Worse Than the Disease 2 IC

[u-b]

Sean is relaxing reading the drone's manual. It might not be overly helpful for actually piloting the thing, but you have to know the hardware, and, in this case, also the software, and now, when he's unable to do anything much, seems to be the best time to familiarize himself with that aspect of the thingie. At lest, he'll be aware of all modes, functions and limitations when he finally gets to piloting the thing. In the evening Sean calls the radio men to ask if they have any news about that big battle around the raiders' factory. It has been two days, afterall, maybe they are done one way or another, but he agrees the news that he wants are still quite hot.

Tariq proceeds to actually make the underbarrel GLs that Sean has requested for the troops. He makes one perfect specimen taking about the whole work day. He has only the breaks from that activity to oversee the construction of the fortifications, which should be enough to stop anything done wrong, but not to instruct otherwise and oversee it done right, so that part might be delayed until tomorrow, if it's applicable.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean hears from the radio operators that the mutants who attacked the raiders seemed to have gotten routed. Scattered survivors are limping back through the wilderness, at best. He looks in a mirror, and notices with approval that the nasty bullet hole in his face has shrunk to a minor tear.

Tariq burns a lot of elbow grease and cobbles together a piece of hardware for the troops.

The construction work around the base continues apace. The base slowly begins to take on a more "heavy" appearance as wood and metal are raised to new positions.

Richard is still ailing, beginning to pass in and out of consciousness. He feels a slight primal terror at being so close to death...

(OC: record the meals consumed today (and yesterday if you have not already), mostly by Richard.)

Night falls on the radar base as new wanderers arrive seeking a safe place to rest. They build a large fire at the base's edge, submitting to oversight from the base's security forces.

DAY 82

The next day's weather is a bit harsh. Strong winds, periodic rain, chills.

[u-b]

Sean is in a pretty grim mood today. First, Richard is still getting worse, not better, and this increasingly reminds Sean of the last time, when he let people catch a disease and some ended up getting dead. Second, the mutants having been beaten at the raiders' factory is also bad news. Sean gets to the radio men and asks if there are, or could be, some intercepts of raiders' radio communications to see how bad they have had it, whether they have called in some reinforcements and, generally, how they are affected and going to react. The weather is not looking good for drone operations, so Sean just finishes reading the manual.

Tariq spends a total of four hours making another perfect grenade launcher for the troops. He spends the rest of the time supervising the construction, which has a somewhat limited progress because we do not push people to work outside in the rain.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean hears back in 2 hours. Reports say they have no luck intercepting communications from the raiders. Although they continue to find little reports of raider activity from anywhere in the state, so perhaps they are still pushed back and in hiding? It appears the enemy has withdrawn just as they were last heard of.

Tariq makes a lot of noise for a lot of time inside his workshop as the rain outside pours down. He makes the new weapon without much fuss. He only hopes it is enough.

(OC: new dice rolls thread; https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...e-DICE-ROLLS-2
Post there when you need to roll, players.)

[u-b]

Having no local intercepts, Sean contacts...
1. The Funny Platoon. He mentions that Richard is ill, so he's radioing instead to check if they have available intercepts about any big battles at the raiders' factory location, especially how tough the raiders have had it, or maybe any other information for us.
2. Vermont Rangers HQ. The same questions.
3. Major Chalmers. He asks whether the major can tell when to expect the troops to arrive at our base. We are not in a hurry, but just want to plan the operations.

And that would be the end for today.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The Funny Platoon reports that no information has been forthcoming. Their scouts have been pulled back recently, due to supply issues. As far as they know, the raiders have not made contact with hostile forces.

The Vermont Rangers report a battle at a raider checkpoint against unknown combatants 2 days ago. The outcome of the battle was not learned, the recon had to bug out due to encroaching patrols.

Major Chalmers thinks the troops will arrive in 30 hours.

(OC: VoltHawk, to avoid sidelining you while Richard is sick, I am allowing you to play as NPC allies like the Rangers (when they get here), maybe Tariq and Bart in the meantime. Sorry for the inconvenience.)

When night falls that day, another group of merchants and vagabonds arrives seeking shelter and camp at or near the base. They offer to help with the labor force's ongoing project. None of them are professional doctors, just bush medics at best. The traders do have an inventory of food and water for sale. The travelers do bring news and rumors from elsewhere in Vermont.

DAY 83

The next morning comes clear and slightly cold. The construction work goes back to full speed, overseen by Tariq.

[u-b]

Having finished the manual and feeling well, still with zero symptoms of the disease, Sean thinks he can as well leave the quarantine, if the doctors permit. If doctors let the prisoer out of quarantine too, then the following arrangement will be proposed:
1. The prisoner goes to the rest of the prisoners.
2. Richard goes to Simone's room.
3. Sean remains quartered in our main room, but starts to wander around the base.

Sean plans to...
4. Contact Vermont Rangers HQ and ask them to look through their maps and backlog of places worth visiting and people worth contacting if one wants to find...
4.1 Military equipment of all sorts, especially light artillery (mortars).
4.2 High-tech electronics, especially radio monitoring equipment and other EW gear.
4.3 Utility equipment, especially power generators of all sizes.
This can ge provided straight to him, in pieces or in bulk, or to their men that are to be arriving at our base.

Then Sean is to...
5. Start charging the welding power bank to make sure it's full.
6. Meet and chat with the travelers, especially asking about the situation with mutant animals, but also about any other news / infos that they deem worth mentioning.
7. Meet Blackwire's guy here at our camp, asking for any updates and saying we can finally hand over water in bulk (drums, barrels, lots of plastic bottles). They can pick and choose, but will have to arrange their own delivery. Sean asks when we can expect the Blackwire's team to be ready for the operations?
8. Meet the militia and hand over some Mail Corselets to anyone who has a gun and needs armor (we have a total of 15 in stock). He also makes a note of anyone willing to join militia, but not having a gun.
9. Practice flying the drone. This is going to take the better part of the day, going at least twice through each of three batteries. Sean warns people about this upcoming activity and starts carefully enough. Then he asks everyone outside to look at the drone when they hear it and wave at it when they see it the first time around or after some interval and goes after the base as if it was a hostile base and he would like to reckon it at length. He takes note of when people hear and see the drone and how the base and the surroundings look like from above and whether there is anything of note anywhere.

Meanwhile, Tariq spends under three hours making another GL, but looking at it, thinks it might be better to scrap it work more slowly the next time around. He also oversees construction.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The doctors recommend the prisoner is kept apart from others, as he is wounded and may be vulnerable to disease because of that. They also fear he is planning something. Richard is allowed to move around only where most people do not regularly go - this restricts him to a few areas, Simone's room would be off-limits. Sean can wander a bit, but he should keep his physical distance from anyone not wearing the right PPE.

Sean's contact to the Vermont Rangers gets an useful bit of information; there was an Old World city named Burlington (apparently 65 to 85 miles away from the radar base). It's believed there was a military base from Before there, that contains powerful artefacts known as F-35 fighter jets. Scavenging a power generator is often a matter of cobbling together parts easily gotten from city ruins and then assembling a semi-portable homemade steam engine out of them.
(OC: see High-Tech page 14.)
Of course, it's said stuff like solar panels and windmills can be found in Burlington, too.

Old World electronics is often scavenged from The Gutter, if you can't find a good ruin like a Shelter or fight your way into a good technology stash spot in Springfield. Radio gear is hard to manufacture outside of Gunmetal, the remaining Old World artefacts of that nature is usually found at airports and military bases.

The power bank is easy to recharge, if you've got the time. The base has battery chargers and cords for that.
The travelers report waves of mutant animals, mostly twisted wolves, moving around the south end of The Long Trail. They have no idea what is going on there. They think staying out of the wilderness would be for the best right now.
Sean hears a rumor; an Old World monstrosity has awoken from her 200-year slumber. She takes the form of a giant lion!

Blackwire's mouthpiece meets Sean and helpfully discusses the situation. They will gladly take the water in bulk, they'll send a guy with a sedan over to transport it. The men under Blackwire's command (four gangs of armed deserters) are ready for action, they've carefully setting a wilderness camp in the meantime. Blackwire's rescued subordinates help immensely - they had the locations and lock codes for supply safes. Blackwire generously lets the exiles know such information, there's four safes hidden in various town ruins and outposts.

The militia tools up, they now number about 20 permanently with another 10 to 15 less hardcore "weekend warriors". They all have guns, but most of their firearms are low-tech black powder or in bad condition.

Sean's practice with the drone goes well enough. He avoids damaging it even he gets clumsy. His helpers report having problems spotting the drone when it is going fairly fast and especially far away, but it's easy to hear when it gets within moderate pistol range of a sentry. The sentries spot the drone almost every time when it is closer than 10 yards but only one-third of the time when it is at the fence line. When the drone's at the treeline (20 to 30 yards from the fence line), no-one at the base has a hope of spotting or hearing it.

Tariq gets the work underway, well in hand. He figures it'll take another 2 or 3 days before they are close to done.

[u-b]

Sean hands over the following stuff to various people:
1. Steel Drum, 55 gallon, TL6 x1 for/with technical water
2. Plastic Drum, 55 gallon, TL8 x1 for/with drinking water
3. Wooden Barrel, Large, 30 gallon, TL5 x1 for/with drinking water
4. Plastic Drum, 15 gallon, TL8 x2 for/with semi-portable drinking water
5. Bottled Water x200 as portable drinking water
6. Mail Corselet x15
7. Winchester Model 92 x14
8. Colt SAA x1 + M67 fragmentation grenade, TL7 x4

The water is to Blackwire gang and the weapons/armor to militia, on the condition that their existing gear is also to be rearranged such that better trained and/or more experienced and/or more involved people get better gear and the rest get what's best of the remainder, regardless of who owned what before the rearrangement. The gear is to become the property of the user in three months from now.

Taking most of "low-tech black powder or in bad condition" as things of TL5, like Cheap Remington Rolling Block, Cheap Winchester Model 92, 12G Remington Hammer Lifters and such (and not the flintlocks, at least for most of people), Sean keeps that part as it is for the moment and makes sure to have an account of it, mainly because he plans Tariq to bring the stuff into some sensible shape when he has the time after more urgent work.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The exiles and their allies do their own thing for the rest of the day, either resting, lab work, construction, standing guard or some other task.

The day goes by smoothly, the sun goes down, and the soldiers Sean requested arrive at the base just a hour after things get dark. The troopers drive up in a humvee and are armed to the teeth, their bulky black body armor looking menacing in the night.
The newcomer Rangers simply say to Sean; “Alright, we’re here, sir. Now what?”

[u-b]

"Good evening. Have a dinner, get yourselves quartered, then I will brief you about the situation and we will discuss what we can do."

Sean Introduces the men to Waffle House personnel here at the base and asks if the whole 16 can be quartered reasonably comfortable inside the base proper. If not, he'll accept the next best thing for now, but plan to work on the matter.

When it comes to the actual briefing, in which Sean participates in person and Richard over the radio, Sean states the following:
1. They should know general situation with the mutant animals spreading through the state. We have a potential lead on the origin, but that turned out too difficult to investigate when we attempted to do it. Now we should have the men and the gear to do it, but there is one catch: it's in the Gutter and one of our men already gotten himself ill, very seriously, presumably in there. We are working on a vaccine, but will not have enough of that anytime soon, so if the men are villing to risk their lives to a viral disease to investigate a lead potentially freeing the state from the onslaught of mutalt animals, we could try to procure gas masks, face masks or what not and go do that. Sean will provide all the details on request.
2. There is a large factory on the north-west that belongs to the raiders and has recently been attacked, unsuccessfully, by some mutant guys. We do not yet know the actual foces on both sides, and how hard each side was hit, but we might try to find out and assess if we can have a better effect. Sean originally intended to leave it for later, but if they have been weakened by the attack, now could be the time.
3. There are minor and major leads that can reasonably be looted if we do not feel comfortable doing the above.
4. Sean proposes we spend the day tomorrow doing preparations and then proceed with whatever route we choose.

Then Sean listens to what the Rangers will say.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The Ranger nods, and signals to his men to settle in. They are eager to eat and drink, so they apparently ran out of food on the way over. The briefing goes smoothly. There is a large room in the base where the soldiers can set up tents and bedrolls.

The soldiers consider the issue of disease in The Gutter carefully. They may require full PPE to avoid the risk, they only have face masks, gloves and heavy clothing to avoid exposure right now. Scavenging an Old World hospital or buying from Red Brick is the most obvious way to secure a sealed suit these days. Going into The Gutter is not a big problem for the soldiers, they feel confident that they can overcome obstacles in there.

The soldiers suggest sending a light recon force up north-west to scout the region and see what’s up.

The soldiers are fine with scavenging promising sites for resources. They’ve done such things before.

Waiting a day is fine with them.

One of the Rangers comments that he’s heard the exiles are working with the Red Brick bosses and the Gunmetal elders. Is that true? Because he hears that some sort of conflict is brewing between the cities and he wants to know who is aligned with who.

[u-b]

Sean is not quite sure about full NBC suits as they might interfere with, like, everything, and be in short supply, but hey, we have a doc from Red Brick right here! So, Sean calls the doc and asks him for any and all advice he can possibly give regarding exploring the gutter and getting equipped for that. He wants to end up with a list of gear, a name of supplier of gear, a list of procedures to follow and maybe some other piece of advice as the doctor seems fit to give us.

About us working with bosses and elders... Sean says that not quite. We started way out of their league and now have our hands full several times over, so we have not been seeking further contact or employment. We have been trading a lot between Bread Basket and Gunmetal in a short timeframe, but have gotten ourselves some big sort of problems with the former, so here we are. In fact, we'd rather see the cities allied among themselves, if it can be helped. There is enough problems already without that kind of conflict. Speaking of conflict... we've had some first-hand info about the raiders using deception to get the mutants attack all sort of targets, so maybe the conflict is heated by some outside force? What is known about this potential conflict and especially its possible motivations, both real and nominal?

[Shoot Da Moon]

The doctor advises going into Red Brick, there are medical supplies for sale there. He knows a merchant who specialises in such things but warns there’s going to be a markup unless you’re connected to a mobster. He recommends avoiding contact with anything alive or organic (animals, fungus, mold, insects, etc.) in The Gutter. That goes double for any water encountered down there, as it is reported that water sources within The Gutter are tainted. Clothe yourself in thick cloth all over, no bare skin, wear safety googles over your eyes, patch up any cuts or puncture wounds good and quick, and have a cloth over your mouth and nose if you can.

One of the soldiers comments that Red Brick and Bread Basket have hated each other for a long time. Gunmetal openly distrusts any outsiders, but it seems to regard other cities with the most suspicion. The other cities resent Gunmetal despite (or because) trading the most with it. Bread Basket is not liked much by the other cities for being very secretive and insular but the other cities have to maintain food trade treaties with the city so they do not get hassled too often. Mutants have attacked cities before, but it never makes any headway or hurts them much. The cities are currently too tough to openly attack, which is why the raiders have mostly stuck to covert sabotage or attacking smaller settlements allied to the cities instead. Another soldier comments that Bread Basket has recently been cracking down on the illicit drug trade in their territory, so Red Brick gangsters are really angry with them.

[u-b]

Contacting the designated guy in Red Brick should be good, but Sean is unsure if any of ours are "connected to a mobster" - Chalmers could be, but then again this is not necessarily transitive, so Sean clarifies that part with the people present.

With the existing gear as present, how much the doc expects we'll have to pay for 16 sets of what we are missing? Sean would like to have both low and high marks to better plan his finances. Then he thanks the doc and discusses the rest only with Richard and Rangers.

Sean makes sure Richard has no objections about the plan for us to go Gutter while he's still lying ill, then proceeds to review the Rangers' roles and equipment to see what he can add to that lot.

Spoiler

Show

I propose I run Sean, Bart and militia while Volthawk runs all the Rangers. Do we have stats and gear for the Rangers? Sean might spend some time tweaking that part. I expect two troop leaders, one driver/mechanic, explosives guy and 12 riflemen, but even if it is exactly that way, would like to have some details about the people.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Half the soldiers here think Chalmers is friendly with a mob boss, the other half think he's clean of such underworld connections. They all generally assume anyone in Red Brick acting as a go-between or trade contact is mobbed-up or at least pays bribes.

The doctor says coming up with PPE for 16 people will cost a whole lot - air masks alone are between $200 and $4000 each depending on how advanced the model is. Biohazard suits are $2000 each and are worn with an air mask. He recommends having someone experienced with disease control help you put it on properly.

He comments that a decontamination sprayer for 10 people or 2 vehicles is $2000. Ideally, the exiles could get a decontamination shower or a quarantine tent, but he admits there is practically no hope of buying such big ticket equipment.

[Volthawk]

Richard...well, he's not doing well by any means, but there isn't quite the same decline as in other days, and he's able to mostly stay focused on the information he's given and think it over.

Hearing more about the politics between the cities from a neutral party worries Richard a little. After all, the exiles had just been going between them freely without considering how such matters might complicate things. That said, at the moment he figured that whole situation was in their favour - the Bread Basket VIP's plot to frame them would have less of an effect outside their valley if the other cities already distrusted each other, particularly considering the reputation the exiles had already been fostering and the good work they'd done elsewhere. If push came to shove and they had to pick a side, Richard privately shares with Sean that Gunmetal seemed the best choice - he was morally ill-disposed towards much of what Red Brick did anyway, and Bread Basket clearly had its own corruption and the VIP's influence, while Gunmetal was distrustful, sure, but they'd been able to work fairly enough with the Funny Platoon and trading with the city did a lot for the exiles. Still, he hoped it wouldn't come to that, since their current looser arrangement worked quite well for actually getting things done out in the world outside the cities. He's also in agreement that there's a good chance that tensions would be deliberately inflamed by the raiders - after all, they'd already done a lot of work giving the cities information to dismantle spy networks, and there was almost certainly more where that came from when it came to the raider's tricks.

He quite likes the idea of a recon force scouting out the factory and giving them a clearer picture of the situation up there, given that it seems to be a core part of the raiders' logistics and industry, and suggests Sean passes on the maps and other information from interrogation they'd found that might be relevant to such an operation, but at the same time leaves it up to Sean on whether he'd rather the extra manpower for the Gutter raid instead of sending some men northwards.

When it comes to the Gutter operation itself...Richard is in favour of it, but urges Sean to get as much protection as he can afford for himself and the squad. As someone who is currently suffering from one of the diseases down there, he can very much attest that is something to be avoided at all costs. It's pretty clear that this is less of a logical cost:benefit analysis of the situation and more rooted in Richard's personality and his strong desire to not see the exiles, or anyone under their command, get hurt if he can help it, though.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The exiles conclude their briefing with the troopers for the night, and settle down to rest…

DAY 84

The next morning, everyone wakes up to clear weather. The troopers have enjoyed their sleep, and they are ready to continue discussion of operations after breakfast.

Richard wakes up feeling way better than he had previously. A quick examination by the medics confirms that he has beaten the disease, now he is no longer suffering from whatever it was. He is still in pain, however, the illness did a number on his body. The doctors recommend he avoid any more dangers until he fully recovers.

(OC: disease cured, but Richard’s HP is still very low.)

[u-b]

Sean wakes up early as usual he spends some time thinking over various activities and has an overall plan ready by the time Richard wakes up. When he learns that Richard is better, he makes a minor correction to his plans. Namely, he asks Richard if he feels well enough to contact the mutant WMD guardians some time today. If so, Sean names the following he would like to have discussed:
1. Our condolences regarding the unsuccessfull operation.
2. Our desire to run a successful operation sooner or later.
3. Their thoughts on having that as a joint operation. Sean expects we should be able to accomodate just about any reasonable terms that the mutants can come up with, and throw more stuff on top, like really equipping them if they are low on gear.
4. Failing that, their thoughts on aiding our operation by providing us intel, including the one they got during the active part of their op. We can just finish what they have started or pay them for the info or something.

Having that outlined to Richard and letting him work out the details as he sees fit, Sean goes outside to chat with Blackwire contact at the base. He says he would be expecting them to...
5. Propose operations they are both willing and able to undertake, based on their understanding of their capabilities, our interests and the state of the world. Sean can clarify on his interests on a case by case basis if there are any doubts. The possibilities include, but are not limited to...
6. Selling us some their former colleagues, earning 10% of each successful hit.
7. Buying us some of their former colleagues, earning 100% of what we buy them for (negotiated piecewise) after they prove their switch.
8. Killing some mutated animals, earning $100..$500 per head accompanied by a story (including time, location and the detailks of the fight).

[Shoot Da Moon]

(OC: Sean and Richard may both have to make Reaction Rolls, no extra penalty or bonus in either case.)

[Shoot Da Moon]

Richard manages to get in touch with the mutants from before, but it seems they are in very bad shape. Indeed, they report being down to a mere handful out of their entire settlement. They are reeling, falling back as fast as they can. They are fine with joining the exiles at the radar base or somewhere else, but they can’t go back to their home right now in case the raiders are following them. They may need help with gear, as they spend a lot of ammo and medical supplies in their previous fight. They can provide plenty of intelligence from their disastrous crusade, although most who knew more than them perished.

The mutants ask Richard where they should go to meet the exiles?

Sean’s contact with Blackwire is much more cheerful.
Blackwire can gather gangs under his command and launch an offensive against an entrenched base. They are all tooled up and ready to rock.
They do not know the location of enemy raiders at the moment, but they’ll try to dig up bad guys to hunt if that’s what the exiles want.
They have not been approached by any new recruits lately. They don’t really expect any, either.
They can go and hunt hostile wildlife, they’re equipped for that.

Blackwire sounds confident in his position.

[u-b]

Sean states, in no uncertain terms, that he does NOT want Blackwire's gangs to attack any fortified or extensively staffed locations at the moment. This is mainly motivated by Sean's desire to limit the risks to the gangs. He would instead want these locations confirmed, superficially scouted and named to him, then we will decide how to proceed. Sean does not object the gangs attacking lightly staffed locations, lightly staffed convoys, etc. as long as their affiliation is positively established.

For now, Sean declares two main tasks to be:
1. Locate enemy raiders (and see above).
2. Hunt... well, not natural wildlife, even if it could be hostile, but specifically the life that has been tampered with. The goal is to make the area safer to general population. To assist doing that, Sean proposes Blackwire dedicates a receive-only radio to listen to Radar Base frequency, where Sean will make the reports of sightings and attacks relayed.

Assuming there is nothing more to discuss with Blackwire's man, Sean gets in touch with Radar Base radio men and request them to...
3. Make an announcement that the Radar Base is intersted in hearing about all mutant animal attacks and sightings, preferably, but not exclusively, in real time.
4. Repeat this information every time they get it, so that anyone listening to Radar Base frequency can hear it even if out of range of the reporting transceiver.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Blackwire confirms, he understands and will obey. His men will start patrolling around the most dangerous wilderness, looking for trouble.

The base's radiomen pass along the message to whoever they think will hear and respond.

After one hour after that, another merchant caravan arrives at the base. They're 8 people in multiple vehicles, selling fuel, firewood, good quality metal, batteries, booze, writing supplies, vehicular parts and illicit drugs.

(OC: Richard?)

[Volthawk]

Richard agrees that the mutants should head to the radar base - Richard's going to be resting up there for a while, so when the group gets nearby they can get in contact and then Richard can see what they can do about resupply and support. The situation with the Sinful Nature means that their group coming in properly may or may not be possible (as much as Richard would like that to happen), but again he'll do what he can. He asks for an estimate on how long they expect it'll take to get to the base (providing information on its position if they need it), and also for any specifics they might be able to provide on their needs, such as the type of ammunition they need (as if they're primarily using weapons other than rifles, the exiles may or may not have a sufficient stockpile, and so might have to bring some in for them), so that the people here can prepare for their arrival properly.

[u-b]

Sean spends the rest of the morning shuffling around the gear, mainly around his stock and the rangers. Each ranger gets a better basic suit of armor, some sensible limb armor (shough Sean does not have enough best gear for everyone), a new ceramic plate (that is both stronger and lighter that what they came with, but not as durable), and most of them also get better weapons, though Sean has only two underbarrel GLs, so the rest has to wait. Sean proposes the men to keep only that front ceramic plate and hand all existing plates to the officer that will train and equip more troops. This way they will have only slightly increased weight of protection even with full limb armor on. Sean expects the downside of having less protection on the back to be tolerable, especially since the plates can be used to equip more troops. He remains open to other suggestions though.

Assuming Sean eventually learns about the mutant guys coming, Sean leaves the men to familiarize themselves with the gear while he visits Waffle House personnel here and asks their opinion on hosting some mutants that seem to share with us some common enemy. Whatever their opinion, Sean goes to the traders to buy some minor stuff*. He absolutely does not want to wipe the traders clean of spare change (and they don't have enough to cover Sean's needs anyway), so he maybe buys half pistol bullets or something*.

Meanwhile, Tariq makes switches from making GLs to making some ammo to have the two men with GLs something to actually shoot.

Spoiler

Show

*The details will be filled later on. Mainly medical stuff for the mutants, but rounding up with some cash.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The mutants confirm, they will start heading over to the radar base. They have to travel about 65 miles to get there, so expect them in 5 or 6 days. They request medical attention when they arrive, as most of them are hurt, two of them are hurt badly. They'll also need replacement guns (they prefer shotguns but they know how to handle pistols) and probably ammo for it.

Sean equips the Rangers. They train for hours and familiarize themselves with the new gear.
(OC: Make a note of the gear stats in the OOC thread, Sean, just in case we need a quick reference.)

The Waffle House reps balk a little at mention of mutants. They remind Sean that mutants have attacked Waffle House in the past. They want his promise that he'll keep them on a tight leash and under guard, preferably disarmed unless necessary.

The traders are happy to have Sean as a customer. They offer some black powder paper cartridges as "small change" ($1) to help him buy stuff.
(OC: Sean, you think the traders might have ulterior motives here. They keep engaging people in small talk and gossip, but they seem to be using this as a pretext to hang around parts of the base to inspect it, needle people about their problems, and allude to the regional drug trade. Richard might do a better job of sizing them up...)

Tariq is very satisfied with his work. When he gets back to overseeing construction, he does so with a bright grin on his face.

[u-b]

Sean takes a note of Waffle House concerns. He says these mutants are not allies of those mutants, as confirmed by chats with the representatives of both groups, but yeah, we can play it safe. Sean tells Waffle House people and Richard that the mutants are to be housed outside of the perimeters until people inside of the perimeters are persuaded otherwise. With this arrangement, and not excessively arming those guys until we are satisfied, Sean says he does not expect explicit guarding to be necessary.

Dealing with the traders, Sean sells a bulk load of captured alcohol, a bulky blanket, a heavy helmet with additional cloth cap, a junky improvised pistol, two knives of various sizes, eight boxes of waterproof matches, a pair of shoes, his old broken visor which still might be some good and a set of sentry armor. He buys a pair of leather gloves, small first aid kit worth of medical supplies (expended and to be expended healing Sean and Richard), enough gasoline to top up all the vehicles, a good modern vehicular fire extinguisher and 115 pistol rounds. He becomes somewhat wary of how they may be overdoing "know your customer" part of the business, but does not bring that with them.

Having concluded the transaction, he goes to one of our local managers and asks if he can fetch an off-duty scout. Whether he can or cannot, Sean brings up the topic of infromation gathering by visitors to the base. While Sean thinks nothing is to be done at the moment to prevent it on top of what we already do (we separate the perimeters of base proper and the add-on, limiting all visitors to add-on only), he suggests we do some info gathering too, to which effect he'd like to have the traders tracked when they leave the base and for some amount of time, if our scouts can say they can do that.

Spoiler

Show

Which group of thaders seems to be suspicious, that one or this one?

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean’s orders are understood. They’ll cross the bridge when it comes to them.

The traders exchange the goods. They warn Sean that fuel may be harder to come by in the next few weeks, as Gunmetal City is slowing down the petrol and ethanol trade.

Sean can get an off-duty scout to report in. The guardsman opines that these traders may be agents of Red Brick City, probably trying to do some manoeuvring in the regional drug trade. The guards organise the visitors and merchants around the base. The scout agrees to try spying on the shady merchants, he’s apparently dealt with gangsters and drug runners before.

(OC: the latter group of merchants are suspicious, the ones selling firewood and illicit drugs.)

[u-b]

As for drug trade... Sean is not against the trade as such, even though he knows Richard has a more solid opinion, but he certainly does not want to run a town full of druggies. So, hmm... how about we assemble a thin stack of proposals about how things are to be done here and let people decide? Sean's minimal proposal on this particular topic would be, essentially:
1. Trade not restricted.
2. Use punishable by expulsion.

The details are to be filled in. He does not necessarily expect this proposal to win the vote against stronger proposals, but would advise against weaker proposals if any would be brought to vote.

Anyway, he does not intend to resolve this matter today, so leaves it as is at the moment. He then goes to call Chalmers over the radio to ask if he has found anyone in Red Brick who would like to be in any way involved in Sean's action against mutant animals and the source of them. He says so far no one seems to have arrived, but maybe they are still in the city? Sean says he might be willing to meet them, say, in an hour or so?

Whatever the answer, he takes two cars (one Humvee and one Pickup Truck), some company (the officer of the militia and two men he designates, preferably ones having or willing to get a Red Mark, the Rangers' driver, Bart, two dogs) and some valuable loot, then leaves for Red Brick to meet either the person designated by the doc or those named by Chalmers.

Spoiler

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You remember the distance from the base to Red Brick, and then the distance from Red Brick to Gunmetal?

I have Radar Base to Red Brick marked as 22 miles and Radar Base to Gunmetal marked as 90 miles, but no exact distance between Gunmetal and Red Brick.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The merchants grumble a little but agree to Sean's terms.
One of them makes a snide comment that punishing drug use will make people leave the base to get high.

Chalmers responds that recruiting gunmen in Red Brick is tricky. "The odds are good but the goods are odd." Plenty of mercenaries are available but he is not sure if he can trust any of them. He can try sending out the word, but he advises Sean to take a careful look at them before hiring them on. Sean can come to a bar he knows to meet him and discuss the matter further.

Sean is accompanied on his trip by reliable allies who know about about the city.

(OC: record the fuel used, and then make a Driving and Navigation roll, Sean. It's getting a little late by now, for a -2 Darkness penalty. I think your Colorblindness might factor in, too.)

Spoiler

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I have Radar Base to Red Brick marked as 22 miles and Radar Base to Gunmetal marked as 90 miles, but no exact distance between Gunmetal and Red Brick.

(OC: Okay, the distance between Gunmetal and Red Brick is 68 miles then.)