Surviving Tarkov, Session 3 - Poison Pork

 

    Wow... this session was a doozy. Stay tuned for a surprise, but some horribly sad things happened. In other news, the party completed their first story quest, which was Background Check! The players also got many quests, as well as a large sum of Rubles. Overall, it was a good but sad session. 

Lop as Konstantin "Demo" A. Miroshnichenko, Demolitions "Expert"

Neon as Dmitri Romanoff, Teenage Soldier

Crownik as Ruslan Utzak, USSR Veteran

Ray as Joe Wolfe, The American

    

April 23rd, 2027. 
02:00. It is cloudy and dark.

Factory No. 13

    Standing outside of the Bunker, the group set off toward Jaeger's camp, to inform them of news regarding their missions. On their way, they discovered an odd chalk circle in the woods, surrounded by candles. In the center, what looked to be a pig was sitting dead, however they couldn't really tell. The party, of which only one had night vision goggles, moved towards it with caution. They split into two fire teams, one consisting of Ruslan and Demo, the other Joe and Dmitri.

    As the four closed in, Joe heard a rustling and the slapping of boots on dirt. He turned to see a man clad in a black robe carrying a two-bladed knife charging towards him. He fired a shot of his bolt-action rifle, missing completely, the running man unfazed. Now being face to face with Joe, the man swung his knife, though Joe managed to dodge the blow. Luckily, the man, who was dubbed as a "cultist" by the group was quickly dispatched thereafter. A second cultist shooting from the treeline had also fled, with Ruslan suppressing them. 

    The group cleared the region, although only with a sweep. They also checked if the cultist was still breathing, which was the case. They ended up stabbing the cultist in the brain, killing him. They moved toward the hog, which had its stomach slit open. Inside of its bowels was a statuette of a horse, which they took. They also took the hog, despite the dubious circumstances surrounding it as well as Dmitri's warnings. Hauling it back through the woods to Jaeger's camp, they managed to go undetected.
    

    At Jaeger's camp, they chatted with the man as well as asked about cooking the pig. Jaeger advised against this, however, he didn't warn them with the knowledge he knew. Over the sizzling of pork, the group talked about their day, before each taking cutlets and chowing down. Dmitri abstained from the pork. Quickly after consumption, the group began having symptoms of some sort of poisoning, with horrible stomach aches and sickness. Joe managed to throw up the food in time, saving himself for the most part.

    In a feat of quick thinking and intellect, he also remembered an injector he had picked up off of the dead cultist, which he assumed was some sort of cure. Asking the two men about who he should help, Ruslan quickly told him to inject Konstantin. Konstantin still took heavy damage, although his affliction subsided. Ruslan was not so lucky. 
    Quickly, Ruslan fell to the floor, having a sort of Seizure, before spitting blood from his mouth, and dying. During this event, Jaeger sprinted over after hearing Dmitri call for him, however he was too shocked to help. Ruslan's corpse sat as a sort of centerpiece in-between the four men, however Jaeger quickly whistled men over to bring him to the burial grounds. Before then, he kneeled down, setting a picture of their military unit on his chest and shutting his eyes.

    "Rest easy, brother. You gave so much to teach these kids survival, even if your death was an unfortunate mistake." Jaeger said, standing up and walking off with his hands pinched at the bridge of his nose. The group also said their final goodbyes, in the lowest point for the party so far. 

 

    The next morning they left, though they got minimal sleep from the night previous. Demo in specific got no sleep at all, muttering to himself all night: "It should have been me."

    As they left the camp, Demo was silent and had bags under his eyes, which had gone bloodshot. Moving quickly, they made it to the campsite where Prapor is held up at, inside the Town settlement along the coast, to turn in the quest.

    "Ah, thank you! Finally, some useful men. Hey, where is that other one? The old one?" Prapor inquired, as he sat counting the group's rubles. With a lack of response and the dead glare from Demo, he assumed the worst. "Dead, eh? Unfortunate. Well, however he died, he had lived two lifetimes in the zone himself, and outlived many of his brothers-in-arms during the wars, so he had it coming I 'spose. Well, here's the cash. In terms of other work, there’s a job to do if you’re interested. Need to find one piece of crap, and I’m at my wits’ end how. Briefly - one of the foremen who worked on the Polikim had laid his hands on some pretty important documents. You know, of course, evidence on TerraGroup and its associates? Exactly. But the folks who tried to get the info out of that foreman happened to be more edgy than smart. The dude died before they told him! Can you imagine? What dimwits! How do you do business with the likes of them? The reality is you don't." He pauses, grabbing a TarCola can and taking a swig, before setting it down and continuing.

    "Okay, so, back to the point. He grabbed the docs and stashed them somewhere. Now, I hadn't been getting any good intel for a while, until I got a tip from someone. In general, chances don’t look too good, but who knows how lucky you can get? In a word, that foreman worked in the chemo shop. The shitmost shit, see. And somewhere on the factory premises he and his homies had their bunkhouses. Chowing there, relaxing, most certainly inviting broads over, well, you get it. I figure it’s holed up there somewhere, most likely. If it’s not there, then we won’t find crap at all. Anyway, I want you to search the shacks on Customs and bring me these documents. I think it's best to search for the locked ones. Payment is ₽35,000 for each of you lot." Without waiting, he wrote down the group's names on a list. Someone also began to say something about an extra job, which prompted him to continue talking.
    "More work? Jeez! You guys really can't get enough these days, eh? I suppose I have something then, The job is simple! I have a shipment that I want to renegotiate terms on with the Therapist. Bring her this encrypted message so we can set up further communications, and in return I will pay you handsomely; let's say ₽40,000. She lives east of Ground Zero. Someone will accompany you as a replacement, not sure who yet. You'll know them when you see them. Now, get out of here!"

    

    Sitting outside of Prapor's office, the group was silent. They were still collectively not over last night. Poison? Ruslan just being... dead? They couldn't shake the feeling that it could come for any one of them too. Despite this, a figure approached them. He smiled, his face being covered by the sunlight of a new morning. Maybe their luck would change. Maybe. The person extended their hand, a Kalashnikov slung over their chest.

 

What will happen next?! Who is this mysterious stranger?!  

Wait until next week to find out!