Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37 02: ‘The Silo’

*“In which the Red Army and the Telegraph Service agents arrive at the Tractor Station, investigations begin, and a variety of unsettling discoveries are made…”*

## The Silo

### Players

Dominic Allen as Adm. Maj. Kopolev
Joseph Chance as Sr. Sgt. Dr. ‘Beo’ Liubimova
Danann McAleer as Sr. Lt. Fyodorov

### Podcast Link

MTSKh-37 02

The men gather clues about what happened to isolate the Machine Tractor Station from contact with the world, and are forced to work together to start their investigations.

## Synopsis (Spoiler Warning)

### Intro

After a brief series of clips from this episode hinting at what’s to come, the interrogation continues forward, summing the story to date.

### Scene 1: Superstition

The episode opens as dawn breaks, and Fyodorov notices several soldiers talking amongst themselves. Kovalevskii reports to him that the men insist the deformed rabbit they found in the previous episode be buried, citing superstitious beliefs about bad omens. Fyodorov realizes this could be a breaking point for morale and goes to Kopolev to reason with him. Kopolev immediately passes the blame along to Beo, who he says was the one wanting to preserve the rabbit, but Beo doesn’t take the bait. They appease the men by burying the rabbit. Kopolev interrogates Fyodorov regarding the “deformed rabbit” comment, and they have a Psychology standoff, in which neither learns much about the other. They continue on toward the Machine Tractor Station.

### Scene 2: Telegraph Lines

After many hours of travel, they can finally see the station as they come over the crest of a small hill, along with several other *kolkhozy* it presumably services. The telegraph lines seem to be broken in many different places, and most of the damage seems to be from the harsh winter weather, with the exception of a small stretch where Kopolev notices several poles seem to be completely missing, along with their connected line. They also notice that despite the local wet climate, the soil here is dry, dusty, and loose. They arrive at the Machine Tractor Station, and it is very quiet, with a slight whiff of decay carried in the air. Kopolev is very interested in the missing telegraph poles, suspecting “domestic terrorism” as the cause, but wonders if the poles have been taken, possibly to be used, rather than simply sabotaged. The soldiers start to unload their equipment as the officers look around the station, starting with the administrative building.

### Scene 3: Investigation

As they start looking around the station, they discover fire damage on a few of the buildings, some severe. Beo suggests that he and Fyodorov hang back and allow others to do an initial search. They cannot find signs of occupation and start instead searching for signs of violence. Searching the buildings more closely, Beo finds a telegraph key (see Scenario Glossary) badly damaged, seemingly from the fire that started in the neighboring infirmary. They decide to inspect the infirmary more closely; Beo is looking for human remains and immediately comes across a human skull. They debate why the infirmary would have been destroyed, if indeed done deliberately: plague? counterrevolutionary sabotage? madness? They decide to put a team of men on the ashes to retrieve the remains in order to bury the dead. While trying to determine if Fyodorov is eating something, Kopolev sees a strange shimmer on the horizon. While moving on to the next building, Kovalevskii describes some of the history of the tractor station: its beginning as a test dairy, doing fairly well until it dried up somewhat recently. The mess hall looks abruptly abandoned, with a left-out last meal of oats and shoe leather. Clearly something happened there. Beo notes that there is no mold on any of the food, despite the length of time it has been exposed. The prison is empty, and the barn and paddock are almost as empty with just a few crates and old milking equipment; they come across a nest of dead mice, and Kopolev finds they crumble like dust when he tries to pick one up. They pass by the unfinished dairy as well as pyres they assume were built for burning human remains.

They make their way to the silos (finished, partially finished, and started construction). The partially finished one is surrounded by the missing telegraph poles, which have lights mounted to them. It is an inexplicable sight. Fyodorov decides to climb the “decorated” silo to take a look inside. The sides around the hole where the chute would have been are melted, and a horrible stench emanates from within. It smells like death. There is an oily liquid on the interior. Fyodorov realizes the lights on the poles are scavenged from all kinds of equipment, and are all pointing in to the silo. A cable runs from the lights to a car below. Kopolev offers to turn on the lights via the car. Before he does, with a “gloop,” a disfigured face appears within the liquid below.

## Important NPCs

* Sgt. Kovalevskii: a leader of one of the Red Army divisions, often called on by the PCs. Generally reluctant and lazy.

## Places

* Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37
	+ Administrative building
	+ Infirmary
	+ Mess hall
	+ Prison
	+ Barn and paddock
	+ Silos

## Quotes

KOPOLEV (DOM): “There are cats with two faces. Janus cats.”
FYODOROV (DANANN): “Ah, yes. Do they have different personalities, do you think? The faces?”
KOPOLEV: “I think it is one cat with two faces.”
FYODOROV: “Ah. That must be annoying.”

BEO (JOSEPH): ”Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37.”
DAN: “Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37, yeah.”
KOPOLEV (DOM): “So, this is Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37.”
TRIEPINOV (DAN): “Yes, it looks to me like this is Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37.”
KOPOLEV: “Oh yes, there’s the sign. Machine Tractor Station, ah, Kharkov… 37!”
TRIEPINOV: “I spot it. It’s pretty quiet around here, isn’t it?”
KOPOLEV: “At Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37.”
DAN: “So at this stage, if you like, I think you all have a map of Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37.”
[*after a few minutes of continued play*]
BEO (JOSEPH): “MTSKh-3-7 is exactly what I expected.”
KOPOLEV:“MTSKh-3-7? Oh, you mean Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37.”
BEO: “Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37.”

DOM: ”All right. Send a redshirt in.”
FYODOROV (DANANN): “Kovalevskii, let’s go. We’ll follow you in.”
KOVALEVSKII (DAN):“Alright.”
DOM: “No, no, not, not him! He’s got — he’s got an accent, he’s got a character! Send one we haven’t talked to.”

## Trivia

* When Dom refers to “combining [the telegraph key] with every item in your inventory,” this is a reference to classic adventure games in which cryptic puzzles could sometimes be solved by putting unlikely items together to create new combinations, leading to gamers trying to brute-force solve puzzles by combining every item with every other item they pick up.
* Dom says they should “send a redshirt in,” shorthand for an expendable character; this refers to a trope from the original Star Trek episodes, where unknown crew members would come with main characters on a mission, only to die at the hands of that episode’s enemy. These characters most often wore red to signify their low rank and were commonly unremarkable and unnamed, which is why Dom protests that they should not send in Kovalevskii.
* As usual, Joseph volunteers several rolls, including a Sanity roll when he discovers the moldless old food.