The Game Is Afoot!!!

{It's the last day of school; exams are written and it's time to celebrate a bit. Before Robby goes off to see Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter with a friend this evening, we wanted to write another chapter in the Sherlock Holmes vs. the SA adventure. Here goes...}

Holmes, Watson, Inspector Lestrade, Constable Timmins, and the valiant Gladstone crept silently into the cavern that housed the tomb of Holgar the Dane. The trail of the stormtroopers holding Isabelle von Tromp had been perilous and they felt they had lost it more than once. But now, she and her captors were near. Holmes could sense it!

Watson, Gladstone, and Holmes - each armed with pistols and bullet-proof vests (Gladstone had neither, of course.)
{Old Glory figures, but I don't know where Gladstone came from.}

Holmes could hear Isabelle struggling with her captor, Lt. Rustheiser, as he forced here down the steps from the balcony over the cavern. Piles of rubble lay strewn below them and Rustheiser was attempting to force the young woman to find her father's device which lay hidden in the cavern. Moving quickly, Holmes found a clue - a message scratched into the side of the tomb. (Finding this clue allowed an extra Dare! die for Holmes during this game, giving him a better chance of solving any other Dare! locations.) Watson and Lestrade moved across some of the rubble and in doing so drew the fire of Unteroffizer Schultz and another stormtrooper who watched from the balcony. The shots either missed or did not penetrate the bullet-proof vests or steel armour the two detectives wore. Holmes took cover behind the statuary that loomed over the tomb, where he encountered a swarm of rats. He and Gladstone fought the rodents with club and tooth and nail and sent them running, although Holmes sustained a nasty bite from the vermin.
     Rustheiser continued to force Isabelle to cooperate, but she refused, until both Rustheiser and the stormtrooper with him fell to the accurate fire of Watson and Lestrade. The Unteroffizer and his companion continued to fire on the detectives, but with no results. Constable Timmins fell to the fire of the stormtrooper on the floor of the cavern before he fell to Lestrade's fusillade. Holmes ran past in order to aid his companions, recovering Timmins' rifle as he went.
    Shultz ran down the balcony stairs to recapture Isabelle, only to fall to the sustained fire of Lestrade, Watson having moved to take the rifle from Holmes. The stormtrooper on the balcony cowered as Watson fired as accurately as he could in the dimly lit cavern. The brownshirt fell wounded a few moments later.

"Begin your search here, Fraulein!" (Two blue bingo chips = two wounds)

"Here, Watson! You can make better use of this Lee-Enfield than I!"



"Solve the mystery, Fraulein! I'm not so gentle as Herr Leutnant!"
(Two Brownshirts down, a third remains on the balcony.)



Rustheiser and his uniformed thug in better days

    Schultz also fell wounded in the pile of rubble, and Isabelle solved the Dare! point, finding the Knife of Holgar Danske, a valuable artifact. Holmes moved to solve two other Dare! markers, finding a case containing an ordinary pistol and then the Professor's device! Holmes couldn't resist fiddling with the item, which malfunctioned and became inert. Lastly Holmes discovered a Disappearing Belt among the statuary at the other end of the cavern. With that, the adventurers gathered up the wounded Timmins and beat a hasty retreat with Isabelle, the ancient artifiact, and the Professor's malfunctioning device. Rustheiser and Schultz were left groaning in the rubble, wounded but alive.



Lestrade and Dr. Watson

 

Robby places Holmes and Timmins in place for the beginning of the game.
We were using an RPG mat that permitted us to draw "terrain" and wipe it
off at the end of the game.

 This was "Chapter II" of the "Where Heroes Dare" game Robby and I started on Father's Day. We did play a third chapter immediately... but I can't chronicle it just now. I've got a few things to finish. There will be more later.     

Where Heroes Dare - - - on Father's Day

June 17, 2012 - my son says to me: "Dad, we haven't played a game, just you and me, for a while. Let's play one on Sunday." So we did, once he got back from archery practise. (I didn't go in order to take my daughter to work.) We dragged out one of our favourites, "Where Heroes Dare", a pulp fiction adventure game by Iron Ivan.

1936 - Berlin - Sherlock Holmes and his associates have been hired and encouraged by the Foreign Office to find the daughter of Professor Von Tromp, who is engaged in vital research for the War Office. It is feared that she will be captured and used as a hostage for leverage against the professor. The trail has led the intrepid sleuth and his friends to a disused warehouse in Berlin. They are being chased by SA Storm Troopers who wish to find the young woman as well. The game is afoot!

Robby's team consisted of Sherlock Holmes (Super Sleuth, Astounding Mind, with a revolver and a bulletproof vest), Dr. John Watson (revolver and bulletproof vest), Inspector Gregory Lestrade (Two custom pistols and bulletproof vest. Lestrade's abilities include firing a pistol in each hand with +1 shot for each), Constable Smith (rifle and bulletproof vest) and Watson's bulldog, Gladstone.
     I ran a team of SA Storm Troopers (originally German Zeppelintruppen): Lt. Rustheiser, Sgt. Schultz, Sturmmann Weber, and Sturmmann Vogel, all equipped with SMGs and bulletproof vests.
The setting was an abandoned warehouse in a more seedy section of Berlin. A large stack of wooden packing crates (-3 cover) took the centre of the building. A pile of smashed crates and other rubble (-2 cover) was set next to it. The terrain chart called for a stream, which made no sense, so the stream became 36" of collapsed ventilation conduit that had fallen to the floor, providing -2 cover to any on next to it, but no cover if you stood on top of it. The game took place at night, so any firing required spotting first.

Holmes quietly led his team into the darkened warehouse.

The warehouse. The red bingo chips are Dare! Encounters, rolled for when solved by a character.



The Consulting Detective and his intrepid team from Scotland Yard. Watson is obscured by Holmes, but Gladstone
eagerly peeks out from Holmes side. 



The Storm Troopers. They are "Great War" figures of Germans with SMG's painted as Freikorps in the inter-war years.
I've got my eye on true Stormtroopers from Pulp Miniatures.



The Storm Troopers find a Clue! Now the Sturmleiter gets an extra die for solving encounters!

Holmes and company moved quickly to the centre of the building. The SA split into two teams to cover the   centre with their weapons and to do some solving. Their leader solved a Dare! location and received an extra die for solving further Dare! locations. Watson and Lestrade traded shots with Schultz and Weber, but no one was wounded due to the armour. Lestrade could fire 6 shots a turn! (RoF for pistols is 2; add +1 to each for custom weapons and he put out more lead than a Stormtrooper with an SMG!)

Holmes in the lead,  using the fallen HVAC as cover.



The Astounding Mind of the Consulting Detective allowed them to avoid a land mine AND to discover a
Weird Science artifact (the green bingo chip Holmes is standing on) - a Belt of Invisibility! (provides -4 cover
for the wearer! Sweet...)

 

Watson and Lestrade trade shot in the dark with the SA.

Holmes, Gladstone, and the Constable split off during the shooting, and solved two Dare! locations - avoiding a land mine and finding a Belt of Invisability! The SA NCO vaulted the fallen conduit and solved a Dare! point himself, finding the Professor's daughter hiding in the stack of crates. At that, Holmes, Gladstone, and the Constable rounded the corner. Holmes and Gladstone dashed to stop the SA man from taking the young woman, while the Constable fired his rifle. The Unteroffizer took a wound, but he was able to shepherd the Professor's daughter over the conduit, and begin to run her off the board. The Sturmleiter discovered a hidden tunnel, but left it alone to command the withdrawal of his team with the young woman, who was their prize. Watson and Lestrade continued to fire and Gladstone charged!!!!


NCO Schultz takes charge of the Professor's Daughter (a Copplestone Casting figure)

 

The Constable reloads, Holmes runs, but is outdistanced by the fearless Gladstone!

 

Gladstone leaps the obstacle to attack Vogel. I've never seen a bulldog leap, so maybe it was more of a
"fearsome-clambering-over-the-rubble" on the dog's part.
Either way, Gladstone bit his opponent, bit him real good.



Rustheiser moves to assist/take credit for the capture. The small d10 shows he has an extra die for solving Dare! encounters for this game.

  

Watson vs. Weber - lots of blocking terrain and in the dark.

 Holmes and company must continue their quest, not knowing where the SA have taken the young woman. That's for the next chapter of the story. Robby and I decided to play out 3-4 chapters and chronicle them here. So you'll have to wait for the next thrilling installment!