The Prologue (1941) - Part II

[Flay Crimsonwind]

Eisen nods towards the door. "Best inform them, I suppose..." He exits the building and heads back to the group at the docks.

Finally making it back to the others, Eisen starts his report first. "The warehouse, bar, and what looks like a school and stable are all empty, no signs of people. In short, there's noone here. Not a sign of them. Dilapidated, but not much signs of struggle from what I saw, save for I found this dart in the wall at the bar." He indicates towards his cautiously held out hand the dart, placing it point down on any crate or pole he knows can support it and prevent it from touching anything else. "Still, looks like it's been cleaned out; the bar, for instance, has no alcohol. Plenty of empty bottles, but no actual liquid. This place looks to me to be abandoned. Richard what did you find in the other buildings? Anything to the contrary?"

[Nanshork]

Richard shakes his head.  "Everything I saw told the same story.  The only odd thing was that their trash heap is covered with dead animals.  Oh, and wherever these people went they didn't do it willingly.  I found some personal items left behind."

[j0lt]

Frowning at this new development, Loder begins reloading Max's gear back onto the boat.  "Max, you're staying on the boat after all."

[BowenSilverclaw]

"So, time to get the mules of the boat and get going?" John inquires with his companions.

[j0lt]

Looking up at John with a look of incredulity, Loder nearly drops Max's bag into the river.  "Get the mules off the boat?  Why on earth would we do that?!  We need them!"

[jacemachine]

Bones speaks up from on high, "We still have the ability to continue further, Since this place is either abandoned or... whatever the hell happened-- I guess we can't resupply. Maybe the cistern for water, but that may be about it.

"I think that I can get us MUCH closer before we need to leave this old boat. I didn't really want to leave it here anyway. ANYONE could see her. This place has travelers pass through a couple of days or so normally-- it's a well- known stop. At least it had been... I know of a tributary we can take that will get us awfully close to the first set of ruins Dunning had written about. From there, I'd say we can travel the old fashioned way.

"On the map there had seemed to be some sort of swampland we'll have to navigate  beyond that."

Bones craned his head over the roof to take a peek at the animals.

"It wouldn't hurt to let them down and get some exercise though. Let them shit on the ground for a bit instead of my girl's decking... So Yeah, Sarge, not such a bad idea-- if not exactly how it's going down. Why don't you put the planks down, and get some help off loading the pack mules. They SHOULD be a stable with hay and water troughs--

"Also, I know that most of us are beat. It wouldn't hurt to rest a little longer while we're here right? However, I leave those sort of decisions up to you fellas." Bones said amiably.

[BowenSilverclaw]

"Sorry fellas, completely forgot about Bones' little shortcut after all that hassle with the bomb and that crazy kid, what was his name, Muta, not to mention the booze..." the Sarge apologizes as he looks somewhat embarrased.

"Eisen, do you think the Germans will return here any time soon or do you reckon it'll be safe to let the mules of the boat for a little while so they can get some exercise like Bones suggested?

Assuming the rest of you want to take a short rest after we help Esteban with Paco's funeral.

Personally I'd prefer to get a move on as soon as possible seeing as we still need to catch up to them Nazis and I don't know how much of an advantage Bones' shortcut will grant us in that regard."

[Nanshork]

Something clicks in Richards head, and he walks off without saying a word.  A good scout investigates everything, no matter how seemingly innocuous, and he missed something. 

Going to investigate the well!

[jacemachine]

Richard

Good instincts, but too late for the poor soul you discovered drowned, bobbing like a cork, in the bottom of the well. (A person with your sight has no problem seeing the figure.) There is a septic aroma that can be smelled with you look over the edge. So much for clean water from the well.

[Nanshork]

Richard yells out, "Bring some rope!  Someone drowned in the well, we need to find out if he was a villager, NAZI, or what!"

[BowenSilverclaw]

The Sarge rushes back onboard El Halcon and heads for the mules and equipment. He gets some rope and then runs over to where Richard is.

"Here you go!" he calls out as he approaches, before helping the Brit with getting the corpse out of the well.

[Tarotdragoon]

"Jesus, this just keeps getting better and better, isn't this enough of a story for ya kid? hold this" he offers up a chunk of the receiver to the kid while he fiddled with the barrel, taking the barrel off after releasing a hidden catch and twisting the whole structure clockwise.

[jacemachine]

The body is pale and water-logged as if it's been sitting down there for some time. The man's eyes were white and filmy. His greasy hair was black. He wore water-logged brown or khaki colored clothes. His wet hat came up with him. He looked to be around 40 or 50, and 190 pounds.

If this was a fishing contest, Richard and Kestrel would be declared the winners.

[j0lt]

Loder starts to help Max down the stairs and then off into Bones' room.  "I'll come back with some more medicine later, you need to rest."

A little while later, Loder and Esteban appear carrying a bundled up body.  Looking up at the others, Loder asks.  "Is the graveyard behind the church?"

[ragincajun2288]

Pingo mumbles to himself, which is possible without a tongue, but even more so ineligible to understand. He pokes a finger into his ear and shakes it around to clear it out. He turns and walks the other way hearing some commotion from the others behind. Wonder what they found? He approaches the small boat and says a small prayer that the old fart isn't shitting himself in a corner and ready to fire at anything on sight. Why did Bones send him on this mission again? "I can't even talk to the guy", Pingo thought. He moves up to the boat and listens to see if he can hear anything moving inside.

LISTEN (1d20+2=21)

[jacemachine]

Pingo

You clamber onto the smaller steam-powered river boat. It was made of a rustic-looking aged wood. It's looked old, perhaps as old as the old bastard himself. At least, you could believe that it was. The entire boat looked like Bones' room after one of his bingers... which was to say, you couldn't take a step without hitting an empty tequila bottle.

The wheel house door was stuck. Pulling it open you made your way inside, empty. You go down below decks...


Spot check please.

[ragincajun2288]

HELP ME BABY JESUS! SPOT: (1d20+3=21)

Lol

[Tarotdragoon]

and from the heavens a glorious hand fell slowly like a leaf, gently, so very gently it cupped the die and a soft voice spoke into Ragincajun2288's ear and said

"I'll roll that for you pal"

[Flay Crimsonwind]

Haha, hella walked right past the well! I even RPed it! I should have known to look inside the damn thing!

"Return soon? No, the Nazi's probably wont do anything so wasteful as to return to a place they've cleaned out, if that's the reason behind this place's seeming abandonment... they'd just be pushing on harder, especially with Dietrich being such a demon..." The slip of the tongue, as Eisen didn't quite buy the demon theory, was cut short by Richard bolting off. Hearing Richards calling, and cursing himself for not checking the well himself when he walked past, Eisen slaps his hat on, and decides to go see about the path leading out of the village. His main issue was with where everyone went; so he looks for tire tracks or boot marks, anything to indicate a nazi caravan.

Moves to 10, checking for some sign of disturbance in the soil... I know, fat chance. Want a survival check?

[jacemachine]

Bones descends from his rooftop perch to the deck, and hopping over onto the dock, he settled his brown felt fedora upon his head. He was wearing a pair of khaki pants, and a loose fitting white linen shirt. A black vest over that. He wore his sleeves up.

He lit a smoke and trod towards the corpse. He tilted his head to get a better view of the water-logged deceased, and covered his mouth to stop from gagging--

"I know him, as sickening as he now is, there's no doubt. That is Barranca's body. Elder brother to Satipo. Current co-owner of this place, see?

"I wonder what Pingo has found?"

Pingo

Thankfully, despite his lack of a tasting organ, he still had the ability to smell. There was a rotting funk that emanated from the rear of the filthy, bottle-laden cabin below decks. Through the light of the portholes, you can see two  decaying bodies, laying as in the throws of mortal battle. They both lost.

One of them was the old bastard. The other... It was one of them cannibals. His face, putrefying as it, had been painted with yellow paint handmade no doubt by the man who had worn it. You knew of a few flowers and caterpillars that could be crushed to make that color.

Eisen

There are no recent tracks that you can find. Except for those that you have determined belonged the Sgt. Ketsrel when he had come by this way prior. You can tell he walked a little way, but returned before going far beyond the boundaries of Machete Landing. It had been raining here too for days as well no doubt. Nothing remained of any other trace of passage.