The Prologue (1941) - Part I

[Tarotdragoon]

Russo nods agreeing, too exhausted for arguments or even a snide comment,
"could you two make sure my gun is alright while you're at it"

 he then turns from the group and heads after the kid looking for Loader and a place to sit down.

[jacemachine]

Eisen (w/ Bones)

The Chief's home wasn't that far or hard to recognize. It was roughly a 90 foot walk from the graveyard, and past the church itself. And though it was still technically a shack, it was easily the largest shack in the village. Large enough to be two of any other home.

Unlike the other homes, this house actually had a front door instead of a hanging blanket. This door, was standing ajar.

Listen Check Eisen?

Loder (w/ The Kid)

You've helped quite a number of the villagers. Most had scrapes and abrasions from hiding in the church crawlspace all this time. Many mild malnourishment and dehydration. While at the graves, the villagers had gotten water for themselves from the well, many of them have told you that not being able to drink very much was the hardest part. Though others tend to feel the whole experience was a horrible mess. You'd tend to agree.

To make Eisen feel more at ease, you took a looksie at the Mother and her child-- the one's who had been attacked by Muta. The woman's bite was healing up quite well on its own. Both of their scratches seemed just fine. No signs of anything  more suspicious.

The Kid had followed you in, and at the moment he was playing some kind of patty-cake looking game, except that it contained Spanish words, and different gestures. Esteban laughed shamelessly, and the Kid smiled ear to ear.

Zaikara, the old woman, watched in silence as Loder performed his duties.

Russo (w/ Richard)

Bones and Eisen depart, leaving you and Richard to walk in silence back to the stone church. Entering you see rows of chairs filled with women and children, all filthy. The Kid is playing with the slow porter, and the Doc seems to be going about his work.

[Tarotdragoon]

Russo Moves in slowly and collapses onto the closest pew, drained from his attack, wet and filthy he really does look a mess, his shirt is caked in mud as is his hair, his face was more or less the only clean part about him.
he watches the kid a bit before sighing and putting his head back with his eyes closed.

[Nanshork]

Richard scans the crowd, making sure that Muta isn't hiding and that no one else seems to be about to go just as crazy.  Satisfied, he leans against the door frame, propping his rifle within easy reach against the wall.

[j0lt]

Seeing the condition of his companion Russo, Dr. Loder quickly moves over with his medical kit.  "Well you're certainly a mess, what in blue blazes happened to you?"

Treat Injury (take 10) = 21

[Tarotdragoon]

hearing the good doctor he looks up despite the pain in his neck.

"Muta took a liking to me, friendly bloke, we had a nice friendly chat" the sarcasm was almost like physical wall assaulting the poor doctor, it was rather clear the pilot was not in a good mood. But despite himself he moved into an easier position for the doc to treat him following any instructions Loader cared to give him.
suddenly sober and looking somewhat apologetic he looked up at the doctor

"What do you think this is all about Doc? the craziness, the hoodoo, think it links back to what we're looking for? I could be relaxing down in italy right now just sitting on the porch of the il maiale di volo with a cold one" he signs heavily, longingly "what the hell are we doing here doc?"

[j0lt]

Loder shakes his head in sympathetic confusion.  "Near as I can tell, we're in some sort of scavenger hunt against the Nazis with the stakes being the safety of the world if they get whatever it is we're after first.  The hoodoo, on the other hand, I have no idea about.  I'm just here to translate the old Mayan glyphs and patch people back together when they get banged up."

[jacemachine]

The old woman Zaikara interrupts the men. She holds a small bundle, wrapped in a patterned cloth that was likely woven in this very village. Pushing it towards the doctor, she had something of a grateful look to her face. At first you thought the gift WAS the cloth, these villages often prided themselves on their patterns; each unique to the village they were made. It was just one way to recognize where a villager was from, if you knew what to look for and what it meant... but no. There was more, wrapped inside.

"Tome a este doctor-hombre. Perteneció al marido de mi hija, principal Rhoando. Este libro le fue dado por este hombre Dunning." She smiles.

[j0lt]

Looking up at the woman in a mixture of surprise and curiosity, Loder takes the package and slowly unwraps the cloth around the book.  "Mucho gracias. Me honran."

[jacemachine]

"Lemme see! What did you get?"The Kid says as he wanders back to the group, he sits down next to "his pal" Jon Russo.

[j0lt]

Grinning at the Kid's enthusiasm, he shows him the book, reading the title off the cover.  "Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Volume 1.  I know of this author, he's quite well known in my field.  This book may prove invaluable to our expedition.  I should give it to our trailblazers to look through."

[Tarotdragoon]

Russo shifts up a little to let the kid sit down giving the book his own cursory glance

[Flay Crimsonwind]

Sorry for the late reply.

Listen: 21

Taking matters seriously once more since the string of both ridiculous and violent events had done his brain slightly in for the day, Eisen walks into the house and makes an attempt at an alertness to determine of Muta's family carried the same body-enhancing oddness he held. Listening for movement of any kind, Eisen stays ready just inside the home with his rifle ready.

[jacemachine]

Dr. Loder/Richard/Russo

Two villager women rush into the church screaming frantically. This causes the rest of of the villagers to get excited as well, there is a lot of confusion.

Eisen

You hear the buzzing sound of hundreds of flies coming from one of the two back rooms. At your feet, you and Bones can see blood streaked all across the rugs that cover the dirt floor. Two sets of footprints can be made out. Adult male bare footprints criss-cross the floor and lead into the rear room, through the hanging curtain doorway. A pair of booted footprints track through the blood, leading back out.

The home itself looks like it had been ransacked. A humble shelf for books knocked to the ground, and the books tossed haphazardly about the room. Other areas of the first room showed signs of being knocked over. Clay pots containing cornmeal or flour lay shattered, their contents strewn across the floor.

(A Search then an Investigation check may be warranted.)

[Nanshork]

Richard immediately grabs his rifle and steps outside, readying it and looking for whatever it was that made them scream.  Let someone else sort them out.

[Neull//]

Once Richard strides out the front door, looking for the source of alarm he spots John, Pingo and Max plus a hog-tied corpse…that is Muta!

“Please be careful with that Buffalo rifle friend…it is us and we carry dead Muta..”  

[Nanshork]

Richard snorts.  "As if I hadn't noticed."  He then goes back inside.

[j0lt]

Loder quickly moves over to the group of frightened villagers, trying to stand between them and the door with his hand on his holstered pistol.

[Flay Crimsonwind]

I'll take twenty on both checks, for a 27 Investigate and 22 search check.

Eisen steps right into the room; it wasn't the first time he'd seen bloody bootprints on an innocent home's floor. The booted footprints, as it turns out, are his main worry, as in his eyes the nazi's pose the greatest threat until whatever was up with Muta can be confirmed. Slowly but confidently, confident mainly because of the rifle that led him through the house, Eisen methodically searched the rooms, investigating each after confirming nothing could kill him inside it. He walked through with his rifle st his shoulder, ready to fire upon anything that might jump out.

[jacemachine]

Eisen and Bones return to the church with the grim, but somewhat expected news of the murder of the chief's wife and daughter. The old woman, mother to the chief's wife broke down sobbing, and needed the assistance of a few of the village women, who were now finally calming down after Muta's body had been dragged to the church.

All in all, there were five deaths that the Nazis had visited upon the people of Orino Perro. Bones barely said a word, his face was a thundercloud; dark, stormy, and full of impending violence. He seemed to be blaming himself for what had occured. When he did speak, he would often mumble in a sort of dazed state. "... if I had only been here..." regardless that had he been, likely just as many would have died, and he taken away to be the Nazi's guide rather than the League of Nations Expedition.

When asked what they had found, Bones responded with a solemn, "Ask Eisen, or go see for yourself."

The entire party was together once again though, as Eisen and Bones made it back to the church shortly after the commotion that had been brought about by Max, John, and Pingo's... kill.

More questions remained than immediate answers, but the group felt that they would need to make some sense of the village's recent events... especially with what had occurred to Muta.


Hours have now passed since the party had first entered the quiet village. Bones was given the "all clear" to get his boat running, and he left to go finish the work that he had left.

By 4PM in the afternoon the 100-foot, steam-powered river boat El Halcon came chugging down the river, where it was met by Pingo who tied the ropes off on the Orino Perro dock.

Everyone

Now is the time to share some information with each other. You may be able to figure some things out a bit better. What happened when John, Max, and Pingo encountered Muta? What did Eisen and Bones discover in the chief's home? The open grave of Albert Dunning...