Pulp Alley: City of the Serpent

Introduction

 This scenario can be found in the September 2017 issue of Wargames Illustrated (#359).  The objective is to retrieve a valuable ancient relic, a jewel known as"The Eye of the Serpent". Most want it for its great monetary value but the Serpent Cultists desire it for its mystical powers.  The Eye of the Serpent has been traced to a small relic shop in Casablanca, Morocco but before it can be obtained the shopkeeper was murdered  and his store ransacked.  There is a good chance the thief is still in Casablanca, but time is of the essence as many are looking for the relic, and once the curfew falls this evening there will be no more time to search until the next day, which will likely be too late.





Overview of the City of the Serpent / Casablanca

This scenario was played on March 18, 2018,  involved 4 leagues (players), on a 3' x 3' playing area, with scatted deployment and a duration of 8 turns.  The Leagues must first complete a minor plot point, which involves persuading an informer to divulge the location of the thief who has the relic.  Next they must gain the major plot point by capturing the thief and retrieving the relic from him / her.  However there are multiple thieves, and only one will have the Eye of the Serpent, others will have red herrings or lead their captors into a trap (random reward card draw, 1 in 3 chance of getting the Reward).

The Leagues:

O'Connell's Explorers

Winston, Jonathan, Evelyn, Rick, Benny and Ardeth Bay

 

Allan  Quartermain's Expedition of Army explorers

Jesse Huston, Jim Remington, Allan Quartermain, 
Job, Sgt. Lewis, Cpl. Jones

 

The Doctor and his Companions

K9, Fourth Doctor, Sarah-Jane, 
Lt.(N) Harry Sullivan, Sgt. Benton

The Cult of the Serpent God: the Faceless Ones:

The Four "Faceless Ones" Cultists, all Sidekicks.

The local police:

Three Moroccan  Police Officers

 

The Minor Plot Points:

 These Informers  provide the clues to the whereabouts of the thieves. The Informers have pre-set plot point challenges (usually 2 success with 2 of the following: Might, Finesse or Cunning). They are also extremely perilous with pre-set perils.

The American, the Fat Man, the Inspector and the Rat.

As a slight variation to the scenario as originally written, separate plot point cards were created.



Minor Plot Point cards: Casablanca Characters



Major Plot Point:

One of the thieves has the Eye of the Serpent, the others just have red herrings or traps. All the thieves are extremely Perilous

The Prof and his band of Moroccan thieves,
the Eye of the Serpent is in the foreground

Special guest thief for St. Patrick's Day weekend, Shamus the Leprechaun and his bottle of Jamison's

Shamus the Leprechaun thief

The Markers:

Red rings = wound

Fluorescent light green rings = Wanted in the Police Round-up Zone 

Scorpions = Perilous zone

Special Areas:

There is a Police Roundup zone in the centre of the board in the market that extends in a 12" radius. Any character who attacks another character who is  this area automatically becomes "Wanted".  The Police Roundup zone is extremely perilous to any "Wanted" character

Safe Area:  A character within 3" of a minor plot point (informer) cannot be attacked or attack, and does not count as an enemy.

The Story:

As our story begins the sun is setting in Casablanca, it is dusk and visibility is limited (12").

The 12" radius from the Policeman in the 
centre formed the Police Roundup Zone.

The Doctor's League surreys the area from a roof top

Sarah-Jane, Doctor and K-9

Local Colour: A Camel and its handler,
by the market, Perilous areas nearby

Two of the faceless Cultists search the area, 
the  nearby scorpion is an Extremely Perilous zone

Turn 2

The Doctor's League moves towards the market area, Harry who was delayed runs to join them. Most of the Leagues manage to make contact with one of the Well Informed Locals or Informers.

Doctor's League move towards the market

Cultist approaches the Inspector as 
Ardeth Bay prepares to shoot him

Jim Remington and a Faceless Cultist fight it out

Turn 3

The O'Connell's league manages to get the information they needed from Inspector Renault on turn 2 and chase one of the thieves to ground on turns 3, but their efforts are only rewarded with red hearings and traps. There are multiple informers and thieves now in play.

The Big Monty Python like hand delivers a thief!

The Leprechaun thief makes use
of the shadows to hide!

Harry tries to capture Shamus

The Doctor and  K9 try to convince 
the American (Bogart) to cooperate.

Alain Quartermain tries to convince Bogart to 
cooperate with him rather than the Doctor

Ardeth Bay and Benny both attempt to
 capture the Leprechaun but have no luck.

Harry continues to chase the Leprechaun

The Leprechaun knocks out Harry, temporarily.

Another thief being pursued

Turn 4

Finally the O'Connell's ' gain the Eye of the Serpent from one of the thieves and all the Informers and thieves melt into the shadows.

Rick and Evelyn have the Eye of the Serpent

Can they keep it until turn 8?
Rick is already wanted by the police!

Ardeth Bay attempts to protect Evelyn 
but he takes a bullet.

Corporal Lewis opens up with his Light Machine Gun, 
hitting Ardeth Bay who goes down

Evelyn runs towards what she hopes is
a safer spot away from the market

 

Jonathan is taken down by Quartermain's League 
which moves  towards the objective

Turn 5

 The O'Connell's can't withstand the attacks from Faceless cultists and Quartermain's troops and are soon eliminated (other than Benny) leaving the Eye of the Serpent on the cobblestones up for grabs.

Harry Sullivan tries to pick up 
the Eye of the Serpent and fumbles it.

Benny is felled by a cultists, he is the last of O'Connell's League. But then the Cultist's take a casualty.

Jesse Huston guns down a cultist

Turn 6

The action continues to be centred around the Eye of the Serpent outside the market drawing in more characters.

Harry fights a cultists for the prize as 
Allan Quartermain approaches and shoots at him

Harry is knocked out again.

Turn 7

 The Doctor's League gets caught up in the market area by some of the Cultists and struggles to make it in time to help Harry who is fighting alone against the cultists and Quartermain's troops for the prize.

Harry is back up again and the fight for the Eye of the Serpent
 continues with Job arriving to join in

A cultist and Job are both down, Harry and a cultist
 are left standing but the jewel is still unclaimed.

Turn 8

Just when it seems the Doctor and his companions might escape from the market and reach the Eye of the Serpent they are delayed by Allan Quertain's League which plays an effective cards that trips up the Doctor. This prevents the Doctor from arriving  in time to help Harry. Meanwhile Harry continues to fight with the cultists in the police round up zone. The cultist is knocked down (later to recover) but the results are inconclusive as  the melee prevents Harry from picking up the Eye of the Serpent.





It seemed nobody could pick up the Eye of the Serpent and
everyone standing in the area is wanted by the police.

 The curfew arrives and all the leagues flee the streets as large numbers of  police are arriving to arrest anyone out after the curfew and all the "usual suspects". The Eye of the serpent is inadvertently kicked under a market stall in the rush to escape.


The Casualties

The O'Connell's League was completely wiped out, Quartermain's League suffered 4 casualties and the Doctor's League only 1 casualty.

 Casualties from O'Connell's Expedition

Casualties from Allan Quartermain's explorers

Sgt. Benton the only casualty from the Doctor's League

The Faceless Ones lost just one Cultist, they proved to be a very dangerous opponent.

The lone Faceless Cultist casualty

 

Players will have the option to recover all their casualties for the next game or roll on the random recovery table which could possibly benefit the character or hurt them (i.e. crippling injury).

 

Aftermath

Early the next morning a merchant finds the Eye of the Serpent under his stall, but before he can cash in on it the jewel is stolen from him by the lead thief, the Professor.  Rumours are circulating that the thief is attempting to obtain letters of transit to leave Casablanca and travel to Cairo or Lisbon.    The Eye of the Serpent will have to recovered another day.


Rewards: The Eye of the Serpent was worth 3 Resource Points and 3 Reputation points in a campaign.  However since this was not achieved the Leagues each gain only 1 Resource Points and 1 Reputation points

 

Conclusion:

Three of the four players were new to Pulp Alley so they naturally had a bit of a learning curve to negotiate, which may have helped the Cultists (run by the only experienced player).  However  the Cultists are a deadly league and their player had some of the most incredible luck I have ever seen in terms of dice rolling and cards drawn.  The Doctor's League might have been better off going around the crowded market. The O'Connell's' did gain the objective first as they were aggressive, but that had its cost, and they would likely have been better to take refuge in the market and attempt to get protection from both the terrain and the police round up zone. Allan Quarermain's league's main problem was that they were spread out a bit too much and ended up fighting all three of the other leagues for a good part of the game.  The Cultist did prove deadly but they are somewhat one dimensional fighters and lack the finesse and cunning abilities (that a leader would likely have given them) makes gaining plot points more challenging.


Everyone seemed to enjoy the game and we now have the opportunity to turn it into a campaign.  The thief that recovered the Eye of the Serpent is attempting to leave Casablanca so this sets up a potential series of follow on games:


1. Attempting to gain Letters of Transit at Rick's place
2. Attempting to depart from the Casablanca airport
3. Hunting down the Eye of the Serpent in Cairo or Lisbon or some other location.
4. Final show-down in the Tomb in the Desert


There is also another league possibly arriving from the U.S.A. to join the hunt:

Roosevelt's Angels