Majestic 13: Operation Acidwash

It's American Thanksgiving today, and I'm off work though not spending the day with family. Gina's been overworking herself at her job and has been experiencing some side effects to a new medication, so I prioritized us having some real down-time for a change. I do like taking the day to play a solo game; in 2023, Thanksgiving Day was when I played my very first game of Majestic 13, so it feels appropriate to do another M13 game today.

The Last Liners, led by the enigmatic "Lieutenant," are back for their second mission, this time on a densely-packed urban table; I rolled very high for the number of buildings that would be on the table, and groaned internally a little when I rolled "Terrain Reporting" as my secondary mission - I had to put my team in contact with every building and cluster of trees on the table! 

The pieces of terrain marked with a blood splatter (the Shoe Store, the OTB, the Container Office) are Dangerous Terrain (dealing 1D6 damage on a 5+ roll of a D6), while those marked with footprint markers (Both clusters of trees, the pizza parlor, the ramen restaurant) are Difficult Terrain (speed reduced by 1/2 while moving through). 

The threat this mission is an Ichor Spitter - a flying monstrosity that sprays blinding acid. It deals retributive acid damage to anyone within 6" of it when it takes damage, and gains an additional activation once per turn when someone shoots at it and misses, allowing it to shoot back. 

It's the galaxy's angriest prolapse!

Fortunately, the Last Liners are "Dispersed," meaning I can deploy them anywhere on the table, which I used to score "touches" on five pieces of terrain right off the bat. The Lieutenant and Sarah-Jane had high enough Dexterity attributes to negate Dangerous Terrain; she started out deployed on the shoe store, while the Lieutenant began the game taking a shot (successfully) at the Ichor Spitter before running across the roof and jumping down on to the Container Office.

The Ichor-Spitter, floating like a sickening balloon, drifted across the table, coming to rest in the midst of a car accident; Maria, Becky and Sarah-Jane were all successfully able to shoot at it and move towards other terrain pieces, but Hank missed and got blasted with acid in response, blinding him temporarily.

Unfortunately, turn 2 opened with me failing my FUBAR roll, resulting in Civilians appearing on the table, compromising OPSEC. While the game doesn't mandate having figures on the table for this, I find that putting the TV News Crew I painted earlier this year is a nice reminder.

On Turn 3, Maria successfully called down a Drone Strike on the Ichor Spitter, which continued to move from cover point to cover point around the board, with the agents continuing to "touch" buildings and fire at the alien horror. 

Fortunately, the agents mostly rolled well despite the penalties for their target being in cover, and the Ichor Spitter rolled phenomenally low for a lot of its attacks, missing with multiple Acid Spit attacks. Everyone took some damage, and at one point the Ichor Spitter rolled a critical hit against the Lieutenant, dealing 27 points of damage and leaving him with just three hit points; thankfully, Sarah-Jane was close by with her med-kit and was able to patch him up.

On Turn 4, the Ichor Spitter landed on the Off-Track Betting, the poorly-maintained roof partially collapsing under the creature's weight, impaling it on a piece of loose rebar (Rolled a 5+ to see if it took damage from Dangerous Terrain, and took 6 damage). This was enough to overwhelm the wounded monster's biology, sending it into its "Extremis" state, giving it an extra activation per turn but it would take damage every time it activated.

Hank climbed on to the roof of the Off-Track Betting, avoiding the broken roof, and opened fire on the monster. The Spitter's acidic reaction sizzled on his fireman's coat, but didn't injure him. Hoisting herself on to the roof of the pizza parlor, Becky took a pot shot at the creature with her pistol, injuring it further. 

At death's door, the Ichor Spitter activated, taking Extremis damage and collapsing, its air sacs deflating as its internal acid stores melted the dying creature's body.

The Last Liners have once again defeated the monster in Turn 4 (out of a maximum possible of 5)! They also managed to fulfill their secondary mission, with figures touching every piece of terrain on the table, and nobody was put "Out of Action" - though the Lieutenant and Maria were both close calls. 

Going into the post-game process, everyone earned enough XP to improve an attribute by one point; the Lieutenant boosted his Fortitude, Hank his Dexterity, Becky and Sarah-Jane their Fortitude, and Maria her Dexterity. 

Unfortunately, I failed all three of my Requisition rolls - my efforts to get a Weapon Stabilization Tripod for Hank, a set of body armor for the Lieutenant and to add an Internet Monitoring Station (second request!) all disappeared into the bureaucratic labyrinth. So no new goodies, but that's the life of the Dispersed...

The Lieutenant and his crew are doing well, but he'll be the first to caution them against getting cocky. FORCE is watching, and it won't be long before they deploy another monster...