Dawn, Session 4: Postal Carrier

Having lost a day, Old Bear, Crow, and Clove get up early to set out again. They follow the same route as yesterday, through the railroad bridge and the industrial area on the west side of the river. This time they get further in.

Roll

Roll for stress for going to unexplored hexes
Old Bear, D8, result=5, fail, 1 stress
Crow, D8, result=6, success
Clove, D8, result=2, fail, 1 stress

For a quick moment, Old Bear feels the weight of "command," a burden he takes on because of a sense of duty to his community

Even though Clove volunteered, being so far from The Uni is making her nervous.

Roll

Roll for random encounter, D100, result=96, mailcarrier
Roll for distance, D8, result=6, long range
Roll for recon, Clove, D8, result=6, success

As they near the edge of the industrial area and into Downtown proper, they see a person in what looks like a postal carrier's uniform.

Roll

Roll for reaction, D10, result=4, wary
Roll on Mythic, is this person armed? Very likely, result=90, yes; rilfe with scope

They look a little lost, disheveled, and for a supposed postal carrier, carrying very little. But they are armed with a scoped rifle. Judging by their state, Old Bear decides to be extra cautious. He instructs Clove and Crow to find cover. Then he calls out.

"Hey, everything okay?"

The postal carrier immediately snaps up his weapon, pointing it at the general direction of the group...

Roll

Roll on Mythic, do they shoot? 50/50, result=2, exceptional yes

...and fires a few shots. They are off the mark but it's enough to get Old Bear to go immediately prone. Crow and Clove are a bit too slow for him so he instructs them to get down.

Old Bear curses and decides to engage. He's hoping he can neutralize the target quickly.

Round 1
Old Bear:

• Aim
• Fire

Roll

Roll for ranged, long range modifier, -2, D6, D10, 2 ammo dice, result=6, 8, 2 successes -- critical hit; ammo=4, 2

Old Bear fires a burst (6 shots) from his M4 and connects--the result of army training and luck. The postal carrier goes down hard.

"Did you hit him?" Crow asks. Old Bear says nothing, figuring Crow would figure it out for himself.

Old Bear waits a few beats before deciding what to do. He's worried that the shooting will attract more attention. His instincts tell him to start moving but he wants to check the postal carrier, maybe grab the rifle while he's at it.

Finally, he makes a decision. He tells them to stay while he checks it out, using a row of trees for cover.

Roll

Roll on Mythic, Does the shooting attract anyone? I have no idea, but from the narrative prompts, the postal carrier may have been on the run from marauders of some sort, but I choose 50/50 anyway, result=19, yes
Is it anyone connected to the postal carrier? again, 50/50, result=yes
I roll on the Faction table from T2K4, D100, result=6, Civilian (locals)
I do another roll to see if Clove, the one with highest Recon score sees them before they see our group, D8, D10, result=2, 7, one success

Clove notices another person further back and calls out to Old Bear to warn him.

Note

Here I pause and think about what this new individual will do in the context of my prompts and the situation. I'm going to back track a little...From the narrative prompts for the postal carrier, I got: "cultured villager," "lack of resources," "coup," "factions: criminals and marauder thugs."

My imagination interprets the situation of the postal carrier: The postal carrier was part of another settlement and may have been actually carrying out a postal service for their community (which from the prompts indicated that the faction they belong to were "criminals" which I then interpreted as maybe a "harder" "more brutal" community than The Uni.) But then a "coup" happened, and their settlement was attacked by an even more brutal faction of marauder thugs.

I was hoping Old Bear could talk to the postal carrier, find out what was going on, but since they had a tag of "wary" and they were maybe on the run from marauders, I asked mythic whether they would shoot immediately and got an "exceptional yes"--they are spooked and shoot a few rounds. Old Bear reacts of course (I randomly generated Initiative and Old Bear happened to take the first spot.)

I read that combat in T2K4 is brutal, but was still surprised by the outcome. The burst from his M4 combined with his skill as rifleman and luck of the roll just annihilated the NPC.

Back to the new individual. Since Mythic says that they are connected to the postal carrier, I expected the marauders, but instead I got "Civilian (local)." So, I interpret some more and I figure this is someone connected to the postal carrier and they had escaped the same attack as the postal carrier. Here I decide, seeing their friend shot or at least seeing them on the ground, not moving, and having heard shots, they decide to leave and save themselves.

Old Bear goes prone and scans. He sees another person but only for a brief moment. This new person leaves immediately. Old Bear takes a risk and rushes to the postal carrier's body. He searches the body and finds three magazines for the rifle and an unopened letter. He grabs the rifle and goes back to Crow and Clove. He hands the rifle to Crow.


"Let's get out of here before anyone else shows up," Old Bear says.

Result of Scene

NPCs: 3;

• 1 decently armed guard; no further information, except likelihood that this person is connected to leaflet
• 1 person or group who created pamphlet
• 1 person connected to postal carrier who Old Bear shot in Episode 4

Stress:

• Clove: 1
• Crow: 1
• Old Bear: 0

New threads:

• Baby left at settlement. Who are the parents?
  • Baby needs formula
• Recruited two teenagers, a boy and a girl. Found them drinking and smoking.
• Came across a dangerous postal carrier who Old Bear shot and killed. Someone was nearby and may have witnessed the shooting.

Chaos factor: 6+1=7

Dawn, Session 1 - Clove goes scrounging

 

Some preamble: This was first attempt at playing solo. The idea was to start slowly, send my character on a simple scrounging mission, use the travel map I had created, and the tables and oracles I had gathered to see how it felt and what came of it. 

EPISODE 1 - March 13, 2024

Clove goes scrounging.

Scene 1

Month: March
Weather: Roll 1=clear; roll for previous day=6, ground dry; mobility, agl=no effect
Shift: Day, visibility=no effect
Setting: Surrounding area, The Uni; stress=no effect
NPCs: none
Settlers: 18, all healthy

---

Thread: Having completed her chores, Clove decides to go out to scrounge, this time going a little further than she usually does. She gets on her bike and travels...

Roll

Roll N=1, E=2, S=3, W=4, Roll =3

Clove decides to go south, following the train tracks that lead east and south away from the settlement. The ground is rough, but dry, and she makes steady progress. She passes familiar debris, mostly trash, abandoned and stripped vehicles. She turns south...

Clove ventures south

Roll

Encounter roll on "Simple Mythic." Result=3 No, but...

Roll on Site Characteristics table from T2K4 referee manual=29, propaganda leaflets

Clove sees a piece of paper on the ground and stops to examine it. She notices it because it doesn't look old or worn down like other trash you would normally find. The piece of paper looks like it's been left there for a day or two.

She gets off her bike to examine it more closely. It's folded into three folds like a pamphlet, the kind she used to see at the nurse's office at school or at the dentist. And just like a pamphlet, it has a bunch of text on it. It's in a hand-written style but it doesn't look like ink but photocopied. This surprises her. She decides to pick it up and scans the text.

Roll

Roll on Ironsworn, Oracle 1: Action and Oracle 2: Theme. Result=41 and 2; reject, ability

The text is pretty dense, but she picks up a few phrases: "We must choose to return to nature...Mother Earth punished us and now we must submit...Reject your urge to build and instead embrace your desire to destroy..."

Roll

Roll for stress, 1 point assigned. Roll 1D6, 1D8; Result: 4, 3=fail; gain 1 point of stress

Clove is slightly disturbed by the text and quickly looks around her, a sudden feeling of being watched overtakes her. But she sees nothing, just a few crows. Just as quickly, she shakes off the awful feeling--feeling a little silly instead. She stuffs the paper in her backup. "Dawn and them will want to see this," she thinks.

Result of Scene

NPC: none
Stress: Increased to 1

Scene 2

Shift: Day, visibility=no effect
Setting: North of the port, edge of warehouse area, see Overworld map
NPCs: none

Roll

Roll for Site Charactersitcs, Site Characterstics table, T2K4. Result=42; Prisoners on display

As her habit, Clove took out her binoculars. The warehouse section of the port was mostly empty, with a few cars and construction-type vehicles scattered about. In a parking lot section, out in the open, she saw a...

Roll

Roll for how many prisoners she sees, D6. Result=4, 1; twist die success, so roll again on D6. Result=3, 3; Organization, Helps the hero

A group of four people, two of them are tied up and the other two are kids. The kids aren't tied up but they don't look like they want to go anywhere. There's a guard with them but the way the guard is watching them, the kids could probably easily get away. If they ran a few feet, behind a car or something, they may be able to slip away, especially if they tried at the same time.

Roll

Ask Simple Mythic Oracle, are there guards? D6. Result=4, Yes But...Roll for # of guards, D4, result=1

Clove scans the area but can only see one guard.

Roll

Roll on Further Elements table, T2K4. Result=8, J, Q; New, Genius, Kid; Roll D6 for gender. Assign odd for man, even for woman. Result=6

The guards is wearing glasses, and she's well dressed, at least for the apocalypse. She's not wearing the kind of gear that suggest she's some post-apocalyptic wanna-be warrior that you sometimes come across. Her clothes look relatively well taken care of, like she's going to work. Apocalypse hipster?

Roll

Roll for weapon and armor coverage using Tables and generators; Result: Hunting Rifle, that pulls hard to the left (imablanced), and armor for arms and torso

She's got a hunting rifle slung across her shoulder and some type of armor on her arms and body.

Clove assesses the situation. All she's got is her bow and knife. That's no match for a well-armed guard, even if there is only one of them. And that pamphlet she found has her a little creeped out. She decides to go back to the Uni to get some help.

Result of Scene

NPCs: 6;

• 4 prisoners, 2 adults 1 kid;
• 1 decently armed guard
• 1 person or group who created pamphlet
  Stress: 1

Introducing Clove

Illustration by Bulletproof-Eggs

Born and raised in Portland, Oregon. Sara Lee, aka Clove, was a senior in high school when the Collapse happened. It started like any other day in class, but when the first bell had rung, half the class hadn't shown up. By lunch period, another half were gone, parents pulling out their kids in a panic. She was one of a handful of students who rode out the day in school and walked home after picking up her brother. Her parents, hard-working immigrants even during the Collapse, went home only after clocking out from work. They ate dinner as a family like they usually did, then watched the news transfixed.

There were reports of an outbreak, a virus that killed in 24 to 48 hours, and hospitals unable to deal with a surge of sick and dying. In 72 hours, most of the people in their block had left the city. Her family decided to stay put--no one was sick and it felt safer to stay. Anyway, there was nowhere to go. They could possibly go to family in Idaho, but the virus was there, too.

One by one, texts to friends stopped being answered. Social media showed a world gone mad--a horror movie come to life. Her parents had to take her phone away. Four days later her mom and dad started exhibiting symptoms. Her brother the day after. Sara felt it, too, but unlike them, she recovered. They called hospitals but no one picked up. She got up half lucid in the middle of the night to find her family gone. Her mother and brother were in bed together and her dad on the kitchen floor, his mouth left open gasping for air.

She fled to the backyard and stayed there for three days and nights falling asleep on the ground and drinking water from a hose. At some point she heard a man yelling, calling out for survivors. She ignored him. Then out of nowhere something snapped inside her. She went back inside, doing her best to avoid the dead bodies in the house, grabbed her phone, stuffed a backpack with what she thought could be of use, and roamed the neighborhood.

There were other people about, but she stayed away from them and stayed away from the homes. She assumed the houses were full of dead people, too. She found food in an abandoned, broken-in liquor store, and slept in parking lots, fields, and parks. She followed working open wi-fi signals until she couldn't find anymore. Then maybe a week later, or was it two--time had lost its meaning--she found herself at the University, known later as The Uni.

She slept in the quad, sheltered in a coffee stall. Dawn found her the next morning, a kind smile on the woman's face. Like a skittish animal, Clove bolted away. She spent the next few days circling the perimeter of the school, spying on Dawn and her friends during the day, and sleeping near the train tracks at night.

They had a garden. Sara's mom had a garden. Sara went to the garden. Dawn found her there, but this time she didn't run away.

"What's your name?" Dawn asked.

"Clove," she answered.

CLOVE

• Age: 18
• Nationality: Chinese-American
• Branch: Civilian
• Appearance: Jet black hair, medium height, likes to wear athletic wear, and always brings around a toolkit and a bag to stuff scavenge into with her.
• Military Rank: n/a
• Moral Code: Family above all else; tech is worth preserving
• Buddy: Dawn
• Big Dream: Bring sustainable electricity; find a family
• Trauma: Took care of her family during the Outbreak and watched her family die from the virus
• How did they meet the group: Rode out the virus mostly at home but came across Dawn when exploring the old University.

---

ATTRIBUTES AND SKILLS

STR	C	AGL	A	INT	B	EMP
Heavy Wpns		Driving		Recon	C	Command
Close Cmbt	D	Mobility	C	Survival	B	Persuasion
Stamina		Ranged	D	Tech	D	Medical Aid

Specialties:
Scrounger, +1 modifier to survival rolls for scrounging

---

• Damage: 0/5
• Stress: 1/5
• CUF: D
• Unit Morale: C/

---

Health

• Critical Injuries:
• Diseases:
• Starving:
• Dehydrated:
• Sleep Deprived:
• Hypothermic:
• Radiation
  • Temporary: 0/10
  • Permanent: 0/10

---

WEAPONS

Wpn	REL	ROF	DMG	CRIT	BLAST	RNG	MAG	ARMR	WGT	SPENT AMMO
Bow	3		1	3	-	2			1
Knife	5		2	3	-	2		1	1

---

GEAR

Carrying Capacity: 8/8, current weight: 7.75 lbs.

Combat Gear	Back Pack
1. Bow	1. Lockpicks
2. Knife	2. Crowbar
3. Flashlight	3. Basic tools
4. Binoculars	4. Small battery
5.	5. Sleeping bag
6.	6. Blanket (not on person)
7.	7. Flask/water
8.	8. First aid kit
9.	9.
10.	10.
11.	11.
12.	12.

---

VEHICLE

• Vehicle One: Bicycle
• Type:
• Reliability:
• Travel Speed:
• Combat Speed:
• Damage: