DAY 13 – APRIL 30th 2000
NORTH of DOBRODZIEN, POLAND – MORNING
LED is sitting on a fallen tree observing the puddles left by the night rain. The chilly air is dense with humidity, and everything has a glossy patina; heavy leaves dangle from the branches and the grass curves towards the dark, muddy ground.
DOC emerges from the tent closing it behind her, she stretches her arms while bending her back backwards, looks around, and steps on the fresh mud to join LED while rubbing her hands.
“How’s our guest?” he asks making room for her to sit on the trunk.
“She’ll make it. Actually, she got lucky. If you were to get a gunshot wound to your abdomen, that’s the spot” says DONNA gesturing towards the tent.
“She looked in bad shape; I mean, aside from us shooting at her”
“Well” DONNA lowers her voice “I was examining her yesterday: I found old cuts and scars on her back and legs, what I think was a stab wound to her arm, bruises on her shoulders, and at least two more scars from gunshots. Mostly old stuff, but, you know…”
“She’s been around” concludes LED.
“And through a lot” adds DOC “I don’t know if that says spook to you, but she’s not your average Jane”
“I’ll talk to her; see what story she has to tell”
DONNA takes something and hands it to LED “here’s an anticipation. She had it in her pocket”
LED contemplates an old deck of playing cards held together with a green elastic band.
“Want to guess which card is missing?” asks DONNA.
LED curves the corners of his mouth “good, at least we seem to have gotten the right woman”
“And we also got a plus one”
“Is that good or bad?”
“I can’t see that far ahead” says DONNA “could be intel; could be trouble. Not unlike the woman”
“I can assure you the woman is going to be both” replies LED.
“So… now are we taking the trouble back to WARREN and the 1/116th CAV?”
“She was there, the woman, she was with WARREN when we talked to her four days ago. She didn’t seem to be there against her will” LED ponders for a few seconds “quite the opposite”
“What about the Russian guy?”
“That’s another story waiting to be told for sure. I doubt he’ll be inclined to share anything useful though, and our priority now is moving. We’ll have time to talk in Dobrodzien”
LED turns towards NASCAR, who’s on watch not far from their position “get her up, we’re leaving in fifteen minutes. I’ll switch with NASCAR so he can get ready”
“Oh, thank God LT, I need to take a leak real bad”
“All clear I get it?”
“Yeah, not a soul. I think the rain discouraged the curious. Also, good think it cleared our tracks, now Ivan’s friends won’t know where to look for him”
“I don’t expect them to be on the look for him already, but the rain sure helped”
NASCAR gets up, grabs his SAW and steps off. He stops and turn “oh, wait, I forgot, I smell ashes”
LED turns and frowns his brows “you… smell ashes”
“Yeah, for a while now. Don’t know where they are, must be upwind”
“It’s been raining for hours, and you smell ashes?”
“Well, some people can and other people…”
“…are normal?” finishes LED.
“Ashes LT, trust me, somewhere around here. And I bet it’s not from a bbq”
DAY 13 – APRIL 30th 2000
NORTH of DOBRODZIEN, POLAND – DAY
LED takes a knee in the soft ground and leans forward slightly, his shoulder pressed against a dark tree stump and the muzzle of his M16A1 touching the grass. He’s almost at the edge of the forest and ahead is a vast clearing, gently sloping down before the next patch of trees. In the open area he can see two corpses lying against a musk-covered rock. He sniffs in the fresh morning air: something has burnt close by.
He turns right and sees NASCAR looking at the scene from behind the thick trunk of a pine. They make eye contact and NASCAR touches his nose. LED nods in response.
LED turns and signals the others to stay where they are. He points at NASCAR, then himself and finally at the open area. NASCAR nods and starts moving up to a tree right at the edge of the forest; LED follows him on a parallel route.
As the visual opens up he can see three more corpses scattered around, and further up and to the left the charred remains of an M151 military jeep partially sunk into the ground.
He looks at NASCAR on his right and sees him pointing at the corpses ahead, then touching the US flag on the shoulder of his fatigues. LED takes another look around: there’s good visual in all directions and no one alive is in sight. He waves his hand and the duo moves out of the forest.
They move around the area, weapons at the ready, only to find more corpses. All fallen soldiers are in US Army fatigues, they have been stripped of anything useful: weapons, ammo, backpacks, helmets, boots. One has a pale circle of skin on his ring finger, where his wedding ring used to be.
LED and NASCAR move through the bodies checking vital signs with little hope and no results. Flies have started to gather and the smell of death seems to be growing in intensity by the minute.
Eventually they meet at the burnt down jeep. The soft cover and seats have turned to ashes leaving only a skeleton metal frame bent and deformed by the heat. The plastic bits have partially melted and the exterior has been blackened by the fire. The front tires are completely destroyed and the weight of the engine has sunk the front of the vehicle into the soft ground, while the rear wheels are missing entirely and the vehicle is standing on the exposed axles.
“See how there’s no sign of impact” says NASCAR looking at the vehicle “I think this was done by a Molotov”
“I count ten bodies, maybe more” says LED “all Americans”
NASCAR circles one finger in the air “I found cartridges all around: 5.56, 7.62, 9mm, and an empty mag from an AK” he then points in the direction the jeep was moving “if they were moving this way, they were attacked from the tree line to their right, and the rocks in front of them”
“Yeah, that’s an ambush right there” comments LED.
“Poor bastards didn’t stand a chance”
“Not much we can do for them now”
“You think Ivan’s friends did this?” asks NASCAR.
“Maybe, maybe it was marauders, maybe… I don’t know”
“There could be traces around, ground is still soft” says NASCAR with little conviction.
“Don’t bother; we have a wounded plus one, and a prisoner. We’re not chasing anybody”
NASCAR nods “copy” then looks at the nearest corpse “you think they were from the 5th?”
“We made it this far South, no reason why others couldn’t”
The duo briefly looks around some more, then moves back to the tree line. They stop at the musk-covered rock with the two dead men leaning against it. One has an abdomen wound and part of his guts are sticking out attracting insects. One hand is still clutching his belly while the other lays lifeless and blood-soaked on the ground. The man has his eyes wide open, his face contorted into an expression of pure, unbearable pain.
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
Time for an empathy check:
- NASCAR rolls [D8] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 1)
- LED rolls[D10] = 1 SUCCESS (rolled 9) -> LED suffers 1 stress point
“Man, I’d rather put a bullet in my head” says NASCAR.
LED looks away “let’s not get to that point, okay?”
“You got it LT”
They join the others and take a minimal detour, moving around the ambush site.
DONNA steps right next to NASCAR “so what was out there? I know it was bad, or we wouldn’t be going around it”
“US Army soldiers, a dozen or so, all dead”
“Did you check…”
“We did” interrupts NASCAR “we did, they’re all dead”
A brief silence follows as the group proceeds its march. “Do we know what happened?” asks DONNA.
“They were on the wrong side of an ambush”
FINAL COMMENTS
I drew an encounter card for the previous night shift and got 10♥ THE AMBUSH – A column of black smoke rises ahead. If the PCs investigate, they find a recent ambush. US stragglers [PCx2 dead, PCx1 dying] have been badly hit by marauders. Most of the soldiers are dead, but some are still alive, dying and pleading for help. They are all starving and hypothermic and have no gear.
On account of night and rain, I house-ruled the players didn’t see the smoke column when setting camp. There was however still a possibility of the players moving through the ambush site in their march during the day shift. I gave it a 1 in 3 chance (1-2 on a D6) and rolled a D6: it came out 2.
Given the time passed, the rain and night temperatures, it was too late to help anybody. Still, I felt it was a scene worth dramatizing.
I didn’t have a post for the evening and night shift of DAY 12, so I’ll place the map for the end of day 12 here.
