The Prologue (1941) - Part I

[Tarotdragoon]

John (thats Russo not Kestrel) walks down to the dock eyeing up the blooded corpse of Muta and possibly muttering something like "not so tough now are ya you creepy ass hodoo bastard?"

"I see you got him then? Looks like he wont be terrorizing any unsuspecting travelers any more" and with a swift look behind him at the bawling still coming from the church "or... uh any innocent villagers" he approaches the dock and gives the Halcon a rather underwhelmed and disdainful look over

"wow... what a piece of junk"[spoiler]I will stop with the Star Wars references eventually, promise[/spoiler]

[Neull//]

[BowenSilverclaw]

"You really do believe that demon-stuff, don't you?" John asks, still somewhat uncomfortable with all this talk about supernatural entities.

"Eisen, do you know of any kind of biological or chemical weapon the Nazis might have that could cause something like this?" he then asks his fellow soldier, still looking for a somewhat more rational and scientific answer.

[Flay Crimsonwind]

[spoiler]I rolled a ten for a knowledge check, should have just taken ten, lol.

However, to answer the chemical question, I have no idea if current affairs (+5 mod, total 15) would be appropriate, or history (12 total), or what. I probably don't know anything about it anyways with that low a roll, but I figure it's worth trying.[/spoiler]

"What's more disturbing to me is the fact that the chief was found in the tavern. It would appear he went home, killed his family, and laid down. Booted footprints tell me that someone either killed him, or more likely found him, since the bed had minimal blood on it. But how he moved into the Tavern and why has me confused.

In addition, because you mentioned it's lack of efficacy, along with a small quantity of blood, the bed was covered in a grand amount of sugar... So much doesn't make sense. On a different note, if he's a prime suspect, how are we supposed to notice if Pingo is acting strange, Bones?" The off-color comment was meant as an honest question, but was inflected to try and lighten mood for morales sake, and the German's humor did nothing to hide this awkward fact.

[jacemachine]

"Hmph?" Bones said, lost in thoughts of his own. "Oh. I'll keep an eye of Pingo. Right now though, he just seems shook up. Me too actually. I'm sorry."

[j0lt]

"Wait, did you say sugar?"

Loder stops dead in his tracks, a look of contemplation fills his eyes.  Suddenly he breaks into a run, not toward the docks, but back to the church.

[Flay Crimsonwind]

Neither questioning nor totally surprised, Eisen grabs his rifle and heaves his pack up, to go sprinting after the Doctor.

[j0lt]

Loder runs into the church but instead of stopping he continues straight through and out the back door to the graveyard to stop breathlessly in front of Albert Dunning's desecrated grave.  Crouching down by the torn open satchel, Loder wets his finger and touches the white grains he had noticed earlier.  Carefully, he tastes them.  He looks up and grins at Eisen who was watching him.  "Yep, it's sugar!  I can't believe I didn't realize it earlier!"

Loder stands up.  "You say the Nazi leader was acting strangely, and that there was also sugar on the chief's bed?

[Flay Crimsonwind]

"Well, yes, it looks like he had killed his family and then lay down in a coating of sugar, like it was applied to the sheets before anything had happened... and yes, Dietrich is acting uncharacteristically cruel... I'm not following completely, how is... uh, Muta's demonic taint similar in any way to Dunning's grave and Dietrich's cruelty?" Getting the basic idea, but feeling as though he'd missed a very important final clue, Eisen simply stands at ready, puzzled but interested, and moreover worried...

[Tarotdragoon]

Russo watches after the others looking throughly confused, shaking his head he turns to Max

"You are joking right? I mean... well uh.... damn. This is actually starting to make sense to me, it shouldn't, but it does"

he ruffles the back of his head dislodging as much mud as he could and using the rain to wash himself down a bit now looking rather grim

"But how can something like this even be possible? Shit like demons and hoodoo doesn't even exist for Christ's sake, and if it does then why here? Why not anywhere else? how come this is the first damned thing to be dredged up, is it us? that damn thing we're looking for what if all-" he breaks off suddenly an exasperated look on his face, after a second however it lit up and he moved over to bones

"You still got those mayan daggers we got from the fat guy? if this sugar idea Max was on about doesn't work perhaps they might, I mean if another one comes after us I would sure like a way to kill it before it, say, jumps on one of us and beats them half to death without anybody noticing"

[jacemachine]

"Daggers?" Bones says with a question, "I sold Reggie a set of ceremonial Mayan daggers. He wouldn't have given them back to me... How do you know about those anyway?"

Standing on the deck of El Halcon, Bones was trying to get things ready for  their departure. Pingo was busy with a handful of villagers fetching water from the well to fill the water barrels on board. Bones kept looking towards the church where Doctor Loder and Eisen had run off to.

Burying the dead was another priority of Bones' as well before they left.

[Tarotdragoon]

"Really? I thought I saw Richard give them to you." Russo said confusedly, he shrugged "Reggie sold them back to us, at least we know where they came from now, small word" Turning to the hunter he asks about the daggers and wether they can have a look

[BowenSilverclaw]

"For fuck's sake, you too Russo?" John exclaims as he hears Russo talking with Bones.

"Do all of you really believe in this hoodoo stuff?

I gotta talk to Eisen when he gets back, maybe he can talk some sense into you people..."

he continues, before getting a cigar out of his pocket and lighting it.

[Tarotdragoon]

"No John I don't believe in this bollocks, all I'm saying is it's just starting to making an seriously eerie sort of sense. You ever read Bram Stoker? Mary Shelley? that mummy film? They all have rules, something always kills them, and as ridiculous as it sounds I think Richard and Max were onto something with that sugar, but to be honest I think the best way to kill it is on the business end of a sharp object and if the old mayan crap helps then so much the better, coz what I do know is that a full burst of heavy machine gun fire from close range didn't even slow Muta down, you telling me thats human?"

[BowenSilverclaw]

"Yeah, I've read those books, seen plenty of movies. Still, that's just fiction..." John says, a doubt somewhat audible in his voice.

"I'm sorry guys, I don't mean any offense, but all this hoodoo talk is just so surreal.

[Nanshork]

Richard chuckles softly after listening to all of what was said.  "So you blokes are finally catching on that there's more to this world than you thought.  Yes, I have those ceremonial daggers and yes, there is a demon.  Madame Sarah showed me."  He pulls out the box with the ceremonial daggers and tosses it to Russo. "Take a look, but give them back when you're done."

He then walks away and starts to pace, obviously thinking.  He mumbles something about sugar, obviously unhappy.

[BowenSilverclaw]

"Mind letting me take a look as well?" John asks as his namesake catches Richard's box.

"I'm still not sure about all of this supernatural crap, Richard, but if you guys know of a way to deal with this stuff, I'm willing to give it a go."

[Neull//]

"Listen to me John"



Examining those daggers
Knowledge (arcane lore) take 10: 19
Knowledge (history) take 10: 17 

[j0lt]

"We should go check with the others, c'mon!"

Loder starts back towards the rest of the group, confident that another piece of the puzzle is in grasp.  What the puzzle will mean to them is uncertain, but the more information they have, the better.

[BowenSilverclaw]

John picks up one of the daggers and walks over to the porch of the Grateful Goat to try it out on one of the wooden posts supporting the extension of the roof.

If they were going to use these things they'd better be just as good as a standard issue combat knife...

[spoiler]Mind telling what their effect on a wooden post is, Jace? John is basically stabbing and cutting like with a normal combat knife, treating the post as if it were a normal enemy in close-combat (hope this kinda makes sense...)[/spoiler]