There really would be no hope of success without the brothers. And she correctly predicted the greatest problem with that mediocre grenade plan: there will be Germans inside structures.

Armed with the rough layout, she needs to see some of the ruins for herself. Just two more questions before they move.

“Where do you intend to climb up?

“Do you have any guesses for where they might store the shells?”

Adam pointed at the X and Mordechai nodded. "Through the drekz house. Adam can get up and lower some rope. He's done it before..

His little brother nodded, emphatically.
"The shells..." he scratched his head and looked at Adam, who shrugged, then, hesitantly pointed at the square in the middle bottom.
"Yeah, that would make sense."

Assuming no one falls that’s a decent point of entry. At least on the approach there doesn’t seem to be any risk of getting spotted.

“I want to get a good look at the castle with my own eyes. Is that a good position?” She jerks her head upward.

"Sure, but can you climb up there?"

Adam stands up and points at himself, then upward, then at you, and shrugs.

((That would be an Athletics roll, Adam would assist you by climbing ahead and you could try and follow. Based on Adam's roll, you might get a bonus to your roll. Want to try that?))

“Think so.” Anna discards everything but her rifle, bayonet, field glasses, and crowbar. Everything else is dead weight. And, while she makes a habit of properly securing her gear for noiselessness, all the preparation in the world can’t account for bad luck.

While the Seitengewehr 42 is more tool than weapon for her, the rifle is assuredly not and is almost left behind as well. Any violence will sabotage the assault, but if that becomes necessary then the damage is basically done. Of course, armed or not, she will almost surely die in short order.

15:33, Today: Anna Friedman rolled 4,5 using 1d8,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,5.  Athletics.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:37, Wed 22 Sept 2021.

((Excellent))

Adam climbs ahead and you, keeping a close eye on where he puts his feet and hands follow after him, with Mordechai remaining at the bottom, standing guard. It's tougher than you expected, but you make it to the top and crawl through the hole, Adam pulling you up the last few inches.

The privy is missing half a wall and the door has long rotted away, but you're hidden enough if you stay low and crouched down.

There are a few things you can easily spot - there is indeed artillery on the tower, and something that looks like a large mortar in the yard. There are various crates and sandbags set up for firing positions, with an MG nest guarding the main approach to the ruins. The remains of two small camp fires are glowing in the dark. And, as Mordechai indicated, there are two stone houses, the worst damage mended by makeshift repairs to keep the cold out.

((For more, a Notice roll, if you please))

16:21, Today: Anna Friedman rolled 7,3 using 1d8,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,3.  Notice.

First two rolls of the game and the virtual dice have been kind to poor Anna.

Edit: Anna pulls out her service glasses to help survey the ruins and its occupants.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:54, Wed 22 Sept 2021.

((Don't jinx it.))

You can make out some light seeping out through the cracks in the upper stone building, the smaller of the two. There are at least four guards that you can see wandering around the ruins, trying to stay warm, and you can hear some laughter and other noises from the larger building.
Two of the guards are at the top of the tower, where the artillery piece is. The gun is massive and you wonder how this beast could be fired even once without collapsing the tower under it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...-_Anzio_(2-2187).jpg

The gun in the yard is smaller, with multiple barrels, like an oversized revolver lacking the barrel:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...d,_Raketenwerfer.jpg

There are several wooden crates close to each piece, most likely the ammunition.

Getting a grenade near that ordnance in the courtyard before the Germans take cover could be useful. It seems far, but maybe their strongest thrower could land one close enough?

Yet it’s the tower that really captures her attention. Setting off the shells up there could easily collapse the structure. But dynamite at the wall behind the cannon might be able to drive the gun tumbling down the length of the castle. The first problem is how to get there without being seen. Or at least in one piece.

The second is this could easily be a one-way trip. The Germans can’t have time to react and the whole point is making the largest possible explosion. Still, if it works, what’s one life compared to the many this could save? It’s her plan so she should be the one to do it. Even if it wasn’t, she would happily take this risk herself.

But . . . she isn’t the one most likely to succeed. She rubs her eyes and steels herself.

“Say, zelnerl, do you think you could climb to the tower without being seen?”

A Nebelwerfer! My favorite word to say aloud.

Adam raised his head, looked over the wall, then back at Anna.
He shrugged, then nodded.

“Vunderlekh. You’ll sneak over with our dynamite. All of it.” One stick she’ll keep for herself, just in case. “When the grenades go off and the cannoneers are distracted you put it behind the cannon. All it needs to be is inside the wall. Inside, that’s important. That bomb should send the beast toppling down the hill and over all the Nazis in its way.”

Which might be their only hope. The Germans are so spread out. And then there’s that machine gun. The debris may make good cover if they manage to turn it around. Now that she has seen the situation it looks more and more like many of them will die here. A fact she is going to keep to herself. This isn’t the Warsaw ghetto. This isn’t a final act of proud defiance, it’s a battle for their future on a battlefield of their own choosing.

The question is, should she tell Adam his chance of surviving this mission?

“But this must happen fast.” She holds up an index finger. “One minute. That’s all I can give you.” And if he is forced to drop the bundle the impact alone could detonate it, but she doesn’t mention that. Here, caution may breed failure. Youth makes one foolhardy but that’s not a gamble she is willing to take.

She tilts her head down and to the side. “I won’t lie, Adam, you may not escape the blast. But remember Samson, who crushed three-thousand of his enemies beneath their own walls.” She gestures toward the tower. “All he needed to do was break the pillars.”

Now that she thinks about it that story is a pretty much perfect fit. Samson, a man known mostly for carnage, is a common figure to invoke these days. Especially for using the jawbone of an ass as an improvised weapon. But it is certainly easier to make this story sound inspiring than hitting people with a mandible. Or setting a bunch of foxes on fire.

Anna attempts repurpose some rifle cartridges for a trick she has used dozens of times, prying out the bullets and cinching the cases closed. Next she scrapes out a few smidgeons of dynamite before inserting the blasting caps and dabs some of the material on a thin scrap of cloth. The makeshift “squibs” are wrapped up tight and firmly secured inside some padding.

08:05, Today: Anna Friedman rolled 7,10 using 1d8,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,(6+4)10.  McGyver.

Adam nods, grimly, and disappears into the darkness.

You count the seconds, imagine him scampering across the ancient walls and then hear a commotion behind and below you, somebody climbing up.

"What is taking you so long?"

"Get it in place a half-minute after the signal. Either this going off-" Anna holds up the packet of jury-rigged squibs, "-or them sounding the alarm." Nothing is as important as that bomb going off. So if she gets spotted she'll resort to getting in cover as fast as she can and hope she doesn't get crushed or shot in the process.

---

Anna scans the walls in search of Adam, tightly gripping her field glasses and desperately trying to keep her sweaty hands steady. If or when she sees him in place she turns her attention to that peculiar piece of artillery in the middle of the courtyard.

She impatiently waits for the wandering soldiers to get as far from it as they're likely to be. Once she sees an opening she attempts to sneak toward it, moving fast and low.

((Give me a Notice and a Stealth roll))

10:53, Today: Anna Friedman rolled 6,1 using 1d8,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,1.  Notice.

10:53, Today: Anna Friedman rolled 6,8 using 1d8,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,(6+2)8.  Stealth.

Phew! I was almost as worried as Anna about that stealth roll.

Oops. I just realized I completely skipped past Mordechai's pestering . . .

Retroactively reply or keep moving forward?

Edit: I seriously have no idea why I did that. It was all that happened in the post! The only possible explanation is my brain being so overeager at the thought of an enormous explosion that it elided the entire subject.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:06, Thu 30 Sept 2021.

((You can go ahead and edit!))

While waiting for Adam

---

Anna instinctively reaches for her bayonetted rifle before it registers that source of the noise is obviously Mordechai climbing up.

"Sha!" she hisses while shifting over to help him into the nook, hushing the boy despite the fact that he didn't particularly need it. And if she is taking her people's future into her own mutinous hands he deserves to know before the ruins are well and truly gone.

"Plan has changed. I am not waiting for the others." She briefly explains the plan, again omitting the possibility of the dynamite detonating if dropped from a height on its own.

"The more of us here, the easier we are to spot. And the more mishpokhe pointlessly broken beneath the same walls as the Germans." Pointlessly being the operative word.

"Are you meshugge? We can't take on the Germans all by ourselves!"

Adam is in place, or about to be, just a few more steps for him. There are no guards seen around the large gun, so he should be save in the shadows.

Two Germans are standing next to the Nebelwerfer, chatting with each other. One drops the cigarette he's smoking and stomps it out, then turns around and walks away. The second lingers a bit more, stretching his arms, then walks away in the opposite direction, towards Anna and disappears from view as he gets closer to the wall.

"Can or can't, we are committed." It's too late to call it off even if she wanted to. Which she does not. Since it's also too late for Mordechai to escape safely she may as well find a use for him.

"So the three of us simply will. It's time: I am going to try to get there." She points to the smaller ordnance then passes the squib sack. "Here. After they raise the alarm or I manage to fire that gun you throw this down hard." She turns to look him in the eye.

"Then, you fall right to the ground and cover your head. Teykef! Keep your face down and squeeze your eyes shut." Those are for his own protection. They don't have anything to do with the following instruction. "And no matter what the Germans may do to me you let them, Mordechai. I don't care if you think you can help, I only care about the Nazis' fate. Mine doesn't matter."

The moment she put that bomb in Adam's hand it had crystallized that this night has little to do with the living. Sure, she is going to try to give the rest of her people the best shot at subsisting. Sure, this is probably the best way to do it. But this is about the dead. The brothers weren't allowed a say. She turned Adam into their weapon with Mordechai little more than a bystander. So the only dignity she can lay claim to consists of the number of Nazi corpses. And only failure can deprive her of that.

Fortunately, her command concerns physical wounds. After all, these Germans are still fighting for their own nauseous living and the panicked mind doesn't have much room for sadism. If she has her way then the only malice that remains in Kamieniec will be Jewish malice.

"After Adam razes the castle . . . well . . ." If he isn't trapped under rubble he'll be trapped uphill of any survivors. Or dead. Or  "All I know is many Nazis will be dead or dying. And the cliff-face may no longer be stable. Like I said, we are committed."

And with those parting words she rises into a crouch. She had almost blurted out a "stay safe," but that would be truly perverse in this moment. To abandon her is the only such direction she could give in good faith.

She begins skulking toward her destination, taking a path along the wall. Losing sight of the soldier that had been heading her way was truly unfortunate. Hopefully she will need neither bullet nor bayonet during her approach, but if she does then it is best the German die before he notices any danger. Of course, if she fires a shot then the alarm can safely be considered raised.

20:02, Today: Warmaster, on behalf of SS-Infantry, rolled 2 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2.  Guard Notice.

Mordechai starts a protest, but you're out of reach before he can even utter a single word. Then you hear a whistled rendition of Lili Marleen, followed and then underscored by what sounds like water splashing against the wall. The noise is coming from just a few feet directly under you.

Where is she in relation to the whistler and/or Nebelwerfer? And would this be around where that soldier she lost sight may have been headed?

((The whistler and the out-of-sight guard should be the very same. You're above the whistler, the Nebelwerfer is a just a quick run away))
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:37, Mon 04 Oct 2021.

It is convenient that she kept Mordechai from getting a word in edgewise. He doesn't have any cause to speak, only listen, and she had said all she needed to. Anything more is just wasted time. That, and it's painful to even look at him. She is swallowing her guilt and the less they interact the easier it is to keep down.

And it turns out she was right to hurry. This soldier could begin meandering back the way he came any second now. Circumcision doesn't seem to affect this particular task. HaShem should've thought of that!

Which matters because reaching that artillery piece undetected won't matter if she can't get at least a few moments without interruption after arriving. So her course of action is clear: drop down behind him and impale him on her bayonet in an attempt to kill him more-or-less silently, taking advantage of his noise and distraction.

It may not be easy to keep a wounded man from at the very least least crying out, but she is merely aiming to do as much damage as she can manage in the quiet before everything gets very, very loud.