Week 1 The game started on a cold wet afternoon in November, with the team enroute to the old Carriage Cleaning Sheds south of Victoria Station to collect an urgent requisition in a motor pool Bedford Truck from the government stores there. They skirted the Green Park and Hyde Park refuge camps, and pulled into the railway areas through the side gate by the Victoria BOAC terminal, which both Tobermory Jones and James O'Brien knew about. They had to divert some kids away who were scavenging for fuel to take back to the camps in the Chelsea Hospital.
Arriving at the shed, Josie entered by the pedestrian door to open the vehicle entrance, and was faced by a very jumpy and lonely guard (Pvt John Anderson, Sometimes I get a bit Panicky (-) ) who challenged her. The first conflict of the game happened her with Josie sweet talking him into co-operation and looking at the papers to see they had a legitimate reason to be there rather than shooting her. On unloading, they discovered that some of the electric supplies they had to collect had already been requisitioned, and had been taken away by an M Todd. Burgess thought that this sounded like a dodgy undertaker who he knew, who was exploiting public health payments from the Ministry of Food.
It was late afternoon when they got back to Down Street, and they found that their boss, Major Hugh Wilson had left them a note telling them they were late and to meet at the Ritz. Josie was barged by one of the BERB people on the Down Street stairwell, and she realised after the event that she knew him from Porton, one Harry Ackroyd. Burgess was pretty shocked at the treatment. They took the truck to the Ritz, and after O'Brien and Jones were changed into ill-fitting but appropriate jackets and ties by the concierge, they entered the bar.
The Ritz was a shock to most of the team as it was like the war had never happened. Good food, drink and a great jazz show by Humphrey Lyttleton accompanied their brief meeting with Major Wilson, who ordered them to deliver the parts to HMS Dreadnought (moored at Charing Cross Pier) and then to follow up the potential pilfering of the stores by Todd the next day. As the team rose to leave, the waiter asked Burgess to come over to see another gentleman. Short, well dressed and probably as wide as he was tall, he was sitting back to the wall with a pipe. It was, of course, Richard Powell, Burgess' MI5 contact who told him to keep an eye on the 'BERB Johnnies' as they were 'up to something'. There was a short discussion of the merits of moles vs weasels vs rats, and the shame that there were so many these days, and Burgess then rejoined the group.
Relieved, O'Brien and Jones were out of their jackets and they drove down the razor wire protected Navy Compound by the Thames. O'Brien did the talking with the Marines on guard, and the team entered the compound and saw HMS Dreadnought tied up as they were unloaded. They then headed to the pub and had a drink, agreeing to start at the Carriage Cleaning Sheds the next morning to track down any clues as to who had pilfered their supplies.
Tobermory Jones wanted to verify the story Burgess told about Mortimer Todd, so he went to visit Mrs Bloomer (I have the confidence of everyone who's anyone (-) ) with her favourite tipple. Being drunk, and also a bit a a cheeky chap he charmed his way back into her confidence, narrowly missing his negative traits adding unexpected consequences. He found out that Mortimer Todd did, in fact, have a haulage firm which had been doing rather well and was built on Army trucks.
Next morning, the team took a Land Rover and headed back to the Shed, where they discovered that M Todd was the haulier, and it was signed for by a J Swales. The requistion was authorised by a Squadron Leader Lazenby Harris, who was in a similar position to Major Wilson, but suffering from the INDIGO-DIAMOND effect in the way he was treated in the SSG.
They decided to leave Harris for later, and headed west along the Embankment towards Brompton Cemetery and Mortimer Todd's Offices...
Week 2
The team drove down to the cemetery, and parked up the Land Rover, walking on foot towards the Mortuary Chapel and the parts of that Mortimer Todd had requisitioned. As they drew close, they saw a number of people hanging around the outside in smart suits, with obvious bulges for guns. The only member of the SSG team with an obvious weapon was Tobermory Jones, who was discovering that it was pretty difficult to hide a Stirling Submachine Gun.
Burgess recognised the leader of the group as Billy Todd, Mortimer's younger, less subtle, and less bright, brother. With his clear upper class accent, Burgess made it plain that he would brook no dissent, and insisted on seeing Mortimer. Billy made a show of pretending that he wasn't around, but went and checked, coming back to say that everyone but the guy with the gun could come and see his brother. Tobermory was left upstairs as the rest of the group descended into the bowels of the mortuary chapel to the offices that Todd had established. Todd and Burgess' mutual loathing was obvious, and the initial pleasantries rapidly deteriorated into a set of sharp exchanges as each tried to browbeat the other.
[A conflict on Influence initiated here to find as much out about what Todd had been shipping. Josie chipped in to support Burgess with her Truth Seeker trait, aided by the details of the transactions they had found out earlier which gave an extra 2 dice as a tool. The players won, and asked for Todd to blurt out something important as well as answer the questions.]
Intimidated by the potential risk to his government contracts, and the quietly intimidating man standing behind Burgess and Miller, Todd let it slip that someone called Edward Robinson was involved with the work that he had been doing moving stuff. Josie recognised this as someone senior in BERB. Todd denied knowing where the stuff went, but said John Swales, a driver he used would know. He said where he could be found, just south of the river and downstream of Battersea Power Station. He also let Josie review the documents for transit and take the originals on a promise that she would return them if he needed them. One of these referenced a Morganhammer Drive, but the rest seemed to be electrical kit and on genuine requisition dockets. Todd denied any wrong doing.
The team left, picking up Tobermory who was trying to psyche out the men upstairs. As they left, they noticed that the catacomb entrances showed signs of use, guessing that they were probably stores for Todd's operations. They chased off the kids who were trying to steal the Land Rover's tyres, and headed south across the Chelsea Bridge, past Battersea Power Station (now running a few hours a day at most and guarded by army reserves) and along the southern bank of the Thames until they reached the location where Swales was meant to be.
As they pulled up, O'Brien decided to stay with the car, watching the increased activity on the river. Most of the houses here were bombed out, but the team found a group of men warming themselves by a brazier. As the team arrived, one of the men was pointing to the other, west along the river towards the power station and saying ' and it was shooting up into the sky'. [This was Elaine's image from the pre-game session.]
Using cigarettes as a bribe, the team rapidly established that Swales was talking, that he was describing some weird lightning that shot up from Battersea Power Station into the sky a few nights before during a storm, leaving a purple after-image. He assumed that it was something to do with the weapons the Russians had used. After some more cigarettes from Burgess, he happily talked about the work that he'd done for Todd. Apparently he'd dropped off some electrical supplies at the Power Station, some more up near the hospitals by Westminster bridge in some lockups near a railway, and finally one delivery to Goodge Street Station which had been collected and taken down below by a senior looking RAF officer and his men, going by the name of Michael Gordon. The last one rang alarm bells as Goodge Street had been closed for so long. Cultivating the opportunity to use Swales as a contact, they found that he lived in one of the less damaged houses here and was willing to work.
The team headed back to Down Street. As they came to the barricade, they witnessed the army executing a suspected Soviet NCO who was found in the Regents Park refugee camp and had obviously forged papers with Americanised spellings. It was a big change from the London they knew and loved.
At the station, Josie pulled out her old BERB pass, and took Tobermory downstairs to the deeper part of the station to pay a visit to Harry Ackroyd to try and establish if he knew what the connection to Edward Robinson was. Crossing the boot barrier into the clean area, with Tobermory disguised as an electrician (using a tool bag to hide his SMG), Josie Miller went and found Ackroyd's office, dimly let except for the desk light which he was peddling.
The door closed, they proceeded to intimidate him, with Tobermory adding to the threat by pulling out his SMG just as Ackroyd was being asked how he survived. [Conflict, lead by Josie to get him to sing. She invokes her hidden agenda about finding out what BERB are up to, gaining 3 more dice. The team wins, and Ackroyd gains a temporary trait of 'Sings Like a Canary'.] Going pale, panicking and soiling himself, Harry admits that BERB are planning something to 'put them back were they should be', and mentions that a lot of RAF top brass have been seen here, visiting The Professor and others. He also tells Josie that Robinson isn't based her in Down Street at the moment, but is at a BERB safe house out in Wimbledon, near the Tennis Courts. Apparently, he's working on a secret project. Satisfied, Josie and Tobermory leave, reminding Ackroyd to tell no one of their visit, and not to ever push Josie Miller on the stairs again.
Reunited, the team decided to head to Wimbledon even though it was late in the day...
Week 3
We finally got to play again last Wednesday for the first time since Continuum. It was a close run thing, as I had a lot of issues at work which meant that I got home late, and my preparation was less than I really wanted. Neil couldn't make it, so we ran his character James as a co-owned character between me as GM and the players.
The game resumed with the team heading south of the River in their Land Rover, in the direction of Wimbledon. The trip there was pretty uneventful, even though it was heading towards late afternoon. The centre of Wandsworth was a mess, and the team were relieved to reach Wimbledon. They passed the Lawn Tennis Association's Courts as the sun was starting to sink low, looking on at the despair of an abandoned refuge camp. Finally, they turned west along Copse Hill (graffiti'd to the obvious) and arrived outside the suburban address they had been given as being the location of the BERB safe-house where Robinson was holed up.
The house was in good condition, protected by a well established tall hedge with razor wire on the top. Alongside, to the right, was a track going towards the golf course at the back. The team immediately picked up on the fact that this was pretty clear, despite the general overgrown look of other parts of the street. They had a quick discussion (with Josie increasingly taking the lead) and drove around the back, parked around to the left.
As they did, they noticed some figures in the distance on the Common and Golf Course to the north, silhouetted against the fading light. Strangely, they looked as if they were walking dogs, and were almost a picture of normality except they were all wearing weird sloped and pointed hats, and the high grass and shrubs which had sprung up since the war broke out somewhat concealed them.
The team decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and to focus on the job in hand. The back of the house had the same high hedge with razor-wire on top, but set within in was a black wrought iron gate, with a well maintained padlock. Needless to say, this failed quickly to the application of brute force, and the team entered into a scarily well kept garden. It was almost as if the last 12 months hadn’t had any impact on the place. They forced the back door into the laundry/utility area, and moved on into the kitchen. Two things immediately became apparent; the house had power, and it was well stocked with good food and drink, albeit preserved rather than fresh in some cases. Tobermory immediately liberated some ‘vital supplies’, and the team started to explore the house.
The dining room showed signs of having been used recently (the meal had not been cleaned up). The front parlour was covered with dustsheets and obviously not used. And then they noticed the stairs going down to the cellar under the staircase to the first floor. They also realised there was a hum from downbelow. “Must be the generator”, was the comment. So, have established from tracks in the dust on the stairs that people had been down here recently, they headed down, somewhat nervously.
Two things became apparent; although the room was not lit, there was a disturbing set of glowing orange lights in linear arrays in the gloom, and the place was warm and seemed well ventilated. Finding a light switch, Josie revealed the room to contain what seemed to be a near start of the art computer set, with tape and piles of punched cards around. The light also revealed that the cellar stairs continued downwards and had thick, armoured, power cables coming up into the computer system.
The lower cellar was a storage area with a surprising find. There was what looked (initially) like a water tank in the middle of the room, about 2 yards in diameter, clad in polystyrene. As the team examined it, they realised that the ‘water tank’ had an atomic trefoil warning symbol on it. Examining it further showed that a polystrene jacket surrounded a concrete cylinder with a steel drum inset into it around a yard diameter. Writing on a plate on the top stated ‘Mark IIa Portable Atomic Pile – Licence holder: BERB’. The team were lost for words. They went back upstairs to discuss the finds, heading to the first floor.
One of the main bedrooms was obviously being used by a man for its intended purpose. The other was a veritable treasure trove. The walls were covered in plans, PERT charts and calculations. There was a drawing board with maps and calculations. Spending some time examining the room, the team shared experiences which started to put things together;
- The map showed a location in Wiltshire near Porton Down.
- There was a second map of London with the Battersea Power Station marked on.
- Both locations had detailed latitude and longitude recorded.
- The Wiltshire Map was an Air Ministry one, with Indigo Diamond Eyes Only stamped across it. There was a navigation route for an aircraft on it.
- The PERT chart indicated that something was due to happen that night at Battersea.
- There were references to the Morganhammer Drive and some complex engineering designs which suggested some kind of twisted technology with a temporal and spatial purpose. References were made to a portal.
- There were many complex calculations for time and distance which seemed to be linking Battersea to the Wiltshire location, but with time and spatial references a year apart.
From this, the team immediately concluded that BERB was trying to get a team to retrieve something – or someone – from Porton Down a year ago before it was H-Bombed. Burgess grabbed what appeared to be the key documents and maps to take back to HQ and as he did so the team heard a truck of some-sort pull up outside.
Keeping a low profile, they did their best to observe from the windows. The truck appeared to drive alongside the building to the gate to the golf course. There was silence for a moment, and then a whistle and some ululating cries coming from the golf course. Some of the figures, which had been on the common, met with some uniformed people from the truck (in greatcoats and hats) who appeared to direct them to unload something. Soon after, the cries were heard again, and then the truck departed.
Shortly after, Tobermory slipped out to see if the coast was clear, and saw someone in a fur coat had the bonnet of their Land Rover open, looking like they were trying to steal parts. Waving his Sterling SMG, he challenged the person, only to realise when they turned around that the person was some kind of horror. Perhaps just short of 6 foot tall, stocky and wide, with a white fur/hair covering, the creature opened a yellowed pointed snout to reveal vicious fangs. Beady eyes looked out from the snout, and what looked like nothing so-much as a park keeper’s peaked hat seemed to grow out from the head, meshing with the matted fur. The abomination had what looked like the remains of a Royal Parks Uniform jacket, and a long, sharp, litter stick. [Hello, Wombie!].
Tobermory decided to escape rather than fight, and the creature wanted to rend him limb from limb. [The conflict was a bit unsatisfactory as the 15D vs 11D didn’t get a clear win for either, as it was, Tobermory took a -1D temporary descriptor in damage]. He narrowly escaped backwards, being hurt on his arm, and then the rest of the team piled in to back him up. They definitely hurt the creature, which dived back into the undergrowth. [The second conflict hurt the creature, reducing the action score and reducing the later threat.]
As they gathered their wits, another truck arrived; the team fled to the kitchen, and barricaded the door with furniture. And then they were surprised to hear a knock on the door, followed by an upper clash English voice with a slight eastern European hint call-out; “Robinson, are you alright? Did the creatures get upset?”.
Deciding the time had come to bluff, the team opened the door to be faced by a senior RAF officer in his greatcoat. “Hello,” he said, “I’m Group Captain Michael Gordon. And you are?”…
---
And we wrapped at that point. The game suffered from the long break, and also the fact that the team had decided to take a direct route to the main BERB site rather than check out the other areas that were hinted at. This made the evening somewhat exposition heavy. But Skype was working well, and Hot War has a nice, flexible system.
Oh, and the Group Captain was not all he seemed, but you can find out later…
The Wombies are based on a blend of the Wombles, Park Keepers and Bayonet Troops. They have a bunker in the common, and are controlled by the agent with twisted technology who manufactured them.
We did run at least one more session, but I cannot find either my write up notes or the scenario. It involved the Vulcan Bomber with a H-Bomb being pulled through a rift and crashing by Battersea Power Station. The players intervened to prevent the bomb falling into the wrong hands. Unfortunately, I can't remember what happened next. I wonder if any of the players will?
19 January 2025
