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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Radiating Gnome" data-source="post: 365078" data-attributes="member: 150">Poland 2Part 4The 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</blockquote>

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