Captain Black Jack's Treasure Hunt

Sit down me hearties, pull up a chair by the fire and I’ll tell you a tale about Captain Black Jack and his crew of desperados back in the 50’s, the 1750’s you understand.

Captain Black Jack and his two closest confederates Mary Cut-throat Brazier and William Plunkett were in the Tap Room of the Dog and Weasel drinking and thinking. They were deciding if the information they had gleaned was worth their lives. They’d done too much drinking and not enough thinking but even so the consensus was that - “No it wasn’t”. However if they could get a few gullible locals to go along as cannon fodder, then maybe they could alter the odds sufficiently to make it worth the risk.

You may be wondering what I’m blathering on about…..King John’s Treasure is what I’m blathering on about, the kings crown jewels and royal treasury no less.

Everyone knows that this was lost somewhere in the Wash in 1216.

No you fool - not Mrs Perkins the Washer Woman’s wash, I’m talking about the area around the Fens known as the Wash. It’s an area of dark tales and dread superstition, peopled by folk with two heads, webbed fingers and toes but there are other creatures there, much worse creatures.

Creatures from the dark pits of Hades…. (well that’s what I heard on YouTube, so it must be right!)

After a few more drinks and a bit more think Black Jack’s crew have managed to collect a few of the local ruffians together, After plying them with more of the former and less of the latter they set off for Dead Piddling in the Water.

The local ruffians were Honesty Jones, Vanity Dobbs and Sally Salisbury and are so full of the Squire’s best stout “Staggering Man” that they are as full of bravado as beer, the other local village, Much Piddling in the Marsh was uppermost in their minds. You'll have to decide why.

Dead Piddling used to be a lively place but about 12 years ago the inhabitants started to move out, well those who could move, moved. The others are in the graveyard around the old Church. No one is really sure why they moved, the live ones won’t talk, and the dead ones can’t but Jack had heard the rumour and taken heed of it.

The sun was setting as they arrived on the outskirts of the village. Jack decided he must split his forces if they were to search the village before morning, a time when other interested parties might wonder what they were up to.

Plunkett and the ruffian Vanity went right, to search the broken down house in that direction and the rest continued into the heart of the village.

The sun set just as Plunkett arrived at the door, without a thought he pushed it open and entered the hovel. He never heard the sound of wings flapping as he started to search for the treasure.

OK enough of the moody pictures, just imagine it's dark.

Neither did Vanity Dobbs, as she prepared to follow Plunkett into the building the Iki-Iki swooped down and attacked without warning.

She is taken completely by surprise and falls to the ground, the Iki-Iki feels the blood lust and kneels to drink. Plunkett alerted, turns and sees the dark form stooped over Vanity’s crumpled body, without thought he fires the pistol in his right hand and then the pistol in his left hand. He misses with both shots and realises he only has one re-load left!

Damn and blast but he draws his trusty cutlass and prepares to fight for his life. The Iki-Iki is a cowardly creature though, and it flies off, secure in the knowledge that the fresh corpse will still be there when it returns, the blood may flow a little sluggishly but flow it will.

William Plunkett is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, he picks up Vanity’s 2 loaded pistols and sticks them into his belt but he doesn’t think to search Vanity’s body for extra powder and shot. Leaving this behind and ignoring the threat of the Iki-Iki he sets off to search the next building.

Yes, he is brave as well as stupid, a bad combination.

The shot must have awakened the dead because two zombies appear above the wall surrounding the Church. They peer aggressively into the gloom of the night but don’t advance closer to Cptn Jack. (I wonder if this is why the villagers left?)

Jack shouts - give them fire lads and his crew respond in their own individual way. Sally fires wildly but in spite of this, her rushed shot hits the target. The more experienced crew take a steady shot at the rather scary creatures. Jack himself is a hopeless marksman and consequently he misses but Honesty Jones the other local ruffian fires and hits her target. Unfortunately both she and Sally shoot at the same Zombie. It is hit it in the gut and left leg, unfortunately it's legs are protected by the stone wall and sparks fly from that strike.

Well they would have, if it hadn’t been a soft lead ball but you get the gist.

The gut shot drops the dead zombie with a severe wound? Honesty ruminates on the fact that she’s just fired her one and only ball. The reason she is on this adventure is because she’s so poor she can’t afford her next meal, let alone powder and shot; that was her first and last shot.

She draws her cutlass and prepares to sell her life dearly. Maybe she will be able to buy more powder if she does sell it dearly, but then again what use will that be…it’s a bit of a circular argument really!!

This new round of shooting has disturbed some spiders in the corn field. Normally that wouldn’t be an issue but these spiders are the size of small dogs and they start to move towards Black Jack, of course he isn’t aware of them because they’re the other side of the thick hedge.

The spiders are in the cornfield moving left towards Jack. William Plunkett is in the bottom right of the picture and can see the spiders.

Jack and Sally fire on the Zombies, Jack misses again but Sally hits the other Zombie in it’s left arm, slightly stunning it but that’s better than Jack has done. Sally has 2 pistols and they’re both empty, Jack has 3 so one is still loaded.

Mary and Honesty have both fired their single pistols and so drop them and charge at the Zombies, drawing their cutlasses on the way.

Tooth and nail are no match for Sheffield steel and the cutlasses slice through the dead and they become dead......yet again. RIP.

Plunkett having seen the spiders makes the fateful decision to fire on them. He hits and kills one but this has the unfortunate result of drawing the rest toward him. Fortunately they don’t seem to move very fast.

Jack and Sally turn and peer through the hedge, they see the spiders, but decide it’s a good idea to reload their empty pistols before attracting unwanted attention. “Load as quick as you like” Jack says to Sally. Her reply is lost in the wind.

Mary and Honesty are unaware of the spiders but are congratulating themselves on their easy victory over the Zombies. They return to collect their dropped pistols, wiping the blood from their blades as they do so.

Plunkett looks on in horror when he realises that the spiders are going to activate before he will. They are close enough so that he doesn’t have time to shoot and draw his cutlass, so he just pulls the cold steel from it’s scabbard and prepares to fight.

The first spider to reach him gets the pointy end of his blade and it dies a writhing mass of legs and other body parts. The 2nd one is slashed across the head, it’s badly wounded but not dead.

Plunkett then activates first and in spite of being a brave thicko, he runs away, he easily outdistances them which is a bit of a relief.

Jack and Sally hiding behind the hedge have loaded oneipistol each and they take careful aim and fire. Jack of course misses but Sally wounds one spider. The remaining healthy one turns and skitters towards her and Jack.

Jack passes his last loaded pistol to Sally and urges her to kill the spider as it climbs over the hedge, she fires and misses!

It skuttles up and over the hedge, Merlin’s Beard, Jack shouts as he draws his cutlass and wielding his weapon like a seasoned fighter he attacks the spider, the spider attacks him. The spider comes off 2nd best and dies in the hedgerow.

The remaining injured spiders crawl off to their spidery den to lick their wounds or whatever spiders do, and are seen no more. Well not this night at least.

Honesty Jones enters a building and after a quick search there is a whoop of joy as she discovers the treasure they are searching for.

(Well that was easier than I expected. There are 13 locations that they need to search and I’m using the Spade suit of a deck of cards, when the Ace of Spades is turned up, that’s where the treasure is, this is only the 2nd card)

It’s all over; the pirates gather round the treasure chest and wonder how much their share will be. Jack of course knows that his will be much greater than the rest; he is the Captain after all. They are jubilant at this easy success although Vanity might not agree about that. The clouds clear and the moon shines down.

The full moon shines down!

Then there’s a fearful howling.

Rhazien is the Grand Daddy of werewolves, he’s huge and ferocious and hungry. He can’t see his food but he can smell it, his jaws start to drool, he’s hungry, very hungry, he howls again.

This must be the real reason the village is deserted…..well deserted by humans at least.

Rounding the corner of the decaying house he sees his prey and breaks into a run. Black Jack had already passed his last loaded pistol to Sally, recognising that she had a much better chance of a killing shot than he would. “Now lass, steady does it, make it count”. To be fair, she stood her ground and fired, there’s not many who would have done that, but she wanted to get her cutlass out of its scabbard before the beast was on top of her and she rushed the shot, which of course missed its target.

Plunkett should have done better, he had 2 loaded pistols and fired them, one after the other, both shots missed and he was grateful everyone else was between him and the werewolf because 2 empty pistols aren’t weapon enough to take on this monster.

Rhazien the Werewolf had the initiative and attacked the two at the front of the group, Honesty Jones in the green coat and Sally Salisbury in the blue blouse. They gave a good account of themselves both being better with a sword than a pistol. They inflicted some small cuts to the wolf, enough to make him step back, more in surprise than anything else.

The two girls follow up their advantage but it’s a precarious advantage and short lived as Honesty takes damage and they in turn are pushed back, both girls were still on their feet fighting and Mary “Cut-throat” Blazer has joined the fray.

It’s not enough and with a mighty blow from his razor sharp claws Rhazien fells Honesty. She was the best swordsman of the 3 so this is a bitter blow. Sally is pushed back again and the fight is slowly going Rhazien’s way.

Things change as Jack charges in on Rhazien’s left flank, the combat continues, but Jack is pretty handy with a sword (unlike the pistol) and the three of them deal more damage to the wolf and push it back again.

Rhazien should be wolf burger but he isn’t, as well against the odds he fights them to a standstill, both side draw back for a breather and consider their next move.

I roll some dice to see what the Werewolf will do. At this point he’s rolling about half as many dice as his opponents and if the fight continues the end is inevitable. I know he’s hungry but dead is dead.

Anyway after the dice are rolled, with a bellow of rage and frustration he bounds back into the fight, and takes a beating. More damage and he’s close to exhaustion, so I roll some more dice to see if he’ll run and he does the sensible thing.

However as he turns to run Jack and Sally both hit him in the back and he looses his remaining vitality and his life as he drops to the floor….dead.

There is a bit of an epilogue to the story:-

Leaving Honesty and Vanity behind….well they’re dead and if Jack hang’s around to bury them who knows what dread creatures will turn up. (Each turn I have a card draw that determines if something will turn up and another one to decide who or what it might be.)

You didn’t really think he would bury them though…..did you? Well really, that’s a bit naïve.

Anyway Jack and the others carry the chest back towards the Dog and Weasel, no of course they don’t take it into the pub, the place is full of thieves and vagabonds, it wouldn’t be safe, so they bury it and draw a map, marking the spot with a cross. It’s a treasure map after all.

Anyway, after a couple more flagons of Staggering Man stout, Jack lets slip that he’s heard a rumour about a Saxon Horde, reputedly it was a kings ransom, the others look interested, but this wanes a little as they press him for more information, “Why is it called a Saxon Horde” they ask and don’t like the answer….”because it’s guarded by a Horde of Saxons”. “They are dead Saxons though” he explains, slurring his speech a little from the effects of the stout, “what do you think, should we try and find it”?

Operation Window Maker - The Attack

The team reached their jump off point as planned at 08:00 and split into the three attack groups.

I assumed it would take 1 hour plus 1D6 in 10 minute increments to reach their attack location. Breakfast rolled 1 so would arrive in 1 hour 10 minutes. Both the Explosive Specialist – Royal Marine Street and Assault Team Rainbow rolled 3 so arriving in 1 hour 30 minutes.

The game started at 08:00, the attack was due to commence at 10:00.

I checked and the helicopter was on the landing pad atop the building.

At 08:30 Helicopter Pilot Erika Klaus stepped out of the bar with Lola and Chardonnay they headed for the helicopter. Breakfast are still 40 minutes away and the other two teams are 90 minutes away.

09:00 after boarding and going through the routine flight checks they take off.

09:10 Breakfast arrive just off the South gate of the complex and Snap immediately hears something moving through the jungle. It’s almost certainly the tracked robotic vehicle (TRV) that had been previously identified trundling around the compound. Crackle steps of a twig and it goes Snap, the team freezes and the TRV halts.

9:15 The TRV doesn’t record any other movement and continues on its way. Crackle hears it move off and there is general relief amongst the team.

As there was an uncertain arrival time the micro plan was that each team would arrive at the compound, identify their attack point and then back off into the jungle to avoid detection. Moving back up to the wire/wall just before 10:00 hours and kicking everything off on time.

What do they say about no plan survives contact with the enemy!

Still 09:15 Zaira emerges from the bar area with two Foot Robotic bodyguards (FRB) and proceeds to wander around the compound in an erratic manner.

He’s obviously taking his morning constitutional but Breakfast are engaged with the TRV and don’t see him. The other two teams are still making their way to the compound so also don’t see him.

09:20 Pop Pop moves forward stealthily, on her own and if she had been taller, about 5’ taller she would have seen Zaira in the distance but the brown container obscured her line of sight. Such are the vagaries of a mission at Vagabond Manor that the game could have been over before the official start time of 10:00 if she had been able to take that shot.

09:25 She had to hit the dirt as she heard a 2nd TRV trundling from the west or her left, it then moved into view but didn’t spot her.

09:30 The Explosive Specialist, Marine Street reached the compound, she could see a FRB on patrol but it didn’t see her. You might have trouble spotting her as well, but her base is more visible than she is.

09:30 Team Rainbow also arrive at the compound wall but this doesn’t go so well. Magenta makes a noise as she approaches and an FRB detects the sound and turns in her direction. She realizes that the FRB has seen her because it raises its gun but she is faster.

Fast and accurate is a good combination, her reflexes take over and she fires without conscious thought and hits its centre of mass, right in the chest or at least the bundle of cables and steel tubing that would be its chest if it had a chest. It falls to the ground fizzing and popping as this happens and fuelled by the adrenaline rush, Miss Magenta is quickly over the wall and making her way to the bar which is assumed to be the HQ.

On reflection I can’t remember why I made that assumption but there must have been a good reason.

The sound of gunfire attracts another TRV, it turn’s from its preordained circuit and make its way to the East side of the compound.

The picture is largely irrelevant, it’s only included because I quite like it. Sorry.

Zaira is spooked by the sound of gunfire, as well he might be because it’s pretty close to where he had perambulated to. He immediately turns, and protected by his FRB’s he sets off back to the safety of the bar, the building on the left of the picture. This is a cautious retreat; they don’t want to run into trouble unaware and also don’t know Magenta is just the other side of the storage unit. You can see where Magenta has reached fuelled by her adrenaline rush, she also doesn’t know Zaira is loose in the compound and the other side of the building.

The rest of Rainbow team are still on the far side of the compound wall.

The gunfire kicks off the start of the action 30 minutes before planned.

Marine Explosive Expert Danielle Steel can see a FRB through the wire and decides her best course of action is to shoot it.

This turns out to be a bad decision because she misses, it turns…and she gets off a 2nd salvo of SMG fire in its direction but misses again, the FRB then returns the fire it’s armed with some sort of auto cannon and doesn’t miss. Street hits the dirt, hard and reflects she needs more range time. Blowing things up is fun but shooting straight is going to save your life.

Then she reflects that it would be nice to get out of here to be able to get more range time.

She’s out of the fight, OOF, badly injured but not dead…..yet.

Pop Pop and the rest of Breakfast are held up by the TRV, it’s moving around the perimeter towards the sound of firing but having a little trouble with tree roots etc and only moving slowly. Breakfast are a Sniper Team and don’t fancy mixing it with this well armed machine.

All the remaining FRB’s react to the shooting and call for orders. They need new orders to override their pre-programmed instructions. Control is apparently sleeping and doesn’t respond but Mrs White…you remember Agent White, she’s in the same building as Control and hearing the shots assumes, rightly, that the attack has started. She picks up a kitchen knife and moves warily towards Control. 

It’s going to take 2 moves to get there. He needs to remain inactive next move or she will be discovered….he has a gun! It’s a bit of a tense time in the Bar.

This FRB turns and sees the rest of Rainbow who have followed Magenta over the wall.

You remember the TRV, the one I liked the picture of? Well it moved back toward the shooting and into line of sight of Rainbow, they are now over the outer wall. A gunfight ensues, the majority of Rainbow take cover behind this low wall but Purple and Magenta return fire and both score a hit. They are using some form of explosive charge weapons and firing through a wire fence. Unfortunately one of these hit’s was a hit on the fence and explodes on contact but the other slipped through the mesh and took out the TRV.

Zaira and bodyguards are getting close to the Bar, he’ll soon be safe inside. They hear a scream from the building. Agent White has reached the Control and stuck the kitchen knife in him. Control is Johnny Mo and he’s now the ex Johnny Mo. She needs to reach the bar door to lock and bolt it before Zaira enters. Will she make it in time.

Meanwhile the FRB by the North Gate has been having a bit of a torrid time and Miss Magenta has shot it through the head, it is now defunct.

Zaira’s lead FRB sees Miss Purple as she moves forward, there’s an exchange of fire and Purple doesn’t survive it, Rainbows first casualty is dead before hitting the ground.

To be fair the FRB is rather cheating because it has some form of armour piercing cannon and a huge drum of ammunition, but I don’t suppose it thinks of cheating or anything else really.

Zaira makes a run for the bar door and reaches it before Agent White, be bursts through and in spite of his short stature he’s a very powerful man and puts her OOF. Well that didn’t go as I’d have liked.

Miss Green and Miss Blue move forward to attack the FRB with the big cannon, as you can see Green didn’t survive the encounter but neither did the FRB, she’s bleeding on the ground and he’s leaking hydraulic oil or whatever robots leak when they’ve had various pipes and cables severed.

It’s not clear in the picture but there’s another FRB behind the black SUV, it can’t see Miss Blue and she can’t see it.

Well not until it moves closer towards the bar door. There’s a huge fire fight. Miss Blue goes down first, then Miss Magenta is shot. Just in case you’re not counting that’s 4 out of the 5 members of team Rainbow down and only Miss Scarlet the Team Leader still standing.

You don’t get to lead a team like Rainbow without being a bit bold, brave and handy with a weapon and in the final exchange of fire it’s the FRB that falls and Miss Scarlet who is victorious.

Then there’s a sharp rifle crack as Pop Pop, tired of watching the TRV make it’s slow way around the compound, has decided to shoot it in the back. The Geneva Conventions are OK with this and the shot takes it out of the fight.

This action draws another FRB into the fight. It’s directive was to guard the south gate but seeing the TRV blown up, right in front of the south gate, a move of a couple of yards to see where the firing came from seems quite reasonable. Even so it was mentally preparing its defence in case it had to answer to the RAT’s (Robotic and Tracks) court of enquiry. This was a mistake because splitting its computing power between a court defence and a firing solution meant that it missed both Pop Pop and Snap, they ducked down into the undergrowth.

Just in case you’re wondering what the score is, let me remind you. Rainbow is fragmented, two dead and two badly wounded. There’s only Scarlet still operational, she can’t carry 2 wounded and decides to leave them both and head for the south of the compound and join up with Breakfast. She decides she must maintain radio silence and reasons that there’s not been much gunfire from Breakfasts area and so they are probably still operational.

Marine street is wounded and incapable of moving but no one knows that, so she’s on her own.

Four FRB’s and 1 RTV are down, deactivated by Scarlet’s team, and there’s 1 RTV deactivated by Pop Pop.

Breakfast are the only team still in the game, they are pinned down and decide they must maintain radio silence too, they know that there’s 1 FRB shooting at them from the South Gate area and surmise that as the last sound of gunfire in the west was an Auto canon that there’s at least 1 FRB or RTV in that area and certainly 1 RTV went round to the east and hasn’t been seen since. They believe they are on their own and react accordingly.

I almost forgot, Zaira is in the bar but Breakfast don’t know this, Scarlet does know this but as she’s maintaining radio silence she doesn’t pass on the information. Zaira has called for his helicopter to come and pick him up but it’s over 1 hour flying time away and probably doesn’t have enough fuel to make the return trip. He’s on his own, so locks and bars the steel door to the bar and it’s going to take explosives to get in. As Marine Street is the only one who can use explosives it’s looking a bit bleak for the mission.

Breakfast are professionals and they have a pride in getting the job done, so they decide to give it one more shot. Pop Pop checks to see if the FRB is still there, she Pop’s up, it sees her and fires, missing as she ducks back down again.

The FRB continues to fire at Pop Pop and there’s an ominous click as it runs out of ammunition. This is a golden opportunity for Breakfast.

Crackle runs down to the fence and starts to cut through it as Pop Pop and Snap rise and fire at the out of ammo Robot. Yes I know it’s a bit unfair but it’s the only way they are going to get the job done.

Snap’s submachine gun stutters and also runs out of ammunition but not before she’s unloaded most of the clip into the FRB and it collapses as it’s electrical circuits short out and it fries.

Having gone through the wire Crackle sees this FRB coming towards her. She fires first and misses, its return fire misses also but she gets it with her next burst and it’s down.

An eerie silence descends on the compound as Breakfast start to advance, taking up covering positions and then leapfrogging forward in the approved fashion. There is no sign of movement from the bar but Scarlet comes round the corner of a building and sees them. She shouts and lets them know that Zaira is still in the bar, they have him trapped.

Of course he’s trapped behind an impregnable door.

Pop Pop takes a good firing position behind the container and draws a bead on one of the windows but can see that they are bared and have what looks like steel shutters behind the bars.

I was wondering how I could resolve this, they can’t get in, but he can’t get out, but they can’t stay there for ever, but he can. It’s a bit of a conundrum.

As Snap and Crackle got close to the bar a solution presented itself. Snap blazed away at the windows and door to ensure no one came out and Crackle picked up the auto cannon and once she had figured out which was the safety and which was the trigger, she blew the door off its hinges.

Crackle was first through, she saw Zaira and fired, but missed and run out of ammo, Snap and Zaira fired simultaneously, and both hit each other and take out their opponent. Thinking about all the paperwork if they take Zaira alive, Crackle draws her machete and finishes the job.

Nothing moves in the compound. It’s very quiet, all except for a small motor as the last TRV tries to get into the compound but it can’t get through the gap in the wire. Eventually Crackle finds the deactivation switch in the bar and pulls the lever, there is now total silence.

The Chinook arrived, it was too big to land but all the wounded including Agent White were winched up and they also recovered the bodies of Miss Purple and Miss Blue. Zaira is dead and they left no real evidence as to who had carried out the hit, a pretty perfect result…..unless your name was Purple or Blue.

V’s report to Z was a little more succinct than my account here but essentially confirmed  the same information.

As you probably gathered there was a table of possible incidents to throw a spanner in  the works. 

Well - Thanks for reading, if indeed you did do and I'd appreciate any thoughts you might have.

Cheers

V