Kaspar made an 'A-ha!' face, and proceeded to dig out his 'Evidence Kit'.

"Excellent idea, Gavin." Kaspar said, pulling on a pair of latex gloves, "And since the road bricks are aleady slightly damaged here, at the crack in the road, this is where I'll take my samples."

Kaspar produced a small hammer and a plastic sample bag from the kit, and started chipping off gravel-sized pieces of the brick from the higher-edge of the crack in the road.  Once he had a few ounces worth of sample, he sealed the bag, removed the latex gloves and shoved them in a pocket, then took a photo of the change/damage he'd done to the brickwork.  Then he carefully labelled and stored away the samples.

"Alright, then, here's how I believe we should proceed." Kaspar finally said, producing his pipe and pouch, and proceeding to fill the pipe while talking.

"The FRED stays right here.  We, as a single group, follow this fault-like terrain feature, staying on this, the left-side, or gate-side, if you will.  We will follow the feature towards those buildings in the woods, approaching cautiously, but not so stealthily that we would look suspicious or, God forbid, even dangerous, if we're spotted.  We will re-assess once we arrive at the buildings and determine if they are inhabited, or not."

Kaspar produces a pocket lighter and fires up his pipe.

"Any questions or suggestions?" Kaspar asks, clamping down his jaw on his pipe, and re-adjusting the hang of his P90 on his tac-vest.

"I believe you mean the 'right side' of the crevasse," Gavin points out, "as that's the side on which the gate lies."

"What approach do you want us to use, Kaspar?" asks Gavin. "Single file, two-by-two or skirmish line?"

Single file would be a nightmare in the making. Either Hilda or Kaspar should take the lead and the other bring up the rear. The problem with that, neither of them would want to be at the back. Neither of them should be either.

"I'll bring up the rear," he offered, even though he didn't have any scouting skills.

'That's a lot of bricks.' Hilda said, looking down the length of the yellow brick road as Gavin wondered if they came from off-world.

Leaving the FRED here by the Gate made it seem hardly worth bringing it along, Hilda thought, but didn't question the dark elf's choice. Instead, she fished a few things out of her backpack that she'd rather bring with her. At a stern look from Vasandra, she made sure it was strapped down tight again afterwards.

She listened as Kaspar and Gavin talked about how to approach, not particular concerned as Cimmerians didn't really go for that kind of fine detail in tactics. There was only one requirement for her. 'I'll walk in front. It'll save your big boots stepping on tracks.'

With that, Hilda started walking along the right side of the crevasse, letting the others follow as they will. Following the split, she imagined mighty Thor slamming his hammer into the earth, sending great cracks out in all directions. What had the people of this world done to offend the gods?


OOC: Use Track to find trails along the crevasse: Track (forest) 21
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:13, Thu 12 Dec 2013.

About half way to the buildings, Hilda spots an old animal trail. She guesses it was used by animals to cross the road between the two closest parts of the forest. However, it's pretty much overgrown, like it hasn't been used in years.

Just about ready to offer some advice Vasandra stops abruptly and nods in obvious satisfaction as Gavin offers the very same correction she was going to use, or near enough as it makes no difference.  Instead she busies herself with the otherwise unnecessary task of positioning the FRED perpendicular to the road with it's rear wheels just at the edge in order to facilitate a single quick turn in either direction just in case that choice needs to be made quickly when they return.

Hilda's demonstration of a learning curve acquires little more from her glare than a mild admonishment and an almost paranoid double check of all the fastening points as the group begins to head out.  Unburdened by any personal gear Vasandra quickly catches up and makes her way through the forest with the almost overly cautious precision of someone unfamiliar with difficult terrain, but not incapable of dealing with it.

Hilda almost didn't see it at first, it was just a faint depression running across the sea of grass. But she approached and parted the blades, seeing the line of pale, trampled-down grass that did not grow as high as the rest. But even that was growing up again. She didn't know how fast or how high grass grew on this world; it wasn't very high. She drew her survival knife and dug around a little among the stalks. 'Animal trail. Maybe the size of a wolf or small warg.' she reported. 'But few animals that big have come this way for years. I hear birds in the trees though.' Hilda was growing puzzled over the tracks and land-use around here: 'No big animals, no footprints of people. Someone keeps the road free of weeds, but they did not fix the crack... The animals could be scared off by people, I suppose, but the people don't wander much around the Stargate. They must keep to the road.'

"The road probably has a device built into it to keep itself clear." Kaspar says to Hilda, checking his pipe, "Though obviously it can't repair itself, the road seems to be able to keep itself clear and free of weeds.  The presence of naquada in the bricks sort of indicates this, though how it works I don't know. Our friends the Asgard are always putting technology into stone monuments, they might have an idea."

Kaspar puffed on his pipe, to get it going, again,

"However, that observation about lack of use supports what we see ahead -- that one building looks like it was damaged when this rift in the ground occurred, and it is not yet fixed.  However, this rift looks to have happened some time ago, though I am no Geologist. No, I think that we'll find these building abandoned; if someone lived here, they'd have tried to fix the building."

"But I could be wrong." Kaspar smiles, puffing on his pipe, "So let's continue with caution, shall we?."

Hilda accepted Kaspar's explanation with a shrug, not sure how the road weeded itself nor why, but taking it on faith for now.

'Or they were unable to fix the building. No time, no stone, no coin, or maybe no-one knows how any more.' Hilda suggested, looking ahead to the hole in the stone wall. Reminded of her own ruin, she muttered 'I never did rebuild my house.'

As they followed the line of the crevasse, approaching where it widened, Hilda peered inside, trying to discern how overgrown it was. If it had been there a long time, she'd expect it to be full of plants. If it was fresh, it would be all bare dirt and exposed roots.

When Hilda examines the crevasse, she sees mostly dirt and roots. There are a few sporadic weeds growing in there, but the exposed dirt appears to be dry. Not being that familiar with weeds, particular ones in alien soil, she has no idea how fast they might grow, but she thinks the crevasse may have occurred as recently as 2-3 days ago... probably not longer than a week.

Continuing on through the woods, the team comes within sight of the buildings such that they still have cover from a tree or two but can see pretty much the whole village. 'Village' may be too strong a word, as they see only 20-30 buildings.

The one directly in front of them has the crevasse running through the foundation. The wall has a significant split in it, as does the interior walls and the opposite wall. Some of the stone has fallen down, and the walls look ready to collapse at any moment.

Through the gap, other damaged buildings can be seen.

At first, there's no sign of life, but Hilda spots a bit of movement near one of the other buildings. As she watches, the movement resolves itself into a cat. It has the size and appearance of a normal house cat as it steps gingerly through the rubble.

Kaspar first looks around as they reach the edge of the village, or compound, or whatever this grouping of buildings may be, then he takes out his camera and snaps several shots of the buildings that can be seen from here.

"Okay, I change my assessment." Kaspar says quietly, as he puts his camera away, "The rift in the ground looks pretty fresh, here; hardly overgrown at all.  And the buildings, except for these damged by the rift, don't look too run down.  If they are abandoned, they may not have been for too long."

Kaspar pauses and frowns in thought, puffing away on his pipe, then turns to Gavin and Vasandra.

"Captain Tourmaline, Mister Gavin, I don't suppose either of you are familiar with any kind of weaponry that might leave something like this..." Kaspar indicates the rift in the ground, "I know it looks like minor fault-line shifting, a natural landquake, perhaps.  But could it be some trace of an attack, with some weapon we Terrans...sorry, I mean Tau'ri may be unaware of?"

"Of course," Kaspar continues thinking out loud, before either person can answer, "If this is evidence of some weaponry, we might also only be at the outer edges of the effect.  Perhaps it would be wise to continue following this rift into the site, as it appears the damage does continue on beyond this first building."

Taking her first close look at the rift and the level of damage caused around it and by it when the question is directly put forth Vasandra ponders for a few moments before offering something like a considered opinion.

”Any weapon with the kind of power needed to do this as part of a long range delivered payload would have left an enormous blast at it's epicenter along with quite a lot of thrown debris from that point, given how recent this is I would expect to see some indication of a blast or impact of that magnitude scattered over everything, possibly still precipitating out of the atmosphere.

I find it far more likely that this is the result of some carelessly constructed underground tunnel that has collapsed, or that it is in fact evidence of a natural disaster of some sort.”

Hilda climbed down into the crevasse to poke around, turning over a little soil with her knife. No weeds or grasses taking root, but she couldn't say how long that might take on this world. On Cimmeria, the trees grew very fast, with a small tree growing in a year; they were forever clearing the land around the Stargate. On this world, plants could well grow very slowly. No, it was the wild-life that told Hilda the date. The fresh soil was covered in fresh bird-prints. Soon after the soil had been exposed, they'd flown down from the trees to peck for worms, beetles, and grubs, left helplessly on or just below the new surface. 'Look at the bird-prints. This happened only a few days ago.' she pointed out, marvelling at the extraordinarily close timing of this event and them arriving in its aftermath.

'Maybe Thor slammed his hammer into the earth?' Hilda suggested as Kaspar and Vasandra discussed how the crack could have been made. Somehow, she didn't think her theory would be accepted.

Her attention was taken by the cat picking its way over the rubble. 'Well, there is something here.' she said, pointing to it.

'Should I go scout the village out before we walk in?'

"Yes, please, Miss Hilda, let's continue on." Kaspar says, "Keep a look out for a central gathering place, a plaza or maybe a communal well.  That, or a headman's house; a structure that's a little more ornate than the others."

Kaspar let Hilda take the lead, following at a sedate pace, a handful of meters behind her.

'Já, I know how a village is laid out.' Hilda returned, a little irritably, aware that the Tau'ri often lived clustered together in great hives like ants, far unlike what she was used to on her world. Though her people built more in wood than in stone, this village was the most familiar thing she'd seen since leaving Cimmeria. She felt she had a good feel for it.

Walking quickly ahead some distance, she ventured down into the village, but the cleared land around the settlement gave her little cover. If she was seen, she was seen, there was no helping it. Her path took her up to the building split in two. She intended to look inside, but would not dare enter the precarious ruins.


OOC: Moving stealthily up to the split building:
14:11, Today: Hilda rolled 11 using 1d20+6. hide.
14:10, Today: Hilda rolled 9 using 1d20+6. move silently.

Hilda has no problem reaching the building with the split, though she has no way of knowing if someone spotted her or not. She certainly doesn't get any 'vibe' as if she's being watched.

She peers inside first from one angle and then the other. Except for the rubble on the floor, it almost looks normal. To one side, she can see a carpet on the floor with a table and four chairs on top of it. To the other side, she can see that an interior wall has collapsed onto a bed, breaking the frame at the base. The bed still has bedcovers on it, along with dust and debris.

She even notices some footprints in the dust: human-like and sized, wearing boots or shoes. She can't be sure, but it looks like the footprints of just one person.

After circling around the building, she gets a sense of layout of the village. It was built in an 'L'-shape. One leg extends off to her right, and the other is straight ahead. She can see one building in the crook of the 'L' that is angled, and it looks a bit larger and fancier than the others.

Down to her right, she can see two buildings that were next to each other where the neighboring walls have collapsed. Another one's roof is missing.

Straight ahead, she can see that the crevasse isn't all that straight. It shifted to the left and cut through seven houses on the left side of the street. Five of the houses are missing the front wall now, and the last house completely collapsed into the crevasse. Two houses on the right side of the street are missing roofs.

Off to her left, there are two buildings beyond the one with the split wall.

Finally, she can see that the street that goes left and right actually leads to the yellow brick road on the left. It's about 75 feet from the last house to the road.

She still sees no sign of life, but there's a swatch of grassy ground in front of the angled house, now split in half by the crevasse, that could possibly be a 'town square'.

Hilda walked carefully about the ruined village, noting the scenes of devastation and destruction. She was uncomfortably reminded of the flaming ruin of her own village, blasted by Jaffa staff-weapons. People's homes and livelihoods destroyed, their memories and possessions lost. Family killed. There did not seem to be any enemy here though, just an earthquake, just bad fortune from the earth or the gods.

From the outskirts, Hilda decided to radio back to the others, fiddling with the device and trying to remember how it worked. The others heard a foul Norse curse before 'Is this thing working? You hear me? Ah. The crevasse goes right through, many houses destroyed. I see a village common, and a big house, maybe of the chief. No people, but some footprints. I will look closer.' She ended the call, then came back with 'Over.'

Though the settlement seemed deserted, Hilda figured people could be hiding in the intact buildings, if they'd heard the Stargate and feared some kind of attack. So, going around the outskirts of the village, she looked in on a few streets and buildings and approached the village common, keeping an eye out for fresh footprints or people in hiding.


OOC: Track: looking for prints and signs of people in the village. I'm not sure what to roll for inside the village. I'm not trained in urban terrain, but that doesn't seem right in a primitive village. Anyway, Spot 13 (for inside buildings) and Survival (untrained) 13
10:43, Today: Hilda rolled 13 using 1d20+5. spot - tracking.
10:55, Today: Hilda rolled 13 using 1d20+6. survival - tracking.
My Survival scores were lacking some bonuses from gear and feats. I've updated them now, hence the difference from the diceroller.

Spot 22 and Listen 6 (rolled a 1) for people hiding
11:05, Today: Hilda rolled 6 using 1d20+5. listen.
11:05, Today: Hilda rolled 22 using 1d20+5. spot.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:53, Wed 18 Dec 2013.

"Acknowledged, Hilda." Kaspar transmits back, "We will move forward to the village common, while you finish your scout.  We will meet you there, when you are finished. Gorski, out."

Kaspar turns to Vasandra and Gavin.

"Okay, we'll move to this village common she's found, and wait for her. Once she returns, we will, as a group, investigate the building she thinks might be a chiefs house.  So, unless either of you happen to have some off-world tech that can scan for hidden life forms, or detect hidden weapons pointed at our heads..." Kaspar smiles, "...then let us go get comfortable on the common, and wait for Hilda."

Kaspar starts moving forward, then suddenly stops, and again addresses his two companions, this time with a slight frown.

"I mean, unless either of you actually feel the need to search out any hostiles that might be lurking in these ruins...?"

Gavin didn't consider himself rash to act, so he took a few seconds to ponder Kaspar's questions. They were looking for life, particularly advanced technology that the Tau'ri could use to fight the Goa'uld, but there were no signs about these buildings that indicated anyone here had that.

On the other hand, there might be knowledge to be had, such as where Goa'uld could be found, or when the last time any of them were here, if ever.

Technically, of course, they weren't supposed to make contact with any peoples, just assess them and report back. Contact was the function of a diplomatic team.

"We have that kind of technology on Tollani," Gavin finally replied to Kaspar, "but the Council wouldn't let it off world. So, no, I don't have any way to scan for life signs in the buildings."

"What we do in the buildings depends on what Hilda finds. I do recommend that we move closer in case Hilda runs into any... difficulty."

"It sounds like the people have fled, due to the earthquake.

Clearly still having trouble with the idea that these shacks could be considered housing suitable for permanent habitation it takes Vasandra a while to pull her attention from the train wreck of a civilization she is being confronted with back to the conversation at hand.

”I could connect to any of the dwellings internal sensors and or bring up any census logs they had stored on almost any kind of data storage device, but from the looks of the place I doubt we will find either of those here, and I did not bring anything like a portable sensor system capable of doing that on it's own.”

There's really only one street, with a bend in the middle, so to speak. She doesn't find any people hiding in any of the building, but she does find a lot of footprints. A few she finds in the houses, though most of them are in the back behind the houses. She even finds a few barefoot prints... small, though, as if they might be children.

Fortunately, she doesn't find any bodies.

Eventually she looks on the path leading to the brick road. There she finds lots of prints, including cart tracks. They all seem to be heading toward the road. She can't be absolutely sure because she doesn't really know the weather patterns around here, but she guesses the tracks are maybe three days old, possibly four.


By the time the other three members of the team reach the village common, Hilda is down the path to the road. She spots them walking to the patch of grass that the major has designated the 'village common'.

After completing her recce of the village, Hilda made her way back to the village green, the common area likely used for meetings and other gatherings. She held up a hand to hail the rest of her team, then reported 'It looks like everyone has left, few days ago. Tracks of people and carts go to the yellow road; they may be taking refuge at the temple.'

She pointed to the angled house at the corner of the L-shaped village. It was bigger and fancier than the others. 'This is the big house. Maybe it is the chief's house?'

By the time Hilda returns to the group, Kaspar has once again produced his camera, as well as a notebook, and is taking pictures and making notes on the observable architecture, community layout, and sophistication of contruction techniques -- all of which will help him make an anthropological assessment of these people.  Hopefully before they show up.

After completing her recce of the village, Hilda made her way back to the village green, the common area likely used for meetings and other gatherings. She held up a hand to hail the rest of her team, then reported 'It looks like everyone has left, few days ago. Tracks of people and carts go to the yellow road; they may be taking refuge at the temple.'

She pointed to the angled house at the corner of the L-shaped village. It was bigger and fancier than the others. 'This is the big house. Maybe it is the chief's house?'

Kaspar nods in agreement, "In a great majority of Human cultures this would be the case.  Either as an expression of the leaders ego and personal power, or as an expression of the communitys satisfaction with a great leader."

Kaspar again grinned, as he put his now-cold pipe back in his mouth, "And, of course, to impress the hell out of visitors; to show off a communitys wealth and power."

"Okay.  I know our mission is to check out the so-called temple, and discover if there are any tech artifacts laying around, but we've pretty much just found proof of habitation around here.  I don't want to deviate too much from our primary mission, but I do think that it will be to our advantage to learn about these people, before we meet them.  So, let's do a quick check of the chiefs house, here, and learn what we can.  Then we'll head back to the FRED, and make our way on towards the temple."

"Sound good?  Any suggestions?  Please understand that, while I may have been wearing a military uniform when we met, my active Army days were many, many years ago.  And even then, I was a Staff Officer; I worked in a, well, I worked inside a building.  I'm just a pudgy old university professor, now, not some military hard-ass.  I appreciate input, and listen to suggestions."

Still somewhat taken aback by the apparent tech level of the locals Vasandra offers a version of the same strategy that will save time and effort.

”I will go back to the FRED and bring it around the long way on the road, that should give the rest of you time to do an inspection here and save us a lot of wasted time.”

"I believe I am in the same boat as you, Vasandra," Gavin says to the Netjerian. "I don't believe either of us have a history that allows us to evaluate this culture, so I suggest leaving that to those two. I shall accompany you back to the FRED. It is not that I think you need protection, but there is still safety in numbers."

"Besides, it will help make me feel like I am being useful."

"With your permission, Captain, we shall go fetch the FRED."

'Or it is a god's house.' Hilda added to Kaspar after some thought, realising there were more possibilities. 'A, uh, small church, temple or shrine. Or maybe a meeting house, or an inn or tavern... I don't know. This is a bit more... advanced than my world.' she ended with a shrug, finding the opposite problem to Gavin and Vasandra.

After listening to the others speak, Hilda agreed 'It's a good plan. We should know more before we meet these people.'


OOC: What kind of tech level are we looking at here anyway? It's not clear. From the descriptions, it could even be 20th century, but we're assuming old.