I realised I have been remiss in finishing the “Mysterious Chemicals” Pulp saga. The previous episode finished several months ago with the “Auxiliary Police” (AKA The Baddies) escaping with the loot. This clearly would not do, so it was time for a rematch.
The problem for the Auxiliaries is that the game is set on Ascension Island, a 34 sq mile (88 km²) lump of volcanic rock in the middle of the Atlantic between Africa and South America. This means they have to get their loot out, so after hiding it in the “Montaro trading” warehouse, they are about to try and smuggle it to a waiting Airship.
Unfortunately for them, the Aroura Crew under Betsy Miller have been tipped off, and are approaching from the aerodrome…
The Auxiliaries set off. Their ‘leader’ Col. Lawrence and his main henchman, Lt. Gunning, have placed the Chemicals in their truck. Lawrence insists on driving this time.
Other team members are making their way on foot, and taking every opportunity to bag some extra loot.
For some this went better than others: Seaman Dundas and “Matron Fox” are spotted successfully negotiating for a rocket pack, presumably for use next time they meet the Württemberg Rocket troops. Their Colleague “Commandant” Allen tried to steal a shipment from a truck. Unfortunately the die showed it as “booby trapped”, so it went bang.
Meanwhile, the Aroura Crew are not taking any chances and have set up an ambush.
Johansen is investigating an “Auxiliary Vent” on the Mono-wheel. One advantage of having a thoroughly ridiculous item like the steam powered mono-wheel is that when the dice come with something esoteric like an “Auxiliary Vent” with no obvious context, I have somewhere to put it.
Suddenly the truck driven by Col. Lawrence roars around the corner at nearly sixteen miles an hour, and chaos ensues. Miller fires at Lawrence, and the dice show three successes (4 or above).
Col. Lawrence is not very skilled at anything except running away, which he can be seen doing below. Strictly speaking the published rules rules dictate he would be “down” but we have decided that the Colonel would never stay around long enough to get shot, the Local Rule is that he runs away.
Crucially, and typically, he neglected to stop the truck before jumping. Now the chemicals and Lt. Gunning are in an out of control vehicle, heading towards a wall…
Meanwhile Seaman Dundas and Matron Fox of the Auxiliaries have sneaked up on the Monowheel. Fox uses the old “What’s that over there” on Johannsen…
And then Seaman Dundas comes up behind Johannsen and exacts revenge for their previous encounter.
But they make them tough in Scandinavia and Johansen gets back up. In a scene that would do justice to the Three Stooges, first one goes down, and then the other. Johansen and Matron even shoot each other at point blank range and manage to miss entirely. In the end, Matron and Johansen are left standing, and both have dropped the rocket pack and the auxiliary vent respectively. Everything hangs in the balance…
But Johansen’s crew mate Johanita Ramirez joins the battle, possibly out of embarrassment, and this turns the tables in his favour…
But this is really the secondary fight, As Lt. Gunning careers towards the building in his out of control truck he reaches desperately for the wheel, but to no avail.
In previous games this truck was all but indestructible, but a collision with a building proves to be too much and it is wrecked entirely. Betsy deals with Lt. Gunning and finally takes the secret Chemicals from the wrecked vehicle.
With the rest of the Auxiliaries down or absconded, Matron Fox can only watch as the victorious Aroura Crew depart with the loot.
Finally the Aroura crew succeed; it took them long enough. However, those dastardly Auxiliary Police will probably be back soon with more evil plans, and besides, the Aroura crew are beginning to attract the attention of the Royal Navy Air Service police force, who are theoretically the real police on the Island, and Captain Bryant doesn’t take kindly to all these nefarious goings on…
