CH3-03 Photo Recognition

[ghill]

Andy has a pair of travel binoculars, Alex has a larger pair in the front of the Landrover.

[Mr. Handy]

"You're right," says Liz, "she wouldn't have bothered bringing the climbing gear if she didn't need it. That means we'd better backtrack to where we found her car and climb after her."

[royya]

Jacob shudddrs when Liz meantions the car.

[carnage_lee]

Andy Wade

Andy smiles at Alex's joke... "Well... if we find any gold ... it's 50/50 then, right?" he says with a smile.. "But there are no... places of interest, nothing for archaeologists like the Professor?" he tries again...

"That's something else we're going to have to deal with." Andy says seeing Jacob's reaction "It's not safe, we're probably going to have to torch that VW."

"Well, if we're not going to bother the Monks, we'd better head off.." he says, checking that the others feel the same.

[ghill]

"If we find any gold it is all your gold. Gold here will be Verbetoi gold and I do not want any piece of that!" Alex shakes his head and in the background you can hear Lek grunted agreement. "Il professore is not archaeologist" Alex puffs his chest out and then continues in his best impression of an English gentleman "Social anthropology is the study of the relationships among persons and groups, not dead people, dusty old bones or pottery"He smiles sadly clearly taking a moment to remember his old friend. So we never come up here looking for things, talk to people, yes a great deal. Sometimes we go look at places, but no we do not dig or look at ruins"

[Mr. Handy]

"I've taken Anthropology 101," says Liz, "so I know how to do the same sort of thing, only I'm not as good at it. I don't know the first thing about archaeology outside of what I picked up from watching Indiana Jones movies." She nods to Andy. "Ja, we'll have to burn the car, but we ought to wait to do it until we're on our way back. The only people nearby like to find it are the Verbetoi, and if we set the car on fire, we might as well put up a big neon sign saying 'come and get us.'"

[royya]

ooc,About the area -Is there a gate to prevent cars from continuing on the road and it can be bypassed by foot or there is a closed permiter with gate and fence/wall ?

What if this monastery is hideout for the Verbetoi and their camouflage is being silents monks. Maybe it is the right way and Maria bypassed the gate by foot as he didn't want to be spotted. After all, she was not in a mental good shape, she probably had a breakdown in the car with all the writing.
Jacob suggests as he looks around, trying to find tracks

EDIT - I rewrote the post following ghill area explanation

[ghill]

Jacob,Its not a barrier to people on foot you could simply walk around it, or open it, it simply stops cars. If you want to find tracks you'll need a Tracking roll, but it will be difficult because there have clearly been a lot of vehicles passing through the gate.

Gate is not locked says Lek. Verbetoi do not hide out he adds, Monks certainly all Verbetoi or nearly all, who knows with monks.

OOC:   Just to be clear saying the Verbetoi, is akin to saying the German's, or the Italian's.

[BenTheRat]

"No, if she wanted to get in here, she would have pulled up a lot closer and come in this way, instead of trying to through the valley. That is just crazy..." Clay trails off for a minute. "Still if she was out of her mind, being subtle isn't in the cards. I think she was heading to something in the valley. We need to follow her trail, and this aint it."

[Mr. Handy]

"i agree," says Liz, "Let's get back to where she left her car without delay."

[carnage_lee]

OOC:   I'm in agreement, let's go back to where we found Maria's car and then pick up her trail.

[ghill]

Turning the 4x4's around you head back to the trail start, Clay points out Maria's footprint on the car's bumper and the similar footprint further up the trail.

<Snip> all necessary preparations for a hike into the mountains - consider yourselves to all have a day pack warm/waterproof jacket food/drink and survival blanket, as well as the climbing gear.</snip>

First appearances can be deceiving; while it looks easy, the trail is an unremitting uphill climb, ascending through alpine meadows carpeted in flowers, before entering the welcome shade of a thick beech wood. It doesn't take to keen an eye to notice there are carvings on many of the trees. The quality and readability of the carvings varies a great deal, but once they become aware of them you notice there are carvings on nearly every tree. You quickly determine this is not the same "WRITING" as you've seen in Maria's apartment and car or on the blackboard in Brichester U.

OOC:   Can I have Art History rolls or Knowledge rolls please

[royya]

Jacob, not wanting to get closer to the writing on the trees tries to decipher them from a far, but that's too much, he undersands nothing.
Knowledge roll 80% (1d100=82)

[ghill]

Jacob,The trees seem to close in on [b]Jacob[/b] as he stands on the path and [b]Jacob[/b]. Despite the reassurances of the others that it is unlike the texts you have seen else where, Jacob can't help but feel the writing is hauntingly familiar. The sooner he is out from the shadow of the trees the better Jacob will feel.

[carnage_lee]

OOC:   Andy Wade: Know 85 [dice]0[/dice]

[ghill]

Andy is reminded of a Time magazine article he read about the tree carvings of the American West, where lonely immigrant sheep herders from Greece and Albania passed their time carving on Aspen trees. But if Andy had to make a guess he'd say these these carvings are not expressions of loneliness.

Andy,Is Andy going to step off the path to look at the trees in further detail most of the trees he can see seem fairly young but there are other larger beech trees away from the path which clearly older have more detailed carvings.

[carnage_lee]

Andy Wade

At first Andy enjoys the hike but the weight of his pack and the cosnstant digging into his side of the 'AK47 clone' soon take his mind off of the scenery. The steady incline soon has him breathing deeply and his forehead glistening with sweat. The shade offered by the wood they enter makes him a little happer, ot at least cooler.

The odd carvings that adorn most trees seem to unsettle Jacob but from what he can make out they're just markings... "... these remind me of an article I read a year or so ago... come to think of it that mentioned Albanian's .... he smiles at Alex "The article was about the 'Wild West' and said that shepherds would often carve pictograms and scenes into trees, a custom picked up from their home countries, here and Greece, some carvings were very intricate...." Andy says, as he steps off the path to take a closer look.. "This type of thing would definitely be of interst to the Professor..."

Andy approaches a particlarly large tree that seems to have more distinct marks carved into it...

[ghill]

As Andy weaves his way through the trees he realises that not all the carvings are old, some at least have been newly carved into the tree bark. Whereas the large tree he finds itself at the foot of seems entirely covered with the carvings.

Andy,Just how detailed an examination of the larger tree does Andy intend to make?

[Mr. Handy]

"I never knew that," says Liz, studying the carvings once she's told they're safe. "Maybe she used them to mark her trail."

[ghill]

"There are hundreds if not thousands of carvings" says Greg "I don't think this is anything to do with Maria, I mean nearly every tree seems to have one or more of these carvings on them."