.45 Adventure Part 2 -This Time With An Opponent!

 Over the weekend I got a visit from Dave, a buddy of mine from Rochester (not to be confused with Dave, my 3D printing guy, here in Buffalo), who I've been running roleplaying games for for probably the better part of a decade. He's been incredibly generous with gifting me books over the years, and he expressed interest in trying out a skirmish wargame for the first time. He's got a taste for the old pulps, and actually played the Green Hornet in a Pulp Cthulhu game I put on some years back. So it was a no-brainer to get out my painted Green Hornet and Kato and use them for his first pulp wargaming experience. 

We played the same scenario I previously played solo, and played it twice, since the game went quick (though still a learning experience for both of us). The first game ended in a draw, with the Hornet and the DiMarco gang each taking one ledger off the board - and Kato being beaten to a pulp by gangster brick shithouse Fat Paulie! 

The Hornet goes through the pockets of knocked-out Perfect Tommy.

The second game went better, with the Hornet scoring a solid victory, claiming both Ledgers and having much, much, MUCH better rolls when firing his knockout gas gun at the gangsters. 

Dave had a great time with it, and even better, he felt inspired by it - he's struggled for years with both inspiration and fear of failure at the thought of running his own RPG games, but this gave him an immediate sense of "I can do this." He was kind enough to gift me a PDF copy of the second edition .45 Adventure rules, and even offered to have them printed and spiral bound for me. He also requested if it would be possible to play the Shadow in a future game, so this is not the end of our pulp gaming. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 167

Figures Painted in 2025: 150

First Finished Figures of 2025

 I've managed to finish up my first handful of figures for 2025:

First up, we have a five-figure "Mercenary Fire Team" from Wargames Foundry's "Street Violence" range. I went for a simple color scheme with these - olive drab trousers, black T-shirts, red berets. These were slightly frustrating along the way - no matter how many times I went over them, I kept finding little bits of excess metal from the molding process. It was like they kept sprouting new bits! 

Secondly, I delved into a container of figures I'd primed...years...ago and pulled out a pair of Pulp Figures "Sinister Spies." On the website, Bob lists these as "Mr. M" and "Jasper Gutworth," and they're pretty plainly inspired by Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, respectively. 

These painted up fast and easy - from touching up the primer to being finished with basing applied in only about 2 1/2 hours or so. And you can't get away with painting Mr. Lorre without painting his famous eyes, so I committed myself to trying to paint the eyes on both of them, and I think it worked out well. 

I'm anticipating these two shady characters turning up in various Interwar-set games.

Speaking of...

I placed an order yesterday for more Copplestone Castings "Back of Beyond" figures - enough to round out a pair of small forces for the White Russians and Warlord Chinese, expanding on figures already in my leadpile. In my defense, Brigade Games is having a "Winter Blahs" sale, and I didn't need *that* many figures to get myself to 4 units apiece. The White Russians will be two units of infantry, a small cadre of Cossack horsemen, and a crewed field gun. Meanwhile, the Chinese will be two units of infantry, a Maxim gun team and a "Sutton Skunk" - an armored tractor that mercenary Frank "One-Armed Sutton" designed as a mobile mortar platform with plans to sell to the warlords. There's no evidence it ever got past the prototype stage, but Company B offers a Skunk model and it's too much fun not to include. Both of these will get expanded later, but this gives me a solid starting point. Once these are painted I'll start buying Bolsheviks, British, etc. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 27

Figures Painted in 2025: 7

Perilous Tales: Bride of the Gator Ghoul!

 I got the table cleared off last night and set up for another game of Perilous Tales - this time using the "Swamp Fiend" as my villain, a wonderfully nebulous descriptor that I opted to fill with a Reaper Bones Gator-Man carrying an enormous bone-bladed axe. The locale was once again Hangman's Swamp, and my heroes were once again Cappy Boyd's Expatriate Mercenaries from Pulp Figures. 

 

Our Heroes:

• Cappy Boyd (Leader), with Eagle-Eyed and Tough
• Sgt. Piney (Teammate), with Hair Trigger
• "Boomer" Murphy (Teammate), with Demolitions Expert
• Zeb Walton (Teammate), with Medic
• Pvt. Junior Jones (Teammate), with Marksman

Our Objectives:

• Disrupt the Ritual
• Rescue the Prisoner
• Plant the Explosives

 The story so far: Socialite and heiress Margo Plumme-Duffe has been kidnapped, muddy bootprints leading from her hotel room into the sinister, venomous reaches of Hangman's Swamp. The Gator Ghoul, a terrifying half-man half-alligator, plans to enact a ritual that will transform her into his scaly bride. It's up to Cappy Boyd and his mercenary commandos to disrupt the ritual, rescue Margo, and plant enough explosives in Hangman's Swamp to make the USS Maine look like a champagne cork. 

The commandos start slowly, moving forward in a group and keeping Eyes Peeled against any potential threats; Cappy used his Eagle-Eyed skill to scope out the nearest threat marker, which was a "1" - the Gator Ghoul himself! Cappy moved forward to the swamp altar to begin the 3-round process of disrupting the ritual. Zeb and Boomer began working their way towards the cabin, while Piney moved up towards some ruins in the northwest corner of the board. 

Unfortunately, Piney got a little too close to a threat marker, and got attacked by one of the Gator Ghoul's alligators!

Having Eyes Peeled let Piney put a bullet in the alligator as it attacked, for 1 Wound.

The villain phase sent everything straight to hell on the second turn - a total of FOUR threat markers moved within 6" of the heroes and spawned their threats - two more alligators and the Gator Ghoul erupted from the swamp! The peril "Utterly Horrible" also activated, forcing Piney to make a Horror Check.

The overall Threat Level of the game was still low enough, and there were enough hidden threat markers, that the alligators and Gator Ghoul used the "Lurker" AI to govern their actions, which saved my bacon a bit. Junior Jones took Cappy's place messing with the altar, while Cappy raced to the cabin to rescue Margo.

Here, Cappy encountered the crazed Cap'n Stubbs, fallen under the Gator Ghoul's sway and responsible for kidnapping Margo. Cappy's appeals to Stubbs' humanity failed, forcing the commando leader to resort to a jaw-shattering haymaker. Piney and Boomer managed to lay down explosives on the ruins and the old tree, respectively, and Zeb managed to finish disrupting the ritual while Junior fought off another alligator. 

And then the Threat Level hit "7" and all the villains switched to the "Aggressive" AI. 

Piney was caught between two alligators, Junior succumbed to a third, while the Gator Ghoul and one of his pets made short work of Boomer before moving on to Zeb.

Untying Margo, Cappy planted the last bundle of dynamite in the cabin and urged her to make a run for it. The Gator Ghoul's plans were thwarted for now, and surely nothing could have survived the series of explosions that rocked the swamp...

THE END?

Tallying up my victory points...

• +3 for rescuing Margo
• +3 for setting three explosive markers
• +3 for disrupting the ritual
• +1 for my leader surviving

For a total score of 10, "a truly heroic performance!"

I had a really good time with this round of Perilous Tales, though I notice that 1) I forgot to apply Cappy's Toughness to the wounds he took from Cap'n Stubbs, and 2) I realize as I'm writing this that I gave Cappy the exact same traits that I gave Left LaRue in the last game. In fact, a lot of my traits carried over from the heroes of last game to this game. Using the Eyes Peeled action (letting any hero with Eyes Peeled fire off a shot at an activated threat marker) extra liberally has definitely boosted my success rate, but I want to make sure next game I give some other traits a go.

Perilous Tales: The Werewolf of Rat River

I attended my first gaming convention since February 2020 this weekend - a return to my beloved Running GAGG, hosted annually by the students and alumni of the Geneseo Area Gaming Group at SUNY Geneseo. Attending college at Geneseo and joining the gaming club literally the first week of my freshman year was a formative experience for me, and made me the tabletop gamer I am today, and Running GAGG is to me the single best gaming con out there. I've missed it only twice since 2005, and while I wasn't in a position to run or play games this year, it was really good seeing friends I hadn't seen in person in three years being able to donate copies of RPG books I'd worked on for the charity auction meant a lot to me. 

Feeling energized by the experience, when I got home I set up another game of Perilous Tales for myself - set in an Arctic Camp Site, with Werewolves as the antagonists. With that settled, it was a simple matter to get out some Pulp Figures' Canadian adventurers and get going!

Our heroes:

• Lefty LaRue (Leader), with Tough and Eagle-Eyed
• Quinn the Eskimo (Teammate), with Hair-Trigger
• Frenchie Sinclair (Teammate), with Medic
• Sgt. Burke of the RCMP (Teammate), with Marksman
• Sasha the Sled-Dog (Teammate), with Brute

Our objectives:

• Kill the Master
• Hunt the Fiends
• Call for Rescue

So our stalwart heroes needed to get in, kill the master werewolf, kill at least three of its minions, and activate the radio in the cabin to call for rescue.  

Our heroes began moving up the board cautiously, keeping close together and using Eyes Peeled actions in case a threat marker triggered; Lefty used his Eagle-Eyed trait to start scouting threat markers. It wasn't long, however, before they started activating threat markers, with Quinn being attacked by a wolf.

 

 

 And Sasha finding herself snout to snout with a Young Werewolf!

At this point the party somewhat broke cohesion, and Sgt. Burke made a dash for the cabin to activate the radio, though activating one of the environmental perils in the process - no one was getting into the cabin without risking a case of frostbite!

Sasha managed to take down the Young Werewolf herself, though was wounded in the process and getting Marked - if she rolled a misfortune on a skill check at any point later in the game, she'd turn into a Young Werewolf herself. Frenchie healed her injuries, but the taint of lycanthropy wasn't coming off that easily.

Quinn and Lefty take down a number of wolves that spawn near the bridge, and advance to check out the furthest threat marker; at a glance (using the Eagle-Eyed trait), I thought it was a "1," which would have been the Master Werewolf. When Quinn activated it, I realized it was a "7," and he was caught in a snow-drift. 

Sgt. Burke activated the radio, calling for help, which spawned two more wolves placed randomly - and one of them was in the cabin with him!

At long last, the Master Werewolf revealed itself - and in so doing, bumped the Threat Level to 9! At 10, it's game over. The heroes had one activation phase to beat the Master Werewolf. Fortunately Lefty and Frenchie had their Eyes Peeled, and put a few bullets into the Master Werewolf the instant it appeared.

Sasha lunged for the werewolf's throat, biting and then dancing out of the way of its savage claws, leaving room for Frenchie and Lefty to fire everything they had into the hulking brute - and managed to put the beast down! Between the three of them they managed to put 13 wounds on the werewolf, more than its maximum health of 12. The werewolf's death brought the Threat Level down from 9 to 7.

A few more wolves popped up after this, tangling with Quinn and Sgt. Burke. While Burke managed to escape the wolf, he did succumb to frostbite trying to leave the area; the only casualty suffered by the heroes this game.

So tallying up my victory points:

• +3 for killing the Master Werewolf
• +3 for killing at least three Minions
• +3 for at least three heroes still alive when rescue arrives following the radio call
• +1 for the Leader surviving

For a score of 10, "a truly heroic performance!"

Back of Beyond: "Keys to Shambhala"

I've been reading Andrei Znamenski's 2011 book "Red Shambhala: Magic, Prophecy and Geopolitics in the Heart of Asia" this week. Exploring Bolshevik efforts in the 1920s to exploit apocalyptic Buddhist prophecies to sway Mongolia and Tibet towards Marxism-Leninism, it's ripe for being turned into a Pulpy "Back of Beyond" skirmish game. And so, going through the figures I've got painted (and painting one to finish things off), I prepped a game for this holiday weekend. I need to get some more White Russians and Warlord Chinese painted at some point in the near future to expand these games some as well. 

Honestly, some of the personalities operating in Central Asia during this period are more colorful than would be believable in fiction, which is just wonderful for gaming purposes; I've been a big fan of Roy Chapman Andrews, the American paleontologist who retrieved the first known dinosaur eggs from Mongolia in this period (and who was one of the models for Indiana Jones), for many years now, and he's almost bland by comparison to the likes of Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, Frank "One-Armed" Sutton, Colonel Frederick M. Bailey, and Cheka agent, cryptographer and paranormal investigator Gleb Bokii.

Bokii's efforts to organize a scientific expedition to locate the legendary kingdom of Shambhala and convince the Ascended Masters therein to turn their occult superscience towards the Bolshevik cause was the inspiration for today's game. I didn't have any figures scrawny and weaselly enough to pass for Bokii, so I used a figure from Pulp Figures' recent "Arcane Academics" Kickstarter as a fictionalized stand-in: Dr. Sergei Kolchak - revolutionary spy, agent provocateur and occult investigator. His grandson would continue the family tradition of exploring the paranormal, fifty years later in the 1970s. 

Setup: 1924, Southern Mongolia. Dr. Sergei Kolchak, head of a secret occult investigation unit within the Soviet Secret Police, has become obsessed with legends of the hidden kingdom of Shambhala in Central Asia; he seeks to meld Leninist-pattern communism with Tantric Buddhist teachings to produce a stronger, more spiritually-pure version of Communist ideology. The monks of the Emerald Monastery, he believes, hold the secret to Shambhala’s location. He’s had the monastery shelled to convince the monks to surrender, and now, under cover of darkness, leads a team into the ruins to collect the monks. However, a team of American expat mercenaries, all veterans of the Polar Bear Operation in 1918, are on hand to protect the monks.

"GENERAL" CAPPY BOYD'S EXPATRIATE MERCENARIES (Group Trait: Loyal)

• General Cappy Boyd (Leader; Encouraging, Steady, Smart) armed with a Pistol
• Sgt. Piney (Specialist; Tough as Nails, Deadeye) armed with a BAR
• Pvt. Junior Jones (Regular; Dodge) armed with a Boys Anti-Tank Rifle (anachronistic, I know, but deal with it)
• Zeb Walton (Regular; Stealthy) armed with a Rifle
• Michael "Boomer" Murphy (Regular; Sprinter) armed with Dynamite Bundles and a Pistol

CHEKA SPECIAL OPERATIONS GROUP (Group Trait: Killers)

•  Dr. Sergei Kolchak (Leader; Cold-Blooded, Bodyguard, Occult Expert), armed with a Pistol
• Dragovitch (Specialist; Brawler, Pugilist), armed with a Pistol
• Commissar Ivanov (Regular; Ferocious), armed with a Pistol and Saber
• Olga, Heroine of the Revolution (Regular; Indomitable) armed with a Pistol and Banner
• Red Guardsmen (Grunt Group; Loyal) armed with Rifles

 The Bolsheviks deployed at the northern table edge, while Cappy and Sgt. Piney deployed in the ruined monastery at the center of the table with the four monks; the remainder of the Mercenaries began play off-table, arriving at the table edge upon their turn in the initiative order. Night has fallen, reducing all weapons to an effective range of 12" and giving everyone a -1 modifier to Shooting attacks. The scenario is basically "Caught in a Tight Spot" out of the Fistful of Lead: Wasteland Warriors book. I randomized the table edges that the remaining Mercenaries arrived at though. 

Kolchak moved into cover and took a long shot at General Cappy Boyd and missed; Boyd returned fire, putting a Shock token on Kolchak. Sgt. Piney opened up on the group of Bolsheviks with full auto fire, putting one grunt Out of Action, wounding Commissar Ivanov and putting a Shock token on Dragovitch, while going Out of Ammo himself in the process.

 

The game quickly turned into a swirl of shooting and close combat as the Bolsheviks attempted to rally and storm the fortified position Boyd and Piney were holding and Junior, Zeb and Boomer entered the field from three different table edges. And, I'll be honest - I got three hours of sleep last night, and I've been up for nineteen hours as of when I'm writing this, and I'm pretty sure I forgot to update the turn counter a couple times. So what happened when is a little hazy today. Instead of the full play-by-play, here's some highlights:

• Ivanov stands back up after being wounded by Piney, advances towards the center of the table, and is wounded a second time, this time by a shot from Boyd. He stands up again and actually scales the wall to reach the platform the monks are on. He gets into close combat with Boyd and wins, putting the General Out of Action. Before he can grab a monk and make his escape, he's shot by Piney and put Out of Action himself.
• After using burst fire on the Bolsheviks, Piney was shot at by one of the grunts, taking a Shock token and retreating to the far side of the platform. He spends his next turn reloading, and then is attacked by Dragovitch in close combat, winning and putting Dragovitch prone with a wound. Piney then turns and shoots Ivanov, who'd just killed Boyd.
• Dragovitch succeeds on his recovery roll, stands up and, despite being wounded, punches out Piney - putting a Shock token on him and pushing him back AND OFF THE PLATFORM. The fall results in Piney taking a second Shock token. Before he can try to recover, Olga shoots him, putting a Wound on him. 
• THREE figures rolled a "1" on a recovery roll to stand up after being wounded, resulting in them instead expiring and going Out of Action - Piney, Boomer (who was shot twice in quick succession by the last remaining Grunt) and Kolchak himself (shot by Zeb). All in the span of about two turns. 
• In the final turn, it was just Olga, one Red Guardsman, Junior and Zeb left on the table. Zeb beat the Red Guardsman in close combat, putting the grunt Out of Action, while Olga went Out of Ammo while shooting at Junior from cover. Olga decided fleeing the table was the better course of action than standing around fumbling with reloading her revolver. 

 

So a victory for the Mercenaries, but a costly one, with only two figures left on the board. I think the monastery may have ended up over-fortified; the Bolsheviks had a very hard time even getting close to the monks, and didn't manage to even shift any of them off the platform; I think having the monks on the raised platform was probably a mistake in hindsight; Piney and Boyd were able to shoot down at the approaching Bolsheviks as they approached pretty handily, and the attackers had to circle around the platform to reach the stairs if they didn't feel like climbing a sheer building side while being shot at. Still, the Bolsheviks gave a pretty good showing for themselves, even if they didn't win.

Quick Chaos Warband and Cavemen

 Managed to squeak out a few figures towards the end of September.

A quick Chaos Warband for games of Fistful of Lead: Fantasy. The leader is a 2000s-era Warhammer figure I got on eBay a while back, and the rest are from Knightmare Miniatures. With any luck they'll be seeing some action on the table tomorrow.

Then I painted up a Pterro-Man from Forge of Ice to lead some "Neolithic Warriors" from Lucid Eye Productions into battle. I've always been a big fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs' fiction, and these are perfect to serve as one of Burroughs' Mahars and its Sagoth servants from the "Pellucidar" series of novels. They'll definitely be seeing some table time in pulp games!

Back of Beyond: "By God, That's an Angry Yeti!"

 "I say, Mac, did you see this piece in the Gazette?" Blinky Alsop looked up from his paper. "One of those Abominable Snowman-types is being blamed for raiding a traveler's inn outside Kashgar and stealing kegs of the local lager. Might be jolly good sport to go bag one of these slobbering, hair-covered, knuckle-dragging brutes and bring it back to the Museum, eh?"

MacCurdy, Alsop's batsman, paused before responding. "No need to go all the way to Kashgar, sir," he said. "I've got a brother-in-law in Aberdeen who fits that description well enough."

"Always quick with a joke, aren't you Mac? I thought you Scotsmen were all dour types. Regardless, I could use a month or two of fun. I'll call Barton and see if he's bored with hunting tigers yet, have the staff make our travel arrangements."

***

"I'm sorry, sir, what was the assignment?" Captain Jonathan Hyde-Whyte blanched. He hoped he'd misheard.

"I don't care for it any more than you do, Captain." The Major frowned into his tea. "The fact of the matter is that Winfield 'Blinky' Alsop is here to hunt Abominable Snowmen, and his uncle's got pull in Parliament. I'm assigning you and some of the lads as Alsop's escort through the region. Try to make sure that young fool checks his boots before putting them on, won't you?"

The Major sipped his tea.

"Our boys in the field have reported that Richard Schweinhunde, a German air-ace who's been selling his services all over the East, was shot down over the region Alsop wants to check for Snowmen. See if you can't root out that Jerry weasel while you're there, eh?"

***

The Benevolent and Honorable General Chun Zhao looked up from the report he'd been given. "A British hunting expedition in search of the wild ape-man? They really do think we are fools, don't they?"

"This is clearly a farcical attempt to disguise a planned espionage mission," the General continued, "but in my wisdom I have seen through the British lies." The man seated opposite him said nothing. He hadn't been encouraged to speak.

"You will take your band of hired killers, Zhancang, and ensure that the Gobi swallows yet another unprepared group of Westerners." Still silent, Zhancang nodded understanding and rose from his chair.

***

I had another very enjoyable solo game of Fistful of Lead today, this time breaking out some Copplestone Casting and Pulp Figures for a Pulp adventure in Central Asia, somewhere between 1921 and 1936. I played around a bit with assymetrical deployment and hidden objectives, which was fun, though may need more fine-tuning. 

I designated five searchable areas, four of which might contain a lurking Yeti, and one hiding the German spy. Searching each area could be done once, utilizing one or two actions; a Task roll of 8+ revealed whatever was hiding in the area, with a bonus to the roll for using both actions. A roll of "1" meant something bad happened, and once an area was searched, pass or fail, it couldn't be searched again by another figure. It was entirely within the realm of possibility that nobody would find anything!

The Brits got one free turn to spread out and begin Yeti-hunting before Zhancang's mercenaries arrived on the table. 

Our crews were as follows:

The British Yeti-Hunters (Group Trait: Coolheaded)

• Winfield "Blinky" Alsop (Leader; Dodge, Sixth Sense, Eagle-Eyed), armed with a Pistol
• Barton (Specialist; Sniper, Deft), armed with a Rifle
• MacCurdy (Regular; Steady, Ranger, Drunkard), armed with a Shotgun
• Captain Hyde-Whyte (Regular; Deadeye), armed with a Pistol
• Tommies (Grunt Group; Loyal), armed with Rifles

The Renegades of Kashgar (Group Trait: Killers) 

• Zhancang (Leader; Veteran, Encouraging, Lucky), armed with a Bren LMG
• Piers Buckley (Specialist; Brawler, Determined), armed with a Pistol and Saber
• Major Baumgartner (Regular; Deadeye), armed with a Pistol
• Dr. Herge (Regular; Medic), armed with a Rifle
• Mrs. Mainwaring (Regular; Steady), armed with a Pistol

 

Things got off to a spectacular start as MacCurdy approached the first search point and rolled a "1" on his search; Something Bad had been triggered, and the sands shifted beneath the Scotsman's feet as a Mongolian Death Worm reared up! 

 

"I've eaten haggises bigger than you," MacCurdy growled as his fist connected with what passed for the Death Worm's chin. Blinky went to fire at the creature with his pistol and - rolled a "1"! Out of Ammo! Barton fired on the writhing horror, and then at the beginning of Turn 2, MacCurdy finished the creature off with a double-barreled blast from his shotgun. 

Meanwhile, Captain Hyde-Whyte searched the inn at the center of the table, coming up empty-handed. Major Baumgartner arrived on the table and searched the Woods, flushing a Yeti out of hiding, and the Tommies flushed out a second one hiding near the Roadside Shrine. 

Zhancang's mercenaries began to spread out across the board, with Piers Buckley making a bee-line for the Ruins that were the final searchable location, with Zhancang .himself and Mrs. Mainwaring following behind. Unaware of the Yetis on the far side of the inn, Alsop moved up towards the Ruins as well, with MacCurdy following.

Zhancang paused to address the Yetis in his immediate vicinity, getting charged by one and clubbing it with the stock of his Bren. Two of the Tommies took Shock markers as the other Yeti threw rocks at them. Barton and Hyde-Whyte joined in the shooting, as did Baumgartner and Herge, alternating between shooting at Yetis and each other. Hyde-Whyte rolled a "1" and went Out of Ammo pretty quickly trying to shoot at Zhancang. Despite each being wounded, both Yetis kept getting back on their feet, at least for another turn or two; the one that had attacked Zhancang charged Baumgartner and got pistol-whipped for its trouble. With the Yeti down, Baumgartner got shot at by the Tommies, wounding him.

Baumgartner got to his feet and shot one of the Tommies, and was immediately shot in turn by Hyde-Whyte, going down with another wound; the Yeti staggered to its feet and went running.

Meanwhile, Alsop spotted Buckley and shot him, killing the mercenary instantly; Zhancang, stunned by his encounter with the Yeti, attempted to shake off his shock, but seeing Buckley's body hit the dirt, Zhancang shook his head and decided discretion was the better part of valor (he rolled a "1" on his Shock Recovery test, I used his Lucky reroll, and got another "1."), and fled the scene.

Barton fired at the fleeing Yeti, killing it; Herge shot at the other Yeti, resulting in it having more Shock tokens on it than remaining wounds, causing it to route off the table. Alsop searched the Ruins, but came up empty-handed. Furious at Buckley's death and Zhancang's desertion, Mrs. Mainwaring fired a few shots at Alsop, missing on all of them; in response, MacCurdy charged into range and gave her both barrels of his shotgun, sending her Out of Action. 

Dr. Herge performed first aid on Major Baumgartner, getting the Major back on his feet; another bullet from Barton sent the Major Out of Action, and Dr. Herge surrendered. Barton and Alsop collected their Yeti carcass, pausing to be photographed posing with it; their return trip to the British Embassy would be spent entirely in arguing over whether the Yeti would be turned over to the zoologists of the British Museum, or stuffed and mounted in Barton's smoking lounge.

Once everyone had left, Captain Richard Schweinhund, formerly of the Imperial German Air Service, popped out of his hiding place. "What was all that?" he wondered, gagging down another mouthful of fermented yak's milk (he'd trade military secrets for a decent doppelbock, he thought to himself) before disappearing back into hiding.