The Loose Association of Wargamers

Shahbahraz wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:31 pm I''m suspicious of someone called Alger Hiss though.

Bit of a give-away name for an agent of the Serpent Empire.....

As everyone returned to New York some useful time was spent on the train reading occult tomes and attempting tinker with the design of the flame pistol. As you do.

The heroes had little time to rest and recover before their next mission but first they had the luxury of a lovely dinner with some local Italian businessmen. The businessmen are known of by Karina and Derrick as the Bonanno family who are the ruling mafia family in New York.

Most of the talking is done by Garofolo who is a rugged faced but friendly looking chap. He explains that they have had some information that Caduceus are smuggling drugs from Africa through a warehouse in Red Hook. This is a grave concern for public health if it is true. The family would not hesitate to act decisively to shut down the operation to protect innocent people, but first they must be sure. They want the heroes to find evidence to corroborate the story. The heroes are impressed by the argument, and the $500 that is provided to them up front.

Singh finally remembers to ask the businessmen if they have heard of Rose but they just look blankly at him.

The next morning at Flushing aerodrome Goncalves tells Derrick about the secondary mission - to retrieve one of the metal canisters that will be found underneath the control room of the serpent person base, but don’t open it. Nothing to worry about of course. But don’t open it…

Reassured by this and the tale of how docile the voormi ape-men are the team fly off to Iceland and the Snaefellsjokul volcano. Landing at the Caduceus camp they are met by the lovely Gunnhildur who will be their guide. Sufficiently replenished the plan is to drive to Olafsvik to stay at her brother's house and then scale the volcano.

Ascending the mountain though their trucks were brought to a halt by a huge crashing rock thrown by a horrific creature the size of an elephant - superficially a docile voormi but vast and angry with stone encrusted skin. It isn't docile.

Gunnhildur started screaming. Karina saw red mist and charged the beast emptying all her weapons as she ran up the hillside. A well thrown boulder smashed through the engine of the second car, as Hilaire (like all Frenchmen before and after) found reverse gear and put his foot on the pedal taking the second truck down the mountain.

Some well placed shots from Karina and Randall seemed to hurt the beast. Derrick calmly started to aim at a weak spot with his shotgun. It was at this point that the huge troll-like monster noticed the beautiful Karina for the first time and with a look of love (or lust) started to move towards her purposefully………

as can be seen from this document from the 1960s some of the local businessmen with an interest in public health issues really existed...

May I point out it’s the first truck I am safely reversing through a Boulder strewn road, focussing on securing our transport out of a place of danger while attempting to secure the glamorous civilian on whome we’ll depend on our bed for the night. Hmmmm?

While my colleagues mildly irritate an elephant-sized troll with pea shooters. Who is thinking of the mission mon cherie

An admirably Vichy-esque approach to the whole peril thing for sure, notre hero.

The pea shooter point is well made though and it's disappointing that some of our best ever shooting (and that's not saying much) has had feck all effect. That said, I've got a 32 stat with the shotgun and my first 2 shots hit. Although they did nothing, I'm actually still quite pleased.

The scene with Karina was very cinematic. Picturing her scrambling up the scree slope, screaming incoherent curses and emptying one gun after the other into the fell beast as she ran before coming to her senses.

The outcome of that might well be XXX rated and only available in certain Soho cinemas :o

I certainly hope so! Karina thinks it would d be nice to be around a hard man for once

It was very cinematic. So much so that Spicy Mystery Stories have chosen to illustrate what happens next in the latest issue that just arrived through my letterbox this morning. Karina appears to have dressed somewhat inappropriately for Iceland though perhaps that what is making the Troll so interested ?

More brilliance!