IC

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Is that the voice of experience Doc"Alex says with a grin.

That remark hits Tyner hard. After the loss of his wife, he escaped into an alcoholic haze for months. No doubt that's what reduced his state of health, once in top condition, to below average now. He grunts at Alex and says nothing. He turns to Craig.

"Yeah, we found out Ellis was a boozehound. We also found this laptop with a hard drive that might be repairable. I'm not sure if we should let any of the geeks on the base handle it, though. Could be Delta Green stuff. And this notebook is full of some kind of gobbledegook. Code or something. I doubt we have time to tackle the job of deciphering it. What did you find out?"

[Mr. Handy]

"Apparently Ellis has lost his mind," says Craig, repeating what Bryant had told him. "That's must be why he went AWOL, to search for these gods. This definitely sounds like DG stuff to me. I think we'd better find someone who can salvage the hard drive. I can't do it myself, and if you two can't, that means it has to be someone on the base. We'll just have to lay down the national security angle heavy, tell them we believe there's classified material on the hard drive and that they can't divulge anything they happen to see while recovering it. The techs here are military, or at least used to working with the military if they're civilians. They should know the drill."

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Sounds like a plan. Maybe we can round out a map of the area of that mountain, without mentioning the Black Valley stuff. Maybe you can ask some of the locals in their own language what they know about the mountain, possibly the best way to get there. I'll go see if I can rustle up the head cartographer. Alex, you want to talk to the techs?"

[Mr. Handy]

"Get satellite photos too if you can," suggests Craig. "I'll go see if the Afghan troops know anything about the mountain. I may need to mention Kali Ghati to them by name. There could be local legends or something." He heads off to find the Afghan National Army soldiers.

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Good idea."

Tyler goes off to find whoever is in charge of cartography and imaging.

[Cotton]

Craig Reynolds:
You head back to the PX since you know that soldiers tend to congregate there. While scanning the area you see a group of ANA soldiers that includes one of the men you spoke to earlier. There is also one Afghan man who is dressed in Western-looking civilian clothing. They are chatting and smoking.

John Tyner:
In one of the buildings in the officer's section of the ship you find a short, dark haired man by the name of Lt. Neal Carver and a tall, lanky Specialist named Walter Gray. Because FOB Turner is in the process of standing down, these two men have found themselves in charge of a number of duties including cartography and imaging.

[Cotton]

Alex Baxter will easily be able to find some techs to help with the laptop. (Unless Maelstrom decides there is something else he'd rather his character do when he gets back)

[maelstrom]

Alex heads to the Coms station with the hard drive and looks for the ranking officer in the room and goes over to speak to them about getting the resident tech wizard to have a look at the drive, making it clear this is of a sensitive nature.

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Tyner introduces himself to the Carver and Gray.

"I know you're busy,so I won't take up too much of your time. We're trying to track down Major Ellis."

I better come up with a plausible cover story. One without any details.

"There's a possibility that some kind of crazy splinter terrorist group captured him, and the men who went out looking for him. It's just a hunch, but we've got to check it out. We want to check out Varjita Mountain. Have you got maps of the area, any idea of what's the best way to get there, maybe some satellite images?"

[Cotton]

Alex Baxter:
Maelstrom please make a Persuade or a Bureaucracy roll (your choice).

John Tyner:
Carver sends Gray to find some physical maps of the area around FOB Turner and says,
"I'm sorry our knowledge of that mountain is limited. We sent out a drone to that area to try and get some aerial photos but it suffered some kind of malfunction and crashed. I had wanted to send another, but Captain Byers didn't think it was worth it."

Gray will return with some maps, all of which have Varjita Mountain depicted on them in some way. You don't see any references to Kali Ghati or the Black Valley on these. You do however see Quluj Khel, which appears to be both the closest village to FOB Turner, and the only settlement on these maps that is near Varjita Mountain. Perhaps the people who live there know something about the mountain or Ellis?

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Thanks for the help. I appreciate it."

I better find Craig and have him ask the locals about this Quluj Khel place.

[Mr. Handy]

Craig greets the Afghan soldiers again in Dari, reintroducing himself for the sake of the ones who weren't there before. "Are any of you familiar with the Varjita Mountain area?" he asks.

[Cotton]

Craig Reynolds:
The Western dressed man seems elated when he first hears you speaking Dari, but his face drops as soon as you mention Varjita Mountain. The ANA soldiers all also look down at the mention of that place. After a beat the man in Western clothing and one of the soldiers both try to explain how they are all from different provinces so that the local Taliban can't come after their families and because of that they really don't know anything about the mountain. You, however, can tell that they are pretty obviously trying to play dumb about Varjita.

John Tyner:
You find Reynolds talking to a group of ANA soldiers.

[maelstrom]

Alex will try to be more persuasive rather than bureaucratic.

Spoiler:

Persuade 50 [dice]0[/dice]

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Tyner doesn't understand a word of what's being spoken, but obviously the Afghans aren't too happy. When there's a pause in the conversation, he whispers to Craig "There's a village called Quluj Khel on the way to that mountain. Is anybody here from there? Might be willing to guide us there, for a price?"

[Cotton]

Alex Baxter:
You are easily able to convince the soldiers of the importance of your work, and a bespectacled man by the name and rank of Spc. Crawford is assigned to help you with the laptop. He will have to first repair the hard drive (and even then only some of what was originally on their will be recoverable) and then decrypt its security software. Crawford is capable of doing both of these but it will take roughly three hours.

On the Laptop: Apparently,Ellis was pursuing rumors of supernatural activity in the region going back to the British occupation and before. According to some Afghanis from a near by village, Kali Ghati sits in the shadow of Varjita Mountain about 40 km east of FOB Turner. Ellis spoke to some other local tribes who claimed that the Kali Ghati people aren’t Muslim or even infidel Christians or Hindi. They worship an old god that has no name. They claim their god is older and mightier than Allah. When there’s no moon they are said to do terrible, blasphemous things before an ancient golden idol. They’ve lived in the Black Valley longer than anyone knows. The Zunbils (and you can give me an occult role on that) shunned them a thousand years ago. These local tribes shun them now. There are scans from Victorian-era British histories of the region that mention Kali Ghati in passing. One author scanned extensively, Col. Arthur Blythe-Merriweather, describes a Kali Ghati guru who explored states of consciousness that could be achieved only by near-death experience. The guru reportedly repeated a mantra in the “native language” of Kali Ghati, said to be unrelated to Urdu or Pashto. You don't understand the mantra, but according to Ellis it translates as "death awakens the sleeper". (OOC: Since gathering this info took a couple hours you will be a little bit ahead of the other characters time-wise, what will probably happen is they will just meet up with you after their conversation with the natives)

[Mr. Handy]

"I gather it has a bad reputation," says Craig, continuing in Dari. "But surely some of you know the local area. What about the village Quluj Khel? Have any of you been there?"

[Cotton]

The man in Western clothing speaks up, he seems eager to be talking about something other than Kali Ghati.
"Quluj Khel is the village closest to this base; it's home to the Quluj clan. I've been there a couple times as a translator for the American soldiers. The town's elder, Zahir Quluj, is very friendly. You and your friend don't look like soldiers, may I ask what brings you to the base?"

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Tyner notices that one of the Afghans seems to be sort of a liaison with the American troops. When there's a pause in the conversation, he says "Excuse me. Do you speak English? Perhaps it would be better to continue in that language, so we don't upset your colleagues."

[Cotton]

The man in Western clothing replies in a thick accent.

"I do speak English, I was hired to work here as a translator for the American soldiers. I was just asking your friend here what brings the two of you to this base? You don't look like soldiers, and I know that the Americans are in the process of handing this base over to the ANA so I wonder why they would bring in new people."

His English isn't fantastic but you can understand what he is saying.