The Prologue (1941) - Part I

[BowenSilverclaw]

[spoiler]Listen: 16

Even though me and Doc are underground I figured I'd give it a try [/spoiler]

[jacemachine]

[spoiler]No worries Bowen! You GOTTA at least try!

Okay, here's my Listen DC Math breakdown according to RAW:


This is the immediate area of action. The line drawn from the from of the tavern to the church is the distance. Approximately 105 feet away.

Now:

The sound of battle results in a -10 to the DC.
Heard through a solid (stone) wall gives you a +15.

These together result in 5.
Now for every 10 feet of distance a +1 is applied.

If the PC is distracted it's a +5, which... I going to say that both Kestrel and Loder.

DC's to beat:

Loder/Kestrel. You needed a 20 to hear the commotion.

Eisen/ Max you will need to hit a 15 to hear...[/spoiler]

[jacemachine]

Deep in the crawlspace, Loder finally gets a reply. The feeble voice of an older woman says as she looks between the two men in the darkness.

The people shield their eyes from the flashlight's glare.

[BowenSilverclaw]

"What'd she say Doc? What happened here?"

[j0lt]

Please do not hurt us. We have had our lives taken away from us by the soldiers! There is a mad man wandering the village who  would harm us. Do not lead him to our hiding place! Please!

Loder lowers the flashlight so that it's pointed at the floor about midway between himself and the villagers. "They said the soldiers came and killed many villagers.  And she said something about a madman in the village..."

He turns back to the villagers. 

Holding his canteen out towards them, he offers some water.  

[Neull//]

Listen checK: 3
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2123845/

Max lowers his weapon and waits for the rest of the team to get those people out of there...

[jacemachine]

Like some sort of clown car, villagers; women and children only climb hesitantly from the hole with assistance from Dr. Loder and Sgt Kestrel.

As soon as they see Eisen, dressed in his German uniform, though... they freeze.


At that time, the doors of the church swing back open on their hinges-- Paco and his brother Esteban come rushing in, tripping over each other in the excitement!

"Help! Help!" Esteban cries in accented English. Perhaps one of the only English words he knows! Estaban, through ragged breaths says

The doors, heavy and unbalanced begin to swing shut behind them-- but not before you hear the sound of Russo's heavy machine gun-- then another shot that sounded like a cannon. Richard's rifle?

The villagers begin to scramble back down into the crawlspace below the church.

[BowenSilverclaw]

"Ow crap..."

John rushes towards the doors with his SMG in hand.

[Flay Crimsonwind]

"If you could explain to them doctor... and keep them here..." Eisen requests in his best English, as he rushes out the door to get to Russo. Though he has no idea what Paco said, his suspicions were confirmed fairly quickly. Thinking to himself "I wonder if the uniform was worth it...," he wonders additionally what kind of trouble Russo could have gotten himself into while he had that humongous cannon of a machine gun...

[jacemachine]

Sgt. John Kestrel and Herr Eisen Abendroth are the first to make it back to the Grateful Goat.


Richard, Russo, AND the Kid were looking around the village as if they expected to see someone... or something to come charging out from ANYWHERE. In fact, Richard, Russo, AND The Kid quickly turn towards Kestrel & Eisen as if ready to attack. Richard almost raised his rifle. But recognition softens their stance, but not by very much.

The fresh scent of gunpowder hung in the air to mix with the rank smell of mud.

Richard nods a greeting to John and Eisen.

[Neull//]

Max also rushes towards the tavern...

"What happened here?"
Spot (take 10): 15

[Flay Crimsonwind]

Eisen bursts into the room, is the first to lower his gun and ask "What the hell happened in here?" Looking for the body of Muta, which is nowhere to be seen, a smile appears on Eisens face, for a reason he can't quite understand, and asks tongue in cheek, "So, still only partially dead now?"

More seriously, Eisen turns to the others in the room, still wondering what happened to Muta's "corpse" with a hand on the handle of his rifle. "We found the villagers hiding under the floor in the church. They don't seem to like me, so I can draw a preliminary assumption on what happened here. We just don't know what happened with him...

And, I'm sorry.... we lost the doctor..... hahaha, kidding! German humor.... really, he's talking to them now. We might want to make it over there... since Russo, you might want to talk to him as well." Eisen offers a hand to help the Itallian up. "Seems like you did a fine job, but maybe we should mount the machine gun on the kid instead, no?" Eisen, laughing and patting Russo on the back, makes to leave.

[j0lt]

After making sure all the villagers get back into the crawlspace, Loder follows them in, closing the trapdoor overhead. 

Loder looks among the frightened villagers for the one he had talked to earlier. 

[jacemachine]

Richard/Max/Russo/Eisen/Kestrel

Richard goes into the tavern and helps himself behind the bar. He withdraws a clear bottle with an amber colored liquid. He pours himself a glass. "That damn crazy took off. He's somewhere out in the village. Of course, he could be long gone into the jungles by now... but somehow I don't think so."

The kid finally let go of his grip on 'Heather'-- instead he turned to Russo and gave him a hug. "I'm glad that you're okay Russy! That was a close one! Holy smokes!" he grins ear to ear. "We sure SHOWED him, didn't we!" he says over his shoulder at Richard who responds with a raised eyebrow.


Dr. Loder

The older woman tells you, The other villagers huddle together. She tells Loder the events that lead them to this situation under the church...

[Neull//]

Max smiles with Eisen's Humor but he is stil eager to learn what exactly happened...

"What do you mean he left? What happened exactly? He attacked you?"

[BowenSilverclaw]

"Any idea where he could be now, Richard? You had a good vantage point over on that roof.

By the way, I don't think it's wise to leave Doc alone. What do you guys say we get everyone over here?"

[Flay Crimsonwind]

"Good plan, dually noted, leaving now and needing a cigarette...." Eisen said, somewhat wearily as he left the building.

Further out, it hits him; "Oh yes, and just to warn you all, when exploring earlier, I went down to the docks, with Max.... Bones, the ship, all of it isn't where it should be. There is nothing there, so unless Bones is taking his time and docked it elsewhere... we might need to look for him.... it.... anything...."

[Tarotdragoon]

accepting the hand up from Eisen, wincing a little as the german pats him on the back and grimaces at the joke, and wincing more as the kid attached himself to Russo's battered form.

"yeah" he says smiling painfully "we sure did, great job on the gun kid, never tried firing her off the tripod before, I wasn't entirely sure she would agree with it, glad you got my back" he smiles at the kid somewhat awkwardly, his muddied gun still in his hand, he obviously isn't used to this.

He moves into the bar an ugly grimace on his face from the beautiful smell made that much worse by the bruises and cuts around his eyes and cheeks. He helps himself to a swig of whatever liquid Richard had magic-ed up from the bar, taking the whole bottle he moved back outside to sit down, picking up his water canteen and finally putting his muddy pistol down he used some of the water to clean off his face as best he could.

[jacemachine]

As if speaking of them summoned their presence, Harrison "Bones" Avery and his man Pingo came into the tavern through the open front entrance. Both men looked anxious.

"What happened, we heard gunfire. Is everyone okay?" Bones asked.  Pingo held his nose immediately, and Bones wrinkled his.

Before getting his answer he went towards the back of the tavern, towards the overturned table and the decomposing villager. He stood there a moment just looking. His face a grim mask.

[BowenSilverclaw]

"What took you guys so long?" John asks, before taking a swig of one of the bottles of booze behind the counter.

"We had a run in with some sort of crazy villager here. You better ask Russo for any details, shook him up pretty bad."