The Adventures of Becky - The Midnight Callers

 

The second episode in the Adventures of Becky, how will our heroine deal with the forces of evil and the arch villan Count Jaques Spaarks. Read on and find out in "Midnight Callers". Drum roll and lights fade to black.

The 1st Episode in the daring adventures of Becky are here. http://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/the-adventures-of-becky-mean-streets-of.html 
and the background is here http://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/the-adventures-of-becky-red-jade-budha.html

Becky caught the train to Inverness, her friend Roxanne has a small house just outside the town and Becky was able to get a taxi from the station with no trouble, her other best friend Gabrielle Ross was there as well, she would now have two other heads to think about the problem that her beloved Father had given her.

The heroines Becky, Gabrielle and Roxanne. That Kev White sure can sculpt a sexy bottom. Umm maybe I shouldn’t have said that.


On the train journey up to Inverness she had had time to look through the journal that he had left her, most of it made little sense reading it for the first time but enough to realize that if she chose she would be setting out on a difficult and maybe dangerous undertaking, and she was not sure where or how to start or even if she wished go at all.

That is where her two friends would come in handy, a couple of weeks tramping the hills of Scotland as they discussed the issues involved before deciding if the best course of action was not just to turn the documents over to the Archaeology Department at her old University and let them do as they thought best.

They had a riotous evening catching up on each others lives since they last met, the malt whiskey evaporated on the breeze, at least it seemed like it because the first bottle was long gone and the second followed it when they decided that they had to rest their heads on a soft pillow and get some sleep. Becky had raised the subject of the journal briefly but a full discussion was set for tomorrow, if their hangovers would stand it.

Roxanne’s house in Scotland, not far from Inverness, but quite remote, note the ancient stone circle with what is thought to be a sacrificial alter in the centre.

A close up of the house.
When I 1st re-started gaming I bought this 2nd hand from a railway shop for £1.00, I've repainted it and fitted a thatch roof, the 1st time I had tried the towel method of thatching, I have got better at it since then - honest. With this building it looks like the house is having a bad hair day.
Not the most inspiring scenery I’m afraid, and it gets worse, but persuade yourself it's the story that counts.


Unfortunately the roof doesn't lift off and so I'm back to using a drawn ground plan, but hey ho, I don't suppose you expected much better by now.



Around about turn 2 the bad guys arrive at the end of the driveway leading to the house. Boris is one of the henchmen of Count Spaarkes. In the previous episode it was the Biker Fat Willie who was being paid to keep an eye out for anyone approaching George Phelpps house and he had immediately informed Boris.

A number of his mates had been hired for a spot of larceny and caught the next train up to Inverness. Bad dice roll for Becky as it could have been between 3 and 6 of them and she rolled a 6, this was to be a bit of a reoccurring theme in this game.

There are 13 encounter markers on the board, for obvious reasons most of them are in the house, for each marker I turn over a playing card from a deck to randomise it and the encounters are:-
Ace = The journal and files that the bad guys are after, if they find this they will also drop a clue as to how the Girls can locate them. So if the game goes down the pan there is some chance of recoveryng the situation.
2 = Nothing
3 = Nothing
4 = Nothing but the bad men drop a clue as to their whereabouts.
5 = Squeaky Floorboard, the girls roll under their awareness to wake up.
6 = Grandfather Clock chimes, roll under awareness to wake up.
7 = Dog
8 = Additional friend of Becky, there will be 6 friends written into the story eventually so this could be between 1 and 3 people.
9 = Roxanne and Gabrielle’s guns, these are registered to them and would be locked in a gun cabinet.
10 = Becky’s guns, these are not registered and are illegal, they would be still wrapped and boxed as received from her Dad.
Jack = Roxanne
Queen = Gabrielle
King = Becky

Turn 3 the guys approach the car parked in the drive, I checked the encounter marker and strangely it was a Jack, so Roxanne was in the car, as this was the middle of the night I thought this can’t be right, so I put the card back and re-shuffled the deck and drew the top card and it was a Jack, so decided it must have been Roxanne.
It transpired that because of the snoring coming from Gabrielle’s room she had not been able to sleep, so went down stairs and tried to go to sleep on the sofa, but this time because of the dogs snoring she still couldn't sleep and had eventually gone outside and fallen asleep in the car. The problem was that with the whiskey, and the snoring she was so tired at this stage that when the bad guys came creeping round she was dead to the world and did not wake until too late.

Turn 4 Boris quietly opened the car door and using a chloroform pad he ensured poor Roxanne would continue sleeping. She was bound and gagged this took them 4 turns (1D6) and was only just achieved before she woke up (1D6 turns) and shouted to raise the alarm. Boris passed his brains test and decided to leave a guard, Big Dave, which is a shame as I had written a quick rule for anyone tied up to be able to escape.


Turn 9
Big Dave seen here guarding Roxanne with the rest of the guys move on towards the house door.

Turn 10 – because Roxanne had gone to sleep in the car she had left the house door unlocked and so the guys just walked in quietly. On the hall table was a box, this was Becky’s guns but as they were not after these the guys continued through the house (don't forget this is 60's Britain - possesing a gun would be rare and a serious crime, these guy's are just muscle).

Turn 11 – Boris nearly jumped out of his skin, the Grandfather clock started chiming, this woke Becky as she was not used to the noise but Gabrielle slept through. This now meant that any unknown noise would cause alarm until she fell back asleep in 3 turns from now.


Turn 12 Boris goes into the dining room and find the additional friends, this could have been between 1 and 3 of them, I threw a 1 so only Susanne Gunn, she had arrived later than the others so was still up, drinking whiskey no doubt, something has to explain her inertia. Dutch goes into the kitchen and finds Coco the doberman, he must have been drinking whiskey as well and Eight Ball goes into the Living Room and finds the whiskey but no one else. 

Ok this is when the sh*t will hit the fan thinks I.

Susanne wins the insight test and goes 1st, roll 1D6 1,2 she screams, 3,4 she picks up a candle stick and attacks Boris, 5 she picks up a dinning knife and attacks, 6 she is stunned and does nothing. – she rolls a 6 and stands there, Boris advances hits her with a good punch to the stomach which knocks the wind out of her, and then he follows up with a quick crack to the head and she is down and out for 5 moves, plenty of time for him to bind and gag her, he is getting in some practice, it’s also becoming a bit of a bondage story I think, - bit worried about that.

Coco is asleep, roll 1D6 1,2,3 he wakes and attacks, 4,5 he wakes and barks, 6 he sleeps on. What do you know he rolls a 6 and sleeps on, Dutch quietly backs out of the room, closes the door and breaths a sigh of relief.

Turn 13, 3 of the guys go upstairs on to the landing.


Turn 14 Tank goes into the Bedroom, the door squeaks which alerts Becky, she is still awake but as she is not in this room she takes it for one of the other girls in the house, the room is empty apart from a locked gun cabinet, not what he is looking for. Billy Joe finds nothing in the bathroom, only two more rooms to go.

Turn 15 – Dutch goes into the 2nd bedroom and bingo, he finds the files and journal that they are searching for, he is so excited that he does not realize that he has dropped some paper from his back pocket, this is a hotel bill, and also a car rental agreement, if you remember there were 2 encounters where they would drop a clue that would give some way for the girls to find them if everything went wrong, both these encounters were in the same room and things were going very wrong.

Eight Ball goes into the last bedroom and finds Becky and Gabrielle in there. (In separate beds), crickey I know that there has been a bit of bondage but that’s as far as it goes. Becky is awake but Gabrielle is still asleep. “In here guys” shouts Eight Ball as he rushes across the room and gets in 3 solid punches before Becky disentangle herself from the bedding.


Turn 16 Gabrielle wakes but fails to activate, she is stunned from the whiskey and the deep sleep, Eight Ball hits Becky twice more and she goes down and out. Billy Joe and Tank run into the room and leap across to the bed on top of Gabrielle and with their combined strength easily overpower her, both girls are then bound and gagged.

The guys head on down stairs whooping and laughing, pleased it has been such easy money. They quickly leave the house having got the documents they came for without any real effort, Boris pays them off and they catch the next train south.

The girls hummm, well I said there were some rules to get free and eventually they did, but way too late, seems like a complete disaster until Roxanne finds the hotel bill for 5 people for 1 night at the Swan Hotel Inverness and also a car hire agreement in the name of Boris Baedeker with an address of the Swan Hotel Inverness. Could this be a clue !!!! dern de dern dern der as the music goes in the movies. The scene fades to black.

Will there be a next episode, is there a budget for one, who is Boris, is he really a KGB thug as Mark Copplestone would have us believe, does he work for a German guide book company or is there more to him than that?

Tune in next week for the continuing adventures of Becky and The Red Jade Buddha.

If there's anybody out there please let me know and if you're still here - Thanks for reading.