Episode 202: Howling At The Moon

A supernatural episode of the A-Team...

The mission briefing from General Stockwell:

The objectives were Find The Precious, Flip The Switches and Escape.  The location perils were those of Sentinel Hill in the rules and the villains had the stats from the Wolfman.  

The threat markers were set up in the Aggressive pattern.

Straightaway Hannibal spotted the Wolfman threat and helped steer the team away from him.  BA bravely revealed two markers simultaneously - not difficult in the Aggressive layout.  A clap of thunder (Unsteady Underfoot) didn't perturb him but the Young Werewolf inflicted 3 wounds after just surviving Eyes Peeled shots from Amy and Face.

The next turn, BA finished off the werewolf whilst Hannibal was struck by lightning, taking 3 wounds and being knocked down.  BA then revealed a further two markers - a raging storm reducing visibility to 6 inches and a wolf, which was swiftly dealt with by the team.

BA started to search for the moon crystal as the team moved up in support.  He failed first time but did discover a wolf that pounced on him.

BA killed the wolf and found the crystal whilst Amy moved on to activate the first switch, accelerating the increase in threat level.  Another threat check saw Amy and Face fail their horror checks and retreat but a bigger problem - the threat marker that had been inching its way nearer finally got to within 6 inches of BA, and the Wolfman spawned on him killing him outright.

The Wolfman then used his Frenzy characteristic to immediately follow up with a further attack on Murdoch, again getting a killing roll.  Using the Last Ditch option to avoid losing a second teammate, the dice were rolled again and this time Murdoch survived.

With just one round to go, Hannibal failed to kill the last wolf with all three of his actions and so was unable to activate another switch.  Fortunately, Amy was able to activate one.  The Wolfman caused another 4 wounds on Murdoch and 6 on Face, but they survived.

At this stage, the team had earned 3 Victory Points for recovering the item, 2 VP for activating two switches, no VP for escaping, plus 1 for Hannibal surviving.  A grand total of 6 VP is graded C - "Adequate, I shall give you a shilling for it".

With the threat level at 10 or above, the game should end but it still felt like a cliffhanger before an advert break rather than the end of the episode.  So I played another couple of turns.  Hannibal finally killed the wolf but took two tries to activate the last switch, so couldn't then escape.  Face and Murdoch escaped from combat and Murdoch, along with Amy, escaped completely.  A surprisingly low threat check roll saw Face fail his horror check and fade into the fog.  The Wolfman consequently moved and attacked Hannibal instead.  In the very last turn, Hannibal escaped from combat and he and Face successfully escaped the map.

Following these two extra turns, the team had earned 3 Victory Points for recovering the item, 3 VP for activating two switches, 3 VP for escaping, plus 1 for Hannibal surviving.  A grand total of 10 VP is graded A - "a truly heroic performance".  But the team lost BA and three others were "marked" by werewolf attacks, so we'll have to see what happens to them next full moon.