Worse Than the Disease 2 IC

[u-b]

Sean notes the location of the merchant outpost, then continues to lead the caravan to the meeting point.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The exiles and their allies move on through the wilderness and roads.

Another 30 minutes of driving, and Sean spies yet another unusual event on the horizon.
By the side of the road, there is a big group of parked cars and some vans. By those vehicles, there is a crowd of people apparently having some kind of party. The centre of their revelry appears to be a square stage of some sort, wherein two men lightly dressed and buff are waving to the crowd, ready to put on a show.

Sean saw it from far enough away that the convoy can easily just ignore it. Does he stop and check out the road-side happening?

[u-b]

Sean decides to ignore this one.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The convoy easily goes around the gathering. No-one tries to stop them, or even notices them.

Another 15 minutes of driving fast down a straight road, and another gathering is on their radar. They don't need Sean's excellent scouting to catch this one; they very much hear this one way before they see it.

In the middle of a town ruin, there's a huge crowd of rowdy (and probably stoned or drunk) folks. They are cheering on a loud music show in progress upon a two-story building. The show is "enhanced" by Old World tech like speakers and electric guitars.

And drugs, what with the gangs openly hawking merchandise right there. They have a whole squad of gunmen keeping unwanted people away from a massive keg of booze, selling small bottles of the stuff.

A closer look at the concert reveals all the performers, all of their bodyguards, the dealers and most of the partiers are armed.

[u-b]

Sean takes Richard with him for this one. They both come armed, but not quite alarmed. Sean suggests Richard asks if this is a public or a private event and, if it's public, what it is and what its terms are.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean takes Richard with him for this one. They both come armed, but not quite alarmed. Sean suggests Richard asks if this is a public or a private event and, if it's public, what it is and what its terms are.

The guards at the gathering’s edge explains that they may join in…but it costs $20 of barter (equal to two rifle bullets, which is the preferred payment) per person.

Cause trouble, and it’ll be a beating and kick out. No selling wares without giving the boss a kickback.

[u-b]

Sean decides to pass on this one and is back on his way.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean and his allies drive on, reaching their destination with no more disruptions.

The meeting place is an empty shell of an Old World building - it’s small, one story, only one real room, it seems. Whatever it used to be, all signs of its previous life have been removed by scavengers and time.

Waiting for them is a single woman, wearing sturdy survival gear. She shows the newcomers the agreed-upon hand sign to them, and they return the response confirming their identity.

“Glad to see you.” The woman greets them, most of her features hidden under thick and extensive clothing. Even her hair colour is kept covered by a camo-print hood. “Let’s talk business.”

[u-b]

Sean introduces his forces, but not quite their weapons, then proposes the woman to introduce her forces that would take part in the operation (three men in red jumpsuits or whatever it was supposed to be). Sean would ask the following if and when said forces are introduced:
1. The distance to the target from where we are at the moment. The route from here to there and anything that can be said about that route and the surroundings thereof.
2. Any defenses, vehicles and/or traps at the target?
3. Is the target expected to hold innocents (like captives or slaves) or can be freely obliterated?
4. Is the target expected to hold notable valuables or can be freely obliterated?
5. Any regular traffic from and to the target? Nearby target's allies and communications with them (roads, radio, bells or what not).
6. Anything else they want to tell us about the target or the upcoming operation.

Sean then estimates how much time we have until it starts getting dark (say, -3 darkness penalty).

[Shoot Da Moon]

The woman admits that her forces are currently in hiding nearby, in case the meeting goes wrong. But they are all equipped with decent weaponry - petrol bombs and explosives in particular. She could manage to requisition any Old World energy guns for this, sadly. They could not find any particularly good armour, either.

The target is a motel just five blocks away, to the south. As long as they stay off the streets, no scouts should have a clear sight of them. They can simply work their way through other buildings and alleyways.

No vehicles have been sighted at the motel. The motel is pretty secure. A sniper on the roof. A barbed wire fence. Concrete barriers for cover. Big stone blocks around the perimeter to stop vehicles ramming in. Probably landmines. Sand bags in front of every entrance, apparently blocking them. Almost certainly even more defences inside. No idea how the occupants move in and out of the place.

Nobody but the bad guys is expected to be inside.

The bad guys may have stocks of supplies and offensive gear, but that’s not a priority.

Strangely enough, not much traffic has been observed. All of it they witnessed was just bad guys moving around inside, but no idea how they got in and out in the first place. They could have a radio inside.

The sniper on the roof is dressed in a Kevlar vest, armed with a good scoped rifle and has excellent binos.
He takes cover behind the big sign on the roof. Comes up via a ladder, changes shifts with a fresh shooter every 4 hours.

It is somewhat dark right now.

(OOC: EDITED, the current time after the journey is now late afternoon. Darkness penalty is -3, it will get worse sharply within 1 hour.)

[u-b]

Since the forces are to participate in the operation, Sean would like them to participate in the planning. Should we go meet them? Go fetch them? Call them over the radio? What would be the criteria for this meeting to be declared going right? Whatever she answers, she's not going alone anywhere. Meanwhile, Sean has a few more questions:
7. Any specific reason to call them bad guys if they move nowhere around and do nothing much?
8. How large is the motel, like N meters by M meters and X windows by Y windows in two directions horizontally and Z stories vertically? Is there a basement too?
9. Would it be in any way problematic to obtain a few plain wooden doors somewhere in the area? Sean has a multitool to unscrew them or such.
10. Is there one set of rifle + binos that changes hands every shift or does each man have his own? If the later, how many different men taking shifts there? Same question whether they have personalized Kevlar vests.
11. Any good spot from which we could observe the ladder and/or the sniper's position on the roof (his observant head sticking out is minimally enough; it does not have to be anywhere too near)?
12. About those sandbags blocking the entrances (and windows?) - do they allow to shoot from inside of the building? If so, how large are the openings?
13. What would be the closest distance one could get without undue risk of being spotted by the sniper? What would be the furthest distance from which one could see most of the motel?
14. Generally, does it have other buildings on all sides or something other than just a street on any side (a lawn, a garden, a junkyard, what not)?
15. How long has this installation observed and how long it is believed to be roughly in its current state?
16. Any smoke coming from the building any time at all, like as if by wood stove used for cooking or maybe in the winter for heating?
17. What is the motel made of? Bricks? Wood? How sturdy it seems?
18. Any locals living anywhere nearby?

Spoiler

Show

Also, roll some Detect Lies, I guess, maybe with some penalties for her features covered. Does Sean see her face, at least?

[Shoot Da Moon]

The woman calls in her allies with a small radio. They are two men, both in red jumpsuits festooned with some heavy leather gear used for camping, survival and combat. They nod to Sean, acknowledging his presence.
The planning and discussion starts.

The bad guys at the motel have definitely opened fire on local travelers coming near the motel, and further investigations identified their men as raiders who have attacked hamlet with intent to slaughter all the inhabitants indiscriminately. Their raids were done purely to kill people, stealing stuff optional and taking slaves never.

The motel is two large buildings side-by-side. One appears to be made up of mostly small residential rooms. The other has a large office as a part of it, the "check-in."
The larger building is the one with the office. It's 19 meters wide and 43 meters long. Windows are all along the east and west sides of the building, next to doors.
The smaller building is 25 meters wide and 19 meters long. Windows are all along the north and south sides, one per room, except for the west and east most rooms, which have additional windows (2 on both west and east walls).
Both buildings are ground floor only, nothing above.
No idea if they have a basement.

A lot of wood in this area got scavenged. Metal, too.
(OOC: Roll Scrounging skill to try, penalty is -5, takes a base time of 1 hour.)

The sniper has one set of gear, it gets given over when they switch off. Their kevlar, however, seems to be one for each man, not shared.

A good perch to observe is a 2 story building 75 yards north-east of the motel. That's how their scout did it. Be careful, the enemy could have grown wise to it.

The sandbags certainly don't block the windows enough to prevent firing out. Most are boarded up. Maybe they have murder holes? The openings are about 1 yard wide and long at most for the windows left open.

Safest close distance would be approximately 50 yards, if the sniper was not canny enough to suspect anyone hiding behind a car wreck (there's a derelict parking lot north of the motel). Furthest out from the motel without line of sight getting blocked is 100 yards unless you came from the south (but there's no good cover coming from the south).

Only the north side of the motel has many buildings. The south side is open road leading in and out of town. East and west are just wilderness, not very forested. The motel has parking lots north and south, behind the fence. Just north of the larger building is an attached swimming pool, empty of water, also behind the fence.

Scouts have checked it out two weeks ago. Only once, over a period of 9 days. The raiders may have been occupying it for months or just under a year?

No smoke.

Old World bricks. Very sturdy.

Nobody living here. That's how the raiders stayed under the radar for so long.

Sean thinks the woman is telling the truth. He can see her face under her hood, it's dirty but calm.

[u-b]

Sean then proceeds to the actual planning. He asks how, and if, the men were intending to get close to the buildings and especially past the barbed wire. If they can handle that by themselves, that's one less problem for Sean to solve. Sean then asks how the men would propose we do given that we have some riflemen, two dogs and two thermobaric rockets for RPG-7. Maybe we...
1. Take out the sniper.
2. Position the men where they can more or less see the motel's perimeter from behind some cover (and, preferably, from indoors, where it will be darker).
3. We use one rocket per building to have a good start.
4. Then we have the Troubleshooters throw fire and explosives while our riflemen cover them from some distance away.

Sean is also open to other suggestions.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The woman says she had no idea on how to bypass the fence, except by clearing out the raiders first (with shooting) and then pulling it down with a winch and car. She was hoping Sean had a better idea.

She thinks that staying away, and using rifles to snipe the raiders is the best approach. Laying siege to them that way over the course of days is probably the safest, if very slow. (They can afford to wait out the raiders, since they have supplies and maybe backup.)

The sniper is a priority target, of course. Killing him and anyone else who comes onto the roof or out of the buildings should keep the raiders pinned down.

Good positions with lines of sight on the motel AND cover is sadly unavailable. At best, some angles on the motel are secure. Unless the men can make their own cover.

Keep the rockets on standby. Serious firepower should be kept in reserve in case of the unexpected, not used in the opening salvo.

Fire and explosives should be used to pressure anyone bunkering down after the sniper is dead and the first salvos have been done. Let them stew in hiding for a few hours before breaking out the fire bombs, so we know they're good and suppressed. Then flush them out.

[u-b]

Sean says he's not quite in the mood to have a prolonged siege. For one, the building might have a connection to The Gutter, which will not only negate any prospects, but may also endanger the besiegers, which might also be the case if they have a radio link. Sean would definitely prefer to demolish or burn down the building, at least to the point where it would be of no further use for the raiders, then quickly move on to other plans, while maybe reserving an option to visit here again if they fix or rebuild it. So, hit-and-run sort of thing. This was supposed to be an operation to test the sides' allegiance? We do not have to eradicate everyone? Or do The Troubleshooters have interest in the buildings themselves? Besides, any idea how one gets a "very sturdy" motel? Are The Troubleshooters sure this was not some other kind of Old World building?

[Shoot Da Moon]

The woman shrugs. If they blow it up quick and fast, so be it.
The woman was not given much of a briefing, she was simply told to help the exiles attack the motel and defeat the raiders. Why, she thought it was just a bad guy hunt.
Simply wrecking the motel and defeating most of the raiders should be enough.
No interest in the building/s.
The woman does not know much about building materials. Only that it is hard to demolish.
She’s certain the motel is the right target.

[u-b]

Sean thinks he's mostly narrowed the possibilities down to a few, and maybe even to one that would be subject to actual contact with the enemy. He commands one militia man to start making a speaking trumpet out of plastic pieces he's to cut from the bottles and a roll of duct tape. Sean does not care how many bottles and how much tape will be used as long as the usage is reported to him after the fact. He wants the trumpet to be as large as practical while still reasonably handy. If necessary, there could be more than one try. After the man gets to work, a few more questions are to be clarified:
19. Any idea how the inhabitants observe the surroundings during the night? Like, active or passive night vision gear or plain illumination? The same about The Troubleshooters.
20. With all those mines and wires, are there any clear aboveground escape routes that the inhabitants could take and that The Troubleshooters would want to have covered?
21. Same about approaches for any possible help from the outside.
22. This being our parties first contact and being based on a third-party radio frequency handout, would they mind if everyone present demonstrates the back of their necks? If they do not mind, we start with Sean and then all of our men. If they do mind, Sean asks for their reasoning.
23. How many of them have portable radios on their persons?
24. Any questions of relevance they would like to ask Sean before we begin?

[Shoot Da Moon]

The militiaman follows orders and cobbles together the instrument, curious about what exactly Sean plans to do with it. It’ll take him about 20 minutes of tinkering and testing, he guesses.

As for Sean’s questions;
The woman tells him the raiders use lighters, flares, and flashlights at night. They seem confident that no-one around will see the lights and attack. The Troubleshooters have flashlights and flares, too, not to mention one pair of NVGs.

The woman does not think the raiders have an above ground escape route besides simply temporarily disabling their outer defences. She’s never seen them exit the motel, anyway. They’re holed up there good, from what she knows.

She thinks they could call for backup on the radio, she does not know of any other raider outposts within 25 miles of the motel. So it could take over a hour for a response to show up. She thinks.

The woman and their comrades show Sean and his allies their bare skin. Nothing like a tattoo is on any of them, just scars, burns, bruises and animal bite marks. They’re clear. The Troubleshooters seem a little confused about the check.

No raiders are carrying a radio. Maybe they have only one?
(The friendly woman and her comrades have small radios for communicating with each other, if that’s what you mean.)

The woman expresses curiosity about Sean himself. What’s his story? Why did he contact The Troubleshooters? Who is he working for?

[u-b]

Sean says he mostly works for himself, which is kind of accidental. Or, we can say, his band works for themselves, but Sean mostly directs the operations. Sean, Richard here, and a few other people, have gotten themselves on the raiders' priority target list, were unable to remove themselves from said list, fought for their lives, and then realized that fighting raiders can be very profitable, even when funded only by raiders themselves. So, now Sean scales up those efforts, both for business and personal reasons... like, you know, less men to try get him killed and "greater good"... So, anyway, he tries to organize the raiders' enemies, which are, like, almost everyone, to stop squabbling amond themselves... well, or at least pause that, until the raiders and the new threat are dealt with, and instead join the business of raiding the raiders or something. We won't necessarily noticiably profit from this one, but that's fine as well. The story of how Sean's group have ended up on raiders' priority target list is better told at some other time. For now, let's say we are not ex-ones of those.

Having said that, and not waiting for the speaking trumpet to be completed, Sean takes Bart, NVG guy and nobody else, and asks the NVG guy to lead him to 2 story building 75 yards north-east of the motel. On the approach, Sean does his best to look for traps and ambushes, being the first to cross any opening from one cover to another as directed by the NVG guy. Then he intends to enter the building as directed, looking for traps all the way, and take a quick glance at the motel from the second-story window. Other than that, Sean intends no one to be ever in line of sight to motel.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean does a fine job keeping an eye out in the journey over, although the way is thankfully under-guarded. The raiders seem to be relying on their sniper lookout for dissuading intruders and attackers, and so have not set up any more traps. They seem to be undermanned, too, seeing as they have no patrols on the streets around the motel.

Sean finds no man-shaped tracks around the block, which he chooses to interpret as a good sign. Animals are around, using the buildings as nests and hunting grounds, the circle of life going on with no regard for man’s conflicts.

Sean realises that the building 75 yards north-east of the motel IS a good spot for observation…but it’s also not a great place to stay, as it’s showing its age. It could fall apart if the fighting gets too heated.

Disaster strikes when Sean and his allies start to enter the building. Someone one jostles and trips in the shadows, and the NVGs fall, landing hard against a wall, breaking. The Troubleshooter makes a very angry face at the group. That’s one piece of valuable technology they can’t exploit now…

[u-b]

The broken NVGs were a problem. Not so much for the operation, but for subsequent relations if Sean would be unable to make the men whole. This was not an urgent matter, so Sean decides to handle it after the op. The building being in bad shape was more relevant to the op, though probably not quite problematic. Sean considers using it simply as cover and takes a quick look around the right corner to see if anything is blocking his line of view or if he can see the whole motel, buildings, roofing and all. He gets out of sight again to process the information.

Spoiler

Show

Luckily no critical failure this time around. I'll ask the questions about what's observed once you give me the general picture. Those might or might not need more peeks, we'll see.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean manages to make his way through the building to its roof, and accidentally leans on the wrong wall. It cracks and shutters.

(OC: the failed Stealth roll worsened the building’s structural integrity modifier to -4. Make the usual rolls for the stuff on AtE2 page 34-35.)

From the roof, he can see that the motel has a lookout - he’s taking cover behind the big “Motel 23” sign atop the place. Sean thinks the lookout has a pair of binoculars, but he’s currently looking away from his direction right now. He’ll eventually start looking this way, though…

[u-b]

Sean raises his rifle, aims at the observer for three seconds, then shoots a few rounds and starts looking for any signs of activity, all while having the least possible amount for himself exposed. He plans to do that for three seconds at most, then step into full cover. He comments his actions while at it, expecting Richard to relay that to main group: "It's me. Fine so far, no help required."

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean raises his rifle, aims at the observer for three seconds, then shoots a few rounds and starts looking for any signs of activity, all while having the least possible amount for himself exposed. He plans to do that for three seconds at most, then step into full cover. He comments his actions while at it, expecting Richard to relay that to main group: "It's me. Fine so far, no help required."

Sean brushes off the dust and rubble from the ceiling.

And take the shots. It nails the man on the motel roof in the arm, probably blowing it off with brutal force. He observes the man falls behind the sign and seems to remain still. Did he pass out? Sean’s pretty sure anyone else in the motel would realise their man has been hit.

Anyway, none of the above is enough to warrant change of plans, so here is the list of things Sean considers:
1. What is the distance from the buiding of ours to the motel's outer perimeter? What is the depth of all of the preimeters? What is the distance from the inner perimeter to the motel? Here Sean estimates how close it would be possible to approach the buildings without steping in contact with any barbed wire or such.
2. Any signs of mines outside of outer perimeter? I guess the mines themselves should not be visible, but if the place is frequented by the animals, maybe there is a ligher wire fence before main barbed wire to keep the animals out or maybe they have shot some animals as not to leave them on the minefield or maybe some animal went onto the minefield and there was an explosion the results of which have not been cleaned up? Or is the asphalt still mostly intact and visibly clear?
3. Other than that, it's mostly 75 yards of open ground / parking lot?
4. Looking from our side, is the observer on the right building or on the left building? Which building is larger? Does Sean see most of two buildings from his position or is one more or less behind the other? Does Sean see the ladder that the observer would take to get up there? Does Sean see the door closest to that ladder?
5. How is the whole setup illuminated?
6. What would be the size modifier to put a rocket inside the building, preferably near the center? I guess if a window would be boarded by visibly thin plywood, that could count nearly as "a hex" at +4, but if it's mostly covered by sandbags, it might be much less, including negative.

Spoiler

Show

1) the building is 75 yards from the door to the motel’s fence. The motel itself is another 10 yards behind the fence.
2) the landmines are on the inside of the fence, but those are just the ones Sean sees.
3) yeah, open ground. The parking lot of the motel is within the fence.
4) right building, the one with the office. Right is larger. He sees both buildings, but only from the north. The area behind them is obscured. Sean does not see a ladder.
5) Sean sees little lighting on in the buildings right now. He thinks he can see a moving light off in the distance through tiny cracks, but he has no clear shot.
6) the called shot for a rocket into a building through a window would be -4, not taking attacking a hex into account.