(Since InvisibleCastle is gone and Rolz won't let me link results directly I'll be using a
dice roller room for transparent rolls. Password is "advictorium")
TURN TWO ACTIONS
Resources: 2
One point on improving Intel, 8/10 until next level
One point on bribing Coastal Cottage with supplies, +1 Diplomacy
Manpower: 2
One deployed to establish checkpoints around Nordhagen Beach
One deployed to establish checkpoints around Cambridge Police Station
R&D: 4
Two points to bribe Bunker Hill, +2 Diplomacy
One point to improve Coastal Cottage's infrastructure, +1 Diplomacy
One point to improve Threat, 16/20 until next level
Intel: 1
One spent to recon Corvega Assembly Plant occupied by Raiders
As the embers of Libertalia burned themselves out, the Brotherhood moved to address other nearby threats to their territory.
Elder Maxson deemed a frontal assault on Fort Strong too risky until more intel or manpower could be brought to bear on the Super Mutants, so instead he ordered that patrols and checkpoints all along Nordhagen Beach be increased to guard against attack.
Far to the west, the soldiers occupying the Cambridge Police Station eyed the raider-infested Corvega Assembly Plant warily. The raiders' numbers and equipment were unknown, so a recon unit was dispatched to assess their strength and determine the feasibility of clearing them from the factory.
They did not make it far.
The team was beset upon by ghouls as they attempted to infiltrate the ruins of Lexington in the shadow of the plant, and the resulting laser fire attracted the notice of the sleeping raiders. As the team leader prepared to order a tactical withdrawal he heard the distinctive sound of a Fat Man shell whistling through the air before a miniature nuclear blast ripped the squad to pieces.
The lone survivor, a shell-shocked Initiate, hid in the ruins of a collapsed storefront for hours before stealing back to the police station with his report.
Scouting Mission at Corvega Assembly Plant
Brotherhood of Steel vs Jared's Raiders
Brotherhood of Steel
1 Intel
1d6+1=3
Jared's Raiders
1d6=6 (Critical success)
No Intel Gained
When news of the disastrous recon mission reached him Elder Maxson ordered the remaining soldiers at Cambridge to likewise increase their patrols in the area, suspecting that the Corvega raiders would seek retribution for the intrusion on their territory.
Despite the recent setback, the successful negotiations at Spectacle Island convinced Elder Maxson that the Brotherhood could spare some surplus resources if it meant encouraging the locals to support their cause. Another more relief package was assembled for the settlers of Coastal Cottage, and Senior Scribe Neriah was once again pulled from her experiments to join Proctor Ingram on a vertibird to Bunker Hill. Elder Maxson, unable to be in two places at once, entrusted the negotiations with Coastal Cottage to Knight-Captains Kells and Cade.
The flight to Bunker Hill was brief, as the pilot was forced to set down on the edge of Charlestown due to the cramped streets surrounding their objective. Elder Maxson and the other envoys were escorted to the town gates on foot by members of the militia, and despite Scribe Neriah's concerns about security the group was unmolested by raiders the entire way. When they reached the memorial they found the town's spokeswoman, Kessler, waiting for them.
Elder Maxson introduced himself and his subordinates: Proctor Ingram gave a brusque word of compliment regarding the town walls, but suggested that they could be fortified with the right architectural and engineering know-how, and Scribe Neriah made a sound rather like a strangled radstag doe when presented with the town water condenser. Maxson diplomatically suggested that they leave the two of them to their work while he and Kessler got down to business. Once they were seated at a hastily-prepared table inside the memorial hall, Maxson innocently commented on the notable absence of raiders in the area near the hill. Kessler openly admitted that the town paid them off with the caps the traders and market brought in, and when Maxson suggested putting that money to better use she scoffed. "What better use than keeping our skins intact?"
"What good is keeping your skin if you have to surrender your spine?" he retorted.
That got Kessler riled, but Maxson continued by pointing out that the Brotherhood could offer them protection--
real protection, not some slimy synonym for extortion--at a fraction of what the raiders were demanding. They could improve every quality of the townspeople's lives with their knowledge and technology, merely in exchange for an adherence to Brotherhood law. They could be part of something bigger than a bunch of junk traders huddling together on an old hill.
Kessler promised to consider the Elder's words, and even thanked the Brotherhood for lending Neriah and Ingram for the afternoon, but told Maxson that she couldn't make the decision unilaterally. She needed time to consult with the other major players in Bunker Hill, the merchants who might pull out if they thought the town was being conquered. Maxson requested the chance to speak to them himself, and Kessler hesitantly agreed to arrange a meeting.
Negotiations at Bunker Hill
Brotherhood of Steel
+2 infrastructure support
1d6+2=7
Bunker Hill is considering supporting the Brotherhood of Steel (1/2)
Far, far to the north of the
Prydwen, the second vertibird approached the lonely coastal community. The settlement was little more than a pair of ruined cottages overlooking a small bay, but it was the only farm of note this far up the coast and Elder Maxson believed it would make a good outpost to launch scouting missions into the unmapped northeast. The vertibird made a single pass to allow Knight-Captains Kells and Cade a view of the dismal place before landing. Both houses had been shoddily-repaired and propped up with scrap metal, and a single lonely guard tower was perched on a rocky outcropping facing the water. The stink of dead fish and mirelurk was strong even before the vertibird touched down, and on the ground it was nearly overwhelming.
Kells met with the farmstead's patriarch while Cade led a pair of Initiates into the cellar with a crate of basic medical supplies and winter clothes skimmed from the logistics division; there he found a number of farmhands huddled in sleeping bags and shivering from flu. He quickly went to work diagnosing and treating each of them, directing the Initiates to wrap their extremities in blankets and showing the settlers how to make medicinal tea with various wasteland herbs and flowers.
Upstairs, the patriarch and Kells sat in what had once been the cottage's master bedroom before a tree limb had smashed the wall facing the coast--with the generators running, it was still warm enough to make a good observation deck. The patriarch, an older man with a scarred face and thick grey beard, thanked Kells for the help of his doctor but told him flat-out that his people had no interest in joining anyone's army. Kells assured him that the Brotherhood had no need for conscription--yet, he added mentally to himself--and was only interested in offering the settlers protection and logistical support in exchange for a portion of their crops and the use of their land. He explained that the Brotherhood was engaged in an ongoing campaign to bring peace and stability to the Commonwealth, and asked if the patriarch or his people had ever heard of the Institute. The patriarch admitted that they knew of the Institute's existence, but that it was nothing more than a name on the radio to them this far from Boston.
Kells warned that although the Institute had been routed and their labs destroyed, it was all too likely that a number of their scientists and synths had escaped into the Commonwealth. These survivors would seek refuge far from the Brotherhood of Steel, in isolated communities much like this one, and over time would seek to continue their twisted experiments however they could. Experiments which involved kidnapping and replacing people with soulless machine dopplegangers programmed to carry out the Institute's will. If the patriarch agreed to talk his people into supporting the Brotherhood, Kells concluded, then they could protect them from this very real danger.
The patriarch requested some time to ponder the Knight-Captain's words, and Kells agreed to stay a while longer. By the time Cade had done all he could for the ill settlers in the cellar, the patriarch gave them his answer.
Negotiations at Coastal Cottage
Brotherhood of Steel
1d6+2=8
New Settlement Gained!
Warning! Super Mutants from Fort Strong are preparing to attack Nordhagen Beach!
A patrol of Knights briefly engaged and retreated from a large group of Super Mutant marauders marching up the peninsula towards the settlement. Unless they are intercepted they will kill and/or kidnap a number of the farmers.
Warning! Raiders from Corvega Assembly Plant are preparing to attack Graygarden!
A vertibird on overwatch spotted a party of raiders attempting to slip through the woods towards the greenhouses. Their target is almost certainly the greenhouses at Graygarden, possibly in retribution for the incursion at Corvega. Unless they are intercepted they will damage or destroy the robot gardeners, steal as much produce as they can, and burn the rest.
So here's how raider attacks work: if you have advance warning, you can move Manpower units to defend the target--I'll say that since you have Vertibirds you can shift Manpower units from anywhere on the map instead of within a certain radius. Luckily you guys already have Manpower stationed at both locations, so all you have to decide is whether you want to defend each target with one Manpower or shift one to the other.
If you didn't have Manpower available to defend the settlement, then whatever garrison is stationed there is overwhelmed and the raiders succeed by default. If it's a settlement, it takes a strike mark. Three strikes, and the settlement is either wiped off the map or the inhabitants give up on your faction and abandon it--it then becomes a new hive of activity, and retaking it does not turn it back into a settlement. You can clear all the strike marks on a settlement by spending 1 Resource point OR by clearing out the raider hive responsible for attacking it.
If it's a Fortified or Resource Location the raiders occupy it and it becomes a new hive of activity.
I should also take this opportunity to mention what happens if you should actually
lose a battle: any Manpower you've invested is temporarily unavailable until you spent 1 Resource point to bring it back up to combat readiness.
So what are your deployment orders?
[ ] Defend both locations
[ ] Defend Graygarden
[ ] Defend Nordhagen Beach
[ ] Defend neither
