World On Fire: Shadow Ops [a Fantasy WWII Quest]

[><] Use the ladder, walk along the beams

As you walk along the wooden beams, you hear a slight creak with nearly every step - not from you, but from one of the heavier members of your team - most likely Simon or Liselot, you don't bother turning your head to check. It's annoying, and noisy to your sensitized ears, but like with the septic tank, you doubt there are enough people awake to notice as you do.

Your suspicions prove correct as you step down the wooden ladder, surprised at how noisy it isn't - it practically glides down before you catch it and lower it the rest of the way, and stepping down on it makes no further noise. You step down into a hallway with carpeting of a yellowish off-white.

Rushed as the mission was, even with the time spent on the Gettysburg you didn't really get much in the way of details as to the layout of the buildings - you know the layout of the halls, and where rooms are, but for the most part neither you nor SOE had time to find out what was in them. You know which rooms are offices, meeting rooms, closets, et cetera, but not which ones are whose.

The first floor is largely symmetrical, with single offices and meeting rooms either side of a large open typewriter pool, set a short way back from the entrance by a hall just large enough for a security gate. The stairs are all the way in the back, with windows allowing security a clear view of them (and vice versa). The second floor, where you are on, is mostly singular offices in four rows of four "blocks" each. Each row consists of, from the front of the HQ, a shared office room with four desks, a shared office room with two desks, a pair of single-desk offices in a block, and a single office occupying the entire block. The middle of the second floor is occupied largely by another, smaller, typewriter pool. Also in the middle is a pair of breakrooms and a larger meeting room.

There is no-one in the halls, and the building is eerily silent for one so well-lit. Based on where you entered, the row closest to you is the near left one from the middle of the floor.

Your team consists of you, Indra, Simon, Doris, Marian, and Liselot.

[ ] Split up entirely
[ ] Go in pairs (With who? Write-in pairs, including yours)
[ ] Go in threes (With who? Write-in groups)

Check...

[ ] Far left row
- [ ] Search front to back (relative to building entrance)
- [ ] Search back to front
[ ] Near left row
- [ ] Search front to back
- [ ] Search back to front
[ ] Middle section
- [ ] Search typewriter pool
- [ ] Search meeting room
[ ] Near right row
- [ ] Search front to back (relative to building entrance)
- [ ] Search back to front
[ ] Far right row
- [ ] Search front to back (relative to building entrance)
- [ ] Search back to front

Where do the others go, whether alone, in pairs, or in threes? Write-in.

Gonna need 2d20. Rolls continue for 48 hours or until someone rolls a 1.

[><] Go in pairs

"Marian, with me," you say. The Georgian esper looks up. "We'll take the section farthest on the left."

"Doris, Simon," you say, pointing to them in turn. "You take this one here. Indra, Liselot, you take the one right on the other side from the middle. After that, take the one on the far right, while the rest of us search the meeting rooms. Start with the rooms closest to the front, but I shouldn't have to tell you to avoid the windows. Be thorough, try and look where you might hide papers yourself, but don't forget the obvious places, and don't take too long, either - if this mission goes well, we'll have plenty of time later to look through this place."

Your team quickly splits up, heading to the front. While there are a few vaguely close calls from what you can tell, nobody gets caught - it almost seems like no-one is on this floor. Did the Nazis here just... decide to leave the lights on? It was reckless, but maybe they just believed this base to be that secure. There are definitely people on the floor below, though, but you only realize that because Marian points it out herself.

You start in the first room of the column, which has four desks and large, bulky black typewriters on each. Looking through the room, you don't find too much of great importance, but you and Marian grab a few important-looking documents. The next room is more of the same. Of the two single-room offices, one is completely empty, and the other has even less of value - whoever works there is careful indeed.

It is in the last room that you strike a jackpot. After fruitlessly searching for anything of greater importance to what you have already gathered, you find one of the alleged new Kriegsmarine Enigma Machines with four rotors, though this one doesn't have any of them inserted.

Your group rejoins after several minutes in one of the meeting rooms - you had initially thought of using the typewriter pool, but the hardwood floors discouraged that. The others have had as much luck as you. Indra's team finds a whole box of rotors, about the size of a cigar box, and Doris finds a codebook, as well as blueprints for a large U-Boat design.

[ ] Check the first floor - there might be even more there
[ ] You've got plenty, head out so you can move on to sieging the base
- [ ] Store your stuff where? Write-in