2014.11.13 Red Alert IV

Red Alert IV
Priest and Monitor Y-91 deal with a rather well versed soldier, while Nacht questions the townsfolk without violence. AKA: The party totally screws up its hourly threat ratio.
IC Date	Stardate 27412.1
IC Time	After midnight.
Players	Priest, Nagi, Monitor Y-91, Anne Alexandrov
Location	The Holy Roman Empire, Franconia.
Spheres	Technocracy

Gossenheim is a small, sleepy farming community. The craps have recently been gathered, each house is less a home and more a homestead sitting in a quiet plot of farmland. It is peaceful, serene (except for the slow thrum of the insects existing on a different temporal plane) and smells of rotting flesh.

The river runs deep, wide and fast here, sped up by the fact that two rivers seem to meet not a hundred feet from where the first building is, obviously a watermill. The only easy means for one to carry anything across would be the bridges here, one for each river, both of them are connected to a well maintained stone road that could possibly have been here for centuries at this point, marking this to be an important point of trade.

The entire city is dark, except for one long house on the south side of the town, across the river. Light can be seen through the unshuttered windows, and smoke seems to be billowing from the chimney.

"Priest, Sir," says Nacht in that deep base rumble, "The bridge is here. Shall we take it as a target of opportunity before moving on to these... 'Witches'?" The huge Norse warrior looks out over the area, scanning for sentient life as he grounds his sword.

Priest adjusts the hang of his tabard as he glances around at night. He motions over towards the long house "Let's see who's awake. Trading center like this may have what we need to deal with those bridges. Plus we seem very capable of becoming fast friends with the locals." said with a completely straight face.

Anne snickers loudly over the radio.

Monitor Y-91 is of course solidified in back, bringing up the rear of the group as it were, with that gray tunic and revolver on his hip. He's not very subtle looking. Not at all. "Yea, I figure dragging that oil all this way would be rather difficult." he says, then starts off in the direction of the bridges, apparently going to cross them. "Hey, don't be having any fun without me up there." he says into his radio.

"Mmmmm," grumbles Nacht, "We need eyes on the bridge itself. Do you want me to deal with the locals and see if they can be commandeered into helping, or shall I go have a look at the structural supports for the bridge?" Priest pats Nacht on the shoulder "Go and talk to the locals and see what you can come up with. I'll check out the bridge and see what can be done with what we end up finding."

Monitor Y-91 would be going to see if he can find one of the traders, after having listened to the proposed locations of both Priest and Nagi. He's armed, what could possibly go wrong? Besides, he's totally a main character, and not one ripe for killing off like the Ensign.

Nodding once, Nacht takes off in the direction of the the house with the fire. The massive blade is slung across his back on apparent leather harneass hangers. The massive 'man' has the faintest clink of heavy plate as he moves.

The bridge itself can't be safely traversed under. At least not in the water. It's not that the river is particulalry large, it is however VERY fast. If someone fell off they could easily ened up dashed on the rocks a good distance down. The supports are made mostly with stone, but the top of it is wooden.

Moving through the market place 91 would see there are several animals in the pens still, ready for market as if the day was in full swing when everyone just left. Each and every one of them lies still in their pen, pools of rotted, fly infested blood underneath them. The stench and flies are thick in the air. some of the cattle though have been killed in the open. There stench there isn't so bad, and there's a bueatiful moths sitting in the pools gathering around the animals, slowly beating their wings in the moonlight.

In the house, sitting by the fire a man and woman sit quietly in front of the fire, holding a pleasant conversation despite the surroundings. "Well darling, I hope we should be done with this unsightly task by the weeks end. Where would you like to travel after that? We should have plenty of rations afterall!"

Priest glances around, looking over the stone supports of the bridge. "We can burn the wood out, but that still leaves the skeleton of the bridge standing." he mumurs to himself. "Nope. need to take out the supports." "Market's dead." Monitor pops up over the radio. "Or at least, the animals are. Will continue searching for explosive materials." he clarifies, then would simply withdraw his revolver before pausing to do a general scan of his surroundings.

Priest touches at his ear, because thats how all radios work..ALL OF THEM... "Monitor, you have movement near you, two people, fast and keeping to cover. Keep your head on a swivel and I'll move to flank."

Heading on to the home, Nacht tips his head to one side askance at the man and the woman. "Hail," he bellows to them, cutting an imposing figure in the doorway. "And what unsightly task might you be about, then? You sit amidst a dead town."

Not long after the warning comes to Monitor he can sense two people moving his way, they stop about 15 feet out, both of them thoguh a good distance from each other. Setting themselves into a position where only one can be faced at a time. Once one sets himself into a stall to hide him from view from the rest of the town one man steps into sight with his right arm held in clear view and over his head. "Hail." he says quietly.

Monitor Y-91 nods to the information in his ear, then swivels right around, withdrawing the pistol from its holster and almost immediately and without hesitation leveling it on the man who just addressed him. "Identify yourself." he says to him... Not that he speaks German, but you know. "Not detecting hostile intent." he says quietly into his comm. "Uhm, yet, anyway." He keeps the pistol steady, and moves himself back up against a wall, effectively cutting the required field of view in half.

Priest would cotinue on his way, drawing his revolver to try and track around the two approaching Monitor, he wants to try and come up behind them to draw a bead

In the house the man and woman, despite Nacht's imposing size and armaments remain quite calm and affable. "Oh, I didn't know we'd have guests." The wife gasps, quickly straightening a shawl about herself as she stands. "Goodness I'm a mess. Hail traveler would you like some stew? I'm afraid we have more than we can eat right now." Her smile is kind, and genuine, the kind one may expect to see in a nurse taking care of soothing an ill child. A slight sadness behind her sparkling blue eyes at the fact the task exists, but a warm genuine care for those under her gaze. She has godlen blond hair in a long braid, pulled to the front it would bring itself fown to her belly button. She is in her early twneties at best. While her gown hides whatever build she may have underneath, she is clearly strong, and stands at just over six feet tall. They make them well in farm country!

The husband himself is built much the same. Six and a half feet tall, clearly well muscled with hands callused from work. His hair is short and black, eyes though the same sparkling bright blue. "Hail traveler." he replies calmly. "The task of the cattle of course. Already bad enough having to leave them rotting in the fields, but to leave the rest for the armies to fight over? We'd never rebuild."

Inclining his head, Nacht strokes his beard. "So that is why the livestock are all dead. Have the rest of the townsfolk fled?" He looks back over his shoulder for just a moment, putting a hand to his helmet. Those long beard braids sway as he moves, murmuring "Permission to speak of the resons for downing the bridge." Nagi keeps it very quiet. To the couple it would probably sound like Nacht is just grumbling to himself about something.

The man in front of Monitor is wearing a tabbard over his clothes, and a riding cloak he leaves open. He puts both hands out in front of himm slowly moving closer. "A traveller, like yourself." he replies in a very strong Swedish accent. Not quite Swedish chef levels, but he's clearly not a local. "Just trying to make it home in one piece. I'm not looking for any trouble, I just saw someone who's not from around here." Despite the accent his voice is calm and soothing, the revolver draws a great deal of his attention, like he's vaguely aware of what it is from how it's being used, but it's a marvel of technology to him. Not too uncommon to modern soldiers when they see a crew mounted rail gun.

Monitor Y-91 just kinda gazes at the man before him for a moment, gaging him, but eventually he lowers his weapon with a light twirl to place it back into his holster. "Gotcha!" he says to the man, then claps his hands together as he turns and peers at the trading post behind it. "Yea, sorry about that, but you know. Dead animals and all that nonsense. Any idea what's going on with this town, Mr. Swedish?" he asks, turning his gaze back to him, then speaking softly into his radio. "Only one contact visible, do not seem hostile."

Priest steps along, keeping aware of the man with the Swedish accent and knowing he has a buddy "Permission granted if you feel you need to."

The woman nods quickly. "Oh yes. This is the only bridge for quite some distance. Everyone believes the army will come through here."

Her husband nods along with her, looking at her tenderly as she speaks before remembering they have company. He shakes his head and blushes a little. "Yes like she said. Most everyone fled to Wurzenburg as far as we know."

The Swede shakes his head quickly, letting a bit of a shiver run down his spine."I was hoping you can tell me... this trip has been... well strange. It's not uncommon for people to flee if they suspect the army is coming. Not often I find the animals dead like this ahead of us." he starts to explain before looking towards the open field. "Also, you see those moths? They're... not from here. I've never seen them before"

Looking back to the couple, Nacht intones in his rumbling baritone, "For the safety of this place, th ebridge needs to come down. It may not stop them entirely, but it will delay that army by days if not weeks. Does the village have any lamp oil, or gunpowder, or Greek Fire?"

"Iiiiinteresting." Monitor says to himself. Odd mannerisms for this time period, but he doesn't seem to care much. "Nope. We've ran into quite a few oddities on our way here as well. Which direction do you gentlemen hail from?" he asks. "I'm not... A maps guy." he explains, then motions for him and his hidden friend to follow him as he walks over to one of the fields, apparently intent on checking out one of those moths. "Come on out, Sir." he says into his comms.

Priest saunters out from his "hiding spot" Priest doesn't really hide. He just makes his presence known, his gaze was narrowed, not that that could be seen behind his shades though.

Back in the house, the husband frown and shakes his head. "I'm not sure that would help us be any safer at all. That bridge cold take months to rebuild." he explains, he stands to walk to the fire, leaning against the hert while the wife moves to stir the kettle of over the fire.

As the move a voice is heard from above. Another woman, almost exactly identical to the first, though with her hair messy and eyes puffy from sleep peers down at Nacht. "Oh. Do we have company? Shold I wake the others?"

Meanwhile in the market place, the man does indeed walk out with Monitor, showing no signs of hostility. He nods his head and makes a quick birdcall and his partner comes out as well. A serious looking man likely somewhere in his thirties. The one who has been speaking leans against the fence while watching Monitor. "I can't help but notice your gear is of much higher quality than this region would be capable of producing."

"The army IS coming through here," rumbles Nacht, "I've seen them. The only ones whom it will serve to leave the bridge in tact is them." He tips his head to one side, watching the denizens of the home, head cocked to one side as those beard braids sway. "Truthfully, this will halt their advance. It is of the utmost importance to do so. It could mean the difference between victory and being trampled under foot."

"Russian." Monitor answers without hesitation. What? He was assembled in Russia. He leans down near one of the pools with the moths, then reaches out to pluck one of the moths up as he gazes at it for a moment in his hand. "Huh, I've read about these. They're from Siberia, discovered in the 90's..." he mutters, mostly to himself. Then he stands as he nods to the two men. "You guys seem like a decent sort. What do you say you go about whatever scouting run you're on, nothing interesting to see here I'm sure. After all, they're likely just killing off the livestock to prevent the army coming this way from gaining them as food."

Priest glances over the man and his partner. He keeps quiet for now, letting Monitor talk. He'll sit by and listen carefully.

The man shakes his head. "I will admit, I am not a soldier. The ways of strategy and war are not things that I pretend to understand. But I do know towns my friend." he sighs. "There is a bridge about two days away from here that they might be able to use. I'm not certain that will make much of a difference for the soldiers, but it could be over a year... maybe even years before we can come back to fi the bridge. By then another town may have built a bridge.. .and this village will die."

The woman in the upper floor rubs her eyes. "This... sounds like something the others should be involved in, I'll go wake them."

The second scout, the quiet one moves to stand closer to Priest. He doesn't look at him, or make any sudden movements. "I'm sorry for my friend. He gets off on tangents." He explains in an equally thick Swedish accent. "I can tell you're not the local militia. Have you had any contact with them?"

The man with Grigori nods. "I've never been good with dates... you've been to siberia then? That's a long way away. I've only ever read about it. What brings you and your friend here?"

"Well, we're actually here partially investigating why these moths are here." -Monitor- points out. "Err, I mean, that's actually part of the reason... But no, we're travelers, mercenaries. But we've been hired to look into a group to the south at the moment, so I'm afraid we can't exactly help you with anything. It's not something I'm willing to talk about, either." he points out, then gives the man a smile as he drops the moth. "But, yes, please don't let us keep you from your scouting. You only have so many hours til sunrise, eh?"

The scout with Monitor nods. "I cna respect that. Are you certain you don't want help investigating them? We've been here a few days yet, we might be able to help with that."

Standing fast, Nacht says, "Two days is a lot of time in a millitary campaign." The massive Norse warrior, obviously covered in very well used armor, eyes them. "If not destroy thr bridge, block it perhaps? Anything that will delay their advance, make them decide the other bridge is the better choice."

Priest shifts his weight a bit and lets his gaze fall over on those moths before glancing back to the two scouts "Free to scout around sure." his gaze turns back towards the trio of men

Monitor Y-91 grins at the scout for a moment. "Hey, we get paid to do our job, you get paid to do yours. Besides, you're too obviously Swiss to help us with anything. Sorry." he clarifies to the man, then pats his revolver as he starts walking back towards the trade depot. "Now, if you will, please leave us to our work. It was a pleasure to talk to someone new, at least." he admits. "Alright, let's find those explosive materials." he mutters softly over the comms.

The older more serious scout starts to make a reach for something but the one who had been speaking with Monitor puts a hand on his shoulder and shakes his head, dragging him back towards the North West. "No. They're fine. Look at their gear. They're ours." he says, thinking it is safe to speak in his native tongue. "No one here can make things like that. They have larger concerns than this war."

The man crosses his arms in though. "We will discuss this with the others then and come up with something." he sighs, looking his wife in the eyes as he hugs her, even if they have company.

"Please, have something to eat while we wait for the others." the wife says, pointing to the kettle.

Monitor Y-91 smiles and points to the smaller man for a moment. "Listen to him, he knows what he's talking about." he confirms, then turns around fully to stroll back over to the trading post, which he goes about leaning on the front door and attempting to open it. "Didn't pick anything up in here earlier..." he muses into the comms... As the reason he's just going ahead.