Richard and Sean (assuming The Union's radio station is Large).

Sean would sort through the gear and the vehicles for today's trip when Tariq would report that he's made an RPG-7 and two training round, which Sean would immediately test somewhere outside where no one is looking, bringing it there and back in a large frame backpack and picking up the fired training round for disposal where no one would find it.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The night passes by, peacefully.

DAY 88

(OC: mark off meals consumed, if necessary.)

The next morning is a flurry of activity as Sean makes preparations. He hustles up men to get everything ready, packing and checking the stuff needed for the task ahead.

Test-firing the RPG and grenade launcher goes off without a hitch, Sean figures out that the GL is made a bit too...crudely. The sights are quite off as a result. The barrel is also a bit wonky.

(OOC: the bug lowers the GL's Acc to 0.)

Richard has plenty of time to do what Sean tells him to do.

(OC: I believe an actual player is in charge of Richard? He's not a NPC? He may make rolls on his own if so.)

[u-b]

Sean is tentatively satisfied with the GL. He points at its deficiencies so that it can be later improved upon, but right now it is so much better than nothing that he admits being absolutely happy to have it... if only we've had some grenades to shoot. He discusses some options with Tariq and it is decided that the best thing for now would be a full-fledged thermobaric warhead. Tariq sets to make one and in less than half an hour comes back with four(!!!). Sean is absolutely impressed and, trusting the man's word about the quality of the explosives, does not bother to check. He asks if he could have some rocket halves too, in addition to the one that we have. An hour later Tariq comes back with one. Apparently, that's more tricky for him than doing the warheads, but Sean is satisfied enough and thanks the man for his service. Meanwhile, he assembles the men and the gear.

Spoiler

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Currently we have two types of militia, in addition to our veterans:
1. The original Winchester Model 92 / Mail Corselet militia. These are mostly self-governed and mostly do economic activities, being expected to defend themselves and the settlement if needed as they see fit, maybe following the Officer's orders and overall defense plans while at it.
2. Garand or AK-47 / Concealable Vest / Trauma Plate militia. These are under the Officer and are to do a substantial amount of military activities, including practice, guard guty and fortification. Up to full time, in fact.

The first kind can volunteer to be approved into the second kind. The second kind can volunteer to come with Sean for this one. Assuming there are no more than 15 of the second kind, how many volunteer?

I believe an actual player is in charge of Richard?

Yeah, I expect Volthawk is to follow or ignore these diplomancing suggestions as he sees fit.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Currently we have two types of militia, in addition to our veterans:
1. The original Winchester Model 92 / Mail Corselet militia. These are mostly self-governed and mostly do economic activities, being expected to defend themselves and the settlement if needed as they see fit, maybe following the Officer's orders and overall defense plans while at it.
2. Garand or AK-47 / Concealable Vest / Trauma Plate militia. These are under the Officer and are to do a substantial amount of military activities, including practice, guard guty and fortification. Up to full time, in fact.

The first kind can volunteer to be approved into the second kind. The second kind can volunteer to come with Sean for this one. Assuming there are no more than 15 of the second kind, how many volunteer?

(OOC: Sean, make a reaction roll for the militia, no other modifiers besides what he brings to it (his Reputation, for example, definitely applies here). That should decide how many volunteers.)

[Shoot Da Moon]

Everyone reacts well to Sean's rousing.

He can convince all of the militia to peel off from their regular duties and escort him to another big battle. It seems they're all really chomping at the bit to strike out and fight evil.

They line up with their equipment and discuss what Sean has planned.

[u-b]

Sean is very pleased with this level of support but has to tell the men that he'll need some of them to remain here, both to guard the base and to conserve the fuel. The team will depart in three cars: sedan, pickup and van. He would prefer if each car had two drivers, in case people get hurt. These will be Sean, Richard and four men from the militia, which Sean picks mainly on that basis. He then picks two more and thanks everyone who has applied.

Spoiler

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The team will be:
1. Sean
2. Richard
3. Bart (with shotgun and RPG-7 camouflaged in a backpack)
4. Dog x2
5. Veteran militia with M1 Garand x3 (carrying 20 grenades and crash kit for Sean to use)
6. New full-time militia with AK-47 x6

I've sorted through the doc and updated the gear allocations, including consumed food, but not fuel (I hope to be done with that in a week). I think both Sean and I are ready to leave, but we'll have to wait for Volthawk to resolve his part. The topics might arise in the conversations, so we better resolve that before meeting with the Troubleshooters.

@Volthawk: We have some HT227 truth serum, in case that is relevant.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The miltiamen get organised into teams. They talk excitedly among themselves about the action to come. Like it's all one big adventure.

(OC: Volthawk, post about your PC's actions.)

[u-b]

Richard decides not to drug the prisoner guy and asks the following questions over the course of three hours while Simone takes notes:
1. The guy's name, rank, role and place in his organization.
2. The guy's superior's name, rank, role and place in the organization.
3. The organization learer name, rank, age, attitude and personality (like a general, an executive, a spiritual leader, first among some equals or some such; fair or harsh; competent or incompetent).
4. The organization's name and age (how long since it has been established).
5. The organization's relationships with other organizations, each of them.
6. The organization's relationships with notable individuals, each of them.
7. Specifically, the organization's relationships with Bread Basket in general and with any factions or individuals therein.
8. The organization's base(s) of operation. Territories of control and/or interest.
9. The ultimate purpose of operating the facility where this guy has been taken. Meaning not to have "create things" for an answer, but more of "achieve outcome" sort of thing.
10. Any notable routes or places in The Gutter the guy is aware of.
11. His personal history of service in the organization, including rectuitment, training and individual missions.
12. The reason(s) he has joined the organization.
13. The reason(s) he is still loyal to the organization. Hm. Is he?
14. All the details he knows about all the Shelters he can name. ALL the details. About ALL the Shelters.
15. The same about all the shelters WE can name.
16. All that he knows about Bread Basket, Gunmetal and Red Brisk.
17. All that he knows about Vermont Rangers, Troubleshooters, Funny Platoon, The Ripcords, Radar Base Guys, Sacred Snakes, The Union.
18. Where and how he got that IFF tag? What it is valid for, where we can enter using it? Is it personalized? Will it be somehow revoked now that he's MIA?
...

Spoiler

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That is numbered 1 to 18, but some questions are extensive, so let's say the asked part will be spread over 36 individual "questions" of 5 minutes each, maybe repeating the most promising of those if the individual claims not to know. So, like, 36 secret rolls of Interrogation and 36 secret rolls of Detect Lies. Not sure if and when "lenghty interrogation" kicks in, but it will be a total of 3 hours for a start and will then continue depending on what questions are actually asked (maybe 3 hours are not enough to ask them all) and answers we've got.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The prisoner answers questions.
He is named Robert, he is just a lowly soldier of little importance, he carries out combat operations on his superior’s say-so.
His commander is named Broken Pipe. He is a leader of several squads and fireteams. He receives general orders from a radio boss. He thinks Broken Pipe is dead, killed by rifle fire.
The general leading the gang bosses is a ruthless warlord stationed at a base up in the north tip of Vermont. He does not know his name, that’s far above his position. The general is one of a handful, all giving orders form the northern base, where a factory, slave camp and base are. The general routinely rules by fear and force, killing any minion who does not accomplish his mission. Rumors say he outright has people butchered and cooked for dinner.
The organisation has no real name. It just calls itself, “The Army” and “The Mission.” He thinks it’s been around for 50 to 75 years? Certainly longer than he has been alive.
The Army simply wants all other factions in Vermont wiped out, as far as he knows.
He doesn’t know much about notable individuals outside of his organisation. They could be just enemies?
He knows his Army wants to wipe out Bread Basket, to cripple the region’s food supply. He has heard that the Bread Basket citizens are all secretly mutants, and they are trying to keep that under wraps.
The Army’s prize settlement is a huge base in the north. It is incredibly well-guarded and armed. They otherwise have a motley of hideouts, encampments and stolen homes. He knows of a few, he helpfully gives the locations on a map. The Army permanently controls not much else besides the northern base, but they do occasionally try to attack little settlements in the hopes of gaining a foothold. Right now, they want Red Brick and Bread Basket to be weakened or even destroyed most of all. But that’s a long term goal.
The facility was meant to produce weapons with which they can terrorise and destroy settlements. They wanted every place within 20 miles of the lab taken under their control, and the bio-weapons looked like a good way to do it. Once that was done, they could expand the operation to try striking at the bigger settlements, like the cities.
The prisoner knows a bit about Gutter routes and safe places. He freely shares what he knows, commenting that his usual assignment had him stuck in The Gutter for months at a time, guiding squads through the tunnels.
The prisoner was born into the Army. He was raised and trained in a base far to the south, outside of Vermont. When he was 16, he became a soldier proper. And assigned to a squad, under a boss. He mostly acted as a backup, support, a regional transport guide, raided a settlement once every 3 months. It was boring. He joined because the alternative was death at the hands of the Army’s internal security agents. And besides, it’s not like he knew anything else, or cared about doing anything else with his life. Loyalty, to him, is simply a matter of who is best in place to kill him if they disapprove of his actions. He’s loyal to the Army, sure, because they’ll just murder him if he betrays them or tries to leave. What is it to you?
He does not know much about Shelters. He’s never seen one. He knows that they are priority targets, but everyone knows the Army ain’t ready to raid one yet, not even close. Shelters are practically Armies all by themselves. He has heard of his fellow raiders attacking a Shelter once in a great while, but it’s always a suicide mission that overconfident dummies try when they get too greedy. He knows a bunch of big settlements, the cities, grew out of Shelters. He figures any in-depth info about Shelters is kept classified by his superiors, and he does not care.
Bread Basket is a major target, because it provides food to the region, but it is hiding something. Gunmetal is the biggest prize, but everyone knows it’ll never fall until the Army is way way way way more successful in wrecking the region because it has advanced tech. Red Brick is a juicy target, it is compromised by its vice trade, no-one trusts it, the Army wants it destroyed so the region loses its medical expertise and rival gangs to the Army. He doesn’t know the details of what the Army plans to do to attack the cities.
The prisoner only knows about the Rangers, Troubleshooters, and the Ripcords. He knows that they are enemies of the Army. Wanted dead. He has not fought them personally. Not his department.
His gang boss gave him the tag. They stole it from lab techs, he thinks. It’s valid for tech around the lab. It ain’t personalised, just issued equipment. He has no idea how the tech works.

Spoiler

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That is numbered 1 to 18, but some questions are extensive, so let's say the asked part will be spread over 36 individual "questions" of 5 minutes each, maybe repeating the most promising of those if the individual claims not to know. So, like, 36 secret rolls of Interrogation and 36 secret rolls of Detect Lies. Not sure if and when "lenghty interrogation" kicks in, but it will be a total of 3 hours for a start and will then continue depending on what questions are actually asked (maybe 3 hours are not enough to ask them all) and answers we've got.

(OC: I prefer to have one roll for every hour of interrogation, not for every single discreet question.)

[u-b]

Richard is not sure what Sean would want to do about the hideouts and encampments, but rather suspects Sean would like to do something, so he questions specifically about each one of them:
1. Name, type and purpose (camp in the woods, single building, hidden stash, whatever; (semi-)permanently occupied, occasionally visited, whatever).
2. The number of occupants and the type and the amount of traffic (army, slaves, cargo, vehicles).
3. The defenses (forces armaments, fortifications, installations).
4. Location (assuming this was already given to Richard, but I'd like to have it too, relative to the mutant lab).
5. Presence of radio equipment. Presence of bells. Presence of valuables and vehicles.
6. Which one of those was used to host the multitude of quick-response bikers and what are the other quick-response forces beyond that.

Then Richard asks about some other stuff:
7. How do they tackle the diseases of The Gutter?
8. How do they source weapons and transportations? If something is produced at the northern factory, can he explain the strange choice of weapons they produce? Like, Bergmann MP18 would be a very strange choice to produce nowadays. Or do they have a stock that lasted them 50+ years?
9. What can he say about Massachusetts as compared to Vermont? About Boston? About Springfield? What role has the army there, what activities it does there? Are there any other factions or unaffiliated groups or individuals?
10. The same questions about two states south of that.
11. What is the purpose of marking themselves with tattoos? Is it to prevent desertion or why else would not normal ID documents suffice?
12. Is there a way how we can learn who are their allies/agents inside Bread Basket? Meaning, they were smuggling chemicals out of the city, so there must have been some and maybe there still are?

Spoiler

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Did the prisoner say anything actionable about The Gutter? Like some places worth visiting or some routes from/to aboveground places worth visiting?

This should total 2 more hours of interrogation and we'll then proceed with the next steps.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The prisoner reports that most are single buildings or camps in the wilderness. Each is mostly for either storage of "gathered" resources or outposts for launching raids. They are given codenames, mostly in the form of animals, colours and numbers.
Most of the sites have only one or two gangs worth of soldiers - between 9 and 15. Vehicles are uncommon except for motorcycles. Slaves and cargo are often transported from the places by trucks, cars and vans going north to the big base. Couriers going to the places are often on bikes or in sedans, to drop off supplies and messages every one or two months.
Most places have only foot soldiers and their improvised fortifications for defense. Nothing worse than maybe an automatic battle rifle or explosives. He has heard of guys who got a machine gun, once.
The locations tend to be in either small ruined towns or in the woods near a big road. Easy to hide that way. There's three within 30 miles of the lab, to the east, the south and the north-west.
Only one place he knows of, has a radio. There's a big bell tower for far-reaching alarms at one outpost (the north-western), yes. Plenty of loot kept in storage - macho piles of supplies. Bikes aplenty, but only eight cars and one van total.
The camp to the south is where the biker waves come from. They got a whole garage of tools, fuel and a junkyard. The guys at the bell tower might have a bunch of squads on standby, it did a month ago.

The Gutter disease is usually avoided with the right routes through the area.
The factory produces a lot of stuff, but sometimes weirder stuff is taken by raids, shuffled around, issued to random squads that get desperate and then call in backup on short notice. The SMGs were found in a huge stash stolen somewhere in a big Old World city ruin (was it Burlington? Springfield?) a while back, spread around because nobody really knew what else to do with them and any other SMG got called dibs by big dawgs, leaving the scraps for the lower rungs. As for the factory, that's not his department.
The prisoner has never been to Boston. He knows southern Massachusetts to be full of renegade combat robots that kill humans on sight. Springfield is a huge wreck, but it has loads of good fun drugs for sale and stashes of goodies to loot if you don't mind constantly fighting off mutant animals and disease. The Army has a few "orphanages" and training centers to raise soldiers in Mass State just on the border to Vermont, but he has not been there since he was a kid, as by design. The Army sends squads over to Springfield mostly for punishment duty, routine patrols, and scut work. Lame stuff, like scavenging supplies. The locals in Springfield are lone wandering mutants and hopeless bums who got kicked out of respectable settlements or who are on the run from Red Brick mafias. Losers you can kill by the dozens and never run out, it don't matter. Everyone else just stays out of Springfield.
The prisoner has never been further south. He expected to die in Vermont, never see any other state.
Tattoos are for identification, building in-group boundaries, stopping desertion, easier to carry then papers, don't have to remember code phrases, good for keeping score.
The prisoner shrugs. He doesn't know jack about Bread Basket operations or spywork. "Not his monk circuit keys," or whatever.

The prisoner can help with The Gutter. He draws rough maps and directions. A handful of POIs.

[u-b]

Richard thinks he's done with the man for the moment. He calls in Sean to check if the infos gotten are sufficiently clear and they together clarify the little bits that are not.
1. Did he specify the locations for more than these three? How many are with the coordinates given?
2. If there are more than those three, we'll want the general areas covered.
3. Sean will see if the descriptions of the locations match actual maps. If we can have the maps detailed enough, then "a general store building at Some Street 66" should match the store marked there.
4. Does the general area above overlap with where we are to meet Troubleshooters? Was the motel there explicitly named?
5. How many points of interest total are named in the gutter? What are the kinds of those points?

The prisoner is then cleared to receive the best medical assistance we can provide and to get a semi-comfortable solitary cell until he's in full health.

Richard then calls a public frequency of The Union and proposes them the following, in order:
1. Establish a two-party encrypted channel without validating the indentity of the parties. The parties will not be initially 100% sure who the other party is, but...
1.1 From now on, we will be sure it's the same party that we have talked to before that.
1.2 No other parties will be able to decipher anything beyond timing/locating the transmissions.
2. Asks whether The Union does any cross-border or maritime trade in goods or information and whether it is in any way safe to reach them from Vermont.
3. Asks whether The Union is willing to disseminate any information about either or both of the following parties to a party that claims to be, or might find itself, a victim or an enemy of those.
3.1 The Army of neck-tattoed slavers.
3.2 The Sacred Snakes.
4. Asks whether The Union is willing to disseminate any additional information about anything at all (territorial claims, manifestos, advertising, warnings, good advise, whatever).

[Shoot Da Moon]

The prisoner knows of two more locations where the army has set up a camp in the wilderness. He gives good directions. Marks the map. It appears the camps are camouflaged tents pitched in small clearings surrounded by trees. The maps the exiles have already are not too detailed. But they seem to match up pretty well. The Troubleshooters’ turf is not particularly close by to the locations. The motel was not given a name, it’s been lost to the ages. Only a description. The building is coloured green. The POI in the Gutter seem to be mostly sections of the subway tunnels (including a discarded train car) and maintenance stations, made into hidden outposts.

The prisoner is happy to be let go. Back in his cell, he has time to think, he sullenly mutters.

The Union agrees to set up a channel. They have the gear, and the expertise, they just want to take a hour to get it all setup. And record the various code phrases and shared info.
The Union has not made much trade outside of their state. They certainly are afraid to go north. Trade coming in from the port is usually from the south or west. It is definitely not safe to come to NYC from Vermont. A thick wall of hostiles in many different flavours block the roads and wilderness.
The Union is reluctant to share info. But the exiles seem trustworthy, so they’ll try. They warn that communication disruptions are getting more frequent since the last two months. Bad guys may be messing with radio towers and computer networks, or something. They will send updates on miscellaneous stuff to the radar base staff whenever necessary, yes.

But The Union has no urgent news to share with Richard and the exiles for now.

[u-b]

The men have their late lunch and leave for the meeting point, Sean leading the way in the sedan.

[Shoot Da Moon]

(OC: mark off the meals and water consumed if you have not already.)

The convoy of autos moves out, crossing the state.
Sean’s excellent scouting allows the exiles and their allies to detect something strange from a decent distance away while they’re on the road.
There’s a wrecked bus on the side of the road. It’s not a school bus, and it might post-date the fall of the Old World, manufactured by wastelander industry. Sean deduces that there was a bunch of people around the bus a day ago, but they are long gone.
The wreckage is easily ignored and avoided thanks to Sean’s canny instincts.

(OC: check out the bus or no?)

It’s been 45 minutes since they left the radar base and rode out. If they stay on track, it’ll only be another 2 hours of driving to arrive at the spot…

(OC: I believe you guys are moving at 25-30 miles per hour in those vehicles? The destination is 87 miles from the radar base, IIRC. Otherwise, my post here is wrong about the drive.)

[u-b]

Sean stops the car some 100 yards from the bus wreck, gets a few men with him and advances on foot to within 50 yards, where he stops and takes his time to observe the surroundings. If nothing particularly suspicious is seen, he intends to sneak alone all the way to the bus, observe the surroundings from there and if there is still nothing suspicious seen, examine the bus and the footprints to make sense of them.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean stops the car some 100 yards from the bus wreck, gets a few men with him and advances on foot to within 50 yards, where he stops and takes his time to observe the surroundings. If nothing particularly suspicious is seen, he intends to sneak alone all the way to the bus, observe the surroundings from there and if there is still nothing suspicious seen, examine the bus and the footprints to make sense of them.

The men stand by and keep watch. The scene is quiet, deserted.

Sean sneaks around a little closer, finds no people have been here for at least half a day, and the activity was light. Plenty of animals, some of them mutated, populate this area. Bart the Hunter, in fact, stops Sean to warn him that there’s big snakes slithering around where the bus wreckage is. There is probably a nest of huge vipers inside.

Sean can indeed hear the sound of snakes in the underbrush in the distance.

Sean realises that people once set up some sort of noisemaker trap with mechanical junk here, but it got tripped by a clumsy person. That happened a day ago, judging by the weathering on the metal. A broken string lies limp on the ground near a fallen tree.

[u-b]

Sean considers bringing the men a bit closer and then doing either of the following:
1. If the wiper nest is in the bushes away from the bus, he could throw an explosive grenade in there.
2. If the wiper nest is in the bushes at/under the bus, he could throw a flashbang in there (after which the snakes would presumably retreat).

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean has his men tighten up.

Bart’s scanning of the bus has him confirm that there’s a nest of snakes inside there. He would bet his right eye on it. The hunter recommends to Sean that they simply retreat, ignore the nest, leave it be. After all, why disrupt nature if it’s not necessary?

[u-b]

While Sean is still quite curious about the formerly trapped snake bus, he decides it might be indeed better not to spend time on it at the moment. He marks the location on the map and the group is on its way.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Retreating, Sean and his allies get back on the road, driving through wilderness and on a sufficiently intact road.

25 minutes later, they spot another interruption ahead; it appears to be some kind of improvised checkpoint blocking the road, and manned by a bulky and tall mutant.

The two-headed and four-legged mutant is armed (a long arm) and armoured (metal siding). A nearby sign displayed on the road block reads “TOLL” and features chest-high sandbag walls for cover.

Thanks to Sean’s superior scouting, the mutant has not spotted them yet. They can simply find another road that leads where they want, one not blockaded by this sort of “checkpoint” or other foe.

[u-b]

Sean leaves the pickup and the van where they are, with the men disembarked, aiming and ready, then rides the sedan all the way to the checkpoint (or wherever he is commanded to stop) to ask how much would be the toll for three cars and what entity he would be paying.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The super mutant rubs his chin (the one on the left) as Sean approaches.

“How does…half a rifle bullet per person and a rifle bullet per car sound to you?” The mutant offers. He points at a big iron strongbox planted upon the sandbag wall, marked “TOLLS PAID.”

Tolls can be paid in food, water, actual bullets, fuel, quality metal for spare parts…

(OC: I rolled a reaction in secret for this.)

“I can also give directions, no extra charge.” The mutant smiles (on his right head, his left head keeps scanning the area). He pulls out a folded state roads map out of his jacket to prove to Sean that he’s familiar with the area.

[u-b]

"Yeah, seems about right." Sean takes a spare mag and counts 8 bullets off of that. "As for directions, what organization to you represent and what territory do you claim? Are there any special dangers I should be aware while traveling on and that way?" Sean points ahead the way he was going. "I would also want to learn about local businesses, like goods to buy and sell, a gas station, whatever."