Heroes of Spittlemarch

[Radiating Gnome]

He's not heavy, he's my dwarf, part 3

Part Three

Things in town eventually quieted down a little, and they were able to sneak into a small park near the train station. From the undergrowth there they were able to watch the station and it’s buildings, and work out a rough plan of attack.

There were four buildings – a central station building, very open, two buildings on the west end that were guarded and had soldiers moving in and out of from time to time, and one building on the east end that was well guarded but no one went into or out of. It was that building that the Goonies guessed was the relocation holding area, where they would hopefully find Irk and Gortie’s parents.

They made a cunning plan. They would wait for a train to roll into the station, bringing with it a lot of noise and distraction. Then, on the west flank, Eli and Crys would take out the guards on that end and try to isolate and neutralize the threat on that side. Ulric would move into the center and try to draw attention away from the east flank, where the three halflings – dressed as children in dresses taken from Gortie's wardrobe – would sneak up and take out the guards on that flank, break in to the Relocation pen, free the prisoners, get Irk, and get out of there.

While they waited for the train to pull in they saw some interesting developments in the area. A car pulled up to far building on the west end, and five figures got out – an SS officer and four very slovenly looking SS soldiers. They went into the building there, then came out a few minutes later. The four soldiers took off their boots and handed them to the officer, who put them in the car and drove away. The four barefoot soldiers walked away from the train depot and into the town, out of sight.

The train brought a few surprises – they hadn’t though about the train itself being armed, but there was a makeshift machinegun nest on the front and rear of the train, each manned by a grizzled looking veteran. As the train approached a figure in a long black coat walked out of the same office building where the barefoot soldiers had been, followed by four officers. They were walking towards the relocation center.

The Goonies rolled into action. Crys put one of the two near guards to sleep, while the other went down with one of Eli’s arrows in his chest. Crys and Eli, using the train to cover their actions, dragged the bodies out of sight and got ready to make their move across the track, while the rest of the party charged across the open ground to the various gaps between the boxcars that they had chosen.

Parts of the plan went very well. Minimonk moved to the front of the train and took on the veteran up there, spending most of the ensuing battle locked in a brutal knife fight with the much taller German. Pah and Uri managed to cross the tracks and take out the two guards on the hidden, back side of the relocation center. One guard, far off on the west flank, noticed one of the guards Pah killed falling, but before he could call much of an alarm he sprouted one of Eli’s arrows.

Ulric crossed the open ground between the woods and the train in human form. Then, still unobserved, he shifted into bear form and charged through the gap in the boxcars. As he came around the corner into view he found himself faced with a pair of SS soldiers, another two SS Sergeants, and the Leader-type flanked by his four officer guards. Ulric managed to maul a couple of them, but was enduring a heavy barrage of gunfire from the others. The most shocking thing about that moment was that the leader type was casting spells – rapid-fire casting protection spells, something Ulric had not expected to see. Ulric was forced back between the boxcars, and back across the open ground towards the woods.

Pah picked the lock (a exceptionally difficult lock, some of the finest gnome-like manufacture she had ever seen) and broke into the Relocation center from the rear while Ulric was being showered with gunfire on the other side of the building. There, cowering in the room, were nearly twenty scared, shabby, skinny people, cowering against the walls. A couple of them were dressed a bit more colorfully, like Resa had been. And there was Irk, laying on the floor of the room. When Irk did not rise to great them, Pah raced to his side. He was mostly unconscious, his eyes lolling into and out of focus. He had lost a lot of blood, and was clearly in a lot of pain. As Pah and Uri dug around in their packs for a potion of healing, Pah noticed the truly bad news.

Irk’s left leg looked like badly gnashed up meat, and his foot was missing above the ankle.

“Um, Irk, Honey?” she asked, pouring a potion into his mouth. “Where’d you leave your foot?”

 

[Radiating Gnome]

He's not heavy, he's my dwarf, part 4

Part Four

The battle raged on outside the "relocation center". Pah looked around at the terrified, perplexed faces of the prisoners. They had just watched a wizened, tough-looking pair of children in blood-splattered dresses break into the room and run right over to the stunty, maimed foreigner and start pouring liquid down his throat-- and had seen that foreigner's wounds begin to close. The two children were both still carrying bloody swords. Most were too confused to do more than gape.

Pah and Uri didn't waste a lot of time trying to communicate with the prisoners. They did what they could to give Irk some strength and helped him towards the door.

On the west flank Crys and Eli were working very hard to hold off the waves of SS reinforcements that arrived every couple of rounds.

In the center Ulric, in bear form, had killed many SS guards but had been caught in front of a battery of Nazi soldiers and officers. He was forced to turn and run for the woods.

Ulric was pursued by the Nazi sorcerer and a few soldiers. He shifted back to human form once he was out of sight, hoping to confuse the nazis and get off a few spells. The sorcerer, under the influence of some sort of haste or speed magic was right on Ulric's tail

When the Nazi sorcerer came upon the wounded human in the woods where he expected to find the bear he hesitated, pointing his pistol at Ulric and signaling for him to surrender.

Ulric raised his hands and said the first thing that came to mind. "I want a tank!"

The enemy sorcerer grinned and started shooting.

Uri had left Pah behind to help Irk, and moved on ahead. He was at the train-line in time to see Ulric the bear run into the wooded park, followed quickly by the enemy sorcerer, and more slowly by a trio of SS soldiers. He quickly summoned up a bit of his trademark web at the tree line to trap the soldiers and cut off further pursuit. Then he dashed on through the web to try to assist Ulric.


He arrived in time to take a quick flanking poke at the nazi sorcerer, who turned and started shooting at Uri, giving Ulric the seconds he needed to cast a spell.

Ulric, battered and nearly dead decided to go for the gusto: Flame Strike. With the added drain of spellcasting in this strange place the effort was enough to knock Ulric out. The pillar of righteous fire swept down from above and burned the Nazi sorcerer -- it wasn't enough to kill him, but it was enough to convince him that he needed to get off the battlefield. He took advantage of Ulric's collapse and ran for cover disappearing down an alley near the park.

Uri slumped to the ground next to Ulric, fishing around in his pack for healing potions. He drank a few himself used one to bring Ulric around, then pressed one more into Ulric's hand before dashing off to rejoin the fight.

Right about then the battling Nazis and heroes were all momentarily stunned silent for a few seconds by the roar, rattle, and squeak of an approaching tank As if from nowhere a panzer rolled out into the open from the alley the Sorcerer had fled down. The tank rolled into the clearing between the train and the wooded park cutting off Irk's avenue of escape and dividing the party.

Pah helped Irk to a bit of cover behind one of the wheels of the train. The tank's machinegun was spraying the woods with a volume of fire that the outsiders could not have imagined.

Pah slipped out from under Irk's shoulder. "Back in a sec."

Irk was startled. "Where are you going?"

Pah looked back over her shoulder. "I want a TANK."

 

[Radiating Gnome]

He's not heavy, he's my dwarf, part 5

Part Five

Pah user the boxcars for cover and made her way to a spot behind the tank. Then, sword in hand, she leapt into the air, to land on top of the tank's turret.

When her feet touched the top of the tank, however, it disappeared in cloud of smoke and photons. Pah landed hard on the ground where the illusion of the tank had been.

Although the tank ha been an illusion, the SS and Wehrmacht reinforcements that kept arriving were plenty real, and keeping steady pressure on Eli, whose steady stream of arrows was the one thing keeping the waves of soldiers away from Crys who continued to search the buildings around the train station for Irk's Equipment.

Uri, relieved that the tank was not real moved towards one of the unexplored buildings. he opened the door and was greeted by a quartet of German officers and their pistols.

While Uri dove for cover, Ulric, still holding the potion Uri had handed him. When he saw Uri being shot at he looked for a moment at the potion he had not yet had the time to drink. In a second the decision was made. and the potion rolled out of his fingers and his lips were moving again, calling down a flame strike on the building. As he passed out again he heard the screams of the Nazi officers.

Pah made her way back to Irk, who was crawling across the clearing Crys finished searching the buildings, not having found Irk's gear, made one last stop.

She ducked into the relocation center, where most of the civilians still cowered in fear. The gypsy couple that Pah had seen was not there, but no one else had taken the opportunity to flee.

Crys grabbed a woman close to the door and cast tongues. "You need to run away," she said.

The Jews didn't move. One of the spoke. "We can't. If we run, they will kill us, they'll kill our families."

Crys debated the issue for a few precious seconds, but they would not budge. Finally she gave up, and shifted gears. "I met a little girl named Gortie -"

A woman in one corner gasped. Crys pulled her out into the open. " can take you to your daughter."

"No- I-is she safe?"

"Screw this," said Crys under her breath. She quickly cast a charm on Gortie's mother. "Follow me."

"Of course," agreed the woman, following Crys out.

Crys and her new friend fell back, stopping to help Ulric while Eli brought up the rear, still shooting down any soldiers that got too close.

The soldiers did not pursue, seeming satisfied to have reclaimed the station. And the heroes limped back to their hideout.

Later, they heard an amplified voice calling out to the entire town. Gortie's mother started to cry. Crys reached over and touched her shoulder, casting Tongues one more time, and she was able to understand what was being said.

"Citizens of Selinka, we have tried to avoid this, but you leave us little choice. Today the terrorists and criminals that call themselves the Polish free army attacked the Selinka train depot and killed at least twenty of the brave soldiers helping to liberate your country from the depravations of the Russian Empire. Now, with so many of the heroes of the Reich dead, you know that we have no choice. The Fuhrer has declared that for every German soldier killed by partisans ten civilians will be put to death.

"But I will show you that I can be merciful. Tonight only twenty will die. Tomorrow, at noon, another twenty will die, and twenty more at sundown -- at noon and sundown everyday twenty more will die until two hundred have died and the fury of the Reich has been satisfied. That is they will die unless the Partisans responsible for this cowardly attack turn themselves in, or are turned in.

"But tonight, some must die for the sins of others. How many more will die? Only you know."

 

[Radiating Gnome]

I want a Tank

The party listened to the barrage of machinegun fire that followed the German Officer’s speech, and settled uneasily down to rest and recover from the battle at the train station. Crys, Pah, and Uri fussed over Irk.

Crys and Uri conferred in hushed tones about some magical solution for Irk, but for the time being the best that could be done was to fashion a crude crutch for Irk from an old broom Eli found in a closet.

Patched up as best as possible, the weary adventurers tried to sleep. But it was a restless night. For hours the sound of Soldiers marching through the city could be heard, but despite the worry of the sentries, none of the patrols that passed their hideaway took any interest in it.

A few hours later, the town again explored with noise – it sounded like the whole town was mobilizing at once. Many trucks and halftracks passed their hideout, heading out of town. Then, when they were gone, it was quiet as death.

Those on watched waked their replacements and settled down for some uneasy sleep. Irk was muttering dwarven curses in his sleep.

Minimonk, on guard duty, spotted something moving in the still, dark, street. A little girl was hiding behind a rain barrel not far from the hideout, peeking out and apparently looking at the house.

Trying to see her more clearly, Minimonk peeked his head a bit further out the window. There he saw more than a handful of stiff-legged, nearly silent silhouettes shuffling down the street towards him. As they passed into a patch of moonlight it was clear that they were townsfolk, but dead ones, animated by some dark power and shuffling towards the party’s hideout.

Minimonk shouted an alarm, and things started moving very quickly.

It was quickly apparent that the group of zombies that were shambling towards the party were not the only group – another half-dozen was coming up towards the party from the other direction.

Ulric, wanting to explore a few other options, raced to the back door of the shop and threw the door open.

It looked much worse in the back alley.

In the alley there were two horrifying figures, humanoid figures swaddled in writhing, slithering, hooked chains, chains that reached out in all directions like probing tentacles.

Ulric shut the door.

They quickly decided to try to get past the Zombies. Eli handed Irk a sword to fight with. It would be slow, and awkward, to fight and hobbled along on his crutch, but it was much better than lying on his back waiting to die.

They charged out onto the street into the wall of dead flesh.

At first it seemed like they were making good progress against the undead, but as soon as a handful had been knocked down by flashing swords and singing bows, they rose again, in some cases short and arm or a bit of skull, but rising again to claw and grab at the party. They fought on, slashing at the undead as the rose again for a third and fourth time.

Crys, who was trying to lead Gortie’s mother and keep her from harm, tried to sort out how the Zombies kept rising.

Pah had a theory – always suspicious of children out after curfew, she jumped and tumbled through ranks of Zombies to try to get close to the young girl, but ended up caught in a swarm of zombies all alone when the Chain-men, the Kytons, finally made their way to the front of the street and joined the fray.

The little girl, seeing Pah’s efforts to close, and enjoying the bravado, shifted into her true form, that of an Erinyes – an infernal seductress with bare breasts and leathery wings that she used to hover above the street.

Eli and Irk, kneed deep in the recurring Zombies, called out to Pah. Minimonk tried to fight his way closer but was cut off. Then Uri whipped out his favorite big gun. Evard’s Black Tentacles.

The tentacles quickly immobilized the zombies around Pah, and a lucky pair managed to grab the kyton closest to Pah. Pah skipped around to take advantage of the Kyton’s misfortune, driving her sword through the chains over and over again. Her thrusts hurt the Kyton, that much was clear, but after a few rounds she could see that his wounds were closing and healing before her eyes.

Ulric, seeing Pah saved by Uri’s spell, decided to face off with the Erinyes hovering above the street. With a bound he shapeshifted into the form of a great eagle, pounded up into the air and screeched towards the Erinyes.

Meanwhile Crys, holding her own with her wand of magic missiles, figured that there must be another devil of some sort in the area, one that was reanimating the undead over and over. She called out her theory to Uri, pointing to a likely spot, and Uri tossed Glitterdust at the spot.

There, outlined in the bright, shimmering magical light was the form of another Erinyes, blinded by the spell. Eli and hobbling Irk charged, forcing the Erinyes to teleport away to safety or be killed.

With one Erinyes engaged by the great eagle, and the other driven off, the tide quickly turned in favor of the party. The Zombies no longer got back up once knocked down, and the remaining Kyton was struggling under the weight of many swords. Finally the remaining Erinyes also disappeared.

The Party did not take time to enjoy their victory. Leaving the Kytons badly wounded but slowly healing, they shuffled off towards the edge of town, hoping to make it out to the woods, where they thought they’d find a place to hide that felt less like a trap.

They dragged their battered selves to the edge of town and looked out. And stopped in their tracks.

The soldiers in the town – hundreds of soldiers that had been sent to Selinka for a few days of R&R – had been pulled out earlier in the night. But they hadn’t left. The Army had set up a permimiter – trenches and fortified positions – in a ring that apparently surrounded the entire town, with a hundred yards of killing ground between the town walls and the first trench. All eyes watched the city, waiting for something to peek out.

Irk spat out a bit of bloody phlem and sat down on a crate.

“F**k.”

-rg

 

[Radiating Gnome]

I want a Tank

Part 2

The party moved around, just inside the city wall, looking for a break in the line that surrounded the town. But there was nothing. The spellcasters were looking through their pouches and scrollcases for some last ditch idea to get past the line, when they heard a door open nearby.

“Psst!” a handsignaled to them, calling them over to a shadowed alley.

They shuffled closer. They were met by the young gypsy that had escaped from the relocation center at the train depot when the party had attacked.

A quick casting of Tongues later they managed to talk out a plan. The gypsy knew a way to get them out of the city, but they would have to do something for his father in return. They agreed.

The gypsy led them into a building, down into the basement. A few others were down there – some townsfolk, some gypsies. They held open a section of wall that, when shut, would conceal the entrance to small tunnel.

They followed the gypsy into the tunnel, crawling for hundreds of yards in the claustrophic dank, getting short of breath, until finally the tunnel turned upwards and they found themselves at the woodline, outside the army’s perimeter around Selinka.

The young man, named Marek, led the party through the woods, doing his best to cover their trail. Once Eli figured out what he was doing, the Elf joined him in the effort. Eventually they made their way to a hidden cave.

Inside the cave they found a small community of hungry-looking gypsies, lead by a old man, Marek’s father, called Staszek.

Staszek saw to their needs immediately – food and rest and some precious water to clean themselves with. He would wait to talk to them in the morning.

* * *

They slept through most of the following day, waking in time to share the evening meal with the gypsies. Once they were done eating, Staszek surprised everyone with a small incantation of his own, touched Crys on the arm, and then started to speak to the party in their own common tongue.

He told them that he needed their help – whether they were Americans, or Outlanders, or angels of heaven, he needed their help, and understood that they had made a promise in exchange for their escape from Selinka.

What he needed from them was a bit of destruction. He was no hero, no partisan, and his people had never been treated well in Poland or anywhere else in Europe. Usually he had no reason to make this war his own, as long as he and his people could avoid the Einsatsgruppe and not end up in the camps. Marek risked a lot – and had been captured, when the party freed him – to try to get information and food for the gypsies.

But there was something much darker than a land war going on in Poland, and Staszek had no idea what to do, or who to tell, but information smuggled out of Treblinka led him inescapably to the conclusion that the Nazis there had made bargains with dark powers.

The infernal creatures – the Wehrwolves, the devils the party described to him – were, in and of themselves, frightening, but not all that new. There had been reports of this sort of evil abroad for a few months now. They were the work of a scientist called Hindenburg, who had his lab situated within the walls of Treblinka. They were terrible, but in their current numbers would probably not be enough to turn the tide of the war.

But there was a factory near Treblinka. It was run by those prisoners strong enough to work. Until now it had been a munitions factory, but it was being retooled at the moment to mass produce Hindenburg’s summoning device – if the factory were to go into operation the swarm of devils would be unstoppable.

The factory had to be destroyed. At any cost. But Staszek had no idea how it could be done, no way until the Outlanders arrived and proved that they could take on the devils and win.

The heroes had questions. Staszek and Marek had not seen or heard of a SS officer named Axom, and shuddered at thedescription of the mind flayer. They were certain, though, based on the party’s description, that he would be at Treblinka with Hindenberg.

Crys wondered about the alliance with the devils – what payment could the nazis offer? But Staszek only needed to offer a partial answer. “They bring all the jews, and the Roma, and others, to the camps. They burn the bodies, once they have been sucked dry, to hide the evidence. The human ash falls on the ground for miles.”

 

[Radiating Gnome]

I want a tank

Part 3

Later, by the light of a few lanterns and candles, Irk hobbled around, sifting through the collection of junk the gypsies had offered him as items that might work to make a prosthetic. With no proper forge or even a good fire he had no hope of forging something that he would be satisfied with.

While he banged around and swore, Cyrs shuffled over to him with an idea. She explained it to him. “I think it’ll work.”

Irk looked up at her, a bit unsure. “How about my beard, can you bring that back, too?

Crys shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

He grinned. “Well, then, we’ll have to give it a try, then, won’t we?

Crys needed to prepare her spell, so Irk spent one more night moaning in his sleep. The next day they found a quiet corner of the cave and Cyrs tried her spell. Polymorph other. She polymorphed Irk into himself, but whole, with both his missing leg and the beard that had never grown back after he had been decapited and raised months earlier.

Crys, patted Irk on the knee. “There you go. Good as new.”

Irk jumped up on both feet, jumped up and down a few times, testing his new foot the way customers test shoes. Then he stroked his beard, stroking it like a prodigal pet. “Damn, woman, we’ll keep you around. Now I’m ready to kill some Wolves!”

As Irk stomped away, past gaping and stunned Gypsies, Crys chewed on her bottom lip with unspoken worry.

* * *

The gypsies agreed that the party could stay with them for a week – time they would spend trying to put together a plan and some resources. Uri found a masterwork longsword among the party’s gear, and set about enchanting it to provide Irk with a more acceptable weapon.

“Only ‘til I get my axe back,” Irk said, peering disapprovingly at the slim blade.

As the days passed the party learned a bit more Polish, and the gypsies learned a bit of common, and they were able to communicate crude ideas without the help of spellcasting. The Gypsies were fascinated and unnerved by Uri’s ongoing project, convinced it would explode in their faces at any moment.

Marek continued to go out on information and food gathering missions. Eli and Pah poked around in the woods outside the cave, waiting for him, bored with the inactivity. After about four days Marek came skulking back to the camp with a worried look on his face, but when he spoke a few words to Pah on the way back to the cave, she reacted very differently. She practically sparkled, bouncing into the cave.

“Hey, guys, he found us some TANKS.”

The full story, which came out with the help of some enchantment, was that there was a unit of four tanks (Panzers) parked at an abandoned farm a short way away from the cave. The german tankers were waiting for resupply – fuel and ammunition (whatever that was) and taking a bit of a rest, away from the fighting on the front.

The party quickly decided that Pah’s interest in Tanks wasn’t an entirely crazy idea – a tank would make many things a lot easier – like getting into Treblinka and the factory – so they worked out a plan.

The plan would leave Uri at the cave, still working on the sword, but Minimonk would go with the adventurers.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Poland 2

Part 4


The party stalked up to the small abandoned farm that the german tankers were using as a parking lot. They saw four tanks, all sitting still, while about twenty men in uniform lounged around, some napping on the tanks, some leaning up against the barn, and none of them looking particularly alert for trouble.

This gave the goonies a rare opportunity to plan an attack. They took it, for what it would be worth. Minimonk and Pah would stalk around to the far side of the area -- the farmhouse side of things -- where they would enter the house as stealthily as possible and take out the officers who were resting in there. Ulric cast a few spells to prepare the ground near some of the tanks -- spike growth, and then entangle, to make things interesting. Then, while waiting for tankers to notice the writhing vines near one of their tanks, Ulric cast heat metal on the closest tank.

Irk, insisting he would move "real quiet -like" moved ahead through the narrow passage between the areas of effect of the entangle and spike growth spells until he was spotted and the action commenced.

There was a great deal of confusion at first. The one tank that was being heated began to glow red hot. Irk was chraging the tankers, who were all shooting at him, while Eli tried to cover him with his bow. Pah and Minimonk snuck into the house through a window, and started hacking down officers, who were trying to fight back, while tankers were all trying to dive for their tanks.

Another tank was surrounded by a wall of fire. The tankers inside were trying to get the engine on their tank going, and were pretty unnerved by the intense heat coming from the wall of fire.

The first tank, which was now glowing red hot, suffered a cook-off of one of it's High Explosive shells -- that explosion detonated the rest of the ammunition and the diesel for good measure -- the tank exploded in a huge fireball. Many nearby tankers -- and Irk -- were tossed to the ground by the huge explosion. Irk was the only one to get back up again, still swearing and swinging his sword for all he was worth.

None of the officers managed to make it to their tanks, but the tankers that were able to get on board were starting their engines and shutting themselves in, and it began to look like the tide would turn. Ulric managed a Flame Strike on the tank that was trying to drive thorugh the wall of fire, and the combined heat from the two fire sources was enough to destroy that tank as well, frying the tankers within.

That left two tanks, but thos two were on the move. The tankers withing were driving and shooting, using their machine guns to drive off the party.

Over the din of combat, Eli's sharp ears caught the sound of german voices from one of the tanks, calling for help, which didn't seem to make sense -- inside the tank, he dind't need to yell, and there was no one to help him. Who could he have been talking to, and how?

The tanks were badly undermanned, and couldn't see everything, or do everything, at the same time. They were driving in jagged loops around the barn and farm house, shooting at anything that got in front of them.

One tank managed to catch Crys off guard, while barrelling around the barn. She was forced to dive for cover into the area covered with Ulric's entangle spell. (the tanks, not surprisingly, were not even slowed down by the spike growth or the enangle.)

Eli, Irk, and Pah managed to board one of the tanks, where they resisted the driver's furious attempts to dislodge them while trying to figure out how to get the hatch open. Ulric, taking cover next to the barn, lashed out with a final flame strike on the other tank, but the spell was not enough to take that one out. It was enough, however, to get that tank driver's attention. He turned around, headed back towards Ulric, and switched to his main gun. He fired an HE round at Ulric.

While the flame strike had not been enough to take out the tank, it had been enough to warp the tank's barrel -- not a lot, but enough to cause a catastrophic misfire which resulted in an explosion that destroyed the third tank.

That left one tank, which was still driving around trying to shake off it's passengers. Irk tried and tried to force the hatch open, but wasn't strong enough. But Pah was able to assist, removing pins from hinges, and finally Irk was able to pry it open.

What followed was a bit messy. Pah dropped into the tank compartment, while Irk pulled one of the tankers out and snapped his neck.

Pah killed the other tanker. She was Joined in the tank cabin by Minimonk, while Irk held on up top and tried to pull the remaining body out.


They had a problem. They had captured the tank, but had no idea how to drive it, and the tank was moving. Chugging along at a fair clip -- as much as 15 miles an hour -- and there was a river in front of it. Pah and Uri banged away at instruments and controls, desperately trying to find something that would turn or shut off the tank, and only barely managed to stop the tank before it tumbled into the river.

The engine stalled. An eerie quiet settled over them. After the terrible road of hte engine and the clank of the tracks -- not to mention the deafening explosions and gunfire -- it took a few minutes for the goonies, sitting on their trophy, to be able to head the sound of the engine ticking away heat and the gurgle of the river below.

As those who had not been along for the ride caught up to the tank, they all ended up with the same question. What now?

-rg

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Poland 3

Poland 3: Tank Soup

So, as Irk and Pah and Minimonk patted each other on the back, the rest of the party caught up and stood around, looking at the tank that had narrowly avoided tumbling down into a creek. A pair of strips of torn earth made following the tank quite easy.

Pah stuck her head out of the hatch "I got a tank!"

"Yeah," said Eli. "What’re you gonna do with it?'

"I don't know, I just wanted one."

Some planning was in order. The tank, a valuable resource, would be very easy to track, so they did not want to take it directly back to the gypsy cave where Uri was still two days away from completing the enchantment of the only suitable weapon they had for Irk to use, a magic club whose enchantment he was improving.

They passed two days with the gypsies, resting and learning a few more words of Polish. Then they said their goodbyes and set out for Treblinka.

It was slow going. Even though there were roads to follow, their driving skills and limited vision made it nearly impossible to cover more than a 5-10 miles and hour. They crawled along, in fits and starts, inching close to Treblinka.

After a few hours of traveling they came upon an odd scene -- a truck pulled over on the side of the road, and a pair of peasants standing around. The Goonie tankers decided to drive around the scene, giving it a wide berth, rather than risk what they suspected was some sort of trap.


After about 6 hours, having managed to cover 50 miles, the tank came to a shuddering halt, and no amount of beating on the controls on twists on the starter crank could awaken the engine.

They had been warned that this might happen by the Gypsies -- something called diesel was necessary to power the tank. There was a tank that held it, and a place to pour more in, but they didn't have any. While most of the party sat around and complained, Ulrich took the shape of a great eagle again, and flew off ahead down the road, looking for a place where they might get some more diesel. He returned and shifted back, reporting that there was a guard outpost at a crossroads ahead, where there were about ten soldiers and a halftrack -- the halftrack might have the fuel they required.

The party worked up a quick plan -- with Crys and Eli dressed in captured uniforms, and Ulrich in the form of a draft horse, Irk and the halflings dressed as a peasant and some children (all in the dresses they had taken from the little girl’s house).

The ruse managed to get the group close to the outpost. The officer in charge and the soldiers were very suspicious -- Crys was not able to cast her tongues spell until she could touch the officer's arm, so there was not way to talk to the soldiers, but a few grunts and Jawohls got them close enough to spring at the soldiers.

The fight was short. Within a minute Uri and Pah were sitting in the front seat of the halftrack, trying to figure out how to get the engine started so they could drive it back to the abandoned tank.

And then time started to drag on and on, as the halfings tried everything they could think of to get the halftrack started, but had no luck getting it moving for hours. The other party members combed over the soldier’s bodies, wondering at little things like extremely lifelike portraits of girlfriends and mothers – the images must have been created with some sort of magic, because try as they might they could not look at them close enough to see the brush strokes of the artist who painted such lifelike pictures.

Then, suddenly, after a couple of dull hours sitting around waiting for the little ones to get the halftrack moving, the party heard the deep, throaty rumble and clank of approaching tanks.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Tank Soup part 2

As usual, things got underway quickly. And, cogent plans would not have been obvious to an observer's naked eye. The first thing the group did, faced by four Panzers steaming towards them, was split up.

Ulric, in horse form stopped just long enough for Pah and Crys to jump up on his back before bolting right at the tanks -- and past them, -- galloping down the road back the way they had come. Two of the tanks stopped in their tanks and spun in palce, to turn and pursue the horse and riders, while the other two continued on.

Eli and Irk stood their ground, seasoned warriors not quick to run, while Minimonk and his master Uri desperately tried one last time to get the halftrack's engine started. And, through some stroke of luck, Minimonk beat his head against the ignition button and the engine rumbled into life. They shouted, and started to drive off. Eli and Irk were forced to run and catch up, Eli jumping lightly into the back of the truck and pulling Irk up behind him.

The hafltrack was moving -- not fast, mind you, but moving, and heading away from the outpost, in a direction exactly opposite the direction the Horse-Ulric had taken. But the tanks, driven by experienced, trained drivers and not halfings with deep bruises in their foreheads from the ignition button, were moving much faster. And in a few seconds the two pursuing tanks opened fire.

The first few shots missed. A third shot struck the halftrack on it's suspension, with a deafening explosion that shook the whole vehicle but did no noticable damage to it. Uri and Minimonk fought with the controls, trying to figure out how to get it to move faster. In the back, Eli and Irk were forced to look back at the tanks in pursuit, wondering about the wisdon of staying in the machine, knowing that being out on the ground was not much better.

Then the fourth shell struck. The halftrack exploded in a oily diesel could of flame and smoke.

About a half a mile away, the horse was not able to run faster than the tanks could cruise, and the pursing tanks were eventually able to get close enough to open up with their machineguns.

Clearly, Ulric, Pah, and Crys would have to turn and fight, they were not going to make any sort of get away. Horse-Ulric stopped and knelt in the midst of a hail of gunfire so the two ladies could get off, then shapeshifted back into human form.



While the tanks closed, Crys quickly cast invisibility on herself and Pah, but had none left for Ulric, who was starting to cast spells as the steel juggernauts closed on them. Quick spellcasting knocked out one tank crew, and while that tank slowly drone away from the scene of the battle, Cyrs jumped up onto the other and started shooting a wand of magic missiles through a viewport.

While Crys and Ulric worked to disable the second of the two tanks that had come after them, Pah had seen the explosion coming from the distant halftrack, and ran as hard as shc could, still invisible, to try to help her friends, if she could.

***

Minimonk was thrown clear by the explosion. He rolled onto the ground, made sure he was still in once piece, and them immediately looked up for his master. His master, however, was not on the ground next to him. Uri was still sitting in the front seat of the furiously buring wreck of the halftrack, unconscious and on fire. Minimonk jumped up and pulled his master from the wreck, searching his scorched packs for potions of healing, barely managing to save his maser's life.

On the far side of the wreck, where he could not see, the two enemy tanks clanked to a halt.

***

Irk landed hard and tasted dirt. He was still alive, still have all his limbs (so it was a good day!) but he could hear the sound of the tanks approaching. One hand reached around for the handle of one of the grenades tucked into his belt. He did his best to lay as still as possible, waiting for an opening. Eli aslo feigned dead, lying on top of his bow.

The German tanks slowed and stopped a few feet away. The top hatches opened, and the tank commanders rose up through the hatches, peering through the black diesel smoke to try to spot some sign of life in the wreckage. They could see two bodies on the ground -- Irk and Eli, neither of whom had been driving the halftrack. As the officers looked to try to see some other bodies, Irk yanked on his grenades' fuse, rolled up into a sitting position, and tossed it at the open hatch.

It was one helluva toss -- right on the money - it landed right at the officer's feetin standing in his command chair. The commander fumbled in panic atthe grenade, trying to get it out of the tank before it detonated.

At the same mometnt Irk tossed his grenade, Eli sat up and took a shot at the officer in the other tank, wounding him, but failing to get a seond arrow into him to finish him before the tank commanded managed to get back under cover and shut his hatch.

The first tank commander failed to grab the grenade in time. The grenade went off, pulping the entire tank crew in an instant. The top half of the tank cmmander fell sideways out of the turret and hit the ground with a wet thud.

Irk, seeing the second tank's turret turnign his way, it's machinegun spitting bullets pretty indiscriminantly, decided that he would fight fire with fire, and charged up the front of the grenaded tank and hopped inside. He fumbled around at the controls, trying to figure out what he had seen the halflings doing tog et the othertank going before, the task made that much mroe challenging by the thick pasting of bloody gore that coated the inside of the tank.

Eli, meanwhile, bought Irk a great deal of time to figure things out by sniping away at the viewports in the tank, sending arrows in at tank crew faces until they finally gave up and close the viewports to protect themselves.

That was the good news.

The bad news was that the German tanker's turret stopped pointed directly at Irk's tank.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

tank soup part 3

Things could only get better. Without actually aiming, the tankers were shooting and missing, but would eventually hit Irk and his captured tank.


Pah, who had been running as hard as she could, covering ground much more slowly than Ulric had as a warhorse, arrived on the scene and bounded into Irk's captured tank to assist, where she was joined by the revived Eli and Minimonk

This quikly became a comic gunbattle, as one tank full of competent gunners shot blind, trying to avoid opening their viewports, while the incompetent halflings and dwarf fumbled with the gore-splattered shells and controls to try to return fire. The party's tank took a few hits, glancing blows that damaged the tank and made their ears ring, but that luckily did not penetrated the tank's armor meaningfully. Pah managed to get the tank moving a bit, to throw off the german tanker's blind aim, but they were still not able to get the tank gun working rapidly enough.

Ulric and Crys, having finished with the other two tanks (and being woefully low on spells as a result) arrived on the scene to try to help take out the last tank. Chrys jumped into the party's tank and added her fumbling to the efforts there, while Ulric joined Eli, who was still trying to keep the germans from getting a good look outside their tank.

Ulric watched the scene for a few minutes, and then came up with a plan, which he shared with Eli. He shapedshifted again, this time into an asp. Eli scooped him up and edged closer to the enemy tank.

Meanwhile, the Germans had heard the sound of their target moving, and had braved opening a viewport or two to get a glimpse at their target so they could adjust their aim. They were pleasantly surprised that Eli was not shooting at them, and they got a bit brave, rolling forward to try to get the party's tank in view again.

As they passed Eli's hiding place, he hopped up onto the tank and pressed the Ulric-asp into one of the viewports.

Eli jumped away from the tank, avoiding a burst of machinegun fire, and took cover. At about thattime, Pah managed to get the party's tank turned around and facing the German tank again. The Dragoon tankers had not seen Urlic and Eli's snake trick, and had no idea that Ulric was in the german tank as they opened fire again. They fumbled and fired once more, missing, before they spotted Eli hopping around behind the german tank, signaling for them to hold their fire.

The snake went to work, writhing around in the controls while desperate Germans tried to stomp and shoot at him. The german tank coasted to a halt as they succumbed to the snake's poison, delivered in many small bites.

Eventually the tanks quieted down, the dust settled. They took stock, managed to figure out how to transfer fuel and ammunition into the tank Ulric had just captured (the least wrecked of the tanks available) and they were ready to look for a place to hide out for the night.