In reply to GM (msg # 59):

Johan relaxes the grip on his walking stick and takes a seat in the dirt addressing Grogan, "My freund, we have traveled around the world and seen horrors unspeakable...now we are here and we very much want to have a word with Mr. Carver and his friends.  So if you could point us in the right direction, we would be happy to leave you in peace."

In reply to Johan Braun (msg # 63):

Suddenly, TJ thought of something crazy...

"Wait, what if Carver and Huston is he same person?" he said in a quiet voice.

He looked and asked Grogan, "Could you describe how Carver looks like? Please sir!"

Listening to Grogan talking about Carver, some of you come to a realization about his identity, but it is TJ who voices his concern; what if Carver and Huston is the same person?

He turns to Grogan and asks "Could you describe how Carver looks like? Please sir!"

Nodding nervously, Grogan describes Carver as an American man in his fifties, medium height, with white hair, white bushy eyebrows and watery blue eyes. He always tried to stay away from the sun and was neatly dressed in khaki bush gear.

“Most of the time, he sounded like a fancy gentleman, using big swanky words, but when he got angry, he swore worse than a frog in a sock!”

Grogan falters, looking exhausted from all the talking. “I need to rest and dream now. Carver took the men that-away.”  He points to the northeast.

“Oh, one more thing. The numbers 4-8-6-3-9 somehow seem important”.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 00:01, Sat 20 June 2020.

In reply to GM (msg # 65):

Dermot quietly repeats the string of numbers back to himself, counting each number on one of his five fingers. 4-8-6-3-9, 4-8-6-3-9, 4-8-6-3-9....

After a while, you bid goodbye to Grogan and head back to the trucks. Following his directions, the two trucks leave the camp site and head further northwest into the desert.

David drives the lead truck, and Gustav is in the driver’s seat of the next truck, with Rachel beside him. You are driving through a ravine when a bullet suddenly clips Rachel’s shoulder!

'Hey, did we blow a tire?" says David and slows down the lead truck. Dermot sees a glint of metal at the top of the right ravine.

[OOC; Rachel loses 3 HP]

Truck 1 has David, Art, Dermot, TJ
Truck 2 has Gustav, Rachel, Johan

The people in truck one would need to roll Spot Hidden or Listen to even notice the shot hitting the second truck
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:04, Sat 20 June 2020.

In reply to GM (msg # 67):

Rachel blinked disoriented by oriented by the gunshot. She shook her head, then felt pain spread from her shoulder. She glanced at it and saw blood seeping through her white shirt.

"I'm... I'm shot." Rachel mutters, stunned as she touches her shoulder. "Fuck."

Up ahead, she could see the lead truck slow down.

"Wait, why are we slowing down, we'd be sitting d--"

Johan was quicker than she when it came to the explanation. "Gustav, drive!!! Rachel’s been shot. Drive!!"

As Gustav slammed his foot down on the pedal, Rachel pulled out a kerchief, pressing it down on the wound hard. As soon as they stopped, Gustav was telling Johan to keep pressure on her wound.

"Oh for god's sake." Rachel muttered, rolling her eyes. She unlatched her side of the door and slipped out, digging out her own revolver and leaning back up against the truck. Grabbing the truck's side mirror, she moved it around until she could find any clue to where the shooter was.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:32, Sun 21 June 2020.

As the lead truck starts to slows down, a shot hits the right rear tire of the second truck. The vehicle starts to swerve, but Gustav brings it back under control and manages to stop.

Dermot aims a few shots towards the gleam of light he saw earlier. Both trucks are now stopped, about 20 yards from each other. Gustav, Rachel, and Johan leap out of the truck and take cover behind it. Gustav crawls under the truck and curses the fact that their rifles are packed away on the truck bed somewhere.

The top of the ravine, where the shots came from is about 50 meters away on the right, but in order to get there, you'd need to run along the ravine wall until you find a place to run up. The ravine walls seem very unsteady and dangerous.

In the lead truck, David is scanning the ravine for the ambushers, while Art runs back towards Rachel in order to help her. Another bullet slams into the lead truck and the fuel tank explodes! The vehicle flips and burns.


OOC; Dermot and TJ; please roll Luck. Success; 1D6 damage. Failure 3D6 damage. David loses 4 HP.



This message was last edited by the GM at 20:01, Sun 21 June 2020.

In reply to GM (msg # 69):

Seeing the explosion from the first truck, Gustav realizes the danger and shouts "Rachel! Johan! ravine! now!"

Gustav also jumps towards the ravine and will quickly make his way towards the first car, to see if Dermot, Art, TJ and David are all right.

Gustav will make his way into the ravine and murmured to himself "Scheiße! back in the trenches" remembering the infantry waves he had to endure in Château-Thierry and Belleau Wood.

The memories comes flooding right back in as the hun's sturmtruppen plague thier lines with flamethrowers and his unit being burned right in thier foxholes. Gustav then involuntarily touched his left shoulderblade and the scar that he earned that day to be in this place now.

He stops, the ringing of gunfire and the explosions are silent for a bit, as Gustav struggles to take control of himself. He's now seeing his burnt unit beside him, pleading for thier mothers, others holding on to thier now opened guts and trying to put them all back in. Gustav's vision is now blurred and the ringing just wont stop.

As suddenly as it appears, the vision stops and Gustav begins to focus, he now raises his firearm and shoots in the general direction of the gunfire. And now makes his way hastily to his friends.

In reply to GM (msg # 69):

Dermot's thrown off his feet by the explosion. He manages to come up into a roll and avoid most of the flying shrapnel, but he's got some burns and scrapes that will need later tending.

"Gustav! We're sitting ducks down here! Cover me, I'll look for a way out or up!"

Dermot reloads his revolver before making a break for the canyon wall to search for any means of (a) escape or (b) ascending to the top of the canyon without a full-on climb.

You take cover against the sniper(s). Art rushes to Rachel’s side and quickly applies first aid. Another shot rings out and nearly hits Dermot as he runs towards the ravine wall.

Link to a larger map of the area; https://i.ibb.co/7t5Yzd9/ambush-2.jpg.  You think the shots are coming from the red X.

Current HP
Art; 26
Dermot; 21/26
Gustav: 31
Johan: 22
Rachel: 29/30
TJ; 17/22

https://i.ibb.co/7jQXPxT/ambush-2-small.jpg" data-lightbox="images-msg-72">https://i.ibb.co/7jQXPxT/ambush-2-small.jpg" alt=''>

In reply to GM (msg # 72):

Gustav aim his pistol at the general direction of the shooter, and three shots in succession rang from the ravine, when He sees Dermot trying to climb up the rocks, Gustav follow suit and immediately dive for cover in the nearest rock. Trying to see if the sniper is where he thinks it is.

but alas, the heat of the australian desert and the intensity of the battle must have been playing in Gustav's eyes and he cant seem to see where exactly the shots are coming from



09:36, Today: Gustav Schmidt rolled 8 using 3d10, unique dice with rolls of 2,1,5.  climb 24.

09:38, Today: Gustav Schmidt rolled 81 using 1d100.  spot hidden 69.

Johan is sweating profusely, shaking slightly against the truck he’s using as cover...remembering the war... He shakes off what he can and peeks around the truck to get a sense of his colleagues. Knowing that his trusty walking stick would be of little use, he remembers back to the war.. and starts belting out with everything he has.....

    If the sergeant drinks your rum, never mind
    And your face may lose its smile, never mind
    He's entitled to a tot but not the bleeding lot
    If the sergeant drinks your rum, never mind

    When old Jerry shells your trench, never mind
    And your face may lose its smile, never mind
    Though the sandbags bust and fly you have only once to die,
    If old Jerry shells the trench, never mind

    If you get stuck on the wire, never mind
    And your face may lose its smile, never mind
    Though you're stuck there all the day, they count you dead and stop your pay
    If you get stuck on the wire, never mind

    If the sergeant says you're mad, never mind
    P'raps you are a little bit, never mind
    Just be calm don't answer back, cause the sergeant stands no slack
    So if he says you're mad, well - you are.

Johan's powerful voice is amplified by the narrow ravine walls, covering and distracting from Dermot and Gustav as they climb the ravine.

At the end of the song, there is suddenly a deafening silence, and then laughter and sing-song shouts from the cliffs above. Five aboriginal warriors appear from between the rocks they were hiding behind. Their bodies are painted and they wield spears and boomerangs. Each has a spiked club as well.

The warriors hurl spears and boomerangs towards the people taking cover behind the vehicles. Fortunately, the distance and cover makes it difficult to hit, but one war boomerang zooms unerringly towards Art*


*Art, please roll Dodge to avoid losing 7 HP.

Art begins to tense up, the shots, blood and war songs transporting him back to the frontlines. The despair and hopelessness of war and the futility of man versus insurmountable odds places Art in a state of hyper-alertaness. He begins to breath heavily, sweat of the coldest variety beads in droplets of nervous anxiety on his forehead.
“Guard the truck and pull a 360 degree security across our perimeter”
Art yells repeating the mantra he’d heard countless times while mud seeped more and more into his last pair of dry socks while in the trenches. The movement of a fast flying object catches his eye, he instantly dives to the ground and yells
“INCOMING!!!”
While clenching his fist rage begins to build inside Art as he comes to the same realization many a men come to in the face of staggering odds, ‘If it must end here may it end on my terms’.

OOC (Fail  Dodge roll 35/17/7. 21:17, Today: Art rolled 55 using 1d100. I use 20 luck points to make the dodge.)

In reply to GM (msg # 74):

Seeing that there is a nearby boomerang, TJ focused on it to make it come near him, testing his newfound powers if it will work. And to his shock, it worked!

He grabbed the boomerang in his hand and shouted, "Back! Get back! I know how to use this!" pointing at the boomerang while intimidating the aborigines.

He won't result to magic for the meantime. Scaring these men will do for now to keep them safe.

Seeing the boomerang suddenly float from the ground to TJ’s hand seems to have quite the impact on the ambushers. Two of them scream in terror and start running away, while one throws himself off the cliff face, laughing manically as he falls. He hits the ground with a thud, still laughing and twitching before mercifully becoming quiet.

Only two attackers now remain visible above. None of them have any modern long-range weapons.

Gustav and Dermot have almost reached the ridge level of the ambushers. Dermot from the north side and Gustav from the south. The aboriginals spot them and hurl weapons at them.

OOC; Gustav and Dermot – please both roll Dodge or lose 1D10+2 HP, then you can attack at close range. Also roll Luck both of you.

OOC2; Those below can shoot at the ambushers, but the range is about 40 meters.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:59, Sat 04 July 2020.

Dermot dodges and fills his target full of lead, and he drops like a sack of spuds from the auld sod.

Gustav also ducks and his pistol barks, taking down his assailant.

As the shots echo through the ravine, there is one final shot! A bullet whizzes past Gustav’s ear, aimed from behind a large boulder.

OOC; Dermot is relatively close to the sniper and can tackle him with a Brawl roll if he wishes.

In reply to GM (msg # 78):

Dermot quickly scrambles toward the aboriginal sniper and empties the other three chambers. Two bullets slam into the man's body and end his life, the third pinging off of the boulder he was hiding behind. Seeing no other immediate threats, Dermot cautiously reloads. Then he walks to the edge of the canyon. He yells down:

"All clear up here! I think we sent 'em packin'!"

David pokes his head out from behind the truck. 'Strewth!' he exclaims at the sight of all the dead bodies. 'I feel like I'm in the wars'.

Hearing Gustav inquire about a hospital for Rachel, he shrugs his shoulders. 'About 5-6 days drive away, mate. Think she’ll be fine. Tough Sheila, that one.’

You inspect the burned-out truck, take whatever provisions and equipment you can salvage from it, cram into the remaining truck, and then drive on.

It’s another couple of driving over horrible terrain, but then David checks his compass and map and stops the truck. “Well, we’re here now.”

You’re in the middle of an ocean of sand, but some of you imagine that you can hear the ‘PUT!-put!-PUT!-put!’ of heavy machinery from behind a small dune up ahead.

In reply to David Dodge (msg # 80):

Dermot will dismount and creep up to the sand dune, looking around for any more enemies before peeking his nose over the top of the sand dune in question. He’s making an effort to be unseen and unheard by anyone on the other side.

The scene before Dermot resembles MacWhirr’s photographs, with strange rock pillars and blocks rising out of the timeless sands. The key difference to the scenes in the photographs is that the sand here has been packed down by foot and tire, and that a good deal of early 20th century garbage has been strewn about.

In the center of the “camp” are several light trucks, parked and mostly emptied. Some goods have been put under a tarpaulin beside a small shed. You can hear the sound of a generator from the shed.

Two white men sit and chat around a table near the shed. A parasol shields them from the burning sun. Both have rifles within reach.

Enough stone blocks stick out of the sand to provide excellent concealment for anyone creeping up towards the entrance, but the last 50 yards or so are across bare sand.

TJ crawls up to Dermot and sees what he sees. David is also climbing up and seems very impressed as he spots the ancient stones.

He whistles softly. 'Look at those beauties! 10.000 years old or more if you ask me. We should go have a closer look. But I'm not liking the look of those fellas. You said they are... cultists?"

It occurs to Art that there may be more than one entrance to this 'buried city'.

Dermot works his way around for another angle, while TJ considers throwing something. It takes a while, but Dermot moves to a point north of the parked trucks.

TJ motions at the guards, and a water jug smacks into the back of the head of the closest guard. At the same time, Dermot jumps out of hiding and shouts at the guards to stay where they are.

“And don’t even think about touching those rifles!” he adds with a menacing glare.

The two guards stare in shock at Dermot and nervously raise their hands as the rest of the group approaches. The guards look like typical Australian miners, but with strange black smudges on their faces and bodies, almost like tattoos.

As you decide what to do with the guards, and Professor Dodge is excitedly examining the ancient stones, Johan walks over to the shed. He exits again after a few moments and calls you all over.

Stepping inside, you see that the shed covers a low wall of sandbags, which surround an electrical generator and a set of wooden stairs within, descending into the silent earth. The generator runs constantly, the source of the noise that brought you here.

Electric lights hung sparsely but regularly, illuminate the steps after the first 50 feet (15 m) or so.

In reply to GM (msg # 86):

Johan shows the stairs and generator to his colleagues, " Well my friends, this will not be our first staircase down into the unknown...hopefully it will not be our last..."

Johan pauses for a moment, "This place...there is a familiarity to it that I can't shake. "