[HoE] Apocalypse Now! Questions and Spoilers

["James Cook" <jcook@net-serv.com>]

Spoiler Space..... Players Keep Out! (Yeah, Right...)



























Greetings,

     Picked up a copy of the HOE Radiation Screen last weekend, and started
running my posse thru the included adventure, Apocalypse Now! What a great
adventure! Here's a quick rundown of the story so far, for those interested:

     The posse consists of an on-the-run Doomsayer (who is actively being
hunted by Silas and the Cult), and a Templar who's currently travelling with
him (to evaluate the character of Joan's followers.) The opening encounter
ended rather lopsidedly, as the Doomsayer "Nuke"d the Black Hats as they
were getting off of their bikes. The ATVs attempted to escape, but a second
"Nuke" took one out and damaged the other (it did get away, however.) The
Doomsayer was happy to have handily kicked butt, but came back down to earth
a bit once he realized that he'd spend all but 2 points of Strain doing it.
If he only knew what lies ahead... Meanwhile, the shocked Templar (who was
tending to Greer, and had not previously seen "Nuke" being cast) resolved to
watch his new companion MUCH more closely in the future.

     Once Greer came to, he befriended the PCs, and they travelled with him
to the bridge, where they sized up the situation and decided to try the
storm drain way into town. They floated their stuff, and the Templar, over
to the drain without being detected, but the Templar subsequently made a lot
of noise climbing into the drain. Fearful of discovery, the group quickly
made for Greer's house. Unfortunately, the posse was encouraged by Greer's
determination to get his daughter back, and went along with his plan to get
into the house. Even after they managed to detect several of the ambushers,
they still wanted to go thru with it. They started their own ambush, which
quickly turned to retreat once they found out how bad of an idea it was.
Fleeing back into the sewer system, they managed to evade pursuit by the
Black Hats following them. The two Black Hats killed in the raid were
avenged (unbeknownst to them at the time) by the execution of 4 hostages.

     By now, they were starting to wise up a bit. They made it to the
traitor's house, met Eric Sturm, and captured the traitor. They then rescued
Ingram, went to the bar and met with the other militia members, and began
planning their attack on the school. One part of the plan was to station a
couple of militia members in the church tower just prior to the raid. The
militia members were killed, but managed to warn the rading party before
dying. The raiding party (Greer, the PCs, and 3 militia members) managed to
enter the school undetected, and quickly overcame the guards at the west
hall barricade. The running firefight in the halls outside the lunchroom
went well at first, but one of the PCs cut the power as the fight began
turning against them. Pialek called for them to surrender, and shot another
hostage when they refused. This hardened their resolve, and finally ended up
with most of Pialek's remaining guards down and him threatening to blow the
place up (the townsfolk who ambushed the reinforcements were very
successful, and he knew this.) They let him and a few men leave town after
getting the hostages out, and followed him out of town, where he blew up the
now-empty school (along with a few wounded Black Hats) out of spite. In the
end, 15 hostages and the town was saved, at the cost of 5 militia members
and the school building. Pialek, his bodyguard, and a few troops got away.
The group is ready to head out to the old airfield for Part 3 when we get
together again.

A couple of questions came out of my thinking about how the rest of the
adventure might go.

1) The adventure implies that Pialek and his men will simply flee the area
if they are run out of town. This seems unlikely, however, since Pialek's
main responsibility is to secure the bomb at the airfield. In my game,
Pialek and his men will return to the airfield shortly before the posse gets
there, but most will be killed by the "inhabitants" on arriving. I plan for
Pialek and his bodyguard to link up with the junker, so that the PCs will
have another chance to deal with them before the adventure is over.

2) The Doomsayer in the group has the EMP power. While the adventure claims
that the bomb cannot be disarmed once set (as the group lacks the master
code), why would the EMP power not work to deactivate the bomb's timer?
Granted the power does require a roll, and could fail repeatedly, but why
would the timer be immune to the effect? There's no way I'm going to let my
PCs get ahold of the working bomb or it's major components, but I don't see
a believable way out of this situation yet, as I'm sure my player will think
to try this.
Any thoughts?

Thanks,
James Cook