DAY 9 – APRIL 26th 2000
SOUTH of PRASZKA, POLAND – EVENING
As dusk is approaching, the group is traversing the countryside, staying clear of any major road and moving across unkempt grassy fields, dirt tracks barely visible in the lush overgrowth and the occasional stretch of forest. It’s by the edge of one of these stretches that NASCAR, who is second in the marching order, notices LED has stopped and is now crouched next to the thick dark trunk of a tree. He signals the others to stop and carefully approaches the lieutenant, hiding in the shrubs just a couple of meters from him.
“Troubles LT?” he whispers.
LED points a finger ahead and up “you tell me”
NASCAR pushes a bit forward in the shrubs and raises his head: in the sky past the next line of trees is a column of dark smoke, rising tall before being bent at an angle and then dissipated by the wind.
“Not good” says NASCAR who then looks around “we’re far enough, I say we move around it and let it be”
LED has his eyes on the smoke column “ordinarily, I would agree. But we’re looking for friendlies here, and I want to make sure it’s not them”
LED gathers everyone and shows them the smoke. “Listen…” he begins.
“I think we got it” says ALEX interrupting.
“It might be…” tries again LED.
“We better move if we’re hoping to find something other than ashes” says NASCAR.
“I just want to say…”
“LT, really, we got it” confirms NASCAR once more.
“Really?”
“Yes” says DONNA stepping up “our quest for trouble continues”
The group moves up to the next tree line and takes cover at the edge of a grassy open area. From their position they can clearly see a farmhouse ablaze: bright orange flames are consuming the upper portion of the structure, with small fire tongues coming out of most windows, crackling as they voraciously consume the wooden structure like they are trying to fill the sky with dark smoke.
LED gets his binoculars and scouts around: the farmhouse is at the center of an open area surrounded by trees, and nobody is in sight. Around the house are wooden posts at regular intervals, probably what remains of an old picket fence.
“DOC and I are going to take a closer look” says LED “just a look around and back, without lingering”
DONNA nods and takes off her backpack, leaving it against a tree.
“You guys stay here and cover us” finishes LED handing his binoculars to ALEX.
ALEX and NASCAR nod. “There’s a good spot ten yards to the right” says NASCAR grabbing DOC’s backpack, and the duo moves along the forest’s edge.
LED and DONNA carefully approach the burning building, proceeding crouched in the tall grass a few meters apart, looking around for any sign of movement. They reach the line of broken wooden posts and realize they were once used as supports for a razor wire fence, now absent.
LED can now feel the intense heat emanating from the building; he again checks the windows and the door. No way someone’s alive in there, he thinks. On the corner of his eye, he sees DONNA has stopped and is trying to get his attention by tapping her thumb and pointer together. As LED turns, she points down and in front of her.
LED reaches her and sees a corpse laying face down in the tall grass. It’s a man with ruffled black hair, wearing a faded, worn-out grey t-shirt and old brown work trousers. He is bear footed. There are multiple stains on the back of the t-shirt and bruises on both arms and the neck.
DONNA raises the t-shirt with her hand, revealing several dark bruises contrasting the pale skin. “Multiple contusions, looks like they were made with a stick or a pipe. He’s got a broken arm” she gets closer to the head “I think this is the final blow. He was beaten to death”
A loud crack accompanies the partial collapse of the front porch of the house. They both turn and inhale a new wave of ashes and burnt wood.
“Let’s keep looking”
Not far from the first corpse is a dead woman in a patched up and worn-out long sleeve shirt, an old pair of jeans and old shoes broken on the side. She is face down in the grass and a couple flies are already flying circles over the red hole on the back of her neck, just below the short blond hair.
DONNA checks her pulse without any hope “single GSW, she was executed”
LED nods and points at the woman’s wrists “those are ligature marks”
“F**king animals” mutters DONNA as she turns to keep the search. LED trails her keeping some distance from the intense heat emanating from the burning building.
They find three more women and one man: all either beaten to death or executed with a single gunshot. Some with ligature marks on their wrists left by ropes and chains. All have been stripped of anything useful, including shoes and jackets.
LED and DONNA have almost completed a full lap around the house. When suddenly they stop, looking down at a spot right near one of the fence poles. They both stare, finding themselves at a loss for words. The crackling of the fire, the chirping of birds, the gentle blowing of the wind, everything fades to a more muted version of itself. In front of them on the tall green grass patched with shades of yellow are three more corpses, two male and one female. They have all been shot, but carry no ligature marks. They still have their clothes and shoes, as whoever killed them probably deemed them useless.
DONNA and LED share a look of apparent seriousness, barely capable of masking the horror right underneath. LED takes deep breaths and starts looking around, suddenly aware of the burning house and the open area.
“That’s enough, let’s go” he says.
DONNA is interdicted briefly, then she mutters something unintelligible and follows the lieutenant.
Back at the tree line, they regroup with ALEX and NASCAR and decide to move away from the house and quickly.
ALEX can tell the lieutenant is upset. “Anything out there?” he asks gently.
“Nine corpses” says LED “civilian clothes, they were executed and robbed” he concludes before increasing his pace.
ALEX nods and starts trailing the LT.
Behind them, NASCAR approaches DONNA “what did you find DOC?”
DONNA is angrily putting on her backpack “a bunch of civvies, shot or beaten, then stripped of anything that was considered useful by… whoever, probably some piece of garbage who thought ‘new world, new rules’ and that he was going to do whatever the f**k he wanted”
NASCAR can sense something is off “not the first time we’ve seen something like that”
DONNA stops “three of them were children. Children. Nine, ten years old maybe” she shakes her head “no, it takes a particular brand of malfunctioning brain to even think about doing something like that”
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
Time for an empathy roll for both LED and DONNA:
- LED rolls empathy [D10] =0 SUCCESSES (rolled 3)
- DONNA rolls empathy [D10] = 1 SUCCESS (rolled 8)
DONNA gets 1 stress point.
FINAL COMMENTS
As my players are moving South towards Dobrodzień , I drew an encounter card for the evening shift and got the following:
- 6♦ HOUSE ON FIRE: a farm set ablaze. Corpses of civilians on the ground, recently beaten. Inside the building, roll MOBILITY to avoid intensity C fire. Scrounging at +2. After a stretch, armed civilians (PCx2) show up, assuming the PCs are behind the attack. They are armed with shotguns and pistols.
On account of fair weather and the players being in an open terrain hex, I house-ruled a RECON roll to spot the column of smoke to be unnecessary. The group didn’t enter the house and did not linger excessively, or at least their stop was quick enough to avoid an encounter with armed civilians.
The scene got grim at the end with the dead children, but the world of Twilight: 2000 can be cruel and ruthless, no matter with whom. Consider it a reminder of this inescapable reality. You can check A note about THEMES to know more.
Back at this stage of the campaign, I was still envisioning the next steps in my players’ adventure. This event was randomly placed on their path by the cards, but had me tweak my initial plan.
It is in my view a great example of how a good mix of the game’s tools and your own inventive can organically create the world your players move through.