>first Thursday of the new semester
>time to start Season 2
>decide that they need to get off to a good start
>by sending them on a camping trip to a forest in north Belarus
>gotta have a camping/field trip episode, right?
>one of the players balks
"Hey, it's either this or a hot spring episode"
>he quiets down
>anyway, five days in this forest
>they set up camp, which gets a lot more interesting when mechs are involved
>bear bags can get much higher when you have a five meter machine
>a little ways in someone figures out where Belarus is on the map
>this is that country that's right next to Chernobyl
>everybody looks at me
"Don't worry about it"
>they're worrying about it
>well then, let's play into that
>as they're exploring the forest to pass time, I make sure to describe the lots and lots of trees they see
>and the occasional lake or pond
>and the boulder formations
>make sure to draw each one on the map differently
>they think nothing of it for a while
>eventually they start exploring in their mechs because those cover more distance
>more boulders
>one of them goes to pick one up to throw it for some reason
"As your mechs arms move towards the boulder, your computer highlights indentations on each side of the boulder. Oddly enough, they seem to be perfectly sized for your mech's fingers."
>worry intensifies
>they leave the boulders alone
>they find a clearing
>there's a pile of boulders and a bunch of dead stumps with crap growing all over them
>they move on
>eventually find a stone cabin
>one guy gets out to investigate
>kicks the door, it falls right in
>nothing fancy, a couple rooms with some wooden bedframes that are old and rotting, a fireplace, you can see where a stove used to be
>nothing else inside
>they leave
>a little while later they find another stone cabin
>same guy gets out to investigate
>kicks the door in, falls right in
>nothing fancy, a couple rooms with some wooden bedframes that are old and rotting, a fireplace, you can see where a stove used to be
"Oh, by the way, you can tell there's something wrong here. Something just seems off, but you can't tell what. Roll Perception."
>his Perception sucks, fails hard
>someone else gets out to take a look
>he succeeds his roll
"Nothing really seems out of the ordinary."
>they leave  to continue stomping around
>worry is further intensifying
>they eventually find another cabin
>the same guy who's been investigating thumps the door with his mech's finger
>it explodes into tiny bits
>he goes inside
>nothing fancy, a couple rooms with some wooden bedframes that are old and rotting, a fireplace, you can see where a stove used to be
"Oh, by the way, roll Perception but with this hefty bonus."
>he succeeds
"You finally put your finger on it."
[spoiler]"Everything, save the shards of wood from the destroyed door, is exactly the same as the other cabins, down to how the bedframes are rotting."[/spoiler]
>PANIC
>he leaves
"Oh, by the way, as you're climbing in your mech you can see a spot on the ground next to the cabin where it looks like the earth has been moved recently. Last few days, maybe."
>his mech has a multitool so he digs
>gets out to sift through it
>animal rib bones from something sizeable, maybe a bison or an elk
>panic
>they hightail it away from there
>and eventually find a fourth cabin right as it's getting dark
>panic
>investigation is the same as the other three
>all right
>three years of reading skinwalker stories are all about to pay off
><<IT'S TIME>>
"You suddenly realize that is is deafeningly quiet outside. There is absolutely no natural sound anywhere."
>he starts heading back to his mech
>try to describe from memory the awful stench that usually comes up in skinwalker stories
>some kind of mix of blood, decay, and hot death
>PANIC
>PANIC
>PANIC
>they bulldoze a path back to camp
>the smell is there too
>nothing is coming up on the thermal or night vision
I should mention, I forgot what happened what day, but by this point they're at the end of the third day
>they take up watch rotations for the night
>nothing happens
>eventually the smell subsides and sound starts to return
>fourth day
>things start off pretty normally
>players do some fishing
>nothing happening
>a lot of birds fly overhead
>really a lot
>seconds after they're out of sight the silence returns
>they radio the other guy who's off somewhere else
>there's still forest sounds where he is
>they pack up and head over there
>shortly after they get there the silence reaches there too
>cue the smell
>they still can't get any kind of visual on anything
>time to get in the mechs
>they bulldoze their way to the stump clearing from earlier
>all the stumps are totally clean, not a lick of growth remaining on them
>they uproot the stumps, pile them up, and the melee guy torches them with his flamethrower
>he also obliterates the boulder pile
>and proceeds to obliterate every boulder formation they come across
>all but the one closest to camp
>suddenly the players get an idea
>they return to each cabin and dig next to the cabin
>first cabin yields a leg bone
>second yields some vertebrae
>fourth has the skull of a bison
>each cabin is destroyed as they encounter them
>they return to camp
>dig a hole and bury the bones in it
>when one gets out to move the bones the smell is out in force
>he finishes in a hurry
>they put the dirt over the bones and put a boulder over it
>they make it through the night with no incidents
>the next morning the smell is gone but the place is still deathly still
>they go straight into their mechs and begin to look around
"About an hour in a huge mechanical BOOM resounds through the forest."
>paranoia sets in and they immediately check out every cabin
>which are all still destroyed
And then they find Revadeon who have just shot down some Russian copters and tell the players that the Russians are working on something big, possibly some kind of cannon.
Anyway, they part ways and the transport choppers are almost back, but they decide to move the camp boulder and dig under it.
[spoiler]The bones are gone.[/spoiler]