Friday, March 11, 2011

[1938] Locations: The Carrick Light-house Island

In Bay ny Carrickey, right out of Port St Mary Bay, is the small island of The Carrick, upon which is the old Carrick Light-house. The light-house has been a constant feature of the bay for the past several centuries, built of solid stone and shining the light to guide home the fishing fleets of Port St Mary.

Before the BUF took Port St Mary, they captured the Carrick. The same squad that took it without firing a shot is still there, under command of Sergeant Eugene Hubbles. The defensive position with it's thick stone walls is a problem for any non-BUF allied boat. Four machine gun nests and two mortar pits are visible behind solid walls of sandbags and the shore is patrolled day and night.

The island defenses are mostly a ruse. They have only one (rusted and prone to jamming) machine gun (with limited ammo) and the rest, including the mortars, are pipes they found on the island and camouflaged to appear as weapons. At a distance and through binoculars, it's hard to tell the difference (most GMs would require a really good roll - in Savage Worlds terms, it would have to be a Notice TN 12). The patrols, however, are real but sparse, so it may be possible to sneak onto the island in a night raid.

Though the BUF soldiers are armed with the SMLE, they have no grenades nor any other explosives. They may have fashioned fake pipe bombs to throw at and scare attackers with, causing some confusion in the course of a fight, but that is up to the GM. Sergeant Hubbles is very concerned about the use of ammunition (they don't have much and expect little resupply) so often the lads are required to keep their weapons ready but unloaded.

Despite the rationing of ammunition, the light-house is regularly supplied with food and such from the town with one of the fishing boats. Sometimes the boat stays the night because the captain is an old friend of the light-house keeper and they drink together.

The current light-house keeper is a man named Martin Chuzzlewit. His family has been keepers for over two centuries, passing it down the line from father to son. Martin is a widower with no children. His son died at Passchendaele in 1917 and his wife a few years later (of a broken heart, they said). He looks upon his life and his legacy as a sad waste, a broken chain in the years that stains his family name.

Amazingly, one of the privates in the BUF squad, Anthony Chuzzlewit, is related to the keeper - a distant cousin, his great grandfather's brother's grandson or something like that. The old man is excited that the opportunity to pass on the family tradition came at such a late hour. He has been using the squad as workmen to complete many brute-force repairs to the light-house (which has kept the Sergeant happy that the men weren't getting into the usual trouble) and training Anthony in the operations of the light. Anthony, to his surprise, is actually interested in the running of the light-house.

Martin is not really happy with what the King's doing and he's very anti-Fascist but he's more concerned with keeping the light working and his new legacy of Anthony alive to continue the job. He knows that the Manx forces will want to take the light-house before attacking Port St Mary.

As time wears on, Martin is realizing that Anthony will fight with his squad and may get killed, ruining everything. If he can figure out a way to get the squad to surrender or be taken alive, he'd support that but a gun battle will rapidly take away his options, leading him to arm himself to defend his cousin and family pride.

Enter the PCs. They're tasked with capturing the light-house. How they do it (there are several ways to go - sneak in at night and overpower the squad, be the crew of a friendly captain, do a full-out assault or something else the GM may not think of). What intelligence they can gather over a short period of time from the locals as well as (maybe) Martin is up to them (and the GM).  

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