Granny and Pops - Moonshine in the Ozark Mountains

Captain Andy Donovan had received some hard information as to the whereabouts of a Moonshine Still in the Ozark Mountains, he has a crack team of Revenue men and women at his command and they were in position early one summers morning determined to destroy the still and take down the Moonshiners.

The birds had just started to sing, the sun was rising over the mountains, it’s going to be a bad day for some hooch makers he chuckled quietly to himself.

The teams have already been briefed, we are not expecting much opposition, the still is operated by an old couple, known locally as Pops and Granny, helped by their 3 grand daughters. Some times there are a few bikers hanging around, chasing after the girls we think, but they are not expected to be here today.

Text relating to a photo is below it.

A small dirt farm in the Ozark Mountains, a few sheep, goats and a couple of pigs.

It would be subsistence except for the field of cannabis plants and the moonshine whiskey still.

Encounter markers are the green pennies. I posted this on the LAF Dec 2016 so hopefully you have not read it but if you did this may save you having a strange feeling of dejavu.

The Cannabis Plants, in disguise - I know they look very much like last years Christmas decorations.

There is the Still up ahead by the cabin. – to you it might look like a leaky cauldron on an open fire, but in my games you have to use your imagination, - can you see the still now?

Turn 1 - the team led by Elvis, (yes he has left the building) move down the far side of the road towards the square cabin and the still. Turn 2 they continue through the field, checking out the 1st encounter marker on the way which turns out to just be the wind moving the crops around.

The main team of 4 agents led by Captain Andy Donovan (in the trench coat) moves up the road heading for the red pickup truck. Mad Dog Maguire is just passing the marker stone for Bess, Pops old wolfhound.

The 3rd team led by Field Agent Samantha Price (on the left) climbs over the fence and into the cannabis field. Humm smell that weed. – note the encounter marker just ahead.

Not a good shot but it shows the character cards I am using, because I’m soloing these games, any decision I have to make can be guided by the attributes, rolling on a D6 and getting below the characteristic, except affinity, which I will describe later.

Moving through the cannabis, the team come across Tank, a biker tending the crops, or maybe testing the crops – who knows.

Samantha, reacts 1st and rushes Tank before he can get to his gun, the ensuing fight is inconclusive, but then Jennifer Ryan joins in, Tank knocks Sam down but then Jennifer does the same to Tank.

In the mean time Andy Donovan is searching the red pick up and finds nothing there, the other team who are unlucky enough to have Elvis leading them is bogged down in the field off on the right.

You can see the Still much clearer in this picture, humm it is a leaky cauldron.

Andy Donovan rushes round the cabin on the left with Alexandria Lorne following closely. Eric Yonthorn and his sidekick Mad Dog Maguire, can be seen going over to destroy the still. Just then Daisy May (one of the granddaughters) comes out of the cabin behind it.

A better shot. - Eric shouts “hands up – we are the law”, (Been reading too many Judge Dredd comics) Daisy has her gun slung on her back and passes her brains test and fails her guts test, so does as they say, raising her hands high.

Andy Donovan bursts into the log cabin, followed by Alexandria Lorne, there are 3 Bikers in the cabin – Fat Willie and Eight Ball are both asleep, but Big Dave is not. Don’t know who is more surprised, the Revenue men who were expecting maybe a couple of old folk and some girls or the Bikers who were expecting breakfast in bed.

Big Dave, reacts fastest and gets to his gun, boom boom, 2 shots - one at each of the Revenue persons, misses them both but they jump back out of the cabin faster than they went in.

Dave is using a double barrelled shotgun and is now out of ammo and needs to reload. He starts to shake with the adrenalin, it’s going to take him 2 active moves to reload.

Meanwhile Tank has been handcuffed. Straight to jail (do not collect £200) unless he gets rescued.

The shotgun blasts alert all the Moonshiners, this shot shows the rest of the characters activated by the noise, in the background Jack Handsome asleep in the brown truck, Betsie May in the outhouse and Billy the Wolfhound (son of Bess whose grave you saw earlier) is just over the log wall behind Andy and Alexandria.

Samantha and Raymond move up to the back window of the shack and peer in. Eight Ball notices the shadow across the window and swings round and fires with his Thompson and completely misses, Sams nerve holds and she puts a bullet in the middle of his chest and he falls to the ground groaning.

Betsie May looks out of the outhouse her feet are just in camera on the left, she wants to shoot Alexandria in the back, but fails the affinity (bad deed test) so shouts throw your guns down or I will kill you. Alex throws her gun down but Andy Donovan swings round and they both fire together Betsie misses and Andy does not, she drops to the floor and doesn’t move again.

Moonshiners 0 – Revenue men 4.

Billy the dog reacts now and he jumps the wall attacking Andy knocking him down. Alex picks up her gun.

Jack Handsome in the truck does nothing, (failed activation) too much whiskey last night I guess.

The final character to activate due to the shooting is Ellie May (in the distance on the road), she sees Daisy May with her hands up and calmly walks down the road and shoots Eric. Mad Dog Maguire goes “Mad” and fires both pistols at Ellie and misses, she jumps over the fence into cover. No one is watching Daisy so she pulls her gun and shoots Mad Dog - just a flesh wound, but puts him out of action for 1 turn.

Seeing this exchange of fire the guys in the field open up on poor Daisy, she also takes a flesh wound.

Ellie fires her 2nd shotgun barrel at Mad Dog and he drops like a stone, Elvis and crew don’t like the look of these 2 girls and retreat back to the wall. Which is good because I don’t like to see them walking on top of the crops!

Jack Handsom in the truck shouts at Alex drop your gun but she thinks bugger this and fires at him, unfortunately for her he was ready for this and fires first but misses, her return shot goes wide and he then fires back and again misses but her nerve goes and she ducks back behind the cabin.

Billy the dog tears Andys throat out and he dies. Jennifer is still at the window and shoots Fat Willie, hitting him twice and he dies. Big Dave is still cowering in the corner of the cabin and has not finished loading his shotgun. Jennifer Ryan move to the edge of the field with her prisoner to see what is going on.

It’s all starting to get a little confusing.

There is a sudden silence, (almost everyone failed their activation tests) Not Alex though she peers round the edge of the cabin. Billy the dog sees her, she shoots him, there is a deafening “CLICK” out of ammo.

She dies.

Jennifer sees Alex go down retires with her prisoner, (wrong pay grade for this kind of ruckus) but Raymond hearing the screams looks round the cabin. Billy sees him and attacks but is beaten back.

Jack Handsome enters the cabin, sees Samantha in the window, they both fire together, she misses, he misses with one pistol and runs out of ammo with the other, they both lose their nerve and duck back.

Ray knocks Billy the dog to the ground and Samantha runs up and shoots the brave dog. Come on lets pull back she shouts, we need more back up, more guns, and bigger guns as well.

The final action of the day. Big Dave has finally got his gun loaded and moves to the window just as Sam and Ray enter the field he lets them have both barrels (will he never learn) misses both of them and ducks back when Sam returns fire.

Game Over

Moonshiners 4 Revenue Men 3 and 1 dog. Plus 1 prisoner.

The Moonshiners, minus granny and Pops and Billy the dog who was fetching a bone – whose bone no one knows.

The Revenue Men

When the gunfire started I checked each encounter marker for the characters to react. Once the characters are revealed I then replaced the encounter markers that are not activated such as the store of whiskey and the clucking hens and reshuffle those cards back in the deck so that certain objectives still have to be discovered and I don’t know where they are.

I had 13 encounters planned, but there are 16 cards so 3 blind ones. This is so that even though I know what all the encounters are. I don’t know which one is which and I don’t know which ones will finally turn up. It keeps me in suspense.

This can skew the game, in this case 2 of the last 3 cards that were not turned over were Pops and Granny and as they are the 2 best characters on the Moonshine side it looked like it was going to be a bit of a white wash.

Well done Billy the dog.

The next morning the Revenue men were back in force, they brought the local police force, State Troopers and the National Guard, the FBI sent a representative and the Governors Office had one of their men sit in as well.

Granny and Pops were waiting with their lawyer J. Noble Daggett and a quiet looking lady no one knew. There was a sweet sickly smell in the air, those that knew realised it was cannabis but smell ain’t court room facts. The field of cannabis was gone, bits of burnt vegetation could be seen, but the ground was newly ploughed. Pops worked all through the night to get this done by daybreak.

The Still and all the whiskey was missing as well, so too are Daisy May, Betsie May, and Ellie May. No one knows where the Still and whiskey are, or at least they are not telling. Betsie was not killed by that fiend Andy Donovan but badly hurt and along with Daisy is in hospital with their sister Ellie standing guard.

Who’s in charge here shouts Lawyer Daggett, I’ve got some suing to do and we might as well start at the top. It all goes quiet.

No warrant was shown, no ID, no warning apart from some clown imitating Judge Dredd, you are in a lot of trouble here. It goes even quieter. Two young girls shot to ribbons, they don’t have no parents, just being looked after by this old couple, Grandparents who are old enough to be drawing their pensions.

Let me introduce Miss Gemmima Smith – she works for the Washington Post and is very interested in this story.

At this point the FBI, National Guard and State Troopers all started to drift away. It didn’t end well for the Revenue Men – but no one likes them anyway.

If you are still here - thanks for reading and any comments and thoughts are warmly received.

Cheers