The Hexcrawl

Tedic carefully moderates the Humvee's distance from the hunters as requested, muttering under his breath.

"Just take your damn meat and go..."

"Yeah... great... what a dodgers... now it's me - their new best friend - who will have to talk with the Big Guns... But I heard some English, definitely some american accents. They shouldn't be Soviets... at least officially." - a train of thoughts was running through Dawid's head...

"OK! OK! I will! You obviously don't know me well enough to know that it's not worth risking such a valuable resource like me... but hey... I'll do it... just let me get my bike out of the ditch. The people I am looking for and who are looking for me are looking for a man on a motorcycle. Smart? Don't you think so? - Dawid asked as it would be some kind of very sophisticated plan - You take care of this nice, but... now quite calm... animal... but BE SURE to take it off the road! I almost died because of it! And I'll talk to these people in the mean time. You'll thank me later. Deal?" - and without waiting long enough for the confirmation from the hunters side, Dawid starts to walk towards his turned over motorcycle. He walks "taking his time" as if it was some kind of normal, everyday situation and tries to have relaxed moves - in hope that by rules of psychology this body language will be "borrowed" by the hunters.

If no one stopped him, he will bring up the bike, and will walk next to the motorcycle, with his hands firmly on the handlebars, as he would like to transfer all the tension in his body on them, without turning on the engine, pushing it right through the center of gathered hunters, quite close to the lying moose. And when he will be just next to the hunters that are nearest the humvee, he will say something like:
"But... gentlemen... please lower those big guns of yours a little... if I have to talk with them... it will be needed... no one like to talk with a gun pointed at him... you know? Besides that... now when I'm closer... it doesn't look like you stand any chances with them... either way..."

And slows his parade even further: to see if hunters will listen to him and if all of this will make "supposed Americans" react accordingly.

Tedic is watching from the Humvee. He doesn't speak Polish, but he can tell this person's a more than a bit of a talker.

"Jakub, who is this guy?"

Cunningham doesn't take his eyes off of the hunters. Under his breath, but maybe loud enough for Sheepdog to hear, he says, "That's right, guys. Take your moose and go home. Go tell your families how you stared down the big bad soldiers and got to keep your prize."

Cunningham addresses the stranger (Dawid) once he gets close enough, "Hey. One of our crew here thinks you're worth saving. Care to ID yourself before we go any further?" He hopes the guy speaks English, but if not, Marcin can translate.

Dawid answers with fluent English, but not without specific polish accent:
"Oh... Americans! Good! Glad to hear that. Name's Dawid Brzęczyszczykiewicz... but don't worry, my american friends call me just Clank or simply Dawid. Second Lieutenant in the Fallen Polish Army. 'That will certainly rise from ashes!' ""American brothers... can you identify yourself too? As I'm looking for someone and probably that someone is also looking for me. And this someone is certainly American..." - he hanged his vice with some conspiracy tone in it - "But after these introductions I would recommend us all drive little further, whatever the way you were driving before and... decide if we are the ones that were meant to meet each other next to some nice, but well hidden fireplace. Is that, an 'OK plan' for you?" - he awkwardly underscored 'OK' word as he would like it to sound very american or... could there been something more about this phrase? - "The hunters seams to end taking care about their pray, and the road should be free any moment now."

Then suddenly, when he realized that he is on the "safer side" now and relaxed a bit, he recalled what was said just a moment ago: "And what? Who has already noticed my usefulness?" - he asked with a big smile on his face, and added trying to peak who else is sitting inside the car - "Do we know each other?"

"Ah, a brother from a different motherland."

Tedic gives a side glance at the others, still unsure what to make of this man.

"Amen to that."
"I'm Cunningham. The driver is Reed. The man you don't want to mess with on the .50 is Baker. Behind me is your fellow countryman, Marcin. And the one who need to give thanks to is Jakub."

After Jakub has greeted Dawid and they've had a chance to talk, Cunningham says to Dawid, "Your motorcycle still work? We're a bit full up right now."

Baker nods from topside at the man, but he's also still keeping an eye on the hunters.

Suddenly recognizing a boy sitting at the back of the Humvee, Dawid almost shouts: "Jakub! What are you doing with those men?!? Where are your parents!??"

After these words the touching scene has taken place, as Jakub was explaining to Dawid why he is with the American unit consisting mainly of american soldiers and the sad news about Jakub's parents.
(in Polish, to Jakub)
"I see... you are a brave boy... or rather a man already... considering circumstances... Good that those are a good people and they can be trusted. But please, let's keep the businesses your father and I have been working on to ourselves for now. Ok? We will see if we can also trust those with them... with time." - Dawid ended, putting his hand on Jakub's shoulder and looking straight into boys eyes. Then he returned to his usual easy going pose and turned to Cunningham.

"Pardone me. I'm connected with this boy by a quite a story. And this is one from those longer ones. We will talk about it later. You are right: it's high time for us to get moving. Does this baby still work? It should! It has never let me down..." - He kickstarts the motorbike, raves up the engine and shouts over the noise:
"SEE! POLISH TECHNOLOGY!"- he exclaimed with big smile of someone that loves motorcycles and finds one of the very few joy feelings in this grim world in simplicity of it's engine sound - "NOW! LEAD THE WAY! I WILL COVER YOU FROM BEHIND!"

Assuming that the hunters have moved on, or at least out of the way, Cunningham turns to Reed and says, "Let's go. Gotta find a place to make camp for the night."

Tedic nod in acknowledgement. It'll be best to ask questions once camp has been set up.

As they get underway Baker drops back inside the vehicle, but he keeps an eye on the newcomer, not so sure about him...

You drive a few kilometers away and discover a small wooded area a short distance from the road, which appears to be a suitable spot to set up camp.



It's as good as time as any to make camp. It's dark out, and you'll want rest before you get to Krakow.

If you plan on camping and sleeping, Sheepdog (@Harrigan) should make a SURVIVAL and RECON roll. One to set up the camp and the other to make the camp hidden. No other rolls need to happen at this time.

Alternatively, everyone could keep driving to Krakow and arrive at down. In that case, only Sheepdog would be fully rested.

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Cunningham will ask Marcin for more details about the area where he and his sister stashed the helicopter. He realizes that the man hasn't been there in a year. Cunningham would like to recon the area from a safe overlook, but not knowing Krakow, he doesn't know what place is safe.

As they pull off the road, Master Sergeant Baker works at getting a camp set up and hidden...

The night goes on without incident. The campsite is well hidden, so the group decides to take turns on watch. Everyone gets a great night's rest.

Marcin shares some intel during the night.

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