Battle On the Docks Part Dux

The Mystery Solvers team finally realized they were on a wild goose chase and redirected their efforts back to the Investigative Commissions office where a conversation was over heard:

"So Mr Green, your team searched the freighter and obtained all the information there?"
Yes sir
"Hmm I see you brought a handful of documents?"
Yes sir
"There weren't any other items of interest in the holds of the freighter?"
Ummmmmm......
"Did you search the Holds??"
Er...........

So the MS team was dispatched back to the freighter to search the rest of the ship for any more informative items that might be found.

Entering from the south side of the docks the MS agents quickly found Cultists trying to recover items from the blasted truck and added to its carnage total with another grenade!

MS agent "Sarge" advances to put down covering fire only to run into danger!

From which he suffers a wound that he is unable to shake off as time ticks by, but he spots some hostile lurking in the trees nearby and decides to "smoke em out" with his remaining grenade.

The explosions alert the Cultist work crew on board the freighter, some running to the rails and opening fire.

MS agents run a gauntlet of fire to gain the gangplank.

Shooting breaks out at the stern and bow of the ship with the ill equipped cultist work crews, though numerous, steadily being beaten back. Meanwhile Sarge shakes off the wound, and after trading fire finds he is engaged in a duel with Sister Painful, grins and charges her!   BUT!  She whips out a rapier and they enter into a brawl, which Sarge slowly starts loosing

Realizing he's in over his head against such a skillful adversary he calls for Parley!

 And bolts from the action! Meanwhile MS agents have penetrated down into the holds of the ship only to find more work crew cultists armed with spanners and anything they can grab.

Shooting and fighting steadily sees the cultists taken down in the stern section while in the forward holds a pack of cultists have one armed guard open up on an Agent with a burst of SMG fire!

With the hail of fire hammering the area, Team Leader rushes the Thompson gunner, dodging the burst fire and with the butt of his rifle laid out the Guard.

Back on the dock, an MS agent, from a distance sees Sister Painful pull a small box from her utility belt, press a button on it and toss it into the river, turn and walk away............Whats this????

Back on board an MS agent in the engine room (passes a cunning check) notices a loud ticking noise, turns and spots a large crate with a ticking countdown timer!!!!!

Shouts to "FINISH THE SEARCH" ring out, Agents scramble, but those dastards have set multiple charges, which start going off one after the other. Team Leader bolts up top and to the chart room where he finds one last item he grabs successfully, vaults the rail and onto the dock as the ship bottom blows out and it lists heavily before bottoming out.

In the mean time Sister Painful strolls to a car and makes her get away unconcerned about the sinking of the ship.............ominous portent indeed.

Rallying back at the headquarters the team assembles what they have learned about items on the ship. Some sort of curved hull plating, a ground screwdrive propulsion system, gigantic auger blades and a periscope assembly...............what the devil are they up to??

Pulp Alley After Action Report : Battle On the Docks

First I revamped the docks themselves, removing the clunky boxes and getting some proper pillars installed for the game:

The Mystery Solvers Team was MIA , chasing down a false lead, leaving only the MIS Team in action here at the docks.

Here they enter the area, probing carefully forward. The sidekick had upped her skill level adding Eagle Eye, while packing an assault rifle (sub machine gun), proving to be a very effective area suppressor.

First Cultist, a guard, is spotted and an exchange of gunfire ensues. The rest of the team swings wide down the other side of the yard. Only to meet a truck being loaded by more cultists, who pull pistols and open fire.

MIS starts to rush forward into the yard only to come under fire by the guards SMG!! Dealing with that, team leader is aghast to see more cultists reinforce around the truck!

"This isn't time for half measures men, Follow me!" and chucks a grenade into the truck successfully!

Cultists go flying and only one arises from from the smoke, only to be cut down. The fight in the yard ends when the Guard goes down and Stays Down.

Gun fire continues from the sidekick against cultists rushing to the rails of the bridge. A steady pile of bodies accumulates.

Sensing things are going down hill fast Sister Painful takes out an agent then pins Team Leader for a bit.

As agents rush the ship, a last cultist drops an agent on the dock! Team leader leaps his body and gains the ship, skillfully dodging Sister Painfuls fire.

Climbing up and around the superstructure he uses the corners skillfully to avoid additional fire against him, gets to the door where the major plot point is in and chucks his last grenade into the room to very effective results... two cultists down for good!

Major Plot point is a stack of correspondence between various leaders of the cultists describing who from the list of suspects they were unable to "convince" to join their cause.  Victory MIS.

Action on the Waterfront

Next scenario for the Pulp Alley will be at the waterfront now that the teams have cleared the industrial area of clues and culprits!

Entry side 1 , overview of the area. Warehouse and storage yard with access to the docks.

Entry side 2 Brick warehouse and storage yard off to the side, and access to the docks.

The Freighter where its anyone's guess what might be aboard!

Action to take place in 2 days.

Work Shed

Time for a basic workshop shed of some sort, with corrugated sheet metal sides and roof.

A basic foam core building covered in sheets of corrugated card board stock from a scrap booking supply store. Have to distress the large slider doors some, but did leave the right one slightly open so as to invite the unwary to stick their nose in....

Close up shot of the open slider door.

Hmm with a bit of cut and hot glue, paint and sizing, added an optional Base for the building so that it can receive truck loads:

Next, a clutter yard with no fences next.

Second Storage Yard

Same approach to assembly as the first, different layout, different fencing.

and from the other angle

Storage Yard

Thought it was time to have a Storage Yard to put behind a business building.  Yet to make it interesting I decided to make it look neglected. Ground first:

So here we go, Dirt, dirty dirt. Making the board on a standard block size I use for my large buildings. Going to add some oil stains once its drier.

Next up, whats in the storage yard but Crates of who knows what. I spaced them to allow characters to move between them and or lie in wait. Stacked high enough that they cannot be seen over for the most part, and yes, there is a stack that is leaning badly... perilously!

Having affixed the crates to each other and the base it was time to build some fencing for the yard. I went with a more modern chain link sorta feel for that. Mounted window mesh on bamboo skewer poles attached to some odds and ends plastic stock.  I set them in place to see how they would scale.



The unpainted border edge is getting pavement put on it so I skipped painting it so far. Fence gets sprayed silver and then a red oxide spray from a distance to age it. Trimmed all the edges around the posts also.  Side walks drawn and glued down next.

After setting the fence sections I rolled my chair back and thought about storage yards I had worked at..... Weeds!

Here's another angle of the yard... hmmm still not satisfied with the amount of Neglect.

Ah, scattered some papers, one here way back on left and of course, a warning sign.... Might put on a gate that's leaning open....and scatter some more paper, maybe a couple of tin cans on the side walk...

And there you have it. A business can be backed up on the far side as the brick building is or left to meet the back edge of the board. The side walk effect was an attempt at a marker drawing the "squares" and then painted over quickly to let the black stain through. Not satisfied with it though...

Pulp Alley After Action Report: Start of the Mission

Having gotten some friends into Pulp Alley, time came to start a campaign for their Leagues. So, onwards:

The setting is ...  time setting squishy, but in the "pulp age". Were not worrying overly about what exact year it is to allow more fluid situations.

The Occult investigative Service, OIS and the Mystery Solvers, MS were both summoned by an Alliance Council of Crime Fighters, ACCF,  to London to investigate rumors of a major crime that is under way based on leaked information and the sudden disappearance of several crime bosses.

The Plot markers, Tires, Moving Crate, Papers on a Crate and a Desk with papers. In the back is one Edward Devon, a man of industry in London.

Layout is a single street, buildings, vehicle and peril points marked with red chips. Teams could move up the street or around either side of the buildings lining the street. To approach the major plot point they had to have one team member that solved 2 minor plot points approach him so as to "ask the right questions of him". Team members could share the gained information from the plot points and approach him.

MS entered with some daring do (had the initiative). OIS quickly made their entry into the area and received a smattering of fire from the roof tops! Some unknown  cult had gotten wind of their efforts and were doing their dastardly best to stop them.

OIS caught the brunt of the gun fire but held their own, downing several cultists. One of the OIS agents approaches the abandoned desk on the street, while off camera another is approaching the tires below the edge of the white topped building.

Here an MS agent approach's their first plot point, only to be taken down by a female cultist from 2 floors overhead! This lone cultist, firing from cover lays down a heavy fire on the MS agents who start a furious barrage of return fire to take her out.

The MS team leader covers the 2 agents as they recover from their wounds and firing madly at the cultist who manages to pass every health check, all the while the window she was firing from was chiseled into a rough oval, the curtains to tatters and every bit of glass being shot out.  OIS team leader was laughing pretty hard at the continuing gnashing of the MS leaders teeth and muttered curses.

The OIS grabs some plot points, discerning the clues contained and sends the Leaders Side Kick to dash down the street and up the fire escape (a perilous place due to the age and disrepair of the pull down ladder)..... only to spend 2 turns under fire to get the ladder down and up to the next floor!  Safe! NO! an MS agent has entered from the ground side door, worked his way up stairs and was lying in wait inside, covering the fire escape! OIS: "Hah, your out of Ammo!"  MS: "Hahahah so are you!!!!" where upon the OIS Side Kick was activated for that turn and scampered up to Edwards location to confront him with questions....... ACK! Edward was dead!!!! A quick search of his body revealed interesting papers which were grabbed while under renewed fire.  Turning she smashed through a window into the 3rd floor window and in a running gunfight made her way downstairs and out the back door!

 

Meanwhile the MS team leader decided he'd wasted enough time and ammo on the window protecting the female cultist and retreated down the street followed by the shouted taunts.....