The Prologue (1941) - Part II

[BowenSilverclaw]

"Doc, you speak Spanish, can you keep an eye on Esteban here?" John says as he and Esteban approach the group.

"The poor guy really seem lost, and I can't blame him for it after what happened to his brother..."

[jacemachine]

Bones held the reigns of the horse with some of the groups stuff strapped to it. One of the mules was tied behind it. "Alright. Well, if everything is packed away on the animals. We might as well leave now and try to get to that abandoned village site by dusk.

"Be sure to grab your mule with your belongings." Bones added. His tone was less than pleased, but considering their situation could not change, he accepted it.

"Richard and Pingo; the two of you get started out ahead of us. Richard, see if you can get us there any faster."

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Okay, the group is on the road again. I'll need Survival checks from Richard and Pingo. I'll need Spot and Listen checks from everybody. Unless you trust your cohorts Eyes & Ears better than your own.

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[Nanshork]

Survival: 26
Spot: 28
Listen: 33
Over land travel time reduced by 50%.

Why yes, I do know that I'm awesome.   

[Tarotdragoon]

Russo tagged along with the group feeling very ill at ease, it would have been nice to avoid more damn jungle...

spot: 21
Listen: 15

[jacemachine]

                Leaving the remnants of the Mission behind, the expedition led by both Richard and Pingo made their way into the jungle. The sound of the river was quickly smothered by the dense underbrush and heavy forest of trees that reached so high it seemed like they were trying to touch the sky.

There was that ever-pungent stink of the jungle-- it smelled of rotted foliage and earth; a thick aroma of compost. It would eventually be acclimated by your sense of smell, or perhaps it overwhelmed that sense because it was only REALLY noticeable if your minds wandered to it.

Sweat once again clung to every inch of skin, and trails of it ran from your hairlines down into your eyes and down your face.

The path itself had seen years of prior use, and enough in recent months or weeks that it was easily followed. No footprints could be discerned from the muddy trail thanks to the all-too common rainfall. (It IS a rain forest, after all)-- but the group made forward progression with care.

Pingo scouted ahead, even further than Richard letting the older Brit focus on his own tasks of leading the group as fast and as safely as he was capable.

Conversation was light. It seemed that the recent loss of so much and so many had put a heavy pall upon the group. Even Bones, who characteristically would give random bits of informative jungle survival tips was silent.

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                It was dusk when the ragged League of Nation's counter-expedition arrived at the "village". It was as Bones had said. A number of ramshackle huts, many of which had long collapsed into themselves. Areas that had once been the open ground of the Village was now choked with thick brush and weeds. New trees, had sprouted over the years, and stood in the center of the wooden frames of once sturdy shacks.

The journey to this place was uneventful, but considering the past 24 hours, this was something everyone in attendance was grateful for.


(Alrighty, no map for this given location unless something... bad... happens. Go ahead and make camp and make your posts making camp! )

[Flay Crimsonwind]

Slowly making camp, Eisen was finally coming down from his fury-high for the blood of those onboard the nazi ship. At least they'd managed to assassinate the C.O. and hopefully that would take some recovery time once those traitorous dogs got back to their base of operations. 'Too bad it hadn't been Dietrich' he thought sadly to himself, though on second consideration, if Dietrich was any bit as enhanced as Muta had been, the shot might not have been as lethal...

The hat was useful, he now saw; an army cap was good, but the cap he was weariong now would help his sight, face, and neck more from the light. Not that it mattered, now that the day was coming to an end, but still. He took deep breaths setting up the tent, tying up his mule to the same tree he was using for a base-post for the tent, and once he'd finished, he started to assist the others in setting up their tents.Aside from handing the bags he'd recovered back to their owners, he'd wanted to show Bones the map case, which he took out now to examine it's contents.

[ragincajun2288]

Pingo grabs the various essentials from the mules for setting camp and making fire. He's tired, and he's sure the rest of the group probably is too. From the last cannibal attack to this they hadn't had much good rest. Still he pushes on, as his nature insists, and begins making a fire.

Survival check for fire? 1d20+3=15

[Tarotdragoon]

He lead his stubborn creature and tied off the mule the as close as he could without crowding the beasts and took off his camping equipment setting up the tent slowly and carefully as he could making sure to get all the pegs and ropes as secure as possible to combat any weather the rainforest could throw at him, then took his essentials and placed them inside the tent. Nobody was talking and Russo saw little need to break the trend doing his own job quietly. eventually he moved back to the mule to retrieve the massive gun once more and he set it up at the edge of the camp close to his own ten and once more draped the tarp over the top of it to prevent the weapon getting even wetter, before he was done however he took the ammunition box and brought it over to where Pingo was constructing a fire, he sat on a downed log (or possibly it was a piece of a collapsed hut) and began fishing out individual shells and examining them one by one.

[j0lt]

Loder stuck with Esteban throughout the day's march, trying to make small talk and taught him a few words of English to keep him from dwelling on the loss of his brother.  The two had likely not spent so much as a day apart since childhood.  Once the group began setting up camp Loder arranged his tent and helped Esteban with his before collapsing into his sleeping bag and passing out from exhaustion as soon as he was prone.

[Nanshork]

Richard enjoyed the day's silence.  Bones was an alright guy but he talked too much and had no business telling Richard how to do his job, the young upstart. 

Glad that he and Pingo managed to keep the rest safe, Richard starts to make his camp.  After getting his tent set up, he goes to see if Pingo needs any help with the fire.

[BowenSilverclaw]

After putting up his own tent and helping the others, John spends most of the night going over his equipment, making sure everything is in working order and clean. He doesn't say much, just like he hadn't said much for the rest of the day, still angry and in shock about the sudden Nazi-attack and the loss of Paco.

Even though he was just as tired as the rest, he knew he couldn't take any chances with his gear, especially in this humid environment.

[jacemachine]

Pingo accomplishes a fire easily near the center of the former village. Tents go up all around as the night slides in to replace the day. As always, the sounds of frogs and insects scream their calls into the jungle, and the sound surrounds you.

Bones approaches Eisen. "I see you found the hat." At first Eisen thought that perhaps Bones would try to reclaim it, as much as he lamented its loss in the past. However he said "It suits you. I'm sure Max will agree."

The Kid and Esteban gathered the mules and hobbled them off to the side of the camp inside the barely-there frame of a hut.

Bones withdrew a leather pouch of jerky, and passed it out to his people; the Kid, Pingo, and now Esteban. He then made his way to find Richard and the Sarge.

"What are your plans for the evening? This far in we certainly need a good watch for the evening. Shall we do what we had done the previous nights? Sets of two and whatnot?"

He glanced towards the others, to see if they had anything to add.

[Nanshork]

Richard nods.  "There is no need to change anything about how we've been doing things."

[BowenSilverclaw]

"Yeah, let's stick to the same routine." the sarge adds.

[Flay Crimsonwind]

Eisen tips the hat in thanks to Bones' allowing his hold on it, no matter how temporary. When asked about the watch, he responds with the cocking of his rifle. "I'll take first watch, unless someone laments having to wake up and fall asleep later on."

[ragincajun2288]

Pingo steps up next to Eisen and beats his own chest with a fist, which is to say, "I'll take the first watch with Eisen I don't give a fuck".

[Tarotdragoon]

on his own log Russo sits examining individual shells by the firelight then tossing them away into the underbrush with a disgusted look, he reaches into the box, snaps out a shell then looks at it closely in the light of the fire and then would suddenly toss it off into the darkness, the shells occasionally making small clinks and clunks as they hit their brothers or other solid objects. He was still keeping his head low not talking to the others, he hadn't taken a singe watch yet and he was hoping to keep it that way for as long as he could.
he muttered something about cordite and flung another shell off into the distant darkness.

[Nanshork]

Richard goes into his tent, trusting that when it was his turn to take a watch someone would wake him.  The rest of these people seem to be acting like a bunch of women, and he doesn't want to deal with it.  Apparently they haven't realized that this is a war, and in a war people die.  Bloody pansies.

[jacemachine]

The night goes by, hour for hour. Changes in the watch are made at their appointed times.  Various creatures of the jungle move around in the underbrush or jungle canopy. Their eyes shining in the glow of the flames as they watch the group of humans sleep in their tents.

It is a peaceful night, and no sign of trouble is seen on any shift. Though the ramshackle village, merely lone timbers and fallen thatch, a skeleton of it's former self served to be an unsettling place.

Describe your actions that you take during your watch. This is entirely for flavor, and since the end result is that nothing serious went down (ie; cannibals didn't eat your faces while your slept-- or Nazi U-Boats find you--Etc).

Be sure to collect 350 XP for the Sinking Halcon encounter. Even the Doctor who heroically made certain the mules would not flee! -- Your PC also regains his character level in lost in HPs for getting an eventual 8 hours of sleep.

Take it from there and tell me what took place during your watch, if you aren't sure who your watch partner is, I'll make a chart and post it on the OOC.

[ragincajun2288]

Pingo wondered if Eisen thought him odd. The native would pace around the campsite at a slow pace then suddenly do something like run and jump behind a tree, spear in hand, looking around the trunk and into the night. At one point it seemed he had stopped walking and gotten onto all fours like a dog and was sniffing the dirt.

At random he would plunge into the shadows of the woods and then return from another direction, shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders to indicate he had found nothing worth signing about. Pingo kept steadfast watch over the campsite until it was his turn to hit the hay.