The team pulls out of Dobrodzien on the morning of October 21, under a leaden sky that’s spitting the year’s first serious snowfall. Erick, Betsy, and Hernandez, running point in the UAZ-469, are quite thankful of their newly-acquired cold-weather gear. Comms takes rear guard, and Industrial Light and Mayhem slots into the middle of the merchant wagons. Moving at the pace of burdened oxen, progress is much slower than the team is accustomed to seeing from their usual mechanized pace.
Near noon, the convoy’s route winds through the north edge of Lubliniec. The town was collateral damage in the implosion of the Soviet 9th Tank Division, preyed upon by several deserter groups until the survivors fled to Dobrodzien to shelter under Bravo Troop’s protection. The gunners orient right to cover the most likely threat axis.
Passing a jagged-toothed apartment block, the team sights a handful of figures watching them from the upper stories. Cowboy briefly thinks she sees an RPG launcher being leveled and swings Comms’ turret – then she blinks, and it’s just a piece of rebar with a chunk of concrete still on one end.
Riding in Comms’ air guard hatch, Pettimore brings up Thoughts and Prayers. Through the PSO-1, he sees ragged people in ragged clothes. They’re armed in name only: a spear hammered from a hoe, a rake, a golf club or two. He keys his crew headset, which is patched into the vehicle’s radio: “Hey, guys, do we have any spare blankets or coats?”
The convoy slows for donation collection. Ryba, using a borrowed portable radio, breaks in on the team frequency: “We know of these people. The war broke their minds. They are tribes of the ruins now.”
Pettimore jumps down from the side of Comms, collects a bundle of blankets and sleeping bags and shelter halves, and drops it a good distance from the road before sprinting to re-mount. As the vehicles accelerate out of the town, he can just see the last residents of Lubliniec coming out to cautiously investigate.
The convoy travels a few more uneventful hours before halting. The snow-shrouded sun is sinking in the west and everyone wants enough time to set up camp – and defenses – while they still have daylight.
Someone spots a herd of goats a couple of hundred meters out. Pettimore grabs his bow and begins the stalk – the cook will certainly appreciate fresh meat. He’s about sixty meters out when something moves in his peripheral vision. In the treeline to his right is an ursine silhouette. He drops his bow, spins, brings the MEU(SOC) up at —
Nothing but a branch wavering under the weight of snow.
His sudden motion startles the goats into flight. They vanish into the surrounding vegetation.
Over dinner, Pastor Hofler engages Erick and Ellis in discussion about the team’s display of charity earlier in the day. He approves, but he’s disconcerted by the fact that the mind-fog may be affecting some people as deeply as the effects that Ryba described. He clearly wants to discuss the fog and the other things the party has hinted at seeing, but Ellis shuts him down with a creepy smile.
Hofler still has something on his mind, though. After dinner, he pulls Erick aside and hesitantly asks if Erick has ever been involved in an exorcism.
Erick has not – but this puts his antennae up. He draws out Hofler. According to the Lutheran clergyman, the Catholic archdiocese in Krakow has performed several exorcisms over the past few months. There’s been a surge in violent psychosis, particularly among the refugee and indentured laborer populations – not coincidentally, perhaps, the parts of Krakow where the fog is the thickest. According to Hofler, his Catholic colleagues have quietly been spreading the word to men of other sects that over the summer and autumn, Krakow’s ORMO have brought them three serial killers or mass murderers who they’ve apprehended. All three individuals were fiercely strong and resistant to injury, and all three died in the process or shortly after the completion of exorcism rites.
The discussion brings in most of the rest of the team. After some shared significant glances, the PCs admit that they’ve seen similar things – and have proof. Despite the team’s assurances that he really will be better off not seeing it, Hofler watches the video of Erick’s rapid field autopsy on Shotkin.
When Hofler is done retching, Pettimore asks him if he knows what happened to the bodies of the exorcism subjects. Hofler doesn’t know, but he’ll introduce the team to his Catholic contacts once they make it to Krakow.
Ellis, watching Hofler’s reaction to the video, is struck by a sudden unpleasant thought. Despite the discomfort, he pulls Octavia and Erick aside. “Beyond the weird stuff that Red found in our blood once he got his hands on a microscope… is anyone else concerned that we may have other weird nanogrowths inside of us?”
The team’s medical providers exchange uncomfortable looks. Erick indicates that Octavia should speak first. “Material doesn’t come from nowhere,” she says reluctantly. “What is repairing doesn’t necessarily mean that additional things aren’t being…” she gestures vaguely and trails off.
[ This quickly deteriorated into an OOC discussion about what experiments to run the next time Miko gets something shot off. ]
In the morning, Pettimore awakens from restless sleep and disquieting, poorly-remembered dreams. He sits down next to Ellis while waiting for breakfast, looking east toward the hills that conceal the copper mine. “We’re gonna be there soon. I don’t know what I’m gonna see, Ellis.”
Ellis looks over. Nods. “Whatever it is, we’ll see it together.” The Broadstreet Dossier is heavy in his pack.
Erick takes a walk to check the perimeter and see if anything forage-worthy remains under the snow. He’s unsettled to find wolf tracks – circling the camp, then apparently laying up in a downwind hide site about a hundred meters away. Comrade comes out to investigate and growls low in his throat, glaring into the woods.
The team and merchants eat hastily, then mount up and move out.
The morning passes without further incident as the convoy rumbles through abandoned hill country west of Czestochowa. The debris of war is scattered randomly here, the unsalvageable remnants of 1997’s Operation Advent Crown mixed with more recent leavings of a broken-backed war.
Around 1300, Betsy dismounts from the UAZ to check the status of a sketchy-looking bridge. She’s dangling from underneath, examining the pilings, when she hears gunfire from the east – in the team’s direction of travel. She and Cat, who’s come forward to cover her, exchange looks and hasten back to the waiting vehicles.
The team confers briefly. Ellis and Cat move forward to scout the situation. About two kilometers away, they find a siege in progress. Four or five people in mixed work attire are pinned down in a shattered house. Around them, the ruins provide cover and concealment for at least two fireteams of men in ragged Soviet uniforms. Ellis keys his portable radio to report back to the rest of the team – and ducks as a Dragunov shot nearly takes his head off.
Ellis and Cat dig in as marauders come swarming toward them, supported by fire from multiple unseen snipers. Back at the convoy, there’s a quick reshuffle of personnel. Betsy, Erick, and Pettimore charge forward in the UAZ while Octavia, Comrade, Miko, and Cowboy follow in the less-fleet-footed Comms. Ortiz, Hernandez, and Bell remain with ILM and the merchants, who begin getting the convoy turned around in case they have to run for it.
The cavalry arrives just as Ellis and Cat are about to be encircled. Erick brings the truck to a screeching halt and bails out, followed by Pettimore. Betsy stays on the M2HB to begin suppressing the largest concentrations of hostiles. Pettimore steadies Thoughts and Prayers across the UAZ’s hood and sets up for counter-sniper work. He picks out the slight movement of a ghillie suit against the wind as one of the opposing snipers shifts position. A Dragunov tumbles out of a tree.
The fight turns with the arrival of more firepower. It becomes decisive when the BTR-70K rolls up. As the last few marauders begin falling back, one takes a hostage. Miko charges in, takes him to the ground, and snaps his neck.
When all is said and done, the team has a couple of minor rounds and Erick is whitefaced with a shattered right radius and ulna. Octavia splints and medicates him and eases him into the back of Comms – he’s off driving duty for a while.
The rescuees gratefully introduce themselves as Octavia goes to work on the two who’d been downed before the team arrived. They are, in fact, part of the group of salvagers that the team is here to meet. Their attackers were, unsurprisingly, yet another marauder band from the former Soviet 9th Tank Division. Once the wounded are stabilized and packaged for transport, the merchants bring their wagons forward and the convoy heads toward the salvagers’ compound.