They were on the beach, 6km from their target. It was obvious that if they fought their way through the dense forest it would take them all day to reach their destination.

An alternative was to use the seashore. The tide had gone out, leaving a flat expanse of sand and dark volcanic rock. High tide was marked by a line of weathered driftwood tree trunks, massive and bleached white by the sun. Above that was a densely forested low cliff or bank, with the treeline down at the high tide mark.

They had maps, but only prewar ones. Still, it seemed like their choice of route would be either completely through the forest, along the beach where they would still be out of sight to their destination until the last 2000 metres or so. Or some combination of the two.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:18, Thu 28 Feb 2019.

"I'm no pathfinder, but it looks like it might go better to walk the woodline by the beach, ready to duck into cover, then push the last bit into the forest."

Looking again at the dense growth ahead of him, he shakes his head.

"We have a need for some speed, and pushing through all that ain't it"

Nodding in agreement, Elliot adds, "And eight klicks is a good hike, especially in the sand. What's the marching order?" he asks the Team Leader.

Tim looked at the cliff and then the beach "Either way is exposing us to prime ambush territory, we walk the beach and we won't be able to either scale the cliff or cross the drift wood piles before being cut down and I don't think we will be able to walk between the tree line and the drift wood piles for any sort of distance. That leaves use to traverse the treeline which will probably be as much of a pain in the arse as crossing overland."

"And if they have bothered to have a watch this route will be what they have eyes on. If we don't have a problem time wise I would play it safe and go overland."


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Jimmy nods.

"Maybe we can find some game trails that will help us out.  I will need two scouts forward."

Filat nods and unstrings his bow, placing it in its cloth bow bag and slings the bag over his back. He unslings the Dragunov and checks the sight, the night sight safely in its protective case, and puts it to his shoulder with the muzzle pointing at the ground.

"Da, I shall precede. Who is to be coming with Filat?"

In reply to Filat Filipovitch Volkov (msg # 6):

Capt'n Kimm looks towards the direction of the column of smoke he had spotted earlier. Still visible? And if so, is it moving and getting closer.

In reply to Tim Charles White (msg # 4):

Captain Kim could see there was still a smudge of dark smoke somewhere around James Island.

The water was at low tide, exposing a hard-packed mud or slab stone surface. The driftwood littering the high tide mark would provide excellent cover at least in places; not just pieces of wood or branches but massive tree trunks weathered smooth by water and bleached in the sun.

PD Note: I thought I would clarify it's not a soft sand beach nor shifting barnacle-encrusted rocks but a firm relatively smooth surface. There are many small pools of water and of course mats of algae, seaweed and kelp. Easy to walk on, at least here. And the driftwood would probably make excellent cover, at least in places, as there are massive tree trunks, not just a littler of small pieces (although those carpet the ground between the trunks.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:15, Sat 23 Feb 2019.

Seeing no others raising a hand, Elliot will offer to scout with Filat.

In reply to Elliot Charles Pendergrass (msg # 9):

1330 Hours

As they managed to get a little closer in before hitting the beach, they had about 6km of forest to traverse. If they walked a normal pace it would be about 2.5 hours to reach the vicinity of La Push and James Island. They could push their pace to reach it earlier or move more cautiously.


PD Note: Set your pace. Normal is taking some care while setting an efficient pace. Double Time is self-explanatory. Searching would be exercising extra care, looking for ambush or anything else interesting, Movement Under Cover is taking maximum care to avoid being seen.

I think normal pace for the trail folks will be fine for the first leg of the journey, considering they have scouts ahead.

Filat frowns, the terrain is more difficult that normal and he struggles to try and find a game trail running in a useful direction and still maintain both speed and secrecy

Filat Filipovitch Volkov rolled 84 using 1d100 with rolls of 84.  Navigate (55%).

They climbed up the steeply forested slopes and set a south-east course. Once that was done Filat and Elliot were sent forward to act as scouts. Filat was unable to locate a game or other trail so they were forced to trudge through the woods. They were surrounded by massive Douglas fir trees and moss-covered boulders. There was little underbrush in the west coast climax rain forest. A diffuse green light surrounded them under the canopy and the overall terrain was uneven, broken with deep ravines and boulder-strewn hills.

It became apparent to Captain Kim after an hour or so that they were maybe straying a little east of their chosen course. But as they were using old maps it was difficult to tell. After a few hours hiking, when they should have been reaching the cliffs above the mouth of the Quillayute River at the site of what had been the town of La Push, they instead reached a the edge of a long downhill slope. At the foot lay what sounded like a small river flowing northeast-southwest in a valley through the hilly forest.
This message was last updated by the GM at 04:03, Wed 13 Mar 2019.

Filat lies in the grass, unmoving an watchful. He wishes now that he had a monocular like his uncle Pavel does. He raises the Dargunov to his shoulder and uses the scope to search out the terrain in front of the group.

In reply to Filat Filipovitch Volkov (msg # 14):

They were at the top of a steep boulder-strewn hillside, peering out from under the trees at the canopy ahead to the east. He could hear and partially see through the trees below (using his telescopic sight) there was a small river running north-south trough the forest. Where they were they were concealed by the rocky terrain and mossy boulders around them, while not "skylined" because of the trees behind them.

Although this was normal to him, to the recently deployed (unfrozen) personnel there was a noticeable abundance of life, primarily with respect to birds, insects, small and large mammals. On a few different occasions so far they'd come across medium-large herds of deer. Some moved away when startled, others continued to feed but watch them, warily.

Tim watched the sector he had been assigned as they waited for the scouts to report. He had taken a knee and had his rifle the low ready position as they waited. If he was able to sue a boulder or tree for cover he did.


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