Father Maciej and Wilhelm aren’t done interfering with our protagonists. They’ve been planning a feast day for a while. 15 August is a double holiday in Poland: the feast day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and (outlawed under the communist regime but making a comeback in unaligned and NATO-aligned communities) Polish Armed Forces Day. The village took a rest day two weeks ago, but it’s been nonstop work since then, and this is important for morale. So the PCs find themselves with another enforced day off and have to figure out what to do with themselves.
The day is mainly a prep day for the evening’s feast, and an opportunity for everyone to come in from the fields and orchards. Father Maciej is feeling more upbeat than usual after yesterday’s blessing of the scorched field, and he’s prepping a ceremony for the evening.
This session was intended as an asynchronous text roleplaying/creative writing opportunity on our Discord server, but I did a lousy job of coordinating it. However, I did get some engagement, which I present here as some slices of life. Also, the player behind Magda gave me an extensive guest post, which will be up tomorrow.
Leks: Leks is NOT a practicing Catholic, or really religious at all, but with the majority Polish Catholic portion of the village, he’ll awkwardly attend a mass or something. Or more interest to him is finding some of the good local hooch and sharing a drink or two with any of the old veterans around. It’s an honest reverence with him, sadly a lot more genuine than his clumsy attempts at Catholicism.
Referee: Willhelm will actually pull Leks aside before the evening feast. He’s organized a separate thing afterward for all the veterans and currently-serving troops in the village, in celebration of Polish Armed Forces Day. There’s no doubt that Leks, Red, and Pettimore are invited. Magda, of course, is Polish Home Army, so her presence is expected. Wilhelm will leave it to Leks to decide whether Arkadi and Miroslav are welcome.
Leks: Admittedly, Leks has warmed to Miroslav, capable one armed bugger that he is. I can even see Leks trying to “make right” by spending a little time here and there to help out that family unit with things that are just easier for a big guy with both arms. In Arkadi’s case, Leks will defer to Red. There’s a slow building grudging respect, but it has a little bit to go to overcome Leks’s default anti-Russian outlook (I figure a few more missions alongside Arkadi will earn him that respect in his eyes).
Red: Red will certainly attend both services. He isn’t catholic, and like a lot of Americans of the 90’s he was more of a Christmas and Easter Christian. However, he is becoming a firm believer in one of the pillars, and that is community, which he feels part of.
Red: If Leks asks Red about Arkadi, honestly, Pettimore vouches for him, and that is good enough for Red.
I really wanted to write out a couple of cool scenes for the PCs to show off the feast day, but… time. Bah.