DAY 9 – APRIL 26th 2000
NORTH of DOBRODZIEN, POLAND – EVENING
After traversing a stretch of thick forest as the day light is fading, the group emerges in a small town of overgrown lawns and damaged, abandoned houses. A single road littered with potholes crosses the town N-S. The four go up to the edge of the street at a broken-down fence. LED unfolds the map and orients it so that it catches the western light “we should be a few clicks North of Dobrodzień, but this village is too small to be on the map”
“We’re in Kocury” says ALEX.
“You know the place?” asks LED.
“Never been here before, but look” says ALEX pointing to the other side of the street.
A one- story, run down white building stands across a small parking lot, its sign says Gospoda Kocury.
“What’s that?” asks LED.
“Kocury tavern”
“Stop. Where. You. Are” comes a voice from their right, the command imparted loud and clear.
ALEX freezes, his finger ready on the trigger and his eyes and ears ready to catch every possible clue. LED instinctively takes a knee and starts evaluating potential covers around them. Roughly 15 meters behind them, DONNA and NASCAR take cover behind a grey, plastic water tank with a big hole on its side and dark moss growing on it.
A single soldier steps out of one of the houses that are right at the edge of the street, to the right of the players. He’s armed with an M16A1, wearing a kevlar helmet and flak jacket over US army fatigues. “I said stop where you are!” he shouts again.
LED spots a silhouette in one of the top floor windows of the same building, thinking that if the soldier decided to show himself, he’s confident they’re surrounded.
“Don’t shoot” yells LED calmly while standing up and raising his hands “we’re not looking for troubles”
The soldier moves towards them at a steady pace, his rifle trained on the ground “hands up, everyone!”
ALEX lets go his AKM which remains slinged against his belly, and raises his hands.
The soldier stops a few feet from LED “if you really don’t want troubles, tell your men to get out in the open with their hands up” he says calmly pointing at where DONNA and NASCAR are taking cover.
LED turns “get out in the open guys, we don’t want to give the wrong impression”
NASCAR and DONNA slowly exit cover, move a few feet from it and stand there with their hands raised.
The soldier takes a good look at all the newcomers “you guys are carrying a lot of hardware”
“It’s a dangerous country, at a dangerous time” says LED.
“Right, and people going around this heavily armed usually add to the danger”
LED decides to cut the verbal contest “lieutenant O’DONNELL, 5th Division. Those are corporal ROMA and private DOUGLAS, and this is corporal KRASINSKI of the Polish army”
“Nice quartet, who plays guitar?” asks the soldier smugly.
Nice, we found the local a**hole, thinks LED.
“Listen, we just came here to look for…” says ALEX before being interrupted by the soldier, who put his finger on his lips.
“Not your turn country boy, we’ll get to you later”
Another soldier exits the house and starts to move towards them.
“We were told we could find American soldiers in Dobrodzień, that’s where we are going” says LED.
“Told by who?”
“People in Praszka”
“Lots of people in Praszka, any names?”
LED sighs, thinking it’s better to mention the counselor MARIA at this point. “The guy in charge of the town’s defenses, goes by CJA”
The soldier lifts his shoulders “never heard of him”
LED lowers his hands as the other soldier joins them, his shoulder mark indicating he’s a sergeant.
“I’m tired of this” says LED.
“Oh, I’m sorry, but you better keep your hands up” says the soldier.
“No” says LED stiffing up his jaw “it is you who better listen, you dim-witted excuse for a soldier. The moment you opened your mouth is when I realized you were an idiot, so here’s the deal: either you point us in the direction of someone, anyone, with a functioning brain, or assuming you possess the mental and physical capacity to use a rifle, you shoot us right here. Either way, I don’t want to listen to your crap for a second longer than I already have”
There’s a moment of silence, after which the sergeant says “he sure sounds American to me. Corporal, get HQ on the horn. Tell them we got three Americans plus a native”
“Yes, sergeant” mutters the first soldier who then leaves for the house.
The sergeant waves his hands and whistles. A few seconds after six more soldiers emerge from the other buildings around the group. “You can keep your hands down, but no surprises, alright?”
“Sure” says LED.
“Sorry about corporal DAVIES, our PR guy got smoked in Germany and now he’s our welcome committee”
“One hell of a choice” comments ALEX.
“More like self-appointment, I don’t think the brass cares about that particular position”
“Copy” says LED.
“5th division, uh?”
“That’s correct”
“I heard you guys took a beating up North”
“I wouldn’t say just a beating, 5th division ceased to exist in Kalisz. We… we got lucky I guess”
“Better lucky than good is what they say, I guess there’s a reason”
“We are living proof of that” confirms LED before pointing at the sergeant’s shoulder patch “I’m sorry, I don’t recognize that”
“1/116th US Armored Cavalry, straight from Idaho, with a detour in Germany first”
“You are a long way from home”
“Aren’t we all?” asks the sergeant, pausing briefly “I suppose you don’t have any news about what’s going on stateside?”
“Recent news?” LED shakes his head “sorry”
“Sometimes I wonder if home is still there, I mean, I saw what happened to East Germany. I would hardly call it a country now”
The corporal comes back, still holding a portable radio. “WARREN wants to see them” he says nodding towards the players.
“Better look sharp” says the sergeant “you are going to meet the boss”
The group is escorted south along the poorly maintained road, marching 5 kilometers up to the town of Dobrodzień. They are told to remove the magazines and ammo belts from their weapons and march in a column with the 116th Cav soldiers bracketing them. The summer provides long days and shorter nights, and there’s enough light to take in the view consisting of mostly fields and the occasional cluster of small buildings in various state of decay.
The northern suburbs of Dobrodzień offer a familiar view of ransacked houses and small shops in disrepair, some of them collapsed or burned down, and overgrown gardens and patches of green slowly reclaiming everything man-made.
The road ends with a gate made of iron bars stretching from one side of the road to the other. Looks like someone took an industrial grade gate and placed it in the middle of the road blocking it. Wood planks and metal panels have been added to the doors, so that it is now impossible to see between the bars. The gate is part of a wall the town has erected around its central part; the players notice several firing positions at regular intervals, some of which have the tip of a rifle protruding. Where the wall consists of the side of a building, the lower doors and windows have been walled shut with bricks and the upper windows reinforced with steel bars. Multiple curious eyes are trained on the players.
A soldier of the 116th Cav steps up and exchanges a few words with the guards, the players can hear a mixture of Polish and English on both sides of the conversation. Then the gate is pushed open and a man in his fifties wearing worn civilian clothes emerges, his hands clutched around a shotgun. He stares at the players while talking to the soldier. Finally, after listening for a while, the man shakes his head.
The sergeant steps next to LED “they don’t have problems with traders and the like, but I guess you guys are a bit too heavily armed to look the part”
The soldier gets back to the group “no luck sergeant, we have to go around”
“You heard him” says the sergeant to his unit “we’ll take the scenic route”
Once again, the group forms a column and starts moving along the town’s defensive perimeter escorted by the 116th Cav.
NASCAR, who’s the last in order, hears one of the soldiers behind him saying “f**k these guys, I could be sleeping now”
The four and their escort march around the town and then further South a few hundred meters, passing by cultivated patches and collapsed houses. Finally, they get to a large T intersection where on opposite points are sandbags with machineguns manned by more soldiers of the 116th Cav. The sergeant points to a building that has a gate right on the intersection “that’s your stop”
The building gives the slight impression of being out of place, as it reminds the group of a manor one might expect to find in France, think the ones in D-Day movies and the like. There’s a main, two-story building rectangular in shape, flanked by lower, one-story buildings. The complex is surrounded by a wall made of concrete and metal bars in the top part, with an overgrown hedge masking part of it. Behind the metal gate is a green patch with some small pines, one of which now lies on the ground. In the paved part of the courtyard is a humvee with a soldier manning the main gun.
On top of the roof are two poles at either side, one showing a worn-out US flag and the other a flag with a coat of arms.
“Think it’s the town’s flag?” asks LED.
“I’d say it is” answers ALEX.
NASCAR points at a plaque on one of the pillars of the main gate “what does it say?”
ALEX looks at the plaque, then gives a surprised new look at the building. “Apparently, that’s a school”
“You heard that?” asks DONNA nudging NASCAR “you might learn something”
“If this school is anything like the last one, I’d rather stay out. That lesson I’ve already learned”
As the sergeant is talking to the guards at the gate, the rest of the unit that escorted the group proceeds down the road. ALEX notices DONNA looks pale and that she’s taking deep breaths.
“You alright?”
“I think it’s that… animal we ate. I feel like… it wants to come out” says DONNA clutching her stomach.
As the soldiers of the 116th Cav are opening the gate, DONNA runs to the hedge and vomits on the sidewalk in front of it. Most of the eyes in the intersection are upon DONNA as the others reach her to offer help.
A soldier that just opened the gate is standing right next to the sergeant, a few feet from DONNA. “Thanks ma’am” he says “what the hell…”
The sergeant nods “could be your cologne, what was it? Idaho sweat number 5?”
“Due respect sergeant, but go f**k yourself”
“Yeah? Well, you clean that s**t up while I do”
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
Earlier in the day the players have eaten some meat that hadn’t been properly cooked. As per the rules (Player’s Manual, page 148), they had to make a STAMINA roll to resist food poisoning, and DONNA failed. The players have 2 rations of domestic food left, which they will discard after what happened to DONNA.
According to the table on the Player’s Manual, page 81, food poisoning has an incubation time of 1 shift and manifests itself with abdominal pain and vomiting. DONNA suffers 1 point of damage and won’t be able to heal damage until she is cleared of the infection. She will make a STAMINA roll once per day with a single success needed to be cured, but every further failure will result in another point of damage taken.
FINAL COMMENTS
Looks like MARIA’s tip paid off: the players really found US soldiers near Dobrodzień.
The 1/116th US Armored Cavalry is one of the factions introduced in The Black Madonna expansion module, and can be encountered in the vicinity of Dobrodzień.
Time to find out who they are, what they’re doing here, and perhaps get involved in whatever is happening in the area, by choice or lack thereof.