Adventure 7 - Wartime Measures
Once again I found myself battling Mother Nature. This winter has been surprising and unforgiving. For the 3rd time our regular Fallen London game was delayed as not everyone felt they could make it out. Luckily 3 players did make the journey and they too were caught up in the snow. The storm arrived later in the evening making the trip home daunting.
It was a bit of a sad ending to game night, but we were lucky to have a fun Saturday! Steven (Constable Jack Weston), Erick (Ermanach, the Irish Zailor), and Garret (The Robot) came by and had an explosive game. A pity it could'’t go longer…
Because not all the heroes were present and accounted for the three that were around decided to assist the Royal Navy. Lord Admiral Addington has grand plans for a raid on a nearby Nazi outpost - the Jungen Buoy. These plans are not yet ready, but the small team of heroes decided they could help by trying to capture a small Nazi patrol boat. By taking a boat they could get more clues on the strange technology from Berlin. By capturing Nazi Zailors they could get some answers...
A plan was hatched by the heroes themselves - with only tacit permission from Addington. They rigged up the Tugboat Betsy to look like an innocent fishing vessel. With a dozen Royal marines hiding in barrels and underneath nets they zailed to the Corsair's forest to spring a trap!
Getting close to Nazi vessels gave challenges from the Zee itself. The Betsy went by the Fitzbottle, a titanic whirlpool, to avoid traffic. The heroes hoped that by sitting in the dark Zee, away from any other boat they could isolate a target and entice it to attack. There they sat until a small German Patrol boat came by.
The heroes allowed the Nazi boat to come close. The German zailors tossed hooks to snare the Betsy, and then boarded the tugboat. They played dumb until many Nazi's were aboard the Betsy. Suddenly Reiser / Charon rang the ship's bell - the dozen Marines popped out of their barrels in ambush. The firefight was brief with several marines chasing Nazi's back to the patrol boat. In shock and fear many Nazi's surrendered and struck by British rifles.
The heroes took the German ship - conveniently already rigged up to the Tugboat.
Capturing the Nazi’s and their vessel proved easy enough. A good amount of time was spent preparing the Patrol boat to be towed back to London however. Working to tow their prize attracted more German’s however, and Constable Weston noticed that they had a UnterZeeBoat on their tail. The UZB had fired a few torpedoes towards the the heroes - now a much larger target. Reiser and the Robot pushed bucket loads of coal into the Tugboat. They reached maximum speed, while Ermanach manned the steering wheel of the German Patrol boat. Keeping their prize in control behind the Betsy.
To shrug off the UZB, the heroes opted to move closer to the Fitzbottle. They hoped that the underwater vessel wold find it difficult to avoid the current. But, just as they neared the whirlpool, the towed Patrol boat was struck by the last of the torpedoes!
Time was off the essence and several things happened at once. The Patrol boat began to sink - its hull irrecoverably cracked. Royal Marines scrambled across the ropes and chains back to the Towing Betsy. Reiser took a hard turn away from the Fitzbottle as their dead weight started to pull them towards oblivion.
After all the marines jumped off the Patrol boat and were near enough the Betsy to be pulled aboard, Ermanach dove directly into the water. As the Irishman was a fantastic swimmer he even helped a Royal Marine was being sucked in by the current.
However the final chain was too strong to be cut and the spool was entirely unwound. Weston and the Robot tried hacksaws, wrenches, and crowbars to no effect. The Betsy started to tilt and the Sinking Patrol Boat started to pull the tugboat into the Whirlpool. With no time to think the (nearly) indestructible Robot used a powder charge to blast apart the Chain linking Betsy to the Patrol Boat!
The Robot was blown clear off the Betsy and tossed into the water. As the Betsy righted itself Ermanach once again dove into the water. In the darkness he found the robot and several Marines heaved the heavy pair back aboard. Clear of any more drag the Betsy took off with extraordinary speed and power. The Marines, the Nazi prisoners, the Heroes and Charon zailed safely back to the London.
Although the heroes returned without any more Nazi technology the navy was able to interrogate the prisoners. Addington added this Intel to plans for the Jungen Buoy mission. And the Heroes were disturbed to learn that the Nazis have flying machines as part of their forces...
What happens next, is something we will all just have to wait for and see.
Adventure 1 — Adventure 2 — Adventure 3 — Adventure 4 — Adventure 5 — Adventure 6 — Adventure 7 —Adventure 8 — Adventure 9 — Epilogue