The Peninsula Adventures of a French Dragoon Leo Sole: 1808 autumn - part two

The raiders galloped away, leaving their fellow men on foot behind, and those had no other option but to take a first cover they came by - a wooden fence, and fire their muskets. That took Leo's sergeant totally unprepared. Luckily company's veterans knew better.

I decided to use the next PEF location for that, and upon entering I checked PEF resolution, there was a very real chance there will be more deserters or what not, there. Luckily I passed only 1d6, so luckily no more enemies. I check enemy cavalry separately, and pass 0d6, so they run away leaving their comrades behind.

"Hug the wall!" shouted Severin.

Leo shut his eyes and cowered as pieces of mortar and stone filled the air when lead bullets hit the wall, mortgaging* Olivier and Stanislas, sending several others hiding behind a house corner, The young soldier Jean-Luc splashed with the blood of his fellow soldiers, screamed and rushed back towards the wheat field. Only Dylan managed to keep his cool and respond with a shot in a general direction of the enemy, allas missing. 

"Retreat! Retreat!" sergeant Pinchon's bravado evaporated instantly, he dashed back without even checking if his men follow. Leo was about to run after him.

I get advantage from a successful chase. Our sergeant loses his roll again! The enemy gest first turn. At least we have some cover.  Enemy shoots: Oliver and Stanislas  - end out of action, Jean-Luc and Pierre-Louis  and V duck back, VII shoots back but misses. Man Down check: Jean-Lukescapes, Dylan ducks back. Roll Will to Fight: the enemy pass 1d6, one escapes, our sergeant passes 0d6 and commands a retreat! 

"Stand your ground men!" thundered Severin's voice over sergeant's scream "Don't cast away our victory! There are just five of them!"

Pinchon, who has no business to lead men, or Severin who more than once helped Leo with his timely advice? It's not a hard choice. He raised the musket and inhaled deeply trying to calm his racing heart.

At that point I decided that one of the veterans had enough. Not that it was tactically best idea to stay and fight, but letting Pinchon escape alone was a good way to get rid of him. I roll against the rep of all three veterans, Severin gets the best roll, so he attempts to wrestle away the command. I roll a contest between the sergeant and the private and not surprisingly Severin wins. I roll Will to Fight again, now using his rep5 and everyone stays, but I decide that Pinchon escapes anyway. I count all of this as an action for my side. A new Will to Fight roll, both sides pass 2d6 but because enemy is at half strength one man escapes.

With their muskets empty, the deserters were not so determined to stand and fight the French Dragoons, two of them already running away, three, used the moment of confusion to charged through a closest door into a farmhouse. There were sound of pottery shattering and women screams to be heard. Leo glimpsed  inside through a window: the deserters were pushing a few local women, with the barrels of their guns, so they had a live shield between them and Frenchmen.

"Fire!", Severin was determined to kill the bastards.

I also roll doubles on the last WtF check, and I use a house-rule that any WtF pass on a double roll is an event. I roll what kind of event it is and I roll: bystanders. Must be local farmers. I use civilian reaction table from FNG and get 'frozen' rezult. OK so I guess they are used as a cover by the enemy. I roll against Severins rep to see what he will command the party to do. pass 2d6 will mean that he will find a way to deal with the problem, 1d6 - he will command to shoot, 0d6 he will back down. I roll and pass 1d6, he is an old soldier and sheding some civilian blood is not new to him.

With a hard heart Leo pushed the trigger. And as he did that he was sure he made a mistake.

But he Fortune was really with the frenchmen today. As smoke dispersed, the private saw that despite his shaking hands the bullet had found its target. All three women, as incredible as it was, were standing intact although covered in blood and paralyzed with terror. Three enemies were lying on the floor in a pool of their own blood, one of them with a gaping hole where his face just had been a seconds ago. Leo just managed to see the fourth one disappearing out of sight as he jumped out of a window at the opposite side of the room.

Leo had to use his star power: Extraordinary effort to make the shot. I decided that it's a miss on 1d6 and the shoot would hit a civilian on 0d6. Surprisingly no one rolled 0d6 ending in two enemies out of action, one obviously dead and one ducking down. Man down test and the last enemy escapes.

Not wasting any time Severin ordered men to rush the farmhouse, tie up the two wounded deserters, and to check for anything useful inside. Nothing! Those peasants were getting smarter in hiding anything french could use. Leo tried to talk to the women, to calm them down, and maybe to get a hint if just maybe there was some food they could spare to the hungry soldiers that just saved them. But as he tried to get closer the women started screaming.

"That's no time for flirting, Casanova," rumbled Jordan dragging Leo away, there was no chance of resisting the grip of the giant.

The two out of action enemies are taken prisoners. I check for the potential loot and pass 0d6 - nothing! Leo tries to talk to the women, to get an extra attempt at finding some loot but passes 0d6 on 3d6 :(

They went back to the first farm. The wagon was still there, Omer stuck his head inside and came out smiling.

"Boys, it's heaven inside!".

And it was. The wagon was full of meat: salchichón, serrano, jamón, Leo was literally drooling. If only there was a horse for the wagon. But as there were none, the soldiers started unloading the loot.

They were almost finished when they heard a sound of hooves. The six horsemen had changed their minds about leaving the supply wagon. Luckily they could be heard and seen approaching from far away, so frenchmen not only had time to load muskets and take position behind a low stone wall, but also to stow as much meat from the wagon inside their vests and pockets as they could. Leo could not hold his smile when he saw Dylan kneeling, ready for a battle, cross wrapped in a chain of sausage., taking a big bite from it. They should make that an official uniform for dragoons!

This time I get lucky! 9 loot in total, but I also roll doubles! Check for enemies and I get the same amount as my party, so 6. There were 6 mounted deserters that escaped so I decided that they come back for the vagon.

Riders bursted inside the courtyard through the open gate, and they were greeted with a musket salvo. Although only one bullet found it's target the other five decided not to push their luck today. But so did Severin too, he had no wish to test how long the fortune will keep smiling. Being harassed by a group of riders all the way to the camp was not a tempting prospect, and so after unloading the musket he commanded a retreat.

My side gets advantage, so the dragoons have enough time to take cover and load the muskets. I check who goes first, both sides pass 2d6 so I get the first action as I had the advantage. Everyone shoots, but only one hit. Another houserule I use is that when you hit a mounted target 1-3 you hit a horse 4-6 you hit the rider. I check and the rider is hit and obviously dead. Three other duck back.

 Check Man Down - one enemy escapes. Will to Fight time: Severin passess 2d6, enemy pass 1d6, two escape, leaving one enemy ready and one ucking down.

Enemy turn, the one rider could charge, but it's 1 against 6, so that would be a suicide, i rule that he escapes. I don't even need to roll the will to Fight for the enemy, the last one automatically escapes.

"Leave the prisoners and the wounded", the words were callous, but those were words of a soldier who seen too much death in his life.

Leo hesitated. Stanislas could walk despite his wound, but Olivier was in a bad shape. If left here, if not the deserters then the locals would get to him. And then the dragoon saw a chestnut horse. He was helping himself with a stack of hay, just outside the gate, while his dead rider was still hanging with his foot stuck in a stirrup.

"I will call you Rouge!"

I still have to roll will to Fight for my side and i roll a double 6 against rep5 of Severin! He does not want to stay here anymore, and commands a retreat leaving two prisoners and two wounded comrades behind. Here I decided to use the Free Will star advantage, so Leo did not retreat with everybody. I decided that he uses a horse of the killed enemy and that means he can take one wounded with him and both POW. Because both wounded were wounded quite some time ago by now it should be clear if they were walking wounded or if the injury was more serious, so I just rolled on the After the Encounter table right now, resulting in 2d6 passed for Stanislas, so he could walk and 0d6 passed for Oliver, so he was bleeding profoundly and died soon after.

Alas Olivier was dead before Leo reached the company's camp. But he was still greeted with cheers when he rode inside with two prisoners tied behind his horse, his jacket bursting from the looted food.

In the evening they all ate a soup made of poor Rouge. Leo was finding it a bit hard to swallow. But at least he and his companions could tell story about their military deed today. Somehow everyone forgot to mention the fact that Severin defied sergeant's orders, and sergeant Pinchon never returned to tell about this. And Leo was wondering if having someone who seen so much war as Severin in command was better than having someone who had not seen enough of it. In any case he felt more confident about being in a fight, despite the fact he had still not killed anyone, maybe that's for the best.

I brought back 9 supplies in total, so that was one short. Well there wasn't any chance anyway for Leo to keep the horse, so that's extra 3 supplies. At last the company got a decent meal!

I also check what happened to sergeant Pinchon and Jean-Luc. None had returned.

Finally I count the increasing and decreasing rep: 3 for the successful mission, 2 for 2 POWs. -3 for using star powers, I used those twice, but I am not sure if that means -3 for each use, so I go gentle with myself this time. Roll 2d6 and what do you now, one die comes out with a 6. Leo is now rep5!

*Wounding