Snapcase and the Road to Snoring Moor

The Road to Snoring Moor

You may remember, or if your memory is like mine you may not remember or heaven forbid you may be in total ignorance of Sir Verney Snapcase’s famous exploits. In his last adventure he had volunteered to guard the lives of Pearl de Ville, and Molly Bright, the landlady and barmaid of the Dog and Sprocket Tavern in Little Snoring.

This task had gone well for Snapcase but not so well for one of his two men. Titus Fleming had survived the encounter but not so Edmund Mansfield, who was struck down by a Werewolf. He is, even now, lying in the small hovel that the Widow Tuppence’s calls home. Tuppence sleeps on the floor with her sour faced daughter Martha, because Mansfield occupies the only bed in the hovel.

Conditions are cramped but in spite of Martha’s constant whingeing, the Widow Tuppence is happy, Snapcase has given her a whole thruppence, with the promise of another to come, but only if Mansfield survives.

If you don’t remember the werewolf, the rest will be an even deeper mystery, but Snapcase in an effort to get a long term, free supply of Old Buggers Bitter and Black Pony Ale has agreed to rid Little Snoring of the horror that plagues the village. However to do this he must journey up onto Snoring Moor, specifically to the clearing in the old oak woodland that contains the Bloody Barrow.

The Bloody Barrow stands inside a stone circle surrounded by the remnants of the woodland; these trees are blasted and twisted by some malevolent force. A force so strong, that the trees lean in towards the Barrow as if pulled by an unseen hand.

Listlessly reviewing his options in the Snug of the Dog and Sprocket, they don’t look too promising. His man Titus Fleming is still fit for duty, using the term rather loosely; Samuel Gerard has recovered sufficiently from his previous wounds to be able to join them. Best of all Molly Bright the barmaid has agreed to guide them to the Bloody Barrow. However four is a very small number to ensure success and more importantly Snapcase’s survival; he prefers better odds than that.

He’s also concerned about the supernatural element of his task, the Werewolf had been killed with a mortuary sword but the Red Woman was only driven off by pure luck and Snapcase was not a man to rely on luck to stay alive. So he was somewhat relieved when the door of the Snug was thrown open revealing three hard bitten characters, two of whom he knew personally. Hellfire Demfore strode into the room, as always clutching his well thumbed bible in one hand and a tankard of ale in the other. He was followed by Brigstock Jenkins, a dangerous cutthroat sometimes known as ‘The Vagabond’ and with them was a dark skinned woman that Snapcase recognised immediately. She was the infamous Annie Duck.

(Unfortunately Ann was born about 100 years after this tale but her life of crime makes a good read, not many women are hanged at 27 for crimes of violent robbery usually against men).

The stories about Annie were legend, many of them created deliberately to frighten her victims so they wouldn’t testify against her in court. One such story was that she could gaze into your eyes and inflict visions of hell and damnation, that’s when you’d lose consciousness, sometimes never to regain it. Of course myth is one thing, reality is another and the reality is that she blew powdered hashish into the victim’s eyes and nose, visions ensued and then a very deep sleep. Sometimes you even awoke.

Fanciful tales or not she would be a powerful ally against some of the mysterious creatures who were said to inhabit Snoring Moor and Snapcase was keen to enlist her aid.

The next morning Snapcase was up early, he rounded up his band of miscreants but couldn’t find his man Titus Fleming. Fleming was eventually discovered in the bed of the Widow Tuppence, indeed he was with the Widow Tuppence. Poor Mansfield had been turned out on to the floor next to sour faced Martha, he was weak but still alive. Words were said, harsh words, and then the party set off for Snoring Moor.

Molly Bright or Red Molly as she was sometimes known, led the way forward. Annie Duck and Tom the Tavern Boy followed. Tom had a most important role, he was leading the Black Pony and on the cart behind the Black Pony was a barrel of…yep, Black Pony Ale. Sir Verney and the Vagabond ensured that the Ale stayed on the cart and Hellfire Demfore followed to make sure the barrel didn’t leak. Titus led the pack horse with the rest of the supplies and Sam Gerard brought up the rear.

Even here, on the very edge of the moor, the trees were twisted and dead, the land was desolate and they encountered no one.

With all the supplies they’d taken you may be wondering how long they expected to be journeying to get to the Bloody Barrow. Well it’s only about 5 miles but the road runs out after a couple of them and the rest of the way is over rough ground. Snapcase erring on the side of caution had taken food to last 3 days and Ale to last 7, better to be safe than sorry was his motto.

Well one of his mottos.

In the distance you can see that the road becomes no more than a peddlers track and the going will get slower.

That’s when they first heard the howling. An unnatural sound, like the wind keening in the trees on a cold winter’s eve with the frost so hard it burned your throat. Red Molly whispered “The Barguest”.

“Ehh, speak up lass, what did you say” asked The Vagabond.

“The Black Dog, The Barguest” Molly whispered again.

“Dogs!…..Dogs!….you say” Sir Verney queried, “we aren’t afraid of dogs, black ones, white ones or any other colour, blast their eyes”.

“Look, there’s only 2 of them, just shout ‘cushtie’ and keep walking, it works with my cattle, they’ll just run off” he continued.

As they drew closer he re-thought his strategy. They were a bit on the big side these Barguest’s

“They might not understand ‘cushtie’, it’s a Scottish term, just shoot them, that should do the trick”. Snapcase said reassuringly to Red Molly

As the first one ran towards her Molly fired her pistol, and…..missed. This was to be a bit of a re-occurring theme throughout this encounter.

At the same time, Sam Gerard ran forward but he couldn’t get there before the Barguest attacked Molly.

She fights with all her might but armed only with the unloaded pistol she’s no match for the Black Dog and is driven back, suffering minor injuries on the way. The Barguest is able to lock its teeth around her forearm and proceeds to shake her violently.

Sam Gerard finally came to her aid stabbing at the hound with his sword. The Barguest let go of Molly’s arm and attacked Sam, who now thought he might have been a little hasty. He suffers bite wounds and backs away from the Black Dog.

Annie reacts next and fires her pistol at the Hound but also misses; she then fires her second pistol and misses again. Bugger! She’s a good shot but the stress of the situation is affecting her composure. I imagine having a 5ft tall, black hound, with it’s slobbering jaw’s only inches away from your face might have that effect on most of us.

The other hound rushes forward and attacks poor Sam Gerard, the fight is brutal, and both Sam and the hound are wounded in the encounter.

The fighting becomes confused, Hellfire Demfore rushes forward to help Sam, Hellfire slashes at the hound and draws blood, but then the hound bites him, they both howl in pain.

‘The Vagabond’ fires a pistol at the other hound and…..misses.

Red Molly fires her second or third pistol at a hound and misses. I did say the fighting was confused, even more so for the narrator.

Snapcase wishes he had a pistol but he doesn’t, so with the Snapcase family war cry of “OOH ERRR” he charges straight at the nearest hound.

Actually I don’t think that is the authentic war cry but it sounds very similar.

It’s effective though because the Barguest is hurt badly and then when Annie Duck wades into the fight to help him, they manage to kill the creature.

One down, one to go.

Hellfire Demfore and Sam together manage to inflict sufficient damage on the remaining Barguest so that it too falls to the ground, dead.

Sir Verney’s party heave a collective sigh of relief at this and think happy thoughts.

The relief is short lived though, because from the same direction that the Barguests came, they hear more howling. This is higher pitched, longer and louder so when a pack of wolves arrive, they’re not too surprised. The wolves have been attracted by the noise of fighting and the smell of blood, they’re loping towards them with malicious intent.

It’s a large, if poorly painted, pack of 7 animals and they increase their pace as they close the gap between themselves and their source of protein.

Red Molly was badly hurt in the fight with the Barguests and so she steps back to avoid another hand to teeth conflict, loading her pistol with consummate skill and dexterity as she does so.

“To me men” shouts Snapcase and he steps forward to form the centre of a defensive line, Annie Duck stands firm on his right with Sam Gerard on his left. I’m not sure if this was so Sir Verney could provide morale support to his men or because it was the safest place for him to be. Hellfire and Brigstock take the dangerous position on the flanks of the line and prepare to sell their lives dearly. I’ve done the 2/6 joke before so won’t do it again, even though it makes me smile.

Hellfire Demfore was pulled to the ground by an enormous grey wolf, he’d also suffered damage from the fight with the Barguest and this was just too much. Next down was Sam, the cumulative damage had him on his knees and then on the ground.

Sir Verney and Annie cut at their opponents but couldn’t make the killing blow.

The Vagabond levelled his pistol and fired. Unsurprisingly, he missed but did have the satisfaction of seeing his target stop in its tracks. Growling dangerously the wolf halted, which was a relief because The Vagabond had fired all his pistol’s, he drew his knife and waited for the onslaught.

This was not long in coming, the wolves that had taken injuries retired but their places were quickly taken by the rest of the pack. Red Molly was able to fire her 2 loaded pistols, one miss but one hit, things are improving.

At the back of the convoy Titus Fleming has finally managed to tie the pack horses bridle to the wagon, this will enable him to join the fight, which I suppose might be the reason it took so long in the first place.

The hand to fang fight continues.

Brigstock Jenkins, The Vagabond is down but Titus has now joined the line of desperate fighters. Even young Tom had picked up Hellfire Demfore’s sword and swinging it wildly steps into the fight. Annie Duck is on her last legs having taken another wound from the fangs of a wolf.

It was a desperate fight, Tom and Snapcase each killed a wolf, but Snapcase was badly bitten in this exchange. Titus also kills one before turning to aid Annie Duck, together they drive off the wolf that’s been getting the better of her.

The remaining wolves retire from the fight, leaving just one of their number still savaging Sir Verney.

But with young Tom’s help, Sir Verney finally sends it packing and it slinks away to join the rest of it's kin.

The pack howl in frustration, as Snapcase and his men howl back…..insults not just howls, that would be too much even for them. Annie and Red Molly sensibly start to reload their pistols.

Then the wolves fail their Guts test and retire, looking for easier prey.

Well that didn't go as easily as I thought it might, so much for random encounters.

Left to right, Sam Gerard, Hellfire Demfore and Brigstock Jenkins ‘The Vagabond’ are too badly hurt to continue and have to remain behind to recuperate, or possibly die.

Sir Verney Snapcase as an act of benevolence leaves young Tom to look after them.

Having seen how the track becomes a narrow path he has to make the heart rending decision to leave the Black Pony Ale wagon behind.

Consoling himself with the thought that the Barrow is only 2 or 3 miles further on and the wounded men can’t drink that fast, and so there should be some ale left when he returns, Sir Verney leads the remnants of his party onto the wastes of Snoring Moor.

Red Molly, Titus Fleming and Annie Duck follow him, wondering what else the road ahead holds in store and how many of them will return to see Little Snoring again.

Next in what should be a three part adventure will be "Snapcase on Snoring Moor". The boards are small, two foot squareish and I'm using a deck of cards - Jack, Queen, King and Ace are encounters and the party moves 6" per turn unless engaged in an encounter. So if nothing is encountered in 4 turns the game is a non event but in this case because they were delayed by the Barguest the wolves also arrived, fortunately not at the same time.

I’m using a very simple tracker for health, although when I tried to explain it here, I realized it was a bit more complicated than I thought. Characters have a level of health or constitution and in a fight this is reduced by damage until they are out of the fight. Then after the game they can get better, stay the same or get worse and die on the roll of a die. A bit like life itself.

Cheers

Yuma Proving Ground Game 4 - AAR

Game 4 Suffield

It’s been a long time in the writing but I finally got Part 2 of the Suffield Raid completed. The Background is the previous post.

Cheers

I’ve already introduced Donovan’s team and in spite of what the Mad Lord said, Donovan’s just had a run of bad luck in the actions he’s taken part in, hopefully this one will break his duck.

His briefing is short and sweet. “We don’t have permission to be here, the Canadians don’t know we’re here and we need to keep it that way”. “I’ve no idea what we’ll find, I’m hoping it’ll just be the couple who caretake the wild life sanctuary but if our recent experience is anything to go on, that’s unlikely”.

Gabrielle and Roxanne were wondering if they should re-negotiate their contract with Freddie but he didn’t look in the mood so they let it slide.

“What about the guns” asked Gabrielle? “Don’t use your weapons unless it’s essential” Donovan commanded, “I don’t want to be involved in an international incident with the Canuks, you know how tetchy they can get”.

“This is the only photo we have of the site, satellite images are greyed out on Google Earth and because we’re below the radar I can’t get anything official” he continued. “It’s an old promo shot, the tyre barricade is from the time of the demo’s against them taking the land to form the sanctuary but this is the way we’re going in” and he pointed at an indistinct track on the photo.

“The objective is the cabin in the centre”. “All we have to do is get Liam and Billy into contact for them to conduct the interview and take a few photos and we then can get out - quietly”. “Any questions”? Liam shook his head, Billy had a sip from his hip flask and the rest just looked bored.

“OK let’s go”.

For this scenario I’ve got 13 counters or Possible Enemy Forces – PEF’s on the board, placed in a ring around the cabin but not on the entry track. Each turn they will make a D6” move in a random direction. When they come in sight of the team they will be resolved. The Spade suit from a deck of cards is shuffled and 1 card turned over for each counter, 10, J, Q, K and Ace represent a specific contact and the rest are nothing. Once any loud noise is made, specifically shots then the counters will all move towards that sound but still at a random speed. Counters don’t resolve counters only the team does that. Each contact generates a random number of enemy or friendly individuals.

I’m using my own activation sequence but still sticking with the ZA number of combat actions, 2 each as all the team are Hard and it’s a level 2ish threat scenario.

Gabrielle makes a move forward and spots the first Possible Enemy Force – PEF.

It’s a small bunch of ghoulish looking creatures, who all decide to charge forward, some faster than others. The team are sharp and all conveniently ignore Donovan’s instructions about using their weapons, including Donovan and they all open fire. This is pretty effective and some of the Ghouls go down under a hail of lead and buckshot.

Billy snaps away happily with his camera and thinks about Press Photographer of the Year Awards, the whisky he’s sipping is obviously having a calming influence on him.

Two Ghouls made it into contact but were swiftly despatched by Donovan and Gabrielle and then the team see the next PEF, behind the recently dead Ghouls….in cover behind the rocks. It’s the army!

Roxanne didn’t have a line of sight to the Ghouls and has moved to cover behind the tyres; she’s obviously taking the Snapcase defensive/attack gambit.

There’s another PEF that’s moved behind her but as I don’t agree with 360’ vision she doesn’t see it and failed her awareness test, so isn’t aware of it either. Fortunately it turned out to be nothing, just a breeze passing through the trees or she would have been in serious trouble.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. What to do next. There’s a small army patrol, just 2 of them, they must have been tracking the Ghouls and waiting for the right opportunity to - ‘take them out’ - is I think current parlance.

Most of my games are solo and at some point there are decisions to be made by both sides and I try and make these decisions impartially so every figure has a stats card. If you’re not interested skip the next bit.

For every decision apart from shoot, brawl, attack, or defend the number shown represent the target number. To pass then they need to roll equal to or less than that number, on a D6 or sometimes 2D6.

In this case the army patrol won the initiative, what would they do. Pass 2D6 - shout “weapons down hands up”, pass 1 D6 – ‘dither’, pass 0 D6 – ‘Start shooting’. The patrol leader rolled both dice and they are under his Brains number and so he agreed with me that the sensible thing to do was shout “weapons down, hands up”.

Donovan doesn’t want a shoot out with the Canadian army so their options are a - comply, b - ambivalent, wait and see, c - don’t comply.

Donovan wants to comply; he can see the implications of any other action. Big Freddie is ambivalent about the order, but Liam tells the troopers to “F off, I’m the Press, you can’t take that line with me”. Billy Diamond agrees with Freddie and starts taking pictures.

OK, we have an impasse so Liam now has a choice, and the most sensible thing to do is to pull out his Press Pass and walk over to the Troopers and try and bluff his way out of the situation (that would be an opposed Brains roll with the trooper to see if he could pull it off).

However first things first, Liam has Brains 5, rolls 2D6, 5’s or less and that’s what he’ll do. He rolled double 6 so he’s going to do something really, really stupid. Instead of the Press Pass he pulls his gun and fires, missing with a critical, whoops he’s dropped his gun and it went off; at least that’s what it will say in Donovan’s report.

Then the sh*t hit the fan and everyone went for the shot.

OK back to the story, sorry.

Dan Barry the lead trooper fired first and hit Gabrielle, she goes down, Roxanne missed her shot and then the other trooper Stephanie Kowalski fired and shot Billy the camera man, he’s down then she shot Freddie as well. Bugger! That’s half the team down and we haven’t started yet.

Donovan fired last, boosh he hits Kowalski and then Barry, both down and bleeding bad. This isn’t the place to get a quick ride on an ambulance, especially if no one is going to call it for you. Things look bleak for the Army.

Freddie and Gabrielle apply medipacks to themselves, who needs a 911 call when you have these life savers.

Donovan moves quickly to apply his medipack to Billy as Freddie and Gabrielle start to recover.

Roxanne has taken things into her own hands and moved quickly to the cabin door, she tries the handle but it’s locked and she can’t open it. 5 of the PEF’s are resolved in the same turn, 2 are just someone’s imagination but 3 are someone else’s reality.

A Grizzly Bear emerges out from the thick woodland and glares malevolently at Liam but doesn’t immediately charge in his direction.

A group of Zombies appear and move towards Roxanne but behind them…..

Are a group of looting Scum and they have the edge on the Zombies so open fire.

The fire is pretty effective and Zombies start dropping like cherry blossom in April. This has a galvanising effect on Roxanne.

She starts kicking the door trying to get in but as she isn’t a heavyweight she doesn’t cause enough damage to achieve this immediately. the Looting scum meanwhile have killed all the Zombies and are starting to move towards her.

This is going to get real ugly, real soon.

The Grizzly finally makes its mind up and charges at Donovan’s group. Big Freddie sees is coming and stands his ground. Well he is Big Freddie, what the hell do you think he’d do…..run away!!

The Grizzly fails his attack and Freddie hits twice in defence killing the bear.

I don’t really understand armour in the rules, Dog is 2 Zombie 6, Ghoul 4 Human 1 I gave the bear 5, anyway he failed it twice and died.

Just a bit of an overview, the looting scum have killed all the zombies and are almost certain to move towards Roxanne and the cabin. Donovan, Freddie and Gabrielle have taken up a position behind the log wall in support of her and are shouting encouraging things like “Kick harder” “Kick faster” you know the sort of thing.

On the far side of the cabin you can probably see a small mound of PEF markers and the other thing of note is that she’s finally taken their advice and kicked in the cabin door.

And discovers that the old couple caretaking the reserve, have both succumbed to the virus, they are now Zombies and are waiting with bared teeth for their next meal to come knocking at their front door.

Don’t ask why a pair of Zombies was trapped inside a locked cabin. I didn’t know they were zombies until the door was kicked in. 1,2 they are zombies 3,4,5 and 6 they are two caretakers waiting to be rescued and interviewed. I rolled a 2!

They attacked Roxanne and she manfully fought them off.

Activation sequence for the next turn was critical; Roxanne and Donovan were equal 1st, then Scum, then Billy Diamond then Zombies.

Roxanne and Donovan ran away, as fast as they could, which was a bit of a relief; I didn’t want Roxanne as the meat in the Scum and Zombie sandwich.

The Scum hate Zombies and attacked the 2 in the log cabin. They killed one but lost one scum doing it. Not to be deterred, the Scum carried on the fight.

And one of the Scum and the final Zombie both killed each other, so that would be a loosing draw I guess.

Billy Diamond is still taking photos of the Ghouls as Roxanne runs past him.

Donovan leads the retreat from the wall. Big Freddie eyes up the dead bear, thinking about rugs and fireplaces but mentally shrugs, no one would believe he wrestled a Grizzley and won.

Anyway, the peppering of 9mm bullet holes might be a bit of a give away, they’re a bit big for moth holes.

Well that was it, the team made it out of the vicinity of the Suffield Exclusion Zone and back across the border into the U.S. and down to Arizona.

Ok so Donovan has led another unsuccessful raid into an exclusion zone but they all got back alive so that’s some consolation. They also have Billy Diamond’s photos of the Ghouls to show for it but none of the Zombies. A small measure of success – maybe? Of course they are no closer to finding out what the hell is going on, what caused the zones to be created only some speculation and that’s not sufficient to go public with the story yet.

Will the Canadian army discover their missing patrol; possibly, unless they’ve been eaten by the inhabitants of the zone first. Anyway I imagine the Scum will get the blame for killing them, so that’s going to let Donovan off the hook.

The Scum are left licking their wounds and wondering when they will be called on to take the part of “The Scum” again, probably in the next excursion into an Exclusion Zone coming to a cinema near you soon.

Cheers

Yuma Proving Ground Game 4 Background

This is a continuation of my Zona Alpha Campaign, the last post was back in January 24 Last Post

Game 4 Canada - Background

There have always been strong rumours that the first exclusion zone was created in Canada, indeed I even came across someone who claimed to have worked there. CFB Suffield is very similar in many ways to the Yuma Proving Ground, ostensibly it’s an Army Training Facility occupying a huge area of land, approximately 1,000 sq miles, but it had many other more clandestine departments within its secure perimeter fencing.

CFB Suffield is in the South East corner of Alberta, just north of Medicine Hat, conveniently missing from the map, as are many other details, and it's a greyed out area on Google Earth. This might give you pause for thought.

The following information is lifted from Wikipedia.

Following the fall of France in WWll the British Army required a new training facility for carrying out experiments in chemical warfare to replace the one it previously used in French Algeria. In 1941, the Canadian Federal government purchasing the land and Experimental Station Suffield commenced operations on June 11, 1941.

In 1947 the Canadian Army turned the operation of Experimental Station Suffield over to the Defence Research Board, and in 1967 it was renamed the Defence Research Establishment Suffield. The DEDC is an agency of the Canadian Department of National Defence and is made up of eight research laboratories, one of which is Suffield, the leading laboratory for chemical and biological defence research.

What Wikipedia fails to mention is that in 1975 there was an explosion in the Central Laboratory (B-1) which apparently was a Recognized Federal Heritage Building, mainly because of its historical associations; presumably with Chemical and Biological warfare! The explosion breached the outer walls and certain experiments “escaped”. In the early 80’s the military pulled back from the central facility because it could no longer control the “Situation” but there is very little information as to what the “Situation” actually was.

1st Yorkshire Regiment Battle Group in Suffield 2014 just before returning home. Some of the chaps were not available to meet their families on their return home and indeed some of them have not been seen since returning home.

Much of the land was still in use by the British Army as their largest armoured training facility; it was particularly used for live-firing and tactical effect simulation. In the 90’s that included tactical nuclear munitions firing and evaluation. When the situation in the central facility deteriorated in 2014, the British went home and the Canadian Army moved outside the wire and strong patrols were conducted to ensure the “Situation” didn’t deteriorate any further. Of course patrolling a perimeter of 1,000 sq miles is a considerable undertaking and was not as successful as had been expected by the Politicians. It was about this time that the effects of residual radiation from the nuclear munitions reacted with a number of the escaped experiments, a devils brew you might think.

As with the Yuma “Situation” the reasons for the Exclusion Zone are clouded in mystery. There’s obviously some Government involvement, something they don’t want the public to know about and it’s getting worse. Some catastrophe, incompetence, illegal or fraudulent use, or maybe just plain stupidity, there are many more reasons our Government’s would want to keep us in the dark about their doings, none of them honest.

These are the Vagabonds, a likeable bunch of hooligans, if you like that sort of thing.

As you are aware, there has been some sort of incident quite recently at the Yuma Proving Ground. This aroused the interest of reporter Katie Monk of the Global Tribune. Her editor Joe Diamond authorised an interview with the Vagabonds a Yuma Biker Gang, to see if there was any connection between the YPD incident and the expedition she and Liam O’Rorke made into the Mojave in 2018.

She thought there was, because when sober the Vagabonds had talked of Zombies attacking them as they had rescued Alice. Of course drug and alcohol fuelled biker’s don’t make the most reliable witnesses and who the heck is Alice, so Katie needed to corroborate their story.

She had imparted information to Captain Andy Donovan, the man in charge of security along a huge boundary fence around the YPG, information so interesting that he had allowed her to accompany him on a reconnaissance into the outer part of the exclusion zone around the facility. They had encountered Zombies and some form of Ghoulish creatures, but because they had to beat a hasty retreat there was no evidence that could prove their account of events to be true.

The only thing to be done was to revisit the scene of the 2018 expedition into the Mojave, which back then, also had a less than satisfactory outcome. The news crew and bodyguards only just made it out of the area alive. They had encountered numerous unexplained creatures and anomalies but in spite of having video and DSLR cameramen with them they had not been able to bring any of this information out at the time.

If you read the last chapter you will know that the current foray into the Mojave was much more successful than last time and Katie had recovered all the evidence collected and stashed during their previous escapade. This is now on its way to the Texas Wichita Energy and Research Program Society, a shadowy organisation that has facility to decontaminate most things…..given time. We must hope it arrives to be decontaminated! Unfortunately for Katie neither of the 2 recent encounters in the Mojave were earth shattering, dogs and looters, that’s not the story she’s looking for.

The Suffield “Situation” seems to have many similarities with the other 2 “Situations” and Andy Donovan has agreed to try and infiltrate the facility and meet with an old couple who run the wildlife centre on the east of the Suffield facility and inside the wire perimeter fence. His objective is to see if he can gather evidence that might tie all 3 events together and the couple’s evidence might help make a case.

Andy Donovan and his team before entering the Suffield Facility.

Joe Diamond has sent along one of his top reporters Liam O’Rorke to help Donovan gather whatever information he can. Liam is accompanied by his regular cameraman Billy Diamond, well known drunk and son of Joe, together they make a good team. Well that’s Billy’s version of the story, Liam isn’t so sure.

Big Freddie is riding shotgun on the pair of them and he has contacts north of the border, Gabrielle and Roxane are those contacts. For a rather large fee they are going to help Freddie with the shotgun job.

Please note that while some of this is fact, like all good “Historical Drama”, I may have embellished one or two points for story cohesion, and yes Suffield is on a flat featureless plain rather like the British army training grounds on Salisbury Plain. It's not in deep woodland but I didn’t know that when I set up the game.

The Researcher has been sacked.

The game is written and is in the process of being edited.

Cheers

Snapcase and the Red Woman

Snapcase and the Red Woman

After a few restorative brandies and his 6th pint of Black Pony, Snapcase smiles at Samuel Gerard, “well done lad, if that ale had fallen into the wrong hands it would have been a disaster” “Give Titus a hand up, he’s not too badly wounded and I promised Red Molly the barmaid we’d help out with a little problem they have in Little Snoring” “It’ll be right up your street, a bold brave fellow like yourself.”

Thus ended the previous adventure in what is turning into a bit of a saga, the adventure was the last post on my blog.

Sir Verney Snapcase has had a hard day, most of it in the Dog and Sprocket consuming Old Buggars Bitter followed by a couple of pints of Black Pony Ale. There had also been a few restorative brandies taken after the attempted kidnapping of his good self by some hard nosed Moss Troopers who were in cahoots with Pearl de Ville the Landlady of the Dog and Sprocket.

However as a result of a conversation with Molly Bright, his favourite Barmaid in the Dog and Sprocket he has taken on a somewhat difficult task in an effort to gain her favour and unlimited OBB and BPA.

It appears the small town of Little Snoring is under threat from evil forces, or maybe “Forces of Evil”.

Strange howling has been heard on Snoring Moor, two of the local girls have been spirited away and then three nights ago, some of the men folk from the village went up to Snoring Moor and haven’t been seen since. No one has gone to look for them. Mistress Pitt disappeared after visiting her aged mother on the edge of town, the only sign of a struggle was her blood stained scarf, old Jim the Peddler’s remains were found, horribly chewed over, and now no one dares leave their houses after dark.

“Don’t E worry” Sir Verney had said to Red Molly “I have 4 of the stoutest troopers under my command and they aren’t afraid of anything”. Of course that was before the attempted kidnapping, now he only has 2 stout troopers under his command but that’s not going to worry him, although it may give Titus Flemming and Samuel Gerard his troopers, pause for thought.

Night time, and the dark draws in quickly in Little Snoring’s main street, the town is only illuminated by the thin light from a full moon, is this a lucky omen for Snapcase and his Troopers?

The main street is deserted; I think I might have mentioned that no one goes out after dark.

Well no one except for bold, brave and stout hearted troopers who are more afraid of their commanding officer than some unknown threat in the dark.

Samuel Gerard looking rather like the headless horseman is positioned at the north end of town. He’s checked the priming of his pistol 3 times in the last 10 minutes and gazes longingly at the barrel of Black Pony Ale still standing in the street. Maybe he can tap it later!

He looks nervously down the road to where Mansfield is positioned and wonders again at the cunning plan that Sir Verney explained earlier.

“Sam you’ll be placed at the north of the town and Edmund will be in the south”. “I will of course take the position of greatest danger, in the Dog and Sprocket with Red Molly and Pearl”. “They will be the target for any evil abroad tonight and I will be there to defend them. You two will be in place to come to my aid and help me fight whatever is out there”

It seemed to make sense when he’d said it, but now there seemed to be a slight flaw in the plan.

Edmund Mansfield has been positioned at the south end of Main Street, he too is nervously checking his pistol and wondering if he should double the load and have two balls up the spout, so to speak. Then thinks better of it, the army issue pistols had been known to explode with the normal strength load, he thought of his friend Three Fingered Pete Smith and decided to leave well alone.

He also wondered about Sir Verney’s cunning plan but Edmund wasn’t the sharpest knife in the draw and didn’t wonder too long or too hard.

Then he heard a low keening sound from the north end of the town. Spinning quickly around he looked hard in that direction just then the moon shone through the clouds, brighter than before. He could see a pale woman, dressed in red gliding down the road. She moved slowly but effortlessly towards Sam hidden behind the bales of produce.

Edmund knows Sam isn’t the boldest of men so he cocks his pistol and prepares to take a shot even though he knows it’s too far.

If you’ve read the previous episode in this sorry story you will know that Sam ran before the Moss Troopers advance.

He is aware of a presence even before he can see her, the low keening noise and a good dice roll ensured that. She has a terrifying aura, one that only the bravest of men can withstand before they have to take a horror card, one that may leave them gibbering on their knees or running as fast as ever they can.

However Sam surprised me, and the Red Woman, by stepping out from his hiding place and firing a hasty shot in her direction. Sometimes a good dice roll is better than being brave.

The Red Woman is a ghostly apparition, she’s already dead and so can’t be killed but she can be faced down, backed up or seen off by standing up to her, and rolling a double 6 is a good way to do it.

She fled the scene and Sam puffed out his chest with pride. Of course that bravado quickly disappeared when he heard a howling from the other end of the town. He’d heard wolves howl before now and this wasn’t a wolf.

The hard eyes from the edge of town turned out to be a Werewolf, the Forces of Evil come in many shapes and all of them terrifying.

Edmund hears the howl, it sends shivers up his spine but he stands his ground, although when he sees the shaggy beast advancing he wishes he’d taken to his heels, but it’s too late now.

Advancing faster than a man can run the Werewolf is at the fence before Edmund can fire.

Well that’s not strictly true, Edmund dithered and decided he stood more chance with his sword than a single bullet fired in haste against a fast advancing foe. He reasoned, cold steel is a great deterrent, although as it turned out, not against a Werewolf. Only a silver sword will deter it and Edmund didn’t know that and the army didn’t issue him with one.

However he prepares to sell his life dearly, 2 shillings should about cover it!

Snapcase comforts the women in the tavern and Sam starts to re-load his pistol.

Claws against steel and not even Sheffield steel at that. Edmund falls beneath a flurry of slashes, too injured to continue the fight and there’s an un-natural pause, as no one activates.

Then Samuel Gerrard fails his Brains test but passes his Guts test, this is always a bad sign it means a chap is going to do something very brave and very stupid. He hasn’t finished re-loading his first pistol but sets off running up the road in the direction of the howling.

The Werewolf and Sam see each other at the same time but Sam reacts first and with his 2nd pistol gets off a fast but un-aimed shot. This strikes the Werewolf in the head and even though it doesn’t kill, it’s a disabling shot.

Sam advances and with his sword strikes a mighty blow, severing the wolf’s head from its body, just as Pearl de Ville leaves the safety of the tavern. She’s armed only with a fan, a garter pistol and a lot of gumption; she moves forward to inspect the fallen creature.

Snapcase follows her out, sword raised to defend her honour but is dismayed to learn that this isn’t the creature that has been seducing the villagers away, although it is probably responsible for some of the more grisly remains found in and around Little Snoring.

However when Sam describes his encounter with the Red Woman, Pearl confirms she must be the one responsible and so it looks as if Sir Verney Snapcase will have to follow the Red Woman onto Snoring Moor to make good on his promise and possibly get free ale in the Dog and Sprocket for the foreseeable future.

The Three Musketeers…………………..hardly.

In prehistoric times, men were interred in Dolmens, Barrows, Hunebeds, different names in different places but essentially stone burial chambers. These took on many supernatural traits in later ages and I have recently built one in miniature. It looks like it’s going to form the central piece on Snoring Moor along with whatever the Forces of Evil can conspire to bring to the party.

Hope to see you there. Bring a wooden stake or some silver weapons, if you can afford them! Oh and a flask of brandy for medicinal purposes only, to keep the chill away you understand.