The Mission

Shielding her eyes from the sun as she tries to make better sense of what she's seeing, Sabine hides a small smile at the Irishman's comment. To Swann, she says over her shoulder, "Should we not at least check the caves to make sure they do not contain ambushers or 'ostile wildlife?"

"Damn, I wish had binoculars. But sure, checking the caves isn't a bad idea on the surface but we could easily be ambushed as Swann has suggested."

"I can get us up there nice and quiet! Else I wouldn’t be here." Irish remarks. Getting up close and personal was his speciality. "You spot somewhere you want us to be, you let me know!"

Toward the end of the afternoon, having observed during the day, here's what you learn:

The valley is rocky and uneven, and it is likely more difficult than normal to avoid detection if you attempt to sneak through it. Running through it would be treacherous.

The zeppelin remains stationary in the air, unnaturally so. Irish notices that the glowing blue discs running in lines along the sides of the zeppelin and the top of the airship seem to glow at different levels depending on the windspeed and direction.

Below the zeppelin are six field tents arranged in a circle around a central storage area. You can see metal drums, wooden crates, and two metal boxes the size of coffins. Sabine and Dan work out that four of the six tents are housing for sixteen Nachtwolfe soldiers, one is being used for two officers, and the final one might be a mess tent and general storage. The camp is guarded by two soldiers at any time, on a four-hour rotation.

There is a second tented encampment near the cliffside, with four large field tents and two smaller ridge camps arranged in a rectangle. This is likely the workers from the town.

At 1pm, the zeppelin lowered down to about 20 yards above the ground, and then dropped a 4-meter wide mesh-sided box to the ground from the gondola. Three men get off the platform, and then four men get on, which is then winched back up. The zeppelin then rises back to his regular altitude.

At 2pm, four Nachtwolfe troopers left the zeppelin camp and gathered ten workers from the cliffside camp, then went to the mine entrance. Another group of workers were then escorted from the mine back to the cliffside camp.

The Germans don't look like they're on high alert.

Status Table
Momentum: 3
Threat: 13

Dan's Stress taken during the hike heals.

They're not happy about it, but resigned, and plod along as if already tired.

"We won’t all get across that without being spotted. We could wait until it’s dark, to give us a better chance of getting to the other side.

But we’d be over there in the dark. Who knows what they’ve got over there that comes out at night…" Irish says, creating phantoms in his own mind.

"Yeah. I'm with Irish. We could sneak in under the cover of darkness. Don't let your imagination run away with ya, Irish. We'll be fine," he says, patting the man on the shoulder." It's really the only way I see to figure out what's going on. Maybe we could snatch a conversation with one of the locals depending on how well they are being guarded. Maybe hightail it to that cluster of four field tents and sneak into one of 'em."

Dan's biggest enemy wasn't the ghosts that were messing with Irish's head. It was more his hatred of the Germans that smothered him with anger. He needed to control that and stay focused.

Warming her hands by rubbing them together -- they haven't risked a fire -- Sabine agrees. "Oui. Approaching after dark seems most prudent. If we are caught in the open -- this would be bad."

Standing, overlooking the valley lit by waning sunlight, she asks, "Where first? The Nazi camp? The worker camp, or the mine?"

Here's a map of the valley. On the bottom left you will see a dotted white line, the path you took from the town. You're perched at the spot marked "First Sight of the Valley".

As you can see from the scale, it's under 500 yards/meters to the work camp, 900 from there to the Germans, and another 500-ish to the mine and castle ruins.

"If we go to the workers first, they’ll scatter. Specially if they think they’ll get away. Some will head to the mines to grab their family… It will be a mess. We won’t know who’s who or what’s what.

Better to get them all gathered up before we let them know it’s them we’re here for… kind of. Mine first? We don’t want the guards from the camp retreating there to hold up, either."

Sabine nods at Irish, then points northward, to where the trail they are on descends the cliffside, into the valley -- near the caves. "At dusk, we could descend to the valley floor there, then hug the cliff as we make our way around north and east to the mine. In poor light, our approach would be difficult to see."

Squinting harder at the terrain, she adds, "After liberating the workers at the mine, we might be able to use that river bed to move unseen towards the main camp..."

"Yeah, yeah, ok. Makes sense. So the mines it is then at dusk. Quiet as mice northeast along the cliff. I wouldn't mind blowing up a few Nazis on the way out either as a bonus."

"I’d consider it a mission failed if we didn’t give it to a few Nazis at the very least."

The large man starts to unpack his climbing gear from his pack.

"Will we be wanting use all this then?"

"Let's not forget, the Zeppelin is the mission. Won't hurt to find out what's coming out of the mine and Nachtwölfe's objectives. But the Zeppelin, destroyed or captured is the goal. I think the miners best bet is for us to ignore them. Once we start making a hullabaloo for the Nazi's, the attention will be off of the locals.

Looking across the valley and towards the sun, "We shouldn't need to wait until dusk to get moving. We're on the west side of the valley, anyone looking towards us after noon will be staring into the sun. " Grimacing slightly at the boys' enthusiasm, "I'm fairly certain there'll be plenty of opportunities for you to use up your ordinance the way God intended it."

Sabine sees the wisdom in Swann’s focus and approach, but hates the idea of the workers being hurt, killed, or used as hostages once things start happening. She voices as much, then adds, "Is there some way we could warn them, tell them to look for a signal for when to make their escape?"

"Never was much good at reading a map. Rather have my eyes on a place and just go from there, you know? Maps are too… theoretical ain’t the word… Two dimensional, is it? Can’t get me head around them."

He pulls up the pack with the German uniforms inside. As if to answer Sabine’s question, he presents one to the group:

"Reckon the brass would mind us using these things? Is it against the rules, as it were?"

"That's why we stole the truck. Figured it would be easier to blend in despite our language skills or lack of 'em. Hah, fuck the rules Irish."

Cutting a glance toward Sabine he ponders her suggestion. "It's a nice idea but like Irish said, they might panic and want to run to their families. It's too risky. We don't know how they will react. Anyway, like Swann said, we shouldn't wait and get moving toward that Kraut balloon."