Death of the German

 

Present – Cooper (Ian), Mesmer (Shane), Bernard (Jamie), Wonton (Darryl), Jacob (Chris), Gazala (Richard), Gunter (Jeff), Hubert aka Lardarse (Kevin)

Marmalading – Fleur (Steven)

Qu'est-ce qu'il y a avec ces putains d'étrangers.

Lard arse

Father, 

It is some time since I have written and indeed I have my friend Jacob scribing for I have not yet learnt the art of writing.

I am troubled where I find myself and long for the desert winds.

We are in Tunis. I say we – un étrange mélange d'employés de journaux français, allemands, anglais et polonaise. (a strange mix of French, German, English and Polish newspaper employees)

The Germans and French are most strange. The nicer of the two Germans, Gunter, is dead – he has been ripped apart by some strange creatures - more on that later.

The other, who is fat and lazy, but quite effective with a sub machine gun, Hubert, ran like a coward from the church and was only seen with his stained trousers at a much later stage but after Gunter's death.

Bernard

Bernard, the Frenchman, is very fickle. He runs from the thought of throwing a grenade, he volunteers others to fight while skulking away – he displays all of the traits you taught me about Frenchmen father, cowards to the core.

Some 300 metres down the road from the Saint Croix church we have some decisions to make. We need to enter the church and discover the source of these strange occurrences.

I must say father, I have seen some unusual things. Mesmer and Wonton, members of our group, study these strange religions and talk in riddles. I have never heard of the words "mythos" or "occult"; however, both are becoming common language and both the little Chinaman and the French academic practice some strange rituals.

There is a backdoor we have unlocked and also a large front door from which these strange deformed "people" are coming. We have a heavy machine gun set up some 150m away which needs to be moved.

So many discussions – front door, back door, do we go in, do we not? Quelle putain de racaille (what a fucking rabble). Wonton and Bernard are the worst – argumentative and cowardly at the same time. You would have their heads, father.

Eventually the plan forms. Hubert who is excellent on the heavy machine gun, and Wonton who is hopeless with anything practical, will man the HMG at the front door. They want to man it on the street – what the ….. these creatures move like the wind – at least mount it inside the house opposite the main door to the church and through the window. As events turn out, that saves their lives.

The rest of us will enter through the back door. Hubert is to wait 5 minutes to give us time, and then fire a burst into the front door at which time we will enter.

 

It's so easy to follow simple instructions. Hubert enters a belt into the front door, so much for a burst. 

The rest of us tentatively enter the church. I am at the front, followed by Bernard and Gunter. We are crawling to avoid what seems to be a hovering chlorine gas. We look into the main church [nave] and look toward where the front door is. There are several of these strange creatures hovering around the door that is being obliterated by machine gun fire. It appears a number of these creatures are running out the door, presumably to attempt to destroy Hubert and Wonton. (In fact, Hubert and Wonton kill 4 of these "ghouls" in several rounds of sustained fire)

The rest of us have good line of sight on two of these creatures and let loose with a mixture of sub-machine gun, rifle and in Cooper's case, handgun fire. Two of them drop.

We move forward to the sound of heavy machine gun fire and tentatively look through an opening nearer the front door. An unusual sight – a skull floating with a robe and 6-8 of these hideous creatures waiting patiently for what appears to be instruction. 

"Qu'est-ce qu'on fait?" whispers Mesmer ("what do we do?" ). 

"Grenade them" says Bernard as he backs away cowardly.

"For fuck's sake, give me one of those" I say, pulling the pin and lobbing it toward the skull. As I do so I quickly retreat, noticing everyone else had flowed Bernard's lead

My throw was perfect inflicting 13 points of damage. This combined with more heavy machine gun fire is surely destroying these creatures. (the group were fortunate with their grenade rolls, Gunter, Gazalla and Mezmer all increased their skills by 4 at the start of the night and effectively doubled their effectiveness. Whilst still only an 8, these improved skills proved invaluable).

Clearly not, 2 of these creatures come through the opening and toward us at speed. Hubert gets a burst in and does damage (having made a luck roll to notice them). We shoot, Bernard hits for 8 damage and drops one (it was already damaged) but Gazala and Mezmer miss, Jacob (who has finally arrived) briefly considers throwing his scalpel.

As luck would have it, or not, the creature targets me, or as better remembered I bravely pushed myself forward to engage it. Ne laissez jamais la vérité faire obstacle à une bonne histoire. (Never let the truth get in the way of a good story - as they say in the newspaper business).

For 4 rounds I dodged both this creature and the inaccurate shooting of Cooper who seemed completely ineffective with his handgun (Cooper – Ian - shot 4 times at the creature – it was 50/50 whether he targeted the creature or Gazala, each time he shot at Gazala. Effective use of Luck and some bad rolls ensured Gazala was not injured)

After 4 rounds both Cooper and I resorted to our knives. The creature was already injured and in 1 round we both hit and killed it. I must say I was perspiring a little having previously been severely hurt by one of these abominations.

We again move toward to the opening near the front door. Even more cautiously if that were possible. Gunter moves into the opening only to see a purple haze rapidly moving toward him

 

He shoots infectively and the cloud hits him and he staggers back looking rather ashen. It then forms in the opening but does not reach the floor. Mezmer and Wonton think it harmless unless touched. I have no idea why they believe this – some academic mumbo jumbo. Mesmer sneaks up and tosses a grenade into the space – a critical (rolls a 1) and 20 damage. Silence. Cooper ducks under the cloud and nothing other than bits of body and shattered skulls are to be seem – and of course the front door now destroyed by machine gun fire.

For once we are in agreement and to the undercroft it is. I quietly start to descend the spiral stairs but quickly realise that nature calls and make my apology and rush off to woman's matters. The others descend without incident. (in fact, Gazala saw a skull-like creature with red eyes and failed her Sanity roll – the result was the loss of 1 Sanity and to flee for a D10 rounds – in her case 3)

The undercroft is empty but for a swirling wind and the sound of wet leather slapping below (in the crypt). The pentagram here is visible but looks unused. Do we descend?

The decision is made to set up the heavy machine gun in the undercroft, but in fact, it never gets set up. Wonton starts to destroy the pentagram

 

Mezmer successfully throws a grenade down the staircase having gained a healthy respect for them and then after some healthy debate (ils se disputent tout le temps – what's with these fucking foreigners?) the rest start to descend except Hubert who is [still] starting to set up the heavy machine gun. 

Baal symbol

Cooper, Bernard, Mezmer, Gunter and lastly Jacob descend nervously to the crypt. What a sight greets Cooper – the pentagram is back together with a symbol of Baal. There is an abomination with tentacles that looks squid like and Augustus Herschel with a distorted face is chanting and appears to be in the process of summoning the "squid"

 

There are 8 sarcophagi and 6 skeletons (there were 8 but Mezmer's grenade destroyed 2).

Cooper steps aside and Hubert pushes his way down with his sub machine gun at the ready, having abandoned the setting up of the heavy. As Hubert steps down and looks at the scene his face falls and a crazed gaze comes into his eyes. Like a terrified child he turns and runs, avoiding all attempts to stop him. His screams can be heard exiting the church and as I return from my ablutions I notice a stain cover the back of the fat German's trousers. Putain d'étrangers (Hubert failed his Sanity roll and, like Gazala before him, high-tails it out of there, but in his case for 8 rounds)

As I return I hear multiple shots being fired, screams, the sound of grenades exploding from the crypt. Wonton unemotively continues to destroy the pentagram (although I do notice sweat on his brow)

As it eventuates later, father, the commotion was a combination of the shooting and killing of Augustus and through that the disruption of the summoning (Augustus was sucked into the floor by this strange squid like abomination), the throwing of grenades one of which was dropped amongst the party by Mesmer and doing 3 damage on Cooper, Bernard and himself and the fighting of skeletons.

Gunter Oelschig - R.I.P.

During this Gunter was knocked unconscious and died due to a major wound (he failed his Toughness roll) and Cooper was knocked unconscious with a major wound. Bernard and Mezmer scampered up the stairs leaving Cooper and Gunter lying unconscious or dead. Ces gens sont des laches (these people are cowards)

The remaining party members now congregate at the top of the stairs. "We can't leave them there" I say "and we need to finish this". With that I descend the stairs. Several grenades later the skeletons are dead – but what about Gunter and Cooper? Gunter is clearly dead with pieces torn off him and his entrails strewn about. Cooper, though, has a pulse and I quickly bandage him enabling Jacob to apply First Aid (in this system you can take as much damage as you want and remain unconscious on zero. It’s the major wounds or taking more than your total hit points in one attack that kills you. Every round you are unconscious with a major wound you roll vs Toughness or die – in Cooper's case he rolled successfully 6 times).

The crypt is finally empty. The sarcophagi are empty, Wonton starts destroying the next pentagram and where the abomination was – lies the Censer of Baal

  

ما مع هؤلاء الأجانب سخيف.

Qu'est-ce qu'il y a avec ces putains d'étrangers.

What's with these fucking foreigners?

Your loving daughter

Gazala