2nd August, 2000, 08:00 hours.
Mac, Dogmeat and Meathook talk some more about the possibility of finding a camera, or someone to interpret the Polish technical drawings.
The all night polka tape is just winding to an end when a call comes in over the radio. They are speaking in English, asking 'Are you guys for real?'. Dogmeat switches over to the all day polka tape, and talks on another channel.
It is a group of NATO soldiers, recently arrived in Krakow, comprising 4 Americans. They have also set themselves up outside the old city. The guys invite them to come over to the stadium to talk.
A little while later two cautious Americans arrive in their BTR-70 and Dogmeat walks out to greet them. The driver is Hammer, and with him is Sarge Willis, but he don't talk. They are a little cautious about Mac, Dogmeat and Meathook being so open about their presence in the city, but the guys are just pleased that they have contacted some other NATO forces.
They have two others in their party.. Doc Calcium, and the Captain. The Captain is injured, and may not be going to make it. The guys offer Meathook's services as a doctor, and any supplies the others may need. Mac amends that to a discount on the purchase of any supplies, but it's still a good deal on 7.62mm NATO ammo.
The Radio Free Krakow team head over to the warehouse that the others have set up in. Along the way they're pleased to notice an occasional shop offering modifications to civilian radios to pick up the military frequency that the guys are broadcasting on.
Meathook takes a look at the Captain, he has taken an RPG round that passed through the door of their deuce and a half. He is stable, but in a bad way. Meathook and Doc Calcium agree that the antibiotics provided by Meathook should help. Meathook gives the Doc some of his running sparse medical supplies.
Hammer tells the story of their group. The Doc and the Captain were REMFs in Kalisz, and he was with the artillery. The three of them were in the city when the real shit hit. Meathook and the guys remember seeing and hearing some of the fight for Kalisz from their position to the north, and it looked like hell.
Hell, Hammer explains, was a full Soviet tank army, running full throttle on diesel. These were the guys who seemed to be everywhere at once in the initial reports. Hammer reckons that the some Soviet oilfields in Siberia or something must have been pumping 24 hour to keep them supplied. Thankfully, they smashed themselves up on Kalisz's defenses before running them over.
The three guys blundered around in the BTR-70 for a while, and picked up Sarge Willis, shot in the neck, and near dead on the side of the road. He has since healed up, but the captain got hit along the way, and now they're in Krakow.
These guys haven't really been out and about in the city, and the party decide to show them around the Old City. The group don't mention the film or the documents, but manage to learn in passing that Doc Calcium knows about chemistry and stuff, and could probably develop film.
The two groups part company, and the guys head back to base camp in Stadion Korona with their newly purchased 50km radio and IR spotlights for the HMMWVs. Mac installs the new radio setup, and Meathook and Dogmeat muck around and make dinner. Shortly before bedtime a request comes in from Vassiliy, a radio operator with the ORMO. He speaks pretty good English, and the guys had shared a drink with him before. Dogmeat gives a shout out to all the guys in the radio room in ORMO HQ, and leaves the polka blasting out into the night.
The next morning, the group awake to the sound of their surrender being requested over a megaphone, from outside the parking garage of the stadium. It is the Warta, Dowodka's personal guards. The guys quickly don flak jackets and gear, and shout back not to come in.. the parking garage is mined. Nobody can see how their involvement in the eloping of Dowodka's mistress could have come to light, but that's the best guess as to why the Warta are here.
A quick look at the situation shows that fighting would be futile. They've got a couple of OT-64s with 30mm autocannons, and dozens of soldiers are unloading and fanning out from the back of a truck.
Running for it in a HMMWV might work.. but the minefield works both ways, and it takes about 15 minutes of work each time a HMMWV goes out for a spin.
Dogmeat and Meathook surrender, and allow themselves to be arrested. They are bundled into the back of separate vehicles, and their questions are ignored. Mac decides to make them come for him, and takes the time to disable both of the HMMWVs and hide the gold and ration chits as best he can. He also unscrews and secretes the roll of film in a disused light fixture. The Warta make their way through the mines, and Mac is arrested too.
The guys find themselves disembarking in the courtyard of the Wawel. Dogmeat and Meathook are bit overawed by the fairytale nature of the castle and its interiors. Scotland has more castles than Louisiana, and Mac isn't. The three are thrown into separate rooms and left to wait. Meathook manages to get his handcuffed hands around the front of him, which gives him the opportunity to fight back when some heavies arrive to work the party over. To no avail. The guys are given a severe hiding, and rendered unconscious.
An indeterminate time later Mac, Dogmeat and Meathook regain consciousness in.. a dungeon. Damp stone walls, rusted chains, iron grille up above admitting a shaft of light. A dungeon. Meathook does his best to tend wounds with strips of torn shirt. Time passes.
Eventually someone shows up. A ladder is lowered down, and the guys are marched to a room just down the hallway. Aside from the bare electrical cable and odd light bulb, this is a dungeon.
Two guards with rifles take position inside the door. Three empty chairs face a man sitting at a table. He introduces himself as Prucznic (Lieutenant) Aleksander Paszkiewicz, the defense council for the men. He speaks English well, and urges the group to reveal the identity of their employer as the only possible defense for the crime they have committed.
Dogmeat hits rewind, and Paszkiewicz explains what has happened. They have been arrested for the murder of Dowodka Kutrzeba the popular leader of Krakow. Paszkiewicz apologies for the conduct of the guards, but Dowodka was very well liked, especially by those of the Warta, and the sentiment in the city is now strongly against the Americans. It is now three days after the group were arrested. Dowodka was killed during the night before the party were arrested. Some of the Warta guards engaged in a firefight with three men matching the description of the soldiers as they escaped.
The group protest their innocence, The guys suggest that Vassiliy, the ORMO radio operator who talked to them at the same time they were supposed to be killing Dowodka might speak for them. Whether he believes them or not, Paszkiewicz explains that it is utterly useless to try to 'defend' against this crime. The city is up in arms against them, and wants revenge.
Their only hope is to admit that General Diwizji Zygmunt Bohusz-Szyszko hired them to kill Dowodka. Bohusz-Szyszko is the leader of the ORMO, the former Polish 8th, who decided to defect and remain in Krakow. Paszkiewicz is certain that it was Bohusz-Szyszko, and says that he should be able to convince the Rada, the town council who are to hear the trial, to agree to exile the Americans if they agree to finger the person behind the crime.
The group ask to be left alone to talk. Paszkiewicz leaves. The guards don't speak English and remain. Escape seems a tall order. The trial is to be in a couple of days. Paszkiewicz is adamant that death is certain without an admission. Mac and Meathook prefer not to admit, and take their chances with whatever chance to escape that comes up. Dogmeat wants to at least put the gears in motion, and have Paszkiewicz propose to the Rada that the group might be let off.
This is the option that is chosen, and the guys return to their dungeon with a pack of cigarettes left behind by Paszkiewicz, but no lighter.
The next morning, the 7th of August, the guys are visited by Vassiliy, who has talked his way in to the Wawel to yell some abuse at the people responsible for killing Dowodka.
Interspersed with shouts of 'AMERICAN PIG-DOGS!' and spitting, Vassiliy explains that he has come to help the group. He knows they didn't do it, and wants to help them escape. Vassiliy has some interesting information to add to the mix. He confirms that the guys are well hated throughout the whole city for killing Dowodka, and isn't sure about Paskiewicz's plan to blame Bohusz-Szyszko. What he does know is that Bohusz-Szyszko's right hand man, Major Kobiecki, was asking detailed questions of Vassiliy about Mac, Dogmeat and Meathook, including descriptions. He says that the group's vehicles and gear are probably stored here in the Wawel, but he has a bolder plan for escape.
He knows the man who used to be the pilot of the 'Flying Carpet' when he was in the army, before it was taken away to be Dowodka's showpiece for the affluence and security of Krakow. Vassiliy hopes to convince him to take it for one last ride so as that Mac, Dogmeat and Meathook can escape to find out who is behind framing them for murder.
Source[]
| Gaming Sessions of The Road to God Knows Where Campaign (Twilight:2000 1st Edition Fan Created) | 
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| Session 1 (18th - 19th July 2000) • Session 2 (19th - 21st July 2000) • Session 3 (22nd July - 2nd August 2000) Session 4 (3rd - 7th August 2000) • Session 5 (7th - 22nd August 2000) |