Ch.16d The House of God (Lawrence & William)

[Philulhu]

It’s quite dark, but isn’t pitch black. You can make out shapes but not distinct features.

[Bullfrog]

With his Natural Science, could Lawrence do a convincing owl call? That way, this guy just thinks he's spooked himself over a bird.

[Philulhu]

Feel free to give it a go!

[Bullfrog]

Natural History (51%): 1d100

Lawrence sounds like a man doing a decent-ish owl call.

[Philulhu]

The man seemed to accept that an owl could have caused the noise as his shadowy figure appeared to shrug, before turning and continuing along the path.

In the distance, it was just about possible to make out the outline of the oil derricks. Beyond those lay some buildings from which pinpricks of lights emanated.

[Mr. Handy]

Once Lawrence starts moving again, William resumes following Lawrence, keeping him within sight but staying too far back for their quarry to see him.

[Bullfrog]

Lawrence continues following, but keeps a further distance this time; he's pretty sure of where this man is going, anyways, and isn't sure if the owl trick will work again.

[Philulhu]

They watched as the man made his way back to the camp, through the gate in the chain link fence and into one of the buildings, the door slamming shut behind him.

Back to your lodgings or anything else you want to do?

[Mr. Handy]

Maybe we should try to catch up to Alex and Ivy, but we can see if they've come back to the house before we think about going out to check if they're with Nashoba. We just need to make a note of which building he entered.

[Philulhu]

William couldn’t be sure 100% sure because of the distance and lack of light, but it looked like the first building on the right, just through the gate in the perimeter fence.

[Bullfrog]

Lawrence will stick around for another hour or so to watch for activity around that building before leaving to join the others at the house.

[Mr. Handy]

In that case, I'll stay too. We shouldn't split up if we can help it.

[Philulhu]

Lawrence and William hunkered down in the long sea grass by the side of the road so they could observe what was happening but not be observed themselves. An hour passed but, other than some of the inhabitants visiting a latrine by the fence, there was nothing else of note.

[Mr. Handy]

"Let's head back to the house and see if the others are back yet," whispers William. "If not, we can head back to Nashoba's and see if they're still around."

[Bullfrog]

"Agreed," Lawrence says, hushed. "We'll have to see if we can find a way in that building. Maybe tomorrow night."

[Philulhu]

As they turned around to head back to the village, the darkness was suddenly disturbed as a gaseous fireball ‘whoomphed’ into the sky, off to their right, between the road and the shoreline… …

[Mr. Handy]

"Let's go check out what caused that," says William, peering at the source of the fireball. "For all I know that's normal, but it could be what Nashoba meant. It's hard to miss that."

[Bullfrog]

"Damn." Lawrence states, resigned; he's just glad it's an explosion and not an evil snake God, although the strangeness of even thinking in such a way suddenly hits him a few seconds later. Just how divorced is he from the concerns of sane men? Lawrence breaks into a run towards the site of the fireball, his hand steadied on his gun.

[Philulhu]

Running, it took barely a minute for Lawrence and William to reach the site of the fire. Wreathed by the dunes and surrounded by a chain link fence with a large gap cut through, a series of dark, oily pools lay before them. The pools were approximately ten metres long and the same wide, and appeared to be filled with oil. The nearest one was ablaze!

Silhouetted by the flames was the buckskin-clad Nasoba, laughing triumphantly as the flames spread from the first pool to ignite a second nearby…

[Mr. Handy]

William nods. "I thought it would be him," he whispers. He looks around for any sign of Alex or Ivy, who he thought would probably have followed him.